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 Here Below Books is a new space for readers and writers living at the intersections of the sacred and the ordinary. Guided by founding editor Lisa Ann Cockrel—whose career has spanned magazines, books, and literary nonprofits—Here Below begins with a shared curiosity about what it means to be human today. Lisa Ann has spent decades fostering conversations on and off the page, collaborating with writers including George Saunders, Mary Ruefle, Phil Christman, Kirstin Valdez Quade, and Pádraig Ó Tuama. And she brings that same spirit of inquiry and care to this new imprint. Here Below readers want more from books than distraction—they are alive to the abiding existential questions that surface in everything from technology to politics to family life. The six inaugural Here Below titles—Rift, Spiritual Direction for Writers, Between the Light and Me, The Internet Will Die and So Will You, A Place of Encounter, and Shattered—will thrill such readers as they explore themes of fracture, faith, identity, digital impermanence, sacred connection, and the beauty that can emerge from brokenness. Together, they map a journey from disruption to meaning, and explore how creative practice, spirituality, and modern life overlap. Read on to learn more about Here Below’s inaugural list and become part of a conversation that honors humanity’s irreducible complexity. This newsletter was produced in partnership with Here Below Books. ON THE RECORD WITH LISA ANN COCKREL  PW Close-Up: Eerdmans Unveils Here Below Books ImprintTo celebrate the launch of Eerdmans’ new Here Below Books imprint, PW spoke to editorial director Lisa Ann Cockrel about the new effort, which describes itself as a home for ambitious literature about the “subversive work of being human.” Can you define what Here Below represents? Here Below reps the reality that the sacred and the profane have an intimate relationship. In publishing, they’ve been forcibly divorced so that books can be clearly legible as “religious” or “general trade.” That distinction drives a great deal of revenue, especially on the religious side of the market, and it serves plenty of projects and readers well. But it doesn’t serve so many of the writers and readers I’ve met in twenty-plus years in this business. It doesn’t reflect the many facets of their doubts and devotions, or the full stakes of the questions they’re circling. Here Below is an effort to combine the best of faith-based publishing—fluency in the world’s great religious traditions, including agnosticism—with the best of literary publishing: a love of literary art and the freedom to provoke. We’re a literary press that’s fluent in theology. READ ON  THE INAUGURAL HERE BELOW LIST  Spiritual Direction for Writers by Charlotte DonlonWhat if the writing life isn’t about daily word counts—but about daily attention to your whole self? You don’t need to write every day to be a writer. You don’t need perfect conditions, endless hours, or a life free from doubt. What you need is permission to bring your whole, imperfect self to the page—and practices that nourish your soul as you write. All of life is the writing life. Drawing on her experience as a spiritual director working primarily with writers, Charlotte Donlon offers something rare: a book that honors both the craft of writing and the care of the soul. Through contemplative practices, personal stories, and wisdom from writers like Toni Morrison, Margaret Walker, and Kaveh Akbar, she invites you to discover how rest, doubt, grief, and joy all become sacred ground for creative flourishing. LEARN MORE Between the Light and Me by Kathleen KilcupBetween the Light and Me is one veteran’s stirring exploration of the ways in which darkness and light bleed together in both the world and the human heart. Just one month before September 11, Kathleen Kilcup enlisted in the US Army with all the fervent idealism of an untested teenager. Between the Light and Me is her unflinching account of encountering violence—both in the military and beyond—and a desperate, sometimes ill-conceived search for God that sustained her through addiction and trauma, on the long road to true freedom. Tracing her singular path from a juvenile detention center in Utah to linguistic training in California, from a wildland firefighter crew in Tahoe to a lavender farm in Oregon, Kilcup explores the entanglement of violence and beauty in her own life as she hungered for something genuine while starving herself and getting blackout drunk. “I wanted something real and painful and beautiful, the mystery underneath the mystery. I wanted the truth,” she writes. LEARN MORE The Internet Will Die, and So Will You by John WestTo live meaningfully in a digital age, we must reckon with impermanence. There’s rot in the foundation of the web. A cherished blog vanishes while an adolescent fan page refuses to stay deleted. Supreme Court citations disappear while AI-generated spam grows like weeds, feeding ever-more-ravenous algorithms. The “cloud” shrouds the messy reality of our digital lives: We will die, and so will everything we make. In The Internet Will Die, and So Will You, Pulitzer-winning journalist and technologist John West blends incisive reporting, cultural critique, and philosophical meditation to reveal how we arrived at this uncanny moment—following tunnel fires to link rot and tracing defunct anime tributes to large language models. Drawing on Mary Oliver and John Green, Bach cantatas and TikTok memes, Ecclesiastes and Instagram captions, West charts a path forward. We can reclaim depth over breadth, the sabbath over the scroll, and the agency to remember and forget on our own terms. LEARN MORE A Place of Encounter by Thomas GardnerWhat if reading poetry could change you—not just what you think, but how you move through the world? For forty years, Thomas Gardner led students through this transformative act—not analyzing poems from a distance but reperforming them from the inside. Walking together through Elizabeth Bishop’s broken beaches, Robert Frost’s snowy woods, and Emily Dickinson’s rooms of possibility, they discovered that getting lost is how we are found. That acknowledging fragility opens eyes to wonder. That poems, like parables, ask us not to produce definitive explanations but to keep up. A Place of Encounter is Gardner’s luminous record of this work. Through fifty short lyric essays moving between memory, close reading, and theological reflection, he opens up the inner drama of poems as spiritual exercises—spaces where, as Dickinson puts it, our narrow hands are forced wide to gather paradise. With the grace and precision of the poems he loves, Gardner shows how deep reading grooves interior change. LEARN MORE Shattered by Arthur BoersShattered asks whether we can break cycles we never chose to enter—and what it costs to finally see our parents clearly. In this luminous meditation on inheritance and memory, Boers excavates what it means to be the son of Dutch Calvinist immigrants who carried more than belongings across the Atlantic. His father survived Nazi occupation and brutal combat in Indonesia, then built a thriving business building greenhouses in Ontario—but never escaped the rage passed down from his own father. Glass became the family trade and its central metaphor: fragile, transparent, dangerous, a substance that refracts light and cuts deep. With a poet’s precision and a theologian’s discernment, Boers weaves together family photographs, cultural history, and the doctrines of covenant and predestination that shaped his world. He traces how trauma replicates itself across generations, how children can become unwitting rescuers, and how the Calvinist emphasis on discipline and silence around feelings created a pressure bound to explode somewhere. LEARN MORE Rift by Cait WestAn essential story for understanding what’s at stake when women’s rights are stripped away. Cait West was five years old the first time she was told her swimsuit was too revealing. By the time she turned eighteen, the rules in her home were ironclad: no college, no career, no choices of her own. As a stay-at-home daughter in the Christian patriarchy movement, she was trained for one purpose—to serve the man her father would eventually allow her to marry. She learned to cook, to clean, to disappear. She learned that her body was a threat and freedom was sin. Her life would never be her own. Until she broke free. Rift tells a true story of gender oppression—one that many American women are experiencing now behind closed doors at home and at church. Weaving together her own gripping story with lyrical meditations on the geology of displacement and fracture, West maps the fault lines of her own breaking: the isolation that kept her silent, the forbidden relationship that became her escape route, and the complex aftermath of choosing herself over everything she’d been taught to believe. LEARN MORE FIND US ON SOCIAL  Stay ConnectedWant a direct line to every earthly update about Here Below titles and authors? Follow along with Here Below Books at Instagram. Here Below Books: books for the subversive work of being human. FOLLOW ALONG GIVEAWAY  Win a Bundle of Here Below BooksGet grounded in your summer reading with a bundle of Here Below books that keep you alive to the mysteries of the material world. Here Below publishes books that reward attention and aim to build conversations—across belief, experience, and time. Join the press in the subversive, sustaining work of being human. Enter today for your chance to win! ENTER NOW!Here Below BooksAn imprint of Eerdmans Publishing, Here Below is launching its inaugural list in Fall 2026. Here Below produces beautiful titles that explore what it means to be human today. Here Below serves spiritual and cultural wayfarers who crave ambitious literature that offers depth and thought-provoking insights. For more information, visit herebelowbooks.com. LEARN MORE |     |
