The Best Fiction, Picture Books and Middle-Grade Books of 2013 by Kirkus Reviews

you can now purchase books online at kirkusreviews.com

Chairman H E R B E RT S I M O N

contents fiction REVIEWS................................................................ 3 10 best books of 2013 guaranteed to get your book club talking..............41

picture books REVIEWS..............................................................43 picture books that will expand your world..................................................... 53 10 picture books that capture the american experience................................. 67

middle-grade books REVIEWS..............................................................69 great books that make history come alive........................................................86

coming soon: Best Nonfiction Books of 2013 and Best Teen Books of 2013— released with Kirkus Reviews’ Dec. 1 issue

# President & Publisher M A RC W I N K E L M A N Chief Operating Officer M E G L A B O R D E KU E H N mkuehn@kirkus.com Editor in Chief C laiborne S mith csmith@kirkus.com Fiction Editor E L A I N E S Z E WC Z Y K eszewczyk@kirkus.com Managing/Nonfiction Editor E R I C L I E B E T R AU eliebetrau@kirkus.com Children’s & Teen Editor VICKY SMITH vsmith@kirkus.com Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH Contributing Editor G R E G O RY M c N A M E E Senior Indie Editor KAREN SCHECHNER kschechner@kirkus.com Indie Editor RYA N L E A H E Y rleahey@kirkus.com Indie Editor D avid R a p p drapp@kirkus.com Assistant Indie Editor M AT T D O M I N O mdomino@kirkus.com Editorial Assistant CHELSEA LANGFORD clangford@kirkus.com Copy Editor BETSY JUDKINS Director of Kirkus Editorial P E R RY C RO W E pcrowe@kirkus.com Director of Technology E R I K S M A RT T esmartt@kirkus.com Marketing Communications Director SARAH KALINA skalina@kirkus.com Marketing Associate A rden Piacenza apiacenza@kirkus.com Advertising/Client Promotions A nna C oo p er acooper@kirkus.com Designer ALEX HEAD #

for customer service or subscription questions, please call 1-800-316-9361

This Issue’s Contributors

Mark Athitakis • Michael Autrey Kathleen Devereaux • Bobbi Dumas Peter Franck • Paul Lamey Elsbeth Lindner • Georgia Lowe Don McLeese • Gregory McNamee Carole Moore • Clayton Moore Liza Nelson • John Noffsinger Gary Presley • Lloyd Sachs • Bob Sanchez • Wendy Smith Margot E. Spangenberg Andria Spencer

—Elaine Szewczyk THE STENCH OF HONOLULU A Tropical Adventure

Handey, Jack Grand Central Publishing (240 pp.) $19.00 | Jul. 16, 2013 978-1-455-52238-5 978-0-385-52705-7

ASUNDER

Aridjis, Chloe Mariner/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (208 pp.) $13.95 paper | Sep. 17, 2013 978-0-544-00346-0

middle gr a de

f e l l o w b o o k w o r m s : You’ve come to the right place! There’s fiction for every taste among this year’s selections. Whether you are looking for a suspenseful caper, a sweet love story, even a farcical adventure starring a dimwit, it’s all here, and then some. The wonderful books on the list include a detective story by J.K. Rowling (writing as Robert Galbraith); a tale about brothers by Jhumpa Lahiri; not one but two works by Stephen King; a deep space odyssey by Ian Douglas; and a novel by former Saturday Night Live contributor Jack Handey that is so funny I had to read it twice. You’ll also find books by perennial favorites Jeanette Winterson, Joyce Carol Oates, Donna Tartt, Lee Child, Thomas Pynchon, Andre Dubus III, Andrea Barrett and George Saunders, among others. Along the way, you’ll meet some fantastic debut novelists, including Suzanne Rindell, author of a “deliciously addictive, cinematically influenced page-turner” set in 1920s Manhattan, and Graeme Simsion, author of a “sparkling, laugh-out-loud” comedic gem about a nerdy geneticist looking to get lucky. There’s also a special treat for fans of P.G. Wodehouse: a Jeeves and Wooster novel by Sebastian Faulks, the first in some 40 years. Enjoy!

pictur e books

fiction A self-effacing life devoted to obsessive minutiae is cracked open in this oblique, disturbing, yet oddly compelling tale. Surreal and haunting, Aridjis’ (Book of Clouds, 2009) understated second novel, set in London, traces a decisive phase in the life of Marie, a 33-year-old museum guard who has worked at the National Gallery for nearly 10 years. With her days spent almost invisibly among the visitors and paintings, her free time is passed in similarly low-key fashion, hanging out with a poet friend, Daniel, or working on a collection of peculiar sculptures—landscapes made inside eggshells. Marie’s hypnotic half-life is dotted with eccentric characters—a taxidermist; her flatmate, who is obsessed with moth strips—and brief yet telling descriptive sidebars about strange details, like the causes of craquelure (cracked varnish on old paintings) or the destruction of a famous work of art at the gallery by a suffragette, an act witnessed by Marie’s greatgrandfather. Prisons, mental institutions and peculiar visions of decay crop up repeatedly, while actual events are few. But during a strange, vaguely unpleasant holiday in Paris with Daniel, a chance encounter in a dilapidated chateau pushes Marie over an invisible line. Dark and peculiar, simultaneously sinister and playful, Aridjis’ modern gothic vision will charm those prepared to linger in her cabinet of curiosities.

THE HOUSE OF RUMOUR

Arnott, Jake Amazon/New Harvest (448 pp.) $26.00 | Mar. 19, 2013 978-0-544-07779-9 An audaciously ambitious novel that takes great creative risks and, against considerable odds, makes most of them pay dividends. What kind of novel is the latest from the British Arnott (The Long Firm, 1999)? Science fiction, most likely. Or World War II espionage. Or Utopian/dystopian. Or sexual manifesto. Or religious parable. Or a narrative about the |

kirkus.com

fiction

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“Aslam sympathizes not with causes, but with people, and this is a memorable portrait of a people torn apart by war.” from the blind man’s garden

possibilities and limitations of narrative. Or a series of interrelated stories inspired by the cards of a tarot deck. Or all of the above. Yet the reader need have no knowledge of the tarot (or the occult, which pervades the novel) to appreciate its imaginative vision or make sense of the way it hopscotches across genre, chronology, geography and cosmos. It begins and ends with the first-person account of a fictional American science-fiction writer named Larry Zagorski, best known for a novel titled American Gnostic, which attracted a hippie cult following in the 1960s. For the novel, Zagorski drew upon his own experiences with the likes of Robert Heinlein and L. Ron Hubbard (the latter, fictionalized in Zagorski’s novel and rendered under his own name in Arnott’s, transforms his science fiction into a religion in both). Also playing key roles in the novel are Aleister Crowley, Rudolf Hess, Ian Fleming and Jim Jones (the prophet of mass suicide). Told through multiple narrators, it is a novel of “quantum leaps, of diverging timelines, alternate futures, and crucial moments when things could go either way.” Yet, it sustains a narrative momentum as it unfolds as fact and fantasy, mystery and revelation, pulp fiction and metaphysical transcendence. Along the way, it traces the thematic arc of science fiction, which has gone “from being about the probable, the possible, the impossible, the metaphysical to the ordinary, the everyday. It seems the one form that can truly grasp the essential strangeness of modern living.” A novel that combines the pleasures of genre fiction and the thematic richness of literary fiction, while blurring the line between the two and exploding the very concept of genre.

THE BLIND MAN’S GARDEN

Aslam, Nadeem Knopf (384 pp.) $26.95 | Apr. 30, 2013 978-0-307-96171-6

The war in Afghanistan, as seen from the other side—or, better, another side. “[H]ave you ever heard a story in which the evil person triumphs at the end?” So, three paragraphs into Pakistani-born, British author Aslam’s (The Wasted Vigil, 2008, etc.) latest, a father, Rohan, asks his son, Jeo. Always careful, Jeo thinks for a moment before replying that the trouble is that on the way to defeat, evil people “harm the good people.” Good and evil are porous categories: Jeo is a medical student, while his brother Mikal works at a gun shop, but both rise to the cause when American troops invade neighboring Afghanistan, joining the jihad against them. Jeo volunteers at a hospital in Peshawar, while Mikal crosses the border to fight alongside the Taliban; for his trouble, he is captured by American soldiers and subjected to interrogation that promises to become torture (“Mikal refuses to speak and they take him to a bare windowless room, attach a chain to his wrists, and...fasten the chain to a ring on the ceiling”). Suffice it to say that the tables turn. The saga 4

of war and sacrifice stretches across the centuries—midway through the story, Rohan, benevolent but given to despair, finds himself wondering whether he has not been cursed in some way because his great-grandfather had sided with the British during the mutiny of 1857. Aslam finds poetry in scenes both ordinary and dreamlike (“the moonlight pale as watered ink”; “Rohan dreams of an American soldier and a jihadi warrior digging the same grave”). At times, the images he conjures seem improbable, as with an American commando who carries a snow leopard cub inside his shirt, but the writing is so assured and the story so urgent that it’s easy to suspend disbelief. Aslam sympathizes not with causes, but with people, and this is a memorable portrait of a people torn apart by war.

LIFE AFTER LIFE

Atkinson, Kate Reagan Arthur/Little, Brown (544 pp.) $27.99 | Apr. 2, 2013 978-0-316-17648-4 If you could travel back in time and kill Hitler, would you? Of course you would. Atkinson’s (Started Early, Took My Dog, 2011, etc.) latest opens with that conceit, a hoary what-if of college dorm discussions and, for that matter, of other published yarns (including one, mutatis mutandis, by no less an eminence than George Steiner). But Atkinson isn’t being lazy, not in the least: Her protagonist’s encounter with der Führer is just one of several possible futures. Call it a more learned version of Groundhog Day, but that character can die at birth, or she can flourish and blossom; she can be wealthy, or she can be a fugitive; she can be the victim of rape, or she can choose her sexual destiny. All these possibilities arise, and all take the story in different directions, as if to say: We scarcely know ourselves, so what do we know of the lives of those who came before us, including our own parents and—in this instance— our unconventional grandmother? And all these possibilities sometimes entwine, near to the point of confusion. In one moment, for example, the conversation turns to a child who has died; reminds Ursula, our heroine, “Your daughter....She fell in the fire,” an event the child’s poor mother gainsays: “ ‘I only ever had Derek,’ she concluded firmly.” Ah, but there’s the rub with alternate realities, all of which, Atkinson suggests, can be folded up into the same life so that all are equally real. Besides, it affords several opportunities to do old Adolf in, what with his “funny little flap of the hand backward so that he looked as if he were cupping his ear to hear them better” and all. Provocative, entertaining and beautifully written. It’s not quite the tour de force that her Case Histories (2004) was, but this latest affords the happy sight of seeing Atkinson stretch out into speculative territory again.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

fiction

kirkus.com

TRAVELING SPRINKLER

Baker, Nicholson Blue Rider Press (304 pp.) $26.95 | Sep. 17, 2013 978-0-399-16096-7

Baker foregoes the kinky eroticism of Vox and House of Holes this time and gives readers a sweet and idiosyncratic novel about the protagonist of The Anthologist (2009), a poet and pop songwriter manqué. Although Paul Chowder’s life is not exactly coming apart, it’s also not what it could be. His girlfriend, Roz, has taken up with someone else, he’s become less committed to writing poetry, and to make a little extra money, he shrink-wraps boats. (You’ve seen them, with the tight, white plastic....) On the other hand, he enjoys going to Quaker meetings, and he’s really getting into music. We learn he used to be a serious student of the bassoon, but in college, he switched to the study of poetry and now has some regrets. What Chowder would like is a hit song, |

kirkus.com

fiction

and he looks for inspiration everywhere. While driving, for example, he sees a truck with an “Oversize Load” banner and begins to improvise: “It was big / It was bad / It was round / It could explode // Yeah, he was driving down the road / with an oversize load.” He’s also recently taken up the guitar and hopes to impress his neighbors as well as Roz with his musical prowess. Most of all, Chowder is an observer of things and people, and he still has a poet’s fascination with words, “garbanzo” being one of his new favorites. His musical erudition is impressive, and the attentive reader will receive quite an education, ranging from the reason for the bassoon solo at the beginning of The Rite of Spring to the brilliance of Victoria de los Angeles’ version of Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 to the poignancy of Jonatha Brooke’s rendition of “In the Gloaming.” In sparkling and witty prose, Baker reminds readers why he’s one of the masters of the contemporary novel.

middle gr a de

An irresistible retake on Pride and Prejudice alters the familiar perspective by foregrounding a different version of events—the servants’. Daring to reconfigure what many would regard as literary perfection, Baker (The Undertow, 2012, etc.) comes at Jane Austen’s most celebrated novel from below stairs, offering a working-class view of the Bennet family of Longbourn House. While the familiar drama of Lizzie and Jane, Bingley and Darcy goes on in other, finer rooms, Baker’s focus is the kitchen and the stable and the harsh cycle of labor that keeps the household functioning. Cook Mrs. Hill rules the roost, and maids Sarah and Polly do much of the hard work, their interminable roster of chores diminished a little by the hiring of a manservant, James Smith. Sarah is attracted to James, but he is mysterious and withdrawn, and soon, her eye is caught by another—Bingley’s black footman, Ptolemy. James, though trapped in his secrets, has noticed Sarah too and steps in when she is on the verge of making an impulsive mistake. And so, the romance begins. Baker is at her best when touching on the minutiae of work, of interaction, of rural life. James’ back story, though capably done, offers less magic. But a last episode, moving through grief and silence into understated romantic restoration, showcases a softly piercing insight. Sequels and prequels rarely add to the original, but Baker’s simple yet inspired reimagining does. It has bestseller stamped all over it.

pictur e books

LONGBOURN

Baker, Jo Knopf (352 pp.) $25.95 | $12.99 e-book | Oct. 8, 2013 978-0-385-35123-2 978-0-385-35214-9 e-book

LOOKAWAY, LOOKAWAY

Barnhardt, Wilton St. Martin’s (368 pp.) $25.99 | Aug. 20, 2013 978-1-250-02150-2 Barnhardt’s fourth novel is a revelation: witty, savage and bighearted all at once, it is the Southern novel for the 21st century. The Jarvis-Johnston clan is a Charlotte, N.C., family of distinction; they have all that matters to society: money, pedigree and manners enough to keep secrets buried. But, as each family member is revealed (spanning a decade, every character has their own chapter), the ruin of the family becomes imminent. When Jerilyn Johnston heads off to Chapel Hill, she seems the one child who will live up to her mother Jerene’s exacting standards. But when she pledges Sigma Kappa Nu, filled with rich, surgery-augmented party girls who hope to raise spring-break money by starting their own online porn site, Jerilyn falls into the abyss, which is a place her uncle Gaston Jarvis frequents with pleasure. Though in his youth he was a Young Turk of the literary world, for the last two decades he has churned out a regrettable Civil War series featuring the adventures of Cordelia Florabloom. The books have made him rich and bitter, his only solace a bar stool at the club. The great Southern novel he wanted to write, Lookaway Dixieland, conceived with his comrade in arms Duke Johnston, serves as a treacherous reminder of his wasted life. Jerene and Duke’s other children—Annie, the much-married left-wing rebel; Josh, who spends his evenings trolling for black men on the down low; and Bo, a Presbyterian minister who despises his congregation—are all beyond their parents’ control, contributing to the mother of all Christmas dinner disasters. Perhaps most poignant is patriarch Duke Johnston: the golden boy beloved by everyone, offered the world but who, in the end, locks himself away in his Civil War library, fixated on an insignificant battle, shielded by history.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

LEXICON

Barnhardt masterfully reimagines the Southern gothic: There is every kind of sordid deed committed, but there is also an abundance of humanity and grace.

ARCHANGEL

Barrett, Andrea Norton (224 pp.) $24.95 | Aug. 19, 2013 978-0-393-24000-9 The award-winning author returns with another collection of stories distinguished by uncommon scope and depth. Having won the National Book Award with Ship Fever (1996), Barrett has continued to command fictional territory all her own. Her latest collection of five stories finds her fiction typically steeped in science, rich in ideas, set in the historical past, and filled with characters who share the excitement, and some of the fear, of discovery. Framing the collection are two stories featuring the same protagonist, Constantine Boyd, as a boy of 12 from Detroit in “The Investigators,” set in 1908, and as a soldier amid the madness of war in the concluding title story, set in 1919 Russia. The first story is a masterwork of misdirection, as the boy investigates a world rife with discovery—of evolution, flight, family, identity, self (away from home, he flirts with calling himself “Stan”)—while the reader discovers the underlying story of the protagonist’s home life, the reasons why the boy spends summers with one uncle or another. Other stories delve deeply into the debates initially surrounding evolution, the popular but subsequently discarded notion of ether, and the darker implications of genetics (with the rise of Nazi Germany as a backdrop). Yet the characters are never secondary to (or mere mouthpieces for) the provocative ideas, as the stories explore relationships among mentors and students, scientific rivals, romantic attractions. She writes not only of someone “who still appreciates the poet’s wonderment in these days at the marvels of science,” but as someone who can recapture that wonderment decades after such marvels have been embraced or refuted. And she recognizes throughout the collection “how the theories seized on with such enthusiasm by one generation might be discarded scornfully by the next.” Barrett’s stories rank with the best.

Barry, Max Penguin Press (384 pp.) $26.95 | Jun. 18, 2013 978-1-59420-538-5 Modern-day sorcerers fight a war of words in this intensely analytical yet bombastic thriller. Barry (Machine Man, 2011, etc.) is usually trying to be the funny guy in the world of postmodern satire, with arrows keenly aimed at corporate greed and how to make it in advertising. Apparently, our Australian comrade has changed his mind, racing up alongside the likes of Neal Stephenson with this smart, compelling, action-packed thriller about the power of words. In a deft narrative move, Barry parallels two distinct storylines before bringing them together with jaw-dropping surprises. In the first, a carpenter named Wil is jumped in an airport bathroom by a pair of brutal agents who kill his girlfriend and kidnap him for reasons unknown. In a storyline a few years back, we meet a smart, homeless grifter named Emily Ruff on the streets of San Francisco. After a run-in with a mark, Emily is invited to train under the auspices of a mysterious international syndicate known as “The Poets.” The shady peddlers of influence and power force Emily to study words as if they were a source of incredible power—and in the hands of gifted prodigies like Emily, they are. What could have been a sly attempt to satirize postmodern marketing and social media becomes something of a dark fantasy as couplets intended merely to influence become spell-like incantations with the power to kill. Back in America with Wil and his new captor, Elliot, we learn that Wil is the sole survivor of a terminal event in rural Australia and is being relentlessly pursued by Woolf, the perpetrator of the attack in Oz. In the background, the cult’s mysterious leader, Yeats, pulls strings that put everyone at risk, and no one turns out to be who we imagined. An up-all-night thriller for freaks and geeks who want to see their wizards all grown up in the real world and armed to the teeth in a bloody story.

WRITTEN IN RED

Bishop, Anne NAL/Berkley (448 pp.) $26.95 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-0-451-46496-5

For her latest dark fantasy series, Bishop (Twilight’s Dawn, 2011, etc.) invents an entire Earth-like world, Namid, populated by a fascinating array of supernatural Others—and the humans who are their prey. On the continent of Thaisia, humans are tolerated for their technical and inventive talents, but they tread very carefully, knowing that if they transgress, they’ll be lunch for shape-shifting wolves, raptors, bears, vampires or 6

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

fiction

kirkus.com

“A fine story of everyday sadness and otherworldly joys.” from the night of the comet

Bishop, George Ballantine (352 pp.) $25.00 | Aug. 6, 2013 978-0-345-51600-8 Filled with the kind of wistful longing that characterizes the coming-ofage novel, this latest from the talented Bishop brings stardust and domestic disillusionment to the bayous of Louisiana. In 1973, when Junior Broussard blows out the 14 candles on his birthday cake, his wish takes the form of one word— Gabriella. Instead of her magical appearance, he receives a telescope from his father, the high school’s geeky science teacher, an amateur astronomer and author of the newspaper’s weekly “Groovy Science” column. His father has become obsessed with the sighting of the comet Kohoutek; the new telescope will provide a father-son bonding opportunity. Junior could care less and soon points his telescope across the bayou to Gabriella’s mansion. As his father is involved with Kohoutek, Junior becomes fixated on the wealthy Martellos across the water. Their life is like a television show—they dress better, look better, seem happier—and he watches them like an anthropologist and a lover and wonders what will become of himself, raised in a house of small dreams and missed opportunities. His mother, Lydia, befriends Mrs. Martello, and the two hatch a plan to throw a charity ball with a comet theme. Lydia is also bewitched by the Martellos (especially husband Frank) and begins to feel she deserves |

kirkus.com

fiction

so much more than science teacher Alan Broussard can offer. Their meeting years ago—the beautiful pharmacy counter girl and the new science teacher—is a story Junior begs from his parents, as if the re-telling will provide some magic to keep them together. His father becomes dangerously unhinged, his mother runs away, harboring fantasies of a life with Frank Martello, and the comet will soon appear. Junior is sure it will bring both disaster and magic to their lives. Coming-of-age novels examine youthful revelations about the world—filled with cynicism and wonder and rearranged expectations—and the quality hinges on the honesty of the voice, the truth of the observations, the handling of innocence lost; Bishop succeeds on all these fronts. A fine story of everyday sadness and otherworldly joys.

middle gr a de

THE NIGHT OF THE COMET

pictur e books

worse. Into the northeastern city of Lakeside, in the middle of winter, staggers Meg Corbyn, freezing, friendless and desperate. A cassandra sangue, or blood prophet, Meg Corbyn sees the future when her skin is cut—for her, the result can be agony or ecstasy. She and a number of like young women were slaves of the Controller, whose rich clients pay well for their visions. Naïve but resourceful Meg escaped and now seeks refuge in the Lakeside Courtyard, the business district operated by the Others. Against his wolfish instincts—Meg is human, but doesn’t smell like prey—Simon Wolfgard hires her as Human Liaison, a job that entails running the local delivery office. And Meg proves adept at looking after Sam, Simon’s orphaned nephew, so traumatized by his mother’s death that he’s locked in wolf form. Simon has other problems too: pushy Asia Crane, secretly a spy for the mysterious Bigwig; disturbing and unaccountable reports from out west of humans and Others running berserk and slaughtering both each other and their own kind; and the human police, who have been instructed to urgently locate someone who looks very much like Meg Corbyn. It all adds up to a stunningly original yarn, deeply imagined, beautifully articulated and set forth in clean, limpid, sensual prose. A must for fans desperate to move beyond boilerplate urban fantasy.

BOX OFFICE POISON

Bornikova, Phillipa Tor (320 pp.) $24.99 | Aug. 6, 2013 978-0-7653-2683-6

Second in the series (This Case Is Gonna Kill Me, 2012) about New York lawyer Linnet Ellery and the vampire law firm she works for, set in a world dominated by the Powers—vampires, werewolves and Álfar (elves)—who revealed themselves less than half a century ago. Last time out, Linnet found herself battling werewolves. This time, exquisitely beautiful Álfar are snaffling all the plum roles in Hollywood, much to the chagrin of human actors, who, naturally, bring a lawsuit against the studios and networks. Since Álfar charm fails to translate to the screen, the humans insist that they’re using magic to get the parts. Nobody in the Screen Actors Guild wants the dispute in the public domain, so Linnet and her vampire boss, David Sullivan, must fly to California and serve as arbitrators. Complications ensue when Human First agitators make themselves annoyingly obtrusive; and an Álfar actor who slaughtered his beloved human wife now claims to have no memory of the event. Still, the old, influential Álfar observer, Qwendar, seems helpful enough. But when handsome actor-turned-director Jeff Montolbano invites Linnet to the set of his latest movie, his lead actress, an Álfar, bursts in and, sporting enough weapons to stock a small arsenal, starts shooting the place up. Why? What’s really going on? Does Linnet have a secret protector or hidden talents? Bornikova accurately depicts Hollywood with warmth and wit, her puzzles will keep readers guessing until the end, and she tops it off with a smart, sassy heroine willing to poke and prod those more powerful than she. Refreshingly different, intriguing and involving: a sequel that’s even better than the splendid opener.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

BREAKING POINT

Box, C.J. Putnam (384 pp.) $26.95 | Mar. 12, 2013 978-0-399-16075-2

Wyoming Fish and Game Warden Joe Pickett, who attracts trouble the way carcasses attract maggots (Force of Nature, 2012, etc.), gets in the line of fire between an old friend and the Feds. When two EPA agents, sent all the way from Denver to take contractor Butch Roberson into custody. are shot to death, Butch himself is the obvious suspect. But Joe, who saw Butch only hours before he disappeared, can’t help wondering why the EPA was so interested in Butch, whose attempt to build a new house for his family in Aspen Highlands blew up in his face, and why the new, race-baiting EPA regional director Juan Julio Batista has taken such a personal interest in the case. Joe has no time for any speculations, though, before he’s pressed into service to lead an ill-equipped EPA party searching for Butch up the mountain where he was last seen. Little does Joe know that he’s not the only one on the hunt. His old nemesis, ex-Sheriff Kyle McLanahan, has heard the rumor of a big reward for bringing in Butch and has gotten Dave Farkus, a clueless employee Butch fired, to lead him and Jimmy Sollis, the no-account brother of slain deputy Trent Sollis, to Butch first. Box doles out complications and misfortunes with masterly control; each time you’re convinced things can’t get any worse for Butch or Joe, they do, usually in unexpected ways. And every twist tightens the analogy between the shiftless vigilantes after Butch and the Feds determined to capture or kill him, two parties that are not only equally villainous, but villainous in exactly the same way. Its basis in a real-life conflict makes Joe’s 13th case one of his most tendentious, but it’s Box who makes it one of his most exciting.

WE NEED NEW NAMES

Bulawayo, NoViolet Reagan Arthur/Little, Brown (304 pp.) $25.00 | May 21, 2013 978-0-316-23081-0 A loosely concatenated novel in which Darling, the main character and narrator of the story, moves from her traditional life in Zimbabwe to a much less traditional one in the States. For Darling, life in Zimbabwe is both difficult and distressing. Her wonderfully named friends include Chipo, Bastard, Godknows and Sbho, and she also has a maternal figured called Mother of Bones. The most pathetic of Darling’s friends is Chipo, who’s been impregnated by her own grandfather and who undergoes a brutal abortion. The friends have little to do but go on adventures that involve stealing 8

guavas in more affluent neighborhoods than the one they come from (disjunctively named “Paradise”), an act that carries its own punishment since the constipation they experience afterward is almost unbearable. Violence and tragedy become a casual and expected part of their lives. In one harrowing scene, their “gang” attacks a white-owned farm and both humiliates and brutalizes the owners. Also, after a long period of absence and neglect, Darling’s father returns, suffering from AIDS. Spiritual sustenance is rare and comes in the form of an evangelist with the unlikely but ripe name of Prophet Revelations Bitchington Mborro. Eventually, and rather abruptly, Darling moves from the heat and dirt of Zimbabwe to live with her Aunt Fostalina and Uncle Kojo in the American Midwest, a place that seems so unlike her vision of America that it feels unreal. In America, Darling must put up with teasing that verges on abuse and is eager to return to Zimbabwe, for her aunt is working two jobs to pay for a house in one of the very suburbs that Darling and her friends used to invade. Bulawayo crafts a moving and open-eyed coming-ofage story.

LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Burke, James Lee Simon & Schuster (560 pp.) $27.99 | Jul. 23, 2013 978-1-4767-1076-1

Dave Robicheaux’s latest Montana vacation is beset by demons old and new. It’s a long way from New Iberia, La., to Big Sky country, but some things never change, like the constant threat of violence from unknown quarters. Or not so unknown, since Dave’s adopted daughter, Alafair, is sure that psycho rodeo cowboy Wyatt Dixon (In the Moon of Red Ponies, 2004, etc.) is the man who shot an arrow at her head. But Dave’s not so sure: A growing pile of evidence suggests that the archer was Asa Surrette, the mass murderer Alafair interviewed years ago in a Kansas prison for a true-crime book she gave up writing in horrified disgust. Surrette, reported dead in a flaming car crash, gives every indication of being alive, active and as malevolent as ever. That spells major trouble for Dave, who’s staying with novelist/teacher Albert Hollister; his old buddy Clete Purcel, who’s falling for Felicity Louviere, the unhappy wife of Caspian Younger, whose fabulously wealthy daddy, Love, has a summer place nearby; Gretchen Horowitz, the contract killer last seen executing her gangster father in Creole Belle (2012); and of course Alafair, the ultimate target of Surrette’s sadistic wrath. Series regulars will find no immunity from physical or spiritual maiming at the hands of Missoula County Sheriff ’s Deputy Bill Pepper, his replacement, Jack Boyd, or younger hireling Kyle Schumacher. Instead of simply absorbing threats and punishment, however, the good guys dish them out with a single-minded intensity that comes back to haunt them during the many reflective moments when they wonder what really separates them from the bad guys after all.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

fiction

kirkus.com

A COMMONPLACE KILLING

A murder investigation centering on postwar London brings together two very different people in Busby’s last novel. Busby, who died in 2012 after a long illness, wrote her book while in the final stages of cancer. Reflecting the abject bleakness of daily life following World War II, when necessities were rationed and men newly returned from the front lines found there was no work to be had, Busby’s story simultaneously follows Lillian Frobisher in the last days leading up to her murder in a bombing and the longings of a police investigator for the kind of relationship that eludes him. Divisional DI Jim Cooper is assigned to solve the killing of a woman whose body is discovered by schoolboys, but her death only serves to underscore his own loneliness. Deserted when the war broke out by the woman he loved, Cooper finds his life sad and repetitive and despairs of ever finding love again. Meanwhile, Cooper and the policewoman who has been assigned to drive him around London in connection with the case are piecing together the events leading up to Frobisher’s murder one small bit at a time. When police identify her as the wife of a returned serviceman who cares for her elderly mother in a bombed-out home, they inch closer to finding out who actually killed the woman. The story of two desperately lonely individuals whose lives have become meaningless, Busby’s novel is based on an actual murder that took place after the war. Set against the bleakness of a London that’s short on everything and still in tatters from bombings and splintered relationships, the book captures the hopelessness and desperation of the times. Busby’s husband prefaces his wife’s book with a beautifully written tribute to his late wife and her talent, which makes the reading experience even more poignant. A moody gem of a novel that gives moving testament to the exemplary talent that is Busby’s lasting legacy.

TEN THINGS I’VE LEARNT ABOUT LOVE

Butler, Sarah Penguin Press (320 pp.) $26.95 | Jul. 15, 2013 978-1-59420-533-0

This soulful debut unpacks a family enigma involving a wandering daughter, a homeless father and their tenuous family ties. The title might promise another light romantic romp about a footloose young woman in her late 20s. However, English newcomer Butler has greater gravitas in mind. The top 10 lists strewn throughout point to increasingly somber subjects: a mother’s early death, infidelity, a father’s death from cancer, and elder sisters who are both fervent and ambivalent in their affection for their much younger sibling, protagonist Alice. Summoned home from Mongolia to the bedside of Malcolm, her dying father, Alice is also forced to revisit London, the site of a traumatic rupture with her Indian lover, Kal, whose family wants to arrange a marriage for him. After Malcolm’s passing, sisters Tilly and Cee hint at what Alice has suspected since her mother’s death when she was 4 years old: She is viewed as an interloper in the only family she has ever known. Meanwhile, in alternating sections, Daniel, a homeless man, scours London for the daughter he fathered during a long-ago affair but has never met. Daniel’s plight stems both from the disastrous legacy of his gambler father and from an auto accident that bankrupted him. All he knows is that the woman he is searching for might have red hair, like her mother, and is named Alice. Delicately, through the accretion of telling details, the reader learns that Daniel’s Alice and our heroine are one and the same, but Alice thinks her father has just died. When, while helping another destitute man reconnect with his lost child, Daniel happens across Malcolm’s obituary, complete with relatives’ names and the location of memorial services, he realizes his quest may soon be fulfilled if he has the courage to gamble. Improbably but convincingly, his initial diffident overtures to Alice take the form of mini art installations. Spare language and an atmosphere of foreboding will keep readers on tenterhooks. Whimsy and pathos, artfully melded.

middle gr a de

Busby, Siân Marble Arch/Simon & Schuster (304 pp.) $16.00 paper | Sep. 17, 2013 978-1-4767-3029-5

pictur e books

Pruning away the florid subplots that often clutter his heaven-storming blood baths, Burke produces his most sharply focused, and perhaps his most harrowing, study of human evil, refracted through the conventions of the crime novel.

NO ONE COULD HAVE GUESSED THE WEATHER

Casey, Anne-Marie Amy Einhorn/Putnam (288 pp.) $25.95 | Jun. 13, 2013 978-0-399-16021-9

A subversively charming debut about a group of happily imperfect New Yorkers from Dublin-based Casey, wife of novelist Joseph O’Connor. The novel is bookended by Lucy’s story: After the financial crash, Lucy, Richard and their two small boys are forced out of their posh London lives and move |

kirkus.com

fiction

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

to Manhattan, where Richard makes due at a reduced salary, and they take over the apartment he kept for business. Lucy learns she’s much nicer away from all the haves, and she discovers she’s actually in love with her very kind husband. Lucy’s new friend Julia, meanwhile, has a dilemma: Can she, a high-powered screenwriter, go on with a flaky yoga instructor? She thinks not, and so, shockingly, she leaves her husband, Kristian, and their children and has a little nervous breakdown, followed by a lot of career advancement. Meanwhile, Julia’s best friend Christy (her husband, Vaughn, is a rich and powerful senior citizen) is learning, after the nanny’s abrupt departure, that she likes taking care of her twin girls—especially when the dashing, fun-loving Irish doorman is with them. When Christy’s 40-year-old stepdaughter Lianne insists Christy accompany her to an “equine assisted learning” retreat, Christy invites Julia, who invites Lucy (Christy is a bit jealous of this), and then Robyn finds her way in (although she’s already part of the group in a way, having had affairs with both Vaughn and Kristian). The trip is a disaster for spoiled Lianne, but Robyn decides she’s had it with Ryan, whose promising literary debut has been followed by years of Robyn slaving away at a mattress showroom for his art. Each chapter feels like a well-composed short story, and the collected whole is fresh and bright with characters that defy expectations. Clever and witty: the best kind of summer book.

THE LUMINARIES

Catton, Eleanor Little, Brown (848 pp.) $27.00 | $12.99 e-book | Oct. 15, 2013 978-0-316-07431-5 978-0-316-12695-3 e-book A layered, mannered, beguiling yarn, longlisted for the Booker Prize, by New Zealander novelist Catton. When Walter Moody arrives on a “wild shard of the Coast”—that of the then-remote South Island—in late January 1866, he discovers that strange doings are afoot: A local worthy has disappeared, a local belle de nuit has tried to do herself in, the town drunk turns out to possess a fortune against all odds, and the whole town is mumbling, murmuring and whispering like Sweethaven in Robert Altman’s Popeye. Indeed, when Moody walks into his hotel on that—yes, dark and stormy—night, he interrupts a gathering of 12 local men who are trying to get to the bottom of the matter. Moody, as it turns out, is trained as a lawyer—“By training only,” he demurs, “I have not yet been called to the Bar”—but, like everyone else, has been lured to the wild by the promise of gold. It is gold in all its glory that fuels this tale, though other goods figure, too, some smuggled in by the very phantom bark that has deposited Moody on the island. Catton’s long opening, in which the narrative point of view ping-pongs among these 13 players and more, sets the stage for a chronologically challenging tale in which mystery piles atop mystery. Catton writes assuredly and with just the right level of flourish: “He was thinking of Sook Yongsheng, lying cold on the floor inside—his chin 10

and throat smeared with boot-black, his eyebrows thickened, like a clown.” She blends elements of Victorian adventure tale, ghost story, detective procedural à la The Moonstone and shaggy dog tale to produce a postmodern tale to do Thomas Pynchon or Julio Cortázar proud; there are even echoes of Calvino in the author’s interesting use of both astronomy and astrology. The possibilities for meta cleverness and archness are endless, and the whole business is too smart by half, but Catton seems mostly amused by her concoction, and that’s just right. About the only fault of the book is its unending length: There’s not an ounce of flab in it, but it’s still too much for ordinary mortals to take in. There’s a lovely payoff after the miles of twists and turns. It’s work getting there but work of a thoroughly pleasant kind.

NEVER GO BACK

Child, Lee Delacorte (416 pp.) $28.00 | Sep. 3, 2013 978-0-385-34434-0

Jack Reacher pokes a head into his old D.C. office, and things promptly go ballistic. Reacher wants to get a gander at Maj. Susan Turner, his successor as head of the 100th Military Police Special Unit. But she’s been sent to Afghanistan, he’s told, and he’ll have to deal with her temporary replacement, Lt. Col. Morgan. Morgan’s idea of dealing with Reacher is to accuse him of beating Juan Rodriguez to death 16 years ago and shortly afterward fathering Samantha, a 14-year-old whose mother, Candice Dayton, is now looking for child support. To make sure Reacher doesn’t run off, as he’s certainly wont to do (A Wanted Man, 2012, etc.), Morgan recalls him to active Army service and restricts him to a five-mile radius surrounding the building. Naturally, things promptly get worse. A pair of thugs offer to beat Reacher to a pulp if he doesn’t go AWOL. Maj. Turner turns out to be in jail, not Afghanistan. And when her lawyer, Col. Moorcroft, is beaten into a coma a few hours after one of Reacher’s own lawyers—Capt. Helen Sullivan, the one handling the Rodriguez charge—witnesses Reacher’s fraught meeting with Moorcroft, Reacher is escorted to an adjoining cell in the same building. But Reacher, never one to let temporary reversals get him down, escapes from jail, taking Turner with him, and sets out to escape the District, rustle up some cash and some wheels, elude the two thugs (now four) who remain in hot pursuit, and hightail it to LA to satisfy himself as to whether Samantha Dayton really is his daughter. Any questions? For the pure pleasure of uncomplicated, nonstop action, no one touches Reacher, who accurately observes that “I trained myself...to turn fear into aggression.”

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

fiction

kirkus.com

“...wonderfully suspenseful...” from the crocodile

QUEEN VICTORIA’S BOOK OF SPELLS

Datlow, Ellen; Windling, Terri—Eds. Tor (352 pp.) $15.99 paper | Mar. 19, 2013 978-0-7653-3227-1 Eighteen tales of gaslamp fantasy, that is, historical fantasy set in an alternate 19th century where magic worked or supernatural events occurred, together with an extensive and informative introduction from editor Windling tracing historical roots and adding context. |

kirkus.com

fiction

A majority of the tales here use historical events or biography as their foundation. Delia Sherman, then, portrays Queen Victoria as a highly effective wizard. Genevieve Valentine probes a highly unsavory aspect of London’s 1851 Great Exhibition. Elizabeth Wein spins a tale of writer-designer William Morris and artist Edward Burne-Jones. Kaaron Warren writes movingly of a house where unwanted women are confined and how they gain revenge. Dale Bailey takes an actual case of spiritualism and fakery and demonstrates how it is not always clear which is which. Veronica Schanoes strikes sparks both real and figurative in her account of the unionization of the all-female workforce at a lucifer-match factory. And Jane Yolen reimagines the relationship between Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and Queen Victoria. Other tales take their inspiration from Victorian literature. Catherynne M. Valente, for instance, revisits the fantasies of the Brontë children. Tanith Lee offers a steampunk variant on the Frankenstein’s Monster theme. In Gregory Maguire’s continuation of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge marries and has children, and Tiny Tim’s life takes an unexpected turn. And Theodora Goss offers up an existential literary-games scenario à la Jasper Fforde. Elsewhere (via Jeffrey Ford, Ellen Kushner and Caroline Stevermer, Maureen McHugh, Kathe Koja, Elizabeth Bear, James P. Blaylock and Leanna Renee Hieber), the fiction is purer, the surprises no less welcome. Splendid tales that illuminate a bygone era’s darker corners.

middle gr a de

Rarely does language so plainspoken and elemental tell a story so richly open to interpretation on so many different levels. Is this a religious allegory? An apocalyptic fable? A mystery? A meditation on the human condition? With economy and grace, the award-winning Crace (The Pesthouse, 2007, etc.) gives his work a simplicity and symmetry that belie the disturbances beneath the consciousness of its narrator. It’s a narrative without specifics of time or place, in the countryside of the author’s native England, following a harvest that will prove different than any the villagers have ever experienced, in a locale where, explains the narrator, “We do not even have a title for the village. It is just The Village. And it’s surrounded by The Land.” In the beginning, the narrator speaks for the community, “bounded by common ditches and collective hopes,” yet one where “[t]heir suspicion of anyone who was not born within these boundaries is unwavering.” The “they” proves crucial, as the narrator who initially speaks for the collective “we” reveals that he is in fact an outsider, brought to the village 12 years earlier by the man who is the master of the manor, and that he is someone who has become a part of the community, yet remains apart from it. There has been a fire following the harvest, disrupting the seasonal cycle, and although evidence points to three young men within the community, blame falls on two men and a woman who have recently camped on the outskirts. There is also someone making charts of the land and an issue of succession of ownership. There is a sense that this harvest may be the last one for these people, that the land may be converted to different use. “[P]lowing is our sacrament, our solemn oath, the way we grace and consecrate our land,” yet that way of life may soon be over. “There isn’t one of us—no, them—who’s safe,” declares the narrator, who must ultimately come to terms with the depths of his solitude. Crace continues to occupy a singular place in contemporary literature.

pictur e books

HARVEST

Crace, Jim Talese/Doubleday (224 pp.) $24.95 | Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-385-52077-5

THE CROCODILE

de Giovanni, Maurizio Translated by Shugaar, Antony Europa Editions (336 pp.) $17.00 paper | Jul. 2, 2013 978-1-60945-119-6 A wonderfully suspenseful novel in which de Giovanni restores life to the cliché of the world-weary detective. Inspector Giuseppe Lojacono has been tainted with rumors that he informed on the Mafia, so he’s transferred from Sicily to Naples to work a desk job, which for him consists of playing online poker. But a methodical serial killer is on the loose, and Lojacono’s bumbling colleagues have no idea how to solve the case, so they have no choice but to turn to him for help. Particularly eager to help solve the mystery behind the murders is the attractive, no-nonsense Assistant District Attorney Laura Piras. She slowly develops confidence that Lojacono is the only one who’ll be able to catch the murderer, dubbed “The Crocodile” by the media because he seems a ruthless killing machine. Three murders have recently been committed, each of the victims an only child of a single parent, and that seems to Lojacono to be a significant clue. His colleagues on the police force seem to think the Mafia-like Camorra might be responsible, though Lojacono knows the M.O. of the Camorristas and doesn’t see a connection. The psychologically shrewd inspector eventually concludes that the children murdered are perhaps not the

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“real” victims but that the killer is trying to get revenge on the parents in a twisted and horrifying way. Although estranged from his adolescent daughter, Lojacono has a father’s sense that the worst possible pain that can be inflicted on a parent is the death of a child, so he methodically starts to look for connections among the parents of the three victims, and eventually, he uncovers a bond...but he also finds another potential victim: a 6-month-old infant. In this crisply translated novel, de Giovanni explores Lojacono’s loneliness and vulnerability while simultaneously revealing his brilliance as a detective.

