Tween Reads

Discover recent releases for tweens.
Updated December 4, 2025
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
Away (Alone)
Megan E. Freeman
Paper Book
A group of children investigate the threat that prompted large-scale evacuations in this "solid and engrossing" (Booklist) companion novel to the New York Times bestselling Alone told in multiple POVs. After an imminent yet unnamed danger forces people across...
Stamped (For Kids): Racism, Antiracism, and You
Jason Reynolds
Paper Book
THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER This chapter book edition of the groundbreaking #1 bestseller by luminaries Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds is an essential introduction to the history of racism and antiracism in America  
Out of My Heart
Sharon M. Draper
Paper Book
A New York Times bestseller! 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...
Starfish
Lisa Fipps
Paper Book
A PRINTZ HONOR BOOK . Ellie is tired of being fat-shamed and does something about it in this poignant novel-in-verse. "In her debut novel, Starfish, Lisa Fipps confronts diet culture and fat phobia head-on. . . . The book reads as if Ellie herself is writing these poems, which...
Pony
R. J. Palacio
Paper Book
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NAMED ONE OF THE BEST CHILDREN'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WALL STREET JOURNAL "Perfection." -The Wall Street Journal The bestselling author of Wonder returns with an enthralling adventure about a boy...
Recognize!: An Anthology Honoring and Amplifying Black Life
Wade Hudson
Paper Book
In the stunning follow-up to The Talk- Conversations About Race, Love & Truth, award-winning Black authors and artists come together to create a moving anthology collection celebrating Black love, Black creativity, Black resistance, and Black life. "A multifaceted,...
From the Desk of Zoe Washington
Janae Marks
Paper Book
#1 Kids Indie Next List * Parents Magazine Best Book of the Year * Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Book of the Year * SLJ Best Book of the Year * Kirkus Best Book of the Year * Junior Library Guild Selection * Edgar Award Nominee * Four Starred Reviews * Bank Street Best...
This Is Our Rainbow: 16 Stories of Her, Him, Them, and Us
Katherine Locke
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
Jewell Parker Rhodes
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...
Finding the Lost One
Samantha van Leer
Paper Book
A middle grade debut by New York Times bestselling co-author of Between the Lines stars 13 year old Ava, who helps run her family's refuge for extraterrestrials. But a sudden attack on the zoo leads to her discovering a government conspiracy that upends everything she believed to be...
Attack of the Black Rectangles
A. S. King
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...
Speechless: A Graphic Novel
Aron Nels Steinke
The Talk: Conversations about Race, Love, and Truth
Wade Hudson
Paper Book
Thirty diverse, award-winning authors and illustrators invite you intotheir homes to witnesstheconversationsthey have withtheir children about race in America today in this powerful call-to-action that invites all families to be anti-racists and advocates for change. "Project s love...
The Only Black Girls in Town
Brandy Colbert
Paper Book
A Bank Street Best Book of 2021! From award-winning YA author Brandy Colbert comes a debut middle-grade novel about the only two Black girls in town who discover a collection of hidden journals revealing shocking secrets of the past. Beach...
Return of the Thief
Megan Whalen Turner
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...
The Beautiful Something Else
Ash Van Otterloo
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...
Defiant: Growing Up in the Jim Crow South
Wade Hudson
Paper Book
As the fight for equal rights continues, Defiant takes a critical look at the strides and struggles of the past in this revelatory and moving memoir about a young Black man growing up in the South during the heart of the Civil Rights Movement. For fans of It's Trevor Noah- Born a Crime,...
The Night Diary
Veera Hiranandani
Paper Book
NEWBERY HONOR BOOK . A poignant, personal, and hopeful tale of India's partition-and of one girl's journey to find a new home in a divided country. " The Night Diary is a sensitive portrayal of the universal search for identity and the need for a place to call home....
On Thin Ice
Jessica Kim
Paper Book
For fans of Disney's GO FIGURE, a laugh-out-loud, heartfelt dual POV sibling-rivalry story by acclaimed author Jessica Kim Twelve-year-old fraternal twins Phoebe and Dexter Bae are polar opposites in every way except for their love of the ice. Phoebe is hyperfocused...
The Girl and the Ghost
Hanna Alkaf
Paper Book
* Chosen as a 2020 Kirkus Prize Finalist for Young Readers' Literature! * A Malaysian folk tale comes to life in this emotionally layered, chilling middle grade debut, perfect for fans of The Book of Boy and The Jumbies. I am a dark spirit, the ...
A Copycat Conundrum (The Misfits)
Lisa Yee
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * When San Francisco is under strange attacks--like earthquakes affecting only two city blocks at a time--who're you gonna call? An elite team of crime-fighting underdogs, that's who! The Misfits are on the case in this hilarious series from Newbery Honoree Lisa...
Vanya and the Wild Hunt
Sangu Mandanna
Paper Book
*Winner of the Good Housekeeping Kids' Book Awards* *A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year* From the bestselling author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches comes an action-packed, enchanting middle grade fantasy about a...
We’re Better Than This: Young Readers’ Edition: My Fight for the Future of Our Democracy
Elijah Cummings
Paper Book
Part memoir, part call to action, this young readers' edition dives into the inspiring life of the late U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings--from childhood through his time as chairman of the House Oversight Committee--and his tireless fight for justice. Elijah's story comes complete with a full...
Bridge of Souls
Victoria Schwab
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 . . . ...
In the Key of Us
Mariama J. Lockington
Paper Book
STONEWALL HONOR BOOK ● From the author of the critically acclaimed novel For Black Girls Like Me and the Schneider Family Book Award Winner Forever Is Now, comes a coming-of-age story surrounding the losses that threaten to break us and the friendships that make us...
Swimming with Spies
Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger
Paper Book
As war escalates between the Russians and Ukrainians in the port city of Sevastopol, can one girl and a pod of dolphins prove that communication is the greatest weapon of all? It's February of 2014 in the seaport city of Sevastopol in Crimea. Sofiya Oleksandrivna only wants two...
One Wrong Step
Jennifer A. Nielsen
Paper Book
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer A. Nielsen comes a brand-new, spine-tingling adventure about two kids and their fight for survival on the unforgiving trails of Mount Everest. Jennifer Nielsen's storytelling climbs to new heights in this epic about loss, letting go, and...
Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown
Steve Sheinkin
Paper Book
New York Times bestselling author Steve Sheinkin presents a follow up to his award-winning book Bomb: The Race to Build--and Steal--the World's Most Dangerous Weapon, taking readers on a terrifying journey into the Cold War and our mutual...
African Town
Charles Waters
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...
Like a Hurricane
Jonathan Bécotte
Paper Book
★"Immediately takes one's breath away with its poetry and power...Deeply affecting. An ideal tool to illustrate poetic elements or emphasize stories of sharing scary yet necessary truths."--School Library Journal, starred review A young teen's secret is tearing him apart. He...
Ambushed!: The Assassination Plot Against President Garfield (Medical Fiascoes)
Gail Jarrow
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...
Efrén Divided
Ernesto Cisneros
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...
Tunnel of Bones
Victoria Schwab
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...
Dress Coded
Carrie Firestone
Audiobook
In this inspiring novel about girls using their collective power to improve their lives, an eighth grader starts a podcast to protest the unfair dress code enforcement at her middle school--and sparks a rebellion. "A much-needed reminder that certain fights are worth fighting, that...
And We Rise: The Civil Rights Movement in Poems
Erica Martin
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
Zetta Elliott
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,...
Similar Lists

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.