Middle School Summer Reading: Home

This delightful adventure along the 11th-century Silk Road opens with its 12-year-old narrator, Omar (soon called Monkey), fleeing for his life from the monks who had once sheltered him. The thrills never let up in this fast-paced adventure tale that is packed with intrigue, vivid description, and plenty of heartwarming moments. VERDICT An epic adventure with an enduring message about love and family.

Simon is the only survivor of a shooting in his school classroom. He and his family have just moved to Grin and Bear It, NE - a National Quiet Zone town without internet, cell phones, or television. He hopes it will be the perfect place to find the "now" version of himself. While on his journey, Simon makes friends with Agate and Kevin. All three kids face different types of pressure and support one another as they seek out coping mechanisms and strategies. VERDICT It deftly handles the sensitive topic of being a young trauma survivor; warning for school shooting content.

Every morning, Hercules Beal gets up to watch the sun rise over the ocean in "the most beautiful place on Earth," Truro, MA, on Cape Cod. The ritual is one of the 12-year-old's few comforts since his parents' recent death in a car accident. His older brother Achilles is grieving, too, and has given up traveling the world writing for National Geographic to return home and run the family nursery business. The brothers' numbed coexistence gets a jolt when Hercules starts sixth grade at a new school with an ex-Marine for a teacher. Lt. Col. Daniel Hupfer's sensitivity-thinly veiled behind his steely exterior-leads him to assign Hercules a project to help the boy work through his grief. VERDICT This essential purchase will spark interest in classical mythology and encourage readers to reach out to others in times of stress. Like Hercules, they don't have to carry the sky by themselves.

Matthew is stuck at home during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, and, like most 13-year-olds, he would rather play video games than hang out with his 100-year-old great-grandmother, Nadiya, or “GG.” Matthew’s mom has other plans. Forced to unpack GG’s storage boxes, Matthew finds a photo that sparks questions and ultimately unspools a long-hidden history about GG’s childhood in Stalin-ruled Soviet Ukraine. Alternating perspectives between Matthew and GG’s cousins when they were young girls, the story connects 1930s Brooklyn to Communist Ukraine during its devastating, man-made famine, the Holodomor. As the cousins’ narratives unfold, the book also links two moments in history deeply impacted by disinformation.

Eleven-year-old Ryanna doesn’t remember her mother, who died eight years ago, but she’s curious about her. So, when her mother’s parents invite her to spend the summer at their home on a Pennsylvania lake, she agrees to go. They used to run a children’s camp there. Now their children and grandchildren return every summer, living in cabins and gathering for shared meals, campfires, and adventures. Ryanna quickly warms to her grandparents and the unusual degree of freedom and camaraderie that she and her cousins enjoy. Learning that a ruthless developer claims to own her grandparents’ property, Ryanna attempts to save their home by following a trail of mysterious clues left by her mother. The mystery and a related treasure hunt bring additional drama, which mounts until the novel reaches its satisfying conclusion.

Emilia Bassano is living comfortably as a ward of Queen Elizabeth's spymaster, Sir Francis, and an occasional lute player for the Queen. When she sneaks out to a playhouse, she overhears whisperings of a potentially deadly plot and knows she must tell her guardian. Emilia just thinks she is doing her duty to the crown; what she does not expect is to travel to spy on Mary, Queen of Scots, herself! Written in the format of play acts, complete with asides to the audience. VERDICT A cleverly designed novel with impeccable historical detail for even younger readers.

In this beautifully written short story anthology edited by Oh, every main character has three things in common: they are all East or Southeast Asian American; they are all stuck in an international Chicago airport with every flight delayed or canceled; and they all have racist interactions, most of them with the same white woman in a pink sweater who repeatedly spouts anti-Asian xenophobic comments. Each author is refusing to buy into the model-minority fraud. They're exploring what it means to be Asian American on their own terms. Every intertwined story builds on one another, allowing readers to see the same interactions from different angles and perspectives. 

Twins Josh and Jordan are junior high basketball stars, thanks in large part to the coaching of their dad, a former professional baller who was forced to quit playing for health reasons, and the firm, but loving support of their assistant-principal mom. Josh, better known as Filthy McNasty, earned his nickname for his enviable skills on the court: ".when Filthy gets hot/He has a SLAMMERIFIC SHOT." In this novel in verse, the brothers begin moving apart from each other for the first time. Jordan starts dating the "pulchritudinous" Miss Sweet Tea, and Josh has a tough time keeping his jealousy and feelings of abandonment in control.

Twelve-year-old Maya is daydreaming about summer break when time pauses, and the color begins to bleed from the world. Her two friends, science-obsessed Frankie and occult-obsessed Eli, try to offer an explanation (science and ghosts, respectively), but when creatures from African folklore come to life in their South Side Chicago neighborhood and Maya's father goes missing, the community elders finally reveal the truth: The three tweens are godlings of the Orisha, and Maya's father is the Guardian of the Veil between worlds. With the help of her friends, Maya is determined to find her father and restore order to both worlds. 

