Audiobooks for Middle Grade Readers

There are some wonderful benefits to listening to books being read aloud to us. I mean, let’s be honest, oral storytelling was a tool used for hundreds of years to share stories across generations. Check out this graphic to see all the amazing benefits that exist when stories are read aloud to kids.

One of the biggest things that parents can do while kids are growing up is to continue to read aloud, even when their children have started to read themselves. This past weekend my niece and nephew were in town and while my nephew is an excellent reader, as I was reading to his sister, I’d see him start to scooch over to hear the story and see the pictures too. Even though he can read himself, there’s something about being read aloud to that is very powerful.

Benefits of Audiobooks

Reading aloud increases fluency comprehension, it can also increase reading speed and expand vocabulary. When kids are read aloud to they can comprehend books that are two grade levels above their reading level. This means that some of these middle grade books might be appropriate for a 1st or 2nd grader to listen to. (Definitely take a look to make sure the content is age-appropriate for your reader!)

When to Listen

Audiobooks work really well in the car or during quiet time at home. They can even be played while kids are doing arts and crafts or building with blocks. You don’t have to be quietly sitting still to listen to an audiobook. My favorite time to listen to podcasts and audiobooks is when I’m out taking a walk around the neighborhood. I get the benefits of exercise and the enjoyment of reading while not tripping over anything since I’m using my ears and not my eyes.

If you’re looking for more great audiobooks, check out the Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production for Children and Young Adults. This award is presented annually by ALA and is a great place to begin when looking for audiobook suggestions. You can also check out the Notable Children’s Recordings book list with a lot of great book suggestions for readers up to 14 years old.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read the full disclosure for more information.

Audiobooks for Middle Grade Readers

Chinese Menu: The History, Myths, and Legends Behind Your Favorite Foods by Grace Lin

From fried dumplings to fortune cookies, here are the tales behind your favorite foods.

Do you know the stories behind delectable dishes—like the fun connection between scallion pancakes and pizza? Or how dumplings cured a village’s frostbitten ears? Or how wonton soup tells about the creation of the world?

Separated into courses like a Chinese menu, these tales—based in real history and folklore—are filled with squabbling dragons, magical fruits, and hungry monks. This book will bring you to far-off times and marvelous places, all while making your mouth water. And, along the way, you might just discover a deeper understanding of the resilience and triumph behind this food, and what makes it undeniably American.

Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan

Lost and alone in the forbidden Black Forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and suddenly finds himself entwined in a puzzling quest involving a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica. Decades later Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California each becomes interwoven when the very same harmonica lands in their lives, binding them by an invisible thread of destiny. All the children face daunting challenges: rescuing a father, protecting a brother, holding a family together. How their suspenseful solo stories converge in an orchestral crescendo will resound in your heart long after the last note has been struck.

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein

Kyle Keeley is the class clown, popular with most kids, (if not the teachers), and an ardent fan of all games: board games, word games, and particularly video games. His hero, Luigi Lemoncello, the most notorious and creative game maker in the world, just so happens to be the genius behind the building of the new town library.

Lucky Kyle wins a coveted spot to be one of the first 12 kids in the library for an overnight of fun, food, and lots and lots of games. But when morning comes, the doors remain locked. Kyle and the other winners must solve every clue and every secret puzzle to find the hidden escape route. And the stakes are very high.

Front Desk by Kelly Yang

Mia Tang has a lot of secrets.

Number one: She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, 10-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests.

Number two: Her parents hide immigrants. And if the mean motel owner, Mr. Yao, finds out they’ve been letting them stay in the empty rooms for free, the Tangs will be doomed.

Number three: She wants to be a writer. But how can she when her mom thinks she should stick to math because English is not her first language?

It will take all of Mia’s courage, kindness, and hard work to get through this year. Will she be able to hold on to her job, help the immigrants and guests, escape Mr. Yao, and go for her dreams?

Ghost by Jason Reynolds

Ghost has a crazy natural talent, but no formal training. If he can stay on track, literally and figuratively, he could be the best sprinter in the city. But Ghost has been running for the wrong reasons – it all starting with running away from his father, who, when Ghost was a very little boy, chased him and his mother through their apartment, then down the street, with a loaded gun, aiming to kill. Since then, Ghost has been the one causing problems – and running away from them – until he meets Coach, an ex-Olympic Medalist who blew his own shot at success by using drugs, and who is determined to keep other kids from blowing their shots at life.

Invisible by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

How can you be yourself when no one sees the real you?

Five students meet in the school cafeteria when they’re forced to complete their school community service hours.

There’s George: the brain

Sara: the loner

Dayara: the tough kid

Nico: the rich kid

And Miguel, the jock. They immediately know that they have nothing in common with each other… even though their school administration has decided that they all belong together.

None of the kids wants to be there, and each has their own issues they’re dealing with in their life outside of school. But when they encounter someone who truly needs their help, they might just be able to come together to work as a team—and help their community—after all.

Mexikid by Pedro Martín

Pedro Martín has grown up hearing stories about his abuelito—his legendary crime-fighting, grandfather who was once a part of the Mexican Revolution! But that doesn’t mean Pedro is excited at the news that Abuelito is coming to live with their family. After all, Pedro has 8 brothers and sisters and the house is crowded enough! Still, Pedro piles into the Winnebago with his family for a road trip to Mexico to bring Abuelito home, and what follows is the trip of a lifetime, one filled with laughs and heartache. Along the way, Pedro finally connects with his abuelito and learns what it means to grow up and find his grito.

