Titles to tempt tenacious tots to teens: True tales, tragic tales, triumphant tales, transformative tales
YA
Emmy& Oliver
Robin Benway
HarperTeen, $17.99, ages12+
The title characters are next-door neighbors and best friends until Oliver is kidnapped by his father at age 7. Ten years later, he returns. (June)
Lois Lane
Fallout
Gwenda Bond Switch/Capstone, $16.95, ages12+
Teenage army brat Lois Lane (yes, that Lois Lane) moves with her family to Metropolis, becomes a fledgling journalist, and takes on local bullies. (Out now)
Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Wings
A Memoir Margarita Engle, illustrated by Edel Rodriguez
Atheneum, $17.99, ages12+
Written in verse, Engle describes her childhood summers in Cuba, where she’d visit her mother’s family before the U.S. instituted a travel ban. (August)
Finding Audrey
Sophie Kinsella
Delacorte, $18.99, ages12+
Ateenage girl recovering from depression and anxiety shoots a documentary about her family while forging a relationship with her brother’s friend. (June)
Archivist Wasp
Nicole Kornher-Stace Big Mouth/Small Beer, $14 paper, ages12+
Young Wasp is an expert ghost hunter who’s grown weary of her job. She enlists the ghost of a soldier to help her escape. (Out now)
Shadow shaper
Daniel José Older Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic, $17.99, ages 14+
Ateenage artist in Brooklyn looks forward to painting a mural during her vacation, but zombies and ghosts thwart her plans for a carefree summer. (June)
Kissing in America
Margo Rabb
HarperCollins, $17.99, ages14+
After losing her father in a plane crash, 16-year-old Eva becomes obsessed with romance novels and takes a cross-country trip to reunite with the boy she loves. (Out now)
More Happy Than Not
Adam Silvera
Soho Teen, $18.99, ages14+
In the Bronx of the future, teenager Aaron Soto considers having his memory erased after his father’s suicide and his recent realization that he’s gay. (June)
Because You’ll Never Meet Me
Leah Thomas
Bloomsbury, $17.99, ages14+
Two boys forced to live in isolation from society— one has epilepsy, one has heart disease— form a friendship by exchanging letters. (June)
MIDDLEGRADE
Circus Mirandus
Cassie Beasley
Dial, $17.99, ages 9-12
Ten-year-old Micah Tuttle loves his grandfather’s tall tales about the magical Circus Mirandus and is shocked when he finds out the stories are actually true. (June)
Fort
Cynthia De Felice Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $16.99, ages 8-12
Two11-year-old boys spend their summer-camping out in a fort they’ve built in the woods. But who is repeatedly vandalizing their makeshift cabin? (Out now)
Lost in the Sun
Lisa Graff
Philomel, $16.99, ages 9-12
After12-year-old Trent is involved in a freak accident that kills his hockey teammate, he’s filled with sadness sion and rage. Can his new classmate help? (Out now)
Wild Boy and the Black Terror
Rob Lloyd Jones
Candlewick, $16.99, ages 9-14
Freak showstar Wild Boy and his pal, acrobat Clarissa, have escaped the circus and are nowon the trail of a mad man spreading insanity through the streets of Victorian London. (Out now)
Bayou Magic
Jewell Parker Rhodes
Little, Brown, $17, ages 8-12
Nine-year-old Maddy visits her grandmother and falls in love with the Louisiana bayou. But she’ll need a little magic to save the town froman oil spill. (Out now)
Another Kind of Hurricane
Tamara Ellis Smith Schwartz& Wade, $16.99, ages 9-12
Two10-year-old boys— an African-American Katrina refugee in Louisiana and a white boy in Vermont who’s lost his best friend— cross paths in an unexpected way. (July)
Return to Augie Hobble
Lane Smith Roaring Brook, $16.99, ages 8-12
Aboy has to deal with summer school, a lousy job at an amusement park and bullies— and then things get much, much darker. (Out now)
Six
M.M. Vaughan Margaret K. McElderry/ Simon& Schuster, $16.99, ages 8-12
A brother and sister froma telepathic family search for their missing father, with a little help froma chauffeur, a friend and a friendly pig. (Out now)
PICTUREBOOKS
Granddaddy’s Turn
A Journey to the Ballot Box Michael S. Bandy and Eric Stein, illustrations by James E. Ransome
Candlewick, $16.99, ages 6-9
In the Jim Crow South, a young boy accompanies his grandfather to the polls for the first time after African Americans are given the right to vote. (July)
The Great and Mighty Nikko
Xavier Garza
Cinco Puntos, $16.95, ages 3-7
This bilingual counting book features a boy, whose mom doesn’t believe his claims that his bed is secretly a lucha
libre ring. (August)
The Night World
Mordicai Gerstein
Little, Brown, $18, ages 3-6
Ayoung boy’s cat awakens him in the middle of the night to explore theworld outside and themagic a sunset can bring. (June)
Poems in the Attic Nikki Grimes, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon
Lee& Low, $19.95, ages 6-10
Agirl finds a box of poems, written by her mother as a child, chronicling her girlhood spent moving around the world with her AirForce family. (May)
Hi!
Ethan Long Abrams Appleseed, $7.95, ages 6 months-2
From owls to cows, this board book written in short, rhyming couplets introduces children to the sounds animals make. (Out now)
Where Are My Books?
Debbie Ridpath Ohi Simon& Schuster, $17.99, ages 4-8
Spencer is upset when his favorite book, “Night-Night, Narwhal,” goes missing. When more volumes disappear, he decides to investigate. (Out now)
Ballet Cat
The Totally Secret Secret
Bob Shea
Disney-Hyperion, $9.99, ages 6-8
Ballet Cat and her BFF Sparkles the Pony play their ballet game every day until it starts towear thin for the polkadotted little horse. (Out now)
Ice Cream Summer
Peter Sís
Scholastic, $17.99, ages 4-8
Everyone loves ice cream, especially Joe, who writes to his grandfather telling him everything he’s learned— all ice cream-related— over the summer. (Out now)
Interstellar Cinderella Deborah Underwood, illustrations by Meg Hunt
Chronicle, $16.99, ages 3-5
Cinderella is reimagined as an independent rocket ship mechanic; her prince depends on the girl to fix and pilot his spaceship. (Out now)