The Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale by Jon Klassen; illus. by the authorPrimary Candlewick 112 pp.7/23 9781536223361 $19.99e-book ed. 9781536232158 $19.99“One night…Otilla finally ran away.” After trekking through the snowy forest, she knocks at the door of a large old house. A skull in the window says he’ll let the girl...
Cinderella and a Mouse Called Fred by Deborah Hopkinson; illus. by Paul O. ZelinskyPrimary Schwartz/Random 48 pp.8/23 9780593480038 $18.99Library ed. 9780593480045 $21.99e-book ed. 9780593480052 $10.99A fairly standard retelling changes course quickly when Cinderella storms out of the ball (“What a disaster!”) declaring that the prince is a snob and her...
Ode to a Bad Day by Chelsea Lin Wallace; illus. by Hyewon Yum Preschool, Primary Chronicle 48 pp. 4/23 9781797210803 $16.99 With loads of age-appropriate melodrama, a young girl laments all the bad things that happen on a bad day, starting with “Too Much Milk in My Cereal.” Late to...
The Very Unfortunate Wish of Melony Yoshimura by Waka T. BrownIntermediate, Middle School Quill Tree/HarperCollins 272 pp.7/23 9780063230767 $18.99e-book ed. 9780063230781 $10.99Sixth grader Melony tries really hard to please her overprotective Japanese immigrant parents and be the good girl they expect her to be, but inside she’s raging against their...
Night in the City by Julie Downing; illus. by the authorPreschool, Primary Porter/Holiday 40 pp.3/23 9780823452064 $18.99e-book ed. 9780823455188 $11.99While a child gets ready for bed, a father gets ready for work—as do other night-shift workers in the city. Readers follow the dad (a nurse) and eight others: a taxi...
Miss Irwin by Allen Say; illus. by the authorPrimary Scholastic 32 pp.4/23 9781338300406 $19.99Remembering what his parents have told him about Grandma, second grader Andy patiently goes along when she calls him by the wrong name, confusing him for a student she’d taught long ago. “I had you in kindergarten…I...
Ancient Night by David Álvarez with David Bowles; illus. by David Álvarez Preschool, Primary Em Querido/Levine Querido 40 pp. 3/23 9781646142514 $18.99 Spanish ed. 9781646142545 $18.99 e-book ed. 9781646142859 $18.99 Rabbit keeps the moon shining brightly by trekking across the world to bring back aguamiel, “the precious, glowing nectar that...
The Bear and the Wildcat by Kazumi Yumoto; illus. by Komako Sakai; trans. from Japanese by Cathy HiranoPrimary Gecko 48 pp.2/23 9781877467707 $19.99Young viewers may wonder why the cover art shows a bear and a bird, not a wildcat. On the title page, however, we see the bird lying on...
The Snail by Emily Hughes; illus. by the authorPrimary, Intermediate Chronicle 88 pp.11/22 9781797204673 $18.99In this picture book for an older audience than Yang’s A Boy Named Isamu (rev. 9/21), Hughes presents an impressionistic biography of artist Isamu Noguchi. The book’s emotional journey begins with an elderly Noguchi shouting into...