“The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written.”
― Melody Beattie, The Language of Letting Go
It’s a new year, and it’s still the same me. Like many, I have adapted to the mindset that January is still wintering. Some things are new, drinking from my Amelia Butcher mug and dreaming of the good books that will float through the Bookmobile this year.
2026 is the year of the Fire Horse, the year of PANTONE Cloud Dancer (which many rejected and accepted Teal in its place), and it’s the Year of Analog. The Bookmobile is a perfect space for all your analog needs. What better way to get offline than to read a good book?
There are far too many books we are looking forward to, from retellings to undiscovered favourites by debut voices, and I can’t share them all, but I’ll start with a few:
Picture Books
“Rita is bored. So, so, so bored.
She’s tried stretching her body across her bedroom, side-eyeing herself in the mirror, stomping her feet and swinging her arms. Time drags on, and there she remains: catatonic with boredom.
In her tragic and weakened state, her mind drifts to the beginning of a daydream. What if all the bored people in the world gathered together and got onto a bus? What if the boredom filled them up like balloons, with tiny heads and arms sticking out? What if they floated into the sky, bobbing along until they each spied something exciting enough to make them toot the boredom out?
By the time Rita’s mother calls her for dinner, she’s very, very busy.”
As big fan’s of Felicita’s work, we couldn’t wait for this book to arrive. Most parent’s are at battle with tech these days, kid’s have instant distractions all around them, they have no reason to ever be bored. Yet, I’m a firm believer that boredom fosters creativity. Delightfully energetic, this book will set a spark to the imagination.
“A gentle story about moving, making connections and mapping a better world.
When a young girl moves to a new country, her mum helps her draw a map to understand her unfamiliar surroundings. They draw the new neighbourhood, new friends and the special places the girl has found but important things from the past are missing like Grandma and Joe-Dog. So the girl makes the map bigger to include them.
Soon the girl’s friends are inspired to add their own stories and the distances between them all seem to shrink. Yet when misfortune strikes and the girl’s world is shown to be less fixed than she thought, how will she learn to navigate change?
Discover how we all have the power to create a better future.”
I wish this was coming in hardcover but I enjoy Nicola Davies work so much that I am going to risk the paperback. It’s the hazard of being a hands on type of shop for kids. Change is hard, moving to a new country can be adventure but also a struggle, making connections can help understand ourselves and those around us.
Coming Jan 29
“Once upon a time there was a clever girl with a not-so-clever father. When her father claims she can spin straw into gold, the king forces the girl to perform this impossible task. She has no other choice than to accept a strange deal from a mysterious little man. But when he arrives and attempts to collect the debt, the fiendish trickster Rumpelstiltskin discovers that he is the one who has been tricked!”
They had me at Carson Ellis and Mac Barnett. I can’t resist a retelling, and I can already hear the humour and clever voice of Mac as Rumpelstiltskin. If you loved The Three Billy Goats Gruff, this book is for you.
Coming Feb 3
“Evie believes in all things magic, but her always-pestering, always-following younger siblings make her life seem a little less magical sometimes. So Evie makes her escape to the snowy world outside, hoping for a bit of peace and solitude, only to discover her siblings trailing behind her, once again.
Luckily, with the help of a wand and a few magic words, Evie turns a snowbank into a portal to an upside-down world full of stars, dolphins, and seahorses to ride. Even the reader is invited to rotate the book and follow the siblings along on their adventure! But when the siblings are faced with danger—and someone who needs their help—can they come together to save the day?”
Fans of the Jar series will love to jump back into a world created by Deborah Marcero. Some days siblings are our best friends, and some days we just need a magic adventure of our own making.
Coming Feb 17
“If the Moon is the perfect lyrical bedtime book—a visual poem that soothes and smooths the transition from waking to sleeping.
If the Earth and if the moon,
if the whistling of a tune.
If you drift, if you dream,
into space, into streams…
Softly step on tender feet,
come and lift the latch of sleep.”
Two incredible Matthews team up to create a lyrically and visually lush space to head into dreamland.
Coming Aug 4
“Mary Beth doesn’t quite fit in with her family of ogres. She’s not green. She’s not gross. She’s not scary.
But when Mary Beth has to stand up for herself and her family, she finds out she knows more than she thinks about how to be a proper ogre.”
Kelli DiPucchio, need I say more? This hilarious modern fable about belonging and finding one’s voice is sure to entertain readers of all ages.
Coming June 23
Early Reader
“Violet knows what it’s like to be when you’re afraid, you feel helpless and small. But when Violet is afraid, she doesn’t just feel small—she actually shrinks! It’s tough to stop feeling frightened when you’re only a few centimeters tall. But when Violet’s best friend is in danger, she’ll have to learn to deal with her fear in a new way—and save the day in the process.”
Laurel Snyder books always hit home with me, tender and from the heart. Shrinking Violet is a beautifully illustrated story about fear and bravery the power of finding inner strength, adding this into the Big Feelings section.
Coming March 31
Middle Grade
“Every scent tells a story.
The last thing Nia wants is to be branded a “Sinsory.” Where she comes from, that’s just as deadly as the devastating plagues that sweep through their land. That’s why she keeps her unusually keen sense of smell a secret. Only two people in the city of Yerat know of her special her beloved Auntie and her best friend, Fox. But when the worst plague in a century hits their desert continent, all of that suddenly changes.
