36 Most-Anticipated Middle Grade Books: January-March 2025

Today’s post is sponsored by Dana Alison Levy and Not Another Banned Book!

Title Not Another Banned Book
Author Dana Alison Levy
Intended Target Audience Middle Grade
Publication Date September 10th 2024 by Delacorte Press
Find It On Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

A ripped from the headlines middle grade novel about a group of students who must fight book banning at their school to save their club…and their world as they know it.

No matter what was going on in Molly’s life at home, she always had book club at school. Whether she’s dealing with a death in the family or her parent’s breaking the news they want to move she is able to read a new book and escape life…even if it is just for a little bit.

But when someone anonymously notifies school boards about a controversial book in the classroom, her favorite teacher Ms. Lewsiton is suspended…and book club is a banned for the immediate future.

With weeks until graduation, Molly has never felt more lost. She knows she needs to do something – anything – to prove to everyone that the books they read with Ms. Lewsiton are more important than the adults may realize.

With her group of friends, Molly will fight to save her book club from writing their favorite author to protests on the football field. Molly will discover that standing up for what you believe in is only half the battle…but will she find she is fully ready to make a change for readers just like her?

I look forward to making Pop! Goes The Reader’s most-anticipated lists every single year! While being a mood reader means I’m not always able to strictly stick to a to-be-read list, it’s exciting to explore what’s being published in the months ahead. Posts like this help me better organize my thoughts and decide what I ideally want to prioritize and read first, not to mention give me lots to look forward to!

Please Note: If you’re a middle grade author with a novel being published in 2025 and don’t see your book on one of Pop! Goes The Reader’s Most-Anticipated lists, please don’t be hurt or upset! These lists are entirely subjective and based on my own personal reading taste. My favourite genres are contemporary and realistic fiction fiction, horror and historical fiction, which is why you won’t see many books outside of those genres on this list. While I try my best to remain up-to-date about upcoming releases, it’s also entirely possible that I simply haven’t learned about your book yet! If you’re the author of a 2025 middle grade novel that you think might make a good fit for me and Pop! Goes The Reader, please don’t hesitate to reach out – I would love to hear from you!

For even more wonderful middle grade novels being published in 2025, please check out this Goodreads list which currently includes over 200 MG novels being published this year for you to choose from. Hopefully you’ll be able to find the perfect book for you. Happy reading!

If you enjoyed this post and found it helpful, I hope you’ll consider checking out Pop! Goes The Reader’s Patreon! In addition to exclusive rewards like an extensive edition of Hot Off The Press that details over 250+ new middle grade and adult books being published each month as well as digital downloads for your desktop and devices, I also share curated book lists like this one on a specific theme or subject every month. Membership on Patreon makes a real, tangible difference in helping to support Pop! Goes The Reader and allowing me to do what I love and makes posts like this one, that are accessible to all readers, possible. Thank you!

The publication dates listed below might be subject to change.

Publication Date January 7th 2025 by Holiday House
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

Anxious thirteen-year-old Kaya has always been afraid of everything — but when she learns she is the descendant of a Chinese water goddess, she’ll have to master herself to master her powers!

On the surface, thirteen-year-old Kaya leads a charmed life. She lives in beautiful, beachy Lihiwai. She has ride-or-die best friends. She’s ultrasmart and killing it at school. She even works with a super-cute boy at her parents’ restaurant.

But she also has anxiety — serious anxiety, the kind that makes you scratch and pick — and she’s always had bad luck around the ocean. It’s hard to enjoy Hawaiian beaches when you’ve almost drowned more than once.

But as stranger and stranger things happen to Kaya around the sea, she realizes that — wanted or not — she has a special connection to it. Waves rise when she’s angry. Surf smooths when she’s calm. Fish come when she calls them. And when she learns the truth about her family and her divine ancestor, Mazu, she knows that she will need to connect with her most difficult emotions ASAP — or her potent powers may become dangerous to the people she loves.

Kaya of the Ocean is an exciting, fresh, and beautiful middle-grade fantasy about embracing who you really are. This heartfelt adventure of sun, surf, and sand touches on mental health, the immigrant experience, and the complexities of growing up.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
An ABA Indies Introduce Selection

Publication Date January 7th 2025 by Dutton Books for Young Readers
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

A historical middle-grade novel in verse from multiple Coretta Scott King winner Vaunda Micheaux Nelson.

As school begins in 1963, Cooper Dale wrestles with what it means to “shine” for a black girl in a predominantly white community near Pittsburgh. Set against the historic backdrop of the Birmingham church bombing, the Kennedy assassination, and Beatlemania, Radiant is a finely crafted novel in verse about race, class, faith, and finding your place in a loving family and a complicated world.

Cooper’s primary concern is navigating fifth grade, where she faces both an extra-strict teacher and the bullying of Wade Carter, the only child of a well-to-do white family, whose home Cooper’s mother cleans for extra income. How can she shine when her mother works for the meanest boy in school? To make matters worse, Cooper quietly wishes she could be someone else.

It’s not all bad, though. Cooper and her beloved older sister have fallen for the Beatles, and Cooper is thrilled to have something special they can share. And what she learns about her British idols adds new complexity to Cooper’s feelings about race.

Publication Date January 14th 2025 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

Bestselling and award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes goes West in this thrilling adventure story about a son and his father who set out to win land during the Oklahoma Land Rush – if they can survive the journey.

It’s 1889, barely twenty-five years after the Emancipation Proclamation, and a young Black family is tired of working on land they don’t get to own.

So when Will and his father hear about an upcoming land rush, they set out on a journey from Texas to Oklahoma, racing thousands of others to the place where land is free — if they can get to it fast enough. But the journey isn’t easy — the terrain is rough, the bandits are brutal, and every interaction carries a heavy undercurrent of danger.

And then there’s the stranger they encounter and befriend: a mysterious soldier named Caesar, whose Union emblem brings more attention — and more trouble — than any of them need.

