Middle fiction that tackles serious topics

The Grandest Bookshop in the World
Pearl and Vally Cole live in a bookshop. And not just any bookshop. In 1893, Cole's Book Arcade in Melbourne is the grandest bookshop in the world, brimming with every curiosity imaginable.
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The List of Things that Will Not Change
A sensitive and heart-warming middle grade novel exploring themes of love, change and forgiving your own mistakes, from award-winning children's author Rebecca Stead.
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As Fast As I Can
One girl. One dream. A few hurdles. Ten-year-old Vivian is determined to win a medal at the Olympic Games one day. Problem is, she hasn't found a sport she's any good at yet.
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The Year the Maps Changed
One extraordinary year will change them all...
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The Whispers
Eleven-year-old Riley's mom has disappeared and Riley knows that if he leaves tributes for the whispers, magical fairies that grant wishes, his mom will come back to him.
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Detention
Sima and her family are pressed to the rough, cold ground among fifty others. They lie next to the tall fence designed to keep them in. The wires are cut one by one.
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Pie in the Sky
El Deafo meets Inside Out and Back Again in this funny, emotional illustrated middle-grade debut about immigrating to Australia, being upstaged by an annoying little brother, baking cakes and overcoming loss.
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Sincerely, Harriet
In Chicago 1996, thirteen-year-old Harriet Flores, struggling with boredom, loneliness, and a chronic illness, lets her imagination run wild--with mixed results--and learns about the power of storytelling.
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The Bridge Home
Four determined homeless children make a life for themselves in Padma Venkatraman's stirring middle-grade debut.
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The Year We Fell From Space
The new middle-grade novel from the acclaimed YA author known as A.S. King, The Year We Fell from Space is a delightfully moving story of twelve-year-old budding astronomer Liberty as she makes sense of her life through the...
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As Happy as Here
A beautiful coming-of-age story about identity, expectation, class, justice, society, fairness, and, above all, kindness.
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Maddie in the Middle
Maddie Lee is in year six, and she feels ordinary and dull. Her best and oldest friend Katy is head counsellor and aiming at an academic scholarship. Maddie doesn't have anything that is hers, anything that is special. Enter a...
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Hasina: Through My Eyes
So many Rohingyas are gone, how will she survive? Will her parents return? Hasina must find the courage to save her family amid the escalating conflict that threatens her world and her identity.
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George
Allow me to introduce you to a remarkable book, full of love, wonder, hope, and the importance of getting to be who you were meant to be. You must read this. - David Levithan, author of Every Day and editor of George. GEORGE is...
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Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus
A novel about a girl born without arms and a boy with Tourette syndrome navigating the challenges of school, disability and friendship.
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Sick Bay
Two very different Grade 6 girls meet in their school sick bay.
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Hope in a Ballet Shoe
Growing up in war-torn Sierra Leone, she witnesses atrocities that no child ever should. Her father is killed by rebels and her mother dies of famine. Sent to an orphanage, Michaela is mistreated and she sees the brutal murder of...
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Songbird
A unique, tender and heart-warming novel following a young girl's experience as an Iraqi refugee in Melbourne, her desire to belong, and the importance of friendship.
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Booked
Twelve-year-old Nick is a football-mad boy who absolutely hates books. In this title, football, family, love, and friendship take centre stage as Nick tries to figure out how to navigate his parents' break-up, stand up to bullies,...
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The Secrets We Keep
A beautifully written and insightful new novel sensitively uncovering the effects of trauma on the mind of an eleven - year - old girl. I don't know if you've ever seen a house burn, but it's not like anything else ... Clem...
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The Song from Somewhere Else
A powerful and poignant story about friendship from the author of the critically acclaimed The Imaginary, illustrated by award-winning illustrator Levi Pinfold. Perfect for fans of Roald Dahl and Neil Gaiman
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The War that Saved My Life
A young disabled girl and her brother are evacuated from London to the English countryside during World War II, where they find life to be much sweeter away from their abusive mother.
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Wolf Hollow
Annabelle has lived in Wolf Hollow all her life: a quiet place, still scarred by two world wars. But when cruel, manipulative Betty arrives in town, Annabelle's calm world is shattered, along with everything she's ever known about...
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The Other Side of Summer
This sweet and spellbinding story about family, friends and believing in yourself will warm your heart.
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The Bubble Boy
Wonder meets Mark Haddon in this beautifully poignant and uplifting story from a talented new voice
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Wonder
Auggie wants to be an ordinary ten-year-old. He does ordinary things - eating ice cream, playing on his Xbox. He feels ordinary - inside. But ordinary kids don't make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. Ordinary...
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When Friendship Followed Me Home
A boy's chance encounter with a scruffy dog leads to an unforgettable friendship in this deeply moving story about life, loss and the meaning of family
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Goodbye Stranger
As Bridge makes her way through seventh grade on Manhattan's Upper West Side with her best friends, curvacious Em, crusader Tab, and a curious new friend--or more than friend--Sherm, she finds the answer she has been seeking since...
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Molly And Pim And The Millions Of Stars
Molly's mother is not like other mothers: she rides a yellow bike and collects herbs and makes potions, perhaps even magical potions...
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The Boy in the Dress
The sparkling debut children's novel from David Walliams, number one bestseller and fastest growing children's author in the country, with sparkling new cover look to tie in with later books.
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The Secret Horses of Briar Hill
An exceptional and moving novel about the power of the imagination, illustrated by the winner of the Kate Greenaway medal.
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Out of My Mind
From a multiple Coretta Scott King Award-winning author comes the story of a brilliant girl that no one knows about because she cannot speak or write. If there is one book teens and parents (and everyone else) should read this...
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