The 40 Best New Book Releases This Week: Oct. 1-7, 2024

Here are the 40 best new book releases this week: September 24-30, 2024. If you love books, Fall may be your favorite season. It’s possible Summer gives you free time to read thanks to no school or vacations and the like. Winter gives you a reason to stay inside and read. Spring? Well, it’s Spring and you’re bursting with enthusiasm for life and fun and that means books! (At least to me.) But Fall. Fall is filled with tons of books. Books everywhere you look. Great books to read. Great books to gift. Great books to recommend to family and friends and coworkers.

Every week surprises and this week, we’ve got a passel of terrific books for kids, including a new classic by Kate DiCamillo and the middle grade debut of Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon. So let’s get going! At the head of the Parade are…

The 40 Best New Book Releases This Week: Oct. 1-7, 2024

1. The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich
2. Season of the Swamp by Yuri Herrera
3. Broke Heart Blues by Joyce Carol Oates

A wedding brings out the best and worst in people. Tensions run high, as do the comedic and dramatic possibilities during a wedding taking place in the shattered world of the 2008 Great Recession. The Pulitzer and National Book Award winning author Louise Erdrich captures it all in The Mighty Red, a novel set in a small prairie community in Argus, North Dakota that somehow also captures the world. Goodreads agrees! The Goodreads community named The Mighty Red one of the ten books coming out this week they are eager to read.

Writer Yuri Herrera tackles the past with his novel. Season of the Swamp is set in New Orleans in 1853, where the historical figure Benito Juárez spent a year and a half. Along with fellow Mexican exiles, Juárez was almost swallowed up by the beguiling, conniving, lurid atmosphere of New Orleans. (Some things never change.) But in 160 propulsive pages, Herrera imagines how this sojourn also shaped Juárez into becoming the man who would return to Mexico, overthrow its dictatorship and become the first indigenous ruler of a country in the Americas in the modern era. 

A new novel by Joyce Carol Oates is always an event. But you know what? With her sprawling, remarkable output, even a reissue from Oates is a major event. The 25th anniversary of Broke Heart Blues means this title is now back in print. A personal favorite of Oates herself, it shows John Reddy Heart coming to a small town in upstate New York as a boy, blossoming into a movie star handsome teen and young man who would lay emotional waste to everyone around him in astounding fashion. Never read Oatest? Haven’t read her in a while? Start here.

The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich ($32; Harper) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

Season of the Swamp by Yuri Herrera ($26; Graywolf Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Broke Heart Blues by Joyce Carol Oates ($19.95; Akashic Books, Ltd.) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

4. The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Do we still have public intellectuals, people known around the country who wore their learning lightly and illuminated the issues of the day for a wider audience? Of course we do, though that label is weirdly seen as somehow a negative. It applied to Clifton Fadiman and James Baldwin and Susan Sontag and it certainly applies to Ta-Nehisi Coates. With the game-changing success of his essay/memoir Between The World and Me, anything he writes will immediately command attention. Here he grapples with the power and danger of storytelling, the too easy way of shaping and softening reality. Coates travels to Africa, to South Carolina and in the longest piece Palestine to observe how rarely life as it is lived fits into the stories we want to tell ourselves.

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates ($30; One World) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

Related: Actor Kate McKinnon’s Diabolical Plan To Take over Kids’ Imaginations

5. Nothing Like The Movies by Lynn Painter
6. Bad Reputation by Emma Barry
7. Showmance by Chad Beguelin

Three romances to brighten up fall.

In the film crazy rom-com Nothing Like The Movies, fans of Better Than The Movies return to the on-again, off-again potential romance of Liz and Wes. If you like a grand gesture, Wes is your guy. But they’re in college now and Liz is over it. And she has a new friend. A male friend. Wes needs to dig deep into his Sleepless in Seattle, Say Anything playbook and win her heart. Goodreads says its readers are excited: by putting it on their to-be-read shelf, they made it one of their top picks of the week. 

In Bad Reputation, we switch from movie-obsessed young lovers to an actual movie set. A former teen heartthrob is looking to ditch his Tiger Beat image. And the film’s new intimacy coordinator is determined to be very professional, even as she’s surprisingly attracted to this himbo, who’s…not such a himbo after all? Surely some fake dating to fool the paparazzi will solve all their problems!

