Love Candlewick! It's one of my absolute favorite publishers. Here's what I like in the new catalog:

Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen. It's about a librarian who is particular about the rules and a lion that arrives and decides to stay. Why there is a lion in the library I have no idea but it's illustrated by Kevin Hawkes (love him) and looks like a big loveletter to libraries. Can't get enough of those!

AlphaOops! by Alethea Kontis. The Z is sick of being at the end so all the letters get mixed up and then start getting annoyed and chaos ensues. It looks great (illustrator Bob Kolar has a done a colorful retro thing with is pictures) and sounds like a kick. Poor Z - it must get lonely back there in the end...

Dateline: Troy by Paul Fleischman. Updated now to include the war in Iraq, I don't know how I missed this the first time around. Fleischman uses the legendary Trojan War to show the similarities between that world and our own with examples from the major modern wars to show his point. It's done in a collage style and I'm very interested in a work that "shows both the relevance of the past and its resonance with the present."

Journey to the Blue Moon by Rebecca Rupp. Alex has lost his beloved grandfather's pocket watch and learns that he has to go to the Blue Moon because, "That's where all lost things go." He runs into a woman who lost her heart to a prospecter, a scholar who lost his way while calculating pi and on and on. There are time eaters who suck up their prey's time and a rickety space ship. Sounds like a gas, and with a young boy as the hero should be great for boys in particular.

A Drowned Maiden's Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz. Maud is an orphan who gets adopted and sucked into a fake spiritualist's scheme. She is torn between a need to please and a growing concern for the people they dupe until "a shocking betrayal makes clear just how heartless her so-called guardians are". I recently read The Reluctant Spiritualist and loved it - I'm eager to see what a fictional account of this subject would include.

Everybody who was at BEA has been raving about The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing by MT Anderson and from the catalog copy I can see why. It's set during the Revolutionary War in Boston (Sons of Liberty! Johnny Tremain!) and involves a group of rational philosophers known only by number and some hideous experiments. Sounds fabulous - must read!

I Believe in Unicorns by Michael Morpurgo. Eight year old Tomas hates to read but falls for the tales of a local librarian and her lifelike wooden unicorn. When war comes to the village he helps save the library from destruction. Sounds very timely and is about both books and war - we forget sometimes just how much of a civilization can be destroyed when battles rage. I'm really intrigued by this one. (And authors and illustrators everywhere should be copying his site, it's outstanding.)

Operation Typhoon Shore by Joshua Mowll. Read the first book in the series and loved it, big time. I love how the book is designed, all the illustrations and included elements and also find both Becca and Doug to be very engaging heroes. I'm eager to learn more about their parents and the mysterious Guild of Specialists. All fans of adventure stories should take note of this one.

The X Indian Chronicles by Thomas Yeahpau. A collection of stories set on reservations about the conflict between modern Indian life and traditions. Having seen the constant push and pull felt by Native Alaskan youth while living in AK and also after reading and enjoying some Sherman Alexie (he's hit or miss with me), I'm interested in what Yeahpau might accomplish with this collection. I hope it's a hit, but we'll see.

Unfortunately, Candlewick doesn't have their site updated yet for fall. So I've tried to link where I could so you can at least see the cover of the books I've mentioned.