THE OCTOBER LIST

Deaver, Jeffery Grand Central Publishing (320 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-4555-7664-7 Remember Merrily We Roll Along, the Sondheim musical out of Kaufman and Hart that began with its climactic scene and worked backward to the beginning? Deaver’s borrowed the same concept and juiced it with assorted felonies, nonstop suspense and his trademark braininess. The opening scene seems both to begin and to end in media res. Gabriela McKenzie, whose 6-year-old daughter Sarah has been kidnapped by Joseph Astor, waits with insurance executive Sam Easton for the return of his boss, Andrew Faraday, and venture capitalist Daniel Reardon. The two men have gone to deliver the item Joseph demanded: the October List, a document containing contact information for the secret clients of Gabriela’s boss, wealthy investment counselor Charles Prescott. But the scene ends with the threatening entrance of Joseph, not Andrew and Daniel. From that moment on, Deaver (The Kill Room, 2013, etc.) sucks you into a whirlwind reverse-chronology tour of Gabriela’s nightmare weekend: her tense interviews with a pair of New York cops, her ransacking of Prescott’s office to find the October List, the encounter in which Joseph tells her that he’s got Sarah, the news that Prescott has vanished with his firm’s money, her meet-cute with Daniel, all punctuated by the sudden, shocking crimes Gabriela and others commit in the pursuit of the elusive list. The conceit of a tale unrolling backward in time initially seems daunting, but it’s not so different from the way lots of detective stories—or for that matter lots of Ibsen plays—unfold, and Deaver dispenses expository bits and cliffhangers with a mastery that’ll make you smile even more broadly after you realize how thoroughly you’ve been hoodwinked. Perhaps the cleverest of all Deaver’s exceptionally clever thrillers. If you’ve ever wished you could take the film Memento to the beach, here’s your chance.

A THOUSAND PARDONS

Dee, Jonathan Random House (224 pp.) $26.00 | Mar. 12, 2013 978-0-8129-9321-9 A marriage flames out. Gleefully, thrillingly, Dee (The Privileges, 2010, etc.) tracks its aftermath, focusing primarily on the evolution of the ex-wife. That’s Helen Armstead, struggling to save a dying marriage. Husband Ben, partner in a New York City law firm, has been so deeply depressed he’s ignored not just her and their upstate home, but their 12-year-old daughter, Sara (Chinese, adopted). The end comes fast. Ben, discovered in a hotel room with his intern, is beaten bloody by her boyfriend, then discovered again in his car, drunk and unconscious. Fired, and facing rape and DWI charges, he goes into rehab. Divorce filed but their assets frozen, Helen, a stay-at-home mom, must hustle to find work. She lucks out when she’s hired by a down-at-the-heels PR company in the city. Her first assignment, persuading the owner of a Chinese restaurant chain to publish an apology to his striking workers, is a huge success. Even the boss’ sudden death doesn’t slow Helen down. She persuades two more male clients, drowning in bad publicity, to go the apology route. Her crisis management skills attract the attention of a huge PR company, which recruits her. This is not some empowerment fairy tale; Dee keeps the action grounded and credible. In an already dramatic story, the most sizzling drama comes after Helen accidentally meets an old childhood classmate at a movie premiere. Hamilton Barth is a Hollywood superstar, a deeply troubled man with a history of benders and blackouts; a greatly magnified version of Ben. When Helen subsequently gets a rescue-me call from Hamilton in a Vermont motel, the already brisk pace becomes breakneck. There’s a young woman missing, bloody sheets and an amnesiac Hamilton willing to believe the worst of himself. It will take all Helen’s crisis management skills to resolve this one. With his sixth novel, Pulitzer finalist Dee has written a page turner without sacrificing a smidgen of psychological insight. What a triumph.

GHOSTS OF BUNGO SUIDO

Deutermann, P.T. St. Martin’s (352 pp.) $25.99 | Jul. 30, 2013 978-1-250-01802-1

A World War II naval thriller in the tradition of Edward L. Beach’s Run Silent, Run Deep, pitting an American submarine against daunting odds. In 1944, the U.S. is pushing the Japanese empire back to its home turf, one bloody island at a time. In this struggle, Cmdr. Gar Hammond has two special missions. The first is to captain his submarine

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

fiction

kirkus.com

An addition to Douglas’ medium-future alien-warfare series (Singularity, 2012, etc.). To get newcomers up to speed quickly and efficiently, and refresh the memories of series regulars, Douglas opens with a briefing paper from the Agletch, aliens willing to trade information for metals. The belligerent alien Sh’daar and their myriad client races, of whom the Agletch are one, have technology superior to Earth’s and seemingly intend to prevent human technology from progressing beyond the point the Sh’daar consider threatening. Now, a human research vessel has been destroyed under suspicious circumstances, and the Earth Confederation has sent a fleet to combat the presumed invaders. On Earth, meanwhile, former space Navy commander Alexander Koenig, now the newly re-elected president of North America, ponders how to implement his mandate— independence from the increasingly authoritarian and incompetent Earth Confederation. But as the space fleet engages the powerful Slan, another Sh’daar client race, the Confederation’s European faction launches a pre-emptive strike against North America and its most powerful ally, Konstantin, an artificial intelligence buried beneath a crater on the far side of the moon. As regulars might hope and expect, the action is full-blooded and almost nonstop, yet the well-developed background is surprisingly rich and logical. The Slan, for instance, far more than |

kirkus.com

fiction

boilerplate weirdos with a few extra tentacles and eyestalks, are heavy-planet beings with radically different senses, motivations and psychology. Neither are the characters mere stock villains or heroes, but personalities with doubts and fears and hopes. Still, tension and excitement drive the narrative, and Douglas supplies them convincingly and relentlessly. As immersive as it is impressive.

PACIFIC

Drury, Tom Grove (208 pp.) $25.00 | May 7, 2013 978-0-8021-1999-5

middle gr a de

DEEP SPACE

Douglas, Ian Morrow/HarperCollins (368 pp.) $7.99 paper | Apr. 30, 2013 978-0-06-218380-4 Series: Star Carrier, 4

pictur e books

through Bungo Suido, the narrow strait connecting the Pacific Ocean with the Japanese Inland Sea, and torpedo Japan’s massive new aircraft carrier. Five other subs have tried it and are now “on eternal patrol” at the bottom of the ocean. Yet his even more crucial mission is to bring a man named Hashimoto safely back to his home soil. Hammond initially objects to a “Jap” on his sub, and his superiors refuse to tell him why. Even readers who might guess the reason will be swept up in the action-filled plot as Hammond’s Dragonfish tries to survive the Bungo Suido minefields. Like any good hero, Hammond has his flaws. While obeying orders, he sometimes goes beyond them. And when he absolutely must keep his mouth shut, he talks. Will these traits get him killed? Does his behavior at one point amount to treason? The story is full of surprising twists and spectacular explosions, with many of the best scenes taking place outside his Dragonfish. The pace occasionally slows to allow the reader to stop for a breath in Hawaii. There, far from the fighting, admirals plan strategies while a woman adds a layer of humanity to Hammond’s life. But just when it seems that Hammond is out of the picture, he comes back again to witness some of the worst horrors mankind can inflict. A first-rate yarn of war and the sea that will keep the reader on edge right to the end.

Getting by, getting over, getting laid: Drury’s characters keep busy in his fifth novel, another wild ride. Some of them we’ve met before in Hunts in Dreams (2000) and The End of Vandalism (1994): Charles, Joan, Lyris and Micah. The action is split among small Midwest towns and Los Angeles. Charles, now known as Tiny, had a plumbing business which has since failed. His ex-wife, Joan, has moved to LA and has a juicy role in a TV show. Stepdaughter Lyris has moved into town to shack up with a young newspaper reporter. Joan re-appears to claim 14-year-old Micah and move him to the coast. She’s going to take another stab at this mothering business; or is she just playing a role? These departures leave Tiny in an empty nest. Out of loneliness, he starts stealing boxes from the loading docks of big-box stores. That’s kids’ stuff compared to Jack Snow’s criminal enterprise. Jack is an ex-con shipping fake Celtic artifacts from a warehouse. It’s his bad luck to be tracked down by Sandra Zulma, his old childhood playmate. Sandra is now cuckoo, lost in a Celtic fantasy world, but with the single-minded energy of the mad, she is looking for a rock that Jack may own. Also on Jack’s trail is Dan, once the sheriff but now working for a detective agency, though he hates the sleaze. He and his wife, Louise, are emblems of decency; their private sorrow is the loss of a daughter at birth. Meanwhile, in LA, Micah is experimenting with drugs and girls, while Joan is making the leap to the big screen and sleeping with the screenwriter. The second half includes a murder and a divorce; Micah, overwhelmed, calls his half sister Lyris, who flies out to help. There’s no plot or protagonist, but a fine percussive beat sweeps the reader along. The always fresh perspective of this one-of-a-kind writer will have you responding like his character, who “laughed with surprise in her heart.”

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“First-rate fiction by a dazzling talent.” from dirty love

DIRTY LOVE

Dubus III, Andre Norton (320 pp.) $25.95 | Oct. 7, 2013 978-0-393-06465-0 Dubus anatomizes personal—especially sexual—relationships brilliantly in these loosely concatenated novellas. At the center of the characters’ world are the small, economically depressed towns in Massachusetts where waiters, waitresses, bartenders and bankers live and move and have their being. To Dubus’ credit, he doesn’t feel he has to solve their personal problems and the intricate twists of their relationships. Instead, he chronicles what’s going on with sympathy but without any sense that he needs to rescue them. In the first narrative, we meet hapless Mark Welch, who’s recently found out his wife, Laura, is having an affair with a banker. Although occasionally picking up and hefting a piece of lead pipe, Mark ultimately finds himself powerless to change the circumstances of his life. In the second story, we follow Marla, a physically unprepossessing bank teller (yes, she works at the same bank as Laura’s lover) who feels her life slipping away from her. She begins a desultory affair with a 37-year-old engineer whose passions tend toward video games and keeping his house pathologically clean. The next story introduces us to Robert Doucette, bartender and poet manqué, who marries Althea, a sweet but reticent upholsterer. In the final months of Althea’s pregnancy, Robert has hot sex with Jackie, a waitress at the restaurant, and Althea finds this out and simultaneously goes into labor. The final narrative focuses on Devon, an 18-year-old waitress at the tavern where Robert works. To get away from an abusive father, she lives with a considerate great uncle (who harbors his own secrets), but she has to deal with the unintended consequences of an untoward sexual act that was disseminated through social media. First-rate fiction by a dazzling talent.

BLOOD & BEAUTY

Dunant, Sarah Random House (560 pp.) $27.00 | Jul. 16, 2013 978-1-4000-6929-3 The big, bad Borgia dynasty undergoes modern reconsideration in the bestselling British author’s epic new biofiction. Eclipsing her earlier period novels in scope, Dunant’s (Sacred Hearts, 2009, etc.) latest is an impressively confident, capable sweep through the corrupt politics and serpentine relationships of a legendary family. Marshaling a mass of material, including contemporary research, Dunant delivers a colorful, sensual and characteristically atmospheric account of Rodrigo Borgia’s ascent to the papacy as Alexander VI in 1492 and his subsequent tireless efforts to build a power base through the 14

strategic use of his four children. Cesare is the sly, shrewd son, a match for his father in guile but with a colder heart, who moves ruthlessly from cardinal to soldier as politics and advancement dictate. Beloved daughter Lucrezia makes one strategic marriage after another while nursing a powerful attachment to Cesare. Two more sons play similarly useful roles, forging alliances. The politics are complicated, but Dunant’s clear account is balanced by oddly affectionate character portraits informed by her interest in the psychology of these larger-than-life figures. Closing at a bittersweet moment that fuses family fortunes and realpolitik, the author promises a second volume. Dunant’s biggest and best work to date, this intelligently readable account of formative events and monster players has Hilary Mantel–era quality best-seller stamped all over it.

MIDNIGHT

Egan, Kevin Forge (320 pp.) $24.99 | Jul. 2, 2013 978-0-7653-3526-5 A pair of court employees can hold onto their jobs for another year—if only they can hide the news of their boss’s death for 24 hours. Even though money is tight, employees in the chambers of the New York County Courthouse are still guaranteed their paychecks till the end of the year if the judge they work for dies. When Judge Alvin Canter succumbs to a heart attack on the morning of New Year’s Eve, the timing couldn’t be worse for his secretary, Carol Scilingo, or his law clerk, Tom Carroway, for whom money is especially tight. But if only Judge Canter died on New Year’s Day instead, they’d both be taken care of for another crucial year—time to dig out of their financial holes and maybe come together for keeps as a couple. So Tom’s idea of concealing the judge’s death till the next day seems perfectly logical and even—considering how deserted the courthouse is on the last day of the year—plausible. As soon as you stop to think more than Tom and Carol allow themselves to do, however, you realize what a harebrained scheme it is, full of holes and dependent on good timing, good luck and the good will of a motley cast— from floating court officer Foxx, Carol’s ex-boyfriend, to Court Officers Union president, Bobby Werkman, to collection agent Dominic McGlinchy, an ex-pug who works for the gambler Tom owes eight large—not likely to be brimming with goodwill even during the holiday season. Slowly, methodically, excruciatingly, Egan shows his heroes’ plan spinning out of control in a classic illustration of the law of unintended consequences. A crystalline noir nightmare built on the premise that yes, things can always, always, always get worse.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

fiction

kirkus.com

Faulks, Sebastian St. Martin’s (256 pp.) $25.99 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-250-04759-5

HAVISHAM

Frame, Ronald Picador (368 pp.) $26.00 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-250-03727-5 Frame (The Lantern Bearers, 2001, etc.) writes the story of Catherine Havisham, recluse of Satis House, in this prelude to Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. Despite her mother’s death in childbirth, the Great Expectations of Miss Havisham come naturally. Her father, owner of a prosperous brewery, spoils her beyond measure. Then, as Catherine matures, |

kirkus.com

fiction

he dispatches her to Durley Chase, home of Lady Chadwyck and her children Isabella, William, Marianna and cousin Frederick. The Chadwycks are to add the social polish necessary for Catherine to marry well. There, Catherine has eyes for William but soon learns that titled folk do not marry merchants’ daughters. She then meets Charles Compeyson, charming, enigmatic, vaguely roguish. Class prejudices aside, the Chadwycks attempt to dissuade Catherine from Compeyson, but she is enthralled, even ignoring Chadwyck cousin Frederick, thinking him overly religious, awkward and unambitious despite his shy admiration for her. Then her father dies. Catherine allows Compeyson to run the brewery. He soon proposes then leaves her at the altar. Frame’s chapters are short, written from Catherine’s point of view, and laced with elements of classical poetry and song. Aeneas, Tom O’Bedlam and Henry Purcell deepen a narrative appealing to the modern ear yet suitably Dickensian. Subplots follow Sally, a village girl who becomes Catherine’s childhood companion, and Arthur, Catherine’s wastrel half brother. The book ripples with social commentary, an example being Catherine’s attempt to manage the brewery only to be stymied by gender prejudice and her own obstinacy. Finally, she closes the brewery. Catherine then adopts Estella, intending revenge on the masculine world—“all of the genus who conceitedly, smugly supposed that they were indispensable to a woman’s personal completeness, her felicity.” Minor characters, Pip included, strengthen the story, and Frame’s presentation of the era is substantial but not overdone. Young Catherine’s character earns little empathy, and any sympathy for the recluse of Satis House certain that “true life is too awesome and terrifying to bear” can only be conjured up as her death looms. An intelligently imagined Dickens prequel.

middle gr a de

Bertie Wooster and Jeeves, the feckless young master and his erudite gentleman’s gentleman, creations of the great English humorist P.G. Wodehouse, are back, courtesy of his inspired fellow countryman and novelist Faulks (A Possible Life, 2012, etc.). This is the first Jeeves and Wooster novel in some 40 years. Faulks notes modestly that he has “tried to provide an echo” of the originals. He has done more than that. He has captured Bertie’s voice, his innocent zest and his spirited banter with Jeeves to a fare-thee-well. This novel begins boldly with a role reversal—Bertie as servant waiting on Jeeves—but the real beginning is on the French Riviera, where Bertie meets a stunning beauty, Georgiana Meadowes. He’s smitten, she’s encouraging, but there’s a problem. Orphaned early, Georgiana has been raised lovingly by her uncle, Sir Henry Hackwood, currently strapped for cash. To help him save the family home, Georgiana feels obliged to marry a fella with moola: Her fiance has been designated. Back in London, there’s a further complication. Bertie’s best friend Woody had been engaged to Sir Henry’s daughter Amelia; a misunderstanding has caused the dear girl to break it off. Good egg that he is, Bertie sees his first order of business as reconciling Woody and Amelia. More misunderstandings ensue, resulting in Jeeves being mistaken for a peer of the realm by Sir Henry and invited to his home in deepest Dorset; to gain access to the premises, Bertie must willy-nilly become Jeeves’ manservant and fraternize below stairs. The comic possibilities are legion, and Faulks exploits them all, with Bertie threatening to land in the proverbial soup at every turn. Meanwhile, Jeeves, always a fount of knowledge, proves himself also a master strategist of the mating game. Bertie, still in thrall to his former teacher’s dictum (“Women are queer cattle”), needs nudging. A smackeroo on the lips from Georgiana during amateur theatricals does the trick. Faulks has risen to the challenge splendidly with this “homage” to Wodehouse. Jeeves and Wooster live again!

pictur e books

JEEVES AND THE WEDDING BELLS

SCHRODER

Gaige, Amity Twelve (272 pp.) $21.99 | $9.99 e-book | Feb. 5, 2013 978-1-455-51213-3 978-1-455-51214-0 e-book A man’s collapsed marriage and growing madness imperils his young daughter in this bracing third novel by Gaige (The Folded World, 2007, etc.). Narrator Eric Kennedy makes clear early on that he’s done something very wrong: At the behest of his lawyers, he’s writing his ex-wife to explain why he disappeared with their six-year-old daughter, Meadow, for a week. Like many unreliable narrators before him, he’s bathing in narcissism and has a hard time facing facts, but Gaige makes the discovery process at once harrowing and fascinating. Eric escaped from East Germany with his father as a child and changed his name (from Erik Schroder, hence the title). As an adult, he was a caring husband and father, but his erratic behavior (like keeping a dead fox in the backyard as a kind of science project for Meadow) sunk the marriage, and his limited visitation rights prompted him to effectively kidnap Meadow and take her on an

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

extended tour of upstate New York and New England. Abductors are hard to make sympathetic, but Gaige potently renders the embittered fun-house logic of a man who’s lost his bearings. (“There was nothing in our parental agreement that said I couldn’t drive around the outskirts of Albany at high speeds.”) Gaige is interested in what widens and closes the gaps in our personalities between the past and present, madness and sanity, and she expertly works the theme like an accordion player until the climax, when Meadow is truly endangered, and Eric has a moment of clarity. The concluding plot turns are bluntly deus ex machina, and some characters, such as the aging muse for an ’80s pop hit, hit the split personality theme in an obvious way, but overall the storytelling is remarkably poised. Smart, comic, unsettling, yet strangely of a piece—not unlike its disarming lead character.

THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE

Gaiman, Neil Morrow/HarperCollins (192 pp.) $25.99 | Jun. 18, 2013 978-0-06-225565-5 From one of the great masters of modern speculative fiction: Gaiman’s first novel for adults since Anansi Boys (2005). An unnamed protagonist and narrator returns to his Sussex roots to attend a funeral. Although his boyhood dwelling no longer stands, at the end of the road lies the Hempstock farm, to which he’s drawn without knowing why. Memories begin to flow. The Hempstocks were an odd family, with 11-year-old Lettie’s claim that their duck pond was an ocean, her mother’s miraculous cooking and her grandmother’s reminiscences of the Big Bang; all three seemed much older than their apparent ages. Forty years ago, the family lodger, a South African opal miner, gambled his fortune away, then committed suicide in the Hempstock farmyard. Something dark, deadly and far distant heard his dying lament and swooped closer. As the past becomes the present, Lettie takes the boy’s hand and confidently sets off through unearthly landscapes to deal with the menace; but he’s only 7 years old, and he makes a mistake. Instead of banishing the predator, he brings it back into the familiar world, where it reappears as his family’s new housekeeper, the demonic Ursula Monkton. Terrified, he tries to flee back to the Hempstocks, but Ursula easily keeps him confined as she cruelly manipulates and torments his parents and sister. Despite his determination and well-developed sense of right and wrong, he’s also a scared little boy drawn into adventures beyond his understanding, forced into terrible mistakes through innocence. Yet, guided by a female wisdom beyond his ability to comprehend, he may one day find redemption. Poignant and heartbreaking, eloquent and frightening, impeccably rendered, it’s a fable that reminds us how our lives are shaped by childhood experiences, what we gain from them and the price we pay.

THE CUCKOO’S CALLING

Galbraith, Robert Mulholland Books/Little, Brown (464 pp.) $26.00 | Apr. 30, 2013 978-0-316-20684-6 Murderous muggles are up to no good, and it’s up to a seemingly unlikely hero to set things right. The big news surrounding this pleasing procedural is that Galbraith, reputed former military policeman and security expert, is none other than J.K. Rowling, who presumably has no experience on the Afghan front or at Scotland Yard. Why the pseudonymous subterfuge? We may never know. What’s clear, and what matters, is that Galbraith/Rowling’s yarn is an expertly written exercise in both crime and social criticism of a piece with Rowling’s grown-up novel The Casual Vacancy (2012), even if her hero, private detective Cormoran Strike, bears a name that wouldn’t be out of place in her Harry Potter series. Strike is a hard-drinking, hard-bitten, lonely mess of a man, for reasons that Rowling reveals bit by bit, carefully revealing the secrets he keeps about his parentage, his time in battle and his bad luck. Strike is no Sherlock Holmes, but he’s a dogged pursuer of The Truth, in this instance the identity of the person who may or may not have relieved a supermodel of her existence most unpleasantly: “Her head had bled a little into the snow. The face was crushed and swollen, one eye reduced to a pucker, the other showing as a sliver of dull white between distended lids.” It’s an icky image, but no ickier than Rowling’s roundup of sinister, self-serving, sycophantic characters who inhabit the world of high fashion, among the most suspicious of them a fellow who’s—well, changed his name to pull something over on his audience (“It’s a long fucking way from Hackney, I can tell you...”). Helping Strike along as he turns over stones in the yards of the rich and famous is the eminently helpful Robin Ellacott, newcomer to London and determined to do better than work as a mere temp, which is what lands her at Strike’s door. The trope of rumpled detective and resourceful girl Friday is an old one, of course, but Rowling dusts it off and makes it new even as she turns London into a setting for her tale of mayhem as memorable as what Dashiell Hammett did with San Francisco in The Maltese Falcon. A quick, fun read. Rowling delivers a set of characters every bit as durable as her Potter people and a story that, though no more complex than an Inspector Lewis episode, works well on every level.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

fiction

kirkus.com

Gardiner, Meg Dutton (368 pp.) $26.95 | Jun. 27, 2013 978-0-525-95322-7

THE END OF THE POINT

Graver, Elizabeth Harper/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $25.99 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-0-06-218484-9 This multigenerational story of a privileged family’s vacations on Massachusetts’ Buzzards Bay is as much about the place as the people. In 1942, wheelchair-bound insurance executive Mr. Porter (shades of FDR), his stoic wife, three daughters—beloved oldest son Charlie is off training to be a pilot—and gardening expert mother, along with assorted staff, are one of the few families summering at Ashaunt Point, |

kirkus.com

fiction

where an Army base has been temporarily set up nearby. Graver (Awake, 2004, etc.) introduces the family members, particularly the bright, slightly rebellious 16-year-old Helen, in sharp, nuanced sketches while focusing on Bea, the family’s Scottish nursemaid, who is devoted to youngest daughter, Jane. After the first true romance of her life, 34-year-old Bea turns down a soldier’s marriage proposal in order to remain with the Porters. By 1947, Helen takes the story’s center stage. Studying abroad, newly in love with ideas and a man, she writes reflective but girlishly innocent letters home. By the ’60s, when Hurricane Donna hits Ashaunt, all three sisters have married. While Jane seems conventionally happy and middle sister Dossy suffers from bouts of clinical depression, Helen is still trying to find her way. Pregnant with her fourth child while enrolled in graduate school, she feels torn between love of family and growing intellectual ambitions. A decade later, Helen’s troubled oldest son, Charlie, named after the uncle who was killed in World War II and always Helen’s favorite, moves into a cabin on the peninsula, which he finds threatened by encroaching development. Helen and Charlie’s difficult but enduring mother-son relationship is particularly moving, but every character is given his/her emotional due. As one generation passes to the next, Ashaunt Point remains the gently wild refuge where the Porters can most be themselves. A lovely family portrait: elegiac yet contemporary, formal yet intimate.

middle gr a de

Gardiner’s latest stand-alone revisits the story of Thelma and Louise, with Thelma played by a professional skip tracer and Louise by a refugee from kindergarten. As she escaped a burning building five years ago, Sarah Keller promised her dying sister, Bethany, that she’d protect Bethany’s daughter Zoe from the monstrous Worthes, the polygamous family of self-anointed prophets— “white trash mafia who got a bad dose of God”—into which Bethany had unwisely married. With the unexpected help of Deputy Marshal Michael Lawless, Sarah succeeded in going off the grid in Oklahoma City and raising the little girl as her own. When a series of freak accidents outs Sarah and Zoe and makes national headlines, imprisoned patriarch Eldrick Worthe, whose desire to recover Zoe for their family is intensified by darker motives, sends Grissom Briggs, the Worthes’ “Shattering Angel,” after Sarah, together with two of Eldrick’s granddaughters, Fell and Reavy, to serve as his “wives of the wind” and well-armed wingmen. Sarah, whose experience as a skip tracer has taught her a bit about vanishing without a trace, grabs Zoe, phones Lawless and heads to Roswell, N.M., where he’s arranged a more secure hideout for her. But “more secure” is only a relative term when you’re pursued by avenging angels with shotguns, and Sarah’s flight leaves a blood-soaked trail behind her. Realizing eventually that she can’t remain on the run indefinitely, Sarah hatches a scheme to turn the Worthes against each other. A series of expertly planned surprises awaits both the pursuers and their prey. If you can accept the preposterous setup, the ruthlessly two-dimensional villains and the world’s most uncomplaining 5-year-old, Gardiner (Ransom River, 2012, etc.) will keep you up half the night with nonstop action and nary a pause for breath.

pictur e books

THE SHADOW TRACER

A DUKE NEVER YIELDS

Gray, Juliana Berkley Sensation (320 pp.) $7.99 paper | Feb. 5, 2013 978-0-425-25118-8

When Abigail Harewood—sexually innocent yet effervescently determined to live life to the fullest—decides to take a lover, she sets her sights on notorious rake the Duke of Wallingford, who has just resolved on a year of chastity and sober living. Abigail flees London with her sister and cousin for a year in Italy and decides it’s a perfect opportunity to explore sensual pleasure. Since she has sworn to never marry yet wants to experience a full, vibrant life, she feels the need to check this goal off her Edwardian checklist. She meets the Duke of Wallingford in an inn and considers him a prime candidate, and when, through a contractual misunderstanding, it turns out that her party and his (consisting of his brother and their illegitimate uncle) are sharing the same Tuscan castle, she sets out to seduce him. However, Wallingford has sworn off his rakish ways, and the road to Abigail’s happiness is further hindered by an irritating wager the two sets of relatives make that heightens the stakes if he fails. And then there are the mysterious servants that must be more than they seem, the enchanting setting of an Italian castle and Abigail’s eerie sense that there is more magic afoot than Wallingford’s spellbinding presence. The third of a debut

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“Gunn’s best in years—quite possibly his best ever.” from transcendental

trilogy loosely based on Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost with a distinct nod to the great operatic works of Giuseppe Verdi, this is a mesmerizing, enthralling romance that starts out with a sparkling, irrepressible heroine and a brooding, damaged hero and only gets better and better page by page. Bright, witty dialogue and superb characterization are the backbones of a fun, intricate historical storyline, and you may at turns laugh out loud and wipe your eyes at this couple’s entertaining, tender path to their happily ever after.

TRANSCENDENTAL

Gunn, James Tor (304 pp.) $25.99 | Aug. 27, 2013 978-0-7653-3501-2

First novel in quite a while (Gift from the Stars, 2005, etc.) from writer/anthologist Gunn. A galactic civilization, weary of centuries of war—the latest caused by upstart humans intruding on space occupied by other alien races—tries to get on with business despite the stultifying bureaucracy that seems to run things. War veteran Riley, at loose ends following the conflict, accepts a job offer from powerful and mysterious employers—who implant in his head a know-it-all artificial intelligence which he cannot remove and which has the means to force him to obey instructions. He will join beings from many different worlds aboard a ship guided by an unknown prophet who can help them achieve transcendence. Riley’s orders, however, are to kill the prophet rather than permit aliens to transcend. Deadly violence flares among the travelers, however, before the ship even departs. The captain, Hamilton Jones, with whom Riley served during the war, admits he doesn’t know their destination and periodically receives new coordinates from somebody aboard. Among Riley’s fellow travelers are Tordor, a massive, heavy-planet alien; the weasellike Xi; an intelligent plant known as 4107; and Asha, a human female who needs no sleep and has other strange capabilities. As the ship heads for the Great Gulf between the galaxy’s spiral arms, the travelers—like Riley, most, if not all, have hidden agendas—relate tales of themselves and their races. But violence is a constant threat; the tales may be simple truth, calculated disinformation or anything in between. And why are Riley’s employers so intent on stopping the prophet? Impeccably plotted, with absorbing human and alien characters and back stories, Gunn’s narrative expertly cranks up the tension and paranoia as, piece by piece, answers emerge. Gunn’s best in years—quite possibly his best ever.

HOW TO GET FILTHY RICH IN RISING ASIA

Hamid, Mohsin Riverhead (228 pp.) $26.95 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-1-59448-729-3

An extravagantly good alternate-universe Horatio Alger story for the teeming billions, affirming all that’s right—and wrong—with economic globalization. “The whites of your eyes are yellow,” writes Hamid (The Reluctant Fundamentalist, 2007, etc.), “a consequence of spiking bilirubin levels in your blood. The virus affecting you is called hepatitis E. Its typical mode of transmission is fecal-oral. Yum.” The “you” in question is the unnamed protagonist, addressed throughout, unusually, in the second person through the fictive frame of a self-help book that is fairly drenched in irony. But, like Hamid’s debut novel, Moth Smoke (2000), there’s more than a little of the picaresque in this bildungsroman. As our anonymous hero comes of age and goes well beyond majority, he confronts the challenges not only of chasing out the hep E virus, but also of finding love, work and satisfaction in life—the stuff of everyday life everywhere. The younger subject’s family lives in an overcrowded, urban slum in some unnamed South Asian nation—perhaps, to judge by a few internal clues, the author’s native Pakistan, though he is careful not to specify—where his father’s small salary as a cook (“he is not a man obsessed with the freshness or quality of his ingredients”) is at least enough to fend off the starvation so many of their neighbors endure. The family, like many of the people our hero will meet, is displaced from the countryside, having followed an early lesson of the vade mecum: “Moving to the city is the first step to getting filthy rich in rising Asia.” Indeed, he attains material success, but he’s always just out of reach of the true love of his life—and if anything else, this exceptionally well-written novel is not about the Hobbesian grasping and clawing of first impression, but about the enduring power of family, love and dreams. Another great success for Hamid and another illustration of how richly the colonial margins are feeding the core of literature in English.

THE STENCH OF HONOLULU A Tropical Adventure

Handey, Jack Grand Central Publishing (240 pp.) $19.00 | Jul. 16, 2013 978-1-455-52238-5

Deep Thoughts creator Handey (What I’d Say to the Martians, 2008, etc.) pens his first novel, an absurd adventure set in Hawaii. The unreliable narrator is Slurps (he picked the nickname). He’s clueless, inappropriate, delusional, dim: an all-around misguided, comedic nightmare. Among his 18

best fiction, picture books & middle grade books of 2013

fiction

kirkus.com

The author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Tinkers (2009) returns with another striking study of family, time and mortality. This time, though, Harding’s style is less knotty, almost Hemingway-esque, at least in its opening pages. That’s in part due to the fact that he has a clearer story to tell: This book covers a year in the life of Charlie Crosby (a descendant of the clan introduced in Tinkers) as he mourns the death of his 13-year-old daughter in an accident. After smashing his hand against a wall |

kirkus.com

fiction

in a rage, he loses his wife and develops a slow-growing addiction to painkillers and alcohol that leads him to break-ins and other foolhardy decisions. But Harding is less concerned with plot as with what’s swimming in Charlie’s head, and themes of nature and time abound. His narration shifts from past to present, from memories of his daughter to his nature walks in New England to his helping his father repair a clock in a home that has an orrery—a model of the solar system that symbolizes the symphonic breadth of nature and the universality of his struggle. Harding’s work owes much to his former teacher Marilynne Robinson, with whom he shares an affinity for precise, religious-tinged prose. The penultimate chapters of the book, however, display a unique hallucinatory style: As Charlie’s grief reaches its apex, he’s consumed by dark visions, and Harding’s skillful whipsawing of the reader from the surreal to the quotidian is the best writing he’s done. Though the final pages bend the story safely back to a familiar redemption arc, Charlie’s experience doesn’t feel commonplace. His trip to hell and back envisions a different kind of hell, and his status as “back,” just as in the real world, isn’t guaranteed. Beautifully turned: Harding has defogged his style a bit and gained a stronger emotional impact from it.

middle gr a de

ENON

Harding, Paul Random House (256 pp.) $26.00 | Sep. 10, 2013 978-1-4000-6943-9

pictur e books

life goals: to someday throw a hand grenade. “Maybe I’ll get to do that in Heaven,” he muses. As the book opens, Slurps and his friend Don book a vacation to Hawaii (a “mysterious place” Slurps has never heard of) to get away from it all—in Don’s case, from an ex-wife; in Slurps’ case, from violent men to whom he owes money. After receiving a Hawaiian “treasure map” from their travel agent showing the way to a valuable relic called the Golden Monkey, the two decide to steal the object. Before they depart for the islands, Slurps visits Uncle Lou, an ailing treasure hunter who, upon learning of Slurps’ plan to steal the Golden Monkey, drugs Slurps and then implants a tracking device in his tooth. “The trouble with going to Uncle Lou’s was he was always drugging you,” Slurps notes. Indeed. The Hawaii of the book is not a place any tourist would recognize. Honolulu is a “dirty, coastal backwater” stinking of fish heads and featuring in its town square “a bronze statue of the discoverer of Hawaii, Sir Edmund Honolulu III,” not to mention lots of bums and prostitutes. This Hawaii has its own currency, the paleeka, and the bars serve bowls of dried geckos in lieu of beer nuts. The beaches showcase rusty cars that have washed ashore. Slurps’ observations are epic throughout: “A scary-looking transvestite put flower necklaces around our necks and said, ‘Aloha.’ Someone told me later that aloha is a curse word.” Things take a turn for the much worse when Slurps acquires a hula-girl souvenir that in fact turns out to be cursed. (See Bobby Brady in the 1972 Brady Bunch Hawaii episodes.) Disasters ensue. The journey into the jungle in search of the Golden Monkey finds Slurps and Don battling pirates, getting hit with blow darts and meeting a native woman that Slurps hits on using his favorite pickup line, “what’s your religion?” The doomed expedition culminates in a riot, complete with a pitchfork-wielding mob, inside a national park. It’s Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness meets the 2008 film Tropic Thunder. Ridiculous fun through and through. You have to love a guy who goes out looking for hiking supplies and comes back with bottles of scotch and packs of cigarettes. A true outdoorsman, he. The best comedic novel in years. Handey is a master. Fans will be quoting lines from this book for a long time. If you like the work of George Saunders, this one’s for you.

THE BEST MAN

Higgins, Kristan Harlequin (384 pp.) $7.99 paper | Feb. 26, 2013 978-0-373-77792-1 When Faith Holland was abandoned at the altar three years ago, she left her hometown for San Francisco to regroup; coming home to Manningsport, she’ll have to confront her past and Levi Cooper, the disturbingly handsome chief of police she blames for ruining her life. On the day her fiance came out and left her at the altar, Faith escaped to the West Coast, where she’s had a thriving professional life and a comical romantic life. Summoned home for a few months to work the harvest at her family’s winery and help with some crisis management, Faith realizes that some things in her small town will never change—for the good or the bad—but she knows the time has come to establish a new reality with her ex, her family and maybe even Levi Cooper, the best man who forced Jeremy to be honest with her and himself on their wedding day. It’s so much easier to blame and despise him; if she lets down her guard, she might have to deal with their short but profound shared past and her own guilt and secrets from a longago tragedy that has haunted her for most of her life. Higgins’ newest heart-tugging romantic comedy juggles a spectrum of emotionally powerful elements, including the death of a mother, the abandonment of a father and a sigh-worthy high school romance gone awry. With her typical engaging voice, compelling storytelling and amusing dialogue, Higgins keeps the audience flipping through pages as quickly as possible, but it is her spot-on ability to make her characters at once funny, authentic

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

and vulnerable—vulnerable to the point of breaking, so they can heal, stronger and better and more able to love—that is her true genius and guarantees most romance fans will both laugh out loud and get teary, sometimes at the same time. Another sweet, touching must-read for Higgins fans and anyone who enjoys a perfect combination of humor and romance.

HIDDEN HERITAGE

Hinger, Charlotte Poisoned Pen (250 pp.) $24.95 | $14.95 paper | $22.95 Lg. Prt. Nov. 5, 2013 978-1-4642-0074-8 978-1-4642-0076-2 paper 978-1-4642-0075-5 Lg. Prt. A nasty murder pits the local police against the state police. Historian Lottie Albright’s stress level keeps rising as she juggles her research for the historical society, her work as an undersheriff, and the needs of her rancher husband and his children from a former marriage, some close to her own age. When Victor Diaz turns up in the manure pit at a local feedlot, Sheriff Sam Abbot immediately recognizes his death as murder and calls on the state police for forensic help. But Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent Frank Dimon has his own agenda: He’s trying to set up a regional police force to replace a group of local sheriffs who often lack the resources to investigate major crimes. As they squabble, Victor’s reclusive great-grandmother Dona Francisca Diaz invites Lottie to her ranch and asks her help in solving the murder. Even though the enormous Diaz ranch is an oasis of green, with ample water in the midst of an area of Western Kansas burning up under drought conditions, not one acre has been plowed for farming. Francisca is a curandera who shares her knowledge of medicinal and magic herbs with Lottie, along with historical information about her famed family, whose Spanish roots go far back in American history. Could the Diaz family’s long-simmering lawsuit against the government that claims a vast area of land as their own be a motive for murder? Lottie must use all her many skills to solve a case that has far-reaching ramifications. This third case for Lottie (Lethal Lineage, 2011, etc.) is filled with surprising historical information, social commentary, romance and a strong mystery.

GOOD PEOPLE

Hutton, Ewart Minotaur (320 pp.) $24.99 | Apr. 16, 2013 978-1-250-01961-5 Everyone who thinks Ian Rankin doesn’t write fast enough should give newcomer Hutton a try. Relegated to the Welsh boondocks after his misstep causes a death in Cardiff, DS Glyn Capaldi, never one to follow orders anyway, persists in asking where Boon, a young black man, and a female hitchhiker have gone after five local lads say they left following a night of high-spirited debauchery. According to them, Boon planned to take the girl to the ferry to Dublin to meet up with her boyfriend and then return to his military posting. But their story is a little too pat, and when it crumbles, their revision sounds rehearsed and preplanned. Glyn, whose interrogation technique is part punch-up, part blackmail and total intimidation, singles out Trevor as the group’s weakest link. After two prostitutes alibi the lads and Glyn gets treated to a tormented sexual confession, Trevor’s dead body is found hanging from a barn rafter. No longer welcomed in the pub by xenophobic countrymen, and told by his superiors to leave off harassing the boys, Glyn can find solace only in his encounter with Sally, Boon’s adopted mother, whose travails include an ex who absconded with a student and subtle bits of racism aimed at her son. But shortly after Sally and Glyn tentatively reach out for one another, the current husband of Glyn’s ex-wife descends asking for a bit of advice, and investigation shows that more girls than the misplaced hitchhiker have vanished from the village in the past. Convinced that Boon and probably several of the females are dead and possibly buried in the countryside, Glyn makes several incorrect assumptions that lead to a final revenge scenario upending his notions of what good people can be driven to while their friends turn a blind eye. The sexual peccadilloes are not for the squeamish, but the plot twists are cunning, and Glyn Capaldi is the most appealing antihero this side of John Rebus.

SPIRIT OF STEAMBOAT

Johnson, Craig Viking (160 pp.) $20.00 | Oct. 21, 2013 978-0-670-01578-8

The day before Christmas finds Sheriff Walt Longmire of Absaroka County, Wyo., at loose ends, until a ghost from the past brings back long-forgotten memories. Johnson’s Walt Longmire mysteries are the basis for an A&E drama series. When a young woman walks into Walt’s office and asks about his predecessor, Walt can’t recall meeting her. But he’s willing to take her out to the assisted living facility where irascible former sheriff Lucian Connally is well into a bottle of 20

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

fiction

kirkus.com

Spanning World War II to 9/11, Australian novelist Jordan delivers a witty and wise family saga. The novel begins in 1939 with Kip Westaway, a 15-year-old resident of a working-class Melbourne suburb. His father has recently died (having fallen, drunk, off a trolley car); they’ve had to take in a boarder; Kip has quit school to do odd jobs for the furniture shop next door. Kip goes about his day: a scolding from his sour mother, Jean, the usual jousting with his twin brother, Francis, a bloody knee thanks to the neighborhood hoodlums, comfort from his beloved older sister Connie, a brief chat with the most beautiful girl in Melbourne, the gift of a shilling from his kindhearted employer, Mr. Hustings— inconsequential events that begin to resonate with each ensuing chapter. Sixty years later, we find Kip’s daughter Stanzi in her office, preparing to frame her dad’s lucky shilling, until it disappears; perhaps her kleptomaniac client is to blame. This is followed by Jack’s story: The only son of Mr. Hustings, Jack has just returned from a rural sheep station and is at a crossroads: He wants to go back to the country but feels the pressure to enlist and fight the Nazis, then he sees Connie from his bedroom window and can think of nothing else. Skipping back and forth in time, from one character to another, Jordan builds a gorgeously layered story examining the innocent choices that shape a life, a family: the failures of favored son Francis, Kip’s grandson Alec’s fateful discovery, his mother Charlotte’s unplanned pregnancy, Jean’s heartbreaking maternal advice. Jordan closes the novel with Connie’s chapter. By now, everyone’s fate is known, but the love story between Connie and |

kirkus.com

fiction

Jack—inspired by the novel’s cover, a striking archival photo of a woman being hoisted up to a train window to kiss a departing soldier—is so romantically tragic, it feels that the story’s really been about them all along. A small treasure, from the author of the wonderful romantic comedy Addition (2009).

NIGHTRISE

Kelly, Jim Creme de la Crime (256 pp.) $28.95 | Jan. 1, 2013 978-1-78029-033-1

middle gr a de

NINE DAYS

Jordan, Toni Text (254 pp.) $15.95 paper | Sep. 10, 2013 978-1-92192-283-1

pictur e books

bourbon. Lucian claims not to remember her either until she says “Steamboat,” a word that instantly transports them all back to the same day in 1988. A bad accident has left only one badly burned survivor, a young girl who will surely die unless she can be transported to Denver. A Life Flight helicopter has picked her up, but a vicious storm forces it to land at the local airport, where everyone says there are no planes that can make it to Denver in such a storm. Walt has a different idea. He drags Lucian away from a poker game and out to the airport, where he’s introduced to Steamboat, a rickety World War II bomber named after a famous bucking horse, very similar to the bomber Lucian flew over Japan. Neither the EMT nor the helicopter pilot will risk their lives. So Lucian, Walt, the local doctor, a female pilot with very little experience on large aircraft, the child, Amaterasu, and her grandmother take off on a flight that has little chance of success. Unlike Walt’s usual adventures (A Serpent’s Tooth, 2013, etc.), this novella shuns mystery for a wild and dangerous adventure that will leave you both touched and breathless.