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Send advertising questions about this e-newsletter to: jmurray@publishersweekly.com For additional assistance, contact us by email or at the address below. Copyright 2026, PWxyz, LLC. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY and the PW Logo are trademarks of PWxyz, LLC. |
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In honor of America’s 250th birthday, we polled PW’s staffers and freelance reviewers, as well as members of the National Book Critics Circle, on the most essential books published in the U.S. since 1776. more »
Responses from 268 members of the Association of American Literary Agents show greater diversity but increasing burnout, which the organization partially attributes to shifts in the industry. “These findings reflect larger concerns about sustainability, workload, compensation, and the long-term health of the publishing ecosystem,” said AALA president Regina Brooks. more »
The Late Show’s final broadcast last night marked the end of Colbert’s two-decades-long tenure as a frequent interviewer of authors and passionate book booster. Publishers now ponder a future where they can no longer count on the “Colbert bump.” more »
The VP and publisher of Boom! will leave the company in mid-June to pursue other opportunities. He originally joined the comics and graphic novel publisher in 2024, following its acquisition by Random House Publishing Group. more »
In honor of Hachette Book Group’s 200th anniversary, the publisher has teamed with Little Free Library to install 200 library boxes in book deserts across the U.S. and Canada, starting next month. more »
The new partnership between the San Francisco–based publisher and romantasy author, facilitated by IMG Licensing and launching in October, includes A Court of Thorns and Roses–inspired gift products such as puzzles, playing cards, and a sketchbook. more »
Merina, who most recently served as VP of strategy and communications at KQED, succeeds Diane Del Signore, who has been at the helm of the Bay Area–based literary nonprofit for seven years. more »
The bestselling author returns to the world of Trainspotting—his acclaimed novel about drug-addled Scottish delinquents—with a sequel about love. more »
The author and educator teams up with illustrator Myra El Mir on the YA graphic novel, Landing in Place, about an Egyptian American college student struggling to manage her immigrant parents’ expectations. more »
- Marketing Design Manager - Image Comics.
- Traffic Manager - Image Comics.
- Client Solutions Manager - Edelweiss by Above the Treeline - Ann Arbor, MI.
- Operational Solutions Engineer - Edelweiss by Above the Treeline - Ypsilanti, MI.
- Production Editor, Union Square Kids - Hachette Book Group - New York, NY.
- Dark Horse to Shutter Oregon Bookstores: The comics and graphic novel publisher will shutter its two Things From Another World retail stores in Milwaukie and Beaverton, respectively.
- California Bookshop Puts Up a Fight: After its landlord doubled its rent and forced it to close, Read Books in Eagle Rock is fighting against the state’s modest commercial tenant protections.
- Tennessee Bookstore Votes to Unionize: Novel in Memphis successfully voted to form a union, citing stagnant wages and the rising cost of living.
- Florida Bookstore Dumpster Dives: Blinking Owl Bookstore in Fort Myers rescued a dumpster full of books at a local high school.
A Parade of Horribles by Matt Dinniman is #1 on our overall list this week. See the full list »
‘Finding Renée Richards: The Groundbreaking Story of Tennis’s Trans Pioneer’ by Julie Kliegman“Journalist Kliegman presents a revelatory biography of pioneering trans tennis player Renée Richards that opens with Richards’s 1976 outing by ‘scoop-hungry’ broadcaster Richard Carlson, which prompted ‘a worldwide media circus.’ ... The result is as much a paradoxical portrait of a reluctant forerunner as it is a fraught intergenerational debate.” more »
Picture of the Day
On May 18, Emmy Award–winning television producer and writer Mike Schur and Hall of Fame sportswriter Joe Posnanski celebrated the launch of their new book, Big Fan (Dutton), at the Strand Bookstore in Manhattan. In attendance were (from l.) TV talk show host Seth Meyers, who moderated a discussion between Schur and Posnanski; Strand bookstore owner Nancy Bass Wyden; Posnanski; and Schur. | |
Here Below Books is a new space for readers and writers living at the intersections of the sacred and the ordinary. Guided by founding editor Lisa Ann Cockrel—whose career has spanned magazines, books, and literary nonprofits—Here Below begins with a shared curiosity about what it means to be human today. Lisa Ann has spent decades fostering conversations on and off the page, collaborating with writers including George Saunders, Mary Ruefle, Phil Christman, Kirstin Valdez Quade, and Pádraig Ó Tuama. And she brings that same spirit of inquiry and care to this new imprint. Here Below readers want more from books than distraction—they are alive to the abiding existential questions that surface in everything from technology to politics to family life. The six inaugural Here Below titles—Rift, Spiritual Direction for Writers, Between the Light and Me, The Internet Will Die and So Will You, A Place of Encounter, and Shattered—will thrill such readers as they explore themes of fracture, faith, identity, digital impermanence, sacred connection, and the beauty that can emerge from brokenness. Together, they map a journey from disruption to meaning, and explore how creative practice, spirituality, and modern life overlap. Read on to learn more about Here Below’s inaugural list and become part of a conversation that honors humanity’s irreducible complexity. This newsletter was produced in partnership with Here Below Books. ON THE RECORD WITH LISA ANN COCKREL  PW Close-Up: Eerdmans Unveils Here Below Books ImprintTo celebrate the launch of Eerdmans’ new Here Below Books imprint, PW spoke to editorial director Lisa Ann Cockrel about the new effort, which describes itself as a home for ambitious literature about the “subversive work of being human.” Can you define what Here Below represents? Here Below reps the reality that the sacred and the profane have an intimate relationship. In publishing, they’ve been forcibly divorced so that books can be clearly legible as “religious” or “general trade.” That distinction drives a great deal of revenue, especially on the religious side of the market, and it serves plenty of projects and readers well. But it doesn’t serve so many of the writers and readers I’ve met in twenty-plus years in this business. It doesn’t reflect the many facets of their doubts and devotions, or the full stakes of the questions they’re circling. Here Below is an effort to combine the best of faith-based publishing—fluency in the world’s great religious traditions, including agnosticism—with the best of literary publishing: a love of literary art and the freedom to provoke. We’re a literary press that’s fluent in theology. READ ON THE INAUGURAL HERE BELOW LIST  Spiritual Direction for Writers by Charlotte DonlonWhat if the writing life isn’t about daily word counts—but about daily attention to your whole self? You don’t need to write every day to be a writer. You don’t need perfect conditions, endless hours, or a life free from doubt. What you need is permission to bring your whole, imperfect self to the page—and practices that nourish your soul as you write. All of life is the writing life. Drawing on her experience as a spiritual director working primarily with writers, Charlotte Donlon offers something rare: a book that honors both the craft of writing and the care of the soul. Through contemplative practices, personal stories, and wisdom from writers like Toni Morrison, Margaret Walker, and Kaveh Akbar, she invites you to discover how rest, doubt, grief, and joy all become sacred ground for creative flourishing. LEARN