All three are propelled by the promise of something long denied to them: freedom, land ownership, and a place to call home — but is a strong will enough to get them there?

Publication Date January 14th 2025 by HarperCollins
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

The wannabe-cool, Tamil-nerd vibes of Never Have I Ever meet the hidden life of Stand Up, Yumi Chung! by Jessica Kim in this funny, poignant coming-of-age middle grade debut from Maria Marianayagam. A Sri Lankan boy’s life spirals out of control when he wins a prize in a stolen candy bar, pushing him to navigate his identity amid his ever-watchful family.

Ajay Anthonipillai has a million-dollar problem.

Ajay has lived his life dutifully following the rules set by his Tamil parents.

Rule #3: Straight As only

Rule #5: There is no such thing as a no-homework day.

Rule #10: Never watch scary movies.

However, moving to a new school gives Ajay a new rule to follow: Get on seventh-grade all-star Jacob Underson’s good side.

When Jacob asks him to steal a Mercury bar from Scary Al’s convenience store, Ajay feels this is his chance to finally “get cool” and stop eating alone. But Jacob rejects the stolen chocolate bar, leaving Ajay to unwrap it and discover that it contains Mercury’s Twenty-fifth Anniversary Grand Prize…one million dollars.

Faced with an extreme dilemma, Ajay will have to bear the weight of his actions and battle his morality in deciding whether to claim the prize that may change the life of his family forever.

Publication Date January 14th 2025 by Delacorte Press
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

From the beloved author of Hidden Truths comes a novel about take-charge sixth grader Bess Stein, who brings together friends and a group of rockstar librarians called the Book Warriors to fight a book ban happening at her middle school.

Bess Stein is more than ready to be 6th grade class president. She’s got tons of ideas — including a book vending machine — and her new friend June is beside her as vice-president. Together, they’re unstoppable.

But when the books the girls want included in the vending machine come under fire, Bess is stunned. How can one person believe they have the right to decide what other people can read? It turns out that June’s mom is leading the fight, and now everything’s a mess.

Bess misses June — but she wants to make sure kids who might like these books get the chance to read them, even if it means she and June can’t be friends. With such different opinions, will they ever be on the same page?

Publication Date January 14th 2025 by Aladdin
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

A girl whose anxiety disorder has been ruling her life since her father’s death unexpectedly has the story she’s written come alive in this adventurous and tender middle grade fantasy perfect for fans of Barbara Dee and Jamie Sumner.

Zoey Turner used to see magic everywhere. With a dad like Zoey’s, it was hard not to. Not only did they read The Magic of Ever After series together every day, they also used to create original stories together. Used to. Ever since her dad died unexpectedly last year, all Zoey sees is danger.

Fear has shrunk homeschooled Zoey’s life to the span of one block, where she keeps close to the people that she needs the most. Her mom is almost never out of sight, and Jada, the owner of Ever After Books, is always around to talk about their favorite fantasy trilogy. Zoey finally ventures outside her comfort zone for the chance to meet famed author Raven M. Wells, only for the outing to lead to a panic attack.

Instead of a signed book, Zoey ends up with a novelty pencil embossed with the phrase make your own magic that she uses to cope with her disappointment by writing a story like the ones she and her dad shared. The next day, Zoey is shocked to find her fantastical tale has come true. Emboldened by the pencil, Zoey takes risks she thought were long behind her in pursuit of her happy ending. But is she really in charge of how the story ends?

Publication Date January 28th 2025 by Quirk Books
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

A young apprentice fights to save an ancient grove of magical trees in this page-turning fantasy adventure, perfect for middle grade fans of Kelly Barnhill and Jessica Townsend.

Nick Sixsmith has spent her whole life on the road. The daughter of a traveling arborist, she moves from town to town with her mother, caring for the ironwood groves that people rely upon for survival. When a dangerous blight threatens these magical trees, the Sixsmiths must journey to the city of Mistwood for answers.

Nick can’t wait to explore everything Mistwood has to offer: the bustling markets, the neighborhoods nestled behind a roaring waterfall, and the vast ancestral grove of ironwood trees. But dark secrets simmer beneath the surface as people start to disappear and tensions in the city reach a boiling point.

As the mystery grows, Nick and her new friends must follow the trail where it leads them — underground, to a strange and enchanting place called Underhill. Only there, among the roots of the ancestral grove, will Nick find a way to save the ironwood trees and the city she’s come to love.

This immersive fantasy adventure combines vivid world-building with timely themes of environmentalism, and young readers will be riveted until the final page.

Publication Date February 4th 2025 by HarperCollins
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

From Andrea Williams, the bestselling author of We Are Family with LeBron James, comes Inside The Park, the story of a young baseball fan’s misadventures after getting locked inside a pro baseball stadium on the eve of the biggest game of the season.

In this all-new, hilarious, action-packed middle grade tale, Timothy “Pumpsie” Strickland, a baseball-loving twelve-year-old, is about to step up to the plate for the biggest swing of his life.

Pumpsie needs a win. Or to be more precise, he needs the Nashville Wildcats to win. Pumpsie’s been waiting his entire life — twelve whole years! — for his favorite team to make it to the playoffs. And this year — finally! — they’re just one win away.

But when Pumpsie accidentally gets trapped in Lookout Field the night before the last game of the season, with only a lost dog named Campy for company, he may have accidentally stumbled into the best night of his life. For a baseball fan like Pumpsie, using the pro batting cages, running the bases, playing with the public address system, eating all the concession-stand junk food he can find is a dream come true…until he realizes he’s not alone in the stadium. Foul plots are brewing beneath Lookout Field, and now it’s on Pumpsie to swallow his fears, gum up his courage, and swing for the fences if he wants to save the Wildcats’ postseason chances.

Inside The Park is a fun-filled, action-packed slice of wish fulfillment that’s perfect for fans of Mike Lupica and Tim Green or any kid who’s ever closed their eyes and imagined stepping up to the plate with the game tied and the season on the line.

