Seasonal Reads
Stories of family and friendship, plus a dash of romance, give kids and teens plenty to celebrate in December and beyond.
A City Full of Santas
Joanna Ho, illus. by Thai My Phuong (HarperCollins, ages 4–8) $19.99
When the young narrator and Mama travel to the city to see Santa, they arrive to find the streets teeming with a veritable SantaCon’s worth of figures passing by a sign reading “Santa Auditions.” The child is sure they’ll recognize the real deal, who “smells like peppermint and chocolate.” Believers of any age will appreciate Ho’s stirring notion of the existence of Santa being perceived through senses and feelings.
A Dragon for Hanukkah
Sarah Mlynowski, illus. by Ariel Landy (Orchard, ages 4–8) $18.99
In this imaginative adventure, bright-eyed Hannah details the magical gifts given by loved ones on successive nights of Hanukkah, including a dragon who sleeps on her pillow, a rainbow, and a merry-go-round. However powerful the gifts—which turn into less fanciful objects as Hannah tidies up—what makes the eighth night “the most magical” is gathering toys for donation and celebrating with guests.
The House Without Lights
Reem Faruqi, illus. by Nadia Alam (Holt, ages 4–8) $18.99
Faruqi gives a longing voice to an unoccupied house watching as its neighbor residences are festooned in lights, including Diwali lamps and Hanukkah menorahs. When a family moves in, the house feels cozy, but its hopes of being decorated for the upcoming yuletide are dashed. This tale’s charming conceit is matched by the visible glow of the house when at last it happily winks its lights months later, during Eid.
Let It Glow
Marissa Meyer and Joanne Levy (Macmillan/Feiwel and Friends, ages 8–12) $19.99
In this charming family-focused tale, two adopted tweens named Aviva and Holly meet at their grandparents’ senior center, discovering that not only do they look identical, they have the same birthday. Curious about how the other spends the holidays, the girls switch places. Via alternating chapters, Holly and Aviva avoid near discovery, miss their families, plan for the senior center’s holiday pageant, and learn what being sisters feels like.
Make My Wish Come True
Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick (Simon & Schuster, ages 14 and up) $19.99
Married collaborators Lippincott and Derrick fuse believable teenage characters, cozy holiday vibes, and a gentle reworking of familiar romance tropes to deliver a satisfying love story. Arden, a Netflix star and Los Angeles party girl, claims to be dating her former best friend, Caroline, to land a serious role. As the pair—each of whom assumed their childhood crush on the other was unrequited—go on dates in their Christmas-obsessed hometown, old feelings resurface.
One Wise Sheep
Ulrich Hub, illus. by Jörg Mühle (Gecko, ages 6–10) $18.99
Hub and Mühle explore Christmas through the lens of a bonded animal family in this sweet and humorous tale. Shepherds travel to bring gifts to a baby born in a manger, leaving their sheep behind. Different animals steer the sheep in the direction of the celebration, but since they’re “not mathematically inclined,” they struggle to keep track of all members of the flock.
Only for the Holidays
Abiola Bello (Soho, ages 14 and up) $19.99
Reeling from a breakup, Quincy throws himself into helping his family plan their rural British town’s annual Winter Ball. Meanwhile, Tia, whose boyfriend has pleaded for space, arrives at the inn adjoining Quincy’s family’s farm. Sensing an opportunity to make Quincy’s ex jealous and help Tia save her relationship, the pair decide to attend the Winter Ball together. Bello combines romance tropes like fake dating with a classic country-boy-meets-city-girl plot in this swoony rom-com.
Santa’s First Christmas
Mac Barnett, illus. by Sydney Smith (Viking, ages 3–7) $18.99
This warmhearted tale opens as a polar bear passing the North Pole finds that Santa spends Christmas Day just like any other: making toys. The bear’s stern reminder that “it’s Christmas” spurs elves to offer Santa a real celebration. With moments of abundance, laughter, and surprise, Barnett and Smith’s assembly of classic yuletide elements gives readers a chance to encounter a familiar holiday anew.
