Great New Children’s Books for Older Readers
Title: Keep It Like a Secret
By: Anderson, John David
Published: 2024
Suggested ages and title descriptions are from the publisher or each item's library catalog record.
Realistic Fiction
Ages 8 to 12
After his sister--and best friend--Claire leaves home after a fight with their mother, Morgan has one chance to convince Claire to come home and put their family back together, but Claire has her own plan for the day she told Morgan she wanted to spend with him--one that will change things between them forever.
Title: A Place to Shine
By: Arnold, Marie
Published: 2024
Realistic Fiction
Ages 8 to 12
Ten-year-old Sunny Williams is resilient--she knows this because it's what her beloved grandma, Nanna, always tells her. So when Nanna is put into a care home after her memory loss issues get worse and social workers intend to put Sunny and her seven-year-old brother, Miles, into a foster home, she takes charge and hatches a plan for them to avoid getting split up.
Title: Carnival Chaos (Moko Magic)
By: Baptiste, Tracey
Published: 2024
Fantasy
Ages 8 to 12
Misty begins to see visions of the future--scary visions that soon come true. Misty discovers that she and her cousins come from a long line of mokos, people who have special powers meant to help them protect their community. Misty can see impending danger.
Title: Curveball
By: Cartaya, Pablo
Published: 2024
Graphic Novel/Sports
Ages 8 to 12
Elena Rueda loves baseball--and is the best player on her team--but recently has stopped having fun, so during a summer spent with her brother's quirky friends she reflects on who she is and maybe learns love to play again.
Title: Gamerville
By: Christmas, Johnnie
Published: 2024
Graphic Novel
Ages 8 to 12
A video gamer's championship aspirations are dashed when his parents send him to Camp Refresh, a summer camp where electronics are forbidden and you're forced to socialize, eat healthy, and spend time outside.
Title: Kicked Out
By: Dassu, A.M.
Published: 2024
Realistic Fiction
Ages 10 to 14
After their friend Mark's mum wins the lottery and gets a giant house with an indoor pool, Ali and Sami have been having the time of their lives hanging at Mark's house. Even their friend Aadam gets a job there, which means he can make more money for his legal battle for UK residency. But when some money goes missing, Aadam is accused of stealing it--and all three boys are unceremoniously kicked out of Mark's house in suspicion.
Title: Wires Crossed
By: Fantaskey, Beth
Published: 2024
Graphic Novel (Realistic Fiction)
Ages 8 to 12
Is this what middle school is all about? Being stuck in the middle? Twelve-year-old Mia feels like everything and everyone is changing--and she is caught in the middle. Stuck between old friends and new friends... between feeling like a kid and growing up...
Title: Gooseberry
By: Gow, Robin
Published: 2024
Realistic Fiction
Ages 10 to 14
Twelve-year-old nonbinary B forms a connection with an anxious stray dog, Gooseberry, prompting them to pursue their dream of becoming a dog trainer while navigating the complexities of trust and building a family in their newest foster home.
Title: Lion of the Sky
By: Hemnani, Ritu
Published: 2024
Historical Fiction (1940s)
Ages 8 to 12
Twelve-year-old Raj is happiest flying kites with his best friend, Iqbal. As their kites soar, Raj feels free, like his beloved India soon will be, and he can't wait to celebrate their independence. But when a British lawyer draws a line across a map, splitting India in two, Raj is thrust into a fractured world.
Title: The Boo Hag Flex
By: Ireland, Justina
Published: 2024
Monsters
Ages 8 to 12
The Shady Pines trailer park seems like a miserable place to spend a summer, even before an elderly neighbor suddenly passes away. But then Tasha meets a girl named Ellie who says she knows what really killed old Mr. Harold: a terrifying creature that stalks the trailer park at night, sucking the life from its victims.
