Brady Mason’s Perfect Fit by Nicole Melleby (January 13th)
Brady Mason couldn’t care less about fashion. She likes what she knows: baseball, comfortable clothes, and pork roll with egg and cheese. When Brady’s friends notice that she looks strangely like fashion editor Elena Lavigne, they start the rumor that Brady is Elena’s long-lost daughter. They’ll make a few TikTok videos, get some fun buzz online about their similarities, and that will be the end of it.
But when a DNA test confirms that Brady is Elena’s long-lost daughter, she’s summoned to Manhattan to live with her. The only problem: Elena’s high-fashion life clashes with Brady’s tomboy antics, and Elena doesn’t know how to be a mother any more than Brady knows how to be a daughter. But the more time passes, the more Brady sees what they have in common, and she starts wondering…if she and Elena are both searching for a family, could the two of them be the right fit?
Wallflower by Iasmin Omar Ata (January 13th)
For as long as Marlena can remember, she has seen flowers growing on everyone she meets: personalized poppies and daisies and roses of every color that give away what their owners truly feel. Invisible to the rest of the world, the flowers have always felt too overwhelming, too much for Marlena to take in when they don’t always match what their owner shows. She’s long since given up convincing anyone else that they’re there.
Until she meets Ashe, a charming transfer student who can somehow see these mysterious flowers, too. Unfortunately for Marlena, Ashe wants nothing to do with her. But as their thorny connection blooms, so do hidden secrets buried years ago. In this stunning graphic novel where dreams are woven into reality and not everything is as it seems, Marlena and Ashe must unfold the truth together, no matter where it may lead.
Saber-Tooth by Robin Gow (January 27th)
Jasper’s favorite person is his older brother, Callan. They go on fossil-finding missions and stay up late while their parents work nights. Callan even helped Jasper pick out his new name when he came out as trans.
But Callan starts to grow distant and leaves for college without taking Jasper on a promised fossil dig. Jasper feels abandoned—and angry. Who needs Callan? He will dig by himself, in his backyard. As he digs, he hears a voice: the bones of a saber-toothed tiger. He’s buried deep, and he wants Jasper to DIG.
Jasper is sure a discovery like this could change the world, or at least get Callan to text him back. But as the saber-toothed tiger finds freedom, Jasper realizes he may have unleashed a monster that no one was ready for, and that anger can empower you—or destroy you.
Checked Out by Tony Correia (February 17th)
Seth, an openly queer seventh grader, runs a successful YouTube channel called Seth Says. He carefully creates a brand around being a likeable queer kid and avoids talking about anything political. But when Pluto, a cute gay classmate, encourages Seth to read some queer fiction, he is blown away to see stories that reflect his own lived experiences, and he starts to see the value of queer activism. Seth and Pluto set up a Pride Month display to raise awareness of queer books in their school library, but as soon as the display goes up, someone checks out all the books, leaving the table empty.
Seth and Pluto discover that their classmate Rebecca checked out the books to protest the “inappropriate” Pride Month display. When the school staff decline to help, Seth decides to post about his experience on his YouTube channel. But as the video racks up more views, local conservatives stage a much larger and more intimidating campaign against LGBTQIA+ materials in the school library. Now Seth has to decide whether to give in to the pressure, or to keep fighting for what he has come to believe in.
This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for middle-grade readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read!
The Frozen Curse by Jacob North (February 17th)
This is the second book in the Ice Apprentices series
Oswin starts a second year in Tundra at the school for Ice Apprentices just as the Great Freeze threatens. He may have driven back the monsters, but masters are disappearing and trees with monstrous faces seem to be on the attack.
When Oswin fails a test, he’s kicked out of the training grounds for good. Tundra is running out of time and soon everyone will freeze to death…
Olivia Gray Will Not Fade Away by Ciera Burch (March 17th)
A middle schooler navigates the challenges of feeling invisible—literally and figuratively—as she comes to terms with her asexual identity.
Seventh grade has just started, but Olivia Gray already knows this year is different. Her brother ignores her for his crush, and all her friends talk about is who likes who, something Olivia has never cared about—even when Robbie, the most popular boy in school, asks her to the fall formal. After unknowingly rejecting him, Olivia goes viral on the social app KruShh. As the chatter about Robbie and dating grows, Olivia starts to feel left out to the point of feeling invisible—literally.
Seen only by her new librarian and a friendly kid named Jules, Olivia flickers in and out of sight whenever the topic of romance comes up. As she begins to realize she might be asexual, Olivia struggles to actually use the label because of the negative perception behind it. All she wants is to be normal, but can she really fit in without disappearing completely?
Clementine H. Hopeful Is Not a Hero by Noah Corey (March 17th)
Amid magic and monsters, a queer seventh-grader discovers a world where he can be himself but has to decide if he will fight for it…even if it means becoming the villain.
