Weekly Favorite New Books - March 14

It's time for another weekly list of the best new books that come out this week. Every week there are hundreds of new books that I search through to bring you the best of the best! There is a little bit of everything on the list - books for adults, teens, and children.

Favorite new books for all ages

I hope that as you look at the list of newly published books, you will find a book to get lost in for yourself, your favorite bookworm friend, or a child you know who loves to expand their imagination.

Weekly Favorite New Books - March 14

To find out more about one of the books or to buy a copy, click on the title of the book and it will take you to an online retailer. Those links are affiliate, I will receive a small portion of a sale in exchange for advertising these books.


Before we get to all the books, I've got to tell you about the ones that have made it to the top of our "must read" list here at my house.

First up for me is the new YA books Hunted - a Beauty and the Beast retelling. I'm always up for a new spin on a fairy tale. I also downloaded a digital copy of The Wanderers from my library. I'm kind of a space nerd so I think this one looks really good. I remember wanting to be an astronaut before the Challenger shuttle blew up and always wondered what kind of training the astronauts had to go through.

Pretty much all the Middle Grade books have got a high ranking for my kids. My oldest read the synopsis for The Metropolitans and asked me immediately to order a copy from Amazon. We got an advanced readers copy of  Dragonwatch: A Fablehaven Adventure  and my oldest and I wrote a review of it last week (read the Dragonwatch review here) before we went to the worldwide book launch last Friday. We had an amazingly fun time!

Let's take a look at the lists for different ages!

Children's Books

New Favorite Children's Picture Books mid March

How To Be a Tiger - George Szirtes
A fantastic new collection for younger children from a prize-winning poet. These poems are perfect for curious young minds, ready for adventures. Leap with hares, call out to the sun, run with the wind, pull silly faces with monkeys, watch out for the bear in the bathroom and meet a burping princess!

A Funny Thing Happened At The Museum - Davide Cali
Notoriously (and delightfully) unreliable narrator Henry is late to a museum where his class is spending the day. But he has a plan: He'll just catch up in one of the exhibits. That's not possible in these halls! With volcanoes erupting, dinosaurs charging, and secret stairwells lurking, reuniting with his classmates becomes a quest of outrageous proportions. Young readers will revel in this entertaining book's over-the-top antics.

The Fox Wish - Kimiko Aman
This charming story follows two children who go looking for their jump rope and discover that a group of foxes have claimed it as an answer to their wish. With beautiful, classic illustrations and lyrical text, here is a subtle, sensitive piece of magic that proves to sisters, brothers, and foxes alike that the trusted familiar often lives right next to the truly extraordinary—if only you have the eyes to see it.

A Book of Bridges: Here to There and Me to You - Cheryl Keely
Bridges are some of the most fascinating structures in our landscape, and they come in all forms. From towering suspension bridges to humble stone crossings, this book visits them all in sweet, bouncing text with expository sidebars. But while bridges can be quite grand, this reminds us that their main purpose is bringing people together. This is perfect for budding architects, as well as readers who can relate to having loved ones who live far away.

Middle Grade Reads

Middle Grade Books Our in Mid March (2nd - 6th grade)

In the hidden dragon sanctuary of Wyrmroost, Celebrant the Just, King of the Dragons, plots his revenge. He has long seen the sanctuaries as prisons, and he wants nothing more than to overthrow his captors and return the world to the Age of Dragons, when he and his kind ruled and reigned without borders. The time has come to break free and reclaim his power.

No one person is capable of stopping Celebrant and his dragon horde. It will take the ancient order of Dragonwatch to gather again if there is any chance of saving the world from destruction. In ancient times, Dragonwatch was a group of wizards, enchantresses, dragon slayers, and others who originally confined the majority of dragons into sanctuaries. But nearly all of the original Dragonwatch members are gone, and so the wizard Agad reaches out to Grandpa Sorenson for help.

