I worked on Sunday and it was slow, and I made the mistake of texting Elizabeth to ask if she had a project for the three of us at work. She did. It was a nightmare. She said very casually, “Why not re-organize the Gift and Fun cases?” We all blanched. We wrongly, perhaps, think of those cases and anything to do with sidelines, as Elizabeth’s bailiwick. She has expressed the wish that others would help out here. The problem is she just does them so well that we all marvel at how she does it.
I have no skill for display. I often joke that if it weren’t for Elizabeth, the store would still have the display we opened with 16 years ago.

Instead of balking at the suggestion, PJ, David, and I set about to try to make at least one case better. We stood in front of the case for several long minutes before PJ said she was scared of the sidelines. I concurred, but tried to keep up a good front.
Sidelines are great. They sell well, but only they’re displayed the right way. A store can have the best sidelines around, and if no one can see them properly, they just won’t sell. Most people don’t come in with the idea of buying a sideline. They come in wanting a book, see a toy, card or game, and then leave with a book and a game. Sidelines need to be seen, and often, played with, so there needs to be room for them. I stand in front of the sideline case and I all see are things that need to be shelved according to height requirements. Elizabeth sees that same case and in three hours, it’s a thing of beauty that’s earning far more than it did yesterday.
We moved a few things around until PJ had the organizational brainstorm of grouping the shelves by category. Once we hit upon that and could see how it could work, we were on fire. We emptied two shelves, something I would never do because of the mess, and regrouped. It was working. I would have never done it that way, but PJ was right. The top shelf was done and I texted a picture of it to Elizabeth. We got an enthusiastic YES to our question of do you like it? Then we changed two things and sent a new text. She hated it. It went like this for a while before everyone was happy with the top shelf.
The others are mostly done, but not signed off on. David has just started working for us and he said, “Well, we did it.”
PJ and I smiled at each other because we both knew full well that whole case would be redone by Elizabeth and it would be a marvel.

Every day, booksellers go out on a limb and recommend books. Often we never hear back about the success, or failure of those recommendations. The other day, I was cleaning out a massive pile of mail and came across a postcard that a customer sent recently.
She came in a few days before Easter seeking a book that would “distract me from my in-laws for the whole weekend.” I knew this customer well enough that I felt comfortable suggesting the 1,312 page classic Count of Monte Cristo. She looked askance and I could almost hear her thinking: are you crazy? I told her about the store and she reluctantly left with the book. I told her that if she gave it a chance, she’d be riveted.
The postcard was addressed: To the Books Goddesses of the Flying Pig. And it’s clear she loved it. This card now adorns my fridge door to remind me that there is a real joy in connecting someone with a book they’d never had read or thought of for themselves. And to save a whole weekend for someone is always going to be a gift.
That she was moved enough to write me is my gift.

Every once in a while as I’m shelving new books, I think about what books will become new classics. We all know not every new book that is published is great, in fact it seems like half the books I buy won’t make it three seasons before they’re declared out of print. But every now and again a book comes along and you just know it’s going to be around forever.
There are books that resonate with readers for a variety of reasons; I’ve been wondering what makes a classic. Is it just great writing? Or is it a book that captured a generation of readers? Is a story that works for any era?
I look back on the books I loved as a kid: Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, The Great Brain, Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary, Maurice Sendak and the Little Bear series, almost every Dr. Seuss book, and I could go on. These were great books and most could arguably be classics. What makes them work for me is the story holds up after repeated readings and the scrutiny that a close reading can bring.
I see kids reading dystopian novels and wonder if any of these are destined to be classics. Sometimes, there can be so many entries in a genre that the genre itself starts to feel diluted. Because there are so many, you run the risk of saying,  “It’s a great dystopian book,” sort how we treated vampire books two years ago; they’ve almost ghettoized themselves. There is a glut of YA novels out there where the Mom is gone, the Dad is doing his alcoholic best and the anorexic sister pulls you out of the story and the narrator sounds like a clever, slightly smart-alecky kid who’s doing his or her best in the face of such family travails. While these books might be passing fun to read, they don’t stick with you; nothing is remembered a month after you’ve read the book. I once read an entire Gossip Girl book on a plane to Kentucky. I thoroughly enjoyed the read, but when my father asked me at baggage claim if I’d read anything on the plane down, I couldn’t remember a single fact about the book. A classic book fuels you when you think about it. You remember things about it because it stays with you.
And what of picture books? There are the books that people clamor for, but often these feel like “what’s hot now.” It’s hard to know what’s driving picture book sales sometimes. Often it’s nostalgia and some of the illustrators now haven’t been around long enough for kids who read them, to be buying them for their own kids. David Wiesner, Jerry Pinkney, Chris Van Allsburg all seem destined to have several books land in the classics. These are books you pore over. I think the easiest way to see what picture books are going to be classics is to see what people are giving as baby shower gifts to build libraries. The flavor of the month does not often get chosen, but Sandra Boynton books are happily given. A staff favorite, Good Night, Gorilla feels like a classic, as does Guess How Much I Love You, All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon and Marla Frazee, and Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary, to name a few.
My store has been open 16 years and that’s just about a generation. I’m wondering what books from 1996 on will be considered classics in 2046. I can think that Kate DiCamillo will surely be on the list. M.T. Anderson seems a likely contender as well. J.K. Rowling will be even though there will be some who think the enormous popularity of Harry Potter somehow will have tainted it. Philip Pullman, Shannon Hale, and Grace Lin’s simply perfect Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, just about anything by Christopher Paul Curtis.
So readers, what books are turning into your modern classics?

I read with horror the Wall Street Journal‘s article about people’s reading habits being logged and sifted over by their e-reader. Honestly, I’m not surprised that Amazon and Barnes & Noble are poring over the data about how people read on their e-reader. They are watching you read and paying attention.
Do you skip ahead in Fifty Shades of Grey? Do you read horror novels quickly? How many pages do you read in a sitting, do you skip to the ending of mysteries and then start at the beginning? etc. This seems like a mind-boggling trespass of a very private act. Someone is watching you read every time you flick a page. Reading is a private, solitary act that needs to be respected. How a person reads should remain between them and the book.
One of the true of joys of reading is doing it any way you want. Sometimes I read and then reread the character names in my Swedish mystery many times before I continue.  I will just go over the name until I can figure out some way of remembering it. Some names I can grasp, but others with their accents I don’t know and a combination of letters that makes no sense to me are a bit of a struggle. I will often resort to giving them my own names. If I were doing this on an e-reader would that data somehow get picked up? Are lots of people reading like this? Will this information somehow find its way in the hands of publishers and change the way books are translated?
What passages people choose to highlight in a book is also an available aggregate. This to me is the most chilling. What I choose to underline in a text is between me and the book. Margin notes that are typed in your e-reader are also researchable. Wow. So, what I write in my own book is now fodder for the number crunchers at Amazon?  Am I the only one who thinks this is a very slippery slope of invasion of privacy and free speech?
David Levithan from Scholastic was quoted as saying, “You very rarely get a glimpse into the reader’s mind,” he says. “With a printed book, there’s no such thing as an analytic. You can’t tell which pages are dog-eared.” While I see the allure of knowing this, books are not movies. They should not be test-marketed and tailored for the highest rating. Why someone dog-ears a page is their business, not the publishers.
Books should be written by writers who want to share a story and read by people who want to dip into that story in their own way. Just know that every time you pick up a book and smell that wonderful book smell, there’s not a person around mining your reading time for usable data. There’s just you and your book.

This past week we had family visiting from Indiana. We love their visits because it gets us out on Lake Champlain, fishing and just having fun. But it also gets us reading – well, most of us.
Calyn, who will be a high school senior this year, has a tradition of getting lots and lots of books at the store. This year, to help her celebrate her 18th birthday next week, she left with a box of books, which her dad had to carry out to the car it was so heavy. In nine days she had read six of the books! She was anxious for sequels of Wither and Immortal Beloved.
We were reading on the dock one day and she was getting quieter and quieter. She was so focused, almost red-faced when she turned the page and said, “Oh, now I am really angry!” The book was placed on the arm of the chair and she walked away. I noticed she was reading The Fault in Our Stars, which I have read and loved, so we talked about it. Calyn is an excellent person to talk about books with because she’s a really insightful reader who is passionate about books.
My nephew Will maintained his tradition of reading comic book series at the end of the school year. Last year it was Calvin and Hobbs, this year it’s the Foxtrot series. Jake, my younger nephew, confessed at dinner the other night to “staying up until 11:30 to read Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” He’s only nine, so 11:30 might as well be four in the morning. What I loved was he was how gleeful he was in admitting why he was so tired at dinner. “I was reading.” It was the first time he stayed up late to read.
I loved it, because in that instance I felt my nephew had just become a life-long reader.

