In Trenton Lee Stewart’s The Secret Keepers, Reuben Pedley, 11, lives with his widowed mother in a modest apartment in the Lower Downs of New Umbra. He spends his summer break exploring the abandoned buildings in his depressed neighborhood. On one of these expeditions he discovers a leather pouch containing an antique watch and winding key. Reuben guesses it’s valuable, but not until his meeting with elderly watchmaker Mrs. Genevieve does he suspect it may have supernatural powers.

In fact, the watch is so powerful that the boss of New Umbra—a mysterious character known as The Smoke—will pay any price and apply any force to get it. Suddenly on the run, Reuben follows clues to a family of lighthouse keepers who have also kept a closely-guarded secret for generations. Within that family Reuben makes two allies who will help him discover the watch’s origin and its power and value to someone who intends to use it for evil. And then, of course, they will have to keep it out of that person’s hands at all costs.

Trenton Lee Stewart established a solid fan base with The Mysterious Benedict Society (published in 2007), the story of four gifted children assigned to a secret mission that challenges their character as well as their mental resources. That debut inspired two sequels, a prequel, and a book of puzzles. With The Secret Keepers, Stewart leaves the Benedict Society behind but employs the same elements of surprise, suspense, danger, friendship among diverse characters, and sinister secret villains.

A good children’s novel should be one that children enjoy reading, but some winners of the Newbery Award (the world’s oldest and most prestigious kids’ lit honor) come across as “good for you” rather than exciting or absorbing or just plain fun. Authors like Stewart understand that universal themes can be wrapped in humor and adventure (with a light brush of fantasy) and still make a lasting impression. In an interview with Publishers Weekly, he identifies the lighthouse in The Secret Keepers as a symbol of tension between security and danger and light against darkness. Few children will face the life-threatening challenges of his fictional protagonist, but all will have to choose between risk and safety.

They will be able to identify with Reuben, a shy but good-hearted kid who manages to carry the burden of a 500-page narrative on unassuming shoulders. Like any boy-hero, he makes ignorant mistakes and near-fatal blunders and has to hide almost everything from his mother. But Reuben also possesses enough insight to recognize his own weaknesses and temptations. Another quality that sets him apart is compassion: He would rather see his enemy rehabilitated than destroyed once that enemy is defeated.

The Secret Keepers differs from many juvenile novels in another way: Adults are not irrelevant. Off the page for most of the story, Reuben’s mother is a vibrant character in her own right. She joins other dependable adults to intervene when the youngsters reach their limits.

While at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Stewart envisioned writing for adults. He published one moderately successful adult novel, but becoming a father brought him back to his own childhood love of mysteries and puzzles. Writing for children, he soon realized, was “introducing certain things to a reader for the first time.” When he was a child, books like The Chronicles of Narnia transformed his imagination and provided the stuff of endless daydreams. “I never stopped daydreaming,” he confessed in another interview, and the stories spun from those dreams now fire the imaginations of his readers.

Children’s Novel of the Year Runners-up

The Voyage to Magical North

Claire Fayers

Even though they don’t like each other, Brine and Peter, respectively the housemaid and apprentice of a second-rate magician, discover good reason to flee their master together. But adventure looms in the form of the notorious pirate ship Onion and her crew, headed by Captain Cassie O’Peia. The pirates turn out to be the good guys in a conflict with Marfak West, a powerful magician who sees the transcendent power of stories as mere lies and aims to control the narrative in ways that suit his own purpose. Imaginative twists, unpredictable characters, and generous doses of humor make this seafaring adventure a winner.

Ghost

Jason Reynolds

Castle Cranshaw, aka “Ghost,” knows he’s fast. He also knows he has “a lot of scream inside,” ever since his dad chased him and his mom with a gun. Dad’s in jail, but Ghost is still running. Not until the coach of a neighborhood track team glimpses his potential does he begin to think of goals, but to succeed will take more than speed. This classic sports novel about a kid from the projects is a fast read with a strong takeaway: “You can’t run away from who you are, but what you can do is run toward who you want to be.”

Every Single Second

Tricia Springstubb

At age 12, Nella Sabatini is facing normal changes, like yet another baby brother and a great-grandma getting more difficult with age and a new best friend replacing an old best friend. Only now Nella is beginning to understand how she is shaped by her own history and relationships with family, community, and God. Her world is shaken when someone she knows and loves fatally shoots an innocent black man, throwing Nella’s tight-knit Italian-American neighborhood into conflict with the black community across town. Allowing for some language cautions this is a sensitive novel that broadens a reader’s understanding of self and others.

The Goblin’s Puzzle

Andrew S. Chilton

The boy has nothing, not even a name, when he sets off with his master’s son on a business trip. Meanwhile, Plain Alice is going about her business when a dragon who mistakes her for Princess Alice seizes her and carries her off. A murder and an encounter with a sarcastic goblin put the boy on an unexpected track that will change his destiny as it converges with both Alices. The goblin gets the best lines in this clever, good-natured quest tale that puts fatalism on a collision course with honor and sagacity. While enjoying the journey, readers will also learn a little logic. —J.B.C.

Honorable Mentions

Our selection committee read over 70 middle-grade novels (those directed to readers between the ages of 8 and 13) across a range of genres—realistic contemporary fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, and adventure. In the selection process each of us had to leave some favorite titles behind, but they deserve an honorable mention here. All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook offers a rare look inside a minimum-security prison, as a well-meaning but wrongheaded state employee tries to separate the winsome protagonist from his mother. The Nine Lives of Jacob Tibbs pictures 19th-century seafaring through the eyes of a feline hero who thwarts a mutiny. Paper Wishes experiences Japanese internment during World War II with a traumatized 10-year-old girl. Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard pits two spirited young people against a story-stealing villain (see interview with author Jonathan Auxier in this issue). Finally, When the Sea Turned to Silver is a luminous retelling of Chinese legends that link storytelling to life. —J.B.C.

WORLD has updated this page to correct the year The Mysterious Benedict Society was published.