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.

Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly’s latest novel is a work of historical fiction that pulses with contemporary relevance. We Dream of Space chronicles the lives of three siblings during the month leading up to the Challenger space shuttle explosion in 1986. 

Life in the Nelson-Thomas home is anything but easy. Mom and Dad fight constantly, and the family feels “like its own solar system,” with members who are “floating objects that sometimes bumped or slammed into each other before breaking apart.” Twins Bird and Fitch couldn’t be more different. Fitch loves arcade games but can’t control his temper (a cruel outburst gets him suspended from school), while Bird thrives in her classes (the budding engineer spends her spare time drawing schematic diagrams of everything from VCRs to cassette tapes). Big brother Cash feels he isn’t particularly good at anything, especially since he’s repeating seventh grade, putting him in the same class as the twins. Kelly develops the siblings’ personalities through short, focused chapters, allowing their stories to emerge naturally as the book progresses.

Much to Bird’s delight, science teacher Ms. Salonga, who hopes to become a teacher in space like Christa McAuliffe, organizes students into flight crews as part of Space Month. Lively classroom scenes add to the anticipation of the launch. Bird yearns to one day blast off to become NASA’s first female mission commander. In a series of touching inner monologues, she imagines conversations with Challenger astronaut Judith Resnik.

Kelly vividly resurrects the 1980s with references to President Reagan, Madonna and Atari and integrates astronomy metaphors throughout her prose as the Challenger’s fateful liftoff approaches. Her sensitive description of that terrible day captures the shocking impact of the tragedy, particularly for classroom viewers like Bird and Ms. Salonga, whose enthusiasm and empathy provide a stark contrast to the Nelson-Thomas parents.

We Dream of Space offers an exceptional portrayal of the endless ways in which parental dysfunction affects every member of a family. It’s also a celebration of the need for optimism, compassion and teamwork in the face of disasters both individual and communal.

Twelve-year-old Ellie feels at home in the Maine woods of Lauren Wolk’s Echo Mountain. Her parents lost their home in the Great Depression and were forced to move, along with many neighbors, to the woods, where Ellie learned to hunt, fish and start a fire. Now, Ellie’s skills and confidence put her at odds with her resentful mother and older sister, who miss their former life in town.

Wolk vividly invokes the shock of losing an old way of life—of trading sidewalks for pine-needle paths, of swapping paper currency for barter with haircuts, eggs and firewood. She also sensitively conveys the swirl of emotions surrounding the accident that has put Ellie’s dad in a coma for months and left his family in a state of suspended grief. Ellie’s mother and sister blame Ellie for the accident, and Ellie’s mother copes by discouraging her daughter’s adaptability and curiosity, worrying that she’s becoming too wild.

Despite these hardships, Ellie remains determined to use her skills to keep her family safe and fed and to find a way to wake up her father. Her dubious yet logical efforts on this front are humorous and heartbreaking—and, just maybe, hopeful. Ellie’s life contains some big mysteries, as well. Who is leaving her beautifully carved miniature figurines? Might the “hag” who lives up the mountain know how to heal her father?

Fans of Wolk’s previous novels, including the Newbery Honor book Wolf Hollow, will once again relish the author’s evocative and touching language (Ellie cuts her hair “because the trees kept trying to comb it”) and her gift for revisiting history through the lens of fulsome and fascinating characters. In this complex, memorable novel, Wolk explores themes of social responsibility, modern versus traditional medicine, biological versus chosen family and more. 

Through it all, the book pays heartfelt tribute to resilience and resourcefulness. As seen through the indefatigable Ellie’s wise young eyes, no detail, emotion, creature or scrap of fabric on Echo Mountain is too small to be without value.

In 1940, when two-time Newbery Medalist Lois Lowry was 3 years old, her father made a home movie of her as she played on a beach in Hawaii, where Lowry’s family lived. Years later, while watching the film, Lowry realized the USS Arizona, the battleship that sank during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, was visible on the horizon. The poignancy of the image stayed with the author and served as one of the inspirations for her book On the Horizon.