Cambridgeshire reporter Philip Dryden (The Skeleton Man, 2008, etc.) returns to solve the mystery of his father’s death—an especially challenging case, considering that the old man apparently died twice. Jack Dryden was swept away while making a gallant, futile attempt to protect the city of Ely from the calamitous floods of 1977. So how is it that his body’s just been discovered burned to death in a car accident? The corpse’s fiery fate would make exact identification difficult even for people who’d seen Jack in the past 30 years. But the general description and the dental work both confirm what his identification papers assert: He’s Jack Dryden. His son, consumed with skepticism and curiosity, would love to devote every waking moment to solving the mystery. But his attention is claimed by two other problems: the death of Fen Rivers Water Authority bailiff Rory Setchey, who seems to have been hung from a gantry, already dead, and then shot several times, and the West Fen District Council’s refusal to release the body of Aque, the infant daughter of David and Gillian Yoruba, to her heartbroken parents. Since David is facing deportation to Niger and Dryden has just become a father himself, he feels especially close to the grieving parents. He can’t imagine that his three cases will turn out to be connected by a long-standing conspiracy as simple and clever as it is monstrous. Even if they never came up with such a diabolical plot, long-winded colleagues could well take example from the generosity and economy with which Kelly (Death’s Door, 2012, etc.) spins his web.

DOCTOR SLEEP

King, Stephen Scribner (544 pp.) $30.00 | Sep. 24, 2013 978-1-4767-2765-3 He-e-e-e-r-e’s Danny! Before an alcoholic can begin recovery, by some lights, he or she has to hit bottom. Dan Torrance, the alcoholic son of the very dangerously alcoholic father who came to no good in King’s famed

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“A satisfyingly warped yarn, kissing cousins of Blue Velvet. Readers may be inclined to stay off the Tilt-a-Whirl for a while after diving into these pages.” from joyland

1977 novel The Shining, finds his rock bottom very near, if not exactly at, the scarifying image of an infant reaching for a baggie of blow. The drugs, the booze, the one-night stands, the excruciating chain of failures: all trace back to the bad doings at the Overlook Hotel (don’t go into Room 217) and all those voices in poor Dan’s head, which speak to (and because of) a very special talent he has. That “shining” is a matter of more than passing interest for a gang of RV-driving, torture-loving, soul-sucking folks who aren’t quite folks at all—the True Knot, about whom one particularly deadly recruiter comments, “They’re not my friends, they’re my family....And what’s tied can never be untied.” When the knotty crew sets its sights on a young girl whose own powers include the ability to sense impending bad vibes, Dan, long adrift, begins to find new meaning in the world. Granted, he has good reason to have wanted to hide from it— he still has visions of that old Redrum scrawl, good reason to need the mental eraser of liquor—but there’s nothing like an apocalyptic struggle to bring out the best (or worst) in people. King clearly revels in his tale, and though it’s quite a bit more understated than his earlier, booze-soaked work, it shows all his old gifts, including the ability to produce sentences that read as if they’re tossed off but that could come only from someone who’s worked hard on them (“Danny, have you ever seen dead people? Regular dead people, I mean”). His cast of characters is as memorable as any King has produced, too, from a fully rounded Danny to the tiny but efficiently lethal Abra Stone and the vengeful Andi, who’s right to be angry but takes things just a touch too far. And that’s not to mention Rose the Hatless and Crow Daddy. Satisfying at every level. King even leaves room for a follow-up, should he choose to write one—and with luck, sooner than three decades hence.

JOYLAND

King, Stephen Hard Case Crime (283 pp.) $12.95 paper | Jun. 4, 2013 978-1-78116-264-4

Great. First we have to be afraid of clowns. Now it’s the guy who runs the Ferris wheel. Yes, clowns are scary, and so are carnies—and if you didn’t have this red light in your mind already, it’s never a good idea to climb (or ride) to great heights during a lightning storm. King (Doctor Sleep, 2013, etc.) turns in a sturdy noir, with just a little of The Shining flickering at the edges, that’s set not in the familiar confines of Maine (though his protagonist is from there) but down along the gloomy coastline of North Carolina, with places bearing such fitting names as Cape Fear and the Graveyard of the Atlantic. His heart newly broken, Devin (Dev, to pals) Jones has taken a summer job at a carnival called Joyland, run by an impossibly old man and haunted by more than a few ghosts. Dev takes a room with crusty Emmalina Shoplaw, “tall, fiftyish, flat-chested, and as pale as a frosted 22

windowpane,” who knows a few secrets. Hell, everyone except Dev knows a few secrets, though no one’s quite put a finger on why so many young women have gone missing around Joyland. Leave it to Dev, an accidental detective, urged along by an eager Lois Lane—well, Erin Cook, anyway. As ever, King writes a lean sentence and a textured story, joining mystery to horror, always with an indignant sense of just how depraved people can be. The story is all the scarier, toward the end, not by the revelation of the bad guy but by his perfectly ordinary desires, even though Joyland is anything but an ordinary place. Even to the last page, though, the body count mounts. A satisfyingly warped yarn, kissing cousins of Blue Velvet. Readers may be inclined to stay off the Tilt-a-Whirl for a while after diving into these pages.

THE DINNER

Koch, Herman Hogarth/Crown (304 pp.) $24.00 | Feb. 12, 2013 978-0-7704-3785-5 A high-class meal provides an unlikely window into privilege, violence and madness. Paul, the narrator of this caustic tale, initially appears to be an accomplished man who’s just slightly eccentric and prone to condescension: As he and his wife prepare for a pricey dinner with his brother and sister-in-law, he rhetorically rolls his eyes at wait staff, pop culture and especially his brother, a rising star in the Dutch political world. The mood is mysteriously tense in the opening chapters, as the foursome talk around each other, and Paul’s contempt expands. The source of the anxiety soon becomes evident: Paul’s teenage son, along with Paul’s brother’s children, was involved in a violent incident, and though the videos circulating on TV and YouTube are grainy, there’s a high risk they’ll be identified. The formality of the meal is undone by the parents’ desperate effort to keep a lid on the potential scandal: Sections are primly titled “Aperitif,” “Appetizer” and so on, but Koch deliberately sends the narrative off-menu as it becomes clear that Paul’s anxiety is more than just a modest personality tic, and the foursome’s high-toned concerns about justice and egalitarianism collapse into unseemly self-interest. The novel can be ineffectually on the nose when it comes to discussions of white guilt and class, the brothers’ wives are thin characters, and scenes meant to underscore Paul’s madness have an unrealistic vibe that show Koch isn’t averse to a gratuitous, melodramatic shock or two. Even so, Koch’s slow revelation of the central crisis is expertly paced, and he’s opened up a serious question of what parents owe their children, and how much of their character is passed on to them. At its best, a chilling vision of the ugliness of keeping up appearances.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

fiction

kirkus.com

THE FLAMETHROWERS

Kushner, Rachel Scribner (400 pp.) $26.00 | Apr. 2, 2013 978-1-4391-4200-4

A novel of art and politics but also of bikes and speed—not Harleys and drugs, but fine (and fast) Italian motorbikes. At 21, Reno (who goes by the name of the city she comes from) has graduated with a degree in art from the University of Nevada-Reno, and she does what any aspiring artist would like to—heads to New York City. She gets her kicks by riding |

kirkus.com

fiction

a Moto Valera, a magnificent example of Italian engineering. In fact, for one brief shining moment in 1976, she sets a speed record of 308.506 mph on her bike at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. This impressive achievement occurs the year after she’d headed to New York, where she’d taken up with—amazing coincidence—Sandro Valera, scion of the Italian manufacturer of the motorbikes she favors and, like Reno, an aspiring artist in New York. Other coincidences abound—for example, that Reno had had sex with a young man, and they’d agreed not to exchange names, but shortly afterward she finds out he’s a close friend of Sandro’s, and he goes on to play a major role in her life. Kushner spends a considerable amount of time flashing us back to the Valera who founded the firm in the early 20th century, and she updates the fate of the company when Reno and Sandro visit his family home in Italy. There they experience both a huge demonstration and eventually the kidnapping of Sandro’s father, a victim of the political turbulence of the 1970s. Kushner writes well and plunges us deeply into the disparate worlds of the New York City art scene, European political radicalism and the exhilarating rush of motorcycles.

middle gr a de

When Gwen Frazier returns to Wilby, Ore., to investigate the death of her mentor, she knows she’s opening up psychic wounds she’d rather forget, and when her best friend sends in investigator Judson Coppersmith to help, she realizes she’s met her match, romantically and psychically. Will their attraction, skills and talent be enough, in time, to solve the mystery and save them both? Psychic Gwen Frazier would just as soon avoid Wilby, Ore., since she was nearly the victim of a serial killer two years ago, when she was participating in a psychic research study. But when the researcher, Gwen’s friend and mentor Evelyn Ballinger, winds up dead, and names Gwen as her sole heir, she simply can’t stay away. Returning to the town opens Gwen up to even more danger, physically and psychically, and turns the sheriff ’s suspicious mind to Gwen as the prime suspect. Gwen’s friend sends her Judson Coppersmith, of the wealthy Coppersmith family, a renowned investigator who has some strong psychic talent himself, as well as a wildfire physical attraction. Judson might as well be the cavalry as far as Gwen is concerned, with his security and weapons skills, plus his psychic intuition toward violent crime. He’s just what she needs to solve the crime and stay alive. As bodies start piling up in Wilby, it becomes clear that Gwen is once again a target. Judson and Gwen must race to find a link between the past and the present to solve the mystery and catch the killer determined to take Gwen’s life. And as the two work toward answers, they’ll realize just how good they are together—in oh-so-many ways. This is the second novel in the Dark Legacy series from Krentz. The master storyteller once again creates authentic, well-drawn characters, a quick-paced, engrossing plot set against a backdrop of a psychic world imprinted effortlessly on our own and a relatable romance one can’t help but root for. Romantic suspense with a psychic twist—or, a little bit of everything, all wrapped up in wonderful.

pictur e books

DREAM EYES

Krentz, Jayne Ann Putnam (352 pp.) $26.95 | Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-399-15895-7

THE LOWLAND

Lahiri, Jhumpa Knopf (352 pp.) $27.95 | Sep. 24, 2013 978-0-307-26574-6 A tale of two continents in an era of political tumult, rendered with devastating depth and clarity by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author. The narrative proceeds from the simplicity of a fairy tale into a complex novel of moral ambiguity and aftershocks, with revelations that continue through decades and generations until the very last page. It is the story of two brothers in India who are exceptionally close to each other and yet completely different. Older by 15 months, Subhash is cautious and careful, not prone to taking any risks, unlike his impetuous brother Udayan, the younger but the leader in their various escapades. Inseparable in their Calcutta boyhoods, they eventually take very different paths, with Subhash moving to America to pursue his education and an academic career in scientific research, while Udayan becomes increasingly and clandestinely involved in Indian radical militancy. “The chief task of the new party was to organize the peasantry,” writes the novelist (Unaccustomed Earth, 2008, etc.). “The tactic would be guerrilla warfare. The enemy was the Indian state.” The book’s straightforward, declarative sentences will ultimately force the characters and the reader to find meaning in the space between them. While Udayan characteristically defies his parents by returning home with a wife he has impulsively courted rather than submitting to an arranged marriage, Subhash waits for his own life to unfold: “He wondered what woman his parents would choose for him. He wondered when it would be. Getting married would mean returning to Calcutta. In that sense he was in no hurry.” Yet crisis returns

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

him to Calcutta, and when he resumes his life in America, he has a pregnant wife and, soon, a daughter. The rest of the novel spans more than four decades in the life of this family, shaped and shaken by the events that have brought them together and tear them apart—“a family of solitaries [that]...had collided and dispersed.” Though Lahiri has previously earned greater renown for her short stories, this masterful novel deserves to attract an even wider readership.

ANGEL BABY

Lange, Richard Mulholland Books/Little, Brown (304 pp.) $25.99 | May 14, 2013 978-0-316-21982-2 A rising star in neonoir, Lange follows up his 2009 novel, This Wicked World, with a sharply calibrated and affecting tale about a young Mexican beauty who will do anything to reclaim the baby daughter she left in Los Angeles. The woman, Luz, survived a hard upbringing in Tijuana only to fall under the control of an abusive Mexican drug lord, Rolando, aka “El Principe.” After going to great lengths to convince him she is devoted to him, she sneaks off with a pile of his money, killing two of his household staff with his gun. She hires Malone, an American who makes a living smuggling Mexicans across the border, to drive her to California. They are quickly pursued by Jerónimo, a one-time LA gang member whom Rolando springs from a Tijuana prison to bring back Luz, and Thacker, a corrupt U.S. Border Patrol agent. Jerónimo, a reformed soul whose wife and daughter are being held by Rolando until he returns with Luz, strikes an uneasy alliance with the slovenly, unreformed Thacker: He’ll get Luz, and the border cop will get the money. Malone, who is haunted by memories of seeing his own little girl run over by a car, becomes committed to Luz. The twisting plot thickens when Rolando orders Jerónimo to bring back Luz’s child as well. Unlike most such stories, this book is driven not by greed or revenge but by parenthood, and Lange doesn’t subscribe to the usual moral checks and balances. In all other ways, however, he embraces classic noir in all its violence, bleakness and dark humor. He makes readers care about his flawed characters and appreciate the odds that were stacked against them by the circumstances of their upbringing. A film waiting to happen, this book boasts memorable characters, evocative settings and a suspenseful plot.

THE SALINGER CONTRACT

Langer, Adam OpenRoad Integrated Media (280 pp.) $16.99 paper | Sep. 17, 2013 978-1-4532-9794-0 Langer (Crossing California, 2004, etc.) skewers pretensions of writers and writing, editors and publishers—and perhaps audiences—in a literary thriller. With his wife seeking tenure at Indiana University, the eponymous protagonist Adam Langer is a Bloomington house husband, shuffling between day care and shopping, saving a few moments to restart a stalled literary career. Son of an absent father (he knows only the name, Sid J. Langer) and a single mother who wrote anagrams and word puzzles, Adam has written one novel, but most of his writing has involved author profiles for a New York magazine. That’s how he met Conner Joyce, writer of “honest-cop-stuck-in-acorrupt-system tales.” Conner is reading in Bloomington; Adam drops by for a visit. Later, after a reading in Chicago, Conner calls Adam with a fantastic story. Conner has been offered $2.5 million to write a novel for a mysterious fellow named Dex Dunford. The book will be read only by Dunford and his bodyguard, Pavel, who “looked as if he might once have worked on a security detail for Vladimir Putin.” More fascinating, Dunford also owns unpublished manuscripts by J.D. Salinger, Harper Lee and other famous writers. Needing money, Conner agrees to write the novel. And that’s when the fun begins. Along the way, there’s a jewel-encrusted zip drive, a bank heist and a revelation that fractures Adam’s perception of his heritage. The denouement is great. Marvelously intriguing.

ONE GOOD EARL DESERVES A LOVER

MacLean, Sarah Avon/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $7.99 paper | Jan. 29, 2013 978-0-06-206853-8 When Lady Philippa Marbury realizes she is headed into marriage and marital intimacy without the appropriate knowledge, she does what any proper woman of science should do—research; and who better to approach as a resource than Mr. Cross, the most notorious rake in London? Pippa Marbury knows she’s odd, so she’s grateful when a perfectly nice earl asks for her hand in marriage. However, she’s a little surprised by how difficult it is to garner information as to what to expect on her wedding night and resents the typical Victorian “lie back and think of England” response. Approaching her brother-in-law’s business partner, notorious reprobate Cross, she’s shocked and disappointed when he turns her down.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

fiction

kirkus.com

An apparently random street murder sparks musings on shades of guilt and the mutability of truth in the distinguished Spanish writer’s latest (Your Face Tomorrow: Poison, Shadow, and Farewell, 2007, etc.). For years, María Dolz has idealized Miguel Desvern and his wife, Luisa, as the perfect couple, basing this image on the loving interactions she observes at the Madrid cafe, where she has breakfast before heading to her job at a publishing house. (Marías pokes fun throughout at authors’ vanities and quirks.) After Miguel is stabbed to death by a deranged homeless man, María introduces herself to Luisa and through her meets Javier Díaz-Varela, a family friend devoted to helping the shattered widow rebuild her life. María and Javier embark on an affair, but when an overheard conversation reveals that Miguel’s death was not what it seems, the lovers engage in a long conversational fencing match. Did Miguel ask Javier to arrange his death because he had a horrible fatal disease? Or did Javier incite his best friend’s murder because he coveted his wife? As always with Marías, there are no definitive answers, only the exploration of provocative ideas in his trademark style: long, looping sentences (superbly translated by Costa) that mimic the stuttering starts and stops of a restless mind. It’s no accident that María’s and Javier’s first names combine to form their creator’s |

kirkus.com

fiction

full name; they voice his consciousness. Marías’ rare gift is his ability to make this intellectual jousting as suspenseful as the chase scenes in a commercial thriller. He’s tremendously stimulating to read; arresting turns of phrase enfold piercing insights, such as an overbearing character’s “charming Nazi-green jacket” or the dark vision of “continuous, indivisible time…eternally snapping at our heels.” Though eschewing overt political commentary, the novel makes crystal clear the bitter contemporary relevance of someone who believes guilt can be evaded through “murder-by-delegation.” Blindingly intelligent, engagingly accessible—it seems there’s nothing Marías can’t make fiction do. No wonder he’s perennially mentioned as a potential Nobel laureate.

middle gr a de

THE INFATUATIONS

Marías, Javier Translated by Costa, Margaret Jull Knopf (352 pp.) $26.95 | Aug. 15, 2013 978-0-307-96072-6

pictur e books

Unbeknownst to Pippa, though, the damage has been done. Cross is well and truly intrigued by the strange little lady scientist, and her determination to get the answers she’s looking for will lead them both down a dangerous path of passion, secrets and betrayals, ultimately bringing Pippa to a whole new understanding of love, pleasure and sacrifice. She’ll also force her way into the shady Victorian London of gaming hells and the society of prostitutes, while making some enemies who will threaten her physical and emotional safety. As Cross watches, fascinated and bemused, and tries to block her at every turn for her own protection, Pippa stamps her own unique mark on a decidedly male territory—the gambling world—and comes into her own, staking a claim on the man of her dreams and the life she never knew she wanted. McLean’s second Rule of Scoundrels novel is a clever, original historical romance with compelling main characters who are so engaging and enchantingly well-matched you simply don’t want to see their stories end. Cross is a fallenangel archetype with a damaged, guilt-ridden past, but it is the delightful, captivating Pippa whom readers will fall in love with and root for, and readers will love Cross just a little bit more because he does, too. At moments heart-wrenching, at moments comedic, at all times entertaining and satisfying, this book deserves a read if you’re a romance fan.

A CONSTELLATION OF VITAL PHENOMENA

Marra, Anthony Hogarth/Crown (400 pp.) $26.00 | May 7, 2013 978-0-770-43640-7

A decade of war in Chechnya informs this multivalent, heartfelt debut, filled with broken families, lost limbs and valiant efforts to find scraps of hope and dignity. Marra’s vision of Chechnya in the years following the fall of the Soviet Union is inevitably mordant: religious and separatist battles have left the roadways studded with land mines, the buildings pockmarked with bullets and many residents disappeared and tortured. The characters Marra brings to this landscape, though, are thankfully lacking in pieties about the indomitability of the human spirit. At the core of the story is Sonja, a longtime doctor with a flinty, seen-it-all demeanor who, as the story starts in 2004, has taken in an unlikely pair: Akhmed, a barely competent but well-intentioned doctor who is protecting Havaa, whose father has been abducted. Akhmed is quickly put to work learning to saw off shrapnel-flayed legs, and as the novel shifts back and forth in time, each of their stories deepens. The most affecting and harrowing subplot involves Sonja’s sister Natasha, who is missing as the story begins; we quickly learn the various indignities she suffered in the years before, forced into prostitution and addicted to heroin but later recovered enough to help deliver babies alongside her sister. Marra has carefully threaded his characters to work an everybody-is-connected theme, and some of those connections ultimately feel contrived. But he’s a careful, intelligent stylist who makes the most of his omniscient perspective; one of his favorite tricks is to project minor characters’ fates into the future; by revealing their deaths, he exposes how shabbily war treats everybody and gives the living an additional dose of pathos. The grimness is persistent, but Marra relays it with unusual care and empathy for a first-timer. A somber, sensitive portrait of how lives fray and bind again in chaotic circumstances.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“A beautifully written novel, an experience to savor.” from transatlantic

THE GOOD LORD BIRD

McBride, James Riverhead (432 pp.) $27.95 | Aug. 20, 2013 978-1-59448-634-0

In McBride’s version of events, John Brown’s body doesn’t lie a-mouldering in the grave—he’s alive and vigorous and fanatical and doomed, so one could say his soul does indeed go marching on. The unlikely narrator of the events leading up to Brown’s quixotic raid at Harpers Ferry is Henry Shackleford, aka Little Onion, whose father is killed when Brown comes in to liberate some slaves. Brown whisks the 12-year-old away thinking he’s a girl, and Onion keeps up the disguise for the next few years. This fluidity of gender identity allows Onion a certain leeway in his life, for example, he gets taken in by Pie, a beautiful prostitute, where he witnesses some activity almost more unseemly than a 12-year-old can stand. The interlude with Pie occurs during a two-year period where Brown disappears from Onion’s life, but they’re reunited a few months before the debacle at Harpers Ferry. In that time, Brown visits Frederick Douglass, and, in the most implausible scene in the novel, Douglass gets tight and chases after the nubile Onion. The stakes are raised as Brown approaches October 1859, for even Onion recognizes the futility of the raid, where Brown expects hundreds of slaves to rise in revolt and gets only a handful. Onion notes that Brown’s fanaticism increasingly approaches “lunacy” as the time for the raid gets closer, and Brown never loses that obsessive glint in his eye that tells him he’s doing the Lord’s work. At the end, Onion reasserts his identity as a male and escapes just before Brown’s execution. McBride presents an interesting experiment in point of view here, as all of Brown’s activities are filtered through the eyes of a young adolescent who wavers between innocence and cynicism.

TRANSATLANTIC

McCann, Colum Random House (320 pp.) $27.00 | Jun. 4, 2013 978-1-4000-6959-0 A masterful and profoundly moving novel that employs exquisite language to explore the limits of language and the tricks of memory. It hardly seems possible that this novel, epic in ambition, is comparatively compact or that one so audacious in format (hopscotching back and forth across an ocean, centuries, generations) should sustain such narrative momentum. The award-winning McCann (Let the Great World Spin, 2009, etc.) interweaves historical and fictional truth as he connects the visit to Ireland in 1845 by Frederick Douglass, whose emancipation appeals on behalf of 26

all his fellow slaves inspire a young Irish maid to seek her destiny in America, to the first trans-Atlantic flight almost 65 years later, carrying a mysterious letter that will ultimately (though perhaps anticlimactically) tie the various strands of the plot together. The novel’s primary bloodline begins with Lily Duggan, the Irish maid inspired by Douglass, and her four generations of descendants, mainly women whose struggle for rights and search for identity parallels that of the slave whose hunger for freedom fed her own. Ultimately, as the last living descendant observes, “[t]he tunnels of our lives connect, coming to daylight at the oddest moments, and then plunge us into the dark again. We return to the lives of those who have gone before us, a perplexing mobius strip until we come home, eventually, to ourselves.” The novel’s narrative strategy runs deeper than literary gamesmanship, as the blurring of distinctions between past and present, and between one side of the ocean and the other, with the history of struggle, war and emancipation as a backdrop, represents the thematic thread that connects it all: “We prefigure our futures by imagining our pasts. To go back and forth. Across the waters. The past, the present, the elusive future. A nation. Everything constantly shifted by the present. The taut elastic of time.” A beautifully written novel, an experience to savor.

LIFE AFTER LIFE

McCorkle, Jill Algonquin (352 pp.) $24.95 | Mar. 26, 2013 978-1-56512-255-0

Assisted living residents and a hospice worker confront the inevitable with grit and humor. A potentially clichéd unifying device, the claustrophobic world of Pine Haven Retirement Facility (located next to a cemetery no less), is here put to innovative use. Passing the narrative baton are Pine Haven’s residents and staff, friends and spouses, all confined, willingly or not, to McCorkle’s familiar turf, Fulton, N.C. Joanna, a hospice worker rescued from suicide by a dog, finds fulfillment easing the passage of the dying. Abby, who inhabits the house next to Pine Haven, is an outcast preteen with a social-climbing mother, Kendra, and a feckless, unreliable father, Ben (a magician and Joanna’s childhood friend). Abby, a daily visitor to Pine Haven, bereft after the disappearance of her dog, Dollbaby, finds a mentor in 85-year-old Sadie, a former third-grade teacher. Sadie discovers a kindred spirit in another teacher, Toby, Pine Haven’s youngest retiree, who bemoans the sorry state of children’s literature today. C.J., a pierced and tattooed single mom who does hair and nails at Pine Haven, has a much older married lover who is also the father of her son, Kurt. Rachel, a widowed Jewish lawyer from Boston, comes to Pine Haven to take up residence near her deceased paramour, Joe, who is buried, along with his wife, in the adjoining cemetery. Stanley, one of Fulton’s most prominent citizens, is sliding into dementia, cajoling, goading and insulting

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

fiction

kirkus.com

McDermott’s brief seventh novel (Child of My Heart, 2002, etc.) follows seven decades of a Brooklyn woman’s modest life to create one of the author’s most trenchant explorations into the heart and soul of the 20th-century Irish-American family. Sitting on the stoop of her apartment building, 7-year-old Marie watches her 1920s Brooklyn neighborhood through the thick glasses she already wears—her ability to see or missee those around her is one of the novel’s overriding metaphors. She revels in the stories of her neighbors, from the tragedy of Billy Corrigan, blinded in the war, to the great romance of the Chebabs’ Syrian-Irish marriage. Affectionately nicknamed the “little pagan” in contrast to her studious, spiritual older brother Gabe, Marie feels secure and loved within her own family despite her occasional battles of will against her mother. Cozy in their narrow apartment, her parents are proud that Marie’s father has a white-collar job as a clerk, and they have great hopes for Gabe, who is soon off to seminary to study for the priesthood. Marie’s Edenic childhood shatters when her adored father dies. In fact, death is never far from the surface of these lives, particularly since Maries works as a young woman with the local undertaker, a job that affords many more glimpses into her neighbors and more storytelling. By then, Gabe has left the priesthood, claiming it didn’t suit him and that his widowed mother needs him at home. Is he a failure or a quiet saint? After her heart is broken by a local boy who dumps her for a richer girl, Marie marries one of Gabe’s former parishioners, has children and eventually moves away from the neighborhood. Gabe remains. Marie’s straightforward narration is interrupted with occasional jumps back and forward in time that create both a sense of foreboding and continuity as well as a meditation on the nature of sorrow. There is no high drama here, but Marie and Gabe are compelling in their basic goodness, as is McDermott’s elegy to a vanished world.

kirkus.com

fiction

THE NIGHT GUEST

McFarlane, Fiona Faber & Faber/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (256 pp.) $26.00 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-0-86547-773-5 An enrapturing debut novel that toys with magical realism while delivering a fresh fable. One night, Ruth hears a tiger in her home. This reminds her of her childhood in Fiji, where her parents were missionaries, though there were no tigers in Fiji. Nor are there tigers where Ruth abides, alone in a seaside home on the southern coast of Australia, her children grown and living in other countries. The morning after Ruth hears the tiger, Frida appears as if from the sea. She explains that she is a government “carer.” A spot opened up, she says, and Ruth was on their waiting list. Ruth is not sure she needs a carer—she’s only 75—but Frida looks like she’s from Fiji, and a few hours a day couldn’t hurt. Initially, it seems that Frida is exactly what Ruth needs: a no-nonsense, larger-than-life presence who keeps Ruth company and her floors shining and sandfree. Ruth doesn’t hear the tiger again for some time. But other strange things begin to happen, things that test Ruth’s sense of reality with increasing frequency and, eventually, give rise to an unshakable foreboding. Ruth has reasons not to trust Frida. We have reasons not to trust her either, some that will be explained and some that will remain a mystery. McFarlane’s rendering of Ruth’s interior is quiet and exacting, and she builds suspense so gently that the danger is, at first, hardly noticeable. Frida, seen through Ruth’s eyes, is as compelling as she is enigmatic. By the time Ruth hears the tiger again, she and Frida are allied in a spiral of love and dependency that will dictate both their futures. A pleasurable novel, with turns of plot and phrase both startling and elegant.

middle gr a de

SOMEONE

McDermott, Alice Farrar, Straus and Giroux (224 pp.) $25.00 | Sep. 3, 2013 978-0-374-28109-0

pictur e books

Pine Haven’s female majority, and reveling in bizarre obsessions: WWF stars and ’60s-era lounge lizard LPs. But could his apparent Alzheimer’s be a bid for independence instead of dependency? Seemingly unrelated and insignificant clues sowed throughout raise other questions as these lives coalesce. For example, is Dollbaby really missing? Who’s leaving notes in a cemetery vase? Are both Kendra and C.J. placing their hopes in the same married man? Any residual predictability is dispelled by the jaw-dropping ending. McCorkle’s masterful microcosm invokes profound sadness, harsh insight and guffaws, often on the same page.

AS SHE LEFT IT

McPherson, Catriona Midnight Ink/Llewellyn (360 pp.) $14.99 paper | Jun. 8, 2013 978-0-7387-3677-8 A mystery a young woman finds in her childhood home leads her to revelations about her clouded past. Opal Jones left home at 12 to escape her alcoholic mother’s promiscuous lifestyle. Following her mum’s death, she returns to Leeds and moves into the family home. The neighbors are much as she remembers, but all is oddly changed by the disappearance of Dennis and Margaret’s grandson Craig, whose mother, Karen, no longer speaks to them. The police looked closely at everyone on Mote Street—including Opal’s mum, whose boyfriend at the time was Karen’s husband—but

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

Craig was never found. Across the street from Opal live nosy Mrs. Pickess, obsessed with cleanliness; Opal’s beloved old music teacher Fishbo Gordon and his fellow band member Pep Kendal; and the Joshis family, who run a taxi service. They all seem to be hiding secrets. Opal often hears her nextdoor neighbor, the only new arrival on Mote Street, sobbing through their adjoining wall. After she finds an odd message written inside an article of furniture, Opal resolves to track down related messages. Her quest takes her to the wealthy Fossett family, whose senile daughter, Norah, is the only occupant of a huge house. As Opal tries to discover what happened to Craig and searches Norah’s house for more clues, repressed memories of her own past float up, threatening her and all her old neighbors. The creator of Dandy Gilver (Dandy Gilver and an Unsuitable Day for a Murder, 2012, etc.) has produced a stand-alone that is worlds apart, a fascinating, mysterious ramble you can’t put down.

THE WOMAN UPSTAIRS

Messud, Claire Knopf (272 pp.) $25.95 | Apr. 30, 2013 978-0-307-59690-1

A self-described “good girl” lifts her mask in Messud’s scarifying new novel (The Emperor’s Children, 2006, etc.). “How angry am I?” Nora Eldridge rhetorically asks in her opening sentence. “You don’t want to know.” But she tells us anyway. Nora is furious with her dead mother, her elderly father and her estranged brother, none of whom seem to have done anything very terrible. Basically, Nora is furious with herself: for failing to commit to being an artist, for settling for life as a third-grade teacher in Cambridge, Mass., for lacking the guts even to be openly enraged. Instead, she is the woman upstairs, “whose trash is always tidy, who smiles brightly in the stairwell.” So when the exotic Shahid family enters her life in the fall of 2004, Nora sees them as saviors. Reza is in her class; after another student attacks and calls the half-Lebanese boy “a terrorist,” she meets his Italian mother, Sirena, the kind of bold, assertive artist Nora longs to be. They wind up sharing a studio, and Nora eventually neglects her own work to help Sirena with a vast installation called Wonderland. She’s also drawn to Skandar, an academic whose one-year fellowship has brought his family to Cambridge from Paris. “So you’re in love with Sirena, and you want to fuck her husband and steal her child,” comments Nora’s friend Didi after she confesses her intense feelings. It’s nowhere near that simple, as the story unfolds to reveal Sirena as something of a user—and perhaps Skandar too, though it’s unwise to credit Nora’s jaundiced perceptions. Her untrustworthy, embittered narration, deliberately set up as a feminine counterpoint to the rantings of Dostoevsky’s Underground Man, is an astonishing feat of creative imagination: at once self-lacerating and self-pitying, containing enough truth to induce squirms. 28

Messud persuasively plunges us into the tortured psyche of a conflicted soul whose defiant closing assertion inspires little confidence that Nora can actually change her ways. Brilliant and terrifying.

THE SON

Meyer, Philipp Ecco/HarperCollins (592 pp.) $27.99 | May 28, 2013 978-0-06-212039-7 The sins of the fathers are always visited upon the sons—and in Meyer’s sweeping, absorbing epic, there are plenty of them. As the first child born in the new Republic of Texas, or so it’s said, Eli McCullough fills big shoes. Yet he stands in the shadow of his older brother, who reads books and has a strange attachment to his sister—one that will be cut short when Comanches descend and, in a spree worthy of Cormac McCarthy, put an end to all that: “My mother had not made a sound since I woke up, even with the arrows sticking out of her, but she began to scream and cry when they scalped her, and I saw another Indian walking up to her with my father’s broadax.” Years living in semicaptivity with the Comanches teaches Eli a thing or two about setting goals and sticking to them, as well as a ruthlessness that will come in handy when he begins to build a cattle empire and accrue political power. His son is less deft; caught up in the cross-border upheaval of the Mexican Revolution, he finds himself out of place and adrift (“You’re a big man,” says one ranch hand to him, “and I don’t see why you act like such a small one”) and certainly no favorite of his ever-demanding father. Meyer’s sophomore novel deftly opens with entwined, impending deaths across generations, joining tangled stories over three centuries, the contested line between the U.S. and Mexico, and very different cultures; if sometimes it hints of McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove and Ferber’s Giant, it more often partakes of the somber, doomed certainty of Faulkner: “There had been one grandson everyone liked, who had loved the ranch and been expected to take it over, but he had drowned in three feet of water.” An expertly written tale of ancient crimes, with every period detail—and every detail, period—just right.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

fiction

kirkus.com

THE EXTINCTION CLUB

Moore, Jeffrey Arcade (384 pp.) $23.95 | May 1, 2013 978-1-61145-837-4

Animals don’t have rights, and they don’t torture beings for fun. So why do we call people civilized? Nile Nightingale is off the sauce, off the chemicals and eluding an APB that would send him to jail for DWI, assault and battery, and for kidnapping his daughter Brooklyn while his ex–gal pal tries to wrest his fortune from him. Actually, he only |

kirkus.com

fiction

took Brook to the zoo, and she skedaddled home, but try convincing a vengeful mother that she’s wrong. Nile winds up in the hinterlands of Montreal at the abandoned Church of St. Davnetdes-Monts just as a lumpy parcel is tossed from a truck. The package turns out to cloak the knife-split form of 14-year-old Céleste Jonquères, whom Nile takes back to his rented cabin and sutures up. While she heals, the pair verbally spar over who they really are, what they’ve been doing and whether they can trust each other. Nile, who supports their isolated lifestyle by motoring to redneck stores, where he drops $20 bills for provisions, rifling his neighbor’s deserted home and helping himself to his forest ranger ID, gear and weaponry, soon wrests Céleste’s tale from her: She’s an orphan home-schooled by a grand-maman who trained her to defy Laurentian poachers and loathe the historical marauders who tortured black bears and caused the extinction of sea cows, great auks, Eskimo curlews and Eastern cougars. It’s moot whether the poachers killed grand-maman or whether Céleste helped the cancer-riddled woman to her exit, but whatever the reason, the anti-animal brigade is after Céleste and the man sheltering her, resulting in a skating-pond confrontation that will leave readers swiping at tears. Nile and Céleste’s relationship—at times bantering, at times lovingly hectoring—will give enthralled readers the stamina to deal with the stomach-turning descriptions Moore (The Memory Artists, 2004, etc.) provides of past and present animal cruelty.

middle gr a de

Miles’ panoramic second novel (Dear American Airlines, 2008) is structured around differing definitions of waste. In a novelistic stratagem that has become increasingly prevalent in recent times, several characters relay the narrative until their voices and paths coalesce, more or less neatly, at novel’s end. In Miles’ version, the convergence is somewhat less wieldy but no less enjoyable. Elwin Cross Sr., an octogenarian historian now confined, due to Alzheimer’s, in a nursing home on Henry Street in Manhattan, is stuck on page 235 of his treatise on genocide as a byproduct of civilization. Elwin Cross Jr. is a linguist who has been summoned to assist in a federal project to devise a warning sign (for a nuclear waste dump) that humans will still understand 10,000 years hence. This presents a conundrum because Cross Jr., whose specialty is language death, knows that no mere verbiage can survive that long. Micah, a dreadlocked 20-something nature child who was raised in the wilderness by a religious fanatic, has brought her lover, Talmadge, from Burning Man to a squat near Henry Street, where they Dumpster-dive for all of life’s necessities. Their idyll is threatened when Matty, Talmadge’s skateboarding best friend from Ole Miss, shows up fresh out of prison. Sara, whose trader husband died on 9/11, was robbed even of the consolation of grief when she learns of the torrid affair he was carrying on. Since marrying the unscrupulous and sexually insatiable Dave—who has profited hugely by collecting from the country’s most vulnerable and gullible debtors—Sara has grown increasingly alarmed by the cynical affinity Dave has cultivated with her teenage daughter Alexis. Emotionally stunted by her father’s erasure from her life, Alexis may be pregnant but doesn’t want to know for sure. Tethered by the sheer weight of back story—each of these characters could merit a whole novel—and disquisitions on disposables of every kind, the novel eventually achieves exhilarating liftoff. For readers who relish extravagant language, scathing wit and philosophical heft, this book wastes nothing.

pictur e books

WANT NOT

Miles, Jonathan Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (400 pp.) $26.00 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-547-35220-6

THE RETURNED

Mott, Jason Harlequin MIRA (400 pp.) $24.95 | Aug. 27, 2013 978-0-7783-1533-9 The world, a community and an elderly couple are confused and disconcerted when people who have died inexplicably come back, including the couple’s 8-yearold son, whom they lost nearly 50 years ago. No one understands why people who died are coming back. There’s no rhyme or reason, just a sudden reappearance of a massive population who were dead and are now alive, nearly exactly as they were the minute before they died. Some died a hundred years ago, some died 50 years ago; some are young children, some are senile old women and men. Considered by some the work of the devil, by others a miracle, the confounding reality is that an already struggling planet must abruptly support a staggering influx of beings who have typical human needs: food, water, shelter, sanitation. Globally, the cataclysmic event of their return brings about a spectrum of responses that reflects many facets of faith, spirituality, and the best and worst of human nature. Individually, many of the living must decide whether or not to accommodate the people they loved as they return to a world that has left them behind. Written mainly from the perspective of Lucille and Harold Hargrave—an elderly couple whose 8-year-old son, Jacob, returns to them decades after he died—and taking place in a small

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“...oddly entertaining, as a good supernatural yarn should be.” from the accursed

Southern town that becomes a regional coordination center for handling those who come back, this book offers a beautifully written and emotionally astute look at our world gone awry. At the center is a startling and disturbing idea, especially given how many of us wish we could have one more chance to see the ones we’ve loved and lost to death: What if many of them came back, all at once? Poet and debut author Mott has written a breathtaking novel that navigates emotional minefields with realism and grace.

THE ACCURSED

Oates, Joyce Carol Ecco/HarperCollins (688 pp.) $27.99 | $14.99 e-book | Mar. 5, 2013 978-0-06-223170-3 978-0-06-223436-0 e-book Oates (Sourland, 2010, etc.) finishes up a big novel begun years before—and it’s a keeper. If the devil were to come for a visit, à la The Master and Margarita, where would he turn up first? You might not guess Princeton, N.J., long Oates’ domicile, but there “the Curse” shows up, first in the spring of 1905, then in June, on “the disastrous morning of Annabel Slade’s wedding.” No slashing ensues, no pea-green vomiting; instead, the good citizens of Princeton steadily turn inward and against each other, the veneer of civilization swiftly flaking off on the edge of the wilderness within us and, for that matter, just outside Princeton. Woodrow Wilson might have said it differently when he reflected on his native Virginia: “The defeat of the Confederacy was the defeat of—a way of civilization that was superior to its conqueror’s.” It just could be that the devil’s civilization is superior to that of America in the days of the Great White Fleet and Jim Crow, for Wilson—a central figure in the novel and then-president of Princeton University— is no friend to the little people. But then, none of Oates’ male characters—some of them writers such as Mark Twain and Jack London, others politicos such as Grover Cleveland, still others academics plotting against the upstart Massachusetts Institute of Technology and its “devilish business”—are quite good guys: Representatives of the patriarchy, they bear its original sin. The Curse is the one of past crimes meeting the future, perhaps; it is as much psychological as real, though Oates takes pains to invest plenty of reality in it. Carefully and densely plotted, chockablock with twists and turns and fleeting characters, her novel offers a satisfying modern rejoinder to the best of M.R. James—and perhaps even Henry James. Though it requires some work and has a wintry feel to it, it’s oddly entertaining, as a good supernatural yarn should be.

A TALE FOR THE TIME BEING

Ozeki, Ruth Viking (432 pp.) $27.95 | Mar. 12, 2013 978-0-670-02663-0

Ozeki’s magnificent third novel (All Over Creation, 2003, etc.) brings together a Japanese girl’s diary and a transplanted American novelist to meditate on everything from bullying to the nature of conscience and the meaning of life. On the beach of an island off British Columbia’s coast, Ruth finds a Hello Kitty lunchbox containing a stack of letters and a red book. The book contains 16-year-old Nao’s diary, bound within the covers of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time—and that’s no accident, since both funny, grieving Nao and blocked, homesick Ruth are obsessed with time: how it passes, how we live in it. Nao wants to “drop out of time”; so does her father, a computer programmer who spent 10 years in California’s Silicon Valley before the dot-com bust apparently sent the family back to Tokyo and subjected Nao to vicious bullying at school. Ruth moved from New York City to Canada since it was an easier place to care for her sick husband and dying mother but now feels the move was “a withdrawal” and is finding it hard to write. She plunges into Nao’s diary, which also includes the stories of her 104-year-old greatgrandmother, Jiko, an anarchist and feminist turned Buddhist nun, and Jiko’s son Haruki, a philosophy student forced to become a kamikaze pilot during World War II. The letters in the lunchbox are Haruki’s, and his secret army diary begins the book’s extended climax, which transcends bitter anguish to achieve heartbreaking poignancy as both Nao and Ruth discover what it truly means to be “a time being.” Ozeki faultlessly captures the slangy cadences of a contemporary teen’s voice even as she uses it to convey Nao’s pain and to unobtrusively offer a quiet introduction to the practice and wisdom of Zen through Jiko’s talks with her great-granddaughter. The novel’s seamless web of language, metaphor and meaning can’t be disentangled from its powerful emotional impact: These are characters we care for deeply, imparting vital life lessons through the magic of storytelling. A masterpiece, pure and simple.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

THE COLLECTOR OF LOST THINGS

Page, Jeremy Pegasus (384 pp.) $25.95 | Dec. 15, 2013 978-1-60598-485-8

Eliot Saxby, the collector of the title and narrator of the book, heads for the Arctic in search of the elusive—and perhaps extinct—great auk. |

fiction

kirkus.com

An inventive—if brooding, strange and creepy—adventure in literary terror. Think Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King meet Guillermo del Toro as channeled by Klaus Kinski. In her sophomore effort, Pessl (Special Topics in Calamity Physics, 2006) hits the scary ground running. Filmmaker Stanislas Cordova has made a specialty of goose bumps for years; as Pessl writes, he’s churned out things that keep people from entering dark rooms alone, things about which viewers stay shtum ever after. Cordova himself hasn’t granted an interview since 1977, when Rolling Stone published his description of his favorite frame as “sovereign, deadly, perfect.” Cordova is thrust back into the limelight when his daughter is found dead in an abandoned warehouse in Chinatown. Scott McGrath, reporter on the way to being washed-up, finds cause for salvation of a kind in the poor young woman’s demise. McGrath’s history with Cordova stretches back years, and now, it’s up to him to find out just how bad this extra-bad version of Hitchcock really is. He finds out, too; as one of the shadowy figures who wanders in and out of these pages remarks, ominously, |

kirkus.com

fiction

“Some knowledge, it eats you alive.” Oh, yes, it does. Readers will learn a thing or two about psychotropic drugs, to say nothing of the dark side of Manhattan and the still darker side of filmmaking. And speaking of hallucinations, Pessl’s book does a good imitation of a multimedia extravaganza, interspersed with faux web pages and images. All it needs is for a voice to croak out “boo” from the binding, and it’d be complete unto itself. A touch too coyly postmodern at times, but a worthwhile entertainment all the same.

middle gr a de

NIGHT FILM

Pessl, Marisha Random House (624 pp.) $28.00 | Aug. 20, 2013 978-1-4000-6788-6

pictur e books

The year is 1845, and Saxby makes his treacherous voyage on behalf of some English gentlemen who have a bet about whether there are any great auks that remain alive. Capt. Sykes is at the helm of the Amethyst, and he heads a crew of hardy and hardened sailors. Incongruously, also on the journey is one Edward Bletchley, an English gentleman, along with his cousin (or perhaps “cousin”) Clara, an attractive young woman. Sykes has been paid to veer off his usual course to accommodate the ornithological pursuit of the naturalist Saxby. Although one mystery in the novel obviously involves the search for the last of the great auks, another involves Saxby’s certainty that, 10 years earlier, he had gotten to know Clara under a different name, “Celeste,” when he worked for her father, though Clara has no recollection of ever having met Saxby. They form a bond, and both become greatly excited when they discover a small colony of great auks on a remote island. Excitement turns to outrage, however, when Sykes announces that he plans to kill the last of the birds and thus guarantee their extinction, and their skins will therefore be immensely valuable to collectors and museums. Saxby watches helplessly while Sykes’ crew methodically kills the auks, but he’s able to conceal an injured auk on board. He and Clara carefully tend the auk, feeding it and nursing it. Miraculously, the auk even lays an egg, assuring the further existence of the species, but Sykes and his duplicitous first mate, Quinlan French, turn out to know more than Saxby suspects. Page shapes a fascinating historical narrative and has moving insights into our sometimes-dubious relationship to the natural world.

