Books for 11 and 12-year-olds
The books listed are a sampling of the titles available. Ask your Children's Librarian for further suggestions and tell us which are your favorites.
True inspiring stories on achieving dreams, friendship, family, love, and more.
Paleontologists ponder parenting skills of the protoceratops. See how scientific theory develops over time.
Take a look at what can’t be seen by the naked eye. Amazing! And disgusting too.
Bridges, dams, domes, skyscrapers and tunnels. Their design and engineering are explained in this companion to the author’s television series of the same name.
Eight hundred miles through freezing water in an open boat. How did they survive?
The title says it all.
Would you eat your friend in a pinch? That was the dilemma faced by some pioneers crossing the snowy Sierra.
An old hunting dog narrates this gritty tale about the sights, sounds, and smells of 14th century England on the eve of the Peasants’ Revolt.
No one asks 12-year-old Moose how he feels about moving to Alcatraz so his father can work as a guard and his autistic sister can attend a special school.
The first battle of the Civil War comes alive as sixteen characters, including an 11-year-old fife player and a slave woman, tell their dramatic tales.
Liars, orphans, and snares in a 1910 Brazil setting.
Adaline is half Arapaho, and there’s no stopping her when she sets out to find her father, Kit Carson.
A 12th century Korean orphan finds his future as apprentice to a famous potter. 2002 Newbery Award.
Just being able to swim can get you branded a witch in a small Puritan village. 1959 Newbery Award.
Young “Runt” travels from China to join his uncle in Gold Rush California where he faces racism and learns self-reliance. Part of the “My Name is America” series, companion to the “Dear America” series.
148 poems, arranged by continent, celebrate “the human family” in this beautifully designed collection.
A girl survives the ups and downs of her first year in middle school.
Eleven-year-old Lonnie recalls how his parents died in a house fire and how he and his sister were sent to separate foster homes.
English translations accompany the original Spanish and Mayan writings.
From Ancient Greece to almost the present day, here are twelve people known for predicting the future.
How do you make a polite, reasonable man rude and unreasonable? Shove an iron rod through his brain.
In response to the loss of British battleships, an ingenious clockmaker invents a method of measuring longitude at sea.
A photo-biography of the deaf and blind woman who was surprisingly outspoken on many issues of her day.
A fourteen-year-old boy becomes the first Japanese person in the United States after he is rescued by a New England whaler.
One of the best women athletes of all time, Babe helped pave the way for women in sports.
Young brothers run away to Italy’s magical Venice and become entangled in the escapades of a gang of street kids.
At age eleven, Petra and Calder immerse themselves in an international mystery that involves three anonymous letters, a Dutch master, and a price-less painting. For fans of The Westing Game (Ellen Raskin) and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (E.L. Konigsburg).
A suspenseful tale, drawn from a haunting Mohawk legend, of a girl’s search for her missing parents and for the truth about the mysterious “uncle” who claims her.
A boy and his older sister invent new identities to elude the mysterious stalker in a white suit.
Samantha spies a burglar who unfortunately spies her too in this Edgar Award-winning series entry.
At 6 feet 3 ½ inches tall, “Tree” finds out that life is not fair. A 7th grader with no athletic ability, he is just coping with his parents divorce and grandfather’s illness.
After being intentionally stranded alone and naked on an island, Howie and Laura vow to survive on their own rather than face the humiliation of returning to camp.
Why is Stolly in the hospital again? Ian knows what his friend’s parents are like and why he has led such a tortured life.
Fourteen-year-old Marley loves her life in the town of Heaven until the day she discovers that her mother and father are not who she thinks they are.
Two sixth graders determine to save a mistreated circus elephant from being sold to a hunting park.
Mr. O is Maggie’s favorite teacher… until he insists she dissect a worm despite her commitment to animal rights./
Sade and her brother are in London illegally, separated from family and on the run from the people who killed their mother in Nigeria.
A Mexican girl falls from riches to rags when a family tragedy forces her to immigrate to California and become a farm laborer.
Everything in Janey's life changes after a terrible car crash. Are her grandfather and great aunt caring for her because they want to, or do they have other motives?
Three Japanese schoolboys spy on an elderly neighbor hoping to satisfy their curiosity about death, with surprising results.
A young man with a mysterious past and a penchant for inventing things leaves the troll who raised him, meets an unhappy princess he has loved from afar, and discovers a plot against her and her father.
Joey, who is still taking medication to keep him from getting too wired, goes to spend the summer with the hard-drinking father he has never known and tries to help the baseball team he coaches win the championship. .
Roy, who is new to his small Florida community, becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed construction site.
Eleven-year-old Primrose, who lives in a small fishing village in British Columbia, recounts her experiences and all that she learns about human nature and the unpredictability of life in the months after her parents are lost at sea.
In a series of journal entries, eleven-year-old child prodigy Millicent Min records her struggles to learn to play volleyball, tutor her enemy, deal with her grandmother's departure, and make friends over the course of a tumultuous summer .
Michael finds Skellig in a corner of his decrepit old garage. Is Skellig a homeless man, an owl, or an angel? And why is he there?
A thirteen-year-old living in medieval times notices that his adventures are remarkably similar to those of young Arthur before he is crowned king. First title of a trilogy.
Ember is a world without sunlight, and the electrical generator is failing. Will friends Lina and Doon find a way to safety?
Matt plans to escape from Opium, an imaginary land just south of California, after learning that he was cloned in order to provide organs for his power-hungry patron.
A young girl is raised by dolphins until she is rescued by human scientists who study her and try to teach her what it means to be human.
Matthias, a young mouse, must find the legendary sword of Martin the Warrior in order to save Redwall Abbey from evildoers. The first in a popular adventure series.
One fourteen-year-old girl crosses into a life and death computer game at a local arcade being picketed by a group of protective citizens.
A twelve-year-old girl is shocked to learn that her parents are really aliens with plans to return to their native planet. Companion to Space Race and Who Goes Home?
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