April 15, 2025: Volume XCII, No. 8

FEATURING 306 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children’s, and YA Books

THE SUPERHEROIC JOURNEY TO SELF-PUBLICATION

David Washington, author of Black Defender, headlines our special Indie Issue

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

DECLARATIONS OF INDEPENDENCE

THREE YEARS AGO, bookseller Lori Feathers of Interabang Books in Dallas helped import a new literary prize to the United States and Canada: one recognizing the copious treasures coming out of small presses here. The Republic of Consciousness Prize had originally been founded in the U.K. in 2017, and as global publishing continued to consolidate in a handful of mega-corporations, it seemed an opportune time to recognize the vitality and spirit of independent publishers on this side of the Atlantic, too. These publishers aren’t seeking to reap huge profits from their products but to publish good books and make a living while doing so.

The winner of this year’s Republic of Consciousness Prize, United States and Canada, was announced last

month: Rodrigo Fresán’s Melvill (see the story on page 41). The novel, translated from Spanish by Will Vanderhyden, reimagines the lives and legacies of Herman Melville, author of Moby-Dick, and his father, Allan Melvill. Our starred review calls it an “elegant, meditative story about storytelling.”

The novel is published by Open Letter, a nonprofit publisher housed at the University of Rochester that is dedicated to literary translations. Other presses on the Republic of Consciousness shortlist included Coffee House Press, Fern Books, Sandorf Passage, and Biblioasis. Discussing the prize recently on the Across the Pond podcast, which she co-hosts with Sam Jordison, Feathers observed that “these indie publishers…are taking

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commercial risks that other presses just don’t want to or refuse [to].”

Fortunately, some of the higher-profile book prizes are recognizing work from independent publishers, too. Last month, I attended the National Book Critics Circle Awards ceremony in New York, where a host of scrappy, upstart presses had books in the running for the prestigious critics’ awards: Belt Publishing’s The Minotaur at Calle Lanza by Zito Madu was a finalist in autobiography; Two Dollar Radio’s Us Fools by Nora Lange was a fiction finalist; and Transit Books’ Traces of Enayat by Iman Mersal, translated by Robin Moger, was a finalist for the translation prize (alongside Melvill ).

In this, our fifth annual Indie Issue, we celebrate enterprising presses like these, along with the self-published authors who not only write the books but, often design, market, and even sell them, too. One of these is David Washington, who appears on the cover in a portrait by artist Kathryn Rathke. As

Washington tells contributing writer Michael Schaub in the feature on page 162, he was moved to create his graphic novel, Black Defender: The Awakening (illustrated by Zhengis Tasbolatov), by the dearth of Black superheroes in the films that he and his kids were watching on family movie nights.

A reviewer for Kirkus Indie said the self-published comic book “more than delivers on the promise of its premise,” and, in fact, it was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award, competing against graphic novels from Big 5 publishers such as HarperCollins and Penguin Random House. Washington says he was “over the moon” to be in such company. We at Kirkus are just as excited to be honoring all the indie books in this issue—signs of a robust field that is bringing new opportunities to writers and broadening choices for readers at the same time.

Illustration by Eric Scott Anderson

TOM BEER

The Indie Issue

Co-Chairman

HERBERT SIMON

Publisher & CEO

MEG LABORDE KUEHN mkuehn@kirkus.com

Chief Marketing Officer

SARAH KALINA skalina@kirkus.com

Publisher Advertising & Promotions

RACHEL WEASE rwease@kirkus.com

Indie Advertising & Promotions

AMY BAIRD abaird@kirkus.com

Author Consultant

KEELIN FERDINANDSEN kferdinandsen@kirkus.com

Lead Designer KY NOVAK knovak@kirkus.com

Magazine Compositor NIKKI RICHARDSON nrichardson@kirkus.com

Kirkus Editorial Senior Production Editor

ROBIN O’DELL rodell@kirkus.com

Kirkus Editorial Senior Production Editor

MARINNA CASTILLEJA mcastilleja@kirkus.com

Kirkus Editorial Production Editor

ASHLEY LITTLE alittle@kirkus.com

Copy Editors

ELIZABETH J. ASBORNO

LORENA CAMPES

NANCY MANDEL BILL SIEVER

Co-Chairman

MARC WINKELMAN

Editor-in-Chief TOM BEER tbeer@kirkus.com

President of Kirkus Indie

CHAYA SCHECHNER cschechner@kirkus.com

Fiction Editor

LAURIE MUCHNICK lmuchnick@kirkus.com

Nonfiction Editor

JOHN McMURTRIE jmcmurtrie@kirkus.com

Young Readers’ Editor

LAURA SIMEON lsimeon@kirkus.com

Young Readers’ Editor MAHNAZ DAR mdar@kirkus.com

Editor at Large

MEGAN LABRISE mlabrise@kirkus.com

Senior Indie Editor

DAVID RAPP drapp@kirkus.com

Indie Editor ARTHUR SMITH asmith@kirkus.com

Editorial Assistant

NINA PALATTELLA npalattella@kirkus.com

Indie Editorial Assistant

DAN NOLAN dnolan@kirkus.com

Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH

Contributing Writers

GREGORY MCNAMEE MICHAEL SCHAUB

Contributors

Nada Abdelrahim, Colleen Abel, Reina Luz Alegre, Jeffrey Alford, Paul Allen, Stephanie Anderson, Jenny Arch, Kent Armstrong, Mark Athitakis, Kit Ballenger, Audrey Barbakoff, Heather Berg, Kazia Berkley-Cramer, Elizabeth Bird, Christopher A. Biss-Brown, Sarah Blackman, Nastassian Brandon, Jessica Hoptay Brown, Cliff Burke, Ana Cackley, Kevin Canfield, Timothy Capehart, Catherine Cardno, Tobias Carroll, Charles Cassady, Ann Childs, Alec B. Chunn, Amanda Chuong, K.W. Colyard, Rachael Conrad, Adeisa Cooper, Emma Corngold, Jeannie Coutant, Michael Deagler, Dave DeChristopher, Elise DeGuiseppi, Amanda Diehl, Steve Donoghue, Melanie Dragger, Elaine Elinson, Lisa Elliott, Lily Emerick, Chelsea Ennen, Ilana Bensussen Epstein, Joshua Farrington, Margherita Ferrante, Katie Flanagan, Sasha Fox-Carney, Mia Franz, Ayn Reyes Frazee, Jenna Friebel, Nivair H. Gabriel, Laurel Gardner, Jean Gazis, Carol Goldman, Melinda Greenblatt, Tobi Haberstroh, Silvia Lin Hanick, Peter Heck, Lynne Heffley, Katrina Niidas Holm, Natalia Holtzman, Julie Hubble, Ariana Hussain, Kathleen T. Isaacs, Wesley Jacques, Jessica Jernigan, Marcelle Karp, Ivan Kenneally, Colleen King, Lyneea Kmail, Andrea Kreidler, Susan Kusel, Megan Dowd Lambert, Christopher Lassen, Tom Lavoie, Judith Leitch, Seth Lerer, Coeur de Lion, Barbara London, Patricia Lothrop, Wendy Lukehart, Michael Magras, Joe Maniscalco, Michelle H Martin, Gabriela Martins, J. Alejandro Mazariegos, Jeanne McDermott, Cari Meister, Kathie Meizner, J. Elizabeth Mills, Chintan Modi, Afton Montgomery, Clayton Moore, Andrea Moran, Rhett Morgan, Molly Muldoon, Yesha Naik, Christopher Navratil, Randall Nichols, Therese Purcell Nielsen, Sarah Norris, Ari Nussbaum, Katrina Nye, Tori Ann Ogawa, Mike Oppenheim, Nick Owchar, Emilia Packard, Megan K. Palmer, Derek Parker, Hal Patnott, Alea Perez, John Edward Peters, Jim Piechota, Christofer Pierson, Vicki Pietrus, William E. Pike, Judy Quinn, Kristy Raffensberger, Darryn Reams, Caroline Reed, Nancy Thalia Reynolds, Peter Richardson, Amy Robinson, Lizzie Rogers, Oisin Rowe, Lloyd Sachs, Sydney Sampson, Bob Sanchez, Julia Sangha, Caitlin Savage, E.F. Schraeder, Will Schube, Jerome Shea, Danielle Sigler, Leah Silvieus, Linda Simon, Laurie Skinner, Wendy Smith, Margot E. Spangenberg, Allison Staley, Allie Stevens, Mathangi Subramanian, Jennifer Sweeney, Eva Thaler-Sroussi, Bill Thompson, Renee Ting, Lenora Todaro, Nancy Tolson, Jenna Varden, Katie Vermilyea, Caroline Ward, Kimberly Whitmer, Sam Wilcox, Vanessa Willoughby, Paul Wilner, John Wilwol, Kerry Winfrey, Marion Winik, Jean-Louise Zancanella

TRAVELS IN AUSTENLAND

ALMOST INADVERTENTLY,

I’ve spent the last few months immersed in the world of Jane Austen. My husband decided to listen to an audiobook of Persuasion , so I joined him, and I didn’t stop till I’d listened to all six novels. It was such a delight that I watched the movies and TV series and then realized I had books about Austen in every room just waiting to be read, and there are so many Austeninfluenced novels out there that, with hardly any effort, I could probably stay in this bubble for the next two to four years, as necessary.

Before going any further, I’d like to sing the praises of Juliet Stevenson. She’s not the only good audiobook narrator in Austenland, but once I downloaded her performance of Emma (Naxos, 16 hours and 39 minutes), there was no going back—and, fortunately, she’s recorded them all. The vivid vocal personality she creates for each character underlines Austen’s humor and precision, making it easy to follow the narratives as they loop in and out of various perspectives.

It may have been Karen Joy Fowler who started the

most recent boom of Austeniana with The Jane Austen Book Club (Marion Wood/Putnam, 2004), a delightful novel about five women who meet regularly to discuss their favorite writer, and one man who’s never read Austen before (he’s a science fiction fan) but comes along for the ride. Our starred review calls it “bright, engaging, dexterous literary entertainment.”

Most of the Austen books on my shelves are nonfiction. Rachel Cohen’s Austen Years: A Memoir in Five Novels (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020) starts with a mystery: Why only five—is Cohen completely discounting Northanger Abbey ? During a turbulent time in her life, with the birth of her first child overlapping the illness and

death of her father, Cohen found herself reading virtually nothing but Austen—for seven years. Our review calls this “a nuanced portrait of a writer and reader,” and though I haven’t finished it yet, I find myself wanting to know how the pandemic and subsequent events have affected Cohen’s reading habits.

In A Jane Austen Education: How Six Novels Taught Me About Love, Friendship, and the Things That Really Matter (Penguin Press, 2011), William Deresiewicz reinstates that missing sixth novel while exploring the ways that reading Austen changed his life. Each chapter discusses one novel and the lesson the author took from it on his way to becoming an English professor, and our review

says he “smartly finds the practical value of Austen’s prose without degrading her novels into how-to manuals.”

Rebecca Romney takes an interesting approach in Jane Austen’s Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector’s Quest To Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend (Marysue Rucci Books/Simon & Schuster, Feb. 18), searching out writers Austen read herself, including Frances Burney, Maria Edgeworth, and Ann Radcliffe—whose The Mysteries of Udolpho plays a big role in Northanger Abbey, which Romney says “is rarely an Austen reader’s favorite, but it is mine.” I think I know where I’m going to start my re-rereading.

Laurie Muchnick is the fiction editor.

LAURIE MUCHNICK

Illustration by Eric Scott Anderson

EDITOR’S PICK

After a tragedy, the fortunes of a California family unfold in unexpected ways.

It’s the mid-1970s when the curtain rises on architect Phil Samuelson, his schoolteacher wife, Sibyl, and their three children, Ellis, Katie, and Sally. Ellis, who will turn 18 that summer before college, heads off with a couple of friends for a week-long road trip but does not return on schedule, sending his parents only a few brief letters assuring them that he’s fine and begging them not to track him down. As it turns out, Ellis dies so early in the book it seems no spoiler to say it, and his death will be quickly followed by another shock: He left behind a pregnant girlfriend. With a structure

reminiscent of Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth (2016), Huneven moves among her characters and over the next four decades to set up and spring all the surprises she has in store, occasionally leaving California to trace developments in spots as far-flung as Saudi Arabia and Oaxaca, and eventually requiring the services of 23andMe and the legalization of same-sex marriage to make all the many pieces fall into place. As someone aptly describes the central couple, “Oh, Phil’s lovely. His wife, though, is a prickly thing. But isn’t that always the case: the easygoing marry the prickles because who else would have them?” Yes, Phil is easier to love than Sibyl, and daughter Sally is

quite a bit more appealing than her older sister, Katie, but Huneven is good at unlikable characters, making them fully threedimensional while stopping far short of sappy redemption. Another of her signature elements, alcoholism, is in the mix as well, appearing via a deep green tumbler of “Hawaiian

Punch” clutched in the hand of a major character and two cases of beer drunk daily by a pair of minor ones, retired civil servants and would-be swingers who run a donut shop in the middle of nowhere. Gotta love that.

A deeply satisfying novel; Huneven’s best work to date.

A generations-spanning saga of collectible eggs and the people in their orbit.

THE IMPOSSIBLE THING

The Impossible Thing

Bauer, Belinda | Atlantic Monthly (336 pp.)

$27.00 | April 8, 2025 | 9780802164414

A generationsspanning saga of collectible eggs and the people in their orbit. In the 1920s, on the cliffs of North Yorkshire, various gangs control the business of collecting seabird eggs, which can be quite lucrative. But at Metland Farm, it’s common knowledge that the edge of the cliff is too dangerous to scale. When Celie Sheppard, fatherless misfit, and Robert, the farmhand, find a way for her to descend through a crack in the rock, she finds a guillemot nest with one perfectly red egg, and for the next 30 years, she fetches one red egg a year for a special collector, George Ambler, who pays handsomely for the rarity. In the present time, in Wales, two men break into the house of a young man, Weird Nick, and his mother, tie them up, and steal an “old egg in a fancy wooden box” that Nick bought from eBay. Nick and his friend Patrick decide to do some sleuthing and see if they can get the egg back, because it’s clearly valuable. Their adventures bring them into direct contact with an egg expert, Dr. Christopher Connor; a militant member of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds; and an accused egg-stealer who has sacrificed all material comforts for his collection. Bauer interweaves Celie and Ambler’s story with Nick and Patrick’s adventures, and it’s a slow burn in the sense that it takes a while to understand both the scope of the novel and the significance of the “Metland Egg” because there’s a lot of switching

back and forth between time periods and characters. But once it all begins to hit, the uniqueness of the world and the charm of the characters is undeniable. There’s a wistfulness, too, to the fact that in order to preserve something beautiful like this egg, the chick inside must die. As one character says, “Jeez…who knew the world of eggs was so cut-throat!” Succeeds not only in its intricately balanced plot, but also in its emotional weight.

One in Four

Berry, Lucinda | Thomas & Mercer (251 pp.) $16.99 paper | May 13, 2025 | 9781662526046

When a reality TV show crashes to a premature end with the death of one of its stars, its consulting therapist works frantically to clear her name.

Comeback Kids features seven actors whose careers were cut short by their addiction to drugs or drinks or unsuitable men. One of its producers, Gia Mathews—director of the treatment center Crystal Meadows, whose identity on the show has been kept secret so far—spotlights them individually and in groups as they pursue their healing regimens under the guidance of sobriety coach Dr. Laurel Harlow. The stars’ often erratic and hostile behavior can be tough to watch, but it’s made the show a hit that’s contending for an Emmy with Queer Eye until the youngest cast member playing herself, 19-year-old Maddie Hernandez, is found dead, a victim of anaphylactic shock as a reaction to ibuprofen, the one pharmaceutical she’s known to be

allergic to. The last message Maddie recorded in the daily journal she was required to keep—“If something bad happens to me tonight, it wasn’t an accident ”—makes Detectives Wallace and Boone of the LAPD treat her death as very suspicious indeed. They quickly choose Laurel, who narrates the story except for a series of flashbacks to a brutal gang rape in sections labeled “Then,” as the most likely perpetrator. Then Laurel herself makes one discovery too many, and the tale switches abruptly to an unflinching take on the damsel in distress betrayed by someone she thought she could trust, just like all of Berry’s other luckless heroines.

If you can accept the shakeup of what looked like an overheated whodunit, the payoff is startling.

Don’t Forget Me, Little Bessie

Burke, James Lee | Atlantic Monthly (368 pp.) $28.00 | June 3, 2025 | 9780802164520

T he latest chapter in the saga of the Holland family focuses on a most unlikely member: Hackberry Holland’s daughter, Bessie Mae, a child born with the 20th century. Bessie has a haint. She sees spirits and sees herself as indissolubly connected to a little girl who was murdered years ago and whose stolen life she’s determined to lead. Her tale begins in 1914 with her first encounter with Slick, a spirit who offers her a dramatically different perspective on the world from her alcoholic father, a Texas Ranger-turnedrancher, and her older brother, Cody. Although Bessie bonds with her teacher Ida Banks, this is no mere coming-ofage story. Repeatedly abused and dismissed by the threatening men who surround her—from Winthrop Fowler, the father of her schoolmate Jubal, to Indian Charlie, a killer who works security for Atlas Oil, to Tater Dog, a particularly vile member of Charlie’s gang—she’s just as proactive,

outspoken, and capable from the opening as any of Burke’s gallery of male heroes. As speculators scramble to extract every drop of oil they can from beneath the Texas soil, Bessie shoots an unarmed but eminently deserving man to death and runs away to New York, where Cody’s taken up with the Bowery kids Meyer Lansky, Benny Siegel, and Owney Madden. But even the men there who won’t turn into gangsters are no better than the men Bessie left behind, and she returns to Texas determined to protect the father who can no longer protect her.

A special treat for all the readers who’ve longed to see Burke place one of his strong women at the center of a story.

Kirkus Star

Marguerite by the Lake Carter, Mary Dixie | Minotaur (304 pp.) $28.00 | May 20, 2025 | 9781250790385

C arter’s second thriller is a searing contemporary take on Daphne du Maurier’s classic neoGothic Rebecca. What unites Marguerite Gray and Phoenix Sullivan most closely is their shared love of Rosecliff, the Grays’ 20-acre Connecticut estate, which lifestyle influencer Marguerite, who’s been cut off from her old-money family’s wealth, writes about ardently and influentially even though Phoenix, a member of Frank Brizzi’s gardening crew, is the one who tends it most lovingly. The two women’s symbiotic but profoundly unequal relationship is threatened by a series of escalating calamities. The first doesn’t seem like a calamity: Phoenix saves ex-attorney Geoffrey Gray, Marguerite’s husband and partner in the charity Greenhaven Gardens, from being crushed to death by a falling spruce tree. But then Geoffrey makes advances to Phoenix, slowly wears her down and takes her to bed, and fosters her undying love for him. Matters come

to a head when a confrontation between Phoenix and Marguerite, who’s grown steadily more suspicious of the gardener, ends with the lady of the manor plunging from a cliff. Geoffrey wastes no time in getting Phoenix to move in, and he’s clearly ready to move on. But his staff isn’t, and Taylor Gray, his razor-sharp law student daughter, also isn’t. Nor, most movingly, is Phoenix herself, who’s tormented by accusatory visions of Marguerite, conflicts real and imagined with everyone she turns to, and the crushing certainty that she’s never going to be seen as a replacement or a legitimate successor to the first wife of her lover, who inevitably turns out to be hiding secrets of his own. Not to be missed, and definitely not to be imitated.

Speak to Me of Home

Cummins, Jeanine | Henry Holt (384 pp.) $29.99 | May 13, 2025 | 9781250759368

T hree generations navigate familial relationships and one big family secret. Rafaela grows up in a palatial house in San Juan, but when her father loses his powerful job in disgrace, she has to leave school and work as a secretary on a military base. When she and her husband move their family to Missouri, their daughter, Ruth, assimilates much more easily than her brother. Ruth’s daughter, Daisy, rejects the upper-middle-class life her mother creates for her in a suburb half an hour away from Manhattan, choosing instead to manage her uncle’s rental properties in Puerto Rico. This novel tells the stories of all three women, shifting in time from the 1950s to the present day. Cummins’ previous novel, American Dirt (2020), was a bestseller, but some critics complained that the author seemed to be writing about Mexican migrants as an outsider looking in. Her depictions of Puerto Rican culture and the lives of her migrant characters here are occasionally more nuanced—colorism and class play

significant roles in the plot—but Cummins still indulges in tired tropes. For example, Rafaela’s mother is a black-haired beauty from the countryside who shimmies her hips and claps back at the patrician women who snub her. And the Puerto Rico that Daisy experiences never quite feels like an actual place. On her first visit to her grandmother’s birthplace, Daisy falls in love with Puerto Rico because it’s “just foreign enough to be an adventure and still familiar enough to feel like home.” This would read less like the tagline on a travel brochure if the move from the American suburbs to San Juan had any discernible impact on her as a person. She does almost die in a hurricane, but a natural disaster is not character development. Indeed, none of the characters here emerge as real people. Even the dramatic revelation that animates the novel’s final act fails to provoke much in the way of conflict or change.

Flat characters and cultural cliches make for a disappointing read.

Skin and Bones: And Other Mike Bowditch Short Stories

Doiron, Paul | Minotaur (368 pp.) | $31.00 May 13, 2025 | 9781250382139

Eight stories, originally published between 2017 and 2023, following the adventures of Maine game warden Mike Bowditch. In truth, it’s quite a while before Mike takes center stage because half of these stories are told to him by his friend and mentor, retired warden Charley Stevens, whose narratives are provoked by events in the present. In “The Bear Trap,” Charley goes hunting for Sweet Tooth, a hermit who’s reported to have carried out nearly 100 burglaries some 20 years ago. In “Backtrack,” Charley recalls his search for a physician who’s gone missing from a group expedition. And in “Rabid,” Charley has a series of increasingly

disturbing encounters with John Hussey, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran reportedly bitten by a bat, and his Vietnamese wife, Giang. Mike gets his own story, more or less, when he has to track down the man who’s been impersonating him in “The Imposter.” He returns in “The Caretaker” to deal with Violet and Josiah Baker, newcomers from the South Shore whose cottage has been vandalized but not robbed; in “Snakebit,” a third-person story introducing Ted and Fay Gorecki, a crackpot couple whose plan to reintroduce rattlesnakes into the wilderness goes seriously haywire; and in “Sheep’s Clothing,” in which he investigates the apparent murder-suicide of John and Martha Witham. The title story, the longest and finest thing here, uses the present-day shooting of a bald eagle to motivate still another tale Charley tells Mike about a long-ago eagle shooting, this one involving Mike’s abusive father. Like all the other stories here, this one grows as if unbidden from the natural environment Doiron knows so well and builds gradually to include more and more complications, this time ending in a shattering climax. Welcome to Maine. Make sure you’re locked and loaded.

Kirkus Star

To Smithereens

Drexler, Rosalyn | Hagfish (200 pp.)

$18.00 paper | May 6, 2025 | 9781965028025

A wild ride through the underground lives of female wrestlers in early 1970s New York.

One day, Rosa—a deliberate naif, on her own since she was 15 and wandering through New York City with all her belongings in a straw bag—is depressed. She decides to wait out the “unhip” afternoon at the movies, but midway through the picture feels a hand on her thigh. This is Rosa’s introduction to Paul Partch—itinerant art critic, fetishist of large, powerful

women, ardent wrestling fan—who becomes her midafternoon lover, then her love. Eventually, however, Paul’s need to assert dominance over Rosa in a fantasy version of their relationship, because, as he reasons, “ownership belongs to the creator,” leads him to finagle her introduction to Bobby Fox, the big boss of a veritable stable of traveling lady wrestlers. Rosa, who recognizes Paul’s essentially manipulative nature, decides to go along with the wrestling idea “for kicks” and enters into a complex underworld filled with characters like Lee Darling, the Beautiful Boomerang, a wrestling world washout who rides with the American Legion on the side; Tommy J. Jukes, whose cruel, patriarchal relationship with her female lover repulses Rosa; and Shorty, a loquacious “right-hand man” with dwarfism whose wife and child were “smashed to smithereens” in a car accident years before. These characters, and many more, objectify, oppress, counsel, and care for Rosa, even as Paul, oscillating between sexualized glee at her success and insecurity at her growing distance, tries to pull her back under his dominion. While at times the book shows its age—’70s-era freak show ableism of the Tom Robbins variety rides a gleeful sidecar to the main plot—the buoyant quality of Rosa’s nature, her absolute certainty of her right to her own perspective, and her open embrace of a world that is sometimes actively trying to harm her go a long way toward recentering the reader’s attention to the novel’s real goal: a radical assertion of the power inherent in Rosa, and the rest of us, to defend the identity we’ve chosen to live. The result is a book that is both epic in its energy and intimate in its attention; a much-needed reminder of the enduring, and transformative, power of the weird. Drexler rises from her corner, ready to fight again!

Kirkus Star

Notes From a Regicide

Fellman, Isaac | Tor (336 pp.) | $26.03 April 15, 2025 | 9781250329103

A trans man in future New York considers the legacy of his trans parents.

For more by Isaac Fellman, visit Kirkus online.

“Who were these two people?” asks Griffon Keming, the protagonist of Fellman’s fourth book, set centuries into the future. “Who were these two people? Revolutionaries, or halfrevolutionaries. Survivors, or half-survivors. They spoke a language that was half one thing and half another, and they had spent half their lives together.” Griffon, a transgender man, is writing about his parents, Etoine and Zaffre Zipporah Keming, who are also transgender, and who took Griffon in when he was younger and fleeing his abusive father. Griffon’s parents have died, and he has resolved to discover more about them; the novel switches perspective between Griffon and Etoine, the latter through diary entries that he wrote, partly while in prison for allegedly trying to overthrow the ruler of the city-state of Stephensport, where he and Zaffre lived when they were younger, before moving to New York. Etoine’s diary reveals his longtime friendship with Zaffre, and their roles in the city-state’s revolution movement, while Griffon reflects on his childhood growing up as closeted and trans: “In fact, through my whole adolescence, I stayed a little girl….Everybody liked me this way, and I proceeded invisibly through the world.” Fellman’s worldbuilding is subtle but beautifully done; he captures the essence of a future New York that is covered in canals and also brings Stephensport to life. His dialogue sparkles, particularly in sections featuring Etoine and Zaffre bantering and bickering and others where they tenderly reassure a young Griffon. Most notably, though,

Fellman paints a tender portrait of Griffon and his journey to coming out as trans, which he handles with real compassion and insight. This beautifully written, self-assured novel is a major accomplishment.

Expansive and empathetic, this novel is a stunner.

Freakslaw

Flett, Jane | Zando (368 pp.)

$28.00 | April 1, 2025 | 9781638932666

A traveling sideshow and a conservative town clash in late 1990s Scotland in this debut novel. The Freakslaw rolls into Pitlaw one afternoon, showcasing its collection of misfits and weirdos to the town’s conservative (and repressed) residents. The group sets up shop in an old abandoned field and gets to work setting up tents. The locals say there’s no way they’ll attend, but as the freaks make their way into town, the residents’ curiosity is heightened, and some find themselves drawn in when the show finally opens. But there is fury in the soil in Pitlaw, a deep-seated rage passed down through the centuries that doesn’t like its town being messed with. The show’s stop in Pitlaw will change the townspeople forever, but the question is whether it will be for good or ill. Flett has created an incredibly physical world full of magic and consequences. There’s a character list at the beginning of the novel and, indeed, there are almost too many people to keep track of, between the various denizens of both the carnival and the town. While the most important ones stand out—Nancy, the young witch of the carnival; Zed, the free-spirited waltzer boy; Ruth, the no-nonsense teen determined to get out of Pitlaw; Derek, the quiet boy stuck under his father’s thumb—there are so many that it becomes hard to keep track of them as the chapters dance back and forth between the magical misfits and the staid townsfolk. The action paces ever onward

A fearsome, hopeful, cautionary tale of otherness, hatred, and rebirth.

FREAKSLAW

to an ultimate conflagration, and the writing is visceral. There are no details left to the imagination, all the blood and guts, hate and joy on full display. The Freakslaw is a place for outcasts to find their voices, and Flett has certainly displayed hers as she welcomes readers to her powerful imagination.

A fearsome, hopeful, cautionary tale of otherness, hatred, and rebirth.

The Third Rule of Time Travel

Fracassi, Philip | Orbit (336 pp.) | $18.99 paper | March 18, 2025 | 9780316572514

A pioneering scientist discovers that all she knows about her time-travel machine may be wrong.

Beth Darlow’s life is one tragedy after another. Following surviving the plane crash that killed her parents and older sister when she was only 12 years old, Beth lost her grandfather, who raised her after the accident, on prom night. Her beloved husband, Colson, died on her birthday one year ago. Now a single mother to 4-year-old Isabella, Beth continues the work she and Colson began: perfecting the art of time travel. The rules, as Beth knows them, are simple. She can travel only to points on her own timeline, reliving her memories in vivid Technicolor. She can stay for approximately 90 seconds and no more. Most importantly, she cannot change or influence the events she witnesses in the past. Time travel is something to be done sparingly, with months between jaunts into the past. So far, only Beth and Colson have taken the

plunge. But all that could change when the project’s financier, Jim Langan, decides to take the top-secret project public. Suddenly, necessity forces Beth to relive her most traumatic memories over and over again in quick succession. It soon becomes clear to the reader that time traveling is mucking up Beth’s own timeline, as small changes begin to occur. But when tragedy strikes again and Beth loses everything, she finds herself making one last push into the past—this time to save what’s most precious to her. Fracassi weaves a tightly plotted story here, tying up loose ends in nice, neat bows. Although some readers will undoubtedly find Beth’s tale too tame to bear the thriller mantle, others will enjoy the coziness of this time-travel tale.

A solid new entry in the time-travel genre that never gets too bogged down in the science of it all.

Next to Heaven

Frey, James | Authors Equity (336 pp.)

$29.00 | June 17, 2025 | 9798893310269

A swingers’ party leads to murder in a wealthy Connecticut enclave. After a sevenyear hiatus from publishing adult fiction, Frey has found a groove with this gleefully trashy page-turner set among the one percent: four couples in the fictional town of New Bethlehem whose lives are thrown into chaos when two of the wives plan a spouse-swapping evening. (Rick Moody’s 1994 novel, The Ice Storm, lurks in the background, unnamed: “You know Key Parties were invented here.” “I’ve seen the movie, I’ve read the book.”)

Their short-range goals are to sleep with someone other than their husbands (one is a sadistic nightmare, the other impotent), but there’s a long-range goal the reader won’t know about for a while. Frey is in his element here, with his signature breathless, over-the-top, unpunctuated sentences and onesentence paragraphs; laundry lists of high-end brand names (at one meeting, people sit on Boca do Lobo sofas and Roche Bobois armchairs in Gieves & Hawkes suits); and a pharmacopeia so rich it almost gets you high to read it. (“He had cocaine from Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru. Pink coke from L.A., which has slight amounts of ketamine and ecstasy cut into it. He had mushrooms in raw form, in pills, in chocolate. He had twelve different strains of weed, four each of sativa, hybrid, and indica. He had ecstasy from the Netherlands. He had acid from Northern California. And he had the rarest of recreational drugs, quaaludes.”) Wild excess is everywhere, and is often played for laughs. As we happily race toward the sequenced reveals of who is murdered, who did it, and what happens to all these delightful people, Frey pauses to rhapsodize about his home state in a lyrical chapter titled “Color Fields”: “Oh, Connecticut, how beautiful you are.…Your Maples. / Sugar and Red. / In all their motherfucking glory. / And it is glorious.”

Frey’s literary affectations don’t get in the way of the good times. Let the revels begin!

Heartwood

Gaige, Amity | Simon & Schuster (320 pp.)

$28.99 | April 1, 2025 | 9781668063606

A woman who’s disappeared from the Appalachian Trail prompts a frenzy. Gaige’s fifth novel concerns the fate of Valerie Gillis, known on the trail as Sparrow, a 42-year-old woman who’s vanished somewhere in Maine while hiking a notoriously treacherous stretch.

Charged with organizing the search is Beverly Miller, a lieutenant in the Maine Warden Service, and she has plenty of help—a small but committed community of volunteers is ready at a moment’s notice to canvass the area. But the clock is ticking: Bev notes that 97% of lost hikers are found in 24 hours, but “the other 3 percent, we know those stories like scripture.” Gaige’s storytelling alternates between writings in Sparrow’s notebooks, chapters from Bev’s perspective, transcripts of warden tip-line messages and interviews (most prominently with Ruben Serrano— trail name Santo—a straight-talking, beefy Bronx denizen who befriended Sparrow on the trail), and chapters told from the perspective of Lena Kucharski, a nursing-home resident following the search online. Gaige’s novel is at its core a mystery, with plenty of leads for Bev to pursue. (Can Sparrow’s husband be trusted? Was Santo overly obsessed with her?) But the novel’s strength is in capturing the way one human disappearance prompts a host of emotions—frustration, desperation, fear, and (especially) paranoia. (One throughline in the novel concerns the ways conspiracy-minded locals wonder about the true intentions of a military training school for troops at risk for capture in combat.) This gives Gaige an opportunity to write in a variety of registers, some more convincing than others—Santo’s toughbut-sensitive patter feels relatively wooden, but Bev’s struggles to continue the search while managing a host of details, as well as misogynist microaggressions, are rich and persuasive. Sparrow herself is a relative mystery, but the emotions she inspires are crystal clear.

A winning portrait of a woman, and community, in peril.

Kirkus

Star

The Summer Guests

Gerritsen, Tess | Thomas & Mercer (336 pp.)

$28.99 | March 18, 2025 | 9781662515149

Summer guests find big trouble in Purity, Maine, in this sequel to The Spy Coast (2023).

In 1972, a Purity policeman watches a driver mow down and kill three innocent people on Main Street. Then the madman shoots the officer, and soon they are all dead. Investigators never learn why such an ordinary, apparently law-abiding citizen suddenly committed such a ghastly act, and the sad story gradually fades. Jump a halfcentury to the present day, when the Conovers, a family of longtime summer residents, are arriving back in town. Fifteen-year-old Zoe goes swimming in Maiden Pond with a newfound friend and mysteriously disappears later that day. She is an excellent swimmer and diver, so drowning seems unlikely. Perhaps she has been abducted, perhaps worse. She is not “the sort of girl you’d think would get into trouble.” Naturally, Zoe’s parents are frantic. Enter acting Police Chief Jo Thibodeau and the Martini Club, a delightful group of five retired government spooks who just love a good puzzle to keep their aging brains in shape. They are merry meddlers who keep trying to help Thibodeau, a “dogged investigator” who resists their aid, or tries to. The Martini Club asks the acting chief to keep them in the loop, and of course she wants them nowhere near the case.

A woman who’s disappeared from the Appalachian Trail prompts a frenzy.

HEARTWOOD

But by that time, the five ex-spies are already involved, and one of them, Maggie Bird, surmises that this is most likely a kidnapping case. Maiden Pond is central to the story. There are a mix of houses around it, on one side seasonal rentals for the well to do, and on the other—the marshy, buggy side—permanent homes for the locals, such as the son of the long-ago murderer. Nobody waves at Reuben Tarkin, a social outcast because of his father’s heinous crime. The Conovers say he’d harassed their nanny to the point where she’d suddenly up and quit. Meanwhile, the investigators chase down clue after clue, wondering the who, what, and why of it all. The Conovers doubt Thibodeau’s abilities, believing she’s in over her head. The Martini Club folks continually impress her with their insights. “You people just love being smarter than me, don’t you?” But secrets and plot twists abound, and their collective intellect may not be enough.

A complex mix of fright and fun.

A Lesser Light

Geye, Peter | Univ. of Minnesota (512 pp.) $27.95 | April 15, 2025 | 9781517916374

A loveless marriage runs aground at a Lake Superior lighthouse. From the beginning of Geye’s novel, it’s clear that the marriage of Willa and Theodulf Sauer is deeply flawed. The year is 1910, and Theodulf has recently taken a position as the keeper of a new lighthouse overlooking Lake Superior. He takes his job very seriously, at one point telling Willa, “My responsibilities are first to God, then to the Lighthouse Service, then to you.” Willa, a scientifically minded woman with a penchant for the piano, is frustrated by her husband’s beliefs and his controlling tendencies. Late in the book, she reflects on how they came to marry, pondering that “it was less a courtship than a

mugging.” When she meets a girl named Silje and her uncle, Mats, Willa finds people with whom she can be more herself; eventually, she and Mats begin an affair. In a series of flashbacks to 1900 and 1905, Geye recounts an earlier encounter between Theodulf and Willa, as well as a trip to Paris when Theodulf met a man for whom he continues to pine years after they parted. The death of Theodulf’s father provides another shift in this book’s interpersonal dynamics: “How was it that not a single emotion coursed through him save a slight peevishness at needing to leave his post?” Both halves of the unhappy couple demonstrate different sides in conversations with their respective mothers, and Geye illustrates his characters’ contradictory aspects well. There’s also an impressive attention to detail and some knowing humor, as when one character says, “Fathers and sons, the Russians write novels about them.” This isn’t an epic Russian novel, but it might be a Minnesotan take on one.

A meticulously told story of flawed people seeking connection.

Kirkus Star

The Road to Tender Hearts

Hartnett, Annie | Ballantine (384 pp.)

$26.97 | April 29, 2025 | 9780593873441

A man makes his way across the country to find his high school crush—accompanied by his adult daughter, two orphans, and a cat with the power to predict death.

PJ Halliday may have won $1.5 million from the scratch-off lottery ticket he drunkenly bought at a gas station 10 years ago, but his life has been far from lucky. At 63, he’s an alcoholic hoarder who’s had three heart attacks and been fired from his job as a postal worker in Pondville, Massachusetts (they didn’t like it when he drove the mail truck into a pond). But the two

tragedies in PJ’s life happened when his teenage daughter died and his wife, Ivy, left him. PJ, ever the charmer, now has breakfast every day at Ivy’s house with her and her new partner, Fred, which is where he sees the obituary that lets him know his high school sweetheart is now single. She’s all the way in Arizona and PJ can’t technically drive (again, the DUIs), but he begins hatching a plan to go confess his love to her as soon as Ivy and Fred leave for an Alaskan vacation. PJ isn’t looking forward to being left alone in Pondville, since he has a complicated relationship with his other daughter, Sophie. But what PJ doesn’t expect is to suddenly become the guardian of two orphans, his estranged brother’s grandchildren. Luna and Ollie are dealing with the violent deaths of both their parents, although Luna is convinced that her real father is a soap opera star and that she needs to go find him. PJ figures they can combine their trips and decides to take the children with him on a road trip to find his true love and Luna’s father. Sophie, who’s struggling herself and a little concerned about the kids’ safety, decides to come along. They also bring Pancakes, a cat who wandered out of a nursing home and into PJ’s life. Pancakes has the ability to predict death, which comes into play surprisingly often over the course of the road trip. Hartnett is a master at balancing quirky elements and some truly dark subject matter, like PJ’s grief and the kids’ parents’ deaths. PJ is a remarkable character who remains fascinating and often charming even when he’s frustrating, but every character—even the people PJ briefly encounters on the road trip—feels fully realized.

A beautiful reminder that the world is full of tragedy, but life-changing joy and connection might be just around the corner.

For more by Annie Hartnett, visit Kirkus online.

Friends Helping Friends

Hoffman, Patrick | Atlantic Monthly (288 pp.)

$27.00 | March 18, 2025 | 9780802164124

A hapless young jailbird agrees to infiltrate a white supremacist compound in Colorado in exchange for being set free, only to realize the deal offered by police has big holes in it.

The jailbird, Bunny Simpson, whose polite manner barely conceals his violent streak, gets sent to prison along with his best friend, Jerry LeClair, after a quick moneymaking scheme goes south. Helen McCalla, an attorney to whom Jerry sells steroids to support her new bodybuilding habit, hires him to beat up her two-timing ex-husband, a local judge, during one of his morning runs. Jerry (whose unlikely relationship with Helen is surprisingly touching) promptly calls on the reluctant Bunny to handle the physical stuff. After a botched encounter in the park leads to the arrest of Bunny and Jerry, a pair of suspect cops make their offer, knowing that Bunny’s Uncle Willard is behind the white supremacists. He runs the car dealership that serves as a cover for the high-stakes drug operation that funds the compound. The cops are after the codes to the Bitcoin account from which the money flows. Bunny has never liked Willard, his drug-addicted mother’s brother, who mysteriously disappeared years ago. Hired by the dealership before surprising Willard with his presence, Bunny is quickly transferred to the compound, where, under intense pressure from the cops and at great risk, he snoops around for the evidence they demand. Some heavy late developments throw the book out of balance. But Hoffman makes us care for characters who in other hands wouldn’t pass that test, and he is masterly in combining humor and suspense.

Memorable characters plus deft plotting equals enjoyable page-turner.

The Whyte Python World Tour

Kennedy, Travis | Doubleday (416 pp.)

$30.00 | June 24, 2025 | 9780385551335

In 1986, a heavy metal drummer is recruited by the CIA to help topple the Eastern Bloc with the power of rock. This weird, wry caper is built from bits and pieces of lore from both rock ’n’ roll and the Cold War, not least the persistent rumor that the Scorpions hit “Wind of Change” was secretly written by the CIA. Richard Henderson may be an amiable, unemployable loser during LA’s waking hours, but as Rikki Thunder, he’s channeling his inner John Bonham in a dead-end band going nowhere during the golden age of hair bands. His fortunes change when he meets Tawny Spice, a miniskirtbedecked vision whose own alter ego is Amanda Price, an undercover CIA agent freshly assigned as a punishment to the agency’s secretive Project Facemelt. The agency’s scheme is to insert Rikki into one of the country’s fastest-rising glam-pop bands and send them on a youth-corrupting tour of the Soviet republics, complete with a pro-democracy anthem, “Tonight, for Tomorrow.” One minor assault later, Rikki is the new drummer in Whyte Python and brothers in arms with the group’s diva-esque lead singer, Davy Bones; closeted and spectral axeman, Buck Sweet; and pleasant-but-dumb bassist, Spencer Dooley. “It’s my understanding that they rock,” says Amanda’s uptight boss, Deputy Director Ed Lonsa, checking his notes. “Yes, they rock hard.” It helps that the other players are even more outlandish—for example, there’s Officer Boone, who kind of digs writing the lyrics, among other suspects in an agency mole hunt. Meanwhile, an East German general plans to cut the Whyte Python world tour short permanently in Berlin. Packed with cameos from heroes of glam metal like Steven Tyler and Bret

Michaels, musical montages and lyrics, and a juvenile humor that winks at, rather than worships its subjects, this offbeat gem does for metal dudes what Daisy Jones & the Six does for the yacht-rock crowd.

A nostalgic, headbanging comedy about rock ’n’ roll refugees.

I See You’ve Called in Dead

Kenney, John | Zibby Books (272 pp.)

$27.99 | April 1, 2025 | 9798989923014

A sinking man relies on unexpected friends to stay afloat. Professional obituary writer Bud Stanley is a divorcé coasting through life in Brooklyn. He discovered his wife was cheating on him when she accidentally sent him a text message meant for her lover. At work, he’s uninspired, unable to muster the interest in writing about the recently deceased. After a particularly bad blind date, he drinks to excess and comes up with a bold, ill-advised idea. He writes and semi-accidentally publishes his own obituary and is summarily suspended from work, but not before his mentor suggests that he’s unfit for his career: “‘You are an obituary writer who does not understand the first thing about life. Wake up,’” his boss pleads. It’s from here that Kenney’s touching, provocative novel takes off. During this time of suspension-induced depression and malaise, Bud relies heavily on his landlord, downstairs neighbor, and best friend, Tim Warren, who is paraplegic. While at a funeral for Bud’s former mother-in-law, the duo meets Clara, a free spirit who quit her high-paying corporate job after missing her own father’s death because of a meeting. Together, the three start going to funerals for people they don’t know and have late-night discussions about life and death over wine. As Bud and Tim spend more time with Clara, each member of this unexpected triangle illuminates for the others the things

An exquisitely nuanced mix of bleak humor and heartrending drama.

COUNTING BACKWARDS

that make life so rich. Bud comes to terms with his mother’s death in a way he repressed for many, many years, while Tim begins to reveal how heavy of a toll his near-fatal accident and subsequent disability took on him. Through these death-related accoutrements—funerals, wakes, and obituaries—Bud begins to reckon with his purpose on this planet. Kenney doesn’t propose any sort of clean answer, but alludes to the idea that life’s richness comes from spending time with people you love, and that those relationships are built on mutual respect, truth, and love.

A touching ode to the people who make life worth living.

Natch

Kinsey, Darrell | Univ. of Iowa (168 pp.) $18.00 paper | April 7, 2025 | 9781685970000

Looking back at a relationship that turned tragic.

Kinsey’s taut novel tells a straightforward story, but it’s the voice that stands out most. The note of regret its narrator takes when recalling a woman named Asha hints that the story we’re about to hear won’t be a happy one. “I was afraid if I thought about her, her voice would wake up on the inside of my mind,” the narrator declares—but soon enough he begins to tell the story of how he and Asha fell in love. At the time the book opens, the protagonist is 29 and has been working in tree removal for the last 11 years. He’s immediately taken when he meets Asha, who would like to become a

therapist one day and has a penchant for belly dancing. Before long, the couple is expecting a child, and much of the book covers how these two fiercely independent people reckon with impending parenthood. There’s an immediacy to Kinsey’s prose that makes scenes like one of the narrator and Asha trying to catch a gar stand out. But there are hints of something bleaker below the surface: The narrator’s temper flares up at times, and he misgenders his opponent after an arm-wrestling match. Asha and the narrator’s child dies in the womb, which leads both of them into deep depression. “I was thinking of it like a miscarriage, but it wasn’t the same as a miscarriage,” the narrator muses. Things get bleaker from there, with the couple facing financial precarity before things reach points of tragedy and redemption. The book is uneven, but its mournful voice is hard to shake.

A melancholy story of love and loss with a memorable narrator.

Counting Backwards

Kirshenbaum, Binnie | Soho (400 pp.)

$28.00 | March 25, 2025 | 9781641294683

A middle-aged couple contends with dementia. One day, Addie’s husband comes home and tells her, “You look like my wife, but you are not my wife.” Then he adds, “My wife is prettier than you are.” This pronouncement comes as one in a long line of increasingly erratic behaviors for Leo: What begins with hallucinations leads inexorably to

stabbing his nephew with a kitchen knife. Kirshenbaum’s latest novel, which features the same irresistibly bittersweet dry wit as her others, follows Addie’s journey alongside Leo to understanding what’s gone wrong with his mind. It takes them nearly two years to reach a diagnosis: Leo has early-onset Lewy body dementia. In short, vignettelike chapters written in the second person, Kirshenbaum traces Addie’s increasing social isolation, her financial worries, and the many, many different shades of feeling she has for Leo, whom she adores, resents, and misses even as he is (technically) still with her. Kirshenbaum’s use of the second person is so seamless it’s easy to forget about it completely; as a reader, you simply hop into Addie’s shoes and carry on. And if the storyline occasionally sags, that seems to be part of the point: Kirshenbaum is meticulously mapping a segment of life so often stigmatized and associated with shame. At one point, Addie finally tells her best friend, Z, just how bad it’s gotten with Leo. Z’s response is devastating: First he tells Addie how sorry he is, and when she asks why, he says, “Everyone will be talking about how pathetic [Leo] is, and they will pity you and avoid you. No one wants to be around that.” Kirshenbaum’s book is the precise opposite. An exquisitely nuanced mix of bleak humor and heartrending drama.

Cold Burn

Landau, A.J. | Minotaur (336 pp.) | $28.00 April 29, 2025 | 9781250877369

Fresh from their debut in Leave No Trace (2024), National Park Service investigator Michael Walker and FBI agent Gina Delgado team up again, sort of, to solve an oversized mystery that threatens all life on Earth.

The case begins as several cases. A U.S. Geological Survey team gone missing in an avalanche disappears from the

HAVE YOU READ Lynne Tillman’s work? Many readers have not— too many, contend the writer’s fans, who include such literary all-stars as Hilton Als, Colm Tóibín, and Fran Lebowitz.

Over her long career, the New York–based writer, now 77, has published seven novels, five collections of stories, and five nonfiction books. Her work has been recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Katherine Anne Porter Award.

Tillman’s 2014 essay collection

What Would Lynne Tillman Do? was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award. On that occasion, writer Elissa Schappell lauded her as “one of the 20th century’s finest and most original cultural commentators” and “surely its most underappreciated.”

“Underappreciated,” “unsung,” “underrecognized,” and a label she calls “the kiss of death,” “a writer’s writer”: Tillman has been called all of them. With the publication of Thrilled to Death: Selected Stories —a career-spanning collection

THE KIRKUS PROFILE: LYNNE TILLMAN

The veteran writer muses on cult status, literary legacy, and readers’ desires.

BY AMY REITER

in which the author “delights in exploring the limits of what’s possible within the short story form,” according to our starred review—she hopes to change that.

In 41 stories, selected from 35 years of her oeuvre, Tillman traverses topics including sex and death, connection and isolation, pleasure and pain. She experiments with form (“Myself as a Menu” takes the format of a restaurant menu) and viewpoint (in the opening story, “Come and Go,” perspective shifts unpredictably). She plays with language, grammar, syntax, rhythm, and sound, arranging and rearranging words and layering meaning. She takes us inside her character’s heads, their thoughts both so specific and so universal that they begin to feel like our own.

“Most experiences are not just our own,” Tillman says over the phone from the East Village apartment she shares with her husband, bassist David Hofstra. “We face many of the same issues, independent of class, gender, family background. People have a lot of pain in their lives.”

Writing in the New Yorker, Tóibín called Tillman “a rich noticer of strange things and a good maker of sentences and phrases.”

Along with insight, Tillman brings the reader some pretty great laughs. Her characters might mistake a broken phone for a sign of an impending breakup or flirt with what turns out to be a stain on the wall—absurd misunderstandings that, if we’re honest with ourselves, we understand deeply. Such candor may be Tillman’s most defining feature as a writer.

“I’ve always tried to be honest,” she says.

Because most of the stories in the collection were originally published in literary magazines and art books, they weren’t seen by a lot of people, “even my friends,” Tillman says. “An anthology really helps bring together work most people have not ever read or seen.”

With an eye toward variety—different voices, characters, and types of stories—and toward finding pieces that reflect their time and still hold up, Tillman worked with publisher

Lynne Tillman

and editor Richard Nash to sort through her large body of work.

“I could be dubious about what was left out and what stayed in,” she admits about the selection process, but in the end she’s pleased with the results, calling the final collection a “Top of the Pops.”

Nash also helped Tillman decide in what order to arrange the stories they included. “I didn’t want a normal order, not chronological,” she says. She and Nash settled on arranging the work “associationally.”

There’s an ineffable, dreamlike quality to Tillman’s work. While she believes a writer should “use everything,” her approach to using her own dreams has changed over time. “The unconscious fascinates me. Earlier in my writing, I used dreams more frequently, but at a certain point I stopped,” she says. “I didn’t want readers to get caught up in something they couldn’t enter.”

Some of the stories in Thrilled to Death, which are all fictional, feel so real that readers may conclude they are autobiographical. They’d be mistaken. Like most writers, Tillman may find inspiration in real events or people or use something from her own experience as “material.” (She says her close observation of people started early, a survival tactic as her family’s youngest child.) “I don’t really write about myself,” she says.

She’s not displeased by the confusion, however. In fact, she’s rather tickled. “Writing fiction is about plucking the imagination,” she says. If people believe the things that happen to her characters have, in fact, happened to Tillman herself, it’s due to “their own imaginations, their desires.”

Tillman formed her strategy of attaching to a reader’s own desire when, around age 12 and already bent on becoming a writer, she asked one of her two older sisters to tell her something about writing. “She said, ‘You should take the reader by the hand,’” Tillman recalls. “That has always stayed with me, that idea that you are drawing the reader along with you.”

As for her relative lack of recognition, Tillman is philosophical, citing Gertrude Stein, whom she considers a literary model. “Not everybody is going to be interested in your work. They have other interests,” Tillman says. “You have to come to realize that.”

She says she feels lucky just to be able to do the work and sustain herself as a writer—her work teaching writing at the University at Albany helps—and to have written as she likes, without having to cater to the market. Writing, she says, “is a place for me to work out ideas, to be in conversation, even with myself, but also to disappear. Life is hard. When I write, I’m inventing another space in which I can live.”

Marveling that every story she’s ever written has been published, Tillman says she’s pleased that her work has reached the audience it has—and that it continues to reach new readers. Her first novella, Weird Fucks , which was originally published in 1980 and an excerpt of which is

included Thrilled to Death, was recently republished in the U.K. Its frank (though not graphic), feminist, often funny consideration of sexual experiences following the Sexual Revolution—defined, Tillman says, by a “loss of romance”—recently prompted one 18-year-old reader to write Tillman and say the book had helped her grapple with her own sexuality and expand her sense of what was possible. “I’d never gotten anything like that,” Tillman says. “Everything new is also old.”

Of course, a career-spanning collection raises the idea of legacy. How would Tillman, currently at work on a new novel, like to be remembered? “If I get remembered at all, that’s nice,” she says. “I know too much about how writers disappear.” Ultimately, she says the idea of a legacy is not terribly important to her. “I’d like people to read my work now,” she says, “while I’m alive.”

Amy Reiter is a writer in Brooklyn.

Life is hard. When I write, I’m inventing another space in which I can live.

INDIE AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

NANCY JOIE WILKIE

Author of The River Keeper and Other Tales

Please tell us a little about yourself and The River Keeper and Other Tales. I worked for 30 years in both the biotechnology industry and in the federal government’s biodefense effort providing oversight for the development of new products. I’m now retired, compose original music, play a variety of instruments, and have recorded and released many of my original compositions. My creations are posted on my website—Mindsights.Net.

The River Keeper and Other Tales  is my third collection of stories. Seven Sides of Self— Stories  was released in November 2019 and Faraway and Forever— More Stories was released in July 2023, both collections published by She Writes Press.

What made you want to write about your life?

I have long wanted to write an autobiography or memoir about events I experienced during my thirties. But every time I attempt to do this, it brings back too much pain. As I started writing science fiction and fantasy stories 20-plus years ago, I began to see a pattern. The stories grew into allegorical depictions of the one story I could not write.

So here is a collection of stories, all fantasy this time around, some containing shreds of my life and my experiences, hiding amongst the corners of my imagination. Perhaps I subconsciously write in this manner

to protect those I love and hold dearest. Perhaps I write this way to protect my own heart and soul.

How did you develop your characters? Oftentimes, it starts with a name. Then as I think about the character, his or her problem pops into my mind—finding the River Keeper, killing the dragon, and rescuing the queen, for example. Once I have identified the problem, the setting and the other characters in his or her life begin to materialize. Then comes the plot. Once I’ve completed the first draft, I will go back in and sprinkle colorful commentary into the story, something interesting about the character or their situation, what they look like, how they got to where they are, what their hopes and dreams are.

Is there anything special or unique that sets your book apart from others in the genre?

Several years ago after an idyllic day on the beach, I wrote a song titled “Aurora’s Ring.” After recording the basic tracks, a friend contributed vocals and a lead guitar part. He then suggested we compose a concept album centered around Aurora’s story. Its title? “Dragon’s Door—A Tale of Ring and Sword” (Mindsongs Musique). This gave birth to the short story of the same name included in this collection of tales. And the CD was mastered at Abbey Road Studios!

The River Keeper and Other Tales

Wilkie, Nancy Joie Subplot | 248 pp. | $22.95 paper Feb. 18, 2025 | 9798891382022

What are you working on now?

I have a fourth collection of science fiction novelettes that are currently being reviewed by my editor. I hope to submit the collection to a publisher in late summer or early fall 2025. Its title? By the Light of the Sun. Those darned Muses won’t leave me alone!

Portions of this Q&A were edited for clarity.

For a review of the book, visit Kirkus online.

Olan Mills

New Novel by Kathryn Stockett Coming in 2026

The Calamity Club will be the first book in 17 years from the author of The Help.

Kathryn Stockett’s second novel—her first in 17 years—is coming in 2026.

Spiegel & Grau will publish The Calamity Club, by the author of The Help, the press announced in a news release.

The Help, published in 2009 by Amy Einhorn/ Putnam, told the story of two Black housekeepers in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, who join forces with a white socialite to write a tell-all book about their experiences. A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “This genuine page-turner offers a whiff of white liberal self-congratulation that won’t hurt its appeal and probably spells big success.”

The novel spent more than two years on the New York Times

SEEN AND HEARD

bestseller list and was adapted into a 2011 film directed by Tate Taylor and starring Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, and Emma Stone. Spencer won an Academy Award for her performance.

The Calamity Club, Spiegel & Grau says, takes place in Oxford, Mississippi, in 1933 and follows a group of women whose lives are upended by the Great Depression.

“I am fascinated by the underestimated woman who, for better or worse, can surprise even herself by how far she’s willing to go to get what she needs to survive,” Stockett said in a statement. “I grew up around women like that and can attest that the underestimated woman is the one to keep your eye on.”

The Calamity Club is scheduled for publication in April 2026.

—MICHAEL SCHAUB

Kathryn Stockett

cave where they’ve taken refuge. A submarine on a training mission, accidentally struck by a long-dormant explosive device a salvage ship is pulling up, sinks to the bottom of Alaska’s Icy Strait, where its entire crew perishes. Walker, looking into a rash of stolen Tlingit artifacts, watches his leading suspects get shot to death by an assassin he must kill in turn, destroying his best lead. Delgado is assigned to identify a man who’s been seriously worked over by local fauna before his body is recovered from the Everglades. It takes a long time to work out the connection among all of these misfortunes, and even when the two authors writing as Landau reveal that both the USGS team and the submarine crew have frozen to death in relatively temperate settings, along with vast quantities of native fish who should be immune to the cold, the answer raises still more questions. How could such a thing happen? Who could have made it happen, and why? And what can be done about it before the rash of freezings goes worldwide? Following separate trails that readers will see converging long before the investigators do, Walker and Delgado eventually band together with the Tlingit community and each other to wrestle with the anticlimactic human scoundrels behind Operation Cold Burn. The action-packed unraveling may be routine, but not the calamitous threat, which is a high concept worthy of James Bond.

Kirkus Star

I Found Myself: Last Dreams

Mahfouz, Naguib | Trans. by Hisham Matar

Photos by Diana Matar | New Directions (160 pp.) | $16.95 paper | June 3, 2025 9780811231022

Elegant, often haunting evocations of a lost world.

I FOUND MYSELF

Vignettes recounting the author’s ethereal dreams of old age, many centering on death and roads not taken.

Translator Matar, a Libyan novelist, met

Mahfouz not long after a would-be killer attacked the Nobel Prize–winning author in a Cairo alley, nearly stabbing him to death. Mahfouz recovered, but he seldom ventured out in public again, at least not alone. Before his death in 2006, he recorded dreams that, writes Matar, “are an insight into Mahfouz’s twilight concerns.” In one, Mahfouz dreams that he has been walking along a road when an open window reveals a woman whom he immediately recognizes, though 50 years had robbed her of her beauty. “In the morning,” he writes, “I was deeply unsettled when, reading the newspaper, I came upon her obituary. I was profoundly saddened and wondered which of us had visited the other at that hour of death?” In another dream—and almost all of these vignettes begin “I found myself” or “I saw myself”—he encounters his long-dead mother, who “received [him] with perplexing indifference and then left the room.” Let the oneirologists make of that what they will, but it all makes eminent sense: One door is closing, another is opening. Other of Mahfouz’s dreams point to his political opposition to numerous Egyptian regimes: In one he finds himself in a train station with two areas, one quiet and conducive to work, the other noisy and full of sights and smells. When Mahfouz prefers the first, his companion says, “Yes, but I spotted some of our opponents in the other section,” to which Mahfouz replies, “I am ready for a confrontation.” So, as ever, he is, though always with humane intent, honoring what a different companion tells him in another dream: “One must, as long as we are alive, retain some good faith.” Elegant, often haunting evocations of a lost world at the end of life.

The Summer House

Masashi Matsuie | Trans. by Margaret Mitsutani | Other Press (400 pp.) | $18.99 paper | June 10, 2025 | 9781635425178

Elegantly understated novel of a tenuous love affair in modern Japan.

Tōru Sakanishi is in his early 20s, an apprentice architect who is fortunate enough to earn an entry-level position with the Murai Office of Architectural Design, headed by a renowned architect who had studied with Frank Lloyd Wright. Known as Sensei, or teacher, Murai is a stern leader, but a man brimming with ideas. Competing to build a new Library of Modern Literature, his chief rival a contemporary named Kei’ichi Funayama, Sensei takes his crew to the mountains to escape the summer heat of Tokyo, occupying the simple house of the title. Sensei has strong attachments to the place, not least of them a woman with whom he has a discreet relationship. While Sensei ponders a design for the new library—“We need a brand-new concept that users will find convincing. Just explaining it verbally won’t be enough, though. The building has to be designed to actually show them what you’re getting at”—Sakanishi muddles his way through, failing in his delegated task to design stacking chairs “because [he] couldn’t get the angle between the seat and legs right.” Moreover, he’s thoroughly distracted by Sensei’s niece, Maruko Murai, who disarms him by saying, “You’re good at sharpening pencils.” A knowing colleague warns him off, saying that an interoffice romance is strictly

forbidden, but adding, “Of course, if you decided to quit, you could move in on her right away in the time you had left.” Sakanishi doesn’t take the warning, but in any event, things don’t unfold in quite the way he wishes. Matsuie, renowned as an editor (of Haruki Murakami, among other writers) before becoming an author, delivers a simple but graceful tale that’s full of intriguing asides on architecture, which Sensei insists is “function, pure and simple.”

A novel packed with ideas about art, life, and love.

Open Up

Morris, Thomas | Unnamed Press (200 pp.)

$28.00 | April 8, 2025 | 9781961884342

A moving testament to human connection in the modern age. The characters in Welsh author Morris’ short stories are desperate for control. He paints a world that is ambivalent at best, actively cruel at worst. In “Little Wizard,” the ironically nicknamed Big Mike rails against his diminutive stature, lashing out at friends, co-workers, roommates, and prospective Tinder dates because no one can seem to look past the fact that he’s 5-foot-3. He, like Morris’ other protagonists, begs for a chance, for someone to see him. He finally works up the courage to ask his best friend and crush, Rhian, out on a date, and the grand reveal showcases Morris’ true intention with the tale. Elsewhere, in “Birthday Teeth,” Glyn is a moderator on a forum for vampire fanatics. He balances taking care of his depressed mother with his own macabre outlook on the world, all the while obsessively sharing details of a recently ended relationship, one that involved a staggering betrayal. Glyn has convinced himself he can solve his problems by paying for a procedure to

get his teeth sharpened; if only he had this one thing, everything else would turn out all right. It’s the essential theme of this story collection—what are the ways we try to control the uncontrollable? Life’s randomness brings chaos and tragedy. Is there an escape? In “Wales,” Gareth goes to a soccer match with his father, whom he hasn’t seen in three months. If Wales wins, “everything will turn out okay,” he assures himself. “His mother will find a wad of cash stuffed in the walls and they won’t need to move out.” The throughline here is an unrelenting empathy, whether Morris is writing about a family of seahorses or a couple wrestling through disconnect on what was supposed to be a restful vacation. Everyone, every living thing, matters.

Trauma, rage, depression, and heartbreak mingle with dashes of optimism and excitement.

Vanishing World

Murata, Sayaka | Trans. by Ginny Tapley Takemori | Grove (240 pp.) | $28.00 April 15, 2025 | 9780802164667

A n ardent young woman navigates a world in which technology has eradicated the need for sex for all but its most devout practitioners.

Amane is still a child when she learns the disturbing truth that her mother became pregnant with her through sexual intercourse with her father. In Amane’s Japan, technological advances designed to “produce lots of children for the war effort” have replaced traditional modes of conception; sex in general is considered to be old-fashioned and sex between husband and wife is seen as incest. In fact, many of Amane’s contemporaries find the idea of partnered sexual gratification so foreign that they are increasingly asexual, forging romantic attachments solely with anime characters. Amane, a rare woman who

insists on sex, creates a division between the romantic life she enjoys with both real-life boyfriends and the 40 characters she loves and the sexless family life she’s built with her husband, Saku; this works well until Amane’s mid-30s. In the throes of a difficult love affair of his own, her husband decides to move to Experiment City, a government-run enclave where the last vestiges of the “family system” are being eradicated in favor of algorithm-controlled breeding. In spite of her doubts, Amane joins him in the name of “the religion of family,” but she can’t help but bring her belief in the physical union of two bodies along with her. The novel’s frank exploration of desire from the perspective of an entire civilization of naifs exposes some base-level assumptions about the part sexual reproduction plays in society. Unfortunately, the naïveté of the main characters seems to imprint on the novel itself, with the result that even the most potentially incendiary elements of this new world order are explored with neither nuance nor depth. The characters remain suspended in a kind of enforced adolescence—unable to either grow from worldly experience or totally abandon their society’s inherited structures and forge something new. A great conceit filled with unrealized potential.

Gulf

Ogrodnik, Mo | Summit (432 pp.)

$29.99 | May 6, 2025 | 9781668072141

A harrowing account of women’s lives in the Arabian Gulf. Ogrodnik—a filmmaker and former dean at NYU Abu Dhabi—traces the lives of five woman negotiating violence, misogyny, factionalism, and terror. Dounia, a pregnant Saudi newlywed, faces stultifying days of isolation

when her husband moves them to a sterile luxury compound in Ras al-Khair, a new “dream” city, far from the life of relative freedom and comfort she had enjoyed in Riyadh. Flora, a Filipina reeling from the loss of a beloved infant in the destruction of a violent storm, attempts to support her remaining child by joining the legion of women who emigrate to Saudi Arabia to become domestic workers. There, she becomes intimately entwined in Dounia’s domestic unhappiness. Zeinah, a Syrian native from Raqqa, weds an ISIS militant in a marriage arranged by her father in an attempt to secure a measure of protection for his family. Justine, a white American, takes up residence in the United Arab Emirates to curate a falconry exhibit for the new Sheik Zayed National Museum. Eskedare, a teenage Ethiopian, abandons her girlhood dreams to find herself working as a bathroom attendant in the central bus station in Abu Dhabi, where her life collides (literally) with Justine’s. In a cyclical narrative that delivers the women’s stories in a series of cinematic episodes, Ogrodnik’s debut novel offers a chronicle of women’s lives constrained by forces including patriarchal control, cultural misunderstanding, economic disparity, political fervor, and garden-variety jealousy and bigotry. The plight of emigrant domestic workers is sharply portrayed, as are the myriad compromises and adjustments made by women facing life in an environment more repressive than the ones they’re accustomed to. The animating force in their common unending struggle is captured in Flora’s musing that “hope is a rebel.”

An unflinching recitation of everyday horrors.

Milo’s Reckoning

Olshan, Joseph | Green City Books (284 pp.)

$27.99 | June 10, 2025 | 9781963101089

In 1994, a grad student investigates his mentor’s alleged suicide.

New York University Ph.D. candidate Milo Rossi owes his love of Italian literature and nascent academic career to Lenny D’Ambrosio, a kindly professor who has been guiding his studies for years. One night, after Milo attends a dinner party at Lenny’s Mamaroneck apartment, Lenny drops him at the train station and asks him to phone tomorrow, saying there’s something they need to discuss. Early the next morning, however, Milo receives a call from Detective Delzio of the Harrison PD: Lenny’s downstairs neighbor heard a commotion near dawn and went upstairs to find the door unlocked and Lenny’s corpse hanging from the rafter by a bedsheet. The police rule the death a suicide, but Milo isn’t convinced and starts digging, armed with details divulged by Delzio. To Milo’s shock, the “pathologically private” Lenny had an extensive VHS collection of sadomasochistic porn filmed in Italy, featuring indigent people and refugees. According to Delzio, Lenny’s supplier was none other than Valentino Cipolla, older brother of Matteo Cipolla, Milo’s late brother Carlo’s best friend. When Milo’s mother reveals that she’d found a videotape mailed from Italy among Carlo’s effects when he died six years ago, Milo tracks down and interrogates Val, whose answers only lead to more questions. Olshan’s latest explores the

difficulties of truly knowing another person, be it a friend, lover, relative, or icon, as well as the pitfalls of uncovering the secrets of someone you respect and admire. The author writes fondly and colorfully of Italy, its culture, and its people, but this Italophilia conspires with discursive prose to create the air of a novel inexpertly translated. The convoluted central mystery disappoints, comprising little more than a string of increasingly improbable coincidences. An introspective tale that regrettably fails as crime fiction.

Maine Characters

Orenstein, Hannah | Dutton (400 pp.) | $19.00 paper | May 13, 2025 | 9780593851555

Thrown together after their father’s death, two half sisters from different worlds find common ground. When Vivian Levy, a 30-yearold sommelier from New York City, pulls up to her late father’s vacation house in Fox Hill, Maine, she’s confronted by someone she never thought she’d meet. In fact, Vivian wasn’t even sure Lucy Webster actually existed. But there she is, looking both like and not like Vivian. It’s Lucy’s job to inform Vivian that they are half sisters, and Vivian’s job to break the news that their father just died. Hank Levy kept Lucy a secret from Vivian (although she had suspicions), whereas Lucy, who grew up with her mother in Maine, knew about Vivian and always dreamed of meeting her. Unfortunately, it seems that their shared paternity is the only thing the women

Thrown together after their father’s death, half sisters find common ground.

MAINE CHARACTERS

A coven of trans witches joins forces against AI and late-stage capitalism.

AWAKENED

have in common. Lucy—who rarely spent time with Hank except for every July in the Fox Hill house—idolized her father. Vivian, who was raised on the Upper West Side and had every material advantage, resented her father for never being proud of her and for keeping this giant secret. Vivian wants to sell the house so she can use the money to open a wine bar with her obviously sleazy married boss/ boyfriend. Lucy, recently separated from her high school sweetheart, is desperate to hold on to any shred of normalcy, and therefore wants to keep the house—despite, as Vivian constantly reminds her, having no legal claim to it. Orenstein should have edited out several side-plots to streamline the novel to its heart: the growing relationship between the estranged sisters. If you can move past the flawed conceit (no one in Maine would have mentioned Lucy to Vivian?) and the stilted dialogue, Orenstein’s novel has just enough charm to carry it through. A quick read with some depth.

Not Long Ago Persons Found

Osborn, J. Richard | Bellevue Literary Press (176 pp.) | $17.99 paper June 10, 2025 | 9781954276406

Fighting for the innocent might put you on the right side, but it doesn’t mean you’ll be safe. When the mutilated body of a 7-year-old boy is found in the river of a big city, pollen and other debris on the corpse suggest he

comes from a valley far away in a neighboring country. In Osborn’s unsettling debut, a biological anthropologist and her husband— who acts as her forensic team’s assistant, translator, and our narrator—get sent south by their agency to collect plant and mineral samples to confirm the boy’s identity. Their efforts overlap with the gruesome discovery of a mass grave, and the couple’s attempt to go home with the samples gets blocked by the country’s new regime. Why do they care about the child? Who is in the mass grave? Are these deaths somehow related? Osborn keeps a tight leash on the action as the couple seeks answers. They encounter a host of menacing characters in an unnamed country with a violent history that local officials dismiss. (“That is all in the past. It is over. That does not happen in the present time.…We are progressive!”) Conversations and the narrator’s commentary are restrained and opaque, often to a frustrating degree. “What’s happening to us?” the anthropologist demands of someone helping them. “Oh, you’ll need to find that out for yourselves” is all he’ll say. It’s clear Osborn wants readers to feel the same way while the couple searches for the murderer and possible motives. That search involves jungle treks, interrogation rooms, government double talk, and absurd bureaucratic dead ends worthy of Beckett or Kafka. All of this makes the pair burn for justice and feel “increasingly angry, against [their] instincts for self-preservation.” They resist the sensational conclusions of the authorities, locals, and even their superiors that the child was a victim of some strange ritual.

Though the body’s dismemberment and objects found among the boy’s things seem to support that theory, the couple insists there’s a more sinister explanation. That insistence might put at risk their jobs, their relationship, and even their lives, but what haunts them more is the thought of giving up: “What are we if we let this go?” That’s a question neither wants to answer in this harrowing, tautly plotted story. A tense, claustrophobic detective tale about the toll exacted on people trying to uncover the truth.

Kirkus Star

Awakened

Osworth, A.E. | Grand Central Publishing (384 pp.) | $29.00 April 29, 2025 | 9781538757697

A tightly knit coven of transgender witches joins forces against AI and late-stage capitalism in New York City. On the morning of their half birthday, an otherwise unremarkable day in New York, Wilder—a 31-year-old trans Brooklynite—wakes up with the ability to comprehend and speak multiple languages. What Wilder doesn’t realize is that they’re being watched. For days, unbeknownst to Wilder, they have been showing signs of magical ability, and it has drawn the attention of others with similar Awakened Powers. Soon, Wilder meets the members of a clandestine coven of trans witches. There’s Artemis, the leader of the group and a powerful Seer; Mary Margaret, a teenager with impressive telekinetic abilities; and Quibble, a charming and handsome portal traveler whose job it is to convince Wilder to join them. Soon enough, Wilder finds themself feeling at home within the coven and comfortable knowing that

magic is real, but when dangerous AI threatens to dismantle their newfound community—and reality as they know it—the group struggles to coexist and to hold on to one another. Osworth has crafted a clever, thought-provoking, and surprisingly philosophical tale about the importance of community, the dangers that reliance on AI presents to humanity, and identity in a world that can so often feel homogeneous. Told in a tongue-in-cheek, snappy voice by an omnipresent narrator, this is a compulsively readable novel that hammers home the idea that magic can be found anywhere and everywhere as long as you’re looking for it.

A charming, magical romp with a focus on the importance of finding and building queer community.

Save the Date

Raskin, Allison | Canary Street Press (304 pp.) $18.99 paper | April 8, 2025 | 9781335081322

A 30-something Jewish woman decides to find a new groom when she’s unceremoniously dumped six months before her wedding. Emma Moskowitz has a lot going for her—she’s a licensed marriage and family therapist who’s just turned in the first draft of a book on maintaining healthy relationships; she has a successful YouTube channel; she lives in a very nice Los Angeles apartment; and she’s happily planning her wedding to Ryan, a man she loves. And yet, after a conversation that’s

over in “less time than it took to watch a network sitcom,” she’s suddenly very single and focused on all the other traits that make her who she is: She’s someone who’s always getting dumped; she has generalized anxiety disorder, sensory sensitivity issues, and a lack of innate knowledge about social expectations; she hates vegetables and sharing food. What she decides to do next is unexpected: Rather than canceling the wedding, she initiates Operation: Save My Date. She determines that she will, despite all the initial arguments from her loved ones and online fans, find a replacement groom and prove that Western ideals of dating and marriage are not the only ways to establish a loving, worthwhile relationship. Her following explodes and she winds up partnering on a podcast that does extremely well, which lands her on a very well-known talk show. And along the way, she experiences failures, embarrassment, and successes in her quest.

A frothy romp that doesn’t take itself too seriously, despite the endearing earnestness of its main character.

Food Person

Roberts, Adam | Knopf (320 pp.) | $28.00 May 20, 2025 | 9780593803837

An unemployed food writer agrees to ghostwrite a cookbook for an erratic starlet looking to revive her career and reputation.

“Dowdy” Isabella Pasternak is on the bottom rung of the career ladder, writing about things like

A novel that dishes up one of the most delectable ingredients of all: fun.

