Victoria Williamson’s "The Boy with the Butterfly Mind" is a story about acceptance and empathy. In Scotland, eleven-year-old Elin lives with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend, Paul. She thinks that if she can just be perfect,... Read More

Joan He’s "Descendant of the Crane" is a riveting, complex story set in a Chinese-inspired fantasy world full of magic, intrigue, and mystery. Hesina’s first task as the new queen of Yan is to discover who poisoned her father. She... Read More

In Michelle Kadarusman’s hopeful "Girl of the Southern Sea", an impoverished girl living in Indonesia dreams of a better life. Nia longs to go to high school. Her mother died giving birth to her brother, Rudi. Her father drinks,... Read More

Lisa Schmid’s debut novel for middle-grade readers "Ollie Oxley and the Ghost" is an engaging story full of mystery and mischief. Ollie has moved, again, with his mother and little sister. His mother’s new job is in her hometown of... Read More

Set in a time and place when humans have already nearly destroyed the Earth once, Alex Lyttle’s "The Rise of Winter" is a richly imagined middle grade fantasy about a young girl who joins with a select group of animals to protect the... Read More

In Donna Grassby’s moving debut, Kate’s Ring, a thirteen-year-old girl tries to hold her family together through hardships and tragedy. Kate is the oldest of six siblings. Her mother suffers from tuberculosis; her father is loving,... Read More

In Alex T. Smith’s amusing "Mr. Penguin and the Lost Treasure", a penguin sets up shop as a professional adventurer and receives his first case—but it is more than he bargained for. Mr. Penguin has just launched his business when he... Read More

In Michael Hutchinson’s clever middle grade mystery "The Case of Windy Lake", four precocious children are on a quest to find a missing archaeologist. The Mighty Muskrats—Sam, Otter, Atim, and Chickadee—are cousins who spend their... Read More