July 1, 2011: Volume LXXIX, No 13

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REVIEWS

t h e nat i o n ’s p r e m i e r b o o k r e v i e w j o u r na l f o r mo r e t h a n 7 5 y e a rs

fiction

nonfiction

children & teens

★ Lev Grossman makes a triumphant return with a great fantasy spiked with bitter wisdom p. 1082

★ Charles C. Mann takes on the modern world in a spellbinding history sure to fascinate p. 1116

★ The Watts Towers rise again in Diana Hutts Aston & Susan L.Roth’s inspiring book p. 1132

★ A Muslim architect creates controversy in Amy Waldman’s stellar debut set post-9/11 p. 1093

★ The history of typefaces, some 560 years old, is brought to light by Simon Garfield p. 1108

★ Conor Kostick’s far-future trilogy comes to a colossal close, again asking: What is real? p. 1146

★ Reginald Hill pens a dark, compelling psychological thriller about betrayal and revenge p. 1082

★ Patricia Bosworth recounts the life of American icon Jane Fonda in an engrossing book p. 1103

★ Young Eddie comes of age on the homefront in Carol Fisher Saller’s loving verse novel p. 1154

Marcia Talley talks of death; Roz Southey goes dancing; Russell Banks remembers; Max Barry rages against the machine; Patricia Marx gets happy; Michael Ridpath explores some shadowy places; Maxine Swann takes her heroine to Buenos Aires; and much more v i s i t k i rku sre vi e ws. com f or f ull versions of f eatures, q & as and thou sa n ds of archived reviews

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

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interactive e-books p. 1073 fiction p. 1077 mystery p. 1094

science fiction & fantasy p. 1100 nonfiction p. 1101

children & teens p. 1131 kirkus indie p. 1174

Chairman H E R B E RT S I M O N # President & Publisher M A RC W I N K E L M A N Editor E L A I N E S Z E WC Z Y K eszewczyk@kirkusreviews.com Managing/Nonfiction Editor E R I C L I E B E T R AU eliebetrau@kirkusreviews.com Features Editor M O L LY B RO W N molly.brown@kirkusreviews.com

Unceasing Wonders

BY VI C K Y SMI T H

Children’s & YA Books VICKY SMITH vicky.smith@kirkusreviews.com Kirkus Indie Editor P E R RY C RO W E perry.crowe@kirkusreviews.com Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH Editorial Coordinator REBECCA CRAMER rebecca.cramer@kirkusreviews.com

Brian Selznick didn’t have to do it.

He didn’t have to return to the groundbreaking pictures-and-text format that stunned the children’sbook world in 2007 and won him an unlikely—though entirely deserved—Caldecott medal for The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Weighing in at about two pounds, the 500-plus page tome combined textual and visual storytelling in a way no one had quite seen before.

In a world where the new becomes old in the blink of an eye, Selznick could have honorably rested on his laurels and returned to the standard 32-to-48–page picture-book format he has already mastered. He didn’t have to try to top himself.

But he has.

If Hugo Cabret was a risky experiment that succeeded beyond Selznick and publisher Scholastic’s wildest dreams (well, maybe not Scholastic’s—they dream big), his follow-up, Wonderstruck, is a far riskier enterprise. In replicating the storytelling format of Hugo, Selznick begs comparisons that could easily find Wonderstruck wanting or just seem stale.

Like its predecessor, this self-described “novel in words and pictures” opens with a cinematic, multipage, wordless black-and-white sequence: Two wolves lope through a wooded landscape, the illustrator’s “camera” zooming in to the eye of one till readers are lost in its pupil. The scene changes abruptly, to Gunflint Lake, Minn., in 1977. Prose describes how Ben Wilson, age 12, wakes from a nightmare about wolves. He’s three months an orphan, living with his aunt and cousins after his mother’s death in an automobile accident; he never knew his father. Then the scene cuts again, to Hoboken in 1927. A sequence of Selznick’s now-trademark densely crosshatched black-and-white drawings introduces readers to a girl, clearly lonely, who lives in an attic room that looks out at New York City and that is filled with movie-star memorabilia and models—scads of them—of the skyscrapers of New York.

Readers know that the two stories will converge, but Selznick keeps them guessing, cutting back and forth with expert precision. Both children leave their unhappy homes and head to New York City, Ben hoping to find his father and the girl also in search of family. The girl, readers learn, is deaf; her silent world is brilliantly evoked in wordless sequences, while Ben’s story unfolds in prose. Both stories are equally immersive and impeccably paced.

The two threads come together at the American Museum of Natural History, Selznick’s words and pictures communiWONDERSTRUCK cating total exhilaration (and conscious homage to The MixedBrian Selznick up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler). Hugo brought the bygone Scholastic (640 pp.) excitement of silent movies to children; Wonderstruck shows them the thrilling possibilities of museums in a way Night at $29.99 the Museum doesn’t even bother to.

Sept. 13, 2011 Visually stunning, completely compelling, Wonderstruck 978-0-545-12789-2 demonstrates a mastery and maturity that proves that, yes, lightning can strike twice.

for more re vi e ws and f eatures, vi si t u s on li n e at k irkusreviews.com

Lifestyles Editor KAREN CALABRIA kcalabria@kirkusreviews.com Contributing Editor G REG ORY Mc NAME E # for customer service or subscription questions, please call 877-441-3010 Kirkus Reviews Online www.kirkusreviews.com Print indexes: www.kirkusreviews.com/ book-reviews/print-indexes Kirkus Blog: www.kirkusreviews.com/blog Advertising Opportunities: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/ advertising-opportunities Submission Guidelines: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/ submission-guidlines Subscriptions: www.kirkusreviews.com/ subscription Newsletters: www.kirkusreviews.com/ subscription/newsletter/add This Issue’s Contributors Maude Adjarian • Mark Athitakis • Joseph Barbato • Gerald Bartell • Amy Boaz • Julie Buffaloe-Yoder • Marnie Colton • Kelli Daley • Michelle Daugherty • Dave DeChristopher • Gregory F. DeLaurier • David Delman • Kathleen Devereaux • Daniel Dyer • Lisa Elliott • Julie Foster • Peter Franck • Bob Garber • Amy Goldschlager • Christine Goodman • Michael Griffith • Jeff Hoffman • Robert M. Knight • Paul Lamey • Louise Leetch • Angela Leroux-Lindsey • Peter Lewis • Elsbeth Lindner • Swapna Lovin • Joe Maniscalco • Don McLeese • Gregory McNamee • Carole Moore • Clayton Moore • Liza Nelson • Mike Newirth • John Noffsinger • Sarah Norris • Mike Oppenheim • Hyacinth Persad • Jim Piechota • Gary Presley • John T. Rather • Karen Rigby • Lloyd Sachs • Bob Sanchez • Rebecca Shapiro • William P. Shumaker • Wendy Smith • Margot E. Spangenberg • Andria Spencer • Claire Trazenfeld • Steve Weinberg • Carol White • Chris White

interactive e-books interactive e-books for children THE CAT THAT WOULDN’T MOVE

Boter, Iris Illustrator: Boter, Iris Developer: Orange Books $4.99 | Version: 1.0 Mar. 25, 2011 A sloppy story about an obese cat that helps two people find each other and fall in love.

This app from the Netherlands (which can be read in English, German or Dutch) is apparently a digital adaptation of a previously published picture book. Dan and his young daughter Rose have a problem. Their corpulent cat is so fat he won’t budge from the sofa.

The British-accented narrator explains, “Rose would come over and tickle his botty [sic] / so the cat could sit up and pee in a potty.” The gigantic cat lifts his rear end over the arm of the couch and urinates in a bowl a held by Rose (a bit much for the intended preschool audience).

Dan takes the couch to a secondhand store (cat and all); the owner, Ann, becomes rich and famous due to the cat; Dan and Ann end up meeting and fall in love on the spot. Many of the rhymes are a stretch (night/cried, for example), and the story line is so precipitous, slapdash and incongruous it’s difficult to embrace, making one wonder if a lot got lost in translation (which is uncredited). Touch-activated animations are minimal and do little to nothing to drive the story. On the positive side, illustrations are crisp, and navigation is smooth, but neither asset is enough to save this app from the “skip it” pile.

A silly, hollow and ultimately unsatisfying tale. (iPad storybook app. 4-7)

FIERCE GREY MOUSE

Bourgonje, Chantal Illustrator: Bourgonje, Chantal Developer: Tizio BV $4.99 | Version: 1.0.1 May 16, 2011

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Little Grey Mouse aims to become fierce in this winsome story about child’s play and make-believe.

Dutch illustrator/writer Bourgonje makes her app debut with this charming tale. One ordinary day, a small grey mouse decides he wants to be fierce. He imagines behaving like a wild animal. He does exercises to develop strong muscles and then puts them to use by practicing his pouncing skills. After combing his hair like a ruffian and eating a good breakfast, the ferocious wee rodent climbs a tree and waits for someone to pounce on. Along come his friends, and a day of jubilant play ensues. The app functions much like an animated storyboard; the backgrounds are lush watercolor-like stages that characters perform on. All text is comprised of what appears to be cutout magazine letters (a breath of fresh air in a medium largely dominated by standard typeface). And when tapped, the mouse and his “prey” all yield endearing sound effects. Navigation is a cinch. Interactive animation is abundant, but perhaps the app’s most striking asset is that it has a strong, well-written story, which is beautifully narrated in English, Dutch or Spanish.

All in all, it stands a stellar example of what happens when good art, good stories and good technology collide.

Here’s hoping that Bourgonje will offer up more. (iPad storybook app. 2-8)

GOOSED UP RHYMES HD

Developer: Brain Freeze Entertainment $3.99 | Version: 1.04 Jun. 3, 2011 Eight Mother Goose rhymes as HannaBarbera would have animated them, complete with absurd asides, goofy voices, unsubtle illustrations and silly anachronisms.

For each nursery rhyme (Humpty Dumpty, Little Miss Muffet, Old Mother Hubbard, The Crooked Man, Jack and Jill, Hey Diddle Diddle, Three Blind Mice and Twinkle Twinkle), Mother Goose automatically reads the traditional text (with words highlighted as they’re read) while it is comically visualized and commented upon in the background. For example, after Miss Muffet makes an overly dramatic exit from the scene, the spider looks out at readers and complains, “Well, what was that all about? A spider’s got feelings, ya know. You’d think she’d seen a cockroach.” After the narrated cartoon, readers can replay it, display the text again (touching individual words to hear them) or tap to discover the seven to eight hidden surprises on each page. There are three extra game screens (one is “Wacky Mice,” in which readers have to hammer the farmer’s wife when she pops up) as well as an overall challenge to collect acorns for an Alvin the Chipmunk–type squirrel that keeps appearing.

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The creators, Brain Freeze Entertainment, acknowledge their debt to the Saturday-morning-cartoon standbys in the credits.

An animated and interactive introduction to Mother Goose that probably won’t impress adults but will keep the preschool set happily engaged. (iPad nursery-rhyme app. 1-4)

SPOT THE DOT

Carter, David A. Developer: Unicorn Labs Developer: Ruckus Mobile Media $3.99 | Version: 1.0 May 25, 2011 The Picasso of paper engineers (One Red Dot, 2005, etc.) displays a dab hand at concocting even more thoroughly interactive explorations of shape and color for touchscreens.

At a genial narrator’s invitation (followed by a hearty “Good Job!” after each successful poke), children spot and touch ten dots, each a different color, on as many screens. Said dots are concealed with increasing sophistication, from easy-peasy early ones placed on a checkered background or, Concentration style, under opaque covers. More difficult screens feature a movable “spotlight” that illuminates shapes behind a black screen and tumbling arrays of circles, squares, stars and hearts of various size and hue. Spying the final, white, dot in a dazzling multi-screen maze of geometric forms will challenge the sharpest eyes, and should probably not be attempted by the easily irritated. The graphics are bright and simple, the pace is entirely controlled by the viewer, all of the dots will be in different places on subsequent visits to their respective pages, and all can also be hunted down in any order.

Clean of look, seamless in design: a delight even for the diapered crowd. (iPad game app. 1-6)

MUTANT ABCS

Ferguson, Dwayne Illustrator: Ferguson, Dwayne Developer: DIEHARD Studio $3.99 | Version: 1.0 Apr. 19, 2011 A crash-landed ship of alien mutants is a convenient-enough framing device to teach kids with strong stomachs about the alphabet in this nicely drawn abecedary.

The aliens (did they really need to be mutants, too?) arrive on Earth, and it turns out that, “Luckily, they were all shaped like the letters in our alphabet.” (Readers of Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek or any other the other non-Roman alphabets need not apply.) The brief set-up is followed by 26 pages of bulgy, bug-eyed, grinning and entirely silly aliens. “A” is for “Alien,” of course, but there’s also the more obscure “K” for “Kraken” and one-eyed “Q” for “Quake.” (“X” is for “X-rays”—ho-hum.) Each profile page prominently features the letter in lower- and upper-case with an option to have the word 1074

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read aloud. There’s also a small envelope on each page; tapping on it reveals a secondary word that’s less monster-focused and often more clearly associated with the letter. “C” may be for “Cyclops,” but “Cake” is even better. Most amusing is the high-pitched, enthusiastic voice work. “Lizard” is accompanied by a subtle but effective clicking of the tongue, and “Panic” is appropriately panicky. A final page shows all the aliens together as the alphabet.

Unfortunately, there’s not much more to the app. It’s a good, nontraditional primer, and the aliens couldn’t be more cute/disgusting for the kinds of kids who prefer slime over fairy dust.

There are dozens of features that could have been piled on to such a rich idea, but the app keeps things simple and focused. Who needs sideshows when the mutants are front and center? (iPad alphabet book. 3-7)

ONCE UPON A POTTY

Frankel, Alona Illustrator: Frankel, Alona Developer: Oceanhouse Media $2.99 | Version: 1.08; May 31, 2011 Interactive and entertaining, this 1975 classic that has been introducing kids to the potty for years adapts well to the iPad, integrating amusing sound effects, interesting use of page transition and even a sing-a-long.

The app is available in both male and female versions, and the differences between the two are limited to the anatomically obvious and slight variations in color. In both texts, the child’s mother is the primary narrator, pouring on the enthusiasm as she energetically cheers on Prudence or Joshua (depending on the edition). A gender-neutral child’s voice is heard throughout and is used effectively as a teaching tool, especially when tapping illustrations of the child. An early page introduces the child’s body, and a tap of the child’s head announces “head”; the critical body parts are “peepee” and “little hole,” regardless of gender. However, some body parts, such as the belly button, trigger musical sound effects that are silly but not informative, which helps to keep the instructional tone light. Additional sound effects, which are activated by tapping various objects, lean toward the comical. For example, a tap of the potty elicits cheers and fanfare when the child finally succeeds in appropriately using it. Finally, where possible, tapping objects in the illustrations highlights the text word as it is pronounced.

A familiar story and illustrations enhanced with interactivity give this classic new life. (iPad storybook app. 1-3)

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KUNG FU PANDA 2 STORYBOOK

Developer: FrogDogMedia LLC $2.99 | Version: 1.

May 17, 2011

Po the Panda is back to master Kung Fu, fight villains |

“Less a fleshed-out story than a virtual cat toy for iPad, this app nevertheless charms on the strength of its oddly proportioned feline star.” from benny the cat

and, ultimately, discover the truth about his own identity.

This branded tie in for the iPad arrived in the App Store just in time for the release of the new film with the same name. Po is working on finding inner peace, a necessary part of his Kung Fu training. Along the way (as is often the case in silver-screen blockbusters) conflicts ensue, action commences and resolution is ultimately found. An articulate narrator tells the story, with help from the film’s cast, including Jack Black, Angelina Jolie and Dustin Hoffman (audio clips from the movie provide all dialogue). The visuals are taken straight from the computer graphics of the film, which means that images are vibrant, lasersharp and as close to 3D as they can be without actually being 3D. There are three ways to read the story: read-to-me, read-itmyself, or fully automated (in which page turns are mechanized).

Beyond page-turning and highlighted text, the only interactive element is the “Create-A-Scene” feature, which functions much like a glorified sticker book. However, the beautiful graphics and the creative fusion of narration with actual audio from the film will quite likely put fans of the Dreamworks movie over the moon.

A motionless but gorgeous adaptation of a slick Hollywood kid flick. (iPad storybook app. 5-9)

BENNY THE CAT

Hak, Tamar Illustrator: Hak, Tamar Developer: Touchoo $2.99 | Version: 1.0 Apr. 15, 2011 Less a fleshed-out story than a virtual cat toy for iPad, this app nevertheless charms on the strength of its oddly proportioned feline star.

Benny, an orange cat who appears to be suffering from an illustrative ailment that causes his blocky head to appear much larger than normal, is a sweet, accommodating kitty. Across about 12 animated pages, Benny’s narrator asks readers to help choose what Benny will eat, what toy he should play with and (in one page that might not thrill parents) where “to do peepee.” Readers trigger animations by tapping the screen or moving things around, like opening windows to find Benny hiding outside or rolling a ball of yarn his way. The text favors simplicity over style. “Let’s make Benny’s bed!” one of the last pages invites, suggesting readers move a blanket, pillow and stuffed toy into the cat’s sleeping area. The app wouldn’t pull any of it off if Benny himself weren’t cute. The blue-eyed cat purrs with appreciation, whines slightly with disapproval if you pick a wrong object and meows with delight when the correct one is selected. The sound effects and narration aren’t overdone, and the features are minimal. Readers can record their own audio and enter a name at the start to list the app’s owner.

It may seem slight compared to more heavily produced ventures, but Benny’s bite-sized app (and oversized head) may be just the right fit for some. (iPad storybook app. 2-6)

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THE DAY THE MUSIC STOPPED

Developer: The Juno Company $2.99 | Version: 1.0 May 11, 2011

Juno and little brother Rai Rai travel to make-believe musical land Harmonia Springs, where they learn about music and how to appreciate it.

Before her arrival in the app world, Juno’s creator, Belinda Takahashi, had already won an Emmy (2007) for her DVD series Juno Baby. Much like her video fare, this interactive iPad app aims to help children understand musical terms and basic concepts, including melody, harmony and rhythm. The app is quite ambitious, as it combines games, video, songs and puppetry to both form and enhance the story line. Readers move Juno and Rai Rai through the story using reappearing arrows; sometimes the siblings land on a static page (where characters bob affably while successive text boxes appear), while on others they simply direct readers to games or video segments. A “chapter” menu makes it easy to navigate the various elements of the story, and with the exception of one 15-second load time and a couple of crashes, functionality is swell. The games are clever and effective in teaching concepts, and the boy-band and beatbox nods are sure to elicit grins from kids and parents alike.

