Select language, opens an overlay
  • General Recommendations
  • Staff-Created List

Best Fiction for Older Readers of 2020

Chicago Public Library recommends these titles as the very best fiction books published in 2020 for kids in 4th through 8th grades.

Chicago Public Library

29 items

  • ZJ and his family are coping with his father’s debilitating headaches, increasing anger and frequent memory loss causes by injuries suffered in his professional football career in this novel in verse.  
    BookNew York : Nancy Paulsen Books, [2020] — FICTION
  • Bi-racial twins, Donte, who presents as black, and Trey, who presents as white, confront racism and bullying at their private middle school by learning to fence. 
    BookNew York : Little, Brown and Company, 2020. — FICTION
  • Nora deals with beasts, both internal and external, to survive after her father is swept away in a flash flood while hiking in a slot canyon one year after her mother’s horrific murder.  
    BookNew York : Little, Brown and Company, 2020. — FICTION
  • Rachel loves using photography to capture the landscape and children at the Sèvres Children’s Home where she lives during “Hitler’s War”. When the Nazi regime begins putting pressure on French citizens, Rachel is forced to relocate and…
    PaperbackNew York, NY : Harper Alley, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2020. — PZ7.7.B527Cat 2020
  • It’s the one you’ve all been waiting for - school’s back in session at Riverdale Academy Day School! Reconnect with Drew, Jordan, Liam and all your old friends as they start their eighth grade year in the sequel to, Jerry Craft’s Newbery…
    PaperbackNew York, NY : Quill Tree Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2020] — PZ7.7.C73Cl 2020
  • In a world where art can move and dance and interact, Drew’s doodles are still something special. When one doodle gets out and starts to terrorize her art club’s creations, Drew and the art club must work together to draw a solution. 
    PaperbackNew York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2020. — PZ7.7.S4255Do 2020
  • After the stock market crash of 1929, Ellie and her family lose everything and are forced to live on Echo Mountain. As they struggle to survive and to learn how to adapt to the hard conditions, her father is injured when a tree falls.…
    BookNew York : Dutton Children's Books, [2020] — FICTION
  • When Efrén’s mother is deported to Mexico, his life is upended. As he works to help figure out his family’s situation, he ends up making choices to stand up for himself and his community. This book is sure to get kids thinking, and can be…
    BookNew York, NY : Harper, [2020] — FICTION
  • Ten-year old Della Roberts and her sixteen-year old sister Suki are in foster care – and that’s okay by Della. Their new home is safe and their foster mother might not be too bad. But Suki is falling apart and Della is frightened. After…
    BookNew York : Dial Books for Young Readers, [2020] — FICTION
  • Zoe’s mother and stepfather don't want her to have contact with her biological father who is serving a lengthy prison term. A chance discovery of a letter addressed to her from her father leads Zoe to establish a secret relationship with…
    BookNew York, NY : Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2020] — FICTION
  • Vivy is the only girl on her little league team, and the only kid with autism. As she struggles with issues of exclusion, she works out her thoughts and feelings in correspondence with her mentor, a professional pitcher. A genuine, moving,…
    BookNew York : Dial Books for Young Readers, [2020] — FIC KAPIT
  • Abby, Brit and Christine are best friends starting their sophomore year. Abby is a high strung, overachiever. Brit likes to go with the flow and often oversleeps. Christine is somewhere between the two of them. As the school year begins,…
    PaperbackNew York : First Second, 2020. — PN6727.W4746G6 2020
  • Baseball player Glenn Burke, credited with inventing the “high five”, is the subject of Silas Wade’s sixth grade inventors project. Through research Silas discovers that Glen was prevented from playing baseball because he was gay-inspiring…
    BookNew York : Farrar Straus Giroux, 2020. — FIC BILDNER
  • King is struggling with a lot grief about his brother’s sudden death and confusion over whether he likes boys or girls. But when his old friend Sandy goes missing and he has a chance to help, he knows just what to do. His actions, and his…
    BookNew York : Scholastic Press, 2020. — FIC CALLENDE
  • It’s 1938 and 11-year-old Esther lives in Poland with her family. Her father is living in Cuba to save money to bring the rest of the family to Cuba because it is getting more dangerous in Poland. Once he saves enough to bring one more…
    BookNew York : Nancy Paulsen Books, [2020] — FICTION
  • When Bea’s parents got divorced, they gave her a list of things they promised would not change. But now that her dad is getting remarried to his boyfriend, she realizes change is inevitable. In this heartfelt story, Bea quickly learns that…
    BookNew York : Wendy Lamb Books, [2020] — FICTION
  • When her father goes missing, twelve-year-old Maya learns that her father is a god who has been taken to the Dark by a rival god. She and her friends soon discover their own powers and it is up to them to stop the Lord of Shadows from…
    BookBoston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2020] — FICTION
  • Alberta and Edie are the only two black girls in their Californian town. The discovery of journals in Edie’s house leads to the uncovering of the town’s and the former inhabitants of the house’s racial past.
    BookNew York : Little, Brown and Company, 2020. — FICTION
  • 12-year-old scientific minded Paola Santiago doesn’t believe in her mother’s superstitions. She and her friends, Emma and Dante, have been told not to go near the river where one of their classmates drowned. Paola’s Mother tells her not to…
    BookLos Angeles : Disney-Hyperion, 2020. — FICTION
  • How can Hanna, a Chinese-American girl living in the 1880s, get the education she deserves and follow her passion for dressmaking in the face of others’ prejudice? This Little House homage is ultimately uplifting in its depiction of a…
    BookBoston ; New York : Clarion Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, [2020] — FIC PARK