Two Terrific Books
Light Years From Home by Mike Chen was just amazing. It's about a family where the hapless older brother disappeared fifteen years ago along with his dad. The dad was found wandering miles away a few days later and said they had been abducted by aliens and the brother was still with them. I feel like this premise could have been used so many ways. That the most common way would be for us to focus on the brother, and how he's been and to find him needing to return to his family and having to explain everything that's happened to him be an obstacle. Instead it is a story about siblings, who have all been understandably changed in the last fifteen years. And how they figure out if they can or even should work together. It is about aliens, and siblings, and parental care, and all of that.
Let the Monster Out by Chad Lucas was a fun middle grade where members of the baseball team discover something hinky going on and team up to figure it out. One of the members is a kid who loves a whiteboard and structure, and one of the others is impulsive but loves the whiteboard. It's very adorable.