Title: Benny Ramirez and the Nearly Departed
By: Iriarte, Jose Pablo
Published: 2024
Humor/Ghosts
Ages 8 to 12
After moving cross-country into his late grandfather’s Miami mansion, Benny discovers that the ghost of his famous trumpet-playing abuelo, the great Ignacio Ramírez, is still there… and isn’t too thrilled about it. He’s been barred from the afterlife, and no one can see him except his grandson. But Benny’s got problems of his own.
Title: Lightningborn
By: Kagawa, Julie
Published: 2024
Fantasy
Ages 8 to 12
Remy can't even afford to dream of flying on the back of a majestic dragon. He knows only the rich can own dragons, and he's far too busy worrying about where his next meal will come from ... Remy spends his days trying to survive the mean streets of Cutthroat Wedge--one of the many islands floating in the gravitational pull of the magical Maelstrom raging below. But his life changes forever when a violent storm brings a baby dragon to his doorstep.
Title: Safiyyah's War
By: Khan, Hiba Noor
Published: 2024
Historical Fiction (World War II)
Ages 8 to 12
War comes to the streets of Paris and Safiyyah's life changes for ever. Her best friend's family have fled, and the bombing makes her afraid to leave the mosque where she lives. But when her father is arrested by the Nazis for his secret Resistance work, it falls to Safiyyah to run the dangerous errands around the city. It's not long before hundreds of persecuted Jews seek sanctuary at the mosque. Can Safiyyah find the courage to enter the treacherous catacombs under Paris and lead the Jews to safety?
Title: Woe: A Housecat's Story of Despair
By: Knisley, Lucy
Published: 2024
Graphic Novel/Pet Ownership
Ages 8 and up
What if our cats could talk? Would they ask endless questions about why we haven't given them wet food...again? Would they scream greetings at the first sign of life before the sun even rises? Linney certainly will. Have you met Linney yet? If not, prepared to be blessed! Lucy Knisley's online Linney comics are collected for the very first time in this gifty hardcover featuring the internet sensation, Linney. With all-new comics, this collection shows us just how amazing, and what a true gift, all cats are.
Title: Things That Shimmer
By: Lakritz, Deborah
Published: 2024
Historical Realistic Fiction (1970s)
Ages 8 to 12
Set in 1973, Melanie desperately wants to be accepted by the Shimmers, the popular girls in her class, but when she gets to know Dorit, the new girl from Israel, she must choose between popularity and true friendship.
Title: Jamie
By: Lapinski, L.D.
Published: 2024
Realistic Fiction
Ages 8 to 12
Jamie Rambeau is a happy 11-year-old, nonbinary kid who loves hanging out with their two best friends, Daisy and Ash. But when the trio find out that their local middle schools separate into a school for boys and a school for girls, their friendship suddenly seems at risk. And when Jamie realizes no one has thought about where they are going to go, they decide to take matters into their own hands.
Title: Sona and the Golden Beasts
By: LaRocca, Rajani
Published: 2024
Fantasy/Adventure
Ages 8 to 12
Sona's world shifts after discovering an orphaned wolf pup. She believes the pup, with its golden ears, might be related to one of the five sacred beasts of Devia, which a Malechian Hunter has been killing one by one. And when someone Sona loves falls ill, she is drawn into a quest with a Devan boy to retrieve the nectar of life.
Title: Finn and Ezra's Bar Mitzvah Time Loop
By: Levy, Joshua S.
Published: 2024
Humor/Science Fiction
Ages 8 to 12
Discovering they're both trapped in a bar mitzvah time loop, reliving their celebrations in the same New Jersey hotel over and over again, Finn and Ezra team up to break the loop, and as their schemes become desperate, they must figure out how to move forward.
Title: Bunnybirds
By: Linn, Natalie
Published: 2024
Graphic Novel/Fantasy
Ages 8 to 12
When Princess Aster's people begin to disappear, she and her animal companions must unlearn her kingdom's traditions--and journey over the rim of the world itself--in order to rescue her friend.
