
By Danielle Wilkinson
This fall season has an impressive lineup of middle grade releases featuring brilliant and fearless protagonists—including a vampire slayer trying to prevent a war, a spy who goes undercover to stop a terrorist attack, a boy who can talk to ghosts, and a girl fighting the discriminatory dress code at her school.
This list is by no means comprehensive, but we hope it helps you keep an eye out for your next new read!
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September Releases
Key Player by Kelly Yang (Chinese American author & protagonist)
Release date: September 6, 2022 | Scholastic
Description: The Women’s World Cup coming to Southern California, everyone is soccer-crazy—especially Mia Tang! As Mia aims for her goals, she’ll have to face prejudice, discrimination, and her own fears.
ISBN: 9781338776256
Release date: September 6, 2022 | Balzer + Bray
Description: A sweetly spooky ghost story about a Cuban American boy who befriends a pair of spirits and tries to break the curse on his island home . . . only to discover a seemingly lost piece of his family’s history in the process.
ISBN: 9780063134812
Release date: September 6, 2022 | Nancy Paulsen Books
Description: The powerful story of an eleven-year-old Black boy determined to stand up for his rights, who’s pulled into the action of the 1963 civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama.
ISBN: 9780593407486
Release date: September 6, 2022 | Bloomsbury Children’s
Description: A story about a young Black girl who summons the courage to fight against a discriminatory dress code—and stand up for herself.
ISBN: 9781547608461
Release date: September 6, 2022 | Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Description: A young girl who stumbles into a magical realm ruled by a wicked witch is a haunting and ultimately uplifting middle grade novel about grief, family, and decades-old magic.
ISBN: 9781665904476
Release date: September 6, 2022 | Katherine Tegen Books
Description: After Tony’s best friend Dante is killed by a police officer, Tony tries to carry on Dante’s legacy by making the Sabres, the AAU basketball team Dante took to two national championships.
ISBN: 9780063069596
Release date: September 6, 2022 | Kokila
Description: “You can be my boyfriend.” It only takes five words to change Güero’s life at the end of seventh grade. A bittersweet first-love story in verse and the highly anticipated follow-up to They Call Me Güero.
ISBN: 9780593462577
Release date: September 6, 2022 | Knopf Books for Young Readers
Description: A boy and his family must decide whether to remain in Cuba under a repressive government or risk everything for the chance of a new beginning.
ISBN: 9780593372791
Release date: September 6, 2022 | Rick Riordan Presents
Description: A pre-teen Ghanaian vampire slayer gets shipped to Maryland, where she gets a taste of normal life—until a deadly shapeshifting vampire known as an adze infiltrates her school.
ISBN:
Release date: September 6, 2022 | Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Description: An upper middle grade contemporary story of survival and grief about two cousins whose resilience is tested when one of them is lost at sea.
ISBN: 9780374389659
Release date: September 13, 2022 | Random House Books for Young Readers
Description: One girl takes on seventh grade while facing mental health challenges, and must find her voice to advocate for the help and understanding she deserves.
ISBN: 9780593563977
Release date: September 13, 2022 | Inkyard Press
Description: Maud has grown up in a house made of gingerbread, wanting nothing more than to be a witch like Mother Agatha.
ISBN: 9781335426864
Release date: September 13, 2022 | Lantana
Description: Twelve-year-old Bela has always dreamed about becoming a famous Bollywood star, and now the opportunity might finally be within her grasp.
ISBN: 9781913747909
Release date: September 16, 2022 | Quill Tree Books
Description: A coming-of-age middle grade graphic novel that follows an autistic girl who finds friendship where she least expects it and learns to express her true self in a world where everyone defines her by her differences.
ISBN: 9780063081192
Release date: September 20, 2022 | Versify
Description: A historical fantasy in which young Ziva will do anything to save her twin brother Pesah from his illness—even facing the Angel of Death himself.
ISBN: 9780358572039
You Only Live Once, David Bravo by Mark Oshiro (Latinx/LGBTQIA+ author & protagonist)
Release date: September 20, 2022 | HarperCollins
Description: A time-bending adventure with David and talking, shapeshifting dog Fea as they attempt to fix David’s life and end up on a quest that may lead them to answers in the most unexpected places.
ISBN: 9780063008151
Release date: September 20, 2022 | Bloomsbury Children’s
Description: In the world of the Vanquishers, vampires were history . . . until now. Malika “Boog” Wilson and her best friends revive the legendary vampire hunting group after one of their friends goes missing.
ISBN: 9781547609772
Release date: September 20, 2022 | HarperCollins
Description: An irresistible younger middle grade novel about a girl who introduces her class to the art of mehndi for International Day.
ISBN: 9780063206236
Release date: September 27, 2022 | Peachtree
Description: Evelyn strives for excellence. Allie couldn’t care less. Together, these polar opposites must work together if they have any hope of saving their school’s robotics program.
