Summer may be coming to a close, but readers can continue to look forward to new books including a series starter about a witch-in-training, a graphic novel about finding where one belongs, a gothic YA mystery about a psychic medium, and more.
Picture Books and Early Readers
Matthew Forsythe. S&S/Wiseman, $19.99 (64p) ISBN 978-1-5344-7820-6. Ages 4–8. Aggie is thrilled to move into her own forest home, but the new digs come with an unexpected resident: a one-eyed ghost who isn’t scary—just supremely present. How Aggie navigates their relationship is one of the many astute moments of comedy in this picture book that captures the dance of unlikely bonds. The book received a starred review from PW.
Cassini’s Mission: A Spacecraft, a Tiny Moon, and the Search for Life Beyond Earth
Katie Venit, illus. by Julia Blattman. MIT, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5362-3232-5. Ages 4–8. This picture book chronicles in spare, crisp language how robotic spacecraft Cassini was equipped for the seven-year journey to Saturn with instruments that could detect the essential elements of life. The book received a starred review from PW.
CeeCee: Underground Railroad Cinderella
Shana Keller, illus. by Laura Freeman. Charlesbridge, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-623-54389-1. Ages 4–8. In riveting prose, Keller pens an engaging “Cinderella” variation about a girl, enslaved in Maryland, for whom layered stories offer freedom. The book received a starred review from PW.
Meg Fleming, illus. by Chuck Groenink. Beach Lane, $19.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-6659-2487-0. Ages 4–8. Twining the fantasy of an unfettered childhood adventure with the majestic reality of an ancient redwood forest, Fleming and Groenink offer an outdoors variation on a classic children’s rhyme. The book received a starred review from PW.
Five Little Friends: A Collection of Finger Rhymes
Sean Taylor, illus. by Fiona Woodcock. Candlewick, $19.99 (64p) ISBN 978-1-5362-4291-1. Ages 3–7. Rarely exceeding eight lines, easily remembered experiential verse by Taylor riffs on varied subjects, including bubble-blowing, a snake, snow, and a waterslide. The book received a starred review from PW.
James E. Ransome. Penguin/Paulsen, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-593-32488-2. Ages 3–7. In spectacularly composed signature-style spreads, Ransome crafts a wordless story that centers an unhoused child and caretaker. See our q&a with Ransome here. The book received a starred review from PW.
Kara LaReau, illus. by Ariane Moreira. Random House, $15.99 hardcover (80p) ISBN 979-8-217-02585-5; $6.99 paper ISBN 978-0-593-81226-6. Ages 6–9. Witch-in-training Blue delivers magic-enhanced pastries from their mother’s fantastical bakery, Witchycakes, to customers throughout Shelville. When she encounters customers with troubles and Blue’s half-baked magic fails to solve the people’s woes, they use their ingenuity to conjure nonmagical solutions. The book received a starred review from PW.
Zeke Peña. Kokila, $19.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-5937-0011-2. Ages 4–8. In a wide-ranging solo debut, Peña imagines two Latinx-cued children exploring a sweeping desertscape where, though bulldozers work “to build/ things that don’t belong,” natural elements “will always grow wild and free.” The book received a starred review from PW.
Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, illus. by Aaron Becker. Atheneum, $19.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-6659-5060-2. Ages 4–8. Via spare, poetic language as well as watercolor and pencil illustrations, Tallie and Becker celebrate the time shared between a child and caretaker as they meander through a metropolitan neighborhood. The book received a starred review from PW.
Middle Grade
Shannon Hale, illus. by Marcela Cespedes. Roaring Brook, $22.99 hardcover (240p) ISBN 978-1-250-84306-7; $14.99 paper ISBN 978-1-250-84307-4. Ages 8–12. Hale teams up with illustrator Cespedes for this heartfelt graphic novel series opener about friendship, family, and finding where one belongs. The book received a starred review from PW.
Frances Hardinge, illus. by Emily Gravett. Amulet, $19.99 (128p) ISBN 978-1-4197-7778-3. Ages 10–14. An intrepid girl braves a sentient, predatory wilderness to save her community in this uplifting fantasy. The book received a starred review from PW.
Ruchira Gupta. Scholastic Press, $18.99 (320p) ISBN 978-1-3390-1242-1. Ages 8–12. Gupta follows one immigrant child’s experience attempting a dangerous border crossing to seek refuge in this wrenching family story. The book received a starred review from PW.
