All his life, 12-year-old Baxter Phillips has been part of what his mother coined “The Getalong Gang,” a playgroup comprised of her and her best friends’ children. In addition to gamer Baxter, there’s perfectionist Emerson and her gentle-giant twin brother Turner Casella, and Abigail Walters, a competitive gymnast with confidence in spades. The problem is, the four middle schoolers rarely get along. When the tweens’ tension comes to a head during a school-sponsored trivia contest, they’re disqualified for unsportsmanlike conduct. As further punishment, they’re forced to complete a group extra-credit assignment, which involves the gang being sent to stay with Baxter’s survivalist great-uncle Hornsby in the Montana winter wilderness, an event intended to teach them teamwork. But when Uncle Hornsby sets up an elaborate network of interconnected puzzles, Turner, Emerson, Abigail, and Baxter, along with his feisty younger sister Vivi, rush to solve the puzzles with the help of pages from Hornsby’s self-written guide to survival—until something goes awry with Hornsby’s plans. Immediate first-person, present-tense prose keeps the emotional resonance high in this fast-paced adventure that features a charging moose, potential hypothermia, and plenty of friendship drama. Characters read as white. Ages 8–12. Agent: Suzie Townsend, New Leaf Literary. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/22/2023 | Details & Permalink

In this classic-feeling fairy tale, an elderly giant with pale skin and a long white beard has grown weary of his reclusive life on a mountaintop overlooking the ocean. “He was tired of pretending by himself,” writes Yolen (the How Do Dinosaurs Say series), “tired of playing checkers by himself, tired of reading out loud to himself, tired of singing both the soprano and the bass parts in all the songs.” When the giant tromps into town for companionship, his arrival scares off everyone except pale-skinned Arabella, a redheaded, pigtailed child who also experiences loneliness (“No one in town had time to play checkers or anything at all with her”). After the two engage in a game and jump-rope, and read Arabella’s books, the giant happily participates in a doll tea party, drinking water tea and eating mud cookies. Italian illustrator Domeniconi matches the text’s composure, working in a formal painterly style that transports readers to a landscape suffused with golden light, at once magical and very human. There’s no big revelation, no moment of conflict—just the quiet joy exuding from two people who have found a boon companion. Ages 5–9. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/22/2023 | Details & Permalink

Young Táwà knows what she wants, and when she doesn’t get her way, she lets loose a wail that moves sofas, pops balloons, and sends animals fleeing. Page turns take readers through scenarios in which the child communicates with a “Waaa Waaa,” including a visit to the market that Táwà insists on joining, and a stop at a toy cart where the toy seller gives her a doll to end a tantrum. Ònájìn expresses the dominating force of Táwà’s cries, which fling people back and topple fruit baskets like hurricane-level winds. But as the day comes to a close, Táwà’s tantrums begin to wear on her family and the rest of the neighborhood, too. When the child’s bedtime cries interrupt the evening’s rest, Grandpa, Mama, and Papa all begin to cry, their pet dog joins the fray with a mournful “Aaaaooooo,” and neighbors’ homes emit sorrowful noises. In a comic turnabout, Táwà shifts to caregiver, comforting and quieting the family before drifting off to sleep. Larger-than-life, multi-patterned illustrations express the emotional toll of a child’s endless tears in a debut picture book that offers moments of levity and comfort to both caregivers and children. Characters are portrayed with brown skin, and visual context clues seem to indicate a Nigerian setting. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/22/2023 | Details & Permalink

“I’ve always wanted a dog,” confesses the brown-skinned, blue-eyed child who narrates this droll adventure sporting a lavender toque and red glasses. “And then one day, as I was walking in the park, I found one.” Readers realize right away that the furry creature is much too big to be a pup; passersby start when they see the large, lumbering brown beast following the child home. “I’ll take care of you,” Tortolini writes in the child’s voice. An attempt to find the animal’s owner leads nowhere, and the creature, which is both cuddly with the child and intimidating to others, offers companionship and security. The youth is bereft when the animal disappears, but events soon offer consolation in the form of another animal: “A cat!” The book’s most moving passages describe the way the first beast transforms the child’s life—“The big kids don’t pull my hair like they did before”—while soft, pastel-like lines and touches of warm, saturated color from Sala (As Night Falls) invite readers into the intimacy that the two share. It’s an extended, fully developed tale of mistaken identity that examines how a happenstance meeting can take one to a place of care and community. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/22/2023 | Details & Permalink

In wordless, phantasmagoric panels and spreads, Young (The Flying Light) imagines a world of strangely blooming tropical trees, jellyfish-like flying vehicles, and creatures with beaked noses and glistening eyes. A child with light skin and dark hair travels about in a modest house built on the back of a large flying fish. When the child is found sadly painting a blue kite on the floor of a room, a kindly birdlike creature offers to help, pointing out another blue kite flying in the distance. Adventures follow as the creature introduces the child to a separate gathering of beings for whom the creation of a new kite is a simple feat—but who seem to envision the object as a weapon, launching it from a small, plant-like tank. The child next travels on a two-legged creature, then in a tentacled spacecraft tucked under another being’s wing. Though the bustling tale’s quick-moving storytelling turns remain ambiguous throughout, the inventiveness of Young’s forms, dreamy and sinuous, fires the imagination. Ages 3–7. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/22/2023 | Details & Permalink

