Hitting shelves next week are a quiet picture book about an observant child, a middle-grade adaptation of a scene from American history, and a YA novel about teens in a fashion design competition.
The Descendants: Rise of the Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz. Disney-Hyperion, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4847-8128-9. The third and latest installment of the bestselling Descendants series, following the villains of the Disney universe, continues the saga of the search for King Triton’s missing trident.
In a Perfect World by Trish Doller. Simon Pulse, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4814-7988-2. Instead of enjoying her senior year of high school in Ohio, Caroline Kelly unexpectedly moves to Cairo, “where the government is not super-stable and the fear of terrorism is real.” The novel documents Caroline’s year making friends and discovering a new culture.
Secrets I Know by Kallie George, illus. by Paola Zakimi. Random/Schwartz & Wade, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-101-93893-5. George’s (The Lost Gift) picture book in verse celebrates nature, friendship, and understanding things not just with the head but with the heart. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Welcome to Wonderland #2: Beach Party Surf Monkey by Chris Grabenstein. Random, $13.99; ISBN 978-0-553-53610-2. In the second volume of middle grade humor writer Grabenstein’s series about kids living in a hotel, the friends participate in filming a movie.
The Fashion Committee by Susan Juby. Viking, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-451-46878-9. Readers don’t need to be fashionistas to appreciate the dilemmas of Charlene “Charlie” Dean and John Thomas-Smith as they prepare for a garment design competition, hoping to win a scholarship to a prestigious fine arts high school. The book earned a starred review from PW.
May I Have a Word? by Caron Levis, illus. by Andy Rash. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-374-34880-9. This picture book unfolds on a bright blue kitchen refrigerator covered with colorful magnetic letters. A tiff erupts between K and C. “I wish you’d quit stealing my sound,” says K. “Your sound?” replies C. As things escalate, Rash (Archie the Daredevil Penguin) anthropomorphizes the letters with googly eyes and a few black lines.
Ben’s Revolution: Benjamin Russell and the Battle of Bunker Hill by Nathaniel Philbrick, illus. by Wendell Minor. Penguin/Paulsen, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-399-16674-7. Philbrick draws on an episode recounted in his 2013 adult work, Bunker Hill, focusing on 13-year-old Benjamin Russell during the 1775 battle, in this illustrated early middle grade story rooted in history.
Books That Drive Kids Crazy!: Did You Take the B from My _Ook? by Beck and Matt Stanton. Little, Brown, $14.99; ISBN 978-0-316-43441-6. The Stantons, an Australian husband-and-wife duo, launch the Books that Drive Kids Crazy! early reader series by appealing to children’s eagerness to correct something they know to be wrong.
For more children’s and YA titles on sale throughout the month of May, check out PW’s full On-Sale Calendar.
