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🧲 Books like this

Shoeshine Girl

Clyde Robert Bulla · back to the book

What’s in it

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24 books with the same feel

Include books by the same author
❤️

Prairie Evers

Ellen Airgood

"Ten-year-old Prairie is happy being home-schooled and raising her flock of chickens, so transferring to regular school is a big change, but fortunately she meets a wonderful friend"--

Middle GradeContemporary FictionMentor RelationshipFemale Lead
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Out of My Mind

Sharon M. Draper · 305 pages

Eleven-year-old Melody has a photographic memory. Her head is like a video camera that is always recording. Always. And there's no delete button. She's the smartest kid in her whole school, but no one knows it. Most people — her teachers and doctors included — don't think she's capable of learning, and until recently her school days consisted of listening to the same preschool-level alphabet lesso

Middle GradeContemporary FictionSelf-DiscoveryFemale Lead
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Every Soul a Star

Wendy Mass · 322 pages

And as streams of light fan out behind the darkened sun like the wings of a butterfly, I realize that I never saw real beauty until now.At Moon Shadow, an isolated campground, thousands have gathered to catch a glimpse of a rare and extraordinary total eclipse of the sun. It's also were three lives are about to be changed forever:Ally likes the simple things in life--labyrinths, star-gazing, and c

Middle GradeContemporary FictionFemale LeadSelf-Discovery
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Notes from a Liar and Her Dog

Gennifer Choldenko · 216 pages

Eleven-year-old Ant, stuck in a family that she does not like, copes by pretending that her "real" parents are coming to rescue her, by loving her dog Pistachio, by volunteering at the zoo, and by bending the truth and telling lies.

Middle GradeContemporary FictionSelf-DiscoveryFemale Lead
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When You Reach Me

Rebecca Stead · 199 pages

As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1980s television game show, "The $20,000 Pyramid," a twelve-year-old New York City girl tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from an anonymous source that seems to defy the laws of time and space.

Middle GradeContemporary FictionSelf-DiscoveryFemale Lead
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A Kind of Spark

Elle McNicoll · 192 pages

Perfect for readers of Song for a Whale and Counting by 7s, a neurodivergent girl campaigns for a memorial when she learns that her small Scottish town used to burn witches simply because they were different."A must-read for students and adults alike." -School Library Journal, Starred Review Ever since Ms. Murphy told us about the witch trials that happened centuries ago right here in Juniper, I c

Middle GradeContemporary FictionSelf-DiscoveryFemale Lead
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Rules

Cynthia Lord · 200 pages

Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She's spent years trying to teach David the rules-from "a peach is not a funny-looking apple" to "keep your pants on in public"-in order to stop his embarrassing behaviors. But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a paraplegic boy, and Kris

Middle GradeContemporary FictionSelf-DiscoveryFemale Lead
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Wish

Barbara O'Connor · 227 pages

charlie resse has been making the same wish every day since forth grade but when she is sent to live with family the barly knows it seems unlikely that her wish will ever come true that is, until she meets wishbone a skinny stray dog who captures her heart

Middle GradeContemporary FictionSelf-DiscoveryFemale Lead
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Sparrow Road

Sheila O'Connor

Twelve-year-old Raine spends the summer at a mysterious artists colony and discovers a secret about her past.

Middle GradeContemporary FictionSelf-DiscoveryFemale Lead
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Wild Things

Clay Carmichael · 241 pages

Stubborn, self-reliant, eleven-year-old Zoe, recently orphaned, moves to the country to live with her prickly half-uncle, a famous doctor and sculptor, and together they learn about trust and the strength of family.

Middle GradeContemporary FictionFemale LeadHeartwarming
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Drama

Raina Telgemeier · 240 pages

Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school's production of Moon over Mississippi, she can't really sing. Instead she's the set designer for the drama department's stage crew, and this year she's determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget. But how can she, when she doesn't know much about carpentry, ticket sales are down, and the cre

Middle GradeContemporary FictionSelf-DiscoveryFemale Lead
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The Changeling

Zilpha Keatley Snyder · 220 pages

Had it not been for the firm belief of two young girls that one of them was a changeling, their lives would have been very different.

