Favourite Middle Grade Book Covers of 2025

Today’s post is sponsored by Tanita S. Davis and Berry Parker Doesn’t Catch Crushes!

Title Berry Parker Doesn’t Catch Crushes
Author Tanita S. Davis
Intended Target Audience Middle Grade
Publication Date September 16th 2025 by HarperCollins
Find It On Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

With her mom’s new boyfriend, her best friend’s new crush, and her dad’s interest in her gym teacher, Berry vows to never catch a crush — and to show everyone how much better things would be without theirs — in this stand-alone contemporary middle grade from Tanita S. Davis, author of The Science of Friendship and Partly Cloudy.

Every year, Berry’s mom, Ivy, visits for a three-week “August Invasion.” And every summer Berry hopes will be the one when Ivy will stay — forever.

Which is why Ivy’s surprise return visit is amazing — until Berry realizes her mom didn’t come for her. Ivy’s back to pack the last of her things, and she’s brought her new “friend,” Mr. Cole to help. When Berry discovers that Mr. Cole is taking a job in England, she’s convinced that Ivy wants to move all the way across the ocean with him, to where an August Invasion can’t reach. Even at school, messy feelings are ruining everything. Berry’s best friend, Lia, rearranges her schedule to have classes with her crush, leaving Berry alone all day. Even Berry’s normally boring dad is making excuses to talk to her gym teacher.

All these crushes are crushing the life out of Berry. Weren’t things better before these extra people came along? Why do things have to change?

Do! Judge A Book By Its Cover is a regular feature on Pop! Goes The Reader in which I pay tribute to some of the best and brightest the publishing world has to offer in the way of book cover design.

Book cover design can play an important role in a book’s success or failure. While certainly not the only contributing factor, for the casual reader perusing the shelves of their local library or bookstore, a book’s cover offers one of the earliest introductions to the story contained within its pages and can help differentiate it from the thousands of other titles surrounding it. Book cover design is one of my passions, and given that I spend much of the year celebrating it in its many shapes, forms and iterations in my regular feature, Do! Judge A Book By Its Cover, I thought it might be fun to compose a list of what I thought were some of the most effective, eye-catching and beautiful examples of middle grade book cover design in 2025.

Longing for even more beautiful book covers? You can find Pop! Goes The Reader’s Favourite Middle Grade Book Covers Of 2021 here, 2022 here and 2024 here.

Please Note: As always, I’ve done my best to credit the designers and artists responsible for the stunning covers below, but was unable to find this information for a number of those listed. If you know of an uncredited designer and/or artist responsible for any of these book covers or if I’ve credited someone incorrectly, please let me know and I would be happy to include proper attribution in this post. Their work is important and deserves credit and celebration.

The covers below are listed in no particular order.

01. The Thirteen Doors of Black House by Laura Lavoie
Cover design by Liam Donnelly, Cover art by Ash Roy

02. Keepers Of The Marsh by Maura Jortner
Cover design by Chelsea Hunter, Cover art by Vanessa Morales

03. Opal Watson: Private Eye by Brittany J. Thurman
Cover design by Andrea Vandergrift, Cover art by Geneva Bowers

04. Jackson Bright In The Spotlight by Eureka O’Hara and Dan Poblocki
Cover design by Micah Fleming, Cover art by Ricardo Bessa

05. Chef’s Secret by Kelly Yang
Cover art by Maike Plenzke

06. Sabrena Swept Away by Karuna Riazi
Cover design by Sylvie Le Floch, Cover art by Lavanya Naidu

07. Mystery of the Haunted Dancehall by Charis Cotter
Cover design by Kate Sinclair, Cover art by Byron Eggenschwiler

08. Where There Be Monsters by Alby C. Williams
Cover design by Aurora Parlagreco, Cover art by Bex Glendining

09. Starry, Starry Heist by Karen Briner

10. Dive by John David Anderson
Cover design by Molly Fehr, Cover art by Oriol Vidal

11. Octopus Moon by Bobbie Pyron
Cover art by Kirbi Fagan

12. The Blossoming Summer by Anna Rose Johnson
Cover art by Stephanie Son

13. Zarina Divided by Reem Faruqi
Cover design by Molly Fehr, Cover art by Shehzil Malik

14. Bea Mullins Takes A Shot by Emily Deibert
Cover design by Jade Rector, Cover art by Isabelle Duffy

15. Junius Leak and The Spiraling Vortex of Doom by Allan Wolf
Cover design by Maria T. Middleton, Cover art by Lavanya Naidu

16. The Ripple Effect by Rebecca Caprara
Cover design by Kristen Nobles, Cover art by Maike Plenzke

17. Going Overboard by Caroline Huntoon
Cover art by Ricardo Bessa

18. El Niño by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Cover design by Marijka Kostiw, Cover art by Joe Cepeda

19. A Hero’s Guide To Summer Vacation by Pablo Cartaya
Cover design by Jessica Jenkins, Cover art by Ericka Lugo

20. Free Piano by Whitney Gardner
Cover art by Whitney Gardner

21. Tear This Down by Barbara Dee
Cover art by Jacqueline Li

22. The Treasure of Ocean Parkway by Sarvenaz Tash
Art direction by Carol Ly, Cover art by Ericka Lugo

23. Mountain Upside Down by Sara Ryan
Cover design by Anna Booth, Cover art by Ana von Huben

24. Aarzu All Around by Marzieh Abbas
Cover design by Laura Eckes, Cover art by Chaaya Prabhat

25. The Burning Season by Caroline Starr Rose
Cover design by Lori Thorn, Cover art by David Dean

26. Smoke & Mirrors by Rosalyn Ransaw
Cover design by Madeline Morales, Cover art by Jeannette Arroyo

27. Flying In Colors by Padma Prasad Reddeppa
Cover design by Sheila Smallwood, Cover art by Jenny Miriam

28. Cast vs. Crew: Setting The Stage by Lindsay Champion
Cover art by Ericka Lugo

29. It’s Watching by Lindsay Currie
Cover art by Matt Saunders

30. Werewolf Hamlet by Kerry Madden-Lunsford
Cover art by Jamie Green

31. Grin by D.W. Gillespie
Cover design by Jen Valero, Cover art by Matt Tobin Ryan

32. I.R.L. by Jenny Goebel

33. Ride or Die by Delilah S. Dawson
Cover design by Suzanne Lee, Cover art by Matt Tobin Ryan

34. Spark by Chris Baron
Cover design by Rich Deas, Cover art by Tom Cole

35. Gloam by Jack Mackay
Cover art by Jo Rioux