My new favorites in middle grade fiction fall 2025
Boy have there been some great new middle grade books out in September 2025. Here are two of my favorites. The first one is called Three Blue Hearts and it's by Lynne Kelly. This is Lynne's fourth book and although I loved her others, I think this one might be my favorite. It's about Max, who lives in the shadow of his dad, who is a local politician. Max wants his dad to be proud of him, but Max likes different things than his dad-his dad likes sports and being the center of attention and Max likes animals and small groups. So Max decides to go spend the summer with his mom on a small island where she is doing some scientific research and after a particularly embarrassing viral video event, decides to change his name to Milo so no one will recognize him. There is a big storm the first night Max and his mom are there and in the morning, he decides to go for a walk on the beach and finds an octopus stranded on the shore. He want...