Among the many new releases hitting shelves next week are a novel about two teenagers, one a witch, who were switched at birth; a picture book that follows a cat through the eyes of many different animals; and a YA novel that imagines a dystopian future where all of Manhattan lives in one high-rise building.
Dinosaur Dance! by Sandra Boynton. Little Simon, $5.99; ISBN 978-1-4814-8099-4. In the latest board book from the bestselling author, dinosaurs dance throughout the pages.
The Hawkweed Prophecy by Irena Brignull. Weinstein, $18; ISBN 978-1-60286-300-2. Brignull, a British screenwriter whose credits include the film adaptation of The Little Prince, debuts with a novel about two girls – one a witch, destined to be queen, the other a human “chaff” – who are switched at birth. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown. HarperTeen, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-227098-6. This YA novel follows Joanna, who has always been out as a lesbian to her minister father, but now that he is remarrying and moving them from tolerant Atlanta to a small Georgia town, he asks her to “lie low.” The book earned a starred review from PW.
Lucy & Andy Neanderthal by Jeffrey Brown. Crown, $12.99; ISBN 978-0-385-38835-1. Brown’s (the Jedi Academy series) episodic graphic novel launches a new series about a Neanderthal family that mixes humor with facts.
Moo by Sharon Creech. HarperCollins, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-06-241524-0. Newbery Medalist Creech uses short chapters that blend poems and prose to trace a displaced city girl’s adjustment to life in a “boat-bobbing/ sea salty harbor town” in Maine.
Good Dog Carl and the Baby Elephant by Alexandra Day. Laughing Elephant (IPS, dist.), $14.95; ISBN 978-1-5149-0022-2. Readers familiar with the picture book escapades of Carl the Rottweiler and his independent-minded human friend Madeleine will have a good idea of what to expect from this book: lots of mischief, with Madeleine’s mother none the wiser.
The Alien That Ate My Socks by Brandon Dorman. Shadow Mountain, $13.99; ISBN 978-1-62972-222-1. This series opener follows the adventures of two brothers who meet and befriend a smelly alien.
Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm. Random House, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-553-51036-2. In this prequel to the Newbery Honor-winning Turtle in Paradise, Holm recounts the origins of the Diaper Gang, the group of barefoot boys who have the run of Key West during the Great Depression. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Where, Oh Where, Is Rosie’s Chick? by Pat Hutchins. Simon & Schuster, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4814-6071-2. In 1968’s Rosie’s Walk, celebrated for its combination of deadpan sentences and suspenseful imagery, Hutchins pictured a clueless chicken tailed by a luckless fox. This sequel revisits Rosie, still just as dotty, who is making her way across a barnyard in search of her just-hatched chick.
Are You an Echo?: The Lost Poetry of Misuzu Kaneko by Misuzu Kaneko, edited and trans. from the Japanese by David Jacobson, Sally Ito, and Michiko Tsuboi, illus. by Toshikado Hajiri. Chin Music (Consortium, dist.), $19.50; ISBN 978-1-63405-962-6. The work of Japanese children’s poet Misuzu (1903–1930) was nearly forgotten until a contemporary writer unearthed her poems; one of them, “Are You an Echo?,” brought renewed attention to the poet when it was broadcast after the 2011 tsunami.
Armstrong: The Adventurous Journey of a Mouse to the Moon by Torben Kuhlmann, trans. from the German by David Henry Wilson. NorthSouth (IPS, dist.), $19.95; ISBN 978-0-7358-4262-5. In this companion to Kuhlmann’s Lindbergh: The Tale of a Flying Mouse, the young mouse hero is plagued by difficulties from the moment he resolves to explore space. The book earned a starred review from PW.
The Ninjabread Man by C.J. Leigh, illus. by Chris Gall. Orchard, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-545-81430-0. A sensei bakes a gingerbread cookie treat for his animal pupils, but the ninja cookie that emerges from the oven has other ideas, in this picture book retelling of the Gingerbread Man story.
A Well-Mannered Young Wolf by Jean Leroy, illus. by Matthieu Maudet. Eerdmans, $16; ISBN 978-0-8028-5479-7. The book earned a starred review from PW. Originally published in France, this picture book from Leroy (Superfab Saves the Day) and Maudet (A Mammoth in the Fridge) follows a young wolf who, in an attempt at being polite, offers his prey their last wish.
Groovy Joe: Ice Cream & Dinosaurs by Eric Litwin, illus. by Tom Licthenheld. Orchard, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-545-88378-8. First-time collaborators Litwin (Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes) and Lichtenheld (Friendshape) inject rhymes and humor into this lesson about sharing: it’s the sugar that helps the medicine go down.
Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi. Dutton, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-101-99476-4. In the author’s first middle grade novel from Mafi, Alice Alexis Queensmeadow is almost entirely devoid of color in a world defined by it, and her “Surrender” is coming up, along with her 12th birthday. Everyone in Ferenwood “was born with a bit of magical talent,” and the Surrender is the time to show them off, and receive an important task in return. The book earned a starred review from PW.
