Willodeen has a straightforward philosophy when it comes to her love of animals: “the scarier, the smellier, the uglier, the better.” The 11-year-old especially loves the screechers that everyone else in her village of Perchance despises because of their appearance (hideous, with sharp teeth and claws), smell (“as ferocious as an outhouse in August”) and behavior (noisy and irritable). Still, Willodeen is convinced that screechers play an irreplaceable part in the village ecosystem and that they are just as important as any other creature, even the precious hummingbears, whose annual migration makes tourists flock to Perchance.

But this year, something is wrong. Not a single hummingbear has returned to the village, and Perchance is experiencing natural disasters as well, including fires, mudslides and drought. What could have upset the balance of nature and caused these strange occurrences? Willodeen, her new friend Connor and a magically handcrafted, wholly original new creature may be the only ones who can restore order to Perchance. Along the way, they might even prove to the villagers once and for all that every creature matters.

Willodeen is an endearing fable that illuminates the importance of recognizing that all living things serve a purpose in our beautifully complex world and are worthy of care and dignity. Author Katherine Applegate excels in writing animal stories, such as her Newbery Medal-winning The One and Only Ivan, that remind us of the essential role nature plays in our lives. In Willodeen, she gracefully demonstrates how this connection brings with it a responsibility to care for the environment—even its less glamorous parts—and why we should treat this responsibility as a gift.

In the year 2061, Halley’s comet is on a crash course with Earth, and life on the planet is destined to end. Only three ships of colonists, including 12-year-old Petra Peña and some members of her family, have a chance at survival on another world. When Petra imagines her future on the distant planet Sagan, she dreams of becoming a storyteller like the grandmother she must leave behind on Earth.

When Petra wakes from suspended animation after almost four centuries of space travel, she learns that the colonists did successfully reach Sagan, but an extremist faction known as the Collective took over the ship while she slept. These descendants of the non-suspended colonists believe that peace can only be achieved when every human being is exactly the same; they even genetically alter their skin to be colorless and transparent. Petra is the only person left whose memories of Earth have not been erased by the Collective’s technology. She must use her wits and her stories to outsmart the Collective and fight for humanity’s legacy.

Petra’s love of storytelling forms the heart of The Last Cuentista. To communicate the sheer scope of what could be lost if the Collective succeeds, author Donna Barba Higuera references both traditional and contemporary tales, from the epic of “Gilgamesh” to Yuyi Morales’ 2018 picture book, Dreamers. Yet even as Petra seeks to protect the past, she doesn’t shy away from change. She often tweaks the stories she retells and reminisces on her grandmother’s own embellishments, beautifully demonstrating how even our oldest and most cherished stories continue to grow with us.

Particularly fitting for a novel about storytelling, the language Higuera employs is powerful and effective. The somber and sterile ship, the Collective members’ eerily transparent skin and the lush alien world of Sagan are all portrayed in transporting detail. Higuera establishes a tense mood early on and preserves that tension throughout, while still creating spaces in which she quietly explores Petra’s intense feelings of grief, hope and love. The contrast between these elements is balanced and complements the novel’s bittersweet narrative.

Readers will find in The Last Cuentista a promise that the past is not the enemy of the future, but a gift that grants the perspective to meet that future with compassion and bravery.

Bestselling author Steve Sheinkin is best known for his 2012 book, Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon, which was a National Book Award finalist, a Newbery Honor book and winner of the Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal. Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown is another engrossing work of nonfiction that reads like a page-turning spy thriller as it takes up the issue of nuclear weapons and international politics in a wide-ranging, information-packed account of the Cold War, including the development of the hydrogen bomb and the tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States that nearly erupted into war during the Cuban missile crisis.

Sheinkin clearly knows this terrain like the back of his hand, and his narrative jumps nimbly from Soviet spy Rudolf Abel’s secretive life in New York City (which will remind adult readers of the popular FX show “The Americans”), to the rise of Soviet leader Nikita Krushchev after the death of Josef Stalin, to the scientists developing the hydrogen bomb, and finally to President John F. Kennedy as he faced a terrifying standoff in October 1962. The Cuban missile crisis, Sheinkin observes, “was a bit like a chess match between grandmasters.” As he depicts the conflict between two world powers, even readers familiar with the details of the crisis and its resolution will find themselves on the edge of their seats.

