Do you ever have those moments when you’re tired of all those adult problems and worries and you just want to be a kid again and not think about anything for some time, not for your whole life, but temporarily, say, for a day or for an hour.
You just want to feel young and childish?
What better way there is to feel like a child than to read children’s books?
Table of Contents
Life-Changing Middle Grade Books
These books, however, are not just for kids. Because the emotion shown and felt in these can be read by children and adults alike. If you ever want to feel like a kid again, read books, laugh at the funny parts and cry at the sad ones, you can snuggle into your favourite space and dive into any of these books you like. You’ll be in for a read.
So let’s begin! Some of my favourite, highest rated middle grade books, which include both books for tweens, and books that adults can read too, are listed below—
Finding Orion by John David Anderson
The first book I read of John David Anderson was Ms Bixby’s Last Day, which will be featured later in this list. But one thing I should say here is that, that book made me a fan of this author.
And then this book came along in my middle grade books reading list, and I have to say that none of my expectations were let down. This book was straight up the point in all matters of family, love, loss and death.
Orion is having a jelly bean, not jelly beans, a jelly bean for dinner when the doorbell rings.
What comes in through the door is the whole next chapter of Orion and his family’s life, full of surprises and secrets and also a regretful history. On top if it all, it comes disguised as a clown. This clown delivers the news of Papa Kwirk (Orion’s grandfather) “kicking the can.” Well, it comes sudden and unexpected, that’s for sure.
The Kwirk family, thus, embarks on a journey to act according to Papa Kwirk’s will and search for his last remains, looking for different clues and coming to terms with different secrets they get to know in the way.
All throughout it, the author presents an amazing relationship between the characters, such that I feel like I always knew Papa Kwirk even though he’s not alive.
There were some parts that I felt were greatly emotional and some which were amazing and humorous. All in all, this is a great book to have in your hand when you want to laugh and cry and feel, all at the same time in one read.
You Only Live Once, David Bravo by Mark Oshiro
That is, until he sees a dog that talks.
Talk about weird.
The dog offers David a chance to redo one mistake in his life, one thing he regrets.
And so it begins.
Every time he tries to change one mistake, he ends up committing another. And the outcome never changes. Worsens, if anything.
What David doesn’t know is that the more he tries to find the perfect something, the farther he’s going to get from it. And when they try to redo one timeline, they couldn’t have guessed how bad it would actually get. Now, everything is screwed.
“David, no one knows the future! Everything is a guess! And if you keep living your life so frightened of what’s to come, you’re never going to choose anything!”
Now they don’t have to just change the course of future, they have to bring it back to the right path.
As the end drew closer, the anticipation grew, keeping me at the edge of my seat, guessing and then second-guessing myself about what might be the truth after all.
And when it at last came out in the end, it was unexpected definitely, but it all fit so perfectly together that I couldn’t help but laugh in surprise, scaring my family, and then keep on reading. (No spoilers for you, though!)
The Ethan I Was Before by Ali Standish
He blames himself for all that happened—back in Boston, his best friend Kacey going through an accident, his family moving to Palm Knot, Georgia as if to search for normal, his brother hating him for having to leave behind everything they had back home.
Ethan hates himself too. Because he holds himself responsible for the reason Kacey is never coming back again. She’s gone.
However, Ethan is stubborn enough to believe that there might be still a chance to save Kacey.
He thinks it’s him. If he can find to way to get to her, he can save her, bring her back from where she’s gone. But you can’t bring someone back from the dead.
“Believing in ghosts is dangerous. It gives you hope when there is none.”
So Ethan’s new life begins, full of regret for the past and a form of passivity for the future. In this small town, they are living with their sporty Grandpa Ike who teaches him how to drive, and Ethan even manages to become friends with the new kid, Coralee.
He still can’t seem to let go of the past though.
“We never know where life is going to lead, Ethan. What so many small decisions are going to add up to.”
But then, a hurricane is approaching their town.
Ethan and Coralee have a fallout because of a misunderstanding, and the past of Ethan is creeping back onto him. Now’s the time the family needs each other the most.
In the middle of it all, can Ethan battle all the regrets of the past and let go of his much beloved best friend? Can he learn how to move on with life without anything holding him back? Read in his deeply-heartfelt and grieving tale of love and loss.
“Sometimes a story is all you have. Sometimes that can be enough.”
Ten Thousand Tries by Amy Makechnie
That’s Golden for you.
