Even though I generally like Kate Messner, I did not expect to like Chirp. However, I really enjoyed it! I was thrown off by the crickets in the summary, but the cricket storyline ended up being one of my favorite parts. The treatment of the main character and her questions about the appropriateness of an adult in her world was done well and will give strength to the reader with similar questions. I recommend to fans of Kate Messner's other books, fans of Barbara Dee, and fans of Rachel Vail.

Great book that covers an important topic with a little bit of fun in the story, eating crickets! Hand to students who enjoyed Maybe He Just Likes You or are a little too young for Speak or Fighting Words.

I really enjoyed this story of Mae as she develops her inner strength. She learns to be brave and tell the truth, making this an amazing book to open the door to conversation. Kate Messner is a writer that knows how to navigate difficult topics with middle grade students in an age-appropriate and respectful way.

I love Kate Messner. Her ability to develop relatable characters within adventure stories is just fantastic. I think many students are going to relate to the character's struggles, yet find humor in the grandmother. I mean... who has. a cricket farm! This story is great for teaching inferencing and character development.

A story of a young middle school girl, Mia, with a secret she doesn't want to deal with and whose family moves one summer to be near her grandmother who owns a cricket farm in Vermont. Being thrown into a summer camp by her mother, Mia slowly makes new friends and discovers a mystery surrounding the strange run of bad luck the cricket farm is experiencing. While helping her grandmother figure out who is secretly trying to destroy her cricket farm, Mia learns to deal with her own troubling secrets and finds her voice to stand up for both herself and those she loves.

It's the beginning of summer and twelve-year-old Mia Barnes couldn't be happier about moving away from Boston with her family. Mia had been a talented gymnast until she fell off the balance beam, broke her arm, and lost interest in gymnastics. While on the mend, Mia had binged on American Warrior, a reality TV show to avoid thinking about gymnastics. Now, there would be her beloved Gram and her Green Mountain Cricket Farm, the dream business she had begun a few years ago as an alternative source of protein, to think about. Because of a mild stroke, however, Gram is supposed to retire.

No sooner do they arrive, and Gram tells them her cricket farm is being sabotaged probably by a guy named Chet Potsworth, who wants to buy the cricket farm. Instead of selling and retiring, though, Gram introduces them to her new employee Daniel and her new dog Syd. Knowing that her Gram's retirement and the sale of the cricket farm are going to be an obsession with her mother, Mia agrees to attend two different summer camps. One is Launch Camp, a young entrepreneur program, and other, Warrior Camp, a place for Mia's body to heal and strengthen again. It doesn't take long and Mia has made two new friends - Anna, a computer whiz, and Clover, who is a warrior whiz.

Mia believes her Gram when she says her cricket farm is being sabotaged, after all, it's just too much of a coincidence that seagulls, beetles, and fruit flies, enemies of the crickets, suddenly invade the farm, or when most of them die from someone tampering with the temperature controls. Clover, a Nancy Drew fan who loves solving mysteries, is gun-ho about getting to the bottom of this mystery. And while Mia and Clover are working on that, they are also working with Anna to come up with an entrepreneurial plan for increasing business at the cricket farm.

But as much as Mia is enjoying being in Vermont and getting to know her new friends, she has a secret of her own, one she can't bring herself to talk about. Little by little, readers will piece together just what happened to Mia in gymnastics in Boston. But, when Launch Camp has a field trip to UVM to hear a successful businesswoman, Anne Marie Spangler, talking about launching her business, Mia overs her talking afterward about how a former boss has sexually harassed her. Here was a strong, successful woman who had faced the same kind of inappropriate behavior in a man that Mia had faced with her gymnastics coach. After talking to Mia, Anne Marie advises her to talk to her parents or another trusted adult. But can Mia find the strength within herself to do that? It becomes an easier decision when she hears that her younger cousin in Boston is signed up with the same gymnastics coach.