The Library of Unruly Treasures
Jeanne Birdsall, illus. by Matt Phelan. Knopf, $17.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-525-57905-2. Ages 8–12. Gwen MacKinnon is sent to Dalgety, Mass., to stay with her great-uncle and encounters children who claim to communicate with mythical beings in the library. See our q&a with Newbery Honor author Birdsall about pivoting to fantasy and moving on from her Penderwicks series. The book received a starred review from PW.
Peter Burns. Aladdin, $18.99 (352p) ISBN 978-1-6659-8228-3. Ages 10 and up. Orphaned 13-year-old Tom Morgan is whisked away to Beaufort’s School for Deceptive Arts, an elite boarding academy for thieves, where he hopes to learn the skills necessary to save his friends from the workhouse. The book received a starred review from PW.
The Sky Was My Blanket: A Young Man’s Journey Across Wartime Europe
Uri Shulevitz. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $19.99 (160p) ISBN 978-0-374-39246-8. Ages 10–14. In this stirring illustrated remembrance, late Caldecott Medalist Shulevitz chronicles his uncle Yehiel Szulewicz’s decision to leave his hometown of Zyrardów, Poland in the years before WWII. The book received a starred review from PW.
Daniel Nayeri. Levine Querido, $18.99 (192p) ISBN 978-1-64614-566-9. Ages 8–12. Nayeri considers the effects of WWII on two Iranian children in a heart-piercing historical novel. The book received a starred review from PW.
Ali Terese. Aladdin, $17.99 (336p) ISBN 978-1-6659-6048-9. Ages 8–12. Injured tween athlete Meg and fashionista classmate Jo become unlikely allies in the quest to rescue their school’s goat mascot from terrible living conditions—and shoot to the top of the principal’s suspect list when the goat mysteriously vanishes. The book received a starred review from PW.
Amar Shah, illus. by Rashad Doucet. Graphix, $24.99 hardcover (304p) ISBN 978-1-5461-1051-4; $14.99 paper ISBN 978-1-3390-4244-2. Ages 8–12. In this graphic novel-style memoir set in 1995, 14-year-old Shah’s single-minded determination to become a sports journalist sows tension between him and his friends. See our q&a with Shah.
Young Adult
Freddie Kölsch. Union Square, $19.99 (424p) ISBN 978-1-4549-5162-9. Ages 14 and up. In October 2000, teen Darian witnesses her crush KJ’s horrifying ritual induction as a local god’s newest vessel, and must confront the sinister truth behind the town’s easygoing smiles and picturesque sunflower fields. The book received a starred review from PW.
Jeannine Atkins. Atheneum, $19.99 (304p) ISBN 978-1-6659-7754-8. Ages 14 and up. In this lucid, accessible verse memoir, Atkins chronicles her experiences as a college freshman healing from the trauma of sexual violence and finding her voice through poetry. See our q&a with the author. The book received a starred review from PW.
Jake Maia Arlow. Storytide, $19.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-06-307877-2. Ages 14 and up. Teens Zoe and Oakley find love on a cross-country train ride in this captivating romance. The book received a starred review from PW.
Khadijah VanBrakle. Holiday House, $19.99 (272p) ISBN 978-0-8234-5486-0. Ages 14 and up. Black 16-year-old Leena Stewart reunites with her estranged grandfather Tariq, disrupting her relationship with her mother. The book received a starred review from PW.
Jamison Shea. Holt, $19.99 (416p) ISBN 978-1-2503-8173-6. Ages 14 and up. When teens Winnie and Apollo converge over an arcane artifact, they’re pitted in a race to evade death and avert the apocalypse. The book received a starred review from PW.
Mariko Tamaki, illus. by Nicole Goux. Abrams, $26.99 hardcover (272p) ISBN 978-1-4197-6846-0. Ages 14 and up. New girl Abby Kita gets swept up in a boarding school murder mystery in this gripping graphic novel from Tamaki. The book received a starred review from PW.
Verity Vox and the Curse of Foxfire
Don Martin. Page Street, $18.99 (336p) ISBN 979-8-89003-270-6. Ages 14 and up. Teenage witch in training Verity Vox arrives in Foxfire, a forgotten Appalachian mining town ruled by a wicked salesman, and struggles to find ways to weaken his magic. The book received a starred review from PW.
White Lies: How the South Lost the Civil War, Then Rewrote the History
Ann Bausum. Roaring Brook, $24.99 (368p) ISBN 978-1-250-81657-3. Ages 12 and up. In this searing account, Bausum dissects the “series of lies” that represented the beliefs of the Confederate States of America known as the Lost Cause, following the conclusion of the Civil War. The book received a starred review from PW.