All right, Readers, we listened! Here once more is The Stars So Far, a project gathering all the year’s starred reviews for children’s and YA books from Booklist, The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, the Horn Book, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal (and VOYA — Voice of Youth Advocates — whose starred titles will be added in the next update).
Starred reviews are excellent guideposts, but they don’t tell the whole story, of course. There are amazing books out there that never receive a starred review but are popular and/or critical favorites nonetheless.
So far, I’ve logged 719 starred reviews, representing several hundred titles. This is a detail-laden process, and as careful as I try to be, there will be bobbles here and there. For instance, I try to cull all reviews of 2012 books from 2011 and 2012 review sources, but there were some technical difficulties accessing some data from Kirkus’s 2011 fall indexes; those are being corrected in the upcoming week.
Publishers, please alert me to any oversights at ebluemle AT publishersweekly.com, including the review sources and dates for the starred reviews. Thanks! Please do NOT send VOYA stars. As I mentioned above, the VOYA stars will be included in the next update. (Please also do not alert me of missing price and/or ISBN info from a correct title entry. This will be completed shortly.) Please note: starred reviews are counted only when they have been officially published by the review magazines, so if your book has an upcoming star, never fear; it will be included in a future update.
If you want the cleanest, most consistently formatted version of this list, check back here several days after the original post, when I’ll have been able to make any fixes.
Receiving a starred review is a rare and wonderful honor for a book and its creators, so we hope this list will be a handy resource for buyers of all stripes. The list was compiled from all the review sources by one little indie bookseller, not by Amazon or B&N, so if you are using this as a purchasing tool, please consider ordering from any of your favorite independents instead of a chain or online megastore. If you don’t have an indie near you, you can find independent bookstores that sell online at Indiebound.org.
Happy reading!
 
SIX STARS
Code Name Verity. Elizabeth Wein. Disney-Hyperion, $16.99. 978-1-4231-5219-4
Fault in Our Stars, The. John Green. Dutton, $17.99. 978-0-525-47881-2
Z Is for Moose. Kelly Bingham, illus. by Paul O. Zelinsky. Greenwillow, $16.99. 978-0-06-079984-7
 
FIVE STARS
Green. Laura Vaccaro Seeger. Roaring Brook/Porter, $16.99. 978-1-59643-397-7
 
FOUR STARS
Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass: The Story Behind an American Friendship. Russell Freedman. Clarion, $18.99. 978-0-547-38562-4
and then it’s spring. Julie Fogliano, illus. by Erin E. Stead. Roaring Brook/Porter, $16.99. 978-1-59643-624-4
Beetle Book, The. Steve Jenkins. Houghton Mifflin, $16.99. 978-0-547-68084-2
Bitterblue. Kristin Cashore. Dial, $19.99. 978-0-8037-3473-9
Black Hole Is NOT a Hole, A. Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano, illus. by Michael Carroll. Charlesbridge, $18.95. 9781570917837
Boy on Cinnamon Street, The. Phoebe Stone. Scholastic/Levine, $16.99. 978-0-545-21512-1
Brothers at Bat: The True Story of an Amazing All-Brother Baseball Team. Audrey Vernick, illus. by Steven Salerno. Clarion, $16.99. 978-0-547-38557-0
Chloe. Peter McCarty. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $16.99. 978-0-06-114291-8
Disenchantments, The. Nina LaCour. Dutton, $16.99. 978-0-525-42219-8
Drowned Cities, The. Paolo Bacigalupi. Little, Brown, $17.99. 978-0-316-05624-3
Dying to Know You. Aidan Chambers. Abrams/Amulet, $16.95. 978-1-4197-0165-8
Extra Yarn. Mac Barnett, illus. by Jon Klassen. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $16.99. 978-0-06-195338-5
Grave Mercy. Robin LaFevers. Houghton Mifflin, $16.99.  978-0-547-62834-9
Jimmy the Greatest! Jairo Buitrago, trans. from the Spanish by Elisa Amado, illus. by Rafael Yockteng. Groundwood, $18.95. 978-1-55498-178-6
Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle. Claire A. Nivola. FSG/Foster, $17.99. 978-0-374-38068-7
Miles to Go for Freedom: Segregation and Civil Rights in the Jim Crow Years. Linda Barrett Osborne. Abrams, $24.95. 978-1-4197-0020-0
Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95. Phillip Hoose. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $21.99. 978-0-374-30468-3
No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller. Vaunda Micheaux Nelson, illus. by R. Gregory Christie. Carolrhoda Lab, $17.95. 978-0-7613-6169-5
Seraphina. Rachel Hartman. Random, $17.99.  978-0-375-86656-2
Titanic: Voices from the Disaster. Deborah Hopkinson. Scholastic Press, $17.99. 978-0-545-11674-9
Traction Man and the Beach Odyssey. Mini Grey. Knopf, $16.99. 978-0-375-86952-5
Water Sings Blue: Ocean Poems. Kate Coombs, illus. by Meilo So. Chronicle, $16.99. 978-0-8118-7284-3
We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children’s March. Cynthia Y. Levinson. Peachtree, $19.95. 978-1-56145-627-7
 
THREE STARS
After the Snow. S.D. Crockett. Feiwel and Friends, $16.99. 978-0-312-64169-6
Auntie Yang’s Great Soybean Picnic. Ginnie Lo, illus. by Beth Lo. Lee & Low, $18.95. 9781600604423
Barnum’s Bones: How Barnum Brown Discovered the Most Famous Dinosaur in the World. Tracey Fern, illus. by Boris Kulikov. FSG/Ferguson, $17.99 (9780374305161
Beneath a Meth Moon. Jacqueline Woodson. Penguin/Paulsen, $16.99. 978-0-399-25250-1
Boy + Bot. Ame Dyckman, illus. by Dan Yaccarino. Knopf, $16.99. 978-0-375-86756-9
Caddy’s World. Hilary McKay. S&S/McElderry, $16.99. 978-1-4424-4105-7
Chaos, The. Nalo Hopkinson. S&S/McElderry, $16.99. 978-1-4169-5488-0
Chuck Close Face Book. Chuck Close. Abrams, $18.95. 978-1-4197-0163-4
Confusion of Princes, A. Garth Nix. HarperCollins, $17.99. 9780060096946
Crow. Barbara Wright. Random, $16.99. 978-0-375-86928-0
Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip. Jordan Sonnenblick. Scholastic Press, $17.99. 978-0-545-32069-6
Difference Between You and Me, The. Madeleine George. Viking, $16.99. 978-0-670-01128-5
Duckling Gets a Cookie, The!? Mo Willems. Hyperion, $15.99. 978-1-4231-5128-9
Fairy Ring, The: Or, Elsie and Frances Fool the World. Mary Losure. Candlewick, $16.99. 9780763656706
Final Four, The. Paul Volponi. Viking, $16.99. 9780670012640
Forget-Me-Nots: Poems to Learn by Heart. Selected by Mary Ann Hoberman, illus. by Michael Emberley. Little, Brown/Tingley, $19.99. 978-0-316-12947-3
Froi of the Exiles. Melina Marchetta. Candlewick, $18.99. 978-0-7636-4759-9
Greyhound of a Girl, A. Roddy Doyle. Abrams/Amulet, $16.95. 978-1-4197-0168-9
Hero of Little Street, The. Gregory Rogers. Porter/Roaring Brook.
Hide & Seek. Il Sung Na. Knopf, $15.99. 978-0-375-87078-1
Home for Bird, A. Philip C. Stead. Roaring Brook/Porter, $16.99. 978-1-59643-711-1
Homer. Elisha Cooper. Greenwillow, $16.99. 978-0-06-201248-7
It Jes’ Happened: When Bill Traylor Started to Draw. Don Tate, illus. by R. Gregory Christie. Lee & Low, $17.95. 9781600602603
Just Behave, Pablo Picasso! Jonah Winter, illus. by Kevin Hawkes. Scholastic/Levine, $18.99. 978-0-545-13291-6
Just Ducks! Nicola Davies, illus. by Salvatore Rubbino. Candlewick, $15.99. 978-0-7636-5936-3
Keeping the Castle. Patrice Kindl. Viking, $16.99. 978-0-670-01438-5
Kindred Souls. Patricia MacLachlan. HarperCollins/Tegen, $15.99. 978-0-06-052297-1
Lions of Little Rock, The. Kristin Levine. Putnam, $16.99. 978-0-399-25644-8
Master of Deceit: J. Edgar Hoover and America in the Age of Lies. Marc Aronson. Candlewick, $25.99. 978-0-7636-5025-4
Minette’s Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her Cat. Susanna Reich, illus. by Amy Bates. Abrams, $16.95. 9781419701771
Miseducation of Cameron Post, The. Emily M. Danforth. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $17.99. 978-0-06-202056-7
Mom, It’s My First Day of Kindergarten! Hyewon Yum. FSG/Foster, $16.99. 978-0-374-35004-8
Mr. and Mrs. Bunny—Detectives Extraordinaire! Polly Horvath, illus. by Sophie Blackall. Random/Schwartz & Wade, $16.99. 978-0-375-86755-2
Never Fall Down. Patricia McCormick. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $17.99. 978-0-06-173093-1
Obsidian Blade, The. Pete Hautman. Candlewick, $16.99. 978-0-7636-5403-0
Ocean Sunlight: How Tiny Plants Feed the Seas. Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm. Scholastic/Blue Sky, $18.99. 978-0-545-27322-0
Penny and Her Song. Kevin Henkes. Greenwillow, $12.99. 978-0-06-208195-7
Sadie and Ratz. Sonya Hartnett, illus. by Ann James. Candlewick, $14.99. 978-0-7636-5315-6
Second Life of Abigail Walker, The. Frances O’Roark Dowell. S&S/Atheneum, $16.99. 978-1-442-40593-6
Step Gently Out. Helen Frost, photos. by Rick Lieder. Candlewick, $15.99. 978-0-7636-5601-0
Summer of the Gypsy Moths. Sara Pennypacker. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $15.99.  978-0-06-196420-6
There Is No Dog. Meg Rosoff. Putnam, $17.99. 978-0-399-25764-3
Three Times Lucky. Sheila Turnage. Dial. $16.99 978080376702
To the Mountaintop: My Journey Through the Civil Rights Movement. Charlayne Hunter-Gault. Roaring Brook/Flash Point, $22.99. 978-1-59643-605-3
Waiting. Carol Lynch Williams. S&S/Wiseman, $16.99. 978-1-4424-4353-2
Wicked and the Just, The. Jillian Coats Anderson. Harcourt, $16.99. 9780547688374
Wonder. R.J. Palacio. Knopf, $15.99. 978-0-375-86902-0
 
