There’s no one more powerful than a children’s book author. These writers help young people understand topics like death and pain, make long-ago historical events come alive, and elicit peals of laughter. The Best Middle-Grade Books of 2025 go even further—these works will transform kids into lifelong readers. Read on for a sampling from our list of 100.

Renée Watson has long been an author who goes where others fear to tread, and All the Blues in the Sky (Bloomsbury, February 4), which follows 13-year-old Sage as she mourns her best friend’s death, is no exception. Watson probes Sage’s complex emotional fallout; wracked by guilt and pain, she lashes out at the members of her support group. The result is an authentic depiction of grief—messy, often ugly, but also rooted in Sage’s abiding love for her best friend.

In Earthrise: The Story of the Photograph That Changed the Way We See Our Planet (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, March 4), Leonard S. Marcus explores the impact of the Apollo 8 mission. While orbiting the moon, astronaut Bill Anders captured an image of Earth that went viral (or the ’60s equivalent), inspiring Earth Day and helping to spur the nascent environmental movement. Marcus incorporates well-chosen details, allowing modern-day readers to see our planet through Anders’ eyes as “small, fragile, beautiful, and floating alone in an otherwise airless and infinite universe.”

Heidi Heilig’s middle-grade debut, Cincinnati Lee, Curse Breaker (Greenwillow Books, March 25), is both a witty, page-turning adventure and an accessible introduction to the unethical looting of world treasures, many of which end up displayed in Western museums or hidden in private collections. Cincinnati, a white and Chinese American girl from New York City, tries to undo a family curse by repatriating a Peruvian artifact stolen by her archaeologist forebear. This rollicking tale, enlivened by Cincinnati’s wise-beyond-her-years voice, is equal parts provocative and sheer madcap fun.

Just in time for the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which launched C.S. Lewis’ iconic Chronicles of Narnia, comes Giant (Little Island, June 3). Debut Northern Irish author Judith McQuoid offers readers an enchanting, fictionalized account of Lewis’ materially comfortable Belfast childhood. This gentle, richly realized story celebrates his friendship with working-class Davy. The boys lose themselves in their invented world of stories, which nurtures their spirits as they confront their parents’ health problems.

With the graphic novel Cabin Head and Tree Head (Tundra Books, September 30), Scott Campbell transforms goofiness into an art form. Inhabiting a world populated by genial creatures who all sport something bizarre atop their heads (plants, telephone poles, treasure chests, and more), the titular friends live their best lives, whether digging holes, getting haircuts (leafcuts, in this case), or painting pictures. Winsome art and quirky dialogue blend for a tale that’s perfect for young fans of the absurd; a lust for life pervades the narrative, too—for Cabin Head and Tree Head, an act as simple as greeting pals is cause for sheer, unadulterated glee.

Mahnaz Dar and Laura Simeon are young readers’ editors.