Here we round up new and forthcoming children’s titles, including a new Buffyverse series, an early reader about two differing mice preparing for winter, a picture book about familial bonds in the face of tragedy, a “geeky” middle grade mystery, and more.
Week of January 3
In Every Generation by Kendare Blake. Disney-Hyperion, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-368-07502-2. Blake’s (All These Bodies) YA trilogy opener set in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe centers a new generation of Slayers.
Cornbread & Poppy by Matthew Cordell. Little, Brown, $15.99; ISBN 978-0-7595-5486-3. Three illustrated chapters give Caldecott Medalist Cordell plenty of space to develop the friendship of two mouse friends who react differently to winter’s approach. The early reader earned a starred review from PW.
Daddy Speaks Love by Leah Henderson, illus. by E.B. Lewis. Penguin/Paulsen, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-593-35436-0. Inspired by six-year-old Gianna Floyd’s words about her father, George Floyd, in the wake of his murder, this picture book centers the loving relationship between fathers and children.
Hide and Geek by T.P. Jagger. Random House, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-593-37793-2. Known for bestselling 3-D puzzle the Bamboozler, the Van Houten Toy and Game Company is on the verge of shutdown, and the town’s only hope for continuation is for a quartet of 11-year-old friends to solve the clues Maxine left behind and find her fabled fortune, in this middle grade series opener.
When You Get the Chance by Emma Lord. Wednesday, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-250-78334-9. Brimming with energy, rapid-fire banter, and theater references, this Mamma Mia! retelling by Lord (Tweet Cute) explores the meaning of family. The YA novel earned a starred review from PW.
The Ivory Key by Akshaya Raman. Clarion, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-358-46833-2. Four royals bound by blood but not loyalty meet in a tangle of conflicting agendas in the Indian-inspired world of Raman’s debut, a YA duology opener.
Echoes and Empires by Morgan Rhodes. Razorbill, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-593-35165-9. Rhodes’s (the Falling Kingdoms series) fast-paced YA fantasy duology starter opens in the Regarian Empire, whose monarch is fighting to eradicate “every last trace of magic” from the land.
Operation Sisterhood by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich. Crown, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-593-37989-9. In a one-bedroom apartment in the Bronx, 11-year-old Tokunbo “Bo” Marshall, who is Nigerian American, engages in her passion for baking, her love of music, and her babysitting expertise while sharing special recipes with her single mother. But as her mom prepares to marry, Bo needs time to feel through the transition.
Code Name: Serendipity by Amber Smith. Razorbill, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-593-20491-7. Eleven-year-old narrator Sadie Mitchell-Rosen lives with her mothers and 14-year-old brother, Noah. Recently diagnosed with a processing disorder, “or as my moms always say, a difference,” the young artist dreads “the carnival of suckage that fifth grade has become.”
Love, Violet by Charlotte Sullivan Wild, illus. by Charlene Chua. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-374-31372-2. Valentine’s Day brings a shy child named Violet the chance to connect with her crush, Mira, in Sullivan Wild’s uplifting tale. The picture book earned a starred review from PW.
The Year We Learned to Fly by Jacqueline Woodson, illus. by Rafael López. Penguin/Paulsen, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-399-54553-5. Two Black siblings use their imaginations to escape their immediate surroundings throughout the seasons in this picture book by previous collaborators Woodson and López (The Day You Begin). The picture book earned a starred review from PW.
Snow Angel, Sand Angel by Lois-Ann Yamanaka, illus. by Ashley Lukashevsky. Make Me a World, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-593-12737-7. When Claire, who lives on Hawai’i, is assigned winter as the subject of a school diorama, she realizes she’s “never even seen real snow!” and her father offers to take her to the Mauna Kea, the highest summit in the archipelago. The picture book earned a starred review from PW.
Week of January 10
Riley’s Ghost by John David Anderson. Walden Pond, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-062985-97-2. After escaping being locked in a closet in middle school, Riley discovers that she has bigger problems: the school doors are locked tight, the phones aren’t working, and a dissected frog from science lab that claims to be a vessel for a ghost follows her, trying to communicate something.
Vinyl Moon by Mahogany L. Browne. Crown, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-593-17643-6. After a violent incident with her controlling boyfriend in California—one that ends with him “locked up” and her with a broken arm, a bruised eye, and internalized feelings of guilt—Angel’s mother sends her to live with her uncle Spence in Brooklyn where she connects with classmates over reading Black writers, including Toni Morrison.