Zenobia July isn't having the easiest time fitting in at her new school. Her mother and father are dead, and she is finally able to live her truth, even though she still has a hard time looking at herself in the mirror without seeing "boy" all over her face. She now lives with her aunts, Phil and Lucy. During the first few weeks of school, Zen is befriended by Arli—a gender-nonconforming young person—and an evangelical Christian girl, Melissa. After a series of anti-Muslim and transphobic memes appear on the school website, Zen and her new friends need some serious introspection about their own personal biases. 

The year is 1242; the setting: a roadside inn on the outskirts of a small French town. Travelers from all corners of France share what they know about the country's most notorious outlaws: a group of three children and their dog. Jeanne is a peasant girl able to see the future. William is a young monk with unusual physical strength and intelligence. Jacob is a Jewish boy who possesses powerful healing abilities. The final member of the group is Gwenforte, the holy greyhound. These unlikely friends find themselves on the run from monks, demons, dragons, knights, and the king of France himself as they try to escape persecution and save religious books from being burned. 

Mac is in the sixth grade and is a kid who knows his own mind. His teacher is known around town to be a strong, conservative influencer for reasons never explained. Ms. Sett runs her classroom like she seems to run their small town, with antiquated rules and expectations. Girls aren't allowed to wear shorts to school, and no junk food is available, and these are enforced by city ordinances. Ms. Sett is a conundrum when she doesn't tolerate bullying and is an advocate of children but then censors books in her classroom, including the book Mac is reading, The Devil's Arithmetic, in a literature circle. When Mac and his classmates find black marker has been used in all the books to mark out words thought to be inappropriate for sixth graders, Ms. Sett has gone too far (not even canceling Halloween got the kids as riled up as the "black rectangles"). 

What would it be like to forget your whole life, family, friends, and even who you are? After falling off his roof, 13-year-old Chase Ambrose learns the hard way that reinventing himself can be pretty hard, especially when his past is not what he wants for his future. Before his fall, Chase was a jock, captain of the football team, following in his father's footsteps. He was also the biggest bully in his middle school, had made many students' lives miserable, and was serving a community service sentence for the damage that his bullying had caused. Even Chase's little stepsister was afraid of him. If it were up to his dad and former best friends, Bear and Aaron, Chase would return to his bully-jock ways. However, the new Chase is a kinder, more sympathetic person who struggles with his past and becomes friends with his former victims.

Twelve-year-old Korean American Junie Kim's first morning of seventh grade turns into a police scene when racist graffiti is discovered in the school gym. Junie has been bullied by a racist white boy who calls her hateful names. Back in 1950, Korean children Doha and Jinjoo endured a brutal civil war. The book moves back and forth between then and now, illustrating the evils and effects of war and racism. 

Solimar is turning 15, preparing to have her quinceañera and be crowned as princess of San Gregorio. Her older brother, Campeó, is the heir apparent to the kingdom, though he doesn't wish to be. Meanwhile, her parents, the king and queen, are in danger from the neighboring king, who wishes to take their land. On their land is the magical oyamel forest, known for the migrating monarch butterflies. When Solimar crosses the river to see the butterflies, they magically settle upon her. After she returns home, her rebozo (a scarflike shawl) starts to glisten and Solimar learns she has inherited an unusual power. 

Sixteen short stories, two poems, and visual art (not viewed) present Native youth attending a two-day intertribal powwow in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and reflect on kinship, community, and the interconnectedness of the experience. Most selections are realistic and ultimately upbeat, although Art Coulson's "Wendigos Don't Dance" explores the supernatural, and Eric Gansworth's "Indian Price" confronts the indignities of microaggressions lobbed by those who would pretend to be Indian as a game. Each piece is tribally specific, emphasizes Native values (cooperation, forgiveness, and the importance of family), and features characters that make cameo appearances in other stories, adding cohesiveness to the collection. 

In the tiny town of Barton Springs, OH, Jake is the only openly gay kid, a fact he's mostly comfortable with even if he's not sure he loves the huge pride flag his dad hung up. As people begin to take sides, Jake questions what "pride" really means and if he can fit into the small town he loves. When the mayor's cute son agrees to help try to throw the town's first pride festival, Jake wonders if he can really trust him and if pride in this town is possible at all. 

Maddie, 12, has the perfect plan to spend the night with her two best friends, away from her parents and siblings, but when it falls through, Maddie takes advantage of the solitude. By the next day, however, everyone else is gone, evacuated ahead of an "imminent threat." While she waits to be rescued, Maddie uses her common sense and courage to figure out how to survive. Months and then years pass with her only company, the neighbor's rottweiler, George. Maddie is finally resigned to living out her life alone when help finally arrives.

