It’s freezing, snowing, and still dark by six p.m., so it must be time for the 2025 Mid-Winter Middle Grade & Young Adult book list! As I’ve mentioned before, this is NOT a best-seller or new release list. This is an ongoing, cumulative list of books the kids in my reading army have read and is updated twice a year. They find their books on their own, usually in libraries or through recommendations from friends. With so many books being published–both traditionally and independently–it’s hard to keep up. So I want to thank my preteen & teen readers for their help and suggestions, as well as my blog readers who’ve made this list such a popular download. And if you’d like a refresher about how publishers and librarians classify Middle Grade and Young Adult books–and why–I wrote a blog post to help clarify the rules.
Thank you to Amazon for book covers, links, and blurbs*

This bi-annual compilation offers a good cross-section of genres for teens and tweens. Like in the last few years, a lot of new YA Fantasy and Middle Grade Non-Fiction were recently released. I was happy to add some new non-fiction books geared toward pre-teen boys as well. I’ve also added many new Middle Grade Action/Adventure books. There are books on the list for all readers to get them through the rest of the winter!
Below are just a few highlights in no particular order. Some are new, and some are older, rediscovered books that were just added to the list. For the entire printable list available from Bookfunnel, click here: 2025 Mid-Summer MG/YA Book List.
YOUNG ADULT FICTION

by Ava Reid
A Study in Drowning
Effy Sayre has always believed in fairy tales. Haunted by visions of the Fairy King since childhood, she’s had no choice. Her tattered copy of Angharad—Emrys Myrddin’s epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, then destroys him—is the only thing keeping her afloat. So when Myrddin’s family announces a contest to redesign the late author’s estate, Effy feels certain it’s her destiny.
But musty, decrepit Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task, and its residents are far from welcoming. Including Preston Héloury, a stodgy young literature scholar determined to expose Myrddin as a fraud. As the two rivals piece together clues about Myrddin’s legacy, dark forces, both mortal and magical, conspire against them—and the truth may bring them both to ruin.

by Sarra Cannon
The Disappearance of Vanessa Shaw
Secrets can kill.
Vanessa Shaw was the kind of girl you either loved or you loved to hate. Over the course of our friendship, I’d done both. I never should have gone to her family’s secluded cabin on the river that night, but it was meant to bring us all closer. One last party with our original group before senior year began.
Instead, Vanessa disappeared without a trace, and her memory’s been haunting me ever since. Now, exactly one year later, her brother Kirin has brought us all back to the cabin to honor her life. Six of Vanessa’s closest friends, each with a secret we’d do anything to protect.
But I have a feeling no one is leaving until we unbury the truth. After all, everyone there that night had a reason to want Vanessa gone … Including me.

by Jenn Bennett
The Anatomical Shape of a Heart
Artist Beatrix Adams knows exactly how she’s spending the summer before her senior year. Determined to follow in Da Vinci’s footsteps, she’s ready to tackle the one thing that will give her an advantage in a museum-sponsored scholarship contest: drawing actual cadavers. But when she tries to sneak her way into the hospital’s Willed Body program and misses the last metro train home, she meets a boy who turns her summer plans upside down.
Jack is charming, wildly attractive . . . and possibly one of San Francisco’s most notorious graffiti artists. On midnight buses and city rooftops, Beatrix begins to see who Jack really is-and tries to uncover what he’s hiding that leaves him so wounded. But will these secrets come back to haunt him? Or will the skeletons in Beatrix’s own family’s closet tear them apart?

by Holly Black
The Prisoner’s Throne
Stolen heir book 2
An imprisoned prince. A vengeful queen. And a battle that will determine the future of Elfhame.
Prince Oak is paying for his betrayal. Imprisoned in the icy north and bound to the will of a monstrous new queen, he must rely on charm and calculation to survive. With High King Cardan and High Queen Jude willing to use any means necessary to retrieve their stolen heir, Oak will have to decide whether to attempt regaining the trust of the girl he’s always loved or to remain loyal to Elfhame and hand over the means to end her reign—even if it means ending Wren, too.
With a new war looming on the horizon and treachery lurking in every corner, neither Oak’s guile nor his wit will be enough to keep everyone he loves alive. It’s just a question of whom he will doom.

by David Arnold
I Loved You in Another Life
Evan Taft has plans. Take a gap year in Alaska, make sure his little brother and single mother are taken care of, and continue therapy to process his father’s departure. But after his mom’s unexpected diagnosis, as Evan’s plans begin to fade, he hears something: a song no one else can hear, the voice of a mysterious singer . . .
Shosh Bell has dreams. A high school theater legend, she’s headed to performing arts college in LA, a star on the rise. But when a drunk driver takes her sister’s life, that star fades to black. All that remains is a void—and a soft voice singing in her ear . . .

