New Release Spotlight: October 2026, Week 2

What’s going on with the Spotlight? Well, it’s certainly been in flux since the July pause. I’ve been experimenting with different ways to do it. I know it’s useful (I use it, too!), but I also know it takes loads of time and energy to put together every week.

I do get a small amount of income from the Amazon Affiliate links I use, but trust me when I say that it’s minimal. My Spotlights are a labor of love, even if they take a whole lot of time and energy each week. I want to quench my love of researching and sharing the newest books, but I also need to minimize the amount of time it takes me to put it together in a useful format each week.

For this week, I want to try going back to my original format. There’s a reason I always come back to this format, and it does feel like slipping into a pair of my most comfy jeans. I’m minimizing the time it takes by featuring fewer titles on the blog, eliminating the Canva presentation completely, and featuring additional titles on my Amazon Ideas list for October 2026. I simply cannot feature every amazing book I come across!

So for this week, the Spotlight is back. I can’t promise it will be here next week, but know that I’m trying to find a more sustainable way to keep doing it. A change is long overdue; I’m just not 100% certain what that looks like. In the meantime, thank you for still being here and bearing with me.

On to this week’s Spotlight! As usual, I’m starting with YA books, then to middle grades, then picture books.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Maisie: hasn’t gotten her life back on track since her best friend died. Then she meets Owl, a harbinger of ill tidings and doom, who warns her of an approaching tragedy. 

Joel: A streaming prodigy with questionable decision-making who’s been exiled to a summer of kitten fostering the world’s weirdest cats. 

Verona: will do anything to leave their trailer park behind, even watch a house she knows is haunted. 

Owl: son of Big Owl, who can’t help who he is, or how much he cares about these aforementioned humans. 

Their four stories intertwine with a ghost bent on justice, an adorable feline Animal Person, and a vengeful monster headed straight for them in this singular YA fantasy novel from Newbery Honor-winning Darcie Little Badger. Perfect for readers seeking a haunting, heartfelt exploration of family, grief, and Indigenous identity. 

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

After leaving Amani’s abusive father, Amani and her mother have adjusted to life in a new city. They live with Amani’s loving grandfather, and Amani has made new friends and is dating for the first time. But when her father reinserts himself into her life, asking her to be a bridesmaid in his upcoming wedding, Amani’s equilibrium is shattered.

Has her father really changed, as he claims? How will this affect her mom, who’s struggling with depression? And is Amani’s own romantic relationship starting to echo the problems she saw with her parents?

To avoid repeating those patterns, Amani will have to confront her unhealed wounds.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Nobody talks about the strange happenings in Maimsbury. No one speaks of the hooded figures glimpsed in the woods, nor the children’s game that went so horribly wrong. But most of all, nobody dares whisper their doubts about the river they have worshipped for centuries.

Like everyone in Maimsbury, Gorse is used to the sacrifices made every spring to the River Yeelde. The life of a farm animal – in return for a year of plenty – seems a fair trade. That is, until a tragedy leads him to a blood-curdling discovery.

Because this year is a Brim Year, and after giving so much, the river needs more than an animal’s life to sate its thirst…

Thirst is a gloriously spooky, folklore-inspired novel perfect for YA horror fans. Blending page-turning storytelling with powerful social commentary, 2-time UK Carnegie Medal nominee Darren Simpson delivers a savage critique on how we justify sacrificing others for our own good, and the importance of pushing back against the status quo when it is harmful or outdated.

Brilliant and bloodthirsty, this breathless narrative creeps up on you just like the infernal river that encaptures Maimsbury’s inhabitants in its deadly thrall.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Lena is a descendant of a long line of Mumbos — Vodou priestesses. She’s basically been raised to stir things up. There’s no mess she can’t wriggle out of, even when she’s the one who made it in the first place. But there are problems that even Lena can’t fix… She can’t bring her father back from the dead. She can’t make her mother laugh the way she used to. And she can’t forgive the gods for taking her father away.

