Hitting bookshelves this week are a picture book about an antisocial asteroid, an early reader nonfiction comic about a maligned urban bird, and a YA novel about a teen fascinated by the unexplained.
Stop Following Me, Moon! by Darren Farrell. Dial, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-8037-4159-1. A picture book full of quirky details “follows” a bear who believes that the moon is after his stash of snacks.
The Real Poop on Pigeons by Kevin McCloskey. Toon, $12.95; ISBN 978-1-935179-93-1. This comic-style leveled reader offers a humorous look at the oft-maligned bird. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Good Night Owl by Greg Pizzoli. Disney-Hyperion, $16.99; ISBN 978-1-4847-1275-7. Pizzoli’s bright colors, mid-century modern details, and fuzzy outlines offer a zingy counterbalance to picture book protagonist Owl’s increasingly frazzled mental state, as he searches for the source of the noise keeping him awake.
Misadventures of Max Crumbly: Locker Hero by Rachel Renée Russell. S&S/Aladdin, $13.99; ISBN 978-1-4814-6001-9. The creator of the Dork Diaries launches a new illustrated middle grade series about Max, a boy starting middle school.
Girl About Town by Adam Shankman and Laura L. Sullivan. S&S/Atheneum, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4814-4787-4. Shankman, a film producer, teams up with Sullivan for a Depression-era rags-to riches/riches-to-rags story in which 16-year-old Lucille O’Malley, living in a Lower East Side tenement, encounters a mobster who changes her fortunes.
Saving Montgomery Sole by Mariko Tamaki. Roaring Brook, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-62672-271-2. Tamaki (This One Summer) introduces Montgomery Sole, the 16-year-old president of her school’s “mystery club,” which consists of discussing topics like ESP and healing crystals with her friends. When a preacher from a hyperbolic, homophobic church moves into her small California town, Montgomery worries that she will be singled out for having gay parents. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Outlaws of Time: The Legend of Sam Miracle by N.D. Wilson. HarperCollins/Tegen, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-06-232726-0. An orphan with all-consuming daydreams and non-functioning arms discovers his true destiny in this time-travel adventure, which sees 12-year-old Sam Miracle transported into the past to battle a malevolent thief.
Oh No, Astro! by Matt Roeser, illus. by Brad Woodard. Simon & Schuster, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4814-3976-3. Roeser, a designer at Candlewick, makes his picture book debut alongside debut illustrator Woodard with the story of an antisocial asteroid who crashes into a satellite.
For more children’s and YA titles on sale throughout the month of April, check out PW’s full On-Sale Calendar.
