Books are showing the way to broader, deeper reflections of human experience
In this issue:
Sadeqa Johnson, Cristina Rivera Garza, Dr. Allison K. Rodgers, and Patrick Ness
When right-wing activists show up to protest a Drag Story Hour at a public library in the heart of New York City—of all places—you know things have gotten bad.
That’s what I thought last December, when protesters descended on a library in Chelsea, one hub of New York’s LGBTQ+ community, during an event where drag queens, turned out in all their finery, read aloud from children’s picture books to an appreciative audience of kids and their parents. A New York City Council member who was there shared a video of the protesters outside, many holding signs with regressive messages such as “Stop the Nonsense. There Are Only Two Genders”—and worse.
A similar demonstration occurred at a Queens library less than two weeks later—just the latest in a rising wave of antidrag attacks nationwide, according to the media advocacy group GLAAD. (This time, hundreds turned out to support Drag Story Hour with chants and clever signs.) Clearly, the playful, open-minded approach to gender embodied by drag— and popularized by Drag Story Hours and the reality show RuPaul’s Drag Race—makes conservatives deeply uncomfortable. The protests are also a deeply cynical strategy by right-wing activists to demonize a part of the LGBTQ+ community that is less reassuring to some segments of straight America than the cisgender gay couples of IKEA ads and TV sitcoms.
Against this backdrop I’ve been reading Who Does That Bitch Think She Is: Doris Fish and the Rise of Drag by Craig Seligman (PublicAffairs, Feb. 28). (I know Seligman from his many years as a writer and editor in the magazine and newspaper world.) It’s a readable and revelatory book about a wildly creative and charismatic star of the San Francisco drag scene in the 1970s and ’80s that also considers how attitudes toward drag queens evolved radically during this period. This period, of course, was marked by the devastations of the AIDS epidemic, and Seligman perceptively observes that LGBTQ+ people “came to appreciate the ballsiness that drag queens—many of them, like Doris, sick themselves—brought to rallying a traumatized community.…AIDS was a big part of what transformed drag queens, in a remarkably short time, from social lepers to culture heroes.” The hateful recent protests against Drag Story Hours are a direct reaction to the advent of drag queens as culture heroes who threaten the outmoded gender binary that conservatives are bitterly determined to uphold.
The spirit of drag, which sees gender as a form of performance and experimentation, is just one animating force behind this special issue on gender. We decided to assemble the issue because our editors have observed a surge in books that sensitively explore issues surrounding gender—whether it be discrimination and violence against women, the increasingly public claiming of transgender identities, the effects of toxic masculinity on young boys, or the ways that race and gender intersect in people’s lived experiences. In these pages you’ll find some thought-provoking author interviews as well as the editors’ columns on recent books in all genres that explore and expand upon our understanding of gender. Consider the issue a form of counterprotest: a riposte to those who would shut down this vital ongoing conversation.
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Luma Mufleh , the influential founder of refugee support organization Fugees Family, shares her compelling, nuanced story of coming out as a gay Muslim woman from Jordan. Read the review on p. 134.
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The Kirkus Star is awarded to books of remarkable merit, as determined by the impartial editors of Kirkus.
These titles earned the Kirkus Star:
Adams, Taylor
Morrow/HarperCollins (352 pp.)
$30.00 | April 25, 2023
978-0-06-322289-2
Downloading a 99-cent e-book morphs into a costly mistake for a young woman who posts a scathing review that pushes the unstable author over the edge.
Former junior high math teacher Emma Carpenter holes up in a remote beach house on the Washington state coast binge-reading e-book horror novels as she tries to forget a terrible event that happened five months ago. Her sole companion is her golden retriever, Laika, and that’s how Emma, an introvert, likes it. Her only human contact is washed-up writer Deacon Cowl, who lives next door. They’ve never met, but they communicate using whiteboards and telescopes. Cowl recommends she download Murder Mountain by H.G. Kane, but Emma hates everything about the poorly written thriller and its clichéd story of an angry man who tortures and kills young women. After she posts a negative review, Kane messages her and insists she take it down. Emma refuses. Kane won’t take no for an answer. Soon, the power goes out, the internet goes down, and Emma, like the women in Murder Mountain, is in a full-on fight for her life. Classic stalker tropes are upended in this twisty tale of a psychopath who, believing he’s invincible, wants Emma’s death to be the center of his next novel. But Emma, the indomitable heroine, takes control of the narrative and tilts the story in her favor as she fights to protect herself and Laika. Knives are out, as well as swords and stun guns, in this breathlessly paced, head-spinning tale.
9780525659518
Prey becomes predator in this unnerving thriller.
Ausubel, Ramona
Riverhead (288 pp.)
$27.00 | April 18, 2023
9780593420522
After the death of their father, two teens accompany their scientist mom on a globe-trotting quest to save the planet.
“It’s like they always say, you look down for one week to breed a woolly mammoth and when you look up again your little girls have turned into women.” Deadpan gems like
this sparkle in just about every scene of Ausubel’s fourth volume of highly original fabulist fiction, which marries an extraordinary and slightly bananas scientific adventure with a deeply felt portrait of a mother and daughters healing from terrible loss. Jane married the professor of her ancient humanoids course; their daughters, Vera and Eve, were 11 and 14 when their father plunged to his death in the Italian Alps while driving a cooler full of Neanderthal tissue samples from one lab to another. As the novel opens, a year later, their mom has dragged them to Siberia, where scientists are searching for woolly mammoth bones in service of a theory that bringing back certain extinct species could help reverse climate change. (It makes sense but, unsurprisingly, cannot be summarized in this space.) Bored and fed up, the girls go off for a wander and come back with the frozen, perfectly preserved body of a baby woolly mammoth. Immediately the men on the expedition name it Aleksei and move to claim credit. Back home in Berkeley, their mom meets an eccentric millionaire named Helen who owns a castle and a wild animal preserve on Lake Como in Italy, and the two hatch a plan to take back the wheel on woolly mammoth resurrection.
The unfolding story hops to Iceland and then to Lake Como, settings that Ausubel makes magical and fully capable of containing the ever kookier plot. “I am working toward my PhD in weird shit,” says Eve, though both girls yearn continually for the ordinary life they lost when their father died.
An amazing amount of humor, pizazz, wisdom, and wonder packed into a story that is essentially about processing grief.
“You see them every morning at a quarter to nine, rushing out of the maw of the subway tunnel, filing out of Grand Central Station, crossing Lexington and Park and Madison and Fifth avenues, the hundreds and hundreds of girls.” It’s 1958, the year Rona Jaffe published her first novel, The Best of Everything, and all the women streaming to their offices, getting ready to sit down at their desks for a day as a file clerk or a typist or maybe a junior editor, are still known as “girls.”
Jaffe’s book came out five years before Betty Friedan’s The Feminist Mystique and more than a decade before the profusion of feminist novels by such writers as Alix Kates Shulman, Marge Piercy, and Marilyn French. Jaffe thought of her book as a “cautionary tale,” she wrote in an introduction to the 2005 edition—Penguin has just released a new edition, with an introduction by Rachel Syme—but scores of women read it and packed up their lives to move to New York. “An exciting life, even if very difficult, is better than a dull one,” Jaffe wrote, and she sure made it look exciting, if not downright soap-operatic. Maybe that’s why the book was seen as fluffy and why I never read it in the 1980s and ’90s alongside The Golden Notebook and Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen. But I finally picked it up recently and was blown away by Jaffe’s sharp, fizzy writing; her pointed analysis of women’s roles and restrictions; and her matter-of-fact depiction of sexual harassment in the workplace decades before the Clarence Thomas hearings or #MeToo.
Like Jaffe herself when she wrote the book, her fictional women work in publishing. Caroline Bender grew up in a comfortable New York suburb, went to Radcliffe, and got engaged to her college boyfriend, Eddie. Then he dumped her. Now she wants to be an editor, even if it means starting as a secretary to a no-
toriously difficult boss. April Morrison came to New York from a small town in Colorado, hoping to become an actress. “You’re my idea of what a New York girl should look like,” she tells Caroline, soon making herself over and finding a wealthy Ivy League boyfriend. Mary Agnes Russo from the Bronx is patiently waiting for her wedding, which is a year away. Barbara Lemont is a single mother struggling to support her daughter and her own mother, whom they live with, through her job at Fabian Publications. And Gregg Adams is an actress from Dallas who hopes her relationship with a well-known Broadway producer will bring her closer to the center of New York’s artistic swirl.
The women are constantly going to bars with their bosses, drinking whiskey, and getting groped under the table. There’s an unplanned pregnancy and a coerced abortion. Relationships that seem to be love turn out to be ephemeral, and the women find the lives they’d planned going up in smoke. “You little bitch,” yells the editor-in-chief at Barbara when she rejects his advances at a Christmas party. “You’re fired. Don’t you dare come into this office on Monday. Don’t you dare!” I had no idea that anyone in the ’50s was writing like this.
For more insight into midcentury sexual politics, try Carmela Ciuraru’s Lives of the Wives (Harper, Feb. 7), a nonfiction book about writers and their wives—many of them writers themselves—including Kingsley Amis and Elizabeth Jane Howard, Roald Dahl and Patricia Neal, Kenneth Tynan and Elaine Dundy, and Radclyffe Hall and Una Troubridge. “Once romantically entwined, the wives often had to shelve their own aspirations in order to nurture their partners, sometimes fighting like hell to keep their own identities,” said our starred review. It’s a fascinating companion piece to Jaffe’s book.
Bell, Darcey
Emily Bestler/Atria (240 pp.)
$17.00 paper | March 21, 2023
978-1-9821-7730-0
A once-gregarious psychology student with a traumatic past and a fondness for cats finds herself at the center of a dangerous revenge story.
Holly Serpenta and Lorelei Green were best friends at an elite East Coast college known for its psychology department—until their friendship was torn apart by a charismatic and manipulative professor. Now they’ve been estranged for 20 years. Holly is rich and powerful and has two grown children, and she’s being named Woman of the Year at a gala dinner that will include guests like Sonia Sotomayor, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Zadie Smith; Lorelei, who’s the narrator, remains alone and is recently unemployed from a job she didn’t much like to begin with, though she does have her cats. She blames Holly for a traumatic incident that caused her to drop out of college just before the final semester, and she’s been following Holly’s career closely ever since. Lorelei isn’t happy about how well her former friend is doing and begins to plot her revenge. But she’s not the only one. Someone else from their past has demons, too, and all roads lead back to the bizarre psychology department at Woodward College. Though this book is a page-turner and Lorelei’s first-person voice feels authentic, the friendship between Holly and Lorelei is thinly described. We see the whole thing in flashbacks, most of which are scenes that Lorelei just summarizes. Lorelei describes the women as best friends, but that friendship doesn’t come across in the book. Though Bell successfully flips the “crazy cat lady” trope on its head and offers a satisfying ending, a number of the characters, including Holly, are flat, and the motivation of the charismatic professor feels far-fetched, like he’s a cartoon villain, which might have worked better if his department head wasn’t also maniacal.
Despite some unconvincing elements, this novel will resonate with anyone interested in psychology (or cats).
Binge, Nicholas Riverhead (352 pp.)
$27.00 | April 25, 2023
9780593539583
In 1991, British scientist Harold Tunmore and an international crew have their minds blown and lives threatened after being summoned to a gigantic mountain in the South Pacific that bizarrely appeared out of nowhere.
From the start, Harold and his colleagues have reasons to be nervous about the expedition. Their anonymous sponsors, possibly military, refuse to divulge pertinent information—including
what happened to those who didn’t survive a previous visit to the mountain and why one who did—Harold’s lamented exwife—remains there in a starkly incommunicative state. But once the group begins the treacherous task of climbing the mountain in the frostbite-rendering cold, there is no turning back. The higher they climb, the weirder things get. People start acting strangely, turning on each other in sometimes violent fashion. Some of them disappear after slipping through what are revealed to be folds in time and space. (Scary tentacled creatures await them.) Harold starts having memories that aren’t his. Increasingly, he enters into a volatile state of consciousness in which his personal failures—notably his long-ago neglect of his wife and adopted son—play out against psychedeliclike religious visions. The novel opens with Harold’s brother, Ben, finding him in a psychiatric hospital nearly 30 years after Harold went missing and was declared dead. The story unfolds through a series of unsent letters Ben finds in Harold’s room, written back in 1991 to Ben’s then-teenage daughter. At its best, the book is a cross between Journey to the Center of the Earth and Heart of Darkness. But it needs a less whiny protagonist to
serve its mega-reflections on the meaning of life and the future of mankind and doesn’t do enough with supporting characters, especially a renowned female Russian biologist.
An entertaining SF thriller that’s unable to catch up to its vision.
Brashears, Monica
Flatiron Books (304 pp.)
$27.99 | April 4, 2023
9781250851918
A debut novel about generational trauma, grief, and the enduring violence of White supremacy.
Magnolia Brown is 19 years old. She hasn’t seen her mother since she was 15. Her father’s been dead a long time. When her grandmother Mama Brown dies, Magnolia is essentially
alone. The only regular figures in her life are Sugar Foot—her landlord, who prefers sex to rent money—and the man who digs through the trash cans at the gas station where she works. Her luck seems to change when a stranger with “milk skin” and freshly manicured nails tells her that she looks like Josephine Baker and offers her a modeling job. A mix of curiosity and desperation leads her to a “plantation-style” house that is half funeral parlor, half family home. Cotton—the man who told her she looks like Josephine Baker even though she doesn’t—lives and works there with his Aunt Eden. And this is where Magnolia lives once she accepts Cotton’s offer to impersonate the dead for people who are willing to pay for the chance to connect. At first, Magnolia’s job involves Skyping for clients. Eventually, she will lie still in a coffin for mourners who never had a chance to bury their loved one and masquerade as a lost—certainly dead— woman at a party for her family and friends. While Magnolia is posing as a series of dead women, Mama Brown haunts her and begs Magnolia to see the baby she’s aborted so that both Mama Brown and the baby can rest. And, throughout the narrative, we see the little fairy tales Magnolia tells herself to escape from her
sea change
real life. This is a messy text with a weird flow, and much of the detail that Brashears provides makes it more difficult—rather than easier—to suspend disbelief unless we understand at the very beginning that this is closer to horror than realist fiction. Perhaps the best way to read this is as a gothic novel in which a surfeit of symbolism offers up a superabundance of meaning. A lyrical fever dream of a novel.
Chung, Gina Vintage (288 pp.)
$17.00 paper | March 28, 2023
9780593469347
An unambitious young woman struggles to cope with the impending loss of the giant, mutated Pacific octopus she cares for.
Ro is going through a brutal, albeit unique, breakup: Her longtime boyfriend, Tae, has left her to join a crew that will colonize Mars. Her only solace is taking care of Dolores, an octopus warped to giant size and given extended life by the “Bering Vortex,” an agglomeration of chemicals that have turned the Bering Strait into a sort of toxic laboratory filled with “six-finned salmon [and] winged cod.” Ro is stuck in the past; she works at the same mall aquarium her father did before he disappeared on a research trip into the Bering Vortex when Ro was a teenager. He brought the octopus back from a previous expedition, and Ro is devastated to learn that Dolores will soon be sold to a wealthy collector, the cousin of the Mars mission’s benefactor. All this has the makings of a science fiction mystery or a climate novel, but Chung has instead opted to write an adult bildungsroman, a grappling with childhood’s traumas and the tricky process of maturation in the 21st century. Much of the novel is told in flashback. Ro’s parents are Korean immigrants, and there was serious tension between her aloof scientist father and her uptight mother, who longed for the country she was raised in. In the present, Ro binge-drinks and blows off texts from her mom and her best friend. In fact, Ro has a drunken driving habit, one that endangers her life and the lives of others, but this is just presented as a symptom of her immaturity. The real problem is that she’s lonely, Chung suggests. At a disastrous dinner with her mother, Ro is offered this advice from her mother’s new boyfriend: “It’s not good to be alone for too long, you know.”
A debut novel of change, community, and cephalopods.
Dorsey, Tim
Morrow/HarperCollins (336 pp.)
$30.00 | Feb. 28, 2023
9780063240629
Quintessential Florida man Serge Storms rocks the post-Covid world.
Where better to ride out the tedium of the pandemic lockdown than a condominium in Islamorada, halfway down the Florida Keys? With assistance from both Alexa and Siri, who compete vigorously for the boys’ attention, Serge and his perennial wingman, Coleman, collect enough consumer goods to keep them amused for at least 24 hours of isolation. Once that’s over, they go back to what they do best: careening wildly through the streets in Serge’s Ford ’73 Galaxie, going after scalpers who charge insane amounts for toilet paper. Coleman uses his newly purchased bong, a handsome job embossed with a glass iguana, to teach his condo neighbors how
to consume their newly acquired medical marijuana more efficiently, while Serge returns to hosting bus tours of little-known Florida roadside attractions. Meanwhile, a covert operation in Honduras goes disastrously wrong, leaving police officer Yandy Falcón and reporter Reevis Tome in the lurch. While the two make their separate ways north to Miami, Dorsey bides his time as readers wait eagerly for their inevitable meet-up with Serge. Their collision will be shocking but in no way surprising to seasoned fans of this zany franchise.
A global health crisis is just one more day in the life of Dorsey’s resilient hero.
Due, Tananarive Akashic (320 pp.)
$29.95 | April 18, 2023
9781636141053
Holy hell: These 14 stories from author and film historian Due might scare even the most dauntless horror fans to death.
These tales of fright are both intellectually keen and psychologically bloodcurdling, no surprise from an award-winning writer whose command of the Black horror aesthetic rivals Jordan Peele’s in originality and sheer bravado. The opening salvo, “The Wishing Pool,” takes a universal familial worry and paints it with shades of “The Monkey’s Paw.” The hairbreadth between acute tragedy and the blackest of humor are child’s play for the author in “Haint in the Window,” which masterfully nods to Octavia E. Butler in the story of a bookseller facing elements out of his control. The five tales in The Gracetown Stories give a sense of Stephen King’s fictional Derry or Jerusalem’s Lot: It’s just a bad patch of ground ripe with horrors ranging from Cthulhu-like abominations in “Suppertime” to demonic possession in “Migration,” in which a friend helpfully asks, “Is that thing acting up again?” Another pair of stories visits a woman named Nayima whose post-apocalyptic endeavors include some light stand-up comedy in “One Day Only” and, much later, the necessity to protect and school her young charge even as her own mind fails in “Attachment Disorder.” A final triptych of stories labeled “Future Shock” wouldn’t go amiss as episodes of The Twilight Zone. Although the tales vary greatly in length and style, it’s the Hitchcock-ian, Black Mirror–tinged reveals and existential questions that stand out—a dying man’s final vow, a teeth-grinding amount of child endangerment, or the awful, pedestrian confession, “I broke my daughter’s arm.” Even in a far-off future, Due finds that big questions endure: “Was it better to die free?”
A patchwork of stories that somehow manages to be both graceful and alarming, putting fresh eyes to the unspeakable.
Finlay, Alex
Minotaur (368 pp.)
$27.99 | March 7, 2023
9781250863720
Four former friends are reunited when a secret from their past puts a killer on their trails.
Twenty-five years ago, five young teenagers living in a foster home did something very bad. This book’s prologue gives us a glimpse of it before shifting to the present, when those once-lost kids are adults who, at least from the outside, look like successes. Arty is a wealthy tech mogul, Donnie a
“These 14 stories might scare even the most dauntless horror fans to death.”
the wishing pool
fading but still recognized rock star, Nico a reality TV producer, Jenna a very happily married mom to two stepdaughters. And Ben became a judge—but now he’s been murdered. The other four survivors of Savior House haven’t seen each other in years, but Ben’s death will shake and imperil them. First to feel the seismic shock is Jenna, who, it seems, had a former career as an assassin, having been recruited at 15 right out of the foster home by a shadowy outfit called The Corporation. She gets a message she hoped never to get, summoning her back to her old job. But things go awry, and she hurries her family into hiding and goes on the hunt for Ben’s killer. In the meantime, Donnie, whose band is playing on a cruise ship, falls overboard but is miraculously rescued; Nico, on the job for a reality series about coal miners, is trapped underground when a tunnel collapses but also is rescued. And Arty is a target as well. Someone from their shared past is after them—but who, and why, and who is the mysterious woman who seems to have tried to kill each of them? Jenna is an engaging action hero, and Finlay makes skilled use of point of view, whipping the reader from Jenna to Donnie to Nico as they struggle to understand and survive, separately and then together again.
Fast-paced action and a compelling study of friendships power this suspenseful thriller.
Geary, Karl Catapult (304 pp.)
$27.00 | April 18, 2023
9781646221134
A twisted coming-of age-story concerning two young outsiders unable and unwilling to fit into the narrow confines of their small Irish village or, later, into more sophisticated Dublin.
Geary uses gorgeous prose, full of Irish lilt and hard-edged slang, to describe bleak childhoods as harsh as any found in a Dickens novel. When 12-year-old Juno first meets Legs, their crises at home and school veer close to clichés about the downtrodden: There are Juno’s useless alcoholic father and worn-down seamstress mother whose clients seldom pay; Legs’ absent father and rigid mother ready to send him to a “special” school to cure him of his sinful artistic effeminacy; hostile classmates who shun Juno for her poverty and Legs for his otherness; the priest in charge of the school who beats and humiliates them. Juno and Legs establish their bond after she stands up for him against playground bullies and he distracts the priest with misbehavior to protect her from mortification in the classroom. Narrator Juno takes up most of the emotional space here, showing in detail her troubled mix of good intentions, selfdestructive combativeness, and constant sense of guilt. Juno’s longings tend to erupt in spur-of-the-moment acts—breaking a neighbor’s flowerpot, punching someone’s nose, taking her first drink—that make her life worse. Seen only through Juno’s eyes, Legs is harder to read because Juno knows only what he tells her. Then an explosion of Legs’ rage against the priest leads to years
of forced separation from Juno. Even when they reconnect in Dublin, where Legs, now a member of the artistic demimonde, takes in Juno, who is on the skids, he remains enigmatic until a rush of last-minute revelations. Inescapable poverty, homelessness, alcoholism, the unnamed “plague” frightening gay Dubliners in the 1980s—much of the novel is almost unbearably grim, making the occasional glimpses of real kindness Juno and Legs experience that much more poignant.
An evocative, effective dive into dark if too familiar waters.
Grillo, Christine
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (400 pp.)
$27.00 | April 18, 2023
978-0-374-60997-9
Looking for love during America’s Second Civil War can be tricky.
The mutation of the nation’s current political dysfunction into actual civil war is fast becoming a go-to setting for contemporary fiction, but debut novelist Grillo puts a new spin on it by focusing on the romantic misadventures of Hestia, whose husband recently left her to join a pro-Union paramilitary group. The marriage was already shaky, so she’s checking out online dating sites but finds that it’s hard to avoid flirting with guys on the other side. Hestia lives in Baltimore, and there are plenty of Confederate sympathizers in the border state of Maryland. Her own parents are just about to move to one of the 12 seceded states, and it becomes clear over
the course of the novel that their dismissive comments about the United States Hestia supports are part of a lifelong pattern of undermining her that clearly contributes to her tendency to eventually find reasons to dump any man unwise enough to show that he likes her. Grillo deftly spins a busy plot that also include Hestia’s friendship with Mildred, an elderly resident at the retirement village where she works, and her growing attachment to her brother-in-law, Jamie, who is raising three kids on his own after his wife was killed in a Confederate terrorist attack. The author’s undeniable point is that daily life goes on even in extreme circumstances; people choose restaurants and places to walk based on the updates in their Safe Zones app, but they continue to eat out and spend time outdoors just the same. The salty comments of Mildred and the village residents participating in Hestia’s oral history project provide welcome relief from Hestia’s often mopey narration, and the characters and social backdrop are equally well drawn, but in the end it’s hard to see why we should care.
A sharply observed and written tale that never seems to add up to much.
Guebel, Daniel
Trans. by Jessica Sequeira
Seven Stories (128 pp.)
$8.99 paper | April 25, 2023 9781644212899
A son confronts memories of his father.
You’d be forgiven for assuming Guebel’s latest book is a memoir. It certainly reads like one: The narrator, also named Daniel, recounts a traumatic childhood with parents who offered him neither acceptance, understanding, nor basic affection. “I saw in my parents’ eyes,” he writes, “not just premature disenchantment and irritation, but also, or so I believed, a desire to see me vanish by way of some catastrophic miracle.” There is no plot, per se, and Daniel—who, like his creator, eventually became an author—leads the reader from memory to memory in an order that is more stream of consciousness than chronological. At particular issue here is Daniel’s father, who, when Daniel was still a child, would beat him with a belt. Daniel says of his father’s spankings: “his was not a methodical ‘sweep’ of the totality but a partial intervention dictated by chance, at whose discretion the belt landed on new zones or applied itself entirely or partially to a zone already hit.” If, among all these details, the reader is reminded of Kafka’s Letter to His Father, that connection is more than once made explicit. Kafka’s Letter “is one of my favorite books,” Daniel tells us. “If I had to choose between rescuing this handbook of self-disparagement and reproach from a blazing fire, or Ulysses, I’d abandon Joyce’s pyrotechnic novel to the flames and burn my fingers to save the few pages written by the Czech Jew.” As these passages make clear, Guebel’s prose tends toward the florid or dense—put plainly, he overwrites. That’s a shame. There is much in this slim
little book that is affecting, even brilliant, if Guebel would only get out of his own way.
Moving at times, the novel is marred by its author’s florid prose style.
Hackett, Nicole
Crooked Lane (272 pp.)
$28.99 | May 2, 2023
9781639102624
Suspicion shadows a tour group when one of its members disappears.
Hollie Goodwin wakes up to the disturbing news that Alabama Wood has gone missing from their trip to Vík, Iceland. Fellow members of their group gather to hear a police officer deliver the news and announce a pending investigation. The story flashes back to Hollie in Dallas
three months before and to Celeste Reed and Alabama in Chicago as they prepare for the voyage. All three are well-known Instagram influencers. Hollie and Celeste manage complex family lives, while the self-involved Alabama visits Dr. Keith Swinkle, whom she despises, and flushes the antipsychotic pills he gives her down the toilet. On such tiny spoonfuls of information is Hackett’s cleverly constructed thriller built. These telegraphic flashbacks are interspersed with scenes from the day before and the day after Alabama’s disappearance. Beneath the mystery, and at times overshadowing it, are the messy lives of this trio back home. Hollie deals with an unexpected pregnancy, Celeste with a crumbling marriage and an extremely unruly child. Throughout, Hackett strategically plants seeds of doubt, teasing the reader with pieces of the puzzle. Other members of the tour group—Emily, Margot, Katherine—lurk in the background as possible suspects. Sometimes the perspective is blurred. Does the ending of one chapter—“How shocking. Unless, of course, you already knew”—represent the thoughts of the character whose name heads that chapter or those of the author? Readers may find it challenging to remain interested in
“Suspicion shadows a tour group when one of its members disappears.”
the perfect ones
BY COLETTE BANCROFT
training for the book tour.” Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Your first three novels had contemporary settings. With Yellow Wife and now The House of Eve, you’re writing historical fiction. What moved you to make that change?
We moved to Richmond in 2015. I was standing in our kitchen in New Jersey one day and I heard a voice that said, Move. We were already planning a move, but the voice wasn’t like, move down the street. It meant move. By June 2015 we had moved our three children, changed our lives, and settled into a new house in Richmond. I was thinking, why am I here?
The House of Eve (Simon & Schuster, Feb. 7) is the fifth novel by Sadeqa Johnson and her second work of historical fiction, after Yellow Wife, the story of an enslaved woman who was forced to bear her enslaver’s children. House of Eve is set in the 1940s and ’50s and tells the stories of Ruby and Eleanor, two young Black women who both become pregnant outside marriage and see their lives go in very different directions. The novel was selected by Reese Witherspoon as the February pick for her popular book club.
Speaking over Zoom from her home in Richmond, Virginia, in late January, Johnson said she was preparing for a sixweek tour to promote the new novel: “I’m eating all the plantbased food, I’m lifting weights, I’m drinking lots of water. I’m
Then we had some friends come to visit from New Jersey, and someone suggested we take them to the Richmond Slave Trail. While we were on the Richmond Slave Trail, I heard the story of Mary Lumpkin [a formerly enslaved woman who transformed a slave jail into a school in 1866]. Everything in my body said, you should be paying attention. I knew that she was a woman whom not many people knew about, an unsung hero. I knew her story needed to be told. But I was terrified of it. I started Googling, finding everything I could about Mary Lumpkin, Robert Lumpkin [her enslaver], the Lumpkin’s Jail. It took over. That’s what opened the door to historical fiction for me.
That day on the trail, someone said it felt like the ancestors were there, waiting for us. I said, “I think they’re waiting for me to tell their story.” They followed me home and kept on pushing.
That’s a great origin story for Yellow Wife and the character of Pheby. What was the origin for The House of Eve?
Two things happened after I wrote Yellow Wife. One, it was well received. I was visualizing what I was going to do next, everything was lining up. I was going to write a YA novel set
In The House of Eve , the novelist sensitively explores the lives of Black women in midcentury AmericaPC Rhodes Photo LLC
in Philadelphia. I had these four characters; one of them was named Ruby. She came to me as a girl in sexual danger. She was really smart and bright, but she didn’t have a support system. Her mother didn’t want her.
Then I remembered that my grandmother told me that she had been the black sheep of her family. She had gotten pregnant with my mother at 14, had her at 15. In the early 1950s there was so much shame around being pregnant outside marriage that they hid the pregnancy, even from the child that she had. My mother told me that she didn’t know her mother was her actual mother until she was in third grade because up until then she had lived with her grandmother.
What does that do to women on both sides, the mother and the child? What would her options have been? This was before Roe v. Wade, when women did what they were told to do. I started to research, and I found out about these maternity homes. Between 1945 and 1975, 1.5 million children were born in these homes, and most of them were adopted. Oftentimes it was forced adoption; there was coercion. As I researched, I couldn’t locate one single Black woman’s story. The homes were largely for White women. It was their babies that were desired, because there was no IVF. So I wondered, what did Black women do besides hide the shame and give the baby to a relative?
Then I found this book: Our Kind of People by Lawrence Otis Graham. He talks about the affluent Black elite in cities like New York and Washington. I thought, what if one of those people—these doctors, lawyers, judges—wanted to adopt? How would they get a baby with discretion? So the YA story and the affluent Black community in D.C. came together. I had two characters: Ruby in Philadelphia and Eleanor, who comes from a Midwestern city and doesn’t know Black people separate themselves by color until she sets foot on the campus of Howard University.
One of the most interesting characters in the book, and a loving surrogate mother to Ruby, is her Aunt Marie. Can you tell us where she came from?
Aunt Marie was based on another historical person: Gladys Bentley. She was a cross-dressing lesbian in the 1950s. She was a singer who performed in very famous speak-easies in New York City, and she was famous herself. She did what she wanted to do. She wore red lipstick, she wore a tuxedo with chandelier earrings. She sang raunchy songs and flirted with the women in the audience. I thought, what a wonderful character. I added on running numbers just to give her an edge. Aunt Marie lit up the page for me. Her words just came so easily. She made Ruby feel safe, but as a writer, I also felt safe when I was with Aunt Marie.
The novel has two main characters whose stories alternate and don’t come together until late in the book. Ruby’s chapters are told in first person, Eleanor’s in third person. How did you decide on that?
Ruby came to me in first person, like Pheby in Yellow Wife. I feel like the character is in my face, and the reader will feel really close to the story. Eleanor didn’t come until much later; I was getting my ducks in a row for Ruby when Eleanor appeared to me. Third person was true to the way the character felt to me, so I thought I’d try it. I’d never done it before.
When you write, do you feel that one of your purposes is embodying the histories of Black women?
I feel like these stories are in my DNA. With Yellow Wife it was very easy for me to access Pheby; her mother, Ruth; all of the enslaved people. It was easy for me to sort of fall into a portal and walk with them through their days.
With House of Eve, I grew up in Philadelphia. There are a lot of things my mother remembered, that my father told me. With House of Eve, I wanted to write about the impossible decisions that women have had to make all throughout history and how they survived. I hope this story will give you a perspective on another side of motherhood.
I stand on the shoulders of these women. Because of their sacrifices, I can do what I do now. I never forget that. It’s never lost on me.
Colette Bancroft is the book critic at the Tampa Bay Times. The House of Eve was reviewed in the Feb. 15, 2023, issue.
these backstories when they fight for attention with a compelling whodunit.
A twisty thriller with many detours and surprises.
Halperin, Hanna
Viking (336 pp.)
$27.00 | April 11, 2023
9780593492079
A writer falls in love with a musician, but their relationship isn’t all beauty and light.
When Leah Kempler, a fiction fellow in the MFA program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, meets Charlie Nelson, a musician, she’s immediately smitten. He’s beautiful, and their first-date conversation is easy and effortless. She soon finds out, though, that he still lives with his parents (who are
kind and wonderful people, but still…) and that he isn’t allowed to be in charge of his own money. Her friends are politely dismissive of him, and he seems uncomfortable sharing her with other people. He admits that he’s a recovering heroin addict, but when his behavior becomes erratic and even stalkerlike—he sends long paranoid texts, shows up at Leah’s door at all hours, or disappears for days at a time—Leah has to acknowledge that there’s something wrong: He’s started using again. And this is the cycle of tragedy that Charlie and his relationship with Leah and the book as a whole show us in stark detail: Drug addiction is an illness that’s extremely difficult to cure. As Charlie himself says, “Imagine you’re in pain…but you know that…all you have to do is press [a] button, and that pain will vanish.…That button is heroin.” The novel is about more than Charlie’s struggles, of course. Leah’s writing, and her friendships with her fellow fiction writers; her lingering pain at having been abandoned by her mother at a young age; her complicated relationships with her own father and brothers—these all get meaningful air time, and we come to understand that Leah is a talented, complex woman who understands intellectually that Charlie is not good for her but who loves him all the same even as she knows that she can’t save him. Halperin humanizes the tragedy of drug addiction through Charlie, who is sweet and kind and loving and also irreparably damaged.
Wistful, honest, and heartbreaking.
Heiny, Katherine Knopf (240 pp.)
$28.00 | April 18, 2023
9780525659518
Eleven stories exploring love, relationships, and occasionally regrettable behavior.
After having written two novels focusing on lovably quirky young women— Standard Deviation (2017) and Early Morning Riser (2021)—Heiny returns to the short story format in which she distinguished herself with her debut, Single, Carefree, Mellow (2015). Here again, Heiny approaches her disarmingly charming characters with tenderness, empathy, and humor, even (perhaps, especially) when they meander outside the bounds of good behavior. Lighthearted and amusing yet deeply resonant, these stories offer sly insights about human connection and can, in the space of a single sentence, take your breath away. In “Chicken-Flavored and Lemon-Scented,” which captures the curiosities of office culture, driving examiner Colette falls for a handsome co-worker. “Damascus” tells the story of Mia and her teenage son, Gordey, whom she suspects of drug use despite his “kind and gentle nature,” exploring the complicated terrain of motherhood and maturity. “Twist and Shout” begins with Ericka’s cranky elderly father confusing “his four-thousanddollar hearing aid for a cashew” and eating it—“He’s not even supposed to be eating cashews! He has high blood pressure!” she laments—and ends with a breathtaking twist. And “CobRa”
tracks the response of William, a middle-aged stockbroker, to Rachel, his wife, as, on the brink of empty-nesthood, she singlemindedly declutters their family home—à la tidiness maven Marie Kondo—in pursuit of life-changing magic. “This was not the beginning of William’s realizing he no longer sparked joy,” Heiny writes, “but a continuation.” For anyone who has similarly fallen under Kondo’s spell and spent weeks shedding possessions and folding T-shirts into adorable little packets, this story will spark immediate recognition. And for Heiny fans and those just discovering her naughty, generous-spirited fiction, this collection is bound to spark considerable joy. It’s a keeper.
With this irresistibly amusing, bighearted collection, Heiny again proves she is a master of the short story form.
Hesselager, Maria
Trans. by Martin Aitken
Riverhead (224 pp.)
$27.00 | April 11, 2023
9780593542606
A brother and sister’s incestuous relationship becomes something even stranger in this novel set in Viking times.
Folkví and Áslakr were born into a prominent family in an isolated coastal village sometime during the great Viking era of trade and exploration. Folkví trains with her mother to become the area’s völva, a kind of seer responsible for acting as a mediator between the world of men and that of the gods. Meanwhile, Áslakr is thought to be one of “the most promising of all the children in the headman’s yard,” sure to become an important member of the expedition crews who travel far down the coast in search of new trading ports. But when the siblings’ parents both die suddenly after a brief illness, Folkví and Áslakr are forced to navigate their adult roles before they are fully prepared, including their first sexual experimentations, which they undertake with each other. With Áslakr gone for the winter months on his first expedition, Folkví begins a relationship with the darkly magnetic Od, a stranger from outside the village, but when Áslakr returns betrothed, all the formidable force of Folkví’s concentration turns to her obsessive quest to keep her brother for herself. The book is narrated from both siblings’ perspectives—Folkví’s section set in the summer of her brother’s betrothal and Áslakr narrating from many years later as he looks back on the life that followed his marriage. While there is a marked difference between the ways they interpret the world, the constant thread of delight in the natural world’s magic and awe in the face of its total domination of mortal lives weaves through every sentence of the sublimely described setting. This is so well achieved that the slender chapter bridging the period that passes between the siblings’ stories—told from the perspective of Urd, one of the three Norn sisters who weave the threads of human lives from their land beyond mortal time— serves to underscore the reality of their mystic lives rather than excuse or explain the novel’s forays into mythological fantasy.
A magical book about love and death and the slender, enduring line that connects the two.
Hilderbrand, Elin
Little, Brown (384 pp.)
$27.00 | June 13, 2023
9780316258777
A dreamy Nantucket house party given by a meticulous hostess goes off the rails.
“When Hollis posts a potato and white cheddar tart with a crispy bacon
“The people in her books may screw up, but Hilderbrand always gets it right.”
the five-star weekend
crust, her foodie community breaks the one-million-member milestone. (Leave it to bacon!)” And leave it to Hilderbrand, in her 30th book of Nantucket-based fiction, to cook up more literary bacon, this time focusing on female friendship, female “friendship,” and the power of the internet and social media. When Hollis Shaw’s doctor husband dies in a crash on the way to the airport, she steps back from Hungry With Hollis, her popular website. After moping around her house in “Swellesley” for a while, she returns to Nantucket for the summer, planning a kick-out-the-stops weekend party that will involve one girlfriend from each phase of her life—youth, college, motherhood—plus her favorite internet follower, an Atlanta-based airline pilot, whom she’s never actually met. Two of these old pals are definitely not as close to Hollis as they once were, one of them has done her secret harm, and Hollis dramatically increases the potential for trouble by paying her angry 20-something daughter to document the weekend on film. Add two bottles each of Casa Dragones tequila, Triple 8 vodka, and Veuve Clicquot, plus some Hendricks gin and Mount Gay rum—what could possibly go wrong? Known for gently inserting social commentary into
her plots, Hilderbrand here highlights the ridiculous fickleness of cancel culture when one of the characters—Dru-Ann, an extremely successful Black sports agent—almost loses her clients, her job, and her boyfriend when a video clip of a private conversation in a restaurant is posted on social media. Everyone says there’s no way forward without a self-effacing apology. Dru-Ann says pass the Casa Dragones. Meanwhile, Hollis is about to learn that friendships forged on the internet are not always what they seem. Hilderbrand has announced plans to retire in 2024. Wait—that’s next year! No!
The people in her books may screw up, but Hilderbrand always gets it right. Kind of amazing.
the twenty
Holland, Sam Crooked Lane (336 pp.)
$28.99 | May 2, 2023
9781639102563
A series of brutal English murders is unmistakably linked to a convicted killer with the world’s best alibi.
The discovery of five bodies near the Northbrook Bridge would be disturbing enough if it weren’t for the Roman numerals that mark the places they were dumped: XVI, XV, XIV, XIII, XII. “The killer is counting down,” realizes DCI Adam Bishop of the Major Crimes Unit. Learning of the numerals, National Health Service oncologist Dr. Romilly Cole is instantly convinced these new crimes are linked to the four murders that landed her father, mild-mannered general practitioner Dr. Elijah Cole, in Belmarsh Prison back in 1995. At first Adam doesn’t even want to see Romilly, whom he divorced three years
ago over an affair she confessed. Even after he hears her out, he’s certain that her father, who’s still in Belmarsh, can’t have committed these new crimes. But are they the work of a copycat so attentive that, like Cole, he also kidnaps and tortures his victims and conscientiously drains them of their blood? Has Cole inspired someone to continue his countdown from 20 victims to the last one? Or is he actively collaborating with a murderous conspirator to complete the series? As Bishop and his DS, newlywed Jamie Hoxton, work the case, the body count rises, and the threats come ever closer to the investigators’ inner circle. Many of the tropes here, from the unsparingly detailed descriptions of the victims’ final hours to the tormented backstory of a leading character whose father was a serial killer, are depressingly familiar, but Holland handles them adroitly, and readers prepared for a wild ride will glide over every implausible twist, shocked and eager for the next one.
Meat and drink (sorry) for fans of serial homicide.
“A series of brutal English murders is unmistakably linked to a convicted killer with the world’s best alibi.”
Morrow/HarperCollins (336 pp.)
$30.00 | April 25, 2023
978-0-06-315865-8
When a former sitcom star begins to receive explicit and violent letters from a deranged fan, she decides to leave Los Angeles and return to Georgia.
Meribel Mills is one of the lucky ones by Hollywood standards: She left her home in Atlanta, hoping to make it big in LA, and was quickly cast as the best friend in a sitcom that made her a household name. Of course, as she enters her 40s, the available roles are fewer and further between. When the stalker, nicknamed “Marker Man” because he always writes with sweetly scented markers, ups his fear campaign, Meribel accepts a new TV role that requires her and her almost-13-year-old daughter, Honor, who has autism, to move back across the country. It’s not long before Meribel begins to receive more letters, first forwarded from LA but then with postmarks from towns closer and closer to where she lives. At the same time, she’s trying to make peace with her past; her ex-husband still lives nearby, and their breakup was quick and painful. And then there’s her handsome neighbor Cooper—so far they’ve only traded sob stories about their exes, but he seems to enjoy being a shoulder to cry on. And finally, Meribel’s most recent ex, Cam, shows up out of the blue. Despite their hot sexual connection, she broke up with him before the move. So she’s juggling men and an escalating stalker and Honor’s foibles, including the fact that she’s adopted a “stray cat” (actually a homeless girl) in tandem with Cooper’s stepdaughter. It’s complicated, and unfortunately, this many threads lead to not enough depth—in the characters, in the plot, in the suspense. With the exception of Honor, who deserves to be the heroine of her own story, the characters get pushed around by the plot, and the pieces seem to fall into place a bit too easily in the end.
Thriller comfort food: It won’t disappoint, nor will it shock or delight.
Janowitz, Brenda Graydon House (304 pp.)
$17.99 paper | April 18, 2023
9781525811487
A chef tries to save her childhood home and juggles the affections of two men from her past in this updated take on the Audrey Hepburn film Sabrina
Emma Jansen owns a successful catering business that serves some of the most exclusive parties in New York, but she can’t escape the pull of her childhood home in Glen Cove. It wasn’t exactly her home—her parents were the
hired help, and Emma lived with them in an apartment above the garage. The Audrey Hepburn Estate (so named because it shares an address with the house in the film Sabrina) was the site of some of her most cherished memories—and some of her most painful ones. She was desperately in love with Henry van der Wraak, the grandson of the estate’s owners. She also formed a deep friendship with Leo L’Unico, the son of the van der Wraaks’ driver. Now, years later, Leo is a developer intent on demolishing the estate so he can build a luxury apartment complex. Emma reconnects with Henry in her attempt to save the house from destruction, but excavating her past brings buried secrets to the surface. She still has complicated feelings for both Henry and Leo, but managing the affections of two men is far from her only problem. Emma also discovers some secrets about the estate that call into question everything she’s ever believed about her own family. Janowitz weaves in details about Audrey Hepburn’s films and also the actor’s real life, including her childhood in Holland during World War II. Although the chemistry between Emma and her two love interests never quite ignites, Emma’s journey to let go of her past and solve the mystery of the estate is full of interesting historical
details. Janowitz includes a fascinating author’s note that explains Hepburn’s struggle during the war as well as the many easter eggs that appear in the text.
A nostalgic and intriguing story that blends a modern-day love triangle with details from Audrey Hepburn’s life.
Lee, Helen Elaine Atria (352 pp.)
$27.99 | April 11, 2023
9781982171896
Lee’s third novel returns to the terrain of The Serpent’s Gift (1994) as it follows a Black woman working to reunite with her children in the wake of addiction and incarceration.
After a four-year sentence, Ranita Atwater exits the Oak Hills correctional facility into a freedom
that is shackled to her past. As Ranita seeks to shore up her sobriety and defend her parental status, she bumps up against memories from her former lives—her childhood as a girl with a loving Daddy and a Mama who found her wanting; her tumultuous relationship with Jasper, the father of her children, who introduced her to opiates; her descent into heroin addiction with David Quarles; and the blossoming joy of her love for Maxine, a fellow inmate. The novel alternates among these timelines, following the logic of Ranita’s memory. Each chapter-length flashback trades the first-person narration of the present-day sections for a third-person perspective. But as she opens up to state-mandated therapist Drew Turner, Ranita reveals the traumas at the core of her struggles with addiction. Throughout, Ranita speaks of racism and systemic injustice with awesome clarity. “In prison,” she tells Turner, “...you’re just breathing flesh that can house contraband, and cause violence, and run.” Also: “Being a commodity. Being bred….All of that’s echoing, day in and day out.” Diction is a central theme, as Ranita, a lover of words and facts, considers how men have used a nickname— Cherry—to define her according to their perception. The novel bristles with strong women, from aunties Jessie and Val to the inmates and sponsor who inspire Ranita to have faith in herself. Because it eschews plot twists for emotional reflection, the novel drags at times; but Lee’s handling of trauma is deft, and her portrayal of the carceral system’s cruelty is unflinching and empathetic.
The novel’s slower moments are like a pomegranate’s dull skin before it breaks to reveal a cache of jewels.
Lehane, Dennis Harper/HarperCollins (320 pp.)
$28.99 | April 25, 2023
9780062129482
Racial tensions provide the powder keg for this explosive mystery.
A master of literary crime fiction, Lehane revisits the Boston of almost a half-century ago, when, in 1974, courtordered school busing incites protest throughout the White neighborhoods of a very segregated city. As a working-class White woman trying to keep one step ahead of the bill collector, Mary Pat Fennessy has a close but tense relationship with her teenage daughter, Jules, who seems to be keeping secrets from her mother. One night Jules doesn’t come home, and Mary Pat is frantic. The next day at Meadow Lane Manor, the old folks’ home where she works as an aide, she learns that the son of Dreamy Williamson, one of her few Black co-workers, died in a mysterious subway incident that night. Mary Pat doesn’t know Dreamy well but likes her well enough. It seems that both of them have lost children now, but they respond differently, experience different levels of support from their communities, and come to learn that these seemingly separate losses—a death and a disappearance—have a connection that neither could have
anticipated. The novel focuses on Mary Pat, illuminates her from within as a loving mother and basically a decent person who nonetheless shares the tribal prejudices of her Irish neighborhood toward people whom they feel are encroaching on their turf. It’s a hot summer, tensions are escalating, and threats of violence are at fever pitch. As Mary Pat keeps trying to find out what happened to Jules and why—wherever the truth may lead her—she discovers how much she has to learn about her daughter, the neighborhood, and the crime outfit whose power and authority have long gone unchallenged. She risks everything to discover the truth.
This taut, gripping mystery is also a novel of soul-searching, for the author and reader alike.
Mackintosh, Sophie
Doubleday (208 pp.)
$27.00 | April 4, 2023
9780385548304
A baker’s widow processes grief, obsession, and desire for the enigmatic couple who may have caused a townwide poisoning.
Elodie spends her days kneading loaves, selling bread to the members of her insular French village, and washing clothes in the communal lavoir. Her husband is obsessed with creating the perfect loaf of bread, and she tries unsuccessfully to rekindle their old spark. “I can admit that in those days I was sometimes jealous of the dough my husband put his hands into, worked so tenderly and tirelessly with, up to the elbows,” Elodie recalls. The baker and his wife may always have fresh food at hand, but Elodie is starved for affection. When an American ambassador and his glamorous wife, Violet, arrive to great fanfare, Elodie is unexpectedly enraptured by them both. At the couple’s housewarming party, Elodie overhears the ambassador warn Violet away from the food. “If you eat the bread, you’ll die, he said, and it sounded more like a caress than a threat.” So begins a hallucinogenic fairy tale, based on a real-life mass poisoning, in which the lines between Elodie’s desire for Violet and her desire for Violet’s life warp and blur. Mackintosh alternates between Elodie’s memories of Violet’s arrival and her letters to Violet, which reveal the darkness, longing, and abjection that have consumed Elodie in the year after the tragedy. The effect is jittery and destabilizing, heightening the horrors of mass death—and intimate cruelty—when they finally arrive. “I have been the most myself in these moments of shame, drawn inexorably down into myself, everything in my body in alignment,” Elodie writes to Violet. “What I am trying to tell you is that when you finally get your face into the dirt, it can feel like a relief.”
Propelled by Mackintosh’s singular lyricism, this strange, unsettling novel—enigmatic to the last—never quite coheres.
McCarten, Anthony
Harper/HarperCollins (304 pp.)
$28.99 | April 11, 2023
9780063227071
A complex thriller written by a four-time Academy Award–nominated screenwriter.
The American government secretly partners with a firm called Fusion to find ways to identify and locate potential terrorists on American soil. Fusion claims its software can find anyone, anytime, anywhere. Because we aren’t China, muses an executive, America’s “technology such as this will be deployed only as the need arises.” (Oh, sure.) To conduct a beta test, they
randomly select 10 applicants from the public who, at a given signal, must try to suddenly disappear and become untraceable. That turns out to be a near impossibility in the 21st century, what with credit cards, cameras, cellphones, and the internet. But the incentive is $3 million, and there is no penalty for being caught beyond hearing that it’s time to go home. Everyone thinks they are clever about disappearing, but half of them go home quickly anyway. The focus turns to “Zero 10,” aka Kaitlyn Day, a quiet “Boston spinster” and “super-intelligent nutcase” librarian. While she’s on the run, she thinks about her friend Warren, who had already disappeared and is maybe being held captive in the Middle East somewhere. She is exceptionally resourceful, as when she falls into a well deep in the woods and seems to have no way out. This is a curious type of thriller, with sparse violence and no outright villains. The excitement is in the chase, which builds steadily. Is Zero 10 going to screw up their proof-of-concept software? The complications build, and the reader had better pay attention. Eventually, the government is looking for Kaitlyn’s friend Samantha Crewe instead, and both women have an emotional attachment to the missing
Warren, who is Samantha’s husband. Meanwhile, is there a real cyberattack to deal with, perhaps the biggest data breach in history? The find-anyone-anywhere premise of the story will become increasingly relevant as the 21st century progresses. Good luck to American society.
This well-written yarn proves that you don’t have to have a blood bath to have an engaging thriller.
Metcalfe, Anna Random House (272 pp.)
$27.00 | April 11, 2023
9780593446959
A woman transforms from a junior lawyer into a reclusive fitness influencer.
“I liked watching her,” Elliot says of this novel’s unnamed protagonist. She’s the newcomer at his gym, self-possessed
“A powerful, eerie debut novel that investigates stillness and selfishness.”
chrysalis
and at ease hoisting heavy kettlebells; he’s a loner who tries to take a creepy video of her while she exercises. An obsession with fitness brings them together. But her goals are unorthodox. “Have you ever wanted to be a plant?” she asks Elliot. What she wants is stillness. “As she became stronger, her movements slowed down,” Elliot says. “She walked slowly, talked slowly. Even her breathing seemed slow.” She will soon retreat to the countryside and become an unusual internet figure, posting sparse videos in which she holds demanding yoga poses for over an hour. Metcalfe’s triptych is written in clean, matter-offact prose. The other two narrators are Bella, the protagonist’s artist mother, and Susie, a roommate. Biographical details are unspooled slowly and with deliberateness: The protagonist had a troubled childhood. She dated Paul, a law colleague who grew controlling and locked her in their apartment’s spare room. These things can explain why the protagonist has adopted fitness, but they can’t explain the intense effect she has on the people around her, whom she routinely uses and then discards. “She has a power over the people who find her,” Susie says. “Once you’ve known her, it’s hard to go back to a time before.” The internet will soon help thousands of people know her. Some of her followers abandon their lives and seek the protagonist’s isolation in the countryside, following her mantra: Aloneness can be beautiful. Has she empowered these followers or merely indulged their anti-social tendencies? Has she rediscovered monasticism, or is this a totally modern phenomenon? Metcalfe won’t say, and readers of this excellent novel will stew on these questions for weeks.
A powerful, eerie debut novel that investigates stillness and selfishness.
Minot, Eliza Knopf (256 pp.)
$28.00 | April 25, 2023
9780307593474
Mere weeks after giving birth, a distracted mother named Maisie Moore visits a pick-your-own farm with her husband and children.
Rapturous in its celebration of fecundity (including plentiful details of breastfeeding and C-sections), of nature and the rhythms of birth and life, Minot’s third novel takes a more laid-back attitude to plot. Instead, her narrative is packed with the considerations of parenting—discussed among women at playgrounds; encouraged by Maisie’s grandmother, whose hard-drinking husband died young; pondered ceaselessly by Maisie herself, both as an inexperienced younger mother and now a more capable one with four children. The novel, focused on a single day in the life of Maisie and her family, is almost action-free while utterly inhabited by thoughts, memories, speculations, dreams, and observations on these themes. The family—including Maisie; kindly husband Neil; 8-year-old Xavier; Harriet, age 6; Romeo, 3; and newborn Esme—does leave home for its annual apple-picking
excursion, permitting a change of scene. And Maisie is also preoccupied by one other thing—the family’s precarious finances— although details of this vast debt remain unspecified and unexplained. But at the apple farm, the larger focus remains much the same: the behavior of other parents and passersby, often in reaction to Maisie’s brood; considerations of marriage, birth, healing, and growing, as symbolized by the grafts on the fruit trees; premature deaths of mothers and infants. Looping tirelessly round babies, bodies, love, and money (is life “what emerges out of life?”), Minot’s text is variously descriptive, perceptive, heartfelt, fanciful, banal, and sentimental (“I lub you, Mumma”), concluding, after Maisie has disturbing encounters with two older women, somewhere ethereal and rhapsodic yet tinged with danger.
An obsessive ode to the maternal, simultaneously poetic and stifling.
Morton, Kate
Mariner Books (560 pp.)
$24.99 | April 4, 2023
9780063020894
A woman discovers that everything she knows about her family is a lie.
When journalist Jess Turner-Bridges receives a call that her grandmother Nora is in the hospital following a fall, she leaves her chosen home of London and returns to Darling House in Sydney, Australia. Nora, who raised Jess for much of her childhood, suffered her fall when climbing to the attic. Jess is perplexed by this—what could her elderly grandmother have needed so badly that she couldn’t wait for her home aide to help her?—and when she arrives at the hospital, her confusion is heightened by Nora’s panicked utterances: “The pages,” she says. “Help me....He’s going to take her from me.” Jess is determined to seek out answers to help comfort her grandmother, which leads her to find Nora’s copy of a book called As If They Were Asleep by Daniel Miller. This journalistic work details the story of the shocking deaths in 1959 of Nora’s sister-in-law Isabel and three of Isabel’s children and the disappearance and presumed death of Isabel’s baby. Jess knew nothing about the deaths—presumed to be murdersuicide—and while she does feel betrayed that her grandmother kept this from her, she immediately vows to do whatever it takes to learn more about her family. Morton weaves together Jess’ sleuthing with segments of Daniel Miller’s book along with flashbacks from 1959 and moments told from Jess’ estranged mother Polly’s perspective. At times Morton’s pacing could use some tightening. And while mystery readers will likely figure out a big twist long before it’s revealed, Morton’s layered writing—realized most successfully in the scenes from the past— leaves surprises for even the keenest of detectives.
A slow-paced novel that rewards patient readers.
Moulton, Rachel Eve
MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux
(464 pp.)
$18.00 paper | April 4, 2023
978-0-374-53832-3
Fowler Island seems like a quaint getaway off the coast of Ohio in Lake Erie, but something sinister lurks beneath its surface—literally.
Henrietta Volt, 24, hasn’t been back to her childhood home in a decade when Beatrice Bethany, her older half sister, calls in the year 2000 with the news that their father, James, has died and she must return to the island for the funeral. Henrie loved growing up as an island kid alongside B.B., but her memories are fuzzy, especially the circumstances under which she left at age 14 with her mother, Carrie, while B.B. stayed behind with their father. When Henrie and Carrie return for the funeral, their memories, and a whole lot more, take shape, revealing secrets that go back generations. This book has all the elements you could want in a thriller—missing women, a mysterious mansion, monsters, ghosts, and, at its center, a pair of sisters as unsettling as the Blackwoods of Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Moulton juggles these pieces well as she moves the story between 2000 and 1989, when the sisters were teenagers. She delivers many delicious moments of suspense and sheer terror. The scope is so ambitious, though, that the story can feel convoluted in some places, while it’s oddly thin in others. The island, including the family house and the quarry where some pivotal action takes place, is described in minute detail many times over, while certain subplots remain unexplored. Some aspects of the Fowler and Volt family mythology are revisited to the point of redundancy, while others go unaddressed. Moulton builds a fascinating world but never quite establishes its rules. Still, each point-of-view character who narrates the story— Henrie, B.B., Carrie, and Sonia, the island archivist and a family friend of sorts—pulls off her piece to tell an engrossing tale. A wonderfully weird novel about powerful women, inheritance, and desire.
Paul, Crystal Smith
Henry Holt (416 pp.)
$27.99 | May 9, 2023
9781250815309
Hidden behind the glitz and glamour of 1950s Hollywood were real lives (and heartbreaking, necessary, lies).
Paul’s sprawling multigenerational debut hits the ground running with a peek at the complicated family life of an iconic, privacy-seeking clan of Hollywood stars: the St. Johns. The three St. John
daughters—Elise, Giovanni, and Noele— have gathered at the family’s fabulous (complete with Ferris wheel!) compound to attend a memorial service for former film star Kitty Karr Tate, their beloved elderly next-door neighbor. In addition to the regular and intrusive press coverage to which the family is subjected, the media is anxious to find out why the three Black St. John girls have inherited all of their White neighbor’s phenomenally huge estate. Superstar Elise, who was particularly close to Kitty, is tasked with combing through the star’s trove of memorabilia and possessions, which may provide some clues. Paul’s narrative circles back to trace Kitty’s coming-of-age story and her ascent to the starry stratosphere she reached in the 1950s. The harshness of the studio system, with all of its attendant misogyny and racism, is obvious. What is less obvious, by design, are the steps many people took to create new lives for themselves once they reached LA from less hospitable places. Against an origin story of sexual violence and systemic roadblocks, Kitty and her California cohort survive a series of excruciating trials in order to live their dreams. The results of their choices, made in order to succeed and survive in the Hollywood machine, echo for generations throughout Paul’s meandering yet page-turning narrative. Perhaps more poignant are the brave and strategic choices made by prior generations of women determined to secure better lives for their children with no assurances that those choices would be rewarded.
With a plot worthy of a miniseries, an extensive cast, and a historical sweep, Paul succeeds in entertaining as well as enlightening.
Pin, Cecile
Henry Holt (240 pp.)
$25.99 | March 21, 2023
9781250863461
The members of a family of Vietnamese refugees—all wandering souls in their own ways—seek to understand the past while searching for hope in the present.
“Everything will be alright, you’ll see,” 16-year-old Thi Anh promises her younger sister Van one night in 1978 as she and two of her brothers leave Vung Tham for a perilous boat journey to Hong Kong. Her parents have promised to follow with her other siblings, and once the family reunites, they plan to make their way together to an uncle’s house in America. Three months later, though, Anh and her brothers are orphaned, and they must make their way alone through refugee camps toward their assigned resettlement location in England. As the siblings adapt to a new language and culture, they also must struggle against the prejudice tacitly accepted by a Thatcher-ite government that hides its own hostility beneath a hospitable veneer. Framed by the first-person narrative of Anh’s writer daughter Jane in the present day, the novel shifts among multiple perspectives, including that of Anh; her daughter Jane, writing from the present day; the ghost of her brother Dao; two American soldiers
“The members of a family of Vietnamese refugees seek to understand the past while searching for hope in the present.”
wandering souls
involved in the real-life Operation Wandering Soul in 1967 Vietnam; and found historical documents. Pin handles the alternating perspectives skillfully, though Jane’s voice is the most fully lived in and original, offering a tender and rigorous exploration of the stakes of writing about trauma as she tries to “carve out a story between the macabre and the fairy tale, so that a glimmer of truth can appear.” In her meditations on storytelling, Jane recalls Joan Didion, among other literary greats, an invocation that could feel clichéd. Pin earns it, however, as Jane delves into the cultural, psychological, and political stakes of grief and what happens when writing about the past “[rips] open wounds” she never knew she had.
A tender and rigorous debut from the new Didion of the Asian diaspora.
Prentiss, Molly Scout Press/Simon & Schuster (320 pp.)
$27.99 | April 11, 2023
9781501121586
An adopted woman wrestles with the binaries of art versus motherhood, chosen family versus found family, and social expectation versus authenticity.
On the ninth floor of a department store building on 34th street in Manhattan, Emily writes. It’s not the kind of writing she wishes she could make a living at—novels, stories, literary stuff. Rather, it’s taglines and ad copy to ensure a woman feels lacking enough in glamour to offer up a “share of her wallet” (as the CEO puts it) to buy a cashmere sweater or Chanel blouse. Emily has a photographer boyfriend, Wes, and a work BFF, Megan, whose artistic impulses are also subverted by toiling at the store. Emily’s life is OK, but cracks quickly begin to show: Megan has an affair with
the boss and is fired; Wes grows distant. When Emily is invited to a wedding in Italy, giving her the opportunity to revisit an area where she’d lived as a student with an alluring art historian and her young daughters, she jumps at the chance to leave her troubles behind, taking Megan along with her. When a series of life-altering events happen in Italy, Emily must confront her motherless and often rudderless past, her uncertain present, and a future in which she is pulled in a million directions so familiar to women: worker, partner, mother, friend, and maker. Prentiss’ prose is energetic and inventive, and Emily’s restless imagination can make for fun interludes, as when she imagines Megan as an angel in a painting giving her advice. However, for much of the book, Prentiss tries to present Emily as a person still figuring out who she is and who she wants to become, and the result is that Emily sometimes feels more a symbolic repository of the contemporary New York woman than a fully formed character.
A blurry protagonist deals with some sharply realistic life demands.
Reich, Tova
Seven Stories (256 pp.)
$26.95 | April 4, 2023
9781644212745
In her first short story collection, Reich portrays religious Jews in many settings.
With TV shows such as Unorthodox and Shtisel, popular culture has increasingly turned its eye on Haredi Jews. In this same vein, Reich’s new book humanizes this often misunderstood and stereotyped demographic, including stories that showcase religious Jews in many different situations and settings, from Brooklyn to Israel to China. Reich shows us, for instance, a young girl overcome by shame who disappears in a forest on a school field trip in “The Lost Girl”; a religious person with an unconventional gender presentation for an unexpected reason in “Basha Boosha”; people dealing with the shadow of the Holocaust in several stories; and even “Dead Zone,” a speculative piece set in the mid-21st century in which Israel is no longer recognized as a state. These stories vivify the real and relatable people in the communities they portray even as they lay bare some of their flaws; rather than passing judgment, positive or negative, they show that Haredi people are just people, no less worthy of empathy and no more worthy of prurient curiosity than anyone else. Reich’s prose brims with authenticity, as she utilizes Hebrew and Yiddish words as their speakers would, without unnecessary translation. Moreover, her prose is fluid and engrossing; the reading experience is easy but rewarding and always a joy.
An impressive collection that captures the complexity and diversity of the Haredi Jewish world.
Rose, Jeneva Blackstone (285 pp.)
$26.99 | April 25, 2023
9798212182805
Will-they, won’t-they turns into something altogether darker: Who is after whom?
Grace Evans is a bit of a mystery, even to herself. She’s never been able to explain her annual tradition of throwing a dart at a U.S. map and traveling wherever it lands. Maybe her goal is to escape from her life in New York, where she’s in control too much of the time. This year, her tradition sends her to a ranch in Wyoming with an Airbnb and, she discovers on her arrival, hot host Calvin Wells. It all seems like good luck. Calvin thinks having Grace as his guest is pretty lucky too, as his alternating point-of-view chapters show him getting stuck on his guest as her time with him passes. Grace and Calvin spend bucolic days together riding horses, grocery shopping, and getting to know each other in what turns out to be their own little slice of paradise. But how well can you really know someone? wonders Grace, particularly as a local police officer keeps coming to the door asking about a girl who had booked Calvin’s Airbnb and then vanished without a trace. She never showed up, Calvin claims, and Grace wants to believe him even as she grows suspicious. Mysterious animal deaths, haunting dreams, and vague warnings from local townsfolk have Grace wondering if she’s safe staying with Calvin, but checking her car shows that it needs repairs, so she may not be able to get away even if she tries. In the face of Grace’s growing concern, Calvin promises that everything’s fine, and it is for a long time, until it isn’t. All buildup with a late-coming release.
Sherwood, Kim
Morrow/HarperCollins (368 pp.)
$30.00 | April 11, 2023
9780063236516
In the absence of James Bond, MI6’s Double O service, whose chief of staff is now Miss Moneypenny, goes seriously woke.
Sir Bertram Paradise wants to atone for his family’s long history of extractive mining by saving the world. But the world may be in greater danger than ever because both Robert Bull, Paradise’s security chief, and Dr. Zofia Nowak, the likely brains behind his Cloud Nine geoengineering project, have gone missing. Since 007 has gone quiet, presumably captured by the Rattfänger terrorist group, M and Moneypenny dispatch several of his colleagues to step into his shoes by performing impossible tasks. Agent 009, Aazar Siddig Bashir, is assigned to rescue his ex-fiancee 003,
Johanna Harwood, from slippery Rattfänger chief Col. Mora, and once they’re reunited, Johanna and Sid are set on Nowak’s trail. Joseph Dryden, 004, a pansexual Jamaican who has one nonfunctional ear and whose language processing is monitored and controlled by his handlers, making him something of a cyborg, goes undercover as a member of Paradise’s security detail, which is now run by his old friend Luke Luck. The high-velocity, high-casualty tale unfolds amid a cloud of antiimperialist, anti-racist, anti-sexist attestations, urgent warnings about climate change, logistical details about weaponry and automotive engines, bits of wisdom culled from the operatives’ experiences with Bond, and uneasy hints that they may have a mole in their midst.
This kickoff to a new trilogy is a florid update to the Double O canon that desperately wishes it were a movie.
Shin, Kyung-sook
Trans. by Anton Hur
Astra House (304 pp.)
$27.00 | April 11, 2023
9781662601378
The fully rounded character of an elderly father—a man of few words but many tears, now mildly confused—is explored during his adult daughter’s return.
It’s been more than two years since novelist Hon last visited her family home in J—, a village in South Korea, having stayed away from her parents since the death of her young daughter. But with her mother in Seoul for medical treatment, Hon is back to keep her father company, and so begins an episodic excursion into the past, focused on Father’s hidden existence and experience. On one level, this novel is a recent history of South Korea, as Father was born in 1933 during the
“A sensitively crafted family portrait that’s both specific and universal and, above all, humane.”
i went to see my father
Japanese occupation, experienced the war at age 17, and later lived through enormous financial, social, and material shifts. On another level, it’s an almost banal account of a minor life; Father was “born in a completely ordinary farming house...in the middle of nowhere in southern Korea, prevented from setting foot in school and never leaving home except for survival itself, living a life of dust.” But behind this facade of Father’s are complexity, suffering, deception, generosity, and striving— to support a wife and six children, with commitments to giving them all a college education despite his unreliable income from farming. And there are secrets, too. Shin, whose work has previously considered roots, rural life, literature, and generational shifts, mines not unfamiliar territory but uses a wider perspective here, considering Father from multiple directions, although principally Hon’s, while incorporating letters and memories into the contemporary flow. It’s a gentle yet piercing technique, with family dynamics unearthed affectingly: Hon was a favored child; Eldest Son was loaded with expectation and responsibility; Second Son, saved from death by his father’s intervention, carries a different psychological burden. Ultimately, Father finds the words, just 11 of them, but enough.
A sensitively crafted family portrait that’s both specific and universal and, above all, humane.
Shook, Cat
Celadon Books (304 pp.)
$28.00 | April 18, 2023
9781250847546
Gathered for a funeral in small-town Georgia, a close-knit family gets the surprise of their lives.
