The July and August Read This Next! Kids list is all about the importance of taking the time to be yourself...whether you are a deadly princess with a sharp sword or a little fairy without wings, a little girl who wants summer to last forever, or a teenager getting ready to graduate and wondering what the future will bring.

RTNext! Kids Bookseller Resources:
Edelweiss Collection | Flyer | Flyer Front (image)

Here is why Southen indie booksellers love these books:

Beneath These Cursed Stars by Lexi Ryan
Lexi Ryan knows how to ramp up the tension and keep you guessing. Jasalyn's story is heartbreaking and traumatizing, the loss of hope and representation of PTSD throughout was done well and had me either holding my breath or crying at certain parts.
– Brianne Wik, Main Street Books, Davidson, North Carolina

Millie Fleur's Poison Garden by Christy Mandin
Perfect lawns with their manicured grass and neat hedges are SO 2020. Wilding is IN and every neighborhood needs a weird wild little garden like Millie Fleur's. Share this delightful little gem with the weirdest and wildest kid in your world.
– Angie Tally, The Country Bookshop, Southern Pines, North Carolina

Tiny Jenny: Little Fairy, Big Trouble by Briony May Smith
Tiny Jenny is a wingless fairy born in a nest of wrens. She goes in search of her fairy family and hopes to earn her wings. After a surprising journey, she finds where she truly belongs in this beautifully illustrated picture book.
– Rae Ann Parker, Parnassus Books, Nashville, Tennessee

Ready or Not by Andi Porretta
This is one of those graphic novels that I think everyone can relate to! Ready or Not follows a group of high school graduates as they are trying to spend one last summer together before their next journeys begin. It touches on intense anxiety about the future and the pressures that young adults face with deciding what to do after they graduate school.
– Juliana Reyes, Bookmarks, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

In Time by Marina Ruiz
In Time perfectly describes the different ways the passage of time is experienced: From the young -- slow and never moving; From the old -- fast and never enough. The illustrations will have you looking over each page again and again before turning to the next.
– Jenny Gilroy, E. Shaver, Bookseller Savannah, Georgia

The Secret Dead Club by Karen Strong
The Secret Dead Club is a full-fledged haunted ghost story, his exciting mystery uses themes of friendship and grief to help the reader know themselves better. This story masterfully includes (what can be seen as) delicate topics such as getting your period or how emotions can manifest physically in your body to create an extremely relatable and readable book.
– Rachel Watkins Avid Bookshop Athens, Georgia

Current Read This Next! books and what SIBA booksellers have to say about them can always be found at The Southern Bookseller Review