Tamales for Christmas
Stephen Briseño, illus. by Sonia Sánchez (Random House Studio, ages 4–8) $18.99
Inspired by his own grandmother, Briseño chronicles a matriarch’s tamale production leading up to Christmas, as “with masa in one hand, corn husks in the other,” she makes enough tamales to sell—finding a way “to fill the space underneath the tree.” Text affectionately details the woman’s attributes (giving, funny, tenacious) and helps readers track the tamale count. It’s a triumphant work jam-packed with activity, pure familial love, and, bonus, a tamale recipe.
Picture Books
Imaginative narratives will delight the youngest book lovers and the grown-ups who read with them.
Angela’s Glacier
Jordan Scott, illus. by Diana Sudyka (Holiday House/Porter, ages 4–8) $18.99
Scott writes of a relationship that grows between a child and a
glacier, Iceland’s Snæfellsjökull. The glacier emerges “duck-egg blue under the milky Arctic sunlight” as Angela’s father holds her up to see it after her birth. The story tracks Angela’s visits to the glacier over the years: “She listened to the temperature,” feels its contours with her hands, and whispers to it. The result is a deeply felt portrait of nature and self.
Animal Albums from A to Z
Cece Bell (Walker US, ages 4–8) $19.99
Bell’s clever, irresistibly prodigious abecedarian features album cover art and one song’s worth of liner-note lyrics from 26 invented animal recording artists. The creaturely crooners—from Arnie Dillow to the Zydeco Zebras—represent each letter of the alphabet as well as musical genres ranging from classical to hip-hop, and album design aesthetics across the decades. A recording of each song is available online, accessed via QR code.
Bedtime Blitz!
Matthew Van Fleet (S&S/Wiseman, ages 2 and up) $24.99
In this rambunctious rhyming tale about getting ready for bed, a cast of animals splash in the tub, get dressed in jammies, brush their teeth, speed-read stories, and have a swinging pillow fight, all before catching some winks. With pull-tabs, readers can help the animals scrub in the tub, towel off, and more. This is sure to become a bedtime favorite.
The Idea in You
Questlove, illus. by Sean Qualls (Abrams, ages 4–8) $19.99
“An idea can come from anywhere./ Start here:/ Reach up into the sky/ and unhook a star,” begins musician Questlove in a picture book aimed at promoting creative thinking and imagination. An affirming tone invites readers to explore an idea until it materializes into something more; together, Questlove and illustrator Qualls underscore the positive outcomes of creative work both solo and in collaboration.
In Praise of Mystery
Ada Limón, illus. by Peter Sís (Norton, ages 4–8) $18.99
The text of this poem by U.S. poet laureate Limón, making her children’s book debut, was etched onto NASA’s Europa Clipper, a spacecraft scheduled for an October 2024 launch toward Jupiter and its moons. It’s a delicately and expansively wrought work that describes how Earth and the remote celestial body of Europa are connected by water and more, as Caldecott Honor artist Sís’s textured, primal blue spreads evoke depth and distance.
Little Shrew
Akiko Miyakoshi (Kids Can, ages 5–8) $19.99
Miyakoshi examines the everyday life of a small shrew who lives modestly among humans, from his breakfast of honey biscuits before a regular day at the office to his preparations for an annual visit from two dear friends. Renderings of quiet, precisely completed routines and the occasional celebration bring security and contentment to this intimate here-and-now portrait.
Noodles on a Bicycle
Kyo Maclear, illus. by Gracey Zhang (Random House Studio, ages 4–8) $18.99
This wonderfully specific snapshot captures the casual grace of Japan’s demae—cycling food deliverers—who once balanced stacked trays loaded with “ceramic soup bowls and wooden soba boxes” on one shoulder while piloting their bicycle with the other hand. Maclear describes their feats via the voice of a group of neighborhood children who look up to the cyclists: “They are artists./ Architects./ Tough talkers./ Speedy spinners.// But mostly,/ they are acrobats.”
A Pinecone!
Helen Yoon (Candlewick, ages 3–7) $18.99
Once a child discovers pinecones on a snowy walk, there’s no limit to the lengths of their obsession in this humorous tale. When woody objects overflow myriad household vessels, and insects and worms begin wriggling up walls, it becomes clear that the interest has reached new heights. Fully and funnily realizing the comedic potential of a child’s single-mindedness, the work also provides a model for rolling with the p... inecones.
