25 New Chapter Books for Tweens and Middle Grade Readers Not to Miss in 2025

A Wolf Called Fire
by Rosanne Parry

Warm is the smallest pup, the one his father calls the heart of the pack. But all Warm sees is his bigger brothers Sharp and Swift, even his sisters Pounce and Wag, winning all the wrestling matches. Just as Warm is finding his place, enemy wolves destroy and scatter the pack.

Warm helps lead the pups away from the fight, only to find himself alone with four pups to defend and feed. Can he be both the heart and the head of a new pack? Does he have to choose the aggressive leadership style of his father and brothers? Or is there another way?

The Land of Lost Things
by Andy Griffith
Illustrated by: Bill Hope

Hey, you and me sure have had a lot of amazing adventures together, haven’t we?

Remember the time we flew to the moon without a rocket? And remember the time we went to the bottom of the ocean and fought a high-voltage giant octopus? And how about the time we got lost in The Land of Lost Things?

What? You don’t remember? Really? Well, let me refresh your memory. It all started like this…

All Ears
by Stuart Gibbs

When a herd of elephants interrupts the big Friday night football game, the police enlist Teddy and his father to assist them in getting the animals safely back home to the elephant sanctuary.

Only when they arrive, their owners realize one of the elephants has gone missing! The lone African elephant, Tanzy, is still out there somewhere.

Then Teddy’s best friend, Xavier, is accused of vandalizing a bulldozer in protest of a builder ruining a beloved piece of land they call TurtleTown.

Teddy is torn. His best friend needs him but so does Tanzy. Can Teddy crack both cases before someone gets hurt?

Penny Draws a Team Sport
by Sara Shepard

When fifth grader Penny Lowry’s school announces an upcoming charity pickleball tournament, she doesn’t know what to think.

On the one hand, all her friends are joining the team and she doesn’t want to feel left out. But on the other hand, Penny’s never been particularly athletic.

What if it turns out she’s terrible at pickleball? What if she lets her teammates down?

Things get even more stressful when a local news channel announces they’ll be covering the tournament, giving Penny something new to worry about: what if she embarrasses herself on live TV?

It’s all a lot to handle, but luckily Penny has her right hand dog Cosmo, her best friends, and her love of drawings to get her through!

Related: Penny Draws Series in Order

The Rise of the Sand Spirits
by Siobhan McDermott

Following the infiltration of Hok Woh and possession of her friends, Zhi Ging sets out on a dangerous mission to find Reishi, the Silhouette Scout, whom she believes has been lured into a dangerous trap. 

With her adorable now-phoenix Malo by her side, Zhi Ging must fight off dangerous sand spirits, power-hungry enemies and magnificent dragons if she is to save her friends and her new home in the world of the immortals. 

But as secrets are uncovered and new enemies emerge, can Zhi Ging figure out who to trust? And, more importantly, how to survive?

Afia in the Land of Wonders
by Mia Araujo

Afia has always felt like half of a whole. Her twin sister, Aya, is perfectly happy with fulfilling their family’s expectations of them. But Afia dreams of exploring the world beyond her secluded cliffside home of Dafra. She dreams of adventure.

When she meets a charming shape-shifter named Bakame, who dazzles her with promises of a magical land called Ijabu, Afia decides to take her destiny into her own hands.

Although it will mean leaving everything she has ever known behind, including her beloved sister, Afia follows Bakame into the forbidden forests surrounding Dafra, from which no one has ever returned.

Filled with magical sights, a charismatic Queen and her intriguing court, Ijabu is everything that Afia has ever dreamed of. But she soon discovers that nothing is as it seems, and this fantasy world demands a terrible price.

With the help of a mysterious trickster, Afia must evade the Queen’s hunters and the lost dreamers of Ijabu, who wish to pull her deeper into their web.

Now, Afia must find the courage to survive while standing on her own–or risking losing herself completely to the wonders of Ijabu.

Chef’s Secret
by Kelly Yang

Jason Yao has a secret . . . actually, lots of secrets!

For one thing, it’s hard being a professional chef, helping to run a motel, and being a regular kid! And now that Mia Tang is officially his girlfriend, Jason’s life has reached a whole new level of exciting―and terrifying!

After all, Mia is amazing, and Jason is . . . just Jason. But he’s determined to be the best boyfriend ever, and he knows exactly what he needs to do:

1. Plan the perfect first date. Thanks to his dad’s new scheme to bring fancier guests to the motel, Jason is working harder than ever―and earning even bigger tips, which means he can treat Mia to the dinner of her dreams!

2. Be less cringe, especially around other guys. And try to make some guy friends his own age! Maybe then he can finally move on from those bullies who tormented him in fourth grade.

