By Megan Ciskowski, Associate Publicist
Check out August new releases from Lerner Publishing Group!
Graphic Novels
Super Potato and the Greenhouse of Evil: Book 7 written and illustrated by Artur Laperla
Super Potato’s archenemy Doctor Malevolent has returned! The villain has broken out of prison, and his new plan for world conquest involves Gladys, a gigantic plant. Our hero will need all of his gigantic muscles to defeat this leafy green menace.
Praise for the Super Potato series
★”A zany, funny selection that will entertain kids and the adults who might be reading over their shoulders.”—starred, School Library Journal
“If Loony Tunes was in the superhero business, this is something it might have baked up.”—Booklist
“Laperla’s parody strikes an easy comedic tone from the first page, and its wackiness unspools effortlessly. . . . A promising start to a series with appeal to strong and reluctant readers alike.”—Publishers Weekly
New in Paperback
The Truth Is by NoNieqa Ramos
Fifteen-year-old overachiever Verdad is struggling to meet her Puerto Rican mother’s expectations and process her best friend’s death when she falls for Danny, a trans boy, and starts to question her own identity.
Praise for The Truth Is
“Ramos (The Disturbed Girl’s Dictionary, 2018) creates an #OwnVoices protagonist in Puerto Rican Verdad and weaves her many intense feelings together in a way that never feels forced, from Verdad dealing with PTSD after the shooting to falling in love to discovering and then defining her queer identity.”—Booklist
“A coming-of-age novel about coming out and overcoming. . . . [P]owerful.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Ramos writes with intensity and poeticism in this fresh, painful, but ultimately optimistic coming-of-age novel. Notable for its up-to-the minute depiction of gender identity, sexual orientation, and race.”—School Library Journal
Fiction
Character Builders (Pull Ahead Readers People Smarts — Fiction) series
Simple stories illustrate how to live out four key character traits, including being positive, caring for others, being honest, and taking responsibility. Emergent readers will build literacy and social-emotional learning skills with high-frequency sight words and simple vocabulary. Match these titles with nonfiction partners for paired reading.
Helpful Habits (Pull Ahead Readers People Smarts — Fiction) series
Follow along as Jordan plans ahead, Paco sets a goal, Lola and Lupe work together, and more as the children in each book model good habits and social-emotional skills. These fiction stories pair with nonfiction counterparts to build literacy skills for emergent readers.
Nonfiction
Amazing Inventions series
Discover true stories of invention behind coveted pop-culture objects—from sneakers to smartphones. With high-interest graphic novel art, these books profile the products’ creators and subsequent innovators, as well as social history, revealing how people’s needs in a particular period led to creative solutions.
A Maker’s Guide to Simple Machines series
Learn about axles, screws, wedges and more with a silly alien engineer who guides readers through hands-on projects that demonstrate the use of simple machines.
Bumba Books ® — Let’s Explore Nature’s Cycles series
Learn about axles, screws, wedges and more with a silly alien engineer who guides readers through hands-on projects that demonstrate the use of simple machines.
Character Builders (Pull Ahead Readers People Smarts — Nonfiction) series
Explore the building blocks of character with beginning readers. These nonfiction books give readers actionable ideas for living out positive traits, including caring, honesty, positivity, and responsibility. Pair these books with their fiction counterparts to build literacy and social-emotional learning skills.
Crayola ® Creature Colors series
Jewel-toned beetles, rosy-pink salmon, and neon-green tree pythons are just a few of the countless colorful animals that inhabit Earth. Young readers will explore different classes and types of animals and learn about their habitats, food webs, and life cycles.
Crayola ® Makers series
These fun activity books integrate active nonfiction with STEAM: science, technology, engineering, art, and math. Step-by-step instructions and colorful photos guide readers through hands-on activities and inspire them to develop a maker mindset.
Cryptology (Alternator Books ®) series
Enter the exciting world of cryptology, the science of secret communications. Discover how cryptologists encode and decode messages and work to keep information secure. Learn about codes and cyphers, as well as historical and current methods of concealing text. And explore the realm of digital currency and blockchain technology that is quickly becoming a key part of the future of finance.
Deadly Diseases (UpDog Books ™) series
Dive deep into the world’s deadliest plagues and diseases. This high/low series introduces readers to the science, the history, and the treatments of illnesses including COVID-19, Ebola, bubonic plague, and more.
Helpful Habits (Pull Ahead Readers People Smarts — Nonfiction) series
Introduce beginning readers to helpful social-emotional learning skills, such as setting goals, planning ahead, being mindful, and more. Easily decodable texts and supportive sentence structures allow students to boost their nonfiction reading skills. Pair these books with their fiction partners to explore these positive behaviors further.
Issues in Action (Read Woke ™ Books) series
Examine hard topics facing our society—from gun violence to immigration. Learn how problems developed and hear from underrepresented persons involved in these struggles. Reflection questions help readers challenge their perspectives, while an activism toolkit and Read Woke reading list empower readers to make a difference.
Lightning Bolt Books ® — Imitating Nature series
Inventors and engineers have long taken inspiration from the natural world to develop new technologies and innovate solutions. Discover how biomimicry shapes the world around you from vehicles and medical technology to buildings and machines.
Searchlight Books ™ — Understanding the Coronavirus series
Learn about the discovery of the novel coronavirus and track the COVID-19 pandemic as it spreads globally, scientists develop a vaccine, heroes rise up, and the world reacts. This series makes a difficult topic approachable while answering crucial questions.
Sesame Street ® Friends around the World series
Sesame Street characters help introduce readers to six different countries around the world. Young readers will dive into the unique landscapes, geography, and culture of each country. Each book also includes a map feature that highlights the country’s location.
Silly Science series
Science doesn’t always have to be serious—it can be silly too! This laugh-out-loud series presents weird, gross, and just plain goofy science facts about animals, bodies, space, and food that will keep readers turning pages.
Sports’ Greatest of All Time (Lerner ™ Sports) series
Discover the greatest athletes across the world’s most popular sports in a fun, top-ten format! Packed with color photos, exciting stats, and thrilling action, each book is sure to appeal to sports fans.