22 Moving Middle Grade Books About Grief & Death

Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca 
REALISTIC VERSE 
Reha is struggling to figure out her place in her two worlds–India and America. She wants Amma to understand how she feels, but when her Amma gets cancer, Reba focuses on being virtuous enough that her mom will get better. But, her Amma dies. And Reha feels so much grief. Then, she gets a letter mailed by a nurse from her Amma that helps Reha move into her future and belong to two cultures. (It’s a heartfelt, beautiful ending and if you’re like me, you’ll probably cry!)
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Patina by Jason Reynolds
REALISTIC
Patina’s anger sometimes gets the best of her but running helps. She’s mad about her dad dying, her mom’s legs being amputated, and her new school. When her track coach makes Patty work with her teammates in a relay, she’s forced to rely on them. And that changes things. Patina is a beautiful coming-of-age story that will tug at your emotions.
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The Canyon’s Edge by Dusti Bowling
ADVENTURE
Written in verse, this is a heart-wrenching, heart-stopping, suspenseful adventure with lyrical, figurative language about an intense journey of physical hardship and emotional healing. Shifting perspectives between before and after her mom was shot, Nora and her dad climb into a Sonoran Desert canyon for the first time in the year since her mom died. Just as Nora tells her father she hates him, a flash flood careens through the canyon, carrying her father and their supplies away. Alone and terrified, Nora forces herself to find shelter and keep searching for her father, even with the venom from a scorpion bite slowing her down. As she faces her fears and continues on, she overcomes a metaphorical war with the “beast” who has been giving her nightmares for the past year.
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The Remarkable Journey of Charlie Price by Jennifer Maschari
MAGICAL REALISM
This book is a journey of grief where a shadow world entices Charlie and Imogene Price because in that world, their mom is “alive” and not dead. But everything is not right in this shadow world because there, you lose memories, especially the sad ones, in order to “feed” family members who have died. Charlie is afraid he’ll lose his sister, Imogene. forever to the shadow world, like he did his best friend, Frank. This is a thoughtful treatment of emotions and grief — I highly recommend it, especially for book club discussions.
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Telephone of the Tree written by Alison McGhee
REALISTIC / LGBTQ+
Tear alert–this book will make you cry SO HARD! Ayla always relied on her friendship with her nonbinary best friend Kiri who is gone. Ayla is waiting for Kiri to get back. When a telephone appears on her tree, she wonders if it’s magic. It seems to help people who stop to talk to their loved ones who have died. Ayla refuses to use the telephone for a long time. When she does accept what happened, it’s heartbreaking to witness her grief.
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The Girl with the Ghost Machine by Lauren DeStefano
MAGICAL REALISM
Deeply moving and thought-provoking, this spooky book will immerse you in a world of ghosts and grief. After Emmaline’s mother dies, her father becomes obsessed with bringing her back using a machine he’s built. He works in the basement, ignoring all else. Emmaline tries to break the machine but makes it work instead. When tragedy strikes, the characters are thrust into sharp grief and loss and must once again, ponder the value of such a machine.
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Summerlost by Ally Condie
REALISTIC
This is a dealing-with grief, coming-of-age, mystery, and friendship story all in one sweet story. Cedar, her younger brother, and her mom spend the summer together in a small town after her father and other brother’s death. Cedar befriends Leo who helps her get a job at the local Shakespeare festival. The duo also start giving unofficial tours about the town’s most famous resident, an actress who died under mysterious circumstances.
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Isaiah Dunn is My Hero by Kelly J. Baptist
REALISTIC
With themes of grief, family, poverty, poetry, the power of writing, and friendship — this beautiful story captures your heart with a struggling, heroic main character whose hopeful journey makes you believe in humanity again. After Isaiah’s dad dies, his mother stops working and starts drinking too much. The family of three now lives in a smokey motel where Isaiah watches his 4-year-old sister when his mom is passed out. He finds strength and inspiration in his father’s journaled stories about Isaiah Dunn, a Superhero, and eventually begins to write poems again in his own journal…poems.
