Here we round up new and forthcoming children’s titles including a picture book about a nearsighted pig, a tense YA novel about an orphaned teen supporting his brother, a YA novel about a surprising afterlife, a Gilded Age retelling of a middle grade classic, and more.
What Ollie Saw by Joukje Akveld, trans. from the Dutch by Bill Nagelkerke, illus. by Sieb Posthuma. Levine Querido, $14.99; ISBN 978-1-64614-039-8. Posthuma’s ink-and-wash drawings put off strong William Steig vibes in this Dutch picture book about a young pig whose diminished eyesight encourages an active imagination.
What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson. Roaring Brook, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-2502-6809-9. In the mountains of Idaho, quiet Jack Dahl, 17, and his little brother, Matty, live alone. With their mother dead and their situation precarious, Jack makes a tough decision: to avoid losing Matty to Child Services, he sets out to find the stolen drug money that landed his father in prison.
The Infinity Courts by Akemi Dawn Bowman. Simon & Schuster, $19.99; ISBN 978-1-5344-5649-5. After 18-year-old Nami Miyamoto, who is half Japanese, is killed during the armed robbery of a convenience store, she discovers that the afterlife, called Infinity and “created from human consciousness,” is far from paradise.
The Gilded Girl by Alyssa Colman. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-374-31393-7. Set in New York, Colman’s class-interested middle grade debut offers both homage to and a fanciful spin on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess.
Kitty Sweet Tooth by Abby Denson, illus. by Utomaru. First Second, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-250-19677-4. In this graphic novel for early readers, if there’s one thing Kitty Sweet Tooth, a lavender, green-eyed cat in a yellow dress, loves more than eating desserts and going to the dentist, it’s visiting Pop-Pop at his Sweet Shop and watching movies at his Wonder Palace.
A Giant Mess by Jeffrey Ebbeler. Holiday House, $14.99; ISBN 978-0-8234-4639-1. A play on words yields an imaginative story about cleaning up in this short but eventful early reader comic by Ebbeler (The One and Only Dylan St. Claire).
Billy Miller Makes a Wish by Kevin Henkes. Greenwillow, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-06-304279-7. Billy’s first encounter with death, the frustration and embarrassment he feels courtesy of a sibling, and the joy of summer experiences are captured by Henkes in this illustrated middle grade novel, the sequel to his Newbery Honor-winning The Year of Billy Miller.
Murder on the Baltimore Express: The Plot to Keep Abraham Lincoln from Becoming President by Suzanne Jurmain. Little Bee, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4998-1044-8. Jurmain (Worst of Friends) returns with this suspenseful account of the Confederate plot to assassinate president-elect Abraham Lincoln in Baltimore en route to his inauguration.
Zara Hossain Is Here by Sabina Khan. Scholastic Press, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-338-58087-7. As the only Muslim student at her Texas high school, Zara Hossain, 17, faces microaggressions every day but cannot allow herself to show her frustration.
Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet by Laekan Zea Kemp. Little, Brown, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-316-46027-9. Set in a close-knit community in Austin, Tex., debut author Kemp’s exquisite YA contemporary romance follows two Latinx teens after their lives intersect at a beloved neighborhood restaurant. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Between the Bliss and Me by Lizzy Mason. Soho Teen, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-64129-115-6. A teen who is about to enter college learns that her estranged father is now diagnosed with schizophrenia and unhoused, which causes her to review her own relationships and mental health.
Merci Suárez Can’t Dance by Meg Medina. Candlewick, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-7636-9050-2. Newbery Medalist Medina artfully chronicles another year of highs and lows in the life of Cuban American middle schooler Merci Suárez in this winning sequel to Merci Suárez Changes Gears. The middle grade novel earned a starred review from PW.
Middletown by Sarah Moon. Levine Querido, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-64614-042-8. When their single mother is arrested for drunk driving in their small New England town and sent to rehab, 13-year-old Eli Reynolds’s sister Anna, 17, passes herself off as the siblings’ estranged aunt so they can remain together. The book earned a starred review from PW.
The Cost of Knowing by Brittney Morris. Simon & Schuster, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-5344-4545-1. Since surviving the car accident that killed his parents four years ago, Chicagoan Alex Rufus, 16, has lived with near-constant anxiety as well as a “curse”—psychic visions that show him the future of anything or anyone his palm touches. The YA novel earned a starred review from PW.
We Are a Garden: A Story of How Diversity Took Root in America by Lisa Westberg Peters, illus. by Victoria Tentler-Krylov. Random House/Schwartz & Wade, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-593-12313-3. Peters employs a metaphor of wind, chronologically tracing human migration to the North American continent from colonial days to the present.
Pride and Premeditation by Tirzah Price. HarperTeen, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-288980-5. In this first installment in a trilogy reworking three of Jane Austen’s novels as murder mysteries, Price transports the story of Pride and Prejudice to London where Lizzie Bennet is a would-be barrister.
I Sang You Down from the Stars by Tasha Spillett-Sumner, illus. by Michaela Goade. Little, Brown, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-31-649316-1. As an Indigenous woman sings to the sky, a shooting star leads her to a white eagle feather, beginning her journey to create a “sacred medicine bundle” for her unborn child that’s filled with items from nature. The picture book earned a starred review from PW.
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland. Putnam, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-593-11034-8. Filled with evocative detail, Sutherland’s (A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares) dark YA fantasy teems with eerie atmosphere and questions that have potentially undesirable answers.
Almost There and Almost Not by Linda Urban. Atheneum, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-5344-7880-0. After her mother’s death four years ago, California Poppy, now 11, is left with a father unable to handle “girl things.” Seeking jobs in Alaska, California’s dad deposits her at his sister-in-law Isabelle’s house; Isabelle, in turn, promptly dumps California with Great-Aunt Monica.
Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good by Nancy Werlin. Candlewick, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-5362-1473-4. Werlin (Impossible) vividly paints fandom antics, tracing teen Zoe’s evolution during her thrilling, often hilarious trips to sci-fi and comic cons around the country.
For more children’s and YA titles on sale throughout the month of April, check out PW’s full On-Sale Calendar.