Twelve-year-old Nat has never hesitated to speak her mind or to stand up for what she believes in, even if it sometimes gets her in trouble for being angry and confrontational. But when her parents forbid her from joining the L.A. Mermaids, a local synchronized swimming team, she is afraid to try to convince them. Nat joins the team without telling her family, and although she loves the way synchronized swimming makes her feel, she is soon struggling to pay for equipment, find transportation, and juggle her practice schedule, homework, and time with her best friend. VERDICT This compelling character-driven novel will leave readers wanting to spend more time with Nat and her family.

Mia and Drew were born on the same day in the same California hospital, but don't meet up again until the summer before eighth grade when they discover that they have even more in common. Drew is feeling in-between-old enough to babysit his toddler sister, but not old enough to work in his father's woodshop. Mia is also in-between. She and her family moved out of their apartment and are staying with her grandmother for the summer while her dad is in Alaska, taking care of his ailing mother. The pair initially bonds over music and messy younger siblings, but, over the course of the summer, they encourage and challenge each other to take the next step-literally, in training for a half-marathon and also in how to be a good friend, how to say the right thing, and how to keep going even when it's hard or lonely. VERDICT A sensitive, heartfelt story of friendship and growing up. 

In this series opener, twelve-year-old Olive Cobin Zang is a lonely homebody who feels invisible and uncool. She doesn't play sports and is only good at things she thinks nobody else cares about: board games, trapeze, acrobatics, and tightrope walking. She loves Meggie & Her Fun Family comic books, which portray a lively family's adventures and home-cooked meals, unlike her own family. Her parents are always traveling for business, and now they have shipped her off to the Reforming Arts School -- RASCH -- near San Francisco. Among the other misfits, Olive finds she's a good fit, at least within the team of crime-fighting preteens assembled to thwart an expected jewel heist on campus. 

In this gorgeous debut, our heroine Ava Amato is struggling with deep anxiety about her mother, whose health is threatened as she nears the end of a complicated pregnancy with twins; meanwhile, the 11-year-old is sent away to enjoy a vacation with her grandparents at their lakeside cabin. She gets it in her head that she is cursed and a burden and needs to somehow make up for it to keep her mother safe and sound by caring for a pair of orphaned robin’s eggs. Of course, the boy who came to vacation across the lake from her grandparents’ house only manages to complicate things for Ava. 

Pearl Harbor, December 6, 1941. It’s another day in paradise for 13-year-old Frank McCoy and his best friend, Stanley Summers, united by their love of the comics they create together. For Frank, though, the perfection is compromised by a closely guarded secret: he’s been afraid of everything since what he calls The Incident (he was mauled by a dog and has the scars to prove it). The next day, December 7, a seaman invites the boys to tour the decommissioned battleship Utah. They eagerly accept and are aboard when paradise becomes hell as a wave of Japanese planes attacks, destroying the entire American fleet in the harbor. Just surviving tests the boys' mettle, as Frank swallows his fears and rescues a drowning seaman, becoming, at least for a while, a hero.

Twelve-year-old Sage no longer feels comfortable with the girls from her Bushwick neighborhood because she'd rather play basketball than worry about her appearance. The sport is what she loves most in the world and is what unites her and the new boy Freddy. The two exchange player stats and discuss the Knicks, finding a kindred spirit in the other as families are left displaced because of the fires that are mysteriously razing their buildings. Sage's mom warns that they'll be moving out soon to where "sirens didn't scream deep into the night." Set during the 1970s, this nostalgia-tinged novel takes place when Bushwick was known as "The Matchbox" because of the fires that plagued its streets. VERDICT The power of community and friendship permeates every word in this middle-grade novel for all readers. 

Seventh-grader Obie Chang just wants to swim competitively and get through middle school unbothered. This becomes increasingly difficult when his coach kicks him off the team for being trans and when Coach Bolton's son Clyde (Obie's former teammate and childhood best friend) verbally and physically assaults him for trying to use the boys' bathroom. Obie tries to build the life he wants after the attack: he joins a new swim team with a supportive coach and teammates, all with their eyes on the upcoming Junior Olympics. But the pain of broken friendship lingers with Clyde and former bestie Lucy, who now avoids Obie and hangs with the mean popular girls. A heartfelt coming-of-age tale about a young trans athlete.

