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Diversity in Kid's Literature
February 2026
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Picture Books and Early Readers
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Chapter Books & Graphic Novels
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The Mighty Macy
by Kwame Alexander
A young girl finds her voice--and discovers the power of speaking up for herself and her community--in this sweet and humorous chapter book by award-winning and #1 bestselling author Kwame Alexander, perfect for fans of Ivy + Bean and Ruby and the Booker Boys. When Macy gets book one of The Mighty Zora series for her birthday, she stays up until 11:34pm finishing the book. But the next day, when Macy gets to her school library, eager to check out book two, she finds the door locked with a sign explaining that the library will now only be open a few days a week due to budget cuts. Even worse, she finds out her father won't be home to help her figure out what to do, as he will be traveling to a museum in Montgomery, Alabama to read a poem about civil rights. With help from her fellow third graders, support from her mom, and encouragement from poems written and hidden for her by her father, Macy must find her voice and learn the power of advocating for herself and her community. Can Macy learn to be Mighty?
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Goodbye, French Fry
by Rin-rin Yu
Some days Ping-Ping feels like she just can't win. She was born in the US, so it's frustrating when people are surprised by how American she is, but her Chinese relatives feel she's not Chinese enough. But the things bugging her the most lately are her classmate Lee Beaumont, who has taken to calling her "French Fry" because of the tofu sticks she eats at lunch, and the possibility that her family will have to relocate to Kenya for her father's UN job. Of all the things Ping-Ping loves, her home and best friend are at the top of the list, and she'd hate to have to leave them. What's a girl to do when she can't be in as much control as she'd like to be? Well, good thing Ping-Ping is a wiz at taekwondo--she's learning how to kick her frustrations away, and there's almost nothing she can't master if she puts her mind to it.
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Kid X
by Tracey Baptiste
Win "Coal" Keegan is starting to get the hang of his new life. He's come to love his foster family, the McKays, and is getting more confident with his invisibility powers. Almost too confident. At first, he uses his abilities for small favors. But soon, the favors snowball into bigger asks and messier pranks. And when rumors surface about a "ghost" in the neighborhood, Coal realizes it might be best to keep his talents under wraps.But that gets harder when Coal starts to suspect that someone--or something--might be tracking him. And as the evidence stacks up, Coal realizes he's not the only one with powers. Is his pursuer friend or foe? What would it be like to meet someone just like him?
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Amari and the Metalwork Menace
by B. B. Alston
The gripping fourth book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Supernatural Investigations series that began with Amari and the Night Brothers Perfect for fans of Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and Nevermoor.In the wake of the extreme losses to the Bureau during the war with Dylan Van Helsing and the magicians, Amari has stepped back from being a Junior Agent to spend the school year as a normal kid. But as she prepares to graduate eighth grade, she's faced with a decision: Return to the Bureau and join the elite new Junior Special Agent Program, or retire for good--which would mean safety, but also losing her memories of the supernatural world.But soon she finds that she may not have a choice. A deadly new curse is threatening both the supernatural and mortal worlds as, beneath their skin, people are slowly becoming machines--and losing their very humanity. And it's somehow related to the First Magician.Hundreds of cases have been cropping up, with no cure in sight. And when the curse hits someone close to Amari, it's up to her to get to the bottom of this deadly mystery--even if it means trusting an old enemy.
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Lola Levine and the Dinosaur Scene
by Monica Brown
It's Dinosaur Week at school and there's a lot for Lola to learn! With facts to gather and a dinosaur drawing to prepare, Lola sees how science and art can go together like peanut butter and jelly. The best part is the field trip to the Museum of Natural History at the end of the week. Lola's little brother Ben is over the moon excited about visiting the museum but gets a little fidgety when he drinks too much water from the awesome T. rex water fountain. When Lola and Ben get lost in the museum, will they find their way through the dino wilderness and back to class?
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The Frozen Curse
by Jacob North
Oswin embarks on a dangerous journey to unravel the truth behind the enduring Freeze in this second book in the action-packed Ice Apprentices middle grade series that's perfect for fans of Skandar and Wilderlore. Oswin starts a second year in Tundra at the school for Ice Apprentices just as the Great Freeze threatens. He may have driven back the monsters, but masters are disappearing and trees with monstrous faces seem to be on the attack. When Oswin fails a test, he's kicked out of the training grounds for good. Tundra is running out of time and soon everyone will freeze to death...
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Opal Watson: A Case Most Fowl
by Brittany J. Thurman
In this second book in the middle-grade mystery series based on the popular Pinna podcast, super sleuth Opal Watson teams up with a new friend to find a missing bird and unravels even more secrets about her family's legendary history.Opal's schoolmate Piper has lost a beloved pet: a bird named Blizzard that disappeared while her family was moving into a new house. Opal and Frank agree to track down Blizzard, even though it means teaming up with Piper's older brother, Jake, a former bully who claims he has changed his ways.Meanwhile, Opal is still solving a mystery of her own: Who was Maude Watson--the woman whose picture she stumbled across in an old issue of the Chicago Defender newspaper--and how is she related to Opal?As Opal and her friends investigate both cases, they discover that Blizzard is more than just a missing pet--and she's not the only one missing. Meanwhile, Maude's case has Opal puzzling through a series of ciphers that take her from Chicago's historic cemeteries to abandoned underground tunnels. Can Opal and her friends outwit the birdnappers while unraveling Maude's past, or will these two cases prove to be too much?
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Time for a Change
by Questlove
Best friends Rahim and Kasia travel to Hawaii in 1978 on a mission to stabilize the future for a mysterious organization of time travelers.
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