It’s so hot here in Mexico, but it’s nowhere near what I’ve seen in my Texas hometown for the past two weeks! We’re talking 107+ degrees! Cool off with some new book releases from some big authors this week – Aisha Saeed, Adi Alsaid, Lisa Graff, Dusti Bowling, Christopher Healy, and Margarita Engle. WOW!
My top picks:
- Messenger: The Legend of Muhammad Ali by Marc Bernardin (YA)
- Rewind by Lisa Graff (MG)
- Water Day by Margarita Engle (picture book)
This week’s Spotlight titles are #3495-#3508 on The Ginormous book list.
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Messenger: The Legend of Muhammad Ali by Marc Bernardin (Author) and Ron Salas (Illustrator)
Bringing readers through major moments of his life―his first meeting with civil rights leader Malcolm X, his interview with sports broadcaster Howard Cosell about his reasons for opposing the Vietnam War, and his titanic bout with then-undefeated heavyweight champion George Foreman, among others―this graphic biography will be a crucial and instantly popular resource on The Greatest.
Kirkus starred.
- Genre(s): graphic biography, nonfiction, graphic novel
- Setting: Louisville, Kentucky; 1954 to Ali’s death in 2016
- Recommended for: Grades 9-12
- Themes: Olympic medalists, boxers, Black Pride, Malcolm X, white supremacy, racism, civil rights, Vietnam War, Parkinson’s disease
- Protagonist description: Muhammad Ali, legendary boxer, African American
Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed by Dashka Slater
Ultimately no one in the small town of Albany, California, was safe from the repercussions of the account’s discovery. Not the girls targeted by the posts. Not the boy who created the account. Not the group of kids who followed it. Not the adults–educators and parents–whose attempts to fix things too often made them worse.
In the end, no one was laughing. And everyone was left asking: Where does accountability end for online speech that harms? And what does accountability even mean?
Booklist starred.
- Genre(s): narrative nonfiction
- Setting: small town of Albany, California, USA; 2017
- Recommended for: Grades 7+
- Themes: social media, Instagram, racism, sexism, accountability, freedom of speech, media reports, high school
- Protagonist description: various diverse high school students
Actually Super by Adi Alsaid
Late one night, she finds herself drawn to a niche corner of the internet–a forum whose members believe firmly in one thing: that there are indeed people out in the world quietly performing impossible acts of heroism.
You might even call them supers. No, not in the comic book sense–these are real people, just like each of us, but who happen to have a power or two. If Isabel can find them, she reasons, she might be able to prove to herself that humanity is more good than bad.
So, the day she turns 18, she sets off on a journey that will take her from Japan to Australia, and from Argentina to Mexico, with many stops along the way. She longs to prove one–just one–super exists to restore her hope for the future.
Will she find what she’s looking for? And how will she know when–if–she does?
- Genre(s): adventure, realistic fiction
- Setting: multiple worldwide locations
- Recommended for: Grades 7-12
- Themes: superheroes, international journeys, road trips, depression, mental health, evil in the real world, despair
- Protagonist description: female, age 18, white, Jewish
Learning to Be Wild (A Young Reader’s Adaptation): How Animals Achieve Peace, Create Beauty, and Raise Families by Carl Safina
Some believe that culture is strictly a human phenomenon. But that’s not true! Culture is passed down from parent to child in all sorts of animal communities. It is the common ground that three very different animals – chimpanzees, macaws, and whales – share.
Discover through the lives of chimpanzees in Uganda, scarlet macaws in Peru, and sperm whales in the Caribbean how they – and we – are all connected, in this wondrous journey around the globe.
Kirkus starred.
- Genre(s): nonfiction
- Setting: various worldwide settings
- Recommended for: Grades 5+
- Themes: animals, animal culture, animal communities, social animals
Forty Words for Love by Aisha Saeed
This includes the two teens at the heart of our story: Yasmine and Rafay. Yasmine is a child of the town, and her parents are trying and failing to make ends meet. Rafay is an immigrant, a child of Willow Forest. The forest of Moonlight Bay was where people from Rafay’s community relocated when their home was destroyed. Except Moonlight Bay is no longer a welcoming refuge, and tensions between the townspeople and his people are growing.
Yasmine and Rafay have been friends since Rafay first arrived, nearly ten years ago. As they’ve gotten older, their friendship has blossomed. Not that they would ever act on these feelings. The forest elders have long warned that falling in love with “outsiders” will lead to devastating consequences for anyone from Willow Forest. But is this actually true? Can Yasmine and Rafay find a way to be together despite it all?
The two reviews I read for this title (PW and Kirkus) are a bit lukewarm, but I’ve included it here because it’s by a prominent YA author.