The individual components of this app are clearly above average, but presented as a whole they seem a bit overwhelming, particularly for younger readers; it’s hard not to think that less could’ve been more. Still, it’s a brilliant concept and quite well done. (iPad storybook app. 3-6)

POP OUT! THE TALE OF SQUIRREL NUTKIN

Potter, Beatrix Illustrator: Potter, Beatrix Developer: Loud Crow Interactive $1.99 | Version: 1.0 May 12, 2011

Not as stunning or surprising as Loud Crow Interactive’s previous Potter adaptation, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, its take on her subsequent, squirrel tale is nevertheless a clever, faithful retelling.

The app, about a rogue red squirrel who pushes an owl too far with his persistent pestering and riddles, is nearly identical in its design to its Pop Out! predecessor. It features spring-loaded takes on the original illustrations that can be wiggled, prodded and, in some cases, moved by paper-like tabs. Fastidious narration and an effort to make the pages resemble a beloved old book work nicely (there’s even a grain to the off-white pages and an ever-present small bookmark). At just over 50 pages, plus animated endpapers, it feels substantial without overstaying its welcome. The chittering

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squirrels and the harumphing owl, Old Brown, are enlivened by well-crafted audio cues. Objects like falling leaves or eggs can be touched, making them pop out of the page’s scene. While the story of Nutkin, a troublemaker who loses a chunk of his tail due to his mischief, is fresh as ever, the multiple riddles may be tricky to solve for younger readers. Luckily, Potter helpfully hid the solution for each riddle as a word on the same page as each puzzle.

While Peter Rabbit was a groundbreaking app, this one suffers not at all from building over the same template: It is elegance defined. (iPad storybook app. 2-10)

NIBBLY’S NOSE

Saltzberg, Barney Illustrator: Saltzberg, Barney Developer: Mochi Development, Inc. $0.99 | Version: 1.0.1 May 6, 2011 Charming mice ask Nibbly the bunny to point out his

various body parts.

This app is clearly designed for the diaper/toddler set, so it’s no surprise that the design is basic. There’s no animation, no touch-activated features except page flips and scrolls (the pages “turn” downward rather than left to right) and a doorbell that rings when touched. Dialogue is conveyed in comic-style bubbles, and the story is framed entirely in a question-and-answer format. Each page is a split screen, with a mouse on one side asking a question, such as “Where is your mouth, Nibbly?” Nibbly is seen on the right, holding a beach ball in front of his mouth. When touched, Nibbly’s half of the screen flips over, and he responds, “Right here,” pointing to his now-visible mouth. The illustrations are cute and colorful, and the narrator’s voice is endearing. There is, however, a glaring navigation problem. Transitioning from page to page is smooth and fast, but once the story is over there’s no way to get back to the beginning. Even if readers close the app and switch off the iPad, when they return to the story once again they will land in the exact same place: the end. To start over, one must manually scroll the pages backward until they reach the beginning.

Navigation issue aside, Nibbly is a cute and welldesigned app that the littlest iPad users will likely enjoy. (iPad storybook app. 1-4)

OOBIE’S SPACE ADVENTURE

Seward, Rob Developer: VHS Design $0.00 | Version: 1.0.1 May 12, 2011

A little orange spud travels through space in a flying saucer in this diverting, yet too-short story of interstellar adventure.

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Oobie, a small, round blob with a tuft of purple hair, takes off from a planetary platform and is soon sailing through the cosmos, scoping out brightly colored planets, a friendly moon and even ricocheting comets and bouncing asteroids. The story’s 10 pages contain minimal text. Oobie’s encounter with our brightest star only reads, “and the Sun...” But the pages are competently narrated, and the navigation couldn’t be clearer or less cluttered: There are just two page-turning icons and a home button to get back to the main menu. Sound effects like echoes of space boulders banging together or the whoosh of a space warp aren’t exactly educational (the vacuum of space would preclude sound design, no matter how well done), but along with the simple colors and minimalist illustration style, the app seems ideal for the youngest readers. A theme song for the app at the end is disarmingly unpolished, but very cute. It’s puzzling that the best feature in the app, a “Playground” mode in which readers can fling Oobie around the screen and hear him speak (mostly in grunts or to cry “Ouch!” during mid-space collisions) is separate from the main story. Oobie reacts like a glob of slime, and it’s great fun to play around with the physics of his body and to watch him float among the stars (which can be played as musical notes).

Oobie’s space adventure ends far too soon, but the playground is an especially clever plaything in an app that will please many would-be astronauts. (iPad storybook app. 2-6)

ZANNY Born to Run

Sloane-Bradbury, Pamela Illustrator: Garwood, Allison Developer: Extra Special Kids $2.99 | Version: 1.02; May 26, 2011 Series: Extra Special Kids A hyperbolic portrait of a lad who operates only at top speed is paired to a bug-ridden recognition game.

Depicted with fixed, wide eyes and a maniacal grin in Garwood’s cartoon illustrations, Zanny dashes with a touchactivated “Wahoo!” through the house and a cloud of thrown breakfast cereal, then past slower children and various animals who exhaust themselves trying to keep up. Ultimately, watched over by fond parents, he zooms along to a total crash at bedtime.

Each scene features both automatic and touch-activated animations and sound effects. There is also a disappearing menu that includes a strip of page images and on-off switches for the auto-advance, the unobtrusive background music and the forcibly cheery audio narration. The less-than-inspired rhymed text runs to lines like “Swifter than a cheetah / even when he’s sick. / Quick Quick Quick, Quick Quick Quick Quick.” The app also includes a “Feelings Game” designed to provide practice in identifying facial expressions—but that provides disappointingly ambiguous choices in several cases.

Aimed at children with spectrum disorders, but likely to miss that audience—or any other. (iPad therapeutic app. 5-7)

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fiction UNSAID

SPELL BOUND

Abramson, Neil Center Street/Hachette (368 pp.) $23.99 | August 4, 2011 978-1-59995-410-3

Armstrong, Kelley Dutton (400 pp.) $25.95 | July 26, 2011 978-0-525-95220-6

The premise in lawyer and animalrights activist Abramson’s first novel— about a recently deceased veterinarian keeping her eye on the humans and animals she’s left behind—is that the “consciousness” of all living beings must be

respected equally.

A victim of breast cancer, Helena must resolve her responsibility for the animals whose lives she ended before she can ascend into a peaceful afterlife. Meanwhile, she hovers near those she loves: her dogs, cats, horses and pet pig as well as her lawyer husband David, her mentor and vet-practice partner Joshua, and her college friend Jaycee, now a researcher into animal intelligence. Orphaned in childhood, David has always had abandonment issues, and he is too numbed with grief to take adequate care of Helena’s equally grieving animals on their beautiful farm outside New York. Fortunately, Joshua suggests David hire Sally, an out-of-work vet tech. Sally’s a widowed mother; her young son Clifford has Asperger’s syndrome and a heightened sensitivity to animals, particularly to Helena’s dog Skippy, who suffers from a debilitating heart condition. Sally has unfinished romantic history with Joshua, who left his professorship at Cornell to became a country vet while anguished over his small son’s death. Helena and Jaycee met at Cornell working as students in a primate immunology study where they shared a sense of guilt over the research-motivated death of a bonobo in their care. More recently, Helena has helped Jaycee work with a 4-year-old chimp named Cindy whose language skills are comparable to a human 4-year-old. After the government shuts down her study, Jaycee gets caught breaking into her lab to save Cindy and hires David to defend her. Her employer/ researchers, who put human benefits of research above the risk to the animal subjects, seem heartless at best. The more morally evolved characters (most of them grieving a human loss) find solace mainly through their animal relationships.

Readers will either adore or despise this combination of animal-rights zealotry and love-conquers-all spirituality.

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Book 11 of a 12-volume urban fantasy series is merely preparation for what promises to be an epic climax.

At the end of the previous installment (Waking the Witch, 2010, etc.) witch/ sorcerer Savannah Levine thought to herself that she’d do anything, even give up her magic, if she could reunite an orphaned girl with her grandmother, imprisoned for killing two women. Unfortunately, someone heard Savannah’s desperate wish and granted it, even as a witch hunter, demons and a cult of supernatural immortality (and publicity) seekers attempt either to kill her or win her to their apocalyptic cause.

Entirely unused to operating without her powers, and still struggling with her feelings for half-demon Adam Vasic, 21-year-old Savannah must grow up quickly and prepare for battle (although against what it’s not quite certain). Before the many strands of the plot resolve into a single story line, readers may have some difficulty keeping track of everything. This is definitely the wrong place to jump into the series, which, despite the substantial supply of action sequences and copious exposition, is clearly an extended buildup for the final volume, which will, no doubt, be a supernatural smackdown of amazing proportions.

Unable to stand on its own, but fans should be happy enough. (Agent: Helen Heller)

LOST MEMORY OF SKIN

Banks, Russell Ecco/HarperCollins (432 pp.) $25.99 | September 27, 2011 978-0-06-185763-8

Banks (The Reserve, 2008, etc.) once again explores the plight of the dispossessed, taking a big risk this time by making his protagonist a convicted sex offender.

He hedges his bets slightly: The Kid is a 22-year-old who got jailed for showing up at a 14-year-old girl’s house with condoms, K-Y jelly, porn and beer after some sexy Internet chat. But Banks makes it clear that there are plenty of actual child molesters and “baby bangers” camped out with the Kid under a Florida causeway—because they’re prohibited from living 2,500 feet from

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“A timid scientist becomes a military grade bionic man in the latest corporate satire from Barry.” from machine man

any place children under 18 congregate, which is pretty much everywhere. It’s less clear whether the author agrees with the Professor, a sociologist specializing in the causes of homelessness, that pedophilia is a response to feelings of powerlessness and a disease of the modern media world that sexualizes children in advertising. Ambiguity rules in Banks’ knotty narrative of the Kid’s odyssey after police break up the encampment under the causeway (it’s an election year) and he loses his job as a busboy. Was the Professor really a government informer back in the 1960s? Are his former bosses trying to kill him, as he claims? Maybe, but it’s hard to tell. And Banks doesn’t make it easy to like the Kid, addicted to porn since he started watching it on the Internet at age 10 to blot out the sounds of his mother having sex with her various boyfriends, so isolated by his own wounds that other people don’t seem very real to him.

Though there’s plenty of plot, including a hurricane and a dead body fished out of a canal, the slow growth of the Kid’s selfknowledge and his empathy for others is the real story, offering the only ray of hope in an otherwise bleak consideration of a broken society and the damaged people it breeds.

Intelligent, passionate and powerful, but very stark indeed. (Author tour to Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and upon request)

MACHINE MAN

Barry, Max Vintage (288 pp.) $16.95 paperback | August 9, 2011 978-0-307-47689-0 paperback A timid scientist becomes a militarygrade bionic man in the latest corporate satire from Barry (Jennifer Government, 2003, etc.).

When we meet Charlie, the hero of the author’s fourth novel, he’s desperate to find the cell phone he’s misplaced. He spots it soon enough in one of his employer’s laboratories—he’s an industrial engineer at a corporation called Better Future—but pays a terrible price when he loses a leg in a heavy-duty clamp as he tries to retrieve it. The lesson ought to be that we should take care how attached we get to our gadgets, but Charlie’s takeaway is precisely the opposite; astounded at the progress made in prosthetic design and inspired with his own ideas to improve his artificial leg, he becomes convinced that technology can almost universally improve on flesh-and-blood anatomy. His doctors are aghast—especially when Charlie intentionally cuts off his other leg in the clamp—but he has a supporter in Lola, a prosthetics expert who becomes his love interest, and in his employers, who see lucrative military contracts in his creations.

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explores how much of the body can be mechanized, right down to heartbeats and synapses. A love story emerges, as does a kind of ersatz superhero plot where Charlie battles a rival rigged with similar prostheses. But the author takes care to return to the central question of how much of our humanity we’re willing to sacrifice for technology, and how much we already have.

Though this novel is notably darker than his other books, Barry still finds a smirking and at times uproarious way to expose our endless obsession with technological fixes. (Agent: Luke Janklow)

THE NIGHT STRANGERS

Bohjalian, Chris Crown (400 pp.) $25.00 | October 4, 2011 978-0-307-39499-6

Bohjalian’s (Secrets of Eden, 2010, etc.) latest effort finds its dark magick in a coven of herbalists, ghosts from an air crash and the troubled history of a derelict Victorian house.

Chip Linton was an experienced pilot for a regional airline, but the aircraft he was flying one sunny August day hit a flock of geese upon takeoff. Chip’s chance to duplicate the heroic flying skills of Sully Sullenberger and the miracle landing on the Hudson River are lost to a rogue wave in the middle of Lake Champlain. Thirty-nine people died during the emergency landing. Until that day, Chip’s life had been the American dream: a profession he loved; a beautiful wife with a successful law practice; adored 10-year-old twin daughters. Now Chip fights posttraumatic stress and has crashed into clinical depression. Emily Linton decides the family needs a new start. She persuades Chip to move to the White Mountains of New Hampshire where she’s found a gingerbreadtrimmed house crying for restoration. Emily joins a local law firm. The twins, Hallie and Garnet, try to fit in at school. And Chip goes to work remodeling the house, right down to obsessing over a door in the basement sealed by 39 carriage bolts. Chip, haunted by victims of the crash, wonders if the bolts are macabre symbols for the 39 dead. Like the Lintons, numerous houses around the small town have greenhouses, each owned and lovingly maintained by one of the herbalists. And the herbalists are especially interested in the Lintons’ twin daughters. The narrative develops an aura of malevolence early on, but perhaps too slowly for some horror fans. Many characters, especially all but one of the herbalists, seem one-dimensional. Some plot points are unresolved or take odd turns, perhaps in anticipation of a sequel. Chip’s story is the most compelling. It’s presented in the second person and closely parallels the fugue state that sometimes haunts those with depression.

A practical magick horror story with a not-entirelysatisfying resolution. (Author tour to Vermont, New Hampshire, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Iowa City, Austin)

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THE REDEMPTION OF GEORGE BAXTER HENRY

Bowman, Conor Permanent Press (140 pp.) $26.00 | August 1, 2011 978-1-57962-220-6

Husband cheats and mother-in-law pounces in this short, profane, cartoonish novel.

George Henry is partner in a Boston law firm, middle-aged and prosperous, long married to Pearl, his high-school sweetheart. Their sex life has dried up, and George has been having an affair with a hottie in his office building. Then Muriel finds out. She is the mother-in-law from hell, a sharp-tongued sitcom character who has never thought George good enough for her baby girl. Muriel was an Oscar-nominated movie star way back when, with a husband very distantly related to Elvis; now she’s a 91-year-old virago with an ultimatum for George: divorce or counseling. (Pearl doesn’t want a divorce but is afraid of her mother.) The counseling option mandates a time out, which is why, as the story begins, the family are flying to a rented chateau in the South of France. As well as Muriel, there are two teenagers, Billy and Iska. Billy is a super-talented rock musician with a cocaine addiction, so George won’t sign off on his contract unless his son stays clean for four weeks. (Ultimatum No. 2). All this sounds, in George’s narration, like a lame stand-up routine; he uses the F word often enough to rob it of all effectiveness. At first Billy steals the show, threatening to jump off the chateau roof unless George relents on the contract, but his dad locks him up and gets the drug out of his system. It’s George’s turn to act up when he meets the gorgeous Carmen. She owns the local patisserie and, guess what, is the world’s biggest Elvis fan.

The sex goddess offers herself to George and the two have daily workouts until Muriel catches them in flagrante. Her Polaroids appear to make divorce inevitable until George shows the old biddy his dossier exposing all her career scandals. Game over.

This Irish author’s dire second novel is a major disappointment after his powerful debut (The Last Estate, 2010).

LETHAL

Brown, Sandra Grand Central Publishing (480 pp.) $26.99 | September 20, 2011 978-1-4555-0147-2 An FBI agent, deep undercover, is the prime suspect in a mass murder and must uncover the corrupt forces behind the killings to clear his name.

When 4-year-old Emily tells her mother, Honor, that there’s a strange man in their backyard in Tambour, a small Louisiana bayou town, Honor is skeptical. But when she goes to check, the man, Coburn, accosts her. Holding her at gunpoint, Coburn ransacks |

her home, looking for something he won’t divulge—but it involves her late husband Eddie, a Tambour police officer killed in a suspicious car accident. Meanwhile, Tambour police, deputy sheriffs and twin brothers Doral and Fred, who were Eddie’s best friends, are searching for Coburn, a warehouse employee who allegedly shot his employer and six others and is now on the run. When Stan, Eddie’s father, grows suspicious, he directs the posse to Honor’s remote house. Finding nothing on Eddie, Coburn finally leaves, only to double back in time to shoot Fred, who has just arrived to check on Honor. Fred was ordered to kill Honor, Coburn claims, because the twins (and possibly Eddie before them) are in the employ of a sinister figure known only as the Bookkeeper who “facilitates” trans-border trafficking in humans, drugs and weapons. Now it’s unsafe for Honor and Emily to stay put—Doral will hunt her down. Still unwilling to believe that her husband, a decorated cop, was implicated in such depravity, Honor nevertheless flees with Coburn, Emily in tow. As they hide out on a deserted shrimp boat, Coburn bucks his Washington boss’s directive that he come in from the cold, and Honor fights her attraction to him (without success, naturally). Subplots involving a street thug who is the Bookkeeper’s chief enforcer, Honor’s brassy girlfriend Tori and her serial marriages, and an honest but ineffectual FBI officer and his wife, whose lives revolve around their severely disabled son, add some interest to a story line which is otherwise pat and predictable.

Standard Brown fare.

GIRLS IN WHITE DRESSES

Close, Jennifer Knopf (304 pp.) $24.95 | August 16, 2011 978-0-307-59685-7

Three young women and their friends navigate the tricky world of big-city adulthood after graduation.

