April showers bring….a storm of brand new Middle Grade Releases. Take a look at the books coming your way this month.
A Potion, a Powder, a Little Bit of Magic
Or, Like Lightning in an Umbrella Storm
by Philip C. Stead
A plucky young goatkeeper sets out on a misadventurous rescue mission in this uproarious debut novel with premium hardcover features, perfect for fans of Kate DiCamillo and Lemony Snicket.
In a kingdom ruled by a capricious king, the castle rests on the backs of twenty-four goats, and the welfare of those goats rests on the back of a girl called Bernadette. So when one goat escapes, it’s up to her—with the help of a very forgetful wizard and a Boat That Does Not Grant Wishes—to bring it back safely.
Her task may be straightforward, but this book is anything but. Like a swirling herd of restless goats, the chapters are all out of order. The ending may prove to have been the beginning all along. All the while, the author of Bernadette’s saga—a character himself—hurries to write her a resolution, with very mixed results. And if you’re feeling lost, don’t worry; the story has twenty-four morals, of varying advisability, to edify you along the way.
Award-winning picture book author and illustrator Philip Stead makes a confident debut as a novelist in this laugh-out-loud, one-of-a-kind illustrated tale, chock-full of running gags, broken fourth walls, and underdog triumph.
Are Octopuses from Another World? Discover the Science Behind Teuthology
By Rosie Rowntree (Author) and Valeria Abatzoglu (Illustrated by)
It’s a big question–are octopuses from another world? These animals and their incredible, unique features help reveal fascinating facts about the animal kingdom.
Discover how teuthologists study octopuses and learn about . . .
- The incredible adaptations that let octopuses thrive in the world’s harshest conditions
- How octopuses can edit their own genes!
- Why these tentacled animals need nine brains and three hearts
- Incredible ways octopuses interact with the natural world around them . . . and so much more!
Beautifully bound with gorgeous illustrations, The Big Questions Answered is more than just a series of books–it’s a complete resource for kids, teachers, and parents to collect. Start a lifelong interest in science–it can change the world!
The Genie Game by Jordan Ifueko
Harriet the Spy meets Black Mirror in The Genie Game, the start of a thrilling new middle-grade series from Jordan Ifueko, author of the New York Times bestselling fantasy Raybearer.
Valentine Adesanya has two missions: 1) become a Feared and Fabulous Film Director and 2) find her missing big sister, Mango. She suspects The Trio Trust, a collection of creepy mega-companies that now rule the United States, made Mango disappear.
A text lures Valentine to a magical boba shop, which comes to life and tells Valentine she is now a GENIE: a member of the General Employee Network of Immortal Engineers, an underground workforce run by the Trio Trust. Genies may only leave their bottles to grant the wishes of mortals. With each granted wish, The Trio Trust gains more magic, and so the Trio hosts a glamorous wish-granting competition, rewarding top players with fabulous prizes. The twist?
The greedy Trio forbids genies from using magic. Genies must grant wishes using nothing but smarts, luck, and elbow grease.
To free her sister Mango and escape the Genie Game, Valentine must score more wish-granting points than any other Genie. But how did the Trio Trust get so powerful in the first place? Why is a magical monster stomping through her home city of Gloss Angeles?
And why does the Trio Trust seem so afraid of 13-year-old Valentine Adesanya?
Lightfall: A Place Between by Tim Probert 
In the fourth installment of the award-winning, critically acclaimed Lightfall series, Bea, Cad, and their friends continue their quest to restore light on their dark world. Perfect for fans of Amulet and Avatar, this next book dives deeper into the magical world of Irpa, where ancient secrets and adventures abound.
After surviving a shipwreck on the Fuerre Sea, Cad washes ashore on the shores of Pellidyr. There, he searches for Lorgon, the Water Spirit, but instead finds the other spirits of Irpa who question if their planet can be saved. One of them offers to help Cad and transports him to A Place Between, a strange liminal realm between the living and the dead, where Cad works to uncover the reason Lorgon summoned them to Pellidyr in the first place.
Meanwhile, Bea awakens within the walls of the capital city. While Pellidyr’s leader has heard the tales of Bea’s derring-do and believes her to be a hero with all the answers, she’s never felt more uncertain about the future. What she does know is that she can’t accomplish anything without her crew. When Bea’s escape plan also brings her to A Place Between, she makes a shocking discovery that changes her understanding of everything that came before her…and what could soon follow.
Auntie Q’s Golden Claws Nail Salon by Van Hoang
A funny and heartwarming middle grade novel about first jobs and second chances where one girl’s summer punishment becomes a mission to save a struggling nail salon and bring her family together—perfect for fans of Front Desk and Millionaires for the Month.
