7 of Our Favorite Middle Grade Books Featuring Characters On the Autism Spectrum

Al Capone Does My Shirts, by Gennifer Choldenko
When his father decides to take a job at Alcatraz in the 1930’s, Moose Flanagan’s life is uprooted when his family moves to the island, to live on the prison grounds with some of history’s most dangerous criminals. The story also explores Moose’s relationship with his autistic older sister, Natalie, and captures what it’s like for him to be the neurotypical sibling.

Mockingbird, by Kathryn Erskine
After Caitlin’s brother is killed in a school shooting, Caitlin struggles to make sense of a world that isn’t as black and white as she would like. As she searches for closure, we gain insight into her world and how she sees it, as we root for her to find what she needs to cope in this National Book Award-winning novel.

The Real Boy, by Anne Ursu
This sophisticated and mesmerizing fantasy tells the story of Oscar, a shop boy who works for a powerful magician. Oscar prefers the small and intimate world he’s created in the dark cellar of the shop, but his world changes when children in the village begin falling ill.

Rain Reign, by Ann M. Martin
Rain Reign is the story of Rose, a girl who loves homonyms, precision, routines, and rules, even if her father and teachers don’t quite understand her habits and behaviors. When her dog, Rain, goes missing during a storm, Rose must break out of the world she knows in order to find him.

A Whole New Ballgame, by Phil Bildner
For best friends, Rip and Red, their expectations for fifth grade are turned upside down by their teacher and basketball coach, Mr. Acevedo, who doesn’t believe in tests or homework and assigns them wacky projects that knock them out of their comfort zones. The novel explores their friendship and how they help one another survive the year.

Rogue, by Lyn Miller-Lachmann
Thirteen year old Kiara has a hard time getting along with her peers and relies on the internet to answer all kinds of questions (even if it can’t answer the most important question she has: how do kids with Asperger’s syndrome make friends?). Wishing she could be more like her favorite superhero, Rogue, she tries to navigate a new friendship with a boy who moves in across the street and discovers the X-Men super power she’s been trying to find all these years.

Counting by 7’s, by Holly Goldberg Sloan
Willow is a twelve-year-old genius obsessed with nature and diagnosing medical conditions, who finds comfort in counting by 7’s. Like Caitlin in Mockingbird, Willow is also coping with a tragedy. When her adoptive parents die in a car crash, she must figure out how she fits into the world they leave behind.