Clementine has always felt like the villain of his story. Most of the time, he’s a socially anxious kid who knows it’s not “normal” for a boy to wear pink shoes to school. While he’s there, his teachers won’t call him by the right name (even though Clementine is a boy’s name, if a boy has it), his classmates tease him about his obsessive love for spiders (even though they’re beautiful), and he’s the only one who can see the floating faces that haunt the surrounding woods.
But in the woods, everything is different. At night, he and his new friends Beetle, Cricket, and Anise spend hours in a play-pretend world that seems to be seeping into reality. Clementine has never had a friend like Beetle—a boy who breaks into his house and teaches him to howl at the moon, who dreams of being a hero and says the whole sky is beautiful while looking right at Clementine and not at the sky at all.
But Clementine wants to use the power fueling their adventures to make things better outside the forest—not later, when he’s grown up, but now. And when he discovers the source of the magic, Clementine has to decide: Does he become a hero with Beetle and protect a world that hates him? Or does he finally become the villain, ready to build a new world whatever the cost?
When You’re Brave Enough by Rebecca Bendheim (April 7th)
Before she moved from Austin to Rhode Island, everybody knew Lacey as one half of an inseparable duo: Lacey-and-Grace, best friends since they were toddlers. Grace and her moms were practically family. But at school, being lumped together with overeager, worm-obsessed, crushes-on-everyone Grace meant Lacey never quite fit in—and that’s why at her new middle school, Lacey plans to reinvent herself. This time, she’s going to be cool. She’s going to be normal.
At first, everything seems to go as planned. Lacey makes new friends right away, she finds a rabbi to help her prepare for the bat mitzvah that got deprioritized by her parents in the chaos of the move, and she even gets cast in the lead role of the eighth-grade musical. Which is when things start to get stressful, because it turns out the students at her new school have a long-standing, unofficial tradition: No matter what the show is, in the final performance, the leads always kiss for real.
Lacey’s never kissed anyone before—she’s not even sure she’s ever had a crush. And in Bye, Bye, Birdie, there are a few different co-lead kiss possibilities for Lacey to choose from. There’s confident, cocky Andre. There’s sweet, friendly Jaden. And then there’s the other new girl at school: dryly funny, impossibly cool Violet.
But while her new friends and older sister create whiteboard wall charts and botched field trip schemes to help her decide, suddenly Lacey can’t stop thinking about Grace, who she was so sure she wanted to leave behind. When Grace comes back into her life, Lacey needs to decide if she’s brave enough to be who she really is, in front of the person who matters most.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | Black Pearl Books | Book People | Barnes & Noble
Fruitcake by Rex Ogle and Dave Valeza (April 7th)
This graphic memoir is the third book in the Four Eyes series.
Eighth grade isn’t off to a great start. Everyone but Rex seems to be coupling up, and he’s starting to feel like an outsider… until he meets Charlotte. She’s fearless, smart, pretty, and she likes him back. But as great as Charlotte is, there’s someone Rex can’t stop thinking about.
Drew is Rex’s childhood best friend, so when he kisses Rex, all kinds of new feelings begin to stir. Though at school, Drew acts like he doesn’t even know Rex, making those feelings turn really confusing really fast. And with all the strong opinions Rex hears at home and at church, he questions his own worth and what his affections actually mean. Rex wants to be more like his new friend, Nina, and not care what others think, but being himself seems impossible. When did middle school get so confusing?!
Clock Hands by Marieke Nijkamp and Sylvia Bi (April 21st)
Raising your voice can change everything.Vale has always dreamed of being a metalworker’s apprentice. But in Siannerra, the guilds rule with an iron fist, and their apprenticeship fees are impossibly high. So Vale and their guildless family must make do with the pennies and scraps they’re able to cobble together from work on the docks or in the market.
Until Maestro Giuseppi arrives from abroad, determined to build the city’s first astronomical clock. He doesn’t care for fees or exclusionary practices—and he sees Vale’s talent. He invites Vale into his workshop, and for a while Vale believes all their dreams are coming true. But everything in Siannerra belongs to the guilds, and if anyone tries to break free, there are consequences. Sometimes the gravest of consequences. Still, Vale refuses to stop dreaming. Or fighting. With the help of their friends, they plan to take on the might of the guilds. And together, they may just be strong enough to bend iron to their will.
A stand-alone companion to the acclaimed Ink Girls.
Buy it: Bookshop | B&N | Amazon
Alex Wise vs. the Gods of the Apocalypse by Terry J. Benton-Walker (April 28th)
This is the third and final book in the Alex Wise trilogy
Saving the world is one thing . . . saving the multiverse is another.
Alex may have failed to stop the Cosmic Shift, but that doesn’t mean he is giving up on saving the world. The only problem is . . . he has no idea what world he’s even in. A rip in the multiverse has stranded him and his best friend Loren in a mysterious realm—without his sister Mags, or demi-god crush Liam, or even his kinda cool, kinda annoying stepbrother Nick. Like Earth, this world is at war, and Loren and Alex will have to use all their wits and magic to escape space pirates, an underground rebellion, and advanced technology with terrifying consequences.
