November 1, 2022: Volume XC, No. 21

REVIEWS

THE EDITOR’S DESK | Tom Beer reading annie ernaux

Who will win the Nobel Prize in literature? In literary circles, this question hovers over the fall season as pundits speculate and bookmakers set the odds. I typically await the announcement with some trepidation. Every year I resolve to read more global litera ture, and every year I fall short of my goal. (Editing Kirkus’ first International Issue earlier this year did supply me with some readymade reading lists.) I’m ashamed to admit that I hadn’t read a single book by Abdulrazak Gurnah (2021), Olga Tokarczuk (2018), Patrick Modiano (2014), or Mo Yan (2012) at the time each won the prize.

So I wasted no time when French writer Annie Ernaux won the Nobel Prize in literature on Oct. 6. I knew her reputation and was eager to dive into her work, especially her short, intense autobio graphical writing. Over the weekend I tracked down a copy of Happening, translated by Tanya Leslie and originally released in the United States by Seven Stories Press in 2001. Earlier this year, a French film adaptation of the book, written and directed by Audrey Diwan, screened in the U.S. The subject, I knew, was Ernaux’s abortion at the age of 23.

Clocking in at less than 100 pages, Happening is concentrated stuff, best read in a single sitting. From a perspective decades later, the author recounts how she became pregnant while living and attending university in the city of Rouen, northwest of Paris. The year is 1963, and abortion is illegal in France; Ernaux is hard-pressed to find someone to perform the procedure, and doctors, fearing the legal repercussions, will not discuss it with her. Eventually, through a friend, she learns the name of Madame P-R, a woman in Paris who will give her the abortion and “[attend] to her business with quiet determination,” Ernaux writes. She methodically depicts the scene as if it were a painting: the formica table, the enamel basin of steam ing water containing the red probe, the hairbrush next to it.

It’s an astonishing book, in its own way quietly determined to describe and under stand everything about this moment in the author’s life. “I have finished putting into words what I consider to be an extreme human experience,” Ernaux writes, “bearing on life and death, time, law, ethics and taboo—an experience that sweeps through the body.” It calls to mind The Year of Magical Thinking (2005), Joan Didion’s similarly dispas sionate attempt to analyze her grief after the sudden death of her husband. It also made me think of the unforgettable abortion scene in Didion’s novel Play It As It Lays (1970), where Maria notices vivid details like the newspapers on the floor and the TV playing in the next room. For U.S. readers, encountering it in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision to strike down Roe v. Wade, Happening feels urgent and timely. If, like me, you haven’t read Ernaux, it’s a perfect entry point.

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Annie Ernaux

John Paraskevas

Oliver Roller

Kirkus Star is awarded to books of remarkable merit, as determined by the impartial editors of Kirkus.

THE LAST POMEGRANATE TREE

Ali, Bachtyar Trans. by Kareem Abdulrahman with Melanie Moore

Archipelago (400 pp.) $22.00 paper | Jan. 24, 2023 978-1953861-40-5

Superbly realized novel of life, death, and what lies between. Muzafar-i Subhdam has had a rough time of it in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, imprisoned for 21 years. Now he is free—but not really, since his friend and fellow Kurdish soldier Yaqub-i Snawbar is keeping him captive “inside a large mansion, within a sequestered forest” while a plague rages outside. (Ali’s novel was first published in 2002, so it’s not the plague we know.) Besides, Yaqub adds ominously, “You’re dead....You don’t exist.” Muzafar has forgotten everything about the world except his son, Saryas-i Subhdam, whose life is a series of encounters with danger. Blending magical realism with dark fables wor thy of Kafka, Kurdish novelist Ali spins episodes that require the willing suspension of disbelief while richly rewarding that surrender. One narrative strand concerns young Muhammad the Glass-Hearted, a friend of Saryas’, who falls in love with a woman who might well be a djinn or ghost: Muhammad dies, brokenhearted, and she visits his grave, there to find that Muhammad is surrounded by many friends killed during clashes with Saddam’s forces. At least Muhammad lived long enough to see, with Saryas, a mysterious place where a head decapitated by Saddam’s security agents reunites with its body and nourishes the pomegranate tree of the title. Muhammad may be too sensi tive for his own good, but he knows the meaning of that tree, proclaiming that it belongs to everyone: “A real father plants for all the children in the world, for all those who come after him.” Alas, so many of those children are doomed: One horrific

full of victims of bombings and

legless, “strange beings you wouldn’t

anywhere else,” deathly silent. Muzafar’s search for his son

writes in magnificent summation, does his

living in a glass time in a

extraordinary:

the widest possible audience.

masterwork of modern Mid dle

BETTER THE BLOOD Bennett, Michael Atlantic Monthly (336 pp.) $27.00 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-0-8021-6060-7

Hana Westerman, an Auckland cop with Māori roots, goes up against an Indigenous serial killer looking to avenge England’s brutal oppression of New Zea land’s native people 160 years ago.

“Better the blood of the innocent than none at all,” says the killer, for whom the horrors of the past are kept alive by the daguerreotype of six British soldiers celebrating with the corpse of a tribal chief hanging behind them. His plan is to kill six people with ties to the original offenders. The case awakens Hana’s deep guilt over roughly policing fellow Māori during a land rights protest 18 years ago, in particular a silver-haired woman Hana later learns is the mother of the serial killer, Poata James Raki, a distinguished

legal professor suspended for his increasingly radical views. Jaye Hamilton, Hana’s ex-husband and superior on the force, assures her she was just doing her job at the protest, but their 17-yearold daughter, Addison, an activist pop singer who was one of Raki’s most admiring students, is appalled her mother did such a thing. It’s a falling-out the killer is all too happy to exploit. However heinous his actions, Raki is in full, articulate com mand of the truth regarding the past and present—and Hana knows it. Making his fiction debut, Māori screenwriter and director Bennett establishes himself as an excellent storyteller. As well executed as the murder story is (an unneeded subplot aside), the book’s immersion in tribal culture and history makes the greatest impact, lending complexity and sweep to the nar rative. Bennett’s use of Indigenous terms and names (while pro viding a running glossary) adds to the novel’s resonance. One can only hope this is the beginning of a series.

A striking debut and a significant addition to Indigenous literature.

How is it possible that only 13 years have passed since the publica tion of Wolf Hall? It’s hard to remem ber a time before Hilary Mantel won two Booker Prizes and cemented her place as the leading British novelist of our time. Together with its sequels, Bring Up the Bodies (2012) and The Mir ror & the Light (2020), Mantel’s novel about Thomas Cromwell created a world that felt both wholly accurate and fantastical, changing the way people think about the historical figure at its center while speaking directly to 21st-century concerns about morality and power.

hilary mantel

The one time I met Mantel in person was at a per formance of Wolf Hall , the play, on Broadway in 2015. I knew that she was going to be there that day, and I brought a copy of the book so I could ask her to sign it. I was hesitant to intrude but did approach her at intermission—and once the rest of the audience saw her talking to me, the floodgates opened and a line grew of people wanting to meet her. She never stopped smiling. We spoke again last spring, over Zoom, when I inter viewed her about a book of short stories called Learning To Talk . I asked her about that line of fans and the smile on her face, and she said that, indeed, she was “buoy ant” at the time. She enjoyed working closely with the people on the production— “we were quite a happy ship,” she said, “and to sit in the

audience and pick up on the audience reaction—that was all great.”

I couldn’t help thinking that Mantel was also en joying her fame, which was long overdue. As ground breaking as the Cromwell trilogy is, it was hardly her first masterpiece. I like to recommend Giving Up the Ghost (2003), a memoir about her childhood in North ern England, when she lived for a time with her moth er, her father, and her mother’s boyfriend, Jack. It’s Jack, later her stepfather, who gives the book its title: When, as an adult, she and her husband sell their week end home, she feels like she’s losing Jack’s ghost—that house was the last place she saw him alive, and “many times since then I have acknowledged him on the stairs,” she writes.

Ghosts appear in many of her novels, particularly Beyond Black (2005), about a psychic who gives consultations and performs on stage in seedy theaters and, un like most fictional psychics, is not a fraud—she actually does com municate with spirits. I love this line from our starred review: “The mark of a great novelist may be the ability to take you where you truly don’t want to go. If so, Man tel is the real goods.” I wrote something similar in my review of the book for Newsday: “I often find that my most memorable reading experiences come when I pick up a book that doesn’t seem to be my cup of tea and get hooked by the sheer power of the author’s talent.” A book about a psychic in an English sideshow? More than 1,700 pages on the court of King Henry VIII? A short story fantasizing about “The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher”? Mantel could do it all, and it’s tragic that her career has been cut off in its absolute prime.

Mantel told me that she was getting ready to move to Ireland this fall; her family’s roots were there, though she had never lived there herself. “I promise you, it’s time somebody went back and not just sent their ashes back, which has been something that’s hap pened in the family,” she said. Though she didn’t have time to make the move, I have no doubt that Mantel’s ghost will be there.

Laurie Muchnick is the fiction editor.

Hilary Mantel

David

Images

TOM CLANCY

RED WINTER

Cameron, Marc Putnam (432 pp.) $29.95 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-0-593-42275-5

Not “too many months” after dis patching a tricky submarine issue in The Hunt for Red October, young Jack Ryan faces a deadly East German foe.

The trouble starts in 1985, near Area 51 in Nevada, where UFO believers witness a flash in the night sky and anticipate an extraterrestrial visit. Only the East Ger man spy who happens to be among them suspects an earthly explanation. A woman guides him through a mountainous area, where he discovers the remains of a U.S. military aircraft he cor rectly presumes to be “beyond big” in importance. Making off with a small piece of the wing he must somehow smuggle across the Iron Curtain, he leaves a trail of dead and wounded in his wake. The U.S. suspects that someone has removed a piece of secret radar-absorbing material from the wreckage. Meanwhile in West Berlin, a low-level Foreign Service officer is asked to meet a possible defector, an encounter that takes a terrible turn. Meanwhile (this story has lots of meanwhiles), the East German aeronautical physicist Dr. Uwe Hauptman is doing important research on radar-absorbing surfaces. The CIA suspects it has a mole, whom they code-name Fledermaus. Jack Ryan and Mary Pat Foley cross through Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin and bypass the “Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart,” known to us bourgeoisie as the Berlin Wall. There, they face a peck of trou ble, but luckily, “Ryan wasn’t exactly a neophyte when it came to hairy situations,” nor is Foley to be mistaken for a shrinking violet. Cameron is but one of the authors who so skillfully main tains the Clancy legacy that began in the 1980s. The many char acters are all spot-on, the scope is wide-ranging, and the action reaches to the dreaded Hohenschönhausen Prison—readers are guaranteed to hate the freckle-faced guard Mitzi Graff as much as they will admire Ryan and Foley.

So well-adapted to the entire series, this could have been the late Tom Clancy’s second novel.

MR. BREAKFAST Carroll, Jonathan Melville House (272 pp.)

$27.99 | Jan. 17, 2023

978-1-61219-992-4

A magic tattoo enables a failed comic who will become a famous street pho tographer to choose from three different lives.

As inconsistent as Graham Patterson is at comedy, he earns the devotion of Ruth Murphy, an ardent fan who becomes his romantic part ner. But she wants to have children, he is pretty sure he doesn’t,

and ne’er their twain will meet. While driving across the coun try searching for answers following their sad breakup, he stops at a tattoo parlor in North Carolina. The female proprietor’s designs so knock him out, he impulsively gets an odd chainof-life tat. By touching it while uttering a code word, he can move back and forth among alternative lives—the one he is liv ing, one that takes him back to the past, and one in which he is Ruth’s husband and the father of their children—before decid ing which one he wants to remain in. His greatest hope is that these special powers will allow him for the first time “to create from the middle of [his] soul.” After the tattoo artist enthuses about the photos he has taken to document his road trip, he dedicates himself to photography. But acts of violence, illnesses, and sudden deaths are in store in his parallel lives, ultimately leading to his disappearance. He leaves behind a set of photos that only certain people can see, including a manipulated shot of Mr. Breakfast, a long-shuttered roadside diner that eerily comes back to life. Among Carroll’s novels, including the fabu lous The Land of Laughs (1980), this is one of his most elusive— the narratives overlap and interact with a slippery interior logic.

The new novel also may be his most lyrical. Few recent works of fiction in any genre have touched on the vagaries of life, love, and art more movingly or with deeper understanding.

An intoxicating, deeply affecting novel by the influential fantasist.

GHOST TOWN Chen, Kevin Trans. by Darryl Sterk Europa Editions (384 pp.) $14.88 | Oct. 25, 2022 978-1-60945-798-3

A haunted family saga from a win ner of the Taiwan Literature Award for Books.

“It’s Ghost Festival today, the Day of Deliverance. The ghosts are com ing. I’ve come back, too.” This is what Keith Chen says to his

lover as Keith stands in front of the house where he grew up. Or, rather, this is what Keith would say if his lover were by his side—if his lover was still alive. Keith is returning to his back ward, backwater hometown after spending time in a German prison for killing that lover. He’s seeking memories, but not all of the memories he encounters are welcome ones, and he and his family are surrounded by unquiet spirits—and, although still living, are unquiet spirits themselves, haunting their own lives. Running beneath the whole narrative is the secret story of the death of Keith’s lover. The ideas that Chen (the author, not the character) is playing with are familiar to anyone who has read Gothic literature—from Wuthering Heights to Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017). And there are moments when Chen creates a truly eerie atmosphere. One of the many char acters who narrates this novel—himself a ghost—describes all of Yongjing awakening as his wife and the other women of the town chant during an impromptu morning ritual: “The ghosts in the public cemetery all woke up, too, as did the weeds, the tree snags, and the fallowed fields, along with the molds, the rice stalks, and the wildflowers. All the living, the dead, and

the living who wished they were dead in that small town were woken rudely up.” But, despite the diversity of narrators, there isn’t much diversity of voice—a lack of interiority makes it dif ficult to distinguish one character from another—and most of this story is told in a flat, expository style that is, ultimately, wearying. There is something initially powerful in the way that Chen presents cruelty as commonplace, but this stylistic choice quickly reaches a point of diminishing returns. It seems likely that most readers will either become anesthetized to the brutal ity or simply quit reading.

Chen’s exploration of generational trauma is both too much and not enough.

THE NEW LIFE

Crewe, Tom Scribner (400 pp.) $28.00 | Jan. 3, 2023 978-1-668-00083-0

Two Englishmen dare to challenge Victorian-era homophobia.

In 1894, John Addington, a well-off married man with three daughters, can no longer deny his attraction to men.

Henry Ellis, a virgin who’s studied to be a doctor and has an academic interest in sex, has married Edith, a young bisexual writer, and they soon invite another woman into their relationship. (The quasi-throuple is almost as scan dalous as his fetish for watching women urinate.) Coincidence and a shared enthusiasm for Walt Whitman connect John and Henry, and though they never meet, they begin to collaborate via letters on a kind of proto-Kinsey report about the lives of gay British men. At that time, gay men were subject to two years to life in prison if found out; to publish a book on homosexu ality courted additional calamities. (The plot integrates Oscar Wilde’s 1895 trial, conviction, and imprisonment for “gross inde cency.”) Crewe, an editor at the London Review of Books, deftly captures the atmosphere when “the law frightens us into lies,” as John puts it. (John’s betrayed wife is especially well drawn.)

The novel’s plot is loosely based on the lives of two pioneering researchers on homosexuality: John Addington Symonds and Havelock Ellis. But the novel is equally inspired by works by Alan Hollinghurst like The Stranger’s Child (2011), models for British fiction about gay men that’s intellectual, erotic, and wise to the nuances of the British class ladder. Crewe has his own rich and engrossing style, though, and his own approach to plot dynamics, concluding the story with a dramatic trial sequence that captures a mood of both frustration and defiance, blending the graceful ambiguity of literary fiction with the deftness of a page-turner.

A smart, sensual debut.

LIAR, DREAMER, THIEF

Dong, Maria Grand Central Publishing (336 pp.) $28.00 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-1-5387-2356-2

In Dong’s vertiginous debut, a men tally unstable woman stumbles across a conspiracy.

After Katrina Kim flunks out of col lege, she returns to her family’s home in Pleasance Village, Illinois, seeking solace; her father sends her away, however, suggesting Katrina stay at a hotel or a friend’s house. Katrina goes to the local library and parks, curling up in her car’s back seat while her mind retreats into Mi Hee and the Mirror Man, her favorite Korean children’s book. Like Katrina, Mi-Hee is a lonely girl with compulsive tendencies, but Mi-Hee can access a fantasy world via her kitchen door and has a truth-revealing spyglass. Determined to create her own new existence, Katrina drives to

“A smart, sensual debut.”

new life

Grand Station, gets an office job, and moves in with a stranger who saw her plea for help on Craigslist and took pity. The stress proves too much, and Katrina starts dissociating, layering MiHee’s “kitchen-door world over [her] own, like a colored pane of glass.” She develops elaborate protection rituals and starts following co-worker Kurt Smith because she thinks they’re con nected. Then, one night on the Cayatoga Bridge, Katrina sees Kurt crash his SUV. He extricates himself, screams at Katrina for ruining things, and jumps off the railing. Katrina tells the police, who dismiss her, but when Kurt misses work on Mon day, Katrina launches her own investigation, uncovering a real ity far stranger than her inner fictions. Events unfold courtesy of Katrina’s anxious, unmoored first-person present narration, keeping readers off-kilter. Some characters lack depth and veri similitude, but Katrina’s fraught relationship with her immi grant parents rings true. Though the setup drags on, sapping the book’s momentum, once the mystery drops into gear, increas ingly bonkers twists propel the story to a cogent, poignant close.

A rabbit hole worth falling down.

LITTLE MISERIES

This Is Not a Story About My Childhood: A Novel Fakih, Kimberly Olson Delphinium (240 pp.) $27.00 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-1-953002-20-4

A young girl growing up in 1960s Iowa learns that grown-ups are rarely what they seem.

The Castle family name once meant greatness—or, rather, a particular sort of Midwest great ness, when their seeds were sold all over Iowa and their name adorned signs and silos everywhere they looked. But the Castle family of the 1960s, as seen through the eyes of the middle child, narrator Kimmy, no longer lives in the big house on the hill that they still drive by every Christmas Eve. Instead, Mr. Castle is a church deacon and a mortgage broker with a scotch- and cig arette-loving wife and three children: plump, bookish Kimmy, older brother Paul, and little Nellie. While the book is labeled a novel, it reads much more like a collection of linked stories or personal essays, its string of vignettes taking place mostly during Kimmy’s tween years. They recount Kimmy’s eyes first opening to the rules and constrictions that govern the lives of the adults around her, from the gym teacher who unleashes his cruelty upon two of Kimmy’s classmates to Kimmy’s cadre of grandparents and extended family in Des Moines. Though many of these figures appear in lower-stakes anecdotes (such as the disappointment Kimmy experiences when family friends skip out on a shared holiday tradition to stay at home with their new color TV), the book’s main throughline shows how cata strophic the secret world of grown-ups can truly be on the deli cate web that is a family. Fakih’s book, her first for adults, will appeal to anyone who looks back on their own childhood with a mixture of nostalgia and horror.

Despite the book’s unwieldy structure, it shows Fakih as a gifted chronicler of children’s helplessness and familial angst.

CODE 6

Grippando, James Harper/HarperCollins (368 pp.) $27.99 | Jan. 3, 2023 978-0-063-22378-3

An aspiring playwright’s plan to base her first production on the secrets kept by her father’s powerful IT firm unleashes a Pandora’s box of demons.

Buck Technologies International counts among its clients the Pentagon and the CIA. Kate Gamble, the daughter of CEO Christian Gamble, knows a little and suspects more about the legacy of its surveillance technology. Still grieving the suicide two years ago of her alcoholic mother, Elizabeth, she takes time from her studies in law school to draft a play about the history of

villa

Hollerith machines, primitive computers first deployed in the 1890 U.S. census and used by the Third Reich to track infor mation about its Jewish residents and keep the concentration camps running in good order. While she’s hunkering down to the first of many rewrites demanded by Broadway director Irving Bass, who’s interested in the material despite its histori cal sprawl, more disturbing developments await her extended family. Kate’s ex Noah Dunn, a senior cybercrimes prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in D.C., expresses renewed interest in Christian Gamble’s relationship with Sandra Levy, a “trusted advisor” who’s doing time for corporate espionage. And the Chinese government, which paid Levy and her highly placed accomplice for Buck Technologies secrets they didn’t deliver, plucks Patrick Battle, an up-and-coming Buck employee Kate used to babysit, from a corporate survival exercise in Colom bia and uses him as a hostage to extort the particulars of Code 6, an undetectable data scraping tool, from Christian Gamble and Jeremy Peel, the chairman of the board who’s trying to push him out and take his place. None of these 12-cylinder adven tures do justice to the paranoid premise.

High-stakes espionage, family drama, double crosses, noble gestures: For better or worse, it’s all here.

THE VILLA Hawkins, Rachel St. Martin’s (288 pp.) $28.99 | Jan. 3, 2023 978-1-2502-8001-5

Past and present collide when two old friends spend a summer writing at an infamous villa in Italy.

After a tough year, Emily Sheridan needs a change. Enter Chess Chandler, her best friend since childhood, the golden girl who has become effortlessly famous for her selfhelp books and her glamorous Instagram posts and who has rented an Italian villa for the summer—a villa famous not only as a luxury retreat, but as the scene of a 1970s murder. Hawkins then turns the narrative over to the people who inhabited the villa that tragic summer—particularly a young woman writer who finds the inspiration to write a seminal work of horror; her hapless, brilliant husband; and the cruel, famous young aristo crat who drew them all there. It takes barely a page for the allu sions to become apparent: This is a reimagining of the famous summer of 1814, when Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Lord Byron held a ghost story contest from which Mary Shel ley’s Frankenstein was born. The novel continues to cut from the summer of 1974 to the present, as Emily begins to recapture her own power and imagination as a writer—even as she discovers that Chess may not be the friend she appears to be. Though the introduction of the major players of 1974 (Mari Godwick, Pierce Sheldon, Noel Gordon, etc.) feels rather heavy-handed, the characters quickly take on a fascinating life and energy that elevates them from being mere copies of the historic Roman tics. And while the operatically tragic characters of the 1970s

are ultimately more intriguing than Chess and Emily and their (mostly) petty dramas, Hawkins casts a sharp eye throughout to the way we construct stories about female artists—and the moral ambiguity inherent in creation and fame. The effect lingers like a shadow, or a creature, that endures past the final words.

Hawkins manages to achieve the seemingly impossible: A Frankenstein-inspired novel that feels both fresh and unique.

THE REVIVALISTS

Hood, Christopher M. Harper/HarperCollins (304 pp.)

$27.99 | Oct. 4, 2022 978-0-06-322-139-0

A fast-paced addition to the rapidly growing genre of the post-apocalyptic road novel.

Bill and Penelope are among the fortunate few, in theory. Two-thirds of

“Past and present collide when two old friends spend a summer writing at an infamous villa in Italy.”

the population has succumbed to a “Shark Flu” pandemic, but they’ve just “dipped.” Debut novelist Hood adroitly lays out his premise and explores the plague’s aftermath. In their suburban–NYC enclave, the couple are well insulated. There are plenty of “Formerly Occupied Homes” from which to “Manage Existing Resources”; most survivors keep their distance at first, but the neighborly nonviolent order survives. Bill and Penelope plant a garden. Bill even reopens his psychology practice to survivors, who barter for the talking cure. But Bill and Penelope learn from their daughter in California via ham radio that she too has survived—and seems on the verge of joining a cult. They decide their only course, their manifest destiny as parents, is to go west. What follows is a familiar but often entertaining hellscape pica resque. Hood smartly makes the marriage the story’s center, and some adventures/interludes—especially after they crash into a herd of cattle in Kansas, encounter roving lions (!), then find themselves in a picture-postcard town that’s abandoned but for a lonely siren who wants Bill to impregnate her—show wit and playfulness. Elsewhere, though, predictability sets in, often in the form of a right-mindedness that Bill projects and that the

world, his secret co-conspirator, reflects back at him. Penelope and Bill fool macho nitwits playing soldier and flee while their guards watch porn, escaping into the arms of a much more withit feminist collective. They encounter a saintly Native American distributing medicine from an 18-wheeler, then a spectacularly cool and noble “BIPOC collective” that’s holding the Rockies, maintaining a buffer against the conspiracy-theory nut-job rac ists (wittily, Hood essentially calls them QVC-Anon) who’ve occupied Idaho, Utah, and Nevada.

Hood offers an entertaining update of the western migra tion tale, with ATVs and Camaros for covered wagons.

THE BLACKHOUSE

Johnstone, Carole Scribner (336 pp.) $28.00 | Jan. 3, 2023 978-1-982-19967-8

Two stories separated by 25 years intertwine on an island at the far reaches of Scotland: A man tries to hide from who he used to be, and a woman tries to figure out if a man was murdered on the desolate island the day she was born.

In 1993, Robert Reid moves with his wife, Mary, and their son, Calum, to the small island of Kilmeray in the Outer Hebri des to become a farmer. He is plagued by memories of past mis deeds, and no matter how hard he tries and how hard he works, he cannot find the success in farming or the happiness in his family that he so desperately wants. In 2019, 25-year-old Mag gie Anderson arrives on the island trying to figure out who she really is after her mother’s death. She is bipolar—this she has known since she was a teenager. She is also plagued with mem ories and dreams that don’t make sense, and when she was a child, she knew with absolute certainty that she had previously been a man named Andrew MacNeil and had been murdered. Her mother previously brought her to the island to try to find the truth: Was there an Andrew MacNeil? Had he been mur dered? The villagers held firm that no one of that name had ever existed and that Maggie’s mother—though convinced she was a psychic and a witch and despite having many, many tricks up her sleeve—was not infallible. When Maggie visits as an adult, she finds a warmer welcome on the island, quickly becoming friends with Kelly, a single mom, and Will, a farmer who lives near her Airbnb. Fans of Tana French will embrace author John stone’s skill at weaving supernatural and setting-as-character aspects into her story, and readers of Lisa Jewell will enjoy her unexpected plotting and character development. The caliber of Johnstone’s writing and masterful storytelling will delight both.

This richly evocative story exists at the point where love, fear, guilt, bad decisions, psychosis, and mythology collide.

BY GENE SEYMOUR

BEHIND THE BOOK Dr. No

Percival Everett has been called a “serious ly playful” writer, and his penchant for dark hu mor places him squarely in the tradition of id iosyncratic fiction writers like Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Donald Barthelme, Thomas Pynchon, and even such acerbic, seemingly anomalous in fluences as Herman Melville and Chester Himes.

It’s plausible that the 65-year-old Everett’s productivity and range exceed theirs despite his relative stature as a cult author. His 27 novels and story collections vary wildly in topic and genre. His 1994 Western spoof, God’s Country, was fol lowed in 1996 by Watershed, a more straightfor ward contemporary Western. He has also written boldly inventive variations on Greek mythology such as 1987’s For Her Dark Skin, a fresh spin on Medea’s tale, and 1997’s Frenzy, about the trans formative experiences of Dionysus’ assistant, Vlepo. He has also challenged hidebound racial

attitudes in such works as 2001’s Erasure, about the pigeonholing of African American writers, 2009’s I Am Not Sidney Poitier, whose title char acter is really (and pointedly) named “Not Sidney Poitier” and last year’s The Trees, longlisted for the Booker Prize, which uses the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till as a springboard to a burlesque modern-day mystery/comedy.

His latest novel, Dr. No (Graywolf, Nov. 1), is prototypical Everett in its droll wit, thematic irrev erence, and philosophical tomfoolery. It cheekily borrows both a title and a plotline from Ian Flem ing’s James Bond novel to expound on the concept of nothing, or negation, one that Everett has en gaged in many novels and stories. In a starred re view, Kirkus calls it a “good place to begin finding out why Everett has such a devoted cult.”

Interviewed by phone from Los Angeles, where he’s taught English literature and writing for decades at the University of Southern Cali fornia, Everett says he’d never read the Fleming novels but thought more about the six decades of James Bond movies they inspired in fashion ing his pastiche.

“I have some affection for the Bond mov ies,” he says, in wry, measured tones evoking his deadpan style on the page. “But it’s limited somewhat by their vacuity. And I think it’s the vacuity that I wanted to deal with, essentially, this middle-aged guy acting out these fantasies of sex and global adventure. They may as well be Woody Allen [comedies]. But I wasn’t trying to play off any Bond story so much as the con sciousness behind the movies.”

Everett also takes the unusual (for him) step of making his narrator/protagonist a lead char

Percival Everett cribs a title—and a plot—from James Bond to fashion a novel only he could write

acter from one of his previous novels. Ralph Townsend, the mute genius child from Everett’s 1999 novel, Glyph, is here a grown-up mathemat ics professor at Brown University who now calls himself Wala Kitu, both words meaning nothing in Tagalog and Swahili, respectively. Ralph/Wala, who according to his creator is still “on the spec trum,” is being paid a hefty sum by a multimil lionaire and aspiring supervillain named John Milton Bradley Sill to help him rob Fort Knox as Bond antagonist Auric Goldfinger once tried to do.

Everett’s nonplussed hero, who couldn’t be less Bondian in both nature and tactics, seems haphazardly borne from place to place (Wash ington, D.C., Corsica, Miami, and eventually Kentucky) and from peril to peril, one of which includes a homicidal, sex-starved Black android named Gloria whose wardrobe and hairstyle are constantly changing.

Everett’s facility with plotting, here and else where, is one of his underrated traits. Never theless, he concedes, “I’m no good at making it up as I go along. But I think anybody who does any kind of exploring with a plot…well, a map is merely an excuse to get lost. And you can change your mind at any point, especially if there’s a river that pops up somewhere that wasn’t there before.”

Basically, he says, “I’m open to what serves the story. There are always reasons for writing which are private and, you know, philosophi cal. I’m always trying to serve that. And I don’t always know the best way to serve it until I get into it.”

How, he is asked, did the concept of nothing enter this novel, or any of the other novels, in cluding Glyph, where the idea is probed?

“I don’t know. If I did, I probably wouldn’t write novels about it,” he says. “I love puzzles.…I like things that are difficult to understand. I like things that I don’t understand. I still try to un derstand, in some way, string theory, and I read about it all the time and I can’t tell you one thing about it.”

One suspects that unraveling a Percival Ever ett narrative, whether in short or long form, is what makes them fun for his readers, especial ly those who enjoy the process of unraveling for

its own sake. Dr. No is a blackout-comedy maze of red herrings, misleading assertions, and selfdeceptions. Though neither Everett nor his pro tagonist say so explicitly, the commensurate folly of both the novel’s situations and the characters’ actions appears to reflect or represent society’s fumbling efforts to compensate for its fear of nothing or nothingness.

Everett has only a glancing familiarity with Seinfeld, everybody’s favorite sitcom about noth ing. But he insists that his own take on nothing is very different from that iconic TV show.

“It’s more about vacuity than nothing,” Ever ett says of Seinfeld. “Nothing is something. Vacu ity is the absence of substance.”

Got it?

Gene Seymour is a writer and editor living in Brook lyn and has written for the Nation, the Washing ton Post, and CNN.com. Dr. No received a starred review in the Sept. 15, 2022, issue.

gunk baby

SLEEP NO MORE

Krentz, Jayne Ann Berkley (336 pp.) $24.99 | Jan. 3, 2023 978-0-593-33782-0

A man who suspects he witnessed a murder asks a podcaster for help solving the crime.

Months ago, author Ambrose Drake blacked out under mysterious circum stances during a writers’ conference in San Diego. When he woke up, he discovered his latent talent for aura-reading had intensified to a full-fledged psychic abil ity. Ambrose can now open a window in his mind and “read” a person’s aura with such accuracy that he can predict their future actions. Unfortunately, this new talent comes with terrible side effects: vivid nightmares and bouts of dangerous sleepwalk ing. His family convinces him to go to a sleep-study clinic in Carnelian, California, but instead of finding answers there, he

witnesses a murder. Convinced no one will believe him, he phones in a tip to Pallas Llewellyn, one of the hosts of the Lost Night Files, a popular podcast that investigates paranormal mys teries. Pallas and both of her co-hosts also experienced bouts of amnesia followed by an enhancement of their paranormal abilities, and they hope their podcast will help them uncover the truth about what happened to them. Pallas and Ambrose quickly realize they might both have been unwilling test sub jects…but to what end? They team up and use the podcast as cover for their investigation. Pallas and Ambrose uncover evidence that indicates the murder might be a small part of a larger conspiracy involving powerful hallucinogenic drugs being tested at the sleep clinic. The relationship between Pallas and Ambrose begins with wary suspicion and evolves to friendship, but the romance between them is never more than a subplot. This book is the first in a new series, and the interesting para normal world and unsolved plotlines will keep readers clamor ing for future titles.

A richly layered mystery full of pleasing paranormal ele ments from a master of the genre.

GUNK BABY

Lau, Jamie Marina Astra House (352 pp.) $17.00 paper | Dec. 13, 2022 978-1-662-60145-3

The second novel by young Austra lian writer Lau is a maximalist caper set in the most achingly existential of mod ern locales: a suburban shopping mall.

Twenty-four-year-old Leen is adrift in her life. She and her mother settled in Par Mars, a suburb of carefully anonymizing subdivisions, when Leen was a child because they were attracted to “the tiredness of it, the bored unattractiveness of it, the lonely, antisocial nature of it, that made [them] both look inward.” Both her par ents have since moved on, and Leen is left crashing somewhat indefinitely in her friend Doms’ living room, taking courses in massage therapy, and watching analysis videos of movies on her phone. With seed money from her peripatetic father and instruction from her mother—who has recently started a “heal ing business” in Hong Kong—Leen opens an ear-cleaning and massage studio in the Topic Heights shopping center, which sits in the center of the Par Mars suburb and represents “the exact summation of every need and personality of the people residing in its hem.” Though both Par Mars and Topic Heights strive to create the impression of regulation, order, and pre dictably scaled progress, there are signs that things are starting to come loose at the seams. Vic, Doms’ Nigerian boyfriend, is beaten in the street in a possibly racially motivated attack, and the rising unrest among the low-wage workers in Topic Heights is an expression of the growing social divide between people like Peggy—the CEO of the shopping complex who facili tates drug-fueled swinger parties at her hilltop house on the coastal side of the estates—and people like Jean Paul, a nihilist

“A maximalist caper set in the most achingly existential of modern locales: a suburban shopping mall.”

pharmacy assistant who hosts social resistance meetings at the East Par Mars Community Center. As her business founders, Leen becomes increasingly involved with Jean Paul’s Resis tance Acts—which begin as essentially harmless pranks against Topic Heights management but quickly escalate into psycho logical torment and then real bodily harm—even as she starts to doubt the purity of his proletariat motives. Lau’s second novel treads similar ground as Pink Mountain on Locust Island (2020), her debut take on Gen Z alienation, but with a hyperconscious maximalism that occasionally overwhelms the reader with the equity of its attention. There is so much to see in this novel that the reader is sometimes at a loss for where to look.

Funny, bold, capacious, and more than a little exhausting— this book mirrors modern life.

MOONRISE OVER NEW JESSUP

Minnicks, Jamila Algonquin (336 pp.) $28.00 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-1-643-75246-4

A Southern community confronts the meaning of Black power.

In a warmly appealing book debut, Minnicks, winner of the 2021 PEN/ Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, considers the fraught question of integration from the perspective of an all-Black community in rural Alabama. It’s 1957, and Alice Young is on her way to Birmingham after fleeing abuse in the segregated town where she grew up. Getting off the bus to stretch her legs, she is incredulous to find herself in a place with no “WHITES ONLY signs and backdoor Negro entrances.” New Jessup, she learns, had been established by freedmen who separated from the White community “across the woods,” where they had worked “from field to house and everywhere inside.” Even after Whites tried to run the Black people of New Jessup off the land, they rebuilt and set down roots, started thriving businesses, a school, a hospital, and farms. But, Alice soon discovers, there are troubles: A growing national movement for desegregation has incited dissension. Some in New Jessup agree with the NAACP that integration will be favorable for Blacks; others, that “independence, and not mixing” is a better goal. In New Jessup, the independence movement is adopted by the National Negro Advancement Society, whose aim is “keeping folks from across the woods outta our hair and our pockets for good!” Alice would prefer to distance herself from politics, but she becomes immersed in the controversy when she falls in love with an NNAS activist. How, the NNAS asks, can separation work for Negro communities? Will integration mean equal rights—or merely upending lives for something neither Blacks nor Whites want? What is a viable path to real power? Minnicks’ impassioned characters struggle with those questions as they think about the consequences of court-mandated integration and the reality of living in a society where, Alice realizes, “not all unwelcoming is posted in the win dow at eye level.”

A thoughtful look at a complex issue.

THE DREAM BUILDERS

Mukherjee, Oindrila Tin House (384 pp.) $17.95 paper | Jan. 10, 2023 978-1-953534-63-7

Losses great and small haunt the denizens of a glittering new city in India.

In the summer of 2018, Maneka Roy, who’s lived in the U.S. for a dozen years, visits the rising and opulent city of Hri shipur to visit her father after the death

“Losses great and small haunt the denizens of a glittering new city in India.” the dream builders

of her mother. Natives of Calcutta, where they brought her up, Maneka’s parents had relocated to Hrishipur so her mother could pursue a longed-for teaching career after her husband’s retirement. (Once there, they ominously lost most of their mod est nest egg when the development including the dream apart ment they had invested in goes bust.) Maneka is drawn into the varied social circle inhabited by Ramona, an old acquaintance now living in Hrishipur. One of the “beautiful girls” back in high school, Ramona seems emblematic of the glitz and glamour of the Oz-like new city. Through a series of interlocking accounts, each told from the perspective of someone in or attached to Ramona’s orbit, Mukherjee reveals the actual forces at work behind the glamorous facade of the dream city: loneliness, frustration, classism, misogyny, economic uncertainty, jealousy, disenfranchisement…and worry. People striving to get ahead or stay afloat in Hrishipur lose much-needed jobs, fear the loss of those jobs, and fight battles with ennui and increasingly com petitive global market forces. Looming above this all, like an actual illuminated beacon, are the Trump Towers being (con tentiously) developed by a famous U.S. developer and his family.

Tensions between a traditional way of life and a more modern global approach are exemplified by Maneka’s father’s wish to return to the comforts of Calcutta. His wife’s death has left him alone in a place where he knows few and where the exclu sive malls and shops hold little allure for him. Hrishipur itself assumes a characterlike role in this narrative woven from many detailed threads.

Mukherjee artfully demonstrates that even a new civiliza tion can have its discontents.

ALL THE DARK PLACES Parlato, Terri Kensington (320 pp.) $27.00 | Dec. 27, 2022 978-1-49673-856-1

A suburban Massachusetts couple’s contented veneer is shattered by a mur der that leads to, well, some really dark places.

Her friends probably could be for given for thinking that Molly Bradley is the heroine of a cozy mystery. She lives in lovely Graybridge, Massachusetts; she works in a bookstore; she’s married to a psychologist everyone loves. Molly’s dreams of happiness end the morning after Dr. Jay Bradley’s 40th birthday party, when she awakens to find him dead on the floor of his home office, his throat cut. Det. Rita Myers, whose first-person nar rative alternates with Molly’s, naturally wants to talk to the friends who gathered for the party. But nothing said by any of

them—Molly’s BFF, Kim Pearson, and her husband, Josh; Jay’s partner, Dr. Elise Westmore, and her husband, Scott; and Jay’s hockey buddy, Cal Ferris, and his wife, Laken—can hold a candle to Molly’s own history, which was known only to Jay. Abducted as a child along with a friend and neighbor, she was imprisoned in a basement and repeatedly molested, and she’s suffered ever since from the dreadful knowledge that the other victim didn’t survive. Now the news that Jay was contacting imprisoned fel ons for a possible book and the discovery in his filing cabinet of a necklace belonging to the missing Annalise Robb threatens to bring Molly’s past crashing back into her carefully constructed present. And the phone calls she gets from someone claiming to know all about that basement and determined to return her to captivity force her sorrow at not having children, and even her grief about her husband, into supporting roles as she struggles to take charge of her own life.

A creepy debut most notable for the nightmares it finds beneath apparently untroubled surfaces.

“A creepy debut most notable for the nightmares it finds beneath apparently untroubled surfaces.”

SEVEN EMPTY HOUSES

Schweblin, Samanta Trans. by Megan McDowell Riverhead (208 pp.) $25.00 | Oct. 18, 2022 978-0-525-54139-4

Empty homes, emptied lives, and emp tying memories: Life’s—particularly family life’s—many emptinesses and emptyings abound in this ethereal collection.

Although its original Spanish pub lication preceded that of Little Eyes (2020), the author’s most recent translation into English, this collection may feel like a progression from McDowell’s translations of Schweblin’s other works, which dwell more squarely in the fantastic and the spec ulative, often pushing into nightmare territory, and into a qui eter, more human-centered and realism-bound world—though one thrumming with just as much eerie tension, as Schweblin evokes the uncanny in the human rather than placing the human in the uncanny. In “None of That,” a woman finally discovers an appreciation for her mother’s unusual pastime. In “My Parents and My Children,” a man confronts an uncomfortable situation he has been drawn into with his ex-wife and her new boyfriend when she asks him to bring his probably unsound and decid edly nudist parents to visit their children at a rented vacation home. A neighbor considers what might be driving a recurring cycle in “It Happens All the Time in This House,” where the woman next door throws her late son’s clothes over their fence and her husband comes, unfailingly, to retrieve them. “Breath From the Depths,” the collection’s emotional pinnacle, intro duces Lola, a paranoid and housebound elderly woman who’s outlasted her will to live and her capacity to do anything about it, as her memory empties alongside the contents of her home.

“Forty Centimeters Squared” finds an unnamed woman, after moving away to Spain, returned to Buenos Aires, her belong ings packed in a storage unit and with no home to call her own.

“An Unlucky Man” follows a girl whose younger sister’s antics have resulted in a trip to the hospital, where she is forgotten and ignored until she meets the unluckiest man in the world in the waiting room, who takes her on a birthday adventure that ends badly but might easily have ended even worse. And, finally, in “Out,” a woman steps out of the morass of what appears to be a failing relationship and, for a moment, into new possibilities, guided by a mysterious maintenance man who claims to have been fixing her building’s fire escape—a self-described escapist.

Seven compelling explorations of vacancy in another per fectly spare and atmospheric translation.

TWO STEPS ONWARD

Simsion, Graeme & Anne Buist Text (368 pp.)

$14.95 paper | Dec. 6, 2022 978-1-922458-86-5

After one of them is diagnosed with a terminal illness, friends and lovers reconnect as they take on a pilgrimage to Rome.

Three years ago, Zoe, an American cartoonist from San Francisco, and Mar tin, an English engineer from Sheffield, met and fell in love while walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela from France to Western Spain. Ultimately, Zoe couldn’t give up her life in America, and they parted as friends. Now, Zoe is back in France, about to take another journey with her college friend Camille, who has just found out she has multiple sclerosis. This time, they’ll be walking the Chemin d’Assise to Rome, where Camille hopes to see the pope. Thanks to some miscommunication,

they’re joined by Martin; his 20-year-old daughter, Sarah; and Bernhard, a college student who walked the Camino with them. Gilbert, Camille’s now not-so-ex-husband, is also along for the hike. With almost a thousand miles to go to Rome, there’s plenty of time for relationships to grow and wither while feelings long unspoken make their ways to the surface. In this follow-up to Two Steps Forward (2018), the husband-and-wife writing team of Simsion and Buist again divide the book into alternating chap ters told from Zoe’s and Martin’s points of view. Unfortunately, most of Zoe’s and Martin’s character growth happened in the previous book, and characters with weightier journeys, such as Sarah, Camille, and Gilbert, are tragically overlooked. An emphasis, for better or for worse, is put on practicality when it comes to emotions, and that seems to sum up most of the writing: The bones of the story are there, but the feelings sur rounding them seem to be stripped away. The descriptions of the towns and inns the characters stay in along the way are vivid, but the pilgrims themselves are drab.

A scenic yet tepid tale.

MARGOT

Steavenson, Wendell Norton (288 pp.) $28.95 | Jan. 24, 2023 978-1-324-02084-4

Journalist-turned-novelist Steavenson follows a young woman’s quest for fulfill ment from a privileged, unhappy child hood through graduation from Radcliffe in 1968.

The author skillfully sets the scene with 8-year-old Margot Thornsen’s fall from a treehouse. Her self-absorbed mother’s reaction to the diagnosis of a concus sion? “Don’t whine,” she tells her weeping daughter as the wound is stitched shut. Once-bold, adventurous Margot is transformed overnight into a cautious, fearful child, though this seems an inevitable reaction to Mother’s constant criticism. Margot’s growth spurt to 6 feet is viewed by Peggy Vanderloep Thornsen as one more impediment to her finding a suitable husband, along with the girl’s mystifying interest in science and regrettable tendency to do well in school. Steavenson depicts her characters with very broad strokes, and the 1950s and ’60s landscape is decidedly generic, but her portrait of the post–WWII American upper class, on the brink of change but still implacably bound to old ways, is unquestionably compel ling. Margot’s fascination with biochemistry, which blossoms at Radcliffe into a determination to pursue a career as a scien tist, is as credible and engaging as her ongoing infatuation with Trip Merryweather, the boy from the mansion next door. For ever keeping Margot on a string while he pursues prettier girls, Trip is one of the many strongly delineated secondary charac ters. They include Trip’s much more sympathetic older brother, Richie, a medical student; Margot’s free-spirited friend Maddy, whom Richie helps get a safe though illegal abortion; and Sandy Full, who casts a sardonic eye on the cluelessness of the privi leged from his vantage point as the son of someone who “mar ried the help.” The extent to which Margot is enclosed by this world can be judged by her thought when Sandy says he’s from Philly. “Frilly? Was that somewhere in Connecticut?” Her lib eration from this stifling cocoon is only partially complete, as the novel ends with her departure for London, leaving behind a whole lot of unfinished business that blatantly signals there will be a sequel.

There’s little new in this familiar coming-of-age tale, but it’s extremely readable and has an appealing protagonist.

the upper country

IN THE UPPER COUNTRY

Thomas, Kai Viking (352 pp.) $27.00 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-0-593-48950-5

A killing in 19th-century Canada sparks a chain of revelations in this fine debut novel.

It’s the summer of 1859 in a town in southern Canada called Dunmore, “popu lated by refugees of slavery.” Lensinda Martin is a housekeeper, a newspaper reporter, and a young Black woman with healing knowledge who is asked to help a White Ohioan shot by one of the two women he’s been hunting under the auspices of the Fugitive Slave Act. Sinda arrives too late to save him, but she interviews Cash, the shooter, in jail, seeking a backstory that will bolster the woman’s legal case. Instead, Cash asks her: “Will you barter with me? A tale for a tale?” So begins a beguiling exchange

of personal stories that will draw surprising links between Sinda and Cash while dipping into slave narratives that highlight histor ical relations between Blacks and Native Americans, especially in the War of 1812. In one such tale, a young slave in Virginia named Chiron is led to “the underlands, a Negro village of warriors” built entirely from underground tunnels and chambers. Chiron will meet a Native American named John whose journal will provide some of these stories and whose Black wife is young Cash. Other Native Americans will capture Cash and sell her into slavery in Kentucky. Two of her children will be fierce warriors in the 1812 war. Returning later to the underlands, Chiron will hear a story from its ruler, King Cullin, that is crucial to his family. Time in this novel meanders between past and present like a forest path, and the narratives drift back and forth across the U.S.–Canada border. The harshly real and the fantastic mingle in ways that recall Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Water Dancer and Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black. What’s most impressive is Thomas’ imagina tive power; sure-handed, often lyrical prose; and strong, complex, resilient women.

An exceptional work that mines a rich historical vein.

adult

“A killing in 19th century Canada sparks a chain of revelations in this fine debut novel.”

THE LONG WAY OUT Wiley, Michael Severn House (240 pp.) $29.99 | Jan. 3, 2023 978-1-4483-0984-9

After a five-year hiatus that Wiley devoted to franchise hero Sam Kelson, ex-con Franky Dast returns for another shot at getting his life straightened out and incidentally solving some murders.

It’s easy to see why the author’s left Franky to stew in the Florida heat for so long. Even though he didn’t commit the heinous crimes for which Police Det. Bill Higby sent him to death row, he’s not exactly likable. When Alejandra Soto asks him to look into the sudden disappearance of her 14-year-old daughter, he declines and doesn’t change his mind until Antonia Soto’s found shot to death in Clapboard Creek. Higby and his somewhat less hostile partner, Lt. Det. Deborah Holt, are convinced the killer is Carlos Medina, the

older boyfriend who got Antonia pregnant. But Franky thinks the murder is the work of someone with a deeper animus, and his suspicions are fueled by racist city councilman Randall Lehmann, whom he knocks down at a pro-immigration rally staged by attorney Demetrius Jones as the TV cameras roll. None of this endears Franky to his old nemesis, who’s uncon vinced by the murder of Kumar Mehta that all this could have something to do with race. After all, Mehta was a model South Asian, a successful man in town to visit his equally successful children. The cops don’t get it even when someone scrawls rac ist graffiti on the walls of Franky’s hotel room and ensures his ouster by tossing a Molotov cocktail at the place. The abduc tion of Cynthia, Franky’s hypermetabolic lover, kicks the case into high gear, but still not for the police.

A searing portrait of an acknowledged lowlife bent on doing God’s work.

ALL THE DANGEROUS THINGS

Willingham, Stacy Minotaur (336 pp.) $27.99 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-1-2508-0385-6

A bereaved mother’s year of sleepless nights is turned even more dire by per colating revelations about her past and present.

Isabelle Drake, a lifestyle reporter for The Grit who turned freelancer so that she could marry Grit publisher Ben Drake without rais ing too many eyebrows, hasn’t slept through the night since her 18-month-old son, Mason, was snatched from his crib as his parents snoozed a few yards away. She’s been so tireless in purs ing leads, even breaking the nose of a supermarket cashier she suddenly learned had a record, that Det. Arthur Dozier of the Savannah Police Department has tuned her out and warned her off the case. Exhausted from touring true-crime conventions across the region, publicizing the tale of her lost boy and the breakup of her marriage that followed, Isabelle agrees to tell her story at length to podcaster Waylon Spencer so that he can spread it more widely while she searches for sleep. But his ques tions are so unsettling that she begins to wonder if she was the one responsible for Mason’s disappearance—and what her role might have been in a family calamity more than 20 years ear lier that was likely papered over because her father was a South Carolina congressman from a long line of congressmen. The windup is anything but tidy, for the multiple mysteries end up requiring multiple culprits. No matter: Willingham is so relent less in linking Isabelle’s sleeplessness to her deepening sense of waking nightmare that fans can expect some seriously sleepless nights themselves.

“People love violence—from a distance,” reflects the pro tagonist. This one’s for readers who can love it up close.

small world

SMALL WORLD

Zigman, Laura Ecco/HarperCollins (304 pp.) $27.99 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-0-06-308828-3

Two adult siblings move in together and struggle to come to terms with the long-ago loss of their disabled sister and their own troubled relationship.

Like most siblings, the middle-aged Mellishman sisters at the heart of Zig man’s amusing yet poignant new novel have chapters of history propping them up and weighing them down. Newly divorced Joyce, an archivist in Cambridge, is getting used to solitude again, whiling away her time on a neighborhood site called Small World, turning her neighbors’ queries and complaints into strange but potent poetry. The act, she says, is therapeutic—and also easier than addressing the nagging questions about her own life. When Lydia, her older sister, leaves LA for the East Coast, Joyce invites

her to move in for a while, secretly hoping proximity will force them to forge a bond they never quite managed to build. But they still can’t seem to communicate or talk about their past. Their childhoods were laser-focused on Eleanor, their severely disabled sister, who died at 10. But although Eleanor’s life was short, her impact was lasting, especially on her sisters, who learned to hide their own fears and problems in order to focus on hers. Zigman, who excels at depicting the emotional push and pull of sibling relationships, examines the conflicts and grief that play out in a family dealing with a disabled child with compassion and hon esty. Yet she never loses her sharp sense of humor, as evidenced by the hilarious ongoing war between Joyce and her new upstairs neighbors, who seem to be running a yoga studio. As she reveals secrets previously unknown to Joyce, Zigman doesn’t shy away from discussing the hardships the Mellishmans faced, but she also highlights small moments of wonder and joy that illuminate the sisters’ shared path. The world might feel small, Joyce learns, but the power of hope always looms large.

A compassionate, often funny examination of shared fam ily grief and love.

“A compassionate, often funny examination of shared family grief and love.”

mystery

KNITS, KNOTS, AND KNIVES Caldwell, Emmie Berkley (288 pp.)

$8.99 paper | Dec. 6, 2022 978-0-593-10172-8

A Civil War reenactment is turned deadly by the discovery that a body on the battlefield isn’t just acting.

History comes to life with the annual celebration of the Battle of Crandalsburg, complete with Civil War reenactors pre senting live action role play of the battle.

While some of the roles folks have chosen seem a little con trived by their inflated sense of importance—like that of Arden Sprouse, who claims his Capt. Anderson is a newly discovered

forebear—it’s all in good fun, and people are excited to show off their ability to capture the era. Lia Geiger, who sells her custom knitwear at the Crandalsburg Craft Fair, enjoys taking in the pre-battle sights with her fellow vendors and the Ninth Street Knitters. She’s needed a little more excitement in her life since her daughter, Hayley, left the nest to live on her own and work at the Weber Alpaca Farm. Lia’s been stalled since the death of her husband, Tom, and though even Hayley suggests that it’s time to move on, Lia isn’t ready to get close to anyone, not even when town police chief Pete Sullivan wants to turn their friendship into something more. But she gets a whole lot closer to Pete when she discovers that one of the reenactors on the battlefield isn’t just playing dead, and the two of them team up to get to the bottom of what’s happened.

A mild mystery with little to object to or dig into.

HIDE

Clark, Tracy Thomas & Mercer (384 pp.) $16.99 paper | Jan. 1, 2023 978-1-5420-3757-0

A Chicago cop still mourning her late partner transfers to a new precinct just in time to catch a truly creepy case.

There’s no question of Det. Harriet Foster returning from two months’ leave to her old precinct, which is haunted by her memories of Det. Glynnis Thompson from before and after her suicide. When Sgt. Sharon Griffin, her new boss, partners her with Det. Jim Lonergan, aptly describing him as a service able asshole, the two tackle the fatal stabbing of DePaul student Peggy Birch, an activist working to reform the police force, on the Riverwalk. Lonergan naturally assumes that Keith Ainsley, the Northwestern student found unconscious a few feet from the body, is responsible, but Harriet is less ready to sweat Ains ley, partly because, like him, she’s Black, partly because Loner gan puts her back up. No sooner has the forensic lab announced that the blood on Ainsley’s clothes isn’t Peggy’s than a second corpse turns up, this one sporting the patch of Peggy’s blood that Lonergan had longed to find on Ainsley. A third murder makes it seem more likely that a serial killer who preys on redhaired women is at work. As psychiatrist Mariana Silva inserts herself into the case with a persistence that doesn’t bode well for her own life span, a succession of cutaways to the twins Bodie and Amelia Morgan—whose father, accountant Tom Morgan, felt compelled years ago to kill a series of redheads—broadly implies that the new murders are very much a family affair. But which member of the family?

Solid, unspectacular work from a writer who knows the dark side of the Windy City.

THE BIG BUNDLE

Collins, Max Allan Hard Case Crime (304 pp.) $22.99 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-1-78909-852-5

A real-life 1953 abduction sends vet eran fictional Chicago shamus Nathan Heller to Kansas City and far beyond. Whoever snatched 6-year-old Bobby Greenlease from his school is exasperat ingly dumb. By the time Bob Greenlease, the wealthy owner of a chain of Cadillac dealerships, calls Heller in on the case, the kidnappers have already sent several garbled messages with unclear directions about how to drop off the record $600,000 ransom they’ve demanded and haven’t shown any inclination to pick up. Green lease’s faith that Heller’s matchless underworld connections will turn up a new angle pays off in a tip Heller gets from cab drivers’ union rep Barney Baker, a former bouncer for Bugsy

Siegel. Barney tells Heller that top-flight St. Louis mobster Joe Costello has been approached by Steve Strand, an insurance agent looking for a “real nice girl” for the night and a way to launder some serious money. Could it be the Greenlease ran som? Heller makes contact with Costello, who’s as hard-nosed as you’d expect; with Strand, who’s one slippery customer; and with Sandy O’Day, that real nice girl. Students of history, or read ers who’ve peeked ahead into Collins’ entertainingly detailed appendix, will know that things won’t end well for most of them. And they’ll be surprised to find Heller, five years after half the ransom money disappears, invited back on the case by Rackets Committee chief counsel Robert F. Kennedy, whose money he won’t take, and Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa, whose money he will. Neither Heller nor Collins supplies the closure Bob Greenlease longs for; this case unfolds more like a maze of Midwestern fleshpots than a whodunit.

In the words of the character who has the most to lose, “It’s been like something out of the Marx Brothers.”

BAKE OFFED

Corrigan, Maya Kensington (304 pp.)

$8.99 paper | Nov. 29, 2022 978-1-4967-3457-0

A mystery fanfest makes the perfect place for murder.

Cafe manager Val Deniston is help ing her best friend, organizer Bethany O’Shay, as a volunteer at the Maryland Mystery Fan Fest. Also on hand is Val’s grandfather Don Myer, known for his five-ingredient recipe col umn and his sleuthing abilities, which have often gotten both of them in trouble. A rare Nero Wolfe recipe collection Granddad finds in his attic includes the perfect recipe for him to use in the festival’s baking contest. Everyone attending is a mystery fan, and many dress in costume. So of course, lots of them think it’s part of the festival when a real murder occurs. First, bake-off contestant Cynthia Sweet gets a vaguely threatening

note. Then, someone steals Granddad’s recipe box. Finally, Val’s awakened by a whistling teakettle. When she enlists a security guard to check on Cynthia, they find her dead in her bed. Cyn thia wasn’t exactly universally beloved, and the family of her late husband had a particularly good reason to want her dead before the date on which she would inherit a pile of money. The beau tiful family poison ring Cynthia flaunted makes Val wonder if poison was what killed her. The sheriff’s deputy assigned to the case, knowing that Val is a bit of a sleuth, mentions that Cynthia is the second person to die alone in the hotel—the first murder remains unsolved. Once murder is confirmed, there’s no dearth of sleuths seeking to solve the complicated case.

Granddad is a hoot, and a clever method of faking an alibi adds to the fun.

THROUGH THE LIQUOR GLASS Fox, Sarah Kensington (304 pp.) $26.00 | Nov. 29, 2022 978-1-4967-3403-7

When a food critic is killed, a Ver mont pub owner is determined to keep her boyfriend from becoming a suspect.

Sadie Coleman is just about to lose it when she sees food writer Dominique Girard in her pub. Could this be her time to get the Inkwell to stand out? Or will it mean some sort of doom? Dominique wrote a damning review of former local restaurateur George Keeler’s place that the owner blames for it going bottoms-up not long after. And George wasn’t too shy to let Dominique know that it’s all her fault. Sadie doesn’t want to worry about Dominique too much because she’s already anxiously anticipating her mother’s upcoming visit and what judgments she might bring. Not only will her mother be visit ing the new home Sadie’s chosen, but she’ll be meeting Sadie’s boyfriend, Grayson Blake, for the very first time. If her mother doesn’t like Grayson, Sadie knows she’ll just crumble, because he’s such an incredible new part of her life, as she helpfully reminds readers at every turn. Sadie’s trying to keep calm as she worries what’s next when the unthinkable happens: Dominique is dispatched—murdered! What’s even worse is that the police suspect her Grayson, who Sadie absolutely knows wouldn’t harm a fly. Now Grayson’s on the run, evading the cops and hid ing out, which Sadie thinks completely unfair because it means they aren’t having any quality time together. Maybe if she can figure out who really offed Dominique Sadie can get her rela tionship with Grayson back on track. After all, that’s what mat ters most.

