Teenage Ivy wasn’t supposed to be the family breadwinner; that was her older sister Lydia’s job. But Lydia hasn’t been the same since the night she briefly vanished, an unexplained incident Ivy is certain was caused by the mysterious bargain Lydia made with faerie Queen Moryen, something all girls must do when they come of age in Ivy’s alternate Victorian London home. Shadowed by her sister’s tarnished reputation, it’s up to Ivy to find a wealthy husband and save her family from ruin. When Queen Moryen announces that the prince is seeking a bride, Ivy enters the competition to win his hand, but she isn’t the only debutante desperate for the match. Now Ivy must use her wits and form unlikely alliances if she hopes to survive this dangerous game. A simmering romantic plot is sharpened by searing comparisons of girlhood and war—a Maypole dance is a blood sport and readying for a ball is preparing for battle. Smith (The Witch Hunt) delves beyond familiar palace intrigue and mystical romance to explore themes of classism, complex family dynamics, gender disparity, and the unbreakable bond of sisterhood in this compelling fantasy. Major characters cue as white. Ages 13–up. Agent: Hillary Jacobson, CAA. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/08/2024 | Details & Permalink

Everything is looking up for 13-year-old Alex Eager until suddenly it isn’t: her new girlfriend PJ’s mothers decide it’s time for them to move, Alex’s grandmother is becoming more and more forgetful, and there’s rumors that the upcoming local election might threaten funding for her small Oregon town’s public library, her home away from home. Alex is continually challenged by things outside of her control in this endearingly thoughtful middle grade debut by Ryan (Rules for Hearts) that leans into the messy nature of everyday life: complicated emotions plague Alex’s relationship with her distant father and his second wife, she feels haunted by the ghost of her late mother whenever her grandmother refers to Alex by her name, and she’s not sure what she can do to save the library. But instead of dwelling on all the things she doesn’t know or understand, Alex learns to adapt—becoming “amphibious,” as her grandmother says, to make the most of every moment, in the moment, as she builds a new life with those she loves, making for a tidy and satisfying tale in which one “rigid” teen resolves to make good with what she has. Main characters read as white. Ages 10–up. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/08/2024 | Details & Permalink

By donning a raincoat, beret, and bristly fake mustache, and affecting a nebulous accent, 10-year-old Bonnie Montgomery assumes her alter ego: the gentleman detective Montgomery Bonbon. While touring Widdlington’s Hornville Museum with her grandfather, a security guard is murdered within a locked turret room. With a wry aside regarding the circumstances—a “decent detective can hardly eat breakfast without finding a corpse in their cocoa rice flakes”—Bonbon discovers a valuable Roman Britain eagle statue has also been stolen and clashes with bumbling adult nemesis Insp. Prashanti Sands. The ensuing inquiry takes Bonbon and her sidekick grandfather to a church choir, a cemetery, and into rival village Widdling-on-Sea as she investigates museum employees, the wealthy Hornville family, and the history of the missing artifact, leading to a confrontational climax in the tradition of Agatha Christie. Comedian Beckett-King’s sparkling series-starting debut delivers constant laughs and witty rejoinders. Whimsical Edward Gorey–esque b&w illustrations by Powell (A Gallery of Rogues) enhance this brilliantly crafted mystery’s absurdist delight. Bonnie and her family are depicted as white; supporting characters are racially diverse. Ages 9–12. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/08/2024 | Details & Permalink

Bybee (A Few of My Favorite Things) and McCullough (Basil & Dahlia) team up in this hilarious series launch. On top of preparing to start sixth grade at Kagan Middle School, Jojo Lopez is struggling to adjust to a new family dynamic after moving in with her mother’s well-known catfluencer boyfriend Paul, aka Mr. Meow. And if this arrangement doesn’t work out, Jojo, her brother, and her mother will return to the original plan: move to Texas to live with Jojo’s abuelos. Despite all the changes, she’s excited for her first day of middle school. But everything goes wrong, culminating in a mortifying situation that finds her in Kagan’s forbidden hallway, where she encounters fellow classmates Leah, Ryan, and Izzy, all of whom have their own first-day horror stories. As the racially diverse tweens confront challenges relating to perfectionism, busy home lives, and plain old bad luck, they’re each aided by their new friends. Depictions of open communication and sincere, vulnerable friendship cultivated amid cat-astrophically laugh-out-loud misadventure offer maturing readers an exceptional model for what fulfilling relationships can look like. Ages 8–12. Agents: (for Bybee) Ann Leslie Tuttle, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret; (for McCullough) Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/08/2024 | Details & Permalink

Three 12-year-olds find themselves in the center of a chilling mystery in this unsettling page-turner by Currie (The Mystery of Locked Rooms). To secure a position on next year’s school paper staff, budding journalist Josie enlists best friends Alison and Jackson, who is grieving a relative’s recent death, for a clandestine excursion: on Halloween night, the trio sneak into Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery to research the mythical Lady in White, an apparition purportedly photographed at the site decades ago. Startled by police, the group—joined by a charming yet disheveled boy also grieving the death of a close relative—flee the graveyard without paranormal evidence. They later receive horrifying texts stating, “I’m watching,” suggesting that “something evil” has returned with them from their trespass. The group’s warmly funny dynamic adds welcome buoyancy to the story as the preteens are harassed by a terrifying poltergeist. A phantom farmhouse, menacing fake news reports, and an ominous countdown accompany clues that propel the tweens into a frantic supernatural investigation that seems to reach back generations. It’s an eerie mystery boasting horror-movie scares with an assuring tale of friendship at its center. Main characters cue as white. Ages 8–12. Agent: Shannon Hassan, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/08/2024 | Details & Permalink