FOOD PERSON

chickpea trends and cheese options for Comestibles magazine. After unexpectedly stepping in to do an Instagram Live on chocolate soufflés that ends in disaster, she is unceremoniously fired. The same day, after rescuing her best friend, Owen, from a caviar catastrophe at his wealthy father’s birthday party, Isabella is rewarded with an opportunity via Owen’s dad: Ghostwrite a cookbook for one of his clients. Isabella initially balks; cookbooks are sacred to her, and she wants to be more than a mere ghostwriter. But the alternative—help her mother make “her signature Frankensoups” for soup kitchen patrons—is too anguishing. The client in question, Molly Babcock, isn’t about to make things easy. She’s everything Isabella expects from a disgraced actress who’s been in the tabloids more than on set. Molly is self-absorbed, vain, and often drunk—plus apparently uninterested in actually eating any food. But when Molly unexpectedly lets Isabella in on a key part of her past, the women’s professional and personal relationship grows suddenly more complicated, forcing Isabella to confront the kind of career she really wants, and the person she really wants to be. Roberts’ novel is a confection—satisfyingly over-the-top—but with complex notes; he has a true knack for understanding the ways that food rules every aspect of our lives, from the gourmet’s obsession to the shame and guilt surrounding indulgence. But even readers who don’t know a branzino from bearnaise will find plenty to enjoy here, from the colorful secondary characters to the zippy plot.

A debut novel that dishes up one of the most delectable ingredients of all: fun.

For more fiction reviews, visit Kirkus online.

Kirkus Star

Flight Without End

Roth, Joseph | Trans. by David Le Vay & Beatrice Musgrave | Pushkin Press (144 pp.) | $17.95 paper | June 3, 2025 9781805331216

A shlemiel blunders through life and love in this poignant short novel.

“No one in the whole world was as superfluous as he.” Like Roth (1894-1939), Franz Tunda served in the AustroHungarian Army. As the story opens, we find Tunda in Siberia, having escaped from a POW camp and found shelter in the taiga with an eccentric Pole named Baranowicz. No problem: “He spoke Polish.…It was easy for him to pass himself off as a younger brother of the Pole.” As the story unfolds, Roth reveals that Tunda carries as an amulet a photograph of his fiancée, who turns out to be less infatuated with him than he is with her “as an ideal, and as one lost forever.” It’s a pattern that Roth, who releases details about Tunda here and there (his mother is Jewish, he has a brother who conducts an orchestra in Germany), has good fun with: Apolitical at first, Tunda is caught up in the Russian Civil War as he tries to make his way homeward, falling in love with a fellow Bolshevik who finds him hopelessly bourgeois. Sent to the Caucasus to spread revolution, he marries a silent woman whose “reserve damped the noise of the world and slowed the passage of the hours”; unceremoniously abandoning her, he returns to Europe to meet his estranged brother—estranged over a woman, of course—and chase after his erstwhile fiancée. Roth brings himself into the story halfway through, wryly using Tunda as a vehicle for his own self-confessed sense of rootlessness. At the end of this far-flung yarn,

A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.

BURY

OUR BONES IN THE MIDNIGHT SOIL

Tunda, we learn, “had no occupation, no desire, no hope, no ambition, and not even any self-love,” and we sense that the coming years will bring only further disappointment—and eventually doom.

A slyly satirical story of bewildered wandering, and a welcome addition to Roth’s work in English.

The Matchmaker

Saeed, Aisha | Bantam (320 pp.) | $18.00 paper | April 8, 2025 | 9780593871157

A successful Atlanta-based matchmaking entrepreneur suddenly finds herself the target of increasingly bizarre and terrifying events that threaten first her business and then her life.

A third-generation matchmaker, Nura Khan considers it the work she “was put on this earth to do” and has an enviable record of success pairing off the well-to-do men and women who are part of her client pool. Well-educated, worldly, and hard-working, 31-year-old Nura seems to have the best of everything—except a match for herself. Still, she manages to keep up socially necessary appearances with a fake fiancé named Azar, a childhood friend with whom she (quite disastrously) fell in love with as a college student, but who is more than willing to accompany her to clients’ weddings. Then her glittering world begins to crumble when a member of her staff comes across a podcast from an unknown man who slanders

Nura’s work and a rejected client threatens to destroy her reputation with bogus claims of misconduct.

Saeed’s deft handling of the escalating tensions that follow—the kidnapping of a bride and groom; Nura’s deepening quandary about Azar, the best friend she cannot admit is the love of her life; and the devastating betrayal that changes everything—creates a narrative that will captivate readers from the first page. This hybrid romance/mystery takes the Southeast Asian tradition of arranged marriage and works it into a story that delights with its shimmering fluidity, memorable characters, heart-stopping twists, and a happilyever-after that warms the heart while bringing the narrative to a delectably satisfying close.

A warm, winning debut with intelligence and storytelling panache to spare.

Kirkus Star

Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil

Schwab, V.E. | Tor (544 pp.) | $26.99 June 10, 2025 | 9781250320520

T hree women deal very differently with vampirism in Schwab’s eraspanning follow-up to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020). In 16thcentury Spain, Maria seduces a wealthy viscount in an attempt to seize whatever control she can over her own life. It turns out that being a wife— even a wealthy one—is just

A fairy tale for grown-ups that’s wildly implausible and just plain wild.

THE BACHELORETTE PARTY

another cage, but then a mysterious widow offers Maria a surprising escape route. In the 19th century, Charlotte is sent from her home in the English countryside to live with an aunt in London when she’s found trying to kiss her best friend. She’s despondent at the idea of marrying a man, but another mysterious widow—who has a secret connection to Maria’s widow from centuries earlier—appears and teaches Charlotte that she can be free to love whomever she chooses, if she’s brave enough. In 2019, Alice’s memories of growing up in Scotland with her mercurial older sister, Catty, pull her mind away from her first days at Harvard University. And though she doesn’t meet any mysterious widows, Alice wakes up alone after a one-night stand unable to tolerate sunlight, sporting two new fangs, and desperate to drink blood. Horrified at her transformation, she searches Boston for her hookup, who was the last person she remembers seeing before she woke up as a vampire. Schwab delicately intertwines the three storylines, which are compelling individually even before the reader knows how they will connect. Maria, Charlotte, and Alice are queer women searching for love, recognition, and wholeness, growing fangs and defying mortality in a world that would deny them their very existence. Alice’s flashbacks to Catty are particularly moving, and subtly play off themes of grief and loneliness laid out in the historical timelines.

A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.

The Bachelorette Party

Sten, Camilla | Minotaur (304 pp.)

$28.00 | June 10, 2025 | 9781250868503

Sten’s first Englishlanguage thriller, following two novels translated from Swedish, takes a bride and her wedding attendants on a yoga-themed trip to a deserted island. Guess what happens.

Isle Blind, a scrap of land accessible only by boat, is home to Baltic Vinyasa, whose owner, Irene Sperling, is happy to welcome family therapist Anneliese and five of her buddies to the new mini-resort before it opens to the public. It would be the perfect venue if only four women hadn’t gone missing from the island 10 years ago under mysterious circumstances during their own annual get-together— and if Carl von Thurn, the husband of one of them, hadn’t vanished himself eight years later, leaving behind what sounds a lot like a suicide note. But there’s a silver lining to every cloud.

Tessa Nilsson, one of Anneliese’s guests, hopes against hope that she can revive her career as a true-crime podcaster, which was tanked when an interview concerning another cold case ended up having a devastating impact by digging up more information about the earlier disappearance and taking it public. Her preliminary inquiries of Adam, Baltic Vinyasa’s chef, lead only to his warning not to bring the subject up to Irene, whose sister, Matilda, was one of the four women who vanished back in 2012. It’s only a matter of hours before the string of disappearances extends to the

present, this time with an unmistakably violent edge. The events that follow are just as harrowing as in Sten’s two Swedish novels but a lot faster-paced.

A fairy tale for grown-ups that’s wildly implausible at every stage, and just plain wild.

Kirkus Star

Flesh

Szalay, David | Scribner (368 pp.)

$28.99 | April 1, 2025 | 9781982122799

Scenes from the life of a well-off but emotionally damaged man. Szalay’s sixth novel is a study of István, who as a 15-year-old in Hungary is lured into a sexual relationship with a married neighbor; when he has a confrontation with the woman’s husband, the man falls down the stairs and dies. Add in stints in a juvenile facility and as a soldier in Iraq, and István enters his 20s almost completely stunted emotionally. (Saying much besides “Okay” sometimes seems utterly beyond him.) Fueled by id, libido, and street drugs, he seems destined to be a casualty until, while working as a bouncer at a London strip club, he helps rescue the owner of a security firm who’s been assaulted; soon, he’s hired as the driver for a tycoon and his wife, with whom he begins an affair. István is a fascinating character in a kind of negative sense—he’s intriguing for all the ways he fails to confront his trauma, all the missed opportunities to find deeper connections. To that end, Szalay’s prose is emotionally bare, deliberately clipped and declarative, evoking István’s unwillingness (or incapacity) to look inside himself; he occasionally consults with a therapist, but a relentless passivity keeps him from opening up much. His capacity to fail upwards eventually catches up with him, and the novel becomes a

more standard story about betrayal and inheritances, but it also turns on small but meaningful moments of heroism that suggest a deeper character than somebody who, as someone suggests, “exemplif[ies] a primitive form of masculinity.” István’s relentlessly stony approach to existence grates at times—there are a few too many “okay”s in the dialogue—but Szalay’s distanced approach has its payoffs. Being closed off, like István, doesn’t close off the world, and at times has tragic consequences. An emotionally acute study of manliness.

Sour Cherry

Theodoridou, Natalia | Tin House (288 pp.)

$17.95 paper | April 1, 2025 | 9781963108194

Theodoridou’s “Bluebeard” retelling asks if monsters are born or made.

An unnamed stage actress sits in her apartment, telling her young son a fairy story. Urged on by the ghosts of blooddrenched women that only she can see, she speaks of a boy born in a stately home. A curious, perpetually hungry child with sharp nails and pointed teeth, the boy is abandoned by his spectral mother and soon-dead father, and doted on by his wet nurse, Agnes. He seems to bring a curse upon the village—the crops suffer blight year upon year, walls crumble, a young girl’s skin peels from her bones. When Eunice, a villager who played with the boy as a child, moves into the manor as his lover, the furious townspeople storm the gates

with pitchforks, and the young couple flees. A shotgun wedding in a roadside chapel makes Eunice the first of his many abused and blighted wives, and the only one to bear him a son of his own. Young Tristan grows up determined to take revenge on his father—and the narrator’s son listens with bated breath. Theodoridou interweaves teller and tale to dizzying effect, leaving the reader to relish in some satisfying uncertainties. The narrator’s own career staging shows about violent men adds a delicious metatextual twist. “Easier to tell you of a man who was a myth, a natural disaster, a fairy-tale thing,” the narrator concedes to her son, “than to say your father is a wife-beater, a rapist, a murderer.” Unfortunately, the book’s length outstrips its conceit—a dense, dark gem of a story becomes frustratingly repetitive. The carousel of murdered wives, rotting fruit, and blood-soaked gowns evokes the cyclical horrors of abuse, but the eventual predictability soon dulls the narrative’s edge.

A rich, relentless—if overlong—tale of violence and the men who wield it.

No. 10 Doyers Street

Vatsal, Radha | Level Best - Historia (244 pp.) $27.95 | March 4, 2025 | 9781685127749

An immigrant reporter searches for truth amid the shadowy political machinations of New York City at the turn of the last century. It’s 1907, and Archana “Archie” Morley is assigned to cover

a bloody shootout at the Chinese Opera House for the Observer. The prime suspect is Mock Duck, a notorious (real-life) Chinatown gangster, who has other problems, too—the Children’s Society is threatening to remove his adopted 6-year-old daughter, Ha Oi, claiming the child was born to two white parents and has blue eyes and blond hair that was darkened to make her look more Chinese while she was living with Mock and his wife. Meanwhile, as Mayor George B. McClellan declares his intention to clean up Chinatown—which he calls “a slum, a hotbed of vice, not to mention a fire hazard”—by paving it over with a public park, Archie begins to realize there’s more to the Opera House massacre than meets the eye. If the mayor is not able to raze Chinatown, perhaps he can pressure the community to bend to his will in other ways. Then, when Mock Duck consents to a rare interview with Archie, she realizes there may be more to him than most people realize. Archie, who immigrated from India when she was 19, has also struggled to be understood and find a place where she belongs, due to her race and gender as well as the quickly transforming landscape of the newspaper business. Vatsal paints a vivid picture of New York in the early 1900s, finely colored with the issues and historical figures of the time—as well as Mock Duck, there’s the Danish American social reformer Jacob Riis and the infamous Tammany Hall political figures Charles F. Murphy and George Washington Plunkitt. This page-turning caper explores the political, cultural, and economic forces that shaped Progressive Era New York.

Lives by the Number

Listening to new novels by Betty Shamieh, Adam Haslett, and Anne Tyler on audiobook.

BY CONNIE OGLE

THE THREE PALESTINIAN American women in playwright Betty Shamieh’s first novel, Too Soon (Simon & Schuster Audio, 12 hours and 35 minutes), are at different stages in their lives, but all of them are reeling.

Arabella, a 35-year-old New York theater director, wants to make it on Broadway—but also find a husband and have a child. Playing matchmaker is her determined grandmother Zoya, whose actions prompt her to revisit her own troubled romantic past. Meanwhile, Arabella’s mother, Naya, forced into an arranged marriage by Zoya when she was a teenager, harbors her own secrets.

Distinct voices from three narrators enhance these sharply drawn portraits. Shamieh reads the part of Arabella with brash bravado, showing glimpses of the anxiety masked by Arabella’s wisecracking humor as she travels to Gaza in 2012 to produce an audacious version of Hamlet with a woman playing the lead. Lameece Issaq’s narration echoes a wry, wise gravity as Naya reflects on her responsibility for mistakes and lies she wasn’t compelled to make or tell.

As Zoya, who fled Palestine in the wake of the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, Jacquelin Antaramian bears the heaviest burden:

reminding the reader that Too Soon isn’t merely a comedy. It’s also a story of loss and dislocation and how cultural traditions don’t always serve those committed to them. It’s a delicate line to walk, but Antaramian’s comedic yet pointed performance strikes a balance that resonates.

In Mothers and Sons (Hachette Audio, 10 hours and 58 minutes), Adam Haslett’s first novel since 2016’s Imagine Me Gone, the past returns to haunt a gay New York immigration attorney and his estranged mother.

Peter spends his days immersed in the battle to prevent his clients from being deported and his nights keeping his hookups casual. Ann, a former pastor who left her husband and church to run a women’s retreat in Vermont with her new partner, Clare, struggles with her own limitations.

When Peter reluctantly takes the case of Vasel, a young gay Albanian seeking asylum, he’s catapulted back to his adolescence and the events that ruptured his already-fractured relationship with Ann.

Janet Metzger and Andrew Gibson perform the motherand-son reading duties with steady precision. While Gibson has the more dramatic role and excels at reflecting Peter’s roiling emotions,

Metzger’s quiet thoughtfulness invests you in Ann’s emotional reckoning, which is revealed more deliberately.

Anne Tyler is famous for creating quirky characters who find dealing with the ordinary complications of life more difficult than the rest of us. One such person is Gail Baines of Three Days in June (Random House Audio, 4 hours and 23 minutes). An avalanche of events has upended Gail’s life: She loses her job just before her daughter’s wedding, then her daughter drops a disturbing bomb about her fiancé.

Meanwhile, Gail’s shambling ex-husband, Max, has arrived at Gail’s house with a wary, homeless cat in tow, needing a place to stay for the weekend.

As plot goes, that’s about it, but what makes this audiobook a true pleasure is the terrific narration by J. SmithCameron of Succession. Her transformation from the HBO show’s steely corporate lawyer to the painfully awkward and more-than-alittle antisocial Gail is a delight. She’s endlessly funny and yet exposes the delicate, all-too-real humanity with which Tyler shapes her endearing oddballs.

Connie Ogle is a writer in South Florida.

INDIE AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

MINA BROWER

Author of A God of Moonlight and Stardust

Please tell us a little about yourself and A God of Moonlight and Stardust I am a Mexican immigrant who very recently became a U.S. citizen in 2021. Writing has always been a passion of mine and I used to enter short story writing contests as a child. Although I always saw myself pursuing a career in writing as an author, my immigrant parents did not. Being an author was not my parents’ vision of the “American Dream,” and they urged me to pursue a more traditional career path like a doctor or lawyer. Years later, I became a lawyer, and it was not until I became a mom and was in postpartum therapy that I decided to give creative writing a try again. My therapist at the time encouraged me to use writing as a therapeutic outlet, and that writing eventually became my debut. A year after professional editing, I selfpublished. I am still a full-time practicing lawyer and have a supportive family who helps me balance my author career. Writing fiction allows me to have fun with writing and do away with some of the rigidity required in my legal profession.

How did you choose the genre of A God of Moonlight and Stardust?

I write SF and fantasy thanks to my grandfather. He used to have a typewriter store and I used to sit next to him and help fix typewriters. When he retired, he became an SF author. I

loved listening to stories about faraway places, galaxies, planets, and topics like astral-traveling and space exploration. He gave me the courage to believe I could also be an author one day.

Any advice for others starting the process of independent publishing? Find a good editor. You only get to make a good impression once. You do not need a yes-man for an editor. Find someone who will challenge you to be a critical thinker and question your plots and character motives. Read books that editor has worked on. My editor, Jeanine Harrell, has been my rock and I would not be here without her.

What are you working on now?

I am working on Book 2 and Book 3 of my Daughters of Chaos Series. The series follows the daughters of a villainous god in an SF setting and reimagines what a mythology pantheon would look like in a post-apocalyptic world. The daughters must learn to embrace their legacy of chaotic magic and choose whether to live in the light or succumb to the dark and villainous nature that plagues their magical lineage. Book 2 in the series, An Heir of Darkness and Ruin, will be released on June 30, 2025.

Portions of this Q&A were edited for clarity.

Book to Screen

MARILYNNE ROBINSON’S Home is headed to the big screen courtesy of Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio, Publishers Weekly reports.

Robinson’s book, published in 2008 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, follows the Boughtons, a family living in rural Iowa. It’s the second of the four

novels in her Gilead series, which launched in 2004 with Gilead . A critic for Kirkus wrote of Home , which was a National Book Award finalist, “Comes astonishingly close to matching its amazing predecessor in beauty and power.”

Scorsese, the acclaimed filmmaker whose movies include Taxi Driver, The Departed , and The Wolf of Wall Street , will write and direct the Home adaptation for Apple Original Films. DiCaprio (Titanic, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood ) will star in the film and will produce alongside

Scorsese and Todd Field, the actor and director of In the Bedroom, Little Children , and Tár. Scorsese and DiCaprio are collaborating on another literary adaptation, a film based on David Grann’s nonfiction book The Wager. Scorsese and DiCaprio previously teamed up on the film adaptation of Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon ; the film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards.

Apple also plans to adapt Gilead , along with the other novels in the series, Lila , and Jack . No details about those projects have been announced, according to Publishers Weekly.—M.S.

Martin Scorsese

For a review of Home, visit Kirkus online.

Historical Novels To Heat Up Your Spring

INDIE AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

MHAIRI HAARSAGER

Author of Moral Injury

Please tell us a little about yourself and Moral Injury.

I am of Scottish heritage; my given name is Gaelic. I was born at the end of World War II, in what was then Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. Like the main protagonist in Moral Injury, I was an immigrant (from the U.K.) and a newborn-intensivecare physician with PTSD. The book is set in the late 1980s, when openly admitting that one suffered from a mental disorder was unlikely to enhance a medical career. I practiced medicine in the United States for over 40 years. During that time, I published widely in my medical field, including textbooks and research papers. I also edited a medical journal. After I retired, relearning the skills required to fulfill my lifelong ambition to write fiction took far longer than I anticipated. I owe my success to the contributions of many excellent writing tutors.

How did you choose the genre of Moral Injury ?

Both my parents served in the British Royal Navy during the war. They first met while training at Bletchley Park in London and then met again in Colombo, where they were assigned as code breakers. Postwar, my father worked for MI6, and my mother was a librarian. She instilled in me my great love of reading. I particularly enjoy detective, spy, and other thrillers.

How did you develop your characters? My characters are primarily based on people I worked with during my medical career in the United States. Some of their

personalities evolved for me from the 1980s onwards, when components of American health care increasingly “corporatized” and focused on business efficiency and profitability over patient care. The other significant change that influenced how I developed my characters was the long-awaited recognition that optimal health care requires teamwork between mutually valued individuals trained in different aspects of patient care; the transport nurse, Ann Castle, and several other characters in the novel emphasize this point.

Was your storyline something you envisioned from the beginning, or did you build/change it as you wrote?

In retrospect, my storyline began to evolve in 1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall. When I began to write, I combined my first and what is now my second novel into one manuscript. Fortunately, I found an excellent editor who strongly advised me to split the work into two novels. Many more minor aspects of the storyline changed over the several years it took me to complete Moral Injury

What are you working on now?

I am completing the sequel to Moral Injury, following the lives of many of the same characters but set in East and West Berlin shortly before the wall came down. Moral Injury will soon be available as an audiobook, and a screenplay will be written.

Portions of this Q&A were edited for clarity.

Dennis Haarsager

For a review of the book, visit Kirkus online.

Louise Penny Cancels U.S. Tour To Protest Tariffs

The Canadian author will move her book launch and tour to her home country.

Canadian mystery novelist Louise Penny will no longer do book events in the U.S., a decision made to protest U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on goods imported from Canada. Penny, known for her series of novels featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, a police detective in the fictional town of Three Pines, Quebec, made the announcement in a Facebook post, writing, “I can hardly believe I’m saying this, but given the ongoing threat of an unprovoked trade war against Canada by the US president, I do not feel I can enter the United States. At least not until that economic sword, that could throw hundreds of thousands of Canadians (as well as Americans) into poverty, is removed completely.”

For reviews of Louise Penny’s books, visit Kirkus online.

Trump initially announced that he would impose 25% tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico starting Feb. 1 but later paused implementation for a month. The tariffs were then imposed on March 4, prompting Canada to retaliate with their own 25% tariffs on U.S. goods.

Penny had planned to launch her next novel, The Black Wolf, at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center— where Trump is now the chair—but will instead hold the event at the National Arts Centre in the Canadian capital of Ottawa on Oct. 28. She said she will not tour the U.S. to promote the new novel.

“I am hoping Americans will come to the Canadian events,” she wrote. “You will be welcomed with open arms. As friends. As fellow villagers of Three Pines. Where goodness, and decency, exist.”—M.S.

Louise Penny

Socialites and gangsters mix in this riotous mystery.

A POISONOUS SILENCE

A Poisonous Silence

Adams, Jenny | Crooked Lane (304 pp.) $29.99 | May 6, 2025 | 9798892420389

In 1921 Philadelphia, a series of poisonings gives a new detective her first puzzling case. After having been shot while trying to catch a killer, Dr. Gilbert Lawless is back at the Philadelphia Morgue, where he and his partner, Dr. Marco Salvatore, are called to assist Det. Finnegan Pyle in his investigation into the death of Homer O’Hara. Pyle is there because O’Hara worked for gangster Tommy Fletcher, and Gil, Finn, and Tommy were childhood friends. But Gil has a different life now. He married a society woman who was shunned by her family for wedding an Irishman. Her death left him to care for their daughter even though he has shell shock from his service in World War I. When he stops for ice cream at Reading Terminal Market, a man dies at his feet. Like O’Hara, the man was poisoned with cyanide. Meanwhile, socialite Edie Shippen has set herself up as a private detective. Her assistant is Gil’s sister, Lizzie, and her first client is a woman who accuses Lily O’Hara of murdering her husband. Although Gil and Edie love each other, Gil refuses to tell her anything. But Edie has ways of getting information. Edie and Gil attend a fancy party where Gil meets Edie’s friend Ava Sylvester, an actress currently playing Juliet opposite Duncan Carroll, who looks very much like Gil. Edie and Lizzie are visiting Norwood Studios when Duncan also dies from poison. A reluctant Gil takes his place to finish up the remaining scenes. Because Pyle

suspects Ava, a reckless Edie goes all out to find the truth.

Socialites and gangsters mix in this riotous mystery filled with dead ends and dead characters.

Death at a Highland Wedding

Armstrong, Kelley | Minotaur (336 pp.)

$28.00 | May 20, 2025 | 9781250321312

A present-day police detective whisked off to Victorian Scotland sets about solving crimes.

While visiting her grandmother in Edinburgh, Vancouver police Detective Mallory Atkinson witnesses a crime, is attacked, and suddenly finds herself back in 1869 in the body of housemaid Catriona Mitchell. Catriona works for Duncan Gray, a doctor now running his family undertaking business, who assists his best friend, Det. Hugh McCreadie, with forensic investigations. Honoring her talent for detection, Gray has made Catriona his assistant and brought her into his home. The presence of his eccentric sister, Isla, does not preclude neighbors from assuming that Catriona is Gray’s mistress. Only the household knows that Catriona is really Mallory, who must struggle to conceal her 21st-century mores. When they are all invited to the Highland wedding of McCreadie’s sister, Fiona, it turns out to be a gathering fraught with hidden undercurrents. Even before their arrival, they meet with ill will from the groom, Archie Cranston, whose sister, Violet, was formerly engaged to McCreadie. The unhappiness of the tenants at the groom’s hunting lodge, where the ceremony is to take place, has been

exacerbated by the boorish Austrian gamekeeper and his mantraps, which, to Mallory’s fury, have wounded a Scottish wildcat and killed its mother. During a walk, Mallory, Gray, and McCreadie find part of a butchered deer and then the body of Cranston’s friend Ezra Sinclair wearing Cranston’s coat. When the inexperienced and opinionated local constable arrests Cranston, the investigative trio intervene. Was Sinclair or Cranston the target for murder? And is the killer a disgruntled local or one of their own friends?

Time travel provides the framework for a captivating mystery and intriguing insights into life in 1870s Scotland.

Kirkus Star Murder Runs in the Family

Berry, Tamara | Poisoned Pen (256 pp.) $17.99 paper | April 29, 2025 | 9781464221170

A would-be private eye with relationship issues discovers you’re never too young to thrive in a retirement community. Out of love, out of money, and pretty much out of luck, Amber Winslow arrives at Arizona’s Seven Ponds Retirement Community hoping against hope that her grandmother— whom she’s never met—isn’t the heartless bitch her mother makes her out to be. Now that she’s left her detective boyfriend, Bones, in Seattle after discovering that he never intends to file the paperwork that would allow her to earn her private investigator’s license, Amber can’t face the prospect of going home to her hyperjudgmental parents having failed at yet another career. Her grandma, Judith Webb, turns out to be a true-crime podcaster better known as Jade McCallan, whom Amber has been following for years on social media. She welcomes Amber with open arms, and soon the two are sipping margaritas by the pool together in their bikinis. The death of George Vincent, a fellow

podcaster known as the Admiral, and the search for his missing tortoise bring out the detective in Amber, and as the police grow suspicious of Jade, she becomes her grandmother’s protector. But she still can’t quite believe the affection Jade shows her is all it seems. Despite Berry’s breezy tone and drop-dead-funny japes at Seven Ponds and its eccentric residents and staff, she tells a heartrending tale of how complicated families can be. In a world where nobody has a real name but everyone has a story, it takes wit and perception to suss out all the community’s secrets. Fortunately, Amber has plenty of both. A knockout series debut from a veteran author with street cred in both mystery and romance.

The Diva Poaches a Bad Egg

Davis, Krista | Kensington (320 pp.) $27.00 | May 27, 2025 | 9781496743459

Domestic diva Sophie Winston continues to extend her uncanny knack for attracting and solving murders in Alexandra, Virginia.

Beyond writing her popular advice column, Sophie dabbles in various activities, including cooking and decorating, but she’s still surprised when interior designer Mitzi Lawson approaches her at the House and Home Expo in Washington, D.C., and invites her to meet the next morning at the Inger House in Old Town Alexandria, where they both live, and to come in through the back door. Arriving for the meeting, Sophie discovers homeowner Denise Nofsinger’s lifeless body on the kitchen floor. She joins Officer Wong in conducting a search of the house, a large and impressive structure undergoing renovations to accommodate Denise and her husband, Mike. Despite the Inger name, the house has long been in the possession of the Nofsinger family, and various members have resided there. Meanwhile, Sophie’s

adversary-turned-friend, Natasha, convinces her to help plan a brunch to be filmed for a TV show. When Mitzi finally gets in touch with Sophie, she claims she’s being stalked and insists that she’ll be the next to die. Sophie’s discovery of a tracking device in Mitzi’s purse provides concrete evidence of the stalker’s existence. It turns out that Denise, who suffered from diabetes, had been administered an overdose of insulin, which caused her death. Sophie partners with her former romantic interest, police Detective Wolf, on a sting operation to apprehend the stalker. There’ll be another murder and the discovery of a skeleton concealed within a wall. In response, Sophie and her companions use their local knowledge in hopes of apprehending the murderer. This long-running series skillfully weaves together elements of mystery with practical household tips and appended recipes.

Last Wool and Testament

Ehrhart, Peggy | Kensington (304 pp.)

$8.99 paper | April 29, 2025 | 9781496749598

The death of a fiber artist shakes up a suburban New Jersey town. Even though they lived in the same small town across the Hudson River from New York, Pamela Paterson, associate editor of Fiber Craft magazine, had never met well-known fiber artist Ingrid Barrick. But after the mail carrier finds Ingrid dead in her home on Serpentine Way, Ingrid’s next-door neighbor Coco Dalrymple calls Pamela’s across-the-street neighbor Bettina Fraser, a reporter for the Arborville Advocate, to express her suspicion that Ingrid was murdered. Best friends Pamela and Bettina, deciding to poke around, end up meeting many of Ingrid’s other neighbors on Serpentine Way, including beekeeper Honey Hurley, who loves Ingrid’s unkempt wild garden, and Ingrid’s other next-door neighbor, Dorcas Sprain, who

hates it. During one visit, Ingrid’s daughter, Mari, gives Pamela a diary in which Ingrid chronicled the entire year of 1985 with a tiny, detailed picture for each day. Butterflies feature as prominently in these illustrations as they do in Ingrid’s wild garden. Erhart’s narrative works like a butterfly itself as it flits from subplot to subplot, culminating in a four-page extravaganza detailing every step Pamela takes in creating a strawberry banana pudding for the latest meeting of her knitting circle. Ingrid’s murder does get solved, but almost as an afterthought. The real action here is the interplay between neighbors, old friends, and new acquaintances. The proof may be in the pudding, but here the pudding seems the main point.

Not They Who Soar

Flower, Amanda | Kensington (304 pp.) $27.00 | May 27, 2025 | 9781496747686

The youngest member of the Wright family— sister of Wilbur and Orville— solves her second murder case. Whether despite or because of the challenges posed by the death of her mother, Katharine Wright is a strong and independent woman. A graduate of Oberlin College, she holds a teaching position and actively supports her renowned brothers’ work. Upon arriving in St. Louis in 1904 as a guest of her college friend Margaret Goodwin Meacham, whose husband is at the World’s Fair to promote his bank, Katharine experiences a brief but harrowing encounter with a distraught woman at a railroad station. Fortunately, she’s saved from a nasty fall by another Oberlin classmate, reporter Harry Haskell. The fair’s overwhelming abundance of attractions renders Katharine’s two-week stay insufficient to explore all its offerings. Although a pending patent has kept her brothers from competing for the fair’s prestigious aeronautical prize, Katharine is intrigued

by the candidates’ endeavors. On her first evening at the fairgrounds, she encounters Alberto Santos-Dumont, an arrogant Brazilian balloonist favored to win the prize. Upon arriving at Santos-Dumont’s hangar, she and Margaret discover that his balloon has been vandalized, and they spot the woman from the railroad station nearby. Running in pursuit of her, Katharine rounds a corner to find the woman stabbed and uttering the words “aeronautic competition” before succumbing to her injuries. The investigation reveals a multitude of potential suspects, including a twin sister, a menacing carny, and several other competitors for that prize.

The World’s Fair emerges as the central figure, complemented by a profusion of characters, many drawn from real life.

Shot Through the Book

Gates, Eva | Crooked Lane (272 pp.)

$29.99 | May 6, 2025 | 9798892420440

An Outer Banks librarian must deal with a murder whose scene is the deck of her home. Lucy McNeil works at North Carolina’s Bodie Island Lighthouse Library, where she and her colleagues are planning a young adult author’s festival with a few local writers. The headliner will be Todd Harrison, a well-known YA author who’s just moved back to the area. Lucy is surprised when Todd turns up at the beach home she shares with her husband, Connor, the mayor of Nags Head, asking for a few minutes of her time. Leaving her visitor on the back deck while she goes inside to get tea, she returns to find him dead, an arrow in his chest. Lucy’s been involved in solving murders before, and she has a good relationship with the police. But Det. Sam Watson, her closest contact, distances himself when Harrison’s wife, aspiring politician Heather Harrison, starts spreading rumors about Lucy that might further her political ambitions.

Lucy has no idea why Todd wanted to see her, and the library staff decides to go on with the festival. Since the two participating local authors hate each other, and each thinks she should be the leading light, the staff hopes to find a new headliner. Not only does Lucy have her hands full trying to solve the crime, but her home has become a shrine for Todd’s adoring teen fans, who leave flowers and invade the deck and house with candlelight ceremonies. There seem to be a number of people who might have hated Todd, but without a clear motive, it’s hard to pick out the killer. The librarian and her quirky friends are always a hoot as they track down mysterious murderers in a charming locale.

Doggone Bones

Haines, Carolyn | Minotaur (320 pp.)

$28.00 | May 27, 2025 | 9781250377654

A nimal-loving Mississippi detective duo Sarah Booth Delaney and Tinkie Bellcase Richmond embark on a mission to catch canine kidnappers. Their adventure starts when Sarah gets a warning from her family’s ghost about pet safety. Soon thereafter, psychic Tammy Odom shows up and asks for help finding Jezebel. The adorable dog has been taken from a locked yard and her owner, Tilly Lawson, is heartbroken, but Nixville police Chief Bill Garwool won’t help. The state’s meager animal protection laws don’t help much, either. So, Sarah and Tinkie team up to find Jezebel with assistance from Dawson Reed, the leader of a local pet detective group. Because Tilly has enemies, Reed suggests looking into a legal dog swap, a gross flea market where many animals end up as bait dogs. At length, the investigation leads to the house of Rutherford Mace, a retired wrestler rumored to be involved in the drug trade. The sleuths leave with some info and with Avalon, an abused pit bull–hound mix, whom they rescue with help

from Mace’s associate Zotto. Sarah’s romantic partner, the sheriff of Sunflower County, hates animal abusers and does his best to pitch in. When another dog disappears, the detectives follow every lead. The second missing pooch belongs to Squatty Adams, an animal hater who nevertheless loves Cupcake and is desperate to find her. Things are made even crazier by indications that the sheriff and the mayor of Nixville may be involved in a criminal enterprise. And guess who shows up again? Sarah’s old enemy, who’s now a threat to her life. Pet lovers will root for the detectives as they fight for animal rights while solving a series of human crimes.

My Father Always Finds Corpses

Hollis, Lee | Kensington (320 pp.)

$27.00 | May 27, 2025 | 9781496738929

A father and daughter team up to solve a murder. With limited success as an adult actor, former child star Jarrod Jarvis has pursued writing and is currently rehearsing his new play, an Agatha Christie–inspired mystery. Following the untimely death of his husband, Charlie, a police detective who succumbed to cancer, Jarrod was left to raise their daughter, Olivia, whose choice of a criminal justice major in college was a tribute to Charlie. Jarrod’s savvy friend Kitty Reynolds, who encouraged him to pursue writing and directing—and who happens to be a former first lady of the United States— wants to set him up with her new Secret Service bodyguard, the exceptionally attractive Jim Stratton. Liv’s currently dating Zel Cameron, a documentary film student who urges her to find and meet her surrogate mother. Meanwhile, Liv’s best friend, Maude, develops romantic feelings for Zel’s charming assistant. Liv grows more concerned about the financial motives behind Zel’s actions when he reveals that he’s located the surrogate, Candy Lithwick. Candy is

A compulsively readable police procedural with Grand Guignol trappings.

DON’T SAY A WORD

agreeable enough, but one of her two children harbors suspicions that Liv wants her mother’s property, and the other needs Jarrod’s assistance in promoting his career. Charlie’s brother Brody, a semifamous professional wrestler, arrives seeking refuge in Jarrod’s casita. When Zel fails to show up for a dinner where he was supposed to meet Jarrod, an annoyed Liv visits his studio and discovers his lifeless body. Unsatisfied with the police investigation, Jarrod, who’s dabbled in detection, embarks with Brody and Liv on his own investigation and learns that Zel’s habit of plagiarism made him widely disliked at school. An often humorous mystery replete with questionable decisions, fortunate coincidences, and opportunities for redemption.

The Silversmith’s Puzzle

March, Nev | Minotaur (320 pp.)

$29.00 | May 13, 2025 | 9781250348036

A rakish sleuth and his sidekick spouse seek to exonerate her black sheep brother from a charge of murder. After exposing clever killers in colonial India, at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and aboard a transatlantic ship, former Indian soldier and occasional sleuth James Agnihotri, aka Jim O’Trey, and Lady Diana Framji are back in London when another baffling whodunit presents itself. Diana’s brother, Adi, who’s sent James an urgent cable— “NEED HELP PLEASE COME”— anxiously explains that he’s the prime suspect in the murder of his business partner, silversmith Satya Rastogi. Solving

the murder and exonerating Adi involves a return to Bombay, with Adi disguised as a woman. Captain Jim and Lady Diana’s fourth adventure unfolds in short, titled chapters narrated by Jim in a jaunty first person, each adding a small piece to the complex solution. Jim’s probe begins at Adi’s factory, where surgical tools are made. The employees he questions seem frightened to talk to him. After he has a similar conversation with Bala Mali, the elderly gardener is brutally attacked. There’s a hidden key in Satya’s office that may unlock secrets. Subsequent interviews around the city paint a shady side of Satya, who’s been secretly trying to borrow a large sum of money. A Zoroastrian temple and the imperial mint provide more clues. Diana, feeling the intense scrutiny of her family, is anxious to depart. But the solution comes only at the end of a long and winding road packed with historic detail and local color.

A leisurely, decorous period mystery, gracefully told.

Don’t Say a Word

Mark, David | Severn House (224 pp.)

$29.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9781448315321

Multiple miscreants plague a Northumberland cop who’s already struggling with personal demons in a second case that weaves horror, history, and conventional detection into its police procedural foundation.

Several characters are dealing with the detritus of police officer Salome Delany’s debut in When the Bough Breaks (2024). Sal successfully exonerated her stepfather, Wulf Hagman, who’d been accused of the

murder of her mother, Trina. But she struggles with loss, the demands of her children, and accelerating harassment by her boss, Magda Quinn. Hagman is equally distraught as he struggles mightily to re-enter society. He’s become close friends with vengeful Theo Myers, similarly adrift since his recent release from a prison sentence for a murder he didn’t commit. The kinetic plot shuffles these components in short, punchy chapters that pinpoint each location and time, adding grisly new crimes and using the characters’ anxiety to amp up the adrenaline level. A prologue depicts an anonymous man tortured by a “creature.” Later, Sal has a traumatic encounter with a man near death, “like an electrified cadaver.” Is this the same person? Keep reading. Shocks are delivered by a “chamber of horrors” and Blindworm, a medieval torturer rooted in history and revived in a cosplay game that Theo’s obsessed with. The wildly discursive plot links Sal’s kids and surrogate mother, Dagmara, the solicitor responsible for Hagman’s exoneration, to a far-flung web of other characters. It’s all held together by Mark’s urgent, rhythmic prose and incisive character portraits. Those who persist will be rewarded with the long-awaited solution to Trina’s murder.

A compulsively readable police procedural adorned with Grand Guignol trappings.

Bodies and Battlements

Penney, Elizabeth | Minotaur (288 pp.)

$9.99 paper | May 27, 2025 | 9781250370051

The Asquiths— descendants of the family that founded Yorkshire’s Ravensea Castle in 1138—have decided to transform their ancestral home into a small hotel. Lethal complications ensue. After overcoming bureaucratic hurdles and securing permission over the objections of meddlesome neighbor Hilda Dibble, the hotel opens amid heightened tensions, all narrated by herbalist Nora Asquith. Nora’s father

serves as the official historian and greeter, while her older sister, gifted actress Tamsyn, joins the team to assist. Her brother, Will, endeavoring to establish his mead-making business, comps the stay of Lorna and Gavin Cargill, who own a string of wine shops. The guest list also includes the charming birdwatcher Brian Taylor and the equally alluring Finlay Cole, accompanied by Lady, his French bulldog. The initial stages of the hotel’s operation are tranquil enough, until Nora’s early-morning foray into the garden reveals a gruesome discovery: Hilda Dibble’s lifeless body. Finlay promptly assumes control, announcing that he’s a detective inspector newly assigned to the area and staying at the castle until his rental is ready. Ironically, Hilda’s demise may inadvertently fulfill her aspirations of scuppering the hotel. The case becomes intricately woven, involving a possible murder that was previously dismissed as an accident. A friend of the Cargills offers to purchase the castle and incorporate it into his hotel chain. Rumors of smuggling and other illicit activities persist, and the sisters stumble upon cases of wine concealed in a sea cave. As potential suspects, the Asquiths employ every resource, even the castle ghost, to unravel the mystery. Nobody is entirely what they seem in this series kickoff, leaving plenty of scope to suss out the killer.

The Spirit Moves

Perry, Carol J. | Kensington (240 pp.) | $17.95 paper | May 27, 2025 | 9781496743626

The line between the supernatural and the suspicious is blurred when a haunted innkeeper gets embroiled in the murder of a visiting author.

Maureen Doherty never expected to run a haunted inn. But after inheriting the Floridian Haven House Inn from a stranger, she’s made peace with its ghostly residents and

the occasional murder investigation. Struggling to keep the business afloat, she’s focused on ways to boost its profits, like a promotion of Haven as a dogfriendly town, inspired by the welcome everyone’s extended to Finn, her own pup. Maybe she just has how-to on her mind after running into her friend Aster Patterson, who owns the local bookstore, and discussing Terry Holiday, a how-to writer Aster is bringing to town for a visit. Distracted by the progression of her romance with her head chef, Ted Carr, and the wedding bells that may be in their future, Maureen doesn’t think too much about the event. And when Terry arrives, the mystery writers’ group that meets at Aster’s bookstore doesn’t exactly roll out the red carpet. They make it clear they aren’t fans of his work, or perhaps even of Terry himself. Maureen begins to suspect that his latest book wasn’t even written by him, but before she can dig deeper, Aster stumbles on Terry’s body in her flower garden. Aster claims her late husband’s ghost led her to the corpse, but top cop Frank Hubbard is dubious. As the ghostly sightings raise more questions than answers, Maureen must determine whether the truth lies with the living or the dead.

A seasoned author plays it safe in this cozy but forgettable ghostly whodunit.

Death on the Island

Reid, Eliza | Poisoned Pen (336 pp.) | $17.99 paper | May 13, 2025 | 9781728292410

Multiple murders blacken a diplomatic dinner in an icebound restaurant.

Reid’s atmospheric fiction debut creates suspense through a trio of murders, each of them alternating with flashbacks providing significant details doled out in teaspoons. In a murky prologue, Kristján Gunnarsson, later identified as the mayor of Vestmannaeyjar, encounters a corpse whom we later learn was his husband, Ari. Despite his fragile emotional state,

Kristján is obliged to host a diplomatic dinner at the noted Skel restaurant on Heimaey, an island off the southern coast of Iceland. The attendees include Canadian ambassador Graeme Shearer and his wife, Jane, from whose perspective this section is presented. A double blow comes when a storm prevents the nine people present from leaving and Graeme’s deputy ambassador, Kavita, suddenly collapses and dies. Subsequent chapters, beginning with “Thirteen Hours Before She Died,” march forward to the tragic event. Noteworthy revelations include Kristján’s belief that Ari was murdered and Jane’s realization that Graeme is having an affair she’s the last to learn about. Before the solution to this second murder comes another section, kicked off with “Thirty-Seven Hours Before He Dies.” Again, the story moves forward in small chunks of time before the identities of both the killer and the third victim are revealed. Reid’s status as a Canadian native and former first lady of Iceland—her husband was president from 2016 to 2024—authentically informs both the Canadian perspective and the Icelandic setting. Her cast of suspects is vivid, even if their uniqueness is sometimes lost in the swirl of the complex puzzle.

The evocative, isolated setting becomes the locked room in this Christie-esque whodunit.

A Case of Mice and Murder: The Trials of Gabriel Ward

Smith, Sally | Raven Books (352 pp.)

$28.99 | June 17, 2025 | 9781639736928

Murder upsets the strict and ceremonious routines at the Inner Temple in 1901 London. Sir Gabriel Ward’s daily movements are so predictable that his fellow King’s Counsels can set their watches by them.

So it’s quite a shock when he emerges from his lodgings to find the body of Lord Norman Dunning, the Lord Chief Justice of England, on his doorstep. Constable Maurice Wright, who responds to a call for help, is able and alert, but his supervising officer, Sgt. Rayner, is so cavalier about fingerprints and other forensic traces that Wright fears the fatal stabbing will never be solved. So he’s both gratified and relieved when Sir William Waring, Master Treasurer and head of the Inner Temple, appoints Gabriel to conduct his own investigation. Gabriel has no experience with matters of this sort and would very much prefer to be left alone to defend publisher Herbert Moore against charges brought by Susan Hatchings that he stole the pseudonymous manuscript for Millie the Temple Church Mouse that she accidentally left in his office one day, published it without her permission, and made a fortune. But Waring insists, Gabriel reluctantly agrees, and Wright improbably attaches himself as the novice sleuth’s sidekick and even more improbably comes to appreciate Gabriel’s talent for the job as the two bond ever more closely. Smith’s first novel provides abundant red herrings, courtroom maneuvers, legal aphorisms (“Nothing is unarguable to a good lawyer”), and an appealing atmosphere of stuffy proprieties upended by murder most foul before knitting the two cases together with professional dexterity. Yes, my lord, a sequel is promised and will be most welcome.

The Potting Shed Murder

Sutton, Paula | John Scognamiglio Books/ Kensington (304 pp.) | $28.00 May 27, 2025 | 9781496754813

Norfolk village of Pudding Corner. Daphne, “an immaculately presented thirty-something Black woman,” has an edge to her, and James, “a blond and blue-eyed white male,” knows that while he may fly under the radar, his wife will always speak her mind. But when a road rage incident over a London parking spot spooks the couple, they feel that a move to the country may be the safest option for them and their three children. They fit into their new home remarkably well: Daphne’s neighbors are eager to buy her restored and hand-painted furniture, and their children thrive at Pepperbridge Primary School, where Charles Papplewick runs a tight ship. Not long after the Brewsters’ arrival, however, the headmaster is unfortunately found dead in the potting shed on his beloved allotment. It takes nearly half the story for the local constabulary to decide that his death is a murder, but once they do, Daphne naturally gets sucked into the investigation. Sutton’s unfolding of her narrative is peculiar: Following an introduction to the people and places in the village, the prologue seems more like a flashback. And after the murderer is unmasked, a true flashback revisits motives already revealed and introduces characters never mentioned before. The convoluted and sometimes redundant plotting deflates Sutton’s otherwise crisp storytelling, giving the formidable Daphne’s debut just a mite less punch.

Here’s hoping for a return of Sutton’s heroine with the same pizzazz but a little less woolgathering.

One Final Turn

Weaver, Ashley | Minotaur (304 pp.)

$28.00 | June 3, 2025 | 9781250350930

Murder disrupts an interracial family’s adjustment to a rural English town.

Londoners

Daphne and James Brewster aren’t sure how well they’ll fit into the tiny

On a mission in neutral Portugal during World War II, skilled safecracker Electra Mc Donnell and upperclass British intelligence officer Major Ramsey find their intense bond reaching its peak

in the conclusion of Weaver’s series. Ellie, born into a family of safecrackers, was recruited by Ramsey to help retrieve documents crucial to the war effort, and together they’ve embarked on a series of dangerous missions. Raised by her Uncle Mick after her mother died while in prison for murdering her father, Ellie feels that Mick’s sons, Toby and Colm, are her true brothers. Toby hasn’t been seen since the Battle of Dunkirk, but he turns out to have escaped from a prisonerof-war camp and is believed to be crossing the Pyrenees. British intelligence wants to find him, learn more about his escape route, and help other fugitives while also learning from them what they learned in France. The operation is led by Captain Archie Blandings with Major Ramsey’s support, even though Ramsey dismissed Ellie after their last mission and their budding romance ended. Ellie is keeping a dangerous secret from Ramsey: She’s searching for evidence of her mother’s innocence. Arriving in Lisbon, Ellie and Archie stay at a hotel popular with spies and refugees. They set out to find Archie’s Turkish informant, who’s murdered soon after revealing that the person they need to speak to has gone underground. Ellie, Archie, and Ramsey frequent nightclubs to uncover someone who might help them find Toby, where Ellie catches the attention of a Nazi officer while pretending to be Archie’s lover. What follows is a series of intense and dangerous attempts to rescue Toby and his fellow escapees. Espionage and fast-paced action take a backseat to the finale of a blazing, star-crossed love story.

INDIE AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

RICK MOSKOVITZ

Author of The Pinocchio Chip

Tell us about yourself and The Pinocchio Chip.

I’m a psychiatrist, with an undergraduate degree in chemistry and physics and a lifelong interest in scientific discovery. Over the last decade, I’ve become immersed in climate change mitigation and, more recently, the existential risk of rapidly evolving AI. I imagine the near future through the lens of enduring human struggles, dilemmas, and suffering. My Brink of Life Trilogy was inspired by the younger generation’s fantasies of immortality. “What could possibly go wrong with that?” The question behind most great SF stories underpins the trilogy. My sequels to A Stand-in for Dying each feature one of its minor characters.

How did you choose the genre of your book?

Science fiction is a logical choice for someone who is curious about how the world works and imagines how it might work as technology evolves. Imagining how people facing emotional problems like OCD or depression might deal with a changing world adds another dimension to the stories’ tension.

How did you develop your characters? Photina was introduced in A Stand-in for Dying as an AI learning to read and emulate human emotions from her human mentor, Corinne. Her learning fell short of experiencing emotions, despite her increasing

attachment to Corinne. Corinne’s eventual death creates a crisis that propels Photina to the brink of grief, grasping at a feeling she observes in the humans around her, but still just beyond her reach.

Photina’s development was a delicate balance between crafting a character with enough emotional depth to engage readers while respecting the limits of artificial intelligence, particularly in the realm of emotions. Photina’s character respects those limits while her counterpart gradually exceeds them. She maintains her detached perspective as narrator while experiencing her double’s emotions vicariously. Her investment in the outcome of the conflict is motivated by moral values that are based upon Asimov’s Laws of Robotics.

Did you envision your storyline from the beginning or did you change it as you wrote?

When I began writing The Pinocchio Chip several years ago, I considered several alternative plotlines. One story developed the hacking theme and centered on the search for the hacker. I considered romantic entanglements between Photina and either a human or another AI. When chatbots entered the culture and distinguishing AI from human responses became increasingly challenging, it occurred to me that the crucial quality distinguishing people from AIs is the capacity to

The Pinocchio Chip Moskovitz, Rick Fluke Tale Productions | 142 pp. | $7.49 paper | March 15, 2024 | 9798990163805

experience emotions. Crossing that threshold became the focal point of the story, which took wings once I changed the narration to her voice. How might superintelligent AI respond to feelings differently from humans? And how might that go spectacularly wrong?

Portions of this Q&A were edited for clarity.

Nancy Moscovitz

Kirkus online.

AWARDS

Winner of Republic of Consciousness Prize Revealed

Melvill, written by Rodrigo Fresán and translated by Will Vanderhyden, took home the award.

The winner of the Republic of Consciousness Prize, United States and Canada, is Melvill,

written by Argentinian novelist Rodrigo Fresán, translated from Spanish by Will Vanderhyden, and published by Open Letter Books.

Melvill, which Open Letter published last October, follows a dying man who tells the story of his remarkable life to his son. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus praised the book as “an elegant, meditative story about storytelling—for lives are, Fresán writes, ‘really, books of stories.’”

first few pages that this book is for the head. But the further they get into its gorgeous prose, so dizzyingly translated by Will Vanderhyden, the more they will see that it’s also for the heart.”

The Republic of Consciousness Prize, United States and Canada, the North American version of a U.K. award, was established in 2022 by bookseller and critic Lori Feathers. The award “celebrates the commitment of independent presses to fiction of exceptional literary merit.”

Dorian Stuber, one of the award’s judges, said in a statement, “Opening Rodrigo Fresán’s Melvill, readers will know from the array of footnotes on the by

The previous winners of the prize are God’s Children Are Little Broken Things, written

Arinze Ifeakandu

and published by A Public Space Books, and Lojman, written by Ebru Ojen, translated by Aron Aji and Selin Gökçesu, and published by City Lights.—M.S.

For a review of Melvill, visit Kirkus online.

Rodrigo Fresán

Hazardous to a Duke’s Heart

Jeffries, Sabrina | Kensington (288 pp.) $18.95 paper | April 29, 2025 | 9781496751027

Newly returned to England after years detained in France during the Napoleonic Wars, a duke falls for his sister’s governess.

Lord Jonathan Leighton, third son of the Duke of Falconridge, was on a grand tour when he and thousands of other British civilians were forced into detainee camps in France. Jon attempted escape alongside his two best friends and his mentor, Dr. Isaac Morris, but they were captured and sent to prison, where Morris died before they were released. When, after 11 years away, Jon returns to England with plans to make good on his promise to find a husband for his mentor’s daughter, Victoria, he learns that his father and two brothers are dead and he’s inherited the dukedom; Tory now works as his sister’s governess. When he (falsely) tells Tory that her father left her a sizable dowry— providing the money himself seems like the best way to help her—she surprises him by responding that she does not wish to marry but would rather open a school for women artists like herself. They come to an agreement that Tory will be presented in Society and look for a husband until the end of the Season if Jon will attend sculpting lessons, but they soon find themselves unable to resist their mutual attraction. Both are hiding secrets, though, which become more complicated to maintain as their feelings grow. This new series kickoff hits all the notes of an old-school romance, with historical richness, delicious pining, and a lack of communication and trust keeping the pair apart. Secondary characters function as plot devices, but the leads are appealing. There are short references to atrocities Jon and others faced while in France, but the story never goes too deep, maintaining a light tone instead. One mystery thread is left open for future books.

The unique historical specificity adds interest to this serviceable romance.

Any Trope but You

Lavine, Victoria | Atria (336 pp.) | $18.99 paper | April 1, 2025 | 9781668079270

In Alaska to escape her angry fans and write a murder mystery, a popular romance author finds the one thing she never expected: a chance for her own Happily Ever After.

Margot Bradley is known for her swoony love stories, but she doesn’t actually believe in true love; she secretly writes different, bitter endings for her characters, which she keeps in a document titled Happily Never After. When her computer is hacked and the file is released to the public, her fans turn on her and Margot finds herself canceled. To help her figure out what to do next, her sister, Savannah, who has a “cocktail of autoimmune disorders” and lives with Margot, books her a six-week stay at an Alaskan lodge—Margot had been planning to write a romance set in Alaska, but now she can take that trip to research a pivot, instead. When she arrives, Margot quickly realizes that not only is she in for a much more remote and rugged adventure than she’d expected, but the lodge’s proprietor seems to have walked right off the pages of one of her books. Dr. Forrest Wakefield has returned home to Alaska to care for his ailing father even though he was on the brink of a major breakthrough in cancer research back in Los Angeles. Now he spends his time working as his father’s personal physician and leading the guests on outdoorsy excursions. Forrest vowed to never get romantically involved with a guest, but his attraction to Margot keeps growing until it becomes impossible to ignore. This debut romance is beautifully written, nicely balancing humor and heat with realistic drama and conflict. Lavine is aiming for a meta-romance as Margot finds herself falling into various trope situations, but while these scenes are often funny, the book isn’t doing anything new with those tropes and they sometimes feel shoehorned in. Margot and Forrest’s roles

as caretakers to their relatives, however, ground the story in deeper emotion and lead to refreshing attitude shifts and insights for the characters.

An overstuffed rom-com with strong emotional depth.

Alice Chen’s Reality Check

Loo, Kara & Jennifer Young Quirk Books (384 pp.) | $17.99 paper June 3, 2025 | 9781683694779

A woman joins a reality show for couples, but winds up needing to fake date her former high school rival to keep her dream of winning the prize money alive.

Teacher Alice Chen is struggling to keep up with her student debt and her mother’s medical bills. Her sweet but somewhat absentminded fiancé, Chase De Lancey, has a plan, though. All they have to do is go on Dawn Tay’s Inferno: Love Is Hell, a reality competition show for couples. If they can make it through a litany of challenges and come out on top, they’ll be awarded $1 million. Of course, Chase has put in their application before even telling Alice about it, but when they get accepted, she decides his plan isn’t so crazy after all. Then everything comes crashing down when Chase is caught on camera making out with another contestant, Selena. If Alice still wants to play the game and win the prize money, she’ll have to find a new boyfriend—and the producers mention that she seems to have chemistry with Selena’s partner. Unfortunately, the chemistry isn’t positive, since that partner happens to be Daniel Cho, Alice’s old high school rival. The former enemies, who still have plenty of baggage between them, have to ham it up and pretend to date for the cameras to stay in the game. The reality TV and fake-dating aspects of Loo and Young’s book would be enough to make this a compelling romance, with extra tension provided by Alice and Daniel’s fear that their act will be exposed. About halfway through the story, however, a dead body turns up on set, and now Alice and

A lecture on ophthalmology leads two people to see each other differently.

A WAGER AT MIDNIGHT

Daniel have to fake date, win $1 million, and solve a murder. The mystery is an element too far, sending the story careening toward the over-thetop end of the spectrum. Up until that point, though, Alice made for a wonderful protagonist with a lively, competitive streak, and Daniel complemented her whip-smart, problem-solving attitude. It’s unfortunate that a dead body had to throw a wrench into the works, in more ways than one.

A fun reality-show romance slightly hindered by a quirky whodunit.

Crash Landing

McQuaid, Annie | Avon/HarperCollins (304 pp.)

$18.99 paper | April 1, 2025 | 9780063374867

Two exes on the way to the same wedding find themselves stranded on a deserted island in this debut romance.

A cancelled flight has jeopardized Piper Adams’ maid of honor responsibilities. Instead of being on a plane to her best friend Allie’s bachelorette party and wedding at an all-inclusive resort in the Bahamas, she’s stuck at the Atlanta airport. Fortunately, a knight in shining armor comes to her rescue, but unfortunately, he’s Wyatt Brooks, the man who broke her heart. As luck would have it, he’s attending the same wedding, and a former Army connection has offered him the use of a small plane to get him there. What should have been a two-hour flight ends in disaster, though, as Piper and Wyatt barely survive a plane crash on an unknown island. When Piper finally comes to, after having been unconscious for almost a day,

her first thought is that she’s missed her friend’s bachelorette and may very well miss the wedding. Strange priorities for someone recovering from a plane crash. The story jumps between “Now,” with Piper and Wyatt on the island, and “Then,” when they first met as teenagers, and those flashbacks to a standard romance aren’t as compelling as the current situation, with the pair having to navigate a harsh environment while fighting old feelings. Piper doesn’t make a great impression on the reader, coming across as immature when faced with difficult experiences. She whines to a gate attendant just trying to do her job to get an entire plane full of irate passengers rebooked. She gets angry with Allie for inviting Wyatt to her wedding even though he’s her cousin. Being stranded softens her a bit, but it’s hard to be on her side. The deserted island setting adds some tension to the story, but Piper’s self-centered behavior and decision to hold a grudge against Wyatt for his earlier relationship insecurities make it a challenge to reach a compelling happily-ever-after. The survival element does the heavy lifting here, since the main characters are incompatible.

A Wager at Midnight

Riley, Vanessa | Zebra (320 pp.) | $18.95 paper | March 25, 2025 | 9781420154863

A lecture on ophthalmology leads two people to see each other differently. Scarlett Wilcox is happy to be a spinster, but she’ll begrudgingly marry as long as she gets to keep focusing on

her true passion: medicine. Accordingly, the Duke of Torrance, a family friend, is doing his best to find a man who won’t mind marrying a woman who regularly dresses in men’s clothing so she can attend Royal Society medical lectures and develop into a physician in her own right. One man, Stephen Adam Carew, keeps popping up in her life, but he’s not marriage material—most of their conversations consist of bickering about one thing or another. Like Scarlett, he’s focused on just one thing: in his case, helping his community by working himself into exhaustion as a doctor. As he was born in Trinidad and she’s an Englishwoman from a rich Jamaican family, their communities overlap somewhat, and their mutual interest in medicine brings them together repeatedly—and an unexpected post-lecture adventure ending at Madame Rosebud’s notorious brothel inspires surprisingly amorous feelings in both. But even then, their genius and stubbornness may keep them from admitting what everyone else can see—that they’re perfectly suited for one another. This second volume of Riley’s Betting Against the Duke series is, like the author’s other romances, set against a diverse, well-sketched Regency background. An extensive author’s note reveals the research behind the historical details Riley threads through the story, which are combined with strong character development and her bold writing style to great effect. Despite that early brothel scene, the intimacy on the page doesn’t go beyond intense kissing, and the plot underscores the fact that for Scarlett and Stephen, devotion to their ideals is as important as affection for each other. Riley’s tendency to throw the reader into a story with a lot of information and little explanation may confuse some, especially due to the large number of beloved friends and family who are introduced early on, but those who stick with it will be rewarded with a unique and satisfying tale.

A winning Regency that centers kin and community alongside true love.

INDIE AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

ELMER SEWARD

Author of Hearts in the Storm

How did you choose the genre of your book?

I’ve never started writing a novel with the intent of writing to a specific genre. Instead, I write stories that I would enjoy reading. Stories that make your pulse race and touch your heart at the same time. That’s what I tried to do in Hearts in the Storm. It’s more than a story about two people clinging to life on a small boat in an angry sea. It’s a story about the struggle to stay afloat in the sea of life, where the churning waves of loss and regret threaten to drag them under. It’s also a story of hope…and love. It is a romantic suspense novel, but I call it “suspensepirational” with a touch of romance.

Was your storyline something that you envisioned from the beginning, or did you build/change it as you wrote your novel?

I know that many authors map out the plot of their novels before writing. I don’t. I usually start with a question or a premise. For example: What happens when rescuers fail to rescue? What impact does this failure have on them? What impact does it have on the loved ones of the lost? When I started writing Hearts in the Storm, these were the questions I wanted to explore. The questions shaped the characters, and the characters drove the plot. I knew where the story would begin, and I had an idea of where it would end. The rest evolved as I wrote.

How did you develop your characters?

I believe telling a good story is really about creating interesting characters, placing them in conflict, and then letting them write their stories. The character Sissy in Hearts in the Storm is a prime example. When I began writing, I have to admit that I didn’t have a clear idea of who she was. As her own conflicts emerged, she became this fiery, tenacious woman who tries, sometimes unsuccessfully, to hide her tender, caring side. Because of her strong-willed nature, her behavior is sometimes aggressive and unpredictable. This adds texture and subplots to the story that I hadn’t even envisioned when I began typing the first chapter. I think I’m a much more successful writer when I turn the storytelling over to the characters. After all, it’s their story to tell.

What are you working on now?

When confronted with a high-stakes choice between loyalty or principle, which do you choose? How do you live with the fallout of knowing that you’ve betrayed one or the other? This is the central problem in my current work, All the Fallen Stars. The story is set in Bethany Crossing, a rural town in South Central Virginia. This is the same setting as my first novel, Dreams of the Sleepless, and several of the characters from that novel make cameo appearances in this book.

Portions of this Q&A were edited for clarity.

Hearts in the Storm Seward, Elmer Self | 219 pp. | $19.95 | $9.95 paper Feb. 22, 2024 | 9798880316663 9780692234495 paper

I’m a much more successful writer when I turn the storytelling over to the characters.

INDIE AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

T.F. LONG

Author of The Moon and the Gryphon

Tell us a little about yourself and The Moon and the Gryphon. I grew up in horse country, so of course my first jobs were mucking out stalls and baling hay. I lived in Ireland for a time, and during fall hunting season I rode with the field in foxhunts. (In the novel, there is a madcap fox hunt, embellished!) Later, I worked in advertising before transitioning to journalism as a police reporter and as a feature writer for various daily newspapers. Later, I owned and operated a bookstore before selling it and traveling extensively throughout Europe, including visits to Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, and Montenegro, all of which serve as backdrops for this novel.

How did you develop the style and structure of The Moon and the Gryphon?

The novel has gone through several iterations. I wrote the first version of The Moon and the Gryphon after being inspired by the mystery and the poetry found in the 1977 publication of the Nag Hammadi Library in English, and that inspiration carries through. In coming up with a method, if not a genre, I decided the story should have an almost gothic/ Romantic feel—this by merging the commonplace with the mysterious to put the reader in touch with the surreal underpinnings rolling around our vast universe. The Russian

author Gogol did so through a method called fantastical realism, combining the empirical with the magical. My approach employs what I call a skewing of the ordinary, which I scatter through my novel. Why? Because I think sometimes it is valuable to short-circuit the rational mind by contemplating the infinite and the miraculous to make leaps of understanding. After I started writing this novel, I realized, for me, The Moon and the Gryphon is a spiritual journey, but wrapped in the satisfying aspects of an action thriller.

What kind of research did you do for this book?

While researching my novel, I used many texts for reference, including finds from our bookstore. Also, much of this research occurred back in the stacks of libraries—before the advent of general internet access— for resources like the ERANOS Yearbooks, Robert Graves’ works, Rosicrucian tracts, and books about ancient caves, like Jacques Gaffarel’s Le Monde Sousterrein. In addition to the Nag Hammadi Library volumes, I researched mythology, Gnosticism, history, folk tales, Jungian psychology, and English Romantic poets. My wife and I also visited many historic, mystical sites throughout the British Isles, Ireland, and Europe, finding obscure standing stones in farmers’ fields, lost chapels in the mountains, enormous caves…we were even able

The

Moon and the Gryphon Long, T.F.

North House Creative Arts | 502 pp. $34.99 | $25.99 paper | Nov. 20, 2023 9798988817604 | 9798988817611 paper

to climb up to the balconies of Notre Dame in Paris before it was closed to tourists.

What are you working on now?

My next book is a volume of short stories and poems, which I am in the process of editing now.

Portions of this Q&A were edited for clarity.

For a review of the book, visit Kirkus online.

Deborah Long

Nonfiction

THE TENOR OF THE TIMES

LAST YEAR, THE Washington Post published a popular series that celebrated public servants who accomplish great deeds for their fellow citizens—but do so out of the limelight, with little recognition. Edited by Michael Lewis, the series is now out as a book: Who Is Government? The Untold Story of Public Service (Riverhead, March 18).

The book’s release couldn’t be more timely, given that the Trump administration, guided by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, recently fired tens of thousands of federal workers.

Who Is Government? stands as a strong rebuttal to the vague Trumpian goal of “draining the swamp.” The book’s essays—written by W. Kamau Bell, Dave Eggers, Sarah Vowell, and others—put a human face on government employees who are working tirelessly, for modest wages, to improve life for all of us, regardless of party affiliation. As Ronald Walters, the esteemed director of the National Cemetery Administration, tells contributor

Casey Cep, “There’s no Republican or Democratic way to bury a veteran.”

Not surprisingly, many books about politics and power are emerging as Trump’s second term ramps up. An insightful and sobering entry is The Project: How Project 2025 Is Reshaping America (Random House, April 22), which examines a “carefully organized assault on the U.S. government,” as author David A. Graham calls it. Our review describes the book as “essential reading for anyone trying to make sense of the Trumpian maelstrom.”

fresh amid a sustained onslaught of Trump-centric books.” As for Revenge, our critic sums it up as a “sturdy account of how we got where we are, vindictive chaos leading the way.”

For those who want a better understanding of the presidential race itself, there are two worthy (and dishy) books: Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes’ Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House (Morrow/HarperCollins, April 1) and Alex Isenstadt’s Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump’s Return to Power (Grand Central Publishing, March 18).

The authors of Fight , our reviewer says, “toggle between the parties, a sensible approach that feels

Even more gossipy is Annie Karni and Luke Broadwater’s new book, whose gallows humor is telegraphed in its long subtitle: Mad House: How Donald Trump, MAGA Mean Girls, a Former Used Car Salesman, a Florida Nepo Baby, and a Man With Rats in His Walls Broke Congress (Random House, March 25). “Much more fun than the Mueller Report,” our critic says, “but just as damning.”

Another new book takes a more expansive view of

the state of politics—and leaves the reader feeling there might be solutions to many of our problems. In Abundance (Avid Reader Press, March 18), journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson write forcefully of their frustrations with government inaction, focusing on our need for better health care, more housing, and high-speed rail. Yes, anti- government sentiment has stalled projects, they write, but so has an excess of wellmeaning regulations that muck up the works. We gave the book a starred review, deeming it “very smart and eminently useful.”

John McMurtrie is the nonfiction editor.

Illustration by Eric Scott Anderson

JOHN McMURTRIE

EDITOR’S PICK

An eminent cultural figure finds a funny way to tell his life story.

Hirsch, a poet, a bestselling author, and the president of the Guggenheim Foundation for more than two decades, channels the voices and personalities of his Chicagoland Jewish childhood to create a memoir composed of jokes and short vignettes, one setup-and-punchline after another—probably surprising himself as much as the reader when the gimmick holds up for nearly 300 pages, until the author leaves home for college at Grinnell, where an angry high school French teacher lobbied madly to prevent his admission because of a profane question he posed about Santa Claus at a senior assembly. Though he’s toned it down a bit

since the days of using the f-word in high school, in essence he’s still that guy: sometimes silly, sometimes off-color, often Yiddish-flavored, with a penchant for puns and dad jokes that never quits. Here is an entry titled “Brain Sale”: “‘If we sold everyone’s brains,’ my grandmother said to me, ‘I’d charge the most for yours.’ ‘Why, because I’m the smartest one in the family?’ ‘No, because yours have never been used.’”

Another entry is “Celebratory Dinner”: “Whenever I got laryngitis, my mom served steak to celebrate the fact that I couldn’t talk. That was tough to swallow.”

A wonderful section recounting the fate of a series of aquatic pets is titled “The Goldfish Variations.” All the jokes don’t stop him from filling

My

Childhood in Pieces: A Stand-Up Comedy, a Skokie Elegy

Hirsch, Edward | Knopf | 288 pp. | $29.00 June 3, 2025 | 9780593802823

in along the way the details of his quirky mother, his two fathers, his siblings and his extended Jewish family, his sports achievements and romantic conquests, and the Jewish migration to the suburbs. Particularly telling is one of the final sections, “How To Remember Childhood”: “This book is dedicated to my sister Lenie. We lived through

everything together. We share a sense of humor and a history. She has vetted my stories, but she also remembers our childhood as traumatic. I prefer to recall it otherwise. Her way was more expensive. It required psychoanalysis.”

A unique re-creation of a great life in a largely vanished world. Bada bing, bada boom!

Fighting Antisemitism

Today: A Lecture

Adorno, Theodor W. | Trans. by Wieland Hoban | Polity (84 pp.) | $45.00

April 28, 2025 | 9781509566907

The fight goes on.

The German philosopher and sociologist Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) remains famous today for his Marxist critiques of popular culture as well as for a prose style as intricately knotty as a macrame vest. Among his most characteristically memorable pronouncements was this: “The critique of culture is confronted with the last stage in the dialectic of culture and barbarism: to write a poem after Auschwitz is barbaric, and that corrodes also the knowledge which expresses why it has become impossible to write poetry today.” Less daunting than this statement is his lecture to a German audience in 1962, published in German in 1963, and here translated into English for the first time. In just over 40 pages of compelling speech, Adorno outlines the nature of antisemitism, some reasons why it persists, and why it has been long embedded in our educational institutions. Adorno argues that antisemitism often begins “in the family home.” It is reinforced in schooling. “I suspect that a considerable number of teachers still sympathize silently, tacitly, non-explicitly with antisemitism.” What is the answer? Open-mindedness, a global sensibility, and an awareness of class and cultural conflict. “Effective prevention of antisemitism is inseparable from a prevention of nationalism in all its forms. One cannot be against antisemitism on the one hand while being a militant nationalist on the other.” Following the lecture in this book is an interpretive essay by the scholar Peter Gordon, situating the talk in the context of Adorno’s larger concerns with “group solidarity.” “The warm feeling of a collective bond,” Gordon writes, increases when the

group expels those “who bear the stigma of difference.” Delivered over 60 years ago, Adorno’s lecture could be heard as fresh news today. An important document of intellectual history, newly relevant for our fractured world.

Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House

Allen, Jonathan & Amie Parnes

Morrow/HarperCollins (352 pp.)

$32.00 | April 1, 2025 | 9780063438644

The unmaking of the president. Joe Biden fans will find this one tough to take. In Allen and Parnes’ account, Biden’s “naked egotism” spoiled the Democrats’ chances to beat Republican Donald Trump. The 46th president’s “original sin” was seeking reelection in his 80s, a party insider tells the co-authors. After his disastrous debate against Trump, Biden compounded the Dems’ problems by waiting weeks to leave the race. “In both cases,” the authors write, “he misread the writing on the wall.” The seasoned Washington reporters toggle between the parties, a sensible approach that feels fresh amid a sustained onslaught of Trump-centric books. Though their chapters about Trump’s running-mate search, his entreaties to Gen Z bros, and the two attempts on his life aren’t revelatory, they pen a fascinating postmortem of Biden’s campaign. His team routinely kept him distant from voters, making his halting debate performance even more startling. Afterward, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “began to think that the country needed to be saved not by Biden, but from him,” they write. Barack Obama, meanwhile, favored a “mini-primary” to replace Biden. This was “Obama’s way of trying to kneecap” Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he, like Pelosi, didn’t want atop the ticket. Yet Biden, who “resented” Obama’s support of

Hillary Clinton over him in the 2016 Democratic race, endorsed Harris as his successor, in part “to stick it to Obama,” a party insider says. Once nominated, Harris didn’t adequately explain “her reason for running,” the authors argue, deferring to Biden’s “admonition” that she shouldn’t distance herself from his administration. Allen and Parnes aren’t above lazy sexism, invoking Mean Girls to pigeonhole an assertive woman and to note that Pelosi’s bra strap was showing during a TV appearance. But they deliver a riveting narrative of a crucial power struggle. Dishy scoops fuel a comprehensive account of a historic election.

Loud and Clear: The Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound and the Quest for Audio Perfection

Anderson, Brian | St. Martin’s (384 pp.) $32.00 | June 17, 2025 | 9781250319678

The epic history of a rock band’s signature sound system. Anderson’s first book traces the development of the Grateful Dead’s so-called Wall of Sound between 1964 and 1975. At its peak, the system consisted of almost 600 speakers, stood over three stories tall, weighed 75 tons, and required four semi-trucks to haul it from gig to gig. Building on a 2015 magazine article, Anderson casts the Wall of Sound as a central character in the Dead’s long, strange trip. By featuring the band’s formidable equipment, Anderson also showcases its touring operation, live shows, road managers, crew members, and sound engineers. Over time, the Wall of Sound drained the band’s resources and made touring an ordeal. Shortly after the Dead announced a hiatus in 1974, it laid off crew members and scuttled its unwieldy rig. Drawing on new interviews, archival material, memoirs, and previous

Carpets have long been associated with the wealthy—and have been woven by women.

THREADS OF EMPIRE

histories, Anderson marches through years of live performances and the Wall of Sound’s highs and lows. Less motivated readers may fall by the wayside, but the book shows that the Wall of Sound deserves a place of honor in the band’s history. It notes how frequently critics applauded the band’s sound system, and it affirms bassist Phil Lesh’s suggestion that the Dead’s live performances from this period are cherished in part because of its commitment to excellent sound. The book also connects the band’s efforts to later advances, including the elaborate sound system at the Sphere, the massive $2.3 billion venue in Las Vegas that hosts the current incarnation of the Dead. “The Wall might have fallen silent a half-century ago,” Anderson writes. “But the system’s reverberations only grow louder.” A fresh account of the Grateful Dead’s relentless pursuit of sonic perfection.

Kirkus Star

Threads of Empire: A History of the World in Twelve Carpets

Armstrong, Dorothy | St. Martin’s (368 pp.)

