Classic

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith 

In this work of historical fiction, Francie Nolan and her family fight to survive in a low-income area of Brooklyn in the early twentieth century.  This coming-of-age story provides a snapshot of life in Williamsburg over 100 years ago while sharing moments in Francie’s life that kids can still relate to today.

Adventure fiction

Clean Getaway by Nic Stone 

William "Scoob" Lamar can't seem to stay out of trouble.  Trouble at school has led to a lockdown at home. When G'ma, Scoob's favorite person on Earth, asks him to go on a sudden road trip, he jumps at the chance without asking any questions. With G'ma's maps and a strange old vacation guide called the 'Travelers' Green Book' at their side, they journey down G'ma's memory lane. Scoob starts to realize this is something more than just a last-minute adventure when he notices that G'ma keeps changing the license plates, dodging Scoob's questions, and refusing to check Dad's voicemails. 

Fantasy

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger 

In an alternate steampunk version of England of 1851, fourteen-year-old Sophronia is forced to enroll in a finishing school for young ladies.  But, she is surprised and delighted to learn that lessons include not only the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also diversion, deceit, and espionage.  At the same time that Sophronia is learning the right way to serve tea, she is also learning how to poison the people you’ve invited to tea.

Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff (ghosts, LGBT)

After the loss of a beloved uncle, eleven-year-old Bug must prepare to start middle school while dealing with a best friend suddenly caring about clothes, makeup, and boys; with a ghost haunting; and with the truth about Bug's gender identity.

Historical

The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys, Steve Sheinkin (WWII historical fiction)

In 1940, Jakob Novis and his younger sister Lizzie find themselves in the countryside hours away from London at Bletchley Park, the home of WWII codebreakers working to decrypt the Nazi's Enigma cipher.  As their country awaits Hitler's feared invasion and the Battle of Britain, Lizzie struggles to unravel a mystery surrounding their mother's disappearance in Poland several months prior. 

Flowers in the Gutter: The True Story of Teenagers who Resisted the Nazis by K.R. Gaddy 

The Edelweiss Pirates were a semi-organized group of working-class young people in the Rhine Valley of Germany. They faced off with Nazis during the Third Reich and suffered consequences for their resistance during and after World War II.  

Mystery

The Cousins by Karen McManus (mystery by popular author)

After receiving an invitation to spend the summer with their estranged grandmother at her resort on Gull Cove Island, the Story cousins (Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah) arrive at her house only to discover that she is not there. The longer they stay on the island, the more they realize their family history has some deadly secrets.  Fans of last year’s Summer Reading book, One of Us is Lying, by the same author, may want to give this one a try!

Squirm by Carl Hiassen (mystery/adventure)

Billy Dickens’ dad left him and his mom, and sister when Billy was four.  His mom uproots their family of three every few years because she insists they always have to live near a bald eagle’s nest for her to observe.  Since they’ve lived in six different Florida towns, Billy has never stayed in one place long enough to make human friends, but he always has a collection of local snakes to keep him company.  Billy just learned that the current address of his Dad is in Montana.  This summer, he will do almost anything to figure out the mysteries surrounding his father and his father’s confidential work.  Almost anything includes dodging grizzly bears, shooting down spy drones, capturing and releasing various snakes, saving animals, and maybe even saving his father.

Nonfiction

An Immense World: How Animals Sense Earth's Amazing Secrets (Young Readers Edition) by Ed Yong 

This young readers’ adaptation of the bestseller An Immense World explores the amazing ways animals perceive the world differently from how humans do.  Do you know that some dogs can smell a seizure before it starts?  That some fish use electricity to communicate?  The world of perception is much more “immense” than we humans experience it with our 5 senses. Animals can see colors we can’t see, hear noises at frequencies we cannot perceive, and even experience sensations not covered under the list of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell.

