New Release Spotlight: November 4, 2025

Welcome to November!

This month continues a slow downward trend in the Spotlight that will extend through December. The number of new book releases that meet my Spotlight criteria will dwindle each week as we approach the end of November.

By the first week of December, we’ll be down to nearly nothing for new book releases. Because of this, I usually only do one Spotlight for the entire month of December. Even though the first Spotlight of December covers the entire month, it’s still a pretty small Spotlight.

In place of the December Spotlight, I plan to post an analysis of my Caldecott 2026 predictions. I did this a couple of years ago, and it was so much fun to put together. I’ve been paying close attention to Caldecott potentials this year, so I’m excited to share my thoughts with you. Watch your email for that post in mid-December.

This week, YA and middle grades both look fabulous, with several books by popular authors and that received multiple starred reviews. Picture books were great in October, but they are slim-pickins this week.

My top picks:

• Reasons We Break by Jesmeen Kaur Deo (YA romance)
• Gilded in Vengeance by Lyssa Mia Smith (YA historical fantasy)
• Xolo by Donna Barba Higuera (MG mythology)

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Genevieve Newhouse and Ash Hargreaves weren’t supposed to meet like this. Unless it was always meant to be…

Gen is a fastidious science prodigy with a chip on her shoulder, and she can turn herself invisible.

Happy-go-lucky Ash has just escaped a sheltered (read: cultish) childhood, and he can manipulate time.

The gifted eighteen-year-olds cross paths at the 1934 Chicago World’s Fair, where Genevieve’s experimental physics project causes an apocalyptic explosion. Ash tries to avert catastrophe by gallantly rewinding time a few minutes, but instead, he transports them back to 1893.

The duo finds themselves trapped in an unfamiliar, unwelcoming era, with no idea how to return to their own time—or if their own time even exists. Their cataclysmic leap across decades might have destroyed the world as they know it.

Fate and free will intertwine in this page turning historical romance that sets two irresistible strangers down a chaotic, potentially apocalyptic path. “Will they or won’t they” takes on a whole new meaning as Gen and Ash fight for survival while falling in love.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

As long as Simran has known Rajan, her immigrant community has warned her away. She knows what they call him, especially since he got out of juvie: an addict. A gangster. A killer.

But Simran can’t believe Rajan is beyond hope. She’s seen his thoughtfulness firsthand: He’s the only one who’s noticed the pressure she’s under to be perfect—and how close she is to breaking.

So when Rajan’s old gang tries to force him back in, Simran makes a desperate bargain: She’ll become their bookkeeper to clear his debts and keep him out of prison.

But Rajan won’t leave her side while she works, and their forbidden attraction is becoming harder to ignore. Worse, there’s a gang war brewing—and neither of them is likely to get through it unscathed . . . if they get through it at all.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Two girls attended a magical ball, but one was never seen again.

At least that’s what those who betrayed her believed.

Two years after being framed for fraud by the Society of the Charmed, an exclusive club of New York’s wealthiest—and most magical—citizens, Emmy Vallillo wastes away in prison, utterly alone.

Until her cell door bursts open, revealing Jack Fontaine, one of the Society’s favorite sons, now imprisoned for a crime he swears he didn’t commit. They make a deal: He’ll help Emmy escape if she helps destroy those who’ve wronged them.

Together, the two break free and, using Emmy’s magic to transform their appearances, they soon become the Society’s new darlings.Now their enemies want to dine with them. Attend lavish balls with them. Marry them. But ruining lives requires Emmy to trust Jack with hers, despite his dark secrets—and the infuriating attraction between them.

When another betrayal brings their enemies to their doorstep, Emmy must choose: finish exacting revenge, or give up the money, the magic, and her safety in this cutthroat world for the most treacherous thing of all—love.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Mallory Fontaine is a fraud. Though she comes from a long line of witches, the only magic she possesses is the ability to see ghosts, which is rarely as useful as one would think. She and her sister have maintained the family business, eking out a paltry living by selling bogus spells to gullible buyers and conducting tours of the infamous mansion where the first of the Saphir murders took place.

Mallory is a self-proclaimed expert on Count Bastien Saphir―otherwise known as Monsieur Le Bleu―who brutally killed three of his wives more than a century ago. But she never expected to meet Bastien’s great-great grandson and heir to the Saphir estate.

Armand is handsome, wealthy, and convinced that the Fontaine Sisters are as talented as they claim. The perfect mark. When he offers Mallory a large sum of money to rid his ancestral home of Le Bleu’s ghost, she can’t resist. A paid vacation at Armand’s country manor? It’s practically a dream come true, never mind the ghosts of murdered wives and the monsters that are as common as household pests.

