From the anticipated return of beloved characters like Greg Heffley, Sofia Valdez and Tristan Strong to new adventures from authors students already love like Jerry Craft, Kwame Alexander and Lamar Giles, there is a book for everyone coming out this October.
Scroll to find all our new releases below and get excited to add some fresh reads to your classroom library!
Julián at the Wedding
by Jessica Love
Interest level: P-3
The star of Julian Is a Mermaid makes a joyful return—and finds a new friend—at a wedding to be remembered. Julian and his abuela are going to a wedding. Better yet, Julian is in the wedding. Weddings have flowers and kissing and dancing and cake. And this wedding also has a new friend named Marisol. It’s not long before Julián and Marisol set off for some magic and mischief of their own, and when things take an unexpected turn, the pair learns that everything is easier with a good friend by your side. Jessica Love returns with a joyful story of friendship and individuality in this radiant follow-up to Julián Is a Mermaid.
Sofia Valdez and the Vanishing Vote
by Andrea Beaty, illustrated by David Roberts
Interest level: 2-5
Miss Lila Greer announces it’s time for Grade 2 to get a class pet, and she wants the kids to participate in choosing which one. After all, they will all have to share the responsibility of caring for it. The class narrows it down to two options: Team Turtle and Team Bird. Sofia is named Election Commissioner, in charge of overseeing a fair and honest election between the two teams. There’s a class-wide campaign, complete with posters, articles and speeches. Then it’s time for the election! But when the votes are counted, there’s a tie, and one vote is missing. How will the class break the tie? And what happened to the vanishing vote? It’s up to Sofia Valdez and the Questioneers to restore democracy!
Class Act
Jerry Craft
Interest level: 3-7
Eighth grader Drew Ellis is no stranger to the saying, “You have to work twice as hard to be just as good.” His grandmother has told him that his entire life. But lately he’s been thinking: Even if he works ten times as hard, he may never get the same opportunities that his privileged classmates at the prestigious Riverdale Academy Day School take for granted. Then, after a visit to his friend Liam’s house, Drew realizes that Liam is one of those privileged kids. He wants to pretend like everything is okay, but even his best friend, Jordan, can tell that something is up. As the pressures build, and he starts to feel more isolated than ever, will Drew find a way to bridge the divide so he and his friends can truly accept each other? And more importantly, will he finally be able to accept himself?
The Deep End
by Jeff Kinney
Interest level: 3-7
In The Deep End, book 15 of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series from #1 international bestselling author Jeff Kinney, Greg Heffley and his family hit the road for a cross-country camping trip, ready for the adventure of a lifetime. But things take an unexpected turn, and they find themselves stranded at an RV park that’s not exactly a summertime paradise. When the skies open up and the water starts to rise, the Heffleys wonder if they can save their vacation—or if they’re already in too deep.
Tristan Strong Destroys the World
by Kwame Mbalia
Interest level: 3-7
Tristan Strong, just back from a victorious but exhausting adventure in Alke, the land of African American folk heroes and African gods, is suffering from PTSD. But there’s no rest for the weary when his grandmother is abducted by a mysterious villain out for revenge. Tristan must return to Alke—and reunite with his loud-mouthed sidekick, Gum Baby—in order to rescue Nana and stop the culprit from creating further devastation. Anansi, now a “web developer” in Tristan’s phone, is close at hand to offer advice, and several new folk heroes will aid Tristan in his quest, but he will only succeed if he can figure out a way to sew broken souls back together.
Becoming Muhammad Ali
by James Patterson and Kwame Alexander, illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile
Interest level: 3-7
Before he was a household name, Cassius Clay was a kid with struggles like any other. Kwame Alexander and James Patterson join forces to vividly depict his life up to age seventeen in both prose and verse, including his childhood friends, struggles in school, the racism he faced and his discovery of boxing. Readers will learn about Cassius’ family and neighbors in Louisville, Kentucky, and how, after a thief stole his bike, Cassius began training as an amateur boxer at age 12. Before long, he won his first Golden Gloves bout and began his transformation into the unrivaled Muhammad Ali. Fully authorized by and written in cooperation with the Muhammad Ali estate, Becoming Muhammad Ali dynamically captures the budding charisma and youthful personality of one of the greatest sports heroes of all time.
