{"id":14699,"date":"2025-04-11T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=14699"},"modified":"2025-04-11T14:02:34","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T19:02:34","slug":"j-is-for-journeying-smack-dab-in-the-middle-of-maybe-by-jo-watson-hackl-mg-fiction-a2z","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=14699","title":{"rendered":"J is for journeying, SMACK DAB IN THE MIDDLE OF MAYBE, by Jo Watson Hackl (MG fiction) #A2Z"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"463\" height=\"700\" data-attachment-id=\"14700\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?attachment_id=14700\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Smack-Dab-in-the-Middle-of-Maybe.jpg?fit=463%2C700&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"463,700\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Smack-Dab-in-the-Middle-of-Maybe.jpg?fit=463%2C700&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Smack-Dab-in-the-Middle-of-Maybe.jpg?resize=463%2C700&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Book cover of Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe, by Jo Watson Hackl; shows title words on signpost signs pointing in different directions, placed in a field with cricket jumping. In background, a girl sits on treehouse porch at sunset watching birds.\" class=\"wp-image-14700\" style=\"width:320px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Smack-Dab-in-the-Middle-of-Maybe.jpg?w=463&amp;ssl=1 463w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Smack-Dab-in-the-Middle-of-Maybe.jpg?resize=198%2C300&amp;ssl=1 198w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Smack-Dab-in-the-Middle-of-Maybe.jpg?resize=99%2C150&amp;ssl=1 99w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 463px) 100vw, 463px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>A grieving girl, <br>a ghost town in the woods, <br>where is the secret painted room? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every time Cricket&#8217;s artist mother stopped taking her anxiety medicine and disappeared, the twelve year old and her Daddy coped and hoped, but now that he&#8217;s in the cemetery with Grandma\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Oh, no! The tween overhears that she&#8217;ll soon be sent away to another state! How will Mama know where to find her?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Time to find the art-filled &#8220;Bird Room&#8221; that Mama saw once and searched for every after &#8211; surely, that will make Mama stay, whenever she comes home again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cricket journeys through the nearby woods to a ghost town from South Carolina&#8217;s lumber days, using all the survival skills that Daddy taught her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Emergency! Need help! HELP!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Miss V. takes Cricket in, agreeing that the runaway can stay a few days, but no snooping!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Can Cricket contain her curiosity?<br>Will Miss V. help her follow clues that she finds?<br>Will Mama ever come home?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cricket won&#8217;t give up! <br>Are you as persistent at chasing what&#8217;s important?<br>**kmm<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Book info<\/strong>: Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe \/ Jo Watson Hackl. Yearling\/Random House, 2018. [author site <a href=\"https:\/\/johackl.com\/about-smack-dab-middle-maybe\/\">https:\/\/johackl.com\/about-smack-dab-middle-maybe\/<\/a>] [publisher site<a href=\" https:\/\/www.rhcbooks.com\/books\/543975\/smack-dab-in-the-middle-of-maybe-by-jo-watson-hackl\"> https:\/\/www.rhcbooks.com\/books\/543975\/smack-dab-in-the-middle-of-maybe-by-jo-watson-hackl<\/a>] Personal copy; cover image courtesy of the publisher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A grieving girl, a ghost town in the woods, where is the secret painted room? Every time Cricket&#8217;s artist mother stopped taking her anxiety medicine and disappeared, the twelve year old and her Daddy coped and hoped, but now that he&#8217;s in the cemetery with Grandma\u2026 Oh, no! The tween overhears that she&#8217;ll soon be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,19,51],"tags":[10,90,124,22,364,20,5,37,16,18,40,44,185,43,49,184,85,15,21,241,35,33,6,129],"class_list":["post-14699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-fiction","category-mystery","tag-a2z","tag-abandonment","tag-art","tag-behavior","tag-birds","tag-conflict","tag-coping","tag-death","tag-determination","tag-family","tag-fathers","tag-friendship","tag-grandparents","tag-growing-up","tag-memories","tag-mothers","tag-nature","tag-relationships","tag-self-image","tag-south-carolina","tag-surprises","tag-survival","tag-travel","tag-treasure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14699"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14705,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14699\/revisions\/14705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}