QUIET DELL

Phillips, Jayne Anne Scribner (480 pp.) $28.00 | Oct. 15, 2013 978-1-4391-7253-7 Phillips (Lark and Termite, 2009) fuses the established facts surrounding the 1931 trial of serial killer Harry Powers with her imagined version of the victims’ inner lives and the fictional lives of a handful of characters connected by the crimes. Financially strapped since her husband’s death, Asta Eicher lives with her three children in a large suburban Chicago house, where she takes in boarders. Devoted to her and the children, former boarder Charles O’Boyle, who has prospered in his business, proposes to Asta while celebrating a joyful Christmas with the family in 1930. Aware he is gay, she turns him down. Instead, she assumes she will solve her problems by marrying Cornelius Pierson, with whom she’s secretly begun corresponding through the American Friendship Society (think snail-mail Match.com). In July 1931, Asta leaves her children with a babysitter while she travels with Cornelius to set up the family’s new home. A week later, Cornelius returns alone to fetch the kids. Phillips brings the Eichers to vivid life—Asta’s guilt, 14-year-old Grethe’s innocence, 12-year-old Hart’s protectiveness, 9-year-old Annabel’s spirit—and wisely eschews the grisly details of their deaths. Months later, the police discover the Eichers’ remains in the basement of a garage belonging to Harry Powers in Quiet Dell, W.V. Charged with the Eichers’ murders, Powers is indicted for the murder of Dorothy Lemke, whose body has also been discovered in the garage, because the circumstantial evidence in her case is stronger. The snippets of actual court testimony and reportage included are harrowing. While digging up dirt on Powers, (fictional) Chicago Tribune reporter Emily Thornhill falls deeply in love with Asta’s (real-life) banker. She also takes in an orphaned street urchin. So in the aftermath of one family’s destruction, Emily creates a new if unconventional “family” of people she loves. Phillips’ prose is as haunting as the questions she raises about the natures of sin, evil and grace.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

VISITATION STREET

Pochoda, Ivy Dennis Lehane/Ecco (320 pp.) $25.99 | Jul. 9, 2013 978-0-06-224989-0 A mystery about a missing girl and the ghosts she leaves behind. One summer evening, teenagers Val and June float on a rubber raft out into the bay off Brooklyn’s Red Hook section. Only Val returns, her near-dead body washed upon the shore. But Val can’t seem to tell anyone what happened to them or why June disappeared without a trace. For weeks afterward, the Lebanese shopkeeper Fadi tries to keep his customers informed about developments and neighborhood rumors in the case. Meanwhile, Jonathan, an ex-Julliard student turned jingle writer and music teacher, may be getting too emotionally close to Val. The novel’s focus isn’t on the police investigation, but on the missing girl’s effect on her neighbors and friends. Who saw Val and June take the boat out? Can June possibly be alive? Can young Cree tell what he knows without being automatically accused of a crime since he’s a black man? The book is rich with characters and mood and will make readers feel like they’ve walked the streets of Red Hook. Everyone in the story deserves a measure of sympathy, from the girls on the raft to the shoplifting teenager to the pathetic uncle who won’t tell anyone anything for free. Red Hook itself feels like a character—hard-worn, isolated from the rest of New York, left behind and forgotten. A terrific story in the vein of Dennis Lehane’s fiction.

a keen sense of how data flows and from whom to whom. One track she follows leads to a genius billionaire and electronic concoctions that can scarcely be believed—but also, in a customarily loopy way, to organized crime, terrorism, big data and the U.S. government, with the implication, as Horst later will ponder, that all are bound up in the collapse of the Twin Towers. (“Remember the week before this happened, all those put options on United and American Airlines? Which turned out to be exactly the two airlines that got hijacked?”) If you were sitting in a plane next to someone muttering about such things, you might ask to change seats, but Pynchon has long managed to blend his particularly bleak view of latter-day humankind with a tolerant ability to find true humor in our foibles. If he’s sometimes heavy-handed, he’s also attuned precisely to the zeitgeist, drawing in references to Pabst Blue Ribbon longnecks, Mamma Mia, the Diamondbacks/Yankees World Series, Office Space, and the touching belief of young Zuckerbergs in the age before Zuckerberg that their bleedingedge technology—“[n]o proven use, high risk, something only early-adoption addicts feel comfortable with”—will somehow be put to good use rather than, as Pynchon assures us, to the most evil applications. Of a piece with Pynchon’s recent work—not quite a classic à la V. but in a class of its own—more tightly woven but no less madcap than Inherent Vice, and sure to the last that we live in a world of very odd shadows.

NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY Stories

Rash, Ron Ecco/HarperCollins (256 pp.) $24.99 | $11.99 e-book | Feb. 19, 2013 978-0-06-220271-0 978-0-06-220273-4 e-book

BLEEDING EDGE

Pynchon, Thomas Penguin Press (512 pp.) $27.95 | Sep. 17, 2013 978-1-59420-423-4 Pynchon (Inherent Vice, 2009, etc.) makes a much-anticipated return, and it’s trademark stuff: a blend of existential angst, goofy humor and broad-sweeping bad vibes. Paranoia, that operative word in Pynchon’s world ever since Gravity’s Rainbow (1973), is what one of his characters here calls “the garlic in life’s kitchen.” Well, there’s paranoia aplenty to be had in Pynchon’s sauté pan, served up in the dark era of the 9/11 attack, the dot-com meltdown and the Patriot Act. Maxine Tarnow is, on the face of it, just another working mom in the city, but in reality, after she’s packed her kids’ lunches and delivered them at school, she’s ferreting around with data cowboys and code monkeys, looking into various sorts of electronic fraud. Her estranged husband, apparently a decent enough sort, “to this day has enjoyed a nearly error-free history of knowing how certain commodities around the world will behave,” but Maxine has 32

Traps are embedded in the violencestreaked stories that comprise another fine collection from Rash (The Cove, 2012, etc.). Take the excellent opening story: “The Trusty.” That’s Sinkler, the unshackled member of a chain gang in the North Carolina mountains (Rash’s invariable setting). While fetching water for the gang, the accomplished grifter sweet-talks a farmer’s young wife into eloping. She knows the hidden trails, and that’s where the tables are turned, violently. In the title story, two petty criminals, hooked on pills, steal some gold teeth. They’re about to cash in, home free, but we know they’re trapped losers, sure to be busted. There’s an actual trap, a bear trap, in “A Sort of Miracle,” the story of three knuckleheads on a mountainside. The unseen bear springs the trap and gets the ham, but the trapper dies as the black comedy intensifies. Of these 14 stories, it’s the two from the Civil War era that will haunt you. In “Where the Map Ends,” two runaway slaves are heading into the mountains, where many of the whites are Lincoln supporters. How could they have known that the farm where they shelter belongs to a man unmoored

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

fiction

kirkus.com

“A deliciously addictive, cinematically influenced page turner, both comic and provocative, about the nature of guilt and innocence within the context of social class in a rapidly changing culture.” from the other typist

Rindell, Suzanne Amy Einhorn/Putnam (368 pp.) $25.95 | May 7, 2013 978-0-399-16146-9 Take a dollop of Alfred Hitchcock, a dollop of Patricia Highsmith, throw in some Great Gatsby flourishes, and the result is Rindell’s debut, a pitch-black comedy about a police stenographer accused of murder in 1920s Manhattan. Typing criminals’ confessions, Rose admires the precinct’s conservative, mustachioed middle-aged sergeant while she is critical of his superior, the lieutenant detective Frank, who is closer to her in age and a clean-shaven dandy in his white spats. An orphan raised by nuns, Rose lives in a boardinghouse and leads a prim spinster life far removed from the flappers and increasingly liberated women of the “Roaring Twenties.” She seems destined to a life of routine solitude until a new typist is hired. Odalie wears her hair bobbed, dresses with panache and lives in a posh hotel. Rose voices disapproval at first, but she is clearly drawn to Odalie, even obsessed with her. When Odalie invites her to share her hotel rooms, Rose moves right in. Soon, Rose is accompanying Odalie on her adventures, which include bootlegging, among other vices. Sometimes Rose borrows Odalie’s clothes, sometimes she runs errands for Odalie. But who is Odalie? Where does her money come from? And if she has money, why does she work as a police stenographer? At a house party on Long Island, a young man from Newport thinks he recognizes Odalie as the debutante once engaged to his cousin, but she denies knowing him. By the time he turns up dead, Rose has been sucked into Odalie’s world so deeply that their identities have merged. Who is using whom? Recalling her recent life, revealing only what she wants to reveal in bits and pieces, Rose begins her narration archly with off-putting curlicues she gradually discards. She is tart, judgmental, self-righteous and self-justifying. She is also viciously astute. Whether she’s telling the truth is another matter. |

kirkus.com

fiction

A deliciously addictive, cinematically influenced pageturner, both comic and provocative, about the nature of guilt and innocence within the context of social class in a rapidly changing culture.

SILKEN PREY

Sandford, John Putnam (416 pp.) $27.95 | May 7, 2013 978-0-399-15931-2

middle gr a de

THE OTHER TYPIST

pictur e books

by his wife’s suicide, slipping into madness? He helps the older slave but has a horrifying end in mind for his young mixedrace companion. In “The Dowry,” the war is eight months past. Ethan fought for the Union. Now, he seeks to marry the daughter of a Confederate colonel, implacable since losing a hand on the battlefield. The story ends with a second severed hand. Also notable are “The Magic Bus,” a ’60s story in which a naïve country teenager has her disastrous first encounter with hippies, and “A Servant of History.” Here, a very green Briton, researching ancient ballads in 1922, traps himself on a remote farm by bragging about his half-remembered Scottish ancestors. What had started out lightly satirical turns very grim indeed. Rash’s oneness with the region and its people makes an indelible impression.

Dirty political tricksters give Lucas Davenport his most satisfying case in years. Even though he’s a conservative Republican, Sen. Porter Smalls is widely known to be a lot more liberal in his sexual ethics. But not so liberal that you’d expect child pornography to pop up on his personal office computer. The horrified staffer who accidentally finds it there calls her father, and he calls 911. Minnesota governor Elmer Henderson, a Democrat, is no friend of Smalls, but he’s impressed by his claims of innocence, and he doesn’t want any blowback if the kiddie porn turns out to have been planted. So he calls Lucas Davenport, asking him to investigate but keep everything confidential. The hush-hush first phase of the case ends when Lucas finds evidence linking the porn stash to Bob Tubbs, a political jack-of-all-trades who’s disappeared and hasn’t used his credit cards for days. Given the cover of a homicide investigation, Lucas’ Bureau of Criminal Apprehension takes the case public, solving one problem—how can Lucas talk to anybody if he’s sworn to secrecy?—but raising another. For the trail leads to some very awkward spots: the Minneapolis Police Department, from which it’s pretty clear the damning pictures came, and the campaign of Taryn Grant, the wealthy, well-connected heiress who wants Smalls’ Senate seat. With the election less than a week away, Lucas is under intense pressure to get results without stepping on the feet of Grant, who Sandford (Stolen Prey, 2012, etc.) indicates early on is indeed in this mess up to her eyeballs. Meanwhile, another Sandford veteran to whom Lucas turns for help hatches a plot to steal Grant’s jewels from the safe in her home. Complications ensue. Sandford keeps every stage of the investigation clear, compelling and suspenseful while peeling back layer after layer of a world in which “everybody was hot, everybody was rich.”

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

TENTH OF DECEMBER Stories

Saunders, George Random House (272 pp.) $26.00 | Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-8129-9380-6

A new story collection from the most playful postmodernist since Donald Barthelme, with narratives that can be enjoyed on a number of different levels. Literature that takes the sort of chances that Saunders does is rarely as much fun as his is. Even when he is subverting convention, letting the reader know throughout that there is an authorial presence pulling the strings, that these characters and their lives don’t exist beyond words, he seduces the reader with his warmth, humor and storytelling command. And these are very much stories of these times, filled with economic struggles and class envy, with war and its effects, with drugs that serve as a substitute for deeper emotions (like love) and perhaps a cure (at least temporary) for what one of the stories calls “a sort of vast existential nausea.” On the surface, many of these stories are genre exercises. “Escape from Spiderhead” has all the trappings of science fiction, yet culminates in a profound meditation on free will and personal responsibility. One story is cast as a manager’s memo; another takes the form of a very strange diary. Perhaps the funniest and potentially the grimmest is “Home,” which is sort of a Raymond Carver working-class gothic send-up. A veteran returns home from war, likely suffering from post-traumatic stress. His foulmouthed mother and her new boyfriend are on the verge of eviction. His wife and family are now shacking up with a new guy. His sister has crossed the class divide. Things aren’t likely to end well. The opening story, “Victory Lap,” conjures a provisional, conditional reality, based on choices of the author and his characters. “Is life fun or scary?” it asks. “Are people good or bad?” The closing title story, the most ambitious here, has already been anthologized in a couple of “best of ” annuals: It moves between the consciousness of a young boy and an older man, who develop a lifesaving relationship. Nobody writes quite like Saunders.

density belongs alongside Joseph Conrad and Graham Greene. Tom Harrington is a humanitarian lawyer whose path takes him into difficult country: Haiti in the wake of dictatorship and storm, for one. He is unsettled and lonely, even as his stateside wife is one of those blessedly ignorant Americans who “pray for the deafness that comes with a comfortable life”—a comfortable life that would be much more attainable were Tom someone who cared about money. He is not saintly, though. Into his orbit has come a fetching, utterly mysterious journalist whom Tom has met more than once along the trail of good deeds done by sometimes not so good people. Her murder sends him reeling into a long, arcing story of discovery that becomes ever more tangled as Shacochis spins it, taking it across decades and oceans. Among the players are a tough-as-nails Delta Force combatant who surely knows that he’s being played as a pawn by the likes of an unlikable senior spook who lives for opera, cocktails and deception; even so, the soldier takes pride in his role in what he calls “Jihadi pest control,” just as the spy takes pride in what he did in all those dark corners during the Cold War. These characters are bound to one another, and to Jackie, by blood or elective affinities. Either way, Shacochis would seem to suggest, their real business is to hide themselves from the world, while the business of the world is to help them disguise their subterfuge. Everything in the landscape is secret and forbidden, potentially fatal, doomed to fail—and yet everyone persists, presses on, with what they believe their missions to be. Shacochis is a master of characterization; his story, though very long, moves like a fast-flowing river, and it is memorably, smartly written: “ ‘Cleopatra spoke nine languages,’ Jackie informed him with a distinctly peevish rise to her voice for what she obviously considered a set series of infinitely tiresome challenges to the perception of her specialness, the unfair excesses of her drop-dead good looks or intellect or courage or God knows, her very birth, as if she had somehow stolen those laudable parts of herself from someone else, an imaginary deprived person.” An often depressing, cautionary and thoroughly excellent tale of the excesses of empire, ambition and the too easily fragmented human soul.

A FATAL LIKENESS

Shepherd, Lynn Delacorte (384 pp.) $26.00 | Aug. 20, 2013 978-0-345-53244-2

THE WOMAN WHO LOST HER SOUL

Shacochis, Bob Atlantic Monthly (640 pp.) $28.00 | Sep. 3, 2013 978-0-8021-1982-7 National Book Award—winning novelist Shacochis (The Immaculate Invasion, 1999, etc.) makes a long-awaited—indeed, much-anticipated—return to fiction with this stunning novel of love, inno-

cence and honor lost. The wait was worth it, for Shacochis has delivered a work that in its discomfiting moral complexity and philosophical 34

A detective in Victorian England takes a case involving several renowned and infamous literary figures. Charles Maddox has taken over the detective agency once run by his famous great-uncle, who now suffers from agerelated mental illnesses. Charles is hired by the son of the famous poet Percy Bysshe Shelley to find and acquire some family papers they believe to be in the possession of Claire Clairmont, stepsister to Mary Godwin Shelley. To his surprise, Charles discovers that his great-uncle had once worked for the Shelley family, though the

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

fiction

kirkus.com

“Sensitive, ingenious and suspenseful.” from bear is broken

Silber, Joan Norton (256 pp.) $25.95 | May 13, 2013 978-0-393-08870-0 A sequence of six linked stories explores the lives of those who risk something for their ideals, which is not the same as, and produces quite different results from, risking something for one’s beliefs. Silber (The Size of the World, 2008, etc.) teaches at Sarah Lawrence College. She has won a PEN/Hemingway Award and has been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Fiction Prize and the National Book Award. The title story begins with telegraphic directness: “A lot of people thought anarchists were fools.” Silber makes much of the difference between what it means to be a fool and being merely foolish. The former is so much worse. In “Fools,” a merry band of political idealists lives a bohemian life in New York in the ’20s. In the background looms the incarceration and execution of Sacco and Vanzetti. The characters make love, marry, cheat on their spouses and scatter. The next story, “Hanging Fruit,” follows Anthony—the son of one who left penury for profit, then regressed back into poverty. “Two Opinions” follows Louise, the daughter of an anarchist, in jail as a conscientious objector. The legacy of her father’s radical politics costs her the life she imagines she wants, but she is merely mistaken and learns to provide for herself in novel ways, finding satisfactions she couldn’t have dreamed of, including the possibility that satisfaction is overrated. “Better” is the weakest in this worthwhile collection. Its connection to the others is tenuous. “Going Too Far” dramatizes a clash between the spiritual and the practical. It and the final story, “Buying and Selling,” are more completely realized. A thought-provoking collection; “Buying and Selling” is particularly strong.

kirkus.com

fiction

THE ROSIE PROJECT

Simsion, Graeme Simon & Schuster (304 pp.) $24.00 | $10.99 e-book | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-4767-2908-4 978-1-4767-2910-7 e-book Polished debut fiction, from Australian author Simsion, about a brilliant but emotionally challenged geneticist who develops a questionnaire to screen potential mates but finds love instead. The book won the 2012 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. “I became aware of applause. It seemed natural. I had been living in the world of romantic comedy and this was the final scene. But it was real.” So Don Tillman, our perfectly imperfect narrator and protagonist, tells us. While he makes this observation near the end of the book, it comes as no surprise—this story plays the rom-com card from the first sentence. Don is challenged, almost robotic. He cannot understand social cues, barely feels emotion and can’t stand to be touched. Don’s best friends are Gene and Claudia, psychologists. Gene brought Don as a postdoc to the prestigious university where he is now an associate professor. Gene is a cad, a philanderer who chooses women based on nationality—he aims to sleep with a woman from every country. Claudia is tolerant until she’s not. Gene sends Rosie, a graduate student in his department, to Don as a joke, a ringer for the Wife Project. Finding her woefully unsuitable, Don agrees to help the beautiful but fragile Rosie to learn the identity of her biological father. Pursuing this Father Project, Rosie and Don collide like particles in an atom smasher: hilarity, dismay and carbonated hormones ensue. The story lurches from one set piece of deadpan nudge-nudge, wink-wink humor to another: We laugh at, and with, Don as he tries to navigate our hopelessly emotional, nonliteral world, learning as he goes. Simsion can plot a story, set a scene, write a sentence, finesse a detail. A pity more popular fiction isn’t this well-written. If you liked Australian author Toni Jordan’s Addition (2009), with its math-obsessed, quirky heroine, this book is for you. A sparkling, laugh-out-loud novel.

middle gr a de

FOOLS Stories

pictur e books

usual meticulous notes he took are nowhere to be found. Charles finds a way to get into Claire’s house, but when she catches him reading her papers, she tells a totally different story than the one he had from Percy, his wife and Mary Shelley. Like his great-uncle before him, Charles becomes ensnared in the family’s horrifying story. But finding the truth proves to be elusive. Did Shelley cause the death of his first wife and some of his children, or was it Mary? Both she and Claire, who was also mistress to Lord Byron, were madly in love with the poet, and it seems that Mary would do almost anything to keep him by her side. When Charles does find his uncle’s papers, they provide answers and raise even more questions about the tragic history of the haunted poet. Lynn (The Solitary House, 2012, etc.) takes the familiar story of the Shelley family and fills in the holes in the historical record by turning it into a clever, imaginative and literate mystery.

BEAR IS BROKEN

Smith, Lachlan Mysterious Press (272 pp.) $24.00 | Feb. 5, 2013 978-0-8021-2079-3 A newly minted attorney investigating his brother’s shooting ends up learning more about the victim than he’d ever wanted to know. Hours after being sworn as a member of the California bar, Leo Maxwell is having lunch with his lawyer-brother Teddy when a stranger walks into the restaurant, fires a bullet into Teddy’s face and leaves. As Teddy

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

hovers in a coma, Detective Anderson, who has no love for the man he tells Leo was as dirty as a lawyer can be in San Francisco, plans to arrest Ricky Santorez, Teddy’s most famous client, for the crime. Ricky has a grade-A alibi, since he’s spent the past several years in San Quentin after killing two cops who burst into his place by mistake and caught him with a highly illegal weapon, but Anderson says that a snitch fingered him for hiring the job. Since the snitch is Lawrence Maxwell, Teddy and Leo’s father, who’s been locked up for a dozen years for killing his wife, Caroline, Leo takes an even more personal interest in the case. His search for other suspects leads him to the family of Keith Locke, a client Teddy was defending against the charge of murdering thrill-seeking sociologist professor Sam Marovich, whose corpse he was found trying to push through a window of the sex club where Keith worked. The suspects are familiar types—Keith’s imperious father, Gerald, his fiercely protective mother, Greta, his sexually alluring sister Christine—but newcomer Smith juggles them with supernal dexterity, and the final showdown is hair-raising. Sensitive, ingenious and suspenseful. A series is promised and very welcome indeed.

TATIANA

Smith, Martin Cruz Simon & Schuster (304 pp.) $25.99 | Nov. 12, 2013 978-1-4391-4021-5 In Smith’s latest Arkady Renko novel, the Russian investigator seeks the truth about a young reporter’s apparent suicide. Tatiana Petrovna is one of the last occupants of a Kaliningrad apartment building that developers want to raze. When she falls six stories to her death, authorities are quick to rule the tragedy as a suicide. Renko suspects otherwise and gets his boss’ permission to look into it. The young woman had been a troublemaker, with a nose for rooting out the corruption widely known to be rampant in Russia, so few people seem to miss her. Renko can’t view the body, because police say they are unable to produce it. This certainly won’t stop him, though. Fans of his earlier adventures (Gorky Park, 1981; Red Square, 1992) know he’s not a flashy fellow, perhaps in part because he walks around with a bullet lodged in his skull. But he is an honorable man, persistent in asking questions, raising doubts and following leads. At the center of the plot is a notebook that appears to be filled with symbols looking like gibberish. Can Renko find someone to decipher it? Sitting on the Baltic seacoast, Kaliningrad is portrayed as a bleak industrial city that’s probably on no one’s vacation itinerary. The novel suggests a deep cynicism pervading Russian society, where officials and businessmen are expected to bribe and steal. For example, submarines costing hundreds of millions of dollars may sink into the ocean and never resurface since half the money goes to graft instead of craft. Smith is a master storyteller, delivering sharp dialogue, a tight plot, memorable descriptions and an understated hero in Arkady Renko. 36

Anyone who enjoys crime novels but hasn’t read Smith is in for a treat. Read this book, then look for other Arkady Renko adventures.

NEPTUNE’S BROOD

Stross, Charles Ace/Berkley (336 pp.) $25.95 | Jul. 2, 2013 978-0-425-25677-0

In the same universe as Saturn’s Children (2008) but thousands of years later, Stross invents an entire interstellar banking system, shows us how it works—and then how to defraud it. Interstellar spaceships take hundreds of years to crawl between systems, so the fastest means of communication is by laser beacon. Fast money is cash. Medium money is represented by interplanetary investments that take decades to mature. Slow money accumulates from the vast expenditures required to establish new interstellar colonies, and therefore, it’s millions of times more valuable than cash. Metahuman Krina Alizond-114, a scholar of the historiography of accountancy practices, travels to the water world of ShinTethys to find her missing sister, Ana. The only way she can reach the planet is by signing on as crew aboard Deacon Dennet’s Interstellar Church of the Fragile, a church on an interplanetary spaceship staffed by animated skeletons. Before long, however, pirate underwriters capture the ship. The pirate chief, (ac)Count(ant) Rudi, claims to know Ana via an insurance policy he sold her. Krina’s real goal, though, is the investigation of a fraud of truly galactic proportions, perpetrated centuries ago under the guise of establishing a scientific colony whose purpose was to develop a faster-than-light drive. The colony collapsed spectacularly, but the debt, a mountain of slow money, still exists if anyone can prove ownership. Krina has one half of the key, Ana the other—maybe; she might equally well be dead. Rudi and Dennett clearly know more than they’re telling; there’s an assassin on Krina’s trail; and these are just the beginning of the complications, including a petulant subaquatic monarch and a society of intelligent communist squid. If you begin by thinking that a narrative about banking, debt and accountancy might be dull, Stross will quickly disabuse you—there’s always a mad glint in his eye, even when he’s explaining some seriously weird and alluring concepts. Agreeable characters, a fascinating backdrop and brilliant plotting, with a further outlook of lengthy grins and occasional guffaws.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

fiction

kirkus.com

THE LUCKIEST LADY IN LONDON

Thomas, Sherry Berkley Sensation (304 pp.) $7.99 paper | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-425-26888-9 Felix Rivendale, Lord Wrenworth, has spent his adult life burnishing his reputation as the most sought-after gentleman in England, so he is flummoxed when Louisa Cantwell—an unknown nobody—captures his attention and his interest; he’s not concerned about his heart, however, since he’s convinced he doesn’t have one. |

kirkus.com

fiction

Every man and woman in London is besotted with Lord Wrenworth, considered by one and all to be The Ideal Gentleman. So lofty are his wealth, manner and reputation that Louisa, attending her first season at age 24 and with almost nothing to recommend her beyond her wit, even temper and formidable preparation, has never even truly considered him as a possible catch. Yet, astonishingly, in one breathtaking and heartbreaking moment, she meets him and catches his attention, simultaneously convincing herself that he remains unattainable yet wishing with all her heart he wasn’t. From that moment, Louisa and Felix enter into a seductive courtship that quietly breaks many straight-laced Victorian rules without anyone knowing about it, keeping them explosively attracted to each other. Louisa is always suspicious of Felix’s motives, and Felix is determined to protect himself from anyone’s capacity to get close enough to see beneath his purposefully constructed perfection. This becomes even more problematic once he actually offers for her and makes her his wife. Thomas delivers a masterpiece of attraction, seduction, mistrust and masks, beguiling readers with two people who are so perfect for each other, they can’t even trust their own emotions, since they both know how deceptive and dangerous the other can be. A beautifully written, exquisitely seductive, powerfully romantic gem of a romance.

middle gr a de

A long-awaited, elegant meditation on love, memory and the haunting power of art. Tartt (The Little Friend, 2002, etc.) takes a long time, a decade or more, between novels. This one, her third, tells the story of a young man named Theodore Decker who is forced to grapple with the world alone after his mother—brilliant, beautiful and a delight to be around—is felled in what would seem to be an accident, if an explosion inside a museum can be accidental. The terrible wreckage of the building, a talismanic painting half buried in plaster and dust, “the stink of burned clothes, and an occasional soft something pressing in on me that I didn’t want to think about”—young Theo will carry these things forever. Tartt’s narrative is in essence an extended footnote to that horror, with his mother becoming ever more alive in memory even as the time recedes: not sainted, just alive, the kind of person Theo misses because he can’t tell her goofy things (his father taking his mistress to a Bon Jovi concert in Las Vegas, for instance: “It seemed terrible that she would never know this hilarious fact”) as much as for any other reason. The symbolic echoes Tartt employs are occasionally heavy-handed, and it’s a little too neat that Theo discovers the work of the sublime Dutch master Carel Fabritius, killed in a powder blast, just before the fateful event that will carry his mother away. Yet it all works. “All the rest of it is lost—everything he ever did,” his mother quietly laments of the little-known artist, and it is Theo’s mission as he moves through life to see that nothing in his own goes missing. Bookending Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, this is an altogether lovely addition to what might be called the literature of disaster and redemption. The novel is slow to build but eloquent and assured, with memorable characters, not least a Russian cracker-barrel philosopher who delivers a reading of God that Mordecai Richler might applaud. A standout—and well worth the wait.

pictur e books

THE GOLDFINCH

Tartt, Donna Little, Brown (784 pp.) $30.00 | Oct. 22, 2013 978-0-316-05543-7

BLOOD ORANGES

Tierney, Kathleen ROC/Penguin (288 pp.) $16.00 paper | Feb. 5, 2013 978-0-451-46501-6 First of a wisecracking supernatural horror series, from an author who’s better known as Caitlín R. Kiernan (The Drowning Girl, 2012, etc.). Narrator Siobhan Quinn—she insists, fiercely, on Quinn—a street-dwelling heroin addict, became a monster-slayer after killing a ghoul (though, as she finally admits, it was by accident). She has a steady supply of good dope and an apartment thanks to her benefactor, the mysterious fixer and manipulator she calls Mean Mr. B (he uses different names, all beginning with B, depending on circumstance and whim), since he considers it useful to have a monsterslayer in his debt. Having come to believe in her own notoriety, she goes werewolf hunting in Rhode Island. Instead of staying alert, however, Quinn shoots up and gets bitten by the werewolf—just as a vampire shows up! When she regains consciousness, astonished to have survived either antagonist, let alone both, she finds she’s now a werewolf and a vampire. At least she’s no longer an addict, and when Mr. B shows his pleasure at her new condition, she begins to suspect she’s now somebody’s weapon—but whose, and aimed at what? Clearly, she’d better find out—and fast. The New England setting is colorful and convincing, and Tierney populates it with a weird and splendid set of supernatural beings. Quinn isn’t the most reliable of narrators, though eventually she’ll stumble out with the truth; nor,

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“Superlatives seem superfluous. Instead...wow. Just—wow.” from something more than night

THE CENTER OF THE WORLD

as an investigator, does she prove the sharpest of wits, but she gets there. Add in the downbeat tone that somehow manages to be uplifting and the sort of gratuitously gory action that used to be called splatterpunk and readers are in for a memorably exhilarating and engaging experience. Sly, sardonically nasty and amusingly clever.

SOMETHING MORE THAN NIGHT

Tregillis, Ian Tor (304 pp.) $25.99 | Dec. 3, 2013 978-0-7653-3432-9

New, independent fantasy from the author of the fine Milkweed Triptych (Necessary Evil, 2013, etc.)—and it’s a doozy. Imagine a gumshoe noir yarn, embedded in a fundamentally theology-free medieval heaven underpinned by known or extrapolated scientific cosmological theory. Further posit that a minor fallen angel named Bayliss has assumed the persona of Philip Marlowe— why? Eventually readers will find out—and that as the story opens, he watches the death of the angel Gabriel spread across the skies of Earth in a spectacular shower of meteors and particles. Bayliss has been ordered by his superiors in the angelic Choir to recruit a replacement—someone pliable and not too bright. And the victim must die before being resurrected as an angel. So, Bayliss arranges an accident—but instead of his chosen dupe, he kills Molly Pruett, a highly intelligent, strongwilled and stunning redhead. Bayliss, being Marlowe, thinks of Molly as his client and carefully tells her little of what she needs to know to assume her angelic mantle. Impossible as it seems, Gabriel was murdered, somebody has stolen the Jericho Trumpet, and Bayliss is determined to find out why. The trail leads him to Father Santorelli, who’s been handing out powerful plenary indulgences—get out of hell free cards. Molly, meanwhile, after a series of mishaps and a scolding from METATRON, the Voice of God, learns that the recipients of the indulgences cannot sleep for fear of the terrible dreams of angelic violence that now plague them. All this barely scratches the surface of what’s going on here, as Molly (and the reader) gradually comes to realize that Bayliss may not be the most reliable of narrators and that his Marlowe persona is one part of a vast, intricate plot a billion years in the making. Superlatives seem superfluous. Instead...wow. Just—wow.

Van Essen, Thomas Other Press (384 pp.) $15.95 paper | Jun. 4, 2013 978-1-59051-549-5 A terrific debut novel about the mystical and erotic power of art. At the center of the center, as it were, is a hypothetical painting by the 19th-century artist J.M.W. Turner, one in which he brings all his genius to bear. The title of this painting is “The Center of the World,” and it features an astonishingly sensual portrait of Helen of Troy and Paris, with whom Helen eloped. The picture is so scandalous to 19th-century mores that it’s hidden away and believed to have been burned, but it turns up in 2003, of all places in a barn in the Adirondacks. It’s a testament to Van Essen’s control that he makes this scenario plausible, for it turns out that Cornelius Rhinebeck, the owner of a neighboring estate, was a rich captain of industry who, in the early-20th century, amassed a collection of European art, some of it acquired through questionable channels. Henry Leiden, who finds the painting, desultorily heads a small foundation and feels his life, and especially his relationship with his wife, is at an impasse, but the painting exerts an almost otherworldly influence on him. Van Essen creates a complicated narrative structure involving Leiden, Charles Grant (who posed for Paris when Turner was engaged in the painting at Petworth, the estate of the Third Earl of Egremont), Mrs. Spencer (Egremont’s mistress and the model for Helen) and the mysterious Mr. Bryce, head of a firm that arranges art sales and an aesthete who desperately wants to track down the elusive Turner painting. Actually, this masterpiece winds up turning everyone who comes in contact with it into an aesthete—and it also seems to have an almost miraculous power as an aphrodisiac. Van Essen writes gracefully and makes accessible the issue of art as transcendence.

THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI

Wecker, Helene Harper/HarperCollins (496 pp.) $27.99 | Apr. 23, 2013 978-0-06-211083-1 Can’t we all just get along? Perhaps yes, if we’re supernatural beings from one side or another of the Jewish-Arab divide. In her debut novel, Wecker begins with a juicy premise: At the dawn of the 20th century, the shtetls of Europe and half of “Greater Syria” are emptying out, their residents bound for New York or Chicago or Detroit. One aspirant, “a Prussian Jew from Konin, a bustling town to the south of Danzig,” is an unpleasant sort, a bit of a bully, arrogant, unattractive, but with enough loose

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

fiction

kirkus.com

Wientzen, Raoul Arcade (320 pp.) $24.95 | Sep. 3, 2013 978-1-61145-891-6

In this astonishing first novel, 7-yearold, physically disabled Jess reviews her brief, tumultuous life from heaven via films provided by The Assembler, a supreme being who, for mysterious reasons, declined to give her thumbs, several bones, a whole heart and the gift of hearing. For all her defects, hers is a miraculous childhood. With the loving support of her Catholic family, and following several surgeries, she is able to become a vital, expressive, delightful girl. But for all the care she receives from her mother, Kate, and father, Ford—and all of the doting of Joe Cassidy, Ford’s bighearted post office co-worker, who was driven to drink by the loss of his wife and young son in an accident—she is darkly shadowed by fate. The events leading to her death are told with an exquisite attention to detail, emotional and physical. The subsequent narrative, which turns on a wrongful death suit filed by her parents against a cardiologist who failed to spot the vascular anomaly that caused Jess to stop breathing, unfolds with the tension of good detective fiction. Callously investigated for parental neglect, Ford and his pregnant wife are forced to attend parenting sessions along with child abusers and drug addicts who ridicule and assault them. They sign on with a personal injury firm in pursuit of justice, only to have |

kirkus.com

fiction

the profit-minded lawyers violate Jess’ memory by building a case that portrays her as helpless and pathetic. The Assembler, who has a sardonic streak, keeps Jess in the dark about where these posthumous events are leading, but she isn’t afraid to call his number. The low-key conclusion is a bit of a letdown after all that has gone before, but Virginia-based author Wientzen, a pediatrician, imparts so much about the preciousness of life and the power of forgiveness that this is a minor shortcoming. Boasting a fearlessly self-possessed child narrator, this is one of those books you stop what you’re doing to finish, take a breath to ponder its profundities, and start again.

middle gr a de

THE ASSEMBLER OF PARTS

pictur e books

gelt in his pocket to commission a rabbi-without-a-portfolio to build him an idol with feet of clay—and everything else of clay, too. The rabbi, Shaalman, warns that the ensuing golem—in Wecker’s tale, The Golem—is meant to be a slave and “not for the pleasures of a bed,” but he creates her anyway. She lands in Manhattan with less destructive force than Godzilla hit Tokyo, but even so, she cuts a strange figure. So does Ahmad, another slave bottled up—literally—and shipped across the water to a New York slum called Little Syria, where a lucky Lebanese tinsmith named Boutros Arbeely rubs a magic flask in just the right way and—shazam!—the jinni (genie) appears. Ahmad is generally ticked off by events, while The Golem is burdened with the “instinct to be of use.” Naturally, their paths cross, the most unnatural of the unnaturalized citizens of Lower Manhattan—and great adventures ensue, for Shaalman is in the wings, as is a shadowy character who means no good when he catches wind of the supernatural powers to be harnessed. Wecker takes the premise and runs with it, and though her story runs on too long for what is in essence a fairy tale, she writes skillfully, nicely evoking the layers of alienness that fall upon strangers in a strange land. Two lessons: Don’t discount a woman just because she’s made of clay, and consider your wishes carefully should you find that magic lamp.

THE APPLE ORCHARD

Wiggs, Susan Harlequin MIRA (432 pp.) $24.95 | Apr. 30, 2013 978-0-7783-1493-6

Antiques treasure hunter Tess Delaney lives a high-octane existence and is on the cusp of the success she’s fought for, so now may not be the best time to question everything; but as events pile up and secrets are uncovered, forcing her to re-evaluate, she may find that a perfect life she never dreamed of is within her reach. On the very day Tess expects a huge promotion in her highly prestigious antiques brokerage firm, banker Dominic Rossi turns up in her San Francisco office to inform her that she has a grandfather and a half sister she never knew about; that her grandfather is in a coma; and that she’s named in his will as half owner of an orchard that’s about to go under. Raised by a single mother who traveled extensively and an unmarried grandmother who owned an antiques shop, Tess has always been attracted to the idea of family but has had limited exposure to the reality. She is drawn to the honorable Dominic, her welcoming sister Isabel and life in Archangel, Calif., and she quickly becomes entwined in discovering the truth about the family she never knew, bringing her talent and experience as a researcher, historian and treasure hunter to the many secrets buried in the sands of time. Underneath it all, a mysterious, missing heirloom may bring them all financial and emotional salvation, and in the process of discovery, Tess will begin to understand the true power of love, community, family and honor. Wiggs’ latest is a lovely, poignant story of a woman who thinks she has it all until she discovers she truly does, and none of it is what she expected. With vignettes from Nazi-occupied Denmark and a spotlight on the noble actions of an engaged Danish citizenry that reportedly managed to save 99 percent of its Jewish population, Wiggs tells a layered, powerful story of love, loss, hope and redemption.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“An electrifying entertainment.” from the daylight gate

THE DAYLIGHT GATE

Winterson, Jeanette Grove (240 pp.) $24.00 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-0-8021-2163-9

Witchcraft in 17th-century England: from the prolific British author (The Stone Gods, 2008, etc.), a nightmarish novella that burns like a hot coal. It was a notorious trial. The Lancashire Witches were tried and executed in 1612. England was jittery. The Protestant king, James I, was intent on hunting down witches and Catholics. The Gunpowder Plot had been a close call; all the Catholic plotters had fled north to Lancashire. Winterson uses the historical framework, grafting her inventions onto it. Entering the past with her is like walking through an open door. You are there. It is a world of rape and pillage. The most conspicuous witches are the Demdikes, a fearsome family of wretched indigents. The gentlewoman Alice Nutter, wealthy from inventing a dye, lets them live in a grim tower on her land. It is Good Friday. The Demdikes are planning a Black Mass. It is Alice’s misfortune to be at the tower when the magistrate arrives. All of them, save Alice, are placed under guard. Alice does not believe in witchcraft, but she does believe in magic, which flickers throughout the narrative. Thirty years before, in London, she had known the alchemist John Dee and the beautiful Elizabeth Southern, one of her two great loves. Then Elizabeth sold her soul to the Dark Gentleman, but Alice stayed young, thanks to Dee’s Elixir of Life. Now she is in danger, for her other great love, the Catholic plotter Southworth, has materialized at her house. The magistrate offers a deal: Give up Southworth and go free, or be tried as a witch with the others. Alice refuses, sealing her fate. As the tension mounts, Winterson weaves into her story a voodoo doll stuck with pins and an eerie meeting on haunted Pendle Hill between Alice and the dead John Dee. There will be torture and false testimony. An electrifying entertainment.

THE LAND ACROSS

Wolfe, Gene Tor (288 pp.) $25.99 | Nov. 26, 2013 978-0-7653-3595-1

From the accomplished author of Home Fires (2011, etc.), a new fantasy that seamlessly blends mystery, travelogue, authoritarianism and the supernatural. Grafton, an American travel writer, becomes intrigued by a remote and unnamed Balkan country that chooses to make itself extremely difficult to visit—no flights land there, roads turn back on themselves in the mountains, and so the only way in is by train. But at the border, guards remove him from the train and confiscate his passport and luggage. Instead of prison, though, he’s housed 40

with the surly thug Kleon and his attractive wife, Martya, with the proviso that if Grafton absconds, the police will shoot Kleon. Martya, with whom he’s soon having an affair, tells him of a treasure hidden in an abandoned house. Unfortunately, the house is haunted—confirmed by their discovery of a mummified corpse behind an old mirror. Then, Grafton’s kidnapped by the Legion of the Light and conveyed to the capital, where he agrees to help them broadcast their religious/supernatural philosophy. Soon enough JAKA, the secret police, capture him and throw him in jail, where he finds fellow American Russ Rathaus—apparently some kind of sorcerer who soon manages to escape by unknown means. Grafton realizes that the only way he’ll resolve the situation is by figuring out what’s really going on, so when he’s interrogated by Naala, a senior JAKA agent in pursuit of a thoroughly unpleasant black-magic cult known as the Unholy Way, he agrees to help her. But is Grafton a reliable narrator, and is Rathaus as innocent as he seems? Wolfe, in masterful mood, builds his characters, explores the puzzles, links the elements together and contrives to render the backdrop both intriguingly attractive and creepily sinister. Sheer enjoyment.