From movies to Broadway, ok Off Broadway. Ok, off off off Broadway after a playwright watches his first musical crash and burn. Noah is lured back to the smalltown he vowed never to see again. Then it gets worse: his agent thought it would be redemptive–and get good press–if Noah staged the flop musical at the local community theater. Even worse, that jerk Luke from his high school is still around and better looking than ever. And yet, everyone likes Luke and the cast is really, surprisingly good and insightful about their parents and the musical is getting better and Luke is really quite handsome and kind and what the heck is going on? It’s a showmance!

Nothing Like The Movies by Lynn Painter ($19.99; Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Bad Reputation by Emma Barry ($16.99; Montlake) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Showmance by Chad Beguelin ($19; Penguin Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

8. Be Ready When The Luck Happens by Ina Garten
9. Henry V by Dan Jones
10. Q: A Voyage Around The Queen by Craig Brown

TV’s Barefoot Contessa dishes all, in a gentle wry memoir about how she resisted and resisted calls to make a tv show. And then made one and became more famous than ever. Is there a lot of dirt to dish? Nope. Will fans enjoy the time with her? Yep.

Dan Jones is one of those popular historians in the UK who turn out entertaining, but well-grounded and insightful works. Here he turns to Henry V, surely one of the most significant kings in the history of England. (The queens, of course, outshine the kings.) Given eternal fame by Shakespeare, here Hal is put under the microscope and judged…rather well indeed. With praise from the Times of London and the Observer, as well fellow historians like Lucy Worsley, this is a good bet for those who like juicy, narrative-driven biographies. The folks at Goodreads like those, too; they named Henry V one of their ten most anticipated new releases out this week. 

English author Craig Brown made his bones with political satire, deft parodies he published here, there and everywhere. But his sideline in books is a fascinating one. Brown specializes in choosing a subject like the Beatles or famous people who crossed paths with one another and then reading everything he can about them and pulling the best bits together. I call it a magpie history. His work on the Beatles and Princess Margaret enjoyed tremendous acclaim. And now he’s done it with the late Queen Elizabeth II. My only disappointment with it is that it came out too late for me to read it to my mother, who would have loved it.

Be Ready When The Luck Happens by Ina Garten ($34; Crown) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Henry V by Dan Jones ($35; Viking) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Q: A Voyage Around The Queen by Craig Brown ($35; Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

11. The Hotel Balzaar by Kate DiCamillo; illustrated by Júlia Sardà
12. The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science by Kate McKinnon
13. The Girls of Skylark Lane by Robin Benway

Kate DiCamillo is one of our best storytellers. She’s written beloved classics set in the modern world, from the best-selling Because of Winn-Dixie and Raymie Nightingale right up to this year’s sweet Ferris. She also writes…well, fables? Stories that are not quite in the modern world of cars and cell phones but aren’t quite full-blown fantasies either. Books like The Tale Of Despereaux and The Magician’s Elephant. And now she’s sharing what DiCamillo calls “Tales of Norendy.” Norendy is an almost mythical, but quite real setting. It’s just tinged by magic and stories are better there. Last year brought an instant classic with The Puppets Of Spelhorst. Now DiCamillo has done it again with The Hotel Balzaar, a charming tale about a little girl in a big hotel, a talking parrot, a sad mother, a missing father (the war, you know, will do that at times, misplace people), a wealthy countess, a kind bellman and the stories they tell. It’s a delight. 

Millicent Quibb is a daffy, dangerous mix of silliness and science that speaks to the kids who are just a tad off kilter in the best possible way. Think Lemony Snicket but with much bigger worms that might just eat you, adults who do not always have your best interests at heart (even if they think they do) and a kind of intimidating Millicent Quibb, who seems awfully unhinged in a Wonka-like way that’s hard to resist. The story hinges on three orphan girls named Gertrude, Eugenia and Dee-Dee Porch who never quite fit in at their school and are quite fine with that. Expelled (again!), they have one last chance of happiness at the Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science…assuming they’re not eaten first by giant, rock-crushing worms or captured by a secret society planning to send the entire town into turmoil while unleashing its demonic leader. Heavens!