TWO STARS
1-2-3 Peas. Keith Baker. S&S/Beach Lane, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4424-4551-2
Amazing Adventures of John Smith, Jr. aka Houdini, The. Peter Johnson. Harper, $15.99. 9780061988905
Amazing Harry Kellar, The: Great American Magician. Gail G. Jarrow. Boyds Mills/Calkins Creek, $17.95. 9781590788653
Amelia Anne Is Dead and Gone. Kat Rosenfield. Dutton, $17.99. 978-0-525-42389-8
Animal Masquerade. Marianne Dubuc, trans. from the French by Yvette Ghione. Kids Can, $16.95. 978-1-55453-782-2
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Simon & Schuster, $16.99. 978-1-4424-0892-0
Ballerina Swan. Allegra Kent, illus. by Emily Arnold McCully. Holiday House, $16.95. 9780823423736
Beach Feet. Kiyomi Konagaya, trans. from the Japanese by Yuki Kaneko, illus. by Masamitsu Saito. Enchanted Lion (Consortium, dist.), $14.95. 978-1-59270-121-6
Best Shot in the West: The Adventures of Nat Love. Patricia C. McKissack & Frederick L. McKissack, illus. by Randy DuBurke. Chronicle, $19.99. 9780811857499
Bon Appétit!: The Delicious Life of Julia Child. Jessie Hartland. Random/Schwartz & Wade, $17.99. 978-0-375-86944-0
Brixen Witch, The. Stacy DeKeyser, illus. by John Nickle. S&S/McElderry, $15.99. 9781442433281
Bus Called Heaven, A. Bob Graham. Candlewick, $16.99. 9780763658939
Butterfly Clues, The. Kate Ellison. Egmont USA, $17.99. 9781606842638
Case of the Deadly Desperados, The. Caroline Lawrence. Putnam, $16.99. 9780399256332
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again. Frank Cottrell Boyce, illus. by Joe Berger. Candlewick, $15.99. 978-0-7636-5957-8
Chomp. Carl Hiaasen. Knopf, $16.99. 9780375868429
Chopsticks. Jessica Anthony & Rodrigo Corral. Penguin/Razorbill, $19.99. 9781595144355
Demolition. Sally Sutton, illus. by Brian Lovelock. Candlewick, $15.99. 9780763658304
Dog in Charge. K.L. Going, illus. by Dan Santat. Dial, $16.99. 978-0-8037-3479-1
Double. Jenny Valentine. Disney-Hyperion, $16.99. 978-1-4231-4714-5
Dragonswood. Janet Lee Carey. Dial, $17.99. 9780803735040
Dunderheads Behind Bars, The. Paul Fleischman, illus. by David Roberts. Candlewick, $16.99. 978-0-7636-4543-4
Enchanted. Alethea Kontis. Harcourt, $16.99. 9780547645704
Explorer: The Mystery Boxes. ed. Kazu Kibuishi. Abrams/Amulet, $10.95. 9781419700095
Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau, The. Michelle Markel, illus. by Amanda Hall. Eerdmans, $17. 978-0-8028-5364-6
Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It: False Apology Poems. Gail Carson Levine, illus. by Matthew Cordell. Harper, $15.99. 978-0-06-178725-6
Freedom Song: The Story of Henry “Box” Brown. Sally M. Walker, illus. by Sean Qualls. HarperCollins, $17.99. 9780060583101
Freedom’s a-Callin Me. Ntozake Shange, illus. by Rod Brown. Collins/Amistad, $16.99. 978-0-06-133741-3
Friends with Boys. Erin Faith Hicks. First Second, $15.99. 9781596435568
Gem. Holly Hobbie. Little, Brown, $16.99. 978-0-316-20334-0
Giants Beware. Rafael Rosado and Jorge Aguirre. Roaring Brook/First Second, $14.99. 978-1-59643-582-7
Girl with Borrowed Wings, The. Rinsai Rossetti. Dial, $16.99. 978-0-8037-3566-8
Girls of No Return. Erin Saldin. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine, $17.99. 9780545310260
Great Cake Mystery, The: Precious Ramotswe’s Very First Case. Alexander McCall Smith, illus. by Iain McIntosh. Random/Anchor, $12.99. 978-0-307-74389-3
Hades: Lord of the Dead, Book 4. (Olympians Series). George O’Connor. First Second/Porter, $16.99 9781596437616. pb. $9.99, 9781596434349
Hans My Hedgehog: A Tale from the Brothers Grimm. Kate Coombs, illus. by John Nickle. S&S/Atheneum, $16.99. 978-1-4169-1533-1
Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, The. Christopher Healy, illus. by Todd Harris. HarperCollins/Walden Pond, $16.99. 978-0-06-211743-4
Heroes of the Surf. Elisa Carbone, illus. by Nancy Carpenter. Viking. $16.99. 9780670063123
Humming Room, The. Ellen Potter. Feiwel and Friends, $16.99 (192p) ISBN 978-0-312-64438-3
I Know a Wee Piggy. Kimberly Norman, illus. by Henry Cole. Dial, $16.99. 978-0-8037-3735-8
I Lay My Stitches Down: Poems of American Slavery. Cynthia Grady, illus. by Michele Wood. Eerdmans, $17. 9780802853868
I’ll Save You Bobo! Eileen Rosenthal, illus. by Marc Rosenthal. S&S/Atheneum, $14.99. 978-1-4424-0378-9
I’ve Lost My Hippopotamus. Jack Prelutsky, illus. by Jackie Urbanovic. Greenwillow, $18.99.  978-0-06-201457-3
Impossible Rescue, The: The True Story of an Amazing Arctic Adventure. Martin W. Sandler. Candlewick, $17.99. 97807636508
Jack and the Baked Beanstalk. Colin Stimpson. Candlewick/Templar, $15.99. 978-0-7636-5563-1
Jazz Age Josephine. Jonah Winter, illus. by Marjorie Priceman. S&S/Atheneum, $16.99. 978-1-4169-6123-9
Kali’s Song. Jeanette Winter. Random/Schwartz & Wade, $17.99. 978-0-375-87022-4
Kepler’s Dream. Juliet Bell. Putnam, $16.99. 9780399256455
Laundry Day. Maurie J. Manning. Clarion, $16.99. 978-0-547-24196-8
Liar & Spy. Rebecca Stead. Random/Lamb, $15.99. 978-0-385-73743-2
Lies, Knives, and Girls in Red Dresses. Ron Koertge, illus. by Andrea Dezsö. Candlewick, $17.99. 978-0-7636-4406-2
List, The. Siobhan Vivian. Scholastic/Push, $17.99. 978-0-545-16917-2
Listen to My Trumpet! Mo Willems. (An Elephant & Piggie Book). Hyperion, $8.99. 9781423154044
Little Bird. Germano Zullo, illus. by Albertine. Enchanted Lion (Consortium, dist.), $16.95. 978-1-59270-118-6
Little Dog Lost: The True Story of a Brave Dog Named Baltic. Mônica Carnesi. Penguin/Paulsen, $15.99. 9780399256660
Little Dog, Lost. Marion Dane Bauer. S&S/Atheneum, $14.99. 9781442434233
Looking at Lincoln. Maira Kalman. Penguin/Paulsen, $17.99. 978-0-399-24039-3
Magritte’s Marvelous Hat. D.B. Johnson. Houghton Mifflin, $16.99. 978-0-547-55864-6
Marathon. Boaz Yakin, illus. by Joe Infurnari. First Second, $16.99. 9781596436800
Marching to the Mountaintop: How Poverty, Labor Fights, and Civil Rights Set the Stage for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Final Hours. Ann Bausum. National Geographic, $19.95. 9781426309397
May B. Caroline Starr Rose. Random/Schwartz & Wade, $15.99 (240p) ISBN 978-1-58246-393-3
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. Jesse Andrews. Abrams/Amulet, $16.95. 9781419701764
Me and Momma and Big John. Mara Rockliff, illus. by William Low. Candlewick, $16.99. 978-0-7636-4359-1
Meet Me at the Moon. Gianna Marino. Viking, $16.99. 978-0-670-01313-5
Mighty Mars Rovers, The: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity. Elizabeth Rusch. Houghton, $18.99. 9780547478814
Mighty Miss Malone, The. Christopher Paul Curtis. Random/Lamb, $15.99. 978-0-385-73491-2
Mister Death’s Blue-Eyed Girls. Mary Downing Hahn. Clarion, $16.99. 978-0-547-76062-9
Mooshka: A Quilt Story. Julie Paschkis. Peachtree, $16.95. 9781561456208
Mrs. Harkness and the Panda. Alicia Potter, illus. by Melissa Sweet. Knopf, $16.99. 9780375844485
My Family for the War. Anne C. Voorhoeve, trans. from German by Tammi Reichel. Dial, $17.99. 9780803733602
No Go Sleep! Kate Feiffer, illus. by Jules Feiffer. S&S/Wiseman, $16.99. 978-1-4424-1683-3
Now. Morris Gleitzman. Holt, $16.99. 978-0-8050-9378-0
Oh No! Not Again! (Or How I Built a Time Machine to Save History) (Or At Least My History Grade). Mac Barnett, illus. by Dan Santat. Disney-Hyperion, $17.99. 978-1-4231-4912-5
On the Day I Died: Stories from the Grave. Candace Fleming. Random/Schwartz & Wade, $16.99. 978-0-375-86781-1
One and Only Ivan. Katherine Applegate, illus. by Patricia Castelao. HarperCollins, $16.99. 9780061992254
One Cool Friend. Toni Buzzeo, illus. by David Small. Dial, $16.99. 978-0-8037-3413-5
Question Boy Meets Little Miss Know-It-All. Peter Catalanotto. S&S/Atheneum/Jackson, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4424-0670-4
Radiant Days. Elizabeth Hand. Viking, $17.99. 978-0-670-01135-3
Railsea. China Miéville. Del Rey, $18. 978-0-345-52452-2
Remarkable. Lizzie K. Foley. Dial, $16.99. 9780803737068
Rocket Writes a Story. Tad Hills. Random/Schwartz & Wade, $17.99. 978-0-375-87086-6
Same Sun Here. Silas House and Neela Vaswani. Candlewick, $15.99. 978-0-7636-5684-3
Shark King, The. R. Kikuo Johnson. Candlewick/Toon, $12.95. 9781935179160
Small Damages. Beth Kephart. Philomel, $17.99. 978-0-399-25748-3
Splendors and Glooms. Laura Amy Schlitz. Candlewick, $17.99. 9780763653804
Surfer Chick. Kristy Dempsey, illus. by Henry Cole. Abrams, $16.95. 9781419701887
Team Human. Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan. HarperTeen, $17.99. 978-0-0620-8964-9
Those Rebels, John & Tom. Barbara Kerley, illus. by Edwin Fotheringham. Scholastic Press, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-545-22268-6
Throne of Glass. Sarah J. Maas. Bloomsbury, $17.99. 978-1-59990-695-9
Tiger Lily. Jodi Lynn Anderson. HarperTeen, $17.99. 978-0-06-200325-6
Tracing Stars. Erin E. Moulton. Philomel, $16.99. 9780399256967
Try Not to Breathe. Jennifer R. Hubbard. Viking, $16.99. 978-0-670-01390-6
Two Crafty Criminals! And How They Were Captured by the Daring Detectives of the New Cut Gang. Philip Pullman, illus. by Martin Brown. Knopf, $16.99. 9780375870293
Under the Never Sky. Veronica Rossi. HarperCollins, $17.95. 9780062072030
Virginia Wolf. Kyo Maclear, illus. by Isabelle Arsenault. Kids Can Press, $16.95. 9781554536498
We March. Shane W. Evans. Roaring Brook/Porter, $16.99. 9781596435391
Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass. Lesa Cline Ransome, illus. by James E. Ransome. S&S/Wiseman, $16.99. 978-1-4169-5903-8
Year of the Beasts, The. Cecil Castellucci, illus. by Nate Powell. Roaring Brook. $16.99. 9781596436862
 
