Middle School 2025 Must Reads (teens)

When thirteen-year-old Rosemary is evacuated from WWII London to her grandmother's home in America, she uncovers a hidden family truth--that they are Anishinaabe--leading her to embrace her heritage, forge new bonds, and find beauty in unexpected places.

"Mo is used to his father's fits of rage. When Abbu's moods shake the house, Mo is safe inside his head, with his cherished folktales. The best way to respond is not to engage. Apparently, his mama knows that too-- which is why she took a job on the other side of the world, leaving Mo alone with Abbu. With Mama gone, the two move to Texas to live with Mo's aunt and cousin Rayyan. The two boys could not be more different. Rayyan is achievement-driven...

When a stock-pile of confiscated classroom items go missing, (self-appointed) seventh grade PI Maya is on the case. From the New York Times bestselling author of Kill the Boy Band comes a whip-smart middle grade debut and the start of a sharp cul-du-sac crime-solving series. 9:48 AM. Math class. Marlowe Middle School. Life isn't easy on the streets, er, hallways of Marlowe Middle School. Luckily, private eye Maya Mendoza never stops paying attention....

"In the deepest recesses of the ocean, Graciela--once an ordinary girl--now makes sea glass and assists her friend, Amina, as she welcomes newly awakened sea ghosts from their death sleep. Though Graciela's spirit is young, she has lived at the bottom of the ocean for more than a hundred years. Meanwhile, in the mortal world on land, twelve-year-old Jorge Leon works in his family's forge. He's heard of the supernatural spirits living beneath the ocean's...

Named in the will of a wealthy man as potential beneficiaries, a group of teenagers must solve a murder to win the magical inheritance.

As school begins in 1963, Cooper Dale wrestles with what it means to "shine" for a black girl in a predominantly white community near Pittsburgh. Set against the historic backdrop of the Birmingham church bombing, the Kennedy assassination, and Beatlemania, Radiant is a finely crafted novel in verse about race, class, faith, and finding your place in a loving family and a complicated world. Cooper's primary concern is navigating fifth grade, where...

Twelve-year-old African American Opal investigates the disturbances in her apartment building that are interfering with the vital renovations. Opal Watson is a young detective who loves solving mysteries, from lost pets to missing objects. After returning to Chicago from New Orleans, she's nervous about starting school and dealing with her Retinitis Pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease. Opal is paired with a new student, Ivy, for a history project,...

"One thing Feather knows to be true is that given the chance, the Forest will devour her home just like it's devoured everything else in her world. Her small community lives in a section of the crumbling Wall that runs through and above the trees, doing everything they can to keep the Forest out. When a stranger tricks Feather and makes off with her people's precious spyglass, she has no choice but to go after him, coming face-to-face with the Forest's...

From Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker James Robinson comes a breathtaking illustrated memoir for readers ages 10 and up--inspired by the viral, Emmy-nominated short film Whale Eyes. WINNER OF THE SCHNEIDER FAMILY BOOK AWARD - AN ORBIS PICTUS RECOMMENDED BOOK - A BEST BOOK THE YEAR: School Library Journal, NPR, BCCB, New York Public Library, and Chicago Public Library Told through an experimental mix of intimate anecdotes and interactive visuals,...

In 1930s San Antonio, after her father's death, thirteen-year-old Petra must quit school to work at a pecan shelling factory where dangerous conditions and low wages push her to take a vital stand for change.