National Book Award-winning writer Robin Benway offers a glimpse at girls coming of age. A local softball team provides the focus for the girls of Skylark Lane, especially for the twin sisters Aggie and Jac. They’re very tired of being joined at the hip and can’t agree on much of anything, not even softball. But it might just allow them to grow up and find space to be themselves and sisters again. Typically praised by critics, as Benway’s novels always are.

The Hotel Balzaar by Kate DiCamillo; illustrated by Júlia Sardà ($17.99; Candlewick) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science by Kate McKinnon ($17.99; Little, Brown Books For Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Girls of Skylark Lane by Robin Benway ($19.99; HarperCollins) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

14. National Geographic: World From Above by Jeffrey Kerby

The terrible scenes of devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene often come now from drones flying overhead. Heartbreaking. But looking at our world from above can also be uplifting and eye-opening. In this collection of images curated by National Geographic photographer Jeffrey Kerby, you’ll see dazzling images of the world that can still make you see our lives in a new way. The familiar becomes unfamiliar, the unfamiliar becomes entrancing and it’s really a stunning work.

National Geographic: World From Above by Jeffrey Kerby ($45; National Geographic) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

15. The Great When by Alan Moore
16. The Last Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison
17. The City in Glass by Nghi Vo

Alan Moore is a legend in the world of comic books and graphic novels. It’s surprisingly rare for writers in that world to venture into non-visual works–you know, books. It’s even rarer for them to succeed, Neil Gaiman being the notable exception. But here he is and The Great When is a corker, filled with the tug of the Other London, the London of our dreams, perhaps the real London while we’re stuck in the prosaic everyday world. The wonderfully named young man Dennis Knuckleyard (!) might prefer that. But in post World War II England he finds himself dealing with a frightening landlady, magicians, gangsters, an imaginary book that he’s got hold of and can’t get rid and a propensity for slipping into the surreal, phantasmagorical and very dangerous Other London when he least expects it. Moore is entirely in charge here, confident and witty and pulling us along. The Great When is the first book in The Long London Quintet. If you read it, that fact will make you very happy indeed.

The fact that the third and final Dangerous Visions anthology is out seems remarkable all on its own. The late writer and editor Harlan Ellison rocked the literary world with the first two books in 1967 and 1972. They revolutionized sci-fi and fantasy and while many, many others contributed to its “growing up” and tacking adult themes and generally being taken seriously, Dangerous Visions was a landmark, undeniable part of that. Ellison promised a third and final Dangerous Visions but it became as mythic as the Orson Welles original cut of the film The Magnificent Ambersons and other great lost or never-completed works of art. Ellison died six years ago…and now here it is? My mind is blown. It couldn’t possibly compare to the first two. And nothing could have their impact for the simple fact that their impact was so great. And yet the first story included is a corker. Maybe it will? Even if it does, the real prize here is TV creator and writer J. Michael Strczynski of Babylon 5 fame. He’s devoted himself to curating Ellison’s estate and life work, paused his own projects perhaps for good and birthed this impossible, never to be seen book. The introduction includes his detailed and remarkable story of their friendship, Ellison’s huge influence on him and a loving but no holds barred explanation of what the heck happened to both this book and Ellison’s career. It’s heartbreaking, absorbing, funny and does Ellison justice. 

The City in Glass might just as easily be slotted under Romance, but author Nghi Vo is an award-winning author in the sci-fi/fantasy world, so here she is. Her new book is compared to both the playfully metaphysical Italo Calvino and the goofy side of Neil Gaiman, so I’m immediately intrigued. In this mythic tale, an demon and an angel are cursed to roam Azril, the city of glass that is all but destroyed. They are locked in eternal combat but neither will ever triumph and you know how it is. How long can you hold a grudge? Well, forever, actually but there’s also time to come to a wary understanding and then work together to rebuild the city to its former glory and then perhaps team up when others want to destroy it again? You know, the same old story, a fight for love and glory, a case of do or die. Goodreads fans might not  need my Casablanca reference, but they need this book. It's one of the ten books they're most eager to read this week. 

