New Release Spotlight – Week of April 30, 2024

Last Spotlight of April 2024! All three groups (YA, MG, and picture books) look fab this week! We have new titles from: Kekla Magoon, Minh Lê, Kate DiCamillo, Beth Fantaskey, and adult author Chanel Miller. What a lineup!

My top picks:

• To a Darker Shore by Leanne Schwartz (YA)
• Made in Asian America by various authors (MG)
• Our Spot by Lindsay Ward (picture book) – I will be reading this one soon because from my preview of it, I think it could be a 2025 Caldecott contender.

PRESENTATION LINKS:

All April Spotlight presentations are all designed in Canva. The presentations for April 2024 are officially complete! I do not plan to add any new titles to the April presentations. I will start three new presentations for May with next week’s Spotlight.

You can edit the presentations by opening them in Canva using the links below. 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 #4024 – #4040 on The Ginormous Booklist.

 

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Natalie and Imogen are inseparable, and wildly different—Imogen is infuriatingly humble and incredibly intelligent, while Natalie is brave, jumping into danger and new adventures. Still, one thing ties them together: their love of the supernatural. Every summer, they vacation with their parents at the famously haunted Harlow Hotel. Imogen is a true believer, while Natalie sees ghost stories as nothing but pure fun.

Then, Imogen suddenly passes away from an undiagnosed heart condition that no one saw coming, and Natalie is left to take on the summer before senior year alone.

Without Imogen, Natalie throws herself into her senior project. Her passion is still horror, so she plans to spend her summer back at The Harlow Hotel recording fun fake footage that will get her on the teen ghost hunting show of her dreams. And her plans would be a lot less complicated if Leander, her irritatingly attractive arch rival from school, wasn’t working on his senior project at the very same hotel.

The longer Natalie stays at the Harlow Hotel, the more she realizes that Leander might be helpful for her project. After all, she could use an extra hand to help record her fake footage.

But, when strange things start happening at the Harlow, Natalie wonders, could there really be something to these ghosts after all?

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

When Jo-Lynn Kirby ‘s former best friend – pretty, nice Maddie Price – comes to her claiming to be in trouble, Jo assumes it’s some kind of joke. After all, Jo has been an outcast ever since her nude photos were leaked – and since everyone decided she deserved it. There’s no way Maddie would actually come to her for help.

But then Maddie is gone.

Everyone is quick to write off Maddie as a runaway, but Jo can’t shake the feeling there’s more to the story.

To find out the truth, Jo needs to get back in with the people who left her behind-and the only way back in is through Hudson Harper-Moore. An old fling of Jo’s with his own reasons for wanting to find Maddie, Hudson hatches a fake dating scheme to get Jo back into their clique.

But being back on the inside means Jo must confront everything she’d rather forget: the boys who betrayed her, the whispers that she had it coming, and the secrets that tore her and Maddie apart.

As Jo digs deeper into Maddie’s disappearance, she’s left to wonder who she’s really searching for: Maddie, or the girl she used to be.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Karmen is about to start her last year of high school, but it’s only been six weeks since her brother, Julian, died by suicide. How is she supposed to focus on school when huge questions loom: Why is Julian gone? How could she have missed seeing his pain? Could she have helped him?

When a blowup at school gets Karmen sent home for a few weeks, life gets more complicated: things between her parents are tenser than ever, her best friend’s acting like a stranger, and her search to understand why Julian died keeps coming up empty.

New friend Pru both baffles and comforts Karmen, and there might finally be something happening with her crush, Isaiah, but does she have time for either, or are they just more distractions? Will she ever understand Julian’s struggle and tragedy? If not, can she love—and live—again?

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Jackie Oh is done being your model minority.

She’s tired of perfect GPAs, PSATs, SATs, all of it. Jackie longs to become a professional chef. But her Korean American parents are Ivy League corporate workaholics who would never understand her dream. Just ask her brother, Justin, who hasn’t heard from them since he was sent to Rikers Island.

Jackie works at her grandparents’ Midtown Manhattan deli after school and practices French cooking techniques at night—when she should be studying. But the kitchen’s the only place Jackie is free from all the stresses eating at her—school, family, and the increasing violence targeting the Asian community.

Then the most unexpected thing happens: Jackie becomes a teen contestant on her favorite cooking show, Burn Off! Soon Jackie is thrown headfirst into a cutthroat TV world filled with showboating child actors, snarky judges, and gimmicky “gotcha!” challenges.

