“What truly matters isn’t the outside, but what’s inside.” Sometimes life doesn’t make it easy to accept these simple words. In Kateryna Dronova’s The Ring of Beauty, both Tilda and her father, Tobin, have important lessons to learn. The two have been cursed, all because...

Cael's unintended role in the events leading to his mother's death hardens his father's heart toward the young mouse and creates a growing emotional rift in the family. Unable to win back his father's affections and determined to make a name for himself as a...

In The Adventures of Syd: Lost in Bone Cave by Danielle Simone, it’s fall break, and Syd is ready to go spelunking on her dad’s work trip. For the last four weekends, they’ve been training on ropes and gathering supplies for their cave adventure. This...

In The Funniest Picture Book Ever: AKA Fartnado!, Derek Taylor Kent introduces young readers to a weird little town called Ha! Everything there is built around jokes, silliness, and honestly, some pretty bad manners. The town is full of strange characters, like Lonnie B. Lutz,...

H.S. Toshack’s The Smile of the Tiger is set during catastrophic flooding in Bangkok, where a house cat named Sheena becomes trapped alone in the Allen family apartment after the building is abandoned. With no access to food or water, she escapes through a garbage...

The Mis-Adventure of Pepper & Salt by Liz Fahey introduces young readers to Pepper, a thoughtful little elephant who experiences emotions as colors, and his lively best friend, Salt, a gold-crested crane. Their day begins with curiosity when Pepper asks a playful question about Salt’s...

What does it truly mean to be alive? Does it mean being safe? Does it mean living in one place where everything is perfect, and the world is merely something you can watch through transparent walls? In Darya Ahmadi’s The Glass House on the Hill,...

The Kinetix and the Glowing Orb of Gorthon by Austin Basis, Dave Maulbeck, and Josh Taub is an entertaining and original graphic novel. Four middle school students never dreamed that they would one day become superheroes who would end up saving the school. And ultimately,...

In The Crow’s Ring by Pannell & Sigfusson, Brandon Woodberry and his friends are drawn into a long-buried mystery. Brandon realizes that a ruby ring, once dropped on his rooftop by his pet crow, matches jewelry reported stolen from a wealthy Riverside homeowner during a...

The Fox and the Garbage War by Tuula Pere will teach children about critical thinking and the dangers of ambition. In this story, Francis the Fox is disappointed after his campaign to become mayor fails. However, he decides not to give up and creates a...