Tween Reads

Discover recent releases for tweens.
Updated February 27, 2025
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Out of my heart
Draper, Sharon M.
Paper Book
Melody faces her fears to follow her passion in this stunning sequel to the acclaimed, New York Times bestselling middle grade novel Out of My Mind. Melody, the huge-hearted heroine of Out of My Mind, is now a year older and a year braver. But not as brave as she...
Pony
Palacio, R. J.
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Perfection." -The Wall Street Journal The bestselling author of Wonder returns with an enthralling adventure about a boy on a quest to rescue his father, with only a ghost as his companion and a mysterious pony as his guide.<...
And then, boom!
Fipps, Lisa
Paper Book
This is our rainbow : 16 stories of her, him, them, and us
Locke, Katherine
Paper Book
The first LGBTQA+ anthology for middle-graders featuring stories for every letter of the acronym, including realistic, fantasy, and sci-fi stories by authors like Justina Ireland, Marieke Nijkamp, Alex Gino, and more! A boyband fandom becomes a conduit to coming out. A former...
Paradise on fire
Rhodes, Jewell Parker
Paper Book
From award-winning and bestselling author Jewell Parker Rhodes comes a powerful coming-of-age survival tale exploring issues of race, class, and climate change.​   Addy is haunted by the tragic fire that killed her parents, leaving her to be raised by her...
Attack of the black rectangles
King, A. S.
Paper Book
Award-winning author Amy Sarig King takes on censorship and intolerance in a novel she was born to write. When Mac first opens his classroom copy of Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic and finds some words blacked out, he thinks it must be a mistake. But then when he and his friends...
The last Rhee witch
Lee-Yun, Jenna
Paper Book
For fans of The Last Fallen Star, Witchlings, and Ghost Squad, a heartfelt middle grade debut where Korean folklore is all too real and summer camp includes a gwishin haunting. You couldn't hold onto everything and everyone. You had to choose....
Charlie Thorne and the Royal Society
Gibbs, Stuart
Paper Book
In the fourth installment of the New York Times bestselling Charlie Thorne series--which #1 New York Times bestselling author Chris Grabenstein called "a real page-burner"--Charlie searches for Isaac Newton's secret treasure across Europe and Australia.
Return of the thief
Turner, Megan Whalen
Paper Book
The thrilling, twenty-years-in-the-making conclusion to the New York Times-bestselling Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner. The epic novels set in the world of the Queen's Thief can be read in any order. This beloved and award-winning series began with the acclaimed novel...
What is Black Lives Matter?
Wilson, Lakita
Paper Book
From the #1 New York Times bestselling series comes the latest title in the Who HQ Now format for trending topics. It tells the history of a political and social movement that advocates for non-violent civil disobedience and protests against incidents of police brutality--and all racially...
Made in Asian America : a history for young people
Lee, Erika
Paper Book
From three-time Newbery Honoree Christina Soontornvat and award-winning historian Erika Lee comes a middle grade nonfiction that shines a light on the generations of Asian Americans who have transformed the United States and who continue to shape what it means to be American. ...
The beautiful something else
Van Otterloo, Ash
Paper Book
Full of humor and heartbreak, this story about a nonbinary character navigating a binary world is perfect for fans of Alex Gino and Kyle Lukoff. It's exhausting trying to be the perfect daughter. Still, getting good grades without making any waves may be the only way to distract from the...
Nat enough. 5, All is Nat lost
Scrivan, Maria
Paper Book
The fifth book in the New York Times bestselling series that began with Nat Enough! Nat's class trip is a bigger adventure than she imagined! Nat is on an overnight class trip to Philadelphia, which is her first time in a big city without her parents. And it's a big...
Not if you break up with me first
Miller, G. F.
Paper Book
Two friends who have unhappily found themselves accidentally dating try to drive the other one to call things off in this witty and heartfelt middle school romance. Childhood friends Eve and Andrew are destined to be together--everyone says so, especially their friends and...
Protector of the small. book 1, First test
Pierce, Tamora
Paper Book
This eagerly awaited graphic novel adaptation of the iconic fantasy novel First Test reimagines the classic knight's tale, but with a twist. In a world not quite ready for her ambition, a determined girl seeks knighthood and finds herself on a mission to prove it. Keladry...
