Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Fall 2024 To-Read List

Fall is officially here and while my schedule has gotten crazier than I had imagined it would this year, I have some hope that I’ll get to a few of these great middle grade books this season. I’m so excited to see books written by some big name in the middle grade world like Linda Sue Park, Polly Horvath, and Jasmine Warga. Plus, I’m absolutely excited to read The Bletchley Riddle written by both Ruta Sepetys AND Steve Sheinkin! And I love the chance to read new-to-me authors, so this fall is full of exciting books for middle grad readers. What are you excited to read this fall?

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Books on My Fall 2024 To-Read List

The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

Publication Date: October 8, 2024

Remember, you are bound by the Official Secrets Act…

Summer, 1940. Nineteen-year-old Jakob Novis and his quirky younger sister Lizzie share a love of riddles and puzzles. And now they’re living inside of one. The quarrelsome siblings find themselves amidst one of the greatest secrets of World War II—Britain’s eccentric codebreaking factory at Bletchley Park. As Jakob joins Bletchley’s top minds to crack the Nazi’s Enigma cipher, fourteen-year-old Lizzie embarks on a mission to solve the mysterious disappearance of their mother.

The Battle of Britain rages and Hitler’s invasion creeps closer. And at the same time, baffling messages and codes arrive on their doorstep while a menacing inspector lurks outside the gates of the Bletchley mansion. Are the messages truly for them, or are they a trap? Could the riddles of Enigma and their mother’s disappearance be somehow connected? Jakob and Lizzie must find a way to work together as they race to decipher clues which unravel a shocking puzzle that presents the ultimate challenge: How long must a secret be kept?

Gracie Under the Waves by Linda Sue Park

Publication Date: September 17, 2024

Inspired by her own experience, beloved author Linda Sue Park tells the story of a girl learning how to impact a cause she cares about while navigating the ups and downs of a sibling relationship and turning disappointment into opportunity.

Gracie loves snorkeling! She loves it so much, she convinces her parents to let her plan a family vacation to Roatán, Honduras, where they can all snorkel together. She even makes a new friend there. Now, if only her irritating little brother would leave her alone, everything would be perfect. Then Gracie hurts her leg, and all her carefully made plans start to come apart. Worse still, she learns the reef itself is in serious danger. Gracie wants to help the reef . . . but she’s just a kid. What can she do to make a difference? Fortunately, her new friend has a few ideas!

Kareem Between by Shifa Saltagi Safadi

Publication Date: September 10, 2024

Seventh grade begins, and Kareem’s already fumbled it.

His best friend moved away, he messed up his tryout for the football team, and because of his heritage, he was voluntold to show the new kid—a Syrian refugee with a thick and embarrassing accent—around school. Just when Kareem thinks his middle school life has imploded, the hotshot QB promises to get Kareem another tryout for the squad. There’s a catch: to secure that chance, Kareem must do something he knows is wrong.

Then, like a surprise blitz, Kareem’s mom returns to Syria to help her family but can’t make it back home. If Kareem could throw a penalty flag on the fouls of his school and home life, it would be for unnecessary roughness.

Kareem is stuck between. Between countries. Between friends, between football, between parents—and between right and wrong. It’s up to him to step up, find his confidence, and navigate the beauty and hope found somewhere in the middle.

The Library Girl by Polly Horvath

Publication Date: September 10, 2024

Essie has grown up in the public library, raised in secret by the four librarians who found her abandoned as a baby in the children’s department. With four mothers and miles of books to read, Essie has always been very happy living there.

But now that she is eleven, Essie longs for a little more freedom . . . and maybe a friend her own age. She seems to get her wish when her moms let her go by herself to the mall. On her second trip there, she meets G.E., a mysterious boy who looks so much like her she can’t help but think they may be twins. Maybe he was raised by four dads in the appliance section of the department store. Maybe his story is intertwined with hers, and their happy ending is as one big family. But as she gets to know G.E. better, she learns that nothing is as simple as it seems in her stories—not even her own past.

Lola by Karla Arenas Valenti

Publication Date: September 10, 2024

Ten-year-old Lola has always been touched by magic. In her Mexico City home, built around a towering tree, she is accustomed to enchanted blooms that change with the seasons, a sandbox that spits out mysterious treasures, and mischievous chaneques that scuttle about unseen by all but her. Magic has always been a part of her life, but now she must embrace the extraordinary as never before.

