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It’s September, so the kids are back in school, and fall will be here before we know it. I’m very much ready for fall weather after a scorching summer, though I’m also a bit nervous about the school germs that plagued us last year. If we do have a very sick fall like last year, one thing is sure: we’ll have a lot of books to keep us company while we convalesce at home, including these amazing September children’s book releases.
Several themes emerge from this list of September children’s book releases, namely time travel, cookies, immigration, and disability representation. I’ll take all four, thanks! In September picture book releases, beloved authors Christina Soontornvat, Blanca Gómez, and Jessie Sima return with stories that will likely be on my list of favorite books of the year.
Most of the middle grade books that were my favorites this month are by new-to-me authors, and I so enjoyed the interplay of imaginative genre stories with childhood identities and friendships. As a disabled mom, I’m happy to include two wonderful books on this list with disability representation by disabled authors. These stories really resonated with me and prompted great conversations with my daughter.
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September Children’s Book Releases: Picture Books
Leo’s First Vote! by Christina Soontornvat & Isabel Roxas (September 3; Knopf Books for Young Readers)
This is one of my favorite picture books about voting. A child’s dad has just become a U.S. citizen and can vote for the first time. In the child’s class, they will also be holding a mock presidential election. Both the child and the dad prepare for their first election by listening to debates, reading, and hearing others speak about the candidates. When a cousin claims that votes don’t really matter, the child worries that he might have a point. But when it comes time to vote in the classroom mock election, it turns out that every vote really does count. Back matter includes more details about who can vote, when and where you vote, how presidents get elected, and why voting matters.
Bookie & Cookie by Blanca Gómez (September 3; Rocky Pond Books)
Blanca Gómez’s picture books always make me smile with their earnestness, and her latest is no exception. Bookie and Cookie are best friends who live on either side of the book. On the left side, Bookie enjoys reading, and on the right side, Cookie likes to bake. Bookie always visits Cookie on his side, but Bookie wants to host Cookie this time. However, Cookie refuses to cross over onto Bookie’s side, claiming that his side is the best side. This sets the two friends at odds. Will their friendship survive this argument?
Cookie Time by Jessie Sima (September 3; Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)
Jessie Sima always blows me away with her imaginative stories. This quite possibly is her most imaginative yet. It’s a time travel cookie-eating delight that will have kids pulling out boxes to make time machines. It’s about two kids making cookies with their grandpa. They have to wait until the cookies are out of the oven to eat them, but they’re too impatient to wait. They turn a cardboard box into a time machine and try to travel to the time right after the cookies are out of the oven. But instead, they keep traveling to the wrong time, like when they’re toddlers, or so far in the future that Grandpa’s house is gone and there are robot dogs. My favorite picture books are often ones that feel like a kid came up with the idea, and that’s what this is like.
Pau: The Last Song of the Kaua’i ‘o’o by Tony Piedra & Mackenzie Joy (September 17; Candlewick)
This picture book is gorgeously illustrated by the creators behind One Tiny Treefrog. It’s a simple story about how the ōʻō bird once thrived on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i, but as more and more people settled on the island, the ōʻō birds became fewer and fewer until only one remained, and then it too was gone. Extensive back matter includes more details about the ōʻō bird, a search and find for other Kaua’i animals, and a timeline of the ōʻō bird’s extinction. It’s a sad story but also an important one about the ramifications of human development and the need to care about the animals we share a world with.
This Is How We Play: A Celebration of Disability & Adaptation by Jessica Slice, Caroline Cupp, & Kayla Harren (September 24; Dial Books)
This is a joyful celebration of play and accessibility by two disabled moms and activists. Told in sing-song rhyming words, the beautiful and realistic illustrations portray children and adults with a vast array of disabilities sharing time together. On one page, a child sits in her mother’s lap, holding a seashell as her mother rolls on the boardwalk in a wheelchair with a tube in her mouth. On another page, a child communicates with a tablet to tell their adult they want to look at the stars with a telescope. Each page is joyful yet nuanced. For instance, one page depicts a caregiver in pain reading a book with a child. Back matter includes a disability guide for kids, a list of common disabilities and what they are, and a guide for adults. This picture book is special to me because one of the authors has POTS, like me! It was so nice being able to talk to my daughter about my own disability with a picture book that discusses it as well.