When readers first meet Mia, she's subdued, fearful, and distrustful, no longer the strong, fearless gymnast she was before she broke her arm. At first, it seems that this is all the result of Mia's fall from the balance beam, but slowly readers begin to realize the fall might not have been completely accidental as Mia allows herself to begin thinking about her coach's inappropriate behavior more and more. Messner has done a masterful job of building up the full story of his violation. I felt Mia's shame, her self-blame, her questioning - did it really happen the way she remembered it? Did coach give her that Olympic pin because she was a truly gifted gymnast or to buy her complicity?

Little by little the fearful girl Mia once was begins to come back, thanks to new friends, new achievements and a loving family. But as she discovers, her #MeToo story has changed her forever and she can never really be the same girl she once was. But, as her Gram tells her:

"You've been carrying around what happened all this time, getting up every morning, going to school, going to camp, making friends. Do you realize how brave that is?...That's what brave women do. We keep going.Somehow we manage to grieve over things that have happened to up at the same time we're saving the world and running businesses and practicing law and raising families."

Chirp is kind of a mixed bag. It's a book about family, friendship, and the mystery of who is trying to ruin Gram's dream. But it is also a #MeToo story about finding your voice and the courage to speak up. And it is also a story about hope. That may sound like too much going on for a Middle Grade novel, but this is a well crafted story and nothing is gratuitous.

And yes, the girls solve the mystery of who is sabotaging the cricket farm. It was fun to read about and it was not who I expected at all.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+

I have to admit, I'm actually almost ready to try eating a cricket after reading this book. Almost, not quite! Besides growing in my appreciation of crickets as a food source, I liked that Messner dealt with a difficult topic, the inappropriate comments and touching Mia had experienced from a trusted adult, while still writing a fun story. This is a book middle grade readers will pick up for the mystery and will put down with a greater awareness and tools to help them deal with sexual abuse.

Thanks to Netgalley for an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Mia's family is moving back to Vermont to help out her grandmother, a retired entomology professor, who has started a cricket farm. However, mysterious things begin happening such as the power suddenly going out, an abundance of fruit flies, and the sprinkler system suddenly coming, causing Mia and her grandmother to suspect someone is trying to sabotage the cricket farm. In addition, Mia has an internal conflict about an inappropriate incident that occurred with her gymnastics coach and trusting herself to take risks again. Woven within the mystery of the cricket sabotage are strong, female characters that share (age-appropriate) times they had to prove themselves in male-oriented fields or examples of harassment. With support from her new friend Clover, Mia is able to get back to not her "old self" but a new self that she wants to be. Some students may see themselves in the characters and be encouraged to speak out or speak up against uncomfortable situations. Messner once again is able to have her characters deal with important and relevant topics (sexual harassment, female empowerment, friendship, engineering, chauvinism) within the context of 12-year-old girls forming a friendship to solve a mystery. Chirp will be an important addition to any classroom library or school media center.

Chirp by Kate Messner is a book for middle graders/tweens to bridge the road to the more serious topic of consent and inappropriate adult behavior towards children. Mia was a talented gymnast and moves to Vermont from Boston the summer after 7th grade. Her arm is recovering from being broken and readers wait to hear her story of what happened, as Mia's internal dialogue eludes to some sort of gymnastics accident. There is a hopeful theme of being the new kid as Mia befriends a couple of kids through her summer enrichment programs - one being a MakerSpace and the 2nd being a gym next to her grandmother's cricket farm. As she pushes herself physically, hides all her gymnastics boxes, helps save her grandmother's farm from someone trying to sabotage her, Mia slowly gathers the courage to speak about a secret she buried deep. Topics and themes of summer friendships, girls in science, summer fun, and finding herself and her voice as she grows into her early teen years will sure be a hit with the 12+ crowd bridging the way to YA.

A wonderful middle grade novel!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Chirp is one of those books that will stick with you for awhile. The author tackles some hard topics for middle grade readers, but does so beautifully and thoughtfully. The main character is a wonderful heroine who you fall in love with and root for from the beginning. Even though she is having a tough time, she always maintains her internal strength and handles herself gracefully. I would recommend this to all my students to read and enjoy. Can't wait to add this to my school library.