When Ellen Williams asks Fred Clark to give the eulogy at her husband Gerry’s funeral, she has no doubt he’s the man for the job: Fred was Gerry’s best friend, a second father to the three now-middle-aged Williams children, and beloved by Ellen as well. Oops, bad call. After weaving his way to the pulpit, “white hair sticking up in odd places like a toddler just waking from a nap,” Fred delivers a drunken tribute that ends with a stunning assertion about who Gerry really was—and leaves the Williams family reeling. If the patriarch they adored was living a lie, what does that say about his marriage, his love for his family, and whether anyone is who they seem? Debut novelist Shook is juggling a lot of balls here, and in a tight space. The action takes place over one week in Eulalia, Georgia, between Gerry’s funeral and a wedding the four grown grandkids are sticking around for, and in that time nine Williamses grapple with their shock while probing their own emotional lives. Will Delia get back with her ex? Will Alice, who has her own secret, follow her heart? Can Red reveal his true identity; will his parents mend their marriage; can Ellen ever forgive? It’s hard to keep the characters straight at first, but by the time they’ve finished the neighbor-donated casseroles and talked it all out, you’re engaged and rooting for them. Also occasionally irritated, but
that’s what relatives are for. “Families are crazy—I mean, look at mine,” granddaughter Alice finally tells the man she loves. “But it’s what I want.”
An appealing, astutely observed debut about familial love and the secrets we keep.
Simpson, Mona
Knopf (416 pp.)
$29.00 | March 21, 2023
9780593319277
Simpson is an artist of the family saga, the multigenerational narrative. In her seventh novel, she doesn’t revisit this territory so much as animate it anew. Beginning in 1972 and continuing into the 1980s, the book tells the story of the Aziz family of Los Angeles: Diane, a single mother, and her three children, Walter, Lina, and Donnie. Each in his or her own way is a central character. That’s because this novel finds its heart not with any one figure but rather with the collective as Simpson moves from life to life, point of view to point of view, offering a kaleidoscopic portrait of a clan of outsiders remaking itself again and again. Diane suffers from debilitating depression, which kicks in after she drops Walter off for his freshman year at UC Berkeley; back in Southern California, she must be institutionalized. All of a sudden, her children are left to fend for themselves, with mixed results. The truth, however, is that they’ve been on their own for quite some time. Essentially abandoned by their father—“I think of him as our biological father,” Walter reflects, “No savior”—they must figure out how to pay their bills and keep themselves in school. But although their lives are often fraught with turmoil, Simpson has something more than degradation on her mind. Instead, she means to explore perseverance, the ability to survive. And not just to survive, but also to thrive, as the three siblings grow into their adult selves. “An autumn night,” she writes on the final page, quoting the haiku writer Basho, “Don’t think your life / Didn’t matter.” It may as well be the novel’s epigraph.
Simpson beautifully explores the sacrifices that keep a family together even when it’s coming apart.
Slater, Alice
Scarlet (368 pp.)
$26.95 | April 25, 2023
9781613163771
Slater’s darkly comic debut follows the increasingly uneasy relations between two co-workers who have very different investments in true crime.
“I’ve always had a thing for death,” confesses Brogan Roach. Though she
“Simpson beautifully explores the sacrifices that keep a family together even when it’s coming apart.”
works at Spines Walthamstow, a failing branch of a bookstore with other locations around London, she finds her true vocation as a zealous reader, researcher, and follower of true-crime stories and podcasts, looking down her nose at self-avowed fans who flinch from the nasty details that are her meat and drink. When Laura Bunting arrives at the shop in connection with new manager Sharona’s attempt to raise it from the dying, Roach is first struck by Laura’s instant antipathy toward her, then transfixed by the poems Laura presents at a local reading, then increasingly entranced by this woman who makes it clear that she wants nothing to do with her. They must be sisters under the skin, Roach reasons, and in her own way she’s quite correct, for Laura’s connected to Roach’s passion in the worst way possible: Ten years ago, her mother became the final victim of the Stow Strangler. Police officer Lee Frost was convicted and imprisoned long ago for four of the Strangler’s five murders, but Laura continues to be as haunted by her death as Roach is by all those other deaths she can’t get enough of. Slater spins a compelling tale of Roach’s fatal fascination with Laura, but the tale unfolds with remarkably few twists, and the ones that come
will surprise only newcomers to the genre. The highly ambivalent ending will please devotees of Schrödinger’s cat while leaving others out in the cold.
One modest bonus: You may never feel the same way about bookstores again.
BREAKFALL Slor, Zhanna Agora Books (269 pp.)
$27.99 | April 4, 2023
9781957957050
A woman is forced to confront the consequences of many bad choices over the course of nine months.
When two policemen show up on her doorstep asking about a white Chevy van registered under her name, Mina Bansky knows this is just the fallout from one more bad decision
in her life. She agreed to register the van for a friend named Dylan, a former felon, mostly because he “had a PhD in philosophy and the bluest eyes she had ever seen.” Newly divorced and the mother of a busy toddler, she doesn’t have time to dwell on this complication. She does, however, call her former lover, Matthew, who is also a cop, only to find that he had left town with his family, trying to work it out, but is now back in Chicago. Through flashbacks to the previous June and July, it’s revealed that Mina and Matthew met at their neighborhood jujitsu gym and proceeded to have a flaming affair until their spouses found out about the betrayal. Then, in the present time, trying to deal with the temptation of Matthew’s proximity, Mina finds her life becoming even more complicated when Dylan’s body turns up several days later. Maybe her ex-husband, who might have connections to the Russian mob, killed him? Or maybe it was because Dylan was running drugs in the van? Regardless, this little bit of mystery takes a back seat to endless cycles of Minaand-Matthew fighting and Mina-and-Matthew sex. The novel moves back and forth from the previous summer to the present, but no matter the time period, the conflicts—and the horniness—remain the same. Mina’s got a backbone, and she refuses to apologize for wanting what she wants even as she feels shame for cheating on her husband; there is strength in her imperfection. There’s no accounting for taste, or pheromones, but she deserves better.
A plucky heroine, a kind-of mystery, and a lot of sexual hijinks keep it interesting.
Illus. by Kathy Schermer-Gramm Farrar, Straus and Giroux (320 pp.) $27.00
| April 18, 2023 978-0-374-60547-6
Two women are roiled by loss and desire.
Smith returns to Rome, the setting of her novel The Everlasting (2020), to render, in luminous prose, the lives of two unnamed women, a century apart, grieving, angry, and defiant. Each is engaged in botanical data collection: One, in 1854, assists British botanist Richard Deakin, who aims to record every species of plant growing in the Colosseum. Her father, outraged because she fell in love with a woman, indentured her to Deakin as punishment. In 2018, another woman combs the Colosseum: a graduate student from Mississippi working for a demeaning academic adviser, assigned to compare Deakin’s catalog with flora of the present day. Both women are haunted by loss: one, of her lover, who married; the other, of her mother, an amateur naturalist, who died when she was 15. Her mother taught her that plants “meant something. Not just in the doctrine-of-signatures way, or the yellow-rose-for-friendship way,” but in a deeply spiritual way. The only proof of beauty, her mother believed, “was a piece of living green pushing through a coffin of spring soil.” Smith makes deft use of Deakin’s Flora of
the Colosseum of Rome, published in 1855, which combined meticulous botanical descriptions with information on each plant’s medicinal, culinary, and even literary significance. The women collectors are acutely sensitive to shape, texture, and odor and alert, as well, to plants’ cultural connotations and metaphorical richness: “Some plants, like lovers, are parasitical,” one collector reflects. “Naming carries bias, or bias worms its way to names.” The contemporary collector is enraged by the effects of climate change and rampant tourism on the ecology of the Colosseum. Both women rail against the arrogance and sexism that circumscribe their lives: “What does it take,” they ask, “to survive in this world, as a woman, as a weed?” The book is illustrated with delicate drawings by Schermer-Gramm.
A lyrical meditation on power, need, and love.
SILVER ALERT
Smith, Lee
Algonquin (240 pp.)
$27.00 | April 18, 2023
9781643752419
Two unlikely traveling companions unite for a life-affirming joyride.
When wealthy septuagenarian businessman Herbert Atlas takes Susan Summerville, an elegant Palm Beach art gallery owner 13 years his junior, as his third wife, he never dreams he’ll end up as her caregiver in their elegant Key West home after she sinks into the impenetrable fog of early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Now 83, with his body ravaged by advanced prostate cancer and an array of other ailments, the irascible Herb pushes back against his children’s plan to move him and Susan to a continuing care facility to live out their final days. Herb’s ally in his fight to cling to the shards that remain of his broken former life is Renee Martin, a young aesthetician hired to care for Susan’s nails, who becomes an inadvertent art therapist for her client. But Renee, whose real name is Deirdre June “Dee Dee” Mullins and who has migrated to Florida from the mountains of North Carolina, has a dark past she’s trying, with only intermittent success, to fend off in the present. She thinks she’s done that when she meets Willie, an aspiring poet who lives in a ramshackle old house, but he’s battling his own demons that complicate their romantic relationship. Shifting between third-person narration and Dee Dee’s affecting voice, Smith skillfully pivots from wry humor to real tenderness toward her quirkily engaging characters. The crisis over Herb and Susan’s move climaxes in a wild ride in Herb’s canary yellow Porsche Carrera, sparking the titular alert, as he and Dee Dee speed through the Florida Keys, soaking up their omnipresent beauty and kitschiness, on their way to Disney World, where Dee Dee hopes to realize her dream of meeting the Disney princesses. Beneath the novel’s occasionally frothy surface beats a compassionate, generous heart.
A warmhearted story of improbably matched characters trying to reclaim their lives.
Smith, Michael Farris
Little, Brown (272 pp.)
$28.00 | April 25, 2023
9780316413633
A theft and a deadly chase darken the lives of a young family.
“The Gulf Coast region had begun to take on a hurricane every few months. There was no longer an off season.” In a region blighted by foul weather, a man named Holt hooks up with the revivalist Temple of Pain and Glory until he goes sour on the money-grubbing hellfire homilies purveyed by its leader, Elser. He steals from her a pair of black keys and ignites a relentless manhunt that also targets Jessie, the young woman whom Holt met during his fugitive years, and their son. When Holt abandons her, leaving the keys, Jessie turns to her estranged father. The keys may be connected to a mystical child Elser cites in her sermons “who has the ability to control the weather” and to some Southern-gothic place called the Bottom. Smith’s last outing, Nick (2021), was an audacious prequel to The Great Gatsby with a harrowing section in New Orleans. But five of his six novels are closely related in themes, blue-collar cast, and settings in Louisiana and Mississippi. This new work suggests a prequel to his first novel, Rivers (2013), a tale of greed and desperation set in a Gulf Coast region so storm-ravaged that Washington calls for permanent evacuation. In Blackwood (2020), Smith revisited characters from The Fighter (2018). Maybe he’s building his own Faulkner-esque universe around his hometown of Oxford, Mississippi. So far it looks to be a grim corpus in which bad luck and bad choices—and the exceptionally foul weather of Rivers and this book—erode lives to a raw minimum. Yet Smith’s tense, brooding narratives also reveal a terrible beauty in his characters’ struggles to flee or defeat the cruelty and violence they face, to find moments in which hope and love are more than memories.
An exceptional storyteller in top form.
Sterling, Michelle Min
Atria (320 pp.)
$28.00 | April 4, 2023
978-1-6680-0756-3
A young Korean American woman must forge her own path and protect her mother in an uncertain future.
It’s 2049, and 25-year-old Rose accepts a dangerous assignment from Damien, her master-of-the-universe boss, who promises that she and her mother will be set with income and housing for life in a precarious, ever warming world if she succeeds. On her mission, she’ll continue as a sex worker alongside five other women while keeping an eye on Damien’s interests in a new, secretive project. Meanwhile, Grant Grimley just wants
to escape the reach of his family’s vast wealth, a legacy created from centuries of extraction. He accepts a teaching job that guarantees to get him off the grid. Rose and Grant, both Americans, arrive at a camp in the Canadian wilderness, a frigid frontier of sorts, where a renowned architect seeks to build a refuge from climate catastrophe. Not too far off, a group of women— American soldiers and scientists—is creating a sanctuary of their own to survive an imperiled planet. It’s a smart setup. The author has imagined an array of futuristic ideas stemming from our present, including a next-generation smartphone that’s implanted as a chip behind people’s ears at birth and a Floating City off Boston’s where the elite live in bliss while the rest of the population deals with worsening hurricanes and wildfires. But this creativity doesn’t quite pay off. There’s a decades-old oil ban in place, for example, but its geopolitical consequences barely surface. The chip means more connectivity—and surveillance—than ever before, but this doesn’t much impact the story. Some characters lack complexity, and their backstories, once revealed, are underwhelming. However, the book has a soul that generates momentum. It’s committed to the bonds of family, the ones we are born into and the ones we choose, as a way forward in an increasingly chaotic world.
A love letter to what communities of women can accomplish when they work in concert.
Stradal, J. Ryan
Pamela Dorman/Viking (352 pp.)
$27.00 | April 18, 2023
9781984881076
Several generations of a family—and their loves, triumphs, and tragedies— depend on a Minnesota supper club.
Mariel Prager’s past, present, and future is the Lakeside Supper Club on scenic Bear Jaw Lake, Minnesota. Her grandmother Betty loved working there, while Mariel’s mother, Florence, wanted no part in it. When Mariel inherits the restaurant, it’s devastating to Florence, who dreamed of a different future for her daughter. But the Lakeside is where Mariel wants to spend her time, and that’s where she meets her husband, Ned Prager. Ned’s from a restaurant family, too—his father owns Jorby’s, a diner chain that’s rapidly taking over the Midwest and putting family restaurants like the Lakeside out of business. Ned and Mariel clash over their competing dreams for their family—Ned sees a future in Jorby’s, while Mariel can’t imagine life without the Lakeside. But when an unbearable tragedy changes everything in their lives, the Lakeside becomes more important to them than ever—a home, an escape, and a family. The story alternates among characters’ points of view, showing how the family restaurants are viewed as gifts, safe places, or burdens by different generations. While Ned’s voice is important, the heart of the book consists of the relationships between the women in the family and their hopes,
“An exceptional storyteller in top form.”
dreams, and despairs. Stradal, as he did in previous books including The Lager Queen of Minnesota (2019), displays his gift for writing female characters who are fully realized, sometimes unlikable, but always as flawed and compelling as real people. The Midwest setting is written with love and respect, and while the story is often heartbreakingly sad, there’s also real warmth and comfort in Stradal’s writing.
A loving ode to supper clubs, the Midwest, and the people there who try their best to make life worth living.
Toon, Paige Putnam (400 pp.)
$17.00 paper | April 25, 2023
9780593544334
After a heartbreak, a woman visits family in Indiana to reevaluate her life and maybe even find new love.
Wren’s fiance has fallen in love with someone else and breaks up with her mere months before the wedding. Their English village, once quaint and comfortable, is now much too small for the both of them. On her mother’s suggestion, Wren decides to fly out and spend the summer with her father, stepmother, and newly married half sister on their Indiana farm. Things are slightly tense, as Wren has never been completely at ease with her father since he left her and her mother for this new family when she was young, but maybe time together will begin to strengthen a weak connection. She also keeps running into Anders, the younger son of the farm next door, who’s visiting from Indianapolis and still reeling from losing his wife four years earlier. The two are drawn to each other despite both of their hesitations, but a secret Anders is keeping threatens their newfound affection. Toon has constructed a very cozy, lived-in world of Indiana farms that’s comforting both for Wren and the reader. The tangled web of relations in Wren’s family and her journey to begin to heal some of the wounds of her childhood are the strongest parts of the novel, messy but real. Wren and Anders’ relationship is a bit rushed; it feels more superficial when juxtaposed against Wren’s complicated, realistic family relationships. Some plot threads go nowhere, and others appear out of thin air. Anders’ big secret doesn’t come into the story until two-thirds of the way through, complicating things but without much time for characters to explore or truly reflect on it.
A weak romance but an interesting family drama.
mystery
Brody, Frances
Crooked Lane (320 pp.)
$26.99 | March 21, 2023
9781643857602
A mysterious letter plunges a London detective into a world of myths and murder.
After the death of her husband in World War I, Kate Shackleton started a detective agency with the help of former police officer assistant Jim Sykes and her multitalented housekeeper, Mrs. Sugden. In July 1930, she gets a letter from someone named Ronald Creswell, an up-and-comer at Salts Mill in Yorkshire whose parents work as caretakers at Milner Field, a mansion with a checkered past. He asks Kate to journey to the South Lodge at Milner Field, where his family lives, so he can tell her a story that he thinks will be of interest. Curious, she agrees after doing some research on the town of Saltaire, the mill, and the mansion. Unfortunately, just after she arrives at the Lodge, Ronnie’s friend David Fairburn shows up with the news that he’s found Ronnie’s body floating in the mill’s reservoir. There had been some conflict: Ronnie and Pamela Whitaker, a mill owner’s daughter, had been planning to marry despite opposition from both families. Pamela’s mother is determined that she marry wealthy Kevin Foxcroft, whose family business meshes with their own, though her father had developed a secret fondness for Ronnie. Pamela, who blames her parents’ opposition for Ronnie’s death, has moved to her grandmother’s home, but she trusts Kate to find the truth. Mr. Whitaker hires Kate to look into the death, clear Fairburn, get the mansion ready for an auction, and look into industrial espionage at the mill. Accordingly, Mrs. Sugden organizes a cleaning team for the neglected mansion; Sykes looks into possible espionage; and Kate hunts Ronnie’s killer. The ill-fated mansion was built over an Elizabethan manor house with a well reputed to hold the bones of a murdered woman. Past and the present both come under investigation before the truth emerges.
A tale based on historical facts that’s perfect for lovers of classic British mysteries.
an american in scotland
Connelly, Lucy
Crooked Lane (304 pp.)
$26.99 | April 4, 2023
9781639103508
A stressed-out American emergency room doctor who’s moved to Scotland for peace and quiet finds herself targeted by a killer.
Dr. Emilia McRoy’s DNA test showed that her family came from the area of Sea Isle, where she’s just been hired after a long search for a physician willing to live in the remote hamlet. Her new friend Mara—who works at the Pig & Whistle, her grandparents’ pub—will help ease Emilia into relations with her neighbors, even the grumpy ones. On the way home from the pub on her first night, the rain makes Emilia seek shelter in a small cottage where she discovers the body of Smithy, a local curmudgeon whom she’d met at the pub only hours earlier. Right behind her is Ewan Campbell, the laird, mayor, and chief constable of Sea Isle, who’ll strike sparks in their every encounter. As the doctor, Emilia is also the coroner, and she finds herself calling on years of knowledge of British crime dramas for help. She immediately clashes with Ewan, who thinks the death was accidental, since she’s sure it was murder. Emilia lives and works in an old church rife with secret doors beloved of the former doctor. Fortunately, her cleaner and assistant, Abigail, knows all about the house and is a dab hand in the clinic. When Smithy’s body vanishes, Emilia doesn’t know whom to suspect. A lot of people were angry with Smithy, and he might have been a blackmailer to boot. The infuriatingly bossy, rich, handsome, and caring laird becomes her partner in investigation, leading to a number of life-changing events and a brush with death.
Stunning Scottish scenery provides the backdrop for an enjoyable mix of murder and romance.
Ed. by Edwards, Martin Poisoned Pen (288 pp.)
$14.99 paper | May 2, 2023
9781728267692
Endlessly resourceful editor Edwards reprints 17 tales by authors who were Scottish, or part Scottish, or set at least some parts of some of their stories in Scotland.
Eleven of the stories were first published before 1940, and none after 1974. Despite, or because of, the collection’s tendency toward the golden age, the quality is consistently high. The keynote in nearly every case is ruthless economy. Edwards has dug deep into the archives to unearth brief, mostly forgotten stories by Josephine Tey, H.H. Bashford, Margot Bennett, Cyril
Hare, and, yes, Arthur Conan Doyle (a characteristic Sherlockian mind-reading). J. Storer Clouston’s private detective solves a series of burglaries during a hurried visit to Kinbuckie. John Ferguson’s sleuth steps back from a shipboard sweepstakes concerning which suitor Sally Silver will accept to locate her missing necklace. J.J. Connington’s Sir Clinton Driffield subjects a suspicious will to rewardingly close examination. Bill Knox’s perpetrator kidnaps the man who pulled the wool over his eyes in order to frame him for a crime spree; Michael Innes brings Sir John Appleby together with four other fishermen, one of whom is after more than fish; Jennie Melville spins a wicked tale of a discarded mistress’s revenge on the ambitious lover looking to discard her after his wife’s murder. But none of these tops the three best-known items here: Baroness Orczy’s “The Edinburgh Mystery,” a classic of armchair detection by the acknowledged pioneer of the form; G.K. Chesterton’s “The Honour of Israel Gow,” an atmospheric Father Brown tale notable for its remarkably inventive puzzle and clues; and Robert Louis Stevenson’s imperishable “Markheim,” an extended dialogue between a murderer and the devil who offers to help him escape.
Readers who know Scotland will glow with recognition; those who don’t will want to pack their bags and maybe a gun.
Gerber, Daryl Wood
Kensington (304 pp.)
$16.95 paper | March 28, 2023
9781496741271
The California fairies pitch in to solve a murder case involving their human friends.
Courtney Kelly is just beginning her workday when her best friend, Meaghan Brownie, arrives with fire in her eyes. Furious with her artist ex-boyfriend Nicolas Buley, who keeps texting her, Meaghan needs calming down. So Courtney, who’s busy making large potted fairy gardens for wealthy Violet Vickers and teaching several classes on making fairy doors and smaller fairy gardens, does her best to soothe Meaghan. Although not everyone in Carmel can see fairies, many of the locals are trying to attract them by hook or by crook. After Nicolas gets into a verbal altercation with fellow artist Hunter Hock and gallery owner Ziggy Foxx and is found murdered in Meaghan’s yard, Courtney’s friends are high on the suspect list. Although Det. Dylan Summers makes it plain he needs no help from Courtney, she and her fairy friend Fiona still investigate when Ziggy is arrested. Courtney learns that Nicolas has left a trail of broken hearts, and his volatile temper has made him plenty of enemies, including his own brother, who claims Nicolas owed him a great deal of money. But which of these enemies went so far as to kill him?
Plenty of suspects, gardening tips, and fairy lore combine for a sweet treat.
“Stunning Scottish scenery provides the backdrop for an enjoyable mix of murder and romance.”
Harris, C.S. Berkley (352 pp.)
$27.00 | April 18, 2023
9780593102725
The most dashing sleuth in Regency England tracks a Machiavellian murderer. Physician Paul Gibson, studying the corpse of an apparently affluent man found floating in the Thames, sees that castration and brutal injuries to the victim’s face indicate a vicious attack and present a challenge in identification. This last is remedied by Gibson’s French lover, midwife Alexi Sauvage, who recognizes the man as her husband, Miles. Gibson turns to his friend Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin and sometime sleuth. Sebastian, having recently returned from Paris with a worrisome leg injury, did indeed know the titled, treacherous Miles, and he’s curious to solve the mystery of his murder. Troubling questions surround both Alexi’s claims of marriage and Miles’ allegiances and identity. Harris immerses her whodunit in several notable London landmarks and in full-bodied history. In 1815, Napoleon, recently escaped from Elba, controls France, where Sebastian presumes the crime has its roots. Sebastian’s supporting team, well developed over previous installments, includes his wife, Hero; his sour father, Alistair, Fifth Earl of Hendon, who disapproves of his son’s sleuthing; and Bow Street magistrate Sir Henry Lovejoy. While the author has progressively expanded Sebastian’s world through the series, she maintains a brisk pace, folding in colorful details from past adventures. The path leads through various lords and ladies, a handful of women whom lothario Miles had discarded, and the discovery of additional victims. Suspicion meanwhile lands on Gibson, whose addiction to opium raises additional concerns for Sebastian. Rescuing his friend depends on finding the fiend.
A highly engaging soufflé of historic swashbuckling, intrigue among the nobility, and murder.
Hart, Joe Thomas & Mercer (239 pp.)
$16.99 paper | May 1, 2023
9781662508080
The tragic crash of a small plane sets an Oregon social worker on the trail of even greater tragedies behind it.
The police are satisfied that Andrea Parish, the oldest foster child of investment counselor Justin Volk and his wife, Kaylee, a tireless vlogger, influencer, and self-promoter, fought with Justin, who was piloting, and dived the plane into the Pacific. Only Nora McTavish, of child protective services, is dissatisfied, and that may be just because the traumatic backgrounds of Andrea and her foster siblings, Mason Roberts and
Bethany Jacobs, remind Nora so much of her own childhood, whose headline incident was the time her abusive father locked her and her two brothers in a closet for a month that ended when he took a rifle onto the roof and began shooting at the neighbors. As the days pass, other suspects in causing the plane crash are apparently eliminated when their bodies begin washing up on the shore, even though their deaths don’t necessarily mark them as innocent. Nora’s unauthorized search of the Volk home and her questioning of Kaylee, who miraculously survived, and her brother, Evan Baker, who at 23 has already done three years for drug dealing, earn her a disciplinary leave from her job and a break-in to the home she shares with her dog. Luckily, the intruder didn’t find the iPad Nora had taken from the Volks’ place. But why make off with Bethany’s teddy bear? The answers will surprise Nora more than most of her readers. A tale that works better as a well-paced exposé of dark family secrets than as a mystery.
Hilton, Matt Severn House (240 pp.)
$31.99 | May 2, 2023
9781448310517
A routine search for a fugitive from justice turns into an equally routine shoot’em-up for private eye Tess Grey and her friends.
Although Tess is officially attached to the Portland, Maine, district attorney’s office, Det. Karen Ratcliffe of the Belchertown PD wants her to get on the trail of Joanne Mason, a nanny accused of murdering her employer and her charges in West Roxbury. The case is more than personal to Karen because Jo is her sister, and Karen wants to make sure she’s apprehended without being hurt. Tess, her partner and fiance, Nicolas “Po” Villere, and Po’s friend Jerome “Pinky” Leclerc, a former criminal reformed and relocated to New England, soon realize that their quest is both more complicated and more dangerous than it seemed. It’s not just that Jo, an unusually resourceful fugitive, is determined to cross over into Canada in the middle of a blizzard; the real problem is that Tess and company aren’t the only people looking for her. Bruce Harper and Siobhan Doyle, her other pursuers, have a lot fewer scruples about how they track Jo down or who gets hurt along the way. The weather gets worse and worse; Jo comes close to freezing to death; and just as Kate and her mates catch up with her, Harper and Doyle, whose real target represents the one and only surprise here, catch up with them. Hilton works up to a furious pace, and exactly the right people end up dead along with the requisite collateral casualties.
Hot conflicts rage in the freezing cold.
Indridason, Arnaldur
Trans. by Philip Roughton Minotaur (352 pp.)
$29.00 | May 2, 2023
9781250892607
Unanswered questions from the past are not easily put to rest.
An elderly couple contacts retired Reykjavík police detective Konrád for advice in dealing with Danní, their wayward granddaughter, whom they haven’t seen for a few days and who they suspect is working as a drug mule. This search becomes the anchor in a compelling mystery with deep themes and a complex plot, but even before the reader is introduced to the kindly couple, two other dark scenes are presented, casting a spectral shadow over all that follows. First, a young writer on an evening stroll sees a doll floating in the water near the city center and, upon closer examination, discovers a girl’s corpse nearby. And second, in a flashback, Konrád’s friend Eygló encounters a ghost while attending a young classmate’s birthday party, a memory that will haunt her for decades. Konrád is haunted by his own ghosts, especially the unsolved murder of his father more than 50 years ago. Soon Danní is found dead under suspicious circumstances, and the case falls to Konrád’s old friend Marta at the CID, who asks him to continue on the case because he’s developed a rapport with the grandparents. Suspicion falls on Danní’s boyfriend, Lassi, who runs afoul of some ruthless characters. When Eygló becomes convinced that her ghost is the girl in the pond, she presses Konrád to find the man who saw her. Short, crisply written chapters move the action briskly along while keeping all the seemingly disparate pieces of the puzzle in the mix. Veteran Indridason weaves all these eerie elements together masterfully. Superb crime fiction from an acclaimed virtuoso.
Kelly, Diane
Berkley (288 pp.)
$8.99 paper | April 4, 2023 9780593333266
A Tennessee moonshiner’s link to a missing bluegrass player leads her to investigate in order to keep her name out of the mud.
Following family tradition is fun when your family is into moonshine, as Hattie Hayes has found in selling Granddaddy’s Ole-Timey Corn Liquor at the Moonshine Shack in Chattanooga. Not only does she market the high-proof version of the recipe devised by her Granddaddy, who’s still very much in the picture, but she’s developed her own concoctions, like the popular Blueberry Bluegrass Tea and ’shine-ria, her take on the classic sangria (Kelly appends several recipes). Now Hattie
plans to build her brand with her latest idea, a Wine and ’Shine held at Pearl Kemp’s River Pearl Vineyard and Winery. She’s even arranged to have popular bluegrass band the Bootlegging Brothers provide music for the event, at which, of course, she’ll be serving up plenty of the good stuff. But not all of the real-life brothers in the band are happy with the collaboration. While Josh and Garth Sheridan are perfectly content to promote both band and booze, their older brother, Brody, has a chip on his shoulder about how much his time is worth. When the next morning finds Brody missing, Hattie’s boyfriend, police officer Marlon Landers, suspects foul play, and the many people who’ve been targets of Brody’s bad attitude can’t help but agree. A moonshine jug that may be linked to Brody’s disappearance draws Hattie into the case alongside the cops to make sure she and her kin don’t become the leading suspects in the case of the missing Brody.
Less potent than a straight shot, this one goes down nice and easy.
Lynn, Sherry Berkley (304 pp.)
$17.00 paper | April 4, 2023
9780593546659
Shocked to find a dead girl’s shoe in her aunt’s yard, a landscaper resolves to track down the murderer to keep her aunt from suspicion.
Since losing her parents at an early age, Kinsley Clark has made a home with her Aunt Tilly in Harborside, Maine, while her younger brother, Kyle, who’s in the Air Force, lives on a base in Germany. Kinsley’s company, SeaScapes, makes attractive landscape designs that are highly sought after by the many shops and small inns that make Harborside such a beautiful tourist destination. Last year, she was even featured in Coastal Living, much to the ire of rival landscaper Denny Davenport. But Kinsley’s not thinking about that as she tends to the area around Tilly’s Salty Breeze Inn, which she wants to look just right in preparation for the Walk Inns, an annual open-house showcase. Instead, she’s distracted by some dirt that seems a little bit out of place (trust a landscaper to know). When she digs up the soil, she’s shocked to find a shoe—and not just any shoe, but what seems like the shoe the police are seeking in the case of the Cinderella killer. Though Kinsley doesn’t want to get Tilly in trouble, she knows she has to figure out how the late Daisy Davis’ shoe ended up on her aunt’s grounds. While she’s able to get best friend Becca on her side, Kinsley is surprised and confused when Pete O’Rourke, the owner of her favorite downtown haunt, the Blue Lobstah, won’t offer his help. Were they never really friends, or is the sometimes-mysterious Pete hiding something that’s stopping him from being involved with Kinsley’s figurative digging?
More rose than weed.
Nakamura, Fuminori
Trans. by Sam Bett
Soho Crime (288 pp.)
$27.95 | May 2, 2023
9781641293259
A deep, deeply disturbing dive into Japan’s bondage subculture.
Before he was beaten to death with an elegant sculpture, Kazunari Yoshikawa was noted as a master of kinbaku—rope artistry, as distinct from rope torture. He made the women he bound at a club and privately feel achingly desired and desirous. Even Maiko Kirita, the escort-turned-hostess who spent two weeks as Yoshikawa’s captive, tells police detective Mikiya Togashi how powerful her lover’s hold over her was because he always believed “the ropes were in charge.” But nothing else about the case seems straightforward. The absence of official records on Yoshikawa indicates that he lived and died under a false name. Ami Ito, the lover who lived with Yoshikawa until she was found hanged six months ago, seems to be doubled with Mari Yamamoto, another sex worker. Even Togashi himself is replaced as detective and narrator by his more forthright colleague Yuichi Hayama, whose account is supplemented by the reminiscences of Yutaka Yamada, who as the mysterious Y served as Yoshikawa’s tutor in kinbaku. Detailed step-by-step descriptions of sexual bondage are only the most literal sign of the tangled relationships that bind the characters together. And just when you’re convinced that Nakamura, who in an afterword describes his goal as conveying the “sense of a dim light through a veil of fog,” has moved decisively from the logistics of kinbaku to its spirituality and metaphysics, he produces a stunning climactic surprise that will make you think of this particular case, and erotic bondage generally, in a whole new way. Spellbinding.
Robinson, Peter Morrow/HarperCollins (368 pp.)
$30.00 | April 11, 2023
9780062994981
An unexpected discovery sends Detective Superintendent Alan Banks and his Eastvale crew back to investigate a murder that may or may not have involved the Yorkshire Ripper’s last victim back in 1980. Combing a parcel of land marked as the site of a new shopping mall for evidence of Roman ruins, archaeologist Grace Hutchinson finds some decidedly more recent remains: the skeleton of a man killed only four or five years ago. The roots of the unknown victim’s death go back even further to the murder of Leeds University senior Alice Poole, a political activist who was killed only a few weeks after the Ripper claimed his last known victim. Was she another
casualty of the Ripper, or was her killer someone closer to her? Her schoolmate, downstairs neighbor, and ex-boyfriend, Nicholas Hartley, who comes under suspicion from investigating officers DI Stuart Glassco and DC Christopher Marley in 1980, himself suspects Mark Woodcroft, the lover who replaced him before going AWOL, perhaps to Paris. Back in 2019, Banks, along with DS Winsome Jackman and a group of forensic techs, struggles to identify the anonymous victim. Harold Gillespie, who owned the site of Grace Hutchinson’s discovery at the time of the burial, naturally professes to know nothing about the dead man and points out that he would hardly have buried a man he killed on his own property. But the news that Gillespie is himself a retired police officer leads to a chain of further discoveries. Robinson, who died last October, zigzags deftly back and forth between present and past en route to an anticlimactic solution and a truly devastating last sentence.
Not the best of Robinson’s many Yorkshire mysteries but one of the most heartfelt.
Shelton, Paige Minotaur (304 pp.)
$26.99 | April 4, 2023
9781250789532
Murder, money, and mayhem in Edinburgh.
Delaney Nichols, who works at The Cracked Spine bookshop, has become proficient in many areas of research since moving to Scotland from Kansas. After delivering her wealthy boss’s collection of eyeglasses and monocles to be appraised and being gifted another monocle, coincidentally engraved with the name of her husband, Tom, by the appraiser, she returns to the shop and the disturbing news that her boss, Edwin MacAlister, has been called away and that in his place, she must run his legendary literature tour for a small group of specially chosen people. This year’s party includes Irishwoman Meera Murphy; septuagenarian Englishwoman Kevin Moore; Gunter, a German document specialist; and Luka King, an Australian who claims not to read. While they’re staying at an inn across the square, Edwin’s credit card is refused, the first hint of trouble. Next Delaney sees a man in black running from the inn; Carmel, one of the employees, staggers out after being attacked; and Geoff, the manager, falls or jumps or is pushed off the roof. The tour goes on but without Meera, who unaccountably vanishes, and Delaney eventually learns that Edwin’s identity has been stolen along with much of his fortune. No stranger to murder, she has an excellent relationship with Inspector Winters, whom she feeds all the information she picks up from the group and her own sleuthing. As it becomes more and more likely that the murder has something to do with identity theft, Delaney finds herself targeted by a killer.
A delightful paean to the ancient Scottish capital wrapped around a serviceable mystery.
murder in postscript
Webb, Betty Poisoned Pen (336 pp.)
$16.99 paper | April 4, 2023
9781728269900
In 1922, Paris is packed with wounded soldiers whose lives have been destroyed by the war, artists of all stripes, and expatriates hiding dangerous secrets.
American artist Zoe Barlow is an excellent poker player who uses her skills to augment the allowance she receives from her family to stay out of Alabama. Her friends range from aristocrats to literally starving artists, and they include Hadley Hemingway, the writer’s wife, who leads her into a dangerous adventure. Although no fan of Ernest’s, Zoe is determined to help Hadley when some manuscripts her husband left in her care are stolen from a train. When she goes to the Gare de Lyon for information, a Russian expatriate porter—after she slips him 50 francs—tells her the valise was stolen by a man named Vassily Popov, who lives in the small town of Le Mesnil-Théribus with his “daughter,” possibly the fabled Anastasia Romanov. Zoe hires Avak Grigoryan and his vehicle, the Grim Reaper, to take her to the village, where she finds the murdered bodies of the unfortunate pair and burns her hands raking some of Hemingway’s papers from the fireplace. Zoe takes an immediate dislike to the investigator—handsome, supercilious, and rude DI Henri Challiot—but still ends up in a sexual relationship with him. The next to die are dancer Jewel Johnson, another of her friends, and Jewel’s lover, a Russian count. Despite dire warnings from Challiot, Zoe is more determined than ever to investigate. As much as it distresses her, she realizes that the killer is very likely one of her circle of friends.
A maelstrom of a mystery that combines grit, determination, and tragedy with social commentary.
Winters, Mary Berkley (320 pp.)
$17.00 paper | March 28, 2023
9780593548769
A Victorian tale of love, adventure, and murder.
When Lord Edgar Amesbury died young of a degenerative disease, he left his niece, Lady Winifred, in the care of his wife of two months, Lady Amelia. Amelia, who’s not from a wealthy or titled family, is guided by Edgar’s aunt Tabitha. Bored with her constricted life as a widow, she’s accepted a childhood friend’s offer to write an advice column for a weekly magazine, where, as Lady Agony, she enjoys giving bold advice. One day she gets a letter from a lady’s maid named Charlotte, who thinks her mistress was murdered and begs her to meet at 9 p.m. in St. James’s Park. Edgar’s friend the
Marquis of Bainbridge is coming for dinner that night, so even though she enjoys his company, Amelia pretends to have a headache after the meal so she can sneak off to meet Charlotte—but when she gets to the park, she finds her correspondent’s dead body. Since Simon Bainbridge, who’s no fool, has followed her, she has to admit that she’s Lady Agony and accept his help in a dangerous adventure. In Charlotte’s pocket, Amelia finds the calling card of Flora Edwards, who’s recently died in what was assumed to be a tragic accident. Because Flora was the daughter of old friend Adm. James Edwards, Bainbridge’s entree into the Edwards household allows them to start investigating her death as a motive for Charlotte’s. Amelia’s marriage was less than passionate, and she can’t help but be attracted to the dashing Simon even though he may prove more dangerous than the killer they’re hunting.
A cozy romantic mystery that lacks historical detail but is a fun read.
Fortune, Carley
Berkley (336 pp.)
$16.20 paper | May 2, 2023
9780593438558
A Canadian 30-something gets a second chance at love and career.
If Fern Brookbanks ever opened the Toronto espresso shop of her dreams, the first song on the playlist would be “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone. That could be the soundtrack of this upbeat, often very witty Canadian romance novel as well. Unfortunately, though, 32-year-old Fern will not be opening any espresso shops but instead must cope with managing the struggling cottage resort she’s suddenly inherited on Lake Muskoka. She grew up on its grounds, and her only significant accomplishment so far in life is getting out of there. But then her mother, a 55-year-old powerhouse who’s been running the place single-handedly all her adult life, dies in a car crash. Left to help poor Fern keep things going are her high school boyfriend, Jamie, and her mother’s dear friend Peter, the resort’s master baker, who helped raise Fern and nurtured her love of great playlists. Then Will Baxter, a handsome hunk her mother hired as a consultant to help save the hotel, turns out to be the very guy Fern had the most amazing night of her life with 10 years ago—only he broke her heart by failing to show up for their second date. Fortune fills her novel with food, music, and clothing descriptions and has some truly great one-liners: “I didn’t know an apron could be sexy, but this apron is the lost Hemsworth brother of aprons.” The suspense is created by withholding information: What was Fern’s outrageous teenage transgression? What was the terrible
too wrong to be right
thing she read in her mother’s diary? Why did Will stand her up 10 years ago? While this technique does feel a bit formulaic, it keeps the pages turning.
Escape to the lakefront with this entertaining romance.
Greenwald, Carlyn
Vintage (336 pp.)
$17.00 paper | April 18, 2023
9780593468197
An aspiring cinematographer finds herself torn between an A-list actress and her closest friend.
Luna Roth didn’t think her life would change much when she decided to come out as bisexual, but she didn’t expect to be such a disaster at it, either. The truth is she’s still trying to figure out exactly who to come out to and how. Sharing the news with her close friends? Somewhat nerve-wracking, but she can pull it off. Telling her parents? That’s a different story. At the same time, Luna is trying to work her way up the ladder in the film industry, but leaving her job as a personal assistant to a temperamental talent manager without a safety net in place is easier said than done. When she collides with gorgeous actress Valeria Sullivan at the office, Luna isn’t just bowled over by her first real crush since coming out; it occurs to her that Valeria, who is trying to become a director, might be just the woman to help her move up in her career. With the aid of Romy, her best friend, Luna decides to see how far she can go with Valeria as her advocate—not just in Hollywood, but maybe when it comes to figuring out what she likes in the bedroom, too, if the interest is mutual. Greenwald’s debut is an engaging comedy of errors that displays an insider’s familiarity with life on a movie set, but the true romance at its heart takes a back seat to the love triangle that dominates the plot. Luna’s desire to have Valeria introduce her to the ins and outs of intimacy contributes to both her and the reader missing out on what could have been essential space devoted to more of her natural chemistry with Romy. An unfiltered comedy about self-discovery and fulfillment.
Holton, India
Berkley (368 pp.)
$17.00 paper | April 18, 2023
9780593547267
Two spies go on a chaotic quest in the third novel of this zany Victorian series.
Daniel Bixby and Alice Dearlove are in service. The secret service. But also working undercover as servants to the gentry while spying on various factions of pirates and witches and other dangers to the realm for A.U.N.T—the Agency of
Undercover Note Takers. Having met in passing on an earlier mission, the two are now introduced to each other as the most skilled agents in their organization. Their mission: Pose as a married couple to foil an attempt on Queen Victoria’s life. Trained to put duty above all else thanks to a punishing regimen enforced on them by A.U.N.T. as orphaned children, Alice and Bixby (Agents A and B) are astonished that their attraction makes them want to break that rule. As their task to find and neutralize the assassination weapon takes them on a perilous flying journey to a house party of gleefully quarrelsome sky pirates, forced proximity makes them succumb to their feelings. Consummation follows but only after they agree on a stringent contract about consensual pleasure. The third installment of Holton’s series, following The League of Gentlewomen Witches (2022), ratchets the farcical energy even higher than before. The author’s delight in witticisms also fills out a frothy plot. While the couple overcomes a lifetime of stoicism, their feelings are personified into comic extended images and similes reminiscent of a mock epic like Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock.” Apart from A.U.N.T.’s allusion to the “Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” the combat episodes call to mind Mr. & Mrs. Smith, while the farcical values of the world evoke Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. If A and B are to overcome the obstacles standing in their way in this free-for-all, they must rely on old friends–cum-employers-cum-enemies to help find their happy-ever-after.
A comedic romance with maximum vibes and minimum realism.
Johnson, Melonie
St. Martin’s Griffin (368 pp.)
$16.99 paper | Feb. 28, 2023
9781250768827
A florist must reassess her idea of the right partner before true love can bloom.
In the span of a single day, florist Kat Kowalski finds herself abruptly dumped by her self-centered boyfriend, saddled with his pet hedgehog, and forced to make a trip to a funeral home to deliver an order. Already having a terrible day, Kat is thrown off the deep end when she bangs into Mick O’Sullivan at his family’s funeral home. Although she is instantly attracted to him, Kat takes a step back because she wants to radically rejig her approach to romance. Convinced that she has a thing for men who are absolutely wrong for her, Kat decides to be wary of instant chemistry and—aided by two friends who have recently found love—outlines the qualities of her Mr. Right. Mick is the exact antithesis of Kat’s idea of a perfect partner, but when the two bump into each other again, they begin to strike up a warm friendship. Even though Mick is attracted to Kat, he decides to set his feelings aside to help his friend find the right man. But both Mick and Kat will have to radically reevaluate their ideas of rightness and goodness before they can find real happiness. Brimming with references to 1990s Hollywood rom-coms, the book paves the couple’s
“A florist must reassess her idea of the right partner before true love can bloom.”
path to true love with clichés; while some are heartwarming and sweet (endearing family members and comforting descriptions of home-cooked food), others quickly tip over from quirky to cutesy (a difficult-but-beloved cockatoo). Mick is refreshing in his capacity for warmth and understanding, but Kat is caught in the mold of the prototypical clumsy-and-lonely single heroine. Johnson is witty and affecting when she details evolving dynamics, such as the couple’s growing closeness and Kat’s gradual acceptance of changes in her equation with her closest friends. But she is less convincing when she addresses the factors that keep the couple apart.
A romance whose handling of friendship is more charming and insightful than its treatment of love and companionship.
Kellogg, Camille Dial Press (320 pp.)
$17.00 paper | April 25, 2023
9780593594704
A queer debut rom-com in which a magazine’s sex-advice columnist and the woman in charge of cutting costs frequently butt heads and fight their attraction.
Liz Baker works as a relationship and sex-advice columnist for Nether Fields, “a magazine for queer women, nonbinary people, and trans people,” but receives the bittersweet news that the publication is being shut down. She’s sad to see Nether Fields close, though the severance money will allow her to keep writing full time. Then the magazine is saved at the eleventh hour, purchased by Manhattan real estate agent Bailey Cox and her more cutthroat business partner, Daria Fitzgerald. Though Bailey is a fan of the magazine and wants to see it succeed, Daria is more concerned with finding expenses to cut. Liz’s first impression of Daria is a bad one—she overhears Daria insulting the magazine to Bailey, specifically mentioning some of Liz’s articles. Things only gets worse as Daria slashes popular office perks. On the other hand, Liz is powerfully attracted to Daria, though Daria treads (and often fails to tread) the line between curt and mean. The power balance between them is also a problem, especially as Daria makes it clear that Liz will be the first to go once departments start downsizing. The romance is slow to develop, as Daria’s and Liz’s snap judgments about each other often stunt meaningful conversations. They eventually get there, realizing how wrong their initial assumptions were, but readers may tap out well before then. The supportive and diverse queer community that serves as the backdrop to the romance is the most compelling thing about this book. While the insertion of queer celebrities and pop culture into the narrative quickly identifies the characters as being very much plugged into online spaces and media, it winds up overloading the romance. Where the relationship falters, though, the setting of Nether Fields and its devoted staff shines.
A wonderful cast is squandered by a downright antagonistic romance.
Alter, Adam
Simon & Schuster (320 pp.)
$27.99 | May 16, 2023
9781982182960
A useful look at how to get “unstuck.” At some point in their lives, everyone will experience the sense that they are stuck in a rut, unable to move forward, even though a part of them says they should. Alter, a professor of marketing at NYU’s Stern School of Business and author of Drunk Tank Pink and Irresistible, is interested in this “stuckness,” and his latest book collects a large number of case studies, with a focus on how various well-known figures have overcome the mental patterns and negative emotions that create inertia. For people who want to move forward but do not know how, a thorough audit of goals is a good start. Be willing to experiment and accept that finding the right path might involve repeated failures. In other cases, people might have an aspiration but be unsure about next steps. Breaking the task into manageable pieces and deciding what should constitute success can make it less daunting. Careful research about the goal will take away the anxiety connected with the unknown. Alter believes that habit is one of the key impediments to making changes. The antidote to this is conscious action, even if means starting with small and apparently unconnected elements. The aim is to change a habit of inertia into a model of activity. Another way to do this is to deliberately associate with people unlike yourself, which will provoke new ideas. The author delivers consistently intriguing ideas, but he loses the thread of his argument, and a few of the cases he cites are not relevant to his point. Nevertheless, the book could serve as a valuable launching pad for anyone looking to take a new step in their life.
In a wide-ranging package, Alter offers practical advice on how to break free of inertia and blaze a new path.
twenty square feet of skin
Bamberger, Michael Avid Reader Press (256 pp.)
$30.00 | March 28, 2023
9781668009826
The veteran writer capably juggles golf balls and life stories.
In 2022, Bamberger, a senior writer for the Fire Pit Collective, was awarded the Memorial Golf Journalism Award. His latest book, following Men in Green, The Second Life of Tiger Woods, and others, is an ode to the game and the amateurs who play it. “They all know what it’s like to marvel at a white ball in a high sky and get lost,” he writes. “What a gift that is.”
Bamberger introduces us to a diverse group of golfers: Pratima Sherpa, who grew up in a maintenance shed on a small golf course in Nepal; Sammy Reeves, from a small town in Georgia, who got to see Ben Hogan and play the legendary Seminole Golf Club; Ryan French, who would go on to write for the Fire Pit Collective; and Californian Sophia Montano, who invited Pratima for a five-week visit to play golf and be filmed by ESPN for a documentary. Pratima’s story is the most affecting. An article about her accomplishments in Golf Digest resulted in her playing on a college team in America and a personal letter from Tiger Woods, whom she would later meet and practice with.
Bamberger weaves his way back and forth as he knits together his subjects’ golfing and life stories, showing how each found the game and their accomplishments and adventures. Golf, he writes, “despite its elitist reputation, levels playing fields as few sports do.” He tells some of his history, as well, including his stint caddying on professional tours and his favorite courses, before returning to the other players, families, and friends. Somewhat awkward at first, the narrative eventually takes on a crisp, smooth rhythm, sparkling with details, as Bamberger goes deeper into each person’s life.
The author provides more details than some readers will want, but the stories are heartwarming and affecting.
Baxter, Megan Mad Creek/Ohio State Univ. Press
(184 pp.)
$22.95 paper | May 19, 2023
9780814258682
A writer investigates the physical nature of both humans and the world that surrounds us.
“To consider my tattoos we must first consider skin. Skin is our barrier against the world, enveloping our body so that we won’t lose our precious water and evaporate like dew.” So writes Baxter, the author of The Coolest Monsters and Farm Girl, at the beginning of this poetic study of the
marks carried by human bodies, from the hair on our heads to the blisters on our feet. Each essay probes a different physical manifestation of human life—both pain and promise—and how we work to distract, defend, or recover the self. Baxter uses her bodily memories, scars, and quirks to ponder her relationships, including her childhood friendships, complicated bond with her mother, and romantic love both lost and found. The author also reflects on context, both natural and human-made, and creatures with whom humans share the world. In “A Model Home,” Baxter considers how where one lives can shape a person’s identity. A clear devotee of craft, the author embraces a variety of forms— short, long, braided, poem-in-prose—and peppers her personal information with a variety of artistic, biological, and historical references. She displays meticulous care in building each meditation, creating lines that seem to dance from the page. If some of her poetic orchestrations seem overdone, lacking an anchor, both her corporeal subject and her experiences within nature offer rich grounding. Baxter’s skill and depth will unite her with readers, resulting in a shared consideration of what our bodies say about us and how we take the measure of our lives. Though
“A pensive inquiry, often breathtakingly beautiful and relatable, into how and where and with whom we fit.”
In our inaugural Gender Issue, we explore the topic kaleidoscopically and with a focus on inclusivity. We are long past the days of strict gender binaries—despite the misguided fight by many right-wing leaders to enforce restrictive definitions—and each of these five recent books offers a unique, illuminating perspective on gender.
In Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender (Seal Press, 2022), Kit Heyam chronicles the history of gender via “a wide variety of pertinent stories that are often left out of the trans narrative.” The author is an empathetic and informative guide through some rocky terrain. “With great sensitivity and care,” noted our reviewer, “they discuss the deleterious effects of European colonization over hundreds of years, the modern Western desire to separate gender and sexuality, and the intersex community. While clearly the work of a diligent historian, the text avoids feeling too dry and is a relatively accessible read.”
While Heyam’s book is a global overview, Michael Pedersen’s Boy Friends (Faber & Faber, 2022) is a tightly focused, highly personal study of male friendship. Our reviewer noted that “Pedersen wrote this book in memory of Scott Hutchison, whose friendship was ‘an express train’ halted by Hutchison’s suicide in 2018, at age 36.…Ultimately, Pedersen offers an extended reverie on the dynamics of male friendship, an underexplored literary landscape.” We don’t get many looks at male friendship that are this intimate, candid, and insightful. “What begins as an elegy for Hutchison becomes a ‘celebration of your life rather than a lament of your death,’ ” wrote our reviewer; readers will be eager to celebrate with him.
I highly recommend Re-Sisters: The Lives and Recordings of Delia Derbyshire, Margery Kempe, & Cosey Fanni Tutti (Faber & Faber, 2022) by Cosey Fanni Tutti, which our reviewer called “a skillful blend of memoir and biography.” The author, who has always pushed the boundaries of sex and gender in her art, “weaves her personal experienc-
es into those of two radical women: electronic musician Delia Derbyshire and medieval mystic Margery Kempe. The compelling stories of these three women are compulsively readable, but it is the connections between them that make the book shine.” It’s a deftly rendered, vivid portrait that “showcases what it means to be a unique and often transgressive woman living outside of cultural norms.”
Living outside of cultural norms is also central to Hijab Butch Blues: A Memoir by Lamya H (Dial Press, Feb. 7), in which the “queer Muslim [author] and organizer chronicles a life navigating between religion and culture,” as our reviewer observed. Writing about her experiences growing up in a “rich Arab country” and acknowledging her sexuality, the author notes, “Gay is a hush-hush thing, not to be talked about seriously, only to be used as an insult.” She faced further discrimination in the U.S., but she navigated it with courage, love, and faith; her memoir “vibrantly explores what it means to live with an open-minded, open-hearted activist seeking to change the world for the better.”
Finally, we have The Big Reveal: An Illustrated Manifesto of Drag (Harper/HarperCollins, April 4) by renowned drag queen Sasha Velour. The book is a pleasing mix of memoir, history, and visual elements such as color storyboards, Post-it note asides, and a wide selection of vivid photos. Our reviewer calls it a “provocative, informative, and opinionated excavation of drag culture.” It’s not just about Velour, however: “In addition to generously sharing entertaining anecdotes, maxims, and fond tributes to family and friends, the author isn’t shy about divulging the hard truths about life in the drag and queer communities,” and she creates “an impressive textual and visual display of artistry and courage.”
Eric Liebetrau is the nonfiction and managing editor.
some of the writing is overly flowery, this is a poignant text with enough experimental streaks to keep things interesting.
A pensive inquiry, often breathtakingly beautiful and relatable, into how and where and with whom we fit.
Bell, Darrin
Henry Holt (352 pp.)
$29.99 | June 6, 2023
9781250805140
A graphic memoir explores the author’s experiences with and understanding of racism.
When he was 6, Bell, a contributing cartoonist to the New Yorker and recipient of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for his editorial cartoons, was playing with a neon-green water gun when a policeman told him to drop his weapon. Earlier that day, he’d asked his mother why his toy had to be green. “That’s what’s going to keep you alive,” his mother, who is White, told him. “The world is…different for you and your brother. White people won’t see you or treat you the way they do little white boys.” The author continues, “If they see me with [the gun], they’ll see a menace. A thug. A threat to be dealt with.” Throughout this powerful graphic narrative, the author traces pivotal events in his life and career that were in some way connected to this conversation. As a kid, he encountered racist teachers, one of whom tried to fail him despite his high grades. In college, he sat with White classmates who argued “that colonialism was GOOD for Africa.” “I bite my tongue,” he explains, “because I’m tired of being ‘The Other.’ ” Bell’s story reflects his awakening to—and gradual comprehension of—the realities of American racism. At first, he didn’t want to believe what he saw. Composing an essay for his college application, he wrote, “I am not a ‘Black’ American. I am not an ‘African American.’ I am not any sort of hyphenatedAmerican. I am not even an ‘American.’ For these are all social constructs.” Bell’s deft drawings perfectly complement the text, with a watery blue wash and panels of varying sizes and shapes matching the contemplative mood. Funny and nerdy—note multiple references to Star Wars—the book is also deeply moving. Part memoir and part intellectual awakening, Bell’s memoir is a triumph. A beautifully drawn book, rich with insight, humor, and hard-won knowledge.
LEBRON
Benedict, Jeff Avid Reader Press (480 pp.)
$32.00 | April 11, 2023
9781982110895
The story of King James’ rise and reign. Any conversation about the greatest NBA player ever must include LeBron James, a four-time MVP and player on four championship teams. (He just
became the league’s all-time leading scorer, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.) Veteran sportswriter Benedict frames James’ story as a tale of destiny fulfilled. Raised by a poor single mother in Akron, Ohio (his father’s identity remains a mystery), James was supported from an early age by coaches and other community members. Shining at both basketball and football, he skipped college and was drafted by his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, in 2003. Benedict describes this path in (overly) deep detail—James doesn’t make his NBA debut till nearly halfway through the book. But from there, the narrative is a well-paced account of James’ on-court ambitions and struggles with how to wield his celebrity. Early on, he could be closed-off with reporters, waffled over signing a letter criticizing China’s human rights record, and famously alienated NBA fans everywhere in 2010 by announcing his decision to “take my talents to South Beach” (and join the Miami Heat) in an overblown hourlong TV special. Benedict suggests that a tight circle of trusted advisers, plus a few championship trophies, helped elevate James as a leader. He effectively played a general manager’s role in assembling squads, didn’t hesitate to speak out after the murders of
“A beautifully drawn book, rich with insight, humor, and hard-won knowledge.”
the talk
Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner, and was comfortable clapping back at then-President Donald Trump. Benedict correlates James’ reputational ups and downs to his relationships with sportswriters—hitting his nadir when he was frosty with the ghostwriter for a book about his high school days, triumphing when he welcomed a Sports Illustrated writer to report his return to the Cavaliers. But James’ roles as world-class athlete and media phenomenon are intertwined, and the author ably captures both elements.
A deep, occasionally hagiographic dive into the life of a one-of-a-kind superstar.
Biggers, Jeff Melville House (336 pp.)
$27.99 | May 16, 2023
9781685890261
Sardinia through the eyes of Biggers, who has lived part time in Italy since 1989.
This book is neither conventional history nor tourist guide. The author wants readers to experience this exploration of the people, terrain, and many-layered civilization of Sardinia as an expansive s’arrogliu, or “storytelling gathering,” about the region. Biggers and his family moved to Alghero, a port city in northwest Sardinia, in 2017, then journeyed all over the island in the ensuing five years. His recounting of Sardinia’s history as the Mediterranean’s “most vigorous place of intersection between societies” includes invasions and colonization over 2,000 years. The author pays special attention to prehistory, as Sardinia’s ancient monuments—Neolithic dolmens, menhir stone formations, Bronze Age towers—create an “endless museum” of artifacts and ruins, but he does not ignore the island’s traditional arts and culture. Nearly every page of this dense volume is packed with art, literature, and song. Excerpts from oral and written texts set the scene for each chapter, and 35 pages of bibliographic notes further fill out the context. Biggers is especially good at describing the wealth of Sardinian literature and its notable figures, such as novelist Grazia Deledda, the first Italian woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature, in 1926. He also describes the long tradition of political and underground Sardinian literature, a “language of resistance” in the face of Italy’s fascist-era prohibitions. Sardinian shares a lexicon with Latin but has its own Indigenous roots, flowering in 75 dialects. Artists still use traditional techniques for contemporary expression, helping shape Sardinian identity and providing its villages “a narrative of viability” in the age of globalization. The inhabitants of this mostly rural, low-density island have had to push back against a centurieslong reputation for banditry, barbarism, and peril. The author’s rich, detailed chronicle of his family’s yearslong exploration serves as a compelling guide and a new appreciation of an overlooked island.
Neither holiday postcard nor dry ancient history, this is a fascinating journey around Sardinia.
NINE
Inside
Biskupic, Joan Morrow/HarperCollins (432 pp.)
$32.99 | April 4, 2023
9780063052789
The senior Supreme Court analyst for CNN examines the current court and the elemental dangers it poses.
It wasn’t long after being installed that Trump’s three appointees to the Supreme Court—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—began to pull the institution hard to the right, joining Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito in an openly evident program to dismantle abortion rights and LGBTQ+ equality. “This court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks,” Barrett remarked, but all signs point to the contrary even if the justices collectively, at least, repudiated Trump in his quest to overturn Joe Biden’s electoral victory. Indeed, writes Biskupic, Trump “treated the judiciary as if it were his to command, from his early weeks in office to his final weeks after he lost the 2020 election.” Of course, he had willing allies on the bench: Even if Clarence Thomas did not vote in Trump’s favor, he “showed sympathy for Trump’s claims of fraud,” influenced by his Trump-supporting, election-contesting wife, and has refused to recuse himself from cases involving tests of “independent state legislative theory that could collapse judicial safeguards.” On the latter point, Biskupic adds that Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh showed signs of being willing to entertain arguments in favor of state
authority over federal elections—which, had it been in place, would have installed Trump. The court has taken to fighting “culture-war issues of guns and religion,” Biskupic notes, and is moving steadily to fulfill the right-wing desideratum of less and less federal regulation—as can be seen, for one, by its curtailing of some of the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory powers. The court is likely to prove destructive by any progressive measure, she closes, “a majority laying waste to precedents and, indeed, offering no one confidence that it was done with its work.”
Court watchers and civil rights activists alike will find this essential—and disturbing—reading.
a new history of the american south
Borenstein, Eliot
Cornell Univ. (282 pp.)
$44.95 | May 15, 2023
9781501767821
A detailed, wonky examination of a significant period in the history of Marvel Comics.
A generation of Marvel writers who explored themes of interiority and subjectivity in the 1970s bridged the gap between Spider-Man in the 1960s and the modern graphic novel. So argues Borenstein, whose comics coming-of-age occurred during this fertile era. Steve Englehart sent Doctor Strange on a journey of enlightenment; Doug Moench expanded the possibilities of the narrative caption in Werewolf by Night and Master of Kung Fu; Marv Wolfman developed the antihero with Tomb of Dracula; Don McGregor
explored racism with Luke Cage and Black Panther; and Steve Gerber pursued absurdity and dissociation in Man-Thing and Howard the Duck. Borenstein is an admitted fan of these comics, but he faces their frequently problematic aspects, often trenchantly, as when he introduces the Werewolf’s girlfriend:
“Topaz is the blond, white-skinned adopted daughter of a Punjabi sorcerer named Taboo (bonus points to anyone who can effectively decolonize this sentence).” There’s some discussion of in-house goings-on, mostly in the form of character handoffs, but readers hoping for the stories behind the stories will be better served by Sean Howe’s entertaining chronicle, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story. Instead, this volume is largely devoted to exegesis, walking readers through story arcs and analyzing text with a granularity not seen in Douglas Wolk’s monumental survey, All of the Marvels. Normalizing all-caps original text to ordinary prose in quotations, Borenstein otherwise reproduces the comics’ orthography, with often sillylooking results: “The screams from below are shrill. / The snarls of jungle cats…satisfied. / And the brittle sound of violence… / … necessary?” Shang-Chi ruminates during a fight. The occasional inclusion of full-color pages makes readers wish for more. A good half of the characters discussed are (currently) absent from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which skews Borenstein’s audience to enthusiasts of the MCU’s print origins.
For die-hard Marvel Comics fans and scholars of the graphic novel.
Ed. by Brundage, W. Fitzhugh
Ferris and Ferris Books/Univ. of North Carolina (608 pp.)
$45.00 | May 2, 2023
9781469626659
Scholars of Southern history come together to create a fresh narrative of the region.
As editor Brundage writes in the introduction, this is the 21st century’s “first, collaborative effort to tell the history of the American South.” More significantly, it serves as an example of how the story of Southern, as well as American, history has been transformed over the last 50 years. Previously, Southern history was the tale, beginning in the early 1600s, of sharply differentiated Black and White races, chattel slavery, distinctive race-based, all-male politics, and a kind of unchanging continuity of the region’s life—a portrait permeated with gauzy camellias and nonsense about enslaved people content with their status. In this largely seamless presentation of the South’s past as historians now see it, those subjects and emphases are greatly diminished in coverage. Assuming larger roles in the story are Native Americans, women, and social, cultural, and economic trends. Racism is still front and center, of course, but the contributors also highlight multiethnic and other relevant, previously omitted elements. Most of the book’s contributors brilliantly integrate the contents of their separate
“An important book for anyone interested in Southern history.”
chapters, each on a distinct era, into a taut, analytical narrative. Throughout, their voices and styles cohere in striking fashion. It’s only when the narrative reaches the 20th century that it briefly stumbles, with two contributors focusing on select individuals rather than the South as a whole. The result is to make these people somehow representative of an entire region, while the rest of the book argues against the existence of an undifferentiated part of the country known as “The South.” Nevertheless, to learn of the South’s past as it is viewed today by leading historians, this is the book to read. Contributors include Martha S. Jones, Kate Masur, James Rice, and a host of other distinguished scholars.
An important book for anyone interested in Southern history.
Carlson, Jennifer
Princeton Univ. (288 pp.)
$29.95 | May 2, 2023
9780691230399
A sociological study of gun sellers and the way their politics sustain gun rights as a defining element of American conservatism.
One of the consequences of the 2020 pandemic was a surge in gun sales—not just to the typical White, straight, conservative, male buyer, but also to women, racial and sexual minorities, and liberals. Carlson, professor of sociology at the University of Arizona, author of Policing the Second Amendment, and a 2022 MacArthur fellow, saw this as an opportunity to gauge “how American gun culture [is] defended as conservative terrain” and how gun sellers act as “merchants of conservative thought.”
Almost three decades after her sister was murdered by an ex-boyfriend in Mexico City in 1990, Cristina Rivera Garza was determined to track down Liliana’s case file. She was up against more than just the labyrinthine justice system; she was also challenging the patriarchal belief that wrongly labels femicides as crimes of passion and places the blame on the victims. “Femicide is, in this context, a hate crime, one committed against women because they are women,” she writes in Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice (Hogarth, Feb. 28). “Ten of them take place in Mexico every single day, leaving a trail of heartbreak pierced by impunity and flanked by indignation.” Rivera Garza credits the grassroots movements that have formed in Mexico in recent years for giving her the language to finally tell her sister’s story. There was another crucial element: After she found the strength to look through Liliana’s belongings, including her letters and journals, she realized the most important voice had been there all along.
What followed from that critical breakthrough was a collaborative project between Rivera Garza and her deceased sister, a beautiful testimony to a bond that can’t be broken. “If there is something that I’ve been very sure of all these years, it’s that Liliana has been there with me,” the author says. “And that we’ve been in very close conversation.” Kirkus calls Liliana’s Invincible Summer “a moving, heartwrenching memoir as well as an unflinching appraisal of the widespread violence against women in Mexico.” The author, an award-winning writer of fiction and poetry, spoke with Kirkus via Zoom from Germany, where she’s currently a fellow at The American Academy in Berlin. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You started writing this book while nursing a swimming injury—an activity you had in common with your sister. How has working on this book deepened your connection to her?
I’m quite convinced that the people who have been taken away from us—especially in violent ways—remain with us. So in many ways, my relationship with Liliana has been the music of all my life. I am now able to share something that has been very private to me. I’ve been able to share the grief but also to share the luminous person Liliana was, and remains to me, with others.
How was writing a form of freedom for both of you?
I didn’t know the extent to which Liliana was becoming a writer as well. I had little idea about how disciplined she was and how devoted she was to writing. So that’s something that talking to her friends, and especially looking into those documents, gave to me. That was one of the main gifts that I got by looking into her archive. We lived in and live in a society with very strong gender hierarchies. In a time in which many of the issues that the book is touching upon, specifically domestic violence, were not openly spoken about, writ-
ing allowed young girls to explore inner subjectivity, to explore the world as you imagine it to be, to expand your idea of the limits of your world. There is a connection between writing and introspection, and writing as a tool of knowledge, of imagining, of investigating—observing the world as it is but also imagining alternative possibilities.
You incorporate Liliana’s notes, interviews with her friends, and perspectives from your parents. Can you talk about the sources you turned to in order to research and write this book and how you settled on the structure?
Writing is not an isolated practice. It’s something that we do with others. I’ve been working with archives for a long time. Institutional archives and state archives, but this is the first time that I got to work with what I call the affective archive, the archive that my sister built herself. And it’s an archive that goes well beyond the reach of the state. So in lieu of the [case] file that I wasn’t able to locate at the time of my search, I knew that I had to re-create that testimony, that repository. I didn’t want to write a book about her. I wanted to write a book with her. I was very aware of the many dangers about approaching violence through writing. And just a couple of those dangers are the possibility, first, of exercising additional violence by silencing my sister’s voice again, by speaking over her voice, or trying to editorialize her voice or explaining her voice [or] describing gruesome scenes of violence and revictimizing the victim again. Having access to Liliana’s voice through her own work as an archivist of herself was really important. That allowed me to organize and structure the work in a way that could honor the way in which Liliana was collecting and organizing her own archive, which was a way of organizing her own story.
This is the first book that you wrote both in Spanish and in English. Why was it important to you to not have a translator involved with this project?
I have the greatest respect for translators. I have worked with wonderful, bright, incredibly generous translators, and I work well with them. When I’m working with a translator, we’re both working together, and we become co-authors of the book in the other language. So I feel very comfortable with that. But in this case, the materials were so close to me, I wanted to have all of the responsibility. I wanted to keep the conversation going between my sister and myself. I was writing both versions, the Spanish version and the English version, at the same time. I was using one language to revise the other language. Languages behave in different ways. I’m always very aware of the resonances, of the echoes. I think
I’m going to continue doing that. I don’t know if I want to continue writing in English as such. That’s something that I need to think through. But I’m keeping that resonance in my own work, intermingling these languages at the level of the structure. That’s something that I’m very interested in exploring further.
