Here we round up new and forthcoming children’s titles including a supernatural series starter, a book about a girl and her chicken, the story of a boy and the visiting ghost of his friend, a picture book about bath time, and many more.

Amari and the Night Brothers #1 by B.B. Alston. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-297516-4. In this debut and series launch, Alston thrusts his intrepid heroine into a setting packed with magic, mythical creatures, and danger. Amari, a Black girl with limited means, confronts privilege and prejudice even while delving into a world of wonder, humor, and adventure. The book earned a starred review from PW.

Starla Jean by Elana K. Arnold, illus. by A.N. Kang. Roaring Brook, $14.99; ISBN 978-1-250-30576-3. Arnold’s (An Ordinary Day) four-part chapter book series follows a girl who is allowed to keep a chicken as a pet if she can catch it herself.

Ghosted by Michael Fry. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $13.99; ISBN 978-0-358-26961-8. In this illustrated novel, 12-year-old Larry, who is white, is shocked when his best friend, Grimm, who is Black, returns as a ghost two weeks after he died saving a cat in a storm.

Off to See the Sea by Nikki Grimes, illus. by Elizabeth Zunon. Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4926-3829-2. Bath time becomes an opportunity for adventure and make-believe in this book by collaborators Grimes and Zunon (Bedtime for Sweet Creatures). In imagery-rich free verse by Grimes, a mother addresses her child in multidimensional art incorporating drawings and cut-out forms of patterned paper.

This Will Be Funny Someday by Katie Henry. HarperCollins/Tegen, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-06-295570-8. Sixteen-year-old Isabel Vance isn’t the wallflower everyone assumes her to be. While avoiding her overbearing boyfriend one afternoon, she unwittingly walks into a Chicago comedy club, where she ends up performing at an open mic.

Pity Party by Kathleen Lane. Little, Brown, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-316-41736-5. Introducing a cast of tween characters experiencing insecurities and growing pains, this welcoming, often ironic collection of short stories reflects on the pity party that is middle school.

Hard-Boiled Bugs for Breakfast: And Other Tasty Poems by Jack Prelutsky, illus. by Ruth Chan. Greenwillow, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-06301-913-3. U.S. children’s poet laureate emeritus Prelutsky delivers his signature silliness and wordplay in this foodie collection of 100 poems marked by strong kid appeal and an energetic pace. The book earned a starred review from PW.

The Star Outside My Window by Onjali Q. Raúf. Delacorte, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-5933-0227-9. In this sophomore novel by Raúf (The Boy at the Back of the Class), 10-year-old amateur astronomer Aniyah and her little brother, Noah, suddenly find themselves in foster care.

Karma Moon—Ghost Hunter by Melissa Savage. Crown, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-593-30279-8. Avid researcher Karma Moon Vallinari, 12, is accompanying her cinematographer father on the break of a lifetime: filming a Netflix series focused on the haunted Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo. The catch? The team, which includes Karma, her best friend Mags, and portly pug Alfred Hitchcock, must capture an actual ghost on film to satisfy the production company.

Thirty Talks Weird Love by Alessandra Narváez Varela. Cinco Puntos, $18.95; ISBN 978-1-947627-49-9. Debut author Narváez Varela’s inventive novel in verse plays with poetic form and time travel to detail a Mexican teen’s struggles with self-love and depression. In 1999 Cuidad Juárez, where “girls disappear like water/ down the drain,” 13-year-old Anamaria Aragón Sosa’s aspirations contain the same undercurrent of fear that permeates her hometown: one of future uncertainty.

I Am Not a Penguin: A Pangolin’s Lament by Liz Wong. Knopf, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-593-12740-7. In this picture book, a pangolin is convinced that a “fun facts” presentation will clarify some things about it for its fellow animals. The inattentive audience (“Did somebody say ‘penguins’?”), however, would rather associate the mammal with its component parts.

For more children’s and YA titles on sale throughout the month of January, check out PW’s full On-Sale Calendar.