The Great When by Alan Moore ($29.99; Bloomsbury Publishing) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Last Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison ($17.99; Blackstone Publishing) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The City in Glass by Nghi Vo ($24.99; Tordotcom) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

18. Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

On the other hand…. Author Malcolm Gladwell returns to his career-making idea of the Tipping Point, admits to getting some stuff wrong and then suggests maybe, just maybe we should all be less confident in our pronouncements and ready to admit mistakes and maybe not speak in broad generalizations? No, not the last bit. But yes, one does get things wrong occasionally. Goodreads isn't down on Gladwell like me. They named Revenge of the Tipping Point one of the ten most anticipated books coming out this week. 

Revenge of the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell ($32; Little, Brown and Company) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

19. The Drowned by John Banville
20. The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz
21. The Devil Hath A Pleasing Shape by Terry Roberts

Three works of suspense to tantalize and tease.

The acclaimed John Banville got over the silliness of thinking his crime fiction should be written under a pseudonym. Yes, there is high and low in culture–high quality and low quality. High quality can be found in comic books and low quality can be found in literary fiction. In The Drowned, Banville returns to his Irish pathologist Quirke, investigating a missing person in a small Irish town. Nothing, of course, is as it seems. Banville's reputation precedes him. The community at Goodreads knows that. They chose The Drowned as one of the ten most anticipated titles coming out this week.

Writer Jean Hanff Korelitz enjoyed an un-toppable blockbuster with The Plot, a novel about a downtrodden professor who rolls his eyes when a student sneers at him and says the class is a waste because the plot of the novel he’s working on can’t be beat. Yeah, right. Then the student tells him the basic plot…and damned if it isn’t a foolproof, brilliant, wildly commercial idea. Then the student dies. So what harm in taking the plot and writing his own novel? None at all, until it brings fame and fortune…and an email stating “You are a thief.” Hey, that’s a good plot! The book was a smash and now comes the sequel, called in meta fashion The Sequel. I’d tell you th plot of the sequel but it might spoil the fun of reading The Plot and really you’re going to want to read both. Critics say it’s just as fun.

In a cruel irony, acclaimed noir writer Terry Roberts has set three books in 1920s Asheville, North Carolina. They’re very well reviewed but not the massive bestsellers he deserves. The latest–The Devil Hath a Pleasing Shape–hits stores just as Asheville is in the news for all the wrong reasons after being devastated by Hurricane Helene. Roberts brings alive the town of 100 years ago. When a college student is found naked and dead in the town’s most exclusive inn, local problem solver Stephen Robbins is called in to clean up the mess. The only problem? All the socialites who might be able to help would rather protect their reputation than help solve a crime. And the killer is still on the loose.

The Drowned by John Banville ($28.99; Hanover Square Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz ($29; Celadon Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Devil Hath A Pleasing Shape by Terry Roberts ($16.99; Turner) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

22. Milk and Honey: 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition by Rupi Kaur

Rup Kaur enjoyed one of those rare unicorns in publishing: a book of poetry that became a best-selling phenomenon. Now Milk and Honey returns for a 10th anniversary edition perfect for gifting or keepsaking. It contains hand-written notes by Kaur, some 40 new poems and 20 new illustrations. In all, Milk and Honey has sold more than six million copies worldwide, making it the most popular new book of poetry in the 21st century.

Milk and Honey: 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition by Rupi Kaur ($24.99; Andrews McMeel Publishing) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

23. How Women Made Music edited by Allison Fensterstock
24. The Vietnam War by Geoffrey Wawro
25. Rumbles: A Curious History of the Gut by Elsa Richardson

Three works of history and science.

National Public Radio draws upon its vast archives and the music series Turning The Tables for this in-depth look at some of the most important artists in popular music. Odetta, Taylor Swift, Joan Baez, Beyoncé, Dolly Parton and many more are here. You’ll find candid interviews, historical perspective, archival photographs and more to tell the story of women in music and how they blazed trails, whether men wanted them to or not.

Has the Vietnam War been exhausted as a subject? Hardly. For one thing, we still haven’t learned its lessons. For another, we’ve yet to have a definitive, overarching look at Vietnam purely from a military standpoint. Now, with new access to declassified documents (not to mention the Pentagon Papers and so much more), historian Geoffrey Wawro offers a history laser-focused on the military campaign. In devastating detail, he shows how it was unwinnable from the start. You might joke a la The Princess Bride, “Never start a land war in Asia.” Not bad advice. But Wawro shows why and how that is specifically true for the U.S. in Vietnam, why you shouldn’t say “here’s where it went wrong” but rather “here’s why it was a very bad idea from the start.”

