Annie Donwerth-Chikamatsu’s second novel in verse tells the story of one girl’s experiences during the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Tokyo.

Maya is an innocent and deeply empathetic person, who feels not only her own pain and hardship, but also that of her family, friends and community. When disaster strikes, she worries about them as well as for those most severely impacted, miles away from her in northeastern Japan. She’s desperate to find ways to help, but her initial efforts all seem insignificant. What difference can one girl make?

Donwerth-Chikamatsu’s verse skillfully evokes Maya’s poignant emotional landscape during and in the aftermath of the tragedies she experiences. Hopefully very few readers will know what it’s like to live through an earthquake or a tsunami, but through Maya’s story, they will understand what the survivors of such disasters may have felt.

Beyond Me showcases the best of humanity under the worst of circumstances as Maya learns to care for herself and her own heart as much as she cares for others.

Jenae is content in her social solitude, having already realized that “the world is full of people . . . who think fitting in is more important than being yourself.” However, her first day at John Wayne Junior High presents a challenge when her teacher announces that students must pair up to debate in front of the class.

Something to Say, like Jenae herself, is quietly commanding. Lisa Moore Ramée’s breezy chapters fly by as she thoughtfully explores friendship, activism and other serious issues.

The heart of the story is the budding friendship between Jenae and Aubrey, a new boy in school and her partner in the debate challenge. They bond over a fictional superhero but are otherwise total opposites. Aubrey is loud and energetic, and he couldn’t be more excited about the debate assignment.

Aubrey helps Jenae navigate her worries about her brother, whose athletic career has been sidelined by injury, and Jenae begins to appreciate the value of their friendship. But Jenae’s life becomes more complicated when her beloved grandfather, Gee, has a stroke, and her absentee father lets her down again.

Meanwhile, Jenae’s community is deciding whether to change her school’s name because of white supremacist comments made by the school’s namesake, an actor whom Gee admires. Community leaders want to rename it to honor Sylvia Mendez, the girl at the center of Mendez v. Westminster, a 1947 school desegregation case that set a precedent used in Brown v. Board of Education. Ramée weaves this conflict into the story skillfully, avoiding didacticism while acknowledging why many people resist change.

As Jenae discovers her own powerful voice, she must overcome her fear of using it in order to spark positive change in her community. The book’s message about the importance of righting the wrongs of history and taking a stand for what you believe will resonate loud and clear.

The kids are a lot bigger in middle school. That’s the first thing Cyrus Olson notices when he steps onto the field for football tryouts. Everyone expects him to become the next star receiver for Joseph Lee Heywood Middle School, just like his dad was. In fact, they expect him to be a lot of things like his big, strong firefighter dad, but that’s just not Cyrus. 

In Brave Like That, author Lindsey Stoddard (Just Like Jackie, Right as Rain) creates a grounded and authentic story that illustrates how being brave doesn’t always mean running into burning buildings or being the leader of the A-team.

Cyrus feels like the frightening things in his life just keep growing. He knows tackle football is going to hurt; the hallways and classrooms of middle school are full of unfamiliar classmates and teachers and harder schoolwork than ever before; and his beloved grandma is still recovering from a recent stroke. It’s all too much, and Cyrus is afraid that he’s just not brave enough to handle any of it. 

Then Cyrus’ dad finds a stray dog, alone at the front door of the firehouse, just like he found Cyrus exactly 11 years before. Unlike Cyrus, however, his dad has no plans to keep the dog, whom Cyrus names Parker. But if Cyrus is going to get through this year, he knows he’s going to need help from the most unlikely places, whether from a few unexpected friends, his grandma’s old vinyl records or the weight of a lonely dog resting a tired head on his shoulder.

Brave Like That is a nuanced and realistic story of a boy realizing that what he wants for himself is different than what other people may want for him. Cyrus’ sensitive first-person narration is effortlessly constructed and will draw readers in to his thoughts and feelings from the very first page.

Stoddard treads familiar middle grade territory, addressing evergreen themes of friendship and loyalty, but Cyrus’ warm and supportive relationships at the firehouse and his family’s unwavering love make the story shine. Put Brave Like That into the hands of any reader struggling to figure out who they really want to be, and it’ll show them that being yourself is the bravest, if sometimes the hardest, thing you can do.

Paul Mosier’s Summer and July is an ode to that one summer when everything changes. 

