New Release Spotlight: August 19, 2025

Back to school season is always an exciting time for some major new book releases!

This week’s lineup features 12 brand-new titles across a mix of genres, with five titles earning two or more starred professional reviews.

My top pick this week is a YA graphic novel This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki. This One Summer, which won a Caldecott Honor and Printz Honor in 2015, was coauthored by Mariko Tamaki.

Also of note is The Sky is My Blanket, a biography by Caldecott winner Uri Schulevitz. Published posthumously, this book is set in WWII Europe, when the author’s uncle – a teen at the time – walked across several European countries.

The Canva Presentations for August have been released! If you are not yet on my email list, you can subscribe here to get this month’s Canva presentations in your inbox today.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

The infamous theater kid Milo and wallflower Liam are unlikely friends connected by a mutual feeling of being misfits in their boarding school. As their friendship and bond develops, unspoken romantic feelings start to bubble up and complicate everything―misunderstandings and bruised eyes aplenty.

But with their graduation soon approaching, Milo gathers the strength to finally confess. They begin dating in secret (for fear of Liam’s strict father finding out), but their relationship becomes more difficult to hide over time and they must decide if they are ready for what the future has in store for them.

Tripping Over You is perfect for readers who want more than just the moody teen problems and the ‘getting together’ stage. It’s a story that throughout the three volumes, progresses until they are out of college, showing the relationship mature and change as the characters move through different stages of their lives.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

At Wilberton Academy, few students are more revered than the members of the elite Wilberton Theatrical Society—a.k.a. the WTS—and no one represents that exclusive club better than Elizabeth Woodward.

Breathtakingly beautiful, beloved by all, and a talented thespian, it’s no surprise she’s starring as Juliet in the WTS’s performance of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy. But when she’s found dead the morning after opening night, the whole school is thrown into chaos.

Transfer student Abby Kita was one of the last people to see Elizabeth alive, and when local authorities deem the it-girl’s death a suicide, Abby’s not convinced. She’s sure there’s more to Wilburton and the WTS than meets the eye. As she gets tangled in prep school intrigues, Abby quickly realizes that Elizabeth was keeping secrets. Was one of those secrets worth killing for?

Told in comics, letters, diary entries, and news articles, This Place Kills Me is a page-turning whodunnit from award-winning writer Mariko Tamaki and acclaimed illustrator Nicole Goux that will have readers on the edge of their seats and begging for an encore.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

When Adam discovers a diary in his attic, he is enthralled by its account of a young woman’s life in Nagasaki. A hundred years separate them, yet like Adam, she is caught between cultures, relationships, and heartbreak.

She also writes of the ghosts that have begun to seek her out, which Adam dismisses as fantasy—until he begins to be haunted by her terrifying spirit. Unravelling the mystery of her identity—and the wrong done to her—seems to be the only way to save himself.

This leads Adam to a home stay in Nagasaki, where he begins to reconnect to his heritage not only through Japanese language and culture, but also by connecting with long-lost family members. And then begins a race against time as Adam and his new crush, Jo, attempt to untangle a story that has rippled through generations.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Each night, Winter Moon counts her earnings dreaming of escape. Once she’s saved enough, she and her grandmother can finally take flight and disappear. But when her spiteful mother steals her money and blows through it all in one day, Winter is forced to turn to her estranged father, who recently reappeared in her life after being absent for more than a decade. They agree upon a simple contract: she spends time with him in exchange for payment.

It’s not easy reconciling the past and the present, though, and when she’s struck with a sudden loss, Winter flounders in grief and rage. The only person offering a hand is Joon, the new boy at school who sees Winter when no one else does.

When Winter discovers a secret her father has been keeping from her, things get even more complicated. As she navigates grief, first love, and forgiveness, Winter begins to forge connections, new and old, that make her question everything: her future, her conviction to disappear, and what it really means to be family. Winter knows that broken things can never be fixed, but can they come back together in a different way?

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Greta Starr has one dream: to be a famous reporter. Unfortunately she’s been assigned to write for the paper’s most boring beat, and she feels stuck.

Then, on her twelfth birthday, Greta receives a mysterious cuckoo clock with a wooden dancer named Lulu inside. Every hour, the doll twirls in time with the music—until one night she comes to life.

Lulu is infused with magic and mischief. With Lulu’s sly encouragement, Greta engineers a feel-good story to report, setting in motion a series of remarkable, if deceitful, happy endings at school that help Greta gain popularity. But when the truth threatens Greta’s friendships, she is confronted with very real consequences that Lulu’s magic can’t fix. 