Ten Little Rabbits
Maurice Sendak (HarperCollins, ages 4–8) $19.99
Originally created as a miniature pamphlet for a museum fundraiser, this previously unpublished treasure from the late Sendak follows a magic act gone pear-shaped. A young magician takes a bow before summoning a rabbit from his top hat. Producing more rabbits in various hues, the magician balances the bunnies on his head and arms while standing on one leg. The action runs full circle from mirth to mayhem and back.
This Baby. That Baby.
Cari Best, illus. by Rashin Kheiriyeh (Random House/Schwartz, ages 3–7) $18.99
Best opens this double infant portrait with two babies greeting each other from their respective fifth-floor apartment windows, “somewhere/ in the big, big city/ across a beep-beep street.” The buoyant slice-of-life tale interweaves the duo’s temperamental differences, love of joyful noise, and patient caregivers against the background of a city’s cheerful hubbub, underscoring the ways that proximity can contribute to relationships and interactions.
We Are Definitely Human
X. Fang (Tundra, ages 4–8) $18.99
A trio of aliens crash-lands near Mr. and Mrs. Li’s rural home at midnight and tries their darndest to convince the couple that “we are DEFINITELY human.” The two welcome the aliens as guests—referring to them as “y’all” and going along with their stories of being “from Europe.” What starts out as a fish-out-of-water comedy becomes a close encounter of straightforward acceptance.
Middle Grade
Tweens will be transported by these historical, contemporary, and fantastical adventures.
Black Girl Power
Edited by Leah Johnson (Freedom Fire, ages 8–12) $18.99
Dhonielle Clayton, Janae Marks, Renée Watson, and 12 other authors celebrate Black girlhood in this joyful anthology of stories and poems. As editor Leah Johnson puts it in her introduction, this is “a book version of the playground I grew up on—a space where we can be anything,” including a brave hockey player, a witch who bakes magical cookies, and even a vampire.
The Bletchley Riddle
Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin (Viking, ages 10 and up) $18.99
This seamlessly entertaining and edifying read, set in May 1940, follows Polish Jewish siblings Jakob, 19, and Lizzie, 14. Jakob has been recruited by Britain’s Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park to help decipher messages encrypted using the German Enigma machine. Lizzie, meanwhile, endeavors to disprove the apparent death of their mother, who worked at the American Embassy in London and disappeared in Poland during the 1939 German attack.
Boy 2.0
Tracey Baptiste (Algonquin, ages 10 and up) $16.99
Part superhero origin story, part exploration of real-world issues, Baptiste’s latest kicks off as Coal Keegan, a 13-year-old budding artist, has just moved into a new foster home. When he slips out one evening to chalk in a nearby street, a neighbor shoots at him and the cops go after Coal, who is Black. But the teen stays safe because of something thoroughly unexpected: he turned invisible. Friends and foster siblings join Coal in his search for answers.
Bye Forever, I Guess
Jodi Meadows (Holiday House, ages 10–14) $18.99
Meadows presents an earnest and laugh-out-loud story that’s both a winning exploration of tween friendship and a paean to fan culture and the thrill of finding one’s community. As the best friend of popular, self-absorbed Rachel, Ingrid is used to feeling invisible. But the guarded eighth grader has a vibrant online life, where she’s built a supportive community via an MMORPG and her secret blog.
Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody
Patrick Ness, illus. by Tim Miller (Walker US, ages 8–12) $17.99
In this sincere, absurd anthropomorphic take on middle school, a young monitor lizard finds things spiraling out of control when he accidentally antagonizes the school bully. Using over-the-top prose, Ness details characters tackling mundane yet serious issues surrounding economic disparity, school violence, anger management, and self-image in a tale that is both deeply relatable and humorously off-kilter.
Golemcrafters
Emi Watanabe Cohen (Levine Querido, ages 8–12) $18.99
This magical tale that leans on Jewish folklore finds siblings exploring their unusual family history. After Shiloh, a recent bar mitzvah who is bullied at school, receives a lump of clay from their estranged grandfather, he and brainy 11-year-old Faye spend their spring break learning how to craft it into a golem, a figure “brought to life with the Hebrew alphabet” who protects its creators.