$33.00 | June 17, 2025 | 9781250321435

Weaving in the world.

Armstrong, a historian of the material culture of Asia, investigates the political, economic, and cultural role of handwoven carpets, splendid artifacts of superb craftsmanship. Her meticulously researched survey focuses on 12 carpets,

from a knotted-pile rug from Siberia, dating from the 3rd or 4th century B.C.E., to a 21st-century rug woven in Pakistan for commercial export. Even as early as the Iron Age the painstaking technology of rug-making already had evolved into a mature art form, likely carried out by nomads. From earliest times, Armstrong asserts, carpet weavers have been women, honing their skills in carding, spinning, dyeing, knotting, setting warps and wefts, and designing or reproducing patterns. Considerable skill, as well, Armstrong has found, is involved in rug restoration and repair. For centuries, rugs have been associated with the rich and powerful: Potentates, chieftains, robber barons, and collectors considered the acquisition of prized rugs as a reflection of their own status. Attribution of a rug’s creation and provenance also connects to power. The startling beauty of a particular rug in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum led to the assumption that it was made by a team of men. That conclusion, Armstrong asserts, “suited a nineteenth-century Western view which held that if an object was art then it was created by men, and that what women practised was a lesser form of creativity described in the West as craft.” Armstrong reveals the exploitation of rug makers that continues to the present. Twenty-first-century rugs sold in department stores are often crafted by “weary refugees in makeshift encampments” who create products for international trade to design and color specifications and are marketed through export houses. Nevertheless, as Armstrong’s richly detailed history shows, even modern rugs can shimmer with glamor and mystique. An intriguing, revelatory historical perspective.

Ocean: Earth’s Last Wilderness

Attenborough, David & Colin Butfield

Grand Central Publishing (400 pp.)

$28.00 | May 6, 2025 | 9781538772294

The world’s best-known natural historian has not lost his touch.

Attenborough is 98, but Butfield, his longtime collaborator and the author of the bestselling Earthshot: How To Save Our Planet, knows the drill, so his mentor’s voice shines through. Readers will enjoy this paean to the ocean’s beauty and weirdness despite quickly realizing that the authors ignore the natural history tradition of saving bad news for the conclusion. It’s a bumpy ride. It’s no secret that water covers 70% of the planet, but most readers are unaware that 95% of the biosphere (regions where life exists) is under water. Until the 19th century, scientists believed that nothing lived below about 600 feet, where sunlight cannot penetrate. In fact, life flourishes there. The ocean averages two miles in depth and seven miles at its deepest point. Life exists to the very bottom; although our last unexplored wilderness, it is definitely not unspoiled. The book follows the format of an Attenborough documentary, with expressions of wonder at the sights and lucid explanations of what needs explaining: vast kelp forests, coral reefs, seamounts, and polar ice, all perhaps richer in life than the continents because they exist in three dimensions. This includes the largest animal that has ever existed, the blue whale, almost exterminated by 1950 but probably recovering, down to trillions of krill, tiny crustaceans consumed by whales, fish, birds, and massive factory ships that vacuum them up for pet food and fish oil tablets. Few readers will be surprised to learn that overfishing is rampant, deep-sea mining seems just around the corner (the entrepreneurs promise to be careful), and global warming is heating the oceans. The

authors describe conservation efforts that have slowed some malignant activities and protected huge areas, but too many involve international agreements that are unenforceable. Natural wonders and their problems.

The Heart Is Meat: An 80s Memoir

Backus, Michael | Oil on Water Press (182 pp.)

$19.95 paper | May 1, 2025 | 9781915316332

A Midwestern transplant’s life in early 1980s New York City is reinvigorated in this memoir. Through an unfolding series of raw moods and memories, author Backus transports himself back to 1983, when, as a young man out of college, he’d just arrived in Manhattan from Indiana, driving his dead grandmother’s 1968 Chevy Caprice to work at a pork-packing company with dreams of becoming a writer. His mundane work of meat processing is made entertaining courtesy of a dramatically animated crew of Vietnam veterans and local aggressive bruisers with names like Big Ed, Dinky Peter, Manny the Spic, Jersey City Johnny, and “pre-Vietnam era” Gummy. Also keeping him afloat and awake are afternoons fueled by a carefully calibrated combination of speed and heroin, though the speed made him “aggressive and profane and prone to street incidents with strangers.” Together with his exasperatingly tolerant girlfriend, Maya, in their East Village apartment with four cats, he works days and parties nightly, stumbling home dodging junkies and homeless encampments and fending off campy, brazen sex workers. Across random adventures with friends, family, colorful inner-city dwellers, and new job opportunities, the memoir reads like transgressive fiction as Backus dizzyingly re-creates scene after scene of pure 1980s Manhattan,

Sister-in-law to Hamilton, and a rebel in her own right.

ANGELICA

immersing the reader into a forgotten early-AIDS era in New York history filled with music, queer leather biker bars, bathroom-stall meth snorting, sweaty disco dance floors, and conceptual art shows. The author concludes two years later, in 1985, when AIDS has begun ravaging the queer community and his relationship is dissolving. A bittersweet epilogue written in 2013 catches up with his former co-workers and reflects on the dwindling vitality evident across the Big Apple. Using a cleverly depicted, vivid blend of atmosphere and attitude, Backus reaches back decades to a twitchy era of drug-soaked reality to deliver a uniquely raw, significant slice of life in exacting detail. A fond remembrance of an author’s gritty history.

Angelica: For Love and Country in a Time of Revolution

Beer, Molly | Norton (352 pp.)

$31.99 | July 1, 2025 | 9781324050216

A woman navigates revolution. Making an engaging book debut, Beer recounts the eventful life of Angelica Schuyler Church (17561814), the eldest of eight children born into a wealthy and influential Dutch family. Her mother was a van Rensselaer; her family tree included Livingstons and van Cortlandts. Like other aristocratic colonial families, hers owned slaves, an unquestioned economic necessity even for those who cried out for liberty. Contradictions and roiling

politics defined her life: She was 19 when the colonies petitioned for independence, and her father, Philip Schuyler, soon became a commander of the Continental Army. Their Albany home became a meeting place for leaders of the revolution. As Angelica witnessed upheaval around her, she boldly upended her life. Although her family hoped she would marry a man of her class and means, she became attracted to John Carter, an English émigré, a man with “languid blue eyes and passionate political opinions.” He had no family connections, no estate or hope of one, and no fortune, to all of which her parents objected. Faced with the choice of submitting to parental authority or rebelling, she made a fateful decision. She and Carter eloped. She learned that Carter had changed his name from Church to avoid paying creditors after he went bankrupt in England; his later financial success supplying American and French troops made it possible for him to repay his debts and reclaim his name. Angelica Carter became Mrs. Church. In Boston, Newport, Paris, and London, she moved in the same aristocratic circles into which she was born. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson were close friends in Paris; her brother-in-law was Alexander Hamilton. She was godmother to his daughter. Beer draws on abundant archival sources to portray a shrewd, observant woman whose perspective affords a fresh look at her times.

A brisk and vivid history.

For

more books about Alexander Hamilton, visit Kirkus online.

Carpet Diem: Tales From the World of Oriental Rugs

Bradley, George | Harper/ HarperCollins (304 pp.) | $32.50 May 13, 2025 | 9780063394933

A tale of carpet collecting and its ardent Arabian knights.

“Some achieve addiction, some have addiction thrust upon them,” says Bradley of his adventures and misadventures in oriental rug collecting (“rug” and “carpet” being interchangeable terms). His is an unexpectedly engrossing account of a decades-long preoccupation with carpets, their history and lore, and his interactions with kindred connoisseurs, dealers, restorers, and disreputable players in the trade. A poet, olive oil importer, and former sommelier, Bradley is a member of New York’s Hajji Baba Club, a group devoted to the appreciation and collection of fine rugs, antique and otherwise. With changing tastes, the demand for oriental carpets may not be what it once was—a 17th-century Persian rug fetched $34 million in 2013—but Bradley’s personal journey of discovery, learning, bargaining, acquisition, and lamentation, which began in 2003, is no less fascinating. Even those not immediately drawn to the subject will find his weave hard to resist. Carpet isn’t a product so much as a culture of considerable complexity, and Bradley’s book is an education. His take on the strategies of bargaining—a chess (or fencing) match with feints and misdirection, moves and countermoves—is particularly enjoyable. Fine carpets, says the author, are a testament to painstaking manual skill: “There’s nothing that requires more craftsmanship than weaving a fine oriental carpet….As decorative items, they go in and out of fashion, but collectors have never abandoned them.” Bradley’s prose is crisp, fresh as a new loaf of bread, and not without a certain elegance of description. He can paint vivid word pictures, especially of New England and Asia. Bradley augments his book with

engaging asides, a detailed appendix, a glossary of terms, a bibliography, and 11 full-color photographs. The allure of artisanal rugs is afforded the treatment it deserves.

Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes From Art

Burgard, Timothy Anglin Univ. of California (360 pp.) | $65.00 April 15, 2025 | 9780520418325

Celebrating an American icon. This comprehensive catalog of a major exhibition of Thiebaud (1920-2021) at the Museum of Fine Arts San Francisco gathers four essays, a bibliography of publications by and about Thiebaud, and an appendix of notes from Thiebaud’s lessons in figure drawing. Contributors include Timothy Anglin Burgard, the museum’s senior curator; Rachel Teagle, founding director of the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at the University of California, Davis; Eve Aschheim, Thiebaud’s teaching assistant from 1985 to 1987; and Burgard’s colleague Lauren Palmor, associate curator of American art. Both Burgard and Palmor address Thiebaud’s self-proclaimed penchant for appropriating and reinterpreting other artists—even his students. “I see myself as a total thief,” he once boasted. Yet, Burgard notes, although he freely admitted that he was influenced by others’ work (“I feed on it,” he remarked), among his prolific output—up to 100 works each year for 70 years—only a small percentage are appropriations; all reflect the capaciousness of his artistic interests. Although he spent most of his life in Sacramento, in 1956-57 Thiebaud took a year’s sabbatical in New York, with the goal of meeting leading figures of abstract expressionism, and he came away impressed by those artists’ engagement with European and American art traditions. At UC Davis, where he was a professor from 1960 to 1991, he taught painting, drawing, and art theory and

criticism. Even after he retired at age 70, he returned to teach his lecture course and to offer private lessons in his studio almost until his death at age 101. Teagle and Aschheim, drawing on interviews with his former students, portray a vibrant, provocative teacher who brought to his classes, and his work, a broad knowledge of art history and an energetic spirit of invention. A beautifully produced, authoritative volume.

Kirkus Star

Voice for the Voiceless: Over Seven Decades of Struggle With China for My Land and My People

Dalai Lama | Morrow/HarperCollins (256 pp.)

$25.00 | March 11, 2025 | 9780063391390

A subtly reasoned argument for a free Tibet after 75 years of Chinese occupation.

“The responsibility for the nation and people of Tibet was placed upon me the moment I was recognized as the Dalai Lama at the age of two.” When he became Tibet’s leader at 16, the year Chinese soldiers swarmed into the formerly independent nation, he entered into numerous discussions with Mao Zedong (“truly unlike anyone I had met”), Zhou Enlai (“clever and smooth-talking”), and other Communist leaders, one of whom warned him that he should flee because Tibet would meet the same fate as Hungary, freshly crushed by the Soviets. When it became apparent that Mao intended to absorb Tibet as a strategic buffer and as part of the symbolic restoration of “territories that had once been part of the Manchu Qing empire,” the Dalai Lama went into exile and, as he notes, has never since been able to return to his native land. “Mao probably realized that with me gone out of Tibet,” he writes, “China would struggle with the question of legitimacy both of their authority and their presence in Tibet. He

was right.” Today, he adds, the regime of Xi Jinping is bent on assimilating Tibet, suppressing religious practices, and removing children to Mandarin-speaking boarding schools. Nevertheless, the Dalai Lama still finds hope for Tibet in the roiling undercurrents of Chinese society—the Tiananmen Square uprising of 1989, for example, which, he holds, by no means “marks the end of the Chinese people’s quest for greater freedom, dignity, and democracy.” A surprising discovery is that the Dalai Lama has long been willing to leave Tibet within the People’s Republic of China, but with control over its own internal affairs and a democratic government. An autonomous Tibet? As envisioned here, that would surely be the Dalai Lama’s greatest legacy.

The Club: Where American Women Artists Found Refuge in Belle

1888 had reached more than 800. It was established by two Americans, Helen Newell, a minister’s wife, and Elisabeth Mills Reid, the wife of diplomat Whitelaw Reid who had fond memories of studying in Paris as a teenager. Started as a small gathering space where women could stop in for a cup of tea, the Club expanded into a full residence two years later, offering bare-bones but comfortable housing for some 40 residents, a reasonably priced restaurant, an English-language library, a social space, and free daily afternoon tea. “The ability of Club-goers to speak a common language, both literally and metaphorically,” Dasal writes, “eased the pain of adjusting to an unfamiliar land and culture and thus provided women with a near instant social circle.” Dasal brings to light a cast of talented, courageous women whose lives, and art, defied expectations; her engaging history pays homage to the singular space that nurtured them. A fresh look at female artists.

Époque Paris

Dasal, Jennifer | Bloomsbury (368 pp.)

$32.99 | July 15, 2025 | 9781639731305

A Parisian refuge. Art historian Dasal draws generously on letters, memoirs, and contemporary reports to recover the history of the American Girls’ Club, which opened in 1893 as a home base for American women studying art in Paris. Those aspiring artists faced challenges in the U.S., where society frowned upon women wanting to make a career in art, and where parents were reluctant to allow their daughters to travel abroad. Many, nevertheless, had studied at prestigious American art schools, and they considered further instruction in Paris as “the last step toward professionalism.” Once they managed to make their way there, they faced new challenges: living on a strict budget, finding a hospitable atelier, and learning to navigate in a new milieu. The Club, then, met a real need for a growing number of women, which by

Josephine Baker’s Secret War: The African American Star Who Fought for France and Freedom

Diamond, Hanna | Yale Univ. (352 pp.)

$35.00 | May 6, 2025 | 9780300279986

The fearless war work of a storied entertainer.

Diamond, a professor of French history, recounts the career of Josephine Baker (1906-75), focusing on her work as a spy for the French Secret Service during World

War II. Baker had become a French citizen in 1937, after marrying a Jewish broker; although they later amicably divorced, she felt close to him and his family, and, especially after the rise of Nazism, considered herself a French patriot and fervent Gaullist, eager to contribute to the war effort. Recruited by Jacques Abtey, deputy head of German military counterespionage, she hardly fit the image of an “inconspicuous spy,” and at first Abtey wondered if she could be reliable. He discovered, though, that as part of a network charged with identifying German agents within France, her celebrity was a useful cover in collecting and transmitting intelligence. After Germany’s incursion into France, Baker fled to her chateau in the Dordogne, outside of the area of German occupation, where she continued her espionage work. Throughout the war, she also continued to work as an entertainer. Without pay, she performed for Allied troops in North Africa and the Middle East, boosting morale and conveying what she hoped was a message of racial tolerance at a time when Blacks and Jews were increasingly vulnerable. Under the pretext of arranging a South American tour, she managed to bring Abtey, traveling under false identity as her secretary, to Portugal, where he passed on intelligence dossiers to British agents. Although both had hoped to secure passage to England to join Charles de Gaulle’s resistance efforts, the woman whom the British saw as the “pet lady agent” of the Free French was asked to return to France. In 1961, Baker was awarded the Légion d’Honneur, and in 2021 her ashes were transferred to Paris’ hallowed Panthéon. A stirring history informed by deep research.

Her celebrity was a useful cover in collecting and transmitting intelligence.

JOSEPHINE BAKER’S SECRET WAR

Kirkus Star

Claire McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free

Dickinson, Elizabeth Evitts

Simon & Schuster (336 pp.)

$29.99 | June 17, 2025 | 9781668045237

The early-20thcentury woman designer who revolutionized fashion—then disappeared. “She really invented sportswear, which is this country’s major contribution to fashion,” said Calvin Klein of McCardell in 1981. Now, thanks to Dickinson’s excellent, delightfully readable biography, this extraordinary woman may finally be more widely given credit for that. In a prologue set in 1955, just three years before McCardell’s untimely death at 52, we see the designer giving Betty Friedan, then “an eager young journalist,” a tour of her innovations. “She’d developed leotards and leggings, brought hoodies, denim, and leather into womenswear, ushered the swimsuit into its contemporary form, included pockets in her clothes, and made the wrap dress a wardrobe staple.” Though “we owe much of what hangs in our closets to Claire McCardell,” writes Dickinson, it’s her contemporary (and rival) Christian Dior’s name we remember. Interestingly, Dior also died at 52 around the same time, but he had had the foresight to appoint a successor to manage his brand, a young fellow named Yves Saint Laurent. McCardell’s failure to do so meant that her label closed down shortly after her death. “Stitching Claire McCardell’s name back onto the apparel she pioneered is not merely a history lesson in provenance; it is a vital and timely reminder of a designer, and a movement, that was always about far more than clothes.” McCardell’s achievement was founded on unconventional choices. She chose not to have children

and did not marry until she was nearly 40. She was ferociously private, rarely discussing her personal life in interviews, which makes Dickinson’s deeply researched portrait all the more impressive, illuminating a whole network of women who supported each other in rigidly sexist times. One great example: During World War II, the chemical used to bleach cotton became unavailable; McCardell learned this from textile mill owner Hope Skillman, who apologized for the “dingy offwhite” material she was producing as a result. “McCardell didn’t think it was so bad; she saw it as a creamy, mellow color and began using it, helping establish a trend for the color now known as ‘bone.’”

Debut biographer Dickinson digs up buried treasure in this essential and inspiring account.

The Family Dynamic: A Journey Into the Mystery of Sibling Success

Dominus, Susan | Crown (384 pp. $30.00 | May 6, 2025 | 9780593137901

A New York Times journalist explores factors that contribute to sibling success. In this engaging exploration, Dominus says the impetus for writing her book formed many years ago. Following a childhood visit to a friend’s house, she explains, “I had been given a window into just how varied family culture could be regarding expectations and the cultivation of skills.” Dominus was further inspired by the success of the Brontë sisters, a subject of discussion throughout. The author offers an intimate look into the lives of six families from various locations and walks of life whose children had all achieved high levels of success, in an attempt to find the commonalities that exist among them. While the author speaks to the actions she feels contributed to the success of these children, she

also discusses actions she feels families should not take. One suggestion Dominus offers is to try to “get out of your children’s way.” As the author explains, “Various studies, over the years, have shown that when parents intervene, for example, as a child is trying to finish a puzzle, the extra help is demotivating for that child.”

Dominus empathizes, “For parents invested in their children’s success, it can be excruciating to watch them fail—or even wait it out to see whether their children will succeed on their own.” Among other suggestions are setting high yet reasonable expectations, exposing children to highly educated role models, and creating a culturally rich environment. Despite the best efforts of caregivers, Dominus contends, one must not forget the role of chance in the success of children. “The coin toss is the outside world asserting the power of randomness on even the most strong family culture.”

Compelling advice for those seeking guidance in setting up their children for success.

Concrete Dreamland: Coming of Age in Underground New York

Dougher, Patrick | Little, Brown (352 pp.)

$32.00 | April 29, 2025 | 9780316571029

Hard knocks in a gritty metropolis. This accomplished visual artist’s vibrant self-portrait is filled with memorable reflections on creativity, addiction, and tragedy. Dougher’s father and grandfather were heavy drinkers, and the author himself was “already an alcoholic” at seven. As a teen, he learned that his recently deceased father had killed his own father, according to a family friend, but “covered it up to make it look like” suicide. Along with these traumatic disclosures, there’s abundant raw humor. A young Dougher once woke to

find his amorous cat (Satan) trying to have sex with “my nappy afro.” The cat’s interest waned when he cut his hair, he jokes. Growing up biracial, he had frequent, sometimes violent, encounters with white racists. Solace came via fortuitous gifts—watercolors, drums— and TV matinees. His Brooklyn neighborhood was “perfectly quiet” for two hours on Saturdays, every kid inside watching a martial arts movie on a local station. Afterward, they rushed outdoors, where “we kicked and chopped one another.” In the 1970s and ’80s, he fell into the punk scene, played drums in hitmaker Sade’s band, and had guns pointed at him by cops and civilians alike. He mixed with famous and infamous figures. In Manhattan’s bohemian Tompkins Square Park, he chatted with “a timid, nerdy White guy” who turned out to be the Talking Heads’ David Byrne and had a bizarre brush with a man who later committed a murder that shocked the city. Dougher “drank and drugged daily” for two decades. Attending hundreds of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings helped him get sober. His writing about recovery features some cliches—he’s “a work in progress” on a “sober journey”—but this book teems with life, never more so than in his powerful account of working as an art therapist for children born with HIV. A moving, modest, sometimes hilarious account of self-discovery.

Notorious:

Portraits of Stars From

Hollywood, Culture, Fashion, and Tech

Dowd, Maureen | Harper/ HarperCollins (400 pp.) | $32.50 March 11, 2025 | 9780063392229

The very rich take center stage in this collection of interviews. Veteran New York Times columnist Dowd admits from the start that these assignments are more fun than her customary political

commentary (she won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for coverage of the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky liaison). Here, she harks back to her early days as a feature writer for the Washington Star. She trips lightly through talks with actors Warren Beatty, Kevin Costner, Tina Fey, Eddie Murphy, and Uma Thurman; media moguls Barry Diller, Bob Iger, and Jann Wenner; and others. She also interviews Elon Musk (“before he commandeered Twitter and transformed into a right-wing crank’’) and “Trump’s tech pal,” Peter Thiel. For the most part, Dowd does not directly challenge her sources. Throughout, her experienced journalist’s knack for colorful quotes moves her subjects beyond their talking points. She seasons the pieces with additional reporting by those in her subjects’ orbits. For the Musk profile, she chats with Mark Zuckerberg—and is served lunch by his butler, Jarvis. The menus at such gatherings are dutifully reported as a running part of the narratives, with a wink and a nod from the author. Diller’s butler, Victor, also makes a cameo—we’re a long way from mumblecore here, Dorothy. Some comments don’t age well; for example, Thiel assures her that “even if you appointed a whole series of conservative Supreme Court justices, I’m not sure that Roe v. Wade would get overturned, ever.’’ Sean Penn complains about the quality of the women in his love life, and designer Tom Ford absolves photographer Terry Richardson of #MeToo violations: “Ugh! I love Terry.” The book lacks the depth of Lillian Ross’ Picture or John Gregory Dunne’s The Studio, but it’s lively and entertaining. A guilty pleasure, yet a pleasure nonetheless.

Wagner and the Creation of the Ring

Downes, Michael | Pegasus (304 pp.)

$29.95 | July 1, 2025 | 9781639369157

Engaging with the Ring cycle in all its rich, contradictory, and exhilarating glory. Early on, conductor Downes writes, “If The Ring is a great nineteenth-century story, then so too is the story of how [Richard] Wagner brought it into being.” He begins in 1846 in Dresden with 32-year-old Royal Kapellmeister Wagner dealing with financial and political issues that impede his desire to create a fine orchestra and theater. He has composed excellent operas, but he’s obsessed with one “on the grandest possible scale.” Downes discusses how Wagner was inspired by Nordic sources, including Nibelungenlied, before touching on his antisemitism. In 1853 Wagner gives a private reading of his latest poems, with their extravagant alliteration, which contained the basis of a musical form “unlike,” Downes writes, “any opera libretto that had ever previously existed,” to a large audience, including his friend, Franz Liszt. The drama focuses on the gods and the necessity of their destruction, crafted while he faces financial woes and poor health. Next up is the music, beginning with Das Rheingold , which opens with “136 bars based on a single chord.” Downes is meticulous and insightful in examining how Wagner creates this music with his “sonic imagination,” even creating new instruments with which to play it, including anvils. Wagner is determined to make sounds

Drawing out Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerberg, and many more prominent figures.

never heard before. Die Walküre is completed in 1856, some five years after he first imagined it. Siegfried , a lighthearted intermezzo, separates the great tragedies of Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung. When Das Rheingold was performed in Bayreuth, Germany, in 1876, Edvard Grieg, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky were in the audience. Downes includes a handy chronology and helpful synopses of the four operas. A concise, insightful, and enthusiastic foray into Wagner’s magnum opus.

We Now Belong to Ourselves: J.L. Edmonds, the Black Press, and Black Citizenship in America

Edmonds, Arianne | Oxford Univ. (152 pp.)

$29.99 | June 2, 2025 | 9780197579084

A descendant traces the important work of an ancestor in forging the Black community of Los Angeles. Activist and historian Edmonds began to research the life of her great-greatgrandfather, Jefferson Lewis Edmonds, in 2009, inspired by her father to “care for our archive, the value of it.” Like much else in Black history, that archive was scattered and incomplete: Edmonds hit the documentary trail at home in Los Angeles but traveled to Ghana to fill in missing pieces of the story. “I didn’t have an end plan. All I knew was that I had to go,” she writes. Jefferson, as she calls him, was less concerned with the ancestral homeland: As he wrote in 1910 in the newspaper he founded, The Liberator, “It has been fully 200 years since our ancestors left Africa, so we have lost track of whatever right or title to any property they may have held.” Instead, Jefferson maintained, African Americans were truly Americans, deserving of the full citizenship rights that had been frustrated by the failure of Reconstruction. In that light, Jefferson, born in

slavery in the Deep South, counseled that Black Americans would do well to abandon the region and make, in his instance, for Los Angeles, where The Liberator would come to enjoy a subscriber base of nearly half the city’s African American population: Jefferson believed strongly that the community needed not just jobs and homes, but also “a record of their lives.” He strongly advocated for land ownership and entrepreneurship, no easy task even in California, which had Jim Crow laws of its own. Edmonds’ narrative is conversational in tone and sometimes wanders, but it makes an important point that the stories that each Black American family has gathered need “a home and an advocate,” and ideally a font for many more such books. Of historical interest, and an encouragement for further archival and oral historical work throughout Black America.

Kirkus Star

The Strangers: Five Extraordinary Black Men and the Worlds That Made Them

Eshun, Ekow | Harper/HarperCollins (400 pp.)

$35.00 | May 13, 2025 | 9780063450523

An agile group biography of five remarkable figures in world history, some famous and some comparatively unknown. British writer and curator Eshun delivers engaging lives of five Black men who each “strove to reach beyond the constraints of race to assert himself as fully human, fully alive.” Perhaps the best known is Matthew Henson, the Arctic explorer, whom, as with his other subjects, Eshun addresses directly: “You were working at Steinmetz and Sons, a haberdasher’s on G Street in Washington DC, when Lieutenant Peary came into the store.” It was to Robert Peary’s great fortune

that the level-headed Henson was alongside, for Peary himself, Eshun notes, was given to jealousy, craved recognition to the point of narcissism, and sought fame—all qualities that Henson lacked, ending his days “working in obscurity as a clerk at the US Customs House in New York.”

Much less known is the actor Ira Aldridge, among the foremost interpreters of Shakespeare on the early-19th-century stage. “Maybe acting is not like winning a prize at school for declaiming the loudest,” Eshun writes of his subtle work.

“Perhaps it is more like silencing the room with your whispering voice.”

Frantz Fanon and Malcolm X come in for fresh examination, as does Justin Fashanu, a brilliant footballer who was the first openly gay soccer player in British sport and who, tragically, took his own life in 1998, having endured indignities such as having to dress in a separate room from the rest of his club. Eshun examines these men with an eye toward placing them, in Toni Morrison’s formulation, as subjects and not objects of history, “to move from looking at the Black male figure to seeing as him.” Plenty of other historical figures populate his pages along the way, from James Baldwin and Henry “Box” Brown to Tupac Shakur and Olaudah Equiano. An inventive approach to Black lives that brings five—and many more— figures out of the shadows.

Love in Exile

Faye, Shon | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (224 pp.) $18.00 paper | May 13, 2025 | 9780374615529

A brokenhearted transgender woman reflects on the evanescence of romantic love.

A decade ago, author Faye was traversing South London after-parties, openly apathetic about the notions of dating, falling in love, and relationships. Now, as a single woman in her mid-30s,

>>>

THE KIRKUS Q&A: MICHAEL LUO

For this successful journalist, the story of anti-Asian hate in America is deeply personal.

BY MARY ANN GWINN

JOURNALIST MICHAEL LUO is an American success story. The son of Taiwanese immigrants, the Harvard-educated Luo has climbed the career ladder of journalism to one of its most prestigious posts—he’s an executive editor of the New Yorker, in charge of the magazine’s online operation.

So it felt almost like an ambush on a rainy Sunday in October 2016, when Luo stood after church with a group of Asian American friends on an Upper East Side sidewalk and had an encounter that assaulted his sense of place in the world. He still remembers the moment: “A white woman who was really annoyed that we were blocking the sidewalk brushed past us, and muttered, like, ‘Go back to China,’ he recalls. “I confronted her, and she’s like, ‘Go back to your fucking country,’ and I was yelling, ‘I was born in this country!’ I remember this feeling of adrenaline, and then as I was pushing my youngest daughter in her stroller, I had this feeling of soberness and sadness.” Luo thought about his two young daughters and their future in America and wondered: Will they ever truly belong ?

Luo documented the moment in a viral piece for the New York Times, where he worked at the time. Eventually it impelled him to write his new book, Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America, a harrowing examination of anti-Chinese sentiment in American history. Luo ran an investigations team at the Times, and he brings his research and reporting chops to this account of violent resistance to Chinese immigration in 19th- and 20th-century America. From Chinese immigrants driven from their homes to mob violence and outright massacres, it’s a somber recreation of an era with implications for this country’s current immigration struggles. Luo answered some questions about his book by telephone; our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Chinese immigration to this country began in earnest in the mid-19th century. Why did so many Chinese citizens want to leave their country?

In the 19th century there was political unrest in China, notably the Taiping rebellion, that eventually killed millions of people. A lot of folks in Guangdong

province, where many of the immigrants came from, had connections to the west, including proximity to American missionaries and merchants. But the story of the numbers really started with the Gold Rush and then the building of the railroads.

Chinese gold miners sought their fortunes alongside white miners, and there was competition between those groups early on. But trouble really began when white railroad workers became convinced that they were losing jobs to Chinese laborers working the railroads and in the coal mines owned by the railroads. Eventually, some of the worst violence against Chinese immigrants was fomented by labor groups. Talk about that chemistry.

In the 1870s, an economic downturn closed a lot of

businesses and left thousands of people out of work. There was this perception that Chinese immigrants were taking jobs and driving down wages. A populist figure in San Francisco named Denis Kearney started to hold rallies full of white laborers, and he would end rallies with this exclamation: “The Chinese must go!” But it wasn’t exclusively white laborers. There were white supremacist–type groups, and small business owners, and, in some cases, prominent civic leaders. I think that’s important, because you see some parallels with the MAGA movement today.

The move to expel the Chinese spread like wildfire all over the west. Immigrants were driven from their neighborhoods, attacked, shot, and in some cases

Elinor Carucci

murdered. Perhaps the worst incident was in 1885 in Rock Springs, Wyoming, where a dispute between white miners and Chinese miners working for the Union Pacific Railroad exploded. White miners killed at least 28 Chinese residents, burned down the Chinese quarter, and drove all the Chinese out of Rock Springs. Several who died were burnt to death. Why did that incident blow up so horribly?

In Rock Springs, tensions had stretched back more than a decade between the white miners and the Chinese miners over wages, over who got better assignments. There was this dispute between Union Pacific, owners of the coal mine, and their white workforce over wages, promises to reduce prices at the company store, and executives wanting to step up production. Basically, the miners walked off the job, and Union Pacific

decided to bring in a new workforce. These were Chinese laborers.

There is a bit of a mystery as to whether this attack was just a spur-of-themoment incident. The sparking incident was a fight that took place in one of the mines, where white miners came upon Chinese miners who they believed were in their work area. That fight eventually led to the mob attack. But there are little clues that this had been planned. One anecdote I found in the archives was in a memoir by a guy named Andrew Bugas, who remembered that the night before the riot, somebody came to his cabin with a rifle and told his cousin to get ready and to make sure that he was armed. And then the man said, “We’re all going to go hunting and shoot all the Chinamen we see.”

Despite these horrific events—and despite the

fact that Congress passed a series of laws severely restricting Chinese immigration—the Chinese community kept growing. Some managed to gain admission and remain in America, and eventually native-born Chinese Americans grew up and took their place in society. Finally, immigration restrictions were relaxed, and today Chinese Americans are considered a “model minority.” How did the Chinese American community persevere?

There were predictions from the anti-Chinese movement leaders and thinkers that the Chinese population would essentially die out in the United States. It never happened. Chinese Americans demonstrated a kind of resilience. You started to see people exercise their rights and articulate and claim the principles that supposedly define America.

The population started to grow again, and finally, in 1943, the exclusion laws were lifted.

What are your takeaways from this chapter in American history?

One question I began the book with was, What explained this bigotry and violence toward the Chinese? Was it economics? Was it race? Was it religion? I came away thinking it was all of these things. I use the term “white supremacy” very cautiously, because I feel that in some cases it can be used reflexively and it’s lost a little bit of meaning. But it’s undeniable that race was a big part of what happened. I think human nature has trouble with people who are different.

In your acknowledgments, you write of your American daughters: “May they find belonging.” Is that achievable?

This question about belonging is a psychological one—it’s a feeling, it’s an emotion. The note I end the book on is that the sense of belonging remains elusive. The surge in reports of violence against Asian Americans during the pandemic is just a reminder of the precarity of Asian American existence in America. People argue that focusing on this kind of history and this kind of sentiment is backwardlooking and not really relevant today, but I think they miss what history teaches about the Asian immigrant experience.

Mary Ann Gwinn is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist in Seattle.

INDIE AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

MCCRACKEN POSTON JR.

Author of Zenith Man

How did you create/acquire the cover art for Zenith Man?

That cover photo is a frame of a photo booth strip from Lake Winnepesaukah, an old amusement park that still operates in Catoosa County, Georgia. Alvin and Virginia were soon to be married. My original plan was to use original art from my friend, the late Rev. Howard Finster. My editor tolerated my enthusiasm to a point but explained that while I could control everything between the book covers, the outside of the book was the publisher’s call. I get it. They are marketers. I put the Finster art on the inside, and when I saw what they did with the photo from the photo booth, I knew they were right.

Was the storyline in Zenith Man something you envisioned from the beginning, or did you build/ change it?

My book is a nonfiction account of my representation of Alvin Ridley, a small-town malcontent accused of holding his wife captive for three decades before killing her. The process of getting to and through a trial with Alvin was an ordeal—an odyssey of sorts—because nobody knew then that Alvin was autistic. Writing in the “vomit draft” style, I found writing like therapy and threw in things about a lifetime with my loving alcoholic father I always hoped to please, who had encouraged me to help Alvin. My editor in

New York liked the personal stuff, so it stayed in.

Did writing your nonfiction book shift your perspective on past events or relationships?

In this book, I write about losing a race for the U.S. Congress, going through a divorce, being the adult child of an alcoholic parent, and the bitterness that followed—part of which probably caused me to take up Alvin Ridley’s case. Time heals all wounds, but writing a book is truly the best medicine. There were no bad actors in the story or the book. We are all redeemed by what we have learned since about autism.

What made you want to write about this part of your life?

Immediately after the trial, I knew this was a hell of a story. For years, Alvin and I gave it away to TV true-crime shows, newspapers, magazines, and later, podcasts. But I was always frustrated at the end, in that I could not do Alvin justice in presenting him as merely “eccentric” or “odd.” His 2021 autism diagnosis, suggested by one of the jurors from the 1999 trial, finally formed the book in my head. I was compelled to write it, and I am so happy that I wrote it in his lifetime. Alvin became a rock star of sorts, finally feeling warmth and love from the community that had shunned him. He passed away in July 2024, a happy man. Millions of undiagnosed neurodivergent souls could face the

Zenith Man Poston Jr., McCracken Citadel | 320 pp. | $20.79 Feb. 20, 2024 | 9780806542799

same misunderstanding and misjudgment that Alvin did, so I hope the book is taken as a cautionary tale.

Portions of this Q&A were edited for clarity.

Writing a book is truly the best medicine.

James Curtis Barger

For a review of the book, visit Kirkus online.

AWARDS

Streisand Audiobook Wins Top Prize at Audie Awards

The singer and actor won audiobook of the year for My Name Is Barbra.

The Audio Publishers Association brought Barbra Streisand flowers last month, honoring the singer and actor with the Audiobook of the Year prize at the Audie Awards. Streisand won the top award for her memoir, My Name Is Barbra, which she wrote and narrated. She also received the autobiography/memoir prize for the book. Karen Dziekonski of Penguin Random House Audio accepted the awards on Streisand’s behalf, saying, “Every recording session with Barbra was an absolute open door into her process. It showed what a steadfast and committed artist that she is. And a remarkable human being.”

Hanif Abdurraqib’s There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension won in the nonfiction category; the audiobook is narrated by the author. Whoopi Goldberg was the winner

For a review of My Name Is Barbra, visit Kirkus online.

in the Narration by the Author category for her memoir Bits and Pieces: My Mother, My Brother, and Me. The nonfiction narrator prize went to Justin Vivian Bond for Candy Darling: Dreamer, Icon, Superstar, written by Cynthia Carr. The history/biography winner was The Loves of Theodore Roosevelt: The Women Who Created the President, written and narrated by Edward O’Keefe. In the category of multi-voiced performance, the award went to When the Sea Came Alive: An Oral History of D-Day, written by Garrett M. Graf and narrated by Graff, Edoardo Ballerini, and a full cast. A complete list of winners is available at the Audie Awards website.—M.S.

Barbra Streisand

Music that “sounds

as if the sun

had signed a record contract.”

THE STORY OF ABBA

her attitudes have changed. She’d found herself besotted, immersed in a love affair with a cis man for a year and a half, which then collapsed due to their own diverging styles of loving and her inability to bear biological offspring. Faye’s journey grieving the devastating breakup forms what she considers to be one of the “most ubiquitous of struggles” in her life as a trans woman. While she confesses that the excruciatingly painful “lovesickness devoured me from the inside out,” it also afforded her moments of formative reflection. Faye eloquently elaborates on how the idyllic and frustratingly elusive search for companionship has since evolved, forcing her to revisit and confront the old, damaging, self-destructive ideas about lovelessness and unworthiness she’d experienced as a dissonant, gender dysphoric young adult. The author’s referential and historical discussion about the ideal of romantic love is as fascinating as chapters on Faye’s trials on gay dating apps, the “tiny teenage humiliations” of adult male-tofemale transition, attempts at separating emotional vulnerability and sex, and the culture of shame and invisibility around trans women as desirable, sexual people. Faye’s narrative diverts further still to debate the tenets of desire, motherhood, gender-critical feminism, and queer friendship, as well as addiction, her father’s alcoholism, and her own journey toward sobriety. A closing chapter on religion is awkwardly extraneous, but Faye’s prose is so conversational, readers won’t even notice. With language as crisp and passionate as that found in her report on systemic transphobia and social justice, The Transgender Issue (2021), Faye’s book deliberates over the pleasures and pitfalls of relationships, navigating them in a way that will appeal to all readers, regardless of their sexuality. An exquisitely melancholy, reflective, and ultimately hopeful personal history of love and longing.

The Story of ABBA: Melancholy Undercover

Gradvall, Jan | St. Martin’s (336 pp.)

$30.00 | June 17, 2025 | 9781250379856

A wide-ranging cultural study of the Swedish pop icons. This book by Swedish music journalist Gradvall is comprehensive—he had access to all four ABBA members—but structurally irreverent, taking its cues from Craig Brown’s history-in-fragments method. So rather than start with biographies of each member (songwriters Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson and singers Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad), it opens with the group’s collapse in 1982, filtered through its single “The Day Before You Came,” then skips to an exploration of Sweden’s dansband vocal music before hopscotching around its key musical moments and influences. Good strategy: It shakes the stiffness out of a music biography of a pop group that was a little off-kilter, from the broken English of its lyrics to the lurking somberness of even its jauntiest tunes. (The book’s subtitle, Melancholy Undercover, refers to Andersson’s assessment of the predominant characteristic of their music.)

Gradvall’s approach also reveals unusual moments for a group that seemed carefully machined: the tweaks to Eurovision contest rules that made “Waterloo” their first major hit, the tensions between dansband and the ersatz-American raggare culture that the group exploited, the importance of LGBTQ+ culture in keeping the group relevant after their breakup, the backlash against the group as pompous and irrelevant when Sweden’s politics took a

leftward turn, and various odd cultural collisions (to make a 1977 Australian tour viable, they agreed to a kind of cultural exchange program that made AC/DC big in Sweden). Despite all the interviews, the “Abbas” (as he calls them) remain somewhat mysterious, avoiding details about divorces and other matters that might tamper too much with their legacy. But the story is leavened by Gradvall’s personal observations of how influential the group was in their native country, especially their breakthrough 1976 album, Arrival, which “sounds as if the sun had signed a record contract.” A fun, thorough, and considered appreciation of a major pop act.

A Philosophy of Shame: A Revolutionary Emotion

Gros, Frédéric | Trans. by Andrew James Bliss | Verso (176 pp.) | $24.95 May 20, 2025 | 9781804294154

A n old-fashioned examination of shame, supported by stacks of psychoanalytical, literary, and philosophical citations. Equipped with many references to Freud, French classics, and Greek philosophy, Gros (Disobey! The Philosophy of Resistance, 2020, etc.) attempts to reveal the complexities of human shame by parsing it out into a series of taxonomies such as moral shame, digital shame, and shame rooted in how one is perceived by others. “This existence in the gaze of others is our hell,” he explains, “our loss of innocence.” Each of these categorizations leads to further variations and subclassifications, such as discussions of family honor and “insurmountable disgust” or “the shame of being seen as—or feeling oneself to be—pitiful, revolting, and dirty….We project ourselves into all manner of scenarios beneath the gaze of other people, and those imaginings prompt us to erect a moral barrier.” In order to reckon with shame’s amorphous forms, Gros similarly projects himself into a variety

of philosophical stances that often feel more like curious explorations than they do reinforcements of a cohesive statement. Gros is eager to humanize his claims and often articulates his points as a narrative: In one section discussing gender equality, he writes, “It used to be the case that I was excluded from a particular post or status because I was a woman or from an ethnic minority or from a disadvantaged background.” Elsewhere, he dons the voice of an abuse survivor, and later, in tandem with a discussion of Sartre, imagines himself being caught spying by a neighbor. Much of the book is devoted to discussions of sexual abuse, which, when viewed primarily through the lens of literature and philosophy, lands on awkward footing. Ultimately, Gros’ hypothetical, drifting narrative detaches his philosophy from the humanity at the core of his subject. This leaves much of the book in the realm of fanciful inquisition and risks reducing trauma to a series of intellectual quandaries. An academic treatise rich in concept but short on heart.

Grand Finales: The Creative Longevity of Women Artists

Gubar, Susan | Norton (384 pp.) | $35.00 June 10, 2025 | 9781324065647

Feisty ladies of a certain age. Award-winning memoirist and literary critic Gubar was 63 when, in 2008, she was diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer and given three to five years to live. After debilitating surgeries and chemotherapies, she enrolled in a clinical trial that proved successful, giving her an unexpected chance to experience old age—and to wonder how other women navigated this period of their lives. Although older women are stereotypically depicted as feeble, discountable, and unremarkable, Gubar has discovered that many found new bursts of creativity in the “grand finale”

of their lives. As evidence, she offers succinct biographies of nine creative women—selected from a host of others appearing in the book—whose later years she groups under three categories: Lovers (writers George Eliot and Colette, artist Georgia O’Keeffe) who took younger men as companions; Mavericks (writer Isak Dinesen, poet Marianne Moore, artist Louise Bourgeois) who cultivated their idiosyncrasies; and Sages (jazz musician Mary Lou Williams, poet Gwendolyn Brooks, dancer-choreographer Katherine Dunham) who devoted themselves to the needs of their community. For Gubar’s stubborn mavericks, “roguish old age” offered a time “in which they flaunted their deeply eccentric spirits.” As different as they were from one another, Dinesen, Moore, and Bourgeois donned “odd outfits” and engaged in blatant self-mythologizing, leaning into their personas as “sly old ladies.” Gubar’s three sages were Black women influenced by religion, the Civil Rights Movement, and social injustice to find new outlets for their talents and new ways to engage with the world. Gubar cites many other aging women—artist Faith Ringgold and designer Iris Apfel, and writers Grace Paley, Ursula K. Le Guin, Margaret Atwood, and Annie Ernaux, among others, to ring in on the lively possibilities—of productivity, connection, and reinvention—in one’s last years.

A sympathetic portrait of old age.

Bear Witness: A Crusade for Justice in a Violent Land

Halperin, Ross | Liveright/Norton (352 pp.) $31.99 | May 13, 2025 | 9781324090786

A harrowing look at the gang violence that grips Honduras. Criminal justice scholar Halperin began to travel to Honduras a decade ago, tracking the work of a group called the Association for a More Just

Society. Located in a Tegucigalpa ghetto, ASJ “had been doing a hodgepodge of heartwarming but unspectacular good works like helping poor families procure land titles and helping abused wives get divorced.” But now the group was turning to a far more fraught project, namely battling a gang that terrorized the 50,000 people of Nueva Suyapa. Improbably, one leader, called Chelito, was just 12 years old, but he was harder than most death row inmates: “Part of his legend was the way he consistently yo-yoed from the barrio to police custody and back, as though he were the Honduran Houdini.” Carlos del Cid, an evangelist who, with American sociologist Kurt Ver Beek, founded ASJ, knew Chelito, “one of the many kids Carlos tried to steer away from street life,” but that was no protection. Indeed, for just that reason, ASJ morphed from a Christian social service agency to a squad of crimefighters, a curious transformation with an understandable backstory: Hondurans were afraid to inform on the thousands of gang members who lived among them, the police and courts were corrupt, and if justice were to be served it would have to be done by local people themselves, providing evidence and testimony. Small wonder that so many Hondurans are desperate to leave their homeland for safety in Mexico and the U.S., fleeing a country whose very president was likely involved in the drug trade, which in no way makes him “an outlier within the uppermost echelons of Honduran politics.” Del Cid and Ver Beek, conversely, are clear outliers, but, Halperin concludes, “their two-plus decades of all-in altruism, all-in courage, and all-in faith have not gotten them anywhere close to a satisfying conclusion.”

Smart, thoughtful reporting from the trenches.

For more about Honduras, visit Kirkus online.

The Light of Asia:

A History of Western Fascination With the East

Harding, Christopher | Penguin (464 pp.)

$20.70 paper | June 3, 2025 | 9780141992273

The East-West trade in beliefs and ideas has been as important as technology and products.

Harding is a respected historian and academic who has written a string of books about Asia. Here, he casts a broad net, stretching from the ancient Greeks and Romans to the modern era. His focus, in relation to Asia, is on India, China, and Japan, and he emphasizes that influences in thinking, commerce, and politics have been a two-way street. Alexander the Great was the first European ruler to lead an army into Asia, and although he turned back at the northern frontier of India, his expedition provided hints of entirely different civilizations. Marco Polo brought back startling news of China as well as novel inventions and materials, which led to an era of discovery and trade. But Harding is more interested in the exchange of philosophical and theological ideas, and he notes that the awareness of other civilizations undermined biblical certainties in Europe. Voltaire, Schopenhauer, and Jung were informed by Hindu and Buddhist thinking, even while Enlightenment concepts influenced Asian crucial aspects of social development. In fact, Western and Asian ideas have become so entangled that the threads can be hard to separate, although Harding does a good job of discerning the main themes. Along the way, he encounters a cast of colorful characters, from vagabond adventurers to self-proclaimed New Age gurus. He writes with an authority that stems from deep research, although some parts of the work are dauntingly dense. Despite this, the book will appeal to readers interested in global history and culture.

A rich, entertaining exploration of the intellectual exchanges between East and West.

Kirkus Star

Karl Marx in America

Hartman, Andrew | Univ. of Chicago (600 pp.)

$39.00 | May 27, 2025 | 9780226537481

Cultural and intellectual history of Marx’s engagements with the U.S., and the following he found.

Karl Marx, historian Hartman writes, was fascinated by the U.S. as “the nation most committed to the economic and social systems formed by capitalism.” He had fleeting hope that his concept of freedom as encompassing economic independence would find a home in the U.S., even as Abraham Lincoln—who, casual readers might not know, was the subject of much of Marx’s work as a journalist writing for Horace Greeley’s New York Daily Tribune —also hoped that “workers might break free of capital and work for themselves.” The alignment had enough points of difference, of course, to separate Lincoln’s Republicanism from Marx’s socialism and communism. Marx supported the Union and Lincoln in particular during the Civil War, if for nuanced reasons: He was adamantly opposed to slavery, “a product of his firm belief that abolition was an essential step toward working-class emancipation.” That is, slavery and wage slavery were not so far apart. Marx’s optimism faded as Andrew Johnson, whom he called “excessively vacillating and weak,” undid the higher goals of abolitionism during Reconstruction. Hartman goes on to examine how thinkers such as C.L.R. James and political figures such as Franklin Roosevelt interpreted Marx’s thought in later years, the former in his radical history of the Haitian war of independence, the latter in shaping some of the planks of the New Deal—for, as Roosevelt said, “There is no question in my mind…that it is time for the country to become fairly radical for at least one generation.” With the recent rise of populism and nationalism, Hartman concludes at the end of his era-by-era

survey, it might be time again. As he writes, echoing Marx, “What do we have to lose?”

A nimble study that sheds new light on Marx’s thought and enduring influence.

Everything Is Now: Primal Happenings, Radical Music, Underground Movies, and the 1960s

New York Avant-Garde

Hoberman, J. | Verso (464 pp.) | $34.95 May 27, 2025 | 9781804290866

The creative ferment and “cultural craziness” of 1960s New York City. Disruption and confrontation were the rules of the day for the New York City avant-garde, from the Beat Generation in full rebel flower as Hoberman’s account begins in the late 1950s to the increasingly violent and politicized counterculture of 1970-71, when it ends. Drawing on interviews with participants and on research in the archives of alternative newspapers, primarily the Village Voice and East Village Other, Hoberman repeats plenty of insider gossip, some of it admittedly unverifiable: Bob Dylan and Andy Warhol’s putative rivalry over Edie Sedgwick, for example, or the film never released because one of the actors made “several tasteless references to Warhol’s sex life.” The dish, plus the mentions of virtually every downtown address where people lived and worked, gives a vivid sense of the ’60s avant-garde as a physically and personally close-knit group and the art they created as a collective enterprise. Minutely detailed descriptions of movies, plays, concerts, and “happenings,” from underground classics (the Living Theatre’s Paradise Now) to the truly obscure (Barbara Rubin’s multimedia event, Caterpillar Changes), also make palpable the period’s anything-goes ethos, although it must be noted that giving equal attention to the epochal and the ephemeral drags down the narrative momentum. Readability is

Eccentric New England neighbors with a shared interest in occult phenomena.

THE GHOST LAB

also hampered by Hoberman’s jumbled chronological framework; it’s typical of his scattershot organization that a lively account of the “quintessentially East Village” Ridiculous Theater production Conquest of the Universe, featuring downtown stalwarts Taylor Mead, Mary Woronov, and Ondine, is followed 60 pages (and many intervening stories) later by the information that director John Vaccaro had fired playwright Charles Ludlam and hired a lawyer to prevent him from mounting a competing production. The abrupt ending reinforces the impression of an author not entirely in control of his material. Hoberman’s undisciplined presentation may echo the attitude of its subjects, but it doesn’t make for engaging reading. Apparently, you had to be there.

A Field Guide to the Subterranean: Reclaiming the Deep Earth and Our Deepest Selves

Hocking, Justin | Counterpoint (224 pp.)

$28.00 | June 10, 2025 | 9781640097018

Appealing scenes from a neurotic life.

Hocking, author of The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld, teaches creative writing at Portland State University. He begins with his childhood in 1970s rural western Colorado, dazzlingly beautiful, sullied by mining, and experiencing the final stages of Project Plowshare, where nuclear bombs were detonated underground to explore their peaceful use for construction projects. A latchkey kid with parents already

divorced, he collected local minerals, explored caves, skied the hills, and was scarred by a neighbor, an adolescent male babysitter who often sexually abused him. A follow-up to his highly praised previous book, a memoir of his early adult years, he rewinds the clock, but readers expecting his coming-of-age will discover that he never achieves it. Fortunately, this doesn’t seem to be his intention. There is only a sketchy mention of his childhood abuse, which doesn’t seem to have permanently damaged him, although he deals with an ongoing collection of neuroses. The book’s three parts are divided into an account of his early life, the only section where the “subterranean” is literal as he explores caves and abandoned mines and recounts Colorado mining disasters as well as his personal travails. In the second, as a young man, he is so fascinated by the Outward Bound experience that he trains as a leadership instructor. His first expedition is a personal disaster, when one student wanders off into the wilderness, requiring a massive five-day search-and-rescue operation that leaves him with a post-traumatic stress disorder. Rural Costa Rica dominates the final section. Now a dedicated bird watcher, he tours a national park under an expert local guide and witnesses wildlife but also learns of the often dispiriting life in a relatively prosperous and stable nation.

A dreamy mixture of memoir, natural history, and environmental worries.

The Ghost Lab: How Bigfoot Hunters, Mediums, and Alien Enthusiasts Are Wrecking Science

Hongoltz-Hetling, Matthew PublicAffairs (352 pp.) | $30.00 May 20, 2025 | 9781541703971

For more by Justin Hocking, visit Kirkus online.

Weird goings-on in the Granite State and beyond. The author of A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear has written another droll account of oddball residents of New Hampshire, the land of living free or dying—and possibly contacting the living from the other side. The subjects of this book are a group of neighbors in Seacoast, on the relatively tiny New Hampshire shore who share an interest in occult phenomena, including ghost hunting, alien abduction, and cryptozoology. This group, however, is a bit different from run-of-the-mill occultists. They’re led by Andy Kitt, who, after hearing “his father’s voice speaking to him from beyond,” becomes obsessed with finding scientific evidence for the truth of paranormal activity. His partners in research include a charismatic, “reluctant medium” of some renown with the colorful name Isabeau Esby and a taciturn survivor of several alleged abductions by aliens, Mike Stevens. Hongoltz-Hetling is largely sympathetic to these eccentric New Englanders, writing about them with a dry and wry sense of humor reminiscent of Mark Twain. He describes one notorious spiritualist trope that the book’s heroes investigate at their Seacoast headquarters: “Table tipping is a bit like government— it can function only with trust.” But under this gentle rib-poking, Hongoltz-Hetling has a serious purpose, namely, to investigate why, in the 21st century, in the wealthiest, most developed country in the history of the world, so many ordinary folk are so utterly lost to science that they devote tremendous energy to readily debunked and debunkable nonsense.

A true story of obsession that reads like a satire of our crumbling social order.

Paradise Lost: A Biography

Jacobs, Alan | Princeton Univ. (224 pp.)

$24.95 | May 27, 2025 | 9780691238579

An epic poem’s backstory.

Derided for generations as a long-winded misogynist, an apologist for regicide, and a tedious know-it-all, John Milton is appreciated now as the most influential writer after William Shakespeare. His resonant lines inspired everyone from John Keats and William Blake to Philip Pullman. His fascination with pre- and post-fallen sex has generated feminist responses from Mary Shelley and Mary Wollstonecraft to 21st-century academics. Milton led a political and religious life that makes us wonder what the place of knowledge and belief may be in the machinations of power. Jacobs has written much about the place of Christian humanism in modern society. Here, he offers a biography of Paradise Lost, not from its origin but through its afterlife—how it was viewed by and shaped English writers and critics. We don’t get much about the intricacies of Puritan faith and politics. We don’t get much about Milton’s plans to write a tragedy and then move to an epic. What we get is a clear summary of the poem, calling attention to important passages about God’s foreknowledge and human free will, woman’s subordination to man, and the temptations of language. The real takeaway is this: Milton becomes “the pretext for arguments about the ongoing validity of Christian belief…a battlefield on which a kind of proxy war is fought…[between] the massed opposing armies of the Believers and the Unbelievers. The War in Heaven is recapitulated as a War in Academic Publishing.” Undergraduates coming to the poem for the first time will find this book an alluring invitation to take a bite. Academic warriors may find it less a call to battle than a laying down of arms. A concise summary of Paradise Lost as a work of theological and social inquiry, together with its literary impact.

Freedom Season: How 1963 Transformed America’s Civil Rights Revolution

Joseph, Peniel E. | Basic Books (480 pp.)

$32.00 | May 13, 2025 | 9781541675896

A cogent argument for considering 1963 as the central year of the modern Civil Rights Movement.

A historian at the University of Texas affiliated with the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, Joseph opens his narrative with the compelling figure of a young James Baldwin, who was traveling to Mississippi to look at the voting rights initiative firsthand. Baldwin, “the leading cultural figure of the age,” had committed an act of daring in turning some of John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier rhetoric toward civil rights, confronting the liberal establishment and forcing JFK and brother Bobby to pay more than lip service to the cause and move instead to “pragmatic action.” Kennedy did so, if perhaps reluctantly at first, unquestionably influenced by Baldwin’s arguments that racial segregation adversely affected not just Black people but all Americans. Baldwin was also, Joseph argues, a figure who could move between camps: cocktail parties in New York, political sessions in Washington, the poorest hamlets in the Mississippi Delta. Alongside him, as Joseph notes, emerged a constellation of like-minded activists and writers, among them Lorraine Hansberry and Medgar Evers. While many actors central to the civil rights struggle figure in Joseph’s account, including Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., the latter of whom “became the first Black Time magazine Man of the Year” at the end of 1963, Baldwin stands firmly at the moral center of the movement: “He loved America enough to retain a battered faith in its capacity to change.” Lyndon Johnson, too, receives his due as far less diffident than the Kennedys in pressing for civil rights reforms, although it was Kennedy’s assassination that served as stimulus for “the most consequential

legislation that would be passed during America’s Second Reconstruction.” Timely reading in an era of social and legislative backsliding that threatens to erase many civil rights gains.

Matisse in Morocco: A Journey of Light and Color

Koehler, Jeff | Pegasus (336 pp.)

$32.00 | June 3, 2025 | 9781639369096

Matisse’s journey for inspiration.

In 1912, 42-year-old Matisse sailed for Tangier with his wife, Amélie. At a low point in his career, his work denigrated by critics and fellow artists, even his early patrons Gertrude and Leo Stein had stopped buying his paintings. He needed to escape the Parisian art scene and find inspiration elsewhere. In an engaging biography, journalist Koehler recounts Matisse’s two stays in Morocco, the first lasting 2½ months, which resulted in 12 paintings, and the second, from October 1912 to February 1913, during which he completed another dozen paintings, some of his most acclaimed. Matisse had long been fascinated by Islamic art, from the time he visited the Turkish and Persian pavilions at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900. The many Islamic textiles he collected sometimes appear in his work. But, Koehler asserts, he “shunned the classic Orientalist themes— the harem, ceremonial ‘fantasias’ of galloping horses, and sultans in magnificent dress—or even the popular ones of the orange sellers in the souq or village women with straw hats offering bouquets of irises.” He was interested, instead, in the particular light of North Africa, and in his first days in Tangier, when it rained incessantly, he was irritably frustrated. Finally, when the weather cleared, he set himself to painting nature “with a different palette.” He was eager, as well, to use models. Because of a taboo on posing, this quest proved difficult, until he found a young man who both modeled and served as an intermediary. Koehler sets the Moroccan visits in the context of

political tensions, cultural change, and Matisse’s relationship with two wealthy Russian collectors. Reproduced in vibrant color plates, Matisse’s “lush, sensual” paintings give striking proof of his artistic reawakening in Tangier. A revealing look at an iconic painter.

Baddest Man: The Making of Mike Tyson

Kriegel, Mark | Penguin Press (448 pp.) $32.00 | June 3, 2025 | 9780735223400

A controversial champ’s beginnings. Kriegel opens with a striking set piece, which characterizes the ex-fighter, who once threatened to eat a ring opponent’s children, as “a tennis dad with a goldendoodle.” This 2020 scene is our only contemporary glimpse of Tyson, whose first 22 years are the book’s subject. Kriegel, a New York tabloid veteran, deftly recaptures “the snowballing phenomenon” of fame and wealth that Tyson earned with his singularly “destructive right uppercut.” His early bouts weren’t always televised, so his team made VHS highlight reels for news broadcasts. These showed a teenaged Tyson flattening “grown-ass men.” Thus did he become boxing’s youngest heavyweight champ and “greatest-ever attraction.” As the author notes, “Iron Mike” left battered adversaries tottering like “vaudeville clowns.” Because the narrative ends in 1988, Tyson’s 1992 rape conviction gets only passing mention. But Kriegel doesn’t downplay Tyson’s misdeeds. Rather, his catalog of Tyson’s transgressions foreshadows worse things to come. Accepting the book on its terms, this is a first-rate effort, brisk, irreverent, and astute about its mercurial protagonist and his opportunistic advisers. Tyson, whose heroes included 1920s heavyweight Jack Dempsey, was a “husky” Brooklyn kid who was bullied and got into street fights, landed in a youthful offenders home, and learned his craft from legendary trainer Cus D’Amato, a model

for the Burgess Meredith character in Rocky. D’Amato has sometimes been depicted as a “secular saint” for his role in Tyson’s life, Kriegel notes, but here he’s seen wielding 16-year-old Tyson’s “future earnings” as a bargaining chip. Perpetuating a sordid boxing tradition, more than one of Tyson’s much-older advisers took huge chunks of the Black fighter’s paychecks. It’s difficult, in an on-demand era, to evoke the mystique that accompanied Tyson’s ascent, but this book does an exemplary job.

The origin story, grippingly told, of a transcendent, troubled athlete.

Kirkus Star

Empty Vessel: The Story of the Global Economy in One Barge

Kumekawa, Ian | Knopf (320 pp.)

$29.00 | May 6, 2025 | 9780593801475

The weight of the world, carried by one lowly barge.

“Anything becomes interesting if you look at it long enough.” Gustave Flaubert’s astute observation applies well to Kumekawa’s fascinating study of what might be perceived as a banal subject not worthy of our attention: a hulking barge. In 2020 the Harvard historian learned that “a simple ninety-four-meter-long flat-bottomed hull” had been moored on New York’s East River in the 1990s. Upon it sat five stories of modified shipping containers—it served as a floating jail. Curious to know more, Kumekawa found that the vessel had a complicated history that reflected, as he writes, “the abstract forces that have transformed our world over the past forty years.” It was built as the Balder Scapa in

Sweden in 1979. Owned by a Norwegian tycoon, its first mission was as a transport barge, towed to Scotland with the “madcap idea” of dredging up steel from World War I warships that Germans sank rather than turn over to the British. That venture fizzled, and the barge was repurposed as a “floatel” to house North Sea offshore oil drillers. The Falklands War got in the way of that plan. In need of housing for troops in the South Atlantic, Margaret Thatcher’s government leased the barge in 1983. “Luxurious they were not,” one pilot said of the accommodations. The vessel’s next stop: Germany, for factory workers building the VW Beetle. And then it was off to New York as a jail, followed by time in England serving the same purpose. In 2010 it was towed to Nigeria for offshore oil workers. Throughout his epic telling, Kumekawa weaves in lucid and eye-opening explanations of the murky worlds of tax havens and loose regulations. The barge is at the heart of it all. The vessel has “no motor, no keel, no rudder,” he writes, but his book has undeniable drive. A stellar account of a complex offshore world, as seen through the tangled history of a humble barge.

Lost Wonders: 10 Tales of Extinction From the 21st Century

Lathan, Tom | Picador UK/ Pan Macmillan (448 pp.) | $28.99 June 10, 2025 | 9781529047929

Ancient species, forever gone. The unfortunate distinction of the probable first extinction of the 21st century goes to a species of microscopic snail that, for millions of years, lived on a single limestone

A boxer who left his foes tottering like “vaudeville clowns.”

BADDEST MAN

hill in a Malaysian forest. An eminent Dutch biologist first described them in 1952, naming this member of the genus Plectostoma sciaphilum , the second word meaning “lover of shadows.” It was last seen alive in 2001 and declared extinct in 2014, a victim of human demand for concrete, which also claimed Bukit Panching, the hill where the species once thrived and which is now a lake filling the hole that cement companies left in their wake. This is just one of 10 “tales” recounting the loss of species from all over the world, including Hawaiian and Brazilian birds, reptiles in Mexico and the Galapagos Islands, a plant from St. Helena in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and even the first known mammal claimed by anthropogenic climate change, an Australian species of rat called the Bramble Cay melomys. Lathan is a superb writer, in a class with Merlyn Sheldrake, Robert McFarlane, and Bruce Chatwin. “Translucent and cast in deep yellow and red hues, from mustard to plum to maroon, they formed striking shapes,” he writes of sciaphilum . “There was something about these shells, in their colours and their lines, that gave them the appearance of being variations on a single idea—as though they were tiny glass sculptures blown by the same artist.” Latham is also an intrepid reporter and meticulous researcher. Each chapter provides a wealth of knowledge about these species’ natural history, human discovery, and probable causes of disappearance. We may be able to learn how to protect at least some heading toward the same fate. A haunting elegy for the sixth extinction, with a note of hope.

The Last Secret Agent: My Untold Story as a Spy Behind Nazi Lines

Latour, Pippa with Jude Dobson St. Martin’s (304 pp.) | $30.00

May 13, 2025 | 9781250384348

True courage comes in many forms.

Latour described her life as “unusual.” This is an understatement. She was the last surviving undercover British female agent of the Special Operations Executive in World War II, working as a radio operator in occupied France. She sent details of German troop deployments to London and relayed instructions for Resistance actions. Latour had come to the role through a circuitous path, having traveled extensively before ending up in Britain. Her journeys made her multilingual and allowed her to adapt to different settings. When she was offered a place in the SOE, she jumped at the chance, even though the lifespan of agents in France was often brutal and short. She did well in the job, though, getting around on bicycle on the pretext of selling goat’s milk soap. “Don’t think of me and my fellow agents as 007 types,” she says. “Our job was to disappear, to fit in and not be noticed.” She was questioned several times by the Gestapo, but her luck and cover story held. Understandably, she was often scared, and by the war’s end, she was traumatized and exhausted. After the war she drifted around the world, eventually settling in New Zealand, where she lived peacefully. Latour kept her past a secret—even from her

Like presidents, baseball managers “usually look shockingly older at the end of their terms.”

SKIPPER

husband—until one day her eldest son read about her wartime experiences online. Now, with the help of journalist Dobson, she has told her story, as well as those of other female agents. The result is a fascinating read, all the more so because of Latour’s humility. Regrettably, she died in 2023, unable to see the finished book. She was 102. A wartime spy’s remarkable tale, told in an authentic voice.

Skipper: Why Baseball Managers Matter and Always Will

Miller, Scott | Grand Central Publishing (400 pp.) $30.00 | May 13, 2025 | 9780306832703

The shifting view from baseball’s hottest seat. Seasoned baseball reporter Miller takes readers inside front offices, locker rooms, dugouts, and the living rooms of living legends in this intimate and definitive look at where managers now fit in a game transformed. “Managing always has been the industry’s loneliest job,” Miller writes. “It’s just lonely today for different reasons.” The rise—and perhaps tyranny—of analytics, which Miller says “caps a player’s ability by identifying what he doesn’t do well and, instead of teaching and developing those areas, finds a second puzzle piece that simply plugs in to overcome the first player’s shortcomings,” has taken decision-making out of managers’ hands and distributed it across organizations. Little in today’s game escapes the influence of front office economic models and stat-happy baseball ops functions. But winning the numbers game doesn’t always mean winning ballgames, and it’s the manager alone who must step to the plate when collective calls swing and miss. This takes a toll. Like U.S. presidents, Miller points out, baseball managers also “usually look shockingly older at the end of their terms than at the beginning.” Survival demands

certain qualities: an ability to flex, a willingness to collaborate with pointyheaded suits, strong leadership, and the kind of knowledge that can help players believe in a mission—and in themselves. This is a book filled with warmth and soul, a credit to the trust Miller has built across years of clubhouse reporting. He spends time in future Hall of Famer Dusty Baker’s vineyard; watches Aaron Boone’s Yankees from the home of Phillies legend Bob Boone, Aaron’s father; and devotes a chapter to four days spent alongside the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts for an “an unprecedented peek inside the day-to-day life of a modern manager.” Miller deploys a light editorial hand and often lets skippers speak seemingly unfiltered for paragraphs at a time. The result is plainspoken, colorful, and deeply insightful—much like this book. Essential reading for students of the game and aspiring leaders.

Suddenly Something Clicked

Murch, Walter | Faber & Faber (496 pp.)

$45.00 | July 15, 2025 | 9780571328857

The nitty-gritty of film and sound editing.

When, in June 1896, the Lumière brothers projected their film of a street scene onto a bedsheet in a brothel, no one could have predicted its revolutionary effect on visual storytelling. That was partly because the “catalytic possibilities of montage” were not yet fully developed. Five years later, nascent filmmakers began to “discover and exploit the intoxicating, virtually sexual power of montage.” One of today’s most celebrated practitioners in the world of film editing and sound design is Walter Murch, who explains the art and science of his craft in this book. Murch calls this work, the first of two anticipated volumes, a “threebraided rope” incorporating theory, practice, and history. Most of the examples he cites stem from his work with Francis Ford Coppola, with

emphasis on his efforts on The Conversation (1974), the first feature he ever edited, and Apocalypse Now (1979). He also tells of work on other projects, such as the 1998 restoration of Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil, a 1958 film Murch says was “a decade ahead of its time.” Much of this book will delight film aficionados who want to get into the weeds of extensive technical detail, as when he describes “the attributes of the saccade the jump of the eyeball from one focal point to another” to explain why people see motion when watching a film. He also leavens this work with lighter moments. When the workprint for Coppola’s The Rain People (1969) came back upside down, and sophisticated solutions didn’t solve the problem, “Francis found the obvious solution: just turn the television set upside down.” Murch displays a ferocious wit, as when, under a still from The Godfather (1972) in which a movie mogul wakes to discover his beloved horse’s severed head in his bed, Murch includes the caption “Studio politics.”

An excellent primer on the art of film and sound editing from one of the experts.

Pathemata, Or, The Story of My Mouth

Nelson, Maggie | Wave Books (80 pp.)

$25.00 | April 1, 2025 | 9798891060111

A compact return to the personal by one of today’s sharpest literary minds.

Following two recent works of cultural criticism, Nelson’s new text swings and sings back to the intimate and personal. Her quest to alleviate persistent, consuming orofacial pain serves as a narrative backbone assembled from a series of treatment plans, including Botox, a tongue-tie frenectomy, and even the suggestion to tape her mouth shut while sleeping. As she collects recommendations for pain

Same River, Twice: Putin’s War on Women

Oksanen, Sofi | Trans. by Owen F. Witesman HarperVia (256 pp.) | $19.99 paper February 25, 2025 | 9780063435445

A strategic attack on women. “My great-aunt was not born mute,” writes Oksanen. But she never spoke again—“at least not in any meaningful way”—after she was raped during

>>> management that veer from the surgical to the “woo-woo”—each promising accurate diagnosis and permanent deliverance—Nelson drifts between the tangible sensation of her pain and the surreality of her dreams. Her search for relief swells around the puncture wound of the coronavirus, and her prose echoes the nebulous space and abrupt transitions between specifics of time, place, interrupted activity, and the singularity and absurdity of that period. Tensions and tenderness in her relationships with her partner, her son, and a dear friend on the verge of a lonely death are atomized by the pandemic, dancing in the shadows alongside twisted nightmares, reflections on her career, and visits to dentists, therapists, and other healers. While the text is short, it packs plenty of Nelson’s signature power punches of brilliance and shrewd humor, driving the reader to look between carefully constructed lines that twitch with secrets and memories held and defended. The author’s audit of her physical pain, its undulating waves, and its stubborn betrayal of and distraction to her body and mind serves as a conduit for discerning the necessity of a person’s mouth, voice, and words, cautioning against both exhausting one’s words and stifling a person’s speech, revealing both the power and burden of what is said and what is not. Dense and striking, to be savored and reread.

Kirkus Star

Reading To Lighten You Up

INDIE AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

ELIZABETH HATTON

Author of King James Virgin

How did you choose the genre of King James Virgin?

I chose to write a memoir because the conventional advice to write about what you know resonates with me. I have always preferred true stories and empathized with people who struggle to accept their own truths and challenges.

What made you want to write about King James Virgin?

My interest in personal stories, along with my family’s experience with severe mental illness and my own childhood anxiety, inspired me to pursue a career in psychiatry. Developing my memoir felt like a natural process, motivated by my desire to share my story from the perspective of a young child who is starting to understand that she lives in two parallel cultures.

How did you research King James Virgin?

Genealogy research done by my sister, a significant character in my memoir, was a primary source of information for the family history contained in my story. I spent several days in the local library going through microfiche copies of the hometown newspaper for the period covered in my book. I also reviewed magazines and catalogs that had a national distribution during that time. I read several books about the Kennedy administration, since the assassination is the backdrop for my story.

Any advice for others starting the process of independent publishing? Embrace independent publishing; don’t view it as a second-rate option. Don’t hesitate to use developmental editors to refine your story. I have found many resources, such as books, writer’s workshops, and YouTube videos, helpful in writing my memoir.

Portions of this Q&A were edited for clarity.

King James Virgin Hatton, Elizabeth Big Hill Press | 242 pp. | $12.99 paper Oct. 5, 2024 | 9781736402610

I have always preferred true stories and empathized with people who struggle to accept their own truths and challenges.

Lawrence Correnti

For a review of the book, visit Kirkus online.

Sportswriter John Feinstein Dies at 69

The Washington Post reporter wrote nearly 50 books about sports.

John Feinstein, the veteran journalist who won acclaim for his nearly 50 books about sports, has died at 69, the Washington Post reports. Feinstein, a New York native, was educated at Duke University, where he was a member of the swim team until a foot injury sidelined his athletic ambitions and he joined the

school’s newspaper. He started at the Post as an intern in 1977 and remained with the paper for decades.

In 1986, he published his first book, A Season on the Brink, which chronicled the 1985–1986 season of the Indiana Hoosiers men’s college basketball team and its coach, the famously hot-tempered Bob Knight.

He went on to write dozens more nonfiction books about sports, including A Good Walk Spoiled, A March to

Madness, The Majors, Quarterback, and, most recently, The Ancient Eight. He also wrote more than a dozen sports-themed children’s books, including Change-Up, The Rivalry, and Benchwarmers

Feinstein’s admirers paid tribute to him on social media. On the platform X, golfer Tom Watson posted, “One of our sports world’s finest writers, John Feinstein, sadly left us today. His innate ability to describe the inner workings and complexities of the players, teams, and coaches about which he wrote, left us readers and fans with much greater understanding of his subjects. He was always an enjoyable read, and we will sorely miss him.”—M.S.

For reviews of John Feinstein’s books, visit Kirkus online.

John Feinstein

INDIE AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

NANCY STANFIELD WEBB

Author of A Woman of Marked Character

Please tell us a little about yourself and A Woman of Marked Character. As the great-granddaughter of Texas pioneers, when I heard about Sarah Ridge Paschal Pix at a historical society meeting, I was intrigued. As a freelance writer, I was curious about this Cherokee pioneer woman who had a nearby Texas historical marker. When I visited her grave in January 1991, I decided I would research and write her story. A university press to which I sent a proposal replied they would consider publishing a footnoted biography; I felt there was not enough documentation available, so I chose to write a biographical/ historical novel.

How did you research A Woman of Marked Character ?

Over my three decades of research, I traveled to the locations Sarah lived and researched in local archives. A source for Sarah’s early family life was Cherokee Tragedy: The Story of the Ridge Family and the Decimation of a People by Thurman Wilkins. (However, I discounted a vignette of her marriage in the book.) Using Sarah’s white husband/lawyer’s Arkansas letterbooks and court documents, newspaper articles, books, and family memoirs in Texas, I portrayed her family life. Once when I lost track of her completely, I covered my writing room wall with a two-year timeline. I finally found a notice in an 1844 Little Rock newspaper that led me back to her.

