Ten top books with strong tween characters

Stuart Gibbs is the New York Times bestselling author of the Charlie Thorne series, FunJungle series, Moon Base Alpha series, Once Upon a Tim series, and Spy School series. He has written screenplays, worked on a whole bunch of animated films, developed TV shows, been a newspaper columnist, and researched capybaras (the world’s largest rodents).

The newest book in the Spy School series is Spy School Goes Wild.

[The Page 69 Test: Space Case; The Page 69 Test: Spy Ski School]

At Lit Hub Gibbs tagged ten great books with strong tween characters, including:

Christina Diaz Gonzalez, Concealed

This book won the prestigious Edgar Award for best mystery, and it’s easy to see why when you read it. Katrina and her family are in the Federal Witness Protection Program—although Karina hasn’t ever been told why.

But when their location is leaked and her parents suddenly disappear, Karina is suddenly in a race to find the answers—and her parents as well. This is a taut, page-turning thriller that I’m very, very jealous of.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue