As someone currently in the process of writing a middle grade novel (which has been full of the unexpected and overall quite exciting), it’s been on my mind lately that I want to start reading more middle grade novels for myself. While plotting and writing my own has been fun and rather freeing in comparison to other writings of mine, I want to experience the magic of middle grade novels again to help improve my own.
I’m of the opinion that children’s books can be enjoyed at any age. Middle grade books don’t have to be something you read only when you’re in that age group and then move on from, never to return again. Sure, they’re written with a young audience in mind but that’s part of their charm. It allows for a certain tone and sense of wonder to permeate the story in a unique, often fun way. The idea of middle grade books holding no enjoyment for older readers is silly to me. Within the last few years, I reread A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Artemis Fowl Series and enjoyed both immensely. They brought me back to my childhood, when every holiday and birthday came with a request for more of those books, but the enjoyment wasn’t purely that of returning to old favorites. The stories are still fantastic and entertaining, whether read as a child or an adult.
Part of my excitement about middle grade novels comes from the sense of magic and wonder they capture and the way they excite young readers. I have books from every age of reading—picture books and up—that feel significant and that I have very fond memories of. My plans and dreams for the novel I’m writing are full of the hope that it will excite young readers and perhaps make an avid reader out of someone who hasn’t yet been turned on to the magic of books. It’s such a dream of mine.
The drive to create something that has the impact on a young reader that so many books had on me has fueled the experience of crafting my middle grade novel. It’s also encouraged me to return to reading middle grade books in order to better understand who I’m writing for and what’s happening in the genre right now since it’s been so long since I was one of those young readers.
Without further ado, here are 15 Middle Grade Must Reads!
Classics
These are classic novels for young readers that I haven’t read. Two of them, The Secret Garden and A Little Princess, I’ve owned for years but haven’t given a second thought in terms of actually reading them. I have distinct memories of starting them when I was younger but I never finished. I hope to remedy that soon.
The Secret Garden
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The plot centers round Mary Lennox, a young English girl who returns to England from India, having suffered the immense trauma by losing both her parents in a cholera epidemic. However, her memories of her parents are not pleasant, as they were a selfish, neglectful and pleasure-seeking couple. Mary is given to the care of her uncle Archibald Craven, whom she has never met. She travels to his home, Misselthwaite Manor located in the gloomy Yorkshire, a vast change from the sunny and warm climate she was used to. When she arrives, she is rude, stubborn and given to stormy temper tantrums. However, her nature undergoes a gradual transformation when she learns of the tragedies that have befallen her strict and disciplinarian uncle whom she earlier feared and despised. Once when he’s away from home, Mary discovers a charming walled garden which is always kept locked. The mystery deepens when she hears sounds of sobbing from somewhere within her uncle’s vast mansion. The kindly servants ignore her queries or pretend they haven’t heard, spiking Mary’s curiosity. The Secret Garden appeals to both young and old alike. It has wonderful elements of mystery, spirituality, charming characters and an authentic rendering of childhood emotions and experiences. Commonsense, truth and kindness, compassion and a belief in the essential goodness of human beings lie at the heart of this unforgettable story.
A Little Princess
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
At Miss Minchin’s Select Seminary for Young Ladies, young Sara Crewe enjoys the friendship of her classmates and the staff–much to stern Miss Minchin’s disdain. When Sara is unexpectedly impoverished, she is forced to become a servant under Miss Minchin’s control. To escape her dreary life, Sara imagines herself a princess, and her experiences soon teach her that being a princess on the inside counts more than any outward expression of royalty.
Anne of Green Gables
by L.M. Montgomery
Eleven-year-old orphan Anne Shirley has just arrived at Green Gables, and already her guardians want to send her back. First, she’s not the boy the Cuthberts expected. Second, she talks too much. And even with her generous spirit, the redhead’s a trouble magnet. She gets the neighbor drunk and nearly poisons the pastor! Still, despite a rocky start, the fiery Anne wins over her guardians and her new community. She enjoys life at Green Gables, excels in school, and earns a coveted scholarship. But when tragedy hits, Anne must choose between her dreams and the only home she’s ever known.
