Stonewall and Lambda Literary Award-winning author Kacen Callender brings their contemporary, lyrical style to a middle grade novel about grief and love in King and the Dragonflies.

King’s big brother, Khalid, has died tragically at just 16 years old, and the doctors can give his family no explanation as to why. King’s parents are frozen with sadness, and his friends don’t know what to say to him. But King knows something that all of them don’t: Khalid is not gone. He has simply changed forms. He has become a dragonfly, just like in the dreams Khalid used to tell King about.

King spends his afternoons alone down at the bayou, trying to spot Khalid among the hundreds of glittering wings, but soon he finds he can’t hide away from the world forever. King begins to realize that he will have to face not just the reality of life without his brother but also the truth of his own identity, no matter what anyone else may think.

Callender’s second middle grade novel feels raw and authentic. It doesn’t shy away from addressing weighty themes of grief, identity and racism in a small community. Callender writes with honesty but also with kindness and strikes the difficult but necessary balance between the two perfectly. Readers will root for King on his journey toward accepting both his circumstances and himself. King and the Dragonflies is a story infused with hope that flutters and glitters all around, like so many dragonfly wings.

Everything is going so well. One final audition and Amelia Jones will finally be accepted into the Mystwick School of Musicraft, just like her mother before her. Until Amelia is delayed and finds herself running late for the audition. And then she accidentally sets her dress on fire. And then she misses just a couple of notes in her growth spell and makes the Maestro’s mustache grow down to his waist. In The Mystwick School of Musicraft, the debut middle grade novel by Jessica Khoury, Amelia knows her dream is dead, her last connection to her mother severed—until her acceptance letter arrives.

Khoury builds a world where music and magic are intertwined, in which a well-played song can charm a chicken and a professional orchestra can dissipate a tornado. Anyone can learn simple songs and tiny charms, but it takes a special school like Mystwick to train musicians to be Maestros, to teach them the music that can mold, shape and change the world, and to understand just how dangerous, even deadly, musical spells can be. Despite this extraordinary environment, Amelia experiences the same uncertainties and insecurities as anyone who has ever stretched outside of their comfort zone.

Written in the tradition of other magical school stories such as Harry Potter and The School for Good and Evil, The Mystwick School of Musicraft quickly finds its own melody as it deals with family relationships, loss, unlikely friendships and even more unlikely allies. Through her fast-paced and effortless writing, Khoury has created an imaginary world that readers will want to revisit.

Life isn’t easy for anyone on a farm in the nation’s heartland in the 1940s, but it’s especially hard for Pixie, the spunky heroine of Tamara Bundy’s Pixie Pushes On. Pixie’s mother has died, and her sister has contracted polio and been taken to a hospital. Pixie blames herself for these tragedies and struggles to cope with her family’s losses. 

Unfortunately, Pixie’s school life isn’t much better than what waits for her at home, and she finds it hard to feel thankful—even on Thanksgiving, when she’s not allowed to visit her beloved sister in the hospital. Life seems to have handed Pixie a raw deal.

Things come into perspective, though, when a baby lamb, Buster, joins the farm, and Pixie is charged with his care. As her Granddaddy says, “Every day’s a lesson in beginnings and endings.” Pixie learns compassion and understanding as she pushes on through her pain and learns to laugh and find joy again.

Amid the tough farm work, Pixie’s family is her guiding force, and neighbors who’ve also experienced loss help open her heart. Glimpses into life during wartime—iron lungs, back-breaking work, war rations and doing without—make this a poignant piece of historical fiction for young readers.

Pixie Pushes On is a touching story of love, loss and learning about the world beyond your own backyard. 

Middle schoolers have a lot to deal with, from bullies to burgeoning hormones, on top of their homework. Throw in a supernatural ability to detect monsters, and you’ve got a real recipe for mayhem.

As though seventh grader Nizhoni Begay’s strange reality couldn’t get any weirder, her dad’s new boss, Mr. Charles, has started to show unsettling interest in her and her brother, Mac—and in their family’s Navajo heritage. After their father suddenly disappears, Mac and Nizhoni, along with her best friend, Davery, find themselves on the run. It will take all of their knowledge of Navajo legends, not to mention every ounce of their courage, to find Nizhoni’s father and save their world from the ancient creatures Mr. Charles has unleashed.

Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author Rebecca Roanhorse (Trail of Lightning) adds to the increasingly diverse roster of Rick Riordan’s eponymous imprint with Race to the Sun. Native American myth and lore take center stage in this story, supported by action and adventure that will keep readers turning pages as they anxiously anticipate the outcome of Nizhoni’s thrilling quest. It’s populated with quirky characters reminiscent of Riordan’s own stories, so every reader will find someone to connect with in this novel.

Through its incorporation of important aspects of Native American beliefs and culture, including protecting the natural world and honoring family, Race to the Sun adds vital and long-overdue positive representation of contemporary Native Americans to young readers’ shelves.

On her 12th birthday, just after her “dream birthday party” at a local bakery, Zoe Washington gets an unexpected letter from the father she’s never met. Marcus Johnson has long been in prison for the murder of a young woman who had been a friend of his. Zoe knows her mother and stepfather wouldn’t approve, but she secretly begins writing back in From the Desk of Zoe Washington, Janae Marks’ engaging debut.