It is 1986 in Pripyat, Ukraine, and fifth-grade classmates Valentina Kaplan and Oksana Savchenko are sworn enemies. At home, Oksana's father physically abuses her and rails against Jewish people, and at school, Oksana bullies Valentina, who is Jewish. But when a reactor explodes at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant where both girls' fathers work, they find themselves thrown together in the tumultuous evacuation. The warmth and compassion of Valentina and her grandmother shock Oksana, who begins to realize that everything her father told her about Jews was wrong-which means that maybe he was also wrong when he called Oksana weak and unlovable. A stunning look at a historical event rarely written about for young people.

A fictional retelling of the Haudenosaunee (also known as the Iroquois Confederacy). Readers meet Okwaho, a young Onontaka boy who lives in the small village of Kanata. The book, written from Okwaho's perspective, is set during an undefined, pre-contact time of war between tribal nations. The arrival of the Peacemaker is a familiar oral tradition, and the book paints a picture of how the Haudenosaunee was formed by the Peacemaker to create unity.

The magic and power of stories and storytelling help a preteen in a terrifying future. In 2061, with Earth about to be destroyed, 12-year-old Petra Peña and her scientist parents and younger brother Javier are just barely aboard the ship that will take them to the planet Sagan when a group of zealots called the Collective, wanting absolute equality at the expense of any diversity, take over. Almost 400 years later, Petra is one of the last four "sleepers" revived, and the only one who somehow retains her memories of Earth. 

 Nina is a Lipan girl living in Texas, a budding documentarian working to find her voice. As she hones her videos over the years, she also works to decipher tales of her family's history-stories full of animal people and the Reflecting World. Oli is a young cottonmouth, sent away by his mother to find his own way. Lost and beset upon by monsters, he eventually makes a home on the banks of a bottomless lake, where he befriends a frog and two coyote twins. When Oli's frog friend and Nina's grandmother are endangered because of climate troubles on Earth, their lives intertwine. 

Gul is born during the reign of the tyrannical King Lohar, who has terrorized his subjects for years. A prophecy states that a girl with a star-shaped birthmark will be somehow a part of the fall of the king's reign, so he has targeted any girl born with that kind of mark in an effort to escape his fate. As a result, Gul and her parents have been hiding from the king's warriors her entire life. When the secret of her star-shaped mark is uncovered, and she is orphaned, Gul finds solace and protection within a tribe of women who take her in and train her to connect with the magic that courses through her veins. 

12-year-old Khosrou, known as Daniel to his skeptical Oklahoman classmates, tells “a version” of his life story. In the tradition of 1,001 Nights’ Scheherazade, he gathers up the loose strands of his memory, weaving short personal vignettes into the Persian histories, myths, and legends that are his ancestry. The result is a winding series of digressions that takes the reader on a journey as intimate as it is epic, knitting together a tale of Daniel’s youth in Iran, the perilous flight from home with his sister and mother, and their oppressive new beginning as refugees in Oklahoma. 

Magic is in the very fabric of Anya’s small Eastern European village, and though the tsar has banned its use, the citizens quietly implement it in their daily lives. As Anya’s bat mitzvah approaches, she grows increasingly impatient for her own magic to manifest. Meanwhile, outside forces are upsetting her family’s peaceful farm life. Her father has been conscripted into the tsar’s army to fight a faraway war, and prejudice against Jewish people is leaking into the community. When a bigoted official threatens to take their farm unless they can produce an outlandish sum of money, Anya secretly takes a job with a newcomer—the tsar’s fool, who has come to Kievan Rus to capture its last dragon. 

Nasir feels abandoned after Bunny leaves their school to attend an upscale private school to play basketball and is dating Keyona, a girl he had always been interested in. The season is going well and the team, led by Bunny, is on its way to winning a state title. But Nasir's friend Wallace is digging himself deeper into debt and physical trouble, placing bets on high school games and against Bunny's specifically. Nasir then becomes complicit in sabotaging Bunny's chances with explosive and life-altering consequences. 

Dance is the thing that brings joy to Chloe's life. That's why she's determined to audition for Avery Johnson's conservatory, a place where she will be among dancers of all colors and shapes and where she will fit in more than she does now. Her dark skin doesn't match the lighter tones of the girls in her studio. But her mother will not let her audition, so Chloe schemes to drive from her New Jersey home to Washington, DC, to audition while her mother is on vacation.

Navigating eighth grade, Reha finds herself pulled between two worlds: 1983 America, where she is growing up, and India, where her parents did. As she struggles with the choice between being like her friends at school or being the way her parents—especially her Amma, or mother—want her to be, her world is shattered when Amma is diagnosed with leukemia. Classmates, friends, and family all come to the support of her and her father, bringing the two sides of her identity together. And as Amma battles her illness, Reha gains strength from her loved ones, discovering what it really means to be a hero. 

