Hitting shelves next week are a linear board book, a middle grade historical novel set in Iran, and a nonfiction title that inspires girls to learn to code.
A Properly Unhaunted Place by William Alexander, illus. by Kelly Murphy. S&S/McElderry, $16.99; ISBN 978-1-4814-6915-9. Rosa Díaz is not happy about moving to the town of Ingot, “the only unhaunted place Rosa had ever heard of,” in this middle grade fantasy.
The Mermaid by Jan Brett. Putnam, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-399-17072-0. In this remix, Brett (Gingerbread Christmas) sets “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” under the sea. The bears turn into octopuses, dressed in the straw hats and indigo-dyed coats of rural Japan, and Goldilocks becomes Kiniro, a mermaid with black hair and golden scales. The book earned a starred review from PW.
The Friendship Code #1: Girls Who Code by Stacia Deutsch, illus. by Andrea Fernandez. Grosset & Dunlap, $12.99; ISBN 978-0-399-54251-0. In the first volume of this middle grade series, four friends who love to code start a club.
Duck & Goose, Honk! Quack! Boo! by Tad Hills. Random/Schwartz & Wade, $16.99; ISBN 978-1-5247-0175-8. In this picture book, Goose’s nerves are getting the best of him, especially after Halloween-loving Thistle (first seen in Duck, Duck, Goose) tells Goose and Duck to “beware the swamp monster.”
The Warrior Princess of Pennyroyal Academy by M.A. Larson. Putnam, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-399-54571-9. In the finale of the Pennyroyal Academy trilogy, new dangers loom outside the academy for protagonists Evie and Maggie.
Pablo and Birdy by Alison McGhee, illus. by Ana Juan. Atheneum/Dlouhy, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4814-7026-1. Pablo seeks a new home with the help of some inspired birds, in this middle grade novel, which earned a starred review from PW.
Lines by Sarvinder Naberhaus, illus. by Melinda Beck. Little Simon, $9.99; ISBN 978-1-4814-9074-0. Lines have the ability to connect and define—something Naberhaus and Beck portray in this board book that opens with a single vertical line and expands to encompass the entire solar system. The book earned a starred review from PW.
The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez. Viking, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-425-29040-8. After María Luisa O’Neill-Morales—Malú for short—and her divorced mother move from Florida to Chicago, the 12-year-old struggles with having her music-loving father so far away and with living up to a mother she has nicknamed SuperMexican. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Lost Boys by Darcey Rosenblatt. Holt, $16.99; ISBN 978-1-62779-758-0. This debut middle grade novel opens in Iran in 1982 during the Ayatollah Khomeini’s oppressive rule and that nation’s war with Iraq.
Girls Who Code: Learn to Code and Change the World by Reshma Saujani, illus. by Andrea Tsurumi. Viking, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-425-28753-8. Saujani, a former public advocate and Congressional hopeful, founded the nonprofit Girls Who Code in response to gender imbalance in the tech industry. In this accessible guidebook, she introduces five diverse girl characters rendered in Tsurumi’s two-color cartoons, and also starring in a companion series of novels, above.
For more children’s and YA titles on sale throughout the month of August, check out PW’s full On-Sale Calendar.