Mary, Isabella and Lauren—the trio at the heart of this low-key coming-of-age—might not want to change the world, but they do hunger for lives more interesting than the marriage-and-babies routine that seems to have captured all their former schoolmates. Their story is told in a series of loosely connected chapters. The girls move to New York, fall for unworthy boys, find (and lose) jobs, all while attending an awful lot of weddings and bridal showers. Insecure wit Isabella comes from a big family and takes a dead-end position at a mailing-list company where she can go to work hungover, while Mary focuses on getting a law degree. Isabella and Mary share a tiny Manhattan apartment, prompting Isabella’s little suburban niece to wonder aloud if Auntie Iz is poor. Party-girl Lauren works as a waitress and begins sleeping with a “dirty sexy” bartender at her restaurant, before discovering a talent for selling real estate. Mary passes the bar and gets a job at a law firm where she has to work until 9 p.m. just to keep up. And after a string of disappointments, Isabella meets Harrison (not Harry), a catch so appealing she fully expects she will screw it up during

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“Collins resurrects hard-boiled private eye Nathan Heller in this celebrity-studded take on Marilyn Monroe’s death.” from bye bye baby

an especially challenging ski vacation. There is more, naturally, for the girls as they try to figure out who they are and what they really want, and their friendship evolves accordingly. With a light touch and utterly believable characters, Close’s modestly appealing debut manages to capture the humor, heartache and cautious optimism of her protagonists.

Wryly funny sketches of life in one’s 20s. (75,000 first printing. Author tour to New York and Washington, D.C.)

BYE BYE, BABY

Collins, Max Allan Forge (352 pp.) $24.99 | August 16, 2011 978-0-7653-2179-4 Collins resurrects hard-boiled private eye Nathan Heller in this celebritystudded take on Marilyn Monroe’s death in August 1962.

Heller, a Chicago-based private eye and celebrity magnet, is in California doing what he does best: hobnobbing with the rich, famous and notorious. One of those just happens to be the infamous sex goddess Monroe, who has hired Heller to tap her own phone. She has been feuding with her studio over a movie that shut down while filming, supposedly as a result of the actress’s instability.

She’s afraid the studio is pinning the movie’s failure to launch on her and wants the tapes as protection, but Heller finds out there’s many more people interested in Monroe’s private conversations besides studio bigwigs, including, but not limited to, the Kennedys, Frank Sinatra, J. Edgar Hoover, Jimmy Hoffa, Joe DiMaggio and some of the biggest and most notorious gangsters during Monroe’s time. Heller gets curious and starts piecing together the web in which Monroe has gotten herself caught and finds that very powerful men are very, very afraid of what the slightly unstable, but very beautiful, young woman might be planning. Then, when she turns up dead, Heller believes a coverup is underway and starts working to prove it. Collins writes the hard-boiled detective genre with a perfect ear, but his Heller is a tiresome name-dropper who has been involved in every event of historical importance in the proceeding 35 years, including Hugh Hefner’s purchase of the Playboy Mansion and the Bay of Pigs. Driving his white Jag, wearing his Botany 500 suits and stuffing his Ray-Bans in his pocket, Heller has sex with Monroe, gives advice to Bobby Kennedy and trades insider jokes with the Rat Pack. The author says he did a lot of research for the book, but sometimes the narrative reads more like a series of encyclopedia entries than fiction, and the character of Heller simply isn’t charming or interesting enough to rate so much attention from high-rollers.

Nothing new or very interesting in this rehashing of rumors surrounding Monroe’s death, even for those who were around when she died.

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ESCAPE

Delinsky, Barbara Doubleday (320 pp.) $25.95 | July 5, 2011 978-0-385-53272-3 A corporate attorney leaves her Manhattan cubicle for a small New Hampshire town, where she faces an agonizing choice.

Emily’s enervating job at a prestigious law firm is only a higher-paying version of a hectic call center. She sees little of her husband, James, who is immersed in his own 12-hour-aday struggle to make partner in a similar firm. The couple is too exhausted to enjoy the spoils of their labors assisting corporations to further crush the poor and downtrodden. Their love life is strictly scheduled around Emily’s fertile periods, to no avail, baby-wise. One day Emily just snaps, runs out on her life and heads for the last place she remembers feeling relaxed: Bell Valley, where her college roommate’s family runs a massive animal shelter, the Refuge. Nothing much has changed in Bell Valley when Emily arrives, other than the fact that her one-time roomie, Vicki, now owns the Red Fox, a B&B. Vicki’s brother, Jude, Emily’s first love, has been absent for a decade, traveling the world. Emily fled Bell Valley, she thought forever, when Jude broke up with her and impregnated his ex-girlfriend. Emily has received sporadic dispatches from Jude, the last from a crab boat in the Bering Sea. His dreaded return to Bell Valley, accompanied by the coyote that appears to be his spirit guide (and rapidly becomes Emily’s), once again discomfits feminine hearts, including Vicki’s—she resents Jude for being the prodigal son family matriarch Amelia welcomes home while taking vineyardtoiling Vicki for granted. James, stunned by Emily’s defection, is trying to woo her back, but not quite ready to abandon Manhattan. Emily finds contentment in working with rescue cats and pitting her legal skills against power and greed (for a change).

An improbable subplot involving Red Fox employee Lee, defrauded of her inheritance, is intended to inject thrills but falls far short of replacing the more essential conflicts Delinsky simply ducks. Arid stretches of boredom ensue.

No escapism here.

SPYCATCHER

Dunn, Matthew Morrow/HarperCollins (432 pp.) $25.99 | August 9, 2011 978-0-06-203767-1 A super elite M16 agent goes after an Iranian terrorist planning a massive attack, possibly in America or Great Britain, in this debut thriller.

Dunn, a former M16 officer, fashions a Nietzschean hero who looks poised to give Lee Child’s Jack Reacher a run for his readers.

The agent’s real name is Will Cochrane, but to the head of M16

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and the British Prime Minister (the only two who know of his existence) he is “Spartan,” a singular agent whose brutal physical training included a 100-mile trek—barefoot—through the Scottish Highlands in sub-freezing temperatures. Cochrane is a powerful, efficient killing machine, but his menace is leavened by some warm and appealing traits. He brews Scottish leaf tea and plays Segovia LPs on a Garrard turntable, all the time nursing wounds from his father’s violent demise, an event that propels him on his first case. Learning from sources that a small unit of Iranian terrorists known as “the Jerusalem force” plans “a huge massacre, the likes of which the world has never seen,” Cochrane’s M16 controller and the British PM set Cochrane after the unit’s leader, Megiddo. The strategy is to convince Lana Beseisu, a freelance journalist and a former courier for Megiddo, to lure the elusive terrorist into the open where Cochrane will capture him. Beseisu accepts the assignment and soon makes the desired contacts with Megiddo through intermediaries. The man is wily, however, constantly stalling off a direct meeting. A series of solidly described action set pieces ensue across Europe as Lana, a Mata Hari in the war on terrorism, goes after her quarry, and Cochrane waits for his high-noon moment with Megiddo.

After a while, the barriers Dunn throws in the way of his protagonists seem calculated to stretch out the plot, but action fans shouldn’t mind. This is twisty, cleverly crafted work.

THE GQ CANDIDATE

Goff, Keli Atria Books (384 pp.) $24.99 | July 5, 2011 978-1-4391-5872-2

The president is now not only black but also Jewish, and the tea partiers are having fits.

Well, not quite: Like Sammy Davis Jr., Luke Cooper wasn’t entirely born with those credentials, and the presidential election is still three years off when we meet him. Governor Cooper is one of the youngest state executives in the nation, and, as Goff writes by way of introduction, “widely recognized as a rising national star in the Democratic Party.” His wife Laura— try not to think of General Hospital—hates politics but is willing to support Luke as he follows his bliss, even willing to try to keep up with his sartorial splendor, for Luke knows how to rock an Armani suit. Although he’s been dubbed “the GQ Candidate,” he’s an amateur compared to some of the folks in his moneyed circle, powerful lawyers and hedge-fund managers who broker a dozen deals before breakfast and live lives befitting a Roman emperor. All of these things have political consequences; one of his confidants, for instance, figures in the news from time to time in articles “claiming that he had used his relationship with the governor as leverage for business opportunities,” with said confidant himself proclaiming, “The gov and I are like family. After all he wouldn’t be governor without me so you have |

nothing to worry about.” It’s anyone’s guess whether the author or the confidant is the one guilty of crimes against the English language, but this novel is flat and uninvolving, its characters shallow; what isn’t transparently borrowed from a certain reallife well-dressed president of color (hey, look, there’s Rahm Emanuel!) drifts by unremarkably. Goff ’s imagining of an ugly primary campaign in which mud is flung and bedclothes slung could have come from the headlines, too, while the stuff requiring imagination seems an afterthought.

The novel ends on a cliffhanger—all to the good, except it presupposes that the reader will have slogged through to the end of this overlong, unrewarding debut.

THE ORPHAN SISTER

Gross, Gwendolen Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster (304 pp.) $15.00 paperback | July 19, 2011 978-1-4516-2368-0 paperback The youngest of triplet sisters asserts her identity in Gross’ fourth novel (The Other Mother, 2007, etc.).

Although all three girls are very close, Clementine’s minutes-older sisters Odette and Olivia are identically beautiful and communicate with a telepathy Clementine, the odd sister out, can never quite match. Odette and Olivia are also both Harvard-educated, happily married doctors and currently pregnant. In contrast, Clementine graduated belatedly from Oberlin (barely acceptable to her high-achieving family) and is now living in her parents’ garage apartment in Princeton while applying to vet schools. She is also single, not yet over the drowning death of her college boyfriend Cameron. Then the triplets’ highly regarded, much sought-after neurosurgeon father doesn’t show up for his rounds one day and remains missing for more than a week. Dr. Lord has been a frequently absent but authoritative, demanding and loving über-dad who has left the day-to-day running of the family to Clementine’s mother, an accomplished and highly educated woman who gave up her career to care for him and the girls. When it becomes apparent that Dr. Lord has told only Olivia where he is, schisms begin to divide the triplets and their mother in new ways. Olivia and Odette no longer seem quite as much alike or united. Their mother’s utter faith in her husband begins to crack. And Clementine realizes that her friendship with Cameron’s roommate Eli, who is doing graduate work in Princeton, is deeper and perhaps less platonic than she’s tried to believe. Dr. Lord’s secret is anticlimactic. But the novel is less concerned with the vaguely out-of-sync details of Dr. Lord’s crimes than with the coming-into-selfhood of Clementine.

At its best, the novel delves into the sister relationships, but the triplet hook only goes so far to mitigate the annoying entitlement of the characters and the heavy-handed if familiar plot. (Agent: Jennifer Carlson)

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“A grim-dandy psychological thriller about betrayal and revenge set in England.” from the woodcutter

THE MAGICIAN KING

Grossman, Lev Viking (448 pp.) $26.95 | August 9, 2011 978-0-670-02231-1

Now a king in the magical land of Fillory, Quentin embarks on a quest to save the universe in Grossman’s searing sequel to The Magicians (2009, etc.).

It’s been two years since Quentin assumed one of Fillory’s four crowns along with Eliot and Janet, fellow graduates of the Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy, and Quentin’s high-school friend Julia, a Brakebills reject who managed to acquire magical powers on her own. Truth to tell, he’s a little bored with his cushy life at the Castle Whitespire, so he seizes on the excuse of a tax-collecting mission to sail for Outer Island, rumored to be the home of “the key that winds up the world.” It’s an ugly surprise when he and Julia find the key and it dumps them back in their hometown on Earth. Searching for a way back to Fillory, they learn that something is very wrong in the Neitherlands, the mysterious embarkation point that leads to all other worlds, and that the key they found is one of seven required to fend off an apocalypse. Interspersed chapters flash back to Julia’s dark adventures before she reunited with Quentin. She discovered a network of people sharing magical knowledge outside the approved Brakebills framework, and her prodigious skills eventually earned her entrance into an elite circle of brilliant, selftaught magicians seeking “an advance so radical it will take us into another league…we think there’s more to magic than what we’ve seen so far.” Indeed there is: The ancient forces recklessly summoned by Julia and her friends provoke a spectacular magical battle, a terrifying transformation for Julia and the loss of everything Quentin has ever wanted. Echoes from The Chronicles of Narnia, in particular The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, continue to reverberate, but Grossman’s psychologically complex characters and grim reckoning with tragic sacrifice far surpass anything in C.S. Lewis’ pat Christian allegory.

Fabulous fantasy spiked with bitter adult wisdom—not to be missed.

THE WOODCUTTER

Hill, Reginald Harper/HarperCollins (528 pp.) $25.99 | August 1, 2011 978-0-06-206074-7 A grim-dandy psychological thriller about betrayal and revenge set in England.

Sir Wilfred Hadda has risen far from his humble days as a woodcutter’s son.

Nicknamed both Wilf and Wolf, it’s the latter that follows him throughout the story. He’s handsome, rich, well-connected and married to a gorgeous upper-class woman. What more could a man want?

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Oh wait, there’s someone at the door. The authorities arrive with a warrant, something about fraud and child pornography.

In a panic at the false accusations, Wolf foolishly bolts into London traffic, with macabre consequences that are not for the squeamish reader. As an accused and apparently proven child molester, the tabloids crucify and the court convicts him. His trusted friend/lawyer abandons him, his wife divorces him, his business goes belly-up and he lands in prison. Only his physical toughness protects him from his pedophile-loathing fellow convicts. He simply cannot sink lower. The Swedish-Nigerian psychiatrist Alva Ozigbo (a beautiful woman, of course) tries to persuade him to face up to his obvious guilt. He vehemently protests his innocence, though admitting guilt may shorten his sentence. Years later he is released, but he is a pariah in the Cumbrian village where he was raised and chooses to return. He just wants to become a simple woodcutter, though he has questions for which he hires a private investigator. The answers may take a while, the P.I. tells him; what will you be doing in the meantime? “Sharpening my axe,” Wolf replies. Clearly, he had been set up. But by whom, and why? And what will he do about it? Doctor Ozigbo plays an intriguing secondary role as Wolf navigates the many dangerous twists and untangles the deceit that dates back for a generation.

Near the end, a character refers to the fate of “the dreadful, drab English.” There’s nothing drab about this dark and compelling novel, although some of its characters are dreadful human beings.

PIE TOWN

Hinton, Lynne Morrow/HarperCollins (288 pp.) $13.99 paperback | June 7, 2011 978-0-06-204508-9 paperback Hinton’s ninth novel is a feel-good tale in which an inexperienced priest, a wayward young woman and a terminally ill boy save the soul of a small town.

All you need to know about Pie Town, N.M., is that you can’t find any pie there.

It’s that kind of place, insular, wary and a little ornery, and nobody’s going to tell the only restaurant in town they have to serve pie. The only thing that brings the place together is Alex Begay, the sheriff ’s grandson, born with spina bifida, abandoned by his mother Angel and wise beyond his years. Into town come Father George, fresh from the seminary to his first parish, and Trina (she hitched a ride into Pie Town with Father George), a young woman with a hard past and a heart of gold. Alex takes a shine to her, Sheriff Begay rents her a room above his garage and she finds some waitressing work at the diner. As Alex’s condition worsens, he seems more concerned with the town than with his own survival (the spirit of his great-grandmother is always near him, guiding him). When the church burns to the ground, all fingers point toward an obviously pregnant Trina, and even though Father George knows the truth, his own crisis of faith and inability to counsel prevents him from helping her.

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More than anything, Alex wants Father George and Trina to stay in Pie Town, but in inspirational fashion, it is only through his death that he can save everyone. Most strikingly, Sheriff Begay and his ex-wife are reunited at Alex’s death (it was only their heartache over their daughter Angel that drove them apart), love is kindled between a waitress and an old rancher, Father George and Trina return and a church is rebuilt.

Heartfelt, Christian goodwill triumphs in this utterly predictable story. (Agent: Sally McMillan)

THE LAST FOUR THINGS

Hoffman, Paul Dutton (432 pp.) $25.95 | August 4, 2011 978-0-525-95218-3

Second installment of Hoffman’s bleak, ultra-violent pseudo-medieval trilogy, following The Left Hand of God (2010).

Redeemer General Bosco deems tormented boy-warrior Thomas Cale the Angel of Death, a suitable tool to help Bosco conquer the world, wipe out humanity and thus redeem it. Cale accepts the role, part of which involves a scheme to make Bosco the successor to the ailing Pope, despite numerous better-placed rivals. Scorning the brainwashed child-rabble that serves as the Redeemer army, Bosco helps Cale form a small but far more thoughtful and accomplished cadre of troops. After a few demonstrations of Cale’s berserker skills, these Purgators believe in Cale utterly. One of them even invents gunpowder.

Despite Cale’s battlefield victories, the Redeemers still have powerful enemies, most consequentially the Laconics, who employ highly trained pederast mercenaries; Cale’s engagement with them, the book’s most significant battle, reenacts one that actually occurred during the Boer War. Beautiful Arbell Materazzi, Cale’s lover and betrayer, complicates matters. Of Cale’s former companions, Kleist enjoys adventures of his own, while Vague Henri eventually turns up accompanied by much jolly banter. Plotwise, that’s about it. This time, the tone is predominantly grumpy. Hoffman continues to throw in random geographic references, mostly for comic relief (Spanish Leeds, for example, is in Switzerland). For the rest, readers will observe the erudite advantages conferred by an Oxford education, while the gnarled chunks of verbatim theology can only be interpreted as the author’s grim attempt to manage the rage engendered by an overly zealous religious upbringing.

Less a novel than a fictionalized dissertation on angst.

(Agent: Anthony Goff)

THE TWELFTH ENCHANTMENT

Liss, David Random (416 pp.) $26.00 | August 9, 2011 978-1-4000-6896-8 In this change of literary direction, Liss mixes his considerable knowledge of 19th-century England and its industrialization period with a touch of literal magic.

Sweet Lucy Derrick’s past luck has been anything but good. Her father favored eldest daughter Emily, but when Emily died, it brought him and Lucy closer together.

Then her father also passed away, leaving Lucy and Martha, the middle Derrick girl, without money or prospects. Martha selflessly married the disagreeable Mr. Buckles with the hopes that he would provide for both her and Lucy, but Buckles forced Lucy from the family home. That is how Lucy came to find herself under the roof of a dyspeptic uncle and his rotten-to-the-core retainer, Mrs. Quince. Lucy’s only suitor, a mill owner named Olson, makes hosiery in a dark, dirty place where women, children and the elderly toil under untenable conditions for slender wages. Olson, who has no redeeming qualities other than being one of the few successful businessmen in town, plans to marry Lucy, even though Lucy wants no part of him, although she acknowledges her prospects are dim. A youthful indiscretion with a much older man has tainted her in the eyes of many, although the runaway lovers were intercepted before anything could happen. Alone, relatively friendless and without resources, Lucy is amazed when the beautiful and mysterious Mary Crawford befriends her, and even more astounded when she finds unsuspected talents for practicing the art of magic.

Through Mary, Lucy discovers an innate ability to understand and cast spells, but at the same time, Lucy’s life is caught up in other things she does not understand: the burgeoning Luddite movement, a visit from a handsome, well-known nobleman and mounting fear engendered by shadowy dark creatures that others cannot see and do not realize are there. Liss writes in the almost formal style of that period and faithfully conveys England’s atmosphere during the early advent of mechanization, but the convoluted story moves at a tiresome pace.

This odd mixture of industrial history and the occult world lacks charm and coherency, but it earns points for ambition and characterization.

YOU DESERVE NOTHING

Maksik, Alexander Tonga Books (336 pp.) $15.00 paperback | September 1, 2011 978-1-60945-048-9 paperback A novel that examines the relationship between the public and shared experience of a lively—even magical— classroom, and the private world of a gifted but flawed teacher.

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“A boy grows into a man in the suffocating vacuum of his father’s abrupt and unresolved vanishing.” from starting from happy

Largely a character study of Will Silver, master teacher at the International School of France in Paris, the novel advances its narrative through multiple perspectives, much as Faulkner does in As I Lay Dying, one of the texts Will insists his students read. Will is a charismatic English teacher, one of those rare few who inspire a Dead Poets Society–type cult among the seniors in his philosophy and literature seminar. Based on their readings of Sartre, Camus, Faulkner, Shakespeare and Keats, he urges his students to raise questions about the way they live their lives and has them confront their own existential freedom and moral choices. But Will is caught in the irony of his own moral choices when he feels attracted to Marie de Cléry, a student at the school, and begins a torrid sexual relationship with her. Marie is best friends with Ariel, which is to say they have a volatile, love-hate relationship driven both by envy and by jealousy, and it’s clear that Ariel will do anything to pull Will down. While much of the narrative burden of the novel is assumed by Will and Marie, Maksik also provides views of other students, especially Gilad, whose own homoerotic attraction to Will complicates his take on things. Some of the best scenes in the novel involve the reconstruction of the philosophical giveand-take of his classroom, Will’s efforts to get his students to think and to make the literature their own. And despite the administration’s understandable desire to turn Will into a monster who’s preyed upon a vulnerable young woman, he remains sympathetic to the end.

Both intelligent and intellectual, this is both a tribute to brilliant teachers and a cautionary tale of their imperfections.

STARTING FROM HAPPY

Marx, Patricia Scribner (256 pp.) $24.00 | August 23, 2011 978-1-4391-0128-5

Likable goofball Wally falls hard for aloof lingerie designer Imogene Gilfeather.

Their story told through a series of brief “chaplettes,” the mismatched lovers at the heart of this experimental comic novel have no business, and every reason, for being together. Described by a friend as a big “yes,” quirky scientist Wally Yez knows exactly what he wants when he spies a statuesque redhead at a party in Manhattan. Imogene’s reputation as an eligible designer of fine ladies undergarments precedes her, but a relationship with Wally is just about the last thing on her mind. A fiercely independent creature of habit, she is obsessed with her career and more-or-less happy with her married lover Ron de Jean, a well-known sleep researcher. She blows off a series of dates, but Wally does not give up easily, and the two begin an odd phone relationship that eventually leads to actual dates followed by cohabitation. Ambivalent on the best of days, Imogene is reluctant to marry, but slowly finds her will worn away by Wally’s persistence and the two end up in the suburbs, raising two radically different kids. Or do they? That is because Marx (Him Her Him Again the End of Him, 2007, etc.) does not |

exactly follow a conventional structure and liberally inserts herself into the narrative. But peppered among the drawings and self-consciously wacky asides emerges a poignant portrait of a long-term relationship, with all the disappointments and occasional triumphs that entails. Ideally suited to the kind of audience that enjoys Woody Allen movies, this very clever effort is, like its lead characters, something of an acquired taste. But Imogene, especially, impresses as a creation of far more depth than her ice-queen exterior would suggest.

A funny, sad and original take on the mating game.

ANATOMY OF A DISAPPEARANCE

Matar, Hisham Dial Press (240 pp.) $22.00 | $22.00 e-book | August 23, 2011 978-0-385-34044-1 978-0-679-64398-2 e-book A boy grows into a man in the suffocating vacuum of his father’s abrupt and unresolved vanishing.

Though his books might seem to echo current events, it is the weight of personal history that drives the novels of Libyan author Matar (In the Country of Men, 2007). In his Booker-shortlisted debut novel, he deftly fictionalized his own experience—the author’s dissident father Jaballa Matar was ruthlessly kidnapped by Egyptian secret-service agents in 1990 and imprisoned in a Libyan prison at the order of Muammar Gaddafi.

In his latest, Matar portrays an even more acute sense of loss by contrasting two parental losses with the complicated relationship between a boy and his young stepmother. The narrator, Nuri Pasha, gracefully relates his story from the age of 11 to the present day. His mother, a wisp of a woman, dies early, driving Nuri and his father, an exiled political activist, together. “After she passed away he and I came to resemble two flat-sharing bachelors kept together by circumstance or obligation,” Nuri muses. Their world is thrown into upheaval when Nuri’s father meets 24-year-old Mona, a stunning Arab woman of English descent. Closer in age to Nuri than less-than-fatherly Kamal, Mona becomes an obsession for both father and son, adding to Kamal’s confusing, furtive behavior. One winter as Nuri and Mona spend time together in Montreux, they receive word that Kamal has been abducted from the bedside of a woman in Geneva. A lesser writer might suppose that Nuri and Mona would find comfort in their communal untethering, but Matar cautiously and evocatively explores the unique and terrifying world in which Nuri finds himself. “I felt guilty, too, as I continue to feel today, at having lost him, at not knowing how to find him or take his place. Every day I let my father down.”

A son without closure writes sparingly and brilliantly about what it is to suffer loss without end. (Agent: Zoe Pagnamenta)

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ADIOS, HAPPY HOMELAND!

Menéndez, Ana Black Cat/Grove (288 pp.) $14.00 paperback | August 1, 2011 978-0-8021-7084-2 paperback

A deft, playful collection of linked stories about migration, flight, (mis) translation, the joys and disfigurements of myth—that is, about Cuba.

The fourth book of fiction and second collection (In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd, 2001, etc.) by Cuban-American journalist Menéndez consists of 27 fragments of varying lengths, but it’s not a miscellany. There’s plenty of metafictional apparatus (a prologue by an Irish transplant to Havana, a lyrical dream-parable by a persona named Ana Menéndez in which she says that “Details are stupid and unreal” and urges us not to “get sucked in by my lies”). There are little riffs or games, such as the story that consists of Google translations of iconic Cuban poems. There are tributes to Cuban writers (Alejo Carpentier, Jose Martí and others). There are also more traditional stories—often with magical elements—like “The Parachute Makers,” which ends, as several of these stories do, with a protagonist taking to the air to escape. In another book, all this intellectual superstructure might seem clunky or stilted, but in the case of a book about Cuba—especially a book about the emigre’s longing for a Cuba that is now mythical and that may always have been, a Cuba made up of a few obsessive themes and metaphors—it works well, revitalizing the old tropes and stories by giving them a new setting and emphasis. This is most evident in a brace of Elián González stories, especially “The Boy Who Was Rescued by Fish,” in “Glossary of Caribbean Winds” and in “The Boy Who Fell from Heaven,” which begins with a list, grading from fact into fiction, of Cubans who’ve stowed away in the wheel wells of jets departing Havana.

Part love song to Cuban literature and lore, part Borgesian encyclopedia of the subspecies of flight, part questioning of the very conditions of fiction-making—and all charming. (Agent: Joy Harris)

SECOND NATURE

Mitchard, Jacquelyn Random (384 pp.) $26.00 | $26.00 e-book $40.00 CD | August 6, 2011 978-1-4000-6775-6 978-0-679-64396-8 e-book 978-0-307-70182-4 CD A face transplant transforms a burn victim into a beauty, but presents new dilemmas.

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dashing from a partially blocked church entrance. However, her beloved father, a firefighter, is killed in the blaze, and Sicily’s face is severely disfigured. After several corrective surgeries, she must wear a prosthetic nose and heavy greasepaint to emerge in public. Still, she manages an almost normal life. Her Aunt Marie, a glamorous newscaster, raises her after her mother’s death. She becomes a sought-after medical illustrator and is engaged to be married to her childhood friend Joey, who was at the church but who survived the fire unscathed. Her plans of adjusting to her “specialness” are rudely dashed when she learns that Joey watched his brother set the fire and that Joey has hid his complicity all these years. She seizes the opportunity to undergo a still-experimental facial transplant. A comatose teenage organ donor whose mother reluctantly takes her off life-support provides the visage, and after the intricate surgery and arduous recovery Sicily finds herself again being stared at—in admiration. Characters from other Mitchard novels, the Oprah-blessed Deep End of the Ocean (1996) and its sequel, trigger a crisis: Beth (mother of the kidnapped child in Deep) is documenting Sicily’s metamorphosis in photographs, but it is her older son Vincent, a filmmaker, who truly transforms Sicily—after their brief but tumultuous affair, she becomes pregnant. If she doesn’t terminate the pregnancy, the powerful immunosuppressants she is on may damage the fetus; if she foregoes the drugs, she may literally lose her face and possibly die from sepsis.

Mitchard handles this fraught material unsensationally, adding plenty of convincing research-backed detail. Too often though, the characters’ endless moralizing douses the excitement. (Agent: Jane Gelfman)

TWO FRIENDS

Moravia, Alberto Translator: Harss, Marina Other Press (352 pp.) $18.95 paperback | August 16, 2011 978-1-59051-336-1 paperback From the pen of one of Italy’s most distinguished writers, these three novellas from the early 1950s are related but unfinished and were found in a suitcase several years after Moravia’s death in 1990.

All three concern the unlikely friendship between Sergio, a committed Communist and intellectual, and Maurizio, bourgeois to his well-manicured fingertips. The narratives unfold from the uneasy prewar years in Rome to the equally precarious postwar years after the fall of Fascism. Although a great admirer of Mussolini, Maurizio is essentially apathetic and apolitical, quite the opposite of his intense friend Sergio. In Version A, Sergio writes denunciatory articles for a newspaper and has long political discussions with his girlfriend, Nella, and with Maurizio, whose relationships with women are casual and short-lived. In Version B, the most psychologically brilliant of the three, Moravia explores how far Sergio is willing to go to lure Maurizio into a commitment to the Communist cause. Maurizio admits that if Sergio will persuade his girlfriend to sleep with him, the next

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day he will sign up with the Party. When Sergio finally embraces this scheme, he discovers that Maurizio is playing mind games and has no intention of becoming a Communist—he just wanted to see how far Sergio would go in betraying the person he loved most. In Version C, Moravia pulls a Faulknerian maneuver and recounts the story from Sergio’s point of view. This rendering of the narrative reveals more of Sergio’s commitment to a cause that Nella doesn’t buy into—and also gives more insight into the sexual tension among the three.

Unflinching in their emotional realism, these are fascinating works that reveal as much about the creative process as about friendship and Italian politics.

A GOOD HARD LOOK

Napolitano, Ann Penguin Press (336 pp.) $25.95 | July 11, 2011 978-1-59420-292-6

Flannery O’Connor fans will be drawn to this fictionalized version of her later years as a strong-willed, deeply lonely genius.

In the early 1960s, when wealthy New Yorker Melvin Whiteson moves to Milledgeville to marry his sweetheart Cookie Himmel, Flannery is living with her mother on the family farm, struggling to complete her second novel and suffering increasingly from the lupus that eventually kills her. A lifelong poultry aficionado, Flannery is also raising peacocks. In the novel’s striking first scene, Cookie and Melvin are awakened on the eve of their wedding by the peacocks’ din, a foreshadowing of what’s to happen to the couple. They love each other but do not understand each other.

Emotionally fragile Cookie has considered Flannery her nemesis ever since she read Wise Blood and felt exposed in the worst light as the character Sabbath Lily. A cutting remark Flannery made at Cookie’s high-school awards ceremony so humiliated the girl that she left town as soon as she graduated. Sporting her new rich and handsome husband, Cookie has returned desperate to prove to Milledgeville what a glamorous success she has become and throws herself into community activities. Sophisticated but aimless Melvin finds himself at loose ends in the small town. Soon he finds himself drawn to Flannery in a platonic but intense relationship he hides from Cookie. When Cookie has a baby, she and Melvin begin to re-establish their connection, but ultimately Melvin cannot stay away from Flannery. Meanwhile, Cookie has hired the deputy sheriff ’s wife Lona Waters, another lonely outsider, to make curtains for their new impressive home. Inevitably these unhappy lives—Lona has begun a dangerous relationship of her own—wind together until violent, senseless deaths occur, propelling characters into dark nights of the soul but also the possibility of Flannery O’Connor–like grace.

The tone and careful use of language certainly recalls O’Connor, but Napolitano (Within Arm’s Reach, 2004) takes too many shortcuts around her plot and characters to bring the novel to life. |

I COULD LOVE YOU

Nicholson, William Soho (368 pp.) $25.00 | July 5, 2011 978-1-56947-954-4

A bittersweet update of Love Actually scoops up the married, the single, the adults and the children in a swirling, interconnected, not-especially-incisive survey of the search for true connection.

British screenwriter Nicholson, who scripted Gladiator, revisits eight years later some of the characters from his previous novel (The Secret Intensity of Everyday Life, 2010) to find a shaky marriage; a predatory parent; several young adults, variously innocent or experienced; and other more or less yearning individuals linked to a comfortable corner of the English landscape just before Christmas. Mature-butsexy Belinda Redknapp is horrified to discover her balding plastic surgeon husband Tom is having an affair. Belinda’s daughter Chloe tries to match-make a romance between fellow students Alice and Jack, later becoming ensnared herself by Alice’s unreliable father Guy. Laura, Jack’s mother, is called on to help her sister Diana, whose husband Roddy has stopped talking, while Alice’s step-aunt Meg meets a plumber with a secret life. And so it goes, a spiral of expectations, disappointments and aphorisms drawn from encounters in life and love. Some find happiness, some must reconsider what they have, others can’t or won’t commit. Nichols adds flashes of intensity and wisdom to the cozy mix but several characters tend towards caricature and there are shortages of originality and grit.

Smooth but lukewarm reflections on the search for passion.

ALL OUR WORLDLY GOODS

Némirovsky, Irène Vintage (272 pp.) $14.95 paperback | September 6, 2011 978-0-307-74329-9 paperback More buried treasure from the French author killed at Auschwitz in 1942 and re-discovered in 2006; this story of a middle-class family roiled by love and war was posthumously published in 1947.

Saint-Elme in Normandy is a company town that revolves around a paper factory owned by the Hardelots. Their patriarch in the early 20th century is Julien, a domestic tyrant who has arranged the marriage of his grandson Pierre to the wealthy orphan Simone. Stability and propriety—these are his watchwords. But he has misjudged the spirited Pierre, in love with the equally spirited but less socially elevated Agnès, also being married off. The pleasure here comes from Némirovsky’s dissection of the haute bourgeoisie: she knows these people, their secret selves. Gossip spreads about the lovers’ innocent goodbyes in the woods. A scandal! Both engagements are broken off. Julien disowns his grandson; Pierre marries Agnès in Paris, a haven

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“Pears tracks the lonely youth and tragic adulthood of a quiet man.” from landed

from the stifling conventions of Saint-Elme. Némirovsky excels at mordant characterizations, but her depiction of devoted couples is equally convincing, and these young people, romantic realists, make a marriage strong enough to survive a chaotic future; it anchors the novel. That chaos arrives with World War I. Roads are choked with refugees. Saint-Elme and its factory are destroyed, but Julien rebuilds and reconciles with Pierre, for the boy has fought a good war. The inter-war years see Pierre’s discarded fiancée Simone emerge as a power at the factory (capital counts), though her own marriage is difficult. Her rebellious daughter will fall for Pierre’s son Guy, another potential scandal. All too soon war returns, Saint-Elme and the factory are destroyed again, but Pierre and Agnès rise to the occasion.

The novel has its flaws. Some characters are undeveloped; the final section is rushed. Yet they are more than outweighed by the author’s almost Tolstoyan sweep, and her vision of a society refracted through one family under siege.

For English-language readers, the best introduction to Némirovsky’s work.

LANDED

Pears, Tim Counterpoint (240 pp.) $14.95 paperback | July 1, 2011 978-1-58243-729-3 paperback In a finely observed if uneven elegy to loss, British writer Pears (In a Land of Plenty, 1998, etc.) tracks the lonely youth and tragic adulthood of a quiet man.

Lyrical and melancholic, the author’s latest novel moves at a curious pace, expansive in its vignettes of Owen Ithell’s deeply satisfying teenage years helping his grandfather on a Welsh hill farm and later on a sad pilgrimage back to those same hills, but telescopically truncated in between. Via an investigation report, a case study and other perspectives, Pears stitches together the central facts of Owen’s life: his happy marriage; contented work as a self-employed landscaper; the arrival of his children; and then the traffic accident in which his oldest child is killed and Owen loses his right hand. His settled life in pieces, his new existence is shaped by alcoholism, unemployment, separation and court orders barring him from his children. Driven by desperation, Owen eventually embarks with his son and daughter on a journey back to the Welsh farm that formed him, an odyssey across the British landscape which Pears charts with obsessive detail and occasional glimpses of the surreal. Rhapsodic in its rural devotion and deftly empathetic in its portrait of Owen, dammed up inside himself, the novel mixes affecting, compassionate moments with sketchiness.

Lovingly crafted but—like its central character—introverted.

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LOW TOWN

Polanksy, Daniel Doubleday (384 pp.) $25.95 | August 16, 2011 978-0-385-53446-8 In Polansky’s dark, moody debut novel, there’s no sun, no joy, and staying alive for another day is about the only reason to rejoice; the grim setting makes for an interesting tale about a man with a past.

