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Here are our favorite books about everyday diversity for teens in middle school. These titles are classified as Teen Middle School (TM) and can be found in the Teen section of the library.
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Summer at Squee
by Andrea Wang
A senior camper at Summertime Chinese Culture, Wellness and Enrichment Experience (Squee), Chinese American tween Phoenny Fang finds her summer even more transformative than she could've imagined, with new friendships, her first crush, and a bigger love for and understanding of her community.
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The Science of Friendship
by Tanita S. Davis
Paired with science geek DeNia for a journalism assignment, Rylee Swanson, starting eighth grade with zero friends, works with DeNia to research what makes friendships?—?and breaks them?—?but the more she learns, the more she wonders if there's a science to it.
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Upstaged
by Robin Easter
Best friends Ivy and Ash arrive for a third summer at arts camp, but Ash struggles to tell Ivy about their developing feelings for her.
This book can be found in the Teen Graphic Novel section.
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Kareem Between
by Shifa Saltagi Safadi
With the school year getting off to a rough start, Syrian American seventh grader Kareem finds himself stuck between friends, between football, between parents and between right and wrong, and must find his voice amidst the chaos.
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Tiger Daughter
by Rebecca Lim
Wen Zhou is a first-generation daughter of Chinese migrant parents. She has high expectations from her parents to succeed in school, but she dreams of creating a future for herself more satisfying than the one her parents expect her to lead. Then she befriends a boy named Henry. Both of them dream of escaping; together they come up with a plan to take an entrance exam for a selective school far from home. But when tragedy strikes, it will take all of Wen's resilience and tiger strength to get herself and Henry through the storm that follows
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Drawing Deena
by Hena Khan
When young Pakistani American artist Deena promotes her mom's home-based business, which takes off and makes her anxiety unmanageable, she and her mother learn the importance of asking for help and that, with the right support, she can create something truly beautiful.
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Good Different
by Meg Eden Kuyatt
Neurodivergent girl Selah, who always tries to keep her feelings in check- especially her anger- explodes at school one day, hitting a fellow student, and must figure out more about who she is in order to understand that different doesn't mean damaged.
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Finally Seen
by Kelly Yang
Arriving in America to live with her parents and sister after five years apart, 10-year-old Lina Gao struggles to fit in with her family and at her new school until she learns about the power of friendship, family and being finally seen.
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Barely Floating
by Lilliam Rivera
Channeling her rage into synchronized swimming dreams, 12-year-old Nat, who doesn't care what people think, fights for what she wants as she builds a community of those who lift her up and help her stay afloat when waters get rough.
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The Many Fortunes of Maya
by Nicole D. Collier
Always turning to her Wheel of Fortunes (a cardboard circle covered with wisdom she's collected from fortune cookies) for answers and a dose of luck, 12-year-old Maya must find the courage to write her own fortune to help answer her deep-down questions.
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The Language of Seabirds
by Will Taylor
While staying with his dad and uncle in a seaside cabin in Oregon, Jeremy meets and forms a friendship with local boy Evan that turns into something neither boy expected, but something they both wished for.
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Finding Junie Kim
by Ellen Oh
Motivated by an act of racism at her school, Junie Kim learns about her ancestral heritage and her grandparent's experiences as lost children during the Korean War.
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Turning Point
by Paula Chase
Told from alternating perspectives, a standalone companion to So Done and Dough Boys follows the experiences of two African American best friends who navigate changing perspectives when their careful practice of the rules does not shield them from racism.
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Omar Rising
by Aisha Saeed
While attending an elite boarding school on scholarship, Omar, the son of a servant, discovers the school makes it nearly impossible for scholarship students to graduate and sets out to do the impossible change a rigged system.
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Fast Pitch
by Nic Stone
Shenice Lockwood, captain of the Fulton Firebirds, is hyper-focused when she steps up to the plate. But life has thrown some curveballs her way. Strike one: As the sole team of all-brown faces, Shenice and the Firebirds have to work twice as hard to prove that Black girls belong at bat. Strike two: Shenice's focus gets shaken when her great-uncle Jack reveals that a career-ending crime may have been a setup. Strike three: Broken focus means mistakes on the field. And Shenice's teammates are beginning to wonder if she's captain-qualified.
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King and the Dragonflies
by Kacen Callender
A 12-year-old boy spends days in the mystical Louisiana bayou to come to terms with a sibling’s sudden death, his grief-stricken family and the disappearance of his former best friend amid whispers about the latter’s sexual orientation.
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Ahmed Aziz's Epic Year by Nina HamzaMoving from Hawaii to Minnesota, Ahmed Aziz is having the worst year. He surprises himself by actually reading the assigned books for his English class: Holes, Bridge to Terabithia, and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Shockingly, he doesn’t hate them. He deals with bullies, makes new friends, and uncovers details about his family’s past. Maybe this year won't be so bad after all...
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Yusuf Azeem Is Not a Hero by Saadia FaruqiWith the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks putting his family on edge, Yusuf Azeem-- who wants to participate in the regional robotics competition-- must stand up to the bullies with understanding, justice, and love.
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Parked
by
Danielle Svetcov
Living in an old orange van when her mother is unable to find work, 12-year-old Jeanne Ann befriends the son of a successful restaurant owner and a remarkable group of homeless fellow misfits whose perspectives shape her hardscrabble existence.
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Roll with It
by
Jamie Sumner
Twelve-year-old Ellie, who has cerebral palsy, finds her life transformed when she moves with her mother to small-town Oklahoma to help care for her grandfather who has Alzheimer's Disease.
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