ONE STAR
Above. Leah Bobet. Scholastic/Levine, $17.99. 978-0-545-29670-0
Adventures of Beanboy, The. Lisa Harkrader. Houghton, $9.99. 9780547550787
Adventures of Sir Balin the Ill-Fated. Gerald Morris, illus. by Aaron Renier. Houghton, $14.99. 9780547680859
All by Myself! Geraldine Collet, illus. by Coralie Saudo. Owlkids, $15.95. 9781926973128
All for Me and None for All. Helen Lester, illus. by Lynn Munsinger. Houghton. $16.99. 9780547688343
All the Right Stuff. Walter Dean Myers. HarperCollins/Amistad, $17.99. 978-0-06-196087-1
All These Lives. Sarah Wylie. FSG/Ferguson, $17.99. 978-0-374-30208-5
Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller. Joseph Lambert, illus. by Joseph Lambert. Disney-Hyperion, $17.99. 9781423113362
Another Brother. Matthew Cordell. Feiwel & Friends, $16.99. 9780312643249
Apple. Nikki McClure. Abrams Appleseed, $12.95. 978-1-4197-0378-2
Arlo Needs Glasses. Barney Saltzberg. Workman, $15.95. 978-0-7611-6879-9
Arthur’s Dream Boat. Polly Dunbar. Candlewick, $15.99. 9780763658670
Aung San Suu Kyi (Champion of Freedom). Sherry O’Keefe, illus. by Morgan Reynolds. Morgan Reynolds, $24.99.  9781599353135
B Is for Brooklyn. Selina Alko. Holt/Ottaviano, $16.99. 978-0-8050-9213-4
Baby Bear Sees Blue. Ashley Wolff. S&S/Beach Lane, $16.99. 978-1-4424-1306-1
Baby’s in Black: Astrid Kirchherr, Stuart Sutcliffe, and the Beatles. Arne Bellstorf; trans. from the German by Michael Waaler. First Second/Roaring Brook, $24.99. 9781596437715
Backseat A-B-See. Maria van Lieshout. Chronicle, $14.99. 9781452106649
Ballywhinney Girl. Eve Bunting, illus. by Emily Arnold McCully. Clarion, $16.99. 978-0-547-55843-1
Bea at Ballet. Rachel Isadora. Paulsen/Penguin, $12.99. 9780399254093
Betty Bunny Wants Everything. Michael B. Kaplan, illus. by Stéphane Jorisch. Dial, $16.99. 978-0-8037-3408-1
Big Adventure of the Smalls, The. Helen Stephens. S&S/Aladdin, $15.99. 978-1-4424-5058-5
Birthday Suit. Olive Senior, illus. by Eugenie Fernandes. Annick Press, $19.95. 9781554513697 pb. $8.95, 9781554513680
Black Boy White School. Brian F. Walker. HarperTeen, $17.99. 9780061914836
Black Heart (Curse Workers 03). Holly Black. S&S/McElderry, $17.99. 9781442403468
Blue Sky. Audrey Wood. Scholastic/Blue Sky, $16.99. 9780545316101
Book of Blood and Shadow, The. Robin Wasserman. Knopf, $17.99. 978-0-375-86876-4
Boy and a Bear in a Boat, A. Dave Shelton. Random/Fickling, $16.99. 9780385752480
Boy Called Dickens, A. Deborah Hopkinson, illus. by John Hendrix. Random/Schwartz & Wade, $17.99. 9780375867323
Boy21. Matthew Quick. Little, Brown, $17.99. 9780316127974
Bridget and Bo Build a Blog. Amanda St. John, illus. by Katie McDee. Norwood, library edition, $25.27. 9781599535074
Bronte Sisters, The: The Brief Lives of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne. Catherine Reef. Clarion, $18.99. 9780547579665
Burn Mark. Laura Powell. Bloomsbury USA, $17.99. 9781599908434
BZRK. Michael Grant. Egmont, $17.99. 9781606843123
Camping Trip That Changed America, The. Barb Rosenstock, illus. by Mordicai Gerstein. Dial, $16.99. 9780803737105
Captain Awesome to the Rescue. Stan Kirby, llus. by George O’Connor. S&S/Little Simon, $14.99. 9781442440906. pb $4.99 9781442435612
Castle of Shadows. Ellen Renner, illus. by Wilson Swain. Houghton, $15.99. 9780547744469
Catch & Release. Blythe Woolston. Carolrhoda, $17.95. 9780761377559
Cecil the Pet Glacier. Matthea Harvey, illus. by Giselle Potter. Random/Schwartz & Wade, $17.99. 978-0-375-86773-6
Cheesie Mack Is Cool in a Duel. Steve Cotler, illus. by Adam McCauley. Random House, $15.99. 9780375864384
Children and the Wolves, The. Adam Rapp. Candlewick, $16.99. 9780763653378
Chloe and the Lion. Mac Barnett, illus. by Adam Rex. Disney-Hyperion, $16.99. 9781423113348
Cinder. Marissa Meyer. Feiwel and Friends, $17.99. 978-0-312-64189-4
Cloud Spinner, The. Michael Catchpool, illus. by Alison Jay. Knopf, $16.99. 9780375870118
Code of Silence: Living a Lie Comes with a Price. Tim Shoemaker. Zonderkidz. $14.99 9780310726531
Cold Cereal. Adam Rex. HarperCollins/Balzer & Bray, $16.99. 9780062060020
Crater. Helium-3, Bk. 1. Homer Hickam. Thomas Nelson, $14.99. 9781595546647
Creep and Flutter: The Secret World of Insects and Spiders. Jim Arnosky. Sterling, $14.95. 978-1-4027-7766-0
Crogan’s Loyalty. Chris Schweizer. Oni. $14.99 9781934964408
Daredevil, v.1. Mark Waid, illus. by Paolo Rivera. Marvel, $19.99. 9780785152378
Dark Eyes. William Harlan Richter. Penguin/Razorbill, $17.99. 9781595144577
Day by Day. Susan Gal. Knopf, $16.99. 9780375869594
Devine Intervention. Martha Brockenbrough. Scholastic/Levine, $17.99. 9780545382137
Diamond in the Desert, A. Kathryn Fitzmaurice. Viking, $16.99. 9780670012923
Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Michael J. Martin. Morgan Reynolds, library edition, $28.95 (9781599351698).
Dinosaur Thunder. Marion Dane Bauer, illus. by Margaret Chodos-Irvine. Scholastic Press, $16.99. 978-0-590-45296-0
Dog Loves Drawing. Louise Yates. Knopf, $16.99. 9780375870675
Don’t Squish the Sasquatch! Kent Redecker, illus. by Bob Staake. Disney-Hyperion, $16.99. 9781423152323
Don’t Copy Me! Jonathan Allen. Boxer Bks., dist. by Sterling, $16.95. 9781907967207
Dragonborn. Toby Forward. Bloomsbury, $16.99. 978-1-59990-724-6
Dragons Love Tacos. Adam Rubin, illus. by Daniel Salmieri. Dial, $16.99. 978-0-8037-3680-1
Drama. Raina Telgemeier with colors by Gurihiru. Scholastic Graphix, $10.99. 978-0-545-32699-5
Earwig and the Witch. Diana Wynne Jones, illus. by Paul O. Zelinsky. Greenwillow, $15.99. 978-0-06-207511-6
Edgar Allan Poe’s Pie: Math Puzzlers in Classic Poems. J. Patrick Lewis, illus. by Michael Slack. Harcourt, $16.99. 978-0-547-51338-6
Eep! Joke van Leeuwen. Translated by Bill Nagelkerke. Gecko, $7.95. 9781877579073
Embrace. Jessica Shirvington. Sourcebooks, $9.99. 9781402271250
Emperor of Time. Gregory King, illus. by Holly Wood. Weston & Wright, $21.95. 9780965693226
Erebos. Ursula Poznanski, trans. from the German by Judith Pattinson. Annick (Firefly, dist.), $29.95. 978-1-55451-373-4
Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse. Lucas Klauss. S&S/Simon Pulse, $16.99. 9781442423886
Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict, The. Trenton Lee Stewart, illus. by Diana Sudyka. Little, Brown/Tingley, $17.99. 780316176194
Failstate. John W. Otte. Marcher Lord (www.marcherlordpress.com), $15.99. 978-1-935929-48-2
Falcon. Tim Jessell. Random, $17.99. 978-0-375-86866-5
Fall from Grace. Charles Benoit. HarperTeen, $17.99. 978-0-06-194707-0
False Prince, The. Jennifer A. Nielsen. Scholastic Press, $16.99. 978-0-545-28413-4
Fish Had a Wish. Michael Garland. Holiday House, $14.95. 9780823423941
Five Funny Bunnies: Three Bouncing Tales. Jean Van Leeuwen, illus. by Anne Wilsdorf. Marshall Cavendish, $17.99. 9780761461142
Five Lives of Our Cat Zook. Joanne Rocklin. Abrams/Amulet. $16.96. 9780823424009
Flying the Dragon. Natalie Dias Lorenzi, illus. by Kelly Murphy. Charlesbridge, $16.95. 9781580894340
For Darkness Shows the Stars. Diana Peterfreund. HarperCollins/Balzer & Bray, $17.99. 9780062006141
Fox Tails: Four Fables from Aesop. Amy Lowry, illus. by Amy Lowry. Holiday. $16.95 9780823424009
Fracture. Megan Miranda. Walker, $17.99. 978-0-8027-2309-3
Freaky Fast Frankie Joe. Lutricia Clifton. Holiday House, $16.95. 9780823423675
Frogs!: Strange and Wonderful. Laurence Pringle, illus. by Meryl Henderson. Boyds Mills, $16.95. 9781590783719
Further Tale of Peter Rabbit, The. Emma Thompson, illus. by Eleanor Taylor. Penguin/Warne, $20. 978-0-7232-6910-6
George Bellows: Painter with a Punch! Robert Burleigh. Abrams, $18.95. 978-1-4197-0166-5
Georgia in Hawaii: When Georgia O’Keeffe Painted What She Pleased. Amy Novesky, illus. by Yuyi Morales. Harcourt, $16.99. 978-0-15-205420-5
Giant and How He Humbugged America, The. Jim Murphy. Scholastic. $19.99 9780439691840
Gideon. Olivier Dunrea. Houghton, $9.99. 9780618436613
Girl in the Park, The. Mariah Fredericks. Random/Schwartz & Wade, $16.99. 978-0-375-86843-6
Go Out and Play! Kaboom! illus. by Julianna Rose. Candlewick, $11.99. 9780763655303
Goblin Secrets. William Alexander. S&S/McElderry, $16.99. 9781442427266
Golden Ass of Lucius Apuleius, The. adapted by M.D. Usher, illus. by T. Motley. Godine, $17.95. 9781567924183
Golden Prince, The. Arthur Felix, illus. by Jenny Capon. Inside Pocket Publishing, $7.99. 9780956712233
Goldilocks and Just One Bear. Leigh Hodgkinson. Candlewick/Nosy Crow, $15.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7636-6172-4
Grave Robber’s Apprentice, The. Allan Stratton. Harper, $16.99. 9780061976087
Great Unexpected, The. Sharon Creech. HarperCollins, $16.99. 9780061892325
Hamsters Holding Hands. Kass Reich. Orca, $9.95. 978-1-4598-0123-3
Happy Like Soccer. Maribeth Boelts, illus. by Lauren Castillo. Candlewick, $15.99. 978-0-7636-4616-5
Happy Little Yellow Box, The: A Pop-up Book of Opposites. David A. Carter. S&S/Little Simon, $12.99. 978-1-4169-4096-8
Happy. Mies van Hout. Lemniscaat USA, $17.95. 978-1-9359-5414-9
Harlem’s Little Blackbird: The Story of Florence Mills. Renee Watson, illus. by Christian Robinson. Random, $17.99 9780375869730
Here Come the Girl Scouts! The Amazing All-True Story of Juliette Daisy Gordon Low and Her Great Adventure. Shana Corey, illus. by Hadley Hooper. Scholastic, $17.99. 9780545342780
Hilda and the Midnight Giant. Luke Pearson. Nobrow (Consortium, dist.), $24. 978-1-907704-25-3
Hippopposites. Janik Coat. Abrams Appleseed, $14.95. 978-1-4197-0151-1
His Name Was Raoul Wallenberg. Louise Borden. Houghton, $18.99. 9780618507559
Hope and Tears: Ellis Island Voices. Gwenyth Swain. Boyds Mills/Calkins Creek, $17.95. 978-1-59078-765-6
Horse and the Plains Indians, The: A Powerful Partnership. Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, photos by William Muñoz. Clarion, $17.99. 9780547125510
Horse Camp. Nicole Helget and Nate LeBoutillier. Egmont, $15.99. 9781606843512
Horten’s Miraculous Mechanisms: Magic, Mystery, & a Very Strange Adventure. Lissa Evans. Sterling, $14.95. 9781402798061
House Held Up by Trees. Ted Kooser, illus. by Jon Klassen. Candlewick, $16.99. 9780763651077
How Many Jelly Beans? A Giant Book of Giant Numbers!Andrea Menotti, illus. by Yancey Labat. Chronicle, $18.99. 978-1-4521-0206-1
Hueys in the New Sweater, The. Oliver Jeffers. Penguin/Philomel, $10.99. 9780399257674
Human Body Factory: The Nuts and Bolts of Your Insides. Dan Green, illus. by Edmond Davis. Kingfisher, $16.99. 978-0-7534-6808-1
I Am Thomas. Libby Gleeson, illus. by Armin Greder. IPG/Allen & Unwin.
I Don’t Believe It, Archie! Andrew Norriss, illus. by Hannah Shaw. Random/Fickling, $12.99 (9780385752503)
I Have the Right to Be a Child. Alain Serres, trans. by Helen Mixter, illus. by Aurelia Fronty. Groundwood, $18.95. 9781554981496
I Hunt Killers. Barry Lyga. Little, Brown, $17.99 (368p) ISBN 978-0-316-12584-0
I Like Old Clothes. Mary Ann Hoberman, illus. by Patrice Barton. Knopf.
I Saw a Peacock with a Fiery Tail. Ramsingh Urveti. Tara Books, $17.50. 9789380340142
I, Galileo. Bonnie Christensen. Knopf, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-375-86753-8
I, Too, Am America. Langston Hughes, illus. by Bryan Collier. Simon & Schuster, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4424-2008-3
If All the Animals Came Inside. Eric Pinder, illus. by Marc Brown. Little, Brown.
Illuminate: A Gilded Wings Novel, Book One. Aimee Agresti. Harcourt, $17.99. 9780547626147
Immortal Rules, The. Julie Kagawa. Harlequin Teen, $18.99 (496p) ISBN 978-0-3732-1051-0
In Darkness. Nick Lake. Bloomsbury, $17.99 (352p) ISBN 978-1-59990-743-7
In the Sea. David Elliott, illus. by Holly Meade. Candlewick, $16.99 (9780763644987).
Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, Book III: The Unseen Guest. Maryrose Wood. HarperCollins/Balzer and Bray, $15.99  9780061791185
Invincible Microbe: Tuberculosis and the Never-Ending Search for a Cure. Jim Murphy and Alison Blank. Clarion, $18.99. 9780618535743
Irises. Francisco X. Stork. Scholastic/Levine, $17.99 (304p) ISBN 978-1-545-15135-1
Island of Thieves. Josh Lacey. Houghton. $15.99 9780547763279
It’s Raining, It’s Pouring (with CD). Christine Davenier. Performed by Peter, Paul, and Mary. Imagine/Peter Yarrow, $17.95. 9781936140770
Jake and Lily. Jerry Spinelli. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $15.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-06-028135-9
Jean Laffite: The Pirate Who Saved America. Susan Goldman Rubin, illus. by Jeff Himmelman. Abrams, $18.95 (48p) ISBN 978-0-8109-9733-2
Jersey Angel. Beth Ann Bauman. Random/Lamb, $15.99 (208p) ISBN 978-0-385-74020-3
Justin Case: Shells, Smells, and the Horrible Flip-Flops of Doom. Rachel Vail, illus. by Matthew Cordell. Feiwel and Friends, $16.99. 9781250000811
Kaleidoscope. Salina Yoon. Little, Brown, $12.99 (18p) ISBN 978-0-316-18641-4
Kids of Kabul. Deborah Ellis. Groundwood.
Kill Switch. Chris Lynch. Simon & Schuster. $16.99 (9781416927020
King Arthur’s Very Great Grandson. Kenneth Kraegel. Candlewick, $15.99 ISBN 978-0-7636-5311-8
Kite Day. Will Hillenbrand. Holiday House.
Larf. Ashley Spires. Kids Can, $16.95 9781554537013
Laugh with the Moon. Shana Burg. Delacorte.
Leo Geo. Jon Chad. Roaring Brook.
Leopard Boy, The. Julia Johnson, illus. by Marisa Lewis. Frances Lincoln, $8.99. 9781847802132
Letter Q: Queer Writers’ Notes to Their Younger Selves. Sarah Moon. Scholastic/Levine. $17.99 (9780545399326).
Letters to Leo. Amy Hest, illus. by Julia Denos. Candlewick.
Lia’s Guide to Winning the Lottery. Keren David. Frances Lincoln, $16.99. 9781847803313
Little Rock Girl 1957 (Captured History series). Shelley Tougas. Compass Point.
Little Treasures: Endearments from Around the World. Jacqueline K. Ogburn, illus. by Chris Raschka. Houghton, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-547-42862-8
Long Lankin. Lindsey Barraclough. Candlewick, $16.99. 9780763658083
Love & Leftovers. Sarah Tregay. HarperCollins/Tegen.
Machines Go to Work in the City. William Low. Holt.
Madhattan Mystery. John J. Bonk. Walker. $16.99 (9780802723499
Mario Makes a Move. Jill McElmurry. Random/Schwartz & Wade, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-375-86854-2
Martin de Porres: The Rose in the Desert. Gary D. Schmidt, illus. by David Diaz. Clarion. $16.99 9780547612188
Martin on the Moon. Martine Audet, illus. by Luc Melanson. Owlkids, $15.95. 9781926973166
Marty McGuire Digs Worms! Kate Messner, illus. by Brian Floca. Scholastic, $17.99. 9780545142458 pb $5.99 9780545142472
Maudie and Bear. Jan Ormerod, illus. by Ferya Blackwood. Putnam. $16.99 (9780399257094).
Million Suns, A: An Across the Universe Novel. Beth Revis. Razorbill, $17.99. 9781595143983
Money in Sports. Nick Hunter. Heinemann. hardcover, $34 (9781432959777); Raintree, paperback, $9 (9781432959821).
Monkey Colors. Darrin Lunde, illus. by Patricia J. Wynne. Charlesbridge, $15.95 9781570917417. pb. $6.95 9781570917424
Monster Returns, The. Peter McCarty. Holt, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-8050-9030-7
Monument 14. Emmy Laybourne. Feiwel and Friends, $16.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-312-56903-7
Moon Pie. Simon Mason. Random/Fickling.
Moonlight. Helen V. Griffith, illus. by Laura Dronzek. Greenwillow.
More. I.C. Springman, illus. by Brian Lies. Houghton.
Mrs. Noodlekugel. Daniel Pinkwater, illus. by Adam Stower. Candlewick, $14.99 (80p) ISBN 978-0-7636-5053-7
My Dad Is Big and Strong, BUT…: A Bedtime Story. Coralie Saudo, trans. from the French by Claudia Bedrick, illus. by Kris DiGiacomo. Enchanted Lion (Consortium, dist.), $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-59270-122-3
My Life Next Door. Huntley Fitzpatrick. Dial, $16.99 ISBN 978-0-8037-3699-3
My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece. Annabel Pitcher. Little, Brown, $17.99. 9780316176903
My Snake Blake. Randy Siegel, illus. by Serge Bloch. Roaring Brook/Porter, $16.99. 9781596435841
Nanny Piggins and the Wicked Plan. R.A. Spratt, illus. by Dan Santat. Little, Brown, $16.99. 9780316199230
National Parks: A Kid’s Guide to America’s Parks, Monuments, and Landmarks. Erin McHugh, illus. by Neal Aspinall et al. Black Dog and Leventhal, $19.95 (128p) ISBN 978-1-57912-884-5
New Year’s Reunion, A. Yu Li-Qiong, illus. by Zhu Cheng-Liang. Candlewick.
Obstinate Pen, The. Frank W. Dormer. Holt.
Oliver. Judith Rossell. HarperCollins, $16.99. 9780062022103
Olivia and the Fairy Princesses. Ian Falconer. S&S/Atheneum, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4424-5027-1
Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen. Donna Gephardt. Delacorte, $16.99. 9780385740524
One for the Murphys. Lynda Mullaly Hunt. Putnam/Paulsen, $16.99. 9780399256158
One Special Day. Lola M. Schaefer, illus. by Jessica Meserve. Disney-Hyperion.
One Two That’s My Shoe! Alison Murray. Disney-Hyperion.
Otto the Book Bear. Katie Cleminson. Disney-Hyperion, $16.99. 9781423145622
Out of the Way! Out of the Way! Uma Krishnaswami. Groundwood, $17.95. 9781554981304
Out on the Prairie. Donna M. Bateman, illus. by Susan Swan. Charlesbridge, $15.95. 9781580893770 pb. $7.95 9781580893787
Outside Your Window: A First Book of Nature. Nicola Davies, illus. by Mark Hearld. Candlewick, $19.99 (108p) ISBN 978-0-7636-5549-5
Paiute Princess: The Story of Sarah Winnemucca. Deborah Kogan Ray. FSG/Foster, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-0-374-39897-2
Pandemonium. Lauren Oliver. HarperCollins, $17.99. 9780061978067
Pandemonium. Chris Wooding, illus. by Cassandra Diaz. Scholastic/Graphix, $22.99. 9780545252218. pb $12.99. 9780439877596
Passion for Victory, A: The Story of the Olympics in Ancient and Early Modern Times. Benson Bobrick. Knopf. $19.99 ISBN 9780375868696
Peculiars, The. Maureen Doyle McQuerry. Abrams/Amulet, $16.95 ISBN 9781419701788
Perfect Escape. Jennifer Brown. Little, Brown, $17.99 (368p) ISBN 978-0-316-18557-8
Pete’s Robot (iPad app). Heartdrive Media.
Pig Pig Meets the Lion. David McPhail. Charlesbridge, $15.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-58089-358-9
Piggy Bunny. Rachel Vail, illus. by Jeremy Tankard. Feiwel and Friends, $14.99. ISBN 978-0-312-64988-3
Pink Smog: Becoming Weetzie Bat. Francesca Lia Block. HarperTeen, $17.99 (208p) ISBN 978-0-06-156598-4
Pip’s Trip. Janet Morgan Stoeke. Dial.
Pirate Cinema. Cory Doctorow. Tor, $19.99 9780765329080
Poem Runs: Baseball Poems and Paintings. Douglas Florian. Harcourt, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-547-68838-1
President’s Stuck in the Bathtub, The: Poems About the Presidents. Susan Katz, illus. by Robert Neubecker. Clarion.
Prince Albert and the Doomsday Device. Clive London. Zova, $14.99. 9780615510569
Promise the Night. Michaela Maccoll. Chronicle.
Quarantine: The Loners. Lex Thomas. Egmont. $17.99 (9781606843291
Rachel’s Secret. Shelly Sanders. Second Story. $12.95. (9781926920375)
Raja: Story of a Racehorse. Anne Hambleton. Old Bow Publishing, $12.95. 9780615540290
Rebel McKenzie. Candice Ransom. Disney-Hyperion. $16.99. 9781423145394
Red Knit Cap Girl. Naoko Stoop. Little, Brown, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-316-12946-6
Red, White and Boom! Lee Wardlaw, illus. by Huy Voun Lee. Holt.
Revenge of the Dinotrux. Chris Gall. Little, Brown, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-316-13288-6
Rock God. Barnabas Miller. Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky.
Ruby Redfort: Look into My Eyes. Lauren Child. Candlewick, $16.99 (400p) ISBN 978-0-7636-5120-6
Scarlet. A.C. Gaughen. Walker. $17.99 (9780802723468)
Secret Letters. Leah Scheier. Disney-Hyperion.
Secret of the Manhattan Project, The. Doreen Gonzales. Enslow, library edition, $31.93 (9780766039544)
Secret Tree, The. Natalie Standiford. Scholastic Press, $16.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-545-33479-2
Secrets of the Garden. Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, illus. by Priscilla Lamont. Knopf.
See You at Harry’s. Jo Knowles. Candlewick, $16.99. 9780763654078
Shadow and Bone. Leigh Bardugo. Holt.
Ship of Souls. Zetta Elliott. AmazonEncore, paperback, $9.95 9781612182681.
Silence of Our Friends, The. Mark Long and Jim Demonakos; illus. by Nate Powell. First Second/Roaring Brook, $16.99.  ISBN 978-1-59643-618-3
Sisters of Glass. Stephanie Hemphill. Knopf. $16.99 (9780375861093
Slide. Jill Hathaway. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, $17.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-06-207790-5
Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am. Harry Mazer and Peter Lerangis. Simon & Schuster, $15.99. 9781416938958
Son. Lois Lowry. Houghton, $17.99 9780547887203
Soonchild. Russell Hoban, illus. by Alexis Deacon. Candlewick, $15.99 (144p) ISBN 978-0-7636-5920-2
Sophie’s Fish. A.E. Cannon, illus. by Lee White. Viking, $15.99. 9780670012916
Squid and Octopus: Friends for Always. Tao Nyeu. Dial. $16.99. 9780803735651
Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different. Karen Blumenthal. Feiwel and Friends, hardcover, $16.99 (9781250015570); Feiwel and Friends, paperback, $8.99 (9781250014450). Grades 7-10
Story of Things, The: From the Stone Age to the Modern Age in 10 Pop-Up Spreads. Neal Layton, paper engineering by Corina Fletcher. Hodder (IPG/Trafalgar Sq., dist.), $19.99 (22p) ISBN 978-0-340-94532-2
Story of Us, The. Deb Caletti. S&S/Simon Pulse, $16.99 9781442423466
Storyteller, The. Michaelis, Antonia (author), trans. by Miriam Debbage. Abrams/Amulet, $18.95 (9781419700477).
Stronger: A Super Human Crash (Super Human #03). Michael Carroll. Philomel, $16.99. 9780399257612
Such Wicked Intent: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein, Book Two. Kenneth Oppel. Simon & Schuster, $16.99. 9781442403185
Summer of the Wolves. Polly Carlson-Voiles. Houghton, $15.99. 9780547745916
Summer on the Moon. Adrian Fogelin. Peachtree, $15.95 (9781561456260
Superman Versus the Ku Klux Klan. Rick Bowers. National Geographic.
Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World. Sy Montgomery. Houghton.
That’s Not a Daffodil! Elizabeth Honey. Allen & Unwin, dist. by IPG.
This Is Not a Test. Courtney Summers. St. Martin’s Griffin, $9.99 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-65674-4
Time Snatchers. Richard Ungar. Putnam, $16.99 (9780399254857
Timeless Thomas: How Thomas Edison Changed Our Lives. Gene Barretta. Holt, $16.99. 9780805091083
Tina’s Mouth: An Existential Comic Diary. Kashyap, Keshni (author). Illustrated by Mari Araki. Houghton, $18.95 (9780618945191).
Traveling Restaurant, The: Jasper’s Voyage in Three Parts. Barbara Else. Gecko Press, $17.95. 9781877579035
Treason. Berlie Doherty. Andersen, dist. by IPG.
Tua and the Elephant. R.P. Harris, illus. by Taeeun Yoo. Chronicle, $16.99. 9780811877817
Two for One (Bink and Gollie Series). Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee, illus. by Tony Fucile. Candlewick.
Two Little Monkeys. Mem Fox, illus. by Jill Barton. S&S/Beach Lane, $16.99. 9781416986874
Unbearable Book Club for Unsinkable Girls, The. Julie Schumacher. Delacorte, $16.99. 9780385737739
Under the Baobab Tree. Julie Stiegemeyer, illus. by E.B. Lewis. Zonderkidz, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-310-72561-9
Unfortunate Son, The. Constance Leeds. Viking, $16.99. 9780670013982
Up Above and Down Below. Paloma Valdivia, trans. from the Spanish by Susan Ouriou. Owlkids (PGW, dist.), $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-926973-39-5
Vampirina Ballerina. Anne Marie Pace, illus. by LeUyen Pham. Disney-Hyperion, $14.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-4231-5753-3
Various Positions. Martha Schabas. FSG/Foster, $16.99 (336p) ISBN 978-0-374-38086-1
Walking on Earth and Touching the Sky: Poetry and Prose By Lakota Youth at Red Cloud Indian School. Timothy P. McLaughlin, illus. by S.D. Nelson. Abrams, $19.95 (9781419701795
What Little Boys Are Made of. Robert Neubecker. HarperTeen/Balzer & Bray, $14.99. 9780062023551
What to Do if an Elephant Stands on Your Foot. Michelle Robinson, illus. by Peter H. Reynolds. Dial, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-8037-3398-5
When Dinos Dawned, Mammals Got Munched, and Pterosaurs Took Flight: A Cartoon Prehistory of Life in the Triassic. Hannah Bonner. National Geographic, $17.95. ISBN 9781426308628
When the Sea Is Rising Red. Cat Hellison. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $16.99 ISBN 978-0-374-36475-5
Whole Story of Half a Girl, The. Veera Hiranandani. Delacorte, $16.99 (224p) ISBN 978-0-385-74128-6
Wild About You! Judy Sierra, illus. by Marc Brown. Knopf, $17.99 ISBN 978-0-307-93178-8
Wild Book, The. Margarita Engle. Harcourt, $16.99. 9780547581316
Will Puberty Last My Whole Life? Julie Metzger and Robert Lehman. Sasquatch Books.
World Away, A. Nancy Grossman. Disney-Hyperion, $16.99. 9781423151531
You’re Getting a Baby Sister! Sheila Sweeny Higginson, illus. by Sam Williams. S&S/Little Simon, $7.99 ISBN 978-1-4424-2050-2
Zeke Bartholomew. Jason Pinter. Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky.
Zelda the Varigoose. Sebastian Loth. North-South, $15.95. 978-0-7358-4076-8
Zoe Letting Go. Nora Price. Penguin/Razorbill, $17.99. 9781595144669
Zoo Girl. Rebecca Elliott. Lion Children’s Books, $14.99. 9780745963235