The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis. HarperCollins/Tegen, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-232089-6.Three high school seniors come together in McGinnis’s harrowing rumination on the nature of violence and the power of friendship in a small town. The book earned a starred review from PW.
The Plot to Kill Hitler: Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Unlikely Hero by Patricia McCormick. Balzer + Bray, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-06-241108-2. In short, chronological chapters, two-time National Book Award–finalist McCormick (Never Fall Down) recounts the life of theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, his efforts to alert the world to the horrors of Hitler’s Germany, and his conversion from pacifism to would-be assassin in a failed effort to kill the dictator. The book earned a starred review from PW.
The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee. HarperCollins, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-06-241859-3. In her YA debut, McGee creates a 22nd-century world set in a single 10000-floor mega-tower that houses all of Manhattan; the story centers on genetically flawless Avery Fuller, 16, who lives on the top floor and has everything a wealthy girl could want or need.
Going Wild by Lisa McMann. Harper, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-06-233714-6. In this trilogy opener, 13-year-old Charlotte “Charlie” Wilde’s life turns upside down when her mother takes a job in Navarro Junction, Ariz.
The Scourge by Jennifer A. Nielsen. Scholastic Press, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-545-68245-9. In this historical middle grade novel, best friends Ani and Weevil are part of the loyal, hardworking community of River People living under the thumb of Governor Felling of Keldan, who denies them voting rights and infringes on their borders.
Hey, That’s MY Monster! by Amanda Noll, illus. by Howard McWilliam. Flashlight Press, $14; ISBN 978-1-936261-37-6. In the picture book sequel to I Need My Monster, Ethan’s under-the-bed monster leaves to help Ethan’s little sister fall asleep.
The Call by Peadar O’Guilin. Scholastic/Fickling, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-338-04561-1. This YA novel is set in an Ireland that the Sídhe (Irish faeries) have cut off from the rest of the world, plotting to retake their former home through a grim war of attrition that involves kidnapping human teenagers. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Captain Underpants: Dog Man #1 by Dav Pilkey. Graphix, $9.99; ISBN 978-0-545-58160-8. Dog Man, “a brand-new crime-fighting sensation” created by surgically attaching the head of a police dog to the body of a policeman, gets his own full-color adventure in this spin-off comic from Pilkey. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Ghost by Jason Reynolds. Atheneum/Dlouhy, $16.99; ISBN 978-1-4814-5015-7. Reynolds (As Brave as You) uses a light hand to delve into topics that include gun violence, class disparity, and bullying in this middle grade series opener. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs, illus. by Andrew Davidson. Dutton, $24.99; ISBN 978-0-399-53853-7. Riggs follows his bestselling Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children and its sequels with a collection of what purports to be “peculiar” folklore, “passed down from generation to generation since time immemorial.”
The Journey by Francesca Sanna. Flying Eye (Consortium, dist.), $18.95; ISBN 978-1-909263-99-4. Storybook imagery—foreboding woods, looming giants, and creatures of forest and sea—collides with desperately real circumstances as a family seeks haven from encroaching war. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Duck on a Tractor by David Shannon. Blue Sky, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-545-61941-7. The star of 2002’s Duck on a Bike decides that the tractor is next on his transportation bucket list, and he invites all of his barnyard friends to join his joyride.
Spontaneous by Aaron Starmer. Dutton, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-525-42974-6. Seniors at Covington High School are spontaneously combusting in one gory explosion after another, and it doesn’t take long for the FBI to descend on the New Jersey town to figure out what is going on.
A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir. Razorbill, $19.95; ISBN 978-1-101-99887-8. The sequel to Tahir’s bestselling An Ember in the Ashes picks up where the last installment left off: Laia and Elias, fresh from the Trials that made them both traitors, barely escape the city of Serra with their lives as a Scholar rebellion tears the city apart. The book earned a starred review from PW.
No Fair! No Fair! and Other Jolly Poems of Childhood by Calvin Trillin, illus. by Roz Chast. Orchard, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-545-82578-8. New Yorker staff writer Trillin teams up with New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast for a book of illustrated poems about the unfairness of being a kid.
They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel. Chronicle, $16.99; ISBN 978-1-4521-5013-0. In this picture book, each spread shows how various animals perceive the same cat as he passes by. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Home at Last by Vera B. Williams, illus. by Chris Raschka. Greenwillow, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-134973-7. In the Caldecott Honor artist’s last book before her death last year, a family is built when two fathers adopt a son. The book earned a starred review from PW.
I Am a Story by Dan Yaccarino. Harper, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-241106-8. In understated words and bold cartoons, Yaccarino (Billy and Goat at the State Fair) traces storytelling from humanity’s earliest days to the present. The book earned a starred review from PW.
For more children’s and YA titles on sale throughout the month of September, check out PW’s full On-Sale Calendar.
