Books for 11-Year-Olds: The Ultimate List

Books for 11-year-olds can be sometimes challenging to source. Looking for the right book that is appropriate for tweens and upper middle schoolers, yet is exciting and entertaining is not always easy to find. The best books for 11-year-olds are all on our ultimate list. This list of new and best books for-11-year-olds is better than a trip to the mall! If you are looking for a popular new book to read, there is bound to be one here for you to enjoy. So get your TBR ready to explode with all of these exciting books for 11-year-olds. We recommend you read them all!

books for 11-year-olds

Last Updated: April 19, 2023

Books for 11-Year-Olds

Shaking Up the House by Yamile Saied Méndez

A friendly prank war at the White House spirals out of control in this hilarious and heartfelt middle grade novel written by acclaimed author Yamile Saied Méndez and perfect for fans of President of the Whole Fifth Grade and Merci Suárez Changes Gears.

Ingrid and Winnie López have lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for eight years, but their friends Skylar and Zora Williams—the new first daughters—are about to move into the White House with their mom, the president-elect. What the Williamses don’t know is that incoming presidents’ families are often pranked by the folks they’re replacing, and Ingrid and Winnie take that tradition very seriously.

But when the four girls get wrapped up in an ever-escalating exchange of practical jokes and things spiral out of control, can they avoid an international incident? Or will their battle go down in American history and ruin their friendship forever?

2. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Shortly after a fall-out with her best friend, sixth grader Miranda starts receiving mysterious notes, and she doesn’t know what to do. The notes tell her that she must write a letter—a true story, and that she can’t share her mission with anyone.

It would be easy to ignore the strange messages, except that whoever is leaving them has an uncanny ability to predict the future. If that is the case, then Miranda has a big problem—because the notes tell her that someone is going to die, and she might be too late to stop it.

3. Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson

It all starts when six kids have to meet for a weekly chat–by themselves, with no adults to listen in. There, in the room they soon dub the ARTT Room (short for “A Room to Talk”), they discover it’s safe to talk about what’s bothering them–everything from Esteban’s father’s deportation and Haley’s father’s incarceration to Amari’s fears of racial profiling and Ashton’s adjustment to his changing family fortunes. When the six are together, they can express the feelings and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world. And together, they can grow braver and more ready for the rest of their lives.

4. Nic Blake and the Remarkables by Angie Thomas

It’s not easy being a Remarkable in the Unremarkable world. Some things are cool—like getting a pet hellhound for your twelfth birthday. Others, not so much—like not being trusted to learn magic because you might use it to take revenge on an annoying neighbor.

All Nic Blake wants is to be a powerful Manifestor like her dad. But before she has a chance to convince him to teach her the gift, a series of shocking revelations and terrifying events launch Nic and two friends on a hunt for a powerful magic tool she’s never heard of…to save her father from imprisonment for a crime she refuses to believe he committed.

5. Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

Today I moved to Alcatraz, a twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd and surrounded by water. I’m not the only kid who lives here. There are twenty-three other kids who live on the island because their dads work as guards or cooks or doctors or electricians for the prison, like my dad does. And then there are a ton of murderers, rapists, hit men, con men, stickup men, embezzlers, connivers, burglars, kidnappers and maybe even an innocent man or two, though I doubt it. The convicts we have are the kind other prisons don’t want. I never knew prisons could be picky, but I guess they can. You get to Alcatraz by being the worst of the worst. Unless you’re me. I came here because my mother said I had to.

6. Flower Moon by Gina Linko

Tally Jo and Tempest Trimble are mirror twins, so alike they were almost born the same person. Inseparable, but more than that. Connected.

That is, until this summer. The twins are traveling with Pa Charlie’s carnival just like always, but there’s a new distance between them. Tempest is so caught up in her own ideas, she doesn’t seem to have space left in her life for Tally. And, more than that, Tally’s started to notice there’s something between them. Something real, growing with the phases of the moon, pushing them apart. Sparking, sputtering, wild. Dangerous.

With the full moon approaching, Tally knows it’s up to her to find out what’s going on—and to beat it. If she can’t, she might just lose her sister. Forever.

For fans of Savvy and A Snicker of Magic, this is a spellbinding story of friendship and family—a poignant ode to both what’s worth holding on to and what we have to let go.

Books for 11-year-olds are upper middle grade reads that have a bit more action and intrigue. It is rewarding to help these older tweens find books that fit their interests . Which books for 11-year-olds are you excited to recommend?