Spring 2013 Children's Books

Browsing through the Spring 2013 Children’s Books issue of Publishers Weekly, these are the recently released (or soon-to-be released) middle-grade and teen novels that most grabbed my attention:

Bad Unicorn by Platte F. Clark. Max discovers that a killer unicorn is hunting him in this launch of a fantasy trilogy.

Black Helicopters by Blythe Woolston. Alternating past and present vignettes tell the story of a teen with a bomb strapped to her chest.

Born of Illusion by Teri Brown. A budding magician who plays sidekick to her faux medium mother tries to hide her own powers.

Cameron and the Girls by Edward Averett. A boy suffering from schizophreniform disorder falls in love with a classmate and with a girl in his head.

Crash and Burn by Michael Hassan centers on a troubled teen who takes his school hostage at gunpoint, and on the peer who stops him.

Death, Dickinson, and the Demented Life of Frenchie Garcia by Jenny Torres Sanchez. To make sense of her high school crush’s suicide, Frenchie retraces her steps of the last night she spent with him.

Freaks by Kieran Larwood. Misfits exhibited in a Victorian sideshow use their unique talents to solve crimes.

Invisibility by Andrea Cremer and David Levithan tells of a romance between an invisible boy and the one girl who can see him.

Lauren Yanofsky Hates the Holocaust by Leanne Lieberman. A Jewish teen who is sick of hearing about the Holocaust must make a tough choice when her friends play Nazi war games.

Me & My Invisible Guy by Sarah Jeffrey. Shy Mallory’s imaginary boyfriend keeps the guys away—until everyone at school learns the truth.

Mojo by Tim Tharp. A teen who gets no respect at school hopes to improve his status by solving the case of a missing rich girl.

Nobody’s Secret by Michaela MacColl. Emily Dickinson stars in this debut novel of a series that imagines literary figures as crime solvers.

Paranormal Properties by Tracy Lane, illus. by Natalia Nesterova. Working on the set of his parents’ghost hunting TV show, a teen discovers he can see and talk to spirits.

The Sasquatch Escape by Suzanne Selfors, illus. by Dan Santat. In this series launch, two friends bring a wounded animal to a vet for imaginary creatures.

Sidekicked by John David Anderson tells of a boy who belongs to a secret organization for the training of superhero sidekicks.

Still Star-Crossed by Melinda Taub. After the deaths of Romeo and Juliet, a prince wonders how to bring their families together.

This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith. An online correspondence begins when a teen movie star accidentally sends a girl an email.

Wickedpedia by Chris Van Etten. Someone is editing Wikipedia articles about teens dying in gruesome ways—and they’re coming true.

You Look Different in Real Life by Jennifer Castle tells of six kids who have a new movie made about them every five years.