11 YEARS AND UP
A preview of some of children's books in German for 11 year olds you can expect.
At 11 puberty is setting in, friends and peers are ever more important. Some might have their first crushes or a strong interest in the other sex, while others are still building with legos (or both might be true at the same time). The middle grade books for this age group will reflect all this - peer pressure, bullying, finding your identity are common themes. History and mystery novels are popular, fantasy and adventure stories as well as serious real life issues can be good choices.
For the German bilingual reader there are good options of suspenseful books in easy language. And graphic novels always work.

Suspensful dystopian fantasy series by the German author Judith Mohr about a young pocket thief that gets caught and sold as a slave - but thanks to his gifts gets a training in magical things...

A hilariously funny and entertaining suspense series set in Berlin and Hamburg with the shy Tessa solving mysteries.

Historical adventure story: 4 friends set out to travel from the Mississippi Delta to Chicago in the early 20th century. They fish a box with 3 dollars from the river - a fortune at the time - and order a gun through mail order. To their disappointment they receive a watch... but then an armed man tries to steal the watch from them. They decide to find the owner... Award winning, highly accurate historical novel.


Teenager Elle is new at school. Being extrovert and confident she quickly makes friends - but confronted with some stressors, like a group of mean girls and a boy who has a crush, other character traits (or personalities?) take over... Beautiful and super engaging graphic novel series with a mystery.

Prize-winning German youth thriller that blurs the lines between realistic, SF and fantasy. Erebros is a new computer game that sucks everybody in, including Nick and asks complete secrecy from its players. Worse still, it requires missions in real life - dangerous and harmful ones.. A true page-turner,.


14 year old Joshua has moved so often with his mothers, he does not think it is worth wile to invest in friends. But when he moves to rural Rottloch, the school gives a project: a week in the forest with 5 other kids, with no supervision. And it seems the only way to manage is to rely on others and be there for others... First volume of 5, a bestselling series, each telling the week from a different perspective.

Mischa and Nits have been friends forever. Mischa admires Nits for all his knowledge on animals and his cool way of phrasing things. But suddenly he discovers Nits also tells lies. And they keep getting more, a tangled web of lies... A gritting, but also entertaining novel on friendship and inequality.

Awarded as best children's crime novel, this German historical novel set in London, 1851, a newpaper boy gets tangles in a web of crime and conspiracies..

The orphan Krabat is drawn to the mill of which many eery stories are told. Together with 11 other teens he learns black magic from the miller there. He will discover that black magic gives him power and wealth, but also means less freedom. Can he free himself of the evil powers, or is he foreve r doomed like others at the mill? A classic YA novel that seems more timely than ever.


Norway 1942. The parents of Gerda and Otto get arrested, because they hid two Jewish kids. While the police did not find the kids themselves, Otto and Gerda do. Aware of the dangers, they try to bring them to their aunt, across the woods.. Outstanding books with strong characters, telling a story of war and persecution in age-adequate way.

Climate wars and environmental disasters are plaguing the earth. The rich have escaped to Mars. Jonto has lived there with his grandfather, but when he dies, he goes back to earth to his mother, where he tries to find the future boost together with his friends, a new tool to save the world. But a group of villains are searching, too...


Bestselling German middle grade novel told in letters: Emma and Lore are best friends and spend every minute they can together. But then Lore not only moves away, but also is no more allowed digital devices - and they are for forced to stay in touch through letters! They write about crushes, patch-work families, and struggles tween and teens have in a warm and humorous voice. And there are 6 more volumes!




If you ever doubted maths applies to real life and could be fun - get this book. A comic with varies problems a class of kids ask, and that get solved. Ever wanted to know how many tears fill a bathtub? Or how likely is it that you have a double in your class? That you can predict the course of a penalty kick?

