I’m so excited to announce that my 2026 Summer Reading Guide is here! This post is a sneak peek of the review of 7 of my favorite books in the guide.
As you’ll see in the sneak peek below, I’ve focused on diverse and inclusive characters and authors, with engaging traditional chapter books (some with illustrations, some without), graphic novels, and novels in verse. Whether your child is a voracious reader or a reluctant one, you’re sure to find picks they’ll enjoy. In the full guide, you’ll find lots of choices for rising 1st through 8th graders, with books for every reading level.
It was so much fun selecting all the books from so many genres: mysteries, fantasy, animal books, friendship stories, sci fi, historical fiction, and more! There are 40+ books in the guide that I haven’t reviewed anywhere else, so you’re sure to find lots of new reads for your family.
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Troop Esme by Lourdes Heuer and Marisa Valdez.
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Details: Contemporary fiction. 76 pages.Recommended ages: 6 – 8. Best for: Kids who enjoy exuberant characters and are beyond “step into reading” type books but not ready for long chapter books. Setting: Urban apartment building. Identities of main character: Hispanic girl. Identities of author: Spanish American woman. Illustrations? Yes (color.) Audiobook available? No. Published in: August 2025.
I fell in love with exuberant Esme and her fast-paced problem solving within the first pages of this book. The expressive full color illustrations of Esme, her friends, neighbors, and her poor cat are full of Esme’s energy and positivity.
When Wendall shows up at Esme’s door selling cookies for Troop Badger, he needs just one more sale to get his cookie badge. Esme is determined to help him make a sale in her building, while also coming up with how her own “Troop Esme” will work. While the Badgers’ motto is “dedication, precision, excellence,” Esme thinks that sounds way too time-consuming. Instead, she’s thinking of “stickers, luck, friendship.” But when some of her neighbors decline to buy cookies, Esme and Wendall will have to demonstrate a lot of dedication if he’s going to earn his Cookie Empresario badge.
The Mighty Macy by Kwame Alexander. Illustrated by Kitt Thomas.
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Details: Contemporary fiction/novel in verse. 132 pages. Recommended ages: 7 – 10. Best for: Readers who are still building stamina or who love their library. Setting: Present day (location not named). Identities of main character: 9-year-old Black girl. Identities of author: Black man. Illustrations? Yes (black and white). Audiobook available? Yes. Published in: February 2026.
Macy’s motto could be “I’d rather be reading,” but her mom still insists she practice her violin daily, especially since she has a solo coming up. As the book opens, Macy’s poet father is heading out of town for a speaking engagement, and she’s grumpy about his absence. Little does she know that much worse news is waiting at school. Because of budget cuts, her beloved school library will only be open twice a week, and the librarian has been let go.
After hearing adults talk about a “bored meeting” which turns out to be a “board meeting” where decisions are made, Macy and her friends decide to get all the kids to show up. When Macy asks which of them should speak, everyone thinks Macy should share a special poem she’s written for the occasion. If only her father were home to help! Could thinking about the orchestra she plays in provide her with some poetry inspiration?
Macy, her exuberant friends, and her doting parents are characters who readers will love rooting for. Because the book is written in free verse, it’s able to capture Macy’s many feelings during a turbulent week. Novels in verse are also a great choice for kids who are still building their stamina for longer books.
The Unlikely Tale of Chase and Finnegan by Jasmine Warga.
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Details: Contemporary fiction. 219 pages. Recommended ages: 7 – 10. Best for: Animal lovers, fans of The One and Only Ivan. Setting: Present day (location not specified). Identities of author: Arab American woman. Illustrations? Yes (black and white). Audiobook available? Yes. Published in: March 2026.
Finnegan used to belong to Samuel, but as the book opens, the dog is alone in the woods. Attacked by another animal, he’s rescued by a kind man named Ryan. Despite Ryan’s gentleness, Finnegan is worried that someday, he’ll discover that Finn is not a good dog.
