Dinalie Dabarera

Federico Erebia, illus. by Julie Kwon. Levine Querido, $19.99 (336p) ISBN 978-1-64614-304-7 In this luminous semi-autobiographical debut, told across five parts starting in the late 1960s, Erebia shares interconnected stories that render fictionalized versions of himself and his younger brother.

The Probability of Everything After learning that an asteroid is set to destroy Earth, a sixth grader builds a time capsule to commemorate her family in this pensive read from Everett (How to Live Without You). With her parents and younger sister Lo, 11-year-old Nigerian American Kemi Carter, an aspiring scientist obsessed with probability statistics, makes up one of the few Black families living in a predominantly white neighborhood.

Kaija Langley. Penguin/Paulsen, $17.99 (288p) ISBN 978-0-59353-090-0 Langley (When Langston Dances) explores communal grieving and found family in this middle grade debut, a layered novel in verse. With her “best and only true friend” Zee Ellis admitted to study violin at a Boston STEAM charter school, 11-year-old April Jackson enters sixth grade determined to fulfill her own musical dreams by taking drum lessons with Zee’s dad.