Title: Dinner at the Brake Fast
By: Lute, Renee Beauregard
Published: 2024
Realistic Fiction
Ages 8 to 12
Tacoma knows she can't fix her dad's depression. But what she can do is steal back his prized photograph of his second-best day from her nemesis, the nasty Crocodile Kyle--while also planning a dinner that is sure to brighten up his bad day. She just might need an accomplice or two to pull off the heist.
Title: The Secret Library
By: Magoon, Kekla
Published: 2024
Mystery
Ages 8 to 12
Starved for adventure and release, Dally rescues a mysterious envelope from her mother’s clutches, an envelope Grandpa had earmarked for her. The map she finds inside leads straight to an ancient vault, a library of secrets where each book is a portal to a precise moment in time.
Title: Sing It Like Celia
By: Mancillas, Mónica
Published: 2024
Realistic Fiction
Ages 9 to 12
Twelve-year-old Salva Sanchez has always been a fan of Celia Cruz, also known as “the queen of salsa.” Her love of Celia stems from her mother, who leaves Salva without explanation one awful day. Now Salva is stuck with her investigative journalist father in an RV campground.
Title: Countdown to Yesterday
By: Marr, Shirley
Published: 2024
Sci-Fi/Time Travel
Ages 8 to 12
During National Science Week, James meets the enigmatic Yan, a girl who looks at the world with x-ray eyes, and discovers that time travel might be possible after all.
Title: The Monarchs of Winghaven
By: Moreira, Naila
Published: 2024
Realistic Fiction/Nature
Ages 8 to 12
Sammie, a budding naturalist, knows of a secret and wonderful place: Winghaven, an abandoned lot in the middle of the suburbs where wildlife flourishes. She spends hours making notes and drawings in her meticulous field journal. When Bram, a new boy, turns up with his camera, Sammie worries he'll give away her hidden haven--after all, the other boys at school bully her. But Bram is a scientist like Sammie, and together they observe tiny pond creatures, a pileated woodpecker with a red crest like a pirate's bandana, and thriving monarch butterflies whose habitats are becoming scarce.
Title: My Antarctica
By: Neri, G.
Published: 2024
Non-Fiction
Ages 7 to 10
Join beloved author G. Neri on his long-dreamed-of voyage to the ice, where he taps into his inner child and encounters sea angels, mummified seals, space robots, inquisitive penguins, and so much more. Abundant full-color photographs (many by the author) and annotated comics and illustrations from Corban Wilkin depict an unforgettable stay in a land of baffling mysteries to uncover, epic questions to ponder, and bigger-than-life stories to tell.
Title: Red Bird Danced
By: Quigley, Dawn
Published: 2024
Novel in Verse/Realistic Fiction
Ages 8 to 12
Ariel and Tomah have lived in the city's intertribal housing complex all their lives. But for both of them, this Dagwaagin (Autumn) season is different than any before. From his bench outside the front door of his building, Tomah watches his community move around him. He is better at making people laugh than he is at schoolwork, but often it feels like his neighbor Ariel is the only one who really sees him, even in her sadness.
Title: Isabel in Bloom
By: Respicio, Mae
Published: 2024
Realistic Fiction
Ages 8 to 12
Making friends in a new city, and new country, is hard for twelve-year-old Filipina-American Isabel, but joining the gardening and cooking club at school helps her find her way.
Title: The Creepening of Dogwood House
By: Royce, Eden
Published: 2024
Scary
Ages 8 to 12
At night, Roddie still dreams of sitting at his mother’s feet while she braids his Afro down. But that’s a memory from before. Before his mom died in a tragic accident. Before he was taken in by an aunt he barely knows. Before his aunt brought him to Dogwood House, the creepiest place Roddie has ever seen. It was his family’s home for over a hundred years. Now the house—abandoned and rotting, draped in Spanish moss that reminds him too much of hair—is his home too.