MORE Between the Light and Me by Kathleen KilcupBetween the Light and Me is one veteran’s stirring exploration of the ways in which darkness and light bleed together in both the world and the human heart. Just one month before September 11, Kathleen Kilcup enlisted in the US Army with all the fervent idealism of an untested teenager. Between the Light and Me is her unflinching account of encountering violence—both in the military and beyond—and a desperate, sometimes ill-conceived search for God that sustained her through addiction and trauma, on the long road to true freedom. Tracing her singular path from a juvenile detention center in Utah to linguistic training in California, from a wildland firefighter crew in Tahoe to a lavender farm in Oregon, Kilcup explores the entanglement of violence and beauty in her own life as she hungered for something genuine while starving herself and getting blackout drunk. “I wanted something real and painful and beautiful, the mystery underneath the mystery. I wanted the truth,” she writes. LEARN MORE The Internet Will Die, and So Will You by John WestTo live meaningfully in a digital age, we must reckon with impermanence. There’s rot in the foundation of the web. A cherished blog vanishes while an adolescent fan page refuses to stay deleted. Supreme Court citations disappear while AI-generated spam grows like weeds, feeding ever-more-ravenous algorithms. The “cloud” shrouds the messy reality of our digital lives: We will die, and so will everything we make. In The Internet Will Die, and So Will You, Pulitzer-winning journalist and technologist John West blends incisive reporting, cultural critique, and philosophical meditation to reveal how we arrived at this uncanny moment—following tunnel fires to link rot and tracing defunct anime tributes to large language models. Drawing on Mary Oliver and John Green, Bach cantatas and TikTok memes, Ecclesiastes and Instagram captions, West charts a path forward. We can reclaim depth over breadth, the sabbath over the scroll, and the agency to remember and forget on our own terms. LEARN MORE A Place of Encounter by Thomas GardnerWhat if reading poetry could change you—not just what you think, but how you move through the world? For forty years, Thomas Gardner led students through this transformative act—not analyzing poems from a distance but reperforming them from the inside. Walking together through Elizabeth Bishop’s broken beaches, Robert Frost’s snowy woods, and Emily Dickinson’s rooms of possibility, they discovered that getting lost is how we are found. That acknowledging fragility opens eyes to wonder. That poems, like parables, ask us not to produce definitive explanations but to keep up. A Place of Encounter is Gardner’s luminous record of this work. Through fifty short lyric essays moving between memory, close reading, and theological reflection, he opens up the inner drama of poems as spiritual exercises—spaces where, as Dickinson puts it, our narrow hands are forced wide to gather paradise. With the grace and precision of the poems he loves, Gardner shows how deep reading grooves interior change. LEARN MORE Shattered by Arthur BoersShattered asks whether we can break cycles we never chose to enter—and what it costs to finally see our parents clearly. In this luminous meditation on inheritance and memory, Boers excavates what it means to be the son of Dutch Calvinist immigrants who carried more than belongings across the Atlantic. His father survived Nazi occupation and brutal combat in Indonesia, then built a thriving business building greenhouses in Ontario—but never escaped the rage passed down from his own father. Glass became the family trade and its central metaphor: fragile, transparent, dangerous, a substance that refracts light and cuts deep. With a poet’s precision and a theologian’s discernment, Boers weaves together family photographs, cultural history, and the doctrines of covenant and predestination that shaped his world. He traces how trauma replicates itself across generations, how children can become unwitting rescuers, and how the Calvinist emphasis on discipline and silence around feelings created a pressure bound to explode somewhere. LEARN MORE Rift by Cait WestAn essential story for understanding what’s at stake when women’s rights are stripped away. Cait West was five years old the first time she was told her swimsuit was too revealing. By the time she turned eighteen, the rules in her home were ironclad: no college, no career, no choices of her own. As a stay-at-home daughter in the Christian patriarchy movement, she was trained for one purpose—to serve the man her father would eventually allow her to marry. She learned to cook, to clean, to disappear. She learned that her body was a threat and freedom was sin. Her life would never be her own. Until she broke free. Rift tells a true story of gender oppression—one that many American women are experiencing now behind closed doors at home and at church. Weaving together her own gripping story with lyrical meditations on the geology of displacement and fracture, West maps the fault lines of her own breaking: the isolation that kept her silent, the forbidden relationship that became her escape route, and the complex aftermath of choosing herself over everything she’d been taught to believe. LEARN MORE FIND US ON SOCIAL Stay ConnectedWant a direct line to every earthly update about Here Below titles and authors? Follow along with Here Below Books at Instagram. Here Below Books: books for the subversive work of being human. FOLLOW ALONG GIVEAWAY  Win a Bundle of Here Below BooksGet grounded in your summer reading with a bundle of Here Below books that keep you alive to the mysteries of the material world. Here Below publishes books that reward attention and aim to build conversations—across belief, experience, and time. Join the press in the subversive, sustaining work of being human. Enter today for your chance to win! ENTER NOW!Here Below BooksAn imprint of Eerdmans Publishing, Here Below is launching its inaugural list in Fall 2026. Here Below produces beautiful titles that explore what it means to be human today. Here Below serves spiritual and cultural wayfarers who crave ambitious literature that offers depth and thought-provoking insights. For more information, visit herebelowbooks.com. LEARN MORE |     |
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Send advertising questions about this e-newsletter to: jmurray@publishersweekly.com For additional assistance, contact us by email or at the address below. Copyright 2026, PWxyz, LLC. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY and the PW Logo are trademarks of PWxyz, LLC. |
Walter Mosley has been at it since 1990, beginning with his Easy Rawlins detective series, and he’s written many other types of novels, including science fiction, thrillers, and westerns. Next week marks the release of Mosley’s first love story, Ghalen: A Romance in Black, and he spoke with PW about his latest experiment in genre. We also hear from Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov about his return to fiction with The Lost Soldiers and Julia Langbein about her novel Dear Monica Lewinsky, in which the former presidential intern appears as a saint to counsel women in the wake of #MeToo. Elsewhere, novelist Jessica Handler shares a reading list of books about second-wave feminism and rock ’n’ roll that inspired her novel The World to See.
—David Varno
Starred Reviews Releasing Next WeekCheck out all the books to receive starred PW reviews that are hitting shelves next week.
Walter Mosley’s Real LoveFor his latest novel—and first foray into the romance genre—the acclaimed author examines race, violence, and personal freedom. MORE
Andrey Kurkov Dispatches KyivAfter years spent covering the Russia-Ukraine war as a journalist and commentator, the author offers a new installment in his surrealist historical crime series. MORE
7 Books That Inspired Jessica Handler’s Novel of Second-Wave Feminism and Rock and RollThe author's latest novel, The World to See, chronicles a young woman’s unexpected friendship with her female rock ’n’ roll hero. MORE
‘The Dangerous Traps of Storytelling’: PW Talks with Julia LangbeinIn her sophomore novel, Dear Monica Lewinsky, the author and comedian explores martyrdom, #MeToo, and how to reclaim one's personal narrative. MORE
Slut Era: PW Talks with Ryan O’ConnellThe star and writer of the Netflix series Special talks about his essay collection, Inspiration Porn, and navigating Hollywood as a gay man with cerebral palsy. MORE
Sinner. Saint. One Story Worth Dying For.
After a near-death experience shatters the life she built to please everyone, journalist Sin Sackey moves home to DC for a fresh start. But a new lead pulls her back into the story that nearly killed her—and into the arms of a mysterious lawyer who could be her future, or the trap that ends her. A steamy, suspenseful friends-to-lovers romance.