Twelve-year-old Domi Pham had the perfect summer planned: lounging by the pool, making art with her best friend, and celebrating her escape from seventh grade. But one costly mistake puts her dream summer on hold. Instead, she finds herself deep in debt to her parents, and shipped off to New Mexico to work at her Auntie Q’s nail salon for the next three months.
At first, Domi is miserable—surrounded by nosy aunties, constant nail polish fumes, and endless work. But as she gets to know Auntie Q and the people in the salon, she starts to see their struggles and resilience in a new light. When she discovers that the salon is at risk of closing, Domi puts her creativity and determination to the test to help save it.
Dawn on the Coast: A Graphic Novel (The Baby-sitters Club #19) by Arley Nopra (Adapted by), Arley Nopra (Illustrated by), Ann M. Martin (Author)
A Baby-sitters Club graphic novel adapted and illustrated by New York Times bestselling cartoonist Arley Nopra!
Dawn can’t wait for her trip to California. Aside from all the sun and fun, it’s her first visit since her brother, Jeff, moved back to live with their dad. California is better than Dawn ever remembered it. The beaches are beautiful, the local theme park is a blast, and Dawn is enjoying all her favorite foods. Plus, Dawn’s best friend, Sunny, has even started her own baby-sitting club! Things are going so well that Dawn begins to wonder if she might want to stay in California with her dad and Jeff.
Dawn is a California girl at heart, but could she really leave Stoneybrook — and her mom and The Baby-sitters Club — for good?
Laleh and the Language of the Birds by Perin Gurel (Author), Marjane Searl (Contributions by)
Thirteen-year-old Laleh Lateef’s world shatters when her ornithologist father vanishes from the bird sanctuary they called home. She’s forced to live with her grouchy uncle, quiet aunt, and rebellious cousin Ivy, who delights in calling her “Bird Nerd.” Life feels hopeless-until two crow brothers, Gold and Silver, begin delivering strange gifts.
When the gifts fit together into a magical device that lets Laleh talk to birds, she uncovers a breathtaking secret: Her father’s disappearance is part of a larger menace haunting the sanctuary. And her uncle is the likely culprit.
With the sanctuary and its feathered residents in danger, Laleh and Ivy must team up-whether they like it or not-and follow the clues through an ancient Middle Eastern legend known as The Language of the Birds. Their destination: Avesia, the mythical sky realm of perfect bird habitats.
The catch? No one has ever reached it without wings.
Rialto by Kate Milford
A standalone mystery from a New York Times bestselling, Edgar Award-winning author set in a contemporary world tinged with magic, in which two sisters spend summer vacation in a small town in the shadows of abandoned amusement park that is not what it seems.
Ivy and Dahlia Vicar know this summer’s trip to visit friends in Rialto, Missouri, is going to be different from their usual family vacations.
Twelve-year-old Dahlia, an artist who lives with anxiety, is looking forward to something new. Rialto, after all, has its own abandoned theme park! But mystery-loving, fourteen-year-old Ivy is struggling with how to be the right kind of big sister to Dahlia, and longs for the way things—especially vacations—were when they were younger.
In Rialto, it quickly becomes clear that this vacation will also be different in totally unexpected ways. For one thing, the town stands in the middle of an improbable forest that, according to local legend, swallowed it overnight decades before. Then there are Dahlia’s even more improbable sightings of impossible creatures—a giraffe with antlers and a leopard with wings. And there’s their new friend Remy, whose family inherited the house they’re all staying in from an aunt who left bequests for local friends that Remy must personally distribute.
When he enlists Ivy and Dahlia to help deliver these gifts, they find themselves drawn into a mystery going back to the time when Rialto Park was still open. And it begins to seem that, if they are going to help Remy solve it, they will have to find a way to believe in magic.
Themes of friendship, family, mental health, and resilience are expertly woven through this magical, richly imagined story of two sisters and an enigmatic town that transforms everyone who visits it.
Forbidden Mountain by Brandon Mull
CHOOSE YOUR GUARDIAN. CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Fablehaven and Beyonders series comes an epic new fantasy set in a world where every child bonds with a spiritual guide—some promising greatness and glory, while others, destruction and death.
Every Anoran child dreams of the day they will enter the sacred bonding hut and match with a guardian—a spiritual guide who grants magically enhanced abilities. A lucky few will bond with Advocates, who promise greatness and glory. Others will be tempted by forbidden offers from the Accursed—dangerous spirits who bring nothing but destruction and a penalty of death to any Anoran who chooses them. But when Mako discovers that the worst of these agents of chaos has returned to spread an ancient evil through the empire, he faces an unthinkable choice: Will he bond with one of the Accursed to gain the power to stop another?