In May 1915, following a long stay with American relatives, Marta, 12, and her father are traveling home on the Lusitania, bearing false identity papers to hide their German citizenship. When the ship is bombed by a German submarine just after Marta’s father’s nationality is uncovered by another passenger, they jump overboard together. Father and daughter survive but are separated, and quick-witted Marta must make her way alone. Relying on her talent for adopting different accents, she poses as American, then English, then Dutch as she journeys from the Irish fishing boat that rescues her to the English city of York, where she is taken in by the Irish O’Sullivans. Wavering between disbelief that “her people had bombed the Lusitania,” hatred for the “greedy” English and Irish, and guilt and confusion about her deepening friendship with the family’s daughter Clare and the heartfelt care they all provide, Marta grapples with her subterfuge. As she demonstrates consistent bravery through unusually challenging experiences, Marta’s naive viewpoint expands to encompass a unity of humankind. The well-paced story offers a look into WWI history from the seldom-told perspective of a child whose native country is often depicted as the enemy. Ages 8–12. Agent: Tracey Adams, Adams Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/08/2024 | Details & Permalink

After Toronto’s Glenwood Middle School gymnasium floods, white-cued 12-year-old Bea Mullins, who would rather play video games than sports, thinks she’s finally found a way out of the athletic humiliation that is gym class—until school administrators encourage students to join a Glenwood-affiliated after school sports team that practices and competes in off-campus facilities. Bea’s athletic prodigy bestie, East Asian–cued Celia, persuades her to sign up for the Glenwood Geese, the school’s first all-girls ice hockey team; Bea begrudgingly agrees, if only because it’s her father and brother’s favorite sport and it provides an opportunity to spend more time with her BFF. At practice, Bea encounters ambitious Latinx teammate Gabi, who reveals that if the team can’t improve their game or secure capital through fundraising, this will be their last season. A sweet first crush and tertiary friendship drama compel Bea to examine her motivations, goals, and boundaries in Deibert’s promising sports-positive debut. Confident prose renders distinctively drawn characters alongside exhilarating hockey action, shining a light on girls in sports, specifically ice hockey. Ages 8–12. Agent: Kurestin Armada, Root Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/08/2024 | Details & Permalink

This fable from an Australian duo starts slow, as the Wanting Monster, portrayed with a furry white body and a long tail, works hard to raise trouble. The story’s screws tighten as the monster whines and moans into the ear of napping Mr. Banks, its words visualized as a winding stream of smoke. Instantly, Mr. Banks wants “something else, something more,” and he diverts the village’s stream to make himself a pool, creating envy among his neighbors, who build pools of their own and dry up the stream. Folk art–like forms and stripped-down landscapes distinguish painterly spreads by Read, making her U.S. debut, while dark backdrops contribute a note of ominousness. Little by little, the endless wanting breathed into the villagers results in overuse of the resources they need and take delight in—the water, the flowers, even the stars in the sky. Only the village’s youngest child, Billie Ray, knows what the monster really needs. Murray (Marsh & Me) draws a straight line between individual greed and environmental disaster in this book about feeding deep desires. Human characters are portrayed with a variety of skin tones. Ages 6–9. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/08/2024 | Details & Permalink

In this sound-centric account of a riotous readaloud session from Caldecott Honoree Harris, a bearded caregiver in a blue top holds one side of a book while a child in a yellow shirt grasps the other. “Let’s be bees,” reads text on the first spread’s verso. On the recto, the caregiver urges the child via speech balloon: “LET’S BUZZ.” A page turn later, the duo’s clothes suddenly appear empty—the sitting humans have turned into hovering bees: “BUZZ!” Soon, “Let’s be birds” again transforms the figures (“CHIRP!”), and the conceit gains momentum as the two turn into trees (“RUSTLE!”), weather (“THUNDER!”), and more. Simple figures outlined in energetic black crayon burst with energy as the calls of many animals next emerge across spreads (“Let’s RATTLE”; “Let’s CROW”). At the end, the light-brown-skinned adult and child mimic each other (“Let’s be me... let’s be you”) by way of wrapping up this endearing celebration of voice and noise. In a sly, self-referential twist, the book the pair is reading—Let’s Be Bees—invites the audience into mimicry not just of the natural world but of the characters themselves. Ages 4–8. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/08/2024 | Details & Permalink

Narrator Hippo loves being first in line among all the anthropomorphized animal students at school—Jonker (Just One Flake) writes, “I can make everyone go fast, I can make everyone go slow. I can suddenly stop and make everyone crash. Oh, the power!” Slice-of-life drawings by Chan (Rick the Rock of Room 214) show Hippo employing myriad tactics to achieve front-of-line status, ranging from subterfuge (comically and intricately mapping a circuitous path through the playground) to naked aggression (startling schoolmates with a move that Hippo dubs “the feral troll”). Eventually, though, Hippo tries one line-heading ploy too many, too close to the teacher, and is relegated to class line “caboose,” a move that results in Hippo’s cultivating back-of-line expertise that goes “too far.” Finally, the teacher hits on a new solution: scooting Hippo to the middle of the line. It’s just the move, geographic and emotional, that the character needs, and one that helps Hippo truly appreciate collaborative skills, like skipping arm in arm. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Stephen Barbara, InkWell Management. Illustrator’s agent: Rebecca Sherman, Writers House. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/08/2024 | Details & Permalink