And we’re back with the second installment of this year’s Summer Reading Guide! This time I’ve got twelve new middle-grade standalones or series starters that I have read and heartily endorse for today’s picky elementary and tween readers! Included in this list are some titles that fall inside the traditional 8-12 years window and others that skew 10+.
As with all the installments of this year’s Summer Guide, my reviews are shorter than in the past BUT I’ve also linked to any full reviews that I’ve done on Instagram. Where illustrations play a key role in enhancing the story, I also include some interior shots.
The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest
by Aubrey Hartman
Ages 9-12 (320 pages)
With prose that sings, an atmospheric setting, and a heart-swelling plot that won’t leave a dry eye in the house even as it joyfully teaches us to love ourselves, one another, and the natural world, I implore you to read aloud this gorgeously illustrated fantasy that has Kate DiCamillo, Adam Gidwitz, and Gregory Maguire vibes but is still decidedly unique. As Usher to the Afterlife, Clare the fox lives in a homey cottage in Deadwood Forest, content with spending his misanthropic days reading, gardening, and holding one-sided conversations with a large mushroom, while he waits to greet the ghostly animals who arrive on his doorstep and gently point them towards the eternal Realm to which they are fated. But when Gingersnipes, a dead badger, arrives and Clare can’t get the Afterlife to take her, he must seek out the prophetess Hesterfowl, setting into motion questions about his future to which he may not like the answers. Full review of The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest here.
The Trouble With Heroes
by Kate Messner
Ages 10-14 (368 pages)
Kate Messner once again proves herself one of the finest storytellers of our time! The Trouble with Heroes is a deeply moving story about a boy drowning in his own anger, who finds freedom after he is forced to repent for a vandalism act by summitting all 46 of the Adirondack Peaks in a single summer (with one very stinky dog). It will appeal especially to hikers, dog lovers, and those who enjoy novels-in-verse (although there are other formats, like emails and photographs, included in here too!). Full review here.
Inside the Park
by Andrea Williams
Ages 8-12 (224 pages)
In the highly suspenseful Inside the Park, Home Alone meets baseball when a young fan gets accidentally locked overnight in a pro stadium on the eve of the biggest game of the season. Do you really need to know more than that?! (This is gold for kids.) I can’t tell you how happy I am to have not one but two baseball books on this list, especially one that’s this well-written, with appeal that extends beyond the sport and also features a culturally rich portrait of a close-knit Black family.
What If You Fall For Me First?
by G.F. Miller
Ages 10-13 (368 pages)
What happens if you get everything you want and it’s nothing like what you thought it would be? For those who aren’t ready for the steamier romances of YA, What If You Fall For Me First? is a sweet, clean, misguided-until-it’s-not Junior High rom-com about a girl who convinces her school’s resident “bad boy” to help makeover her cutsey image to impress the boy of her dreams—but at what cost? G.F. Miller does a fantastic, if intentionally cringey, job of showing her reader the pitfalls of blindness brought on by infatuation, but it’s the time she devotes to fleshing out both her girl and boy protagonists that makes this such a satisfying read. Bonus: it’s a straight-to-paperback release!
Afia in the Land of Wonders
by Mia Araujo
Ages 8-12 (304 pages)
This lush re-imagining of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by an Argentine American creator results in a fast-paced fantasy of self-discovery starring a twin sister who abandons her family for the tantalizing, if dangerous, promise of wonders on the other side of the imposing cliffs that supposedly keep her kingdom safe from wild creatures and evil spirits. Afia in the Land of Wonders is packed with enigmatic riddles, a palace of riches, and a cast—human and not—who are rarely what they seem, but the real draw here are the stunning, full-color, painterly spreads every few pages. If incorporating cinematic art like this is the future of middle grade, sign me up!