Twelve-year-old Sarah never really fit in. That is, until she met West and Hannah, the other members of her best-friend group known as the Deltas. Their love of math and escape rooms drew them together, and when Sarah finds out her home is being foreclosed on and she’ll have to move away from the only people who’ve ever understood her, she hopes their shared skills can bail her family out. How? There’s a local legend of a treasure hidden in an abandoned funhouse, and Sarah sees that treasure as the answer to all her family’s problems.

Eleven-year-old Sophia Winslow is socially awkward (a result of orthodontia, plaid glasses, and hypochondria), but she has found a true best friend in her 88-year-old neighbor, Sophie Gershowitz. They meet when Sophia is accidentally locked out of her house; now they regularly get together to listen to music, play cards, and entertain Sophie's cat. When Sophia overhears that Sophie's son wants to move his mom to a dementia facility, Sophia determines to prove the adults wrong by administering a cognition test that includes the titular words.

In 1977, young Pedro Martín is preparing, alongside his eight siblings and parents, to embark on a road trip from California to Mexico to help his abuelito take care of an important task before bringing him back to the U.S. to live with them. Martín's memoir is an unpredictable fusion of humorous and reflective moments in his early life that gives fascinating insights into his family's many stories while hinting at larger cultural questions and histories. VERDICT An always entertaining story about the trials and joys of family.

Indian American tween Shakti, 12, and her moms had just moved to Amherst, Massachusetts. Used to moving, Shakti hopes her family will finally stay so she can make friends. On her first day of seventh grade, she meets Xi, who shares her love for manga, and both start to notice that strange things are happening at the school. A group of mean girls-Harini, Emily, and Kelly (HEK)-seem to have control over everyone. Shakti and Xi soon learn HEK are a coven of witches putting a curse on the school and the town. VERDICT Vibrantly illustrated by Ali, Sindu's debut graphic novel braids Hindu mythology with the importance of family and friendship, creating an accessible book that will be of interest to many readers

Krosoczka's follow-up to Hey, Kiddo tenderly depicts his formative experiences in 1994 as a 16-year-old camp counselor at a summer camp for children with severe illnesses, who attend with their families. He is closest to Eric, who has acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and Diego, a younger teen who is losing cognitive and motor skills because of a brain tumor. VERDICT An admirable look back at a life turned toward service, optimism, and love.

The book was already a refreshing, coming-of-age reveal: real-life twin music sensations and LGBTQIA+ icons Tegan and Sara updated their own adolescence for contemporary audiences-adding cell phones and social media presented in cleverly color-coded panels. Now transformed into a spectacular audiobook, the aural enhancements are many, most memorably the ability to hear the provenance of the twins' musical career with their stepdad's guitar, awkwardly strumming their first chords, tenaciously learning to play via online tutorials, debuting their first song to friends and family. 

Mia lives with her Jewish mom and stepdad in Los Angeles and attends a Jewish community school. However, she feels different from her classmates and friends because she is not just Jewish. Her father is Native American, and even though she hasn't lived with him most of her life, Mia longs to learn about that part of her heritage. Because her mom doesn't like talking about her dad, Mia hatches a plan with her best friend to secretly visit him and his family in Oklahoma. There she attends a powwow, meets extended family, and discovers answers to many of her questions about the Muscogee Nation culture. Then Mia's parents discover she lied to both of them about the trip, and Mia is whisked back to L.A. How will she continue to become who she really is, a member of two tribes? VERDICT A must for young readers everywhere on how to learn about, be empowered by, and embrace one's identity.

A small, winged, green-haired, brown-skinned, bespectacled "food sprite" called Peri is an enthusiastic tour guide through the world of dessert history, accompanied by two other sprites: light-skinned, pink-haired Fee, who adores stories, and brown-skinned, blue-haired Fada, who loves science and chocolate. Peri's history of each type of dessert is sprinkled with stories (such as "The Legend of the Waffle Cone"), interview corners, and science labs, each of which has a different colored background to set it apart from the main narrative. Most chapters are preceded by a world map indicating where that dessert has appeared throughout history. VERDICT: As Peri dreams, "You ever just think about cake?" Great British Baking Show fans and those who love to eat, bake, and share desserts will devour this sweet treat of a nonfiction graphic novel.

Every Sunday, Marlene and her mom visit the dreaded salon for a day of hair-pulling and the unforgiving heat of the hair dryer. Because her hair needs to look pretty for her older cousin's quinceañera, the Afro-Dominican tween has to go for a second round of hair straightening, otherwise she won't look presentable in her family's eyes. While the adults marvel at her cousin's "good" hair-straight and blond-Marlene doesn't understand why her curls aren't good enough. With the help of her like-minded friend and her forward-thinking aunt, Marlene embraces herself, inside and out. Readers with curly hair will want to take notes as Marlene's aunt teaches her how to style her hair. 

