Trouble the Water by Frances O'Roark Dowell

From the award-winning author of Dovey Coe comes a “powerful” (School Library Journal) tale of the friendship between a black girl and a white boy and the prejudices they must overcome in segregated Celeste, Kentucky, as the pair try to solve the mysteries surrounding a lonely old dog.

Eleven-year-old Callie is fearless, stubborn, and a little nosy. So when she sees an old yellow dog wandering around town by itself, you can bet she’s going to figure out who he belongs to. But when her sleuthing leads her to cross paths with a white boy named Wendell who wants to help, the segregated town doesn’t take too kindly to their budding friendship.

Meanwhile, a nearly invisible boy named Jim is stuck in a cabin in the woods. He’s lost his dog, but can’t remember exactly when his pup’s disappeared. When his companion, a little boy named Thomas, who’s been invisible much longer than he, explains that they are ghosts, the two must figure out why they can’t seem to cross the river to the other side just yet…

And as Callie and Wendell’s search for the old dog brings them closer and closer to the cabin in the woods, the simmering prejudices of the townspeople boil over.

Trouble the Water is a story that spans lifetimes, showing that history never truly disappears, and that the past will haunt us until we step up to change the present and stand together for what is right.

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Time to Sleep, Puppy by Little Bee Books and Illustrated by Michelle Todd

An adorable, heartfelt padded board book for bedtime! 

In this loving and playful story, it's Puppy's bedtime, but he doesn't want to go to sleep yet! He wants to play and for Daddy to chase him, but Puppy then settles down and snuggles up for bed around all his toys. This beautifully illustrated board book is perfect for putting little ones to bed and a great gift for new parents!

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Soar by Tracy Edward Wymer

Seventh grader Eddie is determined honor his father’s legacy and win the school science fair in this heartfelt and funny book that School Library Journal says is “perfect for middle school students looking for realism.”

Eddie learned everything there is to know about birding from his dad, including the legend of the Golden Eagle, which Dad claimed he saw once down near Miss Dorothy’s pond. According to his dad, the Golden Eagle had wings wider than a creek and talons the size of bulldozer claws. But when Eddie was in sixth grade, Dad “flew away” for good, leaving Eddie on his own to await the return of the elusive raptor.

Now Eddie is starting seventh grade and trying to impress Gabriella, the new girl in town. The annual seventh grade Science Symposium (which Dad famously won) is looming, and Eddie is determined to claim the blue ribbon for himself. With Mr. Dover, the science teacher who was Dad’s birding rival, seemingly against him, and with Mouton, the class bully, making his life miserable on all fronts, Eddie is determined to overcome everything and live up to Dad’s memory. Can Eddie soar and make his dream take flight?

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Follow the Track All the Way Back by Timothy Knapman and illustrated by Ben Mantle

Woo-woo! When Little Train ventures way down the tracks, he’s glad he remembers his mommy and daddy’s coaching in a story with sure appeal for first-time adventurers.

Chooooo! Little Train is going out on the track all by himself for the first time. He runs through a field and rattles across a bridge. Clickety-clack! Rattly-tat! Then he climbs a mountain and races by the river. Clumpety-clip! Zippety-zoom! Oh, no! Now he’s gone too far. Will Little Train recall what his mother and father said about finding his way home? With a nod to beloved classics such as The Little Engine That Could, here is a celebration of independence and parental reassurance that is sure to chug its way into the hearts of little readers everywhere.

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Windows by Julia Denos and Ilustrated by E.B. Goodale

Walking his dog at dusk, one boy catches glimpses of the lives around him in this lovely ode to autumn evenings, exploring your neighborhood, and coming home.

Before your city goes to sleep, you might head out for a walk, your dog at your side as you go out the door and into the almost-night. Anything can happen on such a walk: you might pass a cat, or a friend, or even an early raccoon. And as you go down your street and around the corner, the windows around you light up one by one until you are walking through a maze of paper lanterns, each one granting you a brief, glowing snapshot of your neighbors as families come together and folks settle in for the night. With a setting that feels both specific and universal and a story full of homages to The Snowy Day, Julia Denos and E. B. Goodale have created a singular book — at once about the idea of home and the magic of curiosity, but also about how a sense of safety and belonging is something to which every child is entitled.

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Under the Bottle Bridge by Jessica Lawson

In the tradition of Rooftoppers and Three Times Lucky, critically acclaimed author Jessica Lawson returns with her fourth whimsical, lyrical, and heartfelt middle grade novel about a girl who’s desperately trying to keep her life together, when everything seems to be falling apart.

In the weeks leading up to Gilbreth, New York’s annual AutumnFest, twelve-year-old woodcraft legacy Minna Treat is struggling with looming deadlines, an uncle trying to hide Very Bad News, and a secret personal quest. When she discovers mysterious bottle messages under one of the village’s 300-year-old bridges, she can’t help but wonder who’s leaving them, what they mean, and, most importantly…could the messages be for her?

Along with best friend Crash and a mystery-loving newcomer full of suspicious theories, Minna is determined to discover whether the bottles are miraculously leading her toward long-lost answers she’s been looking for, or drawing her into a disaster of historic proportions.

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