A Celebration of Books,
Writers & LIterary Excellence

Save the Date


Gaithersburg
Book Festival

May 17, 2025

10am – 6pm

Bohrer Park


Books


We are currently planning the 2025 Gaithersburg Book Festival and will start listing our Featured Authors' Books this Fall.

Ernő Rubik and His Magic Cube

This first picture book biography of Rubik’s Cube creator Erno Rubik reveals the obsession, imagination, and engineering process behind creating an iconic puzzle.

Celebrating 50 years of the most popular puzzle in history!

In the hills of Budapest, near the banks of the Danube River, lived a quiet boy named Ernő Rubik. He loved books, art, nature, and—most of all—puzzles. And he grew up to create the most popular puzzle in history. This picture book biography explores the experience and interests that inspired the inventor of the Rubik’s Cube.

From the time he was a child, Ernő was curious about the objects around him. What did they look like on the inside? What about geometric shapes? How many ways could he fit them together? Could he combine them so they somehow became something that was greater than its components?

Ernő grew up and became a professor of architecture and design. Still fascinated with how shapes worked together, he fashioned an object, a cube made up of smaller cubes that twisted and turned without breaking. This object eventually became known as the most popular puzzle in history, the Rubik’s Cube.

Kerry Aradhya’s accessible text takes us behind the scenes of the creative process and into the mind and imagination of a remarkable inventor. Kara Kramer’s cheerful, multi-media illustrations encourage readers to think about inspiration, reflection, and the joy of puzzles—and solutions.

About Kerry Aradhya

Freedom Fire: Moko Magic: Carnival Chaos

From the best-selling author of the Jumbies series comes an Afro-Caribbean-inspired story about three cousins who discover they are mokos–protector spirits–during carnival season in Brooklyn

Weirdness and wonders abound in this colorful celebration of Afro-Caribbean culture by the author of the beloved Jumbies series.

Twelve-year-old Misty and her mother have just moved from Trinidad to Brooklyn, New York, in time for the annual carnival celebrations over Labor Day weekend. Misty has plenty to deal with getting used to living with her cousins Aiden and Brooke in her new surroundings. On top of that, her mom is too busy trying to find a job and her aunts and uncles are too preoccupied with carnival preparations to pay any attention to her.

Then really strange things begin to happen. A ball of feathers in the basement turns into a creature that squeaks and rolls around. When Misty and her cousins eat pieces of mango anchar, flames shoot out of their mouths. Most disturbing of all, Misty begins to see visions of the future–scary visions that soon come true.

Misty discovers that she and her cousins come from a long line of mokos, people who have special powers meant to help them protect their community. Misty can see impending danger, Aiden can heal, and Brooke has crazy physical strength. The trio is just learning about their skills when Misty senses something watching her. And then each of the carnival events is disrupted by a different disaster. Some kind of evil force is clearly trying to stop the festivities. But why? And will moko magic be enough to save the day?

About Tracey Baptiste

The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts

In this singularly powerful novel, bestselling author Louis Bayard brings Oscar Wilde’s wife Constance and two sons out from the shadows of history and creates a vivid and poignant story of secrets, loss, and love.

“Wonderfully researched, beautifully crafted, movingly told, The Wildes is a treasure to read.”
—Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less and Less Is Lost

The Wildes is a marvel of tenderness, irony, heartbreak, and reclamation that demonstrates why Bayard is among the most essential—and most entertaining—interrogators of the past.”
—Anthony Marra, author of Mercury Pictures Presents and A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
 
In September of 1892, Oscar Wilde and his family have retreated to the idyllic Norfolk countryside for a holiday. His wife, Constance, has every reason to be happy: two beautiful sons, her own work as an advocate for feminist causes, and a delightfully charming and affectionate husband and father to her children, who also happens to be the most sought-after author in England. But with the arrival of an unexpected houseguest, the aristocratic young poet Lord Alfred Douglas, Constance gradually—and then all at once—comes to see that her husband’s heart is elsewhere and that the growing intensity between the two men threatens the whole foundation of their lives.
 
