by Zana Fraillon, illustrated by Corinna Luyken

All day long we can hear
that Sea howl prowling wild
inside our brains and every part of us is straining
to feel it taste it twirl it whirl it swirl it
inside our body
again.

Houdini the octopus lives in an aquarium, but she misses her home in the wild Sea. She doesn’t like the visitors who bang on her tank. Or the way she can’t feel the sun on her skin or the wind rippling the water. It’s a dull existence for a creature with nine brains.

Then one day she meets someone who is different than the others. Juno’s busy brain buzzes with so many questions and thoughts that Houdini’s skin tingles with wonder.

But the singing of the Sea is growing stronger and harder to resist. Can Houdini make Juno understand what she needs before it’s too late?

by Isaac Blum

Jonny has always idolized his sister, Carmel. She is the person he relies on for guidance, insight, and pretty much everything else.

Trish has always followed her father’s lead. As a senator from Pennsylvania, he devotes his life to public service, and Trish is right there beside him, determined to make the world a better place.

But when the senator’s plane crashes in Jonny’s backyard—killing everyone on board and taking Carmel’s life as well—Jonny’s and Trish’s worlds are shattered in an instant.

As they navigate their own separate pain, Jonny and Trish each discover things about the people they thought they’d known best. And they find themselves wondering: Had they ever truly known the people they’d looked up to—and do they truly know themselves now that their loved ones are gone? Looking for answers, they turn toward each other for support, solace, and maybe something more.

In this powerful novel, award-winning author Isaac Blum explores what it means to grieve, to love, and to find yourself anew in the wreckage of personal tragedy. With his signature wit and compassion, he shares a story with one universal truth: that while grief may shape our paths, it doesn’t have to dictate our future.

by Manuia Heinrich

Eighteen-year-old Moe hears the sea’s prophetic thoughts—not just hears them…she feels them. That’s how she experienced her father’s death before he did and how she felt her mother’s relief when she abandoned Moe and her younger brother, Tao, months after.

So when the sea warns Moe that Tao will drown, she’s determined to get in fate’s way and secures them passage off their island home. But those plans are ruined when Tao’s girlfriend goes missing and Tao is found where she was last seen, with blood on his hands—and no memory of what happened.

Moe will do anything she can to clear her brother’s name, even if it means swallowing her pride and teaming up with her annoyingly clever school rival, Temanea. And even if it means relying on the sea’s prophecies. Because her dreaded gift may be the only way to save her brother—and uncover the truth behind the sickness poisoning her community.

by Vera Starbard

Emmett wants nothing more than to just stay in one place — finish school with the same friends, live in the same house, sleep in the same bed. His mother’s work means that they’re always moving around. But this time is different. This time, she’s promised not to move them anymore. But when she gets a once-in-a-lifetime job working as a Tlingit clan-house caretaker in Glacier Bay National Park, Emmett is forced to leave his familiar home (again) and enter a whole new world, a world full of trees, breathtaking mountains, snow bluffs, and giant lakes — lots of pups!

He doesn’t know much about his mother’s small hometown of Hoonah, Alaska, or about the Tlingit culture she was born into. And when they arrive, he meets Kaasteen, a cousin he’s never known and who seems to have infinitely more knowledge about their culture than he does. She’s lived in Alaska all her life, and her family has lived beside Glacier Bay National Park for generations. She talks to animals, has way more dogs than Emmett cares to count, and even speaks a language that he doesn’t understand. Could she be any more annoying?

Emmett would love to go back to his old friends and old home, and he’s happy to let Kaasteen hear about it. But when the two get into an argument that leads to Kaasteen getting lost in the park, Emmett will have to utilize the skills he’s learned from his family to save her. Will they be enough?

Holly Surplice

A classic in the making, The Horse Dreamer is a stunning, hopeful and poignant story about one girl and a horse who helps her rediscover the joy and life that surround us.

A creature of courage and hope.

A companion when you are lost.

A friend when you are alone.

The horse arrives in the storm, when Merryn needs him most, following the loss of her father. Sorrel is a dreamlike creature, seemingly made from the woods and the sea. Perhaps she wished him into existence. He becomes her friend and confidant. Throughout the summer and autumn, they ride and play, but as Christmas approaches, it will require all of Merryn’s newfound strength to help her mom and her sisters heal too. A stunning, hopeful, and poignant middle-grade story, written and illustrated by debut author Holly Surplice, The Horse Dreamer is a modern classic in the making.

by Lily Berlin Dodd

Hatching and then hiding the world’s last aerimander kit got Eva Alexander locked up in Byrdhaven, gave Myrnie Wilshins a bad reputation, and left Dusty St. Ichabod a fugitive on the streets of Porttown. With Rubi the baby aerimander missing, and all three of her beloved humans separated, it’s hard to imagine a path forward.

When fate leads Dusty back to the Lockwood Inn, he overhears the next stage of Eoin Parnassus’ sinister plans for aerimanders, and knows he must do everything in his power to stop him. But first Myrnie and Dusty need to break Eva out of Byrdhaven. Dodging strict nuns, WANTED posters, and an evil clown on the way, the trio manage to make it to the Northern Isles in search of Rubi. But it’s Rubi who finds them first, and introduces them to a secret society living in the mountains of the Northern Isles called the Unruled.

But as Eva and Dusty spend more time amongst the Unruled, secrets begin to emerge that could threaten the safety of them all. With Parnassus stopping at nothing to find them, who can Eva, Myrnie, and Dusty really trust? Filled with humor, heart, and high-stakes adventure, The First Flame explores the deep-rooted bonds forged by flame and friendship, and the lengths people will go to protect those that need it the most.

by Kate O’Shaughnessy

by Katie Kennedy, illustrated by Nick Thornborrow

In the 1820s, when Texas was still a part of Mexico, settlers from the United States began to pour in. They brought covered wagons, chickens, and cannons. They brought enslaved people. And they brought grand ideas about what they should get to do in their new land, which were basically: whatever they wanted.

The Mexican government wasn’t so sure about that. But as more and more settlers moved in, the big personalities, rash decisions, and grand proclamations piled up. When these new “Texians” decided to declare independence, fighters like William Travis, Jim Bowie, and David Crockett came forward to resist the proud General Antonio López de Santa Anna and his army. They would face off at an old church in San Antonio, known as the Alamo.

And I saw it all.

With a funny and surprising first-person narrator, Did You Hear What Happened at the Alamo? offers a brutally honest–and wildly entertaining–new account of the creation of Texas and the stories we tell about our history.

by Bethany Barton

You have a brain! And your brain might love screens a little too much.

What happens when screen time leaves us feeling tired, angry and frustrated — or even makes it harder to control our impulses? Just like our bodies can react to too much sugary junk food (sugar crash, anyone?) our brains can react to too much junk tech!

In Brain vs. Screen, Bethany Barton breaks down how dopamine affects our relationship with screens, what too much screen time does to our brains, and how to know when we’ve had enough.