Featured Fall Books for Young Readers
As the days start to get colder, get cozy with these new poetry titles for children, YA novels in verse, and books by poets for young readers from our partners and advertisers.
The Mistakes That Made Us
selected by Irene Latham and Charles Waters
illustrated by Mercè López
Carolrhoda Books
October 2024, Hardcover $18.99
This engrossing anthology explores making mistakes and learning from them. Twenty brave poets share real-life blunders, along with a short explanation of what happened next. A book for anyone still figuring out who they are!
Age range: 7-11
Themes: blunders, growth, discovery
Kamau & ZuZu Find a Way
by Aracelis Girmay
illustrated by Diane Ejaita
Enchanted Lion
August 2024, Hardcover $18.95
Awakening on the moon, a grandma and grandson find a way to make a new life and connect with family Back Home in this powerful fable of African diaspora, resourcefulness, and love.
STARS from: Kirkus, Booklist!
Age range: 7+
Themes: intergenerational bonds, family separation, African diaspora
HaiCuba/HaiKuba
by Carlos Pintado and Lawrence Schimel
illustrated by Juan José Colsa
NorthSouth Books
September 2024, Hardcover $19.95 USD/$26.95 CAN
A celebration of Cuba through haikus written in Spanish and English. Discover the red, white, and blue tocororo bird, the crowded guagua, a Havana neighborhood, salsa music, and more through poetry that captures Cuban life.
Age range: ages 4-8
Themes: culture, history, language
In Praise of Mystery
by Ada Limón
illustrated by Peter Sís
Norton Young Readers
Hardcover $18.99
From U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, a transcendent picture book inspired by the poem engraved on NASA’s Europa Clipper. Limón celebrates humankind’s endless curiosity and shows how the unknown can reflect us back to ourselves.
Age range: 4+
Themes: wonder, imagination, space, water, nature
The Lake Huron Mermaid
by Linda Nemec Foster and Anne-Marie Oomen
illustrated by Meridith Ridl
Wayne State University Press
October 2024, Hardcover $24.99
A beautifully illustrated, dazzling poetic tale of sisterhood and the healing power of nature where a young girl and a mermaid must grow up and make sense of the world together.
Age range: 12+
Themes: mermaids, sisterhood, illness, nature, lakes