Bridge of souls
Schwab, Victoria
Paper Book
Victoria ("V. E.") Schwab, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, invites readers to haunted New Orleans in this third installment of her thrillingly spooky City of Ghosts series! Where there are ghosts, Cassidy Blake follows . . . ...
Noah Frye gets crushed
Horne, Maggie
Paper Book
In this cute and queer contemporary middle grade comedy about friendship, first crushes, and first kisses, twelve-year-old Noah Frye comes up with a foolproof plan to teach herself how to have a crush on a boy to fit in better with her friends--only to discover she's been looking in the wrong...
African Town
Latham, Irene
Paper Book
Chronicling the story of the last Africans brought illegally to America in 1860, African Town is a powerful and stunning novel-in-verse. In 1860, long after the United States outlawed the importation of enslaved laborers, 110 men, women and children from Benin and Nigeria...
Rabbit chase
LaPensě, Elizabeth
Paper Book
Anishinaabe culture and storytelling meet Alice in Wonderland in this coming-of-age graphic novel that explores Indigenous and gender issues through a fresh yet familiar looking glass. Aimée, a non-binary Anishinaabe middle-schooler, is on a class trip to offer gifts to ...
Efrň divided
Cisneros, Ernesto
Paper Book
Winner of the Pura Belpré Award! "We need books to break open our hearts, so that we might feel more deeply, so that we might be more human in these unkind times. This is a book doing work of the spirit in a time of darkness." --Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on...
Ambushed! : the assassination plot against President Garfield
Jarrow, Gail
Paper Book
Winner of the 2022 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award This thrilling title for young readers blends science, history, and medical mysteries to tell the story of the assassination and ultimately horrible death of President James Garfield. James...
Tunnel of bones
Schwab, Victoria
Paper Book
The thrilling sequel to Victoria Schwab's New York Times bestselling City of Ghosts!Trouble is haunting Cassidy Blake . . . even more than usual.She (plus her ghost best friend, Jacob, of course) are in Paris, where Cass's parents are filming their TV show about the world's most...
The color of sound
Isler, Emily Barth
Paper Book
"[A] salient celebration of family, music, and neurodiversity." --starred, Publishers Weekly"A top pick for any middle school collection; a perfect book club pick and a reminder to all that patience and understanding can change lives." --starred, School Library JournalTwelve-year-old Rosie is a...
And we rise : the civil rights movement in poems
Martin, Erica
Paper Book
*"A powerful, necessary book." SLJ, starred review A powerful, impactful, eye-opening journey that explores through the Civil Rights Movement in 1950s-1960s America in spare and evocative verse, with historical photos interspersed throughout. In stunning verse...
Moonwalking
Elliott, Zetta
Paper Book
"This novel in verse, alternately narrated by two boys in 1980s Greenpoint, Brooklyn, one channeled by Elliott and one by Miller-Lachmann, eloquently tackles race, culture and life on the spectrum." -- The New York Times For fans of Jason Reynolds and Jacqueline Woodson,...
This is your brain on stereotypes : how science is tackling unconscious bias
Kyi, Tanya Lloyd
Paper Book
From the time we're babies, our brains constantly sort and label the world around us - a skill that's crucial for our survival. But, as adolescents are all too aware, there's a tremendous downside: when we do this to groups of people it can cause great harm. Here's a comprehensive introduction to...
The deep dark
Ostertag, Molly Knox
Paper Book
From Molly Knox Ostertag, writer-illustrator of the New York Times and ABA Indie bestselling The Witch Boy trilogy and The Girl from the Sea, comes a darkly beautiful story of identity, family, love, loss, and magic. Everyone has secrets. Mags's has teeth. Magdalena...
White bird
Palacio, R. J.
Paper Book
Now a major motion picture, starring Helen Mirren and Gillian Anderson! R. J. Palacio's unforgettable graphic novel debut is a story about the power of kindness and unrelenting courage in a time of war. SYDNEY TAYLOR AWARD WINNER * A NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR...
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