MIDDLE GRADE

A Bit of Earth by Karuna Riazi

After being cast out by her remaining local relatives, Maria Latif, a strongwilled orphan, is sent from Pakistan to New York’s cold, uninviting Claybourne Manor. As Maria renews the decayed garden, she helps her extended family embrace their heritage in this heartwarming contemporary retelling of “A Secret Garden.” — Renata

Sancken

Ghosts, Toast, and Other Hazards by Susan Tan

This funny, emotionally resonant mystery begins when 12-year-old Mo and her family move in with her “aging Chinese hippie” Uncle Ray after a house fire. Mo channels her anxiety into investigating her new town’s urban legend: the ghost of an elephant who died in a 1901 circus fire. — RS

Gone Wolf by Amber McBride

In 2111, blue-skinned people like 12year-old Inmate Eleven are kept in solitary confinement, undergoing cruel medical procedures in order to harvest their organs; in 2022, Black 12year-old girl Imogen writes stories to process her trauma about the COVID pandemic and institutional racism. McBride’s prose is stunning and eyeopening. — RS

Mexikid: A Graphic Memoir by Pedro Martín

This laugh-out-loud graphic memoir focuses on a family road trip to bring Martín’s legendary abuelito from Jalisco, Mexico, to California to live with them. Martín’s detailed artwork rewards close study, and his reflections on being “Somewhat American” vs. “Somewhat Mexican” will resonate with plenty of readers. — RS

Nearer My Freedom: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself by Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge

Olaudah Equiano’s 1789 memoir, a significant slave narrative and important abolitionist text, is a challenging read in 2023. Edinger and Younge have expertly pulled lines from that book for this biography-in-found-verse that’s structurally easier for a modern kid to read, while losing none of the original story’s power. — RS