Filled with beautiful art and poignant prose, Cary Fagan’s latest middle grade novel is funny and touching in equal measure.

Hartley Staples hasn’t been interested in much of anything since his older brother, Jackson, ran away from home. With middle school graduation approaching and his final project—the topic of which must be something he’s passionate about—due, Hartley’s disinterest is becoming a bigger problem. Then one day, he spots a handmade postcard, signed only with the initials “g.o.” Soon he happens upon another postcard, and just like that he’s completely wrapped up in a mystery: Who is g.o.? How many postcards are out there? Why does g.o. make them, and what do they mean? As Hartley becomes more invested in g.o. and their story, he starts to reawaken to the world around him and begins to find a way forward in Jackson’s absence.

Fagan has crafted Hartley as both a kid dealing with the trials of adolescence and as an individual facing emotional trauma; he’s a character readers of all ages will relate to. All of Fagan’s characters feel fully realized, with unique voices that stir laughter, warmth and even heartache on every page. The Collected Works of Gretchen Oyster addresses family hardship, bullying and other serious topics, all while managing to maintain a sense of humor and hope even in the midst of pain. It will fill you up and make you believe in the healing power of art and human connection.

Tor Seidler, acclaimed author of A Rat’s Tale, revisits the theme of community in this New York City adventure of a hapless squirrel named Phoenix.

Snatched from his wooded New Jersey home by a hawk named Walter, Phoenix is dropped onto the hot tar of a Manhattan construction site, where he escapes with his life but loses most of his fur—including his beautiful bushy tail. Phoenix has always despised the “naked worm-tail” of the rat, along with the creatures sporting them, but now finds himself forced to look anew at his prejudices. As the days pass, Phoenix comes to appreciate the highly organized community of wharf rats that comes together to nurse him back to health. There’s P. Pandora Pack-Rat, the wise matriarch healer, as well as the kind and friendly Lucy and her literary brother, the aptly named Beckett, who’s teaching himself to read (and write) from the various newspapers and past issues of The New Yorker the rats collect for winter heating.

Phoenix’s climbing abilities and Beckett’s communication skills come in handy when the community is threatened by a developer intent on demolishing the pier. Phoenix and his new friends hatch a daring protest and attempt to dismantle the nearby electric substation. Can the community be saved? Can it rally support among humans? And when the opportunity arises, will Phoenix return to his own kind or decide to make his home on the Hudson River?

While young readers will be enthralled by Phoenix’s adventures, which are enhanced by Gabriel Evans’ delightful illustrations, Oh, Rats!, also offers lots of opportunities for discussion about being part of a community and how neighbors come together in times of crisis.

It’s finally the last day of school, but Leah has a long summer looming ahead, with no camp or vacation plans. With boredom starting from day one, she’s aimless in her attempts to stay afloat during the long, hot summer days. She sleeps in, wanders from the kitchen to the couch in pajamas and clicks through the TV channels.

One day, boredom gets the best of her, and she puts on actual clothes and leaves the house. At the nearby creek, she sees a girl with a beautiful mop of huge, curly red hair, lounging on a big rock. The girl looks luminous in the light, and Leah is at first afraid to speak. From a distance, Jasper breaks the ice, introducing herself and explaining that she’s new to the area. But there’s a lot about Jasper that Leah doesn’t know.

Grief plays a prominent role in both girls’ lives. They both have their own secrets, and only time will tell if their newfound friendship will be enough to withstand them. Author Laurel Snyder (Orphan Island) pens a gorgeous yet realistic story about the struggles that a friendship endures when secrets verge into dangerous territory.

Tackling issues of grief, homelessness, alcoholism and abuse, My Jasper June is appropriate for mature young teens. The issues are intense and the consequences realistic, but they’re handled sensitively, making the novel a good fit for readers ready to explore such themes.

Things aren’t real unless you can prove them—that’s what 12-year-old Addie thinks. At least, that’s what she thought until she reads the notebook that belonged to her twin brother, Amos. It’s filled with clues about the mysterious creature living in Maple Lake, where Amos drowned the winter before. In The Light in the Lake, the debut novel from Sarah R. Baughman, Addie is drawn back to the lake to discover its secrets and more about herself as well.

