Table of contents for July 2025 in Booklist Reader

After the Flood. By Kassandra Montag. 2019. Morrow. In Montag’s thrilling speculative adventure, set in a future climate-change-altered world overrun by water and pirates, Myra and her younger daughter, Pearl, struggle to survive by fishing, trading, and avoiding opportunist raiders while Myra searches for Row, her abducted older daughter. All the Water in the World. By Eiren Caffall. 2025. St. Martin’s. Scientists and their families are living on the roof of the closed American Museum of Natural History in a ravaged, mostly abandoned New York City, when a flooding superstorm hits. Only four manage to escape in an old birchbark canoe—two teen sisters, their father, and an entomologist—and they struggle valiantly to navigate treacherous waters and hostile communities of determined survivors. Elegy, Southwest. By Madeleine Watts. 2025. Simon & Schuster.…

Overruled: A Novel Lana Ferguson Berkley You Belong Here Megan Miranda Marysue Rucci Books The Frozen People: A Mystery Elly Griffiths Pamela Dorman Books The Bewitching Silvia Moreno-Garcia Del Rey She Didn't See It Coming: A Novel Shari Lapena Pamela Dorman Books Maid for Each Other Lynn Painter Berkley These Summer Storms: A Novel Sarah MacLean Ballantine The Woman in Suite 11 Ruth Ware Gallery Books Find out more at www.LibraryReads.org/HOF…

Black Girl You Are Atlas. By Renée Watson. Read by the author. 2024. Listening Library. Gr. 9–12. Watson’s memoir in verse earned an Odyssey Honor this year. Like Keith does for Boogeyman, Watson narrates these autobiographical poems. Her gentle voice is encouraging, inspiring, and energizing. The In-Between. By Katie Van Heidrich. Read by Angel Pean. 2023. Simon & Schuster Audio. Gr. 4–8. In seventh grade, while her peers are celebrating the winter holidays and her family is out of town for a funeral, Katie’s family is evicted from their apartment. In this empathetic narration, Pean reads these poems, written as if from Van Heidrich’s younger self’s journal, with a tenor of worry and tension. The Poet X. By Elizabeth Acevedo. Read by the author. 2018. Harper. Gr. 9–12. This multi-award–winning…

Older Bones at the Crossroads. By LaDarrion Williams. Random/Labyrinth Road. Gr. 9–12. The sequel to Willams’ best-selling debut, Blood at the Root, finds Malik confronting family secrets and digging deeper into his connections to magical society. Call Your Boyfriend. By Olivia A. Cole and Ashley Woodfolk. Simon & Schuster. Gr. 9–12. Beau and Charm together embark on a quest to devastate their former crush, Maia, in this revenge-fueled sapphic rom-com from a pair of YA luminaries. Climate of Chaos. By Cassandra Newbould. Peachtree Teen. Gr. 9–12. To rescue her sister, Fox goes undercover with Aegis, a company that functions through medical extortion, and discovers along the way that it’s up to something even more nefarious. Fateless. By Julie Kagawa. Harper. Gr. 9–12. Best-selling fantasy author Kagawa kicks off another series…

The Dark We Know. By Wen-yi Lee. 2024. Zando/Gillian Flynn. Gr. 9–12. The mountain sings, and children die. Isadora Chang knows the song well—that’s why she left her oppressive hometown following the apparent suicide of a close friend. Now she’s returned to the old mining town for her abusive father’s funeral and must team up with her last living childhood friend to save those being tempted by the supernatural force deep in the mountain. Dry. By Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman. 2018. Simon & Schuster. Gr. 9–12. Alyssa and her brother, Garrett, are accustomed to the quiet normalcy of their Southern California suburb, until surrounding states shut off access to the Colorado River due to prolonged drought and the taps run dry. Soon, neighbors turn against one another, crazed by thirst.…

1. Who is Sam Lumley when he is at home? Sam Lumley at home is a bit of a homebody and pretty skilled at spending time alone, which is probably a good skill for a writer to have, although I often find I have to leave the house to write so I don’t get distracted by other projects I have going on. I seem to always have a couple of projects going simultaneously; that way, if I get tired of working on one, I can move on to another. A lot of my passions haven’t changed much since I was very young, so, for example, I still have all of my childhood Hot Wheels and Matchbox toy cars (which has grown to 1,451 cars, and yes, I do have them…

Semiquincentennial The countdown for our country’s semiquin-centennial has begun. Between July 2025 and July 4, 2026, many celebrations are planned in anticipation of the big day. Make sure to keep an eye out for quality programming on PBS, your local PBS station, and PBS Books. An upcoming highlight includes The American Revolution, a film by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and Geoffrey Ward, which premieres on Nov. 16. PBS Books, PBS, and WETA will be sharing an array of resources with libraries, including book lists, engagement guides, and screeners. Human Footprint Hosted by Princeton University Biology Professor Shane Campbell-Staton, the Emmynominated science docuseries Human Footprint returns with six new episodes; it begins Wednesday, June 25, at 9 p.m. ET, and continues through July 30 (check your local listing), on PBS, PBS.org,…