The Last Mirror on the Left
by Lamar Giles, illustrated by Dapo Adeola
Interest level: 3-7
Unlike the majority of Logan County’s residents, Missus Nedraw of the Rorrim Mirror Emporium remembers the time freeze from The Last Last-Day-of-Summer, and how Otto and Sheed took her mirrors without permission in order to fix their mess. Usually that’s an unforgivable offense, punishable by a million-year sentence. However, she’s willing to overlook the cousins’ misdeeds if they help her with a problem of her own. One of her worst prisoners has escaped, and only the Legendary Alston Boys of Logan County can help bring the fugitive to justice.
Flying Over Water
by Shannon Hitchcock and N.H. Senzai
Interest level: 3-7
N.H. Senzai and Shannon Hitchcock expertly craft the intersection of the lives of two girls—one, a Muslim fleeing civil war, the other, an American from the South—as they are forced to examine their beliefs and the true meaning of friendship in the midst of the president’s 2017 Muslim ban. Twelve-year-old Noura Alwan’s family is granted asylum in the United States, after spending two years in a Turkish refugee camp, having fled war-torn Aleppo. They land in Tampa, Florida, on January 30, 2017, just days after the president restricted entry into the U.S. from nations with a Muslim majority population. Twelve-year-old Jordyn Johnson is a record-breaking swimmer, but hasn’t swum well since her mom had a miscarriage during one of her meets. Her family has volunteered to help the Alwan family through their church. She knows very few people of Arab descent or who practice Islam. The girls’ lives intersect at Bayshore Middle School where Jordyn serves as the Alwan children’s school ambassador. Noura knows that her family is safe from the civil unrest in her home country, but is not prepared for the adversity she now faces on American soil. Jordyn is sympathetic to Noura’s situation, but there are other members of their Florida community who see the refugees’ presence to be a threat to their way of life. While the president’s Muslim ban tests the resolve and faith of many, it is friendship that stands strong against fear and hatred.
A Thousand Questions
by Saadia Farqui
Interest level: 3-7
Set against the backdrop of Karachi, Pakistan, Saadia Faruqi’s tender and honest middle grade novel tells the story of two girls navigating a summer of change and family upheaval with kind hearts, big dreams and all the right questions. Mimi is not thrilled to be spending her summer in Karachi, Pakistan, with grandparents she’s never met. Secretly, she wishes to find her long-absent father, and plans to write to him in her beautiful new journal. The cook’s daughter, Sakina, still hasn’t told her parents that she’ll be accepted to school only if she can improve her English test score—but then, how could her family possibly afford to lose the money she earns working with her Abba in a rich family’s kitchen? Although the girls seem totally incompatible at first, as the summer goes on, Sakina and Mimi realize that they have plenty in common, and that they each need the other to get what they want most.
Twins
by Varian Johnson, illustrated by Shannon Wright
Interest level: 3-7
Coretta Scott King Honor author Varian Johnson teams up with rising cartoonist Shannon Wright for a delightful middle-grade graphic novel. Maureen and Francine Carter are twins and best friends. They participate in the same clubs, enjoy the same foods and are partners on all their school projects. But just before the girls start sixth grade, Francine becomes Fran—a girl who wants to join the chorus, run for class president, dress in fashionable outfits that set her apart from Maureen and share only two classes with her sister. Maureen and Francine are growing apart and there’s nothing Maureen can do to stop it. Are sisters really forever? Or will middle school change things for good?