The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts takes readers on the emotional journey of this family, moving from the Italian countryside, where Constance Wilde flees from the aftermath of Oscar’s imprisonment for homosexuality, to the trenches of World War I and an underground bar in London’s Soho, where Oscar’s sons Cyril and Vyvyan must both grapple with their father’s legacy. And in a brilliant feat of the imagination, act 5 reunites the entire cast in a surprising, poignant, and tremendously satisfying tableau.
 
With Louis Bayard’s trademark sparkling dialogue and deep insight into the lives and longings of all his characters, The Wildes could almost have been created by Oscar Wilde himself. Lightly told but with hidden depths, it is an entertaining and dramatic story about the human condition.

About Louis Bayard

Star Sailor: My Life as a NASA Astronaut

Space science and shared humanity shine as the first Black head of NASA offers an up-close and thrilling account of his shuttle missions, including some of the defining moments of NASA’s history. With immersive full-color photos.

Sail the stars with astronaut Charlie Bolden as he recounts his amazing shuttle missions, including deploying the Hubble Space Telescope, training with Sally Ride, and leading the first US space mission that included a Russian cosmonaut as a crew member. Charlie even got to congratulate Star Wars creator George Lucas at the Academy Awards—from space! Follow Charlie’s incredible story, from watching movies as a kid about Flash Gordon flying to Mars—from the balcony where Black people had to sit—all the way to becoming the first Black NASA Administrator. From the thrill of watching lightning storms from the mesosphere to the heartbreak of the Challenger disaster, Charles’s life as a star sailor is full of adventure and discovery, told in his own words along with award-winning author Tonya Bolden. In-depth looks at how astronauts train, work, and live are complemented by diagrams, highlighted vocabulary, scientific sidebars, and incredible personal photographs. Back matter includes an author’s note and timeline.

About Charles F. Bolden Jr.

Behind Every Good Man by Sara Goodman Confino
Behind Every Good Man
Behind Every Good Man by Sara Goodman Confino

A wronged wife goes toe to toe with her cheating husband at the polls in this hilarious and heart-lifting novel by the bestselling author of Don’t Forget to Write.

It’s a doozy of a bad day for Beverly Diamond when she catches her husband, Larry, in a compromising position with his secretary. What’s a DC suburban wife to do with a soon-to-be ex, two young kids, and no degree or financial support in 1962? Beat the louse at his own game, that’s what.

Larry runs the Maryland senatorial campaign for the incumbent candidate projected to win against his younger underdog opponent, Michael Landau. But Beverly has the pluck, political savvy, and sheer drive to push Landau’s campaign in a successful new direction, even if he already has a campaign manager who is less than pleased she has inserted herself into the race.

Now it’s rival against rival. She and Michael do make a great team…maybe in more ways than one. But with the election heating up, she needs to focus on one thing at a time. If Bev can convince Michael to go modern, pay attention to women’s issues, and learn how to dress himself properly, maybe she can show Larry exactly how much he has underestimated her their entire marriage―and make her own dreams come true in the process.

About Sara Goodman Confino

Fairy Walk

Set off on a magical nature adventure—and let your imagination soar—on a forest walk with the creator of Jabari Jumps.

Let’s go, let’s go! Hopping and skipping into the woods behind their house, a trio of kids and their loyal doggy companion head off into the wild world in search of fairies. Their explorations lead them across a babbling brook and through bushes and meadows of fragrant honey snowdrops and bee balm. But where are the fairies? They peer under heavy rocks and peek under fleecy carpets of moss, finding dragonlike salamanders and scampering creepy-crawlies, but no fairies. The adventurers don’t lose hope, though—if they look very closely and listen hard enough, there’s always magic to be found in the woods! Gaia Cornwall has crafted an enchanting story that celebrates flights of fancy, curiosity, and the wonder to be found in the natural world.

About Gaia Cornwall

Unarmed by Megan Doney
Unarmed: An American Educator's Memoir
Unarmed by Megan Doney

After surviving a school shooting, English professor Megan Doney was traumatized and adrift. Rather than hardening her heart and life, she wrote Unarmed: An American Educator’s Memoir. An insightful response to American gun violence and illusions of public and private safety, this memoir is about how to live with an open heart, alive to luck, learning, and love.

This short, literary memoir is a personal response to a school shooting at New River Community College in Christiansburg, Virginia. Even more so, Unarmed: An American Educator’s Memoir is a must-read for educators at all levels, for college students, for parents, and for all of us who think deeply and widely about American society.

