Realistic Fiction (Middle Grade)

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Frindle is a 1996 middle grade novel by children’s author Andrew Clements, illustrated by Brian Selznick. The story follows a fifth-grade boy named Nick Allen who—both for fun and to exasperate his strict language arts teacher—creates a new word for pen: “frindle.” Nick’s new word captures more attention than he expected, and soon the entire country is engaged in a discussion about how people ought to use vocabulary. The novel explores themes about differing adult... Read Frindle Summary

Front Desk is the debut novel of Asian-American author Kelly Yang. First published in 2018, the children’s book became a New York Times bestseller and was mentioned on multiple Best Books of the Year lists including NPR, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, the Washington Post, Amazon, School Library Journal, the New York Public Library, and the Chicago Public Library. Front Desk also made ALA’s Booklist of the Top Ten Debut Novels of 2018. It won the 2019... Read Front Desk Summary

In Newbery medalist Louis Sachar’s sci-fi thriller Fuzzy Mud (2015), Tamaya and Marshall cut through the restricted woods behind their school to avoid a bully—but encounter a strange mud that has the potential to destroy nearly all life on Earth. While Marshall struggles with the emotional effects of being bullied, Tamaya develops an unusually aggressive rash from the mud and worries that in protecting Marshall she has gravely injured Chad. Each character faces difficult ethical... Read Fuzzy Mud Summary

Genderqueer writer Alex Gino wrote George in response to an unfulfilled, youthful wish for a positive representation of a transgender person. The novel tells the story of ten-year-old George, who is anatomically a boy, but knows she is a girl. George has won the Stonewall Book Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the E.B. White Honor.The novel opens with George sneaking into the bathroom to look at her secret stash of girls’ magazines, concealing them... Read George Summary

Ghost is a 2016 novel by American author Jason Reynolds. Reynolds began his writing career as a poet and published his first novel, When I Was the Greatest, in 2014. Reynolds has won several accolades, including a Kirkus Prize, an NAACP Image Award, a Schneider Family Book Award, a Newbery Medal, and a Carnegie Medal. From 2020 to 2022, he was the Library of Congress’s National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, and he won the... Read Ghost Summary

Ghost Boys is a middle-grade novel by Jewell Parker Rhodes, an award-winning writer on the Black experience. Set in contemporary Chicago, the novel is a first-person narrative about the life and death of 12-year-old Jerome Rogers, a boy Officer Moore kills one afternoon as Jerome plays with a toy gun near his neighborhood. A popular and critical success that taps into the modern civil rights movement that is Black Lives Matter, this novel is a... Read Ghost Boys Summary

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Jacqueline Woodson's 2018 middle grade novel, Harbor Me, tracks the bonds of friendship that develop across six fifth-graders when they are given a unique opportunity to get to know each other. Amari, Esteban, Tiago, Ashton, Holly, and Haley Shondell McGrath (the narrator) are students with special learning needs in a Brooklyn school. Each friend has fears and frustrations that they share with each other over the year, and by opening up, they discover a collective... Read Harbor me Summary

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Heat is a young adult novel written by Mike Lupica and published in 2006. Focusing on the Little League baseball culture of New York City, the novel follows Michael Arroyo, a pitching phenom and Cuban immigrant, as he pursues a trip to the Little League World Series. Michael and his brother, Carlos, recently lost their Papi from a heart attack. They keep his death a secret out of fear that government officials will separate them... Read Heat Summary

Hello, Universe (2017) is the third novel by Filipino-American author Erin Entrada Kelly. It is intended for children aged 8 to 12. The title won the 2018 Newbury Medal, and its author has garnered other awards for previous novels, including a Golden Kite Award and an Asian/Pacific American Award for Children’s Literature. Kelly’s other books include Blackbird Fly (2015), The Land of Forgotten Girls (2016), You Go First (2018), and Lalani of the Distant Sea... Read Hello, Universe Summary

Home of the Brave is a 2008 juvenile novel by Katherine Applegate that is written entirely in free verse. The story revolves around the protagonist, a young boy named Kek, who has fled from violence and upheaval in his native Sudan and traveled alone to the United States. Kek’s father and older brother were killed in an attack on their camp, and Kek was forced to leave his mother behind to save his own life... Read Home of the Brave Summary

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Hoot, by Carl Hiaasen, is a humorous adventure novel for middle-grade readers in which a group of children tries to save the habitat of a colony of owls from being bulldozed. Published in 2002, the book became a New York Times bestseller, won a Newbery Medal, and has been made into a motion picture. Author Hiaasen is an award-winning journalist and columnist for the Miami Herald. He has written nearly three dozen books, including six... Read Hoot Summary

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