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Join this “mysterious FACTopia tour…” to encounter top secrets, unsolved mysteries, dark caves, deep ocean dwellers, hidden history, and more. Lots more! Photographs and comical illustrations combine for an intriguing, fact-based jaunt through time and places.

Unbeknownst to his family, Theo wants to become a police officer unlike the rest of his family who are, well, thieves. Each family member is described and depicted throughout in exaggerated illustrations equal to the over-the-top humor in this readable, slightly irreverent novel.

Although two-thirds of the world is covered by oceans, a mere five percent of them have been explored. Readers are invited into the history of diving through engaging, realistic illustrations and informative narration, from ancient times to the present.  An author’s note and additional backmatter conclude this attractive book.

Days after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Hitler declared war on the U.S., unleashing U-boat submarines to attack American ships. Suddenly the waves outside Louisa June’s farm aren’t for eel fishing or marveling at wild swans or learning to skull her family’s boat — they’re dangerous, swarming with hidden enemies. Determined to help her mama and aching to combat Nazis herself, Louisa June turns to her quirky friend Emmett and the indomitable Cousin Belle, who has her own war stories — and a herd of cats — to share. In the end, after a perilous sail, Louisa June learns the greatest lifeline is love.

A retelling of the Nian legend follows the experiences of a young girl who takes action when her village is threatened in the spring by a dragon. But Mei must defeat the dragon within 15 days or it will be free forever. This retelling with a twist explains the origins of Chinese New Year traditions.

 The story of a dog who unwittingly becomes a hero to a park full of animals. Johannes, a free dog, lives in an urban park by the sea. His job is to be the Eyes — to see everything that happens within the park and report back to the park’s elders, three ancient Bison. His friends — a seagull, a raccoon, a squirrel, and a pelican — work with him as the Assistant Eyes, observing the humans and other animals who share the park and making sure the Equilibrium is in balance. But changes are afoot. More humans, including Trouble Travelers, arrive in the park. A new building, containing mysterious and hypnotic rectangles, goes up. And then there are the goats who appear, along with a shocking revelation that changes Johannes’s view of the world.

A teen nicknamed Wrecker becomes involved with a fake Covid vaccination card smuggling ring to further confuse his already complicated his life. By turns humorous and tense, this fast-paced novel set in the Florida Keys is sure to engage readers.

Asked by his mother to look for one of the twins’ socks, Milo goes to the basement of their new home where he finds a door. He enters and begins to descend — and descend — going deeper into an eerie, peculiar world. Sophisticated images create a fantastic world in which threats are overcome by love … and a pink sock.

Two books from a Little Free Library hold the secret of a town’s long hidden mystery. Told from different points of view — a boy named Evan, Al (a ghost librarian), and a handsome orange cat called Mortimer — reveal the secret behind the town’s puzzling history in this twisty, satisfying tale.

The squirrels Norma, and Belly are back and are just as hungry, tenacious, and funny as they were in the other books about them (which started with Donut Feed the Squirrels (opens in a new window)). They try to invade a fortune cookie factory, all dressed as ninjas. A simple comic format and limited text combine to make this a hit with beginning readers.

In their seventh adventure, the detective team is informed by the Coast Gourd that a captain was found but without his ship. Will the InvestiGators be able to solve their latest mystery on the high sea or will they will be all tied up (or is it tide up …)? Read in order or as a standalone, this silly, pun-filled installment is sure to delight.

The silly fun that started in The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza returns in this latest book. Soup has poisoned the Moon Queen. Can she — and the universe — be saved before it’s too late? Soup of Doom can be read alone or as a sequel (and be prepared for another madcap adventure!)   

Will the runaway pea become a snack for one of the animals it rolls by? Illustrations call to mind folk art in this rollicking translation from the French. The tale is likely to hold up to multiple readings and may inspire young gardeners!

Most kids would do anything to pass the Iron Trial. Not Callum Hunt. He wants to fail. All his life, Call has been warned by his father to stay away from magic. If he succeeds at the Iron Trial and is admitted into the Magisterium, he is sure it can only mean bad things for him. So he tries his best to do his worst — and fails at failing. Now the Magisterium awaits him. It’s a place that’s both sensational and sinister, with dark ties to his past and a twisty path to his future. The main character in this adventurous middle grade fantasy has a limp that’s realistically present yet never overtakes the story.