Warden, who grew up on the hardscrabble streets of Low Town, survived odds that would have killed lesser men. As a child, he watched his parents succumb to the Red Plague, which killed most of the adults in the city.

Only a fortuitous encounter with his mentor, the Crane, saved him and the waif, Celia, whom Warden rescued from a terrible and sordid fate on the lawless, plague-ridden streets. As a very young and foolish man, Warden marched off to war and saw his men slaughtered, but he also witnessed something else, something beastly and obviously not from his world. The former law-enforcement officer turned drug dealer suspects his past could be catching up to him when innocent children begin to disappear and old comrades from his agent days exhibit a newfound interest in him. Polansky’s fantasy world eschews beauty and reason: Low Town and its inhabitants take their inspiration from a combination of the Middle Ages and modern drug trafficking. The streets of Low Town are dirty, corrupt and filled with drug users, although with the grim lives they lead their habits are understandable. Warden, an antihero with no immediately apparent redeeming qualities, becomes a reluctant crusader whose capacity for violence is underestimated by both his enemies and friends alike. The author has constructed a believable alternate world, but it’s a brutal one, where a short, miserable life is almost a given, and using the toilet means tossing the contents of a bedpan out of a window. He introduces a large cast of characters, while creating a plausible back story that draws them all together. The only place the tale fails is in the denouement, when the motivations of the antagonists come off as muddy and unclear.

A strong debut novel with a hero who doesn’t waste time worrying about the moral implications of cutting someone’s throat.

THE VAULT

Rendell, Ruth Scribner (288 pp.) $26.00 | September 1, 2011 978-1-4516-2408-3 Ex–Chief Inspector Wexford returns from retirement to solve a most unlikely case: the mystery of who killed the three people whose corpses were last seen at the bottom of a coal hole in A Sight for Sore Eyes (1999).

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In the decade since Franklin Merton left St. John’s Wood in 1998, Orcadia Cottage has changed hands twice by the time Martin Rokeby, who wants to make room for an amphora his wife Anne found in Florence, pulls up a manhole cover in his backyard and shines a light down a dark shaft to reveal not only the three victims from Rendell’s earlier tale but a fourth, much more recently dead than the others but equally beyond identification. Det. Supt. Thomas Ede, of Cricklewood, is getting nowhere with the case, so he invites Reg Wexford, who’s retired to Hampstead Heath, to join him as an unpaid consultant. “I’m an amateur detective now,” thinks Wexford, though one accorded much less respect than Poirot or Lord Peter.

Accompanying Ede and his sergeant, Lucy Blanch, on interviews, he ventures several guesses as to the identities of the dead—Merton’s vanished second wife, Harriet? The young man seen driving an Edsel and heard calling himself Keith Hill?

His uncle, from whom he may have taken his name and much more? Orcadia neighbor Mildred Jones’s cleaner Vladlena, who memorably burned the shirt of her then-husband Colin?—and then watches as he’s proved right or wrong. Nor does he simply watch, for trauma and tragedy are about to visit Wexford’s own family in equally unnerving ways.

Though this sequel doesn’t pack the punch of the earlier novel, which never seemed in need of a sequel, it’s an undoubted tour de force likely to offer enjoyment both to readers with long memories and to those approaching it as a stand-alone.

ALL CRY CHAOS

Rosen, Leonard Permanent Press (332 pp.) $29.00 | September 1, 2011 978-1-57962-222-0 Calling all fans of fractals, international-criminal conspiracies and the End of Days: Your ship has come in.

Is it just a coincidence that someone, acting with surgical precision, has bombed the Amsterdam hotel room of Harvard mathematician James Fenster, author of the paper “The Inevitability of a One-World Economy,” shortly after a suicide bomber of the self-anointed Soldiers of Rapture has blown up himself and five innocents in Milan and a much-loved gang counselor is shot to death in Barcelona, a Scriptural passage pinned to her corpse? Interpol Inspector Henri Poincaré, the namesake whose great-grandfather, mathematician and physicist, was one of the pioneers of relativity theory, thinks not. He’s convinced that the key to Fenster’s death lies in his work on fractals, patterns that repeat themselves from microscopic to planetary levels. But Poincaré’s investigation faces an astronomical number of obstacles. Two key persons of interest, Fenster’s ex-fiancée Madeleine Rainier and his star graduate student Dana Chambi, answer his questions evasively and then disappear. Imprisoned Bosnian war criminal Stipo Banovi, blaming Poincaré for his capture, hires |

assassins to eliminate his wife, son and grandchildren. Felix Robinson, the new Head of Interpol, demands that Poincaré retire from fieldwork immediately. And the Soldiers of Rapture, eerily prefiguring the summer and fall of 2011, announce that the world will end at 11:38 a.m. on August 15—a moment that provides a suitably dramatic backdrop for the otherwise muffled climax of Rosen’s hugely ambitious debut thriller.

First in a proposed series, though it’s hard to imagine its sequels topping it for sheer chutzpah.

THE GUILTY PLEA

Rotenberg, Robert Sarah Crichton/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (352 pp.) $26.00 | July 12, 2011 978-0-374-27849-6 Canadian attorney Rotenberg’s second legal thriller asks whether the estranged wife of a Toronto grocery king took a murderous shortcut in settling the terms of their divorce.

Someone certainly had it in for Terrance Wyler. The coowner of Wyler Foods was stabbed seven times and left to bleed out on his kitchen floor. Detective Ari Greene, working once more with lawyer-turned-cop Daniel Kennicott (Old City Hall, 2009), quickly settles on Samantha Wyler as the obvious suspect. The couple’s negotiations over their divorce had been stormy from the beginning; Samantha had threatened Terry by e-mail the night he died; and she not only visited the crime scene ahead of the police but pinched the murder weapon. Ari’s former lover, one-time head Crown Attorney Jennifer Raglan, recalled from obscurity to try the case, aims for a conviction on second-degree murder charges. But she’s repeatedly overruled by insecure, wavering Judge Irene Norville, who, swayed by Samantha’s lawyer, Ted DiPaulo, doesn’t want Samantha separated any longer than possible from her 4-year-old son Simon, even though mother and child have never been close. So Raglan watches as Norville first grants Samantha bail and house arrest, then high-handedly arranges for her to plead guilty to manslaughter. The likelihood that Terry’s killer will go free in five years outrages his parents and his two brothers, much-married Nathan and Jason, crippled by spinal muscle atrophy, who are mollified only because avoiding a trial will keep their darkest family secrets secret. When Samantha’s day in court finally comes, however, she refuses to admit that she stabbed Terry.

Now the stage is set for a trial guaranteed to make no one happy, except of course for experienced genre fans who find plea bargains anticlimactic and downright wimpy.

Ferocious, blunt-edged and finally unremarkable courtroom battles swirl around a cast of characters who consistently act as if they have more interesting depths than they’re willing to show.

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F I C T I O N

The Rap Sheet: Sun, Surf and Slayings B Y J.

K IN G ST ON

PI ERC E

MISERY BAY

Now that May 21 has come and gone, and the world has not—as some people predicted—reached a disastrous end, it’s time to start thinking seriously about what to read this summer. Below are the 10 U.S.-published crime novels I’m most hoping to enjoy over the next three months.

Steve Hamilton

With his latest standalone book, The Lock Artist, having snagged an Edgar Award, Hamilton now resurrects his series protagonist, Alex McKnight, a former minor-league baseballer and Detroit ex-cop, last seen in A Stolen Season (2006). Asked by his old nemesis, police chief Roy Maven, to probe the hanging death of a friend’s college-age son, McKnight yanks himself away from his quiet life on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula—only to stumble into the jeopardous path of someone well practiced at making murders look like suicides. (June)

LONG GONE

Alafair Burke

THE QUEST FOR ANNA KLEIN

In her twisty, fast-steaming first standalone, Burke (212) introduces Alice Humphrey, the new manager of a Manhattan art gallery whose owner is deep-pocketed but anonymous.

She loves her job—until the day the gallery suddenly vanishes, the man who hired her turns up dead and with a different name, and Alice finds herself the main suspect in a police investigation. (June)

Thomas H. Cook

Cook numbers among America’s finest littleknown writers. He proves that again in this espionage-mystery tale focused on Thomas Danforth, the son of a U.S. importer, who in 1939 is coaxed into an anti-Nazi conspiracy that goes bust—but not before Danforth falls under the spell of a fetching fellow schemer, Anna Klein. After she’s captured, Danforth sets out to find her, a quest that raises doubts about Anna’s allegiances and leads him into the Soviet Union, where he’s imprisoned on suspicion of spying himself. Passion, obsession, the malleability of ethical absolutes and Danforth’s eventual need to explain his actions all enrich this finely composed adventure. (June)

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LAKE CHARLES Ed Lynskey

Brendan Fishback is one unlucky young man. Already accused of killing a politician’s daughter, Ashleigh Sizemore, he tries to clear his head by visiting an eastern Tennessee lake with his sister, Edna, and her estranged hubby, Cobb Kuzawa—only to have Edna disappear. This sets off a |

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succession of chaotic events—involving drug dealers, bent cops and Cobb’s ruthless father—that connect unexpectedly with Ashleigh’s slaying. Lynskey, the creator of series private eye Frank Johnson (The Blue Cheer), sets the stakes high and the morals low in this satisfying example of “redneck noir.” (June)

THE END OF EVERYTHING

Megan Abbott

Having claimed the “Dark Queen of Crime Fiction” title with four historical thrillers that read like fleshed-out film noir scripts, Abbott delivers this childhood nightmare as novel. Thirteenyear-old Lizzie Hood and her neighbor, Evie Verver, were best friends, living in a world of hope and the promise of glamour. But then one day, Evie disappears, the only clue to her fate being a mysterious sedan that had passed them earlier. With panic flooding her hometown, and calls on Lizzie for answers, the girl takes up her own pursuit of Evie, in the process unearthing secrets that make her doubt she really knew her best friend at all. (July)

REQUIEM FOR A GYPSY

by Michael Genelin

C o m m a n d e r Ja n a Matinova of the Slovak Criminal Police, introduced in Siren of the Waters (2008), has quickly established herself as a protagonist worth following. This briskly told fourth Matinova mystery finds her struggling to link the murder of a business leader’s wife with the hit-and-run death of an anonymous man in Paris and international bank accounts that can be traced back to World War II. (July)

“Danish author Adler-Olsen brings us [the] story of unlikely redemption featuring a Copenhagen police detective.” from the keeper of lost causes

THICK AS THIEVES

THE MOST DANGEROUS THING

Peter Spiegelman

Laura Lippman

After three detective novels starring John March (including Red Cat), Spiegelman offers up a heist thriller. The main character is an ex-CIA op named Carr, who hopes that his next score will set him up for life.

Trouble is, his partners in this jewel theft—though seasoned professionals—aren’t all they seem, and some of the intelligence they’ve gathered may be equally untrustworthy. No wonder Carr is starting to feel paranoid. (July)

After achieving acclaim with her mystery novels starring Baltimore reporter-turned-gumshoe Tess Monaghan (The Girl in the Green Raincoat), Lippman has turned increasingly to non-series suspense works, such as last year’s I’d Know You Anywhere. She continues down that path with The Most Dangerous Thing, a tale that skips back and forth in time to relate the experiences of a once-inseparable group of childhood friends who, after years of separation, are thrust back together by the car-crash death of their most wild-haired member.

That’s when a secret they share threatens to be exposed and bring trouble all around.

Is one of their own number responsible, and trying to destroy the rest? (August)

BYE BYE, BABY

Max Allan Collins

Back in the saddle for the first time since Chicago Confidential (2002), randy and resolute shamus Nate Heller is in Hollywood in 1962, helping actress-singer Marilyn Monroe in a movie contract dispute. When, soon after, she dies from a drug overdose, and the local cops chalk it up to suicide, Heller goes looking for a more credible solution—maybe one involving the politically potent Kennedy brothers or mobster Sam Giancana, all of whom benefited from the premature demise of America’s number-one sex symbol. This well-researched, crisply presented narrative shows that neither time nor age has cost Heller his appeal. (August)

THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES

Of course, there are myriad other mystery and thriller novels due for release between now and Labor Day. Would anyone else like to make a suggestion?

Jussi Adler-Olsen

Hoping to benefit from the international popularity of Scandinavian crime fiction, Danish author AdlerOlsen brings us this story of unlikely redemption featuring Carl Mørck, a Copenhagen police detective who’s lost interest in his both his job and life after a shooting incident. To get Mørck out of their hair, the brass appoint him as head of Department Q, a basement office responsible for hopeless cases.

Much to his colleagues’ amusement, though, Mørck refuses to rot there, instead fastening on the five-yearold disappearance of a politician—a woman who may not be as dead as everyone assumes. (August)

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9 J. Kingston Pierce is both the editor of The Rap Sheet and the senior editor of January Magazine.

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IN MALICE, QUITE CLOSE

Ryder, Brandi Lynn Viking (400 pp.) $26.95 | August 8, 2011 978-0-670-02279-3

Creepy doings in Washington State, where a vulnerable 15-year-old girl kidnapped by a twisted French expatriate in San Francisco painfully comes of age, and where, years later, her younger sister looks for answers to her disappearance.

Ryder’s first novel is basically a vampire saga with snooty art collectors and forgers substituting for the vampires. The protagonist is wealthy Tristan Mourault, a collector of females who woos young Karen Miller through a series of “accidental” encounters and convinces her to escape from her abusive family.

After drugging her, he uses her blood to leave fake traces of her death, renames her Gisele after his late wife and, posing as her father, gives her a whirlwind tour of New York. With a narrative leap of 15 years, the book moves to Washington and introduces us to her beautiful and inquisitive daughter Nicola, who thinks Tristan is her Grand-père and Gisele’s haunted husband Luke is her father. The plot centers on a secret series of nude paintings of Gisele, whose sexual awakening arrives the same time as Tristan’s impotence. Secrets are revealed, covers are blown and Gisele mysteriously drowns. Who did her in? Plotting not being Ryder’s strong suit, you may not care. The novel, which takes its title from a Rimbaud poem, gets off to a beguiling start with its nicely subdued sense of menace and dark intrigue. But it fails to build in intensity, relies too much on contrivances to stay afloat, and the characters are disappointingly superficial.

A modern gothic that emits a creepy glow in establishing itself but reveals the unsteady hand of a first-time novelist as the story unfolds.

THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES

Sacheri, Eduardo Other Press (320 pp.) $15.95 paperback | October 18, 2011 978-1-59051-451-1 paperback

A brutal murder is the starting point for this strange, compelling journey through Argentina’s criminal-justice system; the Argentinian writer’s 2005 novel inspired the same-named film that won the 2009 Foreign Language Oscar.

Buenos Aires, 1968. Chaparro is a deputy clerk in the Palace of Justice. That title suggests a nobody. He’s not. He oversees police work at crime scenes, such as the murder of Liliana Colotto, a young married schoolteacher. She has been raped and strangled. The conscientious 28-year-old also accompanies the detective to inform her husband, a bank teller. Chaparro bonds with the devastated Morales, who is not under suspicion, and intervenes when two dark-skinned workmen from the building 1092

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are brought in and roughed up, blatant racial profiling. He has them released and files a complaint against their accusers; then, with masterful insight, he singles out the likely suspect as Morales is sorting through old photographs. One young man, Gómez, is gazing at the future victim, the adoration clear in his eyes. Chaparro’s hunch proves correct, but the whereabouts of the presumed killer are unknown, so Chaparro must bend the rules to keep the case from being sealed. All this intrigue is handled beautifully, as are the subsequent twists and turns: the arrest of Gómez four years later on an unrelated charge, his imprisonment, his surprise release and Chaparro’s own sudden vulnerability (he must be whisked out of town to a safe jurisdiction).

Morales is memorable, too, a baleful presence intent on only one thing: revenge. Still, the novel is hardly without flaws. There is a secondary story line: Chaparro’s undeclared, lifelong love for a married judge. The story starts languidly with Chaparro’s retirement and his decision to write about the Morales case. At intervals, the clerk turned writer pauses to wonder how he should proceed. These are irritating distractions from the novel’s theme: a good man working to secure justice in a fractured system.

A view of the world as a dark place illuminated by personal loyalties.

THE FOREIGNERS

Swann, Maxine Riverhead (272 pp.) $25.95 | August 1, 2011 978-1-59448-830-6

The exotic (and erotic) aura of Buenos Aires leads Daisy, the narrator, into some murky personal and sexual encounters.

Thirty-five and at the end of a nine-year marriage, Daisy is looking for escape from her aimless life. When a friend helps her get a grant to do a waterworks study project in Argentina, Daisy leaps at the opportunity provided—even though she has no technical knowledge about or understanding of hydraulics. Instead, she uses the money to rent a seedy apartment and finds herself neighbors with a handsome gay gigolo. Daisy also desultorily puts up an ad offering English-speaking lessons and through this offer makes contact with Leonarda, a charismatic and domineering woman who quickly takes Daisy under her wing.

(Leonarda doesn’t even need English lessons but likes to consort with foreigners.) Also entering the volatile mix is Isolde, who’s come to Buenos Aires from Austria and who hopes to make it in the tony art circles of the city. Leonarda loves to play mind games and has developed a scheme—or rather a kind of living theatre production—she calls the Master Plan. This includes crashing parties, thrusting herself into both high and low society and seductively incorporating Daisy into her manipulation of men and sexual relationships. In about equal measure, Daisy finds herself sexually attracted to and morally repelled by Leonarda. When a threesome begins to spin out of control, Daisy takes some time off to go to Uruguay and reflect on...well, how

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“Waldman’s book reflects a much needed understanding of American paranoia in the post-9/11 world.” from the submission

THE SUBMISSION

things are spinning out of control. She eventually reaches an equilibrium rather than an understanding of the force of nature that is Leonarda.

Beautifully written, sensual and seductive.

THE CHILDREN OF THE SKY

Vinge, Vernor Tor (448 pp.) $25.99 | October 1, 2011 978-0-312-87562-6

Long-awaited sequel—19 years later—to Vinge’s tremendous, far-future spectacular, A Fire Upon the Deep (1992).

