Recommendations for Kids

You're invited to the wildest ride of the year! An exciting novel featuring a group of kids competing in a giant safari park challenge, this book is packed with animal facts, puzzles and more making it the perfect book for readers looking for their next adventure.

Twelve-year old Lucy can’t believe her luck when she is selected for the Wildlands Safari Escape Challenge, which involves solving a series of mind-bending puzzles to unlock access to new animal habitats across the local safari park. Her team will be racing the Wildlands Ambassadors, a group of student animal experts. And if they win, wildlife-loving Lucy will get the chance to be an Ambassador herself!

But this challenge is trickier than Lucy expects—her team is in for a wild ride! Broken locks, downed electronics, and empty animal enclosures are just the start. Lucy discovers something truly terrifying: Wildlands’ beloved baby elephant is on the loose and might be in danger! The team is sure this can’t be part of the competition—and with their walkie-talkie on the fritz, they have no way to call for help.

Their fun puzzle has turned into a serious test, but Lucy and her team will surprise everyone with how they tackle the real Wildlands challenge.

Opal Watson, Private Eye introduces an exciting new middle grade mystery series based on the popular original Pinna podcast that feels like a modern-day version of Harriet the Spy.

Opal Watson loves being a detective. When her neighbor's cat goes missing or her grandmother loses her cherished cookbook, Opal is on the case. And there is no mystery she cannot solve.

Returning home to Chicago after spending the summer with her Meme Augustine in New Orleans, Opal is nervous to begin school. Despite her parents' confidence, they worry about her making new friends and dealing with her Retinitis Pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease. When Opal gets paired with a new student, Ivy, to work on their history project together, she is hesitant--after all, she only needs her cousin, Frank, and her best friend, Madison.

But school quickly becomes the least of her worries. Madison has heard disturbances in the apartment building she and Opal live in, the Crescent. Renovations are being done, but it's unclear where the noises are coming from that are upsetting all her neighbors. Even worse, the old building is the target of developers wanting to tear it down. As Opal begins to investigate, she realizes this will be her toughest case yet.

Can Opal solve the mystery at the Crescent and save her home? And what hidden truths will she uncover along the way?

Created by real-life rivals and #1 New York Times bestselling authors Kwame Alexander and Jerry Craft this hilarious illustrated story features two talented fifth graders going head-to-head in a competition for the ages.

J and K are the most creative fifth graders at Dean Ashley Public School (DAPS). J loves to draw and his wordless stories are J-ENIUS! K loves to write and his stories are K-LASSIC!! Both J and K are determined to win the DAPS annual creative storytelling contest or at least get in the top five. And when they find out that they are both entering The Contest, it's the beginning of one of the most intense rivalries the world has ever seen.



It's artist vs. writer with plenty of shady double crosses as J and K plot their way to the top. This epic match-up from Newbery medal winners Kwame Alexander (The Crossover) and Jerry Craft (New Kid) celebrates comics, creativity, and the magic of collaboration.

Look Both Ways meets Seedfolks in this masterful novel from two titans of kid lit that follows a diverse cast of young people whose lives intersect in surprising and hilarious ways over the course of a summer day.

Here's what's so cool about the beach. Kids are everywhere! Kids you know, kids you want to know. Wandering from one blanket to another, from one family to another. Somebody's mom reads a fat summer novel. Somebody's dad snores with an iPad on his chest. Babies cry. Girls laugh. Frisbee players whoop! Kites in the perfect blue sky.

Some kids bodysurf. Some don't even like the water. They build sand cities for their friends and sand jails for the grown-ups, and when the tide comes in everything gets washed away.

There's the other world, where all kids hear is tomorrow, next week, next year. And then there's the beach, where everything is right now!

Why can't every day be a day at the beach?

From two-time Newbery honoree Gary D. Schmidt and two-time PEN Award winner Ron Koertge comes a moving and often laugh-out-loud funny middle grade novel about family, friendship, and belonging, told by a group of kids spending a day at the beach. Thoughtful vignettes brilliantly weave together an irresistible tale of tween conflict and connections.

A moving portrait of loss and the restorative power of art from Lauren Wolk, the Newbery Honor-winning author of Beyond the Bright Sea.

Lucretia Sanderson has a secret.

Lucretia and her mother have come to tiny Candle Island, Maine (Population: Summer, 986; Winter, 315) to escape—escape memories of the car accident that killed her father and escape the journalists that hound her mother, a famous and reclusive artist. The rocky coast and ocean breeze are a welcome respite for Lucretia, who dedicates her summer days to painting, exploring the island, and caring for an orphaned osprey chick.

But Candle Island has secrets of its own—a hidden room in her new house, a mysterious boy with a beautiful voice—and just like the strong tides that surround the shores, they will catch Lucretia in their wake.

With an unforgettable New England setting and a complex web of relationships old and new, Candle Island is a powerful story about art, loss, and the power of being true to your own voice.

