The year might be ending but exciting titles to add to your TBR keep coming, including a picture book series starter starring a group of friendly critters, a middle grade novel about a friendship with a sentient snowman, a YA novel about two Black cousins trying to fix past mistakes, and more.
Picture Books and Early Readers
Carlotta’s Special Dress: How a Walk to School Changed Civil Rights History
Carlotta Walls LaNier and Lisa Frazier Page, illus. by Vanessa Brantley-Newton. Little, Brown, $18.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-316-57254-5. Ages 6–8. Underlining the intersection of everyday and historic moments, the creators take a child’s perspective to recount Walls LaNier’s experience in integrating Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957.
Kind Karl: A Little Crocodile with Big Feelings
Jason Gruhl and Sharon Salzberg, illus. by Sébastien Mourrain. Bala, $19.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-6454-7247-6. Ages 4–8. Karl, an anthropomorphized crocodile schoolkid, navigates big feelings in this mindfulness-based title.
Claudia Rueda. Candlewick, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5362-3658-3. Ages 3–5. Rueda kicks off a new series starring a charismatic crew of critters as they act out a wish list for the perfect home. The book received a starred review from PW.
Jon-Erik Lappano, illus. by Zach Manbeck. Random House Studio, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-5938-0665-4. Ages 4–8. Two kindred spirits connect over adjacent interests in this sensitive interpersonal portrait.
Julia Donaldson, illus. by Victoria Sandøy. Scholastic, $19.99 (32p) ISBN 979-8-2250-1463-6. Ages 4–8. A paper plane sparks an imaginative connection in this nested telling from the previous collaborators.
This Skirt Won’t Work! How Women Athletes Changed Their Clothes and Changed the Game
Jennifer Cooper, illus. by Eva Byrne. Sourcebooks Explore, $18.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-7282-6784-5. Ages 4–8. This picture book highlights five individual athletes and two women’s teams at the turn of the 20th- century—including figures of various abilities, backgrounds, and skin tones—who donned the athletic dress that made big strides toward leveling the playing field.
Middle Grade
Noah Van Sciver. Toon, $17.99 (56p) ISBN 978-1-6626-6540-0. Ages 8–12. Before Calamity Jane became an icon of the Wild West, she was Martha Jane Canary, a teen learning how to survive on her own, an experience that Van Sciver chronicles in this brief but riveting graphic novel narrated by a fictionalized version of the subject.
Ally Russell. Scholastic, $8.99 paper (224p) ISBN 978-1-5461-2925-7. Ages 8–12. Twelve-year-old Andi discovers a mysterious spider at a friend’s home; after the creature escapes containment and hordes of spiders descend on the house, Andi must rally her peers to confront the swarm.
Simon Stephenson, illus. by Reggie Brown. Simon & Schuster, $17.99 (256p) ISBN 978-1-66598-534-5. Ages 8–12. In this warm children’s debut, the longest winter in more than 300 years leads to a tween encountering a sentient snowperson.
Young Adult
Romina Garber. Wednesday, $21 (400p) ISBN 978-1-250-86391-1. Ages 13 and up. Eighteen-year-old Lorena awakens the vampire living at her boarding school, and he’s hungry—not just for blood, but for answers about the events of the last 300 years and where the rest of his coven has gone.
Katrina Leno. Wednesday, $20 (336p) ISBN 978-1-250-34290-4. Ages 13 and up. A quartet of sisters with creative gifts navigate their mythical heritage in this realms-spanning read.
Kirsty McKay. Sourcebooks Fire, $12.99 paper (352p) ISBN 978-1-7282-6848-4. Ages 12–17. Seven teens returning to the scene of a traumatic memory must evade an unknown assailant in this survival thriller.
George M. Johnson and Leah Johnson. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $19.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-374-39169-0. Ages 14 and up. Two Black cousins spend New Year’s Day on a mission to rectify past wrongs in this winning queer romance.