Following a horrific tussle with the Blight, a vampire-like predatory intelligence, what’s left of the once-godlike Straumli Realm—librarian Ravna, teenagers Johanna and Jefri and others preserved in cold-sleep capsules—is marooned on a planet in the Slow Zone, where complex intelligence, advanced computation and faster-than-light travel are impossible.

Despite its technology, therefore, the Straumlis’ spaceship is virtually helpless. The planet is inhabited by Tines, multi-bodied dog-like aliens whose group minds communicate via complex sonic pulses partly inaudible to humans. Ravna made an alliance with the powerful Woodcarver and thereby earned the enmity of psychotic megalomaniac Vendacious and the inventive, acquisitive, ruthless Tycoon. Having awoken the sleepers in the undamaged capsules, Ravna settled down to build an industrial civilization as quickly as possible, since the remnants of the Blight is only 30 light-years away. Now, ten years have passed. Unknown to Ravna, Vendacious and Tycoon have made a deal and have learned how to manipulate the more communalminded Tines of the tropics. Ravna has her hands full dealing with Nevil, a devious politician who leads the Deniers, a group that considers Ravna delusional and thinks the Blight is coming to rescue them. Nevil’s secret alliance with Tycoon will, he hopes, cement his power over the human faction; when it comes to Machiavellian intrigue, however, the humans are amateurs compared to the Tines. These latter are beautifully thought-out, brilliantly managed creations. What disappoints about the narrative is that Vinge describes rather than dramatizes, so narrative tension never builds; significant developments often take place offstage and what plot there is—big on detail, limited in scope—just sits there. Sequels loom.

Information overload.

Waldman, Amy Farrar, Straus and Giroux (352 pp.) $27.00 | August 9, 2011 978-0-374-27156-5 The selection of a Muslim architect for a 9/11 memorial stirs a media circus in Waldman’s poised and commanding debut novel.

The jury assembled to select a design for a memorial in Manhattan represented every important interest group: a 9/11 widow, an art critic, a governor’s representative and other major stakeholders. They considered blind submissions before arriving at a garden-themed design. The one contingency they didn’t plan for was that the winner would be a Muslim, Mohammad Khan. Though he’s not especially religious and his bona fides as an architect are impeccable, Khan still becomes a target for anti-Islam firebrands, and even his defenders are left wringing their hands. Waldman skillfully presents the perspectives of a handful of major characters, including Claire, a 9/11 widow; Sean, a pugnacious victims’ activist who lost his brother in the attacks; and Mohammad, who vacillates between gloomy isolation and outspoken defiance at attempts to reject or tweak his design. Waldman shrewdly, subtly reveals the class and race divisions that spark arguments about who “owns” the design; it’s no accident that wealthy Claire played a leading role on the jury while Asma, a workingclass Bangladeshi woman who lost her husband in the attacks as well, is all but unheard. Waldman, a former New York Times reporter, discusses 9/11 victims, memorial gardens and MuslimAmerican life, but her keenest observations are of the media.

She has a canny understanding of how a New York Post front page can stoke right-wing rage, or how a New York Times article can muddy the waters. There’s a slight cartoonishness to her characterizations of cub reporters and radio hosts, but overall this is a remarkably assured portrait of how a populace grows maddened and confused when ideology trumps empathy.

A stellar debut. Waldman’s book reflects a muchneeded understanding of American paranoia in the post9/11 world.

THE GENTLEMEN’S HOUR

Winslow, Don Simon & Schuster (352 pp.) $25.00 | August 2, 2011 978-1-4391-8339-7

The Southern California kingpin of the surf-and-drugs thriller should extend his popular domain with this novel.

Those who discovered Winslow with his breakthrough Savages (2010) have some catching up to do. This sequel to The Dawn Patrol (2008) receives belated American publication a couple of years after it was issued in Britain, with both |

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its colorful characters and narrative propulsion suggesting that there’s a series in the works. Protagonist Boone Daniels lives to surf and works when he has to, as a private investigator, after leaving the San Diego police force because of a moral quandary. His former police colleague Johnny Banzai remains one of his best friends, and the two are charter members of “the Dawn Patrol,” the surfing elite who hit the waves early, before “the gentlemen’s hour” brings an older generation of surfing veterans to the beach. The senseless murder of an international surfing guru by a drunken punk threatens the bond of Boone and his fellow Dawn Patrollers, and Johnny in particular, once the private investigator comes to suspect that police coerced a false confession from their reviled suspect, and that eyewitness testimony is shaky as well. The lawyer girlfriend who has involved Boone in the case says that he sees “surfing as some sort of pristine moral universe,” though those waters get awfully murky, as the plot comes to envelop white supremacists, land-shark real-estate developers, crooked geologists, ultimate-fighting thugs and the inevitable Mexican drug cartel. By the end, what had begun as a senseless fatality (spiced with a bit of adultery as a side case) threatens to blow the entire power structure of San Diego to bits.

A former private investigator with an encyclopedic knowledge of the seamier side of Southern California, Winslow occasionally lays on the surf argot a little too thick (“I want to move under you like that ocean you love so much”), but his combination of social commentary and breathless action packs a wallop. (Agent: Richard Pine)

PAO

Young, Kerry Bloomsbury (288 pp.) $15.00 paperback | July 1, 2011 978-1-60819-507-7 paperback Against a backdrop of Jamaican history, a likable Chinese-Jamaican runs rackets in this eye-opening, rambunctious debut.

Pao is just a kid when he arrives in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1938. His father has been killed by European soldiers dismembering China, but in Jamaica he finds a surrogate father in Zhang, his father’s best friend. Zhang shakes down the Chinatown merchants; Pao becomes his apprentice. He takes to Jamaican street culture like a duck to water, acquiring his own loyal lieutenants, black kids useful as muscle; he cuts his first deal, distributing navy surplus, with a corrupt U.S. sergeant. In 1945, Zhang retires, and 21-yearold Pao becomes the new lord of Chinatown. His smooth ascent distinguishes him from the conventional racketeer who must claw his blood-soaked way to the top. What energizes him as a fictional creation is the voice Young has given him: hip and effervescent. But this Mr. Nice Guy will get his comeuppance in his personal life. Extending his reach beyond Chinatown, Pao offers protection to a brothel and becomes romantically involved with Gloria, its black madam; but when it comes to marriage, he passes over his true love to land a bigger fish: Fay 1094

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Wong, daughter of a wealthy supermarket owner. The marriage is a disaster. Spoiled, hoity-toity Fay never accepts being married to a hoodlum, and eventually stuns Pao by abducting their two children and stealing away to England. This is the most intense episode among a slew of scandals. White people are almost invariably bad news. There’s the British army major who impregnates a 12-year-old Jamaican girl and becomes a major source of hush money. Add to the mix the references to some 40 years of Jamaican politics, and the quotations from Pao’s mentor, the military strategist Sun Tzu, and you have a novel that is cluttered but never dull.

Young leads from the heart (her father served as a model for Pao) to celebrate a resilient world that tourists never see. You’ll enjoy the view.

m ys t e r y ZILLIONAIRE

Alexander, Gary Five Star (256 pp.) $25.95 | August 17, 2011 978-1-4328-2534-8 Kooky alliances chase a zillion-dollar payday.

When Saburo Taihotsu finally expires at 91, he leaves behind a mercantile empire that includes not only cars, computers, cameras, clothing, household goods and doodads deemed necessities by a greedy world, but a reputation as the last holdout of World War II, a man who bypassed Pearl Harbor and crash-landed his A6M2 Mitsubishi Zero on Kauai, where he spent the war outwitting searchers and dabbling in pesky raids that earned him the nickname the Mongoose. Although rumor has it he either took his fortune to heaven or burned it all in his factories’ ovens, a clue to its whereabouts is slipped under the door of Rob Weather, who may be the grandson he never met (from his years spent canoodling on Kauai) as well as the great-grandson of Carla Chance’s second cousin. Carla, the longtime companion of fourth-rate standup comic Buster Hightower (Disappeared, 2010, etc.), thinks Rob would be a good catch for her mathematician pal Sarah. Before you can gasp “MacGuffin,” the foursome is trying to decipher a shaky bit of calligraphy that’s basically 26 digits. Some of these digits wind up being televised by the tabloid news show Exclusive!, which offers megabucks to anyone who can decipher the clue.

Also on the hunt for Taihotsu’s fortune are an orthodontist, his wife and their creditors, a trio of Vegas goons demanding the principal plus their vig. Everyone concerned twists those numbers forward, backward and edgewise while hatching new romances and strategies as to who will profit and who will be

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cut off, maybe even cut up. They all wind up at the Tikal ruins, where a critter lopes into the jungle with a bit of the plot.

Grandiloquently goofy, with madcap pacing, dead-on riffs on cultural inanities and a plethora of lawyer puns.

Come on, aren’t you ready for a good laugh?

DEATH IN HIGH PLACES

Bannister, Jo Minotaur Books (240 pp.) $25.99 | August 2, 2011 978-0-312-57353-9

Three ill-assorted souls swap home truths, hurl recriminations and review the particulars of a fatal climbing accident while a hit man waits patiently outside their stronghold.

Four years after the ascent of a pristine Alaskan peak claimed the life of his wealthy friend Patrick Hanratty, laborer Nicky Horn is in serious danger of losing his own. Patrick’s father, druglord Tommy Hanratty, has declared a vendetta against the man he’s convinced let his son fall to his death. Nicky eludes Hanratty’s hirelings until the night when he leaves his flat to find a man with a gun standing outside. Luckily, he’s rescued by the timely intervention of a stranger who identifies himself as merchant banker Robert McKendrick, spirits Nicky off to his home—a castle that combines centuries-old fortifications with up-to-date anti-intrusion technology—and introduces him to his spirited daughter Beth and his brother William, who suffers from Alzheimer’s. Since he’s saved Nicky’s life, intimates McKendrick, the least his guest can do is promise to return the favor by doing him an unspecified service. Even before she reveals the presence of Hanratty’s determined killer outside, Bannister (Liars All, 2010, etc.) begins to use the conversations and confessions of McKendrick, Beth and Nicky to reveal layers of deception and betrayal—and to strip each of them down to an elemental essence. The setup is stagey and artificial, but it guarantees an experience as hair-raising for readers as for the three leading (and practically only) characters.

No Exit with a hit man standing in for Satan.

JANE AND THE CANTERBURY TALE

Barron, Stephanie Bantam (320 pp.) $15.00 paperback | August 30, 2011 978-0-553-38671-4 paperback The joys of a marriage are eclipsed by the horror of murder.

Jane Austen is visiting her brother Edward Knight and his daughter Fanny at Godmersham Park in Kent. They are all attending the wedding of Adelaide Fiske, a widow whose first husband was a rake, to Captain MacCallister. The bride nearly faints |

when a servant brings a wedding gift from a mysterious stranger that contains only tamarind seeds, a reminder of her flamboyant exploits on several continents with her former husband. The next morning a shooting party finds the body of a man. At first they think his death a horrible accident, but Jane quickly realizes that he’s been shot at close range with a pistol. When the body is identified as Curzon Fiske, Adelaide’s first husband, a number of people become suspects, including Adelaide and her entire family. Edward, who is First Magistrate of Canterbury, is not afraid to seek advice from his needle-witted sister, who has repeatedly proved her worth as a crime solver (Jane and the Madness of Lord Byron, 2010, etc.). Jane must follow the twists and turns of an unusually complicated mystery while trying to protect her niece Fanny from the heartbreak of an unsuitable attachment.

Barron writes charmingly in the style of Jane Austen while providing a leisurely exploration of murder and local society in a gothic tale that’s more than equal to Jane’s earlier cases.

CRIME FRAÎCHE

Campion, Alexander Kensington (320 pp.) $24.00 | July 1, 2011 978-0-7582-4671-4

Commissaire Capucine Le Tellier (The Grave Gourmet, 2010) divides her time between her Twentieth-Arrondissement district and her ancestral country home.

Being a countess is no job for a Paris police commissioner. Just when a waiflike con artist dubbed “La Belle au Marchais” by an increasingly critical press swipes increasingly valuable objets-d’art from the softhearted intellectuals who offer her shelter, Oncle Aymerie summons his wayward royal niece to a gathering at the family chateau at Maulévrier. After all, there are pheasants to be shot, Calvados to be drunk and waggish advances from her Cousin Jacques to fend off. So she piles her reluctant husband Alexandre into her police-issue Clio and off they head for the countryside. Food critic Alexandre is a miserable shot, although not so miserable as poor Philippe Gerlier, who died the week before of an errant shot to the chest. Such accidents are common in the country, Capitaine Dallemagne of the local gendarmerie assures her, but Capucine is skeptical. She sends one of her brigadiers, North African-born Momo Benarouche, undercover to the Elevage Vienneau, the cattle farm where Gerlier worked.

Meanwhile, her other brigadiers, Isabelle Lemercier and David Martineau, hunt La Belle. (Avoiding obvious strategies, like seeing where the stolen rarities might be fenced, they spend most of their time interviewing victims.) As Alexandre’s appetite for wild mushrooms and game birds blossoms, more corpses litter the bucolic landscape, and Capucine despairs of ever solving any case, urban or rural.

Arch dialogue and lax detection make Campion’s second just a routine countryside romp.

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“The murder of her mentor compels a World War II agent out of the shadows and into danger.” from a game of lies

A GAME OF LIES

Cantrell, Rebecca Forge (336 pp.) $24.99 | July 1, 2011 978-0-7653-2733-8

The murder of her mentor compels a World War II agent out of the shadows and into danger.

1936. Journalist Hannah Vogel is in Berlin, ostensibly to cover the Summer Olympic Games for travel newspapers, but she’s actually engaged in espionage. Under the name Adelheid Zinsli, she has become the lover of Lars Lang, an SS officer who, like her, is secretly working for the West...she thinks.

They watch the opening ceremonies together in the massive Olympic Stadium. As Hitler struts triumphantly, Hannah plots to slip away from Lars so that she can meet her mentor, Peter Weill. Barely has Peter delivered his request that Hannah carry a certain valuable package out of the country than he collapses dead at her feet, presumably a victim of poison poured into the pocket flask he’s always carried. Improvising quickly as a crowd that includes Lars gathers around her, Hannah identifies Peter as her father. Hannah’s failure to tell Lars about her rendezvous with Peter drives a wedge into their relationship and adds a deeper layer of mistrust and danger as Hannah attempts to find the mysterious package and ferret out the identity of Peter’s killer. Discovering Peter’s secret notebook cleverly hidden in his umbrella sets her on a path that takes her deeper into the Gestapo and leads to a reunion with Boris, an ex-lover she realizes she’s still in love with.

Hannah’s third adventure (A Night of Long Knives, 2010, etc.) is an uneasy mix of romance, complicated thriller and mystery, greatly enhanced by the author’s vivid portrait of prewar Berlin.

COLLECTING COOPER

Cleave, Paul Atria Books (400 pp.) $15.00 | July 26, 2011 978-1-4391-8962-7

Serial killers collide in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Adrian, a former mental patient at Grover Hills who was left to fend for himself when the institution closed three years ago, needs one more thing to make his collection of serial killer memorabilia complete: an actual serial killer. He targets Canterbury University professor Cooper Riley, who has placed the winning bid online for a severed thumb, waylays him and cages him up in his basement, where he plans on bringing him a wonderful gift: a victim. Cooper naturally denies that he’s a serial killer, but that’s not quite the truth, since he’s spent years avenging the mauling of his testicles after a rape went wrong. The victim Adrian picks 1096

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and abducts is Cooper’s student Emma Green, who the year before was nearly killed in a DUI accident. Desperate to find her, Emma’s father calls on Tate, the man responsible for her accident, an ex-cop just released after four months’ incarceration. Tate’s search uncovers the truth about the Scream Room at Grover Hills and leads him closer to Adrian, who can hardly wait to watch his confined serial killer doing what he does best as Cooper contemplates whose freedom means more to him, his own or Emma’s. The gory finale features an eyeball skewered by a safety pin, many bodies buried on farmland and several serial killers dispatched, with one still on the loose.

Horrormeister Cleave (Blood Men, 2010, etc.), who is surely indebted to John Fowles’ The Collector for aspects of his plot, will scare you to death, or at least to the point of keeping a night light on.

MURDER BY MOCHA

Coyle, Cleo Berkley Prime Crime (384 pp.) $25.95 | August 2, 2011 978-0-425-24143-1 Mocha may be the inspiration for a series of murders.

Even though Clare Cosi is long divorced from Matt Allegro, she still works for Madame, his mother, running the Village Blend coffee shop and living over the store. But she doesn’t usually have to work so hard to earn her overtime. While she’s spending some quality time with her policeman lover Mike Quinn, Madame phones and orders her to rush over to the New York hotel where her old friend Alicia has awakened to find a bloodsoaked corpse in bed with her. The cops Clare calls, however, arrive to find a room stripped of all clues, including any trace of a body. When she’s not sleeping with the dead, Alicia is promoting her new Mocha Magic coffee, which she claims contains an herbal aphrodisiac. Clare is concerned because the Village Blend is providing the beans and she and her staff are offering up the brew along with some chocolate treats at several publicity parties. The new formula is being introduced by the enigmatic Aphrodite, whose entire female staff fiercely compete to rise in her organization. When the first party brings another murder along with the treats, Clare continues to probe despite her worries about her daughter, who’s just returned from France, and Mike, who’s involved in a nasty case of police corruption.

An overly busy plot keeps this from being the best of Coyle’s coffeehouse mysteries (Holiday Grind, 2009, etc.).

But foodies will doubtless enjoy the appended recipes.

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A SIMPLE ACT OF VIOLENCE

Ellory, R.J. Overlook (464 pp.) $24.95 | June 1, 2011 978-1-59020-318-7

A serial killer plies his trade in the nation’s capital.

Metro D.C. homicide detectives Miller and Roth are befuddled by the Ribbon Killer investigation, so dubbed for the perp’s habit of leaving a ribbon around each victim’s neck after he savagely beats and strangles them. None of the victims matches up with the relevant Social Security information, and none of them has a verifiable history that goes back more than a few years. It seems unlikely that they were all in Witness Protection and resettled to D.C. So who were they, and what did they have in common? The only decent tips come from tracking a man who accompanied one of the victims to another victim’s home, and who, for reasons of his own, is leading them toward governmental interference in the politics of countries like Venezuela and Nicaragua. Is there a rogue agent at work determined to publicize CIA chicanery, particularly if it involves the drug trade, money movements and political insurrections, by killing off some of the operatives involved? Stymied by one federal roadblock after another, the cops depend on the killer for a trail of clues that eventually reveal that there’s more than one criminal reducing the tax base, and that our Congressional representatives are hardly innocents when it comes to international intrigue and malfeasance.