All Jackie wants to do is cook her way. But what is her way? In a novel that will make you laugh and cry, Jackie proves who she is both on and off the plate.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Plain, poor, plus-size, and autistic, Alesta grew up trying to convince her beauty-obsessed kingdom that she’s too useful to be sacrificed.

Their god blessed their island Soladisa as a haven for his followers, but to keep the devil at bay, the church sends a child sacrifice to hell’s entrance every season―often poor or plain girls just like Alesta.

With a head full of ideas for inventions, Alesta knows her best shot at making it to adulthood is to design something impressive for the festival exhibition so she might win a spot in the university―acceptance could guarantee her safety.

But Alesta’s flying machine demonstration goes awry, a failure that will surely mean death. What happens is worse: Her best friend and heir to the throne, Kyrian, takes the blame expecting leniency but ends up sacrificed in her place.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Mina, Penny, and Sheryl have the typical expectations of prom night in 2005: dresses, dancing, and of course some coming of age moments. None of them plans to get pregnant, but when all three do, they band together as they face decisions that have the power to shape the rest of their lives.

In 2024, their three children–Blossom, Amber, and Cole–are high school seniors, gearing up to go to prom and facing some big decisions of their own. As they seek to understand who they are and who they want to be, they grapple with issues that range from consent to virginity, gendered dress codes, and the many patriarchal, heteronormative expectations that still come along with prom.

A generation later, will this prom night change lives too?

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Asian American history is not made up of one single story. It’s many. And it’s a story that too often goes untold.

It begins centuries before America even exists as a nation. It is connected to the histories of Western conquest and colonialism. It’s a story of migration; of people and families crossing the Pacific Ocean in search of escape, opportunity, and new beginnings.

It is also the story of race and racism. Of being labeled an immigrant invasion, unfit to become citizens, and being banned, deported, and incarcerated. Of being blamed for bringing diseases into the country.

It is also a story of bravery and hope. It is the story of heroes who fought for equality in the courts, on the streets, and in the schools, and who continue to fight in solidarity with others doing the same.

This book is a stirring account of the ordinary people and extraordinary acts that made Asian America and the young people who are remaking America today.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Just as her longtime BFF Addy is gravitating towards the popular crowd and starting to care more about school dances than treehouse playdates, Mia finds out that her favorite science camp friend, Tariq, is moving to town and will be going to school with her.

She’s super excited and can’t wait to show him around and help him make friends.

But when Tariq arrives in town, he seems like he’s grown up a lot, too. No more braces or glasses. A new hair cut. And who knew he was also a soccer star, immediately making the team mid-season?? He’s welcomed to Buttonwood Bay Middle School with open arms in a way that Mia can’t even recognize, and now she’s feeling more lost than ever.

Then her science teacher announces the school’s Science Olympics and she and Tariq are teaming up again to crush the competition—just like at camp. Only this time they’re joined by a couple of unconventional teammates in Kinsey (more artist than scientist) and the loveable, if also sometimes kind of gross and goofy, Evan.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

The kids in these humorous short stories each have a minor superpower they’re learning to live with. One can shape-shift—but only part of her body, and only on Mondays. Another can always tell whether an avocado is perfectly ripe.

One can even hear the thoughts of the animals in the pet store! But what these stories are really about is their young protagonists “owning” a power that contributes to their individuality, that allows them to find their place in the world, that shows them a potential they might not have imagined.

Because if you really think about it, we all have something special and unique about ourselves that makes us a little bit super. We all have the power to change as an individual, to change our communities for the better, to have a voice and to speak up.

These playful, thought-provoking tales from some of today’s top middle grade authors prompt readers to consider what their own superpower might be, and how they can use it.

Written by Pablo Cartaya, Nikki Grimes, Leah Henderson, Jarrett Krosoczka, Remy Lai, Kyle Lukoff, Meg Medina, Daniel Nayeri, Linda Sue Park, Mitali Perkins, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Gary D. Schmidt, Brian Young, and Ibi Zoboi; coedited by Leah Henderson and Gary D. Schmidt.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Down at the bottom of the tall buildings of New York City, Magnolia Wu sits inside her parents’ laundromat. She has pinned every lost sock from the laundromat onto a bulletin board, in hopes that customers will return to retrieve them. But no one seems to have noticed. In fact, barely anyone has noticed Magnolia at all.

