New Release Spotlight – Week of April 16, 2024

It’s New Release Spotlight day again! I’ve got 14 new titles for you this week…

My top picks:

• Witch Hunt: The Cold War, Joe McCarthy, and the Red Scare by Andrea Balis and Elizabeth Levy (YA)
• A Game of Noctis by Deva Fagan (MG)
• Paige Not Found by Jen Wilde (MG)

PRESENTATION LINKS:

The downloadable Spotlight presentations are back this month! Just a reminder that all April Spotlight presentations are all designed in Canva. I really like this option better than Google Slides that I used previously because I have a lot more control over things like background colors and line spacing in Canva. Very nice!

The three presentations linked below will grow each week in April. By the end of the month, each presentation will have 25-30 or so new titles.

You can edit them by opening the presentation in Canva. Click FILE, then Make a Copy. You will need a Canva account (free for educators) to edit the presentation.

YA Presentation Link – Grades 7+

Middle Grades Presentation Link – Grades 3-8

Picture Book Presentation Link – PreS-Grade 5+

This week’s Spotlight titles are #3994 – #4007 on The Ginormous Booklist.

 

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Shane works with her mother and their ghost dogs, tracking down missing persons even when their families can’t afford to pay.

Their own family was displaced from their traditional home years ago following a devastating flood – and the loss of Shane’s father and her grandparents.

They don’t think they’ll ever get their home back.

Then Shane’s mother and a local boy go missing, after a strange interaction with a fairy ring.

Shane, her brother, her friends, and her lone, surviving grandparent – who isn’t to be trusted – set off on the road to find them. But they may not be anywhere in this world – or this place in time.

Nevertheless, Shane is going to find them.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Since its first publication in the 1990s, Lies My Teacher Told Me has become one of the most important and successful—and beloved—history books of our time.

As the late Howard Zinn said, “Every teacher, every student of history, every citizen should read this book.” Having sold well over 2 million copies, the book also won an American Book Award and numerous other commendations and prizes and was even heralded on the front page of the New York Times long after its first publication.

Now, the brilliant and award-winning artist Nate Powell—the first cartoonist ever to win a National Book Award—has adapted Loewen’s classic work into a graphic edition that perfectly captures both Loewen’s text and the irreverent spirit of his work.

Eye-popping illustrations bring to life the true history chronicled in Lies My Teacher Told Me, and ample text boxes and callouts ensure nothing is lost in translation. The book is perfect for those making their first foray past the shroud of history textbooks, and it will also be beloved by those who had their worldviews changed by the original.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Sophie Chi is in her first year of college (though her parents wish she’d attend a “real” university rather than a liberal arts school) and has long accepted her aroace (aromantic and asexual) identity. She knows she’ll never fall in love, but she enjoys running an Instagram account that offers relationship advice to students at her school. No one except her roommate can know that she’s behind the incredibly popular “Dear Wendy” account.

When Joanna “Jo” Ephron (also a first-year aroace college student) created their “Sincerely Wanda” account, it wasn’t at all meant to take off or be taken seriously―not like Wendy’s. But now they might have a rivalry of sorts with Wendy’s account? Oops. As if Jo’s not busy enough having existential crises over gender identity, whether she’ll ever truly be loved, and the possibility of her few friends finding The One then forgetting her!

While tensions are rising online, Sophie and Jo grow closer in real life, especially once they realize their shared aroace identity and start a campus organization for other a-spec students. Will their friendship survive if they learn just who’s behind the Wendy and Wanda accounts?

Exploring a-spec identities, college life, and more, while perfect for fans of Alice Oseman’s Loveless, this is ultimately a love story about two people who are not―and will not―be in love!

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Merry doesn’t need a happily-ever-after. Her life in the charming, idyllic town of Candlecott is fine just as it is. Simple, happy, and with absolutely no magic. Magic only ever leads to trouble.

But Merry’s best friend, Teddy, is joining the Toadmen—a secret society who specialize in backward thinking and suspiciously supernatural traditions—and Merry is determined to stop him. Even if it means teaming up with the person she hates most: her academic archnemesis, Caraway Boswell, an ice-cold snob who hides his true face under a glamour.

