Sometimes she just needs to get out of her own life for a while. Enter the portal fantasy. Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston is the Harry Potter–meets–Men in Black hybrid that the internet went wild for. It’s fast, funny, and features a Black girl protagonist who is brilliantly unapologetic.
Prefer a quieter kind of magic? The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill is a Newbery Medal winner that feels like a lullaby. It’s about a girl raised by a witch, a swamp monster, and a tiny dragon. The prose is so beautiful you’ll want to read passages aloud.
Tween Puberty Books Health Books For Teens (and Tweens) To Help
For action junkies, The Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes blends Maya mythology with modern humor. Think Percy Jackson but with a Latinx twist and a hero who uses a wheelchair. Representation matters, but this one just happens to be a total page-turner.
Practical Tip: The Library Hustle
Many libraries now have “blind date with a book” displays, where novels are wrapped in brown paper with cryptic clues. Let your twelve-year-old pick one at random. It turns browsing into a game—and sometimes the biggest wins are the unexpected ones.
