I was hooked from the start by this deeply atmospheric story that is hard to put down and even harder to stop thinking about after you finish reading. Set in a dystopian near-future, The Middler is a story all about different types of boundaries and discovering which ones are important to protect and which ones are crying out to be broken through. Middle-child Maggie’s life in the town of Fennis Wick is governed by rules and systems, with only ‘eldests’ given value and voice and anyone from outside the town’s boundaries seen as a ‘dirty, dangerous’, deceitful’ wanderer. As Maggie’s older brother Jed prepares to be sent to camp as a hero, a privilege reserved only for eldests, Maggie begins to call into question everything she has ever known, especially after a rare encounter with a wanderer girl near the town’s boundary. Told through the powerful voice of middle-child Maggie, this is a truly wonderful narrative that will resonate with many young readers today.