Trowbridge Road
by Marcella Pixley
Interest level: 5-9
In a stunning novel set in the 1980s, a girl with heavy secrets awakens her sleepy street to the complexities of love and courage. It’s the summer of ’83 on Trowbridge Road, and June Bug Jordan is hungry. Months after her father’s death from complications from AIDS, her mother has stopped cooking and refuses to leave the house, instead locking herself away to scour at the germs she believes are everywhere. June Bug threatens this precarious existence by going out into the neighborhood, gradually befriending Ziggy, an imaginative boy who is living with his Nana Jean after experiencing troubles of his own. But as June Bug’s connection to the world grows stronger, her mother’s grows more distant—even dangerous—pushing June Bug to choose between truth and healing and the only home she has ever known. Trowbridge Road paints an unwavering portrait of a girl and her family touched by mental illness and grief. Set in the Boston suburbs during the first years of the AIDS epidemic, the novel explores how a seemingly perfect neighborhood can contain restless ghosts and unspoken secrets. Written with deep insight and subtle lyricism by acclaimed author Marcella Pixley, Trowbridge Road demonstrates our power to rescue one another even when our hearts are broken.
Come on In
edited by Adi Alsaid
Interest level: 7-12
Come On In is a powerful anthology featuring 15 stories and essays that illuminate the many facets of immigration, told by critically acclaimed and bestselling YA authors and up and coming voices, all of whom are immigrants or the children of immigrants, edited by Adi Alsaid, the author of Let’s Get Lost. Contributors are: Nafiza Azad, Sara Farizan, Misa Siguira, Lilliam Rivera, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Sona Charaipotra, Maria Andreu, Maurene Goo, Varsha Bajaj, Yamile Saied Mendez, Justine Larbalestier, Isabel Quintero, Sharon Morse, Zoraida Cordova and Adi Alsaid.
Apple (Skin to the Core)
by Eric Gansworth
Interest level: 7-12
The term “Apple” is a slur in Native communities across the country. It’s for someone supposedly “red on the outside, white on the inside.” Eric Gansworth is telling his story in Apple (Skin to the Core), the story of his family, of Onondaga among Tuscaroras, of Native folks everywhere. From the horrible legacy of the government boarding schools, to a boy watching his siblings leave and return and leave again, to a young man fighting to be an artist who balances multiple worlds. Eric shatters that slur and reclaims it in verse and prose and imagery that truly lives up to the word heartbreaking.
Eleanor, Quiet No More
by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Gary Kelley
Interest level: K-4
Mimi’s Treasure Trouble
by Linda Davick
Interest level: 1-4
If Picasso Painted A Snowman
by Amy Newbold, illustrated by Greg Newbold
Interest level: 1-4
The Day War Came
by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Rebecca Cobb
Interest level: 1-4
Moto And Me: My Year as a Wildcat’s Foster Mom
by Suzi Esterhas
Interest level: 1-5
Nina Soni, Former Best Friend
by Kashmira Sheth, illustrated by Jenn Kocsmiersky
Interest level: 2-5
The Memory Keeper
by Jennifer Camiccia
Interest level: 3-7
The Best At It
by Maulik Pancholy
Interest level: 3-7
The Story That Cannot be Told
by Kasper J. Kramer
Interest level: 3-7
The Boney Hand
by Karen Kane
Interest level: 3-7
What The Dog Knows: Scent, Science, and the Amazing Ways Dogs Perceive the World, Young Readers Edition
by Cat Warren, illustrated by Patricia J. Wynne
Interest level: 3-7
Caterpillar Summer
by Gillian McDunn
Interest level: 4-7
The Class
by Frances O’Roark Dowell
Interest level: 4-8
The Forty Thieves: Marjana’s Tale
by Christy Lenzi
Interest level: 4-9
Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks
by Jason Reynolds, illustrated by Alexander Nabaum
Interest level: 5-9
Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead, Young Reader’s Edition
by Cecile Richards
Interest level: 5-12
Stars Above
by Marissa Meyer
Interest level: 7-12
The Fellowship of the Ring
by J.R.R. Tolkien
Interest level: 8-12
Not So Pure and Simple
by Lamar Giles
Interest level: 8-12
Undecided: Navigating Life and Learning After High School, 2nd Ed.
by Genevieve Morgan
Interest level: 9-12
District administrators and literacy coaches can give students of all grade levels fresh reads by purchasing all of October 2020’s new releases in one collection!
Which of these new reads were you looking forward to most? Which do you think your students will love? Tell us in the comments below!
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