Publisher Spotlight Preview: Fall/Winter 2024 – Sweet Cherry, Albatros, & Barefoot Books

Publisher Spotlight and Ellen Myrick once more inform this slew of books slated to come out later this year (and I think I should get extra points for using both “slew” and “slated” in a sentence together, but that’s neither here nor there). If you’re curious about the first of these round-ups, you can find #1 here. And now, more of them!

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Boy Under Ground by Isabelle Marinov

ISBN: 9780998047775

Publishing Date: September 2024

Take a trip with this new British publisher to Paris. See those skulls on the cover of the book? Paris + skulls can mean only one thing: Catacombs! I’m a big time catacomb fan, so you can imagine how excited I was to hear about Marinov’s upcoming middle grade novel. Our hero, Hugo, is a kid on the autism spectrum. Kids who get overwhelmed may agree with him that a good solution to that problem might be to plunge underground. And if you happen to have a map and can look for buried treasure? Bonus! This one aims to be a page-turning adventure in Paris.

The Secret In the Tower by Andrew Beattie

ISBN: 9780998047775

Publication Date: September 2024

If his name sounds familiar, that may be because Beattie is well-known as a novelist for adults. Interestingly, this is his first novel for kids. This of it as a kind of Prince and the Pauper. Usually being mistaken for nobility is seen as a good thing, but in this particular case an apothecary boy’s resemblance to a boy of noble birth means soldiers want to send him to the Tower of London. Escaping, he sets out to find out his true identity. Think castles and knights galore.

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The First Snow by Marie Stumpfova & Radek Maly

ISBN: 9788000070759

Publication Date: August 27, 2024

Ah, now here’s a pretty one. Beautiful palette on this next book. It’s a story that tries to convey that feeling you get when you wake up and the world is entirely covered in white. This comes to us from a pair based out of Prague (and country that knows from snow) and you may possibly remember the illustrator from Red Comet’s How Animals Sleep. It has a bit of a Snowman vibe, if only because a snow creature comes alive and takes the kids in the story in a small, safe adventure. Less sad at the end, though, I’d say.

We’re Off to the Forest by Katarina Macurova

ISBN: 9788000072890

Publication Date: September 24, 2024

You can always tell an import from its squirrels. I recently learned that the red squirrel, so beloved of European children’s books, has been threatened in the past by the invading ??? squirrels so commonly found in America. You won’t learn anything about that in this particular book, of course. I just think it’s kind of a neat fact. In this story, a squirrel son and dad try to find a favorite acorn that they buried. And along the way you get a peek into the interconnectedness of forest ecosystems. So that’s neat.

Kidding Nature Series: Hide and Seek in Nature and Shadow Play by Helena Harastova & Serafima Kosikava

Hide and Seek in Nature: 9788000072883

November 12, 2024

Shadow Play: 9788000072876

Publication Date: November 26, 2024

A twofer! Well these are fun. Hope you like die-cuts, cause this duo is rife with them. Essentially, you get hints about something on one page but have to peek through their die-cuts to see what they actually are. Think of it as a book that teaches you to look at things in original ways.

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Ayo’s Adventure: Across the African Diaspora from Afro to Zulu by Ain Heath Drew and Erin Robinson

ISBN: 9798888592113

Publication Date: September 3, 2024

Anyone remember the Caldecott Award winning picture book Asanti to Zulu? It was an abecedarian look at different cultures in Africa, and some might argue it was a bit ahead of its time. Apparently it would take a good fifty or so years before we’d see anything along similar lines, but here we are. An A to Z book that looks at all the countries in Africa. The specificity of this book is what makes it distinctive. With each page you consider something from a different part of Africa through the eyes of a kid. So why do we need it? Well, as great as that old Caldecott Award winner was, this one’s thoroughly modern. We’re looking at everything from hip-hop to kente cloth, from Mansa Musa to revolution. Plus the cultures and countries represented include Trinidad and Tobago, the Dogon and Makonde people, Nigeria, African American culture, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Ghana, Haiti, Mali, Egypt, Cuba, Colombia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Xhosa, Yoruba, and Zulu. And that’s not all! Spiritual traditions represented include Yoruba beliefs and Islam.

Finally and best of all? Great backmatter! It explores connections between the nations, cultures, and traditions represented on both sides of the Atlantic. This one? A keeper.

Message in the Mooncake: A Legend from Ancient China by Sapphire Chow and Xiaojie Liu

ISBN: 9798888592281

Publication Date: October 1, 2024

Folktale alert! Set in the Yuan Dynasty (around 800 years ago), the story takes place during the Mid-Autumn Festival. At that time, young Su-Ling’s small village is planning a rebellion against the Mongolian invaders. How do deliver secret messages at that time? Through Su-Ling and a box of mooncakes, of course! A fun take on an old tale, and best of all? It has backmatter! Glorious glorious backmatter!

That’s all she wrote for today, folks. But stay tuned. We’ve plenty more books to let you know about soon.

Filed under: Publisher Previews