Publisher Preview: Transit Editions (Winter 2025/26)

Aw, Transit Editions. We’d never forget about you. Though your list each season is small (there are just three books in this preview today!) your books are mighty. Transit specializes in small books that you wouldn’t notice at all, were it not for their concentrated efforts.

Here then are the titles for the Winter 25/Spring 26 season:

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Look Up by Azul López

Publication Date: September 9, 2025

ISBN: 9798893380286

Lest you fall under the misunderstanding that America is the only country with a thriving scene of trans children’s book authors, there are trans authors for kids in other places around the world as well. For example, Azul López! She transitioned after her book Giant on the Shore was released last year. If you saw that book then you may remember that it’s narrated by a child to a giant who is just offshore, seemingly afraid to get any closer. You never see the giant itself, just the footprints and holes where it has been. This book about someone just out of sight hits a little differently in light of López’s transition. She herself is Mexican and her latest book, Look Up, is translated by Shook (who is non-binary).

As it happens, I know this book… sorta. When last I was in Bologna in 2023, there was a large exhibit featuring Azul’s work and this book was highlighted. The pages were blown up to enormous proportions. The folks from Transit Editions were also there, and they told me that Azul actually read the book to them storyteller-style at Bologna that year.

As for the book itself, this is a dreamy retelling of a Mexican legend rendered in fantastic illustrations about a man who is always looking up at the sky in wonderment. He does it so much and so often that the people around him say that if you look in his eyes he’ll have scars in his pupils. His earthbound cohorts don’t understand why he’s always looking at the sky. They tell him he should be more concerned what’s happening down here on earth where they’re building scaffolds and structures. Eventually their derision eats away at him and his gaze gradually falls so far from the sky that he ends up staring at the ground. He starts walking in the woods and soon enough he comes upon this hole in the ground. Just as he’s staring down into it, he’s greeted by this thrumming and rush of colors, wind, and feathers as a huge flock of swallows lifts out of the hole and into the air. The swallows rush across the sky and then all the people who criticized this man find that their gazes are finally drawn upward too.

As Transit Editions puts it, it’s a story about the courage required to look your own way and be curious about your own things. And maybe also not to pay as much attention to people who say it’s not worthwhile.

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The Very Fine Clock by Muriel Spark, ill. Edward Gorey

Publication Date: September 30, 2025

ISBN: 9798893380262

In the mood for a rediscovered classic? This book’s a true find. I certainly had never heard of it! A picture book written by none other than Muriel Spark herself? Could such a thing be? Indeed, as it turns out, Ms. Spark wrote three kids books in her day (but I was assured that this is the best one). And yes, you read correctly, it was illustrated by none other than Edward Gorey. By completely coincidence, Transit Edition is releasing this on the 100-year anniversary of Gorey’s birth. But how did they know about this book? Turns out they heard about it from an editor friend, and then while they were in Bologna for the Book Fair they came across the Italian edition. Now they’re revisiting it in its original English glory. The story is not necessarily one that would bring to mind either Spark or Gorey, though. It focuses on the friendship between a clock named Ticky and his owner. Ticky is the clock that a professor uses to set all the other clocks. Every Thursday evening the professor’s friends come over and while they have their stimulating conversations they also come to consider Ticky an admirable clock and want to call him a professor. While honored, Ticky declines, worried he’ll lose his connection to the other clocks. Turns out, this book will be launched in October at the Society of Illustrators in New York City. Why there? Because the Society will be doing an exhibit on Gorey at that time. They’ll also be doing something with Daniel Handler and Lisa Brown then in the Bay area (which is absolutely perfect). FYI!

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Mousse’s Treasures by Claire Lebourg

Publication Date: February 3, 2026

ISBN: 9798893380293

You know, I’ve grown quite fond of the Mousse books these past few years. As you might recall, the first book in the Mousse series (A Day With Mousse) was declared a Best Children’s Book of the Year by The New York Times. The second book is my personal favorite, but now we’ve a third title to add to the series. In this latest installment, everyone’s favorite little misanthropic creature becomes a caretaker. One day, Mousse’s sister drops off his niece Pistachio. For her sake he goes to the boulangerie and carefully arranges his books and art supplies. It’s all for naught, though, since all his niece wants to do is to play in the water. Honestly, Pistachio wants almost nothing to do with Mousse, until the day when she finds a wet flyer for a yard sale. At first Mousse brushes it off but then his best friend Barnacle writes him and mentions the yard sale and asks him to take part. So they try to find things for the yard sale in the attic but everything there is too precious to Mousse. Barnacle, in contrast, has a lot of stuff to sell and does some gangbuster sales. Barnacle offers to buy the three objects Mousse was selling and with those things prepares a feast for Mousse and their family. This is the deepest of the Mousse books to date, thought it retains his customary dry humor and charm. Best of all, Transit editions can confirm that this series will be a quintet and not merely a quartet in the end.

Thanks to Adam, Ashley, and Jarrod for this fabulous preview. Look for these books in the future, folks! They’re coming!

Filed under: Publisher Previews