Medusa by Jessie Burton, illus. by Olivia Lomenech Gill. Bloomsbury, $19.99; ISBN 978-1-5476-0759-4. In this haunting reimagining of the myth of Medusa and Perseus, Burton (The Confession) positions the pair as teenagers swept up in the capricious gods’ machinations, alongside Lomenech Gill’s (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) full-color illustrations. The book earned a starred review from PW.
My Fine Fellow by Jennieke Cohen. HarperTeen, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-304753-2. Filled with delectable dishes and an inclusive cast, Cohen’s (Dangerous Alliance) gender-bent My Fair Lady retelling centers a cooking competition in 1830s London. The YA novel earned a starred review from PW.
Where Is Bina Bear? by Mike Curato. Holt/Godwin, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-250-76220-7. Bina, a large purple bear, is wearing a lampshade on her head at a party—and it’s not a sign that she’s having too good a time. This picture book portrait of lone wolves earned a starred review from PW.
On Baba’s Back by Marianne Dubuc. Princeton Architectural Press, $9.95; ISBN 978-1-61689-912-7. Dubuc (Little Cheetah’s Shadow) keeps this warmhearted story simple and focused: Koko is a young koala who does everything on Baba’s back, as baby koalas do, while Baba comically withstands myriad caretaking indignities. The picture book earned a starred review from PW.
The Treasure Box by Dave J. Keane, illus. by Rahele Jomepour Bell. Putnam, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-984813-18-3. This closely observed picture book portrait of a shared bond between a grandparent and grandchild explores love and loss.
Nightrender by Jodi Meadows. Holiday House, $19.99; ISBN 978-0-8234-4868-5. Action and court intrigue fuel the pace of this YA duology-opening fantasy from Meadows (the Fallen Isles trilogy) in which reality-corrupting energy must be stopped.
Northwind by Gary Paulsen. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-374-31420-0. Inspired by the late Paulsen’s lifelong love of the sea and his own journey up the Pacific coast, this captivating saga of survival and self-discovery, his final novel, centers a steadfast child in an apparently Nordic archipelago landscape. The middle grade book earned a starred review from PW.
Ain’t Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds and Jason Griffin. Atheneum/Dlouhy, $19.99; ISBN 978-1-5344-3946-7. Author Reynolds and artist Griffin, friends and previous collaborators (My Name Is Jason. Mine Too.), explore recent events in America through a poetic multimedia partnership told in three “breaths.” The book earned a starred review from PW.
Love Somebody by Rachel Roasek. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-374-38896-6. In this thought-provoking contemporary Cyrano de Bergerac reimagining that leans into social media’s dark side, debut author Roasek brings a sapphic twist to the false suitor trope.
Dog Star by Megan Shepherd. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-374-31458-3. Set in Moscow in 1957 against the internationally charged space race, Shepherd’s (The Secret Horses of Briar Hill) tautly paced middle grade historical novel portrays the friendship between a stray dog and an empathic 12-year-old, both in the orbit of the Starflyer mission to launch animals into space.
The Bone Spindle by Leslie Vedder. Razorbill, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-59332-582-7. Debut author Vedder’s action-packed, gender-flipped “Sleeping Beauty” reenvisioning, which launches a YA series, pits two female outlaws against a witch’s ominous curse.
The Faith of Elijah Cummings: The North Star of Equal Justice by Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Laura Freeman. Random House Studio, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-593-30650-5. Interspersing direct quotations throughout, Weatherford offers a thoughtful biography of Black civil rights advocate and congressman Elijah Cummings (1951–2019). The picture book earned a starred review from PW.
The Storyteller by Kathryn Williams. HarperTeen, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-304939-0. Making a persuasive point about the hazards and temptations of impostorhood, Williams (Pizza, Love, and Other Stuff That Made Me Famous) interweaves two tales in this gently propulsive YA romance.
When Winter Robeson Came by Brenda Woods. Penguin/Paulsen, $16.99; ISBN 978-1-5247-4158-7. Woods (The Unsung Hero of Birdsong, USA) explores the Watts riots of August 1965 through the experience of two Black cousins in a rhythmic historical middle grade novel in verse.
Millions of Maxes by Meg Wolitzer, illus. by Micah Player. Dial, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-593-32411-0. “I am NOT the one and only Max,” the protagonist of this picture book mourns internally. But playing with other Maxes proves so much fun that the protagonist ends the day embracing his membership in a club in which “we all have the same name, but we’re completely different.”
For more children’s and YA titles on sale throughout the month of January , check out PW’s full On-Sale Calendar.
