9 Amazing Middle Grade Coming of Age Novels

Property of the Rebel Librarian, by Allison Varnes
Twelve-year-old June Harper is a good kid who follows all the rules. She plays flute in honors band and loves hanging out at the library to read. But when June’s mom and dad discover what they deem is an inappropriate library book, they lay down the law. The administration follows through and there’s a massive book ban at Dogwood Middle School. Along the way, in this debut novel, June spies a Little Free Library and starts a banned book library of her own in an abandoned locker at school.

Merci Suárez Changes Gears, by Meg Medina
Merci Suárez knew sixth grade would be different, but little did she know how different. She and her older brother are scholarship students which means they don’t have a lot in common with the other kids at her private school in Florida. Their house isn’t big or fancy, and they have to do extra community service to make up for their free tuition. When girl named Edna sets her sights on the new boy who happens to be Merci’s school-assigned “buddy,” Merci becomes the target of Edna’s jealousy. To make matters worse, her grandfather has dementia, although she doesn’t yet have a name for it because “no one in her family will tell Merci what’s going on with him.”

The Third Mushroom, by Jennifer L. Holm
This is the sequel to The Fourteenth Goldfish, one of my favorite MG novels, and it’s based in the Bay Area where I grew up. I laughed at the first line: “Maybe it’s because I’m an only child, but my parents have always been a little obsessed with my eating.” Once again, readers meet Ellie’s grandpa Melvin, a world-renowned scientist who lives in the body of a 14-year-old boy. When he and Ellie team up for the county science fair, no one realizes just how groundbreaking their experiment will be.

Otherwood, by Pete Hautman
Years later, people still talked about it.

24 Hours in Nowhere, by Dusti Bowling
Welcome to Nowhere, Arizona, the least livable town in the United States. The question is: when you come from Nowhere, can you ever really make it anywhere? Especially of you’re 13-year-old Gus and you’ve always felt like an outcast. This novel brings readers to the desert, where a teen boy dreams of getting out and going to college. It’s a story of friendship, hope, and finding the power you have within you.

The Eleventh Trade, by Alyssa Hollingsworth
Twelve-year-old Sami and his grandpa are Afghan refugees who recently arrived in Boston with their prized musical instrument: a rebab. When the rebab is stolen from them in a subway station, Baba loses his source of income. They say you can’t get something for nothing, but nothing is all they have. Sami resolves to get the instrument back. He finds it at a music store, but it costs $700, and Sami doesn’t have even one cent. What he does have is a keychain that caught a classmate’s eye. If he trades the keychain for something more valuable, could he keep trading until he has $700? In this debut novel, Sami is about to find out.

The Crossroads, by Alexandra Diaz
In this sequel to Diaz’s The Only Road, Jaime Rivera thinks the worst is over. After leaving Guatemala and crossing Mexico into the United States, he thinks that starting a new school can’t be that bad. Except it is, and not just because he can barely speak English.” While his cousin Ángela fits in quickly, Jaime struggles with even the idea of calling this strange place “home.” This is a story about what home means as life as an undocumented immigrant in the United States.

Squirm, by Carl Hiaasen
This is Hiaasen’s 14th novel! Like in his stories Hoot and Chomp, readers head off on a wild adventure. This one is led by Billy Dickens, who has lived in six different towns in Florida because his mom insists on getting a house near a bald eagle nest. Billy’s dad left when he was four years old, and recently, Billy found his dad’s address—in Montana—which is why Billy decides to fly across the country to find him. On the way, he’ll hike a mountain, float a river, dodge a grizzly bear, shoot down a spy drone, save a neighbor’s cat, save an endangered panther, and then try to save his own father.

Unbelievable Boring Bart, by James Patterson and Duane Swierczynski
Bart’s secret identity might shock the world—because he’s the boring new kid at middle school. The only time kids notice him is when he’s being bullied. But Boring Bart has a not-so-boring secret: he’s an alien hunter. In other words, Bart is a hero in the video game app he created. If he reveals his identity as the genius behind the game, he could become the most popular kid in school. Or, he could secretly use the game to get back at his bullies.