Children’s Books

In “Ultraviolet,” by Aida Salazar, and “Mid-Air,” by Alicia D. Williams, the thunderstorm of adolescence splits open a once peaceful sky.

A comics collection’s sibling narrators and a graphic novel’s hapless heroine change their stories as they go along.

Alki Zei’s Greek classic, set in the birthplace of democracy in the mid-1930s, feels eerily relevant in today’s America.

Even for the youngest readers, attempted piggy-bank robbery may not cut it.

Erika Lee and Christina Soontornvat’s “Made in Asian America” spotlights young people who defy erasure and make their own history.

Jamaica Kincaid and Kara Walker unearth botany’s buried history.

Lesa Cline-Ransome’s new novel in verse adds female voices to the late-19th-century Black homesteaders movement.

The children in three illustrated satirical tales are up against something far more complex than ogres, witches and big bad wolves.

How the bunny became the reigning star of children’s literature.

A boy’s mother is missing. Her Olivetti was the last one to see her before she disappeared.

Gertrude Chandler Warner’s “The Boxcar Children,” celebrating its 100th year, depicts the delights of concocting scrumptious meals.

Britain’s youngest code-breakers, brought to life in a new nonfiction book by Candace Fleming, were normal teenagers: playing pranks, attending dances.

“Louder Than Hunger” joins a very small shelf of novels and memoirs that address eating disorders from a male point of view.

In “Ferris,” a girl and her grandmother are visited by a friendly ghost; in Erin Entrada Kelly’s “The First State of Being,” a boy is visited by a time traveler.

In Katherine Marsh’s new novel, the girl with the snaky curls loses neither her head nor her wits.

Veera Hiranandani’s “Amil and the After” and Saadia Faruqi’s “The Partition Project” show that the rending of the subcontinent is as relevant and heartbreaking as ever.

Here are the year’s most notable picture, chapter and middle grade books, selected by our children’s books editor.

From a 200th-anniversary edition of Clement C. Moore’s Christmas Eve tale to lightheartedly loopy poems for every day of the year.

What children who face eyesight, hearing and literacy challenges can decipher may be limited, but what they appreciate and celebrate knows no bounds.

An enchanting work by Italy’s foremost living children’s author is finally available in English.

L.M. Montgomery’s oft-forgotten novel, which turns 100 this year, is more timely than ever.

Two new middle grade novels insist Hans Christian Andersen got it all wrong.

Jeanne DuPrau’s “Project F,” Patricia Forde’s “The Girl Who Fell to Earth” and Donna Barba Higuera’s “Alebrijes” answer the question, Could this be the beginning of the end?

Jewish magic, Southern conjure magic and Scottish magic abound in new middle grade novels by Laurel Snyder, Eden Royce and Elle McNicoll.

“Remember Us” recalls the fires of 1970s Bushwick. “Gone Wolf” begins in a 2111 Southern breakaway nation after a second Civil War.

New works of nonfiction and fiction transcend stereotypes, and connect a wealth of ideas and facts for young readers.

As a new novella and a new edition of “The Tale of Despereaux” remind us, her stories demand a lot from young readers, but the rewards can be magical.

In spooky stories by Ben Hatke, Remy Lai and the team of Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass, the secrets of the undead lead perilously close to home.

A Mexican American family heads to Jalisco in their Winnebago and a “bruja” from Puerto Rico steps out of a cab in Brooklyn.

The books in Peter Brown’s “Wild Robot” trilogy were the first to wallop my son with the mix of tragedy and joy that define great art and also real life.

Books or beach? In a coastal town, the decision is easy, thanks to artwork by the author of “Blueberries for Sal” and “Make Way for Ducklings.”

Rather than treading on sacred ground, Luca Debus and Francesco Matteuzzi’s “Peanuts”-style biography brings Charles M. Schulz and the strip together as one.

Ilene Cooper’s “This Boy” shows how the grayness of John’s and Paul’s childhoods fed into the explosion that was just around the corner.

Harakka Island, a creative community off the coast of Helsinki, Finland, helped the illustrator Marika Maijala come into her own as an artist. “I don’t know where my art ends and my life begins. The border is fleeting.”

These mysteries run the gamut, from quirky Gothic to small-town cozy to chilly Nordic noir.

In W.B. Laughead’s 1916 logging industry pamphlet, a minor Midwestern folk hero underwent a major growth spurt.

“Writing for kids had long been an ambition of mine, but until recently I didn’t know it had long been an ambition.”

The title character in Jon Klassen’s new chapter book, “The Skull,” is the personification of his unique brand of expressionless humor.

MacNolia Cox speaks only one sentence in a picture book about her trip to the 1936 national spelling bee. Zaila Avant-garde, the 2021 champ, writes volumes.

With so few words, most of them kid-friendly, it should be a piece of cake. But it depends on who’s holding the whisk.

Stories, both new and evergreen, to help children of divorce heal.

Decades after “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” an anthology and a novel let readers see periods through the eyes of diverse protagonists.

Seven brand-new and time-tested books about sleepaway camp.

Marine biology and astronomy play crucial roles in two middle grade novels about trauma and mental health.

