The Stars So Far: Tween Picks

A list of recent starred reviews hand-picked for tween readers.
Looking for exemplary new books for tween readers? The following titles, reviewed in the pages of SLJ between January and July 2016, have received stars and are highly recommended. Some of these reviews originally appeared in the "Middle Grade" section of SLJ, others in the "YA Middle School" section; all of them are excellent selections for upper elementary and middle school readers.

1607-TweenStars-CVstrip1Fiction

ACEVEDO, Kristy. Consider. Jolly Fish. Apr. 2016. APPELT, Kathi & Alison McGhee. Maybe a Fox. S. & S./Atheneum. Mar. 2016. AUXIER, Jonathan. Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard: A Peter Nimble Adventure. Abrams/Amulet. Apr. 2016.

AVERY, Tom. Not as We Know It. ­Random/Schwartz & Wade Bks. Aug. 2016.

BARNHILL, Kelly. The Girl Who Drank the Moon. Algonquin. Aug. 2016.

BECKHORN, Susan Williams. The Wolf’s Boy. Disney-Hyperion. Jun. 2016.

BERRY, Julie. The Passion of Dolssa. Viking. Apr. 2016.

BRUCHAC, Joseph. Talking Leaves. Dial. Aug. 2016.

BUDHOS, Marina. Watched. Random/Wendy Lamb Bks. Sept. 2016.

CHEE, Traci. The Reader. 448p. Putnam. Sept. 2016.

DICAMILLO, Kate. Raymie Nightingale. Candlewick. Apr. 2016.

DOOLEY, Sarah. Free Verse. Putnam. Mar. 2016.

ENGLE, Margarita. Lion Island: Cuba’s Warrior of Words. S. & S./Atheneum. Aug. 2016.

GOUT, Leopoldo. Genius: The Game. Feiwel & Friends. Jun. 2016.

HARDINGE, Frances. The Lie Tree. Abrams/Amulet. May 2016.

HARRINGTON, Janice N. Catching a Storyfish. Wordsong. Sept. 2016.

HOPKINSON, Deborah. A Bandit’s Tale: The Muddled Misadventures of a Pickpocket. Knopf. Apr. 2016.

JOHNSON, Jaleigh. The Secrets of Solace. Delacorte. Mar. 2016. XPRESS*

KHAN, Joshua. Shadow Magic. illus. by Ben Hibon. 336p. Disney-Hyperion. Apr. 2016.

LAFLEUR, Suzanne. Beautiful Blue World. Random/Wendy Lamb Bks. Sept. 2016.

LANE, Kathleen. The Best Worst Thing. Little, Brown. Jun. 2016.

MILLS, Wendy. All We Have Left. Bloomsbury. Aug. 2016.

MORIARTY, Jaclyn. A Tangle of Gold. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Bks. Apr. 2016.

REEVE, Philip. Railhead. Capstone/Switch. Apr. 2016.

REYNOLDS, Jason. As Brave as You. S. & S./ Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Bks. May 2016.

SHEVAH, Emma. Dara Palmer’s Major Drama. illus. by Helen Crawford-White. Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky. Jul. 2016.

STARMER, Aaron. The Storyteller. Farrar. Mar. 2016.

WOLK, Lauren. Wolf Hollow. Dutton. Apr. 2016.

 

1607-TweenStars-CVstrip2GRAPHIC NOVELS & GRAPHIC NONFICTION

LARSON, Hope. Compass South. illus. by Rebecca Mock. Farrar. Jun. 2016. POP

O’CONNOR, George. Apollo: The Brilliant One. illus. by a­­­­­uthor. First Second. Jan. 2016.

TELGEMEIER, Raina. Ghosts. illus. by author. Scholastic. Sept. 2016.

WAID, Mark. Archie Vol. 1. illus. by Fiona Staples, Annie Wu, & Veronica Staples. Archie Comics. Mar. 2016.

WHITLEY, Jeremy. Princeless: Save Yourself! Deluxe Edition. illus. by M. Goodwin. Action Lab. Feb. 2016.XPRESS*

 

1607-TweenStars-CVstrip3Nonfiction

BASCOMB, Neal. Sabotage: The Mission To Destroy Hitler’s Atomic Bomb. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Bks. May 2016.

BOWER, Tamara. The Mummy Makers of Egypt. illus. by author. Seven Stories. 2016.

The Bee Book. DK. 2016.

CAIN, Susan with Gregory Mone & Erica Moroz. Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths of Introverts. illus. by Grant Snider. Dial. May 2016.

CAMERON, Sharon. The Forgetting. Scholastic. Sept. 2016.

CAMPBELL, Jeff. Last of the Giants: The Rise and Fall of Earth’s Most Dominant Species. Zest. 2016.

FREEDMAN, Russell. We Will Not Be Silent: The White Rose Student Resistance Movement That Defied Adolf Hitler. Clarion. May 2016.

JARROW, Gail. Bubonic Panic: When Plague Invaded America. Boyds Mills/Calkins Creek. Apr. 2016.

KANEFIELD, Teri. The Extraordinary Suzy Wright: A Colonial Woman on the Frontier. Abrams. Mar. 2016.

MANN, Charles C. 1493 for Young People: From Columbus’s Voyage to Globalization. adapted by Rebecca Stefoff. Seven Stories. Jan. 2016.

MONTGOMERY, Sy. The Great White Shark Scientist. photos by Keith Ellenbogen. HMH. Jun. 2016.

ORGILL, Roxane. Jazz Day: The Making of a Famous Photograph. illus. by Francis Vallejo. Candlewick. Mar. 2016.

OSBORNE, Linda Barrett. This Land Is Our Land: A History of American Immigration. Abrams. Apr. 2016.

SCANDIFFIO, Laura. Fight To Learn: The Struggle To Go to School. Annick. Sept. 2016.

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