THE MAID’S VERSION

Woodrell, Daniel Little, Brown (176 pp.) $25.00 | Sep. 3, 2013 978-0-316-20585-6

A grandson becomes obsessed with his grandmother’s story about a smalltown disaster from many years ago. Set in the Ozarks, the book is inspired by history and is far less noirtinged than the author’s earlier works (The Outlaw Album, 2011, etc.). Loosely based on the real-life West Plains Dance Hall Explosion of 1928, it centers on Alma DeGeer Dunahew, a maid with three children in fictional West Table, Mo. After years of bitter silence, Alma has chosen to unburden her story on her grandson, Alek. “Alma DeGeer Dunahew, with her pinched, hostile nature, her dark obsessions and primal need for revenge, was the big red heart of our family, the true heart, the one we keep secret and that sustains us,” Alek says. Alma’s younger sister Ruby may be a bit wayward, but Alma cherishes her. When Ruby is killed along with 42 other victims in the local Arbor Dance Hall, Alma is determined that the explosion was no accident. From these slim threads, Woodrell gives us many potential culprits, among them an Old Testament preacher and a gang of bank robbers, not to mention all the secrets and lies kept by the good people of any rural village. Short chapters reveal only the most telling and scarce details of Woodrell’s lineup of characters, lending the story a spare, bitter charm. This may be a minor work for this major American writer, but no craftsman toiling away in a workshop ever fashioned his wares so carefully. A commanding fable about trespass and reconstruction from a titan of Southern fiction.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

fiction

kirkus.com

best books of

2013

guar anteed

to get your book club talking pictur e books

A THOUSAND PARDONS

An irresistible retake on Pride and Prejudice alters the familiar perspective by foregrounding a different version of events—the servants’.

A marriage flames out. Gleefully, thrillingly, Dee tracks its aftermath, focusing primarily on the evolution of the ex-wife.

LOOKAWAY, LOOKAWAY

Andre Dubus III Norton

middle gr a de

LONGBOURN

Jo Baker Knopf

Jonathan Dee Random House

DIRTY LOVE

Wilton Barnhardt St. Martin’s

Barnhardt’s fourth novel is a revelation: Witty, savage and bighearted all at once, it is the Southern novel for the 21st century.

Dubus anatomizes personal—especially sexual—relationships brilliantly in these loosely concatenated novellas.

A COMMONPLACE KILLING Siân Busby Marble Arch/Simon & Schuster

A murder investigation centering on postwar London brings together two very different people in Busby’s last novel.

kirkus.com

fiction

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

get your book club talking (cont.)

HOW TO GET FILTHY RICH IN RISING ASIA

ANGEL BABY

An extravagantly good alternate-universe Horatio Alger story for the teeming billions, affirming all that’s right—and wrong— with economic globalization.

A rising star in neonoir, Lange follows up his 2009 novel, This Wicked World, with a sharply calibrated and affecting tale about a young Mexican beauty who will do anything to reclaim the baby daughter she left in Los Angeles.

Mohsin Hamid Riverhead

Richard Lange Mulholland Books/Little, Brown

THE DINNER Herman Koch Hogarth/Crown

A high-class meal provides an unlikely window into privilege, violence and madness.

FOOLS

Joan Silber Norton

THE FLAMETHROWERS Rachel Kushner Scribner

A sequence of six linked stories explores the lives of those who risk something for their ideals, which is not the same as, and produces quite different results from, risking something for one’s beliefs.

A novel of art and politics but also of bikes and speed—not Harleys and drugs, but fine (and fast) Italian motorbikes.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

fiction

kirkus.com

—Vicky Smith

LOCOMOTIVE

Floca, Brian Illus. by Floca, Brian Richard Jackson/ Atheneum (64 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 3, 2013 978-1-4169-9415-2

AKISSI Cat Invasion

Abouet, Marguerite Illus. by Sapin, Mathieu Translated by Taboy, J. Flying Eye Books (48 pp.) $14.99 | May 14, 2013 978-1-909263-01-7

middle gr a de

a beleaguered house cat deals with an alien invasion. A grandmother takes her grandson blueberry picking. The coolest babysitter in the world tells bedtime stories. A grieving girl finds solace in her father’s arms. The humble toilet is spectacularly demystified. And that’s not all…. What a year it’s been for picture books. Stacked one on top of the other, the pile of great picture books I’d been collecting over the course of the year was taller than I am—and while I am not tall, I wouldn’t say I am particularly short, either. How to weigh a simple and silly early reader about a little boy lifted aloft by a balloon against a heartbreaking allegory of a Mexican child’s journey to El Norte to find his lost papá? A deliciously tricky metafictive tale of a little red pencil’s perilous trip along the story path to Principal Granny’s office against a stunning concertina-format retelling of the story of Noah and the Ark with art that comes from the Bengali folk tradition? A stately biography of Nelson Mandela against a wild, wild bike ride? It was just a great year. When I realized there was no way I would be able to whittle my preliminary list of great picture books down to 50, I begged for an extra 10. Thank goodness the powers that be granted them, or I’d be sitting on the floor of my office yet, trying to decide which were the best. Without further ado, then, please enjoy the Best 60 Picture Books of 2013!

pictur e books

picture books Ivory Coast–born Abouet (Aya, 2007, for adults) dishes out bursts of simultaneous hilarity and horror in African vignettes aimed at a younger audience. All seven episodes feature young Akissi and her brother Fofana or her friends getting into trouble for less-than-exemplary (to say the least) behavior. In “Good Mums,” for instance, she borrows a neighbor’s baby and tenderly feeds it a stew concocted from discarded scraps found in the market. “Home Cinema” has her playing lookout while Fofana sells spots in front of the television set to neighborhood children. She loses a fish to an opportunistic stray in “Cat Invasion.” And in “Football Match,” she kicks a soccer ball over a wall belonging to a surly hunchback and draws the (to her) logical conclusion: “He had swallowed it!” Framed in cleanly drawn, easy-to-read sequential panels, the art sets dialogue balloons and cartoon figures dressed in a casual mix of Western and traditional garb in an unpaved but well-kept urban neighborhood. Following the spectacularly gross “Tapeworm,” an equally (but for different reasons) delicious recipe for “Coconut Goat’s Droppings” caps this memorable introduction to a character whose further misadventures, already available in France, can’t make their way across the pond quickly enough. Strong stomachs are a prerequisite. Even the strongest will be left both queasy and sore from laughter. (Graphic short stories. 7-10)

POMELO’S OPPOSITES

Badescu, Ramona Illus. by Chaud, Benjamin Translated by Bedrick, Claudia Enchanted Lion Books (120 pp.) $15.95 | Jul. 15, 2013 978-1-59270-132-2 Pomelo, a diminutive, round-eyed, pink elephant child, discovers opposites in his garden world. Sometimes satisfyingly clear and sometimes comically questionable, all 58 of Pomelo’s opposites engage and delight. |

kirkus.com

picture books

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

Are polka-dot mushrooms really the opposite of striped mushrooms? Many pairings challenge young readers with sophisticated humor, hinting at tacit desires and subtle feelings. In one spread, Pomelo appears with a lustrous head of blond hair with “dream” appearing beneath; on the accompanying page, a bald head sits atop his body with “reality” stamped below. Pomelo’s eyes look identically plaintive in both portraits—a perfect punch line. These illustrations, rich with implicit suggestions, prompt parents to offer explanations or (better yet!) solicit interpretations from their children. Some opposites, thankfully, are just downright silly. Watch Pomelo, whose body crosses the book’s gutter, open w-i-d-e for a round, red fruit (“in”) on the left page, and see his tail raised to expel an identically spherical poo (“out”) on the right. The book’s pace quickens as it advances, and more and more quirky, nonsensical, complicated pairings crop up. The speedy delivery of associations starts to feel like an exciting, wild ride. Images, words and meanings volley back and forth, bouncing from page to page and between this clever book and readers’ imaginations. Simple, sunny, silly illustrations brilliantly convey the complexities and joys one can unearth when tilling a garden of language. (Picture book. 4-6)

BUILDING OUR HOUSE

Bean, Jonathan Illus. by Bean, Jonathan Farrar, Straus and Giroux (48 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-374-38023-6 Bean sets aside the urban setting of his Boston Globe–Horn Book Award winner, At Night (2007), in this homage to his back-to-the-land parents, who built his childhood home in the 1970s. Told from the perspective of Bean’s older sister, the story revels in the practical work of house-building, demystifying the stages of construction in a matter-of-fact, engaging tone. The oversized, portrait format echoes the height of the house the family builds, but front endpapers first show a vast, rural landscape in the foreground of which lies the “weedy field Dad and Mom bought from a farmer.” Frontmatter depicts them packing and leaving the city. Ensuing spreads detail how they live in a trailer on their new property while slowly building the house: setting the corners of the foundation; digging out the basement; gathering rocks and using them in the foundation; measuring, marking and cutting timber for the frame; and so on. The scene depicting a frame-raising party situates the little homesteading family in a loving community of relatives and friends who gather to help; then, right after they all move in, the family grows when both Mom and the pet cat have babies. Throughout, the watercolor-and-ink illustrations invite close examination for narrative details such as these while also providing ample visual information about construction. Raise the roof for this picture book. It’s something special. (Picture book. 3-8) 44

JOURNEY

Becker, Aaron Illus. by Becker, Aaron Candlewick (40 pp.) $15.99 | Aug. 6, 2013 978-0-7636-6053-6

Ignored by her digitally distracted family, a girl draws a red door on her bedroom wall and steps through. A lush green forest twinkles with lanterns and strung lights; a dizzying castle towers, its gates, turrets and halls linked by complicated waterways; a hovering aircraft festooned with propellers and wheels holds an imprisoned purple-plumed bird. Amid these marvels, the girl appears markedly ordinary with her common pageboy haircut, minimal facial features and simple clothes. She could be anyone, really, and readers will easily appropriate her journey as their own. Putty-colored grays and flat, boxy city shapes defined the girl’s urban reality, but here, color rules, modulating from mossy greens to slate blues to dusky purple—all punctuated with her crayon’s brilliant red and the yellow of a golden bird cage. White pages highlight action (the girl’s crayon whips up a boat, a hot air balloon and a magic carpet when needed), but most spreads deliver fantastically intricate pen, ink and watercolor architectural illustrations that remain playfully engrossing. They conjure contextual questions with no clear answers, or perhaps with so many answers one’s imagination finds itself opening door upon door and crossing thresholds, just as the girl did to escape loneliness. After freeing the bird, she needs its help for a quick escape through a small purple door back to her everyday street and back to a boy who wields an equally powerful purple crayon (an obvious and moving homage). An imaginative adventure story whose elaborate illustrations inspire wonder, careful examination and multiple reads. (Picture book. 2-6)

ON A BEAM OF LIGHT

Berne, Jennifer Illus. by Radunsky, Vladimir Chronicle (56 pp.) $17.99 | May 1, 2013 978-0-8118-7235-5

A boy who asked too many questions becomes iconic physicist Albert Einstein, whose questions changed the world. The author of Manfish (illustrated by Eric Puybaret, 2008) presents another dreamer, a man who “asked questions never asked before. / Found answers never found before. / And dreamed up ideas never dreamt before.” Story and perfectly matched illustrations begin with the small boy who talked late, watched and thought, and imagined traveling through space on a light beam. Readers see the curious child growing into the man who constantly read and learned and wondered. With gouache, pen and ink, Radunsky’s humorous, childlike drawings convey Einstein’s personality as well as the important ideas in the text

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

picture books

kirkus.com

One Gorilla: A Counting Book Anthony Browne

The Matchbox Diary Paul Fleischman/Bagram Ibatoulline

Bluffton Matt Phelan

Look Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Backyard Annette LeBlanc Cate

Amy Ehrlich/Daniel Nevins

HC: 978-0-7636-6352-0 • $16.99 ($20.00 CAN)

HC: 978-0-7636-5079-7 • $22.99 ($26.00 CAN)

Flora and Ulysses: HC: 978-0-7636-6040-6 • E-book: 978-0-7636-6724-5 $17.99 ($20.00 CAN)

HC: 978-0-7636-4601-1 • $16.99 ($19.00 CAN)

With a Mighty Hand: The Story in the Torah

HC: 978-0-7636-4395-9 • $29.99 ($32.00 CAN) • Also available in audio

HC: 978-0-7636-4561-8 • $15.99 ($18.00 CAN)

Courage Has No Color, The True Story of the Triple Nickles:

The Illuminated Adventures

Kate DiCamillo/K. G. Campbell

America’s First Black Paratroopers

Tanya Lee Stone

middle gr a de

Journey Aaron Becker

HC: 978-0-7636-6053-6 • $15.99 ($18.00 CAN)

pictur e books

celebrates our s s e r P k Candlewic ws Best Books of 20 e i v e R s 13 Kirku

Hero on a Bicycle Shirley Hughes

Romeo and Juliet Gareth Hinds

HC: 978-0-7636-6037-6 • E-book: 978-0-7636-6359-9 $15.99 ($18.00 CAN) • Also available in audio

HC: 978-0-7636-5948-6 • $21.99 ($25.00 CAN) PB: 978-0-7636-6807-5 • $12.99 ($15.00 CAN)

Black Helicopters Blythe Woolston

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass Meg Medina

HC: 978-0-7636-5117-6 • E-book: 978-0-7636-6820-4 $24.99 ($28.00 CAN) PB: 978-0-7636-6548-7 • $17.99 ($20.00 CAN) • Also available in audio

Quintana of Charyn Melina Marchetta

HC: 978-0-7636-5835-9 • E-book: 978-0-7636-6360-5 $18.99 ($21.00 CAN)

More Than This Patrick Ness

HC: 978-0-7636-6258-5 • E-book: 978-0-7636-6767-2 $19.99 ($19.99 CAN)

HC: 978-0-7636-6146-5 • E-book: 978-0-7636-6355-1 $15.99 ($18.00 CAN) • Also available in audio

HC: 978-0-7636-5859-5 • E-book: 978-0-7636-6354-4 $16.99 ($19.00 CAN) • Also available in audio

www.candlewick.com |

StarredReviews_kirkus.indd 1

kirkus.com

picture books

10/28/13 2:10 PM

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“…every visible eye gleams with steady, clear intelligence.” from one gorilla

(which are set out in red letters). The narrative text includes several of Einstein’s big ideas about time and space; one illustration and the back endpapers include the famous formula. The mottled, textured paper of each page reinforces the concept that everything is made of atoms. A nice touch at the end shows children who might also wonder, think and imagine dressed in the professor’s plaid suit. An author’s note adds a little more about the person and the scientist. For today’s curious children, this intriguing and accessible blend of words and pictures will provide a splendid introduction to a man who never stopped questioning. (Picture book/biography. 6-9)

MR. TIGER GOES WILD

Brown, Peter Illus. by Brown, Peter Little, Brown (48 pp.) $18.00 | Sep. 3, 2013 978-0-316-20063-9

There’s a lot to go wild for in this picture-book celebration of individuality and self-expression. Mr. Tiger lives a peaceable, if repressed, life alongside other anthropomorphic animals in a monochromatic, dreadfully formal little town. All the other animals seem content with their stiff, dull lives, except for Mr. Tiger, whose bright coloring is a visual metaphor for his dissatisfaction. When child (animal) characters scamper by, a bipedal horse admonishes them, “Now, children, please do not act like wild animals.” This plants a seed in Mr. Tiger’s mind, and a few pages later, he embraces a quadruped stance. The spread following this wordless one makes great use of the gutter, positioning aghast townsfolk on the verso as Mr. Tiger proudly marches off the recto on all fours. This is just the beginning of his adoption of wild ways, however: He sheds his clothing, runs away to the wilderness, roars and generally runs amok. But, much like that other Wild Thing, Max, Mr. Tiger comes to miss his friends, his city and his home, and so he returns to find “that things were beginning to change.” Ensuing pages show animals in various states of (un)dress, sometimes on all fours, sometimes on two feet, cavorting about in colorful settings, and (to paraphrase the closing lines) all feeling free to be themselves. Hooray for Mr. Tiger and his wild ways! (Picture book. 3-7)

ONE GORILLA

Browne, Anthony Illus. by Browne, Anthony Candlewick (32 pp.) $16.99 | Feb. 1, 2013 978-0-7636-6352-0 Browne really cranks up the color intensity in this gorgeous, large-trim portrait gallery of primates. Beginning with “1 gorilla” and counting up to “10 lemurs,” he presents on each spread a formally arranged head and upperbody close-up, with each subject placed against a plain white backdrop facing the viewer. Most are smiling, though as the groupings increase in size, they begin to take on the look of class photos, with a range of expressions on view and eyes sometimes playfully glancing to the side rather than looking directly out. Nonetheless, every visible eye gleams with steady, clear intelligence. Each ape is painted in hair-fine detail, in variegated hues that—particularly for the titular simian and the fiery orange parent and child orangutans that follow—glow incandescently. Browne closes with a self-portrait followed by a multicultural gathering of humans spanning the age spectrum, all with features and expressions that clearly echo those seen previously on hairier faces. The former British Children’s Laureate has a simple point—“All primates. / All one family. / All my family… / and yours!”—and he makes it in a visually compelling way. (Picture book. 3-8)

A SPLASH OF RED The Life and Art of Horace Pippin

Bryant, Jen Illus. by Sweet, Melissa Knopf (40 pp.) $17.99 | $20.99 PLB | Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-375-86712-5 978-0-375-96712-2-PLB

This outstanding portrait of African-American artist Horace Pippin (1888-1946) allows Pippin’s work to shine—and his heart too. “The colors are simple, such as brown, amber, yellow, black, white and green,” says pencil-lettered text on the front endpapers. These are Pippin’s own humble words. His art and life aren’t really simple at all, but here, they’re eminently accessible. On that spread, brush and pencil lie on overlapping off-white papers—lined, gridded, plain—decorated in pencil hatchings and a painted progression of hues between each primary color and its complement. From Pippin’s young childhood (working for pay to help his family; sketching with charcoal and paper scraps until he wins his first real art supplies in a contest), to his Army service in World War I, to the well-deserved fame that arrived only late in his life, he “couldn’t stop drawing.” When a military injury threatens Pippin’s painting ability, he tries wood burning—“[u]sing his good arm to move the

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

picture books

kirkus.com

pictur e books

A KIRKUS REVIEWS BE ST BOOK OF TH E YE AR

middle gr a de

A KIRKUS REVIEWS BE ST BOOK OF TH E YE AR

kirkus.com

picture books

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“Minidramas unfold by the square inch on delicious curry-, paprika- and olive-colored pages…” from the bear’s song

hurt one”—and works his way back to painting. Sweet’s sophisticated mixed media (watercolor, gouache and collage), compositional framing, and both subdued and glowing colors pay homage to Pippin’s artistic style and sometimes re-create his pieces. Bryant’s text is understated, letting Pippin’s frequent quotations glimmer along with the art. Backmatter provides exceptional resources, including artwork locations. A splash of vibrancy about a self-taught master. (historical note, author’s note, illustrator’s note, references) (Picture book/biography. 5-11)

HAVE YOU SEEN MY NEW BLUE SOCKS?

Bunting, Eve Illus. by Ruzzier, Sergio Clarion (32 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-0-547-75267-9

Where, oh where are Duck’s new blue socks? Duck is quite sad over the loss of his new blue socks. “I know I put them somewhere near. / How could they simply disappear?” He searches his big box to no avail. He asks his friend Mr. Fox. Mr. Fox hasn’t seen them, but he suggests rifling the big box and asking the ox. The ox hasn’t seen them either, but he did see some socks on the rocks by the lake. Unfortunately, “[t]hese are socks, but they’re not new. / They’re more like purple, not like blue.” Duck asks the peacocks if they’ve seen his socks, telling them everywhere he’s looked and everyone he’s asked…and the youngest peacock notices “…a touch of blue / underneath your laced-up shoe!” Bunting and Ruzzier (Tweak Tweak, 2011) reteam with excellent results. Bunting’s lyrical rhyming, repeating text is only a few large words from early-reader territory: “I’m trying not to be depressed. / Without my socks I feel undressed.” Storytime audiences will enjoy Duck’s sock hunt, and lapsitters with sharp eyes can spot the gradual unraveling reveal of the new blue socks’ location in Ruzzier’s broad, cartoon watercolors. A great addition to the literature on ducks…or socks! (Picture book. 2-6)

THE BEAR’S SONG

Chaud, Benjamin Illus. by Chaud, Benjamin Chronicle (32 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 17, 2013 978-1-4521-1424-8

Hibernation is for grown-ups—Little Bear has adventure on his mind. In mad pursuit of a bee, Little Bear races through the forest, farther and farther away from his snoozing, cave-bound father: “Little Bear is too caught up in honey thoughts to hear winter’s whisper. A busy sort of buzzing beckons him instead.” 48

Eagle-eyed readers can track the bear and bee all the way to Paris from the French countryside, devouring the hundreds of fanciful details that populate each gorgeous, oversized, doublepage spread. When Papa Bear wakes up and sees his errant cub is missing, he too dashes off, eventually ending up at the Opéra Garnier and—oo la la!—even finding his voice onstage: “Grooooaaaarrrr!” Minidramas unfold by the square inch on delicious curry-, paprika- and olive-colored pages—cloaked and shifty-eyed lurkers, a mysterious lady with a poodle, a monkeyhatted child. Even in the Opéra’s exquisitely rendered architectural flourishes lurk images of forest beasts, and the honeycomb endpapers aptly flank the busy visual hive within. The playful, poetic text—brilliantly translated from the original French— hums along as nature and culture stylishly collide: “Now where could that bee and that Little Bear be?” This extraordinary picture book, first published in France as Une chanson d’ours (2011), is as happy a surprise as finding a honey-filled hive at the end of a fur-raising journey. (Picture book. 2-8)

DEEP IN THE SAHARA

Cunnane, Kelly Illus. by Hadadi, Hoda Schwartz & Wade/Random (40 pp.) $17.99 | $20.99 PLB | Oct. 8, 2013 978-0-375-87034-7 978-0-375-97034-4 PLB Lalla, a little Mauritanian girl, gets her heart’s desire when she shows her mother that her faith is important to her. Lalla sees her mother, her big sister, Selma, her cousin Aisha, her grandmother and all the other women in her West African town all wrapped in malafa, the colorful veils that wrap from head to toe. She wants to look beautiful and grown-up too, but each female family member tells her that wearing the malafa is more important than beauty, mystery, being a mature woman and even tradition. When Lalla figures out for herself that the malafa is central to the religious practice of Muslim women in her region, then her mother joyously wraps her in “a malafa / as blue as the Sahara sky / as blue as the ink in the Koran / as blue as a stranger’s eye.” The author notes that she changed her opinion regarding the wearing of veils for religious reasons when she lived in Mauritania and wrote this book to share the joy she observed. The collage illustrations done by an Iranian artist show the colorful cloths of “lime and mango,” the beautiful women wearing the veils in different ways and the details of the houses. Poetic language, attractive illustrations and a positive message about Islam, without any didacticism: a wonderful combination. (Picture book. 5-7)

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

picture books

kirkus.com

GRANDMA AND THE GREAT GOURD

Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee Illus. by Waters, Susy Pilgrim Neal Porter/Roaring Brook (32 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-1-59643-378-6

Retelling a story from her childhood, well-known Bengali-American writer Divakaruni uses lively language, nonsense syllables and traditional rhythms. When Grandma sets out to visit her daughter and grandchildren, she must cross the jungle in between their villages. She leaves her faithful dogs home to tend her garden. Along the way, she meets a fox, a bear and a tiger that all want to eat her, but she persuades the predators that she will be fatter, plumper and juicier on her way back. She approaches her return journey with trepidation, but the inventive mother and daughter create a plan for a safe trip. The old woman is soon ensconced inside a giant, hollowed-out gourd. When the daughter has sealed her in with stitches and rice glue, she starts the gourd rolling toward her mother’s village. First the tiger and then the bear approach the gourd in hopes of finding something to eat. They are each fooled by the grandma singing out and asking for a push. At last, |

kirkus.com

picture books

the crafty fox realizes the trick, but by then, Grandma is so close to home the dogs are able to rescue her. The storyteller’s voice is augmented by frequent repetition and onomatopoeia, making this story a pleasure to read aloud. Intensely colored and patterned collages on glossy paper boldly advance the plot. This fresh new version will soon have young listeners and readers telling the story themselves. (Picture book/folk tale. 6-8)

NEVER EVER

middle gr a de

Young readers and listeners will feel like cheering when this unprepossessing hero gets his due. Davies’ signature caricature art lends itself perfectly to an exaggerated visual accompaniment for this earnest, simple and sweet tale of a boy, his bike and a bully. Ben’s great new bike takes him by any route he likes to school, including the long one over hill and dale, hopping across a stream on the heads of what look like sharks, leaping a line of school buses. But, alas, arrival at school only means that Adrian Underbite (“perhaps the world’s largest third-grader”) makes off with Ben’s bike. When Ben later finds Adrian in “a significant spot of trouble,” both readers and Ben may find that doing the right thing is not the first thought that comes to mind. “How extraordinarily terrible,” Ben muses sardonically. There are a few tense moments in the brief narrative when it seems that no good deed will go unpunished, but a familiar story emerges—spoiler here: A bully has a change of heart—and it becomes astonishingly fresh and fun in Davies’ hands. Davies’ cheeky, cheerfully frayed line gives readers figures somewhat larger than life—and indeed twice as natural. Ben’s hasty, heroic hoodie rescue is dramatic and funny, and the last line and accompanying illustration will provoke out-loud laughter. Great amusement for the bold and timid alike. (Picture book. 4-8)

pictur e books

BEN RIDES ON

Davies, Matt Illus. by Davies, Matt Neal Porter/Roaring Brook (32 pp.) $16.99 | May 28, 2013 978-1-59643-794-4

Empson, Jo Illus. by Empson, Jo Child’s Play (32 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 1, 2013 978-1-84643-552-2 Who says closing your eyes hinders adventure? “Nothing exciting ever happens to me! Never, ever! Humph,” grumbles a girl with coiled-spring red legs and scribbly-straight ginger hair. Holding her floppy stuffed rabbit, she closes her eyes and sets off on a stroll. They pass an orchard of innocent pigs, one of which sprouts wings and follows, aloft. In a field of wind-bent reeds, a purple gorilla stands; from a mass of shining yellow flowers, up pops a lion. The girl’s eyes stay resolutely closed, even when the lion’s gusting roar blows her hair and dress like a stiff breeze. “[N]ever, ever, ever, evereverevereverevereverever,” she repeats, as animals emerge from the abstract, ever-changing landscape. Gorgeous secondary and tertiary colors, often watery and splashing, make a vibrant mix of saturation and pallor. Motion-filled lines create energy. Surprise and hilarity escalate, all rising from the girl’s closed eyes, but is she really entirely ignorant? Perhaps not: The gorilla inquires “Ever?” and she answers; plus, her eyes do open at a certain critical point, yet afterward, even as she cleans grime off her bunny, she insists, “See? Told you! Nothing exciting EVER happens to me!” Her eyes-shut expression holds subtle amusement and defiance; this girl may know more than she admits. Eye-catching pictures and splendid forward momentum add up to a giggle-inducing tale with subtlety underneath. (Picture book. 3-6)

NIGHT SKY WHEEL RIDE

Fitch, Sheree Illus. by Yayo Tradewind Books (32 pp.) $16.95 | Feb. 15, 2013 978-1-896580-67-8 Poem and pictures unite in a delirious celebration of a first ride on a Ferris wheel. Two children answer their own repeated chorus of “Are we big enough this year, Mama? / Are we brave enough, Brother? / Sister, are you ready to fly?” with a resounding “YES.” They race through fairgrounds to soar, “swiggle sway / creak squeak

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

/ rickety ratcheting / up! / up! / up!” Literally rolling across the pages, Fitch’s lines fizz with motion, emotion and metaphor. Yayo’s cotton-candy–colored pictures pick it all up with vigorously brushed fancies in which the children’s arms become wings or reach out to dandelion-fluff stars. The wheel itself undergoes a series of transformations from giant squealing pig to spinning clothes dryer to bars of music to rows of cocoons and exotic birds. Earthbound again, the excitement abates not a whit: “We are fizzy with the dizzy reeling / fuzzy with the Ferris wheel feeling // Now and forever a part of the sky.” A giddy, intense, hugely fun ride that will propel listening audiences large or small into spinning tizzies of their own. (Picture book. 5-9)

THE MATCHBOX DIARY

Fleischman, Paul Illus. by Ibatoulline, Bagram Candlewick (40 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 12, 2013 978-0-7636-4601-1

The story of one person’s life is the very essence of history, transcending time, distance and generations. A little girl and her great-grandfather meet for the first time and attempt to get to know each other. The child is intrigued by the curiosities she sees in a collection of matchboxes. These matchboxes represent the memories of the old man’s life, a tangible diary, undertaken as a substitute for the written form at a time in his life when he was illiterate. Bits and pieces contained within call forth events, emotions or people that were important in his life’s journey, from his early childhood in Italy to the difficult voyage to America and the struggles of his immigrant family in the new world. An olive pit, a pen nib, a fish bone, a piece of coal and more tell of poverty, dreams and perseverance. Writing entirely in dialogue, Fleischman employs a natural and believable matter-of-fact tone that provides a fresh view of the immigrant experience, as the humble objects and their stories form the beginning of a loving bond between the little girl and her great-grandfather. Ibatoulline’s illustrations, done in acrylic gouache, are extraordinarily detailed and expressive. Modern scenes appear in warm, amber-toned colors, while framed sepia vignettes depict past memories as if part of a family album. Captivating and powerful. (Picture book. 6-10)

WILD BERRIES

Flett, Julie Illus. by Flett, Julie Simply Read Books (32 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 1, 2013 978-1-897476-89-5 Select words paired to sonorous equivalents in the Swampy Cree dialect highlight this serene picture of a blueberry-picking expedition. Since before he could walk, little Clarence has accompanied his grandma in season to a certain clearing to pick “wild berries / pikaci-minísa.” Once grandma has checked for bears (“maskwak”), the two set to picking—and eating—with breaks to watch an ant (“eník”) and other wildlife. When their buckets are full, they say “thank you / nanaskomowak” and depart—leaving a handful of berries for the birds. In the illustrations, two figures walk among tall, widely spaced tree trunks through grasses neatly drawn in single, straight brushstrokes to a clearing mottled with low berry plants. A red sun hangs in a white sky that is visually an extension of the white facing page on which the Cree, printed in red italics, draws the eye to the short, widely spaced lines of narrative. Except for a passing fox and the occasional bird, animals are depicted as silhouettes, which adds to the episode’s overall visual simplicity. Flett, an illustrator of Cree-Métis heritage, created a cultural and artistic showcase in Owls See Clearly at Night: A Michif Alphabet (2010); despite the language notes, this offering is a more general one. A sweet commemoration of a shared experience, presented with care and infused with intimacy. (pronunciation guide, wild blueberry jam recipe) (Picture book. 5- 7)

LOCOMOTIVE

Floca, Brian Illus. by Floca, Brian Richard Jackson/Atheneum (64 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 3, 2013 978-1-4169-9415-2 Floca took readers to the moon with the Apollo 11 mission in Moonshot (2009); now he takes them across the country on an equally historic journey of 100 years earlier. In a collegial direct address, he invites readers to join a family—mother, daughter and son—on one of the first passenger trips from Omaha to Sacramento after the meeting of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific in May 1869. With encyclopedic enthusiasm, Floca visually documents the trip, vignettes illustrating the train’s equipment as well as such must-know details as toilet and sleeping conditions. Full- and double-page spreads take advantage of the book’s unusually large trim for breathtaking long shots of the American landscape and thrilling perspectives of the muscular engine itself. The nameless girl and boy provide touchstones for readers throughout, dubiously eyeing an unidentifiable dinner, juddering across a trestle, staring out with wideeyed wonder. Unjustly undersung as a writer, Floca soars with his free-verse narrative, exploiting alliteration, assonance and

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

picture books

kirkus.com

★HORN BOOK ★BOOKLIST ★KIRKUS ★PW ★SLJ

★KIRKUS

★PW

★BOOKLIST ★KIRKUS ★LMC ★SLJ

★PW

middle gr a de

★KIRKUS

★BOOKLIST ★SLJ

pictur e books

Journey to the stars with

★BCCB ★BOOKLIST ★HORN BOOK ★LMC ★PW ★SLJ

★PW ★SLJ

★BOOKLIST ★KIRKUS ★LMC ★PW ★SLJ

★KIRKUS ★PW

★LMC

★KIRKUS ★PW

MARTIN & MAHALIA 978-0-316-07013-3 • ONCE UPON A MEMORY 978-0-316-20816-1 • THE CATS OF TANGLEWOOD FOREST 978-0-316-05357-0 • THE DARK 978-0-316-18748-0 • MR. TIGER GOES WILD 978-0-316-20063-9 • SURE SIGNS OF CRAZY 978-0-316-21058-4 • THE FIRST DRAWING 978-0-316-20478-1 • MARC BROWN’S PLAYTIME RHYMES 978-0-316-20735-5 SUGAR 978-0-316-04305-2 • PI IN THE SKY 978-0-316-08916-6 • THE TORTOISE & THE HARE 978-0-316-18356-7 THE SASQUATCH ESCAPE 978-0-316-20934-2 • LING & TING SHARE A BIRTHDAY 978-0-316-18405-2

kirkus.com

picture books

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“The drifting verse floats and coalesces like the clouds that threaten to divert the boy from whale watching. When read aloud, it charms like an incantation.” from if you want to see a whale

internal rhyme to reinforce the rhythms of the journey. Frequent variations in font and type (“HUFF HUFF HUFF!” is spelled out in ornate, antique letters) further boost the excitement. Front endpapers provide detail on the building of the transcontinental railroad; back endpapers show the steam engine in cross section, explaining exactly how coal and water made it go. Nothing short of spectacular, just like the journey it describes. (Informational picture book. 4-10)

IF YOU WANT TO SEE A WHALE

Fogliano, Julie Illus. by Stead, Erin E. Neal Porter/Roaring Brook (32 pp.) $16.99 | May 14, 2013 978-1-59643-731-9 Fogliano and Stead (And Then It’s Spring, 2012) produce another tender, timid story about a boy, his animal friends (a basset hound and a bird) and practicing patience. Whale watching requires lots of resolve to avoid distractions like birds, roses, pirate ships, clouds, pelicans and so on. Fogliano’s exhaustive accounting of what not to notice artfully communicates the impossibility of unflagging focus. Her skeined advice unreels in a vivid, looping poem, while Stead’s soft, accompanying artwork settles into subdued, simple compositions. Linoleum printing offers oceanic, undulating blues and greens, while pencil drawings bring the redheaded boy’s freckles and his hound’s drooping skin into focus. Stunning specificity surfaces in the poem’s off-kilter phrasing (an inchworm’s “just nibble scoot” across a leaf). The drifting verse floats and coalesces like the clouds that threaten to divert the boy from whale watching. When read aloud, it charms like an incantation. The poem’s unresolved ellipses at the conclusion suggest an unending whale hunt, but Stead’s final two images silently deliver what we’ve been waiting for. The whale, huge and hidden, floats beneath the unknowing child’s tiny vessel and then twists its mass, pulling its head completely out of the water. The boy, his dog and bird rear back in wonder; readers will gape at the two enormous, whale-sized talents at work in this transfixing picture book. (Picture book. 2-6)

GOOD NIGHT, SLEEP TIGHT

Fox, Mem Illus. by Horacek, Judy Orchard/Scholastic (32 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 1, 2013 978-0-545-53370-6 Bedtime diversions and traditional rhymes are a winning combination here. When Bonnie and Ben’s favorite babysitter, Skinny Doug, offers a bedtime salute of “Good night, sleep tight. / Hope the fleas don’t bite!” he embarks on a command performance of 52

seven traditional rhymes. The not-very-sleepy duo keeps him going, as he recites from his personal repertoire: “ ‘We love it! we love it!’ said Bonnie and Ben./ ‘How does it go? Will you say it again?’ “ This catchy refrain follows each of the resourceful babysitter’s rhymes. To their entreaties to repeat each one, Skinny Doug replies, “I’ll tell you another / I learned from my mother.” After “Good night, sleep tight,” Skinny Doug offers “It’s raining, it’s pouring,” “This little piggie,” “Pat-a-cake,” “Round and round the garden,” “This is the way the ladies ride,” and “Star light, star bright.” The engaging, economical framing text is memorable and sweetly appealing, sure to encourage little listeners to participate. The finite number of rhymes introduced before the babysitter hustles Bonnie and Ben off to sleep is just right: It’s enough for one sitting, where larger collections bring the inevitable negotiation about where to stop. Horacek’s simple, solid lines and primary colors are friendly, cheery and almost exuberantly inviting. Sure to be requested and welcome for lapsits and reciting together any time of day. (Picture book. 1-5)

THE STORY OF FISH AND SNAIL

Freedman, Deborah Illus. by Freedman, Deborah Viking (40 pp.) $16.99 | Jun. 13, 2013 978-0-670-78489-9

Right from the title page, Freedman’s latest makes a splash. Atop a black-and-white stack of closed books sits one open book with blue pages fluttering like waves. A yellow fishtail disappears into the page, splashing water into the air above the books. This book happens to be a watery world (fish tank?) where, every day, Snail waits for Fish “to come home with a story.” Fish offers one with “a whole ocean, and a secret treasure, and a pirate ship”—but rather than telling it, “I want to show you this time, Snail!” Nope—Snail won’t go. They fight; Fish departs. Highlighted against the closed books and unobtrusive, black-and-white bookshelves in the background, Fish and Snail’s watercolor world looks clear and fine. But with Fish gone, “[h]ow can this be The Story of Fish & Snail?” Snail peers downward over the edge of the towering pile of books, where Fish has disappeared with a quiet “plimp.” Fish’s body, far below, appears murkily underwater inside the daunting new book. “F-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-S-H!” cries Snail, launching bravely into the air. Water splashes the whole height of the pile as Snail plunges into the new book. Fish peeps around a page’s corner, ready for reconciliation and adventure. Texture, scale and angle accentuate the exciting difference between the in-book worlds and the pale library background. This marvelous metabook shines in both concept and beauty. (Picture book. 3-7)

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

picture books

kirkus.com

pic t u r e b o ok s t h at w i l l e x pa n d y o u r w o r l d pictur e books

THE GIRL OF THE WISH GARDEN Uma Krishnaswami Illus. by Nasrin Khosravi Groundwood

Luminous paintings by Iranian artist Khosravi are paired to lush text by Indian-American Krishnaswami to retell “Thumbelina.”

MY FATHER’S ARMS ARE A BOAT THE BEAR’S SONG Benjamin Chaud Illus. by Benjamin Chaud Chronicle

A little bear leads his papa on a madcap chase through Paris in a French import originally titled Une chanson d’ours.

middle gr a de

Stein Erik Lunde Illus. by Øyvind Torseter Trans. by Kari Dickson Enchanted Lion Books

A grieving child seeks solace in his father’s arms in this stark, atmospheric tale of healing from Norway.

NIGHT SKY WHEEL RIDE Sheree Fitch Illus. by Yayo Tradewind Books

Colombian-Canadian Yayo takes readers to a fantastic fair with illustrations that joyfully embrace Latin American magical realism.

THE LONG, LONG LINE Tomoko Ohmura Illus. by Tomoko Ohmura Owlkids Books

Fifty animals line up in order from frog to elephant, jostling, bickering and playing games as they wait for the best amusement-park ride ever in this Japanese import.

WILD BERRIES

Julie Flett Illus. by Julie Flett Simply Read Books Clarence and his grandma go blueberry picking in Cree-Métis artist/illustrator Flett’s strikingly simple book that incorporates Swampy Cree vocabulary—beautifully.