Winner of the 2024 Nonfiction Prize from the Washington Writers’ Publishing House.

About Megan Doney

Truth, Lies, and the Questions in Between

As a presidency unravels and the fight for women’s rights intensifies, a teen girl’s future will be determined by her willingness to seek the truth, in this stunning work of historical fiction perfect for fans of Monica Hesse and Malinda Lo.
 
Patty Appleton is making history. As one of the Senate’s first female Congressional Pages, she’s not only paving the way for other politically minded girls, she has a front-row seat to debates dividing the nation, especially around women’s rights and roles. The battle between the old ways and the new polarizes the women in Patty’s life, and she finds herself torn between traditional expectations—to be anobedient daughter aspiring to become a perfect wife—and questions new friends like fiercely feminist Simone encourage her to ask.

But the questions don’t stop at women’s rights: The Watergate scandal is intensifying. As evidence mounts that the White House engaged in crimes, smears, and cover-ups to manipulate an election, Patty worries her dad, a fundraiser for President Nixon, could somehow be involved. Determining truth from lies becomes ever more essential for the nation’s future—and for Patty’s as well.

Illustrated throughout with remarkable real-life images and headlines, this timely exploration of 1973—the year of Watergate hearings, the Equal Rights Amendment, and Roe v. Wade—unfolds through the story of a young woman driven to question everything as she learns to think for, and rely on, herself.

About Laura Malone Elliott

The Bookshop by Evan Friss
The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore
The Bookshop by Evan Friss

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“A spirited defense of this important, odd and odds-defying American retail category.” —The New York Times

“It is a delight to wander through the bookstores of American history in this warm, generous book.”
—Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author and owner of Books Are Magic

An affectionate and engaging history of the American bookstore and its central place in American cultural life, from department stores to indies, from highbrow dealers trading in first editions to sidewalk vendors, and from chains to special-interest community destinations

Bookstores have always been unlike any other kind of store, shaping readers and writers, and influencing our tastes, thoughts, and politics. They nurture local communities while creating new ones of their own. Bookshops are powerful spaces, but they are also endangered ones. In The Bookshop,we see the stakes: what has been, and what might be lost.

Evan Friss’s history of the bookshop draws on oral histories, archival collections, municipal records, diaries, letters, and interviews with leading booksellers to offer a fascinating look at this institution beloved by so many. The story begins with Benjamin Franklin’s first bookstore in Philadelphia and takes us to a range of booksellers including the Strand, Chicago’s Marshall Field & Company, the Gotham Book Mart, specialty stores like Oscar Wilde and Drum and Spear, sidewalk sellers of used books, Barnes & Noble, Amazon Books, and Parnassus. The Bookshop is also a history of the leading figures in American bookselling, often impassioned eccentrics, and a history of how books have been marketed and sold over the course of more than two centuries—including, for example, a 3,000-pound elephant who signed books at Marshall Field’s in 1944.

The Bookshop is a love letter to bookstores, a charming chronicle for anyone who cherishes these sanctuaries of literature, and essential reading to understand how these vital institutions have shaped American life—and why we still need them.

About Evan Friss

Friends with Secrets by Christine Gunderson
Friends with Secrets
Friends with Secrets by Christine Gunderson

In a funny and suspenseful debut, Christine Gunderson explores the myth of the perfect mother, the bonds of female friendship, and the haunting impact of secrets.

What you see isn’t always what you get.

Take Ainsley. The gorgeous mother of two lives a picture-perfect life with her husband, Ben―aspiring politician and heir to a candy fortune―in suburban Washington, DC. But in reality, Ainsley has no idea what she’s doing and is terrified someone will figure out who she really is and where she came from.

Nikki’s fighting to keep afloat as a stay-at-home mother of four, subsisting on chicken nuggets and very little sleep. She’s a mess on the outside, and inside yearns for the validation―and the paycheck―of the television news career she left behind.

When a dangerous figure from Ainsley’s past becomes a coach at her kids’ school, she fears the worst and confides in Nikki, spilling every detail of her former life.

Together, they devise a plan to expose the coach and safeguard their kids. But can they protect their own lives―and their new friendship―in the process?

