100+ Middle Grade Must Read Books

Just in time to start school, I decided to create a list of the Best Middle Grade books. Parents can use this to recommend old favorites for their back-to-schoolers, kids can use this list as a guide to selecting the absolute BEST books written for readers aged 10-15. See how many of these you remember reading.

If I missed YOUR favorite, please list it in the comments section.

1984 by George Orwell

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn  by Betty Smith

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin

A Wrinkle in Time (and others) by Madeline L'Engle

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel

Alices’ Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Bucking the Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis

Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Charley Bone series

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

Crispin by Avi

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Feed by M.T. Anderson

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling

Hatchet (and many others) by Gary Paulsen

Holes by Louis Sachar

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

Journey to America by Sonia Levitin

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

Life of Pi by Yann Martell

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Matilda by Roald Dahl

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Sparks

Messenger by Lois Lowry

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM by Robert C O'Brien

My Life in Dog Years by Gary Paulsen

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Nory Ryan's Song by Patricia Reilly Giff

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Old Yeller by Fred Gipson

On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Ramona the Pest by Beverly Clearly

Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Sabriel by Garth Nix

Slave Dancer by Paula Fox

Soldier’s Heart by Gary Paulsen

Something Wicked this Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Sounder by William Armstrong

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Doyle

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

The Black Pearl by Scott O'Dell

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

The Book Thief by Markus Zusa

The Cat Ate My Gymsuit by Paula Danziger

The Cay by Theodore Taylor

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

The Door in the Wall by Marguerite De Angeli

The Fighting Ground by Avi

The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck

The High King by Lloyd Alexander

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

The King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

The Last of the Mohicans by James Cooper

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

The One-Eyed Cat by Paula Fox

The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe

The Watsons go to Birmingham – 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleishman

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinan Rawlings

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Water Sky by Jean Craighead George

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

List compiled by Rebecca Ryals Russell