What great characters! I really felt I got to know the main character and really got to experience her growing and changing as a person. Kate Messner really knows how to connect with her readers. A great title for upper elementary and middle school readers (especially girls).

Eye opening on several fronts, got me thinking about trying crickets (more protein!), and being aware of companies that are conscious about the environment and sustainability.

Chapter 16 is where it's at: the story from the bottom of the box. My heart. "Did every woman she knew have the same awful secret story?"

"Yes, and this needs to change"

<i>Chirp</i> is one of several middle grade books published recently adding to the national conversation on sexual assault and harrassment (usually called something related to “#MeToo,” even though talking about this is nothing new–it’s just louder with several high-profile milestones). Mia is noticing a lot of differences between how men and women are treated, and this brings up an experience she had herself and gives her the courage to speak up about it–even if it wasn’t the worse thing that could have happened. I found this commentary a little overly simplified and clear (and binary), but that seemed suited to the voice and psychology of the age. I loved that Mia’s experience was validated by others in her life, although I questioned why the narrative was interrupted to detail what happened to her in one long infodump chapter. Her trauma elsewhere is pretty evident, so it isn’t inconsistent.

Meanwhile, Mia is living with her grandmother who has just started a cricket farm, but the new business seems to have been sabotaged, and she and her new friend work to figure it out. She attends two different and very cool camps: a junior business creation, where she finds ways to promote her grandma’s business, and “Warrior Camp” where she builds up strength from her shoulder injury from gymnastics, a sport she has left for not only that reasons. I loved the atmosphere of the camps and how Mia met new friends and gained more confidence in new abilities.

The mystery I was the least interested in–I tend to not gravitate toward that sort of plot external to the characters like younger readers–so I ended up surprised at how well it worked out and the big reveal.

I’d classify <i>Chirp</i> for the younger middle grade crowd (maybe 8-11) because I think tweens can process a bit more complexity. I found Mia’s voice fantastic (even in the third person) and appreciated so many elements of the story. I know I need to read more Kate Messner!

This terrific book has so many great things going for it - Interesting characters, compelling problems, a mystery, and current social issues. I think the middle grade kids (and their teachers) are going to love this one.

We loved this. I read it with my 9 year old and she wants to make her own business plan. I have recommended this book to many other readers, as well as a local middle school library.

Perfect middle grades text. Mystery, friendship, family, tough stuff, and crickets. I ended up so proud of Mia.

Chirp is a great middle grade novel that will appeal to so many readers! There is a mystery to solve, insects to eat!, and new friendships, as well as an important message about how to deal with inappropriate contact. Readers who like a good mystery will follow Mia and her friends as they try to solve the mystery of the happenings at her grandmother's cricket farm. The information about crickets, cricket farming and eating crickets as a source of protein will appeal to fans of non-fiction. I can imagine that some readers will be "grossed out" by the thought and others will love to share those parts with their friends! However, the heart of this story is how Mia finds strength and confidence after inappropriate attention from a coach. Messner deals with this very grown up topic in a sensitive and age-appropriate manner so that middle grade readers can understand what happened and how Mia deals with it. I loved everything about this book and will recommend it to others, but I still don't think I will eat crickets!

I received a free, advanced review copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The story was solid, loved the female entrepreneur aspect and adjusting to life in a new town. I just felt the Me-Too-i-ness was so heavy handed. (And the mystery bad guy - just terribly one note.) Maybe it would be less so for a 3rd, 4th, or 5th grader. But I had hoped for something more subtle and effective from Messner, who I have enjoyed in the past.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am a fan of Kate Messner and my students LOVE her books. I chose this book because it was written by her and knew it would be great. However, it was more than great. This book is powerful and is a great upper middle grade book that is needed. It’s hard to talk about the things that happen in this book without giving too much away, but it deals with friendship, moving, middle school, solving problems, speaking up, and doing what is right even when it’s hard. I loved how she showed that tough things can happen to us, but we have to share those experiences and when you do, you may open others’ up to sharing as well. You may also save others from facing them same experiences. This book is a must read.