A girl with cerebral palsy navigates loss, grief, and the aftermath of trauma following a school shooting in a world that wasn’t built for her in this deeply affecting novel in verse from Jamie Sumner, the acclaimed author of Roll with It.

There is a Before and an After for sixth grader Bea Coughlin. Before the shooting at her school that took the lives of her classmates and teacher and After, when she must figure out how to grieve, live, and keep rolling forward. But as her community rallies in a tidal wave of marches and speeches and protests, Bea can’t get past the helplessness she felt in her wheelchair as others around her took cover.

Through the help of therapeutic horseback riding, Bea finally begins to feel like herself again. And as she heals, she finds her voice and the bravery to demand change.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer A. Nielsen comes a brand-new, spine-tingling adventure about two kids and their fight for survival on the unforgiving trails of Mount Everest. Jennifer Nielsen's storytelling climbs to new heights in this epic about loss, letting go, and the most important lesson a climber can learn: where the eye goes, a person follows.

For a climber, letting go means certain death. For Atlas, it means something even worse. But he'll have to learn how to let go and look up if he ever wants to see the top...

Twelve-year-old Atlas Wade has been trying to forget the memory of his mother by climbing mountains ever since she died when he was nine years old. When his father signs them up for an expedition group hoping to be the first to ever summit the unconquerable Mount Everest, Atlas can't wait for the chance to prove himself to his father, and maybe finally he can leave his mother behind him on the mountain.

But this time, Atlas is the one left behind, as well as a young American girl named Maddie and their sturdy yet injured Sherpa, Chodak. When news breaks out that war has returned to Europe, and that Nazis are attempting their own summit dangerously nearby, Atlas and Maddie plead with the expedition to come back down.

Their warnings come too late. Atlas looks up that same morning to see an avalanche and when they receive no word from the group, Maddie and Chodak join Atlas as he begins a dangerous journey up the mountain in the hopes of finding survivors.

Atlas, Maddie, and Chodak will have to rely not just on their own wits for survival, but on each other as well, especially as sickness, bad weather, and their fears of a Nazi spy watching them puts their mission -- and lives -- at risk in the brutal terrain. And Atlas will have to learn how to let go if he wants any chance of finding his father and fixing the rift between them caused by his mother's death, before it's too late.

Using one of the world's greatest -- and most infamous -- mountains as a backdrop, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer A. Nielsen's storytelling climbs to new heights in this touching, thrilling epic about grief, letting go, and the bonds that keep us alive.

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Alan Gratz comes a gripping, 80-page bonus story about D-Day that can be read alongside the novel Allies, or on its own!

Samira Zidane lives in Nazi-occupied France during World War II...and she has a secret. She and her mother are spies for the underground resistance. They crack codes and trade messages that will help sabotage the Nazis' plans.

When her mother is captured by enemy soldiers, Samira must travel through the war-torn countryside on a desperate and daring rescue mission.

And today just happens to be D-Day: the pivotal moment when Allied soldiers are landing in France. Battles rage all around her, and Samira only has a small dog named Cyrano for company. Can she find a way to save her mother before time runs out?

This delightfully grim tale follows Clare, the lonely, undying Usher of souls to the Afterlife, as an unexpected friendship turns his solitary life upside down and takes him on a heartwarming exploration of moving on. Perfect for fans of Kate DiCamillo and Tim Burton!



Clare is the undead fox of Deadwood Forest. Here, leaves grow in a perpetual state of fall: not quite dead, but not quite alive--just like Clare. Long ago, he was struck by a car, and, hovering between life and death, he was given the choice to either cross into the Afterlife or become an Usher of wandering souls. Clare chose the latter: a solitary life of guiding souls to their final resting place.



Clare's quiet and predictable days are met with upheaval when a badger soul named Gingersnipes knocks on his door. Despite Clare's efforts to usher her into the Afterlife, the badger is unable to leave Deadwood. This is unprecedented. Baffling. A disturbing mystery which threatens the delicate balance between the living and the dead. 



Desperate for help, Clare and Gingersnipes set out on a treacherous journey to find Hesterfowl--the visionary grouse who recently foretold of turmoil in Deadwood. But upon their arrival, Hesterfowl divulges a shocking revelation that leaves Clare devastated, outraged, and determined to do anything to change his fate.

From New York Times bestselling author Laurie Halse Anderson comes an “thoroughly researched, emotionally resonant” (Booklist, starred review) historical fiction middle grade adventure about a girl struggling to survive amid a smallpox epidemic, the public’s fear of inoculation, and the seething Revolutionary War.

In the spring of 1776, thirteen-year-old Elsbeth Culpepper wakes to the sound of cannons. It’s the Siege of Boston, the Patriots’ massive drive to push the Loyalists out that turns the city into a chaotic war zone. Elsbeth’s father—her only living relative—has gone missing, leaving her alone and adrift in a broken town while desperately seeking employment to avoid the orphanage.

