Starred titles are books of special distinction. See the archives for selections from previous months.
Giang, Kristen MaiAction Jasmine; illus. by A.N. Kang. Paulsen/Penguin, 2026 [352p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780593619247 $18.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R* 4-7 yrs
Lord, PetraQueen of Faces. Holt, 2026 [432p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781250362971 $22.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R* Gr. 8-12
See this month’s Big Picture, below, for review.
Miller, Nancy SoSun, Moon, and Star: A Folktale from Korea; written and illus. by Nancy So Miller. Holiday House, 2026 [32p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780823459407 $18.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R* 4-7 yrs
Peña-Govea, RenéEstela, Undrowning. Quill Tree/HarperCollins, 2026 [368p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780063429956 $19.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780063429970 $10.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R* Gr. 10-12
Pomper, MeganThere’s a Unicorn in Your Ear!; illus. by Christina Leist. Owlkids, 2026 [32p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781771476485 $18.95 Reviewed from digital galleys R* 4-7 yrs
Purwin, CandiceThe Book of Murmurs; written and illus. by Candice Purwin. Fantagraphics, 2026 [272p] Paper ed. ISBN 9798875001765 $18.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R* Gr. 7-10
Rubin, Lance16 Forever. Harper, 2026 [368p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780063330368 $19.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780063330382 $10.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R* Gr. 7-11
Weatherford, Carole BostonTroubled Waters: A River’s Journey Toward Justice; illus. by Bryan Collier. Bloomsbury, 2026 [40p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781681198187 $20.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781547619207 $14.69 Reviewed from digital galleys R* 7-9 yrs
Queen of Faces
By Petra Lord
Sometimes a book comes along and makes the case that it’s no bad thing for art to be ambitious. In a society that too often pressures people to outsource the act of thinking, reject imperfect solutions, and eschew complexity, a book that demands uncomfortable engagement with familiar narratives is a welcome thing. Author Petra Lord accomplishes just that in this month’s Big Picture, Queen of Faces, a fantasy that examines the premise of body-swapping and considers its liberating potential for gender identity as well as its possible reinforcement of socioeconomic hierarchies. The book dares to be messy, to start fights with more genres than any one work can finish, but its ambition is what makes it successful, and it examines its queries with style, compelling characters, and deep empathy for a plurality of viewpoints.
The wealthy and magically gifted of Caimor can swap out designer bodies like garments, but Anabelle Gage is stuck in a crappy, decaying male body, the only mass-produced “chassis” that her mother could afford to save Ana when she fell sick as a child. Now, this flesh is also dying, but Ana sees a way out in Paragon, an elite magic school that promises its students a bright future and includes a top-notch replacement body. Unfortunately, she fails the entrance exam, but Paragon’s headmaster makes her an offer she can’t refuse: work for him as a spy-assassin to bring down the terrorist dark witch Khaiovhe, and he’ll get her a position as a second-class student with access to Paragon’s curriculum (but not its cushy perks).
Meanwhile, Nell Ebbridge, a privileged, wealthy Paragon student, is formally Ousted from her family, social position, betrothal, and even body and name. Upon waking up nameless in a male body, Nell takes on the name Wes and swiftly feels more at home in this new body than he ever did in Nell’s. Despite his newfound euphoria, Wes is determined to regain his former life, even if it means accepting a proposition from Paragon’s headmaster that sees him paired with Ana as spy-assassins. Both Ana’s and Nell’s lives have been shaped by a horrific act of genocide and as the two work together, their understanding of the political reality, recent history, and workings of magic grows. The worldbuilding deepens further with the addition of two-bodied, split-consciousness Nima Qasemi and mercenary bombmaker Korin Nameless, who bring their personalities and histories, their affinities and rough edges, to bear on a world where all moral choices are as grey as Ana’s decaying body.
The book is also dark academia, in the sense that it engages with the rotten underbelly of a wildly romanticized, elite institution that our plucky protagonist wins her way into against the odds. “Rotten underbelly” is a misnomer, perhaps—the institution is flourishing exactly as it was intended to as the mechanism for perpetuating a crushing social and magical hierarchy. What has rotted is Ana’s willingness to buy into the rhetoric of exploitation, to believe there is some egalitarian social ladder if only she works hard enough, when the promised wealth and power is in reality available only to those who already have it. Wes, on the other hand, has grown up in the upper echelons of this system and is reluctant to let go of what Nell Ebbridge has always been told to want, even as his claims that he wants to return to that world sound increasingly like denial.
Lord pushes the body-swapping premise to its logical, dual conclusions. On the one hand, magic and changeable embodiment offer a sort of freedom for those who can afford it. On the other hand, they amplify socioeconomic inequality and abuses of the most vulnerable, like Ana, whose poverty and chronic illness drive her to desperation. Queen of Faces demands that readers consider the thorny complexities of gender, ableness, and embodiment—but art should open dialogue, not foreclose it, and readers who can sit in that discomfort will look forward to the sequel and say, “Bring it on.”