The subtitle of this book is A Sister’s Search for Justice
Did your idea of justice change from when you first began this important project?
It has. I tried to reopen this case thinking that I would be able to catch the killer, to force him to face justice. What I’ve learned recently, and something that was in the newspapers (even an article in The New York Times), is that it’s very possible that he died two years ago on May 2, 2020. And obviously, I felt very frustrated when I learned of that possibility. I talked to Sayuri Herrera afterward, the head of the Mexico City Public Prosecutor’s Office Special Unit for Femicides, and it was thanks to conversations with her that I’ve been exploring the law of dictums, which is a very complex document that is about not only contemplating punishment as a means to achieve justice, but also the work that we do with memory and truth. These two elements are key and are crucial for the restitution of damage. Liliana’s truth, at least Liliana’s perspective, is out there for everybody to take a look at and consider.
Michele Filgate is a writer in New York and the editor of What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About Liliana’s Invincible Summer was reviewed in the Dec. 15, 2022, issue.
Interviewing 50 sellers from four states, the author chronicles their responses to the pandemic, the new buyers, and activist initiatives such as Black Lives Matter. Their thinking coalesces around three ideas: Owning a gun reinforces personal responsibility (armed individualism); behind all official stories and state action are “hidden power brokers” (conspiracism); and defining the boundaries of citizenship is a democratic necessity (extreme partisanship). This information allowed Carlson to group sellers into libertarians who cast individual rights as the “preferred remedy to social ills”; illiberal conservatives, who embrace democracy but narrow the concept of “the people” to those who share their beliefs (thereby excluding liberals); and eclectic conservatives, who balance individual rights with collective obligations. For each, defending gun rights is “a means of defining” democracy and protecting political rights. In contrast, Carlson favors a liberal democracy that is “consensus-based, justice-oriented, and equity-driven” and can assert political equanimity, civic grace, and awareness of shared vulnerability to bridge the current political divide. The author treats her subjects with respect and intellectual generosity, and
her positioning of gun culture in democratic thought is a model of thoughtful scholarship.
An insightful account of the glue that binds one of the dominant strains of conservatism and threatens liberal democracy.
Clavin, Tom
St. Martin’s (384 pp.)
$29.99 | April 4, 2023
9781250214553
A rollicking tale of a Texas lawman and the iron-jawed contingent that rode with him.
Before there were the Texas Rangers, writes Clavin, an old hand at popular Western history, there were other rangers, assembled and deputized mostly to kill Native Americans and Mexicans. One early band “were not technically Rangers but pretty much served as such until Stephen Austin gave them a name.” As Clavin notes, the Mexicans who first allowed the Anglos to settle in Texas soon came to regret the decision. Whereas they had hoped that the new settlers would constitute a buffer between them and raiding Apaches and Comanches, they saw that the newcomers “were not adhering to Catholicism and continued to own slaves,” both violations of Mexican law. The author doesn’t soft-pedal the racist ethos surrounding the Rangers, but neither does he paint a heroic portrait of the likes of Travis and Crockett or the freeshooting pacifiers of the borderlands. One of the most effective of these early groups was a troop led by a Confederate veteran named Leander McNelly, who lived out a long life enforcing the law on the frontier in parallel with more organized police forces until finally being folded into the Texas Rangers in 1874. McNelly had plenty of scrapes and adventures, and he wasn’t shy about crossing into Mexico, violating international law, when the occasion suited him. Among the most noir of his bêtes noires was the outlaw John Wesley Hardin, who makes a much more interesting figure overall than McNelly. It took years to bring Hardin, elusive and seemingly impervious to bullets until his last moments, to justice, a story that takes up many pages here. McNelly, for his part, helped shape the Texas Rangers into a formidable force, and, as Clavin notes, he was acknowledged as such by being “a member of the first class inducted into the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame” decades after his death.
Fans of the Wild West and its pistol-packin’ miscreants will enjoy Clavin’s latest.
“Fans of the Wild West and its pistol-packin’ miscreants will enjoy Clavin’s latest.”
follow me to hell
Conroy,
James B. Simon & Schuster (432 pp.)$34.00 | June 13, 2023
9781982168681
Despite a clash of egos and deepseated differences, a crucial conclave mapped out a war-winning path. Planning military strategy is an enormously difficult task; when several nations are involved, it becomes even more problematic. Conroy, the author of Lincoln’s White House, chronicles the Casablanca Conference of January 1943, when Churchill, Roosevelt, and their senior generals met to plan the next phase of World War II. The conflict was beginning to turn in favor of the Allies but was a long way from over, and there were serious divisions about how to proceed. A faction of
the American delegation wanted to focus their attention on fighting the Japanese, while the British saw the Nazis as the principal enemy. There were also questions about when and how to launch an invasion of Europe and the likely postwar landscape. The French leaders, apparently more concerned with scoring political points than winning the war, were a constant irritant. Disagreements became heated and personal, but the delegation eventually hammered out a feasible plan. It involved the capture of Sicily to secure Mediterranean supply routes, an increase in the bombing campaign aimed at Germany, and a deferral of the invasion of Western Europe until more forces were gathered. While the British achieved most of what they wanted, it became clear that the U.S., as the critical source of manpower, materiel, and money, would henceforth be the dominant player of the Allies. The official minutes of the conference were published in 1973, but Conroy is a diligent researcher and finds some new material in participants’ diaries and correspondence, providing extra depth and color. Even though this is the first book-length analysis of the conference, the substance of the proceedings is already well
known. For this reason, it will appeal mainly to aficionados of WWII history.
Conroy adds personality and background to the official account of the crucial Casablanca Conference.
Dillon, Brian
New York Review Books (320 pp.)
$18.95 paper | April 25, 2023
9781681377261
Essays on images and the slippery feelings they evoke.
In this follow-up to Essayism and Suppose a Sentence, Dillon delivers a series of short, belletristic pieces largely concerned with photography, but he has no broad thesis on the discipline à la Susan Sontag; nor is this exactly criticism of individual photographers and filmmakers, à la Geoff Dyer. Rather, as the book’s title suggests, Dillon is looking to capture moods and resonances that artists collectively generate, “a type of criticism without criticism.” He appreciates Dada collagist Hannah Höch for how images in one of her books “collide and rhyme across double-page spreads.” He seeks to expand the understanding of Diane Arbus as more than a chronicler of “the city’s freaks” and instead as a more nuanced artist exploring New York’s larger atmosphere. William Eggleston, writes Dillon, was a pioneer not just in terms of color art photography, but also in his ability to collapse social strata in his work. The TV adaptation of Brideshead Revisited captures “blazing innocence and exhausted experience,” while the cut-up images of John Stezaker suggest “that our fascination with [photographs] is at once visual and tactile, almost grisly.” The essays on the individual artists are too short and subjective to serve as primers on their work, and the multiple pieces on affinity don’t cohere enough into a definition. However, the book is more than the sum of its parts, and Dillon conjures an uncanny mood, as the individual observations combine to create a sense of how eerie and disorienting images can be. That feeling is underscored by melancholy personal essays about his migraine auras, his mother’s death, and a troubled aunt who obsessively photographed her property for fear of its violation. In such moments, he reveals photography as not just an art form, but also a failed attempt to clarify reality and resolve our anxieties.
An engrossing, subjective, intentionally meandering trek through the meaning of images.
Ed. by Dubus III, Andre Godine (320 pp.)
$34.95 | April 25, 2023
9781567927696
Famous writers riff on their favorite short stories.
Dubus III asked 50 working writers to write a brief essay praising two short stories. Joyce Carol Oates selects John Updike’s “A&P” and Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royal,” and Paul Harding spotlights a pair of John Cheever classics: “The Swimmer” and “The Jewels of the Cabots.” While it’s pleasant enough to read seasoned writers celebrating their inspirations, the project has its shortcomings. Because Dubus invited his contemporaries to contribute, the selections tend to gravitate to writers in the New Yorker mold from the second half of the 20th century. Selections are dominated by the likes of Raymond Carver (cited three times), Russell Banks, Jamaica Kincaid, and so on. Many contributors also have their own stories praised by others—Michael Cunningham, Tobias Wolff, Jayne Anne Philips, Stuart Dybek, Ron Carlson, and more—which exacerbates the insular vibe. The better pieces break free from either effusions of praise or workshop analysis and make more adventurous selections or statements. Lois Lowry’s commentary on Carver’s “A Small, Good Thing” is a pathway for a discussion of her own experience with grief; Dagoberto Gilb’s piece on Juan Rulfo and Tomás Rivera is both an appreciation and a critique of the American literary canon; Phil Klay opens his piece on Dostoyevsky’s “The Grand Inquisitor” by recalling a near-death experience; and Cunningham blends an essay on the limits of teaching fiction writing with a lucid study of James Joyce’s “The Dead” and its iconic ending, “one of the greatest paragraphs produced by human hand.” Some of the authors share writing prompts, suggesting this book is intended as a teaching tool; in most cases here, though, it may be enough to take their recommendations on faith and go directly to the stories themselves. Other contributors include T.C. Boyle, Meg Wolitzer, Richard Russo, Lauren Groff, Ann Beattie, and Junot Díaz. Well-intentioned but often thin praise pieces.
Durkee, Lee
Scribner (288 pp.)
$27.00 | April 18, 2023
9781982127145
Diving into the mystery of Shakespeare’s identity.
During the many long winters he spent living in Vermont, essayist and fiction writer Durkee, encountering a host of different images of the lauded English
“A lively report of a passionate quest that should appeal to any fan of the Bard.”
stalking shakespeare
bard, became obsessed with discovering what Shakespeare really looked like. Although neither an art historian nor literary scholar, Durkee became a determined, fearless researcher, hounding librarians, traveling to libraries—including the famed Folger collection in Washington, D.C.—and reading everything he could find about Shakespeare’s life and times, historical trends in portraiture, literary controversies about authorship, art historical debates, and the often scandalous world of the Elizabethan court. Durkee came to see his lack of expertise as a plus: “The dilettante works alone, a solitary figure, no colleagues to shock, no tenure at risk. Not only are we free to ask naive questions, there’s nobody around to tell us how things are supposed to be done.” Besides barraging librarians and museum personnel with questions, he conducted his own meticulous investigations, comparing facial anomalies in portraits, for example, by layering two portrait jpegs on top of each other. He examined X-rays of paintings with a magnifying glass, and he traced the provenance of purported likenesses of Shakespeare and many of his contemporaries. He also investigated the work of restorers. “My research,” he writes, “became something magical and demented, intuitive and haunted. In the end it changed the way I look at history, art, politics, and myself. It certainly changed the way I look at William Shakespeare.” Part of that magical aura apparently came from Adderall, which a sympathetic doctor prescribed for Durkee’s self-diagnosed ADHD. Durkee recounts his adventure with self-deprecating humor, which belies the seriousness of his project. “For the most part, Shakespeare ad vivum,” he writes ruefully, “has been a history of artistic con men and starry-eyed scholars.”
A lively report of a passionate quest that should appeal to any fan of the Bard.
Fine, Richard Cornell Univ. (304 pp.)
$31.95 | April 15, 2023
9781501765940
The fierce controversy over a reporter’s wartime disclosure.
Drawing on abundant archival sources, unpublished memoirs, military documents, and hundreds of editorials and articles, Fine presents a meticulous examination of the fraught relationship between the military and the media during World War II. He focuses on the “surrender episode,” when Edward Kennedy, a respected Associated Press reporter, broke the news of Germany’s surrender despite the U.S. military’s insistence on a 36-hour embargo. “The Kennedy affair,” Fine writes, “is the story of government officials trying to bend the media to their own ends and of one journalist who risked much to do what he thought of as his duty—to inform a public sick of the fighting that the war in Europe had ended.” When Germany surrendered to the Allies in the early hours of May 7, 1945, 17 journalists were
allowed to witness the event held at Gen. Dwight Eisenhower’s headquarters in Reims, and they felt frustrated about not being allowed to file their eyewitness reports. Kennedy’s decision to do so was met with immediate praise from some quarters and repudiation from others, including journalists who had been scooped. By September 1945, AP, which had supported him at first, fired him. Fine’s illuminating history reveals the competitive nature of the news business, rivalries among news agencies and reporters, and volatile tensions between the military and the press that persisted throughout the war. The army’s public relations and censorship offices, writes the author, “focused more on getting out the military’s story than aiding independent reporters in getting out theirs.” Despite a nostalgic view that the war promoted cooperative efforts, the relationship was blighted by inconsistent censorship rulings and “conflicting information imperatives— the press’s to reveal and the military’s to conceal.” The “surrender saga,” Fine notes, “also calls into question another bromide about the war—that it was well-reported.” The book includes photographs of individuals involved.
A fresh contribution to the history of journalism.
Finkel, Michael Knopf (240 pp.)
$30.00 | June 27, 2023
9780525657323
The tale of a strong candidate for the title of “most prolific art thief ever.” Stéphane Breitwieser (b. 1971) claimed that his sole motivation for stealing was to surround himself with beauty. Over eight years and more than 200 heists, he made off with an estimated $1.4 billion to $1.9 billion worth of loot. Expanding on an article he wrote for GQ, Finkel, the author of The Stranger in the Woods, follows the string of Breitwieser’s thefts across Europe. His crimes are particularly fascinating because Breitwieser kept all of his booty, displayed for his delectation, in the attic of his mother’s house in Mulhouse, an industrial city in eastern France. He considered himself an “art collector with an unorthodox acquisition style” or an “art liberator who did not steal for monetary gain.” He purloined masterpieces from sparsely protected regional museums during daylight hours, evading guards and tourists through skill and timing. Finkel’s play-by-play of each theft has the pacing and atmosphere of a good suspense tale. We learn which objects stir the thief’s passions and how his “sweet spot” was Northern European “cabinet paintings” from the 16th and 17th centuries, small works that are easier to pilfer. The author describes each acquisition as well as Breitwieser’s simple but effective methods. For example, he used his only tool, a Swiss Army knife, to effect a “silicone slice” into museum display cases. The catalog of plundered works is extensive, and the book will contain two maps and an eight-page color insert featuring some of the stolen art. Finkel makes a valuable addition to existing media reports from Breitwieser’s trials; an earlier account, Vincent Noce’s The Selfish Collection; and the art thief’s own, ghostwritten, memoir, Confessions of an Art Thief. Arrested in 2019, Breitwieser awaits another trial this April.
Finkel’s extensive research, survey of art history, and hours of interviews with his subject combine for a compelling read.
Fishman, Jared with Joseph Hooper
Hanover Square Press (352 pp.)
$27.99 | April 25, 2023
9781335429261
A winding account of a notorious murder in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
In 2005, the mega-storm famously destroyed low-lying Black sections of New Orleans, mostly due to failed infrastructure. Across the Mississippi River, the
“often-overlooked” Algiers community was on comparatively high ground and isolated by floodwaters. When looting broke out, the police responded with violence, writes Fishman, a former federal prosecutor and founder of Justice Innovation Lab. In one instance, an officer shot a 31-year-old Black man named Henry Glover as he approached a store. Glover’s body, in the absence of mortuary services, was put in an abandoned car that was torched alongside the river: “All that remained was a skull, some ribs, and a leg bone.” The police closed ranks to cover up involvement, and a long series of hearings and trials, which Fishman recounts with too much detail, did not deliver the desired outcome for all involved: Some officers went to jail, but some walked. Going on the ground to interview witnesses, the victim’s family, some perpetrators, and the poor fellow who had to keep making payments on the burned car, Fishman constructs a careful case of his own. In the end, he warns, the Glover case shows “what can happen when our institutional systems fail, and the worst impulses of humanity spin out of control.” In closing, the author notes that New Orleans has since reformed some of its police procedures to the point that it is now proselytizing for more humane, less violent encounters and more community policing. Ironically, however, this reform affects a city that is substantially less Black than before Katrina, and there remains plenty of police resistance to the mandated constraints. Retired officers, notes the author, often complain that “if we want to stop crime…unshackle the police and let them police the way they want to.”
A cautionary tale of unchecked police power and failed justice.
Frankopan, Peter Knopf (704 pp.)
$35.00 | April 18, 2023
9780525659167
A scholarly assessment of the longstanding human habit of altering the environment to increasingly devastating consequences.
“Rather as a doctor should have full knowledge of an illness before trying to devise a cure, so too is investigating the causes of the current problems essential if we are to suggest a way to deal with the crises now confronting us all.” So writes Oxford historian Frankopan, enumerating the many environmental challenges we face. It’s no secret that the environment shapes history—e.g., in such events as the Mongol failure to invade Japan thanks to an intervening typhoon or Hitler’s failure to take Moscow because of the brutal Russian winter. However, as the author shows, environment doesn’t explain all: “Overambitious objectives, inefficient supply lines, poor strategic decisions and worse execution of plans on the ground” doomed both Hitler’s and Napoleon’s Russian campaigns just as much as the weather did. Mix poor decisions and incomplete knowledge with an attempt to conquer nature, and
“Finkel’s extensive research, survey of art history, and hours of interviews with his subject combine for a compelling read.”
the art thief
the possibility of life
you get trouble, as when the Mesopotamian state rose concurrently with its mastery of irrigated agriculture only to watch as its fields were covered with salts from the desert’s hard water, a problem reiterated millennia later in British Imperial India. Frankopan writes that his intention is to meld the environment into the historical narrative, extending that study far into the past, as when he proposes that Neanderthals declined in Europe in a time of widespread climate change to which they were less able to adapt than the Homo sapiens around them. The author negotiates the difficult matter of environmental determinism well, although he does adduce some suggestive stuff—for instance, that the naturally richest agricultural areas of the South, the sites of the most intensive use of slave labor in America, “are more likely today not only to vote Republican, but to oppose affirmative action and express racial resentment and sentiments towards black people.”
A deep, knowledgeable dive into environmental history that doesn’t offer much hope of a course correction.
Gordis, Daniel Ecco/HarperCollins (368 pp.)
$28.99 | April 11, 2023
9780063239449
An examination of the complexities of Israel’s past and future.
On the 75th anniversary of the creation of Israel, Gordis, a two-time winner of the National Jewish Book Award, offers a nuanced assessment of its successes and challenges. Israel’s Zionist founders, he writes, “did not really agree about the fundamental justification for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. Was it God? History? The Bible? Something else?” Yet they managed to forge a declaration that reflected their dream of creating a unique and exemplary nation, “different because it was a Jewish state, a nation that holds itself accountable to a different set of standards.” They envisioned a society that would ensure “complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex” and guarantee “freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture.” Gordis considers a host of relevant issues, including Israeli democracy, treatment of minorities, the economy, secularism, religion, relationship to Diaspora Jews, and, not least, place on the international stage, underscoring Israel’s determination to survive in a world in which antisemitism still rages. From the outset, it confronted violence by Palestine and volatility throughout the Middle East. Iran has repeatedly called for Israel’s annihilation. Faced with these threats, Gordis asks, “If Israel can only survive by the sword, should the Jewish people give up the profound transformation in the Jews’ existential condition that Israel has wrought?” The author acknowledges problems both within the nation (political corruption, internal violence, income inequality) and with
its neighbors. “Israel,” he writes, “can be fairly characterized as a success only if it and its people continue to be honest about who they have been, who they are, the terrible decisions that they have at times made, and who they and their country still need to become.” Yet in light of its founders’ dreams, he sees the nation as “one of the greatest stories of resilience, of rebirth, and of triumph in human history.”
A thoughtful, well-informed analysis.
Green, Jaime
Hanover Square Press (304 pp.)
$32.99 | April 18, 2023
9781335463548
An insightful examination of life— not only on Earth, but also where it might exist on the myriad of newly discovered planets and distant stars.
Since the first exoplanets were discovered in 1992, numerous books have explored the subject. Accounts of the origin of life are also an established genre, but science journalist Green, the series editor of the Best American Science and Nature Writing, casts her net even wider, adding a compelling exploration of the nature of life as a whole. Almost everyone enjoys discussing the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe despite zero evidence to date. Life on Earth appeared surprisingly soon after the young planet cooled, so it may be inevitable under the right conditions—but what those are remains subject to speculation. Rather than taking up space with unnecessary conjecture, Green begins with history, revealing that few thinkers paid attention to the question until Copernicus and Galileo removed Earth from the center of the universe, after which writers imagined life everywhere, including the sun and moon. Twentieth-century advances turned life into a thorny but interesting problem, so scientists largely gave up cosmic fantasies. Most popular writers followed their lead, but Green gives science fiction a major role, which turns out to be a fascinating approach. The horrors of War of the Worlds play a minor role; Green’s SF authors are a thoughtful group whose work—from Contact to Solaris to Arrival—explores deep questions. How would life operate without Darwinian evolution? Or light? How would an intelligent plant behave? Is there a language spoken without syntax or through smell instead of sound? Scientists point out that Earth is far from the oldest planet in the galaxy; older stars with older planets would have a few billion years’ head start, so we may find them incomprehensible—“not just in the way a person from the Middle Ages couldn’t imagine a computer, more like how we can’t understand what it’s like to be a bat.”
Ingenious writing about the cosmos and life itself.
“Ingenious writing about the cosmos and life itself.”
Greenfield, Robert Crown (448 pp.)
$30.00 | April 11, 2023
9780525575955
A fresh biography of the Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright, actor, director, and screenwriter.
In Sam Shepard’s (1943-2017) world, everything is fodder to be twisted into one of his stories— including facts. In this fascinating biography of the larger-thanlife theater legend, however, the focus is on keeping the facts straight, which is no small feat. Greenfield, a veteran music writer known for his biographies of the Rolling Stones, Jerry Garcia, and Timothy Leary, masterfully lets Shepard maintain his mythmaking, including his troubled childhood and runins with the law, but he balances it with outside corroboration. After he was arrested for DUI in Normal, Illinois, Shepard told the judge he got drunk with helicopter pilots involved in the conflict in Somalia captured in the movie Blackhawk Down, which included Shepard. He hoped he would receive a lighter sentence because of the military connection, but Greenfield writes that the sentence of two years of court supervision and suspended license “would most likely have happened even if he had not elected to commit perjury on the stand.” That kind of fact-finding serves readers well, whether they are interested in Shepard’s off-off-Broadway beginnings, his artistic process in celebrated works like Fool for Love, Buried Child, and True West, or his relationships with Patti Smith and Jessica Lange. Writing about the connection between Shepard and Smith, the author observes, “Completely at ease with one another, they seem to vibrate at an even higher frequency together than either of them could attain on their own.” Greenfield also injects useful real-world issues into the Shepard artistic myth, including how he took movie-acting roles to make money and would sell his letters and other personal papers to avoid debt. Impressively, the author accomplishes his biographical investigation without diminishing Shepard’s legacy as one of America’s greatest playwrights.
A masterful look at the wild life of an enigmatic artist that shows how captivating the truth can be.
Guterl, Matthew Pratt
Liveright/Norton (256 pp.)
$30.00 | March 28, 2023
9781324091714
An intensely personal account of growing up in a large, multiethnic family.
Guterl, professor of Africana studies and American studies at Brown
University and author of Seeing Race in America, fashions a moving, elegant memoir of his childhood within the “idealized experiment” of multiracialism created by his visionary White parents, Sheryl and Bob. Born in 1970, the eldest biological child to the lawyer father and homemaker mother in suburban New Jersey, Guterl gained siblings over the years: infant Bug, adopted from Korea; Mark, “another biological white son,” born in 1973; Bear, a Black Asian 5-year-old brought out of Saigon in 1975; 13-year-old Anna, “a beautiful Asian-and-white child, a proto-adult and a surrogate mother to us all,” in 1977; and Eddie, a Black 6-year-old adopted from the South Bronx in 1983. With children representing “the three great racial divisions of humankind,” as Bob said, this multiracial family was an anomaly in the American landscape. “As members of this family, this monument to radical futurity, we live in a house that is both private and public, in a small town that is picture-perfect, in the middle of nowhere,” writes Guterl. “There, we are science fiction brought to life. And we are biblical, a living reminder of the world’s failures.” The author writes poignantly of their home, a place both protective and decorative: The front yard was like a glaringly public theater, while the backyard was the children’s private play space. As the children matured and the stewardship role of their extraordinary parents receded, tensions arose when the children were confronted more directly with society’s overarching biases and racial expectations. Bob’s death served as a major test of the family cohesion, and the author writes elegantly about his funeral, noting “the diversity of the mourning family, our Black and brown and white skin tones, our heads bowed in sorrow, reflecting mutual affection for the dead hero.”
An earnestly felt, beautifully wrought story of an American family in all its complexity.
Gyllenhaal, Anders & Beverly Gyllenhaal Simon & Schuster (256 pp.)
$30.00 | April 18, 2023
9781982184551
Married bird-watchers join forces with scientists and ecologists to explore the correlation between birds and the planet’s future.
Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal discovered their mutual love of ornithology as “an antidote to city life” after “long careers in journalism.” Reveling in the wonder of “chasing” and photographing regional bird species became their new passion. The authors admit that in the first decade of bird-watching, they took the feathered friends for granted. However, as their interest branched out to encompass scientific research and environmentalism, they discovered the catastrophic decline of North American bird populations in the past few decades. Their love of birds inspired the couple to embark on a 25,000-mile journey to commune with “birds of nearly every variety, from the most common to some of the rarest on the planet.” This immersive,
enthusiastic report, which reads like a seasoned ecologist’s travel journal, spotlights key locales on the authors’ expansive expedition, from Central Florida and North Carolina to South America. The authors critically evaluate the “star power” of the bald eagle, assess the fate of the California spotted owl, admire the flamboyant cerulean warblers in Ecuador, and describe efforts to mitigate the damage to bird populations in Hawaii, “the extinction capital of the world.” The text encompasses studies by biologists, ecologists, wildlife officials, and philanthropists whose combined efforts are focused on halting the decline of bird populations. Most encouraging are modern scientific initiatives to uncover the source of bird decimation with ride-along migration banding trackers, bioacoustic engineering, community birdhouse building, and a wetlands habitat development program incentivized for California rice farmers. In the closing chapters, which feature conservationist case studies, the authors firmly reiterate that progress is possible. Throughout the book, they demonstrate that bird behavior and population levels serve as “real-time barometers of environmental stability.” The authors also include a selection of vivid, four-color photos. Passionate reportage from the world of birds and a cautionary tale for the future of Earth. A no-brainer for birders.
Heather, Peter Knopf (736 pp.)
$35.00 | April 4, 2023
9780451494306
Sweeping exploration of how the Christian Europe of the late Middle Ages came to be.
In his latest book, Heather, chair of medieval history at King’s College, London, takes readers on a wide-ranging journey through eight centuries and across the length and breadth of Europe (and beyond) to understand the rise of Christendom, which the author defines as “that part of the world where official Christianity exercised a dominant hold on the totality of the population.” By the 12th and 13th centuries, this “dominant hold” was certainly in place across the continent, but just how that situation arose over centuries has not always been properly explained by historians. In this fresh, prodigiously researched approach, the author uses relatively newly found sources to delineate the development of these historical progressions. First, Heather acknowledges Christianity’s failures in the course of its expansions. Second, he explores the diversity of Christian thought and practice through these years. Finally, he examines the reasons why people made the religious choices that they did. Heather divides the book into three eras: imperial Christianity under the influence of late Rome; postimperial Christianity, when society reordered itself in the wake of the fall of Rome’s influence; and a new imperial Christianity under the Carolingians. Throughout, the author finds ways to turn conventional wisdom on its head—e.g., “At least as
important…as the Christianization of the Roman Empire—a traditional topic of historical analysis—was the Romanization of Christianity.” Heather introduces a host of little-known characters who played an outsized role in Christianity’s spread, including Ulfilas, “the Apostle of the Goths,” who crafted a Gothic language translation of the Bible while also diplomatically assisting in the weakening of the western Roman empire. “From the time of Constantine onwards,” writes the author in conclusion, “the Christianization of Europe was closely linked to the exercise of power at every level.”
A worthwhile undertaking for serious students of medieval Europe and/or Christian history.
Heche, Anne
Viva Editions (176 pp.)
$15.95 paper | Jan. 24, 2023
9781627783316
The late actor offers a gentle guide for living with more purpose, love, and joy.
Mixing poetry, prescriptive challenges, and elements of memoir, Heche (1969-2022) delivers a narrative that is more encouraging workbook than life story. The author wants to share what she has discovered over the course of a life filled with abuse, advocacy, and uncanny turning points. Her greatest discovery? Love. “Open yourself up to love and transform kindness from a feeling you extend to those around you to actions that you perform for them,” she writes. “Only by caring can we open ourselves up to the universe, and only by opening up to the universe can we fully experience all the wonders that it holds, the greatest of which is love.” Throughout the occasionally overwrought text, Heche is heavy on the concept of care. She wants us to experience joy as she does, and she provides a road map for how to get there. Instead of slinking away from Hollywood and the ridicule that she endured there, Heche found the good and hung on, with Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford starring as particularly shining knights in her story. Some readers may dismiss this material as vapid Hollywood stuff, but Heche’s perspective is an empathetic blend of Buddhism (minimize suffering), dialectical behavioral therapy (tolerating distress), Christianity (do unto others), and pre-Socratic philosophy (sufficient reason). “You’re not out to change the whole world, but to increase the levels of love and kindness in the world, drop by drop,” she writes. “Over time, these actions wear away the coldness, hate, and indifference around us as surely as water slowly wearing away stone.” Readers grieving her loss will take solace knowing that she lived her love-filled life on her own terms. Heche’s business and podcast partner, Heather Duffy, writes the epilogue, closing the book on a life well lived.
A sweet final word from an actor who leaves a legacy of compassion and kindness.
“A worthwhile undertaking for serious students of medieval Europe and/or Christian history.”
christendom
Hu, Elise Dutton (384 pp.)
$28.00 | May 23, 2023
9780593184189
The host of “TED Talks Daily” and host at large for NPR shines a bright light into the shadowy world of manufactured beauty and endless “self-improvement.”
There is a Korean phrase, bbali bbali, which means fast, fast Hu, a winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award, among others, believes it sums up South Korea’s rush into hypermodernity. When she arrived in Seoul in 2015 to establish a bureau for NPR, she was stunned by the cult of beauty that grips Korean women. The aim of Western cosmetics is often to accentuate natural features, but in South Korea, the goal is skin that seems so perfect it needs nothing else. The beauty industry in Korea relies on intensive research and marketing by the skin care firms, which provide a continuing procession of products. The author also looks at the massive business of cosmetic surgery, which can amend any part of the body. This is less about self-expression and more about an aspiration toward perfection: blemish-free skin, long, shining hair, a narrow nose, anime-size eyes, a delicate jawline, and legs shaped to meet a mathematical formula. It ultimately leads to a sameness of look, but Korean women see it as a necessary investment for social success, and the few who buck the trend face ostracism. Looking at this endless commodification of the female body, Hu asks: “Where do we draw the line on appearance work when the work gets less and less invasive and previously impossible changes become possible?” She also notes that some women, accustomed to the filtered images on Snapchat and Instagram, want to be “improved” to look like their digital images. These trends, exacerbated by social media and Korea’s export marketing machine, are having a global impact, including in the U.S. Hu is unsure about how these issues will play out, but she hopes that there will be a turn away from relentless superficiality. She is a capable guide to the current fraught landscape.
Hu’s study of Korea’s beauty cult is fascinating and disturbing, woven with threads of dark humor and personal experience.
James, Aurora Crown (272 pp.)
$27.00 | May 9, 2023
9780593239452
An award-winning Black designer, entrepreneur, and activist reflects on her past accomplishments and future ambitions.
James has found success in a variety of ways: designer of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s iconic “Tax the Rich” dress for the 2021 Met Gala; founder of the Fifteen Percent Pledge, an organization that calls on corporations to donate 15% of their “shelf space” to Black-owned businesses; and winner of the Council of Fashion Designers of America/Vogue Fashion Fund Award for her company, Brother Vellies. In her debut memoir, the author chronicles her happy childhood growing up with her Ghanaian father and ethnically ambiguous mother, who was “adopted as an infant and never knew anything about her biological parents.” During her early years, James thrived under her grandmother’s loving care, but then her mother married a physically abusive man who also sexually assaulted James. “I did not tell my mother what he had done to me at that time because I already knew that she was battling for her life,” writes the author. While both women eventually escaped the abuse, the marriage significantly damaged James’ relationship with her mother. At the same time, it “allowed me to believe that I could forge my own path.” Traveling to Africa, she learned how to make shoes at workshops in places like Namibia, South Africa, and Kenya and how to combine her creativity and fashion sense to found her company. Ultimately, the author’s world travels and keen sense of justice led her to not only business success, but also social justice activism, which has informed her production models and her philanthropic involvement with Black Lives Matter and other movements. Throughout the text, James is vulnerable and frank, cultivating a narrative voice that is both intimate and captivating; on the line level, her language is impressively lyrical.
A well-written, profoundly empathetic memoir from an entrepreneur with a very bright future.
Jones, Landon Y.
Beacon Press (208 pp.)
$25.95 | May 9, 2023
9780807065655
Why the adulation of celebrities is a recipe for social decay.
One of the most eye-popping facts in this book is that Kim Kardashian has 326 million followers on Instagram as of September 2022. This simple data point shows the level that celebrity culture—i.e., being famous mainly for being famous—has reached in the U.S. and the world. Jones is a former editor of People magazine, a publication that played a role in building the celebrity machine, although now he has a jaundiced view of the whole business. The author identifies Elizabeth Taylor as one of the first to turn her life into a curated performance. After she stopped making movies, she generated millions of dollars in endorsements and eventually her own product line, which set a pattern for future generations. The big change, notes Jones, came with the social media revolution and the scale it provided. “The marriage of social
media with celebrity culture was made in branding heaven,” he writes. “Just as the broad reach of television had once overshadowed the traditional legacy print media, so too did social media offer unparalleled reach, frequency, and intimacy, especially to younger consumers.” Paris Hilton was one of the first to grasp the potential of social media and understood that even the occasional scandal could be good for business. There were a host of imitators, and the formula worked best if it included a touch of vulnerability, which helped the manufactured image of authenticity. Jones points to surveys showing that many teenagers count being famous as their life goal, which underlines how celebrities have elbowed aside people of actual accomplishment. A few celebrities have used their profiles and wealth for good works. Jones hopes that this will become more common, but he doesn’t sound convinced. However, the author provides a solid examination of how we got here.
A disquieting, well-researched exploration of the celebrity phenomenon and its consequences for our society.
Kelly, Kevin Viking (224 pp.)
$26.00 | May 2, 2023
9780593654521
A collection of inspiring insights from a wise technology writer.
Kelly, the founding executive editor of Wired, is not known as a self-help author. His hefty backlist includes such titles as Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World and The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future. However, as he notes in the introduction, on his 68th birthday, he decided to put together 68 pieces of advice for his adult children. He then added to it each year, resulting in this wonderful collection of 450 useful aphorisms. While readers may have heard some of it before—e.g., “Remove, give away, throw out anything that no longer gives you joy”; “Don’t grocery shop while hungry”—most of the material is fresh, inspiring, even exhilarating. Along practical lines, he addresses some perennial head-scratchers: “The quickest checkout line will be the one with the fewest people, no matter the size of their carts.” Some will really make you think: “Most wonderful things quickly become unwonderful if they are repeated too often. Once-in-a-life is often the optimal interval.” A few seem flat-out wrong, but which ones they are will vary by reader. Some will rebel when told, “Don’t wait in line to eat something famous. It is rarely worth the wait,” while others will question the wisdom of “90% of everything is crap. If you think you don’t like opera, romance novels, TikTok, country music, vegan food, NFTs, keep trying to see if you can find the 10% that is not crap.” But Kelly is ready for that. Check out the first piece of advice in the book: “Learn how to learn from
those you disagree with, or even offend you. See if you can find the truth in what they believe.”
The title really says it all. Buy more than one, or people will keep stealing it out of your bathroom.
Krauss, Lawrence M.
Post Hill Press (272 pp.)
$28.00 | May 9, 2023
9781637588567
The five greatest mysteries that science has yet to solve.
Theoretical physicist Krauss, the author of Quintessence, A Universe From Nothing, and other acclaimed books of popular science, is not the first to point out that civilizations throughout history have taken for granted that all important questions had been answered. It was only a few centuries ago that thinkers realized their ignorance and launched the scientific revolution, whose most important words were, “I don’t know.” Krauss delivers five long chapters, each addressing unanswered questions in the vast areas of time, space, matter, life, and consciousness. The first three embrace the author’s specialty, so readers might expect an easier ride; however, it’s still dense reading, even without equations. Time seemed simple until Einstein pointed out a few complications that created bizarre but proven phenomena. Time slows as gravity increases until it stops. Its flow depends not just on the motion of an object, but the environment in which it finds itself. Are there places where time itself doesn’t exist? We don’t know. Einstein proved that space and time are equivalent, but we can move back and forth in three dimensions of space and return from whence we came. The fourth dimension seems to force us, tick by tick, into the future. Is it possible to move about in time? Maybe, but probably not. Matter seems straightforward until Krauss reveals that almost all of it (“dark matter”) is invisible and does not consist of familiar atoms. Even stranger, almost all energy (“dark energy”) resides in empty space, corresponds to no matter at all, and is so far a complete mystery. Life seems to contain only two great unknowns—how it began and whether life exists beyond Earth—and consciousness remains a rat’s nest of theories. A steady guide who refuses to dumb it down, Krauss explains our ignorance as simply as he deems necessary, but no simpler.
Science buffs will relish these insights; others will require refresher courses in college physics and biology.
“While readers may have heard some of it before...most of the material is fresh, inspiring, even exhilarating.”
excellent advice for living
Kundera, Milan
Trans. by Linda Asher Harper/HarperCollins (96 pp.)$24.99 | April 11, 2023
9780063272958
A slim volume of early writings by the celebrated Czech author focusing on Central European cultures and languages. Kundera (b. 1929), who has lived in France since 1975, was part of the influential arts and theater movement in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s, which helped spur the Prague Spring of 1968. In these republished essays, Kundera asserts that the revival of Czech culture and language (the Czech National Revival) assured the very sovereignty of the nation against the onslaught of globalization. “The process of integration risks absorbing all the small nations, whose only defense can be the vigor of their culture, the personality and the inimitable traits that are their contribution,” he said in a speech to the 1967 Writers’ Congress. In the showcase essay, “The Kidnapped West, or the Tragedy of Central Europe,” which appeared in the French periodical Le débat in 1983, Kundera wrote more freely on the significance of the cultural affinity between the Central European countries (Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary) and European culture elsewhere, rooted in Roman Christianity and the Enlightenment. Kundera examines the “succession of revolts” that have convulsed these nations in the mid-20th century and how they have all been brutally suppressed by the Soviet Union. He argues that the post-1945 Soviet crackdown on these countries has been no less than “an attack on their civilization. The deep meaning of their resistance is the struggle to preserve their identity—or, to put it another way, to preserve their Westernness.” The author also considers some of the brilliant writers and musicians from these beleaguered nations, examining their existential struggles in opposition to the dominant neighboring German and Russian cultures and languages. Lovely though brief, these essays have fresh resonance as Ukraine remains under siege by Russia. The author’s fans will best appreciate this thin book, but general readers may wish for more pieces and further context.
Kundera is characteristically incisive, but this is mostly for completists.
Lebrecht, Norman
Pegasus (352 pp.)
$29.95 | May 2, 2023
9781639364114
A simultaneously entertaining and informative tour of Beethoven’s work.
Beethoven (1770-1827), who lost his hearing when he was 31, “reached deeper
into the human condition than any musician before him.” As Lebrecht, the author of Why Mahler, notes, “Mozart writes within the conventions of his time, where Beethoven has one foot way outside of them.” In 100 chapters discussing more than 100 musical pieces, Lebrecht explores Beethoven in six parts—as himself, in love, immersed, immured, in trouble, and inspired. In each chapter, the author provides biographical information related to a particular piece of music, his insightful and emotionally charged interpretations, interesting stories related to the piece, and recommended recorded versions. He begins with the 20-minute “Pathétique,” one of Beethoven’s favorite piano sonatas. Proust called it the “steak and potatoes” of his sonatas. Beethoven’s Second Symphony, writes Lebrecht, “lacks nutrients, a tune to whistle all the way home,” and the “deceptive” Eighth Symphony is “still pushing out symphonic form, just not quite as far as usual.” On some of his variations, “he’s like a millennial kid playing spaced out computer games, losing his way back to base.” Lebrecht calls Cello Sonata No. 3 “pure pleasure,” and he is convincing in his argument that “nobody attempts to match Beethoven at the septet.” Regarding Glenn Gould’s unique version of the 24th sonata, he writes, “No child learning to play Beethoven should be allowed to hear this; no adult should miss it.” Lebrecht quotes E.M. Forster regarding the Fifth Symphony— the “most sublime noise that has ever penetrated into the ear of man, and he is equally effusive about the Ninth Symphony, a “nuclear chorus” that “claims to speak for the whole of humanity.” The author closes with a succinct overview that largely answers his titular question.
An ideal guide to the master’s wondrous achievements.
Losos, Jonathan B.
Illus. by David J. Tuss
Viking (400 pp.)
$28.00 | May 2, 2023
9781984878700
Not just another cat book, this enthusiastic study traces the evolution of the domesticated house cat from the African wildcat and explores the scientific questions it raises.
An evolutionary biologist who specializes in how lizards adapt to their environments, Losos shows how cats have evolved both by natural selection and by artificial selection done by humans interested in breed development. The author taught classes to Harvard undergraduates on the science of cats, considering issues of ecology, evolution, and genetics, and that pedagogical experience informs this book. Though Losos delves deeply into evolutionary diversification, genetics, DNA research, ancient history, and archaeology, he steers clear of academic jargon and describes complex evolutionary changes in simple language. In order to explain selective breeding, he chronicles his visit to the Cat Fanciers’ Association’s International Cat Show (“the World Series of cats”), where the sheer
the west
variety of cats provides ample evidence of “the power of selection to rapidly alter the anatomy and behavior of a species.” We meet feline geneticist Leslie Lyons, who helped create the first “map” of the feline genome, which can identify the genes underlying some cat diseases. We follow the Cat Tracker project, which examines the home ranges of pet, feral, and wild cats worldwide. Losos also takes us inside the contentious indoor versus outdoor debate: Conservation organizations advocate keeping cats indoors, but cats’ natural tendency is to explore the outdoors. The author leavens the scientific information with personal anecdotes of living with his own house cats. In the final chapter, Losos speculates about the future of cats. Will genetic engineering produce a saber-toothed house cat, or will we be able to create a truly allergen-free cat? Beautifully drawn illustrations by Tuss, sprinkled throughout the text, help readers picture various landmarks on the evolutionary timeline as well as some of the most aesthetically pleasing cultivated breeds. A vivid, well-rounded treat for anyone interested in cats.
Lowery, Brian Harper/HarperCollins (272 pp.)
$24.99 | March 28, 2023
9780062913005
How our interactions with others make us who we are.
Lowery, a social psychologist and Stanford professor, explores how our selfhood is not a stable entity under our own firm control but rather a product of the social worlds we inhabit. “Our self is a construction of relationships and interactions,” he writes, “constrained and yet in search of the feeling of freedom.” Lowery synthesizes a range of scientific research in making his case while punctuating specific claims with examples drawn from ancient and modern literary sources ranging from the Epic of Gilgamesh to Dostoevsky’s Notes From Underground. The author investigates many commonly held assumptions that selfhood is, for the most part, a privately malleable entity originating within us at birth and that absolute liberty in defining it might be both possible and desirable. We know ourselves better and can improve our chances at self-improvement, the author explains convincingly, if we accept that our identities are fluid, socially determined phenomena. Though such arguments are by no means new, and some of the summaries of others’ complex explanations of selfhood may seem a little reductive, the book offers an accessible and absorbing account of the relational dimensions of our reflective being. A particularly rich chapter is dedicated to the relevance of a relational selfhood to race, which has routinely been understood according to fixed or “essentialist” categories. Ultimately, Lowery’s advice about the wisdom of accepting one’s dependence on others, and of fulfilling one’s moral obligations to a community of interconnected selves, is well founded. “To describe or define your best self is to accept limits, constraints on what you are,” he writes. “In this
context, constraint should be a source of comfort, more a hug than a straitjacket.”
An informed, thought-provoking consideration of the relational dimensions of our lives.
Mac Sweeney, Naoíse Dutton (352 pp.)
$28.00 | May 23, 2023
9780593472170
A classical archaeologist examines the “grand narrative” of Western civilization and finds it wanting.
The Enlightenment may have had its good points, but as prizewinning British scholar Mac Sweeney notes, it was thoroughly racialized in its mania for classification, leaving little room in the rise of the West for “someone like me (female, mixed-race) [who] did not belong in a tradition personified by…elite white men.” The author argues convincingly that it was a departure from Greek and Roman senses of who they were and how they fit into the world. A modern portrait gallery of the products of those traditions would be the White European males whose images Mac Sweeney found enshrined in the Library of Congress, but the Greeks took it as a given that “a big part of being Greek was about doing Greek things in a Greek sort of way,” which did not involve being White, Black, or any other skin color so much as speaking and thinking Greek. As Mac Sweeney adds, Herodotus looked more to the East than to whatever might have qualified as the West in his day, when the second tradition, the Roman, was beginning to rise—and which was also not racialized nor particularly ethnocentric, its influences stretching to and from as far away as South Asia. Indeed, writes the author, despite the bleatings of latter-day Italian racists, the Romans, counterintuitively, “saw themselves as the descendants of refugees,” namely the Asian survivors of the siege of Troy. The clash-of-civilizations narrative—in part driven by a misreading of Herodotus, Mac Sweeney points out— is based on incorrect and harmful presumptions. Mac Sweeney paints on a broad canvas and introduces numerous little-known characters, from the Roman aristocrat Livilla to the African ruler Njinga of Angola. She builds on arguments by Edward Said and other contemporary critics of Western triumphalism, and she also examines the counternarratives offered by the likes of the Islamic State and China, which have their own intellectual problems.
A highly readable, vigorous repudiation of the Westerncentric school of history.
“A highly readable, vigorous repudiation of the Western-centric school of history.”
The Week Mandela
Averted Civil War and Forged a New Nation
Malala, Justice
Simon & Schuster (352 pp.)
$28.99 | April 4, 2023
9781982149734
A focused study of a key moment in South African history when “people were prepared to set the country on fire to retain the apartheid system.”
In his latest, longtime South African journalist Malala, author of We Have Now Begun Our Descent, homes in on the days following the assassination of African National Congress leader Chris Hani by a right-wing fanatic in April 1993, a fraught time that would determine whether the nation would descend into more racial violence or attain a peaceful transition of power. As president of the ANC, Nelson Mandela was involved in ongoing discussions with F.W. De Klerk and his National Party government. However, with the assassination of Hani, the chief of staff of the military wing of the ANC, the talks were disrupted, and violence seemed imminent. Malala, a well-respected journalist, was a rookie reporter at Johannesburg’s English-language daily, the Star, and he was right in the middle of the political upheaval during those perilous days when the country tottered on the brink of civil war. In this page-turning account, the author moves chronologically, beginning with the shooting of Hani outside his Dawn Park home by a pro-apartheid extremist, aided by conservative parliamentarian Clive Derby-Lewis. They believed that making peace with “terrorist” Mandela was a form of “selling out” Whites and Afrikaners. Despite the angry backlash that erupted in the Black townships, suppressed violently by the government forces, Mandela repeatedly appealed for peace. A night vigil for Hani involved numerous important speakers, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mandela; the same was true at Hani’s funeral, but no South African government officials attended. The assassins, while linked to pro-apartheid organizations, were not proven to have been tied to a wider conspiracy. After Hani’s death, however, the Transitional Executive Council set the date for the first multiracial election in South Africa. The author includes a cast of characters, list of relevant organizations, and a timeline.
A suspenseful nonfiction thriller featuring valuable firsthand observation.
Mandel, Sarah
Harper/HarperCollins (256 pp.)
$27.99 | April 25, 2023
9780063270916
A clinical psychologist moves through the stages of trauma recovery to make sense of her cancer diagnosis.
In the third trimester of her second pregnancy, at age 36, Mandel was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. In her debut book, she builds on the trauma narrative therapy she undertook following her against-all-odds recovery. The first section is a relatively linear account of her diagnosis, metastasis, labor and delivery, and treatment and success. Across the remaining sections, Mandel positions a literary microscope over certain inflection points, including the symbolic complexity of cancer in the breasts, the management of chemotherapy’s harsh side effects, the guilt of survival, and how her near death has affected her roles as wife, mother, daughter, and therapist. Throughout, her clinical background and specialty in trauma therapy shape her personal memoir into a sort of motivational tale for others working to understand and move past trauma. She offers insights about the adaptive nature of fear, pain, the desire for control, and the instinct to emotionally detach, and she discusses the benefits of practices like mindfulness and yoga. Both her recovery and her access to resources—financial, informational, medical, and human—make Mandel an outlier (privileges that she acknowledges), and a deeper probing of the depression that spurred her to narrative therapy is veiled by a consistent, sometimes grating note of optimism and triumph. Still, in attempting to find order and meaning in her own experiences of frailty and frustration, the author provides a salient example of how to untangle isolated traumatic events from ongoing suffering and worries. By the end, the validation and empowerment that she seeks jump from the page even as her narrative reaches the period of pandemic shutdown. Mandel includes a guide to narrative therapy and a list of resources for readers seeking further help.
Sometimes overly rosy but nevertheless an encouraging story of trauma and how it affects one’s understanding of self.
May, Gregory
Liveright/Norton (384 pp.)
$30.00 | April 11, 2023
9781324092216
The curious case of a much-contested antebellum will that freed hundreds of enslaved people in Virginia.
A second cousin of Thomas Jefferson, John Randolph
(1773-1833) was a fiery believer in states’ rights and a limited federal government. Randolph amassed a fortune—and, like Jefferson, a mountain of debt—farming on the Virginia piedmont. After he died, it was discovered that Randolph had left several versions of a will and its codicils, some of which manumitted the nearly 400 enslaved people he owned. May, a former lawyer and author of Jefferson’s Treasure, creates a kind of Bleak House narrative early on, puzzling out the terms of that apparently magnanimous act, which “became a national sensation”—and which was litigated for a dozen years as Randolph’s relatives stepped forward to claim a share of his property. Finally declared to be free by virtue of a sympathetic judge, the enslaved people faced an unsympathetic body of law, one of whose statutes declared that free Black people must leave Virginia or be subject to reenslavement. The judge traveled to Ohio, where the law “prohibited any person of African descent from settling in the state unless two Ohio landowners posted a $500 bond for the person’s support.” He found a place for the freed Virginians to settle, though Ohio vigilantes immediately drove them out and forced them to settle elsewhere. Although the narrative threatens to come to a grinding halt at times in legal minutiae, May does a good job of pointing out the contradictions of the law in both free and slave states. He also paints a vivid portrait of Randolph himself, a man who, while privately opposed to slavery, was not shy about building his fortune on the backs of enslaved people and whose liberation was less than pure. “Because manumission was just an exercise of the giver’s rights,” May writes, “it changed almost nothing.”
A twisty story that illuminates the elaborate legal system built to defend slavery and silence its discontents.
Mazzucato, Mariana & Rosie Collington
Penguin Press (352 pp.)
$28.00 | March 7, 2023
9780593492673
Two respected researchers draw back the curtain to probe the consulting industry, and what they find is worrying.
Mazzucato and Collington, academics connected to the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at the University College London, ask an interesting, important question: What is it that consultant firms are really selling? The answer seems to be confidence—the image that they know what they are doing, with a level of expertise and knowledge higher than that of the client. Or maybe it’s more of a “confidence trick,” a sleight of hand that provides huge profits for little actual assistance. The authors deeply examine the activities of the giant consulting companies, particularly McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Company, and the “Big Four” accounting firms. These corporations expanded massively in the 1980s and
1990s on the back of a neoliberal wave of privatization, outsourcing, and reorganization. While they present themselves as objective advisers, their proposals usually involve cuts to staff numbers and a focus on short-term gains. Mazzucato and Collington look at several cases where their advice turned out to be spectacularly, painfully wrong—although the consultants still walked away with fattened pockets. The authors point out that the expertise of consultants is often exaggerated and tends to be generalist rather than specialized. The use of consultants undercuts the development of intellectual capital within the client organization, resulting in problems that require more consultants to fix. In the concluding section, the authors give advice to anyone considering engaging consultants, such as first examining your own organization to see if the needed expertise is already available. Clear metrics to gauge success or failure should be incorporated into a contract, and research into the record of the consulting firm is invaluable. As the authors demonstrate, these are simple steps that could save a great deal of money, time, and difficulty.
A detailed and disturbing look at the consulting industry and its negative impacts on companies and governments.
McDonell, Terry
Harper/HarperCollins (256 pp.)
$25.99 | April 11, 2023
9780063277977
A son’s moving tribute to his mother’s love and support.
In this follow-up memoir to The Accidental Life, McDonell (b. 1944), the former editor of Time Inc. Sports Group, depicts a young widowed mother’s determination to raise her son in his father’s image. Drawn from diaries and daybooks, the text describes the unique bond shared with his mother, Irma, a connection that intensified upon the premature death of his father, Bob. After Bob’s death, Irma restlessly relocated them, with stops in multiple states, before she bought “a new Ford convertible so we can drive to California with the top down.” The author had a fairly solitary childhood before Irma’s friend Norm arrived and they got married—even though his pessimistic, moneyfocused worldview clashed with Irma’s open-minded optimism. Throughout this touching book, the author reflects on how his father’s early death resonated throughout his boyhood and how he and Irma strove to overcompensate for the absence. The true hero of the memoir, of course, is Irma, a schoolteacher who instilled in McDonell the classic values of responsibility and confidence. When Norm began to demonstrate abusive tendencies, Irma remained an “unyielding” rock of stability and unconditional love. Meanwhile, McDonell developed a fierce, cocky independence, playing high school football and partying, often underappreciating the sacrifices Irma made. In the second section of the book, the author switches to a third-person
How the Consulting Industry Weakens Our Businesses, Infantilizes Our Governments, and Warps
“A rich and bittersweet portrait of a mother and son spanning miles, decades, and complex emotions.”
irma
perspective, describing his adult struggles with depression and his successes as a journalist and novelist as well as his experience as a father of two sons without a “philosophy of fatherhood.” In a narrative brimming with vignettes ranging from humorously innocent to painfully melancholy, McDonell chronicles how he grew increasingly appreciative of Irma and her innate ability to overcome her own grief to focus on raising the kind, resilient, morally upright man Bob would’ve fostered himself.
A rich and bittersweet portrait of a mother and son spanning miles, decades, and complex emotions.
McRaven, William H. Grand Central Publishing (224 pp.)
$25.00 | April 4, 2023
9781538707944
A collection of encouraging advice from the former commander of U.S. Special Operations Forces.
Books teaching leadership are typically thin, inspirational, packed with pithy anecdotes, and have—this being an overpopulated genre—a memorable yet gimmicky title (How To Win Friends and Influence People, Think Like a Horse, The Leadership Secrets of Genghis Khan, etc.). This one fits the bill. As he shows, McRaven is the bullfrog, “the longest-serving frogman and Navy SEAL on active duty.” The bestselling author of Make Your Bed, Sea Stories, and The Hero Code, McRaven begins by warning that good leadership is difficult but not complicated. “In its simplest form,” he writes, “leadership is ‘accomplishing a task with the people and resources you have while maintaining the integrity of your institution.’ A good leader knows both how to inspire the men and women that work for them and how to manage the people and resources necessary to complete the task. But leadership is not just about getting the job done. It is also about maintaining or advancing the reputation of your institution.” It’s a reasonable but hardly groundbreaking, repetitious definition. Each chapter begins with a pithy quote (“A Shepherd Should Smell Like His Sheep”) followed by an incident from military history that illustrates how to get the job done or an anecdote from the author’s life that recounts a slipup, after which he learned an important lesson. All end with three succinct rules summarizing the lesson—e.g., “A. Have a vision that says what you are doing….B. Have a strategy that tells how you are going to do it….C. Have a plan that shows who is responsible.” Although mostly directed at the business community, McRaven’s knowledge owes a great deal to his military background—“Run to the sound of the guns,” “no plan survives first contact with the enemy”—but few readers will miss his points because they have been made so often by other writers. Sensible yet overly familiar advice for potential leaders.
Nix, Megan Doubleday (336 pp.)
$28.00 | April 18, 2023
9780385548595
An investigation of a dangerous virus that can threaten developing fetuses. When Nix’s second child, Anna, was born, she had low birth weight and failed a hearing assessment given to all newborns. After failing subsequent tests as well, Anna was diagnosed as profoundly deaf—a consequence, Nix was told, of having contracted cytomegalovirus in utero. Often spread to pregnant women by toddlers’ runny noses and sneezes, CMV is easily preventable through simple hygienic measures, such as handwashing and avoiding finishing a child’s leftovers or kissing on the lips. But Nix, whose first child was a toddler during her pregnancy with Anna, had never heard of CMV. It was not screened by genetic tests routinely offered to pregnant women, nor by the blood test given to newborns to detect a battery of diseases and disorders, even though it is the leading cause of birth defects and developmental delays in the U.S. Fetuses who contract CMV during the first trimester, especially, are at risk of stillbirth, blindness, deafness, seizures, cerebral palsy, cognitive and motor delays, and autism, among other disabilities. In her moving debut memoir, Nix recounts the heartbreaking diagnosis that thrust the family into the world of the disabled— a world, she admits, which she always had thought existed “in the anecdotes of others.” Because administering an antiviral to a newborn in the first month is crucial, Nix embarked on a desperate effort to procure the medicine for Anna in Sitka, Alaska, where the family lives for nearly half of every year (her husband is a salmon fisherman). There, and in their home in Colorado, Nix accessed a range of interventions to help Anna thrive, connected with a community of CMV moms for much-needed support, and transformed herself into a brave activist. In sharing the fears, frustrations, and challenges she has faced, the author lays bare both insidious medical paternalism and the dismal failure of public health policy.
An inspiring memoir with an urgent message.
O’Donnell Heffington, Peggy Seal Press (256 pp.)
$30.00 | April 18, 2023
9781541675575
A history professor explores the many reasons why increasing numbers of women are choosing to be childless.
Millennial women are now at the peak of their childbearing years, but as O’Donnell Heffington observes, their rate of childlessness is almost as high as that of fertile women who lived during the Great Depression. The reasons for this trend go far beyond simplistic explanations that modern women are “too selfish, too greedy, too shortsighted,” and too focused on their careers. “Women are choosing to have no children, in other words, because they want other things—lattes, degrees, careers, vacations, definitely avocado toast—more than they want kids,” writes the author. Challenging economic conditions—brought about first by the Great Recession and then by the Covid-19 pandemic a decade later—have made it extremely difficult for many millennials to create secure home lives for young children. Many young women have found themselves taking on multiple jobs or working their way into better employment opportunities from “the small, unstable dinghies that are early career jobs.” Even those with professional salaries must contend with high cost-of-living expenses for themselves and the reality that the day care for just one child typically equates to “the pretax income of someone working full-time at the federal minimum wage.” That American families in general have become increasingly isolated from each other over the last 200 years has created a situation in which those with children cannot rely on community networks to help sustain them through crises like the recent pandemic. Finally, the looming threat of climate change has caused many young people, especially those between 16 and 25, to reconsider bringing babies into a “carbon-choked world” where resources are dwindling. Provocative and well researched, this book offers compassionate insight into the history and predicaments of women who have embraced the “never...uncommon and [now] increasingly common” childless life.
A liberatingly perceptive work of sociology and cultural history.
Penniman, Leah
Amistad/HarperCollins (320 pp.)
$26.99 | April 11, 2023
9780063160897
Essays exploring the relationship between people of color and nature.
Penniman, author of Farming While Black and co-founder of Soul Fire Farm, shares her conversations with 16 Black environmentalists. “The voices and expertise of Black, Brown, and Indigenous environmentalists, amplified by all those who have eschewed white supremacy, must be heeded if we are to halt and reverse planetary calamity,” writes the author in the introduction. “Ecological humility is part of the cultural heritage of Black people.” The author weaves together the experiences and stories of this diverse group of individuals with respect to their relationships with “Mother Earth” and their perspectives on how to listen to her better. “Embedded in the theory of the supremacy of white
people over other races,” writes Penniman, “is the theory of human supremacy over nature.” Among the topics she discusses in her joint conversation with Lauret Edith Savoy, Rue Mapp, and Audrey Peterman are the contention that national parks have been historically unwelcoming to Blacks and that the land used to create the park system was stolen from Native Americans. Regarding the enslavement of African Americans, Penniman contends that Blacks have “confused the subjugation our ancestors experienced on the land with the land herself.” With Greg Watson and Pandora Thomas, she discusses ancestral grandmothers braiding seeds into their hair before boarding the trans-Atlantic slave ships, the value of traditional African diets, and the loss of connection to ancestral foodways. With Alice Walker and Joshua Bennett, the author discusses the role of Black eco-literature as a vital avenue to record and remind people of color of their history. Walker writes about hearing the Earth stories of various African American and Black members of her community, and while she was also interested in biblical stories, she believes they “further enslaved us in a belief system that took us a greater distance from our earthbound wisdom.” Ross Gay provides the foreword.
A powerful and passionate collection of instructive perspectives on nature.
Phelps, Wesley G.
Univ. of Texas (304 pp.)
$45.00 | Feb. 7, 2023
9781477322321
A bracing journey through decades of struggle for queer equality.
In the 2003 case Lawrence v. Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated anti-sodomy laws, which had often been used to broadly discriminate against queer Americans. This landmark ruling, writes Phelps, a University of North Texas historian, helped queer Americans secure additional rights, including marriage rights, because “as long as their sexual relationships were outlawed, queer Americans wore a stigma of criminality, and the likelihood that a group viewed as serial lawbreakers might successfully assert their rights and gain equal treatment seemed implausible.” Movingly, the author rewinds and introduces readers to the everyday queer Texans and their allies who paved a path of small, vital steps to that momentous 2003 decision. For instance, in 1969, police arrested Alvin Buchanan for allegedly having sex in public bathrooms. Partnering with a married couple who said that they also engaged in outlawed sexual acts, Buchanan brought the first constitutional challenge to the Texas sodomy law. A federal district court deemed the law unconstitutional—because of how it affected the privacy of the couple, not Buchanan. Essentially, legislators merely designed a statute specifically targeting sexual behavior between people of the same sex. Despite the undesirable outcome, Buchanan v.
Batchelor informed Baker v. Wade in 1979. While that case, too, was ultimately unsuccessful at overturning the state sodomy law, it “nevertheless helped establish the necessary groundwork for the eventual victory in the Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas and was a significant development in the longer struggle for queer equality.” Marshaling a variety of sources—legal records, queer publications, interviews—Phelps creates a vivid narrative that shows how Lawrence didn’t spring out of the blue. It was one part of a daisy chain of heroic queer organizing efforts. An urgent exploration of equality at a moment rife with fresh threats against queer communities.
Pittard, Hannah
Henry Holt (224 pp.)
$26.99 | May 2, 2023
9781250869043
Conversations, remembered and imagined, surrounding a divorce.
Pittard, author of several novels, begins this deconstruction of her marriage—her less successful writer husband, Patrick (names are changed), left her for her so-called best friend, Trish—with an introduction justifying its existence. In 2017, the author published a long essay in the Sewanee Review about the situation, but readers wanted more—“the nasty bits.” Clearly, it’s about more than just that: “What began as a response to curious readers has since morphed into an investigation into the intersection of memory, self, honesty, and personal accounting—an investigation that sharply questions the legitimacy, ownership, and accuracy of personal and shared memories.” The first half of the book, which is interesting to read in a salacious, other-people’s-private-business way, presents a series of scenes, written in script format with stage directions, between her, Patrick, Trish, and a few other characters. Scenes include: “July 2016—Hannah Discovers Her Husband Is Having an Affair”; “June 2012—Four Years Earlier, Patrick Proposes”; “Fall 2005—Hannah & Trish Discuss Live Bands and Eating Disorders”; “February 2014— Nine Years Later, Hannah & Patrick Discuss Having Children.” The fractured chronology sometimes makes it tricky to follow, but overall this part is snappy and controlled, an addition to the growing canon of women writers figuring out fun formal ways to liven up a sad story of betrayal. The second section is less charming, envisioning a dialogue in second person with an imagined version of her husband. Here, bitterness and TMI prevail. About his career, she says, “It’s like you took one look at me—simple, boring, uptight me—and thought, Jesus, if she can do it, then surely so can I….But nothing got taken; nothing got published.” In response, the imagined husband says: “This is gross. I feel dirty even tolerating this conversation.”
Connoisseurs of divorce memoirs will enjoy the inventive style choices and unusually nasty details.
Pompeo, Mike Broadside Books/HarperCollins (464 pp.)
$32.99 | Jan. 24, 2023
9780063247444
A preening, defiant memoir by a Trump stalwart.
While the flood of their memoirs shows no sign of letting up, even the most full-throated of Trump’s supporters allow that storming the Capitol was maybe not such a good idea. Not Pompeo, who mentions it only once, as “that January 6, the one the Left wants to exploit for political advantage.” The author doesn’t discuss the coup attempt or other inconvenient truths of Trump’s last days, but there’s plenty about Pompeo being exactly the right man for the right job—jobs, rather—that Trump offered him. Pompeo, top of his West Point class and fearless Kansas congressman, knew that his duty was to save the CIA, which “desperately needed good leadership” after John Brennan, “a total disaster.” By Pompeo’s account, it was he, as secretary of state, who made Iran blink, North Korea flinch, and Putin behave. (That Russia/Trump business? A hoax. The Hunter Biden laptop thing, however, is very real and very important.) According to the author’s account, he did all of this almost single-handedly, since supposed fellow traveler John Bolton, among others, “cared far more about taking credit and nurturing his ego than he did for executing the president’s directives….If everyone had behaved as selfishly as Bolton had, very little would ever have gotten accomplished.” Pompeo proves that one can be a dedicated Trumper and also endlessly self-serving. Granted, he does give a shoutout or two to others in the administration, mostly nameless, as when he writes, “In the end, our team left America more secure and more respected—even if not always more loved—in the world,” not like the present administration, which is to blame for all that’s wrong today—except maybe Covid-19, which came out of a Chinese lab. Pompeo also makes room to advocate for waterboarding.
Just the thing for Biden haters and insurrectionists.
Rannells, Andrew Crown (256 pp.)
$28.00 | May 16, 2023
9780593443439
A second book on showbiz life from the popular actor.
Anyone familiar with Rannells through his numerous stage and TV performances and his first book, Too Much Is Not Enough, will know what to expect from his latest collection of short essays.
the best minds
In this charming follow-up, he searches for his “true markers of adulthood” by returning “to moments and stories from my life that mark examples of progress.” Rannells writes in a conversational style throughout, as when he notes, “I will confide in you— and please try to hold your judgment until the end—the story of when I was a guest on The Ricki Lake Show.” In that piece, he chronicles a “debacle” from before he was famous when a female friend convinced him to fill in for her boyfriend, who refused to show up for their joint appearance on the show, and to allow her to pretend she had a secret crush on him. Other pieces describe the “married and very Christian” man, a fellow actor in a show they performed in, who came on to Rannells in a public bathroom (“He was like an octopus; his hands were suddenly everywhere”) and initiated an affair; and the acting jobs he got, didn’t get, or was fired from. In the title essay, the author admits he isn’t good with kids, a fact that became more bothersome when he began a relationship with fellow actor Tuc Watkins, who has two children. A couple of pieces are silly rather than charming, but most are endearing. Rannells has a gift for writing genuinely funny prose, and he has a way with self-deprecation. Chronicling his trip to an East Village club that dangerous, heavily tattooed gay men attend, he failed to blend in: “I still looked like a Precious Moments confirmation cake topper.”
Winningly snarky, well-written essays on life, love, and celebrity.
Trailblazing Explorer, Scientist, Statesman, and Conservationist
Rohter, Larry Norton (448 pp.)
$38.00 | April 25, 2023
9781324021261
Comprehensive biography of a Brazilian hero whose history is largely, unjustly unknown.
Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon (1865-1958), writes former New York Times Rio de Janeiro bureau chief Rohter, was definitively a man of parts. Of mixed Indigenous, Portuguese, and Spanish descent, he guided an exhausted Theodore Roosevelt on his 1914 Amazon expedition and then returned immediately to a long project of stringing telegraph lines across the Brazilian jungle, “much of it across terrain inhabited only by hostile or uncontacted Indian tribes.” Rondon—for whom the vast Brazilian state of Rondônia is named—counseled that these tribes should be treated with dignity and left alone, and he forbade members of his exploratory expeditions from firing on them. Over decades as an army officer, scholar, and activist, he was successful not just in building telegraph lines, the first step in linking remote sections of a far-flung nation, but also in establishing preserves for Indigenous peoples after “finding a way into a place that no one, not even Native peoples living nearby, had ever braved.” A largerthan-life character overshadowing even Roosevelt, Rondon was
silenced by a succession of dictators against whom his commitment to logical positivism and moral solutions to political problems didn’t stand much of a chance. Sidelined and stripped of his rank as general, he had to watch as the environmental protection agencies he helped create were dismantled and his beloved Amazon invaded by miners, loggers, and settlers, with disastrous consequences for the Native peoples of the region. However, he was such an effective diplomat and Indigenous rights advocate that Albert Einstein nominated Rondon for a Nobel Peace Prize, calling him “a philanthropist and leader of the first order.” As Rohter notes in this lively biography, long after his death, Rondon “remains a combatant through the relevance of his ideas.”
