Holiday Gift Guide 2023: Gifts for Kids Ages 8–12

These books are perfect for middle-grade readers interested in mythology, STEM projects, magical realism, cooking, and more! Find your young reader’s next book below.

Hanging with Vampires: A Totally Factual Field Guide to the Supernatural

by Insha Fitzpatrick

Discover everything about vampires in this laugh-out-loud nonfiction handbook packed with spooky legends, fascinating history, and weird facts perfect for middle-grade readers and mythology fans!

Are vampires real? Who was Vlad the Impaler? Do vampire bats ever feed on humans? Find out in Hanging with Vampires, a field guide for the curious and the adventurous. Crack open the lid on this guide!

Hanging with Vampires is the first book in the Totally Factual Field Guide to the Supernatural series, a hilarious and haunting exploration of how myths and legends shape our lives. Sink your fangs into vampire lore and literature with enchanting illustrations and fun activities, like making garlic bread. It’s a spooky world out there–grab your guide, and let’s go!

Looking for Hanging with Vampires resources? Try the educator’s guide, scavenger hunt, and download the bookmark!

Chilling with Ghosts: A Totally Factual Field Guide to the Supernatural

by Insha Fitzpatrick

Discover everything about ghosts in this fun handbook packed with spooky tales, engrossing science, and fascinating history–perfect for middle grade readers and mythology fans!

Boo! Do you believe in ghosts? What’s up with haunted houses? And how exactly do you bust a ghost? Uncover the spooky and spectral world of ghosts in Chilling with Ghosts, a field guide for the curious and the adventurous. Step into the unknown—if you dare!

Make your own ghost story with this activity from the book!

A Spoonful of Time

by Flora Ahn

“Full of twists, this middle grade story is a heartwarming mix of food and family.”—Kirkus Reviews

When You Reach Me meets Love Sugar Magic in this unforgettable middle grade novel where time travel, family recipes, and family secrets collide.

Maya’s grandmother, Halmunee, may be losing her memory, but she hasn’t lost her magic touch in the kitchen.  Whether she serves salty miyeok-guk or sweet songpyeon, her stories about Korea come to life for Maya.

Then one day, something extraordinary happens: one delicious bite transports Maya and Halmunee into one of Halmunee’s memories. Suddenly they’re in Seoul, and Halmunee is young.

This is just the first of many secrets Maya will uncover: that she and her grandmother can travel through time. As Maya eats her way through the past, her questions multiply—until a shocking discovery transforms everything she thought she knew about family, friendship, loss, and time itself.

Brimming with heart and interspersed with seven family recipes that readers can make themselves, this is a story to savor by rising Korean American author Flora Ahn.

Looking for more resources? Try A Spoonful of Time‘s educator’s guide, discussion guide, and cooking activity kit!

Nick and Tesla and the High-Voltage Danger Lab

by “Science Bob” Pflugfelder and Steve Hockensmith

Solve mysteries using DIY science projects with twin sleuths Nick and Tesla in this zany, action-packed middle grade adventure by “Science Bob” Pflugfelder!

Summer break is about to get weird. After their parents disappear, twins Nick and Tesla are sent to live with their Uncle Newt, an eccentric inventor with his very own science lab. Soon, the young sleuths find themselves investigating a mysterious family right in their own neighborhood. As they race to uncover the truth, Nick and Tesla must build a bottle rocket launcher, a 9-volt battery burglar alarm, and an electromagnet picker-upper to save the day.

Now in paperback, the first book in the popular Nick and Tesla series features laugh-out-loud jokes, fun illustrations, and five DIY science projects with step-by-step instructions for readers to try at home.

Take me back to the full holiday gift guide!