When a mysterious man arrives in Lena’s small Haitian village and moves into the giant house on its outskirts, she finally has something to distract her from her father’s death.

But the distraction doesn’t last. Strange things start to happen in her village. People start staring at Lena like they don’t recognize her at all. Their eyes go blank. Their steps turn stiff.

Zombie-stiff.

And wherever Lena runs, they follow.

As the village erupts into chaos, Lena must put her skills to the test. She’ll have to save her friends, figure out what’s controlling everyone, and stay one step ahead of the horde. Because if she wants to survive, she might have to do the one thing she swore she would never do again — ask the gods for help.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Sasan has middle school figured out: cool friends, decent grades, and enough of an allowance to hang out on the weekends. The only thing that seems to trip him up is balancing his mom’s Persian culture with his goal to be just like everyone else.

When all the other boys start playing the latest video game, Sasan realizes his hold on fitting in is slipping right through his fingers. Determined to not stand out for the wrong reasons, Sasan goes to his mom. She’s happy to help but she wants something in return: Sasan has to do the one thing he’s been avoiding for years—learn Farsi.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

In The Story of Art Without Men, best-selling author and renowned art historian Katy Hessel journeys from the Renaissance to the twenty-first century, and across the globe, from Cornwall to Manhattan, Nigeria to Japan, to discover the stories of women who changed the world with their incredible art.

She invites readers to explore the works of Sofonisba Anguissola, whose glittering Renaissance paintings blended art styles; Harriet Powers, a freewoman who quilted stories from her faith and her community; and Tarsila do Amaral, who painted her Brazilian culture to preserve it from colonization―and more than ninety other visionary women artists both famous and lesser known.

Buoyed by Ping Zhu’s dazzling illustrations and Katy Hessel’s signature sense of humor, The Story of Art Without Men upends our perspectives on art and its true masters―and cracks open the canon for women artists still to come. Full color throughout.

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

(Oh sweetness! I just want to cuddle all these animals!)

A big storm is coming, and Chickadee is all alone in the cold. She doesn’t have a cozy home to keep her warm.

Luckily, some geese notice poor Chickadee and huddle around her. But the storm is fierce, and the geese are soon shivering as well.

Luckily, a furry fox notices the geese and wraps her bushy tail around them. But the snow is really falling now and soon the fox is shivering too.

Luckily, a big bear notices the fox and wraps the chilly animals in a great big bear hug. But…with the snow falling all around them, and the wind blowing harder and harder, will Chickadee and her new friends ever stop shivering? And will Chickadee find a place to call home?

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

Two castles sit on a hill, home to two queens. But the queens would rather not share, and each sends a knight to joust for the land.

Two queens is one too many for this hill, the queens concurred.
Let’s hold a duel. The one who wins will rule the hill in whole.

There’s just one problem—when the winner stands up in the middle of the field, no one is sure which side he came from. Maybe neighborly sharing is back in vogue! After all, they have so much in common.

The illustrations in Duel follow one simple rule. Each pair of facing pages is perfectly symmetrical, mirrored over the gutter of the book. Even the colors are the result of squish painting, wet paint pressed between center-folded paper.

Shawn Harris’s self-imposed artistic dare has resulted in a visually arresting and effortlessly funny picture book that kids are sure to ask for on repeat. And to the bold, Duel whispers: what might you create, if you set yourself a challenge?

PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY

It’s wintertime, and old friends Cow and Sow are bored of being cooped up inside. When the two take a walk and literally stumble onto a frozen pond, they discover the thrills of skating — the gliding, the spinning, the jumping!

But as their newfound fun takes a competitive turn, things heat up. Soon it isn’t just the ice that’s beginning to crack…

The pair behind the Ezra Jack Keats Honor award-winning picture book Lawrence in the Fall team up again in this tongue-in-cheek homage to one of figure-skating’s most essential jumps, the Salchow!