Here we round up new and forthcoming children’s titles, including a picture book about Bach, a story about the search for secret snacks, a new perspective on Joan of Arc, and a quiet picture book about two dogs.
Bach to the Rescue!!!: How a Rich Dude Who Couldn’t Sleep Inspired the Greatest Music Ever by Tom Angleberger, illus. by Elio. Abrams, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4197-3164-8. Angleberger (the Origami Yoda series) takes more than a few liberties with this playful account of how Johann Sebastian Bach may have come to compose the Goldberg Variations, one of his most well-known works for harpsichord.
Didi Dodo, Future Spy: Recipe for Disaster by Tom Angleberger, illus. by Jared Chapman. Amulet, $12.99; ISBN 978-1-4197-3370-3. In this lighthearted start to a new chapter book series by Angleberger, Koko Dodo is in crisis when his supersecret fudge sauce is stolen right before the Queen’s Royal Cookie Contest.
Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc by David Elliott. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-328-98759-4. This collection of poems, each told from the perspective of Joan of Arc and the people and objects central to her life, creates for teens a remarkable portrait of a person whose legend continues to fascinate.
Olive & Pekoe: In Four Short Walks by Jacky Davis, illus. by Giselle Potter. Greenwillow, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-257310-0. Davis (the Ladybug Girl series) and Potter (Independence Cake) celebrate a canine pair’s differences through four stories in this quiet picture book.
Wild Baby by Cori Doerrfeld. HarperCollins, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-269894-0. In this picture book, a young orangutan gets in all the other jungle families’ business.
Otto and Pio by Marianne Dubuc. Princeton Architectural Press, $17.95; ISBN 978-1-61689-760-4. In this picture book about two animals who first meet, Dubuc doesn’t insist that readers warm right up to new or strange situations. It takes a long time, sometimes, for creatures to learn to love each other. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Little Doctor and the Fearless Beast by Sophie Gilmore. Owlkids, $17.95; ISBN 978-1-77147-344-6. Little Doctor is a girl with rosy cheeks, brown hair, and a white lab coat, and her clinic’s population is made up of crocodiles. The picture book earned a starred review from PW.
Sweeping Up the Heart by Kevin Henkes. Greenwillow, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-06-285254-0. Henkes’s profound understanding of the adolescent heart and mind is evident in this middle grade novel that follows two 12-year-olds frustrated by their parents. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Dig by A.S. King. Dutton, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-101-99491-7. The first-person narrative shifts perspectives frequently among five teens, living in the same small town but largely unknown to each other, and their parents, many of whom are, by turns, judgmental, abusive, or neglectful. Like King’s other novels, this one has a hallucinatory quality that keeps the reader guessing what’s real and what’s not.
Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles by Thomas Lennon, illus. by John Hendrix. Amulet, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4197-3491-5. In this tongue-in-cheek middle grade adventure, first in a series, 15-year-old Ronan Boyle is tapped to join an elite division of the Irish police dedicated to handling supernatural-related incidents, such as those involving leprechauns, trolls, and changelings.
A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-06-283668-7. In this middle grade novel, three diverse friends come of age and learn when trouble is worth making as they engage in community activism. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Puddle by Richard Jackson, illus. by Chris Raschka. Greenwillow, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-265195-2. In quirky verse with splashes of wordplay, Jackson (A Kiss for Akaraka) gives voice to the emotional life of a sensitive puddle.
Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds. HarperCollins/Tegen, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-274837-9. Reynolds, an #OwnVoices debut author, creates an enormously likable character who is doing the best he can and then some, in this YA novel that blends humor and heartbreak.
Beast Rider by Tony Johnston and María Elena Fontanot de Rhoads. Amulet, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4197-3363-5. In this often wrenching story about Manuel, a 12-year-old boy from Oaxaca, Mexico, the authors convey what motivates him to leave his poverty-stricken life to ride “the Beast” (a train heading to the U.S. border), and the hardships he faces during the journey and upon arrival. The YA novel earned a starred review from PW.
Celebrate You! by Sherri Duskey Rinker, illus. by A.N. Kang. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-256402-3. A penguin wearing a red bow tie—and an expression of uncertainty—comes home to a surprise party with parents, animal friends, balloons, cake, and lots of enthusiasm in this picture book.
Not Your Nest! by Gideon Sterer, illus. by Andrea Tsurumi. Dial, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-7352-2827-6. Each time the protagonist of this early reader diligently and proudly completes a nest, another species—a giraffe, an elephant, an entire meerkat family—stakes an improbable claim to it.
Tiny T. Rex and the Impossible Hug by Jonathan Stutzman, illus. by Jay Fleck. Chronicle, $15.99; ISBN 978-1-4521-7033-6. In this picture book series opener, tyrannosaur Tiny has a problem: his best friend, stegosaurus Pointy, is sad, and Tiny’s wee arms make it difficult to offer solace through a hug.
For more children’s and YA titles on sale throughout the month of March, check out PW’s full On-Sale Calendar.