Matilda
by Roald Dahl
Matilda is a little girl who is far too good to be true. At age five-and-a-half she’s knocking off double-digit multiplication problems and blitz-reading Dickens. Even more remarkably, her classmates love her even though she’s a super-nerd and the teacher’s pet. But everything is not perfect in Matilda’s world. For starters she has two of the most idiotic, self-centered parents who ever lived. Then there’s the large, busty nightmare of a school principal, Miss (“The”) Trunchbull, a former hammer-throwing champion who flings children at will and is approximately as sympathetic as a bulldozer. Fortunately for Matilda, she has the inner resources to deal with such annoyances: astonishing intelligence, saintly patience, and an innate predilection for revenge.
Modern Middle Grade
With 11 books in this section, I don’t want to bore you by writing a few sentences after each one that make the same point for all of these: I’m excited to read them. I think they sound fantastically unique, intriguing and fun. All of these are books I would’ve loved to read as a child and look forward to reading now as an adult.
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane
by Kate DiCamillo
Once, in a house on Egypt Street, there lived a china rabbit named Edward Tulane. The rabbit was very pleased with himself, and for good reason: he was owned by a girl named Abilene, who treated him with the utmost care and adored him completely. And then, one day, he was lost. Kate DiCamillo takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the depths of the ocean to the net of a fisherman, from the top of a garbage heap to the fireside of a hoboes’ camp, from the bedside of an ailing child to the bustling streets of Memphis. And along the way, we are shown a true miracle — that even a heart of the most breakable kind can learn to love, to lose, and to love again.
The Mysterious Benedict Society
by Trenton Lee Stewart
“Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?” Dozens of children respond to this peculiar ad in the newspaper and are then put through a series of mind-bending tests, which readers take along with them. Only four children-two boys and two girls-succeed. Their challenge: to go on a secret mission that only the most intelligent and inventive children could complete. To accomplish it they will have to go undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, where the only rule is that there are no rules. But what they’ll find in the hidden underground tunnels of the school is more than your average school supplies. So, if you’re gifted, creative, or happen to know Morse Code, they could probably use your help.
The Bookwanderers
by Anna James
Eleven year-old Tilly has lived above her grandparents’ bookshop ever since her mother disappeared shortly after she was born. Like the rest of her family, Tilly loves nothing more than to escape into the pages of her favourite stories. One day Tilly realises that classic children’s characters are appearing in the shop through the magic of `book wandering’ – crossing over from the page into real life. With the help of Anne of Green Gables and Alice in Wonderland, Tilly is determined to solve the mystery of what happened to her mother all those years ago, so she bravely steps into the unknown, unsure of what adventure lies ahead and what dangers she may face.
The Strangers (Greystone Secrets #1)
by Margaret Peterson Haddix
What makes you you? The Greystone kids thought they knew. Chess has always been the protector over his younger siblings, Emma loves math, and Finn does what Finn does best—acting silly and being adored. They’ve been a happy family, just the three of them and their mom. But everything changes when reports of three kidnapped children—who share the same first and middle names, ages, and exact birth dates as the Greystone kids—reach the Greystone family. This bizarre coincidence makes them wonder: Who exactly are these strangers? Before Chess, Emma, and Finn can question their mom about it, she takes off on a mysterious work trip. But puzzling clues left behind lead to complex codes, hidden rooms, and a dangerous secret that will turn their world upside down.
Howl’s Moving Castle
by Diana Wynne Jones
Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to fail miserably should she ever leave home to seek her fate. But when she unwittingly attracts the ire of the Witch of the Waste, Sophie finds herself under a horrid spell that transforms her into an old lady. Her only chance at breaking it lies in the ever-moving castle in the hills: the Wizard Howl’s castle. To untangle the enchantment, Sophie must handle the heartless Howl, strike a bargain with a fire demon, and meet the Witch of the Waste head-on. Along the way, she discovers that there’s far more to Howl—and herself—than first meets the eye.
Serafina and the Black Cloak
by Robert Beatty
“Never go into the deep parts of the forest, for there are many dangers there, and they will ensnare your soul.” Serafina has never had a reason to disobey her pa and venture beyond the grounds of the Biltmore estate. There’s plenty to explore in her grand home, although she must take care to never be seen. None of the rich folk upstairs know that Serafina exists; she and her pa, the estate’s maintenance man, have secretly lived in the basement for as long as Serafina can remember. But when children at the estate start disappearing, only Serafina knows who the culprit is: a terrifying man in a black cloak who stalks Biltmore’s corridors at night. Following her own harrowing escape, Serafina risks everything by joining forces with Braeden Vanderbilt, the young nephew of the Biltmore’s owners. Braeden and Serafina must uncover the Man in the Black Cloak’s true identity… before all of the children vanish one by one. Serafina’s hunt leads her into the very forest that she has been taught to fear. There she discovers a forgotten legacy of magic, one that is bound to her own identity. In order to save the children of Biltmore, Serafina must seek the answers that will unlock the puzzle of her past.