Although Fallout’s primary narrative ends there, Sheinkin follows up on the players in an epilogue, where he also includes a personal touch. He reflects on how, as a teen, he fully expected that he would experience nuclear war before he graduated from high school. 

In short chapters written in his signature energetic style, Sheinkin provides vivid details that keep interest high, such as 13 year-old paperboy Jimmy Bozart’s discovery of a nickel with a secret code hidden inside or the intricate tradecraft practiced by two Soviet agents as they jump out of subway cars at the last minute to lose a tail while en route to a secret meeting at the Bronx Zoo. (Who would have thought the Bronx Zoo was a rendezvous point for spies?) Even minor characters on this international chess board stand out. Sheinkin expertly balances action, historical context and the events of his narrative. Meticulously researched, Fallout includes copious source notes and an extensive bibliography. 

Fallout is a compelling read that provides a riveting picture of the events of the Cold War. It’s the work of a nonfiction master at his best.

Living in a car isn’t really so bad. Not when Daddy makes a nice place to sleep in the back of the Suburban, and the bathrooms and showers in the RV park aren’t too far away. In Janet Fox’s Carry Me Home, things are tough for 12-year-old Lulu and her little sister, Serena, but not too tough, because they always have Daddy, and Daddy knows things will get better. And it seems like they really will—until Lulu wakes up one morning and Daddy isn’t there. 

After a few days go by and Daddy doesn’t come back, Lulu knows that she and Serena are on their own. Lulu is determined to keep them together, so she makes sure they get to school on time, visits the food pantry and the library and does just enough to keep well-intentioned teachers, librarians and after-school care providers from asking too many hard questions. But with no more money coming in and a cold Montana winter approaching, Lulu is running out of options.

Carry Me Home unspools in short chapters that alternate between the present and the past. Readers see Lulu and Serena’s lives when their mother was still alive and in the immediate aftermath of her death, giving them an understanding of how Lulu’s family came to be in this impossible situation and why she feels that the weight of her little family rests solely on her young shoulders. Fox gently depicts the way Lulu manages their basic needs while balancing the difficulties (and joys) of navigating a new school and finding her way in the world. 

With accessible prose, brisk pacing and well-developed characters, Fox’s empathetic novel encourages readers to understand how people experiencing homelessness are individuals with stories and, like everyone, deserve compassion and support.

A Soft Place to Land, Janae Marks’ second middle grade novel, is a heartwarming story of family, friendship and one girl’s longing to find her place amid the world’s turmoil.

Until recently, 12-year-old Joy lived in a comfortable house with her loving parents and her little sister, Malia. But when Joy’s father loses his job, her parents must sell their house to avoid foreclosure. Joy and her family move to a small apartment, where she and Malia must share a bedroom. The financial stress also means her parents can no longer afford Joy’s piano lessons, which is a crushing blow because she loves music and aspires to become a film composer when she grows up.

Just when all seems lost, Joy meets a kindred spirit: Nora, a classmate who also lives in Joy’s new apartment building and has worries of her own. Nora introduces Joy to a secret hideout where they can escape their troubles and share secrets. The hideout becomes the titular soft place to land for Joy, Nora and the other kids in their apartment complex. 

In the hideout, friendships blossom and splinter. A shared passion inspires Joy and Nora to test their independence by starting a dog-walking business to earn money, which elicits interest and growing trust from their parents, but yields unanticipated results. Troubling hidden messages scrawled on the hideout’s wall leave Joy concerned, puzzled and wanting to do more to help the anonymous writer. 

The desire for a safe haven is shared by all of the novel’s characters. Chaos is everywhere, Joy discovers, but what matters is how you confront challenges, share what you’ve learned and invite others in. If you can find the strength and courage to do so, you may find that home has been right in front of you all along. 

