Here we round up new and forthcoming children’s titles, including the launch of a middle grade fantasy series, a picture book about a boy escaping a dire situation, a high fantasy YA novel, and a picture book about old-fashioned letter-writing.
Endling #1: The Last by Katherine Applegate. HarperCollins, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-233552-4. The first installment of Applegate’s (The One and Only Ivan) middle grade fantasy trilogy assembles a motley crew embarking on a suspenseful, tautly drawn quest. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Marwan’s Journey by Particia de Arias, illus. by Laura Borràs. Minedition, $17.99; ISBN 978-988-8341-55-9. In this picture book, after tanks arrive and “swallow up everything,” a boy begins the harrowing, heartbreaking journey away from his home in an unnamed desert village. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Onyx and Ivory by Mindee Arnett. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-265266-9. In this launch to a high fantasy YA series, Arnett builds a world of magic and intrigue, enhanced by side characters of substance that create momentum for subsequent books.
Snail Mail by Samantha Berger, illus. by Julia Patton. Running Press, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7624-6251-3. Four snails carry a letter “made by a Girl who loved a Boy” from Santa Monica to New York City, in this appropriately leisurely paced tale about the pleasures of taking one’s time.
Penguin & Tiny Shrimp Don’t Do Bedtime! by Cate Berry, illus. by Charles Santoso. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-249153-4. Never mind that Penguin is wearing jammies and Little Shrimp a sleeping cap; the two let readers know up front that “this is not a bedtime book.”
Llama Llama Loves to Read by Anna Dewdney and Reed Duncan, illus. by J.T. Morrow. Viking, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-670-01397-5. In this addition to the Llama Llama series, carried on by the late Dewdney’s longtime partner Duncan, the titular character learns how to read at school.
Give Me Some Truth by Eric Gansworth. Scholastic/Levine, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-338-14354-6. In the followup to Gansworth’s If I Ever Get Out of Here, it’s 1980, and high school senior Carson Mastick reasons that, if he can get a band together, he can win the local Battle of the Bands and get off the Tuscarora Nation reservation.
Royals by Rachel Hawkins. Putnam, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-5247-3823-5. After her sister becomes engaged to Prince Alex of Scotland, Daisy is whisked off to the palace to spend the summer learning how to behave like a member of the royal family, in this middle grade novel.
How I Resist edited by Maureen Johnson. Wednesday Books, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-250-16836-8. Candor and passion radiate from the 30 voices raised in this trenchant and timely compendium of interviews, essays, reflections, illustrations, and poems. Contributors include Hamilton star Javier Muñoz, Jason Reynolds, Jacqueline Woodson, and others.
Tradition by Brendan Kiely. McElderry, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-4814-8034-5. Kiely’s (American Boys) newest novel alternates perspectives between jock Jamie “Bax” Baxter, a new student at Fullbrook Academy who is escaping tragedy and determined to start over, and feminist activist Jules, who is fed up with Fullbrook’s social politics and its traditions based on hierarchy and privilege. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Oopsie-Do! by Tim Kubart, illus. by Lori Richmond. HarperCollins, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-257303-2. In this picture book debut with a downloadable song, Grammy Award–winning kids’ musician Kubart offers a comforting message of embracing mistakes accompanied with sunny illustrations by Richmond (Bunny’s Staycation).
How Sweet the Sound: The Story of Amazing Grace by Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Frank Morrison. Atheneum, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4814-7206-7. Morrison’s vibrant, sometimes haunting oil paintings join Weatherford’s spare, rhyming couplets to delineate the birth and reach of the famed hymn “Amazing Grace.”
Adventures to School: Real-Life Journeys of Students from Around the World by Baptiste and Miranda Paul, illus. by Isabel Muñoz. Little Bee, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4998-0665-6. The husband-and-wife coauthors explore how children from 13 countries travel to school.
The Length of a String by Elissa Brent Weissman. Dial, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-73522-9471. As 12-year-old Imani prepares for her bat mitzvah, the biracial girl connects—via a diary—with an ancestor who fled Luxembourg for Brooklyn.
The Other Ducks by Ellen Yeomans, illus. by Chris Sheban. Roaring Brook/Porter, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-62672-502-7. In this tale from author Yeomans (Jubilee) and illustrator Sheban (I Met a Dinosaur), two ducks aren’t having an easy time adapting without other ducks around to show them the ropes. The book earned a starred review from PW.
For more children’s and YA titles on sale throughout the month of May, check out PW’s full On-Sale Calendar.
