Roald Dahl’s 1988 children’s fantasy Matilda tells the darkly humorous story of a brilliant and kindly little girl who reads grown-up books, plays pranks on her emotionally abusive parents, and uses her telekinetic ability in her battles with a tyrannical school principal.Dahl is widely considered one the greatest children’s storytellers. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide; they include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, The BFG, and... Read Matilda Summary

Eve L. Ewing’s Maya and the Robot (2021) is an illustrated middle grade novel that follows Maya, a fifth-grade girl who feels distanced from her best friends when they are put in different classes for the first time. To help deal with her overwhelming emotions, she puts all her energy into fixing a robot named Ralph. This coming-of-age experience teaches her a lot about herself and drastically improves her sense of self-worth, which in turn... Read Maya and the Robot Summary

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, by Jesse Andrews, introduces us to Greg S. Gaines, 17-year-old senior at Benson High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Greg is also the narrator of the novel. Over the course of his educational career, he has diligently developed a system that allows him to survive the daily pandemonium of life in high school. He maintains a surface-level, friendly-but-not-too-friendly connection to every clique in school so that he can remain... Read Me and Earl and the Dying Girl Summary

Medicine River, originally published in 1989, is a novel by Thomas King, one of the most prolific Indigenous American writers of the 20th century. The title of the novel takes its name from the town in Alberta, Canada, where the characters live, near a Blackfoot reservation. Their stories, as told by protagonist Will, delve into themes such as Friendship and Forbearance within the frame of Life in an Alberta Blackfoot Community. As Will tells these... Read Medicine River Summary

David Sedaris’s Me Talk Pretty One Day is a collection of twenty-seven essays exploring the author’s childhood in North Carolina, his relationship with his family, his time living in France, and observations about American social life. The book is comprised of two sections, Part One and Part Deux in which the latter half focuses primarily on Sedaris’s time in Normandy, France. Told with sardonic humor, each chapter deploys various levels of fantasy, irony, and other... Read Me Talk Pretty One Day Summary

Mexikid, originally published in 2023, is a middle grade graphic memoir about a family road trip that took place during author Pedro Martín’s own childhood. During the trip to bring his grandfather back from Jalisco to California, Pedro learns more about his Mexican heritage, his family, and his grandfather’s life. In Mexikid, Martín employs tropes of a traditional coming-of-age narrative. It portrays Pedro’s growing ability to take on responsibilities and understand both himself and others... Read Mexikid Summary

Middle School, the Worst Years of My Life, published in 2012, is the first of the 15 mid-grade novels in the Middle School series, which includes several New York Times bestsellers. James Patterson is the originator of the series and co-author of each book. Chris Tebbetts, Patterson’s collaborator for this title, has also penned several other mid-grade book serials. The book is profusely illustrated with cartoon drawings by Laura Park. The plot of this coming-of-age... Read Middle School, The Worst Years of My Life Summary

Frank Cottrell Boyce’s debut children’s novel, Millions (2004), is a critically acclaimed story that blends humor, suspense, and reflection on faith and family. The novel centers on two brothers, Damian and Anthony Cunningham, who are grappling with the recent death of their mother. Their lives are upended when a bag containing over £200,000 in stolen cash literally falls into their laps. The story is set in a fictional near future where the United Kingdom is... Read Millions Summary

Mistakes We Never Made is a 2024 romance by Hannah Brown, written with ghostwriter Emily Larrabee. The novel centers protagonist Emma Townsend as she races across the country with love interest Finn Hughes in search of her friend Sybil, who has fled her wedding weekend. Mistakes We Never Made debuted on the New York Times bestseller list. It is Brown’s first novel, though she previously released a memoir entitled God Bless This Mess: Learning to... Read Mistakes We Never Made Summary

Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made is a middle grade graphic novel written and illustrated by Stephan Pastis. Originally published in 2013, it is the first book in the Timmy Failure series, which has seven books so far and has also been adapted into a live action Disney movie. Stephan Pastis has been a cartoonist for over 20 years and is best known for the comic strip Pearls Before Swine. Timmy Failure won the BookTrust Best... Read Mistakes Were Made Summary

