New Release Spotlight – September 2024

Welcome to the September 2024 Spotlight! This one is a little different in order to give me a break from writing a full blog post each week. Instead, the September Spotlight is only in the Canva presentation version (linked below).

The September Spotlight has 74 new titles and 65 sequels. The September 2024 presentations are now complete. I will not add any more titles this month.

The Canva presentations are all linked below, and you can scroll to see the books and my breakdown of themes, grade level, protagonist, starred reviews, setting, etc. The newest titles for each week come first in the presentation.

MY TOP PICKS – YA (Grades 7+)

• Songlight by Moira Buffini
• To the Bone by Alena Bruzas – survival in colonial Virginia
• Ruin Road by Lamar Giles – horror/thriller starring a Black male football player protagonist
• Pick the Lock by A.S. King – mystery/thriller – The summary reminds me a bit of Colleen Hoover’s Verity.

MY TOP PICKS – Middle Grades (3-8)

• Stealing Little Moon by Dan Sasuweh Jones
• Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell  – this is a title to watch! I think this could become a “modern classic” along the lines of The Lightning Thief and Gregor the Overlander…we will see!
• Quagmire Tiarello Couldn’t Be Better by Mylisa Larsen – 14-year old male protagonist deals with parental neglect and abandonment
• The Flicker by H.E. Edgmon – post-apocalypse survival story set in Appalachia

MY TOP PICKS – Picture Books

• Crowning Glory by Carole Boston Weatherford – celebration of Black hairstyles and culture
• Gifts from the Garbage Truck by Andrew Larsen  – great for Earth Day or units on recycling or sustainability
• The Table by Winsome Bingham and Wiley Blevins – set in Appalachia and has themes of poverty and unemployment
• Counting Winter by Nancy White Carlstrom – Look at that cover art! I added this to my TBR to look at possible inclusion on my Mock Caldecott list this December. 

All titles have been added to The Ginormous Booklist. This week’s titles are #4280 – #4354.

YA SPOTLIGHT – SEPTEMBER 2024

YA-Sept-2024 by Leigh Collazo – Click the presentation to scroll

MIDDLE GRADE SPOTLIGHT – SEPTEMBER 2024

MG-Sept-2024 by Leigh Collazo – Click the presentation to scroll

PICTURE BOOK SPOTLIGHT – SEPTEMBER 2024

The past two weeks have had some really excellent picture books! I focused on five of them this week, but I added all the books on my list to the Canva presentation. They just include the book cover and summaries, not the full break-down of the themes, setting, protagonist, etc.

PB-Sept-2024 by Leigh Collazo – Click the presentation to scroll

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?

All the titles on this list have been added to a giant spreadsheet of books. The Ginormous Booklist is an invaluable collection development tool, and it’s 100% FREE! It includes all New Release Spotlight titles and analysis since October 2019. It’s searchable, too! Check it out!