What to Look For at ALA Annual: These Are the Fall Children’s Books You’re Going to Want to See

If you’re headed to the upcoming American Library Association Annual Conference at the end of this week and you’d like some tips on Fall releases to look for in the booths, I have decided to create a little mini guide here of the various publishers and what they have coming out in the near future. True, I cannot guarantee that the publishers will have these to give out. They may, however, have samples on hand. If they do, READ THEM! These are the titles you’re not going to want to miss!

And, as a special bonus, scroll down to the end of this post for a listing of all the different places you’ll be able to run into me during the conference.

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Candlewick (Booth 2900 & 3000)

Donutrina in the Nutcracker Sweet by Helen Yoon

Publication Date: September 22, 2026

Told that she’s too small to ever live out her dream of dancing in The Nutcracker, Mouse transforms herself into an elegant Donutrina and inspires an entire city to join her. Yummy on every level. Were this written by any other author/illustrator, I (admittedly) probably wouldn’t have given it much thought or hope, let alone considered it list-worthy in some way. But then I saw it was by Helen Yoon. And Helen Yoon? She’s a force. Yoon wields a particular angular style in her illustrations that’s so uniquely stylized (yet recognizable) that every time she works on something I cannot help but be drawn to it. Here she does a nice little empowerment tale and fills it to the brim with delicious sweets (the churrorina is probably my favorite). This actually reminded me quite a bit of Andrea Tsurumi’s Accident, if only in terms of sheer community-wide chaos (but beautiful chaos). Is it too much of a holiday book? I say no. Yes, the ballet referenced is The Nutcracker, but that’s only because it’s the only major ballet out there featuring dancing baked goods. At its heart, this is just a ballet story. With donuts. Which is inarguably delightful and delicious.

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Deerheart by Eoin Colfer, ill. P.J. Lynch

Publication Date: September 22, 2026

Three witches, sworn to protect the Creedon Stone (a.k.a. the source of all magic) face a sly enemy of old and his army of men in this rousing fairy tale of magic, battles, and true love. A good old-fashioned fantasy in the vein of The Princess Bride. If The Princess Bride featured a cadre of butt-kicking witch sisters, of course. So Colfer has always drawn upon his Irish storytelling roots in his books, but never quite as explicitly as he has with this, his latest tale. If you want battle sequences, you got it. Huge disgusting hagworms? Got that too. Magic ah-plenty, an excellent villain, and lots of great language. I was, in short, a pretty big fan. Plus those incredible visual illustrations by P.J. Lynch don’t hurt matters either. Put another way, badass witch ladies doing badass witch lady stuff.

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Who Knows the Way to Mr. Grimly’s Classroom? by Chris Priestley, ill. Mariachiara Di Giorgio

Publication Date: August 4, 2026

Why does Grace volunteer to take her teacher’s book to Mr. Grimly’s classroom when she doesn’t know the way? Even she can’t say. Nor is she prepared for this wild, immersive experience filled with light and shadow. Oh! Okay! It took me reading through the press materials of this book to realize why the art of this title enraptured me as thoroughly as it did. Illustrator Mariachiara Di Giorgio is no stranger to us. Do you remember the wordless Midnight Fair? Or the beautiful and strange Mr. Lepron’s Mystery Soup? Same gal. Here, though, she’s been allowed to go dark, creepy, adventuresome, and strange. For whatever reason, I was reminded of a old book of my youth called Maze by Christopher Manson. This has a similar vibe. I understand that it’s a great big metaphor for when kids get lost in spaces that should be familiar to them and suddenly aren’t, but there’s such a sense of fun and play on these pages. And so evocative too! I love the mist, the shadows, and the use of light. I could see a kid poring over these pictures for hours.

