The best books about “smart” kids who save the day… in unexpected ways

I instantly became of fan of Mira, a STEM-loving pre-teen who is dealing with a lot: her best friend moving away, a very sick cat she adores, and her father’s depression after losing his job. At first, she thinks her big brain has to be the key to unlocking how to solve her troubles, but over the course of the chapters, she realizes that opening her heart to new friends and modeling true perseverance goes a lot farther. This book has so much sweetness and humor, but it's not fluff. Every page feels like a real kid dealing with real stuff and trying to use whatever she can to help her family through a really tough time. 

This one made me laugh again and again and then pretty much break up into tears on the next page. Sal is a smart kid and an excellent magician, but he’s starting at a new school while dealing with the loss of his mother and the discovery he can open portals to other universes where his mom still exists. Gabi is the most brilliant and driven girl in the school, but her family is coping with some heavy things too. The two don’t get along at first, but once both of them stop being defensive, their vulnerability gives them what they need most: a true friend. There is so much surreal silliness woven in between the really serious topics that readers are swept up in all the action and the emotions.

Who doesn’t love a good pre-teen mystery, and this one is different because the “crime” is totally current. Drew Leclair is a clever girl who adores true crime content with her dad, especially after her mother runs off with Drew’s school guidance counselor. Ouch! But when the school’s anonymous cyber-bully starts targeting her and other kids at school with cruel posts revealing their secrets, Drew leans on her deductive reasoning to expose the perpetrator. Along the way, she’s dealing with friend drama and eventually comes to see that sometimes, her brainy ways are really just a way of avoiding some tough emotions. Does Drew catch the bully? Does she make new friends, or lose the only friend she has? You gotta read to find out. 

Most space adventures for middle grade readers are totally sci-fi fantasies, but this one is so realistic and well-researched, it’s like a genre of its own. The main character, Fin, is 12 years old and he’s surrounded by other brilliant kids who are part of the StellarKid Project for young inventors. They all have the opportunity to go to space with NASA, but someone is trying to sabotage them. It takes a lot of brain power for the kids to save themselves when everything goes wrong in orbit, but even more than that, it takes teamwork, which requires each of them to face their fears. I felt like I was holding my breath for the entire second half of the book, so you know I was into it.

This book is so cool because it takes place in a timeless version of New York City where 12-year-old John is an orphan, hiding out and living alone in the crawlspace of a museum. With zero formal education, he still has all the smarts he needs to take care of himself until he gets mixed up in a seemingly impossible jewel heist where he is the only suspect. John’s mind isn’t enough to get him out of the mess. Instead, it’s his budding friendship and apprenticeship with the world’s greatest detective, Toadius McGee, that lets him deal with the crime, and his own emotions about feeling alone in the world. Oh, and this book has everything from root beer bars to Broadway shows to terrifying reformatory schools.