Here we round up new and forthcoming children’s titles, including a picture book debut from a Newbery Medalist, a picture book primer on queer history, a YA nonfiction account of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple, and more.
Anything by Rebecca Stead, illus. by Gracey Zhang. Chronicle, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-79721-515-0. A child grieving a move to a new apartment narrates this musing moment-by-moment story by Newbery Medalist Stead, making her picture book debut.
Are You a Friend of Dorothy?: The True Story of an Imaginary Woman and the Real People She Helped by Kyle Lukoff, illus. by Levi Hastings. Simon & Schuster, $19.99; ISBN 978-1-66593-166-3. Straightforwardly detailing how LGBTQ+ people have long found each other via verbal and visual cues, this engaging work is a primer on both queer history and how “learning about the ways we survived in the past could help people in the future.”
Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown by Candace Fleming. Random House/Schwartz, $19.99; ISBN 978-0-593-48006-9. In riveting detail, Fleming recounts the murder of more than 900 Peoples Temple followers in Guyana by American cult leader Jim Jones.
Dreamslinger by Graci Kim. Disney Hyperion, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-368-10477-7. After a PR disaster jeopardizes Resthaven, a school for children with magical capabilities called dreamslingers, Aria enters the Royal Slinger Trials to spy on the secluded kingdom of Royal Hanguk, the only country where dreamslingers develop and train their abilities rather than hide them.
Elsa’s Chessboard by Jenny Andrus, illus. by Julie Downing. Holiday House/Porter, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-8234-5408-2. In 1906 Vienna, young Elsa learns how to play chess, and when her Jewish family immigrates to San Franscico, Elsa teaches chess to fellow factory workers.
For a Girl Becoming by Joy Harjo, illus. by Adriana M. Garcia. Norton, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-32405-224-1. U.S. poet laureate Harjo, a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, follows an Indigenous family in gathering to welcome an infant.
The Girl Who Was Too Big for the Page by Geena Davis. Philomel, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-593-46396-3. In this picture book from actor Davis, fourth-grader Sheila, a pale-skinned child who literally grows up in a book, discovers that she’s outgrown the book’s trim size—forcing her to twist and contort to fit the pages.
The Lemonade War Graphic Novel by Jacqueline Davies, illus. by Karen De La Vega. Clarion, paper $15.99; ISBN 978-0-06-331038-4. Siblings Evan and Jessie become rivals when they both launch lemonade businesses in this graphic novel adaptation of the 2007 hit.
Love at Second Sight by F.T. Lukens. McElderry, $19.99; ISBN 978-1-66595-094-7. Lukens dazzles in this paranormal adventure about a psychic teen attempting to stop a murder before it occurs.
Mighty: The Story of an Oak Tree Ecosystem by Henry Cole. Peachtree, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-68263-733-3. In intricate black-and-white spreads, Cole traces the life of a single oak from sprouting acorn to mature tree, detailing its relationship with the changing world around it.
The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner. Bloomsbury, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-5476-1639-8. Seventh grader Finn Connelly makes amends for defacing a statue by summiting every Adirondack peak by Labor Day.
What Comes After by Katie Bayerl. Penguin/Paulsen, $19.99; ISBN 978-0-399-54528-3. Sixteen-year-old Mari Novak is dead and alongside her mother and countless others, she stays at Paradise Gate, a place for religiously unaffiliated souls to work through intense 90-day self-help regimens so that they may ascend to the Ever After.
For more children’s and YA titles on sale throughout the month of April, check out PW’s full On-Sale Calendar.
