Either I am just getting better at my book research, or September 2019 has just been a HUGE month for publishing. The list of great books out this month has been overwhelming. And we have a lot more out this week.
(Note there are SEVEN books out this week categorized for “older middle grade readers.” Sometimes this means kids 10-12, or 12-14, or 10-14, so basically in the upper elementary/middle school age range.)
Books for Kids
Eee-Moo! – A platypus egg hatches on a farm and the platypus says “Eee-Moo” and the animals think he is an emu and therefore should travel to Australia where he “came from.”
Explorers – A wordless picture book about a family’s trip to the museum.
Pigeon Math – The storyteller struggles to share a tale of pigeons as they keep flying off and changing the number of birds in the scene. This looks darling.
Reading Beauty – From the author of Interstellar Cinderella comes this book-related take on Sleeping Beauty. A princess who is cursed to fall into a death-like sleep if she ever gets a papercut hunts for the fairy who cursed her so she can bring books back to her kingdom. This is on my list for this week!
This Book Just Stole My Cat! – Ben’s cat disappears into the gutter of the book. I get such a kick out of this series.
The President Sang Amazing Grace – The true story of President Obama singing Amazing Grace at the site of a church shooting during his eulogy.
Pete the Kitty Goes to the Doctor – A leveled reader about going to the doctor.
If You Love Fashion, You Could Be…. – A new leveled reader in this line of nonfiction books that explore career choices.
Dragon Trouble – Book 5 in the Dragonling series that has new cover art.
Mia Mayhem Stops Time – Book 5 in the fun Mia Mayhem superhero chapter book series.
Books for Older Kids/Teens/Young Adults
The Bookwanderers – A girl living with her grandparents finds out she can travel into stories when her favorite book characters start showing up at her grandparents’ bookstore. This sounds fun!
Explorer Academy: Double Helix – Book 3 in the Explorer Academy series. A boy trying to find his missing mother hears his father has disappeared, too, and his guardian leaves in search of him while the boy and his friends continue their quest.
Remarkables – A new story from Margaret Peterson Haddix. A girl in a new town discovers a mysterious group of teens called the Remarkables who can disappear and reappear like magic.
The Stolen Show – Book 18 in the Nancy Drew Diaries series. Nancy and her friends track an international jewel thief at a dog show.
Two Cats to the Rescue – Book 5 in the Stick Cat series. Stick Cat and Edith are on a rescue mission to find Millie who has wandered off.
What Was the Berlin Wall?
Amy’s Diary: The World Is Upside Down (Older Middle Grade) – Book 2 in the Amy’s Diary series for older middle grade readers. Amy heads to her grandparents’ farm as a distraction from her recent break up and other events at home.
Anya and the Dragon (Older Middle Grade) – A girl promises to help trap a dragon in an effort to help her family with money problems. But when she gets to know the dragon in question, she starts to think she should save it instead.
The Crossover (Graphic Novel – Older Middle Grade) – A graphic novel adaptation of Kwame Alexander’s amazing book, The Crossover.
Emmy in the Key of Code (Older Middle Grade) – A friendship story with a coding and music angle. A musician discovers coding – and a new friend – at her new school, but a series of disappointments leaves her feeling like her new life isn’t so great after all.
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Riddle of Ages (Older Middle Grade) – The long-awaited fourth book in the Mysterious Benedict Society series. A new society member and a new threat send the kids onto a new case.
The Tyrant’s Tomb (Older Middle Grade) – Book 4 in the Trials of Apollo series by Rick Riordan. The god Apollo has been turned into a teenager and sent on a quest that should restore his godly powers. In this book, Apollo heads to Camp Jupiter and connects with some friends from the Heroes of Olympus series. I started this series, but didn’t stick with it, but the connection to Heroes is a FUN twist.
Born to Fly: The First Women’s Air Race Across America (Older Middle Grade) – A middle grade history of the 1929 Air Derby, the first women’s air race across America.
A Dream So Dark – Book 2 in the Nightmare-Verse series after A Blade So Black where Alice confronts a new villain in Wonderland.
