Here we round up new and forthcoming children’s titles, including a picture book celebrating black Americans, a story about new parents, a YA feminist fantasy novel, and a book about a cinephile teen.
The Undefeated by Kwame Alexander, illus. by Kadir Nelson. Versify, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-328-78096-6. Performed first on the ESPN show of the same name, this anthem to the courage and genius of black Americans has been turned into a picture book with portraits by Caldecott Honor artist Kadir Nelson. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Babymoon by Hayley Barrett, illus. by Juana Martinez-Neal. Candlewick, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-7636-8852-3. During their “babymoon,” two new parents learn the rhythms of caring for their newborn in this picture book.
We Rule the Night by Claire Eliza Bartlett. Little, Brown, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-316-41727-3. Inspired by the Night Witches, real WWII Soviet fighter pilots, Bartlett’s feminist fantasy debut explores misogynistic military culture and the human cost of war. The YA novel earned a starred review from PW.
This Book Is Not Yet Rated by Peter Bognanni. Dial, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-735-22807-8. In this film-centric YA novel, Ethan, a teen cinephile, works at a Minneapolis art house cinema that’s in danger of being closed and replaced with a luxury development.
Feminist Baby! He’s a Feminist Too! by Loryn Brantz. Disney-Hyperion, $9.99; ISBN 978-1-368-02299-6. In this cheeky board book sequel to Feminist Baby, Brantz introduces a male feminist infant with a scribble of dark hair who wears little more than diapers and sometimes a cape.
The Little Guys by Vera Brosgol. Roaring Brook, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-62672-442-6. Caldecott Honor–winner Brosgol brings her story-making perspective down to the forest floor, home to a band of diminutive creatures with acorn caps, red noses, full-body beards, and stick arms and legs.
The Meaning of Birds by Jaye Robin Brown. HarperTeen, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-282444-8. Jess is a talented artist who has long used creating to cope with anger, but nothing has seemed worth doing since her girlfriend Vivi’s sudden death.
Comics: Easy as ABC!: The Essential Guide to Comics for Kids by Ivan Brunetti, edited by Françoise Mouly. Toon, $16.95; ISBN 978-1-943145-39-3. An idiosyncratic guide to drawing comics packs a lot of information into relatively few pages, covering doodles and basic shapes, characters and emotions, settings and perspective, lettering and layout, and how to develop a story.
Lenny the Lobster Can’t Stay for Dinner: ...or Can He? You Decide! by Finn Buckley, with Michael Buckley, illus. by Catherine Meurisse. Phaidon, $16.95; ISBN 978-0-7148-7864-5. With a dapper lobster in the leading role and a soupçon of dark humor, the collaboration of Buckley père et fils will delight omnivore foodie families and appall tender-hearted readers.
O Captain, My Captain: Walt Whitman, Abraham Lincoln, and the Civil War by Robert Burleigh, illus. by Sterling Hundley. Abrams, $19.99; ISBN 978-1-4197-3358-1. Burleigh tells the story of the poet and of the president he so admired, sprinkling quotes from Whitman and lines of his poetry throughout.
Don’t Let Them Disappear by Chelsea Clinton, illus. by Gianna Marino. Philomel, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-525-51432-9. Writing in clear, compassionate prose, Clinton (She Persisted) introduces picture book readers to 12 endangered species.
A Piglet Named Mercy by Kate DiCamillo, illus. by Chris Van Dusen. Candlewick, $18.99; ISBN 978-0-76367-753-4. DiCamillo and Van Dusen create an origin story for popular chapter book series star and “porcine wonder” Mercy Watson in this picture book prequel.
Dandy by Ame Dyckman, illus. by Charles Santoso. Little, Brown, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-316-36295-5. It’s love vs. lawn care in this picture book by Dyckman (Wolfie the Bunny). When a lone dandelion appears in a lion father’s front yard, he’s determined to remove it.
Tomorrow Most Likely by Dave Eggers, illus. by Lane Smith. Chronicle, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4521-7278-1. Books about outside exploration in the countryside abound. In this picture book, an urban setting gives city kids a poem that belongs to them.
The Last Last-Day-Of-Summer by Lamar Giles, illus. by Dapo Adeola. Versify, $16.99; ISBN 978-1-328-46083-7. In his inventive middle grade debut, Giles (Overturned) riotously scrambles time, moving it backward, forward—and not at all. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Greystone Secrets #1: The Strangers by Margaret Peterson Haddix. HarperCollins/Tegen, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-283837-7. In Ohio, the Greystone kids—responsible Chess, math-savvy Emma, and excitable Finn—have established a pleasant life with their mother years after their father’s death. Until, that is, the day they find their mother weeping over a news story about three kidnapped children who have the same birth dates and unusual names as the siblings. The middle grade mystery novel earned a starred review from PW.
