Drawing from firsthand accounts, Saade (Just Another Story) crafts a visceral nonfiction graphic novel about the Salvadoran Civil War as experienced by resilient 12-year-old protagonist Miriam. Alternating between his interviews with adult Miriam in 2021 and the subject’s childhood in 1980 Santa Marta, the creator first details his traveling to El Salvador to visit Miriam, who greets him with a hearty meal and a warm smile. Soon after, Saade prompts the woman to begin telling her story, starting with the day she received her first pair of shoes. The protagonist recalls being a fast runner, a valuable skill in war-torn El Salvador: speed ensured she evaded capture by government soldiers as she delivered food and messages to nearby guerrilla fighters. Timecards highlight the passing months until, in March 1981, bombings prompt Miriam and her family to evacuate to a nearby village. But as conditions worsen, many Salvadorans—including Miriam—cross the Lempa River to Honduras, and though men employ guerrilla tactics to hold off pursuing soldiers, Miriam is soon caught in a bloody riverside attack. Simple paneling and cinematic plot beats convey a moving story of war and displacement set against a lushly rendered jungle backdrop with starlit night skies. Back matter includes additional historical information, maps, and photographs. Ages 14–up. Agent: Nicolas Grivel, Nicolas Grivel Agency. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

On a quest to prove he’s one bad dude, a young bear forsakes his forest home for the streets of the city in this madcap graphic novel by Benton (the Catwad series). Clyde yearns to be “bad as bologna. Left out on the counter to spoil.” When scaring off a turned-around butterfly and tossing his own turtle grandmother into a nearby lake fail to satisfy his dastardly impulses, Clyde, sporting a perpetual frown, travels from his idyllic hometown of Cubville to “the baddest place he knew—Grizzly City!” Shortly into his trip, however, Clyde is knocked unconscious by butterfly Melinda Sue, a Grizzly City native who claims she’s come to take him back to Cubville. Still, Clyde won’t stray from his quest. Upon arriving at the metropolis, though, he finds himself in over his head dealing with a rough-and-tumble welcoming committee—until Melinda Sue swoops in to save the day. Large, straightforward panels relay cheeky dialogue and visual gags that lightly poke fun at Clyde’s delinquent aspirations—his hospital discharge papers following his encounter with Melinda Sue read “creamed by butterfly”—resulting in an enthusiastic, humorous work. A Spanish-language edition publishes simultaneously. Ages 6–9. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Lightning-quick pacing results in rapidly building, unrelenting suspense in this deftly crafted thriller of friendship, betrayal, murder, and romance by Richards (49 Miles Alone). Seventeen months before this book’s start, Ohio high school junior Clara Cutler is arrested for breaking and entering. If it wasn’t for her 17-year-old best friend Lily Dalton, Clara would be doomed to life as a social pariah. As “that rare triple-crown student with the right grades, right attitude, and right social group,” though, Lily commands respect and authority wherever she goes. But when Clara finds a list of names among Lily’s belongings—including corresponding license plate numbers and recipes for explosives—Clara worries that Lily is up to something sinister. Sudden radio silence from Lily prompts Clara to seek help from school administrators, but before she can relay what she found, Clara is arrested—and she learns that Lily is framing her for attempted murder. As Clara struggles to prove her innocence, she’s repeatedly thwarted by Lily. While some character motivations are never made clear, the novel’s increasingly tense ambiance ensnares readers’ attention, keeping the audience on the edges of their seats and surprising at every turn. Clara and Lily are white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Suzie Towsend, New Leaf Literary. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Rival teen witches unite to circumvent their doom in this heartrending trilogy opener from Salter (Where the Woods End). Wresting magic from an element is injurious, excruciating work, so arcanists, those able to use this power, enslave magically gifted children, dubbed familiars, to perform the extractions. Fortunate familiars live into their 30s, but when someone inside the dome-encased Fourspires Castle commits regicide, bone witch Taro, botanic witch Nixie, stone witch Alis, and blood witch Elliot—each an 18-year-old familiar to the head arcanists of the four disciplines—fear their days are numbered. Royal tradition dictates that the head arcanists vie for the throne via mortal combat, after which all the losing arcanist’s familiars must die. According to a Fourspires ghost, though, survival lies outside the dome. To break the centuries-old curse anchoring this dome, Taro, Nixie, Alis, and Elliot must join forces, but a failed attempt could end in apocalypse. Salter deftly balances the intersectionally diverse characters’ grim existence with gleefully gruesome worldbuilding, snarky banter, and fraught queer romance. Candid close-third-person narration alternates between the quartet’s perspectives, revealing the pain and yearning that underlie the protagonists’ outsize personalities while fostering tension and drive. Ages 14–up. Agent: Stevie Finegan, Zeno Literary. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

