With book lovers seeking gifts and winter-break reading for young audiences, a few titles have risen to the fore. Katherine Rundell’s middle grade fantasy Impossible Creatures (Knopf), has winged its way to readers’ shelves, and Dav Pilkey’s 13th Dog Man installment, Big Jim Begins (Scholastic), heralds the January 31 release of DreamWorks’s Dog Man feature film.

Jeff Kinney’s 19th Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, Hot Mess (Amulet), and Kirsten Anderson’s Who Is Taylor Swift? (Penguin Workshop) are chart toppers too. Shifa Saltagi Safadi’s Kareem Between, a novel-in-verse about a Syrian American seventh grader’s sense of belonging and football-team dream, scored a touchdown by winning a National Book Award. And X. Fang’s We Are Definitely Human (Tundra), a picture book about aliens receiving compassionate-if-skeptical hospitality from Earthlings after a spacecraft malfunction, has built a following since its release last spring.

PW asked booksellers to name additional titles that have become their holiday highlights.

Picture Books for All Seasons

“Most of what is taking off right now seems to be holiday-related,” said Debra Boggs, buyer at Gramercy Books in Bexley, Ohio. Boggs picked Chicka Chicka Ho Ho Ho (Beach Lane), a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom sequel from William Boniface and Julien Chung; Cows and Holly by Sandra Boynton (Boynton Bookworks), with its CD of quirky takes on classic carols; and Socks: A Kid’s Christmas Lament, a picture book version of JD McPherson’s woeful 2018 blues song, illustrated by Anika Orrock (Walker Books US). Boggs also gave a thumbs up to Oliver Jeffers’s Where to Hide a Star (Philomel), because it’s “so weird and charming.”

At Plaid Elephant Books in Danville, Ky., owner Kate Lockard Snyder seconds the recommendation of Chicka Chicka Ho Ho Ho, which “is selling like mad.” Shirley Mullin, owner of Kids Ink in Indianapolis, put A City Full of Santas by Joanna Ho, illustrated by Thai My Phuong (HarperCollins), on her list of holiday favorites. Katie Plonk, children’s book buyer at McLean & Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, Mich., directs readers to The Owl Who Came for Christmas by John Hay, illustrated by Garry Parsons (Macmillan), based on the true story of a screech owl who made a home in a holiday tree.

Katie Moran, the owner of Singularities online and pop-up bookstore in Irvine, Calif., specializes in STEM titles and suggests The Reindeer Remainders by Katey Howes, illustrated by Marie Hermansson (Sourcebooks eXplore). Its reindeer games teach “prime numbers for preschoolers, so it’s my kind of book,” Moran said. When the reindeer split into groups and one reindeer gets left out, the “social lesson gives kids enough space to problem-solve,” using math skills. Plus, “the reindeer make it a nice Christmas gift, but it isn’t otherwise a Christmas story,” Moran added.

For purchasers who aren’t so seasonally inclined, McLean & Eakins’s Plonk suggests Christopher Denise’s Knight Owl and Early Bird (Little, Brown/Ottaviano), a follow-up to the Caldecott Honor title Knight Owl, and Mikey Pease’s The Café at the Edge of the Woods (HarperCollins). Kendra Calitri, children’s book buyer at Village Books in Bellingham, Wash., touted The Café at the Edge of the Woods as well. “We are a city full of amazing cafés for families, so this is a title kids can connect with,” Calitri said. She thinks families who “enjoy tabletop and role-playing games” will appreciate Café’s “enchanted forest and peculiar patrons.”

This December, Calitri’s also bullish on Ben Clanton and Andy Chou Musser’s story time tale, Paint with Ploof (Tundra); Lian Cho’s Pig Town Party (HarperCollins), which she calls “silly” and “joyous”; and Jacob Grant’s Umami (Viking), popular with Washington foodies “since we’re located close to Seattle, where the teriyaki trend started in the 1970s.”

For nature lovers and Solstice celebrants, Calitri points to Nikki Van De Car’s My Wheel of the Year: A Celebration of Nature’s Magic, illustrated by Kiki Kita (Running Press). “Our store is surrounded by beauty—Bellingham Bay is out the back window, the Canadian Cascades are to the north, and brilliant Mount Baker is to our west. Our community has a deep love and respect for nature, so we try to celebrate that in any way we can.”

