Kathryn Ormsbee

The House in Poplar Wood

August 2018, Chronicle Books, 344 pp

Simultaneously heartwarming and delightfully spooky, The House in Poplar Wood is a story about a boy's desire to be free, a girl's desire to make a difference, and a family's desire to be together aga...

Madeline McGrane

THE ACCURSED VAMPIRE

Summer 2021, HarperCollins, TBD pp

A spooky and funny graphic novel debut that’s perfect for fans of Molly Knox Ostertag’s THE WITCH BOY and Kristen Gudsnuk’s MAKING FRIENDS. Dragoslava is a vampire kid. And that’s not even the worst ...

Kathryn Ormsbee

CANDIDLY CLINE

Fall 2021, HarperCollins, TBD pp

Dumplin' meets Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World, CANDIDLY CLINE is a heartfelt MG Contemporary about one girl’s attempt to find her voice through all the changes, challenges, and heart-thumping crus...

Wendy Xu

TIDESONG

Fall 2021, HarperCollins, TBD pp

An ambitious 12-year-old moves to a seaside town for an apprenticeship in magic with her aunts and realizes that it may be more than she bargained for....

Hilary Wagner

NIGHTSHADE CHRONICLES

LORDS OF TRILLIUM

Book 3 – March 2014, Holiday House, 250 pp

Deep beneath a modern metropolis lies the Catacombs, a kingdom of remarkable rats of superior intellect. Following the Bloody Coup, the once peaceful democracy has become a dictatorship, ruled by deca...

Ellen Oh

SPIRIT HUNTERS

July 2017, HarperCollins, 288 pp

A high-stakes middle grade mystery series about Harper Raine, the new seventh grader in town who must face down the dangerous ghosts haunting her younger brother. A riveting ghost story and captivati...

Ellen Oh

SPIRIT HUNTERS: THE ISLAND OF MONSTERS

July 2018, HarperCollins, 256 pp

We Need Diverse Books founder Ellen Oh delivers the next haunting tale in her acclaimed middle grade series Spirit Hunters, a mix of captivating mystery and chilling ghost story. Harper Raine faces n...

Ellen Oh

THE DRAGON EGG PRINCESS

March 2020, HarperCollins, 256 pp

A must-have middle grade novel perfect for fans of the Wing & Claw series by Linda Sue Park. In a kingdom filled with magic, Jiho Park and his family are an anomaly—magic doesn’t affect them. Jiho co...

Ellen Oh

FINDING JUNIE KIM

Winter 2021, HarperCollins, TBD pp

From We Need Diverse Books cofounder Ellen Oh comes an extraordinary story about a girl who must understand her family’s past to embrace her present, finding herself along the way. Junie Kim just wan...

Yamile Saied Méndez

ON THESE MAGIC SHORES

April 2020, Tu Books/Lee & Low, 288 pp

Twelve-year-old Minerva Soledad Madrid does not believe in fairies (or peques, as mamá calls them), despite the fact that her family insists peques followed them from Argentina to the US watch over th...

Dana Alison Levy

THE MISADVENTURES OF THE FAMILY FLETCHER

July 2014, Delacorte/Penguin Random House, 260 pp

Modern Family meets modern classics like Beverly Cleary’s Quimbys and Judy Blume’s Hatchers in this heartwarming and hilarious middle grade novel. Four adopted brothers, two dads, and an ever-changing...

Dana Alison Levy

THE FAMILY FLETCHER TAKES ROCK ISLAND

May 2016, Delacorte/Penguin Random House, 272 pp

Fans of The Penderwicks and other summer tales will enjoy this stand-alone companion novel to the acclaimed Misadventures of the Family Fletcher. Set on a fictional New England island, the boys, ages ...

Dana Alison Levy

THIS WOULD MAKE A GOOD STORY SOMEDAY

Spring 2017, Penguin Random House, 260 pp

Fans of Dan Santat’s Are We There Yet and Geoff Rodkey’s The Tapper Twins will enjoy this cross-country train trip of a middle grade novel. Twelve-year-old Sara loves her family, but she’s less than t...

Dana Alison Levy

IT WASN’T ME

November 2018, Delacorte/Penguin Random House, 336 pp

The Breakfast Club meets middle school in this story of six 12-year-old students — five potential perpetrators and Theo, one seriously annoyed victim — forced to spend vacation week together in school...

Aida Salazar

THE MOON WITHIN

Spring 2019, Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic, 250 pp

This free verse middle grade novel tells the story of 11-year-old Cely, whose life swirls with questions about her changing body, her first attraction to a boy, her best friend’s exploration of what i...