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Charlesbridge (Booth 3015)

Anansi and the Talking Cloth by Caroline Brewer with Kwasi Asare, ill. Ekua Holmes

Publication Date: August 25, 2026

When mass-produced cloth becomes more popular with the human population than the kente-cloth meticulously woven by the spiders, everything starts going wrong. Now it’s up to the trickster Anansi to set everything right (since it’s kind of his fault it went wrong in the first place). It’s been a day or two since I’ve seen a legitimate Anansi folktale in picture book form (he’s been popping up a lot more in our middle grade and graphic novels in the last few years). This is also one of several folktale picture books where the artist is credited before the authors on the cover (the other two being Bing’s Cherries and The Geyser Sisters). In this particular tale, Anansi the Spider royally pisses off the spiders that weave kente cloth in the city, and must find a way to persuade them to begin again. What’s fascinating about the book is how Ekua Holmes chooses to depict the spider weavers and Anansi himself. The Author’s Note points out that, “He’s most often depicted as half man, half spider, but is sometimes shown as all man or all spider.” I think Holmes is going that route, which is interesting, but I’ll leave it to you to determine if it’s confusing to the eye.

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Disney Hyperion (Booth 2921)

Witchward Bound by Erin Bow

Publication Date: September 1, 2026

The Odyssey gone wonky! When two familiars (a crow and a cat) discover that their witch has left them for parts unknown, the odd couple set off on a quest to find her, come what may. And it really is The Odyssey! Appropriate considering the upcoming summer blockbuster film. And such a striking change from previous Newbery winner, Simon Sort of Says. It’s an animal story, which is a genre that’s seen a kind of resurgence lately thanks to Katherine Applegate, Jasmine Warga, and others. Erin writes in her Acknowledgements that this was just a book she wrote for fun. And, happily, it makes for a delightful read. The best pairing might be with a straightforward reading of the Odyssey (you can pick your version, but I’d recommend the Gareth Hinds graphic novel) and then read this. Kids are gonna get a kick out of picking up on the references, that’s for sure!

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Holiday House (Neal Porter Books) (Booths 2912 and 3012)

Duel by Shawn Harris

Publication Date: October 6, 2026

Symmetrical storytelling at its finest. Two princesses share one hill, and that simply will not do. Who will be victorious when their knights prepare to duel? Think of this as Shawn Harris by way of Suzy Lee. I suspect that hearing Harris talk about the creation of this book would be just as much fun as reading it (in its own very grown-up way). Made with tempera and acrylic paints, this story is told entirely in duplicate. But see, the thing with Shawn Harris is that he has a fine ear for readaloud picture books. Better practice beforehand, though, because it contains mild tongue twisters like, “the 1 who wins will rule the hill in whole,” which I cannot help but love. You know it’s a good readaloud when you find yourself beginning to mouth the text, even if you’re just reading it alone. I feel like in front of a crowd you could really ratchet up the tension as the knights’ lances get closer and closer and closer together. Plus you get to yell, “CLASH! CLANG! BANG! THUD,” and what could be more fun than that? Beautiful. Inventive. Awesome.

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Lerner (Booth 4130)

Kiki & Me by Leo Timmers, translated by David Colmer

Publication Date: October 6, 2026

Kiki and her horse are absolutely inseparable. But what happens when the child grows up and starts to get other interests? Lush, epic visual storytelling accompanies a simple tale of friendship and change. The Belgians are calling this book a “masterpiece”. The Belgians aren’t wrong. Now I’ve loved the work of Leo Timmers for years, and his books, for all that they look like no one else’s, are generally funny and a bit cartoony. What’s so incredibly striking about Kiki & Me is his dedication towards creating a book this striking. He does it with a clever technique that I’ve seen in picture books before, but usually older ones. In this tale you’ll get both incredible wordless two-page spreads separated out by pages with black and white pen & inks and text. What happens then is a sense of awe and drama. When Kiki and her horse are riding, Timmers is free to explore different terrains, landscapes, weather, seasons, colors, you name it! He legitimately seems to be having fun with this book and, by extension, the reader is having fun with him. He even manages to nail the ending (no small feat). Also, can we just pause for a moment to appreciate the musculature on these horses? Aren’t horses supposed to be the most difficult animals to draw? This is a book worth drawing Timmers out into the American mainstream. In a just world, everybody would read this.