How did you develop your characters? I gleaned from Sarah’s existing letters her love of her family and determination to persevere through unspeakable tragedies. In Book 1, her life tracks the upheaval and heartbreaking removal of the Cherokee during the early 1800s, and beyond. While Sarah is occasionally mentioned in writings about her well-documented father, brother, cousins, and first husband, my intense research uncovered an educated, determined, and devoted daughter, sister, cousin, and mother— and a wife who dealt with an often contentious marriage. I wove fiction with fact, and created characters to help Sarah along her way.

What was your editing process like?

Although published as two books, I wrote the novel as one massive tome over the past eight years. My primary beta reader read each chapter off the printer and I refined the novel as I went, following our discussions of “WWSD”; figuratively, What Would Sarah Do? After another beta reader completed a last version, I hired a professional editor (a historical fiction author skilled in American and Texas history) who helped hone Sarah’s story through the maze of Cherokee, Texas, and Civil War history.

How did you create/acquire the cover art?

As a visual artist, graphic designer, and lover of old books, I created the covers for green Book 1 and royal

A Woman of Marked Character

Webb, Nancy Stanfield Crimson Peony Press | 408 pp. $35.99 | $18.99 paper| Nov. 19, 2024 9798989609826 | 9798989609802 paper

purple Book 2 (released April 1), and had my printer/distributor refine my designs. Since Sarah was an avid reader, I wanted a look of leather-bound, gold-embossed 1800s covers. For the interior, I had my book designer use running heads with chapter titles, and embellish the pages with dropped caps and decorative flourishes.

Portions of this Q&A were edited for clarity.

For a review of the book, visit Kirkus online.

Paul McCartney’s Book on Wings Coming This Fall

The book, an oral history, will tell the story of “a band that came to define a generation.”

Paul McCartney will tell the story of his secondmost-famous band in a book coming later this year.

Liveright will publish the rock star’s Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, edited by historian Ted Widmer, in the fall, the press announced in a news release.

McCartney formed Wings in 1971, after the Beatles disbanded and he’d released two solo albums. McCartney was the lead singer of the group, which included his wife, Linda McCartney, along with Denny Laine and Denny Seiwell. Wings broke through in 1973 with the album Band on the Run; the record spawned two hit singles, “Jet” and the title track. The band would go on to have three more hit singles before breaking up in 1981.

McCartney’s book, Liveright says, “follows

SEEN AND HEARD

the adventurous band as they survive a robbery on the streets of Nigeria, appear unannounced at various university halls, tour in a sheared-off double-decker bus with their children, all while producing some of the most enduring music of the decade.”

McCartney is the author of several children’s books, and in 2021 he published The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, which became a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. Two years later, he released 1964: Eyes of the Storm, a collection of photographs chronicling the early days of Beatlemania.

Wings is scheduled for publication on Nov. 4.

—M.S.

Paul McCartney

For reviews of Paul McCartney’s books, visit Kirkus online.

“Russia is up to its old tricks,” making misogyny a “central tool of state power.”

SAME RIVER, TWICE

the Soviet occupation of Estonia in World War II. A Finnish Estonian novelist and playwright, Oksanen argues that her great-aunt’s rape shows how “Russia is up to its old tricks….Russia has made misogyny a central tool of state power.” In addition to employing rape as a war weapon—which, Oksanen notes, is common among juntas around the world seeking a “cost-effective weapon…to quash resistance”—Russia has systematically eliminated women’s political participation by “relaxing legislation related to sexual and domestic violence” and “reinforcing gender roles and hierarchies” in ways that pressure women to focus on raising families and running homes instead of participating in public life. Oksanen says the repression of women is essential to Russia’s ability to maintain power, particularly in its war in Ukraine. The destruction of private and public memory, she adds, is essential to the Russian government’s ability to maintain power. She writes, “The Soviet Union sought to erase the history of the territories it occupied, including visual documentation, and now Russia is doing the same in Ukraine.” The destruction of memory, coupled with “genocidal rape,” destroys Russia’s targets from the inside out. Oksanen’s prose resonates with clarity and conviction. She vividly draws connections between seemingly disparate systems, practices, and historical events to create a comprehensive portrait of power that reads like a revelation.

An exquisite feminist critique of Russia’s oppressive tactics.

The

First and Last Bank: Climate Change, Currency, and a New Carbon Commons

Peebles, Gustav with Benjamin Luzzatto

MIT Press (312 pp.) | $40.00 paper

May 27, 2025 | 9780262049641

A carbon standard?

The idea is nothing if not audacious: solving global warming by removing carbon from the atmosphere and sequestering it, perhaps in bank vaults where it would function like the gold at Fort Knox. Peebles, an anthropologist at the University of Stockholm, makes a reasonable case that this plan enjoys a modest following around the world among economists. He points out that all efforts to reverse global warming have failed. Its major cause, atmospheric carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels, is increasing steadily. Citizens of prosperous nations, the major offenders, oppose the sacrifices necessary to reduce emissions, and their governments have taken note. Efforts to bypass governments and persuade polluters to do the right thing have also failed. Clever ideas for carbon credits and carbon taxes are “riddled with fraud,” as clever entrepreneurs game the system to earn credits without lowering emissions. Peebles lays out his solution, beginning with a lesson in economics that occupies most of the book and heavily emphasizes gold. It’s no longer a medium of exchange or the basis of any nation’s currency, but gold remains a store of value and a priceless symbol of “our identity, never to be dismantled or dispersed.” He proposes a substitute system in the form of carbon blocks (“biochar”) stored in community-owned banks as “preservers of

a common good.” Today’s biochar is produced by burning organic material, and he assumes that the problem of extracting carbon from the atmosphere economically has been solved. Readers who recall their college economics will better grasp his explanation, and all will appreciate the generous, elaborate drawings that provide an impressionistic and occasionally specific picture of how it might work. No magic bullet, but an ingenious thought experiment.

American Maccabee: Theodore Roosevelt and the Jews

Porwancher, Andrew | Princeton Univ. (360 pp.)

$35.00 | June 10, 2025 | 9780691203669

An account of Theodore Roosevelt’s often contradictory responses to diplomatic and domestic Jewish affairs. Porwancher, professor of history at Arizona State University, explores Roosevelt’s largely overlooked commitment to supporting international Jewish causes and promoting Jewish equality in the United States. As a New York City police commissioner, Roosevelt valued representation and actively recruited Jewish officers from the city’s East Side. As president, he relied on an informal “Jewish kitchen cabinet” of advisers and ultimately named one of them, Oscar Straus, to his cabinet, making him the first Jew in U.S. history to hold a cabinet position. During his time in office, Roosevelt publicly condemned a series of horrific Russian pogroms—mob attacks on Russian Jews—at a time when doing so pushed the bounds of diplomatic protocols and opened him up to charges of hypocrisy for failing to address widespread lynching of Black people in the U.S. And yet this same Roosevelt engaged in antisemitic tropes and embraced the idea of a “melting pot” that urged immigrants to assimilate. Ultimately, Porwancher argues, “Roosevelt personified the contradictions and

For more about Putin’s Russia, visit Kirkus online.

complexities of the nation that elected him.” Porwancher, author of The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton (2021), does not write to either “burnish” or “tarnish” Roosevelt’s reputation: “The sole ambition of this study is to reckon with the historical record in its full complexity.” Indeed, Porwancher thoughtfully interrogates his sources for examples of Roosevelt’s conflicting attitudes and actions toward various races, religions, and nationalities, but readers would benefit from a little more context. What were the limits of Roosevelt’s desire for representation on the New York City police force? Were Black people included in his vision? These questions remain unanswered. Nevertheless, Porwancher provides a compelling history of American Jews, immigration, citizenship, and world politics at the dawn of a new century. Ideal for readers interested in the politics of early-20th-century America.

The Foreign Invention of British Art

Primo, Leslie | Thames & Hudson (352 pp.) $39.95 | May 13, 2025 | 9780500024010

The international heritage of British art. In his book debut, British art historian and lecturer Primo examines the influence of foreign artists in England from the mid-15th to early-19th century, arguing persuasively that the “new artistic sensibility” that eventually became known as the British school of art could not have developed without the influx of artists from abroad. Some, such as Hans Holbein the Younger and Paul Rubens, are well known; others, such as the Belgian Daniel Mytens and the Czech Wenceslaus Hollar, less so, although both were prolific. Some spent extensive time in England, where they established studios and found patronage; others made brief visits. Holbein the Younger traveled from his home in Basel to England in 1526, carrying letters of praise from Erasmus to Thomas More. He soon

became a sought-after portrait painter, whose sitters included Henry VIII and his court. From the Netherlands, Marcus Gheeraerts came to England with his father as a child, in 1568, escaping from religious persecution. Taught by his father, Gheeraerts was heir to the Netherlandish techniques and practices that, by the 16th century, came to dominate European artistic taste and were assimilated into British art. Gheeraerts’ portraits placed his subjects in landscaped surroundings, an innovation copied by others; his full-length portrait of Elizabeth I has been considered “the embodiment of the Elizabethan Age.” While some artists were lauded, others encountered prejudice and misogyny. Swiss-born Angelica Kauffman, for example, who arrived in England in 1766 after studying art in Italy, confronted patriarchal attitudes that trivialized the value of her work. Born in Britain as a person of color with Caribbean heritage, Primo informs his study with a deep sensitivity to the xenophobia and discrimination that incomers still experience in British society. Profusely illustrated. A timely celebration of multiculturalism.

Truth Demands: A Memoir of Murder, Oil Wars, and the Rise of Climate Justice

Reyes, Abby | North Atlantic (256 pp.) | $19.95 paper | May 6, 2025 | 9781623175214

Seeking justice for murdered activists in oil-contested territory.

In a memoir with deeply spiritual underpinnings, climate activist and author Reyes tackles issues of environmental justice, Indigenous rights, and personal grief as

she recounts the incident in 1999 when her partner, Terence Unity Freitas, was murdered alongside two other activists, Ingrid Washinawatok El-Issa and Lahe’ena’e Gay, after visiting Indigenous U’wa territory in Colombia. “I walked into adulthood through the gates of these murders,” Reyes writes. “As with so many others before me, the murders forced me to learn basic practices for moving through grief and ambiguity that otherwise might have taken a lifetime to learn.” The U’wa people, spiritual stewards of the cloud forests they call “Kajka Ika” (the heart of the world), were early pioneers of the “keep it in the ground” movement, viewing oil as the sacred blood of Mother Earth that should remain untouched. Their ancestral lands and way of life threatened by multinational oil companies, the U’wa’s resistance would become a landmark case in Indigenous environmental justice. Twenty years later, Reyes is contacted by Colombia’s truth and recognition process and chooses, along with Terence’s mother, to confront the painful questions (truth demands) and ambiguous answers about her partner’s killers. “Most of our demands for truth regarding the reasons for the kidnappings and murders remain unaddressed. My access to truth about what happened therefore remains fractured. I still hold only fragments.” Reyes’ personal story is particularly moving as she recalls the days surrounding the discovery of their bodies after their kidnapping. Yet her narrative, despite its profound subject matter, sometimes maintains an emotional distance through academic exposition and institutional language that mutes the full impact of her powerful message. A necessary testament to environmental justice and personal grief that sometimes struggles to balance emotion with clarity.

Art that could not have developed without artists from abroad.

Kirkus Star

The World at First Light: A New History of the Renaissance

Roeck, Bernd | Trans. by Patrick Baker

Princeton Univ. (1184 pp.) | $45.00

June 3, 2025 | 9780691183831

A sprawling, rich narrative of a climacteric in world history. Why did the Renaissance take hold in Italy, but not in China?

University of Zurich historian Roeck ventures a long—at more than 1,100 pages—response, beginning at the very beginning of what we call the “West.” One necessary condition for the development of a society in the “Latin part of Europe” in which the Renaissance was possible, he holds, was the competition offered by multiple small states, a competition that gave rise to the middle class while “mustering culture and science for the fray and financing scholars and inventors.” Another was proximity to the Arabic world, which preserved so much of the Greek tradition that underlies the Renaissance: “Without Greek thought,” he writes, “the Renaissance and European modernity would be unthinkable. For it is, above all, Greek thought that was ‘reborn’ and led to the creation of new things.” Although the Renaissance began in Italy when the papacy held great power and heretics were still being burned at the stake, Roeck observes, the fact that religion was “contained” and that the “worldly” was an object of attention, giving rise to modern sciences, is also material. Roeck ranges widely across time and space: He writes here of the early medieval German invasions of Rome (“it has always been more attractive to pillage high cultures than to clear forests”), there of the role of trade routes in cultural exchange, of Jan Van Eyck and other artists outside of Italy proper, and, meaningfully, of Leonardo da Vinci as a true, well, Renaissance man, “a strange mix of nervous tinkerer

and genius, perfectionist and experimenter.” And as for China? By Roeck’s lights, “in the long term, it is liberal democracies and not authoritarian states that promote scientific, technological, and economic success.” Beautifully argued, an essential addition to the history and historiography of the Renaissance.

The Big Hop: The First Nonstop Flight Across the Atlantic Ocean and Into the Future

Rooney, David | Norton (336 pp.) $29.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9781324050964

The first air crossing from North America to Europe was an achievement to remember.

“A nonstop flight across the Atlantic might be routine to us,” writes Rooney, a British author. “But it is only possible because of those who went first.” And the first were Britain’s John Alcock and Arthur Brown, who made the crossing in 1919 in a modified Vickers Vimy bomber. The journey was, in fact, part of a race sponsored by a British newspaper, although it wasn’t much of a contest. Four aircrews assembled in Newfoundland, aiming to reach Ireland, but two of them didn’t get off the ground. Another made it halfway before being forced down by storms and engine failure (the pilots were rescued by a passing ship). Rooney emphasizes the fragility of the planes, which were held together with wire and wood. (The author knows the planes well: In his 20s, he worked as a guide at the London Science Museum, where the Vimy is on display.) Unreliable equipment and terrible weather were serious impediments for Alcock and Brown. They were experienced airmen—both piloted planes during World War I—but there were, according to their later accounts, many times when they didn’t think they would make it. After 16 hours in an open cockpit, they reached

Ireland, accidentally landing in a bog on an early Sunday morning in June. The impact snapped the aircraft’s fuel lines, filling the cockpit with petrol. The airmen hurriedly climbed out of their plane. “What do you think of that for fancy navigating?” Brown asked Alcock. “Very good,” Alcock replied. And the men shook hands. Rooney pieces the story together from articles and memoirs, noting that the accomplishment was overshadowed by Charles Lindbergh’s solo crossing eight years later.

Anyone with an interest in the formative era of aviation will thrill to this account.

The Master of Drums: Gene Krupa and the Music

He Gave the World

Rosenthal, Elizabeth J. | Citadel/ Kensington (400 pp.) | $29.00 April 29, 2025 | 9780806543260

An admiring biography of the drummer best known for his work with the Benny Goodman big band. Krupa (1909-73) was born in a working-class Polish neighborhood in South Chicago. He learned to play drums by age 11. Shortly afterward, he was playing weddings and dances to help support his family. At the same time, he was intensively studying the art of percussion—as he would throughout his career. Like other young Chicagoans, he was captivated by the early jazz being played by Black bands that had come north from New Orleans, and he was playing it at every opportunity. Along with a nucleus of Chicago jazzmen, he was soon in New York, launching a career in music. Rosenthal notes Krupa’s technical innovations—he was among the first to use a bass drum on record, and the way he set up his drum kit soon became a standard. He was also a pioneer in performing and recording with racially integrated groups, first as a sideman and

later as leader of his own bands. Rosenthal fills the book with many testimonials by other drummers praising Krupa’s technical prowess. She also includes a wide range of anecdotes testifying to his generosity; he often helped out friends and band members in need. And it was common for him to spend what other performers would consider inordinate amounts of time chatting with fans, especially young people who showed an interest in becoming drummers. The most significant blot on Krupa’s reputation—a 1943 marijuana bust—is covered in detail. On the whole, an enjoyable read for fans of early jazz. A valuable look at the life and career of one of the top stars of the Swing Era.

Looking for a Story: A Complete Guide to the Writings of John McPhee

Rubinton, Noel | Princeton Univ. (264 pp.) $29.95 | May 13, 2025 | 9780691244921

In the country of John McPhee. McPhee (born 1931) has been writing about American culture, the changing environment, the history of the planet, and human work and sport for more than 70 years. In countless New Yorker essays and more than 30 books, he has charted a unique way of looking at the earth and its inhabitants. He practically invented eco-criticism, and his style of writing has indelibly shaped what has come to be called creative nonfiction—scientific and social inquiry voiced with personality, and real people limned with all the nuance of a novelist. Rubinton’s book offers McPhee’s fans a complete bibliographical and critical guide to his writings, from his earliest jottings, through years of NPR interviews, to books and essays. Just about everything anyone else has said about McPhee is here, too. Reviewing The Curve of Binding Energy (1974) in the New York Times, Sandra Schmidt Oddo wrote: “John McPhee has an eye and an ear

Celebrating a 94-year-old author who has influenced generations of writers.

LOOKING FOR A STORY

and a typewriter that operate like the camera and full crew of a documentary film study.” In its review of McPhee’s first book, A Sense of Where You Are: Bill Bradley at Princeton (1965), Kirkus Reviews wrote, “Seldom has court psychology been better explained, while revealing at the same time a player’s temperament.” Rubinton’s book also showcases a wealth of images, including photographs of McPhee at home in Princeton, where he was a longtime writing professor (among his students was New Yorker editor David Remnick). It remains to be seen if the book will be a monument to the past or an invitation to the future. But the fact remains that you can still learn to write a sentence from McPhee: Readers can use this book as a guide.

A comprehensive bibliographical and critical account of one of America’s greatest writers of nonfiction prose.

The Spinach King: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty

Seabrook, John | Norton (368 pp.) $31.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9781324003526

Uncovering devastating family secrets. Seabrook, a New Yorker staff writer, set out to write the dramatic story of his family’s Seabrook Farms, dubbed by Life magazine as the “biggest vegetable factory on earth.” An elegant essayist and meticulous researcher, Seabrook drew on the voluminous diaries of his father, combed through decades of newspaper coverage, bank records, and litigation, and

interviewed scores of former workers, business partners, and family members. He describes in intimate detail the multigenerational story of the company’s transformation from his immigrant great-grandfather’s small farm to the largest in New Jersey with 50,000 acres, growing one-third of the nation’s frozen vegetables. The author’s grandfather, C.F. Seabrook, prospered by modeling his vegetable-growing enterprise on the automobile assembly line. He hired thousands of immigrant workers from places as far-flung as Jamaica and Estonia, Black workers from the South, and 2,000 Japanese Americans from World War II incarceration camps. But all was not well within the family. Beset by alcohol-fueled misjudgments and intergenerational mistrust, the company’s meteoric rise “triggered a psychic case of the bends…not from nitrogen bubbles in the blood but from champagne bubbles at the dinner table.” With profits from frozen lima beans and spinach, the author’s father, Jack, led a glamorous lifestyle, including a romance with Eva Gabor. Seabrook grew up comfortably in this well-heeled WASP homestead, but finding a 1934 Nation article radically changed his view of the company and his family. The article documents a strike at Seabrook where workers protested wage cuts and decrepit (and segregated) housing. C.F. enlisted vigilantes, including the Ku Klux Klan, who beat the strikers with rubber hoses and axe handles. The author’s heart sank when he learned that his grandfather and beloved uncles were part of the brutal assault. Though excessive in some details, this lucidly written family history provides a unique lens through which to view changes in food production and distribution in the United States.

Deftly weaving personal and commercial history to document the rise and fall of a towering agricultural enterprise.

Kirkus Star

Our Dear Friends in Moscow: The Inside Story of a Broken Generation

Soldatov, Andrei & Irina Borogan

PublicAffairs (336 pp.) | $30.00

June 3, 2025 | 9781541704459

On journalism in an increasingly authoritarian Russia. In 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, write reporters Soldatov and Borogan, Russia edged closer to the rest of the world. That ended when Vladimir Putin “understood that globalization—through ideas and technologies—was the biggest threat to him.” And that realization put Soldatov and Borogan in the crosshairs, where, now in exile, they have remained, having enraged the regime with coverage of the Moscow theater massacre, the murder of Alexei Navalny, the invasion of Ukraine, and much else. Other investigations roused the ire of the security state that underlies the Putin regime, as when they uncovered shady real estate deals on the part of the Federal Security Service brass: “In the early 2000s, a real estate boom was transforming Moscow. The successors to the KGB had kept their property, and soon the generals realized they were sitting on a gold mine.”

Soldatov and Borogan’s vivid narrative charts the changing trajectories of once like-minded colleagues at Izvestia, the erstwhile Soviet broadsheet. One was a stylish fixture in Putin’s press pool, another a war correspondent with deep connections to pro-Russian Serbia, still another “a deeply traumatized scion of an elite Soviet family whose ties with military intelligence mystified everybody.” Tracking them over the next quarter-century, the authors note disturbing changes that make them wonder whether they ever knew their former friends, some of whom they interview about that very question. Their conclusion is that accommodationism is inevitable in a people resigned to dictatorship: “The only

difference one could make was to choose whether to stay outside the regime—doomed to be a loser, a victim of inevitable repression—or try to stay inside and play a role. And all of them, ever ambitious, chose to stay in and play.” It’s disturbing, and achingly real. A searingly defiant account of the battle for truth under totalitarianism.

No Straight Road Takes You There: Essays for Uneven Terrain

Solnit, Rebecca | Haymarket Books (184 pp.) $16.95 paper | May 13, 2025 | 9798888903636

The hard work of making a better future. Readers seeking reasons for hope in tumultuous times will find many in the latest from the author of Men Explain Things to Me. Solnit’s essays about climate change, toxic masculinity, income inequality, and other subjects are paeans to “patience, endurance, and long-term vision,” which she believes are essential to lasting political change. Solnit is a deft connector of historical dots. In one inspired essay, she demonstrates how 21st-century activists organized durable movements that moved centrist politicians toward progressive remedies on problems as varied as water usage and debt relief. Occupy Wall Street, launched in 2011, recognized that theirs would be a protracted fight, one that yielded tangible results in the 2020s, when politicians launched student loan forgiveness initiatives. More than two centuries ago, Solnit notes, John Adams detected a not dissimilar chain of events, writing that the American Revolution “was effected from 1760 to 1775.” Solnit describes climate change as “a moral crisis” and “a storytelling crisis.” Cynics may chuckle when she quotes a climate writer who says that “what we desperately need is more artists” to help create “a new world,” but Solnit offers a galvanizing vision for healing the planet, one that prizes community over material goods. A more humane definition of wealth, she writes,

would foreground enriching relationships with nature and friends. This isn’t an autobiographical book, but the personal details Solnit shares suggest a very interesting person. She was “an antinuclear activist” and counts among her friends a death row inmate, a mushroom collector, and a violin maker. The latter appears in the book’s warmest essay, about the durability of a 300-year-old violin still played by a prominent musician. Fittingly, the instrument is “both a relic and a promise.”

A buoyant, historically astute appreciation of political persistence.

I’ll Look So

Hot in a Coffin: And Other Thoughts I Used To Have About My Body

Sosenko,

Carla | Dial Press (240 pp.) $28.00 | May 6, 2025 | 9780593595893

Living in an “unconventional” body. Sosenko, a journalist and former magazine editor, centers this memoir on her body. She was born with the congenital vascular disorder Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome. “I’m one of the lucky ones,” she writes, “but I do live in a body that is significantly, visibly different from most. There is a hypertrophy of tissue on my back, rendering it giant, blobby, lopsided, and not very back-like. My torso, right leg, and bottom are marked by soft, uneven malformations and a port wine stain so big it looks like a spilled bottle of sun-faded cabernet.” As a child, Sosenko underwent liposuctions, awaking to learn that doctors had also performed cosmetic surgery on other parts of her body. At 12, the author decided to stop having surgeries: “I was left a Frankenstein’s monster, only incomplete.” Now in her 40s, she includes innumerable accounts about people, including strangers, commenting on her appearance. Chapter titles include “It’s Okay to Let the Bastards Get You Down, Just Get Back Up When You Can (They Hate That).” In 2023, after obsessively dieting from ages

26 to 38, Sosenko began taking a weight-loss drug despite feeling guilty about it: “I believe in fat liberation….I wish I didn’t wish to be smaller.” One chapter examines her complicated relationship with her mother while another details a failed romance, closing with the revelation that “being happily single is not a last resort, it is fucking rad.” In another chapter, she tells of spending $78,000 on clothes over six months. “Wear things that make you feel fucking spectacular,” she concludes, “because you are.” The book includes further fiery insights such as this: “If the world is not designed for you or accepting of you or amenable to you, that is the fault of the world.” The author’s focus on herself can sometimes be wearisome, but her enthusiasm never wanes. Authentic, raw, and ultimately life affirming.

Nature’s Greatest Success: How Plants Evolved To Exploit Humanity

Spengler III, Robert N. | Univ. of California (512 pp.) | $29.95 May 6, 2025 | 9780520405837

Sowing seeds of doubt.

Spengler, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, has no patience with the traditional history of agriculture, in which hunter-gatherers, pressured by overpopulation and climate change, settled down on farms and invented civilization. It turns out that hunter-gatherers had a fairly easy life, and farming first appeared in fertile areas where food was not scarce. Humans didn’t invent agriculture and domestication; they developed across the world in thousands of areas over thousands of years. While it’s still a matter of debate, Spengler supports the school that treats this as an evolutionary process in which Darwinian natural selection took precedence—and the selective pressure that humans placed

on organisms was often stronger than what the organisms encountered in the wild. According to the author, humans did not choose their crops—plants auditioned for the role. Their earliest adaptations were the recruitment of more effective seed dispersers: people. More-developed plants with the largest seeds and greatest vegetative mass outcompeted the others, but this took thousands of years, with little input from the farmer. Readers may be surprised when Spengler maintains that premodern farmers did not understand that crops could change over long periods or that varieties could improve through breeding. These concepts never appear in the voluminous writings on agriculture from Greek and Roman times, and the massive growth in grain, fruit, and seed occurred only after 1750, when farmers learned how to do it. Spengler writes lucidly, although this is an academic work with concepts and language that occasionally go beyond the average reader’s experience. An astute overview of a burning historical controversy.

Turning to Birds: The Power and Beauty of Noticing

Taylor, Lili | Crown (208 pp.) | $30.00 April 29, 2025 | 9780593728574

How an actor became an “ambassador for birds.”

Many people discovered birding during the Covid-19 pandemic, opening their eyes to the creatures that live among us but

that so often go ignored. Taylor had a similar awakening about 15 years ago. Taking an “emotional sabbatical,” the actor left New York City to decompress at her house a couple hours to the north, surrounded by farmland. There, away from the city noise, her senses came alive. “There were things going on out in the yard: stories, drama, mating, fighting, death,” she writes. “During that time of personal quiet, I entered a world of sound outside myself—and I’ve never left.” In this infectiously exuberant collection of short essays, Taylor describes how she brought her passion for birding back to New York City, where she regularly keeps an eye out for these “flying dinosaurs,” tracking them on the BirdsEye app in her Brooklyn neighborhood and beyond. “Wherever I am, wherever I listen,” she writes, “I can tap into that profound energy of survival and draw power from it.” A thoughtful actor, Taylor wisely finds parallels to birding. The skill she most prizes in her work is listening—focusing her attention on the actor with whom she shares a scene. Investigation is another valuable skill, she believes. She likens herself to a “kind of psychological detective, tracking piece after piece of emotional information.” Similarly, she writes, “It’s hard not to be inspired to investigate when looking at a bird. In following birds, I have discovered insects, trees, plants, radar, navigation, drawing, painting, oceans, deserts, forests, and people. In essence, the world.” Birding also gives Taylor welcome breaks when on the road for film shoots. Keep an eye out: That just might be her at your local hardware store, stocking up on birding supplies while in town.

A delightful celebration of the joys of birding—and how it leads one to look at the world in a new light.

An actor who keeps an eye out for “flying dinosaurs” wherever she goes.

TURNING TO BIRDS

Islam: A New History From Muhammad to the Present

Tolan, John | Princeton Univ. (296 pp.)

$29.95 | May 13, 2025 | 9780691263533

Wide-ranging, compact history of Islam.

Tolan hopes to provide a balanced and useful story of Islamic faith and culture, as seen through the lens of a non-Muslim, academic historian. Overall, his work can be useful and worthwhile, though it can also border on tedious. Tolan has crafted a relatively short book in which he aims to fit a cumbersome subject—the history of a major world religion and cultural presence across 15 centuries and most of the world. As a reference work for students and academics, it is highly useful; for the lay reader looking for a broader understanding of Islam, it may prove dense. Tolan records a history replete with power struggles, violence, conquest, and dynastic leadership, punctuated with examples of science, philosophy, culture, and tolerance. After recounting the life of Muhammad and the development of the Quran, the author delves into the power struggles and political dynasties that followed. From the Umayyad caliphate to the Fatimid caliphate, from the influence and legacy of Saladin to the lengthy history of the Ottoman Empire, under Suleiman the Magnificent and others, Tolan packs his pages with facts about centuries of Muslim power struggles. The Crusades, expansion of Islam into Spain and into Central Asia, and Islamic interactions with other religions and cultures are also important topics. One fascinating chapter devoted to Ibn Battuta’s wide-ranging travels in the 14th century provides great insight into the cultures across the Muslim world of that time. Finally, Tolan delves into Islam in more modern eras, bringing the reader up to the present day. “Today’s struggle between rival factions of Islam has been playing out for centuries,” he explains, and indeed, in preceding pages the reader sees ample evidence of the truth in this statement.

Well researched and objective, if somewhat uninviting.

The Teacher in the Machine: A Human History of Education Technology

Trumbore, Anne | Princeton Univ. (240 pp.)

$29.95 | May 27, 2025 | 9780691198767

Follow the money. This wellresearched, fluently written, and ultimately disheartening book charts a history of American higher education’s fascination with technology. Tracing the use of computer-assisted teaching in the 1960s at Stanford, MIT, and the University of Illinois, the author shows convincingly the pitfalls of trying to offload learning onto machines. Trumbore offers a series of case studies (some of which she was involved in) over the past 50 years: how attempts at television lecturing tried to broaden student engagement; how interactive programming sought to change the way young people processed information; how big universities became seduced by Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs); and how the different cultures of university professors and corporate managers are rarely bridged successfully. The lesson of the book is this: “Universities are, by definition, filled with very smart people. Yet, their response to online education over the past decade has resulted in them being taken advantage of by for-profit companies.” The consequence of that process is that a few prominent schools, professors, and entrepreneurs try to dictate what and how to learn. “The elite are creating the conditions for the non-elite to have access to education in a

way that benefits the former rather than the latter,” the author writes. Quoting Gordon Gekko from the film Wall Street, the author distills higher education’s relationship to technology: “What’s worth doing is worth doing for money.”

In the end, the real “gold standard” for education at all levels should be face-toface teaching, interpersonal learning, and classroom-based conversation.

A stunning exposé of how universities made, and lost, the Faustian bargain with big tech.

The Folly of Realism: How the West Deceived Itself About Russia and Betrayed Ukraine

Vindman, Alexander | PublicAffairs (304 pp.)

$30.00 | February 25, 2025 | 9781541705043

European affairs expert Vindman recounts the many ways in which American foreign policy has gone astray.

“Realism’s impulse to avert crisis at virtually any cost doesn’t even avert crisis,” declares the author, deprecating the long-standing doctrine, courtesy of Henry Kissinger and company, that indexes foreign policy decisions to American interests. Instead, Vindman advocates a rising doctrine called neo-idealism, which “demands using a more nuanced and coherent understanding of interest, viewed through our values, along with other important inputs, to determine a compass heading for a US foreign-policy approach.” In the instance of his native Ukraine, Vindman argues, U.S. foreign policy has been driven by Moscow’s narrative, a holdover of a long-ago empire and the dissolution of the Soviet Union,

How universities have been taken advantage of by companies.

THE TEACHER IN THE MACHINE

in which Ukraine is seen as an integral part of Russia. “Without Ukraine, Russia cannot sustain an imperialist, revanchist narrative of the so-called unity of the ethnic-Russian and Russian-speaking peoples,” he writes. Vladimir Putin’s use of this narrative includes the view that the U.S. has continued to wage the Cold War all along, using “hybrid warfare” that includes—deep irony here—American interference in Russian elections. In a carefully laid-out case, Vindman urges that the U.S. take stronger steps to protect Ukraine as a democratic nation with Western values whose very existence repudiates Putin’s Russia “and Putinism itself.” Neo-idealism also demands that the U.S. take greater interest in protecting democratic nations that realism would consider insignificant and, with that, “strengthening South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan” against China. Regrettably, he concludes, all that’s unlikely to happen under his bête noire, Trump, with the result that the “next administration will inherit not just a fractured global order but also allies wary of America’s reliability”—a situation reparable by means of neo-idealism.

A persuasive case for rethinking America’s guiding foreign policy doctrine in the face of global chaos.

Apocalypse: How Catastrophe Transformed Our World and Can Forge New Futures

Wade, Lizzie | Harper/HarperCollins (320 pp.) $32.00 | May 6, 2025 | 9780063097308

Big, bad changes in human history. Award-winning science journalist Wade opens by defining “apocalypse” as “a rapid, collective loss that fundamentally changes a society’s way of life” and then proceeds to examine world events from the last 50,000 years. Most don’t meet her definition, but few readers will complain. The Neanderthal extinction of 40,000 years ago probably passed with few fireworks. It’s also a matter

of pure speculation. Wade’s summary of the latest findings emphasizes a mostly nonviolent ebbing of scattered bands of long-established Europeans in the face of more numerous immigrants from the east. Aside from the occasional volcanic eruption or invasion, Wade’s apocalypses are slow, often taking centuries, fascinating to archeologists and historians if not Hollywood producers. Humans often quarrel, compete, and make war, but no day passes when they don’t yearn to eat, so bad weather and famine play an outsized role. Forty-two hundred years ago, rainfall diminished around the world. Egypt’s Old Kingdom collapsed as Nile floods became a trickle. This is well documented, but archeologists are still unearthing huge cities across India, their writing still undeciphered, abandoned during this time. Pacific Ocean temperature changes produce El Niño weather, which annoys Americans but devastates Peru and may have done worse in the past. The author concludes with two apocalypses that gave birth to today’s world: Europe’s incursion into the Americas, which killed tens of millions of people, and African slavery, which took the lives of millions more. Looking to the future, Wade writes, “It’s time to get used to living in, and with, the apocalypse….Unlike most of the apocalypses in this book, ours are and will be truly global. In the case of climate change, it might eventually transform our planet into a place unlike any human has ever seen before.”

A sobering look at how cultures die.

Belle Starr: The Truth Behind the Wild West Legend

Wallis, Michael | Liveright/Norton (544 pp.) $32.99 | June 24, 2025 | 9781631494772

The trials of a frontier woman. Teasing through the myths and gossip swirling around Belle Starr (18481889), reputedly the most famous female outlaw of the 19th

century, Wallis, biographer of Billy the Kid, among others, finds a complicated, defiant woman. Myra Maibelle Shirley was born in the backwoods of Missouri to a family of proud slave owners. Her father, at 42, had been married several times by the time he met 21-yearold Eliza Pennington; some of his offspring by earlier marriages were older than his new bride. John and Eliza had six children of their own: Their second son, Bud, was Myra’s favorite. They galloped together on horseback through the countryside, he taught her how to handle a gun, and by the time she was a teenager, “she was a fearless rider and a crack shot.” His death during the Civil War upended her life: She vowed, somehow, to get revenge. Educated briefly at a female academy in Carthage, Missouri, where she was one of the first students, she learned by living. Wallis captures the rousing atmosphere of the lawless west—Belle’s family moved to Texas after Carthage was burned by guerrillas—with outlaws going “on the scout” to evade capture; horse thieves; bank, train, and stagecoach robbers; and murderous gangs terrorizing communities. Although Belle never killed anyone and was convicted only once, of horse theft, her life revolved around outlaws: family, lovers, husbands. Her first husband’s escapades led to his being murdered at age 29. Another husband, a mixed-race Cherokee, was killed in an exchange of “deadly gunplay,” as was Belle herself, ambushed in a murder still unsolved. Wallis’ Belle is a brazen woman, refusing to bow to the constrictions of her time: lawless, if not an outlaw herself. A brisk, spirited biography.

For more about Belle Starr, visit Kirkus online.

Big Asian Energy: An Unapologetic Guide for Breaking Barriers to Leadership and Success

Wang, John | Tiny Reparations (384 pp.) $32.00 | May 27, 2025 | 9780593475430

Confronting stereotypes. Wang is a leadership coach to the Asian American community, and in this book he presents lessons he’s learned over the years. He notes that Asian Americans make up 13% of the professional workforce, but only 3% hold leadership and executive positions. Given the “elusive impression” that Asian American workers are generally considered by their Western employers to be highly competent and hard workers, why is this so? Wang accepts that the term “Asian” covers a wide range of countries, but the common theme is that Asian cultures have a collectivist basis rather than an individualist one. Because of the role of family and the broader Asian community as socializing forces, he says Asian Americans are less willing to claim credit for their achievements and put themselves forward for promotions. Humility, says Wang, is not an attribute that is prized in American business. He argues that Asian Americans will take on tasks that are not relevant to their duties simply because a colleague asks them to do so. The result is that they suffer burnout through overwork. Wang uses case studies to explain how Asian American workers can address these issues without losing their core identity. He includes self-diagnostic tests and exercises and offers tips on matters such as eye contact, interviews, and body language. Being assertive without being arrogant is not always easy, but this is a useful book for workers looking to move up the ladder—as well as for people already in leadership positions.

A wealth of helpful advice, shared in an authentic voice.

Lone Wolf: Walking the Line Between Civilization and Wildness

Weymouth, Adam | Crown (288 pp.)

$30.00 | June 3, 2025 | 9798217085941

Following a wolf’s path across borders and ideologies.

The story begins with a miracle or nightmare, depending on whom you ask. In 2011, a wolf called Slavc journeyed alone across more than 1,000 miles from his birthplace in Slovenia to the Italian Alps. Despite all odds, he found the only other wolf within hundreds of miles: a female. Now, there are over a hundred wolves in an area that had been empty of wolves for over a century. As the animals reenter the ecosystem, old questions are brought to the surface that center on our relationship to the wild and the realities of living with a near-mythic creature. A decade after the wolf’s journey, journalist Weymouth follows Slavc’s path on foot. Along the way, he witnesses communities losing flocks to wolves in the midst of economic challenges (“It is easier to shoot a wolf than late-stage capitalism or the Common Agricultural Policy”), visits centers for wolf study, and interrogates the ancient relationship between man and beast. “In wolves we see aspects of ourselves that we find in no other creature,” he asserts, and perhaps this is part of why wolves have formed the villain in folktales like “Little Red Riding Hood” and “The Three Little Pigs” or why the archetype of the lone wolf still carries such cultural weight. Wolves have been used diversely as symbols ranging from the fascism of Hitler and Mussolini to the pinnacle of

loyalty and friendship. Circling all this are concerns of habitat and coexistence. “We can romanticize the wild all we like, but it is certainly far less dangerous, and far less demanding, to live in a domesticated state,” writes Weymouth, his distinct pro-wolf bent giving voice to the fear as well. With clear, engrossing prose he illuminates the plight of the wolf in the modern era—one that plumbs the depths of belonging.

A fascinating, powerfully rendered portrait that extends beyond wolves to human nature.

Lincoln’s Lady Spymaster: The Untold Story of the Abolitionist Southern Belle Who Helped Win the Civil War

Willis, Gerri | Harper/HarperCollins (288 pp.)

$28.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9780063333659

An unlikely spy. Reporter and podcast host Willis recounts the life of the intrepid Elizabeth Van Lew (1818-1900), who mounted a successful spy ring from her home in the Confederate stronghold of Richmond, Virginia. Born into wealth and privilege in a family with Northern roots, she was a Union sympathizer, and though her family owned slaves, she opposed slavery. Raised to be a Southern belle, she was transformed by war “from a serious but directionless young woman into an iron-willed spymaster.” In the early days of the conflict, she and her mother risked threats to their lives to help imprisoned wounded Union soldiers. Those prisoners of war passed

“In wolves we see aspects of ourselves that we find in no other creature.”

LONE WOLF

on to her information, overheard from their guards, about Rebel troop movements. Books she lent the men came back with secret notes and encoded messages that she relayed to Union commanders. Her efforts were augmented by a ring of like-minded civilians, including her own Black servants, German anti-slavery business owners, and other Union sympathizers whom she learned about when the Confederate government penned them together in prison. These secret activists worked to gather and pass on intelligence and to smuggle Union soldiers across enemy lines. While the soldiers waited to escape, she hid them on the third floor of her Richmond mansion. Van Lew proved a wily spy, even using a cipher to convert letters into numerical code—a cipher she kept for the rest of her life. When Ulysses S. Grant became president, he rewarded her invaluable aid by naming her to the remunerative position of Richmond’s postmaster. Willis draws on Van Lew’s published diary, a biography of Van Lew, and biographies of Civil War figures to create a brisk, well-populated chronicle of her subject’s perilous work. A fresh look at Civil War history.

Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

Wynn-Williams, Sarah | Flatiron Books (400 pp.)

$32.99 | March 11, 2025 | 9781250391230

An insider’s account of some very bad goings-on at Facebook/Meta. Former New Zealand diplomat Wynn-Williams talked her way into an ambassadorial job of sorts at Facebook on the grounds that it was likely to become a political giant. She landed in 2011, thinking that the politics she had in mind would be for the good and that part of her job would be to keep the tech behemoth independent: “Information is power. At some point, governments would want to

control it.” Warning signs otherwise were there from the start: An outwardly apolitical Mark Zuckerberg decides that he wants to be seated next to Raúl Castro at a state dinner. (He flees when rebuffed by not just the Cuban leader but by Canada’s prime minister.) A German delegation in turn is spurned when it asks for content mediation to curb hate speech: “We failed when it mattered,” Wynn-Williams writes. “With the country we most needed to win over.” Small wonder, she adds, that Germany opened an investigation on Facebook, which, jumping ahead in her narrative, explains why a company board member proposed courting far-right actors such as MAGA and Germany’s AfD—the thought being that less oversight over those who cozy up to them means more profit. China is the grand curiosity: “The mission of the company—making the world more open and connected—is the exact opposite of what the Chinese Communist Party wants, particularly under President Xi Jinping,” she writes at a time when the company is going hammer and tongs for market there. And now, the author says, Facebook is “dangling the possibility that it’ll give China special access to users’ data.” Among all this intrigue, Wynn-Williams’ accusation of some spectacularly louche and horndoggish behavior among the top brass seems an afterthought, but that gossipy element is there, giving a human touch to “these people and their lethal carelessness.” Book: thumbs-up. Subject: frown emoji.

Too Good To Get Married: The Life and Photographs of Miss Alice Austen

Yochelson, Bonnie | Empire State Editions/ Fordham Univ. (288 pp.) | $39.95 June 3, 2025 | 9781531509507

Alice’s world. Yochelson, former curator of prints and photographs at the Museum of the City of New York, pays homage to photographer Alice Austen

(1866-1952), who, like Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine, documented a changing America. Born Elizabeth Alice Austen Munn, she grew up at Clear Comfort, her family’s estate on Staten Island, now a public museum and, since 2015, designated an LGBTQ+ landmark. Although her parents separated, Alice grew up in wealth and privilege, indulging in her passion for lawn tennis and, in the mid-1880s, taking up photography, including developing her own prints. Her subjects were family, friends, and suitors; travels near and far; nature and urban scenes. Not interested in selling her work, she often gave framed prints as gifts. Generously illustrated, the biography reveals a change in her perspective in 1891 when she began to use her camera to satirize social rituals and gender politics—posing herself and friends dressed in men’s clothes, for example. In 1893, she traveled to Chicago, the farthest she had ever been from home, to photograph buildings and exhibits at the World’s Columbian Exposition. In Manhattan, she documented tradespeople and immigrants she called “street types.” Claiming she was “too good to get married,” Austen found a lifelong companion in Gertrude Tate, whom she met in 1897. They traveled together but did not live together until 1917. Financial troubles dogged their later years: Austen lost all her money in the stock market crash of 1929, and even selling her possessions could not prevent the pair from being eventually evicted from Clear Comfort. Yochelson traces the fraught process by which Austen’s photo collection was rescued by the Staten Island Historical Society, as well as a posthumous controversy over her sexuality.

A sensitive portrait of a prolific photographer.

INDIE AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

ROBIN KEUNEKE

Author of The Iberian Table

Please tell us a little about yourself and The Iberian Table. I’m a writer, artist, and chef. The Iberian Table, my third and final book on healthy cooking, is the most complete. Spain has some of the longest-living people in the world, so I introduce an unexplored version of the Mediterranean diet, which research has proven is the most effective. The Iberian Table was chosen by Amazon as the “Number One Hot New Release, Spanish Culinary” in its first month. I’ve also been invited by a Newsletter for American Basques and a Catalan Delegation to be their health expert on future initiatives.

How did you choose the genre of The Iberian Table?

Initially, I had no idea I was not going to write another traditional health book—a bit like how when Washington Irving went to Spain for his book about Christopher Columbus, he ended up writing four books he never expected. In The Iberian Table, I “bring the reader with me” to Barcelona to tour a historic greenmarket, utilizing Magical Realism. There is a dialogue with the reader and with vendors. This approach just felt natural to me.

What was your editing process like?

My first two books were published by established houses, but publishers wouldn’t be able to edit Catalan, Basque, and Spanish, so I established my own and worked with people in Spain. I organized and led editing and photography food styling from the

U.S. I identified someone in France to create my website, the Iberiantable.com, and I worked closely with my brilliant American book designer.

Any advice for others starting the process of independent publishing?

See yourself as truly independent, as one does when one writes. Rely upon your instincts. Be ready to replace those who are exploitive or lack talent, just as you replace inferior paragraphs or words. Join the Independent Book Publishers Association. Operate like you are running a business, because you are. And keep the book price accessible.

How have you built your audience?

I was not on social media until a year ago, when I started my Facebook page. I read an Emily Dickinson poem every morning before writing The Iberian Table, so I joined Emily Dickinson Daily. I have met international writers, philosophers, and poets. I also built a team who supports my vision, including a social media consultant, a publishing consultant, a distributor, and a public relations firm, and I continuously refine that team when something isn’t working.

What are you working on now?

My current project is a book of short stories about historic Spanish gastronomy. Basque to Barcelona… and Stories Along the Way will be released next year. I also recently

The Iberian Table

Keuneke, Robin Bay of Roses Books | 474 pp. $25.00 paper | Oct. 22, 2024 9780692982198

became a member of the Emily Dickinson International Society. I am considering submitting a paper covering natural medicine usage in Victorian New England. Dickinson had several health conditions, and much of what was recommended to her by Amherst apothecaries is still used today in the natural medicine community, such as healing broths and glycine for seizures.

Portions of this Q&A were edited for clarity.

For a review of the book, visit Kirkus online.

Thomas Keuneke

Jake Tapper

To Co-Author Book on Biden’s “Decline”

Original Sin will examine the former president’s health and decision to run for reelection.

Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson will examine former President Joe Biden’s health and his decision to run for

reelection in a book coming later this year.

Penguin Press will publish the journalists’ Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice To Run Again in the spring, the press announced in a news release. It calls the book “an unflinching and explosive reckoning with one of the most fateful decisions in American political history: Joe Biden’s run for reelection despite evidence of his serious decline—amid desperate efforts to hide the extent of that deterioration.”

Biden was 80 when he announced in 2023 that he

For reviews of Jake Tapper’s books, visit Kirkus online.

would run for reelection as president, despite concerns from some in his party about his age and mental acuity. Those concerns grew considerably after he debated Donald Trump last June; Biden’s meandering performance in the debate was widely seen as disastrous.

Biden dropped out of the race the following month, and the Democratic Party nominated Kamala Harris, then vice president, to replace him. Harris lost to Trump in the November presidential election.

In their book, Penguin Press says, Tapper of CNN and Thompson of Axios will take readers “behind closed doors and into private

conversations between the heaviest of hitters.”

Original Sin is slated for publication on May 20.

—M.S.

Alex Thompson, left, and Jake Tapper

INDIE AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

JOHN KAVANAGH

Author of Path to Power, Road to Ruin

Why did you write Path to Power, Road to Ruin?

I have always loved history and majored in it at Yale. When I graduated, I decided it would be more practical to undertake a career in business. I did so, but I made a promise to myself that in retirement, I would return to the study of history and perhaps write a book on some important historical issue. Path to Power, Road to Ruin: The Dangers of Political and Religious Ideologies is the fulfillment of that promise.

How did you write Path to Power, Road to Ruin?

Since I had spent my entire professional life doing research and analysis to solve difficult business problems, it was not a stretch to think that I could, given my education, complete the study required to write a historical book. As you can see, I was indeed able to do so. But when it came to writing the book, I hired a professional editor, who had worked with several successful authors, to review my drafts and make suggestions to improve the book’s structure and presentation.

How did you research the book?

My research followed a sequential process over several years. It started with a single issue, i.e., the surprising extent of mass-killing events in history. Then it broadened to include an assessment of the ideological causes of these incidents, which was subsequently expanded to an extensive analysis of political and religious

ideologies and their drivers. Finally, I studied human thinking processes and the psychology behind ideological acceptance to understand why people have always been so vulnerable to ideological appeals.

What were your goals for the book?

To get people to reduce their dependence on ideologies and ideological thinking by: making them aware of the serious consequences of embracing their favored ideologies, showing them that their ideologies had only limited validity, and suggesting ways in which they could successfully challenge their beliefs and become masters of their own destiny.

What is the core message of your book? Ideologies are being used against us. More than ever, power-hungry leaders exploit our vulnerability to belief-based appeals to advance their own personal agenda at our expense. We must clearly recognize what we face as we are bombarded by the deceptive narratives our leaders promote. My research into the basis of ideologies helps expose the myths surrounding political and religious ideologies. Using historical and current examples, I explain their true nature, what drives their success, and why they are so dangerous for us all.

Why did you independently publish the book?

It was a matter of timing. I completed my book in the middle of the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign, when

Path to Power, Road to Ruin

Kavanagh, John

Self | 171 pp. | $22.95 | $12.95 paper Oct. 15, 2024 | 9798339528289 9798339559894 paper

ideological battles were taking place on a global scale. It was a perfect occasion for a book on ideology and its dangers. I would have preferred to find a quality publisher. But, given that other indie authors told me that they spent years trying to get published, I made the choice to seize what was potentially a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Portions of this Q&A were edited for clarity.

For a review of the book, visit Kirkus online.

John Kavanagh

Children's

TREASURES TO TEMPT YOUNG NATURALISTS

MELTING GLACIERS.

Increased wildfires. Polar bears losing their habitats. It’s difficult not to feel unnerved by the destruction that humans have wrought upon the planet—and harder still to keep youngsters from picking up on our worry. As I look ahead to Earth Day, though, I’m heartened. Last fall, I interviewed U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón about her book In Praise of Mystery, illustrated by Peter Sís (Norton Young Readers, 2024). A meditation on the marvels of the universe, the work is a picture-book adaptation of her poem of the same name, which was engraved on the space probe Europa Clipper. Limón’s fervent passion for the natural world reinvigorated me, and her words have lingered: “I hope, if there is life outside our planet, that [it] understands how much we love our Earth. It might not seem like that, but we truly love it.”

That’s the message I want young readers to embrace this Earth Day—and all year round. To help cultivate that sense of wonder, I urge parents and caregivers to pick

up the following picture books, starting with Limón’s latest, And, Too, the Fox, illustrated by Gaby D’Alessandro (Carolrhoda, Jan. 7). Paying tribute to a scrappy creature who manages to survive—and thrive—on the edges of a suburban town, Limón invites children to find sublime beauty in seemingly simple things, such as the fox’s “four black feet” and his habit of napping in the “soft and green” grass.

Henry Cole and Drew Beckmeyer each take the long view with odes to nature spanning centuries and even millennia. Author/illustrator Cole’s Mighty: The Story of an Oak Tree Ecosystem (Peachtree, April 29) relies on intricately detailed black-andwhite images to depict the passing of time. Over a period of 200 years, a tiny acorn grows into a tree that becomes a crucial part of its surroundings. From a raccoon peering from a hole in a branch to an owl swooping after a fleeing rabbit, Cole’s illustrations are rife with treasures for careful observers.

With Beckmeyer’s Stalactite & Stalagmite: A Big Tale From a Little Cave (Atheneum, March 18), the author salutes some unsung natural phenomena: the rocks that have seen eons of life come and go, from the extinction of dinosaurs to the rise of humans. The banter between the titular protagonists is alternately immensely funny, poignant, and contemplative; few other children’s books ask readers to consider the universe and “their place in its endless giganticness.”

After reading these works, kids will truly grasp the big picture—a tall order, considering that for many young readers, five minutes can feel like an eternity.

Drama, danger, and caterpillar goo— Papilio (Viking, March 4) has it all. In a spectacular example of artistic collaboration, friends Ben Clanton, Corey R. Tabor, and Andy Chou Musser each wrote and illustrated a section of this book chronicling the life cycle of Papilio polyxenes, better known as the black swallowtail butterfly. Though the vibes are quirky and cartoonish, the authors gently fold in some science as their earnest protagonist rises to each challenge with aplomb. “What a sweet world,” concludes Papilio. Readers will agree.

Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.

Illustration by Eric Scott Anderson

EDITOR’S PICK

Following his father’s arrest, 12-year-old Andy Carter finds himself stuck in small-town Nyle Park, Ohio. Andy’s mom left a while ago, so he’s staying with Aunt Nonie while Dad awaits his hearing. After a firecracker gets out of control, accidentally burning down an old barn, Andy faces punishment: helping the barn’s owner, Mr. Gilbert, restore a run-down property he owns in lieu of being sent to juvenile court. While working with grumpy Mr. Gilbert, Andy finds himself becoming intrigued by the story of the house’s previous owner, the mysterious masked performer known as the Red

Nave, who captivated people’s imaginations with his amazing magic shows before vanishing. His sudden disappearance, which Mr. Gilbert is obsessed with, occurred after Red Nave supposedly murdered someone. Andy strikes a deal with Mr. Gilbert: If he can discover the magician’s secret identity and determine whether he was responsible for the death, his punishment will be over. But Andy quickly learns that solving a decades-old mystery won’t be easy. His father’s arrest, which Andy feels was unjust, has weakened his trust in the justice system, and, unlike in the city where

Smoke & Mirrors

Ransaw, Rosalyn | Amulet/Abrams | 288 pp. $18.99 | June 10, 2025 | 9781419770135

he lived with Dad, he’s aware that people treat him differently as one of the few Black people in Nyle Park. Ransaw’s fast-paced debut offers an introspective look at dealing with racism and ambiguous grief through the

eyes of a preteen. Through an intriguing mystery, the story explores biases and preconceptions. A fast-paced, adventurous journey in search of the truth. (author’s note) (Mystery. 8-12)

Captures youngsters’ often-warring desires for autonomy and reassurance.

THIS YEAR, A WITCH!

Kirkus Star

This Year, a Witch!

Abbott, Zoey | Caitlyn Dlouhy/ Atheneum (40 pp.) | $19.99

July 15, 2025 | 9781665956024

A precocious child conjures up a startling alternative to the cutesy costumes of Halloweens past.

“Last year I was a bunny. The year before that I was a mouse.” Indignant after a string of “utterly adorable” Halloween costumes, a rosy-cheeked, black-haired girl with skin the white of the page declares, “My days of adorable are over and done! Because…this year, a witch!” Readers are privy to the process as the impish and expressive witch fully embraces her role. She’s “enlisted the help of an assistant” (her cat) and has been busy “whipping up spells and collecting things for my brew.” Witches are powerful—look out, or she’ll turn you to stone!—and exceedingly independent. As she says, “Witches don’t need their lovies. Or daddies. Or naps,” though a patient grown-up proves helpful with mundane tasks like costume-sewing. Multimedia and Risograph illustrations make magical use of both generous white space and full-bleed spreads and feature vibrant pops of modern Halloween hues, including violet and acidic green. Playfully paced page turns reveal a visual transformation more frightening than even the young witch bargains for, but concise text with emphatic typography keeps the theatrical tone kind-spirited; Abbott perfectly captures youngsters’

often-warring desires for autonomy and reassurance.

A sly seasonal pick for kids craving a dash of agency alongside their dress-up. (Picture book. 4-7)

Sato the Rabbit, Morning Light

Ainoya, Yuki | Trans. by Michael Blaskowsky | Enchanted Lion Books (40 pp.) | $17.95 | July 15, 2025 9781592704392 | Series: Sato the Rabbit, 4

This Japanese import sees young Sato return for more escapades. One morning, Sato, a lightskinned child dressed in a white rabbit suit, notices a sliver of light between the curtains in his dark room. He pinches and pulls out the light, discovering whimsical uses for it during his fanciful day. After he stirs his morning coffee with the beam of light, he’s transported to a sun-splashed field. There, he “[gathers] spots of sunshine,” “[scoops] up sparkles from the riverbed,” and makes a toasty campfire. After enjoying a sandwich of falling stars and a drink made with sparkles he gathered earlier, he settles in for a twinkly night, aglow with joy from his day. Later, Sato awakens and finds himself in a lighthouse, surrounded by a cobalt sea. Again, sunlight is his playmate, and when the light forms two perfect cubes, he lifts them up, places them atop the lighthouse, and enjoys the fruit and shells that the birds and fish, attracted by the sight, bring him. The shells are magical; one transforms into a ship that puffs whimsical clouds, while another creates a magnificent sunset, bathed in

orange, purple, and yellow. As night returns, Sato gazes up at the moon and stars etched into the inky black sky. Ainoya once more displays a superb gift for spare prose and playfully unusual illustrations, beginning with purple and white endpapers whose forms foreshadow the events to come, unfolding into a story of magical realism. Enchanting adventures for the littlest explorers. (Picture book. 3-6)

Bring Up the Sun

Anderson, Derek | Quill Tree Books/ HarperCollins (40 pp.) | $19.99 June 10, 2025 | 9780062402608

Although he’s inexperienced, Sun tries to shine his small light upon the world when his grandfather retires and his father is too busy with other projects. Unfortunately, Sun’s efforts cause dissatisfaction in the universe. The clouds don’t like the yellow and pink colors he showers down on them; the mountains grumble that he’s too small to shine. Still, Sun perseveres until the wave of complaints (the trees want things back the way they were; the buildings find his light too bright) send him back to his grandfather for advice. The cartoon-style digital art depicts plucky Sun as a glowing sprite, and the irritated objects are humorously anthropomorphized (“Turn it off, my eyes, my eyes!” grouses one of the buildings). Unfortunately, his grandfather’s advice—“There are some in the world who will never be happy…just be you”—feels simplistic. Sun’s late return after the visit to his grandfather renders the world dark, but when he begins to shine again with a renewed spirit, suddenly everyone appreciates him. This change of heart feels too facile, and some of the logic is faulty: Clouds can be pink, and why does Sun shine too bright for the houses, but not bright enough for the mountains?

An unsuccessful attempt at a fanciful empowerment tale. (Picture book. 3-5)

50 States of Love

Aronson, Anna | Frances Lincoln (64 pp.)

$18.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9781836006077

Love notes to all 50 states, in alphabetical order. If the natural, architectural, or cultural features that Aronson picks as similes and metaphors for the captions accompanying each of her appealingly cozy painted scenes offer few surprises, the diverse figures posing together on each spread effectively reflect the fact that our country’s population makes up one thoroughly multiracial, multicultural tapestry. The narrative likewise binds the illustrations into a litany of togetherness; all begin with the same four words and are constructed on the same pattern: “Our love is like Alabama,” she writes, “sweet as molasses, soulful as / the tunes of Muscle Shoals.” “Our love is like Alaska, / lighting up each other’s lives / like the magical Northern Lights.” Readers reaching the end may wonder what and where the “herds that / grace the Grand Tetons” of Wyoming are, since the only animals visible in the picture are a bear and two cubs. Specific references to Indigenous Americans are limited to just two mentions in the closing notes. Still, Aronson’s patent sincerity may well prompt young audiences to join her in seeing that our differences can unite, rather than divide, us.

A heartfelt national portrait. (map) (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Alpaca Goes Back-a to School

Bardhan-Quallen, Sudipta | Illus. by Leeza Hernandez | Abrams Appleseed (40 pp.) $18.99 | June 17, 2025 | 9781419773907

(Mom will be fine while Alpaca’s at school, the narrator reassures readers.) At school, the sounds of footsteps going “click-clack-a” reverberate through the hallways; Principal Quack-a welcomes everyone. Alpaca’s a bit worried—will the teacher, Miss Yak-a, be stern? No, indeed! Alpaca and the others locate their cubbies and hang their coats on a “rack-a .” The rest of the day is eventful, with circle time, playtime, and art class; Alpaca drops a “stack-a” paint jars, but it’s OK! “Miss Yak-a has more.” After a full day of playing, singing, learning the school rules, and working together with new friends, Alpaca heads home to enjoy dinner with Mom, take a bath, and listen to a story before hitting the “sack-a .” This cheery story is a humorous vocabulary developer, with numerous ack-a words playfully running throughout the narrative; kids will be quick to shout out their own riffs on the word alpaca . The soothing tale will resonate with those starting school for the first time or returning to classrooms for another year of learning. A blend of hand-created and digital techniques, the illustrations are cheery, and the all-animal cast is anthropomorphized with quirky details, such as the snazzy red hightops Alpaca and Miss Yak-a sport. Kids will “crack-a” up over this jolly school story. (Picture book. 4-7)

My Summer Camp Has Mega Sloths

Barrett, Rebecca Wood | Illus. by Jaimie MacGibbon | Orca (240 pp.) | $14.95 paper | May 13, 2025 | 9781459837553

Shifty, a young counselor with questionable judgment, is making the campers build their own lodge. Instead of mountain biking, which was supposed to be the focus of the camp, they’re pouring cement and hammering nails. Henry makes some bad decisions that lead to his friends getting punished or, even worse, injured. As he slowly learns to think of others, mysterious sightings around the camp remind Henry of supposedly extinct creatures, like mega sloths and fangers, which resemble saber-toothed tigers. Is it possible that this forest is Yarp’s new home? When a forest fire traps the campers, Henry calls on the old friend he once saved to help him lead the others to safety. While the prehistoric creatures are appealing, holes in the plot and worldbuilding detract—there’s no explanation for the extinct animals’ existence in this world, and the resolution of Shifty’s hijacking of the campers’ experiences feels unsatisfying. The quick pacing and gentle pen-and-ink drawings help compensate for these issues, however. Henry presents as white, and names and illustrations cue some ethnic and racial diversity among the campers. For fans of the first title. (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Star

The Wild Robot on the Island

Brown, Peter | Little, Brown (48 pp.)

$19.99 | June 24, 2025 | 9780316669467

“It’s back-a to school time.”

An unseen narrator reminds Alpaca to “pack-a a snack-a.” Then Alpaca and Mom walk to the bus stop and wait.

A boy attends an unusual wilderness summer camp, where he reunites with Yarp, the prehistoric short-faced bear he helped in My Best Friend Is Extinct (2021).

This sequel begins with Henry and his friends, including Captain Frances, Koko, and Lucas, at Camp Bushwhacker.

What happens when a robot washes up alone on an island?

“Everything was just right on the island.” Brown beautifully re-creates the first days of Roz, the protagonist of his Wild Robot novels, as she adapts to living in the natural world. A stormtossed ship, seen in the opening just before the title page, and a packing crate are the only other human-made objects to appear in this close-up look at the robot and her new home. Roz emerges from the crate, and her first thought as she sets off up a grassy hill—“This must be where I

belong”—is sweetly glorious, a note of recognition rather than conquest. Roz learns to move, hide, and communicate like the creatures she meets. When she discovers an orphaned egg—and the gosling Brightbill, who eventually hatches—her decision to be his mother seems a natural extension of her adaptation. Once he flies south for the winter, her quiet wait across seasons for his return is a poignant portrayal of separation and change. Brown’s clean, precise lines and deep, light-filled colors offer a sense of what Roz might be seeing, suggesting a place that is alive yet deeply serene and radiant. Though the book stands alone, it adds an immensely appealing dimension to Roz’s world. Round thumbnails offer charming peeks into the island world, depicting Roz’s animal neighbors and Brightbill’s maturation.

A hymn to the intrinsic loveliness of the wild and the possibility of sharing it. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-6)

Sayonara Magic: Family Charms

Burakkuberi | Illus. by Kumanakris Trans. by Dana Guterman Levy

Andrews McMeel Publishing (240 pp.)

$12.99 paper | May 13, 2025

9781524886783 | Series: Sayonara Magic, 2

Following sibling strife, a truthtelling spell goes awry. In this fun second series entry about the Tanaka triplets—brothers Naoki and Hiro and their sister, Akira—a bored Hiro takes Naoki’s game console, even though his brother has refused to let him have it because he keeps breaking it. Just as Naoki predicted, an accident ensues. Hiro spills milk on the console but then lies to cover it up. His siblings discover what happened, and, fed up with his lack of honesty, they detail the lies he’s told that day alone. Meanwhile, an inspector is coming to make sure they—wizard kids attending a regular school—are only

using magic at home under supervision, adding to the stress of the situation. The triplets don’t want to go to magic school and be separated from their best friend, Maru, but passing scrutiny will be hard. For the two days the inspector is there, they’ll have to unite to convince him. But then, an angry Naoki places a spell on Hiro, hoping to teach him a lesson, and it has unintended results. Even worse, the inspector is watching! The stylish and expressive manga-style art and the siblings’ banter make this work a delight. Hiro is unintentionally funny, and his mishaps are sure to be relatable to many readers. In this work translated from the original Spanish, the main characters present as Japanese. Both amusing and exciting. (character guide) (Fantasy. 8-12)

The Red Trailer Mystery: Trixie Belden

Campbell, Julie | Illus. by Mary Stevens Random House (272 pp.) | $8.99 paper June 3, 2025 | 9780593904619

Series: Trixie Belden, Girl Detective, 2

Two girls set out to find their friend but wind up tracking thieves in upstate New York.

In the second installment in the Trixie Belden series (originally published in the mid-20th century), Trixie and Honey pick up right where they left off: looking for their runaway friend, Jim, who’s the heir to a small fortune. Taking off in the sleek Silver Swan, “the darlingest little house on wheels you ever saw,” with Honey’s governess, Miss Trask, driving, the two

play detective on multiple fronts. They’re looking for Jim, Joeanne (a girl they meet at a trailer park who runs away in distress), and crooks who are stealing trailers. Trixie and Honey are an entertaining pair: They’re smart and quick-thinking, but they also get into scrapes, toppling down a hill and getting lost in the woods. Elements of the story feel far-fetched and excessively tidy, but kids will enjoy the high stakes and will believe the girls to be capable detectives, although some content reflects the attitudes at the time of publication, as when Miss Trask opines that “every girl, no matter what her position, should learn how to cook and keep house,” and Trixie, spotting a tent, deduces that Jim, not Joeanne, put it up because “it took a strong boy to handle that heavy canvas.” All characters read white. Black-and-white drawings bring some scenes to life but aren’t integral to the storytelling. Implausible in places, but kids will go along for the ride. (Mystery. 9-12)

Get Dressed!: A Historical Guessing Game for Fashion Lovers

Canales, Katy | Illus. by Erin Vanessa Phaidon (48 pp.) | $19.95 May 14, 2025 | 9781838669966

You are what you wear. Canales spotlights 10 distinct historical events or periods, among them the Greek Olympics, Tang-era China, the Inca state, and the French Revolution. Each spread depicts a crowd of people; at the bottom of the spread, the author lists four groups of

These wardrobe doors open up on a world as magical as Narnia: the past.

DRESSED!

people (for the Edo era, for instance, samurai, geishas, kabuki actors, and firefighters; for the roaring twenties, children, factory workers, flappers, and jazz musicians). Twelve accessories or apparel items are labeled, but for each of the four groups, one of the items is incorrect. The following pages go into more detail, explaining that during the roaring twenties, children wore Peter Pan collars and zip-up clothes but not long pants and that factory workers sported flat caps and house aprons but never hooped skirts, which could easily get caught in the machinery. Some anomalies are easy to spot; others are trickier. Canales’ concise, informative captions offer key facts and ask readers to actively participate, imagining what people might have worn in these eras; many readers will be spurred on to further research. Carefully composed, animated illustrations repay close scrutiny. This one isn’t just for fashionistas; it will appeal to anyone interested in world or art history. Canales concludes by speculating about what apparel people of the future might wear and identifying museums with well-known clothing collections. These wardrobe doors open up on a world as magical as Narnia: the past. (Nonfiction. 6-12)

Rivers: Culture, Civilization, and Commerce

Chapman, Simon | Illus. by Qu Lan Big Picture Press (64 pp.) | $19.99 June 24, 2025 | 9781536241136

An overview of riverine features and wildlife in general enhances introductions to specific rivers on every continent— even Antarctica. Flowing thematically from “upper” through “middle” to “lower” courses, the narrative begins with the basics (“What Is Water?”). Chapman goes on to mingle methodical remarks, presented in dense-looking blocks of text, about common geological features from

headwaters to deltas, with closer looks at select rivers all over the world. Along with the likes of the Danube and the Mississippi, readers will find themselves riding some less familiar waters—sailing down the rapids of the Yarlung Tsangpo in the Himalayas, for example, where the river has cut a gorge three times deeper than the Grand Canyon. The author also expands his topic, acknowledging efforts to clean up the polluted Ganges and tallying the environmental advantages and disadvantages of dams. Still, his unexceptional prose makes absorbing all the information a chore, particularly in the absence of an index or any other backmatter, nor do the paint by numbers–style illustrations do much to lighten the load. Switching repeatedly between horizontal and vertical orientations for multiple foldout pages, Qu’s images have a generic look, whether depicting broad landscapes, riverbanks crowded with small human figures, or composite assemblages of typical flora and fauna from multiple regions. Pass this up for livelier treatments, such as Peter Goes’ Rivers: A Visual History From River to Sea (2018). Expansive in scope, but underachieves in presentation. (Nonfiction. 7-12)

We Are American, Too

Chase, Kristen Mei | Illus. by Jieting Chen Farrar, Straus and Giroux (40 pp.) $18.99 | June 10, 2025 | 9780374390211

A Chinese American child finds power in family history. As Mei’s family strolls through Washington, D.C., to the city’s Chinatown, Mom and the youngster recount the story of Mei’s great-great-grandfather Samuel Moy Gong, the second American-born Chinese person in D.C. Each year, they stop by important sites as they remember him—the bench commemorating Samuel, the house where he was born. But this time, when they arrive at the Friendship Archway to take their customary photo, a huge

crowd has gathered for a rally against Asian hate. Taking the stage, Mom invites Mei to share their family’s story. Although Mei’s voice is shaky at first, it grows with encouragement from Mom, Dad, and even Mei’s baby brother. As Mei concludes, “We are American, too,” the crowd heartily echoes those moving words. Drawing from her own family history, Chase deftly tells a story about community, protest, and the importance of speaking up. Chen’s softly impressionistic digital illustrations alternate gray and sepia tones with more vibrant splashes of color, blurring the lines between past and present and making it clear that history is always with us. The closing spread pairs Mei’s final potent words (“This is our home. My great-great-grandfather. My family. And me”) with a warm depiction of the family and their ancestors sharing a bench. Mei’s father presents white, suggesting that Mei is biracial. A rousing affirmation of Chinese American history, identity, and voice. (author’s note, family tree) (Picture book. 4-8.)

The Zuzu Secret

Chernick, Miriam | Charlesbridge Moves (272 pp.) | $17.99 May 6, 2025 | 9781623545734

Two siblings struggle to keep their ambitious schemes under wraps. For 12-year-old Josie Sherman, volunteering at a veterinary clinic over the summer is critical for getting into a good vet school and would make up for her family’s no-pets policy. But first, a parent must sign the consent form. Unfortunately, it feels like all her parents’ attention is focused on their move from Boston to Silver Spring, Maryland, and her 15-year-old brother, Abe, whose Prader–Willi syndrome causes constant hunger and developmental delays. After Mom suffers a concussion in a car

accident, the chances of getting Dad’s signature drop. When Josie finds a bearded dragon, she reasons that caring for Zuzu (named after Zulima Court, the street where she was lost) until she finds her owner will show Mom and Dad she’s serious about her future career. But hiding the reptile from her family is harder than Josie thought. Meanwhile, Abe has his own secret: He’s determined to catch a baseball for Mom at next Saturday’s Orioles game, even though Dad insists they need to wait until later in the season. Josie’s and Abe’s alternating perspectives realistically portray the nuances of sibling relationships and living with disability. Though Josie doesn’t sugarcoat how stressful and frustrating caring for Abe can sometimes be, the siblings’ love for one another shines through to the tidy but satisfying ending. In backmatter, Chernick includes information and resources on PWS—which her brother has—and explains the inspiration behind Zuzu. Most characters read white. Heartwarming. (Fiction. 8-12)

The Girl Who Sings to Bees

Chiquis with Lissette Norman Illus. by Geraldine Rodríguez

Roaring Brook Press (40 pp.) | $18.99

July 15, 2025 | 9781250322999

Grammy Award–winning musician Chiquis draws from personal experience for the story of a grief-stricken girl rediscovering her voice.

The child works in the garden alongside her abuelita. Among the flowers and Abuelita’s honeybees, the young gardener recalls her late mother’s wise words: “Whenever you have a problem, sing in this garden.” Memories flood back: gardening with Momma, watching her mother perform before adoring crowds, and, above all, singing songs together. But sorrow silences the girl’s voice now. At her new school, bullies disparagingly point out that her budding vocal talents don’t measure up to her mother’s renowned singing

prowess. As summer passes in Abuelita’s garden, the girl notices one “busy and unafraid” bee who works harder than the others. Moved by the bee’s efforts, the little singer rekindles her passion for singing. Soon, summer ends, the bee retreats underground, and the girl feels buoyed by her mother’s songs. This serene tale of hope amid grief hits the right notes. Inspired by her childhood as the daughter of Mexican American banda music singer Jenni Rivera (who died in 2012), her experiences being bullied at school, and her own musical success, Chiquis—with an assist from co-author Norman—merges an encouraging message of renewed inner strength with a poignant tribute to her mother, complemented by Rodríguez’s cozy artwork.

A steadfast hymn from daughter to mother. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)

Chicka

Chicka Tricka Treat

Chung, Julien | Beach Lane/ Simon & Schuster (40 pp.) | $19.99 July 15, 2025 | 9781665954785

Series: A Chicka Chicka Book

Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault’s classic alphabet book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (1989) gets the Halloween treatment.