Island of Whispers
Frances Hardinge, illus. by Emily Gravett (Amulet, ages 10–14) $19.99
Fourteen-year-old Milo sails a ship of souls to the realm of the dead in this elegiac fantasy. On Merlank, the dead linger until Milo’s father, the Ferryman, can deliver them to the Island of the Broken Tower, from which they can ascend to the afterlife. Hardinge weaves a nuanced and affecting tale about grief, compassion, and the importance of
living life fully.
The Queen of Ocean Parkway
Sarvenaz Tash, illus. by Ericka Lugo (Knopf, ages 8–12) $17.99
As the only child of the superintendent, 11-year-old Roya doubts that anyone knows more about the residents and history of their Brooklyn apartment complex than she does. With the help of shy new tenant Amin, Roya, an aspiring investigative journalist, vows to find vanished resident Katya and uncover the truth behind Katya’s family curse. This cozy and surprising mystery features appealing characters coping with genuinely wrought emotions in a vivid setting.
Sylvia Doe and the 100-Year Flood
Robert Beatty (Disney Hyperion, ages 8–12) $17.99
Beatty pays tribute to the beauty and dangers of the natural world in this quietly magical adventure about finding where one belongs. While running away from a foster home, Sylvia, 13, discovers a flooded river whose current has carried Jorna, also 13, far from home. The pair soon realize that the solution to ending the flood may lie in getting Jorna home—but in the process, Sylvia could lose her safe haven.
Westfallen
Ann Brashares and Ben Brashares (Simon & Schuster, ages 8–12) $18.99
Twelve-year-olds from Millerton, N.J., communicate across time in this high-stakes series launch. In 2023, Henry unearths a rusting radio, which starts transmitting on its own in his family’s tool shed. Meanwhile, in 1944, Alice relocates her brother’s amateur radio to the gardening shed, where it turns on, connecting the tweens and their friends. The authors, who are siblings, vividly illustrate the perils of forgetting lessons of the past in this historical science-fiction thriller.
Chapter Books
Beti and the Little Round House
Atinuke, illus. by Emily Hughes (Candlewick, ages 7–9) $18.99
Atinuke draws from her experiences having moved from a “mansion” in Lagos to Wales, where she lived with her son in a “roundhouse built of straw and clay in the woods,” to showcase a life lived “simply on the land” in four gentle tales. The connected stories introduce young Beti’s vibrantly depicted community and detail her penchant to turn ordinary outings into epic adventures.
Orris and Timble: The Beginning
Kate DiCamillo, illus. by Carmen Mok (Candlewick, ages 5–8) $16.99
The spirits of Frog and Toad are alive and well in this moving and funny volume, which chronicles the unlikely blossoming friendship between Orris, a cynical rat, and Timble, a curious owl. Orris is perfectly content living alone in his cozy barn nest, until Timble gets caught in a mousetrap and screeches for help. DiCamillo expertly wraps kindness, the courage that purpose ignites, and a love of story into a welcoming package.
Stella & Marigold
Annie Barrows, illus. by Sophie Blackall (Chronicle, ages 6–9) $15.99
This delightful series kickoff from the creators of Ivy + Bean follows sisters Stella and Marigold. When Marigold was born, Stella promised to tell her “all the secret things I know.” After Marigold, now four, lies about having clogged the bathroom sink, her parents struggle to understand. But Stella, seven, “who explained the world to her,” has instant compassion and helps restore Marigold’s confidence. Readers will long for a sibling like Marigold or Stella.
YA
Books about love and loss, world-ending disaster, and things that go bump in the night tap into big teen emotion.
The Art Thieves
Andrea L. Rogers (Levine Querido, ages 12 and up) $19.99
High school graduate Stevie, who is Cherokee, works at an art museum gift shop in 2052 Texas. She bonds with intern Adam about art, Native culture, and family, and he soon reveals that he’s from 2201 and is there to save significant art pieces from the upcoming apocalypse. Cherokee author Rogers considers the future of Indigenous heritage via an indomitable protagonist who navigates issues relating to death, familial turmoil, exploitation, and climate collapse.
