We can’t talk about the best new children’s books of November 2026 without mentioning the newest Dog Man book by Dav Pilkey, but there are plenty of other new picture books, middle grade books, and children’s nonfiction books to check out this month. There’s a fable about grief by Margaret Wise Brown, a funny picture book from the team behind Don’t Trust Fish , a middle grade mystery set in Antarctica, two must-read picture book biographies about groundbreaking women in Black history, and more.

The Dark Wood of the Golden Birds , written by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Ofra Amit, with an afterword by Maria Popova (November 27)

This rediscovered fable about grief from the author of Goodnight Moon was written while the love of her life was dying. Now, it’s been reissued with new illustrations and a new afterword. It follows two orphaned children who are taken in by an old man who lives on the edge of a mysterious woods.…