O’Sullivan deftly interweaves Irish-mythology-inspired worldbuilding with dystopian fantasy trappings to deliver an intriguingly dark romance. Predominantly male magic users called Channellers have ruled the land of Domhain for four centuries, using their abilities—supported by subservient, less powerful Keepers, typically female—to instantly grow food, conjure fantastical castles, and fend off invading dragons. Rather than use her unusually strong abilities to claim a Channeller position for herself, orphaned 17-year-old shepherd Éadha instead elects to save her childhood friend and first love, Ionáin—the only scion of a dying noble family—from disgrace. Passing her magic off as his and stepping into the role of his Keeper, both Éadha and Ionáin travel to Lambay islands to hone their gifts. As Éadha struggles to maintain her deception to everyone, including Ionáin, she finds an unlikely ally in Gry, a male Keeper from a prominent family who seems to know more than he lets on. Caught between her loyalty to Ionáin and her growing attraction to Gry, Éadha unravels the dark secrets underpinning the Channellers’ power while considering what she will give up for love. Within the context of Domhain’s intensely misogynistic hierarchy, O’Sullivan explores the grim consequences of systematic oppression and self-sacrifice, culminating in an explosive adventure with plenty of tantalizing plot threads to follow in future installments. Characters are described as having various skin tones. Ages 12–up. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Inspired in part, per an author’s note, by the true story of an orphaned Asian elephant transplanted to the Islamabad Zoo, this tidy novel by Saeed (Omar Rising) traces a Pakistani youth’s experience learning to advocate for others. Determined Hafsa dreams of becoming a medical doctor. She’s thrilled when her traditional father, pressured by her older sister Shabnam and Shabnam’s physician husband Sohail, reluctantly allows Hafsa to attend a prestigious science camp in Lahore, where the newly married couple lives with Sohail’s wealthy parents. Hafsa is disappointed, however, to learn that the camp curriculum focuses not on medicine but on climate change. But her disappointment soon grows into curiosity and concern for the animals in the city zoo and their deteriorating living conditions—especially for elephant, Gulab. Hafsa’s deepening attachment to Gulab and her activism against animal cruelty steadily unfolds alongside peripheral family struggles: after Shabnam abandons her goal of attending culinary school to instead help her mother-in-law fundraise for Sohail’s hospital, Hafsa’s attempted interventions sow resentment within the sisters’ relationship. While Hafsa’s emotional voice reads as somewhat young, and conflicts are resolved a bit smoothly, the development of Hafsa’s passions evolves naturally and credibly, and her achievements feel well-earned. Ages 10–up. Agent: Faye Bender, Book Group. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Patel (Stolen Colors) draws on personal experience, as addressed in an author’s note, to deliver an immersive 1999-set verse novel, her middle grade debut. Since the strict social mores of 12-year-old Chandni Desai’s Vadodara, Gujarat, India home dictate that traditional households be comprised of a mother, a father, and two sons, Chandni knows her family is considered unusual, especially because her mother’s sister, Diya Masi, lives with Chandni, her older brother, and her parents. Because Chandni shares a bedroom with her aunt, the tween is privy to a terrible secret: her father and Diya Masi are having an affair. As the only one in the know, Chandni believes it’s her responsibility to stop the liaisons. With her departure for a prestigious boarding school fast approaching, Chandni also contends with shifting friendships; her half Tamilian and half Muslim bestie is moving away, and she’s unsure if her crush reciprocates her feelings. Straightforward free verse portrays raw emotions (“I come back to what is/ real,/ and that makes me seethe/ as I wait”) as, via Chandni’s keen perspective and a vividly rendered setting, this forthright read showcases how religious, gender, and cultural expectations, among other sociopolitical topics, impact relationships and self-perception. Ages 10–up. Agent: Joyce Sweeney, Seymour Agency. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

