All his life, Albie has been an almost – almost good at math, almost good at spelling, almost good at sports. When he starts a new school, he decides that almost isn’t okay anymore, but will he be able to be his best without a little help?
- General Recommendations
- Staff-Created List
Best Fiction for Older Readers of 2014
We recommend these as the very best fiction published for kids in 3rd through 8th grade in 2014.
StaffLibrary Staff
Chicago Public Library
User from Chicago Public Library

30 items
- Identical twins Josh and Jordan couldn’t be more different – even on the basketball court where they both shine thanks to their dad’s pro ball experience – but their bond of brotherhood has always been strong. Will the “pulchritudinous” new girl…
- It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s El Deafo – behold the power of the hearing aid! Cece’s secret identity turns her deafness into a superpower.
- Ashley’s boring summer takes a turn for the weird when she finds a wish jar that transports her back in time to another girl’s life which is far more thrilling than her own.
- The poetic story of one Japanese-American families experience in the American internment camps during World War II.
- Ellie’s life with her grumpy grandfather is anything but ordinary since he invented and ingested the cure for aging – turning him into a testy 13-year-old.
- All 12-year-old Grayson wants is to be seen for who he is on the inside – a girl. Grayson gets her wish, and its consequences, when she tries out for the lead female role in the school play.
- Jackson Greene is a bright young man but has a tendency to get caught in bad situations. Can he help foil a sneaky plan to steal the school presidency away from his friend Gaby while staying out of trouble?
- Young Elsa listens to her grandmother Dounia tell the story of her childhood hiding out with a Catholic family during the Holocaust in this poignant graphic novel.
- Three best friends are thrilled when the classic To Kill a Mockingbird appears on their summer reading list and begin plotting ways to get even more people to read it. Are they prepared to handle the consequences when their plan get outs of control?
- When a young woman is kidnapped from a train, Lantern Sam, a talking cat, recruits a boy named Henry and a conductor named Clarence to help catch the bandits.
- When March McQuinn’s cat burglar father dies, he learns about a sister he never knew existed and together they try to carry out their father’s final heist.
- The children from Chatham call him the Lion Man, while the children from Buxton call him the Madman of Piney Woods. When the legend actually appears, children from both towns band together to figure out who needs the most help – them or the Madman.
- When Fin and Marrill find themselves sailing on the Pirate Stream, a magical waterway that connects all of creation, they must work together to prevent the end of the world.
- While scavenging for artifacts, Piper finds a girl marked by the Dragonfly King. If she can get them both to the Dragonfly Territories, Piper can sell her for a ransom, but will she?
- Follow the Fletchers through a year filled with new neighbors, new schools, new friends and many new adventures.
- Chirp finds an unlikely friend and ally in the boy next door while dealing with her mother’s illnesses, her older sister’s ambivalence and her father’s inability to cope.
- Molly and Kip discover what lurks in the sourwoods when they take jobs at the Windsor Estate – a grim-looking mansion with sinister secrets.
- While dealing with his own grief over the death of his sister, Little John befriends sad and shy Gayle, who sings like a bird and hides a mysterious past, in this story inspired by “The Nightingale” by Hans Christian Andersen.
- Jed the squirrel escapes from the clutches of a hawk, sending him and his friends on an epic adventure that just might change their small world forever.
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