Our summer season is in full swing here. I know this because yesterday pretty much all we did was sell books to campers or for campers. It seems the first week of sleepaway camp is now so kids are stocking up. For every kid at sleepaway camp, there are kids who have arrived in town for their family’s summer vacation.
Every summer I wait patiently for my seasonal customers to stop by. These are the folks I only see during the summer when they come to the lake. Often these are families I’ve known for the entire time we’ve been open. Yesterday, one of my favorite families from Cape Town popped by. Jack and Alice are now 12 and 16. We’ve known them since Alice was three when she asked in her clear, pipping British-accented voice, “Would you happen to have a loo?” I have loved them ever since.
Jack is an angelic looking young man with curly hair and lovely smile. He put a massive stack of books, mostly hardcover, on the counter. His mom suggested that he get paperbacks. He said that these were all the new books in their series. Mom then said she wasn’t going to pay for all of those. Jack just smiled at her and said he had money. It turns out he had $75. He spent $73 and was thrilled.
His mom said, “But Jack, that’s all your money.” And he smiled impishly and said, “It’s all I want to spend my money on.” I loved the look that accompanied that sentence. It was if he was saying nothing else mattered but the books. I gave him a tote bag that he wore around his head while his family shopped. I love kids who buy books and see the value in it.
He’s a fast reader and I suspect he’ll be out there mowing someone’s lawn to get more book money before he heads home to Cape Town.

