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Discover Midsummer Books' favorite picture books of 2026, featuring heartwarming stories about friendship, identity, family, imagination, and big feelings.

What if reading this summer felt less like homework and more like an adventure? This year, we're excited to introduce the Midsummer Summer Reading Passport—a self-guided summer challenge designed to help kids, tweens, and teens discover new books, try creative activities, explore their communities, and build a summer full of stories. Rather than tracking pages or minutes, our passports encourage readers to engage with books in meaningful and imaginative ways. Participants wil

Young Adult (YA) fiction is a category of literature centered on teenage protagonists (typically ages 12–18) and defined by its perspective—immediate, emotional, and focused on the transition into adulthood.

There’s a particular kind of intensity to the tween years, especially when it comes to friendship. Friendship at this stage starts to evolve from your favorite playmates into relationships that carry more weight. Best friends become everything. Small moments feel huge. And figuring out where you belong can feel like the most important question in the world. One of the hardest parts of the tween years, both for kids and for their parents, is when friendship dynamics shift in w