Fall is almost here, and that means scores of distraught pets will be watching their young owners head back to school. One such pooch takes center stage in Dan Yaccarino’s picture book I Am Murphy and I Am Waiting (Henry Holt, Aug. 25). Murphy’s unhappy to see “the big yellow thing” (the school bus) “take my boy away,” but the plucky French bulldog soldiers on, eating, sleeping, stretching, bugging the family cat, and “chasing the little nubby thing that’s always behind me.” Youngsters will find a kindred spirit in Murphy, who approaches life’s ups and downs with a winning mixture of angst and optimism.
Autumn also means a trove of marvelous children’s titles; in addition to the fetching Murphy, our Fall Preview selections include sumptuous wordless gems, moving works in verse, and innovative graphic literature. We’ve even got something for young sports fans. In the picture-book memoir A Spark of Greatness: The Autobiography of a Fighter (Crown, Sept. 8), retired boxer Laila Ali details her trajectory from wayward teen to disciplined athlete, accompanied by commanding impressionistic paintings from Cozbi A. Cabrera. Ali’s father, the late civil rights activist and heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, was arguably as celebrated for his gift with words as for his physical prowess, and Ali proves she, too, has a voice worth heeding.
Board books make a fine showing this year, among them Yayoi Kusama’s Lots of Dots (Phaidon, Oct. 14). The renowned Japanese artist fills her board book with page after page of spots—“orange dots,” “green dots,” “furry dots,” “shiny dots.” With callbacks to some of her most famous work, this exuberant book is art appreciation for the toddler set.
Some middle-grade titles coming this season are nothing short of mind-blowing. Shaun Tan’s graphic novel Hometown (Levine Querido, Sept. 1) pairs a young girl’s blasé narration (“Sometimes I wonder if things could be a bit more interesting”) with stunning visuals that depict a land of clawed, tentacled, and horned creatures, all blurring the line between gorgeous and grotesque. The protagonist, the only human in this assemblage, has never questioned her place in the world—until a newcomer shows up. Tan’s worldbuilding is sublime, and, as he so often does, he leaves readers with profound questions about belonging and identity.
A wildly original take on the hero’s journey, Daniel Nayeri’s This Is a Door (Stonefruit Studio/Sourcebooks, Oct. 27) follows a young orphan named Ing—short for Nothing the Younger—who sets out to discover his life’s purpose, accompanied by easily distracted Pöppy the dog and pragmatic mOmO the mouse. Nayeri plays adeptly with everything from literary archetypes and conventions to the very layout of the text while infusing his narrative with very real emotion; the result is an epic work of metafiction.
Though very much set in the real world, Rex Ogle’s Absent (Norton Young Readers, Sept. 1) is equally thought-provoking. Like a grittier Breakfast Club, the novel follows three seemingly different middle schoolers who nevertheless bond in detention. Blending prose, verse, and comics, with illustrations by LJ-Baptiste, this is an incredibly intimate tale that never shies from its protagonists’ harsh realities—economic insecurity, mental health issues, bullying—while still concluding on a hopeful note.
Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.
