Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publication: July 1, 2025
Reviewed from copy provided by publisher
ISBN: 9781665938129
In 1980, Vision was a teen pop star, singing in front of large crowds. Today, Margot is trying to catch the attention of people online with her music, but her ukulele isn’t cutting it. Margot finds a synthesizer on the side of the road with a sign saying that it’s not haunted. She hauls it home, hoping for her father to teach her to play. But her father deserts Margot and heads to California to become a star once he gets enough online fans. Left behind, Margot starts to learn to play keyboard and that’s when Vision, whose spirit is trapped in the synthesizer, appears. The two girls start to play music together, but is something darker involved with the keyboard and what is the price of chasing external fame?
A marvelous graphic novel for middle-grade readers, this book successfully combines modern online attention culture with throwbacks to the 1980s. The haunted, or not, synthesizer forms a bridge both in music and connection between the two girls, one a ghost and one alive. The message of finding your own happiness rather than seeking external validation is offered in a variety of ways through the story, via Margot’s father, her friends and Vision herself. The art is bright and popping and veers dynamically into horror lighting at times.
A great graphic novel with a message for our times. Appropriate for ages 8-12.
A raccoon has grown up living in the wall of a human restaurant where she emerges at night and cooks. She must make do with ingredients she finds on the window sill and in people’s lockers. When she tries to make ramen, she needs an egg. But just as she finally gets it in her hands, it hatches. She sets off to find the nest that the tiny baby crow came from. On the journey, they find Mole’s Hole, a restaurant for all sorts of animals that serves a variety of things made from worms. They make new friends, including a posse of other raccoons and a major enemy in an owl. Night Chef must find a way to save her little crow friend and that means figuring out where her own life is taking her.
This is Song’s first foray out of beginning readers and picture books and it’s a marvelous one. Her art is welcoming to young readers who will find colorful and friendly new characters on the pages. There is plenty of richly written action to carry the story forward and a quest worthy of our little heroine. The writing is deft and clever, funny at times but also full of heart.
A delicious new recipe for an elementary-aged graphic novel. Appropriate for ages 6-9.
Caldecott Honorees return with the third in a series that started with The Old Truck and The Old Boat. This time the story is set in the winter with a holiday nod. A child and father load their sleigh with firewood and distribute it throughout the nearby homes. The sleigh gave warmth and light to those who used the wood. The town started to grow and grow and the sleigh struggled to carry the wood and gradually fell apart. While the father repaired the sleigh, the child used their skills to create something new, helpful and fun with the broken wood. It all still brings neighbors warmth and light.
This cozy picture book emphasizes the connectivity between neighbors. It has a strong sense of nostalgia as the sleigh is horsedrawn. There is a lovely simplicity and quietness to the book that is ideal for a busy holiday season. The illustrations are strong, playing with color against white backgrounds.
A lovely addition to the series, just right read near the fire. Appropriate for ages 2-5.
After a big snow, two neighbors head out for an epic snowball fight. They build their forts and try to hit one another but it’s harder than it looks. Soon they have cold noses, frozen hands and sore arms. A lucky dodge of falling snow offers them a new option: sledding! The two come into the warmth for cookies and cocoa but soon are reminded that they forgot one great snow day tradition. Told in the approachable and funny style that we have come to expect from this duo, this picture book is a blizzard of snowy fun just right for your own snowy storytime.
Jazzy comes from a long line of witches who make the brooms that all of them ride. But Jazzy is different. She’s not excited about learning magic spells or about learning to ride a broom. It’s not until Jazzy sees her first bicycle that she finds her passion. Soon she is zipping around secretly on a bicycle that she made with the help of her best friend and Fiona, her pet bat. As Jazzy gets more and more focused on cycling, her friendship starts to fall apart along with her school work. When a broom riding performance is announced, Jazzy must find a way not to embarrass her entire family since she can’t ride a broom yet.
Bagley has created a marvelous witchy world in this graphic novel for elementary-aged readers. The diverse characters, include Jazzy’s family of Black queer women. With the focus on witch traditions vs. human bicycles, readers get to explore what being different from your family and community feels like and how telling the truth is a way to move forward and find acceptance. The art is funny, action-filled and fully depicts the community of witches.
A non-scary witch book that’s worth a ride. Appropriate for ages 6-9.
Island Storm by Brian Floca, illustrated by Sydney Smith (9780823456475)
Two siblings set off to watch a thunderstorm arrive at their island home. They walk through the forest to the beach where the waves grow bigger and crash on the shore. They pull one another onward, following the road along the water as the wind gets stronger. They keep on going, past the lighthouse and into the empty town. The storm arrives with a Boom! And now the children head quickly back home the way they came, finally arriving to a worried adult, dry towels and light.
Floca captures the wonder, joy and thrill of being out in a storm as we follow these two children on their adventure. Throughout, there is a sense of a building pressure from the storm that is released in a very satisfying way for the reader. Floca plays with language and structure throughout, using repetition to build the story’s drama. The illustrations by award-winning Smith are a great match to the text, creating movement across the page, embracing the growing darkness, and sharing the adventure the children are having.
A wonderfully dramatic picture book, this one would be perfect for windy nights. Appropriate for ages 4-6.
The skies overhead are changing from “freshly washed” to potential rain in this picture book by a master poet that is a celebration of clouds.The clouds change as they are reflected in glass buildings or peeked at between tall buildings. Readers will watch the storm arrive as Kooser uses child-friendly laundry metaphors for the various cloud formations and the darkness of the stormy sky.
