Reviews+

With a mix of books that highlight castles, gladiators, and famous historic sites alongside the current geopolitical and cultural climate, this season’s series have a lot to offer readers of all ages. These titles help make history come alive.

Twenty-first-century job readiness and the skills required to achieve career success are critical topics for readers in any grade. This season’s series present a wide range of career options in a variety of fields and industries. 

Beguiling series packed with great stories are forthcoming: ancient myths and gods’ exploits; literally haunting tales; descriptions of fanciful creatures; and odd, inexplicable experiences that plagued real people. While these stories are exciting and strange, what they really have in common is their humanity.

The social sciences shed light on the world around us and help us understand our place in it. This season’s selections cover a wealth of seemingly unrelated topics that touch our lives daily, even though we may not realize to what extent.

Educators and librarians know the importance of minority and English language learning in conjunction with children seeing themselves in the books they read. As evidenced by this season’s series of Spanish and bilingual books, it’s clear that some publishers are responding to the rising demand for the representation of complex and intersectional identities in children’s media.  

With new tech being rolled out at an exponentially faster pace year after year, replacing old volumes can be hard to justify. Libraries eager to meet their patrons’ needs will see the value in weeding and supplementing their tech collections on a more consistent basis. The series we’ve selected for this section include cutting-edge inventions, machines both simple and amazingly complex, future-minded creations, and coding prep for the youngest readers.