In this quintessential rom-com by Liang (I Hope This Doesn’t Find You), a former model turns a cultural excursion into an opportunity for revenge on her childhood nemesis. Chinese American 17-year-old Leah Zhang isn’t the strongest Mandarin speaker in her family. So when the language barrier leads to a mortifying faux pas at her cousin’s wedding, her parents enroll her in a travel program voyaging across China, hoping the experience will help their daughter reconnect with her roots. For Leah, though, the trip offers a chance to escape from L.A. and the remnants of her past modeling career. That is, until she learns that cynical, sarcastic, and handsome former classmate Cyrus Sui is also attending the program. Leah still hasn’t forgiven him for a past incident that forced her to transfer schools, and while she’s tempted to shove him off the Yellow Mountain range, she instead hatches other revenge schemes. But as she learns more about Cyrus, she’s torn between vengeance and romance. Hilarious and heartfelt, this story of budding young love simultaneously emphasizes the connections between romantic partners, between the characters and their culture, and with themselves. A comedic supporting cast adds further layers to this fast-paced trip of inward and outward discovery. Ages 12–up. Agent: Kathleen Rushall, Andrea Brown Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 03/28/2025 | Details & Permalink

Two ambitious heroines driven by personal and familial goals must contend with high-stakes conflicts surrounding prophecy, conspiracy, and potential catastrophe in this realms-hopping romantasy by Lee (Clash of Steel). Overachieving high school senior Brenda Nguyen, who is Vietnamese American, has an elaborate multistep plan to save contemporary society through science—a plan that hinges on obtaining a college scholarship. While uploading her latest scholarship application, she wanders into an unfamiliar L.A. coffee shop, where she meets Chinese American Kat Woo. The two hit it off and plan to go on a real date, then discover that they live in different dimensions—Brenda in a world of science and Kat in a world of magic—which they can only visit by traveling through fleeting, unstable portals. On top of complicated meet- cute stress, Kat dreads participating in a societal ritual meant to prevent magic from destroying her city. Now, the girls must work together to decide the fate of their respective dimensions, in the process attempting to find time to fall in love. Epic world-saving plotting mixes with intimate star-crossed love and touches of magic and mischief, making for a satisfying and cozy read. Ages 12–up. Agent: Thao Le, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 03/28/2025 | Details & Permalink

Seventh grader Alex Ramirez is curious. He wonders how satellites remain in orbit and how astronauts handle fear. More than anything, he questions when his parents and teachers will trust him to be more independent. Alex, who “take[s] medication/ that helps me/ focus,” has been in a self-contained classroom environment for students with learning differences since third grade, during which a physical altercation with his former friend Leonard resulted in Leonard’s being hospitalized. If Alex plans to work for NASA, he needs to join his fellow seventh graders in Ms. Rosef’s science class. After he musters the courage to ask if he can attend the class—and his request is granted—his self-advocacy causes a ripple effect among his peers, who yearn to explore clubs and coursework outside of their self-contained bubbles. But with new academic opportunities come new interpersonal challenges, which Paulino sensitively portrays using intimate verse. Alex’s relationship with his family as well as his Dominican and Puerto Rican heritage inform his perspective—Spanish dialogue appears throughout—while depictions of supportive adults impart an affirming undertone to this earnest debut about neurodivergent students and kids with learning differences seeking to advocate for their needs and wants. Ages 10–up. Agent: Michaela Whatnall, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (June)

