Not sure if it really counts as a 'preview' when we're two thirds of the way through the month, but I got busy, and it's taken longer than expected to write this...
As always, my main method of finding out about MG (and adult releases, for that matter) is Pop! Goes The Reader's superb Patreon, amazing value at $5 a month. If you want a much more comprehensive list of releases, rather than this - which is just some of the ones I'm particularly interested in - I would massively recommend subscribing, Jen is absolutely wonderful and does an incredible job with her monthly preview posts.
The one book I've read is published by HarperCollins, and I'm looking forward to sharing my thoughts on it - just as soon as the HarperCollins Union get a fair deal out of the publisher. For more on that situation, and how people can support the union, check out this Twitter thread and their links on Linktree.
Trashed! by Martha Freeman (17th Jan, Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books), about Arthur, who goes from helping out in his family's junk store to trying to solve a crime, sounds fantastic - loving the mention of a motorcycle-riding grandma in this one! And Torrey Maldonado, who I've heard so many great things about, has a new book Hands (24th Jan, Nancy Paulsen Books) coming out, looking at a talented artist learning to box in order to protect his mom and sisters from their threatening stepdad.
Erin Bow's Simon Sort Of Says (31st Jan, Disney Hyperion) is about a 12-year-old boy who, two years after being the only survivor of a school shooting, moves with his family to the National Quiet Zone (where the internet is banned, and astronomers search for signs of life in space.) This sounds wonderful, and timely.
As mentioned previously on this blog, I'm trying to read more short stories, and collection My Selma by Willie Mae Brown (3rd Jan, Farrar, Straus and Giroux) - looking at her own coming of age against the backdrop of her hometown, with the civil rights movement unfolding there, sounds superb. For other books about the civil rights era, Rosa Parks and Claudette Colvin: Civil Rights Heroes by Tracey Baptiste and Shauna J Grant (3rd Jan, First Second), in the History Comics series, and We Are Your Children Too: Black Students, White Supremacists, and The Battle For America's Schools In Prince Edward County, Virginia by P O'Connell Pearson (10th Jan, Simon & Schuster), a non-fiction book about an all-White school board closing down all public schools in a county in south central Virginia rather than integrate, both sound excellent. So does A Mighty Long Way: My Journey To Justice At Little Rock Central High School (17th Jan, Delacorte Press) by Carlotta Walls LaNier, the youngest of the Little Rock Nine.
Described as a 'feel-good light romance about two 13-year-old cousins and their first solo attempts at creating enchanted love potions', Suitehearts #1: Harmony and Heartbreak by Claire Kann (3rd Jan, HarperCollins, see note above) sounds like a fun plot, but it's the author name which has me really interested in this one - Claire Kann's YA books The Marvelous and If It Makes You Happy were both superb, and I'm really intrigued to see her turning her considerable talents to MG.
And, finally, a fantasy book described as The Addams Family meets The Westing Game! The Carrefour Curse by Dianne K Salerni (31st Jan, Holiday House), which is about a 12-year-old girl whose mother is estranged from her 'cursed' family, and the dreadful secret she finds when she's summoned to their home, sounds utterly wonderful.
What are you interested in, out of January's releases? Leave me a comment!