Publication Date February 4th 2025 by Shadow Mountain
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

A curious girl named Raven — think Wednesday Addams meets Sherlock Holmes — uses her budding skills as a mortician and a scientist to investigate an old and mysterious death at her small town’s haunted hotel.

Raven Gallows lives in a funeral home and is determined to become a famous detective. Her first case is one close to home — find the truth surrounding her mother’s puzzling death six years ago.

When a mummified man falls out of the wall at the Moonrise Manor Hotel, Raven is shocked to discover the body is clutching her mother’s silver locket.

Raven gathers her friends — Cosmina Wilde, who thinks she can talk to ghosts, Miles Farnsworth, who works at the haunted hotel, and Eric Wong, who possesses unparalleled computer skills — and sets out to learn the identity of the mummy. As they follow the clues, they discover more than they bargained for, including a stash of stolen art and a legend of a secret society.

The Secret of Moonrise Manor is a story about family, friendship, and the courage it takes to pursue the truth.

Publication Date February 4th 2025 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

A ghost must team up with the living girl she’s been haunting in order to defeat a monster out of her nightmares and save her little brother, from the author of The Curse of Eelgrass Bog.

Maudie isn’t your typical twelve-year-old girl — she’s the ghost of one. Along with her best friend Kit and little brother Scratch, she haunts a cottage in the woods, doing her best to scare off the vacationers and forget her old life.

But everything changes when Kit and Scratch go missing. Maudie knows something terrible must have happened, and she’s right: Longfingers — a monster from her own nightmares, with spidery fingers and needle-sharp teeth — has stolen her friends away.

Longfingers makes Maudie a twisted deal: find the key to a door in a mysterious cabin, or she’ll never see her friends again. With nobody else to turn to, Maudie has to beg for help from Gianna, the living girl she’s been haunting. Together, the girls search for a way to thwart the monster and save Maudie’s friends.

But Maudie’s keeping secrets about the cabin and her past. Unless she finds a way to finally face the truth, she may never be able to rescue her friends from Longfingers’s grasp.

Publication Date February 4th 2025 by Dial Books
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

A groundbreaking, action-packed, and ultimately uplifting adventure that intertwines elements of Jewish mythology with an unflinching examination of the impacts of transphobia, from Newbery Honor-winner Kyle Lukoff

Covid lockdown is over, but A’s world feels smaller than ever. Coming out as trans didn’t exactly go well, and most days, he barely leaves his bedroom, let alone the house. But the low point of A’s life isn’t online school, missing his bar mitzvah, or the fact that his parents monitor his phone like hawks — it’s the weekly Save Our Sons and Daughters meetings his parents all but drag him to.

At SOSAD, A and his friends Sal and Yarrow sit by while their parents deadname them and wring their hands over a nonexistent “transgender craze.” After all, sitting in suffocating silence has to be better than getting sent away for “advanced treatment,” never to be heard from again.

When Yarrow vanishes after a particularly confrontational meeting, A discovers that SOSAD doesn’t just feel soul-sucking…it’s run by an actual demon who feeds off the pain and misery of kids like him. And it’s not just SOSAD — the entire world is beset by demons dining on what seems like an endless buffet of pain and bigotry.

But how is one trans kid who hasn’t even chosen a name supposed to save his friend, let alone the world? And is a world that seems hellbent on rejecting him even worth saving at all?

Publication Date February 4th 2025 by Scholastic Press
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

A spooky tale of virtual school gone very, very wrong…

Not every kid would be thrilled to move to rural Alaska, but sixth grader Lucy is eager to leave her bullies behind and start over. However, it turns out that Lucy’s new school does remote learning from October to April, when the roads become too icy to navigate safely.

Being the new kid is hard enough — how is she going to make friends when she can’t meet anyone in person?! Luckily, the sixth grade class at White Pine Secondary School is tiny (just thirteen students) and they’re all super nice and really welcoming. While chatting on zoom, they ask Lucy lots of questions about living in the big city, some of which strike Lucy as a little odd but she just chalks it up to the fact that her new classmates have spent their whole lives in a VERY small town.

As the ice starts to thaw, Lucy grows increasingly excited about meeting her new friends in person! But when she enters the school’s address on her phone’s GPS, it leads her to a crumbling, clearly abandoned building with a rotted wood sign in front – a sign that reads White Pine Secondary School. There’s nothing else in sight…except a tiny cemetery with snow-dusted headstones poking out of the frozen ground. Headstones with some very familiar names on them…

Lucy doesn’t know what to believe. Are her new “friends” pulling an elaborate prank? Or is truth far, far more horrifying?

Publication Date February 11th 2025 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

From Pura Belpré Honoree and Edgar Award Winner Adrianna Cuevas comes an out-of-this-world middle grade adventure, based on true historical events, perfect for fans of The Goonies and Stranger Things.

All Pineda Matlage wants is to get through the school year and maybe pull an epic prank or two with his friends Junior, Ernesto, and Patsy. But class is disrupted when a slew of American soldiers descends upon their rural Texan town of Soledad. They’ll be carrying out a training exercise and taking over everything, from Pineda’s school to the local government.

But Pineda knows why they’re really here. For days he’s hidden the strange creature who fell from the sky in his parents’ barn. He promised her he’d find her family and help them return home. But with soldiers now on every street corner and armed checkpoints across every road, reuniting his new friend with her missing parents seems an impossible task. Especially when they realize that the army’s presence is really a coverup for capturing his alien friends ― being observed in a laboratory by the US government for reasons of their own.

Enlisting the help of his friends, a Black soldier adjusting to a newly integrated army, and townspeople tired of the military’s destructive presence, Pineda and all of Soledad will embark on an adventure none of them could have ever expected.

Publication Date February 11th 2025 by Dutton Books for Young Readers
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

A funny and heartfelt LGBTQIA+ middle grade novel set against the backdrop of family drama and a library funding campaign in a small town.

