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,...

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...

In Linda Maria Frank and JoAnn Vergona Krapp’s The Monster Bones of St. Frederick Island, Douglas Crawford travels to coastal Maine with his parents, his sister Janet, and his friend Wesley for a summer vacation that changes course after Douglas learns about a large skeleton...

Since Juuji and his family arrived safely on Mars, he has made their welfare his priority. Chief among them is finding a way to get the Caterpillar they all call the Bus to transition into a butterfly. His previous attempts have failed, and as time...

“Being different is a gift, … Trust your heart. It will always guide you.” In Wizard Penfield’s The Christmas Leprechaun, a young leprechaun named Finn knew he wasn’t like the other leprechauns around him. They were full of mischief and greed. Finn sought to be...