As the holiday season approaches, don’t get too caught up in the festivities and miss out on these new middle-grade books being released during the month of November.
All the Best Dogs by Emily Jenkins. November 5. 208 pages.
Welcome to the dog park, a playground for dogs in the big city. Four sixth graders (and their dogs!) overlap on one hilarious and important June weekend. Ezra needs to find his lost dog. Cup-Cup needs a friend. She also needs to learn to walk on a leash. Mei-Alice wonders if anyone will ever understand her. Panda wonders what will happen if she breaks the rules. Kaleb is covering up a terrible mistake. Grover and Lottie are making lots of terrible mistakes, some of them disgusting. And Jilly needs to make a new life in a new place.
On this almost-summer weekend, a series of surprises, mishaps, and misunderstandings will end up changing all of their lives.
If you’re a fan of dog stories, check out this post.
Everything Interesting Keeps Happening to Ethan Fairmont by Nick Brooks. November 5. 240 pages. 
Before last summer, Ethan’s life was rather uninteresting. Now, Ethan can’t stop interesting things from happening . . .
After a small, six-eyed alien crash landed into his life, Ethan made a new otherworldly best friend. Now Cheese has returned to Earth, bringing his family and a warning of the Light Thieves’ plans to invade. Ethan is already reeling from the kidnapping of his beloved guinea pig, Nugget, and a dangerous reality sets in after one bold Light Thief sheds its disguise to attack Ethan on his front lawn.
Ethan needs his friends now more than ever, but as he and RJ continue to clash, tensions rise within the group. On top of that, he still hasn’t figured out how to deal with his feelings for Di. With an alien invasion on the horizon and The Bureau for Weird Happenings indisposed, can Ethan and his friends work together to save Earth?
Mr. Lemoncello’s Fantabulous Finale by Chris Grabenstein. November 5. 304 pages. 
It’s time for one last fantabulous challenge with Mr. Lemoncello, the world’s most famous gamemaker! This time everything is on the line. Literally! Mr. Lemoncello has invited thirteen lucky 13 year-olds—including his biggest fan, Kyle Keeley— to compete in the final games. The winner of these games will become the new owner of Mr. Lemoncello’s ENTIRE GAME MAKING EMPIRE!!! But, someone is trying to destroy Mr. Lemoncello’s empire and all it stands for: imagination, games, books . . . knowledge! Can Kyle Keeley stop them and make Mr. L’s dreams come true?
Get ready for a whirlwind adventure that takes us from the lions of the New York Public Library to the Choose Your Own Thrill-Venture Roller Coaster inside the brand-new Lemoncelloland amusement park, filled with codes and clues, adventures, mysteries, and surprises.
V. Malar: Greatest Host of All Time by Suma Subramaniam. November 5. 128 pages.
Malar loves living on a farm with her parents in a small town in India. And her absolute favorite time of year, the harvest festival known as Pongal, is finally here! This year’s festival will be different because her aunt, uncle, and cousins from Seattle will be visiting. Feeling both excited and nervous, Malar promises to be a great host to her cousins. But when Priya and Kamal talk about all the things they have back home or when they’re not interested in the animals on the farm, Malar finds it hard to keep her patience and be the gracious host she promised she’d be.
The cousins clearly don’t start off on the right foot, but after a few clashes, there are some laughs, and Malar realizes that her cousins might just become friends after all.
Find out more about the Pongal Festival here.
The Empty Place by Olivia A Cole. November 12. 320 pages. 
When Henry’s father goes missing in the forest on her tenth birthday, her entire world shatters. The last thing she expects is for him to emerge from the trees exactly one year later, unharmed and bearing a gift for her—a strange necklace.
Everyone says her father’s reappearance is a miracle, but Henry wants real answers to her questions. Where did her father go? How did he get back? And what’s the truth behind his gift?
Wearing the necklace and carrying only a simple map, Henry enters the same forest that swallowed her father. But beyond the trees, she finds a world more incredible and dangerous than she ever imagined. It’s a place for all who are lost, and there’s no clear method of escape. As Henry follows in her father’s footsteps and searches for a way home, she discovers that the truth she’s seeking isn’t as simple as she hoped, and if she wants to leave this world, she’ll have to be braver than she’s ever been.
Freedom Fire: Black Girl Power: 15 Stories Celebrating Black Girlhood by Leah Johnson. November 12. 320 pages.
Black girl power is…
Bringing your favorite stuffed animal to your first real sleepover. . .
Escaping an eerie dollhouse that’s got you trapped inside. . .
Making new friends one magical baked good at a time. . .
Finding the courage to dance to the beat of your own drum. . .
And more! From 15 legendary Black women authors comes a dazzling collection of stories and poems about the power we find in the everyday and the beauty of Black girlhood.
Happy & Sad & Everything True by Alex Thayer. November 12. 272 pages. 
Back when Dee and Juniper were still friends, Dee never hid in the bathroom. Now, at the beginning of sixth grade, Dee finds herself there all the time. The dripping faucet is annoying, and there are other places she’d rather be—like at home and in her room with her cat, Norman. But at least Dee is safe from overenthusiastic teachers and having to see Juniper walking through the halls with her new friends. Dee would rather be alone than witness that.
But it turns out Dee isn’t the only one hiding from something. There are kids all over school worrying in secret and needing someone to talk to. After Dee helps a second grader with spelling advice, more students come to Dee with their problems. It turns out she’s a good listener, and she likes helping people. And when she starts receiving mysterious notes, it seems someone out there wants to be her friend—if only they would reveal themselves.
The Winter Frost (School for Unusual Magic #2) by Liz Montague. November 12. 240 pages.
