The Magic of Someday Soon
show more
Michelle Lee. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $18.99 (288p) ISBN 978-0-374-39093-8
Two lonely tweens resolve to help make both their dreams come true in this lyrical, lightly magical novel. All her life, now-12-year-old Zoe has traveled with her widowed artist mother, but she has few memories of her father, who died when she was four. In Maravel, Fla., Teddy, also 12, yearns to preserve what’s left of her great-grandparents’ prehistoric theme park, Fossil Gardens. Posing as a city council member, Teddy reaches out to Zoe’s mom via email, commissioning the artist to restore Fossil Gardens’s two surviving statues. Hopeful that visiting her father’s hometown will help jog her memories of him, Zoe, pretending to be her mom, accepts Teddy’s invitation. Though Zoe is quickly found out by her mother, car troubles force the duo to settle down for an extended stay in Maravel, where Zoe meets both her paternal grandmother Dee and her inadvertent coconspirator Teddy. Across the girls’ rousing alternating third-person POVs—enlivened by evocative imagery that renders a bustling Floridian setting—Lee (Between the Lighthouse and You) delves deep into themes of family, grief, and home. Main characters read as white. Ages 8–12. Agent: Taylor Martindale Kean, Full Circle Literary. (Mar.)
A Kingdom of Shadows (Lightseekers #1)
show more
Emily Bain Murphy. WaterBrook, $10.99 paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-593-60145-7
Sensorial close-third-person narration and messaging about having faith propel this series-opening fantasy epic by Murphy (Splinters of Scarlet). Following an event known as the Great Betrayal 10 years ago, darkness has taken over the Kingdom of Wildfel, where light sources are weakening and becoming scarcer by the day. Orphaned 12-year-old street thief Finn, his 10-year-old sister Lydia, and his best friend Adrion dream of a more financially comfortable life away from the Bells, their canal-lined hometown. After a run-in with a local gang, the trio are saved by nomadic 17-year-old Ehrit and his companions, who enlist the youths in their search for the mythical Lake of Light, a reservoir of pure, liquid light, which Ehrit believes could restore balance to Wildfel. As the group embarks on a treacherous quest across the ever-darkening kingdom, dodging dangers both conventional and enchanted, Finn reevaluates his own goals and struggles to maintain his friendship with Adrion, who distrusts Ehrit’s enigmatic nature. Tales of trust, hope, and ambition weave together against a backdrop of fantastical creatures and mystical hazards to deliver a thoughtful, appealing story. Characters are described as having various skin tones. Ages 8–12. Agent: Pete Knapp, Park, Fine, & Brower Literary. (Mar.)
The Buzz About the Party (Little Bee #1)
show more
Danny Neville, illus. by Colleen McKeown. Annick, $19.99 hardcover (136p) ISBN 978-1-83402-046-4; $8.99 paper ISBN 978-1-83402-047-1
When Bee’s third grade class decides to hold a Mother’s Day party, almost everyone expresses excitement—until bully Penny informs Bee that since the gathering is for mothers only, Bee’s two fathers aren’t invited. As Bee grows increasingly concerned—if she insists on attending the party with her two dads, will she ruin Mother’s Day for everyone else?—she realizes that Penny’s words could impact other students as well. For instance, Santiago lives with his grandparents while his parents reside in Colombia, Bee’s teacher’s mom died years ago, and since Dylan is being raised by a single mom, Mother’s Day is more important to him than any other day of the year. During a class trip to the Nature Museum, Bee learns that the queen bee’s eggs are cared for by the worker bees, and she applies her newfound knowledge to her situation. As Daddy puts it: “Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day too... are about celebrating the people we love.” In this message-forward chapter book, a double debut, Neville leverages bee-related science facts to distill familial concepts, showing through Bee’s burgeoning understanding how everyone benefits from having empathy for others’ experiences. McKeown’s grayscale spot illustrations depict characters with various skin tones. Ages 6–9. (Apr.)