THE ENDURING ARK

LITTLE NAOMI, LITTLE CHICK

Retold by Gita Wolf Illus. by Joydeb Chitrakar Tara Publishing

Avirama Golan Illus. by Raaya Karas Trans. by Annette Appel Eerdmans

Golan’s text describes Israeli preschooler Naomi’s day, while Karas’ illustrations depict the escapades of a little yellow chick, creating a humorous dual narrative.

kirkus.com

picture books

An Indian team retells the story of Noah and the Ark in this striking concertina-format book illustrated in the Bengali Patua tradition. For the complete list, go to www.kirkusreviews.com on Nov. 25.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“…a few [babies] engage in activities that illustrate girl power in subtle ways; an American baby, in her father’s arms, clutches a crayfish, and an Italian toddler looks as if she is ‘reading’ aloud from a book.” from global baby girls

HOW TO BICYCLE TO THE MOON TO PLANT SUNFLOWERS A Simple but Brilliant Plan in 24 Easy Steps Gerstein, Mordicai Illus. by Gerstein, Mordicai Roaring Brook (40 pp.) $16.99 | Apr. 2, 2013 978-1-59643-512-4

Sensing that the moon needs cheering up, a young inventor provides instructions for an expedition to plant sunflowers there. Gerstein, who profiled The Man Who Walked Between the Towers in 2003, had begun by imagining an even greater challenge, which he describes here. Addressing readers directly, his busy narrator offers a “simple but brilliant” 24-step plan for space travel using 2,000 used truck inner tubes for a slingshot; 238,900 miles of garden hose for a tightrope to the moon; and a suit borrowed from NASA. Special clamps will help the bicycle stay on the hose, which serves double duty; it’s also a conduit for water for the plants. Step by step and sub-step, the boy explains the process. His instructions are straightforward but cheerfully outlandish. They include details with special appeal for listeners (the “really cool sound” of the launch). The pacing is perfect, and illustrations add to the humor. (Pay careful attention to the moon’s changing expressions.) Pen-and-ink and oil-painted panels expand to show the journey. Captions, which had been securely attached to the edges of the frames while the boy was earthbound, float around on full-bleed double-page spreads until they sink back to the bottoms of the concluding panels. The whole is a grand flight of fancy perfect for a new generation of dreamers and planners. (Picture book. 5-9)

GLOBAL BABY GIRLS

Global Fund for Children Charlesbridge (16 pp.) $7.95 | Feb. 1, 2013 978-1-58089-439-5

In a natural follow-up to Global Babies (2006) and American Babies (2010), an empowering text and vibrant photos present baby girls from Canada, China, Guatemala, France, India, Liberia, New Zealand, Peru, Russia, the United States and more. From the girl on the cover wearing a hijab to an American tyke wearing overalls, the girls mostly sport everyday wear in a broader range of colors than pink and purple. As girls are not always valued, the text, meted out in a few words per page, is a rallying cry in support of their potential: “Baby girls / can grow up / to change the world.” The portrait of each girl is presented on a full page or with a boldly colored border that allows for the occasional word of text. The babies mostly present happy or serious facial expressions, and a few engage in activities that 54

illustrate girl power in subtle ways; an American baby, in her father’s arms, clutches a crayfish, and an Italian toddler looks as if she is “reading” aloud from a book. Another baby-faced winner from the Global Fund for Children, with an important social message to boot. (Board book. 3 mos.-1)

LITTLE NAOMI, LITTLE CHICK

Golan, Avirama Illus. by Karas, Raaya Translated by Appel, Annette Eerdmans (34 pp.) $17.00 | Sep. 1, 2013 978-0-8028-5427-8 A delightful depiction of the parallel lives of a young girl and a tiny chick from dawn to dusk. Preschooler Naomi stretches to greet the day while a picture of a wide-eyed yellow chick looks on passively from the wall behind her bed. Appel’s lithe translation from the Hebrew of Golan’s plain, lightly rhymed verse describes consecutive phases of a typical day in the little girl’s life, with each segment ending with the refrain, “But not Little Chick.” Awakened by her father, Naomi brushes her teeth, eats, goes to preschool, plays, makes art, listens to a story, naps, goes shopping with her mother, puts on her pajamas and eventually hops back into bed with her stuffed bear—“But not Little Chick.” Those following the text alone might think the only thing Little Chick has in common with Naomi is “snuggl[ing] in for the night” and feel a bit sorry for her. But the visual narrative portrayed in Karas’ warmly expressive crayon-and-pencil illustrations on the right side of each spread reveals an equally adventuresome, actionpacked day for Little Chick. Pre-readers are sure to revel in the hilarious mischief Little Chick enjoys with barnyard friends, while those reading to them will be fascinated by the effective conveyance of this information through images alone. The true essence of a picture book: a unique balance of visual and written narrative sure to enchant young and old alike. (Picture book. 3-6)

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

picture books

kirkus.com

ascent into the sky—even when he reaches a smiling moon who says, “Hi, Ben.” Ben collects moon rocks in his pockets, and their weight triggers his descent back to Earth, past all of the things that called to him as he rose up to the heavens. When he returns to his home, art on the penultimate spread shows Ben waving from his window, “Bye, balloon,” he calls, but the balloon is absent from the page. A supremely satisfying pageturn shows Ben’s sister sailing upward while holding onto the balloon’s string. “Bye, Ben,” she calls. Hello, Ben! We’re glad you’re here. (Early reader. 4-6)

middle gr a de

This excellent early reader will send new readers’ confidence soaring. “Ben had a balloon,” begins the spare text, accompanied by a picture rendered in cut paper and ink showing Ben holding a red balloon aloft. The next spread shows only the lower portion of Ben’s body at the top of the page as his sister, standing on the ground below him, says, “Bye, Ben.” Ensuing pages show Ben soaring higher and higher up into the sky as first a window, then bees, a tree, a kite, a big hill, rain and a rainbow all call out, “Come back, Ben.” The repetitive text will reinforce new readers’ engagement, while Ben’s consistent smile (a simple, small u shape) provides reassurance that he is untroubled by his

pictur e books

COME BACK, BEN

Hassett, Ann; Hassett, John Illus. by Hassett, Ann; Hassett, John Holiday House (32 pp.) $14.95 | Sep. 1, 2013 978-0-8234-2599-0 Series: I Like to Read

KING FOR A DAY by Rukhsana Khan illus. by Christiane Krömer Ages 6–10 978-1-60060-659-5 $17.95 hardcover ★ “Set in Pakistan during Basant . . . this story soars.” —STARRED REVIEW, Kirkus Reviews

kirkus.com

picture books

& LOW BOOK E E L S

★ “Intriguing.” —STARRED REVIEW, School Library Journal

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

DON’T SAY A WORD, MAMÁ / NO DIGAS NADA, MAMÁ

Hayes, Joe Illus. by Andrade Valencia, Esau Cinco Puntos (32 pp.) $17.95 | $7.95 paper | $7.95 e-book Sep. 10, 2013 978-1-935955-29-0 978-1-935955-45-0 paper 978-1-935955-30-6 e-book Mamá has always been proud of her loving daughters, even when they’ve grown. Rosa, her husband and their three children live “in a little house just down the street from her mother.” Sister Blanca lives alone “in a little house just up the street from her mother.” One year, each sister plants a garden, growing tomatoes, corn and “good hot chiles.” Each woman gives their mother some and tells her that she is going to give her sister half her yield—but: “Don’t say a word, Mamá!” In the night, each unknowingly passes the other with a basketful and leaves it in her sister’s empty kitchen. In the morning, each is astonished at the enormous pile of tomatoes and gives still more to her mother, who accepts them with a shrug: “you can never have too many tomatoes.” This is repeated with the luxuriant crop of corn, but Mamá at last spills the beans—or rather the peppers—as she can’t manage a similar surplus of chiles. Storyteller Hayes uses repetition, parallel structure and short sentences masterfully, unspooling a sweet family tale that never turns saccharine. His own Spanish translation appears alongside the English text. Andrade Valencia contributes highly saturated paintings that combine a folk aesthetic with magical realism, playfully depicting anthropomorphized vegetables marrying and having babies as the sisters marvel at the bounty. This book overflows with affection—and you can never have too much of that. (Bilingual picture book. 4-7)

THE BOY WHO LOVED MATH The Improbable Life of Paul Erdos Heiligman, Deborah Illus. by Pham, LeUyen Roaring Brook (48 pp.) $17.99 | Jun. 11, 2013 978-1-59643-307-6

An exuberant and admiring portrait introduces the odd, marvelously nerdy, way cool Hungarian-born itinerant mathematical genius. Heiligman’s joyful, warm account invites young listeners and readers to imagine a much-loved boy completely charmed by numbers. Paul Erdos was sweetly generous throughout his life with the central occupation of his great brain: solving mathematical problems. Unmoored from the usual ties of home and family 56

once grown, he spent most of his career traveling the world to work with colleagues. Erdos was known for his ineptness at practical matters even as he was treasured, housed and fed by those with whom he collaborated in math. The polished, disarming text offers Pham free rein for lively illustration that captures Erdos’ childlike spirit. She uses a slightly retro palette and line to infuse Erdos’ boyhood surroundings with numbers and diagrams, conveying the idea that young Paul lived and breathed math. She populates his adulthood with his affectionate colleagues, even including a graph with Erdos at the center of several dozen of the great mathematical minds of the 20th century to illustrate the whimsical “Erdos number” concept. An extensive author’s note includes a bit more biographical information about Erdos and points to George Csicsery’s 1993 film N is a Number as well as to Heiligman’s website for links for further exploration. Pham’s illustrator’s note invites young readers to go page by page to learn about the kinds of numbers that captivated Erdos and to meet him among his cherished mathematicians. Social learners and budding math lovers alike will find something awesome about this exceptional man. (Picture book/biography. 3-9)

PENNY AND HER MARBLE

Henkes, Kevin Illus. by Henkes, Kevin Greenwillow/HarperCollins (48 pp.) $12.99 | $13.89 PLB | Mar. 1, 2013 978-0-06-208203-9 978-0-06-208204-6 PLB Series: Penny, 3 Whose marble is it? In this third early reader about a little anthropomorphic mouse named Penny, Henkes continues to plumb the emotional world of childhood as few author/illustrators can. The story begins with Penny taking a walk and pushing her beloved doll, Rose, in a stroller. She heeds Mama’s admonition that she “[o]nly go as far as Mrs. Goodwin’s house,” and when she arrives there, she spies a shiny blue marble at the edge of the lawn. Though unsure whether she should do so, Penny pockets the glinting little orb and scurries home. Later, Penny’s conscience bothers her, and the marble hidden in her drawer adopts a presence akin to Poe’s telltale heart. She can’t bring herself to tell her concerned parents what is bothering her, and after a fitful night’s sleep, she goes for another walk to return the marble. Hoping to make a quick getaway after surreptitiously replacing it, Penny is worried when her neighbor approaches. Will Mrs. Goodwin be angry that she took the marble? As it turns out, Mrs. Goodwin purposefully put the marble on her lawn in the hope that someone would find it and take it home as a little treasure. Reassured, Penny thanks Mrs. Goodwin and walks home, imagining herself beside a sea as blue as her new marble. Henkes’ characteristically meticulous vignettes both expand the story and provide picture clues to help new readers along. Another gem. (Early reader. 5-8)

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

picture books

kirkus.com

“Little kids should love the illustrations and their multiplicity of meanings, and older children trying out their writing wings will find good, strong advice.” OFF WE GO!

Hillenbrand, Will Illus. by Hillenbrand, Will Holiday House (32 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 15, 2013 978-0-8234-2520-4 Series: Bear and Mole

LITTLE RED WRITING

Holub, Joan Illus. by Sweet, Melissa Chronicle (36 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 24, 2013 978-0-8118-7869-2

Exploding with puns, wordplay and the irrepressible desire to re-imagine “Little Red Riding Hood” one more time, Holub and Sweet bring forth some actual useful writing advice—that’s not just for beginners. It’s Write On! Day at the Pencilvania School, and all the little pencils and their teacher, Ms. 2, are about to follow the story path. Ms. 2 gives our heroine, Little Red, a basket of nouns and reminds her to stick to the path. She becomes entangled in descriptive adjectives, stuck in a sentence that just keeps going, and is rescued and then ambushed by adverbs and random nouns. Principal Granny seems to have a long electric tail and a growly voice when Little Red gets to her office. It’s not the principal but the Wolf 3000—a voracious pencil sharpener! But Little Red has one noun left, and she uses it judiciously. Watercolor, pencil and collage give the magnificent Sweet lots of material to play with: The little pencil-pupils each have an |

kirkus.com

picture books

identifying eraser cap (a stegosaurus, a basketball, a map of Pencilvania). When Little Red looks for excitement in her story, she goes to the gym and is “quickly drawn into the action,” as all the pencils twist, jump and play catch on the page. The artwork—which integrates written text in a variety of lettering styles—fills the pages with a riot of color, shape, movement and design. Endpapers and title pages are all part of the tale. Little kids should love the illustrations and their multiplicity of meanings, and older children trying out their writing wings will find good, strong advice. Every writers’ group should start with this story. (Picture book. 7 & up)

middle gr a de

A good friend will help you prepare for your challenges and will see you through them, as Bear does for Mole in another charming tale in the series from Hillenbrand (Kite Day, 2012, etc.) As Bear packs books into his knapsack, Mole asks for help in removing his training wheels and checking his bike for safety. Each simple sentence is clearly illuminated with carefully rendered mixed-media artwork, from “They removed”—with Bear holding the bike steady as Mole wields his wrench—to “Mole snapped”—as the pleased little mammal, snout in air, properly fastens his helmet. A tender, doublepage spread shows Bear placing a reassuring paw on the back of worried-looking Mole’s bike as the large-type words declare, “At last Mole was ready.” Now comes the wild action! A sophisticated simultaneous succession shows Mole wobbling toward a gentle “crash” on the facing page. Bear encourages the sobbing Mole to try again, and this time he succeeds—scattering plenty of leaves and animals as he gains speed. At journey’s end, everything comes full circle as the friends arrive just on time for a tale at the storymobile. The few words in the text include such vocabulary as grimaced, hoisted and exhaled, making this a terrific choice for a read-aloud from a precocious older sibling to a younger one. A winner all around. (Picture book. 3-7)

pictur e books

from little red writing

THE TINY MOUSE

Ian, Janis Illus. by Schubert, Ingrid; Schubert, Dieter Lemniscaat USA (32 pp.) $19.95 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-9359-5430-9 A little whimsy, a little darkness, a little music for a song turned into a picture book by veteran singer/songwriter Ian. The tiny—and quite dapper—mouse of the title lives in a house “full of drafts and doubts, and incredible things.” Incredible things notwithstanding, he is restless and wants to go to sea. He is ill-prepared, however, and gets seasick at once. In his search for a bathroom, he discovers that the captain of the vessel he has stowed away upon is a cat! He, er, high-tails it out of there with help from a flounder, marries his “mouseketeer” and regales his dozens of children with his adventures. The Schuberts’ illustrations are brightly colored and often surreal, from the cat-in-the-box jack-in-the-box to the mer-cat figurehead on the ship’s prow, the mouse-snacks in the captain’s quarters (all with their tails attached—eewww!) to our hero coughing up “seven oysters and a clam.” Both words and music are appended, and a CD is included with three versions: vocal with band (that includes quite a wonderful clarinet), a bandonly karaoke version and vocal with guitar. It is a rollicking little number—a little piratical, a little klezmer—and once heard, it is impossible to read the tale without singing it. A thoroughgoing success from these trans-Atlantic collaborators. (Picture book. 4-8)

THE WORLD IS WAITING FOR YOU

Kerley, Barbara National Geographic (48 pp.) $17.95 | Mar. 12, 2013 978-1-4263-1114-7 A stirring invitation to leap, dive, soar, plunge and thrill to the natural world’s wonders and glories.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“Sánchez has captured a kaleidoscope of emotion and powerful sensations in a way children will grasp completely.” from here i am

“Right outside your window there’s a world to explore,” writes Kerley. “Ready?” In huge, bright, sharply focused photos, a hang glider and a mountain climber dangle in midair, a paleontologist carefully brushes dirt off a fossil, an astronaut dangles near the International Space Station, and spelunkers clamber amid spectacular crystals. These dramatic images mingle with equally eye-filling scenes of muddy, soaked, laughing young children—some venturing alone down a forest path or over jumbles of rock, others peering into a snow cave or a starry sky. “Size things up,” suggests the author. “Get a firm grip. Then… / …start climbing.” This may well leave safety-obsessed parents with the vapors, but that may be all to the good. Explanatory captions for several of the photographs, from very brief profiles of the explorers to the stories behind the photos themselves, appear at the end. Vivid glimpses of what waits for anyone who is willing to stop just looking and go. (Picture book. 6-8)

ANIMALS UPSIDE DOWN A Pull, Pop, Lift & Learn Book!

Jenkins, Steve; Page, Robin Illus. by Jenkins, Steve Houghton Mifflin (24 pp.) $24.99 | Aug. 27, 2013 978-0-547-34127-9

More than 26 creatures flip, twist, swivel or simply pose upside down in this neatly laid-out gallery of nature’s acrobats. A fruit bat and a male bird of paradise pop up to hover gracefully over double-page spreads, but most of Jenkins’ animals move laterally or switch positions with the pull of a tab or lift of a flap. From a pangolin swinging by its tail to reach a termite’s nest and a sparrow hawk twisting in midair to seize a bird from underneath to a net-casting spider dropping a webby trap over a passing fly, the movements are small but consistently naturallooking. The animals are all rendered with typically amazing accuracy from pieces of cut and torn paper. Captions that themselves sometimes curve or stand on their heads identify each animal and comment on how upending helps it to, usually, capture or to keep from becoming food (more information about each is provided on the closing spread). On a lighter note, to cap the lot, a simple but ingenious sliding panel even flips a human silhouette, as “sometimes going topsy-turvy is just for fun!” A treat for eye and mind alike, besides being suitable for displays and durable enough to stand up to plenty of handson use. (Informational pop-up. 5-9) (This review will also appear in the Dec. 1, 2013, issue of Kirkus Reviews.)

HERE I AM

Kim, Patti Illus. by Sánchez, Sonia Capstone Young Readers (40 pp.) $14.95 | Sep. 13, 2013 978-1-62370-036-2 Beautiful, evocative pictures tell the story of a boy who comes from an Asian land to a big U.S. city. Images in this virtually wordless, slender graphic novel range from dreamlike curlicues to bold, dark cityscapes and emotional vignettes. The boy looks out of the window of a plane, great sadness in his body language. He and his father, mother and baby sister go through a crowded airport and a noisy and bewildering city to a small apartment. He finds the subway and the streets confusing, and he does not understand anything at school. The boy cherishes a red seed he has evidently brought from home. By accident, he drops it out the apartment window and then goes on a frantic search for it, finding new and interesting places along the way. He discovers he loves big, salted pretzels and shares some with the pigeons. When a girl with bouncy braids and beads in her hair climbs a tree and hangs upside down, the red seed falls out of her pocket. She and the boy plant it together, and as the seasons pass, friendship, seed and baby sister grow. An author’s note describes the storyteller’s voyage at age 4 from Korea to Washington, D.C. Sánchez has captured a kaleidoscope of emotion and powerful sensations in a way children will grasp completely. It’s The Arrival for younger readers. (Graphic novel. 5-10)

THE GIRL OF THE WISH GARDEN

Krishnaswami, Uma Illus. by Khosravi, Nasrin Groundwood (32 pp.) $17.95 | Mar. 12, 2013 978-1-55498-324-7

Text that sings like poetry narrates a gorgeous re-envisioning of “Thumbelina.” Lina’s mother discovers her “in a silken flower / in a garden of wishes.” She blesses her new daughter, and she worries, “for many dangers wait upon a girl / no bigger than a thumb.” This piece shares Hans Christian Andersen’s plot but not its old themes of marriage and Thumbelina’s prettiness, powerlessness and self-sacrifice. Instead, with lyrical elegance, Krishnaswami gives Lina agency. When a frog traps her, Lina sings: “Windswish, bird-flutter, / fish-bubble and all, / come to me now, / come when I call.” Lina shows these fish “how to snip and where to chew, / and soon they cut the leaf free of its stem, / so it floated like a raft.” When weeds and bugs mire her leaf-raft, tenacious Lina “kicked and paddled with all her might, / until her lily pad pulled free.” Left-hand pages feature text on white background; right-hand pages have exquisite, full-bleed paintings in acrylic and tissue. Using sumptuous colors, luscious paint texture,

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

picture books

kirkus.com

BRUSH OF THE GODS

The life of the classical Chinese painter Wu Daozi is imagined as a magical artistic adventure. Look’s text is brief and impressionistic, conveying with quick brushstrokes the mythical genius of the artist and his own wonder at the miraculous work of his brush. She begins with Wu Daozi as a boy studying calligraphy but discovering that his brush has other plans: “Each day something new and surprising dripped out of Daozi’s brush,” as lively lines turn into trees, a fish, a horse. So’s friendly ink-and-watercolor paintings are a mix of graceful lines and careful detail, conveying a world in motion. The black and white of Wu Daozi’s classical-style paintings as she depicts them come alive in bright colors: A butterfly, a camel, a flying dragon fill with color and flap or step off the wall as Wu Daozi finishes painting them. A seated Buddha smiles in glorious colors as Daozi adds a last touch of his brush. Brush strokes emphasize and echo the liveliness of Wu Daozi’s work in the flying sleeves of his robe and a swirling shock of his black hair. An author’s note gives Wu Daozi’s dates and explains his importance to Chinese art, including the fact that none of his 300 frescoes have survived; a note about the legend that Wu Daozi possibly cheated death by painting himself into paradise follows the last enchanting illustration. A cheerful introduction not only to Wu Daozi, but to the power of inspiration. (Picture book. 4-9)

MY FATHER’S ARMS ARE A BOAT

Lunde, Stein Erik Illus. by Torseter, Øyvind Translated by Dickson, Kari Enchanted Lion Books (32 pp.) $15.95 | Feb. 2, 2013 978-1-59270-124-7 A young boy, grieving and unable to sleep, climbs into his father’s steady arms to find warmth and reassurance in this luminous story about loss, love and healing. Snow and silence have fallen. A father sits in a darkened room by the fire. His sleepless son, lovingly bundled up, looks |

kirkus.com

picture books

out his room’s black window. He finds his father, who holds him. They begin to talk, about plans for the next day, about the birds they feed and the foxes that hunt. The father calms his boy’s anxious questions with the gentle constant: “Everything will be all right.” The boy asks about his mother, and the two go out into the night. The child wishes on a star and is filled with a profound longing. Back inside, the father holds his son until sleep finally comes. Lunde’s lyrical text and descriptive language is immediate and intimate. Through it he invokes sensory memories of closeness, warmth and refuge. Torseter’s sophisticated artwork brings an even greater emotional depth to the story. Color is used minimally, as the illustrations work in tones. His mixed-media illustrations, done within a 3-D format, like a diorama, have an ethereal quality. They seem grounded in reality, yet they are dreamlike, giving the impression one has been privileged to see someone else’s memory. His final spread soars as a wordless affirmation of hope. A breathtaking masterpiece. (Picture book. 4 & up)

middle gr a de

Look, Lenore Illus. by So, Meilo Schwartz & Wade/Random (40 pp.) $17.99 | Jun. 25, 2013 978-0-375-87001-9

pictur e books

patterns, smudges and delicate lines, Khosravi places characters in arresting, abstract compositions that recall Marc Chagall. “[B]irdsong and lonely fear” are part of Lina’s journey, alongside discovery and strength—and her mother, reappearing in “the map of [Lina’s] own life / spread out like a carpet” before Lina’s next departure. A must. (author’s note, publisher’s note) (Picture book. 5-10)

TOILET How It Works

Macaulay, David with Keenan, Sheila Illus. by Macaulay, David David Macaulay Studio/Roaring Brook (32 pp.) $15.99 | $3.99 paper | Sep. 10, 2013 978-1-59643-779-1 978-1-59643-780-7 paper A perfect blend of humor and clarity—in text and in artwork—explains the anatomy of human waste, the mechanics of a flush toilet and the subsequent treatment of waste in septic and sewer systems. Cartoony images of three toilet bowls—one being used by a thirsty, shaggy dog, one surrounded by a somber family with a dead pet goldfish, and one heaped with flowers, shown outside a home—adorn the first page of the book, along with this opening sentence: “Everybody knows what a toilet is for.” Genius Macaulay, with Keenan’s (unspecified) assistance, continues this tongue-in-cheek romp with clever drawings as he also carefully discusses such scientific facts as the function of bacteria in breaking down waste; the physics behind the tank, the bowl and the siphon; and the role of wastewater treatment plants in the overall water cycle. Cutaway views aid in showing exactly how various systems work, while unique visual angles of everything from human organs topped with eyeglasses to a bird’s-eye view of a bustling city encourage viewers to venture beyond reading literacy to art appreciation. Even readers who received fastidious toilet training and admonitions against potty humor will let down their guard and find this book both informative and entertaining. (glossary, resources, index, author’s notes) (Informational early reader. 7 & up)

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

MY TURN TO LEARN NUMBERS

Marshall, Natalie Illus. by Marshall, Natalie LB Kids/Little, Brown (12 pp.) $6.99 | Sep. 10, 2013 978-0-316-25164-8 This simple counting book starring a sweet brown bear is perfect for little hands. The first spread introduces readers to a brown bear wearing a green hat and scarf and a small smile. It reads simply: “ONE bear.” Throughout the title, the number words are in large capital letters and the nouns that follow them appear in cursive, an unusual choice for a board book and one that adds a touch of whimsy to the sweet, digitally produced illustrations. In the remaining page spreads, the brown bear is pictured with two owls (perched atop his head), three blue birds, four flowers and five puffy white clouds. Numbers six to 10 are grouped together on a final page spread. Large tabs labeled 1 through 5 run down the length of the rightmost edge of this sturdy selection, making it a cinch for little hands to grasp and open. Other titles in this charming series include My Turn to Learn Colors (978-0-31625163-1), featuring a bunny and his vegetable garden; My Turn to Learn Opposites (978-0-316-25165-5), starring two adorable purple owls; and My Turn to Learn Shapes (978-0-316-25166-2), focused on a mama hen and her sweet baby chicks on the farm. Families will want them all. The deceptively simple and visually appealing My Turn to Learn series is a great tool for introducing basic concepts to the littlest readers. (Board book. 0-3) (This review will also appear in the Jan. 1, 2014, issue of Kirkus Reviews.)

SEE ME DIG

Meisel, Paul Illus. by Meisel, Paul Holiday House (32 pp.) Apr. 1, 2013 978-0-8234-2743-7 Series: I Like to Read In this gem of an early reader, a cast of cavorting canines find more than they expected when they start digging—namely a scary bear, buried treasure, pirate ghosts and heavy construction equipment. Meisel follows his first title in this series (See Me Run, 2011) by using the same dog characters and limited first-grade-level vocabulary for kids just beginning to read on their own. This time, the endearing dogs dig up a huge box buried in the sand after the bear chases them away from the forest. In a surprise twist that will tickle young readers, the enormous chest contains not gold coins, but the ghosts of pirates who chase after the dogs until one brave pup stands up to the ghosts with a big bark. But there’s another danger looming: the clawlike tines on the bucket of a tracked excavator appear to threaten the dogs, 60

until excavator and dogs find that they can all dig in the sand together, side by side. Using just a few words and extremely short sentences, Meisel delivers a funny story with a real plot containing several surprises. His cartoon-style illustrations in watercolor with pen-and-ink and pencil details capture the canine personalities and create deliciously spooky (but not really scary) villains in the pirate ghosts. New readers will dig this. (Early reader. 5-8)

TAKE ME OUT TO THE YAKYU

Meshon, Aaron Illus. by Meshon, Aaron Atheneum (40 pp.) $15.99 | Feb. 19, 2013 978-1-4424-4177-4

A young boy enjoys the best of two baseball worlds. This fortunate youngster can savor the fine points of baseball in America and yakyu in Japan. While in America, Pop-Pop drives him to the stadium in the station wagon and buys him a foam hand and hot dogs. In Japan, Ji Ji takes him to the dome in a bus-train and buys a plastic horn and soba noodles. At the games they variously cheer “get a hit” or “do your best.” Seventh-inning stretch calls for “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” or the team anthem and a release of balloons. In America, his team wins, but in Japan, it ends in a tie, allowable within their rules. Appropriate souvenirs are purchased, and after a wonderful day, Gramma or Ba Ba has a warm bath ready. The comparisons are made mostly on facing pages with matching sentences and illustrations rendered in strong, bright acrylic paint. American scenes have mostly blue backgrounds or highlights, while the Japanese counterparts are red. It’s all a perfectly constructed, vivid picture of the two nations’ particular takes on what has become both of their national pastimes, as well as a multigenerational love of the game. Colorful charts of Japanese and English baseball terms and other words add to the fun. Yakyu or baseball, it’s all sheer joy. (Picture book. 3-8)

WAIT! WAIT!

Nakawaki, Hatsue Illus. by Sakai, Komako Translated by Kaneko, Yuki Enchanted Lion Books (24 pp.) $14.95 | Jul. 22, 2013 978-1-59270-138-4 A small child is wonder-struck by every creature she encounters. She wants nothing more than to examine and touch and follow each of them. But a butterfly flutters off into the air, a lizard wiggles away between the rocks, pigeons fly out of reach, and the family cats scat as she nears. As each disappears from view, the little one calls, “Wait! Wait!” Finally, Daddy scoops her up and lovingly guides her as they go off on an adventure of

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

picture books

kirkus.com

“Totally engaging, the book offers multiple forms of participation….” from the long, long line

An inspirational ode to the life of the great South African leader by an awardwinning author and illustrator. Mandela’s has been a monumental life, a fact made clear on the front cover, which features an imposing, full-page portrait. The title is on the rear cover. His family gave him the Xhosa name Rolihlahla, but his schoolteacher called him Nelson. Later, he was sent to study with village elders who told him stories about his beautiful and fertile land, which was conquered by European settlers with more powerful weapons. Then came apartheid, and his protests, rallies and legal work for the cause of racial equality led to nearly 30 years of imprisonment followed at last by freedom for Mandela and for all South Africans. “The ancestors, / The people, / The world, / Celebrated.” Nelson’s writing is spare, poetic, and grounded in empathy and admiration. His oil paintings on birch plywood are muscular and powerful. Dramatic moments are captured in shifting perspectives; a whites-only beach is seen through a wide-angle lens, while faces behind bars and faces beaming in final victory are masterfully portrayed in close-up. A beautifully designed book that will resonate with children and the adults who wisely share it with them. (author’s note, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 5-8)

kirkus.com

picture books

KENTA AND THE BIG WAVE

Ohi, Ruth Illus. by Ohi, Ruth Annick Press (32 pp.) $19.95 | $9.95 paper | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-55451-577-6 978-1-55451-576-9 paper In this testament to resiliency and kindness during natural disasters, the Japanese boy Kenta’s soccer ball is swept away by a tsunami and eventually returned by a child living across the Pacific Ocean. The opening double-page spread depicts an aerial view of lower-elevation homes being swallowed by waves; the ending spread, Kenta’s reunion with his soccer ball while nearby, construction workers re-build his town. From beginning to end, author/illustrator Ohi manages an admirable balancing act. Young children are exposed to the realities of loss and damage while also viewing such things as children at play in the emergency shelter at the school gym and dolphins frolicking in the same waves that have carried people’s belongings far away from their homes. Clever but accessible wording abounds, as in “The school gym was crowded with people looking for what they’d lost. Kenta found his mother and father. The ocean found Kenta’s soccer ball.” The watercolor-and-pencil illustrations are roughly hewn, but they include such careful details as Englishlanguage signs along the shoreline when the ball reaches North America. Muted colors work well with the sparse, poetic text to create an appropriate gentleness. The placement of words and pictures—and the clever device of pale banners for text over darker backgrounds—ensure easy use as a read-aloud to a group of young children. An eminently child-friendly treatment of the devastation that follows disaster. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3-7)

middle gr a de

NELSON MANDELA

Nelson, Kadir Illus. by Nelson, Kadir Harper/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $17.99 | $18.89 PLB | Jan. 2, 2013 978-0-06-178374-6 978-0-06-178376-0 PLB

pictur e books

their own. Nakawaki, with the help of translator Kaneko, offers these moments of wonderment and exploration in lovely, spare text, with each word carefully chosen to capture the swift, fluid movements of the creatures and the determination of the curious baby. Sakai’s soft, delicate acrylic-and–oil-pencil illustrations are breathtaking. The butterfly, lizard, pigeons and cats are brilliantly depicted in vivid, accurate detail, while the child is all expressive softness and yearning as she encounters each new experience. Each double-page spread is a sea of white, with a single large-print sentence and a lightly drawn hint of setting, allowing the characters and action to hold center stage. Parents and their little ones will snuggle together to read this joyous evocation of the newness and wonder of the world over and over again. Tender and wistful and glorious. (Picture book. 1-5)

THE LONG, LONG LINE

Ohmura, Tomoko Illus. by Ohmura, Tomoko Owlkids Books (40 pp.) $17.95 | Aug. 15, 2013 978-1-926973-92-0

If the line is long, there’s bound to be something good at the end, right? The tale starts opposite the title page with a small frog, marked #50, looking up at a sign that requests “Please line up in single file.” Turn the page, and animals #49, lizard, through #37, porcupine, stand politely, clearly wondering what’s at the front of the line. As the numbers decrease, the size of the animals increases: #4 is hippo. Turn the page after #1, elephant, to a gatefold sign: JUMBO COASTER. Open the gatefold, and all of the animals are revealed standing in order on top of a whale as it performs a series of jumps and somersaults in and out of the water! Their ride ends just like a more conventional carnival ride, with various reactions: #3, the rhino, declares, “I’m getting

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“Perlov makes it all come alive, employing a conversational syntax that speaks directly to readers. It is a memoir told with love and nostalgia….” from rifka takes a bow

back in line!” Humorous comments add to the fun throughout. The armadillo, #39, stuck behind the skunk, #38, complains, “It stinks!” The kangaroo, #19, has a baby in her pouch that cries, “Are we there yet?” Totally engaging, the book offers multiple forms of participation: the word chain game that #17, the panda, starts; counting; guessing which animal belongs to the tail that appears at the edge of the page on the right (revealed seamlessly with a page turn); size concept; good old anticipation. It’s a whale of a fun ride! (Picture book. 4-7)

NO FITS, NILSON!

OHora, Zachariah Illus. by OHora, Zachariah Dial (32 pp.) $16.99 | Jun. 13, 2013 978-0-8037-3852-2 Amelia helps a 9-foot blue gorilla named Nilson avoid tantrums by repeatedly reminding him, “No fits, Nilson!” Chunky, acrylic illustrations depict age-old meltdown triggers: a toppled block tower, uncooperative sneakers that just (eeergh!) won’t get (oof!) on your feet and boring grown-up errands. Cheery matte colors, crisp white spaces and thick black outlines carve out a child’s binary world, in which moods run from hot to cold in a mercurial minute. When Nilson rages, his simian eyes squint, his shoulders hulk, and his mouth spews GAARRRGHH! in oversized, black, block letters. Children will empathize and, thanks to Nilson’s absurdity (this ape wears a newsboy cap, multiple watches and Adidas), see tantrums for what they really are—disproportionate and silly. Amelia, a cutie with hair clips, an inky bob, stripy tights and a monster scooter helmet, seems to always keep her cool…until the ice-cream truck runs out of her favorite banana flavor. Watch out! Readers sigh with relief when Nilson shares his scoop, and another fit is averted; they giggle with unexpected pleasure when Amelia kisses him good night and see that he’s a pint-sized stuffed animal who’s actually been helping her manage her feelings all along. Foot-stomping fit pitchers will take multiple timeouts for this amusing modern fable. (Picture book. 2-4)

RIFKA TAKES A BOW

Perlov, Betty Rosenberg Illus. by Kawa, Cosei Kar-Ben (32 pp.) $17.95 | $6.95 e-book | Sep. 1, 2013 978-0-7613-8127-3 978-1-4677-1648-2 e-book Rifka accidentally finds herself onstage in a Yiddish theater production and speaks her first lines as an actress: “Piff-Paff! Not to worry.” The Yiddish theater was a vibrant part of immigrant life in New York in the first part of the 20th century. Rifka’s parents 62

are actors who introduce her to the magical world of that theater. She is especially impressed with the way in which her parents can take on the personae of the characters they play, with just a bit of makeup, some props and costumes, and changes in body language. The surrounding elements of the city are also part of the fun. They travel on the subway with its noise and diversity. They eat at the Automat, putting in their nickels and taking out the food. Perlov makes it all come alive, employing a conversational syntax that speaks directly to readers. It is a memoir told with love and nostalgia, for it is her own story, told from a distance of nine decades. Kawa’s illustrations are as magical as any theater experience. She employs a variety of media to turn real places and events into fantasy landscapes from several perspectives, in dreamlike images that are somewhat reminiscent of Chagall. Look closely and there are tiny shapes and designs floating through the larger pictures. Unusual and unabashedly charming. (afterword) (Picture book. 5-9)

THE TORTOISE & THE HARE

Pinkney, Jerry Illus. by Pinkney, Jerry Little, Brown (40 pp.) $18.00 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-0-316-18356-7 With luminous mixed media pictures, a short, carefully meted-out text and a Southwestern U.S. setting, Pinkney (The Lion and the Mouse, 2009) takes on another of Aesop’s fables—marvelously. A persevering tortoise and a speedy but arrogant hare tackle a challenging race course that includes rocky elevations and a water crossing. When a farmstead’s cabbages tempt the hare, he tunnels under a fence to gorge and nap. Meanwhile the tortoise, closely observed by desert denizens, passes the slumbering hare and wins by a length. In the tortoise’s scenes, the fable’s moral inches along, like him: The first proclaims “SLOW”; the second, “SLOW AND”—and so on, with the victory spread featuring the entire moral. The ingenious layout mixes bordered panels, spot illustrations and full-bleed single- and double-page spreads, arranged to convey each racer’s alternating progress through a golden landscape. Bejeweled with blooming cactuses and buzzing with bees, reptiles, mammals and more, the desert tableaux will engross readers. The critters’ bits of clothing—hat, bandanna, vest—add pops of color and visually evoke the jaunty characters of Br’er Rabbit stories. Hare’s black-and-white checked neckerchief does duty as the signal flag and Tortoise’s victory cape. Lush, encompassing endpapers feature, in the front, a layout of the racecourse and, in the rear, the reveling animals, with the hare, still stunned, gazing out at readers. A captivating winner—start to finish! (artist’s note, design notes) (Picture book/folk tale. 3-6)

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

picture books

kirkus.com

EXCLAMATION MARK

Rosenthal, Amy Krouse Illus. by Lichtenheld, Tom Scholastic (56 pp.) $17.99 | Mar. 1, 2013 978-0-545-43679-3

Punctuation with pizzazz. How does an exclamation mark learn his purpose? Pre-readers and readers alike will giggle and cheer to see the process. The setting is a warm yellowish beige background with a faint pulpy pattern and repeating horizontal lines with dotted lines halfway between them—penmanship paper. Each bold, black punctuation mark has a minimalist yet expressive face inside its circular dot. “He stood out,” explains the first page, as the titular protagonist looks on doubtfully. He tries hanging around with periods, but squishing his extension down into a spring doesn’t really work; even prostrate, “he just wasn’t like everyone else. Period.” (Hee! Rosenthal gleefully puns instead of naming any punctuation.) Mournful, “confused, flummoxed, and deflated,” the exclamation mark’s line tangles and flops. Then someone unexpected arrives. “Hello? Who are you?” queries the newbie, jovially pummeling the exclamation mark with 17 manic inquiries at once. “Stop!” screams the exclamation mark in enormous, bumpyedged letters—and there’s his identity! The outburst’s anxious |

kirkus.com

picture books

vibe dissipates immediately (and the question mark is undaunted by being yelled at). Finally, the protagonist has “[broken] free from a life sentence.” Snapping up usages that match his newfound personality, he zooms back to show the other punctuation marks. The zippy relationship between exclamation mark and question mark continues beyond the acknowledgements page. Funny and spirited (and secretly educational, but nobody will notice). (Picture book. 4-8)

PARROTS OVER PUERTO RICO

middle gr a de

In this deceptively spare, very beginning reader, a girl assembles a robot and then treats it like a slave until it goes on strike. Having put the robot together from a jumble of loose parts, the budding engineer issues an increasingly peremptory series of rhymed orders— “Throw, Bot. / Row, Bot”—that turn from playful activities like chasing bubbles in the yard to tasks like hoeing the garden, mowing the lawn and towing her around in a wagon. Jung crafts a robot with riveted edges, big googly eyes and a smile that turns down in stages to a scowl as the work is piled on. At last, the exhausted robot plops itself down, then in response to its tormentor’s angry “Don’t say no, Bot!” stomps off in a huff. In one to four spacious, sequential panels per spread, Jung develops both the plotline and the emotional conflict using smoothly modeled cartoon figures against monochromatic or minimally detailed backgrounds. The child’s commands, confined in small dialogue balloons, are rhymed until her repentant “Come on home, Bot” breaks the pattern but leads to a more equitable division of labor at the end. A straightforward tale of conflict and reconciliation for newly emergent readers? Not exactly, which raises it above the rest. (Easy reader. 4-6)

pictur e books

ROBOT, GO BOT!

Rau, Dana Meachen Illus. by Jung, Wook Jin Random House (32 pp.) $3.99 paper | $12.99 PLB | Jun. 25, 2013 978-0-375-87083-5 978-0-375-97083-2 PLB

Roth, Susan L.; Trumbore, Cindy Illus. by Roth, Susan L. Lee & Low (48 pp.) $19.95 | Sep. 1, 2013 978-1-62014-004-8 An ambitious project: The text on each vibrant, double-page collage, arranged vertically, intersperses the near-extinction and slow comeback of the Puerto Rican parrot with over 2,000 years of human history. “Above the treetops of Puerto Rico flies a flock of parrots as green as their island home….[T]hey nearly vanished from the earth forever. This is their story.” From this dramatic beginning onward, both artwork and text encourage slow absorption of each spread before the turn of the page. Various peoples—from unnamed aboriginals to Taínos, Europeans, Africans and eventually North Americans—brought with them new flora, fauna and habits, all contributing to the demise of the native birds. Finally, in 1968, two governments began the work that continues today to restore the wild flocks. There are fascinating details about a 1539 fortress wall, leather jackets worn by parrots during hawk-avoidance training and materials used to mend an injured wing. The onomatopoeic derivation of the parrots’ Taíno name, iguaca, is developed nicely in its repeated use as the parrots’ call. By turns poetic and scientific, the text offers a wealth of information. Every paper-and-fabric collage is frame-worthy, from depictions of waterfalls and rain forest to sailing ships, hazards and, of course, parrots. From the commanding cover illustration to the playful image on the back, simply spectacular. (afterword, photos, chronology, sources) (Informational picture book. 8-14)

BUGS IN MY HAIR!

Shannon, David Illus. by Shannon, David Blue Sky/Scholastic (32 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 1, 2013 978-0-545-14313-4 Head lice morph into friendly fellows in this comical and necessary title. When the intrepid narrator’s mother discovers his infestation, she immediately jumps into action. Factoids about lice and their transmittal and treatment follow quickly. The youngster suffers from a

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“Graceful ink-and-watercolor illustrations range from an expansive view of the rain forest to a close-up of aphids.” from no monkeys, no chocolate

large dose of shame as he wonders how they found him. He willingly cooperates with his ever-vigilant mother as she marches boldly into the fray, which climaxes with a visit to “a professional lice treatment place.” Alas, the lice return, and the treatment must be repeated. Never fear, the boy knows his medieval history and readies for the next joust with suitable head armor. Shannon’s trademark color palette of yellows and oranges, so wonderful in his David books, fills the spreads with explosive energy as his magnificently magnified lice leap off the pages with endearingly expressive faces, personalities and costumes. Playful lettering becomes part of the page design and demands a most expressive reading voice. Few books for young readers come with a warning. Heed the one boldly penned on the back cover: “This book will make you ITCHY!” Don’t scratch your head over this purchase: Entertainment and information are all wrapped up in one funny and disinfected package. (Picture book. 4-7)

UNICORN THINKS HE’S PRETTY GREAT

Shea, Bob Illus. by Shea, Bob Disney Hyperion (40 pp.) $15.99 | Jun. 25, 2013 978-1-4231-5952-0

Goat can’t stop comparing himself to Unicorn and coming up short. With slumped shoulders and a sulky frown, Goat is the picture of dejection. Before Unicorn moved in, he thought he was pretty cool. But now? He just can’t compete. Goat bakes marshmallow squares to share with his friends, but Unicorn makes it rain cupcakes! (Brightly colored ones with adorable smiles, at that.) Goat tries to wow everyone with his new magic trick, but Unicorn is able to turn things into gold. “Dopey Unicorn! Thinks he’s so great!” Goat scoffs and stamps in a jealous huff. But suddenly, one slice of goat-cheese pizza changes everything. Goat finds out that Unicorn is actually envious of him, too. Who knew that cloven hooves were so awesome? Shea examines a universal struggle that readers of all ages face: The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Unicorn may seem like he has it all—on every page he is surrounded by a glow of love and adoration, with rainbows and sparkles ready to burst forth at any moment—but that doesn’t mean he’s content. Even unicorns want to eat something besides glitter now and then. Brilliant in execution and hysterical in dialogue; Shea’s pretty great, too. (Picture book. 3-6)

TIGER IN MY SOUP

Sheth, Kashmira Illus. by Ebbeler, Jeffrey Peachtree (32 pp.) $15.95 | Apr. 1, 2013 978-1-56145-696-3

A boy is left in the care of his older sister in an interesting house. The boy wants her to read to him, but she’s got a book of her own (and earbuds in her ears) and keeps putting him off. She makes him a can of soup for lunch, and the steam rises and morphs into…“A tiger!” He drops his spoon and tries to defend himself against the ravenous beast with a fabulous contraption made of ladle, corkscrew, whisk and tongs, but his sister only wants to know why he let his soup get cold. Microwaving the soup, she acquiesces, reading his book (which is about a tiger) aloud while he eats. The satisfied tiger, meanwhile, wanders about his imagination. The pictures are quite wonderful: The huge, vivid tiger grows out of the soup and goes everywhere, roaring and prowling. The children live in an architectural wonder of a house on a rocky promontory, with great windows and a fine outdoor staircase. The boy in his jeans and sneakers and the girl in her tastefully preteen flower-embroidered hoodie are the color of chai, and his picture book is patterned like a batik or Indian cotton print. In the current run of titles about older siblings feeding younger ones, this one stands out for its inventive imagery and use of common kitchen implements. (Picture book. 4-8)

NO MONKEYS, NO CHOCOLATE

Stewart, Melissa; Young, Allen Illus. by Wong, Nicole Charlesbridge (32 pp.) $16.95 | Aug. 1, 2013 978-1-58089-287-2 This clever circular tale with a curious title opens with a common scene: a party including chocolaty treats. The authors explain, “[Y]ou can’t make chocolate without… / …cocoa beans.” With the turn of the page, readers find themselves in the rain forest microhabitat of the cocoa tree. In each spread, the authors take children backward through the life cycle of the tree: pods, flowers, leaves, stems, roots and back to beans. The interdependence of plants and animals is introduced in the process: Midges carry pollen from one flower to another; aphids destroying tender stems are kept in check by an anole. Graceful ink-and-watercolor illustrations range from an expansive view of the rain forest to a close-up of aphids. Explanations are delivered in a simple manner that avoids terms such as pollination or germination. “Bookworm” commentators in the corner of each spread either reinforce the concept— “No lizards, no chocolate”—or echo youngsters’ impatience: “I thought this book was supposed to be about monkeys.” Indeed, the book closes with a monkey sitting in a branch with an open

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

picture books

kirkus.com

Tonatiuh, Duncan Illus. by Tonatiuh, Duncan Abrams (32 pp.) $16.95 | May 7, 2013 978-1-4197-0583-0

A brilliant modern fable—eloquent, hopeful and heartrending—about a rabbit family whose members cross the border in search of a better life, and each other. Drought forces Papá Rabbit to leave for the great carrot and lettuce fields of the north, hoping to make money for his family. Years pass, but when he doesn’t arrive home on the appointed day, his eldest son, Pancho Rabbit, sets out to find him. Heading north, he meets a coyote who promises a shortcut in return for food. At each step of their treacherous journey, the coyote demands more food in exchange for Pancho’s safe passage. The food finally all gone, Pancho is about to be consumed when Papá Rabbit rescues him. Reunited, Pancho learns all the money Papá saved for the family was stolen by a crow gang. Pancho guides them home, but happiness is short-lived, as the family must decide who will—and how to—return north if the rains still refuse to come. Textured earth tones are digitally collaged to create Pancho’s world, where the river’s darkness and desert’s sweltering heat are inescapable. Geometric shapes define the characters’ faces, making them reminiscent of Aztec stone carvings. But Tonatiuh’s great strength is in the text. No word is wasted, as each emotion is clearly and poignantly expressed. The rabbits’ future is unknown, but their love and faith in each other sustains them through it all. Accessible for young readers, who may be drawn to it as they would a classic fable; perfect for mature readers and the classroom, where its layers of truth and meaning can be peeled back to be examined and discussed. An incandescent, humane and terribly necessary addition to the immigrant-story shelf. (Picture book. 5-9)

kirkus.com

picture books

I AM BLOP!

