Middle Grade March

Middle Grade March

Middle-graders can be some of the most experimental, passionate and adventurous readers, and this month, we're putting on a show just for them, with the very best books for readers aged 8+ taking the centre stage. 

Middle grade books are usually published for an age range between 8 and 12 – the tricky years where readers are outgrowing the themes and topics of their early childhood, but they also aren't teenagers just yet. While most children this age can read independently, they are exploring lots of other things too, discovering their hobbies and passions. Some children this age may lose reading stamina, preferring other types of media or activities for entertainment, while others turn into voracious readers. 

Whether you've got an avid bookworm or reluctant reader on your hands, take a look at some of our favourite middle grade books this month. We've carefully selected and included a broad range of genres and titles, so that there's something for every reader.  

And remember, while it is important to guide our middle-grade readers, it is also imperative we allow them to explore libraries and bookshops, and choose the books they most connect with independently. 

Toppsta
2026-02-20
Middle Grade March
Book pages Clem Fatale Has Been Upstaged

Clem Fatale Has Been Upstaged

Clem Fatal is a rollicking middle grade series full of madcap escapades, fast-talking dames and unlikely heroes, written by Eve Wersocki Morris with black-and-white illustrations throughout by Honie Beam. 

London, Summer 1951: Clem Fatale, the youngest crook in the city, and her best friend Gilbert are going to see their favourite musical double act, the Wade Sisters, perform at the London Palladium! But then one half of the duo - Betty Wade - disappears. Her sister Judy hires Clem and Gilbert to find Betty. The pair are soon pulled into the dark side of the theatre scene, and into the orbit of a notorious criminal mastermind. Will Clem be able to stage the rescue of a lifetime?

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Book pages Race to Rumble Ruin

Race to Rumble Ruin

Imagination Island, written by Mel Taylor-Bessent and illustrated in black-and-white throughout by Alessandro D’urso, is the perfect imaginative middle-grade series if you're looking for a main character with a difference. 

Luca and his teammates have conquered two maps in the fabled Imagination Island, where anything they imagine comes to life. Now they have three more challenges to face in this THIRD leg of the Race! They must crack jokes in Laughter Lagoon, ride giant space hoppers along Silly String Street, and finally, join in a game of Sneak ’n' Seek in a crumbling Roman-style coliseum, where if you are found, you are turned to stone… Who will lose and leave the Race FOREVER?

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Book pages Magpie Girl

Magpie Girl

Discover a stunning new voice filled with magic and wonder, for fans of Katherine Rundell and Kiran Millwood Hargrave.


Lavender Wild is a magpie girl - she grows feathers, talks to birds and has a talent for finding lost things. But stuck in her tiny village, she wishes for freedom. So when her ex-friend Kit realizes his dad has gone missing on the deadly firebird's mountain, Lavender seizes the chance to set out with him on a rescue mission. Faced with earthquakes, daemons and witches, Lavender and Kit must rebuild their friendship to survive. Because the firebird is rising, and only they can save everyone from its flames. 

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Book pages The Lost Dragon of Roar

The Lost Dragon of Roar

The Land of Roar by Jenny McLachlan is a magical fantasy adventure series for middle-grade readers, with beautiful illustrations by Ben Mantle. This is the fifth magical adventure in the epic and funny bestselling series.

Rose, Arthur, Win are going back to dragon school, and now they are officially dragon riders, it’s time for their first mission. It's another epic and magical Roar adventure, where they’ll encounter a cursed island of witches, a ghostly mystery and the most fearsome dragon in Roar. But someone is on their tail…

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Book pages Hari Kumar, Ultimate Superstar

Hari Kumar, Ultimate Superstar

Meet HARI KUMAR, superstar-in-the-making, in this laugh-out-loud doodle-packed diary series for 8+ readers.

Hari Kumar: 10 years old, 75% Indian, 25% French, and 100% going to be a superstar. All Hari needs to make it big is a lucky break – a chance to get his name out there. And when that arrives in the form of a film festival competition at school, it’s Hari’s chance to shine.

