SO NOT GHOUL Written by Karen Yin Illustrated by Bonnie Lui (Page Street Kids; $18.99, Ages 4-8)         Rod Stewart's "You Wear It Well" is the song that crossed my mind as I read So Not Ghoul, the multi-layered picture book written by Karen Yin and illustrated by Bonnie Lui where the main character Mimi learns to embrace her uniqueness and cultural identity.     Mimi is a Chinese American ghost who haunts a school but feels constrained by the outdated demands of her ancestors. "Good Chinese girl ghosts must cover their faces with their hair,"…

  CHILDREN'S HALLOWEEN BOOKS ROUNDUP 2022         CREEPY CRAYON! (Creepy Tales! series) Written by Aaron Reynolds Illustrated by Peter Brown (Simon & Schuster BYR; $18.99, Ages 4-8 ) ★Starred Review - Kirkus Aaron Reynolds delights us with book three of the Creepy Tales! series featuring his beloved Jasper Rabbit. In Creepy Crayon! Jasper’s not-great day gets a boost when he finds a bright purple crayon—with a crazy grin on its face! Soon, the crayon is helping Jasper zoom his grades up to straight As. Cool, right? Maybe . . . until the crayon takes BFF to the…

OLD FRIENDS Written by Margaret Aitken Illustrated by Lenny Wen (Feiwel and Friends; $18.99; Ages 4-8)         This sweet, intergenerational picture book, Old Friends, from debut author, Margaret Aitken, and illustrator, Lenny Wen, will have readers longing for their own group of “old friends.”     Marjorie’s “old soul” refuses to be bound by the conventions of “child’s play.” She longs for someone who understands her love of baking, crafting, and gardening. Taking cues from her late grandmother’s indomitable spirit, Marjorie goes undercover ...       and finds an unlikely set of friends at her local…

STARFISH Written by Lisa Fipps (Nancy Paulsen Books; $17.99, Ages 10 and up)     ★Starred Reviews - Booklist, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal   I soaked up every last word of Starfish, the Printz Honor-winning debut by Lisa Fipps, and could easily dive back in and read it all over again because I felt such a strong connection with the main character, Ellie. This moving middle-grade novel told in verse takes us inside Ellie's head as she navigates life at school and at home where she is not only bullied by classmates for being overweight but by…

    THE BOY WHO LOVED MAPS Written by Kari Allen Illustrated by G. Brian Karas (Anne Schwartz Books; $17.99; Ages 4-8)         Kari Allen and G. Brian Karas have created a charming picture book that celebrates all the things we love about home in The Boy Who Loved Maps. From Penguin Random House: “The Mapmaker loves maps—he loves to collect them, to study them, and most of all, to make them. But when a girl asks for a map of a perfect place, the Mapmaker is perplexed. She wants a map to a toes-in-the-sand-warm, X-marks-the-spot-place filled…

  IF TIGERS DISAPPEARED  If Animals Disappeared series, book 5 by Lily Williams (Roaring Brook Press; $18.99, Ages 4-8)            Stand up and roar for Lily Williams’s If Tigers Disappeared, the fifth book in her award-winning series. If Tigers Disappeared follows the familiar pattern: we learn where the animals live, some history about them, and why their populations have declined. Tigers have been around for more than two million years, yet in the past 100 years, humans have nearly wiped out their population. When an animal becomes extinct, the ripple effect (also called the trophic cascade)…

  ONCE MORE WITH CHUTZPAH  Written by Haley Neil  (Bloomsbury; $17.99; Ages 12 and up)       When Tally’s twin brother Max is the passenger in a tragic car crash with a drunk driver, who is killed, Tally decides a winter break trip to Israel will be the remedy to get him back on track in Haley Neil’s debut YA novel Once More With Chutzpah. High school senior Tally seems to have her life in order. The plan is to attend Boston College with Max, where their non-Jewish mother teaches religion, and share a dorm room with her best…