After a chaotic semester of Elementary Magic, Rose, Amethyst, and L
av have found themselves with new magical skills up their sleeves which will come in handy when they begin Middle Magic next year. But school is the last thing on their minds over winter break. Tensions are high between the Land Walkers and the Merfolk’s mysterious leader Frost. Worse, Amethyst’s mom has gone missing with an extremely illegal wand, and everyone—their classmates, Principal Ivy, the Committee—thinks she’s somehow involved in the disappearance of Rose’s cousin Heather. Amethyst is determined to find her mom and prove she’s innocent!
But when a secret about Amethyst’s identity is revealed, her whole world comes crashing down. She doesn’t understand how her mom could keep something so important from her. Is her mom actually the villain or is something even darker at work here? She’ll have to trust that Rose and Lav can keep the peace above ground while she ventures underwater for answers.
Is winter your favorite season? Check out this post for winter-themed books.
Futureland: The Architect Games by H.D. Hunter. November 19. 336 pages.
After Team Futureland emerges from back-to-back scandals, Cam Walker and his family are ready to confront the people who keep targeting their flying park. A group called the Architects has been after them since Futureland made its Atlanta stop, and the Walkers have had enough.
To settle things, the Architects propose the very first Architect Games, where the Walkers and the Architects will battle in a series of challenges. If the Walkers win, then the Architects will leave them alone once and for all. But if Cam and his family lose, they will lose everything—including Futureland and its prized tech.
The Architects can’t be trusted, but Cam doesn’t have a choice. If he can lead his team to victory, his family and friends will be free. Otherwise, there’s no telling what the Architects will do once they get their hands on Futureland.
The Greatest Heist in Joviala by Adi Alsaid. November 19. 288 pages. 
Having grown up in Nefaria, a land where evil schemes abound, Candelabra is thrilled to take a school trip to Joviala, a land that’s prone to natural disasters but has virtually no evil in it. All her life, she’s dreamt of a place where everyone is caring and happy and without malicious intent. Now, it’s coming true for her.
But Jovialan Schmebecca isn’t so sure her country’s caring reputation is earned. A company has just been approved to move her beloved mountain to install a theme park, and that sounds pretty evil to her. She enlists the help of veteran evil-scheme-thwarters Candelabra and Bobert, and together, they work to uncover the possible evil plan. But when a twist pits their goals against each other, the fight against evil becomes a lot more complicated.
Mallory in Full Color by Elisa Stone Leahy. November 19. 320 pages.
Mallory Marsh is an expert at molding into whatever other people want her to be. Her true thoughts and feelings only come out in her sci-fi web comic, which she publishes anonymously as Dr. BotGirl.
But juggling all the versions of herself gets tricky, especially when Mal’s mom signs her up for swim team. Instead of being honest about hating competitive swim, Mal skips out on practice and secretly joins the library’s comic club. There Mal meets Noa, a cute enby kid who is very sure of who they are. As Mal helps Noa plan a drag queen story time, she tries to be the person she thinks Noa wants her to be—by lying about her stage fright.
Then Mal’s web comic goes viral, and kids at school start recognizing the unflattering characters based on Mal’s real-life friends. With negative pushback threatening the drag queen story time and Dr. BotGirl’s identity getting harder to conceal, Mallory must reckon with the lies she’s told.
Take It from the Top by Claire Swinarski. November 19. 256 pages. 
Eowyn Becker has waited all year to attend her 6th summer at Lamplighter Lake Summer Camp. Here, she’s not in the shadow of her Broadway-star older brother; she’s a stellar performer in her own right. Here, the pain of her mom’s death can’t reach her, and she gets to reunite with her best friend, Jules Marrigan—the only person in the world who understands her.
But when she gets to camp, everything seems wrong. The best-friend reunion Eowyn had been dreaming of doesn’t go as planned. Jules will barely even look at Eowyn, let alone talk to her, and Eowyn has no idea why.
Or maybe she does … there are two sides to every story.
if you want to understand this one, you’ll need to hear both. Told in a series of alternating chapters that dip back to past summers, the girls’ story will soon reveal how Eowyn and Jules went from being best friends to fierce foils. Can they mend ways before the curtains close on what was supposed to be the best summer of their lives?
A handful of the books on the above list are the newest edition to a series. If you’d like to start at the beginning of the series, here are the previous stories.
President, by Rebecca Katzman, Scholastic, 2024. There are many books on electoral politics. This one is concise yet comprehensive. It offers the broadest introductory information about things like caucuses, primaries, voting rights and political parties. It’s even handed and current up to the 2020 election. However, it does not mention the Jan 6th insurrection. Given the target audience of 3rd to 5th graders I have mixed feelings on the omission. I think it’s worth overlooking that problem in favor of having a useful guide to electoral politics for this age range.
tegory that mix mythology, magic, and world cultures. Here is a round up of the most recent and the world culture they represent.
Lion Dancers. Simon & Schuster
Between the Pipes is a graphic novel about a 13 year old gay First Nations hockey player in Canada navigating both his own culture and the toxic masculinity of high contact sports. The author Albert McLeod is Cree and Metis and a human rights activist specializing in 2Spirit history and identity. The artist, Alice RL, is a non-binary Ojibwe. Highwater Press, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Pearl by Sherri L. Smith, illustrated by Chistine Norrie, Scholastic, covers ground I have not yet seen in a book for a MG reader. Set in WWII Hawaii and Japan, it’s the story of a young American woman who was sent to Japan before the attack on Pearl Harbor and survived the bombing of Hiroshima. It’s based on a memoir and because of the topic I’d recommend it for older MG grade readers.
The Salt Thief: Gandhi’s heroic march to freedom by Neal Bascomb is not just the story of Gandhi’s march to the sea but also a look at his influence on peaceful protest in the years following his activism. It comes with extensive bibliography and source notes. Scholastic Focus