Every season finds me reading books set in the current season. For instance, in the winter I always read books about being snow-bound or iced in. In summertime, I seek about books set during the summer. There are a myriad of books set in the summer and here are a few of my favorites.
One of my favorites is Will Hobbs’s two-book series, Downriver and River Thunder, about kids who basically hijack their guided river raft and decide it would be a good idea to navigate the Colorado River by themselves. This book has it all. It’s exciting, scary and very well written; it’s a great book to recommend to early teens and older. It appeals equally to boys and girls. But best of all, I can sit on my deck reading this and feel like I’m going down the Colorado.
Another quintessential book about the summer and water is Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series. These books are the epitome of summer fun. There are no TVs, no smart phones, etc. and the kids have a grand adventure being outside and using their imaginations. We had a young customer who was so captivated by these books that at 10 he built a sailboat.
Anne Lindbergh’s The Worry Week is my absolute favorite summer book to recommend to the middle grade set. This slender book is just lovely and fun. Thinking it’ll be fun to live in the house alone, three sisters who live on an island with their parents pretend to get off the ferry in the mainland when their parents must attend a funeral. They arrive back at the beach house to discover that the kindly neighbor has removed all the food so that the mice can’t get to it. So now, the girls must figure out how to eat and survive in the relative comfort of their own house. A task that gets harder with each passing day. This book just works. The relationships with the sisters is spot on as the oldest one is really only interested in boys and the 11-year-old is left holding down the fort and working hard not to scare the youngest sister.
For the young adult reader I just love Jenny Han’s series that begins with The Summer I Turned Pretty. Belly has always spent the summer with Conrad and Jeremiah’s family, but this summer is different. Sexual tension has cropped up for the first time among the lifelong friends and Belly must navigate her feelings for the young men. There is a point in every girl’s adolescence when she realizes she has power over boys because she’s become a young woman. This book deftly deals with that, and the beautiful writing help make this book a great summer read. Now that there are three books in the series, a reader could spend all summer with Belly and see which of the brothers she finally chooses.
What are some of your favorite summer books?