Alex Eager lives in Faillin, OR with her grandmother, a retired librarian. Life should be great for Alex, since she finally worked up the courage to ask her best friend PJ if they could be more than friends and she said yes. But their new relationship will have to be long distance, because PJ is moving. On top of that, Alex is worried that something is wrong with her increasingly forgetful grandmother. And to make matters worse, Faillin is holding a referendum on library funding, and things aren’t looking good. Will anything good for Alex ever last?

Mountain Upside Down is a beautifully crafted story of a thirteen-year-old girl finding her place in her family and her community. It’s a queer-positive story that doesn’t center coming out. It’s a story of a library’s role in a community that doesn’t feature book banning. And it’s a story of long-held family secrets and resentment that focuses not on final resolution but learning how to communicate again.

Publication Date February 11th 2025 by Candlewick
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

From a rising stand-up comedian and exciting new talent in children’s fiction comes a brilliantly funny murder mystery series that BBC Radio called “Knives Out meets Poirot — but for children!”

Bonnie Montgomery is the world’s greatest detective. Not that anyone — other than Grampa Banks — has heard of her. But they will have heard of Montgomery Bonbon, the gentleman detective with the bristly mustache, fashionable beret, and accent that’s hard to place. Montgomery Bonbon is responsible for solving many high-stakes crimes, including unmasking the Emmental Bandit, restoring the Rusakova diamonds to their rightful owner, and busting an international owl-smuggling ring, resulting in the arrest of over twelve owls.

But now Montgomery Bonbon is needed on a case much closer to home, at the Hornville Museum in Bonnie’s hometown of Widdlington, where a mysterious death has occurred. Don’t look too carefully, however — from certain angles, Montgomery Bonbon looks suspiciously like a ten-year-old girl…

Brimming with charm and wit, this debut offering from comedian and writer Alasdair Beckett-King and best-selling illustrator Claire Powell is a delightful modern take on the classic whodunit.

Publication Date February 18th 2025 by Charlesbridge
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

When 6th grader Zella’s class prank flops, she’s given a second chance to leave a lasting impact in this middle-grade novel about redemption, friendship, and kindness.

A perfect book club pick to inspire discussion, 9–12-year-old fans of Katherine Applegate’s Wishtree will love this hopeful story about the power of connection.

It’s the end of 6th grade and Zella wants to be the one who thinks of the best class prank — a long-held tradition that administrators allow, with parameters.

In alternating chapters told by Zella, best friends Bowie and Janea, Shelby the school sleuth, and the town of Kettleby, Zella’s story reveals her quest to uphold her image as class clown and bask in the spotlight.

As a result, she loses sight of what’s going on in the lives of her two best friends and begins to cause more stress for her mom — who manages their family’s failing ice cream shop while caring for Pops. Zella doesn’t mean to cause trouble, but being 12 is hard. Everything is changing, and everyone seems so much cooler and better understood.

When her prank doesn’t go as planned, the entire class is punished, and Zella is to blame. But when Zella’s given a second chance, her small, subtle acts of thoughtfulness begin to grow. It turns out that redemption, friendship, and a remarkable chain of kindness tastes even sweeter than her family’s famous raspberry ripple ice cream.

With humor and heart, The Ripple Effect‘s themes of kindness and connection will inspire young readers to even greater compassion and generosity in their own lives.

Publication Date February 18th 2025 by Viking Books for Young Readers
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

In the spirit of Lauren Wolk and Ruta Sepetys comes the tale of a girl fighting her way back home after surviving the sinking of the Lusitania — and learning to think for herself rather than accept the prejudice of wartime.

The year is 1915 and the world is at war. Marta and her father are passengers on the Lusitania, desperately trying to get back home to Germany. While aboard, they must keep their identities hidden or risk being mistaken for enemy spies. Then the Lusitania is attacked by a German submarine. They just make it off the sinking ship, but her father is discovered and detained. Marta suddenly finds herself alone in enemy land.

To survive, Marta must draw upon a deep well of bravery she never knew she had. Fortunately, she meets Clare, a young Irish girl who can talk a mile a minute, and her kind family. Believing that Marta is a Dutch refugee, they welcome her into their home. She can’t risk letting her new friends know she’s actually from Germany — the very nation that the Irish and English are fighting against. But could these people who have shown her nothing but kindness truly be her enemy?

Sweeping from the Irish Sea to a cathedral city in England, this story shows us that friendship, especially in times of war, may be the greatest gift of all.

Publication Date February 18th 2025 by Charlesbridge Moves
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

Humor, heart, and Shakespeare abound in this middle-grade novel about Angus, a 10-year-old theater fanatic, his struggling family, and his changing relationship with big brother Liam.

Perfect for fans of books that handle difficult subjects and family dynamics in a sensitive way, like Better Nate Than Ever and Rule of Threes.

10-year-old Angus is unique. He quotes Shakespeare and wants to stage a Werewolf Hamlet play for his 5th grade legacy project. Angus’s 17-year-old brother, Liam, is like a werewolf now — Angus never knows if he’ll be nice or mean or when he’ll sneak out to get drunk or worse.

Meanwhile, tension continues to build for Liam’s family in Los Angeles. Mom and Dad are going to default on the mortgage. Older sister Hannah is fed up and ready to move herself to Maine, and little sister Sidney doesn’t really get what’s happening. Then Liam goes missing, and Angus decides he has to find him.

A realistic, heartfelt look at the complexities of family relationships and struggles. Along with Angus’s loveable charm, sense of humor, and desire to stage his original play, Werewolf Hamlet is sure to win its audience — on and off the page — over.

Publication Date February 25th 2025 by Random House Books for Young Readers
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

When a 7th grader is forced to join her school’s hockey team, she discovers unexpected friendships and a budding crush on the team captain. This fierce and heartfelt queer romance explores the courage to face your fears, even when your dreams are on thin ice.

Some goals are worth falling for.

