New Books in Children's Literature

From R.J. Palacio, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Wonder and Brett Helquist, the illustrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events, comes The Haunted Playground (Random House Books for Young Readers, 2026), a spine-tingling Halloween picture book adventure! I cast the spell that brings to life this playground of the night. Here my phantoms come—but not to spook or fright. They’re here because they want to laugh, to frolic and be merry. They’re here because they need to take a break from being scary. When all the trick-or-treating is done and children are tucked in, ghosts are drawn to one special place: the Haunted Playground! Ruled by Rex Magnificus, ghosts arrive not to haunt but to play. But will the appearance of two human children interrupt their revelry? From two master storytellers, this Halloween story is a modern classic!

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Gentle: Hope and Healing at an Animal Sanctuary (A Gentle Barn Story) is a gorgeous picture book from one of the largest, most popular animal-rescue sanctuaries in America, Gentle Barn, about a baby animal healing and gaining confidence as he's welcomed to the farm.

Gentle beginnings.

A sick baby cow is welcomed to a sanctuary by a tender young girl.

Gentle healing.

Day by day, the young calf grows stronger because of the care of new friends.

Gentle joy.

Gentle is a sweet picture book about the transformative power that quiet love and kindness can have on any creature, based on the real-life animal sanctuary the Gentle Barn

Ellie Laks founded The Gentle Barn in 1999, a nonprofit organization that rescues and rehabilitates not only dogs and cats, but horses, cows, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys, peacocks, emus, llamas, and donkeys. Ellie formulated her own "Gentle Healing" method, using a combination of animal communication, energy healing, holistic healing, holding therapy, and western medicine to heal animals no one else would take and had nowhere else to go. Ellie specializes in healing puppies with Parvo, calves from veal crates, and orphaned animals of all kinds.

The Gentle Barn is one of the largest and most beloved farm animal sanctuaries in the world. It is their goal to be the voice for animals, share their stories, and open the hearts of humanity towards all living beings.

For more information about The Gentle Barn, please go here.

Maci Zakarin is a Theatre actress, playwright, animal advocate, and poet living in Brooklyn, NY.

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In this, our second interview, I talk to celebrated author-illustrator Yevgenia Nayberg about her brand new book (April 14!), Another Tongue, published by Neal Porter Books. We discuss dual languages, both from the point of view of her journey from Russian to English which is recounted in the book, but also in the context of the two other languages that she masters, i.e., text and illustration. We also discuss another new book of hers:
Chernobyl, Life, and Other Disasters: A Graphic Memoir, published just three months ago, also by Neal Porter Books. Yevgenia shares her creative process, her upcoming book and advice for aspiring authors and illustrators.

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Stacy Innerst is a renowned children’s book artist and painter. His picture books have received a host of starred reviews and have been honored with the Sydney Taylor Book Award (for The Book Rescuer), the New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award (Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Case of RBG Vs. Inequality) and the SCBWI Golden Kite for Picture Book Illustration (The Music in George’s Head.).

In tour wonderful conversation, we celebrate his new book, Piece by Piece: How Stephen Sondheim Made Musical Puzzles Come Alive
written by Erin Frankel (Author), artwork by Stacy Innerst which launched with Caulkins Creek in April, 2026. We discuss Stacy's love for drawing, his metamorphosis from magazine illustrator to children's book artist (with an emphasis on artist), and how his deep love for history and music infuses his work.

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In this insightful interview, librarian, writer, blogger, Rachel Bachman

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Picture book author, Jilanne Huffmann's first middle-grades novel, Heartland (Little Brown Books, 2026). Out of the Dust meets Me and Marvin Gardens in this coming-of-age novel about a young misfit searching for the truth of her family's past, set against the backdrop of an environmental cover-up. Twelve-year-old Xyla is sick of two things: working on her family's sixth-generation Iowa farm and her mother's nagging words, "Pay attention!" But Xyla can't help getting lost in the thoughts that fill her head, sometimes leaving a wake of costly mistakes. If only her mother would tell her something, anything, about her father, who left when she was little. When Xyla finds her mother's hidden childhood diary, she's soon sucked into the story of a hardscrabble life on the family farm in the 1980s. Can she find the key to her past and her father in the pages? Xyla's life grows even more complicated as a new family begins renting a vacant house on the farm, and the daughter Alegría is focused and motivated--the kind of kid Xyla is sure her mother prefers. But when the girls stumble upon an environmental disaster right next door, Xyla must trust her new friend and her complicated mother to figure out how to stop it. Alternating timelines in prose and verse connect the quiet desperation of Iowa farmers in the late 1980s to the modern farming landscape in this layered and voice-driven middle grade debut.

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Rachel Orr is celebrating her nineteenth year at Prospect Agency, where she represents both authors and illustrators in projects ranging from board books through YA. She previously worked for eight rewarding years at HarperCollins Children’s Books. A native of Pittsburgh and a graduate of Kenyon College, she currently lives in Hoboken, New Jersey, with her husband and two children, where she enjoys dancing, running and reading, of course. In our interview, Rachel shares her journey in children's publishing and provides great tips for aspiring authors.

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In this illuminating conversation with librarian-author Mary R. Lanni, we celebrate her brand new book, Using Nursery Rhymes with Today’s Kids: Their Legacy and Evolution (Bloomsbury, 2026). Mary is a professional librarian in Denver, Colorado, USA. She is also co-author of Early Learning Through Play: Library Programming for Diverse Communities (Libraries Unlimited, 2019). We talk about the potentially sordid history of famous nursery rhymes, and the possibility of supplanting problematic ancient poems with new, inclusive songs.

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Stephen Fraser is senior literary agent with The Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency, after having worked as an editor for over 25 years before becoming an agent. He represents children’s books in a wide range of genres. We talked about his experiences in the worlds of editing and agenting, his do's and don'ts for submissions, his thoughts on the current state of children's literature, and the importance of the story.

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In my very special interview with children's author María Dolores Águila we discuss her multi-award winning new middle grade book, A Sea of Lemon Trees: The Corrido of Roberto Alvarez (Roaring Brook Press), published a few months back. We talk about her childhood, her journey to traditional publishing (finding her agent, Lindsay Auld, through the slush pile, no less), her dualness (at once Mexican and American) and her advice for up and coming authors. Maria has also published two popular picture books, with a third on the way next year. I'm already planning our next interview!

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