Hitting shelves next week are a handful of Christmas picture books, heralding the start to the holiday season; an illustrated book that forms new words for old feelings; and a YA novel in which the daughter of Christmas tree farmers falls for a troubled boy.
What Light by Jay Asher. Razorbill, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-59514-551-2. Sierra is the daughter of Christmas tree farmers from Oregon. Every holiday season she travels to California to help her mother and father sell their harvest, and she challenges her family’s strict dating rules when she meets Caleb, a boy with a troubled past.
Gingerbread Christmas by Jan Brett. Putnam, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-399-17071-3. Brett celebrates the holidays with the hero of Gingerbread Baby and Gingerbread Friends and his friend Matti, who once again bails out his confectionary pal.
The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. Knopf, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-399-55380-6. Dash and Lily met and fell for each other over the holidays in 2010’s Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares, and this sequel picks up one year later as the teens’ relationship is showing signs of stress.
Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis. Candlewick, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-7636-6530-2. Ellis’s (Home) picture book stars a company of insects who speak a language unrelated to English, and working out what they are saying is one of the story’s delights. The book earned a starred review from PW.
North Pole Ninjas: Mission: Christmas! by Tyler Knott Gregson and Sarah Linden, illus. by Piper Thibodeau. Grosset & Dunlap, $29.99; ISBN 978-0-399-53944-2. Poet Gregson (All the Words Are Yours) and newcomer Linden encourage children to perform holiday acts of kindness in this book-and-plush package.
The Rains by Gregg Hurwitz. Tor Teen, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-7653-8267-2. When a meteor strikes the small town of Creek’s Cause, it infects every resident over the age of 18, turning them into terrifying monsters in the first volume of this planned series.
A Small Thing... But Big by Tony Johnston, illus. by Hadley Hooper. Roaring Brook/Porter, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-62672-256-9. In this picture book, a small girl approaches a dog cautiously, discovering her own bravery while forging a new friendship. The book earned a starred review from PW.
The Littlest Family’s Big Day by Emily Winfield Martin. Random House, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-553-51101-7. In this picture book, a family of tiny bears has settled into its new tree trunk home/, and now it’s time to explore the forest neighborhood.
Maple & Willow’s Christmas Tree by Lori Nichols. Penguin/Paulsen, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-399-16756-0. Maple and her younger sister, Willow, return in their fourth picture book, and they’re busy with the “hard work” of Christmas preparations, including baking cookies, selecting “the best Christmas tree... in the whole wide world,” and decorating it.
The Emotionary: A Dictionary of Words That Don’t Exist for Feelings That Do by Eden Sher, illus. by Julia Wertz. Razorbill, $19.95; ISBN 978-1-59514-838-4. Sher, best known for her role as middle child Sue Heck on the sitcom The Middle, debuts with a mordant assemblage of more than 150 portmanteau words, designed to alleviate “dyscommunicatia,” aka “the inability to articulate an emotion through words.”
The Christmas Boot by Lisa Wheeler, illus. by Jerry Pinkney. Dial, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-8037-4134-8. This picture book centers on Hannah Greyweather, a poor woman who lives in a “ramshackle cabin” and finds a boot in the snow. Her wishes – for the boot’s mate, mittens, and a fancy house – are magically granted. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Messenger by Carol Lynch Williams. S&S/Wiseman, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4814-5776-7. This supernatural-tinged novel opens on Evie Messenger’s 15th birthday – the day that Messenger women are traditionally bestowed with a special skill that determines their life path. Evie discovers that she can communicate with spirits and is expected to help them cross over.
Cloudwish by Fiona Wood. Poppy, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-316-24212-7. In this YA novel, Van Uoc Phan’s hardworking parents, refugees from Vietnam, have a dream for her in Australia: they want her to become a doctor and expect her to focus on her studies at her prestigious Melbourne school. She wants to be an artist, however, and spends a great deal of time fantasizing about her crush, athletic ladies’ man Billy Gardiner.
For more children’s and YA titles on sale throughout the month of October, check out PW’s full On-Sale Calendar.
