YOU ARE NOW OLD ENOUGH TO HEAR THIS
by Aaron Starmer
Penguin Workshop, Spring 2026
(via Dystel, Goderich & Bourret)
The enthralling story of a boy, Roman, whose grandfather tells a wild tale about his missing toe. He tells the family that when his toe was accidentally chopped off as a child, he put it in a jar of formaldehyde, and that the toe then began to speak and grow. After his grandfather suddenly dies, Roman discovers the empty jar and a notebook in the attic, which leads him on a strange journey into his grandparent’s past, one in which a chopped off toe became a Toe Beast, a genetic clone of his grandfather with a taste for hair and toenail clippings. And it leads him to the story in the notebook, one about a strange girl who comes to a small town and slowly takes over by communing with all of the town’s dogs. Those tales are more related than they seem, and we learn how the family’s past informs its present.
Aaron Starmer was born in northern California and raised in the suburbs of Syracuse, New York. Before pursuing writing full-time, he worked in New York City for over ten years as an editor for a travel bookseller and as an operations director for an African safari company. His middle grade and young adult novels have been translated into multiple foreign languages and have appeared on best of the year lists from Time, Wall Street Journal, New York Public Library, YALSA, Bank Street College of Education, Chicago Public Library and School Library Journal. He lives in Vermont with his wife and two daughters.
Meet the teacher day? Check! Fun, new classroom? Check! Shiny new first day of school shoes? Check! Meet Junie B. Jones! The B stands for Beatrice. Except she doesn’t like Beatrice. She just likes B. and that’s all. Junie B. is almost six. Almost six is when you go to kindergarten. And TODAY is Junie B.’s first day of school! Only guess what? Junie B. does NOT want to ride the school bus home. It smells on the bus. Plus also, what if there are meanies on the bus who might pour chocolate milk on your head?! In fact, what if Junie B.’s so scared of the bus that when it’s time to go home…she doesn’t?!
Cordy is looking for good luck, looking for the feeling of safety she lost when her father died in a fishing boat accident, maybe even looking for a hint of magic—anything that will stop her mom from wanting to leave the coastal town she and her brother have always called home. What Cordy finds is a muddy, hungry little dog who ends up bringing all the luck she could want, and more.