The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity by Nicholas Day

On a hot August day in Paris, just over a century ago, a desperate guard burst into the office of the director of the Louvre and shouted, La Joconde, c’est partie! The Mona Lisa, she’s gone!

No one knew who was behind the heist. Was it an international gang of thieves? Or was it an art-hungry American millionaire? Was it the young Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, who was about to remake the very art of painting?

Travel back to an extraordinary period of revolutionary change: turn-of-the-century Paris. Walk its backstreets. Meet the infamous thieves—and detectives—of the era. And then slip back further in time and follow Leonardo da Vinci, painter of the Mona Lisa, through his dazzling, wondrously weird life. Discover the secret at the heart of the Mona Lisa—the most famous painting in the world should never have existed at all.

The Next Great Paulie Fink by Ali Benjamin

When Caitlyn Breen enters the tiny Mitchell School in rural Mitchell, Vermont, she is a complete outsider: the seventh grade has just 10 other kids, and they’ve known each other since kindergarten. Her classmates are in for a shock of their own: Paulie Fink – the class clown, oddball, troublemaker, and evil genius – is gone this year.

As stories of Paulie’s high jinks unfold, his legend builds, until they realize there’s only one way to fill the Paulie-sized hole in their class. They’ll find their next great Paulie Fink through a reality-show-style competition, to be judged by the only objective person around: Caitlyn, who never even met Paulie Fink. Who was this kid, anyway – prankster, performance artist, philosopher, or fool? Caitlyn’s quest to understand Paulie is about to teach her more about herself than she ever imagined.

Told via multiple voices, interviews, and other documents, The Next Great Paulie Fink is a lighthearted yet surprisingly touching exploration of how we build up and tear down our own myths…about others, our communities, and ourselves.

Omar Rising by Aisha Saeed

Omar knows his scholarship to Ghalib Academy Boarding School is a game changer, providing him – the son of a servant – with an opportunity to improve his station in life. He can’t wait to experience all the school has to offer, especially science club and hopefully the soccer team; but when he arrives, his hopes are dashed. First-year scholarship students aren’t allowed to join clubs or teams – and not only that, they have to earn their keep doing menial chores.

At first, Omar is dejected – but then he gets angry when he learns something even worse – the school deliberately “weeds out” kids like him by requiring them to get significantly higher grades than kids who can pay tuition, making it nearly impossible for scholarship students to graduate. It’s a good thing that in his favorite class, he’s learned the importance of being stubbornly optimistic. So with the help of his tightknit new group of friends – and with the threat of expulsion looming over him – he sets out to do what seems impossible: Change a rigged system.

Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry

In an evocative and fast-paced adventure on the high seas and on a faraway island, an orphan boy named Peter and his mysterious new friend, Molly, overcome bands of pirates and thieves in their quest to keep a fantastical secret safe and save the world from evil.

This riveting adventure takes listeners on a journey from a harsh orphanage in old England to a treacherous sea in a decrepit old tub. Aboard the Never Land is a trunk that holds a magical substance with the power to change the fate of the world – just a sprinkle and wounds heal; just a dusting and people can fly. Towering seas and a violent storm are the backdrop for battles at sea. Bone-crushing waves eventually land our characters on Mollusk Island – where the action really heats up.

Sisters of the Lost March by Lucy Strange

On a poor farm surrounded by marshlands, six sisters—Grace, Willa, Freya, and triplets Deedee, Darcy, and Dolly—live in fear of their father and the superstition that haunts him: The Curse of the Six Daughters. Their beloved grandmother tries to protect them, but the future seems bleak.

When the Full Moon Fayre makes a rare visit to Hollow-in-the-Marsh, the girls slip out to see the famous Shadow Man, an enigmatic puppeteer. Afterwards, oldest sister Grace is missing.

Following the Full Moor Fayre into the Lost Marsh, Willa will have to battle her inner doubts and the legends that have haunted her family. Can she save her sister from one fate, and outrun her own?

The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Nine-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute – she sneaks out to join him.

So begins a new adventure of Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take the two kids in. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read, and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan – and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie. But in the end, will their bond be enough to hold them together through wartime? Or will Ada and her brother fall back into the cruel hands of their mother?

When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed

Omar and his younger brother, Hassan, have spent most of their lives in Dadaab, a refugee camp in Kenya. Life is hard there: never enough food, achingly dull, and without access to the medical care Omar knows his nonverbal brother needs. So when Omar has the opportunity to go to school, he knows it might be a chance to change their future…but it would also mean leaving his brother, the only family member he has left, every day.

Heartbreak, hope, and gentle humor exist together in this graphic novel—now adapted for audio—about a childhood spent waiting, and a young man who is able to create a sense of family and home in the most difficult of settings. It’s an intimate, important, unforgettable look at the day-to-day life of a refugee, as told to New York Times best-selling author/artist Victoria Jamieson by Omar Mohamed, the Somali man who lived the story. This audiobook is performed by a full cast and includes music and special effects.

Wink by Rob Harrell

Ross Maloy just wants to be a normal seventh grader. He doesn’t want to lose his hair, or wear a weird hat, or deal with the disappearing friends who don’t know what to say to “the cancer kid”. But with his recent diagnosis of a rare eye cancer, blending in is off the table.

Based on Rob Harrell’s real life experience, this incredibly personal and poignant novel is an unforgettable, heartbreaking, hilarious, and uplifting story of survival and finding the music, magic, and laughter in life’s weirdness.