In a short introduction to Black Boy Joy, anthology editor Kwame Mbalia (Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky) reveals three secrets: He doesn’t like watching the news, he cries when he is happy, and he wants readers to be happy. He describes Black Boy Joy as what happened when he combined those three secrets with the contributions of 16 fellow Black authors.

In addition to his role as editor, Mbalia also contributes the book’s framing story, “The Griot of Grover Street,” in which 11-year-old Fortitude Jones is called away from his aunt’s funeral to help a strange older man travel through the mysterious space between worlds to collect moments of joy. A mix of well-known and up-and-coming authors, including Jason Reynolds, Varian Johnson, Tochi Onyebuchi and Jerry Craft, create the moments themselves in 16 stories that highlight the sweetness of the extraordinary and the ordinary.

Fantastical tales burst with the energy of intergalactic battles and magical games, and one story written in verse includes instructions for writing your own poem. In Lamar Giles’ incomparably titled “There’s Going to Be a Fight in the Cafeteria on Friday and You Better Not Bring Batman,” a boy named Cornell gets advice on a superpowered showdown from three generations of family members. In B.B. Alston’s “The McCoy Game,” two cousins reconnect after having grown apart. The young chef in Julian Winters’ “The Legendary Lawrence Cobbler” learns that his father’s love for him isn’t changed by the revelation that he likes boys. And a tween uses their 13th birthday as the occasion to come out as nonbinary in George M. Johnson’s “The Gender Reveal.”

Every story’s protagonist is instantly endearing as they offer humor and hope and share their fears and dreams. The stories are honest and fresh, and the affection each contributor must have felt for both their characters and the reader while writing comes through clearly on every page. Black Boy Joy is a treasure to share and return to again and again.

When Nurah’s father gets a new job in America, her family is uprooted from Pakistan to Peachtree, Georgia, in search of new opportunities to blossom. But Nurah struggles to start fresh. She feels out of place at school, her older brother overshadows her on the swim team, the only new friend she’s made is dealing with trouble at home that Nurah feels powerless to help with, and she misses her grandmother’s flowers in Pakistan. When her father is questioned in the aftermath of a shooting and her brother is attacked in the locker room, Nurah tries to reconcile the America she was promised with the one she is actually experiencing.

Writing in spare but evocative verse, author Reem Faruqi creates a vivid and semiautobiographical tale of faith and family. She captures the beauty of Nurah’s culture, from the aroma of the flowers that Nurah misses to the delicious snacks that Nurah’s mother bakes when they receive visitors at their home. She also poignantly portrays what it’s like to start over someplace new and the way that Nurah remakes herself again and again as she comes into her own and discovers what is most important to her as a daughter, sister, friend and Muslim girl. Her lyrical vignettes are a master class in exploring big themes, including loss, grief, bullying, prejudice and acceptance, in exactly as many words as are necessary.

Unsettled will have readers rooting for Nurah as she swims her way across the finish line to a new understanding of herself and her place in the world.

Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli has created another middle grade masterpiece with Dead Wednesday, a riveting tale about the awkward transition between middle school and high school and finding the confidence to be yourself along the way. It’s a serious story of life, death and mortality that speaks to tweens in an authentic and frequently funny voice.

As he did in his Newbery Honor novel, Wringer, which depicted a town’s ritualistic requirement that 10-year-old boys wring the necks of wounded pigeons shot during an annual festival, Spinelli places another seemingly ghastly tradition at the center of Dead Wednesday. In this case, 14-year-old Robbie Tarnauer, known as Worm, is thrilled to finally be participating in “Dead Wednesday,” a day in which eighth graders wear black T-shirts and take on the identities of the town’s teenagers who have recently died. Adults spend the day ignoring them, treating them as though they’re dead and therefore invisible. 

It’s intended, of course, to be a solemn affair that warns rising high school students against dangerous, reckless behavior and its deadly consequences. For the kids, however, Dead Wednesday is a day of strange freedom and pranks. 