- Genre(s): fantasy, romance
- Setting: Moonlight Bay, a magical town on the brink of financial collapse
- Recommended for: Grades 7+
- Themes: friendship, immigrants, star-crossed lovers, magic, death of a young child
- Protagonist description: two teens; male and female, racially ambiguous
Unexpecting: A Novel by Jen Bailey
He is going to be a father. Something his mother was not expecting after he came out as gay and she certainly wasn’t expecting that he would want to raise the baby as a single father. But together they come up with a plan to prepare Ben for fatherhood and fight for his rights.
The weight of Ben’s decision presses down on him. He’s always tired, his grades fall, and tension rises between his mom and stepfather. He’s letting down his friends in the robotics club whose future hinges on his expertise. If it wasn’t for his renewed friendship (and maybe more) with a boy from his past, he wouldn’t be able to face the daily ridicule at school or the crumbling relationship with his best friends.
With every new challenge, every new sacrifice he has to make, Ben questions his choice. He’s lived with a void in his heart where a father’s presence should have been, and the fear of putting his own child through that keeps him clinging to his decision. When the baby might be in danger, Ben’s faced with a heart-wrenching realization: sometimes being a parent means making the hard choices even if they are the choices you don’t want to make…
- Genre(s): realistic fiction
- Recommended for: Grades 8-12
- Themes: teen pregnancy, LGBT+, single fathers, paternal rights, science clubs, friendship, social relationships, fathers and sons, teen parenthood
- Protagonist description: male, age 16, gay, white
Rewind by Lisa Graff
That one day is enough to make the few things that aren’t so fantastic about McKinley’s life—like her crabby homeroom teacher or her super-scheduled father—worth suffering through.
And when McKinley learns that this year’s theme is 1993, she can’t wait to enter the Time Hop fashion show with a killer ’90s outfit she’s designed and sewn all on her own. But when the Time Hop rolls around, nothing goes as planned. In fact, it’s the biggest disaster of McKinley’s life.
Before she knows what’s hit her, McKinley somehow finds herself in the real 1993—and it’s not all kitschy parachute pants and Jurassic Park. All McKinley wants is to return to the present, but before she can, she’s going to have to make a big change—but which change is the right one?
- Genre(s): magical realism, fantasy, humor
- Setting: Gap Bend, Pennsylvania; 1993
- Recommended for: Grades 3-7
- Themes: time travel, 1990s, town history, fashion, grandmothers, meeting your parents as children, Back to the Future-style plot
- Protagonist description: female, age 12, white, sixth grader
Dust by Dusti Bowling
Quiet and unkempt, Adam is an instant target for the bullies who have plagued Avalyn and her friends. As Avalyn gets to know him, she begins to suspect that the sudden, strange increase in dust storms around town are somehow connected to his emotions.
She thinks his problems may be even worse at home, especially when massive black walls of dust start rolling in after the school day. Will she find a way to stand up for her new friend? Her life may just depend on it.
This title actually came out last week, but I missed it! I am currently listening to it on audiobook.
- Genre(s): magical realism, realistic fiction
- Setting: Clear Canyon City, Arizona
- Recommended for: Grades 3-7
- Themes: severe asthma, near-death experiences, bullying, dust storms, child abuse, empathy, superpowers
- Protagonist description: female, age 12, white
No One Leaves the Castle by Christopher Healy
None of that is true. Yet.
In reality, the Lilac is just a kid, and the bard who wrote all that is her best friend, Dulcinetta. But the Lilac has set her goals on becoming the best bounty hunter in the Thirteen Kingdoms–and when a priceless artifact goes missing from the home of famed monster hunter Baron Angbar, the Lilac and Netta are eager to apprehend the thief and make a name for themselves.
But when their investigation brings them to a dinner party at Castle Angbar, and they meet the Angbar family and their servants and guests—an unsavory group of nobles, mages, and assorted creatures, each more shady than the last—the Lilac begins to wonder if the reward is worth the trouble.
And that’s before the dead body is discovered.
Now, everyone is magically sealed inside the castle—and there is a murderer among them. If the Lilac wants to make it out with her reputation intact, it’s going to be up to her to figure out who the killer is. But everyone in the castle—even the Lilac herself—has secrets to hide, and as the walls literally start to close in around them, the Lilac worries that her first job as a bounty hunter may be her last…
This book is a stand-alone, set inside the Hero’s Guide series world.
- Genre(s): fantasy, mystery
- Setting: castle inside the Hero’s Guide series world
- Recommended for: Grades 3-7
- Themes: murder, detectives, castles, bounty hunters, bards, magic, locked-room mystery
- Protagonist description: female, age 14, white
Tessa Miyata Is No Hero by Julie Abe
Her hopes are quickly dashed when, all too soon, she realizes that life in Japan is just like being in California: her sisters are old enough to go into Tokyo, while she can’t even go to the corner store by herself. Plus, her grandparents want her to stay home with the neighbor kid, thirteen-year-old Jin Uehara, who’s made it clear he’s too cool to spend time with a weirdo like her.
