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By sounding a warning before the catastrophe comes, it might motivate some readers to find ways to take action to mitigate the very worst of it.
These Juneteenth offerings include various formats, ranging from cookbooks to early readers to audiobooks, so all your young readers can find their preferred way to learn more about this holiday.
When I sat down to write VESUVIUS, my debut YA historical fantasy set in the final days of Pompeii, I did so to put queer people back in the narrative.
In these books that take place in part during the first semester of college, characters learn more about themselves during this time of transition—and maybe fall in love along the way.
Eventually, the time will come when you have to go your own way like me and Aaliyah. You’ve got this and if nobody else believes in you, don’t worry—I do.
Just in time for Father's Day, we've rounded up a few of the latest board books that highlight the special bond between fathers and their children. Share these titles with your young readers before mid-June or all year long.
Books are crucial tools in understanding the lives of those who may look or sound a little different from the majority.
If Castle Swimmer sounds like a story you would enjoy, then I have some additional, queer YA comics I’d like to recommend, in celebration of Pride Month.
An intriguing offering that shines a light into a lesser-known aspect of the American abolitionist movement. Highly recommended.
A powerful testament to the strength and potential of individuals with Down syndrome, and an essential read for anyone seeking representation or to broaden their understanding of intellectual disabilities.
An inclusive must-buy for all upper elementar collections and for any institution serving an Indigenous community.
This enlightening title encourages curiosity about real-world scientific work and highlights the important bond between humans and animals; a strong purchase for juvenile nonfiction collections, particularly where there is interest in animals, environmental science, or conservation careers.
Long’s empathetic yet powerful writing beautifully portrays the awe-inspiring tenacity of the activists. Recommended for all libraries.
An additional purchase for elementary library collections where cookbooks and unique cooking guides are popular.
The introduction of kawaii food designs and manga references helps acquaint young eaters with new flavors and dishes, while the chopstick games and crafts add to the fun of cooking while learning about Japanese culture. Douzo meshiagare!
This collection of recipes is a treasure; visually stunning, seasoned with quotes from famous female chefs, and a great addition to the “Rebel Girls” series.
Foodies and history buffs will enjoy this attractive cookbook filled with both recipes and facts about favorite foods and notable Black icons in history.
Perfect nostalgia fodder for parents who loved Friends, offering a way to bond with kids over cooking and pups.
PREMIUM
PAC-MAN: The Official Cookbook
Parents, caregivers, and teachers will enjoy a scrumptious trip down memory lane while showing younger generations the fun and joy of Pac-Man.
This book challenges teens to step out of their comfort zone with diverse spices, working with seafood, and tricky recipes, simplified but not condescending.
One of the best how-to books for young cooks, or for anyone who is learning. Every library should order at least one copy of this cookbook.
PREMIUM
World Kitchen: Celebrations
Younger tweens will be immersed in annual global celebrations and relish this cookbook’s vibrant graphic novel feel.
An attractive addition to collections serving youth prepared for a baking and decorating challenge
Creatively rendered fake-out cakes and cupcakes will delight bakers and eaters alike. Purchase is recommended for libraries that want to inspire creative bakers.
A wonderful way to discuss behavior and personality traits with younger readers, this informative Spanish title is an excellent addition to school and public libraries.
A good choice for Spanish-language children’s nonfiction collections where there is a demand for astrology, self-help, and metaphysical titles.
Beautiful in both text and artwork, this incredible title by a powerhouse team belongs on all nonfiction shelves.
A must for Spanish-language picture book biography shelves. This valuable addition will inspire Latinx children to follow their dreams and appreciate their communities.
A visually stellar, engaging book of quirky facts and creatures, this will draw in readers across grade levels and is a first purchase for all libraries.
A heartfelt tribute to a master musician whose life has lessons for all of us.
A gorgeously illustrated celebration that is a must-purchase.
PREMIUM
Ray: How Light Works
This is a serviceable overview of a complex topic; perhaps pair with Susan Hughes’s Lights Day and Night or David A. Adler’s Light Waves for its excellent STEM focus.
This inspiring story of Christina Figueres should appeal to young environmentalists and civic-minded kids and belongs on the climate change shelves.