Chung follows the original formula to the letter. In alphabetical order, each letter climbs to the top of a tree. They are knocked back to the ground in a jumble before climbing up in sequence again. In homage to the spooky holiday theme, they scale a “creaky old tree,” and a ghostly jump scare causes the pileup. The chunky, colorful art is instantly recognizable. The charmingly costumed letters (“H swings a tail. / I wears a patch. J and K don / bows that don’t match”) are set against a dark backdrop, framed by pages with orange or purple borders. The spreads feature spiderwebs and jack-o’-lanterns. The familiar rhyme

cadence is marred by the occasional clunky or awkward phrase; in particular, the adapted refrain of “Chicka chicka tricka treat” offers tongue-twisting fun, but it’s repeatedly followed by the disappointing half-rhyme “Everybody sneaka sneak.” Even this odd construction feels shoehorned into place, since “sneaking” makes little sense when every character in the book is climbing together. The final line of the book ends on a more satisfying note, with “Everybody—time to eat!” A bit predictable but pleasantly illustrated. (Picture book. 3-7)

Leonard Builds a Haunted House

Ciccotello, Mike | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (40 pp.) | $18.99 | July 8, 2025 | 9780374392444

A ghost sets out to design the perfect house for his family. Their old house (an Addams Family–style mansion) having been condemned, the ghosts must relocate. Hard-hatted Leonard takes charge. The family finds a plot in an idyllic, leafy suburb. A contractor and a supplier are visibly uneasy with specter clients but take their money nonetheless. Leonard knows his way around a construction site, but at every step, family members object. The house isn’t haunted enough! It isn’t dank or dark! Where are the “creaks and leaks”? What about the cobwebs? Laconic Leonard is undeterred. Once the home is finished, it looks perfectly ordinary. Soon neighbors and a dog (last seen lifting a leg on the For Sale sign) arrive with a welcome balloon and brownies. As the ghosts peek out, the terrified humans flee, and the ghosts grab the goodies. Pleasant, precise cartoon-type art features realistic colors and depicts the phantoms as white blobs with arms, differentiated by accessories such as a bow tie, hair ribbon, or propeller cap. The puns might tickle adult readers, and the odd sight gag may elicit a chuckle here and

there. Overall, though, it’s a lengthy buildup to a rather underwhelming punchline. Construction fans will go for the building parts, and the ghosts are admittedly quite endearing, but most readers will be disappointed. Human characters are diverse. Offers a few laughs but not likely to become a storytime favorite. (Picture book. 4-7)

The Tour at School

Clapham, Katie | Illus. by Nadia Shireen Candlewick (40 pp.) | $18.99

July 1, 2025 | 9781536242980

A child leads a new student around school.

“When you show a New Person around, it’s called giving them The Tour,” says a bespectacled child with black hair in two braids who’s doing the “really important job” of helping a recent arrival feel welcome. The protagonist starts on an appropriately high-energy note (“You have to sound really excited so they feel like it’s going to be an INCREDIBLE tour”). Our narrator knows what truly matters and begins with the most important place: the bathroom. Of course, the two stop by all the best spots, like the playground and the library. Our gentle, sensitive guide takes care to introduce the other child to friends while also intervening when the newcomer feels overwhelmed. Readers, too, will feel like they’re a part of things as the narrator shares funny asides, like how the bathroom is a great place to sing (“the echo is…AMAZING-ZINGZING!”), and reminisces about the time a lost dog appeared on the playground. The appealing, colorful illustrations feature children with rounded, oversize heads, simple features, and expressive eyes; many of the places and objects will be familiar to school-age readers. This wonderfully multifaceted story will be meaningful both to kids starting at a new school and to teachers looking for a way to

Life lessons to encourage athletes,

creatives, and everyday dreamers.

LETTERS TO MISTY

help welcome a new student. The two main characters are brown-skinned; their community is diverse.

An empathetic, child-friendly approach to conquering new-school jitters. (Picture book. 4-7)

Letters to Misty: How To Move Through Life With Confidence and Grace

Copeland, Misty with Nikki Shannon Smith | Aladdin (224 pp.) | $19.99 May 6, 2025 | 9781534443037

A Black principal dancer who broke many barriers offers empowering advice for youth. In this book that’s organized into five chapters that correspond with ballet positions, Copeland, in collaboration with children’s author Smith, explores attitude, self-discovery, adversity, challenges, and meaningful living. Delivered in the caring tone of a trusted mentor or big sister, this thoughtful work is inspired by Copeland’s conversations with and mail from young people. The contents riff on common concerns about growing up—meeting familial expectations, navigating friendships, setting goals, and dealing with criticism and negativity online and in real life. Gracefully balancing personal experience and time-tested wisdom, Copeland’s insights about body positivity and self-image deftly address complex feelings of being othered. Topics like self-care, shyness, goal setting, and dealing with self-doubt and disappointment are part of the overall

upbeat reflections. The forward-looking final chapter includes guided activities to encourage reflection, visualization, and self-directed action. Copeland’s remarkable achievements serve as touch points that are bound to inspire readers. The writing is clear, reassuring, and comforting, the positivity of Copeland’s voice will appeal to a variety of readers, and while there is some repetition, this element effectively allows the work to be sampled as needed rather than read cover to cover. As a trailblazing hero with a distinguished career, Copeland takes a grounded approach that invites readers to become their most authentic selves at every turn. Affirming life lessons to encourage athletes, creatives, and everyday dreamers. (Nonfiction. 8-12)

A Natural History of Bums: The Story of Evolution From Beginning to End

Crab Museum | Illus. by Inga Ziemele Wide Eyed Editions (64 pp.) | $19.99

June 3, 2025 | 9780711297630

An appreciative, up-close examination of a physical feature that has played a fundamental role in animal evolution. Authored by a British museum devoted to the crab, this offbeat work invites readers to peer into the “bum TIME VORTEX” so that a pair of side-stepping arthropod guides in the cartoon illustrations can shed light on the history, ubiquity, and amazing variety of uses to which butts are and have been put through. Relatively speaking, “patooties are pretty recent inventions,” but as our

narrators retrace this 560-million-year story up to today’s “Age of the Anus,” piles of fascinating nuggets emerge— including the arresting claim that in relation to body size, humans have the most “massive badonkadonk” of all. The book offers a clear and logical explanation for that statement. While chortling at animal ends from the multipurpose cloacae of dinosaurs to the “colorful keisters” of modern mandrills—not to mention the synonym-rich closing glossary— young audiences will easily absorb the message that our posteriors are actually essential players in nearly everything our bodies do for us. The rare human figures in the art are mostly brown-skinned. The best kind of infodump: both fun and redolent with anatomical insights. (timeline) (Informational picture book. 6-9)

There’s Something Odd About the Babysitter

Crain, Elayne | Illus. by John Ledda Feiwel & Friends (40 pp.) | $18.99 June 3, 2025 | 9781250345141

Can three raccoons in a trench coat be better at childcare than the boring and strict human babysitters Freddie has so far endured?

When his parents leave for the night, Freddie notices something strange about his new sitter. Three pairs of eyes gaze back at him as a trio of raccoons, standing on each other’s shoulders, struggle to stay concealed under a coat, scarf, and hat. Freddie’s suspicious, but “at least this sitter’s not boring,” he thinks as the “babysitter” helps him assemble a puzzle. Readers familiar with raccoon behavior will giggle as the creatures wash their hands (in Freddie’s dog’s bowl) before preparing dinner. Admittedly, they have terrible table manners, and dinner is literally garbage, but Freddie looks on the bright side: “At least this babysitter is not too strict.” After tactfully confirming that this is the raccoons’ first

An enchanting and whimsical story about finding light within darkness.

THE BOY, THE MOUNTAIN, AND THE SERPENT WHO ATE THE MOON

sitting job, Freddie proceeds to instruct them in the art of babysitting. They fling off their disguise, and all have a wonderful time, captured in Ledda’s witty, soft-hued cartoons—until Freddie’s parents return, none the wiser. Neither Freddie nor the droll narration mentions the word raccoon, but readers will know exactly what’s going on—and will feel proud at being in on the joke. Freddie and his parents are brown-skinned; a map of Puerto Rico offers a possible hint as to their heritage. Read. Laugh. Repeat. (Picture book. 4-8)

The Boy, the Mountain, and the Serpent Who Ate the Moon

Cruz, Caris Avendaño | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (320 pp.) | $17.99 July 1, 2025 | 9780374389178

Three children must contend with self-doubt, monsters from Filipino folklore, and an everlasting night to find their way home.

For years, people in the fictional town of Santo Cristo have been disappearing; the missing are referred to simply as the Losts. During the annual town fiesta, 12-year-old Bayani, his younger sister Isay, and their cousin Aaron wander off. After crossing an unusual bridge that grows legs and runs away, they find themselves in the Land Beyond, a mysterious place shrouded in endless night. They soon meet a Kapre, a treelike creature who tells them that they must find the bridge and “ light

[their] way out of this land.” Armed with nothing but candles, Bayani, Isay, and Aaron venture deeper into the night, where they encounter not only monsters, but also other Losts. When the three become separated, they must define what bravery means for themselves and hold on to hope in order to chart a path home. Cruz seamlessly weaves Filipino folklore into this atmospheric and charming adventure, balancing the story’s darker elements with moments of humor and themes of hope and friendship. Words from Tagalog and other Filipino languages are naturally incorporated into the story, and context clues will make it easy for readers who don’t speak the languages to pick up on their meaning. Each chapter includes a subtitle hinting at its content. An enchanting and whimsical story about finding light within darkness. (author’s note) (Fantasy. 8-12)

Creepy Sheepy

Cummins, Lucy Ruth | Illus. by Pete Oswald Flamingo Books (32 pp.) | $14.99 | July 15, 2025

9780593693896 | Series: Sleepy Sheepy

Stand out in a crowd by being yourself! Sleepy Sheepy returns just in time to prepare for some spooktacular celebrations. As October approaches, he and his family visit a Halloween store to select Sleepy Sheepy’s costume. He discovers the last werewolf costume, and he pictures himself as a “sheep in wolf’s clothing.” Although Pa has a few other suggestions, Sleepy Sheepy remains adamant, and he gets the costume. On Halloween, the outfit is less comfortable

than he expected, but he suits up and heads out…only to discover that his “lone wolf” is actually one of a very large pack. His disappointment at having picked out a less-than-original costume doesn’t last long; he soon reemerges from home in a different get-up, one that’s more in line with his general vibe. All is well, and a tired sheep eventually heads home to bed. Astute readers may pick up on a few visual hints about what’s to come: a sale flyer in Sleepy Sheepy’s hand as he and his family enter the store, sale signs, and a near-empty rack of costumes. Savvy caregivers and educators can use these clues to start a conversation to build predictive skills in young readers. The book is also a useful example for showing kids the importance of pivoting when life doesn’t go as planned. The illustrations—a combination of scanned watercolor textures and digital paint—are simple but amusing, particularly when relaying emotions through facial expressions. Not too sweet and not too scary, this one is just right. A cute addition to any Halloween shelf. (Picture book. 4-7)

Chess Club: The Winning Move

Donnelly, Rebecca | Illus. by Isabelle Duffy Farrar, Straus and Giroux (224 pp.)

$19.99 | $8.99 paper | June 3, 2025 9781250328588 | 9781250328571 paper

Four sixth graders who belong to a chess club learn about playing the game and also about themselves.

Halima Kasim’s favorite thing is chess. While she cherishes online play and texting moves with her cousin in Somalia, where her extended family lives, Halima wishes there were more “over the board” opportunities in her small town. When her queer best friend, Jemma Knight, who reads white, suggests she create an after-school chess club, Halima is hesitant. She knows the game, but can she be a leader? Summoning her confidence, Halima makes

her opening moves: finding an adviser and recruiting Jem as her first member. The club soon gains two new members—white-presenting Parker Finnegan, who wants to stand out from his athletic twin siblings, and artsy Daniel Yang, who’s cued Chinese American and joins after finding a mysterious note in a library book. They’re distinct individuals who learn the value of teamwork; together they build friendships, immerse themselves in the world of chess, and navigate the roller coaster that is middle school. Alternating among all four kids’ perspectives, Donnelly effectively fuses various social themes, like navigating the loss of friendships, dealing with bullying, and being a good sport, with basic information about chess game play and history. Duffy’s grayscale illustrations delineate sections in coordination with clever on-theme names. Diagrams showing chess moves instruct budding players and help readers visualize the action.

A winner with lots of great moves. (Fiction. 8-12)

The Fairy Queen

Donoghue Ward, Chrissy | Illus. by Monika Mitkute | Little Island (32 pp.) | $19.99 May 13, 2025 | 9781915071569

A kindly fairy helps a group of peaceful Travellers escape imprisonment in this richly illustrated Irish tale. As they barter for food in exchange for repairing pots and kettles in villages they pass through in their barrel-shaped wagons, the Travellers have no money to pay taxes. So when the greedy new king and queen order them to be seized for forced labor, a beautiful fairy takes pity on them and offers to shrink all who are willing into the tiny, elusive fairies known henceforth as leprechauns. The tale was originally published in the Republic of Ireland and has been transcribed largely as Donoghue Ward has told it to live audiences,

Iris Shines

Ebert, Stacy | Flamingo Books (32 pp.) $18.99 | June 17, 2025 | 9780593691335

An older sister learns to share the limelight. Iris loves dazzling her family members with her fancy outfits, singing prowess, and dancing talents, but her little brother wants some attention, too. Iris worries that the family doesn’t have room for two stars, and her little brother’s assertiveness plunges her into gloom (“It felt like he was taking the shine right out of her ”). But she gives herself a pep talk and returns to the stage, ready to sing and dance, only to have her little brother join her, wearing sunglasses and playing a bright pink electric guitar. Their dual performance delights their parents and grandmother, and Iris starts to see her brother as a collaborator instead of a competitor: They “shined brighter together.” The palette is largely made up of shades of pink, yellow,

>>> with oral tics and cadences intact (“And she appeared a load of food in front of the little girl and boy and the old king of the Travellers, and she softened a bed for them with a magic wand”). Finely wrought illustrations burst with exuberantly hued vines, flowers, and sprays of leaves and petals surrounding groups of smiling, light-skinned figures in plain, loose clothing. The scowling monarchs and their mail-clad tax soldiers—all drably monochromatic, in contrast—are soon sent packing back to their original unnamed country, leaving the now-little folk and their fellows who chose to return to their original size to dance together in green meadows and fairy circles. “So that is the end of the story,” the author concludes. A closing note describes the Travellers, “a traditionally nomadic indigenous ethnic minority group from Ireland.” Charmingly told, handsomely presented. (Picture book. 6-8)

THE KIRKUS Q&A: BETTY C. TANG

Parachute Kids resonated with young readers. Now the author revisits the Lin siblings in a sequel.

BY MAGGIE REAGAN

WHEN BETTY C. TANG’S Parachute Kids was longlisted for the National Book Award in 2023, not many American readers knew what the titular term meant. It refers to undocumented, underage kids who move to a new country while their parents remain in their homeland—something true of the story’s 10-year-old Feng-Ling Lin and her two older siblings, whose mom and dad are back in Taiwan— as well as to Tang herself.

Now Tang returns to 1980s California with Outsider Kids , a sequel that further explores the Lins’ turbulent adjustment to American life, digging deeper into the challenges, the confusion, and the joys that tie the siblings together.

Tang, who lives in Los Angeles, recently spoke with Kirkus via Zoom about returning to this story and the process of creating a graphic novel. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Did you always conceive this as a multibook series?

When [I first pitched] Parachute Kids, nobody outside the Asian community really knew the term or even about the existence of these kids. My editor at Scholastic acquired two books at the outset, but we didn’t know then whether the second book would be a sequel. So I devised Parachute Kids as a stand-alone book, on the chance it flopped. Still, in my mind, it was always supposed to be the first story in a trilogy. I am very

happy that Parachute Kids has been so well received; it opened the door for Outsider Kids, as well as a third book in the series.

In your afterword to Parachute Kids, you talk about pulling from your own life. Is that equally true in the second book?

Even though the book is fiction, there are many snippets of myself in Outsider Kids , particularly with Feng-Ling and her faux pas. But I wanted to tell a story that was bigger than my family’s experi -

ences, because we came through relatively unscathed compared to other parachute kids. I wanted to take the story to a larger level and draw out meaningful conversations about the nuances and daily realities that undocumented kids face, such as forging notes from absent parents and lying to friends about their parents’ whereabouts—things that aren’t often examined.

You’ve made some really interesting craft and design choices. I love the color cues that are used to distinguish languages. I can’t take credit for that. Originally, I wanted black text for English and red for Chinese over a white bubble, but I was told that text could only be printed in one of the CMYK colors. The clever folks over at Graphix had the idea to use

a yellow bubble under a magenta text, which makes the text appear red. The result is great. Creating a graphic novel really is a team effort.

I’d love to talk about the title of this book, because in some ways the siblings seem less like outsiders than they were in Parachute Kids. But you highlight subtle ways in which they still are.

It’s true that in Parachute Kids, the siblings are more outsiders, in that they’ve just arrived in the U.S. What I wanted to explore in Outsider Kids is the limbo phase after you’ve settled in a new country and suddenly find yourself in between two cultures. You’re disconnected from your home country but don’t yet belong to your new one. It’s such a precarious, vulnerable time. Just when you

Betty C. Tang

think you’re starting to fit in, a bump along the road can make you feel like an outsider again.

That crystallizes in your portrayal of Feng-Ling’s older brother, Ke-Gāng, whose sexuality makes him an outsider in both Taiwan and America.

Ke-Gāng is the character that’s most solid in my mind. Readers seem to find him compelling, too—I’ve gotten so many letters and messages from readers all over the world, specifically wanting to find out what will happen to him. I felt a strong need to include a LGBTQIA+ voice because prejudice, unfortunately, is still prevalent in many Chinese communities due to deep-seated traditional beliefs and stereotypes. Through Ke-Gāng’s heart-wrenching story, I hope [people’s] views may be reexamined and the gap between understandings bridged.

Josephine, the cousin, throws a carefully established equilibrium into chaos: Though she and her mother are in the process of moving from Taiwan to L.A., Josephine is a violin prodigy who’s attended international schools and is much more comfortable in America than Feng-Ling is. Did you plan her from the beginning?

I definitely planned her this way. I wanted her to come in and disrupt the life that Feng-Ling had worked so hard to build. I wanted to use Josephine as another vehicle to emphasize how one’s actions can affect others and that we should all take care in how we interact with one another. But she was a very difficult character to write. I didn’t want her to be a onefaceted villain in the story. She needed more dimensionality. Whether or not to redeem her, that was my big question.

I love that you keep it uncomfortable. You made her a real, complex person, and the reader’s not necessarily going to sympathize with the things she does. But she also demonstrates so many of the pressures that kids in this situation can be under. A lot of Asian kids grow up under immense pressure, especially if their parents have high academic expectations. I escaped that to some degree because I came [to the U.S.] when I was Feng-Ling’s age, but I saw it through my older siblings, who did nothing but study. That kind of intensity becomes ingrained, and you end up pressuring yourself not to disappoint your parents. For Josephine, the expectation is high. She’s not only a violin prodigy, but also speaks four languages. On the surface, she seems enviable, but deep down, she’s really holding up a

Outsider Kids

Tang,

Betty C.

Graphix/Scholastic | 288 pp. | $24.99 April 15, 2025 | 9781338832723 Series: Parachute Kids, 2

front that hides her own insecurities and a family that’s falling apart.

Tell us about the decision to open the book with the American holiday of Halloween and end with the Chinese celebration of the New Year.

Halloween is the quintessential American holiday. No one else has it. I alluded a little bit to the Chinese Ghost month in August, and that’s lunar August. But it’s a month where you’re supposed to be extra wary. I wanted to contrast that with Feng-Ling’s first Halloween and how excited she is to go trick-ortreating and get candy. The other holiday the siblings experience is Thanksgiving, where they collectively make lots of faux pas. I just love highlighting the little nuances we’re so used to but that are strange to newcomers.

To end on Chinese New Year was very meaningful for me. The family is going through something traumatic, and the familiarity of the holiday brings them calm and a sense of new beginnings.

That ending is so effective. Without giving too much away, why was it important to leave these characters where you did?

It was very important because I put the siblings through so much in this book. I wanted to leave them—and readers—with the hope that maybe, finally, the Lins won’t remain outsiders anymore—especially with their journey continuing in Book 3.

Maggie Reagan is a program manager for the American Library Association and lives in Chicago.

and blue; fans of Jane O’Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser’s Fancy Nancy series or David Roberts’ illustrations are likely to enjoy this tale. Here, the adults serve only as audience members, not referees. Iris and her brother sort things out independently, and although the narrative is from the titular character’s point of view, Iris’ brother’s personality and perseverance come through in the artwork. The family is light-skinned. A light and playful sibling story. (Picture book. 4-8)

Matt Sprouts and the Search for the Chompy Wompers

Eicheldinger, Matthew | Andrews McMeel Publishing (352 pp.) | $12.99 paper June 24, 2025 | 9781524894801 Series: Matt Sprouts, 3

T he pitfalls of overscheduling come home to roost for a 12-year-old when he tries out for two sports while engaged in an urgent summer project.

Casting about for ways of raising money to help his beloved elderly neighbor, Farmer Jed, who’s at risk of losing his farm, Matt learns that collectors will pay a pretty penny for a complete set of Chompy Wompers. This line of coveted plush toys look to Matt like “a mix between a blob of green sludge and a giant halfeaten wad of gum.” Can he beat the competition to buy or trade for all 10 types before the farm is sold off? But it turns out to be harder than he expects to juggle training sessions with both his soccer and track teams while flying around town

negotiating complex swaps to acquire the ugly toys one at a time. Something has to give. Readers of the previous two series entries won’t be surprised to find a cast of large-hearted people (even a pair of bullies remorsefully pitch in to lend a hand) and a plot replete with altruistic deeds and good choices. Matt has a string of well-earned triumphs and forms a new friendship with Maria, a competitive wheelchair racer. In the cartoon-style spot art, the cast members’ skin is the white of the page; hair cues some diversity in the cast. Matt presents white, and Maria has Afro-textured hair.

Chock-full of positive values but neither bland nor preachy. (Fiction. 10-13)

Boar and Hedgehog

Elliott, David | Illus. by Eugene Yelchin Candlewick (40 pp.) | $18.99 June 10, 2025 | 9781536228717

Can a bilious beast adjust his attitude?

Bulky, long-snouted, squinch-eyed Boar has always been a grump. Who knows why? His fellow woodland creatures look out for him (after all, he’s “a neighbor and one of their own”), but only Hedgehog attempts to reach out to Boar. Hedgehog gently suggests that Boar leave his cold dark cave for somewhere sunnier. Boar retorts that Hedgehog should mind his own business, but Hedgehog’s words linger. After a sleepless night in his leaky cave, Boar decides to set up his den right by the Great River—a spot that just so happens to be not too far from Hedgehog’s home. Hedgehog

Delightfully droll.

BOAR AND HEDGEHOG

warns Boar about the risk of flooding: “Maybe move your den back a bit.” “Maybe stop giving me advice. We’re not friends, you know,” grumbles Boar, but he relocates once more. When Hedgehog is in trouble, it’s Boar’s turn to help—and he rises to the occasion. Boar enjoys being needed, and despite himself, he finds himself developing a true friendship with Hedgehog. Playful and witty art perfectly suits this marvelously understated story. Cleverly composed, firmly outlined, deeply colored illustrations convey both Boar’s cranky intransigence and Hedgehog’s politely expressed good sense. Hats, scarves, or trousers give the animals just a bit of a human touch.

A delightfully droll exploration of friendship. (Picture book. 4-8)

Goats Afloat

Evans, Lezlie | Illus. by Julia Patton Two Lions (32 pp.) | $18.99 June 1, 2025 | 9781662520259

A family of goats paddle down the river in hilarious fashion in this lighthearted take on the “Three Billy Goats Gruff.”

On their way to deliver a birthday cake to Granny Goat, our spirited heroes carefully steer clear of the direct path, which would take them under the bridge where the fearful troll dwells. The bumpy journey down the river has many twists and turns, and the elaborate multilayered confection nearly meets a watery end. But the soggy goats arrive at their destination at last, and the day is saved—and so is the cake. A twist ending about the power of friendship will delight readers, who will realize that scary trolls aren’t always what they seem. The lovable goats and energetic rhymes make for a bouncy, entertaining read-aloud choice. Expressive wildlife, funny details (the goats sport accessories and clothing), and colorful onomatopoeia bring this madcap adventure to life

as the boat careens across the pages. Observant readers will notice whimsical signs—and wonder about the places they lead—and they may even catch sight of the adorably dejected, camouflaged bridge troll lurking behind the scenes. An unexpected friendship takes the cake in this fun fairy-tale frolic. (Picture book. 3-7)

Enchanted Beach

Freud, Esther | Illus. by Emma Chinnery Candlewick (32 pp.) | $18.99 June 3, 2025 | 9781536243628

A love letter to the beach. While most seaside tales are set in summertime, this offering glories in all the seasons. A family of four romps on the shore in summer, autumn, winter, and spring, complete with a polar plunge scene following a spread portraying them making their New Year’s Eve resolutions. The text is mostly delivered in rhyming verse, with a singsong cadence that begs to be read aloud, but it’s unfortunately interrupted by some awkward breaks in rhythm. The ear-pleasing couplet “When it’s warm, I jump the waves. / Low or high, I leap. I’m brave!” is followed by, “When it’s hot, I swim and float and sail in my Viking boat,” which seems to be missing a syllable and has no line break. Or, near book’s end: “The sun sets red behind the dunes. / The lighthouse sends its brightest beams,” which doesn’t seem to make any attempt at maintaining rhyme or rhythm. Still, the delightful, loose-lined images, reminiscent of the work of Quentin Blake or Simon James, will invite readers to pore over the pages and revel in the text’s unusual depiction of the beach throughout the year. The family is light-skinned; other beachgoers are diverse.

Bumpy text may make for a challenging read-aloud, but readers will pore

An unexpected friendship takes the cake in this fun fairy-tale frolic.

GOATS AFLOAT

over the enchanting visuals. (Picture book. 3-6)

Proper Badger Would Never Trash the Classroom!

Glattly, Lauren | Illus. by Rob Sayegh Jr. Flamingo Books (40 pp.) | $18.99

July 22, 2025 | 9780593528198

Mr. Innocent’s at it again. The mischief maker who wrought havoc at a birthday party in Proper Badger Would Never! (2024) inadvertently attends school after boarding the wrong bus. All’s well, because he’s always wanted to be a student. Besides, he’s dressed in his “most studious bow tie and his little jacket with the buttons down the front.” And Proper Badger definitely knows how to behave in the classroom. Or does he? The illustrations depict his classmates looking on in shock as Proper Badger burrows beneath the desks in arts and crafts, steals everyone else’s snacks, destroys the netting protecting the classroom butterflies while trying to catch them, accidentally glues a whistle to his snout during music class, and grosses everyone out when he presents his slug collection during show and tell. Proper Badger claims to know nothing about any of this misbehavior, even when his classmates suggest he doesn’t deserve any gold stars—and that he shouldn’t even be in school. Told in a dry, tongue-in-cheek voice, this tale wrings maximum humor from the contrast between Glattly’s text and Sayegh’s images. The cartoon-style illustrations burst with energy; Badger’s feigned innocence is adorably comical. The

students are diverse; one child uses a wheelchair.

Uproarious shenanigans that will keep readers properly giggling.

(Picture book. 5-8)

The Summer of the Fortune Tellers

Greenwald, Lisa | Harper/ HarperCollins (272 pp.) | $19.99

May 6, 2025 | 9780063255906

M illie, Nora, and Bea, with help from their magical fortune tellers, have patched up their friendship and are looking forward to a summer adventure together. In 2024’s Fortune Tellers, a misunderstanding, the pandemic, and family moves separated the longtime friends—until mysterious messages in fortune tellers they’d created years ago led them to reconcile. Now, after Millie invites them to her house on a lake in the Berkshires, the rising eighth graders, who are cued white, are excited—and a little anxious—about being together nonstop for a month. In alternating chapters, each girl reveals her innermost thoughts. During their vacation, the friends will also be running their own little summer camp for 8-year-old triplets. After some discussion about whether to share their special secret, they introduce their charges to the joys of folding paper fortune tellers and writing on them with the magical Write Your Destiny markers. Once again, the fortune tellers start delivering messages the girls need to hear, not necessarily the words they wrote, helping them navigate interpersonal conflict, crushes, and

family issues. When they decide to protest some proposed commercial development of the area, the fortune teller messages encourage them. Greenwald expertly describes the emotions behind the girls’ experiences as well as the commitment that leads them to pledge to be open about their feelings with each other, and Millie’s and Nora’s Jewish identities are woven into the story. A feel-good tween drama packed with positive life lessons. (Fiction. 8-12)

Drawing Is…: Your Guide to Scribbled Adventures

Haidle, Elizabeth | Tundra Books (72 pp.)

$19.99 | May 6, 2025 | 9781774885031

Guidance on expressing oneself artistically. Rather than focusing on the basics of putting pencil (or whatever artistic instrument readers may prefer) to paper, comics illustrator Haidle pulls back and considers art not just as a physical exercise, but a mental one as well. She calls drawing “two-dimensional traveling”: “What you create…can be a place for you to inhabit…a feeling, a belonging.” She covers concepts such as patterns, linework, scale, and contrast (shown through tutorials), but also explores the idea of drawing as an intimate act that requires both mental clarity and physical dexterity. While her insights will enthrall the artistically minded, readers eager to start with something simpler will need to look elsewhere. Haidle’s pencil, ink, gouache, graphite, and digital collage illustrations, presented in grayscale with pops of color, are at times cluttered and marred by large scribbles of text in small font, resulting in an overwhelming visual experience. Useful exercises such as surrealist favorite the “exquisite corpse” game and using one’s nondominant hand to draw are relegated to the bottom of the page or the backmatter. With a few exceptions, such as Yayoi Kusama, Haidle generally doesn’t offer much information on the artists whose

techniques she mentions. People depicted throughout vary in skin tone. An esoteric look at the artistic process that preaches to the choir. (artistic exercises) (Nonfiction. 8-12)

Hog-Rocket Ruckus

Hale, Nathan | Abrams Fanfare (288 pp.)

$15.99 | June 10, 2025 | 9781419779855

Series: The Mighty Bite, 3

Terwilliger Trilobite returns to battle a gas-powered prehistoric pig. In this third graphic novel installment following Walrus Brawl at the Mall (2024), Trilobite, paleo-newscaster Tiffany Timber, “fun-sized dinosaur” Tiny Spinosaurus, and Amber the Ambulocetus are on the job. They’re trying to find and film an Entelodon (nicknamed “Heck Pig” by the group). True to form, events go humorously awry, leaving the Heck Pig—fueled by rage and fiery farts—consuming everything in its path. Trilobite and crew fall into financial hardship and are forced to find work to pay their debts. Trilobite is dismayed when all he can find is a job in a sewer, where he cleans up biosludge, formed by a mix of organic and inorganic waste that met an unfortunate AI smart sewer. When nemesis Opabinia offers $25,000 to anyone who can stop Heck Pig, the group must come up with a plan to stop the pooting porker. Will Bite be able to help while he’s busy scooping sentient sewage? Hale’s newest installment is an utter delight, and the strongest in the series so far, skillfully blending

prehistoric tidbits with knee-slapping potty humor. A sage introduction informs readers of the book’s handdrawn nature, encouraging them to embrace mistakes and assuring them that the volumes may be enjoyed out of sequence. Tiffany, the lone human among the cast, appears white in the purple-hued artwork.

Facts and farts: always a winning combination. (Graphic fantasy. 8-12)

Kirkus Star

For a Girl Becoming

Harjo,

Joy | Illus. by Adriana

M. Garcia

Norton Young Readers (40 pp.)

$18.99 | April 29, 2025 | 9781324052241

In this tale from a powerhouse creative team, a family welcomes a child with an empowering and fiercely affectionate blessing to guide her growth.

“The day your spirit came to us rains came in from the Pacific… // and all of us who loved you gathered, where / Pollen blew throughout that desert house to bless, / And horses were running the land, hundreds of them, / To accompany you here, to bless.” And so a newborn baby girl with “black hair, / Brown eyes,” and “skin the color of earth” joins a protective community that spans the heavens and earth. Page turns skillfully capture the passage of time, and as the child grows, she’s enjoined to move through the world with compassion and meet both joys and hardships with determination. Former U.S. Poet Laureate Harjo’s (Mvskoke Nation) fluid and

This beatitude-inducing work will quickly become the new go-to baby present.

FOR A GIRL BECOMING

impassioned second-person text circles back effectively to reiterate its enveloping missive, then appears in full at the book’s end. Pura Belpré Award winner Garcia’s dynamic and richly layered portraits deftly echo the poem’s movement. A palette of vibrant turquoise and leafy green depicts the child maturing and thriving, while immersive double-page spreads in tawny hues seamlessly incorporate Native elements throughout. A standout among affirming picture books, this beatitude-inducing work will quickly become the new go-to baby present.

A stunningly illustrated, tender, and tenacious message—a boon to any bookshelf. (Picture book. 4-8)

Stop That Witch!

Heim, Alastair | Illus. by Migy Blanco Tiger Tales (32 pp.) | $10.99 | July 1, 2025 9781664300699 | Series: Stop That!

A woefully unobservant pooch doggedly pursues a thieving witch on Halloween.

Accompanied by a red squirrel sidekick, Detective Cluehound leads a group of costumed trick-or-treating animals down the street. In the distant sky, a witch silhouetted against the full moon seems part of the seasonal decor. But once the detective returns to the office to relax and enjoy some candy, readers will notice the witch outside the door. She snags Cluehound’s bucket of sweets and flies off into the night. The chase is on! The detective tirelessly tracks the witch and her bright-eyed black cat through a Halloween shop, a creepy forest, a cemetery, a corn maze, and even a circus. Though Cluehound never sees the witch, the squirrel easily spots her in each scene, as will readers— youngsters will enjoy feeling superior to the cheerfully oblivious detective. Blanco’s deft details and fluorescent teal and purple color scheme create a convincingly spooky atmosphere. Cluehound never loses hope, however, and looks discouraged only near the

end; heading home in the rain, in a bedraggled trench coat and fedora, Cluehound tromps off defeatedly, with the soggy squirrel in tow. But the resilient Cluehound’s smiling again even before the pair return to the office to find a lovely surprise—and a note from the witch proposing they do it again next year. Readers will be eager to do so. No tricks here—this is a Halloween treat sure to please. (Picture book. 4-8)

Adia Kelbara and the High Queen’s Tomb

Hendrix, Isi | Storytide/HarperCollins (352 pp.)

$19.99 | June 3, 2025 |

9780063266384 | Series: Adia Kelbara and the Circle of Shamans, 2

An orphan girl is tested more than ever before by the magnitude of her magical abilities. Adia Kelbara’s life looks much different than it did a year ago. Now she’s a student at the Academy of Shamans and hailed as a hero who saved her kingdom’s boy emperor, Darian, from the demon Olark. Adia has to navigate new lessons, challenges, mysteries— and enemies. And she must do all this while learning about and developing the full extent of her powers. When most of the school falls unconscious, and then a terrifying reanimated corpse appears and speaks to Adia, she realizes she may once again be the target of a malevolent power. To make things worse, Darian sends word that he needs Adia’s help to resolve an affliction that seems to be taking over the kingdom. Traversing the realms of the living and the dead, Adia must once again try to save her people, all while discovering more about her ancestry and powers. Hendrix, using captivating prose and engaging plot lines, reintroduces readers to a protagonist who feels realistically drawn and relatable even though she’s dealing with both the physical and magical realms. This second volume in the trilogy touches on themes of

friendship, loss, identity, growth, and power and its consequences. A fitting sequel that will keep readers invested in its West African–inspired world and characters. (map) (Fantasy. 8-12)

Pumpkin and Beetle: Two Vampire Cats

Ho, Jannie | Holiday House (80 pp.) $16.99 | July 22, 2025 | 9780823459629

Two young friends start a small business in hopes of achieving their dreams. Though their names may not immediately suggest it, Pumpkin and Beetle are felines— cute, petite vampire cats to be specific. They live in a Halloween-themed village populated by curious creatures; their elementary school classmates include a mummy, a pumpkinhead, a witch, and a wolf. When Pumpkin and Beetle spot a comic book they want to buy in the town bookshop, they realize they need to earn money to buy it. A brainstorming session ensues, and they finally settle on selling crabapples. That idea is a bust (“I can find crabapples in the forest!” one of their prospective customers tells them), so they make various entrepreneurial pivots to create a more exciting product, eventually cooking up some rather burnt crabapple muffins. These, too, are a flop, and Pumpkin and Beetle are close to despair, but a timely barter just might be the solution to their conflict. An enjoyable exercise in persistence, problem-solving, and happy compromise, this graphic novel features succinct text, ideal for readers of many skill levels, while the cartooning is more sweet than spooky. One of the friendly recurring characters is a floating, silently supportive pink ghost cat named Boo—an especially adorable addition. A glimpse into the comic that Pumpkin and Beetle are

obsessed with purchasing and a presumably yummier apple muffin recipe round out the book. Feel-good feline fun. (Graphic fiction. 5-8)

Yellow Singing Sail: A Memoir of an Only Child in China

Huang, Yinfan | Kids Can (184 pp.) | $16.99 paper | June 3, 2025 | 9781525305511

In this graphic memoir set in China, Huang documents her childhood move from rural Xintian to bustling, big-city Guangzhou. In Xintian, young Yinfan is surrounded by family and nature and encouraged to explore, experiment, create art, and stand out. Once she enters primary school, however, she must tamp down her self-expression when she struggles with her schoolwork. Just as she’s started to adapt, her parents find new jobs in Guangzhou, leaving her in the care of her grandparents. She eventually rejoins her parents. They initially share an apartment with relatives, who criticize everything from the way Yinfan brushes her teeth to how her mother washes the dishes. Later, they move to a ninth-floor walk-up, where she experiences a home invasion and meets, then loses, her first friend. Though marked by loneliness and uncertainty, these years in Guangzhou are also full of small rebellions, as when Yinfan passes notes in class and wears braids, which violate the strict dress code. Huang’s bold, comics-style watercolor art, in shades of coral and jade, capture and confront Yinfan’s youthful struggle to be comfortable in her own skin; while she doesn’t shy away from humiliating or painful episodes, she also fully celebrates moments of joy. Simultaneously specific and relatable, Yinfan’s story will resonate

Upbeat affirmation for any child who’s fretted about feeling different.

SO DEVIN WORE A SKIRT

with readers still seeking their own ways to belong. Simplified Chinese text appears throughout, occasionally translated. Honest, vulnerable, and full of heart. (Graphic memoir. 11-14)

More or Less

Hughes, Alison | Illus. by Oge Mora Little, Brown (40 pp.) | $18.99

June 10, 2025 | 9780316592604

Two little words, more and less, tell a tale of sustainable practices in an era of excess. In a house of “plenty,” a child notices the sheer amount of stuff that the whole family has accumulated. Perturbed by the pileup of objects, the youngster gathers items to distribute among friends. More opportunities to collect (“more”) and give away (“less”) occur, including a donation request for the local senior center and a swap meet. Conveying the idea that it’s better to give than to receive, Hughes relies on just a word or two per spread. The word plenty bookends the beginning and the ending of the narrative, reestablishing a kind of platonic ideal in a world of superfluous overabundance. The storytelling feels jumbled, however. The connection between the text and the visuals isn’t always clear; children may be unsure why the word less accompanies a scene of the kids piling a wagon with items, for instance. While parsing the story with an adult may spark fruitful discussion about generosity and recycling, it might also lead to further confusion. Caldecott Honor–winning illustrator Mora’s lovely cut-paper artwork gives the book a handmade feel

appropriate for its subject matter. The family at the center of the tale is multiracial; their community is diverse. Visually enticing but ultimately puzzlingly expressed meditations on sustainability. (Picture book. 3-6)

The Glade

Jamnia, Naseem | Aladdin (272 pp.) $17.99 | May 27, 2025 | 9781665949804

Tween campers discover a magical—but deadly—dream world.

Nestled near Wanderers National Park, Camp Clear Skies promises Pina Ahmadi and her bestie, Jo Manalo, a transformative two weeks away from family. For Pina, this means a chance to become “Pina 2.0” and rely less on Jo as her protector. For Jo, it’s an opportunity to explore their gender identity through new pronouns. Pina and Jo quickly find friends in fellow 12-year-olds Arish and Eddy. Their collective bond deepens when mysteriously glowing woods lure the quartet out of their cabins past curfew to investigate. Later, shared lucid dreams turn their fascination into horror. As the woods continue to beckon, the kids discover that something sinister is afoot. But is it already too late to stop it? Former neuroscientist Jamnia’s middle-grade debut is a lushly atmospheric summer camp horror with an unexpected ecological twist. The overall plot is deliciously tropey and also infused with insightful social commentary that naturally incorporates the four leads’ identities: Pina is white and Persian, Jo is white and Filipino, Arish’s family is

Pakistani, and Eddy is Black. Vivid sensory details, from sickening smells to mushroom-encrusted spiders, create a memorable ambience. The slow reveal mixes local lore with Pina’s first-person narration, infused with natural science. A triumphant epilogue provides a satisfying conclusion.

A scary good time that expands the middle-grade horror canon. (Horror. 9-13)

Kirkus Star

The Village Beyond the Mist

Kashiwaba, Sachiko | Illus. by Miho Satake

Trans. by Avery Fischer Udagawa

Yonder (152 pp.) | $18.00 | May 27, 2025 9781632063922

In this translation of the 1975 Japanese classic that inspired Hayao Miyazaki’s film Spirited Away, a child solves unusual problems with wisdom and kindness.

At her father’s suggestion, sixth grader Lina Uesugi makes her way to the magical hidden town known as Misty Valley. When she arrives at Picotto Hall, Ms. Picotto, a severe elderly woman dressed in black, puts her to work in exchange for board. Assisting the local shopkeepers isn’t tough, but Lina’s true assignment turns out to be healing the broken people she encounters. Tasked with picking up books loaned to Thomas, the owner of a marine store who lives in squalor with his angry parrot, Dummy, she finds herself cleaning up the mess and bonding with both of them. While working in the toy store, Lina finds a way to help the toymaker’s son, who’s yearning for his absent mother. And she even lends a hand when a frantic queen arrives on an elephant, looking for her princely son, who’s been turned into a piece of pottery. Empathetic Lina forges connections throughout this enchanted—and enchanting—world filled with gnomes and talking tigers. Black-and-white illustrations reminiscent

of Shel Silverstein’s work bump up against the margins of the words and dance across the page, sprinkling the story with whimsy. Teetering on the edge of absurdity, the tale reads like a parable, simultaneously simple and profound, infused with a timeless message about the importance of community. Captivating and magical, with a dash of goodness baked in. (note to readers from the 1975 Japanese edition) (Fiction. 8-12)

Another Word for Neighbor

Krans, Angela Pham | Illus. by Thai My Phuong | Harper/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $19.99 | April 1, 2025 | 9780063334915

Two young neighbors upend a reserved elder’s tranquil life. Han is introduced as “mostly ornery. That’s another word for grumpy.” Then Kate and Olly move in; the youngsters are “curious and loquacious. That’s another word for talkative.” Though Han tries to avoid the kids, eventually they meet, much to his discomfort. Using soft colors textured with simple lines and deftly blended shadows exuding warmth and charm, Phuong presents humorous, cartoonish scenes of the kids invading Han’s space. Eventually Kate and Olly ask about a picture of Han’s late wife, Lan; seeing his sadness, they perform small acts of kindness that artfully chip away at his hard exterior. After the children ask Han about his favorite food, he makes them an offer: He’ll prepare his beloved pho (which he used to make with Lan) if Kate and Ollie can find the ingredients. The kids rise to the occasion, and a comforting montage of cooking scenes ensues. Kate brings Lan’s picture to the table, and, over time, Han’s world expands to envelop the larger community. Presented in a mix of speech bubbles and narrative text, Krans’ prose is spare yet intimate; the author trusts readers to fill in the quiet spaces of the

story. The children are pale-skinned; Han is East Asian (references to pho suggest he’s of Vietnamese descent).

A gorgeous tale brimming with friendship, love, and touches of humor. (Picture book. 5-8)

So Devin Wore a Skirt

Lalji, Shireen | Illus. by Lucy Fleming Frances Lincoln (32 pp.) | $18.99 May 6, 2025 | 9780711298538

A young South Asian boy wonders what to wear to his grandfather’s birthday party. Almost everyone in Devin’s household has already found the perfect outfit for Nanabapa’s celebration: Mommy looks like a “soft, pink cloud in her lengha,” Daddy proudly buttons up his collared shirt, brother Jay Jay rocks a hip-looking tie, and sister Amaia sports a pair of fairy wings. But Devin’s still not sure what to wear. After much deliberation, he dons a blue beret and Amaia’s glittery blue and purple party skirt. Devin truly feels like himself, but when Amaia protests (“What will Nanabapa say?”), he decides to hide his outfit under a ninja suit and a wizard cape. While dancing at the party, Devin overheats and longs to shed some layers—but will Nanabapa approve? When Devin finally reveals his skirt, he’s nervous, but his family greets him with smiles, and Nanabapa compliments the boy on his dance moves. Matter-of-factly spotlighting a young boy of color who’s proud to be himself—and who’s supported by an unconditionally loving family—this is a festive ode to identity. With crayonlike textures, Fleming’s cartoon illustrations alternate vignettes with full-page spreads, capturing both Devin’s initial consternation and his joy when he finally cuts loose, with his skirt on glorious display. Upbeat affirmation for any child who’s fretted about feeling different. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Star

Kirkus Star

Some of Us: A Story of Citizenship and the United States

LaRocca, Rajani | Illus. by Huy Voun Lee

Christy Ottaviano Books (32 pp.)

$18.99 | May 27, 2025 | 9780316571753

LaRocca lovingly traces the path to U.S. citizenship. “Some of us are born American. Some choose,” the author proclaims as Lee introduces a diverse, smiling crowd of people dressed in red, white, and blue. As the narrative unfolds, adults and children alike make different journeys from far-flung places. Artful and versatile image compositions integrate American symbols, making for an accessible work that’s nevertheless imbued with a sense of grandeur. Optimism abounds, but both author and illustrator laudably acknowledge, too, the grim realities confronted by many immigrants. “Some of us are invited to study or work,” LaRocca notes on a page featuring labeled headshots of Flossie Wong-Staal, I.M. Pei, Jesús Ferreira, and Rihanna. “Some flee war, oppression, poverty,” she declares on a more somber page on which a dark-skinned hand grasps barbed wire. One busy spread portrays an urban neighborhood full of ethnic eateries, while another shows families praying inside eight different houses of worship—a pleasing, symmetrical snapshot of peaceful coexistence. After immigrants vow to defend the Constitution and become citizens, they “can fully participate in the governing of the country [they] love.” Finally, as fireworks explode, they cheer: “We are all American.”

This is a remarkably nuanced ode to immigrants and to citizenship, capped by thoughtful backmatter that balances patriotism with critique about historical immigration laws rooted in prejudice. A moving and captivating civics lesson. (author’s note, photograph, United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, bibliography) (Informational picture book. 4-8)

Flat Cat: The Class Pet

Lazar, Tara | Illus. by Pete Oswald Flamingo Books (40 pp.) | $18.99

June 17, 2025 | 9780593404607

Series: Flat Cat

Flat Cat is back for more feline fun—this time at school. Flat Cat wasn’t smooshed by a rolling pin or squeezed by a giant pile of library books. He was just born flat. He likes his unusual appearance; he can slip through the blinds in the ice cream shop for a quick cone or float around town on the breeze. When he spies his neighbor Willow waiting for the school bus, he decides to tag along. School is full of people and strange smells. Kids fold Flat Cat into a paper airplane and use him as a bathroom pass. He enjoys this “terrific tomfoolery” until he’s accidentally swept up with the trash. Later, he masquerades as Willow’s missing homework, and they both get a gold star. At show and tell, Flat Cat decides to show what he can do. He jumps in the water fountain, stands under the hand dryer…and poof! He enjoys the attention until Willow squeezes him flat. “What a gold star day.” While Oswald’s purplish

Readers will relish being in on the joke the whole time.

illustrations are rife with giggle-worthy sight gags, the narrative feels less like a story and more like a series of unconnected events. Readers may have questions—for instance, how exactly does Flat Cat pass as a hall pass? Those who loved Flat Cat (2023) will be eager for more, but they’ll be more satisfied by the earlier book. Willow is tan-skinned; her school is diverse. Offers some amusing moments, but mostly a pale retread of the first installment. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pumpkin Dad

Lemaître, Pascal | Viking (32 pp.)

$10.99 | July 15, 2025 |

9780593695203

Sometimes spells go awry. Ellis, an impish, red-haired tot dressed as a witch, loves Halloween. Errant wand waves and a barrage of “Abracadabras” wake Dad from his nap as Ellis marches into the room. But Dad is a little rascally as well and decides to play a trick. While Ellis isn’t looking, Dad puts a large pumpkin on the chair and hides. Ellis glances over, distraught: “Oh no. I turned my dad into a pumpkin!” Quick as a wink, Ellis loads the pumpkin onto a bike, intending to rush it to the hospital; Dad tries to call out that it was a joke, but Ellis speeds off. On the way, however, the pumpkin falls and rolls into a pumpkin festival. In the large sea of orange gourds, how is Ellis to figure out which one is Dad? A string of silly circumstances follows, with Ellis calling out warnings to various confused festivalgoers: “Oh no, no, please don’t doodle on my dad!” “Oh no, no, please don’t cook my dad!” Lemaître’s jovial plot recalls William Steig’s work, while his expressive ink-lined characters are a pleasure to watch. Goofy humor and quick quips help this tale bounce merrily from one vignette to the next. Both Ellis and Dad are pale-skinned; their town is diverse. Readers will relish being in on the autumnal joke the whole time. (Picture book. 4-7)

A fresh trick-or-treating tale with plenty of read-aloud potential.

GRIZELDA THE GREEN HATES HALLOWEEN

Nature’s Tiny Champions: The Big Book of Little Creatures Doing Mighty Things

Lerwill, Ben | Illus. by Nic Jones

Phaidon (48 pp.) | $19.95

April 10, 2025 | 9781838669973

Cogently noting that the vast majority of the world’s animal species are tiny enough to fit into a reader’s hand, Lerwill introduces over 40 examples both rare and ubiquitous. Dubbing each a “super-small superhero,” the author profiles 20 compact creatures in his main gallery and adds brief cameos for 21 more at the end. Writing informally, he brushes in general observations about each one’s habitat, diet, and distinctive features, then points to what makes each a “champion”— the honeybee is a “champion of teamwork,” for instance, while the reef sea star is a keystone species. For the main set, presented in no particular order but ranging from the gopher tortoise to the microscopic and wonderfully durable water bear (aka tardigrade), Jones supplies both an isolated life-size image with labeled parts and a (usually) larger one in a natural setting. Not all of these animals are “cuddly or colorful,” as the author notes of the cacao-pollinating chocolate midge, but readers who take up his grand invitation to “step into the STADIUM OF THE SMALL” will come away with a deeper appreciation for the often-essential roles many of these mighty mites play in the natural world. A fresh take on the notion that size matters. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 7-9)

At the Window

Lim, Hope | Illus. by Qin Leng Candlewick (40 pp.) | $18.99 May 13, 2025 | 9781536224788

An open window sparks friendship—and leads to inspiration. Each day, the young narrator walks a small dog past a neighbor’s house, and each day, the neighbor sits by the open window working. The child wonders what she’s doing and why her window has no curtains. The two soon become friendly acquaintances. A turning point arrives when the protagonist tells the neighbor that the dog is called Bear. “What a big name for a small dog!” the neighbor says, finding just the right words to make the youngster smile. Some of the child’s questions are answered; as it turns out, the neighbor’s a writer. Suddenly, the woman moves away. Saddened, the child visits the house (now for sale) and gazes out the window. Rewarded by “a sweeping view of our block…and the wide open sky,” the young narrator realizes at last why the neighbor always eschewed curtains. Back at home, the child begins writing a letter. To the neighbor? No, to another, brown-skinned child who lives nearby—a less obvious but inspired choice on Lim’s part. Leng’s airy, expressive ink-and-watercolor illustrations alternate between panels and full-bleed spreads, employing a range of perspectives to gently guide readers through this well-paced and simply lovely picture book. The narrator is light-skinned; the writer presents East Asian.

A quiet celebration of community and writing. (Picture book. 3-8)

Grizelda the Green Hates Halloween

Livingston, A.A. | Illus. by Katya Longhi

Flamingo Books (40 pp.) | $14.99

July 22, 2025 | 9780593692271

Sick of Halloween, a misanthropic witch takes matters into her own hands.

Grizelda the Green loathes the trick-or-treaters who knock on her door each year, scaring her spiders, her pet dragon, and her cauldron. So she cooks up a plan to take the joy out of the holiday. As she casts spells, pumpkins explode and streetlights shatter. Undeterred, the children persist; after all, they have flashlights! The kids aren’t bothered even when Grizelda makes their candy horribly unappetizing (worms and slime, anyone?). Instead, they’re thrilled at the prospect of meeting a real live witch. “Your magic gave us the best Halloween ever!” a young girl declares. Grizelda is moved; turns out, even witches love helping others and being appreciated in return. The rhyming text results in an ideal preschool read-aloud, with the bouncing stanzas keeping a snappy pace. The children’s unflagging optimism in the face of setbacks is an excellent lesson in making lemonade out of lemons, while Grizelda’s change of heart emphasizes the rewards of generosity. Longhi’s cheery cartoonish illustrations complement the storytelling; a palette of deep aquas with accents of purple, gold, and orange reflects the night sky and sets an appropriately spooky tone. The kids are racially diverse; Grizelda has gray-tinged skin and ombré green hair.

A fresh trick-or-treating tale with plenty of read-aloud potential.

(Picture book. 4-7)

For more Halloween picture books, visit Kirkus online.

INDIE AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

PRECIOUS A. CEDOLIA

Author of The Apple Seed and the Dark

Tell us a little about yourself and The Apple Seed and the Dark. I was a precocious child who often became a source of amusement to peers and teachers. Little did anybody know the pure light of life was pouring into my mind all the time through the wonders of observation and thought. My writing is a very personal reflection on the imperative of love’s authority in our shared lives and on the real, personal matters of heart that we face in our solitude.

How did you choose the genre of your title?

When taking writing classes, we hear we have two choices: nonfiction or fiction. But, if we write poetry, we can harness metaphor about anything; we can examine and express something really true through imagery, and I think that is just magical. Illustration with words alone is what I have done in The Apple Seed and the Dark Symbolism is our universal basic language of passing on meaning, as we tend to tell stories within other stories. These pictures should be able to transcend genre and reach any age group, allowing the story to be vividly internalized by the reader. The book is, in its way, intentionally genre nonconforming, because even though it is fictional, the story holds abundant potential for personal applications including psychotherapeutic, inspirational, and philosophical meanings while appealing to all ages. It can be read in so many

contexts because it identifies with many themes.

What was your editing process like? Editing was purifying. I worked with a professional editor who recommended I cut half the story’s length, stating that no child would have the attention span or interest in it. I took an intense critical look and reaffirmed my commitment to each point; the story is slightly longer now, and it says more clearly what it was always meant to say. We should leave clues for young minds to take up the mysteries of life with eagerness. We should have unlimited expectations for the unique minds of our children, as well as for ourselves. I am delighted to say that when the first little boy to ever read the story by himself gave his remarks, they were stunningly insightful and ended with, “I wish it was longer!”

How did you develop your characters? As the narrative unfolds, each character has an impact on our protagonist; this is because in our own lives, we experience a large spectrum of varied dynamics with others. The setting of his natural environment allows us to consider different developmental influences. He has been given a childlike faith. He understands the operations of his own will, attitude, and disposition. Eventually, as everything is illuminated for him and the reader together, when the sum of the experiences and choices pour in,

The Apple Seed and the Dark Cedolia, Precious A. Self | 36 pp. | $12.34 paper Nov. 23, 2024 | 9781738166701

it is to encourage the reader personally. It was my desire to convey that transcendent message of encouragement, which singlehandedly drove the character development throughout the book.

Portions of this Q&A were edited for clarity.

For a review of the book, visit Kirkus online.

Drag Race Star Will Publish a Middle-Grade Novel

Eureka O’Hara’s Jackson Bright in the Spotlight is coming in the fall.

Eureka O’Hara is making her literary debut later this year, People magazine reports.

This fall, Amulet Books will publish Jackson Bright in the Spotlight, written by the RuPaul’s Drag Race fan favorite with Dan Poblocki and illustrated by Ricardo Bessa. The press describes the book as “a beautiful, buoyant middle-grade novel about a boy who enters a local pageant— as a drag queen!”

O’Hara was a participant in drag pageants before being cast in the ninth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race, which aired in 2017. She withdrew from the season following a ligament tear and

For more LGBTQ+ books for young readers, visit Kirkus online.

returned the following season, finishing as one of two runners-up. She also appeared in the first three seasons of the HBO reality show We’re Here. Her middle-grade novel tells the story of Jackson Bright, a boy who decides to enter his town’s Little Miss pageant to support his nonbinary best friend.

“When you’re young and questioning where you fit in the world, seeing someone like you in a story can mean everything,” O’Hara told People. O’Hara announced her book on Instagram, writing, “This story is all about courage, selfexpression, and taking up space exactly as you are. I’m beyond excited to finally share it with you.”

Jackson Bright in the Spotlight is slated for publication on Oct. 21.

—M.S.

Eureka O’Hara

Scary Shark:

A Jaw-some Halloween

Lowery, Mike | Orchard/Scholastic (32 pp.)

$15.99 | July 1, 2025 | 9781546110781

A shark has a hard time getting into the spirit of spooky season. Snaggletoothed Edgar—whom readers may remember from Santa Shark (2023) and Pizza Shark (2024)—isn’t keen on Halloween. After hearing a loud shriek coming from Edgar’s house, his friend Lotta Crab finds him cowering under his bed after having seen a ghost. Lotta explains that the “ghost” is just their pal Tim in a costume and urges Edgar to go outside and join the festivities. Edgar suddenly has a whole list of “important things that I shrimply must do.” Lotta persists and shows Edgar the fun of activities such as carving pumpkins, decorating the house, and donning costumes (Edgar dreams up “Count Sharkula”) until their friends stop by while trick-ortreating. After they compliment his get-up, Edgar joins the group—so Lotta won’t be scared, he alleges. This comical holiday story will hopefully allay potential fears about Halloween; while giggling, readers will be reassured by the idea that even a dreaded undersea predator can feel a bit apprehensive at this time of year. The funny proceedings move along at a brisk clip, with Edgar frequently spouting marine-themed puns—also expressed visually—that may go over kids’ heads. The zany illustrations are set in panels, sometimes with captions, comic book–style, and the expressive protagonists’ conversations (presented

in all caps, with numerous exclamation points) appear in speech bubbles. A riotous Halloween story with some bite to it. (Picture book. 4-7)

Vampire Jam Sandwich

Lyall, Casey | Illus. by Nici Gregory Tundra Books (48 pp.) | $18.99 July 1, 2025 | 9781774883464

A bloodsucking creature of the night crosses paths with a jam sandwich.

“Would you like to hear a scary story?” asks a large-eyed, lugubrious child with a red bow tie, holding a flashlight as a striped cat looks on. After building suspense for a few pages, the youngster obliges. “The story goes that long ago, a vampire— possibly named Terrence—snuck into someone’s kitchen and took a bite out of their jam sandwich. The vampire probably thought the jam was… something else”; when a sleepy, nightgown-clad child (apparently Terrence’s sibling) soon awakened and entered the kitchen, Terrence fled, leaving behind a jam sandwich minus one bite. Now the sandwich is cursed, destined to search the night for more jam! Unless…readers keep their preserves secure. The narrator offers a few insincere suggestions for doing so, such as storing your jam in the backyard or on a window ledge. By this time, readers will be in on the joke: Terrence and our narrator are one and the same. Is the protagonist a vampire? Or just a conniving youngster trying to trick audiences out of their jam? Kids can judge for themselves. Lyall’s text begs to be read aloud

A bloodsucking creature of the night crosses paths with a jam sandwich.

VAMPIRE JAM SANDWICH

in dramatically spooky tones, while Gregory’s illustrations, rendered in a sepia-toned palette with pops of red, are deliciously creepy; the fanggnashing, jam-drooling, unibrowed sandwich is a particular delight. The human characters are pale-skinned. Silly supernatural fun.

(Picture book. 4-7)

Nelly the Very Different Bird

Macdonald, Alex | Frances Lincoln (40 pp.)

$18.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9781836000761

A staunch individualist knows how to get things done. Nelly can’t fly, so when the other birds migrate in the winter, she gets left behind. Eager to join them, she tries hard, but her best efforts fail. Nelly’s determined and resourceful, however, and learns “to do things differently.” She orders an inflatable boat, an outboard motor, climbing gear, and more, and—voilà!—she’s able to travel all over the place, no flying necessary. Nelly eventually meets up with the other birds, thousands of miles away. Unfortunately, they return home the next day, leaving her alone again—except for one bird who’s discovered he can’t fly, either, and is none too thrilled about it. Ah, but he hasn’t reckoned with Nelly, who now teaches him “how to do things differently.” They embark on adventures together, discovering something important in the process: “Life’s a lot more interesting when you do things together…and a lot more enjoyable, too.” This sweet, low-key tale celebrates individuality, perseverance, independence, friendship, and cooperation: lovely and empowering messages to convey to all children. Adults sharing the story should encourage youngsters to discuss times when they may have tried doing things their own way. The acrylic paint and gouache illustrations portray plump, cheery, expressive birds, gadding about and having a wonderful time.

A charming ode to creativity and originality. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Star

The Incorruptibles

Magaziner, Lauren | Aladdin (400 pp.)

$18.99 | June 10, 2025 | 9781665968669

Series: The Incorruptibles, 1

A hundred years in the future, an orphaned tailor’s apprentice joins the resistance to fight sorcerers who wield unchecked power over the former United States.

Fiora’s parents were killed by sorcerers, but she doesn’t believe that the resistance group known as the Incorruptibles are real until she meets one of them in person. After a fight against the Radiance, the “nameless, faceless group” that rules over the sorcerers, Captain Quinn whisks Fiora and her uncle Randal to safety, but Fiora begs to join Inc Academy and earns a place on a trial basis—until the results of her background check come in—to mixed reactions from her new squad, the Thistles. When problems begin plaguing the Incs, Fiora promises herself that she’ll find the spy in their midst. Readers will wonder, as Fiora does, who she can trust, even as she builds relationships with the other Thistles, and her understanding of the world becomes more nuanced as she questions long-held ideas. The sorcerers and Incs ultimately clash in a high-intensity, fast-paced action battle that forces Fiora into making a big decision and sets up for the sequel. Immersive worldbuilding, strong characters, and excellent pacing make for a breathless series opener with a big scope. Curly-haired Fiora is “tall and plump,” is attracted to girls, and has Jewish heritage. Other characters are diverse in skin tone, ability, sexuality, and gender identity. A lightning blast of a futuristic fantasy. (Fantasy. 10-14)

Millie Fleur Saves the Night

Mandin, Christy | Orchard/Scholastic (40 pp.) $18.99 | July 1, 2025 | 9781339023373

The protagonist of Millie Fleur’s Poison Garden (2024) once more teaches the townspeople a lesson in stepping out of their comfort zones.

The residents of Garden Glen fear the dark and keep their homes illuminated all night. All but Millie Fleur La Fae. She adores darkness and, since moving here, has missed the nocturnal creatures that avoid the lit-up town. “The Dark isn’t scary,” Millie Fleur assures the townspeople. “You just need to get to know her.” Together, Millie Fleur and the Dark, a hulking being with glowing eyes standing by the forest’s edge, lead the night creatures to her moon garden, where plants burst with delicious aromas that waft through town. Bearing lanterns, the enchanted young neighbors follow their noses to the garden, where Millie Fleur advises them to extinguish their lights. Plants with quirky names like Forty-winks Fern and Snoozing Sugarplum safely light their path. Initially timid, the kids soon discover that the Dark offers new and rewarding experiences. Thereafter, Garden Glen’s lights dim, moon gardens flourish, night creatures settle in, and the town embraces darkness. This warm and pleasant bedtime tale will reassure kids frightened of the dark. Mandin makes a strong case that nighttime should be savored; her work will spark a sense of wonder about natural phenomena not evident during the day. The digital illustrations—set, unsurprisingly, against mostly blue backgrounds— are lovely, infused with a sweetly gothic sensibility. Millie and her mom are pale-skinned; the neighbors are racially diverse.

Nighttime comes alive here. (author’s note about real-life night creatures) (Picture book. 4-7)

The Riding Lesson

Mann, Jennifer K. | Candlewick (56 pp.)

$18.99 | June 17, 2025 | 9781536235265

An aspiring equestrian learns what horsemanship is really like. Frances is visiting her friend Mae, who has a stable, for her first riding lesson. She fantasizes about clearing obstacles while atop a noble steed like her favorite toy horse, Excalibur—only to meet an adorably round, filthy horse named Snowball. As Mae gives her a grounding in horse care, Frances discovers that the realities of horsemanship aren’t quite as glamorous as she had anticipated: She notices Mae’s mother mucking out the stables, and horse care entails scraping the dirt out of Snowball’s hooves. When it’s finally time to mount Snowball, she’s a bit nervous. But Mae eases her into things by joining her for a tandem ride. Frances is finally ready for a solo ride, and she ends her visit eager for her next lesson and still daydreaming about riding—though now fantasizing about a considerably rounder mount. While this title isn’t a sequel to Mann’s The Camping Trip (2020), the books share the same reader-friendly text and deceptively simple artwork. Divided into graphic novel–esque panels, whimsically childlike, loose-lined illustrations, rendered in an appropriately muddy palette, offer accurate depictions of equipment. Mann captures the flavor of stable life as she infuses the narrative with well-chosen details, such as the clouds of dirt and horse hair knocked loose as the girls brush Snowball. Frances is light-skinned; Mae and her mother are brown-skinned.

Readers will eagerly saddle up for this enchanting ride. (Picture book. 5-10)

For more by Jennifer K. Mann, visit Kirkus online.

The Fig Tree: A Story About Building Friendship and Peace in Cyprus

Manoli, Costantia | Illus. by Leah Giles

Roaring Brook Press (40 pp.) | $18.99 June 17, 2025 | 9781250763136

A fig tree in Cyprus that has shaded inhabitants from across the island feels sadness when war leads to a seemingly irreparable divide.

An omniscient narrator describes the tree “remembering” the residents, varied in skin tone, who played and picnicked nearby, enjoying the abundant fruit. The tree notes that language connected the Greek and Turkish residents; all understood the words “majilla” (large fig) and “mashallah” (an Arabic expression of appreciation). Without explanation, the narrator reports that negative words sprang up: “enemy,” “traitor.” Curious children may wonder why. The vibrant colors, stylized shapes, and swirling textures of Giles’ handmade and digital collages, which initially depicted verdant scenes dotted with cheerful pink elements, now portray war. Alliteration and metaphor heighten the drama: “Stomping boots, shuddering tanks, and stuttering gunfire shook the tree—and the island—down to the roots.” Ultimately, a north-south boundary divides the land in two; barbed wire fences prevent people from crossing. As years pass, the centrally situated tree waits, hoping that a child from each side will be drawn to again share its succulent gifts, an act that could remind residents of their commonalities. Manoli lives in Cyprus; her

author’s note details the “centuriesold” fighting that led to this now-50-year division. While geographically specific, this elegant narrative offers a fruitful springboard to conversations about conflict anywhere. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 5-9)

The 66th Rebirth of Frankie Caridi: Into the Oblivion

Marciano, Johnny | Illus. by Ashley Mackenzie | Penguin Workshop (240 pp.)

$17.99 | June 10, 2025 | 9780593660973

Series: The 66th Rebirth of Frankie Caridi, 2

A convoluted exploration of lives past and present. In this second series entry, siblings Frankie and Lucie are spending their summer as counselors at the Pythagorean Institute retreat. Listeners—acolytes from a time when the institute was “a cult of flying yogis”—participate in activities like tai chi and meditation and (more mysteriously) go “behind the veil,” something counselors are expressly excluded from doing. The counselors do get to work on learning to levitate on their own, however. Meanwhile, white-presenting Frankie is recovering memories—and they’re not from this life! She soon learns that she’s a reincarnation of Mother, a key player in the institute’s inception. This discovery takes her on internal and external journeys: Frankie must learn who she is, who she’s been, and what this all means for her lifetime. Unlike the strong first volume, this

Infused with science, a quirky tale that will delight children and caregivers.

second book feels ponderous, focusing on Frankie’s past lives, the metaphysics of channeling and reincarnation, and the origins of the cult. Things are often confusing (and at times unsettling) as the aged Listeners relate to this 14-year-old incarnation of Mother; one of them, an elderly man named Cadmus, is Mother’s adopted son. Despite some interesting plot points, the action is light, and the time spent exploring past lives pulls the focus away from Frankie, lowering the emotional stakes.

An overly dense, highly conceptual journey. (Paranormal. 10-14)

Wait ’Til You’re Older

Marianayagam, Maria | Illus. by Irina Avgustinovich | Sourcebooks eXplore (40 pp.) $18.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9781728271231

“Wait ’til you’re older”—are there any more frustrating words in the English language? Reha is frustrated by her older brother Arvan’s refusal to let her play with his prized toy T. rex. “You’re too little,” he tells her, while her mother also suggests waiting until she’s bigger. Determined to join in the fun, Reha embarks on an imaginative journey to grow up quickly, first attempting to build a time machine before later working on a rocket to search for a black hole. At one point, she decides to go back to the Mesozoic era—who needs toys when you’ve got real live dinos? Each whimsical plan fails, but when the intrigued Arvan offers to help, Reha wisely agrees—on one condition. He must bring his T. rex along to play. Together, they not only construct a toy rocket, but also forge a stronger sibling bond that will carry them forward. Energetic earth-toned illustrations accented by splashes of purple and blue complement the narrative, adding warmth and charm. Reha’s spirited problem-solving and her eventual collaboration with Arvan result in a heartening, engaging work.

Several pages of backmatter explaining time, time travel, relativity, and black holes round out this playful story with doses of science and philosophy. Reha and her family are brown-skinned; names imply South Asian heritage.

Infused with science, a quirky tale that will delight children and caregivers alike. (author’s note, references) (Picture book. 4-9)

Fantastic Flora: The World’s Biggest, Baddest, and Smelliest Plants

McCallum Staats, Ann | Illus. by Zoë Ingram MIT Kids Press/Candlewick (144 pp.)

$19.99 | May 6, 2025 | 9781536232837

Say hello to some peculiar plants. From the Venus flytrap to the flying-duck orchid, McCallum Staats uses descriptions of very large, very poisonous, very smelly, and very strange flora as jumping-off points to introduce basic botanical concepts. A profile of the Bolivian water lily, for instance, segues into an explanation of simple vs. compound leaves. An entry on the giant sequoia is accompanied by discussions of dendrochronology (tree aging) and coniferous vs. deciduous trees, while the profile on the sandbox tree leads to an explanation of the differences among thorns, spines, and prickles. These smoothly written, chatty entries cover a great deal of material, such as scientific names and details about related plants. Though the plants come from all over the world, McCallum Staats often mentions more familiar relatives. (The sandbox tree, for example, is related to the poinsettia.) Ingram includes both lush, striking illustrations of the plants as well as diagrams and close-ups of individual elements, such as the reproductive parts of a flower. Most similar books emphasize various botanical concepts; this clever reversal spotlights the extraordinary examples the writer has chosen, conveying plenty

of general information while also wowing young readers. An attractive package that will intrigue and enlighten readers. (glossary, source notes, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 9-14)

Squash & Pumpkin: #SquashGoals

McQueen, G.G. | Illus. by Michael Slack

Doubleday (32 pp.) | $18.99

August 26, 2025 | 9780593805909

It’s good to be a gourd. Besties Acorn Squash and Pumpkin love spending time in winter, spring, and summer. Come autumn, though, Pumpkin receives all the adulation. People clamor for pumpkin pie, pumpkin lattes, and pumpkin bisque. Other gourds go unnoticed; Acorn Squash feels left out. This year, our protagonist has “#SquashGoals.” Determined to become an “Autumn STAR,” Acorn Squash sets up a booth at the Harvest Festival and spotlights goodies like “Squilk” (acorn squash–flavored milk). Sadly, Acorn Squash garners zero attention, while Pumpkin’s relentless PR team guarantees that huge crowds will clamor for her. In a surprise twist, Pumpkin tracks down Acorn Squash. In need of respite from the madness, she just wants to spend time with her pal. The crowds won’t let Pumpkin go, though, so Acorn Squash suggests joining forces, giving the public “a double dose of autumn awesomeness!” Consequently, “SquashKin” becomes a hot new trend, and the gourds are now besties in every season. This lively fall story about friendship and collaboration will boost children’s feelings of empathy; Acorn Squash is especially appealing and relatable. At times, the text has an adult sensibility, though: References to soup subscriptions, the paparazzi, and a PR team pushing hair, makeup, and autograph-signing appointments will likely sail over

kids’ heads. Still, the cheery, dynamic illustrations, bursting with bright autumnal colors and personable, googly-eyed characters, are delightful. Humans are diverse. A charming story to fall into in autumn or any season; it might even tempt kids to try acorn squash. (Picture book. 5-8)

Giant

McQuoid, Judith | Little Island (224 pp.) $17.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9781915071637

Two Irish boys growing up near each other but inhabiting entirely different worlds develop a close bond. This fictionalized account of the childhood of C.S. Lewis opens in Belfast in 1908. Twelve-year-old Davy Caruth and Clive “Jacks” Lewis, nearly 10, meet when Davy accompanies Ma to her housekeeping job at the Lewis’ grand home. Davy’s Da used to work at the shipyard, but with his bad back, he now sells bread from a cart. The family barely scrapes by. Despite their differences, Jacks and Davy bond over a love of reading and escaping into their imaginations; Jacks shares his books with gifted artist Davy, who illustrates his friend’s stories. Their lives diverge when Davy, at age 13, goes to work at the hazardous, grueling shipyard. Not long after, Jacks’ beloved mother dies, and he’s shipped off to a harsh boarding school in England with his brother, Warnie. Sensitive Jacks is miserable, but letters and drawings from Davy lift his spirits. Jacks encourages Davy in his artistic pursuits, which ultimately lead him to take technical drawing classes and get a job designing ships rather than building them. McQuoid uses rich, carefully chosen details to evoke the historical setting. Notably, she compassionately shows the impact of social class constraints and personal hardships on each child without minimizing either of their

experiences through simplistic comparisons. The evocative, often poetic, writing will appeal to thoughtful readers. A quietly charming, warmhearted story of enduring friendship. (facts about C.S. Lewis and Ireland, further reading) (Historical fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Star

Elena Camps

Medina, Juana | Candlewick (32 pp.)

$10.99 | June 17, 2025 | 9781536216424

T he plucky pachyderm who mastered cycling in Elena Rides (2023) returns for a new adventure: camping! Elena, a chunky blue elephant, lugs an enormous box discreetly labeled “Tent-o-Matic.” In her scoutlike neckerchief, Elena’s confident about her tent-pitching abilities. But as soon as she pulls out the tent…“GABUNK!” The yellow tent swallows her up! As Elena stews—and thinks— astute readers will have spotted a piece of paper she seems to have missed. Is that a list of instructions? Despite her mental work, the tent is winning: “GA-BOING!” Stomping and pouting, Elena rejects her friend the little red bird’s offer to help. But when she finally follows the directions, cheered on by her avian pal, the tent goes up: “TA-DA!” Sporting a pair of pajamas, with the bird (wearing a jaunty nightcap) perched on her arm, Elena is ready to camp. Both the artwork and the minimal, deliciously onomatopoeia-laden text beautifully convey action, humor, and emotion, from Elena’s initial optimism to her slowly mounting frustration, short-lived rage, and, finally, satisfaction at a job well done. Firm outlines focus on bright indigo Elena, set against white backgrounds, giving the cheery yellow tent in all its contorted configurations maximum impact. For all their simplicity, the illustrations will reward observant readers; Elena’s an endearing

A raucous romp from twin perspectives with something different to say.

ENCOUNTER AT OWL ROCK

yet fully realized character whose emotions ring true.

A brilliantly crafted tale in which persistence pays off. (Early reader. 4-7)

Robinson’s New Thing

Mills, Julia | Clarion/HarperCollins (48 pp.)

