The Book Search

 Now that school is in full swing, it's time for some realistic middle grade fiction!  Check out these two books by favorite middle grade authors. The first one is called "Absent" by Rex Ogle.  You might remember some of Rex's other works like "Free Lunch" or his series "The Supernatural Society".  This one is an excellent combination of graphic novel and searing social commentary.  It's told from three points of view, Manny, Calvin and Liam and on the surface, they could not be more different.  Manny is angry at the world-his dad is in jail, his mom left when he was small, he lives with his grandparents, and he feels like the teachers at school don't see him.  Manny loves to write and writes rap lyrics, which he finds out are actually poetry.  His story is written in verse. Calvin lives with his dad and two little brothers.  Calvin's mom is not in the picture and Calvin's dad expects Calvin to co-parent with him.  Calvin wants to d...

 Magical mysteries?  Yes please!  And these have a side helping of social issues!   The first one is called "Raven, Rising".  It's written by Christine Hartman Derr.  I haven't read any of her other books but I really liked this one.  It's about Raven, a 13 year old girl who lives with her aunt because her parents were killed 8 months ago.  Raven and her aunt Coral have relocated to the Cherokee Nation in NC from Oklahoma because of an amazing job opportunity for Coral.  They had been living in the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, and this is an important part of both Coral and Raven's lives.  Raven misses her parents desperately and one of the things Raven used to do with her mom is bake, but the accident that killed her parents was a gas leak and Raven was the last one who used the stove, so she blames herself.  She has vowed to never bake again.  Except that ingredients seem to be following her around, trying to get noticed, and...

 Summers SHOULD be full of magic!  Here are two of my new favorite magical middle grade books. The first one is called "Song of the Yellow Dragon" by Ying Ping Low.  It's about two kids, Kai and Mengyao.  Kai is the 12 year old emperor but he's controlled by his uncle and one of uncle's friends.  It turns out the two have orchestrated the deaths of Kai's dad and his siblings and Kai is next on the list.  Kai decides his best bet is run away and he ends up in a small village that has no name because it's so isolated. A girl named Mengyao finds him and he swears her to secrecy, which totally doesn't work because it's such a small village and everyone knows everything.  Once he's healed up, the two decide to go on a quest for the Dragon Pulse, which should give him the power to be the Emperor he wants to be.  Mengyao is also hoping to get some magic, she wants to be a healer.  Their quest is filled with danger and surprises and eventually a sati...

 Need some great new fiction to inspire your middle grade readers?  Check out this pair! The first one came out in early May, 2026 and it's by one of my favorite authors-Gary D. Schmidt.  Schmidt has such a gift for characters-he writes about some of the most interesting people I've ever read about and this one is no exception.  It's about Simon, a 12 year boy, who when he is sent to Hades, chooses not to drink from the River Styx and forget his former life.  For the next 2,451 years, he tries to escape, unsuccessfully, until one day, he figures out a way past Cerebus and across the River Styx and ends up in a middle school, where thankfully, a kind boy named Zeke helps out.  He gets Simon some clothes and invites Simon to stay with him.  At the same time Persephone misses Simon, he was one of her favorites, and when she finds out that he's gone, she tells Hades, who is determined to get Simon back.  In the meantime, Simon is trying to find his be...

 And in case you thought there was only realistic fiction being published this spring, fear not!  There is also so much speculative fiction!  Here are two of my newest favorites! The first one is by Erin Entrada Kelly.  It's called "The Second Life of Snap".  It's about Zuzu Santos, middle schooler living in a dystopian world where big companies control virtually everything.  Her dad has been working security at the big corporation and they live in a small trailer that's subsidized by the local community, keeping the workers separated.  She runs with a group of kids that call themselves the Valleycats.  When her dad gets fired, part of his severance package includes a guardian robot that he thinks will be perfect for Zuzu to help keep her safe.  Except Zuzu doesn't trust a guardian robot so her bestie reimages the robot and makes it more like a friend than a guardian.  As she grows to trust the robot, Snap, more, she realizes she would d...