Ellroy (The Anniversary Man, 2010, etc.) proceeds from an unlikely premise: that a CIA man would start whacking his compatriots to indict the feds. But conspiracy buffs will have a field day.

INFERNAL ANGELS

Estleman, Loren D. Forge (304 pp.) $24.99 | July 1, 2011 978-0-7653-1955-5

Estleman composes still another hymn to Detroit, with Amos Walker soloing for the 21st time (The Left-handed Dollar, 2010, etc.).

Detroit PD Sergeant Mansanard is that rarest of rare birds, a cop who likes Amos Walker. Likes him well enough to recommend him to a certain R. Crossgrain, whose retro-looking business card promises: “Everything you require for the Modern Regressive Lifestyle.”

Even someone as astute as Walker, arguably Detroit’s most literate P.I., has trouble translating that from gnomic to English, but he gets the gist. Crossgrain markets to the technologically challenged. Driven by the obligatory cash-flow problems, Walker pockets the card and calls on Crossgrain, who explains that a recent break-in has left him suddenly short 50 television |

converter boxes. What matters most about these boxes, it turns out, is they’re hollow, a design feature eminently useful to career smugglers. In due time, it becomes clear to Walker that along with the converter boxes, a substantial amount of high-grade heroin is also missing. The bad guys who once owned it want it back, and they propose to fill body bags with obstructionists.

Though Walker would prefer not to be numbered among these, he puts his own attitude succinctly: “Whenever I’m faced with a problem, I identify it, analyze it, and make it bigger.”

Formulaic, to be sure, but steadfast marchers in Walker’s army are not likely to complain.

DEADLY REUNION

Evans, Geraldine Severn House (192 pp.) $28.95 | August 1, 2011 978-0-7278-8016-1

Rafferty and Llewellyn (Death Dance, 2010, etc.) threaten to bust the Elmhurst CID’s budget as they comb the country for clues to the murder of a former rugby star.

Adam Ainsley had been quite the big man on campus at his prestigious private school. So it should be a rare treat that he shows up at the Griffin School’s annual reunion. Only somebody treats him to a dose of hemlock, and DI Joe Rafferty has the perfect excuse to escape Cyrus, Wendy, Angel and Louis, the distant American cousins his ma has quartered with him and his new wife Abra as part of an international gathering of the Rafferty clan. To his partner DS Dafyd Llewellyn’s dismay, Rafferty runs up travel expenses galore, driving to Suffolk to interview the deceased’s parents and to Somerset to speak to his ex-wives. He makes multiple junkets to London to see ex-classmates Giles Harmsworth, Sebastian Kennedy and Simon Fairweather. (His only regret is that Gary Sadiq is in London, too, saving his boss, Supt. Bradley, from paying for a trip to Sadiq’s native India.) In Cambridge, fellow alum Victoria Watson has little enough to say, but a visit to Alice Douglas in Norwich turns up an unexpected daughter who’s just the right age to have been the legacy of one of the many conquests of Adam’s school days. As the mileage accumulates, Rafferty seems to be making no headway in figuring out who took Ainsley out of the scrum. And by leaving Abra alone with voluble Cyrus, Joe risks a second reunion-centered murder a lot closer to home.

Readers are liable to find themselves on the side of Rafferty’s despised super: It just takes him too darn long to solve this one.

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MURDER, MAJORCAN STYLE

Jeffries, Roderic Severn House (208 pp.) $27.95 | August 1, 2011 978-0-7278-8043-7

Would an experienced roué really kill himself?

Every evening, Inspector Alvarez, of the Cuerpo General de Policia, enjoys a ration of cognac with just a little ice. Tonight, however, this pleasure is delayed by a call alerting him to the demise of Senor Sterne, a wealthy Englishman who apparently died of monoxide poisoning in his car in his garage. But the coroner, disagreeing, says it’s not suicide but murder, brought on by extreme fear. Who wanted the philanderer dead? The suspects include his ex-wife, now seriously ill; their adult children, Alec and Caroline, named as his insurance beneficiaries; Cecilia, a former paramour who said she was promised a painting worth 35,000 euros; and several cuckolded husbands smarting for revenge. Alvarez’s questioning proceeds slowly. After all, his boss requires frequent updates, and his cousin Dolores demands that he start courting a divorcée, Ana, with dinners, phone calls and roses. The Sterne house staff—a general factotum and his wife the cook, their melancholy daughter Susanna and the gardener—provide clues: Senor Sterne had an argument with someone on the day of his death, and a black hatchback Citroen sped away from the premises with a skeleton dangling from its window. Alvarez cuts short a few siestas (but not lunches) and ultimately sidesteps marriage and his superior’s hectoring to pour himself a glass of Soberano in commemoration of his own notion of justice.

Slight to the point of transparency. But Jeffries (Sun, Sea and Murder, 2009, etc.) will have you salivating over Dolores’s recipes and longing for a Majorcan cookbook.

DANDY GILVER AND THE PROPER TREATMENT OF BLOODSTAINS

McPherson, Catriona Minotaur Books (304 pp.) $23.99 | August 16, 2011 978-0-312-65418-4

Upstairs gets to see how downstairs lives.

Mrs. Philip Balfour of Edinburgh begs Dandy Gilver, an upper-class sleuth with a nose for crime, to help protect her from the erratic husband she fears is planning to kill her. So Dandy agrees to pose as Lollie Balfour’s maid. It’s a tough sell, but with a cheat sheet from her own maid, Dandy manages to convince the other servants that she’s a lady down on her luck. Downstairs are Fould the butler, whose lax ways may stem from his background in the theater, and 11 other servants. It seems that Phillip Balfour has found a way to torture all of them, sexually harassing the 1098

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women and discovering the men’s secret fears. When Phillip is found with his throat cut, Dandy, with help from her fellow upper-class sleuth Alec Osborne (The Burry Man’s Day, 2007, etc.), begins a difficult investigation. The local superintendent, discovering Dandy’s identity, is more than happy to let her do much of the heavy lifting, since every police officer in England is mired in the general strike that has brought the country to its knees. Dandy learns a lot more than she’d ever cared to ask about how the poor live and finds her attitude toward the strikers changing as she probes the servants’ private lives.

McPherson’s charmingly witty heroine once again keeps you guessing while you enjoy the historical tidbits.

WHERE THE SHADOWS LIE

Ridpath, Michael Dunne/Minotaur Books (352 pp.) $24.99 | August 2, 2011 978-0-312-67503-5

An Icelandic-American cop, exiled to his homeland, finds himself caught in a centuries-old web of murder, power grabs and the One True Ring.

The arrest of his ex-partner, Det. Sean Lenahan, on corruption charges makes Boston a little too hot for Sgt. Det. Magnus Jonson. His boss, hoping to get Lenahan to role over on Dominican trafficker Pedro Soto, wants Magnus kept safe until he can testify.

That means getting him out of the country—in this case, sending him back to the land of his birth, where he’s seconded to the Reykjavik Metropolitan Police CID just in time to partner with Det. Árni Holm in the case of Agnar Haraldsson, clubbed to death and dumped into the icy waters. Who would kill a middle-aged professor of Icelandic? Inspector Baldur Jakobsson plumps for Yorkshire truck driver Steve Jubb, who under the pseudonym Gimli was determined to get his hands on a copy of Gaukur’s Saga, a long-hidden manuscript Agnar had recently translated. What makes this particular saga so attractive is not only the important addition it makes to the corpus of Icelandic sagas but its apparent status as catalyst for the plot of Lord of the Rings. As Pedro Soto patiently follows leads in Boston that will bring him closer and closer to the witness he must silence, Magnus, digging deeper into the family background of gallery owner Ingileif Ásgrímsdóttir, Agnar’s former student and former lover, finds that the lusts for sex, wealth and power that inspired the sagas of 1,000 years ago are still very much alive.

This series debut from Ridpath (Trading Reality, 1997, etc.) combines long-winded exposition, humdrum detection, fascinating echoes of Tolkien and Njal’s Saga and acute observations about the distinctive culture of Iceland.

(Agent: Carole Blake and Oli Munson)

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“Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, 1736: a foggy night, a child’s death and a case for a musician turned amateur sleuth.” from the ladder dancer

THE KILLER IS DYING

Sallis, James Walker (240 pp.) $23.00 | August 1, 2011 978-0-8027-7945-8

Sallis’ latest prose-poem entangles a hit man’s last days with a Phoenix cop’s search for him and an abandoned boy who’s tormented by the killer’s dreams.

Minutes before the veteran killer who calls himself Christian plans to execute his latest target, someone else takes his shot—someone a lot less effective than he is. Now accountant John Rankin is hospitalized but very much alive, and homicide detective Dale Sayles, who naturally knows nothing of Christian’s existence, is left to wonder why anyone would take a shot at him. By the time Sayles, whose beloved wife Josie is dying, and his partner Graves, a newbie who’s so full of attitude that he spends a night in jail after running off his mouth to an impatient judge, get a line on the shooter, they’ve stumbled onto the trail of the killer they call Dollman because of the way he identifies himself to prospective clients and others: “I sell dolls.” Meanwhile, across town, Jimmie Kostof, an enterprising teen who really has been selling dolls and other toys through his own mail-order business ever since his parents left him on his own, is troubled by violent third-person dreams he finds scary but meaningless. His dreams are just one more example of how “the world speaks to us in so many languages…and we understand so few.”

Sallis (Salt River, 2007, etc.) takes his time weaving together the lives of these lost souls, each apparently as aimless as the bugs and birds they can’t help noticing. The payoff is a moment of well-nigh miraculous consolation.

(Appearances in Phoenix)

THE LADDER DANCER

Southey, Roz Creme de la Crime (240 pp.) $28.95 | August 1, 2011 978-1-78029-003-4

Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, 1736: a foggy night, a child’s death and a case for a musician turned amateur sleuth.

Charles Patterson is having a hard time coming to terms with his new lifestyle. He loves his wealthy bride Esther (Sword and Song, 2010, etc.), but all their acquaintances assume that he married the lady for her money. Esther is having trouble persuading Charles, who had struggled to make a living, to spend money on clothes befitting his new status and to show an interest in handling her properties, which are now legally his. One night Charles sees a horseman run down a woman and child. After the child disappears into the water, he feels compelled to track down the mysterious rider, his only clue the initials CR on a saddlebag. While searching for clues to the casual |

murder, Charles meets Kate, a young girl of low origins. Desperate to improve herself by becoming a musician, she wants Charles to take her on as his apprentice. Charles finds her more useful in his avocation: She helps him discover who has stabbed Richard Nightingale, a ladder-dancer and singer whose arrival from London set the local ladies afire with his flirting. Charles is also trying to find proof that Cuthbert Ridley, a young man of doubtful character, is the murderer he seeks. Both Charles and Kate can step into the spirit world, an ability that comes in handy in solving the crimes.

Southey neatly folds the requisite historical information into a clever mystery full of interesting characters.

The addition of all those spirits may or may not improve your enjoyment.

A QUIET DEATH

Talley, Marcia Severn House (208 pp.) $28.95 | August 1, 2011 978-0-7278-8041-3 A cache of love letters lead to murder.

When the D.C. Metro train she’s riding in crashes, Hannah Ives (All Things Undying, 2010, etc.) winds up with a broken arm and a Garfinkel’s shopping bag that belonged to the young man who had been sitting next to her. Feeling like a voyeur when she dips into the bag to see if she can identify the owner and return it, Hannah is soon immersed in a decades-old romance. Fifty-seven love letters and photographs document a 10-year affair between Lilith Chaloux and her married lover Zan. With gentle assists from her husband, her sister, her sister-in-law’s husband (a Chesapeake County police lieutenant), internet searches and a snooping instinct second only to Miss Marple’s, Hannah not only tracks down the reclusive Lilith, an artist and major-league hoarder, but stakes out the Lynx News headquarters to confront the man formerly known as Zan. In response, her home is burglarized, she’s confronted by a seedy lawyer working for the young man who sat next to her on the train—now laid up for serious rehabbing in a D.C. hospital— and she meets Zan’s wife, who tells her off in no uncertain terms.

Meanwhile, a staffer at Lynx, a former college friend of Hannah’s daughter Emily, is murdered, and the seedy lawyer heads for Lilith’s cottage, which winds up ablaze, incinerating those 57 love letters and almost costing Lilith and Hannah their lives.

If you’ve a taste for love denied, love reunited and coincidences piled on coincidences, you’ll have plenty to swoon over here.

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THE TAINT OF MIDAS

Zouroudi, Anne Reagan Arthur/Little, Brown (304 pp.) $23.99 | July 20, 2011 978-0-316-07629-6 A starchy police chief and a bearlike everyman both investigate a violent murder.

On the idyllic Greek island of Arcadia, melon seller Gabrilis Kaloyeros tries to go about his usual business calmly, while noisy earth movers all around him foretell the imminent destruction of his bucolic life. Not long after his sad decision to sell his property, his corpse is found on a rural road. Police Sergeant Thanos Gazis, a take-charge type from the mainland, comes to investigate, paired with sleazy young local cop Petridis. The body was discovered by Hermes Diaktoros, identified hereafter by the author as “the fat man,” large and loud and claiming to be Gabrilis’ best friend. Superficial evidence points to a hit-and-run, but the fat man’s outsized personality and persistence in protesting his innocence cause Gazis to peg him as the prime suspect. Now that the police are involved, customers at Delfini’s restaurant, along with owner Aris Paliakis, speculate freely on motives and suspects. The story follows various villagers, the mismatched police duo, who proceed methodically enough, and primarily the fat man in his seemingly aimless rambles about the island. He checks Gabrilis’ colony of bees, talks to local fishermen and follows a trail of gossip in what appears to be a random and slightly hedonistic way. But in actuality...

Zouroudi’s 21st-century Zorba anchors her second mystery (The Messenger of Athens, 2010), whose chief pleasures lie in the author’s affection for Greece and her sleuth’s Columbo-like detours with the locals.

science fiction and fantasy THE MOON MAZE GAME

Niven, Larry Barnes, Steven Tor (368 pp.) $25.99 | August 1, 2011 978-0-7653-2666-9

From the authors of Dream Park (2010, etc.), a sort of thriller set in 2085 within a Live Action Role Playing game staged on the Moon.

Thoroughly colonized and itching for independence, the Moon will host a huge and prestigious LARP whose lunar adventure-park setting, enhanced with holographic 1100

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details, VR technology, special effects and actors, features a plot loosely based on H.G. Wells’s First Men in the Moon, the whole thing to be broadcast in real time to an audience of billions. Gamesmaster will be the legendary, irascible Xavier; the gamers will include Wayne Gibson and Angelique Chan, old rivals of Xavier’s, and young Ali, whose father is Abdul, President for Life of the Republic of Kikaya, plus Ali’s bodyguard Scotty Griffin, an old lunar hand and gamer. What none of the gamers and stagers know is that revolutionaries have hired ruthless professional kidnapper Shotz and his gang to grab Ali during the game and so force his father to resign.

What Shotz doesn’t reckon on is that the gamers are in a totally familiar environment, and that Xavier is a genius. After a hideous first couple of chapters—on June 22, we’re told, “lightly drifting snowflakes dusted the street,” which seems somewhat extreme, even for Switzerland—things get warmed up, games-wise, though the wobbling-scenery ambience never really dissipates.

Not much more than an elaborate do-over of Dream Park and its predecessors: Move it to the Moon, throw in Wells, rework the plot and presto!

HELLBENT

Priest, Cherie Spectra/Bantam (352 pp.) $15.00 paperback | $15.00 e-book August 30, 2011 978-0-345-52062-3 paperback 978-0-345-52063-0 e-book Without pause for thought, Priest plunges into a sequel (Bloodshot, 2011, etc.) featuring Seattle vampire thief Raylene Pendle that aims toward com-

edy and strikes flab.

Raylene, who steals things to order and lives in a warehouse along with her lodgers, street urchins Domino and Pepper and blind vampire Ian Stott, has a new commission from shady auctioneer Horace Bishop: to steal a box of bacula (penis-bones, ha-ha) derived from such legendary creatures as unicorns, gryphons and werewolves.

Said bones, thanks to their enormous magic power, are extremely valuable. However, once she arrives at the indicated location, the bones have departed, likewise their former owner’s existence, and his shack is about to be blown to shreds by mega-powerful lightning bolts. Back at home, another problem has emerged. Ian’s father has mysteriously died in an Atlanta vampire house, and his brother Max in San Francisco is demanding his presence—since, Raylene suspects, Max secretly wants to bump Ian off and rule the roost. Then Horace calls with an update: The bones’ new owner is Elizabeth Creed, a schizophrenic genius ex-NASA astrophysicist and now, evidently, a witch. Pausing only to drag her sidekick, ex–Navy SEAL and drag queen Adrian deJesus, along, Raylene decides to tackle both cases at once. Neither proves particularly sensible, consequential or mettlesome. Along the way, we learn far more about Raylene’s OCD and other insecurities than we need to. Pages of dreary banter limp past.

Is Raylene going soft? Well, she’s more human and far less distinctive. Unasked, we also get fangs and bats, if not yet any capes or hissing. (Agent: Jennifer Jackson)

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nonfiction ALIBIS Essays on Elsewhere

ANTHROPOLOGIES A Family Memoir

Aciman, André Farrar, Straus and Giroux (224 pp.) $25.00 | October 4, 2011 978-0-374-10275-3

Alvarado, Beth Univ. of Iowa (202 pp.) $19.95 paperback | September 1, 2011 978-1-60938-037-3

From the acclaimed Egyptian-born author, gorgeous musings on longing and memory fueled by travel.

A virtuoso in literary criticism, memoir and fiction (Eight White Nights, 2010, etc.), Aciman revisits themes that have obsessed him since his youth growing up in Alexandria, when he and his family were waiting for years for visas to migrate to Europe, then the United States. Anticipation—and all the longing it held—proved the ideal, romantic, satisfying state, rather than the actual delivery.