Reviewed on 03/28/2025 | Details & Permalink

In this lively historical fantasy set in 1890 Fife, Scotland, 14-year-old Cat Douglas is training as a member of monster hunting society the Royal & Ancient to defend her home from the creatures that terrorize the land. As the first girl to serve in her town’s R&A chapter, Cat feels as if she has a lot to prove, and as the smallest, she acts as bait, luring the monsters in for the kill. Things are going well until the R&A is dispatched to handle reports of a treacherous sea dragon, the likes of which hasn’t been seen for many years. The monster hunters are shocked to learn, however, that where there’s one sea dragon, there are likely more, sending Cat and her crew on a high-stakes mission to save the village. Cat’s lilting first-person narration adds a potent sense of identity to this atmospheric action-adventure series starter by Yolen (The Scarlet Circus). Poppy saturated comics pages by Lowenthal appear throughout, evocatively rendering Cat’s world and the fearsome creatures that inhabit it. Most characters are Scottish. Ages 8–11. (June)

Reviewed on 03/28/2025 | Details & Permalink

Vietnamese eight-year-old Ly-Lan, who lives in Grapevine, Tex., is excited for third grade, during which she and her peers will sit at big desks and read big books and can eat lunch wherever they want in the cafeteria. (She and her best friend, redheaded Cece, even study a hand-drawn cafeteria map to plot where they’ll sit.) Ly-Lan knows everything will be perfect because she’s already prayed to Jesus for what she wants. But on the first day of school, Ly-Lan learns that she and Cece are in different classes and that cafeteria seats are assigned. What’s more, she’s expected to befriend new girl Quyên Lê, who is also Vietnamese and is still learning English. Though Ly-Lan has helped newcomers in the past, personal struggles with her faith and worries about what Cece is doing squash Ly-Lan’s typically generous nature. Lightly Christian messaging permeates a classic friendship story in which Ly-Lan learns that “God isn’t a genie” who grants wishes and that people can have more than one friend. Dinh (The Jade Bracelet) imbues Ly-Lan’s emotional journey with brightness and heart in this gentle series opener. A Vietnamese glossary concludes. Final art by Bishop (the Lily Lu to the Rescue series) not seen by PW. Ages 5–9. Author’s agent: Hannah VanVels Ausbury, Belcastro Agency. Illustrator’s agent: Mela Bolinao, MB Artists. (June)

Reviewed on 03/28/2025 | Details & Permalink

Young narrator Willow, portrayed with brown skin, lives in a seaside town whose pastel buildings are sheltered by lush greenery. Willow’s pale-skinned friend Aspen, a poet, wears a red beret, while Willow, who sports a large sun hat, enjoys spending time in the greenhouse with chicken Eulalia, an “excellent assistant.” It’s in the greenhouse one day that Eulalia finds a small, sickly plant. Across naif-style spreads loosely stroked in petit-four greens, lavenders, and pinks, Maijala (Rosie Runs) shows the children pondering the plant’s origin. They name it Raisin after the hero in one of Aspen’s poems, who vanquishes the frightening sea serpent Sampi via a “daring game of cards.” When the plant continues to languish, the children transport Raisin and Eulalia to the seashore. Then, one night, Willow takes Raisin into the moonlight, encouraging the plant (“Raisin might be small but was still mightier than the Sampi”), an act that leads to the discovery of Raisin’s remarkable secrets. Conflict barely ripples this winding, cozy story about adopting a living thing and taking steps to see to its needs. Ages 5–9. (July)

Reviewed on 03/28/2025 | Details & Permalink

Ho (We Who Produce Pearls) and Ren (Night Market Rescue) team up for a kawaii-styled look at cultural belonging that features bubble teas as protagonists. In tradition-steeped Milk Tea Town, “residents prided themselves on their subtle shades of brown, quality ingredients, and classic milk tea flavor,” standards that the whole community upholds. But the birth of Mindy, a boba baby displaying bands of green, white, and pink, heralds a generation of multihued beverages that “many thought were questionably probably not quite milk teas at all!” Wanting to be “milk tea enough,” Mindy takes classes and researches the beverage’s multifaceted history, only to find that “the most classic milk tea flavor is one that keeps on changing.” Tea-oriented puns (a tea ancestor’s running away with a pudding “caused quite the stir”) pepper this message-forward read that includes historical beats. Bright mixed media and digital art foregrounds anthropomorphized boba cups that feature tapioca-ball eyes. Contextualizing comics panels and creators’ notes conclude. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Caryn Wiseman, Andrea Brown Literary. illustrator’s agent: Jennifer Rofé, Andrea Brown Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 03/28/2025 | Details & Permalink

