Eleven-year-olds want books that open up the world. Big fantasy series, science fiction, history that feels real and stories that ask hard questions: what is fair, what is a good life, what would I do?
This is the age when many readers meet the books that shape them. A Wrinkle in Time, The Giver and Northern Lights have all started lifelong love affairs with reading. They also start great conversations, so consider reading one alongside them.
These books won or were honored by the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal, two of the oldest children's book awards in the world.
Winner1963
Madeleine L'Engle
Great for a misfit
Meg Murry's scientist father has disappeared, and three strange women take Meg, her brother Charles Wallace and their friend Calvin through space and time to rescue him from a dark power. Science fiction, fantasy and a story about being different, all at once.
1963 Newbery Medal winner
Winner1994
Lois Lowry
Great for a deep thinker
Jonas lives in a perfect community with no pain, no choice and no color. At twelve he is chosen to receive the memories of the past from the Giver, and discovers what his world has given up. Short, unsettling and a book kids talk about for years.
1994 Newbery Medal winner
Winner1995
Philip Pullman
Great for a fantasy fan
Lyra Belacqua runs wild in an Oxford college with her daemon Pantalaimon. When children start disappearing, she sets off to the frozen North, meeting armored bears, witches and a terrible secret. The first book of His Dark Materials, published in the US as The Golden Compass.
1995 Carnegie Medal for Writing winner
Winner2022
Donna Barba Higuera
Great for a science fiction fan
Petra and her family flee a dying Earth on a spaceship. When she wakes centuries later, the people in charge have erased everyone's memories of the past, except hers. She holds on to her grandmother's stories to save what is left. A recent Newbery winner.
2022 Newbery Medal winner
Winner1978
Katherine Paterson
Great for a kid with a best friend
Jess wants to be the fastest runner in fifth grade, until the new girl Leslie beats him. They become best friends and create Terabithia, a secret kingdom in the woods. A beautiful book about friendship and imagination, with a heartbreaking turn. Worth knowing before you give it.
1978 Newbery Medal winner
Winner1977
Mildred D. Taylor
Great for a reader ready for history
In 1930s Mississippi, Cassie Logan and her family fight to keep their land and their dignity in the face of racism and violence. Powerful, gripping and essential, it is one of the great American children's novels.
1977 Newbery Medal winner
Winner2010
Neil Gaiman
Great for a kid who likes spooky stories
After his family is murdered, a toddler wanders into a graveyard and is raised by ghosts, with a mysterious guardian who is neither living nor dead. Spooky, funny and moving, it won both the Newbery and the Carnegie Medal.
2010 Carnegie Medal for Writing winner
Honor2011
Rita Williams-Garcia
Great for a reader who loves family stories
In 1968, three sisters fly from Brooklyn to Oakland to spend the summer with the mother who left them, and end up at a day camp run by the Black Panthers. Funny, sharp and warm.
2011 Newbery Medal Honor Book
Yes, it is widely read in schools from about eleven. Some scenes are disturbing, which is the point, and it is a great book to talk about together.
Yes, a major character dies. It is handled with great care and many readers find it helps them understand grief, but it is worth knowing in advance.
Britain's oldest children's book award, given since 1936. The Graveyard Book is one of very few books to win both the Carnegie and the Newbery Medal.
See every award-winning book for ages 9 to 12