When Tessa is finally allowed to go to Tokyo, it’s only to join her grandpa’s retiree aerobic class with none other than Jin. Their disastrous forced hang out comes crashing to a halt when Tessa and Jin break the Miyata family’s precious heirloom—accidentally releasing the malicious samurai god Taira Masakado and discovering a hidden part of the city where gods and mythological creatures walk among humans—including their new companion, a mythical nine-tailed fox who may be more trouble than he is help.
Despite doing everything to avoid spending another minute together, Tessa and Jin must now work together to stop Taira Masakado before he traps them–and the rest of Tokyo–under his command, forever.
Includes black and white illustrations.
- Genre(s): fantasy, mythology, adventure
- Setting: summer in Japan
- Recommended for: Grades 3-7
- Themes: Japanese mythology, heirlooms, samurai, gods, hidden cities, nine-tailed fox, enemies to friends
- Protagonist description: female, age 12, Japanese American
Water Day by Margarita Engle (Author) and Olivia Sua (Illustrator)
grateful, laughing,
thirsty days.
A small village no longer has a water supply of its own, but one young girl and her neighbors get by with the help of the water man. When he comes to town, water flows like hope for the whole familia, and everyone rejoices.
- Genre(s): informational picture book
- Setting: small village in Cuba
- Recommended for: PreS-Grade 3
- Themes: communities, neighbors, helping others, water shortage, hope, family, global water crisis
- Protagonist description: Cuban community
A Practical Present for Philippa Pheasant by Briony May Smith
Philippa has had enough! Hedgehog suggests she write a letter to the mayor, and as Philippa waits for a response, she spots something interesting: a lady in a yellow uniform standing in the middle of the road. And all the cars are stopping!
Inspired, Philippa sets out to make herself a bright outfit, complete with a sign, to become Old Oak Road’s very own crossing guard.
Can she help all her critter friends safely find their way? Enchanting bucolic artwork enhances this sweet tale of changing the world for the better, one little crossing at a time.
- Genre(s): picture book
- Setting: woods near a village
- Recommended for: PreS-Grade 2
- Themes: safety, traffic, community activism, making a difference in one’s community, getting involved
- Protagonist description: female pheasant and other woodland creatures
My Dad Thinks He’s a Pirate by Katrina Germein (Author) and Tom Jellett (Illustrator)
Why does he like to eat on the beach? Because of the sand-which-is there, he explains. Whether it’s a ship he bought on sail or an earring that costs one buccaneer, a day with Dad is shore to be hilarious. At least he seems to think so!
This looks like fun for Talk Like a Pirate Day on Sept. 19!
- Genre(s): picture book, humor
- Setting: family’s day at the beach
- Recommended for: PreS-Grade 3
- Themes: puns, jokes, pirates, wordplay, Dad jokes, silliness, flatulence jokes, eyepatches
- Protagonist description: ruddy-cheeked father and child; father wears an eyepatch
The Imaginary Alphabet by Sylvie Daigneault
In The Imaginary Alphabet, whimsical art brings the alphabet to life. Keen-eyed readers and listeners of all ages will enjoy finding everything there is to discover in each fantastical scene.
Do you think you found it all? The book ends with a long list of every hidden detail.
- Genre(s): picture book, alphabet book
- Recommended for: PreS-Grade 2
- Themes: alliteration, alphabet, hidden pictures, seek-and-find, art
The Big Bang and Other Farts by Daisy Bird (Author) and Marianna Coppo (Illustrator)
It turns out, every single major historical event was caused by, you guessed it — a fart! The extinction of the dinosaurs, the end of the Ice Age…even the secret behind the Mona Lisa’s smile can all be traced to the passing of gas. For Daddy Rat, these smelly revelations are simply too much. But for the baby rats (and for young readers everywhere), this is the best show ever!
- Genre(s): picture book
- Setting: prehistoric times
- Recommended for: PreS-Grade 3
- Themes: history of the world, Big Bang Theory, origins of life, flatulence
THIS WEEK’S SEQUELS (YA):
THIS WEEK’S SEQUELS (MIDDLE GRADES):
THIS WEEK’S SEQUELS & FAVORITE CHARACTERS (ELEMENTARY):
ABOUT THE SPOTLIGHT
The New Release Spotlight began in May 2016 as a way to help librarians keep up with the many new children’s and YA books that are released each week. Every Tuesday, school librarian Leigh Collazo compiles the New Release Spotlight using a combination of Follett’s Titlewave, Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes and Noble. Titles with a * by them received two or more starred professional reviews. Recommended grade levels represent the range of grade levels recommended by professional book reviewers.