Kids New Title Radar, Week of 5/6
Get ready for Rick Yancey‘s The 5th Wave to fulfill heavy expectations when it arrives next week. The first in a new series, it is one of many debuting from both well-known and first time authors with the arrival of the summer publishing season. Also look for the first collaboration between two bestselling YA authors, Andrea Cremer and David Levithan in a book young people in love, somewhat complicated by the fact that one of them is invisible.
All the titles highlighted here and more, are available on our downloadable spreadsheet, Kids New Title Radar, Week of 5.6.13
Picture Books
Yoo-Hoo, Ladybug! Mem Fox, Laura Ljungkvist, (S&S/ Beach Lane Books)
Mem Fox is the master of the early childhood read aloud (Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes). Her rhythmic rhyming text is just right for the seek-and –find pictures. (Hint: to find her in the spread below, consider which vehicle a ladybug would drive).
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If You Want to See a Whale Julie Fogliano, Erin Stead (Roaring Brook Press )
A quiet, playful and imaginative take from the award-winning team that brought us the 2012, And Then It’s Spring.
The Great Lollipop Caper, Dan Krall, (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
The whole family will enjoy this edgy silly fun with its cartoon-y graphic illustrations. The book trailer reflects the book’s spirit:
Beginning Readers
Pancakes, Pancakes, Eric Carle, (Simon Spotlight )
Rooster Is Off to See the World, Eric Carle, (Simon Spotlight)
Classic Carle titles return in their original format (we know and love them as picture books, but they were originally easy-to-read books). These are particularly welcome as interesting low-level readers are the most difficult to find. Newly fluent kids eat them up like popcorn.
Chapter Book
Sugar, Jewell Parker Rhodes, (Hachette/Little, Brown BYR)
A gripping historic fiction tale of friendship set on a Southern sugar plantation from the author of the Coretta Scott King honor, Ninth Ward,
Middle Grade
Doll Bones, Holly Black, Eliza Wheeler (S&S/McElderry;Listening Library:
Black returns to her Spiderwick audience with this gripping creepy middle grade horror tale. Do not read before bedtime. You have been warned.
Young Adult
The Lucy Variations , Sara Zarr (Hachette/Little, Brown BYR)
Zarr’s is always the first galley I read from the Little, Brown galley pile. I can’t say it better than Kirkus, in a starred review, “What makes Lucy’s story especially appealing is the very realistic way this ‘entitled brat’ (as grandfather called her) acts out as she experiments with new identities. … The combination of sympathetic main character and unusual social and cultural world makes this satisfying coming-of-age story stand out.”
The 5th Wave, Rick Yancey, (Penguin/Putnam)
Arriving with a major promotional campaign from Penguin, this cross between King’s The Stand and Hunger Games is s a roller coaster ride. My heart was in my throat the entire read. Entertainment Weekly featured the book trailer, with the headline, “Is this the Next Big Thing?” The answer is “Yes.”
Reboot, Amy Tintera, (HarperTeen)
There’s been enthusiasm on YA GalleyChat for this new addition to the dystopian genre, readers calling it “Dark and twist-y, with well rounded characters.” The only prepub review, from Kirkus, is equally enthusiastic, characterizing it as a “compulsively readable science-fiction debut [that] will appeal widely… Superb concepts and plotting will hook readers from the start… [with] plenty [for] those who appreciate romance.”