Zoe’s instincts prove right, because it turns out that Marcus has been writing to Zoe for years, and her mother has been intercepting his communications. Immediately intrigued, Zoe is surprised at how kind, smart and concerned her father seems; he calls her “Little Tomato” after a jazz song and sends her a playlist of his favorite songs. Eventually, Zoe inquires about his crime, and Marcus declares his innocence, claiming that his public defender never bothered to track down an alibi that would have exonerated him.

Zoe finds a helpful ally in her maternal grandmother, who remembers Marcus and thinks “he is a good person at heart.” Grandma believes that Marcus and Zoe have a right to communicate, so she offers to serve as an adult intermediary. Their allegiance is warm and believable; it’s particularly touching when Grandma facilitates Zoe’s first phone conversation with her father.

Unbeknownst to her grandmother, Zoe is determined to track down Marcus’ alibi, and the uncertainty of her quest—along with Marks’ crisp writing and Zoe’s likable first-person narration—makes for page-turning reading. The resolution of Zoe’s investigation comes a bit too easily, but her gradual awakening to the problem of racial injustice for black people like Marcus serves as an excellent introduction for young readers to the pervasive issue.

Marks also includes parallel narratives that help round out the plot, such as Zoe’s desire to enter a “Kids Bake Challenge!” on the Food Network and a misunderstanding between Zoe and her next-door neighbor, Trevor, who aids Zoe in her sleuthing. Zoe and Trevor’s friendship troubles offer valuable insights into how easily relationships can be unintentionally damaged.

Never heavy-handed, Marks’ prose is as sweet as one of Zoe’s confections. And as the icing on the cake, From the Desk of Zoe Washington imparts important lessons about judging other people, whether by the color of their skin or by their presumed guilt or innocence.

“I have always wanted to write a book from a dog’s perspective, because dogs have always been my closest friends,” writes author Carlie Sorosiak about I, Cosmo, her heartfelt new novel about a year in the life of a golden retriever named Cosmo and his family. 

As the story opens, the family prepares for Halloween, Cosmo’s least favorite holiday. Not only does Halloween involve a lot of chocolate, which he’s not allowed to eat, but Cosmo is also at the mercy of little Emmeline, who wants Cosmo to go dressed as a turtle this year. Says Cosmo, “I do not want to be a turtle.”

But 13-year-old Cosmo’s unhappiness runs deeper than being forced into an uncomfortable, embarrassing costume. His boy, Max, is sad. Sometimes Cosmo hears raised voices, family dance nights are no more, and the word “divorce” is in the air. The greatest worry of all is that Max and Cosmo might be separated.

Can dance bring the family together again? When Uncle Reggio, a canine specialist, returns from a tour of duty in Afghanistan, he takes Cosmo and Max to a special dance club for dogs. There, Cosmo discovers a love for his new movements as he and Max train for a competition. Although it becomes clear that dancing will not fix Max’s parents’ marriage, by the time Halloween rolls around again, both boy and dog have come to accept that even when families change, love remains.

The inclusion of Max’s Uncle Reggio, an African American veteran, brings depth to Sorosiak’s story. Uncle Reggio clearly senses Max’s anxieties and intercedes in a positive fashion, becoming a guide and role model. When Max and Cosmo falter on the dance floor, he’s there with sage advice: “Don’t focus on anyone else but you, though. The best that you can do is more than enough.” As for the dog-dancing competition: Yes, dog freestyle dancing is apparently really a thing!

With Cosmo serving as a humorous and lovable narrator, I, Cosmo’s sensitive handling of divorce in a biracial family will appeal to readers who enjoy realistic fiction and, of course, anyone who loves stories about very good dogs. 

Fourteen-year-old McKenna Barney is running the race of her life. Her younger sister Emma is legally blind because of a condition called Stargardt disease, and McKenna is counting on winning a dogsledding race to raise both publicity and research dollars for a cure. There’s just one problem: McKenna, too, is losing her sight.

Although McKenna and her eight-dog team start out fast, the harsh Canadian terrain, her blurred vision and a blizzard put them in peril. McKenna keeps a cool head and her sense of humor, though, as she and another young musher, Guy, prank each other at rest stops along the race route and befriend Harper, a reluctant musher who’s racing at her parents’ insistence. During a tumultuous storm, the three even end up taking shelter in a cave together.

Along the way, McKenna learns that Guy will have to forfeit his dogs if he loses, and Harper wants to win so that she can finally stop racing all together. McKenna knows her own victory would bring solace to her parents and boost her self-confidence. But as her vision worsens, her terror at the notion of losing her independence along with her sight grows.

In Dog Driven, Terry Lynn Johnson’s love of dogs and the Canadian wilderness shines like a beacon. As in her previous books, including Ice Dogs and the Survivor Diaries series, Johnson’s female characters are relatable, strong and able to meet the challenges in their paths. Readers will respond to this warm tale of adventure and will see in McKenna a hero to emulate.