As Kendra and Seth confront this new danger, they must draw upon all their skills, talents, and knowledge as only they have the ability to function together as a powerful dragon tamer. Together they must battle against forces with superior supernatural powers and breathtaking magical abilities.

How will the epic dragon showdown end? Will dragons overthrow humans and change the world as we know it?

The Metropolitans - Carol Goodman
The day Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, four thirteen-year-olds converge at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where an eccentric curator is seeking four uncommonly brave souls to track down the hidden pages of the Kelmsbury Manuscript, an ancient book of Arthurian legends that lies scattered within the museum's collection.  

When Madge, Joe, Kiku, and Walt agree to help, they have no idea that the Kelmsbury is already working its magic on them. But they begin to develop extraordinary powers and experience the feelings of King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, Morgan le Fay, and Lancelot: courage, friendship, love...and betrayal.  Are they playing out a legend that's already been lived, over and over, across the ages?  Or can the Metropolitans forge their own story?

Forget Me Not - Ellie Terry
Astronomy-loving Calliope June has Tourette syndrome, so she sometimes makes faces or noises that she doesn't mean to make. When she and her mother move yet again, she tries to hide her TS. But it isn't long before the kids at her new school realize she's different. Only Calliope's neighbor, who is also the popular student body president, sees her as she truly is--an interesting person and a good friend. But is he brave enough to take their friendship public?
As Calliope navigates school, she must also face her mother's new relationship and the fact that they might be moving--again--just as she starts to make friends and finally accept her differences.

A Single Stone - Meg McKinley
Jena — strong, respected, reliable — is the leader of the line, a job every girl in the village dreams of. Watched over by the Mothers as one of the chosen seven, Jena's years spent denying herself food and wrapping her limbs have paid off. She is small enough to squeeze through the tunnels of the mountain and gather the harvest, risking her life with each mission. No work is more important. This has always been the way of things, even if it isn’t easy. But as her suspicions mount and Jena begins to question the life she’s always known, the cracks in her world become impossible to ignore. 


Books for Teens

Great new YA books teens will love published mid march 2017

Hunted - Meagan Spooner
Though Yeva grew up with the city's highest aristocrats she knows the forest holds secrets and that her father is the only hunter who's ever come close to discovering them. When her father loses his fortune and moves the family to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there's no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronesses or submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. Yeva's father's misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he'd been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance. 

Deaf to her sisters' protests, Yeva hunts this strange Beast back into his own territory--a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of creatures that Yeva's only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?

These Ruthless Deeds - Tarun Shanker
Still recovering from the loss of her beloved sister, Evelyn is determined to use her powers to save other gifted people from those who would harm them. When her rescue of a young telekinetic girl goes terribly wrong, Evelyn finds herself indebted to a secret society devoted to recruiting and protecting people like Evelyn and her friends.

As she follows the Society's orders, healing the sick and embarking on perilous recruitment missions, Evelyn sees her problems disappear. Her reputation is repaired, her friends are provided for, and her parents are newly wealthy. She reunites with the dashing Mr. Kent and recovers the reclusive Mr. Braddock (who has much less to brood over now that the Society can help him to control his dangerous power). But Evelyn can't help fearing the Society is more sinister than it appears.


Queens of Geek - Jen Wilde
Charlie likes to stand out. She’s a vlogger and actress promoting her first movie at SupaCon, and this is her chance to show fans she’s over her public breakup with co-star Reese Ryan. When internet-famous cool-girl actress Alyssa Huntington arrives as a surprise guest, it seems Charlie’s long-time crush on her isn’t as one-sided as she thought.
Taylor likes to blend in. Her brain is wired differently, making her fear change. And there’s one thing in her life she knows will never change: her friendship with her best guy friend Jamie—no matter how much she may secretly want it to. But when she hears about a fan contest for her favorite fandom, she starts to rethink her rules on playing it safe.


