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New & Coming Soon Books for Middle Schoolers April 2026 |
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The Taylors
by Jen Calonita
Taylor (aka Teffy to her family) is terrified to start middle school. She wishes she could fade into the background, unnoticed. But on the first day of school, she finds herself in the spotlight when it's revealed that her homeroom class has four girls all named Taylor! There's a couple of things they can agree on: Taylor Swift is the greatest singer-songwriter of all time--and they are definitely going to need nicknames. Soon, Teffy's outside her comfort zone, going out for cheerleading and starting a friendship bracelet-making business. And when the Eras tour comes to town, the four friends will do whatever it takes to get tickets--
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Ivy and Forest Rewrite the World
by Hannah West
When Forest, an unlikely hero in a fantasy tale, and Ivy, the real girl who is the author of his story, try to rewrite Forest's life, the pair gets caught in an evil wizard's plot for world domination and must travel through the multiverse of Ivy's imagination to save both of their worlds-- Provided by publisher.
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Fun in the Sun
by Lee Heart
At first, Anna thought spending spring break with Grandma Gina would be a total snooze fest, but her grandma's friend Lillian has the cutest grandson--Mason! Anna and Mason get along great, until Grandma Gina's neighbor brings over her chatty grandkids, Daniella and Daniel. How can Anna figure out if Mason feels the same way she does if every time they're together, Daniel keeps trying to get her attention? Is it possible that Daniel and Mason like Anna? How does she tell Daniel that she likes someone else? Oh no, what if Mason is trying to tell Anna he likes someone else?!--
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Just One Gift
by Linda Sue Park
The assignment: If you could give someone special in your life a present--just one gift--who would you choose, and what would it be? Discuss. Certain students know their answers right away. A few find their answers more slowly. And while some responses spark lively conversation, others are revealed only in the privacy of journal pages. But all of the choices are as heartfelt as they are unexpected. In accessible verse that highlights transformative moments of connection, Linda Sue Park celebrates the ways--big and small, obvious and unanticipated--our lives are enriched by the people we encounter. Robert Sae-Heng contributes black-and-white art to this eloquent stand-alone read that is also a welcomed companion to the popular The One Thing You'd Save.
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Forbidden Mountain
by Brandon Mull
Every Anoran child dreams of the day they will enter the sacred bonding hut and match with a guardian--a spiritual guide who grants magically enhanced abilities. A lucky few will bond with Advocates, who promise greatness and glory. Others will be tempted by forbidden offers from the Accursed--dangerous spirits who bring nothing but destruction and a penalty of death to any Anoran who chooses them. But when Mako discovers that the worst of these agents of chaos has returned to spread an ancient evil through the empire, he faces an unthinkable choice: Will he bond with one of the Accursed to gain the power to stop another? Halfway across the empire, Arden has no guardian and no prospects of adventure...until she infiltrates an underground criminal network to find her missing friend. Relying on her knack for sensing the truth through even the smoothest lies, Arden finds herself at the center of a sinister conspiracy that runs much deeper than she ever imagined. Soon Mako's and Arden's fates collide, and together they must face bandit armies, dark secrets, and untold dangers to fight an enemy who could destroy all they've ever known.
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Rialto
by Kate Milford
Ivy and Dahlia Vicar know this summer's trip to visit friends in Rialto, Missouri, is going to be different from their usual family vacations. Twelve-year-old Dahlia, an artist who lives with anxiety, is looking forward to something new. Rialto, after all, has its own abandoned theme park! But mystery-loving, fourteen-year-old Ivy is struggling with how to be the right kind of big sister to Dahlia, and longs for the way things--especially vacations--were when they were younger. In Rialto, it quickly becomes clear that this vacation will also be different in totally unexpected ways. For one thing, the town stands in the middle of an improbable forest that, according to local legend, swallowed it overnight decades before. Then there are Dahlia's even more improbable sightings of impossible creatures--a giraffe with antlers and a leopard with wings. And there's their new friend Remy, whose family inherited the house they're all staying in from an aunt who left bequests for local friends that Remy must personally distribute. When he enlists Ivy and Dahlia to help deliver these gifts, they find themselves drawn into a mystery going back to the time when Rialto Park was still open. And it begins to seem that, if they are going to help Remy solve it, they will have to find a way to believe in magic.
