20 Middle Grade Books Set in Europe

The Story That Cannot Be Told written by J. Kasper Kramer
HISTORICAL FICTION
Our complex, likable story-loving heroine Ileana lives in Romania under a real-life, evil leader named Ceausescu. During his totalitarian regime, spies were everywhere. So were disappearances, death, rationing, and fear of saying the wrong thing. Ileana is an ordinary girl who finds joy and solace in stories, especially the folktales her father tells her and the ones she writes and rewrites in her journal. As we read about her life, interwoven in the chapters is a folktale about a brave princess named Ileana who survives thanks to her wit and bravery. 

My Not-So-Great French Escape by Cliff Burke
REALISTIC
Rylan lives on a farm in France, befriending other international kids, milking a goat named Bijou, growing a garden from scratch, and discovering the truth about his father, who’d abandoned him years before. The growth that Rylan experiences is incredible; readers will be cheering him on as he forges his path, experiencing hard-earned, painful truths about his former friend and his dad and finding wonderful new lessons about what he values.

Alice Eclair Spy Extraordinaire: A Recipe for Trouble written by Sarah Todd Taylor
HISTORICAL FICTION MYSTERY
This is an enjoyable, cozy-feeling mystery with adventure, puzzles, and intrigue set in 1930s France about plucky Alice, who is not just a talented baker but also a super detective who gets an important secret assignment from her uncle. Her mission? Find the slippery eel enemy agent on board a train called the Sapphire Express. Alice gets a job on the train as a baker and starts investigating when she’s not dessert baking. With many suspects and puzzles, she’s not sure who to trust, and an unexpected twist leads to a savory plot with a yummy ending.

The Language of Spells by Garret Weyr, illustrated by Katie Harnett
FANTASY
Beautiful storytelling! Grisha is a dragon who spends a few hundred years enchanted as a teapot. Once he’s a dragon again, he meets a lonely girl whose first and only friend is him. Grisha slowly begins to remember that an evil wizard has imprisoned other dragons. He and Maggie decide to find the missing dragons and free them— no matter the cost. And there will be a cost. The ending is HEARTBREAKING but so, so good.

City Spies by James Ponti
ADVENTURE
Action-packed, every book in this series is a thrilling adventure of five daring spy kids who are tasked with saving the world through disguises, hacking, breaking and entering, and more. HIGHLY recommended!

Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh
Marsh writes a stunning novel about two young boys from very different backgrounds — one is a refugee from Syria while the other is an American who has just moved to Belgium. Interwoven in this timely, poignant story are the big issues of refugees, prejudice, fear, friendship, and kindness. To avoid the overcrowded refugee centers, Ahmed hides in the basement of the house where Max lives with his family. When he’s discovered by Max, the boys develop a friendship, he enrolls in school, and continues hiding. And it works. But it can’t last forever. Because a local policeman suspects something…

The Watcher by Joan Hiatt Harlow
HISTORICAL FICTION
American-raised Wendy’s Nazi-spy mom takes her to live in Germany during World War II. Wendy doesn’t even speak the language and feels overwhelmed with her mother’s zeal for Hitler. But when Wendy starts working at Lebensborn, the place where only Aryan children live — many who were forcibly removed from their parents — she sees the truth.

Allies by Alan Gratz
HISTORICAL FICTION / WWII
Written from many different voices about one day in history, readers easily can see the massive amount of cooperation, planning, and troops from different countries involved in D-Day (when the Allies invaded France at Normandy.) We hear from an American teenage soldier who was born in Germany, a French Algerian girl whose mom is a recently captured spy,  a Canadian paratrooper who lands in the wrong spot, and an American black medic. It’s violent and disheartening yet despite terrible losses, racism, and injuries, the fighters persist despite everything to accomplish their goal — to take back the area for the Allies.

Cloud and Wallfish by Anne Nesbet
HISTORICAL (ages 10+)
I was hooked by this mysterious plot about a boy named Noah whose parents one day tell him they’re moving to East Germany, he has a different name and birthdate, and they must never talk about what’s going on or what they really feel. It’s 1989. Once there, Noah who is now called Jonah meets a sad little girl named Claudia. While there are some plot holes that are never addressed, this story gives us a glimpse into the fearful environment of this communist country just before the Berlin Wall comes down.

The Night War by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley 
HISTORICAL FICTION
When the French in Paris round up the Jews for Nazi prison camps, Miri and her neighbor’s baby escape with the help of a Catholic nun. To help them survive, Miri is renamed and sent to a Catholic school for safety and her “baby sister” is adopted by a Catholic family. At the school, Miri begins to help other Jews flee Nazi-controlled France and is helped by the complicated ghost of Catherine de Medici, who thinks Miri is her gardener. But when Miri finds out that her little sister is about to be baptized, she plans their escape for the next day. Miri is a heroic main character with an emotionally compelling story.

The Sheep, the Rooster, and the Duck by Matt Phelan
HISTORICAL FICTION
In this illustrated historical adventure, Benjamin Franklin’s young assistant Emile teams up with a sheep, a rooster, a duck, and a girl his age to thwart a dastardly villain and a sinister secret society who want to use one of Franklin’s inventions for nefarious purposes.

Words on Fire by Jennifer A. Nielsen
Nielsen deftly captures the history of Lithuania’s book smugglers as well as the fundamental truth that books give readers freedom from oppression; books keep alive a language, culture, and identity, no matter how hard someone tries to erase it. Audra doesn’t know her parents are book smugglers until they are arrested by the Cossacks. She flees to their contact’s house, not wanting anything to do with smuggling books. Part of her reluctance is because she herself can’t read or write but she slowly learns and develops a passion for stories. Not only that, she became a clever smuggler.

The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog by Adam Gidwitz, illustrated by Hatem Aly
This is the story of three children in medieval France which tackles big issues such as faith, God, prejudice, friendship, and family. The writing, the story, the characters, and the themes all pack a big punch adding up to a compelling novel that will make you think deeply and leave you changed. (Sensitive readers: there are a few swear words and two scenes with a lot of blood.) My daughter and I loved this story.

The Midnight Zoo by Sonya Hartnett
MAGICAL HISTORICAL FICTION
Tissue alert –this story made me weep. It’s a breathtaking story; a fable about life set in Nazi Germany. We follow three Gypsy siblings who have witnessed the capture of their family and friends. While walking and searching for food, they find an abandoned zoo with talking animals. I cried so much reading this sad book.