Halfway across the empire, Arden has no guardian and no prospects of adventure…until she infiltrates an underground criminal network to find her missing friend. Relying on her knack for sensing the truth through even the smoothest lies, Arden finds herself at the center of a sinister conspiracy that runs much deeper than she ever imagined.
Soon Mako’s and Arden’s fates collide, and together they must face bandit armies, dark secrets, and untold dangers to fight an enemy who could destroy all they’ve ever known.
Life on the Moon by Matthew Swanson (Author) and Robbi Behr (Illustrated by)
The extraordinary tale of a curious boy sent to live on the moon, the wondrous discoveries he makes, and the courage it takes to speak a truth no one wants to believe.
The first rule of life on the moon is: There is no life on the moon.
The second rule is: Don’t ask questions.
12-year-old Leo gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to join the very first Moon colony. He’s excited to be part of the top-secret mission, but things quickly go off the rails. Right after his family lands on the Moon, Leo’s dad is called off on an urgent mission from which he never returns. The authorities claim the mission never existed, and Leo’s dad is accused of desertion.
Leo goes looking for his dad and discovers far more than he bargained for. Everyone in the colony insists there’s NO life on the Moon. But Leo’s explorations reveal a landscape brimming with extraordinary creatures—with baffling behaviors and beliefs.
Leo’s big question is: why keep Moon life a secret? Who stands to gain? And how can he find a way to save his new Moon friends before the lie becomes a reality?
See anything you can’t wait to add to your Spring and Summer To Read Pile? Let us know in the comments below.
Fleur’s short stories have appeared in the MWA anthology Super-Puzzletastic Mysteries, SCBWI’s The Haunted States of America (a story representing Colorado). How to Teach Yourself to Swim, originally published in Dark Yonder, was chosen for The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2024. Fleur’s work has been nominated for the Agatha and Anthony Award and has won the Colorado Book Award and Colorado Authors League Book Award, among others.
For twelve-year-old Chandni, 1999 is the year everything must be perfect.
Disappeared. Vanished. Vamoosed.
Nathan Savage has always been fascinated by anything that moves; he sees movement others don’t notice. But what he sees now out his living room window sets off major alarm bells—the massive landfill across the road is shifting and could be heading toward a catastrophic landslide.
Thirteen-year-old Lola is determined to honor her perfect twin sister, who died in an accident Lola can’t forgive herself for. To make things right, she’s on a mission to complete their Perfect Pairs Collection, but one mistake lands her in serious trouble. Now, instead of facing reform school, Lola must spend August with her eccentric, agoraphobic Uncle Milo in his crumbling mansion on the Connecticut River.
Finn is more of a video games and pizza guy than a hiking guy. So when his class takes a field trip to the Alps, he and his assigned partner Milo take a shortcut back to the hotel. On the way, they stumble upon an egg buried in ice and decide to take it with them.
Twelve-year-old Blanca of Castile is the granddaughter of Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, once the wife of both the king of France and the king of England. When Eleanor comes to Castile to select the girl who will marry the prince of France, all expect her to pick Blanca’s older sister. But, to everyone’s surprise, it’s Blanca she chooses to be the princess.
Rose, her family, and the Métis people have lived on the land for generations. She spends afternoons tracking rabbits and gathering roots with her best friend and her little sister. She loves to watch the ferry arrive, delivering goods and news to their remote community.
Thirteen-year-old Sunny Whitlock has alopecia, an autoimmune condition that’s made her lose her hair, and she’s desperate to be seen as more than just the bald kid. But how? By setting an epic goal: win her school’s junkbot club competition. And if she’s #1, then other kids will have to see beyond her disease … and she’ll finally fit in.
Sprout isn’t what you would call a typical middle schooler (though who is typical in middle school?). But Sprout is unusual not because she rarely leaves the house (though she doesn’t). Not because she is abnormally tall (though she is). Not even because her name is Sprout and her mother works as a florist (actually that one is less unusual and more entirely her mom’s fault). Instead, Sprout is unique because of the tree-like antlers that bloom from her head, her plantlers if you will.
Fil Furetto is a terrible criminal. He can’t pick a lock or crack a safe, and he’s hardly menacing. The only things he’s good at are cooking and watching over the arena his crime family calls home. But then he stumbles upon a mysterious message: Someone is planning to sabotage the frontrunner at the arena’s next big event, The Baskerville Dog Show. Fil’s Uncle Sal is furious—no one does nefarious acts under the Furettos’ roof without his say so!—and tasks Fil with protecting the defenseless dog.