Holocaust experience

The Boy on the Wooden Box by Leon Leyson (nonfiction memoir)

The Boy on the Wooden Box is a remarkable memoir from Leon Leyson, one of the youngest children on Oskar Schindler’s list to survive the Holocaust.  Leon Leyson (born Leib Lezjon) was ten years old when the Nazis invaded Poland and his family was forced to relocate to the Krakow ghetto. Later, his family was moved to Plaszow, a concentration camp outside of Kraków.  First, Leon’s father, and then he and other family members began to work for Oskar Schindler.  Schindler added their names to his list of workers in his factory, insisting that they were workers with specialized skills that he had to have in his company.  The generosity and cunning of Schindler saved Leon Leyson’s life, and the lives of his mother, his father, and two of his four siblings by adding them to Schindler’s List.

Realistic fiction

Efrén Divided by Ernesto Cisneros (realistic fiction, glossary of Spanish words)

Seventh-grade student Efren Nava struggles to keep up with his school work while caring for his younger siblings after his mother is deported to Mexico.  His father is working two jobs, trying to earn the money to support his children and to find a way to make his family whole again.

Starfish by Lisa Phipps (verse novel)  

Starfish is a novel in verse that follows Ellie Montgomery-Hofstein as she starts middle school after her best friend has moved away.  For years, Ellie has been bullied and shamed for her weight by her classmates and even by some of her family members.  However, with the help of a new neighbor and some good allies, Ellie learns to stand up for herself.

Sports fiction

Furia by Yamile Saied Mendez (Pura Belpre Award, sports and romance) 

In Rosario, Argentina, Camila is a rising soccer player on the local women’s team.  But her family doesn’t know that.  Her brother is a big player on the national team, and her father is a retired soccer player.  Camila knows that her father would never approve of her soccer dreams, and her mother is set on Camila becoming a doctor. She hopes that maybe there's a way for her to follow her own dreams and play soccer professionally, even if it could cost her her family and the love of her life.

Kareem Between by Shifa Saltagi Safadi (National Book Award 2024, sports novel in verse)

In this novel in verse, seventh grader Kareem Moussa wants to make the football team and fit in at his American middle school.  But, failing to make the team and being required by his family to help a new student from Syria navigate middle school complicates Kareem’s efforts to blend with the crowd.  Now he is dealing with bullies at school and harsh realities at home as his family is pulled apart when his mother cannot return to the US after going to Syria to help Kareem’s sick grandfather.

Schneider Family Award 

Forever is Now by Mariama J. Lockington 

(Schneider Family Book Award, realistic fiction novel in verse, LGBT, mature themes)

After experiencing a bad break-up and witnessing an act of police brutality on the same afternoon, Sadie’s generalized anxiety balloons into full agoraphobia.  While barely being able to leave her house, Sadie wants to reach out to others who are struggling with anxiety and to help contribute her voice to the activism happening around the police brutality case.  When she begins posting livestream videos of her thoughts and poetry, she gains a following of people who need to hear her voice.

Where You See Yourself by Claire Forrest (Schneider Family Honor Book)

Where You See Yourself follows high school student Effie Galanos as she navigates a world not built for people who use wheelchairs. School ramps and elevators that she needs to use to get around are sometimes overtaken by her classmates’ romantic encounters. She has waited for the privilege of off-campus lunch only to find that her school hasn’t prepared to make this accessible to her. And now, as she prepares to visit prospective colleges, she finds herself struggling to fight both internal and external barriers to reaching her dreams for her career and love life, too.

Alex Award winner (adult book with teen appeal)

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn (Alex Award Winner 2023, WWII, historical fiction, mature content)

This Alex Award-winning book follows three friends, Osla, Mab, and Beth, who are all recruited to work at Bletchley Park in the early 1940s.  The story begins during the war years when the friends are working on deciphering German codes and continues to view their lives through 1947.  

Sci Fi/Dystopia

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card 

Andrew "Ender" Wiggin thinks he is playing computer-simulated war games. In fact, he is playing something with real consequences. The result of genetic experimentation, Ender may be the military genius Earth desperately needs in a war against an alien enemy seeking to destroy all human life.

The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly (sci-fi)

Twelve-year-old Michael tries to navigate growing up with the fear of Y2K looming while he helps Ridge, a time-traveling teen from the future, get unstuck from 1999.  Ridge just wants to experience one important piece of history before he goes back to the future- a suburban shopping mall.  Their chance meeting changes the course of history for both of them.