About Christine Gunderson

The Color of a Lie by Kim Johnson
The Color of a Lie
The Color of a Lie by Kim Johnson

In 1955, a Black family passes for white and moves to a “Whites Only” town in the suburbs. Caught between two worlds, a teen boy puts his family at risk as he uncovers racist secrets about his suburb. A new social justice thriller from the acclaimed author of This Is My America!

Calvin knows how to pass for white. He’s done it plenty of times before. For his friends in Chicago, when they wanted food but weren’t allowed in a restaurant. For work, when he and his dad would travel for the Green Book.

This is different.

After a tragedy in Chicago forces the family to flee, they resettle in an idyllic all-white suburban town in search of a better life. Calvin’s father wants everyone to embrace their new white lifestyles, but it’s easier said than done. Hiding your true self is exhausting — which leads Calvin across town where he can make friends who know all of him…and spend more time with his new crush, Lily. But when Calvin starts unraveling dark secrets about the white town and its inhabitants, passing starts to feel even more suffocating–and dangerous–than he could have imagined.

Expertly weaving together real historical events with important reflections on being Black in America, acclaimed author Kim Johnson powerfully connects readers to the experience of being forced to live a life-threatening lie or embrace an equally deadly truth.

About Kim Johnson

Most Honorable Son: A Forgotten Hero’s Fight Against Fascism and Hate During World War II

The first comprehensive biography of unjustly forgotten war hero Ben Kuroki, a Japanese American farm boy from Nebraska who flew fifty-eight combat missions, fighting the Axis Powers during World War II and battled racism, injustice, and prejudice on the home front.

Foreword by Naomi Ostwald Kawamura of Densho
Introduction by William Fujioka of JANM Afterword by Jonathan Eig

Ben Kuroki was a twenty-four-year-old Japanese American farm boy whose heritage was never a problem in remote Nebraska—until Pearl Harbor. Among the millions of Americans who flocked to military stations to enlist, Ben wanted to avenge the attack, reclaim his family honor, and prove his patriotism. But as anti-Japanese sentiment soared, Ben had to fight to be allowed to fight for America. And fight he did.

As a gunner on Army Air Forces bombers, Ben flew fifty-eight missions spanning three combat theaters: Europe, North Africa, and the Pacific, including the climactic B-29 firebombing campaign against Japan that culminated with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He flew some of the war’s boldest and bloodiest air missions and lived to tell about it. In between his tours in Europe and the Pacific, he challenged FDR’s shameful incarceration of more than one hundred thousand people of Japanese ancestry in America, and he would be credited by some with setting in motion the debate that reversed a grave national dishonor. In the euphoric wake of America’s victory, the decorated war hero used his national platform to carry out what he called his “fifty-ninth mission,” urging his fellow Americans to do more to eliminate bigotry and racism at home.

Told in full for the first time, and long overdue, Ben’s extraordinary story is a quintessentially American one of patriotism, principle, perseverance, and courage. It’s about being in the vanguard of history, the bonding of a band of brothers united in a just cause, a timeless and unflinching account of racial bigotry, and one man’s transcendent sense of belonging—in war, in peace, abroad, and at home.

About Gregg Jones

We Are Big Time

SWISH! Cheer courtside for a Muslim teen as she joins an all-girls, hijab-wearing basketball team and learns that she’s much more than a score. This energetic graphic novel is inspired by a true story!

“A slam dunk!” —Minh Lê

Aliya is new to Wisconsin, and everything feels different than Florida. The Islamic school is bigger, the city is colder, and her new basketball team is…well, they stink.

Aliya’s still excited to have teammates (although the team’s captain, Noura, isn’t really Aliya’s biggest fan), and their new coach really understands basketball (even if she doesn’t know much about being Muslim). This season should be a blast…if they could just start to win. As they strengthen their skills on the court, Aliya and the Peace Academy team discover that it takes more than talent to be great–it’s teamwork and self-confidence that defines true success.

For fans of The Crossover and Roller Girl, this graphic novel goes big with humor and heart as it explores culture and perceptions, fitting in and standing out, and finding yourself, both on and off the court.

About Hena Khan

Meet the Mini Mammals by Brian Lies
Meet the Mini-Mammals: A Night at the Natural History Museum
Meet the Mini Mammals by Brian Lies

Meet some of the world’s very smallest mini-mammals in this adorable and informative picture book with actual-size illustrations from Sibert Honoree Melissa Stewart and Caldecott Honoree Brian Lies.