Just when things couldn’t feel worse, the smallpox epidemic sweeps across Boston. Now, Bostonians must fight for their lives against an invisible enemy in addition to the visible one. While a treatment is being frantically fine-tuned, thousands of people rush in from the countryside begging for inoculation. At the same time, others refuse protection, for the treatment is crude at best and at times more dangerous than the disease itself.

Elsbeth, who had smallpox as a small child and is now immune, finds work taking care of a large, wealthy family with discord of their own as they await a turn at inoculation, but as the epidemic and the revolution rage on, will she find her father?

Stinky's Stories is the hilarious four-book, highly illustrated chapter book series from New York Times bestselling authors Chris and J.J. Grabenstein. In this third installment in the series, Stinky the skunk tells the story of the Three Smelly Goats Gruff, a reimagining of the classic fable "The Three Billy Goats Gruff"--except this time, the fairy tale is told from the troll's point of view.

It's story time at the Hickleberry Elementary School Library! Mrs. Emerson, the librarian, has just read "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" to the class. But after the fun is done and Mrs. Emerson has left, Stinky the stuffed skunk and his stuffy friends come to life. The kids need to know what happened to the grumpy troll after the goats pushed him off the bridge. Lucky for them, Stinky has the scoop!

Find out in the hilarious chapter book series from New York Times bestselling authors Chris and J.J. Grabenstein, with illustrations in every chapter from Alex Patrick. Reading has never been so stinky!

A New York Times bestseller!



★ "Rhodes deftly captures a unique aspect of this historical event, with a perspective that is often under-represented in historical fiction. A poignant and honest look at the trials of racism that defined the historic land rush; a must-buy." -School Library Journal, starred review



Bestselling and award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes goes West in this thrilling adventure story about a son and his father who set out to win land during the Oklahoma Land Rush-if they can survive the journey. 



It's 1889, barely twenty-five years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and a young Black family is tired of working on land they don't get to own.



So when Will and his father hear about an upcoming land rush, they set out on a journey from Texas to Oklahoma, racing thousands of others to the place where land is free--if they can get to it fast enough. But the journey isn't easy--the terrain is rough, the bandits are brutal, and every interaction carries a heavy undercurrent of danger.



And then there's the stranger they encounter and befriend: a mysterious soldier named Caesar, whose Union emblem brings more attention--and more trouble--than any of them need.



All three are propelled by the promise of something long denied to them: freedom, land ownership, and a place to call home--but is a strong will enough to get them there?

A group of children investigate the threat that prompted large-scale evacuations in this powerful and dramatic companion novel to the New York Times bestselling Alone told in multiple POVs.

After an imminent yet unnamed danger forces people across Colorado to leave their homes, a group of kids including an aspiring filmmaker and a budding journalist find themselves in the same evacuation camp. As they cope with the aftermath of having their world upended, they grow curious about the mysterious threat. 

And as they begin to investigate, they start to discover that there’s less truth and more cover-up to what they’re being told. Can they get to the root of the conspiracy, expose the bad actors, and bring an end to the upheaval before it’s too late?

When a 7th grader is forced to join her school's hockey team, she discovers unexpected friendships and a budding crush on the team captain. This fierce and heartfelt queer romance explores the courage to face your fears, even when your dreams are on thin ice.

Some goals are worth falling for. 

After a lifetime of humiliating sports experiences, Bea Mullins knows the best way to survive middle school is to stick to the sidelines. When PE is suddenly canceled, though, Bea is forced to join an after-school activity...which is how she ends up as a member of the Glenwood Geese, her middle school's first all-girls hockey team. 

Bea would be happy sitting on the bench, but she doesn't want to let down her best friend, Celia. Plus, the more time Bea spends on the rinks, the more she comes to enjoy her teammates, especially the incredibly talented--and incredibly cool--co-captain Gabi. But when low funding puts the Geese in danger of never playing again, Bea realizes she may lose everything she didn't know she wanted.

A hilarious and heartfelt middle-grade contemporary about first crushes and fierce friendships from debut author Emily Deibert.

A chilling middle school novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Mystery of Locked Rooms, three kids must discover who—or what—is terrorizing them after receiving an ominous meme on Halloween night. 

"A creepy, freaky, fun-as-anything tale."—Chuck Wendig, New York Times bestselling author of Dust & Grim

On Halloween night, Josie and her two best friends, Jackson and Alison, sneak into the infamously haunted Bachelor’s Grove cemetery. They are hoping to prove the existence of a famous ghost to secure coveted editorial spots on the school newspaper. Instead, they are chased out by a security guard before they gather any evidence…or so they think.

Later, a sinister meme appears on their phones. It’s an image of the “phantom farmhouse,” an evil apparition rumored to appear to unlucky visitors at Bachelor's Grove—luring them in…and never letting them out—with the words I’m watching dripping down the screen.

Soon, strange and scary things begin to happen all around them. When a second meme from the same number arrives, this time with a countdown, they realize they have only three days to figure out who is terrorizing them. As they investigate, the trio must use their journalistic skills to uncover the truth, or risk becoming a part of the graveyard’s sinister past forever.