Holiday House and Pixel + Ink Showcase: Fall 2023

Well, summer went by way too quickly, didn’t it? I was cruising through Mount TBR, making some real progress, then The Curse of July happened, and all kinds of things went screwy for me. I flipped my calendar when July ended, thinking good riddance, only to learn that it was time for The Curse of July (Now Featuring August!) was here. But now it’s September, and sure, I just started a new job, and sure, my son just started senior year, but hey, things must somehow at least settle into an expected routine and afford me plenty of time to read, right? RIGHT?! Cross your fingers for no more broken pipes, nests of bees, or emergency vet visits!

For all of your collection development and TBR needs, please enjoy some new titles from Holiday House and Pixel + Ink. All descriptions are from the publisher.

Last Exit to Feral by Mark Fearing (ISBN-13: 9780823448661 Publisher: Holiday House Publication date: 09/05/2023, Ages 8-12)

Can two girls get to the bottom of their small town’s secrets, or will they become another ghost story? Find out in the second entry of this freakily fun graphic novel series!

Feral is littered with secrets, mysteries, and unexplained disappearances. The town has always been weird… and most residents just accept that.

But intrepid young investigators Freya and Monica are sure that Feral is getting weirder. Kids are disappearing more and more, signs of the supernatural are surfacing in new places, and the lights went on in the abandoned Messner Mansion. Even though they know they shouldn’t, the girls can’t resist the temptation to find out what’s inside.

The adventures from Welcome to Feral continue as they descend into the deep, dark passages hidden below the haunted town. If they aren’t careful, they might become the town’s next unsolved mystery!

With vibrant art, clever humor, and plenty of thrills, animator Mark Fearing conjures a fearsome saga out of small-town terrors.

I Am Kavi by Thushanthi Ponweera (ISBN-13: 9780823453658 Publisher: Holiday House Publication date: 09/19/2023, Ages 8-12)

Caught between two worlds—a poverty-stricken village and a fancy big-city school—a young Sri Lankan girl must decide who she really is and where she really belongs.

1998, Colombo. The Sri Lankan Civil War is raging, but everyday life must go on. At Kavi’s school, her friends talk about the weekly Top 40, the Backstreet Boys, Shahrukh Khan, Leo & Kate… and who died—or didn’t—in the latest bombing. But Kavi is afraid of something even scarier than war. She fears that if her friends discover her secret—that she is not who she is pretending to be—they’ll stop talking to her.

I want to be friends with these / happy, / fearless, / girls / who look like they / belong.
So I could also be / happy, / fearless, / and maybe even / belong.

Kavi’s scholarship to her elite new school was supposed to be everything she ever wanted, but as she tries to find some semblance of normalcy in a country on fire, nothing is going according to plan. In an effort to fit in with her wealthy, glittering, and self-assured new classmates, Kavi begins telling lies, trading her old life—where she’s a poor girl whose mother has chosen a new husband over her daughter—for a new one, where she’s rich, loved, and wanted. But how long can you pretend to be someone else?

This dazzling novel-in-verse comes from an astonishing new talent who lived through the civil war herself. Perfect for fans of Jamine Warga, Supriya Kelkar, and Rajani LaRocca, I Am Kavi centers a powerful South Asian voice, and stars an unforgettable heroine each and every one of us can relate to.

Plotting the Stars 2: Seagarden by Michelle A. Barry (ISBN-13: 9781645951292 Publisher: Pixel+Ink Publication date: 10/03/2023, Ages 10-12)

Forced to hide her new-found magic or risk imprisonment or worse, Myra enrolls in an interplanetary academy exchange program to dig up more about the government’s many conspiracies, but instead uproots even darker secrets that could drown everything she’s grown to trust. The second book in the searing STEAM-inspired Plotting the Stars middle grade series perfect for fans of The City of Ember and Divergent.

Revolution is watered with sweat and tears.

As Myra Hodger begins her second year at the elite Scientific Lunar Academy of Magic, she should be happy. Her days of faking Number Whisperer magic are over, and she has friends she can trust with the secret of her Botan abilities. But that doesn’t mean she’s through pretending to be someone she’s not. Mourning Bernie and the incredible Moongarden they cultivated together, she feels like she’s losing herself just when she found the thing that made her feel whole. She’s given a seed of hope when she runs into a teen Rep in the hallway who looks eerily familiar. But irritable Bernard, controlled by his Rep implant, is nothing like her beloved Bernie.

With the continuing interplanetary food crisis conspiracy, an anonymous tip about a community of free Reps who might be able to help save Bernard, and the hunt for more information about what really happened to the banished Botans, all routes seem to point to Venus, and an exchange program with the Vesuvian Academy of Magical Arts might provide Myra and her friends the cover they need to unearth the answers they seek.

Or it might widen the cracks already forming among them, releasing a flood of consequences that could wash away all they’ve worked so hard to grow.

The second book in the Plotting the Stars series, Seagarden blossoms with unexpected twists and heartbreaking revelations, underpinned by climate change warnings and a determination to fight against the status quo.

The Fall of Whit Rivera by Crystal Maldonado (ISBN-13: 9780823452361 Publisher: Holiday House Publication date: 10/10/2023, Ages 14-17)

Could you plan the Fall Formal with your (hot) nemesis? Whit Rivera is about to find out.

