Things are finally slowing down a bit at work, and I thought I’d split my round-ups by age a bit, to keep them from being quite so overwhelming for me. Here are sequels, new-to-me authors, and new books by old favorite authors. Enjoy!

Middle Grade

• The Forest in the Sky. Greenwild #3 by Pari Thomson. Read by Sophia Nomvete. Farrar, Straus and Giroux/Macmillan Audio – This environmental/school fantasy trilogy concludes! I don’t recall hearing much buzz about these books (maybe I’m just out of the loop), but they are a great choice for readers looking for a balance of action, character, and world-building, told with both humor and thought.
• The Vale by Abigail Hing Wen. Third State Books, 2025. Review copy provided by the publisher – A boy’s AI fantasy world comes to life and affects his real life in this highly illustrated middle grade debut by YA bestseller Abigail Hing Wen. This is a fun choice especially for fans of video games and felt skewed a little younger to me, despite a crush.
• Silverborn: the Mystery of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend. Read by Gemma Whelan. Orion Children’s Books, 2025 – the latest in this series, the first of which won the Cybils award. My youngest listened to this in about two days, and said that the story doesn’t let up. I can’t disagree. It’s still a heady mix of intrigue, charm, adventure, and countering prejudice.

• The Library of Unruly Treasures by Jeanne Birdsall. Illustrated by Matt Phelan. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2025 – Ms. Birdsall takes on contemporary fantasy with the classic feel that made her Penderwicks books so popular. Gwen, unwanted by her parents, is thrilled when her Uncle Matthew is pleased to meet her and even given her a bedroom painted her favorite color. Of course she doesn’t believe the little neighbor girl when she starts telling Gwen about the small flying beings – definitely not fairies – who live at the neighborhood library that Gwen’s own ancestor founded. But it turns out that they are very real, and endangered – so that it’s up to Gwen and her ancestral magic to save them. Even though we sometimes give too much weight to ancestral powers, it was so very satisfying to see Gwen, tossed backed and forth between parents and across continents, come into true family, power, and home, and the tiny flying people are a delight.
• Dreamslinger by Graci Kim. Disney Hyperion, 2025- In this contemporary fantasy, those who can draw energy from dreams into reality are mostly feared. 14-year-old Aria lives in a home founded by her father to help Dreamslingers like her control the chaos and destruction that their dream power can cause. But when a public demonstration goes badly wrong, Aria volunteers to train at a school for Dreamslingers in a tiny kingdom hidden in Korea where Dreamslingers are revered and trained to use, rather than suppress, their powers. Will the lessons from her father hold up to the new training? This has an exciting mix of fast-paced action, enticing powers, friendship drama, and unburying of family secrets.
• Fury of the Dragon Goddess by Sarwat Chadda. Read by Vikas Adam. Rick Riordan Presents, 2023 – I read City of the Plague God back in January of 2021, when this series based on Mesopotamian myth was alarmingly prescient. I lost track of book two for a couple of years, but I’m happy to say that the story still holds up, beautifully combing modern-day commentary and ancient myth with the action and humor you’d expect of a Rick Riordan Presents book.

• Storm Singer by Sarwat Chadda. Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2025 – 12-year-old Nargis is a Worm, a poor and wingless human living in the desert lands ruled by the garuda, the winged bird creatures. Despite being orphaned and needing a crutch, she has not lost her spirit, nor the rare ability to sing magical songs to summon the elements. When her antics get her exiled and thrown into the path of an exiled garuda prince, the adventure really gets going, involving sky pirates, long-buried secrets, and learning to work together with people once considered enemies.
• Return to Sender by Vera Brosgol. Roaring Brook Press, 2025 – Oliver and his mom have their first stable home in a long time, an apartment inherited from a deceased aunt. This bonus comes with some downsides – overly-nosy nieghbor Eliza, and Oliver going to a private tech-focused school, where his poverty and lack of gadgets stand out. When he discovers that the mail slot in the wall in the apartment can make wishes come true, Oliver is thrilled at first. But when he and his new friend, mischief-loving Colette, really get going, things get out of control. This starts out sad, proceeds to over-the-top hijinks, and finished up on a more serious note as Oliver and Colette figure out the high cost of their wishes. It has spot illustrations throughout, making this an illustrated middle grade as opposed to Brosgol’s previous graphic novels. The anti-consumerist message might be a bit heavy-handed, but I still enjoyed it lots.
• The Poisoned King by Katherine Rundell. Illustrated by Ashley Mackenzie. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2025 – Impossible Creatures was one of my favorites last year, and the winner of the Cybils MG Speculative-Fiction category, so naturally I had to read this sequel. It couldn’t, of course, be the same, but it was beautiful and immersive and I’m looking forward to more.