Bikes for Sale by Carter Higgins, illus. by Zachariah OHora. Chronicle, $16.99; ISBN 978-1-4521-5932-4. This quirky anticonsumerist fable imagines a town in which uses can be found for the things most people abandon, small enterprises flourish, and communal kindness makes life rich.
Where the Heart Is by Jo Knowles. Candlewick, $16.99; ISBN 978-1-5362-0003-4. In this middle grade novel, summer starts off with a bang for Rachel when she receives a refurbished bike for her 13th birthday, but things quickly go downhill as she confronts unwanted change.
Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn. Bloomsbury, $16.99; ISBN 978-1-68119-743-2. Intensely responsible Cat, 11, looks after her seven-year old brother, Chicken, whose unique stressors and focused intensity require patience and attention, particularly since the death of their father. The middle grade novel earned a starred review from PW.
Gondra’s Treasure by Linda Sue Park, illus. by Jennifer Black Reinhardt. Clarion, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-544-54669-1. In this picture book, Gondra is a little dragon whose father is from the East, where dragons are blue and green, breathe mist, and fly with magic.
Super Sons: The Polarshield Project by Ridley Pearson, illus. by Ile Gonzalez. DC Zoom, $9.99; ISBN 978-1-4012-8639-2. Damian Wayne and Jonathan Kent may be the offspring of Batman and Superman, but they are still too young to follow in their fathers’ footsteps in this middle grade collection of a comic series.
Forward Me Back to You by Mitali Perkins. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-374-30492-8. Perkins’s latest YA novel follows alternating protagonists: brown-skinned Kat, a superhero-obsessed, tough-as-nails regional jiujitsu champion and California girl with a single, white-skinned mother; and India-born superhero enthusiast Robin, adopted by wealthy white parents in Boston.
¡Vamos! Let’s Go to the Market by Raúl the Third. Versify, $14.99; ISBN 978-1-328-55726-1. This picture book graphic novel by Raúl the Third (Low Riders to the Center of the Earth) celebrates the richness of border-town culture. The book earned a starred review from PW.
The Lost Forest by Phyllis Root, illus. by Betsy Bowen. Univ. of Minnesota, $17.95; ISBN 978-0-8166-9796-0. Root’s beguiling true-life middle grade novel tells how 114 acres of northern Minnesota old-growth pine forest was spared the lumberjack’s saw thanks to a surveyor’s error in 1882. The book earned a starred review from PW.
Swarm of Bees by Lemony Snicket, illus. by Rilla Alexander. Little, Brown, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-316-39282-2. A boy shies a tomato at a hive of bees, releasing a furious swarm. Snicket’s narrator (The Bad Mood and the Stick) addresses the bees: “You are so angry! What will you do?”
The Runaways by Ulf Stark, illus. by Kitty Crowther, trans. from the Swedish by Julia Marshall. Gecko, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-77657-233-5. In this middle grade novel, a grandfather asks his grandson to help him escape a hospital after suffering a fall. The book earned a starred review from PW.
The Panda Problem by Deborah Underwood, illus. by Hannah Marks. Dial, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-735-22850-4. In this picture book, the panda narrator refuses to play his role as narrator.
Most Marshmallows by Rowboat Watkins. Chronicle, $16.99; ISBN 978-1-4521-5959-1. Author-illustrator Watkins introduces diverse marshmallows in their world.
The Raven’s Tale by Cat Winters. Amulet, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4197-3362-8. Winters (Odd & True) delves into the life of young Edgar Allan Poe in this elegantly scripted, detailed exploration of a world in which muses take corporeal form.
Giant Tess by Dan Yaccarino. HarperCollins, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-267027-4. In Tess’s town of Myth-hattan, everyone is some kind of mythical creature: there are centaurs and Minotaurs, fairies and mer-people, and nobody thinks twice if you have snakes for hair. Tess, however, is the only giant.
The Night Library by David Zeltser, illus. by Raul Colón. Random House, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-5247-1798-8. Zeltser (Stinker) and Colón (Imagine!) offer a picture book about the New York Public Library’s famous lions, Patience and Fortitude.
For more children’s and YA titles on sale throughout the month of April, check out PW’s full On-Sale Calendar.