What she doesn’t know is that this is about to be her most exciting summer yet. When Iris, a new friend from California arrives, they set off across the city to solve the mystery of each missing sock, asking questions in subways and delis and plant stores and pizzerias, meeting people and uncovering the unimaginable.

With each new encounter, Magnolia learns that when you’re bold enough to head into the unknown, things start falling into place.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

7 fierce animal competitors
2 shark judges
1 winner

Who will come out on top?

Survival of the Fittest: the game show where animal contestants pitch the latest and greatest in scientific innovation to a panel of shark judges! Animals of all sizes and skills compete to see who can come up with the most useful, most creative, most brilliant design for a product based on something that exists in the natural world. Today’s theme is: engineering.

Filled with interesting information, awesome visuals, and funny dialogue, this new series by nonfiction maven Rebecca Donnelly is Shark Tank made literal. Swim along – and try not to get chomped by the Chomp! Buzzer.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

A little moth hides from the dark, and doesn’t want to leave his bright and cozy home. But here’s a secret: he loves watching the stars. They only come out at night, though . . . when it’s dark outside.

One night, the stars give the moth the courage to go outside into the night. There, he makes friends with other creatures who are also afraid of the dark, and they play and sparkle under the stars. But will a dangerous encounter with a group of hungry frogs drive the moth back inside? Or will it encourage him to create his own light in the darkness?

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

It can spin and roll, leap and twirl. You can stretch it between your hands or swing it between your legs. The tricks you can do with one are nearly endless. No wonder the yo-yo is one of the most successful toys ever made! And its popularity began with a Filipino immigrant.

Pedro Flores was born in the Philippines in 1896, when Spain still ruled his country. After the US took over, Pedro traveled to California, received an education, and looked for ways to go into business for himself. Then he remembered a toy from his childhood called the yo-yo, which means “come back” in Tagalog. With a couple of blocks of wood and a little string, Pedro created his first model yo-yo and practiced tricks to show it off.

It was an instant hit! When children saw the yo-yo in action, they clamored to get one themselves. So Pedro always performed his tricks near movie theaters, outside candy shops–anywhere he knew children would see the toy. Soon he was hiring fellow Filipinos to advertise it for him, while he ran factories that manufactured more than a million yo-yos a week!

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Orris the rat lives alone in an old barn surrounded by his treasures, until the day his solitude is disrupted by a sudden flutter of wings and a loud screech. A small owl has gotten caught in a trap in the barn.

Can Orris “make the good and noble choice” (as the king on his prized sardine can might recommend) and rescue the owl, despite the fact that owls and rats are natural enemies?

And if he does, will he be ready for the consequences?

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Every Thursday night, a girl and her papa go to their secret fishing spot in the middle of the city.

Now it’s just the two of them―there used to be three. The girl’s mother had found this place, and they’d all fished there when the girl was small as peas.

Even though it’s different now, it’s still tradition. The girl and her papa don’t talk much; instead, they listen to the waves lapping against the shore as they fish.

Sometimes they talk about Mama and the big walleye that always got away. As they head home, the city sparkling in the moonlight, the girl is content, ready for a night of dreaming about Mama and the fish.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Miguel was like a paintbrush in a family of steely swords …

All his life, Miguel’s familia told him he must fight! But his family’s art of sword fighting never captivated him as much as the sway of his colored pencils did.

When his village is threatened by El Dragón, Miguel must make a choice: will he stand with his familia and fight, or can he prove that the pencil is mightier than the sword?

With vibrant illustrations from award-winning artist Sara Palacios, this charming story of family tradition and self-discovery will inspire young readers to always follow their passions.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Two kids build entire worlds out of blocks, cardboard, and imagination. From boats attacked by a sea creature to a castle crumbling into the ocean.

And they don’t mind when these creations break apart and CRASH to the floor. In fact, they think it’s pretty funny! Every time, a creation falls apart, they pick up the pieces and keep building bigger and better.

But when their latest masterpiece tumbles down in spectacular fashion, the boys aren’t laughing anymore. Have these two friends reached their breaking point?

Playful text by wordsmith Minh Le and dazzling illustrations by artisan Dan Santat showcase their close collaboration in their latest picture book. As merry as it is moving, here is a story that recognizes the friendships in life that are truly built to last.

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?