After a lifetime of humiliating sports experiences, Bea Mullins knows the best way to survive middle school is to stick to the sidelines. When PE is suddenly canceled, though, Bea is forced to join an after-school activity…which is how she ends up as a member of the Glenwood Geese, her middle school’s first all-girls hockey team.

Bea would be happy sitting on the bench, but she doesn’t want to let down her best friend, Celia. Plus, the more time Bea spends on the rinks, the more she comes to enjoy her teammates, especially the incredibly talented – and incredibly cool – co-captain Gabi. But when low funding puts the Geese in danger of never playing again, Bea realizes she may lose everything she didn’t know she wanted.

A hilarious and heartfelt middle-grade contemporary about first crushes and fierce friendships from debut author Emily Deibert.

Publication Date February 25th 2025 by Aladdin
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

From Barbara Dee, the critically acclaimed author of Maybe He Just Likes You, comes a middle grade novel about a girl who makes the choice to speak out against a problematic historical hometown figure no matter the cost — perfect for readers of Dress Coded.

For as long as Freya can remember, she has loved living in her cozy hometown of Wellstone. Not only is the town itself named for local and historical hero Benjamin Wellstone but everything in it: schools, beaches, and stores. There’s even a giant statue of him to remind everyone of the good things he did.

But while doing research for a big school project, Freya discovers that Benjamin isn’t the big hero everyone has been taught to believe. He had some redeeming qualities, but he also held incredibly problematic views towards women, believing they shouldn’t have the right to vote — or even to exist outside of the home. Disappointed by her revelation, Freya wonders if she could figure out a way to not only show what the hometown hero was really like but replace his statue with one of an unsung hero: local suffragette Octavia Padgett.

Though Freya knows not everyone will agree with her, she is shocked when her efforts cause even bigger issues than she could have imagined. Even her own parents seem uneasy with Freya’s cause. With the help of her beloved Nan, friends new and old, and the coolest librarian she’s ever met, can Freya stand firm and tear down outdated views?

Publication Date February 25th 2025 by Kokila
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

For fans of Disney’s Go Figure, a laugh-out-loud, heartfelt dual POV sibling-rivalry story by acclaimed author Jessica Kim.

Twelve-year-old fraternal twins Phoebe and Dexter Bae are polar opposites in every way except for their love of the ice. Phoebe is hyperfocused on pairs figure skating, and Dex loves his hockey team. But when Phoebe’s partner injures his knee just two months before competitions and Dex gets cut from his team in favor of a new hotshot goalie from Canada, they’re both left spinning.

With their skating dreams dashed, their mother suggests that Dex fill in as Phoebe’s doubles partner. It’s a hard sell — the twins haven’t been close since their father passed away two years ago. For Dex, working with a perfectionist like Phoebe would be a challenge, but if it means he’d improve his skating technique enough to get back on the hockey team — and he’d have something to keep his mind off his dad — it’d be worth it. Phoebe isn’t thrilled either, but what choice does she have if she wants to bring home the gold, something that would’ve made her dad happy?

Can these siblings skate past their differences toward victory?

Publication Date February 25th 2025 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

Three cousins get transported back to 1862 to play an important role in the Battle of Puebla, the reason we celebrate Cinco de Mayo today, in this enchanting middle grade fantasy adventure.

History is alive with magic. That’s what zany Tía Xia is always telling cousins Jorge, Camila, and Siggy. Daredevil Jorge couldn’t be more different than his cousins: Camila is a dreamer who adores animals and Siggy is an aspiring influencer who has an exclusive party to attend. And their aunt has many secrets, including a mysterious diamond-encrusted sword that Jorge definitely wasn’t supposed to see.

But when the three stumble upon a time portal in their aunt’s yard, they are transported back to 1862, a past filled with wonders — and dangers. To return to the present, they must race to deliver the sword to General Ignacio Zaragoza in time for the historic Battle of Puebla in Mexico: the foundation of the holiday Cinco de Mayo.

As their journey to Mexico takes them through the Civil War–era United States, the cousins see just how much US history has been shaped by Latin communities. They must find the power within themselves to make sure things happen as they’re supposed to, without altering the past.

Publication Date March 4th 2025 by
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

A heartwarming story about grief and new beginnings, by Pura Belpre Award-winning author Yamile Saied Mendez.

THE TROUBLE WITH SUNSHINE IS IT COMES EVEN IF YOU THINK YOU DON’T DESERVE IT.

Dorani’s mom, Isa, taught her to be bold and challenge the rules if they don’t seem fair. People are more important than rules. But she never taught Dorani how to do it all without her. So, when Isa dies on the way to speak with the principal about Dori’s latest revolution, Dori loses her voice. Her grief and guilt become the loudest parts of her.

Moving from vibrant Miami to quiet, middle-of-nowhere Wyoming with her aunt feels like the punishment she deserves. She spends most of her time with their newest horse, Sunshine. Sunshine was involved in an accident that’s left her skittish and hard to care for. Tia Ivette knows her behavior comes from fear, and she is trying everything to make Sunshine brave again. But Dori knows grief can feel like fear…and grief is just love with no place to go.

Speaking up for Sunshine reminds Dori that the very best parts of her mother live on through her, and so when she starts to notice that the rules at her new school unfairly target specific students, she knows just what her mother would do…

Publication Date March 4th 2025 by Tundra Books
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

A stubborn young girl named Fiona stumbles upon an abandoned house full of stray cats, just as it is threatened by a demolition team, a leadership crisis, and two potentially malicious parakeets. Can Fiona save the house and all its inhabitants? A new middle-grade novel by critically acclaimed author Tanya Lloyd Kyi.

When Fiona wanders into an abandoned mansion down by the harbor, she discovers the house is full of stray cats (and two chaotic parakeets). Fiona feels a great deal of sympathy for the animals; she understands what it’s like to need a safe home. Ever since her parents died, she’s been struggling to adjust to the tiny apartment where she and her Aunt Tanis now live. And Aunt Tanis has little time to spare for Fiona, between her job at The Municipal Hall and her horrible, hair-gelled boyfriend.