Combat-boot-wearing, goth-dressing Juillet is furious that her dad has left her mom for a younger woman. Juillet’s mother, a physician, seldom has enough time for her daughter, but this summer they are heading from Michigan to California for a change of scene. 

Ocean Park is a friendly, funky beach town near everything Juillet fears most: deep, dark oceans, man-eating sharks and the threat of towering tsunamis. As it happens, Juillet is afraid of just about everything. Five different psychologists have told her that she hides behind her fears to avoid her feelings about her parents’ divorce.

Soon after settling in, Juillet meets Summer, a free-spirited surfer who seems like everything Juillet is not. The girls become fast friends, and Summer eases Juillet past each of her phobias, helping her take baby steps into shallow water, then boogie board near the shore, then finally surf her first wave. Though Summer is perpetually upbeat, she also has a secret sadness, which she shares with Juillet as the two become close.

Summer and July reads like a classic coming-of-age story in the best way, as each girl confronts challenges and emerges from her summer transformed. Juillet and Summer’s deepening affection for each other is poignant and sure to resonate. Mosier’s pacing is languid, but like the pull of the tide, readers will be drawn in and swept away from safe and shallow shores. Fortunately, this book trusts that its readers are strong swimmers, ready for what the world has to offer.

Life hasn’t been fun and games for Lucy. She used to be a happy, talkative child with a beautiful voice, but she hasn’t spoken in a long time. At the Home for Friendless Children, talking just got her into too much trouble. It will take an entire circus and the camaraderie of all its performers to help Lucy find her voice and reconnect with the one thing in her life she misses most—her little sister, Dilly.

Orphan Eleven unfolds over just a two-week period in the lives of Lucy and three other Friendless Children, but it’s an action-packed, rollicking rollercoaster that chronicles the quartet’s adventures as they escape from the oppressive Home. A series of fortunate coincidences lead them to a circus troupe, where they meet a kind soul who helps them find their true strengths, learn about themselves and bond with each other. However, their past is never far behind, so as the group moves forward together, they’re constantly looking over their shoulders.

Gennifer Choldenko, a Newbery Honor recipient for Al Capone Does My Shirts, has always been a thorough researcher, and her skill is on full display in Orphan Eleven. Lucy’s treatment at the Home is, in fact, based on an actual medical experiment conducted at an orphanage in Iowa in the late 1930s. Scientists used children as research subjects to test their hypothesis that stuttering could be induced through constant humiliation. Lucy’s efforts to work through the cruelty she has experienced are rendered with great empathy, but knowing real children were actually treated this way by adults gives the book an even deeper poignancy.

The tension and excitement of running away and the fun and fascinating daily life of a circus will keep young readers turning the pages, but it’s Lucy’s real-life backstory that makes Orphan Eleven a true and compelling triumph.

Freddie is an 11-year-old British boy who loves facts. He recites them (sometimes at inappropriate times). He collects them. He wows people with them. But when his grandmother dies, he discovers a truly surprising fact: His father might be alive.

That discovery is enough to send Freddie and his BFFs on a rollicking, pound-foolish adventure across Wales to track him down. Along the way, they find themselves in one unlikely situation after another, stowing away overnight on a docked boat, accidentally setting fire to their clothes, entering an onion-eating contest, dashing around the country dressed as superheroes—all while stirring up hilarity and trying to stay one step ahead of some criminals. In short, keeping a low profile just isn’t in their DNA, and thankfully for readers, debut author Jenny Pearson has some truly comical calamities in store for Freddie and his friends.

Pearson’s pacing is precise, propelling readers from one escapade to another to see what the boys will get tangled up in next. Although Freddie’s mission is serious stuff, the detours he makes along the way are played for comedy while remaining grounded in the (mostly) plausible. The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates is the quest of a lifetime, with a generous helping of laugh-out-loud adventure and more than a pinch of heroism along the way.

A talented enchantress has been named godmother of a newborn princess, but she questions whether she possesses the wisdom required to help mold the child into a future leader. So she sends her magic mirror on a journey around the world to capture the stories of eight royal young ladies. As it travels through forests and jungles, across mountains and deserts, the mirror reflects both the virtues and challenges of every princess it meets. Their experiences produce pieces of wisdom for the enchantress to pass on to her beloved goddaughter.