Billions to Burn. By Taylor Banks. Disney/Melissa de la Cruz. Gr. 4–7. Seventh-grader Zeus has grown up learning about his ancestor Amadeus I and his magazine, BURN!!!, which spotlighted Black writers and artists during the Harlem Renaissance, and when he embarks on a quest to solve a cryptic clue left behind by Amadeus, he uncovers a wealth of information about an important era in U.S. cultural history. Fast Pitch. By Nic Stone. Crown. Gr. 3–6. Shenice and her all-Black girls softball team are headed to the championships, but it’s tough to focus when she just learned that her great-grandpa was set up for a crime that cost him a pro baseball career. In between sleuthing and gameplay, Stone weaves in historical facts that tie together the past and present. The Harlem…

City of Leafcutter Ants: A Sustainable Society of Millions. By Amy Hevron. Illus. by the author. 2024. Holiday/Neal Porter. K–Gr. 2. This glimpse into an ant colony teems with activity as its queen lays eggs that will eventually become laborers with specialized jobs, from collecting garbage to foraging for food. Fire Escape: How Animals and Plants Survive Wildfires. By Jessica Stremer. Illus. by Michael Garland. 2024. Holiday. Gr. 5–8. Gorgeous woodcuts and vibrant photographs complement this exceptionally informative look at how forests’ flora and fauna adapt to survive devastating wildfires. Great Gusts: Winds of the World and the Science behind Them. By Melanie Crowder and Megan Benedict. Illus. by Khoa Le. 2024. Candlewick/MIT Kids. Gr. 2–5. This breezy picture book uses expressive poems, vibrant art, and detailed scientific information to…

American Poison: A Deadly Invention and the Woman Who Battled for Environmental Justice. By Daniel Stone. 2025. Dutton. Tetraethyl leaded gasoline (ethyl) was brought to market in 1923, even though it could be lethal when inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Alice Hamilton, a physician, scientist, early advocate of occupational health and safety, and the first female faculty member at Harvard, confronted leaders of the burgeoning auto industry who knew all about the dangers of leaded gasoline and sold it anyway. The Cancer Factory: Industrial Chemicals, Corporate Deception, and the Hidden Deaths of American Workers. By Jim Morris. 2024. Beacon. Making tires requires orthotolidine, which causes bladder cancer. Focusing on a Goodyear plant in Niagara Falls, New York, Morris chronicles the plight of workers and families caught in a cancer…

Fiction All the Men I’ve Loved Again. By Christine Pride. Atria. Pride, who’s coauthored two best-selling novels with Jo Piazza (including You Were Always Mine, 2023), strikes out on her own in this emotionally resonant story of a woman who gets caught in the same love triangle twice, 20 years apart. Coded Justice. By Stacey Abrams. Doubleday. Multi-hyphenate powerhouse author Abrams’ third Avery Keene thriller, following Rogue Justice (2023), finds the former Supreme Court clerk working for a tech firm promising to revolutionize medicine with AI. The Unraveling of Julia. By Lisa Scottoline. Grand Central. In Edgar Award–winner Scottoline’s gothic mystery, a woman, unexpectedly widowed, is surprised to inherit a Tuscan estate, where she encounters a pair of menacing Italian toughs, a handsome librarian, and hidden links to a Renaissance-era…

Before She Was Harriet. By Lesa Cline-Ransome. Read by a full cast. 2018. Live Oak. K–Gr. 3. Children know her because of her significant role in the Underground Railroad, but before Harriet Tubman was a conductor, she had already lived many lives. A different voice shares the story of each role she had, and evocative sound effects set each scene. Chef Roy Choi and the Street Food Remix. By Jacqueline Briggs Martin and June Jo Lee. Read by Man One and June Jo Lee. 2018. Live Oak. Gr. 1–4. Spoken-word poetry celebrating food is interspersed throughout a simple story of Chef Roy Choi’s life. Like Andrés, Choi’s love of food began in childhood. The musical beats and sound effects match the upbeat tempo of this story, which encourages children to…

Alma and the Beast. By Esmé Shapiro. Illus. by the author. 2019. Tundra. PreS–Gr. 1. Everything in Alma’s world is hairy, from the trees to the mushrooms to Alma herself. But when a mostly hairless beast (a young human girl) wanders into Alma’s yard, a charming adventure unfolds. Shapiro’s worlds, both hairy and human, are warmly imaginative, and young readers will love the idea that an entirely new realm might be accessible simply by climbing the right tree. Backyard Fairies. By Phoebe Wahl. Illus. by the author. 2018. Knopf. PreS–Gr. 2. A rosy-cheeked girl is convinced fairies live in her backyard, but—despite her best efforts—she never sees them. Enchanting collage illustrations reveal what the girl can’t see: tiny, luminous sprites hiding in tree stumps, under logs, and in a thicket…

Detective Sweet Pea: The Case of the Golden Bone. By Sara Varon. Art by the author. 2024. First Second. Gr. 1–4. Delightful animal characters populate this series opener about an artistic dog with a nose for clues. Comical scenarios, playful artwork, and fun characters make this early reader comic a real treat. Go and Get with Rex. By David LaRochelle. Illus. by Mike Wohnoutka. 2024. Candlewick. PreS–Gr. 2. From a Theodore Seuss Geisel Award–winning duo comes a hilarious picture book about a dog competing with two children in an alphabet game with unexpected twists and turns. The Hotel Balzaar. By Kate DiCamillo. Illus. by Júlia Sardà. 2024. Candlewick. Gr. 2–4. The daughter of a hotel maid finds herself swept up in a series of stories told by an eccentric guest.…