Outstanding International Books for Middle Grade

Updated April 27, 2025
C
CU Catalog Champaign Teen Team
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Caravan to the north : Misael's long walk
Argueta, Jorge
Paper Book
An urgent and eloquent account of a boy traveling in a caravan from his beloved homeland of El Salvador to the US border. This novel in verse is a powerful first-person account of Misael Martínez, a Salvadoran boy whose family joins the caravan heading north to the United States. We learn...
Crossing the Farak River
Aung Thin, Michelle
Ebook
Catherine's war
Billet, Julia
Paper Book
Big Mouth Galley Mailing Promotion at national teacher and librarian conferences and preview events Social Media Campaign on HarperStacks including author video feature Targeted awards outreach
Save our forest!
DÃ¥snes, Nora
Paper Book
A Bookshop.org Best Graphic Novel of 2024 ALA Best Graphic Novels for Children Reading List CCBC Choices 2025 ILA Social Justice Literature Award 2025 Fiction Book Award Winner A Jane Addams Children's Book Award Finalist A We Are Teachers Best Book The...
Johnny, the sea, and me
Escobar, Melba
Paper Book
A 2025 Batchelder Honor Book! ★ A heartwarming middle-grade novel from Colombia about a ten-year-old boy and the larger-than-life figure who changes him forever. Pedro is dealing with a lot for a ten-year-old kid, both at school and at home. So he's overjoyed when his mom...
Bone talk
Gourlay, Candy
Paper Book
Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal (UK)Shortlisted for the Costa Prize (UK)Sunday Times Children's Book of the WeekThe Guardian Book of the MonthThe Times Books of the Year"Hotly Anticipated Historical Fiction for Young Adults" Amazon.co.ukIt is 1899. Ten year old Samkad thinks...
Island of whispers
Hardinge, Frances
Paper Book
A remarkable and ultimately heartwarming story of grief, family, kindness, and being true to yourself. Multiple starred reviews and a rave from the New York Times Book Review, which praised it as "incredibly hopeful." Part gothic thriller and part seafaring...
Girl of the southern sea
Kadarusman, Michelle
Paper Book
From Governor General's Literary Award finalist Michelle Kadarusman, an empowering novel about a girl from the slums of Jakarta who dreams of an education and the chance at a better life From the time she was a little girl, Nia has dreamed up adventures about the Javanese mythical...
Music for tigers
Kadarusman, Michelle
Paper Book
From Governor General's Literary Award finalist Michelle Kadarusman comes a novel about a young violinist who discovers her mother's family secretly harbor a sanctuary for extinct Tasmanian tigers in the remote Australian...
Wildful
Kurimoto, Kengo
Paper Book
New York Times Best Children's Books of 2024 Kirkus Best Books of 2024 Shelf Awareness 2024 Best Books of the Year The Globe 100: The Best Books of 2024 Poppy's mother hasn't been the same since Gran passed away. She stays inside and watches TV, unable...
The apartment : a century of Russian history
Litvina, Alexandra
Paper Book
In this picture book from author Alexandra Litvina and illustrator Anna Desnitskaya, 20th-century Russian history comes to life through six generations of a family in their Moscow apartment. The Apartment: A Century of Russian History explains the true...
Run for your life
Mitchell, Jane
Paper Book
A moving and sensitive children's book exploring a child's experience living in refugee accommodation in Ireland. School Library Journal, "Best Books 2023" Bank Street Best Children's Books 2024 Azari's...
Our beautiful darkness
Ondjaki
Paper Book
A blackout leads two teens to discover the intimacy and vulnerability that can only be shared in darkness in Our Beautiful Darkness, a fully illustrated YA novella from celebrated Angolan author Ondjaki and illustrator António Jorge Gonç...
Plasticus maritimus : an invasive species
Pêgo, Ana (Marine biologist)
Paper Book
"Clever...beguiling....Readers age 11 and older are likely to finish this book feeling both persuaded and uplifted. Beauty has a way of doing that." --Wall Street Journal For young readers comes an imaginative guide to ocean plastics, filled with tips...
The barren grounds
Robertson, David
Paper Book
Morgan and Eli, two Indigenous children forced away from their families and communities, are brought together in a foster home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They each feel disconnected, from their culture and each other, and struggle to fit in at school and at their new home until they find a secret portal...
The girl who rode a shark & other stories of daring women
Ross, Ailsa
Paper Book
An inspiring biographical collection celebrating the adventurousness and ingenuity of girls and women around the world. Now more than ever, the world is recognizing how strong women and girls are. How strong? In the early 1920s, Inuit expeditioner Ada Blackjack survived for two...
The Night Raven
Rundberg, Johan
Paper Book
A Kirkus Best Book of the Year Shortlisted for the Global Literature in Libraries YA Translated Book Prize A USBBY Outstanding International Book Mika is not your average twelve-year-old--and she's about to prove it. It's 1880, and in...
Wild poppies
Saleh, Haya
Paper Book
Two brothers fight to reunite amidst the turmoil of the Syrian War. Since the passing of their father, Omar has tried--and in his little brother Sufyan's eyes, failed--to be the man of his family of Syrian refugees. As Omar waits in line for rations, longing...
We go to the park
Stridsberg, Sara
Paper Book
We Go to the Park is a beautiful, lyrical meditation on going to the park to play--which extends into a reflection on life itself--from Booker Prize-longlisted author Sara Stridsberg, and the inimitable, award-winning illustrator Beatrice...
The wanderer
Van den Ende, Peter
Paper Book
Society of Illustrators, Dilys Evans Founder's Award Winner A New York Times Best Book of 2020 A Wall Street Journal Best Book of 2020 PRAISE "Electrifying. Extraordinary. Enigmatic and gorgeous." --The Wall Street Journal "An epic dream...
Migrants
Watanabe, Issa
Paper Book
A heartstoppingly beautiful wordless picture book about migration and empathy. The migrants must leave the forest. Borders are crossed, sacrifices made, loved ones are lost. It takes such courage to reach the end. At last the journey is over and the migrants arrive. This is the new...

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