If you’ve ever worked in a bookstore — or, for that matter, shopped in one — you’ll know that booksellers do a fair amount of detective work. Every day, we track down books people have heard about on the radio or from friends, cobble together titles from fragments of customer memory, and plumb our own reading experiences to make matches with the keywords our patrons conjure.
The title someone is certain is Jesus’ Feet turns out to be Bruce Feller’s Walking the Bible.
The “book about dogs who can hear people’s thoughts” is slightly inaccurate, but gives us more than enough to lead immediately to Patrick Ness’s The Knife of Never Letting Go.
The Bill Bryson book about space that a customer read about in the Wall Street Journal  is actually Mary Roach’s Packing for Mars, which the customer in fact heard about on NPR.
“Not The Magicians, but that other book that came out around the same time that was also really really good” happens to be Justin Cronin’s The Passage.
I’m not exactly sure how we nail some of these, but those lightning bolt “Eureka!” moments happen all the time. Doing this for almost 16 years has given us a pretty strong foothold in what’s published out there, but we’re also convinced that sometimes titles just pop into the atmosphere like helpful ectoplasm, waiting to be plucked from the air. (Heck, it’s an old building; there are probably ghosts.)
Even fairly straightforward detective work brings outsized joy to a searching reader. Yesterday, Flying Pig staffer Kelly was helping a young teen in the YA section. Josie was in the office, and overheard this snippet of their conversation:
Kelly: “Can you tell me about the book you’re looking for?”
Girl: “It’s this book, and I think she’s dead in it, but she’s not sure….”
Josie, popping out from the back room: “Oh! Oh! Is she in a coma, or is she dead?”
Girl: “I’m not sure. My friend read it. I think she’s dead….”
Josie: “Is she trying to decide whether or not to die or stay alive?”
Girl: “Oh, yeah, maybe!”
Josie whips If I Stay by Gayle Forman off the shelf. “Is this it?”
Girl: (eyes alight) “YES!”
It’s delightful to make people happy with these (what seem to be) small miracles of identification, and I think it reinforces the benefits and serendipity of coming into a bookstore staffed by human beings. Until online stores add a super-sleuth algorithm to their search engines, we bricks-and-mortar types can add “Book Detective” to the long list of quirky hats we get to wear every day.
Readers, if you have any funny, improbable, or miraculous book identification anecdotes, please feel free to share!