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The New Cat by Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic, ill. Chris Park

Publication Date: October 6, 2026

Family cat Hunca Munca has a pretty good life. Pretty good, that is, until the family brings home a “new cat”. A sweet and stirring ode to the pets that teach us. All right. That’s it. I officially declare 2026 the Year of the Cat. There are just so many out there to love, and each one inventive and beautiful in its own special way. Just LOOK at what Chris Park is doing with these images too! I’m not simply talking about the colors (bright and colorful) or the shapes (the cat’s legs are triangles half the time). I’m also talking about the angles of perspective and the times when images on the page look like snapshots out of a family album. This is the same duo that brought us Touch the Sky, and clearly they’re good for one another. Lucianovic brings the sweetness and humor. Park brings the pathos and beauty. A stellar combo.

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Levine Querido (Not sure what booth)

Hometown by Shaun Tan

Publication Date: September 1, 2026

A stranger comes to town… and throws everything a girl has ever known and believed into chaos. A deeply felt, emotionally resonant story about belonging and choosing love over expectation.  I think I should get a very big and very shiny medal for not constantly screaming to the rooftops that there’s a new Shaun Tan. And the thing? It’s his best book since The Arrival. There have been Tan tales since that book, many of which were near and dear to my heart. But this? This book? It’s a step above. It’s also a story I don’t recall having seen before. Oh, and it’s also wildly feminist. At its heart, I think it’s about what happens when you prioritize the people who care for you over the people who are supposed to be the same as you. Anyone ever see the Sesame Street movie Follow That Bird? Same lesson. Herein begins and ends the only time a Shaun Tan book has been compared to a Sesame Street film. You’ll have to read it for yourself to understand why it’s just so groundbreaking. A masterpiece (and I don’t use that term lightly. Ever.).

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Macmillan (Booth 2525)

Rebecca by Kate Beaton, ill. Sydney Smith

Publication Date: September 22, 2026

The official Tearjerker Picture Book of 2026. There is no near competitor.

This is a deeply loving tale of family, and how sorrow is the flipside of love. Achingly beautiful in both word and image. Even if you were not to see the cover of this book, you would know that by simply combining the powerhouses Kate Beaton and Sydney Smith into a single picture book, something wonderful would be in your hands. Now Beaton, for all her overwhelming talent, has had a funny relationship to picture books over the years. Her inclination was always to be fairly silly. Now she’s written something deeply personal and it’s the best damn children’s book she’s ever done. No question. Once again, we must contest with the fact that the Caldecott cannot consider Canadians, so don’t expect this to win any ALA awards. But for every other kind of award out there? Give this All The Things. It is undeniably the best book on sorrow and grief I’ve read in a long time. I spent an inordinate amount of time in an airport with tears streaming down my face after making the mistake of reading this for the first time. Don’t do that, but DO read it.

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Penguin Random House (Dutton) (Booth 2415)

The Third Period Comeback by E.K. Johnston

Publication Date: August 11, 2026

A family curse has prevented any member of Hayley Rilko’s family to continue playing hockey after adolescence hits. But when her time is almost up, Hayley decides to take matters into her own hands, even if it means raising the dead. This may be the damndest thing I’ve read in a long time. And this isn’t the kind of title I usually pick up either. A sports book? Really? A hockey sports book? A Canadian hockey sports book? A Canadian hockey sports book with TONS of discussions of magic and menstruation?  Oh… wait, wut? Yeah, okay, so this ain’t your average everyday hockey/Canada/period/curse middle grade title. Johnston has never written for kids before but this is a pretty keen debut. She sometimes have a tendency to just dive into characters and situations without caring to catch the reader up, of course, so you may have to double back a couple times to realize that one of Hayley’s cousins is trans (and god help your soul if you don’t know what muskeg or an ATV are). But that combo of sports superstitions with actual magic works horrendously well. I found myself really diving into this story, and the fact that she knows precisely how long it should be and how to end it? *chef’s kiss* Any kid who reads this and doesn’t have a large extended family is going to be eaten up by jealousy by what they find here. I’m giving this one extra points for making some big big swings.