September Children’s Book Releases: Chapter Books
Adventurous Adeline and the Back to School Party by Mary Fashik & Danielle Pioli (September 10; Row House Publishing)
I have written before about the need for more disability representation in early chapter books, and now, here’s this wonderful new series starring a Lebanese American wheelchair user. Adeline is both nervous and excited about the first day of school. She’s eager to make friends and learn, but she’s nervous about how people will react to her wheelchair, having experienced ableism and lack of accessibility her entire life. Thankfully, her best friend Maya is in the same class, so she knows she already has a friend. When a classmate invites them to a birthday party at a skating rink, Adeline is a little nervous about accessibility. She wants to invent ways to make her world more accessible, but her mom says those plans would take a lot of time and tools to make happen. This is a great back-to-school chapter book with big text that makes it easy to read for new readers.
September Children’s Book Releases: Middle Grade
The Queen of Ocean Parkway by Sarvenaz Tash (September 3; Knopf Books for Young Readers)
This is a clever and fun middle grade time travel mystery set in Brooklyn, New York, and Coney Island. Roya wants to be an investigative journalist when she grows up, and she currently has a podcast where she unravels mysteries concerning her apartment neighbors. Her mother works as the apartment’s superintendent, and her father has cancer and is in the hospital. When Roya overhears her favorite two neighbors talk about a family curse in the laundry room, she’s intrigued. The curse involves a fortune-telling machine called Grandmother on Coney Island. Roya means to solve the mystery of the curse with the help of her new friend and neighbor Amin. I listened to this on audio and really enjoyed the narration by Nikki Massoud.
Kareem Between by Shifa Saltagi Safadi (September 10; G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers)
This is a lovely middle grade verse novel about a Syrian American boy, Kareem, in 2016. Kareem longs to join the school’s football team, but to do so he feels like he has to let himself be bullied by the coach’s son, Austin, who forces Kareem to do his homework. Kareem’s grandfather is sick in Syria, and his mom flies over to bring him back to the U.S. for treatment. However, Trump enacts the Muslim ban, trapping his mom and grandparents in Syria. Meanwhile, Kareem has been tasked with showing a new Syrian student around the school and making him feel welcome, but doing so makes him even more of a target for Austin. I enjoyed the combination of an immigrant and a football story.
Kwame Crashes the Underworld by Craig Kofi Farmer (September 10; Roaring Brook Press)
This is a fun first book in a new middle grade fantasy series based on Ghanaian folklore. Twelve-year-old Kwame Powell has been raised in the U.S., but his parents and grandmother are from Ghana. He’s depressed after his grandmother dies, and when a monkey grabs the dashiki his grandmother made him, he gives chase. His best friend Autumn, who is deaf, joins him. The two end up in the Ghanaian underworld on a quest not only to save a dashiki but to save humanity. This is a blast to listen to on audio, which is performed by Joshua Quinn.
The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien by John Hendrix (September 24; Abrams Fanfare)
This is one of my favorite books of the year. I was blown away by its complexity and beauty in capturing the lives of these two famous fantasy authors. It’s a text-heavy nonfiction graphic novel focusing on the friendship between C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. While labeled as middle grade, it transcends age categorization. Anyone who loves these two authors, regardless of age, will enjoy it. The story is told by Gandalf and Aslan, who also take small moments to define myth and fairytales while exploring the lives of Lewis and Tolkien. The pair opens with Lewis’s and Tolkien’s childhoods, then follow them through their early education and time spent as soldiers in WWI until the fateful day the two meet and bond over a shared love of Norse mythology. I plan on buying a print copy when this releases. I expect this will be nominated for some awards.
If you’re looking for more new children’s book releases beyond this list of September children’s book releases, check out my list of June children’s book releases, July children’s books releases, and August children’s book releases.
You can find a full list of new releases in the magical New Release Index, carefully curated by your favorite Book Riot editors, organized by genre and release date.