Aida Salazar

LAND OF THE CRANES

September 2020, Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic, 256 pp

This free verse middle grade novel, inspired in part by the author’s own childhood as an undocumented immigrant, tells the story of 9-year-old Betita, who believes that she and other migrants follow a...

Megan Jean Sovern

THE MEANING OF MAGGIE

May 2014, Chronicle, 220 pp

Twelve-year-old Maggie lives in a house too small for all the big problems plaguing a shy girl just trying to survive adolescence armed with Little Debbies and deep thoughts. When her father’s legs p...

Jim Murphy

BREAKTHROUGH: HOW THREE PEOPLE SAVED “BLUE BABIES” AND CHANGED MEDICINE FOREVER

December 2016, Clarion/HMH, 144 pp

In 1944 a groundbreaking operation repaired the congenital heart defect known as blue baby syndrome. The operation’s success brought the surgeon Alfred Blalock international fame and paved the way for...

Josanne La Valley

THE VINE BASKET

April 2013, Clarion/HMH, 256 pp

Things aren’t looking good for fourteen-year-old Mehrigul. She yearns to be in school, but she’s needed on the family farm. The longer she’s out of school, the more likely it is that she’ll be sent of...

Kristin Kladstrup

THE BOOK OF STORY BEGINNINGS

March 2006, Candlewick, 368 pp

This wonderfully transporting fantasy - featuring a ship full of orphaned pirate children, a pair of warring royals, and plenty of magic potions - is sure to thrill all those who dare turn its pages....

Kristin Kladstrup

GARDEN PRINCESS

March 2013, Candlewick, 272 pp

Dig in to this middle-grade fantasy featuring a horticulturally-minded princess, a beautiful but evil witch, and a magpie with a shameful secret....

Kristin Kladstrup

NUTCRACKER MICE

October 2017, Candlewick, 336 pp

Hidden in Saint Petersburg’s famed Mariinsky Theater are the world’s tiniest ballet fans: the Mariinsky mice, including Esmeralda, a rising dancer in the Russian Mouse Ballet Company. Despite being un...

Carolyn Hennesy

MYTHIC MISADVENTURES SERIES

PANDORA GETS FRIGHTENED

Book 7 – July 2013, July 2013, Bloomsburg, 288 pp

Mythic Misadventures series in which Pandora tries to recapture all the great evils of the world and return them to the infamous box....

Stephanie Greene

PRINCESS POSEY SERIES

PRINCESS POSEY

Multiple Dates, Putnam/Penguin, Each 96 pp

In her 12th chapter book, everyone’s favorite first grade friend, Princess Posey, learns that sometimes exciting news comes with big changes. When Posey’s grandpa announces that he’s marrying her nei...

Stephanie Greene

SOPHIE HARTLEY SERIES

SOPHIE HARTLEY AND THE FACTS OF LIFE

Book 4 – November 2013, Clarion/HMH, 144 pp

The indomitable, quirky, passionate Sophie faces challenges and challengers with determination and resourcefulness. She does so with down-to-earth, realistic, humorous take on friendships and family r...

Mary E. Lambert

FAMILY GAME NIGHT AND OTHER CATASTROPHES

February 2017, Scholastic, 256 pp

A novel about throwing things out -- and letting people in. Annabelle has a secret so big she won’t allow friends within five miles of her home. Her mom collects things. Their house is overflowing wi...

Mary E. Lambert

DISTRESS SIGNAL

October 2020, Scholastic, 272 pp

In this edge-of-your-seat survival story, four classmates are stranded in a desert wilderness after a flash flood separates them from the rest of their grade. Can they make it to safety? Lavender’s c...

David Kreizman

THE UNEXPLAINABLE DISAPPEARANCE OF MARS PATEL

October 2020, Candlewick, 304 pp

When his friends begin disappearing, eleven-year-old Mars Patel uncovers a mystery that will take him to the stars…and beyond.The first novel in a series written by Sheela Chari based on the award-win...

Jessie Haas

RESCUE

April 2018, Boyds Mills, 200 pp

In this coming-of-age story perfect for horse fans, twelve-year-old animal lover Joni clashes with her new neighbor and animal rights activist Chess. Their bumpy friendship reaches a crisis when Chess...

Jessie Haas

THE HUNGRY PLACE

October 2020, Boyds Mills, TBD pp

A middle-grade novel told in 2 points of view. Rae grows up longing for, and working to afford, a pony, until at age twelve she crosses paths with Princess, a show-ring champion left to starve by an u...

