Help! I have to read a book that’s 300 pages long!!

Middle School Fiction with 300–330 pages
at the Elmhurst Public Library

Gilda Joyce, Psychic Investigator   by Jennifer Allison   (mystery)
During the summer before ninth grade, intrepid Gilda Joyce invites herself to the San Francisco mansion of distant cousin Lester Splinter and his thirteen-year-old daughter, where she uses her purported psychic abilities and detective skills to solve the mystery of the mansion's boarded-up tower.   321 p.

May Bird and the Ever After   by Jodi Anderson   (fantasy)
Lonely and shy, ten-year-old May Ellen Bird has no idea what awaits her when she falls into the lake and enters The Ever After, home of ghosts and the Bogeyman.   317 p.

The Lost Years of Merlin   by T.A. Barron   (fantasy)
A young boy who has no identity nor memory of his past washes ashore on the coast of Wales and finds his true name after a series of fantastic adventures.   326 p.

The Door Within   by Wayne Batson   (Christian fantasy)
Three ancient scrolls beckon high school student Aidan Thomas to enter a realm of knights, kings, and unusual creatures, but he must rely on instinct and his latent athletic ability to deal with the terror, tempest, and treason offered by this new world.   316 p.

The Playmaker   by J. B. Cheaney    (historical mystery)
While working as an apprentice in a London theater company in 1597, fourteen-year-old Richard uncovers a mystery involving the disappearance of his father and a traitorous plot to overthrow Queen Elizabeth.   307 p.

Gregor the Overlander   by Suzanne Collins   (fantasy)
When eleven-year-old Gregor and his two-year-old sister are pulled into a strange underground world, they trigger an epic battle involving men, bats, rats, cockroaches, and spiders while on a quest foretold by ancient prophecy.   311 p.

Ruby Holler   by Sharon Creech
Thirteen-year-old fraternal twins Dallas and Florida have grown up in a terrible orphanage but their lives change forever when an eccentric but sweet older couple invites them each on an adventure, beginning in an almost magical place called Ruby Holler.   310 pages

The Wanderer   by Sharon Creech   (contemporary adventure)
Thirteen-year-old Sophie and her cousin Cody record their transatlantic crossing aboard the Wanderer, a forty-five foot sailboat, which, along with uncles and another cousin, is en route to visit their grandfather in England.   305 p.

The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm   by Nancy Farmer   (science fiction)
In 2194 in Zimbabwe, General Matsika's three children are kidnapped and put to work in a plastic mine, while three mutant detectives use special powers to search for them. 311 p. 

The Education of Patience Goodspeed   by Heather Frederick   (historical fiction)
After danger strikes her father’s ship, Patience and her brother Tad are enrolled in a boarding school where Patience chafes at the school’s restrictions and clashes with Fanny Starbuck, her etiquette teacher.   314 p. 

Otto and the Flying Twins   by Charlotte Haptie   (fantasy)
Young Otto comes to the rescue when he discovers that his family and city are the last remnants of an ancient magical world now under threat from the Normal Police.   304 p. 

Two Hotdogs with Everything   Paul Haven   (baseball)
Although everyone credits him and his superstitions for the Slugger's first winning streak in 108 baseball seasons, eleven- year-old Danny Gurkin believes that his discovery of a secret from the team's past may be the real reason behind the ball club's success.   307 p.

Stowaway   by Karen Hesse   (historical fiction)
A fictionalized journal relates the experiences of a young stowaway from 1768 to 1771 aboard the Endeavor which sailed around the world under Captain James Cook.   319 p 

Search of the Moon King’s Daughter    byLinda Holeman   (historical fiction)
In the 1830s, 15-year-old Emmaline Roke and her penniless family leave their English country village for a mill town, where her mother, injured in a mill accident, becomes addicted to laudanum and, desperate for drugs, sells Emmaline's little brother into service as a chimney sweep. To rescue him, Emmaline must go London, a quest she finds dangerous but also unexpectedly rewarding.   307 p.

Rider in the Dark: An Epic Horse Story   Victoria Holmes   (historical fiction)
In Dorset in 1740, after her father brings home a mysterious and defiant stallion, fifteen-year-old Helena is desperate to keep the horse for her own.   305 p 

Mountain Solo   Jeanette Ingold   (historical fiction)
Back at her childhood home in Missoula, Montana, after a disastrous concert in Germany, a teenage violin prodigy contemplates giving up life with her mother in New York City and her music as she, her father, stepmother, and stepsister hike to a pioneer homesite where another violinist once faced difficult decisions of his own. 309 p.

The Secret Country   by Jane Johnson   (fantasy)
Having learned from a talking cat that he and his sisters are the half-elfin royalty of a parallel world called Eidolon, twelve- year old Ben Arnold attempts to stop his evil uncle from smuggling magical creatures between the two worlds to sell on the black market.   323 p.

The Divide   by Elizabeth Kay   (fantasy)
While hiking on the Continental Divide of Costa Rica, a young boy with a heart condition falls into a magical otherworld full of fantastical creatures.   320 p.

The Garbage King   by Elizabeth Laird   (contemporary survival story)
When disaster strikes their families, Mamo and Dani are compelled to live as street urchins in the slums of an Ethiopian city.   329 p.