102
Matthew Cordell. Little, Brown, $18.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-316-58095-3
In an intricately wrought, ambitious picture book that recalls works by Chris Van Allsburg and David Wiesner, Caldecott Medalist Cordell creates a humane adventure that unfolds in and around a cozy abode, peppering the telling with a reappearing number that adds mysterious significance. Sent home from school on October 2 with a fever that soon rises to 102 °F, young George spots a mouse transporting a tiny black object (“Was it... a bean?”) and, before retiring to bed, persuades his mother to keep the creature in an old tank. At 1:02 a.m., George is awakened by a cricket guide, and, leaping from his bed in a series of ever-smaller ghostly blue figures, shrinks to “almost a cricket” size himself. He’s led into a wall and through narrow passages, then outdoors to the base of a large oak, the Lilliputian dwelling of a mouse family uncannily like his own, where a young mouse also has a fever. When George learns that their father has not yet returned after heading out to fetch the last bean for a healing 102-bean soup, the boy knows just what to do. Delicate artwork finely worked in multicolor ballpoint pen pulses with warmth and inventiveness across this intriguing pocket-size quest, whose dreamlike narrative gently hints at the line between fantasy and reality. Human characters are portrayed with pale skin. Ages 6–8. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio. (Apr.)
Wake Up, Grouchy Bear!
show more
David Ezra Stein. Clarion, $19.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-0633-8266-4
Though “everyone is out and about” in a puddle-dotted emerald green meadow that bursts with wildflowers, Bear remains decidedly asnooze in this amiable picture book. As creatures frolic through the newly fine weather, Bird longs to sing for the sleeping ursine, Rabbit to hop on his belly, and Squirrel to race down his back. When the small creatures determine to intrude upon his cave, Chipmunk warns that “Bear can be VERY grouchy if he doesn’t get enough sleep,” but the animals venture inside anyway. The palette immediately transforms into deep, moody blues that immerse readers in a dark, cool snugness, and the small interlopers perch adorably on Bear’s side (“His ribs go up and down. The friends go up and down”). Seemingly unconcerned about matters of consent, the enthusiastic critters make changes to the hibernator’s home, building a nest “while we’re waiting,” throwing open the cave curtains, and giving “drab and dull” Bear a berry and pollen pedicure. Stein (Don’t Worry, Murray) renders acrylic gouache illustrations in high-contrast, saturated colors that don’t quite stay within their lines, evoking both vintage screen-printing and the buzzy energy of the animals’ mischievous excitement. Resemblances to youngsters plotting to wake a sleeping grown-up on weekend mornings are surely coincidental. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties. (Mar.)
Good Morning, Morning!
show more
Maya Myers, illus. by Jennifer K. Mann. Holiday House/Porter, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-8234-5831-8
A lyrical ode from Myers (Not Little) and Mann (Climbing the Volcano) celebrates wonder and autonomy amid the natural world. “The sky is just thinking about daytime,” when a pale-skinned, dark-haired youth, barefoot and dressed in pink and red striped pajamas, slips outside with a wide-eyed black cat. Graphite and digital illustrations have a dense, chalked quality as the child narrator next wanders from a porch through a lawn where spider webs “sag like flat, gray clouds” and into a grove of trees, where the small figure moves confidently amid towering trunks and cool shadows. After settling into their “sitting spot:/ a stone curved just for me,” the figure looks up with a gentle smile that may create a flutter of recognition—is the reader being invited in, or is the child simply savoring the moment? The sunlight breaks through trees, the child clambers atop the stone and greets the day with arms stretched wide, then runs off to join their family, who now appears on the back porch—trading dawn’s private, footloose magic for the warmth and familiarity of home, and subtly signaling that a shared day with others has begun, for both character and audience. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Hannah Mann, Writers House. Illustrator’s agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties. (Apr.)
Sheep & Goat Climb the World
show more
A.C. Paolini, illus. by Monica Arnaldo. Knopf, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-5938-1508-3
When a bighorn sheep and a shaggy mountain goat lock horns—figuratively speaking—over who can climb highest, settling things can go only one direction in this wily picture book comedy of literal one-upmanship. Both start small (Sheep bounces onto a startled turtle, while Goat mounts a slightly taller stump), but once the duo exhausts their habitat, the rivalry ascends into an airplane and to Earth’s most famous landmarks. As Paolini, making her picture book debut, and Arnaldo (The Museum of Very Bad Smells) send their feuding duo from Cristo Redentor to the Great Wall, the ever-escalating, often punny trash talk (“This sheep wool be the winner!!”) is matched with geometric, perspective-shifting watercolor, gouache, and pencil-crayon illustrations that emphasize ever-more-dizzying heights. Finally, the only unclimbed peak is a mountain so high that a spread turns sideways to accommodate it. But upon simultaneously reaching the summit, Sheep and Goat suddenly realize “WE’RE STUCK!” It takes literally putting their heads together to get down safely—and through that forced cooperation, a beautiful friendship is born. Ages 3–7. Author’s agent: Andrea Morrison, Writers House. Illustrator’s agent: Alexandra Levick, Writers House. (Apr.)
