UNDER THE BLANKET SKY, by Tim Fischer. (Doubleday, $18.99, ages 3 to 7.) In this sweetly nostalgic picture book about the passing of time, a young boy discovers a fluffy owlet in his back yard, and the two become fast friends over the course of a magical, sun-soaked summer. But when fall arrives, the boy must go to school, and the owl must migrate.
WE ARE STARLINGS: Inside the Mesmerizing Magic of a Murmuration, by Robert Furrow and Donna Jo Napoli. Illustrated by Marc Martin. (Random House Studio, $18.99, ages 4 to 8.) Any child who has ever been spellbound by these swooping, looping formations will delight in this book, told from the birds’ point of view.
AFTERWARD, EVERYTHING WAS DIFFERENT: A Tale From the Pleistocene, by Jairo Buitrago. Illustrated by Rafael Yockteng. Translated by Elisa Amado. (Aldano Libros/Greystone Kids, $19.95, ages 4 to 8.) A group of prehistoric hunter-gatherers meanders through the pages of this beautifully illustrated, nearly wordless book.
FOUR EYES, by Rex Ogle. Illustrated by Dave Valeza. (Graphix, $12.99, ages 8 to 12.) Sixth grade was already going to be bad enough, but now Rex needs glasses! A middle-grade graphic memoir about finding friends and fitting in.
ROSEWATER, by Liv Little. (Get Lifted, $27.95.) This simmering debut follows a struggling, recently evicted poet in South London who crashes with her childhood best friend and soon finds herself yearning for more than just friendship.
THE MIDDLE KINGDOMS: A New History of Central Europe, by Martyn Rady. (Basic Books, $36.) Covering the region between modern-day Germany, the Baltic states and Ukraine, Rady’s expansive history explores the ethnic, religious and social dynamics that have shaped Central Europe, from Martin Luther’s sermons to the 1968 Prague Spring.
WHY FATHERS CRY AT NIGHT: A Memoir in Love Poems, Recipes, Letters, and Remembrances, by Kwame Alexander. (Little, Brown, $28.) “We sometimes find poems in the strangest and most uncomfortable places,” Alexander writes in this tender memoir, employing poetry, prose, letters and recipes to tell stories of love and grief.
ALL THINGS MOVE: Learning to Look in the Sistine Chapel, by Jeannie Marshall. (Biblioasis, $25.95.) The Sistine Chapel serves as the inspiration and structure for this deeply contemplative account about life, family, art and appreciation.
