Exciting Fall 2022 Middle Grade Releases

“It's the first day of autumn! A time of hot chocolatey mornings, and toasty marshmallow evenings, and, best of all, leaping into leaves!" — Winnie the Pooh

As the weather slowly turns crisp, there’s nothing better than curling up with a good book. Join us as we take a look ahead to just a few of the incredible stories coming our way this fall.

Our list below covers only a small fraction of the upcoming fall releases, so if we missed the book you’re most excited about, let us know in the comments below!

September:

• Moonflower by Kacen Callender (September 6)
  Drawn from the author’s own experience through depression as a young person. Moon will journey through the powerful and baffling landscape of their spirit realm sanctuary to save it, and themselves, from the darkness that threatens them all.
  
  
• Serwa Boateng's Guide to Vampire Hunting by Roseanne A. Brown (September 6)
  Raised as a vampire slayer but left to stay with her estranged Maryland family “for her own safety,” Serwa will have to whip her new classmates into monster-fighting shape to save them from the shapeshifting vampire that has infiltrated their school.
  
  
• Attack of the Black Rectangles by Amy Sarig King (September 6)
  When Mac and his friends discover someone in his school is deliberately censoring books, they’re outraged. Though the truth can sometimes be hard, Mac will discover that it’s always worth fighting for.
  
  
• You Only Live Once, David Bravo by Mark Oshiro (September 20)
  David’s wish to travel back in his timeline to fix a mistake quickly propels him into a multiversal scramble as each attempt leads to total disaster.
  
  
• The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander (September 27)
  Kofi has often heard the call of the water, but when the unthinkable happens, he soon ends up in a fight for his life. What happens next will send him on a harrowing journey across land and sea, and away from everything he loves.

October:

• Children of Stardust by Edudzi Adodo (October 4)
  When a strange creature with an even stranger object imbues Zero with legendary power, he’s recruited into one of the famed Saba guilds for a dangerous intergalactic quest.
  
  
• Undercover Latina by Aya de León (October 11)
  Andréa hails from a family of spies working for an international organization dedicated to protecting people of color. For her first mission, she goes undercover as a white girl to stop a white supremacist terrorist plot in this fast-paced and unflinching upper middle grade story.
  
  
• Nikhil Out Loud by Maulik Pancholy (October 11)
  Life for Nikhil, the beloved voice actor for a hit animated series, is thrown out of orbit when his mom moves them to small-town Ohio. Between conservative parents protesting his role in the school musical to a potentially career-ending voice crack, Nikhil will have to find the courage to live his life out loud.
  
  
• Frizzy by Claribel A. Ortega, art by Rose Bousamra (October 18)
  In this middle grade graphic novel, Marlene doesn’t understand why straightening her hair makes her seem “presentable” where her natural curls don’t. With a few hiccups and learning curves, Marlene learns to proudly embrace her hair in all its natural glory.
  
  
• Sparrows in the Wind by Gail Carson Levine (October 25)
  Cassandra, princess of Troy and follower of Apollo, is cursed so her visions will never be believed. But she and her Amazonian warrior friend Rin will stop at nothing to change their fate.

November:

• Mihi Ever After by Tae Keller, illustrated by Geraldine Rodríguez (November 8)
  Mihi gets her shot to live out her fairy tale princess dreams when she and her friends discover a portal to a magical realm. But the fairy tale is not as wonderful as Mihi imagined.
  
  
• Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston by Esme Symes-Smith (November 8)
  In a magical medieval world filled with dragons, shape-shifters, and witches, a nonbinary hopeful knight battles for the heart of their kingdom. Along with their new friends, Callie’s only hope to defeat the threats outside the kingdom lies in first defeating the bigotry within.
  
  
• Morning Sun in Wuhan by Ying Chang Compestine (November 8)
  Grieving the death of her mother and with her father, a doctor, called away to an overcrowded hospital, Mei finds herself suddenly alone in locked-down city. But Mei will prove how in the darkest, most frightening times, even young people can make an impact on the world.
  
  
• The Cool Code by Deirdre Langeland, illustrated by Sarah Mai (November 8)
  This funny and heartfelt graphic novel follows coding whiz Zoey who develops an app to help her make friends. Will the Cool Code help Zoey fit in? Or will it completely crash her social life?
  
  
• D & D Dungeon Club: Roll Call by Molly Knox Ostertag and Xanthe Bouma (November 29)
  Best friends Jess and Olivia have always escaped into make-believe together with Olivia as the Dungeon Master and Jess as the solo party member. But when Olivia adds new players to their group, Jess struggles to share their game, and her best friend.

Notable Sequels:

• Key Player (Front Desk #4) by Kelly Yang (September 6)
  The Women’s World Cup is coming to Southern California and with the U.S. playing China in the finals, Mia will need to find a way to bring her two identities together.
  
  
• The Secrets of the Stormforest (Strangeworlds Travel Agency #3) by L. D. Lapinski (September 13)
  Flick and Jonathan have faced countless dangers as members of the Strangeworlds Society, but what do they really know about the society itself? If they can uncover the secrets of Strangeworlds, they may have a hope of defending their world from the threat facing them all.
  
  
• The Quest for the Ring of Power (Amira & Hamza #2) by Samira Ahmed (September 20)
  Amira and Hamza find themselves face-to-face with the evil dev, Ahrima. To save her brother, Amira must outsmart perilous traps and confounding puzzles in a race against time.
  
  
• Cece Rios and the King of Fears (Cece Rios #2) by Kaela Rivera (September 27)
  With El Cucuy, king of the criaturas, intent on claiming Cece’s powers for himself, the Rios sisters and their criatura allies will need to uncover his secrets in order to reclaim Juana’s soul from Devil’s Alley.
  
  
• Stellarlune (Keeper of the Lost Cities #9) by Shannon Messenger (November 8)
  Sophie Foster changed the game, but her friends are divided and scattered. Stellarlune — and the mysterious Elysian — might be the key to everything. In the battle to come, only one thing is certain: nothing will ever be the same.