When the mansion is threatened by a demolition team, Fiona is determined to save “The City” and its residents. But the cats have their own priorities. Cot (short for Cottonball Fluffikins Magnificent III, a name he refuses to acknowledge) has lived in the mansion for two years and is the self-proclaimed king. He’s convinced the demolition effort has been organized by the recently arrived parakeets. Those birds have got to go!

Cot’s feline rival, Piper, is sure she can intimidate the demolition team and force them to leave, if Fiona will simply stay out of her way. And the parakeets…well, the parakeets just want to go home.

As the demolition team begins tearing down the house next door, Fiona looks for any help she can find — at the library, the butcher shop, and even at The Municipal Hall. Can the efforts of one small girl and an assortment of animals stop a luxury condo development? Can they create something better in its place?

It’s going to take some quick thinking on the part of Fiona, not to mention the cooperation of all the cats, to give The City a future.

Publication Date March 4th 2025 by Arctis
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

Summer vacation in London turns mysterious and exciting when Mia learns that her aunt’s antique shop is actually a ghost placement agency and she gets training in how to cross over into the spirit world.

Welcome to Pandora’s Antiques, with rarities for every occasion.

Nowhere does Mia feel so at home as in her Aunt Harriet’s antique shop. How wonderful that she can spend her summer vacation there! But something is wrong in the store. Things disappear as if by magic, furniture that has just been wiped dusts up again in seconds, and there is an eerie number of clatter at night. However, her aunt acts as if this is completely normal. Mia, on the other hand, suspects that Harriet is hiding something from her—just like the question of who her birth parents are.

Publication Date March 4th 2025 by Candlewick
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

This shimmering middle-grade debut set in 1850s Lancashire, England, explores longing, belonging, and the courage it takes to find your place—and bloom.

The night that workhouse orphan Scilla Brown dares to climb the Earl of Havermore’s garden wall, she wants only to steal a peach—the best thing she’s ever tasted in her hard, hungry life. But when she’s caught by the earl’s head gardener and mistaken for a boy, she grabs on to something more: a temporary job scrubbing flowerpots. If she can just keep up her deception, she’ll have a soft bed and food beyond her wildest dreams…maybe even peaches. She soon falls in with Phin, a garden apprentice who sneaks her into the steamy, fruit-filled greenhouses, calls her “Brownie,” and makes her skin prickle. At the same time, the gruff head gardener himself is teaching lowly Scilla to make things grow, and she’s cultivating hope with every seed she plants. But as the seasons unfurl, her loyalties become divided, and her secret grows harder to keep. How far will she go to have a home at last?

Beautifully crafted with classic middle-grade themes of fate and ambition, identity and personal responsibility, this stunning debut features brisk pacing, crackling dialogue, and deep insight into what makes a garden thrive—and a heart and mind flourish.

Publication Date March 11th 2025 by Aladdin
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

Only Murders in the Building meets Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library in this action-packed novel about a girl pulled into a mysterious treasure hunt at her new boarding school.

Ever since her mom passed away, twelve-year-old Megumi “Meg” Mizuno has been spiraling. After too many low grades and cut classes, she’s been expelled from school—apparently, everyone else has moved past her grief and expects the same from her. Her dad secures her a spot at the prestigious Leland Chase Academy, a boarding school in the middle-of-nowhere New York, called the Last Chance Academy by its student body. If Meg can’t make it work there, she’ll be forced to live with her horrible aunt.

At first, Leland Chase seems like an average, if very strict, boarding school, though Meg tentatively warms up to her roommate and some of their classmates. Then, one night, a mysterious envelope appears under her door, inviting Meg and her roommate to participate in a scavenger hunt. The only rules: don’t get caught by faculty or staff and no cheating. The grand prize? A luxury stay at a fancy resort in California. And after learning her dad has plans to sell their family home—with all its memories of Mom—Meg knows she has to win the competition and use the trip to convince Dad to stay.

Thanks to her mom, who taught her how to solve ciphers, Meg has a knack for puzzles she uses to get ahead in the hunt. But she quickly learns that her classmates seem to have their own sets of skills keeping them in the competition. And as they get deeper in the game, Meg and her fellow competitors realize the anonymous creator has their own agenda…and LCA isn’t quite what it seems.

Publication Date March 11th 2025 by Roaring Brook Press
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

Amari and the Night Brothers meets Nevermoor in this enchanting middle grade fantasy, inspired by Indian mythology and British folklore, about a neurodivergent heroine, a mysterious school, and a world of magical creatures.

Eleven-year-old Vanya Vallen has always felt like she doesn’t fit in. She’s British-Indian in a mostly white town in England, her parents won’t talk about their pasts, and she has ADHD.

Oh, and she talks to books. More importantly, the books talk back.

When her family is attacked by a monster she believed only existed in fairytales, Vanya discovers that her parents have secrets, and that there are a lot more monsters out there. Overnight, she’s whisked off to the enchanted library and school of Auramere, where she joins the ranks of archwitches and archivists.

Life at Auramere is unexpected, exciting and wonderful. But even here, there’s no escaping monsters. The mysterious, powerful Wild Hunt is on the prowl, and Vanya will need all her creativity and courage to unmask its leader and stop them before they destroy the only place she’s ever truly belonged.

From the critically-acclaimed author of the Kiki Kallira series and The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches comes an action-packed and magical middle grade fantasy, perfect for fans of Rick Riordan and Roshani Chokshi.

Publication Date March 11th 2025 by Andrews McMeel Publishing
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

All aboard the journey of a lifetime! Ticket to Ride is an immensely popular board game where players test their skills in teamwork, strategy, and luck. This new, 100% official, and high stakesTicket to Ride book will whisk readers all throughout the North America, is perfect for fans of all ages, with black-and-white illustrations by artist David Miles and chilling, pulse-pounding prose by bestselling author Adrienne Kress.