A Kiss of Crimson AshBy Anuja Varghese (Orbit)
Inspired by medieval India, the lush, atmospheric worldbuilding of Anuja Varghese's trilogy-launching romantasy feels vast, complex, and lived in. Add in juicy political intrigue and genuinely hot romance and this hits all the right notes. —Phoebe Cramer, SFF, horror, and romance reviews editor
Waiting on a FriendBy Natalie Adler (Hogarth)
Named after a Rolling Stones song that features so perfectly in Julian Schnabel’s film Basquiat, this novel more than succeeds at breathing new life into New York City’s downtown art scene of the early 1980. Despite being about ghosts—the friends of the narrator who died from AIDS—it teems with life. It’s also got its own spectacular soundtrack. —David Varno, literary fiction reviews editor
Claus Daniel Herrmann, trans. from the German by Thomas Mauer (Oni)
This poignant graphic novel debut features a queer teen struggling under the shadow of his father’s mental illness, when a cultish healer fond of crystals and rooting out anything she deems “unholy” intrudes on the family and outs him. Its soft grey pencils and pink spot colors lend a gentle feel to the simply told narrative that belies the complexity of the emotional landscape it beautifully traverses. —Meg Lemke, comics and graphic novels reviews editor
1 A Parade of Horribles |
2 Theo of Golden |
3 Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol. 30 |
4 Oh, the Places You'll Go! |
5 |
6 |
7 Broken Dove |
8 |
9 The Fourth Option |
10 |
For more PW bestsellers lists, click here.
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AMERICA AT 250 As the semiquincentennial approaches, authors reexamine the nation’s history and legacy. Kids’ Books AboutU.S. History Nonfiction picture books and middle grade titles introduce young readers to historical American figures who fought to correct injustices, uplift their communities, and guide the country toward its highest ideals. MORE  15 Essential Works of American LiteratureWe polled PW’s staffers and freelance reviewers, as well as members of the National Book Critics Circle, on the most essential books published in the U.S. since 1776. The results include many classroom staples. MORE IN THE NEWS  U.S. Book Show Gives Pros Two Vital Days to Talk ShopSome 700 agents and publishers will gather in New York City next month for conversation, collaboration, and to address various challenges facing the industry, including the decline in reading rates among young people. MORE ON THE SCENE  ‘Claire’s Day’ Festival Celebrates Ohio’s Readers Every DayClaire’s Day, a festival in northwest Ohio that promotes literacy, marked its 25th anniversary this year with two days of author events that drew a total of 7,000 people—all in honor of founder Julie Rubini's late daughter, Claire Lynsey Rubini, an avid reader who lived a short but vibrant life. MORE FIRST PERSON  For AANHPI Heritage Month, Representation Is Just the First StepKristina Wong, Theodore Chao, Jenessa Joffe, and Anna Michelle Wang are co-authors of Auntie Kristina’s Guide to Asian American Activism, a new nonfiction book for young readers featuring illustrations by Shehzil Malik. Here, the co-authors reflect on the necessity of showcasing activism to young people, as a tool to help them process racism and build community. MORE  IN CONVERSATION  David Elliott and E.M. ElliottAuthor David Elliott (l.) has teamed up with his son—and debut novelist—E.M. Elliott for Bonebag, a new middle grade fantasy that explores the mystery of belonging. We invited the father-son duo to discuss their writing process and collaboration. MORE NOW PLAYING  To Watch or Not to Watch: May 2026This month brings a veritable bounty of book-to-screen adaptations, including a new mini-series based on a classic survival story, and a modern-day Nancy Drew–style YA mystery. MORE READING ROUNDUP  Noteworthy Picture Book and Novel Sequels: May 2026Just in time for spring, this month’s offerings of sequels and series additions are the perfect refresh for young readers’ TBR. In the mix this month are a board book on appreciating friendship, a graphic novel on navigating crushes, a YA fantasy following teens across a looming rebellion, and more. MORE OUT NEXT WEEK  Hot Off the Press:Week of May 25 Among the books hitting shelves next week are a picture book about the many ways to look at a jellyfish, a middle grade novel in verse about a tween grappling with religion, a historical YA novel about siblings seeking revenge in the 1920s, and more. MORE IN BRIEF  In Brief: May 21, 2026Recently, a children’s author celebrated a win at the British Book Awards, a showrunner made his literary debut, students were the stars of a museum exhibit, Black children’s authors gathered at a historic farm, and more. MORE
RIGHTS REPORT  Ashley Hearn at Peachtree Teen has acquired world rights, in an exclusive submission, to Royal Person Fiction by Amanda DeWitt (l.) and Maria Ingrande Mora, an academic rivals-to-queerplatonic besties YA fantasy-comedy, following the daughter of the legendary heroes who united a kingdom and the son of the notorious villain who opposed them, as they hatch a fake dating scheme to separate themselves from their parents' legacies. Publication is set for summer 2028; Cate Hart at Harvey Klinger represented DeWitt, and Erica Bauman at Aevitas Creative Management represented Ingrande Mora. Lucas Wetzel at Andrews McMeel has bought world rights to author-illustrator Chelsea Carr's Curses, a middle grade graphic novel about a cranky 500-year-old witch trapped in a 10-year-old's body, who moves to a town where negativity is banned. Publication is scheduled for 2028; Janna Morishima at Janna Co. negotiated the two-book deal. Grace Kendall at FSG has acquired world rights to the first four books in a new chapter book series by Kristen Mai Giang (l.), illustrated by Xuân Lan, featuring a charismatic protagonist with an epic imagination, her working-class first-generation Chinese-American family, and the real-life adventures they experience. Lian Song Unlocks Real-Life Secret Powers and Lian Song Leads an Epic Quest will publish in winter 2027 with the third and fourth books to follow in spring and fall 2027. Erin Murphy at Aevitas Creative Management represented the author while at Erin Murphy Literary Agency, and Chad W. Beckerman at the CAT Agency represented the illustrator. Juan Botero at Candlewick Press has bought Witches of Duckfoot House by Shaenon K. Garrity (l.), illustrated by Megan Kearney, an early reader graphic novel series about a fixer witch and a plant witch who journey across a chain of islands in a duck-footed house, helping repair broken things alongside a cast of fellow witches with unique magical specialties. Publication will begin in spring 2030; Brent Taylor at Triada US sold world rights in the two-book deal. Taylor Norman at Holiday House/Neal Porter Books has acquired, in an exclusive submission, We're Late! by author-illustrator Steve Teare (Sixteen Games of Hide and Seek). In this humorous picture book, a disorganized family wakes up late and must rush to catch their flight at the airport. Publication is slated for summer 2027; Erica Rand Silverman at Stimola Literary Studio brokered the deal for world rights. Michael Yuen-Killick at Red Comet Press has bought world rights to the picture book Gimme a Beat!, a rhythm-filled celebration of self-expression and belonging by Derrick Jakolby Washington (l.), illustrated by Octavia Ink (The Glam World Tour). Publication is planned for 2028; Lary Rosenblatt at 22 MediaWorks represented the author, and James McGowan at BookEnds Literary represented the illustrator. Reka Simonsen at Atheneum has acquired Storytime for Pierce by Kristen Remenar (l.) (Owl's Fall Feast Fiasco), illustrated by Matt Faulkner (My Nest of Silence), a picture book about a young hedgehog who works up the courage to go to storytime despite his difficulties speaking in front of others. Publication is set for spring 2028; Abigail Samoun at Red Fox Literary sold world rights for the author and illustrator. Laura Demoreuille while at Scholastic bought, in an exclusive submission, author-illustrator Maya P. Lim's Bear Hugs, featuring cozy, sweet bears, and Ghost Giggles, featuring spooky and silly ghosts, both holiday board books filled with tiny rhymes. Cindy Kim will edit for Cartwheel. Publication for the first book is scheduled for winter 2027, with the second following in summer 2027; Andrea Morrison at Writers House sold world rights.IN THE MEDIA
