There are few things I enjoy browsing through more than a new book catalog. While I totally embrace the green decision to go with online catalogs versus print, I will sadly miss the bright shiny covers showing up in my mailbox with all their possibilities for future readerly joy. There are some things that just don't translate as well to screens, alas.

First Second is proving to be one of the publishers I look forward to with great anticipation each season (see two several current titles reviewed in my current Bookslut column this month). THE SILENCE OF OUR FRIENDS by Mark Long & Jim Demonakos (illus by Nate Powell) is a semi-autobiographical tale set in 1967 Texas about a white family and black family "overcoming humiliation, degradation and violence to win the freedom of five black college students unjustly charged with the murder of a policeman." I am notoriously skeptical of new Civil Rights titles for kids because like Holocaust literature I think both subjects have been done to death. But this is a fresh setting and story and the graphic novel format should lend a lot to the telling. I'm also looking forward to FRIENDS WITH BOYS by Faith Erin Hicks, also for teens about homeschooled Maggie who is facing high school and has been followed by a silent ghost her entire life. She must solve the ghostly mystery, make a new friend and face the outside world. It's coming-of-age with a wee bit of supernatural fun and I like Hicks' art a lot.

From FSG are two nonfiction titles that jumped out me starting with THE PLANT HUNTERS about 18th and 19th century botanical explorers by Anita Silvey. Heavily illustrated and by an author with a proven NF track record, I don't see how this one can fail. I am seriously interested in this subject and have read a lot of adult bios on plant hunters so I'm hoping that Silvey doesn't disappoint. (I doubt she can, honestly.) Also, there's a new picture bio of Sylvia Earle by Claire Nivola, LIFE IN THE OCEAN. Earle is a perfect subject for a kid's bio and I think she's awesome, so I'm happy to see this.

FSG is all about the fiftieth anniversary of A WRINKLE IN TIME with a great retro cover (I'm soooo happy to see this) and an intro by Katherine Paterson, plus photos, memorabilia, etc. I'll be buying it in hardcover just because it is so much cooler looking then the copy I already have. (And everyone must have a copy of WRINKLE.)

Henry Holt has me intrigued by Lori Griffin Burns' CITIZEN SCIENTISTS, a NF MG title aimed at teaching kids how to actually participate in events like the Audubon Bird Count and FrogWatch USA. What I like about this book (other than the author whose work in the Scientists in the Field series impressed me deeply), is that it is not just a general title on how to be a naturalist but specifically aimed at certain activities that kids can take part in. Homeschoolers are going to love it I bet.

There's also an interesting looking gn from Kevin Pyle: TAKE WHAT YOU CAN CARRY. This follows two storylines, one set during WWII with a Japanese American teen in CA who must leave everything behind for an internment camp and another in 1978 Chicago with a teen shoplifting from convenience stores with his friends. The stories will converge at some point as the boys "discover compassion, learn loyalty and find renewal in the most surprising of places."

Finally, from Feiwel & Friends James Mihaley has YOU CAN'T HAVE MY PLANET, BUT TAKE MY BROTHER, PLEASE! about a twelve-year old boy who learns that aliens have been renting Earth to humans and now want it back. (Come on, you have to laugh at that whole premise!) And Caldecott winner Erin Stead illustrates AND THEN THERE'S SPRING by Julie Fogliano which looks to be a sweet story about a boy and his dog and their anticipation of spring after a long snowy winter. The cover alone made me smile.