Category: The Kids Are All Right

This sweet picture book follows Zahra, a helpful girl who begins to feel self-conscious about her generosity when her classmates tease her about it.

This picture book bursts with positivity and can-do optimism. It centers around Brayden Harrington, the young boy who came to realize his stutter is one of his greatest attributes, leading to speaking at the Democratic National Convention and at President Biden’s inauguration.

This picture book is a bright and energetic introduction to patterns. Nine kittens go on a boating adventure and stumble into a variety of surprises.

There’s something so satisfying about summer being when all the new kids’ horror and other spooky season works start hitting the shelves. This one is the third installment of Katherine Arden’s series that began with Small Spaces that finds Brian and his friends stranded on a haunted island.

This savvy mystery follows three friends, the Renegade Reporters, as they stumble upon a mystery about their school newsroom’s partnership with a media company infringing on student privacy.

Malian is visiting her beloved grandparents on a Wabanaki reservation when suddenly all travel shuts down. Her parents aren’t able to pick her up, so Malian stays where she is. Everyone is worried about the pandemic, but Malian knows how to keep her family and community safe: She protects her grandparents, and they protect her. And when Malsum, one of the dogs living on the rez, shows up at their door, Malian’s family knows that he’ll protect them too. This is a gorgeous novel-in-verse that belongs in the hands of every middle grade reader.

When New York City abruptly shut down in March 2020, the normally bustling streets transformed overnight. Author Brian Floca observed these changes in the city landscape and started painting what he saw. The paintings eventually became this gorgeous picture book honoring all the essential workers who kept the essentials operating so the rest of the city could shelter in place during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the pandemic hits New York City, nobody expects a little virus to change the whole world in such a big way. But when school closes to keep everyone safe, Shayla, Liam, Ai, and Ben struggle to adjust to life in quarantine. As time goes by, they discover they are not alone: their apartment building is full of people who need their help. Working together, they begin to see that there is power in numbers. When they cooperate, they can ease each other’s challenges and help their neighbors through tough times.

Meticulously researched, author Kate Messner conducted interviews with Dr. Fauci himself and recounts his Brooklyn beginnings through medical school and his challenging role working with seven US presidents to tackle some of the biggest public health challenges of the past fifty years, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Extensive back matter rounds out Dr. Fauci’s story with a timeline, recommended reading, a full spread of facts about vaccines and how they work, and Dr. Fauci’s own tips for future scientists.

This sweet and hopeful picture book was inspired by the multitude of rainbows found in the windows of homes around the world following the COVID-19 lockdown. The rainbows are reminders that despite the fact that we are separated by distance and might feel alone, we are all just on one end of a rainbow—connected by all that color and light, there is always something, or someone, waiting for us on the other side.

This is a translation of a bestselling Korean picture book, set on the bustling Seoul subway, about the magic of shared experiences and humanity’s variances.

In this charming picture book, a little girl visits her grandfather in Cuba. A singing street vendor, she helps him sell his fruit, and even when they’re apart they sing to each other across the distance.

Newly heartbroken Jenna, already nursing the wounds of her parents’ divorce, decides relationships are too risky to pursue. While competing with her ex-boyfriend at newspaper club, and her best friend busy with her own boyfriend, Jenna falls in with new kid Rin and begins to realize that being alone is actually very lonely.

The second book in the adorable Eva Evergreen series is out, featuring another tale of now Novice Witch Eva. With her new title in hand, Eva must turn her sights to exposing the truth about the violent storm threatening the land.

For those horror lovers is this story collection that features a bunch of spine-tingling stories that include scary summer camps, creepy dolls, extended games of hide and seek, and more.

This versatile collection of stories is edited by Kwame Mbalia (author of the Tristan Strong series) and features stories, comics, and poems from other Black male and nonbinary authors that range from school stories to universe-saving tales.

Yumi Chung has a secret dream: to have a Netflix stand-up special. She wants nothing more than to spend her summer studying her favorite YouTube comedians, but then her mom enrolls her in a tutoring class so she can be eligible for an academic scholarship. Instead of going to class, she stumbles into a comedy class taught by one of her favorite comedians. A case of mistaken identity later, Yumi finds herself ditching tutoring for comedy. But how long can she keep this a secret? And how much damage will it create between her and her family if Yumi follows her dreams?

Olive “clicks” with everyone in the fifth grade even though she doesn’t have a “best friend”. She convinces herself that it’s fine, but then people start pairing up for the school’s variety show and Olive is left out. When funky, green-haired Aunt Molly invites her over for an aunt-niece sleepover, they spend the night watching old TV variety shows. Olive is so inspired by the witty hosts and hostesses who introduce and banter with the acts on their shows and dreams about taking on that role herself on a variety show. Can she convince her friends and family that this is the right fit for her?