An ancient Toad ritual is being held in the sinister Deeping Fen, and if Merry doesn’t rescue Teddy before it’s finished, she’ll lose him forever. But the Toadmen have been keeping dangerous secrets, and so has Caraway. The farther Merry travels into Deeping Fen’s foul waters, the more she wonders if she’s truly come to save her friend . . . or if she’s walking straight into a trap.

There’s nothing the Toadmen love more than a damsel in distress.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Rowan Sterling should be worrying about normal teenage things like attending college and whether her best friend Lucas is maybe more than a friend. Instead, she’s having terrifying visions of blood and violence.

As the premonitions increase in number and intensity, Rowan seeks her father’s help, but instead finds herself drugged, kidnapped, and sent to a mysterious facility called Rosewood. It isn’t long before Rowan discovers Rosewood isn’t a boarding school or an asylum: it’s a training center for teens with special abilities who are known as Harrows.

Harrows can view the actions of would-be murderers before they commit crimes, and the scientists at Rosewood believe it is their duty to use the Harrows’ powers to make the world a safer place.

When they are apprehended by a Harrow, imminent criminals, known as imcrims, are captured and indefinitely detained in a state of sedation. At Rosewood, the Harrows are taught how to identify, track, and apprehend imcrims.

Rowan is immediately drawn to Rosewood’s mission; after all, she lost her mother to a random act of violence two years prior. However, some of the other Harrows question the treatment of imcrims—how can it be ethical to imprison people who haven’t actually done anything yet?

Empowered by the skills she’s acquired and ready to change the world, Rowan returns home, but when she reunites with Lucas, she has a vision of him shooting a man in cold blood. Now Rowan is questioning everything she learned at Rosewood—she refuses to believe Lucas is capable of murder—and sets out to protect him from the Harrows.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

At the cusp of the Cold War, Americans were so afraid of communists living among them that they began to hunt them like witches.

As Senator Joe McCarthy took up this mantle to hunt down “communists” in the US, citizens grew terrified of being accused, so they turned on each other – pointing fingers at neighbors, friends, and even family.

Told through a unique and inviting screenplay-format, brought to life with dozens of illustrations by Tim Foley, and comprised almost entirely of quotes derived from primary sources, Witch Hunt recounts the political craze that gripped America during the Red Scare when McCarthyism forced people to go to extraordinary lengths to keep themselves and their families safe from persecution against their own government.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Pan Cooke is ten years old when anxious thoughts begin to take over his brain like pieces of an impossible puzzle. What if he blurts out a swear word while in church? What if he accidentally writes something mean in his classmate’s get-well card? What if his friend’s racy photo of a supermodel ends up in his own homework and is discovered by his teacher?

More and more, he becomes hijacked by fears that can only be calmed through exhausting, time-consuming rituals.

Pan has no way of knowing that this anxiety puzzle and the stressful attempts to solve it are evidence of a condition called Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

This is his story of living with and eventually learning about OCD. Told with endearing honesty and humor, Puzzled shows the reader the importance of empathy for oneself and those going through something they don’t yet understand.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Newly reintroduced along with his pack to Yellowstone National Park, Wolf 8 struggles at first. Small and often bullied by his siblings, he must learn to fend for himself in his new home. Soon enough, though, little 8 grows into one of Yellowstone’s greatest leaders.

Based on McIntyre’s own sightings of Wolf 8 and told in a thrilling style, The Unlikely Hero is an unforgettable adventure—and a rare glimpse into the fascinating world of wolves.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

When Paige learns that her parents enrolled her in an autism study without telling her, her world turns upside down.

Suddenly she isn’t sure if she can trust the two people she loves most. A chip was implanted in her brain that sends them information about her mood, brain activity, and location. It can even boost the chemicals that keep her calm or make her happy. So Paige has to wonder…can she even trust her own mind?

Now the company that created her chip is days away from merging with the most popular social network in the world. And they are known for selling people’s private information to the highest bidder.

Paige knows there is only one thing she can do. Armed with the names and addresses of the other kids involved in the study, she must track them down and tell them the truth, so they can put a stop to the merger and get the chips removed for good.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Noah Nicholson has plenty to be grateful for. He has solid grades and great friends, he’s finally becoming closer with Lucy Martinez—his crush since second grade—and he just might have a chance to be elected class president next week.

