On 9/11, it was impossible to connect the dots for adults, nevermind children. Here are some books that can help kids try to understand that fateful date 20 years later.

If your kids aren't quite old enough for classic teen love stories, Just Be Cool, Jenna Sakai is a just-right read with a heroine who still spends Saturday nights playing board games with her family.

You don't have to be an Olympian to hit a wall — by late July, nothing's exciting anymore, not even the blow-up pool. We've got three books that can help your kids get their reading groove back.

Chad Sell's new Cardboard Kingdom book is, at least on the cover, about kids who make beasts and monsters out of cardboard — but really, it's about little kids who aren't quite ready to be big.

In Ben Brashares and Elizabeth Bergeland's charming new picture book, a discontented young boy finds a new way to carry on his family's legacy of awesomeness — and without hurting any bugs.

Gustavo Roldán's tale of an adventurous (if nap-prone) ant — newly translated into English — has everything you could want: silliness, adventure, daring, a cliffhanger, and a fun, satisfying ending.

As spring finally gets springing, our kids' books columnist Juanita Giles recommends The Tree in Me, a pink-splashed, exuberant celebration of kids enjoying nature.

Nubia has been many things over decades of comics: Wonder Woman's sister, her rival, a guardian of the underworld. Now, L.L. McKinney and Robyn Smith have re-imagined her as a Black American teenager.

Chelsea Clinton has turned her She Persisted series of picture books into a new series of chapter books, written by prominent kids' authors. The new books really take readers inside historical lives.

As the year draws to a close, our kids' books columnist Juanita Giles looks back at some of the books that helped her family get through 2020 — and ahead to some exciting titles for next year.

Jordan Scott is a poet, a master of words, and a stutterer. His new kids' book, gorgeously illustrated by Sydney Smith, chronicles his childhood journey towards coming to terms with his stutter.

Mike Curato's new young adult graphic novel Flamer follows a teenager struggling with self-hate and all the different parts of his identity — being a Catholic, a Boy Scout, and being gay.

Renowned ballerina Misty Copeland's new kids' book Bunheads draws on her own childhood experiences — if your kids love dance, it's just the thing to keep them going until classes come back.

Kids' books columnist Juanita Giles says message books are often nutritious and boring — but LeBron James's new I Promise combines beautiful art with real emotional impact that her kids loved.

Our kids' books columnist Juanita Giles recently lost her mother to COVID-19; she says that when she was picking books to read at her mother's bedside, Judith Viorst's bad-day classic was just right.

Hana Tooke creates a memorable villain, Matron Gassbeek, who menaces the feisty orphans of The Unadoptables in the grand tradition of awful authority figures like Miss Trunchbull and Viola Swamp.

Our kids' books columnist reports that amidst the messes and fights that result from kids in lockdown, Matthew Cordell's gentle new picture book biography of Mister Rogers has the power to soothe.

With few new books coming in, our kids' books columnist turns to the favorite reads of her childhood — beginning with the 19th-century classic Five Little Peppers and How They Grew.

Our kids' books columnist Juanita Giles reports that, stuck at home with her family, she's turned to a series by Brad Meltzer and Christopher Eliopoulos, for stories about relatable heroes.

Our kids' books columnist Juanita Giles says she was at her wits' end trying to find a funny (but not mean-funny) book for her son, a budding humorist. Jake the Fake Keeps It Real was just the thing.