Structured by the framework of the magic mirror’s journey, author Natasha Farrant weaves each princess’s tale into the tapestry of Eight Princesses and a Magic Mirror, which makes the book feel like a complete narrative rather a collection of disparate parts. What’s more, Farrant has constructed eight unique portraits that capture the full range of what it means to be a princess. Lydia Corry’s dazzling illustrations adorn nearly every page of the book and add another layer to the personalities and fantastical kingdoms depicted within.

These are the perfect princesses for the modern age. They gallop fearlessly across the open desert, risk their lives to save their friends and always stand up for what is right, even if they are standing alone. Their stories will be like beacons for young readers, reminding them that the most powerful magic is the courage of their convictions.

Whether you’re a card-carrying member of the ASPCA living with two rescue dogs, four cats and seven goldfish, or you shudder at the idea of taking care of another creature, you’re going to love Katherine Applegate’s The One and Only Bob. I fall into the former category, but Applegate had me at her glossary of canine terms, which features such entries as “Tug of war string: a long piece of fabric or leather (though never long enough) used to lead humans during walks.”

The One and Only Bob is the long-awaited sequel to Applegate’s Newbery Medal-winner, The One and Only Ivan, a novel inspired by the story of a gorilla kept caged at a mall for 27 years. Applegate once again delivers excellence. The star of this show is Bob, a scrappy mutt who longs to be more of a hero than he currently is. He’s honest, wise and hilarious, but in his own words, he “ain’t a saint.”

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Katherine Applegate reveals her initial reaction when she found out she had won the Newbery Medal.

A four-legged philosopher, Bob waxes eloquent about his life as a dog, sharing his desperate times, when he thrown out of a truck as a puppy and forced to live on the streets, to his sweeter times now that his human, Julie, cares for him. But Bob is conflicted about being a pet. He doesn’t like the sound of the word and sometimes finds it demeaning. Though he’s small in stature, Bob is not one to be belittled.

Julie takes Bob to visit his best friends, Ivan and Ruby, every week at the zoo, until one week, a fearsome hail storm spins into a tornado. The storm sends Bob’s world into a wet and terrifying tailspin. But just as crisis sometimes brings out the best of humanity, Applegate reveals that it does the same for animals.

Applegate’s prose is full of moments of true beauty, philosophical musings and more than a bit of laugh-out-loud humor. When I read, I like to turn down the corners of pages that contain phrases or scenes I particularly love. By the end of The One and Only Bob, the review copy I was reading looked like an accordion. Every page of it reads like a gift, and it has wisdom to offer readers of every age, free for the taking.

Books, like friends, have distinct personalities. Some are the life of the party, loudly and boldly calling for attention from their spot on the shelf in the bookstore. Others sit calmly by your side, sympathetic and encouraging, waiting politely to be read. Lauren Castillo’s Our Friend Hedgehog: The Story of Us is one of these companionable volumes, an instantly classic tribute to friendship.

When Hedgehog’s beloved stuffed dog is lost in a storm, Hedgehog, too, feels lost. But when several new animals join in the search for Mutty, Hedgehog’s world becomes far bigger, far true-friend-lier and far more full of life than she ever imagined it could be.

Inspired by the Castillo’s own experience of moving away from friends, Our Friend Hedgehog has an earnest and intimate feel. Although its characters tend to fall into storybook archetypes (Owl is wise and verbose, Beaver is grumpy but industrious), their familiarity is endearing rather than derivative. Castillo’s child-friendly narration carries a sense of youthful honesty and openness. Perfectly accessible to young readers, the heavily illustrated book offers countless opportunities for reading comprehension practice. Castillo employs interesting vocabulary words, personification and foreshadowing that will encourage growing readers to put themselves in the characters’ shoes and ask, “What will happen next?”

Castillo, who received a Caldecott Honor for Nana in the City, uses illustrated Polaroid-style instant photographs to introduce each chapter, tying the story together with an underlying theme of scrapbook memories. Soft lines and a variety of textures add movement while color and fluctuating scale (giant leaning trees, overlarge button decorations) cultivate unique atmospheres for each turn of this tale. As the opener for a new chapter book series, Our Friend Hedgehog promises more cheerfully illustrated escapades to come.

Full of empathetic characters, Our Friend Hedgehog doesn’t holler for attention, nor do its moral sensibilities land with thuds. Instead, it’s a gentle book about the gifts new friends bring into our lives: clear eyes on a foggy day, companionship on an unfamiliar path and, best of all, a hand to pull us ashore when the waters seem too deep.