Week of July 1, 2019

Take Your Pet to School Day by Linda Ashman, illus. by Suzanne Kaufman. Random House, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-5247-6559-0. At the start of this picture book, every kid at Maple View School brings home a curious but official-looking notice: on Friday, the no-pet rule will be suspended.

The King of Kindergarten by Derrick Barnes, illus. by Vanessa Brantley-Newton. Penguin/Paulsen, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-5247-4074-0. When a mother gives her son the titular nickname, it inspires him throughout his first day of school. The picture book earned a starred review from PW.

First Day of Groot! by Brendan Deneen, illus. by Cale Atkinson. Marvel, $12.99; ISBN 978-1-368-00069-7. In this picture book by the creators of Night Night, Groot, a young Groot, the extraterrestrial, treelike member of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, takes off on an educational adventure with his buddy Rocket Raccoon.

Not Quite Snow White by Ashley Franklin, illus. by Ebony Glenn. HarperCollins, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-279860-2. Tameika is a die-hard song-and-dance gal, and the world (including her own backyard) is her stage. In this picture book, she’s going to audition for the biggest school play role yet: the lead in the musical Snow White.

Reaching for the Moon: The Autobiography of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson by Katherine Johnson. Atheneum, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-5344-4083-8. African-American research mathematician and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Johnson, of Hidden Figures fame, imbues this narrative of the first half of her life with her daily realities in the segregated South.

I Was an Outer-Space Chicken by David LaRochelle, illus. by Mike Gorman. Sterling, $6.95; ISBN 978-1-4549-2921-5. Best friends and cocaptains of their school’s Math All-Stars team, Lamar and Lexie are riding in their apartment building’s elevator when they are abruptly transported to the spaceship of a furry purple creature on a mission.

The Arrival of Someday by Jen Malone. HarperTeen, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-06-279538-0. In this YA novel, 18-year-old Amelia (Lia) is fierce and full of bravado. She rules the rink at roller derby, rallies for causes, and has won a contest to paint a mural in nearby Harvard Square. But after she vomits blood in the middle of a derby bout, she learns she was born with a rare disease.

Small World by Ishta Mercurio, illus. by Jen Corace. Abrams, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-4197-3407-6. Celebrating the beauty of discovery and the elegance of flight, newcomer Mercurio tells the story of Nanda, a brown-skinned girl who grows up to be an astronaut.

Unicorn Is Maybe Not So Great After All by Bob Shea. Disney-Hyperion, $17.99; ISBN 978-136800944-7. In this sequel to Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great, it’s the first day of school and Unicorn’s confidence hasn’t waned.

Pan’s Labyrinth: The Labyrinth of the Faun by Guillermo del Toro and Cornelia Funke, illus. by Allen Williams. Harper/Tegen, $19.99; ISBN 978-0-06-241446-5. In this dark YA fantasy, Funke (the Inkheart trilogy) revisits Pan’s Labyrinth, del Toro’s acclaimed 2006 film in which a girl undergoes a series of fairy tale–inspired tasks set against the backdrop of 1944 Spain.

Moon Babies by Karen Jameson, illus. by Amy Hevron. Putnam, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-525-51481-7. In a lyrical bedtime story, anthropomorphic baby moons with blissful, doll-like expressions orbit throughout an intergalactic world of constellations and purple skies.

My Big Bad Monster by A.N. Kang. Disney-Hyperion, $16.99; ISBN 978-1-4847-2882-6. In this picture book that offers an analogy for living with anxiety, a child with a shock of scribbly red curls is hounded by a monster that derides her.

Preschool, Here I Come! by D.J. Steinberg, illus. by John Joven. Grosset & Dunlap, $9.99; ISBN 978-1-5247-9052-3. Steinberg continues his series of celebratory books about school milestones with a collection of short poems about preschool.

Impossible Music by Sean Williams. Clarion, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-544-81620-6. Showcasing his skill at writing realism, Australian sci-fi author Williams (the Twinmaker series) creates a contemplative, sensitively written novel that takes readers deep into the mind of a teen musician suffering an identity crisis.