But when murder again comes to the House Saphir, Mallory finds herself at the center of the investigation―and she is almost certain the killer is mortal. If she has any hope of cashing in on the payment she was promised, she’ll have to solve the murder and banish the ghost, all while upholding the illusion of witchcraft.

But that all sounds relatively easy compared to her biggest challenge: learning to trust her heart. Especially when the person her heart wants the most might be a murderer himself.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Bird and Jessa don’t have much in common. Bird is an aspiring poet, still finding herself after a transformative summer away at writing camp. Jessa lives for the discovery of new music, using it to block out the dysfunction waiting for her at home. They would never have crossed paths if it weren’t for one shared problem: Their two best friends have started dating, and the relationship is threatening to ruin their senior year.

Tired of coming second to their friends’ romance, the girls come to the only logical conclusion: they have to break their friends up. But the more time Bird and Jessa spend scheming, the more they start to realize they might have more in common than they thought.

Set in the late ’90s in a world full of change as much as possibility, Jessa and Bird relearn what it means to love themselves and receive love in return, and to dream for a future they never imagined.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Right around D-Day of World War II, a small, unarmed American army unit deployed to Nazi-occupied France. Instead of artillery, this unit fought with stagecraft, artistry, and deception.

Their “weapons” included inflatable rubber tanks and giant speakers broadcasting fake military maneuvers.

The soldiers called themselves the Ghost Army. Many of them had creative backgrounds in fashion, theater, and music, and they used their talents to trick and confuse the enemy. Often, their mission was to draw enemy fire away from other soldiers and toward themselves.

One of the most stunning parts of this story is just how effective the Ghost Army was. They successfully carried out mission after mission and undeniably helped secure Allied victory.

Rebecca Siegel uses original research, declassified records and photos, and a boots on the ground narrative style to tell the incredible experiences of these heroic soldiers.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

It is said the mighty feathered serpent god, Quetzalcoatl, helped create the earth. He is the hero who stole back the bones of humanity from the evil god of the Underworld. In his quest to bring humans to the earth, Quetzalcoatl’s dog-headed twin brother, Xolotl, was present. Not much is known of Xolotl, the god of lightning, death, and misfortune. A monster.

This is what really happened.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Yellow daffodils and dandelions are blooming, and a new neighbor is moving into the unit next door to Sparrow’s, along with a service-dog-in-training named Toby.

Sparrow soon falls in love with Toby and gets involved with helping him pass his service dog test. In fact, she gets so obsessed with learning about service dogs that she can’t focus on what she’s supposed to be doing in school, and soon Toby’s not the only one who needs to worry about getting tested.

Now Sparrow has to meet with the school social worker alongside some kids in “friendship group,” even though she doesn’t need any new friends.

Sparrow is used to being the one to help others, but she’s having more and more trouble staying on task in class; and if she messes up too many times in school, she won’t be able to walk Toby anymore.

Can she be the Sparrow she’s always been if she’s not the helper but the one being helped?

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Insyirah’s calm, orderly world falls into chaos when her proud nenek (grandmother) has a bad fall, and Insyirah and her mother must move back to Malaysia to take care of her.

Her new home holds wild and dangerous mysteries, and while finding her feet, Insyirah discovers a shocking secret: the women in her family can control jinn—powerful, ancient jungle spirits—and, one day, she will inherit one of her own. What’s more, her new school is haunted by an evil spirit determined to force her out of Malaysia.

As Insyirah discovers the fascinating ways of the seen and unseen worlds, she finds danger around every corner. And when her family situation grows perilous, she must gather all her resilience to overcome unexpected obstacles and make a life-changing decision.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Fanny Goldstein immigrated to America from Russia when she was six.

She loved the fact that in her new country she could borrow books for free and take part in all kinds of activities at the Saturday Evening Girls Club.

Right away, her curiosity attracted the notice of the club’s founder, who was also the head of the Boston Public Library. It wasn’t long before Fanny was hired as the librarian’s assistant, and then at thirty-three, as the first Jewish director of a Boston branch library.

And when Fanny noticed how rarely Jewish families checked out books about their own history, she had an idea that would influence libraries and readers for decades to come: She decided to host a week-long party to celebrate Jewish books and culture. It was such a success that it launched a national event which has continued for 100 years!

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

The Apollo astronauts gave people a new way of looking at the world―and so did modern artist Alma Thomas.

In 1969, people around the world watched as the Apollo 10 astronauts sent the first-ever live color television broadcasts from space. Abstract painter Alma Thomas was among those watching, and afterward, she began a series of bright, bold pieces inspired by the Moon missions and the marvels of space exploration.

In a dual narrative that weaves together key moments from the Apollo 10 mission with Alma’s process creating Snoopy Sees a Sunrise, celebrated author and illustrator Nina Crews presents a fascinating STEAM-themed perspective on an incredible scientific endeavor―and an incredible artist.