Outstanding International Books for Middle Grade

Updated April 27, 2025
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Save our forest!
Ds̄nes, Nora
Paper Book
A Bookshop.org Best Graphic Novel of 2024 ALA Best Graphic Novels for Children Reading List CCBC Choices 2025 A Jane Addams Children's Book Award Finalist A We Are Teachers Best Book The Nature Generation's 2025 Green Earth Book Award Short List This...
Johnny, the sea, and me
Escobar, Melba
Paper Book
A timid ten-year-old boy meets Johnny, a gruff islander who will change his life, in Johnny, the Sea, and Me, a heartwarming middle-grade novel by Melba Escobarabout finding yourself and your place in the world-featuring illustrations by award-winning...
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...
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...
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...
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...

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