Week of July 8, 2019

Piranhas Don't Eat Bananas by Aaron Blabey. Scholastic Press, $14.99; ISBN 978-1-338-29713-3. Brian, a piranha, clearly did not get the memo about what his species eats, and it’s frustrating his fellow fish in this picture book.

Little Unicorn Is Angry Aurélie Chien Chow Chine. Little, Brown, $12.99; ISBN 978-0-316-53178-8. This first installment in the Little Unicorn picture book series introduces an expressive protagonist who has emotions as broad-ranging as his multicolored mane.

No More Monsters Under Your Bed! by Jordan Chouteau, illus. by Anat Even Or. LB/Patterson, $16.99; ISBN 978-0-316-45388-2. In this picture book, a boy who is terrified of the monsters that visit his bedroom each night faces his fears.

Past Perfect Life by Elizabeth Eulberg. Bloomsbury, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-5476-0092-2. Calling to mind Caroline B. Cooney’s The Face on the Milk Carton, this riveting missing-child story contrasts 17-year-old Allison Smith’s contented life in a small Wisconsin town with the chaos that follows her father’s arrest for kidnapping her from her mother 15 years earlier.

Seraphin by Philippe Fix, trans. from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith. Elsewhere, $18; ISBN 978-1-939810-25-0. In this picture book, French artist Fix chronicles the adventures of dreamer and tinkerer Seraphin and his young friend Plume.

One Shoe Two Shoes by Caryl Hart, illus. by Edward Underwood. Bloomsbury, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-5476-0094-6. An ode to shoes and counting gets a playful twist with the introduction of some mischievous mice in this cheerful concept book by the creators of Big Box Little Box.

Let's Scare Bear by Yuko Katakawa. Holiday House, $17.99; ISBN 978-0-8234-3953-9. Katakawa makes a spirited picture book debut, employing a panoply of visual styles.

Nikki Tesla and the Ferret-Proof Death Ray (Elements of Genius #1) by Jess Keating, illus. by Lissy Marlin. Scholastic Press, $16.99; ISBN 978-1-338-29521-4. Genius kid Nikola "Nikki" Tesla doesn’t intend for her latest invention—a death ray—to vaporize her bedroom, but sometimes accidents happen, especially to Nikki in this middle grade series launch.

Truman by Jean Reidy, illus. by Lucy Ruth Cummins. Atheneum, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-5344-1664-2. This picture book follows a girl and her tortoise, who is “small, the size of a donut—a small donut—and every bit as sweet.”

Me Myself & Him by Chris Tebbetts. Delacorte, $17.99; ISBN 978-1-5247-1522-9. Chris, the protagonist of this YA novel, imagined a summer that looked very different from the one that he’s living. It definitely didn’t involve being busted for doing whippits in the alley behind work and then shipped off to California to work under his genius physicist dad, who left the family years earlier.

Contagion by Teri Terry. Charlesbridge Teen, $18.99; ISBN 978-1-58089-989-5. In this first volume of a new dystopian YA series, Terry (the Slated trilogy) tackles the science of antimatter and what happens when human experimentation turns into deadly disease.

Dream Big by Joyce Wan. Cartwheel, $9.99; ISBN 978-1-338-33868-3. In this oversize, glossy-paged board book, Wan honors 15 visionary and inspiring women by affirming dreams, aspirations, and change-making.

Cheshire Crossing by Andy Weir, illus. by Sarah Andersen. Ten Speed, $14.99; ISBN 978-0-399-58207-3. Weir (Artemis for adults) and Andersen (the Sarah’s Scribbles series for adults) team up to bring Weir’s early webcomic to print in this fantasy mash-up that pitches together Wendy Darling, Dorothy Gale, and Alice Liddell as teenagers diagnosed with “dissociative psychosis.”

For more children’s and YA titles on sale throughout the month of July, check out PW's full On-Sale Calendar.