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The Probability of Everything by Sarah Everett
REALISTIC
(For this book review, I’m not going to tell you too much about the story– because it would spoil your reading experience.) Kemi adores her close-knit family, her African American artist mom, her baby sister, a baby sibling on the way, and most of all, her beloved Nigerian dad. When an asteroid threatens everyone on Earth with imminent death, Kemi and her family leave for her cousins’ house, where she starts a time capsule. The exceptional storytelling is emotional (I cried SO MUCH) and important with themes of family, racism, and values. A must-read, must-experience-for-yourself-kind-of book.
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A Duet for Home by Karina Yan Glaser
REALISTIC
A powerful story with complex, three-dimensional characters about grief, family, community, and homelessness. When their family becomes homeless after her dad dies, June helps her little sister and non-speaking mom get settled at Huey House. Despite the shock of their new situation, June finds kindness from many of the people at the shelter. But when Mrs. G, their social worker gets fired for not agreeing to the city’s new homeless policies, June helps organize a protest and discovers that home isn’t a place and family isn’t always blood.
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Cress Watercress by Gregory Maguire, illustrated by David Litchfield
ANIMAL STORY
This is a stunningly beautiful story about family, community, grief, and stories. Cress and her family leave their cozy burrow after the death of her father. They move to the Broken Arms oak tree ruled by a cranky Owl with a noisy neighbor squirrel family. Cress helps her mom collect moths to pay their rent, leaving her mom time to work and to help gather ingredients for her sickly brother’s special tea. In a beautiful character arc, Cress navigates her new environment, the natural world, and the stories around her, all of which help her understand her inner world, especially how grief waxes and wanes like the moon’s cycles. Filled with immensely lovable characters, a gentle storyline of adventure and discovery, and lavish illustrations, I adore this book.
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Wishing Season by Anica Mrose Rissi
MAGICAL REALISM
It’s Lily’s first summer vacation since her twin brother Anders died of cancer. But she still sees Anders in the woods, an overlap of their worlds, so she spends every day there with him — playing like they used to. But little by little, the overlap is shrinking, and she’s trying to map it so she can get it back. Only Anders wants her to let it go so they can be together and play for whatever time they have left. Lily can’t let go of her panic that she’s losing Anders once and for all. Then her mom comes out of her room and starts to interact again, and Lily makes a new friend. Ultimately, as the overlap disappears, Lily learns to live with the weight and space of the pain of grief. It’s a heartbreaking and beautiful grief journey that will probably make you cry. (I did!)
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Aviva and the Dybbuk by Mari Lowe
MAGICAL REALISM
I enjoyed this book’s setting in an Orthodox Jewish community. Aviva and her shut-in mom are trying to manage five years after the death of her father, but her mom is struggling to get out of bed and there’s a mischievous dybbuk (spirit) causing trouble which Aviva must always clean up. After a fight with her former friend at school, their punishment is to work together which helps repair their friendship. They work as a team to create a fun Mitzvah activity for the mothers and daughters. Beautifully written, this is a heartfelt story about grief and healing.
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When Friendship Followed Me Home by Paul Griffin
Tear alert! Ben has been through hell — foster family, adoption by an amazing woman who dies after a few years, and now a bad new situation with his adopted mother’s sister and her husband. But, he has two things that are good, really good — his rescued dog, Flip, and his favorite librarian’s daughter as a good friend. Until his friend’s cancer gets worse . . . and his uncle punches him in the face…The story is gripping, the ending bittersweet, and the writing amazing.
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If You Read This by Kereen Getten
REALISTIC
When Brie turns twelve, she receives a special and surprising gift– letters from her beautiful, loud, and deceased mother that send her on a search for a secret door. The letters help her reconnect with her distant father and find comfort and solace in her grief. It’s a compelling, heartfelt novel of grief and healing.