ISBN: 9781682634844
Release date: September 27, 2022 | Knopf Books for Young Readers
Description: A boy from the hood in Brooklyn travels to a STEM camp in an Appalachian holler for one epic, life-changing summer.
ISBN: 9781524701284
Release date: September 27, 2022 | HarperCollins
Description: A debut middle grade novel-in-verse about Rain, who must overcome sadness after her all-star brother is badly beaten up at a frat party.
ISBN: 9780063159730
Release date: September 27, 2022 | Bloomsbury Children’s
Description: Renée Watson continues her young middle grade series starring Ryan Hart, a girl who is pure spirit and sunshine.
ISBN: 9781547609093
October Releases
Undercover Latina
Release date: October 4, 2022 | Candlewick
Description: A Latina teen spy goes undercover as a white girl to stop a white supremacist terrorist plot in a fast-paced middle-grade debut from a seasoned author of contemporary crime fiction.
ISBN: 9781536223743
Release date: October 4, 2022 | HarperCollins
Description: Twelve-year-old Shad Hadid is an aspiring baker whose life is uprooted when he discovers he’s descended from a long line of alchemists and sent to the mysterious Alexandria Academy.
ISBN: 9780063094819
Release date: October 4, 2022 | Rick Riordan Presents
Description: Fourteen-year-old Renata Santiago is the most powerful godborn of them all, a bruja with the ability to manipulate shadows and a magical rope that controls time.
ISBN: 9781368066563
Release date: October 4, 2022 | Norton Young Readers
Description: This exhilarating and playful middle grade adventure novel rockets through space on an epic quest to protect the galaxy.
ISBN: 9781324030775
Release date: October 4, 2022 | Crown Books for Young Readers
Description: In this joyfully illustrated memoir, author-illustrator Abigail Balfe recounts her journey growing up autistic and the challenges of navigating the “normal” world around her.
ISBN: 9780593566459
Release date: October 11, 2022 | Lantana
Description: 12-year-old Mwikali is moving to a new school in Nairobi and just wants her life to be normal. But when she learns she is descended from an ancient bloodline of legendary Kenyan warriors, all hope of a normal life fades.
ISBN: 9781913747930
Release date: October 11, 2022 | Balzer + Bray
Description: A gay Indian American boy, the voice actor of a hit animated series, learns the power of using his own voice after his family moves to a small town in Ohio.
ISBN: 9780063091924
Release date: October 11, 2022 | Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Description: A middle grade contemporary fantasy in which a twelve-year-old girl grieves the loss of her beloved grandma and attempts to contact her beyond the grave.
ISBN: 9780374313777
Release date: October 18, 2022 | Clarion Books
Description: A funny, feminist, and queer contemporary middle grade debut that follows twelve-year-old loner Hazel Hill, who, after one of her classmates is harassed online, devises a plan to catch the school’s golden boy in the act.
ISBN: 9780358664703
Release date: October 18, 2022 | Orca
Description: Mia, a young Indigenous girl growing up in the 1980s, learns some hard lessons about friendship, family and cultural differences.
ISBN: 9781459835580
Release date: October 18, 2022 | First Second
Description: A middle grade graphic novel about Marlene, a young girl who stops straightening her hair and embraces her natural curls.
ISBN: 9781250259639
Release date: October 18, 2022 | Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Description: A magical middle grade debut, inspired by Filipino folklore, about a ten-year-old girl who embarks on a quest in the world of gods and spirits to save her and her family from a sinister shadow god.
ISBN: 9780374389093
Release date: October 25, 2022 | Crown Books for Young Readers
Description: A neurodiverse twelve-year-old girl is shown an amazing new technology that gives her another chance to talk to the best friend she lost.
ISBN: 9780593562994
Release date: October 25, 2022 | Quill Tree Books
Description: In this modern graphic novel retelling of Anne of Green Gables from graphic novelist Kathleen Gros, foster kid Anne Shirley finally lands in a loving home and befriends a girl who she may have more-than-friends feelings for.
ISBN: 9780063057654
Release date: October 25, 2022 | Dial Books
Description: A farm-working girl with big dreams meets activist Dolores Huerta and joins the 1965 protest for workers’ rights in this tender-hearted middle grade novel in verse.
ISBN: 9780593406601
November Releases
Release date: November 8, 2022 | Labyrinth Road
Description: In a magical medieval world filled with dragons, shape-shifters, and witches, a twelve-year-old hero will search for their place as an impending war threatens. A thrilling middle-grade series opener that stars a nonbinary tween and explores identity and gender amid sword fights.
ISBN: 9780593485774
Release date: November 8, 2022 | Clarion Books
Description: This swift, gripping novel captures not only the uncertainty and panic when COVID first emerged in Wuhan, but also how a community banded together.
ISBN: 9780358572053
Release date: November 8, 2022 | Random House Books for Young Readers
Description: When an extraordinary flying theme park arrives above Atlanta, one boy must stop a sinister force from stealing the park’s tech and taking over the world.
ISBN: 9780593479421
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