Ten-year-old Mia takes charge of the office at the motel her immigrant parents run in a debut novel that is both realistic and delightful.
Sarah
If you put the Muppets in a theme park and added the heart of Steven Universe and some paranormal energy, you'd get Deadendia. It's an awesome mixture of humor, friendship, self-discovery, and drama with flawed characters you will love as much as your best friends. Heart-warming, heartbreaking, heart-pounding, and heartfelt!
Marika
An adventurous story with lots to see, this is the perfect book for long wintry afternoons.
Robin
A fun story about two smart girls in their space station home with their three-headed kitten named Princess, Sparkle, and Destroyer of Worlds. What's not to love? I really enjoyed the relationship treatment in the story, both with the girls' friendship, their familial relationships, and the relationships amongst coworkers on the station.
Stacey
Who knew middle grade could be so delightfully spooky? Arden does a wonderful job of anchoring increasingly fantastic (and scary) situations in fleshed-out, vivid characters; readers will surely grow invested in Ollie's journey to find freedom, family, and a way out of the grip of fearful scarecrows!
Caleb
Merci has a lot of things going on as she enters sixth grade--bossy Edna Santos has a crush on her school-assigned Sunshine Buddy, her beloved grandfather Lolo is forgetting things, and to top it off, she's not allowed to try out for the school soccer team! At least her family is on her side. Meg Medina perfectly captures the worst and best of middle school in this satisfying and extremely relatable coming of age tale.
Rebecca
A darkly comedic middle-grade novel that will probably appeal to fans of "The Green Ribbon," both children and adults who enjoy children's fiction. I would probably not recommend for the easily queasy.
Stacey
With problems at school looming, Marcus convinces his mom to spend a week visiting family in Puerto Rico. He plans to track down his estranged father while they're on the island, but things don't quite go the way he hopes.
Sarah
Phoebe meets Marigold when she accidentally hits her with a rock. Magical misadventures follow as the unicorn whose favorite activity is staring at herself in a pond becomes best friends with this scrappy, nerdy kid that isn't above asking for a little magical aid for her problems, even when it inevitably goes wrong. Like Calvin and Hobbes for the 21st century.
Shana