Solid writing, content not so much.

death in the margins

DEATH IN THE MARGINS Gilbert, Victoria Crooked Lane (336 pp.) $26.99 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-1-63910-130-6

When an unpopular dancer is mur dered, an amateur sleuth sets out to find the killer.

Dancer Richard Muir, the husband of library director Amy Muir, is stag ing a production featuring local talent. Though the performers range from children to professionals, Richard’s only real problem is Meredith Fox, whose excellent dancing abilities are undermined by her abrasive personality and her jealousy of other dancers. In the past, she’d dumped Richard to enter into a disastrous—and short-lived—marriage with the wealthy dancer Nate Broyhill, and now she’s insulted an autistic child, and she’s had bad relationships with plenty of others. When Amy finds young dancer Conner Vogler standing

over Meredith’s body clutching a bloody knife, she doesn’t assume he’s guilty, but the police do. Fortunately, Chief Deputy Brad Tucker is an old friend who’s willing to at least listen to her doubts. Knowing her sleuthing abilities, he encourages her to poke into other possible motives. Nate’s mother had married into the wealthy Lance family, which put up money to finance his failed dance company, leaving him at odds with his half brother, whose interests are strictly equestrian. Nate becomes a suspect when Amy recalls that she’d seen him loitering out side the theater. But he’s far from the only one who hated Mer edith. Amy’s researching abilities stand her in good stead as she methodically investigates possible motives.

Believable characters and a thorny mystery.

“Believable characters and a thorny mystery.”

SHOWSTOPPER

Lovesey, Peter Soho Crime (336 pp.) $27.95 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-1-641-29470-6

Superintendent Peter Diamond and Bath’s Major Crime Investigation Team struggle to figure out who’s responsible for a six-year stretch of mishaps plaguing a popular TV program.

Daisy Summerfield, the veteran performer on Swift who plays bad-girl heroine Caitlin Swift’s mobbed-up mother, is felled by a heart attack when she returns home unexpectedly and confronts a burglar. There’s no way her death can be murder, yet it draws attention to a mind-boggling series of misfortunes that have befallen Swift ever since Trixie Playfair, whom creator/producer Mary Wroxeter originally cast as Caitlin Swift, abruptly withdrew over a devastating panic attack and was replaced by glamourpuss Sabine San Sebastian in 2013, before shooting even began. An engineer’s been burned in a fire in a sound equipment van; two stuntmen were injured in a rooftop chase; assistant producer Dave Tudor has gone miss ing; Dan Burbage, who played Sgt. Monaghan, suffered perma nent brain damage in a climbing accident; and Mary Wroxeter herself died of acute alcohol poisoning, presumably from four vodkas too many. To top it off, Jacob Nicol, a rigger who’d just started to work on the production, upstages Daisy Summer field by vanishing from a location shoot at World War II airfield Charmy Down. Diamond doesn’t believe in coincidences, but he’s hard-pressed to find a pattern behind these wide-ranging calamities. Fans who join the hunt looking for a single master key may well be disappointed; Lovesey’s greatest achievement here is sifting through the wreckage of Swift to produce a logi cal motive and a culprit you really should have suspected.

Another triumph for a veteran sleuth who’s pretty unstop pable himself.

DEATH RIDES A PONY

Miller, Carol Severn House (224 pp.) $29.99 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-0-7278-5095-9

The connection a pair of mystical North Carolina sisters has with a shady realtor threatens to make the women suspects when he’s offed during a charity festival.

Summer and Hope Bailey, the owners of Bailey’s Boutique, have talents that range from knowing about mystical herbs to reading tarot and making modest predictions about the future. The specialty shop is the perfect place to sell their New Age wares and give readings to fellow Asheville resi dents like patron Rosemarie Potter and her devoted pug, Percy. But making predictions outside the shop isn’t standard practice

for either of the sisters, and they’re miffed when Gram signs them up to do palmistry at the upcoming charity festival. They’d refuse if Gram’s main motivation didn’t seem to be getting a little closer to Morris, her fellow festival organizer. After all, Summer and Hope would never stand in the way of potential romance. Besides, Summer wants someone to be lucky in love after her split from her cheating husband, whom both sisters have dubbed Shifty Gary. It’s hard to believe Shifty Gary could do worse than hold up their divorce and try to keep the house to himself, but now he’s hired Davis Scott, an equally untrustworthy realtor, to sell his and Summer’s place, and Summer fears she’s going to lose big time. Her haunches are raised not only by her history with her ex, but by a quick tarot reading Hope gives her that shows first the Five of Coins and then Death. The reading turns all too literal when Scott’s killed during the fundraising festival, making the sis ters fear that their link to the realtor will point the finger at them.

A gently paranormal setting features a story readers won’t need a crystal ball to figure out.

DEATH BY ARTS AND CRAFTS

Morgan, Alexis Kensington (336 pp.)

$8.99 paper | Dec. 27, 2022 978-1-4967-3968-1

No good deed goes unpunished when a ladies’ getaway morphs into a murder hunt.

Together with Dayna Fisk and Bridey Kyser, two of her friends, Snowberry Creek Town Council member Abby McCree uses her assignment to assist with the town’s first arts and crafts fair to check out some other nearby fairs. The women do some early Christmas shopping and meet vendors who will be coming to the Snowberry fair. At the last stop on the tour, Abby goes to check out a psychic named Madam G and gets a disturbing reading. One of the star attractions at that fair is metalworker Josiah Garth, whose niece, Jenny, talks to Abby while trying to ignore a nasty argument between Josiah and an unknown man. Meanwhile, Dayna, a potter, needs to have a talk with Wendy, her business partner. They take turns hosting their booth at fairs, and Dayna’s wares rarely sell when Wendy is in charge. When she gets back home, Abby is delighted to see her dog, Zeke, who was watched by Tripp Blackston, her tenant and burgeoning love interest. Before the Snowberry fair even opens, Tripp’s pal Gage Logan, the chief of police, and homicide detec tive Ben Earle, both of whom Abby knows from past cases, turn up to ask why her business cards were found at a crime scene— by Josiah Garth’s dead body. And when Wendy disappears, the loud argument she’d had with Dayna at the fair makes Abby’s friend a suspect. No slouch as an investigator, Abby is drawn into the case by the suspicion cast on Dayna. Tripp joins her in order to protect her and use his own skills to help solve what turns out to be a whole series of crimes.

A complex mystery replete with characters worth caring about.

“A food anthropologist stirs a messy pot of murder.”

calypso, corpses, and cooking

THE MYSTERIOUS BOOKSHOP PRESENTS THE BEST MYSTERY STORIES OF THE YEAR 2022

Ed. by Paretsky, Sara Mysterious Press (500 pp.) $28.95 | Sept. 13, 2022 978-161316-348-1

The latest in publisher Otto Pen zler’s long-running series presents 20 contemporary American mystery stories and one bonus story from 1917, with a brief but sharp introduction by Paretsky.

Paretsky argues that contrary to the oft-quoted dictum, “Write what you know,” mystery fiction gives authors license to use their imaginations liberally, often starting with their own emotions and then pushing the boundaries into the realm of what might have been if only they had been bolder, or more curious, or occasionally just plain sociopathic. Most of these stories have rather pedestrian settings. Doug Allyn’s “Kiss of Life” begins with a day at the beach. Sean Marciniak’s “October in Kauai” traces two youngsters’ scheme to leave Schenectady for a tropical paradise. Keith Lee Morris celebrates Christmas in Jacksonville, Florida, in “Sleigh Bells for the Hayride.” Joyce Carol Oates’ “Detour” has a familiar suburban setting, and Annie Reed’s “Little City Blues” uses Reno, Vegas’ less glamor ous sister, as the background for a timeworn detective trope: A private eye gets the goods on an errant spouse. Even the two overseas adventures, Tom Larsen’s “El Cuerpo en el Barril” and Colin Barrett’s “A Shooting in Rathreedane,” are set largely in police stations. And Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s “Grief Spam” unfolds over the internet. But the stories take off from their humble points of origin into spaces few would have predicted as they explore the terrain most familiar and yet most mysterious of all: the geography of the human heart.

Imaginations run loose in the best ways possible.

CALYPSO, CORPSES, AND COOKING

Reyes, Raquel V. Crooked Lane (336 pp.) $26.99 | Oct. 11, 2022 978-1-63910-106-1

A food anthropologist stirs a messy pot of murder.

After earning her doctorate in New York studying the foodways of the Carib bean, Miriam Quiñones is happy to be back in her hometown of Miami, though the gated enclave of Coral Shores has little in common with the Cuban community where she grew up. But much as she misses the sights, sounds, and colors of Hialeah, she enjoys the sense of security Coral Shores affords her husband, Robert, her preschooler, Manny, and the new little arrival she expects in May. So she’s more than a

little disconcerted to find the words HELP MURDER scrawled on the side of her house. More disconcerting yet is finding socialite Lois Pimpkin the next day lying in Miriam’s front yard with a severe wound to the head. A few days later, Miriam has a front-row seat when Sebi Malkov, chef at the Coral Shores Country Club, takes a header off the second-floor balcony and dies. By now, Hialeah is looking pretty tame. Between prepping for her two cooking shows—Cocina Caribeña on UnMundo and Abuela Approved on YouTube—and doing advance work for the charity gala her snooty mother-in-law roped her into, Miriam has no time to investigate. But as the corpses pile up, she feels she must, if only to restore the sense of peace and security her growing family deserves. A mind-boggling combination of Byz antine motives and oddball coincidences is required to solve this one.

Reyes serves up a variety of Caribbean treats that maybe should not all be on the same plate.

young adult

CITY OF FORTUNE Thompson, Victoria Berkley (320 pp.) $27.00 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-0-593-44057-5

A society lady’s past as a con artist helps right a wrong involving racehorses and grifting.

Gideon Bates may be an attorney from a society family, but his wife, Eliza beth, comes from a family of grifters. She hasn’t put her past entirely behind her but only uses her talents to help people. When racehorse owner Sebastian Nolan hires Gideon to help him arrange a dowry for his 23-year-old daughter, Irene, in order to help her find a suitable husband, he invites Gideon and his family to watch the Belmont Stakes from his box. Irene, the driving force behind Nolan’s stable, is devastated when jockey Cal Regan, whom she loves, is first the victim of a dirty racetrack trick and then is badly injured when Irene’s favorite horse, Trench, collapses during his race. Meanwhile, the Bates family hears the story of how Daniel Liv ingston, another horse owner, was once engaged to Irene’s longdead mother, Mary, who left him for Nolan, creating a lifelong feud between the two. Both men are gobsmacked when they see a woman at the track who looks just like their lost love accom panied by Elizabeth’s father, a grifter known as the Old Man. Though Irene is pregnant, she hasn’t told Cal, who’s too proud to marry her without money. So the kindhearted Elizabeth, her father, and Mary Nolan’s look-alike cook up a con that will solve the young couple’s problems. Posing as a wealthy Span ish widow who’ll claim a fortune as soon as a family dispute is solved, the look-alike borrows money from quite a few wealthy men. Elizabeth plans on giving her share of the proceeds to Irene. The things she learns about the past make her even more determined to succeed.

A delightfully informative combination of racing lore and a clever con.

BREAKING THE CIRCLE

Trow, M.J. Severn House (224 pp.) $29.99 | Jan. 3, 2023 978-0-7278-5070-6

A chronically curious Egyptologist helps Scotland Yard catch a serial killer.

A brief opening scene in which Muriel Fazakerly drowns in her bowl of mulliga tawny soup sets the tone for this romp, a cross between a Marplesque cozy and a Holmes-ian puzzle. Elsewhere, Margaret Murray is dreading a scheduled meeting with her publisher over her upcoming book, Elementary Egyptian Grammar, while DS Andrew Crawford celebrates a criminal conviction with his boss, Inspector John Kane, before beginning to investigate the murder of Muriel,

aka Madame Ankhara, who was a charismatic medium. Retired inspector Edmund Reid lures Margaret with his interest in the case; the ankh in Ankhara works on her like catnip. Murray and Crawford worked together in Four Thousand Days (2022) and have become friends, so he welcomes her involvement in the investigation. The game is barely afoot when the clever killer claims another victim, Evadne Principal, another medium killed via comestibles, in this case almonds laced with cyanide. The rambling plot is kept afloat by detours into Margaret’s Egyptian scholarship and by a huge cast of colorful supporting charac ters. Trow’s penchant for plummy names—Lucinda Twelvetrees, Henrietta Plinlimmon, Alexander Dunwoody, Flinders Petrie, and many more—infuses the tale with a welcome buoyancy, as does the knowledge that the daring and resourceful Margaret is based on a real person. One more medium is well done (in) on the way to a final solution.

A brisk, waggish whodunit with a veddy British flavor.

HER LESSONS IN PERSUASION

Frampton, Megan Avon/HarperCollins (384 pp.)

$9.99 paper | Jan. 24, 2023

978-0-06-322418-6

A young woman who dreams of being an astronomer wants nothing to do with marriage.

Lady Wilhelmina Bettesford is 24 years old and firmly on the shelf—by design. She plans to move to the coun tryside with her widowed aunt, leaving London and the dreary demands of the aristocracy behind. One evening, while attempting to observe the stars from a bridge, she is “rescued” by barrister Bram Townsend, who thought she was planning to jump to her death. Bram and Wilhelmina feel an instant connection but assume they will never see each other again. Then, Wilhelmina’s plans go awry when her father arrives home with Alethea, his new 19-year-old bride. Although Wilhelmina expects the girl to be an evil stepmother, Alethea is a complex and interesting character, albeit one who is deter mined to find Wilhelmina a husband. When the family attends a fundraiser for the Devenaugh Home for Destitute Boys, Wil helmina finds herself face to face with Bram. He and his four best friends were raised in the orphanage and support the institution, hoping to make life better for the abandoned chil dren living there. Alethea suggests that Bram should pretend to court Wilhelmina, which will make her a more attractive prospect to the men of her own titled class. They agree, each for their own reasons: Bram hopes to be promoted to judge, and he can use the scheme to make connections to London’s

back in a spell

elite, while Wilhelmina hopes to keep the suitors at bay until she comes into her inheritance. The plot is a sweet, slow burn with no conflict, just two people who gradually figure out they are perfect for each other. Bram and Wilhelmina must each reevaluate their long-held beliefs about marriage and partner ship with the help of friends and family who recognize they are meant to be together.

Charming and placid.

BACK IN A SPELL

Harper, Lana Berkley (336 pp.)

$16.99 paper | Jan. 3, 2023

978-0-593-33610-6

Reeling from heartbreak, a witch finds new love with someone entirely unexpected and has to decide who she truly wants to be.

Nineve “Nina” Blackmoore steps into the spotlight in the third install ment of the Witches of Thistle Grove series. Dumped by her fiancee, Nina feels unmoored, and the winter season is adding to the blues. She is convinced by her best friend to go on a lowstakes date to get back into the groove, and bar owner Morty Gutierrez, pansexual like Nina and fluid with his gender expres sion, fits the bill. Although they’re attracted to each other, the date doesn’t go well. But the next day, when Morty—hitherto unaware of the existence of witches—wakes up with magical ability and Nina’s own magic is inexplicably stronger, the pair are thrown together once more. As they explore these new powers, their feelings grow, and Nina starts to evaluate other relationships in her life. The delightful lore of charming This tle Grove continues to grow in this evocatively written story, although this tale is quieter than the previous installments, with most of the focus on internal emotions, personal growth, and response to trauma. The bond between Nina and Morty allows them to experience the other’s emotions, which amplifies their connection and also makes the bedroom scenes sublimely hot. While the romance is important, the meaningful and inspiring broader story is of Nina learning about herself and choosing what to stand up for.

Another enchanting visit to Thistle Grove.

LOATHE TO LOVE YOU

Hazelwood, Ali Berkley (384 pp.)

paper | Jan. 3, 2023

A trio of contemporary romance novellas featuring engineers getting their happily-ever-afters.

Hazelwood’s STEMinist novellas, a loosely linked trilogy originally published

separately over the course of 2022, now arrive packaged together with an exclusive bonus chapter that checks in on the couples as they settle into their romantic lives. In Under One Roof, envi ronmental engineer Mara and corporate lawyer Liam are unlikely roommates, as confirmed by their frequent butting of heads. Their main point of contact: the thermostat. Helena, who was Mara’s former mentor and Liam’s aunt, left Mara half of her Wash ington, D.C., house upon her death, meaning Mara and Liam have to share it unless one of them agrees to let the other buy them out—and neither is prepared to do that. In Stuck With You, Sadie and Erik are two engineers who work in the same New York City building but for different companies. They previously had a fling, and their residual feelings bubble to the surface when they get stuck in an elevator together. Lastly, in Below Zero, aerospace engineer Hannah is stranded in the Arctic with Ian, the man she feels is responsible for nearly ruining her expedition. However, he seems to be the only one willing to put his life on the line to get the two of them to safety. Forced proximity and frustrating miscommunication are the unifying themes across all three sto ries. While the characters may blur together in a mix-and-match

“A witch finds new love with someone entirely unexpected and has to decide who she truly wants to be.”

whirlwind of nerdy-and-feminine meets broody-and-masculine descriptors, the settings add some variety, starting in an urban house and ending in the Arctic. The heroines all feel slighted by the heroes in some way, whether it’s because they work for a large firm instead of a startup or because they expressed concern about their research projects. Together, the three novellas feel like rinse-and-repeat, and the collection as a whole is a bit like cotton candy: fluffy, sweet, but ultimately forgettable.

A convenient collection for Hazelwood fans, but it prob ably won’t grab new readers.

LUNAR LOVE

Jessen, Lauren Kung Forever (336 pp.) $15.99 paper | Jan. 10, 2023 978-1-538-71025-8

Two warring matchmakers vie to make one another fall in love in this debut romance.

The key to finding the perfect match is written in the stars—at least according to Olivia Huang Christenson, the newly appointed Chief Executive of Love. Her family has shaped their decades-old matchmaking business, Lunar Love, around using the Chinese zodiac to make compatible pairings. Ever since her Pó Po—whose matchmaking success rate sits astro nomically high—left the company to her, Liv has made it her mission to carry on the family tradition. Taking on the role of Head Matchmaker is easier said than done, however, especially with realtors knocking on the door of their Chinatown office and the company’s income sinking. On top of that, Liv’s own love life is practically nonexistent…that is, until a fateful run-in with a handsome cocktail-bun thief at Lucky Monkey Bakery. Like her, Bennett O’Brien is mixed race with Chinese heritage, and just as Liv begins to imagine a future with him, she discov ers that he’s the creator of a new, numbers-based matchmaking app called ZodiaCupid. Not only does Bennett’s app threaten to put Lunar Love out of business, he’s also a Rat—the most incompatible sign to her Horse. When they end up featured on the same podcast, Liv challenges Bennett to a contest: She says Lunar Love can help him find true love faster than ZodiaCupid can find a match for her, with the ultimate prize of social media exposure and guaranteed new clients. Can Liv put aside her beliefs about incompatibility and algorithms in time to realize that opposites do, in fact, attract? Jessen’s debut excels at explaining the history of the Chinese zodiac and throwing in fun matchmaking tidbits (did you know Rembrandt was born during the Year of the Horse?), but, unfortunately, the romance falls flat. Liv is often unkind and paranoid toward Bennett, and the sweet, cozy moments of their courtship are overshadowed by her constant scheming to sabotage his company.

An uneven rom-com that offers readers a match not made in heaven.

EXES & O’S

Lea, Amy Berkley (400 pp.) $16.99 paper | Jan. 10, 2023 978-0-593-33659-5

After being dumped by her fiance, a romance Bookstagrammer decides to revisit her past relationships to see if she can discover a second-chance spark.

Tara Chen is a Boston nurse who’s always been in love with romance novels, and she shares her love through videos on Instagram and Tik Tok. Her track record with real-life romance, on the other hand, is way less successful. Exhausted by the ups and downs of mod ern dating, she decides not to look forward to a new potential relationship but back...to every single one of her ex-boyfriends. The hope is that she’ll be able to rekindle something worth pursuing, especially since her most recent engagement ended in a devastating fashion. Meanwhile, there’s the issue of her new roommate, Trevor Metcalfe, a tattooed firefighter with a love-’em-and-leave-’em mentality. He doesn’t want Tara mak ing friends with his one-night stands, and he definitely doesn’t get her romance-novel obsession, but he does offer to be the wingman she needs in her journey to reconnect with one of her exes. The more time they spend together, though, the more Tara realizes that the perfect guy might not be one of those former boyfriends, and even she can’t deny the power of the forced-proximity trope. Lea’s follow-up to Set on You (2022) is a hilarious, relatable exploration of life and love, filled to brim ming with soft moments, small gestures, and a clear love of the romance genre itself—all of which adds up to a rewarding con clusion for any reader.

A comically delightful romance about how the best love stories are found where you least expect them.

nonfiction

A PROS AND CONS LIST FOR STRONG FEELINGS A Graphic Memoir

Betke Brunswick, Will Tin House (168 pp.) $18.95 paper | Nov. 15, 2022 978-1-953534-45-3

A nonbinary cartoonist reflects on queerness, a quirky but loving relation ship with their parents, and the untimely death of their mother.

Reimagining their family as penguins and their friends as a menagerie of birds, Colorado-based cartoonist Betke-Bruns wick depicts 10 life-changing months in their teens when the life they knew was suddenly changed forever when their mother, Mumin, was diagnosed with cancer. At first, the author’s griev ing disbelief led them to seek solace in childhood memories and jigsaw puzzles. Mumin declined slowly but never once felt sorry for her condition. When she saw a friend also suffering from cancer wheel by on a walker, she joked that “maybe [we] should race each other.” Wearing a portable chemotherapy pack she nicknamed Baby Igor, she went to the hairdresser for a “short and tidy” haircut rather than a wig or scarf to hide her hair loss. Betke-Brunswick also recalled her encouragement of their artistic pursuits and the gently accepting way Mumin revealed how she was aware of the author’s sexuality. In her view, it was up to them to educate the loving but short-sighted father, who “thought we were raising a lesbian,” about nonbi nary identity. Eventually, he accepted Betke-Brunswick for who they are, at one point calling himself a “pretty sensitive, femme, heterosexual, bear-type guy” in an awkward show of solidarity. Nearing the end of her life, Mumin urged Betke-Brunswick to spend a semester abroad in New Zealand even if it meant never being able to see her again. The simple, sketchlike, pen-and-ink

child’s drawings add an extra level of poi

during a

of

to an at-times difficult story

of profound personal loss. This

is as much a celebration of differ

of family

literary theory in action

Like any dutiful English major, I spent countless hours in college buried in often dense, occasionally impenetrable literary theory, from formalism to cultural studies to postmodernism to New Criticism. While each school of thought at least partially illuaminated the me chanics of great literature, by the end of my senior thesis defense, I was burned out.

When I moved to New York City and started working at Kirkus, most of my attention turned to more popular literature and less esoteric subjects, the mainstream fiction and nonfiction that we review in the magazine. Nonetheless, I occasionally get the itch to really dig into a particular book and flex some of those dormant lit-crit muscles. In that vein, I’m excited about two November books of scholarly criti cism about two canonical yet very different works of literature.

Few words these days evoke more sputtering outrage and misunderstanding than socialism or, worse, communism—which is why China Miéville’s new book, A Spectre, Haunting (Haymarket Books, Nov. 1), arrives right on time. In this meticulously con structed investigation of The Communist Manifesto, Miéville deliver what our starred review calls a “passionate argument for [its] continued, urgent rel evance.” Though Miéville is best known for his awardwinning speculative fiction, he is also a Marxist and expert on international relations. Even if nonscholars may struggle with such terms as fissiparous and imbri cated, Miéville’s book is well worth the mental effort.

Our reviewer astutely points out that “his argument is persuasive, pointing to such contemporary phenom ena as America’s ‘vicious, racialized carceral regime’ as evidence of capitalism’s ‘excrescences’—and its sin ister ‘adaptability.’ ” The author convincingly shows that the Manifesto still has much to teach us, especially given the increasingly deleterious effects of late-stage

capitalism and the corruption of the concept of popu lism in recent years.

Another book that boasts an enduring—and sometimes con troversial—legacy is Art Spie gelman’s Maus: A Survivor’s Tale In a new anthology of criticism about its importance, Maus Now: Selected Writings (Pantheon, Nov. 15), editor Hillary Chute “curates a collection that draws on works from around the world (includ ing pieces translated from Ger man and Hebrew for the first time) and different disciplines (journalism, literary criticism, philosophy, psychology).”

At a time when book banning is on the rise—and, indeed, the very nature of truth is under attack—this omnibus investigates relevant questions, according to our review: “What does it mean to translate such a uniquely devastating experience into the form of a comic? What is the relationship between the artist and his subject and between father and son? Is it un seemly for such a work to provide entertainment or even meaning in the wake of the Holocaust, not to mention profit and prestige for its creator? How can the creator re-create something he was too young to experience, despite interviews and extensive research?”

To be sure, there’s some ivory-tower pretension scattered throughout the book. But while “the exhaus tive obsessiveness of Maus criticism seems by now to have transcended the Joycean level,” as our reviewer points out, “the contributors present convincing cas es that the work can bear such critical weight.” (For readers interested in digging further down that Joy cean rabbit hole, make sure to check out Spiegelman’s own Metamaus, as well.) Chute’s book, which contains a generous selection of illustrations, features such lu minaries as Ruth Franklin, Adam Gopnik, Marianne Hirsch, Alisa Solomon, and Philip Pullman, all coming together to create “a valuable resource for the cottage industry of Maus research.”

Eric Liebetrau is the nonfiction and managing editor.

PARIS AND HER CATHEDRALS

Bloch, R. Howard

Liveright/Norton (368 pp.) $32.50 | Oct. 11, 2022 978-1-63149-392-8

An exploration of six great cathe drals in Paris.

In his latest book—part travel guide, part history book, and part homage— Bloch, a professor of French and humani ties at Yale, provides a thorough account of the “monumental churches” of Saint-Denis, Notre-Dame, Chartres, Sainte-Chapelle, Amiens, and Reims, all from a vari ety of perspectives. In each case, Bloch discusses the predeces sor buildings that stood on the sites of the current cathedrals. Many of these histories are surprisingly ancient. Saint-Denis, for instance, “had been the burial place of French kings, beginning with the Frankish leader Dagobert, who died in 639.” These histories, which wind through medieval times into the Renais sance, offer intriguing tales of court politics, church power, and cultural change. Each capsule history also seems touched by two of the great enemies of Parisian cathedrals: fire and the French Revolution. Fire has been an ever present threat, most recently destroying Notre-Dame in 2019. However, the revolu tion was just as devastating for most of the cathedrals. Bloch examines the art and architecture of each cathedral in great depth, noting that the art was not merely decorative or sacred, but also practical for elucidating sermons and lessons. “In an age in which few could read or write and literacy was the sign of a clerical education, the cathedral was, in the popular phrase, ‘a poor man’s Bible’ and a teaching tool,” writes the author. “The priest preaching a sermon might illustrate his lesson by pointing to the astonishing array of sculpture and stained glass illustra tions of biblical figures and stories by which he was surrounded.” Though the text is well written and filled with meaningful information, general readers may be overwhelmed by countless descriptions of sculpture and stained glass, which tend to blur together. The book contains nearly 100 photographs.

Useful for tourists, students of French culture, and histo rians of Christianity.

WHEN MCKINSEY COMES TO TOWN

Bogdanich, Walt & Michael Forsythe Doubleday (368 pp.) $32.50 | Oct. 4, 2022 978-0-385-54623-2

Two award-winning New York Times

is no secret society shaping every major decision and determining the direction of human history. There is, how ever, McKinsey & Company.” So wrote one former McKinsey employee of an organization whose consultants develop strat egies to market share and evade legal culpabilities, playing all sides of the field whenever possible. For example, write Bog danich and Forsythe, McKinsey counseled Purdue Pharmaceu tical to boost market sales of OxyContin by organizing sales contests among reps and making claims that patients using the drug would be happier, “a suggestion health officials called ludi crous.” During the Trump years, McKinsey was also awarded millions of dollars in contracts with federal agencies specifically charged with monitoring drugs. Indeed, when Alex Azar left his job as president of Eli Lilly, the authors allege that he went to McKinsey in search of job-seeking advice and soon found employment as the secretary of Health and Human Services. The conflict-of-interest bindings with baneful substances are one thing, but it gets worse. In one damning scene, the authors depict McKinsey helping Disneyland get around the ugly acci dental death of a young customer on a ride at the same time

The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm

“A startling case study of how unchecked corporate power affects world affairs and all of us.”

when mckinsey comes to town

the company sought to lay off high-paid maintenance workers who could keep the contraptions running safely. Even more dis turbing are the authors’ revelations about McKinsey’s work to improve the reputation of the Saudi regime, taking advantage of “a political phenomenon the royal family wanted desper ately to ward off: the Arab Spring,” which was “potentially an extinction-level event for the royal family.” The company, the authors show clearly and disturbingly, suggested the regime give the impression of modernizing by, say, allowing women to drive while cracking down on dissent—which likely led to the mur der of journalist Jamal Khashoggi within the Saudi consulate in Turkey in 2018.

A startling case study of how unchecked corporate power affects world affairs—and all of us.

REMEMBER ME NOW

A Journey Back to Myself and a Love Letter to Black Women Brooks, Faitth WaterBrook (224 pp.) $22.00 | Jan. 17, 2023 978-0-593-19415-7

A Black, Christian activist tells her story “straight from my soul.”

During the pandemic, writes Brooks, an anti-racism educator, she was raped by a man she met on a dating app. At first, she only allowed her self to confront her feelings at selective times that didn’t inter fere with her professional life. “I struggled to look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘I was sexually assaulted.’ It took me almost a year to say, ‘I was raped.’ It was my way of compartmental izing this traumatic event.” However, she soon found herself overwhelmed by her emotions and unable to cope. “When you experience the pain of sexual assault...when you try to out run it, it always catches up to you,” she writes. In addition to the trauma of being assaulted, Brooks realized she also had to cope with the daily struggle of being a Black woman in Amer ica, which included the intense grief she felt over the lack of attention paid to the murders of Black women like Breonna Taylor. The author frames her healing journey with her life story, beginning with her family’s move from supportive Black enclaves in Chicago and Dallas to the much Whiter Houston suburbs, and continuing with her time studying at a Christian college and working as a social worker for foster youth. Brooks writes that reflecting on her past has helped her to realize the importance of self-love. At its best, the text is vulnerable, ear nest, and formally inventive: Brooks uses poetry and letters to her Black sisters to elucidate the finer points of her healing. At times, though, the author leans heavily on exposition instead of scene-setting, making it feel more like a monologue than a story. Overall, though, Brooks’ insight, compassion, and astute politi cal analysis make this memoir a worthwhile read.

A sincere and inspiring celebration of Black womanhood and coping with trauma.

ELIZABETH TAYLOR

The Grit & Glamour of an Icon Brower, Kate Andersen

Harper/HarperCollins (512 pp.) $32.50 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-0-063-06765-3

A celebrity life marked by booze, men, and incomparable fame.

Journalist Brower draws on the capa cious archives of actor and philanthro pist Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011)—7,358 letters, diary entries, articles, and personal notes and 10,271 photographs—as well as interviews with her friends and fam ily, to produce an appreciative biography of the iconic celebrity. “Elizabeth,” Brower writes, “led the most glamorous and color ful life of any movie star in the world,” appearing in 56 films and 10 TV movies. After a small part in Lassie Come Home, in 1943, she was cast as the star of National Velvet, leading to a long-term contract with MGM. Taylor chafed under an exploitative, con trolling studio system as well as her controlling mother, who was “singularly obsessed with making her daughter a star.” She escaped her family by getting married, at 18, to Nicky Hilton, son of Conrad, who turned out to be an abusive drunk. The marriage lasted less than a year. Although Brower portrays Taylor as an intelligent, feisty woman with a dry wit and pho tographic memory, she was also hard-drinking and shockingly foulmouthed. She made disastrous choices in husbands and seemed to thrive on volatility—but coveted the jewels men gave her, a massive collection that included a 69-carat diamond ring. She showered motherly attention on tormented men like Montgomery Clift and Michael Jackson but not on her own children, relegated to nannies and boarding schools. Brower chronicles Taylor’s career, illnesses, marriages, affairs, and noto riously lavish lifestyle: “In 1992, for her sixtieth birthday, Dis neyland closed for the night and a thousand of her friends were invited to celebrate.” By the 1980s, her dependency on tranquil izers, sleeping pills, painkillers, street drugs, and alcohol led to two stays at the Betty Ford Center. Brower sees the “single most defining chapter” of Taylor’s life as her decadeslong work as an AIDS activist and fundraiser.

A well-researched, gossipy portrait of a star.

TWICE AS HARD

The Stories of Black Women Who Fought To Become Physicians, From the Civil War to the 21st Century

Brown, Jasmine Beacon Press (224 pp.)

$24.95 | Jan. 24, 2023 978-0-8070-2508-6

Inspiring stories of nine Black women physicians whose barrier-breaking achieve ments changed the course of American history.

Brown, a Rhodes Scholar who is currently in medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, begins with Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831-1895), the Delaware-born niece of an herbalist who “became the first African American woman to earn a medi cal degree in the [country] only fourteen months after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation”; and May Chinn (1896-1980), the daughter of an enslaved man and a free woman who completed her medical training while accom panying musical greats like Paul Robeson. Then the author moves on to Dorothy Ferebee, whose wealthy family helped support her studies at Tufts; Edith Irby, whose community raised the funds for her to attend the University of Arkansas, where she became the first Black woman to receive a medical degree from a predominantly White institution; and Joycelyn Elders, “the first African American, and the second woman, to be appointed surgeon general” of the U.S. Throughout, Brown incorporates her own history, recounting, for example, how she saw Elders speak on a panel or how, like Lena Edwards, Brown will be the first doctor in her family. “As I embarked on this jour ney to uncover the stories of black women physicians, I learned a new truth,” writes the author. “Black women have been leaders in medicine in America for over 150 years, despite the immense barriers erected along their paths. They’ve succeeded in medi cal specialties, surgical specialties, public health, and policy while providing care for underserved communities.” At its best, this deeply researched, profoundly felt book effectively weaves personal and historical memory into a well-argued critique of American medical education. At times, the prose is clumsy, but overall, this is a promising debut from a young author.

A readable, highly relevant history of Black women physi cians in the U.S.

REMAINDERS OF THE DAY

A Bookshop Diary

Bythell, Shaun Godine (376 pp.) $27.95 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-1-56792-756-6

A bookstore owner and sometime writer muses on buying books from and selling them to a colorful cast of readers.

As he recounts, Bythell fell into used and antiquarian bookselling in Wigtown, Scotland, as a 30-year-old ex–law student. Like his two previ ous books, Diary of a Bookseller and Confessions of a Bookseller, this narrative—the third in an unofficial series derived from Bythell’s journals—contains a host of droll stories taken from a year of his professional life. The author’s days follow predict able patterns revolving around behind-the-counter sales to at times unusual patrons, order fulfillment for the Random Book Club, or acquisition hunts for tomes by obscure writers or on arcane—but surprisingly bestselling—topics like Freemasonry and heraldry. As in his other books, Bythell rails against online retail sites like Amazon, which are governed by sometimes faulty algorithms that have occasionally suspended his accounts

without apparent rhyme or reason. The author’s understated wit is at its best in his observations of the many quirky people who find their way into The Bookshop, Scotland’s largest sec ondhand bookstore. Some are new to Bythell’s world—e.g., Petra, an Austrian woman who held weekly belly-dancing classes just above the store. Others are returning characters from the author’s previous books, including “Sandy the tattooed pagan,” who “rarely leaves empty-handed,” Granny, the Italian-born bookshop clerk with a fondness for greeting Bythell with the middle finger; and Captain, the author’s scheming, dog-taunt ing cat. For all the charm inherent in the anecdotes that com prise this book, however, the overall narrative lacks some of the threads that held together his earlier books, such as his relation ship with the free-wheeling American Anna. When she does appear, Bythell speaks of her with curious detachment, barely referencing their involvement or its aftermath. This is a minor flaw, however, and the author’s thoughtful eccentricity makes for entertaining reading.

A refreshingly human narrative.

“A bookstore owner and sometime writer muses on buying books from and selling them to a colorful cast of readers.”

KOALA A Natural History and an Uncertain Future Clode, Danielle Norton (336 pp.)

$27.95 | Jan. 17, 2023

978-1-324-03683-8

Koalas are an icon of Australian wild life, but there is much more to them than meets the eye.

Even in a country filled with peculiar creatures, the koala stands out as one of the oddest. Cute and (largely) inoffensive, they attract attention from locals and tour ists alike, but there is still a great deal of mystery about their lives. Australian biologist Clode, who has long been fascinated by koalas, sets out to fill some of the gaps, combining her own observations with the work of experts and researchers. Perhaps the strangest thing about the animals is that their diet consists almost exclusively of eucalyptus leaves, which are poisonous

to most animals. However, notes the author, they have strong teeth that thoroughly grind the leaves as well as a remarkably complex liver. Clode sees koalas as a wonder of evolution in their suitability to the arboreal life. They seem to be designed for sitting in trees, with toughened skin on their rumps, and their hands—not paws, insists Clode—have an extra thumb, useful for climbing and gripping. There is, however, a downside to specialization. Even small changes to their environment can be devastating. For decades, it looked as if koalas might become extinct due to land clearing and bushfires, but laws to protect their habitats and innovative relocation programs have seen their numbers increase to sustainable levels. Some have even migrated into suburban parks. In a few areas, writes Clode, the problem is overpopulation, with so many of them that the food sources are depleted. In other areas, the numbers remain low, and the reasons are unclear. Diseases, particularly a dangerous strain of chlamydia, are a constant threat. Nevertheless, they seem to be a remarkably resilient species. In this charming and intelligent narrative, we get the sense that people will be hap pily interacting with koalas for a long time to come.

A vivid journey into a fascinating corner of the natural world.

By-the-numbers recitation of the Arkansas senator’s conservatives-good, liberals-bad reductions.

Though he writes briefly about his experiences in the Army in Iraq and Afghanistan, there’s little specificity about what he did there. The author criticizes Joe Biden for completing a withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan that completed a deal set in place by his predecessor. Naturally, there’s no criticism of Trump to be found here. The man is evi dently a superhero, and “the Trump administration treated our friends like friends and our foes like foes.” Meanwhile, whatever liberals do is bad, dating back decades. Consider the Vietnam anti-war movement, about which Cotton blusters, “Vietnam was the perfect opportunity for the New Left to act on its hatred of America. These cowards refused to fight, of course, but they did more than that. They condemned their brave fellow Ameri cans who would fight, sided with the enemy, and unleashed vio lence across our country. Many pampered radicals avoided the war by dodging the draft.” That last part may be true, but so did the aforementioned Trump, to say nothing of Rush Limbaugh and (though he protests otherwise) Ted Nugent and a legion of other Cotton allies. There’s not much you haven’t already heard from the late Limbaugh in Cotton’s pages: Liberals want to see Communist China take over the world (unless it was John Ken nedy, who was happy to cave in to the Russians instead); liberals

ONLY THE STRONG Reversing the Left’s Plot To Sabotage American Power Cotton, Tom Twelve (288 pp.) $30.00 | Nov. 15, 2022 978-1-5387-2679-2

lost the otherwise winnable war in Vietnam (“Democrats sac rificed victory, satisfied with merely looking tough in the short run”); leftist radicals wanted to bomb the Capitol during Viet nam, a matter that Cotton repeats numerous times while keep ing mum about the actual radical attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; liberals are smug members of the elite class (though Cot ton is a graduate of Harvard Law). It’s like listening to a tipsy uncle rant at the Thanksgiving table.

Red meat, well past its sell-by date, for the anti-Pelosi crowd.

THE EDGE OF THE PLAIN How Borders Make and Break Our World

Crawford, James Norton (432 pp.) $30.00 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-1-324-03704-0

Scottish historian and documentar ian Crawford looks at the meaning of borders and the power they hold.

Borders are marked by walls, fences, barbed wire, and armed guards. In some places, they’re less mar tial, as with a “three-country cairn” that marks the junction of Sweden, Norway, and Finland but is buried in snow for much of the year. In other places, borders may not be well marked but can have consequences for the person who crosses them will fully or even in error. In a provocative section of his narrative, Crawford considers the fate of the Alpine “iceman” called Ötzi, who was murdered as he hunted in the mountains, perhaps

because he crossed a line that he shouldn’t have. As one archae ologist remarked about certain “cult sites” found in the inter ceding valleys, “I think these places are markers for territory. If you came from the north, you’d see these places and they show you, that is my territory, or the territory of my community.” Today, of course, the borders extend to the highest peaks, with mark ers made meaningless at times due to geological upheaval and melting glaciers. Crawford travels widely to make his points in a text reminiscent of those of Barry Lopez or Robert Macfar lane. One fruitful stop finds him at the Roman walls built at the orders of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, walls that lie far south of the great Roman victory over the Caledonians at the Battle of Mons Graupius. Why did the Romans give up so much terri tory when it appeared it was theirs to be had? “The end of the world had been reached, grasped and let go,” writes the author, with no apparent explanation at hand. With the increasingly destructive effects of climate change, borders continue to col lapse as island countries are disappearing under the waves and refugees flee their devastated homelands, lending Crawford’s musings added timeliness.

A thoughtful consideration of the imaginary lines that hold meaning for so many.

VIGILANCE

The Life of William Still, Father of the Underground Railroad

Diemer, Andrew K. Knopf (432 pp.)

$30.00 | Nov. 1, 2022 978-0-593-53438-0

A deeply researched life of a Black Philadelphian who, using his consider able organizational skills, pieced together much of the escape route for enslaved people seeking their freedom.

William Still (1821-1902) has been called the “father of the Underground Railway,” a designation that he modestly declined to use himself. He was born into freedom, but a long-lost brother was not so lucky. History professor Diemer opens with an affecting and, it seems, entirely accidental reunion as Still’s brother came to the offices of the Anti-Slavery Society to seek information about other family members. Better-known fig ures such as Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass may have done the dangerous work of ferrying runaways across rivers and marshes a step ahead of the patrollers enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act, but it was Still’s fastidious bookkeeping and corre spondence that located family members and delivered enslaved people from plantations to safe havens in places such as upstate New York and Canada. One daring rescue that benefited from Still’s keen sensibilities saw a young girl brought North through a cordon of Southern agents who were fooled by her being dis guised as a young boy. Other rescues were aided by formerly enslaved people who, having made it to safety, used their skills to help others make their ways to New York and beyond. Inter estingly, Diemer writes, Still at one point was an advocate of a kind of secession, observing that North and South had become two irreconcilably disunited countries. For him, too, abolition ism was only part of a complex campaign, “the beginning, not the end, of the struggle for Black freedom.” Eventually becom ing “one of the wealthiest Black men in Philadelphia, mostly due to his success as a coal dealer,” Still also served as a rebuke by example of the flawed idea that free Black people were des tined to become criminals, vagabonds, or wards of the state.

A welcome addition to the literature of abolitionism, spot lighting an important American.

“A welcome addition to the literature of abolitionism, spotlighting an important American.”

SWITCHING FIELDS Inside the Fight To Remake Men’s Soccer in the United States

Dohrmann, George Ballantine (208 pp.) $28.00 | Nov. 15, 2022 978-1-5247-9886-4

An examination of how American men’s soccer has improved as a result of opening its doors to a broader field of players.

As Dohrmann, the senior managing editor for the Ath letic, writes, youth soccer, which took hold in the 1970s, had a problem from the start: It was played by kids whose parents had no idea of what the game entailed, and it was largely a phenomenon of the White suburbs. The consequences were driven home when a supposedly competitive U.S. team suf fered unexpected, ignominious defeat in an international competition in 2017, which led to the team failing to qualify

for the 2018 World Cup. The soul-searching that followed centered on a big question: How could a team from tiny Trini dad and Tobago beat the U.S., with its population of 330 mil lion? The answer, it turns out, had been revealed in a detailed report filed years before, in which the authors concluded that the game had to be more accessible to minority players. It took that defeat to drive the point home again, and finally the various soccer organizations around the country heeded the advice. Dohrmann’s explorations take him into cities and sub urbs as well as onto the pitches of storied teams such as the University of North Carolina’s women’s team, whose ethos has become that of women’s and girls’ soccer nationwide, courtesy of longtime coach Anson Dorrance: “What he baked into the culture of women’s soccer in America was that it was more than all right to be a killer; it was a prerequisite for being great.” If you go to any girls’ or women’s game today, “you’ll see team after team playing the high-pressing 4-3-3 formation that Dorrance championed. And you’ll see young girls throw ing elbows and flying into tackles.” The male side of the game has similarly improved with greater diversity, so much so that

BEHIND THE BOOK

The Extraordinary Life Of An Ordinary Man

How Paul Newman’s memoir came to be published—14 years after the movie star’s death

BY STEVEN DRUKMAN

Think of one word that captures Paul Newman. Legendary? Luminary? What about…ordinary?

For despite dazzling audiences as Butch Cassidy, Hud, and Cool Hand Luke, Newman underscores his banality in the posthumously published memoir The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man (Knopf, Oct. 18). Gleaned from tape-recorded interviews with screenwriter Stewart Stern and from manu scripts discovered in the home he shared with Joanne Wood ward (also a legend and the actor’s wife for 50 years), Newman’s self-assessment is damning, even lacerating; he senses nothing exceptional in his character or his talent. Trundling stoically through an Ohio childhood with a mentally unstable mother and a cruel father, he would bang his head against his bedroom wall just to feel something. He endured military service and, later, movie stardom as if “anesthetized.” Because he “never enjoyed acting,” he’d drink—again, to feel something—which led to alcohol abuse. In the book’s oft-repeated phrase, he calls himself an “emotional Republican.”

However, because the interviews were conducted after the actor turned 60—when he became, forgive the pun, a new man—someone extraordinary emerges. Aging meant thriving for Newman: in his philanthropic work, in riskier creative proj ects, and in his second career as a race car driver. The decades before his death, at age 83, in 2008 were brimful with feeling and fellowship—and Newman’s vulnerable, autumnal tone captivated Knopf editor Peter Gethers. “With the possible ex ception of Elia Kazan’s, I don’t think I’ve ever read a memoir that was as searingly honest and probing as this one,” he tells Kirkus. “The difference is that, unlike Kazan,”—who, coinci dentally, played a major role in Newman’s development—“the more Newman revealed himself, his past, and his insecurities, the more you liked him.”

Because Newman was Hollywood royalty, acquiring the property at auction was no cinch. “There were days of conver sations with the daughters, who were controlling the rights,” re calls Gethers. “After the first couple of rounds, it was about a lot more than money.” Gethers consulted with Melissa Newman and Clea Newman Soderlund, two of three daughters Newman had with Woodward. (The actor also had three children with his first wife, Jackie Witte, including Scott Newman—Paul’s only son—who died of a drug overdose in 1978.) “They were protective of their father’s legacy but also looking for a publica tion that was as honest as the words their father had left behind.” Gethers believes that what may have persuaded the daughters was the cover. “We did not go with the most beautiful picture of Paul. We went with the older Newman: half-revealing and half-hiding himself—exactly what the book is about. They said their father would have been thrilled.”

Enter David Rosenthal, the editor tasked with creating a cogent narrative from 1,500 pages of out-of-order transcripts. “These were free-associative, rather intimate conversations— and there was another massive trove of interviews Stern had done: ranging from Paul’s boyhood friends to collaborators like

Paul Newman in 1963

George Roy Hill, Eva Marie Saint, Sidney Lumet…you name it. Fortunately, everybody seemed to be freed up by Paul telling them, ‘Say anything you want.’ ” Newman’s mandate for Stern as interlocutor was to expose all warts—whether offered up by the actor or anyone else. As a result, the interstitial voices of ten add a comic counterpoint to Newman’s self-deprecation. (These voices may be familiar to viewers of The Last Movie Stars—a CNN Films/HBO Max documentary co-produced by family friend Emily Wachtel using some of the memoir’s source material but concentrating on Newman’s marriage to Wood ward.)

After months of compiling and pruning, Rosenthal deliv ered a chronological account of Newman’s life, in Newman’s voice, to Newman’s daughters—albeit gingerly. “Melissa may have been taken aback by her father’s tone; it seemed tortured,” he explains. “We talked about it. I told her: ‘As an outsider, these are the words of someone who’s quite depressed. Even so, remember, he was productive. He made a lot of movies and raised two families.’ ” Melissa, who penned the book’s foreword, admits she was initially thrown. Speaking from her childhood home in Connecticut, she explains: “Because it’s all in direct re sponse to Stewart, who was pressing him—I think the editors became enamored of my father’s self-denigration and dark ness. And Stewart could push my dad because he was like fam ily: He performed my marriage—my middle name is Stewart! But I wanted the book to be more back and forth, playful.” So Melissa did a second dive into the transcripts, exhuming mate rial Rosenthal characterizes as, “Well…‘brighter.’ Which made sense—the man did seem to flourish as we went along.”

Newman was, indeed, a late bloomer: After 10 nomina tions, he finally won a best actor Oscar for The Color of Mon ey in 1986, and he went on to do his most textured acting—in Nobody’s Fool, The Road to Perdition, and, with Woodward, Mr. and Mrs. Bridge—only after winning a lifetime achievement award. At 77, he returned to Broadway to assay Thornton Wilder’s Our Town—a production nurtured at Westport Country Playhouse, where Woodward was artistic director. What’s more, New man became a major sports champion in race car driving—at an age most of us associate with puttering and gardening. He holds the record as the oldest winner, at 70, in his class of the 24 Hours of Daytona Endurance Race. (Endurance Race could be an apt alternative title for his memoir.)

Speaking from her home in Connecticut, Clea says: “My father loved racing so much he probably would’ve quit acting to do it. But philanthropy was his true legacy. He changed my life in that regard. I was going to be a lawyer!” (She is the am bassador to the Serious Fun Children’s Network and the chair of Wild Earth Allies.) In her afterword, Clea cites a remarkable

statistic: “The Economist noted he was ‘the most generous in dividual, relative to his income, in the 20th-century history of the United States.’ ” Clea suggests that this generosity finally extended to his emotional life: “He became like a big kid—and everyone saw him that way. Maybe doing the tapes [with Stew art Stern] helped crack him open.”

But did Newman want a published memoir to be part of that legacy? “It’s clear from the transcripts that he vacillated,” says Rosenthal. “One day he’s aboard, the next day it’s ‘why would I want to do this?’ And these almost-psychiatric conver sations with Stern were found in a file cabinet in the basement— they had to get a locksmith to open the damn thing!” In fact, Newman may have burned several cassettes after completing the interviews. “I know about that rumor,” says Melissa. “Hey, as far as I know he did! But my dad’s will specifies we have the right to create a biography, and the transcripts make clear the only question was: How unedited should it be? At one point he says to Stewart, ‘Just give it to the kids, let them release it all.’ ”

That’s an echo of the declaration Newman made after founding his nonprofit foundation: “Let’s give it all away!” In fact, Newman’s third act was so full of giving, of sharing, of gen uine feeling, that one early anecdote rises to the level of meta phor: During Kazan’s production of Sweet Bird of Youth, a young actor—unable to conjure authentic tears—tricks his audience by staring unblinkingly at a bright bulb in the auditorium. Years later, his mask of coolness gone, that same man cares less about others’ focus on him and turns his focus to…others. So does that make Paul Newman ordinary or extraordinary, that rare lu minary who—ultimately, authentically—sees the light?

Steven Drukman is a writer in New York. The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man was reviewed in the Sept. 1, 2022, issue.

European and Latin American coaches are now scouting the U.S. for professional players.

A well-reported study of how a hidebound sport was saved from itself.

OUT IN L.A.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers, 1983

Duncan, Hamish Chicago Review Press (336 pp.) $30.00 | Jan. 17, 2023 978-1-64160-801-5

A fan’s notes on the noted funk-rock band’s emergence.

“In August 2003, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were on top of the world,” writes Australian archivist Duncan. “Arguably, they were the biggest band in the world at the time,” so famous that they could have

quit at just about any time and still be legends today. Twenty years earlier, the outlook was murkier. The nascent band, an outgrowth of the LA punk scene, had shed members, and front man Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea were on the brink of calling it quits. Flea wandered into the punk band Fear before rejoining Kiedis in a new enterprise: a band that, though not entirely familiar with the genre, would veer deep into funk under the original name Flow, soon to become the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Though Duncan considers him the least musical member of the group, Kiedis proved a funny and effective lead, given to dissing other acts such as Wham! and Duran Duran, while Flea essentially stole lead duties from guitarist Hillel Slovak with this funk-slap bass playing. “Slap would treat Flea well,” writes the author, “and he would return to the technique on virtually every original Chili Peppers track over the next few years.” As Duncan’s title suggests, 1983 was the band’s chrysalis year, and they performed a legendary show on Melrose Avenue on April 13. Not long after, they made waves with an anarchic appearance on Thicke of the Night, which, though pale against its mighty competitor The Tonight Show, gave the Peppers national exposure courtesy of bemused host Alan Thicke. Duncan digs deep into the band’s back pages, recounting a perhaps unlikely alliance with German pop artist Nina Hagen and writing openly of the band’s problems with drugs—Slovak died of a heroin overdose in 1988, and Kiedis abused drugs for decades—while appreciating their musical achievements.

A worthwhile portrait of a band breaking through to the other side.

THE TRAVEL DIARIES OF ALBERT EINSTEIN South America, 1925 Einstein, Albert Ed. by Ze’ev Rosenkranz

Princeton Univ. (304 pp.) $29.99 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-0-691-20102-3

Annotated diary of Einstein’s tour of Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil in spring 1925.

The diary he kept during those three months contains no valuable scientific information, but Einstein buffs may want to add it to their bookshelves. One of a few travel diaries written during the interwar years, it was not meant for publication, and there are few deep insights. Shared with his family, the actual diary consists of a 43-page chatty, opinionated account of his experiences. The remainder of this book contains a variety of photos, illustrations, and supplemental material assembled by Einstein scholar Rosenkranz. Already a worldwide celebrity in 1925, Einstein expected to be fawned over and did not look forward to it. Local Jewish communities (who had originated the invitation) were delighted to have him; local Germans, aware that he opposed his nation’s participation in World War I, mostly boycotted his appearances. Citizens, journalists, gov ernment officials, and academics of the three nations lionized

“A worthwhile portrait of a band breaking through to the other side.”

him, and he did his duty. Believing in German and European superiority, Einstein held a low opinion of all New World cul tures, including the U.S., which he had visited a few years earlier. Despite regularly encountering exceptions, he “repeatedly gen eralizes and stereotypes the local national groups.” Argentini ans, he writes, are “superficial and soulless,” and Brazil’s tropical climate has suppressed its peoples’ intellectual development. Tiny Uruguay comes off better. As a primary historical docu ment, the diary has value to scholars, but even educated general readers will struggle with choppy, telegraphic, often ungram matical prose and cryptic references. Thankfully, the publisher includes added features that will appeal to readers who may prefer to skim the page-by-page facsimile of the diary followed by an English translation in favor of the lengthy annotation by Rosenkranz, who delivers a far more accessible account of the trip, the historical backgrounds of the three nations, the iden tities of Einstein’s innumerable references, and assessments of his racist comments.

For scholars and die-hard Einsteinians.

FIRE AND RAIN Nixon, Kissinger, and the Wars in Southeast Asia

Eisenberg, Carolyn Woods Oxford Univ. (632 pp.) $39.95 | Feb. 17, 2023 978-0-19-763906-1

A comprehensive history of the late stages of the Vietnam War.

Eisenberg, a professor of U.S. his tory and foreign relations, is nothing if not thorough in her coverage of the nasty politics, frustrating diplomacy, and stormy homefront. She makes regular detours to the battlefield but emphasizes the roles of two larger-than-life American leaders—Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger—who aimed to bring matters to a satisfactory conclusion and failed. The author draws on a vast amount of declassified documents, “an avalanche of material about [the Nixon] presidency that has appeared over the previous fifteen years,” offering “more insights into the foreign policy operations of an administration than we are likely to see again.” Eisenberg, a veteran scholar of the era, delivers these insights in mostly lucid prose, creating a meticulously researched narrative about a deplorable episode in American history that, with more information, becomes even more deplorable. Nixon took office in 1969 with the promise of ending U.S. involvement in Vietnam. A few years later, the last American soldier had left, but even readers who experi enced that period will squirm at Eisenberg’s expert account of how it happened. Although she cuts away regularly to the war, this is mostly a geopolitical history emphasizing the actions of Nixon and Kissinger, his pugnacious national security adviser. Both agreed with military leaders that North Vietnam would accept a satisfactory peace only in response to painful losses on the battlefield. At the same time, Nixon announced that troop withdrawals would begin immediately, infuriating the military but pleasing Congress, the media, and the widespread anti-war movement. This mixed message failed to discourage the North Vietnamese, and Eisenberg’s compelling yet painful text never fully explains why Nixon and Kissinger persisted for four years in a policy guaranteed to fail—at the cost of another 20,000 Americans and “between one and two million Asians,” mostly civilian and innocent.

An authoritative history showing the perils of “selective vision of people in power.”

THE BOOK OF JOSE A Memoir

Fat Joe with Shaheem Reid Roc Lit 101 (304 pp.) $25.99 | Nov. 15, 2022 978-0-593-23064-0

A memoir from the popular rapper. Joseph Cartagena (b. 1970), aka Fat Joe, opens the book like a blockbuster movie, packed with tales of violence, drug-dealing, fast cars, and more. Known for a string of hip-hop hits that span four decades, including anthems like “Lean Back” and “What’s Luv,” featuring Ashanti and Ja Rule, the author’s career has had its highs and lows, and he describes each in equally painstaking detail. “You can learn from other people’s mistakes,” he writes. “I learned from theirs and hopefully you’ll learn from mine.” Though the les sons he has learned never came easy, he writes about them with the directness of someone who has come to terms with them.

When his brother, Angel, went blind from his drug addiction, the author realized how his drug-dealing affected other fami lies. “I believe in karma,” he writes. “Sometimes I ask myself if the misfortunes that have fallen to me, to my own son, to my family, if these are because of all the destruction I took a hand in? The pain I caused? My brother sold millions of dollars in drugs. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he fell to the drugs.” Throughout his life, Fat Joe has had plenty of celebrations only to see many of them taken away: He saw his big discovery, rap per Big Pun, become a superstar and then die of a heart attack in 2000 at the age of 28. The author earned millions but then lost nearly all of it due to embezzlement from his accountant. He ended up in jail for not paying his taxes because of his accountant, but he also rebuilt his career after getting out. The way he tells his story so far, the author seems ready to use it to make his next big move.

Fat Joe’s memoir reads just like his hits sound, brimming with flashy style, street smarts, and survivor’s strength.

THE PIRATE’S WIFE

The Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd

Geanacopoulos, Daphne Palmer Hanover Square Press (288 pp.) $27.99 | Nov. 8, 2022 978-1-335-42984-1

The life of a pirate’s wife who died one of the wealthiest women in Britain’s North American Colonies.