Focusing on the space race through the eyes of the women who made it possible, Narrator Mary Cleave, a former American astronaut, introduces readers to influential women such as Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space; engineer Dottie Lee, who worked on the Apollo space shield; and aviator Jerrie Cobb, who, as part of the Mercury 13, endured the same physiological and psychological evaluation as astronauts aboard the Mercury Seven. Readers will be intrigued and inspired to dive into further research to understand some of the jargon and learn more about the women profiled here. VERDICT 

Beatrice lives in a small, isolated town in the woods with her forgetful grandfather and potions shopkeeper, Alfirid the Pig Wizard. While out collecting ingredients, Bea happens upon Cadwallader (Cad), a tall, brown, animal-like creature who may be the last of the Galdurians, a race thought to be extinct. Cad needs Alfirid's help to translate a document that may lead Cad to other Galdurians, but Alfirid is missing, and Bea and Cad find a note that sends them on the adventure of a lifetime. While Cad is humorous and daring, Bea is cautious and appears to suffer from anxiety, depicted as black tendrils that wrap around her. VERDICT Majestic artwork, a burgeoning friendship, and the promise of adventure keep the pages turning in this to-be-continued tale.

Sandy Saito, who lives in Vancouver, Canada, with his family, doesn't have the strongest relationship with his father, James, a physician; James's focus on his work means he doesn't always have time for Sandy. But they do love to bond by watching the Japanese Canadian baseball team, the Asahi, play every summer, until the unthinkable happens: The U.S. naval base Pearl Harbor is attacked in 1941. This event triggers the U.S.'s entry into World War II, and Sandy, James, and other coastal Japanese-descended citizens in the United States and Canada quickly face discrimination by former friends and neighbors before being rounded up and sent to camps. Although their entire world is upturned, Sandy and others at the camps latch onto the game of baseball and the spirit of the Asahi as they do their best to adapt and survive. 

In a magical world, the balance of the environment is held together by a symbiotic relationship between sea dragons and humans. Sophie, a young witch, wants to hone her family's ancient magic and attend the Royal Magic Academy. She is sent to be taught by her great-aunt Lan and cousin Sage before she can audition to attend. However, Sophie's impatience rubs Auntie the wrong way. Instead of teaching magic, she makes Sophie perform chores around the farm. Tensions boil over between the two, and, desperate to prove her ability, Sophie attempts a powerful spell and disrupts the balance between wind and water. VERDICT Sophie's struggles and growth will resonate with younger readers.

Jordan Banks is anxious about being the new kid at Riverdale, especially since he'd rather be going to art school. He's even more nervous when he realizes that, unlike in his Washington Heights neighborhood, at Riverdale, he's one of the few kids of color. Despite some setbacks, Jordan eventually makes a few friends and chronicles his experiences in his sketch pad. He is regularly mistaken for the other black kids at school. A teacher calls another black student by the wrong name and singles him out during discussions on financial aid. Even Jordan's supportive parents don't always understand the extent of the racism he faces. 

In a Middle Eastern fantasy setting, this is the story of a young Ornu girl growing up in the Bayt-Sajii Empire. Aiza and her family are forced to live in a community for the marginalized Ornu people, which provides them safety within the Empire but not much more. She dreams of leaving her small farming community to become a hero, and when an opportunity arises to join the army in hopes of becoming a squire (and eventually a knight, which would grant her citizenship), she is eager to serve the Empire. Yet almost immediately, she begins to question the history being taught to the new recruits: that the Empire is at war only because other nations refuse to return to the golden age when all nations flourished as one. VERDICT An action-packed graphic novel in a beautifully depicted world, sure to inspire and engage young audiences.

Twelve-year-old Ebo's tale doesn't begin on the raft on his way to Europe. It doesn't begin as he works in the streets of Tripoli, Libya, to earn his fare. It doesn't begin with the journey across the Sahara or even in his home of Ghana. It starts when his brother, Kwame, leaves home to find their sister, Sisi, long departed for Europe. Not content with a life of poverty, Ebo, too, takes off, close on his brother's heels. Throughout the months of hard labor he must endure to pay for a ticket, sleeping outdoors, and depending on the kindness of strangers, Ebo remains determined. 

Levy once again turns to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whom she profiled in the picture book I Dissent, this time writing a biography of the Supreme Court Justice for the middle and high school set. Juxtaposing Ginsburg's childhood as a Jew in 1930s America with the Nazi uprising in Europe and the proliferation of anti-Semitism, Levy demonstrates how Ginsburg's sense of justice was formed at an early age as young Ruth realized that bigotry can flourish anywhere, even in the United States. Inspiration from heroes such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Ruth's mother, Celia Bader, set Ginsburg on the path to greatness. At Harvard Law, where she was one of only nine female students, she rose to the top of her class, navigating sexism with the support of her unorthodox husband, Marty Ginsburg. 

