New Release Spotlight – Week of April 2, 2024

April 2024 starts off with a bang with a huge list of new book releases! I’ve got 20 new titles this week from popular authors like Sophie Blackall, Holly Jackson, Ann Bausum, and Cynthia Levinson.

I’ve also featured four new graphic novels, all for elementary and middle grade readers. These look so fabulous – a must-see for elementary librarians!

My top picks this week:

• The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson (YA)
• Amazing Immortals by Dinah Dunn Williams (MG)
• The Egg Incident by Ziggy Hanaor (elementary graphic fiction)
• Ahoy by Sophie Blackall (picture book)

PRESENTATION LINKS:

The New Release Spotlight presentations are back this month! I took a break from the presentations in March, and am now renewed and refreshed!

For April, I’m trying something new based on a poll I did in my Facebook group: All April Spotlight presentations will be designed in Canva.

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 #3959 – #3978 on The Ginormous Booklist.

 

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Rory is an antihero for the ages. Like Shakespeare’s Richard III, she confides in her audience, telling us exactly the lengths she’ll go to to secure the leading role in Bosworth Academy’s senior musical, confessing without shame that she is charming and conniving and brutally ambitious, that we will watch and root for her even as she manipulates and endangers those around her.

And we do. Perhaps it’s because we don’t want to believe that she’s as relentless as she claims. Rory is an underdog, after all, a scholarship kid teased for her weight.

Surely there will be redemption? Surely our dread and patience will be rewarded? Intricately plotted with an ingenious narrative that blends multiple viewpoints with script excerpts and an original musical score, Lindsay Eagar’s whip-smart, precision-crafted, and gleefully compulsive page-turner taps into the dark side of high school theater production.

A diabolically good read, it forces our complicity as we wince and cheer for an arresting drama queen who just can’t help going full-tilt nasty in the pursuit of her dreams.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Jackson Ghasnavi is a lot of things—a techie, a smoothie afficionado, a totally not obsessive list-maker—but one thing he’s not is a romantic. And why would he be? He’s already had a front row seat to his parents’ divorce and picked up the pieces of his sister Jasmine’s broken heart one too many times.

No, Jackson is perfectly happy living life behind the scenes—he is a stage manager, after all—and keeping his romantic exploits limited to the breakup lists he makes for Jasmine, which chronicle every flaw (real or imagined) of her various and sundry exes.

Enter Liam: the senior swim captain turned leading man that neither of the Ghasnavi siblings stop thinking about. Not that Jackson has a crush, of course. Jasmine is already setting her sights on him and he’s probably—no, definitely—straight anyway.

So why does the idea of eventually writing a breakup list for him feel so impossible?

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

For Elio Solis, eighth grade fizzes with change―His body teeming with hormones. His feelings that flow like lava. His relationship with Pops, who’s always telling him to man up, the Solis way. And especially Camelia, his first girlfriend.

But then, betrayal and heartbreak send Elio spiraling toward revenge, a fight to prove his manhood, and defend Camelia’s honor. He doesn’t anticipate the dire consequences―or that Camelia’s not looking for a savior.

Hilarious, heartwarming, and highly relatable, Ultraviolet digs deep into themes of consent, puberty, masculinity, and the emotional lives of boys, as it challenges stereotypes and offers another way to be in the world.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Lights. Camera. Lies.

Eighteen-year-old Bel has lived her whole life in the shadow of her mom’s mysterious disappearance. Sixteen years ago, Rachel Price vanished and young Bel was the only witness, but she has no memory of it. Rachel is gone, long presumed dead, and Bel wishes everyone would just move on.

But the case is dredged up from the past when the Price family agrees to a true crime documentary. Bel can’t wait for filming to end, for life to go back to normal. And then the impossible happens. Rachel Price reappears, and life will never be normal again.

Rachel has an unbelievable story about what happened to her. Unbelievable, because Bel isn’t sure it’s real. If Rachel is lying, then where has she been all this time? And—could she be dangerous? With the cameras still rolling, Bel must uncover the truth about her mother, and find out why Rachel Price really came back from the dead . . .

From world-renowned author Holly Jackson comes a mind-blowing masterpiece about one girl’s search for the truth, and the terror in finding out who your family really is.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Wyatt Westlock has one plan for the farmhouse she’s just inherited — to burn it to the ground. But during her final walkthrough of her childhood home, she makes a shocking discovery in the basement — Peter, the boy she once considered her best friend, strung up in chains and left for dead.

Unbeknownst to Wyatt, Peter has suffered hundreds of ritualistic deaths on her family’s property. Semi-immortal, Peter never remains dead for long, but he can’t really live, either. Not while he’s bound to the farm, locked in a cycle of grisly deaths and painful rebirths. There’s only one way for him to break free. He needs to end the Westlock line.

He needs to kill Wyatt.

With Wyatt’s parents gone, the spells protecting the property have begun to unravel, and dark, ancient forces gather in the nearby forest. The only way for Wyatt to repair the wards is to work with Peter — the one person who knows how to harness her volatile magic.