$19.99 | March 4, 2025 | 9780358695349

A n avid collector learns a lesson in what really matters. Robinson the raccoon has many objects, all of which bring him joy. When a snail named Rosie unexpectedly emerges from a shell he finds, Robinson proudly displays his collection: “Isn’t it the greatest you’ve ever seen?” After all, Robinson possesses so many things! But Rosie’s skeptical. When it’s time for Robinson to check out Rosie’s collection, the little snail directs him to a grassy field. Robinson’s incredulous: “There’s nothing here.” Rosie disagrees: “This is my collection of breezes.” Next, they visit the creek, where Rosie collects bubbles; the best part, says the snail, is that they’re uncatchable. One item’s left on Rosie’s agenda: a brilliant display of northern lights in the night sky. “Wow,” gasps Robinson. “I wish I could keep everything we saw today.” Rosie explains that they can—in their heads. Surveying his items back at home, Robinson realizes that they’re just things and that he derives greater pleasure remembering the breezes, bubbles, and warmth of Rosie’s friendship. Quiet and thought-provoking, if a bit purposeful, this tale has an adult sensibility; children may miss some of the essential points and likely won’t entirely abandon material possessions

like Robinson does. Still, with guidance from caregivers or educators, it should spark fruitful discussions about what matters most in life, while the charming protagonists cut endearing figures in Mills’ cozy illustrations; the colorsaturated depiction of the northern lights is especially eye-catching. Gently conveyed insights on materialism. (Picture book. 4-7)

Can You Hide Like a Chameleon?: Fun Facts About Extraordinary Animals and Plants

Morgan, Karen Koepcke | Illus. by Nelke Roose | Clavis (32 pp.) | $18.95

April 22, 2025 | 9798890630629

Series: Could You? Some Do!, 2

Animal trivia in a question-andanswer format.

Just as in Are You Stronger Than an Ant? (2024), Morgan peppers readers with intriguing questions: “Could you…climb up and down cliffs without any gear at all?” “Could you… ward off bad guys without a shield?” “Could you…light up the dark by giving off an inner glow?” Kids will likely respond with a resounding no, but the author goes on to describe creatures who do possess these abilities; she notes, for instance, that “a mountain goat’s hooves make steep climbing easy.” Text in a smaller font goes into more depth about each animal’s ability, while the accompanying image depicts a child attempting the feat (in this case, a youngster clings uncertainly to the side of a cliff as a bemused mountain goat looks on). Nine of the examples relate to animals. The inclusion of an

oak tree whose limbs “make a home… for oodles and oodles of others” will be a surprise. At times, the writing is awkward. The last words of each question and answer rhyme; some words seem to have been chosen for the sake of rhyme, not meaning. Morgan introduces the sea star (referred to here as a starfish) by asking if readers could “go through life without a brain”; the answer and subsequent explanation don’t discuss its lack of a brain. A final list of facts summarizes the information. The children are diverse; one uses a wheelchair.

Engaging in concept and format but graceless in delivery. (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Encounter at Owl Rock

Moses, Rucker | Nancy Paulsen Books (288 pp.) $17.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9780593696385

Two brothers team up with their longtime bestie and a peculiar new friend for a high-stakes, out-of-this-world adventure.

One day a few years ago, twins Oakley and Cypress Young’s parents mysteriously vanished. That summer they met Jaz Demetrio, who’d recently lost her mother. The three Black-presenting tweens (Jaz’s father is Italian American) have been inseparable ever since. Aspiring filmmaker Cypress, Oak, who’s a wholehearted believer in the otherworldly, and welltraveled military brat Jaz collaborate on shooting movies while also investigating their beloved Atlanta neighborhood. Evil Orion Industries is buying up properties, bringing about sudden changes. While filming at an old amusement park—now an Orion construction site—Oak flies off his skateboard and disappears into a portal on Owl Rock, a large granite rock formation, kicking off an extraterrestrial mystery involving cruel businessman Hancock Orion. The dual first-person narration shifts between the point of view of Cypress, who’s desperately trying

to find his brother and navigate issues of rapid, world-destroying gentrification, and Oak, who befriends an alien who’s reluctant to be part of the world-conquering plot. By the time the brothers reunite to save the day with music and magic meteorites, their understanding of how to be part of a team while still maintaining their individuality is forever changed for the better. Epigraphs featuring quotes from Oak’s favorite superhero, the Silver Surfer, drive home the cosmic scope of their discoveries.

A raucous romp from twin perspectives with something different to say. (map) (Science fiction. 10-14)

Tell Me About Juneteenth

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Books (40 pp.) $18.99 | May 20, 2025 | 9781250908797

On a day of festivities, a curious African American child asks the rest of the family some important questions.

The Juneteenth block party brings the whole neighborhood together with food and games. Our 5-year-old narrator, hair adorned with twists, knows that everyone comes together on this day to “celebrate our freedom.”

But what did the first celebration look like? The child turns to an older cousin, Katelin, who describes the first Juneteenth that she remembers, five years ago: a big parade, a lot of red drink, and delicious brisket. Auntie Judy’s not quite old enough to recall the first Juneteenth, but she says that in the 1980s, the day was observed with a drum circle in the park, smothered turkey wings, and everyone singing; the opening lyrics to “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (widely considered the Black national anthem) float across the page as she reminisces. Finally, elderly Mr. Robert tells the youngster—and readers—about the first Juneteenth, which his mother attended, and describes similarities and differences to celebrations today. After a day of learning history through

discussions with family and community, the narrator considers how Juneteenth will look in another 100 years. Dominated by shades of red, Hodge’s bright cartoons set a festive tone, even as Nash gently explains that the holiday is rooted in the painful history of enslavement. Backmatter offers further context and notes how important red food and drinks are on this day.

A kid-friendly exploration of a significant national holiday. (strawberry lemonade recipe) (Picture book. 4-8)

Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody: The Hat of Great Importance

Ness, Patrick | Illus. by Tim Miller Walker US/Candlewick (208 pp.)

$18.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9781536241266

Series: Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody, 2

Sometimes, even the calmest monitor lizards have their limits. Though Zeke, Daniel, and Alicia saved their school from their evil avian classmate Pelicarnassus in Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody (2024), the reptilian trio still remain at the bottom of the popularity pecking order. Maybe that’s why Zeke’s so unnerved by Daniel’s choice to wear a pink hat to school. Subsequently, his friends stop talking to him, he becomes convinced that the school’s guidance counselor is trying to ruin his life, and someone begins using the local death ray to destroy his school bus and house. In the same vein as its predecessor, this tale keeps the clever quips and funny situations coming (as when Pelicarnassus can’t keep from complimenting Daniel’s hat), but this second book in the series leans further into Zeke’s interior life, his frustrations, and some serious questions about how we can inadvertently hurt the people closest to us. Once more, Ness offers probing explorations of a

Nash, Kortney

Illus. by DeAndra Hodge

Godwin

prejudiced status quo: Zeke and the other lizards, who live in the poorest parts of town, are bused into school as part of a program designed to get different species to mix. The reveal of who has it in for Zeke is legitimately surprising, even if the villain’s plan feels simplistic. Happily, Miller’s art continues to give every scene a pitch-perfect feel, with illustrations that wring both understated hilarity and pathos from the pages. Should more chronicles ensue, let us hope they maintain this superior blend of humor and heart. (Fiction. 8-12)

Making Light Bloom:

Clara Driscoll and the Tiffany Lamps

Nickel, Sandra | Illus. by Julie Paschkis Peachtree (32 pp.) | $18.99

June 24, 2025 | 9781682636091

The female artist behind Louis Comfort Tiffany’s iconic lamps went unacknowledged for years.

Until Clara Driscoll’s letters to her family were found, no one knew that she was responsible for these creations. After studying art and design, Clara moved from her Ohio farm to New York City and was hired by glassmaker Louis Comfort Tiffany to work on his stained glass windows. He liked her “flair for glass” and put her in charge of the “Tiffany Girls,” a workshop of women artists, to whom she sometimes read nature poetry. She began designing lamps inspired by butterflies, flowers, and eventually dragonflies, with their lacy wings illuminated by lamplight. Louis liked the dragonfly lamp so much that he sent it to the World’s Fair in Paris, where it won a bronze medal. Clara was meticulous in her study of nature, “even pinning flowers upside down to discover how they fell,” which led to her famous wisteria lamp, with its “two thousand petals cascading from branches.” Paschkis’ folk-style illustrations powerfully evoke the puzzlelike

A young tiger loves everything about books...except reading them.

THE KING OF BOOKS

shapes of Tiffany windows, with vibrant colors set inside thick black lines. A helpful author’s note details Clara’s artistic process for each lamp, which included making five designs (beginning with a watercolor rendition), carving the design into a wooden mold, and then cutting the pieces into glass. An evocative look at one woman’s gift for channeling her love of nature into art. (more information on Tiffany lamps, a note about Clara’s letters, bibliography, sources for quotes) (Picture-book biography. 4-8)

Hazel Is All That

Otis, Chad | Rocky Pond Books/Penguin (40 pp.)

$18.99 | July 8, 2025 | 9780593857090

Hazel knows what’s what, and she tells it like it is. When a loud dog startles young Hazel, she recoils: “That dog is mean!” The park is full of canines, and she’s sure she has each one pegged. The little gray poodle who sits obediently is “good.” That growling bulldog is “tough,” while the goofy one playing with a ball is “happy.” But when Hazel drops her ice cream, she’s angry, sad, and embarrassed—all at once. And she’s overjoyed when her parent buys her a new treat. That gets Hazel thinking: “Maybe we aren’t all just one thing.” That good dog probably has its naughty moments, while the upbeat one might feel sad if someone took its ball. When Hazel sees a picture of the “mean” pooch who scared her on a missing dog poster, she’s filled with sympathy. Perhaps that mean dog was also a scared dog. After Hazel and her parent reunite the lost dog with

its owner, Hazel discovers that people—and dogs—are more complicated than she’s assumed: “She’s pretty sure we’re ALL THAT and more!” Otis narrates Hazel’s realizations in spare, chatty, child-friendly text; young readers and listeners will readily see themselves in her wide-eyed take on the world. The blocky, digitally manipulated pencil and watercolor illustrations are bright and exuberant, with an exaggerated quality. Hazel is brownskinned; her community is diverse. A child-friendly affirmation that we all contain multitudes. (Picture book. 3-7)

Duck and Cat Ride the Riverboat

Panckeri, Drew | Holiday House (40 pp.) $14.99 | June 24, 2025 | 9780823460519

Series: I Like To Read Comics

In New Yorker cartoonist Panckeri’s children’s book debut, a high-seas dinner theater goes awry. On a perfect day, when the sun is shining and the ice cream is sweet, friends Duck and Cat spot a riverboat in the harbor. At Duck’s urging, the reluctant Cat joins his pal for a dinner cruise with live music. Alas, due to illness, the cook and the performer both take off. This would be less of a problem were it not for the hungry crocodiles also aboard who are now eyeing Cat and Duck as dinner substitutes. Fortunately, creativity and quick thinking turn our intrepid heroes into the cook and theatrical entertainment everyone requires. Supremely simple art accompanies a beginner-level text that

manages to get quite a bit of humor and whimsy in; both words and images have a strong James Marshall vibe. When requested to do something about the hungry crocs, the captain replies, “I am doing something. Steering this ship. This sounds more like a you problem than a me problem.” And while our heroes’ willingness to completely forgive the crocodiles is a bit implausible, as Duck points out to Cat, “You get hangry, too.”

Crackers, crocodiles, and cut-ups abound in this delightful launch of a new easy-reading series. (Early reader/graphic fiction. 5-7)

A Festa for Luana

Pastro, Joana | Illus. by Duda Oliva Atheneum (40 pp.) | $19.99

May 27, 2025 | 9781665924795

Luana is excited to visit her grandparents in Brazil. She and her parents arrive from the U.S. just in time to observe Festa Junina—a monthlong harvest celebration—with their extended family. When Grandpa introduces Luana as his “American granddaughter,” she suddenly feels uncertain about her Brazilian identity. And after she sees her cousins dressed in ornate outfits, she feels out of place and searches for ways to make her plain American dress more Brazilian. As she adds “pretty little details” to her dress, she listens as her grandparents share memories and finds meaning in the small things she notices, from the spices her grandmother cooks with to the scraps of fabric and paper she gathers as her aunts decorate. In the end, Luana creates a festooned dress that reflects both her American and Brazilian roots. She helps her family start a new Festa Junina tradition and realizes that though she is bicultural, she truly belongs. This heartfelt journey celebrates the beauty of embracing multiple cultures and the joy of finding one’s place within a loving family. Earthy,

impressionistic illustrations rendered in colored pencil and soft pastel bring to life the festivities and Luana’s gregarious family members, who vary in skin tone. Luana’s aunt uses a wheelchair. A delightful story of cultural connection and belonging. (author’s note, glossary, recipe for bolo de fubá [cornmeal cake]) (Picture book. 4-7)

The Extraordinary Orbit of Alex Ramirez

Paulino, Jasminne | Putnam (304 pp.)

$18.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9780593859315

In this story told in verse, a seventh grader in special education classes aspires to take a mainstream science class and become an astronaut someday. Dominican American middle schooler Alex Ramirez is in SC, or the self-contained program, where he feels talked down to and treated like a much younger child. He has big ambitions of joining NASA, but his teachers don’t encourage him to follow his dreams. Alex was placed in SC in fourth grade after losing control several times the previous year. But now that he takes medicine to help him focus, Alex wonders how long he’ll be forced to stagnate, working on assignments far below his abilities and suffering the consequences of his behavior from years ago. The ways that others— teachers and even his own mother— try to limit Alex will tug on readers’ heartstrings and have them cheering for him as he learns to advocate for himself. Even the simplest step toward taking a mainstream science class proves challenging for Alex when he’s targeted by his old bully and his caregivers’ doubts threaten to drain his confidence. But, inspired by the vast possibilities inherent in space exploration, he fights to find the courage to believe in his own limitless potential as well as to gain support from others. Paulino lays out her accessibly written

verse in varied ways on the page, effectively adding visual interest. An uplifting debut about the importance of self-belief. (Verse fiction. 10-14)

The King of Books

Perry, Gina | Feiwel & Friends (40 pp.) $18.99 | July 15, 2025 | 9781250330123

A young tiger loves everything about books…except reading them. The King tells his loyal subjects Elephant, Boar, and Monkey that it’s Book Day: “Prepare to be dazzled by all the marvelous things I can do with my books.” The other animals observe as the King builds book towers, creates “a mighty bookquake,” and eats off a “book tray.” Boar vainly attempts to show the King what books are really for but is admonished for interrupting and flees in terror. Later, the King “tidies up” by dumping his books into the moat. Unamused, the moat monster throws them back, leading the King to conclude that his realm is under siege. Back at the castle, the King’s subjects finally reveal the true purpose of books and show him a guide with tips for vanquishing moat monsters. The King wonders why no one’s told him about the importance of reading. (“We tried.” “We really did.”) Apologizing, he suggests that they all read together—which they do, happily (the moat monster included). Some kids may wonder why the King never attempted to read these stories, since he evidently knows how; still, it’s a small point. The King’s dialogue is styled in bold print, suggesting his status and loud voice, both contrasting with his diminutive stature. With his adorably oversize head, the King is clearly a tiger cub—but one who oozes confidence and moxie. Perry’s colorful, crisp illustrations infuse the King’s wonderfully explosive tantrums with drama. Bound to be a roaring success at storytime. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kids’ Novels That Deserve To Be Movies

INDIE AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

LAUREN SCOTT

Author of The Tale of Two Fawns: A Unique Gift of Destiny

Tell us a little about yourself and The Tale of Two Fawns. My name is Lauren Scott, and I am 11 years old. I live in Nashville, Tennessee, with my family and my dog, Ruby. I am a fifth grader at Ensworth. I am fully bilingual in English and Russian and enjoy learning other languages. I am a brown belt in taekwondo. When I am not reading, writing, or playing with my dog, I love singing in a choir, dancing on my school team, performing in theater, and fashion modeling. One of my biggest dreams is to act in movies—maybe even one based on a book like mine!

I wrote my book, The Tale of Two Fawns: A Unique Gift of Destiny, based on an incredible real-life experience when two orphaned fawns unexpectedly appeared in my backyard, and I had to help care for them

What inspired you to write The Tale of Two Fawns?

At first, I couldn’t believe two tiny, helpless fawns were in my own backyard! My family and I had no idea how to care for them, especially when wildlife rehabilitators were closed during the Covid-19 pandemic. It was truly a journey of discovery, kindness, and responsibility. What started as a challenge turned into a once-in-a-lifetime story that I could not wait to share and take readers on that journey with me! As I wrote in my book, “It’s so neat how two little fawns can teach you so much.” I hope

that my story inspires people to be more aware of and kind to animals.

Did writing this book change your perspective?

I’ve always loved telling stories, but writing this book made me realize that one of the best parts of being an author is knowing that my words have an impact. One of my favorite Amazon reviews said, “Make sure you read to the end for the Helpful Wildlife Tips. A fun read for the whole family.” It makes me so happy to know kids and families are enjoying my book, fun illustrations, and learning at the same time.

How did you research your book?

A lot of what I learned came from firsthand experience with the fawns and guidance from my dad. My mom and grandparents also helped me research online to better understand how to care for the fawns. Sometimes, we had to figure things out. While writing the book, I also worked with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, who helped me put together the Helpful Wildlife Tips section. Through my writing, I hope to spread awareness about protecting and respecting animals.

What are you working on now?

I just finished my next book, The Adventures of Chica, Chaka, Bossy, and Squeak, which I plan to launch this year! I am also really excited about the upcoming Audible version of my first book and my new website,

The Tale of Two Fawns: A Unique Gift of Destiny

Scott, Lauren; illus. by Alena Karabach

Self | 54 pp. | $12.99 paper May 14, 2024 | 9798891097568

where I’ll be sharing weekly blog stories, updates, and behind-the-scenes pictures. I love sharing stories and am excited about what’s next!

Portions of this Q&A were edited for clarity.

For a review of the book, visit Kirkus online.

Catherine Fiehn Photography

A Change Is Gonna Come Picture Book in the Works

Nikkolas Smith is adapting Sam Cooke’s iconic protest song as a children’s book.

One of Sam Cooke’s best-known songs is getting a picturebook adaptation.

Illustrator Nikkolas Smith will bring the King of Soul’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” to the page in a new book published by Little Bee Books, People magazine reports.

Cooke’s protest song, a track on his 1964 album Ain’t That Good News, had its roots in several racist incidents Cooke endured as a Black man in the mid-20th century. It was released as a single in December 1964, 11 days after Cooke was shot to death in a Los Angeles motel. The song is now considered an anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. Smith is known for illustrating children’s

For reviews of picture books by Nikkolas Smith, visit Kirkus online.

books including Born on the Water, written by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson; I Am Ruby Bridges, written by Ruby Bridges; and That Flag, written by Tameka Fryer Brown.

Smith announced the book on Instagram, writing, “Guided by the timeless ‘Change’ lyrics, I created a new visual story that follows a young boy in the 1960s who uses the gift of photography to guide him throughout life, documenting the highs, lows, fears, and hopes of the civil rights era. It is my honor to bring this beloved civil rights anthem to life in a new way.”

A Change Is Gonna Come is slated for publication on Sept. 2.

—M.S.

Sam Cooke

A headlong, cranked-up romp—with dragons!

It’s Busy Down in the Woods Today: Friends To Meet, Places To Explore, and Over 100 Things To Find

Piercey, Rachel | Illus. by Freya Hartas Magic Cat (32 pp.) | $19.99 | June 17, 2025 9781419777004 | Series: Brown Bear Wood

The denizens of Brown Bear Wood keep busy, from morning to night.

Right away, readers meet the jovial, all-animal cast, learn about their important, specialized jobs, and are invited to play challenging seek-and-find games. Writing in engaging verse that scans well, Piercey introduces each location, from the Honey Pot Library, where librarian Papa Bear reads stories to a host of rapt young animals, to the Woodland Hospital, where Dr. Deer, Nurse Pigeon, and the rest of the medical team gently tend to their patients. The seek-and-find element is a rousing success; kids will have a blast attempting to locate Grandma Toad in the market or the baby mice blowing bubbles on the playground. Ideal for honing visual skills, these puzzles are quite detailed; each is accompanied by a lengthy key listing objects or characters for readers to locate. They may prove more diverting if shared with a group—and perhaps easier, as the items are quite tiny. In any case, this bouncy offering, originally published in the U.K., will keep readers as busy as the characters. Drawn in pencil and colored digitally, the charming woodland scenes call to mind Richard Scarry’s work, particularly the intricate cutaways. A final page includes several job-related questions for readers to ask the adults in their lives: “Where do you work?” “What is a typical day like for you?”

Entertaining, immersive fun. (Picture book. 3-7)

Fish Don’t Go to School

Pilutti, Deb | Christy Ottaviano Books (40 pp.) $18.99 | July 8, 2025 | 9780316565271

Like many kids, Henry wants to wear his favorite outfit on the first day of school. Unlike other children, however, Henry enjoys wearing an oversize fish costume that makes him look like his beloved goldfish, Marigold. His face peeps through the mask, and the costume contains holes for his legs, but everything else is covered. Despite his parents’ apprehension and his own concerns, Henry goes ahead with his unusual get-up; after all, it feels like “wearing a hug.” No one sits next to Henry at circle time, but things improve as the day progresses. Slowly, he finds himself shedding parts of his costume: He gives a classmate named Lucy his fins so he can more easily use scissors while working on an art project, he lets Mr. Blake hold his tail at recess, and he trades the fish head for Lucy’s cat ears at storytime. Eventually, Henry’s down to just a scaly orange vest, which has become his new treasured item. Pilutti’s understated multimedia illustrations pair well with the text, a mix of narration and realistic dialogue presented in speech bubbles. Laudably, while the adults in Henry’s life express doubts about his wardrobe choices, they give him the space he needs to figure things out; though his journey’s a bit rocky, it comes to a quietly triumphant conclusion. Henry is pale-skinned; his classmates are diverse. An offbeat and empathetic take on handling first-day-of-school anxieties. (Picture book. 4-7)

Unnaturally Blue

Plourde, Dorson | Illus. by Byron Eggenschwiler | Kids Can (48 pp.)

$21.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9781525311338

A young swimmer gets the blues. The text’s poetic voice belongs to an auburn-haired youngster with dark eyes and pale, freckled skin, surrounded by other children at the community pool. As the others splash and play, the protagonist stays off to the side under a sign that reads “NO RUNNING / NO DIVING / NO CRYING.” The youngster recalls participating in synchronized swimming—happier times. Now, though, “there just isn’t any room…to be a creature so blue.” The story takes a fantastical turn as the child dives down through a drain and into a swampy world where the youngster’s tears create a new watery environment. There, the narrator heals, transforming into a gilled, web-footed creature—a metaphor for overcoming depression? Unfortunately, the tale’s meaning is obscure, and the words and eerie illustrations alike seem aimed at an audience older than that of most picture books. When the child returns to the pool, none of the children are alarmed in the least by the protagonist’s transformation into a sea creature. In fact, they also seem to change into alligators, beavers, and turtles—or do they? While Eggenschwiler’s vividly saturated, surreal imagery is enticing, the line between fantasy and reality is blurred to the point of confusion; young readers likely won’t understand or readily engage with this work. An oddly opaque look at coping with difficult emotions. (Picture book. 6-9)

DAD ROCK DRAGON QUEST

Gyro and the Argonauts! Aka the Best Book Ever Written*: *About a Kid Named After a Sandwich

Pruett, Joshua | Illus. by Amanda Castillo Andrews McMeel Publishing (272 pp.)

$12.99 paper | June 17, 2025 | 9781524886417

Series: Gyro and the Argonauts, 1

A young fanboy learns that his heroes aren’t all they’re cracked up to be when he joins Perseus and other Argonauts on a quest for the Golden Sheep.

A fixation on the “horse apples”—what the narrator calls “my adorable nickname for horse poops”—of winged Pegasus isn’t all that drags down this effort at role reversal. Pruett sends white-presenting 12-year-old Gyro, who’s been named an “Honorary Indemnified Argonaut,” off with Heracles—here a brawny (and dimwitted) woman with disgusting personal habits—and chiseled narcissist Perseus on a mission to slay monsters and rescue a magical ram. But in contrast to these supposed heroes, all the monsters Gyro encounters, from Medusa and the Minotaur to the Cyclops, turn out to be victims of fake news spread by lying storytellers, and more interested in leading quiet lives than eating people. Along with being a miasma of labored fart jokes and potty humor, the narrative is studded with words like L Λ BΨ℞ΦΠTH and TΩDΔΨ that inconsistently use letters misappropriated from the Greek alphabet. Improbably surviving multiple tricks and betrayals by his supposed allies, Gyro does ultimately get from “monster-fighter” to “monsterfriender” in time for a climactic (and nearly bloodless) battle that leaves him “better than a hero.” Confusingly, in several first-person interludes that directly address readers, the narrator is a self-described “third-person omniscient narrator” but doesn’t define the term or clarify that it refers to the rest of the book.

A solid base buried beneath a heaping helping of horse apples. (author’s note, glossary, story notes) (Fantasy. 10-12)

A Perfect Place To Play

Rabe, Tish | Illus. by Jim Valeri | Paw Prints

Publishing/Baker & Taylor (32 pp.)

$16.99 | May 6, 2025 | 9781223188867

Series: Forever Friends Farm, 2

The animals of the Forever Friends Farm learn the value of sharing. Introduced in Forever Kind (2025), supporting characters P.J. the goose and Winston the mouse take center stage as they explore the forest near their farm. Spying a spot where they and their pals can play, they clear away leaves and sticks. P.J. and Winston are eager to show their friends their new space, but when everyone heads over to the forest together, they’re surprised and disappointed to see the leaves and sticks again piled up in the middle of the glade. A group of red, tan, and brown squirrels appear, led by a purple squirrel named Pearl (like the necklace she wears), who explains that they use the leaves as beds. A sudden thunderstorm interrupts the discussion and sends everyone running to the barn. Grateful that the farm animals were willing to share their space, Pearl instantly decides to reciprocate and share the squirrels’ forest spot. The narrative arc is short, with the conflict resolved unrealistically speedily; P.J. and Winston never acknowledge that they did, however inadvertently, take over the squirrels’ space. The language is generally concise and phonetic (with exceptions like squirrels), if a bit bland. The uneven rhythm throughout is challenging, since natural accents are displaced, but occasional rhymes (sticks/fix ; squirrel/ Pearl ) help. Full-color, Disney-esque images fill the pages; sporting cute accessories, the animals have large googly eyes, wide smiles, and quasihuman grips and gestures.

Sweet but lackluster attempts at social-emotional learning. (QR code for a song) (Early reader. 4-7)

Dad Rock Dragon Quest

Reardon, Joan | Aladdin (352 pp.)

$17.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9781665963367

A 12-year-old rock star wannabe finds an even better identity after her dad’s dragon is kidnapped. In a thematic mashup that seldom pauses for breath, Reardon stirs rock dreams, parent issues, and (magical!) animal trafficking into a road trip that’s highlighted by life-changing family revelations. To Zadie, the contrast between her flamboyant if often absent dad, Damian Drake—who looks “as if Indiana Jones had wandered into a Zeppelin concert”—and Lloyd Clutterbuck, her mom’s nerdy and excessively cautious new boyfriend, could hardly be greater. Then she discovers that Damian is secretly a Gamewarden, charged with keeping cryptids out of the clutches of cruel and rapacious collectors. When she and her eco-warrior older sister, Persephone, tag along on a frantic chase across the Midwest to rescue Damian’s companion dragon, Maverick, from brutal poachers, her views of both father figures change. Following several epic clashes with the thoroughly demonized bad guys, she not only comes away with an animal companion of her own, but also a new vision of her destiny, thanks to the discovery that her beloved guitar is good for even more than thunderous power chords. Along with chapter titles that make up a rocking playlist, the author weaves plentiful references to classic rock and pop standards into this adrenaline junkie’s delight. Most characters read white; Zadie confusingly associates her mother’s homeland of Sweden with “volcanoes and fjords.”

A headlong, cranked-up romp—with dragons! (Adventure. 9-12)

Holiday customs come to life in this festive and heartwarming tale.

CASCARONES

The

Woman Behind the Magic: How Lillian B. Disney Shaped the Disney Legacy

Richman, Brittany | Illus. by Joanie Stone Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (40 pp.)

$19.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9781665962742

Steering clear of the spotlight, Lillian Disney (neé Bounds) found her own way to leave her mark on the Disney legacy. Born the last of 10 siblings in 1899, Lilly had a knack for finding magic in the everyday despite her tough beginnings—after her father died when she was 17, she helped her mother make ends meet. She stumbled upon the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio after moving to Los Angeles. Though women were rarely hired in animation at the time, Walt and Roy Disney took a chance on Lilly. She became an inker and a painter, filling animators’ drawings with pigment, cell by cell. Enamored by her boss’s creativity, Lilly fell in love with Walt, and they were soon married. When Walt sketched a cartoon mouse named Mortimer, Lillian suggested that “Mickey” would be a catchier name. Though Lilly preferred to stay behind the scenes while supporting her husband, she left a lasting impact on the company: dreaming up cartoon ideas, testing theme park rides, and even innovating Disneyland’s trashcollection system. Richman sprinkles pixie dust on one woman’s influence on the Disney we know today; still, young readers eager to take center stage may be frustrated with Lillian’s willingness to play second fiddle to Walt. Digital illustrations are rendered with a muted

palette that evokes the period but feels a bit dull, directly depicting the events described in the text rather than building on them.

Peek behind the scenes and celebrate a woman whose achievements shaped Disney magic. (author’s note, timeline, sources) (Picture-book biography. 5-8)

Lucy Sings on Lucy Street

Roberts, Lawrence & Sally-Ann Roberts Illus. by Jestenia Southerland | Harper/ HarperCollins (40 pp.) | $19.99 May 20, 2025 | 9780063222540

Through the power of music, Lucimarian Tolliver is reminded of what’s important. Lucy is one of the only children of African descent on her block—called Lucy Street—in 1930s Akron, Ohio, but all her neighbors share one commonality: poverty. Lucy’s carefree spirit is dampened when her family’s furniture is repossessed one day. She visits her grandfather, who comforts her by singing the folk standard “This Little Light of Mine.” Grandpa tells Lucy that she’s destined for greatness and that she should never stop singing, even through life’s toughest moments. Back at home, Lucy’s father scolds her for singing at the dinner table, so she quickly finishes eating and wanders outside and sings into the night. Her voice reaches her family and neighbors, who are all touched by her song. Digital illustrations evoke the time period in muted tones, featuring endearing characters with simple yet expressive features. The visual subject matter is repetitive from page to page, as are the incorporated

lyrics of “This Little Light of Mine.” Based on Lucimarian Tolliver’s experiences growing up during the Depression, the text contains an epilogue but lacks backmatter detailing historical context or more information about Lucy’s life. Though the themes of optimism and the importance of family, faith, and music shine through the text, readers may be left with more questions than answers.

A brief but sweet snapshot of an inspiring girl who finds hope in song. (Picture-book biography. 5-7)

Narwhal vs. Kindergarten

Roeder, Vanessa | Dial Books (40 pp.)

$18.99 | July 8, 2025 | 9780593858509

A young narwhal struggles on his first day at school but soon realizes he isn’t the only one floundering. Things are off to a rough start when Hugo boards the school bus for kindergarten: His tusk is so long that he must stick his head out the window to fit in his seat. Problems persist at the crosswalk when he accidently gooses the crossing guard with his tusk and then in the classroom when he knocks over a classmate’s block tower—again, with his tusk. The story’s humor, the result of seamless interactions between cartoon-style art and clever text, isn’t wholly reliant on slapstick mishaps stemming from Hugo’s lacking bodily awareness; the goosed crossing guard is—wait for it—a goose, and endpapers include classroom posters showcasing authors Tomie deKoala (an anthropomorphic koala) and Leo Lionni (no name alteration necessary for this leonine writer). As the story progresses, the humor expands to show that Hugo isn’t alone in his efforts to succeed in kindergarten. Comedic scenes set on the playground depict an elephant calf’s sneeze drenching a classmate, monkey bars stymying a snake, and a nervous octopus accidentally

squirting ink on the merry-go-round. Such mishaps are eventually resolved as the students form a caring and collaborative classroom community, nurtured by their patient orangutan teacher, Ms. Hairington, and the hilarious Coach Cooper (a rooster), whose lack of lips prevents him from blowing a whistle. A laugh-out-loud, fish-out-of-water, first-day-of-school read. (Picture book. 4-7)

Amina Banana and the Formula for Winning

Safadi, Shifa Saltagi | Illus. by Aaliya Jaleel Putnam (128 pp.) | $16.99 | May 20, 2025 9780593699232 | Series: Amina Banana, 2

Third grader

Amina’s efforts to grasp the intricacies of English threaten to overwhelm her. Since moving to Indianapolis a few weeks ago, Syrian refugee Amina has been finding her footing at school. But after a series of demoralizing incidents, she begins internalizing her older brother Sami’s defeatist attitude: “We’re always going to struggle with learning English. We’re always going to feel second place.” ESL teacher Ms. Tanya shows her the insensitively titled Teaching Kids Spelling for Dummies, mean classmate Tara sneers when Amina scores poorly on a spelling test, and Amina overhears her doctor mother telling her father that she plans to postpone her professional exams because she still hasn’t mastered English. Determined to prove herself by winning the upcoming spelling bee, scienceloving Amina devises a formula for success, which includes studying hard, focusing, and keeping her strategy secret. But her preparations consume her—and, worst of all, isolate her from her new friends. Once more, Safadi plumbs Amina’s anxieties with a mix of sensitivity and humor. Amina’s insightful commentary on the strangeness of English idioms and her realizations about the spelling bee competition

(“Winning is being with the people that matter the most”) make her an empathetic protagonist whom readers will be eager to befriend. Her Syrian and Muslim identities are richly incorporated into the narrative; her community is diverse. Final art not seen.

A moving and thoughtful series addition. (author’s note, spelling tips and tricks, recipe) (Chapter book. 7-10)

Cascarones: An Easter Surprise / Una Sorpresa de Pascuas

Trans. by Alaíde Ventura Medina

Piñata Books/Arte Público (32 pp.)

$18.95 | May 31, 2025 | 9798893750157

A child shares a joyful family tradition of making cascarones—hollow eggshells filled with confetti—for Easter.

The family begins saving eggshells in January, carefully blowing out the yolks and whites through small holes. By the time Easter nears, they’ve collected 100 empty shells, ready to be painted in bright, vibrant colors. Next, the family members fill each egg with confetti and seal the holes with glue and tissue paper. It’s hard to wait for Easter, but when the day arrives, Papá hides the eggs in the park for the youngest family members to find. The narrator’s younger brother, Nicolás, has just learned to walk, so this will be his first egg hunt! After all the eggs are found, Nicolás gets a big surprise when his sibling shows him an especially fun tradition: cracking the filled eggs on each other’s heads, creating a colorful explosion of confetti. The children delight in the messy fun. This sweet, simple story not only carefully describes the process of making cascarones, but also captures the pure joy of cracking the eggs. The vibrant watercolor illustrations highlight the cultural celebration, with expressive faces adding to the charm. Presented in both English and Spanish (with Ventura Medina providing the Spanish

translation), this bilingual story allows readers to enjoy the narrative in both languages. Characters are Latine, with brown skin and hair.

Holiday customs come to life in this festive and heartwarming tale. (Picture book. 3-6)

A Sky That Sings

Sanchez, Anita | Illus. by Emily Mendoza Lee & Low Books (40 pp.) | $20.95 March 18, 2025 | 9781643795379

A blind child identifies birds by sound. Feeling the sunshine and spring air, Mia can tell it’s “a perfect afternoon for bird-listening” in the park with Tía. To Mia, the sky is “the place where the music lives,” and each bird sings a distinct song. Some birds say their names, like the blue jay or chickadee. Nuthatches “honk like traffic”: “Ank ank ink ank onk onk.” And the chipping sparrow sounds just like Tía’s sewing machine! But Mia’s keeping an ear out for “the special call I want to hear,” even though it’s getting dark. At last, atop a hill, Mia hears the “Screeeeeeeee ” of a red-tailed hawk. And as Mia’s favorite bird soars majestically above, “just for a minute I fly with it.” As Mia and Tía depart, cooing mourning doves sing a lullaby, and Mia leaves readers with some parting words: “Can you hear them? Listen! ” Through Mia’s cheerful narration, readers will also learn how blind people use their senses to navigate and glean information about their surroundings, as when Mia’s white cane registers a log on the path before Tía points it out or when the smell of mud indicates a nearby pond. Mendoza’s bright, warm-hued cartoon illustrations clearly depict each bird and sweetly convey Mia and Tía’s loving bond. Backmatter includes a glossary of birds and their calls. Mia and Tía have tan skin and are cued Latine. Upbeat and enlightening. (tips for listening to birds, website) (Picture book. 4-8)

Salazar, Alicia | Illus. by Aimee Del Valle

Mary Had a Little Jam

Sauer, Tammi | Illus. by Vanessa BrantleyNewton | Union Square Kids (32 pp.)

$18.99 | March 4, 2025 | 9781454933045

Series: Mary Had a Little Glam

The protagonist of Mary Had a Little Glam (2016) and Mary Had a Little Plan (2022) gathers her pals for a jam session. Mary, a Black girl who wears a nest housing a bird family atop her head, sits on the front stoop strumming her pink ukulele. “I think I need a group,” she announces before recruiting a diverse cadre of friends, among them Jack and Jill, Bo Peep, and Boy Blue. They gather in her living room and start playing different tunes simultaneously, producing a cacophony. This isn’t what Mary had in mind. She gets their attention and tells them they need some harmony. As her band, dubbed the Nurs’ry Rhymers, practices and improves, joy abounds. And while Mary still occasionally plays on her own, she loves being part of a band. Bursting with color and motion, this lively story will keep readers as busy as the artwork; little ones will enjoy pointing out what the bird family is doing, tracking the trouble that Bo Peep’s sheep get into, and identifying other animals (such as a goose and a spider) also found in nursery rhymes. Mary’s trusty companion, a small white dog, adds to the fun, howling in the midst of the musical mayhem. A toe-tappingly fun tale about what it takes to bring auditory beauty to life. (Picture book. 4-7)

Be My Brave Sunflower

Simmonds, Kathryn | Illus. by Rosalind

Beardshaw | Candlewick (32 pp.)

$18.99 | July 22, 2025 | 9781536235432

seeds can’t wait to get out of their packets, but speckled Vernon is worried. He knows that the world is full of scary things, like birds and thunderstorms. A little girl named Carla gives Vernon a snug home in some soil, telling him, “Be my brave sunflower.” As the days pass, the other seeds sprout their first leaves, but Vernon is hesitant. While he’s peeking out one night at the stars, an owl swoops him up and drops him into the school sandbox. Thankfully Carla finds him the next day and replants him while repeating her request. Unlike the others, Vernon still refuses to sprout, however; it’s much safer in his pot! But he notices water dropping into his pot from an odd source— Carla’s tears. Vernon pushes himself (literally) to be brave in the hopes of delighting Carla the next day. Ultimately, Vernon is aware that he isn’t the tallest or grandest plant, but he’s knowledgeable—and he has Carla. This gently encouraging tale can serve as a model for young readers, even featuring a mantra to help kids persevere despite anxiety. Though the main characters never directly communicate, they successfully drive the narrative without visual awkwardness, thanks in large part to the soft-edged, charismatic digital illustrations, which show Carla with pale skin and straight blond hair. Sweetly uplifting. (Picture book. 3-7)

Rayleigh Mann and the Quest of Misfits

Smart, Ciannon | Harper/ HarperCollins (336 pp.) | $19.99 June 24, 2025 | 9780063081307

Christmas season in Above-London, and Yule in Below-London, where Rayleigh lives under the watchful eyes of his uncle Thelonious and father, Bogey, the Supreme Scarer. The two men agree that Rayleigh must remain safely at home in monster-proof Terror Tower until they’ve hunted down the impostor, or mysterious shape-shifter, that’s after him. Plenty of danger and discovery await in this fantastical coming-of-age (or rather, becoming-a-monster) tale that will keep readers wondering, just like Rayleigh, who can be trusted. Smart portrays Rayleigh’s adjustment to an underground London where nightmarish adventures lurk around every corner. His friends include furry, fox-faced Marley and invisible monsterling Mack; the three attend flying lessons together. The awkwardness of learning to fly and the growing pains that hint at what type of monster each will develop into are intriguing and will keep the pages turning. Readers will revel in the variety of familiar monsters (both friend and foe) and enjoy watching Rayleigh learn and grow as he’s being chased by the impostor’s minions and fights to save friends, family, and himself while using his special abilities.

A page-turner that will draw fans into another exciting quest. (Fantasy. 8-12)

Kirkus Star

Recess

Smith, Lane | Abrams (40 pp.) | $19.99 July 22, 2025 | 9781419776892

Growing up can be tough. A teacher prepares some pots for children to plant sunflowers. Most of the

The magical adventures of 12-year-old Black British boy Rayleigh Mann pick up immediately following the 2023 series opener. Rayleigh is settling into the mystical realm of creatures that haunt the dreams of children. ’Tis the

The essence of a school-day recess is siphoned down into pure joyous chaos. Before tapping into the kinetic energy of a classic “red light, green light” game, Smith begins with an acknowledgment that while school is “pretty fun,” once in a while “we need a break from all that fun, right?” As he introduces different school subjects, he somehow always finds a way to end his

descriptions of gym, spelling, and even math with a cry of “RECESS!” During these interludes, he encourages young readers to shake their booties, quack like ducks, stomp their feet, bounce invisible balls, and do any number of other loud things—until the fun abruptly ends, and it’s back to more schoolwork. The triumphant finish invites readers to take part in all these activities at once in a riot of color and movement. This interactive explosion of a book bursts off the page, engulfing young listeners in its inescapable exuberance. The read-aloud potential is high, with the intrusive narrator providing hilariously disapproving commentary while also egging readers on. The characters are awash in bright hues and tones; Smith uses geometric shapes for many of the children’s facial features. If B.J. Novak’s The Book With No Pictures (2014) were smushed into Jon Scieszka and Smith’s The Stinky Cheese Man (1992), this might well be the result. Wilder than any rumpus, this recess isn’t just a break—it’s silliness incarnate! (Picture book. 3-6)

Freya and the Snake

Sonck, Fredrik | Illus. by Jenny Lucander

Trans. by B.J. Woodstein | Kids Can (32 pp.)

$21.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9781525313721

A snake slithers out from behind the rocks, setting off an epic storm of emotions. Freya spots the errant creature near younger brother Hugo. Concerned for the kids’ safety, their dad prepares a plan to catch the serpent. When that plan fails, Dad bashes the snake with an oar, killing it, much to the horror of Freya, who instantly labels him a “MURDERER!”

While Mom, Dad, and older sister Julia try to make Freya understand the situation, Freya seethes, effectively showcased through Lucander’s expressive art, a combination of line drawings, watercolor, and digital collage. Eventually, the ice thaws

between father and child after a solo boat ride where they both talk openly and realize it’s possible to love someone despite not approving of all their actions. Originally published in Finland, this is an emotionally honest look at death and forgiveness that demonstrates that the choice between right and wrong isn’t always so clear. Sonck’s straightforward text authentically and respectfully showcases a child’s volatile feelings. Using sparkly blues and warm tans and reds, Lucander balances the beauty of the natural terrain near the family’s home with the naked brutality of death. The characters are pale-skinned. A lovely and empathetic look at the often-difficult decisions we must make in life. (Picture book. 5-8)

The Tower at the End of Time

Sparkes, Amy | Illus. by Ben Mantle McElderry (288 pp.) | $18.99

June 17, 2025 | 9781665971904

Series: The House at the Edge of Magic, 2

The desperate search for a cure for their flying house’s violent hiccups pitches young thief Nine and her new family into a deadly round of magical hopscotch.

Even though there’s a literal skeleton in the closet, Nine loves her new room in the House at the Edge of Magic. What she doesn’t love is being unexpectedly knocked off her feet as the flying House hiccups its way through the World Between Worlds. There’s nothing for it but to enter the

annual Hopscotch Championships for a chance to beg a cure from the all-knowing Asking Stone. Focused, like the first episode, more on daffy magical effects and comedic narrow squeaks than complex plot or character development, this second entry in a British fantasy series puts the reformed child thief and her housemates through a breathless series of challenges. Revelations about Nine’s past appear in a flashback in the epilogue. Readers who appreciate plot-driven narratives will enjoy the adventures of a plucky foundling, a house where the doors are elusive and the toilets mischievous, and a cast that includes a bloodthirsty talking spoon and a lovable troll housekeeper whose pancakes should definitely be avoided. The House’s residents (the human characters are largely cued white) display a familial feeling that casts a warm glow over their exploits and squabbles. Mantle’s spot art adds touches of whimsy.

Charmingly madcap. (Fantasy. 8-12)

Janie Writes a Play: Jane Yolen’s First Great Story

Stemple, Heidi E.Y. | Illus. by Madelyn Goodnight | Charlesbridge (32 pp.) | $18.99 February 11, 2025 | 9781623543273

Seeing that an upcoming class play needs sprucing up, a child takes matters into her own hands.

Looking back to her mother’s beginnings as a writer, Stemple offers a biographical tidbit that does double duty as tribute and as fresh encouragement for budding creative talents.

A warm glimpse into the life and personality of a favorite childhood author.

JANIE WRITES A PLAY

Little Janie, she notes, eventually became the prolific, critically acclaimed children’s book author Jane Yolen. Living as she does in a world of great books, intriguing words, and imagined dramas, young Janie immediately realizes that the script for the school play in which she’s landed the role of “Girl Number 1” is going to be a “boring bust.” Time for a rewrite! The next morning she dances into school with a veggie-themed musical (starring herself as “chief carrot”) that goes on to earn a standing ovation. “It was Janie’s first rave review. It wouldn’t be her last.” Between endpapers featuring bookshelves crowded with just a sampling of familiar Yolen titles, Goodnight portrays a hardworking, confident child with an inward gaze. In some scenes, she’s surrounded by swirls of words or fanciful figures from books she would go on to write; in others, smiling adults offer support and fellow students diverse in skin tone gather round, eager to follow her lead. In the afterword, the author pairs a set of black-and-white snapshots with more detail about her talented mother and family.

A warm glimpse into the life and personality of a favorite childhood author. (Picture-book biography. 6-8)

The Poetry of Car Mechanics

Stemple, Heidi E.Y. | Wordsong/ Astra Books for Young Readers (256 pp.)

$19.99 | April 15, 2025 | 9781662660214

W hen 15-year-old Dylan discovers an injured red-tailed hawk in the woods where he watches birds and writes poetry, he’s forced to examine the complicated fractures running through his life.

In her layered novel in verse, Stemple creates a world where mechanical expertise and poetic sensitivity intertwine, grounded by characters who reveal unexpected depths. Initially coming across as harsh and unlikable,

Dylan’s rigidly old-fashioned and judgmental grandfather reveals a surprisingly caring and protective streak when it matters most. White-presenting Dylan emerges as a genuine protagonist; while helping in his grandfather’s auto shop, he learns that “cars are easier than people” as he carries the weight of his mother’s absence and unpredictable mental illness. His keen observations reveal both deep-seated grief and unspoken fears about inheritance, particularly as he grapples with the harsh reality that “nature is cruel / to broken creatures.” Through his investigation of the injured hawk, Dylan confronts questions about brokenness—in nature, in his mother, and perhaps in himself. Though his solitude isn’t entirely by choice (former friendships dissolved following his mother’s public actions), a growing friendship with Peregrine Rodriguez, a raptor rehabilitator’s daughter, offers a promising glimpse of connection. As he navigates small-town living, Dylan starts to recognize how people, like the birds he admires, contain both vulnerability and strength.

A well-crafted exploration of healing that will remind readers that everyone’s story has wings waiting to unfold. (author’s note, resources) (Verse fiction. 9-12)

Up, Up, and Away: The History of Aviation

Svoboda, Tomas SMOT | Albatros Media (56 pp.) | $19.95 | July 8, 2025 | 9788000074603

Fleets of sharply depicted early, modern, and theoretical gliders, balloons, jets, and other aircraft send this overview speeding down the runway.

“It started with Icarus.” Beginning with this mythical flight—and crash—a grizzled grandpa squires two grandchildren through a chronicle of airborne ups and downs, from ancient Chinese military kites and later European hot air balloons, past the Wright brothers and

other early aviators successful and otherwise, to galleries of 20th-century war planes, modern passenger jets, and helicopters of diverse design. Pausing along the way for close-up examinations of the anatomy and aerodynamics of bird wings, how engines work, and other fundamentals, the tour concludes with an infographic timeline that, though it ends in 2007, memorably recaps most of the preceding content in one sweeping visual. Aside from briefly touting dirigibles as eco-friendly alternatives, the author glides silently past the environmental costs of conventional aircraft. Still, his gallery of notable figures does include ninthcentury experimenter Abbas ibn Firnas (“Although he broke a few bones, he’s credited with making one of the first parachute jumps”) and other undersung innovators worldwide; for truly insatiable fans of flight, he recommends several more comprehensive histories. Human figures in the illustrations are predominantly male but racially diverse. The grandfather is tan-skinned; one grandchild is brown-skinned, while the other is pale-skinned. Amiable glimpses of flights across the friendly, and not so friendly, skies. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 6-9)

Colin’s Castle

Swain, Holly | Boxer Books (32 pp.)

$18.99 | July 15, 2025 | 9781454712510

Things aren’t always what they’re quacked up to be.

Colin’s “one happy vampire”— he’s moving into a castle that’s “perfect in every way.” Unbeknownst to him, however, it already has a tenant: a greenish-blue duck who accosts him in the tub. Colin unceremoniously deposits the duck in the moat. After all, “a vampire’s castle should be a duck-free zone.” The determined quacker has other ideas and shows up again when Colin’s watching TV, mowing the lawn, and reading on the toilet. Colin chases

the wayward creature away and installs heavy padlocks. Guess who returns?

Colin’s bewildered: How does the feathered interloper do it? The frustrated Colin suctions up his nemesis with a vacuum cleaner and tosses the bird out. That night, a quacking chorus interrupts Colin’s sleep: Hundreds of ducklings are assembled outside. Following Colin’s birdseed trail to the moat, they all jump in. Colin can finally resume his slumber…or can he? This droll tale, first published in the U.K., is told in a wry, understated voice—two voices, actually, Colin’s and an unseen narrator’s. Kids will likely guess from the outset that the low-key standoff between the bemused, wide-eyed Colin and his web-footed adversary won’t go his way, which only heightens the humor. The thin-lined illustrations, rendered in a soft, limited palette, complement the witty proceedings. Colin has paper-white skin and cuts a nonthreatening figure. This very ducky story gets top billing from us. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Star

Lone Wolf Goes to the Library

Thomas, Kiah | Illus. by K-Fai Steele

Neal Porter/Holiday House (48 pp.)

$16.99 | May 27, 2025 | 9780823457809

Series: Lone Wolf, 3

Anxious, antisocial Wolf avoids, then confronts, a crisis involving an overdue book.

Absorbed in his book, Wolf ignores the postman’s cries of “Mail!” until a flung missive hits his backside. The third notice from an old-school tyrant known as “The Stern Librarian” warns that he will be forever banned from borrowing books unless he returns his tome that very day. Reluctant to go to the library (where he might encounter “noisy kids having fun”—horrors!), Wolf tries unsuccessfully to mail his book back. Next, Wolf encounters the jolly hiker (whom readers may

remember from earlier titles) and attempts to trick him into returning the book, but his plans go awry. Wolf’s now desperate to reach the library before the crowd of kids arrives for storytime. Will the imperious librarian and the rude children defeat him? Can he take matters into his own paws and return to his comfortable chaise longue? Surrounded as he is by unsympathetic public servants and literally snotty youngsters, Wolf’s isolationist obsessions are all too understandable. The tightly focused sentences move briskly in Thomas and Steele’s third wryly clever installment; developing readers will giggle while eagerly turning pages. The art again perfectly suits the droll, understated text as googly-eyed, squat kids and a desiccated, grumpy librarian join the crotchety but somehow cuddly Wolf. (His book choices? A Room of One’s Own and Howl .) The human cast is diverse. Another can’t-miss outing with an irresistible, introverted antihero. (Early reader. 6-9)

Talking Rocks and Minerals: Fact-Packed Guide to Geology

Towler, Paige | Illus. by Matthew Carlson Grosset & Dunlap (32 pp.) | $16.99 July 1, 2025 | 9780593890950

In puntastic profusion, rocks and minerals chip in to introduce themselves: “Gneiss to meet you.”

As the accurately named tour guide Pebble dishes up commentary and at least some of the wordplay (“I’ll never take you for GRANITE, buddy”),

select rock stars from coal to marble describe their igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic origins as a prelude to glimpses of a glittering gallery of gems and a jumble of cameos from special guests: pyrite, fossils, and space rocks. Along the way, a look at the rock cycle shows how the three types of rock can transform into one another, and a pair of geodes offer readers a look at the “secrets” they conceal: gorgeous crystals. Carlson seamlessly shuffles photos and painted images together for the illustrations, tacking a smile and googly eyes onto Pebble and many specimens but accurately capturing their broad range of typical colors and surface textures. “Of course, there are always more rocks to discover!” Towler concludes, and to help readers “keep rocking on,” she finishes up with sources and advice for prospective rock hounds, plus a quick testimonial from a working scientist.

A geo-logical approach to discovering how rocks rock. (glossary) (Informational picture book. 7-9)

Born Inside a Nest So Small Trapani, Iza | Charlesbridge (32 pp.) $17.99 | June 10, 2025 | 9781623545840

An alert child gets to know a ruby-throated hummingbird. From spring to fall, the young narrator, tanskinned with tousled brown curls, records observations in rhyming couplets addressed to the animal. These rhymes are complemented by factual descriptions, differentiated from the verse by typeface and font. The text is set directly on Trapani’s

Another can’t-miss outing with an irresistible, introverted antihero.

LONE WOLF GOES TO THE LIBRARY

paintings, which accurately depict the male ruby-throated hummingbird (young and green, and with red hues as an adult) and its drabber green mother. The bird’s tiny size is emphasized in scenes that show him dwarfed by flowers, a feeder, and the child. The clothing the young narrator wears demonstrates the passing of the seasons from spring to summer to fall. Some of the child’s commentary comes from observation (how the bird flies, his “bitty wings,” his feeding habits) and some from a book—nesting behavior, in particular. As summer comes to a close, the hummingbird seems to say goodbye—a moment based on personal experience, Trapani notes in an afterword. The child can only imagine the bird’s long migration over water and the relief of his arrival at his warm winter home. The tone is gentle and admiring, the facts are accurate and sensibly selected for younger readers or listeners, and the lines scan comfortably for a read-aloud. An attractive title for the nature shelf and storytime. (recommended books and websites) (Informational picture book. 4-7)

Not a Spot To Spot: The True Story of Kipekee, the Giraffe Born Without Spots

Verdick, Elizabeth Weiss | Illus. by Zoe Waring Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (32 pp.)

$19.99 | July 22, 2025 | 9781665962025

In this tale based on actual events, a baby giraffe born with a unique look stands tall.

This calf is a solid tan color, without any spots. What a momentous, rare occurrence! The zookeepers’ shocked question— “Where are her spots?”— spreads throughout the zoo as the baby giraffe takes her first steps and wobbles outside. Everyone, from the visitors to the meerkats and penguins, asks about the newcomer’s

Draws readers into a setting like our own but ever so slightly off-kilter.

THE PAPER BRIDGE

lack of spots. Bright sunlit backdrops and even brighter, large-eyed characters give no hint of maliciousness; pure curiosity fuels their chattering. Mama reassures her little one with hushed advice at the end of the day: “Grow up strong and sure. Always stand tall. Be proud of who you are.” The zoo polls the public for ideas on what to name the calf. Votes are tallied worldwide, and the zoo decides on the name Kipekee, which means unique in Swahili. Verdick’s carefully chosen text, with internal rhymes and short phrasing, gently builds in momentum as Kipekee grows, reminding readers to be proud of what sets them apart. Backmatter notes that the real-life Kipekee was born at the Brights Zoo in Limestone, Tennessee, in 2023; some readers will wish for photographs of the spotless giraffe. Human characters are diverse.

Sweet, soothing, and enlightening—ideal for youngsters’ first forays into nonfiction. (Informational picture book. 4-7)

The Paper Bridge

Veyrenc, Joelle | Illus. by Seng Soun Ratanavanh | Trans. by Katy LockwoodHolmes | Floris (28 pp.) | $18.99 | May 6, 2025 | 9781782509073

In a mountaintop village where everything— including its population—is made of paper, residents must find the source of a mysterious wind.

Skilled in the art of kirigami (or paper folding), the denizens of

Paperlee lead happy lives, fearing only the wind that blows for five and a half days each year. But one day a worryingly unseasonal wind arrives, apparently from Forestlee, the village on the neighboring mountain. Anya, a young girl who’s especially talented at kirigami, decides to find out more. She designs a paper bridge and then crosses the chasm separating the two mountains. In Forestlee, strong, solid trees hold houses that don’t bend in the wind; readers will recognize that everything here is made from cardboard. The young diplomat not only learns the cause of the new wind, but also solves the problem to everyone’s satisfaction and unites the people of both villages, who share their skills with one another. Appropriately, Ratanavanh relied on kirigami for the book’s illustrations, intricately cutting, folding, and assembling paper into threedimensional scenes that were then photographed. Translated from French, the story reads like a parable, drawing readers into a setting like our own but ever so slightly off-kilter, while the exquisite illustrations are rife with small details for those who choose to linger. Clothing and other details cue the residents of Paperlee as East Asian, while the people of Forestlee vary in skin tone and wear Western-style dress.

A beautifully crafted world to get lost in. (about the book’s creation) (Picture book. 5-10)

For more by illustrator Seng Soun Ratanavanh, visit Kirkus online.

On Guard!

Wasserman, Cassidy | Random House

Graphic (256 pp.) | $21.99 | June 10, 2025

9780593649985 | Series: Marshall Middle School, 1

A tween seeks refuge in an after-school fencing club while trying to weather challenging life situations and relationships. Gracie Collins has just started seventh grade, and it seems like her world is falling apart: Her parents recently announced they’re divorcing, and her former best friend, Ava, abruptly ended their friendship. In addition, Gracie’s relationship with her self-absorbed mother is poor. Her mom lacks self-awareness and struggles to accept Gracie for who she is. Rather than eat alone in the cafeteria, Gracie finds refuge in the gym, where she watches the school’s fencing team practice. Urged by her father to join a club to make friends, Gracie, who reads white, lands on fencing, which leads to new friendships with light-skinned, auburnhaired Asher, who uses they /them pronouns, and brown-skinned Nia, who wears a hijab. With appeal for fans of Sarah Sax’s The Brinkley Yearbooks series and Jessixa Bagley and Aaron Bagley’s Duel , this series opener uses Gracie’s relationships with her father and with fencing as vehicles for her emotional growth that provide her with tools to build the self-confidence she needs. The mood of the story shifts among feelings of loneliness, anger, and joy. The simple, shaded monochromatic backgrounds have the appearance of sponge painting, spotlighting the characters’ expressive facial expressions and body language and mirroring the complexity of Gracie’s shifting emotions. Readers will commiserate with the emotional journeys in this simply presented, deeply affecting story. (fencing facts, author’s note, concept art) (Graphic fiction. 9-13)

The Frog Daddy

Weiner, Andrew | Illus. by Bethany Crandall Little, Brown Ink (96 pp.) | $12.99 | June 10, 2025 9780316592932 | Series: Bedtime Fairy Tale Graphic Novels, 2

A dad recalls a childhood adventure. While preparing for bed, young Estella jumps on Dad’s head, toy sword in hand. This introduction foreshadows an equally dramatic, goofy bedtime story drawn from her father Andy’s broad imagination. In this reimagined fairy tale, young Andy is walking through Central Park on a field trip when he stumbles upon a man cloaked in wizard gear. Skeptical about the so-called wizard’s abilities, Andy teases him and, to his surprise, is swiftly transformed into a frog. The wizard then tasks Frog Andy with a quest to regain human form, and that’s where things rev up—the wizard demands a particular basketball player’s signature, a lion’s tail hair, and homemade matzo ball soup. Accompanied by a fox whom the wizard has turned into a pug, the amphibious boy must scour the city, from Madison Square Garden to the Bronx Zoo, to a pale-skinned young girl’s apartment hallway, and finally back to a classic city hot dog cart. Though the human re-transformation doesn’t demand a kiss, as in the original, Andy does learn an important lesson about being well mannered. Like the previous volume, the narrative is speckled with digressions and gags, and the result is an adorable amble in the park. Crandall’s illustrations hit many bright, happy notes, reveling in a classically

cartoonish Big Apple. Andy and Estella are olive-skinned and darkhaired; other players are diverse. A silly, sweet bedtime tale brought to life. (Graphic fiction. 5-10)

The Cake Problem. Equivalent and Simplified Fractions

Wise, Bill | Illus. by Davilyn Lynch | Clavis (32 pp.) $19.95 | July 22, 2025 | 9798890630285

Series: Hilariously Simple Math, 3

Three friends deal with a difficult dilemma: dividing a delicious dessert. Having helped youngsters learn to read an analogue clock and pick up the basics of geometry, Wise and Lynch return to the farm, where Chicken, Goat, and Sheep are attempting to share a hexagonal cake that looks scrumptious, if a bit improbable (hexagonal baking pans?). Chicken is eager to eat, but Goat’s impetuous initial attempts at cutting the cake result in unequal portions. Thankfully, Sheep turns to the chalkboard before the dessert is destroyed. Colorful drawings illustrate the proper division as Sheep demonstrates that two-sixths is the same as one-third—just as Farmer Ed arrives with a triangular apple pie to split among them (a formidable problem, not solved here). The final pages dispense with the jokes and baked goods and simply explain equivalent fractions and simplified fractions, providing a page of more challenging practice examples (without answers) for each concept. Readers who can stomach the outrageously antique Dad jokes will

Sweet and enlightening—ideal for youngsters’ first forays into nonfiction.

find this a tasty treat. Comiclike illustrations, with panels and speech bubbles, are as zany as those in the earlier books, and the concepts are once more clearly explained, though suitably more advanced. Eye-catching endpapers featuring yummy desserts would make perfect pastry-shop wallpaper.

Math made funny and engaging. (Picture book. 8-10)

Scout and the Rescue Dogs

Wolfer, Dianne | Illus. by Tony Flowers Walker Books Australia (224 pp.)

$18.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9781761600494

In this Australian import, 11-yearold Scout, rock-tumbling enthusiast and dog lover, is facing her first Christmas season without her mother and struggling with loneliness at her boarding school, where she’s cruelly teased.

Over their school break, Scout’s class receives a challenging online assignment (her teacher is concerned about bullying and trying to forge positive bonds among students), but her true adventure begins when she and her dad set out to deliver dog food to rural animal rescues. Wolfer skillfully blends serious themes— grief, climate change, life-threatening wildfires, and animal welfare—with lighthearted moments, terrible dad jokes, Australian slang, and the joys of summer road trips. Scout is both relatable and inspiring, and her journey is one of growth, fortitude, and self-discovery. She’s portrayed as human and fallible—and as someone who approaches challenges with intelligence, compassion, and determination. Her growing friendships and interactions, including a sweet and honest depiction of a first crush, add further depth to the story. The novel also highlights important real-world issues, from the impact of Australia’s devastating bushfires to

the challenges faced by truck drivers like her dad and the ethics of puppy mills. The engaging storytelling and emotional depth are complemented by details about Australian animals and Flowers’ charming illustrations. Scout is cued white, and contextual clues point to some ethnic diversity in the supporting cast. Offers powerful life lessons about empathy, resilience, community, and helping others with humor and compassion. (geographical notes) (Fiction. 8-12)

Picking Tea With Baba

Xu Bin | Illus. by Yu Yin | Trans. by Shan Chen | Charlesbridge (48 pp.) | $18.99

May 6, 2025 | 9781623546236

A family picks tea leaves on a mountaintop in China. Mama and the two children (the elder of whom narrates) wake early one morning to accompany Baba to his tea garden. It’s a special treat, as Baba usually goes alone. They eat a filling breakfast in their cramped but cozy home, pack lunches, strap wicker baskets to their backs, and head out. Illustrations depicting their earlymorning trek feature foggy landscapes and steep climbs full of wonder. The kids are excited about it all—the bamboo partridges hiding among the plants, the praying mantis they spot, their echoing songs and laughter, the competition to see which of them can pick more tea leaves. It’s tough work and irritating

to the skin, but the narrator’s enthusiasm never dims. Even during their lunch break, the kids dart around, picking fruit and fetching water. After a nap, some rain, more partridge sightings, and more work, the sun begins to set, and a lovely panorama shows families walking down mountain paths with full baskets on their backs. They bring their bags to a bustling tea factory, where the tea farmers line up to sell their harvest. Reminiscent of Diego Rivera’s work, Yu’s artwork, with its bold strokes and earthy colors, lovingly portrays a hardworking farming family. Xu’s text, translated from Chinese, perfectly captures a child’s perspective, acknowledging the characters’ travails while focusing on everyday pleasures. A joyful and dignified snapshot of rural family life. (Picture book. 4-8)

A Universe Big & Small: A Story About Carl Sagan

Yang, James | Viking (40 pp.) | $19.99

July 1, 2025 | 9780593693070

A young Carl Sagan ponders the mysteries of the universe. What was the astronomer and host of the television series Cosmos like as a boy? He began by asking questions. As young Carl fantasizes about what it would be like to be smaller, Yang depicts a block-shaped child dwindling in size “until he [can] visit atoms floating around him.”

The tiny Carl looks up at big bold red and blue molecules, observes atoms creating cells, and concludes,

Offers powerful life lessons about empathy, resilience, and community.

SCOUT AND THE RESCUE DOGS

Kirkus Star

“If every living thing is made of cells, then everything is connected.” Then Carl mulls what would happen if he could grow bigger “and visit the stars. Stars [are] made of atoms, too.” Yang lines up Carl’s big, round face alongside planets, illustrating the vastness of his imagination. This point becomes literal when Carl figures out that he needs “something special…to answer his questions”: a spaceship named Imagination . The ship launches a journey to Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn (and Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons), each a vivid world of geometric shapes and swirls. Yang frames the story with illustrations depicting Carl daydreaming as he gazes out of his backlit apartment window on a starry night filled with deep shades of blue. Young Carl stands in for every child who’s ever asked big questions and considered how to answer them. The first step, as Yang makes beautifully clear, is always imagination.

A lovely interpretation of curiosity and wonder. (author’s note) (Informational picture book. 4-8)

Atana and the Jade Mermaid

Zhou, Vivian | HarperAlley (256 pp.) $15.99 paper | May 13, 2025 9780063075948 | Series: Atana, 2

The mermaid Atana and her friends set out to restore the world’s disrupted magic in this duology closer.

The opener’s understated, cleanly drawn art and straightforward storytelling continue in this sequel, which takes the adventurers to the remote Wandering Isles, the source of firebird magic. There, Atana’s firebird friend, Ren, can heal and call on the rest of the long-vanished firebirds to help mend the problems disrupting Earth’s magic flow. Meanwhile, Atana’s kidnapping by

Zurbo’s ode to parental love encompasses a spectrum of emotions.

IF I COULD…

agents of the Merfolk Empire precipitates a rescue expedition that reveals both surprising new allies and a prophecy that Atana will somehow play a vital role in breaking the chains laid on the merfolk’s freely floating magic by their harsh, controlling empress. The tale, lightly endowed with heroic exploits and threaded through with themes of reconciliation, comes to a tidy wrap that will leave readers well satisfied. Still, it’s the visuals that will likely linger with them longest. Zhou proves equally adept at depicting moments of drama and repose in harmonious shapes and colors as her figures, many in flowing robes, comport themselves with lively grace while passing through and between realms both mundane and mystical in the fluidly sequenced panels. Skin tones range broadly from tan to dark brown; Atana falls in the middle range, chromatically, and is always easily visible due to her shortcropped green hair. A lively, lovely finish. (Graphic fantasy. 8-12)

Kirkus Star

If

I Could…

Zurbo, Matt | Illus. by Patrice Barton Roaring Brook Press (32 pp.) | $18.99 June 10, 2025 | 9781250777249

Zurbo’s ode to parental love encompasses a spectrum of emotions and experiences. The author’s litany of statements, each beginning

with the refrain “If I could, I’d give you…,” starts off with the moon, the sky, and the outdoors—nature-based experiences that widen children’s worlds. From there, Zurbo, a storyteller who composed 365 children’s stories in a year as part of his Cielo Project, moves to yens embodying the imagination: “every fairy tale, / every dragon’s roar…legends sung by mermaids.” “If I could, I’d write a thousand / songs for you to sing.” The narrator also invokes another human trait: ambivalence. “I’d give you the smallest piece of my loneliness. / So you may brace for its days of power.”

“I’d give you every tear I’ve ever cried. / So you can learn from my mistakes— / when to let go, / …how to weather storms.” Brimming with well-selected detail, Barton’s elegantly composed illustrations present a dozen or so diverse families, while Zurbo’s sentiments coalesce in ruminations on the inherent limitations of parenting. The narrator wishes for “constant happiness! / Joy!” while acknowledging the necessity of separation: “I’d give you every / little thing / you’ll ever need. // Even though it will never be enough.” Barton’s final spreads gather the kids in imaginative play, displaying an affinity for rendering single-minded toddlers and creative preschoolers. Zurbo ends on just the right note: “If I could, I’d give you the world… // But it’s already yours.”

A tender praise song to the parents of growing children. (Picture book. 3-6)

For more by illustrator Patrice Barton, visit Kirkus online.

Young Adult

VERSE NOVELS FOR NATIONAL POETRY MONTH

APRIL IS NATIONAL Poetry Month, with programming that offers readers of all ages an abundance of ways to celebrate, both online and in person. One of the most satisfying is, undoubtedly, curling up with a great novel in verse. In early 2025, we have a remarkable variety of options to choose from.

Speculative fiction in verse is relatively rare, perhaps because extensive worldbuilding is tough to accomplish in such an economical format. But acclaimed poet and translator Gloria Muñoz succeeds brilliantly in This Is the Year (Holiday House, Jan. 7), a fiction debut that blends formats, languages, and genres. Colombian American Juli Villarreal, whose Florida home has been devastated by an environmental crisis, enrolls in a mission to

colonize the moon. This creative and powerful story combines prose and verse, in Spanish and English, as climate-fiction themes unfold in an SF storyline.

The following works of historical fiction richly evoke the past in ways that are infused with atmosphere, while the brevity of the verse format helps avoid infodumps that turn readers off:

The outline of the Irish potato famine may be familiar to many readers, but Carnegie Medal winner Sarah Crossan makes the tragedy feel as intimately vivid as if it were happening today. In Where the Heart Should Be (Greenwillow Books, Jan. 21), she highlights social class divisions, forbidden romance, and other resonant themes: “True love wins / even in the face of death.”

One Step Forward (Versify/ HarperCollins, March 4) will energize readers accustomed to dry textbooks with its descriptions of suffragists’ harrowing struggles and the impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic, both offering parallels to modern activism and social upheaval. Rich backmatter and an engaging protagonist—a fictionalized version of a real young woman— add to the appeal of Marcie Flinchum Atkins’ debut.

Poetry often surpasses prose in its ability to convey deep emotions in a pithy and powerful way that speaks directly to the heart. The following works exemplify this strength:

Debut author Adina King tackles parental neglect, addiction, bullying, and more in The House No One Sees (Feiwel & Friends, March

18), a raw, surreal work that combines verse and prose, marking shifts between past and present. The story draws upon fairy-tale imagery as 16-year-old Penny, “a girl who feels / too young and too old / at the same / time,” confronts years of childhood trauma and instability. Stonewall Award winner Dean Atta’s latest, I Can’t Even Think Straight (Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins, May 6), follows Kai Michaelides, a gay London boy of Jamaican and Greek Cypriot descent, as he navigates cultural differences, friendship with a peer who must remain closeted for his own safety, and other life complications. This heartfelt tale moves quickly: Kai’s first-person narration and the abundant, natural-sounding dialogue invite readers in.

The Irish import Solo (Little Island, May 27) by Gráinne O’Brien is a beautifully written, deeply relatable story of finding your way back to what really matters. After Daisy’s boyfriend breaks up with her, she feels ashamed that she let herself become subsumed in their relationship, losing herself and her passion for playing the recorder—but a new friendship helps her to heal.

Laura Simeon is a young readers’ editor.

LAURA SIMEON

Illustration by Eric Scott Anderson

EDITOR’S PICK

Scholar and awardwinning author Kendi offers a thoroughly researched biography that examines the life of the activist, intellectual, and Muslim minister.

Born Malcolm Little in Nebraska in 1925, he grew up in a household that openly defied white supremacy. In 1931, his dad died in an incident the police ruled accidental; his mom, however, believed her husband was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan offshoot called the Black Legion. Traumatized, Malcolm engaged in criminal behavior and developed a deep mistrust of white people. At 20, after being sentenced to prison for burglary, he was exposed to

the teachings of the Nation of Islam. When he was released, 27-year-old Malcolm had been transformed. But over time, Malcolm began to reconsider his beliefs, eventually exposing the moral hypocrisy of leader Elijah Muhammad. By the end of his life, Malcolm had traveled extensively, including an enlightening trip to Mecca, gaining a global perspective. Meanwhile, Elijah sowed the discord that led to Malcolm’s assassination in 1965. Using archival documents and photographs, Kendi frames the revolutionary’s story as a “chronology of changes,” offering enough historical background to orient readers without

Briana Johnson

Malcolm Lives!: The Official Biography of Malcolm X for Young Readers

Kendi, Ibram X. | Farrar, Straus and Giroux 400 pp. | $19.99 | May 13, 2025 | 9780374311865

making the narrative excessively complex. Kendi traces Malcolm’s journey from troubled but brilliant youth to divisive Black nationalist to human rights trailblazer. The short, accessible chapters compellingly contextualize global issues, speaking directly to

readers and breathing new life into a critically relevant historical figure. A humanizing, resoundingly effective portrait showcasing history as a blueprint for radical change. (source notes, image credits) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

Edgmon crafts horror with

vivid imagery and an unknown, ominous threat.

WE CAN NEVER LEAVE

Kirkus Star

Amelia, If Only

Albertalli, Becky | Harper/ HarperCollins (304 pp.) | $19.99 June 10, 2025 | 9780063045927

A devoted teen leads her friends on a queer pilgrimage to a celebrity event (OK—more like a post-prom road trip to a YouTuber meet and greet).

Snarky, “chaotically bisexual” Amelia Applebaum has harbored a longtime parasocial obsession with recentlygone-viral YouTuber Walter Holland. Sure, he’s a total stranger, but he’s personally responded to her social media comments not once, but twice! As senior year comes to an end, Amelia drags her three best friends— Zora and twins Natalie and Mark—to a college campus in upstate New York, several hours’ drive away from their home in Westchester, for an in-person event with Walter. Anxious about change, Amelia feels that this is an important swan song for her and her close-knit friend group before they leave for college in the fall. Amelia never expected that by showing up and meeting Walter in person, they’d end up roping him into their adventure, transforming him from unattainable crush to genuine friend. Meanwhile, her feelings for Natalie seem to be developing into something more. Albertalli creates a realistic microcosm of queer and Jewish teen culture with no shortage of her signature humor and clever snark (Amelia and Walter are white

and Jewish, the Jewish twins have a Chinese dad and are implied biracial, and Zora, “the group’s token gentile,” is cued Black). The friends’ banter is warm, endearing, and relatable. Fresh and witty on the surface, tender and heartfelt at its core. (Fiction. 14-18)

That Kind of Girl

Anderson, Natalie C. | Nancy Paulsen Books (304 pp.) | $19.99 | June 24, 2025 9780593406298

Two young women’s lives collide after a gruesome murder. Twenty-oneyear-old Inez works as a maid and sex worker in Asheville, North Carolina.