Soccer is why he’s living and breathing on earth.
With his mother being the coach, and his father having been a pro soccer player, Golden was obviously supposed to be fanatic for the sport too. And he’s doing it all, thinking about getting a growth hormone prescription (Messi did it too!), putting in all his ten thousand hours to be the master, practicing hard to be his school team’s captain.
And nothing’s going right.
His father is sick with ALS and his mother can’t focus on his father and the soccer team and the kids all at once perfectly without messing up.
But Golden is determined to not make any mistakes, and if there’s a little chance that his father will come out alive from this disease, Golden is hellbent to make sure he gets this chance.
He’s not going down without the ten thousand tries—at saving his dad, becoming the team captain, becoming the best soccer player he dreams to be. He’s got his best friends by his side, his sisters sharing in the scary feeling of having a sick parent, and the kids in school always knowing his dad as a ‘legend’. But is all this support enough to save him?
Golden notices that he’s losing everything. His dad, his team, his best friends, even the game. And he’s doubting whether his love for all of them can even save them or not. As his father’s condition worsens and a game results in an injury, Golden just decides to let it all out. He cries. In front of the whole team, he lets out his frustration for all that should’ve happened but didn’t.
What happens when things go wrong and there’s nothing you can do to stop it? You put in ten thousand tries before giving up on anything. But what if those ten thousand tries aren’t enough either?
This children’s book made me cry.
The Many Worlds of Albie Bright by Christopher Edge
But how to search for that exact universe?
Any ordinary kid would give up before trying, because finding parallel universes is another whole discussion. But Albie Bright is adamant on finding his mother. So he begins by doing hat every scientist does to discover something new. He experiments.
The greatest scientific discoveries are made when scientists look at something and think, “I wonder what will happen if I change this a bit.”
That’s what an experiment is.
With a banana (because they’re radioactive), a cardboard box, and his mum’s laptop, he does some technical stuff and BOOM! Unfortunately, there’s the neighbor’s old dog too who travels with him to the parallel universe.
But they’re in a parallel universe!
…and it doesn’t seem to work. Something’s off.
Albie Bright tries again and again, travels to more and more universes, and in each one he discovers something shocking.
Is it even worth it at all? Is trying to live someone else’s reality even worth it or not? Does any reality seem perfect enough? Because he feels like he’s losing her all over again. And there’s nothing he can do to change it. Towards the end, the only question stuck in his mind is the one he began this whole journey with: Where is home? Where will he feel like home?
I would, like, really recommend this book. Because not only is this sweet and nice, but is also full of knowledge to the brim. Like, when I was reading this, I literally wanted to travel to a parallel universe too and I wondered if a banana and a cardboard box was the answer. No kidding.
Ms Bixby’s Last Day by John David Anderson
But the way JDA did it all, created a teacher everyone would like to have once in their life, I couldn’t help but appreciate—Ms Bixby and the author, still not the teachers.
Told through the P.O.V. of three close friends, this book provides an exceptional insight into their own lives, and the connection they shared with their teacher Ms Bixby, whose not really among them anymore because she’s at the hospital.
The three friends one day decide to randomly skip school and take a trip to the hospital to meet their teacher. Told in a humorous and dephtful way, this book revolves around all the hurdles they pass in the way, testing the limits to which they would go to celebrate the last day with their favourite teacher who’s helped them all in some way or the other.
And as Ms Bixby’s living her last day, we all get reminded how absolutely necessary it is to have a mentor you could look up to. In this sweet tale of friendship and love, it happens just that. It felt so awesome to read from so many different perspectives and see the love all the kids in the class had harbored in their hearts for their teacher. The end made me cry a bit, but I was all in to witness the last goodbye.
It didn’t feel like a goodbye at all.
“Everybody loves a good sob story, so long as it’s not their story.”
This was genuinely one of the very best children’s books I’d ever read, even though I remember reading it a long time ago. But some good books stick with you. They become a part of you, and because of its simplicity and truthfulness, this book has been one of fhe few middle grade books that have become a part of me.
So, there’s that. Six of the most amazing, fascinating, exciting and worthy middle grade books I’ve ever read. But I bet your reading list isn’t just complete yet, and I’m sure that six children’s books aren’t enough to quench your thirst. Looking for more children’s books, or maybe books tweens this time? Check this out! 15 Excellent Books for Tweens and Older Kids!