New Adult Fiction

newly published adult fiction novels march 14
Some Small Magic - Billy Coffey
All Abel wants is a little bit of magic in his life, money so his mom doesn’t cry at night, healing for his broken body, and maybe a few answers about his past.
When Abel discovers letters to him from the father he believed dead, he wonders if magic has come to the hills of Virginia after all. With a lot of questions and a little bit of hope, Abel decides to run away to find the truth. Danger follows him from the moment he jumps his first boxcar, forcing Abel to rely on his simpleminded friend Willie and a beautiful young woman they met on the train.
From Appalachia to the Tennessee wilds and through the Carolina mountains, the name of a single small town beckons: Fairhope. That is where Abel believes his magic lays. But will it be the sort that will bring a broken boy healing? And is it the magic that will one day lead him home?

New York 2140 - Kim Stanley Robinson
As the sea levels rose, every street became a canal. Every skyscraper an island. For the residents of one apartment building in Madison Square, however, New York in the year 2140 is far from a drowned city.

There is the market trader who finds opportunities, the detective whose work will never disappear, the internet star beloved by millions, the building's manager quietly respected, and two boys who don't live there, but have no other home. Lastly there are the coders, temporary residents on the roof, whose disappearance triggers a sequence of events that threatens the existence of all-- and even the long-hidden foundations on which the city rests.

The Wanderers - Meg Howrey
In four years, aerospace giant Prime Space will put the first humans on Mars. Helen Kane, Yoshihiro Tanaka, and Sergei Kuznetsov must prove they’re the crew for the historic voyage by spending seventeen months in the most realistic simulation ever created. Constantly observed by Prime Space’s team of "Obbers," Helen, Yoshi, and Sergei must appear ever in control. But as their surreal pantomime progresses, each soon realizes that the complications of inner space are no less fraught than those of outer space. The borders between what is real and unreal begin to blur, and each astronaut is forced to confront demons past and present, even as they struggle to navigate their increasingly claustrophobic quarters—and each other.


Non-fiction

Newly Published Nonfiction gardening, cooking, crochet, and kids books

The Thoughtful Gardener - Jinny Blom
Jinny believes that garden design should lead from a house and its context. For her, design is more a matter of intelligence and appropriateness than imposing a particular style. As such, Jinny’s approach, which she demonstrates in this book in the many and varied gardens she has created, can be applied to any garden in any situation. Readers can take inspiration from the principles shared and apply them to their own garden, whatever the shape, size of plot or aspect.

Divided up by season and showcasing more than 180 delicious recipes using produce when it's at its best, Harvest will inspire you to build delicious seasonal feasts for any occasion throughout the year.. Accompanied by stunning photographs and evocative watercolor illustrations by Emilie Guelpa, the recipes are simple yet sophisticated. Embrace the summer sun with Seared tuna with fennel confit, or Butterflied king prawns with mango; watch the leaves fall while indulging in Chestnut risotto with sage and pancetta or Five-spiced duck with pomegranate salad; snuggle into winter with some Chipotle-braised beef ribs with spicy baked pumpkin or an Apple and quince pie; or celebrate the freshness of Spring with Moroccan broad bean salad with yogurt and crispy breadcrumbs or Blood orange and dark chocolate trifle. 

National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Weather - Karen de Seve
How does a rainbow form? What causes it to snow? What makes the wind blow? This adorable reference book introduces young children to every aspect of weather and answers the questions curious kids want to know! Always an important topic for young kids, they'll learn how all the various types of weather systems work, from droughts and deserts to snowflakes and blizzards. Stories are accompanied by 100 colorful photos that capture the awe and wonder of our natural world. This charming book is sure to capture kids' imaginations and become a favorite at storytime, bedtime, and anytime.


Your Star Wars yarn adventures will continue with these 12 all new projects! Your crochet collection will now include Obi Wan, BB8, Rey, Finn, and more!


Thanks for joining me today for a look at the best books published this week. I hope you found one (or more) to add to your must read lists! Don't forget to visit next week for a look at the newest books for that week. 

Weekly Favorite New Books for all ages and genres published March 14

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