Frenemies Whit and Zay have been at odds for years (ever since he broke up with her in, like, the most embarrassing way imaginable), so when they’re forced to organize the fall formal together, it’s a literal disaster. Sparks fly as Whitney—type-A, passionate, a perfectionist, and a certified sweater-weather fanatic—butts heads with Zay, a dry, relaxed skater boy who takes everything in stride. But not all of those sparks are bad. . . .

Has their feud been a big misunderstanding all along?

Blisteringly funny and profoundly well-observed, The Fall of Whit Rivera is a snug and cozy autumn romcom that also tackles weightier topics like PCOS, chronic illness, sexuality, fatphobia, Latine identity, and class. Funny, honest, insightful, romantic, and poignant, it is classic Crystal Maldonado—and it will have her legion of fans absolutely swooning.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

The Winterton Deception 1: Final Word by Janet Sumner Johnson (ISBN-13: 9781645951964 Publisher: Pixel+Ink Publication date: 10/24/2023, Ages 8-12)

In this twisty middle grade mystery for fans of Knives Out, The Inheritance Game, and The Westing Game, thirteen-year-old twins Hope and Gordon enter a spelling bee in a last-ditch effort to save their family from financial ruin, only to find themselves in a cut-throat competition to uncover a fortune and dark secrets about the wealthy relations they’ve never known.

Hope Smith can’t stand rich people—the dictionary magnate family the Wintertons most of all. Not since she and her twin brother, Gordon, learned that their dad was one. So when Gordon enters the family into the Winterton’s charity spelling bee, Hope wants nothing to do with it. But with their mom losing her job and the family facing eviction from the motel where they live, they desperately need the money, and it looks like Hope doesn’t have much of a choice.

After winning the preliminary round, the Smiths are whisked to Winterton Chalet to compete in the official Winterton Bee against their long-lost relatives. Hope wants to get in and out, beat the snobbish family at their own game, and never see them again. But deceased matriarch Jane Winterton had other plans for this final family showdown. Before her death, she set up a clue hunt throughout the manor—an alternate way for Hope and Gordon to get the money that could change their lives.

Still, others are on the trail, too. With tensions at an all-time high, a fortune at stake, and long-simmering family secrets about to boil to the surface, anything could happen.

A tense, clever clue hunt unafraid to tackle the challenges and secrets often kept behind closed doors, Final Word is a gripping series starter sure to satisfy even the most voracious armchair detectives.

Black Sand Beach 4: Where Do Monsters Come From? by Richard Fairgray (ISBN-13: 9781645950943 Publisher: Pixel+Ink Publication date: 11/07/2023, Ages 8-12)

As the kids struggle to rescue Andy from the Darkness, more secrets from Black Sand Beach past—and present—are revealed in the fourth installment of the dark and creepy Black Sand Beach graphic novel series. Perfect for fans of Gravity Falls, Rickety Stitch, and Fake Blood.

Andy’s stuck in the Darkness, but he’s not alone. Harry, aka Dash from the previous summer, is there, too, showing Andy more terrors in the world without light.

Meanwhile, Dash, Lily, and Eleanor are desperately trying to figure out how to save Andy. They get help from an unexpected source—Eleanor and Andy’s odd and silent father. Frederick leads the kids into the horrific woods of Black Sand Beach, where they must battle the Not Cow monsters.

But Andy can only be saved by joining the two worlds of dark and light—and the horror that brings.

Drag and Rex 1: Forever Friends by Susan Lubner, Blythe Russo (Illustrator) (ISBN-13: 9781645951155 Publisher: Pixel+Ink Publication date: 11/07/2023, Ages 6-8)

Meet Drag and Rex, the sweet, silly best friends who find joy and adventure in the simplest places in this charming and cheery modern Frog and Toad.

Drag is a dreamy, literal, impulsive, (and sometimes a little bit scatter-brained) dragon. Rex is a dapper, practical, methodical (and sometimes a little bit stuffy) T.rex. The two may have their differences, but they are both gentle and caring, and the best friends. Forever friends.

Whether it’s deciding what to have for breakfast, working through those tricky zippers, buckles, and buttons to bundle up tight, how to make the best of a snowy day, or how to face down something scary, through patience, cooperation, and a good dose of silliness and humor, these buddies always figure out how to push through their challenges. Together.

Forever Friends features three stories told in short chapters, accompanied by bright, joy-filled full color illustrations, allowing developing readers to gain confidence and a sense of accomplishment as they follow the adventures of their new forever friends.

The Final Goal by Mary Amato (ISBN-13: 9780823449132 Publisher: Holiday House Publication date: 11/14/2023, Ages 8-12)

In this thrilling conclusion to the Star Striker series, Albert and his team face the final round of the interplanetary soccer tournament—but with the Zeenods’ freedom on the line, it’s no game.

As Albert and the Zeenods prepare for their final games in the interplanetary soccer tournament, Albert knows he should feel like he’s already won. He loves soccer, and he and his teammates have survived constant danger. But instead, it’s more like the ground is falling out from under him—literally.

In order to win, Albert must face his fear of drowning when he learns the game takes place on a hostile planet where fissures split the field wide open. But in order to expose the Tev’s war crimes, he’ll have to take on trouble much deeper than any underground river . . . all with Zeenod enemies still trying to kill him.

Will Albert and his friends be able to land a score against a team—and empire—that has taken everything from them? Or will everyone he cares about wind up the biggest losers in the galaxy?

Action-packed, yet filled with humor and heart, the final book of Mary Amato’s Star Striker series combines a sci-fi sports story with powerful social justice themes for a satisfying, high-stakes conclusion.

Filed under: new books