The Infinite Noise – A teen running back develops a supernatural gift of extreme empathy. He’s an Atypical. And when his empathic gifts draw him toward another student at his school, his therapist encourages him to befriend the other teen. Based on the Bright Sessions science fiction podcast about a group of therapy patients. I had never heard of this podcast, but now I am thinking about trying it.
Six Goodbyes We Never Said – Two teens connect over their grief as well as their struggles with mental illness (depression, anxiety, OCD, etc.).
Slay – A Black teen video game developer sees her creation at the center of a media firestorm when a game-based conflict spills over into the real world. What was once a haven for Black gamers becomes the focal point of conflict over “anti-white discrimination.” This sounds fascinating.
Strings – Book 2 in the Ables series. Three years after their last major battle, the Ables, a group of disabled kids with superpowers, find new challenges in a world hostile to those with special abilities. I’ve heard great things about the first book in this series.
Verify – The latest from Joelle Charbonneau, author of The Testing and other YA novels. In this dystopian story, in a world of unprecedented peace and complete honesty, the death of a teen’s mother launches her into a search for truth that will show her secrets her government doesn’t want anyone to find. This is on my list for this week.
Who Put This Song On? – A depressed teen feels like the whole world is shouting the rules that everyone needs to follow while she is wondering if it is time to decide for herself how she wants to live.
Books for Adults
The Amish Christmas Cookie Club (Mass Market Paperback) – Sequel to the delightful Amish Cookie Club (♥♥♥♥½ – review to come later this year) by Sarah Price. Edna Esh and her friends use their cookie baking Fridays to talk about their families – and maybe do some more matchmaking!
Carpet Diem (Mass Market Paperback) – Book 4 in the Tallie Graver Mystery series. When Tallie is up for a big , new cleaning contract against her fancy rival, she has to wonder how the woman can do the work she says she does and still maintain that manicure. When she finds her rival dead in a rolled up carpet, Tallie will be sleuthing again.
Christmas Cocoa Murder (Hardcover) – Three holiday themed mysteries – a dead Santa in a hot cocoa-filled dunk tank, a Chocolate lab at the scene of a murder, and death at a Christmas-themed escape game. These sound fun!
Christmas Cow Bells (Mass Market Paperback) – First in a new series. A woman starts her life over just in time for the holidays with a big move and a shift to a new job as an organic micro-dairy farmer and cheese-maker. But a murder in the neighborhood has a way of throwing off her holiday groove. This sounds fun!
Coming Home for Christmas (Trade Paperback) – When a man finds his long-lost wife seven years after she disappeared, he needs her to come home to prove he didn’t murder her. But neither of them are sure the kids – or the town – are ready to accept her. I’ll be reviewing this one next week.
Cup of Holiday Fear (Mass Market Paperback) – Book 10 in the Bakeshop Mystery series. When Jules invites the Torte crew to a local Dickens Feast to celebrate the holidays, she has no idea murder is on the menu. I never miss a book in this series.
The Empty Birdcage (Hardcover) – Book 3 in the Mycroft and Sherlock series by NBA All-Star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. This time the brothers are looking into a murder of someone in the Queen’s extended family while Mycroft is also looking into a kidnapping.
Fudge Bites (Mass Market Paperback) – Book 7 in the Candy-Coated Mystery series where a zombie festival for Halloween is used as a cover for murder.
Have Yourself a Beary Little Murder (Trade Paperback) – Book 3 in the Shamelessly Adorable Teddy Bear Mystery Series. The sisters are sleuthing once again when the mayor is killed and stuffed into his Santa Bear suit for the village parade.
A Killer Carol (Mass Market Paperback) – Book 7 in Laura Bradford‘s Amish Mystery series. Claire is asked to help a young Amish couple convince the police that they aren’t responsible for the deaths of the older Amish couple they had been visiting just before they died. As Claire looks into things, she’s not even convinced herself that they aren’t guilty. I have several of the books in this series on my TBR shelves.
Last Pen Standing (Mass Market Paperback) – First in a new series. Delta quits her job and invests her early-inheritance into a stationery store in Montana. But there’s a murder at the site of their first event, and Delta’s new business partner is suspected of involvement in the crime. I’ll be reviewing this one later this week.
