✔ Orbiting Jupiter by Gary Schmidt
Joseph Brook looks like an average eighth-grader at Eastham Middle School, but he’s not. He became a father at age 13, spent time in juvie, and has an abusive father. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ The Warden’s Daughter by Jerry Spinelli
Perpetually angry, motherless Cammie O’Reilly, the warden’s daughter, sets about turning Eloda Pupko, the silent, distant trustee working as “Cammie-keeper,” into a mother figure over the summer she turns 13. [AUTHOR INTERVIEW]
✔ Mockingbird by Katherine Erskine
Caitlin, a 5th-grader with Asperger’s Syndrome, used to depend on her big brother Devon, but when he’s killed in a school shooting, she and her dad have to find a way to grieve, and heal, together. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
Melody has cerebral palsy and cannot walk or talk. Will a computer that lets her speak help her make friends? [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin
Suzy’s former BFF dies unexpectedly, just before 7th grade. When Suzy learns about a rare, poisonous jellyfish during a school trip, she is convinced this is how her friend died. But will an answer help her get over her grief? [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky
Sixth-grader Grayson realizes a dream but attracts controversy by taking the role of the female lead in the school play. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate
Jackson’s imaginary friend, a huge cat named Crenshaw, first appeared when his family moved into their minivan in 1st grade. Now Jackon's family is about to be evicted again, and Crenshaw reappears. Jackson, a 5th-grader who likes science, wonders whether the cat is real. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook by Leslie Connor
The Blue River Co-ed Correctional Facility is home to 6th-grader Perry—the warden let him grow up there with his mom, an inmate. But the new district attorney thinks prison is no place for a kid... [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Pax by Sara Pennypacker
A boy is forced to abandon his pet fox when his father joins the war. Will the fox find his way back? [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ The Boy in the Dress by David Walliams
British comedian Walliams tells the story of Dennis, who lives in a dreary house with his depressed, working-class dad and older brother. He’s the star of his soccer team, but the thing that really gives Dennis’s life magic is his penchant for women’s fashion. [MOVIE TRAILER]
✔ Doll Bones by Holly Black
The lifelong friendship of Zach, Poppy and Alice revolves around their joint creation, an epic role-playing saga of pirates and perils, queens and quests. But now they are 12, and their interests are changing along with their bodies. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
In The Jungle Book, Mowgli was raised by animals. In this book, an orphan is raised by ghosts in a graveyard. Also available as a graphic novel. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ The Inquisitor’s Tale by Adam Gidwitz & Hatem Aly
This multiple-narrator fairy tale relates the adventures of Jeanne, a white Christian peasant girl who has prophetic visions; biracial white/black William, a Muslim-born monk-in-training with preternatural strength; and Jacob, a Jewish boy with incredible healing powers. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
An elderly witch, a magical girl, a brave carpenter, a wise monster, a tiny dragon, paper birds, and a madwoman converge to thwart a magician who feeds on sorrow. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ The Secret Keepers by Trenton Lee Stewart
A solitary boy with a penchant for finding “spots where no one would ever think to look” finds a mysterious watch and unravels a series of startling secrets. [AUTHOR INTERVIEW]
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
Ivan the gorilla lives in a glass cage in a shopping mall circus, and decides to help Ruby, a baby elephant, escape. [BOOK TRAILER]
Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer by Kelly Jon Moving to the farm her family inherited, Sophie, 12, discovers she also inherited some chickens with superpowers... [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Booked by Kwame Alexander
Nick Hall is a bright eighth-grader who would rather do anything other than pay attention in class. Instead he daydreams about soccer, a girl he likes, and an upcoming soccer tournament. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
Basketball-playing twins find challenges to their relationship on and off the court as they cope with changes in their lives. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Ghost by Jason Reynolds
Castle “Ghost” Cranshaw feels like he’s been running ever since his dad pulled that gun on him and his mom—and used it. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Guys Read: The Sports Pages by Jon Scieszka
Each book in this series features ten short stories in different genres, by some of the best writers in each genre. [GUYS READ AUTHORS TELL "THE JOKE"]
✔ Game Changers by Mike Lupica
Ben’s love of football forces him to overcome his disappointment at losing the role of starting quarterback to the coach’s son. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
A robot named Roz shipwrecks on an island, and has to figure out how to survive in the wild environment. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Horizon by Scott Westerfeld
A mysterious plane crash lands a pack of kids in a place that really shouldn't exist. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Time Traveling with a Hamster by Ross Welford
For his 12th birthday, Albert Einstein Hawking Chaudhury receives a pet hamster and a letter from his father, who died four years earlier. The letter instructs Al to find the time machine his father built. [REVIEW]
✔ A Whisper of Horses by Zillah Bethell
In this dystopian novel set in Lahn Dan (once London), newly orphaned 12-year-old Serendipity sets out in search of supposedly extinct horses. [REVIEW]
✔ Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce
12-year-old Liam is lost in outer space, all because he’s tall for his age and pretended to be an adult. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Horizon by Scott Westerfeld
