New Release Spotlight TOP 5 (+1): July 22, 2025

This week’s list is as hot as our North Texas temperatures are expected to be! I’ve once again shared my five favorite new book releases for this week. I’ve also added a “Plus One” to the list – this title is a book your middle or high school library may already have, but there is an important new edition that covers the 2024 election and some new topics.

I carefully select these titles each week by reading professional book reviews, Amazon samples, and in some cases, Goodreads reviews. This is a labor of love that takes a lot of energy and resources to put together, but I love sharing new books with other librarians!

I am continuing to work on the Canva presentations behind-the-scenes and plan to release the links via email in the last week of July. There are more titles on the Canva presentations that I list on my weekly Spotlights, all broken down by themes, setting, protagonist description, and more. These are great to scroll on a screen in the library!

If you want the links to the three FREE presentations, be sure to subscribe to my email list here. If you teach Grades 3-6, you might prefer to subscribe here to get an exclusive FREE library lesson sent to your inbox.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

A rock. A pot. Some sand. A light. And those same four walls, day in and day out. Inky the octopus has only ever known his tank at the aquarium in New Zealand. Understimulated and craving answers, he watches the people walk by and wonders where they go—until one fateful day when the lock on his tank is left unlatched. Inky escapes, and he miraculously makes his way into a drainpipe and out to the ocean.

Inky’s story is all true—there really was an octopus who escaped the National Aquarium in New Zealand and returned to the sea, becoming a viral sensation. Award-winning author and biologist Thor Hanson’s rhyming text is funny, engaging, and informative and highlights the innate intelligence of octopuses. Galia Bernstein’s vibrant, tentacle-filled artwork is the perfect complement, capturing Inky’s curiosity, intelligence, and resourcefulness. Extensive back matter includes information about octopuses, aquariums, and the real Inky’s escape.  

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

School is where you go to learn. It is fun.
But sometimes you need a little break from all the fun.
That is why there is recess.
But what if it’s not recess time?
No problem!

You can have a Now Recess, a Really-Need-a-Break Recess, a Wherever-You-Are Recess.
It doesn’t matter what you call it. Just make sure you shout it:
RECESS!

Featuring the distinctive humor and beloved art of bestselling Caldecott honoree Lane Smith, this irresistibly fun, interactive read aLOUD is the perfect stress reliever to send kids into fits of giggles and shaking out their wiggles.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

If Bunny Baxter were an insect, she’d have so many ways to slip through seventh grade unnoticed. But she’s tall instead of tiny, has flaming red Medusa hair instead of camouflage, and she suffers from social anxiety, which makes it hard to be part of a swarm. Worst of all, she’s been redistricted to a new middle school away from her best friend who she could always hide behind when her anxiety got the best of her.

The first day at E.D. Britt Middle School does not go well. Bunny trips on the steps, falls into the cutest boy in the school, and causes a kid domino pile-up. At lunch, she unintentionally causes an uproar in the cafeteria, which lands her and another girl in the principal’s office. Bunny decides there is only one option: to get expelled so she can transfer to the school her best friend attends.

She soon discovers that it isn’t that hard to get in trouble—don’t turn in your homework, walk around the track instead of run in P.E., pretend you deliberately hit someone with a badminton birdie. What isn’t so easy for Bunny is realizing she now has a reputation as a troublemaker. And even more confusing, when it looks like her plan to get expelled might work, she’s no longer sure what to do.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

James Gordon is already annoyed by the robots in his life—the drones that look like bugs, the dogbots at the park, his HomeBot babysitter, and now? He’s just found out that Schoolbots are replacing all of his favorite middle school teachers.

James’s teachers have always cared about his feelings and supported his art, but with the news that artificial intelligence is replacing them, James’s life feels like it’s full spiraling into chaos. All the Schoolbots care about is improving students’ test scores and efficiency, and they’ve had some seriously unnerving glitches.

James is determined to fight back but is going to need some help from a very unlikely ally in order to keep these robot teachers from taking over his school.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Mia Hayes has peaceful plans for the summer―find a part-time job at a coffee shop and work on her college applications. Those plans are shattered one night when government agents arrive unannounced at her home seeking something they believe her father has taken. When the dust settles, her mother is dead and her father is gone, a fugitive on the run.

Three weeks later, and still reeling from her father’s betrayal, Mia spends her seventeenth birthday at a protest in the heart of D.C., where she meets Logan, a rebellious and charming hacker. Just as she’s enjoying her first happy moment since the night her world exploded, a voicemail from her father arrives to upend everything she believed about her family, her past, and what really happened that night three weeks ago. Even more, the voicemail hides another encoded message inside which, once Mia solves it, sets her and Logan off on a mission from her sleepy suburb straight into the heart of the federal government.

With the same agents now hot on their trail, Mia and Logan must navigate their way through American history’s most iconic sites and uncover its most well-hidden secrets to reveal the truth about her family and stop a deadly attack.

And a Plus One This Week…

Your library may already have this title, but the third edition just released this week. The third edition includes the 2024 election, plus two new chapters titled “Impeachment” and “Secession.”

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Many of the political issues we struggle with today have their roots in one place—the U.S. Constitution. Fault Lines in the Constitution takes readers back to the creation of this historic document and reveals how many of the problems that trouble us today—such as voting rights, the Electoral College, gerrymandering—were first introduced.

Cynthia and Sanford Levinson explain the unexpected ramifications of decisions make in 1787 and explore possible solutions found in the constitutions of states and other countries.

Each chapter begins with a story―all but one of them true―that connects directly back to a section of the document that forms the basis of our society and government. Informative sidebars and graphics run throughout along with a timeline and bibliography.