Personally, I don’t think there’s anything better than reading books about books. This passion started in childhood and I created this collection of books to spark the same passion in other children.
Here’s a list of middle grade books about books, bookstores and bookshops, libraries, bookish culture and more.
You’ll find links to my Amazon and Bookshop affiliate stores below. Thanks for your bookish support!
Once Upon a Book by Grace Lin
This beautifully illustrated book literally immerses you in a story of childlike wonder and reading refuge. In it, we meet Alice. Alice is a young girl who is fed up with the cold, dreary days of winter and escapes into the pages of her book to faraway lands that look and feel very different from her own.
Reading Once Upon a Book will remind you of the power of reading and the utter joy readers feel when they lose themselves in the pages. This is a book to be read, to be savored and to spark a joyful reading habit.
A Kind of Paradise by Amy Rebecca Tan
This was the ultimate middle grade comfort book. In it, we meet Jamie, a middle schooler who made an unfortunate choice that landed her in the library as a volunteer for the entire summer. Initially dreading the experience and even fantasizing the library might close so she could have her summer back, Jamie ultimately changes her tune as she develops relationships with the library staff and comes to see the patrons in a new light. And as she joins the fight to save the library, she ultimately finds a new version of herself in the process. This heart-warming, huggable book reminds us we can always reinvent ourselves and find a new path with patience, friendship and acceptance of all versions of ourselves.
A Place to Hang the Moon by Kate Albus
It is 1940 and Anna, 9, Edmund, 11, and William, 12, have just lost their grandmother. Moving from one family to another, the children suffer the cruel trickery of foster brothers, the cold realities of outdoor toilets, and the hollowness of empty tummies. They seek comfort in the village lending library, whose kind librarian, Nora Muller, seems an excellent candidate–except that she has a German husband whose whereabouts are currently unknown. Nevertheless, Nora’s cottage is a place of bedtime stories and fireplaces, of vegetable gardens and hot, milky tea. Most important, it’s a place where someone thinks they all three hung the moon. Which is really all you need in a mom, if you think about it.
The Bookshop of Dust and Dreams by Mindy Thompson
It’s 1944 Sutton, NY, and Poppy’s family owns and runs, Rhyme and Reason, a magical bookshop that caters to people from all different places and time periods. Though her family’s world is ravaged by World War II, their customers hail from their past and their future, infusing the shop with a delightful mix of ideas and experiences. The shop runs on a set of rules handed down from one generation of bookseller to the next, with their cardinal rule their most strict: shopkeepers must never use the magic for themselves.
But then Poppy’s brother’s best friend is killed in the war and her brother wants to use the magic to save him. Young Poppy is caught between her love for her brother and loyalty to her family, all the while knowing that her brother’s actions could have devastating consequences that reach far beyond the bookshop, feeding an insidious, growing darkness.
Ban This Book by Alan Gratz
It all started the day Amy Anne Ollinger tried to check out her favorite book in the whole world, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, from the school library. That’s when Mrs. Jones, the librarian, told her the bad news: her favorite book was banned! All because a classmate’s mom thought the book wasn’t appropriate for kids to read.
Amy Anne decides to fight back by starting a secret banned books library out of her locker. Soon, she finds herself on the front line of an unexpected battle over book banning, censorship, and who has the right to decide what she and her fellow students can read.
A Library of Lemons by Jo Cotterill
Calypso’s mum died a few years ago and her emotionally incompetent Dad can’t, or won’t, talk about Mum at all. Instead he throws himself into writing his book A History of the Lemon. Meanwhile the house is dusty, there’s never any food in the fridge, and Calypso retreats into her own world of books and fiction. When a new girl, Mae, arrives at school, the girls’ shared love of reading and writing stories draws them together. Mae’s friendship and her lively and chaotic home – where people argue and hug each other – make Calypso feel more normal than she has for a long time. But when Calypso finally plucks up the courage to invite Mae over to her own house, the girls discover the truth about her dad and his magnum opus – and Calypso’s happiness starts to unravel.