Tullet, Hervé Illus. by Tullet, Hervé Phaidon (110 pp.) $19.95 | Mar. 5, 2013 978-0-7148-6533-1 Blop comes in many colors, but only one distinctive, easy-to-draw shape. The latest in a series of offbeat, imaginative creations by renowned French artist Tullet will intrigue children and encourage them to think outside the blop. Tullet takes a single shape, a puffy X reminiscent of a butterfly or a flower, and allows it to run wild through a colorful circus of abstract ideas. Using very few words and a homely, handwritten script, Blop visually explores many concepts encountered for the first time by young children, including up and down, single and plural, colors, individual and family, school and classroom, pleasure and pain, beauty, the art museum, city and countryside, the universe. One spread asks questions to which there are no right or wrong answers: “What do Blops eat?” “Would you like to have a Blop?” “Can Blops fly?” Any child bored with standard activity-book fare will love using this open-ended, imaginative tool for creating their own universe. “Moi C’est Blop” (the original French title) taps directly into the heart of a child’s natural creativity by avoiding the didactic explanatory tone of similar books. Lighthearted, fun and original, this book will delight children and parents alike. (Picture book. 2-6)

middle gr a de

PANCHO RABBIT AND THE COYOTE A Migrant’s Tale

pictur e books

pod, eating the pulp and spitting out the beans, which fall to the ground and take root: no monkeys, no chocolate. Backmatter helps young naturalists understand why conservation and careful stewardship is important. Children—and more than a few adults—will find this educational you-are-there journey to the rain forest fascinating. (Informational picture book. 4-8)

LOULA IS LEAVING FOR AFRICA

Villeneuve, Anne Illus. by Villeneuve, Anne Kids Can (32 pp.) $16.95 | Sep. 1, 2013 978-1-55453-941-3

Loula seethes. Sick of three ugly brothers and ignored by dotty parents, she sets out for Africa, making it only as far as the tree in the front yard until Gilbert (the family chauffeur) arrives to assist her on an imaginative safari. Much feels familiar here: an affluent, plucky girl with an upturned nose and a doting servant (Eloise, anyone?). A roundbrimmed straw hat calls to mind a spunky French girl (bonjour, Madeline!). It’s Gilbert, long-legged and lanky in high-waisted trousers, driving cap and bow tie, that makes this story special, sweet and lasting. His elaborate game of pretend, one that turns a city playground into the jungle, desert and rivers of Africa, reveals an utter devotion not only to little Loula, but also to make-believe. “Mademoiselle, please! Don’t put your hand in the water! Piranhas!” he cautions urgently. Gestural ink-and-watercolor illustrations evoke the fantastic fluidity of the imagination, and crisp, copious white space suggests its limitlessness. Yellows and blues appear

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“Peppered with speech bubbles in English, alien- or insectspeak, Wiesner’s multipaneled tour de force treats the green ETs to maximum upheaval.” from mr. wuffles!

frequently, making this sunny adventure even sunnier. When Loula and Gilbert reach their destination (a tiny park island) at sunset, the dark squiggly cloud that hovered above Loula’s head on each previous page dissipates in a miniexplosion of elation. A paean to imagination and an artful acknowledgment of children’s needs and frustrations, leavened with poignancy and humor. (Picture book. 2-6)

MR. WUFFLES!

Wiesner, David Illus. by Wiesner, David Clarion (32 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-0-618-75661-2 A house cat pooh-poohs most proffered toys and gets his comeuppance tangling with a tiny alien spacecraft and its penny-sized adventurers. Peppered with speech bubbles in English, alien- or insectspeak, Wiesner’s multipaneled tour de force treats the green ETs to maximum upheaval. Their initial celebration at landing turns to mayhem as their craft is buffeted by Mr. Wuffles. The aliens assess a smoldering engine part and disembark for help. The ensuing comic interplay pits cat against aliens as the tiny ones flee beneath a radiator cover. A ladybug and several ants assist them, and the repair’s successfully made by harvesting cross sections of detritus: pencil eraser, M&M, marble and metal screw. The insects have decorated the wall of their lair with drawings à la Lascaux, the menacing Mr. Wuffles depicted prominently. After sketching a game plan, with insects playing transport and diversionary roles, the crew escapes back to the ship. Against oak floorboards and wallpaper prettily conveyed in ink and watercolor, the now-crazed Mr. Wuffles is riveted to the radiator, perplexing his human. Final panels show the cat gazing out the window, claws fruitlessly deployed; ants draw new scenes on their wall. Wiesner truly “gets” cats: An end-flap photo shows that the artist’s “model” for the beleaguered Mr. Wuffles is indeed a household denizen. Expertly imagined, composed, drawn and colored, this is Wiesner at his best. (Picture book. 4-8)

decorated with the eponymous ark adrift on swirling blue ocean waters covers the hardcover; when it is revealed, it shows pairs of animals, two by two aboard the vessel. The first pages invite readers to open up the spreads side by side so they unfurl into a continuous piece of art, first showing a great eye looking down upon verdant landscape. Omniscient opening narration acknowledges the story’s ancient origins and says, “great tales deserve to be repeated—and so let me tell it here again, in my way.” The familiar tale progresses and refreshingly gives an equal role to Na’mah as she and Noah hear God’s warning, build the ark and gather animal pairs to board it. Once the world floods, the art unfolds in the opposite direction, neatly bisecting the story into ante- and postdiluvian parts. A curious artistic decision shows the people not saved by the ark smiling as they succumb to the flood waters, but all other illustrations, including the culminating vision of the rainbow, are sublime. A gorgeous re-envisioning of an old, old story. (Picture book/art book. 3 & up)

THE ENDURING ARK

Wolf, Gita Illus. by Chitrakar, Joydeb Tara Publishing (34 pp.) $21.95 | May 14, 2013 978-93-80340-18-0

A fresh take on an enduring tale retells the story of Noah and Na’mah and the great flood. The book’s innovative accordion design illustrated in the Bengal Patua style of scroll painting is just one of the sumptuous design elements that distinguish it as a remarkable offering. A slipcase 66

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

picture books

kirkus.com

pict u r e book s th at ca p t u r e the a m er ica n ex per ience

BUILDING OUR HOUSE

LOCOMOTIVE

With humorous and affectionate watercolors, Bean tells the story of how his back-to-the-land family built their house “in the middle of a weedy field.”

Floca’s lovingly detailed locomotive pulls readers on a thrilling ride on the newly built transcontinental railroad.

Jonathan Bean Illus. by Jonathan Bean Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Brian Floca Illus. by Brian Floca Richard Jackson/Atheneum

A SPLASH OF RED Jen Bryant Illus. by Melissa Sweet Knopf

Bryant’s precise words and Sweet’s joyous mixed-media illustrations take readers to the rural Pennsylvania African-American artist Horace Pippin captured.

DON’T SAY A WORD, MAMÁ / NO DIGAS NADA, MAMÁ Joe Hayes Illus. by Esau Andrade Valencia Cinco Puntos

Sisters Blanca and Rosa shower gifts of produce on each other and their mother in a whimsically depicted, cozy Southwestern neighborhood.

THE MATCHBOX DIARY Paul Fleischman Illus. by Bagram Ibatoulline Candlewick

An old man uses mementos kept in matchboxes to tell his greatgranddaughter how he came from Italy and grew up in Pittsburgh in Fleischman and Ibatoulline’s gentle, luminous book.

kirkus.com

picture books

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

the a m er ica n ex per ience

( con t.)

HERE I AM

PARROTS OVER PUERTO RICO

Kim’s evocative, wordless story and Sánchez’s energetic graphic panels tell the tale of a little boy newly arrived in America and how he makes his first friend.

Roth and Trumbore chart the fortunes of the parrots of Puerto Rico while relating the history of the island from 5000 B.C. to the present day; Roth’s textured collages are a visual feast.

Patti Kim Illus. by Sonia Sánchez Capstone Young Readers

Susan L. Roth; Cindy Trumbore Illus. by Susan L. Roth Lee & Low

RIFKA TAKES A BOW Betty Rosenberg Perlov Illus. by Cosei Kawa Kar-Ben

Young Rifka makes a splash on the Yiddish stage in Perlov’s loving story, scenes boisterously realized in Kawa’s mixed-media tableaux.

PANCHO RABBIT AND THE COYOTE Duncan Tonatiuh Illus. by Duncan Tonatiuh Abrams

THE TORTOISE & THE HARE Jerry Pinkney Illus. by Jerry Pinkney Little, Brown

Pancho Rabbit’s father is lost in El Norte; Tonatiuh’s digitally composed, folk-art–inspired illustrations describe the perilous journey he undertakes with a wicked coyote to bring Papá back.

Aesop’s characters race across the Southwestern desert, cheered along by local fauna, in Pinkney’s triumphant follow-up to The Lion & the Mouse.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

picture books

kirkus.com

—Vicky Smith

THE WATER CASTLE

Blakemore, Megan Frazer Walker (352 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-8027-2839-5

LEFT BEHIND

Adderson, Caroline Illus. by Clanton, Ben Kids Can (132 pp.) $15.95 | Mar. 1, 2013 978-1-55453-579-8 Series: Jasper John Dooley, 2 After Jasper John Dooley’s beloved Nan goes on vacation without him, he goes pththth. It feels just like when the air leaked out of his beach ball. At school the next day, he writes a story about a snake that gets stepped on a lot. The story is so long that it needs staples, but he accidentally staples it to his stomach. That eventually somehow necessitates a full 28 Band-Aids, since it just keeps feeling like the air is escaping from his sad body, possibly through the staple holes. Jasper and best friend Ori, who is given to prefacing his statements with, “The thing is...” (a phrase that neatly captures his amiable take on the world), try to build a cruise ship out of leftover lumber, not altogether a success. Ori gets a bit bossy. A final trial comes when Jasper gets to bring home the class hamster for the weekend but accidentally loses it in his house. As in Jasper’s first outing (Star of the Week, 2012), nothing truly compelling happens, but the concerns of this early grade schooler are so aptly, charmingly and amusingly depicted that it’s impossible not to be both captivated and compelled. Clanton’s simple black-and-white illustrations feature skinny bodies, oversized heads—and lots of smiles. Early chapter book or read-aloud, this effort will leave its audience with lots of smiles, too. (Fiction. 5-8)

middle gr a de

charlotte’s web, the hobbit, Little House in the Big Woods, Ramona Quimby, Age 8—what do these books have in common? Aside from being some of the best-loved books of all time, they were all written for middle-grade readers: kids who have finished the hard work of learning how to read and are ready to bust loose and soak up what the world of children’s literature has to offer. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that some of the books we love best are the ones that we encounter when we’re just flexing our reading muscles. Free from the need for adult support and from the responsibilities of young-adulthood, middle-grade readers are ready to lose themselves in books. Time spent curled up with a good book is perfect childhood joy. And, happily, every year there are new ones for new generations to curl up with. This year offered some doozies. There’s a mesmerizing graphic-novel history of the American Dust Bowl. A mystery featuring a walking, talking chocolate doughnut—with sprinkles (who bowls). A rip-roaring adventure about two orphans from Winnipeg looking for safety on the streets of New York City. A dreamily romantic retelling of the fairy tale “East o’ the Sun, West o’ the Moon.” A ghost story unlike any other you’ve read that follows one boy along the Choctaw Trail of Tears. And 45 more, some of which will join Charlotte’s Web and its peers as vehicles for that perfect childhood joy. Take a look; you and your middle graders may find ourselves curling up with a few of them.

pictur e books

middlegrade books

THE TWISTROSE KEY

Almhjell, Tone Illus. by Schoenherr, Ian Dial (368 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 22, 2013 978-0-8037-3895-9

Skillfully blending facets of classic high fantasy, this debut novel will captivate readers with its rich plot and detailed worldbuilding. Sylveros is populated by the formerly beloved pets of Earth children. After an animal’s death on Earth, it passes over to a life of apparent harmony in the winter beauty of the Sylver Valley. While a winter setting inevitably invites Narnia comparisons, this layered plot holds its own. The peace in Sylver has been disturbed, and chief chronicler Teodor does |

kirkus.com

middle grade

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

not know why. Nightmares are threatening the protected border. In times like these, a Twistrose—a human child—is called from Earth to give aid. Lin Rosenquist, mourning her tamed pet vole, Rufus, who died some five weeks earlier, finds herself magically transported to Sylver and is met by Rufus himself, now as big as she is. Teodor tells Lin she is the Twistrose and charges her with finding Isvan Winterfyrst, a “glacial-kin” child who has mysteriously disappeared and whose presence is imperative to continue the magic that keeps Sylver safe. Lin’s only clue is an ancient, nonsensical ballad. Deeply drawn characters with heart combine with meticulous details to convincingly bring readers into the fantasy world, while a revelatory ending makes this a satisfying read that may be enjoyed even more the second time around. Fantasy that evokes the classics of yore and stands proudly among them. (Fantasy. 9-13)

THE TRUE BLUE SCOUTS OF SUGAR MAN SWAMP

Appelt, Kathi Illus. by Bricking, Jennifer Atheneum (384 pp.) $16.99 | Jul. 23, 2013 978-1-4424-2105-9

When rogue feral hogs and a greedy developer threaten to wipe out Sugar Man Swamp, two raccoons know it’s time to rouse the legendary Sugar Man. Mythic Sugar Man has reigned over Sugar Man Swamp for a “gazillion yesterdays.” Raccoons Bingo and J’miah descend from a line of Official Scouts Sugar Man designated to watch over the swamp and alert him in an emergency. Twelve-year-old Chap has also grown up along the swamp, where his mother operates Paradise Pies Café. Like his recently deceased grandfather, Chap cherishes the swamp. When the swamp’s sleazy owner, Sunny Boy Beaucoup, threatens to evict them to convert the swamp into Gator World Wrestling Arena and Theme Park, Chap takes his grandfather’s place to preserve what he loves. When Bingo and J’miah discover feral hogs descending on the swamp to pulverize the native sugarcane, they risk Sugar Man’s wrath and wake him. Set in the east Texas bayou, like The Underneath (2008) and Keeper (2010), this playful tale teems with bayou flora, fauna and folklore. In a honeyed dialect, the omnipresent narrator directly engages readers, ricocheting between the hilarious human and critter dramas to a riotous finale. A rollicking, ripping tall tale with ecological subtext. (art not seen) (Fantasy. 10-14)

DOLL BONES

Black, Holly McElderry (256 pp.) $16.99 | May 7, 2013 978-1-4169-6398-1 A middle-grade fantasy dons the cloak of a creepy ghost tale to deliver bittersweet meditations on the nature of friendship, the price of growing up and the power of storytelling. The lifelong friendship of Zach, Poppy and Alice revolves around their joint creation, an epic role-playing saga of pirates and perils, queens and quests. But now they are 12, and their interests are changing along with their bodies; when Zach’s father trashes his action figures and commands him to “grow up,” Zach abruptly quits the game. Poppy begs him to join her and Alice on one last adventure: a road trip to bring peace to the ghost possessing her antique porcelain doll. As they travel by bus and boat (with a fateful stop at the public library), the ghost seems to take charge of their journey—and the distinctions between fantasy and reality, between play and obligation, begin to dissolve.... Veteran Black packs both heft and depth into a deceptively simple (and convincingly uncanny) narrative. From Zach’s bitter relationship with his father to Anna’s chafing at her overprotective grandmother to Poppy’s resignation with her ramshackle relations, Black skillfully sketches their varied backgrounds and unique contributions to their relationship. A few rich metaphors—rivers, pottery, breath—are woven throughout the story, as every encounter redraws the blurry lines between childishness and maturity, truth and lies, secrecy and honesty, magic and madness. Spooky, melancholy, elegiac and ultimately hopeful; a small gem. (Fantasy. 10-14)

JINX

Blackwood, Sage Harper/HarperCollins (368 pp.) $16.99 | $9.99 e-book | Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-06-212990-1 978-0-06-212992-5 e-book

Making unusually entertaining use of well-worn elements, this series opener plops a dense but promising young wizard-in-training between a pair of obnoxious rival mages. Left by his stepparents to die in the dangerous Urwald, Jinx is rescued by Simon Magus, a “possibly evil” forest-dwelling wizard whose obsession with magical research is matched only by a truly profound lack of people skills. Several years later, having learned a little magic but also injured by one of Simon’s spells, Jinx stomps off in a rage to seek help. But hardly has he fallen in with a couple of ensorcelled fellow travelers, than all three fall into the clutches of the genial but rightly feared Bonemaster. Along with setting this adventuresome outing in a sentient forest populated by trolls, werewolves and giddy witches who bound about in butter churns, the

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

middle grade

kirkus.com

“[Bolden] tracks rising tides of both rhetoric and violence, as well as the evolution of President Abraham Lincoln’s determined efforts to forge a policy that would serve military, political and moral necessities alike.” pseudonymous Blackwood spins out lively dialogue threaded with comical rudeness and teasing. Trotting out a supporting cast whose inner characters are often at thought-provoking odds with their outer seeming, she also puts her central three through a string of suspenseful, scary situations before delivering a properly balanced closing set of resolutions, revelations and road signs to future episodes. Unsurprisingly, Jinx displays hints of developing powers beyond the ordinary. Astonishingly, he and his world still seem fresh, for all that they echo familiar tropes. (Fantasy. 10-12)

Blakemore, Megan Frazer Walker (352 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-8027-2839-5

Weaving legacy and myth into science and magic, old into new and enemies into friends, Blakemore creates an exquisite mystery. Crystal Springs, Maine, “isn’t on the map,” but it’s still where Price, Ephraim and Brynn’s mother brings their family when their father has a stroke. The “looming stone house” with hidden floors and impossible rooms, owned by their family (the Appledores) for over a century, was once a resort that claimed its spring water had healing properties—possibly a fountain of youth. Ephraim struggles to fit in at Crystal Springs’ peculiarly overachieving school; his classmate Mallory steels herself against her mother’s recent departure and her teacher’s assignment to study Matthew Henson (“He just assumed she would want to do him, because Henson was black too”). While Mallory, Ephraim and another sixth-grader named Will unravel the castle’s secrets (each for different reasons, all serious) and confront age-old hostility among their families, a 1908 storyline unfolds: Young Nora Darling (Mallory’s relative) assists old Orlando Appledore in feverish scientific research. Peary and Henson’s Arctic expedition features in both timelines; science, history and literature references glow; Nikola Tesla visits Nora and Orlando. With keen intelligence and bits of humor, the prose slips calmly between narrative perspectives, trusting readers to pick up a revelation that Ephraim and Mallory don’t see—and it’s a doozy. This one is special. (Fiction. 10-14)

EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION Lincoln and the Dawn of Liberty

Bolden, Tonya Abrams (128 pp.) $24.95 | Jan. 1, 2013 978-1-4197-0390-4

A vivid depiction of the issues and tensions surrounding abolition and the development of Lincoln’s responses to them as the United States plunged into the Civil War. |

kirkus.com

middle grade

middle gr a de

THE WATER CASTLE

From the first, Bolden adopts a personal voice that infuses her narrative with urgency—“Over the years, we rejoiced when a Northern state abolished the abomination. We agonized when a slave state entered the union.” The account opens with scenes of hushed abolitionist vigils as the hour that the proclamation would officially go into effect approaches; it closes with glimpses of the joyous celebrations that followed. In between, the author tracks rising tides of both rhetoric and violence, as well as the evolution of President Abraham Lincoln’s determined efforts to forge a policy that would serve military, political and moral necessities alike. Along with relevant sections of the Constitution and the final proclamation’s full text (both with glosses), the author adds to her narrative a heavy infusion of impassioned rhetoric from contemporary writers and orators. These, plus a spectacular set of big, sharply reproduced prints, photos and paintings, offer cogent insights into major events and the overall tenor of the public discourse. A convincing, handsomely produced argument that the proclamation, for all its acknowledged limitations, remains a watershed document. (endnotes, bibliography, extensive timeline) (Nonfiction. 12-15)

pictur e books

from emancipation proclamation

TEXTING THE UNDERWORLD

Booraem, Ellen Dial (320 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 15, 2013 978-0-8037-3704-4 Fantasist Booraem (Small Persons with Wings, 2011, etc.) turns her attention from art to another great human endeavor: death. Timorous 12-year-old Conor O’Neill is scared of spiders, doesn’t want to play hockey and is dubious about leaving Southie to attend Boston Latin. When a banshee shows up, ready to keen for an imminent family Death, he is sent directly over the edge into terror. Who’s to die? His parents? His beloved, Irish-to-the-core grandfather, Grump? His “soul-sucking demon warrior” of a little sister, Glennie? Conor himself? Cripes. Rookie banshee Ashling needs her Death; it’s the only way she can move on from the Underworld and into a new life. Hoping to find a loophole, Conor, Glennie and an ailing Grump venture with her into the Underworld to talk to the Lady and undergo the test of the Birds in order to gain power over life and death. Booraem applies a light touch to her heavy subject. Iron Age–era Ashling eagerly, if inaccurately, adopts 21st-century slang and catches up with old Trivial Pursuit cards; the various denizens of the Underworld—a gleeful olio of afterlife mythologies—squabble like those who’ve been cooped up together too long. But she doesn’t avoid staring death in the face, saddling her likably unlikely hero with an agonizing decision that, though framed in fantasy, is all too gut-punchingly real. Like Conor, readers will emerge from this adventure a little bit better equipped for heroism than before. (Fantasy. 10-14)

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“Told in first-person verse appealing to both reluctant and passionate readers, the novel is woven with Haitian history, culture and Creole phrases.” from serafina’s promise

THE GREAT AMERICAN DUST BOWL

Brown, Don Illus. by Brown, Don Houghton Mifflin (80 pp.) $18.99 | Oct. 8, 2013 978-0-547-81550-3

A graphic-novel account of the science and history that first created and then, theoretically, destroyed the terrifying Dust Bowl storms that raged in the United States during the “dirty thirties.” “A speck of dust is a tiny thing. Five of them could fit on the period at the end of this sentence.” This white-lettered opening is set against a roiling mass of dark clouds that spills from verso to recto as a cartoon farmer and scores of wildlife flee for their lives. The dialogue balloon for the farmer—“Oh my God! Here it comes!”—is the first of many quotations (most of them more informative) from transcripts of eyewitnesses. These factual accounts are interspersed with eloquently simple explanations of the geology of the Great Plains, the mistake of replacing bison with cattle and other lead-ups to the devastations of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. The comic-book–style characters create relief from the relentlessly grim stories of hardship and loss, set in frames appropriately backgrounded in grays and browns. Although readers learn of how the U.S. government finally intervened to help out, the text does not spare them from accounts of crippling droughts even in the current decade. From its enticing, dramatic cover to its brown endpapers to a comical Grant Wood–esque final image, this is a worthy contribution to the nonfiction shelves. (bibliography, source notes, photographs) (Graphic nonfiction. 10 & up)

SERAFINA’S PROMISE

Burg, Ann E. Scholastic (304 pp.) $16.99 | $16.99 e-book | Sep. 24, 2013 978-0-545-53564-9 978-0-545-54994-3 e-book Eleven-year-old Serafina has a dream: to go to school and become a doctor. Yet her life outside of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, is filled with urgent chores and responsibilities. A natural healer, Serafina has already witnessed the loss of baby brother Pierre to disease and hunger, wishing she could have done more to save him. Now Manman is about to have another baby. How will her family ever do without Serafina’s help or afford her school uniform? Burg uses gentle language and graceful imagery to create the characters that make up Serafina’s loving family—Papa, Manman and Gogo, her wise grandmother. (Sadly, Granpè was taken away long ago by the Tonton Macoutes.) Told in first-person verse appealing to both 72

reluctant and passionate readers, the novel is woven with Haitian history, culture and Creole phrases. Readers will root for this likable heroine as she overcomes obstacles—poverty, family obligations, the catastrophic 2010 earthquake—in her effort to emulate her mentor, Antoinette Solaine, the physician who tried to save Pierre. The spirit of the text’s celebration of the power of determination, family, friendship and love is ably captured in Sean Quall’s delightful cover art. Lilting, lyrical and full of hope. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

ODD DUCK

Castellucci, Cecil Illus. by Varon, Sara First Second/Roaring Brook (96 pp.) $15.99 | May 14, 2013 978-1-59643-557-5 A sublime tale of two strange ducks who overcome the odds—pun completely intended—and become friends. Theodora is an odd duck indeed: She spends her days swimming with a teacup balanced on her head, flavoring her duck pellets with mango salsa and watching the stars. She is content, her days are full—but they’re not quite fulfilling. One fateful day, a new duck named Chad moves next door. He’s strange, unstructured, disorderly and loud—the opposite of quietly meticulous Theodora. Despite his eccentricities—and her initial judgment of him—the pair bond over a shared love of the stars. During an outing, another duck loudly points out that “odd duck” as the pair waddle past. Each thinks that the other must be the odd one, resulting in an argument. As Theodora ponders their fight, she realizes that though she’s happy with her life, it doesn’t mean much without someone to share it with. A moral that could have been nauseatingly saccharine in the hands of a lesser author is handled deftly here. Castellucci and Varon shine together, with Varon’s trademark animal characters and Castellucci’s careful prose. Readers expecting a typical graphic novel may be a bit put off; reading like a long picture book, this is reliant on illustrations that stretch across an entire page as opposed to many boxy, structured panels, resulting in a wonderfully odd and endearing little offering. This clever celebration of individuality delights. (Graphic fiction. 6-10)

LOOK UP! Bird-Watching in Your Own Backyard

Cate, Annette LeBlanc Illus. by Cate, Annette LeBlanc Candlewick (64 pp.) $15.99 | Mar. 12, 2013 978-0-7636-4561-8

A chatty, appealing introduction to observing these easiestto-see of all wild creatures.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

middle grade

kirkus.com

DiCamillo, Kate Illus. by Campbell, K.G. Candlewick (240 pp.) $17.99 | Sep. 24, 2013 978-0-7636-6040-6

When a cynical comic-book fanatic discovers her own superhero, life becomes wonderfully supercharged. Despite the contract her mother made her sign to “turn her face away from the idiotic high jinks of comics,” 10-year-old Flora avidly follows her favorite superhero’s adventures. Flora’s mother writes romance novels and seems more in love with her books than with her lonely ex-husband or equally lonely daughter. When a neighbor accidentally vacuums a squirrel into a Ulysses 2000X vacuum cleaner, Flora resuscitates him into a “changed squirrel,” able to lift the 2000X with a single paw. Immediately assuming he’s a superhero, Flora names the squirrel “Ulysses” and believes together they will “[shed] light into the darkest corners of the universe.” Able to understand Flora, type, compose poetry and fly, the transformed Ulysses indeed exhibits superpowers, but he confronts his “arch-nemesis” when Flora’s mother tries to terminate him, triggering a chain of events where Ulysses becomes a real superhero. The very witty text and droll, comic-book–style blackand-white illustrations perfectly relay the all-too-hilarious adventures of Flora, Ulysses and a cast of eccentric characters who learn to believe in the impossible and have “capacious” hearts. Original, touching and oh-so-funny tale starring an endearingly implausible superhero and a not-so-cynical girl. (Fantasy. 8-12) |

kirkus.com

middle grade

WITH A MIGHTY HAND The Story in the Torah Ehrlich, Amy—Adapt. Illus. by Nevins, Daniel Candlewick (224 pp.) $29.99 | Aug. 27, 2013 978-0-7636-4395-9

“Anyone who reads the Torah will see that a lot of it doesn’t make sense,” Ehrlich writes in her introduction. “It is repetitive, inconsistent, even contradictory.” Oddly enough, though, a writer who’s skeptical about the Bible turns out to be the perfect person to translate it. This Bible begins: “At the beginning, the earth was wild and empty….” She’s changed the traditional phrasing just enough that some readers will find it more approachable, and others will find it surprising and unfamiliar. She describes Moses’ basket as “a little ark of papyrus,” reminding readers of how much danger the baby was in, floating in the middle of the Nile. Nevins’ paintings may also change the way people think about the text. When Jacob wrestles an angel, the two of them look almost like one being. The pictures seem to be painted with more colors than exist in nature. They glow. Not every word of the Bible has been included, the text having been pared down to a series of interconnected stories. The book of Numbers is suddenly much shorter and much sadder, consisting of a sobering numbering of the dead. Even readers who are not at all skeptical about the Bible may find that they need this version; it’s so beautiful and new. Ehrlich’s transcendent verse translation renders these familiar stories as shocking, perplexing and remarkably compelling—just as they always have been. (map, genealogy, endnotes) (Religion. 7-18)

middle gr a de

FLORA & ULYSSES The Illuminated Adventures

pictur e books

Amusing scenes of loquacious birds and occasional human observers fill these busy pages. The pen-and-ink–and-watercolor cartoons are reminiscent of Roz Chast, with speech bubbles carrying much of the information. Where it would be informative, birds are labeled. Their variety is astounding; the page on coloration alone shows 60 different species from across the country. Cate’s enthusiasm is catching, but she starts simply. She talks about looking at birds in one’s backyard and neighborhood, with no special tools except for a sketch book—not since drawing is easy but since the effort requires close attention to details. She addresses color, shape and activities before moving on to using field marks to distinguish similar-looking birds. A comical central spread shows a sparrow fashion show, with the different species sporting their distinctive decorations. She discusses plumage variations, sounds and the use of field guides. The fact that birds look different because they live in different places and behave in different ways leads to consideration of habitat, range and migration. Finally, an explanation of classification includes an introduction to scientific names. The bibliography has good suggestions for birders of any age. Small and accessible, this is jam-packed with accurate information likely to increase any potential birder’s enthusiasm and knowledge. (index, drawing, tips) (Nonfiction. 8-15)

MOUNTAIN DOG

Engle, Margarita Illus. by Ivanov, Olga; Ivanov, Alexey Henry Holt (224 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 6, 2013 978-0-8050-9516-6

An absorbing story of an 11-year-old boy from Los Angeles who, when his mother is incarcerated for organizing pit-bull dogfights, moves in with his forest-ranger great-uncle and his chocolate Lab in their remote cabin high in the Sierra Nevadas. Writing in verse with an understated simplicity that quietly packs a punch, Engle compassionately portrays a boy who is struggling to leave his “pit-bull life” behind—though “the sad / mad / abandoned” memories of visits to his mother in the Valley State Prison for Women make this difficult. Soon after he arrives, Tony’s great-uncle Tío takes him on the first of many wilderness tours in which he learns about thru-hikers on the

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

Pacific Coast Trail, trail angels and trail magic. And Gabe, a skilled search-and-rescue dog, plays a big and joyful role in helping Tony feel a part of things: “Gabe time. Dog time. Dirty, dusty, / rolling around in grass time”; by hiding as a volunteer “victim,” Tony helps SAR dogs practice finding a lost hiker and feels useful. Revealing both Tony’s and Gabe’s points of view in alternating chapters, the author deftly incorporates a fascinating mix of science, nature (cool facts aplenty) and wilderness lore into a highly accessible narrative that makes room for a celebration of language: “Maybe words / are my strength. / I could turn out to be / a superhero / with secret / syllable powers.” The Ivanovs’ black-and-white illustrations nimbly reflect the story’s tone. Poignant and memorable. (author’s note) (Verse fiction. 8-12)

AFTER IRIS

Farrant, Natasha Dial (272 pp.) $16.99 | Jul. 11, 2013 978-0-8037-3982-6 In this keenly drawn family drama, Blue, sure that no one else still misses her twin, Iris, turns a camera on her workaholic parents, tempestuous older sister, Flora, and younger siblings Jasmine and Twig, the Babes, who entertain themselves with race-car–driving rats. Blue captures the action in film transcripts and diary entries written in breathless, run-on sentences that reflect the family’s spinout. With their parents absent, possibly divorcing, their doctoral-student babysitter struggles to maintain control. Flora dyes her hair pink, the Babes get lost, and even Blue gets in trouble when a cute bad boy convinces her to seek revenge against a bully with a stunt involving the rats. A typical early adolescent, Blue has a sharp eye but is believably blind to everyone else’s sadness. As she comes to terms with her own grief, she grows ever more aware. But it takes another near tragedy to rally the family—although, as readers will have come to expect with this hapless crew, miscommunication and mayhem, even nature itself, almost keep them apart. With her first children’s book, Farrant has created a wounded, flawed cast of characters and depicts them with great compassion. The situations are a mix of hilariously funny and poignantly touching. Ultimately, loyalty, forgiveness and love reunite them, and the closing scene is lovely: The camera is turned on Blue, and readers see her laughing. An uplifting, memorable read. (Fiction. 10-14)

MY BASMATI BAT MITZVAH

Freedman, Paula J. Amulet/Abrams (256 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-4197-0806-0 The latest spunky heroine of South Asian–Jewish heritage to grace middlegrade fiction, Tara Feinstein, 12, charms readers from the get-go in this strong, funny debut. Cheerful, sociable and a New Yorker through and through, Tara’s blessed with two best friends: Ben-o, a gentile, and Rebecca, who’s Jewish. Both girls attend Hebrew School. As boys prepare for their bar mitzvahs and girls for bat mitzvahs, Tara struggles with doubts (does she believe in God?) and fears devaluing her beloved Indian heritage. When Sheila Rosenberg tells Tara she’s not a real Jew because her mother (an IndianAmerican convert to Judaism) wasn’t born a Jew, Tara hits back— literally. Tara looks forward to working with Ben-o in Robotics Club for seventh grade. Instead, she’s stuck with ADD-challenged Ryan Berger, whose interest is Tara, not robotics, and her comfortable relationship with Ben-o is threatened now that he seems to want to take it to the level of romance. Her simmering feud with Sheila complicates life further. Authors often mention but then shrink from exploring in depth their characters’ mixed religious heritage; it’s a sensitive subject that demands close scrutiny. Freedman bucks that trend, avoiding didacticism by portraying broader issues through Tara’s personality and unique circumstances. As Tara learns in this skillful exploration, an important source of her special strengths—questioning spirit, empathy and strong ethical compass—is her mixed heritage. (Hindi-Yiddish glossary) (Fiction. 10-14)

BECOMING BEN FRANKLIN How a Candle-Maker’s Son Helped Light the Flame of Liberty

Freedman, Russell Holiday House (96 pp.) $24.95 | May 1, 2013 978-0-8234-2374-3

An engaging biography of the man who “snatched lightning from the sky and the scepter from tyrants.” Benjamin Franklin ran away from his apprenticeship in Boston and arrived in Philadelphia a tired, dirty and hungry 17-yearold who impressed 15-year-old Deborah Read, his future wife, as a young man with a “most awkward ridiculous appearance.” With characteristic grace, Freedman sketches his subject’s career: Franklin settled into life in Philadelphia and became a printer, first publishing Poor Richard’s Almanack in 1733. Franklin led the Junto, which fostered such civic improvements as

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

middle grade

kirkus.com

“Throughout this finely wrought narrative, Grimes’ free verse is tight, with perfect breaks of line and effortless shifts from reality to dream states and back.”

SALT A Story of Friendship in a Time of War

Frost, Helen Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux (160 pp.) $16.99 | Jul. 9, 2013 978-0-374-36387-1

Frost explores the wide-ranging impact of wartime aggression through the intimate lens of two 12-year-old boys caught in the crossfire of the War of 1812. Anikwa, a member of the Miami tribe hailing from Kekionga, often spends his days hunting and playing in the forest with James Gray, whose home is in the stockade near Fort Wayne. For centuries, Anikwa’s ancestors have lived in this area, and James’ family has enjoyed amicable relations with the Miami and other Native Americans with whom they exchange goods. While these differing communities have learned from and helped support each other through adverse conditions, British and American claims to the Indiana Territory near Fort Wayne force them to re-examine their relationship. As other tribes and thousands of American soldiers gather to fight to establish the border between Canada and the United States, Anikwa’s grandmother laments, “We can’t stop things from changing. I hope / the children will remember how our life has been,” foreshadowing how the boys’ friendship, which has always been able to bridge cultural and language gaps, will face unprecedented challenges. Frost deftly tells the tale through each boy’s voice, employing distinct verse patterns to distinguish them yet imbuing both characters with the same degree of openness and introspection needed to tackle the hard issues of ethnocentrism and unbridled violence. Sensitive and smart: a poetic vista for historical insight as well as cultural awareness. (Verse novel. 10-14)

kirkus.com

middle grade

WORDS WITH WINGS

Grimes, Nikki Wordsong/Boyds Mills (96 pp.) $15.95 | Sep. 1, 2013 978-1-59078-985-8 In this delightfully spare narrative in verse, Coretta Scott King Award–winning Grimes examines a marriage’s end from the perspective of a child. Set mostly in the wake of her father’s departure, only-child Gabby reveals with moving clarity in these short first-person poems the hardship she faces relocating with her mother and negotiating the further loss of a good friend while trying to adjust to a new school. Gabby has always been something of a dreamer, but when she begins study in her new class, she finds her thoughts straying even more. She admits: “Some words / sit still on the page / holding a story steady. / … / But other words have wings / that wake my daydreams. / They … / tickle my imagination, / and carry my thoughts away.” To illustrate Gabby’s inner wanderings, Grimes’ narrative breaks from the present into episodic bursts of vivid poetic reminiscence. Luckily, Gabby’s new teacher recognizes this inability to focus to be a coping mechanism and devises a daily activity designed to harness daydreaming’s creativity with a remarkably positive result for both Gabby and the entire class. Throughout this finely wrought narrative, Grimes’ free verse is tight, with perfect breaks of line and effortless shifts from reality to dream states and back. An inspirational exploration of caring among parent, teacher and child—one of Grimes’ best. (Poetry. 8-12)

middle gr a de

America’s first lending library, lighting Philadelphia’s streets, and founding the firefighting company, the first hospital and Philadelphia’s first college. By age 44, Franklin was prosperous enough to retire from business, but he continued to be busy, inventing bifocals, the lightning rod and the Franklin stove. He was active in the creation of a new nation, signing all of the major documents that created the United States. Freedman is a master at shaping stories that bring history to life, with clear and lively prose rooted in solid research. The stylish volume includes many reproductions of portraits, engravings, and newspaper and almanac pages to enliven the fascinating portrait of Franklin and his times. A superb addition to Freedman’s previous volumes on the Revolutionary period. (timeline, source notes, picture credits, bibliography, index) (Biography. 10 & up)

pictur e books

from words with wings

MONSTER ON THE HILL

Harrell, Rob Illus. by Harrell, Rob Top Shelf Productions (192 pp.) $19.95 paper | Jul. 1, 2013 978-1-60309-075-9 In an alternative 19th-century England, monsters both thrill and protect their towns. In Stoker-on-Avon, the townsfolk have been feeling a bit dismayed; their monster, a horned, winged creature named Rayburn, hasn’t attacked in nearly seven years, and his lack of ambition serves as a constant embarrassment to his village. A disgraced doctor is asked to help “fix” the melancholic monster, and once he accepts, he discovers that a precocious street urchin has stowed along for the ride. The pair and the bummed-out beast set out to visit one of Rayburn’s old creature friends, a savage-looking beast with a heart of gold popularly known as Tentaculor, but affectionately to his friends as Noodles. This leaves Stoker-on-Avon vulnerable and without a monster. Rayburn’s absence is intuited by an abominable being known as the Murk, a mixture of mud, hair, and pure, unrefined evil. Faced with the imminent destruction of

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“Henkes offers what he so often does in these longer works for children: a sense that experiences don’t have to be extraordinary to be important and dramatic.” from the year of billy miller

his town, Rayburn must overcome his dolorous disposition and rediscover his true terrifying powers. More at-home than anomalous, Harrell’s world is easily accessible, a place where monsters seamlessly blend into 19th-century England. Touching deftly upon well-trod themes and with a deliciously cinematic sense of both framing and pacing, this indie charmer is both quirky and novel; expect it to appeal to fans of Jeff Smith’s Bone series. Just plain monstrous fun. (Graphic fantasy. 9-12)

SURE SIGNS OF CRAZY

Harrington, Karen Little, Brown (288 pp.) $16.99 | Aug. 20, 2013 978-0-316-21058-4

Worried that she will grow up to be crazy like her mother or alcoholic like her father, rising seventh-grader Sarah Nelson takes courage from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, writing letters to Atticus Finch and discovering her own strengths. Sarah is a survivor. She survived her mother’s attempt to drown her when she was 2 and the notoriety that has followed her and her father from one Texas town to another in the 10 years since. In a first-person, present-tense narration interspersed with definitions, diary entries and letters, she describes the events of the summer she turns 12, gets her period, develops a crush on a neighbor and fellow word lover, and comes to terms with her parents’ failings. In her first middle-grade novel, Harrington revisits the characters of her adult thriller, Janeology (2008), to imagine what it might be like to be the child of a filicidal mother. Sarah’s 12-year-old voice is believable and her anxieties realistic. Intellectually precocious and responsible beyond her years, she is also a needy child who finds helpful support when she reaches out to a grieving elderly neighbor. Although her situation is difficult, Sarah is resilient and hopeful. Readers intrigued by the premise of this moving story will sympathize with the plucky protagonist and rejoice in the way her summer works out. (Fiction. 9-13)

THE YEAR OF BILLY MILLER

Henkes, Kevin Illus. by Henkes, Kevin Greenwillow/HarperCollins (240 pp.) $16.99 | $17.89 PLB | Sep. 17, 2013 978-0-06-226812-9 978-0-06-226813-6 PLB Billy Miller’s second-grade year is quietly spectacular in a wonderfully ordinary way. Billy’s year begins with his worry over the lump on his head, a souvenir of a dramatic summer fall onto concrete: Will he be up to the challenges his new teacher promises in her letter 76

to students? Quickly overshadowing that worry, however, is a diplomatic crisis over whether he has somehow offended Ms. Silver on the first day of school. Four sections—Teacher, Father, Sister and Mother—offer different and essential focal points for Billy’s life, allowing both him and readers to explore several varieties of creative endeavor, small adventures, and, especially, both challenges and successful problem-solving. The wonderfully self-possessed Sal, his 3-year-old sister, is to Billy much as Ramona is to Beezus, but without the same level of tension. Her pillowcase full of the plush yellow whales she calls the Drop Sisters (Raindrop, Gumdrop, etc.) is a memorable prop. Henkes offers what he so often does in these longer works for children: a sense that experiences don’t have to be extraordinary to be important and dramatic. Billy’s slightly dreamy interior life isn’t filled with either angst or boisterous silliness—rather, the moments that appear in these stories are clarifying bits of the universal larger puzzle of growing up, changing and understanding the world. Small, precise black-and-white drawings punctuate and decorate the pages. Sweetly low-key and totally accessible. (Fiction. 7-10)