Worm receives the identity of 17-year-old Becca Finch, who suddenly, mysteriously appears in her pajamas on his desk at school. She can interact with him but is invisible to others. “Worm,” she informs him, “we have to work together on this. I don’t know what’s going on any more than you do.” Worm and Becca get to know each other and eventually enjoy each other’s company. In a particularly moving passage, Becca explains the events leading up to her death and addresses the aftermath.

Spinelli takes an odd situation and makes it odder, but in his talented hands, the unbelievable becomes not only believable but also unputdownable. Worm is a shy, thoughtful and self-conscious protagonist whose quips will immediately draw readers in. He usually wears a watch, “a kind of compass that positions him in time and space,” but as he interacts with Becca, it becomes clear that all bets are off. Dead Wednesday is about how we choose to spend what time we have and how quickly that time can be lost. “You taught me more in one afternoon than I learned in my whole life,” Worm tells Becca. These are unforgettable characters, and Dead Wednesday is another award-worthy book from an author cementing his legacy. 

On the very first page of Lesa Cline-Ransome’s Being Clem, a knock at the door brings terrible news: Clem’s father has been killed in the 1944 shipyard munitions accident that will become known as the Port Chicago disaster. Clem’s mother, unable to find anyone willing to hire a Black secretary, is soon behind on the rent, and his older sisters, busy with friends and boys, have little time for their little brother’s grief. 

When Clem skips a grade to attend middle school, he begins hanging out with Lymon, a new boy in town. But when Lymon begins to bully another new boy, Langston, who shares Clem's affinity for the local public library, Clem must make a difficult choice. Should he go along with Lymon, despite his misgivings, or stand up for the new boy—but risk losing a friend in the process?

As if all this weren’t enough for one boy to deal with, Clem's swimming lessons aren’t going smoothly either. How can Clem grow up to be a Navy man like his father when he’s afraid of the pool? Clem may know all the answers in school, but there's still so much he doesn't understand.

Although Being Clem can be read independently, fans of Cline-Ransome’s previous books Finding Langston (which received a Coretta Scott King Honor) and Leaving Lymon will appreciate the daring narrative choice to place Clem in friendships with her two previous protagonists—who are, in turn, one another's enemies. 

Cline-Ransome also fills Being Clem with rich details from 1940s Chicago, including the real-life, award-winning DuSable High School swim team, whose members were Black and against whom some white teams refused to compete. Cline-Ransome explores societal issues of race, class and gender alongside Clem's more internal struggles to express difficult emotions like fear and sadness. Being Clem gains poignancy from Clem’s personal journey as he mourns the father for whom he is named and whose legacy he hopes he will one day honor. 

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Being Clem author Lesa Cline-Ransome reveals the real-life inspiration behind Clem and his friends.

Eleven-year-old Loah Londonderry lives in a ramshackle house with an “alarmingly crooked turret.” Her classmates regularly dare each other to peek into her house’s windows, and Loah usually responds with a timid wave.

Loah’s mother, an ornithologist, is doing fieldwork in the Arctic, so Loah is being looked after by the Rinkers, a brother and sister who are “old, scrawny, and white as napkins.” Miss Rinker is strict, but her brother, Theo, the purveyor of bedtime gummy bears, is Loah’s favorite.

Loah’s mother has been gone for 67 days (and counting) when their turret-topped home comes to the unwelcome attention of Mr. Wayne J. Kipper, the local housing inspector. Then an accident lands Theo in the hospital just as Loah learns of her mother’s plan to go off the grid and risk a dangerous solo pursuit of the rare bird that is Loah’s namesake. When all seems truly lost, Loah is befriended by a rangy, outspoken homeschooler named Ellis.

The Most Perfect Thing in the Universe is an appealing coming-of-age story with broad emotional range. Author Tricia Springstubb writes with a deft hand, and her moving and complex third-person narration contains frequent humorous asides to the reader.

The novel is set against a lush backdrop of the natural world, full of the calls and movements of the birds that Loah’s mother has devoted her life to studying. Readers will learn about arctic terns, hairy woodpeckers and chickadees, and there’s even a supporting turn at a critical moment by the family of vultures who live in the turret. The Most Perfect Thing in the Universe is a lovely reminder of the importance of paying attention to nature and protecting the creatures that share our world.