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Penguin Random House (Kokila) (Booth 2415

Night Ride by Christopher Myers

Publication Date: September 29, 2026

You know when they put in the extra effort to make a review galley of a book shiny that they’re doing double duty to draw your attention. Not that they’d need to. Chris Myers is a methodical artist and creator, and nowhere has he ever been more methodical than in the creation of this book. As he states in his Note at the end, this book was a collaboration of sorts. He made the drawings and then an “expert team of stained glass makers in Guadalajara, Mexico” cut each piece of glass, following the color maps that Chris provided. The end result is a wordless celebration of city biking and, more specifically, New York City itself. Immersive and truly beautiful, let’s all stand back and count how many professional reviews use the word “luminous” at least once. If you look at no other picture books at ALA, try to at least find this one.

Penguin Random House (Random House Studio) (Booth 2415)

A Riddle of Eels by Nicholas Day, ill. Corey R. Tabor

Publication Date: September 8, 2026 

Think you know eels? Think again. A deep dive (literally!) into one of the most mysterious and common denizens of the sea. To be perfectly honest, I’ve been nutty about eels ever since I discovered The Surprised Eel Historian AND Rachel Poliquin’s The Superpower Field Guide: Eels. Turns out, Day does precisely what I desperately hoped he would with this book. He leans in, and leans in hard, into the weirdness of what it is that we don’t know about eels. And it turns out, we don’t know a lot. Like, we have absolutely no idea where they go when they travel to breed. Any book that makes it crystal clear to kids how much there is in the world to still discover is a-okay in my book. But Corey R. Tabor was also a perfect person to pair with this, and the end result is this thoroughly engaging eel o’ rific title (that has a sense of humor to boot). Bonus points for the environmental angle as well.

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Scholastic (Booth 3615)

Goodbye, Koi by Jack Wong

Publication Date: September 15, 2026

“Today, Dad and I took our koi to their new home.” A deft and beautiful tale of rehousing fish, moving to a new country, and embracing change. Confession time now. I think I might have been the only person in America that wasn’t quite as enamored with Jack Wong’s When You Can Swim as everyone else was. I felt like it was good but that he was building up to something. Lo and behold, now we know what that build up was for. In his Author’s Note at the end, Wong states that not a lot of kids reading this book would relate to freeing your pet koi or moving from Hong Kong to America. Yet the themes are so deftly conveyed here (change and making friends and worrying about feeling lonely when you think of your old home) that any young reader will relate. Add in the fact that Wong went out and learned two entirely different kinds of Chinese brush painting (gongbi and xieyi) to convey the koi parts and the human parts of this book, and what you have on your hands is a title that would totally win a Caldecot… if Wong weren’t inconveniently Canadian. Doggone Canada. They get all the good stuff.

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Union Square Kids (3512)

Stampede by Jerrold Connors

Publication Date: August 25, 2026

Two little calves are just too twitchy to rest with their herd. Fortunately, all it takes is one nasty bug bite to turn a peaceful sunny day into a wild STAMPEDE!!! My penchant for chaos, amusingly told, building to a crescendo for comic effect, rears its ugly head once again. Connors may be best known to some for his work on the James Marshall biography JIM! that came out last year. This book is far more akin to something straight outta a Looney Tunes short, but boy is it effective! The logical fallacy of a herd traveling underwater (to say nothing of all around the world) would be difficult for any other picture book creator to sustain, but Connors makes it look easy. We’re seeing a nice crop of picture books this year that eschew heart and “lessons” in lieu of outright laffs. This certainly applies.

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And because I would love love love to see your beautiful faces, each and every one, here is my schedule at ALA. Stop by any of these events (please!) and say howdy!

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Saturday, June 27th

11:20 – 12:20 – A signing of POP! GOES THE NURSERY RHYME at the Union Square Booth (Booth #3512)

2:30-3:30 – Still Blogging, Still Relevant: Navigating Voice and Value in the Evolving Library Landscape

(McCormick Place Convention Center W186 ABC)

This session offers participants insights into how five diverse contributors to the School Library Journal (SLJ) bloggers’ network remain influential in an era of fast-paced change by continually adapting their digital presence to shifting platforms, changing reader expectations, and evolving redefinition of “literacy”. Because blogs foster digital information and cultural literacies, these blogs will serve as case studies to explore how to integrate storytelling, challenge inequities, and leverage technology tools to broaden engagement while advocating for librarians and library users.

