Expert booksellers and librarians share their top picks for young readers. Check out what our experts are reading this January!
The Buzz on Wild Bees: The Little-Known Pollinators that Keep Our Planet Humming
Written by Kira Vermond
Illustrated by June Steube
Owlkids Books, 2025
IL: Ages 7-10 RL: Grades 3-4
Of the over 20,000 species of bees around the world, honeybees seem to get most of the attention. Wild, solitary bees (who live in nests below ground, don’t make honey, and rarely sting) make up more than 90 percent of all bees, and this informative non-fiction book gives these “gentle little fuzz-buckets” their day in the sun and much needed appreciation. Full of fascinating facts, Kira Vermond’s pithy, pun-filled text sheds light on the many ways wild bees help us during their short life spans, and offers tips on how young ecologists can help protect them.
June Steube’s detailed pencil, crayon and watercolour illustrations showcase such beauties as the Blue-banded bee and the Domino cuckoo bee in their natural habitats. Back matter includes a bibliography and glossary of buzz words. This well-researched homage to all the unrecognized, hardworking superstar pollinators buzzing around wildflowers and tomato plants is the bees’ knees.
Recommended by Linda Ludke, Collections Management Librarian, London Public Library
The Notorious Virtues IL: Ages 13 and up RL: Grades 8-9
In the first book of her latest trilogy, Alwyn Hamilton has created a complex, vividly-rendered world that is rife with political intrigue, dramatic tension, heartrending betrayal as well as loyalty, integrity and quests for identity and truth. When the heir to the throne is found brutally murdered, four cousins must compete in the Veritaz Trials to determine which of them will become the new heir. But soon there is a fifth competitor: Lotte, a cousin who had been hidden away in a convent from the time of her birth. Lotte struggles to understand this family she has never known anything about until now and to figure out how she fits into it, while Nora, daughter of the slain heiress, becomes obsessed with finding the person who killed her mother. Meanwhile, unrest is brewing in this city where there is tremendous resentment towards the wealthy Holtzfall family who control everything and care little for the plight of everyday citizens.
The narrative alternates between the perspectives of Nora and Lotte as well as a clever but poor journalist and a duty-bound knight. These four, each with their own agendas and motivations, eventually work together to try to achieve their own personal goals and to figure out how all of these seemingly separate mysteries are ultimately connected. A magnificent family drama and compelling murder mystery, readers will be spellbound for each of the 500+ pages and eager for the next instalment.
Recommended by Lisa Doucet, Manager, Woozles Children's Bookstore