Chase is a young cheetah living in a zoo with her mother and no siblings. When her mother dies, Chase is of course devastated. A kind trainer named Basma, who is also shaken by the loss of Chase’s mother, does all she can to make Chase feel nurtured.
It turns out that Basma and Ryan are a couple, and Basma realizes that Finn could be the perfect companion for little Chase. As Basma trains Chase for an educational program at the zoo, Finn helps her gain the confidence she needs. At the same time, Chase tries to get Finn to open up about his past hurt.
This gentle story of a friendship between two animals who have experienced deep loss explores themes of anxiety, trust, and making a family in a reassuring way. Animal lovers will appreciate the sweet humor of Finn’s obsession with food and Chase’s desire to play.
Speak Up, Santiago! by Julio Anta. Illustrated by Gabi Mendez.
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Details: Realistic fiction/graphic novel. 224 pages. Recommended ages: 8 – 12. Best for: Soccer fans, bi-cultural kids. Setting: Present-day small town in New York state. Identities of main character: Colombian American 12-year-old boy. Identities of author: Colombian and Cuban American man. Illustrations? Yes (color). Audiobook available? No. Published in: March 2025.
Most people assume that because Santiago is Colombian American, he must be fluent in Spanish. But he’s only started learning Spanish in the past couple of years and feels nervous about his abilities. His father and his abuela decide it would be a good idea for him to spend the summer with her in Hillside Valley. Because abuela doesn’t speak much English, it will give Santi a chance to practice his Spanish all summer – and hopefully get to know abuela at a level he never has before.
When he first arrives, Santi is surprised how much he can understand and speak with her. Most interactions between them show speech bubbles in both Spanish and English, with Spanish words crossed out that Santi can’t understand. He also makes friends with a group of Latine tweens who love soccer as much as he does. With Santi, they finally have enough kids to sign up for a summer soccer tournament.
But when he overhears abuela’s friends joking about his gringo accent, all of Santiago’s fears about whether he’ll ever be fluent in Spanish come back. He withdraws from his grandmother and doesn’t talk to his new friends about it, sure they won’t understand. Instead, he takes his frustration out on the field, upsetting the group. Will Santiago be able to be honest with anyone about what’s going on?
The Gate, the Girl, and the Dragon by Grace Lin.
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Details: Fantasy. 333 pages. Recommended ages: 8 – 12. Best for: kids who enjoy fantasy but don’t want to be frightened; readers interested in Chinese mythology. Setting: Present day, fictional amalgam of Chinese cities and U.S. Chinatowns. Identities of main character: Chinese (or Chinese American?) girl. Illustrations? Yes (color). Audiobook available? Yes. Published in: May 2025.
People who gaze at the stone lions at the Old City Gate might think of them as merely statues. Little do they know that Gongshi spirits inhabit the statues. The Gongshi spend most of their time hard at work, protecting humans, but the little lion cub Jin would much rather spend his time playing zuqui. Jin’s parents are the lions who guard the gate, but he wishes Ba would make time to watch him play ball. Instead, at a game when Jin is just four seconds away from his shot to score the golden goal, Ba tells all the Gongshi they must immediately halt the game for a crucial meeting.
In anger and frustration, Jin kicks the zuiqui ball, which knocks the Sacred Sphere off its pedestal. As Jin chases after the sphere into the human city, the gate between the Gongshi and human cities suddenly closes. None of the Gongshi can inhabit their statues, and the humans are unprotected. The Gongshi world is also threatened if the Sacred Sphere cannot be returned in four days.
In the human world, Jin is quickly befriended by Lulu, a girl who seems to be carrying a burden of her own. Jin believes everything is his fault, but little does he know other forces are also at work. The pair is aided by a worm who says he is the Dragon of the City (but who can’t return to dragon form unless the gate is opened.)