Addie and Amos spent much of their time at the lake—swimming, boating and fishing. But when Amos goes out on the lake too late in the winter, he falls through the ice and drowns before anyone can rescue him. Now, Addie’s parents want her to stay as far away from the lake as possible. However, when Addie is offered the chance to be a Young Scientist for the summer, researching the effects of pollution on Maple Lake, she can’t resist. Each day she spends at the lake, she learns more about the water, the mysterious creature her brother was investigating and who she really is.

Haunting, memorable and full of mystery, The Light in the Lake is a brilliant combination of beautiful, lyrical prose and a compelling, exciting story. Baughman has created complex characters with real, deep emotions and a picturesque setting that will make readers feel as if they are at Maple Lake with Addie.

The award-winning author of Rooftoppers and Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms, Katherine Rundell is no novice at penning romps of adventure, and The Good Thieves is sure to carry on her tradition of capturing the hearts and imaginations of readers of all ages.

Vita Marlowe has always longed for adventures, but they can be hard to come by, due to her small stature and a bout of polio as a young child. Well-meaning adults are always telling her to “slow down” and “take care.” So when her grandfather’s family estate is swindled away by Sorrotore, a powerful, crooked businessman, Vita doesn’t hesitate to throw all of her strength and wits into concocting a plan to get it back, no matter the danger.

Before long, she’s assembled a ragtag group of accomplices, among them a pickpocket, an aspiring acrobat and a gifted animal charmer. With their help, Vita feels ready to steal back what rightfully belongs to her grandfather and put the smile back on his face. But with Sorrotore and his minions lurking around every corner, will this group of unlikely vigilantes be able to pull off their heist while avoiding disaster?

Prohibition-era New York serves as a gritty and glittering backdrop for this story of family loyalty and moral thievery. Fast-paced and sharply written, with a generous dose of heart and humor, Rundell’s fifth novel will appeal to readers with a penchant for grand escapades, a strong sense of justice and a soft spot for the underdog.

A new book by Renée Watson, Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Award winner, is always a cause for celebration. In Some Places More Than Others, the Oregon-born Watson has penned a love letter to her adopted home of New York City where, in addition to writing, she serves as founder and executive director of I, Too, Arts Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to nurturing underrepresented voices in the creative arts.

Eleven-year-old Amara lives in Beaverton, Oregon, with her parents and a baby sister on the away. Amara is also eagerly anticipating her upcoming birthday and knows exactly what she wants: to accompany her father, a Nike executive, on a business trip to New York City. Amara wants to get to know her father’s family in Harlem. Her dad hasn’t talked to Grandpa Earl in 12 years, though he is close with his sister, Aunt Tracey. Amara has never even met her teenage cousins.

At first, Amara’s mother is against the trip, which isn’t the only point of tension between the two. Amara balks at the dresses her designer mom makes her wear. She’d much rather wear the new shoes her sports marketing dad can get. Her mother agrees to the trip when Amara begins a school assignment called the Suitcase Project, in which she must fill a suitcase with poems, objects and essays about her family. Amara’s mother also gives her a special task: to make sure that her dad and grandpa have some time alone to reconnect.

Amara’s first-hand discovery of black culture in Harlem is a revelation, as is the news that her father loved to write poetry in high school, something Grandpa Earl didn’t understand. Amara realizes that just as she is feeling pressure from her mother to be something she’s not, her own dad was pressured by Grandpa Earl to be someone he wasn’t. As Amara gets to know her family and the city, Watson expertly balances her heroine’s outward adventures with her inner exploration of identity, family heritage, black history and independence.

With an appealing narrator and a celebration of family and community, Some Places More Than Others is a story for all readers.

“If you want to live, you got to run, boy, run,” 12-year-old Sam Castine tells himself. He’s trapped deep in the Maine wilderness after trying to retrieve his forgotten cell phone during a frenzied, smoke-filled evacuation of his summer camp. With wildfires raging, Sam gets left behind in the confusion. He quickly realizes, “Use your brain or die, that’s the rule.”

Thankfully, this lively, engaging narrator has plenty of smarts, allowing him to carefully but quickly try to find his way to safety, especially with the help of an abandoned old Jeep that takes on a life of its own as it zips along a maze of narrow, rutty logging roads.

Action lovers will relish every word of Wildfire, the latest by Newbery Honor winner Rodman Philbrick, whose previous books include Freak the Mighty and Zane and the Hurricane. This new novel chronicles six nonstop days of danger that include not only fire and smoke but also encounters with a bear, moose, lightning and a pair of marauding arsonists on motorbikes.

