Publisher Preview: Levine Querido (Spring/Summer 2025)

Allow me to remind you of the following.

Only July 4, 2024, I presented a preview of the upcoming titles of the publisher Levine Querido. And when I did so, I happened to include a small picture book by the name of Chooch Helped. That book would go on to win a Caldecott Award half a year later. So! Just in case you were inclined to pass on reading today’s preview, let me remind you that you could easily be passing on the next winner of a major award in the process. Just sayin’.

Not that the good folks at Levine Querido are new at winning awards. By this point they’ve gotten their fair share of ALA youth media awards, including a Newbery Award as well. I imagine they’ve a little bingo card in the office where they check off one award after another. Have they gotten a Sibert yet? Maybe they will!

Today, we’ll take a gander at some of the books they have slated for the Spring and Summer 2025 season. They’re big. They’re beautiful. They’re memorable. Keep your eyes on them:

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The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World II Story by Daniel Nayeri

Publication Date: August 12, 2025

ISBN: 9781646145669

If this cover looks familiar to you, that may have something to do with the fact that I recently presented a cover reveal (which happened to include a slew of rejected book jackets as well). And speaking of Award winners, Daniel Nayeri is still hot off of his Newbery Honor win for The Many Assassinations of Samir the Seller of Dreams (published by, that’s right, Levine Querido). With this book Nayeri presents his first middle grade release since that Newbery Honor win. Like that book it’s a work of historical fiction. Unlike that book it’s set during WWII. Now a lot of people don’t know the role that Iran played in WWII. I certainly didn’t. So this tale focuses on that fact, while also being an homage to teachers, teaching, and the people who are putting their work out there. It is also a page-turner. Please note too that WWII is HUGE on the middle grade bestseller lists these days. I mean, just ask Alan Gratz.

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My Presentation Today Is About the Anaconda by Bibi Dumon Tak, ill. Annemarie

Publication Date: February 4, 2025

ISBN: 9781646145102

Why should humans always set themselves up to be the experts on other animals? In this book you get a series of oral presentations by animals for animals and about animals because, quite frankly, humans are always getting things wrong. Of course the moment I heard that you know what I thought? How cool would it be to assign a different animal to each kid in the class and have them embody its presentation? It would be like a very furry, scaly, and feathery Good Masters, Sweet Ladies! And like that book, it’s definitely comedic with a nice big text that’s easy on the eyes. Add in the minimalist illustrations and you’ve got yourself a winner. The reviews of this title keep calling out the fact that it isn’t just funny, but also cleverly teaches you how to make and research an oral presentation. The bonus? There’s an index at the end. Consider it a kind of starter lesson in presenting and researching a project.

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The Barking Puppy by Lori Lobenstine, ill. Il Sung Na

Publication Date: April 1, 2025

ISBN: 9781646145058

You know how you sometimes get those parents and grandparents that ask you for a children’s novel that feels “classic”? What does that even mean anyway? Maybe, if we’re giving them the benefit of the doubt, it just means gentle with some fun pictures along the way. This book does indeed have illustrations on the page making it a novel with a classic feel. The hook? It’s about a newspaper by dogs for dogs. I shall endeavor to explain. When Sophie moves from Vermont to Boston with her Jack Russell terriers, she befriends a teenaged girl next door named Juno with a pug named Bonney. Trouble is, Bonney needs surgery and Juno’s family can’t afford that. What to do? Well, these enterprising young women come up with a plan. They invent The Barking Puppy, the aforementioned newspaper, in the hopes of raising the money. Turns out the plot is based on real life. Lori and her goddaughter really did do this for a pug’s surgery. Bonus: The book is all kinds of casual representation on the page. For example, Sophie is mixed-race young girl and there’s a gay aunt in the mix. Cute and fun.

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Beinoni by Mari Lowe

Publication Date: July 15, 2025

ISBN: 9781646145065

I was pretty floored when I read Mari Lowe’s dybbuk-centric title Aviva Vs. the Dybbuk. By the way, did any of you miss the new paperback cover of that book? Here, check it out now:

Gorgeous, right? Anyway, at this point Lowe is a (very justifiably) two-time Sydney Taylor winner. Her focus also usually tends towards the inner lives of tween girls. But in her latest title, Beinoni, she’s switched that focus to a story about a tween boy. Always a little disappointed that the supernatural stuff stays on the fringes of her storylines? Don’t be. Here, you’ll find more supernatural elements than in her previous books. And check out this plot: It’s set in a utopia that may not be quite as utopian as it first appears. There’s also a “chosen one” who’s supposed to keep everything the same. Turns out Mari works in an Orthodox school, which helps a lot when she needs to really capture that pre-teen voice. This one is DEFINITELY on my To Be Read list.