Big mammals like elephants, hippos, and giraffes get a lot of press, but what about the little guys? From pint-sized flying squirrels to itty bitty chipmunks and teeny tiny mouse lemurs, learn all about the mini-est mammals from around the world, depicted at their real-life size.

About Brian Lies

A Spider Named Itsy

Why did Itsy Bitsy make his famous journey? With a dose of warmth and whimsy, Steve Light’s remarkable, intricate artwork spins a backstory of unexpected friendship.

Itsy Bitsy sits at home,
drinking tea, all alone . . .

Everyone knows the rhyme “The Itsy Bitsy Spider.” We know about the climb up the waterspout, the washout, the return of the sun, and the determined climb back up the spout—again. Generations of children have sung this beloved verse and mastered its accompanying twisty finger play. But what sent the tiny spider on his upward trek to begin with? What happened along the way—and where is Itsy now? Steve Light—with his meticulously rendered, highly detailed pen, ink, and watercolor illustrations and an endearing cast of insect characters—riffs on a classic as he offers some surprising answers, ushering us into a charming tale of perseverance, kindness, and community. And it all starts when a branch falls from a tree . . .

About Steve Light

The Gift of the Great Buffalo

In this beautiful and dramatic story, bestselling author Carole Lindstrom and illustrator Aly McKnight show readers how life was lived by Indigenous communities, offering the true history of life on the prairie.

Before there was a little house on the prairie, there was a tipi on the prairie.

Rose is a young Métis-Ojibwe girl who has traveled far with her family for the biannual buffalo hunt made up of hundreds of other Métis families. The ritual of the hunt has been practiced for generations, and each hunt must see the community through the next six months. But in recent years, the buffalo population has dwindled, and after days on the hunt, there are no buffalo to be found. Can Rose help her family find the herd that will enable them to survive the long winter?

About Carole Lindstrom

I'm Sorry for My Loss by Colleen Long
I'm Sorry for My Loss: An Urgent Examination of Reproductive Care in America
I'm Sorry for My Loss by Colleen Long

A must-read investigation of reproductive health under fire in Post-Roe America.

More than a million people lose a pregnancy each year, whether through miscarriage, stillbirth, or termination for medical reasons. For most, the experience often casts a shadow of isolation, shame, and blame. In the aftermath of the 2022 decision to overturn Roe v Wade, 25 million people of childbearing age live in states with laws that restrict access to abortion, including for those who never wanted to end their pregnancies. How did we get here?

Rebecca Little and Colleen Long, childhood friends who grew up to be journalists, both experienced late-term loss, and together they take an incisive, deeply reported look at the issue, working to shatter taboos that have made so many pregnant people feel ashamed and alone. They trace the experience of pregnancy loss and reproductive care from America’s founding to the present day, exposing the deep impact made by a dangerous tangle of laws, politics, medicine, racism, and misogyny. Combining powerful personal narratives with exhaustive research, I’m Sorry for My Loss is a comprehensive examination on how pregnancy loss came to be so stigmatized and politicized, and why a system of more compassionate care is critical for everyone.

About Colleen Long

House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen
House of Glass
House of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen

“Wow, I loved this one so much! I didn’t want it to be over because I was enjoying it so much, but I couldn’t stop turning pages! House of Glass is a gripping thriller that was packed with surprises and compelling characters.” — Freida McFadden

The next thrilling novel from #1 
New York Times bestselling author Sarah Pekkanen, House of Glass.

On the outside they were the golden family with the perfect life. On the inside they built the perfect lie.

A young nanny who plunged to her death, or was she pushed? A nine-year-old girl who collects sharp objects and refuses to speak. A lawyer whose job it is to uncover who in the family is a victim and who is a murderer. But how can you find out the truth when everyone here is lying?

Rose Barclay is a nine-year-old girl who witnessed the possible murder of her nanny – in the midst of her parent’s bitter divorce – and immediately stopped speaking. Stella Hudson is a best interest attorney, appointed to serve as counsel for children in custody cases. She never accepts clients under thirteen due to her own traumatic childhood, but Stella’s mentor, a revered judge, believes Stella is the only one who can help.