Eleven-year-old Billy Plimpton has a dream to be a stand-up comedian. He wants to deliver perfect punch-lines and have his audiences hang on his every hilarious word. He knows he can do it, but one thing holds him back. He has a stammer. How will he find his voice, if his voice won’t let him speak?

At a coffee shop, a little girl imagines being aboard a train by making train noises, transforming the shop into a great train ride.

For the mythology lovers out there, this fantasy is out now in paperback. After Callie accidentally turns her best friend into a pop star, she learns she’s one of the muses from Greek mythology. As the newest muse of poetry she is tasked with protecting humanity. For her first assignment, Callie must not only inspire her classmate, Maya, but also save her from Sirens determined to destroy her destiny.

When Lucy discovers her parents’ old records, she’s catapulted into a summer of Beatlemania. Inspired, she starts a band with her friends, Vanessa and Rupa. They still need a drummer, and Georgianna could be perfect for it, but she doesn’t exactly click with Vanessa and Rupa. Check out this graphic novel to learn how Lucy’s efforts to form an all-girl rock band go.

In this second installment in the Super Sidekicks series, the sidekicks are settling in nicely to their new headquarters. But, the Mother of the Seas, sick of the oceans being treated so horribly by humans, is out for revenge.

Now out in paperback is this fun fantasy about Eva, a young witch determined to gain the rank of Novice Witch before she turns thirteen. Unfortunately for Eva, her magic amounts to little more than a pinch. The coastal town she arrives in expects a full-fledged witch, not a mildly magical girl, but Eva opens up a shop to prove her worthiness. When a storm threatens the town, Eva has to rally all the magic and smarts she can to save the town she loves.

I love this biography of Hazel Ying Lee who, as a young girl, was not afraid of anything. The moment she took her first airplane ride, she knew where she belonged. When people scoffed at her dreams of becoming a pilot, Hazel wouldn’t take no for an answer. She joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II, becoming the first Chinese-American woman to fly for the U.S. military.

This beautiful book in verse follows the dreams of a young Black man in 1940 who, when Uncle Sam asks for his service, is determined to serve his country from the cockpit of a plane. From training days in Alabama to combat on the front lines in Europe, this is the story of the Tuskegee Airmen, the groundbreaking African-American pilots of World War II. Art by Jeffery Weatherford adds a haunting beauty to this book.

The devastating attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, drew the United States into World War II in 1941. Few are aware that several months later, the Japanese pilot Nobuo Fujita dropped bombs in the woods outside a small town in coastal Oregon. This was the only moment during the war when bombs were dropped on the continental United States. While the bombs didn’t do much damage, Fujita was consumed with guilt for years after the war ended. Then, twenty years later, Fujita returned to Oregon, this time to apologize.

Master of nonfiction, Steve Sheinkin turns his meticulous eye for research to female pilots. Just nine years after American women finally got the right to vote, a group of trailblazers soared to new heights in the 1929 Air Derby, the first women’s air race across the U.S. Follow the incredible lives of legend Amelia Earhart, who has captivated generations; Marvel Crosson, who built a plane before she even learned how to fly; Louise Thaden, who shattered jaw-dropping altitude records; and Elinor Smith, who made headlines when she flew under the Brooklyn Bridge at the age of seventeen. 

This delightful fiction middle grade book follows eleven-year-old Amelia Ashford—Millie to her friends. When she’s given the opportunity of a lifetime, to spend the night in Amelia Earhart’s childhood home with five other girls, Millie jumps at the chance. Once at Amelia’s house in Atchison, Kansas, Millie stumbles upon a display of Amelia’s famous flight goggles. She can’t believe her good luck, since they’re about to be relocated to a fancy museum in Washington, DC. But, her luck changes quickly when the goggles disappear and Millie was the last to see them.

This fun (and informative!) picture book follows a group of children on the hunt for a sea bunny, a one-inch long sea slug that crawls along the ocean floor.

It’s July so you know what that means? New Halloween books! I am a forever fan of Jessie Sima (if you haven’t already read Harriet Gets Carried Away, please do) and this marks their first Halloween book about a house only growing more and more anxious about its creepy appearance and the effect it has on any prospective inhabitants.

This picture book explores feelings through color, offering meditative exercises to help children work through big feelings.

As she prepares to start at a new school, Kalamata and her alligator Al Dente, turn to their magical kitchen for comfort, traveling to a far off land for ingredients.

Jillian’s always wanted to join her parents on a space mission, and she finally gets her chance with Take Your Child to Work Day. When they crash land on an alien planet, Jillian has to protect herself and her parents until they can make it back home.