Una and Julien live very different lives. Una is the wealthy magister’s daughter, while Julien is the son of a poor botanical forager. But these two children have something in common: They each possess the rare supernatural gift of a heightened sense, Una for scent and Julien for sound. Their gifts shape how they interact with the world around them and add a layer of wonder to ordinary, everyday life. But when Julien’s father is imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit and Una becomes embroiled in Julien’s fight to free him, both children begin to realize that their gifts may be useful in ways they never could have imagined. In fact, they might even hold the power to save lives.   

The Other Side of Luck, Ginger Johnson’s second middle grade novel, is a captivating feast for the senses. Johnson describes sights, smells and sounds in exquisite detail. Julien hears “the singing of sprouts and seedlings stretching and swelling, the hymn of flowers unfurling, the fusion of trees and grasses as they harmonized in their upward reach,” and Una perceives the scent of her father’s unexpected laughter as “spicy, aromatic and somewhat peppery.” 

Despite these sensory delights, Johnson’s story deals with weighty themes of grief, loneliness and identity while exploring complex family dynamics. When Una was 7, her mother died. Afterward, her distant father practically vanished from her life, first because of his grief and then because he remarries a woman who seems to have no interest in a maternal relationship with Una. Una now longs to connect with her mother’s family, whom she has never known. Julien, on the other hand, is close with his loving father, but he misses the mother who died giving birth to him and struggles to keep a brave face in light of his father’s worsening illness. Yet through loss and sadness, neither Una nor Julien loses sight of the beauty in their life, and their gifts become a lifeline to hope. 

Immersive and sensitive, The Other Side of Luck will be enjoyed by middle grade fantasy readers in search of a story full of magic and heart.

Nina Hamza sets an incredibly high bar by placing three classics of children’s literature at the heart of her debut middle grade novel, Ahmed Aziz’s Epic Year. Fortunately for readers, she more than delivers, soaring over the bar with ease. 

Twelve-year-old Ahmed Aziz must move with his family to his father's Minnesota hometown so that his father can receive experimental treatment for a rare genetic liver condition. Ahmed feels displaced and lost, and his Muslim faith and brown skin don’t ease the transition. In Minnesota, he says, “I hated having to explain myself with an adjective. I didn’t feel like an Indian American, and it didn’t matter that I had never been to India, because the color of my skin meant I needed to explain.”

Ahmed’s new English teacher, Mrs. Gaarder, was the best friend of Ahmed’s uncle, who died at age 12 of the same liver condition that now threatens Ahmed’s father’s life. Her class provides the book’s narrative focus: a yearlong group competition in which students will study Louis Sachar’s Holes, Katherine Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia and E.L. Konigsburg’s From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. At the end of the year, students will challenge her in “Are You Smarter Than Mrs. Gaarder?”—a competition no student has ever won. Ahmed, who’s never enjoyed school and doesn’t like to read, is less than enthused. 

Ahmed Aziz’s Epic Year features not just a riveting and complex plot but also a large cast of fully realized characters anchored by the likable Ahmed, who has a fresh, funny and authentic tween voice. Hamza delves deeply into Ahmed’s fears of loss and grief as he learns more about his uncle, and she portrays a prolonged and dire medical crisis with notable sensitivity. 

The author’s depiction of realistic school scenes, friendships and rivalries is also excellent. At school, Ahmed gets to know a broad group of students, most notably a bully named Jack, who unfortunately lives next door. Their superbly developed relationship provides many opportunities for Ahmed to compare his own experiences to those featured in the books he is studying.

Ahmed Aziz’s Epic Year marks Hamza as a writer to watch and provides engaging opportunities for readers to discover common ground with Ahmed and with the characters he meets during his epic year. Hamza hints at a sequel when Mrs. Gaarder reveals that she’ll lead a similar exercise in her class next year with a study of three of Shakespeare’s plays. We can only hope this is the case.