Each of On the Horizon’s three sections intertwine Lowry’s personal history with vignettes of sailors stationed at Pearl Harbor the day of the attack and of civilians in Japan, where Lowry moved with her family after the end of the war. Lowry’s desire to connect with and understand other people and their experiences unites the poems. In “Girl on a Bike,” for example, Lowry recalls the day she stopped outside a schoolyard to watch children playing. In an extraordinary coincidence, one of those children, a boy named Koichi Seii, grew up to become the Caldecott Medalist Allen Say. Say and Lowry never met in Japan, but years later, Say recalled seeing Lowry and her green bicycle outside his school that day.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Lois Lowry takes us behind the scenes of On the Horizon.

Lowry’s experiences—as a young child in Honolulu and a girl who grew up in Japan—provide her with a unique perspective on the major events that bookend World War II. But one of On the Horizon’s greatest strengths is that Lowry expands her gaze and incorporates the experiences of others. Although the USS Arizona was, that day on the beach, so far away as to appear “on the horizon,” Lowry employs a literary zoom lens to capture poignant portraits of the ship’s crew, including the members of the Navy band and commanding officer Captain Isaac Campbell Kidd. In “Captain Kidd,” Lowry links Kidd’s name to memories of her grandmother’s stories of pirates before revealing that, during the attack, Kidd ran to the bridge of the ship: “His Naval Academy ring / was found melted and fused to the mast. / It is not an imaginary thing, / a symbol of devotion so vast.”

Through deceptively plainspoken prose layered with imagery and linguistic artistry, On the Horizon’s remarkable poems are a powerful reminder of our shared humanity in times of conflict and war. Simply put, they are an extraordinary gift from one of America’s most distinguished writers.

Luis and Sutton have nothing in common. Sutton is a coding whiz. Luis devours fantasy films and graphic novels. They wouldn’t like each other much if they happened to meet. But both Luis and Sutton find their comfort zones under attack in Joy McCullough’s debut middle grade novel, A Field Guide to Getting Lost. Luis’s mom and Sutton’s dad are dating, and things are getting serious. Naturally, the grown-ups want the kids to meet.

The first forced gathering is a total disaster; Sutton and Luis don’t click at all. Undeterred, their parents arrange another outing, a hike in Discovery Park. The day takes a frightening turn when Luis and Sutton enter an opening in the underbrush, assuming the tunnel will bring them back to the trail. Instead, they get lost for hours. Their only way out of the situation is to step up and help each other through it.

Author McCullough (Blood Water Paint) has her finger firmly on the pulse of what makes her characters tick. Luis and Sutton are well-drawn, with strong and equally appealing perspectives. Rather than encouraging readers to take sides, McCullough cleverly and subtly urges them to root for Luis and Sutton to find common ground and work together. A Field Guide to Getting Lost is a warmhearted manual for thinking outside the box, persevering through tough circumstances and reaching out for help along the way.

When Stars Are Scattered is the extraordinary story of Omar Mohamed’s experience of growing up in a refugee camp, as told by Mohamed to graphic novelist Victoria Jamieson (Roller Girl).

Omar and his younger brother, Hassan, live a simple and often dull life in a refugee camp in Kenya. Forced to leave their home and their parents behind in a civil war-torn Somalia when they were very young, they have spent the majority of their lives being able to depend only on each other and on Fatuma, the kind-hearted woman who lives in the tent across the path from them. But although they are safe from the war itself, the camp’s resources are scarce. They don’t have enough to eat, let alone access to the medical care that the nonverbal Hassan needs or the education that Omar desperately longs for.

So when Omar has a chance to attend school, he is overjoyed. But the opportunity means that he will have to leave Hassan alone for several hours a day, forcing Omar to choose between improving life for his family in the future and his responsibility to his brother in the present.

Images and text work together beautifully in this graphic novel. Jamieson’s characteristically orderly panel layout makes for a cohesive story that flows effortlessly. Soft lines and simple backgrounds allow dialogue and relationships between characters to take center stage. Jamieson’s illustrations—particularly, the vivid expressions on characters’ faces—enhance and deepen the book’s emotional impact. When Stars Are Scattered is a timely and important story, told in a format that ensures it will be accessible and appealing for readers of all ages.

“Sometimes my life feels like a room with two windows and two moons,” muses Bea, who spends her days being shuttled between her divorced parents’ New York City apartments. She’s excited for her father’s upcoming wedding, not only because she adores his partner, Jesse, but also because she’ll also finally have the sister she’s always longed for—Jesse’s daughter, Sonia, a fellow fifth grader who lives in California.