A welcome, vivid portrait of a historical figure who deserves much wider recognition outside his native country.
Rosen, Jonathan Penguin Press (560 pp.)
$32.00 | April 18, 2023
9781594206573
An account of a brilliant young man brought down by schizophrenia, with lives shattered all around him.
The subject of Rosen’s book, Michael Laudor, had a capacious and wide-ranging mind, taking in higher learning and popular culture alike. “Michael and I grew up in a Norman Rockwell painting,” writes the author. In fact, Rockwell lived in and set paintings in their town, a suburban idyll. Laudor and Rosen excelled while living out a late baby boomer existence in academic homes among Holocaust survivors, yet with ominous shadows on the horizon. As Rosen writes, “the culture had prepared us for David Berkowitz,” the poster child for mental illness presented as satanic evil. Laudor was somewhat late in manifesting the schizophrenic break that would require his institutionalization, though, reflecting on events, Rosen sees warning signs such as “a mysterious habit of spending whole days in his room with the lights out.” Having worked in law and business while budding writer Rosen studied English literature, Laudor decided that he, too, wanted to be an author, leading to encounters with the publishing and film industries that may well have accelerated his final psychotic break, one that culminated in homicide. Rosen captures many worlds in this attentive, nuanced narrative, evoking boyhood discovery, the life of post-Shoah Jews in America, the rise of predatory capitalism, and the essential inability of one friend to comprehend fully the “delicate brain” of the other. It’s an undeniably tragic story, but Rosen also probes meaningfully into the nature of mental illness. Throughout, he is keenly sensitive, as when he writes of the perils of self-awareness, “The flip side of the idea that writing heals you, perhaps, was the fear that failing to tell your story, and fulfill your dreams, cast you into outer darkness.”
An affecting, thoughtfully written portrait of a friendship broken by mental illness and its terrible sequelae.
“An affecting, thoughtfully written portrait of a friendship broken by mental illness and its terrible sequelae.”
Rovelli, Carlo
Trans. by Marion Lignana Rosenberg Riverhead (272 pp.)
$17.00 paper | Feb. 28, 2023
9780593542361
A theoretical physicist examines an obscure Greek philosopher and maintains that he was the first modern scientific thinker.
Rovelli, author of Seven Brief Lessons in Physics and other bestsellers, reminds readers that until the scientific revolution, all cultures explained natural phenomena “solely in mythical and religious terms: as manifestations of incomprehensible forces attributed to divine beings.” Born in 610 B.C.E., 200 years before the golden age of Plato and Pericles, Anaximander, writes Rovelli, “succeeded in changing the old understanding of space, transforming the world from a closed box with the Heavens above and the Earth below to an open space in which Earth floats.” In reality, the old view persisted in the popular mind until a few centuries ago. Even heavyweight Greek philosophers considered Anaximander controversial but took him seriously enough to quote him, so scholars can piece together a sketchy image of his ideas. Other wise men taught that objects fall, so the Earth must also “fall.” Since it obviously didn’t, there must be something holding it up (Atlas, columns, etc.). Anaximander maintained that objects fall toward the Earth, so there’s no reason for the Earth itself to fall. In addition to his biography of Anaximander, Rovelli, a renowned philosopher, turns to defending science, writing that it exists because we are ignorant, and its purpose is to explain how the world works. “With each new discovery, the world changes before our eyes,” he writes. “We come to know and see it in a different and better way.” Regardless of the truths provided by scientific experimentation, a majority of people believe that a divine presence “plays, or at least played, a founding role in the very existence of reality, in the justification of power, and in the establishment of morality.” There is also a persistent, hypereducated minority who maintain that truth is culturally determined, making all ideas equally worthy. As usual, Rovelli communicates his ideas with clarity and verve.
Solid insights into the foundations of science.
Sanders, Bernie with John Nichols Crown (320 pp.)
$28.00 | Feb. 21, 2023
9780593238714
Everyone’s favorite avuncular socialist sends up a rousing call to remake the American way of doing business.
“In the twenty-first century we can end the vicious dog-eat-dog economy
in which the vast majority struggle to survive,” writes Sanders, “while a handful of billionaires have more wealth than they could spend in a thousand lifetimes.” With that statement, the author updates an argument as old as Marx and Proudhon. In a nice play on words, he condemns “the uber-capitalist system under which we live,” showing how it benefits only the slimmest slice of the few while imposing undue burdens on everyone else. Along the way, Sanders notes that resentment over this inequality was powerful fuel for the disastrous Trump administration, since the Democratic Party thoughtlessly largely abandoned underprivileged voters in favor of “wealthy campaign contributors and the ‘beautiful people.’ ” The author looks squarely at Jeff Bezos, whose company “paid nothing in federal income taxes in 2017 and 2018.” Indeed, writes Sanders, “Bezos is the embodiment of the extreme corporate greed that shapes our times.” Aside from a few passages putting a face to avarice, Sanders lays forth a well-reasoned platform of programs to retool the American economy for greater equity, including investment in education and taking seriously a progressive (in all senses) corporate and personal taxation system to make the rich pay their fair share. In the end, he urges, “We must stop being afraid to call out capitalism and demand fundamental change to a corrupt and rigged system.” One wonders if this firebrand of a manifesto is the opening gambit in still another Sanders run for the presidency. If it is, well, the plutocrats might want to take cover for the duration.
Even if they’re pie-in-the-sky exercises, Sanders’ pitched arguments bear consideration by nonbillionaires.
A Memoir
Schneider, Vanessa
Trans. by Molly Ringwald
Scribner (160 pp.)
$26.00 | April 18, 2023
9781982141509
A touching tribute to an overlooked French actor.
Maria Schneider (1952-2011) was far more than the actor known for her explicit sex scenes with Marlon Brando in the controversial Last Tango in Paris, though few were interested in anything else. Her younger cousin, Vanessa, will change that with this powerful remembrance of their time together. Vanessa, a novelist, reporter, and commentator on French politics, writes this memoir like a love letter, addressing her famous cousin as “You,” recalling the stories about Maria that she witnessed or were told to her. Their stories were intertwined even before Vanessa was born, since it was her birth that forced Maria, then 16, to stop staying with Vanessa’s parents after her mother forced her to move out of their house. Though Vanessa initially worshipped her famous cousin and the often glamorous life she led at an early age, thanks to her father, French actor Daniel Gélin, she began to see how fame hurt Maria, especially after the release of Last Tango in Paris, for which she felt victimized by the film’s director,
war made invisible
Bernardo Bertolucci. Vanessa chronicles this fascinating story in often affectionate yet unflinching language, a quality that carries through in Ringwald’s spare, poignant translation from French. “I often worry that you won’t approve of the story I’m telling, Maria,” Vanessa writes. “You won’t like that I’m speaking of the drugs, of your mother and father and brothers. So, I erase what I just wrote, and then I write it again, because talking about you without talking about the drugs, your mother, your father, or Tango would mean giving up talking about you at all.” Maria Schneider, with all her adventures and struggles, deserves to be better remembered, and her cousin shows us why.
This stunning tale of Maria Schneider and her battles is stark yet consistently loving—and unforgettable.
Shapiro, Ari
HarperOne (256 pp.)
$28.99 | March 21, 2023
9780063221345
The longtime host of NPR’s All Things Considered offers a topical and sanguine memoir in essays.
“The best stories should surprise us,” writes Shapiro, “they should defy our expectations and veer in directions we weren’t expecting.” The author sets a high bar for himself, and he mostly succeeds. This work encompasses subjects ranging from Shapiro’s coming out when he was a teenager to his four years covering the White House. The opening piece is ostensibly about nature, but it serves as further introduction to Shapiro because it enumerates his driving, lifelong curiosity. “My parents raised me to believe that the more you learn about the world,” he writes, “the more interesting life becomes.” By extension, “the best journalists…enjoy the feeling of moving from ignorance or confusion to understanding.” This ethos has guided Shapiro throughout his two decades at NPR. Other essays delve into more personal territory, including “You Can’t See Schvitz on the Radio,” describing how the author sweats profusely. Throughout, Shapiro comes across as appealingly relatable and, like any human, fallible. A singer in the band Pink Martini since 2009, he relays entertaining vignettes about this unexpected turn. “Going on tour feels like a reality TV show where nobody gets kicked off,” he writes. The author’s sense of humor is also on full display. Of his appearance in a photograph taken the day he accidently interrupted a meeting that included Barack Obama and Joe Biden in 2010, Shapiro compares himself to “a meerkat who wandered off the savanna into the Oval Office.” The organization of the essays feels random, which results in a lack of a flowing narrative arc. Still, the topics are varied and interesting enough to make the montage coalesce, and the writing is engaging. This collection’s success is due to the author’s companionable, ever sincere tone, his willingness to be vulnerable, and his unwavering magnanimity. A clever and compulsively readable crowd pleaser.
Sofrin, Will Abrams (272 pp.)
$28.00 | April 18, 2023
9781419767067
A memoir of the voyage of a replica warship from Rhode Island to California. In his debut book, Sofrin recounts his 2002 journey from Newport, Rhode Island, to San Diego, California, aboard a replica of an 18th-century English Royal Navy frigate named Rose. The ship had been purchased by Twentieth Century Fox to be used in the making of the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, based on the Aubrey-Maturin series of novels by Patrick O’Brian. At the time, Sofrin was 21, with few job prospects, but he had recently spent time sailing a boat in Europe. With some hesitation, he accepted the position in Newport, working to help prepare the ship to make the trip. Later, he was asked to join the crew as a deckhand and carpenter for the passage as well as to stay on to assist with the movie. “I had assumed that I’d be spending most of a single day on Rose, doing a bunch of dirty work that nobody else wanted to do,” writes the author. “Instead, I had just been offered a paid crew position to sail from Newport to California to make a movie.” Sofrin vividly describes the motley crew and diligently chronicles their charted course through the Panama Canal and on to various locations in Mexico before docking in San Diego. They departed Newport in January and soon began encountering problems, including electrical fires, water leaks, massive waves, and gale force winds, which had them fearing they would have to abandon ship. Forced to reevaluate “how to handle adversity,” Sofrin realized that “the only way out was through.” With an enthralling style, Sofrin recounts these events as well as the personality dynamics that developed aboard the ship. Throughout, the author also discusses historic and modern aspects of sailing and accompanies his narrative with technical drawings and photographs.
Experienced sailors and landlubbers alike will find Sofrin’s work a pleasure to read.
Solomon, Norman
The New Press (240 pp.)
$26.99 | June 6, 2023
9781620977910
The role of government and media in concealing the consequences of war. With formidable clarity, Solomon, the executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy and author of War Made Easy, documents how the so-called war on
“A powerful, necessary indictment of efforts to disguise the human toll of American foreign policy.”
terror has spawned an endless and secretive program of foreign interventions. The author is particularly eloquent in explaining how the media’s exclusive focus on past and potential “American suffering” in framing such activities has meant that “there [isn’t] much room to see or care about the suffering of others, even if—or especially if—it was caused by the United States.” Solomon points out that this pattern of selective moral attention accompanies a widespread ignorance of the actual policies being carried out by the American military and its numerous contractors. Particularly persuasive are the author’s illustrations of how media outlets have been coopted into producing what is essentially war propaganda and how journalists who seek to question the honesty of government officials are routinely silenced. Solomon makes a striking comparison between the American media’s strong interest in the losses endured by Ukrainian civilians after the recent Russian invasion and its indifference to the fate of Iraqi civilians after America’s invasion in 2003. As such, it should be no wonder how fantasies of an incorruptible national innocence—or what the author memorably dubs “the standard Manichean autopilot of American thought”—have been perpetuated. Solomon may have offered a somewhat deeper analysis of why American journalism fails to live up to its ideals in reporting on war and the reasons why political leaders might feel compelled to traffic in deception when addressing the public. Nonetheless, the author presents an incisive and provocative overview of the consequences of the media’s appalling failures in making important truths known. A powerful, necessary indictment of efforts to disguise the human toll of American foreign policy.
The New Press (320 pp.)
$28.99 | April 25, 2023
9781620977477
A vigorous history of the 1968 riots in Washington, D.C., and their longlasting effects.
In the unrest that followed Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, writes historian and editor Sommers, Washington suffered nearly a quarter-billion dollars (adjusted to today’s value) in damage. The D.C. city council, which had already formulated plans for how to handle rioting, adopted a series of reforms that asked for measured and, when possible, nonviolent police response and encouraged community involvement. After the 1968 riots devastated the U Street Corridor and the historically Black Shaw neighborhood, the council also called for a rebuilding program that involved nonprofits working with the government rather than private developers. Unfortunately, although the rate of violent crime was lower than those in many other American cities, conservative politicians pointed to D.C. as proof that Black people could not govern—D.C. was then a
majority Black city, much more so than today—and “demanded federal intervention, military occupation, and even dictatorship.” Funds for the rebuilding were supposed to come from Great Society programs, but they were canceled when Richard Nixon, who had campaigned on a law-and-order platform, took office. It took years for D.C. to rebuild, and when it did, after a long period when White suburbanites avoided the city, it was gentrified, with historically Black neighborhoods priced beyond the means of lower-income residents—neighborhoods redeveloped by private entities. Moreover, writes Sommers, who interviewed key witnesses such as Ben’s Chili Bowl co-owner Virginia Ali, the city’s demands for self-government and representation in Congress were thwarted. Sommers draws a straight line between Nixon’s war-on-crime programs, for which D.C. was an unwilling laboratory, and the militarized police culture that led to so much unrest after the killing of George Floyd—when, as in 1968, “many conservatives immediately decried the protests and chastised participants as criminals.”
A valuable contribution to the literature of urban affairs and its intersection with social justice.
to Shakespeare: How the Renaissance in Northern Europe Transformed the World Strathern, Paul Pegasus (336 pp.)
$29.95 | May 2, 2023
9781639363933
Biographical sketches of the men and women who launched the Renaissance in Northern Europe. First established in Italy in the early 15th century, the Renaissance later took root in Germany, Belgium, France, and England, “gradually overturning many long-held medieval certainties.” Indeed, it “was a time of increasing change, extending into all spheres of life.” Strathern, award-winning novelist and author of The Florentines, The Borgias, The Medici, and other titles, believes that historians of the Renaissance have focused on Southern Europe to the detriment of the many technical, artistic, and intellectual advances that occurred north of the Alps. To rebalance this history, he describes the contributions of those who lived outside the Mediterranean world. Three themes anchor Strathern’s counterstory: the invention of the movable type printing press, which enabled a wide dissemination of knowledge; the emergence of Protestantism as a challenge to the Roman Catholic Church and driver of humanism; and the shift from geocentric to heliocentric astronomy, which “would dislodge humanity from its central place in the universe, an event which would provoke a subtle but profound psychological effect on the human psyche.” Gutenberg enabled Rabelais and Shakespeare; Martin Luther and Henry VIII broke from the papacy; and Copernicus, Mercator, and Kepler forever changed our understanding of the planet and facilitated the discovery of America, “very much an
the big reveal
independent achievement of the Other Renaissance.” Strathern also examines the contributions of humanists such as Montaigne and Nicholas of Cusa; artists such as Albrecht Dürer and Jan van Eyck; and the political rulers Catherine de’ Medici and Cardinal Richelieu, “the father of modern statecraft.” Although influenced by discoveries and ideas germinated in Southern Europe, the Other Renaissance “would transform European culture in its own unique fashion.” That the lives portrayed are so deeply fascinating is the great appeal of the book.
A docent-style stroll through the pantheon of Renaissance thinkers of Northern Europe.
Vance, Ashlee
Ecco/HarperCollins (528 pp.)
$35.00 | May 9, 2023
9780062998873
Outer space is open for business according to this energetic account.
There was a time when the space race was controlled by superpower states vying for advantage and prestige with massive rockets. These days, private companies are looking at the lucrative opportunities of space travel. Bloomberg Businessweek feature writer Vance, the author of Elon Musk, believes that the pivotal year was 2008, when Musk’s SpaceX became the first private company to build a low-cost rocket and launch it into low orbit. Other billionaires poured money into similar projects, and within a few years, venture capitalists had jumped onboard. The unifying theme was a belief that government space agencies had become mired in suffocating bureaucracy and were unaware of the advances made in consumer electronics and off-the-shelf equipment. “Trying out an idea in space no longer required congressional approval or some wild-eyed dreamer willing to risk his personal fortunes,” writes Vance. “It just required a couple of people in a room agreeing that they’re willing to spend someone else’s money on a huge risk.” The author follows several companies that made advances with small rockets launching minisatellites for purposes ranging from weather forecasting to advanced communications. Vance was able to visit several launch sites and interview most of the key players. Several of them are alarmingly eccentric, but they all have the sense of being part of something historic. One of the most interesting ideas is for a space-based internet to connect people without access to fiber-optic cables, which would require a network of thousands of satellites. That’s a difficult proposition, but the use of the SpaceX Starlink system during the Ukraine war shows the potential. Although some of Vance’s stories go on for longer than needed, he ably captures “the spectacular madness of it all.”
With enthusiasm and solid research, this book is an entertaining, informative look at cutting-edge technology.
Velour, Sasha
Harper/HarperCollins (240 pp.)
$35.00 | April 4, 2023
9780358508083
A renowned performance artist shares her life as a genderfluid drag queen.
“My drag represents some of the most vulnerable parts of me,” writes Velour in this candid memoir documenting her long career in media and theater arts. As creator and editor of the drag magazine Velour and host of New York City drag show Nightgowns, the author is perhaps most widely recognized as the winner of Season 9 of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Delivering a provocative, informative, and opinionated excavation of drag culture, Velour traces her own evolution on the circuit. She knowledgeably discusses the art form’s popularity surge via revolutionary uprisings like the Stonewall riots, which brought greater visibility to obscure, pioneering performance troupes. Velour recalls that her first introduction to drag was with her extravagant grandmother Dina, who encouraged her to “channel my inner diva” with costumes and living-room performances. She fondly references the legacies of drag balls and pageants (and their intrepid founders) and applauds the ability of RuPaul and her show to expand queer visibility, defy the community’s marginalization, and “shift my life and unravel preconceptions.” In chapters on drama and costuming, Velour vividly details the intricate backstage preparations for her pivotal finale performance on Drag Race and elaborates on the inspirations for her unmatched fashion flair. Throughout the text, the author includes Post-it note asides, scrapbook photographs, line drawings, and full-color storyboards (Velour has a master’s degree in cartooning). In addition to generously sharing entertaining anecdotes, maxims, and fond tributes to family and friends, the author isn’t shy about divulging the hard truths about life in the drag and queer communities. She leans easily into opinions and perspectives on hate, societal bias, and religious-inspired homophobia “in a world that doesn’t necessarily want us,” but she remains hopeful about the future acceptance of queer and trans people to make room for all “to exist in real life, not just onstage.”
An impressive textual and visual display of artistry and courage.
Wallach, Philip A.
Oxford Univ. (328 pp.)
$29.95 | May 30, 2023
9780197657874
The story of Congress’ slow degeneration and possible path to recovery.
Congress has been the subject of jeers since the early days of the republic, but the past 20 years have seen the
“An impressive textual and visual display of artistry and courage.”
scoffing turn into outright contempt. Wallach, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, agrees that Congress has become dysfunctional and wants to know why. In this authoritative book, he begins with the period after World War II and the civil rights era, when Congress worked effectively. Much of the essential policy work was done through bipartisan committees, and even when there was acrimony, there was a sense that the opinions of the minority would still be valued. This began to change in the post-Watergate era, when the flood of young Democrats took the view that the other side were not respected opponents. Understandably, the Republicans reciprocated when the pendulum eventually swung their way. Power became increasingly concentrated in the hands of leadership cliques, who saw themselves as battlefield commanders rather than builders of coalitions. In this view, you won not by having the better argument but by preventing the other side from being heard. There were a few cases of cooperative action, but these were exceptions. Wallach makes useful proposals for reform, noting that a crucial element is that the majority party has to be willing to give the minority a genuine avenue to speak and pay some respect to their position. However, the author does not sound hopeful. One area he does not discuss is the media, which rewards snarky sound bites and bloody combat rather than nuanced policy discussions. Overall, this is a comprehensive account of how we got here and how the course might be changed. The author concludes with “An Open Letter to America’s Legislators.”
An incisive, worrying examination of how Congress reached its current dire state, written with a fair mind and a steady hand.
Wilkie, Vanessa
Atria (240 pp.)
$28.00 | April 18, 2023
9781982154288
How an Elizabethan farmer’s daughter single-handedly brought her family into the aristocracy through marriage, manipulation, and lawsuits.
At the beginning, Wilkie provides multiple family trees before delving into her intricate biography of a woman largely known through the legal documents that surrounded her life and marriages. Alice Spencer (1559-1637) was the youngest daughter of a wealthy sheep farmer in Althorp in Northamptonshire. In 1580, she was shrewdly maneuvered into marriage to Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange, heir to the fourth Earl of Derby. At the time, she received a jointure, which “specified properties to be held in reserve for the wife if she were to become a widow, and she could draw income from those lands for the rest of her life.” In an era of strict social hierarchy, Alice had married into a family related to Queen Elizabeth I; thus, her place in the aristocracy was secured. However, this was also
a time of Catholic persecution, with various family members suspected of Catholic leanings, and she and her husband had to be careful to curry favor with the Protestant queen as well as becoming conspicuous patrons of the arts. Upon her husband’s death, Alice wisely circumvented the legal challenges of her powerful brother-in-law by marrying Thomas Egerton, one of England’s highest court officials. To tighten the knots, she married off one of her daughters to Egerton’s son. Subsequent court challenges included garnering royal shelter for her other daughter after she scandalously accused her aristocratic husband and his servant of rape. As the author shows, Alice was remarkable in her ability to forge her own identity in a highly patriarchal era. “Alice was not a feminist,” writes Wilkie, “but she was an operator and a woman who was cognizant of the power that came with her social status, power she was eager to wield.”
Diligent archival research reveals a unique, independent Elizabethan woman.
Wong, Jane
Tin House (304 pp.)
$27.95 | May 16, 2023
9781953534675
A poet’s memoir about her workingclass childhood, writing career, family, and Asian American identity.
Despite the fact that Wong’s father gambled away the family’s Chinese restaurant in New Jersey when she was still quite young, the feeling of being a “restaurant baby” is central to this book. “I am that person who thinks that the compost bin is beautiful, in all its swirls of color (jade mold, chocolate slime—why is no one hiring me to name nail polish?), surprising texture, and piquant death,” she writes. After her father lost the restaurant and left the family, her mother became a postal worker, sorting mail overnight into and through the pandemic. If there is a single topic that unifies the book, it’s her mother. A series of passages labeled “wongmom. com” imagines that her mother’s wisdom might be available online, including things like her take on an “ancient Chinese saying”—“If you can’t crawl, swim. If you can’t swim, then take the bus.” Wong’s sharp sense of humor is fueled by a healthy dose of righteous anger, and her lyric energy bursts from almost every sentence. In the chapter titled “Bad Bildungsroman With Table Tennis,” she writes, “Part of being a teenager is the desire to destroy something. To break something apart so fully, you can see its pulled seams, its tangled organs. At 13, I felt this feeling churn within me, this rage, this pimple-popping lusciousness of rudeness, this gleaming desire for sudden destruction.” She writes candidly about her shoplifting phase, her misery at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, and her disgust for bigotry and cultural appropriation. A good portion of the book focuses on finding her confidence as an Asian American poet, including the glorious moment when she was recognized with a big grant
and a museum show. For this profoundly unsqueamish writer, poetry is “interior slime spicy along our tongues” and “chicken grease congealing behind my ear.”
A generous, steaming stew of a book loaded with personality and originality and sprinkled with the fiery chili of rage.
Eddie Rickenbacker’s Twenty-Four Days Adrift On the Pacific—A World War II Tale of Courage and Faith
Wukovits, John
Dutton Caliber (432 pp.)
$30.00 | May 16, 2023
9780593184844
The final heroic episode in a hero’s life.
Throughout his life, Eddie Rickenbacker (1890-1973) regularly occupied the front pages. A famous race car driver before World War I, he ended the war as America’s greatest fighter ace, won the Medal of Honor, thrilled the nation with aviation records during the 1920s, and retired to turn Eastern Air Lines into a profitable company. Military historian Wukovits, author of Pacific Alamo, Hell From the Heavens, and other books, delivers a compelling account of Rickenbacker’s early years, dominated by auto racing and flying. Though he was successful in both ventures, he also seemed to be accident-prone. This was partly owing to primitive machines, but he also experienced a February 1941 crash as a passenger on one of his Eastern Air Lines planes. Horribly injured with multiple fractures, he spent four months in the hospital and never entirely recovered. During World War II, the middle-aged Rickenbacker toured the world as an inspirational speaker and adviser. In October 1942, he flew from Hawaii toward Australia, but defective navigation caused the plane to miss its first stop, run out of fuel, and ditch. Rickenbacker and a few others escaped on three tiny rubber rafts with few tools, no fresh water or protection from the elements, and little food. It took 24 days for them to be rescued, and Wukovits delivers a detailed account of their suffering from maddening thirst, starvation, burning sun during the day, bitter-cold, wet nights, and painful injuries from the crash. In interviews and books that followed, Rickenbacker took credit for their survival. Wukovits and many other historians (but not all) agree, and the author shows how Rickenbacker refused to lose hope, encouraging and often bullying the others to maintain morale. All added their gratitude to God, and Wukovits pays close attention to their religious backgrounds and emphasizes that the doubters and atheists among them admitted their errors. A gripping survival story.
Cathy
St. Martin’s (224 pp.)
$27.00 | May 23, 2023
9781250777980
An American professor investigates the French art of joie de vivre.
Yandell, a professor of Francophone studies at Carleton College, first visited Paris as a 19-year-old on a study abroad program. She found the culture, with its “spirit of celebration,” enchanting, and she admits, “I didn’t want to become French; I wanted to be French—and that was a stiff order.” Though the author’s story didn’t culminate in “marriage to a Frenchman” and she remained a resident of the U.S., she returned to the country regularly to live, “first as a student and later as a mother and a teacher of French literature and culture.” From this vantage point, Yandell shares her understanding of the recipe for the unmistakably French flair for enjoying life. She begins with the approach to food, describing a wedding banquet that lasted until 4 a.m.: “No one over the age of 10 seemed sleepy—time is subsumed by an abundance of pleasure.” She mentions a Christmas dinner that concluded with an onion soup at midnight, and she points out that, according to the French labor code, it is illegal to eat lunch at one’s desk. Yandell then moves on to perfume and “physical contact,” noting how the French habit of kissing on both cheeks clashes with American concepts of personal space. The author discusses French sports, dancing, and the art of seduction, writing that “sexuality is fully a part of the French public sphere.” From there, Yandell adopts a more scholarly perspective, discussing the French respect for intellect and the author’s own “first true love,” Baudelaire. The author has written two academic books on France, and those roots show through here. The book is not a typical memoir of an American in Paris; readers looking for frothier fare should be ready for chapters on the essays of Montaigne and writings of Marguerite Duras.
A largely witty and often highbrow look at the French exuberance for life.
“A gripping survival story.”
lost at sea
$18.99
9781536215540
PIRATE
Allegra, Mike
Illus. by Jenn Harney
Page Street (32 pp.)
$18.99 | May 30, 2023
9781645677123
When a very dim pirate mistakes a penguin for a parrot, confusion ensues.
When a small penguin slips on an icy cliff and lands on the deck of a sailing ship, the tan-skinned pirate assumes that it’s a longed-for parrot with faded plumage—remedying that with a paint pot. The penguin is not amused and, rather than cooperatively perch on the pirate’s shoulder, furiously attacks the pirate. The pirate tries to elicit some parrot-talk, producing a lexicon of pirate slang: “Batten down the hatches?” “Mizzenmast?” “Hornswoggle?” “Doubloons?” “Booty?” When the pirate offers a cracker, the penguin spits it out, and the irate pirate responds with anger (“SNOGGERS!” “ ’Tis Mutiny!”). But when the penguin walks the plank, the pirate is remorseful (“I be a rotting rapscallion!”). Then the penguin returns with a welcome gift of fish, and the pirate concludes that, strange as the “parrot” seems, “I like ye just the way ye arrrrrrrr.” Dialogue balloons are black with white type; splashes of parrot-paint color enliven the neutral ship setting. Varied compositions often feature small insets on large spreads; this one will be a great read-aloud to an audience close enough to see the images. The solitary pirate is a cartoon figure, drawn with every stereotypical accoutrement except an eye patch: peg leg, hook hand, gray beard, and 18thcentury attire. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An amusing romp that will have landlubbers and scurvy sea dogs alike giggling. (Picture book. 4-8)
Allen, Savannah Viking (40 pp.)
$18.99 | May 2, 2023
9780593524930
A boy and his father bond over a love of nature.
Tim, a little Black boy with skinny legs, dark brown skin, and a big Afro, and his dad, a bald, Black man with a massive black beard, fit together “like bacon and eggs.” Tim loves exploring the outdoors, just as his father did in his youth. After observing and collecting data one day, Tim wants to show Dad his findings, but Dad has work to do. After waiting patiently, Tim finally goes
Last December, Pamela Paul, an opinion columnist for the New York Times (who once edited children’s book reviews at the newspaper), published “Free To Be You and Me. Or Not,” a piece bemoaning current attitudes toward gender. “In lieu of liberating children from gender, some educators have doubled down, offering children a smorgasbord of labels—gender identity, gender role, gender performance and gender expression—to affix to themselves from a young age,” she lamented. Paul’s answer? A return to the ethos of the ’70s, embodied by actor Marlo Thomas’ album, book, and television series Free To Be...You and Me, in which a slew of talents, among them Mel Brooks, Roberta Flack, and Harry Belafonte, boldly toppled gender stereotypes and assured children that they could be anything they wanted.
While groundbreaking for its time, however, Free To Be still upheld the gender binary (“Every boy in this land grows to be his own man / In this land, every girl grows to be her own woman”); it also didn’t acknowledge trans children. I would urge parents interested in fostering a more expansive view of gender to look instead to the picture books being published right now. These rich, beautiful, and varied stories speak to genderfluid children, to nonbinary children, to transgender children, to gender-nonconforming cisgender children, and to children still figuring it all out. Rather than “box[ing] children in,” as Paul fears, these books open up new worlds, letting young people know that no matter how they identify, they are seen.
Several recent titles use age-appropriate language and accessible narratives to explain topics related to gender. Laura Kate Dale’s Me & My Dysphoria Monster: An Empowering Story To Help Children Cope With Gender Dysphoria (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2022), illustrated by Hui Qing Ang, centers a transgender girl who, with support and guidance from a trans mentor, realizes why it’s so painful for her to be called a boy and eventually takes steps to embrace her true identity. Blue Jaryn’s Payden’s Pronoun Party (Page Street Kids, 2022), illustrated by Xochitl Cornejo, is a joyful romp of a book that follows a
child who realizes that he/him/his pronouns don’t feel right before landing on e/em/eir—a decision that’s greeted with celebration by eir family and community.
By contrast, Jyoti Rajan Gopal’s My Paati’s Saris (Kokila, 2022), illustrated by Art Twink, doesn’t directly discuss gender identity. A male-presenting Tamil child is drawn to this garment that’s traditionally worn by women and even dons a sari of their own by book’s end. We don’t find out how the protagonist identifies, but the message comes through loud and clear: This child is loved and accepted.
Christian Trimmer’s The Good Hair Day (Abrams, May 23), illustrated by J Yang, and Irma Borges’ Leo’s Lavender Skirt (NubeOcho, 2022), illustrated by Francesco Fagnani and translated from Spanish by Cecilia Ross, are about boys who enjoy, respectively, having long, flowing locks and wearing skirts. Neither child expresses discomfort with being a boy (indeed, Leo becomes upset when a passerby calls him a girl)— they simply want the freedom to define what that means.
Aida Salazar’s Jovita Wore Pants: The Story of a Mexican Freedom Fighter (Scholastic, March 7), illustrated by Molly Mendoza, chronicles the life of Jovita Valdovinas, “Mexico’s Joan of Arc,” who, in the 1920s, defied gender norms by leading soldiers into battle during the Cristero Revolution. The book is a reminder that throughout history, many have chafed against gender norms—and triumphed.
Our conceptions of gender have transformed radically in the last several decades, and, happily, our children’s literature reflects those changes, with books that will leave readers feeling empowered, affirmed, and loved.
Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.
to the attic to peruse the scrapbooks and journals his dad made during his youthful adventures. While looking through them, Tim falls asleep and dreams of camping in the desert, snorkeling in the ocean, and hiking a snowy alpine trail with Dad. On awakening, Tim makes drawings of his dreams. When Dad finds Tim, he resolves to make more memories for the scrapbook with Tim. This story emphasizes that setting aside family time outdoors can result in a lifetime of memories. Allen’s (and Tim’s) brightly colored illustrations, with an abundance of green, including the duo’s matching olive-green scoutlike outfits, capture the boy’s passion for exploring and the closeness he and his father share when outside. The use of white space early in the book represents the confinement of work, but when Tim embarks on his dream journey, the full-color, imaginative double-page spreads convey Tim’s immersion in these natural habitats. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A must for nature enthusiasts big and small, this one will inspire families to get outdoors together. (Picture book. 3-7)
Knopf (288 pp.)
$17.99 | May 23, 2023
978-1-984851-98-7
Driven from her homeland by civil war, a Syrian refugee describes her experiences and delivers a pointed message.
Effectively recapturing a child’s perspective, Almellehan recalls her safe world of street soccer, close family ties, and olive harvests as a 12-year-old in 2010 that is gradually overshadowed by news of violent events and, at last, transformed by a 2013 move to a refugee camp in Jordan—a planned 10-day sojourn that turns to months, then years and further moves, until at last she and her family wind up in Newcastle, England, far from everything familiar. What gets her through many hardships is a strong, stubborn dedication to the importance of education, particularly for girls. She not only keeps up her own classwork and starts working with UNICEF to persuade others in the rough refugee camps to stay in school, but later battles her way through the British educational system in the face of low expectations. Meanwhile, she becomes, particularly after meeting and bonding with Malala Yousafzai, an advocate for education with an international reputation. She opens with a reminder that “a refugee is not a type of person” but “someone in a kind of situation that could happen to anyone,” closes on her first day of university, and in between challenges readers to pay attention to her story: “I don’t want people to know about refugees,” she tells an interviewer. “I want them to listen to refugees.”
One compelling story amid millions, delivered in a strong, steadfast voice. (Memoir. 10-14)
Amador, Brian
Illus. by Vanina Starkoff
Barefoot Books (24 pp.)
$16.99 | April 4, 2023
9781646868452
A bilingual song celebrating friendship and community. As the book opens, we see a family flying to Puerto Rico, where they surf and build sand castles. “It always makes me happy to understand what people say,” the young narrator tells us. “If they say ¿Quieres jugar? / It means Do you want to play?” The family enjoys the conga drummers’ contagious beat and joins the locals in a festive dance. But the cheerful bilingual experience continues even when the family returns home, because “sometimes people come to live here / from places far away.” Asking “¿Cómo te llamas?” invites the newcomers to share their names. The result? “Twice as many friends, / twice as much fun / That’s why two languages / are better than one!” Amador’s rhyming bilingual story and song links a jaunty English-only refrain to two sets of four easy English-Spanish couplets. Selective repetition encourages language learning whether in a group or reading on one’s own. Starkoff’s bright, warm colors make her flat illustrations pop. The book ends with a link to an animated video with the song performed by Amador’s band Sol y Canto along with the score. Translations for the various Spanish phrases, with pronunciation help, are also included. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A lively—and catchy—springboard to Spanish-language acquisition. (Picture book. 3-6)
Arbuthnott,
Illus. by Christopher Nielsen
Big Picture Press (80 pp.)
$24.99 | May 2, 2023
978-1-5362-2974-5
Humans and the sea: the past, present, and possible future.
From the timeline (8000 B.C.E.-2020 C.E.), inventively depicted as a winding path interspersed with images, to examinations of global myths and those who explored the seas, this book merges informative text and dynamic graphics to tell the exciting story of oceans and how we use (and abuse) them. How are waves formed? How many species of animals and plants live in the oceans? How deep is the ocean? Arbuthnott lucidly explains ocean-related technology such as submarines, marine biology, and some physics and geology. Her coverage of scientists, explorers, and other individuals is inclusive; she discusses women scientists like Marie Tharp, Gloria Hollister, Jeanne Baret, and Asha de Vos; Japanese pearl divers; the Inuit
historian Louie Kamookak; and others. Descriptions of those who sought to salvage treasures from shipwrecks are as compelling as details of the treasures of sea-borne knowledge. As in her other guides, Arbuthnott balances accuracy and entertainment. The anecdotes are fascinating, complemented by Nielsen’s dramatic illustrations; an account of a routine 1939 submarine test dive that went horribly wrong, illustrated with graphic novel–style panels, is especially gripping.
Colorful, clear, and chock-full of information, this book invites readers to dive in. (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Ard, Catherine
Illus. by Bianca Austria Flying Eye Books (80 pp.)
$21.99 | April 4, 2023
9781838748562
Series: Earth’s Incredible Places
Come explore the history and attractions of the world’s first national park.
Yellowstone National Park, the enormous Rocky Mountain area of wilderness that covers nearly 3,500 square miles, is examined from a variety of angles in this deeply informative book. Starting by describing the scale of a park that sits in three U.S. states (Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho), this installment in the Earth’s Incredible Places series goes on to chart the history of the park; its natural attractions, such as a supervolcano, geysers, and waterfalls; and the many types of animals living there. While it was established in 1872 as a national park, the history of the land goes back much further, and the book describes in detail the many Indigenous tribes that visited the land before and after the arrival of European explorers. Ard also discusses what the park is like today with its more than 800 employees and many sights and activities for modern visitors. Illustrations throughout evoke the park’s natural beauty as well as the liveliness of its inhabitants and visitors, making it a place any reader will likely want to someday visit. People depicted are racially diverse.
A fact-filled exploration of one of the country’s most important natural wonders. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 7-11)
HARRIET SPIES
Arnold, Elana K.
Illus. by Dung Ho
Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins (240 pp.)
$16.99 | Feb. 7, 2023
978-0-06-309213-6
In this follow-up to Just Harriet (2022), the protagonist is spending the summer with her grandmother when she finds herself at the center of a mystery.
Harriet is staying with Nanu on Marble Island while her father works and her pregnant mother is on bed rest. There is a
lot to do at Nanu’s Bric-a-Brac bed-and-breakfast, but the best things are all the guests, especially regulars like the Captain, an ornithologist who researches loggerhead shrikes. She has the most pockets and the coolest tools of any grown-up Harriet has ever seen. Unfortunately, the Captain’s prized binoculars go missing the same day Harriet has her yard sale. Even more unfortunately, the Captain and Nanu seem to think Harriet may have something to do with their disappearance—and not without reason. Harriet may have had some issues with honesty in the past. As she sets out to find the binoculars and clear her name, Harriet befriends local boy Clarence, who agrees to help her on her quest. Clarence ultimately plays the role of Harriet’s moral compass as she learns what it means to be honest and a good friend. Her voice and internal struggle with truth-telling are genuine even if the messaging is heavy-handed. The adult characters also feel a bit flat, and the Marble Island setting is rather bland. Sweet spot art breaks up the text. Harriet reads White; Clarence and his family are Black.
A quiet read for those seeking a gentle slice-of-life story. (Fiction. 6-9)
Aston, Dianna Hutts
Illus. by Sylvia Long
Chronicle Books (40 pp.)
$18.99 | May 9, 2023
978-1-79721-247-0
An examination of shells’ varied forms and functions, with just enough data to whet beachcombers’ appetites.
Aston and Long’s eye-opening books rejoice in and reveal the natural world of eggs, rocks, seeds, nests, insects, and more. The latest entry in this acclaimed series looks on land and sea (or “everywhere”) for its fascinating subjects. Intricate, detailed, informative watercolors, in colors delicate and warm or saturated and striking, add dimension to the brief text. As in previous installments, verse is presented in looped cursive script, while additional information is presented in tiny type. Surprisingly, the answer to a basic question—what are shells made of?— is not easy to find, and the chance to connect shells to chalk, marble, and even human bones is missed. But the simple sentences are easy to grasp on generous layouts. Cascading adjectives, though sometimes a stretch (the mollusk, not the shell, is “hungry” or “athletic”), are generally effective shorthand for the shell’s varied aspects: “showy,” “hatched,” “protective,” “spiny,” “smooth,” “sharp,” “hairy,” “artistic,” “treasured,” “practical.” A rubber ducky and a pencil tip provide whimsical but useful scale on a spread noting that a shell can be either “enormous” or “microscopic.” Once again this team sends us out into nature with sharper perception. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Just as sparkling as its many predecessors. (Informational picture book. 5-8)
Bagley, Jessixa
Chronicle Books (52 pp.)
$17.99 | May 9, 2023
978-1-79721-173-2
Music is sweetest when filled with love.
Maurice, “once a famous musician,” is an anthropomorphic floppy-eared brown dog who regales crowds all over Paris with beautiful accordion songs. His listeners—pooches of various breeds charmingly dressed in human garb—are delighted with tunes that fill quiet times and shut out the noisy city’s clamor. They reward him with coins, and Maurice repays them by sharing his heart. He’s kind and generous in other ways, too. He’s happiest among his numerous beloved pet birds, whose merry songs and chatter inspire him, for “a song, like love, is always better when it’s shared.” Sadly, Maurice’s audiences eventually disappear. Without money to feed his birds, he makes the heart-rending decision to free them. With them goes his music. With spring’s arrival, Maurice’s heart recalls the old songs. As his music returns, so do his birds, joined by new ones. The combined sounds bring an enchanted new crowd to listen to the melodies, filled again with love—as is Maurice’s apartment, shared with cherished birds once more. This is a sweet, quiet, contemplative story about the joys of sharing love, though perhaps one that may resonate more with adults, as will the delicately lovely Parisian scenes, brimming with Gallic character and iconic, beloved landmarks. Adults who’ve been there will swoon with longing to return. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gentle reminder that love is a song that must be sung and shared always—and never goes out of tune. (Picture book. 4-7)
Robert
Adapt. by Michael MoreciIllus. by Braeden Sherrell
Disney-Hyperion (128 pp.)
$21.99 | $12.99 paper | April 4, 2023
9781368072229
9781368076906 paper
In this graphic-novel version of Beatty’s 2015 fantasy, mystery and magic place a spotlight on a feral bookworm who won’t back down.
Twelve-year-old Serafina lives with her father in the basement of the Biltmore Estate in 1899 Asheville, North Carolina. She is the unofficial Chief Rat Catcher by night and is otherwise hidden from the world. When a mysterious cloaked figure kidnaps a girl at the Biltmore, Serafina joins forces with young Braeden Vanderbilt, Mr. Vanderbilt’s nephew, to uncover the assailant’s identity and find the girl, along with other missing children. A scrappy fighter and resourceful sleuth, Serafina pieces together clues and observations—about both the
strange figure and herself—while also becoming more social in the upper halls of the Biltmore. The artwork makes effective use of lighting and color to bring to life the shadowy basement, glowing upper manor floors, and sepia-toned flashbacks. The surrounding forest is a character unto itself, alternately inviting or threatening depending on the weather. However, the narration dominates many pages, leading to an abundance of telling over showing. Indeed, while the titular black cloak threatens to spirit Serafina and Braeden away, the black boxes containing the book’s narration are far more constricting, cluttering the page and distracting from the visuals. Serafina, Braeden, and most other characters present White.
A graphic-novel adaptation that could afford to lean more on its graphics. (Graphic fiction. 9-12)
“A gentle reminder that love is a song that must be sung and shared always and never goes out of tune.”
maurice
how the sea came to be
Beckmeyer, Drew
Atheneum (40 pp.)
$18.99 | May 9, 2023
9781665916745
When a tornado comes rampaging through the countryside, snatching up farmyard animals and threatening further mayhem, a cow caught up in its winds gently questions why it’s so upset. A horse? A sheep? A house that may have people in it? Doesn’t matter: This tornado’s gonna toss ’em! But a cow wants to know why. Despite repeated denials that the tornado’s anything but a massive column of violent, spiraling air, the persistent, supportive cow wheedles its way past the tornado’s gruff exterior. The tornado’s large, expressive eyes and actions betray the true feelings behind its blustering, though even it may not know why it’s so upset. Colorful illustrations reminiscent of paper cutouts further create a dynamic, cartoonish impression that adds humor without downplaying its reckless destruction. A couple of diagrams show how tornadoes form and operate but seem almost randomly inserted, briefly distracting from the analogy of a caregiver helping a small child coping with big emotions. The tornado’s big feelings and actions, delivered in short bursts of text, will initially amuse and draw children in. By contrast, the cow’s calm nature and sympathy slowly develop through longer sentences before the story delivers its moral in the quiet of a breezy dusk. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An endearing portrayal of an emotional meltdown told with humor and compassion. (Picture book. 3-6)
Bentley, Lisa
Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster(48 pp.)
$18.99 | May 23, 2023
9781665917650
A young girl grieves her father, her teammate in building and dreaming.
As the book opens, the girl and her daddy tinker in a moonlit yard. These peas in a pod blissfully build a rocket ship using found materials like cardboard and bubble wrap that gently pop off the page in a collagelike effect. The girl laments her father’s daily absences when he goes to work, but the two continue to work on their project when he returns at night. The mother is seen only briefly by the door the first time the father departs for work; she does not reappear until she shares the news of Daddy’s sudden death over halfway through the book. The cause of his death isn’t stated, so many children experiencing loss will see themselves in the protagonist. The mother does not express her own grief beyond agreeing that she misses Daddy, too. The girl, however, goes through the various stages of grief— denial, bargaining, anger (wordlessly destroying the cardboard creations after sitting in hopeful vigil near them), and acceptance.
There is no funeral scene, and no other family or friends are seen, making the story feel simplistic and isolating. We’re told that “for a long time, the little girl didn’t build anything,” but everything is wrapped up in just a few spreads, with the child and her mother completing the rocket by the light of the moon. All characters are light-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An attempt at exploring loss that fails to launch. (Picture book. 4-7)
Berne, Jennifer
Illus. by Amanda Hall
Eerdmans (56 pp.)
$18.99 | April 25, 2023
978-0-8028-5478-0
Geology, oceanography, biology, and 4.5 billion years of evolution—in quatrains.
Riveting illustrations and text depict the shaping of Earth’s surface, the formation of seas, and the emergence of life and complex biodiversity. In four-line “ballad” stanzas (four-beat, mostly iambic, alternating with three-beat, mostly anapestic, lines) that will make for a rollicking read-aloud, Berne traces the surprising steps from molten lava to teeming organisms. It might seem unlikely that verse could convey eons of dramatic development with scientific accuracy, but that happens here— with very few slips of rhyme or meter. And as impressive as Berne’s achievement is, it is gloriously overshadowed by Hall’s luminous art, rendered in watercolor, gouache, pencil crayon, pastel, and digital materials. Microscopic, tiny, merely big, or gigantic, the life forms Hall painstakingly depicts are neon, candy-colored, or pale; smooth, ribbed, or spiky, but always stunning. Capricious as fantasy but true to nature’s incredible reality, they are imaginatively displayed and vividly or subtly tinted. The sea creatures are not labeled, but by looking closely readers can find all that are mentioned—and there are extensive resources for further exploration.
An ode to undersea life with visuals that beg to be animated, just as the text begs to be sung. (author’s and illustrator’s notes, ocean creatures over time, key terms and concepts, recommended resources, selected bibliography) (Informational picture book. 6-10)
Bird, Sheila May Illus. by Mark Beech
Welbeck Flame (32 pp.)
$16.95 | April 18, 2023
9781803381350
Oh dear, oh dear! Heavy lies the royal crown on King Charles III’s head.
“An ode to undersea life with visuals that beg to be animated, just as the text begs to be sung.”
Worried lest the royal diadem not look as right on him as on his late lamented mum, the kingster follows his wife’s advice and heads for his “Happy Place.” That would be the royal garden, because “he could potter there for hours / with honey bees and birds and trees, / and butterflies and flowers.” There he meets Tom, the White-presenting royal gardener, who reminds him that he has many hats to wear—from a shower cap in the bath to a hard hat while joining workers at a construction site, from a rain hat when meeting farmers to a hairnet when touring a bakery—and so the crown is just one more, to be sported on public occasions: “And you will smile and wave. / Your crown is very heavy, / But remember… / …kings are brave.” Though the sight of the famously stiff new monarch cavorting wildly with children at a party and gamboling about the garden, kilt flapping in the breeze, may push an incredulous chortle past the stiffest upper lip, Beech does get the prominent royal nose and ears just right in his scribbly cartoon pictures. Crowd scenes offer racially diverse groups of onlookers, and a statue of Queen Victoria, scowling at the pigeon on her head, adds a suitably irreverent note to the close. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A doff of the cap to the septuagenarian new monarch, more affectionate than satirical. (Picture book. 6-8)
Bui, Hanh Illus. by Minnie Phan Feiwel & Friends (40 pp.)
$18.99 | April 25, 2023
9781250842060
A young child connects with her Vietnamese heritage and family traditions. It’s almost International Day at Naliah’s school, and she’s nervously excited. She’ll be sharing the Fan Dance, a traditional Vietnamese dance that she learned “from her mother, who had learned it from her mother.” Grandmother even led the dance in her village’s Mid-Autumn Festival, and Naliah wants to get it just right. When Naliah discovers her special yellow áo dài no longer fits, she heads into her mom’s room to find another. Among the rainbow of options stands out a yellow áo dài “the color of happiness and forsythia blossoms.” As Naliah practices in the oversized dress, she tears a hole. When her mother gives her a new dress and shares that her own special yellow áo dài was Grandmother’s, Naliah is filled with guilt. But her mother introduces a new tradition with Naliah as they mend the dress just as Grandmother did when Naliah’s mother ripped the same dress. Inspired by her daughter and mother-in-law, Bui weaves a tender tale of a family honoring memories and heirlooms but also creating new traditions. Phan’s buoyant and beautiful illustrations convey the protagonist’s emotions. Images flow across the page, evoking the fluidity of áo dàis, dance, butterflies, rippling blue waters, and lily pads. The recurring motifs and details like a hopping pet rabbit joining the fun add playfulness. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A charming contemporary celebration of family and heritage. (author’s note, glossary) (Picture book. 4-8)
Burkhart, Jessica
Aladdin (304 pp.)
$18.99 | May 30, 2023
9781665912891
Series: Saddlehill Academy, 1
A prep schooler who loves horses competes with her new stepsister in this series opener by the author of the Canterwood Crest series.
Seventh grader Abby arrives for the start of her second year at Massachusetts boarding school Saddlehill Academy eager to reunite with friends but with mixed feelings regarding new stepsister Emery, who’s entering sixth grade. Despite both girls’ participating in the Interscholastic Pony League, they hadn’t known each other until their parents began dating. Abby, whose mother abandoned her, tries to befriend Emery, but someone leaks a doctored video that purportedly shows Abby bad-mouthing Emery. Abby’s determined to find out who did it. Saddlehill is a fairy-tale dream—in addition to the gorgeous barn, there’s a local beach, a pool, a campus sweet shop, and the ability to order dinner delivery whenever students wish. Some elements of diversity are woven into the cast: Abby and Emery are cued White; Abby’s best friends are Vivi, who is Black, and Thea, who is Korean American. Thea’s sister is an amputee. Abby had a same-sex crush, and a Brazilian immigrant student is now using they/them pronouns. But there’s no socio-economic diversity, and the characters move effortlessly inside a very rich, financially privileged world. Despite the scads of drama, there’s little true emotion, and the story truncates abruptly, presumably leaving its resolution to the sequel.
Effortless and effervescent; ideal for horse-crazy girls ready to move beyond The Saddle Club. (Fiction. 9-13)
Bybee, Veeda
Illus. by Victo Ngai
Versify/HarperCollins (112 pp.)
$17.99 | March 28, 2023
978-0-358-53935-3
An anthology of Asian American and Pacific Islander trailblazers.
Stunning portraits introduce the succinct one-page biographies of the 40 individuals covered here, each boldly facing readers and surrounded by brightly hued landscapes and images symbolic of their accomplishments. Varying by era, profession, and country of origin, the subjects include education reformer Yung Wing, an immigrant who, upon receiving his degree from Yale in 1854, became the first Chinese student to graduate from an American university; Hawaiian swimmer Duke Kahanamoku,
Expertise in obstetrics and gynecology isn’t what gets most people TikTok-famous, but Dr. Allison K. Rodgers’ knack for distilling information into brief videos—on everything from cervical mucus to breast self-exams—has garnered her a robust online following (1.2 million and counting). It also led to her new nonfiction book targeted at middle graders. We Need To Talk About Vaginas: An Important Book About Vulvas, Periods, Puberty, and Sex! (Neon Squid/Macmillan, Feb. 28), illustrated by Annika Le Large, breaks barriers with its honest depiction of bodies. “I really am excited because I think this book will not only open kids’ minds, but [will also] open parents’ minds to things
they need to be talking about,” she recently told me via Zoom from her office in Chicago.
The daughter of a pediatrician and a pharmacist, Rodgers grew up feeling she could broach any topic with her parents, from masturbation to unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Now the director of education at Fertility Centers of Illinois, she works as a reproductive endocrinologist, obstetrician, and gynecologist and strives to foster that same openness with her own children. Not all young people feel comfortable discussing puberty or bodies with their parents, however—which is one reason for her TikTok presence. Rodgers’ daughters and many of their friends have come to her with questions on topics such as their periods or vaginal discharge. “It was clear that a lot was not taught in health education and that a lot of people questioned if what they were experiencing was normal,” she says. Though she had had an online presence for about 10 years—including a blog, a Facebook account, and a podcast—she discovered TikTok shortly before the start of the pandemic and found an opportunity to educate an even wider audience.
The book differs from those that have come before it in many ways, notably its inclusivity. While other titles have specifically addressed girls, Rodgers wanted young people who didn’t necessarily identify as female to feel welcome while reading it. She included a section on gender identity, defining terms such as cisgender, nonbinary, transgender, and gender dysphoria and generally avoided references to
women or girls, instead using language such as “bodies with a vagina” or “bodies with a uterus.” Rodgers wanted “to make sure that everybody, regardless of how they identify, could learn something and not feel like they were being ignored or excluded.” She also gave a copy of the book to her 10-year-old son; she believes the information contained within is important for everyone.
Rodgers also wanted her book to include a wide range of body types as well as people of various races, and she is thrilled with Le Large’s artwork. She’s especially happy that the pregnant person and fetus depicted are both brown-skinned. The work also includes illustrations of vulvas, with labia of varying sizes and amounts of pubic hair. “Everybody’s vulva looks different, right?” she observes. She’s all too aware that media portrayals of bodies tend to leave many young people feeling self-conscious about their appearances. “It took me 40-something years to learn how to really love myself,” she says. Rodgers hopes that the illustrations will empower readers to take pride in how they look. “You have beauty in exactly who you are and all of your uniqueness.”
As frank as she is about discussions of sexuality, Rodgers initially hesitated when her editor suggested including a diagram of penis-vaginal sex. “It was a little outside my comfort zone,” she says. “I’m thinking, OK, 10- to 14-year-olds do we need to talk about sex?” But she realized that conveying accurate information was vital—even if it sometimes felt difficult. She mentions talking to a colleague who, as a child, developed misconceptions after reading a book with an ambiguous portrayal of intercourse. Rather than showing the act, the image featured two pairs of feet at the end of a bed peeking out from under the covers. “My friend said, ‘When I was little, for the longest time, I literally thought the sperm left the tip of the penis and swam on the outside of the bed into the woman’s body.’ ” Rodgers adds, “Your kids need to see what to expect.”
Rodgers also knows, given the recent rise in censorship attempts, that there are many who might
call for a book like hers to be banned. “I would love to have a conversation with someone who feels this is inappropriate and shouldn’t be introduced to children—just to understand where they’re coming from,” she says.
But misinformation continues to proliferate, especially online; she’s seen websites claiming that the color of menstrual blood can indicate hormonal imbalance or that virginity is tied to whether someone has a hymen. (Both claims are false.) It’s more important than ever, Rodgers believes, to give young people accurate and reliable information. “We have books that teach us how our digestive system works and how our heart pumps blood. [This] is literally the same thing. It just has a lot of stigma attached to it,” she says. “Everybody deserves to understand what’s going on with their bodies.”
We Need To Talk About Vaginas received a star in the Dec. 1, 2022, issue.
a five-time Olympic medalist who also popularized surfing; and Indian American writer Bhagat Singh Thind, who, despite serving in World War I (he was “the first soldier to wear a turban in the US Army”), had to fight to become a citizen. Bybee profiles both figures who may be more well known to readers, such as Vice President Kamala Harris and actor Anna May Wong, and more undeservedly overlooked names including Haing Ngor, a Cambodian surgeon who was the first Asian American to win an Oscar for best supporting actor. The writing is solid and informative, and the collection is especially balanced and inclusive when it comes to representing the diversity of the Asian American and Pacific Islander experience, showing how they have long been integral to the building and progression of both America and the world.
Bold, striking, and compelling. (historical glossary, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 9-14)
Calvert, Howard Illus. by
Karen ObuhanychCandlewick (32 pp.)
$18.99 | April 11, 2023
978-1-5362-2835-9
Believing in yourself helps when the odds seem stacked against you, as exemplified in this clever tale.
Barbara Hendricks, a self-described “regular leopard tortoise,” is seriously perturbed. Her owner and best friend, Lorraine, has done the unthinkable and entered her in a fun run against other animals. Why? Because, as it happens, Lorraine believes in her pet. “I’ve never seen a faster tortoise than you, Barbara Hendricks.” Barbara is skeptical, but that doesn’t stop Lorraine from initiating a training sequence straight out of Rocky. At first the small shelled creature is depressed by her chances (being beaten while out for a practice run by an absentminded worm doesn’t help). But on the big day, she realizes that if she doesn’t even try, she’ll never know if the training was worth anything. Kids will get a big laugh when they see Barbara’s less-than-speedy competitors (the slow loris is a particularly nice touch), and her eventual triumph is complemented by a surprise ending that will delight Aesop-savvy kids. Mixedmedia art brings Barbara’s pathos to brilliant life (who knew a tortoise could emote?), and any child who has faced a seemingly impossible task will relate to Barbara right to the end. Consider pairing alongside Carrie Finison’s Hurry, Little Tortoise, Time for School (2022), which features an equally dedicated protagonist. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Slow and steady? Call this tortoise shell-bent and dedicated. A charmer. (Picture book. 3-6)
Carmichael, L.E.
Illus. by Byron Eggenschwiler Kids Can (48 pp.)
$18.99 | May 2, 2023
9781525304576
Profiles of creatures living on opposite ends of our planet invite readers in more comfortable climes to compare and contrast.
The Arctic “is an ocean surrounded by land,” Carmichael writes, whereas “Antarctica is a land surrounded by ocean,” and though both are cold (if, as she ominously notes, getting warmer five times faster than anywhere else on Earth) and require similar adaptations to live there, each has distinctive and different wildlife. Flanked by tone-setting wordless spreads of forbidding snowscapes and matched to accurately detailed portraits of animals in natural settings, the book highlights differences and similarities between the two biota with looks at 13 exemplary pairs, arranged by month from one March to the next. These range from belugas in the north and male sperm whales in the south to woolly bear caterpillars (north) and flightless midges that are the Antarctic’s largest indigenous land animals, from ground squirrels and black rock cod—both the only true hibernators in their respective habitats—to baby lemmings and adult emperor penguins similarly huddling to conserve warmth. A comment on pollution at the poles and suggestions for young climate activists round off this unusually perceptive and informative visit to our (increasingly less) frozen zones. There are no human figures in view.
First-rate from top to bottom. (glossary, further reading, selected sources, index) (Nonfiction. 7-10)
Charles, Tami
Illus. by Jemma Skidmore
Simon & Schuster (40 pp.)
$18.99 | April 4, 2023
978-1-66593-526-5
The first Black female U.S. Supreme Court justice’s journey to greatness.
Charles notes that Ketanji Brown Jackson’s groundbreaking achievements are rooted in the dreams of her ancestors, who “fought to change / the fabric of this country.” Born in 1970, Ketanji Onyika Brown was the daughter of a lawyer and a principal. Indeed, she often sat with them as they studied and graded papers. She was an honor student and skilled debater, but when she set her sights on Harvard University, a guidance counselor discouraged her. She nevertheless attended both Harvard University and Harvard Law School, worked as a public defender, and became a district court judge. History was made when
a song of sun and sky
President Joe Biden nominated her as a Supreme Court justice. Never in 232 years had a Black woman ever served on the court, but her confirmation by the Senate changed that. This lively picture-book biography tells Justice Jackson’s story in direct, age-appropriate verse, never losing sight of either her struggles or successes. References to Black women lawyers and judges such as Charlotte E. Ray, Jane Bolin, and Constance Baker Motley make clear that many paved the way for her. The text is supported by colorful and expressive gouache and wax pencil illustrations that contribute to the overall hopeful tone of the narrative. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Triumphant and inspiring. (author’s note, important dates, important people and history shown in the art, bibliography) (Picture-book biography. 5-8)
Chichester Clark, Emma Kane Miller (32 pp.)
$14.99 | March 1, 2023
9781684645145
Staunch friends support a sensitive bibliophile bruin.
Clementine and her mother—both light-skinned—cherish their pal George, a well-meaning, oblivious, klutzy ursine who in Bears Don’t Read (2015) fed his love of literature. One day while Clementine is at school and her mother’s at work, George runs out of reading material and bravely decides to stroll to the town library. Failing to notice fellow pedestrians’ terrified reactions, he is mystified (“Bother!”) when he finds the library—and every shop—immediately closed. Naturally, he heads for the lively market square. Chaos ensues, and George slips and falls into the central fountain. The crowd hoots. George frets that the book is spoiled, worries that they’re laughing at him, and berates himself as “hopeless and clumsy.” When Clementine runs to comfort him, George bursts into tears. The small girl stands up for her friend, telling the throng that they have hurt his feelings: No one is too big to cry. Suddenly self-conscious, the townspeople feel “really, truly sorry.” George gets a towel, a hankie, apologies, and a new library book. The illustrations, full of colorful patterns, depict diverse humans. Clever type design makes for easy reading, while lots of pictorial action adds drama to this tale that gently reminds readers not to judge by outward appearances. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A sweet tale of a beloved bear defeating the tyranny of others’ expectations. (Picture book. 4-8)
Books (40 pp.)
$18.99 | April 11, 2023
9781250819437
A fictional conversation about color between a child and artist Georgia O’Keeffe.
Lula looks moody as her father pulls their car over in the middle of the desert. The girl describes her world in terms of color; at first all she sees is orange. Then she notes the gray smoke pouring from the engine and her father’s red face. The duo approach an adobe house for some water. The animal skulls on the wall, the paintbrushes in the jars, and the desert setting will evoke the famous 20th-century painter to those in the know, but to the child, the aged woman (unidentified until the backmatter) merely seems a good host. But after O’Keeffe sets up a canvas in the garden, a dialogue ensues. The bored child wonders why the woman uses so many colors (“The desert is just orange”), but the painter asks, “What color is a brown dog at sunset?” This gives Lula pause. While at times the protagonist’s thoughts sound more complex than a youngster’s capabilities, the narrative is nonetheless provocative, as when the artist mentions imprinting your color on a place and taking its hues with you. Watercolor washes, pencil sketches, and digital manipulation build the scenes, inviting readers to look closely at these wondrous landscapes. Cockcroft’s palette becomes more nuanced as the two converse, allowing readers to easily absorb Lula’s changing perceptions. Lula and her father are Black. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A fresh entree to an artist and her impact. (biographical note, bibliography) (Picture book. 4-7)
Colandro, Lucille
Illus. by Jared Lee
Cartwheel/Scholastic (32 pp.)
$6.99 paper | April 4, 2023
978-1338879117
A very silly fairy tale–inspired riff on the nursery rhyme.
The light-skinned old lady scarfs down a dragon for no discernable reason: “Can you imagine?” The dragon is followed by a tan-skinned princess “to guide the dragon,” a light-skinned knight “to soar with the princess,” a castle “for all to assemble,” a moat “to surround the castle,” a light-skinned mermaid “to float in the moat,” and finally “a book.” That volume proves to be a purgative: The old lady “began to exhale,” and “out came a magical fairy tale.” The one page of the fairy-tale book shown depicts the knight saving the princess from the dragon (the mermaid is just an onlooker) above the final phrase, “Happy reading!” No guiding, soaring, or assembling in sight. The mortal peril of ingesting heaps of the ridiculous has disappeared:
“A
There’s no more threat that “perhaps she’ll die.” Frequent repetition of imagine to rhyme with dragon might prove trying, but the zany action overcomes the tedium: Lee’s cartoon characters, bug-eyed and bulbous-nosed, slide down the old lady’s maw and float in her belly. Like many of the books in this astoundingly popular and drawn-out series, this one abandons the metrical structure and the logic of the original, and unlike some, it does not add educational tidbits. Still, past performance and the wacky illustrations promise library, classroom, and bedtime thrills. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Another absurd tale of the omnivorous old woman consuming the inedible. (Picture book. 4-6)
Coven, Wanda Illus. by Anna Abramskaya Simon Spotlight (352 pp.)
$14.99 | May 30, 2023
9781665925280
Series: Middle School and Other Disasters, 1
With her witch mom and human dad, Heidi Heckelbeck was first introduced to readers in a long-running eponymous series about her elementary school life.
Now she’s off to middle school at Broomsfield Academy, her mom’s alma mater. The boarding school, ostensibly an ordinary one, secretly provides special classes for witches and wizards. Those with magical talents must keep them secret, but that’s hard for Heidi. To her great dismay, her “broommate” is her nemesis from home, Melanie Maplethorpe. Is the rude, mean girl of her nightmares also a witch? Despite the rules against using magic outside her special classes, Heidi uses her powers to play a prank on Melanie, whose music is too loud. When the girls are partnered during Broommate Bonding Day, they find out that they are more alike than they think—but that doesn’t mean it’s completely smooth sailing ahead, especially when both of them have crushes on the same boy. There are sweet, detailed, grayscale illustrations scattered throughout, and many of Heidi’s thoughts are emphasized in different type sizes. The story moves quickly, and it may particularly appeal to reluctant readers. Loyal readers of the first series can easily transition to this, and others looking for an accessible read with a touch of magic will also enjoy it. Heidi and Melanie appear White; some secondary characters bring racial diversity.
Serves up light sorcery mixed with middle school friendships. (Fiction. 9-12)
Curtis, Andrea
Illus. by Katy Dockrill
Groundwood (40 pp.)
$19.99 | May 2, 2023
9781773068169
Series: ThinkCities, 4
Placemaking—shaping public spaces through community action—can make urban neighborhoods friendlier and more fun and inclusive.
In her fourth book in her ThinkCities series, Canadian writer Curtis looks at ways people in cities all over the world— from Mexico City to Tokyo, Addis Ababa to Auckland—have made changes for the better. The ideas are both surprising and inspiring: brightly painted benches, open-air libraries, pianos left out for passersby to play, pop-up parks, and public bathrooms with transparent walls that become opaque when the space is occupied. The text is set against exuberant, creatively intertwined illustrations that depict city dwellers diverse in ethnicity, age, and ability. People can be seen walking, riding bicycles, making art or conversation, playing, and just chilling out. Realistically, there are occasional cars, but the focus is on the people, a true city of neighbors. What might have seemed like a long inventory is enlivened by these images, which depict many of the examples mentioned in the text: a mural memorializing George Floyd in Minneapolis, a Toronto fountain with 27 cast-iron dogs and one cat, a “light ceiling” that makes an alley in Athens a brighter, safer place. The author concludes by inviting readers to get involved, offering an extensive list of suggestions for getting started.
A lively exposition of creative community-building projects. (glossary, selected sources, further resources for adults) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Cushman, Abi
Greenwillow Books (40 pp.)
$17.99 | May 23, 2023
9780063234437
An introduction to the Australian wombat, delivered with humor and occasional interruptions from a snake.
The snake from Cushman’s Animals Go Vroom! (2021) barges in to add to the fun of this collection of facts about wombats. A fairly straightforward exposition, offered in relatively simple sentences, is accompanied by humorous speech-bubble commentary by the wombat, other marsupials, and the snake. (The snake is the only animal not identified in the backmatter, where Cushman has included a variety of other Australian animals, inviting readers to find them in earlier spreads.) These googlyeyed anthropomorphic animals, drawn with pencil and digitally colored, are shown in fanciful day and nighttime scenes. Often
“A
there are cutaway views showing these nocturnal burrowers’ underground activities. The narrative begins by defining marsupial and pointing out an important characteristic of wombats—they can be elusive. It also describes where they live; when they’re active; the differences among species; their backward-facing pouches and tiny, nearly helpless babies; diet; physical adaptations including ever growing teeth and an armored backside; burrows; and, most importantly, their poop. Sidebars provide a more detailed definition of a marsupial, a map, a description of a wombat baby’s early life, and information on how their poop becomes cube shaped. This last explanation will probably be the highlight of most readers’ experience—something they won’t forget. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An engaging mix of facts and fancy. (facts about various wombat species, photos, glossary, further reading) (Informational picture book. 4-8)
David, Arihhonni
Holiday House (32 pp.)