Lin’s frequent color and black and white illustrations bring the characters and the striking Gongshi world to life. Like Lin’s other middle grade books, that are stories told within the larger story, adding interesting details. This is an ideal book for children who enjoy fantasy, adventure, and mythology, but who may find some other fantasy books too frightening.
The Genie Game by Jordan Ifueko.
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Details: Science fiction. 368 pages. Recommended ages: 10 – 14 Best for: Gamers; kids who like dystopian fiction; fans of Amari and the Night Brothers. Setting: Futuristic Los Angeles. Identities of main character: Nigeran American 13-year-old-girl. Identities of author: Nigerian American woman. Illustrations? Yes (black and white). Audiobook available? Yes. Published in: April 2026.
No one seems to remember that Valentine Adesanya’s older sister Mango disappeared – not even Valentine. But when she receives a magical delivery, Valentine’s memory is jogged and she becomes obsessed with finding Mango. Valentine’s search leads her to be trapped in the Genie Game. Genies (General Employee Network for Immortal Engineers) earn hypnogems by granting wishes. A constant competition between all the genies to earn as many hypnogems as possible consumes the residents of the magic realm.
Related post: Diverse fantasy books for middle grade readers
A genie is only allowed to leave their bottle – a unique business building – if they are on wish granting duty. Valentine quickly realizes searching for Mango won’t be so easy, since she’s forced to spend most of her time in a magical boba tea shop. After learning that the only way genies can leave the game is by earning a massive number of hypnogems, she becomes focused on granting wishes as quickly as possible. The problem is that hynogems can also be used to purchase anything you can think of: clothing, delicious food, furnishings for the very sad bottle living space. With constant advertising and a hyper-consumer culture, Valentine quickly understands that “earning hypnogems is easy. Saving them is a different story.”
With intricate worldbuilding, laugh out loud humor, a winning protagonist, and allusions to today’s pressing social problems, The Genie Game is impossible to put down.
A World Worth Saving by Kyle Lukoff.
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Details: Fantasy. 337 pages. Recommended ages: 11 – 15. Best for: Kids who enjoy mythology-based fantasy. Setting: 2022 Seattle. Identities of main character: 14-year-old Jewish transgender boy. Identities of author: Jewish transgender man. Illustrations? No. Audiobook available? Yes. Published in: February 2025.
When I say that this fantasy book is rooted partly in mythology, you might think of Percy Jackson, but A World Worth Saving is so much more than that!
14-year-old A is a transgender boy whose parents drag him to Save our Sons and Daughters (SOSAD) every weekend. A describes it as a “support group that offers zero support,” because it’s focused on convincing trans kids that they are not, in fact, trans. A’s parents are not conservative Christians; they are liberal Jews who’ve been swept up in a parent panic that assumes kids are coming out as trans because it’s “trendy.”
Related post: 21 children’s books with transgender characters
Most of the time the kids stay silent in the SOSAD meetings while their parents rattle on. When A’s friend Yarrow stands up and speaks the truth to her parents, group leader Joanna takes Yarrow away. Sal, another kid in the group, explains to A that this has happened before, and the kids who are taken away are never seen again. A sneaks out to Yarrow’s house that night and overhears Yarrow’s parents talking about a residential treatment program. While the news shakes A, he gets a much bigger shock when a golem forms out of the trashcan by Yarrow’s driveway.
The golem (a figure from Ashkenazi Jewish mythology) explains to A that he is destined to challenge great wrongs. Gifting A with a special type of vision that allows him to see sheydim (demons) that are influencing many of the adults around him, A tries to recruit Sal in his mission of saving Yarrow, with limited success. The golem tells them that they only have a short amount of time, because in the time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the sheydim are at their weakest.
This is a breathtakingly beautiful book that asks deep spiritual questions as it issues a clarion call for supporting transgender youth, through characters who are relatable and all-too-human (including the “hero” of the story.)
Loved the books I shared in this sneak peek? Get all 40+ book reviews in my 2026 Summer Reading Guide!