3. Don’t let Mia know the real him. Mia can never find out the darkest secrets that Jason is keeping―no one can!

Jason knows he’s got his work cut out for him, but hey, if he can date a girl like Mia Tang, anything’s possible, right?

The Doomsday Vault
(Everwhen School of Time Travel and Other Odd Sciences)
by Thomas Wheeler

When Bertie Wells accidentally creates a black hole in his bedroom in the year 1878, it’s the very last thing he expects—except maybe the grown-up who steps out.

Darla Marconi dresses and speaks like no one Bertie has met and comes with an offer: Bertie is invited to attend the College of Space Machines, Multiverses, and Other Odd Sciences (COSMOS for short, because no one would go to a school called COSMMOOS).

He is skeptical to say the least but, not having anything better to do, Bertie agrees. His day only gets weirder from there as he’s transported to 2022 for his first semester of school.

Thankfully, he’s not alone—144 years in the future, math whiz Zoe Fuentes just accepted the same invitation, and 550 years in the past, Amelia da Vinci (yes, that da Vinci) has also decided to attend.

The three team up and work together to survive the year, including weathering a time paradox, solving the case of a disappearing dean, and uncovering the truth behind a shady intergalactic secret society. At least time is on their side!

The Wish Switch
by Lynn Painter

Emma Rockford knows it will take bonafide magic to make middle school everything she wants it to be. Luckily, before Emma’s beloved Nana died, she left detailed instructions on how to access an ancient, secret, magical wishing well.

Emma follows each step and plans out every moment…except for the one where the obnoxious new kid, Jackson, tosses in wishes of his own that literally knock her wishes off course.

When seventh grade starts, Emma discovers that her wishes are starting to come true, alright. But not for her…for Jackson. 

Which, the two quickly discover, could have disastrous consequences for both of their families, and cost Emma her best friends. Can they set everything straight in time to prevent full-blown catastrophe?

How to Free a Leviathan
by Meg Cannistra

Do you know a fairy with a fever? Or a sasquatch with a stomach ache? Giada Bellantuono is the one to call. She’s no ordinary veterinarian. She has the power to heal all kinds of fantastic creatures!

Now she and Sinistro, her black cat familiar, have left their home in New Jersey to train with magical veterinarians around the world.

And a conference in Argentina has come just in time. A company called C&C Medicinals is kidnapping and hurting magical animals to make medicine for humans!

Giada knows firsthand how dangerous the company can be. She saved a unicorn from one of their henchmen just last month. Once Giada gets to Argentina, she’ll spread the word.

But there’s something suspicious going on at the conference, and Giada and Sinistro suspect that C&C Medicinals is at the root of it. Before they can do anything about it, Sinistro is kidnapped!

With help from old friends and new ones, including a shy young leviathan, Giada will do whatever it takes to bring down C&C Medicinals and save Sinistro.

J vs. K
by Kwame Alexander and Jerry Craft

J and K are the most creative fifth graders at Dean Ashley Public School (DAPS). J loves to draw and his wordless stories are J-ENIUS! K loves to write and his stories are K-LASSIC!!

Both J and K are determined to win the DAPS annual creative storytelling contest or at least get in the top five.

And when they find out that they are both entering The Contest, it’s the beginning of one of the most intense rivalries the world has ever seen.
 
It’s artist vs. writer with plenty of shady double crosses as J and K plot their way to the top. This epic match-up from Newbery medal winners Kwame Alexander (The Crossover) and Jerry Craft (New Kid) celebrates comics, creativity, and the magic of collaboration.

Away
by Megan E. Freeman

After an imminent yet unnamed danger forces people across Colorado to leave their homes, a group of kids including an aspiring filmmaker and a budding journalist find themselves in the same evacuation camp.

As they cope with the aftermath of having their world upended, they grow curious about the mysterious threat.

And as they begin to investigate, they start to discover that there’s less truth and more cover-up to what they’re being told. Can they get to the root of the conspiracy, expose the bad actors, and bring an end to the upheaval before it’s too late?

On Thin Ice
by Jessica Kim

Twelve-year-old fraternal twins Phoebe and Dexter Bae are polar opposites in every way except for their love of the ice. Phoebe is hyperfocused on pairs figure skating, and Dex loves his hockey team.

But when Phoebe’s partner injures his knee just two months before competitions and Dex gets cut from his team in favor of a new hotshot goalie from Canada, they’re both left spinning.

With their skating dreams dashed, their mother suggests that Dex fill in as Phoebe’s doubles partner. It’s a hard sell—the twins haven’t been close since their father passed away two years ago.

For Dex, working with a perfectionist like Phoebe would be a challenge, but if it means he’d improve his skating technique enough to get back on the hockey team—and he’d have something to keep his mind off his dad—it’d be worth it.

Phoebe isn’t thrilled either, but what choice does she have if she wants to bring home the gold, something that would’ve made her dad happy?

