Illegal, by Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin, Giovanni Rigano (illustrator), Publishing August 7  Imagine you are left alone with your entire family missing and nothing but the mere clothes on your back. A young Ghanaian boy named Ebi faces this reality in an illustrated novel that delves into the hardships endured by undocumented immigrants today. His brother Kwame recently disappeared and their sister had vanished months prior, along their own journeys across the continent to Europe. Accompany Ebo along his arduous voyage, from the brutal heat of the Sahara Desert to the menacing roads of Tripoli, Libya, in an attempt to reunite with his siblings and seek a new and improved life.

The Pool House, by Tasmina Perry, Publishing August 9  Eager to kick back and relish a relaxing seaside getaway in a glamorous Hamptons house-share, Jem Chapman soon hears skin-crawling word regarding a young woman named Alice who had drowned in the pool the previous summer. According to her housemates, Alice was troubled, had been drinking and never learned how to swim. The more time she spends in the house, the more Jem unravels about her shady housemates. Something smelled fishy—and it wasn’t the ocean. Was someone here responsible? If she was stepping in for Alice, was Jem next? 

Chesapeake Requiem: Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island, by Earl Swift. Publishing August 7  Nestled within Chesapeake Bay sits the quaint and isolated Tangier Island: a 200-year-old community home to 470 inhabitants, as well as to a rustic and eccentric way of life revolving around its beloved blue crab industry. To the community’s dismay, Tangier continues to approach its inevitable disintegration and eventual extinction; rising sea levels have threatened the area since 1850, and two thirds of the land has already disappeared. Described as “brilliant, soulful, and timely portrait,” author Earl Swift applies his personal experiences from living on the island for two years, bringing to light the unusually charismatic and compelling qualities of the island—its past, its present state and its unfortunate future hanging on by a thread.