$15.99 | April 25, 2023
978-0-8234-4948-4
Series: I Like To Read
Kindness wins the day.
On a cold walk through the woods, a child asks to hear a story from an elder; both are members of the Akwesasne Community. Treated to a trickster tale, the child hears of a challenge made between a speedy bear and a slow turtle. Turtle is not big or fast but has a quick mind. Bear is bigger, stronger, and confident that they will beat Turtle. So who will win the race across the frozen pond? Both have a plan. “Turtle will go under the ice. Bear will go over the ice.” As Bear runs, Turtle swims, periodically popping up through holes in the ice. No matter how fast Bear goes, Turtle is always in the lead. Finally, Turtle wins—but, as we find out, his victory is due to the help of his family members, each of whom resembles him and was lurking under the ice. Bear’s feelings are hurt, but Turtle makes it up to Bear by sharing the prize. They are both winners! With just a few words per page, presented in a large font, and visuals that reflect the action, this one is ideal for beginning readers. Exaggerated, energetic cartoon illustrations enhance the easy-to-read text. Children will be charmed by the humor, drama, fun twist, and wonderfully entertaining characters.
The characters’ strengths and savvy will delight emerging readers. (Early reader. 5-7)
Cameron Kids (32 pp.)
$17.99 | May 2, 2023
9781951836658
What do you dream about?
In a cascade of ever more lofty dreams, a tan-skinned girl who lives by the sea dreams of becoming “a princess in a golden gown who lived in a castle in a misty forest.” The girl, now a princess with a tiara, dreams of being “a horse with a flowing mane who lived in a meadow filled with flowers.” The horse in turn dreams of becoming a tree that then dreams of becoming a “great green mountain that rose so high she touched the clouds.” The mountain dreams she is the moon; the moon dreams that she is the sea; and the sea dreams that she is “a little girl who lived in a vine-covered cottage by the sea.” The final illustration returns readers to the original girl, and her sweeping hair blends with images of sea waves, a castle, and a horse, creating an artful summary of her imaginary journey that is now part of her. Spare, descriptive text is accompanied by rich, strikingly detailed watercolorlike illustrations. The simple story sends a message that it’s important to dream and to reach for the stars and the moon—and that someone just might be wishing they were you. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A magical tale that comes full circle, urging readers to dream big. (Picture book. 5-9)
Illus. by Shelly Cunningham Cameron Kids (32 pp.)
$18.99 | May 16, 2023
9781951836757
A whimsical yet poignant tweet by actor D’Onofrio that went viral in 2019 is the basis for this picture book.
Fact: Pigs can’t look up at the sky. Their neck muscles and spines are built such that their head movements are limited, though they can look up to an extent—e.g., if their heads are tilted. This reality lies at the heart of this minimally worded book in which a brown-skinned girl rigs up a contraption to lift her beloved pet pig, enabling it to see the stars. Girl and pig even become constellations. The girl declares she wants to be treated “that kindly and see the stars for the first time.” We get a sense she means more than literally viewing stars. This is confirmed by the author’s note, in which D’Onofrio talks about “small acts of kindness” and acknowledges people who helped him “broaden my narrow view of what I might be capable of.” He asks: “How do we look beyond ourselves? This girl and this pig only had to look up.” What he and this gentle, thought-provoking book suggest is that we become “stars” if we look around us and notice others who might need us. Adults sharing this
book should solicit such ideas from children—as well as additional ways to get pigs to look up. Cunningham’s delicate illustrations are moving and lovely. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A tender tale with a reminder to look up and all around us. (Picture book. 3-7)
Eaton III, Maxwell Roaring Brook Press (144 pp.)
$12.99 paper | May 2, 2023
9781250790477
Series: Survival Scout
Scout is hiking in the mountains when her hapless older brother loses their way on the trail.
After he runs off, Scout is left to fend for herself and figure out how to make her way back to civilization. She must make a series of choices, including where and how to set up camp, how to make her water drinkable, how to preserve her food supplies, and how to stay safe from numerous dangers. In each scenario, Scout breaks down her options with the help of a friendly talking skunk and decides on an answer for her predicaments. Competent and clearheaded Scout’s problem-solving is instructive both because of the breadth of information found here and because of Eaton’s methodical approach. This is more of a how-to than a narrative, and readers will learn not only camping and survival skills, but also how to calmly cope with a difficult situation. Comics prove a good medium to relay these skills to their intended audience. Colorful, energetic, cartoon illustrations rotating among wilderness panoramas, close-ups of Scout’s gear and tools, and more character-focused images with frequent humorous asides help convey both the basics and plenty of expert-level information like how to use a signal mirror, read a topographic map, or make a fire bow. Scout and her family present White.
An enlightening guide for aspiring adventurers. (appendix, further reading, author’s note) (Graphic fiction. 8-12)
SELENA GOMEZ
Edelman, Claudia Romo & Karla Valenti Illus. by Alexandra Beguez Roaring Brook Press (128 pp.)
$6.99 paper | April 18, 2023
9781250828316
Series: Hispanic Star
She was just a Texas girl with a Technicolor dream.
The latest in this series that focuses on prominent Latine individuals follows actor and pop star Selena Gomez, whose father, Ricardo Joel Gomez, is of Mexican descent and whose mother, Mandy Teefey, is of Italian heritage. Gomez was born in Grand Prairie, Texas, when her parents were 16; her mother worked multiple
jobs after divorcing her father when Gomez was 5. Gomez knew at a young age that she wanted to pursue acting and landed a role on Barney & Friends, which opened the door to Disney and her big break on Wizards of Waverly Place. The show’s tremendous success made Gomez a star. She spread her wings, forming a pop rock band. However, the intensity of working in Hollywood took a toll. After struggles with lupus, a kidney transplant, depression, and anxiety, she took a hiatus from social media and later opened up about her problems to the public. Sidebars throughout offer context on everything from various kinds of film and TV roles to dialysis to the DREAM Act (Gomez produced a Netflix series on undocumented families). The tone is conversational and intimate and will likely entice even readers unfamiliar with Gomez’s work. The discussions of Gomez’s physical and mental illness are refreshingly frank and empathetic. Notes from Valenti and Hispanic Star (a nonprofit organization that collaborated with the publisher for this series) close out the book.
A story of passion and perseverance that will inspire the star’s fans and newcomers alike. (online sources, additional facts) (Biography. 8-12)
by Shawn Harris Knopf (256
pp.)
$18.99 | $21.99 PLB | May 9, 2023
9781524764203
9781524764210 PLB
A wild dog who serves as the Eyes for Bison living in a park enclosure devises a plan to free them.
Exuberant, observant dog Johannes runs daily throughout the park, which is visited by humans, reporting to Freya, Meredith, and Samuel, three old Bison who are the Keepers of the Equilibrium. Johannes and other Assistant Eyes—a sea gull, a squirrel, a pelican, and a raccoon—describe an art museum being built in the park, a “building full of chaos-rectangles.” Johannes finds it captivating, leading to his capture by humans—and subsequent rescue by the other Eyes in a demonstration of interspecies cooperation. This gives him the idea to free the Bison. The appearance of goats, who have been brought in to eat weeds, provides a friend, a revelation, and a new plan and purpose: “to pull off the impossible.” Johannes’ first-person narration is an interesting mix of poetic language, sophisticated vocabulary, philosophy, humor, hyperbole, and both short declarative and run-on sentences; his estimations of time, size, and quantity are particularly exaggerated. Johannes’ loyalty, friendship, and commitment to a noble purpose, even as his sense of self shifts, the stakes are raised, and last-minute changes to the plan occur, make him an admirable character. The artwork consists of double-page spreads reproducing magnificent fine art landscapes into which Harris has seamlessly inserted Johannes, cleverly adapting to each painter’s style and color palette.
when we stayed home
One remarkable creature vividly shows readers that “there is so, so much to see.” (author’s note, sources) (Fiction. 9-14)
Faruqi, Saadia
Illus. by Anoosha Syed
Clarion/HarperCollins (32 pp.)
$18.99 | May 30, 2023
9780358536772
A lonely princess makes a friend. Bored of playing in her room with her sibling, Prince Baby, Rani wanders the palace looking for a playmate. When she finds her mother busy with the transportation minister, her father occupied with the kitchen staff, and the prime minister involved with “life-changing, stupendous tasks,” the princess decides to take matters into her own hands. After asking the reluctant Prime Minister to pack her a picnic, Rani grabs her baby brother and heads to the beach (in the background, Rani’s security detail attempts to surreptitiously keep tabs on them). At the shoreline, Rani tries and fails to build a sand castle. When a little girl asks Rani if the princess knows what she’s doing, Rani challenges the stranger to a sand castle–building contest. What begins as a competition ends up as a collaboration, and the two become friends. Rani is a spunky protagonist whose loneliness will be relatable to many readers. However, the girls’ transition from competitors to friends is a bit abrupt; similarly, Rani’s initial response to the new girl is inexplicably hostile. While the pictures are lushly detailed and Rani’s security guards’ antics are a hilarious pictorial running gag, the illustrations often swallow up the tiny text, making it difficult to read. Characters are brown-skinned and cued as South Asian. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A charming but slightly confusing tale of finding companionship in unexpected ways. (Picture book. 3-6)
Meteor 17 Books (48 pp.)
$14.99 | May 2, 2023
9781957317076
A child describes how they adapted to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a suburban house amid expansive flowering lawns, the light-skinned, short-haired child and a frisky canine companion spend time in physical isolation. (No caregiver is shown.) The child describes themselves as “a super helper!” and explains that super helpers wash their hands, stay at least six feet away from others, and “only grumble a little” while wearing masks that are “scratchy and stuffy.” The child has plenty of distractions. Outside, they play in the garden and draw with sidewalk chalk; inside they build forts, bake and decorate cookies, enjoy “a million screen visits with family and friends” on a handy
laptop, and, from a cushioned window seat, wave to racially diverse dog-walking neighbors (all wearing masks outdoors). The child makes sculptures out of fresh vegetables, and there’s an endless supply of “fancy puzzles” and “lots and lots of books.” Occasional sadness includes not being able to see friends (portrayed as racially diverse in a flashback), teachers, and extended family in person or visit playgrounds and parks. Some readers will recognize this situation; those who passed the pandemic in crowded, noisy apartments, with little fresh air or exercise, might be amazed and envious. The language is direct and readable. The delicious sherbet-colored illustrations depict a soft, idyllic suburban setting and usefully identify the real helpers as global health care providers. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An appealing account of the sunnier side of lockdown. (Picture book. 4-6)
Faulks, Ben Illus. by Nia Tudor Bloomsbury (32 pp.)
$18.99 | May 16, 2023
9781547612307
The title says it all: Grandpas rule!
In this book that sings the praises of grandfathers, a diverse group of patriarchs gather for a summer picnic. “Every grandpa’s different / in shape and size and name,” but the men are united in their love of their grandchildren. One brown-skinned grandfather is a baker. A light-skinned grandfather was a builder who, in retirement, builds a playhouse for his grandchild. An Asian-presenting grandfather is an explorer. Others include a light-skinned inventor who creates popcornpowered wings, a brown-skinned fisherman who regales his grandchild with tales of undersea wonders, a tan-skinned magician who travels the land, and even a daring brown-skinned hang glider. Another child sings the praises of their stay-athome grandfather (both are light-skinned) who reads, sings to, and cuddles his grandchild, just as his grandfather loved him many years ago. Each grandfather’s gift is described with a short rhyming verse. Energetic illustrations in clear, bright colors capture the joy and activities of the picnic as well as the details of the grandfathers’ and grandchildren’s daily lives—the light-skinned barber grandfather’s wild gray beard and photos of the haircuts he’s given over the years will encourage readers to explore their own family photos. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A loving tribute to grandfathers. (Picture book. 3-7)
“An
the girl who heard the music
Fergus, Maureen Illus. by
Danesh Mohiuddin Owlkids Books(32 pp.)
$18.95 | April 18, 2023
9781771475006
A princess proves wiser than her royal dads when it comes to figuring out what a newly arrived ogre is up to.
It’s easy to see how a new neighbor who is “hulking and hairy, / fearsome and scary” could make a bad first impression on everyone in the kingdom—or practically everyone, anyway. Despite a few unfortunate incidents during certain royal events, young Pru thinks he might just be lonely…and so neither she nor cannier readers will share the general terror when he begins buying up cupcakes by the score, a mountain of snacks, gobs of craft supplies, and lots of balloons. And indeed, when she rides up the hill on her ostrich with her three pet tarantulas in tow (Pru’s life, Fergus writes, “was practically perfect”), the ensuing party is the best in memory and the beginning of a beautiful friendship. The darker of the tan-skinned princess’s dads sports an outsize turban and a handlebar mustache; the other has skin the same color as Pru’s. Mohiuddin’s humorous cartoon illustrations depict a diverse populace more than willing, once the ice is broken, to give the grinning gray monster the benefit of the doubt. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A lighthearted reminder that first impressions, like appearances, can be deceiving. (Picture book. 6-8)
Fogelson, Marni & Mahani Teave
Illus. by Marta Álvarez MiguénsSourcebooks eXplore (32 pp.)
$18.99 | April 4, 2023
978-1-72826-231-4
The true story of a musician who makes her home a better place.
Mahani Teave lives on Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island. She hears music in everything, from the waves crashing against the rocks to the songs of the crickets. When White-presenting visitors come to her island with instruments, she longs to play. A tan-skinned retired teacher arrives one day and brings a piano. Mahani practices diligently, and when a great Chilean pianist visits and hears Mahani perform, he is amazed by her talent and encourages her to work hard. Eventually, she knows she must leave her beautiful island to learn from musicians worldwide. She plays concerts and wins international competitions. Wherever she goes, she shares the beauty of her island. Tourists flock to the island. Unfortunately, they bring trash with them. It
takes much effort, but Mahani and a team of islanders use the garbage—cardboard, glass and plastic bottles, tires—to build the island’s first music school. The Rapa Nui School of Music and the Arts is solar-powered and allows the island’s children to pursue their artistic passions. Mahani’s dream of a sustainable Rapa Nui continues. Accompanied by vibrant, delightful visuals, this upbeat and fascinating story will leave readers feeling as though they, too, can make a difference when it comes to helping the planet. Backmatter includes more information on Mahani and Rapa Nui. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A melodious and uplifting environmental success story. (Informational picture book. 4-8)
Fox, Mem
Illus. by Linda Davick Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (32 pp.)
$18.99 | May 2, 2023 9781534453333
Human parents gently teach their “almost brand-new” dragon to suppress his natural but dangerous fire-breathing ability.
Fox’s well-turned rhyming quatrains clearly link these fiery lapses with toddlers’ own naughty tendencies, so much the focus of early parental guidance. The tiny dragon’s damaging exhalations result in collateral damage and real danger, which Davick depicts as a singed shoe and, dramatically, burning toys. (The parents are shown dowsing the playtime fire with a hose and water pitcher, though a final spot illustration, more appropriately, does hang a fire extinguisher next to the dragon’s cradle.) Fox clearly demonstrates that the dragon’s innately fiery outbursts, consistently and lovingly addressed by the parents, are unintentional: “And he also tries hard / to behave as required, / but flames often spout / when he’s hungry or tired.” Text and illustrations deftly convey the dragon’s bewilderment, fear, sorrow, relief, and contentment. Using flat color, simple patterns, and generous amounts of white space, Davick depicts the parents as large-bodied with light brown skin. One has shoulder-length brown hair and wears pink capri pants and a pompom-trimmed top; the other has short black hair and sports periwinkle windowpane-checked trousers. The wee dragon is portrayed with multiple shades of green, with spots, stripes, and diaphanous green wings. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Lightheartedly instructive, this collaboration will delight parents and young children alike. (Picture book. 3-5)
“A
Gibbs, Stuart Illus. by Stacy Curtis Simon & Schuster (176 pp.)
$12.99 | May 9, 2023
9781665917445
Series: Once Upon a Tim, 3
Knights-in-training Tim and Belinda undertake a terrifying sea voyage to fetch a golden fleece and a few other treasures. Mostly what’s terrifying is that they have Sir Fass, Sir Render, and the rest of the Kingdom of Merryland’s inept, aptly named, and, as it turns out, treacherous Knight Brigade as shipmates…though surviving such nautical hazards as sirens, not to mention Scylla and Charybdis, are (not unlike a monstrous bargleboar, whose allergy to paprika leaves everyone covered in snot) nothing to sneeze at. Cribbing blithely from ancient sources but working in some inventive twists of his own—the song of the sirens, for instance, is so awful that rather than luring sailors to their deaths, it results in them wrecking their ships to avoid hearing it—Gibbs steers his young adventurers from one near disaster to the next before doing readers the disservice of leaving the pair hurtling toward certain death on the last page. As in previous outings, Curtis adds comical line drawings of knights in armor grimacing or looking confused to nearly every spread, and the author pauses the action periodically to define relevant vocabulary building words like overcompensating, nauseous, and (irritatingly) cliffhanger. Most of the cast presents White in the interior art, though Belinda appears to be Black.
More knightly shenanigans, tongue deeply in cheek. (Fantasy. 10-12)
Gilbert, Frances
Illus. by Amy Hevron
Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (32 pp.)
$18.99 | May 2, 2023
9781665903554
A youngster deeply in touch with nature explains how to hug each part of a forest.
The titular question may seem confounding at first, but the tiny narrator, who has brown skin and two coiled hair buns, breezily explains that OF COURSE you can hug a forest. All you need is a forest (check) and two arms (“Here are two. One. Two”). But you can’t hug a whole forest all at once. You need to hug each part individually. In order to hug the air (which whispers, “Whisha, whisha”), “Just open your arms, / lift up your chin, / and breathe in all the way down to your toes.” The meditative tot explains how to hug a leaf, a flower, and even a stream. But how do you hug a trail? “Just open your arms, / lean into each footfall, / and let the ground guide you, / there and back again.” The lulling, quiet text washes over
readers, following a repetitive structure (“How do you hug…?” “Like this”) that brings comfort and stability. Hevron’s cozy illustrations are painted directly on a wooden canvas, with wood grain peeking through delightfully in places. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Plenty of opportunity for stillness and nature appreciation, wherever you may be. (Picture book. 2-6)
Goldstyn, Jacques
Trans. by Helen Mixter
Greystone Kids (72 pp.)
$18.95 | May 16, 2023
9781771649193
In this tale translated from French, an Orthodox Jewish boy is fascinated by stars, planets—and the girl who shares his interest.
Every day Yakov takes his sisters to the park, where he reads about space. He fantasizes about going “to the Moon, to Mars, to Titan, or to Ganymede,” but his visions of Saturn are interrupted by his father’s nagging. Then he meets a Muslim girl named Aïcha. Instant soul mates, they daydream about the universe; in Goldstyn’s loose-lined illustrations, space looks magical, with deep blue washes. Both children are tanskinned, and Aïcha wears a flowing hijab, while Yakov has side curls and sports a kippa. Yakov’s Jewish community, with signs in French and Yiddish, is populated with large, friendly families: chatty women wearing head coverings; men wearing fur hats and kippot. Yakov prefers Aïcha’s company. They share bagels, ice cream, and space facts—all the while ignoring community gossip about their friendship. Driven apart by their infuriated fathers, they meet again in adulthood as happy, secular astronomers. The protagonists ultimately reach their dreams by rejecting their communities and fitting into the dominant culture—a narrative choice that’s handled without nuance. Both fathers feel one-dimensional in their opposition to the friendship, and Yakov’s and Aïcha’s reasons for leaving their faiths aren’t fully unpacked. Whenever Aïcha’s hair is seen (she takes the hijab off as a child at one point, to Yakov’s delight, and stops wearing it as an adult), it’s depicted as a huge mass of rainbow-hued curls—a portrayal that exoticizes her and suggests that the headscarf is oppressive.
A reductive tale of aspiration achieved through assimilation. (Graphic fiction. 6-10)
Goodale, E.B.
Clarion/HarperCollins (40 pp.)
$19.99 | May 9, 2023
9780358682325
Human, animal, and plant babies are all connected to the world that exists under the glowing moon each night.
In this warm bedtime story, a brown-skinned baby is born to a tan-skinned mother and a brown-skinned father who already have an older brown-skinned child with curly hair. The poetic text reminds children that the moon is always there, watching over the world and all its inhabitants. “When your mama was a baby, when your daddy was a baby, when your pet cricket was a baby—the moon remembers.” The artwork shows little ones snuggling with, reaching for, and playing with the smiling moon. The moon has been there forever, even welcoming the dinosaurs, and now it welcomes everything from little tomatoes to bunnies, owlets to infants, as it once greeted their parents. Speaking directly to children, the words are soothing and sweet. The soft multimedia illustrations, incorporating monoprint, gouache, watercolor, and collage, appropriately focus on night scenes, with an especially beautiful double-page spread at the end bringing together flora, fauna, and the human family (who are barely discernable), with a moonlit river flowing through the landscape. The endpapers show the phases of the moon, which may spark curiosity to learn about this phenomenon. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Peaceful and reverent, this is a book for all families to share as they cuddle closely together. (Picture book. 2-5)
Grabenstein, Chris Random House (304 pp.)
$17.99 | $20.99 PLB | May 16, 2023
9780593480915
9780593480922 PLB
Series: The Smartest Kid in the Universe, 3
The smartest kid and his friends strike again.
Jake McQuade, the star of the first two books in Grabenstein’s series, is still an artificially precocious youngster whose jelly bean–enhanced smarts get him into and out of scrapes. This third installment follows the formula established in the first two: His best friends, Grace Garcia and Kojo Shelton, help him unravel a mystery; dastardly villains with alliterative names try to usurp his position; and short, snappy chapters full of short, snappy paragraphs keep the action moving apace. The story opens with pirate captain Aliento de Perro (“Dog Breath”) smuggling away a massive orange diamond known as la Gran Calabaza, the retrieval of which becomes the central adventure. Meanwhile, Jake is worried that the effect of Pakistani scientist Haazim
Farooqi’s Ingestible Knowledge jelly beans is starting to wear off and that evil, wealthy, halitosis-afflicted Hubert Huxley will steal his spot when a new batch of those jelly beans turns Hubert into Captain Brainiac. The story—revolving around old and new characters and two separate jewels—is a little harder to follow than the last, and the central gimmick starts to wear thin as Hubert and Jake keep performing feats of intellect. Still, readers who are already invested in the characters will no doubt finish this one out of loyalty.
A weaker link in a fun series. (Fiction. 9-13)
The
Gratz, Alan
Illus. by Brent Schoonover Graphix/Scholastic (176 pp.) $24.99 | May 2, 2023 978-1-338-77590-7
A World War II tale that serves up history and heroics.
Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, and his covert ops sidekick, Bucky Barnes, both White, charge forth through Transia, a fictional country on the Eastern European front, aiding British soldiers against Germany. Their secret weapon is a “Ghost Army” led by Japanese American Jim Morita, consisting of fake recordings and props to fool enemies. An attack from seemingly real ghosts leads Cap and Bucky to a city under Nazi siege and to supernatural villains. This theater of war is enhanced by periodappropriate details such as K rations, characters raising their rifles when crossing rivers, and well-developed character backstories. We learn that Morita joined the U.S. military in order to leave a camp imprisoning Japanese Americans, which Cap acknowledges with shame. Sofia, a young Romani woman who teams up with Bucky, teaches him that the term gypsy is a pejorative. Characters also reckon with trauma from the previous world war. The villains, scheming though they are, have a few relatable moments. Reliably timed action scenes keep the pace moving quickly and demonstrate Cap’s selflessness. Marvel newbies should find this story accessible, though fans will spot winks to the larger shared universe.
Come for the Marvel flair; stay for the well-rounded characters and historical touch points. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)
monster camp
Gundersheimer, Ben Illus. by Dow Phumiruk Nancy Paulsen Books (32 pp.)
$18.99 | May 9, 2023
9780593110195
“Everything is better / Better when we work together.”
In this heartfelt celebration of working together, racially diverse young children frolic and unite in an urban setting. The warm illustrations convey the importance of teamwork as little ones help out around the house (washing dishes, setting the table, tying a little sibling’s shoelaces) and outdoors (picking up litter in a park, tending to the community garden, bringing bread and soup to a sickly next-door neighbor). The children also come together to stage plays and put on concerts. Straightforward, accessible text describes the children’s actions, punctuated by an italicized, slightly shifting refrain (“Everything grows better / Better when we work together,” “Everything sounds better / Better when we work together”). The children are joined by supportive parents (including a biracial couple) and friendly pets. This quiet but appealing selection will be a good choice for establishing a solid early learning environment; the emphasis on social skills and positive attributes such as sharing, responsibility, support, tidiness, and collaboration is strong and clear. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An upbeat demonstration that working together can make the world a more loving, supportive, and welcome place. (Picture book. 3-6)
Henning, Sarah McElderry (368 pp.)
$17.99 | May 9, 2023
9781665930055
What’s the perfect getaway for an aspiring vampire?
Sylvie Shaw loves to role-play as a monster: a vampire, to be exact. Founder of Evermore Middle School’s Monster LARPing Club, she loves watching the creepy old-school shows and movies that are a connection to her late mom, but her dad wants her to spend time with other people. Her summer hits a speed bump on the very first day when Dustin, the only other club member, is a no-show for their planned park LARP, and cocky jock Fisher, the bane of her sixth grade existence, appears to torment her. Things go from bad to worse when Dad provides a handful of brochures for possible summer camps but forbids her favorite, Monster Camp. Not to be thwarted, the determined Sylvie hatches a daring and devilish plan to infiltrate her wicked wonderland, which is adjacent to a survival skills camp. This is just the prelude to Sylvie the wannabe vampire’s delightfully odd odyssey.
She joins a pantheon of ghoulish campers, including werewolf Chad, Frankenstein’s monster, an invisible boy, and a Yeti. Sylvie’s initial joy—“These are my people”—turns to paranoia and fear as she imagines her exposure as a fraud and punishment at the claws of the camp denizens. With time, Sylvie settles in, and her ardor is rewarded. Henning’s clever premise allows her to explore a panorama of monsters, and her brisk, lively style deftly balances both frights and humor. Sylvie is cued White. A mirthful monster mashup. (Fiction. 8-12)
Herrera, Olga
Feiwel & Friends (48 pp.)
$18.99 | April 18, 2023
9781250827678
Can a dog adapt to changes?
Bongo the pup has daily routines: He rolls out of bed, wanders to his plant, sits on his favorite chair, sniffs his stinky carpet, then trots to the kitchen for breakfast. But this morning, an odd-looking object is in his way. Plus, there’s stuff on his chair, Mom hasn’t served breakfast, and the family has gathered around the new items. What’s up—and will these new things turn his life upside down? Protesting barks result in shushes, and when Bongo pees on “the thing,” he ends up in timeout. But then Mom feeds him a delayed breakfast, and he discovers his earlier fears were baseless. Afterward, Dad presents a surprise—a new baby. Guess who loves it? The baby won’t be a surprise to readers, for whom pictorial clues have been provided. This sweet story doesn’t add anything new to the canon about adapting to new family “interlopers,” but it’s charming and honest, and props to it for acknowledging that pets deserve reassurance, as do older siblings, when new babies come along. The brown-skinned family adapts cleverly to show expressive Bongo he won’t be supplanted by the newcomer. The colorful digital illustrations are warm, lively, and unfussy; children will enjoy identifying the telltale items signifying that an infant lives in this household. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Babies and dogs—no unwelcome surprises there. A bouncy story young readers will relate to and appreciate. (Picture book. 3-7)
Hinrichs, Alexandra S.D.
Illus. by Vivian Mineker
Charlesbridge (48 pp.)
$18.99 | May 16, 2023
9781623542603
A tribute to Glacier Bay, Yellowstone, the Everglades, and other national parks.
Personifying her subjects (“You may think you know me”), Hinrichs introduces, in rhyme, 16 parks, from Hawaii’s Haleakalā to Acadia in Maine, then goes on in a prose afterword
“A
to recap the genesis and growth of the National Park Service. In that long note, she describes how Native residents were driven from Yosemite (so named by White colonizers with an Ahwahneechee word that means “they are killers”) and how settlers of German, English, and Scottish descent were denigrated and then forcibly relocated from the land that became Shenandoah National Park. (The author also notes elsewhere that the latter was racially segregated until 1950.) Though her overall tone is celebratory, she closes by reassuring readers that mixed feelings are natural and leadingly asks them to think of ways to “connect with each other to share and honor our differences.” Mineker depicts a range of grand landscapes and natural wonders in her digital illustrations; she puts a cast of human figures—diverse in terms of race and ability—prominently in the foregrounds to underscore the point that national parks exist to be experienced as well as preserved. A page of thoughtful comments from actual young park visitors at the end reinforces the theme. An enticing look at our national parks—rhapsodic but with attention to their checkered history. (map, selected sources) (Nonfiction. 6-9)
Hirsch, Andy First Second (128 pp.)
$12.99 paper | May 23, 2023
9781250265852
Series: Science Comics
Saving the world might not have been in Julie’s holiday plans, but it sure beats doing homework.
In a quasi-dystopian future, machines are the last bastions of defense between monsters and humans. Julie’s Uncle Niko, a retired mech pilot, guards a lighthouse, keeping storms and monsters at bay with the help of Menlo, an automated defender. But when Menlo loses power and the monsters escape and begin wreaking havoc on the city, electricity might be the only thing that can put things right. The story blends fact and fiction; woven into the narrative are intricate, immersive illustrations of a variety of electromagnetic principles, including types of energy, power sources, and currents; voltage; and more. These topics are explained at a higher level than is typically found in children’s books, demanding careful attention to ensure understanding. Some readers might get lost in the details even if they find the concepts interesting. The book often reads more like a series of infodumps, with an ostensibly connecting thread of plot the author occasionally remembers to check back in on. Hints at a wider world, one that’s sustained primarily by renewable energy sources in the wake of human-induced environmental destruction, are intriguing but poorly developed. Julie and Uncle Niko are light-skinned. Informative but clumsily executed. (glossary) (Graphic nonfiction. 9-13)
Hohn, Nadia L.
Illus. by Irene Luxbacher
Groundwood (32 pp.)
$18.99 | May 2, 2023
9781773068503
Series: Malaika, 4
A Black Canadian girl is curious about the father she never knew. Malaika tells her mother and her grandmother about how she dreamed of a man with a basket of fruit. She soon learns that her father was a migrant worker who came to Canada before the rest of the family did but became sick and died here. The family travels to the farm where her father used to work. The farmworkers tell Malaika that he wanted to have a parade, “like back home,” and ask her to lead the Carnival parade in his honor. She puts up flyers asking others in their neighborhood to donate “pieces of cloth that remind you of home,” and together Malaika and Grandma create a gorgeous Carnival flag. Malaika appears to be part of a blended family, with a White-presenting French Canadian stepfather, Papa Fred, and stepsister, Adele; her mother and grandmother are Black. Though Malaika’s family’s country of origin isn’t mentioned, in an author’s note Hohn mentions her grandfather, a seasonal worker in the United States who died before returning home to Jamaica. The themes of immigrant communities, loving and supportive blended families, and finding ways to honor tradition and community shine brilliantly in this picture book. The illustrations, a combination of gouache and soft pastels, have a hazy look—ideal for bringing to life the child’s dreams of her father and showing how he’s still with her, no matter what. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A lovely story that intertwines a girl’s past and present into an honest reflection of her family. (Picture book. 6-8)
Hopkinson, Deborah
Scholastic Focus (320 pp.)
$19.99 | April 18, 2023
9781338746167
Series: Scholastic Focus
This account of the Bataan Death March and the Cabanatuan prison camp raid follows the stories of multiple witnesses and survivors.
Based largely on first-person reports, the latest from noted author Hopkinson tells the stories of Americans and Filipinos, military and civilian, and their experiences in the Philippines from the bombing of Pearl Harbor until the liberation of the Cabanatuan camp. It largely focuses on the experiences of POWs but includes many other details and perspectives that help readers to put events into context. The story is presented narratively, jumping among the eyewitnesses with their stories
“A fascinating, nuanced, and emotional historical narrative.”
race against death
broken up by contextual information as well as prisoners’ art and poetry, all of which add a feeling of vivid immediacy. Reading it feels almost like watching a World War II newsreel: informative yet thrilling. Hopkinson uses supplemental maps and images effectively; one never needs to turn back to a previous page to remember what is happening. She does not shy away from relating the horrors of these events in an age-appropriate way. She is also careful to state that this book tells just one part of the whole story and is not the definitive word on World War II in the Philippines. An introductory author’s note provides valuable context on race and gender and their impact on military service at the time and acknowledges the unjust persecution of Japanese Americans on the homefront.
A fascinating, nuanced, and emotional historical narrative. (timeline, resources, bibliography, source notes, image credits, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)
Hoyle, McCall
Illus. by Vivienne To Shadow Mountain (208 pp.)
$18.99 | April 4, 2023 978-1-63993-093-7
A working farm dog and an anxious boy become best friends.
Gus is a livestock guardian dog who excels at protecting the sheep. A Great Pyrenees (illustrated as a massive, fluffy sweetheart), he’s lived outdoors his whole life, unlike the farm’s other dogs. He’s fond of “boss lady” Esperanza and her daughter, Cloe, and the other canines, including Stella, a service dog who alerts Cloe to seizures (and the protagonist of Stella, 2021). Gus, however, is a working dog at his very core. When a bear attacks, Gus is there—and when he leaps into the fray to protect one of the other dogs, he is gravely injured. The hardworking dog can’t bear being indoors as he heals and is comforted only by Diego, Cloe’s shy, soft-spoken cousin. Through Gus’ lightly anthropomorphized thoughts (he carefully reports all human conversations he hears despite not necessarily understanding everything), Diego’s overwhelming anxiety is apparent but is eased through his bond with Gus, and soon the dog realizes he has a new purpose as an emotional support animal for Diego. This is a comforting, quiet tale of a working dog slowly transitioning into a new life. Featuring a lovable animal protagonist, a relatable and persistent child trainer, and dog-training information, it’s a compelling read. Gus doesn’t report much on dog-irrelevant details like human appearance, though he’s very invested in the taste of ice cream, but his reports of conversations cue his human family as being Latine.
A gentle portrayal of a canine protagonist adjusting to a new role. (discussion questions) (Fiction. 7-10)
Humphrey, Anna
Illus. by Mike Deas
Owlkids Books (128 pp.)
$16.95 | April 18, 2023
9781771474436
Series: Bee and Flea, 2
An officious trainee policebee learns to kick back when her “flea-kini”–clad partner drags her to a pool party.
“Oh, quit being such a buzzy-body!” gripes Bee’s extroverted companion, Flea, as an invitation arrives in the splashy wake of a rainstorm. Indeed, once Bee gets over her terror of the water and dives into the puddle to find herself getting a pond-scum pie in the face from Copepod the Clown, being whirled off for a round of “pin the tail on the protist,” rescuing a baby water bear, and encountering a host of fellow partiers from heliozoans to daphnia, she considers the whole experience the bee’s knees. She even gets a commendation from her partner (“you figured out the water cycle all on your own”) after solving the mystery of what is causing the puddle to shrink. Despite expressive faces (and in the case of the cute baby tardigrade, huge googly eyes), the fauna in Deas’ frequent illustrations are drawn with enough naturalistic detail to be recognizable, and Humphrey tacks on a set of multiple-choice questions at the end to reinforce the STEM-centric elements she incorporates into much of this chapter book’s microscopic mischief. As in Bee and Flea’s initial meetup in Bee & Flea and the Compost Caper (2022), there’s plenty of entertaining back and forth in the friendship between the two main characters, too.
Delivers on the protagonist’s promise of “exciting, educational, and occasionally gross” experiences. (Informational fiction. 7-10)
Jules, Jacqueline
Illus. by Eleanor Rees Howell
Kar-Ben (24 pp.)
$19.99 | May 2, 2023
9781728445540
A lesson in responsibility and kindness, divinely noted.
Brown-skinned Moses, a shepherd, is reclining against a tree when he sees one of the lambs scamper off. He leaves his dog with the flock and goes off in pursuit, but the lamb is fleet of foot. Moses frets about the wandering lamb but keeps up the search despite the heat. It is a long pursuit through rock and bush and desert, the sound of the lamb’s bleating his only guide. At last, at the bank of a stream, he catches up with the little animal, who is busy drinking, and carries her back to her mother. God has been watching and at this moment determines that Moses is the one “to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt.” The author, in a note preceding the story, attributes this tale to
the midrash Shemot Rabbah 2:2, a rabbinical commentary on the Book of Exodus. Swirls of browns and blues depict the colors of the vast desert and sky with colorful leaves, bushes, and streams adding to the scenery. Though simple, this one is sure to spark conversation; it can be shared not only in anticipation of or during Passover, but also to open up discussion of duty.
A well-told story of an act of biblical and historical significance. (Religious picture book. 4-7)
Kaner, Etta Illus. by Jenna Piechota Owlkids Books (32 pp.)
$18.95 | March 14, 2023
9781771474924
In the wake of Do Lizards Eat Ice Cream? (2020), another round of questions and sometimes-surprising answers spotlighting parallels between human and wild animal behavior.
No (in response to the titular query), but fire ants do make fires (“in a way”) by stinging prey or unwary passersby. Similarly, damselfish do farm red algae on reefs, moles don’t dig subway tunnels (but they can dig burrows like anything), and so on. Though not as suspenseful as it might be if each question and its answer weren’t on the same spread, this fresh dive into animal behavior does offer amusing cartoon views of creatures in human(ish) clothes and settings as well as plenty of crowd-pleasing bits: “Do tapirs deliver packages?” “YES! (Sort of) South American tapirs travel long distances, delivering seedfilled poop packages as they go.” “Do frogs act in movies?” “NO! But spotted litter frogs do sometimes act…like they’re dead.” The mix of carefully distinguished fact and fancy makes the informational load easy to digest, if a little on the light side, and as in the previous book, the topic is tossed out to readers at the end—“What jobs do you have at home or at school?” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Doesn’t dig all that deep but may fire up an interest in further investigations. (Informational picture book. 5-8)
Kelly, J.N.
Rowe Publishing (228 pp.)
$14.99 paper | Feb. 14, 2023
9781644460184
A mother and daughter keep secrets from one another in this World War II–era story.
Being a lefty with a devastating submarine delivery, 14-year-old Wisconsinite Millie Bauer is not only good enough on the mound to play with the boys in sandlot games, but has
caught the eye of the local high school’s baseball coach. Her love of the game is tempered, though, when she intercepts a crushing telegram announcing that her beloved big brother George has gone MIA in Italy—news that she keeps from her hardworking, recently widowed mother, Helen. This becomes easier when, sometime later, Helen suddenly begins spending so much of her free time volunteering to work with wounded soldiers down at the Red Cross facility that the two seldom see one another. Helen, it turns out, is concealing something too… but Kelly drops in enough clues that alert readers shouldn’t be too surprised by the denouement. Along with folding in plenty of baseball talk and action, the author adds enough details about daily life to give the tale a clear sense of the period. He also leads his talented young pitcher all the way to a tryout with the Minneapolis Millerettes of the All-American Girls League, though that subplot’s sudden ending makes this less a baseball story than one about small-town wartime life and the anxieties of having a loved one fighting overseas.
A well-developed story of navigating the ups and downs of life on the homefront. (Historical fiction. 10-14)
Khan, Hena & Andrea Menotti
Illus. by Yancey Labat
Penguin Workshop (288 pp.)
$8.99 paper | April 25, 2023
978-0-593-22487-8
Series: Super You!, 2
Whether it’s encountering alien technology, interacting with aliens, or even traveling to their planet, the experiences in this choose-your-own-adventure tale are creative and intriguing.
Readers are invited to make choices at pivotal moments, directing the action and exploring the variety of outcomes. You might become a villain or a hero, and there are different levels of ordinariness and ignobility in between. It all starts when you find a device that turns you invisible. In subsequent scenarios, you might take the device and have fun teasing your friends or use it to get revenge on school bullies. Selling it to a technology company is another option. When you meet the aliens who created the device, the possibilities get even wilder. The aliens could take you to their planet and put you on display in a cage—where is the power of invisibility when you most need it? When you talk with the aliens, you might learn that they want to destroy Earth. If you join forces with them, you become the worst villain in history. But if you can persuade them to leave the planet in peace, you can work to innovate technologies to protect the Earth from future attacks. Black-and-white graphic panels are interspersed throughout to illustrate the aliens and key moments. Names and illustrations indicate diversity in the cast.
Rich with imaginative, unusual possibilities for fans of the genre. (Adventure. 8-12)
Kirst,
Seamus Illus. by Karen Bunting Magination/American Psychological Association(32 pp.)
$18.99 | May 9, 2023
9781433840388
A child attends a family reunion. Harper, who has brown skin and long dark brown hair, is off to a family reunion for the first time with their two fathers (one is brown-skinned; the other is lighter-skinned). When they arrive, Harper is surprised to see that there are so many people in their extended family. They quickly meet blond-haired, lightskinned, bespectacled Noah (their second cousin). The two are a bit confused, though, because they “thought family are the people you live with.” Noah and Harper participate in games like the potato sack race while also taking stock of all the people in attendance. Making a list of everyone, the two try to figure out where they’ll eventually live. Both Noah’s and Harper’s houses are too small! Thankfully Dad and Daddy correct Harper’s misconception, and Harper learns that while families come in all sizes, they’re all connected by love. The story is sweet and soothing with warm, cartoon art, though some children may be perplexed by terms like first cousin once removed and first cousin twice removed, which go undefined. (Adults explaining these phrases to little ones may wish for a helpful glossary or infographic.) Harper’s extended family is diverse in terms of race and ability. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Heartwarming, though potentially a bit confusing. (Picture book. 6-8)
Kolinas, Sophia
Illus. by Aparna
VarmaOwlkids Books (32 pp.)
$18.95 | March 14, 2023
9781771474948
If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Ah, the idyllic life of a bear: scratching on trees, fishing in rivers, taking a snooze. But this particular bear is finding all his activities thwarted by human encroachment. Luckily, he stumbles across a girl dressed as some sort of scout, out with a group of similarly dressed children, who speaks bear and is willing to teach him the ropes of being human. But while he masters thumb wars, cooperation, and hide-and-seek, these skills fail to help him feel at home in the city, and the pair run back to the forest. The girl realizes that perhaps the bear has it backward, and she learns “the smell of a summer sky just before it rains” and other nature skills but especially the idea that the Earth is meant for sharing. Together with her scout group, they join with the bear to start working on a space for everyone to enjoy. And while each continues to be good at being their own species, they will always remain friends. Varma’s
adorable cartoon illustrations highlight the ursine-girl relationship while at the same time showing humans’ lack of care for the natural world: tree stumps, garbage, loud traffic. The unnamed girl is tanskinned with short dark hair; her friends are diverse. While backmatter might have been welcome, Kolinas gets her message across without it. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Perhaps the Earth would be better off if humans were more like animals. (Picture book. 3-7)
Kramer, Jackie Azúa & Jonah Kramer
Illus. by Zach Manbeck
Cameron Kids (40 pp.)
$18.99 | April 18, 2023
9781951836528
When you search for magic, you may find it.
“To Manolo, the world was a magical place.” The brown-skinned boy’s journal is flush with unicorn drawings, but what he longs to see is an “actual” unicorn. Others aren’t charmed by Manolo’s dreams. The “Wild Animal Parade” is an eagerly anticipated school event where students dress up as the creature of their choice, but Manolo’s announcement that he’ll be a unicorn is met with derision and a stinging rebuke: “Boys don’t like unicorns.” Suddenly Manolo’s world isn’t magical; dejected, he starts to believe that “Maybe unicorns aren’t real.” But then…a unicorn magically materializes, and Manolo goes for a ride, returning home with a prized souvenir from its tail: “a shimmery strand as light as air and as strong as iron.” Next morning, Manolo hurriedly prepares his splendid costume, complete with magical strand. After he tells his diverse classmates about unicorns, they urge him to lead them in a search for one. Manolo stands just a bit taller. This sweet story conveys an empowering message about being true to oneself and one’s dreams. The language is often poetic, airy, and lush, though the ending is rushed. The bright illustrations, from which rays of light seem to emanate often, are delicate and suit a tale about a magical creature. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Will leave little ones reassured that the world is a magical place if they truly believe it is. (Picture book. 4-7)
Kuyatt, Meg Eden
Scholastic (288 pp.)
$18.99 | April 4, 2023
9781338816105
An autistic artist just wants to survive seventh grade.
Selah, a White girl, is a “good kid,” praised for her schoolwork—but inside, she’s a “dragon.” She can’t abide noise, smells, or touches, and her mother has been extremely clear about hiding her differences in public. But
“Short free-verse vignettes beautifully evoke despair, loneliness and determination.”
good different
her “normal-person mask” is fraying. When Selah is praised for getting an A on a test and there is loud applause, she thinks, “I want to crawl / under my desk.” Eventually, Selah has a violent outburst: Now classmates and teachers treat her like a wild animal. In her notebook, Selah writes free verse about being a dragon—a metaphor for all her neurodivergent frustration with social norms. She worries that she shouldn’t share her poetry (“My feelings are loud. Rude. / BIG. Sometimes / angry. Are those OK in poems?”), but the verses ultimately allow her to share her scary feelings. It’s a revelation when she finds fellow neurodivergent geeks at FantasyCon. Happy, married adults use earplugs and sensory tools, wear color-coded communication bracelets, and speak calmly and without shame about their autism. Can these tools help when educators at her private school are hostile to autistic kids’ needs? Can they help when even her neurodivergent mother doesn’t want to recognize that Selah isn’t “normal”? Through her poems, Selah believably mends her family and starts a movement in her school, showing readers ways that “different” can be wonderful.
Short free-verse vignettes beautifully evoke despair, loneliness—and determination. (author’s note, resources) (Verse fiction. 9-12)
Kyi, Tanya Lloyd Illus. by Chanelle
NibbelinkKids Can (56 pp.)
$18.99 | May 2, 2023
9781525305481
A basic introduction to formal debating.
Pairing off 10 young speakers— depicted as racially diverse in Nibbelink’s stylized artwork—to tackle such bland propositions as “Kids should clean their rooms” and “Kids should do their homework,” Kyi lays out opening statements, rebuttals, and conclusions for each exchange of views. These are accompanied by analytical notes on chains of logic, evaluation of authorities and information sources, and types of arguments as well as pointers on proper delivery. Readers are unlikely to find any of the presentations actually persuasive one way or the other, but as samples they do show how to frame and counter arguments, present factual data, and sum up. Still, despite incorporating catchy slogans into some arguments (“Mess-free is stress-free”), she never challenges her underlying premise that rational discourse alone is enough to effect opinions in the real world—so her promise to impart “persuasion superpowers” to her audience will more likely come to pass using more detailed and nuanced handbooks like Claire Duffy’s The Teen’s Guide to Debating and Public Speaking (2018). Kyi does offer a list of meatier topics to tackle, along with a generalized description of what to expect at an academic-style debate, at the end.
A quick once-over best for sparking interest in debating, but look elsewhere for a richer treatment. (glossary, selected sources, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)
Kyi, Tanya Lloyd
Illus. by Rachel Qiuqi
Greystone Kids (36 pp.)
$18.95 | May 9, 2023
9781771648615
Scientists know a lot, but there is still so much more in the universe for a child to wonder about and learn.
A curious, round-eyed, brown-skinned child muses on the wealth of surprising discoveries scientists have made, citing fascinating examples such as sea stars’ tube feet, macaws’ tonguebones, and emperor penguins’ highly social behavior. Looking closely at fossils, remotely into space, and microscopically at nerve cells’ communication, scientists know so much about this and distant worlds! But then the narrator, with notepad and magnifying glass, thinks of questions not yet answered: the why of humpback whales’ varied songs, the how of tree-root communication, the mystery of dinosaur languages and games—and, the biggest question of all, the titular one. Short, simple sentences are presented in a legible sans-serif font. The entrancing, clear-edged but lineless, warm, uncluttered illustrations include jungle and desert scenes, seascapes, animals, planets, dinosaurs, and neurons and will reach readers whether in laps or classrooms. A final page asks readers to search back through the pages for 10 tiny images and, like the entire book, enthusiastically endorses “investigating, inventing, or creating” as essential qualities for scientists. The adult scientists depicted are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Celebrating intellectual curiosity, this book invites young readers to quest for answers. (Nonfiction picture book. 4-7)
Harper/HarperCollins (256 pp.)
$18.99 | May 9, 2023
9780063047006
In this long-awaited sequel to Inside Out & Back Again (2011), Hà’s story of adjusting to life outside of Vietnam continues.
Since coming to the United States from Vietnam as a refugee, she has changed and grown in her new country. After finally settling into school and making a friend, Hà is excited to experience an American birthday party. But then her mother announces her plans to move the family from Alabama to Texas in search of new opportunities. Twelve-year-old Hà dreads the thought of starting over once again, but she is eventually outvoted. In Texas, her mother and brother find jobs, and Hà, determined to help, has her own plans to grow and sell plants. At the same time, she navigates the trials of a new school, casual racism and prejudice, and puberty. Through its verse structure, the narration allows Hà’s humor and determination to shine through. As
“A strong depiction of both the struggles of refugees and the resilience and love one girl finds within herself.”
when clouds touch us
she continues to strive to be true to herself, she finds that this means walking an entirely new path, something different from what her mother imagined but also different from the paths of her classmates. Addressing the challenges of making a new life after trauma and war while also exploring the powerful bonds that shape a family, this is a frank and beautiful continuation of Hà’s story that is also accessible to readers meeting her for the first time.
A strong depiction of both the struggles of refugees and the resilience and love one girl finds within herself. (Verse fiction. 9-12)
LaRocca, Rajani
Illus. by Abhi Alwar Abrams (40 pp.)
$17.99 | May 16, 2023
9781419757334
People may grow and change, but familial love stays the same.
Every summer, Ravi goes to a beach house with “Mom and Dad, two uncles, two aunties, Thatha and Pati, [and] seven cousins.” Second youngest cousin Ravi has a special bond with oldest cousin Dhruv. This year, though, Dhruv seems taller and even more mature, and Ravi wonders if Dhruv remembers all the things that made their relationship special—like their shared love of banana ice cream, which neither one of them can ever seem to find. At first, Ravi feels timid around Dhruv; when Dhruv offers to take Ravi paddleboarding, Ravi nods instead of speaking. But then, at the lake, Dhruv encourages Ravi to take a turn on the tire swing. Leaping triumphantly into the water— something the child never would have done a year ago—Ravi realizes that Dhruv isn’t the only one who has changed since last year: Ravi has, too! One night, when all of the cousins decide to make dinner for the adults, Ravi finds a way to prepare the beloved banana ice cream that involves all the kids. It’s clear that though relationships evolve over time, they can still stay strong. Framed by the cousins’ endearingly boisterous antics, Ravi’s evolution is heartwarming, realistic, and beautifully paced. The cartoonlike illustrations and soft, smudged palette perfectly accompany the warm, quietly lyrical text. Characters are of South Asian descent. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A gorgeous ode to change, growth, togetherness, and family. (Picture book. 2-7)
Latimer, Alex
Kane Miller (32 pp.)
$15.99 | March 1, 2023
9781684644957
Little friends strive to overcome the pointless animosity of their clans.
For reasons long forgotten, the Vegetables and the Fruits are bitterly at odds, slinging insults at and slyly sabotaging each other. Naturally, each group tries to end the new friendship between Grape and Mushroom. Appalled and unwilling to be separated, Mushroom and Grape decide to consult the (possibly mythical) Wise Old Cheese. Scaling the fridge shelves, the friends undertake a perilous journey to the Top Shelf, helping each other through the worst bits (and past some atrocious puns). The wedge of Cheese—aged, smelly, a bit moldy—promises to think over their problem but falls asleep, and the discouraged friends return to find their groups still embroiled in conflict. But then a “milky light” and “pungent pong” announce the manifestation of the Wise Old Cheese, who points to the two friends’ efforts as a model of cooperation, and, lo, the adversaries discover their similarities and decide to “give peace a chance.” The wordplay is entertaining, while the arduous expedition and the buddies’ bond are inspiring. The amusing illustrations of kitchen equipment and anthropomorphic produce provide bright colors and action (probably best for reading to a close-up audience). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A tasty tale in which friendship conquers all. (Picture book. 3-8)
Layton, Christine
Illus. by Luciana Navarro Powell Tilbury House (32 pp.)
$18.95 | April 4, 2023
9780884489245
An homage to light.
This sparklingly illustrated picture book consists of spare, poetic verse exploring the properties of light; however, it’s often too impenetrable for easy understanding (“light laughs in code, / signals in signs…”). Luckily, the book concludes with two pages of scientific context for some of the more cryptic phrases. For instance, Layton explains that the statement “Light tells the space between stars. / It echoes off planets and moons” means that we can see planets and moons—which do not generate their own light—in the night sky because light reflects off them from stars. While the idea of using poetry to celebrate light is an intriguing one, the abstruse verse and in-depth scientific explanations seem geared toward an older audience than the illustrations. The images are the stars of the show, making rich use of color to convey the idea of a shimmering universe. They offer some grounding to the esoteric narrative and present their own secondary storyline in which brown-skinned children
(including one wheelchair user) observe light all around them as they shine flashlights at each other, cower from lightning during a storm, and gleefully capture fireflies. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Though the text is less than illuminating, the gorgeous visuals help shed light on the topic. (Informational picture book. 5-8)
Lerner, Jarrett
Simon Spotlight (32 pp.)
$17.99 | Jan. 17, 2023
9781665918916
Series: Nat the Cat
Lots of laughs at the expense of a sleepy cat.
Poor Nat the Cat wants to take a nap, but the voice of an offstage narrator keeps him from doing so for most of the story. When readers first meet Nat, the cartoon feline is seen standing with his eyes closed below a speech balloon reading “zzzzzz….” Next, the narrator announces, “This is Nat. Nat is a Cat,” and one of Nat’s closed eyes pops open. When the narrator tells us, “Nat the Cat is taking a nap,” Nat retorts, “No, Nat the Cat WAS taking a nap.” Background details are kept to a minimum, providing rest for the eye and allowing the images to support textual meaning. Meanwhile, subtle font and wording changes combined with slight adjustments to character expressions and placement result in text that reinforces decoding skills through repetition and making the simple, funny narrative accessible to emerging readers. Humor increases when Pat the Rat shows up—not as prey for Nat to chase but as another sleepy character who wants to take a nap, too—and by book’s end, both characters get some needed shut-eye.
Don’t sleep on this laugh-out-loud title for the newest readers. (Early reader. 5-7)
Lerner, Jarrett
Aladdin (368 pp.)
$17.99 | May 2, 2023
9781665905152
Will Chambers wrestles with fat stigma, self-loathing, disordered eating, and the ultimate desire to be accepted.
Lerner’s illustrated verse novel opens on Will’s fourth grade year. It’s the first time the word fat is hurled at him as an insult, the first time he understands that the rest of the world sees something wrong with his body. Three years later, shamefilled Will is eating less and less. It’s Markus, his kind, cool skateboarder friend, who helps Will when he eventually breaks
and who is there as he works on piecing himself back together. Lerner uses the format to great effect, as the staccato lines of broken verse are well matched to Will’s honest, disjointed inner thoughts. The setup makes for an effective portrayal of Will’s painful mental battles. The black-and-white illustrations mostly depict Markus; Will’s crush, Jules, a skinny girl; and a prickly, monsterlike version of how Will sees himself. Peppered throughout are balls of black scribbles representing Will’s anxiety, fears, and the anger he directs at himself. The diary feel adds to readers’ understanding of Will. Lerner writes very affecting scenes that will resonate with some readers and provide insight for others, shedding powerful light on boys’ body image struggles. All characters appear White.
A successful marriage of art and poetry. (Verse fiction. 8-12)
Lopez, George with Ryan Calejo
Illus. by Santy Gutiérrez
Viking (320 pp.)
$17.99 | May 23, 2023
9780593466001
Series: ChupaCarter, 2
A rash of mysterious fires sets Jorge and his amigos on the trail of an evil arsonist…or maybe a vengeful ghost.
Being as his best friend, Carter, is the 7-foot tall, wolflike cryptid met in the series opener—and now just back in town—Jorge Lopez has trouble dismissing a scary old local legend about an evil incendiary piñata possessed by the ghost of a despised rich kid. Still, since the grown-ups in Boca Falls seem oddly uninterested in finding out who, human or otherwise, is burning down local businesses, Jorge nervously enlists his fanged but friendly buddy to join science-minded classmate Liza in an investigation that quickly turns up a positively bountiful array of clues and suspects. Seasoning the eponymous narrator’s account with Spanish words, including flavorful Chicano slang, Lopez and Calejo alternate chuckles and chills as the young detectives struggle with their fears, fend off prankster “bully-jerk” Zane, puzzle over the significance of seemingly contradictory findings, and, in the wake of a string of (as Jorge puts it) “übercreepy” incidents and narrow squeaks, wind up stuck in a ruinous old mansion with an entire gang of crazed villains eager to explain their motives before setting one final, deadly blaze. Gutiérrez’s frequent monochrome illustrations feature both a racially diverse cast and action and dialogue that segue smoothly into the narrative, offering the feeling of a graphic novel–prose hybrid format.
A fresh, lively escapade with lots of übercreepy bits. ¡Órale! (Fantasy. 8-12)
b my name is boy
Manley, Ben
Illus. by Andrew Gardner Andersen Press USA (32 pp.)$18.99 | April 4, 2023
978-1-72849-211-7
The seemingly weakest member of a group of friends solves a bullying problem.
The opening double-page spread shows a racially diverse array of cartoonish characters with large, round heads; round, opaque, black eyes; and frowning eyebrows. Each character’s name is listed. Narrator Hero, who presents as Black, states, “This is our gang. This is our spot. And we like it a lot. So hands off!” As Hero introduces each gang member and their particular skills—other than light-skinned Pip, who has no discernible talent—gentle humor comes through. For example, tan-skinned Thunderbolt—dressed appropriately in cheetah-print clothing—is so quick that “even her watch is fast.” The only person faster than Thunderbolt—and, indeed, superior to everyone else—is nonmember Solo. The light-skinned, freckled girl, who, we learn from Hero, once “squished” Pip and took his yo-yo, overpowers each club member until Pip not only speaks truth to power, but eventually leads the others to accept lonely Solo’s membership. The humor is enjoyable, and Pip’s cleverness will inspire little ones, though the story seems to have a bit of dissonance; while it encourages children to be bold, caring, and inclusive, the beginning and ending show the club members looking a bit menacing, as though discouraging outsiders from joining. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A fun underdog story for readers intrepid enough to join this merry band of kids. (Picture book. 4-8)
Masi, Dawn Doubleday (40 pp.)
$18.99 | $21.99 PLB | May 16, 2023
978-0-593-48712-9
9780593487136 PLB
Ready to meet some new international friends?
Following in the footsteps of Masi’s G My Name Is Girl (2021), this companion title focuses on two male characters for each letter of the alphabet. The formula is similar to that of its predecessor, in that a child and a companion—a sibling, a friend, or an older family member—are introduced, their country of origin is named, and they explain what they can do, accompanied by muted, pleasant artwork. For example, “Q my name is QABIL, and my classmate’s name is QAMAR. We come from QATAR, and we can QUESTION.” (Readers and caregivers familiar with the jump-rope game will immediately catch on.)
Like the earlier book, this one stumbles a bit on X, as the letter appears in the words but isn’t the initial letter. This often
encountered alphabet-book issue aside, the story is a useful tool for caregivers and educators looking to both introduce geography to readers and challenge youngsters to reconsider the roles boys and men play in their communities—these diverse male characters “soothe,” “reconcile,” “nourish,” and “embrace.” If there’s ever a third installment, hopefully it will show boys and girls playing together and will do something to help nonbinary children feel seen. A simplified world map in the back identifies the countries by a letter and the face of the boy from that region. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An amusing alphabet book that makes the world seem friendlier. (Picture book. 5-7)
LO & BEHOLD
Mass, Wendy
Illus. by Gabi Mendez
Colors by Cai Tse
Random House Graphic (224 pp.)
$20.99 | $13.99 paper | $23.99 PLB
May 2, 2023
9780593179635
9780593179628 paper
9780593179642 PLB
A young girl avoids a troubling family matter by escaping into virtual reality.
Addie Brecker had the perfect life: a devoted mom who shared her love of tortoises and a caring dad who worked as a futurist. But after her mom had a terrible cycling accident, she changed. Addie takes her time with sharing exactly what happened as her mother fell into painkiller addiction, but Mass’ story gathers steam when Addie and her dad take a road trip to Spring Haven University, where they will be staying for six weeks while he works on a virtual reality project. At Spring Haven, Addie meets quirky and fun-loving neighbor boy Mateo Vargas, who has his own secrets. Not yet ready to open up about her mom, Addie spends much of her time helmeted in VR, betatesting her dad’s students’ work. But she comes to realize that she can let people in and enjoy the real and virtual worlds equally. This artfully rendered graphic charmer is carefully nuanced and adroitly paced, exploring such issues as addiction, grief, and technology’s role in our lives. As the stories of Addie’s mom’s struggles and a tragic event in Mateo’s family unfold, readers are granted admittance into their lives alongside the characters. The Breckers read White; the Vargas family is cued Latine, and there is racial diversity in the supporting cast.
An affecting examination hitting many contemporary notes. (author’s note, bonus comic, illustrator’s note) (Graphic fiction. 9-13)
“An
Matson, Morgan Simon & Schuster (400 pp.)
$18.99 | May 2, 2023
9781534493353
An only child discovers her boisterous extended family—and a real-life treasure hunt.
Eleven-year-old Ryanna and her dad have been on their own since Ryanna’s mom died 8 years ago. So when her estranged maternal grandparents, the Van Camps, invite her to spend the summer with them, she’s surprised—and her curiosity is piqued by the opportunity to learn more about her mother. It’s no quiet summer alone with her grandparents, though; Camp Van Camp, the site of a former summer camp, is also bustling with cousins, aunts, uncles, a potential treasure, and a real crisis. A noteworthy addition to a long line of rambunctious literary families, the Van Camp clan reflects the makeup of many contemporary families; they’re primarily White but also include Korean American, Black, South Asian, mixed race, and gay members. Matson, the author of multiple young adult books, sets a quick and compelling pace in her debut middlegrade novel. The mysteries that Ryanna hopes to solve, from what happened between her dad and her grandparents to the secret of a decades-old map, propel the story, while the intergenerational rapport and humor among the family members give it warmth and weight. Each of the characters, even the least sympathetic ones, is lovingly drawn, and their shared experiences of disappointment, loss, and joy ring true.
Like a great summer camp, this tale evokes the best of the past while setting the stage for something new. (family tree) (Fiction. 8-12)
McFarlane, Sheryl Illus. by Christine Wei Greystone Kids (40 pp.)
$18.95 | April 11, 2023
9781771646956
An ode to the rain reveals the cyclical nature of seasons.
Addressing the rain directly, a child celebrates all that is wonderful about rain, including its “fresh happy smell,” the muddy puddles it creates, and the water it provides for plants. Pale-skinned and dark-haired with round dot eyes and pink circles on their cheeks, the Asian-presenting narrator thanks the rain for “the water for my bath / and for Mom’s herbal tea.” Saturated colors and lush patterns bring a vibrancy to the landscapes, while a variety of compositions ranging from full-page spreads to smaller vignettes add depth. The rain properly glorified, the poem cleverly shifts in tone. “But maybe that’s enough now, Rain.” Creeks are full, animals are huddled under the foliage, and the child must hug their dog close during the thunder. The
rain does stop eventually, and outdoor activities resume, including riding a scooter and running through sprinklers. But the hot weather becomes unbearable, and the child implores the rain, “Don’t stay gone forever.” The grass turns brown, and the plants are thirsty. Finally, as the book comes full circle, the rain returns. “Welcome, Rain!” Those who live in climates where the rain disappears for months at a time will especially appreciate the cycle of wet and dry seasons, but children everywhere will identify with the different experiences that rain (or no rain) brings. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A joyful and nuanced take on a popular subject. (Picture book. 4-8)
McGarry, Flynn
Illus. by Adil Dara
Delacorte (128 pp.)
$19.99 | April 18, 2023
978-0-593-11969-3
With this unusual memoir, a young chef and restaurateur offers readers a look at his creative process.
In a nod to René Magritte’s The Treachery of Images, each chapter title begins with the phrase “This Is Not.” McGarry, 24, focuses on spaces and objects—among them his bedroom, a beet, and a spoon—he has used in unconventional ways. At 10, he fell in love with food after coming across cookbooks from the French Laundry, Alinea, and Noma. By 13, he had migrated movable countertop tables into his bedroom to work on recipes. As his enthusiasm morphed into all-consuming passion, McGarry’s mother elected to home-school him. This path allowed him to help out in a neighborhood cafe and experience a professional kitchen. From hosting lavish dinners in his San Fernando Valley home as a young teen to opening New York City’s Gem at 19, McGarry has moved through the world with singular purpose. Vibrant illustrations bring to life McGarry’s unique perspective; Dara comically creates a beet-bodied cow as the author describes his beet wellington recipe and a vegetable forest as he discusses foraging. The veggie Mona Lisa sums up his approach to food as art, and while he admits he is a perfectionist, he takes a chapter to remind readers that there is also great beauty in imperfection. McGarry and his family present White in the illustrations; characters of color are also depicted.
Like a well-plated meal, this whimsical book will find its reader, who will savor it to its last morsel. (Nonfiction. 10-14)
“Like a great summer camp, this tale evokes the best of the past while setting the stage for something new.”
the firefly summer
Melleby, Nicole
Algonquin (224 pp.)
$16.99 | May 9, 2023
9781643753102
Series: The House on Sunrise Lagoon, 1
With business and family, it’s sink or swim.
Former foster child Samantha, an 11-year-old adoptee, came to live with the Ali-O’Connors three years ago. She’s had to adjust to being one of the oldest siblings while also being the newest out of five. Her sister Harbor is only four months older, and they end up competing for everything, like a blanket on the couch, time alone in the room they share with middle sibling Marina (who is also adopted), and their mothers’ attention. Schoolteacher Mama is the main caregiver, offering special smiles to the kids. Mom runs a boat charter and repair business out of their backyard, which borders Sunrise Lagoon along their lively, water-centered New Jersey neighborhood. Sam and Harbor both intend to inherit their Mom’s boat business someday, although Sam is still learning how to swim. Then one night Sam overhears her mothers discussing money troubles and the possibility of Mom’s needing to sell the business. Sam is determined not to let that happen and decides she must come up with a plan before the end of summer. Layered family dynamics run through the heart of this character-driven story in which the love and devotion shared are as sure as the tides. Sam is a determined, sometimes stubborn protagonist with understandable insecurities. Many characters read White; Mama and her biological twins, Cordelia and Lir, have Syrian ancestry.
An enjoyable and heartwarming read. (Fiction. 8-12)
Melleby, Nicole
Algonquin (224 pp.)
$16.99 | May 9, 2023
9781643753119
Series: The House on Sunrise Lagoon, 2
Being a middle child is challenging, especially in a very large family.
Summer is almost over, and 10-yearold Marina Ali-O’Connor has successfully avoided going out on her family’s boats the whole time. All that’s left is the Labor Day parade in which all the boats in Sunrise Lagoon get decked out in lights. Marina’s moms, concerned about her odd behavior, get her to promise to join that event. Even though she’s been on them her entire life and Mom is an expert boater, Marina knows the statistics: Boats are dangerous. Plus, there’s no one to look out for her if something goes wrong. Her two older sisters,
one adopted and one biological from a previous marriage, are glued to Mom’s side, obsessed with her boat business. Her two younger siblings, the twins, demand Mama’s attention, with the added wrinkle that they’re her biological kids. Meanwhile, Marina doesn’t have anyone to cling to or even know much about her background. Mom and her older sisters are White; Mama and the twins are part Syrian (the rest of their ancestry is unspecified), but Marina only knows that her birth mother was Mexican. A new neighbor Marina’s age proposes an idea: make Marina someone’s favorite in her family so she’ll have a safety net. This second series installment focuses on symptoms of severe anxiety emerging within a loving support network. Readers will appreciate the boisterous family dynamics and thoughtful treatment of mental health concerns.
Entertaining and satisfying. (Fiction. 8-12)
Miller, Debbie S.
Illus. by Jon Van Zyle
Charlesbridge (32 pp.)
$17.99 | May 9, 2023
9781623543617
A survey of wildlife in, around, and dependent on tidewater glaciers.
Miller’s title may stretch the point, but her tally of glacial flora and fauna is quite full—ranging from pink algae and ice worms to brown bears and humpback whales. And, along with depicting them all with nearly photographic precision in his acrylic illustrations, Van Zyle ably captures the rugged character and monumental scale of the frozen river as it grinds through mountains and down to tower over cold-looking arctic waters. The glacier’s exact locale isn’t specified, but a reference to Prince William Sound in the dedication and the longtime collaborators’ string of Alaska-centered picture books makes it clear enough, and along with a generous helping of glacial argot (firn ice, bergy seltzer, seracs), the author adds timely warnings about the effects and hazards of climate change on glaciers worldwide. The human hikers and boaters who put in occasional appearances are too tiny to be individualized. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Revealing glimpses of an icy but populous natural habitat. (author’s note, photograph of Surprise Glacier, glossary) (Informational picture book. 7-9)
Monroe, Chris
Carolrhoda (32 pp.)
