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Must-Read Middle-Grade Faves for Back to School

Bookshelves behind a sign reading Must-Read Middle-Grade Faves For Back to School.

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@ashley_dicksonellison)


As we head into (or have already started!) another school year and many students are going back to school, I wanted to share some powerful middle-grade books that highlight specific school experiences and how protagonists can navigate challenges and obstacles that arise for each of them.


I grabbed a couple of my favorites from a blog post I shared a while ago, "Amazing Middle-Grade Books Celebrating Strong Female Characters and Relationships," which features quite a few additional recs! I'm also pulling some of these reviews from this previous post, "17+ Middle Grade March Book Recommendations," which I updated last year and which has additional recommendations. I also went back to the list of middle-grade books I included in "Unexpected Joy - 7 YA Lit and Middle-Grade Book Recs that Deliver More than You Expect" to share Jacqueline Woodson's Harbor Me.


Katherine Applegate's Crenshaw (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm): This brilliant book focuses on Jackson, a ten year old who is shocked to discover the reappearance of his imaginary friend, Crenshaw, who is a giant cat he hasn't seen in years. Jackson's family is struggling financially, and they find themselves on the precipice of living out of their van once again after a period of stability. Jackson discovers that Crenshaw appears as he tries to figure out how to cope with all of the uncertainty, but he can't determine whether the "help" makes things better or worse, and he can't figure out what to do about Crenshaw, much less anything else. This is a powerful, beautiful story that shows how we can be strong amid hardship and can continue to hope for better even though there are not easy solutions.


Jerry Craft's New Kid (Libro.fm | Bookshop.org): Despite hearing so many great things about this one from the time it came out, I just now finally read it, and I loved it! This graphic novel (which is the start of a series!) focuses on Jordan, a new student starting seventh grade at a private school. I read this one in December, and it made it on my list of favorite reads from 2022. Here's what I said about it there: "Jordan, one of the few students of color amid a predominantly white, mostly very wealthy student body, feels out of place on a number of levels. However, his placement at the private school makes friend dynamics in his home neighborhood challenging as well. And to make things harder, his parents are divided on the best pathway for him. Jordan feels like he doesn't quite fit in anywhere, and yet we see his kindness, his creativity, and his generosity of spirit shining through amid the challenges." (Updating to say that I read the rest of this series, and I have loved each book!)


Hena Khan's Amina's Voice (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) and Amina's Song (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) - Hena Khan is definitely one of my favorite go-to middle grade authors. I've shared about these two amazing books multiple times. I absolutely love Hena Khan's work, and what I love about Amina's character is the way that she reflects on her own actions and the world around her. She is a good friend, a conscientious thinker, and a strong young woman. Her relationships with her friends are at the center of both books, and the first book especially explores how relationships between girls can be complex but are worth the challenge. I particularly love the way that Amina explores sharing about Pakistan with her American classmates in Amina's Song. Check out my review of Amina's Voice here, and see Jen's review of the series here.


Shifa Saltagi Safadi's Kareem Between (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) - This beautiful middle grade novel explores what Kareem's life is like as a Syrian-American middle school student who wants to play football and blend in at his school. But things get harder for him when another Syrian boy enrolls at their school. Kareem feels pressure to look out for him but also wants to reject his heritage at times so that he can fit in more easily. This one shows how complex identity can be but also celebrates youth activism and how powerful it can be to take a stand. Jen and I enjoyed discussing this one as our March book club pick in 2025. This one also won a National Book Award!


Jasmine Warga's Other Words for Home (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm): I absolutely LOVED this brilliant middle-grade novel in verse. Warga covers so many important topics here in a beautiful, moving way that also propels forward the story. When the book begins, we meet Jude and her family and learn about the tension in Syria between people who want democracy and others who want the stability that comes with things remaining the same. Because of the instability in Syria, it's eventually decided that Jude will go with her newly pregnant mother to America, where her mother's brother already lives with his family. Read my full review of this brilliant book here. We also discussed this one as a book club pick on episode 270.


Jacqueline Woodson's Harbor Me (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) - We've featured this one before on the podcast and have read it as a buddy read, but I couldn't leave it off this list because it was certainly an unexpected joy for me! This is perfect for a back-to-school read and plants seeds for the power of community within a school setting. This short middle-grade book packs in so many powerful messages about the importance of friendship and the way that we can learn so much from each other if we open up our hearts and share our secrets. Check out episode 178, Find More Amazing Middle-Grade Books with These Recommendations, or episode 130, Great Books for the Classroom by Black Authors, to hear more about this amazing novel.


(A note to our readers: click on the hashtags above to see our other blog posts with the same hashtag.)


Interested in what else we're reading? Check out our Featured Books page.


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