Sarah Kidd (circa 1665-circa 1744) is no stranger to history. Neither is William Kidd, the sometime privateer, sometime pirate who roamed the seas relieving oth ers of whatever goodies they were carrying onboard. Geana copoulos draws on the tropes of bodice-rippers and historical fiction to get inside Sarah’s head. “As she thought back over her life, not all of her memories were fond ones, especially the time when she was a pirate’s wife,” writes the author. “But now the memory of the hardships and heartbreak had softened and Sarah wouldn’t have traded it for anything. She felt proud, very proud, to have been a pirate’s wife and she wore the title as a badge of honor.” During that time, Sarah, who finally became “a mother in her early twenties with her third husband,” watched as her husband committed various acts of mayhem. “Special and mature beyond her years,” she harbored many secrets, and the author throws red meat to buried-treasure fans by suggest ing that after Kidd was executed for his crimes in 1701, Sarah took the location of the treasure to her grave. While the mat ter of that execution involved the complex mechanics of British politics, Geanacopoulos reduces it to yet more guesswork: Of Kidd’s being measured for chains before being strung up on the gibbet, she writes, “This experience must have been terrifying and deeply depressing for him.” Yes, so one would think, though the execution of her husband did clear the decks for Sarah to marry her fourth husband, a merchant who “quickly learned that beneath her hardened core and keen survival instincts she

“Fat Joe’s memoir reads just like his hits sound, brimming with flashy style, street smarts, and survivor’s strength.”

the book of jose

was lovely.” In any event, writes the author, “the idea of becom ing a stepfather to the children of a famous pirate was appeal ing.” Unfortunately, most of the narrative is ham-fisted, and the prose is pedestrian.

It’s better to walk the plank than to try to get through this one.

PIRATE ENLIGHTENMENT, OR THE REAL LIBERTALIA

Graeber, David Farrar, Straus and Giroux (208 pp.) $26.00 | Jan. 24, 2023 978-0-374-61019-7

The final book from the longtime activist anthropologist.

In a lively display of up-to-date anthropology, Graeber (1961-2020) offers a behind-the-scenes view of how

a skilled researcher extracts knowledge from the slimmest evi dence about a long-ago multiethnic society composed of pirates and settled members of existing communities. In this posthu mous book, the author turns to 17th- and 18th-century Mada gascar and examines hard-to-credit sources to tease out some plausible facts about the creation and early life of a distinctive Indian Ocean society, some of whose Malagasy descendants (“the Zana-Malata”) are alive today. Exhibiting his characteristic politically tinged sympathies, Graeber describes the pirates who plied the seas and settled on Madagascar as an ethno-racially integrated proletariat “spearheading the development of new forms of democratic governance.” He also argues that many of the pirates and others displayed European Enlightenment ideas even though they inhabited “a very unlikely home for Enlight enment political experiments.” Malagasies were “Madagascar’s most stubbornly egalitarian peoples,” and, as the author shows, women played significant roles in the society, which reflected Jewish, Muslin, Ismaili, and Gnostic origins as well as native Malagasy and Christian ones. All of this information gives Grae ber the chance to wonder, in his most provocative conjecture,

adult

whether Enlightenment ideals might have emerged as much beyond Western lands as within them. His argument that pirates, women traders, and community leaders in early 18thcentury Madagascar were “global political actors in the fullest sense of the term” is overstated, but even with such excesses taken into account, the text is a tour de force of anthropological scholarship and an important addition to Malagasy history. It’s also a work written with a pleasingly light touch. The principal audience will be anthropologists, but those who love pirate lore or who seek evidence that mixed populations were long capable of establishing proto-democratic societies will also find enlight enment in these pages.

Certain to be controversial, but all the more important for that.

CONFIDENCE MAN

The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America Haberman, Maggie Penguin Press (480 pp.) $30.00 | Oct. 4, 2022 978-0-593-29734-6

The poster child for self-absorption is revealed to be even worse than we thought.

Much of what New York Times reporter Haberman tells us isn’t new, unless it’s a novel obser vation that Donald Trump is so in love with the sound of his own voice that he’ll say anything—including, occasionally, the truth. So it is that some newsworthy items emerge: Trump all but admitting that the documents found at Mar-a-Lago were sent there deliberately (“Most of it is in the archives, but…we have incredible things”), for instance, but also falsely insisting that on Jan. 6 he was not glued to the TV despite numerous reports to the contrary (“I was having meetings. I was also with Mark Meadows and others. I was not watching television”). It’s likely that things are going to be uncomfortable around the Thanksgiving table when his daughter and her husband read that “Trump frequently told Kelly and other aides that he was eager to see Jared and Ivanka depart the White House.” Mela nia might not be happy, either, to know that Trump’s greatest worry about running for president was “the women,” pointing upward to the Trump Tower penthouse and adding, “I’ll get in trouble upstairs.” The most useful part of Haberman’s lucid, justly scornful account is her linking of Trump’s actions as presi dent to his actions as a New York wheeler-dealer. He yearned to be accepted by the city’s elite and reacted in bitter anger when he wasn’t; as Al Sharpton shrewdly observed, “everything was transactional.” Repeatedly bailed out by his father and the banks, Trump was largely a failure as a businessman and, as Haberman deftly chronicles, mostly for the same reasons that he failed as a president: refusal to accept responsibility, unite contending factions, or listen to anyone but himself.

A damning portrait of narcissism, megalomania, and abject failure—and the price the country is paying in the bargain.

THE THINGS WE MAKE The Unknown History of Invention From Cathedrals to Soda Cans

Hammack, Bill Sourcebooks (272 pp.) $26.99 | March 21, 2023 978-1-72821-575-4

An informative book about how the impulse of engineers to solve real-world problems is the source of progress.

Hammack, a professor of engineering at the University of Illinois and the award-winning creator of a YouTube channel called engineerguy, has the ability to break down complex sub jects into simple steps. In this insightful book, he tackles the broad subject of engineering and how it underpins the world we live in. He believes that all engineering stems from a number of “rules of thumb,” and the aim is always to make something that works. “The scientific method creates knowledge; the engi neering method creates solutions,” he writes. Progress occurs through systemized trial and error based on careful observation. This is not to say that engineers disdain science and mathemat ics but only to note that their emphasis is on the practical. Ham mack points to several cases in which the underlying scientific principles were only worked out after an invention was up and running. Another strategy is to build on past knowledge, includ ing the inventions of others. For example, the light bulb could not have been developed without the tungsten filaments that had already been invented. Another rule is to accept trade-offs. Engineers must balance constraints to arrive at an optimal— not necessarily perfect—solution. An invention might not have the theoretical elegance of a math equation, but the engineer doesn’t care as long as it gets the job done. Hammack explains his material in straightforward language, and in the concluding chapter, he makes a case for engineering to take place within a moral and ethical framework. The engineer’s capacity to make things that function well should be leavened by public debate on what should be done and an understanding of the processes involved. “To engineer,” writes the author, “cuts to the core of being human.”

Hammack writes with admirable clarity, authority, and wisdom.

LIFE ON DELAY Making Peace With a Stutter

Hendrickson, John Knopf (272 pp.)

$29.00 | Jan. 17, 2023 978-0-593-31913-0

A senior editor at the Atlantic reflects on how his lifelong stutter has shaped his life and relationships.

Hendrickson began having difficul ties with his speech in kindergarten, and

“Trump was largely a failure as a businessman and, as Haberman deftly chronicles, mostly for the same reasons that he failed as a president: refusal to accept responsibility, unite contending factions, or listen to anyone but himself. ” confidence man

his teacher suggested that his parents have him evaluated by a speech pathologist. Soon he began to visit the dreaded “little room,” the school therapist’s office, while he and his parents hoped that his stutter would go away naturally, as some do, but “it got worse.” Hendrickson poignantly chronicles his efforts to navigate adolescence and high school with a fear of speaking, discovering along the way that alcohol “greatly diminish[ed]” his stutter. He also writes about suffering from a depressive epi sode in his late teens. “Depression doesn’t care if you acknowl edge its existence,” he writes. “It’s quiet. It’s patient….I’ve learned to manage it, but I still don’t know if I’ll fully return to that predepression point.” In the midsection of the narrative, the author writes about his college years and the beginning of his career as a journalist, culminating in his 2019 interview with Joe Biden, “the most famous living stutterer.” Hendrickson also describes the beginning of his relationship with his wife, Liz, who has dystonia, a neuromuscular disorder. As the author notes, the ways in which their bodies “betray” them became a point of commonality. Hendrickson’s approach to his subject is both personal and investigative, as he recounts his interviews with his family, his former teachers and therapists, fellow stut terers, and doctors who study speech disorder. One of the most interesting interview subjects is Dr. Courtney Byrd, the director of the country’s “preeminent stuttering research center,” whose “controversial” take is that “a lot of the stigma that’s related to stuttering begins in the office of the speech-language patholo gist.” The dramatic tension in the book is mainly derived from Hendrickson’s fraught relationship with his brother, who bul lied the author as a child, mocking his stutter mercilessly. This appealing and perceptive memoir takes an unsenti mental look at life with a speech disorder.

investigation to uncover her own family’s involvement in slavery. The author’s heartfelt memoir recounts years of painstaking research, a project that led to many disturbing, and some sur prising, discoveries. Most of her maternal great-grandfathers, she found, had fought for freedom in the American Revolu tion while at the same time holding slaves on their properties; they grew rich on cotton, rice, salt, sugar, and turpentine—all dependent on slave labor. With the help of a DNA site called GEDmatch, Herman-Giddens found that she had many Black cousins, “ignominious testament to the behavior of my male ancestors who with their vile power used their license to force themselves on their female chattel, who could not refuse.” She also discovered a “tragic list” of the men, women, and children they enslaved. One of her ancestors, she believes, may have inspired Harriet Beecher Stowe’s cruel slave owner Simon Legree. Probing the meaning of her discoveries, the author has a formidable challenge: “to plan and accomplish a personal form of reparations for the benefits” she has inherited from her fam ily’s actions. Writing this candid memoir seems part of that goal.

A vividly detailed contribution to civil rights history.

THE FOREVER WITNESS How DNA and Genealogy Solved a Cold Case Double Murder

Humes, Edward Dutton (384 pp.)

$28.00 | Nov. 29, 2022 978-1-5247-4627-8

A cold-case hunt for a killer brought down by old-fashioned gumshoe work and lots of modern science.

Herman Giddens, Marcia Edwina Univ. of Alabama (280 pp.)

$34.95 | Jan. 17, 2023

Reckoning with a troubling past. Growing up in Birmingham in the 1950s, Herman-Giddens, a retired pedi atric practitioner and family health consultant, had no idea that she lived in the nation’s most segregated city. Her home was in an all-White neighborhood; her prep school classmates came from “a lily-white world of gentility, country clubs and their swimming pools, white gloves and hats, bridge parties, other parties, summer camps, sororities, and debutante balls, all tended to by Black servants.” As a teenager, her growing real ization of the effects of Jim Crow laws and blatant racism drew her to join the efforts of civil rights activists, Black and White, to protest the bombings, cross-burnings, and death threats that prevailed in the city, terrifying Black citizens and their White supporters. Decades later, Herman-Giddens embarked on an

In 1987, Canadian couple Tanya Van Cuylenborg and Jay Cook traveled from Vancouver to Seattle to purchase furnace equipment for his heating business. They made their way across the Olympic Peninsula, which, Humes writes ominously, “would take them through some of Washington State’s most remote and sparsely populated terrain.” They never made it home, both murdered by an unknown person fleetingly seen along their path. It took decades for police detectives to arrive at a suspect, working with what the author terms an “unlikely source,” a “self-taught genealogist” who worked with the PBS series Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and who sussed out the killer’s identity by building a family tree. There were plenty of choices at first, including serial murderers such as the Green River Killer and Spokane Serial Killer, that needed to be narrowed down, but it took a paper cup carelessly dropped from the chief suspect’s truck to make the link to familial DNA. After the suspect was arrested, his mother-in-law said flatly, “I’m not surprised in the least,” for what emerged was a typical portrait: a bullied child, bright but disaffected, a “man at times consumed by anger yet desperately seeking approval.”

The author then shifts the scene to a second arena in which the prosecuting attorney was working to establish “a coherent narrative that explained what happened, when and where,” and

UNLOOSE MY HEART A Personal Reckoning With the Twisted Roots of My Southern Family Tree

then trying to prove this with three-decade-old evidence. With side glances at other cold cases, Humes serves up a detailed but not overburdened exercise in investigative and legal logic that would have seemed ironclad save for an unforeseen technicality. About that, he writes, “finality is elusive in the justice system,” ending his book on an inconclusive note.

A well-paced true-crime procedural that offers new twists on old methods of police work.

IN THE GARDEN OF THE RIGHTEOUS

The Heroes Who Risked Their Lives To Save Jews During The Holocaust Hurowitz, Richard Harper/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $28.99 | Jan. 24, 2023 978-0-06-303723-6

A deep dive into the lives of 10 heroic individuals who rescued Jews during the Holocaust.

This book, which derives its title from the Yad Vashem complex on Jerusalem’s Mount of Remembrance, enters an already crowded field of Holocaust titles, so it is noteworthy that Hurowitz begins with a humble disclosure: “The Holo caust always seemed something distant to me.” Refreshingly, the author makes no pretense of inheriting the stories he tells; most of his ancestors arrived on American soil well before Hit ler’s rise. This transparency will grip readers from the start. Although the author’s subjects repeatedly risked their lives— and those of their family members—by defying orders to round up Jews, none of them were Jewish, thus making their acts of kindness that much more inspiring. “I made the decision not to include any Jewish rescuers, although several make cameo appearances,” writes Hurowitz. “They deserve their own vol ume.” Each story takes place under unique circumstances, and the author is patient in his unfolding of the impressive exploits of his subjects: among others, Portuguese Consul General Sousa Mendes, who, upon finding himself stationed in France at a perilous moment, joined forces with a young Polish rabbi; Gino Bartali, a Tour de France superstar who smuggled lifesav ing documents inside his bicycle; and Japanese diplomat Chi une Sugihara, who never stopped providing visas for Lithuanian Jews, even as the doors of his career slammed shut behind him. The history lessons here are both distressing and awe-inspiring, and Hurowitz reminds us that none of these rescuers sought recognition or celebration; they were simply moved to do the right thing in a moment of immense peril. In a time when our humanity is challenged by new heights of instability and new waves of antisemitism and ethnic hatred, it is an understate ment to say this book is timely.

A fresh, engrossing contribution to the literature on the Holocaust, focusing on heroics rather than despair.

HOW FAR THE LIGHT REACHES A Life in Ten Sea Creatures

Imbler, Sabrina Illus. by Simon Ban Little, Brown (272 pp.) $27.00 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-0-316-54053-7

Part memoir and part study of the intricacies of the ocean, this exploration invites readers to imagine alternative ways of living.

In a book that is much more than an account of deep-sea creatures, journalist Imbler compellingly examines the parallels between the lives and priorities of people and aquatic animals. The author’s ability to locate connections across seemingly dis parate topics—e.g., their experience with sexual assault and the life of a 10-foot-long worm called a sand striker—is both unique and engaging. Occasionally, Imbler’s juxtaposition of marine and human life feels forced, but the overall effect is heartening and encourages a reexamination of inherited ideas about family, community, and identity. Offering sometimes-graphic descrip tions of the ways in which humankind has chemically altered or thoughtlessly killed individual creatures and entire species, Imbler does not shy away from highlighting the impact of the devastating effects of climate change on the mysterious inhab itants of the sea. Among the fascinating creatures the author profiles are octopus; cuttlefish; the Chinese sturgeon, “which resembles something from a past world, when scaled giants roamed the earth and the continents still clung together”; and yeti crabs, whose “inhospitable” environment, 7,000 feet below the surface, “is nothing to be pitied. The pressure does not crush the crab, and the darkness does not oppress it.” Woven throughout the author’s colorful depictions of underwater ani mals are equally vivid chronicles of the difficulties they have faced in their life, including disordered eating, sexual assault, racism, homophobia, and more. “Like a dutiful little trash com pactor,” they write, “I had digested my messy heap of an iden tity into a manageable lesson for people who were not like me.” Imbler’s thoughtful presentation of their identity manages to be educational without being didactic, and their entertain ing anecdotes about some bizarre animals and their behavior recalls Ed Yong’s An Immense World

Elegant, thought-provoking comparisons between aspects of identity and the trials of deep-sea creatures.

“Elegant, thought-provoking comparisons between aspects of identity and the trials of deep sea creatures.”

THE ONCE AND FUTURE SEX Going Medieval on Women’s Roles in Society

Janega, Eleanor Norton (272 pp.) $30.00 | Jan. 17, 2023 978-0-393-86781-7

A British scholar revisits the medieval era to investigate long-held beliefs about women’s roles, bodies, and sexuality.

Janega, a professor of medieval and early modern history at the London School of Economics and author of The Middle Ages: A Graphic History, traces entrenched ideas about women largely created and reinforced by male writ ers, philosophers, and clergy. She first returns to the ancient writings of Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Galen for theories about women’s nature—namely, that they are comprised of the cold and wet humors (men being warm and dry) and their bod ies, “prone to sickness.” In an era before dissection, women’s bodies were simply unknown. “If men were essentially the default humans,” as taught by Plato and Aristotle, women were the after thought, an idea elaborated on by the early church fathers. Since so much of medieval thought was drawn from ancient writings, the sense of women as inferior creatures prevailed, and thanks to the doctrine of original sin, women were regarded as oversexed. They were denied serious education and thus locked out of the “standard pedagogic system.” Examining sermons, mystery plays, and troubadour songs, Janega shows the constant reinforcement of many of the stereotypes about women, and she pays close attention to the ancient and medieval standards of beauty, many of which persist to this day. Women’s sexuality, menstruation, and childbearing caused male thinkers innumerable conundrums. Yet women were always out in the world laboring, essential to the medieval economy as farmers, brewers, seamstresses, laundresses, midwives, and teachers of children—though their work was regarded as less valuable than that of men. In the final chapter, “Why It Matters,” the author challenges specious scientific stud ies in our own supposedly feminist era and emphasizes how many expectations of women about marriage and motherhood remain unchanged since the medieval era.

A breezy, pertinent study that demonstrates how learning about social constructs is crucial to changing them.

THE HARD ROAD OUT One Woman’s Escape From North Korea

Jihyun Park & Seh lynn Chai

Trans. by Sarah Baldwin Beneich Harper360 (224 pp.) $28.99 | Jan. 31, 2023 978-0-00-854140-8

A North Korean refugee describes her harrowing escape from a dictator ship amid a devastating famine.

When Jihyun Park was a young girl, her parents sent her to live with her grandmother, whom she didn’t know well but soon grew to love. After her grandmother’s death, Jihyun moved back to the family’s apartment in Ranam. While she was well fed at her grandmother’s house, in Ranam, she returned to what would become a lifelong struggle with hunger. Despite the tortuous “self-criticism sessions” and mandatory agricul tural service, the author enjoyed school and was invited to take a prestigious entrance exam that would allow her to join the Corps of Young Pioneers, a government-run socialist youth group. Unfortunately, Jihyun’s maternal grandfather’s defec tion to South Korea years before stymied her ability to attend Pyongyang University. “I’d ranked third in the national univer sity entrance exam,” writes the author, “but clearly that wasn’t enough for Pyongyang University—at least not for someone of my social rank.” Thanks to her mother’s ingenuity, Jihyun secured a position as a mathematics teacher in Chongjin in the early years of a decadelong famine spurred by the collapse of the Soviet Union, “a country on which North Korea had become highly dependent for crop production.” The threat of starva tion forced the author to escape to China with her siblings, a decision that would lead to a betrayal that threatened to break her spirit. The brave, tender, and intimate narrative provides a frank and balanced view of the reality of life under a dictator ship. Particularly impressive is the author’s transparency about her difficulties overcoming her own “brainwashing” even when faced with harsh realities. The translator includes several unnec essarily disruptive chapters in her own voice that snap readers out of the story (“As Jihyun tells me about her life…I take on her perspective, I access her inner world. I become her”), marring an otherwise well-structured book.

An honest, human portrayal of the brutality of life in North Korea.

THE DIARIES OF FRANZ KAFKA

Kafka, Franz Trans. by Ross Benjamin Schocken (704 pp.)

$45.00 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-0-8052-4355-0

A fresh, unadulterated translation of Kafka’s notebooks, dense with intro spection and writerly despair.

Until now, the diaries of the iconic Czech writer Franz Kafka (1883-1924) were only available in Eng lish via an edition edited by his literary executor, Max Brod, who famously denied Kafka’s deathbed request that his writings be destroyed. Though Brod salvaged Kafka’s writing, he also took a heavy hand to the diaries, suppressing homoerotic passages and overly streamlining Kafka’s prose in places. Benjamin’s new translation is based on an unexpurgated German critical edition published in 1990, and it provides a clearer glimpse into Kafka’s process. Starting in 1910, Kafka began writing observations about readings, plays, cabaret performances, and, occasionally,

brothels in Prague, chronicling trips around Europe and drafting essays and stories, often reworking and expanding them repeat edly. He also discusses his publications, frustrations with his job and family, and various romantic courtships. But the attraction of Kafka’s diaries has always been his coruscating descriptions of his existential struggles as a writer and human being. He cap tures his frustration in ways that are wrenching, vivid, and highly quotable: “Some new insights into the creature of unhappiness that I am have consolingly dawned on me”; “the pleasure again in imagining a knife twisted in my heart”; “the story came out of me like a veritable birth covered with filth and slime.” In light of his labor to gain attention during his lifetime—true fame would only arrive after his death—such passages are especially piercing. Still, the new edition isn’t always user-friendly for casual readers, stud ded with hundreds of footnotes and asking readers to bounce back to an earlier notebook to read the conclusion of a story draft begun in a later one.

A thorough, occasionally unwieldy look inside the mind of a modernist titan; essential reading for Kafka scholars.

COBALT RED How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

Kara, Siddharth St. Martin’s (288 pp.) $29.99 | Jan. 31, 2023 978-1-250-28430-3

A penetrating exposé on the delib erate smoke screens created by power ful companies to obscure the realities behind the abysmal conditions of cobalt miners in the Congo.

Cobalt is highly valuable as an essential component of the rechargeable batteries that power laptops, tablets, smart phones, and electric vehicles. As such, the demand for cobalt has risen exponentially in the last decade. In 2021, 72% of the global supply was mined in the Congo, along what is called the Central African Copper Belt. In this eye-opening and disturb ing investigative report, Kara, the author of multiple books on modern global slavery, paints a stark portrait of the appall ing conditions in the mining villages, expertly capturing the “frenzy” of digging by so-called artisanal miners, who toil in unspeakable conditions for a pittance. These workers are the first link in the exploitative chain of resource extraction that keeps millions of Africans in poverty and ill health and degrades the environment, all while enriching massive corporations and foreign investors. Nationalized by former dictator Joseph Mobutu, then sold to the Chinese in 2012 by subsequent dicta tor Joseph Kabila, the mines were supposed to support infra structure, education, and health care, yet little of that money has benefited the Congolese people. Peasants are so desperate for work that digging compels the whole family to participate, even the children; there are few schools, and those that exist are too expensive for low-wage workers. Corporations such as Apple, Tesla, Samsung, and Daimler claim to follow regulations,

but Kara demonstrates their duplicity and empty public rela tions rhetoric. In more than two decades of “research into slav ery and child labor, I have never seen more extreme predation for profit than I witnessed at the bottom of the global cobalt supply chains.” The author’s well-written, forcefully argued report exposes the widespread, debilitating human ramifica tions of our device-driven global society.

A horrifying yet necessary picture of exploitation and pov erty in the Congo.

WHAT’S EATING US Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety

Kazdin, Cole St. Martin’s Essentials (256 pp.) $27.99 | March 7, 2023 978-1-250-28284-2

Eating disorders are a massive yet often hidden problem, writes the author, who speaks with the insight of experience.

Early on, Kazdin, a four-time Emmy Award–winning TV journalist, cites some remarkable, frightening statistics. “Over 90 percent of women in the United States are dissatisfied with their bodies,” she writes, and nearly 30 million people “suffer from an eating disorder.” Furthermore, eating disorders have the second-highest mortality rate of any mental illness, on a par with opioid deaths, and the problem crosses socio-economic lines. Kazdin has struggled with a disorder herself, and her book is as much her personal story as an examination of body anxiety. The author discusses how diet and weight-loss businesses are rebranding themselves as being about good health, a mislead ing ploy to continue to grow an industry approaching a valua tion of $300 billion. “Weight stigma is deeply embedded into our culture,” she writes. The idea that thinness equals personal worth and social success is everywhere. Kazdin examines the wide range of diets on the market and concludes that they sim ply do not work. Some will lead to temporary weight loss, but it always comes back. The author’s own obsessive drive to be thin involved starvation-level diets, punishing exercise routines, and, ultimately, self-induced vomiting. All this made her feel in control—at least until the larger health consequences began to appear. Through therapy and support, she managed to build something like a normal life, but she wonders if she will ever completely recover. “My eating disorder never left,” she writes. “It’s always there, lying in wait like a trained assassin.” The author also describes new research suggesting that eating disor ders may stem from physical problems in the brain rather than from behavioral issues, which would fundamentally change treatment options. The real solution, she writes, is to get past the social pressure and achieve self-acceptance.

Kazdin’s painful honesty is leavened with humor and irony. Hopefully, this book will reach the people who need it.

“A horrifying yet necessary picture of exploitation and poverty in the Congo.”

FORGIVE Why Should I and How Can I?

Keller, Timothy Viking (272 pp.) $27.00 | Nov. 1, 2022 978-0-525-56074-6

Promoting the Christian concept of forgiveness to an unforgiving world.

Pastor and theologian Keller, author of The Reason for God, The Meaning of Mar riage, Hope in Times of Fear, and many other bestselling Christian-focused books, introduces forgiveness through the biblical parable of the unforgiving servant. Using this story, the author concludes that forgiveness, as understood in Christianity, has three dimensions: “First there is the vertical— God’s forgiveness to us. Second there is the internal—our grant ing forgiveness to anyone who has wronged us. Third there is the horizontal—our offer to reconcile. The horizontal is based on the internal and the internal is based on the vertical.” Keller con trasts these teachings with modern culture, which is a “reverse honor culture—also called ‘cancel culture’—that ends up valu ing not strength but fragility and creates a society of constant good-versus-evil conflict.” Such a culture “sweeps away the very concept of forgiveness and reconciliation,” leaving us with a view of forgiveness as being anti-justice and anti-victim. Under such an ethos, forgiveness must be earned. After these introductory concepts, Keller goes on to explain how Christian ideas of for giveness do indeed provide for justice, allow healing for victims, and promote a healthier society. He notes that God’s offer of forgiveness for us, a motif found throughout the Hebrew Bible and Christian New Testament, is the basis on which we can for give others. In other words, one’s ability to forgive begins with an acknowledgement that all people need forgiveness. Keller also explains that forgiveness is at its best in the context of rec onciliation with another. If that is not possible, then it can still be a meaningful tool in finding peace and controlling anger. The author presents a solid defense of Christian forgiveness theology within a modern, relevant context, quoting sources as varied as Augustine, Adele, Kafka, and Clint Eastwood.

Refreshing, accessible work on the basics of forgiveness from a Christian perspective.

THE GRANDEST STAGE

A History of the World Series

Kepner, Tyler

Doubleday (336 pp.) $30.00 | Oct. 11, 2022 978-0-385-54625-6

New York Times sportswriter Kepner hits a lively history of baseball’s premier event out of the park.

The author modestly writes that his book is “a history, not the history,” of “the most wonderful time

of the year.” It decidedly isn’t wonderful for some players who figure in his pages, such as Dodgers catcher Mickey Owen, who flubbed a breaking ball during the 1941 Subway Series and cost his team the whole shebang. “The fans never forgot the error,” writes Kepner, while Owen allowed, “I was just dumb. I should have been ready for it.” Still, there are second acts in life, and Owen started a baseball camp from which a certain Michael Jordan graduated in 1976. An aging Casey Stengel was uncere moniously fired for not starting Whitey Ford against the Pirates in the 1960 World Series, something no Yankees coach would ever again do as long as Ford played. Chalk some of it up to the yips, as when MVP Mike Schmidt “let himself fail repeatedly off a soft-tossing Scott McGregor, an ancient Jim Palmer, and a rumpled middle reliever named Sammy Stewart.” Crises of confidence aside, Kepner serves up plenty of solid counterex amples, such as the aforementioned Jim Palmer, who, when he was 20, “earned a distinction that will probably stand forever: youngest pitcher to throw a World Series shutout.” There’s plenty of agony and ecstasy for all baseball lovers and a few sur prises as well. Only the most trivia-masterful readers will know, for example, that country singer Charley Pride once pitched in the Negro League; or that President George W. Bush pitched a perfect strike to open the 2001 World Series, just after 9/11, as if to say to the terrorists, as Yankees catcher Todd Greene recalls, “You’re not going to intimidate us and make us crawl in a hole.”

A grand entertainment for every baseball fan.

THE MCCARTNEY LEGACY Volume 1: 1969-73

Kozinn, Allan & Adrian Sinclair

Dey Street/HarperCollins (720 pp.) $35.00 | Dec. 13, 2022 978-0-06-300070-4

A fulsome biography set during a cru cial period of the iconic musician’s life.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews, theirs and others, Kozinn and Sinclair create a thorough narrative seeking to show a “deeper sense of how (and why) McCartney…created the music of the period we cover.” Covering five years in more than 700 pages, the book is extremely detail-laden, probably more than some readers will want. The authors begin at the end, with the dissolution of the Beatles in 1969, something McCartney didn’t want but John Lennon did. McCartney said he “really was done in for the first time in my life.” He was also worried about the fate of Apple Records, which put him up against the others and contributed mightily to the band’s breakup. As things fell apart, McCartney was living on his Scottish farm, writing and recording songs with his own equipment. Kozinn and Sinclair include numerous informa tional callouts—“Recording Sessions”—throughout the book alongside deep dives into the composition of the songs, giv ing insights into McCartney’s creative process. The authors also explore how Linda Eastman helped McCartney in many ways and how he composed a song about her, “Maybe I’m

Amazed,” for a solo, reboot album he was working on, McCart ney, which the authors see as a counterpoint to Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Wedding Album. The authors devote a lot of space to record-business machinations and legal matters. They describe how McCartney hand-picked musicians to record with as he released a single and worked on a new album, Ram, which received tepid reviews. They chronicle the formation of Wings with Linda and Wild Life, another album, which George Harrison viciously panned as “crummy.” Volume 1 ends with the highly successful Band on the Run album. To be continued. A gold mine for avid fans.

FASCISM COMES TO AMERICA A Century of Obsession in Politics and Culture

Kuklick, Bruce Univ. of Chicago (264 pp.)

$35.00 | Dec. 13, 2022 978-0-226-82146-7

An examination of the meaning of fascism and the misapplications of the term.

In the eyes of different beholders, fascism has many variant meanings. A Stalinist might call any one who disagreed with his ideology a fascist; a liberal-leaning reporter might call an ambitious, right-leaning politician a fascist; and countless observers might call Donald Trump a fascist. The concept of fascism, writes emeritus American his tory professor Kuklick, “belongs in a category of what may be designated the ‘less than cognitive’ in that it does not so much refer to anything that exists as it accomplishes disapproval.”

It’s hardly news that fascism is a term that has been used rather loosely to indicate something bad; one could just as well pen a monograph on socialism that would arrive at the same point. The author shores up an argument that hardly needs support with a survey of political rhetoric, popular entertainment, and pun ditry. There are some interesting asides that could use greater elaboration: Kuklick’s linkage, for example, of the development of Mussolini’s canonical brand of fascism with the psychology of William James, to say nothing of the support for Italian fas cism expressed by so many American intellectuals in the 1920s. However, the author works subjects that hardly require work ing. It should come as no surprise to any historically minded reader that the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup “began the portrayal of Mussolini-like leaders as clownish” or that Charles Lind bergh ran with bad company by hanging out with the likes of Hermann Goering and other Nazis. In the end, Kuklick’s don’tworry musings seem overly sanguine in a time when the Capitol can be invaded by people wearing “Camp Auschwitz” T-shirts and self-identified fascists and White nationalists are in power in places such as Hungary, Italy, and the U.S.

The author makes some good points, but the book is an arid exercise that delivers too little in too many words.

A PRIVATE SPY

The Letters of John le Carré le Carré, John Ed. by Tim Cornwell Viking (720 pp.) $30.00 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-0-593-49067-9

A portrait of the famed spy novelist via a lifetime of correspondence.

Meticulously edited and expansively annotated by le Carré’s son, Cornwell, this collection lands like a biography. In the introduction, Corn well provides an outline, covering significant benchmarks in his father’s life, the brooding tenor of his final days in Cornwall in 2020, and the breadth of his correspondence. The text proceeds chronologically, but often a quote from an older le Carré adds context and piquancy. Additionally, Cornwell regularly adds bio graphical context. The first letter, dated 1945, is a polite corre spondence with his headmaster-to-be, written when the author was 13. Adolescent love letters follow, addressed to le Carré’s “darling” Ann, Cornwell’s mother. Subsequent chapters unpack the author’s decades with the Foreign Office and transition from espionage work to his career as a journalist and, ultimately, suc cessful novelist. The editor organizes these latter chapters around specific novels. Although Cornwell writes about his father with affection, he does not shy away from disreputable episodes—e.g., le Carré’s affair with Susan Kennaway, which led to divorce from Ann. As the letters show, literary fame brought the special chal lenges of being a public figure but also more stature to address political issues, which le Carré did up to the very end of his life. Brexit and the Trump presidency were key concerns. The use of correspondence to maintain lifelong relationships emerges as a major theme. The author’s many celebrity pen pals included Sir Alec Guinness, Tom Stoppard, and Stephen Fry. An added bonus are le Carré’s illustrations, peppered throughout the book. Sup plemental material includes a comprehensive chronology and an appendix called Manuscript Sources, which lists chronologically all the letters and their recipients. Le Carré’s wry modesty and cleareyed insight into human nature consistently shine through.

A collection of small insights about a complex literary titan—invaluable for fans.

SAXOPHONE COLOSSUS

The Life and Music of Sonny Rollins

Levy, Aidan Hachette (752 pp.) $35.00 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-0-306-90279-6

A colossally detailed account of the legendary saxophonist.

In this meticulously researched biog raphy of Sonny Rollins (b. 1932), Levy, the author of Dirty Blvd.: The Life and Music of Lou Reed, documents

“Le Carré’s wry modesty and cleareyed insight into human nature consistently shine through.”

private spy

a 65-year career through conversations drawn from nearly every one who interacted with Rollins. The saxophonist’s central place in the history of jazz means that he played with a list of lumi naries that spans generations. We hear about his interactions with early idols like Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, his work with contemporaries Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, and his later mentorship of younger players like the Marsalis brothers. While completists will be thrilled with the in-depth chronicle of exactly which songs were played with which musi cians at which concert dates, others will find that these frequent asides make the text read like a very long track list. Levy’s obses sion with complete documentation also means that we only come to appreciate Rollins’ fascinating personality through the sheer weight of repeated anecdotes instead of synthesis on the part of his biographer. The portrait of Rollins the activist, yogi, and perfectionist genius that emerges frequently borders on hagiography, though the author gradually manages to convey the essence of an artist driven by a relentless spiritual quest to improve himself. Fans who are only familiar with Rollins’ late1950s hard-bop golden age (particularly the classic album from which the book’s title is drawn) will be delighted to discover more about his later evolution. In fact, Levy’s greatest contri bution is his extensive account of the dissatisfaction that led to Rollins’ decision to practice on the Williamsburg Bridge for more than a year as well as the attention paid to the less-wellknown work that followed. In this sense, Levy’s book counts as a success, since its endless supply of superlatives can still inspire and guide readers to listen afresh to Rollins’ huge catalog of recordings.

A definitive account of a jazz icon in which the level of detail will interest only superfans.

MALADY OF THE MIND Schizophrenia and the Path to Prevention

Lieberman, Jeffrey Scribner (544 pp.) $30.00 | Feb. 21, 2023 978-1-982136-42-0

A renowned psychiatrist explains the process and history of a debilitating, per vasive mental illness.

Lieberman, a psychiatrist who has specialized in this field for 40 years and the author of Shrinks: The Untold Story of Psychiatry, argues persuasively that the public understanding of schizophrenia is limited. Affecting 3.3 million people in the U.S. and 78 million worldwide, it has little to do with split personalities, but it manifests with a range of psy chotic behaviors and delusions. “Schizophrenia doesn’t discrim inate,” writes the author. “It can strike the Ivy League-bound high school valedictorian as much as it can the impoverished kid from a broken home. Gender, race, ethnicity, affluence, edu cation—none of these provides immunity.” Tracking the history, Lieberman notes that ancient texts mention it, and for cen turies, it was associated with demonic possession. Even after

it was identified as an illness, effective treatment remained elusive. Eventually, researchers shifted their focus to chemical imbalances. The first therapeutic drug was chlorpromazine (thorazine), which led to a generation of antipsychotics. It also pointed the way to understanding that schizophrenia is tied to a malfunction of dopamine neurotransmission in the brain— although there is also a genetic element that makes some peo ple vulnerable. Unfortunately, as the author shows, research was hampered by the emergence of syndromes that were not actually schizophrenia but looked much like it. The science has come a long way, however, and schizophrenia is now treat able—but it must be identified and addressed as early as pos sible. Schizophrenia is progressive, and once it reaches a certain stage, permanent brain damage is almost inevitable. Lieberman provides a list of symptoms to watch for, and a program that he has developed has had a good success rate. As he did in Shrinks, the author presents an informative, authoritative package.

A compelling and engaging story that shines much-needed light into a dark corner of modern society.

BLACK DIGNITY

The Struggle Against Domination

Lloyd, Vincent W. Yale Univ. (208 pp.) $26.00 | Nov. 15, 2022 978-0-300-25367-2

A philosopher imagines how racial activism might be reconceived.

Black dignity, Lloyd explains, involves the uncompromising affirmation of Black humanity against those who would deny it. In this book, the author, a professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova, tests the status of such affirmations in contemporary activism, offering recommendations for reform that draw on Western phil osophical methods, the insights of seminal Black thinkers, and the truths revealed by key historical precedents. His approach strikes a balance between so-called “activist rhetoric,” aimed at generating political momentum, and the articulation of “sys tematic theory” and more formal explications of how specific conclusions have been reached. Blending the practical and the oretical in this way can feel unsatisfying when it comes to some of Lloyd’s most provocative claims: that “anti-Black racism is not just about bad choices, or about people who failed their diversity exam. It is at the center of everything, for everyone”; that Blackness serves as “the ultimate paradigm of dignity” or that “the possibility of assimilation is forever closed to Blacks.” These concepts demand a more thorough and nuanced account than he gives them. Nevertheless, the author presents striking commentary on a number of topics, including the significance of the death of Trayvon Martin, the galvanized thinking of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the productive potential of “Black Rage,” along with its balancing counterpart, “Black Love.” Lloyd incisively anatomizes the failures of multicultural ist ideals and the inadequacy of superficial reckonings with the

realities of domination. The author makes it clear that acknowl edging the distinctiveness of Black oppression is necessary for combatting it. Moreover, he provides intriguing interpretations of how Black experiences in America might serve as models for other efforts—such as those focused on gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation—to affirm distinctive versions of human dignity.

A bold attempt to determine the conditions of—and the means for achieving—racial justice.

STILL PICTURES

On Photography and Memory Malcolm, Janet Farrar, Straus and Giroux (176 pp.) $26.00 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-0-374-60513-1

Snapshots of a life of artistic creation. Journalist Malcolm (1934-2021), a photographer and collage artist as well as an award-winning writer, uses images of family and friends to create a memoir as elusive as it is revealing. “Autobiography,” she wrote, “is a mis named genre; memory speaks only some of its lines.” Looking at photographs of herself as a child, of her parents and sister, she often admits to the vagueness of her recollections. “Most of what happens to us goes unremembered,” she observes. “The events of our lives are like photographic negatives. The few that make it into the developing solution and become photographs are what we call our memories.” What she does remember coheres as a portrait of the émigré Czech community in New York in the 1940s. She and her family came to the U.S. in 1939 and settled in Yorkville, where her father, a doctor, treated the immigrant community in that upper Manhattan neighbor hood. Besides public school—as a teenager, she went to the High School of Music and Art—Malcolm was sent to learn Czech; but though her parents wanted to ensure her connec tion to her heritage, they only belatedly told her she was Jew ish. She and her sister were dismayed: “We had internalized the anti-Semitism in the culture and were shocked and mortified to learn that we were not on the ‘good’ side of the equation.” Malcolm portrays her father as kind and patient, her mother as needy and volatile. Family life was happy, but “all happy fami lies are alike in the pain their members helplessly inflict upon one another, as if under orders from a perverse higher author ity.” If some memories are swathed in the innocence of child hood perception, some seem deliberately obscured. “I would rather flunk a writing test,” Malcolm admits, “than expose the pathetic secrets of my heart.” What she does expose are sharp observations rendered in the precise, stylish prose that earned her acclaim.

A graceful meditation on memory.

AND FINALLY Matters of Life and Death

Marsh, Henry St. Martin’s (224 pp.) $27.99 | Jan. 17, 2023 978-1-250-28608-6

The latest compelling memoir from the British neurosurgeon.

In 2014, Marsh published the excel lent Do No Harm; in 2017, he followed it up with an equally fine sequel, Admissions. Now past 72 and retired, he writes about becoming a patient. Doctor writers produce a steady stream of such books, but this is among the best. Despite being retired, Marsh “continued to think that illness happened to patients and not to doctors.” He assumed that the urinary difficulties he had been experiencing for years were the result of benign prostatic enlargement, which affects most men as they age. In fact, he had prostate cancer, which had probably spread. The author does not hide his terror at this news. He reviews his life, finding much to applaud but plenty of regrets, and he capably describes his experiences as a patient. Like anyone, he hoped for good news, perhaps even that he may be cured, but it never came. More unnervingly, listening to his doctors revealed that he (like they) held too high an opinion of himself. Patients who love their doctors tell them so, while disappointed patients mostly keep quiet. Doctors who write memoirs admit flaws, but lack of compassion is rarely among them. To his distress, observing how the doctors dealt with him, Marsh realized that he could have done better in the compas sion department. This is not a denunciation of the medical profession; almost everyone he encountered treated him kindly. Accepting that he would die but fearful that he might suffer, he reserves his hatred for opponents of assisted suicide: “It is as though they think that assisted dying is cheating” or “that there is something ‘natural’ about dying slowly and painfully.” The author offers a fascinating account of his often disagreeable treatment but remains entranced by the wonders of the natural world, science, and love for his family. The conclusion finds him still alive and, readers will hope, writing another book.

Another masterful memoir from Marsh.

THE MYTH OF NORMAL Trauma, Illness, & Healing in a Toxic Culture

Maté, Gabor with Daniel Maté Avery (576 pp.)

$27.00 | Sept. 13, 2022 978-0-593-08388-8

A sweeping examination of the roots of today’s mental illness epidemic.

Gabor Maté, a doctor who special izes in addiction treatment, is the author of the acclaimed 2008

“Another masterful memoir from Marsh.” and finally

book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addic tion. In his latest, co-written with his son, composer and lyricist Daniel, he casts a wider net, investigating why an increasing number of people are suffering from mental and physical ill nesses. “Nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug; more than half take two,” write the authors, who sees two overlapping layers to the problem. The first is that traumas—a term he defines widely—are going unrecog nized and untreated. Combined with the stress of modern life, the result is that many people retreat into addictive medica tion, which often causes or exacerbates physical ailments. Once, these mental strains were addressed by communal activities and personal connections, but those remedies are vanishing in the digital age. The second level is the economic organization of techno-capitalism, which creates conditions of inequality, reclu siveness, and manipulation. Taken together, these issues create a yawning gap between how people live and how their biology wants them to live. “A society that fails to value communality… is a society facing away from the essence of what it means to be human,” write the authors. They believe that individuals must accept their traumas in order to move past them and toward true healing. Stress, alienation, and isolation should be denor malized. At the sociopolitical level, the authors acknowledge that they do not have any simple answers, although making the medical, legal, and teaching professions more humanistic would be a good start. At more than 500 pages, the text demands attention and reflection, but it repays the effort, giving readers much to ponder.

An important, insightful book explaining how soci ety became a vortex of mental illness and offering possible remedies.

family, especially at Thanksgiving dinners. Mehta is surprised to learn that vegetarianism has political implications in India: How, she wonders, did she end up “with all the habits of a highcaste person without even understanding that those habits are ways of enforcing caste politics?” Authenticity, intersectionality, and cultural capital, she acknowledges, are complex issues. In choosing clothing, for example, how can one distinguish cul tural appropriation from cultural exchange? Mehta’s overarch ing concern is the insidious nature of unintended racism. She has discovered that “white parents of non-white children can… be very resistant” to thinking about their children’s experiences of racism. “I could talk, with my mother, about the ways that my father’s family and the Indian community made me feel not Indian enough,” she writes, “but I could not necessarily talk to her about what happened in the context of my white, liberal, Unitarian Universalist family when I experimented with being Indian”—for example, by wearing Indian dress. Although mixed-race individuals long for communities of those who share their experiences, the nuances of those experiences com plicate feelings of connection.

Thoughtful meditations on identity.

THE QUEEN Her Life

Morton, Andrew Grand Central Publishing (448 pp.) $30.00 | Nov. 15, 2022 978-1-5387-0043-3

The longtime royal observer delivers a fond remembrance of Queen Elizabeth II (1926-2022).

Mehta, Samira K. Beacon Press (200 pp.) $24.95 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-0-8070-2636-6

An exploration of the challenges fac ing mixed-race people in the U.S.

Mehta, who teaches women, gender, and Jewish studies at the University of Colorado, melds mem oir, cultural criticism, and theory in candid essays about identity. With a South Asian father and a White mother, she was raised primarily in her mother’s culture, growing up in a small Con necticut town and traveling once to India when she was 24. As an adult, she converted to Judaism; matzah ball soup is her com fort food. Being mixed race, Mehta reveals, affects everything in her life, from food choices to dress, holiday celebrations to friendships, and especially her sense of community. “Perhaps my biggest ‘failure’ of authenticity, certainly my most long standing,” she writes, “is that I do not like Indian food.” In addi tion, she’s a vegetarian, setting her apart from both sides of her

Having written of the British royal family in numerous other works, notably about the close relationship between the queen and her sister, Margaret, British journalist Morton writes with reverence about his subject and adds some personal touches to her story. “The queen had been part of my life forever,” he writes. “Growing up, the queen and her family were like the white cliffs of Dover, immutable, impregnable, there. A fact of life, like breathing.” Composed while she was still alive, the biography was fashioned as a memorial to her unprecedented 70 years on the throne (she acceded upon her father’s death, in 1952, at age 25) as well as her early life. In the preface, Morton offers glimpses of “the woman behind the mask” (in this case, under the crown), many of which he gleaned during his work as an attending journalist on her California tour in 1983. He moves chronologically through the fairly well-known facts of Elizabeth’s life, adding poignant details—e.g., about young Elizabeth’s sensible ways and how she and her sister would gaze out from windows at the crowds gathered outside, gazing constantly in at her (“both sides won dering what the other was doing”). As the author reminds us, Elizabeth was not supposed to accede to the throne so early, and he shows readers how her husband, Philip, struggled to adapt to being second fiddle. “The left-leaning New Statesman maga zine,” writes Morton, “hoped that the new monarch, described

THE RACISM OF PEOPLE WHO LOVE YOU Essays on Mixed Race Belonging

as ‘capable, energetic, and sensibly progressive,’ would ‘seize the opportunity to sweep away the old order at court and substi tute a way of life that matches the times they live in.’ ” However, scandals among the family concerning Margaret, the queen’s sons, and their wives caused seemingly irreparable damage to the monarchy until only recently, when William and Kate Mid dleton rekindled a nostalgia for the institution.

A fitting tribute to a long reign.

ANATOMY OF 55 MORE SONGS

The Oral History of Top Hits That Changed Rock, Pop and Soul

Myers, Marc Grove Press (336 pp.) $27.00 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-0-8021-6020-1

Wall Street Journal arts reporter Myers continues his explorations of the kind of popular music that turns from melody to earworm.

When he was 14, recounts Brian Wilson, a neighbor’s dog barked at his mom. When he asked why, she replied, “Brian, sometimes dogs pick up vibrations from people.” Fast-forward a decade, and that offhand comment became the Beach Boys classic “Good Vibrations.” Jimmy Webb, similarly brilliant, pushed the 5th Dimension to voice “Up, Up and Away” so that, in the words of vocalist Billy Davis, “the goal was to feel the song as we sang, so it sounded as if we were up in the sky at the mercy of the wind.” As he did in his previous volume, Anatomy of a Song, Myers does a fine job of getting behind the hits. Some times there’s only one person to reveal a story—Robbie Robert son, for instance, is the only member of The Band left to speak for how “The Weight” came into being. (The setting, Nazareth, was inspired by the inside label of his Martin D-28 guitar.) The author examines other songs from different viewpoints, as with the six interviewees for Donna Summer’s “On the Radio.” Alto gether, Myers turns in a who-knew kind of book: Who knew that Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back in Town” started off as an anti–Vietnam War song? Or that Chic, makers of the disco clas sic “Good Times,” thought of themselves as jazz musicians who, as Nile Rodgers tells Myers, “had set out to update Kool & the Gang”? The narrative contains plenty of joy, discontentment (Joan Jett recalls being weighed down by her best-known song: “The bad reputation thing was imposed on me”), and even new found respect. For example, when fronting his own band, Keith Richards realized what a hard job Mick Jagger had: “being a front man is like nonstop, man.”

With snippets of business, creativity, techno-wizardry, and raw emotion, a pleasure for music fans.

PREPARING FOR WAR The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism—and What Comes Next

Onishi, Bradley Broadleaf Books (237 pp.) $28.99 | Jan. 3, 2023 978-1-5064-8216-3

A former White Christian nationalist destroys “the myth of the White Chris tian nation,” which “provided the basis for our polarized public square…and the worst attack on the Capitol in two centuries.”

As a teenager in the mid-1990s, Onishi, a religion scholar and host of the Straight White American Jesus podcast, became deeply involved in a White evangelical church in Orange County, California. As a convert and then minister, he was entrenched in what he calls the foundational traits of White Christian nation alism, which he recognized in the rhetoric of the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters: “the myth of the Christian nation, nostalgia for past glory, and an apocalyptic view of the nation’s future.” In a per tinent, accessible combination of historical survey and memoir, Onishi looks at specific court cases that helped galvanize the White nationalist movement in the 1960s in reaction to the rise of the civil rights and feminist movements, especially Engel v. Vitale (1962), which “concerned the constitutionality of school prayer in public school settings where students were required to participate”; and Abingdon v. Schemp (1963), which “consid ered the matter of required Bible reading in schools.” Both were denounced by evangelicals as the moment “God was taken out of public schools.” Along with other forces such as desegrega tion and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, these cases helped pro pel Barry Goldwater’s hard-right candidacy. Onishi shows how the movement gained political might thanks to Paul Weyrich, “one of Goldwater’s foot soldiers,” and how the religious right combined with the GOP to frame the argument as an attack on family values and religious freedom. The election of Ronald Reagan and defeat of Jimmy Carter, “the wrong kind of Chris tian,” helped perpetuate the warlike, conspiratorial language of the movement, to which Donald Trump neatly subscribed a few decades later. Onishi’s systematic, well-argued narrative reveals the “nostalgia politics” behind the shrinking privilege of White nationalists.

A cleareyed, compelling study of the road to Jan. 6 and the possible future of the politics-versus-religion battle in the U.S.

“A cleareyed, compelling study of the road to Jan. 6 and the possible future of the politics versus religion battle in the U.S.”

for war

THE BREACH

The Untold Story of the Investigation Into January 6th

Riggleman, Denver with Hunter Walker Henry Holt (288 pp.)

$29.99 | Sept. 27, 2022 978-1-250-86676-9

A newsworthy book that centers on revelations gained by way of the highertech end of the Jan. 6 committee.

“We’re in an information war, and it’s house-to-house fight ing,” write Riggleman, a former Republican representative who lost his Virginia seat in a primary election to a Trumpian candi date to his right, and political journalist Walker. Using his skills as a one-time intelligence officer, Riggleman ferreted out phone and text records to make some critical discoveries. One was the oversize role of Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, in the conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Even though dozens of her texts have been recovered and entered into the record, “we are still learning about just how deeply Ginni Thomas was involved in trying to thwart the will of the American voters.” Given Clarence’s sole vote to conceal records from the committee, the authors sug gest that he is implicated in the coup attempt. So, too, was an army of lawyers, right-wing media, and members of the govern ment and Congress itself. “The January 6th plot had a politi cal arm, a media arm, a military arm, and a legal one,” write the authors, delivering evidence that some military personnel were ready to join the effort to overturn the government. Perhaps more disturbing is Riggleman’s discovery that the coup was directed by phone calls from within the White House—and, he hazards, very probably by Trump himself: “You can see the sig nals through all of Trump’s noise. We know what he is.” Readers may want to skip over the memoir bits of the narrative. Some passages highlight Riggleman’s talent to explain how and why people can be manipulated, but they don’t do much to advance the story. Still, what a story it is.

An essential work of detection, uncovering crimes at the highest level of the Trump White House.

THE CREATIVE ACT

A Way of Being Rubin, Rick Penguin Press (432 pp.) $30.00 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-0-593-65288-6

The renowned music producer offers an apothegmatic study of creativity.

“However you frame yourself as an artist, the frame is too small,” writes Rubin, producer of albums across genres, from rap to metal to country. Rather than issue gnomic instruc tions in the manner of Brian Eno’s “oblique strategies” set of

cards, Rubin, always encouraging, begins by insisting that cre ativity “is not a rare ability. It is not difficult to access. Creativity is a fundamental aspect of being human.” Though readers may feel slightly cowed next to someone like, say, Paul McCartney, whom the author interviewed at length in a recent Hulu series, Rubin has an apt reply: “You exist as a creative being in a cre ative universe. A singular work of art.” There are ways to posi tion oneself in this creative universe and work to best advantage. The author counsels that it’s never a bad idea to read the very best books, view the very best movies, and study the very best paintings. The only shortcoming in this strategy is that “no one has the same measures of greatness.” Regardless, Rubin urges that the point of art is not to create a product to sell but instead to find a transcendent path to something wonderful within ourselves. “We’re not playing to win,” he writes, “we’re playing to play.” This means getting into child mode and preparing for the possibility that one game might be less fun than another. It also involves getting into the habit of not saying no to oneself or imposing limits just because you haven’t done something. “If there’s a skill or piece of knowledge you need for a particular project, you can do the homework and work toward it over time,” writes the author. “You can train for anything.”

Learn, do, have fun: terrific encouragement for anyone embarking on a creative project, no matter what it might be.

FOUR BATTLEGROUNDS Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Scharre, Paul Norton (496 pp.) $32.50 | Feb. 28, 2023 978-0-393-86686-5

An intriguing study of how artificial intelligence is the new frontier for the rivalry between the U.S. and China.

AI is reaching into every part of our lives, but one of its most widespread applications is largely unseen to ordinary American citizens. The U.S. military is incor porating AI into nearly every aspect of their operations, from piloting jet fighters to optimizing logistical support. At the same time, other countries, especially China, are advancing their own systems. In fact, China has made no secret of its intention to become the leading player in AI by 2030. Scharre, a former Army Ranger and vice president and director of studies for the Center for a New American Security, understands the realities of war as well as the tech side, so he is well positioned to examine this field. He has already covered some of this ground in his significant 2018 book, Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War. The author identifies four crucial areas: data collection, computing hardware, talent, and institutions. Currently, the U.S. holds the lead, but it is steadily deteriorating. Scharre delves deeply into each area, noting that fundamental differences between authori tarian China and democratic U.S. China’s government-driven model provides unity of purpose and unlimited funding but restricts innovation. The American system is disaggregated and

somewhat chaotic, but it attracts the best talent and is capable of radical breakthroughs. Scharre also examines how AI might change the nature of future conflicts, which may feature swarms of drones and supersmart targeting. A weakness of AI systems is that they do not respond well to changes of conditions, but this is gradually being overcome with new-generation machine learning. It is difficult to know whether to feel confident or disturbed by all this information, but Scharre effectively shows where military AI currently stands and where it is going.

A solid, well-organized account of the military applica tions of AI and of the race to take the lead global position.

THE SOVIET CENTURY Archaeology of a Lost World

Schlögel, Karl Princeton Univ. (880 pp.) $39.95 | March 14, 2023 978-0-691-18374-9

German historian and journalist Schlögel casts a discerning eye on the things that surrounded the Soviet Union and its people.

Who knew that, apart from his experiments with dogs, Ivan Pavlov wrote a preface concerning nutrition for a bestselling Soviet cookbook? That’s one of just many oddments Schlögel assembles in this utterly absorbing tour through the material goods that defined the Soviet era, from pulpy wrapping paper to the medals veterans wore, from canned goods to perfume and tchotchkes and everything in between. All were on display immediately after the Soviet Union collapsed, as the author notes empathetically: “Things that had previously been care fully stored and preserved until the end of people’s lives—dis tinctions, work records, diplomas and even medals—all find themselves up for sale in the flea market once material needs have become sufficiently pressing and the sense of reverence has evaporated.” Sometimes people got rid of these things less for financial need than to discard a failed system, but even so, there’s a nostalgia at work in a marketplace that has shifted from the streets to shopping malls and department stores that could be anywhere in the world. Schlögel is particularly fasci nated by old signs for such things as the butcher shop, which may have had the barest range of offerings, something that “is hard to describe…when you come from a world where there are always dozens of different sorts of meat and sausage.” If there was an abundance of anything in the Soviet Union, it was of aspirational rhetoric: A fascinating case is the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, which argued that alphabetical order was a fee ble artifact of the ruling class of old, to be swept aside for a new way of arranging knowledge. (Alphabetical order was eventually restored.) More ominous, as Schlögel unveils, was its editors’ insistence that there’s no such thing as “objective facts,” a fore shadowing of today’s post-truth world.

A superb blend of social history and material culture, essential for students of 20th-century geopolitics.

THE COMEDIANS IN CARS GETTING COFFEE BOOK

Seinfeld, Jerry

Simon & Schuster (352 pp.) $35.00 | Nov. 22, 2022 978-1-982112-76-9

The renowned comic puts his online talk show series between covers.

Want to get a cup of coffee? The operative verb, insists Seinfeld, is get, an active word that, he writes, “is really a way of saying, ‘I like you enough to do absolutely nothing with.’ No higher compliment, to my way of thinking.” The conceit is to get coffee, and maybe a nice nosh, in a variety of unique cars from every era. Seinfeld, like frequent interlocutor Jay Leno, is a die-hard car guy, afford ing a topic of conversation that is of interest only to car guys (and used sparingly here). Though there are some throwaway bits, Seinfeld and the dozens of comedians here have more substantive things to say. There’s a lot about comedy, naturally. David Letterman muses about watching Richard Pryor do a bit about having sex with a dog, concluding, “Well, okay. There are many facets of genius.” Judd Apatow remembers that his nearbroke mother bought a Mercedes, and when he asked her why not a Camry, she replied, “Because I’m not an animal.” Money is a preoccupation, but Apatow wisely adds in another conversa tion, “We’re not in the money business. We’re in the fun busi ness.” Some comics muse on race, some on religion, some on what might have been—e.g., when Don Rickles reckons that he might have made “a damn good psychiatrist.” Perhaps surpris ingly, the deepest comments come from the late Garry Shan dling—unfortunately, too many of Seinfeld’s interviewees are no longer with us—who told Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh a side-splitting joke about the Buddha and then concludes of comedy, “It doesn’t have any value beyond you expressing your self spiritually, in a very soulful, spiritual way. It’s why you’re on the planet.” The book features vivid color photos, and the inter viewee list is a comedy lover’s dream.

An amiable, largely amusing ramble down the back roads of the comedian’s art.

THE MIDNIGHT KINGDOM

A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis

Sexton, Jared Yates Dutton (384 pp.)

$29.00 | Jan. 17, 2023 978-0-593-18523-0

Political analyst Sexton traces the current wave of know-nothing radical ization over centuries of world history.

