Northampton 2025 Children's Staff Picks: Middle Grade Novels

"It's once upon a time . . . as only the irreverently witty Richard Ayoade can tell it. In this series of letters organized by fictitious C. C. Cecily, Senior Secretary of the Fairy Tale Fan Club, the fairest of them all (and a few bitter foes) correspond with curious--and opinionated--fans. So if you've ever wondered how a less-than-genius (and less-than-clothed) emperor fell for a certain con, how the Big Bad Wolf is handling meatless Mondays, or...

"A painting has been stolen...! When Rami sees a floating girl in the museum, he knows he has seen her somewhere before. Then he realizes: She looks just like the girl in the painting that has gone missing. But how does her appearance connect to the theft? Agatha the turtle knows -- she has been watching from the garden. But she can't exactly tell anyone...can she? Will Rami, with the help of his classmate, Veda, be able to solve the mystery? The...

Covid lockdown is over, but A's world feels smaller than ever. Coming out as trans didn't exactly go well, and most days, he barely leaves his bedroom, let alone the house. But the low point of A's life isn't online school, missing his bar mitzvah, or the fact that his parents monitor his phone like hawks--it's the weekly Save Our Sons and Daughters meetings his parents all but drag him to. At SOSAD, A and his friends Sal and Yarrow sit by while their...

A boy called Christopher is visiting his reclusive grandfather when he witnesses an avalanche of mythical creatures come tearing down the hill. This is how Christopher learns that his grandfather is the guardian of one of the ways between the non-magical world and a place called the Archipelago, a cluster of magical islands where all the creatures we tell of in myth live and breed and thrive alongside humans. They have been protected from being discovered...

Middle school student Sam is comfortable with their nonbinary identity, and their family has accepted it too (as long as they do their homework and chores), so when their history teacher assigns as a project coming up with a proposal for the new statue honoring a historical Staten Islander (there is a contest involved) they and their friend TJ decide to focus on Alice Austen, a lesbian photographer, whose house on Staten Island is a museum--but they...

Twelve-year-old Piper Shapiro, a nonbinary middle schooler, struggles with the idea of change, so when their mom starts dating Gwinny, the mother of Piper's classmate Colton, Piper and Colton team up to try to break up the relationship, only to realize that change might not always be bad.

Don't miss Selznick's other novels in words and pictures, Wonderstruck and The Marvels, which together with The Invention of Hugo Cabret, form an extraordinary thematic trilogy! 2008 Caldecott Medal winnerThe groundbreaking debut novel from bookmaking pioneer, Brian Selznick!Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But when his world suddenly interlocks--like...