As a kid, I could never resist taking a surreptitious peek at my birthday presents. As an adult, I feel the same way when it comes to learning about upcoming books. Thankfully, my job as a Kirkus editor allows me to catch a glimpse of compelling titles long before they become available to the public, and I’m pleased to share some can’t-miss children’s books coming out this spring.

This year’s picture books offer an enchanting mix of silly and serious topics. Travis Jonker’s Caboose (Abrams, Feb. 4) follows a hippo who’s always at the head of the line when the students leave the classroom. But power goes to our protagonist’s head, and the youngster is banished to the back of the line. Jonker celebrates those endearing kids who nevertheless make mischief wherever they go; Ruth Chan imbues her soft-hued cartoons with sass and sweetness as our hero finally learns to cooperate.

With Home (Putnam, March 11), author Matt de la Peña and illustrator Loren Long reunite for a follow-up to their acclaimed Love (2018), and the results are equally spectacular. Melodic text (accompanied by mesmerizing acrylic paintings) reassures readers that anywhere can be home, from a houseboat to a fancy high-rise; most crucially, home is in the communities we build and the bonds we forge.

Kyle Lukoff’s Are You a Friend of Dorothy?: The True Story of an Imaginary Woman and the Real People She Helped (Simon & Schuster, April 29) unpacks the titular query, a way for queer people to find others like them in early-20^th-century America. Though Lukoff acknowledges that LGBTQ+ people confronted dangers—and still do—his text celebrates the joy of community, brought to life by Levi Hastings’ energetic, retro artwork.

2025 is also looking like a banner year for middle-grade books. For the characters of Will’s Race for Home by Jewell Parker Rhodes (Little, Brown, Jan. 14), illustrated by Olga and Aleksey Ivanov, freedom doesn’t always feel free. Will’s father, a formerly enslaved sharecropper in Texas, longs for better opportunities, and when he learns about unclaimed land in Oklahoma, he and Will set out to claim it. Thrumming with tension, this tale offers insights into the 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush—a topic many readers may be unfamiliar with.

Bibi Dumon Tak’s My Presentation Today Is About the Anaconda (Levine Querido, Feb. 4), illustrated by Annemarie van Haeringen and translated from Dutch by Nancy Forest-Flier, raises the bar for animal nonfiction as furry, feathered, and finned students deliver a series of hilariously apt class reports. A cleaner fish expounds on the shark, a white rhino holds forth on the shoebill stork, and an earthworm discusses the titular snake. Everyone earns an A: for effort, accuracy, and ingenuity.

In Guojing’s graphic novel Oasis (Godwin Books, Feb. 18), two siblings eke out a meager existence in a dystopian desert setting while their mother toils in an underground factory. Their world is upended when they encounter an abandoned robot with a maternal side. This haunting tale feels like a Twilight Zone episode for the younger set, though it’s woven with hope, along with thought-provoking musings about family and environmental devastation.

Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.