A tween accidentally unleashes a vengeful ghost from a crypt and must work with his former best friend to recapture the spirit in this sensitive novel set in Barbados. After enduring bullying for his interest in science and his family’s financial insecurity, Jermaine aligns himself with popular kids the Turbo Jets at his new school, hoping to spare himself from harassment. But Jermaine’s desire to secure a more favorable social standing alienates his new friend Brody, whom the Turbo Jets frequently target. During a Turbo Jets hazing ritual, Jermaine becomes trapped in the Chase Vault, a purportedly haunted crypt. And though he escapes, he’s followed by the ghost of Dorcas, who died in 1812. At first, Jermaine thinks Dorcas is his “lucky charm,” but when he learns that Brody can see her too—and that the good luck she brings Jermaine comes with potentially dangerous consequences—the boys team up to help Dorcas move on into the afterlife. Chapters alternate between Jermaine and Brody’s third-person POVs, respectively rendered in introspective prose and snappy verse by Bourne (Beware the Heartman). As the youths learn more about Dorcas’s past, they’re forced to confront the reasons behind their own strained friendship as well as weighty historical issues surrounding slavery and lineage. Jermaine is Black; Brody is biracial (Black and white). Ages 8–12. Agent: Marietta B. Zacker, Gallt & Zacker Literary. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

An adult speaker relates parallel gestational periods in this visually inventive book from young adult author Sullivan, making her picture book debut, and Love (The Poet and the Bees), which unfolds over the course of a single pregnancy. Beginning “Little Passenger./ I have made a space for you/ inside my heart,” sensorially anchored lines use anaphora to address the developing embryo, chronicling a gradual transformation from “a dot,/ a pea, a single grape” to “a cabbage,/ a pumpkin,/ and...// a person.” Light-filled watercolors seem composed of gentle stitches as they alternate imagery of flora and fruit, a pale-skinned adult with a baby bump sewing by hand, and a glowing pink figure in utero. As the moment for greetings nears, reassuring verse builds with welcoming anticipation (“Are you ready?... There is a soft place for you to sleep”), while illustrations reveal the purpose of the adult’s handiwork: a cozy quilt to be shared by caregiver and new arrival. It’s a warmth-filled portrait that binds the loving act of making a quilt to one experience of growing a family. Ages 5–7. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink

Sumptuously patterned artwork and reiterative lines capture a day’s contrasting rhythms in this arresting tale about an outing that doesn’t go according to plan. “Hurry, hurry,” urges an initial refrain as two figures, “jackets zipped,” rush out to catch a train and get to a city park—only to discover that they’ve missed the scheduled event. The youth’s disappointment is palpable, but as the two, who read as Black, begin to embrace a free day, initially frenzied verse lightly lengthens, its mood turning joyful and contented. “We’ll head back home,/ but while we’re here,” they repeat, pausing to savor their surroundings: peering underneath a bridge, watching pond ducklings, walking “until the trail runs out,” perching beneath a tree, and more. Vibrant quilt-like collages by Archer (Wind Watchers) intricately mix acrylic inks, tissue paper, handmade stamped papers, and more to create truly absorbing environments. Ending scenes of the child and caregiver luxuriating alongside a stream and beneath the shade of tree branches aptly convey the closing calm of carefully paced narration from Wynter (So Many Years: A Juneteenth Story). It’s a powerful view of the ease that can emerge from unstructured time. Ages 4–8. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 12/12/2025 | Details & Permalink