But how can she trust a boy who’s sworn an oath to destroy her? When the past turns up to haunt them in the most unexpected way, they are forced to rely on one another to survive, or else tear each other apart.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Celebrating a new generation of bestselling and acclaimed Black writers, The Black Girl Survives in This One makes space for Black girls in horror. Fifteen chilling and thought-provoking stories place Black girls front and center as heroes and survivors who slay monsters, battle spirits, and face down death. Prepare to be terrified and left breathless by the pieces in this anthology.

The bestselling and acclaimed authors include Erin E. Adams, Monica Brashears, Charlotte Nicole Davis, Desiree S. Evans, Saraciea J. Fennell, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Daka Hermon, Justina Ireland, L.L. McKinney, Brittney Morris, Maika & Maritza Moulite, Eden Royce, and Vincent Tirado. The foreword is by Tananarive Due.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Fern’s lived at the Ranch, an off-the-grid, sustainable community in upstate New York, since she was six. The work is hard, but Fern admires the Ranch’s leader, Dr. Ben. So when Fern’s mother sneaks them away in the middle of the night and says Dr. Ben is dangerous, Fern doesn’t believe it. She wants desperately to go back, but her mom just keeps driving.

Suddenly thrust into the treacherous, toxic, outside world, Fern thinks only about how to get home again. She has a plan, but it will take time. As that time goes by, though, Fern realizes there are things she will miss from this place—the library, a friend from school, the ocean—and there are things she learned at the Ranch that are just…not true.

Now Fern will have to decide. How much is she willing to give up to return to the Ranch? Should she trust Dr. Ben’s vision for her life? Or listen to the growing feeling that she can live by her own rules?

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Winnie Nash never used to have so many secrets.

But then she agreed to stay with her grandma for the summer so her mom can take care of her health during her latest pregnancy. Now Winnie plays card games with Grandma’s friends (boring), joins the senior citizen book club (fine, even if no one thinks she’ll read the books), and absolutely does not talk about her mom’s sad days (she never used to be so sad…).

The biggest secret is that her parents asked Winnie not to mention she’s gay to Grandma. And there’s a really cute girl who also hangs out with the senior citizens.

What happens if Grandma notices just how much Winnie likes Pippa? The longer Winnie hides the truth, the more she longs to be surrounded by her LGBTQ+ community and the more she feels like the only place she can be herself is at New York City’s Pride celebration.

Winnie decides she’ll get to Pride, one way or another. But is this just one more secret she has to keep?

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Four hundred years ago, no one bothered to write down the exact words of stage plays. Characters’ lines were scribbled on small rolls of paper (as in, an actor’s role) and passed around, but no master script was saved for the future.

The main reason we’ve heard of Romeo, Juliet, Hamlet, and Shakespeare himself is that a group of people made the excellent choice to preserve the plays after the Bard died. If they hadn’t created the book known as the First Folio, Shakespeare and his works would surely have been lost to history.

Part literary scavenger hunt (the search for every existing First Folio continues today), part book trivia treasure trove, and part love letter to Shakespeare, this behind-the-scenes, sharply funny true story is an ideal introduction to the Bard and his famous plays.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

With heroic deeds, family drama, pulse-pounding battles, and shape-shifting magic, mythology fascinates us all. But even the biggest enthusiasts find it hard to keep track of who’s who!

Packed with facts and full-color, lush illustrations, Dinah Williams’s Amazing Immortals is a fascinating introduction to these larger-than-life gods and goddesses, highlighting their big personalities, famous adventures, formidable powers, family trees, animal companions, and appearances in pop culture.

Organized by theme—from gods of creation to gods of death and the underworld; from gods of water to gods of fire; from gods of love to gods of war—this diverse encyclopedia features both familiar and underrepresented deities.

Filled with betrayal, intrigue, romance, and impossible feats, their captivating stories entertain us, explain our world, and help answer some of life’s biggest questions.

Includes gods and goddesses from 30 pantheons:
Akan * Annang *Aztec * Babylonian * Bushongo * Canaanite * Celtic * Chinese * Efik * Egyptian * Finnish * Greek * Hawai’ian * Hindu * Hittite * Hopi * Ibibio * Incan * Inuit * Korean * Lithuanian * Māori * Mayan * Navajo * Norse * Pueblo * Roman * Shinto * Sumerian * Yoruba

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Cody’s home life is a messy, too-often terrifying story of neglect and abuse. Cody himself is a smart kid, a survivor with a great sense of humor that helps him see past his circumstances and begin to try to get himself out.

Autumn is a wealthy girl from an indigenous family, who has found herself in with the popular crowd even though it’s hard for her to want to keep up.

But one night, while returning home from a movie, Autumn comes across Cody, face down in the laneway behind her house.

All Cody knows is that he can’t take another encounter with his father like the one he just narrowly escaped. He can’t go home. But he doesn’t have anywhere else to go. When Autumn agrees to let him hide out in her dad’s art studio, Cody’s story begins to come out, and so does hers.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

A long-forgotten evil has reemerged, determined to transform everyone—humans, beasts, and gods alike—into monsters.