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

In the twenty-first century, it’s hard to imagine a canal as cutting-edge technology. Yet even to the most scientifically-minded, the Erie Canal once seemed an unachievable dream. Thomas Jefferson himself called it “nothing short of madness;” one critic felt sure it was impossible as “building a canal to the moon.” Y

et with eight years and nearly $185 million dollars in today’s currency, the Erie Canal opened in 1825 to celebratory cannon fire: an innovating—and enduring—marvel of engineering.

But as the Canal shaped the flow of American history, the sociopolitical impact reached much further than its shores. A largely untold tale of creativity and cowardice, sacrifice and greed, heroism and prejudice, the Erie Canal’s story is as complex and compelling as that of America itself.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Born in the tumult of World War I, a young Jewish boy named Yehiel Szulewicz chafes at the borders of his hometown of Żyrardów, Poland, and at the rules set in place by his restrictive parents. Brimming with a desire for true adventure, he leaves home at fifteen-and-a-half years old to seek his future elsewhere. Little does Yehiel know, he’ll never see his parents again.

His journey takes him beyond Polish borders, to Austria, Croatia, France, and Spain. With no money and no ID papers, he often sleeps under the stars, with only the sky as his blanket. But even wayfaring Yehiel can’t outrun the evil spreading across Europe in the years leading up to World War II. As the fascists and Nazis rise to power, Yehiel soon finds himself a member of the Spanish Republican Army and then the Jewish Resistance in Vichy France, fighting for freedom, his friends, and his very life.

Inspired by the true story of Uri Shulevitz’s uncle and stunningly illustrated by the author, The Sky Was My Blanket is a unique and riveting account of one man’s courage and resilience amidst one of the darkest periods in global history.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

It’s a monster’s ancient duty to inflict unimaginable horrors on misbehaving kids.

But when a young cucuy who’s anxious to prove himself is sent to the human world to terrorize his first child, the naughty niño isn’t scared by glowing eyes, sharp talons, or even disgusting breath. Instead, he’s preoccupied with worries about his first day at a new school. Can the little cucuy prove himself as a fierce boogeyman? As he soon learns from his human, maybe some things are scarier than creatures under the bed…and maybe even a monster could use a friend.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Meet Roshan the camel! He spends his days carrying firewood with his human, Murad, to feed their family. One day, a pandemic sweeps through their home country of Pakistan, closing the schools and public libraries. Many children, especially in rural areas, were left without access to learning materials.

Then Roshan and Murad get a call from an organization that wants to help, and they accept a new mission: instead of carrying firewood, they’ll carry books. Day after day, they set out to different villages, Roshan’s back loaded with books to lend out to the children they meet. But they don’t just bring stories―they also carry joy, hope, and connection.

The back of the book includes photos and more information about the camel library program, as well as fun facts about camels.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

What better way to get little ones excited about poems than to make them part of the delivery?

In the hallowed tradition of nursery rhymes and songs like “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” this imaginative collection entices children to use their fingers, hands, and sometimes whole bodies to bring a variety of verses to life.

Whether the subject is sailing ships or stomping dinosaurs, falling snow or popping bubbles, jumping onto waterslides or riding a crowded elevator, Sean Taylor’s rhythmic read-aloud verses pair with Fiona Woodcock’s fresh, colorful illustrations, offering clues to the finger actions kids can follow—unless they’re happily acting things out already, using shapes and movements all their own.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Nana is surrounded by family and takes joy in her many grandchildren. She’s also tired and feels pain. Soon she begins her transition from life into death, accompanied by her beloved Xolo dog, Popo.

Together they go on Nana’s journey, and by the end of the story, Nana’s family celebrates the many years of love they shared with her. And a grandchild will now care for Popo.

Beautifully told by debut author Paloma Angelina Lopez and featuring stunning blend of colored art by Mexican illustrator, Abraham Matias, Popo the Xolo helps kids understand how loved ones live on in our memories. An unforgettable picture book that’s grounded in the importance of the 9 levels of Mictlān and the role Xolo (show-low) dogs play in Indigenous cultural understandings of present-day Mexico.

Popo the Xolo is available in both English and Spanish language editions.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

One day, Sparrow wakes up feeling different. Her world is on the brink of change and she knows that she must prepare. As she flies from one familiar corner of her life to the other—from the fruit stand to the top of the bell tower—she searches far and wide for the thing that will help her get ready for whatever tomorrow may bring.

Here is a soul-stirring picture book about change and how to embrace it with the help of hope—as demonstrated by a sweet sparrow embarking on the great journey of life.