In new novels by the National Book Award finalists Gary D. Schmidt and Brandon Hobson, adolescent boys navigating parental loss find strength in ancient mythology.

Otis and Peanut, Panda and Squirrel, and Bear and Bird bravely follow in the footsteps of Frog and Toad and George and Martha.

In 1959, the picture-book nuptials of a black rabbit and a white rabbit caused intense debate across the nation.

In “The Eyes & the Impossible,” an exuberant dog runs free. In “Big Tree,” two sycamore seeds embark on an epic journey.

In Gavriel Savit’s new fantasy, set at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, an orphan girl who performs sham séances finds she may have true powers after all.

Bea Wolf is a sugar-hyped, nap-deprived, battle-ready child; Mulysses is a mule.

In “The Manifestor Prophecy,” 12-year-old Nic Blake draws supernatural strength from her “Remarkable” African American forebears.

In M.T. Anderson’s “Elf Dog & Owl Head,” a scrappy hound scampers out of a magical world and into our own.

In Sarah Maslin Nir’s “The Flying Horse,” a young equestrian and her trusty steed jump back in time.

“You Are Here: Connecting Flights,” a story collection edited by Ellen Oh, contends not only with racist aggressions, but also with cultural expectations and adolescent insecurities.

In Daniel Nayeri’s new middle grade novel, a runaway orphan boy joins a caravan and falls under the sway of its loquacious leader.

Dan Santat and the late Jerry Pinkney draw from life (literally) in their memoirs for young readers.

“The Windeby Puzzle” begins in 1952, when a small, remarkably well-preserved body is unearthed from a bog in northern Germany.

In “The Lost Year” and “Winterkill,” young people fight to expose secrets and lies during the Great Famine.

Our 16th president, an early adopter of his era’s newest technology, has a lot in common with today’s Instagram and TikTok stars.

These old people don’t exist only for their grandchildren, if they have any, and they don’t dispense wisdom or soup.

Here are the most notable picture and middle grade books, selected by The Times’s children’s books editor.

From remixed nursery rhymes to whimsical, philosophical comics.

Julie Buxbaum, Candace Fleming and Jasmine Warga offer kids opportunities to learn while being entertained.

In their graphic memoirs, Abigail Balfe and Liz Montague capture what it’s like to grow up neurodivergent, and how creative outlets helped them find their way.

Two books for young readers shine a light on the experiences of Japanese Americans during World War II.

In “Unstoppable Us,” he presents the provocative ideas that drove his 2015 best seller, “Sapiens,” without dumbing them down.

Suddenly, remakes and adaptations of L.M. Montgomery’s “Anne of Green Gables” series are proliferating.

First published in Japan in 1983, this picture book from the fabled animator is eerie, enchanting and surpassingly strange.

Two new picture books and a novel for young readers place children at the center of environmental calamity.

In new novels by Carlie Sorosiak, Lynne Rae Perkins and Katherine Applegate, animals are emblems of how we humans treat one another.

It’s who Jackie Robinson and Tommie Smith were off the field that elevates two new books about them.

Our guest critic, a dead ringer for the elf who went to Halloween, weighs in on a trio of ghoulish treats.

A West African girl thrust from her family’s private Eden confronts awful truths on the high seas in Timothée de Fombelle’s “The Wind Rises.”

In his new novel-in-verse, “The Door of No Return,” the Newbery Medal-winning author works hard to show that white people weren’t the only ones perpetuating an unjust system.

Dan Gemeinhart’s latest book, “The Midnight Children,” is light compared with “The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise,” but weighty nonetheless.

“Moonflower,” inspired by the author Kacen Callender’s own struggles, is about helping young people to heal.

Karina Yan Glaser, author of the Vanderbeekers series, recommends picture books, chapter books and novels for preschool to middle grade readers.

In “Hummingbird” and “Holler of the Fireflies,” a girl with brittle bones and a boy plagued by racist tensions seek healing in the hills.

Two new middle grade novels with academic settings have a message for students: Beware adults who claim they only want what’s best for you.

In “The Secret Battle of Evan Pao,” a Chinese American boy and his family feel as if they’re refighting the U.S. Civil War.

The Thai American heroine of Christina Soontornvat’s graphic novel wrestles with anti-Asian racism while auditioning for the cheerleading squad.

Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault’s sequel to their graphic novel “Louis Undercover” turns the music up a notch.

In Jennifer Ziegler’s “Worser,” a precocious logophile learns that the spaces between words are as important as the words themselves.

To save oppressed wolves from authoritarian foxes, a silent boy in Sam Thompson’s Orwellian middle grade novel must learn to speak.

Older siblings react to the arrival of new babies — in a picture book, a chapter book, an early reader and a middle grade novel.

Two picture books and a graphic novel treat swimming as an expansive state of being, slippery with promise.

The protagonists of four new middle grade mysteries attempt to uncover secrets about their families and themselves.

A new historical fiction series for young readers highlights “the importance of standing up for what you know is right.”

A quiz bowl winner and students at an elite music camp struggle to figure out who they really are in novels by Kate Egan and Mariama J. Lockington.

Liam Francis Walsh’s graphic novel “Red Scare” revisits a chapter in American history when the fear of being labeled a communist led to rampant conformism.