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Ravenfall by Kalyn Josephson
FANTASY
This is a wonderful magical adventure of friendship, family, and grief set at a sentient inn with interesting characters. (Like a Jabberwocky!) Anna lives with her extended family at their magical B&B with Otherworld and human world guests. A boy named Colin arrives and asks for sanctuary and help after his parents were murdered and his brother went missing. Anna wants to help him, but she doesn’t think her power to see ghosts is as helpful as her other family members’ powers. But, as they work together to unravel the secrets of his parents, Colin finds his own powers and Anna discovers her own strengths. But will they be enough to stop the menacing creature who wants to kill Colin?
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Planet Earth is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos
REALISTIC
What a beautiful, heartbreaking, wonderful, transformative book! Nova is both autistic and nonverbal. In this story, she writes letters (narrated in her mind) to her “runaway” big sister, Bridget. We learn that Bridget always knew how to calm Nova down with storytelling and talking about anything space related. Flashbacks show their history in the closet hiding from an abusive mother as well as time together with previous foster families. Nova clings to Bridget’s promise that Bridget will come back in time for the Challenger launch. But the launch happens and Bridget never arrives. This prompts Nova to face the truth about her sister. And that truth will make you cry like a baby. At least it did for me!! I’m in awe of the author’s beautiful, gifted storytelling.
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The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart
REALISTIC – GRIEF, FAMILY
Coyote and her dad are on a cross-country, coming-of-age trip to anywhere or nowhere after the mom and sisters died in a car accident. But when Coyote discovers that the park near her old home will be torn down, along with a special memory, she is determined to get her dad to drive them back.  Most people love this book more than I did.
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The Space Between Lost and Found by Sandy Stark-McGinnis
REALISTIC / EARLY ONSET ALZHEIMER’S
A story about the long process of saying goodbye. Cassie’s mom suffers from early-onset Alzheimer’s. In a survival response, Cassie pushes away her best friend Bailey and isolates herself, not even doing her art. As her Mom becomes more unpredictable like smashing things in anger, forgetting names, or refusing to budge from places, Cassie feels more sad and lonely. Then she has an idea…her mom loves dolphins so what if Cassie could take her to swim with the dolphins before her mom is completely lost to the disease? Beautiful, heartbreaking, and filled with emotion, this is a story worth reading.
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Just Like Jackie by Lindsey Stoddard
REALISTIC 
Jackie’s story is so emotionally rich because you’ll feel her angst, anger, and confusion as if it were you experiencing it yourself. Her Grandpa is forgetting things so Jackie tries to pick up the slack — helping more than ever at his mechanic shop and at home. But she keeps getting in trouble at school, ending up in a special group with the school counselor. A family tree project feels like absolutely too much for a girl with only a grandpa in her family. It’s a brilliant story about aging and what really makes a family. It will rip you up and put you back together.
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A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, illustrated by Jim Kay (ages 10+)
MAGICAL REALISM
Ever since Conor’s mom gets breast cancer, a wild and ancient tree monster visits Conor’s nightmares. The monster demands that Conor look at the truth of his life but Conor refuses. Meanwhile, Conor moves in with his cold, unfriendly grandmother while his mother is hospitalized. The metaphorical nightmares echo Conor’s real-world experiences as we journey with him into pain, loss, and eventually, healing. Astonishing and powerful, this is one of the best books I’ve EVER read. Layers upon layers of symbolism, skillful writing, and haunting truthtelling deeply resonate.
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Tree. Table. Book. written by Lois Lowry
REALISTIC
This is a gentle story that begins slowly, developing 11-year-old Sophie, an old soul with a big vocabulary, excellent problem-solving skills, and an elderly neighbor best friend named Sophie Gershowitz. But this is really a story of grief as young Sophie resists accepting her friend’s decline into dementia. One of the tests Sophie gives Sophie Gershowitz to PROVE that her cognition is fine is to recall three random words. (Tree. Table. Book.) When Sophie G. can’t remember the words, young Sophie asks her to recall a story connected to the words, hoping the stories will help Sophie G. recall the words. That’s when Sophie G. shares three meaningful childhood stories that briefly reveal how she survived the Nazis; stories that no one else knows. As Sophie realizes their time together is fleeting, she moves toward acceptance.
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