FEATURED REVIEWS  The Brunch ShiftAdrienne Thurman, illus. by Mags DeRoma. Random House Studio, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-593-80817-7 This sweetly empathetic story from Thurman and DeRoma sees an ordinary workday become an imaginative adventure. Each Saturday, a young narrator accompanies Mama to the diner for the “egg-crackin’, pancake-flippin’, orange-juicin’ brunch shift. A shift Mama can’t afford to miss.” Though this constraint shapes their routine, the pair reframe the day through inventive play, becoming knights and detectives, and turning bus rides and back halls into spaces of possibility. MORE  Freedom to Read: The Story of TeacherMary Peake and One Mighty Oak Tree Lesa Cline-Ransome, illus. by James E. Ransome. Beach Lane/Wiseman, $19.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-5344-6350-9 A child and a tree mature to reveal an interconnected legacy in married collaborators Cline-Ransome and Ransome’s nuanced biography of teacher Mary Peake. After an 1831 rebellion by enslaved men prompts Virginia lawmakers to outlaw education “for colored,/ enslaved and free,” young Peake uses her family’s parlor to teach illegally. When war breaks out, Peake is named as educator for the camp’s newly established school, where she soon begins teaching under the oak tree, which later becomes the site of a reading of the Emancipation Proclamation and shares land with HBCU Hampton University. MORE  A Gray Cat Wanders: New Poems About Our Animal FriendsKarla Kuskin, edited by Leonard Marcus, illus. by Marcellus Hall. Wordsong, $19.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-66266-018-4 The collection takes its title from its opener, which presents the solitary, brief, and wondrous observations of a cat “filled with gray cat thoughts/ pleased to be alive.” Hazy, mottle-colored illustrations help make this feline a focal point throughout, placing the slinking, observant figure as an onlooker in most of the moody spreads that accompany the ensuing animal-centric verse. Across poems that work in both rhyme and open forms, and employ alliteration and other sonorous devices, the speaker frequently takes the perspective of someone marveling at the world’s unexpected joys and simple pleasures. MORE  The PathPamela Paul, illus. by Qin Leng. Putnam, $19.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-593-53219-5 With forthright narration proceeding via thought- and speech-bubbles, panels track a chain of disgruntlement as people find themselves repeatedly irritated by disruptions on a shared path. “I just love biking here. So smooth. So straight,” thinks a cyclist before a skater causes them to wobble. The pattern continues until a wordless full-bleed spread sees everyone stop in their tracks, absorbed by a magnificent skyward sight. The moment represents a turn in the tale, which rewinds into encounters newly centered in kindness. MORE  Ghost in the NightTiffany D. Jackson. Scholastic Press, $18.99 (288p) ISBN 979-8-225-01747-7 Raised by her late grandmother while her blues musician father toured the country, 12-year-old amateur photographer Harmony persuades her dad to bring her along on his upcoming tour. When she and her father arrive in Savannah, she’s excited to explore “one of the most haunted cities in America.” More pressing for Harmony’s father, though, is supporting a family friend and her 10-year-old son Robby, both reeling from the murder of a Savannah community member whose nephew has been missing since the killing. After noticing an apparent spirit in her photograph of Calhoun Square, Harmony enlists Robby and no-nonsense new friend Myah’s help investigating the location further. MORE | May 21, 2026    TO OUR READERS Because of the holiday next Monday, we won't have an issue of Children's Bookshelf next Tuesday. Look for us in your inboxes again on Thursday, May 28.PEOPLE At HarperCollins Children's Books, Rich Thomas has been promoted to SVP and group publisher, from SVP and executive director of publishing. Heidi Richter has been named VP of marketing and publicity; previously she was VP, publicity for the Morrow Group.IN CASE YOU MISSED IT New YA Books Spark Awareness, ActivismMORE MORE MORE MORE SNEAK PREVIEWS  Take a look ahead at some of the big titles for children and teens due out this fall, from picture books to YA novels, in our exclusive roundup. MORE FOLLOW US  Follow us on Bluesky and Instagram! BOOKSHELF ARCHIVES Looking for a previous issue of Children's Bookshelf? Click here for our archives page!CONTACT US Have a comment orsuggestion? We'd love to hear from you. Click here to drop us a note. | ||
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Children's Bookshelf Editor: Emma Kantor Assistant Editor: Iyana Jones Digital Producer: Eva Baron Editor at Large: Diane Roback Send editorial questions about this e-newsletter to: childrensbooks@publishersweekly.com For additional assistance, contact us by email or at the address below. Copyright 2026, PWxyz, LLC. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY and the PW Logo are trademarks of PWxyz, LLC.  |
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Judge Jed S. Rakoff ordered the pirate site to immediately stop copying and selling copyrighted books and journals that it had illegally gathered. In their complaint, publishers noted that many tech companies have used such sites to acquire content to train AI. more »
In explaining remarks he made on the Today show, the Barnes & Noble CEO refrained from issuing a blanket ban on AI-generated books, but noted that, as far as he is aware, the company does not sell them. He also affirmed B&N’s “vigilance not to sell AI-generated books that masquerade to be by real authors.” more »
IngramSpark is an award-winning publishing platform, offering indie authors and publishers the ability to create professional print books and ebooks. Focus on what you do best, creating innovative content, while we do the rest. (Sponsored) More »
The Association of American Publishers is looking to stem the tide of illegal AI-generated audiobooks, which have proliferated on sites like YouTube, through its new partnership with the Chicago-based AI licensing and protection platform. more »
Baron’s Denver-based press, which he started in 1984, specializes in books on the American West, conservation, and Native American culture—topics to which Baron also devoted himself via philanthropic and public service work throughout his life. He died on April 24. more »
Position your books for maximum reach with global availability across leading digital, retail, and library channels. Through IngramSpark your book is available to 45,000+ online retailers, libraries, and booksellers around the world. (Sponsored) More »
The audiobook streamer and the nonprofit, which helps self-published romance authors create their first audiobook, will fund eight underrepresented authors’ audiobooks and provide them with end-to-end production support. more »
The Guild is collecting information from authors whose publishers failed to register their books with the U.S. Copyright Office, and who believe they were excluded from the Bartz v. Anthropic class action settlement as a result. more »
The ISBN agency’s global International Standard Name Identifier service will allow individuals and organizations from the book industry and other creative sectors to “obtain ISNIs quickly and efficiently.” more »
- Client Solutions Manager - Edelweiss by Above the Treeline - Ann Arbor, MI.
- Operational Solutions Engineer - Edelweiss by Above the Treeline - Ypsilanti, MI.
- Production Editor, Union Square Kids - Hachette Book Group - New York, NY.
- Inventory & Sales Operations Manager - The Quarto Group - Beverly, MA.
- Publicity & Marketing Manager - Hachette Book Group - New York, NY.
- Bethany Wasik has been promoted to editor-in-chief of Cornell University Press.
- Brittany Griffiths, most recently senior manager of operations at Brown Books Publishing Group, will join Cornell University Press as director of editorial, design, and production.
- Michelle Zeng has been promoted to sales manager at Bloomsbury.
- Tori Clayton has been promoted to subsidiary rights manager at Trellis Literary Management.
- Allison Malecha has been promoted to equity partner at Trellis Literary Management.
- Oklahoma Bookstore Changes Hands: Best of Books in Edmond has been taken over by a longtime employee.
