2025-2026 Maud Hart Books

Division One

Wayward Creatures

By: Dayna Lorentz

Gabe doesn't know where he belongs anymore. His family is caught up in their own lives and his friends barely have time for him. In a desperate move for attention Gabe sets off fireworks in the woods near his house and causes a small forest fire. In the chaos of the destruction, a coyote named Rill . . . finds herself far from home. Gabe and Rill's paths irrevocably cross when Gabe is tasked with cleaning up the forest. The damage to the land and both their lives is beyond what the two can imagine. But together, they discover that sometimes it only takes one friend to find the place where you belong

Honestly Elliott

By: Gillian McDunn

Elliott is not quite sure where he fits in, but when he's paired with the super-popular Maribel for a school-wide contest, they both learn what it means to be a good friend and how to be the person others can count on

Just Right Jillian

By: Nicole Collier

Fifth-grader Jillian will do just about anything to blend in, including staying quiet even when she has the right answer. After she loses a classroom competition because she won't speak up, she sets her mind on winning her school's biggest competition. But breaking out of her shell is easier said than done, and Jillian has only a month to keep her promise to her grandmother and prove to herself that she can speak up and show everyone her true self"

Legends of Lotus Island

By: Christina Soontornvat

Young Plum is shocked to discover that she's been accepted to the Guardian Academy on Lotus Island, an elite school where kids learn how to transform into Guardians, magical creatures who are sworn to protect the natural world. The Guardian masters teach Plum and her friends how to communicate with animals and how to use meditation to strengthen their minds and bodies. All the kids also learn to fight, so they can protect the defenseless if needed. To her dismay, Plum struggles at school. While her classmates begin to transform into amazing creatures, Plum can't even seem to magic up a single feather! If she can't embrace her inner animal form soon, she'll have to leave school and lose the first group of real friends she's ever known

Just Keep Walking

By: Erin Downing

A two-week mother-daughter backpacking trip on Minnesota’s Superior Hiking Trail brings both insight and misery. Twelve-year-old Jo was looking forward to a promised backpacking trip with her father, when he abruptly abandoned the family for another woman and her children. Jo’s mother, newly divorced and unhappy—and not a hiker—nevertheless gamely volunteered to make the trek with Jo. As the two inexperienced hikers set out with everything they need in heavy backpacks on their backs,

Anybody Here Seen Frenchie?

By: Leslie Connor

When her best friend Frenchie, who is autistic and doesn't speak, disappears after they encounter a rare piebald deer in the Maine woods, Aurora feels that she's to blame and does everything she can to find him.

The Misfits ***

By: Lisa Yee

When a notorious thief is out for priceless treasure (gems! cats! general decorum!)-who're you gonna call? An elite team of crime-fighting underdogs, that's who! The Misfits are on the case

Hoops***

By: Matt Tavares

t is 1975 in Indiana, and the Wilkins Regional High School girls' basketball team is in their rookie season. Despite being undefeated, they practice at night in the elementary school and play to empty bleachers. Unlike the boys' team, the Lady Bears have no buses to deliver them to away games and no uniforms, much less a laundry service. They make their own uniforms out of T-shirts and electrical tape. And with help from a committed female coach, they push through to improbable victory after improbable victory.

The Unforgettable Logan Foster

By: Shawn Peters

"Logan, an undersized twelve-year-old orphan with a photographic memory and no filter, discovers that his foster parents are superheroes in grave danger and only Logan's highly logical mind can save them"

The Lost Library

By: Rebeca Stead

When a mysterious Little Free Library guarded by a large orange cat appears overnight, eleven-year-old Evan plucks two weathered books from its shelves, never suspecting that his life is about to change.

***** Books are both Division 1 and Division 2

Division Two

Meet Me Halfway

By: Anika Fajardo

When seventh-grade classmates Mattie Gomez and Mercedes Miller realize they have the same Colombian father, they hatch a plan to run away from a school field trip to meet him for the first time.

The Labors of Hercules Beal

By: Gary Schmidt

Seventh-grader Hercules Beal has to figure out how to fulfill his teacher's assignment of performing the Twelve Labors of Hercules in real life, and discovers important things about friendship, community, and himself along the way.

Mexikid

By: Pedro Martin

Pedro Martin's grown up in the U.S. hearing stories about his legendary abuelito, but during a family road trip to Mexico, he connects with his grandfather and learns more about his own Mexican identity in this . . . graphic memoir"

Not Nothing

By: Gayle Forman

When troubled twelve-year-old Alex is assigned to spend his summer volunteering at a senior living facility, he forms a unique bond with a Holocaust survivor and learns lessons that change the trajectory of his life.

What Happened to Rachel Riley?

By: Claire Swinarski

Thirteen-year-old new girl Anna Hunt decides to make an investigative podcast about how fellow classmate Rachel Riley went from being the most popular girl in school to the most hated

And Then, Boom!

By: Lisa Fipps

Joe Oak is used to living on unsteady ground. His mom can't be depended on as she never stays around long once she gets "the itch," and now he and his beloved grandmother find themselves without a home. Fortunately, Joe has an outlet in his journals and drawings and takes comfort from the lessons of comic books-superheroes have a lot of "and then, boom" moments, where everything threatens to go bust but somehow they land on their feet.

The Fort

By: Gordon Korman

When a tight-knit group of middle school friends discover a trap door in the woods that leads to a completely intact bomb shelter, they vow to keep the place a secret while sharing their individual secrets to build the safest space possible.

Louder Than Hunger

By: John Schu

Jake volunteers at a nursing home because he likes helping people. He likes skating and singing, playing Bingo and Name That Tune, and reading mysteries and comics aloud to his teachers. He also likes avoiding people his own age . . . and the cruelty of mirrors . . . and food. Jake has read about kids like him in books--the weird one, the outsider--and would do anything not to be that kid, including shrink himself down to nothing. But the less he eats, the bigger he feels. How long can Jake punish himself before he truly disappears?

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