Middle Grade fiction recommended by an 11-year-old Bookworm. A mix of new books we were sent to review and older books that my daughter found on library and school bookshelves.
My daughter Emma LOVES reading! Today she’s treating us to some of her favorite recent reads. I’ve added a few of my own comments in italics. You can find all of her book reviews here.
Great Middle Grade Fiction Emma Recommends
What You'll Find on This Page
The Metropolitans
I really liked The Metropolitans because it took four kids and put them in the real world in a time a while ago, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The four kids have to stop worse things than bombs from coming and killing off the United States. But the problem is, how? This book was really exciting.
Emma got pretty excited while she was reading this book. The characters were clearly very engaging for her. The story mixes fantasy with historical fiction – not a combination I had seen before.
Jack and The Geniuses: At the bottom of the world
Jack and the Geniuses: At The Bottom of The World was really action full! I liked all three of the kids: Jack, Ava, and Matt. Ava and Matt are geniuses, but Jack is just a normal kid. Then they travel to Antarctica, and a scientist is missing. That’s a puzzle. Then they think they solve the puzzle, and Ava and Matt leave to try and find the scientist, but little do they know that they’re wrong. Jack, a NORMAL kid, figures the real thing out and saves the scientist.
This was a quick read for Emma, and having the “normal” kid solve the problem was a neat twist.
Middle Grade Fiction Books Emma Read At School
Finding Ruby Starling
I read the book Finding Ruby Starling by Karen Rivers. It was a good book about a girl named Ruth who uses a special app to find pictures of herself, and she finds some of someone named Ruby Starling who looks exactly like her. Ruth finds Ruby’s email address, and soon they begin corresponding.
This is a parent trap type story set in modern times. This was a fun, light read for Emma, as well as a reminder of just how close my eleven-year-old is to entering the social media universe.
Real Mermaids Don’t Wear Toe Rings
In Real Mermaids Don’t Wear Toe Rings by Helene Boudreau a girl named Jade’s mom “drowned”. But Jade is a mermaid, and her mom was too. And mermaids can’t drown, right? Jade goes to find out if her mom is still alive and swimming, or if she actually drowned.
This book is another mostly-light read (in spite of the drowning element). Between the fluff and fairly one-dimensional characters it deals with issues a lot of tweens and young teens will identify with: getting first periods, first crushes, acne, and friend problems.
How to Eat Fried Worms
How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell was a very funny book about a boy named Billy who is in a bet that he can’t eat 15 worms in 15 days. He can’t back out because if he does it, he wins 50 dollars, and he wants that money to buy a new bike. He takes on the challenge. Will he do it?
Emma’s class has leveled book clubs, and this was one of her group’s picks. It made quite an impression on her – she talked to me about it for days.
Bonus: Middle Grade Non Fiction!
The Making Of America: Alexander Hamilton:
I read the book The Making of America: Alexander Hamilton. I thought this book was very informative. I had heard the music, but I didn’t know a lot of things in this book, and that helped me understand the music, plus it was more background knowledge for the Revolution and early America.
Emma was introduced to the Hamilton musical soundtrack by her cousins, and she was immediately enthralled. This clearly-musical-inspired book teaches kids more of the history behind the Broadway historical hit.
What are your favorite middle grade fiction picks? How about non-fiction? Emma is always on the lookout for new books to read! Please share in the comments below, or on my Facebook page. You can also tag me on Instagram.
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Hi MaryAnne-
Please thank your, now 15 yo, for her list. In no particular order, my list is:
Small Spaces, Katherine Arden
The Nest, Kenneth Oppel (I will be reading more of his)
I Am Fartacus, Mark Mciejewski
The Island of Thieves, Josh Lacey
I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President, Josh Lieb
Willa and the Whale, and Squint, both by Chad Morris and Shelly Brown
Bob by Wendy Mass
Donny’s Inferno, P.W. Catanese
The Blackthorn Key, Kevin Sands
Three Times Lucky, Sheila Turnage
The Silver Gate, Kristin Bailey
Lovely to see your great list, Emma!
There’s an entire sub-genre mixing fantasy and historical fiction. There’s one she might like in a few years called
set in late Regency England (post-Napoleon), and it’s quite interesting because it’s a letter book.
Sorcery and Cecilia
I’ll have to find that one for Emma! Have you read ”
“? It kind of falls into this sub-genre, although it’s a modern-day family traveling back in time.
The String in the Harp
It makes me so happy that she likes a classic like How To Eat Fried Worms. I loved it as a kid too!
Great picks, Emma! I think my 10 year old will like the first two!