But even if Alex manages to find a way to return home, it will be nothing like the home he once knew. His nemesis Ezra is stronger than ever and, along with War and Famine, is turning Earth into a violent, chaotic dumpster fire. Alex never asked to be a superhero, but with the weight of not one but TWO worlds resting on his shoulders, that’s exactly who he needs to be.
Opting Out by Maia Kobabe and Swati “Lucky” Srikumar (May 5th)
Bodies are the worst. I wish I didn’t have a body.
Saachi is a storyteller. At school, she’s surrounded by kids she’s known forever — including her best friend, Lyla, who shares Saachi’s love of fantasy novels and creating new worlds.
But as seventh grade starts, kids are changing. Suddenly, it matters who you like and if you can find a boyfriend or girlfriend. Even Lyla seems more interested in hanging out with her new boyfriend than in writing and drawing with Saachi anymore. Saachi’s not interested in any of that boy/girl stuff. Why can’t things just stay the way they were?
Saachi also doesn’t love all the ways her body is changing. What if she doesn’t feel like a girl — or like a boy, either? In a world where there is so much either/or, Saachi is going to need to find her own options . . . and create her own story.
Sol Goes for Goal! by Julio Anta, illus. by Gabi Mendez (June 9th)
Welcome back to Hillside Valley-this time it’s Game On for Sol!
Twelve-year-old Sol is a great friend, a model student, a beloved daughter and a star soccer player. At least that’s what everyone always expects of her. But when the soccer team captain Lily walks by, Sol starts to lose focus. What’s with this heart fluttering feeling she has around Lily?! And how can she stay the star player–the star everything–that people see her as if she can barely remember her name (much less how to play soccer) around Lily? Is Sol destined to let everyone down, including herself? Or can she figure out how to be the Sol she wants to be…on and off the field.
Just Ask Elsie by Ari Koontz (June 16th)
Elsie Parker is having a totally normal fifth grade year.
Fractions and conjunctions―check.
Stressing about middle school―check.
Body-positive puberty class at church that also covers feelings and identities―check.
Okay, maybe that last one isn’t so normal. It’s a little weird (and awkward) to spend her Sundays talking periods, B.O., and pimples. But Elsie’s also learning a lot more than she’s heard in her public-school health class ― like the difference between sex and gender, and what consent is, and what it might mean that she can’t stop blushing around a certain cute girl at her school.
When her puberty lessons become the school’s latest gossip, Elsie’s totally humiliated… until she finds an anonymous note in her locker from a classmate who wants to know more, and realizes that other kids might have embarrassing questions of their own.
Starting an underground advice board wasn’t exactly in her plans, but Elsie won’t pass up a chance to turn her reputation around ― or to share words and labels that have not-so-accidentally been left off their curriculum. But when the principal tries to shut down the unauthorized puberty talk, Elsie has to decide what she’s willing to risk to tell the truth to kids who really need to hear it.
Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N
The Incorruptibles: Lightmare by Lauren Magaziner (June 16th)
This is the sequel to The Incorruptibles, whose paperback releases May 12th
Still reeling from recent tragedies, Fiora and her Thistle teammates are on the run and living in seclusion. Times are difficult, and the Thistles are more vulnerable to the sorcerer threat than ever. But all is not lost. The Thistles are forming a plan to fight back.
But when terrible truths are revealed, deep fractures form within the team. When one of their own makes a choice Fiora never saw coming—and cannot possibly understand—Fiora and her friends are forced to reexamine what is good and what is evil…as well as the gray space between.
Paperback Rereleases
Mountain Upside Down by Sara Ryan (February 10th)
Alex Eager lives in Faillin, OR with her grandmother, a retired librarian. Life should be great for Alex, since she finally worked up the courage to ask her best friend PJ if they could be more than friends and she said yes. But their new relationship will have to be long distance, because PJ is moving. On top of that, Alex is worried that something is wrong with her increasingly forgetful grandmother. And to make matters worse, Faillin is holding a referendum on library funding, and things aren’t looking good. Will anything good for Alex ever last?
The Visitors by Greg Howard (April 7th)
A lonely twelve-year-old boy spends his days “stuck” at the deserted Hollow Pines Plantation in Georgetown, South Carolina with no recollection of his name, how long he’s been there, and no idea how to leave. Things never change much for the lost souls at Hollow Pines and time is strange when you’re dead. But when visitors from the living world arrive for the first time in a long while, the boy feels a spark of hope. These visitors are around his age, and they seem to understand more than others that the plantation is not just spooky or eerie, it’s a sad place where the unspeakable happened again and again. And if these kids could understand the truth about Hollow Pines, maybe they could help him uncover the dark secrets of his past and help him find a way to finally move on. But Hollow Pines doesn’t like visitors. And with a malevolent spirit lurking in the shadows and painful memories buried deep, and for good reason, the boy wonders if he’ll ever find his way home or be stuck at Hollow Pines forever.
Will you be making a list for the Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Adult Fiction Reads for January – June 2026?
Yep, will be doing all the same lists I did last year!
Yay! Thank you so much! I really rely on your lists 🙂