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  YHBA Middle Grade Nominees (2019-2020)  
All's Faire in Middle School

Victoria Jamieson - Dial Books
Format: Paperback

Calling all Raina Telgemeier fans! The Newbery Honor-winning author of Roller Girl is back with a heartwarming graphic novel about starting middle school, surviving your embarrassing family, and the Renaissance Faire. Eleven-year-old Imogene (Impy) has grown up with two parents...
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Ashes to Asheville

Sarah Dooley - G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Format: Hardcover

Two sisters take off on a wild road trip in this poignant tale for fans of Counting by 7s and Fish in a TreeAfter Mama Lacy's death, Fella was forced to move in with her grandmother, Mrs. Madison. The move brought Fella all sorts of comforts she wasn't used to at home, but it also...
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Beautiful Blue World

Suzanne M LaFleur - Wendy Lamb Books
Format: Print book

Beautiful Blue World is a thrilling and moving story of children who become the key to winning a war. Sofarende is at war. For twelve-year-old Mathilde, it means food shortages, feuding neighbors, and bombings. Even so, as long as she and her best friend, Megs, are together, they'll...
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Braced

Alyson Gerber - Arthur A. Levine Books
Format: Hardcover

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...
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Exo

Fonda Lee - Scholastic Press
Format: Hardcover

It's been a century of peace since Earth became a colony of an alien race with far reaches into the galaxy. Some die-hard extremists still oppose their rule on Earth, but Donovan Reyes isn't one of them. His dad holds the prestigious position of Prime Liaison in the collaborationist government,...
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Forget Me Not

Elliah Terry - Feiwel & Friends
Format: Hardcover

Astronomy-loving Calliope June has Tourette syndrome, so she sometimes makes faces or noises that she doesn't mean to make. When she and her mother move yet again, she tries to hide her TS. But it isn't long before the kids at her new school realize she's different. Only Calliope's neighbor,...
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Greetings from Witness Protection!

JAKE BURT - Feiwel & Friends
Format: Hardcover

Nicki Demere is an orphan and a pickpocket. She also happens to be the U.S. Marshals' best bet to keep a family alive. . . .The marshals are looking for the perfect girl to join a mother, father, and son on the run from the nation's most notorious criminals. After all, the bad guys...
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Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus

DUSTI BOWLING - Sterling Children's Books
Format: Hardcover

"Aven is a perky, hilarious, and inspiring protagonist whose attitude and humor will linger even after the last page has turned." - School Library Journal (Starred review) Chosen for the Autumn 2017 Kids' Indie Next List!Winner of the 2017 Reading the West...
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Miles Morales

Jason Reynolds - Marvel Press
Format: Hardcover

"Everyone gets mad at hustlers, especially if you're on the victim side of the hustle. And Miles knew hustling was in his veins." Miles Morales is just your average teenager. Dinner every Sunday with his parents, chilling out playing old-school video games with his best friend,...
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The Peculiar Incident on Shady Street

Lindsay Currie - Aladdin
Format: Hardcover

A girl unravels a centuries-old mystery after moving into a haunted house in this deliciously suspenseful mystery.Tessa Woodward isn't exactly thrilled to move to rainy, cold Chicago from her home in sunny Florida. But homesickness turns to icy fear when unexplainable things start happening...
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Playing Atari with Saddam Hussein: Based on a True Story

JENNIFER ROY - HMH Books for Young Readers
Format: Hardcover

At the start of 1991, eleven-year-old Ali Fadhil was consumed by his love for soccer, video games, and American television shows. Then, on January 17, Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein went to war with thirty-four nations lead by the United States. Over the next forty-three days, Ali and his family...
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Refugee

ALAN GRATZ - Scholastic Press
Format: Hardcover

JOSEF is a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world . . .ISABEL is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft,...
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Renegades

MARISSA MEYER - Feiwel & Friends
Format: Hardcover

NOW A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!From #1 New York Times-bestselling author Marissa Meyer, comes a high-stakes world of adventure, passion, danger, and betrayal.Secret Identities.Extraordinary Powers.She wants vengeance. He wants justice.The Renegades are a syndicate...
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Scar Island

Dan Gemeinhart - Scholastic Press
Format: Print book

Jonathan Grisby is the newest arrival at the Slabhenge Reformatory School for Troubled Boys--an ancient, crumbling fortress of gray stone rising up from the ocean. It is dark, damp, and dismal. And it is just the place Jonathan figures he deserves.Because Jonathan has done something terrible....
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The Secret Sheriff of Sixth Grade

Jordan Sonnenblick - Scholastic Press
Format: Hardcover

In sixth grade, bad things can happen to good kids. Bullies will find your weakness and jump on it. Teachers will say you did something wrong when really didn't mean to do anything wrong. The kids who joke the loudest can drown out the quieter, nicer kids. Maverick wants to change all that....
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York: The Shadow Cipher

LAURA RUBY - Walden Pond Press
Format: Hardcover

"The pleasures of the novel go far beyond the crackling, breathless plot and the satisfaction of watching the puzzle fall into place. The book is shot through with humor, both laugh-out-loud and subtle." - New York Times Book ReviewFrom National Book Award finalist and Printz...
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The Someday Birds

Sally J Pla - HarperCollins
Format: Hardcover

TWO STARRED REVIEWS!"Offering a mixture of suspense, mystery, tragedy and humor, Pla's story captures both the literal and figurative meanings of journey." - Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Pla gives us a memorable hero in this lyrical and funny book." - Shelf...
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The Stars Beneath Our Feet

DAVID BARCLAY MOORE - Knopf Books for Young Readers
Format: Hardcover

A boy tries to steer a safe path through the projects in Harlem in the wake of his brother's death in this outstanding debut novel that's been described as a "fast and furious read in which we meet some amazing people, people that stay with us" by Newbery Honor and National Book...
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They Lost Their Heads!: What Happened to Washington's Teeth, Einstein's Brain, and Other Famous Body Parts

Carlyn Cerniglia Beccia - Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Format: Hardcover

From the kidnapping of Einstein's brain to the horrifying end of Louis XIV's heart, the mysteries surrounding some of history's most famous body parts range from medical to macabre. Carlyn Beccia explores the misadventures of noteworthy body parts through history and springboards to exploring...
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Windfall

Jennifer E. Smith - Random House Children's Books
Format: Hardcover

Filled with all of Jenny Han's "favorite things", a romantic new novel from the author of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. This story of hope, chance, and change is one Morgan Matson calls "something wonderful" and Stephanie Perkins says "is...
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