
Defanged by H.E. EdgmonMiddle School Feiwel 240 pp.9/25 9781250874009 $17.99Lux Priddy has always considered himself a good vampire who doesn’t make trouble for others, unlike those scary, violent vampires rumored to live in an underground society called Nox Urbus. In theory, he should be fine with being Defanged, a procedure...
Fireblooms by Alexandra VillasanteHigh School Paulsen/Penguin 304 pp.9/25 9780525514053 $19.99Seventeen-year-old Sebas moves to New Gault, California, to care for his estranged mother, who has cancer. Student ambassador Lu is tasked with getting him onboard with TECH, the company that runs their high school. TECH provides tools for school and free...
Cabin Head and Tree Head by Scott Campbell; illus. by the authorPrimary, Intermediate Tundra 88 pp.9/25 9781774885055 $13.99This graphic-novel series opener is a collection of short stories about two creatures distinguished by the cabin and the tree, respectively, on the tops of their heads. In the first story, “HELLOS,” Cabin...

Coach [Track]by Jason ReynoldsIntermediate, Middle School Dlouhy/Atheneum 256 pp.10/25 9798347102372 $17.99Middle-school athletes Ghost, Lu, Patina, and Sunny each have their own titles in Reynolds’s Track series (most recently Lu, rev. 11/18); now it’s Coach’s turn. Who was he before he was an inspiring leader? How did he grow up to...
A Glimmer of Change by Elle McNicollMiddle School Random 208 pp.10/25 9780593902462 $17.99Almost-fourteen-year-old Keedie, an autistic girl, is loyal, creative, funny, rebellious, arrogant, a passionate defender of the underdog, and her own worst enemy, equal parts clear-eyed and totally misguided. In this prequel to the well-received A Kind of Spark...
Beinoni by Mari LoweIntermediate, Middle School Levine/Levine Querido 288 pp.7/25 9781646145065 $18.99Seventh grader Ezra has a lot on his shoulders. Born with “a constellation of the Scales” on his skin that indicates he’s the Nivchar, or chosen one, for his generation, he’s spent years training for what’s destined to happen...

The Poisoned King [Impossible Creatures]by Katherine Rundell; illus. by Ashley MackenzieMiddle School Knopf 304 pp.9/25 9780593809907 $19.99When Christopher Forrester returns to the Glimouria Archipelago, conditions could not be more dire: the ancient, wise dragons are dying, and the dragon Sarkany, on whose back Christopher flew in Impossible Creatures (rev. 9/24),...
Goalkeeper by Edward BloorMiddle School Clarion/HarperCollins 192 pp.10/25 9780063428324 $19.99e-book ed. 9780063428348 $10.99Twenty-eight years after Tangerine (rev. 7/97) was published, Bloor returns with a sequel to his classic debut that picks up after the first book ends. Having been expelled from public school, Paul Fisher is finishing up seventh grade...
Candace, the Universe, and Everything by Sherri L. SmithMiddle School Putnam 336 pp.9/25 9781524737931 $18.99e-book ed. 9781524737948 $10.99Thirteen-year-old Candace has a lot to navigate. She is starting eighth grade, her besties are being weird, and, to make matters worse, a bird flies out of her locker. While cleaning up the...