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The AI Incident by J.E. Thomas

Publication Date: July 8, 2025

ISBN: 9781646145089

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown meets Restart by Gordon Korman. And is anyone else getting a Jerry Pinkwater vibe from that cover, or is it just me? So this is just your average, everyday foster-kid-battles-a-rogue-AI-robot kind of tale. There is also a lot of emotional heart and core to the story. The protagonist of this tale has been in the foster system his whole life. His latest foster mom is very grumpy but I don’t know that I’ll surprise you when I tell you that they later bond and grow close (I’m am SUCH a sucker for those kinds of stories). Also? Wacky, hilarious STEM shenanigans. Essentially, our hero is supposed to show the robot around the school, but unfortunately it’s evil and wants to take over the curriculum. Like ya do.

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Okchundang Candy by Jung-soon Go, ill. Aerin Park

Publication Date: March 4, 2025

ISBN: 9781646145140

Originally from Korea, this book has all the feelings one might get from looking at a faded family album. There’s a great deal of seriousness to this tale. At its core, it’s a story about loss, yet it’s not an unhopeful story. More a tale about aging and grief (both the grief that comes when you lose the person most important to you AND the grief of watching an older relative fade away) but it still manages to have its lighter moments. I’ll just say that there are some squares of toilet paper incidents that are pretty funny. Author Jung-soon Go is a creator well-known for tackling difficult subject matter. Little wonder that Go books win a lot of awards in Korea. As for the format, I suspect that this book will end up in a lot of picture bok sections, even though it’s more of a graphic novel/picture book hybrid. Personally, I think it probably belongs in a graphic novel section, if only because the subject matter is a little heavy for the picture book set.

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Afloat by Kirli Saunders, ill. Freya Blackwood

Publication Date: March 4, 2025

ISBN: 9781646145072

Take a trip to Australia and New Zealand! That, apparently, is where the creators of this book reside. Now I was already familiar with the work of Freya Blackwood (last year’s The Boy and the Elephant was really well done). Author Kirli Saunders is new to me. She describes herself as a proud Gunai woman with ties to the Yuin, Gundungurra, Gadigal and Biripi people of Australia. And when she’s not being the Manager of Poetic Learning and an Aboriginal Cultural Liaison at Red Room Poetry in Sydney, Australia, writing writing books like this environmental story. It’s an Indigenous take on a community coming together to combat climate change. In the course of the storytelling, Saunders uses basket weaving as a metaphor for communal togetherness. Best of all, it doesn’t really hit you over the head with the message. It doesn’t have to! The point definitely comes across.

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Pilgrim Codex by Vivan Mansour, ill. Emmanuel Valtierra and Carlos Rodriguez Cortez

Publication Date: February 11, 2025

ISBN: 9781646145157

This. Book. Is. A. Trip. I guarantee you’ve never read anything like it. So the first thing you might have noticed is that the art is inspired by the Mexican codices that have often shown up in the work of Duncan Tonatiuh. Here, the creators of the book have used the style to tell a contemporary story of immigration between Mexico and the U.S. using Pre-Mexican codices. The publisher mentioned that someone said that the book reminded them of a video game, and considering the color scheme and the sheer number of dangers the heroes of this book must escape, that’s not an unfair characterization. So the original version of this book (available in Spanish) was one long scroll. And, as the publisher told me, “It’s hard to sell a book that’s a scroll.” That scroll has been turned into individual pages, but you can still see some remnants of its earlier form. And talk about a story with relevance today! The migrant crisis in our country today is filtered here through this incredible art style. It’s actually out already, so find yourself a copy. And if you’re planning on going to TLA, Emmanuel is from Mexico and will be in attendance. It’s intense subject matter but with a lot of art and illustration to draw you into the story.

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Worthy by Andrea Wang, ill. Youa Vang

Publication Date: September 9, 2025

ISBN: 9781646145577

Admittedly this book isn’t even out until September of this year, but they just couldn’t wait to tell me about it a little. Why? The author is none other than Andrea Wang. And, as you may recall from Watercress, the last time Wang wrote a picture book it got a Caldecott. At its core, this is a biography of Joseph Pierce. The plot according to the publisher is this:

“In the mid-nineteenth century, an impoverished farmer from Canton, China, sold his young son to an American sea captain, Amos Peck. The boy, dubbed “Joe,” worked on the ship for months, not knowing if his fate was to do so forever. Or would he be sold again? When the ship returned to America, Captain Peck brought the young boy to his family, who raised him with the other children. Joe Pierce grew, gave distinguished service in the Union Army, married, had children and ultimately became an American citizen–all at a time when anti-Chinese prejudice was rampant.”

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And finally, I have very exciting news for you. There is a brand new paperback cover of Daniel Nayeri’s Newbery Honor winning The Many Assassinations of Samir the Seller of Dreams coming out June 3rd with cover art by Dion MBD and cover design by Chad Beckerman.

Behold:

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And that is it! Many thanks to Antonio Gonzalez Cerna and the team at Levin Querido. Keep pumping out those good books, folks!

Filed under: Publisher Previews