Early in his misadventure, Sam finds a friend in 14-year-old Delphy Pappas, a camper left behind at a nearby girls’ camp. Their believable, deepening friendship is the icing on the cake of this page turner. Delphy is a likable, powerful young woman coming into her own, but she’s self-conscious of her size and height, especially at “Camp Fatness,” as she calls it.

Sam was sent to summer camp instead of foster care by a savvy, caring social worker while his loving but opioid-addicted mother tries to reclaim her life in rehab (a refreshing change of pace from many such characterizations). Meanwhile, Sam recalls the many camping and survival skills learned from his late father, killed in a tanker truck explosion in Afghanistan. He also contemplates the wise words of his social worker, reminding himself, “Mrs. Labrie says that’s what life is all about, learning how to deal with stuff you can't control.”

With Wildfire―reminiscent of Hatchet and the real-life saga Lost on a Mountain in Maine―Philbrick transforms a raging inferno into an impressively plotted escape story full of heart and soul.

Rooted in Filipino folklore, Lalani of the Distant Sea is the story of Lalani Sarita and her fantastical journey to save her mother and all the villagers who live on the island of Sanlagita.

Sanlagita exists at the foot of the wrathful Mount Kahana. The island’s long drought has caused all medicinal plants to stop growing, and rations are scarce. As a deep lover of stories, Lalani knows the island’s superstitions and legends—especially that of Ziva, a courageous young maiden who stowed away on a ship bound for Mount Isa, “where all of life’s good fortunes seem to be.” Years ago, Lalani’s father sailed away toward Isa as well, but like all Sanlagitan sailors, he never returned.

When her mother pricks her finger and falls ill, Lalani, remembering the ancient legends, knows that the juice from a flower on Mount Isa can save her mother and perhaps rescue the entire island. And so Lalani steals a boat and begins her quest.

Lalani’s atmospheric journey is filled with mythical creatures, deadly plants, island spirits and unexpected friends. The way is unclear, death is always near, and Mount Kahana casts a dark shadow. Lalani is weary and confused, bloody and battered, starving and dehydrated, but in these moments, readers see her bravery, humility and deep empathy. 

Newbery Medal winner Erin Entrada Kelly’s latest begins as a story of darkness, but beyond the shadow of Mount Kahana is light overflowing. Lalani reminds us that strength and skill may not be able to defeat darkness and restore light—but kindness, integrity and steadfast love can.

In the words of another Newbery winner, Madeline L’Engle, “Stories make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving,” and this one does just that.

Eleven-year-old Keda (short for Makeda), a songwriter who loves to sing and listen to jazz and the blues, draws readers right in to her heart-rending coming-of-age story. 

An African American girl adopted by white parents, Keda finds it hard to feel she belongs anywhere, except with her #ashyforlife best friend, Lena, who is also a black adoptee with white parents. For Keda, leaving Lena behind is the hardest part of relocating from Baltimore to Albuquerque with her family—that is, until her mother, who at first just seems passionate and moody, descends into depression, followed by a manic episode, and reaches her lowest point before getting help. She is ultimately diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Meanwhile, Keda struggles socially with racism from mean girls in her new town, as well as with the feeling that her 14-year-old sister, Eve, has outgrown her. The Georgia Belles, a group of women who appear to Keda in dreamlike visions, help resolve her feelings of being afloat and helpless, even as they sometimes taunt her with her fears or warn her of danger to come. Keda faces her struggles with a bold self-assurance that is refreshing to read, even as her story breaks readers’ hearts only to mend them again. 

The short chapters in For Black Girls Like Me are written in distinctive, lyrical prose, with poems interspersed throughout. Keda’s world is richly drawn and seamlessly presented in a strong, authentic voice. Her difficult experiences and emotions are deeply affecting, with just enough humor to carry readers through. This magnificent middle grade debut from Mariama J. Lockington is an absolute gift of a book. 

Piper has suddenly become homeless. After a long, sleepless night traveling by bus, the fifth grader finds herself spending hours in lines waiting for everything she used to take for granted: food, clothing, even a shower.

In a spot-on and unsentimental portrayal of homelessness, author Bobbie Pyron spins an engaging, moving tale about Piper’s family and an older homeless woman who suffers from bipolar disorder. Baby, the woman’s tiny but tenacious dog, brings them all together. Pyron’s understated style switches back and forth between Piper’s prose and the poetry of Baby’s “dog view” sensations.