Part of the “Our Universe” series of books that inform and entertain readers, this compelling title is a great choice for budding astronomers and science enthusiasts.
In a season with a lot of rock books, this is a must-purchase for nonfiction collections as rockhounds will delight in finding out how rocks are born.
Inspiring and uplifting, this is a particularly excellent selection for multicultural families to enjoy together and works in library collections as well.
This essential picture book about the life of an important political activist is sure to be a great addition to picture book collections.
With some uncommon words and packed with ideas, this compelling and humorous book lends itself as a read-aloud for early grades and is a must for all libraries.
Featuring exceptional accounts and impactful illustrations of different forms of communication, this book is a true celebration of all people living with disabilities and an invaluable learning experience for children and their grown-ups. This is a first purchase for all collections.
An insightful and inspiring biography that shines a well-deserved light on a little-known figure who quietly helped shape the magic of Disney.
A good biography that works as an additional purchase for libraries looking for STEM books.
A great addition to any library’s biography section for younger readers.
A recommended purchase wherever animal books are extremely popular.
This is a fine additional selection for libraries in need of materials on the rock cycle.
A must-purchase for all libraries as it reflects the best that modern biographies for young readers have to offer.
When I told my mother about my newest adventure, she jokingly sang the refrain she used to sing to me and my siblings when she suspected we were up to no good: “Someone’s gonna end up cry-ing!”
Friends. FRIENDS. Look at all this glorious book mail. Behold the GIANT AMOUNT of books to arrive at my house in the past few weeks.
Of course, the problem with being a writer is that you’re always writing. I literally couldn’t help myself – every step of that journey, I was making a book inside my head.
I hope you enjoy every step of their story, spend some well-earned time-away-from-time in Pocket, and try dressing for your own fairy tale.
A recommendation of 5 digital comics for teens (sponsored)
I hope readers close this book feeling the same kind of sleepy magic you experience watching the sunrise after a night spent sitting up and laughing with your best friends.
I wanted warmth to radiate off the page. Kids deserve a model of what respect looks like, what empathy looks like, what support looks like. Especially nowadays.
It took many drafts to get the Alligator Witch of West Bay right; mythmaking takes time and energy.
These three novels explore the fun, freedom, and complications of life on vacation for tweens.
Authors and illustrators have become evermore adept at hooking readers with fantasy and humor while providing solid details like bait to hook their continuing curiosity. These five fishy tales prove it.
Books can show you a world where you belong, not just by yourself, but with a whole bunch of other people who understand you and care about you.
This diverse list of titles includes prose novels, novels in verse, and graphic novels. It has solid middle grade books as well as selections more suited for upper middle grade or younger YA tastes.
Let's check out 49 great recent releases from Penguin Young Readers!
The authors join us to talk about their experience writing THE COOKIE CRUMBLES and THEIR JUST DESSERTS together.
Rebecca Stead's first picture book and an audiobook of the latest Renée Watson title make the list, along with several back-to-school books.
Authors Katherine Locke and Nicole Melleby join us to talk about their new book, Athlete Is Agender: True Stories of LGBTQ+ People in Sports.
In Judaism, neshama describes the holy, everlasting spark inside every human being that lasts in the universe, even after a person passes away.
I was about to enter middle school, and I desperately yearned for a new obsession that could distract me from reality. I found it in the form of a cassette tape of the latest Backstreet Boys single, “All I Have to Give.”
This month's SLJ cover story is my piece on school shootings in middle grade and YA books.
A fascinating tour through the world of animal senses, this will be popular with animal lovers and collectors of weird-but-true nature facts.
This thoroughly researched, beautifully rendered portrait of a complex and pivotal figure is recommended as an essential purchase.
PREMIUM
Poems for Every Season
Best added to libraries currently serving Blyton readers or building large poetry collections.
This well-written, all-star sports title engages fans from start to finish and deserves a place in school and public libraries.
Author Nova Ren Suma joins us to talk about her new book WAKE THE WILD CREATURES.
