Books in English or Spanish for your 5th grader

The hook: Artemis Fowl is no regular kid. He happens to be an evil genius — a criminal mastermind with high-tech toys — and only 12 years old. Delve into the murky underworld of fairies, elves, and other sprites as they battle Artemis in his relentless quest for the fairyfolks’ pot of gold.

Perfect for: Kids too jaded to be entertained by old-fashioned fairies and elves.

Find our favorites at your local library: Artemis Fowl, The Arctic Incident, The Eternity Code.

This beautiful novel will help kids understand what it’s like to be that kid — the one everyone stares at, laughs at, and avoids. Auggie Pullman has a facial disfigurement so extreme that he wore a toy astronaut helmet to preschool. He was homeschooled until fifth grade, but now he is going to regular school, where he encounters both cruelty and kindness. The book will remind readers how much courage it takes to be different — and how essential it is to be kind.

Want to see the movie? Check out the 2017 adaption featuring Julia Roberts and Owen Wilson as Auggie’s mom and dad.

Perfect for: Kids who are different.

Find Wonder at your local library.

Naomi Leon Outlaw is many things: a great sister, a kind granddaughter, and an excellent soap carver, but she is having a harder time just being Naomi. Her journey to find her own true voice and reconnect with her father takes her from a trailer park in Lemon Tree, California, to a radish-carving festival in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Perfect for: Kids who have changed as they’ve grown up.

Find Becoming Naomi Leon at your local library.

Abel and Amanda are newlywed, high-society mice enjoying a picnic in the forest. When a rainstorm strikes, Abel is swept away and marooned on a river island. The cultured rodent castaway survives here, a la Robinson Crusoe, adapting to nature with cheerful resourcefulness and utilizing the solitude to reexamine his life.

Perfect for: Kids who like fantasy and survival stories.

Find Abel’s Island at your local library.

John and Abigail are 12-year-old twins with an absent-minded professor and inventor for a father and a sweet fox terrier named Cassie. When the evil Dean D. Dean kidnaps the twins to get their father’s genius invention, the twins have to come up with an idea. The most important character in this silly series about the twins’ misadventures is the wise-cracking, sarcastic narrator, who makes an absurd tale even more fun to read.

Perfect for: Kids who like comedy.

Find The Templeton Twins Have an Idea at your local library.

Roy is the new kid at Trace Middle School in Coconut Grove, Florida, and his days consist mostly of trying not to get his face smashed into the school bus window by the local bully. But things start looking up when Roy encounters a mysterious barefoot eco-activist kid named Mullet Fingers, who is intent on stopping the construction of a pancake restaurant in order to save a colony of burrowing owls. Middle schoolers will appreciate the offbeat humor and compelling mystery plot of this Newbery Honor winner.

Want to see the movie? The 2006 comedy focuses on the friendship between the kid protagonists as they fight middle school and corporate bullying.

Perfect for: Budding environmentalists and mystery lovers.

Find Hoot at your local library.

The hook: Carter and Sadie Kane are brother and sister but they don’t know each other very well. Since the death of their mother, the two have lived separately. Sadie has lived in London with their maternal grandparents. Carter has traveled the world with their father, a famous Egyptologist who has a mysterious mission. The siblings join their father for a trip to the British museum, where Dr. Kane performs a ritual that accidentally releases the Egyptian god Set. Carter and Sadie are thrust into a thrilling adventure as they try to save their father from the wrath of the gods and uncover their family’s ancient connection to the Egyptian pharaohs.

Perfect for: Tweens who love adventure and history.

Find our favorites at your local library: The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles, Book 1), The Throne of Fire (The Kane Chronicles, Book 2), and The Serpent’s Shadow (The Kane Chronicles, Book 3).

Ten-year-old Margarita calls herself Margie at school. Her parents were born in Mexico, but Margie is proud to be American and wants the other kids in her class to think of her as just like them. When her cousin Lupe comes from Mexico to live with them in California and goes to school with Margie, it threatens the identity Margie has created for herself. This story alternates between the viewpoints of Margie and Lupe as they become as close as sisters and learn what it means to live in two cultures.

Find Dancing Home at your local library.

Alfonso is a seventh grader who wishes his teeth were straighter, his hair were cooler, and his abs were more muscular. His parents are preoccupied with earning a living and his older brother, Ernie, has girl troubles. Alfonso meets a girl with ponytails and invites her for a bike ride, but then his bike chain breaks. Will Ernie lend Alfonso his bike? The eleven short stories in this book explore family bonds, falling in love, fears, and insecurities — themes common to all kids as they grow up. They feature Mexican-American families and are full of colorful details from the author’s own experiences growing up in California’s Central Valley.

Perfect for: Tweens navigating life with friends, siblings, and crushes.

Find Baseball in April and Other Stories at your local library.

Astrid and her best friend, Nicole, have always been inseparable, until the summer before junior high. Astrid falls in love with roller derby and wants to prepare for a tournament. Nicole chooses to go to ballet camp instead — with a girl Astrid hates! This award-winning graphic novel explores the dramatic and painful elements of girl friendships and growing up, with fun details about the sport of roller derby from the author’s own experience playing for the Rose City Rollers in Portland, Oregon.

Perfect for: Athletes and kids with strong passions.

Find Roller Girl at your local library.

Mysterious letters, picture puzzles called “pentominoes,” and a stolen painting by the Dutch artist Vermeer unite unlikely friends, Petra Andalee and Calder Pillay, in an effort to solve a mystery.

Perfect for: Kids who like mysteries.

Find Chasing Vermeer at your local library.