Sorted By: Family
Alexis Castellanos
GUAVA AND GRUDGES
September 2024, Bloomsbury, 336 pp
Ana Maria Ybarra dreams of becoming a world-famous pastry chef, but dreams have a cost. Her family can barely keep the family business running, let alone pay for culinary school. Ana Maria helps out a...
Sorted By: Family
Robin Yardi
THE MIDNIGHT WAR OF MATEO MARTINEZ
March 2016, Carolrhoda Books/Lerner, 184 pp
Life is confusing for Mateo Martinez. He and Johnny Ramirez don’t hang out anymore, even though they used to be best friends. He and his new friend Ashwin try to act like brave, old-time knights, but...
Sorted By: Family
H.D. Hunter
SOMETHING LIKE RIGHT
August 2024, Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Macmillan, 336 pp
Zay’s ma always said his mouth would get him in trouble. Sure enough, it got him into his first and only fight in his junior year of high school. Expelled from his district, Zay’s only hope for redemp...
Sorted By: Family
Randi Pink
UNDER THE HERON'S LIGHT
October 2024, Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan, 352 pp
On a damp night in 1722, Babylou Mac and her three siblings witness the murder of their mother at the hands of the local preacher’s son—so Babylou kills him in retaliation. With plantation dogs now on...
Sorted By: Family
Yamile Saied Méndez
THE BEAUTIFUL GAME
September 2024, Algonquin Young Readers/Hachette, 336 pp
A powerful story about family, fútbol, and playing like a girl from the award-winning author of Furia. At thirteen years old, Valeria "Magic" Salomón is already the best soccer player her town has ev...
Sorted By: Family
Tracey Baptiste
BOY 2.0
October 2024, Algonquin Young Readers/Hachette, TBD pp
Win “Coal” Keegan has just landed in his latest foster home, with a big, noisy, slightly nosy family named the McKays. They seem eager to welcome Coal, but he’s wary of trusting them. So, he doesn’t t...
Sorted By: Family
Shakirah Bourne
BEWARE THE HEARTMAN
September 2024, Scholastic, 336 pp
Ten months after her terrifying escape from a sea spirit, Josephine is happy to settle back into life in Fairy Vale, playing on her cricket team, and spending time with her Dad, Miss Alleyne......
Sorted By: Family
Brittany J. Thurman
FOREVER AND ALWAYS
January 2024, Greenwillow/HarperCollins, 40 pp
In this lyrical picture book from two breakout picture book creators, a young Black child waits for—and worries about—her father while he’s away from home. A sensitive, poignant portrayal of a family’...
Sorted By: Family
Ben Clanton
TATER TALES: THE KING OF THE WORLD
April 2024, Simon and Schuster, 88 pp
Rot is ready for another adventure and this time he’s going “Spudlunking!” But while Rot is excited to dig through the muck for treasure, all his friends seem to be more interested in their own plans....
Sorted By: Family
Tracey Baptiste
MOKO MAGIC 01: CARNIVAL CHAOS
August 2024, Freedom Fire/Disney, 400 pp
Cousins Misty, Aidan, and Brooke discover that they carry the ancestral power of real moko healers from west Africa, and are the descendants of the first moko jumbie who followed a slave ship across t...
Sorted By: Family
Randy Ribay
EVERYTHING WE NEVER HAD
August 2024, Kokila/Penguin Random House, 352 pp
From the author of the National Book Award finalist Patron Saints of Nothing comes an emotionally charged, moving novel about four generations of Filipino American boys grappling with identity, mascul...
Sorted By: Family
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
YOU'RE BREAKING MY HEART
January 2024, Levine Querido, 304 pp
Harriet Adu knows that her brother's death is her fault. I mean, it's not actually her fault, but it still kinda is, isn't it? She would do anything to live in a world where she could take back what...
Sorted By: Family
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
OPERATION SISTERHOOD: STEALING THE SHOW
Spring 2025, Crown/Random House, TBD pp
When Sunday's plans for a spectacular neighborhood theatre production go awry because of a new celebrity neighbor, her sisters need to help her find the way back to the community connections that spar...
Sorted By: Family
William Alexander
GOBLIN SECRETS
January 2012, Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster, 256 pp
In the National Book Award–winning Goblin Secrets, a boy joins a theatrical troupe of goblins to find his missing brother. Rownie, the youngest in Graba’s witchy household of stray children, escapes ...
Sorted By: Family
William Alexander
GHOULISH SONG
April 2014, Margaret K. McElderry/Simon & Schuster, 192 pp
Set alongside the National Book Award-winning Goblin Secrets, Ghoulish Song weaves a story of music and mystery through the charmed, cursed world of Zombay. The last day of Kaile’s life does not star...
