Hitting shelves next week are a picture book about penguins with problems, a middle grade novel in the vein of Chaucer, and a new dystopian YA from a bestselling author.
The Magic Word by Mac Barnett, illus. by Elise Parsley. Balzer + Bray, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-235484-6. “What’s the magic word?” It’s a cloying reminder about good manners from the powers that be. One night, the bratty hero of this picture book makes an important discovery: by saying “alakazoomba” instead of “please,” he can bypass the middleman and magically get whatever he wants.
The Lost House by B.B. Cronin. Viking, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-101-99921-9. In this picture book, readers help a grandfather bulldog and his two grandchildren find objects in the rooms of a cluttered mansion, a task rendered more complex here as the spreads are monochromatic.
Willa: The Story of Willa Cather, an American Writer by Amy Ehrlich, illus. by Wendell Minor. S&S/Wiseman, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-689-86573-2. In this early middle grade biography of Willa Cather (1873–1947), Ehrlich focuses on the impact the author’s youth had on her writing.
Giant Squid by Candace Fleming, illus. by Eric Rohmann. Roaring Brook/Porter, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-59643-599-5. Fleming and Rohmann (Bulldozer’s Big Day) draw readers in to the ocean’s murky depths in search of a seldom-seen creature. As the pages turn, the reader assembles this creature from its parts to the whole, through both pictures and poetry. The book earned a starred review from PW.
The Inquisitor’s Tale: Or, the Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog by Adam Gidwitz, illus. by Hatem Aly. Dutton, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-525-42616-5. In 1242 France, weary travelers at an inn trade stories about three miraculous children and their dog, Gwenforte, who has returned from the dead. The children—Jeanne, a peasant girl who has visions of the future; William, an oblate of partial African heritage with uncanny strength; and Jacob, a Jewish boy with the power to heal the sick and injured—are the subject of much rumor and debate. Are they saints, frauds, or in league with the devil? The book earned a starred review from PW.
Marvin and the Moths by Matthew Holm and Jonathan Follett, illus. by Matthew Holm. Scholastic Press, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-545-87674-2. Babymouse illustrator Holm and Follett met in middle school, and this alternately goofy and suspenseful story introduces Marvin Watson, whose own middle school experience gets off to a poor start in this antic-laden illustrated novel.
Pug Meets Pig by Sue Lowell Gallion, illus. by Joyce Wan. Beach Lane, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4814-2066-2. This story about reluctant friends and the value of selflessness comes to life with Wan’s (The Whale in My Swimming Pool) pert, roly-poly characters, who look like something lifted out of readers’ own toy boxes. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Penguin Problems by Jory John, illus. by Lane Smith. Random House, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-553-51337-0. John (I Love You Already) delivers a series of laughs, and Smith’s (There Is a Tribe of Kids) mottled, minimalist polar landscapes highlight the penguin’s awkward moments. The story examines the delicate balancing act between total despair (“I have so many problems! And nobody even cares!” the penguin cries) and the resolve to stumble on.
Charmed, I’m Sure by Sarah Darer Littman. Aladdin, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4814-5127-7. In this playful update of a classic fairy tale, Rosamunde White Charming, the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming (who now run a website called Charming Lifestyles), would “be happy to swear off romance forever if I weren’t Rosie Charming with a family legacy to uphold.”
Juana and Lucas by Juana Medina. Candlewick, $14.99; ISBN 978-0-7636-7208-9. A Colombian girl takes on her greatest challenge – the English language – in this cheery series opener.
Goldenhand by Garth Nix. Harper, $19.99; ISBN 978-0-06-156158-0. Nix returns to the Old Kingdom with a solid addition to his popular series. Lirael is now Abhorsen-in-Waiting, a far cry from the lowly Second Assistant Librarian she once was. But when she’s left in charge for a time, evil strikes and she must rise up to defeat it.
Replica by Lauren Oliver. Harper, $19.99; ISBN 978-0-06-239416-3. Oliver (Vanishing Girls) tells the story of two teens coming of age in the captivity of a dystopian research facility, in this novel told from two perspectives, Flipping the book allows readers to read the full story from the point of view of the two main characters, Lyra and Gemma.
Little Bot and Sparrow by Jake Parker. Roaring Brook, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-62672-367-2. “One day Little Bot wasn’t needed anymore. He was thrown out with the garbage.” That’s all Parker (The Little Snowplow) has to say about his droid’s backstory as he shows Little Bot tumbling through the air and landing unceremoniously on Earth, suggesting extraterrestrial origins. A bird named Sparrow spots the robot, whose face is an oversize monitor with doll-like features, and decides he “needed to be taken under her wing.” The book earned a starred review from PW.
Lego Pop-Up by Matthew Reinhart. Scholastic, $29.99; ISBN 978-0-545-88104-3. Reinhart’s characteristic paper engineering serves as backdrop to a brisk tour of Lego history, as recounted by a minifigure expert, Professor von Brickhausen.
Rad Women Worldwide: Artists and Athletes, Pirates and Punks, and Other Revolutionaries Who Shaped History by Kate Schatz, illus. by Miriam Klein Stahl. Ten Speed, $15.99; ISBN 978-0-399-57886-1. In this companion to the picture book Rad American Women A-Z, Schatz writes short biographies of 40 noteworthy female figures past and present; though the book is technically published for adults, the brief profiles are readily accessible to children and teens.
Falling Over Sideways by Jordan Sonnenblick. Scholastic Press, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-545-86324-7. After the trauma of witnessing her father have a stroke, 13-year-old Claire Goldsmith and her family struggle with their new reality. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Samson in the Snow by Philip C. Stead. Roaring Brook/Porter, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-62672-182-1. Stead (Ideas Are All Around) returns to themes he’s made his own: friendship, acceptance, and love for small, ordinary objects that most people overlook, in this picture book about a wooly mammoth who tends a garden of dandelions. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Sachiko: A Nagasaki Bomb Survivor’s Story by Caren Stelson. Carolrhoda, $19.99; ISBN 978-1-4677-8903-5. Fifty years after surviving the atomic bombing of Nagasaki as a six-year-old, Sachiko Yasui began to share her story. This work of creative nonfiction offers Yasui’s account of life in wartime Japan, the “unspeakable seconds” of the bombing, her family’s struggle to survive, the deaths of her siblings from radiation sickness, her thyroid cancer, and her decades-long struggle to find words as a hibakusha, a survivor of the bombing. The book made the National Book Award longlist for young people’s literature.
The Secret Keepers by Trenton Lee Stewart, illus. by Diana Sudyka. Little, Brown/Tingley, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-316-38955-6. In this mysterious middle grade novel, it’s summer vacation for 12-year-old Reuben Pedley. A resident of a rundown neighborhood in New Umbra, Reuben explores a city ruled by a mysterious figure known as the Smoke and his minions, the Directions, who constantly patrol the city. The book earned a starred review from PW.
The Barefoot Book of Children by Tessa Strickland and Kate DePalma, illus. by David Dean. Barefoot, $19.99; ISBN 978-1-78285-296-4. Mixing reader-directed questions with statements of fact, Strickland and DePalma seek to get children thinking, both about their own lives and the lives of their peers across the globe. The book earned a starred review from PW.
I Used to Be a Fish by Tom Sullivan. Balzer + Bray, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-245198-9. Sullivan makes his debut with this look at humanity’s origins. The narrator is a boy who nonchalantly conflates evolutionary biology with his own backstory.
For more children’s and YA titles on sale throughout the month of September, check out PW’s full On-Sale Calendar.
