Anyone who has ever tried to find just the right book for their middle grade students knows that they can be some very tricky customers. From Australian imaginary friends, to highly competitive Scrabble playing friends, we have sifted through some excellent offerings and are pleased to present the best of 2018 for middle grade readers.

10 Notable Books of 2018 for Middle Grade Readers

1. Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed In Pakistan, Amal holds onto her dream of being a teacher even after becoming an indentured servant to pay off her family’s debt to the wealthy and corrupt Khan family.

2. Bob by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead ; illustrates by Nicholas Gannon Visiting her grandmother in Australia, Livy, ten, is reminded of the promise she made five years before to Bob, a strange, green creature who cannot recall who or what he is.

3. Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson When six students are chosen to participate in a weekly talk with no adults allowed, they discover that when they’re together, it’s safe to share the hopes and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world.

4. Inkling by Kenneth Oppel ; illustrations by Sydney Smith When an inkblot, who can write, listen, learn, and draw, jumps out of Mr. Rylance’s sketchbook, Ethan believes he may be the answer to their problems and names him Inkling.

5. The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani Shy twelve-year-old Nisha, forced to flee her home with her Hindu family during the 1947 partition of India, tries to find her voice and make sense of the world falling apart around her by writing to her deceased Muslim mother in the pages of her diary.

6. Property of the Rebel Librarian by Allison Varnes Twelve-year-old June Harper, shocked when her parents go on a campaign to clear the Dogwood Middle School library of objectionable books, starts a secret banned books library in an empty locker.

7. The Serpent’s Secret by Sayantani DasGupta ; illustrations by Vivienne To Up until her twelfth birthday, Kiranmala considered herself an ordinary sixth-grader in Parsippany, New Jersey, but then her parents disappear and a drooling rakkhosh demon shows up in her kitchen, and soon she is swept into another dimension, full of magic, winged horses, talking birds (very annoying), and cute princes–and somehow Kiranmala needs to sort it all out, find her parents, and basically save the world.

8. Small Spaces by Katherine Arden After eleven-year-old Ollie’s school bus mysteriously breaks down on a field trip, she has to take a trip through scary woods, and must use all of her wits to survive. She must stick to small spaces.

9. The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle by Leslie Connor An oversized youth with challenging learning disabilities is wrongly suspected of having a hand in his best friend’s death, a situation that compels him to create an underground haven for himself and a bullied new friend.

10. You Go First by Erin Entrada Kelly Charlotte, twelve, and Ben, eleven, are highly-skilled competitors at online Scrabble and that connection helps both as they face family issues and the turmoil of middle school.

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