Alice loves to imagine herself in the magical pages of her favorite book. So when it flaps its pages and invites her in, she is swept away to a world of wonder and adventure, riding camels in the desert, swimming under the sea with colorful fish, floating in outer space, and more! But when her imaginative journey comes to an end, she yearns for the place she loves best of all.

Based on the real journal kept by French explorer Jacques Cartier in 1534, Ethis book imagines a first meeting between a French sailor and a Stadaconan fisher. As they navigate their differences, the wise animals around them note their similarities, illuminating common ground. Encounter is a luminous telling from two Indigenous book creators that invites readers to reckon with the past, and to welcome, together, a future that is yet unchartered.

Starla Jean, self-proclaimed chicken expert, and her neighbor Nate, solve the mystery of a bunch of beads they find while walking in their neighborhood. This third book about Starla Jean and her pet chicken, Opal Egg, stands alone. Young readers may want to find other books about this endearing if somewhat quirky character. (She debuted in Starla Jean with a continued adventure in Starla Jean Takes the Cake.

A unique account of the amazing Thai cave rescue told in a heart-racing, you-are-there style that blends suspense, science, and cultural insight. On June 23, 2018, twelve young players of the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach enter a cave in northern Thailand seeking an afternoon’s adventure. But when they turn to leave, rising floodwaters block their path out. The boys are trapped! Before long, news of the missing team spreads, launching a seventeen-day rescue operation involving thousands of rescuers from around the globe.

As assistant to Mangkon’s most celebrated mapmaker, twelve-year-old Sai plays the part of a well-bred young lady with a glittering future. In reality, her father is a conman—and in a kingdom where the status of one’s ancestors dictates their social position, the truth could ruin her. Sai seizes the chance to join an expedition to chart the southern seas, but she isn’t the only one aboard with secrets. When Sai learns that the ship might be heading for the fabled Sunderlands—a land of dragons, dangers, and riches beyond imagining—she must weigh the cost of her dreams. Vivid, suspenseful, and thought-provoking, this tale of identity and integrity is as beautiful and intricate as the maps of old.

Readers will be transported to the rugged Himalayas with this story of a deaf Sherpa boy in Nepal, who braves a storm in search of his family’s yaks. He finds the animals herded around a young calf whose leg is wedged between rocks. Unable to rescue the animal alone, Kami whistles for help. When no one comes, he slips and slides down the icy mountain to get his father and brother. He relates the problem through mime. Together the family rescues the calf, and the plucky hero proudly leads the way home.

Children fascinated by ancient Egypt and hieroglyphs should enjoy this retelling based on a tale found on an ancient papyrus scroll from the 19th century B.C.E. The sole survivor of a shipwreck relates being washed up on the shore of a paradisiacal “Island of the Soul” inhabited only by a huge serpent. As the sailor and serpent become friends, the creature tells how he lost his family and predicts the man’s rescue, after which the island “will disappear forever under the waves, but it will always be with you, for it lives in your heart.” The story, with its mystical snake and mysterious island, will hold readers’ interest. The book is most successful, however, as a peek into ancient Egyptian folklore, art, and language.

A youngNative American boy carves a little canoe with a figure inside and names him Paddle-to-the-Sea. Paddle’s journey, in text and pictures, through the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean provides an excellent geographic and historical picture of the region.

When Ms. Frizzle drives the Magic School Bus full speed ahead into the ocean, the class takes a submarine expedition that’s anything but ordinary. With a well-meaning lifeguard in tow, the class takes a deep breath and learns about hot water vents, coral reefs, plant and animal life on the ocean floor, and more!

As the Revolutionary War rages on, Isabel and Curzon have narrowly escaped Valley Forge—but their relief is short-lived. Before long they are reported as runaways, and the awful Bellingham is determined to track them down. With purpose and faith, Isabel and Curzon march on, fiercely determined to find Isabel’s little sister Ruth, who is enslaved in a Southern state — where bounty hunters are thick as flies. Return to the American Revolution in thisconclusion to the middle grade Seeds of America trilogy.