$18.99 | May 2, 2023
9781728404660
A new friendship goes through some literal growing pains in this woodland episode.
Strawberry the peaceable sasquatch is used to a solitary life of “alone things” like taking walks and
making portrait collages of hairy relatives from seeds and berries, but she decides to take up an offer from Nutty the squirrel to hang out together. Little does she suspect that her impulsive buddy’s fondness for climbing, messy pranks, and “snack sneaking” (say that three times) will lead to her falling from an outhouse roof and several trees, not to mention narrow escapes from an irate brown-skinned lumberjack and a marshmallowbaited trap set by “Squatch Watchers.” Next day, scratched and bandaged, Strawberry proposes that the two just watch clouds and maybe make a selfie collage…which suits the similarly battered, still-sticky squirrel just fine. To underscore the tale’s tongue-in-cheek tone, Monroe kits out her shaggy cryptid (who, if only about the face, resembles her Monkey With a Toolbelt) with pink slippers and a shopping basket, comically exaggerates the size difference between her two furry friends, and just for fun has them assemble some oddly familiar looking artworks as sight gags. Divided into panels, with characters communicating in speech bubbles, the book has an appealing graphic-novel vibe. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Plainly the beginning of a beautiful, if ouchy, friendship. (Picture book. 5-7)
Muchnik, Lisa
Illus. by Emilie Timmermans
Clavis (32 pp.)
$18.95 | April 23, 2023
9781605377650
Little Panda learns about his inner rainbow.
“Little Panda loved to do yoga. / It was part of his daily routine— / warrior, tree, downward dog with friends, / breathing and Oming in between.” But one morning Mommy Panda is surprised to find Little Panda sad after the yoga that he loves. When asked, he says he has noticed that all his jungle friends are brightly colored, but he is just black and white. Mommy sits him down and tells him that while he is black and white on the outside, there is a rainbow of color wheels inside him. Starting with the red energy of the root chakra that keeps him grounded and connects him with the Earth, she rhymes her way through a description of each chakra in four-line stanzas (green and purple get two stanzas each). Little Panda is happy afterward and sees the rainbow within each time he looks in the mirror. Though Muchnik’s text contains some big words that might spur questions from little meditators, Timmermans’ illustrations of happy creatures effectively communicate the meaning and the domains of each colored chakra. The book closes with a simple chakra map. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A positive and uplifting introduction to an ancient tradition. (Picture book. 4-7)
Appleseed (32 pp.)
$14.99 | May 16, 2023
9781419758942
What does a child observe and experience in a day?
With brief, rhyming text and labeled illustrations, this picture book is jam-packed with detail. Each spread takes on a different topic, like what readers might see on a walk, in the water, or in the sky. Some of the descriptive labels apply literally—a plant, a bunny, a bird. Others are more abstract—the word luck is placed near a penny and a four-leaf clover; the word thief, near a sneaky squirrel. The pages are set against a solid black background, giving the colorful items a neon, glowing effect. At the start, a little white adult-child mouse pair can be seen scurrying off the page. They appear throughout, flying in the sky on one page; on the spread devoted to the water, the little one even appears to grow a mermaidlike tail. At the end, home once again, the parent mouse tucks the little one into bed. The mice’s activities, which may not be obvious to readers at first, add an enchanting Where’s Waldo? effect. Little ones will enjoy lingering with every reread, finding new details. The book is grounded in a child’s perspective, centering on things that will interest them—noticing things on the ground, looking at how small things look in the sky, and replaying a busy day’s events in dreams. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A vivid, child’s-eye view of the world. (Picture book. 2-5)
Newman, Lesléa
Illus. by Tata Bobokhidze & Tika
Bobokhidze
Kar-Ben (32 pp.)
$19.99 | May 2, 2023
9781728445564
Two Jewish siblings compete for the title of best babka baker.
Esther and Hester, loving, light-skinned sisters who live next door to each other, notice a new neighbor across the street, and each decides to bake him a babka for Shabbat. They mix and stir and spread, filling their kitchens with tantalizing aromas, each certain that it is their baking that will bring the greatest happiness. Sylvester, their light-skinned neighbor, agrees to be the taste tester, and slices are cut and served. The verdict is announced grandly—one shvester (Yiddish for sister) bakes the best CHOCOLATE babka, and the other shvester bakes the best CINNAMON babka. They then sit down to enjoy a Shabbat dinner, and the two sisters go home with a new challenge—KUGEL! Newman’s little culinary romp is infectiously happy and fun to read aloud with all the rhyming names. Sister Esther has a cat named Lester, and sister Hester has a dog named Chester. The illustrations are bright and colorful, with patterned clothing, wallpaper, and kitchen tiles adding to the
who’s got mail?
folksy Eastern European setting. Detailed instructions for baking a babka, either chocolate or cinnamon, are included. The steps are many; the results are delicious.
Entertaining, lighthearted, and yummy. (glossary) (Picture book. 4-7)
Niebuhr-Siebert, Sandra Illus. by Lars Baus Floris (40 pp.)
$17.95 | May 16, 2023
9781782508113
An English language learner adjusts to her new home.
When Mina, a tan-skinned, dark-haired girl, starts kindergarten at a new school, she is riddled with anxiety (it’s implied she and her family are recent immigrants, though Mina’s ethnicity, homeland, and native tongue are never mentioned). Her classroom is full of noise and movement, and Mina doesn’t understand what anyone is saying. She doesn’t get to speak her own language until her mother picks her up at the end of the day. When she’s finally able to communicate, she talks and talks. As time passes, Mina and her diverse classmates work around the child’s initial lack of English, and Mina tries out words she’s learning in English. Mastering the language helps Mina feel like she belongs in her new world—so much so that when a new student joins the class, Mina is the first to welcome him. This tender, lyrical text brings to life moments that many immigrants will recognize, though it is a shade on the optimistic side—Mina’s frustration, sadness, and anxiety are a bit glossed over. The illustrations chart Mina’s journey to near fluency in English; when the book starts, her classroom is illustrated in mostly gray monotones, but more color is added as the narrative progresses. Her vivid dreams—scenes in blue of a school of fish swimming across the page—are an especially nice touch. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A visually engaging, rose-colored exploration of the immigrant experience. (Picture book. 4-8)
ALIKA Ortega, Paco Reycraft Books (32 pp.)
$17.95 | April 1, 2023
9781478885252
A child finds hope amid catastrophic loss.
Readers don’t know what happened to Alika, a little girl living in a mostly empty village through which a river runs. “A terrible storm” and perhaps many other calamities have left Alika and her mother living with little water and intense heat and missing many loved ones. Alika lost her playmates, her grandmother, and, as is alluded to in the lyrically opaque text, probably her father. She has also been sick,
dreading more doses of a “yucky green medicine.” But as she sleeps, she is hopeful that a gift her mother has promised is soon to arrive. As the book’s final image reveals, mother and daughter are in a tiny boat together, seeking “a new and better life far away.” The powerful closing turns a child’s endurance of suffering into a defiant call of hope. But readers don’t know where Alika and her mother are going; their troubles may be far from over. Author/illustrator Ortega composes stark and mournful two-page spreads that capture the beauty of Alika’s tiny village. The elusive text tells enough without overexplaining Alika’s dire circumstances. Alika and the other villagers (seen in flashbacks) are brown-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A subtly told, emotional immigrant narrative. (Picture book. 5-8)
Osborne, Linda Barrett
Abrams (240 pp.)
$22.99 | May 2, 2023
9781419758966
This first-class history of an essential democratic institution should be a priority for young readers.
Besides connecting us, since Colonial days the post office has fostered the expansion and improvement of roads, employment opportunities, provision of medical supplies, transportation, voting access, economic development, and more. Among the surprising facts shared: Mail could be sent without stamps until 1856 (the recipient had to pay to receive the letter), and originally, like other public services, mail delivery was not expected to be profitable. Three separate chapters are devoted to African Americans, women, and Latine, Asian, and Native Americans, testifying to the country’s history of systemic bias as well as contributions made by people from these communities. A chapter on the United States Postal Inspection Service is revealing: Mail train robberies, mail theft, and fraud have long tempted grifters. Sections on the future of the USPS, especially in light of 2022 reform legislation and flourishing anti-government sentiment, are notably thorough and evenhanded. Among the abundant, engaging, and informative photos are mule-train and reindeer-team delivery systems; the classical James Farley building, formerly the site of New York City’s central post office; and both famous and ordinary people who have made this public service work. The colorful and attractive pages are predominantly light blue with darker blue borders and yellow text boxes that provide interesting tidbits and additional context.
A lively, carefully researched, and clearly written narrative. (timeline, notes, bibliography, image credits, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)
“This first-class history of an essential democratic institution should be a priority for young readers.”
real princesses change the world
Patent, Dorothy Hinshaw
Photos by William Muñoz
Web of Life Children’s Books (34 pp.)
$17.95 | April 21, 2023
9781970039061
Series: The Story of a Keystone Species, 3
A visit to a prairie and its inhabitants through a wealth of photos.
This cute and clever rodent features in many children’s books. Patent’s, however, as the title hints, is more about the prairie ecosystem itself and the role of the prairie dog. Like the beaver in her 2019 book in this series (with photos by Michael Runtz) and the gopher tortoise in Madeleine Dunphy’s 2010 series contribution (with photos by Michael Rothman), this species is a keystone, supporting many others in its environment. Focused on some of the “roughly 150” other animals living “in and around” occupied and abandoned burrows, the book sketches a prairie dog’s day, from the emergence of a female at daybreak. The caption tells us that she “signals to her three young pups” but offers no description of that sound. This book is not the place to find basic facts—life span, predators, etc. But some habits, like prairie dog kisses, are noted, and backmatter expands on the animals’ colonies, range, and population before the arrival of European settlers. Cross-section diagrams show an occupied burrow, with labels, and a similar cutaway of an abandoned burrow. Like those by the different photographers in each series book thus far, the pictures are stunning. They fill every page in a patchwork of landscapes and close-ups with sharp details and discreet labels (horned lark, killdeer, pronghorn, and much more), letting us stroll invisibly through the inhabited prairie. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A visually engaging introduction to a keystone species. (map) (Informational picture book. 6-10)
Patterson, James & Keir Graff
Illus. by Alan Brown
Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown (318 pp.)
$16.99 | May 1, 2023
9780316412230
Series: Minerva Keen, 1
A tween detective’s first case offers plenty of thrills.
Minerva doesn’t start out to be a detective, but when other residents of her Chicago apartment building take to dying or falling unconscious in her presence, she briskly repurposes her school debate club and hurtles into an investigation with her seriously accident-prone 11-year-old brother, Heck; smart, highly anxious classmate Santos Salgado;
and savvy, tolerant police detective Wesley Taylor struggling along in her wake. Patterson and Graff deliver a typically fastpaced, twisty caper made up of short chapters laced with frights, flights, misadventures, and, just for laffs, enough burping and farting to put a stockyard to shame. Readers hoping to solve the mystery ahead of the sleuths won’t get much help from the few unhelpful clues and unlikely suspects that emerge; it’s really Minerva’s talents for being in the right place at the right time and asking the right questions that lead to a break in the case. Still, not only do the fledgling club’s efforts uncover some felonious behavior by one of the building’s nastier residents, they lead to a deliciously lurid climax guaranteed to give anyone with a phobia for bugs and other creepy-crawlies nightmares. Minerva reads White; Det. Taylor has dark brown skin, and names and spot art cue further diversity in the rest of the supporting cast. A flying start for a smart sleuth who’s not averse to heading into harm’s way. (Mystery. 9-13)
Pearson, Carrie A.
Illus. by Dung Ho
Roaring Brook Press (40 pp.)
$18.99 | April 11, 2023
9781250751430
Princess admirers should enjoy these brief, laudatory profiles of 15 modern-day royals from monarchies across the globe—among them one duchess and four young heirs apparent from Western Europe. The book spotlights their varied achievements and talents and the important work they do for their countries and people. For example, Princess Abze Djigma of Burkina Faso is a trained engineer who created a solar-powered light for her nation’s citizens who lacked access to electricity. Each profile is headed by an emphatic statement (“Real princesses are LAWYERS,” “Real Princesses are ENVIRONMENTALISTS”). The book expands readers’ worldviews: They’ll discover princesses live almost everywhere and are racially and ethnically diverse. Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, is included (as is Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales), though her profile notes that she and the Duke of Sussex “are no longer working members of the royal family,” it doesn’t mention that the couple now reside in the United States. Some readers may wish for a pronunciation guide and photographs of the princesses. The writing is straightforward and upbeat but generalized. Some facts aren’t explained, e.g., why Princess Keisha Omilana of Nigeria lives in London. Illustrations are bright, cheery, and colorful, depicting princesses posed against themed settings; background figures are racially diverse. Some princesses wear national dress. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
No glass slippers: just women with brains, skills, and dedication. Real princesses indeed. (author’s note, glossary, “who said it?” quiz, “dream big questions,” websites with further information) (Informational picture book. 6-10)
“No glass slippers: just women with brains, skills, and dedication. Real princesses indeed.”
Pozzi, Bianca
Rise x Penguin Workshop (48 pp.)
$18.99 | April 4, 2023
978-0-593-52291-2
A child’s myriad feelings are explained through seasonal language and a sweet doggie friend.
The young narrator wakes up to find the sun shining outside and only rain clouds in their mind. As the day progresses, things continue to feel gray. That is, until the child walks home from school and discovers a bedraggled little pup. After bandaging its paw and taking it home, the narrator finds that their internal weather system has shifted. “Soon the drizzle became a soft autumn wind.” There are still dark days when the pup is away, such as when it has to stay at the vet’s overnight, but overall, “I’m not feeling gray anymore.” The book quietly validates a child’s emotions. Relieving your sadness by sharing it with a friend is the message, but sweet as it is, the unintended implication that a pet dog is all it takes to relieve you of your darker emotions is a bit off-center. Still, the pastel, pencil, and watercolor art serves the storyline well enough with nice shots, as when the dog holds an umbrella to protect the child from their own rainstorm. The narrator and their family are light-skinned. For a slightly more sophisticated take on the subject, though, consider also A Blue Kind of Day (2022) by Rachel Tomlinson, illustrated by Tori-Jay Mordey. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A dog may not solve all your problems, but this gentle, if simplistic, tale will show kids that they’re not alone. (Picture book. 3-6)
Prasadam-Halls, Smriti Illus. by Steve
Small Godwin Books (40pp.)
$18.99 | April 18, 2023
9781250849656
Three are simply better than two. Bear and Squirrel, last seen in I’m Sticking With You (2020), rebuff Chicken’s entreaties to join their band. They’re adamant: “Three is a crowd.” Chicken eventually takes the hint and, spying a poster announcing “Musician Wanted (Chickens Only),” departs for that more welcoming gig. Unbeknownst to her, however—but perfectly knownst to little ones—is what that gig entails. In a giggle- (and uh-oh–) inducing scene, we see a wolf pack seated around a boiling pot, cutlery at the ready, waiting for their “musician.” Meanwhile, Bear and Squirrel attempt to convince themselves they did right in casting Chicken aside. Just in time, though, they catch wind of the wolves’ plot and rescue “their” Chicken. Bear and Squirrel, having changed their, ahem, tune, staunchly defend Chicken’s right to join the band,
and they become a threesome. This adorable friendship story sings with charm, and the bouncy, rhythmic text scans beautifully. Bear, Squirrel, and Chicken are wonderfully expressive characters, individualized not only by their word choices, but also through printed type: Each one’s speech is signaled via different fonts. The protagonists may look very different, but this never dampens their camaraderie. The comically detailed illustrations, hand-drawn with pencil, painted with watercolor, and composed digitally, buzz with energy. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Don’t be chicken: Stick with this one, a story that beats the band. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pumphrey, Jarrett & Jerome Pumphrey
Norton Young Readers (240 pp.)
$16.95 | March 7, 2023
9781324016090
Series: Link + Hud, 1
Two African American boys use their overactive imaginations to try to get rid of a meddlesome babysitter.
Lincoln Dupré and younger brother Hudson’s exploits in their garage—overturned boxes of packing peanuts form the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas—get them into trouble with their father. Dr. Dupré, a podiatrist and serial entrepreneur, believes his Black hair-care products are a brilliant business idea in the making, and he has made the garage strictly off limits. Layla, a neighbor girl who was the boys’ sitter, was just the latest in a series of caregivers who failed to keep them out of trouble. After Hud’s invisibility spell fails him during his mom and dad’s living-room pitch to prospective hair product customers and he makes a surprising nude appearance, Mrs. Joyce, an older lady, steps in as the brothers’ latest babysitter. Mrs. Joyce is strict and lays down the law, so Link and Hud attempt various covert operations to make her go away. Humor is used to great effect in this series opener that alternates prose with illustrated panels. The authors’ use of verbal asides and hilariously over-the-top descriptions to convey the brothers’ interactions will make readers laugh out loud. The make-believe elements of the story make the boys relatable and charming and are communicated expressively through the loosely drawn, energetic grayscale illustrations. Most characters are Black.
A humorous tale of epic brotherly shenanigans that will leave readers eager for more. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)
Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster (40 pp.)
$18.99 | May 23, 2023
9781481479820
A true story of how four California sisters turned childhood dreams into architectural reality.
Inspired by fairy tales, Mildred, Harriett, Brenda, and Wilma Moody envisioned rustic cottages in which they pretended to sleep every night, and so years later, when Mildred needed an art studio, they got together to build one—followed by dozens more as community interest in their designs grew. The romanticism is laid on with a trowel in the first part of the narrative: Brenda “liked to count things she found” on the beach and, voila, grew up to be a banker; Harriett liked to build sand castles and so became an architect; and a line at the end about unexplained “things that happened” in the cottages evokes more confusion than magic. But the story itself, laid out in greater detail in a long afterword, is of both historical and current interest, as it features four women who grew to adulthood in the first quarter of the 20th century to have professional careers, to run several businesses, and to build distinctive houses that thriftily recycled materials and decorative elements salvaged from area mansions that were being demolished during the Great Depression. There’s no need to embellish those achievements with flights of fancy. Potter offers both inside and outside glimpses of at least one cottage along with views of the gracefully posed White-presenting sisters at various ages and in period dress. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An overwrought but inspiring tale of dreamers who were also doers. (Informational picture book. 6-9)
Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum (40 pp.)
$18.99 | April 18, 2023
9781534492554
An anxious bird slowly finds the courage to try new things.
Bob the cardinal has a little adventurous streak despite his generally timid nature. He doesn’t always fly with his flock, and he enjoys visiting other kinds of feathered friends, like Crow. Bob’s boldness has its limits, however, which readers discover when he declines Crow’s invitation to perch on a telephone wire. “Oh. Thanks…but um…I’ve got loads to do out east— maybe later?” he demurs. It’s a phony excuse, but Bob heads out east anyway and meets Pigeon, only to turn down offers of unfamiliar food. He then heads south, where he refuses Flamingo’s entreaties to wade in the water. Throughout, humor is enhanced by expressive watercolor, pencil, and digital illustrations that
brim with emotion, movement, and vitality. Finally, after going west, Bob meets Eagle and, setting aside misgivings, joins the regal bird atop Mount Great. Bob’s strategy for reaching the peak provides a great model for young readers, as he breaks up the big journey into small, manageable pieces and then revels in the view that rewards him. Bolstered by this success, Bob returns to the other birds, fesses up to his dishonest excuses, and comes to enjoy a bigger, fuller life as a result. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Definitely take a chance on this one. (Picture book. 3-8)
Robertson, David A.
Illus. by Maya McKibbin
Tundra Books (52 pp.)
$18.99 | April 4, 2023
9780735266704
Lured away by the songs of mystical creatures in the lake, two Indigenous children must find their way home.
On a fishing trip, Lauren and her younger brother, James, take the canoe out on the lake while their grandfather naps on the shore. The water churns, and humanoid creatures called Memekwesewak tip their boat. The children fall into the water. Dismayed, Lauren watches the Memekwesewak disappear with her brother through a waterfall. She follows “the bends and curves of the watery pathway, searching for James,” until she reaches an island and sees him dancing by a fire with the mystical creatures, caught up in the songs. And when Lauren joins him, she soon forgets why she came there. Not until the children hear the faraway drumbeats and rhythms of home do they remember their grandfather. When they stop and listen, they feel the strong pull of family, which causes the Memekwesewak to scatter. Colorful, swirling, and whimsical, the illustrations follow the lively pace of the text. Rich blues and purples capture the beauty of the night sky, bringing to life a captivating story that ultimately hinges on the love of family. An author’s note explains that many Native peoples have told stories of the Memekwesewak, “one of two humanoid races on Mother Earth, the other being humans like you and me.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A gorgeous story inspired by Indigenous legends that will lead intrepid readers on a watery adventure. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)
Saeed, Aisha, Huda Al-Marashi, Jamilah
Thompkins-Bigelow & S.K. Ali
Amulet/Abrams (272 pp.)
$18.99 | May 9, 2023
9781419761751
Four tweens stuck in an airport come together for a rescue mission.
When 12-year-old Feek Stiles loses his 4-year-old sister, Ruqi, at the airport, he meets Hanna Chen and Sami Iqbal, who try to help him locate her. But Nora Najjar finds her first. The kids are waiting with their families to fly home after attending the Muslims of North America conference when flights are grounded due to inclement weather. Eleven-year-old Hanna, armed with flyers and Meow Mix, is determined to find Snickerdoodle, a cat who has been missing for a week in the airport, and she recruits Feek, Sami, and Nora to help. The story unfolds in chapters that alternate among the viewpoints of aspiring poet Feek from Philadelphia; Doha animal lover Hanna; Sami, who is from Orlando and does karate; and Nora, a Michigan congresswoman’s daughter who posts on social media about sweet treats. Each one has something they are struggling with, including parents with busy work schedules, a sports competition, their sense of Muslim identity, and more. They end up going on an adventure throughout the airport that involves unexpected twists and turns, in the process learning more about themselves and one another and finding their voices. Saeed, Al-Marashi, Thompkins-Bigelow, and Ali write four relatable, well-developed characters from different backgrounds who represent the diversity of Muslim communities, seamlessly connecting their individual and collective stories into a single whole.
A positive, engaging story centering Muslim kids. (Fiction. 9-13)
Saeed, Aisha
Illus. by LeUyen Pham
Salaam Reads/Simon & Schuster
(40 pp.)
$18.99 | May 30, 2023
9781534462960
When Rumi moves to a brand-new coast, friendship feels hard to find.
Although he is assigned the best seat in the room—right next to the class pets—brown-skinned Rumi still feels unwelcome and out of place in his new school. At recess, instead of playing with his diverse classmates, he sits beneath a willow tree in the schoolyard, dreaming of the cypress trees he loved back home in San Francisco. Things get worse when classmates Asher and Ella (both light-skinned) tease Rumi, making fun of the shoes he’d decorated with his friends in California. The bullying escalates when Asher throws a crumpled ball of paper at Rumi and later injures Rumi with a
stone. Rumi’s classmate Han, who is Asian-presenting, comes to his defense, and the rest of the class soon follows, all eager to contribute to the drawing Rumi has been working on in the dirt beneath the tree. When Asher wanders back inside, alone, Rumi has a decision to make—does he want to perpetuate the bullying or end the cycle of exclusion? Based on an experience that happened to the author’s son, this poignant story captures our capacity for cruelty but also for forgiveness and acceptance. Precise language and well-chosen scenes create a cast of believable characters in only a few words, while the vibrant illustrations artfully use color and light to heighten the mood of each scene. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A loving and lyrical tale about belonging. (Picture book. 4-7)
MISS IRWIN
Say, Allen
Scholastic (32 pp.)
$19.99 | April 18, 2023
9781338300406
Fragile memories can be strengthened through family and love.
An Asian-presenting young boy with tan skin, dark hair, and a bright green backpack visits his lighter-skinned grandmother only to discover that she does not recognize him as her grandson Andy. Instead, she believes he is Willie, a boy she taught in kindergarten years back, who once gave her a homemade bird’s nest. Andy gently enters the memory with his grandmother, calling her Miss Irwin instead, and learns about the events of that day, when Miss Irwin brought her class to a plum tree in the yard outside the school to see a hummingbird sip nectar from a feeder in the tree. Grandma’s memory again falters in recalling the recipe for hummingbird nectar, but Andy is there to prompt her and sustain the story. Grandma finds her way through the foggy reminiscence, and the two spend a pleasant afternoon, making plans to construct a new feeder. Say’s muted palette features pastel hues and layered brush strokes that soften and lend a dreamlike quality to the illustrations. Andy’s and Grandma’s faces are often featureless or even blurred, making this experience—of seeing an older relative deal with memory decline— feel universal. The quiet and straightforward text, while not particularly eventful, nevertheless may spark important questions among children. An author’s note provides additional background. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A sensitively portrayed snapshot of an all-too-common family experience. (Picture book. 5-7)
“A sensitively portrayed snapshot of an all-too-common family experience.”
miss irwin
$17.99 | May 23, 2023
9780062457110
(40 pp.)
A pithy appreciation in rhyme of light and light-related phenomena.
For all the sometimes extreme terseness of her lines—not to mention the impression of simplicity that Yang imparts in his stylized scenes of small, dot-eyed, round-headed figures posing on a beach and at a campground, looking at fireflies and stars, peering through a microscope and a telescope, holding a flashlight here, there an umbrella—Schaefer takes a conceptually rich, STEM-centric approach to the topic: “Prisms and raindrops / both refract light, / which helps form rainbows— / an optical delight!” Along with pointing to select sources of light from the sun to fireworks, she explains the difference between transparent and opaque and distinguishes natural light from artificial (the latter being “made by man,” a quaintly sexist formulation she even uses twice). Though she leaves most of the electromagnetic spectrum beyond the visible wavelengths unmentioned, she does direct a nod to X-rays. If less enlightened readers and audiences are going to need more help unpacking her denser lyrics than she provides in the hardly more expansive glossary at the end, still the informational load enriches the observational one, and a proper sense of appreciation for her topic consistently shines through. The toylike human figures are diverse in skin hue. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Challenging but illuminating. (Informational picture book. 6-8)
pp.)
$20.99 | April 4, 2023
9781665900836
An indoor-loving wizard cat must return a library book.
Wizkit, a charmingly triangular feline cyclops with a taste for carbs, lives with Teacher Magus, a long-haired dog who suggests that the cat not use magic for everything and that she occasionally leave the house. Magus assigns Wizkit the task of returning an overdue library book. Book is a silly, friendly, sentient volume with limbs and, as Wizkit quickly discovers, completely blank pages that transport the duo into new adventures. First, they encounter a dragon stranded in a dry riverbed and must help it by stopping a frog who has dammed up the river and created a pool, where they charge fish for admission. Then, in a less compelling part of the adventure, they assist some mice, who freeze up when exposed to light, in return for
a magical lantern. Finally, they encounter a three-headed bird, bickering triplets who are having trouble working together to build a hot air balloon. Wizkit, whose cynical edges have been gradually worn away by her companion’s enthusiasm, and Book are able to help the triplets and, as thanks, get a ride in the flying machine to the library. Though Wizkit’s growth is lovely, the narrative is at times didactic, with characters delivering heavyhanded statements about trying new things and learning from others. Still, this graphic novel uses colorful, legible cartoons to show off the fantastical, silly world, and the text is generally short and punchy, ideal for newly independent readers.
Lightweight and likable. (behind the scenes art development) (Graphic novel. 7-10)
MAX AND MOONBEAN
Scotton, Rob
Harper/HarperCollins (48 pp.)
$19.99 | May 30, 2023
9780062990389
Max overcomes his show-and-tell anxiety.
Max, a white dog with floppy ears and brown spots, is nervous for show and tell—it never seems to go well for him. But this time, a little voice whispers, “Dare to see what you can do.” So Max explains to his canine classmates, in rhyme, how he came up with something to bring to show and tell. As he searched his space-themed bedroom, he was at a loss until a “strange blue thingy” landed in his closet. Using telepathic bubbles, the astronaut told Max that his name was Moonbeam and that he came from the moon. Moonbeam shared moon tales, then asked Max to come to the moon to be his show and tell. At first, Max declined, but after Moonbeam praised Max’s courage and cleverness, the two soared off for an adventure in space. Show and tell on the moon was a hit, and Max asked Moonbeam to be his show and tell. Moonbeam agreed, but at the crucial reveal, the little blue alien isn’t there, although the ending is still spectacular. Moonbeam later explains he was right beside Max, encouraging him as any good friend would. Vibrant and detailed digitally created cartoon images add to the magic of this feel-good friendship story that will leave uncertain little ones feeling as bolstered as Max. Plenty of humor—including a couple of fart jokes—will appeal to kids. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
An uplifting reminder that sometimes a good friend can help us through the seemingly toughest of hurdles. (Picture book. 4-7)
“A pithy appreciation in rhyme of light and light-related phenomena.”
spark, shine, glow!
Illus. by Magenta
Viking (32 pp.)
Fox$18.99 | May 2, 2023
9780593405055
A dad and a new baby quietly celebrate their first storytime. This calming metanarrative gets right to the point. “I’ll put you in your softest pajamas,” narrates the father. He admits to being a little nervous about sharing “this moment that only you and I will be part of” as they go through the little one’s bedtime routine. Finally, it’s storytime, and this book comes to life—literally. Carrying the baby, the father wanders—through his thoughts and a gentle moonlit forest. There is no conflict or distraction, just “the click of this lamp, / the sounds of our house, / the touch of our hands.” This is a rare, matter-of-fact portrait of a father and child, with the father expressing some uncertainty but ultimately joyfully participating in tasks that have often been associated with mothers. The lack of action may lull some, but new caregivers will readily absorb the themes and appreciate the encouragement to create shared reading time with even the youngest children. Soothing blues and browns and ample use of negative space create a reassuring feel that fits in well with the book’s message. Both the father and the baby are tan-skinned. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
This one is mostly for the grown-ups, and that’s a good thing. (Picture book. 0-2)
Seely-Pollack, Laura Illus. by Alexandra Colombo Reycraft Books (48 pp.)
$18.95 | May 15, 2023
9781478869269
A destructive storm eventually helps Cave Girl create the home of her dreams.
Cave Girl has everything a prehistoric girl could want, like parents who “rock” and a pet snake. There’s just one thing she can’t stand…living in a cave. It’s too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer. She’s inspired to build her own place when she sees two beavers making a dam, but her parents ignore her excitement—to her frustration. When a massive storm destroys the cave, however, the family must find a new home. All the other caves are taken, so Cave Girl shows her parents how they can build the perfect home. Though the story of a young girl achieving her goals might otherwise have been empowering, it’s overshadowed by the depiction of a brownskinned family as “primitive.” They live in a dank, bat-ridden cave, sport animal-skin pelts, wear bones as accessories, and speak broken English; Cave Girl’s mother has a ring through her nose, while Cave Girl’s curly, Afro-textured hair is ornamented with little bones—details that evoke outdated and
offensive portrayals of so-called “uncivilized” peoples. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Rooted in stereotype, this tale should be left back in the Stone Age. (Picture book. 4-8)
Shepard, Sara Putnam (272 pp.)
$14.99 | May 16, 2023
9780593616772
Series: Penny Draws, 1
Penny learns important lessons about friendship and worry in a series opener inspired by the author’s own early struggles with anxiety.
As Penny prepares to start fifth grade, she can’t wait for her best friend to return from camp, but when Violet gets back, things are awkward. Violet’s no longer interested in drawing, and she’s spending all her time with popular but mean Riley. Penny tries to accept this, but intrusive, spiraling thoughts continue to interrupt her life; between Violet’s distance, her parents’ big secret, and her little brother’s croup that requires frequent ER visits, she has plenty of real reasons to worry. Thankfully, Penny’s visits to Mrs. Hines, the Feelings Teacher, give her a safe place to talk about what is going on in her head, and familiar faces open the door to new, unexpected friendships whose value becomes clear when something bad really does happen. Illustrated throughout with black-and-white sketches that highlight some of the more comical moments in the story, the book features just the right amount of humor to balance out more serious explorations of changing friendships and the ways uncertainty and lack of control can contribute to an increase in feelings of panic for young anxiety sufferers. Many readers will see their own concerns and feelings reflected here. Penny and her family read White.
A bright and emotionally accessible story full of wit and warmth. (Fiction. 8-12)
Shuler, Darin
Chronicle Books (104 pp.)
$15.99 | May 23, 2023
978-1-79720-689-9
Series: Dog & Hat, 2
What will happen when Ant wants to follow her dreams but Hat wants to follow the rules?
Ant has a dream in which her mother tells her to visit her cousins on the moon. Her roommates, Dog and a talking green hat, had already been planning a picnic in honor of the upcoming lunar eclipse, so Dog proposes moving their get-together to
the moon. Skeptical Hat tells them that’s impossible, but, as Dog points out, “Everything is impossible if you don’t try.” The trio head upstairs to Bunny Dream’s apartment (being from Dreamland, Bunny “does things a little differently”), where they’re initially stopped by Steven, a stern porcine guard; some wonderfully wacky M.C. Escher–esque sequences ensue. With a bit of moon magic, a long climb up a ladder made of ants, and a willingness to flout Steven’s strict regulations, they arrive on the moon and enjoy eclipse celebrations like dinosaur races, a moon maze, and a moon crumb-eating contest. Rule-follower Hat has a hard time adjusting to the madcap world of the moon but eventually loosens up. Moon magic, it seems, is positive thinking. Silly jokes (“How does the moon cut its hair?” “Eclipse it!”), philosophical wisdom (“But if you believe anything is possible, then it becomes true. Nothing is impossible!”), and chaotic, bright illustrations abound. A few facts about lunar eclipses and the moon pop up, though this wonderfully surreal outing is grounded more in magic than in science.
This out-of-this-world adventure proves that with good friends and happy thoughts, any dream can be realized. (Graphic fiction. 6-9)
Sidman, Joyce
Illus. by Beth Krommes Clarion/HarperCollins (40 pp.)$18.99 | May 2, 2023
9780358538189
The creators of Swirl by Swirl: Spirals in Nature (2011) salute another of the world’s essential and ubiquitous patterns.
“Branching is nature’s most efficient way to spread something…from one central spot over a large area,” Sidman writes at the end—going on in prose to unpack examples her preceding free verse just touches on and to introduce the concept of fractals. By that point she has taken readers through the natural world, beginning with tree branches, “lifting toward the sun, / spreading wide / to catch each / drop of light,” and proceeding to roots, the wings of birds and butterflies, lightning, coral, snowflakes, and, finally, closer to home, arms, legs, and blood vessels: “Then we pour back in rivers / toward your heart.” Flowing with similar strength and lyricism, Krommes’ color scratchboard scenes offer minutely examined bat wings and flowers along with glimpses of a trio of playful tan-skinned children in support of the poet’s rapturous conclusion that branching is “the shape of life!” They also reflect a broader truth with scenes of forked rivers and lightning, fronds of frost, a flat expanse of cracked mud, and deeply furrowed mountain slopes. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Explores a fundamental concept with characteristic grace and simplicity. (Informational picture book. 6-8)
Sima, Jessie Simon & Schuster (56 pp.)
$18.99 | May 2, 2023
9781665916981
Series: Not Quite Narwhal and Friends
Emotional storm clouds come between two unicorn friends.
Harking back to Not Quite Narwhal (2017) in both cast and tone, Sima offers a friendship tale in which Kelp’s close and aptly named pal Nimbus acquires a dark little cloud that rains when she feels down. The more she tries to ignore it or bottle it up, the bigger it gets…until it finally breaks out in a storm that sends her fleeing all company to huddle alone in a gloomy forest. There, she discovers that recognizing and getting to know the cloud actually makes it shrink—and just as she’s feeling a bit better, Kelp gallops into view, which sets the stage for a joyful reunion depicted in the sweet, softly hued illustrations with an exuberant rainbow swirl. Kelp, who turns out to be “a very good listener,” acknowledges the cloud matter-of-factly, and Nimbus comes to understand that though she may have up days and down days to come, weathering the latter with an accepting friend will make them easier. If some young readers subject to or familiar with similar storms (or a bit foggy on what a metaphor is) need explanation or discussion about depression to clear the air, the comforting message nonetheless shines brightly. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Weathers heavy themes with breezy sensitivity…and unicorns! (Picture book. 5-7)
Simon, Jazmyn & Dulé Hill
Illus. by Shamar Knight-Justice
Random House (32 pp.)
$18.99 | May 2, 2023
978-0-593-42697-5
Actors, married couple, and parents Simon and Hill offer affirmations that center Black and brown children.
The book begins with a note explaining that the authors wrote this book “to help our children see themselves as they truly are: spectacular.” Each spread contains a declaration and a short poem along with vibrant and imaginative artwork. “I am WORTHY”—an adult gently tosses a smiling child into the air. “I am DESERVING”—another child reclines by the pool, a bowl of ice cream on their lap and a glass of lemonade on the table beside them. “I am BRAVE”—a child invites a solitary classmate to sit with them and their friends. “I am STRONG”— a child plays on a jungle gym. Simon and Hill advise parents to have their children repeat these statements back to them to foster self-love. The verse is warm and encouraging, reminding little ones of their worth. Depicting scenes ranging from birthday parties to playgrounds to fields of flowers, Knight-Justice’s
digital illustrations have a collagelike look, incorporating written text and bits of sheet music; they have a DIY feel that may inspire kids to create their own art—a nice reflection of the book’s theme of empowerment. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Will help instill much-needed feelings of self-worth in little ones. (Picture book. 4-8)
Simpson, Tonya Illus. by Carla Joseph Orca (32 pp.)
$21.95 | May 16, 2023
9781459835634
A tender hymn to the prairie in all seasons.
Simpson (Cree/Pasqua First Nation) offers simple rhymes and gently rocking cadences in verse that extols the connection between a young child and the animals, plants, wind, and sky that comprise this landscape: “Where the morning sun glows / and the tiger lily grows // where the young bucks still roam, / this my baby is your home.” Light, full-bleed illustrations by Cree artist Joseph include close-ups of wild creatures—deer, foxes, horses, hawks, chickadees, frogs, an owl—along with landscapes that convey the feel of wind and sun in a prairie meadow. “Where fireweed paints the hills come summer / and eagles rule the sky // this is where your spirit can feel / your ancestors as they pass by.” Here the ancestors are depicted as translucent spirit faces like blossoms among the branches of a tree, while on the opposite page the outline of a child’s profile contains a crescent moon and starry night sky. On other pages eagles soar overhead, bright splashes of wildflowers and tamaracks dot grassland hills, coyotes howl in a snowy landscape, a brown-skinned family, cued as Indigenous, walks together, and children dance. This one is nicely pitched to the youngest of listeners: “The morning is so happy that you are here. / Its colors are a gift to you, my dear.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Uplifting and joyous. (Picture book. 1-5)
Smiley, Jess Smart
First Second (240 pp.)
$22.99 | April 11, 2023
9781250772831
Series: What Happens Next?, 1
Megan’s in charge of the student talent show: There’s so much that can go wrong, or right—it’s up to readers to choose.
Readers make choices at each fork in the road, guiding Megan to different conclusions. It’s a powerful position for youngsters who are often told what to do. Middle schooler
Megan wakes up late for school and is running behind in her duties directing the talent show. Should she eat breakfast, do her hair, or grab her notebook? The scenarios that follow are by turns wacky, gratifying, or even scary; all are absurd. In one possibility, Megan’s mom goes onstage to present a slideshow highlighting Megan’s life, starting with a naked baby picture! In another, the talent show is enlivened when a pizza delivery guy goes on stage to dance. When a sick schoolmate’s germs crawl all over Megan, she’s left sprawled on stage—for 80 years. One storyline even focuses on her pet hedgehog. Each of the over 100 paths is illustrated in colorful panels with exaggerated cartoon-style art in which Megan’s every emotion is comically depicted. The book, which provides an entertaining, less textheavy alternative to typical choose-your-own-adventure titles, ends with drawing lessons. Central characters read White; background characters have varying skin tones.
Readers will enjoy owning the action, navigating obstacles, and dealing with the consequences in this quirky story. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)
The Amazon
Smith, Roland
Illus. by Victor Juhasz
Sleeping Bear Press (240 pp.)
$17.95 | April 15, 2023
9781534111943
Series: The Wildes, 1
Prolific wilderness adventure author Smith takes readers on a wild ride in his latest book, featuring an American family pursued by gold-seeking criminals in the Amazon.
When their mom, respected conservation biologist Dr. Jane Wilde, goes missing during a research trip in Brazil, sister and brother Asia, 13, and Ring, 11, are plunged headlong into the heart of the rainforest. The kids’ veterinarian dad is kept busy at home in Texas as director of the family’s enormous animal park. The omniscient narrator moves between the characters, focusing mainly on the siblings. Asia, despite her encyclopedic scientific knowledge, is desperate to attend a regular school rather than being home-schooled in the field. Meanwhile, impulsive Ring is happy going along for the ride, something that grates on Asia. Over the next few whirlwind days, the young Wildes learn what it means to survive and fight for someone they love—and for their own lives. Smith moves the story along at a breakneck pace as the siblings, along with Prof. Bob, their tutor, and Raoni, a multilingual Kayapo man they meet by chance, race through the jungle trying to save Dr. Jane—and, indirectly, her beloved, endangered golden lion tamarins. Along the way, readers are introduced to information about the environment and politics of the region, the Brazilian government’s hostile treatment of Indigenous people, and the corrupt, profit-driven gold mining industry. The Wildes are cued White.
A fun, fast-paced thrill ride. (Adventure. 9-12)
“Uplifting and joyous.”
forever our home
contenders
Soloy, Lauren
Tundra Books (96 pp.)
$19.99 | June 20, 2023
9780735271043
Tiny gnomes’ life goals center on experiencing as much joy as possible. More emotive and less instructive than Owen Churcher and Niamh Sharkey’s A Field Guide to Leaflings (2023), this book introduces similar elusive beings who live “all around us.” Inventive names like Hotchi Mossy, Merry Pip, and Cob Tiggy help individualize Soloy’s thumb-size creatures, who have bulbous bodies, stick appendages, and kind, squarish faces in shades from light to brown. The gnomes each have an “important job,” like storytelling, eggsitting for birds, and planting. They ride leaves while wearing acorn helmets, enjoy chases astride squirrels and hares, and seem to be vegan. Gnomes love celebrating, singing and circle-dancing when a mushroom appears or a shiny rock is found. Unlike the lollipop watercolors of Leaflings, the art here features heavy lines and earthy colors that will perhaps inspire some young copyists. The book aims to make readers more attentive to nature as a source of joy: Rose Gladly’s seed library or Abel Potter’s “woody pig” (i.e., woodlouse) might help readers find pleasure in what they see outdoors. There are joys for every sense, including a recipe for gnome cookies. And there are more subtle forms of happiness to appreciate, like “the joy of sitting with another person, not talking, together.” The final message is direct: “You can choose to look closely. You can choose to see the magic in the world. You can choose to believe.”
(This book was reviewed digitally.)
Gnomish “heart-seeing” might be the best way to appreciate this winning tribute to euphoria. (Picture book. 4-7)
Sorell, Traci
Illus. by Arigon Starr
Kokila (48 pp.)
$18.99 | April 11, 2023
9780593406472
Profiles of the first two Native players to make history by facing off in a World Series: Charles Bender and John Meyers.
Properly rejecting the conventional sobriquets (both were often referred to as “Chief” in newspapers despite not being tribal leaders) as inaccurate and disrespectful and using her subjects’ given names (or childhood nicknames) throughout, Sorell weaves into her brief but suspenseful recap of the 1911 Series accounts of both men’s paths to the major leagues. Bender left the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota to pitch for the Philadelphia Athletics after escaping abusive experiences both
at home, from his German American father, and in a boarding school; Meyers resisted “pressure to adopt white people’s norms” as he left the Cahuilla reservation in California for spots on several semipro teams and then spoke out against injustices against Native people as a catcher for the New York Giants. Adding carefully authenticated Ojibwe and Cahuilla motifs on framing borders, Starr offers a set of clean-lined on-field tableaux, montages, and baseball card–style portraits of the chiseled players in period uniforms. Though the author does give her stars’ later careers (and, in a closing timeline, lives) quick overviews, the story she tells is at least as much about racism as it is about baseball, with several references to “slights and slurs” along with documented prejudicial quotes and headlines from the time identified as “insults.” Nor has the onslaught let up significantly: “From peewee to professional levels,” she concludes, “no other athletes in the United States face the kind of sanctioned mocking and dishonor of their culture that Native players do.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A lesser-known but significant encounter with all-too-current resonances. (author’s note, quotes, sources) (Informational picture book. 7-10)
Steinberg, D.J.
Illus. by Ruth Hammond
Grosset & Dunlap (32 pp.)
$8.99 | $5.99 paper | May 16, 2023
9780593387153
9780593659793 paper
The first day of kindergarten can be scary!
Despite some nervousness, this class of diverse children is poised to succeed. First, they are reminded that they “deserve a big gold star / for all the things that you have done / and all the things you are!” As the characters are seen engaging in typical classroom activities throughout the year, text in verse explains how to build confidence. Confidence is “feeling good about / what makes you YOU,” and developing it is like riding a bike: “At first you may need training wheels… // It may start out hard, but the more you ride, look how easy it suddenly feels!” As the children become more assured, we see them trying new things, approaching potential friends, and raising hands to answer their light-skinned teacher’s questions. Confidence is trying again when something doesn’t come out right, singing at the school concert, and taking part in show and tell. Each spread has a four-line verse on the recto and a cheerful, cartoonish illustration on the recto. The rhyme pattern is consistent, but the meter is not, so pre-read before sharing. Brightly colored artwork almost always shows smiling children and includes a kid wearing a headscarf and a child who uses a wheelchair. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
This is one to read and reread to calm back-to-school jitters. (Picture book. 4-6)
“A lesser-known but significant encounter with all-too-current resonances.”
Stinson, Kathy
Illus. by Lauren Soloy Greystone Kids (44 pp.)
$18.95 | March 7, 2023
9781771649513
A profile of Nova Scotian folk artist Maud Lewis. It’s eminently challenging to distill an entire life into a picture book, though perhaps those about artists are a bit easier given that so much content can be conveyed through art. Soloy’s illustrations rise to the occasion, emulating the naïve style and cheery palette of Lewis’ (1903-1970) art while highlighting key moments in Stinson’s tight narrative. There’s sadness in the telling, to be sure—Lewis had rheumatoid arthritis in a time and place when good treatments weren’t available— but there’s grace and beauty, too, as when her mother first gives her a paintbrush. Left to fend for herself after her parents die and her brother sells the house and moves, Maud finds work and companionship with Everett Lewis, a fish peddler in need of a housekeeper. It is in this small house, and with Everett’s support, that Maud continues painting, eventually selling her creations. And it is this small house itself that Maud paints, adding color to the walls, shelves, doors, and more, and that now sits inside the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. Biographical info in the backmatter expands upon the text, sharing that Lewis’ works are now much more valuable than they ever were during her lifetime and emphasizing her legacy of finding beauty in the everyday. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
In a word: beautiful. (author’s and illustrator’s notes) (Picture-book biography. 4-8)
Stowell, Louie
Walker US/Candlewick (288 pp.)
$15.99 | May 9, 2023
978-1-5362-2630-0
Series: A Bad God’s Guide to Being Good, 2
The Norse god of trickery gets another lesson in ethics when Thor’s hammer is stolen.
Confined to Midgard (Earth) in the form of 11-year-old Liam Smith by (as he puts it) “Poo-Poo Head Odin” until he can learn better behavior, the god of pranks continues the schooling begun in Loki: A Bad God’s Guide To Being Good (2022). This time, he not only gets past major jealousy when Valerie, his one human friend, bonds with newly met fellow horse lover Georgina, but overcomes his deeply ingrained sense of selfrighteousness to help save more than just this world from Frost Giants. Actually, along with folding in frequent glancing
references to Norse myths, the author has salutary messages for much of the immortal supporting cast (and readers, too). Loki, his protestations of innocence ignored, is not only automatically accused of stealing the hammer of Thor, but turns out to have been framed by one of his Asgardian victims. A multitude of cartoon scenes, pages of sequential panels, and spot-art sight gags like a bag of dog poop labeled “MY LIFE” mingle with the boastful, self-absorbed preteen’s records of his misadventures, including exchanges with his developing conscience and an admonitory magic journal that displays his wildly variable virtue score. Georgina and a teacher present as Black, the rest of the cast as White.
More life lessons abob in poop jokes, boasts, and mythological references on the way to a bit of world-saving. (Graphic adventure. 9-12)
Sutherland, Suzanne
Illus. by Ashley Barron
Owlkids Books (24 pp.)
$18.95 | April 18, 2023
9781771474993
A nautical (and ophthalmological) adventure, with only variations on a few homonyms for text.
In flat assemblages composed of brightly colored patterned paper elements, a seagoing tiger gazes through binoculars to spot an island (“Eye. See”), takes a sudden wave in the face (“Eye! Sea!”) that leads to a visit to a doctor’s office to read a wall chart (“I…C…”), and gets a rakish eye patch (“Eye. See?”), then heads back to the briny deep. A final page with a concluding “I see” for, perhaps, young audiences to intone depicts a cat checking out a brown-skinned child immersed in a sudsy, toy-filled bathtub. This “Land of Counterpane”–style flight lends itself to reading aloud in a broad, expressive way and could serve as a first introduction to a feature of language with equal potential for confusion and hilarious wordplay. But since Sutherland doesn’t distinguish homonyms from homographs and homophones, it’s best employed as a prelude to more precise explorations of the topic like Gene Barretta’s The Bat Can Bat (2018) or Nancy Coffelt’s Aunt Ant Leaves Through the Leaves (2012). (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Clever but too limited to float unassisted. (Picture book. 4-6)
Toalson, R.L.
Aladdin (352 pp.)
$17.99 | May 30, 2023
9781665925495
Twelve-year-old Victoria Reeves is ready to have The First Magnificent Summer with Dad.
Two years after her father was caught hiding a second family, leading to her parents’ divorce, aspiring writer Victoria is set on convincing him to come home. With her dad coming to Texas to pick up Victoria, older brother Jack, and younger sister Maggie for a road trip to Ohio and a monthlong visit, she believes this is her perfect opportunity. Victoria’s No-Fail Plan to Win Dad Back involves three steps: reading lots of highbrow books, impressing him with her dedication to writing in her journal, and smiling (because Dad doesn’t like it when children don’t look happy). However, everything quickly falls apart when he shows up with The Replacements, his new family, and makes it clear that he is not impressed by the new Victoria. His constant body-shaming of her, his clear preference for her brother because he’s a boy, and the trauma of trying to handle her first period without the help of a sympathetic adult are intensely painful. When Dad goes even further in betraying her trust, Victoria must decide who she really is—with or without him. Victoria’s journal entries provide deep insights into her complex thoughts and experiences. Themes of womanhood, family, and self-worth are thoughtfully woven throughout. Characters are presumed White.
Leaves readers with a sense of self-worth and the important message that they’re worthy of unconditional love. (author’s note) (Fiction. 9-13)
Towler, Paige
Illus. by Dan Sipple
Union Square Kids (192 pp.)
$18.99 | April 18, 2023
9781454944980
Series: How It Happened
A lively look at the history of chewing gum.
Towler delivers an account of the long history of humans and gum, from birch bark tar found at a Stone Age site to the prized ancient Greek mastic gum from the island of Chios. Central American peoples collected sap called chicle from the sapodilla tree, while North American spruce gum inspired the first chewing gum to be manufactured and sold. Energetic graphic design incorporates swaths of bright gum-ball colors with dashes of bubble-gum pink along with plenty of photographs
and whimsical cartoon illustrations (people depicted are racially diverse). Towler looks briefly at environmental and economic injustices committed in the harvesting of chicle in the first part of the 20th century. Chewing gum was sent to U.S. soldiers along with rations in both world wars, spreading the appeal throughout the world. The invention of bubble gum and the connection with comics and baseball cards cemented the popularity of chewing gum as entertainment. Towler examines the cultural context for chewing gum—including etiquette debates, health claims, and the use of racist and sexist stereotypes and slogans in advertising. Instructions for blowing gum bubbles and speculation about what future developments might be in store complete the picture. The wealth of intriguing information nicely pitched to middle-grade readers makes the lack of source notes or a bibliography regrettable.
A diverting look at the rest of the story for a familiar product. (timeline, glossary, index, image credits) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Trimmer, Christian Illus. by J Yang Abrams (40 pp.)
$18.99 | May 23, 2023
9781419745881
Noah is a boy who longs for lengthy locks, but will others support his wish?
As his birthday approaches, brown-skinned Noah begins dropping not-so-subtle hints about the gifts he’s hoping for: a telescope, a toy robot, and crafting beads. But what Noah wants most is something he can’t bring himself to admit—something that his sister and mom have but not his dad, his grandpa, his uncle, the mailman, or almost any other boy in class. What Noah desperately wants is something “he just didn’t think he was allowed to ask for”: long hair. Noah’s longing becomes apparent to his observant family; they notice when Noah breaks down after a buzzcut and when he wears a T-shirt on his head to resemble hair cascading down his shoulders. In honor of his unspoken birthday wish, Noah’s family (including his lighter-skinned, mustached father; his brown-skinned, wheelchair-using mother; and his brown-skinned sister) gives him his first wig. The child’s joy is moving, captured in Yang’s vivacious images, which glow with warm colors and lively details. This gesture of celebration has beautiful consequences. One year later, Noah happily sports shoulder-length locks, which he continues to grow. Combined with backmatter offering helpful “conversation starters” around “gender, identity, and self-expression,” this tender validation of one boy’s emotional experiences around his gender presentation is a valuable, affirming tale for all children. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A heartwarming story that’s ultimately about far more than hair. (Picture book. 4-10)
this close to home
Tullet, Hervé Chronicle Books (64 pp.)
$19.99 | May 16, 2023
978-1-79722-146-5
A literal “handbook” from the creator of Press Here (2011).
Demonstrating his usual command of interactive design and using only brightly hued five-finger silhouettes, large dots, and directional lines, Tullet leads little hands in an energetic paper dance of taps, swipes, and swoops, with gleeful invitations to touch every dot in any order here (“Now just on THE BIG ONES!”), swerve between a set of others there “like a fish,” slide a palm softly aaall the way across a spread, even leave the page to touch a nose or a head. Whether fingers go fast or slow, hard or “as light and frisky as a baby goat,” he encourages “keeping them elegant,” “always graceful,” and carries that theatrical spirit all the way to a well-deserved round of applause and a courteous bow at the end. Except on the covers, the hand shape on display is generally a right one, but often enough it gives way to a more abstract, Chagall-style splot that is less specific and so allows lefties and children with otherwise equipped appendages an entree. And, unsurprisingly, an invitation at the end to go back to the beginning is well-nigh irresistible. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Sure to delight busy little fingers. (Interactive picture book. 2-4)
Turley, Beth Simon & Schuster (224 pp.)
$17.99 | May 30, 2023
9781534476752
Everything is different in Brooke’s life: Her mother died in a car accident, her father and sister have changed, and her new feelings for her best friend, Derek, are confusing.
Twelve-year-old Brooke is dealing with a lot. There are mean girls like Lily Graham who rule the school. There’s Marley Macintosh, the outspoken outsider at school who has been given the nickname Bossy Floss (her parents are dentists) and who is her partner for a science class project. On top of that, Brooke is having fluttery feelings about longtime bestie Derek Perez, and that’s scary. She is also becoming increasingly self-conscious, hyperaware of conventionally pretty Lily’s appearance. Her self-image isn’t helped by sexist, judgmental comments two high school boys make about her. Fortunately, Brooke has her love of softball and how it makes her feel connected to her mother. She hopes to make things the way they were before by bringing back Lakefest, the annual community picnic that her mother adored. What makes this book stand out is its skillful highlighting of tween girls’ confusion around changing expectations and emotions. These are
real experiences told honestly, with empathy and insight. Most main characters default to White; Derek is cued Latine, and names signal ethnic diversity in background characters.
A sensitively told story with thought-provoking social commentary. (Fiction. 9-12)
Vegara, Maria Isabel Sánchez
Illus. by Matt Hunt
Frances Lincoln (32 pp.)
$15.99 | April 4, 2023
9780711286696
Series: Little People, BIG DREAMS
A quick profile of “the longest-serving heir in British history.”
Though as bland as its subject’s public persona and so compressed that the multiple schools “little Charles Philip Arthur George” attended on his way to college are reduced to one— illustrated with a historically unlikely view of the young prince being paraded before a racially diverse line of fellow students— this thumbnail biography does mention his two marriages and the protests that greeted his early residence in Wales. On more worthwhile notes, it also points to his creation of the Prince’s Trust (this paired to a more plausibly inclusive group of beneficiaries) and justifiably makes much of his devotion to environmental causes. Also, Hunt gets the royal ears, hair, and blank expression just right in the cartoon views of Charles in outdoor settings, waving at crowds, and (in earlier years, anyway) posing with various family members. An afterword with four photos adds a bit more detail to this view of an earnest, low-key figure who, following “a lifetime of preparing for the job,” ascended to the throne after his long-lived mother’s death and “hoped not to let anyone down.” (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Too sketchy and impersonal to last; at best a stopgap to meet the current rush of interest. (Picture-book biography. 6-8)
Maria Mitchell, Astronomer
Wallmark, Laurie
Illus. by Liz Wong
Creston (40 pp.)
$19.99 | May 2, 2023
9781954354135
The inspirational story of the first female professional astronomer in the United States.
This engaging account focuses on 19th-century scientist Maria Mitchell’s passion for astronomy, her determination, and her achievements, among them her prizewinning telescopic comet discovery; her work on the Nautical Almanac, essential for navigation; and (after years as a librarian, self-educated in mathematics) her eventual position at Vassar College, where she taught women for more than 20 years—the world’s first female
“A sensitively told story with thought-provoking social commentary.”
how do you spell unfair?
astronomy professor. The concise, clear text provides comprehensible explanations of her successes, though it does leave out some details, such as her family background, her unusual education, her founding of a girls school, and her involvement in the abolitionist movement. The annular eclipse that Maria regrets missing in 1831 at age 12 forms one bookend, deftly recalled near the end, when, missing another in 1885, she observes not a ring of fire but “another powerful ring—a ring of women”: her diligent students. The fine-line illustrations are equally spare but add just-right details, like a maritime chronometer and the book-lined Nantucket Atheneum, where some people of color can be seen. The astronomer’s hard work, delight at confirming her comet discovery, and pleasure in teaching are apparent in her facial expressions and body language. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Will guarantee this trailblazing scientist her place among the stars. (Maria’s rules of astronomical observation, glossary, types of solar eclipses, timeline, selected bibliography)
(Picture-book biography. 6-9)
Illus.
by Frank MorrisonCandlewick (40 pp.)
$18.99 | April 11, 2023
9781536215540
A champion Midwestern speller experiences discrimination at the 1936 National Spelling Bee. MacNolia Cox was neither the first African American child to win a national spelling contest (1908) nor the next (2021)— but she was the first even to win a spot as a finalist in all the intervening decades and, Weatherford suggests, could well have won except for some rule-bending by the judges. Using a call-and-response cadence (“Can you spell dedication? / D-E-DI-C-A-T-I-O-N”), the author pays tribute to the Akron, Ohio, eighth grader’s indomitable spirit and focus as well as her love of words while recording the public excitement she caused by winning her school and then citywide bees. With a teacher, a reporter, and her mother, MacNolia then traveled to Washington, D.C., where she experienced segregation (even on stage, in the accompanying, pointedly wordless, picture) but “nailed word after word.” She didn’t win the championship but proved something important by her example: “That was MacNolia’s triumph.” Her slender figure glows with character in Morrison’s illustrations, too, where she pores studiously through dictionaries here, poses with celebrities like Joe Louis and Fats Waller there, waves gravely to a cheering crowd as she boards a train for the nation’s capital, and afterward returns to her hometown in graceful, silent dignity. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Spells out reasons to vow N-E-V-E-R A-G-A-I-N. (foreword, afterward, select bibliography) (Informational picture book. 6-9)
Wen, Lenny Little, Brown (40 pp.)
$18.99 | April 25, 2023
978-0-316-28102-7
A young biracial girl looks forward to her Nenek’s visit from Indonesia.
Not only will Lintang meet her paternal grandmother for the first time, but Nenek will be cooking Indonesian food, including her famous sambal. But the chili paste is too spicy for Lintang. Even with reassurance from White-presenting Mama, who tells Lintang she had the same reaction to sambal years ago; Papa; and Nenek, Lintang feels left out. She’s determined to prevail over sambal, but every kind that she tries is too spicy for her. Nenek, who does not speak much English, quietly works to find a sambal that Lintang will be able to easily eat. This cozy story of familial warmth is a treasure. Wen’s digitally edited gouache-and–colored pencil illustrations on hot-pressed paper are bursting with cultural detail, from rattan chairs to the tikar mat on the floor to Nenek’s kebaya, and the Indonesian language is deftly incorporated. Nenek is a lovingly crafted character who’s keenly aware that Lintang feels that not being able to eat sambal means she doesn’t belong—and who helps her forge meaningful connections to her heritage, food traditions, and family. Wen makes clear, too, that despite language and geographic barriers, Lintang and Nenek can communicate in the ways that matter most, and their bond will last far longer than this visit. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A deeply satisfying celebration of cultural identity, intergenerational relationships, and delicious sambal. (Picture book. 4-8)
Williams, Dave & Linda Pruessen
Illus. by Sho Uehara
Annick Press (84 pp.)
$21.99 | $14.99 paper | June 6, 2023
9781773217666
9781773217673 paper
How can technologies developed for space missions help us to address Earth’s problems?
Our planet is our spaceship, the authors observe; like astronauts, we must care for our resources in order to survive. Chapters on water, air, food, waste, and energy begin by explaining the issue on our planet, then look to solutions from space. Co-author and astronaut Williams—referred to as “Dr. Dave” throughout—offers anecdotes about his experiences in space. The prose is accessible, with a conversational, optimistic, and enthusiastic tone, lightened by occasional astronaut jokes and tales of astronaut ingenuity. Eye-opening graphics highlight
“Spells out reasons to vow N-E-V-E-R A-G-A-I-N.”
fascinating facts, food waste stats, and “food footprints” (the equivalent of carbon footprints for what we eat). Specific examples of space technology applied on Earth, like waterless toilets, air purifiers, and hydroponic agriculture, offer hope. Each chapter ends with practical steps readers can take: turn off the tap while brushing your teeth; eat more plants; avoid single-use plastics. Suggested experiments are tailored to young scientists, who can try growing seeds on paper towels, building a simple solar distiller, or making an updraft tower. Graphics depict racially diverse people. A global perspective does not overshadow awareness that many problems, like food insecurity, are not remote but plague the United States and Canada. Budding engineers, astronauts, and environmentalists will all find a “mission possible” here.
A different angle on, and a wealth of information about, environmental issues. (glossary, selected sources, image sources, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)
Williams, Molly
Illus. by Miriam Bos
Running Press Kids (120 pp.)
$14.99 | May 9, 2023
9780762479177
What do flowers mean?
This enthusiastic handbook offers a very concise history of floriography, or the idea that flowers can represent ideas and emotions, followed by entries on various blossoms that symbolize love, friendship, gratitude, celebration, and healing. “Fast facts” accompany each example. A few blooms convey negative messages, and Williams also discusses poisonous flowers. Craft projects using flowers include making floral bath bombs and flower crowns and nurturing flowering houseplants. The book briefly mentions the quite different significance of various flowers around the globe. Generally, though, it’s fairly lightweight—Shakespeare’s use of flower language is not mentioned, nor is the role of the peony or orchid in China or the chrysanthemum or sakura in Japan. A chart offers simplified keys to symbolism that are further developed later, and there’s a page of “color meanings,” e.g., that orange can signify “fascination” or “pride.” Labels on a detailed flower cross section help us understand the botanical terms; also included is a lovely diagram of the flower life cycle and info on the pollinator crisis. Interspersed quizzes (closer to astrology than science) help readers identify their “soul flower” or “flower power.” An abundance of exclamation points throughout underscores the writer’s ardent belief that flowers are linked to emotions and can help us connect with others. Diverse people are depicted in the illustrations.
Fluffy floral fun. (list of historical flower meanings) (Nonfiction. 8-12)
Yoon, Helen Candlewick (32 pp.)
$18.99 | May 9, 2023
978-1-5362-2625-6
A child has lost their invisible dinosaur!
With impeccable comedic timing, a small Asian-presenting child with pale skin and straight black hair tied into spiky pigtails explains their predicament. Their dinosaur had been dirty, but after a bath, he disappeared. Delicately rendered minimalist spreads in muted colors focus on the child, while bright scribbly crayon depictions bring to life their story: A hose sprays a dino who’s mostly invisible against the white background except for brown “muddy” legs and belly. And once the bath is complete, there’s no trace of a dinosaur left. The child tries some plans that don’t work as intended: making piles of the dinosaur’s favorite peanut butter–and-jelly sandwich (which other adorably quirky animals come to eat) and putting up “lost” signs (the rectangle traditionally reserved for a photograph is blank). They explain that the dinosaur would be easy to spot in rain or snow “or anything really,” as crayon illustrations show raindrops and sleet creating a dinosaur-shaped negative space. But today is sunny and clear, and the dejected child trudges through a field of flowers and up a hill. But wait—dandelion fluff is falling onto a curved surface, but is it really a hill? The dinosaur’s peanut butter–and-jelly–smeared snout gives him away, and the child’s wide smile at their reunion is just as sweet. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A simple yet charming premise wonderfully executed. (Picture book. 3-7)
Zia, Farhana
Illus. by Stephanie Fizer Coleman
Peachtree (32 pp.)
$18.99 | May 30, 2023
9781682634936
A South Asian girl earns money to buy herself a pair of flip-flops.
Lali spends a busy morning cooking and building a fire. When she’s done working, a man hands her money. As she walks off, the “twisty-curvy path” hurts her bare feet. She encounters several of her animal friends, who make demands—a hen wants Lali to buy her lentils, a goat desires berries, and a bird needs ribbons to decorate a nest. At the market, Lali purchases flip-flops for her aching feet but doesn’t fill her friends’ requests. When she returns, the animals wail in distress, claiming that Lali has forgotten them and “let [them] down.” In response, Lali goes back to earn more money, fighting her hunger as she works, and later returns to the market. She buys gifts for her animal friends, who reward her with a picnic. As in Zia and Coleman’s previous book, Lali’s Feather
(2020), the text has a playful lyricism driven by clever use of onomatopoeia accompanied by warm, appealing illustrations. However, it’s never clear why such a young girl is working— and, indeed, performing tasks unsafe for children, like building fires and handling heavy equipment. Equally troubling is the message that Lali was wrong to consider her own needs and that her friends’ well-being is more important than her own. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A visually and textually engaging tale with a concerning takeaway. (Picture book. 2-6)
Zo-O
Trans. by Ellen Jang Owlkids Books (64 pp.)
$19.95 | March 14, 2023
9781771475327
In this South Korean import, a crow ponders two white, empty walls of a room—and then takes action.
Relocating to the corner, the restless black bird tries various positions on the softly textured, gray floor. The image of the creature lying on its back, feet spread on the walls, will elicit giggles of recognition. The bird brings over a bed, a bookcase, a rug, and a lamp, adding color and interest, and addresses a small potted plant with an inquiring “Hello?” Children will relate to the crow’s subsequent attempts to pass the time: reading, sleeping, watering the plant, eating what appears to be a bowl of cereal. The problem-solver then turns to art, creating elaborate yellow patterns on both walls that require increasingly larger ladders to reach. Music and dance fill a void as well, and the plant is thriving under the crow’s care, yet “Something is still missing.” Covering the furniture with drop cloths (a delightful detail), the industrious soul applies a circular saw to a wall. The resulting window yields the best result yet: a potential friend, a white bird whose existence is possibly foreshadowed on the cover. This enchanting, nearly wordless title allows space for viewers to construct their own narratives, imagining how they would feel—all alone in an empty room—and what they would need or do to feel complete. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A quirky, thought-provoking, and stunning reminder that a house is not a home. (Picture book. 4-7)
9781324030959
Bridges, E.D.
Moonglow Publishing (342 pp.)
$34.00 | March 1, 2023
9780645299571
Aiden Strong meets new friends in the lands of the dead.
The 15-year-old protagonist who can (as it is redundantly put) “see the ghosts of dead people” enters a series of postmortem pocket realms where, along with repeatedly failing to defeat a megalomaniac with a device that eats people’s hearts, he meets a group of deceased teens (who can “faze” through walls). He is attached to them by mysterious blue Trancey Strings, and the only way to cut the Strings involves revisiting the scene of each teenager’s death. Aiden goes on to witness suicides (one described at length in detail), murders, and a death in a house fire. Meanwhile, he saves one new dead friend but not another from something “like experiencing death again” in the flares of Infinite Flames. In one of several shoehorned-in side quests, a supporting character hits a mall with a nondead teen after everyone else on Earth somehow vanishes (temporarily, presumably). The writing is unfortunately muddled, repetitive, and in need of a stronger editorial hand: For example, Aiden’s curly hair is repeatedly and awkwardly mentioned throughout (“the curly-haired brother looked back at his straight-haired siblings,” “…the curly-haired male replied…”). Most main characters are assumed White; the one character identified as Black sacrifices her life to save a White person. The descriptions of mental illness in the context of a school shooting are troubling and feed into negative stereotypes.
