The best middle grade books about friendly freaks, monsters, and cryptids

The Astronaut Academy series is so silly and exciting.

Re-entry is the second book in the series, and I really love how each chapter focuses on a different character. Each chapter starts with a variation of “My name is ____ and I ____ Astronaut Academy.”

Those tiny bits do a lot of character building, because sometimes it’s “and you bet I go to…” and sometimes it’s “and I’m the richest and most pretty girl in all of…” It’s just an immediate Oh here we go, you know?

This book has it all: space walking, epic sports, cute romance, bazooka-fisted bears, and a mysterious monster. The whole series was recently repubbed in full color (color on this one by Fred C. Stresing), and they’re gorgeous.

Epic sci-fi with a cast of Earth-protecting animals.

Star Beasts is told through the POV of Bandit, the newest captain on the team, so we get to learn the ropes along with him (perfect way to tell a story, eh?). It’s as rad as it is cute. Alien animals!

Ancient relic collecting! Stinky lemurs! And if you’re anything like me, you will absolutely geek out when you see the Novataur.

I first read this book in self-pubbed form when I met the creators at WonderCon a few years ago. Nicest people on earth, coolest vision for their work, hilarious merch.

Also, Allyson is a fellow gardener, which is maybe not important to mention here, but it makes me happy.

Cryptids? Gnomes? Maps and charts? I’m in heaven.

I don’t know Kevin, but he feels like a kindred spirit who grew up on the same set of references. The Yeti Files books are hilarious and cool with a huge cast of cryptids (check the endpapers for a roll call). Marlon the skunk ape is my favorite.

I love the way the story of Blizz attending his family reunion and thwarting George the cryptozoologist is told: illustrated spreads, whooshing panels, Indiana Jones-esque dotted line traveling interludes, etc.

The rhythm and pace surf you from page to page. Reluctant readers don’t stand a chance.

What can I say? It’s the goated friendly freaks book.

This collection of super short connected stories stars one kid per tale. The kids are weird and wild, and something that has really stuck with me my whole life is that some of the kids are rotten and stay rotten. Not everyone needs to grow and change in 120 pages.

Let a character stink. Let a kid be a wet rat. Let a nasty teacher be eaten. Anyway, there’s this incredible way that the author employs a third-person limited POV that gets me every time, even on the hundredth read.

A few illustrators have graced the pages of this all-time favorite. I grew up reading an edition illustrated by the amazing Julie Brinkloe. I also have a copy illustrated by Adam McCauley, which I also really love.

Bug Boys started as (award-winning) self-pubbed minicomics and made their way to gloriously full-color graphic novels. Rhino-B and Stag-B are adorable bugs who explore the forest, escape terrifying giants, and dive deep into the world under our feet (and ponder if there are even more worlds out there).

The collected stories (I really have a thing for that, it seems) span from sweet and meditative to temporarily terrifying to high fantasy, and the colors by Lyle Lynde match the moods along the way. This whole series is so rad and kind.