A mysterious plane crash lands a pack of kids in a place that really shouldn't exist. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Invisible Emmie by Terri Libenson
One bad day in seventh grade can feel like a lifetime. However, even end-of-the-world–level heartache can have surprising and comic consequences. [HOW TO DRAW INVISIBLE EMMIE]
✔ CatStronauts by Drew Brockington
The President recruits a group of cat astronauts to turn the moon into a solar power plant. [REVIEW]
✔ El Deafo by Cece Bell
When Cece is 4 years old, she becomes deaf after contracting meningitis. Her new hearing aid makes her feel like a superhero—but also alone. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Real Friends by Shannon Hale
Shannon’s BFF Adrienne ditches her for the popular girls in The Group. Some girls will do anything to stay on top... [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
In The Jungle Book, Mowgli was raised by animals. In this book, an orphan is raised by ghosts in a graveyard. Also available in a chapter book edition. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Secret Coders by Gene Luen Yang & Mike Holmes
Hopper’s first day goes terribly, until her earrings trigger a code in a robot bird. This book turns coding into a game. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Stella By Starlight by Sharon Draper
Stella Mills and her brother Jojo witness the Ku Klux Klan burning a cross late one starry night, setting off a chain reaction that leaves their entire community changed. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ The Puzzling World of Winston Breen by Eric Berlin
For her tenth birthday, puzzle enthusiast Winston Breen gave his little sister Katie a decorative box with a secret compartment containing four curious strips of wood with numbers and letters. [REVIEW]
✔ Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein
When a lock-in becomes a reality game, 12-year-old Kyle and his friends have to find their way out of the library. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Ink & Ashes by Valynne Maetani
Sixteen-year-old Claire and her brothers have always believed their father died of a heart attack and that their mother met their stepdad after he died. But an old letter in their father’s journal reveals otherwise. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Genius: The Game by Leopoldo Gout
Trust no one. Every camera is an eye. Every microphone an ear. Find me and we can stop him together. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Legend by Marie Lu
Fifteen-year-olds June and Day live completely different lives in the glorious Republic, a dystopic future Los Angeles. June is rich and brilliant, the only candidate ever to get a perfect score in the Trials. Day is an anonymous street rat, a slum child who failed his Trial. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Last Day on Mars by Kevin Emerson
All remaining humans are leaving Mars for a distant planet, but departure day goes sideways. [BOOK REVIEW]
✔ Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Eleanor and Park don’t meet cute; they meet vexed on the school bus, trapped into sitting together by a dearth of seats and their low social status. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ All American Boys by Jason Reynolds & Brendan Kiely
Two boys, one black and one white, act out an all-too-familiar drama when the former is brutally beaten during an arrest and the latter witnesses it. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
This story about growing up different is more than just the story of a Chinese-American childhood; it's a fable for every kid born into a body and a life they wished they could escape. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Last of the Sandwalkers by Jay Hosler
Impetuous, baseball-cap–clad Lucy, a rising young beetle researcher, heads the first expedition to leave New Coleopolis since its founding 1,002 years ago, when the god Scarabus annihilated old Coleopolis with a barrage of coconuts. [BOOK REVIEW]
✔ March: Book Three by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin & Nate Powell
A living icon of the civil rights movement brings his frank and stirring account of the movement’s most tumultuous years (so far) to a climax. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ How to Fake a Moon Landing by Darryl Cunningham
It's easy to misunderstand or be misled about scientific topics such as climate change, evolution, and vaccinations. This book examines several claims, using real-world examples, and explains why science and critical thinking are needed to evaluate them. [BOOK EXCERPT]
✔ Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
In a Russian-inflected fantasy world, an orphan comes into immense power and, with it, danger. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ World War II: An Interactive History Adventure by Elizabeth Raum
This nonfiction series is like a Choose Your Own Adventure book, except about real events in history.
✔ Scientists in the Field Series
Far from the research laboratory, these books show firsthand adventures in the great outdoors—adventures with a purpose. [SERIES WEBSITE]
✔ The Plot to Kill Hitler by Patricia McCormick
The story of theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s brief but notable life is related in the context of his resistance to the Nazis and association with the 1944 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. [BOOK TALK]
✔ The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown & Gregory Mone Hamilton
The long, passionate journey of the University of Washington rowing team to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
A multi-award–winning author recalls her childhood and the joy of becoming a writer. Writing in free verse, Woodson starts with her 1963 birth in Ohio during the civil rights movement, when America is “a country caught / between Black and White.” [BOOK TRAILER]
✔ Alexander Hamilton: The Making of America by Teri Kanefield
The contributions and eventful life of founding father Alexander Hamilton are examined and explained. [CLIPS FROM HAMILTON, THE MUSICAL]