Also available for nature lovers is a bilingual book for young readers from Village Books’ in-house indie publisher, Chuckanut Editions, in cooperation with the Lummi Nation. Written by Tah-Mahs Ellie Kinley and Julie Trimingham, illustrated by Sienum Jason LaClair, and translated by Na-tak-ul-tan Tino Kurtz, Sa'le Q'ewet Netse-lh/Our Hearts Beat as One honors Sk'aliCh'elh-tenaut, the orca also known as Tokitae or Lolita, who died in 2023 before she could be returned from captivity in Florida to her home waters in the Salish Sea.

Sleeper Hits and Under-the-Radar Stars

Plonk, Calitri, and Allie Cesmat, children’s events coordinator and book buyer at Changing Hands in Phoenix, all singled out The Bakery Dragon by Devin Elle Kurtz (Knopf), a story about a fantasy creature with a golden hoard of bagels, buns, and baguettes. “If you haven’t read this, be prepared for the cutest story ever,” Cesmat said. Cesmat also recommended Good Night Thoughts by Max Greenfield, illustrated by James Serafino (Putnam), a book about anxiety for kids who have trouble falling asleep.

At Brick and Mortar Books in Redmond, Wash., owner Dan Ullom said Geo Rutherford’s Spooky Lakes (Abrams) and 2024 Flying Starts author Rachel Michelle Wilson’s How to Pee Your Pants: The Right Way (Feiwel and Friends) “have been sleeper hits on the kids’ side.” Heather Hebert, owner of Children’s Book World in Haverford, Pa., also named titles to be enjoyed year-round. “We just love watching customers read The Book That Can Read Your Mind by Marianna Coppo (Chronicle),” Hebert said. “The surprise and delight on their faces when they get to the end makes our day.”

Hebert digs The Man Who Didn’t Like Animals by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by LeUyen Pham (Clarion)—“I have been reading this at schools and the kids love it”—and the folkloric creatures of Poonam Mistry’s The Midnight Panther (Candlewick Studio). She says families should check out Jeff Drew’s seek-and-find Alfie Explores A to Z (Random House), which was also a PW Flying Start; Alex London and illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky’s Still Life (Greenwillow); and as a read-aloud, the rhyming short stories in Tales from Muggleswick Wood by Vicky Cowie, illustrated by Charlie Mackesy (Bloomsbury).

Every bookstore has its under-the-radar in-house favorites, too. At Singularities, Moran applauds international authors, including Norwegian illustrator Kristin Roskifte (Everybody Travels, Wide Eyed Editions) and German illustrator Britta Teckentrup (whose Peek-Through nature series will come out from Doubleday in spring 2025). Teckentrup’s search-and-find Where’s the Pair? A Spotting Book (Big Picture Press), came out in paperback in 2024, and Moran called it “a nice way to spend a calm hour with a child on a plane, at a restaurant, or between activities.”

At Children’s Book World, a Texas indie publisher—JamJam Books—has made a positive impression with music-themed titles including My First Mozart and My First Bach. “We cannot keep them in stock, literally,” Hebert said. “Every time I turn around, the display is empty, no matter how many I order.”

Giftable Middle Grade Favorites

At Once Upon a Time bookstore in Montrose, Calif., manager Jessica Palacios welcomed a slate of SoCal authors on Small Business Saturday. Guests included Bakery Dragon author Kurtz as well as Jorge Pham, whose latest middle grade title in the Oliver’s Great Big Universe series, Volcanoes Are Hot (Abrams), “has been a really big hit here because it’s a mix of science and diary format,” Palacios said.

When it comes to middle grade reading, Laurie Raisys, owner of Island Books on Mercer Island near Seattle, said all three books in Peter Brown’s Wild Robot series are in demand as gifts. Plonk of McLean & Eakin said The Wild Robot (2016) is doing particularly well on the heels of the recent film adaptation.

For Hebert, a favorite hand-sell among staff at Children’s Book World is Not Nothing by Gayle Forman (Aladdin), the story of a troubled 12-year-old assigned to volunteer at a retirement home, where he meets a Holocaust survivor. “It’s rare that we all fall in love with the same book, but that is exactly what happened with this one,” Hebert told PW.

