25 Star Reviewed Middle Grade Titles

It’s been a busy week here on the blog – Wednesday I posted about the detriments of assigning books as “boy” or “girl” books and on Thursday I gave some great tips about booktalking/reader’s advisory and today I’m offering a list of titles that have receive at least one star review in the past year and a half. These titles would be a great starting point to suggest to middle grade readers looking for a new book to read. A side note: These are not all the star reviewed titles over the past two years, if you want to take a look at the comprehensive list, check out Jen J.’s Booksheets, where she has actually created a spreadsheet of all starred reviews from six different journals! It’s an amazing resource!

1. Clayton Byrd Goes Underground by Rita Williams-Garcia
2. The First Rule of Punk by by Celia C. Pérez
3. Beyond the Bright Sea by Lauren Wolk
4. Ghost by Jason Reynolds
5. It All Comes Down To This by Karen English
6. Real Friends by Shannon Hale
7. Refugee by Alan Gratz
8. Hello Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly
9. The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
10. All Faire’s In Middle School by Victoria Jamieson
11. The Stars Beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore
12. The Truth as Told by Mason Buttle by Leslie Connor
13. Be Prepared by Vera Brosgol
14. The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
15. The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
16. Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi
17. The Journey of Little Charlie by Christopher Paul Curtis
18. Out of Left Field by Ellen Klages
19. Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed
20. Bob by Wendy Maas and Rebecca Stead
21. Front Desk by Kelly Yang
22. Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake
23. The Cardboard Kingdom by Chad Sell
24. Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes
25. Betty Before X by lyasah Shabazz