Sorted By: Family
Bessie Flores Zaldívar
LIBERTAD
August 2024, Dial/Penguin Young Readers, 272 pp
A queer YA coming-of-age set during the rigged Honduran presidential election, about a young poet discovering the courage it takes to speak her truth about the people and country she loves. As the c...
Sorted By: Family
Ellen Oh
YOU ARE HERE
March 2023, Allida/HarperCollins, 272 pp
An incident at a TSA security check point sows chaos and rumors, creating a chain of events that impacts twelve young Asian Americans in a crowded and restless airport. As their disrupted journeys cri...
Sorted By: Family
Shakirah Bourne
NIGHTMARE ISLAND
May 2023, Scholastic, 304 pp
Serenity Noah has never told anyone about her recurring nightmare, where a silver butterfly leads her to a shadowy, silent monster. Her parents already favor her little brother, Peace, and as the "dif...
Sorted By: Family
Ben Clanton
TATER TALES: THE GREATEST IN THE WORLD
November 2022, Simon & Schuster, 88 pp
Two spud siblings face off in a series of epic challenges in this first installment of a new and hilariously silly graphic novel chapter book series from the bestselling creator of the Narwhal and Jel...
Sorted By: Family
Sorted By: Family
Madeline McGrane
THE ACCURSED VAMPIRE: CURSE AT WITCH CAMP
February 2023, HarperCollins, 256 pp
Vampires at witch camp? What could go wrong? It’s summertime in Baneberry Falls and Drago and their vampire pals Eztli and Quintus are heading to witch camp where they’ll learn spells and magic along...
Sorted By: Family
Lin Thompson
THE HOUSE THAT WHISPERS
February 2023, Little, Brown, 336 pp
From the author of The Best Liars in Riverview comes a subtle exploration of gender identity, family, and the personal ghosts that haunt us all, perfect for fans of Kyle Lukoff and Ashley Herring Blak...
Sorted By: Family
Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich
OPERATION SISTERHOOD
January 2022, Crown/Random House, 272 pp
ans of the Netflix reboot of The Babysitters Club will delight in this blended-family story about four sisters who band together in the heart of New York City. A jubilant novel about the difficulties ...
Sorted By: Family
Andy Chou Musser
A Home Under the Stars
October 2021, Sasquatch, 40 pp
Magical and heartfelt, A Home Under the Stars explores the difficulties and anxieties that accompany moving, as well as the journey to find a sense of belonging in a new place and to call it home. Mo...
Sorted By: Family
Alexis Castellanos
ISLA TO ISLAND
March 2022, Atheneum/S&S, 192 pp
A wordless middle grade graphic novel following a girl growing up in 1960s Cuba and New York City. Marisol loves her colorful island. Cuba is vibrant with flowers and food and people… but things are ...
Sorted By: Family
Mimi Yu
Empress of Flames
August 2021, Gollancz/Hachette UK, 496 pp
As the late-Emperor's first-born, Princess Lu knows the throne rightfully belongs to her. She also can't forget her promise to shapeshifter Nok, the boy she loves, to win justice for his now powerless...
Sorted By: Family
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...
Sorted By: Family
Madeline McGrane
THE ACCURSED VAMPIRE
July 2021, HarperCollins, 176pp
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 ...
Sorted By: Family
Kathryn Ormsbee
CANDIDLY CLINE
November 2021, HarperCollins, 320pp
Born in Paris, Kentucky and raised on her Gram’s favorite country music, Cline dreams of making it big with her own songs—even if her mother has always told her that music won’t pay the bills. So whe...
Sorted By: Family
Sorted By: Family
Suzanne Weyn
THIEF EYES
Spring 2010, Random House, 272 pp
After her mother mysteriously disappears, sixteen-year-old Haley convinces her father to take her to Iceland, where her mother was last seen. There, amidst the ancient fissures and crevices of that vo...
Sorted By: Family
Ben Clanton
ROT: THE BRAVEST IN THE WORLD
June 2020, Simon & Schuster, 32 pp
In this second Rot book, we meet Rot’s big brother Snot, who is a bit of snot to poor Rot. He’s made up a creature called the Squirm that has Rot feeling super scared. But with the help of a cape, bro...
Sorted By: Family
Suzanne Weyn
THE BAR CODE PROPHECY
October 2013, Scholastic, 208 pp
The third book in the Bar Code series, in which one girl struggles to escape the conformity of a dystopian world. Grace lives a normal life. She goes to school during the day and works part-time at th...
Sorted By: Family
Suzanne Weyn
DR. FRANKENSTEIN’S DAUGHTERS
January 2013, Scholastic, 250 pp
Giselle and Ingrid are the twin daughters of Doctor Victor Frankenstein, but they are very different people, and when they inherit his castle in the Orkney Islands, Giselle dreams of holding parties a...
Sorted By: Family
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...