- New Indie to Touch Down in Maryland: The Brady Readery is set to open in Laytonsville this summer.
- New Jersey Bakery Gets Bookish: The owner of Gio’s Bakery in Califon will open a bookshop on the building’s second floor.
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi is the #1 title on our trade paperback bestseller list. See the full list »
‘Nebraska’ by Monica Datta“Datta delivers a whip-smart Nabokovian novel of filicide and psychoanalysis.... It’s endlessly stimulating.” more »
Picture of the Day
On May 14, the Alan Cheuse International Writers Center hosted an evening celebrating the work of book critics as part of its 10-year anniversary programming at the Arts Club of Washington in Washington, D.C. In attendance were (front, from l.) Sean Murphy, founder of 1455 Literary Arts; Holly Smith, editor-in-chief of the Washington Independent Review of Books; former Washington Post book critics Michael Dirda and Ron Charles; (back, from l.) Ecco’s VP of publicity Sonya Cheuse; author Leeya Mehta; and author, journalist, and host Eric Weiner.
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With no new Sarah J. Maas book last fiscal year, sales in the consumer group fell, but sales in the academic and professional division rose partly due to the acquisition of Rowman & Littlefield. The publisher expects a banner fiscal 2027 with two new Maas titles set to be published. more »
The publisher will use a new logo for its divisional branding and in all books for its flagship imprint starting in August. The design reimagines the current colophon, in place since 2009, with a more “pared back and sleek look,” per the announcement. more »
The metafictional novel, published in the U.S. by Graywolf, is the first book translated from Mandarin Chinese to win the prize. Its U.K. publisher, And Other Stories, is the first publisher to win the award in consecutive years. Author Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and Lin King also took home a National Book Award for the novel in 2024. more »
As reading experts express concerns over the drop in reading skills of middle schoolers, the author has committed $10 million to create the Patterson Institute of Early Adolescent Literacy at Vanderbilt University, which will focus on improving literacy for students in grades four to eight. more »
Connor will step down as director and book industry analyst on June 2. Her duties will be assumed by Circana’s Kristen McLean, who previously served as BookScan analyst for several years. Circana BookScan executive director David Walter also left the company this month. more »
Next month, users of the e-reader will be able to automatically sync their e-book and audiobook reading activity to their StoryGraph accounts. more »
In partnership with the Public Theater, the New York Public Library invites “all adult New Yorkers to come together and read a single book”—N.K. Jemisin’s The City We Became—“at the same time this summer,” per a press release. more »
In celebration of AAPI Heritage Month, we asked picture book authors to discuss how they highlight the expanse of Asian and Pacific Islander cultures in their work. more »
In the crime novelist’s latest, The Haul (Soho Crime, July), mononymous master thief O’Conner teams up with a disgruntled Silicon Valley employee to rob a tech oligarch blind. more »
- Inventory & Sales Operations Manager - The Quarto Group - Beverly, MA.
- Publicity & Marketing Manager - Hachette Book Group - New York, NY.
- Graphic Production Specialist - Candlewick Press, Holiday House, Peachtree - Somerville, MA.
- Publicist - Candlewick Press, Holiday House & Peachtree - Somerville, MA.
- Sales Support Specialist - The Quarto Group - New York, NY.
- Tessa Woodward has been promoted to VP and publisher at Avon Group.
- May Chen has been promoted to VP and publisher at Avon Group.
- Rich Thomas has been promoted to SVP and group publisher at HarperCollins Children’s Books.
- Morgan Pager is joining Avon as senior marketing director.
- Heidi Richter has been promoted to VP of marketing and publicity at HarperCollins Children’s Books.
- Stefani Szenda has joined the Future of Agency as marketing manager and can be contacted at stefani@thefutureofagency.com.
- Erica Henegen has joined the Dial Press as director of marketing.
- Eden Railsback, formerly assistant editor at Hanover Square Press, has joined Tor Publishing Group as associate editor.
- Firecracker Award Finalists: The Community of Literary Magazines and Presses has announced 25 finalists across five categories for this year’s Firecracker Awards for Independently Published Literature.
- Society of Authors Awards Shortlist: Camilla Barnes and Abdulrazak Gurnah are among the authors shortlisted for the U.K.’s Society of Authors Awards.
- Tennessee Bookshop Seeks to Unionize: Staffers at Novel Bookstore in Memphis voted to unionize, citing rising costs of living and a lack of raises.
- Montana’s Newest Bookshop on Wheels: Tomes and Bones has hit the road in and around Gallatin Valley.
First Crush (The New Girl #2) by Cassandra Calin is the #1 title on our children’s frontlist fiction bestseller list. See the full list »
‘Plant Lady’ by Minyoung Kang, trans. from the Korean by Shanna Tan“A woman abandons her office job to open a nursery that sells more than plants in Korean journalist Kang’s brilliant debut.... The result is an exquisite ode to female rage.” more »
Picture of the Day
On May 14, Lake Avenue Cafe and Zenith Bookstore in Duluth, Minn., cohosted a specialty six-course dinner featuring Indigenous cuisine and wine pairings curated by Sean Sherman (r.), whose cookbook The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen (University of Minnesotta Press) won a James Beard Award in 2018. Joining Sherman were Zenith staffers Sheri Olson (l.) and Sarah Brown (c.). | |||
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IN THE SPOTLIGHT  Educators PromoteMental Health Awareness In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, PW spoke with educators who are using a variety of literacy-based resources to help promote emotional well-being in their classrooms and libraries to improve students’ inner lives and help get them ready to learn. MORE IN THE NEWS  Patterson Pledges $10 Million to Launch Literacy InstituteAs reading experts express concerns over the drop in reading skills of middle schoolers, author James Patterson has committed $10 million to create the Patterson Institute of Early Adolescent Literacy at Vanderbilt University. The institute, which will focus on improving literacy for students in grades four to eight, will fund academic research, provide tutoring to students, and offer professional development for teachers. MORE BOOK NEWS  Angel City Press MarksL.A. Central Library Centennial with First Children’s Book This July marks the 100th anniversary of the Los Angeles Central Library. To mark the occasion, Angel City Press at the Los Angeles Public Library is releasing L Is for Librarian: The ABCs of Los Angeles Central Library and a pop-up book, which serve as the centerpieces for a festival honoring the historic building. MORE  IN CONVERSATION  Keala Kendall and Kauakanilehua Māhoe AdamsAs AANHPI Heritage Month continues, we invited authors Keala Kendall (l.), a hapa Native Hawaiian, and Kauakanilehua Māhoe Adams, a first-generation Kānaka Maoli, to discuss their new YA novels, That Which Feeds Us and An Expanse of Blue, respectively, and bringing their cultural identities to the page. MORE FIRST PERSON  Anna Sortino on Why She Writes About Disabled Characters Living Their Lives and Falling in LoveThe author of the YA novels Give Me a Sign, On the Bright Side, and her latest, Stops Along the Way, reflects on centering the lives and loves of disabled teens in her books. "Everyone deserves the chance to have their story told," she says. MORE READING ROUNDUP  Children’s Books to Celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month 2026PW has gathered a selection of titles for young readers that highlight Jewish culture and history, including picture book biographies of prominent figures, coming-of-age novels, and stories exploring family memories. MORE  Q & A  Sherine HamdyAuthor and educator Sherine Hamdy teams up with illustrator Myra El Mir on their YA graphic novel, Landing in Place. In the book, Egyptian American college student Anisa struggles to manage her immigrant parents’ expectations: though they want her to pursue medicine, Anisa yearns to become an artist. Hamdy spoke with us about the intersection of comics and medicine, and learning the art of visual storytelling through trial and error. Q: Your first publication was a nonfiction work. Why did you pursue comics as a storytelling vehicle for your subsequent projects? A: Comics cross a lot of barriers, including different learning abilities and literacy levels. There are so many people who are drawn to comics. You can also use them to add layers of complexity to something. It’s always about how you use the medium. As I learn more about comics, I learn more about how they can be used to complicate assumptions and play with different temporalities. MORE