Fifteen-year-old Morgan Kwon wants to escape. After her parents' divorce, her household is tense: Her little brother is angry, her mother is sad. The teen also wants to get away from tiny Wilneff Island, where she's lived since she was little. Morgan, who's a lesbian but not yet out, longs to go to college, where she can truly be herself. But she takes pleasure in walking along the beautiful and soothing yet treacherous cliffs. When she slips and falls into the water, she meets Keltie, a selkie who rescues her. Convinced she's having a near-death hallucination, Morgan kisses Keltie. True love's kiss gives Keltie her land legs and makes her eager to discover her fate alongside Morgan, which directly jeopardizes Morgan's carefully regimented plans. 

This adaptation of Alexander’s Newbery-winning novel in verse brings each character and event to life through Anyabwile’s dynamic line work and portions of Alexander’s beautiful poetry. Josh and his brother, Jordan, sons of a basketball legend, rule the court, especially when they cooperate. But when the two find themselves growing further apart, as hormones increase and a girl enters the picture, life on and off the court falls into chaos. 

Most readers will not know that the Mona Lisa painting was once stolen from its home at the Louvre. This nonfiction middle grade book contextualizes this historic moment with world events. The publicity that surrounded the theft only added to the painting's fame. Readers will learn of the heist, discover new connections to other artists, and find out fascinating details and facts of the long-ago crime. VERDICT An intriguing exploration of a significant yet little-known event.

Does climbing a tree, building a bug hotel, spearing a bullfrog, stalking wild animals, and scouting for petrified wood sound more fun than homework or chores? If so, this guide is your perfect companion to endless summer days and rainy fall afternoons alike. Filled with advice, insights, and activities to inspire wonder and excitement about the natural world, Catch a crayfish, Count the Stars is a curious kid's treasure trove of outdoor projects, skills, and adventures. VERDICT Hours of fun crafting and creating.

In 1989, 13-year-old Santat headed off to Europe for three weeks at the insistence of his parents. They couldn't travel much anymore on account of his mother's lupus and wanted him to have that experience. Santat was less than thrilled, having just wrapped up junior high with more negative experiences than positive ones. We see his first time away from home without parents, first discotheque, and first taste of beer in a German beer hall, among many others. VERDICT A thoughtful memoir with lots of humor and heart. 

Within these pages is the collected wisdom from dozens of writers and artists who share poems, advice, artwork, passion, concern, love, and experience with the next generation. In the introduction, the editors describe this book as a treasury for children to read and reread when they need a boost, comfort, or love. Every turn of the page is a new and different experience. The entries are as varied as they are important, working as independent way stations on a map to a broader understanding. 

Writer and educator Jewell successfully combines personal experience and social and historical issues in this colorful and informative guidebook. Each chapter contains exercises to help readers conceive of their own identities, recognize how society allocates power to certain people, and learn how individuals can stand up to injustice while keeping themselves safe from harm. A further reading list includes a mix of adult, teen, and children's materials. VERDICT A visually exciting and well-crafted antiracist guide for all children. 

This illustrated nonfiction book depicts each step of the scientific and engineering journey that facilitated the moon landing. The history of the Apollo program takes a back seat to the explanations of various rocket science concepts. This is often presented in a problem-and-solution format, which adds a narrative aspect to the otherwise technical texts. The hand-drawn illustrations move from portraits to technical drawings with remarkable ease. The stories of the people and their process are given as much weight as the many diagrams and engineering marvels. Several collage illustrations and individual profiles show the people of color and women who helped with the NASA program while acknowledging the lack of diversity and problems within both the time period and institution. VERDICT A gorgeously illustrated nonfiction book about the Apollo program and the space race that does its best to highlight diversity and the human story but focuses primarily on engineering. 

In this young readers' adaptation of the 2007 book, Tolan details the true story of the unexpected friendship between Bashir Khairi, a Palestinian man of Arab ancestry, and Dalia Eshkenazi Landau, an Israeli woman of Jewish descent. These two individuals found they shared a connection. Their families lived in the same stone house at different time periods. Nineteen years before Landau's family moved in, Khairi's family lived in the house. During the formation of Israel in 1948, six-year-old Khairi and his family were forced to flee their hometown. Landau and her family relocated from Europe to Israel after World War II. In 1967, soon after the Six-Day War, Khairi and Landau met as young adults. For a time, they maintained a tenuous friendship and an openness to conversation. VERDICT Tolan makes an incredibly complicated topic comprehensible, creating empathy and understanding for people on both sides of the conflict.

