The Best Children’s and YA Books of June 2019
by the Brightly Editors
Summer reading is meant for playfulness, imagination, and brave new worlds. June’s best book releases feature a sparkling new creature that’s half-llama, half-unicorn; middle grade novels packed with magic, mermaids, and zombies; and YA reads that spin tales you’ve never heard before. Keep your family reading all season long with stories they won’t want to leave.
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Picture Books
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I Am Not a Fish!
Buy from:Former Disney animator Peter Raymundo — known best for his work on Tarzan, Lilo & Stitch, and Mulan — brings his talents and humor to the story of Edgar the jellyfish, who’s experiencing a bit of an identity crisis. Edgar doesn’t feel like all the other fish in the sea, but are labels all that important anyway?
(On Sale: 6/4/19)Buy from: -
Richard Scarry’s Busy, Busy Construction Site
Buy from:Celebrate Richard Scarry’s 100th birthday with a Busytown-based board book featuring all the fun (and messy) activities of a bustling construction site. Complete with Scarry’s much-loved, colorful characters and captions for each type of truck, crane, and bulldozer, it’s a great addition to your little builder’s library.
(On Sale: 6/4/19)Buy from: -
I Love My Llamacorn
Buy from:We can all agree that llamas and unicorns are pretty superb. And now, with the imaginative stylings of Danielle McLean and Prisca Le Tandé, a brand new, glittery species has entered the picture: the llamacorn! Don’t be surprised if your little one starts attaching horns to all their stuffed-llama’s foreheads after reading this one.
(On Sale: 6/4/19)Buy from: -
Big Boys Cry
Buy from:This sweet picture book encourages boys to express their emotions and reminds all readers that they’ll feel better after doing so. Levi is scared about his first day at a new school, and in trying to help, his dad tells him that “big boys don’t cry.” But throughout Levi’s day, he sees all sorts of men — including his dad — express a wide range of healthy feelings.
(On Sale: 6/11/19)Buy from: -
Nope. Never. Not for Me!
Buy from:In the newest addition to the Little Senses series, author-illustrator Samantha Cotterill gently explores the concept of trying new foods, particularly for picky eaters and children on the autism spectrum or with sensory concerns. The simple story and illustrations reassure kids that trying new things can be a positive experience.
(On Sale: 6/18/19)Buy from: -
Llama Llama 5-Minute Stories
Buy from:Fans of Llama Llama, his friends, and Mama will eat up this new collection of stories that can be read in five minutes or less. Equally suited for read-alouds and independent reading, young readers will follow along as Llama learns to swim, loses a tooth, goes camping, celebrates a birthday, and more.
(On Sale: 6/25/19)Buy from: -
Where Is Peter Rabbit?
Buy from:This lift-the-flap book is a delightful and interactive entry to Beatrix Potter’s world of Peter Rabbit. Little readers will have a ball playing hide-and-seek with Peter, and the rhyming text is perfect for early cognition and vocabulary-building.
(On Sale: 6/25/19)Buy from:
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Middle Grade
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All the Greys on Greene Street
Buy from:In 1981 SoHo, 12-year-old Ollie’s days are filled with art. Her dad restores antique paintings, her mom creates sculptures, and Ollie herself roams the streets of New York with an artist’s keen sensibilities. But one day her dad disappears, and a stranger keeps calling about a missing piece of art. Ollie’s determined to figure out what’s happened in this quietly stunning debut novel.
(On Sale: 6/4/19)Buy from: -
A Small Zombie Problem
Buy from:A new fantasy series is in town, this time following a lonely young boy and the fables and secrets that hover around the family he’s just getting to know. August is elated when an unknown aunt invites him to attend school with his cousins, but chaos ensues when an unwelcome — and undead — guest follows him home.
(On Sale: 6/4/19)Buy from: -
Sea Sirens
Buy from:In this resplendent graphic novel inspired by L. Frank Baum’s The Sea Fairies, described as an “underwater Wizard of Oz,” a Vietnamese American girl and her one-eyed cat find themselves in an oceanic kingdom at war. With the Sea Siren mermaids besieged by the Serpent King, will Trot and her cat be able to help, and — perhaps more importantly — find their way home?
(On Sale: 6/11/19)Buy from: -
The Girl Who Sailed the Stars
Buy from:Matilda Woods charmed readers with her whimsical debut, The Boy, The Bird & the Coffin Maker, and her second book — full of magical realism, adventure, and dazzling prose — is sure to follow suit. The youngest of seven sisters, Oona Britt may not be the brave son her parents were promised, but when she sneaks aboard a ship, she proves that bravery isn’t a gendered trait.
(On Sale: 6/25/19)Buy from:
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YA
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The Haunted
Buy from:Given Danielle Vega’s fame as YA’s Stephen King, it’s no surprise that The Haunted is thrillingly creepy. Hendricks is ready to start over in the tiny, unassuming town of Drearfield, New York, home to the Steele House, which is notoriously haunted by ghosts. But when Hendricks herself begins to feel haunted, she can’t tell if it’s the ghosts or her traumatic past coming to call.
(On Sale: 6/4/19)Buy from: -
Patron Saints of Nothing
Buy from:Filipino-American teenager Jay Reguero is on track for the rest of his life: it’s the last semester of high school, and he’s ready to move on to college. And then tragedy strikes: his cousin Jun is killed in the Philippines, and no one wants to talk about it. Author Randy Ribay weaves two poignant coming-of-age stories that lead to divergent futures.
(On Sale: 6/18/19)Buy from: -
DEV1AT3
Buy from:In the second installment of Jay Kristoff’s LIFEL1K3 trilogy, best friends Eve and Lemon find themselves on different sides of the fight for humanity and no longer able to tell the difference between enemies and allies. The two have been drawn into separate communities — Eve with her fellow androids, and Lemon with other powerful abnorms — as they all hunt for an elusive key.
(On Sale: 6/25/19)Buy from: -
Wicked Fox
Buy from:An urban fantasy combined with Korean folklore, Wicked Fox tells the star-crossed love story of Miyoung and Jihoon. Miyoung has a gumiho soul: she transforms into a nine-tailed-fox that feeds off the energy of men — until she rescues Jihoon from a goblin and loses her fox bead. Jihoon doesn’t realize he now holds Miyoung’s life in his hands, and dark forces spell doom for one of them.
(On Sale: 6/25/19)Buy from:
