Best Books for Ages 9-12 in 2024

Recommended middle-grade fiction for confident readers, ranked by real Amazon UK sales during 2024.

“The Extremely Embarrassing Life of Lottie Brooks” by Katie Kirby was the best-selling book for ages 9-12 in 2024, ahead of “Lottie Brooks's Totally Disastrous School-Trip (Lottie Bro…” and “The Catastrophic Friendship Fails of Lottie Brooks”. 99 of the 100 books below hold an average rating of 4.5 stars or better, led by “The Catastrophic Friendship Fails of Lottie Brooks” on 4.8 stars from 4,074 reviews.

Ranked by how well each book actually sold on Amazon UK across 2024 — not by our opinion, and not by how they sell today.

← Ages 6-8 Ages 9-12

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026

The Extremely Embarrassing Life of Lottie Brooks: The first ...

by Katie Kirby

4.7 · 5091 reviews

Lottie Brooks's Totally Disastrous School-Trip (Lottie Brook...

by Katie Kirby

4.7 · 3049 reviews

The Catastrophic Friendship Fails of Lottie Brooks: The seco...

by Katie Kirby

4.8 · 4074 reviews

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

by J.K. Rowling

4.8 · 143852 reviews

The Girl of Ink and Stars: winner of the British Book Awards...

by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

4.6 · 8173 reviews

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Getaway (Book 12): A hilarious fam...

by Jeff Kinney

4.7 · 29725 reviews

The Boy Who Grew Dragons (The Boy Who Grew Dragons 1): The b...

by Andy Shepherd

4.7 · 5618 reviews

Skandar and the Unicorn Thief: The international, award-winn...

by A.F. Steadman

4.7 · 2571 reviews

The Explorer: From the author of the internationally bestsel...

by Katherine Rundell

4.7 · 4569 reviews

Lottie Brooks’s Essential Guide to Life: Write Your own Diar...

by Katie Kirby

4.7 · 1466 reviews

Holes: The iconic childhood-defining phenomenon

by Louis Sachar

4.6 · 35460 reviews

The Hobbit

by J. R. R. Tolkien

4.8 · 2508 reviews

The Boy At the Back of the Class

by Onjali Rauf

4.7 · 11731 reviews

The Beast Beyond the Fence: A fun-filled spooky adventure by...

by Marcus Rashford

4.6 · 1569 reviews

Charlotte's Web: The beloved modern classic from the bestsel...

by E. B. White

4.7 · 32397 reviews

The Brilliant World of Tom Gates

by Liz Pichon

4.6 · 8206 reviews

The Girl Who Stole an Elephant

by Nizrana Farook

4.6 · 1337 reviews

Goodnight Mister Tom: Michelle Magorian (A Puffin Book)

by Michelle Magorian

4.7 · 8310 reviews

The Final Year: CLiPPA Award-Winning Verse Novel for Ages 10...

by Matt Goodfellow

4.6 · 539 reviews

Murder Most Unladylike: A Murder Most Unladylike Mystery: 1

by Robin Stevens

4.6 · 4573 reviews

Wonder: The Award-Winning, Multi-Million-Copy Bestselling Ph...

by R J Palacio

4.7 · 84526 reviews

Who Let the Gods Out?: the first EPIC adventure in Maz Evans...

by Maz Evans

4.6 · 2342 reviews

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief (Book 1): Rick Riordan...

by Rick Riordan

4.6 · 61934 reviews

Rooftoppers: From the author of the internationally bestsell...

by Katherine Rundell

4.6 · 4163 reviews

Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Book 1)

by Jeff Kinney

4.6 · 24093 reviews

How To Train Your Dragon

by Cressida Cowell

4.6 · 7094 reviews

You Are Awesome: Find Your Confidence and Dare to be Brillia...

by Matthew Syed

4.6 · 4344 reviews

Varjak Paw: An award-winning modern children's classic: 1

by SF Said

4.7 · 2540 reviews

The Lost Words: The bestselling, illustrated nature book – a...

by Jackie Morris

4.8 · 3454 reviews

Can You See Me?: A powerful story of autism, empathy and kin...

by Libby Scott

4.7 · 2563 reviews

Letters from the Lighthouse: ‘THE QUEEN OF HISTORICAL FICTIO...

by Emma Carroll

4.6 · 2927 reviews

Loki: A Bad God's Guide to Being Good: Trickster Norse god t...

by Louie Stowell

4.7 · 1166 reviews

Kick: The bestselling football adventure that invites reader...

by Mitch Johnson

4.6 · 850 reviews

The 1,000-year-old Boy: The captivating tale of friendship a...

by Ross Welford

4.6 · 5612 reviews

When the Sky Falls: The bestselling wartime animal tale insp...

by Phil Earle

4.6 · 1031 reviews

The London Eye Mystery: Siobhan Dowd

by Siobhan Dowd

4.6 · 3292 reviews

The Great Chocoplot: a laugh-out-loud funny adventure for fa...

by Chris Callaghan

4.6 · 530 reviews

A Poem for Every Day of the Year: A beautiful poetry collect...

by Allie Esiri

4.7 · 1722 reviews

October, October: WINNER OF THE YOTO CARNEGIE MEDAL 2022

by Katya Balen

4.7 · 1165 reviews

The Wolf Wilder: From the author of the internationally best...

by Katherine Rundell

4.7 · 2296 reviews

Skellig: Winner of the Carnegie Medal

by David Almond

4.6 · 4317 reviews

The Lost Spells: An enchanting, beautiful book for lovers of...

by Robert Macfarlane

4.8 · 3290 reviews

The Borrowers (A Puffin Book)

by Mary Norton

4.7 · 2623 reviews

The Graveyard Book: WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL 2010

4.6 · 2045 reviews

The Spy Who Loved School Dinners

by Pamela Butchart

4.5 · 1046 reviews

A Different Sort of Normal: The award-winning book about gro...

by Abigail Balfe

4.6 · 524 reviews

Windrush Child: a moving tale from BAFTA-award-winning Benja...

by Benjamin Zephaniah

4.7 · 806 reviews

Northern Lights (His Dark Materials)

by Philip Pullman and Chris Wormell

4.6 · 15921 reviews

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Book 2 in the classic ...

by C. S. Lewis

4.6 · 201 reviews

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane: A 6-million-copy-se...

by Kate DiCamillo

4.8 · 10488 reviews

A Kind of Spark

by Elle McNicoll

4.7 · 1233 reviews

The Big Book of the Blue

by Yuval Zommer

4.8 · 2336 reviews

Boy In The Tower

by Polly Ho-Yen

4.6 · 1217 reviews

Secrets of a Sun King: ‘THE QUEEN OF HISTORICAL FICTION’ Gua...

by Emma Carroll

4.6 · 1157 reviews

Arthur and the Golden Rope (Brownstone's Mythical Collection...

by Joe Todd Stanton

4.8 · 809 reviews

The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh (the funniest new book for k...

by Helen Rutter and Andrew Bannecker

4.7 · 731 reviews

Journey to the River Sea: A Gorgeous 20th Anniversary Editio...

by Eva Ibbotson

4.6 · 2166 reviews

The Wind in the Willows: With original artwork, by Winnie-th...

by Kenneth Grahame

4.8 · 778 reviews

The Queen's Nose

by Dick King-Smith

4.6 · 608 reviews

Hotel Flamingo: The flamboyantly fun animal adventure!

by Alex Milway

4.8 · 505 reviews

Rabbit's Bad Habits: Book 1: The hilarious modern classic an...

by Julian Gough

4.7 · 902 reviews

Crater Lake

by Jennifer Killick

4.6 · 911 reviews

The Nothing to See Here Hotel: Volume 1

by Steven Butler

4.6 · 792 reviews

There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom: Rejacketed

by Louis Sachar

4.6 · 6159 reviews

Once (Once/Now/Then/After)

by Morris Gleitzman

4.6 · 2942 reviews

The Goldfish Boy: the bestselling, award-winning modern clas...

4.6 · 2202 reviews

The Sheep-pig: 40th Anniversary Edition

by Dick King-Smith

4.7 · 742 reviews

Dragon Mountain (Dragon Realm)

by Kevin Tsang

4.7 · 1052 reviews

Survivors: BLUE PETER AWARD WINNER: 1

by David Long

4.7 · 512 reviews

Tom's Midnight Garden 65th Anniversary Edition

by Philippa Pearce

4.6 · 2338 reviews

The House With Chicken Legs: Step into the fairytale world o...

by Sophie Anderson

4.7 · 2699 reviews

The Rhythm of the Rain

by Grahame Baker-Smith

4.7 · 595 reviews

Leon and the Place Between

by Angela Mcallister/Grahame Baker-Smith

4.7 · 590 reviews

No Ballet Shoes in Syria

by Catherine Bruton

4.7 · 1102 reviews

The Neverending Story: Michael Ende (A Puffin Book)

4.6 · 6737 reviews

The Tin Forest

by Helen Ward

4.7 · 779 reviews

The Giving Tree

by Shel Silverstein

4.6 · 34135 reviews

The Diary of a Killer Cat: 1 (The Killer Cat, 1)

by Anne Fine

4.5 · 1073 reviews

Please Mrs Butler: The timeless school poetry collection

by Allan Ahlberg

4.7 · 727 reviews

Shackleton's Journey

by William Grill

4.8 · 694 reviews

The Arrival

by Shaun Tan

4.8 · 2446 reviews

Michael Rosen's A-Z: The best children's poetry from Agard t...

by Michael Rosen

4.5 · 331 reviews

The Legend of Podkin One-Ear: 'A spellbinding story full of ...

by Kieran Larwood

4.7 · 1308 reviews

Dragons at Crumbling Castle: And Other Stories

4.6 · 3026 reviews

Fighting Fantasy:The Warlock of Firetop Mountain

by Ian Livingstone

4.7 · 702 reviews

Malamander: The first in a hugely original and highly popula...

by Thomas Taylor

4.7 · 1359 reviews

The Land of Roar

by Ben Mantle Jenny McLachlan and Farshore Billy Ashcroft

4.7 · 1243 reviews

Darwin's Dragons: a thrilling, rip-roaring adventure full of...

4.6 · 469 reviews

The Big Book of the UK: Facts, folklore and fascinations fro...

4.8 · 628 reviews

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Journey to Narnia in t...

4.8 · 1461 reviews

Ella on the Outside

by Cath Howe

4.6 · 811 reviews

The Silver Sword

by Ian Serraillier

4.6 · 2130 reviews

Cogheart (The Cogheart Adventures #1): The bestselling, hear...

by Peter Bunzl

4.6 · 1627 reviews

Clockwork or All Wound Up

by Philip Pullman and Peter Bailey

4.6 · 632 reviews

Wolf Brother: Book 1 (Chronicles of Ancient Darkness)

4.6 · 1877 reviews

The Last Firefox: 1

by Lee Newbery and Laura Catalán

4.8 · 403 reviews

Hilda and the Troll (Hildafolk Comics)

by Luke Pearson

4.8 · 1651 reviews

Mortal Engines: 1 (Mortal Engines Quartet)

4.4 · 8557 reviews

Floodland

by Marcus Sedgwick

4.5 · 944 reviews

A Day in the Life of a Poo, a Gnu and You (Winner of the Blu...

by Mike Barfield

4.8 · 458 reviews

Best Books for Ages 3-5 (2024) Picture books for pre-schoolers and early readers Best Books for Ages 6-8 (2024) Early chapter books and illustrated fiction

FAQs

What were the best books for ages 9-12 in 2024?
The best-selling book for ages 9-12 in 2024 was "The Extremely Embarrassing Life of Lottie Brooks: The first hilarious diary in the bestselling series: 1", measured on real Amazon UK sales rank across 2024. See the full top 100 below.

How is this list ranked?
By real Amazon UK sales rank averaged across 2024 specifically, so it reflects what actually sold to this age group during that year rather than what sells today.