Following the death of her mother, she’s been scraping by, dreaming of a better future, when she finds herself involved in something horrible…that involves a lot of blood. Meanwhile, 16-year-old Roxie is an amateur detective and a scholarship student at an elite Catholic girls’ school where she doesn’t quite fit in. Known for helping her classmates find things (for a fee), she’s approached by her former bully, Kirsten, for help locating the person who stole her phone. Roxie reluctantly agrees, but when she arrives at Kirsten’s house to learn more, she discovers Kirsten’s brutally murdered body and quickly becomes a person of interest in the investigation. At the same time, Roxie gets drawn (with her aunt and ex–FBI agent uncle) into a search for her late great-aunt’s hidden diamond necklace. The treasure hunt game, a family tradition, leads to Roxie’s discovering

connections between her family and Kirsten’s. As Roxie grapples with trauma from her childhood and Inez’s and Roxie’s paths converge, Roxie pieces together a web of secrets tying them both to the crime. Told through alternating perspectives, this fast-paced mystery builds a trail of clues, culminating in a jaw-dropping conclusion that’s bigger than both Roxie and Inez. Main characters are cued white, and racial diversity is represented among secondary characters.

An engaging and suspenseful read. (“The Robber Bridegroom”) (Mystery. 16-adult)

I’ll Pretend You’re Mine

Bhuiyan, Tashie | Harper/ HarperCollins (384 pp.) | $19.99 June 3, 2025 | 9781335013927

A clumsy stumble and an elaborate charade spark a journey of selfdiscovery, healing, and unexpected romance—and lead to a golden opportunity. After placing fifth in the TV talent show Stars of America at 13, Bangladeshi American pop sensation Sumaira “Summer” Ali rose to fame under the strict control of her parents, who were also her managers. The narrative follows 18-year-old Summer after she fires her emotionally abusive parents and then collides (literally) with 19-year-old Persian American film star Juyan “Jules” Moradi in front of paparazzi. To change rising star Jules’ promiscuous reputation—and boost Summer’s career in the process—his PR team suggests that the pair pretend to be in a committed relationship. The novel explores how their contrived relationship evolves and deepens as they navigate being regarded as public property while grappling with their own complex personal issues. The endearing central characters represent diverse racial and sexual identities, and their conversations propel the story,

infusing serious topics with humor. This heartfelt coming-of-age story delves into myriad societal issues; Summer’s exploring her sexuality, her best friend is queer, and Jules grapples with racial identity, self-doubt, and accusations of being part of a “diversity quota.” Bhuiyan tackles challenging issues from a relatable teenage perspective while maintaining an overall light tone. Newspaperlike headlines used as chapter headings cleverly nod to tabloid sensationalism. An emotional and heartfelt story about growing up and finding connection in the public eye. (Fiction. 14-18)

Costumes for Time Travelers

Capetta, A.R. | Candlewick (224 pp.)

$18.99 | May 27, 2025 | 9781536233711

A young tailor and a mysteriously familiar time savant must save time travelers from a terrible fate in this queer fantasy romance. Calisto lives in the town of Pocket, a place that’s outside of time—it’s the waystation time travelers must pass through on their journeys to other whens. There they work as a tailor, creating beautifully detailed and accurate costumes for the travelers. Calisto never plans to travel through time themself—until Fawkes arrives. A time savant, Fawkes has been traveling through time since he was a child, slipping easily from one time to another without having to pass through Pocket. His talents also mean he catches glimpses of the future—and he’s seen Calisto before. But close behind Fawkes are the Time Wardens, who want time to be strictly regulated, which means getting rid of travelers. Together, Calisto and Fawkes will have to master their temporal abilities to stop the Time Wardens and save Pocket—and along the way, they fall in love. The rich and beautifully drawn world that readers will want to lose themselves in is

unfortunately let down by a plot that collapses in on itself under the weight of explanations of time travel and its aftereffects that get progressively more convoluted and confusing. An introductory note indicates that the book has been translated from Seam, the language used in Pocket, which uses “natural measures of time: sunlight, seasons, stars.” The main characters present white.

A uniquely dazzling setting undermined by muddled worldbuilding. (Fantasy. 14-18)

The Uncertainty Principle

Davis, Joshua & Kal Kini-Davis

Penguin Workshop (272 pp.) | $19.99 June 3, 2025 | 9780593660300

A teen girl finds herself at sea after her family makes a drastic life change. Six months ago, Mia had a meltdown at school following her best friend’s painful betrayal, and then her overbearing, germophobe mom, a former waitress, made a stunning announcement: The entire family would be leaving their Minnesota apartment and living full-time on Graceland , the 43-foot sailboat that Mia’s father restored. Though the sunny, salty sea life and the isolation from people (and their diseases) seem to agree with her mom, Mia feels differently. She’s turned Harvard physicist Lene Hau into a sort of imaginary friend, but she longs for someone real to discuss science with. As a plan takes shape for Mia to go live with her paternal uncle in Tennessee and attend a regular high school, she crosses paths with gentle Alby, an Australian boy who’s been sailing around with his street musician parents for years. Alby exposes Mia to some intriguing ideas from the world religion books he studies. Then she meets Nisha, whose glamorous life promises excitement. These new acquaintances lead to unexpected romantic entanglements for Mia to solve alongside her

familial complications and processing of past bad experiences. Mia’s story tenderly explores themes of sexuality and neurodivergence with sailing and science details accompanying her often-painful introspection as she learns to navigate uncertainty. Mia’s and Alby’s families are cued white; Nisha’s is Indian.

Emotional and broad-ranging. (sailing glossary) (Fiction. 14-18)

We Can Never Leave

Edgmon, H.E. | Wednesday Books (320 pp.) $20.00 | June 10, 2025 | 9781250853653

On the morning after the new moon, five traumatized teens from a cult of societal outcasts who possess “magics” awaken to discover their entire community has vanished.

Three years ago, Bird tried to leave the Caravan, but found they didn’t belong in the human world either. The Caravan collects and shelters people with “inhuman characteristics or physical features” and unexplained, sometimes lethal, magical powers. While some are born into the community, like Bird, Hugo (a boy with antlers and fire powers who’s Bird’s ex), and Felix (Hugo’s fawn-eared younger brother), others, like “venomous wolf-girl” Cal and red-eyed Eamon, arrive mysteriously and have no memories of their pasts. Although the Caravan offers a haven, it’s vulnerable to being noticed by suspicious humans, who sometimes call the authorities. When Bird, Hugo, Felix, Cal, and Eamon wake up alone after the new moon, they blame each other and themselves. Secrets gnaw at them, and only Felix believes they can work together successfully. With nowhere else to go, they set off in search of Port Haven, Washington, a community like theirs—and the closest thing the Caravan has to an enemy. Chapters alternate among the perspectives of the five teens as well as shifting between

past and present, maintaining suspense, tension, and a fast pace. Edgmon crafts horror with vivid imagery and an unknown, ominous threat. Meticulous plotting leads to a satisfying conclusion. The cast of characters is predominantly white-presenting and queer.

Precise and cutting. (author’s note) (Paranormal. 15-18)

The Beautiful Maddening

Ernshaw, Shea | Simon & Schuster (304 pp.)

$19.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9781665900270

A garden of cursed tulips has haunted a Dutch American family for generations. High school senior Lark Goode anxiously awaits graduation, when she can receive her diploma and leave her childhood home, a rickety house built in a swamp above Forsaken Creek, where she lives alone with her twin brother, Archer. Their mom left the family, and their dad lives and works on a fishing boat. The residents of Cutwater know—and fear—the legend of the Goode family, whose backyard garden blooms with cursed tulips each spring. The flowers make Archer and Lark irresistible and cause others to fall in love with them. But when the magical tulip blossoms are stolen, and hysteria sweeps across the student body of Cutwater High, Lark begins to rely on Oak, a mysterious boy with amber skin, “river-dark” hair, and green eyes who comes from a nearby town and seems unaffected by her family’s curse. While navigating peak tulip season and planning her escape from a community that avoids her in order to avoid falling into a deep, cursed love, auburnhaired Lark unearths old family secrets. This angsty romance is laced with imagery that evokes dark academia and vivid natural elements. The stream-of-consciousness narration drifts into lengthy repetition at times. Nonetheless, the subtle fantasy elements intertwined with complex

character relationships make for an entertaining read.

A richly described coming-of-age romance with plotline that sometimes lags. (Fantasy romance. 14-18)

Lady or the Tiger

Herrman, Heather M. | Nancy Paulsen

Books (336 pp.) | $19.99

June 10, 2025 | 9781984816733

An infamous “murderess” dazzles audiences on both sides of the Atlantic as a singer who alludes to her intensely gruesome crimes on stage—and ultimately turns herself in to law enforcement.

Nineteen-year-old Belle King is known to the world as the Seamstress because she removes her male victims’ hearts, replaces them with diamonds, and expertly sutures the corpses’ wounds. As she’s awaiting trial in jail, her supposedly dead, abusive ex-husband, federal marshal Reginald Salinger, arrives to rescue her from public hanging. A flashback to Belle’s mother’s tragic murder shows how the stage was set for Belle’s desperate marriage to Reginald—her way of escaping the trauma of being involuntarily committed to the Eastern Kentucky Lunatic Asylum after she was left alone in the world. Herrman’s sophisticated exploration of the impact of men’s abuse of power is chilling; throughout the story, the women rarely have agency, but Belle’s individual strength and continued resistance prove inspirational. The nonlinear timeline enhances the larger-than-life vignettes that are reminiscent of tall tales, maintaining a quick pace and adding tension to each dramatic beat. Untrustworthy news sources share misinformation, and issues like abortion, animal cruelty, and violence against women are handled realistically and compassionately. Most characters read white. Intense hardship and adventure compellingly intertwine in this Old West feminist journey. (Historical thriller. 15-18)

Call of the Owl Woman: A Novel of Ancient Peru

Huber, K.M. | SparkPress (256 pp.) | $17.99 paper | May 13, 2025 | 9781684633043

A sixth-century Nasca girl living in the Atacama Desert in what is present-day Peru comes of age in the midst of a catastrophic drought.

The familiar patterns of 15-year-old Patya’s cherished life are shaken to pieces with the death of her grandmother, the gifted healer Kuyllay. But her community, the Clan of the Orca, faces further disruptions in the form of a relentless drought, tremendous earthquakes, and powerhungry men who seek to profit from the perilous circumstances the community faces. When Tachico, her younger brother, is caught up in their schemes, Patya must learn to harness the strength and power Kuyllay foresaw she’d have to protect the land and the people she loves. Huber, who describes her extensive research in the acknowledgements, tells the story with grace and doesn’t flinch from challenging topics: When Patya is assaulted by Warpa hunters from the mountains, readers will deeply feel the emotional and physical ramifications. Healers and their important role in Nasca society feature prominently in the story, and the text contains descriptions of their methods of healing. The land and traditions of the Nasca people come to vivid life on the page, with a map and a cast of characters to support readers as they traverse Patya’s world.

A moving, immersive, and meticulously detailed story of tradition, spirituality, and the weight of destiny. (glossary) (Historical fantasy. 13-18)

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Indigenous Latin American fantasy, visit Kirkus online.

One

Kiss

Jocelyn, Marthe | Orca (128 pp.) | $10.95 paper | April 15, 2025 | 9781459840898

The kiss was inappropriate, exciting, and confusing, but it’s not what went viral.

Best friends since kindergarten, Maya Delaney and Plum Kenner are both 16 and daughters of single moms. Plum’s dad, Ross, is a world-famous rock star; Maya’s most definitely isn’t that glamorous. Maya has rarely seen her father since he left when she was 12, and Ross occasionally flies Plum to visit him in Berlin. When his band arrives in Toronto to record an album, Ross tells Plum to bring Maya along to dinners with his entourage on successive nights. It’s a heady experience—the fans lining the sidewalk, phones out, angling for a glimpse of Ross. Maya enjoys the lavish restaurant setting, abundant prosecco, and Ross’ flattering attention until, when he’s seeing her home in his limo, he kisses her. Initially thrilled, then alarmed, Maya draws back but lets him walk her to her door and steady her when she trips. When a photo capturing that moment of contact circulates on social media before she can explain to Plum, Maya feels desperate. Is Ross a predator or merely irresponsible? Sorting out what happened, how she feels, and what to do will take time. The straightforward syntax, compelling topic, and appealing, relatable characters make this a strong choice for reluctant readers. Maya and Ross present white, and a

reference to Plum’s Indonesian grandmother cues her as biracial. A compact, accessible, and timely conversation starter. (resources) (Fiction. 12-18)

Kirkus Star

If I Could Go Back

Johnson, Briana | Peachtree Teen (352 pp.) $19.99 | May 6, 2025 | 9781682637753

Aaliyah Campbell, a Black 18-year-old from Chicago, has lived with her grandfather ever since her mother left her with him when she was small. With no

memories of her parents and only pictures to go by, Aaliyah feels a void in her heart and desperately desires to meet them. But she faces opposition from Grandpa Joe, who “hates them for reasons” she doesn’t understand, and from Ivy, her cousin, who believes that the past should stay in the past. Despite this, she finds her mother on Facebook and sends her a message. This opens the door to revelations of family secrets and deception even as Aaliyah tries to make sense of what happened among her family members and to find a way to bring everyone together again. At the same time, she struggles with completing 12th grade (she’s dreaming of UCLA) and maintaining her status on the track team (last year she won the state championship). Debut author Johnson provides readers with an in-depth look into living with anxiety: Aaliyah experiences frequent

A deeply emotional and complex novel that looks at how we define family. IF I COULD GO BACK

panic attacks and uses various coping methods to deal with them. The book also explores feelings of insecurity and abandonment as Aaliyah faces her complicated emotions about her parents. The story, which unfolds over the second half of Aaliyah’s senior year, is very quickly paced, sustaining readers’ interest, while offering deep characterization. A deeply emotional and complex novel that looks at how we define family. (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Star

Titan of the Stars

Johnston, E.K. | Tundra Books (304 pp.)

$19.99 | May 27, 2025 | 9781774884089 Series: Titan of the Stars, 1

In this duology opener, teens work together to survive being stuck on a spaceship with aliens. The spaceship Titan ’s maiden voyage is a weeklong journey from Earth to Mars. The more than 500 passengers include paying customers, who are enjoying a first-class experience, the crew, who are stressed about keeping the aforementioned group happy, and some journalists and scientists. Petrified aliens, found preserved in permafrost, are on display in cases. The point of view alternates between the queer, white-presenting leads: Celeste Sparrow is a junior engineer who knows where all the hidden tunnels are on the Titan , and Dominic Reubens is an aspiring artist, who’s fed up with his boyfriend, Adam Jeffers. While they’re both survivors of a terrible earthquake in Eastern Canada known as the St. Lawrence Rupture, their experiences on Earth couldn’t have been further apart. Celeste struggled to get where she is, while Dominic was adopted by prominent parents. Here on the Titan , crew member Celeste and wealthy Dominic are drawn to

each other—initially out of curiosity but, when the aliens run amok, out of the need to survive. Dominic’s and Celeste’s perspectives initially unfold at a deliberate pace. When the action ramps up, the story vibrates with terror, offering readers a compelling and harrowing treat and highlighting the teens’ sheer cunning and urgent desire for survival. The presence and impact of colonial privilege and power are also inescapable. Riveting and thoroughly enjoyable. (Science fiction. 14-18)

Lady’s Knight

Kaufman, Amie & Meagan Spooner Storytide/HarperCollins (432 pp.)

$19.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9780062893390

Two medieval teens smash the patriarchy. Gwen only desires to prove herself as a knight. But entering the men’s-only Tournament of Dragonslayers as “Sir Gawain” is difficult for a blacksmith’s daughter. Meanwhile, blond, blue-eyed Lady Isobelle desires agency, but as the prize for this year’s tournament, she knows her future looks grim. A chance encounter between the two young women sparks a scheme: Gwen will stay with Isobelle, posing as Gawain in the tournament and as his sister when she’s not disguised by a suit of armor. In exchange for training and funding, pale-skinned Gwen, who has black hair and green eyes, will try to win the tournament and Isobelle’s hand, thus rescuing Isobelle from a future with any of the other knights, whose behaviors exhibit textbook toxic masculinity. As their plan gains momentum, the pair soon realize their desire for success is only matched by their desire for each other. But the triple life Gwen leads can last only so long under the scrutiny of the patriarchy. Will she and Isobelle get the chance to be their own heroes? Compelling subplots center their fight against misogyny and classism, and several interludes by an unnamed

The slow-burn romance shimmers beneath the darker, trauma-tinged themes.

WATCH ME

narrator directly address readers, adding additional depth and intrigue to the worldbuilding. The authors insert abundant intentional anachronisms that successfully inject the story with levity, and Gwen and Isobelle’s chemistry is swoonworthy. There’s some racial diversity among secondary characters. A thoroughly enjoyable Sapphic romp. (Historical fantasy. 14-18)

Kirkus Star

This Could Be Forever

LaDelle, Ebony | Simon & Schuster (384 pp.)

$19.99 | May 20, 2025 | 9781665948678

Two college freshmen face the challenges of dating across many differences in background and identity.

Seventeen-yearold Deja Martin wants to explore life beyond small-town North Carolina, and college is the perfect opportunity. Nature lover Deja has a full scholarship to her first-choice school, the University of Maryland; she plans to become a cosmetic chemist. Before fall semester starts, she visits College Park to dispel any lingering fears—and, empowered by her first taste of autonomy, she goes to get a tattoo and meets Raja Sharma. The 18-year-old Nepali American boy’s good looks are as mesmerizing as his artistic talents. Their connection is electrifying, but their delicate romance is threatened by external pressures. Raja’s parents expect him to become an engineer and marry an upper-caste Nepali girl; courting a Black American Christian would be an act of rebellion.

The men in Deja’s family have concerns about her being with a city boy who isn’t Christian or Black—will he understand what it’s like for Black women in America? The pair must decide: When you’re from different worlds, is love truly enough? Told in alternating first-person narration, the novel features rich characterization wrapped in vulnerability and the whirlwind magic of young love. Grounding her story in relatability and realism, LaDelle carefully depicts how cultures shape personal identities. The teens’ relationship is endearing, and they push each other to become better people.

In this sweet romance, a serendipitous moment paves the way for radical growth and transformation. (Romance. 14-18)

Force of Chaos

Ma, Diana | Amulet/Abrams (336 pp.)

$19.99 | May 13, 2025 | 9781419757761

Series: Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, 1

Five teens are chosen to protect their town from an alien vendetta in this story set in the world of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Trini Kwan has carefully cultivated her studious, “quiet Asian girl” persona at school, hiding her frustration when students take advantage of her hard work, underestimate her, or bully her friend Billy. Despite years of martial arts training with Nai Nai, her grandmother, she hides her true strength. Then her school’s Homecoming game is attacked by Goldar, a furry

blue monster with gold armor, and the Putties, his clay minions. Even as most kids flee, Billy, football captain Jason, popular new cheerleader Kimberly, and Trini’s former best friend, Zack, rush to help two trapped students—and Trini joins them. The five teens are chosen by “galactic warrior scholar” Zordon to become the Power Rangers; Trini is named the Yellow Ranger. Ma adds new dimensions to the original story through the inclusion of Chinese mythology and explorations of racial stereotyping and Trini’s struggle with an inner voice that tells her to hide her true self. While the tone of the writing and the treatment of intriguing themes—strong women, power and responsibility, friendship, and self-control—skew young and lack complexity, the slow-burn romance is believable and grounded in a rebuilt friendship. Trini is of Chinese Taiwanese and Korean Chinese descent, Zack is Black, and other main characters read white. A lightly developed read that may appeal to avid fans of the long-running franchise. (Adventure. 12-14)

Watch Me

Mafi, Tahereh | Storytide/HarperCollins (368 pp.) | $21.99 | April 15, 2025 9780063419001 | Series: The Shatter Me Series: The New Republic, 1

An executioner guards her emotions and her heart in this thrilling series opener that returns to the dystopian world of Mafi’s bestselling Shatter Me series.

Twenty-year-old Rosabelle Wolff lives a meager existence, exiled on Ark Island, the site of what remains of The Reestablishment’s totalitarian state. She scrapes by, working as a contract killer in order to keep Clara, her ailing younger sister, alive. Rosabelle’s stoicism is her defense against the invasive technology that feeds The Reestablishment’s ever-watching “omnipotent, synthetic brain.” With her sister’s

survival in jeopardy, Rosabelle consents to a mission that sends her after James Anderson. James was 11 when his elder brother led the resistance that overthrew The Reestablishment, which their father cofounded. More than 10 years later, James is determined to do what his brother couldn’t—infiltrate Ark Island, the regime’s “last refuge,” to uncover its secrets. Rosabelle wrestles with her emotions, torn between her duty to her sister, her hatred of the government, and her growing attraction to James. Mafi incorporates surveillance and artificial intelligence into her realistically drawn world that’s filled with political intrigue. Rosabelle’s and James’ alternating first-person narration fills in the backstory for new readers. The balance between the suspense and dramatic action sequences feels cinematic, and the slow-burn romance shimmers beneath the darker, traumatinged themes of mental health, sinister applications of biotechnology, and food insecurity. The leads are cued white, and there’s ethnic diversity among the supporting characters. Gripping. (Dystopian. 14-adult)

If We Survive This

Marie, Racquel | Feiwel & Friends (336 pp.) $19.99 | June 17, 2025 | 9781250352699

Four teens navigate a world ravaged by a rabies mutation. Since her older brother, Cain, was injured during a supply run, Flora, who has OCD, has had to sharpen her survival skills to stay alive in a world brimming with flesh-hungry, zombielike rabids. Their mom died around the time of the initial outbreak, and their dad left months ago to scout out a cabin in Northern California, where the family spent numerous summers vacationing. A mysterious radio message suggests that their dad might still be alive, and Flora and Cain prepare to journey north, away from their home in an increasingly dangerous Los Angeles. The

Full of bites and intermittent sparks. (Horror. 14-18)

We Could Be Magic

Meyer, Marissa | Illus. by Joelle Murray Feiwel & Friends (256 pp.) | $25.99 $17.99 paper | June 3, 2025 9781250806871 | 9781250379399 paper

Seventeen-year-old Tabitha Laurie has been a devoted fan of Sommerland theme park since she was a little girl. Tabi, who has dark brown skin and Afro-textured hair, believes in the magic Sommerland offers—including the promise of true love—especially after facing the shock of her parents’ divorce. After securing a position in the park’s summer program for high schoolers, Tabi is excited, declaring that “happily ever after begins with working at Sommerland.” But she quickly learns that other employees don’t feel the same enthusiasm and in fact have numerous complaints about the guests and work conditions. Despite this, Tabi dreams of becoming a character actor—in particular Princess

>>> siblings run into two other survivors— their old friend Crisanta and her companion, Adán. While Crisanta and Adán keep the details of their history secret, Flora contends with her growing feelings for Crisanta, whose past romantic entanglement with Cain complicates matters. An uneasy alliance forms as the foursome travels through a rabid-infested California. Occasionally tense but rarely spine-chilling, this apocalyptic tale primarily focuses on the group’s gruesome road trip, with occasional chapters spotlighting a pre-outbreak excursion taken by Flora’s family. Marie leans heavily into juicy, grotesque gore, whose shock value dulls as the story goes on. An overreliance on genre tropes mars the otherwise fine character work. Flora and Cain are of Colombian and Irish descent. Adán, who’s trans, has Colombian and Mexican heritage, and Crisanta is cued Mexican American.

THE KIRKUS Q&A: BRIAN SELZNICK

The award-winning author/illustrator breaks yet more ground in his first young adult novel.

BY MEGAN LABRISE

EVERY TIME BRIAN SELZNICK sets pencil to paper, he breaks the mold.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007) combined children’s historical fiction with picture book, graphic novel, flip book, and cinematic elements; it spent 42 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, won the Caldecott Medal, and was made into the Oscar-winning movie Hugo.

Baby Monkey, Private Eye (2018), written with his husband, David Serlin, might be the first 200-page hardcover for beginning readers to feature a full bibliography, index, and image key. In a starred review of the bestseller, Kirkus wrote that Selznick “manages to do for the early reader what he accomplished with the picture book: reinvent it.”

When the idea for his first young adult novel arose—a love story between two 16-year-old boys, Angelo and Danny, set in Rome in the summer of 1986—the visionary of visual storytelling considered reinventing himself as a prose stylist.

“When it came time to actually write the story, I became very excited about the text, and how I could describe through words what I see in my head,” Selznick says, speaking from his home in La Jolla, California, via Zoom. “I came to feel like there was no purpose for drawings in this book. Having a book without pictures, for me, would be the most radical thing I could do.”

Scholastic editorial director David Levithan agreed that it was a radical—perhaps too radical?—move. “David, let’s say, felt strongly that there might be some use for pictures in the book,” Selznick recalls, “and I fought him on it—for a little while.”

The result is Run Away With Me , an affecting tale told in lyrical language…and approximately 100 pages’ worth of Selznick’s majestic pencil drawings. The combination offers an inimitable reading experience to lovers of YA.

“Selznick’s vivid line drawings…capture the mood of loneliness and longing,” Kirkus writes in a starred review of this “intricate and wondrous” novel. “Much like Rome itself, Danny and Angelo’s story, revealed in poetic prose, is layered in stories and history, each one essential to the whole.”

Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I understand Run Away With Me is deeply inspired by your experience of living in Rome with your husband during the Covid-19 pandemic. I knew I wanted to write a young adult book. The boys were going to be 16. They were going to be falling in love in a way that I haven’t really approached in any of my other books. Even though I’ve had gay characters and gay love stories, they weren’t the main focus.

I had been thinking about walking through the empty streets of Rome during the pandemic—seeing the beauty of the architecture, the sculptures—the atmosphere— and began to imagine [the boys] walking through a version of Rome that paralleled that experience. Even though this isn’t a pandemic book, I wanted

to convey that weird emptiness, a sense of strange possibility. That was a very powerful experience, and it stuck with me.

One of the things I admired in this novel was the nuanced handling of privacy and secrets. I mean between Danny and Angelo—but also, perhaps especially, between Danny and his mother, an itinerant American book conservator and scholar. She seems to have some idea that he’s made a special connection with another boy, but she doesn’t press for a confession.

One of the things I knew when I started writing the book was I didn’t want to write a coming-out scene, and I didn’t want there to be any violence. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt. I didn’t want there to be any bashing. These feel like very common tropes for

books about queer characters—and they’re tropes because they’re real. We have been hurt through history and are currently being hurt. There is violence. I don’t wish to underplay that or deny it, but I was very interested in the idea of creating a world of danger in which these two boys happen not to have a direct experience of danger themselves.

In fact, you give them a secret refuge within a dangerous world. A place for them to be alone, to safely reveal what they want to one another. A lot of my books have secret places that the main characters find or create for themselves, in which they can be safe, in which they can make their own rules and hide out from the rest of the world in some safe fashion. That room that I gave to the boys is a real room at the American

Academy in Rome that I found while I was there with some friends. Pretty much every place I describe in the book has some basis in reality—but I’ve kind of mushed up the details and mixed them all together.

Throughout their peregrination, Danny and Angelo share—and discover— queer histories that overlap and intersect with their present-day lives. For me, a lot of the writing process was spent contemplating our connections with each other, connections with the past, connections with people we will never know, people we will never meet. There are three other gay love stories that we follow in Run Away With Me. They’re historical, but they were all living in present tense for themselves. There was no future yet. There was just what they were experiencing, and that was everything. For

Looking back into history can help us make sense of our lives.

them—people in the deep past—what we’re living in right now might seem like a utopia in many ways. And we are becoming the historical past as we’re living our present tense lives. Looking back into history, weaving those stories together through time, can help us make sense of our lives, which feels very empowering.

You’ll be on a national book tour for Run Away With Me, with events in 11 cities. Are you looking forward to discussing this book with readers?

The idea that I’m about to go out on a tour around the country to talk about this book with audiences— hopefully with lots of young people in the audiences— is really thrilling to me. Having that sense of purpose, that solid ground to stand on right now, is really important. What’s giving me stability is the

knowledge that I’m going to have the chance to go out and have conversations with other people. I want to be able to just talk about what you and I are talking about here—talking about history, talking about erasure, talking about time, and the idea that that things last even when people don’t want them to or try to suppress them. I want to listen to the ways people are scared right now and worried right now.

Anticipating those conversations is giving me a lot of hope right now, and a lot of actual pleasure and joy. Of course, some are going to be very hard conversations; these are very hard times, absolutely. But we can’t live in grief all the time. We have to live in joy, and we have to live in curiosity and foster those connections.

Editor at large Megan Labrise hosts the Fully Booked podcast.

Run Away With Me

Selznick, Brian Scholastic | 320 pp. |$24.99 April 1, 2025 | 9781339035529

INDIE AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

BRIAN SILBERT

Author of Berticus

Please tell us a little about yourself and Berticus.

I’m pretty much your typical ADHD kid who couldn’t sit through school and was bored out of my mind doing anything I didn’t want to do. But I powered through and graduated from American University despite my aversion to school. I work in the entertainment industry as a TV producer and content developer. In addition to writing this book, I just recently opened an ice cream shop in our NYC neighborhood where I live with my wife and two young daughters. Yep, I’m a proud member of the Girl Dad club. Sure, my girls are totally nuts, but I am in infinite awe of them every single day.

How did you choose the genre for Berticus?

A genre never occurred to me. Nor did the idea of even writing a book. I only wrote it because a few years back, my mom told me to write a funny book for the 10- to 12-yearolds. My mom is an educator with a master’s and Ph.D. in, uh, something to do with reading, I think. She said to write a “hilarious” chapter book for kids who dislike reading, but I disliked the idea of writing a book for kids who dislike reading. But my mom wouldn’t let up. So, to end the badgering, I finally buckled down and wrote it so she would stop

bugging me about it. I guess she was right, as always, because it turned out pretty good. Anyway, I wrote funny anecdotes from my life between those years.

What was your editing process like? I have no idea. Once I finished writing it, I gave it back to my mom, who found an editor. There’s no way I’d have the patience to edit Berticus . That’s like homework. The book is 200-plus pages. Sheesh!

How did you develop your characters? Berticus, his family, and the surrounding characters are based loosely on my family, friends, and classmates I grew up with. Some sparked to me as characters that would be amusing within the various school-related situations.

What are you working on now? I’m ramping up marketing and promotion at my new ice cream shop. And, of course, my mom has been badgering me to start working on the next stage in the life of Berticus as he embarks to battle it out with sixth grade! I already wrote the first chapter, where Berticus has a substitute teacher who inadvertently locks themself in the school’s supply closet. It’s pretty funny.

Berticus Silbert, Brian Strong Learning | 238 pp. | $12.95 paper Oct. 23, 2024 | 9780895445032

Portions of this Q&A were edited for clarity. Brian

Silbert

Jason Reynolds To Release an Original Audiobook

Soundtrack will feature a cast of voice actors and an original score.

Jason Reynolds is pivoting to audio for his next literary project.

The author, known for his award-winning middle-grade and young adult books, will release Soundtrack this spring, Listening Library announced in a news release. The audiobook publisher says that Reynolds’ story “shows us a found family coming of age in a wonderfully complex city.”

Reynolds, the former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, is known for books including When I Was the Greatest, Long Way Down, and Look Both Ways. His most recent release, Twenty-Four Seconds From Now…, was published last October, and in January it

For reviews of Jason Reynolds’ books, visit Kirkus online.

SEEN AND HEARD

won the Coretta Scott King Author Book Award.

Soundtrack, set in early 2000s New York, is the story of Stuy, a young Black teenager who wants to follow in the footsteps of his mom, a punk–rock drummer, and forms a band that finds success busking in the city’s subways.

The audiobook will feature a cast of 14 voice actors and an original score by composer Justin Ellington.

“I’m excited that the story I wrote years ago finally gets to be experienced through a medium I never imagined,” Reynolds said in a statement. “It’s a story that celebrates the creative genius of children, especially those who are willing to express themselves at all costs.”

Soundtrack is scheduled for release on June 3.—M.S.

Jason Reynolds

Madeline, the brown-skinned princess she was thrilled to meet as a child. But she’s assigned to a nacho stand instead. She auditions for one of the coveted princess positions but quickly learns that “there are no fat princesses in Sommerland.” As Tabi navigates her feelings of insecurity, she tries not to lose her sense of the park’s magic. The bright, colorful illustrations, which emphasize the characters’ emotions, set the stage for a delightfully affirming story of learning to accept yourself despite what others may say. Even with the very quick pacing, the storytelling is strong. Meyer explores themes of body positivity and bullying as Tabi contends with cutting comments about her size but ultimately creates and spreads joy with support from those who value her as she is. A whimsical, enchanting, and celebratory read. (Graphic fiction. 12-18)

Rewind To Us

Morris, Molly | Wednesday Books (336 pp.)

$21.00 | June 17, 2025 | 9781250289728

A high school graduate plans to tell her best friend that she loves him during her annual summer vacation to California but winds up wishing she could have a do-over instead.

Dixie Mulligan arrives in Cielo Springs with a plan: forget about the fight she had with her parents, help her aunt Kate fix the fire damage to her 110-year-old movie theater, and tell her best friend, Sawyer, that she loves him. The problem is that Dixie hasn’t spoken to Sawyer since he visited her in New York over spring break—and everything between them “exploded.” But when Dixie sees Sawyer kissing another girl, she decides to use her Rewind. Each member of the Mulligan family has a magical gift that allows them to redo one moment from the past year. Dixie submits her application, and if it’s approved, her Rewind will go into effect four days after she watches her Movie, which is “like watching secret CCTV footage of yourself”—showing the

alternate timeline of her life. But will this be enough to save their relationship? In this story that’s full of secrets, surprises, and unexpected twists, Dixie and Sawyer’s relationship isn’t the only one affected by her decision. The worldbuilding, including the Rewind rules, is carefully explained, and the chapters open with excerpts from the Mulligans’ writings about their magic. The main characters are cued white.

A charming love story that delves into relationships and regrets with a touch of magic. (Romance. 14-18)

Just Another Meet Cute

Nguyen, Jenn P. | Scholastic (336 pp.) | $12.99 paper | May 20, 2025 | 9781339010205

One misplaced jacket sparks an unexpected journey of love and reconnection. Seventeen-yearold Nina Riley is excited to spend the summer back in Austin, Texas; she and her mom moved to Houston a year ago. She’s less thrilled about the return of her long-absent father, who’s cued white, and the tension it stirs within her Vietnamese American mother’s side of the family. Desperate for a break, Nina takes a solo walk along a trail, only to stumble into a cute, dimpled stranger named Ian Nguyen. Their awkward yet electric encounter is cut short when he gets an urgent phone call and takes off, leaving behind his jacket. Determined to find him, Nina enlists Linh, her quick-witted cousin, for a lighthearted detective mission, which leads to comedic missteps, surprising revelations, and a whirlwind romance with undeniable chemistry. This

breezy, feel-good novel brimming with charm, mishaps, and heart thoughtfully weaves in themes of family expectations, identity, and belonging. The humor is sharp, the dialogue snappy, and the romance charming; the heavier topics are treated with a light touch. Nina is a relatable protagonist, navigating the messy realities of adolescence, family dynamics, and the bittersweet process of growing up. The novel’s vibrant cast adds rich cultural authenticity, enhancing the family drama and romantic tension. A laugh-out-loud romp that blends heart, humor, and hijinks—ideal for anyone who has ever felt caught between worlds. (Romance. 12-18)

Kirkus Star

Skipshock

O’Donoghue, Caroline | Walker US/ Candlewick (400 pp.) | $19.99 | June 3, 2025 9781536228816 | Series: Skipshock, 1

On a train headed to boarding school, a girl suddenly finds herself in another world where time functions differently.

After the sudden death of her father, 16-year-old Margo’s depression swerves into rebellion. But as she’s returning to her Dublin boarding school, something miraculous happens. Suddenly she’s in a completely different train car, and someone’s sitting in her seat. Moon, as he’s called, is an itinerant salesman—and he decides to help Margo. Maybe this strange girl can help fund his way out of a life shortened by skipshock: the deadly toll that constant traveling between

Rollicking adventure, ever-present danger, and simmering romance.

SKIPSHOCK

worlds takes on the body. Each world has a different number of hours in its days; the days in Northern worlds are shorter, causing accelerated aging, while Southern worlds have days that are nearly as long as Earth’s. Semper, the ruling world, is Southern, and they’ve outlawed traveling for anyone but salesmen. But Margo’s arrival from Earth—a sealed world no one was aware of—indicates that there must be a rupture, which sparks interest in a universe on the brink of a war. In this duology opener, Margo and Moon must try to stop tyrannical Semper. Their journey is one of rollicking adventure, ever-present danger, and simmering romance. Readers will burn through the pages as they traverse gorgeous, fully realized worlds replete with their own varied dramas. Margo reads white and Moon is a member of the nomadic Lunati, who are often treated with suspicion.

Incredibly immersive and utterly unique. (Fantasy. 14-18)

And They Were Roommates

Powars, Page | Roaring Brook Press (304 pp.) $19.99 | May 27, 2025 | 9781250347657

A teen finds himself sharing a room with the boy who broke his heart. Charlie von Hevringprinz has achieved his dreams of transitioning and attending Valentine Academy for Boys, located in Au Sable Forks, a tiny town in “middle-ofnowhere upstate New York.” When he arrives, he’s appalled to find that even though he requested and paid for a single room, he was assigned a roommate: Jasper Grimes, the handsome poet who broke Charlie’s heart when they were at Shakespeare camp before his transition. Charlie comes off as intellectually snobby and frustratingly lacking in self-awareness; meanwhile, Jasper’s terrible boundaries do nothing to subvert the first impression of him as an entitled rich boy. Unfortunately, their character development doesn’t do enough to add

vulnerability or depth to these initial impressions, making it hard for readers to feel butterflies over their romantic drama. The Saint Valentine–themed private boarding school setting is a classic of the genre, however, and as a backdrop, it contributes to an enjoyably campy vibe. The writing is pleasantly readable, but the plot is reminiscent of clichés from internet fandom, something reinforced by the title, which references an old meme. If fans of queer young adult romance make it to the second half, they’ll find that the story does become more interesting, ultimately ending on a sweet, romantic note. Charlie and Jasper read white, while the supporting cast contains racial diversity. Fluffy and not particularly memorable. (map) (Romance. 14-18)

Kill Creatures

Power, Rory | Delacorte (288 pp.)

$19.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9780593302316

A teenage girl’s secrets and lies come back to haunt her.

In the small lake resort town of Saltcedar, Utah, 17-year-old Nan is reeling from the disappearance of her three best friends, Edie, Jane, and Luce, who went missing during a nighttime hike in a local canyon. One year after their vanishing, Nan, her parents, and the entire town of Saltcedar are attending a vigil for the missing girls when Luce is miraculously found alive—a complete shock to Nan, who’s certain she’d killed all three of them. To her extreme relief, Nan learns that Luce doesn’t remember anything about what happened to her or where she’s been for the last year. As the police try to figure out what happened with the help of both girls, Nan’s lies are brought ever closer to unraveling while even darker secrets are brought to the surface, threatening everything Nan knows to be true about her life. Told in alternating timelines from before and after the disappearance, the story has

multiple satisfying and unexpected twists and turns, leading to a shocking conclusion. Fans of Power will be happy to find her signature dark, flowing prose in abundance in this unputdownable thriller. The main characters are cued white, and there’s some queer representation among the four girls. A gripping story of obsession and betrayal that will keep readers engrossed from the very first page. (content warnings) (Thriller. 14-18)

Arcana: The Lost Heirs

Prentice-Jones, Sam | Feiwel & Friends (384 pp.) | $27.99 | $19.99 paper

June 24, 2025 | 9781250290236

9781250290229 paper | Series: Arcana, 1

The appearance of a missing heir triggers a longburied curse. Flirting with a handsome photographer who walks into his coffeehouse leads to a big surprise for Eli Jones, when he learns that the powers he’s been hiding for years are actually witchcraft. After that attractive stranger, James Birdwhistle, catches Eli practicing his craft in an abandoned farmhouse in the British countryside, he’s quick to bring Eli for training by the Arcana, an ancient society of witches based in London that’s tasked with investigating and containing supernatural occurrences. But the Majors, the Arcana’s ruling body, are less than pleased with this development; Eli’s arrival coincides with strange happenings. Determined to get to the bottom of the Majors’ caginess and explain the dark energy stalking them, Eli and James band together with levelheaded trans woman Daphne, library-loving researcher Grayson, and tarot reader Koko to uncover the truth. Prentice-Jones’ illustrations employ a muted color palette of cool blues, olive browns, and burgundies that flow organically into one another, accentuating the clean, uncluttered panels and fluid lines. He also plays effectively with proportion and shape in his character

drawings. The cast members, who largely seem to be adults rather than teens, are diverse across many dimensions, including race and body type. This first installment in a new series teases satisfying developments to come. An unapologetically queer story that effectively explores an intriguing mystery. (character chart) (Graphic paranormal. 15-adult)

The Protégée

Ridley, Erica | Illus. by Colin Verdi Delacorte (336 pp.) | $19.99 June 10, 2025 | 9780593897669

In an alternate 1850 Paris, a young woman retaliates against cruel, wealthy industrialists in this YA debut by Ridley, a bestselling author for adults.

Eighteen-year-old Angélique Genêt is determined to make a better life for herself and her family. Ever since the “last revolution,” wealth and connections, not skin color, determine your value in society. Of Angélique’s fellow seamstresses at the boutique, “half are Black, half are white,” and she’s “the only one who’s a combination of both.”

Madame Violette, the Black owner, gave Angélique a probationary seamstress role, allowing her to escape the dangerous Fournier Fabrics factory, where her father died. When Angélique is two weeks away from securing a living wage and rescuing her family, her mother and sister are gruesomely killed while working at the Fournier factory. Alone except for her 12-year-old sister, Elodie (a precociously gifted perfumier), and her romantic interest, Spanish-born Domingo Salazar, a suave apprentice cobbler, Angelique vows revenge against Monsieur Fournier and all the other callous and greedy capitalists—and being named Madame Violette’s protégée will give her access to the elite. But Angélique faces competition; the other seamstresses hate her for her lower social station and resent her talent. The

comically evil rivals make Angélique’s revenge all the more delightful. Elodie and Domingo’s relationship brings a softer side to Angélique’s morally gray character without dulling the narrative or taking away from the gory fun. A satisfying tale of bloodlust, revenge, and fashion. (author’s note, discussion questions) (Historical horror. 14-18)

The Survivor Wants to Die At the End

Silvera, Adam | Quill Tree Books/ HarperCollins (720 pp.) | $23.99 May 6, 2025 | 9780063240858

When Death-Cast doesn’t call, fate intertwines the lives of two boys, both haunted by their pasts and with futures they can’t escape. In this third installment of the series that opened with 2017’s They Both Die at the End, Paz Dario waits every night for Death-Cast to call—as it should have for his father nearly 10 years ago, when Paz shot him to save his mother’s life. But the call never comes. Death-Cast killed Paz’s dreams of an acting career: No one will hire him now because the world sees him as a villain. When Paz tries (not for the first time) to put an end to his suffering, an unexpected encounter with Alano Rosa, the heir of Death-Cast, stops him. Both in a place of desperation, Alano and Paz sign a contract to live for Begin Days instead of waiting for their End Days. As suspenseful and emotionally wrenching as the previous titles in the series, this new installment explores heavy themes of abuse, mental health, self-harm, and suicide. Paz grapples with a recent diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Silvera surrounds Alano and Paz with a web of complex relationships. Although the protagonists fall fast for one another and form a deep connection over Alano’s desire to support Paz, Silvera emphasizes the importance of professional help. Both Alano and Paz have

Puerto Rican heritage. The cliffhanger ending promises more to come. Raw, delicate, and deeply caring. (content warning, resources) (Speculative fiction. 14-18)

The Legend of Sensei Tsinelas

Tanamor, Jason | Ooligan Press (241 pp.) $18.00 paper | May 13, 2025 | 9781947845565

A high school senior in Portland, Oregon, tries to prove that his new boss is a superhero in order to gain popularity at school.

Victor Dela Cruz is a self-proclaimed nerd whose life revolves around superheroes. Bullied by the members of the football team, Victor is ashamed of being Filipino American, believing that brown skin is his kryptonite in his primarily white environment. He’s avoided focusing on his culture, so he doesn’t know where to begin with a family heritage project for school. That’s when Victor’s boss at the Filipino food truck where he works, a man he calls Sir, demonstrates an impressive feat of heroism in protecting a woman from an armed mugger using only his tsinelas, or slippers. This leads Victor to believe Sir is “the people’s vigilante” who’s responsible for fighting crime around the city. Victor’s grandmother and sister encourage him to write about his deceased parents for his assignment, but he’s determined to prove that Sir is an actual superhero and win his peers’ vote for the best project. Victor goes through a moving journey of self-discovery, learning to accept his true self and take pride in his Filipino heritage. Tanamor thoughtfully touches on assimilation, loss, grief, and feelings of being an outsider. Victor often imagines himself or others as having superpowers and altering the outcomes of various encounters. Detailed descriptions make this is a true ode to Portland and Filipino cuisine and culture.

An endearing story of identity and cultural pride. (Fiction. 12-18)

Dan in Green Gables: A Modern Reimagining of Anne of Green Gables

Terciero, Rey | Illus. by Claudia Aguirre Penguin Workshop (256 pp.)

$24.99 | $17.99 paper | June 3, 2025 9780593385579 | 9780593385586 paper

A playful, queer graphic novel reimagining of Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery’s classic comingof-age novel.

Fifteen-year-old Daniel StewartÁlvarez is accustomed to a wandering life with his free-spirited, brownskinned mother. Arriving in rural Tennessee in the spring of 1995, Dan is eager to meet his deceased father’s parents, who present white. But when he wakes up to a goodbye note from his mom, he’s devastated to have been abandoned. Kind, patient Mawmaw comforts him, sparks his interest in the farm, and shares his love for Dolly Parton. Rough, conservative Pawpaw is a harder nut to crack, bristling at Dan’s unusual clothing and gregarious personality. Despite facing homophobic comments at his new school and getting into a fight, Dan makes some fast friends, including Rudy, a Black girl whose liberal church community welcomes him. Dan also develops an unexpected crush on a boy who might just like him back. The dreamy, whimsical illustrations are steeped in the sweet, slow feeling of a humid East Tennessee afternoon. Pops of saturated color flood the background of some panels, highlighting emotional moments and mirroring Dan’s vibrant personality. Satisfying thematic parallels and a spirited, vulnerable carrot-topped protagonist will satisfy fans of the original, which is refreshingly remixed by Terciero’s joyfully queer spin.

An effervescent search for belonging and a heartfelt ode to a beloved classic. (content note, recipe, note about Lucy Maud Montgomery, author’s note) (Graphic fiction. 12-16)

Everyone Sux But You

Wroten, K. | Henry Holt (368 pp.)

$27.99 | $19.99 paper | May 20, 2025

9781250821669 | 9781250821676 paper

A queer teen reflects on an all-consuming relationship.

Carson, a member of the class of 2009 in conservative Midwestern America, finds herself falling in love with her best friend, Ash, during their senior year. Their relationship begins to shift into something more than friendship, but they’re also navigating feelings for other people, exploring different plans for the future, and grieving the loss of Carson’s mom. This graphic novel, illustrated in a minimal palette, is narrated through Carson’s diary entries written to her mom toward the end of the school year as she looks back at the rise and fall of her life- altering—and ultimately toxic— relationship with Ash. Interspersed flashbacks stretching further back in time slowly reveal exactly what happened to Carson’s mom, which gives deeper insight into Carson’s emotional state. This narrative structure requires patience from readers as the pieces come together, but it adds intrigue and pays off emotionally in an ending filled with heartbreak and hope. Pop-culture references throughout add texture to the setting and will satisfy nostalgiacraving readers, particularly those who went through an emo phase, while the overall story of complicated relationships will resonate with many. The main characters are the white of the page in the appealing art that’s rendered in bold, black lines with light purplish-gray shading.

A complex and emotionally raw story of young love and learning to prioritize oneself. (playlist, author’s note, resources, sketches) (Graphic fiction. 14-18)

The Light Looks Like Me: Words on Love From Queer Youth

Young Authors of Shout Mouse Press Shout Mouse Press (193 pp.) | $14.99 paper | June 3, 2025 | 9781950807833

An anthology of verse and prose by a diverse range of young queer voices. This latest anthology from Shout Mouse Press was created through a series of writing workshops in Washington, D.C., “with queer-identifying youth between 13-24 years old.” A foreword by award-winning YA author Malinda Lo praises the way these young people “write about the powerful experience of being seen across sexual orientation, across gender, even across time,” capturing the imaginations and lived experiences of queer youth in relation to love. Instead of looking only at romantic relationships, the definition of love here is wide enough to make room for friends, family, community, ancestors, animals, and oneself. In doing so, this collection both questions and provides an alternative to heteronormative conceptions of what it means to seek and find love. Many queer youths experience resistance from and abandonment by their families of origin; this work offers hope by showing how family can be found and created on one’s own terms. In addition to their varied sexualities and gender identities, the authors represent a variety of ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds, including Mexican, Haitian, Vietnamese, Hispanic, Filipino, Chinese, Black, and Muslim, thus challenging the idea that queerness is a white, Western construct and reinforcing the fact that LGBTQ+ people exist across all cultures.

Powerful, affirming, and important reading for young people and the adults in their lives. (contributor bios) (Anthology. 12-18)

SEEN AND HEARD

New Novel by Angeline Boulley Coming This Summer

The author of Firekeeper’s Daughter will publish Sisters in the Wind.

Angeline Boulley will release her third young

adult novel later this year, People magazine reports.

Henry Holt will publish Boulley’s Sisters in the Wind in the late summer. The press describes the book as “a daring new mystery about a foster teen claiming her heritage on her own terms.”

Boulley made her literary debut in 2021 with Firekeeper’s Daughter, a novel about an 18-year-old Ojibwe woman who goes undercover to root

out the source of a dangerous new drug that is killing people in her community. The novel was a huge success, hitting the New York Times bestseller list and winning the Michael L. Printz Award. It is being adapted into a Netflix television series, produced by Higher Ground, Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company.

In 2023, she published a follow-up novel, Warrior Girl Unearthed. Sisters in the Wind will follow a teenager in the foster system who is approached by a man claiming to know the secrets of her biological family.

The book, Boulley told

People, “delves into an aspect of Native identity mentioned briefly in my previous novels: a young woman who learns about her Ojibwe identity while struggling to survive the foster care system.”

Sisters in the Wind is slated for publication on Sept. 2.—M.S.

For a review of Firekeeper’s Daughter, visit Kirkus online.

Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Girls Write Now

Angeline Boulley

Inspiring Lives

Indie

THE JUSTICE LEAGUE

FOR OUR ANNUAL Indie issue, we’re highlighting some of our Indieland standouts—like Black Defender by David Washington, who appears on the cover of the issue—that ground the lofty themes of truth and justice with solid storytelling and everyday details. We interview Washington and also include excerpts from a book about the evils of Big Ag and from an adult picture book that illustrates the many responses to grief. Expanding on the truth and justice theme, the editors’ picks below show how the legal system can be an effective, if slow-moving, tool for changing lives.

Andrew Bridge spent most of his childhood in the Los Angeles foster care system. As an adult, the Harvard-educated lawyer left a lucrative position to defend the rights of children in foster care and joined a firm involved in a class action lawsuit against the Eufaula Adolescent Center, which he recounts in his book The Child Catcher. Eufaula, says Bridge, had a “well-known history of violence, including abuse by staff and other children.” The

case took more than two decades but had a lifechanging impact on residents. Our reviewer says, “Bridge’s wellresearched and annotated account includes harrowing stories from inside Eufaula; particularly wrenching is the case of a young boy named David Dolihite, who for every hour of therapy spent more than 33 hours in some form of isolation; a suicide attempt left him with permanent brain damage.…A fierce, maddening chronicle of advocacy on behalf of our most vulnerable citizens.”

Author Meg Groff meandered from cab driver to factory worker, etc., before becoming an attorney. But once she began her law career, she focused single-mindedly on legal aid. She recounts a life of fighting for others in her

memoir, Not If I Can Help It: A Family Lawyer’s Battles for Justice for Victims of Domestic Violence and the Poor. “Each episode carries a tremendous punch, as well as a searing lesson about the failings of society to help those in need,” says our reviewer, who considers Groff’s book a must-read.

“Groff deftly narrates her personal experiences to set engrossing scenes, like a last-minute courtroom speech to keep a baby out of protective services or the immense relief from a colleague’s simple affirmation, while never losing sight of the bigger picture.”

McCracken Poston Jr.’s memoir, Zenith Man: Death, Love, and Redemption in a Georgia Courtroom , recounts the fascinating story of Poston’s defense of an unusual client facing a murder and

unlawful imprisonment charge. Alvin Ridley, a TV repairman who was considered the town oddball, was the prime suspect in his wife’s murder. As our reviewer explains, Ridley regularly pestered Poston, pleading with the lawyer to take his case. Ultimately, the lawyer, a former Georgia state representative who’d lost his re-election bid, agreed to help Ridley—who was a challenge to represent, to say the least. Our reviewer says, “By turns a humorous character study and a searing examination of the blind spots in our justice system, Poston’s work is an emotionally affecting page-turner sure to be loved by fans of true crime and courtroom procedurals.”

Chaya Schechner is the president of Kirkus Indie.

Illustration by Eric Scott Anderson

CHAYA SCHECHNER

EDITOR’S PICK

Schoolkids are as devious and dangerous as they are cute in Kelly’s slyly unsettling suspenser. Tina is a single mom with a checkered past (she barely remembers the drunken hookup that derailed her life and produced her 10-year-old son Matty) who has a toehold in affluent Park Slope, Brooklyn, thanks to a below-market rental and a teaching job at L’il Learners preschool. She loves her charges—vomiting and poop jokes notwithstanding—but wonders about Jonah, a 3-year-old who never talks or plays, especially when his attacks on a little girl escalate from biting and hair-pulling to stabbing with a tack and worse. Jonah’s older sister Darla, Matty’s classmate, is also a problem; her more

sophisticated bullying of an overweight boy named Byron progresses to subtle, disturbing bloodshed. Tina sympathizes with Jonah and Darla because their mother Laura recently died in a hiking accident (they say they can see her ghost) and grows even more sympathetic when she meets their handsome, ingratiating father Patrick. As Tina grows closer to Patrick and his kids, she puts aside others’ misgivings even as red flags appear, including hints that Laura’s death might not have been accidental. Kelly’s novel is a mordantly funny portrait of high-end preschools full of well-heeled, judgmental moms and exasperating, antic children. It’s also a plangent reflection on the fragility of relationships—Tina’s decade-long friendship with

Small Wonder

Kelly, Eileen | Flexible Press | 233 pp. $17.67 paper | Feb. 21, 2025 | 9798988721369

her landlady Cheryl, whose daughter Naomi she practically raised, goes by the wayside when Cheryl decides she wants more rent. The author’s clever, evocative prose illuminates characters in their labyrinthine complexity—especially Darla’s arresting mix of childishness and dark calculation. (“Darla hates the fat boy so much she

would like to bite him and swallow the pieces. She wants to call him fatty-pants again, but this time Naomi and Matty would hear… Darla knows better than to show her friends what she feels.”) From this bad seed sprouts a page-turner. An engrossing yarn about innocence-turnedmalignant, by turns hilarious and haunting.

Kalpana Sutaria

A visually dazzling artistic odyssey.

THE ART OF BEING AN ARTIST

Valérie

Bel, Zoe Marie | Scatterpunk Press (164 pp.) | $10.99 paper Dec. 1, 2024 | 9781399997485

Two mismatched friends become something more in Bel’s Paris-set literary novella. Paris, 2018: Céleste, a sensible architect, gets a call from her closest and most bohemian friend, Valérie Chaibi, a lesbian “multi-media poet” and urban nomad who is perpetually crashing in other people’s apartments. Valérie is calling to ask for Céleste’s help for the first time in their friendship: Will Céleste return Valérie’s 12 overdue books before the library closes and Valérie’s exorbitant late fees become astronomical replacement fees? Céleste agrees, but while collecting the books from Valérie’s current “arrangement,” she comes across a broken picture frame—a keepsake that made it out of Algeria when Valérie’s parents fled the war there, one of only two objects Valérie moves with her from place to place. (The other is a yucca plant.) Knowing Valérie would be heartbroken if she came home to discover the frame shattered, Céleste decides she will get it fixed and sneak it back into the apartment without Valérie realizing. When the plan goes awry and the books are not returned, emotions flare unexpectedly, and the opportunity for Céleste and Valérie to become more than friends presents itself. But can two women from such different places and with such different desires ever have a functional relationship? Bel is a lovely stylist, and her prose sparkles with surprising and memorable imagery: Discarded socks are “tartan croissants”;

cemetery steps are “slug-snotted.” The dialogue crackles as well. When Valerie (who refuses to get a full-time job to sustain herself) demands, “Cél, tell me what it means to have the ‘freedom’ to faddle over quinoa,” Céleste responds, smiling, “You always go for quinoa‚… when you mock the middle class.” The book threads the tricky needle of neither taking itself too seriously nor allowing its characters to become caricatures of young Parisians. This narrative is brief, but the feelings it contains are deep. An artfully rendered tale about finding oneself in love.

The Black Bow: A Story of the Thirty Years War

Bender, A.R. | never2late press (350 pp.) $19.99 paper | Aug. 13, 2024 | 9798988808602

Bender’s supernatural historical novel centers on one man’s battle to save his family during the Thirty Years’ War. In the first half of the 17th century, the Germanic kingdoms are wracked with tensions amid the Catholic Inquisition. Erich is a reluctant guard at a prison in Ulm, overhearing awful tortures inflicted by Klaus, the leader of the local Catholic League. Worried for his family’s safety, Erich decides they must escape to Leipzig. but there’s something he can’t leave behind: the Black Bow, a weapon that has been in his family for more than 400 years that some say has mythical powers. After stealing it from where it’s being held at the sheriff’s office, Erich makes one last rescue before evacuating. He breaks Mara, a young healer jailed for witchcraft, out of prison and she becomes a spiritual

guide to Erich, “who showed much valor to bring her back here from the point of immense danger.” Erich’s wife, Catherine, and his family leave for Leipzig, and Erich pledges to return Mara back to her home at the monastery at Eibingen; here, the narrative splits, mainly following Erich and Mara, and Klaus in Erich’s pursuit, but occasionally touching Catherine’s story and that of Erich’s son, Cort, who later chases after his father. The chapters comprise several third-person perspectives, jumping between people and places, which has the effect of making the narrative excitingly fast-paced. However, the transitions between different storylines can be a little overly abrupt at times. Bender includes a variety of side characters to more fully explore the impact of the Inquisition on everyday people, including a scholar who was horribly tarred for his academic allegiances, soldiers of the Swedish brigades, and women tortured because of their medical knowledge. Overall, this account effectively sheds light on a period of history with which many readers may be unfamiliar. A fast-paced adventure that skillfully weaves in horrific aspects of European history.

The Art of Being an Artist: 150 Days Inside a Painter’s Art Studio

Berends, Bianca | Self (200 pp.) $45.00 | June 30, 2024 | 9798329027228

Hard work is shown to be the key to success in Berends’ lavishly illustrated meditation on artistic labor.

The author, a Dutch painter now living on the Caribbean island of Curaçao, presents a 150-day journal covering the run-up to an exhibition of new paintings on the theme of “beach life” on display on the island’s seashore. The book is effectively a study of her

Kirkus Star

hands-on creative process, which emphasizes open-ended, improvisatory experiments to see what looks interesting (“try not to think about a possible end result and just do things that come to you”), rather than angsty rumination. She began with simple, offhand abstract exercises on paper, featuring eclectic motifs from pastel blobs and blood-red drips to rectilinear stencil patterns. She worked in a profusion of eclectic materials, techniques, and formats: watercolors, oils, and oil bars (pressed oil paints used like crayons); diluted acrylics in a spray bottle; embossed rolling pins that imprint patterns in paint; images torn out of other pieces that she incorporates into new collages; and postcards, enlarged and printed to serve as backdrops. After a few weeks, Berends introduced figurative elements, mainly focusing on images of children goofing around at the beach (her favorite subjects include a young girl in a pink bathing suit, often peering intently at sand and water). In the journal’s concluding weeks, the artist brought together these strands in exuberant paintings of frolicking bathers with richly textured abstract motifs and the postcards, adding visual energy. Berends enriches her narrative with color photos of her studio, exercises, and the stages of her developing paintings, along with tips on everything from the quality of one’s brushes to the disposal of turpentine. Berends’ journal is, in part, an engrossing account of an artist’s craft. Writing in limpid, straightforward prose, she presents readers with simple, practical descriptions of materials and techniques, as well as evocative musings on conundrums of visual effect: “One of the hardest things I find to recreate is the color of white when in shadow. It quickly turns to blue, and you lose the feel of it being white fabric in the shadow.” The book is also full of wisdom on the psychology of creativity, from the imperative to lurch from doubt and inertia into action (“The only thing to do is START!...The blank paper or canvas dares you to fail!”) to the hard lesson that the work of refining what seems like a masterpiece is never truly finished (“a good start to a

painting is nothing more than that: a good start”). The photographs provide a splendid display of Berends’ work. Her paintings, especially the human subjects, sometimes leave a slightly rough-hewn impression, with figures and faces often decomposed into broad plats of color. Yet in closeups, they’re a riot of rich detail, full of swirling brush strokes and complex, intricate colors. Artists will find much food for thought here, while casual readers will find a feast for the eyes.

A visually dazzling artistic odyssey, full of sharp insights and warmhearted encouragement.

Home Fires Burn

Bidulka, Anthony | Stonehouse Publishing (300 pp.) | $16.95 paper June 1, 2025 | 9781988754642

In this conclusion to Bidulka’s mystery trilogy, detective Merry Bell investigates the death of her first love’s father. In twin prologues, the author introduces John Whatley, a car dealership owner who’s freezing to death while locked out of his company car in the bitter Saskatchewan countryside, and reintroduces private eye Merry, a trans woman who’s long been estranged from her family but has just begun to reconnect with them by phone after years of silence. For readers new to the series, this quick introduction will effectively get them up to speed; for those familiar with the first two books, it provides fresh, new details about Merry’s early years, particularly about how her mother kicked her out of the house after broaching the topic of transitioning. Merry starts investigating the death of Whatley after running into his son, Evan, whom she dated in high school before her transition, and who’s now a famous singer. Although the local police ruled Whatley’s case a “death by misadventure,” Evan is convinced that it was no accident. Thus begins Merry’s

investigation into Whatley’s life, including inquiries into his former co-workers, his secretive social life, and allegations that he may have harbored antigay sentiments. As with the double prologue, the investigation runs parallel to an exploration of Merry’s past. In a story set during the week before and after Christmas, Merry must decide whether to spend the holiday with her family members, including her mother who’s now slipping into dementia, and come to terms with how she truly feels about her first love. She’s also compelled to seek assistance from Det. Sgt. Veronica Greyeyes, who previously arrested Merry on suspicion of murder. Over the course of this novel, Bidulka skillfully pulls off a delicate balance between the past and present, and ably handles both the murder investigation and the exploration of his main character’s social and emotional life. The tale is told at a fast pace, and by the end of it, readers will not only want to know who committed the crime at its center, but also how Merry will steer her future. A poignant closer that will please fans and newcomers alike.

Blind Spots: A Riches to Rags Story

Blotnick, Gregory J. | Self (224 pp.) $12.99 paper | Jan. 1, 2025 | 9798304086844

An ambitious young entrepreneur tells of his experience with white-collar crime in this memoir.

“Starting from my very first day of work as a useless pissant, I always felt like I was lucky to be given each and every opportunity that came my way,” writes Blotnick at one point in this revealing remembrance. After graduating from Pennsylvania’s Lehigh University with poor grades during the depths of the Great Recession of 2007-2009, he landed an internship with a hedge fund, he writes. Later, he was accepted to Columbia University’s esteemed

business school. He thrived in financial services, he says, as he loved the fast-paced work, and after a decade, in 2019, he went into business for himself. His firm, Brattle Street Capital, promised massive returns for a small group of investors—mostly Blotnick’s friends and family members. However, when the Covid-19 pandemic turned global markets upside down, his fledgling business struggled. Desperate to fulfill his promises to his investors, the author sought out lines of credit elsewhere— and found them in millions of dollars of fraudulent loans, he says. In this memoir, which was written largely in jail, Blotnick effectively details his rise to wealth, success, and prominence—and shows how easily it all fell apart. As an author, he’s alternately funny and wise, easily shifting between self-deprecating monologues about grades to frank discussions of privilege, money, and an American criminal justice system that’s “custom-built to turn your warm heart cold.” His vivid descriptions of the violence, filth, and neglect that he and others experienced at Rikers Island will evoke sympathy, but he admirably stresses repeatedly that he isn’t writing to make excuses for himself or garner readers’ pity. Instead, he writes to expose his own mistakes. A raw, self-aware, and earnest remembrance.

Stormbringer: The Predator’s Stone

Boden, G.R. | Milk & Cookies Press (448 pp.)

$16.99 paper | Oct. 24, 2023 | 9781638191605

In Boden’s debut middle-grade fantasy novel, a contemporary tween girl is prophesied to save the Nine Realms of Norse mythology. Seventh grader Cindrheim Vustora Moss doesn’t back down from a fight; when an invisible monster charges her at her Virginia school, she’s

lucky that four powerful, sword-wielding girls suddenly show up to help. They’re Predators, warriors from the realm of Vanaheim who were sent to protect Cinder, though they don’t know why. They take her to Iceland, where she’s flabbergasted to meet figures whom she’d always believed to be mythological beings, from the Valkyries to Odin the Allfather. Evidently, an ancient prophecy indicates that Cinder will somehow save the Nine Realms, but she won’t get details about her quest until just before she embarks on it. In the meantime, Cinder trains in combat and braves the harrowing Gauntlet, which includes a pit of assorted creatures (like bloodsucking slugs). It’s grueling work, and the quest is sure to be rife with danger; will Cinder rise to the challenge to see her mission through? Boden’s novel (and prospective series kickoff) boasts a sublime young hero. Cinder certainly has her flaws, like a confidence that occasionally slips into arrogance. At the same time, she is courageous and indefatigable, and she puts others’ well-being above her own. The author blends taut descriptions of Norse gods and mythology with contemporary dialogue that pops. In addition to the deities, the extensive cast ranges from vicious insectlike creatures to the instantly likable half-elf Brandon, who hails from California. All of this is a lot for Cinder to absorb—the story never forgets that she’s a 12-year- old girl. (Tristan, who designed the Gauntlet, may be a haughty jerk, but he’s also the “cutest boy [Cinder has] ever seen.”) This first installment ends with one of Cinder’s goals checked off but plenty of lingering questions. A hefty, entertaining fantasy.

When I Was Straight: A Tribute to Maureen Seaton

Ed. by Brookshire, Dustin | Small Harbor Publishing (70 pp.) | $14.00 paper Dec. 31, 2024 | 9781957248431

E ditor and poet Brookshire offers a collection of 23 LGBTQ+ poets’ works inspired by the late Maureen Seaton’s titular poem.

The scaffolding that surrounds these poems—including a foreword by poet Denise Duhamel (who collaborated with Seaton), photos of each of the contributors as children, an afterword by Samuel Ace (another of Seaton’s collaborators), and Seaton’s 2023 obituary—feels compelling and necessary, as they prepare readers well to engage with the works. All had to be titled “When I Was Straight,” after Seaton’s 2001 poem, but the authors were given no other rules to follow. Most of the poems live in the world of adolescence and teendom, school, and bullies, as in one by Kelli Russell Agodon (“a sunset / on a dead-end street holding the Indigo // Girls in one hand and Elvis Costello / in the other”); Brookshire’s contribution features a speaker as a child who, alone in the house, applied his mother’s lipstick with a smile: “I’d sit back straight, legs crossed / directing the household staff / that we didn’t have / on the tasks of the day”; and Travis Chi Wing Lau’s work has a young speaker re-crafting his gait “beneath cleat and rumor.” The poems that embrace such ultraspecific imagery are most successful at conjuring the mixture of elation, fear, and agony that

An often skillful and sometimes-revelatory collection.

accompanies the process of embracing one’s queerness. Especially poignant is Allison Blevins’ piece about a sleepover with a friend: “Silent in her bed, her fingers touched my arm—gentle as blue and sweet corn and pond water lapping. Nothing would ever be the same after—that pain promised.” A number of pieces here have a wonderful, campy directness (as in James Davis’ cheekily perfect rhymes), and Ben Kline’s poem is especially nuanced and sharp: “I stowed twenty twenties / inside my reading copy of Deadpool #1 / for any abortions / Andi & me might need.” Not every piece works, as is the fate of most anthologies, but those that do make for a worthy reading experience, and the whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts.

An often skillful and sometimesrevelatory collection.

Dawnland

Callahan, Tess | Little A (331 pp.) $16.99 paper | Sept. 3, 2024 9781662517570

In Callahan’s novel, a 39-yearold woman tries to figure out her place in her husband’s family. In 2018, as the story opens, April Simone and her two children travel from Upstate New York to her fatherin-law’s house in Massachusetts on Cape Cod for a family reunion. There, she’s met by her husband, Al, a sportswriter, and an old flame—her brother-in-law, Oliver. She and Oliver have found ways to exist in each other’s presence since she married Al, who is the only family member aware of his wife and his brother’s romantic history: “Aside from holidays, their annual Cape Cod reunions were the only time April laid eyes on Oliver, each vacation a year farther from the man she was with in Ireland.” However, the week that follows brings up old questions about what she really wants and deserves. Al is an alcoholic and

philanderer who, despite his flaws, truly loves April. Oliver is an accomplished musician who appears, at first, to be in a happy marriage. The story jumps back and forth in time to tell tales of a troubled youth, the aforementioned trip to Ireland, a love letter, and April and Al’s convenient wedding. For April, being with Oliver would mean breaking up a family that includes her beloved adopted niece, Phoebe. However, staying with Al means humiliation. Meanwhile, her adolescent children are also finding out more about themselves as they come of age in a family whose sense of peace is rocky at best. Many passages in Callahan’s novel read as if they were first written as a play, as the narrative drifts from room to room in the single Cape Cod house with a strong emphasis on dialogue; as a result, although the book is on the lengthy side, it proceeds at a fairly quick pace. The story falls into tropes of family-centered dramas that many readers will find familiar, but its treatment of issues such as infidelity has enough nuance to catch and keep the reader’s attention until the end. Overall, the novel’s straightforwardly dramatic aspects, and its clear sense of forward momentum, give it the feel of a diverting beach or vacation read. An engaging novel that hooks readers in with a fast-paced story of forbidden love.

Napoleon’s Mirage

Cameron, Michelle | She Writes Press (392 pp.) | $16.30 paper Nov. 12, 2024 | 9781647426200

In Cameron’s sequel to Beyond the Ghetto Gates (2020), people of various faiths in 1798 Italy, Egypt, and Israel struggle during Napoleon Bonaparte’s Middle Eastern military campaign.

Mirelle’s life in the town of Ancona is as blessed as it is fraught. Since the French conquered the country in the late 1790s, Jewish people like her were

allowed to move out of ghettos, their gates triumphantly dismantled. However, the occupying French impose such prohibitive taxes on her business—which creates ornate Jewish marriage contracts called ketubah— that its survival is in jeopardy. Even worse, her personal reputation has been ruined by scandal, as she abandoned the wealthy David Morpurgo, whom she was intended to marry, and slept with a French soldier—transgressions that even her mother refuses to forgive. Her cousin, Daniel, a lieutenant in the French Army under Napoleon’s command, travels to Egypt. Initially, Daniel is devoted to his leader, but his fidelity wavers as he witnesses the grotesque effects of war and begins to question Napoleon’s dedication to his own troops. Daniel and Mirelle love each other, but Daniel is slow to acknowledge this—a reluctance that Cameron portrays well: “Damn his diffident nature, his fear of losing her forever if he spoke out. She might never know, now, how he felt. Nor would he know if she returned his love.” With admirable intelligence, the author captures the excitement of Mirelle and others around her in response to the rise of Napoleon and the French Revolution, both of which promised the possibility of freedom and the potential establishment of a Jewish homeland in Israel. Part of what makes this historically fascinating novel unusual is the fact that Cameron also presents the perspectives of Egyptians on Napoleon’s campaign, which offers intriguing insight. The author’s prose is clear but unremarkable in style, never moving or hypnotic—however, it remains historically edifying and dramatically compelling.

An engaging entry that combines a historical study with an ongoing dramatic saga.

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Do You Hate the One You Love?: Strategies for Healing and Saving Your Relationship

Childs, Joan E. | Koehler Books (216 pp.) $20.95 paper | Feb. 11, 2025 | 9798888241080

A breezy and opinionated guide to improving marriage. Childs—who has been in clinical practice for more than 40 years, holds numerous therapeutic certifications, and is “multi-divorced”— distills her personal and professional experience here into a chatty self-help guide. The catchy chapter titles give a sense of her upbeat style: “Why Can’t a Man Be More Like a Woman”; “The Power of the Penis, the Patriarchy, Politics, and the Pocketbook”; “Where, Oh, Where Has My Sexy Self Gone?” Asserting that the patterns she sees in her practice confirm the truism that “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus,” she walks the reader through the reasons why relationships fail (patterns and traumas experienced in childhood unconsciously carry over to the “relational space”) and what it takes to create a successful “conscious relationship.” The book combines client stories, inspiring quotations, takeaways from research in neurobiology, and references to famous psychologists (from Carl Jung and Alice Miller to John Gottman and Esther Perel) to explain the principles of “encountercentered” couples counseling. She also provides descriptions of “rituals” (exercises) including “presencing” and “crossing the bridge” with enough detail to allow readers to experiment with them on their own. Although Childs asserts that “love-hate relationships can happen in any environment” and that she isn’t “male-bashing,” her focus is centered squarely around women in heterosexual relationships. A short list of references offers several suggestions for further reading. Child’s writing style is entertaining, humorous, and informal—reading her prose is like talking with a smart girlfriend or big sister. She sprinkles

exclamation points liberally throughout and doesn’t shy away from colorful language. (One client says, “When he’s not acting like a dick, I find him lovable,” and another’s anger is dramatic: “Her inner beast rose from the coals of hell, blowing dragon fire from the depths of her being.”) The text is occasionally rambling or repetitive (for example, quotes by Albert Einstein and M. Scott Peck appear twice), and there are a few mistakes (confusing Glenda for Glinda of Oz, regatta for regalia, and willful for willing) and some lapses into the passive voice. Such quibbles aside, the book is relatable and reassuring. Down-to-earth advice for bridging the divide between Venus and Mars.

With Blood and Flame: How the British Empire Changed Bengal

Chowdhury, Fazle | Fabrezan & Phillipe (545 pp.) | $17.50 paper Aug. 17, 2023 | 9798895469354

A history book focuses on Bengal’s treatment at the hands of the British.

“The British Empire came to India to trade but stayed to rule, realizing that establishing military control was the only way in order to enhance their profits,” writes Chowdhury at the outset of his searing study of British rule in India. “All was done for only British interests, entailing profits that went to British coffers, not for the blood, sweat and energy of a single Indian.” In this volume, he deals with the modern-era history of the region bordered by the Himalayas in the North and the Bay of Bengal in the South: the Indian province of West Bengal and the independent country of Bangladesh. He points out that not only is West Bengal a strategic trading hub for Southeast Asia, producing millions of tons of rice every year, but also that the Bengal area was equally lavish and productive prior to the arrival of direct British imperial

control in the 19th century—after which largely came exploitation and destruction. In this passionate book, Chowdhury skillfully takes readers through some of the most famous events of this colonial occupation, including the Amritsar Massacre in April 1919, in which more than a thousand people were killed or injured, and the 1942-44 Bengal famine, which he sees as a direct result of British rule under Winston Churchill. “British colonial government printed large amounts of money for military expenditure,” the author writes, which caused the price of rice in Bengal to rise by 300%. “Since wages did not rise, ordinary people were pushed even deeper into poverty.” In textured, urgent, and erudite prose, Chowdhury expertly covers various events, including those in the present day, in order to show how a “2.0 version of the British colonial project” has been at work in far more recent times, attempting to revive a “divide and rule” policy so that “outside players can pounce with their economic aid and investment.”

A fierce and knowledgeable examination of Bengal’s oppression.

