New Release Spotlight – November 2023 Middle Grade Books

Welcome to the November 2023 Middle Grade Books New Release Spotlight! November is always a little weird for new releases because the week of Thanksgiving is typically quite slow, and the month overall generally features fewer titles overall. Middle grade sequels are huge this month though!

The November 2023 Middle Grade Books Spotlight features only 12 titles. This list was whittled down from an original list of 47 titles, not counting all the sequels. Every book featured in this Spotlight (and all my Spotlights) meets my selection criteria, which includes at least two positive professional reviews on Titlewave.

I define middle grade books as those for students in Grades 3-8. Anything for Grades 7+ will go on my YA Spotlight. It is also possible for some titles to appear on both the YA and Middle Grade Spotlights, particularly when it comes to nonfiction titles. That did not happen this month though.

All parts of the November 2023 Middle Grade Books Spotlight are now complete. I do not plan to add any more titles to this list.

HOW TO USE THE NOVEMBER 2023 MIDDLE GRADE BOOKS SPOTLIGHT IN YOUR LIBRARY

This post has five parts. I’ve linked each below for easy reference, but they are also linked in the body of this post.

• Google Slides presentation – click “use template” to make a copy – share with students and teachers!
• printable list of MG November 2023 Spotlight titles – sorted by genre; click “use template” to make a copy – see the second slide
• The Ginormous Book List – this month’s list is #3683 – #3722.
• Amazon-linked book covers, sorted by genre and topic – links are in Part IV below
• Sequels – these are also Amazon links, but they are not sorted by genre

PART I: GOOGLE SLIDES PRESENTATION – NOVEMBER 2023 MIDDLE GRADE BOOKS

The first part of the New Release Spotlight is the Google Slides presentation. This is downloadable, editable, and FREE!

A few reminders:

• The Google Slides presentation includes each book’s publisher’s summary, genre, setting, grade levels, themes, protagonist description, and any notes I might need to add. This is the special book information that was previously included in the Spotlight; it’s just in a different place now.

• This presentation is now complete for November 2023. I do not plan to add any additional titles to this month’s presentation.

• The new books I add are not automatically added to any copies of the presentation you add to your Google Drive. You will have to redownload them to get the most recent update. The presentation is now complete as of November 22, 2023. I finished it early because late-November is not a great week for new middle grade book releases.

• This presentation is great to play on a loop in the library! Students and teachers will inevitably ask you to order some of the books – it’s a great way to develop a student-centered library collection.

PART II – PRINTABLE LIST OF NOVEMBER 2023 MIDDLE GRADE BOOKS BY GENRE AND TOPIC

You can download a two-page, printable list from this Google page. This list is also now complete as of November 22, 2023.

The list is sorted by genre and topic. Includes book title and author’s last name. The list is fully-editable, so you can add or remove whatever you need to suit the needs of your library.

Books that fall into more than one genre are listed under each genre (so some titles are on the list more than once).

PART III – THE GINORMOUS BOOK LIST

Since October 2019, I have added the New Release Spotlight books to The Ginormous Booklist. This is a huge Google spreadsheet that currently has over 3700 titles for K-12.

I will continue to add information from the November New Release Spotlight to The Ginormous as normal. Scroll to the bottom for the newest titles. The November 2023 Spotlight titles are #3683 – #3722 on The Ginormous Booklist.

PART IV – NOVEMBER 2023 MIDDLE GRADE BOOK COVERS WITH AMAZON LINKS

The fourth part of the November 2023 Middle Grade Books Spotlight is a sorting area by genre and topic.

The cover images below are clickable Amazon Affiliate links. If you use them to make a purchase, I will get a small commission from your purchase.

In mid-November 2023, Amazon announced major changes to the Affiliate program. Amazon is telling us that all previous Affiliate image links will be broken come January 1, 2024.

I am working on a solution, but if what they are saying happens, the cover images below may disappear in January 2024. If that happens, I will delete them from this post completely so there is no weird blank space. We do not currently have any guidance from Amazon on how they want us to link images in 2024. I have no idea what will happen

This list is also now complete as of November 22, 2023.

Because some books fall into multiple genre or topic categories, you will find some books listed more than once below.

ADVENTURE

GRAPHIC NOVELS

FANTASY

MYSTERY

REALISTIC FICTION

NARRATIVE NONFICTION

HISTORICAL FICTION

FAIRY TALES / FOLKTALES

SURVIVAL

CHAPTER BOOKS

NOVEL IN VERSE

PART V – NOVEMBER SEQUELS

MORE NOVEMBER 2023 BOOK RELEASES

   

ABOUT THE SPOTLIGHT

The New Release Spotlight began in May 2016 as a way to help librarians keep up with the many new children’s and YA books that are released each week.

Each week, school librarian Leigh Collazo compiles the New Release Spotlight using a combination of Follett’s Titlewave, Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes and Noble. Recommended grade levels represent the range of grade levels recommended by professional book reviewers. See the full selection criteria here.

Each month, there are far more books that meet my criteria than can make it on the Spotlight. When I have to make the tough decisions on what to include, I just use my “librarian judgment.” Would I buy this book for my own library? Would my students want to read this book? Is the cover appealing? Does it fill a need?

The Google Slides presentation now includes sequels. Scroll to the last few slides for images of each sequel.