Kate DiCamillo’s second Norendy novel, The Hotel Balzaar, illustrated by Júlia Sardà, charmed Calitri of Village Books, while Marissa Meyer and Joanne Levy’s Let It Glow (Feiwel and Friends), about identical twins who swap places for the holidays, appealed to Boggs of Gramercy. Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin’s The Bletchley Riddle (Viking), with its blend of historical fiction, mystery, and spycraft, was another pick shared by both booksellers.

Cesmat at Changing Hands cheered Violet Duncan’s debut novel, Buffalo Dreamer (Penguin/Paulsen), about a girl who has troubling dreams about her Indigenous family’s history in Canada’s residential schools. Duncan, a member of the Kehewin Cree Nation, now lives in Mesa, Ariz., not far from the bookstore. “We love that Violet is one of our local authors, and this became a National Book Award finalist,” exulted Cesmat.

Fantasy is also on Cesmat’s go-to list, and she names Shannon Messenger’s latest Keeper of the Lost Cities title, Unraveled (Aladdin), along with Mai K. Nguyen’s graphic novel, Anzu and the Realm of Darkness (Viking). Of Anzu, Cesmat said, “We read this for our middle grade book club, and the kids and I had a blast!”

At Rediscovered Books in Boise, Idaho, manager Rebecca Crosswhite is reminding readers to pre-order the eighth Wings of Fire graphic novel, Escaping Peril, by Tui T. Sutherland, illustrated by Mike Holmes (Graphix, Dec.). For readers anticipating that Christmas Eve dragon drop, Crosswhite suggests dipping into The Last Dragon on Mars by Scott Reintgen (Aladdin).

YA Sequels, Series, and Boxed Sets

Older readers who’ve outgrown Wings of Fire’s three continents can visit the World of Eragon with Christopher Paolini’s new novel Murtagh (Knopf). “Our teen and adult crowds couldn’t grab Murtagh fast enough, and the deluxe edition has been very popular,” Calitri said.

Among the YA recommendations, booksellers named a few standalone titles. Cesmat picked two queer titles, Molly Knox Ostertag’s The Deep Dark (Graphix)—a graphic narrative that blends realistic trauma with fantasy elements—and Andrew Joseph White’s Compound Fracture (Peachtree Teen), the violent story of a trans teen in West Virginia navigating a murderous family history and working-class unrest in Appalachia. “No one is writing horror like AJW,” Cesmat said.

Ramunda Lark Young, co-owner of Mahogany Books in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, sang the praises of Tomi Adeyemi, whose Children of Anguish and Anarchy (Holt) is the third novel in the Legacy of Orisha series. Young recalled meeting Adeyemi at Book Expo 2017, when the author was promoting the series debut, Children of Blood and Bone. Now, Young looks forward to hand-selling the conclusion to the series, including at Mahogany Books’ booth at the monthlong DowntownDC Holiday Market outside the National Portrait Gallery.

YA series and sequels—such as Lauren Roberts’s Powerless trilogy (Simon & Schuster), Isabel Ibañez’s second Secrets of the Nile title Where the Library Hides (Wednesday Books), and Stephanie Garber’s Caraval novella Spectacular, illustrated by Rosie Fowinkle (Flatiron)—got shoutouts from several bookstores. Romance readers at McLean & Eakin and at The Bookworm in Omaha, Neb., are picking up Nothing Like the Movies, Lynn Painter’s sequel to her bestselling Better Than the Movies. YA fantasy readers at Village Books love Sabaa Tahir’s Heir (Putnam), and Tahir’s Ember in the Ashes series has been smoldering; superfans can grab Putnam’s boxed set of all four Ember titles.

Palacios of Once Upon a Time tapped Fledgling by S.K. Ali (Kokila), the first book in the Keeper’s Records of Revolution duology, as a top YA pick. “We really are excited by Fledgling,” Palacios said. “We’ve loved S.K. Ali’s books in the past, and this is her debut in a new category, with a gripping story and an amazing faceout.” Young readers have an array of literary content and genres from which to choose, along with technical bookbinding details—like the year’s trend of custom sprayed-edge binding—to marvel at, this holiday season.