Diverse Middle Grade

Juvenile fiction titles with diverse characters and themes. Recommended for grade 4 and above.

Showing 1 - 20 of 38  There are a total of 41 valid entries on the list.
Book cover for "Amina's voice"
Star rating for Amina's voice
Author:
Series:
Amina's voice volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.3 stars
Description:
A Pakistani-American Muslim girl struggles to stay true to her family's vibrant culture while simultaneously blending in at school after tragedy strikes her community.
Book cover for "Blended"
Star rating for Blended
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
Piano-prodigy Isabella, eleven, whose black father and white mother struggle to share custody, never feels whole, especially as racial tensions affect her school, her parents both become engaged, and she and her stepbrother are stopped by police.
Book cover for "Closer to nowhere"
Star rating for Closer to nowhere
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Told in two voices, sixth-grade cousins Hannah and Cal learn a lot about family when circumstances throw them together under one roof and Hannah's love of order clashes with Cal's chaotic behavior.
Book cover for "Counting Thyme"
Star rating for Counting Thyme
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Thyme Owens moves across the country with her family so her younger brother can take part in a promising cancer drug trial, and though all she wants is for him to get better, adjusting to life in Manhattan is anything but easy.--
Book cover for "Dragons in a bag"
Star rating for Dragons in a bag
Series:
Average Rating:
4.1 stars
Description:
In Brooklyn, nine-year-old Jax joins Ma, a curmudgeonly witch who lives in his building, on a quest to deliver three baby dragons to a magical world, and along the way discovers his true calling.
Book cover for "Dream, Annie, dream"
Star rating for Dream, Annie, dream
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"In this empowering deconstruction of the so-called American Dream, a twelve-year-old Japanese American girl grapples with, and ultimately rises above, the racism and trials of middle school she experiences while chasing her dreams. As the daughter of immigrants who came to America for a better life, Annie Inoue was raised to dream big. And at the start of seventh grade, she's channeling that irrepressible hope into becoming the lead in her school...
Book cover for "Every missing piece"
Star rating for Every missing piece
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Ever since her father died in a terrible accident, Maddy Gaines has worried a lot. She calls the police so often that she's on a first-name basis with the Sheriff. When a new boy moves to town, Maddy is convinced that he's not who he says he is--he's a boy who went missing six months ago. Maddy, her dog, her best friend, and her stepdad team up to see what he's hiding"--
Book cover for "Farah rocks fifth grade"
Star rating for Farah rocks fifth grade
Series:
Farah rocks volume 1.
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
Fifth-grader Farah Hajjar and her best friend Allie Liu are hoping to go to the Magnet Academy for their middle school years, instead of Harbortown Elementary/Middle School; but when a new girl Dana Denver starts tormenting Farah and her younger brother, Samir, she decides she can not leave Samir to face the bully alone, especially since the adults and even Allie do not seem to be taking the matter seriously--so Farah comes up with a plan, one which...
Book cover for "Finding Orion"
Star rating for Finding Orion
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Rion Kwirk comes from a rather odd family. His mother named him and his sisters after her favorite constellations, and his father makes funky-flavored jellybeans for a living. One sister acts as if she's always on stage, and the other is a walking dictionary. But no one in the family is more odd than Rion's grandfather, Papa Kwirk. He's the kind of guy who shows up on his motorcycle only on holidays handing out crossbows and stuffed squirrels as presents....
Book cover for "Five things about Ava Andrews"
Star rating for Five things about Ava Andrews
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
"Eleven-year-old Ava Andrews has a Technicolor interior with a gray shell. On the inside, she bubbles with ideas and plans. On the outside, everyone except her best friend, Zelia, thinks she doesn't talk or, worse, is stuck-up. What nobody knows is that Ava has invisible disabilities: anxiety and a heart condition. Ava hopes middle school will be a fresh start, but when Zelia moves across the country and Ava's Nana Linda pushes her to speak up about...
Book cover for "Honestly Elliott"
Star rating for Honestly Elliott
Average Rating:
3 stars
Description:
Struggling with ADHD, loneliness, and connecting with his divorced father who would rather see him embrace sports instead of cooking, sixth-grader Elliott finds an unlikely friend in popular, perfect Maribel when the two are paired in a school-wide contest.
Book cover for "The house that Lou built"
Star rating for The house that Lou built
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Longing for an escape from her extended Filipino family, Lou plans to build a tiny house on land she inherited from her father, but difficulties quickly arise.
Book cover for "I can make this promise"
Star rating for I can make this promise
Average Rating:
2.8 stars
Description:
"When twelve-year-old Edie finds letters and photographs in her attic that change everything she thought she knew about her Native American mother's adoption, she realizes she has a lot to learn about her family's history and her own identity"--
Book cover for "Insignificant events in the life of a cactus"
Star rating for Insignificant events in the life of a cactus
Series:
Average Rating:
4.6 stars
Description:
New friends and a mystery help Aden, thirteen, adjust to middle school and life at a dying western theme park in a new state, where her being born armless presents many challenges.
Book cover for "Ivy Aberdeen's letter to the world"
Star rating for Ivy Aberdeen's letter to the world
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Twelve-year-old Ivy Aberdeen's house is destroyed in a tornado, and in the aftermath of the storm, she begins to develop feelings for another girl at school.
Book cover for "Join the club, Maggie Diaz"
Star rating for Join the club, Maggie Diaz
Series:
Maggie Diaz volume 1
Average Rating:
4 stars
Description:
"Maggie Diaz of Miami is excited to start seventh-grade with her best friends, Zoey and Julian, and finally getting a cellphone of her own; but after school her friends are wrapped up in their various clubs, her mother is attending college, and her older sister Caro has her sports and tutoring, so Maggie decides that she will find a club to join as well--but trying out ALL the different clubs while still juggling school work is exhausting and confusing--and...

17. Linked

Book cover for "Linked"
Star rating for Linked
Average Rating:
4.5 stars
Description:
"Link, Michael, and Dana live in a quiet town. But it's woken up very quickly when someone sneaks into school and vandalizes it with a swastika. Nobody can believe it. How could such a symbol of hate end up in the middle of their school? Who would do such a thing? Because Michael was the first person to see it, he's the first suspect. Because Link is one of the most popular guys in school, everyone's looking to him to figure it out. And because Dana's...
Book cover for "Mystery in the mansion"
Star rating for Mystery in the mansion
Average Rating:
3.3 stars
Description:
Carlos and his friends must uncover who is sending death threats to a wealthy eccentric or Carlos' mother may lose her business, and the reader decides which clues they will follow.
Book cover for "No fear!"
Star rating for No fear!
Series:
Average Rating:
5 stars
Description:
Follows the experiences of benchwarmer Steve, who struggles to conquer his fear of getting hit with a baseball before his first year on the school team is ruined.
Book cover for "Not if I can help it"
Star rating for Not if I can help it
Average Rating:
4.4 stars
Description:
From award-winning Carolyn Mackler, the story of Willa, who has been living with Sensory Processing Disorder but is thrown for a BIG loop when her dad announces he's dating Willa's best friend's mom. Willa lives on the upper West Side of Manhattan with her divorced father and her younger brother and attends fifth grade with her best friend Ruby, and she likes things to be a certain way, because it makes life manageable even with her Sensory Processing...