RIGHTS REPORT  Stefanie Chin at Union Square & Co. has acquired world rights to Fool Me Twice by Amy Noelle Parks, a YA rom-com caper in which a teen follows in her mother's vigilante footsteps to take down a corrupt tech company, while teaming up with the boy who once broke her heart. Publication is scheduled for fall 2027; Elizabeth Bennett at Transatlantic Agency brokered the deal. Kade Dishmon at Peachtree Teen has bought, at auction, Summer in Free Fall by Elliott Wiltrout, a debut queer YA romance about two teens, one proudly out and the other coming to terms with their gender identity in a restrictive evangelical household. The two must work together to save their beloved beachfront amusement park from a money-hungry developer, and maybe save each other in the process. Publication is set for summer 2028; Michaela Whatnall at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret negotiated the deal for world rights. Shana Corey at Random House Graphic has acquired, at auction, Elizabeth Baddeley's (I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark) graphic novel debut, Swimmer Girls, about Meredith, a high school freshman, who is reeling from a best friend breakup and a first crush gone wrong. She's looking for a place to fit in, and hopes to find it on the swim team. Publication is slated for spring 2028; Alexandra Penfold at Upstart Crow sold North American open market rights. Thalia Leaf at Astra/Calkins Creek has bought world rights to the YA nonfiction book Scammer: Ego, Greed, and the Unbelievable True Story Behind Charles Ponzi's Scheme by Rebecca Siegel (How the Ghost Army Hoodwinked Hitler), which offers not only a glimpse into the life and crimes of Charles Ponzi, the con man who so thoroughly swindled Boston in 1920 that his name became synonymous with a particular type of scam, but also serves as a modern cautionary tale. Jennifer Unter at the Unter Agency handled the deal for publication in fall 2028. Amy Fitzgerald at Lerner/Carolrhoda has acquired Radical Hope: The Reconstruction Fight for Justice by Rachel C. Katz (Rise Up! Powerful Protests in American History). This YA nonfiction book explores the handful of years after the Civil War when activists briefly made groundbreaking strides toward equality for Black Americans and for women. Publication is planned for spring 2028; Sara Crowe at Sara Crowe Literary did the deal for world rights. Andrew Arnold at HarperAlley has bought, in an exclusive submission, After the Storm, a middle grade graphic novel by Hope Larson (Very Bad at Math; Very Far from Home), in which two young friends navigate the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Helene, the 2024 storm that devastated Asheville, N.C. Publication is planned for fall 2028; Andrea Colvin at Andrea Colvin Creative Agency sold world rights, in her first deal for the new agency. Gretchen Durning at Putnam has acquired Penny Wickwell's Book of Monsters by Dora M. Mitchell (The Puzzling Fate of Millicent Graves). In this middle grade graphic novel, Penny Wickwell discovers a chatty magical Book of Monsters, accidentally summons creepy creatures straight out of folklore, and has to work with the unhelpful book to send the monsters on their way before someone is dragged to their doom. Publication is set for fall 2028; Marie Lamba at the Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency sold world English rights. Neal Porter while at Holiday House/Neal Porter Books bought Mom and Many Dresses by author-illustrator Matthew Rivera; Taylor Norman will edit. In the picture book, a boy loves Saturday mall trips with Mom because her department store fashion shows are even more fun than buying clothes they can't afford. When mounting bills force her to skip their outing and work extra hours, Mateo comes up with a fashion-forward plan just in time for her birthday. Publication is slated for spring 2028; Andrea Cascardi at Transatlantic Agency brokered the deal for world rights. Alvina Ling at Little, Brown/Alvina Ling Books has acquired, in an exclusive submission, Tracy Subisak's picture book, Dragon Boat Race, in which a girl paddling her first race in the Dragon Boat Festival must work alongside her team to channel their dragon spirit all the way to the finish, inspired by the author's own experience on a dragon boat team. Publication is planned for spring 2027; Lori Kilkelly at LK Literary Agency negotiated the deal for world rights. Tamar Brazis at Viking has bought North American rights to The Love That Carried You, the picture book debut by Jeremiah Brent (l.), interior designer and Emmy Award-winning host of Netflix's Queer Eye, illustrated by Skylar White, a Father's Day story inspired by Brent's journey to parenthood through surrogacy. Publication is scheduled for summer 2027; Cindy Uh at CAA represented the author, and Alex Gehringer at the Bright Agency represented the illustrator. Ian Tseng at Chronicle has acquired world rights to K Is for K-pop by Jessica Yoon (l.), illustrated by Emily Paik, an alphabet-themed picture book introduction to the world of K-pop featuring iconic terminology, fandom culture, and references to beloved idols and groups from A to Z, celebrating the global phenomenon through rhyming text. Publication is slated for fall 2027; Brent Taylor at Triada US represented the author, and Alice Jin Zhang at Astound US represented the illustrator. Alessandra Balzer at Balzer + Bray has bought world rights to Halloweenie by Annabeth Bondor-Stone (l.) and Connor White (c.) (Kitty Caterpillar), illustrated by Jay Fleck (r.) (Tiny T. Rex and the Impossible Hug), a picture book about a Halloween-loving dachshund who wants to find the perfect costume to share with his more timid friend. Publication is set for spring 2027; Erica Rand Silverman at Stimola Literary Studio represented the authors, and Kirsten Hall at Catbird Productions represented the illustrator. Kate O'Sullivan at Clarion has acquired, in an exclusive submission, world rights to Where Bridges Are Born by Horn Book Honor Award-winning author Anita Yasuda (l.), illustrated by Tara Anand. This nonfiction picture book follows three generations of Khasi architects as they build Living Root Bridges in Meghalaya, Northeastern India—creating vital connections between communities and the natural world. Publication is planned for winter 2029; Lori Steel at SteelWorks Literary represented the author, and Chad W. Beckerman at the CAT Agency represented the illustrator. Meredith Mundy at Abrams Appleseed has bought world rights to Dino Hugs by Diana Murray (l.) (Calling All Bears), illustrated by Lo Cole (Doris), a bedtime picture book about sleepy dinosaurs of all kinds sharing great big "dino-hugs" that highlight their unique characteristics. Publication is scheduled for fall 2027; Erzsi Deak at Hen&ink Literary represented the author, and Helen Boyle at Pickled Ink represented the illustrator. Justin Krasner at Sourcebooks eXplore has acquired world rights to Fold & Find: Home, A My First Origami Book by Moni Ritchie Hadley (l.), illustrated by Genna Blackburn. This interactive board book with hidden surprises invites the youngest readers to try their hands at basic origami folds as they build a house for Inu the dog. Publication is set for spring 2028; Sarah Stephens at Red Fox Literary represented the author, and Lauren Ashleigh at IllustrationX represented the illustrator.IN THE MEDIA