No Purchase Necessary
by Maria Marianayagam
Ages 8-12 (256 pages)
People in this industry love to say that contemporary realistic fiction is dead, that today’s kids much prefer fantasy and thrillers, but if more of it had a hook as intriguing as the one in No Purchase Necessary, I bet we’d get a lot more readers taking the bait! Imagine being bullied into stealing a chocolate bar from the convenience store across the street from your school and then have it turn out to hold the winning ticket to a million dollars…would you cash it? That’s precisely the ethical pickle that our main character finds himself in. Ajay is a Tamil Sri Lankan boy, who loves making lists and only ever hopes to fly under the radar at his school. Now, in his journey to untangle himself from a web of secrets, unlikely alliances, parental pressure, and a new crush, he’s about to find out what he’s really made of—and so is everyone else.
Inkbound
by Philippa Leathley
Ages 8-12 (352 pages)
Nevermoor meets The Swifts with floating cities, talking gargoyles, enchanted game boards, travel by lightning, rivers of magical ink, and tattoos that decide your fate (or do they?). British author Philippa Leathley’s debut novel, Inkbound: Meticulous Jones and the Skull Tattoo, the first in a fast-paced new fantasy series, perfectly straddles dark and whimsy, suspense and world building. We chose this book for our bookstore’s fantasy book club earlier this year and it remains the hands-down favorite. (After all, who can resist a book that kicks off with its protagonist horrified to learn that she’s fated to murder with magic?!)
The Right Call
by Tommy Greenwald
Ages 10-14 (288 pages)
I now get why my tween sports-loving customers are such fans of Tommy Greenwald’s writing! His multi-format storytelling—here, text chains, interview transcripts, news bulletins, etc.—is at once propulsive and a reluctant reader’s dream. I’m not sure I took a full breath the entire time I read his newest, The Right Call, about a 15-year-old pitcher prodigy who gets caught in the middle of a serious altercation between his father and a referee. Baseball plays a starring role here, but it’s the timely questions the story raises about parental and societal pressure on youth sports that stay with the reader. Full review here.
My Presentation Today Is About the Anaconda
by Bibi Dumon Tak; illus. Annemarie van Haeringen
Ages 8-12 (224 pages)
I am forever on the hunt for unique presentations of the animal world for my nonfiction seekers, and My Presentation Today Is About the Anaconda—illustrated, informative, and hilariously tongue-and-cheek—might be the most original I’ve ever come across. We’re a fly on the wall as twenty animals queue up to deliver oral presentations—sometimes while talking over one another and sometimes followed by rowdy Q&As—about other animals that they admire (or not). Readers won’t even realize how much they’re learning while simultaneously chuckling. (“That’s because oral presentations can be really fun, especially when they’re not being given by the human species for once.”) Plus, it doubles as a great way to consider narrative point of view!
Word of warning: this book has been so popular that it has gone into reprint so we are currently out of stock at the shop and awaiting more, but it might be up to a month.
The Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls
by Judith Rossell
Ages 8-12 (320 pages)
Good gravy! Enola Holmes meets Millicent Quibb in an orphan story replete with quirky world building, perilous spy missions, girl power, a touch of magic, and lots of cake! But fair warning: ordinary school is going to seem awfully boring once your kids get wind of this one. By Australian author Judith Rossell, The Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls—more titles to come!—boasts an orphanage of the same name dedicated to readying girls to solve mysteries, fight crime, and keep their bustling city safe. “Girls, we’re absolutely the snake’s pajamas.” The witty dialogue and suspenseful plot are accentuated with intricate black-and-white art on nearly every page, along with excerpts from the girls’ textbook, “Useful Things Every Girl Should Know,” from disguises to how to spot a fake diamond to escaping quicksand. Full review here.
Benny on the Case
by Wesley King
Ages 8-12 (288 pages)
Listen up, b’ys! In Benny on the Case (ages 8-12), Palacio’s Wonder meets Ponti’s Sherlock Society with a rural Newfoundland charm all its own and one of my favorite protagonists of the year. (Benny has mosaic Down syndrome, which presents with no cognitive or social challenges but comes with facial irregularities that have long swayed his mom to keep him out of mainstream school…until now.) Do not sleep on this empathetic, often laugh-out-loud story of standing up to bullies, new friendships, a corporate takedown, and a supporting cast of hilarious retirees. Fortune favors the bold, me duckies. Full review here.
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