Strong female characters are one of the things I love about middle grade fiction.  Girls trying to find their way as they grow and mature.  These two are a perfect example of those young women.   The first one is "The Queen's Granddaughter" by Diane Zahler.  I loved her books "The Blackwood Magicians" and "Baker's Magic" so I was excited to read this new one.  This is the story of Blanca, the granddaughter of Eleanor of Aquitaine.  Blanca has been living a happy life with her sister, Uraca, her loving parents, and her new baby sister Eleanor.  Blanca understands that her job is to marry well but at 12, she hopes that it's going to be awhile until she gets married.  Her oldest sister is already married and so when her grandmother shows up at the castle, ready to announce the latest arranged marriage, Blanca doesn't want Uraca to go, so she badmouths her sister to her grandmother.  When her grandmother makes her announcement, it's Blanca,...

 There have been SO MANY new books that came out in the last month!  So lucky us!  Here are two of my newest favorites. "When Tomorrow Burns" by Tae Keller is about three middle school kids who are trying to figure things out.  They have been friends for a long time, but are struggling to remain friends because of the things they haven't felt confident to share with each other.  Nomi, Vi, and Arthur each have the own opportunity to tell their stories and through that story telling, readers get a full picture of how their relationships crisscross and intersect and divide.  And each of them believes in a prophecy that they read in a book that they found at the Museum of Lost and Found, a gallery where people could drop off paintings, sculptures and poems that one of Arthur's dads runs in the first floor of their apartment.  Part of the story line that keeps the kids together is trying to find the second book to try to figure out the true meaning of the p...

  There have been some amazing books that came into the world in the last month.   Here are two of my favorites! The first one is called “Glory Be” by Jamie Sumner.  Jamie has such a gift for giving a voice to people with big hearts and quirky personalities.  You might remembers some of her other work, like “Roll On”.  This one is a new set of characters and  you are going to love it.  Glory lives with her mom and her dad and their dog Roux.  Except that Roux is missing and Glory is heartbroken.  It takes until almost the end of the book to find out really what happened and it is super fun ride.  The story is written in free verse and as usual, Sumner has a wonderful way of describing not only the setting but also helping readers to understand the depth and complexities of the feelings of the characters.  This would be a great one for teaching personal narrative, for character analysis, for foreshadowing and inferencing.  There...

 How lucky I am to get to read some of these amazing new books that are just coming out?  Wait till you read these!   The first one is a novel in verse and it's historical fiction.  It's called "A Year without Home"  and it's written by V. T. Bidania and according to the author's notes, is a story about her family's experience as they traveled from their home in Laos, to a refugee camp in Thailand, to a second refugee camp in Thailand and then to the US.  The story is told by Gao Sheng, who is the oldest child in her family and as a girl, she is not considered as important as her brother, Yia.  She is expected to be hard working, dutiful, and well behaved and she tries hard to fill that role.  Her home in Laos contains most of her immediate family-her grandmother, her aunts and uncles, her parents and siblings and they have most everything they need.  Her father is an officer in the Laotian military and when the Laotian government falls to th...

 Usually this time of year, I'm knee deep in middle grade speculative fiction as part of the CYBILS award list, which is super fun.  But this year, they are taking a break (sad face emoji) but I'm still finding some fun things to read, it's just not the overwhelming glut I'm accustomed to, with stacks of books on hold for me at my local library and the stacks of books on my coffee table giving me the stink eye every time I sit down.  Luckily, here are two amazing ones that just came out. The first one is in a category I like to call "not exactly speculative fiction".  There are no ghosts or magical creatures in these books, but the kids face obstacles that I hope are not realistic.  This one is called "The Free State of Jax".  It's written by Jennifer Nielsen, an author whose work I admire greatly.  Jax is a kid who has lived with his grandmother since he was a little boy.  But his grandmother developed Alzheimer's disease and he was sent to ...

 Sooooo many new middle grade fiction titles are coming out this fall.  Check out these two new ones. The first one actually came out in May but Netgalley was kind enough to keep it on the shelf until a few weeks ago.  It's called "The Curiosities" by W. H. Eatons, which is actually three people- Mark Wheaton and his two kids, Rowan and Wyatt.  It's about two kids, Marlow and Zack, who just moved to a new small town with their mom, an exogeologist (a scientist who studies rocks from other planets) who works at the Rocket Propulsion Lab.  It's also about the cats who live in the neighborhood, who are talkative, friendly, and capable of a great many things.  The problem begins with a hum that a creature notices.  The creature is unidentified until quite late in the book but is referred to occasionally.  The hum seems to be disrupting insects and birds and eventually the people of the town.  When the middle school science teacher, Ms. Layla, dis...

