Not An Easy Win by Chrystal D. Giles is an amazing story of a boy named Lawrence who gets expelled from school. He's expelled from school at the very beginning of the book and it is revealed that things have been hard for Lawrence, his father is incarcerated and his mom, sister and him had to move in with grandma and he had to switch schools.
 
Since his expulsion, things aren't going well with him, no one's happy with him, obviously, and he needs something to do during the day as he has online schooling for the rest of the year. Lawrence ends up going each day with a neighbor to a community center to help out. 

He actually really starts to dig going to this community center, he has a purpose and things to do. Lawrence starts to meet some kids, he meets a girl he's going to get a whole book crush on and he starts to play chess, which is really big at this community center with the kids.
 
The neighbor who takes him to the community center is really good at chess and it turns out there's this big chess tournament and if he's one of the three best kids at the community center then he gets to go and play, and the journey begins.
 
It's an awesome, wonderful book, you really get a chance to meet a really cool kid and  get a look behind the scenes and see all the things he's going through, trying to figure out life. So check it out this amazing book.

This is a cool graphic novel 'a first time for everything' by Dan Santat. This is a memoir based on the author Dan when he was in middle school and went on this trip for weeks with a bunch of kids and some chaperones.
 
This is such a good book, it's all about growing up and trying something different, stepping outside of your comfort zone and figuring out who in the world you are. 

I loved it, I think it's going to go down as one of the greatest graphic novel memoirs of all time. It may even go down as one of the best books created in 2023, with a real shot at the 2024 Newbery Medal

Please read this book, it's phenomenal you're going to love it and I believe it should be in every middle school library.