The Bitter End
Alexa Donne (Random House, ages 14 and up) $19.99
Eight students from an elite Los Angeles high school and their counselor arrive at an isolated lodge in the Colorado mountains for a device-free weekend. When one of their classmates turns up dead and the power goes out, the teens become embroiled in an epic fight for survival against the elements as well as a killer at large. Readers will feel like part of the characters’ investigative team in this entertaining thriller.
The Dark Becomes Her
Judy I. Lin (Disney/Riordan, ages 12 and up) $18.99
Lin blends vividly imagined scenes of body horror with Taiwanese folklore to craft a compelling story about sisterhood. Sixteen-year-old Taiwanese Canadian pianist Ruby has always been able to see figures in the shadows, but they’ve left her alone—until now. When Ruby’s younger sister’s personality rapidly changes and one of the shadows physically hurts Ruby, the normally nonconfrontational teen finds herself working to learn more about the spirits.
The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry
Ransom Riggs (Dutton, ages 14 and up) $21.99
After Leopold’s mother’s death five years ago, his grief-fueled obsession with the kitschy fantasy TV show
Sunderworld began inducing “escapist dissociative episodes.” Now 17, Leopold and his best friend Emmett learn that these seeming hallucinations are glimpses into an actual, magical Sunderworld that desperately seeks a powerful channeler to vanquish monsters and reverse magic shortages. Riggs’s incandescent storytelling, exquisite worldbuilding, and vivid characterizations kick off a propulsive series starter.
Heir
Sabaa Tahir (Putnam, ages 14 and up) $21.99
Set 20 years after the events of the Ember in the Ashes series, this action-packed duology launch finds the world once again in danger from both human and supernatural forces. The stakes are higher than ever in this enrapturing spin-off series starter, which builds on established lore and adds layers of complexity, culminating in an expansive and brutal adventure that will appeal to longtime followers and newcomers alike.
Icarus
K. Ancrum (HarperTeen, ages 13 and up) $19.99
Icarus, 17, steals art from the collection of the wealthy Mr. Black under his father’s instruction as part of a revenge scheme. Everything changes when Icarus enters the mansion for another heist, only to find Mr. Black’s son under house arrest. In this poetic reimagining of the Icarus myth, Ancrum delivers a subversive triumph that is a love letter both to healing from trauma and to the importance of connection.
Ida, in Love and in Trouble
Veronica Chambers (Little, Brown, ages 14 and up) $18.99
Chambers crafts a fictionalized account of the professional and romantic life of civil rights figure Ida B. Wells in this expansive historical novel. Starting with Wells’s career as a teacher in Memphis, where she also wrote articles about race relations for Black-owned newspapers, Chambers chronicles the activist’s interpersonal developments, such as the years in which she kept up correspondence with several suitors.
Legend of the White Snake
Sher Lee (Quill Tree, ages 13 and up) $19.99
In this queer rendition of a Chinese folktale, a snake-turned-teenager must hide his true identity when he falls for the prince who’s hunting him. Prince Xian’s mother was bitten by a white snake, sentencing her to a painful, yearslong death. Xian possessed a spirit pearl, the one thing needed to create an antidote, until a white snake swallowed the pearl and disappeared. Lush worldbuilding and flowing purple prose culminate in a story of love, loss, and destiny.
The Love Interest
Helen Comerford (Bloomsbury, ages 12 and up) $19.99
Comerford subverts both fake-dating and superhero tropes in this contemporary fantasy rom-com. When 17-year-old Jenna is rescued from a disaster by hero Blaze, she finds herself unwittingly cast as his helpless love interest. Jenna’s not interested in being a damsel in distress but plays along because the villains offer her the chance to see her long-missing mother in exchange for spying on Blaze. She soon realizes there’s more to the superhero industrial complex than costumes and cool weapons.
Twenty-Four Seconds from Now...
Jason Reynolds (Atheneum/Dlouhy, ages 14 and up) $19.99
Twenty-four seconds before this novel’s start, 17-year-old Neon and Aria, his girlfriend of two years, were kissing. Now, Neon is hiding in Aria’s bathroom, lamenting the complications of opening a condom as he nervously anticipates their “first time.” Reynolds rewinds the teens’ heartfelt romance to showcase its development in reverse, delivering a mighty exaltation of Black love in this moving story of one boy’s growth and the community that fosters it.