The companionable relationship between a human protagonist and a blue heron forms the buoying heart of this wonder-filled work from Kaufman (All Are Welcome). First-person narration begins at daybreak as a brown-skinned child sporting galoshes carefully approaches regal avian Blue: “I tiptoe,/ rush.../ and pause...// ...echoing Blue’s stillness.” Before long, the unlikely pair frolics among a shoreline’s reeds, rejoicing in play (“We are wild./ We are free...”). Multimedia art has a loose, calligraphic quality as scenes cast in inky blues are illuminated with light emanating first from a warm, buttery sun and then a glowing, oversize moon. At sunset, “with an incredible leap and a mighty flap,/ Blue takes flight,” leading to a few hopeful beats and a starry, soaring adventure for both creatures that lasts until the child’s human body demands descent (“Up high, the air is thin and cold”). When it’s time to “say good night/ but not goodbye,” visual details (a costume, a mobile, a stuffy) tucked into closing domestic scenes leave the evening’s events open to interpretation, making for a meditative wish-fulfillment fantasy that leans into both adventure and security. Ages 4–8. (June)

Reviewed on 03/28/2025 | Details & Permalink

In lusciously stroked spreads, Myers (Children of the Forest) paints two children on the rooftops of facing brick buildings, a clothesline strung between them. As they wave at each other and their caretakers peg laundry on the line, another sort of washing rolls through behind them: building an extended metaphor, Kooser (Marshmallow Clouds) describes various cloud types as celestial laundry hung out by the skies. One sky “was unpinning its damp sheets/ of cirrus from a frayed airplane contrail” as another “hurriedly wadded up socks, T-shirts,/ and underpants of cirrocumulus and stuffed them/ into a basket woven of sunbeams.” Reflected altocumulus, on-the-move cumulus, and more cloud types scud into view in artful illustrations that show magnificent, billowing clouds dwarfing the buildings and the children. As the sky darkens, “dragging a heavy drop cloth of stratocumulus,” a storm blows in. Far from driving the children inside, the weather gives rise to a new connection, eventually visualized through another dazzling phenomenon that arcs between their buildings. Dramatic visual storytelling incorporates layers of power and feeling throughout a work that neatly, playfully illuminates cloud forms and their scientific descriptors. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. (July)

Reviewed on 03/28/2025 | Details & Permalink

Set 40 years after the events of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, this heart-wrenching novel from Collins centers a 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy and his role in the climactic 50th Hunger Games. Though readers will know him as Katniss and Peeta’s ill-tempered, alcohol-dependent mentor during the 74th games, young Haymitch is a sweet-natured, responsible teen working hard to support his widowed mother and younger brother. In his free time, he attends to his sweetheart, Lenore Dove, a singer with a rebellious streak, who is one of the Covey, a group of formerly itinerant musicians. Then Haymitch is selected to compete in the second-ever Quarter Quell. His mother’s parting words—“Don’t let them paint their posters with your blood”—become his North Star as he balances the necessity of performing for the Games with maintaining his integrity and morality. As the Quarter Quell commences, Collins utilizes searing, precise language to vividly depict what each party—the tributes, the Capitol, and the districts at large—stands to lose and how these Games’ aftermath will come to shape the events of the original trilogy. Excerpts from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”—peppered throughout Haymitch’s first-person narration—heighten the story’s emotional resonance. It’s a brutal tale of compassion and rage, and a frank examination of propaganda and tragedy, that will satisfy longtime series fans and newcomers alike. Ages 12–up. (Mar.)

Correction: The text of this review has been updated for clarity.

Reviewed on 03/28/2025 | Details & Permalink