From leveraging social media and multimedia tools to redefining their personal voice and addressing issues like censorship, trends in youth literature, creating space for vulnerable populations, and reduced budgets, these bloggers will share what keeps them writing—and what keeps readers coming back. This session embeds equity, diversity, accessibility, and inclusion as dispositions that guide our content creation.

This lively, candid discussion will offer librarians practical takeaways for amplifying libraries and literacies, starting to blog, advocating for marginalized voices, or staying in touch with thought leaders in the field. The SLJ bloggers network will serve as both a professional compass and a platform for advancing inclusion by keeping all our children at the heart of their work.

3:30-5:30 – Kidlit Drink Night

(VU Rooftop Bar on the 22nd Floor of 133 East Cermak Road)

From Cheryl Klein:

“Hey! Last year’s Kidlit Drink Night Happy Hour at ALA was such a rousing success that I’m organizing one again — this time at the VU Rooftop bar on the 22nd floor of 133 E. Cermak Road, across from the north end of the Convention Center. It will be from 3:30-5:30 on Saturday, June 27, and anyone with a love for children’s and YA literature is welcome to come! This includes librarians and publishing people, readers, writers, artists, and booksellers, people who are attending the convention and people who aren’t. Put your tote bags down, grab a drink, meet some new friends, and enjoy a little relaxed conversation before your evening activities.

Cash bar; we will have exactly 60 hors d’oeuvres if you get there early. Come one, come all, and feel free to spread the word to your colleagues or fellow attendees who might be interested. Hope to see you there!”

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Sunday, June 28th

9:30 – 10:00 – Play Chess Against Steve Sheinkin

(Activation Zone outside the Exhibit Hall)

11:00 – 12:00 – Presentation: Crush Climate Anxiety

(McCormick Place Convention Center W180 ABC)

The future of children’s libraries is Nature Smart! Learn how you can prevent or mitigate kids’ climate anxiety and support their environmental literacy with your core strengths: book/media evaluation and selection. Recent research shows the majority of older elementary school kids experience climate anxiety and are asking questions about climate change in schools, while their teachers are largely untrained and unsure how to approach the subject.

Meet the Blueberry Awards, an annual list of the best new nature and climate books for kids 3 – 10+. Learn criteria to choose the best environmental literature for kids that instills gratitude for nature and empowers them to act. Discover authors who know how to avoid climate anxiety, while sharing literary excellence, diversity and inclusion, and accurate science. Explore the explosion of new environmental titles by Black, Latiné, and Indigenous authors that combat the ‘nature gap’, help kids see themselves in the natural world, and share wisdom from BIPOC elders and scientists. Learn how nature connection leads to better school outcomes, especially for urban kids! Experiment with tools to assist you in STEM environmental programming integrated with great nature books.

Join the founder of the Blueberry Awards, a collection development manager and School Library Journal blogger, and a Sibert Honor author of environmental literature to learn how Nature Smart librarians can help. School and public libraries can be Nature Smart community hubs to address kids’ climate anxiety with messages of resilience, creativity, and collaboration that strengthen nature connections and empower effective action.

6:15 – ??? Newbery/Caldecott/Legacy Banquet

Hilton Chicago (720 S Michigan)

Join ALSC for the annual celebration of the year’s Newbery and Caldecott medalists and honorees, and the year’s Legacy awardee! This highly-anticipated event brings together the ALSC community to celebrate excellence in children’s literature. ALSC is excited to gather together in 2026 to celebrate.

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Monday, June 29th

10:30-11:20 – Meet the Newbery Honor Authors with Betsy Bird

PopTop Stage (Booth #1756)

Join 2026 John Newbery Honorees Karina Yan Glaser (The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli), María Dolores Águila (A Sea of Lemon Trees), Daniel Nayeri (The Teacher of Nomad Land), and Aubrey Hartman (The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest) for an in-depth conversation about their books, their writing journeys, and what receiving a Newbery honor means to them. Moderated by Betsy Bird. Co-sponsored by Little, Brown, HarperCollins, Macmillan, and Levine Querido.

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Hope to see you there!

Filed under: Best Books, Best Books of 2026