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Margaret and her family move from the city to a suburb where she longs to fit in. As she struggles with growing up, she talks to God (does it matter if she’s Jewish or Christian?), finds new friends, and longs for a sign of growing up as she starts the 6th grade. Readers will empathize with Margaret in this contemporary classic.

Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship — the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be.

This book is part of the highly successful series that features Alex Rider, a British teenage spy. In this entry, Alex is weary of the dangerous spy life, but after he meets little Paul in the hospital, he is back at work.

Launched into the world of Hindu gods, Aru faces the Sleeper demon from the Lamp of Bharata—in her Spider-Man pajamas.

Nadira’s family has lived a law-abiding — but illegal — existence since arriving in the U.S. from Bangladesh years ago. During a post-9/11 crackdown, her father is discovered and the possibility of deportation hangs heavy over their lives.

By winning the state high school basketball championship in 1955, ten teens from an Indianapolis school meant to be the centerpiece of racially segregated education in the state shattered the myth of their inferiority. Anchored by the astonishing Oscar Robertson, a future college and NBA star, the Crispus Attucks Tigers went down in history as the first state champions from Indianapolis and the first all-black team in U.S. history to win a racially open championship tournament—an integration they had forced with their on-court prowess. From native Hoosier and award-winning author Phillip Hoose comes this true story of a team up against impossible odds, making a difference when it mattered most.

High school junior Audrey has had it with her boyfriend Evan, who spends more time with his band than with her. So she dumps him. Within a day, he’s written a song, “Audrey Wait,” which rockets to the top of the charts and makes Audrey a target of Evan’s fans. What is it like to have your whole life spelled out in a three-minute pop song?

“Ezra looks like any other sixth grader with faded jeans, turned around cap and a mess of chestnut curls. You see, my brother is like any other eleven-year-old except when he isn’t.“ This story follows 14-year-old Jenny as she describes her day-to-day life with her younger autistic brother, Ezra. Ezra can be both her best friend as well as her biggest obstacle to living a normal life, and Jenny often finds herself stuck worrying about her younger brother. Through taking care of Ezra and a very special school project, Jenny ends up learning about her own character and strengths, and a way to shine despite everything else.

Aang and friends must join together once again as the four nations’ tenuous peace is threatened in an impasse between Fire Lord Zuko and Earth King Kuei! As the world heads toward another devastating war, Aang’s friendship with Zuko throws him into the middle of the conflict.

Aya lives in the Ivory Coast in the late 1970s, before civil war decimated the country. This is a view of African life not often shown in contemporary fiction—an Africa not unlike the West, told through the eyes of three girlfriends deciding between marriage, men and career.

Babymouse may be a cartoon mouse, but she has experiences that will resonate with her tween audience: like friend drama, boring old school, and the social strata of those same friends and school.

Every Breedlove is a lawyer or soon will be, except Ivy Breedlove, who wants to be a historian, and her supposedly crazy Aunt Josephine who disappeared years ago. When Ivy’s Great Aunt Tib’s eyesight begins to fail, the responsibility of researching and writing the family history falls on Ivy, a task that she relishes. After learning that her Aunt Josephine is still alive, Ivy wants to find her. Relying on the expert skills of a wilderness guide named Mountain Mama, Ivy is led to Josephine’s log cabin in a remote area of the Adirondacks where she meets and gets to know her aunt while interviewing her for the family history. 

Josie, Nicolette, and Aviva are three very different girls who all meet the same bad boy with an irresistible knack for getting into their blood and under their skin. Will the choices they make and the paths they take lead them where they want to go?

Diego has gotten into trouble because of his temper before. But when he punches out a guy in school who was looking at him funny, he finds himself in juvenile court, facing the possibility of probation, or worse — juvenile jail. It’s only when Diego starts to open up to his probation officer that he begins to understand that the source of his anger is buried in his past — and to move beyond it, he needs to stop running from his personal demons.

While his father is in prison for treating a leader of the democracy movement, 15-year-old Chiko is drafted into the Burmese military. Trained to fight the rebel Karenni people, Chiko soon finds himself at the mercy of a young Karenni rebel fighter whose village was attacked by Burmese soldiers. Will the two remain enemies?

Annyrose narrates her adventurous saga of life with a Mexican Robin Hood-like bandit as she tries to find her brother who’s off trying to get rich during the California Gold Rush. Part historical fiction, part tall tale, Annyrose is sure to delight readers of all ages.

Eleven-year-old Rocco is an Italian immigrant who finds himself alone in New York City after he’s sold to a padrone by his poverty-stricken parents. While working as a street musician, he meets the boys of the infamous Bandits’ Roost, who teach him the art of pickpocketing. Rocco embraces his new life of crime—he’s good at it, and it’s more lucrative than banging a triangle on the street corner. But when he meets Meddlin’ Mary, a strong-hearted Irish girl who’s determined to help the horses of New York City, things begin to change. Rocco begins to reexamine his life—and take his future into his own hands.

Sebastian and Aneesa create a YouTube pizza making show. For the first time, Sebastian feels like he is in a judge free zone. Because Aneesa is new in town, she doesn’t know his secret…the terrible, horrific secret that he accidentally shot and killed his infant sister when he was four years old.

In 1983 during South Korea’s Fifth Republic, apolitical Kim Hyun Sook seeks refuge in books at college and finds herself hiding in a basement as the youngest member of an underground banned book club. 

Barnaby Grimes is a “tick-tock lad,” a messenger whose specialty is very fast deliveries, which he achieves by taking the most direct route over the rooftops otherwise known as “highstacking.” In Barnaby’s first adventure, his deliveries for the strange Dr. Cadwallader lead to his discovery of a monstrous secret. There are additional books in the series.

This short-story collection features tales of young Latinos in California who face real-life problems big and small, including making the baseball team. While baseball isn’t the focus of every story, the coming-of-age themes are relatable to any tween.

Filled with action, humor, and drama, this anthology compiles short stories, poems, even a play from young adult authors like Jerry Spinelli and Sue Corbett.

Before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947, Black athletes played in the Negro Leagues — on teams coached by Black managers, cheered on by Black fans, and often run by Black owners. Here is the riveting true story of the woman at the center of the Black baseball world: Effa Manley, co-owner and business manager of the Newark Eagles. Elegant yet gutsy, she cultivated a powerhouse team. Yet just as her Eagles reached their pinnacle, so did calls to integrate baseball, a move that would all but extinguish the Negro Leagues. On and off the field, Effa hated to lose. She had devoted her life to Black empowerment — but in the battle for Black baseball, was the game rigged against her? 

During World War II, Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps. Isolated and bored, baseball became a life and soul-saving pastime which successfully brought very different people together. Darkly hued illustrations evoke the difficulty of the time, based on the author’s family story. Spanish version available.