Your PJ Our Way Books for June 2026

The Sun Will Come Out
By: Joanne Levy

Ages 10+

296 pages

11-year-old Bea Gelman is looking forward to a summer at Camp Shalom, but her best friend Frankie decides to go to horse camp instead! Luckily Bea makes friends with Regan, a sweet Irish girl who stands up for Bea when mean girls Samantha and Carly give her a hard time. Regan decides to try out for the lead in the camp production of Annie and encourages Bea to join her. Bea doesn’t want to be on stage, but she reluctantly agrees when she sees her crush, Jeremy, at rehearsals.

When Bea ends up in the camp infirmary with a bad case of hives, she meets Harry, the son of the camp directors. Harry doesn’t look like other kids, but Bea doesn’t mind and they become good friends. But just when it seems like Bea’s summer might not be so bad after all, mean girl Carly says she saw Regan kissing Jeremy, and Bea learns that Harry suffers from progeria, a rare but fatal genetic disease. With Regan and Harry’s help, Bea learns about the power of true friendship and what it means to be courageous in the face of life’s challenges.

Tucson Jo
By: Carol Matas

Ages 9+

111 pages

In 1882, fourteen-year-old Josephine (“Jo”) lives in Tucson with her parents and two siblings. When her father decides to run for mayor, he faces a rival candidate—her best friend Connie’s father—who turns out to be dishonest and willing to play dirty, including using antisemitic election leaflets. Alongside the campaign, Jo pushes for more independence: she wants to wear trousers, learn to ride a horse, and study Talmud, even as she struggles with what her family expects of her. As tensions rise, Jo tries to balance loyalty to her father with standing up for her own beliefs. By the end, Jo and her father have a stronger relationship, and an afterword explains that her father’s character is based on Charles Strauss, who became Tucson’s first Jewish mayor

When We Had Wings
By: Tami Shem-Tov

Ages 11+

188 pages

In 1935 Warsaw, Poland, twelve-year-old Janek is an orphan who survives by stealing and running through the streets. After his legs are badly injured, his sister sends him to a Jewish orphanage run by the famous educator and doctor Janusz Korczak.

At first Janek doesn’t trust anyone. But life in the orphanage is different from anything he has known before. The children help run their own newspaper, hold a court where kids judge other kids fairly, and spend summers at a farm outside the city. Slowly, Janek begins to feel safe and even hopeful about the future.

As antisemitism grows more dangerous in Poland, the children at the orphanage learn about Jewish history and courage, including the story of the Beilis blood libel case. When Janek’s sister has a chance to emigrate to Palestine, Janek must decide whether he’s ready to leave the orphanage—and the life he has finally begun to build. This book is translated from the award winning Hebrew title “I Am Not A Thief”.

Noah McNichol and the Backstage Ghost
By: Martha Freeman

Ages 10+

272 pages

When Miss Magnus breaks her leg, eleven-year-old Noah McNichol and the rest of the Plattsfield Winklebottom Memorial Sixth-Grade Players are left without a director for their production of Hamlet. At first Coach steps in, but he spends more time on his phone than on the play. Then, an older man dressed in strange clothing appears out of nowhere. Who is Mike, and why has he decided to help? Could he be a ghost? As things get weirder, Noah decides that the show must go on—no matter what.