Kat Fajardo

MISS QUINCES

Spring 2022, Graphix/Scholastic, 180 pp

A coming-of-age middle grade graphic novel about a girl forced to celebrate her quinceañera despite hating all things pretty and pink. Suyapa “Sue” Gutierrez was planning a fun summer at camp with he...

Jeanne DuPrau

CITY OF EMBER SERIES

THE CITY OF EMBER

May 2003, Random House, 288 pp

City of Ember Series...

Paige Britt

THE LOST TRACK OF TIME

March 2015, Scholastic, 320 pp

Penelope longs to be a writer, but her mother won’t allow it—scribbling in your notebook all day is a complete waste of time! One morning, a strange hole opens up in her otherwise busy schedule, and s...

Arthur Salm

ANYWAY*

May 2012, Simon & Schuster, TBD pp

Max is a good kid floating in the netherworld of being not quite a teenager. A summertime interlude at a family camp allows him to re-invent himself for a week as Mad Max, a much wilder kid; he’s expe...

Isaiah Campbell

THE STRUGGLES OF JOHNNY CANNON

October 2015, Simon & Schuster, 336 pp

The sequel to TROUBLES finds Johnny embroiled in a Mafia blood feud as he searches for his happy ending....

Isaiah Campbell

THE TROUBLES OF JOHNNY CANNON

October 2014, Simon & Schuster, 296 pp

In 1961 Alabama, a Superman obsessed 12-year-old, Johnny Cannon, has to dodge the CIA, outwit the Klan, and escape from Cuba to prove his Pa didn’t sabotage the Bay of Pigs invasion. THE TROUBLES OF J...

Isaiah Campbell

ABRAKAPOW

November 2016, Simon & Schuster, 304 pp

Based on a true World War II story, Isaiah Campbell tells a charming mystery about a mishap at a magic show in a POW camp—featuring magic how-to diagrams throughout....

Pat Cummings

TRACE

December 2018, HarperCollins, 320 pp

Coretta Scott King Award winner Pat Cummings’s debut TRACE, about a boy who stumbles into a ghost story born in the turmoil of New York City’s 1863 Draft Riots. Weighed down by guilt for an accident ...

Victoria J. Coe

FENWAY AND HATTIE SERIES

FENWAY AND HATTIE IN THE WILD

Book 4 – May 2019, Putnam/Penguin Random House, 176 pp

In the fourth book in this adorable middle-grade series, all told from the dog’s point of view, Fenway gets a taste of the wild when he goes on a back-to-school camping trip with his human, Hattie. Th...

Alina Chau

MARSHMALLOW AND JORDAN

Summer 2021, First Second/Macmillan, TBD pp

Beautiful watercolor illustrations bring to life this middle grade graphic novel about former youth basketball star Jordan, who was paralyzed from the waist down in an accident. She misses playing her...

Kacen Callender

HURRICANE CHILD

March 2018, Scholastic, 224 pp

A lyrical, debut middle grade novel with a touch of magical realism and LGBTQ+ themes, about first friendship, first love, and finding self-acceptance. 12-year-old Caroline Murphy is a Hurricane Chil...

Kacen Callender

KING AND THE DRAGONFLIES

February 2020, Scholastic, 272 pp

From the Stonewall and Lambda Book Award-winning author of Hurricane Child comes a novel about loss, grief, and finding the courage to discover one’s identity. Twelve-year-old Kingston James is sure ...

Shakirah Bourne

JOSEPHINE AGAINST THE SEA

Spring 2021, Scholastic, TBD pp

The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste meets R.L.Stine’s The Girl Who Cried Monster. 11 year-old Jo discovers that her Dad’s new girlfriend is a powerful sea creature and has to convince everyone of the woma...

Mary Amato

GOOD CROOKS SERIES

GOOD CROOKS: SNIFF A SKUNK!

Book 3 – Spring 2015, Darby Creek/Lerner, 128 pp

A hilarious series for K-4. Billy and Jillian Crook have a big problem. Their parents are crooks, but they want to do good deeds! Sniff a Skunk! brings back our favorite pair of do-gooder crooks in a ...

Mary Amato

OUR TEACHER IS A VAMPIRE

March 2016, Holiday House, 256 pp

It all begins when Alexander H. Gory Jr. passes around a notebook in which he reveals a tantalizing secret: he has proof that their teacher, Mrs. Penrose, is a vampire. Soon the entire class is specul...