Hey, there’s a microbiome in my stomach! That’s what we’ve been told in recent years. How our microbiome influences our health, the many “foreign” organisms that live inside us and outnumber us and if they want yogurt, I’m gonna eat yogurt. Glasgow academic Elsa Richardson takes pity on me and offers up an entire history of the gut. How was it viewed through history and by whom? How do we understand our stomach today and what more do we have to learn? Per critics, she has a gift for elucidating complex ideas and bringing science history to life.

How Women Made Music edited by Allison Fensterstock ($40; HarperOne) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Vietnam War by Geoffrey Wawro ($40; Basic Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Rumbles: A Curious History of the Gut by Elsa Richardson ($27.95; Pegasus Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

26. The Paranormal Ranger by Stanley Milford Jr.
27. Model Home by Rivers Solomon
28. The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister
29. Exposure by Ramona Emerson

Four books that skirt horror and the spooky, just in time for Halloween.

Stanley Milford Jr. is a Navajo Ranger with decades of experience. He also spent time working with what I simply must describe as the X-Files of the Navajo Nation: skinwalkers, UFO sightings, livestock mutilation that made no sense? Milford got the call. In this engaging memoir, Milford describes his childhood as a son of parents who were of Navajo and Cherokee descent, a life infused with the practical and an openness to the supernatural. His case histories involve real-world explanations, mythology that explains the worldview of many of the people he served and some things that just…can’t be explained away.

Rivers Solomon tells a horror story about the first Black family to move into a white suburban neighborhood. They’re unwelcome by the folks who live nearby, by the community and even by the house itself! Reviewers rave and say it reinvents the haunted house trope. Think Lovecraft Country, sans the road trip.

In The Bog Wife, the hauntings come from within the family itself. In a creepy pact, generations of the West Virginia Haddesley family follow the rules. They sacrifice their patriarch to the swamp and the swamp returns to them a “bog wife” and the family line continues and thrives. Then one day, the swamp breaks its part of the pact. No bog wife. All hell breaks loose but maybe just maybe it was all a bad idea in the first place?

The Paranormal Ranger Stanley Milford Jr. might get along well with Navajo forensic photographer Rita Todacheene. The second in a series, Exposure finds Rita at a turning point. Her grandmother on the reservation is getting old and might just need her help. Work is a pain for two reasons: everyone now knows she can see the ghosts of the victims they find at crime scenes and she’s being frozen out for turning in a corrupt cop. But a serial killer targeting indigent Native people that most assume simply froze out of doors. But their ghosts tell a different story and Rita must listen to them. Now if only someone else would listen to her.

The Paranormal Ranger by Stanley Milford Jr. ($28.99; William Morrow) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Model Home by Rivers Solomon ($28; MCD) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister ($28; Counterpoint LLC) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Exposure by Ramona Emerson ($29.95; Soho Crime) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

30. The Position of Spoons by Deborah Levy

Playwright, poet and author, Deborah Levy offers a miscellany of musings. Written as an introduction for this book or as an essay in that journal or a note in a playbill, her thoughts on varied people and topics have no link other than the observant mind of Levy herself. But taken together, her comment on the beauty of lemons or the end of a marriage or the pleasures of a city park form a portrait of the author herself as surely as any biography.

The Position of Spoons by Deborah Levy ($26; Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

Related: “Amazing” Cartoonist Jules Feiffer Shares His Favorite Books

31. Heir by Sabaa Tahir
32. Boy 2.0 by Tracey Baptiste
33. The Brightness Between Us by Eliot Schrefer

I’ve mixed in books pegged for the Young Adult market in a Romance roundup above. Good books are good books. And here we have three works that might just as readily slot into the sci-fi and fantasy section.

Sabaa Tahir is one of the blockbuster authors in the romantasy genre. So all you have to know is she’s got a new book out: Heir. Okay, here’s more. It’s a fantasy set in the same world as her An Ember in the Ashes series. You’ll find a new cast of characters, including an orphan, an outcast, a prince, and a killer. Oh and Good Morning, America named it the pick for their Young Adult book club.