After a “cold, hard winter” in a building whose watercolor-and-ink facade nearly fills the page, a few adults wearing surgical face masks and a group of maskless children “spilled out like candies from a box” onto a concrete plaza. The last of the children, Amanda, carries a large box of chalk. She draws a circle with appendages that resembles a coronavirus virion, and another child quickly turns the shape into a dandelion, setting off a cascade of creativity among the kids, portrayed with various skin tones. Each one adds an interpretation of much-missed nature, and the image of a visiting alien spaceship appears for good measure. When Rosie draws a “Queen of Swirls,” the collaboration coalesces into a true Gesamtkunstwerk: “A beautiful and exotic garden spread across the concrete. And the Queen of Swirls ruled.” Peering from above, another figure, Nasrin, snaps a photo for her mother in Iran (“A concrete garden—isn’t it something?”), and it travels around the world, offering cheer and hope to many. Alternating wide shots of the decorated plaza with tighter vignettes of the artists thoughtfully evaluating their canvas, executing their ideas, and reflecting on the results, Graham (Jigsaw) celebrates the book’s young cast as serious creators joined in sharing art’s healing power. Ages 3–7. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 09/22/2023 | Details & Permalink

Pakistani American 18-year-old Zahra Paracha feels suffocated by her mother’s controlling nature and is consumed by guilt over a decision Zahra made that she believes is at odds with her Muslim faith. A few weeks after her high school graduation, she runs away to Long Island, N.Y., leaving her family, community, and impending nuptials in California. When she arrives, she heads to a local mosque to clear her mind; there, she befriends sisters Haya and Sadaf Chaudry, who take Zahra under their wing. Zahra, who sometimes navigates her anxiety and depression through self-harm, has been wrestling with her relationship to Islam. But as she integrates herself into her new community, she learns to reconnect with her faith and starts to unpack her feelings surrounding her secrets and the family she left behind. Expository passages depict Zahra’s conversations with God, whom she asks for forgiveness and mercy. Didactic and moralistic prose by Qureshi (The Man or the Monster) summarily renders the characters’ experiences with suicidal ideation, slut shaming, and emotional and physical abuse, and messaging surrounding love of culture, family, and faith provide plentiful food for thought. An author’s note discusses the novel’s inspiration. Ages 14–up. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 09/22/2023 | Details & Permalink

Fourteen-year-old Antares de la Vega, who experiences panic attacks and whose cartographer parents vanished when he was very young, chafes at life’s mundanity and has a burning desire to explore the unknown. The arrival of intergalactic strangers named Mr. Now, Mr. Minutes, and Mr. Hoursback kicks off a series of events in which Antares is chased by crocodile men and imprisoned in a secret Bermuda Triangle facility. There he meets fellow detainee Magdavellía, a prickly teenage girl who “could’ve been from anywhere in the world”; her robot companion; and Zamangar, an idiosyncratic elderly man with an escape plan. As the group work toward their freedom, Antares learns that the world is flat and far weirder than he ever dreamed, and that he’s a pawn in an age-old quest to uncover a legendary artifact that promises immense power. In this freewheeling series opener, Calejo (the Charlie Hernández series) presents a frenetic adventure that combines classic conspiracy theories with metaphysics and a touch of mayhem. Playful linguistic looseness (“This is wondificent!”) and memorably rendered characters round out this exciting offbeat tale. Antares is multiethnic (“My dad was born in Mexico City and had Cuban heritage. My mom was part Indian, part Irish, and was born in Switzerland”). Ages 8–12. Agent: Rena Rossner, Deborah Harris Agency. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 09/22/2023 | Details & Permalink

Basketball means everything to Ojibwe 15-year-old Tre Brun, who lives on the Red Lake Nation Reservation in Minnesota. What started as a bonding activity between him and his older brother Jaxon, who was their high school’s basketball star and a pillar of their reservation community, becomes his life’s purpose following Jaxon’s fatal car accident. After trying out for—and unexpectedly making—his school’s varsity basketball team, despite his belief that he’d never be a good enough player, Tre determines to win the state championship in Jaxon’s honor. But interpersonal challenges involving his and his family’s unresolved grief, his developing connection with a new two-spirit student, and issues with his documentarian best friend drive Tre to distraction, jeopardizing his future goals. Can Tre stay true to himself and be present in his own life when he’s stuck in the shadow of his brother’s legacy? Debut author Graves, who is Ojibwe, realistically depicts life living on a reservation via Tre’s earnest first-person POV, and plentiful fast-paced basketball game sequences will appeal to fans of sports fiction. Ages 12–up. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 09/22/2023 | Details & Permalink

An 11-year-old endeavors to build a machine to recover his lost memories in this thoughtful novel by Diederich (Diamond Park), set at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Lalo Lespérance has always had trouble remembering things, including details about his deceased father. When lockdowns begin, he’s stuck in his Fort Myers apartment complex with his older brother and forced to attend online school with neighbor kid Vivi. He spends his free time tinkering with his brother’s broken PlayStation, hoping to turn it into a memory machine and teams up with Vivi to investigate a mysterious motor home parked outside their building that’s rumored to kidnap children. His discovery of an old radio that seemingly helps him remember his past might be the answer to his woes—or the beginning of a whole new set of problems. Subplots starring neighbors and challenges within his apartment block provide insightful looks into one community’s experience navigating the pandemic. In spare, resonant prose, Diederich dives into the complexities of family, identity, and memory through Lalo, who feels it’s impossible to define who he is when he can’t remember the events—and people—that shaped him. Lalo is Mexican and Haitian American; the supporting cast is racially diverse. Ages 10–up. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 09/22/2023 | Details & Permalink