The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane
by Julia Nobel
Emmy’s dad disappeared years ago, and with her mother too busy to parent, she’s shipped off to Wellsworth, a prestigious boarding school in England. But right before she leaves, a mysterious box arrives full of medallions and a note reading: These belonged to your father. Just as she’s settling into life at Wellsworth, Emmy begins to find the strange symbols from the medallions etched into the walls and stumbles upon the school’s super-secret society, The Order of Black Hollow Lane. As Emmy and her friends delve deeper into the mysteries of The Order, she can’t help but wonder—did this secret society have something to do with her dad’s disappearance?
The Library of Ever
by Zeno Alexander
With her parents off traveling the globe, Lenora is bored, bored, bored–until she discovers a secret doorway in the library and becomes its newly appointed Fourth Assistant Apprentice Librarian. In her new job, Lenora finds herself helping future civilizations figure out the date, relocates lost penguins, uncovers the city with the longest name on Earth, and more in a quest to help patrons. But there are sinister forces at work that want to destroy all knowledge. To save the library, Lenora will have to test her limits and uncover secrets hidden among its shelves.
The Magic Misfits
by Neil Patrick Harris
When street magician Carter runs away, he never expects to find friends and magic in a sleepy New England town. But like any good trick, things change instantly as greedy B.B. Bosso and his crew of crooked carnies arrive to steal anything and everything they can get their sticky fingers on. After a fateful encounter with the local purveyor of illusion, Dante Vernon, Carter teams up with five other like-minded illusionists. Together, using both teamwork and magic, they’ll set out to save the town of Mineral Wells from Bosso’s villainous clutches. These six Magic Misfits will soon discover adventure, friendship, and their own self-worth in this delightful new series.
Coraline
by Neil Gaiman
The day after they moved in, Coraline went exploring….In Coraline’s family’s new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close. The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own. Only it’s different. At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat. The food is better. The toy box is filled with wind-up angels that flutter around the bedroom, books whose pictures writhe and crawl and shimmer, little dinosaur skulls that chatter their teeth. But there’s another mother, and another father, and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go. Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight with all her wits and all the tools she can find if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself.
The Graveyard Book
by Neil Gaiman
Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a perfectly normal boy. Well, he would be perfectly normal if he didn’t live in a graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor the world of the dead. There are dangers and adventures for Bod in the graveyard: the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer; a gravestone entrance to a desert that leads to the city of ghouls; friendship with a witch, and so much more. But it is in the land of the living that real danger lurks, for it is there that the man Jack lives and he has already killed Bod’s family.
These books sound like a lot of fun. I’m excited to start weaving some middle grade novels back into my reading, for both enjoyment and a little genre research.
Do you ever pick up any middle grade novels? Do any of these middle grade must reads appeal to you? Let me know what you think in the comments!
Thanks for reading,
Madison
My daughter is reading Matilda and loving it. We are going to buddy read The Secret Garden next. I have never read the book only seen the movie.
I’m so happy she’s loving Matilda, I can’t wait to read it for myself! I’ve also only seen the movie of The Secret Garden but I’m looking forward to finally reading it soon. A mom-daughter buddy read of it sounds so lovely, I hope you both enjoy it! 🙂 I just started The Little Prince and it’s already so sweet and charming. Have you or your daughter read it?
I definitely want to try and read Secret Garden before the new movie comes out and Little Princess sometime as I always loved that movie. I also want to read Matilda as I never read the book but I loved the film and more recently the musical. I never really read much MG but I do have a few of them on my list. I think the main one that I need to read is School For Good & Evil as I’ve had it as an ebook for years now. I also love the sound of The Last Spell Breather which I couldn’t resist buying recently as it was only eighty something pence!! I hope your writing is still going well.
I still need to fit The Secret Garden in, i feel like I kinda forgot about it after writing this. I love the Matilda movie too! And a musical version sounds so fun. I’ll have to look up the MG books you mentioned because I’m really looking to expand my reading to do some genre research. And thank you! The writing is okay. I actually recently had another idea that I LOVE for a MG book and I’m pretty excited about it. I don’t know what’s going on but I’m feeling very drawn to that genre right now lol