An ambitious debut but too rough-cut for general release. (Fantasy. 12-14)
Buckmire, Brian
Blink (208 pp.)
$17.99 | Feb. 7, 2023
9780310142188
A pair of biracial siblings face the challenge of trying to feel safe after traumatic interactions with the police in this debut by a public defender and television legal analyst.
Reed is a stylish 14-year-old soccer phenom who’s excited to try out for the varsity soccer team
What comes to mind when you think of a “feminist book”? Something serious and provocative? Something only for girls? The kind of self-improving book no one would pick up just for fun? Rise: A Feminist Book Project for Ages 0-18, part of the American Library Association, puts together an annual list of recommended titles that combine young reader appeal with strong literary and artistic merit. What these books have in common is that they model or advocate for equitable, respectful treatment for everyone regardless of gender. They are books for all readers. The members of this year’s committee (I am one of 11) read widely, voraciously, and critically— and then debated passionately. Our 2023 list consists of 118 books across a range of genres and formats running the gamut from board books for babies to adult crossover titles. These nine YA titles from our list are absorbing reads that demonstrate feminist values.
Scout’s Honor by Lily Anderson (Henry Holt, 2022): This book offers readers a rollicking good time as outwardly prim Ladybird Scouts slay deadly mulligrubs that feed on people’s negative emotions. Sixteen-year-old Prue is wrestling with PTSD and her own conflicted feelings about being a Scout.
No Stopping Us Now by Lucy Jane
Bledsoe (Three Rooms Press, 2022): This work of historical fiction set in the 1970s is closely based on Bledsoe’s own teen years. Protagonist Louisa and her teammates struggle against their school’s hostility toward girls’ basketball despite the recent passage of Title IX. Meeting Gloria Steinem inspires Louisa’s fight.
Gender Inequality in Sports: From Title IX to World Titles by Kristin CronnMills (Twenty-First Century/Lerner, 2022): The author pulls off quite a feat with this work of nonfiction—it’s astonishingly comprehensive yet incredibly compact and highly readable. Readers will be left well informed about Title IX’s impact and present-day issues surrounding equity in sports.
Movements and Moments edited by Sonja Eismann, Ingo Schöningh, and Maya (Drawn &
Quarterly, 2022): This remarkable graphic anthology highlights centuries of courageous activism by Indigenous women and was created by women authors and artists from the Global South. The vivid art and riveting storytelling do tribute to their social and environmental struggles.
Huda F Are You? written and illustrated by Huda Fahmy (Dial Books, 2021): This graphic novel inspired by the author’s life is both hilarious and heart-rending. Hijabi teen Huda navigates life with four sisters, the social scene at her new high school, and figuring out who she is and what she wants.
Murder for the Modern Girl by Kendall Kulper (Holiday House, 2022): In this paranormal mystery steeped in a glamorous, gritty 1920s atmosphere, flapper Ruby is a mind-reading teen vigilante who bumps off evil men. She teams up with Guy, who can assume other people’s appearances, to catch a poisoner.
Sugar Town Queens by Malla Nunn (Putnam, 2021): In this textured novel centering mutually supportive women, Amandla is growing up in a South African shanty town with her single White mother. Her Black father and maternal relatives are mysteries to her until a startling revelation changes everything.
Lia and Beckett’s Abracadabra by Amy Noelle Parks (Amulet/Abrams, 2022): Parks immerses readers in the world of stage magic, weaving fascinating information about its misogynistic history into a charming romance as Lia and cute new friend Beckett work to right a historic wrong done to Lia’s magician grandmother.
The Ghosts of Rose Hill by R.M. Romero (Peachtree Teen, 2022): In this verse novel, Czech and Cuban American Ilana, a Jewish teen, is spending the summer in Prague. She stumbles across a neglected Jewish cemetery, a mysterious boy, and dangers that shed light on the “final girl” trope.
at his Brooklyn high school. He’s out with his 12-year-old sister, Olive, when three older boys offer Reed a joint. Self-possessed Olive, who has an interest in law, intervenes, explaining the marijuana penalty for juveniles and helping Reed save face. Later, the siblings are riding home on the subway when police officers claim Reed fits the description of a boy they’re pursuing. Olive films their interactions, and Reed’s internal monologue shows everything he learned from his Black public defender father about his rights and how to behave in such situations. In another encounter, a White woman at a cafe accuses Olive of stealing her phone and attacks Reed when he intervenes. Olive likewise recalls her father’s advice when the police officer is threatening toward her. Ultimately, it is the arrival of the kids’ White mother that saves them. The author shows how, despite the young people’s restrained, well-informed responses, their race makes them vulnerable to profiling. Reed and Olive are dynamic characters who process their experiences in different ways; their story will resonate with and educate readers about social justice, advocacy, and self-protection.
An impactful novel that explores the damage of the unjust application of laws. (author’s note) (Fiction. 12-17)
Illus.
by Amanda JonesThe New Press (128 pp.)
$19.99 | May 2, 2023
9781620974018
A Black teen makes the most of an opportunity to find and pursue her passion.
High school senior Charisma lives with her mother and younger brother, who has asthma. She often gets into verbal and physical conflicts at her racially diverse urban school due to stress and exhaustion from home responsibilities and slights from educators who expect little of her. School counselor Ms. Anderson takes an interest in Charisma and helps her learn how to process her feelings and channel them into something positive and productive. She tells Charisma that she believes “the ‘fight’ you have in you is really about something else. I see it as leadership that’s being misdirected.” As a result of this mentoring, which includes exposure to inspirational Black women writers, Charisma’s worldview is broadened and school performance is improved, and she goes on to organize a community event about environmental racism, something that affects her personally as well as her neighborhood at large. Couvson’s writing conveys a connection and experience with young people like Charisma, who are often ill-treated and ignored. Jones’ highly saturated, if slightly static, illustrations give readers an understanding of Charisma’s social and physical environments. This expository book models the important ways many educators care about and uplift marginalized students who may feel overlooked and undervalued.
A concise story about listening to and supporting young people. (Graphic fiction. 13-18)
Ferraro, David
Page Street (384 pp.)
$18.99 | May 30, 2023
9781645679721
This spin on the 18th-century Gothic classic The Mysteries of Udolpho centers gay romance amid an eerie, paranormal mystery.
After Emile’s aunt threatened to have him institutionalized for his attraction to men, he ran away and found work as a servant in Count Montoni’s household. He plans to stay in hiding until he turns 18, when he can collect his inheritance. As Emile begins to realize there’s something sinister about the Montoni family, he also deals with his growing attractions to both Bram, a doctor, and Henri, Montoni’s nephew whom Emile had misgivings about at first. Just as Emile’s true identity is revealed, Montoni whisks them all away to his other estate, Udolpho Castle. There, Emile learns the truth behind the mysterious affliction the whole family suffers from and realizes that if he ever wants to find love and happiness, he’ll first have to make it out alive. The spooky atmosphere is alluring, and there are some thrillingly gruesome scenes. Paired with queer romance elements that take some unexpected twists, these aspects may be enough to captivate readers. However, exposition that tells rather than shows sometimes halts the momentum, and the characters’ growth often feels unearned because they aren’t portrayed with enough depth to have complex motivations. Overall, it winds up feeling like a story that had potential but remains unpolished. Emile and Henri are cued White; Bram is Black.
A mixed bag of exciting horror and romance elements let down by subpar writing and character development. (Gothic horror. 13-18)
Glasheen, Kate Holiday House (224 pp.)
$22.99 | $14.99 paper | May 23, 2023
9780823450718
9780823454884 paper
A tale of gender and addiction. Claire Dunroe lives in the crumbling industrial city of Troy, New York. The androgynous White teen often butts up against the question of what gender they are, and Claire’s working-class Irish Catholic family is not one to deal with issues of gender-based bullying or violence with sensitivity or support. With good friend Greg, Claire discovers that beer is a great way to dull the pain and starts drinking regularly. One particular bender—inspired by a girl who kisses Claire and then spirals into gay panic, followed by severe bullying at school—leads to Claire’s getting picked up by the police and then sent by a judge to a teen rehab facility. This is a brutal story with glimmers of
hope shining through, complemented by harsh art, tangled lines, and blunt facial expressions. While this story may be cathartic for those who can relate to the subject matter or appreciated by readers seeking narratives dealing with trauma, overstuffed text boxes often devolve into melodramatic exposition or lengthy dialogue scenes in which Charlie, the main addiction counselor, lectures the audience both on and off the page about addiction and recovery. The author’s afterword gives a heartfelt explanation of how this not-quite-memoir dovetails with their life.
Successfully delves into issues but never quite coalesces into an engaging story. (Graphic fiction. 14-18)
Green, Autumn
Ooligan Press (256 pp.)
$18.00 paper | May 9, 2023
9781947845428
Magic now hides in forgotten places overlooked by humans, but a powerful threat from the past may jeopardize the delicate balance between the two worlds.
When Jaynie “Jay” Raremore was 5, her parents mysteriously abandoned her, forcing her to live with Dylan McCoy’s family—until his parents were mysteriously killed 6 years later. During the 5 years since, the inseparable Jay and Dylan have been at the Institute, a school of magic and magical creatures, struggling to piece together the mysteries surrounding their young lives while working to develop their unique abilities. Dylan has a Hybrid gene that supports a mastery of weapons; Jay’s “Pure breed” origins are not fully understood. Many believe she’s an Immortal or even an Ancient, possibly explaining her immense, uncontrollable power. However, it becomes clear that Jay’s origins are tied to the fates of the human and magical worlds, or Aris Magica, and that Jay is responsible for stopping the all-powerful Witch who has returned. Somehow, the CIA becomes involved as well. The rushed plotting and contrived worldbuilding feature stilted dialogue and confusing mythology. Jay and Dylan’s first kiss feels more painfully inevitable than romantic due to limited, paint-by-numbers characterization. Overall, Jay is a familiar YA protagonist, described as having great potential and unusual physical attributes—brown skin, white hair, blue eyes—as if to reinforce how special she is, despite the largely unremarkable storytelling. Dylan reads White.
A quick but ultimately unsatisfying read. (Fantasy. 12-17)
Hayes, Sean & Todd Milliner with Carlyn
Greenwald Simon & Schuster (272 pp.)
$18.99 | May 30, 2023
9781534492622
A small-town basketball star with big ambitions fights for more than just a state championship for his team.
Sixteen-year-old Barclay Elliot, captain of the high school basketball team, watches the clock of his life tick down second by second. Nearly a month ago, Scratch, his beloved grandpa who survived the Vietnam War and cancer, died in a car crash. Ever since, Barclay has regretted never telling Scratch that he’s gay. Determined not to miss another shot at living openly, Barclay comes out in his speech at the pep rally before the first game of the season in front of his team, the school, and practically the entirety of Chitwood, Georgia. Following his big moment, Barclay expects cheers from the crowd and the support of his team, but instead, he is let down by nearly all the people he thought loved and admired him. This novel highlights the impact and urgency of paying attention to local politics. Hurt and surprised by the rejection from his team, for the first time—and with the help of friends who are more attuned to what it’s like to be marginalized—Barclay, who is White, notices flaws in his community, including discrimination and political corruption on the school board. Although Barclay faces homophobia, his family supports him. Within his relationships with friends, new crushes, and his family, Barclay learns important lessons about privilege, vulnerability, and accountability.
A hopeful coming-out story charged with motivation for local change. (Fiction. 13-18)
Heard, Wendy
Christy Ottaviano Books (320 pp.)
$18.99 | May 16, 2023
9780316482332
Four teens get involved with a 1970s Hollywood murder mystery.
Casey, Jacob, Eddie, and Zoe are the anonymous creators behind We’ll Never Tell, a popular YouTube channel which features them sneaking into exciting off-limit sites around Los Angeles. As their senior year comes to an end, they decide to go out with a bang by trespassing and entering the so-called “Valentini murder mansion,” the site of an infamous, presumed 1972 murder-suicide involving two Hollywood darlings. After they get inside, however, they realize the house is not as untouched as it should have been. The night ends with Jacob getting stabbed and bleeding out in one of the rooms while the other three scramble to get out before they’re caught by the police. In the days that follow, Casey—whose own
the girl that can’t get a girlfriend
backstory is full of trauma—becomes suspicious that one of her friends may be the culprit and that the truth may be connected to what happened in the past. This fast-paced thriller follows Casey in her attempt to uncover the truth. The narrative also includes some chapters from Jacob’s viewpoint leading to the night of the break-in. While sophisticated readers may figure out the mystery before it is revealed, the historical elements are intriguing, and the characters’ relationships, especially the romance between Jacob and Eddie, are highlights. The book follows a White default; Zoe’s mother is from the Philippines, and Eddie is cued Chinese American. Casey is also queer.
An enjoyable, character-driven whodunit. (Thriller. 14-18)
Herji
Trans. by Jeffrey K. Butt
Helvetiq (64 pp.)
$24.99 | May 16, 2023
9783907293751
A lively look at some of the grand and mysterious phenomena that keep the observable universe ticking.
It’s Cosmology 101, as pale, red-haired fictive tour guide Dr. Celeste Aster puts it, and as she bounds off into a whirl of Herji’s text-heavy cosmic cartoon montages leading her blond, brown-skinned Gen-Z niece Gabrielle with guest lecturer (and real Nobel Prize Laureate) Michel Mayor panting along in tow, readers hoping to keep pace had better bring their scientific A games. After kicking off with a review of our changing conceptions of gravity, Einstein’s theory of general relativity, and the Standard Model of Cosmology, she explains the importance of core discoveries such as the cosmic microwave background and (with a nod to discoverer Henrietta Swan Leavitt) the value of Cepheid variables for measuring interstellar distances. Dr. Aster follows up by ushering “the biggest rock stars of the Universe…BLACK HOLES!” into view to explain what they are and how their collisions can produce gravitational waves, then closes by adding dark matter and dark energy to the Big Bang as mysteries still waiting to be understood. The full-color illustrations of human figures in animated poses, including glimpses of Einstein in skimpy bathing suit bottoms and cheery looking fundamental particles bonding or whizzing past each other, help lighten the substantial informational load.
A challenging overview conveyed with authority and contagious enthusiasm. (glossary) (Graphic nonfiction. 12-18)
Hiranishi, Mieri
VIZ Media (208 pp.)
$16.99 paper | Feb. 14, 2023
9781974736591
Series: The Girl That Can’t Get a Girlfriend
A story of a long-overdue Sapphic coming-of-age.
Through an autobiographical graphic narrative that is at times hysterically funny and at times gut-wrenching, readers follow Mieri, a young Japanese woman living in the U.S. From the lesbian characters in anime that she crushed on to the first real girl Mieri was attracted to, she’s known for a while that she likes butch girls. The fact that she sees fewer butch x butch relationships won’t stop her from trying to find a girlfriend even though the path, in person and on dating apps, is fraught with challenges. After she goes to visit her grandparents, Mieri meets Ash, a White
“A delightful exploration of navigating the bumpy road to adulthood.”
American teaching English in Japan who becomes her first girlfriend. It starts out great: College sophomore Mieri experiences the stress and rewards of making the first move and even has her first kiss. But a month later, Ash breaks up with her, Mieri’s parents get divorced, and her grandparents learn about and aren’t cool with her sexuality. Worst of all, she can’t stop thinking about Ash. As Mieri navigates the aftershocks of the breakup, she also grows into maturity. The book has impeccable pacing and is engaging from start to finish. The humorous art enhances the narrative in a meaningful way, especially in portraying Mieri’s own emotional journey.
A delightful exploration of navigating the bumpy road to adulthood. (extra panels, author’s note, creating a manga, Q&A, bonus gallery) (Manga. 14-adult)
Hood, Ann Penguin Workshop (320 pp.)
$17.99 | May 23, 2023
9780593094105
A teen struggles to cope with her younger sister’s death in the follow-up to Jude Banks, Superhero (2021).
Ever since her younger sister, Halley, died from a peanut allergy two years ago, 14-year-old Clementine Marsh has felt like the world outside is overwhelming and that she’s trapped in a snow globe. Her new high school is chaotic, and gossip has made her a target of bullying. Her best friend moved to Vermont and feels like a stranger. Worst of all, her widowed mother has fallen in love. How can Clementine cope with losing Halley when it feels like she’s losing her mom too? Clementine’s narrative, which drifts between past and present, candidly explores depression and grief. Unfortunately, some scenes, such as Clementine’s vividly recounted suicide attempt, risk triggering readers with similar struggles, and there are no mental health resources included. Realistically, Clementine’s path toward healing is not linear; hopeful moments alternate with physical and verbal outbursts and periods of inertia. Readers will root for Clementine as she learns to manage her emotions with help from a support group, though Hood’s dashing of potentially positive developments becomes emotionally taxing. Most secondary characters are lightly developed, but Clementine’s relationship with her mother—who remains steadily supportive amid her own grief, worry, and exhaustion—is touchingly threedimensional. Clementine reads White; secondary characters bring some diversity.
An unvarnished portrait of grief and healing; approach with care. (Fiction. 12-14)
Kaepernick, Colin & Eve L. Ewing
Illus. by Orlando Caicedo
Graphix/Scholastic (144 pp.)
$24.99 | $14.99 paper | March 7, 2023
9781338789669
9781338789652 paper
Athlete, activist, and transracial adoptee Kaepernick looks back on a pivotal decision he faced as a high school senior. The multisport standout, dedicated student, and future NFL star’s admiration for the way basketball icon Allen Iverson “wore his Blackness like a suit of armor” opens the narrative as Kaepernick explores his racial identity in predominantly White school and home settings where both racist comments and obliviousness to his experiences as a Black boy are the norm. He consciously gravitates toward those who believe in him and accept him unconditionally as wrenching experiences of casual, everyday racism—his White parents’ denigrating his explorations of Black culture, adults praising a White player’s “high football I.Q.” while describing Black students in animalistic terms—fuel his feelings of alienation. From being inspired by the words of Toni Morrison to being embraced by girlfriend Tiffany’s close-knit Black family, Kaepernick successfully finds much-needed support at a crucial time for his developing selfidentity. The memoir ends on a high note, as he decides to pivot away from baseball and accept a college football scholarship. Caicedo’s colorful, expressive images of the lanky, brooding teenager and dramatic diamond and gridiron montages complement the text. This work, co-authored with noted scholar Ewing, moves swiftly and clearly through a critical time in Kaepernick’s development and will resonate with sports fans and those interested in social issues and mental health alike.
A sympathetic glimpse into formative memories and experiences at a liminal time. (photo credits) (Graphic memoir. 12-18)
Kara, Jessica
Page Street (336 pp.)
$18.99 | May 16, 2023
9781645677659
A small-town Idaho teenager in mourning must find the courage to reveal his pain and ask for help.
One year after surviving the car accident that killed Hunter, his cousin and best friend, recent high school graduate Gage is hiding his nightmares and panic attacks. His belief that everyone else is dealing better with grief, combined with pressure from his dad to be a rock for his family, convinces Gage that he must pretend to be OK. Aunt Gina, Hunter’s mother, has the opportunity to showcase an art piece about grief at an exhibition in Seattle, which Gage, unable to get in a car since
“Will resonate with sports fans and those interested in social issues and mental health alike.”
colin kaepernick
Bestselling author Patrick Ness (A Monster Calls, Burn) is back this month with Different for Boys (Walker US/Candlewick, March 14), a short but searing work of fiction that explores masculinity, sex, friendship, and the ways in which four teenage boys of varying sexual identities navigate the complexities of understanding and defining themselves. His spare, sharp prose, bolstered with evocative pencil illustrations by Tea Bendix, asks as many questions about being a boy as it answers. Kirkus calls the book “masterful.” Ness spoke with us from his home in Los Angeles; this conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Tell us about the title, Different for Boys. This story was commissioned originally for an anthology called Losing It, which was about loss of virginity. It made me
think, what does virginity mean? There is one classic definition of virginity, but if you exist outside of that, how do you define your virginity? And if you can choose, what kind of power does that give you? The phrase, it’s different for boys is one you hear a lot [in this context]. I wanted to explore that idea. How is it different for boys?
I also thought about the lack of real loving friendships between boys [in fiction]. They exist, of course, but there is always a kind of pressure to make it a certain kind of friendship, to act a certain way around your male friends. What a prison that is! It is a disservice to straight men and gay men and trans men—to everyone—to say that it has to be different for boys.
Your characters use sports, jokes, and even violence to assert their masculinity. One character, Charlie, is intent on identifying himself in opposition to homosexuality, even threatening an apparently queer boy that “there’s going to come a day when someone takes you down.” Of course, Charlie’s own truth is much less clear-cut; he’s been hooking up on the sly with the narrator, Ant.
Everyone assumes homophobia is fear of gay people. But it’s more than that. It’s fear of gay people or of being perceived as gay. That second definition is the one that causes all the trouble. I had a friend growing up; we could do all kinds of physical things with each other, but we couldn’t kiss because that would make us gay. That question, the “no homo” question, has always been interesting to me. It is infuriating and maddening and homophobic. The real tragedy for Charlie is that he’s probably not gay, but he’s lonely in a particular way, where he thinks no one is there for him. He’s got this one friend whom he has physical relations with and whom he loves, but he cannot say that. He desperately needs some tenderness, and that is the thing that homophobia really kills: tenderness. There is no room to be vulnerable. That’s a calam-
ity for straight guys and has always been. They take it out on the rest of us, but it’s a calamity for them. I’m glad to see it warming up some, and I think the current young generation is the healthiest about it that it’s ever been.
It’s a stubborn taboo.
Internalized homophobia is such a poison. If Charlie could just have a little bit of self-confidence—real self-confidence and not the societally imposed ideas of it like sports or your position in the pack—it wouldn’t be so tragic. I really feel for Charlie. He’s the villain of the piece, but he’s pushed there by his own limitations.
To me, the single biggest killer for queer teens is shame. It has been the goal of my career to try to eradicate shame where I can. What you like to do in bed is not shameful. What position you take is not shameful. That, to me, is what Different for Boys is about. Charlie is dying of shame. Shame could kill him if he’s not careful. These are human boys, figuring stuff out, and that is something we should all look at with sympathy and love and patience.
Josh, the one unambiguously straight character, is also the most levelheaded, the most at peace. He really knows who he is, and he’s not threatened or threatening. Those guys exist. There are plenty of jocks who aren’t meatheads—I know some of them. I’ve always said that the real tension in YA fiction is between what is and what should be. Josh is a little bit of the should be but also a little bit of the is. He has the best kind of confidence, where you know who you are.
This story reminded me how important it is for queer boys to be fluent in straight “bro” culture to survive. You have to know the nuances, the jokes, the motivations. But the opposite is not true. Straight boys don’t have to know anything about queer life. In fact, it could be a liability if they do. It could call into question their own sexuality.
You talk to some people one way, to other people another way, in order to protect yourself. Edmund White once wrote about how the queer person does something that the straight person does not, which is to be forced to say: I am not this. I am this other thing instead. It’s such a powerful moment. It’s terrifying and violent, because you are wrenching yourself away from everything you are told you should be, but it is also liberating and empowering, because you have had to reckon with who
you are. And part of that reckoning is living in a hostile world. That’s what the closet is. And the closet is so destructive. But it is also sometimes a necessary safety. Recognizing who you are, in what world you live, and what face you put on, is something every queer person goes through.
This is also a story about what teenage boys [in a wider sense] go through: There are role models on television and in literature, there are the fitness models on Instagram that you are supposed to look like, and amid all of that, it’s easy to get lost about who you are. I think a queer person sometimes has a leg up in the teenage years, ironically, because we’ve already had to reckon with a part of our identity. Not everybody gets that.
Throughout the text, you use black boxes to block out some words and phrases as if they were being bleeped. The boxes cover profanity and descriptions of sexual acts, but they don’t cover slurs like homo and faggot. Tell me about that decision.
I wanted to pose the question: Why wouldn’t the slurs be blocked out? It’s because they are not as forbidden as the other words. Still, I wanted to put those words right in front of your face and ask: Why?
It’s because I think the straight world is still uncomfortable with us. Why is that? We have made great strides, but we are not yet unremarkable. There are still people who are willing to go all the way to the Supreme Court to argue for the right to discriminate against us, which you would think would go against everything America stands for.
Tucker Shaw is a writer, editor, and author of When You Call My Name Different for Boys received a starred review in the Jan. 1, 2023, issue.
from here
the accident, refuses to attend. With his aunt, mom, and stepdad out of town, Gage agrees to host a memorial for Hunter for their friends. To Gage, the memorial, a potential job working in his favorite celebrity chef’s restaurant, and a budding romance with a charming new girl seem like the perfect opportunities to show how well he is handling things, but when it all gets to be too much, Gage is forced to reevaluate how to live with grief while also caring for others. This poignant, character-driven novel meditates on themes of grief, loss, trauma, masculinity, vulnerability, and healing in ways that are accessible for teen readers. Gage is initially resistant to suggestions that he seek therapy; his father and stepfather offer contrasting examples of openness to mental health support. Main characters read White.
A tender and honest coming-of-age tale. (Fiction. 14-18)
Kulper, Kendall Holiday House (352 pp.)
$19.99 | May 23, 2023
9780823453610
A mystical noir romance set in 1930s Hollywood.
Eighteen-year-old Henrietta is determined to make it in Hollywood. After a string of bad luck, she lands a dream contract at Silver Wing Studios. She is paired with surly Declan, a stuntman with the amazing ability to avoid injury even when jumping off buildings or being run over by a wagon, who is to pose as her love interest for media purposes. Henny is thrilled to land a starring role, but tragically her friend Midge, another actor, goes missing. Only Henny knows that Midge is not back home in New York as is being reported but is actually dead: She is being visited by Midge’s ghost. She also sees the ghosts of other young starlets who have disappeared. After a fraught beginning, Declan, who is secretly working with a private eye who’s looking for one of the missing girls, teams up with Henny to figure out what is happening to young women in Hollywood. Full of high-stakes tension, this exploration of what happens when powerful men don’t get what they want will resonate with ongoing conversations about women’s vulnerability in the entertainment industry. Refreshingly, Henny is no damsel in distress, and the simmering enemies-to-lovers romance with Declan, whose hard exterior disguises a heart of gold, is rewarding. Main characters are White.
An atmospheric page-turner with real-world resonance. (Historical paranormal. 13-18)
Lim, Elizabeth
Disney-Hyperion (480 pp.)
$16.99 | April 4, 2023
9781368077545
Series: A Twisted Tale
A reimagined version of the animated 1940 classic Pinocchio.
In this richly drawn retelling, the story centers on sisters Chiara and Ilaria Belmagio, living in the quiet town of Pariva in the land of Esperia. Eighteen and 16, respectively, they’re on the cusp of adulthood. Chiara receives an invitation to apprentice with the fairies, while Ilaria follows her dreams of succeeding as an opera singer. Their diverging paths set into motion an eventual struggle between the Heartless fairies, who derive power from hatred and jealousy, and those of the Wishing Star, who are devoted to the true of heart. When their friend Geppetto wishes that Pinocchio were a real boy, a wager pits the two sisters against each other and calls into question the polarity of good and evil. Readers acquainted with Disney’s original version of Pinocchio will appreciate the inclusion of iconic elements like the whale, the Blue Fairy, and Jiminy Cricket. Pariva is alive and atmospheric, and the world of the fairies is seamlessly integrated. The relationship between Chiara and Ilaria is believably close yet fraught, making the scenes between the two some of the most compelling in the book. Some of the lengthier segments could have benefited from tightening; others, like the dramatic climax, needed expanding. All principal characters are cued White.
A fresh perspective that reads like a treasured favorite. (Fantasy. 12-16)
Mufleh, Luma
Nancy Paulsen Books (320 pp.)
$18.99 | May 16, 2023
9780593354452
A powerful, honest account of an activist’s experiences of being gay in a culture she loves but in which it’s hard to see a place for herself.
Growing up privileged in Amman, Jordan, Mufleh realized as a preteen that she was attracted to other girls. Scared of revealing the truth but grappling with suicidality and unable to continue to conceal her true self, she attended Smith College in Massachusetts, where she gained new insights into being Arab, Muslim, and gay. Her family’s connections to the Jordanian royal family allowed them to respond to her coming out by sending the FBI to attempt to bring her home. Knowing she could be executed for her sexuality, she sought asylum in the U.S. Mufleh’s raw descriptions of finding her place in the world are relatable: Questions
“A poignant glimpse into human imperfections and the struggle to find one’s place in the world.”
of choosing between living your truth or your family’s will speak to readers of many backgrounds. Mufleh clearly loves her culture and her family; she unapologetically describes her struggles without vilifying an entire people or religion. In particular, the cultural details and Mufleh’s warm relationship with her unconditionally supportive Syrian grandmother are moving elements in a story that has some dark moments. Mufleh’s journey shows that acceptance and reconciliation are possible and that those we love can grow and learn. Her account of founding the Fugees Family, a nonprofit supporting refugee and immigrant youth, models using one’s own struggles to uplift others.
A poignant glimpse into human imperfections and the struggle to find one’s place in the world. (Memoir. 14-18)
Musariri, Blessing
Norton Young Readers (192 pp.)
$18.95 | Jan. 3, 2023
9781324030959
Grieving the untimely death of her mother, 14-year-old Mati keeps company with an enigmatic spirit only she can see.
“Chichi swore at Baba and he went mental.” That’s the short version, Mati tells us, before launching into the longer story of her mother’s death and its aftermath. Seeking respite, Baba, Mati’s father, who is a doctor in private practice, takes his grieving family from England to Zimbabwe, Mati’s parents’ homeland, for a long camping vacation. There, Chichi, Mati’s 17-year-old sister, continues swearing and rebelling, while Tana, Mati’s 10-yearold brother, seeks joy and adventure. Mati, a keen observer and deep thinker, is visited at random times by an opinionated,
glamorous, gender-neutral being named Meticais who speaks only to her. Uncertain whether Meticais is a ghost or a figment of her imagination, Mati alternates between frustration and fascination with their conversations about the complexities of her immigrant family’s life prior to her mother’s death. Traveling by expedition truck and houseboat through the Zimbabwean bush to Victoria Falls, Mati and her family wrangle with the past and struggle to move forward. With emotionally rich, evocative prose from Mati’s astute point of view, Musariri deftly avoids melodrama to deliver a cast of wholly original characters facing tragedy with raw vulnerability and humor. A stunning, heartbreaking twist at the end will have readers turning back the pages to immediately reread this remarkable novel.
An inventive, exquisitely written story of family, love, and loss. (Fiction. 14-adult)
Older, Daniel José
Rick Riordan Presents/Disney (320 pp.)
$18.99 | May 16, 2023
9781368070904
Series: Outlaw Saints, 2
Two Brooklyn teenagers from the mysterious Caribbean island of San Madrigal face battles on different fronts.
In an engrossing sequel that starts right where Ballad & Dagger (2022) left off, Mateo Matisse opens by reflecting on what Chela Hidalgo means to him. In a few short weeks they’ve grown closer, and now there’s nothing he wouldn’t do to keep her safe. Their love and partnership encompass more than any ordinary adolescent love, however—they used to be powerful but formless spirits, but they have taken the forms of teenagers. Now that San Madrigal has reemerged from the sea, Mateo and Chela must figure out how their powers work, because new enemies are waiting for them, and the struggle to vanquish them and heal divisions in their community will test them. The contrast between their godlike natures and the limitations of inhabiting young human bodies is an element that is well balanced throughout the book, and it makes the protagonists both flawed and sympathetic. Each strength of the former book is present in this volume: the musicality, the effortless racial and ethnic diversity, the themes of anti-colonization, and, perhaps most important, Older’s narrative choices. Mateo and Chela truly sound like teenagers in their alternating first-person point-of-view chapters, making it easy for readers to be immersed in their reality and root for them.
A fierce and thrilling duology closer. (glossary) (Fantasy. 12-18)
Parra, Jessica Wednesday Books (320 pp.)
$20.00 | May 16, 2023
978-1-250-86252-5
A high school senior feels pressured to give up her passion for baking to achieve her immigrant parents’ Ivy League dream for her.
Aware of all the sacrifices her Cuban parents make to send her to an exclusive Catholic school in Orange County, Rubi Ramos works hard to try to get into Alma, an elite university that represents the American dream to her family. Though they own two successful bakeries, Rubi’s parents, especially her mother, are single-mindedly determined that their daughter become a lawyer someday. But while Rubi kicks butt as captain of her high school’s debate team, her heart truly lies in concocting new pastries and connecting with her Cuban heritage through her family’s special recipes. When Rubi is wait-listed by Alma but accepted into a prestigious baking contest, she struggles with making herself a competitive candidate on both fronts—while keeping it all a secret for fear of disappointing her parents. Rubi, whose father is Afro-Cuban, confronts racism and classism, particularly from a White peer who is jealous of her success. Readers will cheer for Rubi as she stands up for herself and reconciles her parents’ priorities with her dreams. Mouthwatering descriptions of food and Rubi’s blossoming romance with her supportive math tutor further sweeten this thoughtful, joyful coming-of-age story.
Beautifully written and brimming with love and acceptance. (Fiction. 13-18)
Pulido, Rod
Viking (272 pp.)
$18.99 | May 2, 2023
9780593526736
Boxing becomes an attractive defense tactic against bullying for a queer Filipino teenager in Los Angeles.
You’d better watch your back if you attend Westlake High, an especially tough place to be a gay teenager. When Bobby Agbayani is outed by graffitied hate speech on his locker, he becomes the target of relentless harassment by Rex and Eddie, two Filipino brothers, and their lackey, Jorge, who is Mexican. When a vicious beat down by the trio leaves Bobby badly injured and without his bike—a beloved gift from his deceased father—he takes up boxing to fight back. Inspired by his hero, world champion fighter Manny Pacquiao, Bobby trades custodial work for boxing lessons from Luke, the Jab Gym’s curmudgeonly yet generous Black owner. With the support of Rosie, his wisecracking Latina best friend, and Brandon, his
“Beautifully written and brimming with love and acceptance.”
rubi ramos’s recipe for success
loyal (and wealthy) Filipino boyfriend, Bobby persists through rigorous training while avoiding Rex and his goons at all costs, struggling through school, and ensuring that his hardworking single mother stays ignorant of his real-life drama. Even though the plot feels plodding at times, and readers may wish for a more nuanced resolution, Pulido addresses important themes of homophobia, socio-economic differences, and fallen heroes with a light hand. Bobby’s internal voice is especially strong, coming across authentically with a spot-on blend of candor and sarcasm in keeping with the geek culture he enjoys.
A solid debut that explores coming-of-age topics with sensitivity. (Fiction. 13-18)
Robertson, Andrea
Philomel (320 pp.)
$19.99 | May 16, 2023
9780525954132
Series: Loresmith, 3
Loresmith Ara and her allies have their final showdown with evil in this trilogy conclusion.
Following Cast in Secrets and Shadow (2021), the heroes standing against Zenar and the evil Vokkan Empire’s conquest are all separated. Ara’s love interest, thiefturned-Loreknight Teth, has been taken prisoner by the empire, where he comes face to face with ArchWizard Zenar and also with the Saetlund prince–turned-traitor, Eamon. Their perspectives, along with that of Zenar’s brother, an empire commander–turned–double agent (code name Dove), reveal what evil Zenar will bring upon the world if he’s not stopped. Meanwhile, Princess Nimhea and Ioth have gone to the Resistance, knowing the time to strike back is coming. Ara’s accompanied by summoner Lahvja and Loreknight Joar as she continues her repetitive storyline of visiting sites from her pantheon of gods to get blessings and forge more weapons for more knights (with no surprises about who the final knights will be). In general, the cascade of revelations is made less effective by this predictability and the lengthy passages of exposition. These infodumps stall an already sluggish pace—only occasionally interrupted by action until a final lengthy battle—and what forward momentum develops is squandered by the constant jumps between storylines. The ending leans heavily on convenience and romantic happily-ever-afters. Racial diversity is linked to fantasy-world geographical areas; characters have a range of skin tones from light to dark. Eamon has a chronic illness.
Banal. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)
12
Rubin, Susan Goldman
Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young
Readers (208 pp.)
$18.99 | May 16, 2023
9781662680106
A look at trailblazing women of early Hollywood.
This title covers the early days of Hollywood, from 1900 to 1940, presenting women who not only left their marks, but opened doors for those who would follow. The subjects include Mary Pickford, beloved as America’s Sweetheart; Frances Marion, one of the highest paid screenwriters of the time; Dorothy Emma Arzner, a successful director who was in a same-sex life partnership with choreographer Marion Morgan; Margaret Booth, the first person to receive the title of “film editor”; and
Helen Holmes, action star and stuntwoman. In addition to these White women, the book includes women of color such as Fredi Washington, a light-skinned Black actor who pushed back against racism in the mainstream film industry; Hattie McDaniel, the first Black person to win an Academy Award; and Anna May Wong, the first world-famous Chinese American film star. With a clearly written narrative bolstered by delightful, behind-the-scenes photography, the book not only delves into the histories of 12 women who played various professional roles in the industry, but examines how historical events like world wars, the Great Depression, the 1918 influenza pandemic, and Jim Crow impacted their careers. The racism some of these women faced is described with thoughtfulness and accuracy. An afterword reflects on progress still to be made.
An accessible, well-researched book highlighting pioneering women creatives. (note on terms and subjects, note on Anna May Wong, author’s note, where to see films, bibliography, source notes, index, picture credits) (Nonfiction. 12-18)
Schwartz, Dana
Wednesday Books (400 pp.)
$17.99 | Feb. 28, 2023
978-1-250-86101-6
Series: The Anatomy Duology, 2
Historical fiction with a side of gothic.
Having loved and lost grave-robbing Jack (who possibly survived being hanged thanks to serial killer Dr. Beecham’s tonic but has vanished), Hazel finds solace as the “lady doctor,” caring for Edinburgh’s poor while mourning Jack. Hazel pours her energy into writing a book of medical knowledge designed for ordinary people, not just educated male physicians. After being imprisoned for aiding a woman who aborted an unwanted pregnancy, Hazel is whisked to London to care for Princess Charlotte (as explained in the author’s note, Schwartz creates an alternate history here; the real Charlotte was married and had died in childbirth before her fictional counterpart appears). Once in London, the pacing picks up, but the plot largely maintains a slow burn until a flurry of late-game action. It’s easy to root for Hazel’s self-determination, but she is subsumed by her relationship with the Companions to the Death, a social club of great intellectuals who, as it happens, possess the same tincture and immortality as Beecham. A number of interesting concepts bubble to the surface in this duology closer but largely fizzle out before being fully developed—women’s intellectual rights, the price of immortality, the role of scientific knowledge in society, class tensions, and more. Hazel is White; side characters add some diversity in race and sexual orientation.
Accomplished prose deserving of a better plot. (Historical fantasy. 12-17)
YOU
Sepetys, Ruta Viking (224 pp.)
$19.99 | May 16, 2023
9780593524381
A gifted storyteller shares the method and memories behind her magic.
With chapters bearing labels such as “Plot,” “Character Development,” “Setting,” and “Voice,” awardwinning teen historical fiction author Sepetys’ first foray into nonfiction may look at first glance like an ordinary book on the craft of writing, but the introductory line, “life is story in motion,” reveals a more sophisticated yet accessible approach: sideways, through the lens of memory. Her parents’ early struggles and lifelong artistry gave her the sense that plots were everywhere. Discussing characterization, she recalls her 12-yearold self asking permission to paint her entire bedroom “brown like poop” (she even saved up for the paint). They agreed—and offered guidance on choosing an accent color. Eavesdropping on strangers trained Sepetys’ ear to write dialogue, and she presents lowlights from her dating career as an exercise in character research. Each themed chapter ends with a recap of the main points presented, a set of writing prompts, and an intriguing set of “Stories To Uncover and Discover.” Diving further into the subject of revision, Sepetys relates an anecdote that reveals how knowing only one side of a story leads to misunderstanding and errors, critical information for anyone writing history, whether theirs or someone else’s. The dedication, hard work, and attention to detail that her fiction is known for show here in every carefully considered line, but most of all it’s her heart that shines through.
Instructive and inspiring for storytellers of all ages. (Nonfiction. 12-adult)
St. Jude, Jen
Bloomsbury (416 pp.)
$19.99 | May 9, 2023
978-1-5476-1136-2
Just as college freshman Avery Byrne is going to end her life, sirens blare, warning of an unimaginable crisis: An 8-milewide asteroid is set to hit Earth in nine days.
Avery, a former straight-A student, is a promising soccer recruit at an elite college in New Hampshire, and yet she finds herself friendless, on academic probation, struggling to find authentic queer love, and desperately missing her childhood bestie, Cass Joshi-Aguilar, who is living in New York City. Avery’s suicide plan tragically mirrors her Aunt Devin’s own
back in her family’s homeland of Ireland—a heartbreaking family trauma that has provided a somber backdrop to Avery’s life. Through asynchronous chapters that switch between the present-day apocalyptic survival adventure and Avery’s childhood and teenage years, this courageous tale illuminates a young queer woman’s quest out of self-loathing toward selfacceptance. It boldly asks: When the end is near, how do we live, and whom do we hold most dear? Alongside the bleakness of the asteroid’s impending impact and the melancholy of Avery’s deep depression, St. Jude deftly navigates difficult topics such as death, generational trauma, mental health, and queerness in a conservative Catholic family. Supporting characters who are diverse in ethnicity and sexuality add real depth: Aisha, Avery’s Nigerian roommate and fellow soccer player, is asexual, and gregarious free spirit Cass is an Indian and Mexican lesbian.
A textured book offering readers hope in the face of impossibility. (resources) (Fiction. 14-18)
Valentino, Serena Illus. by Fiona Marchbank
Disney-Hyperion (128 pp.)
$21.99 | $14.99 paper | May 2, 2023
9781368068178
9781368082839 paper
Series: Villains
The evil stepmother in this retelling of “Snow White” starts life as a commoner who marries the king and becomes a loving mother to his little girl.
How does she develop into a murderous monster? Valentino constructs an emotionally complex story that investigates the queen’s origins as the daughter of a cruel mirror maker. The bitter man never showed his daughter any love, frequently telling her she was ugly. He bargained away his soul to give the beautiful wife he cherished the child she longed for and was devastated when she died in childbirth. The queen discovers that three witchy sisters—the king’s cousins—brokered this supernatural deal. They appear throughout the story, continually weaving their evil magic into the queen’s life and encouraging her to do horrible deeds. The royal family’s lives are richly described, with the inclusion of a new character: trusted lady-in-waiting Verona. Also called “the fairest one of all” by the magic mirror, Verona is banished by the queen. The dwarves are barely seen, but many familiar plot points remain in this graphic adaptation. The tolls of parental resentment, jealousy, envy, and magic manifest in the queen’s behavior as the story progresses. The illustrations, in black and white with large quantities of off-putting green, are striking. The queen’s and Snow White’s likenesses to Disney characters are evident; most characters read White.
Of interest to readers who wish to deeply explore a tale remembered from childhood. (Graphic fantasy. 12-16)
Wilde, Jen
Wednesday Books (272 pp.)
$20.00 | May 9, 2023
9781250827975
In New York City, a masquerade ball turns into a dystopian nightmare.
“Do you know what I would give to go to that ball?” scholarship kid Waverly asks wealthy Caroline during one of their regular tutoring sessions. Waverly—who is gay and autistic— is an outsider at Webber Academy, a private school run by its founder, Dean Owen Webber. Even with her tutoring income, the cheapest ticket to the event, the school’s annual fundraiser, is way out of reach. But, desperate for a break from the pomp and circumstance, Caroline wants Waverly to attend the masquerade disguised as her. Waverly agrees after she learns that Ash, the dean’s daughter and Waverly’s ex-girlfriend who’s now living in London, will be there. The next day at school, everyone is talking about how Caroline’s tech billionaire dad, the dean’s good friend, was found unconscious at home in suspicious circumstances. But the party must go on. The ball is in full swing when Waverly and the rest of the partygoers find themselves trapped inside the chic venue during a blackout. Turns out, the world is ending. Whom can Waverly trust? Though intrigue is threaded throughout, the book’s descent into chaos feels at odds with the fairy-tale beginning, and the bumpy pacing hampers this thought-provokingly relevant thriller. Wilde’s scrutiny of the ripped-from-the-headlines ultrarich preparing for societal collapse is powerful, however. Most of the characters are White.
An intense yet uneven apocalyptic survival story. (Thriller. 14-18)
Ying, Victoria
Colors by Lynette Wong
First Second (208 pp.)
$17.99 paper | April 25, 2023
9781250767004
Valerie Chu’s secret is eating her alive. Val has been pressured to stay thin for as long as she can remember, her mother’s own disordered eating habits bleeding over and taking control of hers. Though her mom cooks delicious Chinese dishes, she’s always quick to remind Val to watch what she eats, often body-shaming Val’s curvy White best friend, Jordan. Her friends gently tease Val for being so tiny, but none of them know about her disordered eating or her bulimic compulsions. While she’s kept both hidden all these years, her struggles come to a head while on a class trip to Paris. Unable to keep to her purging schedule and enjoy the sights, Val begins to reevaluate the importance of being thin. Just as she’s settling
“A gorgeously wrought, therapeutic story filled with tenderness and honesty.”
hungry ghost
into this new mindset, a family tragedy throws her whole life into upheaval. Ying’s artwork is appropriately nuanced and expressive, approaching the topics of grief, eating disorders, and mental health conditions sensitively and complemented by Wong’s subdued palette of mint green, soft peach, slate gray, and light brown. Classic bordered panels fill the front half of the book with a sense of strict control that begins to unravel later in the story. The impact of social media on teen girls’ body image is also addressed: Val scrolls through Instagram several times, making the correlation between her unhappiness and the platform’s impact clear.
A gorgeously wrought, therapeutic story filled with tenderness and honesty. (content note, afterword, resources) (Graphic fiction. 14-18)
The Young Authors of Shout Mouse Press
Illus. by Alexis Williams, Courtney Williams Skinner, Rae Flores, et al. Shout Mouse Press (308 pp.)
$14.99 | April 4, 2023
9781950807550
Young writers share stories inspired by their experiences of life during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ten Washington, D.C., residents in their late teens and early 20s collaborated to produce short fiction pieces, organized chronologically and divided into the four seasons, that reflect upon the events of 2020. Noted YA author and National Book Award finalist Candice Iloh’s foreword speaks to the impact of lockdowns on creative people and how these stressors show up in this volume that offers readers the experience of “holding a collection of hope in your hands.” Each piece is deeply influenced by the writer’s personal history, and their narratives focus on both human connection and systemic inequities. Struggles are balanced by support from friends and family: The underlying threads of “love, trust, understanding, joy, and community” shine through. The contributors’ backgrounds reflect the diversity of the city and add depth to the portrayals in stories that feature positive resolutions while not shying away from exploring relationship woes, a friend’s suicide, mental health concerns, confusion, fear, uncertainty, grief, and protests against police brutality sparked by the killing of George Floyd. A common theme is new gratitude for how things were before and all the normal times that now feel so distant. Illustrations by five artists include gray-tone drawings and simulated social media posts tracking the progress of the pandemic.
An authentic and sincere expression of young people’s anguished yet optimistic outlooks. (sources, about the authors and illustrators) (Anthology. 13-18)
Alexander, Caitlin
Monarch Educational Services (178 pp.) $15.99 paper | $8.49 e-book | Feb. 7, 2023 9781957656076
A tween uses her newly acquired ability to see ghosts to try to solve a 20-year-old murder in this debut middlegrade paranormal novel.
Kate Sablowsky doesn’t stay in a new city for long. Her mom, celebrity TV anchor Maria Silver, has a job that moves the family of two from place to place. Ravendale, Iowa, is the latest one, and Kate quickly settles in—except for her new recurring nightmare of being stuck inside a burning building. This dream/vision soon makes sense in an unexpected way once Kate realizes she shares her deceased grandmother’s psychic gift. The 12-year-old tween sees and even speaks with a ghost at school, a girl about the same age. This spirit died in a fire back in 1995 but, thinking it was no accident, asks Kate to investigate and unmask a killer. Resourceful Kate digs into the old case only to make someone nervous, as an anonymous note warns her to stop snooping. But despite the danger, she’s determined to uncover what happened that day two decades ago. Alexander delivers an entertaining series opener. The story boasts several chilling moments, all revolving around Kate’s potential proximity to a murderer. The paranormal bits center on Kate’s gentle, never-scary phantom friend, as this taut, relatively short book doesn’t overpopulate its cast. The story is likewise generally positive, especially when the tenderhearted and respectful young hero basks in her feel-good relationship with her doting mother. Kate’s daily check-in texts are a riot. She lets her mom know that she made it to school with “Followed a trail of candy to an old witch’s house” (Maria’s response: “YUM! Bring me some!”). While the mystery generates some suspects, Kate mostly works with “lackluster proof.” But this amateur sleuth doesn’t even have a driver’s license yet, and readers will surely relish watching her hone her skills in the sequel.
A savvy young gumshoe brightens this lighthearted mystery
charm and panache.
Immigrants’ stories have built-in drama. The circumstances differ, but the end goals are the same—build new lives while contending with unfamiliar ways. In these recommended novels with immigrant leads, a Japanese private investigator works his cases in post–WWII California; an Irishman navigates a corrupt New York City; and a Russian engineer leaves a life of persecution only to find more violence in Boston.
In Peter Kageyama’s mystery, Hunters Point, set in 1950s San Francisco, Katsuhiro “Kats” Takemoto, a Hitchcock fan and PI, attempts to thwart a corrupt developer from driving immigrants from their homes. Kageyama’s novel is “fun and captivating,” says our reviewer. “Kats is still dealing with the fallout of World War II, during which his family surrendered much of its property.…The story, which blends historical fiction and noir, is well researched, with a lot of intriguing period details about San Francisco.”
Andrew Flower’s Fire Marker Man chronicles the life of Irish farmer Robert Gillian, who flees the potato famine with his family and lands in NYC. “Gillian gets wrapped up in the complexities of arson, firefighting, the Civil War, and individual quests for revenge,” writes our reviewer. “A powerful family narrative of tragedy and hope emerges in Flower’s novel along with the age-old American question: How can the exploited pull themselves up from their bootstraps without exploiting others?”
Russian expats consider life’s meaning, supernatural experiences, and hidden treasure in Mark Budman’s starred short story collection, The Most Excellent Immigrant. Says our reviewer, “Budman crafts a story collection that reads more like a novella, exploring coherent, resonant themes, such as the exhilaration that immigrants feel regarding America’s opportunities and their bafflement at its alienating culture.” The result is “a set of captivating tales of strangers in a very strange land.”
Banerjee, Sorboni & Dominique Richardson
Wise Wolf Books (322 pp.)
$27.99 | $16.99 paper | $4.99 e-book
Feb. 28, 2023
9781957548159
9781957548142 paper
In this fairy-tale–inspired YA series starter, four teenagers work to decipher strange poems from their missing friend.
It’s been six weeks since Raven Snow’s best friend, Penny Zale, escaped from a psychiatric hospital in Everbeach, Florida, with her “long, blonde signature braid—chopped off and left behind.” At a vigil for the missing girl, Raven and her pals Aarya Samudra and Dawn Thorne meet Elle Glass, another friend of Penny’s, who reveals four cryptic and unfamiliar poems—one for each girl—that she apparently received in the mail from Penny. Aarya suggests bringing the letters to the police, who don’t immediately launch an investigation, so the four teens pursue one themselves—even after Raven’s wicked stepmother, Vera Snow, threatens to remove her stepdaughter from the basketball team if she takes part. Raven’s wrestling with more than Vera or Aarya know; she’s also conflicted about her feelings for Penny’s onagain, off-again boyfriend, Logan Steele, whose billionaire family owns sugar empire Steele Enterprises. As Raven’s feelings for Logan grow, so does evidence that he was involved in Penny’s disappearance. This novel is well paced with few extraneous details, aside from the fact that Dawn doesn’t uniquely contribute to the narrative. Still, the relationship between the four girls is heartwarming, even as Raven and Aarya’s friendship is tested by the secrets each character keeps. An engaging subplot explores the connection between frenemies Aarya and Punkaj Grimsley, whose internship with local newspaper The Mirror comes in handy. Bengali American author Banerjee and Lebanese Jamaican author Richardson add rich cultural texture to their characters’ stories; Raven’s growing relationship with Elle’s Jamaican godmother, Titania, reminds the teen of her deceased Jamaican mother and the culture from which she feels disconnected, and Aarya’s relationship to the grand Hindu statues in her parents’ hotel lobby is especially striking as the novel reaches its climax. As friendships are threatened, readers are presented with a simple ethical question, posed by Aarya: “When is it on you, as the friend, to figure out something is wrong?”
An engaging thriller with complex relationships, convincing stakes, and fairy-tale allusions.
Karen Schechner is the president of Kirkus Indie.
Becker, Mally Level Best Books (276 pp.)
$16.95 paper | $5.99 e-book | Sept. 20, 2022
9781685121587
Two spies try to uncover a counterfeit ring in Becker’s Revolutionary War–set murder mystery, the finale of a two-volume series.
In 1780, Philadelphia is so awash in counterfeit paper money that George Washington himself sends Becca Parcell and Daniel Alloway, two agents, to investigate. Failure looks imminent for the embattled colonists fighting for independence, and the war effort is in dire need of financial support, which is only complicated by the ubiquity of counterfeit money. Becca and Daniel pose as husband and wife, a dangerously scandalous imposture given the strict sexual morality of the late 18th century. Daniel, a former printer, takes to exploring that industry, which is generally closed to outsiders, posing as a businessman on the lookout for shady opportunities. Meanwhile, Becca makes friends with the Ladies Association of Philadelphia, a group of wealthy and powerful women raising money for the war. The pair quickly come to suspect Edmund Taylor, a prominent merchant with a reputation for unscrupulousness. But he’s murdered by Hannah, a woman who turns out to be Becca’s mother, who she was led to believe died when she was a child. Becker has crafted a riveting and unpredictable crime drama that also works as an affecting love story; Becca and Daniel are clearly drawn to each other romantically, but both are also wounded by past experiences. Becca, in particular, is terrified of abandonment, a fear the author believably conveys: “Becca felt the now-familiar tug of connection between them, a braided rope of trust and attraction. But she heard an almost silent pop, as if a single thread of that rope had frayed. She knew what the imaginary sound meant. It was a reminder that everyone she cared about left.” One needn’t read the series opener in order to fully appreciate this engaging novel.
An entertaining blend of American history and fictional drama.
Bell, Francesca
Red Hen Press (96 pp.)
$22.00 | May 9, 2023
9781636280790
Bell’s second collection of poems offers a portrait of motherhood, devastation, and hope.
The author ’s first collection of poems, Bright Stain (2019), was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Julia Suk Award. Her newest book is a testament to her finely tuned poetic talent
as she turns to grapple with far-reaching societal issues, including mental illness, gun violence, and sexual assault. More than anything, these works explore “the necessary work of opening” one’s self up to the world. The collection is split into four parts that weave together large-scale issues, such as domestic and societal violence against women, and individual challenges in the author’s exploration of deafness. The titular poem describes Bell in an audiologist’s booth attempting to wrestle with “the stillness out there strong / enough to suck me in.” Similar stillness is captured and preserved in poems that consider questions about protecting children from a cruel world and how one prepares loved ones, and oneself, to face life’s trials and unfair rules. Bell makes use of a wide variety of poetic structures to augment this analysis, which will keep readers on their toes. Her mastery of language yields such affecting lines as “your illness rummaged / inside you, digging, clawing, / sniffing for the sweetest parts.” Perhaps Bell’s greatest feat is her study of what is possible for a body in distress—how it can receive joy, what it can endure, and how far it can carry itself for love. Although the book is full of gut-wrenching loss, it makes room for indispensable moments of humor and hope. It offers poignant lessons on how to maintain strength amid sorrow and how one can find strength in quiet moments: “I want to feel what’s next / curled inside me.”
A moving and musical set of poetic works.
Bloom, Matt & Shelley Simmons-Bloom
Illus. by Pippa Mayell
Positivity Publishing (74 pp.)
$13.99 paper | Jan. 1, 2023
9780997642537
An illustrated children’s tale of one cat’s adventure in the big city and the lessons she learned along the way.
Bunny, a feline, lives a charmed life in a posh Manhattan apartment alongside her owners—a nice couple who adopted her from the local animal shelter. Bunny soon makes friends with Mike the Mouse, who decides to make the hole that he’s nibbled in a closet wall big enough for Bunny to slip through— and their adventures begin. But soon Bunny sees a photo caption in a copy of the New York Times that really disturbs her: “Central Park carriage horse ‘Joe,’ one of several allegedly mistreated by its driver.” Bunny doesn’t know what alleged means, but the rest of the sentence is clear enough, so she decides to help Joe escape his situation. With the help of Mike the Mouse, Polly the Pigeon, and various other friends she meets along the way, Bunny finally gets to Central Park to make her daring rescue. Over the course of Simmons-Bloom and Bloom’s book, Bunny embodies the idea that small creatures can do great things; for example, when Joe the Carriage Horse expresses disbelief that Bunny can help him, the plucky cat reminds him that she’s “a tiny thing who’s very determined.” Young readers will likely find that determination to be contagious, and it may appeal
to even the tiniest animal lovers. The book’s simple prose and Mayell’s eye-catching ink-and-watercolor illustrations make the most out of a minimalist color palette; Bunny’s dark black fur and bright green eyes are prominent as the most richly drawn images in every blue-tinged picture.
A charming and simply told story with a clear message.
Born, Gary Addison & Highsmith (372 pp.)
$29.99 | $9.49 e-book | March 28, 2023
9781592112050
A young woman leads a band of merciless assassins on a worldwide chase in Born’s action thriller.
The author sets the scene for his debut novel in a seedy hotel room as Sara West, a young graduate student, stitches up her injuries; she’s hiding out from several men out to kill her. Not long before, while on a scientific expedition led by her father in Central Africa, she discovered a downed military plane deep in the jungle containing four bodies dressed in German uniforms and a file cabinet containing haunting Nazi documents. They tell of a trove of illegally obtained assets that may still be hidden somewhere in Europe. The files catapult Sara into a world of corruption, conspiracy, and murder when Russian and American intelligence agencies get wind of the information she discovered. The Russians, driven by greed, and the Americans, fearing the exposure of evidence connecting the U.S. government to the Nazis, launch ruthless missions to obtain the documents. After a bloodthirsty massacre of everyone on the expedition but Sara, she escapes into the unforgiving jungle. Accompanied by Jeb Fisher, a former CIA agent, she leads her pursuers across Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. Along the way, Born takes his readers on a thrilling journey that he punctuates with car chases, shootouts, knife fights, and narrow escapes. He tells his story through the third-person perspectives of several well-developed characters who fall into types that avid readers of thrillers will find pleasingly familiar, such as Jeb, an alluring former spy with mysterious intentions. The prose is detailed yet succinct, moving steadily through a well-paced plot, and the constant action offers readers little downtime: “Somehow, they hadn’t found her. Somehow, she had survived the night. She fought back a wave of terror as she remembered where she was.” Overall, Sara West’s daring trek is certain to capture and keep readers’ attention.
A well-paced, action-packed thriller with appealing characters.
Braca, Sara E.
New Degree Press (220 pp.)
$17.99 paper | $7.99 e-book | Sept. 14, 2022
9798885045988
Debut author Braca offers a paean to the single life.
The author—a marketing executive and yoga instructor in Tuscany—presents an engaging set of stories about reclaiming her life after her divorce following six years of marriage. The disruption of her Connecticut wedding by a church fire, she writes, seemed to be a sign that she shouldn’t see marriage as everything in life. Indeed, throughout this book, Braca narrates the ways she learned to remake herself and embrace the possibility of a happy, single existence that didn’t exclude meaningful relationships. In the process, she learned how to push back against unwanted questions of why she was “still” single. A common theme of this essay collection is the idea of rediscovering oneself; it includes accounts of travel and a tribute to losing weight. She includes a humorous anecdote about her cat being too good of a mouser and another about how to own a BMW and not be irritating (“Growing up, my mother always told me that BMW drivers were assholes”). The most poignant chapters, though, are about her search for and embrace of her Italian roots, which led to her current living situation. This book shines most brightly in its travel tales, some of which illustrate the intersection of business and pleasure, including a heartfelt account of a trip to Israel. Braca further expands on her views on what one should expect from life in a story about a European river cruise that turned out to be mainly for seniors, during which she learned a lesson about being young at heart. Other noteworthy vignettes recount visits to Iceland before and after its popularization as a tourist destination and finding community on the Greek island of Santorini. Each shows how travel has expanded her world and conveys her joy at having done so.
A delightful travelogue and memoir.
Brown, Donnaldson
She Writes Press (408 pp.)
$18.95 paper | $9.95 e-book | April 4, 2023 9781647422981
A lifelong love story—with obstacles—moves from 1970s Texas to present-day New York City.
In this debut novel, two Texas farm kids with big dreams fall in love as teens, split up, reconnect as adults, break up again, and finally come together at a crucial moment. Aspiring artist Leni O’Hare meets Cal McGrath when she impulsively
“Sara West’s daring trek is certain to capture and keep readers’ attention.”
the file
runs away from home after her mother tries to sell her beloved horse, Foggy. Cal has a contentious relationship with his father, a self-made businessman who wants his son to take over the ranching and oil drilling instead of going to college to study physics. The teen knows Leni as the younger sister of his football teammate Foy O’Hare. But Cal quickly connects with Leni, and they swiftly fall for each other. When Foy dies from heat exhaustion at football practice, Cal and Leni are both devastated. Their relationship suffers ups and downs as they deal with their grief, and they are soon making plans to leave Texas together to pursue their passions for physics and art. When Leni gets pregnant, she keeps it a secret from Cal and flees her home with the help of his older brother, Hank, before giving the baby up for adoption. A decade later, Leni and Cal are both in New York, working in art and finance, when their paths cross again. Their romance quickly reignites. A disagreement drives them apart again, and they spend the next 30 years pursuing their own paths until a sudden reconciliation occurs. The story is a compelling one, with Leni and Cal’s relationship at its core. The two come across as fully realized characters, not just starcrossed lovers. Brown brings both the Texas and New York settings to life, and complex secondary characters, especially Foy and Hank, add to the novel’s richness. There are minor stylistic problems (particularly the odd phonetic rendering of several French accents) but they do not detract much from the character-driven narrative. The book explores questions of independence, responsibility, family, and authenticity while telling a page-turning story that will keep readers invested.
A compelling relationship tale that explores two lives over a half-century.
$19.99 paper | $4.99 e-book | Oct. 3, 2022
9780997159691
A youngster learns about meditation, the cycle of death and rebirth, and the impermanence of all things from a reptilian guru in this children’s book.
Monarch Asana, a preteen boy grieving the death of his Grandpa Harry, receives a mysterious poster as a bequest. Monarch falls asleep gazing at it and enters a dream in which Harry visits him as a talking chameleon who aptly symbolizes the message “You shouldn’t get too attached to the forms you see in the world because everything in existence is constantly changing its form.” Harry proceeds to impart other lessons about religion and the universe: that death is not the end, but “a nap that we take to prepare for life in a new body”; that the immortal soul persists as our essence as we reincarnate through many lives; and that the cycle of reincarnation will continue until we understand the puzzle of our mystical connection to God
and the universe. Waking from his dream, Monarch discovers a letter from Harry telling him that there are more writings about the path to enlightenment stashed in cities around the world that he and his sister, Luna, can find in a kind of treasure hunt—if they can decipher the crucial clue hidden in the poster. Cottone, a professor of psychiatry at Stony Brook University, presents a simple, broad-brush primer on Hindu and Buddhist concepts and practices pitched at an elementary and middle school readership, complete with rudimentary meditation exercises—“Now, Monarch, as you breathe, I want you to count your breaths,” coaches Harry—and an appendix with more detailed techniques. The author’s limpid, straightforward prose manages to convey abstruse ideas in evocative terms, whether discussing spiritual metaphysics—“Just as it’s hard to follow changes in the wind without a kite to fly in it, without a physical body it’s hard to learn anything about your soul”—or the confusing mental churn they cause. (“Monarch was filled with conflicting emotions that were mixing inside of him like droplets of oil and vinegar in a bottle of salad dressing.”) Hoffman’s colorful drawings illustrate the luminous story. Kids who are curious about these doctrines will find the book an entertaining, easily digestible guide.
An intellectually rich yet down-to-earth introduction to Eastern religious and philosophical beliefs.
Davis, Jocelyn
Amplify Publishing (248 pp.)
$24.95 | $9.99 e-book | March 21, 2023
9781637553879
A guide to leadership archetypes for women that’s based on literary figures.
Davis, a public speaker who previously worked in global leadership development, offers a guide aimed at women in the business/ corporate world that has the potential to reach a larger readership. The book’s introduction to the author’s spectrum, or wheel, of archetypes includes a quiz for identifying where one may categorize oneself among four quadrants representing paired elements of Fire-Earth, Earth-Water, Water-Air, and Air-Fire. Each chapter then moves through specific archetypes within these quadrants, ranging from the Temptress (who “Bring[s] the fun”) to the Mama Bear (who “Identif[ies] with [their] team’s success”) to the Empath (who “Err[s] toward generosity”) to the Witch (who’s “judiciously ruthless” but also heals rifts). The book also includes a chapter about the “Master Maid,” who embodies the ability to master qualities from all archetypes, as situations demand. Davis describes each archetype with examples from classical and folk literature—notably, not all of it Western—from Lysistrata to Shahrazade (aka Scheherazade). She then pairs each literary archetype with a counterpart from her own life who best embodies its qualities. Davis’ book can be likened to Jean
Shinoda Bolen’s now-classic Goddesses in Everywoman (1984), which used the Greek goddesses as sources for female psychological archetypes. Like Bolen, Davis acknowledges that it’s possible for a person to fit one archetype yet still make use of others. That said, not all of Davis’ examples are equally strong; for instance, in her discussion of the Escapist, the author only acknowledges in passing that the Escapist tactic of evasion isn’t always possible when one is being actively pursued. Still, this is a thoughtful and highly readable book that highlights the enduring value of folk and classical literature, even in the world of business and commerce.
A delightful and wide-ranging folkloric self-help work.
Desiderio, Katie P. & Michael G. Frino
Wiley (128 pp.)
$27.00 | May 2, 2023
9781394165261
A fictional work highlights leadership principles.
In the tradition of the blockbuster book Who Moved My Cheese? (1998) by Spencer Johnson, corporate veterans Desiderio and Frino have crafted a business fable that metaphorically compares beekeeping with leading a business. The story centers on Catherine, now a successful organizational consultant, who narrates a flashback story of how she evolved from her role as owner of a rapidly growing essential-oils business. While vacationing with her family on a tourist farm, she crosses paths with the place’s owner and beekeeper, Henry Ives, the former CEO of a marketing firm. Her chance meeting with Henry and subsequent conversations with him about how bees function inspire her to send motivational emails to her managers while she is away. For example, when Henry explains the nature of the honeybees’ hive, Catherine sends her leadership team an email that reads: “The hive is at the core of learning and growth and bees provide the nourishment for all things to grow. Bees work together and are focused on the same mission.” As the story unfolds, a number of leadership principles derived from what Catherine learns about bees are revealed. Of course, all these principles begin with the word Be—“Be Transformational,” “Be Curious,” “Be Growth-Minded,” and so on. The authors keep readers engaged by adding other characters and depicting various educational and sometimes amusing farm scenes, as when Catherine’s family feeds the pigs. Particularly enlightening is the last part of the book, which steps away from the farm narrative to expose how staffers back at the office are reacting to the emails sent by Catherine, who is not fully aware of the transformational impact she is having on her organization’s culture. The similarities of the beehive, worker bees, and even the queen bee to a well-oiled company run by humans are not only relevant, but at times startlingly accurate as well. The authors
very effectively make the connection, although some readers may roll their eyes at the overabundance of bee-related puns. Still, as business fables go, this one largely succeeds.
Creatively written, cleverly packaged advice for organizational leaders.
Dickason, Anita
Mystic Circle Books (364 pp.)
$19.99 | $11.99 paper | $6.99 e-book
July 1, 2022
9781734082197
9781734082180 paper
An extraordinary surprise inheritance places a resourceful young nurse’s life in danger in this mystery/thriller.
Twenty-seven-year-old Tori Winters is working as a hospice nurse in Springfield, Missouri, when she receives a phone call that Horace Milburn, one of her patients, has died. Although Horace was in hospice care at home, Tori is surprised that he succumbed so quickly because he had been feeling better in recent days. She arrives at the Russell house, where Horace had been living with his daughter, Amelia, and son-in-law, Charlie, and discovers that too few of his pain medication pills are in their container. Tori suspects foul play, and she becomes the prime witness in Charlie’s murder trial. After continued harassment by Charlie’s two brothers, Earl and Farley, culminating in a bullet smashing through her living room window, Tori decides it is time to get out of town. Then she receives a phone call from attorney Jonah Greer in Granbury, Texas, saying he has important business to discuss with her. She sets out for Texas but not before covering her tracks by telling everyone in Springfield that she is moving to Colorado. She meets with Jonah and learns that her paternal grandmother, Elly Leichter, who she had been told died decades earlier, has just recently passed away. Elly left her entire estate to Tori, including an old mansion in need of repair. Tori falls in love with the mysterious house and inherits a world of danger. Dickason’s series opener features an intriguing hero. And the house—with its unique history; intricately described, valuable antiques; and many secrets—offers plenty of opportunities for future plotlines. Tori intends to turn the “white elephant” into a bed-and-breakfast (“The house was a mish-mash of arched windows, plain and stained glass, and gingerbread trim”). Several attempts on Tori’s life provide adequate moments of moderate tension, and there is an ample supply of possible suspects. Although there are no big final surprises, the entertaining narrative moves along at a healthy clip, building a collection of captivating secondary characters who are likely to appear in the sequel, with one who may become a romantic interest.
