Kate Allen’s noteworthy debut novel, The Line Tender, is a big-hearted story about friendship, grief and recovery set in the 1990s. Twelve-year-old Lucy Everhart’s summer is off to an exciting start when a fisherman in her town of Rockport, Massachusetts, catches a great white shark. Lucy and her best friend and neighbor Fred are overjoyed because they’re working on a field guide of local animals for their science project, with Lucy illustrating and Fred providing scientific data of specimens they encounter, and this will be an exciting entry. But the great white stirs up memories of Lucy’s mother, a shark expert who died of an aneurysm five years ago.

Unfortunately, another tragedy strikes and kills another loved one, and Lucy and her father, a diver for the police department, are left to piece their lives together once again. Allen seamlessly weaves in intriguing facts about marine biology throughout this story, and her narration is strikingly authentic and subtly nuanced, whether she’s describing a joyful afternoon trip into Harvard Square or the painful moments when Lucy’s grief is so all-consuming that she can’t eat for fear of choking.

Lucy’s heartache does help lead her back to her mother, “whom everyone seemed to know better” than she did. She becomes engrossed in a research proposal her mother wrote just before her death to tag and study great white sharks, whose numbers seem to be increasing off the New England coast. 

A grieving Lucy is buoyed by a cast of helpful adults, including her father, a kind neighbor, her science teacher, a guidance counselor, and a number of researchers who worked with her mother, including one who says, “All life is interconnected. If one species moves away or becomes extinct, the order shifts.” Numerous middle grade books deal with grief, but few do it so beautifully―and hopefully―as The Line Tender.

Gail Shepherd’s colorful debut novel The True History of Lyndie B. Hawkins takes place in 1985 in the town of Love’s Forge, Tennessee. As the story opens, 11-year-old Lyndie and her parents have lost their home and have had to move in with her grandparents.

Lyndie is an outspoken, curious girl who loves research, history and getting to the bottom of things, but her quest to discover the truth about her father’s job loss and her parents’ strained relationship isn’t easy. One thing Lyndie does know is that it’s best to keep her daddy’s habit of hiding George Dickel Tennessee Whiskey in his glove box a secret from her opinionated grandma, who isn’t so sure that her son, a wounded Vietnam vet, quite knows how to raise Lyndie into a proper young lady. As for Lyndie’s mom who’s moved into a small room alone: “When she’s not at her new job at Miller’s Department she stays holed up in that room chewing on Bayer aspirins.”

In addition to Lyndie’s troubled family situation, her best friend Dawn is dealing with the outcome of her own issues; Dawn’s family is taking in a boy named D.B. who’s just come from a reform school. Eventually, both Lyndie’s father and D.B. realize they cannot outrun their past, and that they instead must undertake the long, hard work of trying to recover.

This richly voiced story explores themes of PTSD, the hope of redemption and the importance of friends and family. Full of humor and insights, The True History of Lyndie B. Hawkins will give middle school readers much to think and talk about.

In the follow-up to her acclaimed debut, The Secret of Nightingale Wood, author Lucy Strange explores the harrowing history of England at the start of World War II through the eyes of a young, fearful girl.

Eleven-year-old Pet has grown up on the southeast coast of England with her mother, father and older sister, Mags. Her tight-knit family tends to their village’s lighthouse and has always led a quiet, happy life. But as the 1940s begin and the war moves ever closer, Pet’s beloved cliff tops turn from an idyllic place for a child to roam and play to a battleground of barbed wire and a target for bombings. As the war rages, everyone in her family seems to have a secret to hide, which strains their bonds when they need connection the most. Pet, a girl prone to freezing up in times of fear, will have to learn to be braver than she’s ever been if she hopes to untangle the mysteries shrouding her family. 

Set during one of the most momentous periods of world history, Our Castle by the Sea is a powerful novel, and the steady pace of the narrative will keep readers engrossed. Strange’s incorporation of coastal English folklore and legend adds a layer of depth to both the narrative and characters, making for a rich and immersive reading experience. At the heart of the story is Strange’s heroine, however unlikely, as well as her journey of growth and change during a time that absolutely necessitated it.

Reminiscent of both Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time and Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events, bestselling children’s author Margaret Peterson Haddix’s Greystone Secrets: The Strangers is the first installment in the author’s latest intricately written and emotionally resonant sci-fi series.