Packed full of friendship, doodles and draaaaama, this series is perfect for fans of TOM GATES and LOKI!

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Book pages Keeping Possession

Keeping Possession

Talented defender Eboni navigates balancing new friendships with her passion for football in this sensitively told tale from acclaimed author Eve Ainsworth.

Eboni’s decision to join the Lightmoor Lionesses has led to a falling-out with her closest friends on her old team. They feel betrayed and Eboni is frozen out at school. Feeling isolated, she’s delighted when she forms a new friendship with popular Olivia, quickly realising they have loads in common. But there’s one problem. Olivia isn’t interested in football and can’t understand Eboni’s dedication to the sport that she loves. Will Eboni stay true to herself or will she sacrifice her footballing dreams for friendship?

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Book pages Cruise Ship Kid: Kidnap at Sea!

Cruise Ship Kid: Kidnap at Sea!

All aboard the middle-grade detective mystery series set on a cruise ship, written by West-End actress Emma Swan! 

Jump on board again with Silver, the Cruise Ship Kid, as she solves another crime in the second book in the hilarious and bestselling detective adventure series. This time, a SUPER FAMOUS INFLUENCER has been KIDNAPPED and it's up to Silver to find her. So, do you want to be definitely-a-detective too and help her solve the kidnap at sea?

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Book pages Café Chaos: The Way the Cookie Crumbles

Café Chaos: The Way the Cookie Crumbles

Readers aged 9+ who love a good laugh will have the most deliciously delightful time with Catherine Wilkins' Café Chaos series, fully illustrated throughout in black-and-white by Katie Abey. 

Hope is trying to distance herself from the chaos of her family in a bid to have 'time to be a child' and let her family sort out their own crises. But she can't deprive her family of her problem-solving abilities for long. Rescue comes in the unlikely form of Skyla - Hope's arch enemy and school bully - who needs a place to hold her charity fashion show.

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Book pages The Seriously Epic Holiday of Lottie Brooks

The Seriously Epic Holiday of Lottie Brooks

If you're a reader aged 9+ and you love funny books filled with illustrations, this is your next read all about growing up and being a teenager!

Pack your bags, and put on your helmets, for Lottie’s latest hilarious diary! She’s off on a ONCE IN A LIFETIME skiing holiday - what could possibly go wrong?! One tiny problem . . . Lottie’s never been skiing before and she doesn’t know her piste from her poles! How hard can it be though?

Join Lottie as she learns how to ski with old and new friends, tries fondue for the first time and discovers what the banana of destiny has in store for her.

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Book pages Glam and Beardy: Volume I

Glam and Beardy: Volume I

We've been really loving diary-style middle-grade books lately and the Glam and Beardy series, written by Ruby Clyde and Rachel WD and illustrated throughout by the brilliant Vincent Batignole, is no exception. 

The books are all written through the point of view of Glam, a ten-year-old who lives in the ancient five Kindoms of Kin Isle. In this world, when you turn ten you are meant to meet your Familiar. Your Familiar then guides you to the Kindom you belong to, and usually that is your happily ever after. But Glam's story is a little different, and her she chronicles all the good, the bad and the absolutely bonkers of her wild adventures in this realm in her diary (together with Beardy who just WON'T stop writing in it too!).

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Book pages Two is a Crowd

Two is a Crowd

A stunning contemporary real-life story from the brilliant author of Ella on the Outside, with beautiful illustrations by Miguel Bustos.

Hattie's life is already complicated enough. She's about to start secondary school, her best friend is going off with someone else and her dad seems to have completely forgotten his promise to let her have a room of her own. So when her mum's goddaughter, Seren, arrives and gets special treatment, Hattie feels pushed out.

Could it be that Hattie's family actually prefer Seren?

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Book pages Peregrine Quinn and the Battle for Olympus (Volume 3): The stunning conclusion to the epic fantasy series!