Title: Three Summers
By: Sabic,-El-Rayess, Amra
Published: 2024
Non-Fiction/Memoir
Ages 8 to 12
"An epic middle-grade memoir about sisterhood and coming-of-age in the three years leading up to the Bosnian Genocide. Three Summers is the story of five young cousins who grow closer than sisters as ethnic tensions escalate over three summers in 1980s Bosnia. They navigate the joys and pitfalls of adolescence on their family's little island in the middle of the Una River. When finally confronted with the harsh truths of the adult world around them, their bond gives them the resilience to discover and hold fast to their true selves.
Title: Lion Dancers
By: Tse, Cai
Published: 2024
Graphic Novel (Coming of Age)
Ages 8 to 12
A boy feels his passion for lion dancing re-igniting after the death of his father, and so he decides to join the local junior team, where his ex-best friend becomes his new rival.
Title: Fake Chinese Sounds
By: Tsong, Jing Jing
Published: 2024
Graphic Novel/Realistic
Ages 9 to 12
Between homework, studying, and Chinese school, Měi Yīng's summer is shaping up to be a boring one. Her only bright spots are practice with her soccer team, the Divas, and the time spent with her năi nai, who is visiting from Taiwan. Although Měi Yīng's Mandarin isn't the best and Năi Nai doesn't speak English, they find other ways to connect.
Title: Summer at Squee
By: Wang, Andrea
Published: 2024
Phoenny Fang plans to have the best summer ever. She’s returning to Summertime Chinese Culture, Wellness, and Enrichment Experience (SCCWEE for short and “Squee” to campers in the know), and this year she’s a senior camper.
Title: Born Naughty: My Childhood in China
By: Wang, Jin
Published: 2024
Memoir
Ages 7 to 10
Share in the joyful, adventure-filled shenanigans of a child growing up in a small mud hut in Inner Mongolia in this charming, illustrated memoir for young middle grade readers.
Title: Black Girl You Are Atlas
By: Watson, Renée
Published: 2024
Poetry
Poet Renée Watson looks back at her childhood and urges readers to look forward at their futures with love, understanding, and celebration in this fully illustrated poetry collection.
Title: Lunar Boy
By: Wibowo, Jes and Cin
Published: 2024
Graphic Novel/Science Fiction
Ages 8 to 12
"Indu, a boy from the moon, feels like he doesn't belong. He hasn't since he and his adoptive mom disembarked from their spaceship--their home--to live on Earth with their new blended family. The kids at school think he's weird; he has a crush on his pen pal, who might not like him back; and his stepfamily doesn't seem to know what to do with him.
Title: Mid-Air
By: Williams, Alicia
Published: 2024
Realistic Fiction
Ages 10 and up
Thirteen-year-old Isaiah grapples with the loss of his best friend as he strives to fit into a world that expects him to toughen up, which leads him on a exploration of identity and vulnerability.
Title: The Supernatural Files of CJ Delaney
By: Williams, Carol
Published: 2024
Paranormal/Detective Stories
Ages 8 to 12
Kid-reporter CJ Delaney stumbles on the scoop of a lifetime when strange, spooky things start happening around her small town.
Title: Flying Through Water
By: Wolo, Mamle
Published: 2024
Realistic Fiction
Ages 8 to 12
Sena thinks he is helping his poverty-stricken family when a man calling himself Jack of Diamonds promises him a job and a better life, but he ends up in the clutches of human traffickers and must use all his resolve to escape and survive.
Title: With Just One Wing
By: Woods, Brenda
Published: 2024
Realistic Fiction
Ages 10 and up
While nursing a broken arm, almost twelve-year-old adoptee Coop, with the help of his grandfather and friend Zandi, unwaveringly cares for and protects Hop, a baby mockingbird born with one wing.
Title: The Magic Paintbrush
By: Zhang, Kat
Published: 2024
Fantasy/Magic
Ages 8 to 12
When Amy, a Chinese American girl, picks up an ancient paintbrush, it unwittingly unleashes the power to make her art real--and sometimes dangerous.