The Midnight Children, by Dan Gemeinhart

Each Friday that school is in session, I share the link to a read-aloud preview of a book from SRCSA library. The “First-chapter Friday” selection for Feb. 7, 2025 is The Midnight Children, by Dan Gemeinhart.

In the dead of night, a truck arrives in Slaughterville, a small town curiously named after its windowless slaughterhouse. Seven mysterious kids with suitcases step out of the vehicle and into an abandoned home on a dead-end street, looking over their shoulders to make sure they aren't noticed.

But Ravani Foster covertly witnesses their arrival from his bedroom window. Timid and lonely, Ravani is eager to learn everything he can about his new neighbors: What secrets are they hiding? And most mysterious of all...where are the adults?

Yet amid this shadowy group of children, Ravani finds an unexpected friend in the warm and gutsy Virginia. But with this friendship comes secrets revealed—and danger. When Ravani learns of a threat to his new friends, he must fight to keep them safe, or lose the only person who has ever understood him.

The Midnight Children was a selection, in 2023, for Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts Award, sponsored by the Children’s Literature Assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).
https://youtu.be/a-qU7bACw_4

First-chapter Friday playlist on YouTube:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6F1x26TGVFF4Clbqq18kcKCxfxnuDx4w