But despite all that, Noah fixates on the should’ve-beens and could’ve-beens and the belief that he can make his life perfect.

Then Noah comes upon an opportunity to do just that.

At the local bowling alley, Noah runs into someone most unexpected: himself. The look-alike is him from nine days in the future, and he insists that if Noah does every ridiculous thing he says—from quacking like a duck in science class to painting himself green—they can achieve their dream of perfection.

However, fate may have other plans, and Future Noah may not be entirely honest about what he’s doing there…

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

In the opulent, sinking city of Dantessa, the Great Game rules all. Pia Paro believes that so long as you follow the rules, you always have a chance at winning. But after her beloved Gramps is sentenced to a life of servitude, Pia accepts a dangerous offer and joins a team of players seeking to win the most perilous game of all: Noctis.

The Seafoxes—Pia’s new teammates—are unlike anyone she’s ever met. There’s brash, bold Carlo; macabre Serafina; kindhearted Pasquale; and their dashing ringleader, Vittoria. Each has their own reason for playing, and soon, Pia begins to question all her long-held beliefs. Maybe the rules Pia once trusted to lift her up have only been keeping her—and thousands of others like her—down.

As she struggles with these revelations, Pia must survive a gauntlet of clockwork soldiers, perilous underwater adventures, and even a game against Death herself. But with Pia’s grandfather’s life at stake, Pia must finally decide whether she’s brave enough to not just break the rules, but to change the very nature of the Game.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

In the 1850s, proper young ladies were supposed to keep their feet on the ground (literally and metaphorically), but Mary dreamed of flying.

Luckily, she married Carl Myers, a hot air balloon enthusiast whose dreams were just as lofty as hers. Together, they designed and constructed balloons of all shapes and sizes, a difficult and dangerous job that required knowledge of chemistry, engineering, and meteorology.

But how could they know which balloon designs worked best? They needed someone adventurous who could do balloon tricks for crowds while recording flight data.

Mary knew just the person . . . herself! She gave herself the stage name Carlotta and anxiously awaited her first flight. Would she make it into the air? Could she collect the data they needed? Mary battled thick clouds and bone-chilling cold, but she went higher and farther than she hoped, and returned ready for her next flight.

One of the few women inventors of her time, Mary’s daring flights and careful scientific work improved hot air balloons and our understanding of flight, weather patterns, and the atmosphere.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

February 19, 1942. George Takei is four years old when his world changes forever. Two months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares anyone of Japanese descent an enemy of the United States.

George and his family were American in every way. They had done nothing wrong. But because of their Japanese ancestry, they were removed from their home in California and forced into camps with thousands of other families who looked like theirs.

Over the next three years, George had three different “homes”: the Santa Anita racetrack, swampy Camp Rohwer, and infamous Tule Lake. But even though they were now living behind barbed wire fences and surrounded by armed soldiers, his mother and father did everything they could to keep the family safe.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Water is everywhere, and we rely on it every single day. But do you ever wonder about water? How much water is on our planet? What happens when there is too much water or too little water? Why does it rain? What are lakes, rivers, seas, and oceans?

Why are the seas and oceans blue and salty? What lives underwater? What about water in human history—how did people get water in ancient times? How do we get water today? What do humans build to travel on the water, and how have we harnessed waterpower? How do we protect this amazing resource for the future?

Gorgeous and informative, Water invites children to tour through science and history with two characters they may recognize from Wind: Discovering Air in Motion. Colorful acrylic art and energetic text help readers learn about the natural resource we have depended on since the beginning of life itself.

THIS WEEK’S SEQUELS

        

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ABOUT THE SPOTLIGHT

The New Release Spotlight began in May 2016 as a way to help librarians keep up with the many new children’s and YA books that are released each week.

Each week, school librarian Leigh Collazo compiles the New Release Spotlight using a combination of Follett’s Titlewave, Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes and Noble. Recommended grade levels represent the range of grade levels recommended by professional book reviewers. See the full selection criteria here.

Inevitably, there are far more books that meet my criteria than can make it on the Spotlight. When I have to make the tough decisions on what to include, I just use my “librarian judgment.” Would I buy this book for my own library? Would my students want to read this book? Is the cover appealing? Does it fill a need?