FEATURED REVIEWS  Wide Load on the RoadStephen Savage. Roaring Brook, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-2508-8183-0 The “wide load” truck sign drives this propulsive picture book by Savage. Pop art–style pages follow the eponymous load from dockside before dawn—a long, pipelike piece of equipment is lowered onto a truck’s bed, its purpose tantalizingly withheld—through a panoramic journey. The pacing moves as surely as the truck’s huge wheels, each spread building momentum toward a payoff when the cargo’s purpose is finally revealed. MORE  Night TreasureAllison Wortche, illus. by Alison Farrell. Knopf, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-5937-0479-0 In this luminous, sweetly conspiratorial tale, bedtime rules bend in the name of adventure. Trapped inside all day by rain, young Quinn valiantly tries to undertake an indoor treasure hunt, but “inside was small and Quinn knew every corner.” When the rain clears before bedtime, Dad offers a delicious rebellion: a nighttime out-of-doors treasure hunt. Slipping outerwear over their pajamas, the two, head into the blue-cast night. MORE  Reading the BonesMarc Aronson and John S. Mead, illus. by Tim Foley. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $20.99 (192p) ISBN 978-0-374-39231-4 Aronson and debut author Mead team up with illustrator Foley to deliver an exceptional nonfiction work that traces the finding of a new human relative, Homo naledi, and the discovery’s impact on contemporary society. A conversational prologue establishes the creators’ credentials and their connection to Dr. Lee Berger, an American paleoanthropologist based in South Africa, where Homo naledi was uncovered. Seven chapters, rendered using vivid prose, outline the events leading up to the discovery. MORE  Such Great HeightsRajani LaRocca. Quill Tree, $19.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-329687-9 Upon learning new details about her mother’s death, a teenager’s life is thrown into chaos in this captivating YA debut, which draws inspiration from Hindu epic the Ramayana. Indian American high school junior Siya Kumar longs to be like her late mother, a corporate lawyer who worked pro bono cases at night, who died in a car accident when Siya was 10. As Siya—a member of her school's mock trial team—looks over the club’s latest materials, she’s shocked to discover that the current trial’s fabricated case notes closely mirror the circumstances surrounding her mother’s accident. MORE  Monster, Monarch, MaidenRae Carson. Greenwillow, $19.99 (480p) ISBN 978-0-06-324420-7 Inquisitive 17-year-old Bria Angarsold, an innkeeper’s daughter from a frigid mountainous region, can freeze objects, which she believes is the “most useless Gift ever.” After being enslaved by raiders, Bria is rescued by 18-year-old Titus, a stranger on a dangerous mission. Desperate and alone in hostile territory, Bria swears herself into Titus’s service as his protector, pledging loyalty even as his mysterious quest attracts assassins and rattles her faith in her nation and its gods. Carson melds sparkling romantasy and high-stakes political intrigue. MORE | May 19, 2026   E-mail not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.  PEOPLE Random House Children’s Books has one promotion. Taylor Belgrade has been promoted to associate, school and library marketing, from marketing assistant.MARK YOUR CALENDAR  The Museum of Chinese in America presents Ed Young’s Bright Worlds: Gesture and Feeling in 60 Years of Picture Books for Children. The exhibit, which runs through September 13 in New York City, features original artwork from 15 of the late Caldecott Medalist’s projects—focusing on works inspired by his life and Chinese folktales—in addition to sketchbooks, family photos, and more. The retrospective is part of MOCA’s Luminaries for America250, a yearlong celebration of Chinese American history-makers at the semiquincentennial. For more information, click here. SNEAK PREVIEWS  Take a look ahead at some of the big titles for children and teens due out this fall, from picture books to YA novels, in our exclusive roundup. MORE BESTSELLERS  Children’s Frontlist Fiction#1 First Crush (The New Girl #2) by Cassandra Calin. CLICK HERE  Picture Books#1 Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss. CLICK HERE FOLLOW US  Follow us on Bluesky and Instagram! BOOKSHELF ARCHIVES Looking for a previous issue of Children's Bookshelf? Click here for our archives page!CONTACT US Have a comment orsuggestion? We'd love to hear from you. Click here to drop us a note. | ||
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Children's Bookshelf Editor: Emma Kantor Assistant Editor: Iyana Jones Digital Producer: Eva Baron Editor at Large: Diane Roback Send editorial questions about this e-newsletter to: childrensbooks@publishersweekly.com For additional assistance, contact us by email or at the address below. Copyright 2026, PWxyz, LLC. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY and the PW Logo are trademarks of PWxyz, LLC. |
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With Marvel’s longtime head of comics stepping down after nearly 30 years, TV chief Brad Winderbaum will now oversee the company’s publishing portfolio, while Disney’s David Abdo will move over to Marvel as general manager of comics. more »
The Independent Book Publishers Association, which combined with PubWest last year, brought 400 participants to Portland, Ore., for its annual Publishing University, held May 14–16. more »
You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Getting stuck on a sadistic alien game show with her cat. Join Carl and Princess Donut as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level of a trap-filled fantasy dungeon. The Webtoon smash and New York Times bestseller is now a graphic novel for the first time! (Sponsored) More »
The University of Chicago Press has declined to voluntarily recognize the employee union formed earlier this month, sending the union to a National Labor Relations Board election scheduled for June. more »
The new Simon & Schuster CEO will take over Jonathan Karp’s seat on the National Book Foundation’s board of directors. Barnes & Noble’s Miwa Messer, Black List CEO Franklin Leonard, and attorney Elizabeth McNamara have also been elected to the board. more »
In 2050, a rogue scientist's artificial genome goes viral—and human lifespans explode beyond all limits. Populations surge, economies collapse, and ageism turns lethal. Perfect for fans of The Measure, Lifers connects the quest for immortality to its devastating human cost, tracing one family's struggle through a world where the fear of death has been replaced by something far more terrifying. (Sponsored) More »
Deadline: June 18. Issue: Aug. 10. We’d like to hear about forthcoming recipe collections as well as culinary reference books, bios/memoirs, essay collections, and other food-related narrative nonfiction. Pub. dates: mid-Aug. 2026 through mid-Feb. 2027. Click here for more information. »
Through Mom’s Eyes by Sheinelle Jones (Putnam) was the bestselling new release by a Black author, selling 38,611 copies last month, per Circana BookScan. Viola Davis and James Patterson’s Judge Stone (Little, Brown) topped the list. more »
Science should embrace uncertainty, not seek definitive answers to problems, the Columbia neuroscience professor contends in It Could Be Otherwise (Basic, Aug.). more »
- Graphic Production Specialist - Candlewick Press, Holiday House, Peachtree - Somerville, MA.
- Publicist - Candlewick Press, Holiday House & Peachtree - Somerville, MA.
- Sales Support Specialist - The Quarto Group - New York, NY.
- Contracts Assistant - Trident Media Group - New York City, NY.
- Editorial Director - Teachers College Press/Columbia University - New York City, NY.
- Noreen Herits, previously VP and executive director of publicity and media strategy at Random House Children’s Books, will join TvS Media Group as VP of publicity.
- Patrick Guaschino has been promoted to director of sales for retail national accounts at Penguin Random House Publisher Services.
- Taylor Belgrade has been promoted to school and library marketing associate at Random House Children’s Books.
- Kentucky Bookshop to Shutter: Nook & Nowhere in Louisville will close its doors after a little more than a year in business.
- Texas Bookstore to Close: Patchouli Joe’s Books & Indulgences in Denton will shut down at the end of the month.
Birth Vibes by Jen Hamilton is the #1 title on our adult hardcover nonfiction bestseller list. See the full list »
‘The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State’ by Jill Lepore“Society is on the precipice of ‘abandoning constitutional democracy... and even humanity itself for... government by machine,’ warns Pulitzer winner Lepore in this powerful anti-AI treatise.... It’s a fiery cri de coeur.” more »
Picture of the Day
On May 13, Chloe Dalton celebrated the paperback release of her 2024 memoir, Raising Hare (Pantheon), at RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison, Conn.
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