A fun rags-to-riches tale in an engaging mystery helmed by an appealing protagonist.
FriesenPress (228 pp.)
$33.99 | $19.99 paper | $3.99 e-book
Oct. 11, 2022
978-1039153936
9781039153929 paper
Two women are caught up in the Russian-Chechen clash of the 1990s and 2000s. This debut novel, based on historical events, is the story of two women: Alla, half-Chechen and half-Russian, and Nadezhda, a Moscow native. They become close friends as children, drift apart, reconnect as adults, and end up on opposite sides when Chechen rebels take hostages in a Russian theater in 2002. Alla receives a letter from Nadezhda shortly before her father, husband, and son are killed in a Russian airstrike, and she decides to move to Moscow and live with her old friend. Before she leaves Chechnya, Alla trains as a guerrilla fighter and commits to working with the rebels in the future. In Moscow, Nadezhda enjoys her job at an international school, but even though she was fired by the FSB after getting involved with an Englishman, her former spymasters stay in touch and continue to press her for information on her foreign friends and Alla. Over the course of several years, the two women make the most of life in an evolving Russia, with Alla working to support Chechen refugees in Moscow and Nadezhda developing a relationship with a Canadian American academic, an “unassuming but attractive foreigner.” Nadezhda and her boyfriend are enjoying an evening at the theater when Alla’s group takes the entire audience hostage, and the dramatic events bring major changes to both their lives. Goodings has clearly done substantial research, both on the Chechen conflict and on the atmosphere of Russia during the time period. The book brings its setting to life with vivid descriptions, and cameo appearances by Vladimir Putin and Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya add authenticity. Although the narrative’s pace can be a bit slow at times, the author does a solid job of balancing the many threads of a complex plot and illuminating the motivations of all the characters, showing how war affects even those who try not to participate in it. With its focus on a littlediscussed area of recent history, the story is likely to appeal to historical fiction fans looking for something other than a World War II novel.
An insightful look at a forgotten conflict.
Her Modigliani Pages
Ireland, Perrin
Charles Square Press (206 pp.)
Dec. 12, 2022
9780985054557
Ireland’s historical novel imagines a fictional diary written by Jeanne Hébuterne, Amedeo Modigliani’s commonlaw wife, chronicling their tempestuous relationship in Paris.
Hébuterne is only 19 when she meets the famed painter, who is a much more mature 33. She falls deeply in love and refuses to leave him despite her conservative, petit-bourgeois Catholic family’s strenuous objections: They are not keen on the fact that he is a Jewish artist, not to mention an ostentatiously heavy drinker. Jeanne’s father had hoped she would become a nun—the often dissolute life she leads with Modi, as she calls him, couldn’t be further from the quietude of religious devotion. Their life together isn’t easy—they are perpetually broke, and his struggle with tuberculosis (he contracted it when he was only 16) only intensifies his already erratic behavior. And his infamous love of drink is often merely a way to disguise the TB symptoms in order to avoid becoming a social outcast if word got out he was infected by such a deadly, contagious disease. Ireland poignantly depicts the tragically conflicted Jeanne. On the one hand she is desperately hopeful that the birth of her second child with Modi will finally give her stability (she pines to officially marry him and even fantasizes about her wedding dress), but on the other hand, she realizes that Modi’s health is rapidly declining and that his days are numbered. She also worries about her own fate: “I place my hand on my belly, and watch Modi, who is doubled over, coughing, and gasping for breath, and see my future. I’m happy that little Jeanne isn’t here with us to share this fate. She must not. Above all, she must not.”
Ireland pulls off a difficult literary trick here: She manages to build a suspenseful atmosphere despite the forgone conclusion of this historical tale. One can’t help but sympathize with Jeanne, who surrenders so much of herself for a doomed love. A lively portrait of Modigliani emerges, too—he’s both a rakishly irresponsible artist as well as a bookish intellectual who “often carries a copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy in his pocket.” The author adeptly captures the remarkable artistic spirit of the early 20th century, particularly in Montparnasse, which was the stomping ground of so many notable artists like Picasso, Soutine, Utrillo, Apollinaire, and scores of others. The book includes gorgeous reproductions of not only Modigliani’s artwork, but also that of his contemporaries, including the haunting work (in a style similar to her lover’s) of Hébuterne, a gifted artist whose formidable legacy was entirely lost in Modigliani’s shadow. In fact, this is the central strength of the book: Hébuterne is rescued from being merely a bit player in Modigliani’s life. The author depicts her as a tragic figure (her saturnine end is all but foreordained) but fascinating in her own right—intellectually sharp if sometimes childishly naïve.
A thoughtful, original historical novel sure to thrill any serious art lover.
“A thoughtful, original historical novel sure to thrill any serious art lover.”
the violently colored life
“Members of the autism community have their say in this collection of interviews.”
An assortment of enlightening interviews with people with autism and their families.
“Mortals of various races engage in battle under the direction of deities in this fantasy series opener.” This exceedingly intricate fantasy will delight seasoned genre fans.
“The daughter of pirates reconnects with her past while investigating a diabolical scheme in this historical novel.”
An appealing pirate adventure.
by Chuck Augello
“A frustrated filmmaker tries to help his actor father save a monkey in this comic novel.”
A funny and thoroughly satisfying farce involving cinema and an escaped monkey.
by Colin Alexander
“An American war veteran in the forefront of future space exploration awkwardly turns into a crime investigator when a planetary colony he is replenishing is revealed as a hotbed of intrigue and murder.”
An engaging sequel that crossbreeds established SF characters with a credible extraterrestrial murder mystery.
by Andrew Howell
“Two English brothers, one dead and one alive, face off against a powerful, otherworldly group in this debut graphic novel.”
A vibrant, delightful tale of life, death, and all the amusing stuff that comes after.
“A woman comes to her first love with an unusual proposition in this romantic comedy.”
An unusual and winning read about a little-discussed topic.
by Joann Smith
“A debut collection of short stories explores the lives of ordinary people with a focus on heartache, illness, and bereavement.”
Stirringly emotional storytelling.
“A historical fable of Venetian politics becomes a queer bildungsroman in this debut romance and series launch.”
Absorbing political machinations and sexual tension collide to hook readers.
“A historical novel set in Britain before World War II focuses on a Royal Air Force officer.”
A rousing, detailed RAF thriller that delivers an effective climax.
by Vito DiBarone
“This debut YA novel finds a withdrawn teenage nerd mingling with the in crowd and potential cyberterrorists.”
A memorable cast bolsters this captivating blend of teen drama and techno-thriller.
by M.K. Noble
“A badly tainted entrepreneur lands in an idyllic, virtual reality afterlife run by his company— but hostile takeovers and vengeful avatars threaten his control of this digital heaven.”
A keen and absorbing what-if tale about VR and a digital afterlife.
by William Issel
“In this World War II novel, a cryptic message left on the body of a murder victim in 1942 San Francisco focuses the FBI’s attention on a small group of German sympathizers funded by the Nazi regime.”
An intriguing and enjoyable game of cat and mouse that involves catching a killer.
by D.M. Roberts
“A young college grad deals with new experiences in love and labor in Roberts’ novel.”
A fast-paced and ebullient contemporary romance.
by Lance Lee Illus. by Meilo So
“A young boy meets a mysterious painter with wondrous abilities in Lee’s novel.”
A wonderfully imaginative, playful, and layered tale.
“A novel presents a woman’s strange and surreal journey.”
A riveting and unsettling horror story with a compelling hero.
by Kay DiBianca
“This third installment of a series offers a mystery that resembles a game of Clue and relies strongly on cryptology—and a veritable school of red herrings.”
An engaging crime tale with four appealing sleuths.
by Eyal N. Danon
“A life guide organized around five major stages.”
Genuinely thought-provoking strategies for the various stages of life.
by Vickie Rubin
“A mother describes raising a child with special needs in this debut memoir.”
A frank, perceptive, and insightful remembrance.
“In this debut memoir, a seasoned labor organizer and negotiator details the oppressive discrimination she witnessed and experienced.”
This sharp autobiographical account deftly illuminates prejudice in the American workplace.
“This manual explores Tibetan Buddhist teachings on how to prepare for a peaceful and positive death.”
An accessible and empowering guide to Buddhist philosophy and practices on death and dying.
by M.K. Wiseman
“In Wiseman’s historical mystery, the second in a series, Sherlock Holmes takes a missing person case, only to find himself entangled in a string of murders.”
A satisfying, worthy addition to the Holmes mythos.
“In this debut memoir, two former restaurant employees dish about life in 1970s Paris.”
A vivid, nostalgia-laced evocation of a restaurant-anchored scene.
“Ford offers a time-hopping YA adventure about two teenage girls who form a close friendship, despite living more than three centuries apart.”
A heartwarming fantasy tale that should appeal to young and old readers alike.
“A courier takes on more than she bargained for when she accepts a gig transporting an alien relic through hostile space in Matiasz’s SF novel.”
A brisk, if occasionally uneven, yarn that will still appeal to old and young space-action fans.
“An ambitious prosecutor and a newbie mob attorney face off in this debut legal thriller.”
An engaging Mafia story spiked with some surprises.
by LM Reynolds
“In this third installment of an espionage series, an American intelligence operative, looking into a friend’s suspicious death, ends up enmeshed in a heinous international plot.”
A stellar cast gives this spy thriller gusto and panache.
by Simki Kuznick
“A debut biography focuses on a civil rights activist, lawyer, and Episcopal priest.”
A compelling life story told in an engaging style.
“A Massachusetts college instructor continues to grapple with a complicated academic life and a messy marriage in this novel.”
An immensely satisfying trilogy finale examining marriage, forgiveness, race, youth, and university life.
“A teenage girl in ancient times starts a sacred journey to become the first person ever to tame and ride a horse in Barnes’ debut novel.”
An often enjoyable story of a brave girl’s journey with a well-developed setting and characters.
by Adejoke Lolade Ejiofor
“A memoir that tells the story of parents seeking a cure for their child’s sickle cell disease.”
An often moving account of the realities of having a child with a potentially fatal illness.
by Betta Ferrendelli
“Samantha Church, recovering alcoholic, ace reporter for Colorado’s Grandview Perspective, and amateur sleuth, searches for her late friend’s lost little sister in the sixth installment of the series.”
A tense, high-stakes read with a layered cast.
by Norman Westhoff
“An adventure sequel focuses on a geologist in post–climate change Antarctica.”
An exciting, high-stakes futuristic tale.
“An opossum’s yearnings for fame spark a series of misadventures for his human and animal friends in this middlegrade novel.”
A warm, entertaining tale of friendship that will appeal to readers of all ages.
“In this second installment of a mystery series, a rich socialite is threatened with death aboard the Queen Mary.”
An immensely entertaining, if overlong, shipboard tale starring a striking sleuth who “remembers things.”
“A freshly minted police detective doesn’t believe a man died of natural causes, and his investigation leads all the way to Russia.”
A taut, timely, terrific thriller.
Javani, MJ
Unit 81 Publishing (305 pp.)
$12.99 paper | $4.99 e-book
March 29, 2022
9781733009355
An American operative seeks to stop a coup, even as members of his team are being hunted, in Javani’s third series thriller. Early in this novel, the author introduces three major plotlines in rapid succession. First, a group of anarchists attacks Fort Belvoir in Virginia, killing an Army specialist before grabbing a weapons stash. Next, readers are taken to a Virginia hospital where Janusz Soltani, a member of an underground intelligence team called Unit 81, is visiting a colleague injured in a different attack; he vows to hunt down those responsible, who may be Russian or Iranian operatives. Finally, San Francisco–based billionaire Octavio Souza is shown to be plotting a revolution by staging a protest in Washington; his scheme aims to create chaos in the Oval Office and, eventually, a new U.S. Constitution. Unit 81 is charged with keeping this coup from happening. In the tradition of Robert Ludlum and Vince Flynn, Javani has created a compelling hero in Soltani, and Souza makes for a worthy adversary, as both are intelligent and committed to their respective causes. They eventually come face to face in a tense, violent meeting in a luxury hotel. The various plotlines intertwine in a frequently compelling read, though its complex political machinations and various twists and turns make it a bit arduous at times. Still, all the threads do tie together in the end, even if it does take a little while to get there. The author has created some engaging three-dimensional secondary characters; however, a few, including anarchist killers known as Destruction and Hazard, lack nuance. The writing can be surprising, as when the end comes for one of Javani’s major characters: “ ‘Say hello to Destruction when you see him,’ the lowlife said before plunging the kni—.” That’s how the sentence concludes, midplunge—and there are enough clever moments like that to keep the momentum going, making for a diverting, if sometimes meandering, tale.
An entertaining, if sometimes-slow, spy novel featuring a compelling hero.
The Life of Luis Fred Kennedy: 1908-1982
Kennedy, Fred W. FriesenPress (496 pp.)
$39.99 | $29.99 paper | $5.99 e-book
Nov. 16, 2022
9781039142916
9781039142909 paper
In this biography/memoir, a son shares the life story of his father, focusing on the man’s role as the pioneering leader of the global conglomerate Grace, Kennedy & Co. Ltd., which started in Jamaica in 1922.
In a prologue set in 1976, entitled “Troubled Times,” Luis Fred Kennedy, the author’s father, discusses the just declared state of emergency in Jamaica and how “the company’s future is uncertain.” The account cycles back to trace the Kennedy family’s roots in Jamaica. The author’s great-grandfather William Kennedy was “of mixed heritage, African and Irish, a progeny who became a member of the first-generation, post-Emancipation of free ‘brown’ men born in Jamaica.” In 1922, when W.R. Grace divested its Jamaican subsidiary, William’s son, Fred, founded Grace, Kennedy, a trading company, with a member of the Grace family. Upon Fred’s unexpected death in 1930, his firstborn son, Luis Fred Kennedy, then 21 years old, stepped up to assume management roles in the company. The bulk of the volume is taken up with Luis’ 50-plus years at the company, guiding its growth and dealing with the rise of trade unions; Jamaica’s transition from a colony to an independent nation; and the country’s political turmoil, including the period highlighted in the prologue. Author Kennedy praises his father for his “genuine desire to build wealth for the common good.” This richly detailed book, which is illustrated with family and corporate photographs and other archival materials, is a tribute that may be of most interest to the Kennedy family and business historians. The author lauds Grace, Kennedy, now “a multinational corporation with shareholder equity valued at over J$65 billion,” for having “withstood the test of time—one hundred years of integrity and prosperity.” But he also provides insightful commentary on the various socio-economic issues that arose during the era covered and makes a compelling case for the “social conscience” capitalism that his father (who instituted various worker benefit programs) practiced.
This deep-dive celebration of an enterprising executive and company delivers engrossing nuggets of history.
Korshak, Yvonne
Caryatid Imprint (500 pp.)
$20.99 | $2.99 e-book | Oct. 4, 2022
9781959182221
9781959182214 paper
9781959182238 e-book
The love story of Pericles and his mistress Aspasia serves as a focal point for this historical novel set during the golden age of Greece.
Aspasia, in her late teens, escapes from a Phoenician ship, swimming toward shore. She and her philosopher father were seized by pirates heading for Athens. Her father is dead, thrown overboard, and the ship’s captain had been “instructing her in the pleasures of men” in order to sell her to the highest bidder. Thanks to her escape, Aspasia carves out a survival path in Athens by becoming a courtesan. She meets Pericles, the renowned Athenian statesman, while attending a gathering of prominent men. Pericles becomes attracted to Aspasia upon hearing that she reads and has intelligent opinions. Soon, he is her lover and supporter, eventually divorcing his wife and installing Aspasia in his home. As Pericles oversees the building of the Parthenon complex for the goddess Athena, conducts various wars and colonizing campaigns, and fends off attacks from political critics, the couple’s connection endures. Still, their child cannot become an Athenian citizen since Aspasia is a foreigner. This novel is an entertaining tale about this celebrated couple, offering information about the real Aspasia that is generally unknown. The duo has provided fodder for historical novels before, including Taylor Caldwell’s Glory and the Lightning (1974). Korshak’s book manages to convey a remarkable number of details about ancient Greek politics, philosophy, drama, and architecture while showcasing the domestic dialogues and tensions of this pair. Although these specifics can be overwhelming at times, with the focus naturally tilting toward the more famous Pericles, the story provides an entertaining way to become educated about many aspects of ancient Greek culture and society. Perhaps most striking is how Pericles deals with the various challenges from his rivals and the populace in striving for democracy.
An insightful depiction of a passionate relationship and a dynamic statesman.
Latt, Jonathan
The Chapel Perilous (360 pp.)
$16.95 paper | $4.99 e-book | Dec. 6, 2022
9798986331508
Latt’s YA SF novel chronicles the misadventures of a teenager who discovers— and claims—an abandoned space station in a remote corner of explored space.
In the far future, human Bevil Cyrex comes from a long line of Star Folk—families of space explorers who chose not to settle on planets and, for generations, have lived peacefully on massive ships as sovereign nations. While out on a mining mission by himself, Cyrex attempts to steal supplies from an unmanned Earth Alliance outpost. This bad decision is compounded when a pirate destroys his ship and tries to kill him. Cyrex barely escapes with his life, but after taking the pirate’s craft, he realizes it’s preprogrammed with a deadly security feature: Without a code, the vessel will travel into deep space until its power runs out—and the interloper is dead. Cyrex’s life is spared, however, when the ship dies near an ancient space station. Once inside the massive structure, he realizes the entire place is in immaculate condition. When he meets a sentient nanite swarm that’s been the station’s caretaker for centuries—and that takes the form of his grandmother Nan— his view of the universe, and its inhabitants, is irrevocably changed. One of this novel’s greatest strengths is its strong and steady narrative focus. Latt’s writing is purposeful, the pacing relentless, and the action virtually nonstop; it all has the glorious sense of wonder associated with golden-age SF. Cyrex is insightfully portrayed as a young man trying to find his place in the universe, and the supporting characters are all brilliantly developed—particularly Nan, an artificial intelligence that’s learning, sometimes quite humorously, what it means to be human. Bombshell plot twists abound as Cyrex and company struggle to open the space station and stay alive as pirates and Alliance military eye the structure as a potential base.
An entertaining and promising beginning for a neo-retro spacefaring adventure series.
Black Rose Writing (272 pp.)
$21.95 paper | $5.99 e-book
March 2, 2023
9781685131494
In Lycette’s speculative novel set in the year 2035, medical diagnoses are made not by medical professionals but by an artificial-intelligence algorithm— and one doctor has serious questions about it.
“An entertaining and promising beginning for a neo-retro spacefaring adventure series.”
starlite
Dr. Hope Kestrel is the “High Resident” at the Seattlebased hospital Prognostic Intelligent Medical Algorithms and the front-runner for a post-residency position. PRIMA is on the verge of a merger with Seattle Healthcare Associates, and its diagnostic technology is seemingly without error. But when a patient (called a Patron under the new system) is erroneously admitted onto her service, Hope begins an investigation that leads her and her new intern, Jacie Stone, into a web of lies and corporate greed. It appears that PRIMA only admits Patrons that they’re certain will survive, while others are sent to a hospice-style facility. As Hope begins to question the algorithm, she’s penalized in the resident-ranking system and soon placed on leave. With Jacie’s help, they access the internal data to discover a dark secret in the algorithm creation. Over the course of this brisk novel, Lycette creates a very near future that readers will find to be fleshed out and tangible in its portrait of a near-future American health care system. The medical side of the story feels authentic throughout. However, there are times when the novel veers into too many topical issues, none of which are ever fully resolved. There are understandable mentions of the Covid-19 pandemic (called the “catalyst which led to the end of the previous broken system—health insurance tied to employment”), medical racial bias, sexism, and reproductive freedom, but these aspects don’t further the main story in significant ways and sometimes even distract from it. The overall emotional framework of the novel, in which Hope and Jacie are driven by their families’ experiences with cancer, may feel familiar, but it does make the main players more relatable. A futuristic medical thriller with keen medical details and fast pacing.
Martin, Eric D.
Mentoris Project (332 pp.)
$16.99 paper | $9.99 e-book | Oct. 26, 2022 9781947431478
A historical novel dramatizes the life of a famous 18th-century mathematician. While growing up in Milan, Maria Gaetana Agnesi shows signs of prodigious intellectual talent at a remarkably early age—by the time she is 5, she is fluent in three languages and demonstrates an extraordinary aptitude for mathematics. Maria’s brilliance becomes a matter of intense public interest, especially since her father, Pietro, pushes her to become a renowned symbol of female intellectual achievement. But at the height of her fame— she even entertains Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI—she becomes physically depleted and finally severely ill, worn out from a relentless schedule of study and public appearances. In addition, she suffers from a dearth of purpose—friendless and unmarried, she finds that her intellectual accomplishments do not help her understand her feelings of sadness. Martin meticulously documents not only Maria’s genius as a mathematician,
but also her struggle to find meaning in her life beneath her ceaseless labors. In 1748, she finally publishes a mathematical treatise, Analytical Institutions for the Use of Italian Youth, that is so impressive it earns her a professorship in mathematics and physics at the University of Bologna; she becomes only the second woman ever to be awarded such a position. The author focuses on the first half of Maria’s life—her years as a child prodigy and her maturation into a celebrated mathematician— and devotes comparatively little attention to her later interest in theological speculations and charitable work. But he insightfully renders the tension between intellectual success and moral purpose that plagues Maria. Furthermore, he casts a clarifying light on the challenges even a woman of Maria’s virtuosic abilities and wealth faces in the 18th century. This is an engrossing portrayal of a major mathematician and the prohibitions of the time over which she triumphs.
An impressively well-researched tale of an important but unjustly neglected intellectual figure.
Martin, G. Edward Fulton Books (260 pp.)
$19.95 paper | $9.99 e-book | June 1, 2022 9781639851867
This collection of short stories depicts characters wrestling with inner demons and usually coming to spiritual breakthroughs and redemptions.
Martin presents 13 tales accompanied by his line-art drawings. The stories sometimes wander into SF and fantasy (or at least allegory) territory. Some bid to be novella length, although none are excessively wordy. One, “The Return Flight,” focuses on the log kept by the captain of the Demeter, a spacecraft on a yearslong flight carrying an international team of astronauts out of the solar system and back. But an accident halts communication with Earth. On a return trajectory with no margin for error, the vessel is followed by a silent UFO, doubtless a curious alien ship or probe. After speculation and contradictory crew advice, the captain must judge the entity’s intent and whether to lure the stranger away (dooming the Demeter) or lead it to Earth. The tale posits an insoluble SF dilemma (like Tom Godwin’s short story “The Cold Equations”), and some readers will appreciate “The Lady, or the Tiger”–esque open ending. Trust in God (sans evangelical proselytizing) recurs throughout, as in the opener, “The False Treeing Hound,” in which the narrator, driving across the United States after a bad breakup, suffers a car mishap. A rancher’s kindness starts a chain of events that the traveler can only credit to a benevolent force governing the universe rather than random chaos. Some stories are even more introspective and essaylike, such as “The Man Who Held Court,” in which the self-doubting, self-destructive narrator tries church, pop psychology, physical fitness, sex, and intoxicants before a creative solution resolves the conflicted voices in his head. The
Covid-19–inspired “The Values of a Dying Man” is just that, the mindset adopted by a pandemic victim to say farewell minus regret, pain, or fear. On the lighter side, “The Nobody Who Fought a Dragon” is a fable about a misfit in a small-minded kingdom who must battle a dragon with “large yellow teeth which were as big as knives.” The familiar material is rendered enjoyable by a comical, James Thurber–esque voice. Overall, the volume delivers healthy attitudes and moral choices in a flawed world. In an afterword, the author describes meditation exercises and mystic coincidences that helped inspire the collection. A set of engaging, succinct morality tales centered on inner change rather than the superficial.
(256 pp.)
$16.95 paper | $7.99 e-book | Sept. 23, 2022 9781736823033
This memoir follows a television executive and writer in his mid-60s as he attempts a long and difficult trek despite a significant history of heart issues.
On June 2, 2012, Mater set out to run across the Grand Canyon, beginning at South Kaibab Trailhead, through to Phantom Ranch, and back up via the Bright Angel Trail. His goal: to make it from rim to rim in six hours. Rendered in three parts, “The Descent,” “Down by the River,” and “The Ascent,” this firsthand account presents striking descriptive and sensory details of the canyon (“The North Rim, pine tree-crowned and distant, faced me across the multi-hued chasm, the Colorado River invisible somewhere far below”) as well as unique historical stories and geological features that connect to aspects of Mater’s life. Early on, readers become familiar with Mater’s history of heart difficulties and procedures, including an occluded left anterior descending artery, angioplasties, and multiple stents. This is paired with accounts of casualities in the canyon over time, from Over the Edge: Death in the Grand Canyon (2001) by Thomas M. Myers and Michael Patrick Ghiglieri and from commemorative signs that the author encountered on the trail. Mater’s story holds the reader’s attention throughout by building suspense, as it offers numerous reasons why he should not have run the canyon, even as he’s determined to do so. The blend of past and present moments in Mater’s life has a clear structure, citing his hardest times first, followed by his struggles to make it to the top, and, finally, an epiphany about life, competition, and his choice to embark upon such a journey. There are times when the author’s fondness for historical details detracts from the overall story and when transitions between the main storyline and interspersed anecdotes feel choppy. However, this book successfully blends themes of intrapersonal change.
An inspirational, well-structured account of aging, goal attainment, and personal transformation.
McGlothlin, Alex
Bituminous Books (138 pp.)
$0.99 e-book | March 1, 2023
In this novella, a journalist’s story on a famous, elusive surfer becomes a journey of self-discovery.
Michael Winston is understandably worried he’ll no longer be a staff writer for a New York City magazine when his boss and mentor exits. Luckily, the search for a replacement editor has the publication’s new owners torn between Michael and veteran sports journalist Sam Buell. The owners make it a contest—whoever writes the most “epic” story wins the job. Michael flies to Costa Rica to interview professional surfer Louis Giroux. He’s a two-time world champion who hasn’t competed in three years; he hasn’t even shown his face outside of endorsements in ads. Michael has a series of questions to fling at Louis, who’s laid-back but initially evasive. But the two find common ground, and it’s not long before Michael basks in the sun on the sandy beaches and tries his hand at surfing. Ultimately, the journalist must decide if the editor gig is what he truly wants or if his future lies elsewhere. McGlothlin shines a bright light on equally appealing Michael and Louis. Michael wonders if he’s got a shot against Sam, who’s shadowing Tiger Woods at the Masters, and readers eventually learn why Louis transformed from a celebrity into a recluse. While most of the enjoyable narrative is as easygoing as Louis, his manager, Nick Cecil, who’s in Costa Rica, is a villain of sorts. Nick tries to dictate how Michael conducts his interview, and his negativity clashes with the otherwise good vibes. But Nick can’t overwhelm the serenity of the beach scenes and the surfers catching waves. At one point, Michael muses: “Far below the porch was a completely uninhabited beach and a picture-perfect surf break. It was the same gentle sound of lapping waves that last night had dipped me into a deep sleep.” The novella’s closing, though predictable, beautifully suits its prevailing mood.
A breezy, engaging tale with a bright, tropical terrain and intriguing insights.
Moyer, Ginny Kubitz
She Writes Press (376 pp.)
$17.95 paper | $9.95 e-book | May 9, 2023 9781647424268
Moyer’s debut historical novel details one woman’s journey to find herself and the love she discovers along the way.
The year is 1910, and 19-year-old Catherine Ogden lives in luxury with her wealthy aunt and uncle in New York City. However, she still harbors deep sadness over her father’s death 11 years before as well as her mother’s disappearance
“A breezy, engaging tale with a bright, tropical terrain and intriguing insights.”
the renunciation
shortly thereafter. Dashing William Brandt, the 30-year-old heir of a California railroad magnate, has recently arrived in town, and Manhattan’s high society is in a tizzy as a result— and before long, Catherine catches his eye. As William courts her, she also befriends her family’s head gardener, a young man named Thomas O’Shea. Catherine and Thomas quickly bond over their mutual love of beautiful flora, and their friendship deepens. Then Catherine and William become engaged despite her honest declaration to her fiance: “I don’t love you. Yet.” As the days leading up to the wedding fly by, Catherine’s tenuous grasp on her future—and her desires—begins to slip. She begins an arduous journey to track down her mother, who may be the one person who could help her make sense of her feelings. The conflict that Catherine feels between doing her duty and doing what her heart wants burns brightly at the center of this novel, which also tackles relevant issues regarding gender roles and consent. The prose and dialogue flow naturally, with the author spinning phrases that beautifully capture the passion of youth and love: “They had become something electric, friendship turned into fire.” Catherine’s predicament and decisions manage to consistently avoid cliché, which keeps the work from becoming predictable. This ultimately results in a moving story with strong female characters and twists that will satisfy readers who enjoy well-researched history alongside their romantic narratives.
An often enchanting novel that offers a fresh take on a love triangle.
Nykoluk, Christine FriesenPress (313 pp.)
9781039148826
9781039148819 paper
A historically rich debut novel about early-20th-century Ukrainian immigration to Canada, inspired by the ordeals endured by Nykoluk’s grandparents.
In 1914, the area that would later be known as Ukraine is controlled by Russia in the East and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the West. Myk and Lilia Jankiv, the parents of a 3-yearold son and a newborn daughter, live in Melnytsya Podilska, Galicia, close to the Russian border. Myk wants to immigrate to Canada, as a railroad company there has been recruiting men with promises of jobs and cheap land. With the help of a small bribe, Myk is able to acquire a seat on a train to Lviv, beginning his long journey through Europe before boarding a steamship to Canada. His expectation is that as soon as he earns enough money, he’ll have Lilia and their children join him. Back home, Lilia struggles to manage their small farm and care for the kids. After World War I breaks out, the Russians invade the western sector, pillaging, raping, and murdering. The Austrian army evacuates the village residents to a refugee camp in Austria, where Lilia and the children will remain until 1920. Nykoluk
has Lilia and Myk alternatingly narrate their own stories, which has the effect of bringing readers up close to their day-to-day struggles to survive, both during and after the war. The number of minor vignettes becomes overwhelming at times. However, Nykoluk writes in graphic detail of the harshness and danger of Myk’s work for the railroad, as when a minor character is seriously injured on the job (“He was screaming, his trousers barely hiding the odd shape of his lower right leg”), and shows how difficulties were compounded by Canadian suspicion of the immigrant population. The novel also details the poverty and hunger in the refugee camps and the ever present loneliness of two fully drawn main characters. Along the way, the author skillfully weaves in vivid elements of Ukrainian customs and history.
A poignant work with disturbing relevance to today’s battle for Ukrainian democracy.
Pietrack, Michael Illus. by Catrina Odom
Bard Owl Books (244 pp.)
$29.99 | $19.99 paper | $2.99 e-book
Dec. 31, 2022
9798987099629
9781039148819 paper
A courageous bee confronts birds, bats, and other monsters in order to save the life of the queen in this beguiling poem for kids.
Pietrack’s verse fable follows the adventures of Abelbee, a denizen of the Primdale Hive, whose anomalous four wings get him teased by other young bees but also make him the fastest insect in the land. When Queen Cimberlee comes down with a mysterious heart ailment, he’s the obvious choice to make an epic journey—confirmed by his victory in a hivewide qualifying race—to get a cure from the apian sage Vallenbee, who lives far off in The Great Wood. Abelbee is eager for the glory of saving queen and hive, but when his father and others apprise him of the dangers along the way, his ardor cools. (“Wa-Wait… go through a cave? What do you mean? / Is there no other way to save the Queen? / For you describe a dingy habitat / that likely teems with vicious vile bats!”) He girds himself nonetheless, plunges into the forest, and runs a gantlet of perils: He’s chased by a green bellbird, buffeted by blustery winds, dunked in a pond, and targeted by a frog’s tongue and a trout’s mouth. There are insidious psychological threats as well, including a cynical, conceited owl who tries to convince Abelbee to give up his quest as a fool’s errand. And there are unexpected allies, like a hideous but kindhearted bat and a squirrel who shelters Abelbee from a rainstorm. Abelbee finally reaches Vallenbee’s abode—but can he get back to the hive with the cure in time to save it from invasion by red wasps?
Pitched at an elementary-grades audience, Pietrack’s fable inserts nuggets of moral edification—face your fears, take responsibility for your actions, don’t judge a book by its cover—into a narrative that combines energetic whimsy with a
oscar the osprey and his daunting decision
classic hero’s journey. (Odom’s colorful illustrations make for a stimulating visual accompaniment.) The story unfolds in stanzas of rhyming couplets composed in a steady iambic pentameter that’s well suited for reading aloud; the poetry is elegantly phrased and paced, with a bit of a Shakesperean feel. (“Be noble, comrade. Ry, you lived your creed / and you upheld the code in times of need. / For years-of-years, we’ll speak about your part. / Not even death can stop a noble heart.”) In Pietrack’s hands, this supple verse applies itself well to many registers, including earthy comic aphorisms. (“There is a motto squirrels often say: / ‘It’s only the squished squirrel who goes halfway.’ / … So, listen here, ‘cuz this applies to you: / the things ya start, ya gotta see’em through.”) There is also hair-raising action. (“The spider seeped her hot and wretched breath; / her rancid odor reeked decay and death. / ...Again, he strained and struggled uselessly / because her legs had pinned him ruthlessly. / Her daggers, venom-drenched and salivating, / now dripped for blood she was anticipating.”) And there are moments of quiet, melancholy wisdom: “The days pass slowly but the years blow by / as if they’re clouds that seem still in the sky. / Upon the glance, they’re frozen, locked in place, / but they’re unstoppable in endless pace.” The result is an entertaining yarn that will captivate kids while sneaking in a life lesson or two.
An imaginative romp with a rich philosophical payoff.
Polansky, Edward Martin
Illus. by Jean
Rosow AuthorHouse (50 pp.)$14.99 paper | $3.99 e-book | June 15, 2022 9781665560818
In this fourth installment of Polansky’s illustrated children’s series, a bird takes risks to help others and find personal growth.
Oscar is a young osprey with two siblings, Otto and Oprah. One day, thanks to plenty of practice, he’s able to fly higher than ever. With his fear of heights defeated, Oscar can now see and do things he’s never done before. He’s surprised, though, to see the blue skies turn smoky and dark; it turns out to be a forest fire. When he spots a confused herd of bison heading toward dangerous flames, Oscar swoops down and warns them. Later, Oscar tells his brother about the blaze, and Otto, who “loves an audience,” spreads word of his sibling’s heroism throughout the flock. When the osprey Elders convene, the Grand Old Osprey, aka Goo, explains to Oscar that he has the potential to become an Elder himself: “One must first be tested by the natural forces of fire, wind, water, ice, and earth,” Goo says. Since Oscar has already survived encounters with four of these elements in the past, earth represents his remaining challenge. Goo suggests that he think about it and keep their conversation a secret. Oscar next seeks advice from the Wise Old Owl, who tells him to gain knowledge from other animals but that “knowledge alone is not enough; experience is what builds wisdom.”
In Polansky’s charming tale, readers will be entertained while learning important values, such as patience. Rosow’s black-andwhite pen-and-ink illustrations, depicting such phenomena as flames and geysers, are beautifully textured and likely to pique kids’ curiosity about the natural world. Later, when events don’t turn out as planned, the owl wisely tells Oscar, “As you have compassion for others, you should also have compassion for yourself.” Although the adventure is short, it features other interlinked messages; the final one is “Learn to be grateful for what you have.” A “Gloscary (Oscar’s Glossary)” at the end helps track the many challenging vocabulary words throughout, including apprehension and embellishments.
A smart, lovingly crafted middle-grade adventure that will speak to young readers.
Putnam, Ann
She Writes Press (336 pp.)
$17.95 paper | $9.95 e-book | May 9, 2023 9781647424244
In this new novel, a woman’s everyday life crackles with anxiety as an arsonist terrorizes her neighborhood.
For Zoë Penney, potential misfortune is always crowding at the periphery of daily experience. Someone has been prowling her Northwest town and setting fires all fall, and every snapping twig seems to signal the threat of new conflagration: “There was a humming in the air if you listened for it,” she ruminates, “a pressure behind the eyes you couldn’t rub away— a barely suspended sense of danger.” The novel initially appears to bear the hallmarks of a thriller—lurking shadows, a mysterious new neighbor, an ominous recurring nightmare—but before long, it becomes clear that there will be no climactic reveal of a vicious villain, no final-hour plot twists. The villain in this story is effectively nothing other than mortality itself, and its methods are mundane: illness, old age, accidents. Still, the events of the story are no less affecting for being familiar. As Zoë’s husband, Jay Penney, navigates treatments for testicular cancer and family pets face a litany of ailments, dread and grief saturate the atmosphere of their cozy house, and attention to external threats gradually fades in favor of more intimate concerns. It is the turn of the millennium, and although the computers have survived the threat of Y2K, Zoë’s peace of mind has not: “The year had safely turned and the only apocalypse now was this one.” At times, it can feel as if various story elements—including a terminally ill loved one and a dying dog—have been algorithmically designed to tug at readers’ heartstrings. However, Zoë’s interiority is rendered with earnest care. As her anxious vigilance begins to loosen into something like acceptance of the unknown, readers are treated to a poignant story of tenuous growth amid catastrophes.
An often moving story of uncertainty and loss.
“A smart, lovingly crafted middle-grade adventure that will speak to young readers.”
pp.)
$15.99 paper | $5.99 e-book | Jan. 26, 2023 9781954007437
In this sequel to Josh and Gemma Make a Baby (2022), Ready continues his story of a couple as they face major changes in their lives.
The author begins this novel where the last one left off, with her two main characters, Gemma Jacobs and Josh Lewenthal, poised on the brink of a perfect life. Gemma has a career in social media marketing, Josh is an author, and the two are deliriously in love with a baby on the way; they’re about to be married in a ceremony with Gemma’s extended, loving family in attendance. They’ve put the shocking events of the previous novel behind them, which involved an encounter with Ian Fortune—a former “self-help guru” who’s now known as an “employee-abusing conniver who misled millions.” Gemma was directly involved in Fortune’s downfall, but she’s contentedly refusing all phone calls from the press about it. However, the couple’s pregnancy coach tells them that “everything is about to change,” and soon afterward, Gemma is at the altar when disaster strikes: She collapses, and when she awakens, she learns several things in quick succession: She’s given birth to her baby, Josh is not around, and Ian Fortune is back in her life. Most notably, she finds out that several months have passed while she was in a coma. Her picture-perfect future is now in tatters, and as the novel picks up steam, Gemma not only wonders if she can put it all together again, but also whether she really wants to do so.
The underlying concept of Ready’s novel is intriguingly unconventional. Most contemporary romances take their adorable couples through a series of minor tribulations before smoothing things out and leaving the characters ready to live happily-ever-after. Indeed, these are hallmarks of the genre. But in this sequel—which stands well enough on its own—the happily-ever-after moment is merely the starting point, after which Ready piles on one complication after another to darken the picture that she painted in the first book. Gemma’s world is suddenly in turmoil—not only because her own health has drastically altered for the worse, but also because Josh is nowhere to be found. Ready makes the winning decision to lighten up the narrative with quipping humor. As in the previous book, she uses Ian Fortune as the vehicle for the most amusing material, and he almost completely steals the book. When Gemma tells him that she hates him, for instance, he quips, “Please. Try to be original. The whole world hates me. Wouldn’t it be more fun to love me? Don’t be a follower, Gemma.” For a thrillingly long section of the book’s third act, Ready effectively leads readers to wonder if she isn’t going to upend every single one of the genre’s expectations. It’s a testament to her exceptional writing skill that even the most romantic-minded readers won’t be sure which outcome they prefer.
A charming and disarmingly tough story of the many ways that love can adapt to crises.
Reese, Cara
Bea and Jo Press (58 pp.)
$19.99 | Nov. 28, 2022
9781088057285
Debut author/illustrator Reese’s alphabet picture book highlights Black artists, including painters, singers, musicians, photographers, dancers, and writers.
This beautiful abecedarian features 26 profoundly accomplished creatives, and although the book is specifically crafted for children, adults won’t want to miss out on it. Using the first or last names of subjects to represent each letter, Reese captures her notable subjects with brief, informative biographical notes as well as dynamic free-form poetry. The letter F represents Ella Fitzgerald: “Scatting bouncy song-bird notes / Full of light with hop-scotch perfection.” L is for modernist painter and muralist Jacob Lawrence: “Narrating African American migration, / Through a sharp and jagged history.” Vocalist, musician, and civil rights activist Nina Simone (N) is described in the text as an “African goddess of ocean-blue songs / A roaring voice of change and revolution.” Reese cleverly solves the X dilemma with “X is for 2 times the talent,” referring to the Nicholas Brothers, a famed tap-dancing duo. The book’s vivid illustrations mix abstract art, cartoons, line drawings, and other representational styles with images of objects and designs (books, a paint palette, pencils, and so on) that reflect the practices and spirits of those profiled.
A dynamic celebration with all-ages appeal.
Richardson, Lesley Ann
Amsterdam Publishers (384 pp.)
$26.95 | $19.35 paper | $4.99 e-book
April 28, 2022
9789493276123
9789493276109 paper
A man survives the Holocaust with only his art to sustain him in this biography.
Richardson tells the story of Sam Herciger, a Polish Jew born in 1917 who became an artist and gallery owner in Israel before his death in 1981, and his passage through history’s worst horrors. After an idyllic small-town boyhood and apprenticeship as a furrier, he got caught up in the antisemitism and tyranny sweeping Europe in the 1930s. A socialist at the age of 17, he crossed the border into the Soviet Union hoping to get free training in art from the workers’ state only to be arrested as a spy, beaten, and sent back to Poland. There, he was promptly
arrested as a Soviet spy and tortured with electric shocks. He then traveled through Nazi Germany, dodging a German border guard’s bullets, and lived in Belgium for years, studying at an art academy, plying the furrier’s trade, and marrying. His luck ran out in 1944 during World War II when he and his wife, Hennie, were caught by the Gestapo. They were sent to Auschwitz, where Herciger was separated from Hennie and never saw her again. He plunged into a hell of backbreaking labor, starvation rations, beatings, and the threat of random killings by SS guards. He was death-marched to an Austrian slave-labor camp and got more of the same until the war’s end. Adrift—his family had been killed by the Germans—he slowly emerged from despair through painting and sculpture, which brought him growing acclaim and another chance at love. Richardson bases this searing biography on Herciger’s notes and includes informative chapters on the historical background along with reproductions of the artist’s paintings, which feature haunting, blackand-white renderings of skeletal prisoners. Her novelistic prose starkly conveys the surreal cruelty Herciger endured—“The heavy club was landing on different parts of his body, with all the force of the pig-man behind it….While he was enduring this punishment, the officer was eating chocolate”—but also finds a heartbreaking lyricism in the darkness, as at his parting with Hennie. (“Her blonde hair and pale face stood out luminously in the bleak light…as the distance between them increased.”) The result is a nightmarish yet ultimately hopeful portrait of spiritual survival in the most terrifying circumstances.
A gripping, harrowing account of suffering and hardwon humanity.
Rostirolla, Sandra L.
Pinkus Books (298 pp.)
$28.00 | $15.95 paper | $9.99 e-book
April 4, 2023
9780999189177
9780999189184 paper
A tween comes to grips with the darkness in himself and others.
In this harsh but heartfelt middlegrade novel, it seems as if nothing can go right for 12-year-old Sam Nolen and his family. Their rural Australian sheep farm is suffering after six years of drought; money is tight; and Sam’s older brother Ben’s moodiness has progressed to outright anger. Later, there is news of a neighbor’s suicide; Sam loses his arm helping out on another farm; his father hijacks a water truck; and Ben dies under confusing circumstances. As Sam struggles to make sense of the problems in his family and community, adjust to the loss of a limb, and understand his own emotions, he decides that people have a “Monster” within them, shaping their behavior for good and ill. He sets out to understand the rules concerning these Monsters, including “Most people don’t know they exist.” Despite its Grapes of Wrath–esque grimness—the story includes a variety of tragedies, intentional and
unintentional deaths, and maimings; and if things can get worse for Sam’s family, they nearly always will—the book is utterly engaging and rewarding. It is suitably funny at times, with Sam’s perfect blend of earnestness and cynicism bringing the narrative voice to life. There is an element of mystery, as Sam uncovers what happened to Ben, that fits seamlessly into the coming-of-age plot. The ending is redemptive, and Sam draws conclusions about human behavior from his study of Monsters, but it never feels forced, moralizing, or inauthentic. A strong cast of secondary characters—especially Cliff, a biker gang leader who becomes Sam’s mentor in amputee life—adds to the book’s layers. Readers who are unfamiliar with Australian life will have little trouble making sense of the story’s regionalisms, and a wealth of details, like the hierarchy of uses and reuses for the limited supply of water, makes the setting feel both desperate and real. Rostirolla balances evoking readers’ sympathies with avoiding maudlin emotions, successfully turning a novel about stark and painful topics into an enjoyable read.
A rich, compelling tale that deftly explores bleak themes for young readers.
Salzman, Andrea & Lucy Salzman
Illus. by Amber West Colby Books (34 pp.)
$18.99 | $12.99 paper | $1.99 e-book
Aug. 29, 2022
9798985828511
9798985828504 paper
The Salzmans’ debut picture book introduces kids— whether home-schooled or taught in the classroom—to the wonders of a STEM education.
The central character here, 8-year-old Nina, takes the reader through her daily regimen of home-school adventures. Each day, she participates in a new activity—studying nature on Monday or listening to classical music and painting on Thursday. Along with each new activity, interesting facts are dispensed alongside suggestions for reader participation. For example, Newton’s third law of motion encourages readers to throw a pillow up in the air to observe the effects of gravity, or one can burrow like a firefly under blankets to learn about hibernation. Whether she’s meeting up with fellow home-school classmates or taking a field trip to an amusement park, Nina’s excitement about learning is undeniably contagious. The bright, colorful illustrations (by 15-year-old West) help kids visualize often difficult concepts like states of matter and different forms of energy like potential and kinetic, while the text’s rhyme scheme (“On weekends, Nina camps in bed. No school today, a fort instead”) keeps the action moving. Also, the fonts of certain words are often cleverly designed to complement the word’s meaning (for example, the word erupts appears to have lava spurting out of it). As the authors suggest, this book should initially be read from beginning to end quickly in order to appreciate
the rhythmic flow of the words. There are even experiments that demonstrate things like heat flow and light observation and a model weekly STEM plan so readers can set goals just like Nina.
This is a fun and easy-to-follow children’s guide to STEM with a precocious but likable central character.
Savage, G.M. Vanguard Press (254 pp.)
$13.99 paper | $0.99 e-book | Aug. 25, 2022
9781800162549
Savage’s middle-grade adventure follows three boys in their quest to find treasure while fighting for their lives and personhood along the way.
Thirteen-year-old Jack Mathias is a true prankster. He plays jokes and gets into so much mischief that he fails his classes and is slated to attend summer school. But when he and his sidekick, Gene, find a treasure map dating back to Colonial America, they must plot their adventure while avoiding parental intervention, which means that they have to include Gene’s friend Edgar Crumm, a “quiet and weird” kid whom Jack dislikes. The three enter
This Issue’s Contributors #
ADULT
Colleen Abel • Mark Athitakis • Colette Bancroft • Robert Beauregard • Sarah Blackman • Amy Boaz
Jeffrey Burke • Miranda Cooper • Emma Corngold • Sara Davis • Coeur de Lion • Dave
DeChristopher • Amanda Diehl • Melanie Dragger • Lisa Elliott • Kristen Evans • Katie Flanagan
Mia Franz • Harvey Freedenberg • Roberto Friedman • Glenn Gamboa • Geoff Hamilton • Natalia
Holtzman • Kim Hubbard • Jessica Jernigan • Jayashree Kamblé • Damini Kulkarni • Carly Lane
Tom Lavoie • Judith Leitch • Elsbeth Lindner • Michael Magras • Don McLeese • Gregory McNamee
Carol Memmott • Carrigan Miller • Clayton Moore • Molly Muldoon • Liza Nelson • Therese Purcell
Nielsen • Sarah Norris • Mike Oppenheim • Derek Parker • Elizabeth Paulson • Jim Piechota
William E. Pike • Amy Reiter • Lloyd Sachs • Bob Sanchez • Leah Silvieus • Linda Simon • Zhanna Slor
Wendy Smith • Leena Soman • Margot E. Spangenberg • Mathangi Subramanian • Brandon Tensley
David L. Ulin • Kerry Winfrey • Marion Winik
Nada Abdelrahim • Jenny Arch • Elizabeth Bird
the woods, intent upon finding treasure, but as they venture forth, they encounter Lito, a man who lives off the land; treacherous bridges and rapids; and Johnny and Bruno, two criminals who trap the boys in a cave and abscond with their map. Drawing upon their resources, the boys escape and seek out the help they need to find the treasure and to survive. Savage’s middle-grade adventure is not only a humorous story with fart jokes, characters with colossal egos, and poorly executed planning and problem-solving; it’s also the story of three boys with different personalities and strengths who must fight to find some semblance of selfhood as they work together to reach a common goal. The author avoids didacticism as he expertly weaves middle school angst and comedy with a tale of indirect mentorship, resulting in a fun, engaging, and thought-provoking read. Although there are times when events seem improbable or extraneous, it’s a story that will allow young readers to grasp valuable lessons while enjoying an escapist journey.
A fine outdoor adventure that skillfully balances humor and realism.
Schrijver, Karel
Self (256 pp.)
$6.99 paper | $0.99 e-book | Dec. 6, 2022 9798364492753
An astrophysicist with a surprising new ability fights against a group that threatens to bring down society in Schrijver’s debut thriller.
• Elizabeth Wood
• Christopher A. Biss-Brown • Kimberly Brubaker
Bradley • Nastassian Brandon • Jessica Brown • Abby Bussen • Timothy Capehart
Amanda Chuong • Tamar Cimenian • Jeannie Coutant
DeGuiseppi • Jenna Friebel
• Omar Gallaga
Melinda Greenblatt • Ana Grilo
Isaacs • Darlene Ivy
• Dave DeChristopher
• Reina Luz Alegre
• Tobi Haberstroh
• Wesley Jacques
Dowd Lambert • Hanna Lee
• Ann Childs
• Erin Deedy • Elise
• Laurel Gardner
• Zoe Holland
• Danielle Jones
• Sharon Levin
Isabella Luongo • Thomas Maluck
Zoe McLaughlin
• Kathie Meizner
Lisa Moore • Katrina Nye
• Carol Goldman
• Kathleen T.
• Ariana Hussain
• Betsy Judkins
• Patricia Lothrop
• Michelle H Martin
• Deborah Kaplan
• Megan
• Wendy Lukehart • Kyle Lukoff
• Gabriela Martins
• Mary Margaret Mercado
• Sarah Parker-Lee
Justin Pham • Deesha Philyaw
Jonathan Rodriguez
• Susan Pine
• Hadeal Salamah
Mathangi Subramanian
Christina Vortia
Paul Allen
Cassady
Hickey
Quinn
• Hal Patnott
• Jeanne McDermott
• J. Elizabeth Mills
• Deb Paulson
• Kristy Raffensberger
• Meredith Schorr
• Jennifer Sweeney
• Cristina Mitra
• John Edward Peters
• Alyssa Rivera
• Karyn N. Silverman
• Deborah D. Taylor
• Leslie Stall Widener
• Kent Armstrong
• Emma Cohen
• Roy Jackson
• Angela Wiley
INDIE
• Emma Benavides
• Steve Donoghue
• Ivan Kenneally
• Kristen Bonardi Rapp
• Leah Block
• Jacob Edwards
• Barbara London
• Sarah Rettger
• Amy Robinson
• Allie Stevens
• Desiree Thomas
• S.D. Winston
• Susan Breitzer
• Alec Harvey
• Dale McGarrigle
• Barry Silverstein
• Renee Ting
• Bean Yogi
• Tryn Brown
• Lynne Heffley
• Charles
• Justin
• Andrea Moran
Jenn Strattman
• Judy
Sharon Strock
David Haas comes back from an expedition to French Guiana with a strange condition that later becomes known as the Scourge. At first, the fungal infection enables him to make others see what he sees and duplicate his movements. Journalist Kara Burke, his colleague on his South American mission, finds out about his new powers and invites him to meet some mind readers in Paris. David discovers a connection between these telepaths and Alexander Cross, who fell into a coma on that same French Guiana trip and subsequently disappeared from a Paris hospital. It turns out that the Scourge has turned Alexander into the megalomaniacal gang leader Lucifer, who’s been turning telepaths and conjurers into his own personal army, which he hopes will infect humanity and take over the world. He kidnaps David, but before Lucifer can turn him, he manages to escape. To combat Lucifer’s forces, David and the French army seek to recruit their own superpowered troops and create new technology, but will that be enough to avert disaster? In a world that’s still dealing with a lingering pandemic, readers will find that Schrijver’s book is certainly timely, and he takes the clever approach of cobbling together a history of the Scourge based on David’s recollections (“Hopefully, time has dulled the sharpest edges. I’ll find out”), with his adult grandchild’s investigations filling in gaps in his memory. The narrative jumps around somewhat, echoing the chaos of David’s
“A story that will allow young readers to grasp valuable lessons while enjoying an escapist journey. ”jack mathias and the boonetown bandits
mind. He, Kara, and their mind-reading acquaintances are characters worth rooting for, although their helpful military allies don’t stick around for long. Lucifer doesn’t come across as a stereotypical megalomaniacal villain, as he receives a healthy amount of complex characterization. It all results in an engaging story of a scrappy group of underdogs who must find a way to save the world.
An often gripping novel of a superpowered scientist.
Smetana, Laura Flying Cardinal Press (38 pp.)
$19.99 | $13.99 paper | March 1, 2023
9781737140962
9781737140979 paper
Smetana’s picture book compares feelings of love to different elements of a garden.
Opening with its title, this work uses simple nonrhyming sentences to describe love, using various metaphors that encourage youngsters to engage all their senses. Love is said to be as “tender as a blade of grass,” “sweet as a flowering lilac,” “cheerful as the robin’s song,” and so on. The lines are brief but powerful and sweet, concluding with an image of two hands with different brown skin tones on either side of a bouquet, incorporating all the flowers featured in the book. However, Smetana’s illustrations are truly the stars of this work. At first glance, they appear to be vibrant watercolors on paper, but closer inspection reveals each image to be a carefully trimmed and assembled collage featuring butterflies, flowers, trees, and other elements. The cut paper is arranged in ingenious ways to suggest, for example, the opened petals of a rose or furrowed soil with marigolds growing in it. The book ends with a glossary, naming various plants and animals in the book and encouraging young readers to go back and look for them all—something that they’ll surely delight in doing again and again.
Endearing, engaging text pairs well with gorgeously executed illustrations for a joyful read.
(282 pp.)
$61.99 | $55.99 paper | $3.99 e-book
Sept. 13, 2022
9781669888147
9781669888161 paper
A remarkably thorough but concise history of sailing ships and how they brought the world into modernity. Stafford astutely observes that sailboats, even though largely replaced by faster, more efficient vessels, remain a fixture of modern life; these days, we turn them into restaurants and museums and use them to stage significant national celebrations. Stafford asks: “Is it nostalgia for a bygone era, or is it that this concept—which played such a key role in driving civilisation along the path to modernity—has somehow become part of our DNA?” The author seems to favor the latter option and pursues its defense by virtue of a panoramically sweeping but equally granular account of the development and decline of the wind ship. Stafford’s history reaches back to the Egyptian use of sailing ships in the third millennium B.C.E. and tracks its evolution through a dizzying array of permutations—all explained with self-assured expertise. The demands of both exploration and commerce made wind ships absolutely crucial; they were the principal instruments in history’s first foray into globalization. Of course, with the heights of exploration came the grim depths of exploitation—the author furnishes an impressively edifying account of the relationship between sailing and the slave trade. Ultimately, sailing ships were replaced by streamdriven boats—the latter were capable of keeping an exact schedule and amounted to a triumph of “need for a level of certainty about the future and the perceived necessity to do things as soon as possible.” Stafford’s study is magisterially synoptic— one can hardly imagine a single detail has been neglected. The unfortunate side of this virtue is that the reader can feel swallowed up by a massive wave of minutiae. However, this remains a marvelous history of not only the sailing ship, but also of the larger story of global seafaring throughout the centuries.
A fascinating, rigorous, and dramatically engrossing historical study.
LILAH LOVES LIFE
Sullivan, Brian
Illus. by Laura Watson
Atmosphere Press (36 pp.)
$12.99 paper | Dec. 1, 2022
9781639886111
Sullivan’s illustrated, rhyming children’s book tells the story of a young girl thoroughly enjoying her everyday life.
As this story opens, Lilah wonders how to spend her time, as “There are so many things I can do with my day.” She knows she
waves
must start with a good breakfast of her favorite foods: yogurt and fruit. Afterward, Lilah catches a butterfly in her mother’s garden, and her kindness toward the insect shines: “ ‘You’re so beautiful,’ she said, ‘but I’m setting you free. You belong to everyone, that’s the way it should be.’ ” Lilah plays hopscotch, pretends to be a ballerina, plays T-ball, flies a kite, and teases her dog by pretending to throw a ball while playing fetch: “ ‘I have it right here!’ she said, ‘I didn’t throw it!’ Then she giggled and laughed because the dog didn’t know it.” Eventually, her day winds down. She tries to work on a jigsaw puzzle but begins to fall asleep; she goes to bed and dreams about her day, looking forward to tomorrow and thinking “it’s great to be alive!” Over the course of this tale, Sullivan presents simple text with easy rhymes. It is a story that is certain to appeal to an audience of young readers, with sentiments that are consistently joyful and uplifting in tone. Lilah’s adventures may inspire readers to also enjoy the simple things in life to the fullest. Watson’s cartoon illustrations are simple, fun, and colorful; Lilah is depicted with bright-yellow skin, a pink nose, and orange-flushed cheeks. Watson’s images support the events of the text nicely; a twopage illustration of Lilah running through the sprinkler is particularly notable.
An amiable story of a joyful child.
Thomas, PJ PAJE Press (112 pp.)
$14.37 paper | $3.72 e-book | Oct. 13, 2022 9781777283711
This volume of poetry examines the various interpretations of the word waves and how they connect the author to the natural world.
Waves play a significant role in many of the collection’s poems. They range from the tiny waves on the sand in “Night Sense” that bind Thomas to the world around her to the “tidal waves of tears” in her friend’s eyes in “You’re Not Alone” and the waves of light in “Lions and Lizards” that emanate from within everyone and are created through experience and enlightenment. But perhaps the most powerful utilization of the word comes in “Midsummer’s Night,” in which the Canadian poet is engaged in sacred communion with the planet and the universe during a summer evening. The poem begins with a desire, a wish: “I want to absorb this night, / take in every morsel / of the full cheeks of the moon; / swallow whole the falling stars.” But the piece ends with Thomas understanding her want as actually something essential, a requirement to sustain her being: “I need fluidity, / so the waves can pass through me; / waves of the moon rays / glinting from the bay, / the song in the poplars, / and the silvery wind / playing across the wheat tops.” Another narrative thread running throughout this tapestry of poems is the use of nature and wildlife imagery taken from the poet’s quiet existence by the Otonabee River in central Ontario. For example, Thomas deftly immerses readers in her memory of every summer “that always ends just as it’s peaking” in “September Market,” with meticulous descriptions of place: “One minute it’s watermelon, / and the next, pumpkin squash on laden down tables / at the chilly fall fair. / The corn waits in its husk. / Crickets sing through the dusk / that comes so much earlier now. / The ducks are leaving the pond / to follow the bright, warm sun.”
A sublime poetry collection with a simple message: Embrace the ebb and flow of existence.
Thorpe, Stephen Austin
Continuum Multimedia (410 pp.)
$21.99 | $9.99 e-book | April 1, 2022
9781732783515
This debut middle-grade novel sees three friends step back in time to ancient Rome during Nero’s tyrannical reign.
Middle schoolers Makayla (aka Mick), Tanner, and Andrew live in Brownsville, Kentucky. Friends since elementary school, they have recently been exploring Mammoth Cave to research
“A sublime poetry collection with a simple message: Embrace the ebb and flow of existence.”
Mick’s presentation on the “Caveman”—a local legend stemming from the disappearance of Donald Carlton after a bank robbery and triple murder in 1810. When Mick discovers she is descended from Carlton, she worries the town will hold it against her. Mick channels her energies into proving her ancestor innocent—and while following his journal, she slips through a portal in an underground stream in Mammoth Cave. She finds herself in the lands of Inner Earth—real places that include the underworld depicted in Greek mythology. Having met with the “twelve gods of Olympus seated in a circle around her,” Mick continues to pursue her ancestor and becomes stranded in ancient Rome during Nero’s persecution of Christians. Tanner has abandonment issues and so is determined not to lose Mick. He convinces Andrew to join him in a rescue attempt, and the two follow Mick through the portal. Can the three reunited friends find their way home? Thorpe presents an omniscient narrative in the past tense, employing plain language to weave an intricate, rather messy plot. At times, the series opener becomes a bit unraveled, as if the characters have been left to their own devices and taken several wrong turns. In particular, Tanner and Andrew’s journey through the underworld is overlong and, for all the inherent fascination of Greek myths, of no great relevance to the main story. Given the buildup, the adventure also ends rather abruptly (in preparation for the sequel). Still, the modern-day setting is well handled, and once the boys join Mick in ancient Rome, they find sufficient peril there to keep readers turning the pages. Mick, Tanner, and Andrew are all relatable protagonists. Though resourceful and determined, they evince flaws and insecurities that test the bonds of their friendship. In place of traditional illustrations, each chapter of the book ends with a QR code; readers may download an app and create an account to get access to a miscellany of real-world photographs, concept drawings, and interactive art.
An engaging tween adventure that immerses readers in Greek myths and Roman history.
Wernicke, Marian O’Shea
She Writes Press (328 pp.)
$17.95 paper | $9.95 e-book | April 25, 2023
9781647423995
Wernicke presents an Irish immigration novel inspired by stories of her great-grandmother.
It’s 1867 in Bantry Bay, Ireland. Sixteen-year-old Eileen O’Donovan is daydreaming atop a branch of a large oak tree, her eyes fixed upon the gathering dark clouds and the building sea. Thirteen years ago, her father died working the fields of their small farm, given to him by a local earl in exchange for a portion of the farm’s annual proceeds. Now she, her mother, and her two older brothers, Michael and Martin, supplement their meager income by working at the earl’s estate, Blackthorn House. Hard times have again struck Ireland, and the O’Donovan family is barely scraping by, but Martin and Eileen’s mother have found
a solution: The teenager must marry the 40-year-old widower John Sullivan, who owns a more prosperous farm. Bookish Eileen, who harbors dreams of romantic true love, is devastated. Despite opposition from Michael and the village priest, the wedding is set, and Eileen accepts her fate. Meanwhile, Michael becomes involved with the secret Irish Republican Brotherhood, known as the Fenians. Eileen’s loveless marriage, the danger brought upon the family by Michael’s revolutionary activities, and more crop failures propel the narrative’s first part and lead first to Michael’s and later to Eileen and John’s immigration to America, where the tale continues. Wernicke’s prose has a charming lilt to it, and her meticulous descriptions of late-19th-century daily life in Bantry Bay capture the physical beauty of the landscape and the feelings of hopelessness in a land roiled by poverty, famine, and political turmoil. As the story moves to America, it includes vivid portraits of crossing the Atlantic in steerage (“It was hot and stuffy with over a thousand people settling into their berths, calling out complaints and jokes about the bloody British”) and details the tragedies, struggles, and fortitude that define immigrant life. Although the novel occasionally skirts the edges of sentimentality, it nicely combines Eileen’s personal drama with historical elements of the time.
An engaging, poignant, and ultimately uplifting story with a likable protagonist.
A school district in Texas disinvited novelist Emma Straub from a planned visit with elementary school students because the author used the word fuck on social media, the Houston Chronicle reports.
Straub, the bestselling author of novels including All Adults Here and This Time Tomorrow, had been invited to read her new children’s book, Very Good Hats, illustrated by Blanca Gómez, to kindergarten and first grade students at two elementary schools in Katy, a city near Houston. The book received a Kirkus star, with a reviewer writing that “children will want to return to it again and again.”
One day before Straub’s visit, school district officials told her the visit had been called off.
In an email to parents, administrators wrote, “The visit was intended to be an opportunity to visit with a children’s book author…and learn about the writing process. However, it has been brought to our attention that this author has regularly used inappropriate and foul language on her social media platforms—specifically, last May, on the day that 19 elementary school students and two teachers were shot to death in Uvalde, Texas, Straub tweeted, “Fuck guns, fuck people who care more about controlling women’s bodies than protecting all of us from people with guns, fuck! It’s too much. So heartbroken.”
On Twitter, Straub replied to a user from Katy who tweeted angrily about the cancellation of her appearance. “I was sorry not to be able to read my silly book about hats and imagination to those kids,” Straub tweeted. “The only F words in the presentation: funny, feline, feelings.”
Spelling bee champion Zaila Avant-garde, 16, will make her literary debut this year with two children’s books, Random House announced in a news release.
Avant-garde, who made history in 2021 by becoming the first African American person, and second Black person, to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee. She’s also a noted basketball player and juggler.
Random House Children’s Books will publish Avant-garde’s middle-grade nonfiction book, It’s Not Bragging If It’s True: How To Be Awesome at Life, on May 2. The press calls the book “an empowering collection of true stories that she hopes will motivate and uplift other kids who are pursuing their dreams.”
On June 27, Random House will publish Avant-garde’s picture book, Words of Wonder From Z to A, illustrated by Keisha Morris. “This book contains words such as kindness, hope, and resilience, alongside her encouraging and poetic thoughts,” Random House says. “Each bright and busy page includes a quotation from a famous thought leader, and an afterword details the fascinating origins of each word.”
“I’m extremely excited to have my first books published, and I’m especially happy that they are for kids,” Avant-garde said in a statement. “As a child who knew my favorite books by heart, I know firsthand the joy that a good book can bring. When I was a little girl, if you had told me that in 10 years I would be writing books of my own, I wouldn’t have believed it. This is such an awesome feeling.”
Mark Feldman is a fellow the nation’s capital cannot do without, a master interpreter of “bizarre remarks encompassing Washington and sex” and of the hidden political currents that flow through the District of Columbia. He has a syndicated column, appears regularly on the Sunday morning talk shows, knows his way around an oyster fork and a champagne glass. He is an idol, though an idol with feet of clay—or, Nora Ephron tells us, feet of roman à clef.
From the opening sentences of Ephron’s 1983 novel Heartburn, we know that Mark is having an affair, one that involves social climbing up the preternaturally tall wife of a hapless diplomat. That sort of thing goes on in D.C. all the time, but Mark’s timing is particularly graceless, since his wife, Rachel Samstat, is seven months pregnant and, as she laments three sentences in, “can’t even date.” Rachel, a cookbook author of some renown and, like Ephron, a foodie avant la lettre, splits for New York to consider her options. Mark is slow in coming around, but soon he’s professing his loyalty to Rachel once more—which, Rachel rightly suspects, is a pathetic maneuver to win her back for appearance’s sake.
Soon Mark is back with the woman “with a neck as long as an arm and a nose as long as a thumb,” immediately recognizable in the real-life Washington of the day. Rachel counts modest coup on her by circulating a rumor that Thelma Rice has an improbably contracted STD. Rachel then smacks Mark with a pie in the kisser, a slapstick fallback updated for the Reagan era.
Heartburn is famously about the dissolution of Ephron’s marriage to journalist Carl Bernstein, who was still riding the crest of fame for his Washington Post coverage of Watergate. They wed in 1976 and grew apart quickly, but it took until 1985 for the divorce to be finalized, with long arguments between attorneys about how Ephron, who’d already published her nicely vengeful novel and was working on a screenplay, would handle Bernstein’s depiction on film. (He’s played by Jack Nicholson; Rachel, by Meryl Streep.) But the subject of her book, Ephron later remarked, was wider than her marriage. Instead, it was about “power couples” in a grasping, media-hungry, yuppies-gone-wild era. In any event, she wrote shortly before her death in 2012, “Philip Roth and John Updike picked away at the carcasses of their early marriages in book after book, but to the best of my knowledge they were never hit with the ‘thinly disguised’ thing.”
Heartburn, book and movie, had both fans and critics, with some reviewers, including our own, worrying that its satire was mean-spirited, disjointed, or overwrought. Still, 40 years on, the novel holds up‚ not just for its sometimes-acerbic, often funny take on modern marriage, but also, as Stanley Tucci notes in a too-brief foreword to a new Vintage Books reissue, because of its thoughtful, episode-bridging, and well-tested recipes—part of the narrative precisely because Ephron “knew that good food is deserving of our time, thought, and attention.” And in the case of key lime pie, of good aim at a worthy target.