Tracey Baptiste puts a fun spin on the superhero origin story with Boy 2.0. Coal is a foster kid entering yet another home. This one doesn’t seem so bad. But Coal isn’t exactly eager to share. Not when using chalk to create art on a sidewalk gets him shot at and chased by the police and he gets away…by turning invisible. WTF? Coal tries to figure out what the heck is going on and he needs to do it before the government or somebody tracks him down, because Coal isn’t alone.

And author Eliot Schrefer follows up his Stone Wall honored sci-fi romance The Darkness Outside Us with a sequel. It too spans thousands of years and the far reaches of space. Parents betray children, lovers are yanked apart by millenia and a found family might be our last, best hope. Ain’t that always the case?

Heir by Sabaa Tahir ($21.99; G.P. Putnam’s Books For Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Boy 2.0 by Tracey Baptiste ($16.99; Algonquin Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Brightness Between Us by Eliot Schrefer ($19.99; HarperCollins) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

34. Tegan and Sara: Crush by Tegan Quinn & Sara Quinn; illustrated by Tillie Walden
35. Monster Locker by Jorge Aguirre & Andrés Vera Martínez
36. Stella & Marigold by Annie Barrows; illustrated by Sophie Blackall
37. Stand Up! by Tori Sharp

Like I said, it’s a good week for books geared towards kids. Here are four more, all graphic novels.

Pop stars Tegan & Sara co-authored another book about their childhood, a graphic novel centering on the earth-shaking epicness of a crush.

Monster Locker shows Pablo Ortiz is out of luck when it comes to keeping his head down and getting through middle school. That’s not happening, not when his school locker is a portal to another realm and a pissed off Aztec goddess is on the rampage. Maybe his abuela can offer some tips? Yes, she can.

Annie Barrows and illustrator Sophie Blackall are the creators of the beloved Ivy+Bean series. Now they’re launching a new book with sisters Stella and Marigold, a seven and four year old who make everything fun. Prepare to be charmed.

Not everyone has a sibling as supportive as Stella or Marigold. And fitting in isn’t always easy. In Stand Up!, all you need is an awesome best friend. That’s Clay and Kyle, who can always make each other laugh. But life is getting very intense: they’re taking part in the school production of the musical Guys & Dolls, launching their very own podcast and Clay needs to find the nerve to ask Dania out to the 8th grade prom.

Tegan and Sara: Crush by Tegan Quinn & Sara Quinn; illustrated by Tillie Walden ($14.9; Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Monster Locker by Jorge Aguirre & Andrés Vera Martínez ($14.99; First Second) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Stella & Marigold by Annie Barrows; illustrated by Sophie Blackall ($15.99; Chronicle Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Stand Up! by Tori Sharp ($12.99; Little, Brown Ink) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

38. Big Gorilla by Anthony Browne
39. In Praise of Mystery by Ada Limón; illustrated by Peter Sís
40. Winter Light by Aaron Becker

The “opposites” genre is a biggie in picture books. I’d be hard pressed to detail exactly what makes one work so well compared to another. But when it does work, it works like a charm. The delightful Big Gorilla works perfectly, with illustrations shifting from “together” to “alone” and “happy” to “sad” and so on with engaging creatures bringing the concepts beautifully to life. Irresistible.

In Praise of Mystery is a picture book that’s going places. U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón was commissioned to write a poem that’s been engraved on the Europa Clipper spacecraft which is being launched this very month on a journey to Jupiter and its moons. Limón’s words combine with the luminous artwork of Peter Sís to capture the beauty of space and the wonder of life right here on earth.

Winter Light is a board book, those sturdy, thick picture books the very little can even do some teething on without too much damage. Usually, they’re durable versions of beloved books. In this case, artist Aaron Becker uses the possibilities of a board book to incorporate cut-outs into a sweetly fanciful celebration of winter and the holidays it contains, complete with ornaments and glimpses of sunlight or moonlight or the light in your bedroom or wherever you might be while reading it. A nice reminder that beauty is all around.

Big Gorilla by Anthony Browne ($17.99; Candlewick) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

In Praise of Mystery by Ada Limón; illustrated by Peter Sís ($18.99; Norton Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Winter Light by Aaron Becker ($17.99; Candlewick Studio) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

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