The "Number Five Wayside Inn and World Travel Hub" journeys the universe, housing all sorts of paranormal guests. When it lands on earth, it gets stuck due to the planet's lack of magic. Josie, a single mother and down on her luck, moves in with her son. Suddenly, they find themselves at home among vegan zombies, faeries and gargoyles. The hotel might be what Josie needs to restart her life, and she might be what the Inn needs to restart its magic. Elizabeth Everett’s Magic and Mischief at the Wayside Hotel is a delightful romance with a great cast of characters.

Kaede loves classic crimes stories but needs her grandfather’s help to solve real-world mysteries. During her visits, she brings him clues, maps and diagrams, and they work to solve the puzzle. His Lewy body dementia gives him realistic hallucinations that can help him find the solutions despite the heartbreaking reality of his ailing health. Tender and bittersweet, My Grandfather, the Master Detective by Masateru Konishi, translated by Louise Heal Kawai, is full of references to classic crime novels and is the first in a bestselling series in Japan.

The entertaining Dangerous Shore details the work of the civilians defending the East Coast during WWII. From the civilian pilots patrolling the waters to detect U-boats and guide rescue ships, to the mob bosses keeping spies off the docks, to the scientists breaking codes and developing new technology, Sara Vladic introduces a little-explored side of the American home front. Full of vivid detail, it introduces a wide cast of characters showing how involved and complex the effort was up and down the coast.

Sportswriter Simon Kuper has attended almost every world cup since Italy's in 1990. Mixing cultural history with memoir, World Cup Fever reflects on three decades' worth of tournaments and how they have grown and changed. Weaving game recaps and interviews with sharp observations about politics, globalization and identity, Kuper is always looking for the heart of soccer in the more recent tournaments that have been full of scandal. Delightful and engaging, it’s essential reading in the lead-up to the 2026 World Cup.

On April 18, 1906, Cora makes her way down to the docks, only for the earth to split open and trap her underground with Chi, a girl she just met. As the girls free themselves and make their way back to the surface, they reunite with Cora’s friend Oliver, but the trio must dodge fires, crumbling buildings and looters as they desperately try to reunite with their families. Jennifer A. Nielsen’s Magnitude is a gripping and thrilling middle grade adventure about surviving the Great San Francisco Earthquake.

Teen readers will want to pick up the darkly humorous and page-turning thriller Most Likely to Murder by Lish McBride. When last year’s yearbooks arrive at Meadowvale High, someone has changed the superlatives for the senior class. Initially written off as a tasteless prank, students become worried when a guidance counselor labeled "Most Likely to Sleep with the Fishes" ends up dead in a local lake. Rick and his best friend Martina, labeled "Homecoming’s Cutest Corpses," team up with other threatened students to find the killer. But just because the body count is mounting doesn’t mean you don’t still have homework.