New Book Tuesday

Read on to hear about some amazing new books for children and teens hitting shelves on October 1st.

This third book by the team that created the New York Times bestselling How to Read a Book and How to Write a Poem celebrates the magic of listening to the song that echoes inside you, and letting your music ring out.

Hush.

Now, turn up your ears

and listen

to the concert happening

all around you.

As this quiet overture builds to a full symphony, Newbery Medalist Kwame Alexander and singer-songwriter Randy Preston conduct a melody of a poem. Colorful notes are played by Caldecott Honoree Melissa Sweet’s distinctive artwork.

Surrounded by nature’s chorus and guided by words that vibrate like thunder, let the groove lead you on, until you can’t help but sing out from your soul!

How to Read a Book was an American Library Association Notable Book and was named a best book of the year by School Library Journal, Kirkus, and The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. How to Write a Poem was a New York Times Best Illustrated Book and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year.


"I really, really love this story." Jon Klassen

Lemony Snicket meets Grimms' fairy tales in an outrageously original picture book debut by BAFTA Award–winning and Oscar-nominated animation director Mikey Please. In The Café at the Edge of the Woods, an aspiring chef opens a café beside an enchanted forest and discovers locals with a most peculiar palette.

Rene and Glumfoot are ready to serve Very Fine Cuisine at the Café at the Edge of the Woods. But when their first customer, an ogre, demands pickled bats and battered mice, Rene is ready to give up! She can't possibly serve such rubbish. Or can she?

With a little bit of compromise, perhaps she can satisfy her customer and still serve the most delicious grub.

Full of humor, unlikely friendship, themes of teamwork, and unexpected surprises, this charming and hilarious picture book is a winning recipe for readers who loved A Spoonful of Frogs by Casey Lyall, The Dark by Lemony Snicket, The Skull by Jon Klassen, and any fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm!


Aggie and Jac might be twin sisters, but lately they haven’t felt the same about anything. While Jac is excited about their move to Los Angeles and a chance to seem cool and mysterious, Aggie is worried her new locker won’t open, that Jac could make new friends without her, and that her friends from home will move on, leaving her all alone.

When the first day at school ends with an invite to join the neighborhood softball team, Aggie jumps at the chance to meet the other girls, even if she has to drag along Jac, whose own interest in the softball team might have more to do with the captain’s older brother…

Aggie is relieved to learn that each girl is dealing with their own problems and becomes excited at the opportunity to create strong friendships. But as Jac and Aggie grow into different people, will they be able to hold on to their sisterhood? For life throws the biggest curveball of all: growing up.


New York Times bestselling author Janae Marks delivers a stunningly crafted and twisty mystery about the tests of friendships that examines what matters most when everything can change in a split second—perfect for fans of Rebecca Stead and Anne Ursu.

That clock can’t be right. When Elise wakes up the morning after her birthday celebration, she’s surprised to find herself in her bedroom. Last she can remember, she had fallen asleep next to her best friends at her slumber party in her basement, and it was October. But now she’s alone, and her phone says it’s April 8. Elise doesn’t understand. How could she have woken up six months later?

No one else is acting like anything strange has happened, yet Elise can't remember the last half year. To make matters worse, her friends refuse to talk to her and Elise doesn't know why. She also has no idea how she got signed up for photography club or why her former best friend, Cora, is talking to her again. Is it a memory problem? Could it be magic? Every day that passes takes Elise further from the world she knew. Thankfully, Elise has Cora to lean on in this new reality, and the two come together to investigate why Elise woke up in the future—and, more important, how to get her back to her past and away from this nightmare.


From J. A. White, the acclaimed author of Nightbooks, comes another spine-chilling stand-alone middle grade horror novel about a pair of friends who discover a strange creature in a cave that can make any wish come true—including bringing the dead back to life.

In the darkness, something opened its eyes.

The town of Haywood, New Jersey, has a secret. A wish monster.

Violet Park discovered its cave by accident, and the wish monster granted her deepest desire by bringing her dog Midnight back to life. It even erased everyone’s memory of his death. Life was perfect. But then an unremarkable boy named Hudson Causeway somehow remembered Midnight had died. That scared Violet. What if he ruined everything? Even worse, what if the wish monster wasn’t as innocent as it seemed?

Deep down, Violet knew: No wishes are made without consequences, and every monster needs to be fed.


They Both Die at the End meets Gravity in this mind-bending sci-fi mystery and tender love story about two boys aboard a spaceship sent on a rescue mission, from two-time National Book Award finalist Eliot Schrefer. Stonewall Honor Award winner!

Two boys, alone in space. Sworn enemies sent on the same rescue mission.

Ambrose wakes up on the Coordinated Endeavor with no memory of a launch. There’s more that doesn’t add up: evidence indicates strangers have been on board, the ship’s operating system is voiced by his mother, and his handsome, brooding shipmate has barricaded himself away. But nothing will stop Ambrose from making his mission succeed—not when he’s rescuing his own sister.

In order to survive the ship’s secrets, Ambrose and Kodiak will need to work together and learn to trust each other . . . especially once they discover what they are truly up against. Love might be the only way to survive.

* Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best Books of the Year * A Booklist Editor's Choice of the Year * A BCCB Blue Ribbon Book of the Year * A YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults & Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults Book of the Year *


This stunning Greek mythology–inspired sapphic fantasy blends the story of Eros and Psyche with legends of the enthralling, vampiric empousa—from the New York Times bestselling author of Lies We Sing to the Sea!

Desire binds them. Hunger compels them. Love will set them free. . . .

On the island of Zakynthos, nothing is more powerful than Desire—love itself, bottled and sold to the highest bidder by Leandros, a power-hungry descendant of the god Eros.

Eirene and her beloved twin sister, Phoebe, have always managed to escape Desire’s thrall—until Leandros’s wife dies mysteriously and he sets his sights on Phoebe. Determined to keep her sister safe, Eirene strikes a bargain with Leandros: If she can complete the four elaborate tasks he sets her, he will find another bride. But it soon becomes clear that the tasks are part of something bigger; something related to Desire and Lamia, the strange, neglected daughter Leandros keeps locked away.

Lamia knows her father hides her for her own protection, though as she and Eirene grow closer, she finds herself longing for the outside world. But the price of freedom is high, and with something deadly—something hungry—stalking the night, that price must be paid in blood. . . .