Flip   by David Lubar   (humor)
Eighth-graders Ryan and Taylor are twins, but that's where the similarities end. But they share at least one thing in common: nothing is turning out as they planned   300 p.

Good Night, Mr. Tom   Michelle Magorian   (historical fiction)
A battered child learns to embrace life when he is adopted by an old man in the English countryside during the Second World War.   318 p. 

Here Today   , Ann M Martin   (family story)
In 1963, when her flamboyant mother abandons the family to pursue her dream of becoming an actress, eleven-year-old Ellie Dingman takes charge of her younger siblings, while also trying to deal with her outcast status in school and frightening acts of prejudice toward the "misfits" that live on her street. 308 p. 

Shackleton’s Stowaway   Victoria McKernan   (historical adventure)
A fictionalized account of the adventures of eighteen-year-old Perce Blackborow, who stowed away for the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition and, after their ship Endurance was crushed by ice, endured many hardships, including the loss of the toes of his left foot to frostbite, during the nearly two-year return journey across sea and ice.   317 p. 

Zahrah the Windseeker   Mbachu, N. Okorafor   (fantasy)
Zahrah, a timid thirteen-year-old girl, undertakes a dangerous quest into the Forbidden Greeny Jungle to seek the antidote for her best friend after he is bitten by a snake, and finds knowledge, courage, and hidden powers along the way.   308 p. 

Ghost Ship   byDietlof Reiche   (adventure)
An eighteenth-century figurehead, the journal of a ship's quartermaster, and supernatural occurrences at a seaside resort lead twelve-year-old Vicki and her friend Peter on a quest to lift a curse and right a horrible deed committed two hundred and thirty years ago. 313 p 

The Nine Lives of Romeo Crumb   by L Rifkin   (cat story)
Romeo is a stray cat who faces many dangers. In the pound is adopted by Dennis Crumb and his family and is safe when he is with them. 311 p.

Girl in Blue   Ann Rinaldi   (Civil War fiction)
To escape an abusive father and an arranged marriage, fourteen-year-old Sarah, dressed as a boy, leaves her Michigan home to enlist in the Union Army, and becomes a soldier on the battlefields of Virginia as well as a Union spy working in the house of Confederate sympathizer Rose O'Neal Greenhow in Washington, D.C.   310 p.

Over the Wall   John H Ritter   (baseball)
Thirteen-year-old Tyler, who has trouble controlling his anger, spends an important summer with his cousins in New York City, playing baseball and sorting out how he feels about violence, war, and specifically the Vietnamese conflict that took his grandfather's life. 312 p.

Sea Legs   by Alex Shearer   (adventure)
Twin brothers Eric and Clive are ready for adventure on the high seas, so instead of staying with their grandparents yet again, they stow away on the cruise ship on which their father serves as Senior Steward. 309 p.

Brainboy and the Deathmaster   by Tor Seidler   (science fiction)
When Darryl, a twelve-year-old orphan, is adopted by a technology genius, he finds himself the star of his very own life- threatening video game. 311 p.

Raven Quest   Sharon Stewart   (animal adventure)
Tok, the most nimble-winged of the young ravens, is banished for a crime he did not commit, and the only way he can restore his honor and his father's name is to perform a brave and daring deed to benefit all ravenkind.   320 p.

The Ramsay Scallop   by Frances Temple   (historical fiction)
At the turn of the fourteenth century in England, fourteen-year-old Elenor finds her betrothal to an ambitious lord's son launching her on a memorable pilgrimage to far-off Spain.310 p.

Heir Apparent   by Vivian Vande Velde   (science fiction)
While playing a total immersion virtual reality game of kings and intrigue, fourteen-year-old Giannine learns that demonstrators have damaged the equipment to which she is connected, and she must win the game quickly or be damaged herself.   315 p.

The Sword in the Stone   by T.H White.   (King Arthur fantasy)
As Arthur grows up, he is trained by Merlin to be worthy of his destiny as the one man who can become the rightful King of' England. 311 p.

Trail of Bones   Mark Williams   (time travel)
Time travelers Eli and Thea arrive in Missouri in 1804, where they meet Thomas Jefferson and other famous people, then Eli joins the Corps of Discovery, hoping to find Clyne so that the three friends can return to the Fifth Dimension.   300 p.

Adam Canfield of the Slash   by Michael Winerip   (contemporary school story)
While serving as co-editors of their school newspaper, middle- schoolers Adam and Jennifer uncover fraud and corruption in their school and in the city's government   326 p.

Dragon Cauldron   by Laurence Yep   (fantasy)
A dragon named Shimmer, a monkey wizard, a reformed witch, and two humans go on a quest to mend the magic cauldron needed to repair the dragon's home   312 p.

Lady of Ch’iao Kuo   by Laurence Yep   (historical fiction)
In 531 A.D., a fifteen-year-old princess of the Hsien tribe in southern China keeps a diary which describes her role as liaison between her own people and the local Chinese colonists, in times of both peace and war.   300 p.

The Traitor: Golden Mountain Chronicles   Laurence Yep   (historical fiction)
In 1885, a lonely illegitimate American boy and a lonely Chinese American boy develop an unlikely friendship in the midst of prejudices and racial tension in t heir coal mining town of Rock Springs, Wyoming.   310 p.