Ever since The Thing That Happened, Lola’s brother Alex has been sick. As his condition worsens, something begins eating away at the tree, causing its leaves and blossoms to crumble like ash. The two are related, Lola is sure of it, but how? Seeking a cure, she visits a grocery store oracle who bids her to follow the chaneques down one of their secret passages… into a hidden world.

Here in Floresta, a land of myths and monsters and marvels untold, lies the key to healing her brother. But the kingdom’s young queen stands in the way. Lola must use her wits and face her deepest fears if there’s any hope of saving Alex in time.

The Long Way Around by Anne Nesbet

Publication Date: September 10, 2024

During a hiking trip with their parents in the mountains of California, cousins Owen, Vivian, and Amy are finally allowed to camp for one night at a little lake all on their own. But when a massive earthquake blocks their return path, there’s only one way home: the long way around, through a wilderness filled with fierce animals, raging rivers, unstable weather, and high passes. The hardest challenges the cousins face, however, are the troubles they’ve brought with them: bold Vivian’s fear of starting middle school and of changes she can’t control, Owen’s lingering emotional scars from a car accident, and Amy’s desire to live in stories rather than in boring regular life.

Drawing on courage and humor, the cousins weather storms, make the most of dwindling rations, and face their deepest fears in order to bring each other safely home. This gripping contemporary novel from celebrated author Anne Nesbet is bursting with excitement, rich natural settings, and characters who will have readers rooting for them all the way.

Not Another Banned Book by Dana Alison Levy

Publication Date: September 10, 2024

No matter what was going on in Molly’s life at home, she always had book club at school. Whether she’s dealing with a death in the family or her parent’s breaking the news they want to move she is able to read a new book and escape life…even if it is just for a little bit.

But when someone anonymously notifies school boards about a controversial book in the classroom, her favorite teacher Ms. Lewsiton is suspended…and book club is a banned for the immediate future.

With weeks until graduation, Molly has never felt more lost. She knows she needs to do something–anything–to prove to everyone that the books they read with Ms. Lewsiton are more important than the adults may realize.

With her group of friends, Molly will fight to save her book club from writing their favorite author to protests on the football field. Molly will discover that standing up for what you believe in is only half the battle…but will she find she is fully ready to make a change for readers just like her?

A Strange Thing Happened In Cherry Hall by Jasmine Warga

Publication Date: September 10, 2024

A painting has been stolen…!

When Rami sees a floating girl in the museum, he knows he has seen her somewhere before. Then he realizes: She looks just like the girl in the painting that has gone missing. But how does her appearance connect to the theft?

Agatha the turtle knows—she has been watching from the garden. But she can’t exactly tell anyone…can she?

Will Rami, with the help of his classmate, Veda, be able to solve the mystery? The clues are all around them, but they’ll have to be brave enough to really look.

This is a whimsical, moving story about the universal desire to be seen and understood and how art can help us find connection, even when we are at our loneliest.

The Queen of Ocean Parkway by Sarvenaz Tash

Publication Date: September 3, 2024

Eleven-year-old Roya is the superintendent’s kid in her regal Brooklyn apartment building, so she knows pretty much everything there is to know about its residents. An aspiring reporter, she even hosts a secret podcast about the lives of the building’s tenants. It’s a good distraction from the problems in her own life.

But when Katya Petrov, one of her favorite tenants, goes missing, Roya discovers an eerie connection to Grandmother’s Predictions, an antique fortune-telling machine at Coney Island. “Grandmother” has been linked to multiple disappearances in the Petrov family over the last century. Now, with the help of a new friend who’s just moved in, it’s up to Roya to make her own headlines as she searches for Katya and attempts to break the Petrov curse once and for all.

Unsinkable Cayenne by Jessica Vitali

Publication Date: October 29, 2024

Cayenne and her family drift from place to place, living in their van. It hasn’t been a bad life—Cayenne and her mother birdwatch in every new location, they have a cozy setup in their van, and they sing and dance and bond over campfires most nights. But they’ve never belonged anywhere.

As Cayenne enters seventh grade, her parents decide to settle down in a small Montana town. Cayenne hopes that this means she will finally belong somewhere and make some friends. But it turns out that staying in one place isn’t easy at all.

As her social studies class studies the Titanic tragedy (the wreckage has just been discovered and her teacher is obsessed), Cayenne sees more and more parallels between the social strata of the infamous ship and her own life. Will she ever squeeze her way into the popular girls’ clique, even though they live in fancy houses on the hill and she lives in a tiny, rundown home with chickens in the front yard? Is it possible that the boy she likes actually likes her back? Can she find a way to make room for herself in this town? Does she really want to? Maybe being “normal” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.