New Release Spotlight: August 5, 2025

Welcome to August! I’m excited for my local Genre Book Club tonight! We picked science fiction as our genre this month. I struggled a bit to find a book for me. I quite like science fiction, but I just couldn’t get into the first two books I tried.

With time running out before book club (and not wanting to show up empty-handed), I read sci-fi short stories instead! My pick was A People’s Future of the United States, which was a little like reading Black Mirror episodes. I LOVE Black Mirror, so this was a great pick for me!

** The Canva presentations for the August Spotlight were released via email on August 25, 2025. If you missed the Canva presentations on August 25 (or would like to receive them now), you can subscribe here to get this month’s Canva presentations sent to your inbox today.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

WELCOME TO FOXFIRE

The rules here are simple:

Don’t look in the trees.

Don’t whistle in the woods at night.

Don’t answer if you hear your
name called.

And remember…everything wants.

Verity Vox is a witch-in-training who has never met a problem her spells can’t solve. But when a cryptic plea for help sends her to the forgotten coal mining town of Foxfire, she soon learns even magic has its limits.

Verity discovers a curse was laid years ago by a traveling magician who vanished into the ancient Appalachian hills to seek greater power. Crops won’t grow. Bellies go hungry. Even treasured possessions fall apart. What’s worse, people have gone missing amidst rumors that they’ve sought out the magician who is lying in wait for those foolish or desperate enough to strike a deal with him.

The witch must break the curse, find a missing girl, and solve the mystery of what’s really under the mountain before the town falls forever into the clutches of the monster lurking in the hills.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Rosa Capistrano has been attending posh North Phoenix High School to boost her chances of a college education and a career in journalism, thanks to the groundbreaking Brown v. Board of Education verdict for desegregation.

But though she’s legally allowed to be there, it’s still unsafe for Mexican Americans. That’s why she’s secretly passing as Rosie, a white girl. All she has to do to secure her future is make sure her Mexican home life and her white school experience never intersect.

However, Rosa’s two worlds collide when her best friend Ramon and classmate Julianne meet and find themselves entangled in a star-crossed romance. Rosa is terrified about what their relationship could mean for her and them…and her worst fears are soon realized in an unspeakable tragedy.

Rosa is thrown into the center of a town-wide scandal and her true identity is put in the spotlight. With the help of Marco, Ramon’s brooding and volatile brother whose passion ignites hers, Rosa must choose what is more important to her—protecting her fragile future, or risking everything to help her friends find justice.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Six weeks after the start of her freshman year of college, Jeannine Atkins finds herself back in her childhood bedroom after an unimaginable trauma.

Now home in Massachusetts, she’s struggling to reclaim her life and her voice. Seeking comfort in the words of women, she turns to the lives and stories of Sylvia Plath, Maya Angelou, and Emily Dickinson. Through raw and poignant letter-poems addressed to these literary giants, Jeannine finds that the process of writing and reflecting has become not only a means of survival but the catalyst for a burgeoning writing career.

Inspired and ready to move forward, she enrolls in her state university, where she feeds her growing passion for writing in fiction seminars. But she finds that she’s unable to escape the pervasive misogyny of her classmates and professors, who challenge her to assert her own voice against a backdrop of disbelief and minimalization. This time, though, Jeannine is not willing to go down without a fight.

A searingly honest memoir told through gorgeous verse, Knocking on Windows stands as a beacon of hope and a celebration of the enduring spirit of survivors of sexual assault—and of writers.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Gwen MacKinnon’s parents are dreadful. Truly, deeply, almost impressively dreadful. So Gwen’s not upset at all when she’s foisted onto her never-before-seen Uncle Matthew for two weeks. Especially when it turns out he has a very opinionated dog named Pumpkin.

Things take a turn for the weird when Gwen makes a discovery in the local library. A discovery that involves tiny creatures with wings. And no, they’re not birds. They’re called Lahdukan. But why can only Gwen and the youngest children, gathered for storytime, see them?

The Lahdukan insist that Gwen is destined to help them find a new home. But how can a girl as unwanted, uncourageous, and generally unheroic as Gwen possibly come to the rescue? Pumpkin has a few ideas…

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Twelve-year-old Simi Singh’s life in Northern India is filled with love, family traditions, and ordinary worries about hockey competitions, school exams, and avoiding the snide remarks of her class nemesis. But when a single rock carrying a note crash through their window during their Id celebration, Simi’s life will shatter.

