Our Holiday Gift Guides are here to help you find the perfect page-turner for every bookworm on your list this year!
We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again, we’ll keep saying it until everyone knows it: we are living in a new golden age of young adult and middle grade literature! This year only helped drive that point home, with books that could be hilarious or haunting, adventurous and enlightening, and never once treat their readers like just kids.
Dogtown
Katherine Applegate, Gennifer Choldenko, Wallace West (Illustrator)
Feiwel & Friends
Dogtown is a shelter for stray dogs, misbehaving dogs, and discarded robot dogs whose owners have outgrown them. Chance, a real dog, has been in Dogtown since her owners unwittingly left her with irresponsible dog-sitters who skipped town. Metal Head is a robot dog who dreams of being back in a real home. And Mouse is a mouse who has the run of Dogtown, pilfering kibble, and performing clever feats to protect the dogs he loves. When Chance and Metal Head embark on an adventure to find their forever homes, there is danger, cheese sandwiches, a charging station, and some unexpected kindnesses along the way.
The First Cat In Space and the Soup of Doom
Mac Barnett, Shawn Harris (Illustrator)
Katherine Tegen Books
The Moon Queen has been poisoned—by SOUP. And with few she can trust in her own court, she and First Cat will have to journey alone to find the antidote in time. If only Loz4000 were still with them… But the once-heroic toenail clipping robot is running from his own terrible tale, and now looking for new purpose and meaning in this vast universe, taking Loz4000 far away from his friends. Unbeknownst to our trio, secret forces are working against them. With villainous cowboys about, high-speed chases, and pianos falling from the sky—can our iconic trio find their way back to one another and save the Moon Queen before it’s too late? And who would want to poison her? Will they ever eat soup again? Is Captain Babybeard, the adorable baby pirate, in this one?
The Wild Robot Protects
Peter Brown
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Life for Roz and the animals on their island is perfect. But when mysterious, dangerous waters surround the island, the animals are forced inland to fight over dwindling resources. Roz calms and organizes the animals, but the poison tide takes a terrible toll on the island. So the wild robot sets out across the ocean, determined to stop the poison tide. During her journey, Roz encounters amazing geological formations and incredible creatures, and she sees the devastation caused by the toxic waters. Can the wild robot save the ocean and her island and everything she loves? This thrilling third installment of the Wild Robot series takes readers on a new adventure through the ocean and to the frigid northern waters where Roz may have to make the ultimate sacrifice.
The Puppets of Spelhorst
Kate DiCamillo
Candlewick
Shut up in a trunk by a taciturn old sea captain with a secret, five friends—a king, a wolf, a girl, a boy, and an owl—bicker, boast, and comfort one another in the dark. Individually, they dream of song and light, freedom and flight, purpose and glory, but they all agree they are part of a larger story, bound each to each by chance, bonded by the heart’s mysteries. When at last their shared fate arrives, landing them on a mantel in a blue room in the home of two little girls, the truth is more astonishing than any of them could have imagined. A beloved author of modern classics draws on her most moving themes with humor, heart, and wisdom in the first of the Norendy Tales, a projected trio of novellas linked by place and mood, each illustrated in black and white by a different virtuoso illustrator. A magical and beautifully packaged gift volume designed to be read aloud and shared, The Puppets of Spelhorst is a tale that soothes and strengthens us on our journey, leading us through whatever dark forest we find ourselves in.
Ink Girls
Marieke Nijkamp
Greenwillow Books
Eleven-year-old Cinzia is a printer’s apprentice in sunny Siannerra, a bustling, powerful city, where the ruling family encourages science and arts. Cinzia’s days are filled with helping her mestra, Aronne. She adores Mestra Aronne for taking her in—most guilds don’t have room for apprentices with a crippled leg—and she loves life in the raggedy workshop that smells of paper and printing, where secrets and stories are always circulating. When Mestra Aronne discovers that the principessa’s brother is stealing from the city, her latest newsletter becomes the talk of the town. Both Aronne and Cinzia are arrested and brought to the palazzo to be charged with treason. Desperate, Cinzia manages to break free, weaving through the mazelike palazzo, only to end up in the gardens, where she comes face-to-face with Elena, the principessa’s daughter. Elena is the exact same age as Cinzia, but she’s forced to keep to her rooms and garden. To protect her, according to her mother. To protect the city, according to her uncle. Because Elena is not the charming, powerful noble her family wants her to be. According to them, she doesn’t communicate well. She’s too gullible and literal and struggles to understand other people. The girls decide to work together to free Mestra Aronne and bring justice down upon Elena’s uncle. They slip out of the palazzo and follow a whisper network of girls, drawing supporters from throughout Siannerra. If one person—no matter how young—can change the course of history, just imagine what a whole flock of them could do.
A Horse Named Sky
Rosanne Parry, Kirbi Fagan (Illustrator)
Greenwillow Books
Young colt Sky was born with the urge to run. Alongside his band, he moves across the range searching for fresh water and abundant grazing. But humans have begun to encroach on Sky’s homelands, bringing farming, mining, logging, and construction, and poisoning the water. With fewer resources to share, Sky knows that he must leave if his family is to survive. He hopes that one day, he’ll be strong and brave enough to return and challenge the stallion to lead the herd. For now, being a lone wild horse in a vast landscape is not easy, and things get even more dangerous when Sky is captured and forced to run for the Pony Express. Now, against all odds, Sky must find a way to escape and reunite with his family. Chronicling the perils of westward expansion and the grueling Pony Express from the perspective of a wild horse, A Horse Named Sky is a gripping animal survival story about family, courage, trust, leadership, and loyalty. A wonderful choice for fans of DreamWork’s Spirit and Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty.
Treasure Island: Runaway Gold
Jewell Parker Rhodes
Quill Tree Books
Zane is itching for an adventure that will take him away from his family’s boarding house in Rockaway, Queens. So when he is entrusted with a real treasure map, leading to a spot somewhere in Manhattan, Zane wastes no time in riding the ferry over to the city to start the search with his friends Kiko and Jack and his dog, Hip-Hop. Through strange coincidence, they meet a man who is eager to help them find the treasure: John, a sailor who knows all about the buried history of Black New Yorkers of centuries past—and the gold that is hidden somewhere in those stories. As a vicious rival skateboard crew follows them around the city, Zane and his friends begin to wonder who they can really trust. And soon it becomes clear that treasure hunting is a dangerous business…
Jawbreaker
Christina Wyman
Square Fish
Max Plink’s life is complicated. Her parents aren’t getting along. The school bullies are relentless—and her own sister is the cruelest of them. Worst of all, her mouth is a mess. Max has a Class II malocclusion, otherwise known as a severe overbite. She already has braces, but now Max has to wear painful (and totally awkward) orthodontic headgear called “the jawbreaker.” Could things get any worse? Yes. The journalism competition Max wants to enter has a video component. But being on camera means showing her face to her junior high classmates, and possibly the whole city. Turns out, following her dreams is complicated, too.
