Holm, Jennifer L. OutsideOctober 7, 2025 by Scholastic Press
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Razzi has lived in the Refuge with her mother, father, and young brother as long as she can remember, since it one of the few safe places. Over a decade ago, a space weapon rained poison down on the world, and Razzi's family has managed to eke out an existence with several other families, trading with people "Outside" for supplies and protecting their compound from the occasional "Poisoned" (people suffering from being caught out in the disaster) who try to breach their wall. They are fortunate that Jaya was a teacher in the Before Time, so can provide schooling for the children, and Saul was a doctor. The mansion is a fun place to be, but after a while, it has felt restrictive. One of the children, Ollie, felt so trapped that he tried to get away from the house by crawling out onto the roof, but slipped, fell, and died. The children are all struggling with their grief. Razzi loves to run around the mansion, but when she has trouble breathing, Saul determines that it is her heart that is failing. Because this is set in the near future, transplants have improved, and Saul is able to give Razzi the heart of a greyhound. She starts experiencing some odd symptoms, like finding ham appealing for the first time, but being sickened by chocolate pudding. She also wants to run, and finds herself longing more and more to get Outside. There are a few troubles in the Refuge; dealing with suppliers, keeping the compound protected, and an injury or two, and the pressures of life finally convince Razzi to run away. What she finds surprises her and ends up changing her life.
If I've learned anything about a dystopian future, it's that after ten years, there's not going to be a lot of food supplies from Before Times left, so I will offer a brief spoiler: the mother bakes an awful lot of chocolate chip cookies. This reminded me strongly of Bodeen's 2008 The Compound or Haddix's 1995 Running Out of Time. If you had handed me this title without an author attached to it, I would have suspected it was written by Haddix, since the sub plot with the greyhound memories was so unusual.
September 16, 2025 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Becca Slugg is tired of working at her mother's Cape Disappointment Beach Inn and having to deal with cranky guests and an ancient ice machine. She wants to try out for the school play with her friend Sarah, for the role of the Wicked Witch of the West. Her mother, Rhubarbara, nixes that idea immediately because she doesn't like the idea of witches at all, and is also concerned that Becca, who is a trans girl, will bring too much attention to herself that might not end well. We find out why very shortly, when Becca's Aunt Malatrice visits. Malatrice wants to overthrow the Witch Queen, but Barbara won't sign her document. Malatrice puts a spell on her that not only makes her sign the paper, but renders her catatonic. Becca knows that she has to rescue her mother. When a tarantula, Natalya, who has been living by the motel dumpster starts to talk to Becca, she finds that she has inherited witchy powers even though she was not aware that she was really a girl until she was a child. Natalya tells Becca about her powers as an Ink Witch, and informs her that she can cure her mother by creating the Ink of Free Will, that is comprised of Mermaid caviar, troll's teeth, and the Queen Witch's treasure. Becca, Natalya, and Odvar, a troll who has been living in the ice machine, set off on a quest to find the ingredients, with Barbara driving. This takes them to a VHS store to meet a mermaid operating under a glamor, to the underground Rainier City to meet Odvar's brothers, and into the lair of their nemesis, Malatrice, where they must figure out what the treasure is. Will Becca be able to save her mother, and to embrace her new powers?
Fans of Natalie Lloyd's magical books or of this author's Unboxing Libby might enjoy this, but it was much too quirky for my students. It reminded me of Van Otterloo's Cattywampus, which I bought, but which hasn't circulated at all. The names were very odd, so this might do better with younger readers.
August 12, 2025 by Delacorte Press
ARC provided by Follett First Look Lavendar's father is an apothecary in Hattertown, and when she turned 13, she became his apprentice. After the death of her mother, however, she experienced so much brain fog that she consulted a seller of used magical clothing on Lacrymose Lane and bought an ugly hat that was supposed to make her sharper. When she still can't remember things, she returns the hat, only to find that the enchantress who made it no longer produces magical clothing. Undaunted, she goes in search of the enchantress, and finds Frey on Boggs Hill. She makes a deal that she will act as a bicycle messenger for Frey in return for a custom garment that will help her with her memories. Lavendar is especially worried that she will forget her mother, because her father refuses to talk about her. Frey starts back up with her production of magical garments, but Lavendar begins to suspect that there is a dark side to the enchantress that may imperil everyone in the town.
This has a standard medievalish/1800s setting, with bakers, cobblers, and apothecaries, so the bicycle and modern language through me a bit. Fantasy fans will be okay with that, and middle grade readers may also enjoy that this gets a bit dark. I personally didn't care for this because of the way that it dealt with Lavendar's grieving for her dead mother, and the idea that her memory loss was because of her father not discussing her mother with her. If this is really set in an older time, people would have been expecting death and able to deal with it much more.
If I thought my students wanted fantasies like this, I would purchase it, but there are even fewer fantasy readers than there were last year. The few requests I have had have been for happy magical realism. Fans of Haydu's Eventown or Destephano's The Girl with the Ghost Machine may like this one.
October 14, 2025 by Dutton Books for Young Readers
ARC provided by Follett First Look
Alex Evans is living with her mother, who has become overprotective since Alex's father died. Alex is struggling to hold it together, and thinks that if she does everything she's told, she'll be able to manage... but she's not. After some primal screaming in the forest near her house, she meets a strange man names Oliphos who invites several people from the area to Alex's house for dinner. When the mother gets home, she is angry and kicks everyone out. She says the stranger is dangerous, but when secrets are revealed, she allows Alex to go to Skralla with Oliphos, where she meets Dr. Archibald Puppinsworth, and is enrolled in a school with other Drakes, dragon children who have taken on human form in order to survive. Alex learns to fight and well as other helpful dragon skills, and helps to fight Azzar, a dragon also named Red Death, who might be responsible for her father's accident, as well as Drak Midna, who had her father killed. In the end, which side will Alex be on?
This was a really, really sad and fraught fantasy novel. There are several standard fantasy tropes at play, with both a school and forces of evil that need to be fought. This definitely feels like the first book in a series. Since I haven't even had students reading Harry Potter this year, I will pass on purchase, although libraries where Streadman's Skandar series or Messenger's The Keeper of Lost Cities books are popular will want to take a look at this dark middle grade fantasy.
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