By this occasionally wandering account, there’s a straight line between QAnon beliefs and the book of Rev elation. One tenet of apocalypticism, writes the author, is that when they were in control of the narrative, “Christians believed

“The book features vivid color photos, and the interviewee list is a comedy lover’s dream.”

they were engaged in an active and dire war against the literal personification of evil,” as opposed to the Jewish view of Satan as a metaphor. As such, evil people had to be dispatched, as when Charlemagne ordered the beheading of 4,500 Saxons who refused to convert to Christianity. The differences multiplied: Antisemitism flourished, Protestants hated Catholics and vice versa, and bizarre ideas became mainstream. For example, dur ing the administration of Woodrow Wilson, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, updated to blame the communist revolution on a partnership between Bolsheviks and a ‘secret Jewish society’ working to ‘have the whole world…in their grip’ and destroy Christianity,” enjoyed broad circulation. Later, Henry Ford’s version of that strange screed became must reading for rightwingers, with the added layer that changes in baseball rules and jazz broadcast on the radio were instruments of Jewish mind control. It’s a small stretch to get from there to the belief that the basement of a pizza parlor was the locus for a pedophilia ring that only a Bible-worthy savior could oust given that “many Americans were primed to believe in anything, no matter how ridiculous or supernatural.” Thus Trump, Bannon, Orbán, and the like are ascendant or waiting for a new moment. “Forces are hard at work to try to rewind time and reinstall theocratic, authoritarian rule based on weaponized faiths that once ruled the world,” writes Sexton. Against this, he urges, it’s up to the reality-based community to combat the big lie and its many tentacles.

A diffuse but sharp argument against the countless dan gers of too much belief in the unproven and unseen.

a result of their cruel, assembly-line efficiency in factory farms or titanic feedlots, where the animals consume hyperdense feed, chemicals, and antibiotics to boost their weight before slaughter. Research reveals strong evidence that processed food, including bacon, ham, hot dogs, and salami, can cause cancer. Readers will gnash their teeth at Sorvino’s vivid accounts of rapacious bil lionaires and the half-dozen mega-corporations that dominate the industry, pollute waterways, and exhaust farmland under the very gentle hand of government regulators. In the final sec tion, the author explores a few solutions, but she is skeptical that alternative protein will ever upend traditional industrial systems. She describes a dozen entrepreneurs and their protein alternatives, but “meat alternatives accounted for 0.2 percent of 2020 grocery meat sales.” Money is rarely their main problem because this is a trendy field for venture capitalists (even the industry giants are researching this area), but investors nearly always value profit over saving the environment, and many of their products are far from organic, requiring industrial farmed inputs, chemicals, and pesticides.

Convincing, often enraging, and no more optimistic than the facts call for.

SINK A Memoir

Thomas, Joseph Earl Grand Central Publishing (256 pp.) $28.00 | Feb. 21, 2023 978-1-5387-0617-6

A gritty memoir of a childhood spent at the bottom of the food chain.

$28.99 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-1-982172-04-6

A new exposé of the American meat industry.

Since Upton Sinclair’s 1906 best seller, The Jungle, denunciations of the meat industry appear regularly, and they remain fully justified. A simple description of what happens when an animal enters a slaughterhouse will horrify most readers, and equally time-honored are journalists’ depictions of low-wage slaughterhouse work, which is grue some, dangerous, and unhealthy. Sorvino, who runs the cover age of food, drink, and agriculture at Forbes, does not ignore these easy marks, but she aims higher, targeting multinational corporations, billionaires, global trade, climate change, soil destruction, and pollution. “Meat production has been a staple of the American economy, culture, and diet for generations,” she writes, “but industrial agriculture that values profits over people and the environment is careening toward a food-inse cure future.” American farmers and meat processors benefit from government subsidies and tax breaks, but their profits are

“Of all the protagonists in this story— both real and imagined—just Joey, the boy, owned an Easy-Bake Oven.” In his debut, Thomas announces his unusual approach to memoir in the first sentence: written in third person and including both real and imagined characters. Among the real ones are Popop, Joey’s grandfather, and Ganny, who is “better than [Joey’s] mother, Keisha, because at least she didn’t smoke crack or do it with men for money in front of the kids…even if he saw her as too much a cross between a punching bag and a robot.” In addition to the violence, chaos, and slovenliness of Joey’s home in the Frankford neighborhood of Philadelphia, there were the cockroaches—and they are everywhere, floating up in the cereal bowl, falling from the ceiling, crawling into his sleeping little sister’s ear to bite through her eardrum. As for the imag ined characters, the author writes about Goku, the monkey boy from Dragon Ball Z—“among the first people, or things, that Joey wished to be rather than deal with his own inadequate body”—and there were many more, as video games provided the only relief in Joey’s life from the infinitely repeated lesson that “human survival dictated that a lot of people got hurt for other people to feel good and alive.” At least with video games, he was the one doing the beating and killing, the one who got to feel good and alive. Maybe Thomas chose to write in third person as a way of buffering the misery and cruelty recounted

RAW DEAL Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed, and the Fight for the Future of Meat Sorvino, Chloe Atria (352 pp.)

here, but in a first-person narrative of a terrible childhood, the sheer persistence of the I can imply redemption.

It takes rare courage to tell a story this harsh and unre deemed. Thank God for video games.

SYBIL & CYRIL

Cutting Through Time

Uglow, Jenny Farrar, Straus and Giroux (416 pp.) $40.00 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-0-374-27212-8

A dual biography of two British art ists who created a powerful modernist aesthetic.

From 1922 to 1942, Cyril Power (18721951) and Sybil Andrews (1898-1992) worked together as artists, garnering acclaim for their strikingly dramatic linocuts. Award-winning biographer and historian Uglow creates a palpable sense of their nourishing relation ship, the “energetic restlessness” of their artistic circles, and the changing world to which they responded. Viscerally attuned to “the dizzying mood and unease of the late 1920s and early 1930s,” at the same time, writes the author, they “looked back, to a dream of a pre-industrial life.” Though holding different reli gious convictions—Power was Catholic; Andrews was drawn to Christian Science—“both thought intensely about faith.” They met in Bury, England, where Power, married and the father of four, was an architect and teacher; Andrews, teaching at a local school, was an aspiring artist. Power, when he chanced upon her drawing, offered advice. In 1922, Andrews left Bury for art school in London. Soon, Power abandoned his family to fol low her. For the next 20 years, they worked together, traveled together, shared a studio, and exhibited their work together. They also played period instruments in their own musical ensemble. Friends saw them as a couple, but Andrews insisted later that their relationship was entirely platonic. Whatever intimacy they may have shared, they spurred one another’s creativity. Both took up etching—London churches, colleges of Oxford and Cambridge—hoping to sell prints to academics, former students, and tourists. Both saw linocutting as an excit ing technique that leant itself to the dynamism, action, and “radical simplicity” they sought to convey. “Lino itself,” Uglow writes, “was a modern, ‘democratic’ material, machine-made, efficient, cheap.” A generous selection of images reveals their aesthetic preoccupations: Power’s with railways and stations, light and shadow; Sybil’s swirling patterns often depicted physi cal labor, “part of her rebellion against prettiness.” A chronol ogy of their exhibitions testifies to their renown.

A vivid, engaging portrait of a productive artistic partnership.

FOR BLOOD AND MONEY Billionaires, Biotech and the Quest for a Blockbuster Drug

Vardi, Nathan Norton (288 pp.) $30.00 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-0-393-54095-6

The story of two small biotech firms who vied to dominate the market for a cancer drug and reaped billions of dollars in compensation.

During the “great biotechnology decade of the 2010s,” Pharmacyclics and Acerta, both based in California, worked feverishly to develop a new drug that used BTK inhibitors to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia with minimal side effects. Vardi, managing editor at MarketWatch and former senior edi tor at Forbes, tells a fascinating story of the science behind this approach and the financial arrangements, medical controver sies, regulatory processes, and business rivalries without which the two competing drugs—Imbruvica and Calquence—would not have become publicly available. Driving the quest was the possibility of huge sales; in 2020, Imbruvica had $6.6 billion in revenues. Such sales would enable the companies to be sold to bigger biotech companies, with massive payouts to inves tors and management. The major investor in Pharmacyclics, for example, made $3.5 billion on his $50 million investment. Vardi brings readers on to significant phone calls, places them at management meetings, and reveals in detail the delibera tions that occurred among investors, medical officers, hospital doctors, and federal regulators. We learn the backstories of the key participants and the science and politics behind experi mental drug trials, the competition among venture capitalists and hedge fund managers, and the strategic calculations of big pharma (Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca) as it engaged the “small biotech companies with experimental therapies” then dominating research and development. Tens of thousands of patients eventually benefitted, although the financial burden— a blood cancer drug can cost $10,000 per month and has to be taken for the duration of the patient’s life—is staggering. The book will appeal to readers of Brendan Borrell’s The First Shot and Gregory Zuckerman’s A Shot To Save the World.

An interesting tale of how personal ambition, scientific curiosity, and the pursuit of wealth led to life-extending drugs.

HIDDEN MOUNTAINS

Survival and Reckoning After a Climb Gone Wrong

Wejchert, Michael Ecco/HarperCollins (256 pp.)

$28.99 | Jan. 17, 2023 978-0-06-308552-7

A gripping account of a disastrous climbing trip gone wrong and the har rowing rescue attempt that followed.

“A vivid, engaging portrait of a productive artistic partnership.”

sybil & cyril

In June 2018, two couples decided to go on the most ambitious climbing adventure of their lives, traveling to “the far western end of the Alaska Range” to tackle the Hidden Mountains, which Wejchert describes as “thin needles of rock capping a wild landscape.” All of the adventurers were experienced technical climbers and alpinists, spending years summiting intense peaks, engaging in some of the most chal lenging climbs in the world. What made this trip different was that for the first time, they would head into unknown territory and attempt to claim a first ascent in the Hidden Mountains, “a phalanx of peaks so remote they had no names or history.”

The Hidden Mountains take days, even weeks, to reach via charter planes and laborious hiking, through snowstorms and clouds of mosquitoes. The climbers’ difficulties began early on: Bushwhacking through unforgiving alder trees while griz zly bears looked on, they realized the peak they had originally planned on attempting—the one they spent months meticu lously researching and planning for—was too far away. Because they were weighed down with hundreds of pounds of gear, every mile took them three trips to carry the packs in manage able loads. They would have to climb a closer, unknown peak— a choice that would come to haunt them. Narrated with an intensity that grabs readers from the start, the ascent began with courageously difficult climbing and a sense of adventure. The true bravery, however, came in the aftermath of the tragic accident that forever changed their lives. The determination, strength, and courage of the four climbers and the rescue team are impressive, and the narrative is moving in its portrayal of “bits of humanity enveloped in wilderness and quiet.”

A hard-to-put-down tale of tenacity, bravery, and friend ship in the face of staggering odds.

children’s

STORIES TO KEEP YOU ALIVE DESPITE VAMPIRES

DOGGO AND PUPPER SAVE THE WORLD by Katherine Applegate; illus. by Charlie Alder

WE GO WAY BACK by Idan Ben Barak; illus. by Philip Bunting

ROCK, ROSETTA, ROCK! ROLL, ROSETTA, ROLL! by Tonya Bolden; illus. by R. Gregory Christie

THE GENTLE GENIUS OF TREES by Philip Bunting

ME AND THE BOSS by Michelle Edwards; illus. by April Harrison

PAWS: MINDY MAKES SOME SPACE by Nathan Fairbairn; illus. by Michele Assarasakorn

FRIENDS BEYOND MEASURE by Lalena Fisher

SOMETIMES IT’S NICE TO BE ALONE by Amy Hest; illus. by Philip Stead

THE VOICE IN THE HOLLOW by Will Hillenbrand

INDIGO DREAMING by Dinah Johnson; illus. by Anna Cunha.......

THE BIRD COAT by Inger Marie Kjølstadmyr; illus. by Øyvind Torseter; trans. by Kari Dickson

THEY SET THE FIRE by Daniel Kraus; illus. by Rovina Cai

WHILE YOU SLEEP by Jennifer Maruno; illus. by Miki Sato

HOPE IS AN ARROW by Cory McCarthy; illus. by Ekua Holmes

JUST JERRY by Jerry Pinkney

Provensen

WORM

THE BEAR

by Alice Provensen

by Oleksandr Shatokhin

CATERPILLAR

by Komako Sakai;

by Kazumi Yumoto;

by Cathy Hirano

Windness

Acker, Ben Illus. by Scott Buoncristiano Simon & Schuster (192 pp.)

| Aug. 30, 2022 978-1-66591-700-1

Read this—your

depend on it.

just

In the preface to this horror col lection, a mysterious narrator, who was once held captive by vampires, notes that these creatures of the night “cannot so much as nibble you if you tell them a story,” so he has kindly left readers these tales, which served him well in the past. Some stories stand alone, while others return to the same characters or settings: summer campers sharing tales; an exorcist tasked with getting rid of ghosts. The exorcist’s stories mirror real-life horrors, like the Woman in White, a ghostly version of entitled White women we’ve become familiar with via social media videos. Many tales breathe new life into triedand-true tropes, such as the hitchhiking ghost. Acker’s voice changes subtly through the progression of stories, making it believable that a young person is telling these tales off the cuff and becoming a stronger storyteller over time through more sophisticated language. Peppered throughout are humor ous accounts of the narrator’s time with his fanged captors along with Buoncristiano’s arresting black-and-white artwork. Layers of nuance, plus hints at modern concerns, make this an entertaining read for a wide age range. Lack of physical description assumes a White default throughout, though the Park twins may be Korean, and the family harassed by the Woman in White might be people of color considering similar real-life incidents. One character uses they/them pronouns.

Offering unexpected twists on established tropes, this collection will delight horror fans. (Horror. 8 14)

BRAVE LIKE MOM

Acker, Monica Illus. by Paran Kim Beaming Books (32 pp.)

$17.99 | Nov. 1, 2022 978-1-5064-8320-7

Courage takes on many forms.

A nameless protagonist with straight brown hair and light tan skin describes the many impressive things their mom

does. The mother, who has short dark brown hair and tan skin, can lift the narrator up with “rocket-booster arms” so the child “can soar through the sky,” and she “opens the applesauce jar with out making a funny face.” But the mother is also sick: “sicker than bubblegum medicine can fix. She tries different treatments now, hoping one day they will make her feel better.” As the story proceeds, the mother catches scary spiders in jars and wrangles a largemouth bass, but she also spends time in the hospital and “battles fatigue, aches, and pains before her feet hit the floor each day.” As a result, the protagonist sometimes feels scared and even cries. Thankfully, their supportive mom reminds them that “being strong doesn’t mean you can’t cry,” and “being brave doesn’t mean you’re never scared.” It’s an important lesson, one supported by colorful and engaging illustrations that capture the good moments and the not-so-good ones. In an author’s note, Acker mentions that the mother character was based on her sis ter-in-law, who died of cancer in 2020, but the story never speci fies the illness, making for a tale that will bolster many children with sick parents and caregivers. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Tenderly encouraging, with a message of hope and resil ience. (Picture book. 4 7)

working dogs throughout history, mythical canines (Aralezes in Armenian lore, Cerberus from Greek mythology, for instance), and a few famous dogs fill out this comprehensive introduction. Engaging and appealing for anyone with an interest in canines. (index) (Nonfiction. 8 12)

FAMILY

Andrés Almada, Ariel Illus. by Sonja Wimmer Trans. by Jon Brokenbrow

Cuento de Luz (32 pp.)

$16.95 | Oct. 4, 2022 978-84-18302-84-8

Series: Family Love

An exploration of the magic that is family.

Dogs perform work with humans in an impressive variety of ways.

Several characteristics of dogs—including their strong senses of smell and hearing, strength, steadfastness, and loy alty—make them particularly adapted to working alongside humans in solving problems or providing protection. This fas cinating account starts with a look at the traits of six popular working-dog breeds (German and Australian shepherds, Labra dor and golden retrievers, Malinois, husky). Gentle, straightfor ward spot and full-page illustrations, pleasant and welcoming, create a classic look that will last longer than photographs might. Humans pictured are mostly light-skinned, though some people of color appear. The clear, simple, colorful layout and succinct text in this Swiss import, translated from French, offer capsule descriptions of dogs who herd, pull sleds, guard, guide, hunt, rescue, and assist police, followed by slightly less familiar dog jobs: water rescue, truffle hunting (important char acter trait: This dog “resists temptation” to eat its finds), medi cal response and therapy, protection from domestic violence (in a program in Spain), and detection of cancer, water leaks, pests, and fire accelerants. Unusual jobs include dogs serving as may ors and retrieving balls for tennis matches. Skills, special vests and equipment, rewards and motivation, and a career trajectory (from puppyhood to retirement) are outlined. Information on

In a universe where “nothing happens by chance” and des tiny is a “sweet, gentle melody,” souls seek harmony with other souls. In finding their “kindred spirits,” these souls join the intergenerational thread of family that connects loved ones across time. Though at times this string may become tangled and relationships get disrupted, the family ties that bind persist through it all with the reassurance that the universe knows best. This story is told as much through the images as Andrés Alma da’s verse, translated from Spanish; Wimmer uses soft-edged two-page spreads through which the string of family runs, tying diverse people together through time. The story of a divinely planned family into which souls choose to join brings a spiritual side that may grate against those whose theological beliefs and lived experiences do not align with this particular vision of fam ily. This title will likely best find a home among kindred spirits in spiritual but not religious households, where it would make a solid bedtime read-aloud. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A cozy and intimate story celebrating the curious alchemy of family. (Picture book. 3 7)

DOGGO AND PUPPER SAVE THE WORLD

Applegate, Katherine Illus. by Charlie Alder

Feiwel & Friends (96 pp.)

$8.99 | March 22, 2022

978-1-250-62100-9

Series: Doggo and Pupper, 2

The doggie duo make a welcome return.

In this second entry in the Doggo and Pupper early-reader series, the canine pals’ distinctive personalities come more fully to the fore, and readers discover how close they truly are. Worrywart Pupper may be afraid of giant squirrels, but he longs to be a hero like Wonder Dog, whose exploits he mar vels at on TV. He also has real drumming talent, nurtured by Doggo. Doggo is fully realized as a music-loving, tenderhearted,

DOGS WHO WORK The Canines We Cannot Live Without Aloise, Valeria Illus. by Margot Tissot Trans. by Jeffrey K. Butt Helvetiq (104 pp.) $24.99 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-3-907293-71-3

wild things

What makes for a truly great ani mal story? Since reading more adult nonfiction, including the works of Alexandra Horowitz, who special izes in dog cognition, I’ve become convinced that the best animal tales have one thing in common: an understanding of the umwelt, or how a creature makes sense of the world. To a human, for instance, a nearby cat is a welcome compan ion, but to a mouse, it’s a dire threat. Although works of fiction with animal characters often take liberties with reality (rodents probably don’t understand English; rab bits almost certainly don’t wear adorable blue jackets), the strongest ones convey what the world feels like from that creature’s perspective. These recently published middle-grade novels will push readers to imagine life from another point of view, help them cultivate empathy, and perhaps encourage them to learn more about the wildlife spotlighted.

Remy Lai’s graphic novel Sunny the Shark (Henry Holt, Aug. 9) fol lows an upbeat oceanic whitetip as she gets tangled in a discarded plastic ring—a predicament that prevents her from hunting. With her toothy smile, our heroine cuts an adorable figure, but Lai also folds in informa tion on shark behavior and the dev astating effects of pollution on ma rine life. Her cartoon illustrations temper this at-times harrowing tale; readers will genuinely fear for Sunny as she grows weaker, and they’ll be spurred to help make the ocean a safer place for wildlife like her.

Carlie Sorosiak’s Always, Clem entine (Walker US/Candlewick, Sept. 6) centers on a superintelligent lab mouse who finds herself living with two humans who resolve to keep her safe from scientists who want to dis sect her. Clementine’s cleverness is ap parent throughout this funny, quirky narrative, but she’s also a little rodent attempting to make her way through an intimidating world, and her determination to survive despite the odds will resonate deeply.

Lynne Rae Perkins’ Violet and Jo bie in the Wild (Greenwillow Books, Sept. 13) begins with a charming premise: What if the mice that in fest our houses were just as daunt ed as we are by the prospect of life in the great outdoors? Trapped and released in the woods by the human inhabitants of their previous home, Violet and her brother Jobie carve out new lives, armed only with knowledge gleaned from watching episodes of Nature Magnificent. Immersing readers in a world where almost everything, from birds of prey to foxes, is a po tential peril, Perkins has crafted both a captivating ad venture and a tender tale of found family and friendship.

Set in 1963, C.C. Harrington’s Wil doak (Scholastic, Sept. 20), illustrated by Diana Sudyka, alternates perspec tives between Maggie, a girl sent to live with her grandfather, and Rum pus, a young snow leopard bought as a pet, then abandoned in a Cornish for est. Both feel woefully out of place— Maggie is tormented by her stern fa ther’s anger at her stutter—but find kinship together. Harrington’s depic tion of these wild, wondrous woods is masterful, and she deftly illustrates how her two very different protagonists perceive it.

In Guojing’s The Flamingo (Random House Studio, Sept. 27), a Chinese grandmother tells her visiting grand child the story of the flamingo she reared as a young girl. This sumptuous, nearly wordless graphic novel makes inspired use of color as it moves between past and present. As the flamingo real izes it’s time to migrate, its sorrow at leaving its friend is palpable— and parallels the pain experienced in the present as the grandchild prepares to return home. Though there’s a hint of magic in this tale, the emotions felt by all the charac ters, human and animal, are realistic and incredibly re latable.

Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.

reassuring elder statesman who always has Pupper’s back. In this outing, the pair also enjoy watching the babies in a family of neighboring nesting birds learn to fly. The dog pals’ mutual interest in music, a concert the friends plan to attend in the local park, and a helpless fledgling who hasn’t quite found its wings and requires rescuing—all these plot points culminate in a heartwarming ending that delivers a wonderful message about patience, kindness, and selflessness. Doggo and Pupper may not actually save the world here, but they do offer up a lovely reading experience for emergent readers through simple, dialogue-laden prose that beginning readers should be able to master readily. As in the first series title, the colorful collage and digital illustrations are energetic and endearing. “Pupper’s Guide to Being a Hero,” a 10-step list with suggestions such as “Be helpful” and “Share what you have,” concludes the book. Seen only briefly, the dogs’ owners appear to be light-skinned. Charming and utterly delightful. (Chapter book. 5 8)

I HAVE A QUESTION

Arnold, Andrew Roaring Brook Press (40 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 31, 2023 978-1-250-83824-7

A kid deals with question anxiety.

A class of elementary schoolers is learning about metamorphosis. When Ms. Gail asks if anyone has questions, most of the class seems content to work on their butter fly drawings. Only one student has a question, and through thought bubbles, the blond, light-skinned child catastrophizes wildly, imagining that the act of asking a question will lead to ridicule, exile, and eventually total isolation in outer space, with no other living creatures to witness the vulnerable act of admit ting uncertainty. Of course, when the kid finally works up the nerve to ask something reasonable and inconsequential (“How do you know if a caterpillar is going to turn into a butterfly or a moth?”), it leads to an enthusiastic cascade of questions from the other students, who are now standing up and cheering their inquiries like they’re at a pep rally. With straightforward, graphic-novel–esque illustrations, this story wheels between emotional extremes, never quite hitting the right note, and it might do more to reinforce anxieties in kids than to reassure them. It’s also left unexplored why the main character leaps to these conclusions, leaving the central theme feeling forced and underdeveloped. Ms. Gail is light-skinned; the other classmates are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Relatable but uneven. (Picture book. 5 8)

WHEN PB MET J Aronson, Katelyn Illus. by Sarah Rebar Viking (40 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 17, 2023 978-0-593-32739-5

A friendship story with a heaping helping of puns.

The Fridgers and the Cupboard Crew seem content to stay on their own sides of the kitchen. The foods that reside in the refrigerator badmouth the nonperishables throughout the day, except Jelly, who wonders if the foodstuffs in the cabinet are really all that bad. The Cupboard Crew is no better; they dis cuss why the refrigerated items are nefarious—everyone, that is, except Peanut Butter, whose natural curiosity spurs the action of the story. All the food meets on the kitchen island to mingle for the Friday Night Jam, where Peanut Butter, aka PB, introduces himself to Jelly, aka J, after shyly admiring her dance moves. Then, in a scene fit for a teen drama, a smooth-talking

jar of pickles barges in, causing PB to leave in dismay and J to lose her lid. This attracts the household dog, who makes a bee line for the vulnerable J, forcing PB to make a brave choice to rescue his new friend. Food puns and jokes dominate. The car toon foods are adorable, with expressive, emotional faces. It’s a shame then that the bulk of the writing is relatively bland, like a loaf of crustless white bread. The social-emotional skill of relationship building is somewhat unrealistically shown in this kitchen that goes from cliquey to cohesive over the course of one fateful evening. Kids may adore the art, but neither they nor caregivers will appreciate the far-fetched foodie fable. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Sweet but not satisfying. (Picture book. 3 7)

CINDERELLA—WITH DOGS!

Bailey, Linda Illus. by Freya Hartas

Nancy Paulsen Books (32 pp.) $18.99 | Feb. 7, 2023 978-1-984813-82-4

Who doesn’t love a good “furry tail”?

This book opens as expected: Cin derella sweeps the fireplace and bemoans her sad, lonely, boring existence. Then her wish for a fairy godmother is fulfilled in the form of a fairy dogmother, who’s crestfallen when Cinderella explains whom she actually wanted. However, Cinderella, an empathetic dog lover, decides to give this a go. Alas, a misunderstanding occurs when Cinderella asks about preparing for the “ball.” The Fairy Dogmother interprets the word differently at first, envision ing a frolicsome game of fetch. However, she’s got magic up her sleeve and whips up a nifty outfit, footwear, and hairstyle for Cinderella, albeit with a canine aspect. Other “Cinderella” details get “doggified,” and the ball ends up being a howl in more ways than one. Spoiler alert: There’s a twist on the glassslipper-leading-to-marriage ending. Not to worry. This one’s much better—and involves squirrels. This rollicking story will arouse plenty of giggles as young readers enumerate the ways in which it veers from the original. Adults can encourage little ones to think of how “Cinderella” might work with other ani mals subbing in for the fairy godmother. The imaginative, col orful digital illustrations burst with energy and expressiveness. Cinderella is light-skinned. The royal family hosting the ball is brown-skinned, and background characters are racially diverse; the brown, floppy-eared, tutu-wearing dogmother is adorably memorable. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A barking good time will be had by all. (Picture book. 4 8)

YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS Baron, Adam Illus. by Benji Davies Harper360 (400 pp.) $7.99 paper | Jan. 10, 2023 978-0-00-849963-1

In his latest outing, young Cymbeline Igloo helps solve two mysteries involving immigrants in his English community and has a lifelong dream fulfilled.

Firstly, who is playing mean pranks on Mrs. Martin, who has been his favorite teacher since her arrival from Botswana—and why? Secondly, what has made Nanai, a Chinese Vietnamese refugee and the grandma of Cymbeline’s bestie, Veronique Chang, suddenly stop eating? And thirdly, why hasn’t Jacky Chapman, revered star footballer for Charlton, answered Cym’s written request for a ride in his helicopter? In getting to the answers, Baron plunges his curi ous and emotionally intense narrator, who presents White, into a whirl of daily experiences comical and otherwise—ranging from Cym’s amazing day in class with a pink-haired, tattooed science teacher and his mum’s ill-starred attempt to make a veg etarian dinner for her boyfriend to a tearful funeral (for a pet) and startling revelations at a tender family reunion. By the end, the mysteries are solved and resolved satisfactorily. Meanwhile, Cym gets his helicopter ride, writes a rubbish book report on War and Peace (given in full) but proves a dab hand at Scrabble, and expresses gratitude for living in a culturally diverse coun try; his warm relations with Veronique’s family include sobering glimpses of Nanai’s tragic and harrowing past. Select dramatic moments are marked typographically and by Davies’ vignettes of significant items.

Further misadventures of an endearing sleuth with his heart on his sleeve. (Fiction. 9 12)

WE GO WAY BACK

Ben Barak, Idan Illus. by Philip Bunting Roaring Brook Press (40 pp.) $18.99 | Feb. 14, 2023 978-1-250-85079-9

A look back at the beginnings of life on Earth, capped by a populous doublegatefold family tree.

In a concise yet pithy, playful, and deeply insightful story line that dovetails nicely with Karen Krossing’s One Tiny Bubble, illustrated by Dawn Lo (2022), Ben-Barak and Bunting begin by pointing out that despite diverse looks and likes, we all have one thing in common: life. And what is that? Following definitions proposed by a gallery of unidentified thinkers, including car toon-style but recognizable versions of Darwin (“Self-reproduc tion with variation!”) and Spinoza (“A mechanism”), the scene shifts back to our planet’s early days to track the assembly of loose elements into complex molecules, then simple organisms

“Further misadventures of an endearing sleuth with his heart on his sleeve.”

you won’t believe this

that could make copies—each, moreover, “a Little Bit Differ ent.” A “while” later (“Literally billions of years,” as a footnote explains), here we are…bursting into view on the climactic gatefold in teeming lines of developing flora and fauna that all, from single-celled prokaryotes at the bottom to a dark-skinned, shorts-wearing preteen near (not at) the top, share both life and slightly stunned expressions conveyed by googly pop eyes. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Sneakily cerebral for all its apparent simplicity. (Informa tional picture book. 6 9)

BRAVE BIRD AT WOUNDED KNEE

A Story of Protest on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

Bithell, Rachel Illus. by Eric Freeberg North Star Editions (160 pp.) $8.99 paper | Jan. 1, 2023 978-1-63163-685-1 Series: I Am America, 5

The American Indian Movement’s 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee lends impetus to a biracial child’s contact with her historical and cultural heritage.

Eleven-year-old Patricia Brave Bird Antoine’s mom is White, while her dad is Lakota, with family living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation not far from the site of the 1890 mas sacre. So it is that news of the tense armed standoff between AIM and the federal government kindles not only interest in the history of that tragedy, but enough anxiety about her rela tives’ safety to join her father on a drive up from Denver for a brief visit. Following an introductory note on terminology, debut author Bithell uses this scenario both to sit Patsy down beside her grandmother for instruction in traditional customs and crafts and, in a mix of overheard conversations, news clip pings, letters, and reproduced school reports, to explore the roots of the conflict and how local politics caused the violence to escalate. Though for the most part that violence, as well as the major events and personalities of the occupation, remains offstage, a hail of gunfire that leaves Patsy’s father wounded by unknown assailants provides a dramatic climax…and his refusal to be treated by a White doctor for fear of being reported to the FBI shines a light on the (justified) distrust that poisons, prob ably permanently, relations between the federal government and Native American nations. Freeberg’s pencil drawings add cultural and period details (if not action), and a lengthy after word with photos expands on the occupation’s causes, course, and aftermath.

A respectful, evenhanded view of a pivotal historical event. (Historical fiction. 10 12)

Harper/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $18.99 | Feb. 14, 2023 978-0-06-299438-7

From Cotton Plant, Arkansas, to the Cotton Club and beyond, a tribute to rock and roll’s founding godmother. Pairing hot licks of free verse with hip-shaking images of a charismatic performer pouring out her heart, occasional collaborators Bolden and Christie take Sister Rosetta Tharpe (“Little girl. / Big guitar”) from local church services to interna tional stardom—deftly capturing echoes of the way she united a “rhythm-bound Gospel sound” with “beats from Gospel’s / Cousin Boogie-Woogie, / Cousin Jazz, / Cousin Swing, / Cousin

ROCK, ROSETTA, ROCK! ROLL, ROSETTA, ROLL! Presenting Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Godmother of Rock & Roll Bolden, Tonya Illus. by R. Gregory Christie

the big, bad Blues” and changed popular music. Though Elvis joins young Chuck Berry and Little Richard in one scene as stand-ins for the many musicians she influenced with her “fieryfierce-feisty picking and plucking,” figures in the illustrations are predominantly dark-skinned. Christie’s vibrant paintings pulse with energy, perfectly conveying Tharpe’s commanding musical presence. A closing note and timeline fill in the details of her extravagant life and career (including mention of her multiple marriages and affairs with men and women both) from birth to scandalously tardy induction in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A profile as bold and vivacious as the singer herself. (notes) (Picture book biography. 6 9)

THE GENTLE GENIUS OF TREES

Bunting, Philip Crown (32 pp.) $17.99 | $20.99 PLB | Jan. 31, 2023 978-0-593-56781-4 978-0-593-56782-1 PLB

Trees and humans are alike in many ways.

The roughly 3.4 trillion trees on Earth are more than just big plants there to provide humans with wood. They’re highly evolved, community-driven networkers that grow and adapt in ways that people can’t see. In Bunting’s capable hands, trees are also funny and loving; the book combines science and dad jokes to convey the many lessons we can learn from our woodsy friends. Clever illustrations help make the point that, like us, trees are living, social things, such as a human lung drawn to look like an upside-down tree or a tree’s root system drawn to resemble the folds of a human brain and called a “subterranean cerebrum.” Bunting details the ways that trees use their com plex root system (“the wood-wide web”) to help each other (for instance, when a tree is injured, other trees send nutrients) and how they change the way they grow (e.g., making sure branches closer to the sun grow more) to ensure survival. The narrative then shifts from silly jokes (“How do you make an oak tree laugh? Tell it acorn-y joke”) to rather insightful lessons from nature. Like trees, Bunting suggests, people should look out for others, stay centered when things get tough, and most of all, “Grow slow, grow strong.” People depicted are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Sometimes wonderfully silly, always enlightening, this book branches out to become profoundly moving. (Informa tional picture book. 4 10)

DEADLY HEARTS History’s Most Dangerous People

Burgan, Michael Illus. by Karl James Mountford Penguin Workshop (144 pp.)

$14.99 | Dec. 27, 2022

978-0-593-38667-5

Gape at the many misdeeds of noto rious leaders throughout history.

Ropes stretch limbs beyond limits. Sharpened poles pierce bodies. Severed hands litter the ground. These vivid images introduce 16 of humanity’s “deadly hearts” through a sampling of the gruesome violence and torture they sanctioned. The usual suspects (e.g., Genghis Khan and Adolf Hitler) join those perhaps less well known to younger readers (e.g., Elizabeth Báthory and Idi Amin Dada) to create a truly disturbing timeline of genocide, military force, religious per secution, and more. Though individual chapters are brief, each delves deeply enough into its subject’s crimes to provide addi tional biographical context. Curiosity is a common thread, with Burgan questioning why these people were impelled to inflict such horrors. Whether motivated by power, wealth, or just plain enjoyment, these villains remind us of human nature’s “dark side”—and provide a lesson to readers against history repeating itself. The structure closely mirrors Jim Gigliotti’s companion, Dark Hearts (2021); both titles include black-and-white cartoon portraits from Mountford. Black headers with drips of blood adorn chapters, a visual link to the book’s incredibly high body count. Arranged chronologically by the subjects’ birth order, the collection spans from 356 B.C.E. to 2003. Europeans (and men) comprise the majority of profiles, but women, Asians, and Africans are also represented.

Evil in content but engaging in form. (bibliography) (Collec tive biography. 9 12)

THE RIVER THAT WOLVES MOVED

A True Tale From Yellowstone

Carson, Mary Kay Illus. by David Hohn Sleeping Bear Press (32 pp.)

$17.99 | Sept. 15, 2022 978-1-5341-1120-2

A case study in how adding or removing a single species can affect whole ecosystems.

Presenting her account three ways—in cumulative lines modeled on “The House That Jack Built,” notes in smaller type accompanying each stanza, and then a prose recap—Car son explains how wolves, formerly hunted to extinction, were reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1995 to cut down on the elk population, which had overgrazed the willows that stabilized certain riverbanks. More riverside foliage brought more birds and insects; less erosion cleared up the water, which encouraged

BEHIND THE BOOK

Paradise Sands

Levi Pinfold relishes the mysteries of his new picture book—and his young readers’ “radical” outlook

BY TOM BEER

Don’t ask Levi Pinfold to explain the meaning of his haunt ingly enigmatic new picture book, Paradise Sands: A Story of En chantment (Candlewick Studio, Nov. 8). “I’m going to be really annoying and say, it’s supposed to be a mystery,” apologizes the charming 36-year-old author/illustrator during a Zoom call from his home on the Sunshine Coast of eastern Australia. “It’s very tempting to explain exactly what I think about [the story]—but it’s one of those things where you don’t want to spoil the mystery, because that’s half the fun, isn’t it?”

Paradise Sands is certainly an intriguing puzzle. It opens with wordless images of four siblings piling into a dusty white sedan and driving through a desolate, nearly treeless land scape. They stop to pick wildflowers—there aren’t many— and, as the young girl who narrates the tale says, “that was how

we left the road.” Soon they come upon a vast, silent palace looming over a spring. As any reader of fairy tales can guess, the children will drink from the spring and enter the palace, thus beginning their surreal adventure—which involves an enormous lionlike creature called the Teller and a menagerie of other animals who might be…humans transformed?

“The idea came from mythology and some of the fairy tales I grew up with and Welsh mythology as well,” says Pin fold, who is originally from the Forest of Dean in England, a historic place brimming with legends of its own. “The Greek myths are hugely important to me. [They’re] a good lens to view history but also an interesting way of understanding your own psychology and how we humans are still the same as we were for millennia, really.”

Pinfold is also inspired by the strong visual images and scrambled logic of dreams. He recalls, “I had this image of a hotel in the desert, bursting into sand, from a dream at some point. It just stuck around in my head. I think in pictures, you know; words come secondary to me.” Likewise, Pinfold’s first depiction of the Teller came straight out of a dream. “I sent the picture off to my editor and my art director, and they said, ‘Well, that’s terrifying.’ It was quite a malevolent person I had drawn…a very vampiric sort of entity.” Eventually the char acter morphed into its present incarnation: “He’s not quite a lion—there’s something a bit off about him. I wanted him to have a slightly different ear shape and a slightly different anat omy, just to give you that sense that he’s not quite something that you’re familiar with.”

The illustrations that wound up in Paradise Sands are not so much terrifying as quietly menacing—and gorgeous, with the look of extraordinarily detailed paintings in a muted, Andrew Wyeth–like palette. (Pinfold cites Wyeth as an influence.) The artist says that he worked in watercolor and tempera for early books such as The Django (2010) and Black Dog (2016) but has gradually moved toward a more computerized process. For Paradise Sands, he began with a lot of “very loose” watercolor images that he scanned and then refined digitally. “I always want my work to look like paintings,” he says, “so even if I’m

Carly Tia Pinfold

using a digital [effect], I think it leaves some warmth if you have at least some traditional elements in there as well. That’s just a personal taste.”

As a young man interested in graphic design and perhaps working in film, Pinfold studied illustration at Falmouth Uni versity in England and then found his way into the world of children’s literature. In addition to writing and illustrating his own books, he has created artwork for stories by A.F. Harr old (The Song of Somewhere Else, 2017) and David Almond (The Dam, 2018). His highest-profile job came from U.K. publisher Bloomsbury, which commissioned him to create covers and il lustrations for special 20th-anniversary editions of the Harry Potter books. (The U.S. editions featured new covers by artist Brian Selznick.)

How did Pinfold go about the daunting task of reenvision ing the best-known literary franchise on planet Earth? “I said, OK, I don’t want any Harry Potter influence for the duration we do this. And of course, that’s impossible. It’s like trying to for get Star Wars. The best thing I found was to lock myself in a little room and then just read the books and pretend I was 10 years old, reading through this for the very first time,” he says. “How would I picture these characters? The characterization is so strong and everything so well drawn within the books.”

Looking ahead, Pinfold says he’d like to create books for very small children (“I’ve got some running around my house at the moment”) as well as young adult and adult audiences. But he clearly relishes making books for young readers. “I just love their interpretation of things,” he says. “They’ve got such a radical outlook on life, and I love how honest they are. That’s the real appeal of working [on books] for younger kids.”

Paradise Sands received a starred review in the Aug. 1, 2022, issue.

wildlife like beavers and trout and also, as the title suggests, changed the very shapes of the rivers’ courses. Hohn tucks two tan-skinned hikers, one a fascinated child and the other an elder in a wide-brimmed naturalist’s hat, into broad riverine land scapes and depicts them observing the naturalistically painted and posed wolves, elk, beavers, and other wild creatures they encounter on a day’s walk. This is definitely an ecological suc cess story, but steer readers who would like it in greater detail rather than rehashed in three different writing styles—which ends up feeling somewhat redundant—to Jude Isabella’s Bring ing Back the Wolves (2020), illustrated by Kim Smith, which cov ers the same trophic cascade. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Eye-opening but sketchy and repetitive. (bibliography, map, afterword) (Informational picture book. 6 8)

WONDERFUL HAIR

The Beauty of Annie Malone Catarevas, Eve Nadel Illus. by Felicia Marshall Creston (32 pp.) $18.99 | Oct. 4, 2022 978-1-954354-10-4

The true story of the first self-made African American female millionaire.

Annie Malone (1877-1957) loved playing “beauty parlor” by styling her sister’s hair. She was so talented that even the adults in her community had Annie style their hair. Believing that hair was her “destiny,” even as she was told that Black women could aspire only to be “maids, washerwomen, or cooks,” she learned from her aunt, a herb doctor, to develop formulas for hair products that would help to style, protect, and heal the scalps of Black women, who often suffered from hair loss and scalp ailments due to inappropriate grooming products and the harsh process of straightening their hair. Her Wonderful Hair Grower was the first of many products and services that she would go on to create to enhance and affirm Black women’s beauty. Catarevas weaves a lifetime of events—Malone’s early years, her evolution to business owner, and the development of a successful business strategy during a time when career options for Black women were limited—into a well-paced, engrossing narrative that will have readers rooting for Annie. Marshall’s illustrations, a mosaic of rich colors, skillfully complement the text and convey the feel of the period while capturing Annie’s passion and the dignity of the women depicted. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A rousing blueprint for economic self-determination and success. (author’s note, timeline, bibliography) (Picture book biography. 5 9)

“As hardworking as the insect it celebrates.”

bee

HONEY BEE

A First Field Guide to the World’s Favorite Pollinating Insect

Chakrabarti Basu, Priyadarshini Illus. by Astrid Weguelin Neon Squid/Macmillan (32 pp.)

$15.99 | Jan. 3, 2023

978-1-68449-282-4

Series: Young Zoologist

A chatty, wide-ranging introduction to the honey bee for older preschoolers and younger elementary-age students.

Chakrabarti Basu, who introduces herself as “an Indian scientist who lives and works in the United States,” neatly bal ances respect for her audience’s curiosity with an understanding of the need to refrain from overloading them with information. “Located at the end of the abdomen, the stinger is a sharp point used for injecting bee venom into enemies. Bees sting when they’re angry or scared,” she writes. (While there is a glossary that concludes the book, it is not comprehensive; adults shar ing this book with children may need to help them with words such as venom and, a bit later, superorganism, among others.) In thematically organized spreads and with text broken into neatly digestible chunks, Chakrabarti Basu discusses different honey bee species, beekeeping tools, honey bee anatomy, nests (both wild-built and “human-made”), the different members of a honey bee colony, and more. Weguelin’s bright illustrations are simple and a bit stylized but resist anthropomorphization; they lend themselves well to the book’s occasional diagrams. Chil dren’s shelves are abuzz with bee books, but this efficient offer ing stands out in its comprehensiveness, unspooling for readers a neat string of cool facts: Honey bees like “dirty water” with lots of minerals in it; they can’t see red, but they do see blue and yellow. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

As hardworking as the insect it celebrates. (index) (Informa tional picture book. 5 8)

ZURI RAY AND THE BACKYARD BASH Charles, Tami Illus. by Sharon Sordo Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $17.99 | Sept. 6, 2022 978-0-06-291804-8

Zuri Ray loves a good party.

When our protagonist, who was introduced in Zuri Ray Tries Ballet (2021), decides to throw a summer bash, her parents suggest reusing the decorations from Zuri’s third birthday party, playing ’80s music, and making an olive Jell-O mold. Bad ideas! So, with her parents’ encourage ment, Zuri springs into action to plan her own fête with help from her sister, Remi. Their friends come over and volunteer to get their families to contribute food and decorations. The kids decide on a menu of barbecue and tacos, and they plan the party

around a talent show in which the kids will perform. When the day arrives, Lupe dances to Swan Lake, the Patel twins perform magic tricks, Remi and Tessa do a hip-hop number, and Zuri plays guitar and sings. A few mishaps threaten to derail the show, but Zuri and friends recover beautifully, with the help of Zuri’s caring parents, and they all prepare for a grand finale guaranteed to please everyone. Sordo’s colorful, digitally cre ated illustrations portray a loving, diverse community of friends and family. Biracial Zuri, who has brown skin and an Afro, has a White dad and a Black mom; her friends are diverse; and no two (except the twins) have the same skin tone or hair texture. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A well-told story featuring creative kids who excel at fash ioning their own fun. (Picture book. 4 7)

TIPTOE TIGER

Clarke, Jane Illus. by Britta Teckentrup Nosy Crow/Candlewick (24 pp.) $17.99 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-1-5362-2750-5

Series: Neon Animals Picture Books

A tiger searches for a play date in the jungle.

Tara isn’t ready for bed. She wants to play one more game, but who will play with her? She spies some fluttering wings in the sky. Perhaps they belong to someone who wants to play. “Let’s tell Tara to tiptoe up quietly / so she doesn’t scare them away,” cautions the narrator. But oh no! Tara doesn’t tiptoe. Her pounce frightens the butterflies away (“Can you flutter your arms / up and down really fast?”). Then Tara spies some owls in a tree (“How many owls can you count?”). This time Tara tiptoes, but she also roars. Oh, Tara. The owls swoop away. (“I bet you can roar just as loudly as Tara.”) The interactive prompts aren’t just animal sounds and actions; there is also some light math ematics: “But look! There’s a tail / dangling down from a tree. / Can you stretch your arms wide / to show how long it is?” Teck entrup’s bright orange feline stands out against the large, blocky foliage and silhouetted moon. The palette gradually darkens as the night stretches on and Tara finally settles down, snuggled and content, with the (perhaps naïve) hope that readers will do so, too. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

For those who need one more pounce before bed. (Picture book. 2 5)

ON THE CORNER OF CHOCOLATE AVENUE How Milton Hershey Brought Milk Chocolate to America Cohen, Tziporah Illus. by Steven Salerno Clarion/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $17.99 | Dec. 13, 2022 978-0-358-57875-8

The tale of a real-life Willy Wonka who brought milk choco late to the masses.

The eponymous chocolatier’s life begins with gusto, as he is seen peering mournfully at a window full of sweet treats. Born to a lower-income family, “Milton Hershey probably never tasted chocolate as a child.” It was working with confections and learning to make ice cream, lollipops, and taffy that turned him on to the idea of candy as a career. Unfortunately, his busi nesses flopped three times in a row, leading him to the enter prising choice of trying his hand with caramels. That venture

succeeded, but after witnessing German chocolate-making machines at the Chicago’s World’s Fair, he was hooked. “The caramel business is a fad. But chocolate is something we will always have.” Even so, the book shows Hershey’s repeated fail ures, experiments, tests, trials, and, finally, success. His phil anthropic pursuits, such as establishing a school for orphaned boys, are touched upon at the end. What sticks out, however, is the sheer amount of trying and failing that led to his ultimate triumph. Salerno, no stranger to biographical portraits of the past, makes the book as visually sweet and delicious as a choco late bar itself. While it is nearly impossible to write a biography of Hershey without sounding like an advertisement, this par ticular icon’s tale is already a familiar name to most. Background characters are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A tasty treat that’s informative to boot. (source notes, pho tographs, bibliography, further resources, timeline) (Picture book biography. 4 9)

WELCOME TO THE ISLAND Costa, Dela Illus. by Ana Sebastián

Little Simon/Simon & Schuster (128 pp.) $17.99 | Dec. 27, 2022 978-1-66592-654-6 Series: Isla of Adventure, 1

An 8-year-old girl struggles to keep her secret when a new neighbor moves in next door.

Nobody knows that Isla Verde can talk to the animals on the island where she lives, Sol. It’s a talent that comes in handy when she sends her best friend, Fitz the Gecko, to check out the moving truck that arrived on her street. To her excitement, one of the new neighbors is a girl her age, so she might finally have a human best friend. However, Tora Rosa, who comes from La Ciudad, seems like the complete opposite of Isla—she’s tidy, loves the big city where she’s from, and runs from animals—but Isla still wants to make a good impression, so she comes up with an idea. On a trip to town to prepare for her big plan, Isla bumps into Tora. When an attention-seeking bird steals Tora’s prized pin, a reminder of her old home, the two embark on an adventure across the island. As they traverse Sol, Isla runs into some of her best animal friends, which puts her secret at risk of exposure. Isla just may find that the best way to make a friend is to be herself, despite her and Tora’s differences. A well-paced adventure with simple language, this is an excellent selection for beginning readers. Soft, warm illustrations depict Isla’s beloved island as she shows Tora around, keeping young read ers engaged while they learn about what the island offers. Isla’s curiosity and joy shine through as a budding friendship blos soms. Isla and her family are brown-skinned, while Tora and her family are lighter-skinned; both families are Spanish-speaking and present as Latine.

A charming start to a new adventure series. (Fiction. 5 9)

WORKING

Little Bigfoot/Sasquatch (56 pp.)

Learn about the inner workings of working boats as well as the people who live and work on them.

From the tiny Bristol Bay gillnetter to the large National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration research ves sel, 10 boats are explored in this browsable work of nonfiction. The concise text details how each boat is built for a specific job and run by a crew with a set of skills and knowledge. Some boats have sleeping quarters for long stretches on the water, such as the halibut schooner, while others, like the double-ended ferry, are used for quick trips that allow the crew to sleep on land. As

in David Macaulay’s classic The Way Things Work (1988), there are spreads that focus on the mechanics and machinery of boats. Cross sections and exploded views abound in the detailed illus trations. Although many ship parts are labeled, readers already familiar with boat anatomy may find this book most acces sible. In addition to focusing on the boats themselves, the book includes interspersed sections on, for instance, safety gear, engines, and types of oceanography. The text uses the gendered term fishermen throughout and also refers to guardsmen and crew man. Though most of the humans depicted appear to be lightskinned, several brown-skinned people are portrayed as well. The book lacks source notes or a bibliography.

Enjoyable browsing for budding seafarers as well as read ers fascinated by all things mechanical. (glossary) (Nonfiction. 7 11)

SLEEPY SHEEPY

Cummins, Lucy Ruth Illus. by Pete Oswald Flamingo Books (40 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 31, 2023 978-0-593-46591-2

I’m not tired!

Perhaps you know a tiny person who likes to adamantly declare that they’re not tired. If so, they’ll feel an immediate kinship with Sleepy Sheepy, a droopy-eyed ball of white wool who is “NOT SLEEPY!” even though it is time for bed (the illustrations of an exhausted-looking sheep provide a hilarious counterpoint to his claim). His heavy-lidded parents (who have baby carriers strapped to their chests hold ing Sleepy Sheepy’s siblings) attempt to wrangle him, but he has other ideas—great ideas! Like skateboarding and singing karaoke! But the parents slowly direct Sheepy to his bed, with mixed results. After one last breakout to grab a snack, Sheepy declares, “I’m a little bit tired” and is shuffled off to bed (without brushing his teeth, it seems). The story is amusing—although maybe not that amusing to parents who dance a similar dance regularly. The blue-tinged cartoonish illustrations are humor ous, depicting tired expressions on everyone’s faces except the two babies—perhaps hinting at future stories of this wooly fam ily. Caregivers will enjoy making this a bedtime read, and librar ians will turn to this often for pajama storytimes. Young readers who love rebelling against bedtime rules will delight in seeing Sheepy’s evening escapades, and astute members of this crowd will notice his happy smile when he’s finally curled up in bed. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An entertaining tale sure to resonate with those on either side of the bedtime battle. (Picture book. 3 6)

Inside Look at Ten Amazing Watercraft

KOALA

A First Field Guide to the Cuddly Marsupial From Australia

Daniels, Chris Illus. by Marianne Lock

Neon Squid/Macmillan (32 pp.)

$15.99 | Jan. 3, 2023

978-1-68449-283-1

Series: Young Zoologist

Welcome to the world of this endearing Australian marsupial.

Young readers will learn lots about koalas from zoologist Daniels’ lively, fact-packed, well-organized field guide. Koalas are cuddly and adorable, and they’re fascinating, complex, and, sadly, endangered as well. From the beginning, the book casts readers in the role of an animal scientist, instructing them in such important matters as the equipment actual koala experts employ to locate and study the creatures in the wild. Children glean essential facts about the koala, including its scientific name, mating habits and reproduction, diet, anatomy, life span, relatives, habitat, and more. Facts are clearly presented, delivered in a conversational tone, with salient information offered up on discrete pages. Additionally, children are helped to differentiate between koalas and bears, for which they are commonly mistaken, and guided to understand the numerous serious environmental threats they face. Some koala myths and legends are even included. The attractive volume features illus trations rather than photographs; koalas and other Australian animals are shown in realistic settings, with text and images set against colored backgrounds. This installment in the Young Zoologist series will be a welcome addition in public and school libraries and will win fans among appreciative animal-loving casual browsers as well as report writers. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A sweet, enjoyable book about an intriguing animal. (glos sary, index) (Informational picture book. 5 8)

A BOY AND HIS MIRROR

Davis, Marchánt Illus. by Keturah A. Bobo Nancy Paulsen Books (32 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 3, 2023 978-0-593-11055-3

A young Black boy with long, curly hair struggles to feel accepted.

Chris loves his hair even if other kids consider it “girly.” At school, some laugh and stare. Mom tries to make Chris feel better with a pep talk. When he looks in the mirror, something strange happens. A beautiful Black woman comes out of the mirror, dressed like royalty. She tells Chris that “in a faraway land, child, / you’d look like a king” and that he should embrace his hair. He returns to the mystical mirror when his kinglike behavior is lost on his peers. His enchanted mirror guides him on the behaviors of a true king, sending him

on his way to lead his peers to change and show them that there is room for everyone. Bright, evocative acrylic illustrations bring Chris and his diverse group of peers to life as he learns to love and accept himself. The author conveys this empowering message through an omniscient narrator and rhyming couplets. The highly textured illustrations work in conjunction with the lyrical text across the double-page spreads, moving the story along at a steady pace. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A rousing display of pride and self-love and a reminder of the importance of kindness. (Picture book. 3 7)

HAPPY EASTER FROM THE CRAYONS

Daywalt, Drew Illus. by Oliver Jeffers Philomel (32 pp.) $9.99 | Feb. 7, 2023 978-0-593-62105-9

The Crayons return to celebrate Easter.

Six crayons (Red, Orange, Yellow, Esteban, who is green and wears a yellow cape, White, and Blue) each take a shape and scribble designs on it. Purple, perplexed and almost angry, keeps asking why no one is creating an egg, but the six friends have a great idea. They take the circle decorated with red shapes, the square adorned with orange squiggles “the color of the sun,” the triangle with yellow designs, also “the color of the sun” (a bit repetitious), a rectangle with green wavy lines, a white star, about which Purple remarks: “DID you even color it?” and a rhombus covered with blue markings and slap the shapes onto a big, light-brown egg. Then the conversation turns to hiding the large object in plain sight. The joke doesn’t really work, the shapes are not clear enough for a concept book, and though colors are delineated, it’s not a very original color book. There’s a bit of clever repartee. When Purple observe that Este ban’s green rectangle isn’t an egg, Esteban responds, “No, but MY GOSH LOOK how magnificent it is!” Still, that won’t save this lackluster book, which barely scratches the surface of Eas ter, whether secular or religious. The multimedia illustrations, done in the same style as the other series entries, are always fun, but perhaps it’s time to retire these anthropomorphic coloring implements. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Let these crayons go back into their box. (Picture book. 3 5)

“A rousing display of pride and self love and a reminder of the importance of kindness.”

a boy and his mirror

THE BROKEN MIRROR

de la Cruz, Melissa Roaring Brook Press (336 pp.) $16.99 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-1-250-82725-8

Series: The Chronicles of Never After, 3

Filomena and her friends’ latest quest gets derailed by Robin Hood and his thievery.

Filomena Jefferson-Cho and her three best friends, Jack the Giant Stalker, Alistair, and Gretel, are on their way to Snow Country to offer their aid in finding a lost fairy. Their quest gets derailed when Robin Hood steals their belongings. Princess Jeanne of Northphalia enlists their help in retrieving the crown he stole from her as well. After rescuing Lord Sharif of Nottingham from Robin Hood, they discover that King Richard the Lion hearted is trying to steal the throne from the princess—and he needs the crown to make it official. Things get worse: In Eastphalia, Prince Charlie has turned into a frog, and even true love’s kiss won’t undo the curse. Meanwhile, back in the mortal world, Filomena’s adoptive mother has come down with a mysterious illness, and Filomena must return to her. Along the way, new friends join the quartet, and together they attempt to find the League of Seven who can save them all. This third series installment offers more action-filled heroic quests centering realistically drawn tween characters. Along side the magical fun there is emotional depth as Filomena and Jack struggle with acting courageously and also allowing themselves to share their true feelings of fear, loneliness, and helplessness. The world of Never After is full of ethnically and racially diverse characters.

Another absorbing fairy-tale adventure. (Fantasy. 10 14)

PLANETS

Devolle, John Pushkin Press (32 pp.) $16.95 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-1-78269-344-4

A quick spin about the solar system shows why it’s a good idea just to stay home.

For all the blocky effervescence of his stylish illustrations, Devolle’s message is downright quelling: Mercury is too hot on one side and too cold on the other, Venus is all volcanoes “spewing out horrible, eggy, sulfurous smoke,” Jupiter has a huge storm, and all the other planets are likewise uninviting—except for Earth, which is the only one capable of supporting “life in all its many forms.” The author complements this premature and dismally narrow-minded claim with slapdash physics (neither prospective space explorers nor the spaghetti they might eat would float in midair on Mars, as the picture suggests) and a failure even to mention moons, asteroids, or any dwarf planets other than Pluto. A pink-skinned child and a canine sidekick serve as tour guides through the gallery of stylized planets and

landscapes; most of the other occasionally appearing human figures are darker of hue. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Thin fare even for confirmed groundlings. (Informational picture book. 6 8)

FOR THE LOVE OF LETTUCE

Dicmas, Courtney Child’s Play (32 pp.) $19.99 | Feb. 1, 2023 978-1-78628-476-1

Caterpillar pals Parsley and Zip are opposite in everything.

Parsley and Zip hatched on the same leaf, on the same day, but while Parsley lives in the moment, Zip plans every detail of their lives. Zip grows increasingly stressed over Parsley’s lack of concern. One day, they run out of lettuce. Ever the well-prepared caterpillar, Zip has a plan to find more lettuce, but it involves facing some scary chickens. As they jour ney toward the chicken-guarded lettuce, Parsley stops to play, eat, and rest, savoring the trip, while Zip urges his laid-back friend to keep up. A frustrated Zip has had enough and decides things should change. The next day, something has changed— Parsley has transformed into a cocoon! Nothing Zip does makes his friend react, and Zip is sad that he doesn’t have a solution. Trying to think of what Parsley would do, Zip finally starts to enjoy life, but the chickens are still around—and they’re hungry. Zip can’t think of a plan, but Parsley, now a butterfly, appears and saves Zip. This amusing tale conveys the message that flexibility is important in friendship, though it might have been stronger if the duo had learned from each other instead of Zip learning to be more like Parsley. Still, the book is funny and sweet. Much of the humor lies in the cute illustrations, with comical expres sions from the two caterpillars. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An endearing friendship tale that’s a little one-sided yet still brimming with kid appeal. (Picture book. 3 6)

JIU-JITSU GIRL

Dutton, Jennifer Jolly Fish Press (256 pp.) $14.99 paper | Jan. 24, 2023 978-1-63163-692-9

New kid Angie is on a mission to achieve popularity.