In The List of Things That Will Not Change, a dazzling middle grade novel from Newbery Medalist Rebecca Stead, Bea’s life is filled to the brim with good friends and wonderfully supportive adults. Sometimes Bea’s life seems downright idyllic, as when her restaurateur father stashes surprise meals in his ex-wife’s fridge, or when Bea and her friend Angus sip soda together in Bea’s father’s restaurant. But Bea has painful eczema and a host of paralyzing worries, not to mention a deeply buried secret that’s quietly gnawing away at her conscience.

Navigating family and friends can be tough, of course. As Bea grows more and more excited about the upcoming nuptials, her father cautions, “Family can turn their backs on you, just like anyone else. I’m sorry to say it.” Stead tackles this delicate theme in grand style, not only celebrating the glorious ways that family and friends can support one another but also showing—in quite a surprise move—how family members can occasionally be backstabbing.

Even for enthusiastic, likable Bea, anger frequently gets the best of her, such as when she violently throws Angus off a chair during a game of musical chairs or when she hits an irritating classmate in the face. Bea resists going to therapy, but her therapist patiently offers helpful advice in session after session, cautioning Bea to try to start “thinking two steps ahead” of her actions and teaching her valuable strategies for corralling her fears.

Plot and characters reveal themselves naturally as The List of Things That Will Not Change unfolds, and small details later reappear to tightly and brilliantly weave together a plethora of themes. Books that successfully address divorce, remarriage and their many complicated repercussions from a child’s point of view are uncommon—and all the more valuable for it.

Stead has proven herself once again to be a masterful storyteller. The List of Things That Will Not Change is a messy but ultimately glorious family celebration that’s not to be missed.

At one time or another, most people find themselves making a quid pro quo deal with the universe. In Sarah Allen’s What Stars Are Made Of, 12-year-old Libby does just that. But rather than asking the universe for fortune or fame, she’s making an unselfish wish: She wants her niece to be born healthy.

Libby is a charismatic and brainy narrator. She was born with Turner syndrome, a genetic condition that means she’s missing an X chromosome. Turner syndrome makes some things more difficult for Libby, but science is not one of them. So when she enters a science contest with an entry about her favorite scientific figure—Cecelia Payne, the woman who discovered what stars are made of—she’s determined to win so that she can use the prize money to help her financially-challenged older sister.

That’s where Libby’s deal with the universe comes in. If Libby wins and gives the money to her sister, the universe will ensure that her niece will be born healthy and not share any of the challenges Libby herself experiences. If she gets her wish, Libby reasons, “Instead of missing a piece in my own body, I’d fix a missing piece in the lives of the people I loved.”

In her stunning debut middle grade novel, Allen, who was also born with Turner syndrome, explores themes of family loyalty and personal resilience and resolve, wrapping them up in a clever story of science, how the universe works and how stars can truly guide the way. What Stars Are Made Of is a tender portrait of a compassionate heroine trying to make things right in her universe and in the lives of the people she loves. Allen is a remarkable new voice in children’s fiction.

Alberta’s life is pretty sweet. Her surfing improves every time she hits the water, she’s got two supportive dads in her corner, and her best friend has a free cone connection at the ice cream parlor. But she still feels like something is missing. She’s being bullied at school, dealing with dumb assumptions from her classmates and weathering insults from her nemesis. It’s hard to not feel isolated when everyone singles her out for being different.

Then Alberta discovers that the new owner of a nearby bed-and-breakfast has a 12-year-old daughter who is also black, and Alberta thinks she’s found her missing piece. Edie is cool—like, from-Brooklyn cool—and they hit it off. When Edie finds a stack of journals in the B&B’s attic, the girls start reading and eventually uncover a historical mystery. As it turns out, they may have roots hidden in more places than they realized.

Award-winning young adult author Brandy Colbert (Little & Lion) makes her middle grade debut with The Only Black Girls in Town. As she does in her books for older readers, she creates characters readers will love spending time with and settings that reward exploration. She also sensitively handles issues of growing up and and growing apart, as well as parents who seem overprotective but may have good cause to care. Colbert’s light touch with weighty subjects results in a novel that dives deep into the impacts of racism, particularly microagressions, with subtlety and nuance.

Equal parts mystery, coming-of-age narrative and coastal California travelogue, The Only Black Girls in Town is an affectionate tribute to friends, both new and old, and the ways they enrich our lives.