Top Picks for Middle-Schoolers

Hailey and Claire are spending their last summer together when they discover something at the bottom of the murky pool at the Capri Beach Club.

Lord Gort, a beautiful black cat, has lost her owner in the rubble of England's streets after the evacuation of Dunkirk.

"A spirited story that has plenty of action and strength." — Horn Book

Cimorene is everything a princess is "not" supposed to be: headstrong, tomboyish and smart. She is so bored that she runs away to live with a dragon Kazul and finds the family and excitement she's been looking for.

A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year.

Harriet Tubman knew mostly only hard work and hunger in her life. Born into slavery, she spent the majority of her life helping countless others escape it.

Stanley Yelnats has had awful luck his whole life: He's overweight, kids tease him, his family is poor, and now he's accused of a crime he didn't commit! Stanley blames his great-great grandfather, Elya Yelnats, who stole a pig from a gypsy.

View the Video Interview with Suzanne Collins

Text and contemporary photographs chronicle the life of immigrant children at home, school, work, and play during the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Praise for Immigrant Kids

Karana, an Indian girl, lives happily with her people on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. It is an island in the Pacific that gets its name from its beautiful shape — from above it looks like a dolphin lying on its side, "with its tail pointing toward sunrise," sunning itself in the sea.

Watch the Video Booktalk by Mishon Ratcliff.

Since the death of her mother, Miyax, an Eskimo girl in Alaska, has been raised by her father, Kapugen, who has been bringing her up in the ways of a traditional Inuit. It is a life based on the rhythms of the natural world.

He wasn't born with the name Maniac Magee. He came into this world named Jeffrey Lionel Magee, but when his parents died and his life changed, so did his name. And Maniac Magee became a legend.

The powerful sequel to the award-winning Freak the Mighty. Max is back and he finds himself defending a solitary girl nicknamed "Worm" against a cruel man known as the Undertaker.

A girl raised by dolphins must choose between two worlds in this critically acclaimed novel about what it means to be a human being.

This young adult novel, which successfully captures the pain of the Revolutionary War, is a fine example of historical fiction. The American Revolution was a war that divided families (English loyalists versus eager Patriots) and one of the families being torn apart is the Meeker family.