Zodiac Rising
Katie Zhao (Random House, ages 14 and up) $19.99
Once, 12 families, each empowered by a sign of the zodiac, protected China. But in 1860, several of their magical fountainheads were stolen, stripping them of their power. Now their descendants hide in plain sight, masquerading as students at Manhattan’s elite Earthly Branches Academy. Zhao weaves together supernatural politics, teen drama, and a fusion of Western and Chinese mythologies, making for an intriguing series start.
Nonfiction
History, biography, fun facts, and key concepts open up the world to kids.
The Bard and the Book
Ann Bausum, illus. by Marta Sevilla (Peachtree, ages 10 and up) $19.99
Via friendly and humorous text, Bausum breaks down the lucky confluence of events that led to the preservation of plays by William
Shakespeare. This slim volume is packed with intriguing facts, such as how the rolls of paper on which Elizabethan actors wrote their lines were “the origin of what we call acting ROLES today.” Bausum’s passion for the topic is infectious, making for a joyous and
engaging read.
Charles & Ray: Designers at Play
James Yang (Viking, ages 4–8) $18.99
Yang captures how problem-solving drove the creativity of Charles (1907–1978) and Ray Eames (1912–1988), following how they made “the best chair of the twentieth century.” Young readers may not have the context to recognize how beautifully Yang tips his hat to midcentury modern graphic design, but they will come away with a sense of how exhilarating it can be to make something new—and with whetted appetites for discovering more.
The Enigma Girls
Candace Fleming (Scholastic Focus, ages 8–12) $19.99
In this fascinating WWII narrative that ranges from 1939 to 1945, Fleming chronicles the experiences of 10 young women who took up top secret work at the Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park. Quick-paced, thoroughly researched chapters intersperse a survey of WWII movements with specifics about individuals’ assigned tasks, including listening for encrypted Morse code messages, breaking ciphers, and working revolutionary machines such as the Bombes.
Flamboyants
George M. Johnson, illus. by Charly Palmer (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ages 14 and up) $18.99
This collection of richly illustrated profiles of Harlem Renaissance icons like Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ma Rainey pulls back the curtain on how they creatively expressed their sexualities at a time when queerness was taboo. Interwoven with Johnson’s personal reflections and poetry, these portraits offer insight into how Black queer artists and activists have influenced American culture and serve as inspiration for finding confidence in difference.
Jimmy’s Rhythm & Blues
Michelle Meadows, illus. by Jamiel Law (HarperCollins, ages 4–8) $19.99
“Home is brick brown,/ Harlem, uptown,/ trains rumbling by” begins this fittingly poetic biography of writer James Baldwin (1924–1987). Though Baldwin faced bullying and prejudice from an early age, he found support and eventually began to write. Meadows slowly unveils Baldwin’s many facets—burgeoning writer; activist; Black, queer icon—across an elegantly rendered work about a man “with compassion in his heart and a pen in his hand.”
Our World: By the Numbers
Steve Jenkins (Clarion, ages 6–10) $24.99
This encyclopedic volume showcases the power and diversity of infographics as much as it celebrates Earth’s wonders. One chart shows all the animals—including insects—that have been sent into space; another depicts three people and a pony who survived being sucked into tornadoes. Cool facts abound, and select sections, such as a chapter on disasters throughout history, result in gripping mini-narratives.
Spirit Sleuths
Gail Jarrow (Calkins Creek, ages 10–17) $24.99
In the wake of WWI and the influenza outbreak, people turned to spiritualism, “desperate to communicate with their dead loved ones or to learn the fate of those lost” to these events. But according to magician Harry Houdini (1874–1926), spiritualism was “all hocus-pocus”—and he set out to prove it. This mesmerizing read implores readers to rely on critical thinking skills to evade deception.
Up, Up, Ever Up!