To say twelve-year-old Teddy loves trains is an understatement. He is obsessed. He knows everything there is to know about them, has the most amazing model train setup in the basement, and he carries around a classic caboose, a small model of a caboose of a 19th century steam engine that he received as a birthday gift. It’s his good luck charm! So when Teddy wins a Ticket To Ride the Excelsior Express in a writing contest, he can’t wait. The Excelsior Express is a train that’s modeled to look like it’s from the 1920’s but is outfitted with a high-tech locomotive system. This will be the train’s flagship journey, and it’s a dream come true for Teddy. Plus, he’ll get to see his grandparents in Los Angeles, and travel all across North America from his hometown of Toronto, Canada.

Wait…dream come true?

Or maybe a nightmare.

When the train gets rerouted from Omaha to Pittsburgh, at first, Teddy doesn’t think anything of it. Trains get rerouted all of the time. But then the train gets rerouted again. What’s more, his lucky caboose is missing.

As it turns out, this ticket to ride takes Teddy, his new friend Olivia, a woman always dressed in yellow named Mina, two traveling musicians named Allie and Dex, and their fellow passengers on an unexpected journey and through some pretty hefty corporate corruption.

Based on the hit board game, Ticket to Ride, author Adrienne Kress weaves fascinating story with adventure in this book that’s full of mystery, adventure, and friendship, in a style reminiscent of Lemony Snicket and Roald Dahl. Illustrator David Miles’s spot art leaps off the page . . . and onto a train track. Fans of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events and Adrienne’s own Bendy and the Ink Machine novels will love this series.

Publication Date March 18th 2025 by Nosy Crow
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

A fast-paced adventure full of daring action and delicious cakes!

Alice Éclair, Spy Extraordinaire will whisk you away on a glamorous and high-stakes adventure, full of daring action and delicious cakes!

Baker by day, spy by night — Alice Éclair leads an exciting double life!

A mysterious message sends Alice on a mission aboard France’s most glamorous train, the Sapphire Express . Alice must sneak on board posing as a pastry chef and discover which passenger is an enemy agent before they reach their final stop. But everyone on the train seems to be hiding something…

Armed with her whisk, her wits, and her will to succeed, Alice has a spy to catch.

Publication Date March 18th 2025 by Holiday House
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

Max Rose-Rodriguez has more important things to do than finishing sixth grade—like stopping the biggest art heist the universe has ever known.

Sixth-grader Max has it rough between tormentors at school and his sick—ever-worsening—mom at home. But then DZ, a strange, tuxedoed man with one shoe, appears to Max from the future and divulges that Max’s mother’s fate is somehow entwined with that of Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night. It’s suddenly clear to Max that any problems he already had on his plate have just gotten bigger.

DZ explains to Max that someone is after The Starry Night. . . and the thief is not bound by the usual laws of time and space.

“I have questions,” Max tells DZ. But DZ can’t offer too many specifics. What he can provide Max is a cryptic to-do list:
● Read The Future Time Traveler’s Guide to the Past
● Consider the puffins
● Beware the Wretch with obsidian eyes.
● Befriend Vincent van Gogh

Although he’s skeptical, Max tries his very best. After all, he’ll do anything to help his mom. But he soon discovers that The Future Time Traveler’s Guide to the Past has never been published. And he’s not exactly sure where he’s going to find puffins in LA, let alone consider them. He has no idea what a Wretch is. And . . . befriend Vincent van Gogh? DZ is asking the impossible.

Then, one afternoon at the library, Max spots her: Turquoise-haired Maybe Wells, dressed in blue from head to toe, spattered in paint, carrying a skateboard, and sporting a beautiful tattoo of puffins on her right shoulder.

Max considers those puffins.

And suddenly, achieving the impossible doesn’t seem so farfetched anymore.

In this quirky, clever, and arrestingly heartfelt adventure through time, readers will find themselves cheering for the underdog at every turn—whether that underdog is Max, Maybe, a picnic hippo named Thelma, or a certain post-impressionist who, in 1889, painted his most famous work under a twinkling night sky in Arles.

Publication Date March 18th 2025 by Amulet Books
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

An action-packed, spine-tingling ghost story about twins with supernatural powers—perfect for fans of Five Nights At Freddy’s and the Goosebumps series

Thirteen-year-old twins Gabby and Trent Manning are Connecticut’s youngest paranormal investigators. Both have inherited “the gift” from their grandparents, the Mannings, whose legendary ghost hunts inspired several books and movies—but whose names have been nearly forgotten since their untimely deaths years ago.

Armed with EMF machines, flashlights, and recording equipment, the twins’ mom drags them all over New England in an attempt to bring their family back into the limelight. Never mind that Gabby is tired of being known as a Ghost Twin, and Trent finds most of the haunts to be pretty frightening. Their mom thinks their latest destination is exactly what the family needs to go viral: the abandoned Majestic Theater, the site of the late Mannings’ infamous failed exorcism.

However, nothing about this investigation goes according to plan. After a terrifying séance-gone-wrong on the stage, their mother goes missing in the building, and it’s clear that a powerful demon is haunting the theater. Will the twins be able live up to their grandparents’ legacy and vanquish the demon—before it’s too late?

Featuring articles, interviews, and other found media throughout, The Many Hauntings of the Manning Family is packed with scares that will leave readers sleeping with the lights on.

Publication Date March 25th 2025 by Disney Hyperion
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

An out-of-this-world story about friendship, empowerment, and…running from federal agents?

E.T. meets cult classic The Iron Giant in this middle grade light sci-fi from Emmy Award-winner Oz Rodriguez and New York Times best-selling author Claribel A. Ortega, perfect for fans of Witchlings.

With a little heart, you can fix anything.

Mimi Perez fixes things. Phones, tablets, speakers, printers. She gets it from her dad—helping him at the family e-repair shop was always one of Mimi’s favorite things to do. But ever since Papi was deported, there’s a lot more than electronics that need fixing in Mimi’s world. Things too big for any twelve-year-old to handle on her own.