by Victoria Aveyard
Fate Breaker
Realm Breaker Book 3
Change your fate—or kneel to it.
The Companions are scattered and hopeless, torn from each other. After Corayne barely escapes with her life, she must forge on alone, leaving her blade broken and her allies behind her. Her only consolation: Corayne now has Taristan’s sword, the only Spindleblade left in existence. Without it, he can’t rip open any more Spindles. Without it, he can’t end the world.
But Taristan and Queen Erida will not be defeated so easily. Both will burn the world to bring down Corayne—and bring forth their demon god, What Waits, ready to claim the realm of Allward for his own.
In a final clash between kingdoms and gods, all must rise to fight—or be destroyed.
Middle Grade Fiction and Non-Fiction Books

by Katherine Rundell
Vanishing Treasures
A Bestiary of extraordinary endangered species
The world is more astonishing, more miraculous, and more wonderful than our wildest imaginings. In this brilliant and passionately persuasive book, Katherine Rundell takes us on a globe-spanning tour of the world’s most awe-inspiring animals currently facing extinction.
Consider the seahorse: couples mate for life and meet each morning for a dance, pirouetting and changing colors before going their separate ways, to dance again the next day. The American wood frog survives winter by allowing itself to freeze solid, its heartbeat slowing until it stops altogether. Come spring, the heart kick-starts itself spontaneously back to life. As for the lemur, it lives in matriarchal troops led by an alpha female (it’s not unusual for female ring-tailed lemurs to slap males across the face when they become aggressive). Whenever they are cold or frightened, they group together in what’s known as a lemur ball, paws and tails intertwined, to form a furry mass as big as a bicycle wheel.
But each of these extraordinary animals is endangered or holds a sub-species that is endangered. This urgent, inspiring book of essays dedicated to 23 unusual and underappreciated creatures is a clarion call insisting that we look at the world around us with new eyes—to see the magic of the animals we live among, their unknown histories and capabilities, and above all how lucky we are to tread the same ground as such vanishing treasures.

by Kate DiCamillo
Ferris
It’s the summer before fifth grade, and for Ferris Wilkey, it is a summer of sheer pandemonium: Her little sister, Pinky, has vowed to become an outlaw. Uncle Ted has left Aunt Shirley and, to Ferris’s mother’s chagrin, is holed up in the Wilkey basement to paint a history of the world. And Charisse, Ferris’s grandmother, has started seeing a ghost at the threshold of her room, which seems like an alarming omen given that she is also feeling unwell.
But the ghost is not there to usher Charisse to the Great Beyond. Rather, she has other plans—wild, impractical, illuminating plans. How can Ferris satisfy a specter with Pinky terrorizing the town, Uncle Ted sending Ferris to spy on her aunt, and her father battling an invasion of raccoons?

by Frances Hardinge & Emily Gravett
Island of Whispers
Part gothic thriller and part seafaring coming-of-age story, this new illustrated middle grade fantasy from award-winning author Frances Hardinge and acclaimed illustrator Emily Gravett is about a strange island filled with ghosts and long-buried secrets.
On the island of Merlank, the Dead must not be allowed to linger. The very sight of their ghosts can kill you. When young Milo is thrust into the role of Ferryman following his father’s sudden death, he is the one who must carry away the Dead.
Pursued by a vengeful lord and two malignant magicians, Milo must navigate strange and perilous seas where untold threats whisper in the mist. Does he have the courage and imagination to complete his urgent mission?

by Marissa Meyer & Joanne Levy
Let it Glow
When Aviva Davis and Holly Martin meet at the holiday pageant tryouts for their local senior’s center, they think they must be seeing double. While they both knew they were adopted, they had no idea they had a biological sibling, let alone an identical twin! The similarities are only skin deep, though, because while Aviva has a big personality and even bigger Broadway plans, Holly is more the quiet dreamer type who longs to become a famous author like her grandfather.
One thing the girls do have in common is their curiosity about how the other celebrates the holidays. What better way to discover the magic of the holidays than to experience them firsthand? The girls secretly trade lives, planning to stage a dramatic reveal to their families. Two virtual strangers swapping homes, holidays, and age-old traditions–what could possibly go wrong?
Disclaimer: Some of these books are (or once were) controversial. Some older YAs have closed-door or open-door adult situations, and others (YA & MG) deal with harsh issues such as suicide, bullying, war, poverty, drug use, social media anxiety, and loss of a parent. As a librarian, reader’s advisor, author, and mother, I’ve learned that tweens and teens tend to read within their comfort zone, both emotionally and reading-level wise. All of these books offer a chance for parents and kids to discuss which topics are appropriate now and which books are best left for another time. But I hope you all find books that will give your family new adventures and imaginary friends.
See you in July for the 2025 Mid-Summer Young Adult and Middle Grade Book List!
*The books listed in this blog post are in no particular order.