Twelve-year-old Angie Larson wants to make sure she’s not invisible at her new middle school like she was before. The key to popularity, she deduces, comes in befriending her class’s resident queen bee, Olivia Hart. She thinks she’ll have it made if she can score an invite to Oliv ia’s birthday party. One of the main obstacles to the image she wants to project, however, comes from her mother’s insistence that she take jujitsu despite Angie’s passionately hating it (and even making a lengthy list of why she finds it gross). Not only

“Another absorbing fairy tale adventure.”

broken mirror

that, Angie’s mother signs her up for a tournament, meaning even more time on the mat. The first-person narrative, which expounds at length about Angie’s cool girl ambitions, also gives room to play-by-play exposition on diabetes (a prominent sec ondary character has it) and the mechanics behind how the martial arts moves work. The book uses cringe humor, put ting Angie in embarrassing situations (that her mother is luck ily often there to solve for her), but it also has Angie grappling with heavier issues like bullying and body image in subplots that have tidy conclusions that might strike some readers as too sim plistic. Angie and Olivia are White; ethnic diversity is mostly signaled through characters’ names.

The main character grows over the course of this story, but her path is loaded with heavy-handed didacticism. (Fiction. 8 12)

ME AND THE BOSS A Story About Mending and Love Edwards, Michelle Illus. by April Harrison Anne Schwartz/Random (40 pp.) $18.99 | $21.99 PLB | Oct. 11, 2022 978-0-593-31067-0 978-0-593-31068-7 PLB

A young Black boy discovers the joy of sewing on a trip to the local library with his big sister.

It’s clear why 6-year-old Lee calls his elder sister, Zora, the boss. Zora embodies confidence: She gives directions to Lee and others and enforces the rules they must both follow when out and about away from home. One day, Lee walks with Zora to a local library, where they are taught to sew. Zora takes to sewing easily, while Lee struggles to avoid pricking himself with the needle and to create what he desires. When the children return home, Zora proudly shows her creation to their parents, but Lee chooses to wait to show them his work. Later that night, awakened by a noise and unable to sleep, Lee practices sewing in the quiet of his bed and completes the craft from earlier in the day, developing a useful skill that later ushers in a tender moment between him and the boss. Appropriately reminiscent of textiles, the collage, acrylic, pen, and pencil illustrations con sist of a variety of vibrant hues. The imagery offers depth, tex ture, and movement, complementing the vivid and engrossing text and bringing to life the strong bond between Lee and Zora. Lee’s family is Black; the other kids at the library are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Though simple, a gorgeous, powerful exploration of a lov ing sibling relationship. (instructions for making Lee’s Smiling Moon) (Picture book. 5 8)

LAUGH-OUT-LOUD VALENTINE’S DAY JOKES

Lift-the-Flap: Laugh-OutLoud Jokes for Kids

Elliott, Rob Harper/HarperCollins (28 pp.) $6.99 paper | Dec. 6, 2022 978-0-06-299188-1

A fresh take on Valentine’s Day jokes that will tickle every one’s funny bone.

Elliott returns with a new joke collection aimed at a slightly younger audience than his other books. Smitten insects, hug ging sheep, love-struck dinosaurs, and other characters joyfully and actively share Valentine’s Day humor while dancing, swim ming, and even getting married. Vivid illustrations with a smat tering of hearts and an abundance of eye-catching details feature an assortment of adorable animal couples on each spread. Each page contains a different joke; readers lift a flap on the facing page to find the punchline. A careful reading of the illustrations provides solid clues to the hidden responses, but not the exact wording, to the 13 jokes in the book. By lifting each flap, readers also find a slightly different illustration that captures the cou ple’s loving reaction to the Valentine’s Day message. Some of the jokes are sweet. (“What did the butterfly say to the ladybug?” “You make my heart flutter.”) Others are a bit sassy. (“Why do snails like Valentine’s Day?” “They love to shell-ebrate!”) Only a rare joke misses its mark. (“What needs a big hug on Valentine’s Day?” “A blue whale.”) Adult readers will especially appreciate the bonus giggle on the movie marquee and notice the multiple examples of animals “making eyes” and flirting with each other on this special day. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Kids will easily remember these jokes—and spread the giggles. (Picture book. 4 8)

PAWS

Mindy Makes Some Space

Fairbairn, Nathan Illus. by Michele Assarasakorn Razorbill/Penguin (176 pp.) $20.99 | Nov. 15, 2022 978-0-593-35191-8

Series: PAWS, 2

Eleven-year-old Mindy Park is not pleased that her relationships are changing.

Things are going great for Mindy and her best friends, Priya Gupta and Gabby Jordan, who run the dog-walking business PAWS (Pretty Awesome Walkers). But soon Mindy finds her life in upheaval. Her divorced mother, Sunny, meets Michael, and the two begin dating. Mindy quickly decides she does not like him, feeling put out when he begins to encroach on their relationship and routines. Then, Priya and Gabby befriend new girl Hazel and invite her to join PAWS. Unhappy with this change, Mindy gives Hazel (who uses a wheelchair) an

unfair assignment: to walk Michael’s overweight and lazy cat, Chonk. Things go awry, and confrontations in the PAWS group and with Mindy’s mom ensue—can Mindy make space in her life for all the new changes? Fairbairn’s tale is wholly relatable, perfectly capturing the angst and turmoil of transition. Mindy, though flawed, comes to understand and apologize for her out bursts, especially in her treatment of Hazel. Much like Ann M. Martin’s Baby Sitters Club, this series is poised to feature a dif ferent PAWS member in each volume; expect appeal to be simi larly high. Assarasakorn’s illustrations are bright and expressive. Mindy is Korean, Hazel is White, Priya is South Asian, and Gabby is brown-skinned.

An honest, heartwarming look at friendship. (Graphic fiction. 8 12)

THE PUTTERMANS ARE IN THE HOUSE

Feldman, Jacquetta Nammar Harper/HarperCollins (368 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 17, 2023 978-0-06-303443-3

A big family comes together. When Hurricane Harvey blows into town, the Puttermans are already dealing with a lot. Twelve-year-old twins Sammy and Matty were stars of their local base ball team, but when Matty leaves the field in the middle of a game, refusing to talk about why he’s quitting baseball, it shakes Sammy’s confidence as the only girl on the team and ruptures their close relationship. Their slightly older cousin, Becky, is half-heartedly preparing for her bat mitzvah but wishes her family would take her feline-inspired art projects more seri ously. When the twins’ house floods, their family—along with their grandparents and elderly neighbor—move in with the other Puttermans since Becky and her parents have plenty of room (if less patience). Personalities, egos, and interests collide and cohere as the extended Putterman family learns how to navigate each other and their developing needs in this smaller space. Houston’s baseball team, the Astros, plays a large role in the story, and at least a passing interest in the sport will help maintain interest; the plot starts to drag halfway through, as the Astros’ trajectory stands in for more character- or plot-driven conflict. All main characters are Jewish and implied Ashkenazi, making the African American Vernacular English–derived title (a quote from the book’s only Black character) an unfortunate choice.

A busy blend of baseball, natural disasters, and coming-ofage. (Fiction. 9 13)

DO YOU KNOW QUANTUM PHYSICS?

Ferrie, Chris

Sourcebooks eXplore (32 pp.) $4.99 paper | Nov. 1, 2022 978-1-72826-153-9

Series: Brainy Science Readers

Get ready to learn about quantum physics!

Ferrie’s Brainy Science Readers endeavor to “improve reading skills while immersing children into scientific theory,” using a level system to grade text complexity and scaffold reading skills. This entry in the series is a Level 1 text aimed at beginner readers and contains simple vocabulary and content, short and repeti tive sentences, and clear relationships between text and images to help foster understanding. A stern-faced Marie Curie leads readers through the concepts of energy, atoms, atomic struc ture, and orbitals using metaphors (balls and rings) to illustrate each point. Each concept is carefully broken down into simple, easy-to-follow parts. The book early on refers to a ball, noting that it is made up of atoms; later on, Ferrie compares electrons to a ball, which may be confusing, although savvy readers will easily pick up on the shift in meaning. Large print, a limited color scheme, and simple illustrations help make the text—and the admittedly sophisticated concepts explained therein— accessible to a very young audience. The ending is a bit abrupt, and some concepts that are more difficult to understand at such a basic level—namely electron orbitals/energy levels—are, by necessity, oversimplified in a way that detracts somewhat from forming a functional understanding of them. However, overall, the book performs its duty as an introductory work—to literacy and science—admirably. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A solid foundation of both reading skills and atomic phys ics. (Informational picture book. 4 6)

FRIENDS BEYOND MEASURE

Fisher, Lalena Harper/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $18.99 | Feb. 28, 2023 978-0-06-321052-3

Charts, diagrams, and other visual aids map out a tight friendship.

Fisher adds occasional lines of narrative, but they’re hardly needed, as the graphics ingeniously incorporated into each illustration really tell the whole story—beginning with a Venn diagram showing that dark-skinned, dark-haired Ana (“me”) and blond-haired, light-skinned Harwin (“you”) may have dif ferences aplenty (while Ana has ADHD, Harwin has dyslexia), but they share enough interests to spark a close and lasting bond. Later, a timeline traces hilarious Halloween experiences, proportionally sized circles allow instant comparisons between hours spent in various sorts of play, and, climactically, Ana

literally flops on a bar chart of feelings ranging from “shock” (the highest and red) to a lower and neutral-colored “excitement for you” upon learning that Harwin is moving away. Attentive view ers will spot subtle signs of character development, too, such as Harwin’s absorption in a book in a later scene. “We will always be friends,” the narrator affirms in parting, and, surrounded by images of ways to stay in touch and share experiences long dis tance, perhaps they will. Last but not least, backmatter identi fying the various infographics on view here and explaining how they can be used will tempt readers strongly to page back for closer looks. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A loving tale inventively and informatively told. (Informa tional picture book. 7 9)

TRASHED! Freeman, Martha

Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster (304 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 17, 2023 978-1-66590-535-0

Readers have more than a ghost of a chance of solving this mystery.

Arthur has...problems. The first one starts when his younger sister, Ramona, announces that her mouse has died. After a glittery funeral in the backyard—Ramona was in charge of decorating the coffin—Arthur’s life seems to get back to normal. Until that evening, when he realizes that he’s being haunted by the mouse’s ghost. Thankfully, the rodent afterlife allows for better communicative skills, and Arthur and newly christened ghost Watson (after Sherlock’s sidekick) can easily converse. Watson’s timing is impeccable, as a mystery is afoot: A special teacup from the past appears in Universal Trash, the consignment shop that Arthur’s family runs, and soon other things—like important paperwork and jewelry—go miss ing. Freeman plays more than fair with the clues, interspersed among a few red herrings, allowing savvy readers to solve the mystery ahead of Arthur and Watson. Impressively, Freeman also interweaves a subplot concerning prejudice that feels as real as the characters who work and shop at Universal Trash. As the story progresses, Watson’s presence may feel out of place in the otherwise normal world, but that quibble aside, the story will be a welcome addition to any mystery lover’s bookshelf. Hints of a sequel (and more ghosts) will leave readers excited for more. Arthur’s family is coded White.

A delightful mystery that will lure in young sleuths. (Mys tery. 8 12)

FIRST VALENTINE

George, Kallie Illus. by Joelle Murray

Cartwheel/Scholastic (32 pp.) $7.99 paper | Dec. 6, 2022 978-1-338-80393-8

Valentine’s Day is all about hearts, but in this tale, some other shapes sneak in, too.

A “little friend” opens a valentine kit and, with moral sup port from their pet dog, attempts to make a heart-shaped val entine. But creating a heart is not as easy as it seems, and the child’s snipping and paper trimming ultimately result in a circle, a square, a rectangle, a triangle, and a star—and an ideal oppor tunity to review basic shapes. All the protagonist has to show for their work is a lot of frustration and a “great, big mess”— until they look at the shapes they’ve thrown on the floor. When the child adds glitter, ribbons, and some glue, the shapes come together to make a lovely piece of art and a valentine that’s “full of heart,” and the little one and their parents embrace—the perfect way to cap a family’s love-filled Valentine’s Day. At first, rhyming stanzas point readers toward the child’s goal of creat ing a heart, but page turns reveal a different shape. The rhyme in later stanzas provides clues and encourages listeners to guess the new shape. The little friend and their parents have dark brown skin. Featuring an adorable, wide-eyed tyke and plenty of pink and red, the illustrations capture the child’s diligent efforts at creating a heart and their emotional reaction to each seemingly failed—but ultimately successful—attempt. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A Valentine’s Day review of shapes and a reminder that the perfect heart is the one full of love. (Picture book. 3 6)

BEST TEST

Goodhart, Pippa Illus. by Anna Doherty Tiny Owl (28 pp.)

$16.99 | Jan. 24, 2023 978-1-910328-90-3

Shrew referees a contest for Rat, Frog, Bird, Mouse and Squirrel as they vie for a tasty strawberry.

Bird and Frog each assert ownership of the strawberry (“Because I’m the best.” “I am the best”). Frog claims to be the best at making funny faces, while slightly larger Bird insists, “Biggest is best.” Additional animals show up, touting other skills. Shrew creates a map for an obstacle course that requires each animal to run, jump, reach high, color a picture, guess the contents of a bag, and make a funny face. First one to the end—and the strawberry—will get the prize. The map—and the text’s eventual punchline—provides an opportunity for a rudimentary understanding of time and distance. As the char acters make their way around the track, they help each other, realizing that they all have different talents and skills. The

“A Valentine’s Day review of shapes and a reminder that the perfect heart is the one full of love.”

humorous ending will surprise those who expected a lesson in strawberry-sharing, but the art makes it clear that the animals are nevertheless delighted to have used their collective power to boost each other and to have fun together. The illustrations are over-the-top adorable. Each brightly colored animal is easily identifiable by its body shape but also possesses winsome and humorous expressions and movements. To get the most out of this story, readers will want to pore over the images, making this one best suited to one-on-one sharing. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Short, sweet, and funny. (note from the author and the illustrator) (Picture book. 3 5)

DREAM ON A Kid’s Guide to Interpreting Dreams Greenleaf, Cerridwen Illus. by Khoa Le Running Press Kids (136 pp.) $14.99 | Dec. 27, 2022 978-0-7624-7926-9

The author of The Practical Witch’s Spell Book (2018) advises young readers on how to understand their dreams.

Blithely dispensing with source notes, Greenleaf opens by talking up the purposes and value of dreaming, then goes on to link common dream elements, such as turning invisible, appearing naked in public, flying, and encountering different sorts of animals, to arbitrary personality traits or unfinished business in the waking world. She addresses her “Dear Reader” in astrological-style generalities, and her brand of symbology is anything but subtle—seeing vampires, for instance, is “often interpreted as a sign that there is something in your life that is draining you,” having surgery hints at irritants that “need to be cut out,” and being decapitated is “often a sign that there is a disconnect between your head and your heart.” Those who feel their dreams to be insufficiently vivid will find fresh imag ery, from losing teeth or going blind to feeling shards of glass in the mouth, and for wakeful DIY sorts, Greenleaf also pro vides basic instructions for projects like making a soothing bath soak. Occasional multiple-choice quizzes, including one with recommendations for healing crystals, lead to a closing quiz designed to test newly acquired interpretive skills. Following an opening view of a multihued group of sleeping children curled up together against a starry backdrop, Le strews equally diverse figures through brightly colored dreamscapes and abstract vignettes.

Entertaining speculation about dreams, but for a more serious treatment of the topic, look elsewhere. (index) (Self help. 10 13)

THE LOST GALUMPUS Helgerson, Joseph Illus. by Udayana Lugo Clarion/HarperCollins (384 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-0-358-41522-0

Two strange creatures turn up in Gil ly’s bog during a blizzard, very far from their homes.

Gilly, short for Gilligan, narrates this broadly comic time-travel escapade involving residents of the bog in the Twin Cities’ Theodore Wirth Park. Gilly is a wryly observant possum who, as assistant to the raccoon Mayor Craw daddy, gets tasked with things that are too difficult or taxing for the mayor to take on. In other words, just about anything. When a young woolly mammoth from 10,000 years in the past and a park ranger robot from an equally distant future turn up in the midst of the snowstorm, Gilly and the mayor, along with Gilly’s human friend, Ruth, and an ambitious red squirrel, the Earl of Sussex, team up to find the temporal vortex before it closes. Twigs, the somewhat petulant woolly mammoth, seems to be hiding a secret that makes him reluctant to return home, and the slightly damaged Smokey 3000 Park Ranger is run ning out of power. Close behind are three animal-skin–wear ing humans who come through the portal in pursuit of Twigs, or at least, of his tusks, and who gather souvenirs by breaking into houses—a lampshade, a toaster, and a painting of a sunset. Gilly’s voice is droll—a bit cynical and quite appealing—and the madcap collection of players is amusingly cinematic. Lugo’s charming and expressive black-and-white illustrations are scat tered throughout.

A diverting mix of animal fantasy and time travel. (author’s note) (Adventure. 8 13)

SOMETIMES IT’S NICE TO BE ALONE

Hest, Amy Illus. by Philip Stead

Neal Porter/Holiday House (40 pp.) $18.99 | Feb. 14, 2023 978-0-8234-4947-7

Being alone can be fun—but so can spending time with a pal.

The book opens with the titular phrase as a tan-skinned child with enormous, dark-rimmed glasses sits at a table, a stuffed elephant at their feet. “Just you, eating your cookie, alone. But what if a friend pops in?” Sud denly, the elephant—now huge and rendered with astonish ingly realistic detail—joins the child’s snack time. Readers will laugh out loud as the text continues to calmly acknowledge how nice it is when a friend comes along to share cookies. The other adventures in the book also start with the titular phrase and a different, initially inconspicuous toy animal that comes to vivid life. Reading a book with a horse, somersaulting with a

“A sparkling reminder that nothing is as powerful as a child’s imagination.”

sometimes it’s nice to be alone

whale, trampling autumn leaves with a dinosaur—the list goes on, as does the synergy of words, art, and layout. The text is simple and eloquent, with enough repetition to captivate the youngest readers but also with precise, often lyrical, descrip tions for each activity. The child’s imagination is sometimes evi dent even before the animals come to life; in one scene, where text describes the child biking up a hill, “pushing and panting,” the illustration depicts them riding up a slightly angled board propped against a barrel. The fantastical adventures wind down at bedtime—but is that a penguin under the bed? (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A sparkling reminder that nothing is as powerful as a child’s imagination. (Picture book. 4 8)

THE VOICE IN THE HOLLOW Hillenbrand, Will Holiday House (40 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 3, 2023 978-0-8234-3681-1

A bibliophile has a strange encounter.

For Hubert Cumberbun, a tiny brown mouse, “a good story was everything. He practically lived at the branch library,” in this case a far-reaching tree (and a great visual pun). When the library closes early due to a blizzard, Hubert decides to take a shortcut through the Hol low, a spooky section of the woods. (Readers can see just how spooky thanks to Hubert’s hand-drawn map on the dedication page.) As Hubert is pondering this difficult choice, the scent of mothballs brings help in the form of a stranger, a brown-furred female rodent wrapped in shades of cherry pink and purple. The stranger asks if Hubert is going through the Hollow and silently guides him past trees that resemble large insects and over hills that look like bears. When they reach the edge of town, the stranger asks if Hubert can continue alone. When he consents, she vanishes—leaving not even a footprint behind. Hubert returns home with a new story to share with his parents and many siblings. The story is Hillenbrand at his best—a slowbuilding ghost story cleverly disguised as a winter book, menace defused masterfully under layers of snow. Hillenbrand’s snowy landscapes are sumptuous, at times cozy, at times ominous. The surprise of the stranger will shock many first-time readers, mak ing for a memorable tale that will enchant little ones and story tellers alike. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A ghost story you’ll love to share! (Picture book. 5 8)

MOSSY AND TWEED Crazy for Coconuts

Hokkanen, Mirka

Holiday House (40 pp.) $14.99 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-0-8234-5234-7

Series: I Like To Read Comics

“Jumping Jitterbugs!” This is not the way to open a coconut!

This graphic novel opens with a map of Gnome Woods, orienting readers on the journey and struggles of two tiny bickering gnomes: Mossy (light-skinned, in a red slouch hat) and Tweed (light-skinned, slightly taller, and in a pointy red hat). When a wayward coco nut rolls into their garden, the gnomes notice an attached tag with an image of a seashore and mistakenly conclude that a beach is somehow trapped inside. Although the tag has simple and clear instructions on how to open a coconut, Mossy and Tweed are sure that their methods are better. Their plans are clever, but the results are disastrous and hilarious, with the tone of Saturday morning cartoons. A malfunctioning catapult sends Tweed flying. Helpful, blue- and purple-skinned pixies supply dynamite to blast the coconut open, but that doesn’t do the job. The frustrated gnomes scuffle and, in the process, manage to solve the problem that has been plaguing them. The text within the speech bubbles is brief, and though the vocabulary is simple, the dialogue is delightfully dramatic. Colorful and detailed car toon illustrations capture the comedy well and will keep begin ning readers turning the pages.

Readers will giggle at these beleaguered gnomes’ mis guided attempts at achieving their goal. (Graphic novel. 5 8)

THE SASQUATCH OF HAWTHORNE ELEMENTARY

Jackson, K.B.

Reycraft Books (204 pp.)

$16.95 | Jan. 18, 2023

978-1-4788-6852-1

Series: Sasquatch Hunters, 1

Moving across the country is a big change, but it may bring Jake closer to proving Sasquatch’s existence.

Since Gramps told Jake about his Sasquatch encounter, Jake has been interested in cryptids. When his single mom decides they are moving from Orlando, Florida, to Gramps’ home in Washington state, Jake realizes this will give him better access to the legendary beast. Sixth grade at Hawthorne Elementary is off to a rough start when Jake makes an enemy, but eventually his unique interest leads to him becoming friends with pretty, popular Jasmine and smart third grader Lanny. The trio form Sasquatch Hunters of Washington, Inc., and make plans to seek out stories of other encounters and find proof that Sasquatch is real. The premise takes a bait-and-switch approach and winds up being less about

cryptids and more about human connections, especially when Jake makes a discovery about his absent father. It’s not entirely successful, however, as the familial drama feels too quickly and easily resolved, while the Sasquatch story is left open, presum ably to be explored in future books. Jake, his family, and Jasmine are cued White; Lanny is Indian American, and there is some racial diversity among incidental characters. The characters are decently developed, but sometimes the way the race or eth nicity of characters of color is revealed is clumsy or rooted in stereotypes.

Unlike a cryptid sighting, this tale is unremarkable. (Fiction. 8 12)

MAPLE AND ROSEMARY

James, Alison Illus. by Jennifer K. Mann Neal Porter/Holiday House (48 pp.) $18.99 | Feb. 28, 2023 978-0-8234-4967-5

A lonely maple tree learns about friendship when she meets a girl named Rosemary.

The text uses a traditional storytelling style, opening with “Once there was a tree”—the same opening words as Shel Sil verstein’s The Giving Tree (1964)—and concluding with a happyever-after ending. In between lies a simple tale that follows the maple’s thoughts and emotions, from the appearance of tanskinned Rosemary as a friend to Rosemary’s sudden disappear ance to a reconnection some years later and on into Rosemary’s elder years. The text varies in tone, by turns whimsical, didac tic, and even dramatic—although still humorous—when the tree misses Rosemary: “Maple wanted the winter to cover her with snow and never ever melt.” Although the text gives Maple and her neighboring trees personalities, thoughts, and emo tions, the mixed-media art offers no hint of that—hooray, no eyeball-rolling cedars! In fact, the art renders the tree’s physi cal transitions over seasons and years with detailed realism and vibrant color while also supporting Maple—not Rosemary—as the protagonist, making the tree more three-dimensional than animals and humans. The art’s progression of seasons makes it seem as if Rosemary suddenly leaves Maple before their first winter together, but it’s unclear why—as well as why Rosemary stays away for years. Otherwise, art, text, and layout success fully convey a sweet story of friendship that will comfort lonely or anxious children. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Quiet and quirky. (Picture book. 4 8)

INDIGO DREAMING Johnson, Dinah Illus. by Anna Cunha Harper/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $18.99 | Oct. 4, 2022 978-0-06-308020-1

A Gullah child goes about a busy day. At daybreak (or day-clean in Gullah), the young Black girl glories in the sunrise over the sandy beach and wonders if there might be another girl like her somewhere “who spends every day beside the sea.” From here, an entire day of reflection steadily unspools. Could another girl also be flying along the sand or looking for sweetgrass? Does she eat the same foods or know the same stories? Can she catch rain on her tongue or hear music in the air? Does that girl fall asleep under the same moon and also dream of a girl like herself? Johnson weaves a deceptively simple poem that interlaces distinct slices of Gullah Geechee life with cultural threads that stretch to the Caribbean, Brazil, and all the way to Sierra Leone. Cunha’s illustrations capture a landscape that is as real as it is a dream, as momentous as it is mundane. Vibrant pastels are rendered into soft, open spreads, drawing readers into an intimate world that visually is reaching for its counterpart and into a story space that is most certainly big enough for two as it alternates between the protagonist and the girl she imagines. Fans of Barbara Lehman’s The Red Book (2004) will find similar play with reflection and wall-breaking here as well as that insistent tug at the idea of connection. Sea soned readers will also find some wonderful cultural context in the author’s note. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Striking and cozy all at once. (Picture book. 3 7)

EXTRA LIFE

The Astonishing Story of How We Doubled Our Lifespan: Adapted for Young Readers

Johnson, Steven Viking (128 pp.)

$18.99 | Jan. 3, 2023

978-0-593-35149-9

A revealing look at some of the rea sons why average life spans have skyrocketed over the past century.

Trimming down an adult version published in 2021 in con junction with a PBS limited series, Johnson offers younger read ing audiences a highlights reel of, mostly, scientific advances that have worked to reduce mortality rates—from variolation and vaccination to the controversial but famine-reducing effects of producing nitrates and chickens in industrial quantities. Though the author delivers proper nods to Lady Mary Montagu, Alexander Fleming, and like iconic figures, he cogently argues that each advance actually required the work of collaborative networks to effect lasting change. So it was that, for instance, Louis Pasteur might have learned how to sterilize milk, but it was grassroots efforts such as one led by New York City health

“A fresh take on middle grade magic.”

commissioner Nathan Straus that first persuaded parents to use it and so drastically reduce infant mortality numbers. Collective efforts have also, Johnson writes, given us safer autos and drugs and eradicated smallpox. In keeping with the positive tone, he neglects to mention how the burgeoning use of antibiotics is resulting in super-resistant bacteria, but he does acknowledge the effects of systemic racism on Covid-19 death rates and the impending challenges of climate change. And, he notes in clos ing, if economic inequality is skyrocketing in Western coun tries like the United States, globally, both health outcomes and income levels are actually converging toward equality.

A refreshing change of pace for readers weary of hearing that things are just getting worse. (recommended reading, endnotes, bibliography, index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 11 14)

HARMONY AND HEARTBREAK

Kann, Claire Harper/HarperCollins (272 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 3, 2023 978-0-06-306939-8

Series: Suitehearts, 1

Two girls use their magical abilities to help others form bonds of love.

Rose and Cora Seville are 12-year-old cousins whose fathers are twins. They are also Matchmakers who have magi cal powers that allow them to forge love connections between people. As Fledglings—young Matchmakers-in-training—Rose and Cora practice their skills under the supervision of their guardians. One day, they learn they’ve been selected to take exams that would allow them to graduate to a higher Match maker level. However, they must do these challenges without their guardians’ help. Rose, always confident and with an intui tive access to her magic, is excited about this opportunity. Cora, used to being in her cousin’s shadow and more challenged by tapping into her magic, is filled with doubt. They have two chances to pass: If they fail, they could have their magic taken away. On top of that, the challenges are set up to intentionally test their individual weaknesses. Will Rose and Cora overcome their obstacles and pass their tests, or will these trials prove to be too much, too soon? Kann takes readers into an excit ing magical world that explores themes that feel connected to real life; they will be drawn into Rose’s and Cora’s lives and find themselves rooting for both girls. The cousins are Black; Rose’s mother is White.

A fresh take on middle-grade magic. (Fantasy. 9 13)

GOT YOUR NOSE! Katz, Alan Illus. by Alex Willan Harper/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-0-06-302504-2

Follow your nose on an adventure!

Becky, a tan-skinned girl with poofy dark hair and a missing tooth, loves playing with her Grandpa Max, who is bald with tan skin. But when Grandpa Max attempts to play a final trick on Becky as he is leaving for the day, our heroine soon discovers that the “got your nose!” joke is no laughing matter—her nose is tucked unknowingly into Grandpa Max’s pocket! She runs after Grandpa Max—or “Mampa Max,” as Becky has to pronounce it now—to tell him what’s going on, and the nose takes off, leaping out of Grandpa Max’s pocket and growing arms and legs. The nose leads them on a merry chase across town before returning back to Becky’s face thanks to a combination of luck and smart thinking. As the duo are about to part, Becky’s game of “got your ear!” starts the mischief all over again. It’s a clever idea, but some clunky choices along the way impede the story. Becky’s mispronunciations sans nose are amusing, but some don’t work. This becomes apparent when reading the story aloud: “We mustn’t mive up mope,” says Becky, but anyone plugging their nose can easily pronounce give and hope. Additionally, the nose’s motivations—initially it seems to seek out its favorite smells—give way quickly to less logical activities like minigolf and swimming. (Who likes get ting water up their nose?) The digital images do a lot of heavy lifting humorwise, but they can’t save this story. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Lost by a nose. (Picture book. 4 8)

COOKIE MONSTERS

Kendrick, Erika J. Little, Brown (320 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 17, 2023 978-0-316-28148-5

A 12-year-old girl finds her voice with the help of her community as she com petes to sell the most cookies.

Brooklyn Ace, a Black seventh grader at Valentine Middle School, is the reign ing cookie queen. This year will be no dif ferent despite not having her biggest supporter in her corner to help her reach her goal of selling 5,000 boxes of World Scouts Alliance cookies and winning the Santa Monica district prize. Her biggest obstacle is Piper Parker, a new White student who is already stealing away Brooklyn’s regular customers with fancy tactics—and the help of lots of kids from their school eager to go to the pool party Piper is promising them if she wins. Brook lyn realizes that her mom, whose death she is grieving, did a tremendous amount of the groundwork for Brooklyn’s recordbreaking cookie sales. Even with the help of her therapist and

and heartbreak

supportive, racially diverse scout squad—Lyric, Luciana, and Stella Rose—Brooklyn will need to reexamine her definition of winning as the fierce cookie competition nears its end. Second ary characters’ personalities aren’t clearly delineated, and read ers will feel less invested in them. The delivery of the central message can feel heavy-handed, but the fast pace and conversa tional tone that uses up-to-the-minute language will draw read ers in. The book’s strongest quality is the spotlight it shines on mental health and the importance of community.

An appealing read, especially for those looking to start a conversation about grief and anxiety. (Fiction. 8 12)

THE BIRD COAT Kjølstadmyr, Inger Marie Illus. by Øyvind Torseter Trans. by Kari Dickson Enchanted Lion Books (52 pp.) $17.95 | Oct. 18, 2022 978-1-59270-366-1

What are the stories we tell children?

Upon visiting a barber, a Parisian child notices the portrait of an unusual man in an unusual coat. The man has an elephant’s nose and tusks, but this is the least strange thing about him, it seems. While cutting the child’s hair, the barber explains that the pictured gent is a tailor named Pierre. Though Pierre was a skilled tailor, he longed to fly, and while a few people at the time had attempted to do so, no one had ever succeeded. Pierre’s plans were different; Pierre would become a bird. To do this, Pierre sewed a coat of wings. Upon completing it, he called all the newspapers and gathered a crowd to watch him fly from the top of the Eiffel Tower. The day came, and Pierre climbed the tower, hugged his barber friend, jumped, and fell to his death. And life went on. This Norwegian import is an odd tale but an atmospheric one. And for that niche group of readers who check out Edward Gorey books for their sense of foreboding and dry-as-the-desert wit, this will be a welcome addition. Part caricature, part Tomi Ungerer, the illustrations are refreshingly different from most picture books today. It’s a strange story, but strange things can be good. Characters have skin the color of the page. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Offbeat but excellent—sure to stay with readers and pro voke conversation. (author’s note) (Picture book. 6 10)

THEY SET THE FIRE

Kraus, Daniel Illus. by Rovina Cai Henry Holt (208 pp.)

$17.99 | Jan. 10, 2023

978-1-250-22444-6

Series: TheTeddies Saga, 3

The teddies discover the answers to their greatest mysteries in this trilogy finale.

Picking up where They Stole Our Hearts (2021) left off, the remaining teddies—Sunny, Reginald, Nothing, and their com mitted leader, Buddy—have found Proto, the first Furrington Teddy made by the Creator. Once again, the teddies set off on a mission, this time to the courthouse to find the Suit who made them dangerous to children. And once again, their plans take them in unexpected directions as they don armor to attend a community protest against the Suit and help a human kid with scars of his own find his place in the world. In this volume, which is less adventurous than the first two, Kraus brings the story full circle, revealing the answer to the question that kicked off the saga—why the teddies were thrown away—and remembering the stalwart teddy pals lost along the way while finding redemp tion amid loss. As Buddy continues to grapple with friendship, anger, death, and being a leader, the end of his existential jour ney is really a new beginning in growing up. Young readers, too, will leave the saga changed, recognizing, through Buddy, the ups and downs of life and their own burgeoning independence. Final art not seen.

A fitting, heartfelt conclusion to this thought-provoking, nuanced fantasy series. (Fantasy. 10 14)

THE DUCK BOOK Kuenster, Kenneth Histria Kids (36 pp.) $19.99 | Jan. 17, 2023 978-1-59211-208-1

Life’s full of important questions.

“When you hear ‘duck,’ ” asks Kuen ster, “do you lower your head? / Or do you smile?” Once introduced, a white-feath ered, blue-eyed duck leads readers to consider a series of other questions, many of which use rhyming words for emphasis (and silliness): “Did you ever grow a carrot so big? / It was too big for your pet pig.” Simple with bold hues, the illustrations have the look of childlike doodles reimagined through MS Paint. They are engaging, but storytellers reading the tale aloud will quickly find the fatal flaw of the story; the majority of the questions have yes or no answers, shutting down many opportunities for conversation, predictive thinking, and imaginative discussions. The final question is surprisingly heavy for the tale. “If an ele phant lifted you…and asked to be freed / should his roomies / be free too?” Readers may ask if the jail cell (for an elephant, a frog, and a snake) is a zoo or a prison. Astute readers may guess it’s the prison of the book itself, as all the animals appeared in earlier questions. There are no answers, which may please some readers but will vex others. It’s a strange, ill-suited book, one that eats away at readers as they contemplate the logic behind the questions, the artistic approach, and the development of the story. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Odd and off-putting. (Picture book. 4 6)

“Offbeat but excellent—sure to stay with readers and provoke conversation.”

the bird coat

FEMINIST KIDS

Lacasa, Blanca & Luis Amavisca Illus. by Gusti Trans. by Cecilia Ross nubeOCHO (40 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 25, 2022 978-84-18599-85-9

Series: Égalité

A diverse group of kids buck gender stereotypes in their work, play, and style.

Anna and Javier aspire to careers in carpentry and nurs ing, respectively. John, meanwhile, sits in a dark movie theater; when someone asks, “John, are you crying?” the child proudly declares, “Yes, this movie is so sad!” Through slice-of-life scenes of children’s birthday parties, neighborhood hangouts, and classrooms, this book tries to demonstrate the casual ways in which kids can be feminist. The vignettes highlight challenges to rather obvious gender stereotypes, such as Pete sporting long hair and pigtailed Rahne schooling Jake in chess. These examples are offered without explicitly naming the stereotypes, which may be useful in starting conversations with young read ers. Though the text, translated from Spanish, is solid (but not groundbreaking), Gusti’s scribbly images are whimsical at best and offensive at worst—namely in scenes where Asian-coded characters are portrayed with slanted eyes. Moreover, while the authors urge readers not to feel constrained by gender roles (telling them that there’s no such thing as girl or boy interests), they don’t acknowledge possibilities outside the gender binary. The book concludes with a few platitudes about who feminist kids are: those who “believe in equality” and know “there’s no such thing as girls stuff or boys stuff. We can all do everything!” (This book was reviewed digitally.)

In a swelling field of books about gender, this one doesn’t stack up. (Picture book. 4 8)

WHOSE EGG IS THAT?

Lunde, Darrin Illus. by Kelsey Oseid Charlesbridge (32 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 31, 2023 978-1-62354-329-7

Series: Whose Is THAT?

Guess whose egg this is.

The format of this interactive introduction to egg identification is unchanged from previous titles in the series (Whose Footprint Is That?, 2019, etc.). On one spread, set against a blank background, the title question is asked, the egg is shown, and a clue—perhaps a part of the creature or a glimpse of its habitat—is given. Turn the page to find the answer along with a short paragraph of further information set on a full-bleed scene of the creature and its nest. Interestingly, birds are not the only animals featured; following robin, ostrich, pen guin, and killdeer eggs, we see the fossilized egg of a dinosaur, a leath erback sea turtle’s egg buried in the sand, and even an egg belonging to a mammal—a platypus. The simple, two-level text (both using

relatively large type) offers options for beginning readers; the images will show well to a group. The fun is in the puzzle, so those reading this aloud should be sure to give their audience time to react. For those intrigued by the subject, there are further facts on a final page. The creators’ choice of subjects is thoughtful, the information accurate, and the design appealing, making this a solid addition to a nature shelf even if it already includes Mia Posada’s Guess What Is Growing Inside This Egg? (2007). (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Egg-spect requests for more nature-themed puzzles like this. (Informational picture book. 3 7)

HANDS

Maldonado, Torrey Nancy Paulsen Books (144 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 24, 2023 978-0-593-32379-3

A 12-year-old boy grapples with his ability to handle conflict without using his hands.

Trevor has a problem—his stepdad is due to return home after being sent to jail two years ago for abusing his mother. His stepdad made him promise to always protect his mother and sis ters, but how can Trevor protect them from his stepdad? Stressed, Trevor decides to learn how to box at the rec center. However, his plan falls apart when he’s turned away—the trainers promised Trevor’s late Uncle Lou that they’d make sure the boy stayed in school and avoided fighting. Still restless and frustrated, Trevor seeks advice from his other uncles—men around his neighbor hood whom he considers family. Although they each have their own approach to Trevor’s situation, one thing is obvious: They don’t want Trevor using violence to solve his problems. Trevor is a gifted artist, and the uncles know he has a chance at achieving big dreams. Trevor must decide what kind of person he aspires to be and what he’s willing to risk for his future. The author caters to reluctant readers while exploring complex ideas surrounding com munity, domestic abuse, and problem-solving. Brief chapters, a fastpaced narrative, and simple language make this an accessible read. The characters feel relatable, and Trevor’s love for his community comes through clearly in the first-person narration. Though by the conclusion Trevor’s problems aren’t over, that doesn’t mean he’s facing them alone. Trevor and the cast are cued as Black.

A short story with a lasting impact. (Fiction. 10 14)

IZMELDA THE FAIREST DRAGON OF THEM ALL!

Marr, Joan Illus. by Lala Watkins Union Square Kids (32 pp.)

$17.99 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-1-4549-4352-5

A dragon really wants to meet a princess, but the princess has her own agenda.

Izmelda, a chubby green dragon in a pink princess dress and pearls, flies off to the nearest kingdom in search of a princess— but Penelope, the princess she finds, is on her way to jester class, and she’s in a hurry to get there before the witches catch up to her. Penelope has brown skin, black hair, polka-dot overalls, and sneakers—not glass slippers—and she’s frustrated by Izmel da’s enthusiasm for typical fairy-tale princess tropes and by the many fans who follow her around. However, Izmelda’s dedica tion—and her wings—comes in handy when the witches catch up to them, and a friendship is born. Some illustrations are full bleed, while others are vignettes. Izmelda is downright ador able—even her teeth are rounded, not pointy, making for a very gentle story. (The witches’ hats are pointy, but even they don’t pose a threat worse than a delay.) Whether readers empathize more with fairy-tale–loving Izmelda or independent Penelope, they will enjoy the humorous dynamic, the eventual friendship, and the reminder that it’s important to make time for cupcakes (the endpapers feature an array). The ending isn’t quite as sat isfying as the buildup, but readers will be pleased to see that it leaves room for a sequel. Human characters are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A cheery subversion of fairy-tale tropes. (Picture book. 4 7)

WHILE YOU SLEEP Maruno, Jennifer Illus. by Miki Sato Pajama Press (24 pp.) $17.95 | Nov. 8, 2022 978-1-77278-267-7

A peek into the busy Land of Nod.

As the day winds down, a child with beige skin and dark hair gathers toys and brings three cuddly rabbits to bed, tucked beneath the covers. The child’s parent says good night and tucks the little one in. Maruno narrates in flawless and immersive rhyming verse as the toys come to life and repair and renew the world for the coming day. “Once you close your tired eyes, / It’s time to dust the butterflies.” An inquisi tive cat appears on almost every spread, expressing curiosity and supervising various activities, including mending clouds, painting flowers, restitching the sunny sky to the green farm land, and embroidering the Milky Way into the dark night sky. Sato uses materials such as silk, paper, and textiles to infuse each spread with tangible, three-dimensional textures and depth. Readers will linger over each tiny, essential detail— nothing is extraneous. Even the perspectives shift and change; the child shrinks and grows as they travel through this taskfilled dream world, adding to the dramatic tension. Like the materials on many of the spreads, the text and art are expertly stitched together, each visible and impactful on their own and interwoven into a bewitching whole.

A perfect bedtime selection for eye-catching, vibrantly colorful dreams. (Picture book. 2 5)

HOPE IS AN ARROW

The Story of LebaneseAmerican Poet Khalil Gibran

McCarthy, Cory Illus. by Ekua Holmes Candlewick (40 pp.)

$17.75 | July 5, 2022 978-1-5362-0032-4

A profile of the author of The Prophet, incorporating atmo spheric images and phrases from his writings.

In retracing the events of their subject’s life, McCarthy focuses on two themes: the experience of growing up in two countries and Gibran’s “secret hope” that through his art and words he would someday have a gift to give to the world. Born Gibran Khalil Gibran in Lebanon to the Maronite faith, he fled sectarian strife as a child to Boston, where his name was shortened. He was sent back to Lebanon to finish his educa tion and meditate among the cedars and then wound up in New York (“the electric shining heart of America”), where, McCarthy writes, he painted and composed poems intended “to connect the people of Lebanon” and “help Americans come together in celebration of their many differences.” His paintings and drawings, which ran to nudes, get little scrutiny here, but that inner dream was realized in a short but powerful book that has brought generations of readers “straight to the heart of hope.” Appended source notes in smaller type add both psychological insight, with mention of his “existential depression” and emo tionally abusive father, and biographical detail. Incorporating snippets of patterned and printed papers into stunning painted collage illustrations, Holmes creates images of dignified figures of various ages, mostly people of color, placed in diverse set tings rich in hues that underscore the overall intensity of feeling. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A reverent invitation to an enduring classic for new audi ences. (bibliography) (Picture book biography. 6 9)

A TALE OF TWO DRAGONS

McCaughrean, Geraldine Illus. by Peter Malone Andersen Press USA (32 pp.) $17.99 | Nov. 1, 2022 978-1-72846-774-0

Two kingdoms decide to solve their differences—through dragons.

The kingdom of Arbor is known for its ample trees, orchards, mushrooms, birds, and fruit. Sepa rated from Arbor by a long hedge, Pomosa is famous for its wheat, cattle, and lakes. The citizens of each kingdom often look to the other’s land, desiring the goods they lack. Hear ing their parents’ wishes, the children steal the wanted items at night, escalating tensions between the two kings. Both rul ers send ambassadors to China to get dragons to defend their territories. The resulting scenes show somewhat stereotypical

“A fresh game of cat and mouse.”

portrayals of Chinese people (Arbor’s and Pomosa’s residents are diverse). The decision to have the kings travel to a real coun try feels jarring given that Arbor and Pomosa are fictional. The choice to set part of the book in China is especially odd given that the dragons appear to be European, with relatively short bodies, large wings, and the ability to breathe fire. (Chinese dragons have elongated bodies and are typically tied to water.)

The presence of the dragons does halt the thefts, but the kings still demand each other’s goods. Eventually the dragons fight, collapsing in front of the citizens. Both kingdoms decide to forge peace and rid themselves of the selfish kings. The narra tive is evenly paced and the artwork attractive, with whimsical landscapes filled with immaculate shading and detailed por traits in a warm pastel palette. However, they can’t overcome the clichéd and inaccurate cultural depictions. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Inconsistencies in worldbuilding and confused portrayals overshadow this fantasy. (Picture book. 5 9)

BATTLE OF THE BEAST

Meggitt Phillips, Jack Illus. by Isabelle Follath Aladdin (272 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 17, 2023 978-1-66590-382-0

Series: The Beast and the Bethany, 3

Redemption is tested in this third series installment.

Bethany and Ebenezer’s do-gooding efforts are having mixed results—while Ebenezer’s problem-solving business has fallen flat, Bethany’s had so much success that Miss Muddle is planning a not-so-sur prise party in her honor. Ebenezer sets his jealousy aside when Nicholas Nickle of D.o.R.R.i.S.—the Division of Removing Rapscallions in Secret—tells them that the beast, post–mem ory loss, is reformed and ready to be released. Worse, he wants to release the beast to Ebenezer and Bethany’s custody—and Mr. Nickle has something to hold over Ebenezer to force him to agree. While Bethany storms out seeking space, Ebenezer learns that the baby-talking, eager-to-please beast is happy to churn out solutions for all of the Wise Tweezer’s unsatisfied customers, resulting in endless praise and adoration toward Ebenezer. While he becomes convinced of the beast’s redemp tion (and enjoys the fruits of it), Bethany remains convinced that this is all part of a long con that only she can see through. The narrative is careful to support both viewpoints without ruling out either, so as not to undermine the question of who can change and who deserves forgiveness. This especially applies given Bethany’s and Ebenezer’s checkered pasts. The conclusion brings silly action as well as a healthy portion of nuance. An epilogue hints at a new conflict to come. Follath’s lively, whimsical illustrations add to the humor and intrigue. The artwork shows some background diversity; Bethany and Ebenezer are White.

A fresh game of cat and mouse. (Fantasy. 8 12)

RARE BIRDS

Miller, Jeff Union Square Kids (288 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 31, 2023 978-1-4549-4504-8

A boy adjusts to a new town as his mother awaits a heart transplant.

After living in three cities in the past two years as his mother sought treat ment for dilated cardiomyopathy, nearly 12-year-old Graham Dodds finds himself in Sugarland, his mom’s Florida hometown. His new room mate, Nick, the surly son of his mom’s childhood friend, isn’t exactly welcoming. Fortunately, Graham quickly befriends Lou, a plucky girl whose father needs a new heart. When Mom gives Graham her old bird-watching journal, he’s convinced that if he spots a Snail Kite—the one rare bird she never found—she’ll be OK. But after a contest promises $5,000 for the best Snail Kite photo, Nick and his friends sabotage Graham’s efforts. Can Graham spot the bird in time? And could his mother be right—does everything happen for a reason? The symbol-laced plot occasionally seems to reinforce the maxim, which readers may find either comforting or problematic. Miller viscerally portrays Graham’s alternating fear and hope, his heartwarm ing bond with his mother, and his complex feelings for the late father he barely knew. Unfortunately, most secondary char acters are one-dimensional, something particularly apparent when a late, abrupt twist invokes the trope of a disabled person serving as a nondisabled character’s life lesson. Most characters default to White.

An earnest but uneven tale of family, friendship, and hope. (Fiction. 9 12)

YOU GOTTA MEET MR. PIERCE!

The Storied Life of Folk Artist

Elijah Pierce

Mullins Lee, Chiquita & Carmella Van Vleet Illus. by Jennifer Mack Watkins Kokila (40 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 31, 2023 978-0-593-40650-2

A blocked young artist finds inspira tion in the wood carvings and reminis cences of a local barber.

The authors introduce readers to Elijah Pierce, a self-taught Black Columbus, Ohio, artist whose distinctive painted carv ings—which range from free-standing animals to low-relief por traits and Bible scenes—are sampled both in a closing gallery and incorporated into Mack-Watkins’ woodcut illustrations. In a casual but meaningful conversation with a fictive young Black customer, Mr. Pierce personably recalls how the childhood gift of a pocketknife led to a lifetime of turning stories into art, recording memorable incidents, and seeing possibilities for new works everywhere: “The more you look, the more you see.”

battle of the beast

Mr. Pierce is right, the budding artist realizes, looking over the arrays of figures and framed bas-reliefs crowding the shop’s walls and coming away with both a newly carved gift from the artist and fresh ideas for a future art project. Pierce eluded notice (outside his local community, anyway) until shortly before his death in 1984, but his work hangs in museums now, and, along with further biographical details, an afterword lists exhibits and honors. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An intimate encounter with an artist who should be better known. (illustrator’s note) (Informational picture book. 7 9)

THE BEARS SHARED Norman, Kim Illus. by David Walker Farrar, Straus and Giroux (40 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 31, 2023 978-0-374-38904-8

In this “The House That Jack Built”–style tale, wayward wisps of hair trigger a chain reaction resulting in an unlikely union of bears and birds.

“This is the lair the bears shared.” Three bear cubs and a mother bear peek out of their den. The following page shows the mother slumbering. Brown fur, propelled by the sleeping mother bear’s breath, wafts outside and across the double-page spread to a perky red bird as the text explains, “This is the hair that came / from the lair / the bears shared.” With each page turn, another element is added to the rhyme as momentum and drama build. The bird borrows the bear’s hair to build a nest for three baby birds in a tall tree that the wind shakes and a rain cloud soaks until the branch holding the nest cracks, tossing the nest and baby birds into a bush and eventually onto slip pery ground, where they slide into the bear lair. In a full-circle finale, mama bear and cubs confront mama bird and the baby birds. As the catchy cadenced text expands, its repetition and rich alliterative language (“water whirled on wind,” “the bush with bouncy boughs”) are ideal for reading aloud. Illustrations effectively use close-ups and unusual perspectives to heighten excitement, while pastel hues and soft shapes create a gentle, reassuring aura for the unusual bear-bird encounter. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A clever, nest-building saga that reminds us how intercon nected we are. (author’s note) (Picture book. 3 6)

THIS LITTLE KITTY Obuhanych, Karen Knopf (32 pp.) $18.99 | $21.99 PLB | Jan. 31, 2023 978-0-593-43514-4 978-0-593-43515-1 PLB

Five frisky felines have an eventful day.

A black cat with wide eyes starts the morning off right: “Wake up! It’s time to play!” Four other bedraggled cats stretch,

yawn, and get ready for breakfast. In rollicking rhyme, the kittens find their groove: “It’s playtime now! / Let’s crouch… / coil… / pounce! / A feather, / a mouse, / a ball to bounce!” Then, with a swift page turn, the kittens are back to snoozing. “Whew Playtime is / over and done. / And, oh, what’s this? / A patch of sun?” Too tempting to resist. Filling her book with catnaps, clawed curtains, and hairballs, Obuhanych (making her autho rial debut) clearly knows her subject well. But her illustrations are where the kittens come to life; each furball has their own distinct personality, especially through half-lidded stares as they deliberately get into mischief. When the day finally comes to a close, yellow eyes peer out from the darkness. This little kitty is ready for a nighttime adventure, too. Readers get only a glimpse of humans’ limbs as a pair of brown legs swing from the bed or brown- and light-skinned hands reach down to ruffle fur. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Sure to have cat lovers rejoicing. (Picture book. 3 6)

RETURN TO ATLANTIS O’Hearn, Kate Aladdin (448 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 3, 2023 978-1-5344-5694-5 Series: Atlantis, 2

Ex-Atlanteans make a desperate bid to return to their hidden home in the Bermuda Triangle after finding nothing but cold hearts and violence in Denver.

Shortly after leading an Escape From Atlantis (2021) with her cousin, Alfie, and a small group of for merly human island residents who were transformed into talk ing animals, Riley is regretting her flight. This is partly because her companions are permanently stuck hiding from suspicious authorities in her mom’s house; partly because her former school friends have turned mean, cruelly ostracizing and bul lying secretive new student Jill for being ragged and unwashed; and partly because a vicious punk’s terrifying assault during a rare nighttime outing has escalated into vengeful stalking. More worrisomely, the longer Riley and her companions are away from Atlantis, the more mysteriously ill they are becom ing. Violent events spur a hasty departure for Florida with parentally abandoned Jill and her five siblings in tow. But Atlan tis, once finally reached, turns out to be far from the utopian community of Riley’s rosy memories: Hardly have the arrivals settled in than she takes on the role of savior, surviving a murder attempt before insisting on critical reforms. O’Hearn assumes readers will be familiar with the opener, but though the pacing sometimes drags in this long sequel, she continues to keep both the issues and the characterizations simple—and adds a cute baby unicorn to the White-presenting human cast and large menagerie.

A second volume that drags a little but will please return ing fans. (Fantasy. 9 12)

“A clever, nest-building saga that reminds us how interconnected we are.”

WE ARE YOUR CHILDREN TOO Black Students, White Supremacists, and the Battle for America’s Schools in Prince Edward County, Virginia

Pearson, P. O’Connell Simon & Schuster (288 pp.)

$17.99 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-1-66590-139-0

An African American teen organizes a student strike because of poor conditions at her school and triggers a countywide battle for equal education.

Barbara Johns was concerned about the education she and her fellow high school students were receiving in their rundown, ill-equipped school in rural Prince Edward County, Vir ginia, in 1950. There was a dearth of books and even buses to get them to school. The local school board made no effort to improve schools attended by Black students. Barbara, 16, led strike efforts, supported by the local chapter of the NAACP. Many Black adults feared retaliation from Whites, and there were in fact efforts at intimidation after the NAACP filed a lawsuit on the students’ behalf. When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional, Prince Edward County officials embarked on a campaign to resist complying that closed public schools in the county for five years; White students were educated privately through state funds. The drive to provide universal educational opportunities was an uphill climb for the county’s African Americans and their White allies. This is a detailed and dramatic depiction, rich in context, of the price a small community paid for seeking equality. It dem onstrates the resilience of those who fought segregation while never downplaying how much was lost, and it provides evidence of ways the damage continues to have an impact today.

A sobering study of the struggle for educational equity. (photo credits, timeline, selected bibliography, recommended reading, endnotes, index) (Nonfiction. 10 14)

THE UNFORGETTABLE LOGAN FOSTER AND THE SHADOW OF DOUBT

Peters, Shawn Harper/HarperCollins (368 pp.)

$16.99 | Jan. 3, 2023 978-0-06-304772-3

An autistic foster kid who hangs out with superheroes saves the world for a second time.

Twelve-year-old Logan, who has an eidetic memory, has memorized the identity of every superhero from database information he accidentally saw during his last confrontation with supervillain Necros. The superhero over sight agency MASC really, really wants to wipe his brain to make sure Necros can’t access any of the juicy secret identities,

but Logan’s loving foster parents won’t let them. Logan’s been ordered to keep his head down, but it’s not that easy to avoid superhero shenanigans when your best friend has superstrength, your foster mom is an alien, and your foster dad is “a mass of dark-matter-infused atoms held together by his leftover human consciousness.” New friend Connie from the Dungeons & Dragons club might have a superhero ability, too; he’s seen how quickly she heals. Before long, the kids are caught up in new battles, rescuing kidnapped friends, and wondering if super hero business is tied into Logan’s own mysterious past. Logan and Connie read White; the previous volume established that BFF Elena is Black and Chicana. It is refreshing that Logan’s autism, though frustratingly (and inconsistently) portrayed as a collection of savantlike behaviors, is no roadblock to close and loving relationships with friends and family.

Funny and action-packed superhero silliness. (Adventure. 9 12)

ONE TINY TREEFROG A Countdown to Survival

Piedra, Tony & Mackenzie Joy Candlewick (40 pp.) $19.99 | Feb. 14, 2023 978-1-5362-1948-7

Beginning with 10 tadpoles in egg form, Piedra offers an honest look at the odds of becoming a red-eyed treefrog.

The countdown begins with an image of a large leaf. Sen sitive children may be a little perturbed as each page turn announces a dwindling number of metamorphosing siblings. Many become lunch for various critters, like the wolf cichlid. The scientific names of the animals accompany the illustra tions, offering a chance for children to sound out new words. Adults should help kids talk through the tough truth about the low likelihood of survival for tadpoles; they’ll also appreciate the wealth of information about the Costa Rican ecosystem to comb through in the backmatter, which dissects the images and sequences on each spread in long prose. The narrative portion is spare, with plenty of action words like plunge and peek along with onomatopoeia for an engaging read-aloud. The hopeful treefrogs are lightly anthropomorphized as they grow, though they don’t talk or have distinct personalities. Still, attachment and hope for the treefrogs will form. Greens, blues, and yel lows dominate the absorbing, attractive illustrations; it’s easy to jump for this one. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A winning combination of information and entertainment. (Informational picture book. 4 7)

JUST JERRY How Drawing Shaped My Life

Pinkney, Jerry Little, Brown (160 pp.)

$17.99 | Jan. 17, 2023

978-0-316-38385-1

The late Caldecott medalist Pinkney shares the childhood experiences that put him on the path to greatness.

Young Jerry grew up on a nurturing, all-Black block in Phila delphia in the 1940s and ’50s; his large family and circle of friends were crucial to his development as an artist, especially as he strug gled with dyslexia. Jerry’s grandfather worked at a pencil factory, so Jerry was always able to draw whatever caught his imagination. His father took him along on home-repair jobs, showing Jerry the value of hard work. School was difficult, but his teacher Mrs. Miller helped him find ways to incorporate his drawing into his schoolwork. Jerry and his friends faced de facto segregation, and Jerry longed for experiences that were out of reach. A part-time job selling newspapers led to a chance meeting with cartoonist John Liney, and a visit to his studio offered a glimpse of what it would be like to be a working artist. This memoir, which was largely completed at the time of Pinkney’s death in 2021, provides important insight into one of children’s literature’s most prolific illustrators. Intimate and conversational in tone, the narrative is warm and inviting. The importance of family and community and Pinkney’s determination are strong themes throughout. The powerful text is accompanied by sketches that enhance the tale (an editor’s note states that Pinkney had planned to flesh those sketches out into elaborate drawings).

A moving work from a legend of children’s literature and a testament to his legacy of visual storytelling. (timeline) (Mem oir. 8 12)

MISTER KITTY IS LOST!

Pizzoli, Greg Little, Brown (32 pp.)

$16.99 | Jan. 17, 2023 978-0-316-05654-0

Readers help search for Mister Kitty.

A distressed youngster, with brown pigtails and light skin, is looking for Mister Kitty. “He is hid ing somewhere inside this book,” the tot explains. “Will you turn the pages and help me look?” A black-and-white dog is also there to help search. “Mister Kitty has 5 yellow spots.” On the opposing page, the dog barks excitedly at five cutout circles. “Do you see five yellow spots?” But a dramatic page turn reveals those spots are not Mister Kitty; they are five yellow snakes! Oh no! Mister Kitty also has orange paws. The dog barks at four orange paw-print cutouts—surely Mister Kitty has been found now. But no, those belong to four orange monkeys! The silly countdown continues, with different colors and differ ent shapes, until there is one triangular pink nose left. Does it,

finally, belong to Mister Kitty? The dog is the comedic foil of the work, eagerly finding the shapes but growing more scared at each reveal. The final pink nose spread shows the dog despon dent and almost too afraid to look. A quirky twist at the end is the biggest surprise of all. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Simple and delightful. A preschool crowd pleaser. (Picture book. 2 6)

HAPPY AGAIN

Plohl, Igor Illus. by Urška Stropnik Šonc Trans. by Kristina Alice Waller Holiday House (32 pp.) $15.99 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-0-8234-5376-4 Series: I Like To Read

An anthropomorphic lion, based on the author himself, adjusts to becoming paraplegic.