Kooser’s poetic skill is fully on display as he creates magic with his wording and invites children to look up and see the beauty of the skies above them whatever the clouds may be doing at the time. The illustrations by Myers pick up on the laundry theme without overplaying it, showing two children who form a connection across rooftops.
Gorgeous words and art combine to form a beauty of a storm. Appropriate for ages 4-8.
A hot sunny summer day is transformed when the dark clouds move in. The wind picks up making the grasses sway and picking up leaves and seeds. Rain dances and darkens the sidewalk. Then a flash and thunder. There is safety inside as the storm continues through the night. In the morning, the sun returns as the clouds leave the sky.
Told in short lines, this poetic picture book ties nature’s storms subtly to human emotions. The language here is emotive and gorgeous while staying accessible to young readers: “thunder rolls down the stairs like a tumbling snore.” The illustrations done in digital collage capture the light, darkness and drama of the storm.
A thunderously good picture book. Appropriate for ages 2-4.
Reviewed from e-galley provided by Quill Tree Books.
This incredibly inviting collection of cummings poetry is pure delight. Every single poem brings a smile to the face at his masterful wordplay, willingness to chop words into pieces, and the dance of poetic structure across the page. Children will be charmed by each poem, enjoy the absurdities and playfulness of cummings’ work, and find themselves inspired to try to write some modern poems themselves. The collection moves through the year from balloons to horses to the sea to Halloween and then snow.
The illustrations are delightfully playful as well with smiling diverse children who have a toy-like quality to them. The illustrations are bright, colorful and add to the modern feel of the book while also having a rather timeless feel, just like cummings’ poems.
A wonderful book of wordplay and poetry. Appropriate for ages 6-9.
Reviewed from e-galley provided by Norton Young Readers.
Starting with a regular orange, the book quickly moves to other sorts of fruit and citrus that are oranges, or are they? The history of orange and when it became a recognized color in the English language is explored. The book moves on to elements that are orange, how to make orange paint, and famous art pieces that embrace the color. Children get to explore monarchs, Buddhist monk robes, flags, marigolds and much more.
This picture book takes the exploration of a single color to a new level. I loved looking at the language development around the color that coincided with the fruit. The various animals, foods, and uses of the color from bridges to astronaut suits is a delight. There is no speaking down to children here, but elevating them to a level of understanding for this unique color. The illustrations are simple and approachable, matching the approach of the book. They are also filled with a wide variety of oranges, of course.
Orange you glad for this picture book? Appropriate for ages 3-6.
A little boy annoys his older sister by saying his sentences backwards. “This yellow is a banana!” She corrects him time and again as he points out red apples, purples grapes and a lime is green. He does it all with the great joy of a toddler discovering things, but his sister gets more and more frustrated and frazzled. Soon she too is accidentally saying things backwards. Finally, they agree that “This orange is orange” plus it’s delicious.
Told entirely in the dialogue between the two siblings, this picture book is the epitome of toddler joy at discovery. It also cleverly uses wordplay to show the importance of colors as well as creating a lot of giggles along the way. The illustrations are done with white backgrounds and simple lines that allow the specific colors to shine as the little boy presents them.
A colorful read-aloud sure to get laughs alongside learning. Appropriate for ages 1-4.
Verity is a young witch in the middle of her witch training where she has left home and spends each year in a new place. She is just ending a lovely year living near a bakery when a leaf appears to beckon her to her new assignment. Foxfire is a village separated from the world since their bridge was destroyed, leaving them isolated. To make it worse, there is a creature who has laid a curse upon them, ruining their crops, leaving them hungry and desperate. It is into this village that Verity arrives. Her magic will not be trusted to be helpful and she must find ways to take on the creature ruling over the town who continues to make deals with villagers where they often never return.
There are so many witch books, so please don’t assume this is just another one that you’ve read before. Martin has created a witch who has real power, real duties to service and a connection to the natural world that reads with such deep roots that it will echo in your bones. His story is marvelously complex both in the characters and their motivations and in the magical structures he employs. Nothing is simple for the reader or Verity in Foxfire, which is challenging and delightful. Add in a touch of romance and this is fire.
Impossible to put down, this is one of the best teen witch books out there. Appropriate for ages 12-18.
In this graphic novel for beginning readers, two of the author’s recurring characters get caught in a blackout. It’s too dark to read bedtime stories, but one of them gets an idea. Grabbing a long ladder, they climb up into the sky with a big bag and gather up all of the stars. Released from the bag into the bedroom, it is suddenly too bright to read without wearing sunglasses. But someone else misses the stars in the sky. Perhaps giving them back is the right thing to do after all?
Written with a wry sense of humor and a delight in making a normal circumstance magical, this comic for new readers is a grand bedtime read. Done entirely in speech bubbles, the book is nicely paced. The illustrations are joyous and full of action, sharing the loving dynamic between the two characters.
A great pick for new readers looking for a graphic novel. Appropriate for ages 4-7.
When the cherry blossoms open, it’s time for hanami. Sai and her parents head to the park to see the pink blossoms and for a family reunion. But when everyone arrives, Sai feels like a stranger. When she meets Avi, a distant relative, she realizes they have things in common. Sai talks about asking careful questions of the customers in her parent’s kimono shop to get just the right one for them. Avi speaks through his art, creating universes on the page. The two want to meet everyone, but they aren’t sure where to start. Perhaps they can each use the skills they already have to form new connections, together. A book that celebrates thoughtfulness and quiet while also speaking to shyness and the importance of connecting with others.
A story completely suited to hanami. Appropriate for ages 4-8.
Waking Brain Cells 