Anita Yasuda, illus. by Yuko Shimizu (Clarion, ages 4–8) $19.99
This biography of Junko Tabei (1939–2016), the first woman to summit Everest, opens with a description of a childhood trip to a mountain, where she first awakened to the excitement of climbing “up, up, and ever up!” Later, Tabei planned a women’s group trip to Everest, sewing some of her own clothing when mountaineering gear proved sized for men. It’s a memorable story about living life on the edge of possibility.
What Is Color?
Steven Weinberg (Roaring Brook, ages 6–10) $19.99
Using an effusive cartoon version of himself as a guide, Weinberg joins forces with dog Waldo to lead readers along a delightfully meandering journey that gives new meaning to “color commentary.” This fanciful work explores the technology and global nuances of eight colors—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, and black—and features encounters with artists such as Kerry James Marshall, who discusses pigments for painting Black Americans’ skin.
Work
Shaina Feinberg, illus. by Julia Rothman (Candlewick, ages 6–9) $18.99
New York Times columnists Feinberg and Rothman share informative and inspiring interviews with workers who love their jobs. The global cast of characters—a wildlife veterinarian in Kampala, Uganda, who helps grow the giraffe population; a prosthetics maker in London who helps people with limb differences; and more than two dozen others—explain how and why they do what they do, shedding light on the many ways that people make their marks on the world.
Comics
Visually engaging storytelling entices young readers and keeps the pages turning.
Amazing Grapes
Jules Feiffer (HarperCollins/Di Capua, ages 8–12) $29.99
Siblings Shirley, Pearlie, and Curlie’s world is turned upside down when Pearlie and Curlie are whisked away by a two-headed swan to a lost dimension. Now, Shirley and Mommy must search for them in this sprawling, multiversal epic that combines extravagantly tangled narrative threads reminiscent of Everything Everywhere All at Once with the signature idiosyncratic characters of surreal works by Feiffer.
Detective Sweet Pea: The Case of the Golden Bone
Sara Varon (First Second, ages 6–10) $22.99
This straightforward yet goofy graphic novel series launch will have young readers giggling into the next volume. Blue-hued pooch Sweet Pea and her new friends are excited to see the legendary Golden Chew Bone on display at the local art museum, only to find that it has vanished. But with Sweet Pea’s extraordinary sense of smell, she’s the perfect pup to sniff out the perpetrator.
Luminous Beings
David Arnold, illus. by Jose Pimienta (Viking, ages 14 and up) $24.99
Almost a year ago, best friends Ty and Burger made a pact to take a gap year and then apply to film school together—but that was before the appearance of zombie squirrels. Now, the duo collect documentary footage of their dystopian present, work at Cousteau’s Coffee, and puzzle over the disappearance of the café’s former owner. Abundant 1980s, ’90s, and early-aughts music references imbue this bizarre and fun graphic novel with nostalgia.
Poetry Comics
Grant Snider (Chronicle, ages 8–12) $18.99
Verses about self-reflection and scientific curiosity adorn vivid illustrations in this gently introspective collection. The book begins in spring and flows through the seasons as Snider explores different facets of the poetry-writing process and chronicles the friendship of two children. Repetitive wordplay and clever alliterations paired with sometimes rhyming stanzas and occasional blank verse add variety, making each selection a delight to read aloud.
Taxi Ghost
Sophie Escabasse (Random House Graphic, ages 8–12) $21.99
Escabasse suffuses this graphic novel tale of typical tween angst with a magical realist twist. Adèle is overwhelmed enough dealing with acne, awkwardness, and the start of her first period. But with her maturation comes an additional wrinkle: Adèle can now see ghosts. In this empowering and fanciful story, Escabasse tackles issues such as gentrification, the afterlife, and cultural traditions surrounding menstruation.
We Are Big Time
Hena Khan, illus. by Safiya Zerrougui (Knopf, ages 8–12) $21.99
Upon moving to Milwaukee, Pakistani and Indian American high school freshman Aliya enrolls in an Islamic school and joins the basketball team. Local media take notice of the team’s success, but when reporters focus more on their hijab uniforms than their performance, the girls endeavor to take control of the narrative. It’s an uplifting graphic novel that celebrates female Muslim athletes and highlights how the teens’ faith, sport, and relationships intersect.