With short, simple sentences, translated from Slovenian, Plohl introduces beginning readers to the character first seen in his picture book Lucas Makes a Comeback (2021). At first, “Lucas is a happy lion,” his arms outstretched, his house and bicycle in the background. But after Lucas falls from a ladder, “he cannot walk anymore. Lucas is sad.” As a frowning Lucas imagines cycling, driving, and skiing, the author asks, “Can Lucas be happy again?” Fortunately, life improves: Lucas “learns new ways to do things,” such as ironing. He uses a low sink and gets help with house keeping. He gets a hand-powered bike, and his friends give him a “special car,” presumably with hand controls. Though being a teacher makes him smile and playing wheelchair basketball makes him cheer, he’s only “almost happy again.” What’s miss ing? As Lucas and another lion tenderly hold paws, the author explains, “He needs someone to love. Now he is happy again.” The matter-of-fact text and Šonc’s bright, appealingly childlike cartoon illustrations reassure readers that adaptations and sup port make it possible to thrive with a disability. However, the ending, though sweet, risks implying that truly being happy after becoming disabled requires a romantic relationship. Color photos of Slovenian author Plohl performing everyday activi ties conclude the tale. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An upbeat introduction to coping with a disability. (Early reader. 5 7)

THE TRUTH ABOUT MAX

Provensen, Alice & Martin

Provensen

Enchanted Lion Books (40 pp.)

$18.95 | Feb. 28, 2023 978-1-59270-375-3

A previously unpublished, fully illustrated dummy from the cel ebrated Provensens merits a posthu mous transformation.

“When Max was a kitten, / he was the only one. // But he was as much trouble as ten kittens.” The yellow-eyed tabby grows bigger than mom Gooseberry, with a barnyard swag ger to match. Delicate watercolor-and-ink illustrations con trast with Max’s bravado as he teases Maple Hill Farm’s other cats and dogs but not its goats, horse, or geese. An intrepid hunter, Max lines his home (a cozy nook built into the side of the barn) with squirrel tails. The Provensens adroitly illus trate many of Max’s feline characteristics, from sharp teeth and claws to his expressive, “important” tail. The charming narrative adopts a confiding tone, perhaps delivered by the light-skinned child depicted in many spreads. After tiring of the day’s barnyard rounds, Max leaves for the fields. “You would not know him. / He looks like a tiger.” Below a ris ing full moon, “his real life begins.” The publisher engaged lettering specialists to preserve the Provensens’ lovely handwritten forms as text type. Karen Provensen Mitchell, the couple’s daughter, provides a lovely note, with reminis cences, family photos, and an early illustration of the real Max. Hopefully, this appealing package will propel new gen erations to discover the Provensens, whose visual chronicles so adeptly revealed their reverence for the land and animals they stewarded. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Utterly delightful. (Picture book. 3 8)

DRAGONBOY

Reyes, Megan Labyrinth Road (416 pp.)

$17.99 | $20.99 PLB | Jan. 24, 2023 978-0-593-48237-7 978-0-593-48238-4 PLB

Series: Heroes of Havensong, 1

Four young strangers from different corners of Haven must trust one another in order to save the world.

A magic gold thread presents itself to each of them to follow into an outside world they have been taught to fear. Child soldier Shenli Zhao was forced into service to save his family’s honor. Wren Barrow is a young witch whose Seer grandmother told her to find him. Blue (he has no other name) sacrificed everything for the people he loves and was transformed into a dragon. His rider, River Rowan, was to be the youngest Lead Harvester in the history of her people, until she was tied to Blue. War looms on the horizon, the dragons are asleep, and only the tweens working together can put things right. The novel pulls readers in from the beginning with wellthought-out worldbuilding that offers many surprises. Chapters from rotating perspectives give insight into each child and their different societies. Shenli was raised to hate magic and dragons; Wren’s people have companion Magics. Dragons are a distant concept for Blue, who possesses no magic; River loves her gar den of magical plants. Joining forces means lessons in rejecting the lies and mistrust that come from not understanding oth ers’ perspectives and learning to see strengths in those different than you. This emotionally resonant narrative set in a racially

diverse world is well paced overall, though the heroes take a while to come together, making the end feel a bit rushed. Enchanting. (map) (Fantasy. 8 13)

SMART SISTERS

Roe, Mechal Renee

Doubleday (32 pp.)

$16.99 | $19.99 PLB | Dec. 27, 2022 978-0-593-43318-8 978-0-593-43319-5 PLB Series: Happy Hair

A poetic picture book in praise of sis ter bonds.

“Two of a kind / sharpens the mind!” Portraying a variety of sororal pairs, the book makes clear that sisters have each other’s backs, ask tough questions, and inspire each other. On each spread, one sister appears on the recto, the other on the verso. Clean lines and bright colors will catch readers’ eyes, and varied backgrounds emphasize that these sisters belong every where. The girls present as Black and brown, but despite the wonderful array of skin tones, they all have similarly shaped faces and the same noses. Although each has her own hairstyle and clothing flair, the book brings to mind computer games in which players build an avatar from different parts and acces sories. Like the characters in Roe’s Happy Hair (2019) and Cool Cuts (2020), these girls face readers, though a few appear in pro file; all have their eyes closed. Their pleasant expressions could be interpreted as contemplative or peaceful but could also be read as passive, which undermines the text that describes the sisters as roaring, soaring, exploring, inspiring dreams, and giv ing shoutouts. The title feels ill-fitting; since the characters aren’t depicted doing anything, how do readers know they are smart? The formulaic visuals and predictable text make this an uninspiring read, and since even close sisters must sometimes work through disagreements, it also feels disingenuous. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

For worthwhile sister lore, look elsewhere. (Picture book. 4 7)

Holiday House (40 pp.)

$18.99 | Feb. 21, 2023 978-0-8234-4949-1

Series: Books for a Better Earth

Sometimes you just have to suck it up.

If you imagine drinking straws are a modern innovation, think again. This timely exploration of an environmental problem informs readers about the long history of the slender tube many beverage drinkers take for granted. Straws actually date back more than five millennia to ancient Sumer. When

THE LAST PLASTIC STRAW A Plastic Problem and Finding Ways To Fix It Romito, Dee Illus. by Ziyue Chen

“An important topic gets a very appealing treatment.”

last plastic straw

Sumerians needed to find a way to filter out thick substances from their home-brewed beverages, they ingeniously used thin, hollow reeds, enabling them to imbibe only liquids. Over the centuries, other civilizations developed similar drinking tubes made from various plants and other items, including straw, from which the implement we now use derived its name. In the late 19th century in Washington, D.C., Marvin Stone invented and patented the paper straw. In the late 1930s, another American, Joseph Friedman, developed and patented the “bendy straw,” which was sold after World War II ended. In the 1950s, straws began to be manufactured from plastic; by the following decade, they were ubiquitous, ultimately contributing to environmental disaster. In direct, well-written prose, the author makes starkly clear how “single-use plastics,” such as straws, water bottles, and plastic bags, harm the Earth, oceans, and sea creatures and offers easy, sensible, responsible solutions that everyone can adopt to help the planet while not having to abandon straws entirely. The bold digital illustrations are eye-catching and inventive and maintain high reader interest. Racial diversity is depicted throughout. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

An important topic gets a very appealing treatment. (author’s note, sources, index) (Informational picture book. 7 10)

JUSTICE RISING

12 Amazing Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement

Russell Brown, Katheryn Illus. by Kim Holt Viking (40 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-0-593-40354-9

A celebration of 12 Black women who helped shape a movement.

This illuminating picture book begins with a pointed description of the civil rights movement that highlights Black women’s crucial roles in the fight for equality. Next, RussellBrown includes a list of the book’s 13 sections (one devoted to each woman and a final one on the freedom marchers); though a few names will be readily recognizable, many may be unfa miliar. Readers learn how Ella Baker helped start the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Other highlights—Ruby Bridges and her fight to integrate schools, Claudette Colvin’s refusal to move to the back of a Montgomery bus, and Doro thy Cotton’s ability to organize people—will also inspire young readers to make a difference in their own lives. Other notable figures include Fannie Lou Hamer, Coretta Scott King, Diane Nash, Rosa Parks, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Gloria Richard son, Jo Ann Robinson, and Sheyann Webb. The subjects are organized alphabetically by last name, and each entry lists their place of birth and life span, indicating that some of these heroes are still among us and that the fight for racial equality was not so long ago. Entries offer brief but energizing summaries of these women’s contributions along with realistically vibrant illustra tions that depict these larger-than-life figures in action. Back matter includes quotes from each subject and a list of resources

to learn more about these influential women. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A book worth uplifting. (Informational picture book. 4 8)

GOOD NIGHT, SISTER

Schwarzenegger Pratt, Katherine Illus. by Lucy Fleming Penguin Workshop (32 pp.) $18.99 | Feb. 7, 2023 978-0-593-38581-4

Sisters face fears on their first night in separate bedrooms.

Kat is excited to have her own room, but her younger sister, Tina, feels uncertain. “What if I get scared?” asks Tina. “I may be in my new room, but I am leaving you with all of my stuff ies!” Kat tells Tina. Imaginative scenes ensue as Kat explains how the various toys—from courageous Leo the Lion to cre ative Ollie the Octopus to magical Uni the Unicorn—will sup port her. Before leaving Tina, Kat gives her a calming rhyme to repeat. The toys are helpful, but as the night turns stormy, both Tina and Kat realize that there’s nothing quite as reassur ing as a cuddle with a sibling. Bright, gentle illustrations in a cozy cotton-candy palette give off the feeling of a slumber party, with toys and knickknacks filling both girls’ rooms. Any child who has felt nervous about sleeping alone will be absorbed. While caregivers are not part of this tale, an adult sharing this story with a child can find practical tools, like using a comfort ing stuffed animal or soothing phrase. Though there’s nothing groundbreaking here, the book is an effective conversation starter about evolving sibling relationships and the struggles of learning to sleep alone. Both sisters present White. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A sweet—and bolstering—bedtime story. (Picture book. 3 7)

YELLOW BUTTERFLY A Story From Ukraine

Shatokhin, Oleksandr Red Comet Press (72 pp.) $21.99 | Jan. 31, 2023 978-1-63655-064-0

Responding to the Russia-Ukraine war, Ukrainian artist Shatokhin’s word less narrative offers a child’s-eye view of military conflict.

The story opens in black and white with a close-up that may be hard to identify at first: a single barbed-wire knot. Things clear up as the view pans to an outline of a child behind the fence, two knots hiding their eyes. The fence transforms into a menacing spider, and the child runs, trips, and falls. When they peer through their fingers, a single yellow butterfly has appeared. There is much for readers to interpret through conversations and multiple readings in these artfully designed pages, some with insets that focus attention,

others with objects on facing pages that invite comparison, e.g., a missile and a tree jutting from the ground at similar angles. Several yellow butterflies flit above a bombed-out hole, and the child envisions a playground (past or future?) with happy friends; these images are formed with a minimum of lines against the white background. Shatokhin employs color, scale, perspective, and pattern to great effect in timely—and timeless—scenes that capture the protagonist’s fear, fury, frustration, and, ulti mately, hope. Exquisite compositions depict a yellow swarm of butterflies becoming the child’s wings, lifting them to see a blue sky amid the destruction (yellow and blue being the colors of the Ukrainian flag). Useful backmatter includes information on sharing wordless books and discussing war with children. The child and other people portrayed are the white of the page. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Provocative, powerful, breathtakingly beautiful. (Picture book. 5 12)

TURKEY’S VALENTINE SURPRISE

Silvano, Wendi Illus. by Lee Harper

Two Lions (40 pp.) $17.99 | Dec. 13, 2022 978-1-5420-2366-5

Series: Turkey Trouble, 6

Gobble, gobble! Grab this farmyard story full of Valentine’s Day puns.

The animals on Farmer Jake’s farm are exchanging valen tines. Delighted by a card from a secret admirer (“You are like no otter!”), Turkey decides to make clever valentines and sur reptitiously deliver them to the other animals. Luckily, he has some punny inspiration for perfect Valentine’s Day messages. “You’re purr-fect.” “You’re dog-gone delightful.” “You’re toadally awesome!” As Turkey dons a different disguise for each delivery, the story offers a refrain that young listeners will soon chant. “His costume wasn’t bad. In fact, Turkey looked just like a cat…almost.” (The refrain changes slightly with each disguise.) Unfortunately, the other animals always recognize Turkey and greet him with a pun. But the animals also compliment his valentine and help to create a pun for his next one. Sadly, the animals always know who the valentines are from, so Turkey decides to “gobble, gobble, give up!” Returning home to read his own valentines, Turkey has an idea, and he quickly creates a fes tive and delicious surprise for the Valentine’s dance. Readers will have to decide if Turkey has finally managed to surprise the other animals. Boldfaced puns within the story are easy to spot, and Turkey’s cards also feature puns along with adorable illustra tions. Detailed watercolor and pencil illustrations bring to life a farm filled with loving friends and highlight Turkey’s clever and ever changing costumes. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

The spirit of Valentine’s Day shines bright in this caring community. (Picture book. 4 7)

A SLIVER OF MOON AND A SHARD OF TRUTH Stories From India

Soundar, Chitra Illus. by Uma Krishnaswamy Candlewick (112 pp.) $15.99 | Sept. 13, 2022 978-1-5362-2515-0

India’s lively wisdom tales retold, starring two quick-witted boys.

As in Soundar and Krishnaswamy’s Mangoes, Mischief, and Tales of Friendship (2018), these linked sto ries feature a down-to-earth prince, Veera, and his best friend, Suku, a farmer’s son. Visiting Prince Veera’s rash granduncle’s kingdom, they solve mysteries, decode puzzles, expose charla tans, and defeat wickedness with ingenuity. The writing flows, the boys are wisecracking, and the tales celebrate shrewd ness, friendship despite differences in social status, Solomonic insight, and fairness. It helps that the adversaries are given to excess and not too bright. Black-and-white vignettes flavor the pages in a naïve style appropriate to the stories, which, though they borrow heavily from folk tradition, are likely to be new to many readers. Names and some details—e.g., the game kabaddi—may be unfamiliar, but most things need no transla tion, like the adage, “Hasty elephants fall into the pit.” A good prince, Veera knows that justice must be “based on truth and fact,” and these reimagined trickster tales offer more than a shard of the former.

Lighthearted, brief tales of common sense, virtue, and valor, perfect for reading aloud. (author’s note) (Fiction. 6 12)

VALENTINE’S DAY, HERE I COME!

Steinberg, D.J.

Illus. by Laurie Stansfield Grosset & Dunlap (32 pp.)

$5.99 paper | Dec. 27, 2022

978-0-593-38717-7

Series: Here I Come!

A collection of poems follows a group of elementary school students as they prepare for and celebrate Valentine’s Day.

One student starts the day by carefully choosing clothing in pink, purple, or red, while a family kicks off the morning with a breakfast of red, heart-shaped pancakes. At school, children cre ate valentines until party time finally arrives with lots of yummy treats. The students give valentines to their school friends, of course, but we also see one child making a “special delivery” to a pet, a stuffed animal, family members, and even the crossing guard. The poems also extend the Valentine’s celebration to the commu nity park, where other couples—some older, one that appears to be same-sex—are struck by cupid’s “magical love arrows.” Note the child running away: “Blech!” Not everyone wants to “end up in love!!!” But the spread devoted to Valentine’s jokes will please read ers more interested in humor than in romance and inspire children

to create their own jokes. To make the celebration complete, the last pages of the book contain stickers and a double-sided “BEE MINE!” valentine that readers can, with adult help, cut out. Cheery and kid-friendly, the poems can be read independently or from cover to cover as a full story. The cartoonish illustrations include lots of hearts and emphasize the growing Valentine’s Day excitement, depicting a diverse classroom that includes students who use wheelchairs. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Effectively captures the excitement surrounding Valen tine’s Day. (Picture book poetry. 4 6)

BLACK BEACH

A Community, an Oil Spill, and the Origin of Earth Day Stith, Shaunna & John Stith Illus. by Maribel Lechuga Little Bee Books (40 pp.) $18.99 | Feb. 21, 2023 978-1-4998-1304-3

The spoiling of her beloved beach by an oil spill turns a child into an ecoactivist in this fictionalized view of actual events.

Light-skinned Sam is initially devastated to see what has become of her Santa Barbara beach, but as she witnesses her com munity laboring to rescue wildlife and clean the shore, her sadness turns to anger. Along with chronicling how that 1969 offshore spill touched off the first nationwide Earth Day the following year, this story offers a template for the sort of internal sea change required to spark real concern for environmental—or any other—issues: “Before the spill, Sam liked to pretend the oil rigs weren’t a part of her favorite place. But now she no longer wanted to look past them.” The illustrations, which run to staid views of light- and dark-skinned figures in ’60s dress seen at a remove laboring on the oil-stained beach, watching old-fashioned TVs, marching, and demonstrating composting and other eco-activities, may distance both the disaster and the unexpectedly widespread response from modern readers, but along with a timeline, the backmatter includes notes on Earth Day celebrations today and suggested activities for young activists. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A reserved but perceptive view of a major milestone in the environmental movement. (author’s note, bibliography) (Infor mational picture book. 6 8)

LINE UP! Animals in Remarkable Rows

Stockdale, Susan Peachtree (32 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-1-68263-322-9

Just like schoolchildren, some ani mals line up regularly.

Once again, Stockdale invites readers to marvel at the natu ral world, with examples of creatures who, surprisingly, share

characteristics with humans. Dedicating her latest to “children who line up everywhere,” she spotlights animals who do the same. Her interesting choices include creatures likely to be familiar and unfamiliar to the target audience and come from all over the world: mallards, African elephants, white-spotted pufferfish, Arc tic wolves, ants, chinstrap penguins, spiny lobsters, and superb fairywrens, among others. Readers who have enjoyed earlier titles will recognize the format. Each spread covers a different species; two smoothly rhyming couplets introduce the creature and a sig nificant fact. On the final spread, as the fairywrens line up on their branch to sleep, an extra couplet offers “sweet dreams” to bedtime listeners, too. The text is set directly on full-bleed images of the lined-up animals. These clean, flat acrylics, featuring solid colors, are simplified but clearly show the animals in their appropriate environments. The rhyme and rhythm make this a pleasure to read aloud; relatively large sans-serif type and repetition of opening lines will help those reading on their own. Backmatter thumbnails are captioned with more information about each of the creatures for the more capable child or adult reader. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Another remarkable reminder of nature’s wonders. (Infor mational picture book. 3 7)

GUSSIE & MAX

A Sweet Story of First Friendships

Sullivan, Deirdre Illus. by Lisa M. Griffin Sky Pony Press (32 pp.) $19.99 | Jan. 3, 2023 978-1-5107-7126-0

Two lifelong friends are ready to take on the world. Gussie and Max, a koala and monkey duo (readers are never told who is who), are reminiscing about their early years play ing with blocks and inventing imaginary worlds and adventures. Why are they looking back fondly? Having recently started school, they’ve become “big-time bus-takers and finger-snap pers,” riding with a menagerie of other animals, from a giraffe and a hippo to a fox and a pig. Now that they’re in school, they’ve entered a new phase of life—as “door-openers” and “monkey bar masters.” It’s a visually attractive story, but many readers may find it a little too trivial to create lingering inter est. Max and Gussie are one-note characters without any real character development. Readers don’t even know who is who! Going off to school—even with a best buddy—can be a stress ful time; limits and boundaries are pushed as children adapt to a new environment. The nonchalant attitudes of both charac ters—always moving in perfect tandem—are unrealistic and, as a result, boring. The colorful illustrations attempt to do some heavy lifting but can’t supply enough oomph to add dimension to a flat and flimsy tale. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Cute but forgettable. (Picture book. 4 6)

WHAT HAPPENED TO RACHEL RILEY?

Swinarski, Claire

Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins (352 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 10, 2023

978-0-06-321309-8

How did the most popular girl in school become persona non grata?

New kid and aspiring podcaster Anna Hunt could have taken the easy route for her social issues assignment about any subject that was important to her. But somehow Anna always comes back to the question, “What happened to Rachel Riley?” Does it have anything to do with the mysterious game the boys have been playing? Anna’s investigation unfolds in emails, text threads, personal narratives, articles, and voice recordings as she asks difficult questions, struggles to make friends, and ques tions how and if the world can change for the better. Ultimately, Anna’s un-essay explores sexual harassment between middle school peers, specifically boys giving each other points for slap ping girls’ butts and snapping their bra straps. As in Barbara Dee’s Maybe He Just Likes You (2019), there’s social pressure to stay silent and laugh it all off as a joke. Given the central focus on teasing apart this issue, it’s understandable that many of the characters lack depth. Anna’s mother emigrated from Poland, and Anna is bilingual; some supporting characters have names that point to non-European heritage. With its highlighting of fun and educational facts, the writing style and subject matter make this a good fit for classroom or book club reading and discussion.

A useful addition to the pool of middle-grade books about sexual harassment at school. (Fiction. 10 13)

WHAT IN THE WOW?!

250 Bonkerballs Facts

Thomas, Mindy & Guy Raz Illus. by Dave Coleman

Clarion/HarperCollins (208 pp.)

$8.99 paper | Feb. 7, 2023

978-0-358-69709-1

Series: Wow in the World

Two hundred fifty “bonkerballs” facts presented by two per petually gobsmacked mavens of marvels.

Pivoting from their podcast, the two authors dish up an array of fantastic-but-true tidbits arranged in 15 broad catego ries, from facts to gross readers out to accidental discoveries and inventions, unusual buildings, weather extremes, trivia about numbers, and (in deference to a feathered sidekick who pops up frequently in the artwork) astounding exploits by pigeons. Rather than being shoveled in, the pithy entries are spaced out to just one or two per page to make them easier to savor individually and, along with appearances of Thomas and Raz mini-mes offering quips or reaction shots, are accom panied by photos overlaid with cartoon googly eyes and like

enhancements. Scattershot and source-free as the contents may be, they’re certain to broaden any young audience’s range of interests—whether identifying the largest known star, point ing out that Maine is the closest U.S. state to Africa and humans are the only animals with chins, noting that fish burp, or reveal ing the key ingredient in the “monkeys ’n’ cream” ice cream sold in Tokyo. Like their real-life counterparts, the cartoon versions of Thomas and Raz present White.

A boffo browser’s buffet tailor-made for delighted sharing. (photo credits) (Nonfiction. 7 10)

GROUNDHOG GETS IT WRONG

Townes, Jess Illus. by Nicole Miles

Dial Books (40 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 3, 2023 978-0-593-32615-2

It’s not easy being a prognosticator— just ask Groundhog.

Despite being a proud descendent of a long line of meritorious meteorologists, Groundhog still gets his first forecast WRONG! He doesn’t see his shadow, so he tells everyone that winter is over—but when plans for warm weather activities fall through due to snow, the flip-flops–wearing townsfolk show up outside his burrow demanding answers. Groundhog attempts to get rid of the snow, but when that doesn’t work, he resigns his position and sets off searching for his true calling. Sheep herder? Nope. Making honey? No. Dam builder? Negative. Despondent, he trudges home. Wait—what are all those charts? And those books. He’d never paid attention to those before. In no time at all, Ground hog is taking online meteorology classes. This time, when Feb. 2 rolls around, Groundhog is prepared. Townes’ whimsical, behind-the-scenes look at the hairier side of weather foreshad owing encapsulates the adage “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” The use of alliteration to describe the overwhelm ing mounds of snow is a nice touch—“too excessive to excavate,” “too deep to defrost,” “too slick to shovel.” Depicting diverse townspeople, Miles’ frosty illustrations comically highlight the lengths that Groundhog is prepared to go to in order to ensure spring makes its calculated debut. Cameos throughout from a hairless pink cat add to the shivery fun. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A motivational nudge to develop talent—innate or acquired. (note about Groundhog Day) (Picture book. 4 7)

“A motivational nudge to develop talent innate or acquired.”

groundhog gets it wrong

“Readers will go nuts (mostly acorns) for this book!”

WILLOW MOSS & THE VANISHED KINGDOM Valente, Dominique

Harper/HarperCollins (208 pp.) $16.99 | Jan. 11, 2022

978-0-06-287947-9

Series: Starfell, 3

In this latest in the Starfell series, a young witch with the power to find lost things seeks a vanished city.

Twelve-year-old Willow arrives at her new school on a flying broomstick with her best friend Oswin, a catlike monster, in tow. Willow wonders why her par ents think it’s safe to send her to a school controlled by Silas, a wizard intent on stealing everyone’s magic. Her fears are con firmed when an elf named Twist blows into the school, warning Willow that Silas has stolen an ancient elvish scroll with clues about what happened to a vanished elvish kingdom and a pow erful staff that can bestow and take away the gift of magic. To prevent Silas from gaining the staff, Willow and Twist embark on a perilous quest to find the lost kingdom. Aided by impres sive dragons and truly terrifying trolls, Willow must confront Silas in a gripping battle of magical powers. Throughout Wil low remains a relatable heroine, sidekick Oswin adds a comic note, and the cast of witches, wizards, elves, trolls, and dragons engage and entertain. Introductory backstory allows readers new to the Starfell saga to readily follow Willow’s latest adven ture. The finale suggests all is not over yet. Willow and the rest of the human cast default to White.

A fascinating entry in an ongoing fantasy series. (Fantasy. 8 12)

SQUIRREL ON STAGE

Vande Velde, Vivian Illus. by Steve Björkman Holiday House (128 pp.) $16.99 | Oct. 25, 2022 978-0-8234-5215-6

Series: Twitch the Squirrel

“Cinderella” has never been so squirrelly.

Twitch, a squirrel who lives in the trees near a school, is back for another adventure, this time upon the stage! Visiting his friend Sweetie, the school library’s pet albino rat, one evening, Twitch learns that the students will be staging a theatrical version of “Cin derella.” Sweetie has a certain fondness for this story, because the fairy godmother selects a rat to drive the pumpkin coach. Twitch decides that his friend must see the show and hatches a plan (sort of) for the nearsighted rat to be close enough to enjoy the spectacle. Unsurprisingly, the duo’s adventure doesn’t go by the fairy-tale book, and while Sweetie becomes a little more involved in the onstage antics than he anticipated, Twitch finds a nemesis of sorts in Miss Krause, the school librarian and the

play’s director. Readers who know Twitch from his previous sto ries are in for a side-splitting new adventure, and those unfamil iar will want to seek out his other stories. Alternating chapters between Twitch’s and Sweetie’s points of view allows both char acters to develop fully and shine. Sweetie’s vision issues are a good reminder that people (and rats) with different abilities all deserve starring roles. Scribbly, expressive black-and-white illustrations depict a diverse student body. An afterword from all the school’s various classroom pets and a Q&A with the author provide additional insights for book clubs and classroom discussion.

Readers will go nuts (mostly acorns) for this book! (Fiction. 7 10)

QUEEN ELIZABETH

Vegara, Maria Isabel Sánchez Illus. by Melissa Lee Johnson Lincoln Children’s Books (32 pp.) $15.99 | Sept. 27, 2022 978-0-7112-7450-1 Series: Little People, BIG DREAMS

The longest-reigning British mon arch ever still reigns.

This entry in the Little People, Big Dreams series personal izes the late Elizabeth II, as it introduces her when she was a child herself—though, as a princess and granddaughter of a king, Lilibet wasn’t quite a typical child. She was somewhat ordinary, however: She loved horses and dogs and aspired to live on a farm. At age 10, her life became even more extraordinary: Her uncle “[gave] up the crown,” her father suddenly became king, her family moved to Buckingham Palace—and, having “left her old life behind,” Elizabeth became heiress to the British monar chy and learned, from then on, how to be the next ruler and to live a life of service to her people. She trained as a mechanic and driver during World War II, married dashing Prince Philip, and, several years later, ascended the throne upon her father’s death. During her historic seven-decade reign, Queen Elizabeth accomplished much, including signing “a law that gave girls the same right as boys to inherit the throne.” Though this book went to press before the queen’s passing, future printings will acknowledge her death. The clear text is accessible to young readers and helps convey, in simple terms, how special Eliza beth was. Charming, colorful, appealing illustrations make the queen real and immediate for youngsters; Elizabeth’s beloved corgis are captivatingly featured throughout. Numerous back ground characters are diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A loving tribute to an iconic figure. (biographical informa tion with photos) (Picture book biography. 4 8)

squirrel on stage

SPROUT BRANCHES OUT

von Innerebner, Jessika

Roaring Brook Press (40 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 24, 2023 978-1-250-84878-9

A little plant flourishes in her own time.

A bunch of plants living on a stately red porch are cheerful...except for Sprout, the adorably grumpy potted hydrangea. Two small leaves poke out of the dirt on her head, and she’s convinced that if she only lived somewhere else, she’d be able to grow more, even on her chest. After complaining about the deficiencies of the porch to her friends, she gets a travel brochure for the forest and goes exploring. Of course, none of her predicted solutions—spending time in the wild woods, surrounding herself with wise older trees, soaking up rain—spur the desired foliage, and Sprout learns that growing at home, in her own time, is best. The illustrations of anthro pomorphic elements of nature—friendly mushrooms, musta chioed tree trunks, a winking rock—are a delightful focus point. The story is pleasant if old-fashioned, implying that it’s OK to have adventures out in the scary, confusing, dangerous world but that one’s provincial home is best. Unfortunately, the text becomes progressively bogged down by plant-based puns like “This forest was way past elemen-tree for Sprout,” and “I’m an unbe-leaf-able listener.” These make for an awkward and con fusing read-aloud given that young audiences will not be able to readily infer that the jokes hinge upon italics or tweaks in spell ing. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Solid yet unfruitful. (information on growing plants) (Pic ture book. 4 7)

THE FAMOUSLY FUNNY PARROTT Four Tales From the Bird Himself Weiner, Eric Daniel Illus. by Brian Biggs Delacorte (144 pp.) $15.99 | Dec. 27, 2022 978-0-593-37820-5

The Wind in the Willows (1908) meets Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster in these short stories.

From the co-creator of Dora the Explorer come four tales ostensibly about luxury-loving parrot Freddie but really about how his clever butler, Peccary, saves the day. In the first story, Freddie worries that their apartment is haunted when the door starts knocking by itself (Peccary cracks the case through a revelation that will crack up readers). In the second story, Fred die’s denial that he has been sleep-eating waffle batter leads to a chain of comedic misunderstandings revolving around reoc curring police characters (officers Scott Piranha and Gladys

Otter) with a history of fining Freddie for his shenanigans. A third story, in which Freddie takes his car out for a spin, is a cau tionary tale about careful driving with a lovely twist at the end: Freddie’s genuine appreciation of Peccary for not saying “I told you so.” The fourth story ties in the sleep-eating plot of the sec ond in a surprising way as Peccary cleverly uses the quirk to save Freddie’s parents from social ruin. In all of the stories, child like Freddie’s first-person narration highlights his obliviousness, with Weiner pairing a sly, dry wit with downright silly content. All characters are anthropomorphized animals, finely dressed in illustrations—though it does strike an odd note when the police officers ride regular horses. Otherwise, the exquisitely detailed illustrations are as charming as the characters.

Kids and adults alike will guffaw in delight. (Fiction. 6 10)

ELBERT IN THE AIR

Wesolowska, Monica Illus. by Jerome Pumphrey Dial Books (40 pp.) $18.99 | Feb. 21, 2023 978-0-593-32520-9

In this allegory celebrating individu ality, Elbert finds true acceptance, aided by his loving mother.

After birth, Elbert begins to float, literally rising as he grows. His mother clambers ever higher to provide unconditional sup port: “If Elbert was born to float, I will let him.” Cavorting in the air, first among his toys and then above his yard, Elbert dis covers despondency at 6: “Even on my birthday…no one else is up here.” At school, he deftly catches “the highest balls” and finds creative ways to play tag with his classmates at recess. Ma continues to reassure as Elbert’s increasing altitude liter ally puts classmates out of reach. “Just be yourself…and you’ll find friends.” She encourages him to make wishes—on birth day candles, on a shooting star—which symbolize the family’s commitment to Elbert’s existential quest. Wesolowska employs the Euro-folkloric motif of threes: At three stages in Elbert’s coming-of-age odyssey, a trio of naysayers offer feckless, often chilling advice designed to hobble him. But “Elbert was Elbert. No hook, no anchor, no law could bring him down!” Finally, Elbert finds “the world he’d always wished for!” Textured, grace fully composed digital art depicts Ma and Elbert enjoying a skyhigh picnic among a group of the boy’s happily engaged peers; images that evoke Elbert’s toy blocks surround them. Both Elbert and his mother have brown skin and black, textured hair among diverse communities aloft and below. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A transcendent journey for families seeking affirming rep resentations of those who march to their own beats. (Picture book. 4 8)

adult

I DID SEE A MAMMOTH!

Willmore, Alex Kane Miller (32 pp.)

$14.99 | Dec. 1, 2022

978-1-68464-511-4

Penguins aren’t mammoths!

When a diverse threesome of researchers and a small, tan-skinned child set out to see penguins in the Antarctic, the child has other ideas: “But I’m going to see a MAMMOTH.” Ventur ing out alone, the protagonist stumbles across…a mammoth skateboarding! But mammoths are extinct, says one of the researchers. And when they were alive, they weren’t found in the Antarctic. Perhaps the child really saw a penguin? But this only makes the protagonist more determined to prove themself right. Again and again it happens, only this time the child sees the mammoth skateboarding while wearing a frilly pink tutu; later the mammoth adds a scuba mask to the ensemble (while submerged underwater). Will no one believe the child? A tan trum leads to an avalanche of a result—and finally the protago nist’s claims are proven true. The mammoth departs, returning home to their cave to boldly state, “I DID see a human!” to a trio of adults. A final note reminds readers that mammoths were traditionally found in the Northern Hemisphere while penguins live in the Southern Hemisphere, but just because there’s never been any evidence of Antarctic mammoths, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep looking. It’s a funny tale and one that storytellers will have a lot of fun telling—the child’s wild declarations and outraged indignation are supported by colorful and zany illustrations. Savvy educators and caregivers might see this as a humorous introduction to heavier themes of extinction, conservation, and climate change. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Delightful and fun! (Picture book. 4 8)

CATERPILLAR

Kaz Simon Spotlight (64 pp.)

| Jan. 31, 2023

Besties Worm and Caterpillar share lessons on friendship in this graphic novel for early readers.

While pink and purple Worm tends to notice what the two pals have in common, green and orange Caterpillar is fast to point out that they’re not the same. They may both be afraid of birds, but Caterpillar loves leaves while Worm eats dirt. Worm crawls on their belly, but Caterpillar has legs (16 of them!). Keen readers will understand quickly why Caterpillar is concerned— Worm says they’re best friends “because we are the same!” and

Caterpillar knows that things are bound to change. In fact, as Caterpillar spins their chrysalis, Worm is already worrying about their altered buddy. And by the time Caterpillar is ready to emerge, they fret that Worm may no longer like them. When Caterpillar (now Butterfly) pops out, Worm is initially afraid, but with care and trust, Worm is able to accept and love Butter fly for who they’ve always been. Worm learns along with readers that love is not a surface-level emotion and that true connec tions bind us deeply to each other. The art is joyful, colorful, and expressive, with emotions reading perfectly on the cartoon insects’ faces. Overall, it’s an appealing read with a message of acceptance that caregivers will be able to easily apply to real life.

Warm and delightful, this tale will stay with readers long after they turn the last page. (Graphic early reader. 4 8)

THE NIGHT BEFORE LUNAR NEW YEAR

Wing, Natasha with Lingfeng Ho Illus. by Amy Wummer Grosset & Dunlap (32 pp.) $5.99 paper | Dec. 27, 2022 978-0-593-38421-3 Series: Night Before

A full catalog of Lunar New Year traditions packed into a poetic vehicle inspired by Clement C. Moore’s famous verse.

In this installment of Wing’s Night Before series, which has grown to more than two dozen volumes, rhyming couplets describe an Asian family’s Lunar New Year celebration. From hanging spring poems and receiving red envelopes to setting firecrackers, watching the lion and dragon dances, and light ing lanterns on the 15th day, the book is filled with details on what are predominantly Chinese traditions despite the more inclusive title. And it really is quite a comprehensive over view, including the major foods and activities spanning the weekslong holiday. Upbeat, charming pencil, ink, and water color illustrations from Wummer, who has collaborated on many other books in the series, capture it all. Unfortunately, the meter of almost every couplet is uneven and awkward, beginning with the opening line, “ ’Twas the night before Lunar New Year,” making it a difficult read-aloud. Nonethe less, the content makes it a worthy pick for the holiday. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A cheerful and thorough look at Chinese Lunar New Year traditions. (Picture book. 4 8)

SILVER LININGS

Woodcock, Fiona Greenwillow Books (32 pp.)

$17.99 | Feb. 28, 2023

978-0-06-299590-2

Look on the bright side.

Pip, a light-skinned girl, and Parker, a brown-skinned boy who lives in the

building next door, are best pals who love doing stuff together; they’re so attuned to each other that, often, they don’t have to speak. Sometimes they do, though, because Pip gets upset when even small mishaps occur and she doesn’t know what to do. Parker always sees the upsides—the “silver linings”—of wor risome situations and dreams up happy solutions. For instance, when Pip’s yellow crayon breaks in two, Parker points out that the friends now both have yellow crayons. And when they can’t locate their toy boat to sail in the park, Parker suggests mak ing paper boats instead. And so it goes until a messy mishap occurs to Parker. Can Pip discover the silver lining this time? The bright side is…she can and does—sweetly, ingeniously, and wordlessly. This endearing tale doesn’t say anything new about friendship and kindness, but it conveys these themes warmly and reassuringly and will be appreciated by young readers. The charming illustrations digitally combine artwork created with hand-cut rubber stamps, stencils, acrylic paint, colored pencils, and oil pastels. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A gentle lesson that being optimistic brings rewards, as does having a very good friend. (Picture book. 4 7)

THIS IS NOT MY HOME

Yoh, Eugenia & Vivienne Chang Little, Brown (48 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 24, 2023 978-0-316-37710-2

A young Taiwanese American girl navigates between one home and another.

Lily is energetic and imaginative and loves to play chase. When Mama announces their move to Taiwan to take care of Ah Ma, Lily’s grandmother, the girl’s world comes crash ing down as she begins to process all that she will miss: the fireflies at Parsley Park, her friend Jill. And when they arrive, things are wildly different—the welcome banquet with relatives is nothing like her backyard barbecue, the motor scooter is a far cry from her car, and so on. With humor and empathy, the simple storyline and vivid illustrations convey Lily’s challenges at her new school and her struggles with jet lag, the Chinese language, and socializing. A pivotal moment with Mama opens Lily’s heart; on a page filled with white space, parent and child hug and then Lily moves toward the edge of the page, ready to give her new home a chance. The artwork shows Lily’s perspective broadening as she finds her way and regains her stride, eventually feeling at home in her current environment. The endpapers complement each other, portraying a sunny, palm tree–lined suburban neighborhood in the United States at the front and, on the back, a moonlit street scene in Taiwan. Given the time differ ences between the two countries, this juxtaposition not only reflects simultaneous realities in different locales, but also underscores the duality of existence familiar to individuals whose identities are rooted in diverse geographies and lan guages. ( This book was reviewed digitally. )

Embraces “home” as a journey as well as a destination. (Pic ture book. 5 8)

THE BEAR AND THE WILDCAT Yumoto, Kazumi Illus. by Komako Sakai Trans. by Cathy Hirano Gecko Press (48 pp.) $18.99 | Feb. 7, 2023 978-1-877467-70-7

A single sympathetic soul can make all the difference. Bear’s friend, a little bird, is dead to begin with. There is no doubt whatsoever about that. Yesterday he was alive, and now he is not. Bear constructs a lovely box, places the bird in it, and carries it everywhere, but the other animals disapprove. “It may be hard but you have to forget about him.” Upon hearing this, Bear shuts himself away for days. When he emerges, he meets a wildcat, who hears his story, acknowledges that he must have loved his friend, and, by playing music, helps Bear to heal. This lyrical, unconventionally beautiful Japanese import reveals text both spare and superbly polished (“His downy feathers were the colour of coral and his tiny black beak gleamed like onyx”). Black images appear on the page as if they were scrubbed away from the surrounding pinkish gray, like relief paintings released from their claustrophobic borders. The sole other color, blue, is revealed only after Bear allows himself to remember the good times with his friend. As he finds himself able to let go, the blue infuses the flowers on a grave and in the field and a ribbon on a tambourine that Bear at last learns to play. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Quietly contemplative, mingling hope and healing, this is a book that will offer comfort to many. (Picture book. 4 7)

“Quietly contemplative, mingling hope and healing, this is a book that will offer comfort to many.”

the bear

wildcat

Maureen

young adult

PLAY THE GAME

Allen, Charlene

Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (304 pp.)

$17.99 | Jan. 31, 2023 978-0-06-321279-4

A Black teen faces his grief over the murder of his best friend as he attempts to support his other friends.

VZ works at Yard, a Caribbean restau rant in Brooklyn where Eddie was shot and killed by a White man called Philip Singer. After Singer, who was never charged, is killed by a blow to the head in the restau rant’s parking lot, Yard is closed by the police for their investiga tion. Meanwhile, Eddie’s mother gave VZ her son’s laptop, but VZ feels guilty because he never before paid much attention to the game Eddie was passionate about creating. To honor his best friend, VZ decides to finish the game and enter it in the upcom ing JersiGame competition. He’s hoping to work on it with his crush, Diamond, but when Jack, his friend and Yard co-worker who has been vocal about protesting Eddie’s murder, goes miss ing, VZ tries to solve the mystery of what happened to him. He also supports classmate Chela in a restorative justice circle following an incident at school, all while working to make the deadline for the gaming contest. These various pressures force first-person narrator VZ to examine and deal with his grief, pull ing readers into his experience. The restorative justice process is fleshed out in a nuanced way in this debut. Problems with rushing to judgment—both in the criminal system and among friends—are also thoughtfully examined.

A compelling look at different ways of approaching grief

justice. (Fiction. 13 18)

THIS

Badua, Tracy Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins (352 pp.)

| Jan. 17, 2023

An unconventional coming-of-age story.

Filipina American Perla has earned the unwanted nickname Perfect Perlie Perez. At the tender age of 16 she is a senior at Monte Verde, a top-notch California public high school. Her ambitious

professional parents, who come from modest backgrounds and are conscious of the obstacles of racism, constantly demand excellence in academics as well as physical appearance. The next steps mapped out for her are attending prestigious Del mont University, followed by medical school. So when Perla is rejected by Delmont, she has no idea how to cope. Unwilling to disappoint everyone who has supported her, she fakes an acceptance letter and reapplies for the spring semester. Armed with a meticulous spreadsheet, Perla claims she got a full-ride scholarship, draws on her personal savings, and sneaks into an unused dorm room. Making a calculated plan to get to know Delmont students and figure out how they were admitted, she befriends freshman Tessa Rivera. Perla didn’t anticipate the guilt and stress of struggling with lies and dwindling funds. It doesn’t help that she is pulled toward an interactive entertain ment major. While Perla’s ability to successfully maintain the subterfuge and trespass on campus for a month may strain cre dulity, her well-paced personal growth, during which she ques tions her competitiveness and explores her real interests, makes for a compelling read that will speak to the many readers who will understand her motivations all too well.

An intense and heartfelt romp. (Fiction. 12 17)

ESCAPE FROM THE WILDFIRE Bentley, Dorothy James Lorimer (136 pp.) $27.99 | Jan. 1, 2023 978-1-4594-1703-8

This fact-based novel brings to life the 2021 wildfire that devastated Lytton, British Columbia.

With his sister away planting trees and their dad helping fight wildfires up north, Jack, 14, plans to spend the sum mer biking, working at the pool, gaming with friends, and pursuing his crush, who founded a biodiversity club. There’s not much to do in tiny Lytton, but it’s home: The scenic wil derness surrounding it has miles of biking trails and a terrific swimming hole. Life feels normal, yet Jack’s world is changing. His mom’s away in Victoria when the sweltering, tinder-dry vil lage erupts in a fiery inferno, leaving Lytton a burned-out ruin. Accommodated in a nearby town, the residents take stock. Fire has consumed the Chinese History Museum that honored the laborers—including one of Jack’s great-grandfathers (the rest of his family is implied White)—who built railroads through B.C.’s steep mountains but were erased from history. His friend Rory’s First Nations community, whose land Lytton occupies, has suffered significant losses. The townspeople scatter—some never to return, moving in with relatives or starting over else where. Itemizing his lost items for insurance purposes, Jack ponders intangible losses like community and safety and con templates how to restore them. Surviving Alberta’s devastating 2016 House River Wildfire has given Bentley deep insights into her subject. Straightforward characterization and understated narration make this a strong choice for reluctant readers.

The finely detailed plot unwinds slowly, but make no mistake—it’s a page-turner. (author’s note, study questions, resources) (Fiction. 12 18)

THE WICKED ONES

Benway, Robin Disney Press (320 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-1-368-07862-7 Series: Dark Ascension, 1

In this series opener, Benway offers a prequel to Disney’s animated classic Cinderella from the points of view of the original protagonist’s stepsisters.

Widowed Lady Tremaine, mother to Drizella, 17, and Anastasia, 16, and stepmother to Ella, more than lives up to her bad press. To repair the family’s tattered fortunes, she commands her daughters to compete with far wealthier

young adult

multiracial characters: books with depth and nuance

As someone who is Japanese and Greek, I’m thrilled that multiracial representation is appearing more frequently in teen literature. How ever, there is room for improve ment. Yes, authors should include multiracial characters, who, after all, represent the United States’ fastest growing demographic. But far too often these individuals are reduced to simply being gorgeous, described in ways that make it clear that the authors be lieve their exceptional good looks are the obvious, in evitable outcome of being multiracial. This inaccurate stereotype is deeply harmful. Texts that emphasize how “unusual” the character’s features are echo the rise of ex ploitative, exoticizing social media content fixating on interracial couples and their children. Sometimes mul tiracial characters are simplistically framed as pitiable, confused victims of an intolerant world, reducing to one dimension the full, rich, complex, ever shifting multira cial journey.

The following 2022 releases offer multidimensional, well-realized portraits that delve into the complexities of, for example, having an identity that even sympathetic, loving parents may not share and have not lived through, or of having a full biological sibling who looks racially different enough that the contrast shapes how you each move through the world. They explore the experience of having a deep personal connection to a culture you may not “look like” you belong to. They celebrate the emotion al growth and insights that emerge from reckoning with questions of identity that others can ignore.

Man o’ War by Cory McCarthy (Dutton, May 31): River McIntyre is exploring not just their sexuality and gender identity, but also what it means to be an almost-White–pass ing Irish and Lebanese American teen in the Midwest raised by a well-inten tioned mother carrying the scars of anti-Arab prejudice who only wants to protect her own child from others’ intolerance.

This Place Is Still Beautiful by XiXi Tian (Balzer + Bray/ HarperCollins, June 7): Margaret and Annalie Flanagan are Chinese and Irish American sisters from small-town Illinois. One girl looks more Asian, and one reads White; one is an outspoken activist, and one prefers to blend in;

each wrestles with how to respond to an act of overt rac ism while negotiating delicate family bonds.

Azar on Fire by Olivia Abtahi (Nan cy Paulsen Books, Aug. 23): Italian on her dad’s side and Argentine and Ira nian on her mom’s, Azar Rossi’s musi cal ambitions are affected by the vo cal fold nodules that limit her speech. She’s surrounded by her boisterous, food-loving extended family, and her Northern Virginia high school is nat urally and delightfully diverse across many dimensions.

The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson (Katherine Tegen/Harper Collins, Sept. 6): This novel uses the horror genre to explore the emotion ally devastating toll that racism takes by following White-passing teen Maddy as well as the Black classmates she has not been able to have honest relationships with—and who have struggled with their own senses of self due to the community’s racism.

Jasmine Zumideh Needs a Win by Su san Azim Boyer (Wednesday Books, Nov. 1): Jasmine looks more like her Iranian immigrant father; her broth er more closely resembles their Irish American mother. But he’s the one who’s learned Farsi and is more out spoken about their Persian heritage— a sticky point as the 1979 Iran hostage crisis unfolds and Jasmine’s run for se nior class president (and own identity) come under scrutiny.

We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds (Roaring Brook Press, Nov. 29): Suddenly moving from Washington, D.C., to rural Georgia is a huge adjustment for Avery, her White dad, and Black mom—one that brings a reckon ing with the role race has played in new and long-standing friendships alike, painful family history and fraught rela tionships, and community secrets simmering beneath the surface.

Laura Simeon is a young readers’ editor.

“A darling ballad for the shy and nerdy yearning to belong.”

reggie and delilah’s year of falling

young ladies at the prince’s upcoming debut party, hoping one of them will win his heart with her beauty and accomplishments. The sisters are reluctant and untalented students of music, but Drizella is nevertheless to sing, accompanied by Anastasia on the flute. Ella, 16, made a household drudge since her father’s death, is ordered to accompany her stepsisters as their servant. Lady Tremaine, sadistically ladylike, bullies and disparages her daughters; they in turn have a conflicted relationship with Ella, who sings beautifully, sews clothes for mice, and meekly accepts abuse. The sisters dread the ridicule their threadbare gowns and awful performances will elicit. Then, chance meet ings offer both sisters the opportunities to escape to differ ent lives, provided they can avoid detection by Lady Tremaine. Despite interludes of humor, hope, and joyful anticipation, the prevailing mood is dark. Illuminated by emotional intelligence, Benway’s humanizing backstories give these iconic characters a claim to readers’ sympathy while prompting pointed questions as to the genealogy of evil. Characters read White.

Psychologically astute entertainment with a bite. (Fantasy.

REGGIE AND DELILAH’S YEAR OF FALLING Bryant, Elise Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (400 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 31, 2023 978-0-06-321299-2

The lead singer of a punk band and a D&D Dungeon Master find love and find themselves in Bryant’s latest teen romance.

Hoping to come off as a cool girl at her new school, Delilah Cole, a biracial Black 16-year-old, just goes with the flow…and ends up as the lead singer of her friends’ punk band, Fun Gi, despite not having any musical experience at all. Black 17-year-old Reggie Hubbard plays Dungeons & Dragons weekly with his friends and writes online essays cri tiquing colonialism and racism in the game under a pseudonym to protect his identity. When Reggie sees Delilah perform with her band on New Year’s Eve, he’s instantly smitten and works

young adult

“Empowering and subversive.”

up the courage to talk to her. Charmed by his nerdiness, Deli lah immediately takes a liking to Reggie, but their meet-cute is interrupted when band mate Charlie finds them and Reggie assumes Charlie is her boyfriend. They part ways only to run into each other on Valentine’s Day. Reggie and Delilah’s rela tionship is measured in chance meetings on various holidays, including St. Patrick’s Day, Juneteenth, and even National Catfish Day. Bryant’s adorable, introspective, authentic story alternates perspectives between two insecure teens struggling to be true to themselves: Delilah wishes she were more like seemingly self-assured Reggie, while Reggie worries about what will happen when Delilah realizes his confidence is just a front to impress her.

A darling ballad for the shy and nerdy yearning to belong. (Romance. 13 18)

BREAKUP FROM HELL Cardinal, Ann Dávila HarperTeen (304 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 3, 2023 978-0-06-304530-9

A high school senior falls for the new guy in town—who is hot, charming, and definitely up to no good.

Miguela “Mica” Angeles lives in the small, boring town of Stowe, Vermont, with her uber-religious grandmother. Between school, church, and hanging out with her three best friends—Barry, Zee, and Rage—nothing really exciting hap pens. So when Sam, a mysterious tourist passing through town, appears interested in Mica, she starts to fall for his seductive ways, going along on exciting adventures that border on lawbreaking (and definitely break abuela’s rules). As Mica spends more time with Sam, strange things start to happen to her and her friends, as each of them develop supernatural powers accompanied by terrifying visions of the end of the world. It soon becomes very clear that there is a lot that Mica’s abuela has kept from her regarding their Puerto Rican roots and family his tory and that Mica and her friends have a lot to learn before all hell breaks loose—literally. This entertaining fantasy with roots in Catholic lore has a fast-paced plot and features a delightfully charming friend group. It’s empowering and subversive to see a Latine protagonist taking on the role that Mica is assigned and equally heartwarming to witness the love between Mica and her abuela. Major supporting characters are White.

A page-turning otherworldly adventure. (Fantasy. 13 18)

HEX YOU

Cast, P.C. & Kristin Cast Wednesday Books (304 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 31, 2023 978-1-250-76569-7 Series: Sisters of Salem, 3

The time of reckoning for twins Hunter and Mercy Goode is here.

The sisters are the latest witches from a long line of guardians in their family who protect the earthly gates to the Underworlds of various mythologies. But the gates have been growing weaker since the death of their mother, and they still have no concrete plan for how to heal them. Now Mercy, trapped in the ancient Egyptian Underworld alongside its pro tector, Khenti, is relying on her sister to help her. Meanwhile, Hunter is reeling from her power-hungry choices and also deal ing with Amphitrite, the goddess of the sea, who is a growing threat to their hometown. But before they can save the gates and the citizens of Goodeville from further harm, the sisters first need to mend their broken relationship and find out why it is that their magic is not working to its full potential. This final entry in the Sisters of Salem trilogy examines the relation ship between Mercy and Hunter as well as their empowering growth, which also means being held accountable for some ter rible choices they made in Omens Bite (2022). But there are many open threads that need closure before the grand finale, some of them involving terrible and potentially fatal dangers, and they lead to an ending that is as bittersweet as it is unsatisfyingly hur ried. The twins are White.

A rushed ending to a witchy trilogy. (map) (Fantasy. 14 18)

DOOMED Sacco, Vanzetti, and the End of the American Dream

Florio, John & Ouisie Shapiro

Roaring Brook Press (208 pp.)

$19.99 | Jan. 24, 2023

978-1-250-62193-1

A narrative nonfiction account of a 1920s trial that gained international attention.

On April 15, 1920, in South Braintree, Massachusetts, the paymaster for a shoe factory and the secu rity guard accompanying him were shot dead in the street. The money they were carrying—the wages of 400 employees—was stolen. Witnesses disagreed on the particulars, but about two weeks later, on a flimsy, speculative pretext, police arrested Ital ian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti for rob bery. They were later charged with murder. The two men had nothing to do with the crime but were in fact anti-capitalist anarchists, part of a growing post–World War I movement to secure workers’ rights and improve the lives of the poor. The government had begun a harsh campaign against these so-called

radicals, and Sacco and Vanzetti fit right into the established narrative. The judge at the trial was known for hating anarchists. Not only were the men found guilty, but, despite international protests, the recanting of several witnesses, and a confession from another inmate, they were executed. Florio and Shapiro document the story well, including historic photographs and letters the defendants wrote. They put events into historical context up until the moment of execution but fail to show what, if anything, changed as a result of the deaths of innocent men, making the story feel incomplete.

A vivid account that will leave readers feeling there should have been lessons learned. (author’s note, map, source notes, bibliography, image credits, index) (Nonfiction. 12 18)

THEN EVERYTHING HAPPENS AT ONCE Girard, M E HarperTeen (432 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 31, 2023 978-0-06-320668-7

Sixteen-year-old Baylee must navi gate life against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Baylee lives in a suburb of Toronto. She has had a crush on her guy friend Freddie for years but believes he could never like a fat girl like her. Baylee is also talking to Alex, whom she met online, but the energy with Freddie shifts, and it seems like something’s about to happen. Just as Baylee’s love life is starting to look up, the Covid pandemic hits, and she has to contend with its impact on her budding relationships as well as keep her sister, who has serious physical and cognitive disabilities, safe. The treatment of Baylee’s body size feels realistic: She is a confident

young adult

BEHIND THE BOOK Braiding Sweetgrass For Young Adults

BY GREGORY MCNAMEE

At the beginning of time there was sweetgrass, fragrant and lovely, “the very first to grow on earth,” a tangible, abundant reminder of the cre ator called Skywoman.

So we learn in the pages of Robin Wall Kimmer er’s Braiding Sweetgrass , a book that metaphorical ly weaves the aromatic sweetgrass of the north ern prairies in three strands: “indigenous ways of knowing, scientific knowledge, and the story of an Anishinabekwe scientist trying to bring them together in service to what matters most.” And what matters most? Love, family, friendship—and Earth itself, which is very much in need of our help after being mistreated for so long.

Lyrical, elegant, and full of hard but never ob scure science, Braiding Sweetgrass took time to build an audience after being published in 2013 and reissued two years later. But then, in the last year of a tumultuous presidency and ever clearer signs that things were not well with the planet, it landed on the New York Times bestseller list, gain ing many new readers.

Now, building on the success of the book, comes Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults (Zest Books, Nov. 1). To transform Kimmerer’s words into prose more accessible to that younger audience, the Minneapolis-based publisher commissioned a writer with wide experience in writing for all ages: Cree/Lakota novelist, memoirist, and activist Mo nique Gray Smith, who has won numerous awards in her native Canada for books such as Tilly: A Story of Hope and Resilience (2014) and Speaking Our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation (2017).

“Cherokee writer Traci Sorell, who’s an incred ibly gifted author of beautiful children’s books, put my name forward,” Smith tells Kirkus in a Zoom conversation from her home on Vancou ver Island. “I was awed and honored at even being thought of as someone who could do that work. I think Braiding Sweetgrass is a sacred text. I first read it in 2015, and as I did, I had to put the book down and think about it to let everything find its proper place, there was so much wisdom and in formation in it.”

As she outlined Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults , Smith wrestled with a problem. “It’s a book for young readers, yes. But also, for some adult readers, there wasn’t an easy entry point, a way in. In some ways it was written for an academ

Daniel Rogers

To adapt the bestselling book of Indigenous wisdom, Monique Gray Smith emphasized social and environmental justice

ic readership, so I wanted to go for the young at heart, the young of mind and spirit. That’s how I approached the book—but only after writing to Robin to say that I wanted to meet with her, as two Indigenous women, to be sure that to her I was a fit to do this work.”

She was, and she had another challenge to face: She had only six months to deliver the text. “My of fice was full of flip charts, different colored stickies, notes to make sure that I was braiding the sweet grass myself—that I kept the Indigenous wisdom, the science, the beauty. Robin had approval at ev ery step, which was very important to me: It may be my adaptation, but it was her work.”

Without much background in science, Smith found her own entry into the book by bringing out its social and environmental justice compo nents. “Robin writes science beautifully,” she says. “But what I brought to the project in part was my work in social and emotional learning, and I made that piece more visible. This is becoming more important in education, and I wanted to be sure that educators could use the book.”

One lesson that Smith emphasizes, as does Kimmerer, is that we have forgotten how to live properly in the world. Our economy, our society, has instead fallen prey to the monster that the Anishinaabe call Windigo, voracious and rapa cious; as Kimmerer writes, “The more a Windigo eats, the more ravenous it becomes.” We need not be its meal, and we need not feed it. Writes Smith toward the end of the text, having visited this idea many times in many contexts, “We can wait for climate change to turn the world and the Windigo into a puddle of red-tinged meltwater, or we can strap on our snowshoes and track him down.”

“We know what’s important. Young people know what’s important,” says Smith. “I think that if someone were to read my adaptation and then read Robin’s original text, they would see that the two books share the same heart and spirit. It’s a time of hope and possibility. There’s work to do: We have to love ourselves to love the land, be in that reciprocal relationship. Young people see that. They’re more than our future: They’re the ones who will keep the world alive. We need to love and nourish them in the same way that we need to love and nourish the land and tend to it—to her.”