From the moment Stella passes through the iron security gate and steps into the gilded, historic DC home of the Barclays, she realizes the case is even more twisted, and the Barclay family far more troubled, than she feared. And there’s something eerie about the house itself: It’s a plastic house, with not a single bit of glass to be found.

As Stella comes closer to uncovering the secrets the Barclays are desperate to hide, danger wraps around her like a shroud, and her past and present are set on a collision course in ways she never expected. Everyone is a suspect in the nanny’s murder. The mother, the father, the grandmother, the nanny’s boyfriend. Even Rose. Is the person Stella’s supposed to protect the one she may need protection from?

About Sarah Pekkanen

Why We Love Football by Joe Posnanski
Why We Love Football: A History in 100 Moments
Why We Love Football by Joe Posnanski

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Kirkus Reviews Most Anticipated Book of the Fall

A moving celebration of the history of American football from the New York Times bestselling author of Why We Love Baseball

After his bestselling home run books Why We Love Baseball and The Baseball 100, Joe Posnanski turns from the national pastime to the number one sport in America. Why We Love Football is Posnanski’s newest must-have deep dive into the archives and legends of the sport, and the result is a rousing tale of the 100 greatest moments in football lore.

This is the best kind of sports writing. Entertaining, enlightening, heartbreaking, hilarious, and always fascinating, these stories of the sport offer a panoramic look across its history. From hidden gems and classic tales to famous moments told from previously unheard perspectives, this book is the football book for even its most ardent fans.

From Patrick Mahomes’s magic to the Ice Bowl, from Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary pass to a plethora of football “miracles,” Why We Love Football is an unforgettable, conversational masterpiece you won’t ever want to end, and a can’t-miss take on football from one of the greatest sportswriters of our time.

About Joe Posnanski

Wild and Distant Seas by Tara Karr Roberts
Wild and Distant Seas
Wild and Distant Seas by Tara Karr Roberts

A gorgeous debut, laced through with magic, following four generations of women as they seek to chart their own futures.

Evangeline Hussey has made a home for herself on Nantucket, though she knows she is still an outsider to the island’s small, close-knit community, one that by 1849 has started to feel the decline of a once-thriving whaling industry. Her husband, Hosea, and the life they built together, was once all she needed―but now Hosea is gone, lost at sea. Evangeline is only able to hold on to his inn, and her place on the island, by employing a curious gift to glimpse and re-form the recent memories of those who would cast her out.

One night, an idealistic sailor appears on her doorstep asking her to call him Ishmael. He seeks only a warm bed and a bowl of chowder, and yet suddenly, unsettlingly, her careful illusion begins to fracture. He soon sails away with Ahab to hunt an infamous white whale, and Evangeline is left to forge a new life from the pieces that remain.

Her choices ripple through generations, across continents, and into the depths of the sea, in a narrative that follows Evangeline and her descendants from mid-nineteenth century Nantucket to Boston, Brazil, Florence, and Idaho. Moving, beautifully written, and elegantly conceived, Wild and Distant Seas takes Moby-Dick as its starting point, but Tara Karr Roberts brings four remarkable women to life in a spellbinding epic all her own.

About Tara Karr Roberts

Rover and Speck: It's a Gas by Jonathan Roth
Rover and Speck: It's a Gas! (Rover and Speck, 3)
Rover and Speck: It's a Gas by Jonathan Roth

Rover and Speck are loose on an unknown gas giant planet. Will they survive? And what’s so funny about ”gas“ anyway?

Rover and Speck have found a new kind of planet to explore – a gas giant! The pair don’t know what to expect when they launch themselves from their spaceship, so they’re thrilled when they find life there. That is, until shark-like creatures start shooting sparks at them! And things only get worse when Rover is zapped out of commission by one of their bolts, leaving Speck to save the day on his own! Thankfully, Speck makes a new friend, Jelli, who’s happy to help him try to avoid the Spark Sharks and get Rover back to their spaceship for a reboot. But will they be able to do it in time?

This is the third installment in Jonathan Roth’s popular graphic novel series about an endearingly mismatched pair of space-traveling rover friends: organized and careful Rover, and impulsive, excitable Speck. It features classic, colorful comic-style art and a fast-moving character-driven plot, and is packed with jokes, including kid-perfect riffs on how funny it is to say ”gas“. Illustrated sidebars supplement the story with accessible information about gases and space, and a built-in drawing activity is included at the end of the story, making this book an engaging tool to augment lessons on gases as well as earth and space systems.