Sorted By: Family
Janni Lee Simner
BONES OF FAERIE SERIES
FAERIE AFTER
Book 3 – May 2013, Random House, 272 pp
Janni Lee Simner’s young adult novels are a dark fairy-tale twist on apocalyptic fiction, as familiar as a nightmare, yet altogether unique. The three books in the Bones of Faerie series take readers...
Sorted By: Family
Kathryn Ormsbee
THE GREAT UNKNOWABLE END
February 2019, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 400 pp
A humorous, lightly speculative novel for fans of “Welcome to Nightvale” with points of view from two teens with opposing beliefs who come together at what might be the end of the world in a small Ame...
Sorted By: Family
Kathryn Ormsbee
THE SULLIVAN SISTERS
May 2020, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 384 pp
For readers who were riveted by mysteries like SADIE by Courtney Summers and TWO CAN KEEP A SECRET by Karen McManus. The Sullivan Sisters used to be close, sharing secrets inside homemade blanket cas...
Sorted By: Family
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...
Sorted By: Family
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 ...
Sorted By: Family
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...
Sorted By: Family
Randy Ribay
PATRON SAINTS OF NOTHING
June 2019, Kokila/Penguin Random House, 304 pp
A powerful coming-of-age story about grief, guilt, and the risks a Filipino-American teenager takes to uncover the truth about his cousin’s murder. Jay Reguero plans to spend the last semester of his...
Sorted By: Family
Mimi Yu
THE GIRL KING
January 2019, Bloomsbury Children’s, 432 pp
With three revolving points-of-view, this diverse, epic, richly-imagined Asian fantasy is set against a world of ancient magic and political intrigue. Assertive Lu has always expected to be named her...
Sorted By: Family
Justin A. Reynolds
EARLY DEPARTURES
September 2020, Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins, 320 pp
Jamal’s best friend Q does not know he’s about to die . . . again. He also doesn’t know that Jamal tried to save his life, rescuing him from drowning only to watch Q die in the hospital. Even more co...
Sorted By: Family
Kelly Quindlen
LATE TO THE PARTY
April 2020, Roaring Brook/Macmillan, 304 pp
A story of friendship and first love, featuring a diverse cast of LGBTQ+ characters. Codi wants to score her first kiss—with a girl—but she may have to expand her social world first. Can she fall in ...
Sorted By: Family
Amparo Ortiz
BLAZEWRATH GAMES
October 2020, Page Street Kids, 368 pp
Lana Torres has always preferred dragons to people. In a few weeks, sixteen countries will compete in the Blazewrath World Cup, a tournament where dragons and their riders fight for glory in a dangero...
Sorted By: Family
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...
Sorted By: Family
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...
Sorted By: Family
Josanne La Valley
FACTORY GIRL
January 2017, Clarion/HMH, 256 pp
In order to save her family’s farm, Roshen, sixteen, must leave her rural home to work in a factory in the south of China. There she finds arduous and degrading conditions and contempt for her minorit...
Sorted By: Family
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...
Sorted By: Family
Cynthia Leonor Garza
LUCÍA THE LUCHADORA AND THE MILLION MASKS
October 2018, POW!, 32 pp
A splendiferous sisterhood adventure in the follow-up to Lucía the Luchadora. Lucía’s little sister Gemma wants to be a luchadora too, but she seems to find trouble wherever she goes. When Gemma makes...
Sorted By: Family
Kayla Harren
A VOICE LIKE YOURS
March 2024, Sleeping Bear Press, 32 pp
Each of us has a unique and powerful voice, whether we speak loudly or softly, sing or sign, or without any words at all. What matters is how we use that voice--because voices are meant to be used. So...
Sorted By: Family
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...
Sorted By: Family
Kat Fajardo
MISS QUINCES
May 2022, Graphix/Scholastic, 272 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...
Sorted By: Family
Mike Dutton
FOOD TRUCK FEST!
March 2018, Macmillan/FSG, 40 pp
The rhyming story follows a fleet of food trucks as they get ready for the biggest and best day of the year – the food truck fest....
Sorted By: Family
Sophie Blackall
CROWS OF PEARLBLOSSOM
March 2011, Abrams, 40 pp
This funny story of cleverness triumphing over greed, similar in tone and wit to the work of A.A. Milne, shows a new side of a great writer. Paired with stunning illustrations by Sophie Blackall, this...
Sorted By: Family
Tameka Fryer Brown
BROWN BABY LULLABY
Winter 2020, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux/Macmillan, TBD pp
A beautifully illustrated portrayal of parental love in a family of color. When the sun sets, it’s time for Momma, Papi, and their tired toddler to begin the evening’s routine, which includes clangin...
Sorted By: Family
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...
Sorted By: Family
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...
Sorted By: Family
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 ...
Sorted By: Family
Shakirah Bourne
JOSEPHINE AGAINST THE SEA
July 2021, Scholastic, 304 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...