Hacking School: Five Strategies to Link Learning to Life

Corbin, Annalies | Self (249 pp.) | $24.99 paper | Oct. 18, 2024 | 9798343544183

C orbin details her plan for a thorough modernization of American education. In 2000, the author established the PAST Foundation (Partnering Anthropology with Science and Technology), an organization designed to challenge the “outdated factory-based model of education” that relies on rote memorization, offers one-size-fits-all pedagogies, and fails to prepare students for the employment realities of today, especially in technology. As became painfully clear during the Covid-19 pandemic, per Corbin, the current

A forceful and thought-provoking call to diversify the workforce.

HIDDEN TALENT

Rooted: A Seedling’s Journey

Cranston, Tammy | Self (32 pp.)

$19.99 | $9.99 paper | Sept. 9, 2024

9798991499323 | 9798991499316 paper

seedling’s eventual name, “Dendro,” which is inspired by Grandpa Oakey’s explanation of “dendrochronology,” the process of determining a tree’s age by counting its rings after it dies.) The text includes a “Discussion Questions” section that young readers can ponder or adults can use as conversation starters to engage children in expressing how they relate to aspects of Dendro’s experiences: “Dendro looked up to Grandpa Oakey. Who do you look up to, and why?”

Clear, age-appropriate, characterbuilding themes about caring, loss, and change.

Kirkus Star

Hidden Talent: How to Employ Refugees, the Formerly Incarcerated & People With Disabilities

DeLong, David | Longstone Press (326 pp.) $19.95 paper | Jan. 28, 2025 | 9780988868625

educational system needs a “radical recalibration” that fosters individual agency, transforms classrooms into vibrant “ecosystems of inquiry,” and prepares students to solve real-world problems. In helpfully accessible language free of turgid academic jargon, the author describes her vision for education’s future, one in which a broader swath of students is prepared to enter the technology industry. In fact, Corbin contends it is precisely this industry, and the innovations it has produced, that has rendered the traditional models of education obsolete. “A tremendous disconnect exists between learning in school and applications in the real world. The ubiquity of technology makes rote memorization unnecessary—data is at our fingertips, yet learning in school largely focuses on studying facts and not thinking critically, leaving students unprepared to solve today’s problems.” The author presents an expansive range of ideas, including the transformation of teachers into “facilitators” who give students more opportunities to think and participate, as well as the incorp oration of real R&D projects to stimulate student inquiry. This is an exceedingly practical volume that prioritizes actionable plans over ideological abstractions—Corbin discusses, in painstaking detail, new ways to think about student assessment, new approaches to fostering an inclusive classroom environment, and the potential advantages of artificial intelligence for teachers. This provocative book astutely combines a general philosophical orientation with a myriad of minutely detailed strategies. An impressively thoughtful and thoroughly practical guide for educational reform. >>>

A seedling learns life lessons as it grows into a tree in Cranston’s children’s book. In this simple but thoughtful story, a seedling dreams of becoming a big oak tree—if only he can grow enough to pass the “Seed to Tree” ceremony that makes it official. His mentor Grandpa Oakey, offering wisdom and encouragement, reassures the seedling when he faces challenges. During a dramatic storm, when “Lightning flashes and the sky screams, ‘BOOM, BOOM, BOOM,’” Grandpa Oakey yells, “Stay rooted, little one,” as the seedling fights to survive. This phrase will become especially meaningful when the seedling realizes it is his turn to take on the role of mentor. Wilting during a hot summer in the forest, the seedling wonders how he can “become a tree with a broken limb and droopy leaves”; Grandpa Oakley’s kind owl friends fly in buckets of water to help. With a dash of whimsy, Cranston teaches young readers about developing inner strength, respect, and empathy for others, and loss is presented as part of the natural cycle of life. Alternating with pages of text set against a light blue background, full-page, colorful digital illustrations offer playful and dramatic visual touches, including the trees’ expressive faces; whirls of heavy wind and jagged lightning bolts; and a possum, squirrels, and an earthworm helping the seedling in his “Seed to Tree” ceremony. (The book’s limited real-life plant lore includes the

DeLong discusses the philosophy behind and practicalities of hiring workers from marginalized groups. The author begins his text with some sobering facts about the current American workplace: The Bureau of Labor Statistics, he notes, has forecast a labor shortage in the near future—there will be about 12 million new jobs by 2030, but only 9 million new entrants coming into the workforce (“You do the math,” he says). At the same time, only about 41% of the United States’ more than 11 million working-age adults with disabilities are currently in the workforce. In these pages, DeLong offers anecdotes drawn from his long experience advocating on behalf of marginalized workers and lays out practical advice for recruiting, hiring, and retaining members of three major categories of such employees: the formerly incarcerated, people with disabilities, and refugees. Tapping into this talent pool, the author stresses, takes “courage, patience, finesse, and flexibility,” and he fills these

DAVID WASHINGTON

Washington wanted his kids to see well-rounded Black superheroes. So he created one of his own.

BY MICHAEL SCHAUB

DAVID WASHINGTON DIDN’T go for comics as a kid.

Yet, as an adult, the businessman and lawyer found himself self-publishing his own graphic novel, Black Defender: The Awakening. The book, illustrated by Zhengis Tasbolatov, with a foreword by martial arts legend Billy Blanks, actually had its origin on the big screen.

“My family and I enjoy family Friday nights where we sit and watch action films,” Washington explains. “But my kids couldn’t see a reflection of themselves in those heroes. We would take them out to every Marvel movie. We would take them out to every DC movie. But when they look up on the screen, they’re not really represented as well. So, I thought, can do this, I can fix this

To address the lack of well-rounded Black characters on the screen, Washington decided he would start with a graphic novel.

“I went to Ollie’s discount store and grabbed a bunch of graphic novels, started reading them, and scrolled through the internet to find scripts [and see] how graphic novels were written,” he says. “Then I started writing. It was really a labor of love, because I wanted my kids to be able to see reflections of themselves in the characters—and not in a funhouse-mirror way.”

Black Defender: The Awakening follows Chris Withers, a successful entrepreneur in the fictional Dale City, who becomes concerned with police indifference to a rash of missing Black

I wanted my kids to be able to see reflections of

girls. His wife, a reporter named Crystal, is on the case, but when a terrible tragedy strikes, Withers realizes he’ll have to take matters into his own hands, with the help of a scientist friend who has developed a powerful new body armor.

The book won the 2024 Best Indie Book Award in the graphic novel category as well as an International Impact Book Award, and it was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. And the author, who published the book through his own Washington Comix, is just getting started.

Washington discussed Black Defender: The Awakening via telephone from North Carolina, where he lives and works. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

How did the character of Chris Withers and the Black Defender come to you?

They say to write what you know, right? Chris Withers is about 70% me—everything from the military background to the martial arts background. One of the things that happens, unfortunately, is when people are looking at Black action heroes, they don’t give them enough development. My kids often say, “Dad, you’ve been in the military, you do martial arts, you are a lawyer, you have a Ph.D, you’ve done this, you’ve done that.” My kids see that on a regular basis with me, but there’s a lot of kids that don’t see that on a regular basis. I wanted to be able to show them that there’s some fullness to our heroes. One of the things that is cool is that when I go out to events to talk to young people, they can talk to the guy who embodies a lot of the things that you see in that book.

Have your kids read the book?

The kids love it. In fact, my kids were my core staff of editors on the first draft, so they would tell me if I was off or not. My daughter was my toughest critic by far. If you can get past my daughter, you’re OK. I never believed in reincarnation until I had this little girl. Sometimes when I talk with her, I could swear that she’s a 70-year-old woman that got brought back to the earth. She will not pull any punches.

My kids got to see all this as it went along: when it was in the manuscript form and every time we got returns back from the artist. They got a chance to see the entire thing from the ground up. As a father, I take a particular pride in that, because my children got to see what it’s like to build something, and it gives them an example that they can do it, too. One day, if they want to build something, they can do it because they’ve been shown how it’s done.

What was the character design process like?

I was very detail oriented with character design. I sat down and wrote psychological profiles for many of the characters, because I wanted to understand their motives, I wanted to understand their goals. I wanted it to be understood that there’s more going on here. I gave the illustrator, Zhengis Tasboloatov, a work-up package with descriptions in written format, and then pictorial examples, saying, Hey, here are some of the things you might want to look at when you’re illustrating these characters. Even some of the supporting characters—for example, the newscaster—had their own packets.

No spoilers, but there’s a pretty shocking twist about halfway through the book. Have readers brought that up with you?

Yes. I wanted the material to connect with people. I’m so grateful and thankful for all the people who’ve supported this book, but when a person who has never read comics—in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and cracking the binding on a graphic novel for the first time—comes back with such feelings and emotions, that’s what I was trying to get. And I’m so grateful that the audience took to it that way, because it makes me feel that the work really was done correctly.

Your book won a Best Indie Book Award and an International Impact Book Award, and it was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. What was it like receiving these honors?

I was over the moon. When you look at the NAACP Image Awards roster, two books came from HarperCollins. Two

Black Defender: The Awakening Washington, David; illus. by Zhengis Tasbolatov Self | 105 pp. | $21.99 paper April 2, 2024 | 9798218183509

books came from Penguin Random House. And then there’s me, the independent graphic novel in that category. I’m so humbled, thankful, grateful, and appreciative to see all the awards and all the recognition that the book has gotten.

I thank everyone that’s supported me in this process. I’ve had so many people support me with kind words and actions that I’m just overwhelmed. I really want to tell everyone: Thank you for supporting this concept, for supporting this book. Thank you to the judges, to all the reviewers. I’m thankful for the opportunity and thankful for everyone who contributed to this process. I just can’t thank you guys enough.

Is it safe to say that this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the Black Defender? Oh, yes. What we have in front of us is four more books. I’ve got three more heroes to introduce and then one team-up at the end. I’m going to write those books, but right now we’re moving Black Defender into the film space. The screenplay has already been written, and right now we’re raising funds. The objective is to start principal photography on the movie by October 2026. Once the movie is in motion, then the next book comes out.

Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.

STORIES WE NEED

Excerpts from recent Indie favorites.

Alison Garwood-Jones’ beautiful adult picture book, I Miss My Mommy, distills grief into crystalline moments of heartache, longing, humor, love, and loss.

In his debut, Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry, Iowan Austin Frerick, reporting on seven mammoth American food companies and the families that run them, provides a well-researched exposé of the graft, greed, and animal cruelty behind the Big Ag barons’ success

The sheds are long and thin, with huge exhaust fans on either end, and each group of buildings includes several silos for storing feed, as well as a dumpster to dispose of the roughly 10 percent of hogs that don’t survive until slaughtering time. After

being weaned in these industrial facilities, the pigs are transferred to a finishing operation to fatten up and then to the slaughterhouse. These two trips in a packed semitrailer are the only times the pigs will see daylight.

Jeff Hansen and his wife, Deb, built an empire out of these confinement sheds.…

As the owners of Iowa’s largest hog operation [Iowa Select], the Hansens have constructed hundreds of confinement sheds in more than fifty of Iowa’s ninetynine counties.

The sheds have provoked controversy in Iowa ever since operators such as the Hansens began to build them during the 1990s. Many rural communities… have campaigned fiercely against them, citing damage to health, livelihoods, property values, the environment, and the farm

economy. Although their efforts have yielded small victories, they have lost the war.

Pigs in Iowa now outnumber human residents by a ratio of more than seven to one, and they produce a volume of manure equivalent to the waste of nearly eighty-four million people, more than the populations of California, Texas, and Illinois combined.…The environment simply cannot handle so much pig shit.…[Many] rural residents say they’ve been plagued—and others pushed out—by the stench, the flies, and the health hazards that accompany the facilities. “We know what hog manure smells like, but this is like a sewer,” one retired farmer who lived next to an industrial hog facility told the Washington Post

The Hansens likely can’t see—or smell—any hog

buildings from their seven-thousand-squarefoot mansion. Their view is dominated by the golf course at the exclusive Glen Oaks Country Club, which abuts their backyard. When Americans think about farmers, they probably don’t have jet-setting millionaires such as Jeff and Deb Hansen in mind. But businesses like theirs are increasingly the norm in farm country: huge, regional-scale corporations owned by just one or a few families who use their political connections to overpower both local democracy and local businesses.

For a review of Barons, visit Kirkus online.

For a review of I Miss My Mommy, visit Kirkus online.

Best Indie Books of April

A suspenseful, emotionally satisfying tale.

MOONSET ON DESERT SANDS

chapters with insights about the realities of the project. Writing about hiring immigrants, he cites the Congressional Budget Office’s projection that within 20 years, the immigrant workforce will be the only segment of the population still growing. “To survive and grow in the future,” DeLong writes, “most organizations must become more effective at hiring, training, and employing foreignborn workers.” The author maintains a tone of authoritative empathy throughout, the perfect register for overcoming the initial resistance he’s likely to encounter, and he insistently reminds his readers to consider the human element of the approaches he’s proposing. “It’s not about making it a huge corporate initiative,” he writes. “The thing may start with a mother, brother, cousin, or a friend who sees the challenge that a person they love can’t get a job.” Employers and potential co-workers will find DeLong’s book to be full of fascinating ideas. A forceful and thought-provoking call to diversify the workforce with marginalized groups.

Moonset on Desert Sands

Dodd, Sherri L. | Black Rose Writing (332 pp.)

$23.95 paper | March 27, 2025 | 9781685135799

Series: Murder, Tea & Crystals, 2

In this supernatural sequel, a woman studying witchcraft tries to build a new life in Arizona. Trying to forget a violent encounter with a serial killer, Arista settles into her new home in Sedona, Arizona. The New-Agey town seems like a good fit. Interested in magic, she works at a shop called Cosmic Prisms that sells items like crystals and candles. Living with her Aunt Bethie, the

co-leader of a coven, Arista learns witchcraft. It’s unclear what supernatural abilities Arista possesses, but she practices reading auras and randomly channels Bethie’s dead grandfather. Still, Arista misses many aspects of her former home in Boulder Creek, California: the pines and redwoods, ex-boyfriend Shane, and her mountain house, built by Bethie’s grandpa. Forever casting a dark shadow over Arista’s life is her Uncle Fergus. Reuniting with the parents who seemingly abandoned her, Arista learns they only wanted to hide her from Fergus’ malevolence. But their sacrifice may have been in vain. Arista’s mother is near death, and Fergus hasn’t given up. Bethie’s coven decides Arista should return to her Boulder Creek house to release the ghost inside her. Meanwhile, Fergus, in possession of Bethie’s family athame (ceremonial blade), pursues his deepest obsession: killing Arista to transfer her magical abilities to himself. Dodd’s second installment of a trilogy opens with a winding drive and crash on a mountain road and maintains a fast and twisty momentum throughout, yet the pace slows down enough for well-rounded character development. Arista, appearing to be positive and upbeat, also exhibits grief, searing anger, and a self-hatred that she sometimes allows “to sink its sharp teeth into her.” The always-intriguing cast includes Arista’s irritating but sassy co-worker Stevie, artist Mr. Tessay, and an eerie child, Soonsil, emitting growls while hugging a plushie. Sedona’s and Boulder Creek’s landscapes are vividly drawn, though it’s clear which one Arista prefers. Sedona’s natural monuments are “overbearing, like emotionless godheads” while Boulder Creek’s “lush evergreen” trees are “majestic…yet so full of life.” The gripping book ends on a cliffhanger, setting up the final installment. A suspenseful, emotionally satisfying tale for fans of witches and magic.

The Goldberg Mutilations

D’Stair, Pablo | Late Marriage Press (508 pp.)

$20.00 paper | March 15, 2025 | 9798348359539

In D’Stair’s novel, a gruesome murder is committed in famous pianist Glenn Gould’s hotel room, compelling him to defend his innocence.

Glenn Gould wakes up in a hotel room he has no memory of checking into, alarmingly separated from the potpourri of pills that permit him to navigate life. The scene he discovers in his room is as bizarre as it is macabre—a woman has been hacked to death with a hatchet, and a record player that is not his own is playing a recording of him (he doesn’t own that either) performing the Goldberg Variations on repeat. Stuffed in the victim’s mouth is a crumpled piece of paper on which is printed a hostile review of one of his performances, written by the critic Paul Henry Lang. Later, Gould learns the dead woman is a housekeeper who thought ill of him. Detective Inspector Dziurzynski interviews Gould and points out plainly how incriminating the scene is. Gould protests he is not only innocent but bewildered, lost in a “placid, medicinal haze,” his “nervous system in a state of fray”; the musician’s relentlessly neurotic condition is vividly and humorously depicted by the author in this enchantingly peculiar novel. Lang turns up dead next—he is killed within a day of the housekeeper’s demise—but Gould insists, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, that his hands are clean. The possibilities are many; maybe Gould is being framed? Of course, if he is not the killer, surely his life is in grave danger. As Dziurzynski notes: “If what I believe is correct, Mister Gould, there is someone very dangerous standing behind you, in the dark, breathing down your neck. They’ve proven themselves not only vicious, but calculating. Patient. In one way or another, however unwittingly, you are their link to whichever macabre impulse fuels this blood-thirsty endeavor.”

D’Stair has composed a grippingly deconstructed version of the classic crime drama—not only is it never entirely obvious who the killer is, it’s never certain Gould can rule himself out. It might even be the case there is another Glenn Gould somewhere, a doppelgänger of sorts. The reader will never solve the crime or predict the novel’s defiantly strange ending—that is a decisive neatness the author seems intent on undermining. D’Stair paints a dizzying picture that is deliciously complex; apparently, there is nothing as philosophically intractable as murder. As Dziurzynski declaims: “Murder is gonna be the most convoluted kerfuffle imaginable. Not even imaginable! A happenstance so outside typical human experience the truth of any instance would sound farcical if laid out by barristers to jury-folk.” The dialogue between Dziurzynski and Gould can be a touch cute—snappy one-liners are exchanged with a manufactured alacrity and a contrived rhetorical refinement. But even this literary hyperbole seems appropriate if understood as an ironic comment on the detective genre, a reinvention of a style that must be as much commandeered as it is renovated. Either way, the prose is never a fatal distraction, and one can’t help but be fascinated by Gould’s compelling amalgam of genius and mental disability. This is a thrillingly unconventional novel, one that successfully reinvents an old literary convention from the inside. A remarkably original achievement.

View to a Kill

Fullilove, Eric James | Atmosphere Press (300 pp.) | $16.99 paper | Jan. 21, 2025 9798891324909

When the creator of a powerful brain-implant technology is found murdered, a telepath is brought in to find answers in Fullilove’s SF novel.

The year is 2052 and brain-chip implants have become an

unspoken requirement in society. Those made by NeuralStent are the best of the best‚ and only available to the wealthy. Jenny Sixa, a psychic whose “cruel talent” is the ability to see the last thoughts of murder victims in order to discover who killed them, encounters the most baffling case of her career when the LAPD’s Derrick Trent calls her in to discover who murdered NeuralStent’s founder, billionaire Ellen Pompeii. Sixa scorns NeuralStent’s inaccessibility to the nonwealthy people living in the “Zone,” which essentially forces them to gamble their lives with cheap knockoffs because “without chips, people can’t work, can’t compete in a society that demands the ability to access and manipulate information and equipment in a way that requires augmentation.” Still, she takes the case—but to her horror, Sixa quickly discovers that she can’t find anything in Pompeii’s final thoughts. The police rush to find someone to blame—in this case, a young man named Jamal Smith who had previously served time in jail—but Sixa isn’t convinced they have the right guy. As she and Trent dig deeper, they begin to peel back the layers of a dark underworld full of illegal chip augmentations, gluttonous investors, and a research discovery that might just bring down the entire brain-implant system. Meanwhile, bodies continue piling up—all of which have that odd blankness as their last memory that Sixa can’t crack—and Smith’s execution day looms as the investigative duo rapidly runs out of time.

Fullilove has crafted a thrilling futuristic tale that never shies away from taking aim at soulless corporations and their insatiable desire for profits: “A human life. Coin of the realm for the greedy and the merciless.” Some of the novel’s themes will likely prove familiar to those well versed in the SF canon; fans of Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) will no doubt see some similarities in this largely dystopic world where humans with brain-chip implants have become vastly preferable to the “artificials” (androids) who had previously dominated the workforce and are now “engineered with limited life spans.” Some of the explanations of the brain-chip technology can become a bit long-winded, but Fullilove largely keeps

the pace brisk with realistic dialogue and a keen balance between detective-type mystery and adrenaline-fueled action. The real standout, however, is Sixa herself. Whip-smart and utterly compelling, she proves over and over again to be a no-nonsense (and amusingly foulmouthed) champion of the common people. Many readers will likely find her scathing remarks about the ability of privilege and wealth to buy some semblance of justice eerily relevant: “LAPD has got indifference down to a science, with an algorithm that calculates how fucked you are down to a decimal point…Not to mention the poor slobs in the Zone, because money can’t buy justice in the Zone, detective, it can only buy you scapegoats.” These themes of class, technology vs. morality, and social responsibility come appealingly wrapped in a fun and surprising futuristic odyssey. A truly unique protagonist fuels plenty of action and intrigue in this smart and twisty SF thriller.

Circus Animals

Gaimari, Frank | Self (207 pp.) | $23.99 $17.99 paper | Oct. 29, 2024 9798343597356 | 9798340960245 paper

In Gaimari’s YA fantasy, circus animals join forces to rescue a kidnapped Amur Leopard and her newborn cub. Molly, a clever poodle, once worked as a magician’s assistant. But when “the big storm” devastated New Orleans, Molly lost her human and her home. Now, she has escaped a second placement in an animal shelter and is back in the Big Easy. While she is enjoying the music and scents of Bourbon Street, she spots a dogcatcher with his sights set on her. She escapes but is soon challenged by a large Rottweiler. She trembles in fear as a large yellow Labrador named Axle comes to her rescue. This is how Molly comes to join the traveling circus that is visiting New Orleans—the mighty and tender-hearted Axle (who watches over

the baby animals in the circus nursery) suggests that Molly’s acrobatic skills might earn her a place as a performer. When they enter the circus grounds, he introduces her to his best friend, the beautiful golden retriever Chief, who is guarding Taya, an endangered Amur Leopard currently in labor. Axle and Molly visit the nursery, where she meets a charming collection of youngsters. But trouble is brewing under the Big Top: The circus is suffering financial woes, Philip Andrews is a cruel Ringmaster, and Taya and her baby are about to be kidnapped. Gaimari’s beautifully composed tale (told by alternating animal narrators) contains all the elements of an engaging novel—romance and love, a bit of poignant tragedy, devoted friendships, and the excitement of adventure. The tale also works as a primer on compassion and acceptance of diversity. (Molly falls in love with a Jack Russel terrier instead of a member of her own breed, the prized circus poodle; the mighty Axle’s heart belongs to another male canine; and one of two little lion cubs is overwhelmed by insecurities.) A satisfying mix of laughter and tears, a frightening bear attack, a surprising encounter with a family of alligators, and even a melodramatic mouse named Morton add to the enjoyment. Heartwarming and entertaining, with memorable characters and positive messaging.

Covid Wars: America’s Struggle Over Public Health and Personal Freedom

Gruner, Ronald | Libratum Press (394 pp.)

$32.50 | $18.50 paper | March 11, 2025 9781737823155 | 9781737823162 paper

Gruner presents an overview of the Covid-19 pandemic in America that also looks at global, historical, and political complexities to add context to the crisis.

Even before the coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China, in 2019, American

leaders like presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama had anticipated the possibility of a global outbreak—their preparations and warnings were largely disregarded by the Trump administration, per the author. Yet despite Trump’s fumbling of the public messaging about the pandemic, his administration’s Operation Warp Speed achieved the extraordinary by fast-tracking Covid-19 vaccines in just seven months. (“By reducing the drug makers’ financial risk, Warp Speed greatly accelerated the development of the COVID vaccines.”) Gruner maintains a consistently nonpartisan approach, highlighting the tyrannical overreach of some Republican governors during lockdowns while noting then–Vice President Joe Biden’s early vaccine skepticism during the 2020 election. The author discusses similar outbreaks in America’s past, like the 1918 Spanish Flu and the 1957 Asian Flu, to explore the government’s role in managing public health crises in a nation that holds personal freedom (inconsistently, perhaps) as sacrosanct. Writing with future historians in mind, Gruner systematically examines the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on the United States in 10 chapters that incorporate over 80 charts, tables, and graphs. Red and blue states’ differing strategies regarding lockdowns and reopenings serve as case studies, offering hard data that tracks deaths both caused by and related to the virus as well as its economic and educational impact. To call the book thorough would be an understatement; over 100 pages of appendices and citations include state and country demographics, term definitions, acronyms, and a robust index to supplement an already well-structured and succinct resource. The author’s approach is dispassionate, allowing the massive death toll and preventable mistakes to speak for themselves. Responsibility is placed on political leaders, media, entertainment figures, and individual citizens without Gruner ever taking an accusatory tone; the stark and undeniable numbers do the job.

A Covid-19 reference as comprehensive as it is devastating.

Garbage Town

Gupta, Ravi | Greenleaf Book

Group Press (312 pp.) | $27.95 March 25, 2025 | 9798886453133

A group of teens stumbles across a criminal enterprise centered around their neighborhood dump in Gupta’s debut YA novel.

Staten Island, 1998: The neighborhood of Travis is home to Fresh Kills Landfill, the main dumping ground for New York City’s trash—among other things. For kids like Raj Patel, it’s a spot to be avoided, a place “of luminescent rivers, dog-sized rats, and rabid turkey vultures,” to say nothing of its connections to the local Mafia family. Raj has enough on his plate without worrying about Fresh Kills—the high schooler runs his own lucrative business burning bootleg CDs for his classmates. He uses the money to help out his Polish American mom, who’s been forced to pull double shifts as a nurse’s aide at an eldercare facility ever since his Indian father split for Florida two years ago. On the night following his final day of freshman year, Raj, a new Mississippi transplant named Georgia, and Raj’s friends—known throughout the neighborhood as the Victory Boys—accidentally stumble across a murder-in-progress in the middle of the landfill. They manage to disrupt the proceedings (sort of), but now they have mobsters on their tails. If they want to get out of this quagmire with their lives, Raj and his buddies will have to confront the long-ignored garbage rotting in the heart of their town. Gupta evokes the time and place with sharp details and plenty of wit, particularly regarding the dump itself. “My science teacher never tired of reminding us that the only man-made structures visible from space were the Great Wall of China and the Fresh Kills landfill,” narrates Raj. “As far as we were concerned, those two were comparable—monuments to humanity’s limitless potential.” While the premise of a group of teens uncovering a mystery is well-trod territory, Gupta delivers on both sides of the equation: Raj and his

friends—who include a pair of stoners called Deadbolt and Cheetah—are charmingly specific and memorably rendered, as is Travis’s multiethnic underworld.

An immersive teen adventure as big and eclectic as a Staten Island landfill.

Kirkus Star

The Epic Saga Behind Frankenstein: The True

Story

Irvin, Sam | Self (406 pp.) | $40.51 paper Oct. 17, 2023 | 9798864623428

Director and historian Irvin presents the behind-the-scenes story of the making of a cult-favorite 1970s monster movie made for British television. This nonfiction book details the backstage drama that occurred during the making of the 1973 TV movie Frankenstein: The True Story, which starred James Mason, Leonard Whiting (who’d co-starred in Franco Zeffirelli’s film of Romeo and Julietjust five years before), Jane Seymour, and a young Michael Sarrazin (of They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? fame) as a rather stylish monster. The movie was helmed by Jack Smight, who’d directed Paul Newman in 1966’s Harper, with a screenplay by novelist Christopher Isherwood and his longtime partner Don Bachardy. The result was what Irvin calls “a sophisticated reconstruction of the Frankenstein story on a grand scale, populated by A-list actors, with sumptuous settings, lavish costumes, a three-hour running time, and an eye-popping budget of $3.5 million.” In this profusely illustrated account, the author goes into granular detail about every aspect of the movie’s development, writing, direction, and casting, from its genesis as a script idea by James Bridges, who’d later become a director and Oscar-nominated screenwriter, to its final star-studded production and subsequent critical reception. Irvin offers the full personal and cinematic history of every major figure associated with the work,

from the stars and the writers to, most especially, producer Hunt Stromberg Jr., who’s the subject of the most compelling chapter. Most intriguing is the wide array of LGBTQ+ talent that worked on the film, and how the creative team strove to bring out the original story’s rarely explored homoerotic undertones. That said, literary folk may bridle at Irvin’s dismal rating of the 1818 horror classic by Mary Shelley that started it all, asserting that “by today’s standards, it is tediously didactic.” Overall, though, there’s lots of compelling material here. This book’s foreword is by novelist Anne Rice, whose own Vampire Chronicles notably explored queer themes, and Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water) provides an afterword.

A lively and enthusiastic in-depth exploration of an obscure TV horror classic.

Measure of Devotion

Joslin, Nell | Regal House Publishing (290 pp.) $20.95 paper | May 20, 2025 | 9781646036127

With the American Civil War still raging, a South Carolina mother heads to the front line in Tennessee to bring home her severely injured son in Joslin’s historical novel.

It is late October, 1863, when Susannah Shelburne receives the telegram she has been dreading: Her son Francis, a Confederate soldier, has been wounded in battle. Jacob, her husband, is seriously ill, leaving her the only one who can travel to Tennessee to tend to Francis’ injuries and bring him back to Ardwyn, the family home. Susannah, the daughter of an abolitionist preacher, was only 15 years old when she married Jacob, who was 25 years her senior. He is also an abolitionist, and although he currently retains two Black servants (the elderly manservant Hawk and Letty, a personal maid to Susannah), Jacob pays them wages and has given them certificates of freedom, an arrangement necessarily kept secret from the neighbors. To Susannah and Jacob’s great dismay, Francis enlisted in the Confederate army

the day he turned 18; he and his mother parted acrimoniously. Now, she heads out on the arduous journey to Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, to the small farmhouse that serves as a makeshift field headquarters where Francis is located. They will spend the next five months there as she tends to his wounds, hoping to spare him the amputation of his leg. During these most difficult months of her life, she must also endure her son’s vitriol and vicious mockery. Nell’s novel is compellingly narrated by Susannah and set against the vivid backdrop of the physical, social, emotional, and familial devastations of the war. Composed in carefully textured prose filled with detailed, period-appropriate cultural minutia (“In his haversack, I found a scant handful of dried beans, another of corn kernels, and a few acorns—his sustenance for fighting all day on the side of a mountain”), the narrative reflects upon Susannah’s earlier heartbreaks even as she struggles through the current torrent of verbal abuse and physical assaults. Letty is a standout secondary character—when she eventually joins Susannah and Francis in the farmhouse, she offers support, love, hope, and critical homely wisdom in a voice seasoned by hardships. An intense, addictive drama with a hint of light at the end of the tunnel.

We Need You in the Locker Room: A Neurologist’s Journey Behind the Scenes of Major College Football

Kaufman, David | The Sager Group (254 pp.) $25.85 | $16.99 paper | Oct. 3, 2024 9781958861509 | 9781958861479 paper

Kaufman, the assistant vice president of clinical affairs for the Office of Health Science at Michigan State University, recaps his earliest days navigating the organized chaos that is college football. In 2010, the author writes, public awareness about the horrific impact of chronic traumatic encephalopathy injuries in football players and other

athletes was reaching new heights: “a true public panic was brewing, one that threatened to eventually turn the sport of football into something unrecognizable—or maybe even kill it all together.” That same year, Kaufman became the newest member of the Michigan State football team’s medical staff as a neurologist. His initial charge was simple: Try not to get run over by players during games, and help the coaching staff figure out a way to make football safer. The doctor’s consistently engrossing memoir doesn’t skirt the issue, by any means, but it shines brightest when it tackles the emotional drama of collegiate football itself. In 2014, after years of disappointment, MSU made it back to “the Granddaddy of them all”: the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, under the leadership of head coach Mark Dantonio. Overall, Kaufman’s careful chronicle may be among the best sports-related books that readers will find this year. His account makes the drama of each game palpable, and starkly shows how high the physical stakes are—exemplified early on by the life-threatening broken neck that MSU’s star fullback Josh Rouse sustained during the author’s first season on the job. “Even when sitting in the upper deck, I understood violence was part of it all. I wasn’t a total idiot,” the always self-effacing author writes. “I just did not understand how bad the violence could be until I came down for that closer look.” His personal journey gives the memoir an emotional depth that will appeal to a wide readership. Many who’ve played for the Spartans are no doubt glad that Kaufman took this journey, and so will readers who’ve always wondered what it’s really like down on the field with the big game on the line.

A highly engrossing account, and not just for sports fans.

Eavesdropper

Kivowitz, Alexandra | Rootstock Publishing (280 pp.) | $18.99 paper | Feb. 25, 2025 9781578692965

A teenager growing up in Cold War–era Massachusetts sees her parents ostracized and spied on for their left-leaning beliefs in Kivowitz’s historical novel.

The story begins in 1953: Sara Green is 14 years-old and her mother Libby has just returned from protesting the Rosenbergs’ executions. Libby and her husband (Sara’s father) Hank are both fairly radical left-wingers, particularly in the context of their small New England town of Goshen, Massachusetts, and when compared to Sara’s more conservative Jewish grandparents, Grandpa Joe and Grandma Rose, who make insults at the Rosenbergs’ expense. Sara’s parents’ political views also cause some friction at school, where a flashback reveals the girl has been bullied for her parents’ alleged communist sympathies. When Libby is pressured to sign a loyalty oath to the state of Massachusetts in order to keep her job as a civics teacher—which she refuses to do out of principle—it seems that Libby’s commitment to her beliefs could threaten her family’s livelihood, as both her and her husband’s jobs are on the line. The narrative follows Sara as she attempts to maintain relationships with her grandparents and keep her life together as her parents stand by their convictions at a time when it was perilous to do so. Kivowitz crafts some memorable characters, with Libby—enigmatic and resilient—standing out as the most compelling. The important political themes of the book are finely balanced by chapters about Sara and her friend Mary birdwatching or learning about history. The book falters a bit in its

A well-designed, poignant story of the Holocaust told by two survivors.

KALMAN & LEOPOLD

prose, which can feel belabored and unnatural (“Libby unfolded from the back seat, looking rumpled and exhausted”). Likewise, the dialogue is often a little heavy-handed, as when the themes of the book come out a little too obviously in a climactic interrogation scene. An engaging story with some complex characters and occasionally thudding dialogue.

Kalman & Leopold: Surviving Mengele’s Auschwitz

Lowy, Richard K. | Tellwell Talent (336 pp.) $15.99 paper | Jan. 14, 2025 | 9781779410092

Lowy recounts the unlikely reunion of two childhood survivors of the Holocaust in this nonfiction book. After a long career as a producer and creative director working closely with Van Morrison, Harry Connick, Jr., and Malcolm Gladwell, among others, the author turned to a more personal project in 2001 when he made the documentary Leo’s Journey: The Story of the Mengele Twins. Narrated by Christopher Plummer, the documentary was aired worldwide and featured the story of Lowy’s father Leopold and aunt Miriam, who survived horrific experiments at the hands of Josef Mengele at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau death camp during World War II. While the story of Leopold and the making of Leo’s Journey certainly receive ample coverage in the work (“Imagine growing up and not realizing over fifty members of your family were murdered,” the author reflects), the heart of this book’s narrative is the chance reunion between Leopold and another childhood victim of Mengele. Watching Leo’s Journey from his home in Tel Aviv, Kalman Bar-On instantly recognized the face of Leopold, who had “saved [him] from beatings and looked out for [him]” during a six-month period in 1944 before the

liberation of Birkenau. Only knowing Leopold by his nickname “Lipa,” Kalman had faced a series of dead ends throughout his 56-year search for the fellow “Mengele Twin” with whom he had bonded as a child.

Detailing the reunion between Leopold and Kalman, this book also serves as a unique oral history as both men recount their childhoods, experiences in Birkenau, and their subsequent lives after the war. (The text also contains primary sources including reproductions of personal correspondence.) These reminiscences provide a harrowing first-hand account of the grotesque nature of Mengele’s brutality and the callous inhumanity of the Holocaust broadly. As the author quickly discovered following his first meeting with Kalman in Israel, conversing with his father’s childhood ally was “like stepping into history itself.” The recollections of Leopold and Kalman are richly annotated by Lowy with footnotes that provide historical context, descriptions of Yiddish terminology, and commentary on Jewish traditions and culture. A foreword by Michael Berenbaum, Distinguished Professor of Jewish Studies and director of the Sigi Ziering Institute at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, adds to the book’s scholarly panache. As impressive as Lowy’s research is, this is ultimately a deeply personal family history crafted by a son seeking to preserve his father’s legacy. Unsurprisingly, given the author’s extensive experience in the entertainment industry, the book’s engaging story is presented in a visually impressive layout featuring a wealth of maps, charts, photographs, and other visual elements. Family trees and a detailed glossary are characteristic of Lowy’s accessible approach as he explores broad questions and themes related to the Holocaust through the lenses of two individuals who both died prior to the book’s publication. While the story is ultimately uplifting (“He is my hero,” Kalman says of Leopold; “I’ve been looking for Leo all my life”), Lowy does not shy away from the brutal history of the Holocaust, including the ways in which Mengele’s psychological torture impacted survivors for more than a half-century after the war’s end.

A well-designed, poignant story of the Holocaust told by two survivors.

Kirkus Star

Master Version 1.1: A Nearfuture Sci-fi Techno Thriller

Marcelionis, Antanas | Trans. by Martynas Majeris | Amazon Digital Services (230 pp.) $9.99 paper | Dec. 15, 2024 | 9786090806715

In 2028, war in Ukraine has mutated into a media spectacle for online audiences in Marcelionis’ speculative novel. Setting his tale against an embattled Ukraine backdrop, the author refuses to spell the words “russian” or “putin” with capital letters, explaining that it’s “a universal way of expressing passive anger and disdain toward the aggressor and its leader. This tiny token of defiance is used in our daily lives, even in semi-official communications.” The narrative unfolds in 2028, when the Ukraine war is at a stalemate yet grinds on thanks to livestreaming multimedia and avid online followers; the fighting has been monetized for internet consumption, and individual combatants and their live feeds are viewed worldwide in real time. In the Ukraine “gray zone,” 49-year-old globetrotting Martynas, redubbed “Master,” is a lone soldier, a Lithuanian who served in the French Foreign Legion and went to the Ukraine to fight against the Russian invaders he has despised since his soviet-vassal youth. Master has an advantage over other teams: A powerful, rather childish tech-billionaire named Eaton Tusk is his patron. With the help of beautiful, sympathetic doctor Atari Hunter, Eaton implants Master with advanced brainwave-control chips for remote surveillance-combat drones, human Wi-Fi access, and a heavily tricked-out bionic hand. Back skirmishing among abandoned factory ruins, where a number of fellow streamers have gone MIA, Master plays cat and mouse games with pursuers, including brutal archnemesis Davai Lama. The lean, caustic, first-person narrative is enhanced by moody illustrations (credited to Midjourney) and supported by extensive footnotes to the

translated-from-Lithuanian prose— some are a tad unnecessary (we probably all know Hello Kitty), but most convey the slang and worldview of those resisting the Russian jackboot (Ukrainians refer to Russian troops as “orcs”). Sitting at the intersection of cyberpunk and techno-thriller/combat SF, this is an auspicious debut, whether taken as brisk escapism or a warning about the modern era of globalist imperialist dictators. A blistering and relevant near-future military-SF yarn.

The Lost Journal

Marshon, James D. | Self (240 pp.)

$9.99 paper | Dec. 15, 2024 | 9798301687051

A memoir of an English boyhood in the late 1960s. On a visit to his elderly father, who still lived in the house he grew up in, freelance writer Marshon was commanded to clear his old belongings out of the attic. There, he found a journal he had kept as a 9-year-old during the school year of 1967-68. Aided by the journal, he revisits that bygone time. Marshon, his parents, and his older brother lived on a cul-de-sac in a suburb of Manchester, England. Keen asides illustrate their family life: “We always knew that dinner was ready when the potatoes exploded”; his mother’s rice pudding reminded him of his brother, “as it was very pale, had skin, and was quite thick”; when his father was visited by a mysterious friend named Mr. Johnnie Walker, it always seemed to raise his spirits. The author ran with a group of other 9-year-old boys in the neighborhood. (“Together, our gang’s total IQ barely reached double figures.”) The boys navigated school, with its headmaster “Mugger Murdoch”; pondered the mysteries of girls; had hilarious and potentially dangerous adventures on ball fields, sledding hills, train tracks and ponds; and somehow managed to survive the year. (“Apparently we were all indestructible in those days >>>

“IF YOU TRY to talk about North Korea in Asia, a lot of people just sort of shake their heads as if everyone there [is] a bit crazy—a don’t-worry-about-it sort of thing. And that piqued my interest.”

So it was, Harry Allen tells Kirkus by Zoom from his home in Dubai, that he decided to visit what is perhaps the most hermetic and, certainly, most thoroughly policed country on Earth.

“I’d read a few nonfiction accounts of life in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” he continues. “These stories were true, and I had no reason to doubt them, but it just seemed a very odd thing that this sort of society still existed in the world.”

An experienced world traveler— born in the U.K., he’s resided outside his homeland most of his life—Allen knew that it was difficult to get into North Korea. There were forms to be filled out, documents to be scrutinized, background checks to be made. And then there was the simple fact of getting there, period: one could fly in from Moscow, Beijing,

THE KIRKUS PROFILE: HARRY ALLEN

In Children of the Sun, Harry Allen imagines the all-too-real horrors of a North Korean prison camp.

BY GREGORY MCNAMEE

or Kuala Lumpur, or, as Allen elected to do, take the train from China. “I chose the train because the National Airline of North Korea didn’t have [a] great safety rating,” he says.

The train exposed Allen to two opposed sets of images: grim vignettes of rural and industrial life along the rails, such as a woman gathering water from a trackside puddle to haul to a nearby concreteblock apartment building, and the profound beauty of the mountainous, heavily forested nation, much of it still wilderness.

“The guy who prepared the trip for me said, ‘You’re going to go back in time,’” Allen recalls. “I did. When I crossed the border, I was met by two government agents who were always with me unless I was in my hotel room. Along with the government guides, they constantly sang the praises of North Korea’s leaders, which was the real agenda. But one day they took me to a school. It was dark and cold because the electricity was out, but three young women sang for me. Their voices were

incredible. I had asked one of the guides how she got the job, and she said when you get to a certain age you can write down three things you might like to do, and the government decides which, if any of them, is one you can do.”

Divine voices, government repression to the point of determining your life’s course: For Allen, who has mostly made his living teaching English to international students, these began to jell into the makings of a story. “What if you’re a young singer in North Korea? Where do you go? Who decides if you can sing?” He pondered those questions on what he says was a thoroughly depressing return trip to China, then back to Singapore, where he lived at the time. He thought about it for years as he traveled the world.

“Eventually it all sort of clicked into place,” he says, “with three friends who find a radio and are exposed to a world that they’ve only heard whispers about. They get into terrible trouble because of that.”

That, in the barest of bare bones outlines, describes Allen’s novel

Harry Allen

Children of the Sun , which received a Kirkus star in the Indie category, our reviewer praising it as “a very moving and powerful celebration of courage in the face of inhumanity.” Think of it as One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich for a different time but similar place: A brutal prison camp populated by artists, intellectuals, writers, and other unfortunates who’ve been caught up in a system that doesn’t really care what it chews up and spits out; cruelty and torture take the place of the “re- education” that is its supposed purpose. Ra Eun Sea, a young woman with big dreams, is especially entranced by the radio, found while foraging for food in the woods. For that, denounced by neighborhood spies—for every totalitarian regime relies on volunteers—she is sent to the North Korean gulag with two friends, Min and Seo, whose only crime is nurturing unapproved dreams of their own and listening to unapproved voices from south of the Demilitarized Zone.

Allen interweaves a few—beg pardon—red herrings into the tale, but prison camp politics often play out in sad episodes of inexplicable cruelty, as when one of Seo’s teachers, loyal to the regime, is executed without having the slightest idea of what crime he has committed. Like that of a young Red Guard at the start of Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem , his body is left to twist in the wind for days, as if to warn: This is who we are, we rulers, and we obey no rules other than our own—if those.

Allen is no stranger to writing. With a degree in theater, he began to write a play about Nigeria, where he had lived as a child. “It didn’t work as a play,” he says, “so I started again and wrote it as a novel. It took me a long time. Writing is a real process, a real craft, and I went through many, many drafts. Finally, it got picked up by a publisher in the U.K. and was published as Ibarajo Road in 2012.”

The YA novel received generally good reviews, but when it came time to release Children of the Sun into the world, Allen decided to publish it himself, discouraged by his agent’s

sense that writers need to stay in their so-called cultural lanes. “I’m not quite sure what my cultural background is anymore,” he says. “Having worked internationally so long, you know, with 150 different nationalities of kids, I identify as a global citizen.”

Having lived and worked in Mauritius, Nigeria, Singapore, Dubai, and many points beyond, Allen takes that internationalism seriously. “One thing I’ve learned living overseas for so long, working with international students, is that there’s an awful lot more that we have in common than we don’t have in common. We are very much united, I think, by a common humanity. The idea that young people in North Korea somehow suffer in different ways or respond to suffering and grief and pain and hope and loss in different ways to someone living in Brazil strikes me as a very alien concept, and

that’s one thing that I kept in mind as I wrote.”

Suffering is everywhere, to be sure. But it wasn’t so many years ago that famine was taking the lives of untold thousands of North Koreans, even as the grandees of the regime grew as stout as Animal Farm’s Napoleon. The Kim dynasty retains its hold on the nation, inflicting untold pain while assuring its citizens that South Korea, a “puppet regime” of the United States, is the real danger—and that Kim Jong Un, known in his homeland as the “Shining Sun,” is the only one who can protect his children. With its many insights into that little-known land, informed by hard-won knowledge and an empathetic imagination, Harry Allen’s Children of the Sun is a memorable guide.

Gregory McNamee is a contributing writer.

One thing

I’ve learned living overseas for so long is that there’s an awful lot more that we have in common than we don’t have in common.

Children of the Sun

Allen, Harry Self | 248 pp. | $15.99 paper Aug. 18, 2023 | 9781805140498

DISCOVER INDIE READS

Looking for a new read to recommend to friends and family?

We welcome you to Discover Indie Reads, a sponsored roundup of books from Kirkus’ Indie section. Be among the first to find out about these knotty whodunits, colorful kids’ books, steamy romances, complex fantasy tales, frank autobiographies, searching self-help guides, and eclectic poetry collections. Whatever your genre, your journey of discovery starts here.

Berticus by Brian

Silbert

A kid’s rough school days make for a rollicking and often endearing story.

Goldfield Forest by Karen Black

Engaging and enchanting fantasy.

Dearest Mama by William S. Walker

A tender, loving account of a short but honorable life.

Mia’s Mouses by Joseph L. Licari; illus. by Victor Nieto

A quick, whimsical way to introduce irregular plural nouns to a young audience.

The Island King by Gina Giordano

A complex and often compelling tale of domestic and spiritual struggle in the Caribbean.

Happy Hour by Elissa Bass

Sizzling, sharp, and hilarious.

Lunar Rift: Solar Dawn by John Wegener

An always-entertaining, thoughtful balance between action and deeper issues.

Gunbarrel Highway by Sean Bridges

An absorbing thriller that will keep readers guessing.

Kirkus Star

A Life Full of Quarks by C.W. Johnson

Heartbreaking and hilarious.

Because Barbara by Sarah Mackenzie; illus. by Eileen Ryan Ewen

A tribute to a giant of children’s literature and an artist’s need to put color on the page.

Kirkus Star

Painting Wonder by Katie Wray Schon

An accessible and inspiring mini-biography, delightfully illustrated.

Dear Duck, Please Come! by Sarah Mackenzie; illus. by Charles Santoso

A gently comedic picture book for preschoolers and kindergartners with wiggly teeth.

Beyond Mulberry Glen by Millie Florence; illus. by Astrid Sheckels

An absorbing fantasy centered on a resilient female protagonist facing growth, change, and self-empowerment.

Frred by Phineas Cricket

A thoroughly enjoyable and exceedingly intelligent novel.

The Long Return by Michael O’Meara

A deeply thoughtful remembrance of a soldier’s experience in war.

Kirkus Star

An American Nurse in Paris by John F. Andrews

Rousing historical fiction with a feminist bent.

Every Other Weekend

by

Anthony J. Mohr

A touching and earnest remembrance that celebrates the workaday and extraordinary experiences of a child of divorce.

The Curse of Maiden Scars

by

Nicolette Croft

An entertaining romp, with a female protagonist who will constantly subvert readers’ expectations.

Hemingway

by Nate Cleveland

An epic tale that ably blends crime, fantasy, and melodrama with memorable, dreamlike turns.

The Zygan Emprise by Y.S. Pascal

A rambunctious space opera and metafictional celebration of the power of imagination.

Two Cats, a Mermaid and the Disappearing Moon by Pamela K. Knudsen; illus. by Patricia DeWitt and Robin Dewitt

A dreamy nighttime adventure capturing the wonder of the natural world.

Four

Women by Norman Shabel

An effective David-and-Goliath courtroom drama that will satisfy fans of legal thrillers.

Some Truths Lie Beneath by Rebecca Colt Aslan

An engrossing and profound account of dealing with sexual trauma.

Kirkus Star Bachelor Holiday by William Huhn

An enthralling collection, with themes both grand and intimate and verses that pack a wallop of feeling.

Kirkus Star

The Empty Bowl by Rikki West

A resonant account of self-discovery and spiritual fulfillment.

Uncle Boog and the Mushroom Band by Michael Jantscher; illus. by Alyson Record

A richly illustrated, music-centric tale that emphasizes positivity, authenticity, and the power of music.

Her Second Chance Cowboy by Natalie Dean

A wholesome Western romance.

A Memory of Fictions (or) Just Tiddy-Boom by Leonce Gaiter

A distinctive, fragmentary story of an artist’s painful coming of age.

Point of Origin by Betta Ferrendelli

A compelling and layered crime thriller and a heartfelt exploration of how far a person will go to protect those they love.

Coral by Margot McMahon

A gorgeously illustrated primer that introduces the basics of coral and its destruction by environmental changes.

Kirkus Star

Jump! Jump! Jump! Stacey by Candelaria Norma Silva; illus. by Justin Aquidado

An exuberant portrayal of the mother-daughter dynamic.

Over in the Meadow by Chandler Strange

A soothing musical update with plenty to dazzle the eye.

The Quiet Twin or the Reluctant Movie Star by WERoberts

A robustly researched memoir of a lesserknown movie star in a riveting setting.

Squish & Squeam’s Daily Routines by Dee Rand; illus. by Imani Maco

An enjoyable and colorful tale that may have young readers wishing for musical accompaniment.

Better From Within by Phyllis Strupp; illus. by Jana Myers

A well-designed and optimistic framework for staying sharp while growing older.

The Pinocchio Chip by Rick Moskovitz

A succinct SF yarn tackling longstanding genre themes of machine-life and consciousness.

as there were no seatbelts, airbags, smoke detectors, Heimlich manoeuvres or helmets.”) Marshon has a knack for describing events in a way that conveys the wonder of a 9-year-old with a very funny adult perspective: “Exciting things were always happening at the fair, like ride owners running across the backfields being chased by men with warrants.” He also poignantly looks back at his innocence: “Those days passed like bright, wintry stars on a clear December night, and like kids everywhere, I was oblivious to the fact that my childhood was slipping away with them.” Although references to uniquely British sports, food, and politics may be obscure to an American audience, Marshon’s enjoyable accounts of colorful characters and situations are universal and will leave the reader laughing out loud.

A funny, sparkling, satisfying read.

Proxy War: An Aegis Techno-Thriller Novel

Michaels, S.W. | Wideasleep Publishing (420 pp.) | $17.99 paper | May 14, 2025 9781958800171

The first installment in Michaels’ Aegis saga explores issues ripped from the headlines in a page-turner of a techno-thriller.

Alex Mercer’s childhood has been far from idyllic. Orphaned as a child in southeastern Europe and eventually landing in the U.S., she endured a horrific foster family experience before ending up with a couple living in the San Francisco Bay area, who’d recently emigrated from South Korea. Now 18 and a freshman in computer engineering at the University of Michigan, the hacker prodigy finds herself in a potentially deadly situation. Not only is she being blackmailed by a corrupt mayoral candidate who wants her to manipulate voting results, but a cyber terrorist, about to unleash a “digital plague” on the world, has her in his sights because

of her online meddling. The cyber terrorist, nicknamed Cipher, obsesses over making America pay for their involvement in Bosnia decades earlier and the horrors they facilitated on the country’s populace, which included Cipher’s family. His ultimate goal is simple: “to see the world burn.” As Alex desperately tries to stop Cipher’s master plan before he kills her and those close to her, she begins to put together seemingly disparate puzzle pieces, some of which include an army of North Korean hackers, a top-secret branch of the U.S. Cyber Command, and jaw-dropping revelations about her biological parents.

There’s no question that Michaels delivers the goods to thriller fans. From the very first page, the pacing is pedal-tothe-metal, and the tension is palpable throughout. Alex’s paranoia bleeds through the pages: “Her attacker could be any of the people wandering the campus, searching for her. Ready to pull the trigger. Assuming they had a trigger. For all she knew, they’d dispatch her through more stealthy means like poison, or worse, a shiv wielded by a seemingly innocent passerby, the cold steel hidden beneath a benign smile.” But the real power here is Michaels’ character development. Alex’s complicated relationship with her foster parents and her revered Aunt Min—coupled with her own struggles to find herself and her place in the world—make her a three-dimensional, undeniably endearing hero. Additionally, there’s a subtle philosophical thread throughout, which gives the reading experience a profundity: “Hate exists not as a permanent scar upon the heart, but as a challenge, a call to action for each of us. It is an invitation to embark on the most noble of journeys: To reach out with an open heart, to listen with a compassionate ear, and to build, with the bricks of our shared humanity, a world where love triumphs over hate, understanding overcomes fear, and unity replaces division. This is the path to a brighter, kinder future—a world not of hate, but of hope.” Lastly, the author savvily leaves Alex, and other supporting characters, at a natural jumping-off point. Future installments could go in countless directions and be set anywhere in the world. The one minor criticism is that some

plot twists are a bit predictable, especially for those who read a lot of thrillers. The beginning of what could be a top-notch techno-thriller saga—entertaining and as thought-provoking as it is disturbingly believable.

My First Life

Mordukhovich, Margaret | SPARK Publications (252 pp.) | $18.00 paper Nov. 6, 2024 | 9781953555731

A retired computer scientist tells of her life’s journey from Minsk to Michigan in this debut memoir.

After noting that both of her parents “came from long lines of rabbis,” Mordukhovich adds, “What could have been worse than that in the twenties and thirties in the Soviet Union?” Her book’s first half centers on her upbringing in Belarus and her extended Jewish family’s rich history. World War II had left her parents deeply impoverished, and the economic policies of the Stalinist regime that followed did little to inspire hope. Even after Josef Stalin’s death, Mordukhovich recalls, life did not improve, due to KGB censorship, antisemitism, a lack of economic mobility, and an oppressive government. The book’s second half focuses on the author’s adulthood, beginning with her experiences in the Soviet Union’s troubled university system and her marriage to an underpaid mathematics professor. As the Soviet economy continued to stagnate in the 1970s and ’80s amid ecological and political disasters, Mordukhovich and her family began the long, difficult, but ultimately successful journey to American citizenship. The author describes her 1988 arrival in the United States as the beginning of a “second life”; she landed a job with a nascent computer company while her husband began a prestigious professorship at the University of Michigan. They subsequently traveled the world in trips recapped in the book’s concluding chapter, living a life they could never have imagined while in the

U.S.S.R. Over the course of this decades-spanning remembrance, Mordukhovich offers an accessible account that provides ample context for its myriad historical and geopolitical references, despite its brisk format; it’s divided into more than 50 chapters of no more than five pages each, which effectively aids readability. Its clear emphasis on reader engagement is only enhanced by a wealth of maps and family photographs, which date from the early 20th century to the present.

A powerful story of resilience that provides firsthand insights into life in the Soviet Union.

The Thirteenth Step

Oliver, Cameron | BookBaby (312 pp.) $15.99 paper | Nov. 18, 2024 | 9798350974317

Twenty-somethings struggle with sobriety in Southern California in Oliver’s novel. In Salt Lake City, Nate runs to a mall bathroom for a heroin fix, desperate to feel “at peace as the blanket took hold of him.” The narrative then jumps to Southern California: Nate and Abby have been having a secret relationship while in rehab and are now being released to separate halfway houses. Nate confesses that he’s left rehab situations “probably 19” times. The story then shifts to focus on Olivia, who dances in an East Hollywood “classy strip club” and is also a graduate student studying chemistry. She is three years into her sobriety. At a boxing match, Nate and Abby meet up with Olivia, who is there with Will, a man she met in Alcoholics Anonymous. Will is now the boyfriend of Emma, a medical resident and Olivia’s sister. The group is there to cheer on Evan, a fighter from the local gym where Nate serves as training coach. Evan is Will’s recovery sponsor, and Olivia, coincidentally, is Abby’s. The event, during which Evan explodes in anger after a brutal loss, has rippling consequences. Olivia tells Abby—who, at 21, is the youngest in the group—to drop

Nate and focus on attending an AA program. Will amps up his own rage following Evan’s outburst. Olivia and Nate skittishly enter into a romantic relationship, but Will’s actions lead to a crisis that a shaky Olivia must handle without Nate, who must go support a trainee at an out-of-town fight. By the end of the novel, which includes flashback episodes from the characters’ lives, Nate, Olivia, Abby, and Will move on to uncertain futures.

Starting with a powerful opening scene showcasing Nate’s anxiety and single-minded focus on scoring his “medicine,” Oliver draws readers into the intensity and challenges of drug addiction faced by the main characters, all of whom are contending with living among nonaddicts (dubbed “normies”) while resisting the allure of forbidden fruit. The author effectively leverages the novel’s Southern California setting as an evocative inspiration for Nate’s musings; in a now particularly poignant reference, given the region’s recent devastating wildfires, he notes, “The people of California were blessed year-round with the beautiful beaches and ocean, and because of that it was only natural to throw in destruction from time to time. Besides, chaos is always so seductive.” The boxing world also lends interesting depths to the story, as it provides a lifeline of discipline for Nate while remaining problematic due to the sport’s violence and questionable business practices. It’s rather surprising—and a bit offputting—to learn that Houston native Nate not only trains fighters but also runs a hedge fund with “strictly family friends who all had a net worth of at least nine figures” as clients. However, such characters effectively dramatize the point that being privileged doesn’t preclude pain. “I am privileged; I am. But nobody knows the first thing about my life… about the abuse, the rape, the addiction,” Olivia proclaims to Nate near the end of the novel. While this couple tends to dominate the narrative, Oliver also provides similarly empathetic yet clear-eyed portraits of Abby and Will‚ and even of Emma, whose caregiving tendencies are, at times, enabling. An insightful, crosscutting depiction of lives in recovery.

Never Come Back

Reinard, Cara | Bookouture (354 pp.)

$11.99 paper | Feb. 6, 2025 | 9781836183532

Reinard’s psychological thriller follows a family coming apart at the seams as they are victimized by a grisly plot.

Rowan Bishop fixates on the worst possible outcomes—it’s a trait she developed during her chaotic childhood in Philadelphia—so she can’t help but obsess over the dangers and threateningly exotic women that her husband Wyatt may encounter while away on business in Mexico City. Wyatt wants to be a good husband and father to his pregnant wife and their young son Landon, but Rowan’s paranoia and scrutiny leave him exasperated. So, when an alluring woman invites him for a drink in Mexico, it’s hard to refuse…but Wyatt’s slight indiscretion ends with a gruesome attack pulled straight out of a terrifying urban legend. He survives, returning home frightened and sickly but also determined to downplay the events of his harrowing trip. Wyatt is mostly afraid of his wife’s wrath should she suspect infidelity, but the thing he should be worried about is the mysterious and powerful organization that planned his attack, referred to only as “The Network.” Trying to keep Rowan calm quickly becomes the least of the couple’s worries as the Network strikes again, this time targeting their little boy. However, members of the shadowy, international Network have underestimated their suburban target; as Wyatt already knows all too well, “once [Rowan] sinks her teeth in, there’s no letting up until she finds the truth.” As Reinard cycles through the perspectives of Rowan, Wyatt, and several members of the Network, the author develops characters more complex than those found in the average thriller. Even if sometimes it feels like Reinard is rushing through a laundry list of past traumas and

justifications, both her villains and victims earn equal measures of sympathy and disgust, adding additional engrossing layers to the surprises and suspense in the narrative. Rowan seems an unlikely protagonist at first, but with her zany arc—from insufferable desperate housewife to an unhinged and unstoppable investigator—the author is clearly having fun with stereotypes and the conventions of both genres. Readers surely will, too. A twisted plot and even more twisted main characters make this thriller shockingly fun.

Big Blue

Sirls, J.Q. | Illus. by Luis San Vicente World of Fantoria Books (46 pp.)

$20.00 | June 25, 2025 | 9798991482707

An impossibly big dream searches to find his dreamer in Sirls’ picture book.

Big is a dream who towers over all the other dreams in his town. In this story, they all have only two goals: to find their matching person and to help them realize their dream; when they’re successful, the dreams turn blue. As other, smaller dreams match up with their people, Big finds himself left alone, without a dreamer. He searches across town, but most people either ignore him or are intimidated by his giant size—but he continues his quest, ignoring the fact that others tease him, and refusing to quit. Over the course of this book, Sirls flips the common idea of people not giving up on dreams, offering a refreshing take that makes for an enthralling tale: “But Big was a dream / and everyone knows / that dreams never give up.” San Vicente’s whimsical cartoon illustrations help make this book stand out even further; most of the drawings are grayscale, with only a few intentionally colored objects. The few spots of color give the story’s events and ultimate outcome a uniquely dramatic effect.

A creative reversal of a common

A stimulating overview of one of the central issues of our time.

ON PRIVACY AND TECHNOLOGY

theme that yields an intriguing and entertaining read.

On Privacy and Technology

Solove, Daniel J. | Oxford University Press (136 pp.) | $23.70

March 4, 2025 | 9780197771686

Solove reflects on the challenges posed by technology to privacy. According to the author, a law professor specializing in intellectual property, the “dizzying pace of changing technologies” constitutes a profound challenge to the protection of privacy, one that largely has not been met with an adequate response. In the European Union, the General Data Protection Regulation of 2016 is a “grand achievement” and a “terrific law,” per Solove, but it still does not do enough, and the many laws around the globe modeled upon it are considerably less effective. At the heart of the problem, the author argues with an impressive blend of provocation and prudence, is a lot of muddled thinking about privacy—more specifically, the employment of metaphors that confuse rather than clarify. (For example, artificial intelligence is simply not intelligence—it’s just a lot of “math plus data.”) Moreover, contrary to the dystopian narrative famously proposed by George Orwell in 1984, the author observes that the surveillance of individuals is rarely noticed, and almost no one feels inhibited by it. In fact, Solove posits, the entire discussion about privacy is usually misconceived, and his searching treatise aims to set clear

parameters for future debate. Ultimately, the author contends that protecting privacy is really about power: “The law can naively hope that virtue or restraint will do the work of regulation, that organizations will just do the right thing, that the lion will lay down with the lamb. In reality, however, power rarely yields to anything except power.”

Solove is the Eugene L. and Barbara A. Bernard Professor of Intellectual Property and Technology Law at the George Washington University Law School, and his expertise is beyond reproach. He’s been thinking about this important issue for a quarter-century, and as a result his reflections achieve an admirable depth. For such a brief study—the book is not much longer than 100 pages—an extraordinary expanse of intellectual territory is traversed with rigor and subtlety. A stimulating overview of one of the central issues of our time.

The Complete Down and Out in Seattle and Tacoma Series

Stockwell, Christopher J. | Bland Coffee Publishing (340 pp.) | $8.99 paper | Feb. 12, 2024 | 9781963805895

In Stockwell’s three connected novellas, a man stumbles through addiction, recovery, and the countercultural scene of 1990s Washington. The epigraphs of the first two novellas collected here come from Irvine Welsh and Charles Bukowski; like these writers, Stockwell is concerned with those down on their luck. In these

stories, he traces the wobbly arc of Jack, a “microcosm of Generation X” who is “addicted to everything.” When he is first introduced, Jack is 28 years old and living in a psychiatric institution after losing his mother, his primary support system. The first novella, Sleeping in the Daytime, largely traces the period following his release from the institution, including his time in a halfway house rooming with a schizophrenic Vietnam War veteran who never showers and working up the courage to ask out the barista at the local coffee shop he frequents. The narrative includes regular flashbacks to Jack’s past, including his physically abusive relationship with his older brother (“Besides the sporadic 911 calls, occasional attempted knifings, and regular baseball bat duels, things had actually been pretty good between Laurence and Jack back then”) and his attempts to “liberat[e] his mind from Mormon indoctrination.” The second novella, Courting Mediocrity, fills in more of Jack’s backstory, focusing mainly on his first institutionalization at age 18 and how he met most of his crew of friends/fellow drug dealers and abusers. It also charts Jack’s brief stint in Utah, where he turns 30 and finds employment at a Taco Bell. (Jack finds some relief in this stability, but it does not last long.) There is more redemption in the final novella, Squatting in the Shadow of an Ant, which tracks Jack’s path down to Seattle and the most stable of his major relationships. Throughout, Stockwell balances the hard-edged, Gen X tone with more wistful reflections on a time lost. This comes through most strongly in the final few chapters, as Seattle morphs into its present form. Though occasionally repetitive, there is enough life and truth in the prose to keep the reader afloat, even as Jack repeatedly falls into the same destructive patterns. A gritty, heartfelt journey through the recent past.

Kirkus Star

Cooling Our Environment: An Architect’s Vision for Combating Global Warming

Sutaria, Kalpana | Atmosphere Press (230 pp.) $24.99 | $18.99 paper | Dec. 10, 2024 9798891325791 | 9798891325418 paper

An architect considers the challenges of and solutions to climate change.

In her nonfiction debut, Sutaria relates her own experiences growing up in the boiling-hot summers of Ahmedabad, India, before moving to America in 1976 to study at the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. After her studies, she worked at a number of private design firms, then for Austin’s Public Works and Transportation Department, collaborating with politicians and industry leaders in her capacity as a member of both the United States Green Buildings Council and the American Institute of Architects. In these pages, illustrated with photos, charts, and blueprints, the author draws on all of this experience to explore the ways in which rising temperatures and worsening climate conditions present challenges that thermal-conscious building designs might help to meet. Sutaria refers to her approach as “vernacular architecture,” a climate-friendly process to create spaces that respond to environmental needs and enrich the lives of those who dwell within. “The deepest roots of any culture,” she writes, “are as immersed in the environment they develop as they are in the attitudes toward that environment.” Using many examples drawn from both Indian and American building environments, the author underscores the practical benefits of her project (as greenhouse gas emissions decrease, savings in public health increase). Sutaria writes with the forceful compassion of a true believer, bluntly telling her readers that we can’t just air-condition our way out of the climate crisis—we must adapt, not only with green initiatives but also with architecture that’s less wasteful. Some elements of her book

may prove almost physically painful to readers in a 21st-century America whose government has recently begun abandoning any notion of environmental stewardship in favor of “drill, baby, drill” policies, but the text’s can-do optimism will counteract a good deal of this gloom, and Sutaria is knowledgeable enough to make it all very convincing. A smart, energetic, and wide-ranging series of ideas for more climateresponsive building.

Orb: New Revised Edition

Tarulli, Gary | Self (347 pp.) | $11.99 paper Oct. 25, 2024 | 9798218519728

A crew exploring a deep-space planet encounters paranoia and isolation in Tarulli’s SF novel. The 23rdcentury wormholetravelling ship Desio undertakes an expedition to a tranquil planet with a human life–supporting atmosphere. The destination is called 231-P5, though “Orb” is ultimately adopted as a better moniker. This has not been humankind’s first sally to P5/Orb; a crew on a previous voyage to gather mineral samples suffered stressful psychological side effects from isolation. This new trip boasts five gifted researchers in different fields, chosen for their brilliance, plus the first-person narrator Kyle Lorenzo, a writer included to record a full chronicle (even though Earth culture, sketchily described and not very pleasant sounding, seems to have lost regard for the printed word). During the outbound trip, Kyle begins a passionate affair with the ship’s physician, Kelly Takara, but she finds him emotionally remote (though he dotes on Angie, the pet dog he demanded be brought along). Meanwhile, insular physicist Larry Melhaus forsakes all interpersonal relationships to focus obsessively on the science. Orb, a geometrically perfect, moonless, water-covered planet, has a hospitable climate but no apparent life other than oxygen-producing phytoplankton. No evolution, environmental

diversity, or volcanic activity appears to have disturbed the place for eons. Distant spherelike objects materialize on the water, tentatively approaching the human camp. Are they machines? Life forms? Dangerous? While the rest of the ensemble puzzle over it all in wonder, Melhaus falls prey to increasing instability and paranoia. Seasoned SF readers may recognize the major plot point approaching from light years away, but Tarulli’s pellucid, companionable prose (imagine Michael Crichton writing in an especially philosophical and upbeat manner, without a Hollywood contract lurking in the foliage) and abundant generosity of spirit toward his characters make this a satisfying ride, familiar elements and all. The integrity and intelligence of the material even survives the incorporation of a cute doggie in outer space (“In no time at all, she became our little mascot”), and that is a rather unearthly achievement all by itself. There’s intelligent life in this SF yarn—a smashing beach read.

The Bayrose Files

Wald, Diane | Regal House Publishing (116 pp.) $18.95 paper | May 27, 2025 | 9781646035953

Aspiring journalist Violet Maris embarks on an audacious scheme that threatens to unravel her identity in Wald’s novel. Violet Maris, a 26-year-old journalist, sees an opportunity for a groundbreaking exposé when she learns about The Home, a prestigious artists’ residency in Provincetown that may not be all that it seems. Since journalists aren’t admitted, she goes undercover and submits her mentor Spencer Bayrose’s unpublished stories as her own. With his approval, she secures a prestigious fellowship and enters the insular world of The Home. There, she encounters a diverse group of artists, forming tentative bonds with fellow “verbals” (writers) and “visuals” (painters and sculptors), including the sensitive poet Cordelia, the blunt fiction writer

Phrank, and the captivating Jeanette. Despite her initial skepticism, she becomes immersed in the creative energy of The Home, a place where ambition clashes with creativity. But her deception weighs heavily on her, especially as she grows close to Gene Pelletier, a board member she lied to about her intentions to report on the retreat. Her secret is further complicated by Spencer’s declining health. After his death from AIDS, Violet is left to confront her grief while carrying the weight of her deception. The novel’s introspective first-person narration allows readers to fully immerse themselves in Violet’s perspective. Provincetown’s setting comes to life with its seaside, bohemian vibes and vibrant energy (“The weather, while not as frigid as it was on the mainland, had a soul-chilling quality that made you feel a bit bipolar—alternately anxious and elated. My own moods, in fact, did vacillate between the two”). Sharp dialogue, like Gene Pelletier’s guarded remark about The Home’s privacy, adds depth to the story (“Miss Maris, I doubt any of them would want to participate in anything like that. It’s kind of a private space for us, you know. Everybody’s there to work on their art”). As Violet balances her growing attachment to The Home with the guilt of her deceit, the novel builds toward an inevitable reckoning. The lies that once felt so clever now feel suffocating, and the price of her ambition may be more than she anticipated. A powerful exploration of artistic ambition, deception, and redemption.

The Wretched and Undone

Weiner, J.E. | Htf Publishing (320 pp.)

$33.95 | $19.95 paper | March 18, 2025 9781963452105 | 9781963452112 paper

to make a go of it in Texas Hill Country. When the Civil War breaks out and Texas throws in with the Confederacy, the Rebels hire Marcin for his carpentry skills. Enter Pvt. Augustus Brewer, a vicious excuse for a human being. Marcin is instrumental in sending Brewer on a fatal mission, and his body is grotesquely mutilated. Marcin, a decent man, is filled with remorse, having known that the lame Brewer would probably be killed. But here the Gothic starts: Pvt. Brewer lays a curse on the Anderwalds and their descendants. Their youngest child is killed by water moccasins. Soon after, Aga dies, but she becomes a ghost, a figure in white, fighting, as well as she can, Brewer’s evil, sensed as a black shadow accompanied by a horrible stench. And so it goes down through the decades. Marcin’s son Zacharias and his wife aren’t immune, nor is their son, John Marcin Anderwald, and his wife and children. Which brings us to the near-present and the danger of yet another generation. We can only hope that Brewer is now satisfied or exorcised. In Weiner’s debut novel, her characters are well drawn, often complicated people; even the most flawed have backstories to help us understand them. The battle of good versus evil—Aga versus Brewer—is so well done that readers may find themselves half believing this unnerving tale, the mark of a really good ghost story. Here is Marcin being spooked by the dark shadow (and in a graveyard!): “A soft breeze began to stir again, shepherding a raw and menacing wail through the air.” There is so much to this book: good versus evil, really scary, spooky stuff (and let’s not forget the camels and the peafowl).

In Weiner’s Southern gothic debut novel, a Polish immigrant family struggles under a family curse. Marcin

Anderwald and his wife, Agnieszka “Aga,” are Polish immigrants trying

A tale from a promising writer that grabs readers from the very first line!

For more Indie content, visit Kirkus online.

INDIE AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT

DAVID SCHULZE

Author of unplugged

Tell us a little about yourself and unplugged.

Hi, my name is David Schulze. I’m from Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. I got a bachelor’s degree in writing for film and television from Emerson College, but when an LA internship I was banking on fell through, I decided to stay out East, regroup, and switch my efforts to independent novel writing.

My novella unplugged is a speculative satire set in the 2040s depicting the rise and fall of the Unplug Movement, a nationwide boycott of digital living founded by a group of college- age Gen Alphas sick of America’s overwhelming dependence on technology. Their parents, the millennial establishment, refuse to listen to their kids and give up power so willingly, and so a culture war is born. My chief inspirations were Fight Club, Animal Farm, and a documentary I saw once on the hippie movement detailing the counterculture mindset of their beatnik founders and how their intellectual cause became a wild emotional monster they’d later disown.

Was your storyline something you envisioned from the beginning, or did you build/change it as you wrote unplugged?

Whenever I start a new project, I like to form a three-act framework with enough empty spaces in the specifics so I can improvise throughout the first draft. Doing so creates an organic flow to the story, plus I end up

inventing new subplots and twists I never thought of before that actually elevate my original concept. unplugged, in its final form, is practically identical to the original outline I wrote in 2020, but a lot has happened in the world since then. The rise of Reddit meme stocks. Accelerated AI development. The weaponization of Big Tech. Congress single-handedly initiating the fall of TikTok. By the time I was finally able to sit down and write out the first draft in early 2024, I had plenty of real-world precedents to work with. Probably the most significant last-minute change of mine was the invention of unplugged ’s framing device, a nameless narrator imagining his infant son’s radical future as the result of his own antitech parenting style.

How did you develop your characters? I originally conceived unplugged as having nameless archetypes as characters. The Writer. The Acolyte. The Detractor. The Loner. I wanted my vision of the future to be as cold and dispassionate as the characters’ ruthlessness. But the more I thought about it, I decided it was better to switch to personal characters with real names and relatable backgrounds. unplugged could instead be used to study how the Unplug Movement morphs the characters into the versions of themselves they never wanted to be, and giving them personalities would make their individual tragedies more emotionally cathartic for the reader.

unplugged Schulze, David David Schulze Books | 187 pp. | $11.99 paper May 30, 2024 | 9781737037866

What are you working on now?

Currently, I’m developing a low-fantasy novel called My God Father, dramatizing the century-spanning tumultuous relationship between an immortal human and the insecure demigod that forced it on him, and a new anthology of over-the-top situational farces I’m calling my Shenanigans Trilogy.

Portions of this Q&A were edited for clarity.

For a review of the book, visit Kirkus online.

Andie Jay Photography

“Historical fiction readers: get ready to swoon.”

— Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid and The Mystery Guest

Cinderella meets telenovela in this sweeping historical romance inspired by the real-life daughter of Don Quixote author Miguel de Cervantes.