Can these siblings skate past their differences toward victory?

Ghost Scout’s Honor
by Carey Blankenship-Kramer

Defiance holds power. The Ghost Scouts were created to keep the ghosts of Savannah in line. It’s an honor to serve.

Evey’s never wanted anything to do with ghosts, but after best friend, Laura, dumps her for no reason, Evey wants revenge.

To take the student of the year award from her ex-bestie, she’ll have to join the Ghost Scouts. She’ll be the best Ghost Scouts Savannah has ever seen.

Only this year the ghosts seem different. They are angrier than usual, and they seem to be growing in power. No problem, Evey can get to the bottom of why and send all the ghosts back to their cages.

But what she uncovers makes her angry too. What if the ghosts don’t deserve to be caged? What if they have every right to be furious?

A Copycat Conundrum
by Lisa Yee
Illustrated by Dan Santat

Oof! After solving the case of the Royal Rumpus, Olive Cobin Zang and her elite team of underdogs are on top of the world.

As the awkward, crime-fighting Misfits, they’re acing every mission thrown at them from NOCK (aka No One Can Know, the covert agency they work for).

But when their classmate Zeke starts receiving threatening notes, the Misfits are stumped. They’re no strangers to danger, but this case is a total head-scratcher. Who would target kind, friendly Zeke . . . unless he’s not what he seems to be?

At the same time, unusual earthquakes start shaking up San Francisco just as priceless art goes missing, and the Misfits are called to investigate.

Is it a coincidence that the city is under attack while Zeke is getting mysterious messages? Or is it all just a cover for a scheme bigger than any they’ve faced before?

Sea Swept
by Leah Cypress

Daria grew up in Serema, an underwater city where merfolk and humans livetogether in peace. She’s not interested in life out of the water, unlike her oldersister, Meria, who has fallen in love with a human prince.

Still, when Daria gets a distress message from Meria, she’s willing totrade her mermaid tail for legs if it means getting her sister back below thesurface as fast as possible. Except Meria has vanished, and none of thehumans will tell Daria where she is.

In the strange world above the sea, Daria will soon discover that shecan’t trust anyone—and that whatever happened to her sister might happen to her next.

Bea Mullins Takes a Shot
by Emily Delbert

After a lifetime of humiliating sports experiences, Bea Mullins knows the best way to survive middle school is to stick to the sidelines.

When PE is suddenly canceled, though, Bea is forced to join an after-school activity…which is how she ends up as a member of the Glenwood Geese, her middle school’s first all-girls hockey team. 

Bea would be happy sitting on the bench, but she doesn’t want to let down her best friend, Celia. Plus, the more time Bea spends on the rinks, the more she comes to enjoy her teammates, especially the incredibly talented–and incredibly cool–co-captain Gabi.

But when low funding puts the Geese in danger of never playing again, Bea realizes she may lose everything she didn’t know she wanted.

It’s All or Nothing, Vale
by Andrea Beatriz Arango

All these months of staring at the wall?
All these months of feeling weak?
It’s ending—
I’m going back to fencing.
And then it’ll be
like nothing ever happened.

No one knows hard work and dedication like Valentina Camacho. And Vale’s thing is fencing. She’s the top athlete at her fencing gym. Or she was . . . until the accident.

After months away, Vale is finally cleared to fence again, but it’s much harder than before. Her body doesn’t move the way it used to, and worst of all is the new number one: Myrka. When she sweeps Vale aside with her perfect form and easy smile, Vale just can’t accept that.

But the harder Vale fights to catch up, the more she realizes her injury isn’t the only thing holding her back. If she can’t leave her accident in the past, then what does she have to look forward to?

In this moving novel from the Newbery Honor-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All, one girl finds her way back to her life’s passion and discovers that the sum of a person’s achievements doesn’t amount to the whole of them.

Gus and Glory
by Sarah Guillory

Twelve-year-old Gloria St. Romain, Glory to everyone who knows her, has always loved mysteries. She spends her time solving puzzles and reading Agatha Christie books, comforted by the knowledge that truth can always be found for those who look closely enough for it.

But when her mom suddenly leaves without a word, Glory is finally faced with the one mystery she can’t crack: Why did her mom leave, and where did she go?

Sent to spend the summer with her grandparents, Glory is determined to sniff out the clues to track down her mom. And when Glory comes upon Gus, a bloodhound in need of a friend, she realizes she’s been paired with the perfect partner to do just that.

With accessible text and a compulsively readable story, Gus and Glory is a perfect pick for upper elementary and middle school readers.

 A Field Guide to Broken Promises
by Leah Stecher

When Evie Steinberg’s family moves right before seventh grade, she promises her dad that she’ll make sure everything goes perfectly.