Starting July 1, children will be looking for Waldo, the ubiquitous Candlewick Press character, all over 250 towns and villages. The beauty of this month-long hunt is about the community-building this will provide to the participating stores.
This idea began last year when Carol Chittenden, owner of Eight Cousins in Falmouth, Mass., designed a town-wide hunt for Waldo at local businesses. Her trial run was such a hit that Candlewick has designed its own contest for broader use. There are 250 stores participating and it promises to be a month of great fun. But what I love most about it is the chance to work with other retailers in my town to make this a great event.
Small-town retailers seem to really grasp the importance of working together. In my town we like to say, “Keep ’em in town.” We need to give customers reasons why they can spend the whole day in the village and not want for anything. It is incumbent upon us to support each other. There is no better antidote to a big box store than a well-run independent store or restaurant. People seem to be seeking the personal shopping experience more and more. Candlewick understands this, and that makes this event really exciting.
Candlewick is asking stores to work with 19 other businesses on this Find Waldo Local campaign. I love this sort of event. It drives business to all the participants and that’s a great collaboration. Kids and families who might not go to other stores, or in the case of tourists, not know about them, will venture in to look for the small Waldos hidden within the store. Once Waldo is found kids will be given a I Found Waldo At card and then be entered in a drawing. There’s a grand prize drawing at the end of July with a ton of fun Waldo things and some of our partner stores are contributing small prizes, thereby extending their participation. The stores I’ve approached about this are very excited about the campaign.
I know I can be challenged when it comes to event planning, but Candlewick has made this so easy. There’s a dedicated website, a ton of promotional things that stores can copy and distribute (co-op covers the cost of copying), an amazingly detailed timeline, and even window display suggestions. If that weren’t enough, there’s even a press release template that we can use. This is what I call a publisher really working with indies to make a great event.
Admittedly, I’m a tiny bit behind (when will that ever not be the case?), but I feel ready for the fun to begin.