Mimi hustles around her Brooklyn neighborhood trying to earn enough money to finally fix her family. There’s no time for school or friends, but Mimi knows it will all be worth it the day Papi comes home. Then her ex-friends approach her with a proposition: enter a robotics competition with them, and they could win $50,000. It could be her chance.

Not part of the plan? A mysterious robot crashing to earth. From space.

The robot is scared, alone, and broken, and federal agents are after her. Mimi does what any street-smart electronics repair person would do: she takes the robot home, fixes her up, and in the process, makes herself a friend.

Suddenly, Mimi is anything but alone. She’s part of a robotics team. She’s sheltering a robot. She’s dodging federal agents. And keeping all of it a secret from her mom.

Join a girl and a robot on their life-changing sci-fi adventure in this coming-of-age story that celebrates kids in STEM, first-gen communities, and the power of friendship.

Publication Date March 25th 2025 by Greenwillow Books
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler meets Indiana Jones! A young adventurer races to break the family curse by repatriating the artifacts her famed ancestor “saved.” Perfect for fans of Rick Riordan, Kwame Mbalia, and Rena Barron.

Cincinnati Lee’s great great (great?) grandfather is famous. His adventures discovering ancient artifacts have been made into movies, and his work is widely respected by museums across the world. The thing is, in that line of work, you’re bound to get cursed. And that leaves your great great (great?) granddaughter to break the curse by returning the artifacts you “preserved.”

Cincinnati’s own adventure begins in the Cosmopolitan Museum in New York City, where her single mom works and Cincinnati has grown up. Soon she learns about the ancient Spear of Destiny—and its potential to right all the wrongs in her family’s past. Or bring about the end of the world. It all depends on whose hands it falls into. Cincinnati must beat two relic hunters to the spear, and her quest will take her to surprising locations throughout the city and even across the Atlantic Ocean. Along the way, she’ll make a new friend (which is not the easiest thing to do), make some enemies (surprisingly easy to do), and ultimately learn what makes the world worth saving. Acclaimed author Heidi Heilig makes a dazzling middle grade debut with an irrepressible hero, a compelling cast of friends and enemies, nonstop action, and a thoughtful approach to viewing our responsibilities to each other and the world around us.

Publication Date March 25th 2025 by Nancy Paulsen Books
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

A deeply moving middle grade novel in verse about a girl struggling with depression when she starts fifth grade amidst a sea of changes.

Pearl loves watching the majestic loggerhead turtles and octopuses glide through the water at the aquarium. Pearl finds it especially easy to identify with the octopuses, who have millions of touch receptors all over their bodies. They feel everything. Sometimes, Pearl wishes she was more like a turtle, with a hard outer shell—it hurts too much to feel everything.

And the changes at the start of fifth grade don’t feel good to Pearl at all. New teachers, lockers, and being in different classes than her friends is unsettling. Pearl tries her best to pretend she’s fine, but she starts to struggle with things that used to come easy, like schoolwork, laughing and skateboarding with her best friend, Rosie, running and even sleeping.

After a disastrous parent-teacher conference, her parents decide to bring Pearl to Dr. Jill, who diagnoses her with depression. At first Pearl is resistant to Dr. Jill’s help; she doesn’t like feeling different, but she also doesn’t want to continue feeling so bad all the time. When Dr. Jill asks Pearl to try one Impossible Thing each day, like running, skateboarding, or walking her dog Tuck, she decides to try. For each impossible thing she attempts, Pearl puts a bead on a string. Bead by bead, and with the support of family and friends, Pearl finds her way back to herself. She discovers just like the moon is always there in the sky, even if it isn’t full, she’ll always be herself even when she doesn’t feel whole.

In this tender novel-in-verse, critically acclaimed author Bobbie Pyron draws from her own experiences to tell the story of a brave girl learning to take care of and love herself.

Publication Date March 25th 2025 by Feiwel & Friends
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

If you liked the national bestseller, Olivetti, you’ll enjoy this heartfelt novel celebrates the healing power of community and the endurance of love.

The Odenburgh, an old apartment building made of brick and blunt opinions, is the last of its kind in a swiftly changing neighborhood. After years of putting up with people and their many problems, the Odenburgh knows there’s no point in getting attached. They all just leave eventually. A truth that comes all too soon when the building is sold and slated for demolition, giving tenants a month to move out.

No one is more troubled by the news than eleven-year-old Prue, who refuses to leave her family’s apartment. Not when it was the last place she lived with her sister Lina, before she lost Lina forever. When Prue launches a plan to save their home, the Odenburgh joins in―flickering lights, jamming elevators, triggering fire alarms ― all to try and bring a building full of bickering residents together. In the process, Prue meets Lewis, an eccentric boy who lives across the street ― and the only one who can help her discover the missing elements of her sister’s story.

Heartfelt and bursting with a community of unique characters, Once For Yes is a testament to the endurance of love and the people we carry with us, wherever we go.

Publication Date March 25th 2025 by Knopf Books for Young Readers
Goodreads ● Amazon ● Chapters ● Blackwell’s ● Barnes & Noble ● IndieBound

From the Newbery-Award winning author of Catherine, Called Birdy and The Midwife’s Apprentice comes the story of an orphan who decides to go west – with nothing but gumption as her guide.

Sally O’Malley is an orphan working at a mineral spring hotel in the woods of central Oregon–that is, until she’s chucked out like chewed-on chicken bones, due entirely to an unfortunate incident with a pig and some church ladies.

And so Sally decides to head west to the sea. Glorious, she’s heard. Fierce, she’s heard. Why not see for herself? Before long Sally encounters a dangerous bobcat – and that’s just the first day! Safe in the knowledge that she’s fearless, she continues on her journey with no place to belong and no one to depend on. And that’s just fine with her.

Then a lady called Major, an old donkey, a loyal dog, and an abominable brat show Sally that she’s not quite as brave as she thinks.

It turns out that counting on someone else is the scariest thing of all.