Mistakes Were Made (2022) is the second installment in Lucy Score’s contemporary romance cycle, the Story Lake series. A New York Times and USA Today bestseller, the novel follows Zoey Moody, a vibrant but impulsive literary agent whose career has stalled, forcing her to relocate from Manhattan to the small Pennsylvania town of Story Lake. Zoey’s life is further upended when sparks fly with her handsome and highly organized landlord Gage Bishop, and she begins... Read Mistakes Were Made Summary

Aziz Ansari’s Modern Romance, published in 2015, is a nonfiction work that combines statistics, interviews, and comedy to explore the current landscape of dating in the modern age. Ansari is an actor and comedian, as well as a writer. He got his start on television in the role of Tom Haverford in Parks and Recreation, which ran on NBC. He starred in Human Giant and went on to perform in several movies. His first comedy... Read Modern Romance Summary

Mother Night, by Kurt Vonnegut, is a World War II novel first published in 1961. Vonnegut’s third novel, it garnered little recognition when it was first released, and it wasn’t until Vonnegut’s success with Cat’s Cradle in 1963 and his breakout fifth novel, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), that Mother Night was revaluated as a powerful work of moral exploration by an author who would go on to become America’s leading satirist and who is now recognized as... Read Mother Night Summary

Drew Hayden Taylor, an Indigenous Canadian of the Anishinaabe nations, published Motorcycles & Sweetgrass in 2010. The narrative touches on elements common to Taylor’s other writing: the relationships of First Nations bands (tribes) to current authorities and governments and traditional Indigenous religious beliefs. The novel’s fable-like premise is that the trickster demigod Nanabush might have survived despite modern Indigenous peoples’ lack of belief.Taylor’s large body of work has received numerous awards: He is a noted... Read Motorcycles and Sweetgrass Summary

“Mr. Grumpledump’s Song” was written by American author and illustrator, Shel Silverstein. The poem was published in the 30th-anniversary special edition of Where the Sidewalk Ends (2004), a collection of poems and drawings that was originally printed in 1974. “Mr. Grumpledump’s Song” is a pessimistic poem, expressing the speaker’s dissatisfaction with the world through a series of quick-paced complaints.Silverstein is best known for his work within the genre of children’s literature. However, his unique imagination... Read Mr. Grumpledump's Song Summary

Mrs. Fletcher is a 2017 comic novel by American author Tom Perrotta. It follows the sexual reawakening of middle-aged divorcée Eve Fletcher after her son, Brendan Fletcher, departs for college. Meanwhile, Brendan finds the campus environment inhospitable to his unthinking “lacrosse bro” misogyny. Mrs. Fletcher is the seventh novel by Perrotta, best known for 1998’s Election (adapted into a movie of the same name, starring Reese Witherspoon) and 2011’s The Leftovers, which was adapted into... Read Mrs. Fletcher Summary

Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle was published in 1947. It was Betty MacDonald’s first novel for children; she had previously focused on comedic memoir. MacDonald had two children, Anne and Joan, and lived for many years in a small island community outside of Seattle where she interacted with neighbors’ children, as well as her own, frequently. These experiences inspired her to write Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle as well as three sequels. A middle-grade novel, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle centers on the eccentric... Read Mrs. Piggle Wiggle Summary

Mrs. Wiggins is a fiction novel written by acclaimed African American author Mary Monroe. In this first book in a series set in Lexington, Alabama during the Great Depression, Maggie Wiggins finds her life improved when she marries a preacher’s son, Hubert Wiggins, a closeted gay man, and pursues unconventional means to have a baby. As Claude grows into a handsome young man and becomes involved with a woman of whom his parents disapprove, Maggie... Read Mrs. Wiggins Summary

Mr. Wrong Number is a contemporary romance novel by Lynn Painter. The novel was originally published in March 2022 by Berkely, a division of Penguin Random House. Mr. Wrong Number is a contemporary reimagining of the 1998 film You’ve Got Mail starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. In the film, anonymous strangers meet and start talking in an AOL chat room. In Painter’s book, anonymous strangers start communicating via text message when Mr. Wrong Number... Read Mr. Wrong Number Summary

Middle grade fiction author John David Anderson initially published Ms. Bixby’s Last Day in 2016. The novel, a middle grade quest narrative, received numerous accolades, including a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, A Top Ten Kids Indie Next List Pick, A Junior Library Guild Selection, a School Library Journal Best of 2016 Selection, Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2016 Selection, New York Times Notable Children’s Books of 2016 Selection, and the Charlotte Huck... Read Ms. Bixby's Last Day Summary