Archives de catégorie : Middle Grade

THE BLOODSTONE THIEF de Sabina Khan

Inspired by Islamic mythology, this hilarious and richly-woven middle-grade fantasy sparkles with humour, magic, friendship, and heart—perfect for fans of Skandar and the Unicorn Thief and Percy Jackson.

THE BLOODSTONE THIEF
by Sabina Khan
Scholastic, September 2025
(via Writers House)

Laila Habib is having the worst birthday ever, as she’s just discovered that her family’s two-year stay in Houston, Texas, is going to be extended . . . indefinitely. With one foot in her current life and one foot back in her old home in Mumbai, she doesn’t feel like she truly belongs anywhere.

But her day only gets worse from there. Opening up what she thinks is a hidden birthday present, Laila unleashes an evil jinn from a magical amulet. Trapped there long ago by Laila’s father, the jinn is eager for revenge, and drags Laila’s father back to the magical world of Qaf.

To save her father, Laila must travel to Qaf, where she discovers that there’s only one hope for freeing him. She must find the Bloodstone, an object that gives the holder absolute power. But doing so will require a quest that changes everything Laila ever thought she knew about who she is, what she believes, and who she can trust. Not fully belonging in the jinn world or our own, Laila has to create her own community, forge friendships, and fight for her family-no matter who or what they are.

Sabina Khan is the author of The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali (Scholastic, 2019). She is an educational consultant and a karaoke enthusiast. After living in Germany, Bangladesh, Macao, Illinois and Texas, she has finally settled down in beautiful British Columbia, Canada, with her husband and three daughters, one of whom is a fur baby.

THE CHISMOSAS ONLY BOOK CLUB de Laekan Zea Kemp

Won in a highly competitive US auction, this special and beautifully written new series sits perfectly alongside classics like The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, The Babysitters Club, and The Princess Diaries. Follow Cat, Sofia, Mari and Ana as they embark on their first year of high school—each facing their own trials and tribulations, but always maintaining their fierce love for one another.

THE CHISMOSAS ONLY BOOK CLUB
by Laekan Zea Kemp
Putnam, Spring 2026
(via Writers House)

Catarina (AKA Cat) Rubio is the great-great-great-granddaughter of the namesake of the local enchanted bookstore Milagro’s Books, which her family still runs. As Cat and her friends begin 9th grade, Cat is inspired to begin The Chismosa’s Only Book Club to hold her best friends close. The book club is the perfect place for Cat and her friends to gossip about first kisses and stories with happy endings—but is it possible that her own family’s success story could be at risk? And when her family hires a new bookstore employee, does she need a new friend, or will other friends only get in the way?

Sofia has grown up closeted with her strict Catholic grandmother and loving but oblivious mother. High school feels like the first safe space for her, where she can be herself at last. Excited about finally being out, even if it’s only at school, Sofia joins Prism, the on-campus GSA club, where she meets the older, more mysterious girl of her dreams. But can she risk her grandmother finding out her truth?

Meanwhile, Mari and her mother, who is a truck driver, share sketches and stories while during the long stretches when work separates them. But there’s one secret Mari’s mother has never shared with her before, and when Mari learns the truth, her entire world comes apart at the seams. Mari’s sections will include black and white interior artwork.

The last member of this chaotic quartet is Ana, and she’s in need of an escape just as much as Mari is. Afflicted with Oldest-Daughter-Syndrome, Ana is carrying the weight of the world. She works at her family’s restaurant, cares for her ‘Lita and her younger siblings, and is a straight A student. But as her accomplishments continue to stack higher and higher, her worsening anxiety signals that it’s all about come crashing down.

The store—and Milagro, herself—is there to watch over Cat, Sofia, Mari and Ana as their lives grow and change—it’s Milagro who will guide the girls towards the stories they need the most, and who will help them hold each other close as their worlds shift and threaten to tear them apart.

Laekan Zea Kemp is a writer living in Austin, Texas. Her debut novel, Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet was a 2022 Pura Belpré Honor recipient and her most recent novel, An Appetite for Miracles won the Jean Flynn award for YA fiction. She has three objectives when it comes to storytelling: to make people laugh, cry, and crave Mexican food. Her work celebrates Chicane grit, resilience, creativity, and joy while exploring themes of identity and mental health.

SHERLOCK & YOU d’Andrew Lane

An interactive mystery series for middle grade in the world of Sherlock Holmes, for fans of Murdle.

