Hitting bookshelves this week are a picture book about a wild child seeking his place, a middle grade novel in which a teen spends a summer getting to know his family’s history, and the next installment of a high fantasy YA series.
The Rose and the Dagger by Renée Ahdieh. Putnam, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-399-17162-8. The second volume in the Wrath and the Dawn series continues the YA reimagining of The 1,001 Nights.
Rules of the House by Mac Barnett, illus. by Matt Myers. Disney-Hyperion, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4231-8516-1. Barnett focuses his inimitable blend of energy and fiendish imagination in this picture book about children’s fascination with rules.
The Blood Between Us by Zac Brewer. HarperCollins/Tegen, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-230791-0. Two siblings, orphaned and separated by their own rivalry, come back together years later to try and solve the mystery surrounding their parents’ deaths.
Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths of Introverts by Susan Cain. Dial, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-8037-4060-0. A middle grade adaptation of Cain’s bestselling adult book on introversion.
The Crown by Kiera Cass. HarperTeen, $19.99; ISBN 978-0-06-239217-6. The romance-fueled YA series comes to its conclusion, in its fifth and final volume set 20 years after the first.
It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-544-61231-0. The author of the adult memoir Funny in Farsi makes her children’s book debut in this middle grade novel set in the 1970s about a young Iranian immigrant adjusting to life in America while the political climate shifts in the wake of the Iranian Revolution.
Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart. Delacorte, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-553-53674-4. In this middle grade novel, Gephart juxtaposes the efforts of two eighth-graders – one struggling with gender dysphoria, one with mental illness – to establish new identities for themselves.
The Square Root of Summer by Harriet Reuter Hapgood. Roaring Brook, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-6267-2373-3. This debut YA summer romance includes a time travel element.
Frannie and Tru by Karen Hattrup. HarperTeen, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-241020-7. This contemporary YA novel, a debut, confronts racial privilege and sexual orientation.
Ask Me How I Got Here by Christine Heppermann. Greenwillow, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-238795-0. In a series of poems written over several months, Addie, a sophomore and cross-country runner, narrates the turbulent journey that begins with her crush on a student named Nick, includes her unplanned pregnancy and subsequent abortion, and examines the feelings that subsequently engulf her. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Time Stoppers by Carrie Jones. Bloomsbury, $16.99; ISBN 978-1-61963-861-7. A middle grade fantasy series launches in which two unlikely kids overcome adversity with mythical helpmates.
Whisper to Me by Nick Lake. Bloomsbury, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-61963-456-5. Part romance, part crime story, part meditation on mental illness, Lake’s YA mystery novel covers a lot of ground.
Gator Dad by Brian Lies. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-544-53433-9. Lies (Bats at the Beach) urges readers to “squeeze the day” as he follows an alligator family’s at-home silliness.
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas. Bloomsbury, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-61963-446-6. Maas broadens the world she created in A Court of Thorns and Roses in this second novel, in which a new enemy threatens both the seven Fae Courts and the mortal world her heroine left behind.
The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson. Simon & Schuster, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4814-0454-9. In this YA novel, teen Andie Walker’s plan to spend the summer at a young scholars’ program at Johns Hopkins is upended when her father, a U.S. congressman, becomes engulfed in scandal.
Wishing Day by Lauren Myracle, illus. by Julie McLaughlin. HarperCollins/Tegen, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-06-234206-5. After a tragedy, when budding writer Natasha turns 13, she makes three wishes under a willow tree and feels a hint of magic in the air.
Unrivaled by Alyson Noël. HarperCollins/Tegen, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-232452-8. Noël (the Immortals series) sets this first book in her contemporary realistic YA Beautiful Idols series in the glitzy, elitist, and seamy Los Angeles nightclub scene.
Cloth Lullaby: The Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois by Amy Novesky, illus. by Isabelle Arsenault. Abrams, $18.95; ISBN 978-1-4197-1881-6. Novesky details the creative and passionate life of artist Louise Bourgeois alongside Arsenault’s mixed-media collages that feature textile patterns and spider-web designs.
Moone Boy: The Fish Detective by Chris O’Dowd and Nick V. Murphy. Feiwel and Friends, $14.99; ISBN 978-1-2500-5947-5. Actor O’Dowd translates his BBC television show in this second volume in his humorous illustrated middle grade series.
The Blobfish Book by Jessica Olien. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-239415-6. Slotting somewhere between Mélanie Watt’s Chester books and Mystery Science Theater 3000, Olien’s spoof of dry, nonfictional picture books follows a pink blobfish eager for its moment in the spotlight.
Curiosity House: The Screaming Statue by Lauren Oliver and H.C. Chester. HarperCollins, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-06227084-9. In this second book in the Curiosity House series, four children band together to avenge their friend’s death and solve a greater mystery.
If You Ever Want to Bring a Piano to the Beach, Don’t! by Elise Parsley. Little, Brown, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-316-37659-4. Following up If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School, Don’t!, protagonist Magnolia struggles with bringing “necessities” to the beach.
The Fall of Butterflies by Andrea Portes. HarperTeen, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-231367-6. Sixteen-year-old Willa Parker, a small-town girl and native Iowan, reluctantly heads east to a fancy New England boarding school, where she meets Remy Taft, an infamous student from a famous family, who adopts Willa like she’s a wide-eyed puppy.
As Brave As You by Jason Reynolds. S&S/Atheneum, $16.99; ISBN 978-1-4814-1590-3. YA author Reynolds offers his first middle grade novel, which follows a curious boy from Brooklyn’s summer in the Virginia countryside, as he gets to know his blind grandfather.
If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo. Flatiron Books, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-250-07840-7. In this YA debut, Amanda seeks to find her true self despite adversity as she completes her transition to female. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Hensel and Gretel: Ninja Chicks by Corey Rosen Schwartz and Rebecca J. Gomez, illus. by Dan Santat. Putnam, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-399-17626-5. This fractured fairy tale from the Caldecott Medalist contains plenty of martial arts mayhem.
There Is a Tribe of Kids by Lane Smith. Roaring Brook, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-6267-2056-5. In this picture book, a child moves along groups of animals as he tries to find where he belongs. The book earned a starred review from PW.
You Can Fly: The Tuskegee Airmen by Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Jeffery Boston Weatherford. S&S/Atheneum, $16.99; ISBN 978-1-4814-4938-0. Weatherford’s 40-plus free-verse poems create a composite portrait of the first African-American military pilots, and the rampant racial prejudice that these military heroes battled throughout the war. The book earned a starred review from PW.
For more children’s and YA titles on sale throughout the month of May, check out PW’s full On-Sale Calendar.