When the three young Greystone siblings—Chess, Emma and Finn—hear the news that three siblings on the other side of the country who share their exact first and middle names, as well as their birthdays, were kidnapped, they can’t help but find it odd. Then, when their mom goes on a “work trip” out of town the very next day, they become even more suspicious and take the investigation into their own hands.

As they dig around the house for clues, they soon discover a coded message from their mom that leads them to a hidden room in their basement. But as they’re padding around for answers to the mysteries, the Greystone siblings accidentally find themselves in a whole different, parallel world—one that’s eerily similar to their own but strange enough to be dangerous if they don’t stay smart and stick together.

Adventures, mysteries and puzzles abound, and Haddix’s high-concept middle grade novel deftly uses her understanding of young readers’ innermost thoughts and emotions to bring her characters to life as they learn the importance of trusting themselves—and each other—in order to survive.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our Q&A with Margaret Peterson Haddix.

In The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James, author Ashley Herring Blake (Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World  ) once again sensitively explores the intense emotions of adolescence.

In the aftermath of her heart transplant, 12-year-old Sunny decides to seize this second chance at life with gusto. But Sunny never could have imagined the adventures this new heart would afford her. First, there’s the reappearance of her missing biological mother, Lena, who left Sunny in the care of Lena’s friend Kate eight years earlier. But Lena exhibits little of the vigilant love that pours from Kate, and many of Sunny’s big questions about Lena remain unanswered. Then there’s the heartache lingering from Sunny’s former best friend’s betrayal. But this particular problem may be assuaged by the arrival of Quinn, a bright girl who cheerfully signs on as Sunny’s new BFF. 

This leads to the third big issue in Sunny’s life: kissing. Sunny is keen to have her first kiss. The problem is, she doesn’t like any of the boys she knows. When she dreams of that first kiss, Sunny dreams of kissing a girl.

Sunny is deeply reflective on the pain of parental abandonment and the taboo surrounding same-sex attraction, and she expresses her thoughts through song lyrics that she scatters about town. Her journey of self-discovery is authentic, peppered with fear and daring, mistakes and triumphs. This is a lovely novel for young readers who are exploring their own sexual orientations, as it honestly examines both the social risks and the happy potential for self-acceptance and romance. 

Debut author Aida Salazar’s The Moon Within is an important coming-of-age tale of a girl learning about her changing body and all of the questions and revelations that come along with it. 

Celi Rivera is a mixed-race girl with black, Puerto Rican and Mexican heritage, and she’s on the brink of womanhood. She’s dealing with her first attraction to a boy, her best friend’s questions about gender identity and, most infuriatingly, her mother’s insistence that she participate in a moon ceremony when her first period arrives. Celi prefers to keep her journey private, but her mother can’t understand why Celi doesn’t want to celebrate these exciting changes with her community. Soon, a rift forms between mother and daughter, but can the two find some common ground and mark this event in a way that honors both of their wishes?

Salazar’s use of verse in this story adds a layer of raw emotion and honesty that makes the reading experience all the more poignant. The Moon Within is both unique and universal, relatable to women and girls everywhere and singular in its context within Latinx culture. Salazar handles this story with beauty and grace, giving young girls a picture of what it means to stand in your own power and reclaim your own story. 

Actor Thomas Lennon—who has appeared in TV’s “Reno 911!” and films such as Memento—and acclaimed illustrator John Hendrix (The Faithful Spy) have teamed up for a rollicking new fantasy adventure series.

Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles follows 14-year-old Ronan, a new recruit in a secret unit of the Irish police focused on the crimes of leprechauns. Ronan’s parents have been jailed for theft, but Ronan is convinced they were framed by the faerie folk. Overcoming his own shortcomings (severe food allergies, social awkwardness), Ronan sets out to prove his parents are indeed the innocent, bookish curators they claim to be.

Humor wins out over drama here, and Hendrix’s detailed maps and full-page illustrations of Ronan’s exploits contribute to the tongue-in-cheek nature of the tale. Footnotes that define Irish terms also add to the hilarity, but along with its high spirits and high jinks, Lennon’s debut novel is clearly rooted in an authentic love and appreciation of his Irish heritage. And best of all? Ronan survives to win a promotion just in time for his next adventure, which is sure to delight fantasy fans eager for a new hero.