And there’s only one being who can stop it, or at least that’s what he thinks. Sun Wukong, aka the Monkey King, is said to be the mightiest of all beasts, and he’s made a deal with the gods.

They will grant him his greatest wish and make him a god too. All he has to do is battle these monsters, defeat this evil, and basically save the world. What could possibly go wrong?

Wukong must first journey to Greece, where he’ll have to figure out how to escape the underworld alive, be a good pet-sitter for a three-headed dog, and ultimately find his way through a labyrinth.

But when he comes face-to-face with the Minotaur, will he have what it takes to slay the monster…or will the Monkey King’s story end up a Greek tragedy?

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

With a Thai mother and an American father, Kathy lives in two different worlds.

She spends most of the year in Bangkok, where she’s secretly counting the days till summer vacation. That’s when her family travels for twenty-four hours straight to finally arrive in a tiny seaside town in Maine.

Kathy loves Maine’s idyllic beauty and all the exotic delicacies she can’t get back home, like clam chowder and blueberry pie. But no matter how hard she tries, she struggles to fit in. She doesn’t look like the other kids in this rural New England town.

Kathy just wants to find a place where she truly belongs, but she’s not sure if it’s in America, Thailand…or anywhere.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Being the new kid in school is scary enough. But imagine what it would be like if you were the new kid in a new school, in a new country.

That’s exactly the situation Mei Yu finds herself in when her family moves from China to Canada.

As she navigates her new school, she discovers a unique way to learn English and makes a new friend along the way in this heartwarming story based on the author’s own experiences.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Humphrey is an egg. An egg with very overprotective parents. “Remember Humphrey; never run, never jump and never ever EVER sit on a wall. You remember what happened to your uncle…”

Humphrey lives a very quiet and cautious life, until the day he bumps into Princess Jean (PJ) in the park. An adventurer through and through, PJ can’t understand why Humphrey doesn’t allow himself to have any fun. She tells him tales of all her antics and mishaps and they don’t notice the park is closing.

Oh no! How will Humphrey get home? There’s only one way out. Over. The. Wall! When Humphrey finally faces his darkest fears, a surprising revelation lies on the other side.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Raise the mainsail!
Batten the hatches!
It’s time to set sail…on the couch!

There’s a storm coming, and a child is ready to captain the ship. “Make haste and climb aboard,” they call out to their parent, “before you’re swept out to sea!”

Sea? What sea? The parent is only trying to vacuum the rug. But the child is adamant. It’s not a rug–it’s the ocean. And that broom? It’s the ship’s mast. Soon enough, child and parent are both off on an imaginary nautical adventure!

Here is a thoroughly engaging, hilarious picture book that celebrates the joys of playing make-believe–and hanging out with a parent!

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

When Grandfather comes to take his grandson to a concert, Ronan is quiet as they leave the house, quiet in the car, and quiet at the concert hall. But when the performance is over and the beautiful music fades out at last, Ronan opens his mouth…and lets out a great big WOW!

Not any old WOW, but Ronan’s very first WOW! That one word fills up the hearts of Ronan’s family, the musicians, the audience, and—when the recording goes viral—the world.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Alfredo Lopez has so many questions before starting second grade! Will his friends be in his class? Will his teacher speak Spanish? But then his parents tell him that he has to stay home, and Alfredo’s questions change. Why can’t he go to school with the other kids? And why is his family going to the courthouse?

In 1977, the school district of Tyler, Texas, informed parents that, unless they could provide proof of citizenship, they would have to pay for their children to attend public school.

Four undocumented families fought back in a legal battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court. Alfredo was one of the students involved in Plyler v. Doe, which made a difference for children all over the country for years to come.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

One night in 1952, master pianist David Tudor took the stage in a barnlike concert hall called the Maverick. A packed audience waited with bated breath for him to start playing. Little did they know that the performance had already begun.

A rain patters.
A tree rustles.
An audience stirs.

David was performing John Cage’s 4’33”, whose purpose is to amplify the ambient sounds of whatever venue it inhabits. That shocking first performance earned 4’33” plenty of haters; and yet the piece endures, “performed” by the smallest garage bands and the grandest symphonies alike, year after year.

Its fans hear what John Cage hoped we would hear: “Nothing” is never silent, and you don’t need a creative genius, a concert hall, or even a piano to hear something worthwhile. All you have to do is stop and listen.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Piper Chen loves nothing more than to sing. She sings to the sun, and she sings to the moon. She sings to her stuffed animals and with the birds outside her window.

So, when her music teacher asks if Piper would like to sing a solo in her school’s Spring Sing, all she can say is “yes!”

But as practice continues, doubt and worry creep in and Piper’s confidence wavers. She feels like butterflies are having a dance party in her belly.

At home, Piper finds Nai Nai, her grandmother, at the piano. They’ve always shared a love of music, and Piper knows if anyone can help her through the unsettling feeling in her stomach and to shine her brightest at the Spring Concert, it’s Nai Nai.

THIS WEEK’S SEQUELS

    

PREVIOUS NEW RELEASE SPOTLIGHTS

   

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?