Negative Cat 

Sophie Blackall

Picture Book 

This 2026 Monarch book will melt your heart. Especially if you or a child you know struggles to read. Not everything goes as smoothly when a little boy finally gets the pet he has been begging his parents for. Maximilian Augustus Xavier isn't like the other cats. He doesn't play or interact with the family like expected. Eventually his family gives up on Max. The little boy loves his cat so much that he will do anything to keep him. Even the thing he hates the most, reading! Follow along as the boy tries his best to find a solution for everyone. 

- Emily Stone, Youth Services Coordinator

Rolling On 

Jamie Sumner

Juvenile Fiction 

It’s the very end of eighth grade and all everyone can talk about is high school—everyone except Ellie Cowan. Ellie wants to freeze time. Middle school was epic. She moved to Oklahoma, made her best friends, won a baking championship, quit a beauty pageant, and dominated Putt-Putt golf in her wheelchair. But now her feelings for her best friend Bert are starting to change. When did Bert get so cute? And why are all the other girls suddenly noticing, too? As if that isn’t enough to deal with, Grandpa’s health takes a turn for the worse. So what do you do when you don’t know how to hold on or when to let go?

-Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Dating and Dragons

Kristy Boyce

Young Adult 

Quinn Norton is starting over at a new high school and hopes that joining a D&D game will be the trick to making friends. The plan sounds even better when she’s invited into a group that includes Logan Weber, the cute and charming guy she met on her first day of class. But this isn’t your average D&D campaign— this group livestreams their games and enforces strict rules: no phones allowed, and no dating other group members. Quinn is willing to accept the rules, even if it makes Logan off-limits. And she quickly learns that doing so won’t be a problem, since Logan goes from charismatic to insufferable as soon as she agrees to join. As their bickering—and bantering—intensifies inside and outside the game, Quinn can’t help wondering: Is Logan’s infuriating behavior a smokescreen for hidden feelings? Quinn is risking it all, and the twenty-sided dice are rolling!

- Delacorte Romance

The Borrowed Lie of Frederick Fife

Anna Johnston

Adult Fiction

Frederick Fifewas born with an extra helping of kindness in his heart. If he borrowed your car, he’d return it washed with a full tank of gas. The problem is, at age eighty-two, there’s nobody left in Fred’s life to borrow from, and he's broke and on the brink of eviction. But Fred’s luck changes when he's mistaken for Bernard Greer, a missing resident at the local nursing home, and takes his place. Now Fred has warm meals in his belly and a roof over his head—as long as his look-alike Bernard never turns up. Bittersweet and remarkably perceptive, The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife is a hilarious, feel-good, clever novel about grief, forgiveness, redemption, and finding family.

-William Morrow

Good Nature: Why Seeing, Smelling, Hearing, and Touching Plants is Good for Our Health

Kathy Willis 

Adult Non-Fiction 

What is remarkable about this book is how its revelations should be commonsense—schools should let children play in nature to improve their health and concentration; urban streets should have trees—and yet it reveals just how difficult it is to prove this to businesses and governments. As Kathy Willis says in her narrative, "We now know enough to self-prescribe in our homes, offices or working spaces, gardens, and when out walking. However small these individual actions might be, overall they have the potential to provide a large number of health benefits. And we need to be encouraging others to do the same. Nature is far more than just something that is useful for our health. It is not a dispensable commodity. It is an inherent part of us."

-‎ Pegasus Books