An invitation arrives in the shape of a jar of blackcurrant jam for Nia to attend the Cloister, a select and secluded school for children with heightened senses. There she meets Scentiers, like her, but also Gazers, Whisper-Gatherers, and many more, whose sensory powers go far beyond what regular folk can smell, see, or hear.
It’s there that Nia learns her nose knows far more than she ever dreamed . . . maybe enough to find the cure for the plague. Or even sniff out the sinister secrets hiding in the Cloister’s walls.”
Truth be told, I could have got this book for the cover alone. Mysterious bottles, secret societies- I’m in! As person with a highly sensitive nose, I’d love to be able able to use it for good.
Coming Jan 12
“Love illuminates the dark.
The year is 1885. San Francisco is dangerous for Chinese immigrants like twelve-year-old Mei Mei. She must venture on her own, without her family or friends, to Eureka, California, where it is supposedly safe.
But 300 miles from home, Mei Mei misses her Ma Ma’s kindness, helping out in her Ba Ba’s store, and playing hide-and-seek with her best friend, Hua Hua. Despite her fear and the increasing violence against her community, she finds hope in an unexpected friend, the giant Redwood trees, and a new learning how to read in English. As the world around her grows more scary, Mei Mei discovers her own power, as well the joy of found family, the importance of courage, and the nature of freedom.”
A fictional story based on a real event where Chinese people were expelled from Eureka and the burning down of Chinatown. A novel in verse, fans of Inside Out and Back Again will enjoy this poignant novel.
Coming Jan 27
“Petit éclair. That’s what the other boys at the orphanage call Lucas DuBois. Lucas is tired of his cowardly reputation, just as he’s tired of the war and the Nazi occupation of his French village. He longs to show how brave he can be.
He gets the chance when he saves a litter of kittens from cruel boys and brings them to an abandoned stable to care for them. There he comes upon a stranger who is none too happy to see Alice, the daughter of a horse trainer, who is hiding her filly from German soldiers.
Soon Lucas begins to realize they are not the only ones in the village with secrets. The housekeeper at the German maternity home and a priest at the orphanage pass coded messages; a young mother at the home makes dangerous plans to keep her baby from forced adoption; and a neighbor in town may be harboring a Jewish family.
Emboldened by the unlikely heroes all around him, Lucas is forced to decide how much he is willing to risk to make the most courageous rescue of all.”
The two wonders of Pax have teamed back up. Pax is staple book in the shop, you can find it under the Family Read Aloud section, and I’m sure this one is soon to join it. We’ve only just started this adventure but a full review will come soon.
Coming Feb 3
“Thanks to a prophecy revealed when he was little, thirteen-year-old Kyta always knew that he was destined to save the world. But waiting for that moment has kept him on edge his whole childhood, preventing him from having fun like other kids in his tribe. So when the ground quakes and the trees whisper that something is wrong, Kyta leaps into action, desperate to fulfill his destiny.
He is horrified to find that the precious Egg of the World Turtle, on whose vast shell everyone and everything lives, has been stolen by invaders. The Turtle is angry and grief-stricken, threatening to upend the very land under their feet. The invaders refuse to heed the warning of the tribes and return the Egg . . . so Kyta comes up with a plan to steal it back!
It’s risky and dangerous . . . but abandoning the Egg is certain doom. Kyta assembles other kids who could sneak into the invaders’ fortress and pull off the heist, but getting four very different personalities to work together is harder than he thought. And when they discover that the Egg is being guarded by an evil collector, his savage ogres, and a beast so terrible that it defies description, their odds seem all but impossible! Will Kyta be able to fulfill his destiny, or did he set himself up to fail . . . and the world to fall?”
Our robust Mythology section keeps growing, you can find this Indigenous American tale coming soon. A poignant tale of friendship and fate that both kids and adults alike will enjoy.
Coming Feb 24
YA
“Agnes Aubert leads a meticulously organized life—and she likes it that way. As the proudly type-A manager of a much-needed cat rescue charity, she has devoted her life to finding forever homes for lost cats.
But after she is forced to move the cat shelter, Agnes learns that her new landlord is using her charity as a front—for an internationally renowned and thoroughly disreputable magic shop. Owned by the dis“organized—not to mention self-absorbed, irritating, but also decidedly handsome—Havelock Renard, magician and failed Dark Lord, the shop draws magical clientele from around the world, partly due to the quality of Havelock’s illicit goods as well as their curiosity about his shadowy past and rumors of his incredible powers. Agnes’s charity offers the perfect cover for illegal magics.
Agnes couldn’t care less about the shop—magical intrigue or not, there are cats to be rescued. But when an enemy from Havelock’s past surfaces, the magic shop—and more importantly, the cat shelter—are suddenly in jeopardy. To save the shelter, will Agnes have to set aside her social conscience and protect the man who once tried to bring about the apocalypse—and is now trying to steal her heart?”
There is a lot of great Young Adult books arriving this year. I keep the YA section in the non-spicy variety, which is why I am looking forward to adding this cozy tale. We loved living in Emily Wilde’s world and can’t wait to cozy up with some cats to see what magic this book brings.
Coming Feb 17
I can’t wait for fresh pages, to crack some spines, and hear what books you are looking forward to.
Your friendly neighbourhood bookslinger!