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Green Cities: How Green Infrastructure Helps Urban Centers Thrive
by Sheila Boudreau
A hopeful and accessible introduction to green cities and sustainable urban planning All around the world, cities are turning to green infrastructure as a way to address the causes and effects of climate change, and make cities healthier, more comfortable, and more enjoyable places to live. In four engaging chapters, readers will learn about why people live in urban centers, what a green city is, examples of green architecture from cities around the world, and which roles readers can play in greening their cities now and in the future. With quotes from real climate activists and thinkers included throughout, this is an accessible nonfiction introduction to how builders are making our cities more livable and sustainable by looking to nature for inspiration.
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The Real Rosalind: The Truth about Rosalind Franklin's DNA Discovery and How It Was Erased
by Debbie Loren Dunn
She was called angry, irascible, and combative. But more than anything else? She was correct. Ask most people what they know about DNA and they might be able to tell you some basics: It exists inside every living thing. It holds the genetic code that controls much of our development and behavior. And it's shaped like a double helix--a structure that holds the key to understanding how it works.But who first figured out the structure of DNA? Who unlocked this crucial key? That's where Rosalind Franklin came in.Even as a child, Franklin was passionate about science, and that passion drove her to become a chemist and X-ray crystallographer. Over the course of her career, she studied elements, viruses, and DNA, capturing the first clear image of DNA's helical structure. But as one of the few women working in science during the 1940s, Franklin faced barriers every step of the way. She believed in finding all the facts and refusing to take shortcuts, while others tried to leapfrog ahead of her with sloppy guesswork. When she disagreed with or stood up to men she worked with, she was labeled difficult, angry, and combative. Her male colleagues dismissed her--and eventually stole her work, winning a Nobel Prize for a discovery they didn't make.This is the story of Rosalind Franklin's courageous and complex life, her game-changing contributions to science, and the double helix at the center of it all.
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Fruitcake: A Graphic Novel
by Rex Ogle
Eighth grade isn't off to a great start. Everyone but Rex seems to be coupling up, and he's starting to feel like an outsider... until he meets Charlotte. She's fearless, smart, pretty, and she likes him back. But as great as Charlotte is, there's someone Rex can't stop thinking about. Drew is Rex's childhood best friend, so when he kisses Rex, all kinds of new feelings begin to stir. Though at school, Drew acts like he doesn't even know Rex, making those feelings turn really confusing really fast. And with all the strong opinions Rex hears at home and at church, he questions his own worth and what his affections actually mean. Rex wants to be more like his new friend, Nina, and not care what others think, but being himself seems impossible. When did middle school get so confusing?
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Hmong: A Graphic History
by Vicky Lyfoung
Vicky Lyfoung retraces the history of a vibrant Asian ethnic group, blending rich documentation and personal stories in this gripping graphic history. Long oppressed, the Hmong struggle to preserve their traditions and way of life in a homeland torn by war and strife. Their history is closely linked to France, which colonized Indochina in 1893 and for whom the Hmong worked tirelessly, first as opium suppliers and then as soldiers.With great sensitivity and humor, the author tells the story of these people through the lens of her own family.
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Last Day Pool Party
by Emma Steinkellner
From the bestselling author of the Okay Witch series comes a contemporary graphic novel about the only thing standing between the kids of Orange Grove Junior High and summer break--one party, and a whole lot of drama. Six very different kids' stories collide at an unforgettable last day pool party in this hilarious and relatable story about friendship, popularity and the messiness of growing up. When her name gets skipped at the eighth-grade graduation ceremony, Rose decides she is done being invisible. She's determined to finally stand out and make her unfulfilled middle school dreams come true at the upcoming pool party. But she's not the only one who wants to make a splash...BFFs Liv and Juhi are on the verge of a friend break-up when Juhi reveals her family is moving, and Liv uses the party as a chance to scout for a new bestie. Queen bee Maya was forced by her mom to come to unpopular Dustin's party to be nice. And meanwhile, her not-so-social cousin Paul is just trying to avoid all the pool party pandemonium. By the time the sun sets, unexpected twists and ridiculous mishaps will make this the weirdest, wildest last day of school ever. Get ready, because this party is about to go off the deep end.
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Mixed Feelings: A Graphic Novel
by Sara Amini
While sixth-grader Sara Amini can't find anyone who shares her Iranian-Colombian-American heritage, her best friend is abandoning her for another girl, making her feel more alone as a mixed-race, first-generation person with a desire to belong.
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Princess Academy Graphic Novel
by Shannon Hale
The New York Times bestselling and Newbery-Honor winning classic, Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale, is reimagined as a graphic novel with stunning art from illustrator Victoria Ying.
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