Publisher Preview: Transit Editions (Spring 2025)

Fresh off their incredible Batchelder Honor win for A Sleepless Night (written by Micaela Chirif, illustrated by Joaquín Camp and translated by Jordan Landsman and the only ALA winner this year to contain, what I’m dubbing, the-greatest-fart-of-all-time), the team at Transit Editions was willing to sit me down and tell me about their NEXT round of books they have coming out this (and next!) season. So hold onto your butts, folks. We have a range of lovely titles here and they are like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Today, we focus on just three titles:

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The Expedition by by Tuvalisa Rangström, illustrated by Klara Bartilsson 

Translated from the Swedish by Saskia Vogel

ISBN: 9798893380019

Publication Date: April 15, 2025

Here’s the pitch: “Wernog Hertzog driving the Magic School Bus.” Can you resist? You cannot. In this book we join a Band of intrepid explorers as they move through the human body. The Hertzog part of the equation is that the whole book is narrated in a kind of diary style perspective. Needless to say, it isn’t exactly scientifically accurate. You can watch the adventurers waiting for the train to the appendix. taking boats in the small intestines, and climbing the vertebra like ladders. The ultimate goal? To make it to the human brain at the end. Essentially, this is a fun and fanciful way to talk about the human body, done with surreal artwork. As such, it’s a nice mixture of teaching kids about the essential functions of the body with a ton of art. Transit Editions told me that they found this book at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. They asked this particular publisher what the book they loved but couldn’t believe that no one in America had taken a chance on. Here then is your answer. Consider it a Jacques Cousteau and Shackleton voyage all in one.

And you just HAVE to check out the mind trip that is the brain:

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Ashimpa: The Mysterious Word by Catarina Sobral, translated by Julianna Barbassa

ISBN: 9798893380026

Publication Date: May 13, 2025

This picture book begins when a researcher discovers in their records a mysterious new word: Ashimpa. Trouble is, nobody knows just what “ashimpa” is or what it means or what part of speech it is. Thus, the quest of the book is to go around the city asking people. The oldest woman in the city says one thing. A distinguished linguist says another. It progresses through a delightfully tangled mess of languages and meaning, and even has a kind of Schoolhouse Rock feel. It’s a noun, an adverb, a conjuction! A bunch of bookstores that actually exist get a cameo in the art (see below) which is pretty neat. There is so much life and motion to these images on the page. It just goes zooming around everywhere. Interestingly enough, Sobral’s books just haven’t made it into the English-speaking market so far. This is definitely a funny one to begin with.

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Have a Good Trip, Mousse! by Claire Lebourg, translated by Sophie Lewis

ISBN: 9798893380057

Publication Date: June 10, 2025

Anyone else notice that grumpy characters are on the rise in our easy books? Between Lone Wolf and Mousse, the grumps are having a moment. Speaking of which, Mousse is back! His previous book (A Day With Mousse) didn’t do too badly for itself, becoming a New York Times Best Book of the Year. This next book continues with its titular misanthropic striped hero. How best to describe this book? Think Frog and Toad on the Riviera. Mousse awakes one morning to a very gray day with water coming down and no one else around. His cozy routine thrown into disarray, he soon speaks with a limpet who says that everyone has gone south for the season. So off Mousse goes to the Riviera! He loves it (it’s the friggin’ Riviera, people), but he’s also lonely and misses his friend Barnacle. Mousse promptly emails him, Barnacle arrives, and they have a lovely time. But when a new creature named Felix arrives and seems to get along better with Barnacle, Mousse has to make peace with being with different kinds of creatures. Speaking of which, this is a species-fluid title. We don’t know what Felix is, Barnacle is not technically a walrus, and even Mousse is unclear. He’s stripey! That’s what matters. And since this series is right between easy readers and early chapter books, it’s going to get a lot of new fans. In case you’re curious, I asked and Transit intends to do four Mousse books in total.

Thanks again to the Transit team for showing me all these beautiful books. Look for them this coming season! Once you do, they’re hard to miss.

Filed under: Publisher Previews