Maybe if she keeps her promise, he’ll finally forgive her for accidentally ruining the biggest moment of his cryptozoology career last spring.

Perfect means taking care of her little sister, fitting in at her new school, and never complaining or causing problems.

Perfect definitely doesn’t mean being bullied by a girl who’s turning the whole school against her and failing math class.

Evie needs to fix her life before anyone finds out she’s struggling.

When she uses her cryptozoologist skills to figure out the real reason her bully decided to target her, Evie realizes that she holds the key to fixing everything. She just needs proof. But how far is Evie willing to go to reveal the truth?

This tender and imaginative middle grade novel combines a fast-paced plot and reluctant reader appeal with explorations of perfectionism, people-pleasing, and bullying.

A Hero’s Guide to Summer Vacation
by Pablo Cartaya

Gonzalo Alberto Sánchez García has never considered himself the hero of his own story. He’s an observer, quietly snapshotting landscapes and drawing the creatures he imagines emerging from them.

Forced to spend the summer with his estranged grandfather, Alberto William García—the very famous reclusive author—Gonzalo didn’t expect to learn that heroes and monsters are not only the stuff of fantasy.

But that’s precisely what happens when Gonzalo’s CEO mother, Veronica, sends Alberto on tour to promote the final book in his fantasy series for children and Gonzalo must tag along, even though he feels no connection to his grandfather or the books.

Together, they embark on a cross-country road trip from Mendocino to Miami in a classic 1968 Oldsmobile Cutlass S Convertible named Mathilde.

Over the course of ten epic days on the highway, they will slay demons, real and imagined; confront old stories to write new ones; and learn what it truly means to show up for your family.

Old School
by Gordon Korman

Dexter Foreman is twelve going on eighty. He has lived at The Pines retirement village with his grandmother since he was six years old, and as a result he gets along better with senior citizens than kids his own age.

He’s homeschooled by the residents up until the day the county’s truancy officer shows up and announces that Dex has to go to a “real” school, to the local middle school.

At school, Dex sticks out like a sore thumb. He dresses like a grandpa (and can be just as cranky). His taste in movies and music is decades out of date.

Only a few students—like Gianna Greco, a reporter at the school’s newspaper—find him intriguing. For most, he is either a weirdo or a target.

Dexter would do anything to return to his old life at The Pines. But when his wish finally seems to be coming true, his old and new worlds collide in a way that surprises everyone—Dexter most of all.

Operation Sisterhood: Stealing the Show
by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich

Sisters Sunday, Bo, Lee, and Lil are four sisters from a patchwork family. Bonded by their love of music, these sisters formed a musical babysitting band business Operation Sisterhood that just planned the best garden wedding party their Harlem community has seen. 

Imaginative Sunday impulsively announces her next big community project—staging an original musical—everybody’s counting on her, especially her sisters, Bo and the Twins, Lil and Lee.

Then, disaster: Sunday has lost her creative mojo just when she most want to impress her new neighbor, TV star Talitha Thomas. Soon there will be more drama offstage than on!

Can Bo and the Twins use what they learn about New York City communities past and present and their band babysitting business to help Sunday find her shine and her love of storytelling again? It’s Operation Sisterhood to the rescue!

No Purchase Necessary
by Maria Marianayagam

Ajay Anthonipillai has a million-dollar problem.  Ajay has lived his life dutifully following the rules set by his Tamil parents.

Rule #3: Straight As only

Rule #5: There is no such thing as a no-homework day.

Rule #10: Never watch scary movies.

However, moving to a new school gives Ajay a new rule to follow: Get on seventh-grade all-star Jacob Underson’s good side.

When Jacob asks him to steal a Mercury bar from Scary Al’s convenience store, Ajay feels this is his chance to finally “get cool” and stop eating alone.

But Jacob rejects the stolen chocolate bar, leaving Ajay to unwrap it and discover that it contains Mercury’s Twenty-fifth Anniversary Grand Prize…one million dollars.

Faced with an extreme dilemma, Ajay will have to bear the weight of his actions and battle his morality in deciding whether to claim the prize that may change the life of his family forever.

The Winning Move
by Rebecca Donnelly
Illustrated by Isabelle Duffy

Chess is Halima Kasim’s favorite thing in the world. But with no local chess club in her small town, she has no one to practice with offline.

Yearning for worthy opponents IRL, she recruits newbies: her next-door BFF Jem (a dedicated friend reeling from the recent loss of her grandfather), Jem’s long-lost friend Parker (eager to escape the shadow of his sport-star siblings), and Daniel (itching for answers after discovering a mysterious note left for him inside a book).

Together the team forms their own chess club, navigating not just the board but the highs and lows of middle school social life.

Along the way they’ll learn that it takes more than practice to be great—it’s teamwork, confidence, and the power of friendship. And never forget . . . chess is a game full of surprises.