Great New Novels for 9- to 12-year-olds

“Eleven-going-on-12-year-old Delphine has only a few fragmented memories of her mother, Cecile, a poet who wrote verses on walls and cereal boxes, played smoky jazz records, and abandoned the family in Brooklyn after giving birth to her third daughter. In the summer of 1968, Delphine’s father decides that seeing Cecile is something whose time had come, and Delphine boards a plane with her sisters to Cecile’s home in Oakland. Regimented, responsible, strong-willed Delphine narrates in an unforgettable voice, but each of the little sisters (Vonetta and Fern) emerge as distinct, memorable characters, whose hard-won, tenuous connections with their mother build to an aching, triumphant conclusion. Set during a pivotal moment in African American history (the setting and time period are as vividly realized as the characters), this vibrant novel shows the subtle ways that political movements affect personal lives; but just as memorable is the finely drawn, universal story of children reclaiming a reluctant parent’s love.” —Booklist.
Bookshop Santa Cruz’s Newbery pick for 2011.
Grades 4–7.

It is 1973 and 13-year-old Y’Tin, who lives in a Dega village in South Vietnam, is finding that between right and wrong are “a million shades of gray” like his elephant’s skin or the jungle at dusk. Grades 6–8. —GA

Meggy Swan—lame, stubborn, smart, and angry—has been sent (now that her grandmother is no longer alive) by her beautiful, cold-hearted mother from the country alehouse that has been her home for 13 years to London, where her father (an alchemist, with a dangerous secondary business that finances his obsession) has no time for his daughter. Meggy is initially overwhelmed by the bustle and grit of Elizabethan London—which is colorfully, accurately, and cinematically detailed by Newbery author Cushman. While navigating the dangers of the city (Meggy walks with a halting gate, using two sticks), she— slowly—allows herself to form friendships with a cooper, a printer, and a troupe of players and, losing her anger, gains her own respect and maybe joy. —GA

Saving Sky is an adventure/survival story for fifth to seventh grade. Sky Brightman’s family, living an upscale, off-the-grid lifestyle on a large ranch in New Mexico, hunkers down when the country is under attack; and fear of further attacks are escalating. This part is quite familiar, even comfortable, the way it is in books where someone else is going through hardships but you’re pretty sure it will be okay. It is less comfortable when Sky’s seventh-grade classmate, Kareem, is arrested with his parents at Home Depot as Homeland Security starts ‘detaining’ anyone of Middle Eastern decent. Sky, brave and hopeful, stands up for what she knows is right, giving us a hero we can root for. —GA