Her Sikh father and Muslim mother’s interfaith marriage is becoming a target of violent vigilantes. Faced with rising threats, they must make an impossible choice: stay and risk their lives, or flee their homeland. Simi’s father is the first of them to make the journey to the U.S., but when their petition to be reunited in America is denied, Simi and her mother are left with no choice but to attempt a perilous crossing through the Arizona desert with the help of a smuggler.

Throughout her nail-biting journey towards safety and belonging, Simi will face unthinkable danger― and when Simi and her mother are separated during the crossing, each led to believe the other is dead, she refuses to accept this fate. Alone in an unfamiliar and unforgiving land, she must summon all her courage and resourcefulness to survive, find her mother, and reunite her shattered family.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

His father is killed, his house is destroyed, and he and his mother and sister must flee. They find themselves in a camp for internally displaced persons, who’ve been driven from their homes but haven’t left their country.

Kim struggles to adapt to his new reality: living in a tent, facing prejudice at the local school, and struggling to get basic supplies. His family even has to buy water by the jug, paying high prices controlled by a ruthless gang of water sellers.

Gradually, Kim makes friends at the camp and starts to rebuild his life. Together, he and the other kids hatch a plan to get the camp a reliable water supply―along with some hope.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

When Ada leaves town and moves into a fixer-upper cottage on a hill, she can’t wait to settle into a life of peace and quiet. She’ll wear a soft gray coat and grow perfect red apples, and everything will be just so.

Yet Ada’s lovely plans are soon dashed by a troublesome goat that hangs around long after she frees it from a tangle with a fence. Its antics undo her perfect new life piece by piece, until Ada snaps and sends the goat firmly on its way. Never again will it chase after her apples… or sleep on her porch… or nibble on her soft, gray coat. And suddenly, Ada isn’t so glad. What if it’s stuck in a fence again?

A triumphant reunion, complete with baby goats, perfectly concludes this adorable and timeless tale of reluctant animal love. Heidi Aubrey’s prancing, clattering goat illustrations crackle with the spark that goat lovers know no other creature quite shares. As for Ada and her cottage, parents reading aloud may well see something familiar in having a tidy, calm home upturned by a mischievous small creature—and not wanting to have it any other way.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Where the rock wall ends, the desert beyond begins.

Following a blazing trail of sundust, two curious siblings hop the wall into a place that’s endless and free. Here, prickly old nopal trees beg to be climbed, empty turtle shells invite a closer look, enormous rocks model how to sit still and listen, and a colibrí offers an unexpected ride. In the desert, where life revolves around the Sun, brother and sister explore, imagine, and wonder, What if Sun’s power was inside me? until their mom’s whistle calls them back home again.

With spare, lyrical text, Pura Belpré Honor and Ezra Jack Keats Honor recipient Zeke Peña has created a fantastical tale that suspends moments in time with his radiant art and celebrates the bonds between the sun, the desert, and its people.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

When a little boy’s mom picks him up from school, his day seems a lot like any other kid’s. He and his mom go out for some fast food and then head to the library. But when they stay there till closing time, and then go to the park, we learn more.

Through the lens of Ransome’s evocative illustrations we see that they ate out because they don’t have a kitchen to cook in.

They went to the library because they don’t have a quiet space to do homework.

And at night, they settle in to sleep on a bench in a city park because they don’t have a home.

The next morning, they are awakened by the rising sun, Mom’s bag is full of clean clothes, and there’s a fountain for washing up–and finally they are ready for the walk to school. His classmates may or may not know about his living situation, but what shines throughout the story is the deep love he and his mom have for each other.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Ravi can’t wait for the start of the new school year! Fall is for cool weather, new school supplies, and spending time with his best friend, Joe. But when a new girl named Ellie joins their class, Ravi and Joe’s duo suddenly becomes a trio.

Ravi’s not so sure about Ellie—she plays her horn too loud in music lessons and gets them lost on the way to class. Worst of all, she keeps saying she’s Joe and Ravi’s best friend.

All these big changes are challenging for Ravi, but with time (and a little help from his wise older sister) he realizes that fall is the perfect time to begin a new friendship.

From the award-winning team behind Summer Is for Cousins, this heartwarming picture book all about back-to-school fun celebrates the (sometimes complicated) joy of making new friends.