The Queen of Kindergarten by Derrick Barnes; illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton

MJ is more than ready for her first day of kindergarten! With her hair freshly braided and her mom's special tiara on her head, she knows she’s going to rock kindergarten. But the tiara isn’t just for show—it also reminds her of all the good things she brings to the classroom, stuff like her kindness, friendliness, and impressive soccer skills, too! Like The King of Kindergarten, this is the perfect book to reinforce back-to-school excitement and build confidence in the newest students.

The Queen In The Cave by Júlia Sardà

Once upon a time there were three sisters: Franca, Carmela, and Tomasina. This is their story of adventure and discovery. A tale of hidden mysteries and new wonders, finding a strange world beyond home, and unlocking the secrets inside themselves.

One night, Franca has a dream about a marvelous queen who lives in a dark cave, deep in the forest. She cannot sit still until she knows if her dream is true. So with her younger sisters, Carmela and Tomasina, Franca ventures into the forest at the end of their garden. As they travel deeper through nettles and thickets, drawing closer and closer to the cave, the world shifts, and everything shrinks and expands at the same time. Here, they meet beasts and creatures that shock and delight them, and they escape horrible things that frighten them. They learn to be brave, to be bold, to face their darkest fears. And what of the queen? Well, what they find in the cave is perhaps the most unexpected thing of all…

In Júlia Sardà’s irresistible, mysterious modern fairy tale, each spread is a stunning and wildly imaginative set piece brought to life in sumptuous color and detail.

The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D Jackson

When Springville residents—at least the ones still alive—are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation…Maddy did it.

An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she's dealt with it because she has more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret: Maddy is biracial. She has been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington.

After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High's racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan to change their image: host the school's first integrated prom as a show of unity. The popular white class president convinces her Black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date, leaving Maddy wondering if it's possible to have a normal life.

But some of her classmates aren't done with her just yet. And what they don't know is that Maddy still has another secret…one that will cost them all their lives.

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm by Laura Warrell

An ensemble-cast novel about the perennial temptations of dangerous love, following a jazz musician and the multiple women -- some charmed by him, others scorned -- who find the power of their own voices in this thrilling debut.

It's 2013 and Circus Palmer, a forty-year-old Boston-based trumpet player and old-school ladies man, lives for his music and refuses to be tied down. Before a gig in Miami, he learns that the woman who is secretly closest to his heart, the free-spirited drummer Maggie, is pregnant by him. He flees instead of facing the necessary conversation, setting off a chain of interlocking revelations from the various women in his life. Most notable among them is his teenage daughter Koko, who idolizes him; she's awakening to her own sexuality even as her mentally fragile mother struggles to overcome her long failed marriage and rejection by Circus.

Delivering a lush orchestration of diverse female voices, Warrell spins a provocative, soulful and gripping story of passion and risk, fathers and daughters, wives and single women and, finally, hope and reconciliation, in answer to the age-old question: How do we find belonging when love is unrequited?

We Are Still Here: Afghan Women on Courage, Freedom, and the Fight to Be Heard by Nahid Shahalimi

A collection of first-hand accounts from courageous Afghan women who refuse to be silenced in the face of the Taliban, to be published for the first anniversary of the US leaving Afghanistan.

Human rights activist, filmmaker, and artist Shahalimi (b. 1973) fled from Afghanistan with her widowed mother and three siblings in 1985, first to Pakistan and then to Canada. Over four years, beginning in 2014, she made several trips back, interviewing women for her first book, Where Courage Carries the Soul (2017). Banned from the country after its publication in Germany, Shahalimi defiantly continued her project, and in less than two months, she conducted, transcribed, edited, and translated the interviews that comprise this moving collection. The 13 women she profiles share outrage at the Taliban, which brutally restricts women's lives.