There comes a time when parents and caregivers have to give "The Talk" to children. "The Talk" can be about sexual orientation, racism, or gender and/or racial identity. Children can ask complex questions, which can cause adults to pause. Adults wonder, "How do I begin to answer?" This collection of poetry and prose, which focuses on race, offers a great starting point. With contributions from writers including Derrick Barnes, Cozbi A. Cabrera, Nikki Grimes, Grace Lin, Meg Medina, Christopher Myers, and Renée Watson, the text answers tough questions and shares the struggles of marginalized people who are forced to navigate hostile environments. Black, Native, and immigrant experiences are spotlighted. VERDICT A heartfelt collection that speaks to marginalized people's multifaceted and nuanced struggles.

While the nine young adults who tell their stories in Kuklin's moving new volume came to the United States from different countries, there are commonalities among them beyond the tenuous situations in which they still find themselves. Narratives detailing their experiences with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, border security, and their feelings about assimilating into U.S. society while leaving behind their homelands are illuminating. In order to protect the participants, they are identified only by first initials, empty frames have replaced photographs of them, and all means of identifying them were removed. 

This book invites readers to rethink the way people with disabilities are viewed. Leavitt, who is blind, explains that people with disabilities want the same things everyone does: independence, opportunities, and the ability to reach their goals. Leavitt also details how historically those with disabilities have been seen as "other," and covers segregation within institutions, ostracism, and the use of euthanasia for those with severe disabilities. Laws such as the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 were passed to protect those with disabilities. The book explains how new technology creates greater mobility and other solutions and disability represents only one aspect of a person's life. 

This dense, meticulously researched book covers the courageous determination of young women who unknowingly poisoned themselves while doing their job. In 1917, the same year the United States entered World War I, dozens of young women, many of them teenagers from working-class families, took up positions at the Radium Luminous Materials Corporation in Newark, NJ. They painted watch dials with glow-in-the-dark paint made with radium. This element was still relatively new, and scientists were unaware of how dangerous it was. Doctors were mystified at their condition, and their employers refused to take responsibility, even discrediting the characters of the girls involved. The author does a great job balancing the many court proceedings, reports, and individual profiles of those involved with compelling personal stories of the brave women who suffered the most.

A thorough examination of the events before, during, and in the aftermath of the Stonewall Riots gives young readers an overview of the LGBTQ+ activism of the 1950s and 1960s. Pitman traces meeting places, social clubs, and the rise of organizations and activist groups, as well as the many police raids of gay establishments, focusing on the June 28, 1969, raid on the mob-owned Stonewall Inn. Post-Stonewall, readers learn about the increase in radical groups and visibility that challenged negative attitudes and discrimination. The unique approach of using various objects (matchbooks, leaflets, buttons, arrest records, photographs, and more, with many reproductions too small or low resolution to read) to guide, inform, and reconstruct the story of the riots prevents a smooth narrative flow and makes the text feel repetitive as it moves back and forth in time. 

Reynolds's adaptation of Kendi's National Book Award-winning title teaches readers to think critically about racism and antiracism in the United States and the Western world. The authors discuss specific people and/or historical events within short chapters in a chronological format. Those selected examples are used to expand upon broader themes. This book has no shallow representations of the men and women profiled. The authors argue that people fit into three categories, some transitioning from one category to another: segregationists, assimilationists, and antiracists. The actions of President Thomas Jefferson, Cotton Mather, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., Angela Davis, and President Barack Obama, among other U.S. presidents, citizens, and organized movements, are evaluated in relation to these categories. 

Though it entertains like fiction, this audiobook is a true story about a girl who conceived of an experiment in which she used a guide to popularity from the 1950s in hopes of escaping the bottom rung of the middle school social ladder. Each month, Van Wagenen chose a different chapter from Betty Cornell's Teen-Age Popularity Guide to follow in her quest to become more popular. The story is hilarious, heartbreaking, and heart-warming. Her actions included changing her hairstyle regularly, wearing a skirt (unheard of in her school), using Vaseline around her eyes to simulate eye makeup, and sitting with different groups at lunch to try to make friends. Van Wagenen's best friend wasn't privy to the experiment and thought that Maya was going completely out of her mind. In the end, Van Wagenen gains confidence and a sense of self-worth that will last a lifetime. 

Zoboi's biography of science fiction author Octavia Estelle Butler details her life from birth in Pasadena, CA, to her legacy as an author. Raised by her mother and grandmother after losing her father when she was four, Butler grew up in a non-segregated town filled with opportunities that her mother worked hard to give her. After struggling with dyslexia in school, Butler found reading and storytelling as a way to escape the schoolyard banter, where she found it difficult to connect with her classmates. Butler's life story is complemented by the history she grew up within, providing context of the Great Depression, World War II, the space race, the Red Scare, and the Civil Rights movement. Told through poetry, narrative, photographs, newspaper clippings, handwritten notes, story drafts, childhood sketches, quotes, report cards, and war propaganda, this stunning biography is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece of literature.