The Ogress and the Orphans
by Kelly Barnhill
Middle grade · ages 10–14 · grades 5–9 · 820L · 2022
Why we'd hand it over
Barnhill's most emotionally sophisticated middle-grade novel—a war-displaced group of children and a feared ogress teach each other what home and family mean; the prose is lyrical without being cloying, and the moral stakes feel real.