About Jonathan Roth

The Tontine Caper by Dianne K. Salerni
The Tontine Caper
The Tontine Caper by Dianne K. Salerni

Clue meets Knives Out in this twisty-turny middle grade mystery-comedy with delightfully dry humor and impeccable plotting.

Eleven-year-old orphan Nico Lombardi has been unfairly indentured at a remote mountain inn for five years now.

Just as he gathers the courage to escape, the inn gets booked by the remaining members of a “tontine,” an investment scheme where a cash prize is awarded to whomever lives the longest. In other words, every guest wants access to the fortune. Preferably as soon as possible.

During their stay, a chaotic race to control the fate of the tontine takes over the normally sleepy inn. Nico watches in horror as a series of comically disastrous events unfolds—some of which might aid his escape, and some of which might get him in big trouble. Before he can even put the right clues together, three unexpected revelations change the course of everyone’s future!

Arch humor and an incredible cast of strange and calculating characters keep the pages turning in this Wes Anderson-esque mystery filled with funny mishaps and misunderstandings. Perfect for fans of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library and The 39 Clues series.

About Dianne K. Salerni

Rainbow Bear

Come Paint the World with Rainbow Bear — One Color at a Time

In the latest addition to Bill Martin Jr and Michael Sampson’s beloved children’s collection, Rainbow Bear is sure to delight both old fans and new with its vivid illustrations and charming characters. Young readers can learn the names of every color of the rainbow while following Little Bear as he wakes up from his hibernation and fills his hungry belly with berries!

About Michael Sampson

Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake
Skunk and Badger (Skunk and Badger 1)
Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake

People Best Book for Kids of 2020
KirkusReviews Best Children’s Book of 2020
Booklist Editor’s Choice Book of 2020
School Library Journal Best Book of 2020
Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2020
Shelf Awareness for Readers Best Book of 2020
A New York Public Library Best Book of 2020
A Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2020
An Indigo Best Book of the Year 2020
An Evanston Public Library Great Kids Book of 2020

Wallace and Gromit meets Winnie-the-Pooh in a fresh take on a classic odd-couple friendship, from Newbery Honor author Amy Timberlake with full-color and black-and-white illustrations throughout by Caldecott Medalist Jon Klassen.
 
No one wants a skunk.
 
They are unwelcome on front stoops. They should not linger in Important Rock Rooms. Skunks should never, ever be allowed to move in. But Skunk is Badger’s new roommate, and there is nothing Badger can do about it.
 
When Skunk plows into Badger’s life, everything Badger knows is upended. Tails are flipped. The wrong animal is sprayed. And why-oh-why are there so many chickens?
 
Nooooooooooooooooooooo!”
 
Newbery Honor author Amy Timberlake spins the first tale in a series about two opposites who need to be friends.
 
New York Times bestselling author/illustrator and Caldecott Medalist Jon Klassen completes the book with his signature lushly textured art. This beautifully bound edition contains both full-color plates and numerous black-and-white illustrations.
 
Skunk and Badger is a book you’ll want to read, reread, and read out loud . . . again and again.

About Amy Timberlake

Snow

In this beautiful and haunting fantasy, an imprisoned princess needs the help of a girl from the modern world to undo a wish gone wrong and save her snowy kingdom.

Every day, a lonely princess digs through the snow in search of a way to undo the terrible wish she made—one that has left her with an empty kingdom and a heart full of guilt. But one day, a mysterious girl named Ela tumbles through the kingdom’s protective mist barrier. The princess is determined to bring Ela to her father, the harsh king, as proof that her wish can be undone, even if it means keeping Ela against her will. Meanwhile, Ela, who has grown up a regular kid in what she thought was a regular Indian American family, is shocked to discover she’s stumbled upon the very snow princess whose picture graces the cover of the locked book that Ela’s mom won’t let her read. In this elegant fantasy, author Meera Trehan conjures a story of loneliness, family secrets, science, and remarkable snow as two girls from different worlds come together to set things right—and maybe even become friends.

About Meera Trehan