New middle grade speculative fiction-Fall 2025

I'm sorry that we're not going to get to do the CYBILS award this year.  The CYBILS award was created by people who blog and write about children's literature and has consistently been one of my favorite things to do each year.  Imagine getting a list of 100+ middle grade fiction books, having to source them, read them and rate them and discuss them with a group of other people who love books as much as you do.  It wasn't always easy but I always found a couple of titles that I would have otherwise missed that I totally fell in love with.  But [sigh], this year, the organizers wanted to take a break.  Or needed to take a break.  I hope it's a short one and we can go back next year!  Here are two of my new speculative fiction favorites this year.

The first one is called Outside by Jennifer Holm.  I adore Jennifer Holm's work and it was such an honor to get to meet her at the Nerdy Book Camp when that was still a thing.  This new one is terrific.  It's about Razzi, who lives with her parents and her mildly annoying little brother in a compound called the Refuge.  The Refuge is a safe place after an apocalyptic event that sent divided society into two parts-the ones who had been infected and the ones who had not been infected.  Razzi's family was lucky and have been living in the Refuge where they have food and each other and are safe as long the follow the very strict rules, which include never, ever leaving the compound except under very special circumstances.  Razzi started feeling unwell and it was determined that she needed a heart transplant and so she received one from a greyhound.  At first, Razzi is relieved to have the new heart but she starts to notice that she has different ideas and different feeling that she attributes to the greyhound.  She also starts to notice how odd some of the rules are and why no one seems to be that sad about the loss of one of the other kids, Ollie.  When Razzi decides to leave the Refuge, everyone is in for some big surprises.  This book has two big things going on-one is the idea of implanting animal organs into humans and is that really a thing (it is) and would you have any personality changes because of it (probably not, but what if you did?).  The other is how do we cope with fear?  And this is why this is going to be an awesome book to read with kids.  I thought it was great and I can't wait to share it with students.  Here's the awesome cover. 

Here's a book trailer for "Outside"

The second one is called Dragonborn by Struan Murray.  I haven't read anything by Murphy before, but I'm definitely going to look for some of his other work, because this one was terrific.  Alex is leading a tightly controlled existence with her mom after her dad died two years earlier.  Her mom doesn't want her to go into the woods (too dangerous) or spend time with other kids or leave the house at all unless it's to go to school.  Alex has tried to be a good kid, but when she goes into the woods and roars, a man comes and starts hinting about the fact that there might be more.  In fact, it turns out that Alex is a dragon.  Dragons have learned to mask themselves as humans for protection but Alex seems to be a little stuck and can't access her full dragon potential because of her fears of what happened to her dad.  There's also an evil presence that maybe trying to destroy all humans, so Alex needs to learn to harness her dragon energy and fast.  Kids who like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson will like this one too and there are dragons!  I thought it was a really fun mystery with some excellent plot twists along the way.  There are themes of friendship, allowing yourself to reach your full potential, trust and making good choices.  I thought it was terrific.  Here's the gorgeous cover.  

And here's the book trailer.