• Sir Callie and the Witch’s War by Esme Symes-Smith. Labyrinth Road, 2024 – Another continuing series here, in book 3 of 4 of the Sir Callie series. Here, Callie and their friends find themselves separated and seemingly on opposite sides of the conflict, yet all trying to find a way to build a world that has room for people like them. It’s a mix of action and introspection that I enjoy, though I felt like it could have been a little shorter for me. I’m still looking forward to reading book 4, which is out now.
• Labyrinth of Souls by Lesley Vedder. Illustrated by Abigail Larson. G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, 2025. Thanks to the author for a review copy! – Ix Tatterfall has always had to keep a lot of secrets – she often crosses over into the realm between life and death, the Labyrinth of Souls, and she can see and sometimes befriend the Nightmare creatures that cross over from the Labyrinth into the regular world. Others know they exist, but have to rely on the elite Candle Corps to push them back into the Labyrinth. The other secret is that she and her aunt have not turned over her father’s crystal-encased body to the Candle Corps. The consequences for both of these things are very serious – so Ix is astonished when she’s caught in the Labyrinth and invited to join the Candle Corps instead of being punished. This is a lovely cozy-spooky magical school story that I’d give to fans of Amari and the Night Brothers or The Marvellers for the similar themes of kids loving and yet not quite fitting in to their magical schools.
• The Firefly Crown by Yxavel Magno Diño. Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2025. Review copy kindly provided by the publisher. – In a world where magic users are strictly divided into heirarchies by what insect their powers borrow from, Yumi and her parents are lowly crickets, dressed in brown and working to rid crops of pesky crickets. Yumi wants more – but being attacked by the Ghost Horde of life-sucking ghost insects on the way to a mandatory meeting at the capitol, and then being blamed for both the horde and royal Firefly Crown is much more excitement than Yumi really wants. On the plus side, while working to clear herself and her parents and figure out who really is behind the theft and the Ghost Horde, she might actually make her first friends.

Teen

• Lady’s Knight by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. Read by Helen Keeley and Barbara Rosenblatt. Storytide, 2025 – Gwen is a blacksmith’s daughter who’s secretly both doing most of the blacksmithing work for her father and longing to be a knight, making her own beautiful sword and armor. Isobel is the most beautiful and eligible lady in all of Darkhaven, set – very much against her will – to be the prize in the tournament that Gwen has her heart set on competing in. Perhaps together they could both achieve what they long for – if longing for each other doesn’t get in the way. It has a lot of the sensibility of Gwen and Art Are Not in Love and My Lady Jane, together with the dry intrusive narrator and bold, self-aware anachronisms of the Bridgerton Netflix series. If you hate any of those things, this might not be for you, but I thought it was a lot of fun.
• Flamer by Michael Curato. Henry Holt and Co, 2020 – This has been one of the most banned books every year since it came out. I’d been hesitant to read it because I knew it dealt with a boy being treated badly for being gay and I was worried that my tender heart couldn’t take it. Not to worry! Yes, the main character, like the author, is dealing with being an overweight, effeminate Filipino boy at a Boy Scout camp filled with thin white boys. There is bullying, and one particularly heart-wrenching scene. But there’s also friendship, both in person and by mail, the joy of camping, the majesty of nature, and the comfort of faith. This is absolutely a book that belongs in every library for teens.
• Somadina by Akwaeke Emezi. Read by Nene Nwoko. Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2025 – I’ve been hearing blogging friends and colleagues praise Akwaeke Emezi for years, and finally got around to reading one of her books. In an African-inspired world where young people receive magical gifts at puberty, Somadina and her twin brother Jaiyeke have grown taller and taller without every hitting puberty. When their powers finally arrive, Somadina and her parents are terrified by her power, while her brother is quickly kidnapped by a horrible, yet powerful man. As she journeys to save him, she must come to peace with her own power. This was original and engaging, with plenty to think about.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts – what have you been reading lately? Have you read any of these books yourself?