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 terrifi...

 So if you like middle grade fiction, there are so many new books coming out this fall.  Two of my favorite authors have new books, YAY!!  And they are both wonderful (the authors AND their new books).   The first one is by Holly Goldberg Sloan, who wrote Counting by 7s, which is still on my top ten favorite books of all time.  She's written several others as well, including this new one, which is called "Finding Lost".  It's about Cordy, a middle schooler, who lives with her mom and her perpetually cheerful younger brother, Geno in coastal Oregon.  They are living in a small caretaker's house on the edge of a bigger property, for which her mother acts as a caretaker.  The owners are rarely there, which makes living in the caretaker's house seem all the more miserable.  The caretaker's house is a former boatshed and has a leaky roof, poor insulation and poor internet access.  They live there because since Cordy's dad died in a boating ac...

 I have SOOO many books to read.  My TBR pile is tragically large.  Thank goodness I'm retired so I can devote my time to reading!  Here are two of my newest favorites. The first one is a science fiction tale by Rebecca Stead called "The Experiment".  Nathan is a pretty regular sixth grader with a best friend named Victor, except for one teensy little thing-Nathan and his parents come from another planet.  For the most part, Nathan's life is like everyone else's-but there are a few eccentricities like how his mom weighs all of his food (and subtracts the things he doesn't eat), she keeps a log book with data about their life, they have Zoom meetings with other alien families and their kids, and then there's the pink toothpaste that Nathan has to brush with 5 times a day.  But some weird things have been happening.  Some of the kids have disappeared from the Zoom meeting without an explanation and now Nathan is growing a tail.  A furry, orange...

 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...

 My husband and I were traveling last week and lucky me!  I had lots of books on my Netgalley app and lots of time to read!  Here are two of my new favorites. The first one is called Octopus Moon.  It's written by Bobbie Pryon. I hadn't read anything by her before, so this one was a great surprise.  It's written in free verse and it's about Pearl, a girl who lives in a small town on the Florida Gulf Coast.  Pearl is part of a loving family that includes her big sister, her mom and dad, and her grandparents, who live close by.  Pearl feels especially connected to her grandfather.  Pearl also has some really great friends, including her bestie-Rosie.  But lately, Pearl has been struggling.  She feels sad a lot for no particular reason.  She's tired a lot.  She doesn't want to get out of bed or go to school or hang with her friends.  She doesn't even want to run with her dog Tuck, even though she loves running.  It turns...

 I adore historical fiction and the middle grade versions are typically wonderful!  Here are two terrific ones to look for! The first one is called "The Enemy's Daughter" by Anne Blankman .  I hadn't read any of her books before, but I'm definitely going to be looking for more!  "The Enemy's Daughter" has such an interesting point of view.  It's told by Marta, a German girl who has been living in America with her extended family but is returning back to Germany, on the eve of World War 1.  She and her dad are traveling on the Lusitania and have been trying to make sure that no one knows they are German.  Marta is an excellent actress and loves trying out different accents and attitudes to match.  When the boat sinks, Marta and her father are separated, but both are rescued and taken to England, where her dad is an accused of being a spy for Germany.  Marta decides that rather than going home, she will go to find and then rescue her dad. ...

 Now that I'm done with the CYBILS for the year, I can dig back into the realistic fiction pile.  Here are two of my latest favorites! Weirdly Walter by Julia Walton is a terrific new book.  It came out in October and I read it over the winter holidays and I wondered why it had taken so long (oh, yeah, I remember-I was reading for the CYBILS award-107 middle grade fantasy books, that's right).  Walter was such a charming and heartwarming read-I think you're going to love it.  Walter is a fifth grader who has always lived with his dad, a musician.  They've traveled around quite a bit and Walter is used to being the new kid at school.  But this is different.  His dad has left him for the first time, with Walter's grandfather, and there's no end in sight for when Walter will go back on the road with his dad.  Walter adores his dad and records some of his dad's wisdom in his journal.  But he's also kind of mad at his dad, that there was no c...