Author Erin Entrada Kelly joins us to talk about her new book At Last She Stood: How Joey Guerrero Spied, Survived, and Fought for Freedom
In this Q&A series, SLJ poses five questions and a request for a book recommendation to a debut YA author. Mina Ikemoto Ghosh shares about Hyo the Hellmaker in this latest installment.
Celebrate mothers not just for one day but all year long with these selections.
Calista Brill and Nilah Magruder Tell All About 'Creaky Acres,' Their New Middle Grade Graphic Novel
Creaky Acres is a story about a girl, a horse, and a whole new way of life. Brigid Alverson spoke to the creators about their graphic novel featuring Nora, a competitive rider, who finds her way on a delightfully weird farm, inhabited by an equally quirky crew of young equestrians.
Author Riley Redgate joins us to talk about her new book COME HOME TO MY HEART.
This compelling biography belongs in every library, enhancing instruction and research on women’s history, WWII, the Philippines, and Hansen’s disease.
This timely and timeless collection of nature poems is a perfect addition to any library or classroom.
A well-done work that will empower young environmental activists and give them (and any speechwriter) an impactful handbook.
This biography is a good addition to a secondary school’s biography collection. Readers who enjoy stories of bravery, espionage, and strong female figures will find Hall’s story both thrilling and inspiring.
A must-read for anyone looking to understand the future of advocacy in a rapidly changing world.
PREMIUM
Epic Athletes: Caitlin Clark
An engaging and well-crafted tribute to a talented athlete, offering an inspiring read for sports enthusiasts, Clark fans, and aspiring athletes alike.
A general purchase for an art curriculum tie-in.
Despite some faults, this book is a strong choice for nonfiction shelves and as a curricular tie-in due to the significance of the subject’s contribution to science and world history.
An interesting and well-structured guide for young readers looking to build wealth and break free from financial limitations, though future editions may need periodic updates to keep up with evolving financial trends and political policies.
A must-purchase not just for sports fans but any reader looking for hope and stories of belonging.
A stunningly written and illustrated work of children’s literature, and an essential purchase for school and public library collections.
PREMIUM
It’s Busy Down in the Woods Today: Friends to Meet, Places to Explore, and Over 100 Things to Find
An excellent purchase for elementary library collections where poetry and interactive look-and-find texts are popular.
PREMIUM
Ready, Steady, Sloth!
An excellent picture book about sloths that will entertain and inform young readers. A strong choice for any library.
Readers will not come away with any understanding of “the many ways milk is made,” and there is little of substance here.
While the book has cute illustrations and strong writing, it still feels a little like MIT propaganda.
An additional purchase for libraries looking for more picture book biographies about groundbreaking Asian American artists. Julie Leung’s Mr. Pei’s Perfect Shapes might be a more successful option.
Starmer has beautifully captured how that post-graduation, pre-college summer can feel: full of potential, last chances, drawn-out goodbyes, and perfect moments that you wish could last forever.
Seven new graphic novels, both fiction and nonfiction, that depict the immigration experience.
This month’s starred titles take readers to Turkey, walk them through the first day of school, and give the number zero its moment in the spotlight.
These books share tips on using AI, mini-lessons, manga, and more to engage and educate students and patrons.
Certain kinds of important, difficult, and formative queer experiences are not being truthfully explored in books for queer teens—primarily, I believe, because they make adult gatekeepers uncomfortable.
The characters in Love at Second Sight are not direct parallels to the Scooby Doo crew despite referencing them at one point, but they were one of many inspirations. And with that, I would like to introduce the Love at Second Sight characters through the lens of Scooby Doo.
Book access and other restrictions on libraries and library values remain top of mind for readers. So too, practical posts toward serving library patrons, with creative ideas for staging a crime investigation to teach research skills and preserving family recipes getting the most views on SLJ.com.
Saturday, April 26 is my favorite day of the year! That's right, it's time for Teen Lit Con again in Mendota Heights, Minnesota! I'm excited to be presenting for the sixth year.
Eventually, I decided that the nefarious plotting of my young tontine contenders was not only acceptable for middle grade but also funny—for the same reason that Home Alone is a comedy and not a horror movie.
Optimism fosters a sense of collective action and shows that no effort is too small.
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