Peregrine Quinn and the Battle for Olympus (Volume 3): The stunning conclusion to the epic fantasy series!

Ash Bond’s Peregrine Quinn series is a clever, funny and fast paced mix of mythology and adventure that’s perfect for confident readers aged eight and up. 

In this third installation, Olympus Inc. is desperate to show that the Realms can go on as normal, even after everything that happened at the Cosmic Games. But things are far from normal. With Hekate's new powers, surely it's only a matter of time before she succeeds in bringing the chaos goddess Discord back from the Fourth Realm?

Meanwhile Peregrine has problems of her own. Her explosive outburst has caught the eye of Hades, and now she's being drawn into the centre of a battle that the Cosmics are determined to win. Join Peregrine and her friends as they face their most dangerous challenge yet: a heist that will take them into the heart of Olympus itself . . .

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Book pages The House with Chicken Legs Runs Away

The House with Chicken Legs Runs Away

Brimming with fairy-tale magic, friendship and extraordinary adventure, The House with Chicken Legs Runs Away is an epic, spellbinding tale set in to the bestselling, award-winning world of The House with Chicken Legs.

All Marinka's life, she has lived in her house with chicken legs. Running across the world on magical adventures, Marinka knows how her house is feeling, and it listens to her, too. But something is wrong. And before anyone can stop it, the house has pulled itself apart and run away. With her friend Benjamin and jackdaw Jack, Marinka races after the house to find answers. Travelling across far-distant lands, through new realms and magical places, Marinka must face up to her fears to save her friends. But her house might not want to stop running...

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Book pages Lily Tripp: Diary of an Accidental Time Traveller

Lily Tripp: Diary of an Accidental Time Traveller

Meet accidental time traveller Lily Tripp as she bounces throughout history navigating friendship dramas, first love and family. 

Every New Year's Day, Lily Tripp time travels and wakes up in a new century. She's lived in Roman times and the Victorian era and never knows where she'll end up next. Thank goodness her bestie, family and secret crush all time travel with her too . . . even if they don't know it.​ But how will she live in a time before chicken nuggets were invented? Why are her brother's clothes so ridiculous in every era? And how on earth can she cope with being mean girl Georgia's servant?!

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Book pages If the Invader Comes

If the Invader Comes

With the spectre of a Nazi invasion looming over Britain, three children are forced into an unlikely allyship in this gripping wartime tale from multi-award-winning author Tom Palmer.

June 1940 – after the devastating defeat of the British forces at Dunkirk, the terrifying prospect of a Nazi invasion of Britain seems ever more likely. In these dark days, the parents of Bobble, Cadan and Cilla are involved in vital but top-secret war work, and they need their children’s help to keep their activities hidden. The unlikely trio initially struggle to trust one another, but when Cadan spots a German E-boat during a river patrol and Cilla discovers a crashed Stuka, they realise the menace is closer than they thought.

With danger lurking at every turn, can they band together to protect their home and each other?

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Book pages Soul Feeder

Soul Feeder

Caiden and Sam find themselves trapped and alone in a vast warehouse with a soul-feeding demon in this hair-raising horror from bestselling and award-winning author Jennifer Killick.

Caiden and his best friend Sam are used to coming across some pretty weird stuff while helping Caiden’s dad in his house-clearing business, but nothing like the grotesque mounted heads of bizarre, other-worldly creatures they find in Sasha Kinski’s home. It’s clear that something awful has happened here, and it’s not over yet …

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Book pages Six Weeks

Six Weeks

The hotly anticipated new book from rising star Matt Goodfellow, author of bestselling The Final Year. Meet Alfie Piper, embarking on a summer he'll never forget ...

Since his mum died, Alfie's world has unravelled. The silence between him and his stepdad roars louder than ever. So he does the only thing that makes sense: grabs his bike, and rides. In these long summer days, can Alfie rebuild what was broken?

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Toppsta
2026-02-20
Middle Grade March

First published

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