Smith has been doing much work herself. Her book Circle of Love , an Indigenous LGBTQ+ story that, she says, “tells us that love is love,” will be published in 2024, with a book called Dreaming Alongside to appear in 2025. “I’m working on a nov el, too, that’s very different from anything I’ve ever written,” she says. Readers, then, have much to look forward to after Monique Gray Smith’s lovely rendering of Braiding Sweetgrass

Gregory McNamee is a contributing editor. Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults received a starred re view in the Aug. 15, 2022, issue.

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young woman who is also plagued by negative self-talk about her weight. Baylee’s relationship to herself, her sexuality, and her partners is realistically complex. She does not always make the right decisions, and though she does go through a process of learning to love and accept herself, her self-esteem is not neatly fixed. Without being explicit, the story largely focuses on Bay lee’s sexual awakening, framed by the high stakes of the pan demic. This is not a typical romance—Baylee is not searching for the love of her life, and the sexual and romantic experiences she has help her discover who she is. Sex is treated with respect and reverence but not as obligatorily monogamous. Main char acters read White.

A pleasurable, emotional, and authentic coming-of-age story. (Fiction. 14 18)

NINE LIARS Johnson, Maureen Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (464 pp.)

$19.99 | Dec. 27, 2022 978-0-06-303265-1

Senior year is not off to a great start for Stevie Bell: She’s antsy with no cases to solve, stressed by college applications, and missing her long-distance boyfriend terribly.

So when David invites Stevie to visit him in England, she immediately accepts and, with the help of friends Janelle Frank lin, Vi Harper-Tomo, and Nate Fisher, gets a study-abroad trip approved for all four of them. Upon their arrival, David intro duces them to his classmate Izzy, who has a story to tell. In 1995, a tightknit group of Cambridge graduates who called them selves the Nine arrived at a country estate for a summer getaway. The morning after their arrival, they discovered the mangled remains of two members. Although the police concluded it was a burglary gone wrong, Angela, Izzy’s aunt and a surviving mem ber of the Nine, recently let slip her suspicion of a more sinis ter explanation for the deaths. Stevie’s deductive skills are put to the test, but other concerns—her relationship with David, graduation and inevitable separation from her friends, a per sistent feeling of inadequacy—compete for her attention and occasionally push her anxiety, which she manages with medica tion, to the brink. The exploration of the importance of friend ship (with parallels between the Nine and Stevie’s group) adds emotional vulnerability to this book, which has a well-devel oped sense of place and features the series’ signature humor and layered mystery elements. The cast includes diversity in race, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

Immersive and genre-savvy. (map, floor plan) (Mystery. 13 18)

THOMAS H. BEGAY AND THE NAVAJO CODE TALKERS

Landry, Alysa

Ohio Univ. (152 pp.) $32.95 | $15.95 paper | Jan. 31, 2023

978-0-8214-2505-3

978-0-8214-2506-0 paper

Series: Biographies for Young Readers

A new generation is introduced to the fascinating history of the World War II Navajo Code Talkers.

A young, very frightened Thomas H. Begay is first seen at age 19 at Iwo Jima as he takes up his duty of sending and receiv ing messages in an unbreakable code based on the Navajo language. But that happens nearer the war’s end, and Landry quickly rewinds to the beginning, describing Thomas’ early life on the Navajo Nation reservation and his experiences at a government boarding school where children were severely punished for speaking Navajo. Landry then discusses the experiences of the original 29 Navajos Code Talkers, who were shocked when they were told that they must speak only in their native tongue. Their painstaking efforts resulted in an intricate code used during battles and crucial to success in the Pacific Theater in World War II. Their code was never broken. Though much too young to be in the first groups, Thomas is part of the last, viciously fought battles. Intricately detailed information and insights about the background history and unfolding events are provided within the narrative, illustrated with photos and documents. The work is exciting, accessible, and very personal. The Code Talkers are named, and their experiences—their emotions, actions, dedication, and bravery—are palpable. After the war the Code Talkers were banned from speaking about the program, but they were finally recognized in 1968, and Thomas, at 96, remains dedicated to keeping their story alive.

A remarkable true story, well told. (author’s note, photos, timeline, glossary, notes, bibliography, biographies for young readers) (Biography. 12 16)

SUN KEEP RISING

Lee, Kristen R. Crown (240 pp.)

$18.99 | $21.99 PLB | Jan. 24, 2023 978-0-593-30919-3 978-0-593-30920-9

PLB

A Black teen mom tries to make the best decisions for her baby.

Living in the Memphis projects, B’onca’s family is accustomed to babies arriving; people going to college is less common. Her mama had her sister at 15, and her sister had her daughter at 16, but after her best friend, Savannah, gets into a top college, everyone expects B’onca to follow in her foot steps. When B’onca gets pregnant at 16, she doesn’t feel like she has much of a choice, however, and she gives birth soon

after her 17th birthday even though her 19-year-old boyfriend proclaims he is too young to be a father. In the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, B’onca’s story feels positioned to act as a valuable mirror for young single moms doing their best and a window for other readers, showing them the realities of life with limited choices, insufficient resources, and myriad systemic obstacles. Although B’onca graduates high school and gets accepted to three universities, barriers to her success— eviction, access to day care, and more—keep arising. When her daughter Mia’s father is killed and his parents threaten to seek custody, B’onca has to decide whether making money through illegal means is the best way to provide for her daughter. B’onca is a well-written character, and her story will resonate with any one who feels trapped despite their best efforts.

An authentic portrayal of the cycle of poverty. (Fiction. 14 18)

QUEEN AMONG THE DEAD Livingston, Lesley Zando (416 pp.) $19.99 | Jan. 17, 2023 978-1-63893-018-1

History and magic intertwine in this fantasy retelling of ancient Celtic mythology.

As the voiceless, unloved younger daughter of Eire’s Dagda, Neve Anann Eriu holds no true power despite her eagerness and ambition. But the tragic death of her older sis ter, the crown princess, sees Neve on the path to the kingdom’s throne. It’s a path filled with magic, treason, and unexpected alliances. Ronan is a former Druid apprentice–turned-thief whose life is transformed after an unexpected encounter with Neve, a princess whose blood shines with the forbidden magic they seem, impossibly, to share. At a time when magic is out lawed and performed only by power-hungry Druids, Neve and Ronan find themselves on a collision course that could unite the land they both love. The myths of prehistorical Ireland come to life in this slow-moving dual-perspective fantasy novel inspired by ancient legends. It’s a story filled to the brim with sorcery and treason and with a pinch of romance. It also reflects on social divides and injustices between the outcast ancient peo ples of Eire and the invading usurpers. Lengthy expository sec tions bog down parts of the novel but not enough to mar Neve’s ongoing story of growing into her power through her believable fighting skills, smart diplomacy, and outmaneuvering of those who underestimate her.

A lovely story fit for a mythical queen. (the Folk of Eire) (Fantasy. 14 18)

SWIFT THE STORM, FIERCE THE FLAME

Long, Meg Wednesday Books (416 pp.) $19.99 | Jan. 17, 2023 978-1-250-78512-1

This follow-up to Cold the Night, Fast the Wolves (2022) changes the focus to a different character—and a different planet.

Remy Castell is a genopath, geneti cally engineered by the powerful Nova organization to be the perfect spy and to follow orders, but a mission two years before put her on the path to meeting a girl who became a friend and helped her cut ties with Nova. When that mission went awry, her newfound friend, Alora, disap peared, and the only person who knows her whereabouts is Kiran, the fellow genopath and ex–squad mate who betrayed Remy. After tracking Kiran to the planet Maraas, Remy and her companions, Sena and the wolf Iska, find a world changed for the worse and a dangerous rebellion brewing. Then Kiran makes an offer: help with the revolution and he will tell her where Alora is. Remy finds it hard to believe that this selfserving, agenda-driven boy will not betray her again. Top-notch worldbuilding that delves into the complex dynamic between different factions, an interesting jungle setting, and fast-paced action sequences form the foundation upon which Remy’s strong character development occurs in this story about agency and self-determination, friendship and keeping promises. The previous book’s protagonists, Sena and Iska, play secondary but important roles. Main characters are assumed White; some sec ondary characters have brown skin.

A riveting sequel that promises more to come. (Science fic tion. 14 18)

BEGIN AGAIN Lord, Emma Wednesday Books (352 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 24, 2023 978-1-250-78336-3

A destined-to-be romance hits a snag. Andie Rose is no shirker—she doesn’t fear hard work, and she has ridiculous plans for achieving her goals. The first step is transferring from Little Fells Community College to competitive Blue Ridge State, where her boyfriend, Connor Whit, is a stu dent. Andie is certain the two were made for each other. She will major in psychology and write a self-help guide for achiev ing happiness, which of course means she must first master it herself. Hoping to give Connor the surprise of his life, midyear freshman transfer Andie shows up at the university without tell ing him—only to discover that Connor has in fact transferred to Little Fells in an effort to surprise her. The couple decide to

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grin and bear it for a semester, and as Andie does her best to navigate this absurd situation, she finds comfort in the com pany of attractive but surly resident adviser Milo Flynn and a gig anonymously giving advice on the university’s long-standing pirate radio show. The premise references popular romantic tropes that will appeal to many readers. Unfortunately, the book is let down by thin characterization: Laser-focused Andie feels over-the-top and there’s no real friction, desire, or excitement between her and Milo. Without exciting narrative hooks to keep readers invested, the story fails to spark.

Contains all the right ingredients but doesn’t quite come together. (Romance. 14 18)

THE MINUS-ONE CLUB

Magoon, Kekla Henry Holt (368 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 24, 2023 978-1-250-80620-8

A teen boy learns that he doesn’t have to grieve alone.

After Black, biracial high school sophomore Kermit’s older sister, Sheila, is killed by a drunk driver, he receives a mysterious invitation in his school locker to join an unknown group; the back of the card reads only “-1.”

The Minus-One Club is composed of classmates who have suf fered a devastating loss: There’s football player Patrick, whose father died while sailing; artsy Celia, whose twin sister suc cumbed to leukemia; geeky Simon, whose beloved late grand father was his only family; dance team member Janna, whose mother died in a car accident while Janna was learning to drive; and handsome, openly gay Matt, who lost his mother to pan creatic cancer. The rules of the club are simple—it is top secret, and they don’t talk about death. Kermit needs the support; as a closeted gay teen with homophobic, religious parents, he’s unsure where to place his grief. Memories and dreams of Sheila guide Kermit as he quickly becomes closer with Matt, but while the club provides some level of security, ignoring their losses can lead to emotional spiraling and dangerous consequences. Magoon tackles a lot with Kermit’s story, but the realistic jum ble of romance, grief, religion, toxic masculinity, sexuality, and depression may leave readers feeling like there are too many threads and not enough character development to truly feel invested.

An ambitious coming-of-age story. (Fiction. 13 18)

WE ARE ALL SO GOOD AT SMILING McBride, Amber Feiwel & Friends (304 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-1-250-78038-6

Being hospitalized again for suicidal ideation is a bleak situation for anyone, especially Whimsy, a girl with the soul of a poet.

Waiting to go home to parents strug gling to connect with her (her older brother has been missing for a decade) and a school where she is one of few Black students, a bright spot appears in Whimsy’s life. Green-haired Faerry—for mer fellow patient, new neighbor, and an actual Fae—befriends her. After he is lost in the Forest near her home, Whimsy sets off to find him and enters a garden populated by folklore and fairy-tale figures. A witch, a siren, a princess, and ghosts chal lenge and help her as she and Faerry struggle to escape Sorrow, the sinister entity keeping them from finding their way home. The choice of verse to tell this absorbing story is a strong one; readers are drawn along by the intense and vivid imagery, and the depictions of clinical depression, guilt, and grief are vis ceral. McBride explores the impact of the intersection between Blackness and mental illness on Faerry and Whimsy and the difficulties of two unusual young people finding refuge through friendship from the pressures the world exerts on them. Whim sy’s practice of Hoodoo and the empowerment she receives from the magic inside and around her help her contend with her depression and unravel her grief without negating a brutal, yet ultimately hopeful, reality.

Important messages uniquely delivered. (foreword, author’s note, resources, glossary, playlist) (Verse novel. 12 18)

THE SUM OF US (ADAPTED FOR YOUNG READERS)

How Racism Hurts Everyone

McGhee, Heather Delacorte (240 pp.) $17.99 | $20.99 PLB | Jan. 31, 2023 978-0-593-56262-8 978-0-593-56263-5 PLB

An emphatically all-American guide to the high cost of racism—with a hope ful path forward.

In this condensed version of her 2021 adult original, South Side of Chicago native McGhee explores the toll racial injustice past and present takes on the life of every American. She com piles her work—half investigative journalism, half master class in sociopolitical research—in this accessible, abridged (but no less intellectual) volume. McGhee delves deeply into the zerosum ideologies that are rooted in this nation’s origin story and underpin how freedoms were first conceived in direct relation

“Readers are drawn along by the intense and vivid imagery.”

to the enslavement of Africans, convincing many White Ameri cans that Black and brown suffering was requisite to White success. A wide array of first-person accounts framed by quan titative data and McGhee’s own experiences as president of a noted research and advocacy think tank make for compelling storytelling about a tradition of White supremacy compromis ing all corners of public, private, and political life, from educa tion to health care. The central argument of the book, however, is that our understanding of key social justice concepts is lim ited: We tend not to recognize that while racism is demonstra bly and violently harmful to non-White people, it also results in White Americans’ suffering in marked and measurable ways. McGhee challenges many strongly held narratives; ultimately, with its tangible takeaways, this offering is optimistically for ward looking and grounded in solidarity.

Of great value to anyone who values straight-to-the-point, thorough writing on race in America. (link to references) (Non fiction. 13 18)

SKY COURT

Mosley, Faith Circuit Breaker Books (210 pp.) $13.95 paper | Nov. 1, 2022 978-1-953639-14-1

Four high school seniors find their lives intertwined.

Seventeen-year-old Casey keeps her head down and works hard, like her grandpa tells her to. She is excited to finish her last year at River City High and become a Mis sissippi tugboat captain—maybe even the first Black woman to do so. Her singular focus is broken, however, when a drunk trucker interrupts her shift at the Wise Owl Café: Larry Dale confesses to an accident involving Trevor and Steve, two of Casey’s River City classmates who are fellow Sky Court apartment residents. After hitting the car they were in, Larry found the boys partially undressed inside it and then took off. The accident could expose their relationship before they are ready. New Sky Court neigh bor and classmate Rowena, who spent a semester in France, is good friends with Steve’s girlfriend—but lately she’s been inter ested in getting to know Casey better. Against the backdrop of these precarious personal relationships, Larry’s 7-year-old daughter goes missing. Casey joins the search, stumbling upon more than she bargained for. Mosley’s debut is ambitious, grap pling with themes such as sexuality, family, and displacement. Though the novel is stretched thin as it explores each storyline, the characters are fairly well fleshed out by the economical, slightly flat prose. Casey’s lesbian identity is understood and accepted by her grandpa and is refreshingly not a source of con flict. Steve is Black; other main characters are White.

A small-town mystery exploring queer teen relationships. (Fiction. 14 18)

SEVEN PERCENT OF RO DEVEREUX

O’Clover, Ellen HarperTeen (320 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 17, 2023 978-0-06-325503-6

For her senior project, a coding prod igy invents an app called MASH that predicts users’ future outcomes in life, never imagining it will become a public sensation.

Eighteen-year-old Rose Devereux lives with her devoted father in small-town Colorado, having largely put her tech genius mother’s abandonment of their family when she was little behind her. Her behavioral scientist neighbor, Vera, is like a grandmother to her and has been battling cancer for the last three years. Vera and Ro worked together to develop the predi cating theory behind MASH. When the app is unexpectedly promoted by Ro’s social media influencer cousin, Ro is drawn into a partnership with a Silicon Valley firm that insists the hook is the aspect that predicts someone’s life partner. Pushed to win over funders by using herself as an example, Ro publicly stages a relationship with Alistair Miller, a sensitive, brainy boy she grew up with but from whom she is estranged. There are some interesting ideas explored along the way about free will and ambition, and Ro’s family experiences, including Vera’s ill ness, provide for convincing emotional drama, but the central focus of the story is on the romance, which will please fans of the genre. The main characters read White; there is some eth nic diversity suggested by secondary characters’ surnames, and Ro’s best friend is in a same-sex relationship.

A thoughtful meditation on some weighty questions wrapped in a well-drawn romance. (Romance. 13 18)

BILLY BUCKHORN AND THE BOOK OF SPELLS

Robinson, Gary

7th Generation (304 pp.)

$17.95 paper | Jan. 31, 2023

978-1-939053-47-3

Series: The Thunder Child Prophecy, 1

Enter a world of magic and intrigue where the old ways and new technology intertwine.

Billy Buckhorn, a 16-year-old mem ber of the Cherokee Nation, has been chosen by the Thun ders to do great things. After he’s struck by lightning, Billy’s life turns upside down, and an entire world of secrets and gifts opens up to him. He can perceive and converse with Little Peo ple, and he sees vivid mental images of people’s past actions as well as future events. The novel skillfully portrays the diversity of Indigenous peoples’ lives: Billy, who is close to his Grandpa Wesley, is deeply embedded in his nation’s traditions, while his superhero-obsessed best friend is an avid reader of comic books.

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Billy’s father is a professor of Cherokee history and culture, and his mother is a nurse from a highly religious family who con verted to Christianity. Billy questions whether he should com plete high school—something his father sees as critical—or get his GED diploma and focus on training with a Cherokee medi cine person. Robinson (Cherokee and Choctaw) presents situa tions in such a way that readers can engage critically and make up their own minds. Copious exposition explains the world and the traditions of the Cherokee people (without revealing cul tural knowledge that has not already been publicly shared), but this series opener keeps the action moving.

A stellar adventure enriched with Cherokee tales. (note to readers, bibliography) (Fantasy. 12 18)

A RUINOUS FATE Smith, Kaylie Disney-Hyperion (432 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 3, 2023 978-1-368-08159-7

Series: A Ruinous Fate, 1

Calla struggles with her cursed luck as the Fates turn against her.

In Illustros, a land of witches, Valkyries, sirens, and other fantastical creatures, Calliope Rosewood hides her cursed Siphon magic, having already fled her home numerous times out of fear of discovery. Not only must Calla glamour her mismatched Siphon eyes, one violet and one honey colored, but even when they were in a relationship she kept some dis tance from Ezra, lest he discover the unlucky Rolls of Fate from Witch’s Dice magically tattooed onto her arm. After a gambling bet goes wrong and Calla rolls another cursed six, making her the Blood Warrior for the Fates, she goes on a quest to the Neverending Forest to find the Witch Eater who can erase her rolls. She’s accompanied by Ezra and his brother, Gideon; Onyx witches Kestrel and Caspian; and her friends, siren Delphine and Rouge witch Hannah. While the exploration of powerful godly Fates and the possibility of self-determination are intrigu ing, the book gets bogged down in clichés, clunky worldbuild ing, and awkward descriptions of fight scenes. Calla’s witty narration and ongoing friendships with Delphine and Hannah are positive and empowering, but they become overwhelmed by complicated relationship drama. Calla’s internal battle between her socially acceptable Rouge magic and suppressed Siphon powers is well depicted, covering the importance of self-accep tance as well as the limitations of binary frameworks. Calla reads White; the remaining cast mostly appears fantasy diverse. An intriguing premise that fails to soar. (map) (Fantasy. 12 17)

BRIGHTER THAN THE MOON Valdes, David Bloomsbury (352 pp.) $18.99 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-1-5476-0716-7

Three 17-year-olds—an illustrator, a beauty vlogger, and a TikTok star—orbit a queer love triangle in greater Boston.

It’s been six months since Shani, a YouTuber who specializes in Black hair care, hired Jonas to draw her an anime avatar through his Instagram. Jonas wants Shani, who is mixed and identifies as Black, to be his online girlfriend but is anxious she won’t like the real him. He was raised since age 7 by a loving foster mother and doesn’t know his racial background, a mys tery soon to be solved by a 23andMe DNA kit. Jonas has lived in a subsidized studio apartment since his foster mom moved into hospice care. After being catfished twice, Shani becomes suspi cious when Jonas doesn’t want to meet in person even though they talk every night and live only 6 miles apart. She recruits Ash, her Indian and Cuban trans best friend, to uncover the truth about Jonas. Ash poses as a client commissioning him to make gay Marvel backdrops for his TikTok, and sparks begin to fly between them as well. All three eventually fall for each other, clouding their relationships with doubt and duplicity. The bloated plot is held together by corporate name-dropping and pop-culture references. Told through alternating third-per son perspectives, the sexually fluid trio’s story is depicted with an attention to detail that sometimes conveys warmth but too often weighs down the story without adding substance.

A convoluted soap opera. (author’s note) (Fiction. 12 17)

LIVE YOUR BEST LIE Weaver, Jessie Melissa de la Cruz Studio (368 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 24, 2023 978-1-368-07836-8

Series: Like Me Block You, 1

The suspects are photogenic, but don’t let that fool you—some are rotten to the core.

Summer is the #PerfectlyImperfect influencer; every part of the 16-year-old Angeleno’s online life is cultivated and calculated. But every thing goes out the window when her Halloween party takes a few unexpected turns. The make-believe of a murder-mystery party becomes all too real when Summer winds up dead. With her highly publicized tell-all book contract, there’s no shortage of suspects—it seems like everyone has a motive for wanting to keep secrets from coming to light, including ex-boyfriend Adam, best friend Grace, stalker Cora, and rival influencer Ava lon. Whose secret is worthy of murder? The combination of flashbacks, Instagram posts, and police transcripts woven into the third-person narrative from multiple perspectives gives

the book a pleasingly varied feel. Summer’s older social media posts must be reexamined in a new light whenever secrets are revealed. This passive-aggressive influencer wants to watch the world burn, and she drops hints about her revealing memoir in posts scheduled in advance of her death. The racially diverse cast members act like true teenagers, making mistakes like withholding information and playing detective. In the end, pub lic perception is what matters most, and they will need to play their cards right to come out looking innocent despite suspi cion thrown on them by entries from Summer’s account. Fans of Pretty Little Liars will devour this series opener.

A debut that keeps throwing curveballs with lies to piece together and mysteries to unravel. (Thriller. 12 18)

ONE LAST SHOT

The Story of Wartime

Photographer Gerda Taro Wilson, Kip Versify/HarperCollins (416 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 17, 2023 978-0-06-325168-7

A Jewish photojournalist fights fas cism in Europe in the 1930s.

Gerda Pohorylle came of age as the Nazi Party rose to power. As a teenager, she became involved with the leftist political movement in Germany, battling the nascent fascism of her country and campaigning for workers’ rights. After a run-in with the Gestapo, she fled to Paris in 1933. There, she found a new community of organizers and radicals and learned the importance of a united movement. Enamored with photography from a young age and finally in possession of the tools to pursue it, she worked with her lover, André Friedmann, to document the anti-fascist movement. The pair chose new professional names: Robert Capa and Gerda Taro. Their coverage of the Spanish Civil War brought renown and a new home among like-minded artists, writers, and activ ists. Wilson shares Pohorylle’s story with stunning efficiency through an economy of language that wrings sweetness from every word. The free-form verse is written in the present tense, each moment of the story its own indelible snapshot. The book captures the subject’s life and the times she lived through with complexity and depth: This is not just a story of the violence of fascism, but of the burning joy of freedom and the exhilaration of shaping, with sweat and blood, a better world. It’s a struggle that continues today, and Wilson skillfully draws connections between past and present.

Fresh, insightful, and rich with history. (dramatis personae, author’s note, selected sources, glossary) (Verse historical fiction.

THE CARTOGRAPHERS

Zhang, Amy Greenwillow Books (320 pp.) $17.99 | Jan. 31, 2023 978-0-06-238307-5

A 17-year-old girl struggles through emotional and philosophical quandaries in New York City.

Abandoned by her roommates, Geor gie and Tashya, and stuck on a subway platform during a blackout, Ocean Sun can’t quite shake the feeling that she has died and this is the afterlife. Living in Brooklyn after having deferred her college entrance to avoid mental health strain—and without informing her mother—adds to Ocean’s sense of limbo. Then a bizarre White boy named Constantine Brave enters the scene, ram bling about mythology and spouting philosophy (to a degree that readers may find frustrating at times) as he takes her on a disjointed journey filled with his spray-painted graffiti train maps, conversations about cloud documents, and dreamlike late-night wanderings. As Ocean is drawn closer to Constant, her own thoughts on life, reality, dying, the self, and language clash with his, creating an intriguing dynamic and a twist on the typical romance arc. Ocean’s original narration and worldview are immersive and sympathetic, providing insights into her experiences of depression and disassociation. Similarly, Ocean’s relationship to her Chinese ethnicity through her immigrant mother and how it affects her self-view is smoothly integrated into the wider philosophical discussion of life, society, and dreams. White American Georgie and Slovenian Tashya are three-dimensional and grounded, adding extra layers of realism and friendship to Ocean’s often unmoored narrative.

A satisfying story arc exploring relationships with the self and others. (content warning) (Fiction. 13 18)

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“Not just a story of the violence of fascism, but of the exhilaration of shaping a better world.”

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CATS IN QUARANTINE by Mario Acevedo

LOST

TOO

by Jennifer F.

CATS IN QUARANTINE A Cartoon Memoir of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Acevedo, Mario Hex Publishers (318 pp.) $36.99 paper | Oct. 25, 2022 978-1-73659-647-0

A collection of webcomics with a feline accent about life dur ing the Covid-19 era.

Denver author/illustrator Acevedo finds humor in the pan demic in 300 single-panel cartoons that show varied creatures— cats, mice, aliens, and fictional characters, such as Big Bird and the Cat in the Hat—reacting to its challenges. Introduced by the award-winning journalist and NPR contributor Peter Heller, the book begins with one of the best of its six sections: “Broken Mirror” finds its nonhuman subjects reacting to drone deliveries, Zoom meetings, social distancing, out-of-control quarantine hair, and more. In “Community Stress Test,” Acevedo adeptly sends up multitasking by depicting a mother cat feeding her kittens while texting on her phone. Many other entries have a similarly light or whimsical tone. In one, a cat peers out from a toiletpaper tower. Another tweaks Covid-related weight gains with an image of a cat trying to button its pants, which are now much too small. Other cartoons are more macabre; one features a cat getting its temperature taken at the Pearly Gates with a Plexi glas shield present. As with most such collections, this one seems designed to be kept on a coffee table and picked up when you need a smile, and some entries work better than others. Inspired in part by the work of B. Kliban and Gary Larson, the black-andwhite, pen-and-pencil illustrations are generally clear and to the point but occasionally hard to interpret: What are we to make of a drawing of an Aztec god buying food from a taco truck? But Acevedo, who once drew award-winning editorial cartoons for a Texas newspaper, doesn’t shy away from political disagreements and civil unrest related to the pandemic. Nor does he ignore the daily struggles of sheltering in place in these cartoons, which first appeared in his daily social media posts. In short, this book has something for everyone—or at least everyone who believes that, even in a pandemic, cats can be funny.

entertaining and sometimes pointed look at years

THE LOST COLORS A Caitlin & Rio Adventure: Book One Alexander, Sally Self (137 pp.) $9.99 paper | June 11, 2022 979-8-98607-002-5

In this debut middle-grade novel, a girl and her talking cat must figure out why all the color has disappeared from the world.

Caitlin Maggert wakes up one day to find all the color has vanished. Her bedroom walls have turned from pink to gray. The brilliant yellow school bus is gray. Every thing is gray. Caitlin’s mom doesn’t notice the change. When Caitlin brings it up with her friends—bespectacled Chinese adoptee Trudie and Tennessean Molly—it leads to a calamitous fight. Caitlin has a miserable day at school, but thankfully she isn’t totally alone in seeing the world in its new, colorless light. Her observations are confirmed by her ragdoll cat, Rio, who has started talking. Rio, in fact, has developed several extraordinary abilities, including telekinesis and suggestive mind control over feline lovers. These will come in handy when he joins Caitlin, Trudie, and Molly (now reconciled) in following a drip trail of yellow dots, tracking the missing colors to an abandoned build ing beyond the local dog park. What dire experiments are being conducted within? Can Rio, Caitlin, and friends thwart the schemes of the villainous MacDougal and return color to the world? In this series opener, Alexander writes in the third per son, past tense, from Caitlin’s perspective or Rio’s. The prose is simple but lively, featuring plenty of short sentences to pull young readers along. The dialogue reflects the natural exuber ance of schoolgirls on a quest. Caitlin is a likable protagonist— excitable and impatient but generally upbeat, choosing real friends rather than trying to be popular. Rio remains delight fully catlike in his talking form and is a fan favorite in the mak ing. As is common in middle-grade works (and life), many of the events depicted carry disproportionate weight. Quarrels rear up from nowhere and feel like the end of the world. Making up leads to nirvana. The minor characters are similarly unshaded, although the “worst boy ever” behavior by a student named Podge does hint at a developing nuance. The story skips along in an unreserved celebration of the imagination, offering little explanation for its fantastical premises but not really needing to. Readers will take the colorless world at face value and adopt Rio into their hearts.

Fun and fast moving; a bright, vibrant adventure.

TRACKING THE TYRANT MUSE Poems Against Hate

Anderson, Kemmer

Wick House Publishing (87 pp.) $15.00 paper | June 24, 2022 979-8-81249-739-2

A set of poems about violence and war through the ages.

Anderson’s collection spans mul tiple eras, blending imagery from the Bible, the works of Dante Alighieri, and recent headlines. These poems are forthrightly about military conflict and the seemingly endless cycles of violence people inflict upon one another. After a prelude invoking the biblical figure of Cain, the writer links conflict and bloodshed to the history of the United States—from the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to more recent examples: “Primi tive rage eating through a soul who worships idols / Forged by guns, rifles, handguns, assault weapons / Into a fear, smother ing the intent found in the Bill of Rights” (“Charleston 2015: Sunday Morning, Winchester Cathedral”). Each entry unfolds like a movement of a gruesome symphony; indeed, at one point, the poet describes war as being akin to a musical per formance: In “The Zagreb Ballet,” the bombing of the titular city is “an orchestra of mortars, a chorus of cannons, / and a conductor of bombardment.” There are several recurring images, creating connections and braiding the horrors of one people with others’; for example, the forced march of Pales tinians to refugee camps are a “Trail of Tears so familiar / To their Cherokee brothers and sisters” (“Nakba: 2018”). Charon, the mythological ferryman of hell, “waits with heavy oar and rudder to ferry broken / Families from their homes across the Tennessee River” (“Charon at Brown’s Ferry”). Anderson pas sionately uses the sonnet and other poetic forms to create “a place where tyranny cannot reign / Because power can never murder Truth” (“Oath of the Horatti”). Often, these horrors are viewed through a wide lens, but the impact of Ander son’s poetry is most potent when it links the ravages of the battlefield with something banal, as when an American soldier operating a drone in Afghanistan observes that “We kill from America / With Hellfire missiles while my son safe in his room / With his X-box works the games I work at Langley” (“Preda tor Warrior Pose”).

An engaging collection full of outrage about senseless violence.

INDIE | David Rapp

missing granddad

Many youngsters have a special bond with their grandparents, which has been the subject of countless kids’ books. Less common are stories of how such rela tionships can change—due to separation, health issues, and other things that inev itably come with aging. Some recent pic ture books have addressed this topic in thoughtful ways; here are three recom mended by Kirkus Indie, all published this year.

In Joseph Howard Cooper’s picture book, Grandpa’s Lonely, Isn’t He? illus trated by Patricia DeWitt, a young reptile child expresses concern about his dog grandfather, who’s sheltering in place to remain healthy during a pandemic. As the child remembers fun playtimes, his parents offer en couraging words: “Until this virus and its variants are truly subdued, we take up projects.…I’ll bet that Grand pa has found interesting things to do.” Our reviewer calls the work “an earnest kids’ story that aims to build resilience and optimism in young readers.”

Until the Blueberries Grow by Jen nifer Wolf Kam, with painterly im ages by Sally Walker, tells a story of a boy named Ben and his beloved greatgrandfather, who lives next door; soon, Ben’s elderly Zayde will be moving to a smaller home farther away (“This house doesn’t fit me anymore,” he says), and the child doesn’t want him to go. “This sweet story…abounds with food, flowers, and quality time with loved ones,” Kirkus’ review notes.

Ice Cream With Grandpa by Laura Smetana chronicles the touching relationship between a young child and his grandfather, which is tested by the elder man’s in firmities—including dementia, which necessitates a move to a memory-care facility. Through it all, the affectionate pair enjoy spending time together and frequently bond over their love of ice cream. Artist Elisabete B.P. de Moraes’ “soft-edged, watercolor illustrations… feature images of comfort and com munity; even in the difficult moments, there’s a sense of love in the scenes.”

David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.

RETURN OF THE LIVING ELVES

Asman, Brian Mutated Media (156 pp.)

$3.99 e-book | Nov. 29, 2022

Asman offers a high-energy Christ mas horror novel in which a small town is suddenly terrorized by undead elves.

The bulk of the action in this jaunty, densely plotted horror comedy takes place in and around the Whosgotta Christmas Supply Warehouse in the unassuming town of Pine Canyon, California. The manager, middle-aged Jimmy Ricci, hires new kid Tommy, on Christmas Eve. As Tommy seeks Jimmy’s help looking for a gift for his girlfriend—a “Christ punk” who goes by the name Landfill—they find, and drop, a snow globe. A night of terror is unleashed when a green—and undead—elf named Elfphonso emerges from the broken bits of the object. The zombie crisis quickly spreads, pulling in agents from the cleverly named “Krampus Corps” to try and prevent the sticky situation from escalating. With zombie elves on the loose, Christmas-caroling punks, and a subplot that involves Jimmy’s turning into Santa Claus, it’s hard not to admire the gonzo ambition of this cheeky holiday frightfest. Asman bal ances comic and campy tones throughout; at one point, for instance, he writes that “there was—and I’m sorry, dear reader, so sorry, but I simply cannot help myself—an ELF on the shelf.” Various plot threads are picked up and quickly dropped throughout the novel—the president of the United States gets wind of the zombie-elf outbreak, for instance, to little effect— but the sheer, gleeful chaos of an undead-infested Christmas will be more than enough to hold readers’ interest. Overall, this tale is a madcap brew of irreverent holiday cheer, jeer, and fear, with sex toys and swearing thrown in.

An entertaining hodgepodge of Christmas and zombiefiction tropes.

FOR LOVE & GLORY

Bonner, Cindy Deck Night Press (370 pp.)

$36.95 | $16.95 paper | $9.99 e-book May 20, 2022 979-8-98592-250-9 979-8-98592-253-0 paper

Bonner’s sweeping historical romance, set during World War II, highlights the importance of flight and the power of love.

Lange DeLony is a poor civilian pilot in Texas when he receives word that his estranged wife, Becky, who was unfaithful to him, has been killed in a car accident. He wants to find a greater purpose in life and has been tracking the war in Europe—his sister’s three children live in France—so he decides to travel to Canada to try to become a pilot in the Royal Air Force, where he believes he can make a difference.

Soon, he’s sent to England, where, on a train, a beautiful woman in uniform literally falls into his lap. The romantic relationship between Mackie McLeod and DeLony may be the main love story, but the main focus of Bonner’s novel is its portrayal of other types of connections between people, made more poi gnant by the struggles of wartime. As scenes move among Eng land, the United States, and France, with occasional spells in other European countries, Bonner paints an emotive, yet never romanticized, tale of the human experience of armed conflict. Some parts of the novel even quickly skip forward in time—in particular, a section about resistance groups and prisoner-of-war camps. Flight enthusiasts will surely enjoy the well-researched passages about DeLony’s fictional experiences of the Battle of Britain, with its many references to real planes and places that played crucial roles in the event. Most compelling, though, is Bonner’s exploration of the relationship between DeLony and his caring father, whose gradually worsening health through a succession of strokes leaves him without the ability to speak.

An often affecting wartime romance that ably addresses both the military and civilian experience.

ALYCAT AND THE CATTYWAMPUS WEDNESDAY Bourque, Alysson Foti Illus. by Chiara Civati Pelican Publishing Company (32 pp.) $17.99 | May 9, 2022 978-1-4556-2648-9

A young domestic cat doesn’t under stand why everything seems to be topsyturvy in this picture book that spotlights a fun word.

Alycat, a pink dress–wearing, white-furred feline, wakes up on a very “cattywampus Wednesday” and finds that her family is having dinner for breakfast. When she gets on the school bus, she realizes that instead of her house being the first stop as usual, the vehicle is already full. At school, her locker combination only works if she puts it in backward; her classes are opposite their normal order; and her friend Luna is praised for spelling Louisi ana starting with the last A. After a puzzling day, Alycat goes to bed, and the next morning, she is relieved to discover that her cattywampus Wednesday was just a dream. Readers familiar with cattywampus will find this engaging feline spin on the word amus ing. For others, the introduction of the term, defined in the end pages (“Askew, kitty-cornered, abnormal”), may offer a new way of looking at confusing days. Sweet cat characters in Civati’s bright cartoon style will appeal to young readers. But the den sity of Bourque’s text and the sprinkling of complex vocabulary words (beignets, bewildered) may make this a better choice for the read-aloud crowd or strong, independent readers. Adults can uti lize the story as a conversation starter for how to deal with situ ations that feel out of whack. Bourque’s list of what to do on a cattywampus day is full of giggleworthy cat puns.

A silly but useful, clever, and cheerfully illustrated feline tale.

FEARLESS Harriet Quimby: A Life Without Limit

Dahler, Don Princeton Architectural Press (336 pp.) $29.95 | $9.99 e-book | June 14, 2022 978-1-64896-035-2

This biography charts the life of a pioneer American aviator.

Born in rural Michigan in 1875, Har riet Quimby enjoyed a life punctuated by firsts. She was among the first women to become a licensed driver, the first woman to secure a pilot’s license in America, and the first woman to fly solo over the English Channel. Dahler’s book records Quimby’s journey from being a “little girl from a Michigan dirt farm” to becoming an accomplished journalist, screenplay writer, and renowned aviator. The author describes the Quimby family’s move to San Francisco via Arroyo Grande, where the young girl developed a taste for writing. She began producing reviews for, among other publications, the San Fran cisco Dramatic Review, a role that would later see her relocate to Manhattan, where she would work as a theater critic. Dahler also focuses on Quimby’s love for speed, which began as a child, exploring the fields surrounding her family home at “full gallop.” The author draws on a range of secondary sources, including newspaper articles and newsreel stills—alongside Quimby’s personal recollections—to illustrate her landmark achievement of crossing the English Channel. Dahler calls this feat “almost as audacious and perilous as a trip to the moon would be fiftyseven years later.” The author also describes in chilling detail the events surrounding Quimby’s death at the age of 37 after falling from an airplane.

Dahler’s writing is characterized by its effervescent eager ness to tell Quimby’s story. This urgency makes for a fast-paced, compelling narrative: “Harriet Quimby was about to take a lit eral, and literary, leap into the void. If she survived, and there was certainly no guarantee of that, her leap was to be a first for women.” The author adds further drama by using intense, poetic descriptions: “Wraiths of heavy salt air floated across the White Cliffs of Dover, bestowing their wet caresses on every one and everything that waited day after day for a break in the fog and lashing rain.” Some readers may consider this aspect of Dahler’s approach slightly overwrought on occasion: “Their petrichor marked a subtle change of fortune.” Yet despite mild bouts of wordiness, the author succeeds in evoking a haunting atmosphere that lends extra texture to the biography. Dahler is also expert in providing intricate social and historical back ground to Quimby’s life story. In one passage, the author brings the streets of 1900s San Francisco—which Quimby would have walked—to life: “Streetlights bore ornate globed tops. Pedestri ans in long dresses and top hats strolled along broad sidewalks.” This keen eye for detail makes for a vivid, multifaceted book. On discovering Quimby, Dahler remarks, “it was stunning to me that someone who accomplished so much was virtually lost to history because of a cruel and horrific twist of fate.” The author’s passion to celebrate and commemorate Quimby’s

“An engrossing, enlightening, and thoroughly enjoyable biography.”

accomplishments is palpable throughout, making this an engrossing, enlightening, and thoroughly enjoyable biography.

Informed, eloquent writing; this meticulous account is a must for aviation historians and enthusiasts alike.

LOST IN CHINA A Memoir of World War II

Dobbs, Jennifer F. Peach Pit Publications (362 pp.) $14.95 paper | $7.99 e-book Oct. 4, 2022 979-8-98588-831-7

Dobbs recounts her fascinating, unusual childhood in China, an experi ence that came to a crashing end during World War II.

Dobbs grew up in China, though her parents, Ted and Alice, were British. In fact, her first language was Chinese, and Eng lish was largely reserved for school and special occasions. Dobbs’ father lived in China because he was recruited by the British Foreign Office to work as a salt mine inspector under the super vision of China’s department of finance. Her mother was born there since Dobbs’ maternal grandfather, John McGregor Gibb, worked as a chemistry professor at Peking University. The author’s family lived a happy life in Shanghai’s International Settlement, but the onset of war—China and Japan began their hostilities in 1937 before Germany invaded Poland two years later—irrevocably upended everything. Even as danger loomed closer, however, Dobbs’ parents seemed to trust in a false sense of security. Ping San, the head houseboy, anxiously observed: “It’s as though Master and Missy think the Japanese bombs can not hurt them. They think they’re safe because they’re Western. I don’t think Jap bombs know the difference between Chinese and Western people.” These words turned out to be sadly pro phetic—the family was forced to move to Chungking, Guiyang, and Kunming to avoid the relentless Japanese air raids. Disas ter finally struck while Ted and Alice were visiting Hong Kong. Japanese forces invaded, killing Ted and taking Alice prisoner, a chilling turn of events moving chronicled by Dobbs. The author deftly combines memoir with imaginative creation. She fills in the blanks of both her memory and experience with artful invention. Her reminiscence is simply extraordinary—histori cally edifying, emotionally dramatic, and elegantly conveyed. A gripping memoir brimming with personal and histori cal insight.

ROMAN ROULETTE Murder in the Catacombs

Downie, David

Alan Squire Press (256 pp.) $19.99 paper | $9.49 e-book Nov. 1, 2022 978-1-942892-32-8

The second installment in Downie’s thriller series features the famous cata combs of Rome.

During a gala performance at the Institute of America in Rome, a shot rings out and panicked figures in white tunics flee the catacombs under that institu tion’s grounds. The beautiful and resourceful Maj. Daria Vinci of DIGOS (think FBI), attending the gala, is immediately on the case. The dead man is Charles Wraithwhite, a charismatic fellow who was hired to write a postwar history of the institute in order to improve its shopworn image. Was this a suicide, an unfortunate outcome of Russian roulette, or something worse? Charles was not all that he seemed. Was he a threat to some body? What about the longtime president of the institute—the slightly ghoulish, gaunt, and handsy Taylor Chatwin-Paine? Almost immediately, Daria’s well-fed sidekick, Capt Osvaldo Morbido, guesses that powerful people are obfuscating facts and pulling strings. Sure enough, he is ordered to return to Genoa, and Daria gets a surprise promotion and transfer to Venice, effective immediately. Will Daria attempt to solve the case from afar? Downie speaks Italian fluently and spent many years in Rome, and he clearly loves the city and the culture. This follow-up to Red Riviera (2021), the first in Downie’s Daria Vinci Investigation series, abounds with quirky, memorable charac ters. In fact, the book is so overstuffed, the reader often feels at sea. And some trappings, though not red herrings, seem over done and indulgent. Bags of jelly beans along with toy gladia tor swords are hidden about, sending cryptic messages to those who can decipher them. One thinks of kids at summer camp concocting elaborate, esoteric stories to entertain themselves after they have tired of drawing treasure maps. But one does get a wonderfully detailed tour of Rome from someone who clearly loves it: “Eternal, the city was, a crazy, suffocating, miasmic, endearing enigmatic mess.” It is also, in Downie’s telling, a city that thrives on intrigue.

Though sometimes over-the-top, a treat for those who would love a Roman holiday.

THE DRAGON AND THE GIRL True North Evans, Laura Findley

Acorn Publishing (370 pp.) $21.99 | $10.99 paper | $9.99 e-book Dec. 2, 2021 978-1-952112-74-4 978-1-952112-73-7 paper

The fates of a girl and a dragon inter twine in this middle-grade fantasy.

In the kingdom of Morganshire, 12-year-old Eliana Fallond longs for adventure while helping her family tend the farm. She’s the dependable child between her sister, 14-year-old Alethia, and their 7-year-old twin brothers, Sage and Rowan. As Eliana feeds the chickens one morning, she spies a “flash of vivid turquoise” in the nearby forest. When she enters the dense wood, she encounters a dragon “about as big as a draft horse.” Drawn by his beautiful colors and shy nature, she touches one of the creatures who she’d been taught were hunted to extinction. In doing so, she understands his rumbling speech. Winston is his name, and he’s a young dragon of only “thirty springs.” When Eliana’s mother, Glenna, calls her home, she and Winston agree to meet in the same spot the next day. Meanwhile, at Morgan Castle, someone has stolen the king dom’s treasure. King Halwyn cannot pay the annual tribute to the Overking of Canting Castle. Counselor Margred suggests that Halwyn use a dragon to locate the missing treasure, as it’s the beasts’ “special talent.” And so Doryu the Dragon Speaker must once more lend his gift to the kingdom to find one of the rare, grand creatures. In this series opener, Evans parcels out the drama among her cast in perfect measure. Winston isn’t merely a fantastic beast to enable Eliana’s growth, but a crea ture with yearnings similar to her own. Morganshire’s backstory is epic yet contained, revealing a generational conflict between humans and dragons. Gorgeous prose highlights some sinister aspects of the tale, as when the “long, pale hand” of Margred “emerged with a sigh from her silken midnight blue robes and swept like a white moth in an arc.” Alethia’s mentor, Bedwyr, is a master mapmaker, and his enthusiasm for his work will enchant young readers. One key depiction is that of Halwyn’s father, Chares, who aged prematurely because he “suffered from the hatred that burned inside him.” As the narrative’s mystery wraps up, the characters are on excellent footing to face greater dangers in subsequent volumes.

A charming, smartly crafted fantasy world that readers will want to linger in.

THE CAPTAIN’S SECRET IDENTITY AND THE COTTON CANDY SHIP

Faer, L.L. & E. Raven

Xlibris US (48 pp.)

$16.99 paper | $3.99 e-book Feb. 25, 2022

978-1-66981-094-0

In this illustrated children’s book sequel, a pirate captain braves perils on and under the sea.

Hundreds of people have shown up at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. It’s the perfect spot for blond, 4-foot-tall Capt. Elaine Mermain and her rainbow-bandanna crew to peddle their pirate wares, like rhinestone-studded eye patches. Before they pack and sail away aboard the Cotton Candy Ship, Elaine happens upon Mariko Morosight, a purple-eyed stranger whose painting of the captain’s ship turns out to be an alarming premonition. This seer predicts “rocky and rough” days ahead for Elaine and her crew, and Mariko’s crystal ball shows ominous gray skies and crashing waves. Sure enough, trouble ensues, starting with the ship’s rainbow mast sustaining some surprising damage, neces sitating repairs. That night, as her crew sleeps, Elaine and her trusty feline sidekick, Ginger, face a sinister winged creature on the ship’s deck. But in the waters below, someone needs Elaine’s help. The bubbly and amiable Bertle the Turtle leads the captain to a pod of dolphins, as one of them has been pinned by a crate on the ocean floor. There’s no doubt that these crates belong to Capt. Bad Breaker, an ex-pirate whom Elaine had once tried to help overcome his rebellious ways. Little does Elaine know that Bad Breaker is following the Cotton Candy Ship for an unknown reason, although surely it’s something diabolical. When Mariko sees him in a precognitive dream, she sets off to warn the rain bow-bandanna crew before it’s too late.

This tale from Faer and her 9-year-old daughter, Raven, is entertaining and often amusing. Character names are particu larly fun, from ship engineer Agent Coconut to Pooey-Poo, once the “smelliest pirate who ever lived,” who has, thanks to Elaine, put a stop to his stinky habits. There are likewise won derful descriptions and visuals throughout the story. The Cotton Candy Ship, for example, has a unicorn horn on its bow, while its glittery, pink sails are made from actual cotton candy. The story preaches an uplifting message of acceptance; positive rainbow colors pop up on the ship, the crew’s bandannas, and the hilt of Elaine’s sword. At the same time, the crew comprises diverse, abandoned sailors who have come together as a family, all with black cat companions at their sides. In terms of adventure, there’s not as much swashbuckling as some readers may hope for. But Elaine’s aquatic rescue is a gleeful turn, as the White “miniature sailor” and furry Ginger both experience a touch of something unexpectedly magical. The uncredited digital artwork, meanwhile, brims with vibrant hues and bright facial expressions. Animals are especially memorable, like Bertle’s infectious smile as well as the dolphins, whose initial annoyance with Elaine amid their pod is impossible to miss. The authors signal that this second installment of a series is not the last. The

“A playful and diverting pirate tale that will appeal to kids and adults alike.”

the captain’s secret identity and the cotton candy ship

33 Great Indie Books Worth Discovering

FENDER HEAD

by Robert McEvilla

“A novel traces the life of a World War II German soldier who escapes from a prisoner-of-war camp on Michigan’s Upper Penin sula, eventually assuming an alias and becoming a career officer in the American military.”

An engaging, unusual fugitive tale mixing bloodshed and quirky humor with a provocative ending.

DIAL M FOR MUTANTS!

by Mat Thorne

“A dissolute tabloid reporter part ners with a photographer to prove the existence of a homicidal mon ster in this SF novel.”

A genre-blending novel of absurdist comedy.

THE BATTLE FOR TRIMERA

by Tanya S.M. Kennedy

“In this high fantasy, a powerful young priestess must lock her emotions away while defending her kingdom from savage beasts and magical attacks.”

A well-crafted fantasy laced with frustrated romance.

THE TIMEMATICIAN by Steven Bereznai

“In this SF sequel, a supervillain perfects his scheme to destroy the world—but meets surpris ing opposition.”

Wildly entertaining, with a thought ful layer under all the villainous boasting and ka-pow action.

END OF THE GODS

by Bill Fernandez illus. by Judith Fernandez

“Bill Fernandez’s novel of Hawaii deals with the struggle to find a humane belief system.”

An excellent, well-told primer on Hawaiian history.

FINDING FRANCES

by Kelly Vincent

“In author Vincent’s debut, a Mid western teenager learns that every thing she’s been told about her childhood is a lie.”

A page-turning coming-of-age tale that offers an offbeat spin on the YA suspense genre.

TRAITORS FOR THE SAKE OF HUMANITY

by Helena P. Schrader

“In Schrader’s historical epic, a group of Germans acts against the Nazi regime.”

A rich historical novel of Germans who plotted against Hitler.

THE TOWER PRINCESS

by Michelle Tocher illus. by Richard Row

“A communications executive with debilitating pain finds comfort and self-understanding in fairy tales in this memoir.”

An uplifting, unconventional, and deeply imaginative remembrance.

LOVE’S LEGACY

by Daniel Fallon

“This nonfiction work investigates the mysterious link between a fam ily’s history and a French writer.”

An engaging historical treasure hunt with some intriguing findings.

THE LIP READER

by Michael L. Thal

“This autobiographical novel traces a deaf Iranian woman’s life through political and per sonal turmoil, love, and illness.”

Despite a few flaws, an absorb ing story of resilience in the face of challenges.

A MATCHBOX FULL OF PEARLS

by Kamille Roach

“Past and present collide as an Australian woman confronts a series of mysteries in Roach’s dra matic debut novel.”

A slow, complicated mystery that pays off in the end.

OPERATION NAVAJO

by Anita Dickason

“An insider aims to kill a govern ment official in order to cover up a corruption plot, and an elite squad of FBI agents is on the case.”

A smart, fast-paced thriller.

33 Great Indie Books Worth Discovering

LULU AND THE MISSING TOOTH FAIRY

by S.E. Richey illus. by Jhon Ortiz

“A lost, inexperienced tooth fairy keeps a 5-year-old child waiting for her money in this debut pic ture book.”

A clever, humorous, and joyful tooth story.

GET YOUR CAREER IN SHAPE

by Candace Steele Flippin

“A guide offers a comprehensive plan to help women improve their careers.”

A valuable, forcefully worded series of practical encouragements for women seeking advancement.

PLAGUE OF FLIES

by Laurel Anne Hill

“A young woman embarks on a quest to hold off Yankee gold miners in this alternate-history YA novel.”

An atmospheric magical-realist tale with a compellingly ominous interpretation of the gold rush.

THE FOREIGNER’S CONFESSION

by Lya Badgley

“This debut historical novel reveals the lasting reverbera tions of Cambodia’s brutal past.”

A gripping tale about Cambodia that offers impeccable research and a strong sense of place.

COUNTRY OF THE BIRCH TREES

by Kristin McGlothlin

“In this middle-grade novel, a 13year-old girl explores her heritage and other mysteries.”

A sweet, positive tale about teen issues.

TWENTYONE OLIVE TREES

by Laura Formentini illus. by Marit Cooper

“A San Francisco–based author confronts the pain of grief and loss following her son’s suicide in this debut collection of memoir istic fables, poetry, and letters.”

An offbeat and uplifting contri bution to the literature of grief.

THE GREAT LITTLE TAILOR

by Isabel Cintra illus. by Zeka Cintra

“A tailor’s son’s dreams come true with hard work and hope in this picture book.”

A heartfelt illustrated fairy tale for young audiences.

WHAT I WISH I HAD KNOWN

by Laura Wiktorek

“Debut author Wiktorek pain fully recalls the suicide of her son, a war veteran who suffered from PTSD.”

An affecting story of loss, grief, and recovery.

A FINAL CALL

by Eliot Parker

“A hard-boiled police detective tracks down a ruthless killer while searching for her missing brother in this crime novel.”

An improbable detective tale that will thoroughly charm readers.

SOMETIME A CLEAR LIGHT

by Aylette Jenness

“A memoir of an American pro fessional photographer’s domes tic and working life.”

An easygoing and affecting reflection.

THE HOUSE ON EAST CANAL ROAD

by Neerja Raman

“Generations of an Indian family confront personal and political challenges.”

An evocative, well-imagined por trayal of late-colonial India through one family’s eyes.

CAN YOU SEE IF I’M A BEE?

by Melissa Garrick Edwards illus. by Jonathan Woodward

“Edwards’ illustrated nonfiction children’s book explores various types of bees and other insects.”

A book of entomological facts and authoritative illustrations, all delivered with a light, childfriendly touch.

33 Great Indie Books Worth Discovering

REPURPOSED

by Kathy Gaulton

“A businessperson’s story of redis covering her religious faith.”

A heartfelt, extensively intimate account of finding a deeper Chris tian calling in life.

BILLY MAKES COOKIES

by Priya Dee illus. by Tina Perko

“An unsupervised kid makes a mess in the house in this picture book.”

An enjoyable and relatable tale of childhood mishaps.

BALU SAVES THE DAY

by Priya Dee illus. by YoungJu Kim

“The child of an Indian vegetable seller rallies community support when his mother gets sick in this picture book.”

An engaging tale about commu nity response that highlights the necessity of global health care.

WE ARE NOT SAINTS: THE PRIEST

by H. Les Brown

“A novel chronicles the lives of gay Roman Catholic clergymen at odds with their chosen vocation and the LGBTQ+ community.”

A fun, deliciously scandalous, if unevenly written, depiction of queers in the clergy.

THE REZ DETECTIVES

by Steven Paul Judd & Tvil Jacob illus. by G.M.K.Perker

“Choctaw youngsters and amateur sleuths tackle their first case— missing ice cream—in this irresist ible middle-grade graphic novel.”

Unforgettable kid detectives plus dazzling artwork make this book a must-have.

MENCIUS IN MODERN PERSPECTIVES

by Raymond K. Li

“An annotated edition of a classic Chinese philosophical treatise, which aims to explain ancient wisdom to modern readers.”

An approachable edition of Men cius’ philosophy that makes his wit and wisdom relevant for a new age.

VINNY AND CHIP

by Tomi Saga illus. by Mackenzie Ott

“A cat teaches a mouse to defend himself in this picture book.”

A sweet, thoughtful animal tale that highlights teamwork, cour age, and friendship.

THE CITY OF INFINITE LIFE

by J.M. Mulligan

“A software engineer finds her self ripped from her present and drafted into a battle against a rogue artificial intelligence in the future in this SF thriller.”

A thoughtful, involving tale about remarkable human allies fighting an insidious AI.

THE STUFF THAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF

by Riley Masters

“From a mine deep below Ango la’s surface to a penthouse high above Back Bay in Boston, a pair of ‘financial detectives’ investigates a corporate shark engaged in rare Earth minerals—and maybe mur der—in this geopolitical thriller.”

A detective story that’s sexy on the surface and smart to the core.

story ends with dangling plot threads and a cliffhanger that imply further dangers await the captain and her crew.

A playful and diverting pirate tale that will appeal to kids and adults alike.

BEARDSTOWN

The American Trilogy Book 2 Foster, Sam Agave Americana Books (416 pp.) $9.99 e-book | Oct. 4, 2022

An epic novel dramatizes the origins of an Illinois community.

In this second volume of his Ameri can Trilogy (following A Panther Crosses Over, 2022), Foster traces the settling and growth of Beardstown, Illinois, from Tom Beard’s purchase of riverfront property in 1818 through the end of the 1860s. Illinois is still a territory when Beard finds the perfect location to set up a ferry that carries settlers heading west across the river while encouraging some of them to stay and provide the infrastructure for his dream town. Beard builds relationships and makes alliances, and Beardstown prospers. He marries, but after many years of taking a back seat to Beard’s ambitions, his wife, Sara, leaves him for a riverboat gambler. The town’s other key founders—Chaubenee, a member of the Potawatomi Nation; Murray McConnel, a lawyer and politician; and Francis Arenz, a German immigrant and businessman— make up Beard’s chosen family, and they support one another through the challenges of weather, politics, technological inno vations, and financial crises that make up the middle decades of the 19th century. By the 1860s, Beard and the other founders have died. But the town continues to thrive in the hands of a new generation, with salon—and bordello—owner Vivienne de Villiere, a transplanted Southerner, serving as the main protago nist in the book’s final chapters. Foster has a deep knowledge of the history of both the region and the era, and his well-devel oped characters transform a timeline of events into a captivat ing tale. Cameos by Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, and Wyatt Earp (plus Jefferson Davis, who, Foster acknowledges in an author’s note, is undocumented but plausible) situate the narrative amid the more famous events in American history without giving short shrift to the smaller stories that are the novel’s focus. The book is both informative and engaging, with solid pacing and dialogue that keep the plot moving steadily over its half-century timeline.

A compelling tale that explores the historical development of the Midwest.

NINETY DAYS IN THE 90S A Rock N Roll Time Travel Story

Frye, Andy Atmosphere Press (356 pp.) $18.99 paper | $9.99 e-book June 1, 2022 978-1-63988-387-5

A troubled record shop owner goes back in time to relive her past, see a historic concert or two, and strive for redemption in Frye’s debut novel.

In her 40s, New Yorker Darby Derrex leaves behind a string of failed relationships and a momentous fall from grace on Wall Street to return to Chicago to take over her uncle’s record store. She’s glad to be back in the industry she loves but still dissatisfied with the humdrum aspects of retail. She hears an urban legend about the Chicago Grey Line sub way, which is said to transport its passengers across temporal rather than physical distance, then happens upon a ticket to ride in the form of a “time pass watch,” which she finds in the Revolver Records’ back office. Darby catches a ride to 1996, where she finds she can relive her life as her younger self. She decides not to leave for New York this time and easily slides back into her role as a music journalist; she even snags a promotion. She also moves back in with her energetic, zany group of friends. This fantastical subway line doesn’t come without rules; most importantly, Darby only has 90 days to live in the past before being stuck there forever. But as she rekindles old relationships, strikes up new ones, and finds success in her career, the option of staying grows more appealing. Frye delivers a novel that’s veritably dripping with nostalgia. However, it’s more focused on reconstructing an impressively thorough ’90s pop-culture compendium than it is on developing a meaningful narrative arc. As it bounces between the past and present, some readers may find the timeline difficult to follow. Still, the author maintains a light, jocund touch in a tale that seems averse to anything with too much sincerity. Music aficionados will appreciate Darby’s music reviews, as published in her bimonthly column, as well as the extensive musical commentary throughout the narrative.