Robin and the Stick (Robin’s World #1)
E.B. Goodale. Abrams, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4197-8083-7
Two truths slowly converge for a growing child in this developmentally oriented picture book, a sweet series debut from Goodale (A Pocket Full of Rocks). Little Robin, sporting a bright red hood from which a single curl peeks, always carries a stick. One’s for bedtime, others are scattered throughout the house (“One on the piano,// One next to Teddy”), and a jug in the hall holds many more. When a large branch falls across the sidewalk, Robin sees it as the ultimate prize, but it won’t budge, and Mama sets a firm boundary: “It’s only a stick if you can pick it up off the ground.” Mama also tells Robin daily, “Today you are the biggest you’ve ever been.” In comical but deeply empathic vignettes, Robin keeps on tackling the branch, and eventually succeeds—as the child becomes their biggest self yet, wanting becomes doing and the quarry becomes a stick. Through monoprint and oil images, grayscale scenes brightened by Robin’s red hood, and capitals in a custom font, this a quietly wonderful work gets at a child’s growing sense of competency, identity, and domain. Characters’ skin tones reflect the white of the page. Ages 3–6. Agent: Lori Kilkelly, LK Literary. (Apr.)
Now I See Spring; Now I See Summer; Now I See Fall; Now I See Winter
Mac Barnett, illus. by Jon Klassen. Tundra, $9.99 (24p) ISBN 978-1-77488-673-1; ISBN 978-1-77488-677-9; ISBN 978-1-77488-665-6; ISBN 978-1-77488-669-4
Frequent creative collaborators Barnett and Klassen (the Shapes Trilogy) capture a year’s rhythms with stunning subtlety via a standout board book quartet that—across volumes named around the four seasons—matches spare text, identical in each work, with varying images that relay the passage of time. Brief first-person observations (“the house// the tree// the garden// me”) propel page turns as narration builds toward the same sentiment in each title: “It’s my favorite time of/ the year.” The artist’s signature-style illustrations, meanwhile, offer portrayals that gently shift across temporal transitions, including “the perfect hat” the narrator sports for each season. In spring, that’s a beanie; in summer, a baseball cap; a red-plaid trapper hat suggests autumn’s cooling temps; and a knit hat signals the arrival of snow. Similarly, changing light and weather convey the passage of time around the same few items: spring spies a feline in a haze of blue-gray; summer’s brightness shines down on a garden blooming with flowers; a luminous blush infuses autumnal scenes; and pale pink meets icy blue as winter’s snow blankets objects that are visible in other books. Leaning into these finely honed differences, the series models quiet satisfaction across an annual cycle, reassuring that whatever the weather, individual perspectives can stay steady. Ages 2–5.(Apr.)
Honor Flight: Celebrating America’s Veterans
Jeff Gottesfeld, illus. by Matt Tavares. Candlewick, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5362-3015-4
A U.S. veteran narrates a once-in-a-lifetime visit to the military memorials of Washington, D.C., in a deeply felt picture book from the previous collaborators that highlights the work of Honor Flight—a volunteer-run program that takes veterans to the U.S. capitol. Often speaking in a collective we, a nameless narrator tells readers, “Call me Kilroy. Squid. G.I. Joe. Airman, Jarhead, WAC or WAVE. I’m an aging veteran of the United States Armed Forces” before acknowledging actions taken “as warriors” and “as peacemakers.” Some veterans, matter-of-fact text contextualizes, “came home to joy, others to curses. Some never came home.” And as time moves forward, “death does not frighten us.... What scares us is being forgotten.” When a phone call proffers an Honor Flight invitation, the narrator regards it as a “final mission.” And as the protagonist and assigned companion tour locales including the Iwo Jima Memorial and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, they connect with other veterans, forging new memories and a feeling of shared purpose. In a hyperrealistic style that mimics photography’s sharp detail and bold lighting, pencil-drawn and digitally colored illustrations pay powerful homage. Characters are portrayed with various abilities and skin tones. Includes extensive back matter. Ages 7–10. (Mar.)