Lavender and Mistletoe (e-book, Novella) – A brilliant woman decides researching love is the perfect holiday challenge for her to take up since everything else in her life is clicking along. But the subject she chooses might be the perfect match for her if she can let love take its course instead of trying to approach it like science. This sounds cute.
Mischief in New Orleans (e-book) – Book 2 in the Accidentally Undercover Mystery series (after Peril in Pensacola). Evie and Dora are looking for evidence for another case when they stumble onto a murder. I haven’t read either of these books yet, but this series sounds fun!
Murder in the Balcony (Trade Paperback) – Sequel to the fantastic Murder at the Palace. Nora is drawn into another murder investigation as she juggles The Palace and her personal life. I’ve already requested this from the library.
Murder in the Corn Maze (Hardcover) – Book 2 in the Granny Reid Mystery series by G. A. McKevett. This series takes place when Savannah, star of McKevett’s long running series, was a kid. A skull found in the middle of the local corn maze might be connected to the mystery of what happened to Granny’s mother. I enjoyed the first book, although I did think that readers who are not already familiar with the characters will have trouble getting into this series.
Murder in the First Edition (Mass Market Paperback) – Book 3 in the Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery series. A bookstore owner discovers her donation of a rare copy of A Christmas Carol has been stolen when she also discovers the dead body of the woman running the charity auction.
No Judgments (Hardcover) – When a hurricane severs power and access to a Florida island, a young woman teams up with her boss’s sexy nephew to rescue as many of the pets on the island whose humans can’t get home as she can.
Puppy Christmas (Mass Market Paperback) – Book 2 in the Forever Home series. Lila knows that donating a service puppy and its training is a great business move, but she’s not prepared for the impact Ford Ford and his daughter Emily will have on her life when they receive the donated pup. I’ll be reviewing this next week. (This was so good, I grabbed the first book off my TBR shelves and read it right away – delightful!)
Tide and Punishment (Mass Market Paperback) – Book 3 in the Seaside Café Mystery series. Everly would rather be enjoying the first Christmas in her iced tea shop, but instead she has to be sure her Aunt Fran isn’t accused of murder when her rival for the office of mayor is found dead.
Two Bites Too Many (Mass Market Paperback) – Book 2 in the Sarah Blair Mystery series. When her sister’s business plans get shot down, it’s Sarah’s mother who is suspected of killing the chair of the city council that nixed the plan.
An Unforgettable Christmas (Trade Paperback) – A Christmas story from Hallmark Publishing. When her workaholic boss ends up with amnesia, a widowed mom steps in to care for him. Both of them get a fresh look at his life thanks to the amnesia. I’ll be reviewing this one in a few weeks.
Beautiful Boards: 50 Amazing Snack Boards for Any Occasion (Hardcover) – A how-to book to build your own snack boards for celebrations and every day use. The pictures for this are gorgeous.
Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus (Hardcover) – The latest from Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners. His premise is that Christians have become disconnected from Jesus. Wallis explores 8 questions Jesus either asks or is asked in Scripture and uses those to ask readers if they are aligned with the priorities of Christ. This is on my wish list for this week.
Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love (Hardcover) – A memoir from Jonathan Van Ness from the Netflix hit, Queer Eye. I’ve already requested this one from the library.
How Not to Get Eaten by Ewoks (Hardcover Gift Book) – A humorous guide to surviving the Star Wars universe.
The Unqualified Hostess: I Do It My Way So You Can Too! (Hardcover) – From my fave, Whoopi Goldberg, who asserts that readers have everything they need right now to set a great table for entertaining and hospitality. I can absolutely hear her voice as I read the full description of this book. I can’t wait to read the whole thing (although right now it is PRICEY at $35 for 128 pages).
You Are the Girl for the Job: Daring to Believe the God Who Calls You (Trade Paperback) – From the title alone, I would be buying this book. Embrace the idea that God has prepared you for this moment in your life – and prepared this moment for you. A workbook for the video series for this releases October 1, and a DVD/Study Guide set releases October 15.