SHERLOCK & YOU:
The Mystery of the Missing House
by Andrew Lane
Ravensburger Germany, November 2024
(via Randle Editorial & Literary Consultancy)

London, 2024. Something strange, odd, bizarre has happened, and nobody will believe you. Who do you turn to for help? Sherlock Holmes and Verity Watson, that’s who!

Sherlock Holmes is the 12-year-old descendent of the Great Detective, for whom he is named, and has inherited his forebear’s investigative skills. Verity Watson is the 13-year-olddescendent of the Great Detective’s best friend and confidant, Dr. John H. Watson, and has inherited her forebear’s willpower, conscience and ability to put up with Sherlock’s many quirks. Together they make a formidable team, living and working out of an abandoned tube train in a dusty and long forgotten London Underground station near Baker Street. Their clients find them based on recommendations from previous clients and from rumours circulating on social media about the last resort for kids faced with impossible situations.

Sherlock and Verity are helped out by the Baker Street Irregulars – a team of local Academy pupils in blazers and smart trousers who have set up their own internet data-mining and scientific analysis company operating out of their school IT and science suites without their teachers’ knowledge.

With each chapter finished with a fiendish puzzle, the reader can solve the crime through these puzzles along with Sherlock and his friends and become a great detective just like him! This is a new way into the marvellous, mystery-solving world of Sherlock for younger readers, in the vein of Murdle for kids.

Andrew Lane is the best-selling author of over forty books, including eight in the Young Sherlock Holmes middle-grade series (Macmillan Children’s Books) and four in the Agent Without Licence middle-grade series (Piccadilly Books). He has also written and ghostwritten adult novels as well as nonfiction books and audio scripts, and has worked extensively in the expanded licenced universe of BBC TV’s wildly popular series Doctor Who.

BEINONI de Mari Lowe

Full of characters that are courageous, smart, and full of heart, BEINONI is an action-packed adventure.

BEINONI
by Mari Lowe
Levine Querido, July 2025
(via Context Literary)

In a Beinoni time there should be no war, no terrible illness, no crime. Even if that also means there won’t be any great discoveries, any cures, anything extraordinary. Ezra believes that’s worth fighting for.

In fact, he’s been training most of his life to fight a battle to determine whether Beinoni time continues, or gives way to a more violent, less certain future. He is the Nivchar, the chosen one, with the sign of the scales on his skin. When he comes of age at his bar mitzvah, so too will the gurya, a fiery beast of uncertain form, emerging from a cave to conquer, destroy, and herald a time of conflict.

But Ezra begins to sense that something is very wrong. His friends, his neighbors, the whole world is losing the careful, even balance he’s come to expect in a Beinoni time. It was always uncertain whether he’d be able to best his terrifying, magical foe. But now, is it even possible?.

Mari Lowe has too little free time and spends it all on writing and escape rooms. As the daughter of a rabbi and as a middle school teacher at an Orthodox Jewish school, she looks forward to sharing little glimpses into her community with her books. Her debut middle grade novel, Aviva vs. the Dybbuk, was named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Kirkus, and is a Sydney Taylor Book Award winner. She lives in New York with her family, menagerie of pets, and robotic vacuum.

KINDRED DRAGONS de Sarah Mensinga

Anne of Green Gables meets How to Train Your Dragon in KINDRED DRAGONS, a middle-grade graphic novel about a brave young girl and the dragon whose life depends on her.

KINDRED DRAGONS (Book 1)
by Sarah Mensinga
Abrams Fanfare, October 2025

Alice has been unhappy ever since her parents sent her to Prince Edward Island to live with her strict grandmother. Alice is fanciful, prone to telling tall tales, and absolutely obsessed with dragons! Fairies deliver dragon eggs to a select few, known as Kindreds, but no egg has ever arrived for Alice.

While wandering the woods alone she finds and secretly befriends a mysterious, old dragon named Brim. Alice is excited to finally have a dragon friend of her own, but there’s something strange about him—he doesn’t have a Kindred. When Brim suddenly falls ill, Alice sets out on a desperate quest to save him.

As Alice searches for a cure, she discovers that her connection to dragons is unlike that of any Kindred—but will her new power be enough to save her friend?This heartfelt story of friendship, family, and learning to love who you are is perfect for readers who loved Snapdragon, Witch Boy, and the City of Dragons series.

Sarah Mensinga has illustrated several books, including Flipping Forward Twisting Backwards, the Trillium Sisters series, and the New York Times bestseller Different: A Great Thing to Be! Her short stories have appeared in comic anthologies such as Flight 4 and Flight 5, she’s published two indie novels, and she has also worked on a variety of animated movies and TV shows. Born in Canada, Sarah now lives in Texas with her husband and three kids.