Middle GradeContemporary FictionSelf-DiscoveryFemale Lead
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The Unteachables

Gordon Korman

Middle GradeContemporary FictionMentor RelationshipCharacter-Driven
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Midsummer's Mayhem

Rajani LaRocca · 351 pages

Middle GradeContemporary FictionSelf-DiscoveryFemale Lead
❤️

Waiting for Normal

Leslie Connor · 304 pages

Addie is waiting for normal. But Addie's mom has an all-or-nothing approach to life: a food fiesta or an empty pantry, jubilation or gloom, her way or no way. All or nothing never adds up to normal. All or nothing can't bring you all to home, which is exactly where Addie longs to be, with her half-sisters, every day. In spite of life's twists and turns, Addie remains optimistic. Someday, maybe, sh

Middle GradeContemporary FictionFemale LeadHeartwarming
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Short

Holly Goldberg Sloan · 304 pages

"Very short for her age, Julia grows into her sense of self while playing a munchkin in a summer regional theater production of The Wizard of Oz"--

Middle GradeContemporary FictionSelf-DiscoveryFemale Lead
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Ida B. . . and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World

Katherine Hannigan · 256 pages

In Wisconsin, fourth-grader Ida B spends happy hours being home-schooled and playing in her family's apple orchard, until her mother begins treatment for breast cancer and her parents must sell part of the orchard and send her to public school.

Middle GradeContemporary FictionFemale LeadHeartwarming
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Harriet the Spy

Louise Fitzhugh · 298 pages

Harriet the Spy is a children's novel written and illustrated by Louise Fitzhugh that was published in 1964. It has been called "a milestone in children's literature" and a "classic". In the U.S. it ranked number 12 in The 50 Best Books for Kids and number 17 in The Top 100 Children's Novels on two lists generated in 2012.

Middle GradeContemporary FictionSelf-DiscoveryCharacter-Driven
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Touching Spirit Bear

Ben Mikaelsen · 289 pages

Middle GradeContemporary FictionMentor RelationshipSelf-Discovery
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Fish in a Tree

Lynda Mullaly Hunt

Ally can't read very well and writing is hard for her too. She finds friends that help with what she does at school and with bullies. Mr. Daniels helps her the best he can by realizing that something is " wrong " with her. This is a great and inspiring book for all people to read.

Middle GradeContemporary FictionMentor RelationshipFemale Lead
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Bridge to Terabithia

Katherine Paterson · 144 pages

The life of a ten-year-old boy in rural Virginia expands when he becomes friends with a newcomer who subsequently meets an untimely death trying to reach their hideaway, Terabithia, during a storm.

Middle GradeContemporary FictionSelf-DiscoveryFemale Lead
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Paint the Wind

Pam Munoz Ryan · 327 pages

After her overprotective grandmother has a stroke, Maya, an orphan, leaves her extremely restricted life in California to stay with her mother's family on a remote Wyoming ranch, where she discovers a love of horses and encounters a wild mare that her mother once rode

Middle GradeContemporary FictionSelf-DiscoveryFemale Lead
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Braced

Alyson Gerber · 304 pages

Rachel Brooks is excited for the new school year. She's finally earned a place as a forward on her soccer team. Her best friends make everything fun. And she really likes Tate, and she's pretty sure he likes her back. After one last appointment with her scoliosis doctor, this will be her best year yet.

Middle GradeContemporary FictionSelf-DiscoveryFemale Lead
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Faith, Hope, and Ivy June

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

When push comes to shove, two Kentucky girls find strength in each other.Ivy June Mosely and Catherine Combs, two girls from different parts of Kentucky, are participating in the first seventh-grade student exchange program between their schools. The girls will stay at each other's homes, attend school together, and record their experience in their journals. Catherine and her family have a beautif

Middle GradeContemporary FictionSelf-DiscoveryFemale Lead

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