A lighthearted, if sometimes confusing, time-travel tale that offers an homage to the ’90s music scene and the city of Chicago.

L’ORTÉ POINT

Gibbens, J.A. FriesenPress (306 pp.) $33.16 | $20.99 paper | $6.99 e-book Jan. 24, 2022 978-1-03-911291-9 978-1-03-911290-2 paper

In this mystery, a woman learns star tling truths about her family.

Lucy Gillespie’s wonderful life in Canada as a thriving artist with a devoted husband is forever changed when she learns she has inherited a substantial trust and a twisted family history. She meets her grandaunt Gracie Hogan, who, at the age of 96, is able to recall key stories about Lucy’s parents, grandparents, and more. Her recordings and Lucy’s own investigation lead to several strik ing revelations. But Lucy’s pursuit of the truth is challenged by figures who don’t want it disclosed. Juliette Garner is the lawyer who is responsible for the trust Lucy stands to inherit. Juliette’s great-uncles worked with Lucy’s grandfather, but the women’s ancestors weren’t perfect, and Juliette is desperate to keep certain secrets from being unearthed. In addition, there is a strange man visiting Gracie who has his own warped con nection to Lucy and her family. He wants the land and the money Gracie has now given Lucy, and he’ll do anything to get them. As Lucy continues to delve into her family’s past, she also uncovers her own unsettling memories. The stress of the sudden inheritance and the disturbing secrets begins to have an effect on her. She finds herself waking up in her studio (“her special place”) with finished paintings in front of her of a mys terious figure. Lucy soon discovers that following the clues to family mysteries may reveal more than she ever dreamed of or wanted. Gibbens has crafted a gripping series opener with unpredictable yet believable twists and turns. Lucy’s family’s history is reminiscent of a gothic horror story while her own drama resembles a modern thriller. The author skillfully mixes the dark doings of her unsavory characters with more light hearted scenes between Lucy and her loved ones. Almost all of the players feel realistic, with intricate and credible character arcs. The tale’s villain is somewhat one-dimensional, but when the antagonist plays off such engaging heroes as Lucy and Gra cie, the dialogue and the characters’ reactions make up for it.

A complex, riveting thriller about shocking family secrets.

TOO YOUNG TO BE OLD How To Stay Vibrant, Visible, and Forever in Blue Jeans

Gilman, Diane with Jan Tuckwood Amplify Publishing (352 pp.)

$27.00 | $9.99 e-book | Nov. 29, 2022 978-1-63755-453-1

TV shopping channel star “Jean Queen” Gilman recalls her road to suc cess with the intention of empowering and advising others in this effervescent memoir.

“Some little girls like to play with baby dolls. I was obsessed with my…toy sewing machine,” says Gilman, remembering the moment that sparked her sense of design. Born in 1945 and raised in Los Angeles, she survived an allegedly sexu ally abusive father and a mother who coldly “rationed” her emotions. In 1964, Gilman defied her parents by skipping a semester at UCLA in favor of an impromptu visit to London, where she studied the most important fashion revolutions of the era. Returning to LA, she and two friends set up a bou tique visited by Cher and other celebrities. Gilman’s defining moment came decades later, in 2008, when she began selling her flattering stretch jeans on the Home Shopping Network and sales skyrocketed. Her life changed dramatically in 2017 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her “fight,” how ever, shifted and improved her outlook. Gilman is an honest writer who delivers her truth with force and humor: “I know my father was mentally ill. Well, that’s the nice way to say it. Criminally insane fits better.” Her conversational style is funny and engaging: “Once your thighs become Velcro-ed to plastic in 110-degree Southern California heat, standing’s just fine, thank you.” And her playfulness extends to lighthearted, apt metaphors: “I often say that life is like a stretch waistband: you can yank it over lumps, bumps, and muffin tops, but it’s only good if it snaps back.” She also gives gentle, sage advice throughout, noting that one’s light shouldn’t diminish with age. Gilman’s story is a powerful one, and her strength and affability will keep fans and newcomers captivated.

A courageous, buoyant memoir about setting your own trend.

UNDER A DARKENING MOON

Heasley, Peter A.

Self (398 pp.)

$29.99 | $13.99 e-book | Aug. 15, 2022 979-8-98675-740-7

In Heasley’s speculative novel, a family weathers the fallout of an unprec edented lunar event.

Jody Conque, an ex–Catholic priest–turned–satellite researcher, is staying with his mother in Massachusetts for a few weeks following the death of his father. His mother’s grief keeps him up at night, which is how he comes to observe the

adult

“A courageous, buoyant memoir about setting your own trend.”

strange blurriness that seems to have enveloped the moon— caused by an asteroid, he surmises—and, later, the ghostly apparition of a girl. He wakes up the next morning to news stories saying that an unknown object has struck the dark side of the moon, kicking up dust in all directions. The president of the United States has declared a state of emergency for the next 24 hours until the dust burns up in the atmosphere. When the cloud arrives, the spectacle is unlike anything anyone has seen before: “The whole sky became an undulating array, with rivers of purple lava flowing between simmering peaks of green and pink rising downward toward them.” On the other side of the dust wall, however, humanity discovers the moon hasn’t returned to normal. Instead, it’s gone perfectly black; the time known as “moondark” has begun. With flights grounded, Jody drives his dad’s old Trans Am across the country to his home in California, where his wife, Haleh, and young daughter, Claire, are waiting. It quickly becomes clear that things have changed in grand and mysterious ways: Some people have slipped into comas, others are acting strangely, and strange specters—or “shimmers”—have been spotted along the coasts. When an accident waylays him in Boulder, Colorado, Jody learns that the truth of the moon’s alteration is more than science can explain— and he’s fated to play an important role in the coming disaster.

Over the course of the novel, Heasley offers prose that’s measured and painterly, as when Jody survives a collision with a train in a way that defies the laws of physics: “All went silent. He heard no horn from the train, no music from his car. The scene was playing in some strange reverse: the train was passing, very slowly, from right to left, and he was flying backward, away from it. At eye level, he saw the conductor, mouth agape, with his cell phone in hand.” The slow-boiling tale maintains an omi nous tone that many will find to be reminiscent of the works of Stephen King. The characters, too, are memorably King-ian, including Jody’s bigoted elderly mother; his preternaturally sen sitive daughter; and a paranormal investigator from the Navajo Nation. The author’s commitment to constructing a bedrock of realism goes a long way toward selling the novel’s fantastical elements, and the reader will be quickly drawn along with Jody into the mystery of it all. Although the story echoes many other dystopian tales (including the real-life experience of the Covid19 pandemic), Heasley manages to carve out new territory for himself, constructing a story that feels very much its own.

An engaging dystopian novel with elements of spiritualism and SF.

$27.99 | $17.99 paper | $6.99 e-book April 27, 2022 978-1-03-913297-9 978-1-03-913296-2 paper

A series of epistolary meditations focuses on the allure and nature of fairy tales.

Hilder opens her collection of letters to Annie, the grand daughter she doesn’t have, by asking a series of questions about fairy tales. Should people read them? And if so, how should they be read? Are they good? Are they needed? And just what is “happily ever after”? This provides the author with an elastic framework for addressing a wide array of topics in letters that she constructs over many years of Annie’s life, from childhood to young adulthood—much along the lines of Fay Weldon’s Letters to Alice (1984). There’s a thread of Christianity that runs through many of these treatments. When discussing The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, for instance, she urges, “Remember, remember, and never forget who you are, Anna Catherine Joy Lamb: a beloved and deeply treasured child of God. Born to joy, eternal joy.” The author also voices various concerns. About a children’s version of “Cinderella,” she won ders if fairy tales should only be told in words, with no illus trations (“We’re such an image-driven culture,” she observes). For “Jack and the Beanstalk,” she shifts to a political interpreta tion, confessing to Annie that she can’t peruse the tale without overlaying a Marxist reading. The story is “all about the poor man retrieving wealth from the evil capitalist who stole from the people.” The governing conceit of the book is very inviting, particularly when Hilder digresses along personal lines, men tioning, for example, while discussing “The Little Mermaid,” that her generation was the first that “fully believed we women could have it all.” Unfortunately, some of the sentimentality gets a bit syrupy: “Dearest Granddaughter, precious Annie, how are you? What worries assail you this hour?” But on the whole, the author’s heartfelt insights into life and literature are won derfully readable.

A sincere, engaging, and thought-provoking look at life through the lens of fairy tales.

LETTERS TO ANNIE A Grandmother’s Dreams of Fairy Tale Princesses, Princes, & Happily Ever After Hilder, Monika B. FriesenPress (216 pp.)

TWENTY-THREE

Two Worlds

Hiltner, Karl Kniemst Press (208 pp.) $8.99 paper | $3.99 e-book | Dec. 23, 2021 979-8-98521-540-3

Some highly advanced technocrats foresee an extinction-level catastrophe looming for Earth and initiate a new civi lization on Mars—but their superscience has its limits.

In this novel, Hiltner pens an SF mini-epic with a semi-experimental ambiance. A clue upfront is that the book begins with an epilogue and concludes with a pro logue. Cosmic, hard-science descriptive and lyric prose empha sizes the immensity of space and the insignificance of humanity before a storyline coalesces. Homo sapiens have reached a pinna cle of perfection, with the abolition of wars and poverty, erasure of disease, and typical life spans extended via gene modification to 1,000 years. Reproduction must be carefully managed, of course, and some 4 million people congregate in the advanced, utopian city-state of Uinkaret (with pockets of comparatively primitive outliers living elsewhere in the undeveloped wilds of the planet). But scientists determine that one of Earth’s peri odic extinction-level events—this time, an apocalyptic volcanic eruption—will doom Uinkaret. Leading engineer/industrialist Rotfach Theoretrics and his close, long-lived friends (environ mental scientist Alfrieda Praxis, legal expert Konstantina Obla tion, population-control director Humboldt Noraxton, and artists Shlater Curayan and Zabana Oblation) are prominent in the Autonomous Resettlement Kolony project to establish an expatriate human civilization on the nearest habitable planet, a plant-filled and blue-skied Mars (another clue, by the way). When the seismic catastrophe arrives early, the meticulous col onization effort must adapt or face the likely end of humankind.

Midway through the narrative, readers who have not recog nized all the clues will realize that these events are all unfurling not in the far, far future but in the distant past. In the novel’s present—the early 21st century—the NASA Mars robot vehicle Curiosity only begins to trundle across the ancient Mars settle ment site (“Haven”). Will contemporary folks ever decipher the traces of what happened so many millennia before? On one level, this is a variation on a hoary SF trope, the “Shaggy God Story,” wherein ancient, cherished myths and legends (Noah and the Ark, giants, Eden, Atlantis) turn out to have valid, high-tech SF foundations. But Hiltner does not oversell the gimmick, instead going with a fairly dispassionate, dialoguesparse narrative voice, often lapsing into first-person plural, to emphasize the wonder of deep time and humanity’s place in the stars. There are rhapsodic passages of science jargon suffi ciently abstruse as to be nearly indistinguishable from poetry (“The solar wind of charged particles emitted from the violent surface of our sun streams outward through the heliosphere’s cocoon of our solar system to where interplanetary space meets the realm of the interstellar. Here, at the termination shock, the solar wind slows to a subsonic speed”). An especially impressive

detail salutes a common fly swept up in the chassis of a Marsbound rocket. Although reduced to carbon, a few molecules of the insect succeed in reaching the Martian surface, which con stitutes one giant leap for fly-kind. Compact in size yet vast in scope, the book will give readers much to think about even if thin characterizations are placeholders more than anything else. Genre fanciers who prefer the ray-gun stuff should get their thrills elsewhere.

A science-besotted, stellar spectacle that skillfully takes adventurous readers across eons.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NEEDLES AND NOODLES

Ingels, Jon Barrett Illus. by Patrick Ballesteros

Piper + Enza (44 pp.) $20.00 | Sept. 20, 2022 979-8-98517-431-1

In this picture book, a group of chil dren helps a friend overcome her fear of an upcoming vaccination. Through humorous storytelling and visuals, Ingels and illus trator Ballesteros approach a child’s dread of shots at the doc tor’s office by demystifying the scary word needle. A little girl named Piper learns that her friend Maritza is afraid of getting a shot and leaps into action, putting on a show with her “Back yard Players.” When naming all kinds of needles (pine needles, sewing needles, “pins and needles,” and more) doesn’t quite do the trick, Piper’s friend Camille gives Maritza the key to dispel ling her fear. Camille’s noodle bowl costume and a clever ver sion of “Yankee Doodle Dandy” (lyrics included) come into play. Rendered in what appears to be ink and marker, Ballesteros’ comic book–style panels are alive with giggly details (a medical office overflows with noodles in bowls, on desks, and on exam ining tables; a space-adventure comic strip is a story within the story). Diverse children and adults are portrayed (Piper is White; Maritza is a Black girl; and an Asian American girl uses a wheelchair), and the book includes helpful tips for parents. (Ingels and Ballesteros first teamed up for Running of the Noses, 2022, the launch of their Piper + Enza Playdate series.) What is missing from this entertaining needle-noodle romp? Informa tion to help children understand the “why” of shots.

Narrowly focused but provides shot-phobic kids with a fun, genuinely useful coping tool.

THE PANACEA PROJECT

Johnson, Catherine Devore Greenleaf Book Group Press (304 pp.) $24.95 | Feb. 28, 2023 979-8-88645-015-6

In this novel, a young woman with a brain tumor who apparently healed her self becomes the subject of a scientific experiment to find a cure for cancer.

Calla Hammond’s life has never been easy—her mother, who took drugs, died when she was only 4 years old, and she never knew her father. Calla grows up in the Texas foster care system and, as a result of her mother’s neglect, is plagued by various developmental delays. She doesn’t speak until she is 6 and has vitiligo, a condi tion that keeps human affection at bay, a sad past poignantly chronicled by Johnson. Calla eventually ages out of the system and finds part-time work at a library but remains riddled with recurring health problems. One day, while at work, she experi ences a seizure, passes out, and suffers a blow to her head. She is diagnosed with a brain tumor and a surgery is scheduled to remove it. But during the operation, the surgeon is unable to find the tumor. Dr. Carson Kraft, a brilliant research physi cian, believes Calla’s immune system healed the tumor and that studying the patient could ultimately produce a cure for all cancers. With great nuance and lighthearted humor, the author documents Calla’s transformation into a “glorified lab rat” and the ways in which the indefatigable search for a cure threatens to engulf her life. After a kidnapping attempt, she is assigned bodyguard Brandon Foster, who provides her with a rare oppor tunity for romance. Unfortunately, Johnson sometimes indulges in sentimentality—the book’s conclusion strikes a terribly contrived emotional note. But the story is both inventive and thoughtful and captures the way in which the scientific search for truth and humanitarian relief can take on an inhumane form.

An intelligent and moving tale about the complex intersec tion of science and morality.

THE GUITAR PLAYER AND OTHER SONGS OF EXILE Kiser, Jo Ann Atmosphere Press (238 pp.) $16.99 paper | Sept. 13, 2022 978-1-63988-548-0

The stories in this collection, set in the rolling hills of Kentucky and south ern Ohio, offer snapshots of family life in the “hollers” of Appalachia.

Kiser’s stories are fashioned together like a quilt, with patterns that repeat to give the whole a sense of artistic unity: Multiple young women work in publishing and return to the hills of their childhoods, and characters wonder if they can ever escape the class into which they were born. Kiser’s descriptions of the fictional communities of Osierville

and Sarvis Mountain conjure a tense mixture of beauty and dread. For instance, the narrator of “The Wedding Ring Quilt” comments on the incredible flora that surrounds her childhood home: “by fruit trees and, beyond, by waving broomsage and, beyond that, by those green, green hills.” The verdant landscape is evocative, contrasting with the restlessness of the narrator as she goes out of state to college, returning only for the abrupt and somber occasion of a cousin’s funeral. In this story and “Encounters of a Close Kind,” the graves of relatives become physical reminders that one can never really leave one’s past. Indeed, these stories seem to owe a lot to the Southern gothic tradition; the second line in the book, “Locusts give their thin high wail in the dust,” recalls the work of Carson McCullers and establishes a similarly moody, summery atmosphere. This titu lar story rides a fine line between beauty and dread with its tale of a young professional trying to make ends meet, which culmi nates in an image of grotesque violence. Most of the collection’s emotion comes from a more subtle and gradual recognition of identity and regret, however. Overall, these are works that somewhat elusively find resonance by the final page. In “The Wedding Ring Quilt,” the narrator notes, “I cried for my cousin and for myself”; readers are likely to feel such empathy for all of Kiser’s protagonists.

Well-crafted tales of Appalachian life.

COSPLAY The Comic-Con Killer Lee, Ernie Aim-Hi Publishing (258 pp.) $28.49 | $16.95 paper | Dec. 1, 2021 978-1-73211-319-0 978-1-73211-316-9 paper

Two newly partnered Texas detec tives clash when investigating unex plained deaths in this thriller.

Selma Cibolo earns her detective rank after only two years on the police force. It’s an impressive feat, but that doesn’t make San Antonio detective Thornton Nix any less resistant to being her partner. In the seasoned cop’s archaic mindset, she’s a “Barbie doll in a cop outfit” who can’t handle the job. One of their first cases together involves a body in a dumpster. Cibolo recognizes the victim’s unique costume as Evie Frye’s—a character from a popular online video game. She suspects a link to the Comic-Con that was just in town, a theory that Nix immediately dismisses. He doesn’t even think it’s a homicide but rather some sort of accidental death. Yet Cibolo keeps digging and unearths other “Evies” who died dur ing Comic-Cons, including one in another state. As the detec tive tries deciphering how someone could grab a cosplayer in the midst of a crowded venue, Cibolo concocts a risky plan that puts her on the heels of a dangerous, twisted killer. Lee master fully balances a procedural with a suspense-laden exploration of a murderer. For example, readers get glimpses of the killer’s frighteningly meticulous plotting. There’s also a focus on the legendary Spring-Heeled Jack, the star of a video game (based

“Lee masterfully balances a procedural with a suspense laden exploration of a murderer.”

on a real-life game with a few altered details), who’s tied to the villain’s unnerving psychosis. The only drawback is that the story could have used more scenes with the razor-sharp Cibolo, whose investigation takes her to Denver, a Comic-Con, and a memorably creepy barn. While Nix’s refusal to support Cibo lo’s smart hunch makes him seem dense, he eventually proves to be more than a one-dimensional sexist cop. The author’s unadorned but effective prose fuels the relatively short novel all the way to the exciting final act and an ending that hints at a sequel.

This engaging murder mystery pits a remarkable hero against a formidable killer.

BANKS OF THE RIVER

The Kansas Murder Trilogy: Book 2 Litton, Melvin Gordian Knot Books (310 pp.) $17.99 paper | $2.99 e-book Sept. 13, 2022 978-1-63789-781-2

The joys of simple pleasures, the complexity of family life, and the inves tigation into a local man’s murder weave through this midcentury mystery.

The characters are different and the era is earlier by two decades, but, aside from murder, what connects the first book in Litton’s Kansas Murder Trilogy, King Harvest (2022), and this one is sense of place—rural Kansas (“the smell of rich earth, of worms and roots and growing plants rising in the sunbaked air”). Recent widower Willis Thurman, aided by his peculiar 14-yearold son, Riley, farms that land. Like a lot of boys, Riley crushes on 15-year-old Bonny Marshal. When Bonny’s father, Jack, learns his daughter is pregnant with Willis’ child, he is enraged. So he is naturally the prime suspect when Deputy Guy Craig finds Willis dead in his barn with a head wound and Jack rush ing from the scene. After a day on the run, police locate Jack on the ranch of Lyle Sewter—a “man measured by what he owned and what he could buy.” What Lyle couldn’t do is keep his wife away from married Jack; the two once had an affair known around town as “the scandal of ’53.” The popular coach of the Wolves, a baseball team comprised of “sons of working men and farmers,” Jack “The Lion” Marshal had his way with many willing women. Jack tells Guy he touched the murder weapon but didn’t kill Willis; he ran from the barn because he looked guilty. But Sheriff Charlie Simms doesn’t buy it. This characterdriven mystery overflows with smart dialogue and rich descrip tion. Although hard times and poverty fill many pages, so do small-town pleasures, like watching for Sputnik while lying on soft grass on a summer night. The cast members’ backstories easily lace through the text, and sex, love, and the loss of both are well presented.

A well-crafted mystery and look at small-town Kansas life.

WILDWOOD FLOWER

Lovett, Anne Words of Passion (392 pp.) $14.99 paper | $4.99 e-book July 20, 2022 978-1-73646-400-7

In this literary novel, a minister deals with the reappearance of his secret child.

The Rev. David Wilder is a man of God. Married to the same woman for years, he oversees his congregation in the Blue Ridge Mountains, lending his parishioners a hand when they need it and spending his free time fishing in the cool waters of the Quanasee River. But when he gets a letter from a woman claiming to be his long-lost love child, he’s frozen in place, unsure of what to tell his wife, Tallulah, who never knew about the baby and is currently dying of cancer. What’s more, he made a promise years ago to the infant’s mother, one he never plans to break. The woman who wrote the letter, Molly Westbrook, is a young biology teacher in Georgia. Raised by adoptive parents, she’s never known much about her origins, and now that she is about to become a mother herself, she’s interested in connect ing with her birth father. When Tallulah dies, David is sent into a spiral of memory and regret, refusing to meet with Molly even as she circles closer and closer. Will the guilt he feels about what happened in the past prevent him from seeing his only child? Lovett’s prose is elegant and descriptive, as here where David visits his hometown after decades away: “The Spinning Wheel Café looked unchanged. David slowed the car to a crawl and peered out at the café. The red-lettered wooden sign over the entrance gave him an eerie feeling of déjà vu; even the daily specials were still taped to the glass.” The narration shifts effec tively between David’s and Molly’s points of view and between the past of the 1960s and the present of the ’90s. The novel is perhaps a bit long for the amount of story, and the plot unfolds in a fairly predictable way, but the reading experience is a rich one filled with feelings of regret, grief, and longing.

An engrossing, well-told tale of a father and daughter sepa rated by decades.

TRAGIC

Mele, Dana Illus. by Valentina Pinti & Chiara Di Francia

Legendary Comics YA (112 pp.) $17.99 paper | $10.00 e-book Sept. 13, 2022 978-1-68116-096-2

A young woman’s search for her father’s killer exposes dark family secrets and deception in this contemporary graphic-novel take on Hamlet.

New Yorker Harper Hayes is shattered by the sudden loss of her father. Hamilton died of a heart attack, at least according to

the coroner. But then Harper runs into her father’s ghost at the old theater where the famous actor first took the stage. Ham ilton, appearing as his younger self portraying Hamlet, assures his daughter that his death was a murder (“You know what you have to do”). Harper is determined to unmask the killer and has a couple of suspects in mind, from Hamilton’s estranged brother to his business partner at CPOLO Invest. She also finds a solid lead—the very real possibility that someone forged the coroner’s report. Another suspicious death takes Harper’s investigation in an entirely new direction, and she gets help ing hands from her ex-girlfriend Talia Polonius and her friend Holden Parker. Answers may lie in the Hayeses’ remarkably creepy Gothic home or at the coroner’s office, which would require dealing with the security system. All the while, Harper is periodically blacking out. Along with an apparent vision of an unknown person shoving her off a balcony, she wakes up after one blackout with blood on her hands that won’t come off. As Harper and the others inch closer to a possible solution, their mutual trust wanes. Harper may not be willing to believe some one close to her is guilty, and her friends may even question her startling proximity to Hamilton at the time he died.

Despite the infusion of elements from Shakespeare’s play (for example, character names), Mele develops an original and sublime cast in this series opener. Ghostly and winsome Ham ilton, for example, provides some comic relief, as he tends to utter his remarks while Harper converses with people who can neither see nor hear him. There’s also a potential love triangle. Harper and Talia may reignite old feelings, so long as the pro tagonist stays mum about the “benefits” that she and Holden at one time added to their friendship. Harper’s visions, often accompanied by Hamlet quotes, are gleefully unnerving, as a bizarre presence of some kind seemingly takes over the panels and the hero’s mind. But like Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Harper and readers can’t be certain if any of it is real—is Hamilton a mere figment of her imagination, or has her father come back to help her solve his homicide? It’s all a puzzle, which effectively paral lels the murder mystery, including the likelihood that the killer is someone Harper knows very well. Pinti and Di Francia, who have worked together on the Red Sonja: Red Sitha series (2022), fill the pages with bold colors and characters’ sharply expressive faces. The few instances of Harper’s sometimes bloody halluci nations are particularly strong and reinforce the narrative with an ominous supernatural vibe. The volume ends on a cliffhanger. In Mele’s closing notes, the author hints that subsequent install ments won’t completely follow Hamlet, so the murderer’s iden tity may surprise readers familiar with the tragedy.

Exceptional characters elevate an absorbing, often eerie murder mystery.

THE NIGHT-BIRD’S FEATHER

Moran, Jenna Katerin Illus. by Lee Moyer & Ivan Bilibin Self (598 pp.) $28.95 paper | $7.99 e-book | Sept. 22, 2022 979-8-98665-682-3

This epic fantasy traces generations of a magical family doggedly squaring off against witches, vampires, and other evil beings.

The Sosunovs are humans who settled in an “isolated, demon-haunted otherland” long ago. They’ve developed such skills as lucid and shared dreaming as well as spiritual combat. This novel, bro ken into chronological stories, mostly centers on one member of the Sosunov family: Valentina Grigorievna. When she’s a young girl, a heron-witch goes after her family in a fishing vil lage named Fortitude. This heron-witch, striking in dreams, renders comatose all of Valentina’s 15 family members. The girl, along with the never-ending job of caring for the household and the incapacitated Sosunovs, must defeat the heron-witch before she devours her loved ones. As years pass, the eternally youthful Valentina runs into her share of villains, from vam pires to the Headmaster (aka the lord of Death’s dominion) at neighboring Bleak Academy. Vampires, in particular, become a constant presence, flocking to the sunless otherland and estab lishing Night London. Some of the book’s tales spotlight other characters (though Valentina pops up in each one). There’s Mrs. Senko, a Bleak Academy teacher who’s bizarrely fascinated by a creature living in her gardens. Elsewhere, Evdeniya Kinjirovna Kaneko needs help when her scientist/engineer parents disap pear after building the humming, greenish-glowing “thing that should not be.” Meanwhile, the Headmaster shows Valentina a dreadful vision of a “cursed land…hopeless, lifeless, cold, and grey”—a broken, terrifying world whose “substance” may seep into other places or into people’s souls. It’s hardly surprising that Valentina sets her sights on the wicked Headmaster and his powerful sorcery.

Moran’s meticulous worldbuilding gives this deliberately paced tale a distinctive style. Although specifics on characters’ surroundings are minimal, the abstract details sometimes come across as gleefully ominous. For example, the “geographically disconnected” otherland, aside from designated places like For titude and Bleak Academy, teems with areas collectively called “the Outside.” The Outside is nothingness and chaos, and it’s divided into even more unnerving parts—the low, the near, the far, and the deep. In addition, dialogue exchanges, rather than action, constitute much of the story, whether characters con verse in a dream or casually discuss murdering one another. “I still think about killing you sometimes,” Valentina tells one player matter-of-factly. Still, the remarkable Sosunovs lead a sublime cast. Their time-defying abilities allow Valentina to dream-meet her whip-smart multi-great-granddaughter Apros inya. This relative, who appears throughout the novel in and out of dreams, gets a visit from her mother when she’s pregnant with Aprosinya. Moran further enhances this story with mem orable imagery. The heron-witch, in the waking world, crawls

through a window more like a worm than a bird, and Valentina uses a magical knife to turn a skeleton into a flesh-and-blood comrade with not-quite-human eyes. In the same vein, Moyer and Bilibin’s pristine artworks open each chapter, showing such details as the Headmaster’s shockingly eerie star-scape eyes and a lovable, swimming seal. As the story progresses, the charac ters and plot evolve. Valentina starts her own family, and the Industrial Revolution, for better or worse, makes its way to the otherland. The open ending works wonderfully, whether or not the author has a series in mind.

A stellar cast headlines this engrossing, otherworldly tale.

DIAL UP THE DREAM Make Your Daughter’s Journey to Adulthood the Best—For Both of You

O’Grady, Colleen Page Two (216 pp.) $17.95 paper | $9.99 e-book | May 3, 2022 978-1-77458-145-2

A parenting guide that aims to help mothers support their daughters.

At the start of this book, therapist and coach O’Grady, author of Dial Down the Drama (2015), advises readers to create a “Powerful Parenting Message,” offer ing an example: “I trust my daughter and support her in her best next step. I choose to listen to, enjoy, and stay connected with my daughter.” The support may take many forms, she points out, and the “next step” may be hard to predict, but the book emphasizes the crucial role of listening throughout. Draw ing on her own experiences as a mother and nearly 30 years of counseling parents as a marriage and family therapist, O’Grady presents her readers with straightforward discussions of a wide array of subjects, from learning how to let go when daughters leave home for school—including how to retire the “monitor ing” part of parenting, which she notes can stick around in unhealthy forms—to setting common-sense boundaries. Each chapter ends with an exercise to help mothers act on what they’re reading, such as journaling about a daughter’s positive traits: “One thing you are grateful for in your daughter,” “One thing you delight in about your daughter,” and so on. Over the course of this parenting manual, readers will find that O’Grady’s advice is uniformly sound and empathetic; one will immediately feel as if one is in caring hands, but there’s a toughness here as well. Her willingness to tackle darker subjects, including what to do if one’s daughter is sexually assaulted, only makes its unaf fected directness more valuable. The prose is appealingly direct throughout: “Are you an adult just because you turn eighteen?

Neuroscience doesn’t think so.” The book’s many anecdotes about mothering struggles are instructive, but O’Grady’s own strong, patient advice is its highlight.

A forceful and wide-ranging advice book for readers rais ing young women.

MUST READ WELL Pall, Ellen Bancroft Press (284 pp.) $27.95 | $9.99 e-book | Oct. 18, 2022 978-1-61088-542-3

A New York City graduate student seeks out an elderly author as a primary source for her dissertation about women writers in this novel by Pall, author of Among the Ginzburgs (1996).

Liz Miller has spent nine years at Columbia University and is heavily in debt. Her incomplete dis sertation, about mid-20th-century women writers, is in desper ate need of more information about Anne Taussig Weil, author of the 1960s bestseller The Vengeance of Catherine Clark. The novelist has rebuffed Liz’s attempts at contact, but then a miracle hap pens: Liz sees a Craigslist ad for a room for rent in Greenwich Village that requires the applicant to be able to “read well.” She figures out that it was placed by Anne, so she replies, hoping that it’s her chance to finally interview the author. Liz, using the false name Beth, is offered the room and, to her delight, finds that her cheap rent comes with an obligation to read Anne’s old diaries to her. The writer is frail and visually impaired but still “looked commanding enough to have been the notorious author of a book that galvanized a generation,” according to Liz. The diaries recount a brief but massively consequential affair between Anne and a concert pianist. It’s a stroke of luck for Liz and her research, but her deceptive game leads toward a very uncertain future. Pall’s novel takes a deep dive into the personal lives of New York writers and musicians, and it has a premise that many readers are sure to find irresistible. Liz is revealed as hardworking and intel ligent and crafty enough to get what she wants but also sympa thetic. She is, however, no match for Anne, who’s portrayed as a grande dame who knows exactly how to handle a budding scholar such as Liz. The novel’s unpretentious sophistication and smart, savvy characters make it an enjoyable read—one that’s height ened by the unexpected and satisfying conclusion.

A thought-provoking novel about the mysterious ways that creative people use others for inspiration.

HOLD

A Medical Murder Mystery

Peele, Amy S.

She Writes Press (336 pp.)

$17.95 paper | $9.95 e-book Oct. 4, 2022 978-1-64742-245-5

Vacationing best friends run afoul of authorities in Cuba while investigating a fatal car accident that claimed the lives of four immunologists.

“I hope you’re getting into some good trouble,” Sarah Golden’s long-distance lover tells her over the phone. There is nothing good about it. While on a “long-overdue” vacation to

“A thought-provoking novel about the mysterious ways that creative people use others for inspiration.”

read well

Cuba, Golden, a transplant nurse, and Jackie Larson, a freshly licensed private eye, are diverted from their drinking, cigar fac tory tours, and performing at the Buena Vista Social Club by the tragic news that four top immunologists died in a car crash in advance of a conference in Chicago. They were scheduled to discuss the findings of their research on inducing tolerance for kidney transplant patients. Golden finds the accident suspect, and Larson is all too eager to use her newfound PI skills and connections to make inquiries—breaking a deal she agreed to with her spouse to take only “benign work.” The duo are further embroiled in the mystery when the chief of transplants at the Havana medical center violates Cuban law by slipping Golden the results of his own off-the-record study using the proto col shared by the late doctors. Pressure from authorities and threats to their families only bolster their resolve. “The people don’t know who they’re dealing with,” says Golden. Peele’s third medical mystery featuring this entertaining duo is a breezily written, cozy-adjacent read. Peele has a deft way with exposi tion for those new to this series, while Larson acts as a reader surrogate for laypeople (“Can someone explain to me what ‘tol erance’ means in the transplant world?” she helpfully asks). This is how we learn that “the holy grail of transplant” would “con vince the body not to reject…any organ without using any drugs long term.” It doesn’t sound like something big pharma would like, and indeed, its representatives are rendered with mus tache-twirling gusto. “Since Canada and Europe have socialized medicine, we should enjoy our US gravy train as long as we can,” one CEO remarks when considering the ramifications of the four doctors’ study.

A cut above; a satisfying mystery that also progresses the leads’ life journeys.

HIDDEN BUDDHA

Lama Rinzen in the Hungry Ghost Realm

Ringel, Jim Black Bee Publishing (308 pp.) $21.95 paper | Aug. 24, 2022 978-0-9995398-1-1

A Buddhist lama is reincarnated as a doctor in a haunted Colorado hospital in Ringel’s second mystery novel in a series.

Lama Rinzen is used to rebirth. Each new reincarnation, he believes, is a chance to learn the lessons required to move one step closer to nirvana. This time his new life is in the Hungry Ghost Realm, and Lama Rinzen suddenly finds himself in a new existence in the present day, as a female doctor driving a 1971 Plymouth Duster across the Colorado plains: “How I learned to drive, where I got the Duster, I can not say,” she thinks. “Rebirth springs up like this. Fully engaged without explanation.…I am reborn a lama. As in all lifetimes.” In this lifetime, Lama Rinzen is about to begin a three-month contract at the remote Humboldt Hospital. She arrives to find that most inhabitants are evacuating before a snowstorm engulfs the property, leaving only Rinzen and a handful of

patients and staff. One is Claudia Baumann, a 7-year-old girl who believes she can see ghosts. As snow falls, Rinzen is forced to deal with a strange illness spreading among the patients, unexplained disappearances, and a mysterious woman with no identification whom one of the ambulance drivers brings in following a traffic accident. If Rinzen wants to move on, she’ll have to figure out what hungry spirits are haunting Humboldt Hospital. Over the course of this novel, Ringel’s prose creates a delightfully unnerving atmosphere: “Staring at its darkness, the hallway pulses. Pebbles scratch along its floor like shoes shuffling toward me. A dark, stooped shadow vibrates closer….. Not a ghost exactly, but not a patient either.” The book’s genre feels somewhat slippery and hard to pin down—it’s half horror novel, half sincere interpretation of Buddhist philosophy—and Rinzen is, in some ways, a frustratingly unrelatable protagonist. Even so, readers are likely to find themselves carried along by the mood and mystery alone, which will keep them engaged.

A spooky, cerebral ghost story set in a snowed-in hospital.

CRACKERJACK! Rose, Shea AuthorHouse (258 pp.) $31.99 | $20.99 paper | $2.99 e-book June 21, 2021 978-1-66552-944-0 978-1-66552-946-4 paper

In this novel, a stenographer finds the excitement she craves when she chances on someone’s illicit financial scheme.

Seasoned stenographer Cindy Jack is one of the best in the Eastern U.S. A private firm sends her to transcribe sessions with local govern ment agencies, a boring job for a 29-year-old. She yearns to be “tussled,” though she doesn’t know specifically what that is or even what the word means. It could be she’s looking for Alonzo Prier, the dreamy senior counsel for the Hospital Rate Review Commission. Never mind that he’s married; Cindy tries sub tly seducing him when they’re together at HRRC meetings by “striking keys and striking poses.” What catches Alonzo’s atten tion, however, is her access to transcriptions that may reveal a hospital’s “financial discrepancies” and “extreme irregularities.” When that hospital’s CFO suspects what’s going on, he enlists co-worker Denver Simmons to date Cindy, hoping to distract her from getting close to Alonzo. But will the two men later decide that Cindy knows too much? Rose’s leisurely paced story is driven by a dramatic cast. Cindy, for example, becomes “pos sessed” by classic Hollywood actor Greta Garbo and sees par allels between their lives, though the intriguing possibility of Garbo’s lesbianism linking them unfortunately leads nowhere. Nevertheless, Cindy is an engaging protagonist. She strives to be more than an invisible stenographer and works to help her older sister recover from her alcoholism. Narrative per spective intermittently shifts to others, most notably Alonzo, whose exciting career sharply contrasts with his drama-free home life. The story picks up considerably in the second half;

Denver struggles to keep secrets from everyone (he’s not sin gle). Although there’s no real mystery, a few choices among the cast surprise and culminate in a relatively quiet but gratifying denouement.

A smart, fascinating woman leads this languid, absorbing drama of seduction and lies.

Russell, Nancy C. Illus. by Jesseca Zollars Smith ArchwayPublishing (254 pp.) $17.99 paper | $3.99 e-book | Feb. 8, 2022 978-1-66571-799-1

A debut volume of essays blends autobiography, social commentary, and life tips.

Growing up in the Mount Vernon suburbs of New York City during World War II, Russell recalls that close encounters with the conflict were “largely confined to newspapers and radio news.” Fol lowing this idyllic childhood came the tumultuous 1960s and ’70s, when the author’s personal life and career ambitions intersected with second-wave feminism, the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War. These cross sections of national and personal trans formations lay at the center of this book’s 35 essays, which combine stories from Russell’s life with historical events and social com mentary. Written in an honest, intimate writing style that vacillates between funny and somber, the book discusses topics that range from marijuana and sex to dancing and international travel. While the topics are diverse, many are connected through the theme of gender, drawing on the author’s personal experiences, academic successes (culminating in a doctorate in public health), and threedecade career in cancer epidemiology. One essay, for example, con siders how the “rigid genders” portrayed in movies in the ’40s and ’50s were “limiting to both men and women.” Another discusses the “deep-seated unhappiness” of Russell’s mother, which was fundamentally connected to her relationship with men and her conformity to gender norms. “Walking,” for instance, “became excruciatingly painful,” as she insisted on wearing “feminine high heels” despite chronic foot pain. Given Russell’s own academic pedigree, a handful of essays are more scholarly in nature, centered, for example, on the value of subjunctive verb forms or a detailed description of how ancient Egyptians accurately measured Earth’s circumference. The book admits that each essay “is independent of the others,” though this eclectic framework may be frustrating to readers looking for a cohesive collection. Its scattered organiza tion notwithstanding, this volume is a well-written, often poignant work with far more hits than misses among its entries. Many of the chapters are accompanied by original art by Smith, whose sur real and often whimsical drawings are delightful additions to the author’s stories.

An evocative and moving, if sometimes disjointed, collec tion of essays.

A CURSE ON THE WIND Sensel, Joni Wild Rose Press (290 pp.) $16.99 paper | $4.99 e-book Sept. 19, 2022 978-1-5092-4282-5

A jilted teenager must face the unintended consequences of a curse in Sensel’s YA historical fantasy novel.

In Amity, Ohio, in 1909, 17-year-old aspiring actor Gethsemane “Geth” Jones was supposed to marry Will Coggle smith, but he broke off the engagement at the last minute. On the day of the proposed wedding, she wakes up before dawn, sneaks out to the local cemetery, and curses the young man who broke off their engagement: “May the unfaithful wretch who sullied this day find disaster before the week’s out. Make his bed crawl with bugs, bring shame to his name, and, and... let his underwear itch.” Geth is more humiliated than heartbro ken—it was never a love match—and the curse is just a childish ditty, although it makes her feel better. But after the sentient spirit of Wind hears the curse and acts on it, it expects swift payment: Specifically, it wishes to make Geth its bride. Now she must not only live with the shame of her actions, but also the unthinkable prospect of becoming the Wind’s wife. Outsmart ing the spirit will take a cunning plan and the help of steadfast allies that include her best friend, Sarah Brannon, and her old school friend Aaron Holmes, the gravedigger’s son. Above all, Geth will need to reassess who she is and what she really wants. Overall, this is an atmospheric, richly developed, and ultimately romantic read that’s full of surprises. No character is who they seem to be at first, and Geth’s coming-of-age arc offers a story of feminist empowerment and rebellion against familial and societal expectations. Geth yearns to act, and, as such, the tale’s purposeful focus on the power of words and storytelling is fit ting and poignant. The protagonist’s relationships with family members, friends, and the Wind give the work a strong narra tive structure, and over this framework, Sensel’s gorgeous prose takes flight: “Under the costume of good girl, good daughter, she yearned to be fearless, uncommon, and yes, dramatic. To reach for her desires instead of dreaming, and to win praise for originality, not compliance.”

A quietly thoughtful and romantic bildungsroman.

LESSONS OUT OF SCHOOL Insights Against a Backdrop of the Conflicts of the Late Twentieth and Early TwentyFirst Centuries

“An atmospheric, richly developed, and ultimately romantic read that’s full of surprises.”

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

American Spy Sinclair, Murray

Eclectic Books (218 pp.) $29.99 | $19.99 paper | $14.99 e-book Feb. 15, 2023 979-8-9868261-0-3 979-8-9868261-1-0 paper

This epistolary novel explores whether F. Scott Fitzgerald really was recruited to assassinate Marshal Philippe Pétain in 1940.

Henri Duval is a double agent. His public persona is that of a functionary of the despicable Vichy government in France; in reality, he is working for the Resistance, which often gets him into embarrassing and dangerous situations. He is also sup posed to be a Hollywood screenwriter, a guise that enables him to meet and befriend Fitzgerald, now pretty much washed up and rarely sober despite the anxious ministrations of his mis tress, gossip columnist Sheilah Graham. Eventually, Henri and Fitzgerald make it to Vichy and are granted an audience with Pétain, but it is no spoiler to say that the assassination is badly bungled (or readers surely would have heard about it). All the trappings are here: the serendipitous discovery of a locked trunk in an estate sale; the existence of silent confederate Hyman Skolski (the recipient of Henri’s fevered letters); the breaking of the code they devised; and the fact that Pétain is a big fan of Fitzgerald and the Roaring ’20s (who knew?). All

this is framed with an introduction written by a distinguished Princeton historian who even provides footnotes from time to time. Because this witty novel is in a historical setting, Sinclair can, for example, have Henri stumble on the Marx brothers at their most manic (“I can’t make sense of them, but they’re very nice fellows. They enjoyed themselves immensely making fun of my heavy French accent”). Later, the double agent falls hard for a mysterious woman on the Santa Monica beach only to dis cover that she, too, is a famous, real-life Hollywood mistress. The author does a fine job with Fitzgerald: vain and impulsive, somehow both childish and childlike, and a real challenge for Henri to handle. Henri himself is a wonderful creation. From the first, he is disdainful of these Americans, especially the Los Angeles subspecies. A man can’t find decent food or wine here, he wails, and the vaunted movies are clichéd and trashy. But of course, he softens to the point that (Zut alors!) he is only bemused by, not contemptuous of, these Americans, though he stops short of becoming a baseball fan.

A decidedly clever and well-written flight of fancy starring a literary legend.

GUARDING WHAT REMAINS

Smith, Ida Self (394 pp.) $20.00 paper | June 12, 2022 978-0-9976530-4-5

A family faces a tragedy that plunges them deep into the unimaginable trials of the Great Depression in this work of Christian historical fiction by Smith, author of The Invisible Cipher (2015).

Ten-year-old Eleanor Cruthers feels responsible for a tragic fire that burned down her family’s log home in rural Idaho. With the country in the depths of eco nomic turmoil, Eleanor’s father packs up all that remains of their life and moves her, her mother, and her three siblings to the city of Spokane, Washington, in the hope of finding work. The family’s hopeful temperament and appetite for adventure are quickly curbed as they encounter myriad adversities; they end up living among a collection of shanties by built their resi dents on the outskirts of town. Industrious and determined Eleanor does whatever she can to help her family survive, including suggesting that the family raise chickens, but as win ter approaches, their hardship continues to grow. Indeed, the child and her family are left wondering if God actually does help those who help themselves. It isn’t until Eleanor’s father stumbles upon a church in a different neighborhood that things begin looking up for the Cruthers family. Still, as they deal with potentially life-threatening problems, the family finds it nearly impossible to forgive people who’ve done them very wrong. The novel is full of heartwarming scenes of a tightknit family whose members lean on one another when the world seems set against them, and the work strongly emphasizes themes of forgiveness and generosity. Explorations of biblical quotations intertwine with accounts of human failings as Eleanor and her

“A gripping glimpse into 20th century Hollywood.”

family struggle for survival and try to come to terms with their impoverishment. Certain passages over the course of the story come across as overly aphoristic, particularly during sermons. However, the overall effect of the narrative is uplifting and true to the characters’ struggles.

An often powerful tale of steadfastness in the face of adversity.

ENOLA HOLMES

Mycroft’s Dangerous Game

Springer, Nancy with Mickey George Illus. by Giorgia Sposito & Enrica Eren Angiolini

Legendary Comics YA (104 pp.) $17.99 paper | $8.99 e-book | Oct. 11, 2022 978-1-68116-088-7

In this YA graphic-novel sequel to a 2020 Netflix film, a bright, resourceful amateur sleuth scours London for her abducted brother.

Enola Holmes has happily gained her independence from her brother Mycroft as well as boarding school. One quiet night, she crawls into Mycroft’s lodging house room to retrieve a book her beloved mother left for her. Shockingly, Enola witnesses strang ers breaking in and kidnapping Mycroft. Even if she’s not on the best of terms with him, he’s still her brother, whom she vows to rescue. All she has to go on is that Alarm, an anarchist group, seized Mycroft for information he knows or may learn. Adults are no help—not her mother, who’s in hiding, or her famous brother, Sherlock, at 221B Baker St. Luckily, she has allies, from a street-smart urchin to young Lord Tewkesbury. The kidnappers may be no match for Enola, who has the brains to crack coded messages, the skills to hold her own in fights, and the willingness to search and slink through muck to find her sibling. She even uncovers someone’s diabolical plan—something potentially more devastating than an abduction. George—adapting a story by Springer, who wrote the original literary series that the film Enola Holmes is based on—crafts a riveting mystery. Enola can charm details out of anyone but also excels at stealthily following people and piecing together clues. Her tendency to steer clear of the upper class is sometimes comical. Enola dons a dress to disguise herself as a “flighty, harmless girl.” Getting her clothes muddy doesn’t faze her, which is a great display of her dogged ness in solving crimes. Sposito and Angiolini’s artwork captures the likenesses of actors from the film (for example, Millie Bobby Brown). But the setting is even more impressively rendered— London’s beautiful streets, alleys, and buildings.

This entertaining mystery will delight readers, especially Enola Holmes fans.

ANIMAL AFTERLIFE Poems

Stenquist, Jaya Airlie Press (92 pp.) $18.00 paper | Sept. 1, 2022 978-1-950404-09-4

Stenquist’s debut poetry collection serves as a contemporary bestiary for endangered life.

Albatross, Kākāpō, black-footed fer ret—each is an animal that’s threatened by human expansion or climate disruption, and the author treats them with careful curiosity in these poems. Moving through a litany of mammals, birds, and insects, the narrator smoothly takes on the voices of various species, speaking as various fauna without attempting to speak for them. It’s a visceral rendition of creaturely experience, from the binturong’s cadences (“I sway / rhythm of body / air / body / tree”) to the northern hairy-nosed wombat’s delightful proclamation: “here are the things I am willing to give: / my back / the slope of my ass.” At times, the lines between species begin to blur. A Blackburn’s sphinx moth reminisces, “I miss being soft in the world / my time as a kitten in a basket,” and a black rhinoceros crosses into the inorganic, musing, “I am a rock / the earth and I / steady circle onward.” Through metaphor and analogy, different life forms are shown in tightly knotted relationships, with hierarchies dissolving even as the specificity of individual creatures is retained. In one of the epigraphs to the collection, philosopher Thom Van Dooren and anthropologist Deborah Rose argue that “what the current time demands is a genuine reckoning with ourselves as the agents of mass extinction.” This collection serves as a prime example of what such a reckoning might look like—propelled by the urgency of environmental collapse without slipping into didacti cism, grappling with the weight of culpability without giving way to fatalism.

Compelling verse that attends to human and nonhuman creatures with equal curiosity.

MY PLACE IN THE SUN

Life in the Golden Age of Hollywood and Washington Stevens Jr., George University Press of Kentucky (536 pp.) $34.95 | $34.95 e-book | May 17, 2022 978-0-8131-9524-7

In this memoir, a Hollywood writer, director, and producer reminisces about his career and pays tribute to his legend ary father.

Few are as closely associated with Hollywood’s golden age as George Stevens, the Academy Award–winning director and producer of iconic films like A Place in the Sun, Shane, and Giant. In this work, George Stevens Jr. both celebrates the life of his acclaimed father and recalls his own distinguished career. The

with his father’s upbringing in California as the son of silent film star

readers with behind-the-scenes anecdotes about Hollywood stars from the 1940s through the 2000s. The volume recounts, for instance, how James Stewart rejected a leading part in a film about racial violence in Georgia because the role supposedly did not “align with Jimmy’s conservative views.” The author also devotes sig nificant space to interactions with politicians, in particular his close relationship with American presidents that spanned his early involvement with the Lyndon B. Johnson administration in creating the National Endowment for the Arts through his tenure as co-chair of Barack Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. As founder of the American Film Institute (which received initial financial support from Johnson) and co-founder of the Kennedy Center Honors, the author pro vides a rare glimpse into the intersection of Hollywood and Washington, D.C., and their occasionally conflicting agendas.

and it

The author recalls, for instance, John F. Kennedy supposedly relaying an obscenity-laden remark to Jack Warner of Warner Brothers after shutting down a screening of the movie Marines, Let’s Go in disgust. The book also relates a subsequent tense conversation between Kennedy confidant Pierre Salinger and Warner about the would-be director of the film PT 109. And while at times self-indulgent, the volume is written by a born storyteller who is at his best when regaling readers with inti mate stories from his heyday as a central figure in Hollywood and representative of the film industry in Washington. In addi tion to ample name-dropping, the work includes myriad histori cal photographs, newspaper clippings, handwritten letters from celebrities and presidents, and other visual aids, making for an engaging read that will intrigue any fan of classic cinema. A gripping glimpse into 20th-century Hollywood.

MEDIA

HERBERT SIMON

President

MARC WINKELMAN

KUEHN

IN THE SHADOW OF THE APENNINES

Sullivan, Kimberly Self (366 pp.)

$4.99 e-book | Oct. 21, 2022

Following a divorce, a middle-aged woman moves to Italy’s Abruzzo region in Sullivan’s novel.

Samantha Burke envisions a fresh start in the town of Marsicano over looking the Apennine Mountains. She carries the romantic idea of returning to writing after years of marriage in which she devoted herself to her now-ex-husband Michael’s aca demic career. The town offers her a needed respite. Its beauty and quiet inspire Samantha to purchase a cottage there. Slowly, she begins renovations and meets Elisabetta, the daughter of the town’s innkeeper, who introduces Samantha to Marsicano life. However, Samantha finds that she’s unable to write. Elisa betta joins her on daily jogs, mountain bicycle rides, and a trip to the nearby town of Pescina, which was devastated by a 1915 earthquake. An unexpected twist changes Samantha’s relation ship with the townspeople and ultimately isolates her from them. During this time, she becomes intrigued by a girl named Elena’s journals, which she finds in her new house along with a picture: “Slipping the ancient photo from the pages, I caress the well-worn corner of the image with my thumb. A young girl stands amid a flock of sheep, the craggy mountains in the distance.” Over the course of this novel, Sullivan offers read ers detailed descriptions of Marsicano that will draw readers into this picturesque region of Italy, highlighting the gorgeous views—“The sun hung low in the sky now, casting a pink glow over the craggy mountains. The silence was heavenly, broken only by the rustling of the trees and the chirping of the birds”— and local food, including “Ribbons of perfectly formed coils of chitarra pasta.” Along the way, the story engagingly alternates among flashbacks to Samantha’s life before Marsicano, Elena’s story, and what Samantha learns about various people in her present life.

A poignant and hopeful story of one woman’s search for herself.

FOOTPRINTS ACROSS THE PLANET

Swanson, Jennifer Reycraft Books (40 pp.) $17.95 | $8.95 paper | Aug. 11, 2022 978-1-4788-7603-8 978-1-4788-7604-5 paper

Footprints show the impact of human actions on Earth in this eco-friendly nonfiction picture book.

Swanson’s simple text, accompanied by clear, detailed photography, highlights the many different sizes and shapes of footprints. A photo of an elephant’s large prints shows a

child leaping from one to the next alongside a photograph of the animals walking. Small footprints of insects and other animals are shown before the work showcases a diverse array of human footwear. Footprints “capture adventures at the greatest heights,” the book notes, showing paths on moun tains and on the moon. The text moves on to metaphorical footprints, suggesting that young activists follow in the steps of historical changemakers, then briefly addresses digital and carbon footprints, further explained in notes at the back. Swanson’s accessible text is tailored to emergent readers, with few pages featuring more than one sentence; most passages stretch over multiple pages. The metaphorical footprints are likely to require adult discussion about what it means to leave behind traces of one’s actions. The selection of uncredited photos is excellent, with images from history and nature that are well suited to each idea; Rosa Parks and Greta Thunberg are among the changemakers featured. The text doesn’t name many of them, though, which will leave readers who don’t rec ognize them at a loss.

An excellent choice for nature-loving elementary readers.

Seen & Heard

dispatches from the book world

BY MICHAEL SCHAUB

TOM HANKS TO PUBLISH HIS FIRST NOVEL IN 2023

Tom Hanks is returning to the world of fiction with a novel that will be pub lished next spring, People magazine reports.

Knopf is set to publish the Oscar-winning actor’s The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, which the press calls “a novel about the making of a star-studded, multimillion-dollar superhero action film…and the humble comic books that inspired it.”

The novel chronicles the production of a film based on a 1970 comic book about World War II. “We meet the film’s extremely difficult male star, his wonderful leading lady, the eccentric writer/director, the producer, the gofer production assistant, and everyone else on both sides of the camera,” Knopf says.

The book will be Hanks’ second work of fiction, following Uncommon Type, a 2017 collection of short stories inspired by the actor’s large typewriter collection. A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “While these stories have the all-American sweetness, humor, and heart we associate with his screen roles, Hanks writes like a writer, not a movie star.”

Hanks told People that filmmaking “is the greatest job in the world and the most confounding of labors that I know of. I hope the book captures as much of ‘the accidental judgements and casual slaughter’ that go into a motion pictures dictum to hold ‘a mirror up to nature’ that I have witnessed (and caused) since I joined the Screen Actors Guild.”

The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece is scheduled for publication on May 9, 2023.

WINNERS OF DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE REVEALED Honorée Fanonne Jeffers and Clint Smith are the winners of this year’s Dayton Literary Peace Prize, given annually to “writers whose work uses the power of literature to foster peace, social justice, and global understanding.”

Jeffers won the fiction award for The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, her novel about an aspiring historian who is determined to uncover the stories of her ancestors. Jeffers’ novel was an Oprah’s Book Club pick, a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, and the winner of a National Book Critics Circle Award.

Smith took home the nonfiction prize for How the Word Is Passed: A Reck oning With the History of Slavery Across America, which reflects on the role slavery has played in shaping the nation’s present. The book was a National Book Critics Circle Award winner and a finalist for PEN America’s John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction.

Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation founder Sharon Rab said in a statement that the books “remind us just how much our collective history and, indeed, individual lives have been shaped by the legacy of slavery.”

“From different perspectives, Jeffers and Smith show us the depth of America’s scars, and how much is yet to be done before we can hope for peace,” Rab said.

The foundation also named two runners-up for the awards: JoAnne Tompkins’ What Comes After in fiction and Andrea Elliott’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Invisible Child in nonfiction.

The Dayton Literary Peace Prize was established in 2006. Previous winners have included Viet Thanh Nguyen for The Sympa thizer and Chanel Miller for Know My Name

Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.

Brendon Thorne/Getty Images

Sydney A. Foster

Tom Hanks

Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

APPRECIATIONS | Gregory McNamee Norman Maclean and the Inferno

On Aug. 5, 1949, lightning crashed down in the vast spruce forest above Seeley Lake, Montana, and touched off a roaring blaze.

Every Westerner knows that lightning means fire. With climate change has come more of both. Many more fires will scar California, Oregon, Colorado before this year is out. Many have already blazed, some in the mountains above my southern Arizona home. We have come to expect such things.

The fire that raged through Mann Gulch, Montana, immediately grew enormous, the sort of fire that used to occur only once every few decades back then. A battery of paratrooper-firefighters, many of them veterans of World War II, had been anticipating it. The smoke jumpers, as they were called, thrived on fire, on the thrill of confronting and extinguishing it. And before the day ended, 13 lay dead.

Montana-bred Norman Maclean (1902-1990), best known for the fictionalized memoir A River Runs Through It, saw plenty of fires as a teenager, when he battled blazes in the place of men sent off to Europe during World War I. When news of the Mann Gulch fire spread across the nation, he was teaching English literature at the University of Chicago, one of the foremost Shakespeare scholars of his day. He knew the roar of flames, and the tragedy haunted him, so much so that when he retired from teaching in 1973, he immediately set about writing the story that would become his posthumously published 1992 book, Young Men and Fire

It’s a scarifying read. Maclean had a horror of dying by fire, writing, “burning to death on a mountainside is dying at least three times.…First, considerably ahead of the fire, you reach the verge of death in your boots and your legs; next, as you fail, you sink back in the region of strange gases and red and blue darts where there is no oxygen and here you die in your lungs; then you sink in prayer into the main fire that consumes.”

The 13 young men died, Maclean argues, for many reasons, none defensible. Though tough and resourceful, the smokejumpers had received only three weeks of training. Their U.S. Forest Service leaders were ineffective. Most damning, the fire fighters were misdirected: Where they should have approached the fire by a side canyon, they were ordered from a distant command post, long before the days of GPS and satellite imagery, to advance straight up a hill side leading to Mann Gulch. The fire racing downhill caught them before they could save themselves.

The lessons of August 1949 were not entirely lost. Federal firefighters received better instruction. The burial benefit was doubled to $400. And the Forest Service began to understand that not all fires need to be fought, that fire clears dead undergrowth and fertilizes the soil with ash.

Even so, firefighters die, and horrifically, as when 19 Arizona firefighters were trapped and incinerated by another lightning-caused fire in 2013. They do not have their Young Men and Fire—not yet, anyway—a book that offers somber testimonial to those who perished in flames in the Montana woods all those years ago.

Norman Maclean in the classroom, 1970.