When Piper joins the Firefly Troop at Hope House, she finds a lifeline. The Firefly Girls motto, “Let Your Light Shine,” propels Piper to persevere and to never give up hope. Whether it’s by being a good big sister, by showing respect to others whose lives are even more difficult than hers or by telling Baby’s story in front of an auditorium full of strangers to raise money, Piper’s actions will inspire young readers. 

As Piper attempts to reunite the homeless woman with the dog she holds dear, her own story is fraught with the same emotions faced by any young person thrust into a situation where little to nothing is within his or her control.

Fans of animal adventure stories will be especially glad they found Stay.

Alexa, age 9 ¾, and her group of friends are changed when a boy named Ahmet takes the seat at the back of the class. In this debut novel and British import, the classmates learn that this quiet boy is a refugee from Syria. Brendan the Bully and his gang try to terrorize Ahmet, other students spread rumors about him, and parents instill intolerance in their children by spewing disparaging remarks about him. Nevertheless, Alexa sets out not only to befriend this newcomer but also to understand what it means to be a refugee.

She starts with a list of questions, from why he had to leave his home country to what his favorite fruit is. But as Alexa learns more about Ahmet, including his arduous trek across countries and his separation from his family, she forms even more questions. And when Alexa discovers that England’s borders will soon close and Ahmet may never get to see his parents again, she gathers her friends to carry out “The Greatest Idea in the World,” a daring plan that involves contacting the queen for assistance.

Onjali Q. Raúf’s heartwarming story highlights the plight of young refugees around the world. To help children comprehend and empathize with Ahmet’s plight, the book offers additional information about refugees in the United States, refugee resettlement agencies and how refugees differ from migrants. Readers of all ages will appreciate the guided questions and discussion prompts to think about one’s own identity and place.

Twelve-year-old Ali Kensington has a slight problem telling the truth. She tells her classmates about her experience in the wild, eating bugs and surviving animal attacks. This is plausible because her dad, George Kensington, is Survivor Guy, star of a hit nature show. But unlike her older brother, Jake, Ali’s never actually been on set, let alone participated in the adventure. Instead, she reads as many nature and survival guides as she can, preparing for the day she’ll really need those skills.

Ali also has trouble telling the truth about more mundane things, like what’s happening in her parents’ marriage, which frustrates her best friend, Harper. But a fight over Ali’s little white lies takes a back seat when Ali’s dad, who’s supposed to watch her for the week, instead takes Ali and her brother into the Great Dismal Swamp to tape a family episode of “Survivor Guy.” Ali is terrified—and feels unready to truly test her survival knowledge—until she finds out the truth about Survivor Guy: There are lots of cameras, scripted scenes, stunt doubles, animal handlers, cushy trailers and even a professional chef. But when a wildfire burns through the swamp and Ali is left behind by a rescue helicopter, she has a chance to prove to herself and her family that she has the skills and confidence to be a survivor.

This fun and relatable story remixes the classic wilderness survival plot with reality TV and features a resourceful, complex female protagonist. A great middle grade summer read with STEM themes and solid character development, Survivor Girl will entertain and inspire.

M.G. Hennessey knows that some children lead tough lives. Her debut, The Other Boy, tackled what it’s like to be transgender, and her sophomore novel, The Echo Park Castaways, takes readers into the foster care system. Alternating perspectives follow Nevaeh, a black eighth-grader who dreams of becoming a doctor; Vic, a Salvadoran-American fifth-grader whose father was deported and who disassociates by assuming a spy persona; and Mara, a tiny Latinx third-grade girl with limited English skills. Together they live with widowed, overworked Mrs. K in her Echo Park, California, home. In this insightful story, their set routines are disrupted by the arrival of Quentin, who has Asperger’s.

When Quentin becomes adamant about seeing his sick mother, Vic takes on the challenge of Quentin’s reunion. When quiet Mara sneaks along, Nevaeh, the caregiver of the group, must find them and bring them back before their foster mother decides to kick them all out. It begins as a doomed trek filled with buses and unknown neighborhoods, but a string of unexpected joys, truths and one life-altering Ferris wheel ride weave through the day.

Hennessey tempers the harsh realities of these “castaways” with hope and love. While the four children know they’ll probably always be in the foster care system, they’re also held together by an unbreakable bond of support and family.