credit: ©istockphoto.com / Jovanmandic
By DK
Ages 0-3, DK Children
This board book will help you celebrate your little love’s first Christmas with festive photos, shimmering 3-D effects and cute messages from a snowman, angel, Santa and more.
Release date: September 18
By Hannah Eliot
Ages 2+, Little Simon
Fans of the Disney movie will find something new in this twist on the old tail—er, tale—which takes place in the Caribbean, offering beautiful, reimagined illustrations that add a multicultural dimension to the classic.
Release date: December 18
By Emily Jenkins
Ages 3-7, Schwartz & Wade
It’s 1912 in NYC and young Gertie is frustrated she can’t help make latkes. Sitting in her room, she can hear family members working together in celebration of Hanukkah. When Papa comes to bring her out, she gets the honor of lighting the first candle on the menorah and realizes that patience, compassion and family are what the holiday’s really about.
Release date: September 11
Where Do Diggers Celebrate Christmas?
By Brianna Caplan Sayers
Ages 3-7, Random House Books for Young Readers
There’s diggers and tractors and forklifts and tankers, oh my! But how do these hard-working machines celebrate the holidays? Using a merry rhyme scheme, the kids can learn how truck families decorate and sing carols, plus how they help pull Santa’s sleigh.
Release date: September 18
By James Dean
Ages 4-8, HarperFestival
With big whiskers and eyes, Pete the Kitty is a character the kids can trust. Perfect for bedtime, Pete winds down for the night with a bath, then brushes his teeth and slides into PJs.
Release date: December 4
By D. J. Ward
Ages 4-8, HarperCollins
If they’re interested in the hustle and bustle of metropolitan areas, this picture book will teach them how cities work. They’ll learn how cities get clean water and electricity, how sewers work and how residents travel.
Release date: December 11
By Jory John
Ages 4-8, HarperCollins
Best friends Bear and Duck are celebrating their snow day, but they have two different ideas on how to spend their time. Bear wants to stay inside where it’s warm, and Duck wants to venture out into the cold weather.
Release date: November 13
By Mo O’Hara
Ages 4-8, HarperCollins
This story adds a new tail to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, where the famous Capulets and Montagues are actually dinosaurs. Romeosaurus and Juliet Rex are friends until they realize their families are enemies—one being a carnivore and the other, a herbivore. But that doesn’t mean the two can’t find a way to get along.
Release date: December 11
The LEGO Christmas Ornaments Book, Volume 2
By Chris Mcveigh
Ages 7+, No Starch Press
Get crafty this Christmas! Inside you’ll find instructions for 16 different ornaments like a gingerbread house, Santa, reindeer, a snowman, wreath, poinsettia and more that can be built using LEGO pieces.
Release date: October 23
By Morten Dürr
Ages 10+, Triangle Square
In this graphic novel, Zenobia, a famous warrior queen in Syria, inspires a young Syrian girl, Amina, who is crammed on board a small boat with other refugees as she runs from war. As she struggles to escape from the only place she’s known as home, she thinks about Zenobia’s bravery.
Release date: November 13
By Trent Reedy
Ages 8-12, Scholastic
When Rogan is invited to play his favorite video game in a tournament with five other players by the game’s super famous creator, he’s thrown into a world of high-tech virtual-reality gaming, competition and danger. There’s strange glitches, suspicious robots and soldiers, and sometimes the game feels all too real.
Release date: November 27
The Glass Spare and The Cursed Sea
By Lauren DeStefano
Ages 13+, Balzer + Bray
Young Wilhelmina is the fourth and only daughter of the King of the world’s richest nation. She’s been trained as a spy for her father, who is obsessed with expanding his empire. After a terrifying attack on her life, Wil realizes she has powers—she can turn people into gemstone. Thanks to her new abilities, Wil can leave home for the first time, test her limits and find her independence. But can she trade her freedom for her kingdom’s? After the tumultuous events of The Glass Spare, Wil’s journey will reach a conclusion The Cursed Sea, where the princess must decide how to use her curse in order to save herself and her people.
Release date: December 18
By Sara Holland
Ages 13+, HarperTeen
Time is money and money is power, which couldn’t be more true in Sempera, where time can be extracted and added to people's lives (meaning the rich can extend their lives for centuries). Jules Ember and her father are servants at Everless, the estate of the wealthy Gerling family, but are forced to leave after a terrifying accident. When Jules finds out her father is dying, she knows she must return to Everless to earn more time for him. In Everless, Jules finds herself entangled in violence, romance, relationships and consequences that bleed into Evermore, where Jules must confront her greatest enemy—someone she once thought she could trust with her life.
Release date: December 31
By Cassandra Clare
Ages 14+, Margaret K. McElderry Books
Set five years after Clare’s Mortal Instruments series (which aren’t necessary to read beforehand), this series delves into the Shadow World: a place where Shadowhunters, half-angel and half-human warriors, protect humans from threats, whether they be demons, werewolves, vampires or even other Shadowhunters. Emma and Julian were children when they witnessed a brutal war. Now both orphans, Emma helps Julian and his family rebuild as the two teens struggle to raise Julian’s younger siblings and solve the strange serial murders that have been plaguing Los Angeles. The stakes only escalate in Lord of Shadows, especially when Emma and Julian's forbidden love threatens their lives, and the fate of the world—human, Shadowhunter and demon alike—is at stake in Queen of Air and Darkness. For a limited time, Lady Midnight is being offered for $4.99, a great excuse to start the series that’s sold more than 50 million copies worldwide.
Release date: December 4