UNHOOKING THE MOON

Hughes, Gregory Quercus (368 pp.) $15.95 | Sep. 1, 2013 978-1-62365-020-9

Two Canadian children take on the Big Apple in this deliciously unlikely, unbridled romp. Astonished to hear that their father had a drug-dealing brother in New York, newly orphaned Bob and his live-wire little sister, Marie Claire (aka Rat), hitchhike to the city from Winnipeg. For lack of a better plan, they wander Manhattan and the Bronx asking passersby if they know him. This strategy leads to encounters with a host of colorful city types, notably a pair of softhearted con men and a lonely rising rap star, plus plenty of terrific street theater and nights spent sleeping in, alternately, Central Park and a hyperluxurious apartment. And ultimately the children’s search is successful! Their information about Uncle Jerome is even (more or less) accurate, as he turns out to be the CEO of a huge pharmaceutical company. Though many of Hughes’ characters will sink emotional hooks into readers, Rat takes and earns center stage by glibly charming the pants off every adult, showing a winning mix of quick wits and vulnerability, and taking wild flights of imagination—her explanation of the (subtle) differences between a Windigo and a pedophile being a particular highlight. So appealing are they that when one of them suffers a tremendous blow, readers will feel it as intensely as the other characters. The dizzying highs intensify but also ameliorate that devastating low. Rousing adventures on the not-so-mean streets, with heart aplenty. (Fiction. 11-13)

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

middle grade

kirkus.com

THE ANIMAL BOOK

Jenkins, Steve Illus. by Jenkins, Steve Houghton Mifflin (208 pp.) $24.99 | Oct. 29, 2013 978-0-547-55799-1 Building on years of experience in selecting animal facts and creating arresting illustrations, Jenkins surpasses his previous work with an amazing album characterized by clear organization, realistic images and carefully chosen examples. The thoughtful, appealing design will both attract browsers and support those looking for specifics, but this also provides a solid introduction to the vast animal kingdom. After a chapter of definition, information is presented in sections on animal families, senses, predators, defenses, extremes and the story of life. More facts appear in the final chapter, which serves both as index (with page numbers and thumbnails) and quick reference. Most spreads have an explanatory paragraph and then a number of examples, each with an animal image and a sentence or two of detail set on white background. These cut- and torn-paper illustrations have realistic color and features: eyes that look at readers, teeth that amaze, and tiny legs, whiskers or feelers. Some are actual size or show a close-up portion of the animal’s body. |

kirkus.com

middle grade

HOW TO CATCH A BOGLE

Jinks, Catherine Illus. by Watts, Sarah Harcourt (320 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 3, 2013 978-0-544-08708-8

Child-eating bogles infest Victorian London, providing work aplenty for “Go-Devil Man” Alfred Bunce and his intrepid young apprentice, Birdie. Singing morbid verses from popular ballads in her angelic voice to draw the shadowy creatures out of their chimneys, sewers or other lairs so that Alfred can stab them with his special lance, Birdie thinks she has “the best job in the world” despite the risk—she could be snatched and eaten if the timing is even a little off. Alas, the idyll doesn’t survive a double set of complications. First, unctuous would-be warlock Roswell Morton, out to capture one of the monsters for his own evil uses, kidnaps her and plants her in an insane asylum to force Alfred’s cooperation. Second are the unwanted but, as it turns out, saving attentions of Miss Edith Eames, a self-described “folklorist.” Her naïveté about London’s nastier stews conceals both a quick wit and a fixed determination to see Birdie cleaned up and educated in the social graces. The tale is set in a range of locales, most of them noxious and well-stocked with rousingly scary hobgoblins as well as a cast of colorful Londoners with Dickensian names like Sally Pickles and Ned Roach. It dashes along smartly to a suspenseful climactic kerfuffle as it endears its 10-year-old protagonist, whose temper is matched only by her courage in the clutch, to readers. Jinks opens her projected trilogy in high style, offering a period melodrama replete with colorful characters, narrow squeaks and explosions of ectoplasmic goo. (glossary of slang and monster types) (Historical fantasy. 10-13)

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

middle gr a de

Thirteen-year-old Paolo Crivelli dreams of being a hero in Nazi-occupied Florence. It’s a tricky business living in an occupied city. The Allies are advancing from the south, Paolo’s father is missing (thought to be fighting for the Partisans), and the Crivelli family is caught between the Nazi occupiers and the sometimes ruthless Partisans. This first novel by acclaimed children’s picture-book writer and illustrator Hughes expertly captures the tension in the Crivelli home, as Rosemary tries to raise her two children and keep them safe while covertly supporting the Partisan cause. Not so easy with a son like Paolo, who risks sneaking out at night on his bicycle, looking for his own way to be a hero for the cause. There are plenty of heroes here, as layers of resistance to the Nazis are carefully delineated—the obvious bold resistance of the Partisans in the countryside, Rosemary’s agreement to house escaped prisoners of war in her cellar, a lifesaving tip from the captain of the local military police and even a sympathetic member of the Gestapo who conveniently finds nothing when searching the Crivellis’ cellar. The townspeople, a dog and even Paolo’s bicycle play a role in the resistance movement, though the dangers and the realities of war are always tangible in this fine novel. A superb historical thriller. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

Sections end with a jaw-dropping two-page image; chapters end with charts. Jenkins fills out this appealing celebration with a description of his bookmaking process. With facts sure to delight readers—who will be impatient to share their discoveries—this spectacular book is a must-purchase for animal-loving families and most libraries. (glossary, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 5 & up)

pictur e books

HERO ON A BICYCLE

Hughes, Shirley Candlewick (224 pp.) $15.99 | Apr. 23, 2013 978-0-7636-6037-6

BORIS ON THE MOVE

Joyner, Andrew Illus. by Joyner, Andrew Branches/Scholastic (80 pp.) $4.99 paper | $4.99 e-book | $15.99 PLB May 1, 2013 978-0-545-48443-5 978-0-545-48782-5 e-book 978-0-545-48442-8 PLB Series: Boris, 1 An early reader shaped just like a chapter book: What’s not to love? For emergent readers who view themselves as accomplished (or wish to be seen that way), this, one of the publisher’s Branches line, might just be the perfect choice. Boris, a not-particularly-attractive hog, is frustrated. Although he and his parents live in a bus that once took them on fabulous vacations, now the old vehicle is permanently parked, and he longs for adventure. Finally, his empathetic parents fire up the engine to bring him on a journey that, it disappointingly turns out, is only across town to a nature preserve. However, Boris, his anger vividly portrayed in his frazzled body language, contrives to get himself satisfyingly lost. Happily, he’s found, first by a cat in need of a home and then by his parents. Full-color illustrations of his humorously anthropomorphized hog family and just one or two sentences of easy, large-print text per page make this an inviting read for transitioning readers, although they may initially be a bit daunted by the misleading appearance of a full 74 pages of narrative—including a simple science experiment. The brief text and a chapter format both make this a manageable and entertaining accomplishment for most young readers as well as an amusing listening experience for those not quite able to tackle it alone. (Early reader. 4-7)

THE THING ABOUT LUCK

Kadohata, Cynthia Atheneum (288 pp.) $16.99 | Jun. 4, 2013 978-1-4169-1882-0

Twelve-year-old Summer and her Japanese-American family work every harvest season to earn money to pay their mortgage. But this year, they face unprecedented physical and emotional challenges. It has been a particularly hard-luck year. Among other strange occurrences, Summer was bitten by a stray, diseased mosquito and nearly died of malaria, and her grandmother suffers from sudden intense spinal pain. Now her parents must go to Japan to care for elderly relatives. So Summer, her brother and their grandparents must take on the whole burden of working the harvest and coping with one emergency after another. She writes a journal chronicling the frightening and overwhelming events, including endless facts about the mosquitoes she fears, the harvest 78

process and the farm machinery that must be conquered. As the season progresses, her relationships with her grandparents and her brother change and deepen, reflecting her growing maturity. Her grandparents’ Japanese culture and perspective are treated lovingly and with gentle humor, as are her brother’s eccentricities. Kadohata makes all the right choices in structure and narrative. Summer’s voyage of self-discovery engages readers via her narration, her journal entries and diagrams, and even through her assigned book report of A Separate Peace. Readers who peel back the layers of obsessions and fears will find a character who is determined, compassionate and altogether delightful. (Fiction. 10-14)

BOWLING ALLEY BANDIT

Keller, Laurie Illus. by Keller, Laurie Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt (128 pp.) $12.99 | Jun. 11, 2013 978-0-8050-9076-5 Series: Adventures of Arnie the Doughnut, 1 A bowling tournament gives the rolling raconteur introduced in the 2003 picture book Arnie the Doughnut fresh scope for wisecracks and wild misadventures. Arnie goes to the bowling alley weekly to meet his cheesy triangular friend Peezo and belt out hits (from “Livin’ la viDOUGH loca!” to “DOUGHNUT make my brown eyes blue”) at the karaoke machine for admiring crowds while his (human) buddy Mr. Bing hits the lanes. Their visits slide into a scurry of sleuthing when Mr. Bing’s new ball, Betsy, inexplicably starts heading for the gutter rather than the pins on every roll. Presented in a frenetic mix of narrative, cartoon collages, dialogue balloons and melodramatic exclamations, the investigation leads the chocolate-frosted shamus to an identity thief at the end of a trail of dropped sprinkles and other clues. Unsurprisingly, it also provides opportunities aplenty to drop punch lines as well as to lay out bowling techniques and rules with help from a confused baseball umpire (“Ya see, Ump, in baseball strikes are BAD, but in bowling they’re GOOD!”), Albert Einstein and other walk-ons. Like triumphant Mr. Bing, Keller walks off with a “Stiffy Stu McShiny” award for this yummy chapter-book series opener. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 7-10)

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

middle grade

kirkus.com

“Against the 1871 Philadelphia setting…, a faultlessly depicted world of sound, energy and ample filth, the fully developed characters of William and Career are trapped in a bleakly hopeless situation.” DR. RADWAY’S SARSAPARILLA RESOLVENT

Kephart, Beth Illus. by Sulit, William New City Community Press (198 pp.) $15.95 paper | May 1, 2013 978-0-9840429-6-8

LISTENING FOR LUCCA

LaFleur, Suzanne Wendy Lamb/Random (240 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | $19.99 PLB Aug. 6, 2013 978-0-385-74299-3 978-0-307-98031-1 e-book 978-0-375-99088-5 PLB Siena’s ability to see glimpses of the past juxtaposed on the present intensifies when she moves to a house in Maine

that is oddly familiar. Her parents are focused on 3-year-old Lucca, who has stopped speaking. Siena feels responsible for Lucca’s silence and spends lots of time playing with him and hoping that he will talk. She also collects all sorts of found items that she deems abandoned. In Maine, she sees and hears members of the family who lived in her house during World War II. When she writes with an old pen found in the house, it produces not |

kirkus.com

middle grade

ODETTE’S SECRETS

Macdonald, Maryann Bloomsbury (224 pp.) $16.99 | Mar. 1, 2013 978-1-59990-750-5

Introspective and accessible, this fictionalized history of a Jewish child surviving the Nazi occupation of France uses an elegant simplicity of language. Odette, quite young, lives comfortably in a Paris apartment “on a cobblestone square / with a splashing fountain.” Watching a newsreel, she sees “soldiers march, / their legs and arms straight as sticks. / A funny-looking man with a mustache / shouts a speech.” The next day, she sees a Jewish-owned store with smashed windows. Mama and Papa are secular, but “[w]e are Polish Jews because / Mama’s and Papa’s parents and grandparents / in faraway Poland / are all Jews.” Papa joins the French army and is taken prisoner; yellow stars are assigned; Mama sends Odette out of Paris. For 2 1/2 years, Odette practices Catholicism in one village and then another, growing attached to religious ritual and the countryside. Macdonald’s free verse uses unadorned images: a blanket from Odette’s devoted (Christian) godmother; schoolchildren pounding out “La Marseillaise” on desks with their fists to drown out rowdy German soldiers; those same children rolling Odette in a thorn bush when they suspect her secret. Odette’s first-person voice matures subtly as she grows in age and in comprehension of the war’s horrors. Based on the real Odette Meyers (nee Melspajz), this thoughtful, affecting piece makes an ideal Holocaust introduction for readers unready for death-camp scenes. (timeline, historical photographs, author’s note) (Historical verse fiction. 9-15)

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

middle gr a de

Kephart has crafted a deeply satisfying tale that’s richly evocative of its time and place. Playing masterfully with words, knitting them into new and deliciously expressive forms, Kephart’s story is one of loss and then redemption. William Quinn is only 14. With his father in the Cherry Hill prison and his genially wayward older brother, Francis, recently beaten to death by a brutal policeman, his mother has ground herself into unbearable, paralyzing grief, and the boy has to find a way to save them both. He has help from many: Career, his cheerfully ambitious best friend; Pearl, a good-hearted prostitute; Molly, a neighbor child who’s deeply smitten with Career; a wayward goat named Daisy; and the abiding memory of Francis. Gradually, William finds a way to make right some terrible wrongs that are only revealed at a perfectly measured pace. Stark, spare illustrations provide an effective counterpoint to the flowing, poetic language. Against the 1871 Philadelphia setting (five years before the related Dangerous Neighbors, 2010), a faultlessly depicted world of sound, energy and ample filth, the fully developed characters of William and Career are trapped in a bleakly hopeless situation. But they never fully give up hoping. Like the very best of historical fiction, this effort combines a timeless tale with a vividly recreated, fascinating world. An outstanding and ultimately life-affirming tale. (Historical fiction. 11 & up)

her handwriting, but that of Sarah, a girl from the earlier period. Even more astonishing, she seems to actually enter Sarah’s mind, seeing and feeling everything along with her. She also is able to share Sarah’s brother Joshua’s war experiences, which send him home psychologically damaged. Through a compassionate act of courage, Siena’s gift ultimately provides satisfying solutions for Sarah’s family and her own. LaFleur deftly handles the tale’s many layers, never allowing readers to get lost. Events and characters are fully developed and are completely believable, without any sense of contrivance. Tender and brave, Siena is a heroine to be admired. Past meets present and all is well in this lovely and magical tale. (Fantasy. 9-12)

pictur e books

from dr . radway ’s sarsaparilla resolvent

“Adding only transitional paragraphs, the authors skillfully arrange…letters plus diary entries, telegrams and Pearce’s articles for the Denver Republican to convey the men’s story in compelling, first-person voices.” from call of the klondike

CALL OF THE KLONDIKE A True Gold Rush Adventure

Meissner, David; Richardson, Kim Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills (168 pp.) $16.95 | Oct. 1, 2013 978-1-59078-823-3

A remarkable collection of documents paints a picture of the Klondike gold rush in vivid detail. In 1897, two 20-something Yale grads, Stanley Pearce and Marshall Bond, were among the first to hear about the gold found in the Klondike. They quickly booked tickets on a ship, gathered food and equipment, and headed north, hoping to strike it rich. Their mining backgrounds and monetary help from their families gave them an edge over their fellow fortune seekers, but the obstacles were still enormous, as their letters make clear, including two months of grueling travel over mountain passes and down the Yukon River. Adding only transitional paragraphs, the authors skillfully arrange these letters plus diary entries, telegrams and Pearce’s articles for the Denver Republican to convey the men’s story in compelling, firstperson voices. The attractive design incorporates intriguing pull-out quotes, maps, posters, documents and many well-chosen, captioned photographs, including one of Jack London, who camped near Pearce and Bond’s cabin. London, also mentioned in a diary entry, later kept in touch with Bond and based the fictional dog Buck on one of Bond’s dogs, making this an excellent companion to The Call of the Wild. A memorable adventure, told with great immediacy. (timeline, author’s notes, bibliography, resources) (Nonfiction. 11 & up)

THE WATCHER IN THE SHADOWS

Moriarty, Chris Illus. by Geyer, Mark E. Harcourt (336 pp.) $16.99 | May 28, 2013 978-0-547-46632-3

The magic is darker in this intense sequel to The Inquisitor’s Apprentice (2011). In a richly imagined alternate version of New York City at the turn of the 20th century, Sacha continues his on-the-job training in the police department’s Inquisitor division amid murder, abduction and terrifying encounters with evil beings both real and magical. J.P. Morgaunt mercilessly wields his magical power over newspapers, transportation, manufacturing and just about everything else, including a soul-stealing machine with which he has loosed Sacha’s doppelganger, a dybbuk that is constantly growing stronger. An impending strike at the Pentacle Shirtwaist Factory is the catalyst for Morgaunt’s machinations, which encompass the workers’ union, the crime syndicate Magic, Inc., martial arts 80

and Kabbalists. When Sacha’s family is drawn into this morass, he must make impossible choices between guarding their safety and working with Inspector Wolf, Lily and Peyton, all of whom have become dear to him. Moriarity again manages to capture the great distance between rich and poor, the struggle of immigrants to cope with bigotry and poverty, and the rapidly growing and changing world of the real New York City, while staying true to Sacha’s mystical city. Rich language, colorful syntax, vivid description and a brilliant cast of characters beckon readers right into both the adventure and the heartfelt emotional landscape. Exciting, action-packed and absolutely marvelous. (Fantasy. 10 & up)

EAST OF THE SUN, WEST OF THE MOON

Morris, Jackie Illus. by Morris, Jackie Frances Lincoln (176 pp.) $14.99 | Mar. 12, 2013 978-1-84780-294-1

Reimagined for the 21st century, a familiar folk tale becomes a haunting love story and a reminder that first love may not last a lifetime. The traditional Scandinavian tale relates the attraction between a great white bear and a young girl, her betrayal, and her subsequent journey to find him and free him from his enchantment. In Morris’ telling, the ending is modern. The story begins in reality. She’s the eldest child of immigrants seeking asylum and struggling in a new country. Even those readers who don’t know the fairy-tale background will know that fantasy is coming from the very beginning, when a polar bear performs a feat of magic on a gritty city street. But while the girl loved the bear, the woman, grown and given a name—Berneen—has more complex emotions. Modern references appear occasionally throughout the text, but this is folklore world, with a splendid variety of landscapes. Watercolor paintings between chapters show fields and forests in several seasons, a southwestern desert and the icy wastes of the frozen north. There are spreads showing the girl, the bear and the castle as well, and tiny vignettes throughout indicate breaks in the action. This leisurely, lyrical, romantic and realistic version is one to savor and to read aloud, and again, and again. (Fantasy. 11-15)

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

middle grade

kirkus.com

Napoli, Donna Jo Illus. by Balit, Christina National Geographic (192 pp.) $24.95 | Oct. 22, 2013 978-1-4263-13806

BLUFFTON My Summers with Buster

Phelan, Matt Illus. by Phelan, Matt Candlewick (240 pp.) $22.99 | Jul. 23, 2013 978-0-7636-5079-7

In this winsome, sparely spun graphic novel by Phelan (The Storm in the Barn, 2011), Henry Harrison gets a tantalizing taste of the outside world when a young Buster Keaton and more vacationing vaudevillians tumble into his small Michigan town. The scene opens on a tranquil Muskegon street, with a glimpse of the suspender-sporting Henry sweeping up his dad’s hardware store. Strolling men in bowler hats, long-skirted |

kirkus.com

middle grade

SUGAR

Rhodes, Jewell Parker Little, Brown (288 pp.) $16.99 | May 7, 2013 978-0-316-04305-2

middle gr a de

Napoli (Treasury of Greek Mythology, 2011) again challenges readers to regard the old gods in new ways. The author provocatively explores the thesis that ancient Egyptian worship could be considered monotheistic, considering how closely intertwined the culture’s gods were in origins and natures. She introduces 17 major deities and a handful of minor ones in a mix of equally lively stories and exposition, beginning with Ra’s self-creation from the unchanging (“Boring, really”) waters of Nun. The divine council known as the Pesedjet convenes, and Usir (Osiris) is killed by Set but magically revived for one night with his beloved Aset (Isis). A final chapter introduces Imhotep, architect of the first pyramid, who was born human but later deified. Depicted in a flat, art-deco style but reminiscent of Leo and Diane Dillon’s figures in gravitas and richness of color and detail, deities and earthly creatures lend visual dimension to the mystical, larger-than-life grandeur of the stories as well as reflecting their more human griefs, jealousies and joys. Reinforcing a sense of otherness, Napoli uses the Egyptian forms of names throughout, though they are paired to their more recognizable Greek equivalents in running footers. To shed light on the mortal Egyptians, she intersperses boxed cultural notes, as well as chapters on mummification and “The Great Nile.” Sumptuous of format, magisterial of content, stimulating for heart and mind both. (map, timeline, gallery of deities, postscript discussion of sources, bibliography, index) (Mythology. 11-14)

women and a June 1908 calendar offer the initial whiff of an era long gone. Nothing like an elephant to shake things up! When the show people come to town one summer, nearby Bluffton springs to life, as does Henry’s yearslong infatuation with Buster Keaton, who, wincingly, was then best known as the tossed-around but indestructible “Human Mop.” Frame by frame, in pencil and watercolor, the artist captures the joys of lakeside summers of fishing, baseball and harmless pranks, all the while skillfully communicating the emotional intensity of youth. Despite the painful sense of longing the worldly Buster stirs up in Henry, a 1927 epilogue of sorts assures readers that Henry finds his own path in life…and his own special brand of show biz. An author’s note explains that the Actors’ Colony at Bluffton really did exist, from 1908 to 1938. Thrilling—a spirited, poignant coming-of-age vignette and an intriguing window into a little-known chapter in vaudeville history. (art not seen in full color) (author’s note) (Graphic historical fiction. 9-12)

pictur e books

TREASURY OF EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY Classic Stories of Gods, Goddesses, Monsters & Mortals

Rhodes’ book elegantly chronicles the hope of one 10-year-old girl seeking a bigger world in post–Civil War America. When Chinese laborers arrive, Sugar finally believes in a world beyond River Road Plantation. In 1870, five years after the Emancipation Proclamation, many former slaves remain on their plantations—only now working for a bleak slave wage. Sugar was born into slavery on a sugar plantation and still lives there, feeling constricted and anything but free. To the complicated relationship she enjoys with the plantation owner’s son, Billy, is added another, with newly arrived “Chinamen” Bo/Beau and Master Liu. Most Americans are aware of the brutality of slavery, but few stop to consider that the abolition of slavery created a new turmoil for former slaves. How would they make a living? Rhodes exposes the reality of post–Civil War economics, when freed slaves vacated plantations, leaving former slave masters with a need for labor. In doing so, she illuminates a little-known aspect of the Reconstruction Era, when Chinese immigrants were encouraged to come to America and work alongside ex-slaves. Her prose shines, reading with a spare lyricism that flows naturally. All Sugar’s hurt, longing, pain and triumph shine through. A magical story of hope from Coretta Scott King Honor winner Rhodes. (Historical fiction. 8-12)

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

NORTHWEST PASSAGE

Rogers, Stan; James, Matt Illus. by James, Matt Groundwood (56 pp.) $24.95 | $19.95 e-book | Sep. 10, 2013 978-1-55498-153-3 978-1-55498-403-9 e-book This stunning portrayal of early efforts to explore Canada’s Northwest Passage presents Rogers’ 1981 song in combination with glorious illustrations, historical commentary and a gallery of explorers. Called Canada’s “other national anthem” by a former prime minister, Rogers’ well-known lyrics describe Sir John Franklin’s disastrous expedition of the 1840s, comparing it with the singer’s own travels across the country. Franklin’s ships became icebound. His men disappeared and may have resorted to cannibalism before starving to death. Nevertheless, the English explorer has been honored as the discoverer of the Northwest Passage. Today, with the ice diminished and Canada and other Arctic countries looking forward to a year-round shipping route, this history has become even more relevant. James supplies a timeline of exploration and an account of this failed journey that explain Rogers’ allusions, and, more strikingly, he illustrates the song’s various threads. With bold acrylic strokes and India-ink outlines, he paints scenes from the historical journey as well as the singer’s more modern one. Deep blues and whites predominate, and there is a sense of desolation. Oversized double-page spreads sometimes meld the explorers’ experiences with Rogers’ own. Panels depict the historical episodes. Both realistic and allusive, these images are as haunting as the song. For U.S. readers, an illumination of a little-known history; for all Americans, a treasure. (words and music, sources) (Informational picture book. 8 & up)

PICTURE ME GONE

Rosoff, Meg Putnam (256 pp.) $17.99 | Oct. 3, 2013 978-0-399-25765-0

Mila, 12, a keen observer of people and events, accompanies her translator father, Gil, on a journey from London to upstate New York in search of Gil’s lifelong friend, who’s disappeared. Mila applies her puzzle-solving skills to the mystery of why Matthew would abandon his wife and baby, not to mention his dog. On a road trip to Matthew’s cabin in the woods, she mulls over the possibilities while Gil keeps his thoughts to himself. Mila, who finds strength in her multinational pedigree and her ability to read people, is the one who eventually puts the pieces of the story together. Rosoff respects her young character, portraying her as a complete person capable of recognizing that there are things she 82

may not yet know but aware that life is a sometimes-painful sequence of clues to be put together, leading to adulthood. The author skillfully turns to a variety of literary devices to convey this transition: the absence of quotation marks blurs the line between thoughts spoken and unspoken; past, present, and future merge in Mila’s telling just as they do in the lives of the characters as truths come to light and Mila is able to translate Matthew’s darkest secrets. A brilliant depiction of the complexity of human relationships in a story that’s at once contemplative and suspenseful. (Fiction. 11 & up)

ROOFTOPPERS

Rundell, Katherine Illus. by Fan, Terry Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $16.99 | Sep. 24, 2013 978-1-4424-9058-1 “Never ignore a possible.” Sophie takes her beloved guardian’s words to heart and never gives up on finding her long-lost mother. One-year-old Sophie is found floating in a cello case in the English Channel by Charles Maxim, a fellow passenger on the freshly sunk Queen Mary: “He noticed that it was a girl, with hair the color of lightning, and the smile of a shy person.” He decides to keep her. The bookish pair lives a harmonious, gloriously unorthodox life together—she prefers trousers to skirts, knows the collective noun for toads and uses atlases as plates. The National Childcare Agency does not approve, so when a clue in Sophie’s cello case links her mother to Paris, Charles and Sophie decide to skip town after her 12th birthday. Once ensconced in her Parisian attic hideaway, Sophie gets a skylight visit from a teenage “rooftopper” named Matteo, who eats pigeons and never, ever descends to street level. Sophie—anxious to help Charles find her mother— secretly joins the boy atop Paris night after night, listening for her cello-playing. Vivid descriptions of fierce kids in survival mode and death-defying rooftop scrambles are breathlessly exciting, as is the bubbling suspense of Sophie’s impassioned search for the possible. Brava! This witty, inventively poetic, fairy-tale–like adventure shimmers with love, magic and music. (Adventure. 9-12)

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

middle grade

kirkus.com

“Stone’s richly layered narrative explores the cultural and institutional prejudices of the time as well as the history of African-Americans in the military.” THE RITHMATIST

Sanderson, Brandon Illus. by McSweeney, Ben Tor (368 pp.) $17.99 | May 14, 2013 978-0-7653-2032-2

HOKEY POKEY

Spinelli, Jerry Knopf (272 pp.) $15.99 | $10.99 e-book | $18.99 PLB Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-375-83198-0 978-0-307-97570-6 e-book 978-0-375-93198-7 PLB

If childhood were a place…. In the adultless land of Hokey Pokey, a dry, sandy environment reminiscent of the Southwest, children arrive when they’ve outgrown diapers and receive a ticklish tattoo of an eye on their abdomens. At midday they line up for a serving of hokey pokey, an ice treat in any flavor imaginable. The rest of their day is spent playing, watching a giant television with nonstop cartoons or riding bicycles, which are horselike creatures that roll in herds and can buck their owners off at will. In this inventive, modern fable, Jack awakens with a bad feeling that’s realized when his legendary Scramjet bike is stolen by Jubilee, a girl no less, and his tattoo has started to fade. As he searches for his bike and the reason why “[t]he world is rushing at him, confusing him, alarming him,” he recalls The Story |

kirkus.com

middle grade

middle gr a de

The inhumanly prolific author of the Mistborn trilogy conjures similarly baroque magic for a lapidary series opener aimed at a somewhat younger audience. Set on an alternate, steampunk Earth among the many squabbling United Isles of America, the tale pits Joel, teenage son of a poor chalkmaker, and allies against mysterious baddies who are snatching students of exclusive Armedius Academy. Among other subjects, the Academy teaches Rithmatics—a geometry-based system of offensive and defensive shapes chalked on flat surfaces and then animated by those endowed with a special magical ability in a ceremony as children. Though he himself cannot bring his figures to life like a true Duster, years of obsessive study have made Joel a brilliant theorist and designer. His skills plunge him into the middle of the kidnapping investigation and ultimately lead to hints of a larger plot to release floods of deadly wild “chalklings” against humanity. Stay tuned. Between (and occasionally within) every chapter, labeled diagrams and smaller drawings lay out an elaborate but generally logical set of rules and behaviors for Rithmatical attack and defense. Fantasy readers should devour this well-crafted mix of action and setup, enriched by a thoroughly detailed cultural and historical background and capped by a distinctly unsettling twist. (Fantasy. 10-13)

about The Kid who grew up and hinted at tomorrow, an unrecognizable place to children. With nods to J.M. Barrie, Dr. Seuss and Philip Pullman, Newbery Medalist Spinelli crafts stunning turns of phrase as Jack “unfunks” and tries to “dehappen” the day’s events. While reluctantly accepting his growing up, Jack brings Hokey Pokey’s bully to justice, suddenly finds Jubilee an interesting companion and prepares his Amigos for his imminent departure. A masterful, bittersweet recognition of coming-of-age. (Fiction. 10-13, adult)

pictur e books

from courage has no color

COURAGE HAS NO COLOR The True Story of the Triple Nickles: America’s First Black Paratroopers Stone, Tanya Lee Candlewick (160 pp.) $24.99 | Jan. 22, 2013 978-0-7636-5117-6

The fascinating untold story of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, America’s first black paratroopers. While white American soldiers battled Hitler’s tyranny overseas, African-Americans who enlisted to fight for their country faced the tyranny of racial discrimination on the homefront. Segregated from white soldiers and relegated to service duties and menial tasks, enlisted black men faced what Ashley Bryan calls in the foreword “the racism that was our daily fare at the time.” When 1st Sgt. Walter Morris, whose men served as guards at The Parachute School at Fort Benning, saw white soldiers training to be paratroopers, he knew his men would have to train and act like them to be treated like soldiers. Daring initiative and leadership led to the creation of the “Triple Nickles.” Defying the deeply ingrained stereotypes of the time, the Triple Nickles proved themselves as capable and tough as any white soldiers, but they were never used in combat, serving instead as smoke jumpers extinguishing Japanese-ignited forest fires in the Pacific Northwest. Stone’s richly layered narrative explores the cultural and institutional prejudices of the time as well as the history of African-Americans in the military. Her interviews with veterans of the unit provide groundbreaking insight. Among the archival illustrations in this handsomely designed book are drawings Bryan created while he served in World War II. An exceptionally well-researched, lovingly crafted and important tribute to unsung American heroes. (photographs, chronology, sources note, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 10 & up)

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

“Storyteller Tingle’s tale unfolds in Isaac’s conversational voice; readers... are plunged into the Choctaw belief system, so they can begin to understand it from the inside out.” from how i became a ghost

ONE CAME HOME

Timberlake, Amy Knopf (272 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | $19.99 PLB Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-375-86925-9 978-0-375-98934-6 e-book 978-0-375-96925-6 PLB In 1871, in the small town of Placid, Wis., a sister goes missing and a great adventure begins. Disconsolate over the end of a promising courtship, Agatha Burkhardt runs off without so much as a goodbye to her younger sister, Georgie. When the sheriff attempts to locate and retrieve Agatha, he brings home not the vibrant sister that Georgie adores, but an unidentifiable body wearing Agatha’s ball gown. Alone in her belief that the body is not her sister’s, Georgie sneaks away in the dead of night, determined to retrace Agatha’s steps in order to solve the mystery of her disappearance and, she hopes, to bring her home. To Georgie’s surprise, she’s joined on the journey by her sister’s former flame. And what a journey it is, fraught with mountain lions, counterfeiters and marriage proposals. The truly memorable characters and setting—particularly descriptions of the incredible phenomenon of passenger-pigeon nesting and migration—and the gradual unraveling of the mystery of Agatha’s disappearance make this one hard to put down. The icing on the cake, though, is Georgie’s narration, which is fresh, laugh-out-loud funny and an absolute delight to read. Georgie’s story will capture readers’ imaginations with the very first sentences and then hold them hostage until the final page is turned. (Historical fiction. 9-12)

HOW I BECAME A GHOST

Tingle, Tim The RoadRunner Press (160 pp.) $18.95 | Jun. 18, 2013 978-1-937054-53-3 Series: How I Became a Ghost, 1 A 10-year-old Choctaw boy recounts the beginnings of the forced resettlement of his people from their Mississippi-area homelands in 1830. He begins his story with a compelling hook: “Maybe you have never read a book written by a ghost before. I am a ghost. I am not a ghost when this book begins, so you have to pay very close attention.” Readers meet Isaac, his family and their dog, Jumper, on the day that Treaty Talk changes everything. Even as the Choctaw prepare to leave their homes, Isaac begins to have unsettling visions: Some elders are engulfed in flames, and others are covered in oozing pustules. As Isaac and his family set out on the Choctaw Trail of Tears, these visions begin to come true, as some are burned to death by the Nahullos and others 84

perish due to smallpox-infested blankets distributed on the trail. But the Choctaw barrier between life and death is a fluid one, and ghosts follow Isaac, providing reassurance and advice that allow him to help his family and others as well as to prepare for his own impending death. Storyteller Tingle’s tale unfolds in Isaac’s conversational voice; readers “hear” his story with comforting clarity and are plunged into the Choctaw belief system, so they can begin to understand it from the inside out. The beginning of a trilogy, this tale is valuable for both its recounting of a historical tragedy and its immersive Choctaw perspective. (Historical fiction. 8-12)

THE DOLPHINS OF SHARK BAY

Turner, Pamela S. Photos by Tuason, Scott Houghton Mifflin (80 pp.) $18.99 | Nov. 5, 2013 978-0-547-71638-1 Series: Scientists in the Field If dolphins learn how to use tools from their mothers, does that mean they have a culture? This is only one of the interesting questions addressed in this latest entry in the Scientists in the Field series. Unlike their relatives around the world, some dolphins in Shark Bay, in western Australia, use sponges to protect their rostrums while foraging through the channel bottoms for a fish that can’t be found through echolocation. The explanation for this behavior was found by scientist Janet Mann and her colleagues, who have been studying these dolphins for more than 25 years, observing their actions, charting their lives and even using DNA samples to determine lineage. Turner’s narrative takes readers on board the research boat Pomboo to follow the dolphins for several days as they hunt, nurse, play tag and other games, practice herding and mounting, fight and pet one another affectionately. Smoothly woven into the text are facts about dolphin life and evolution as well as methods of scientific observation. This fascinating window into their complicated society (“a juvenile dolphin’s world resembles middle school. But with sharks”) is illustrated with clearly identified photographs of the dolphins as well as the scientists. The account is followed by solid suggestions for further research, including encouragement to try reading scientific papers. An exemplary addition to an always thought-provoking series. (more about dolphins, latest news, index) (Nonfiction. 10-15)

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

middle grade

kirkus.com

P.S. BE ELEVEN

Williams-Garcia, Rita Amistad/HarperCollins (288 pp.) $16.99 | $17.89 PLB | May 21, 2013 978-0-06-193862-7 978-0-06-193863-4 PLB Readers will cheer the return of the three sisters who captured hearts in the Newbery Honor–winning One Crazy Summer (2010). The sequel finds sisters Delphine, Vonetta and Fern returning to their Brooklyn home, full of excitement about visiting their mother in Oakland, Calif. The girls, especially Delphine, are also eager to begin a new school year. However, home is a little different: Their father has a |

kirkus.com

middle grade

middle gr a de

Returning to themes she explored so affectingly in Moon Over Manifest (2011), Newbery Medalist Vanderpool delivers another winning picaresque about memories, personal journeys, interconnectedness—and the power of stories. Thirteen-year-old Jack enters boarding school in Maine after his mother’s death at the end of World War II. He quickly befriends Early Auden, a savant whose extraordinary facility with numbers allows him to “read” a story about “Pi” from the infinite series of digits that follow 3.14. Jack accompanies Early in one of the school crew team’s rowing boats on what Jack believes is his friend’s fruitless quest to find a great bear allegedly roaming the wilderness—and Early’s brother, a legendary figure reportedly killed in battle. En route, Early spins out Pi’s evolving saga, and the boys encounter memorable individuals and adventures that uncannily parallel those in the stories. Vanderpool ties all these details, characters, and Jack’s growing maturity and self-awareness together masterfully and poignantly, though humor and excitement leaven the weighty issues the author and Jack frequently pose. Some exploits may strain credulity; Jack’s self-awareness often seems beyond his years, and there are coincidences that may seem too convenient. It’s all of a piece with Vanderpool’s craftsmanship. Her tapestry is woven and finished off seamlessly. The ending is very moving, and there’s a lovely, last-page surprise that Jack doesn’t know but that readers will have been tipped off about. Navigating this stunning novel requires thought and concentration, but it’s well worth the effort. (author’s note, with questions and answers, list of resources) (Historical fiction. 10-14)

girlfriend, the teacher Delphine had been eagerly expecting has exchanged places with one from Zambia, and their beloved Uncle Darnell is returning home from Vietnam. But their favorite singing group, the Jackson Five, is coming to town, too. With the help of their father’s girlfriend, Miss Hendrix, the girls set out to save to attend the concert. Through all of their experiences, Delphine uses her new connection with her mother to understand things, questioning, challenging and reaching for a mother’s guidance. Whenever she pushes a bit too hard, Cecile’s tart, repeated advice to “be eleven”— even when she turns 12—resonates. Williams-Garcia’s skilled writing takes readers to a deeper understanding of Delphine as she grows up and is forced to watch her family take a new shape. Disappointments are not glossed over, even when they involve heartbreaking betrayal. This thoughtful story, told with humor and heart, rings with the rhythms and the dilemmas of the ’60s through characters real enough to touch. (Historical fiction. 9-14)

pictur e books

NAVIGATING EARLY

Vanderpool, Clare Delacorte (320 pp.) $16.99 | $10.99 e-book | $19.99 PLB Jan. 8, 2013 978-0-385-74209-2 978-0-307-97412-9 e-book 978-0-385-99040-3 PLB

K i r k us M edi a L L C # President M A RC W I N K E L M A N Chief Operating Officer M E G L A B O R D E KU E H N Chief Financial Officer J ames H ull SVP, Marketing M ike H ejny SVP, Online Paul H offman # Copyright 2013 by Kirkus Media LLC. KIRKUS REVIEWS (ISSN 1948- 7428) is published semimonthly by Kirkus Media LLC, 6411 Burleson Road, Austin, TX 78744. Subscription prices are: Digital & Print Subscription (U.S.) - 12 Months ($199.00) Digital & Print Subscription (International) - 12 Months ($229.00) Digital Only Subscription - 12 Months ($169.00) Single copy: $25.00. All other rates on request. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Kirkus Reviews, PO Box 3601, Northbrook, IL 60065-3601. Periodicals Postage Paid at Austin, TX 78710 and at additional mailing offices.

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

gr e at b o ok s t h at m a k e history come a liv e Ehrlich’s “transcendent verse” and Nevins’ luminous paintings make one of the oldest stories in the world—the Torah—seem utterly, beautifully new.

SALT

Helen Frost Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus & Giroux Two 12-year-olds, one a Miami Indian boy and one a settler’s son, find their friendship challenged by the War of 1812 in Frost’s meticulous verse novel.

EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION

Tonya Bolden Abrams

Bolden’s characteristically vigorous prose mixes with primary sources to create a compelling chronicle of one of U.S. history’s watershed moments.

THE GREAT AMERICAN DUST BOWL

Don Brown Illus. by Don Brown Houghton Mifflin

Eyewitness accounts combine with graphic-novel–style storytelling in Brown’s unflinching look at the science and history of the Dust Bowl.

DR. RADWAY’S SARSAPARILLA RESOLVENT

Beth Kephart Illus. by William Sulit New City Community Press

With startlingly original prose, Kephart describes the travails of 14-year-old William, as he makes his way in a scrupulously realized 1871 Philadelphia.

This Issue’s Contributors #

WITH A MIGHTY HAND

Amy Ehrlich Illus. by Daniel Nevins Candlewick

Alison Anholt-White • Kim Becnel • Marcie Bovetz • Kimberly Brubaker Bradley • Sophie Brookover • Louise Brueggemann • Timothy Capehart • Ann Childs • Julie Cummins GraceAnne A. DeCandido • Elise DeGuiseppi • Carol Edwards • Brooke Faulkner • Laurie Flynn • Laurel Gardner • Judith Gire • Carol Goldman • Melinda Greenblatt • Shelley Huntington • Kathleen T. Isaacs • Deborah Kaplan • Joy Kim • K. Lesley Knieriem Megan Dowd Lambert • Angela Leeper • Ellen Loughran • Lori Low • Wendy Lukehart Joan Malewitz • Hillias J. Martin • Michelle H. Martin PhD • Jeanne McDermott • Kathie Meizner • Daniel Meyer • Kathleen Odean • Deb Paulson • Rachel G. Payne • John Edward Peters • Susan Pine • Rebecca Rabinowitz • Kristy Raffensberger • Nancy Thalia Reynolds Erika Rohrbach • Ronnie Rom • Leslie L. Rounds • Katie Scherrer • Dean Schneider Stephanie Seales • Karyn N. Silverman • Paula Singer • Karin Snelson • Edward T. Sullivan Jennifer Sweeney • Deborah D. Taylor • Jessica Thomas • S.D. Winston • Monica Wyatt

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

middle grade

kirkus.com

gr e at b o ok s t h at m a k e history come a liv e

( c o n t. ) pictur e books middle gr a de

LISTENING FOR LUCCA

NORTHWEST PASSAGE

Suzanne LaFleur Wendy Lamb/Random

Newly moved to an old house in Maine, Siena discovers that the past is more present than she thought, in the form of the home’s World War II–era former inhabitants.

ODETTE’S SECRETS

Stan Rogers; Matt James Illus. by Matt James Groundwood

James masterfully illustrates and explicates the history behind Rogers’ classic song in a stunning, oversized volume.

HOW I BECAME A GHOST

Maryann Macdonald Bloomsbury

Tim Tingle The RoadRunner Press

Secular Jew Odette survives the Holocaust by posing as a Catholic in Macdonald’s affecting verse tale based on the experiences of a real-life survivor.

The Choctaw Trail of Tears produces a grievous number of ghosts, and one of them is narrator Isaac, who plunges readers into his Choctaw worldview in this immersive novel.

CALL OF THE KLONDIKE

P.S. BE ELEVEN

David Meissner; Kim Richardson Calkins Creek/Boyds Mills

Rita Williams-Garcia Amistad/HarperCollins

Meissner and Richardson piece together letters, diary entries, telegrams and newspaper articles to tell the tale of two young men who went north to look for gold.

Back home in Brooklyn from her summer with the Black Panthers, Delphine struggles with a shifting sense of self and family in this sequel to One Crazy Summer.

SUGAR

Jewell Parker Rhodes Little, Brown

For the complete list, go to www.kirkusreviews.com on Nov. 25.

The arrival of Chinese laborers opens up the world to 10-yearold Sugar, who feels trapped on River Road Plantation, five years after the Civil War.

kirkus.com

middle grade

best fiction, picture books & middle-grade books of 2013

Ignore the blob of red in the top left corner. It’s jam, not blood, though I don’ t think I need to tell you the difference. New from Annabel Pitcher , a novel about finding the beauty in the mess of life.

★“Introspective and

surprisingly humorous.”—PW

★“There’s no denying the emotional

resonance of this bittersweet novel.”—Booklist 978 -0-316-24676-7

★“Authentic emotional responses and unyielding wit.”—Kirkus

New novels by acclaimed authors from Little, Brown Books For Young Readers

Hi Roomie! I can’t wait to meet you and spend the next year of our lives as BFFs.

New from SARA ZARR and TARA ALTEBRANDO,

978 -0-316-21749-1

a tale of two teens on the verge of a roommate meltdown. And they haven’t even met.

★“Two great novels in one.” —PW

“Authentic and drama filled.” —Booklist