For example, longing for America all those years proved much more delicious and lasting than the actual naked reality of living there. In each essay, Aciman elegantly palpates these themes of place and displacement (“dispersion, evasion, ambivalence”). In “Lavender,” the myriad scents of aftershave he will discover over the years mark milestones in his life, but hark back essentially to the first, significant scent of his father’s lavender aftershave.

Initiating his young sons into the memories of his youth, in “Intimacy,” involves taking them back to Via Clelia in Rome, where the author 40 years before lived in limbo with his family for three years while waiting for their visas to America. For Aciman, who was poor, speaking Italian self-consciously with a foreign accent, it was a time of shame, yet writing about it helps unlock the “numbness” and encourages “dream-making.” In “Temporizing,” through the personal exploration of his family’s Marrano roots, the author fashions a brilliantly subtle excursus on the craft of a writer such as Proust, who avoids the tyranny of the particular, the day-to-day, by circumventing pain and sorrow at all costs, and passing all experience through “the literary time filter.” Aciman’s own travel essays—on Venice, the Place des Vosges, Tuscany, Barcelona and New York—filter the present through an ever-shifting palette of sensuous memory and impression.

These essays sing with bracing clarity.

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An unusually structured and gravely confessional memoir.

Alvarado (Not a Matter of Love, 2006) follows her debut short-story collection with a memoir that also explores the intersection of Hispanic and Anglo cultures in the western United States. This highly personal work weaves together stories of her parents’ lives as well as her own experiences with love, familial attachment, heroin addiction, motherhood, travel and her writing. “I have autobiography anxiety,” she writes, explaining that she felt “no tenderness” for the self recorded in her adolescent journal. This may explain, to some degree, the wild deviation Alvarado takes from typical autobiographies. With no quotation marks and chapters averaging one page, she writes only in the present tense, from her perspective as a girl up to now, in her mid-50s. This somewhat jarring structure imbues the book with a strong, immediate voice, and it’s easy to imagine it read aloud as something akin to spoken-word poetry. Her overlapping of the past and present illuminates her legacy and the connections between herself and, respectively, her mother and daughter. In examining her own secrets, she recognizes that, even if she doesn’t know what they are, her children also have secrets. She wonders if they tried to confide in her and she failed. “Maybe,” she writes, “like my mother, I shut my eyes, my ears, my heart.”

But her memoir stands as a striking rebuttal to that fear. She lays bare in these pages the many stories and details of her life and identity. Devoid of self-pity or nostalgia, Alvarado’s voice is bell-clear. Some readers may find the lack of humor and the scattered structure unappealing, but for others this collection of tales will resonate.

Fragmented but poetic.

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WILLPOWER Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength

Baumeister, Roy F. ; Tierney, John Penguin Press (304 pp.) $27.95 | September 5, 2011 978-1-59420-307-7

Baumeister (Social Psychology/Florida State Univ.; Is There Anything Good About Men?: How Cultures Flourish by Exploiting Men, 2010, etc.) and New York Times science journalist Tierney extol the practical wisdom, as buttressed by the findings of modern social science, of willpower.

It wasn’t long ago that the mantra “wretched excess is just barely enough” was on many American lips; but, write the authors, there is an old-fashioned virtue on revival: self-control.

Without it, we are often prey to “compulsive spending and borrowing, impulsive violence, underachievement in school, procrastination at work, alcohol and drug abuse, unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, chronic anxiety, explosive anger.” Baumeister and Tierney use their appealingly upbeat voice to explain the intricate call-and-response between the failure of self-control and its problematical results, each feeding upon and reinforcing the other. Willpower is what we use to ward off disadvantageous temptations and desires, what allows us to monitor our behavior as social beings. It is also like a muscle in that it becomes fatigued through use and has to be replenished, most easily through sleep and healthy diet. However, even “if selfcontrol is partly a hereditary trait—which seems likely,” it can be nurtured, and the authors submit a variety of tools to revivify self-control, such as setting standards and realistic goals, laying down “bright lines” and behaving consistently through establishing rules and regulations. There is an instructive chapter on the role of glucose in maintaining a vigorous self-control, commonsensical explorations into how self-awareness helps in selfregulation via self-consciousness—“that crucial task for a social animal: comparing our behavior with the standards set by ourselves and our neighbors”—and tricks to conserve the energy that willpower demands: precommitment (what Odysseus used to thwart the Sirens’ song), orderliness and lofty thoughts. Sewn into the social science are a number of engaging stories, from Eric Clapton to David Blaine to Mary Karr, that provide local color if not necessarily helpful roadmaps.

Baumeister and Tierney afford readers numerous paths to put their feet on the higher ground of self-control, for “inner discipline leads to outer kindness.”

THE OTHER WALK Essays

Birkerts, Sven Graywolf (192 pp.) $15.00 paperback | September 1, 2011 978-1-55597-593-7 Intellectualized personal remembrances of things past.

Birkerts (Art of Time in Memoir: Time, Again, 2007) is best known as a literary critic and author of the prescient Gutenberg Elegies, wherein he predicted, in 1995, that the Internet as a widely popular source for information would be detrimental to our interest in language and sustained serious analysis. In his latest collection of lighter but no less considered essays, Birkerts remains astute, witty and surprisingly sentimental. The engaging pieces are varyingly spare and drawn-out, several as brief as one page and most covering two or three. With subjects including a landscape painting of his grandfather’s, a reflection on the word “plunge” and how, upon a friend’s death, he inherited a very fine pair of Italian leather loafers, there’s no necessary order to the pieces. Though short, many bear more similarity to poems than to works of prose. “Consciousness,” he writes, in an essay about a German poet, “is not for nothing, even if it is clearly bracketed by the moments of our birth and our death.”

Birkerts moves back and forth between his memories and the present, weaving them together in a dreamlike manner. They’re not funny like those of David Sedaris or Ian Frazier, or in possession of any particular angle, but the real value and appeal of these pieces is the way they ripple out. Reading one after the other has the effect of skipping a stone across a pond; they’re not long enough to delve too deeply for long.

It’s impossible to read these close-to-the-ground essays without reminiscing on one’s own past, connecting the dots between possessions and emotions, say, or reconciling memories of old lovers and friends with the way things turned out.

ÉMINENCE Cardinal Richelieu and the Rise of France

Blanchard, Jean-Vincent Walker (320 pp.) $28.00 | September 13, 2011 978-0-8027-1704-7

A tightly focused, fresh appraisal of the shrewd, ambitious minister for King Louis XIII. In his first English-language book, Blanchard (French Literature and Politics/Swarthmore Coll.) gives Cardinal Richelieu a tremendous depth of character through the re-creation of key, decisive moments over the course of his courtly career. The astute cardinal, who acted as key advisor to Louis XIII, skillfully manipulated religious and 1102

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“Ten years in the making, the book is based in exhaustive and meticulous research as well as a friendship the author began with Fonda in the late 1960s when they were both students studying at the Actors Studio in New York.” from jane fonda

political insurrections and effectively created a French navy and a beefed-up administrative state. He asserted the king’s power, in spite of the king’s resentment of the cardinal’s influence, and even though he found his advice indispensable. Blanchard writes that Richelieu “allowed his countrymen to think of a grand future for themselves,” thus laying the foundation for the Sun King’s subsequent reign of glory (and profligacy). The coup d’état of 1617, in which the overbearing queen mother’s Italian confidant, Concino Concini, was murdered by the kings’ jealous princes, would forever spot Richelieu’s reputation, as he had been chief of the queen’s council. Yet Richelieu managed to negotiate a tender rapprochement between mother and son; he was awarded the position of cardinal in 1622 after the death of the king’s influential favorite, Duc de Luynes. He would have to manage further traitorous machinations involving the king’s younger brother, Gaston, and later favorite, Cinq-Mars. Richelieu was the key in maneuvering the crown through a landmine of political insurrection among the warring Protestants, and he made himself master of maritime development. However, in continuing a series of pot-boiling wars with the Hapsburgs, he drained the country’s coffers. Blanchard dwells on Richelieu’s passion for building and the theater, though too rarely quotes from his own cerebral writing.

Despite deliberately pared-down, somewhat stilted language, a well-organized work that would make an indispensable supplement for students of the period. (16-page color insert. Appearances in Philadelphia and New York)

JANE FONDA The Private Life of a Public Figure

Bosworth, Patricia Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (608 pp.) $30.00 | August 30, 2011 978-0-547-15257-8

Distinguished celebrity biographer and Vanity Fair contributing editor Bosworth (Marlon Brando, 2001, etc.) recounts the life story of an American icon in all its heady—and at times, unabashedly scandalous—glory.

Ten years in the making, the book is based in exhaustive and meticulous research as well as a friendship the author began with Fonda in the late 1960s when they were both students studying at the Actors Studio in New York. Bosworth divides Fonda’s life into five distinctive stages, naming each after the “archetype” Fonda embodied during those phases: daughter, actress, movie star/sex symbol, political activist and workout guru/tycoon wife. With consummate skill and insight, the author follows Fonda through a childhood that included tortured relationships with an emotionally unavailable father, Henry Fonda, and a troubled mother who committed suicide at age 42. As young adult, Fonda’s dynamism drove her toward defining herself as an actress-artist (rather than her father’s actress daughter). At the same time, a need for quasi-paternal control caused her to fall into Svengali-like relationships with |

men—most notably, director Roger Vadim and activist Tom Hayden. In the early ’70s, Fonda’s rebelliousness caused her to move toward the political left and speak out against the Vietnam War. As a way to help fund Hayden’s political ambitions, Fonda began a workout studio in the ’80s that evolved into a multimillion-dollar industry. No longer the sexpot, she was now an Academy Award–winning feminist-actress who took pride in “empowering women to be in charge of their bodies.” Bosworth’s coverage of Fonda’s apparent backslide into the Stepford-esque wife of media tycoon Ted Turner is not nearly as in-depth as that she gives to the other phases of her colorfully tumultuous history. But this does not take away from her total effort, which is as epic as the life she chronicles.

Reading to savor. (Author tour to New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco. Agents: Andrew Wylie and Jeff Posternak)

THE POWER OF WOW A Guide to Unleashing the Confident, Sexy You

Bryant-Woolridge, Lori Viva Editions (320 pp.) $16.95 paperback | July 1, 2011 978-1-57344-656-3

Welcome to Stiletto University, where catchy slogans are as plentiful as pink candles at a chick-lit reading club, and graduates earn the coveted MSA (Master

of the Sensual Arts).

Sensuality coach Bryant-Woolridge (Can’t Help the Way That I Feel, 2010, etc.) dons a professor’s cap and heels to instruct women in the fine art of getting their sexy back. To begin the author’s nine-week course, students are asked to sign a contract—which urges self-love—and complete an entrance exam with questions such as, “On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your sex life?”

Then the author encourages the students to enroll online at her website and indulge in a brief pity party complete with fatty foods—teacher’s orders. Participants will then grab journals for a fun study of everything sensual, including numerous timefriendly prompts and self-assessment tests, such as kegel exercises for more sizzle in the bedroom. Though erotica is wildly applauded, the author’s program isn’t just about hot sex. Lessons also teach appreciation of Mother Nature, slow eating for sensory pleasure, how to flirt and the art of seduction. Professor’s lecture notes adorn each chapter, as well as pseudo-philosophical nuggets: e.g., “Sexy is as sexy does.” Bryant-Woolridge includes many examples of successful alumni, like Virginia, who obtained her masters in psychology after learning to strut the halls of Stiletto U. Ignore the idealized body image of perfect legs on the book’s cover; the magic answer in this one is confidence.

Cosmo readers will love it, but this lively book should help nearly any woman break out of her rut.

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THE CONCUSSION CRISIS Anatomy of a Silent Epidemic Carroll, Linda Rosner, David Simon & Schuster (384 pp.) $26.00 | September 20, 2011 978-1-4516-2722-0

A comprehensive, anecdote-laden analysis of concussive head traumas.

MSNBC.com and New York Times health writer Carroll and former Newsday and Neurology Now reporter Rosner examine the concussion epidemic as a “major public health crisis,” noting that many of these cases go ignored only to reemerge in adulthood as early-onset Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, as in the case of boxing legend Sugar Ray Robinson. The authors reinforce their assertions with numerous case histories involving young athletes like teenaged football hopeful Dave Showalter, whose raw potential was stunted by the cumulative effects of repeated head injuries. More recognizable victims include NFL gridiron heroes Troy Aikman, Al Toon and Steve Young, and hockey stars Eddie Shore and Pat LaFontaine—all of whom were forced into early retirement as a result of concussive brain damage. Carroll and Rosner spotlight the expansive reach of the syndrome by including female athletes equally susceptible to the malady, car-accident victims, a 13-year-old football player who suffered catastrophic injuries from a solitary event, military soldiers in Iraq and the coaches and professional athletic leagues who, under pressure from players, parents and the industry at large, brush off these potentially life-threatening wounds. Though the personal profiles vastly outnumber chapters on remedies, they are consistently intriguing and alarming, accentuated by brain-injury particulars, scientific and medical statistical data and clinical studies by leading concussion experts like Dr. Robert Cantu, who, after two decades of research, published defined guidelines on the duration athletes should be sidelined after a concussive event to prevent permanent damage from “second-impact syndrome.”

The authors argue that while positive change is underway with heightened awareness from NFL teams and elsewhere, the majority of concussions still go undiagnosed and that education remains the best defense against this “invisible injury with subtle symptoms that often seems to pass quickly.”

A cautionary wake-up call about addressing a seemingly innocuous hit to the head with critical care.

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THE CANTERBURY TALES

Chaucer, Geoffrey Adaptor/Illustrator: Chwast, Seymour Bloomsbury (144 pp.) $23.00 | September 1, 2011 978-1-60819-487-2 As a follow-up of sorts to his illustrated Dante’s Divine Comedy (2010), graphic artist Chwast embraces a kindred spirit in Chaucer.

Though the credit reads “adapted by Seymour Chwast,” “transformed” or “subverted” might be more precise. Here the pilgrims who tell the tales ride motorcycles, with the artist himself as the host and Chaucer waving from a sidecar. They spin stories of lust in which characters seduce each other with jaunty language: “Hey, babe, let’s party!”; “Come here, big boy.

Show me your stuff!” Yet Chwast recognizes that he is doing in large part what Chaucer did, “writing in the English vernacular of the time.” As these tales comment upon and interrupt each other, Chwast aims to illustrate nothing less than the human condition, filled as it is with profound differences between men and women, romantic betrayal that barely pays lip service to monogamy, jealousy taken to lethal extremes and fables that have morals that are a little too pat for the narratives they accompany. There are plenty of beheadings, repeated bursts of flatulence and, as the cartoon Chaucer explains, action “complete with swash and buckling.” There is also a cross-cultural expanse to the epic storytelling, with biblical figures, Greek gods, Roman emperors and Arabian legends all represented within this graphic condensation of Chaucer’s classic into tales that are often as little as a few panels each.

Not quite the achievement that the Divine Comedy was, but a work that finds an artistic common denominator for Chaucer and Chwast.

MOTHERS ON TRIAL The Battle for Children and Custody

Chesler, Phyllis Lawrence Hill Books/ Chicago Review (512 pp.) $18.95 paperback | July 1, 2011 978-1-55652-999-3

An unblinking look at gender bias in child-custody battles.

Fathers’-rights advocates have picketed her lectures, but Chesler (Psychology, Women’s Studies/ CUNY; Woman’s Inhumanity to Woman, 2009, etc.) storms the gates with a compelling and well-researched update of her 1986 landmark title. With eight new chapters, the author continues her investigation into how patriarchal attitudes and laws are prejudiced against mothers during custody battles. By analyzing hundreds of legal documents and interviewing custody experts as well as mothers, fathers and children from diverse

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backgrounds, the author outlines the decline in legal justice many mothers have experienced since 1986. Breaking up the parade of bleak statistics, the Chesler weaves heart-rending (and enraging) stories of the “good enough” mother, a sole caregiver often slandered as morally questionable if she has a relationship during her divorce or as mentally unbalanced if she is emotional about the loss of her children. Yet the “good enough” father, Chesler writes, performs a few household chores and is applauded as an exceptional parent, regardless of his personal lifestyle. While other sources could likely produce as many horror stories about judicial bias against fathers, Chesler’s facts cannot be denied: 37 percent of the men in her study kidnapped and brainwashed their children against the mother but were never punished; 70 percent of all the battles resulted in courtordered paternal custody; 90 percent of all the fathers paid no alimony. The author also includes straightforward advice for readers from mothers and a divorce lawyer, along with several resources for additional help.

Chesler sheds light in corners that must be explored.

HOLY WAR How Vasco da Gama’s Epic Voyages Turned the Tide in a Centuries-Old Clash of Civilizations

Cliff, Nigel Harper/HarperCollins (560 pp.) $29.99 | September 6, 2011 978-0-06-173512-7

Historian and Economist contributor Cliff (The Shakespeare Riots: Revenge, Drama and Death in Nineteenth Century America, 2007) presents Portugal’s outreach to India as a deployment by a fundamentalist Christian monarchy against Islam.

The author offers shocking documentation that Vasco da Gama’s voyages to India’s east coast were not only aimed at the spice trade of the merchants whose annual, monsoon-driven convoys kept the European supplied from Venice. In addition, King Manuel’s ambition “required India’s rulers to switch their entire trade to the West and oust every last Muslim from their lands,” just as his own kingdom and the neighboring Spanish monarchs were then doing to their Moorish and Jewish subjects.

Scrupulous attention to coastal navigation was combined with overland exploration by undercover agents to investigate the structure of the trade routes. Both strands succeeded, but not completely—nobody was able to discover the mythical Prester John and his kingdom. For failing in this respect, Pedro Álvares Cabral, who mapped India’s east coast and its ports, was disgraced on his return Portugal. Covilha, one of Manuel’s spies, was afraid to return and was discovered, many years later, in Ethiopia. Superstition may have provided part of the fuel for the project, but there was nothing fantastical about the gunpowder and shot of Gama’s cannons, and the brutality applied to the Zamorin of Calicut and his people on his next return.

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succeeding atrocities and massacres, all levers in the service of opening foreign markets to competition and securing what even then was called “fair trade.”

A useful addition to a continuing lively discussion of Christianity and Islam, situated both in respect of religions and culture, as well as empires and trade. (8-page color insert. Agent: Henry Dunow)

NO FEAR A Whistleblower’s Triumph Over Corruption and Retaliation at the EPA Coleman-Adebayo, Marsha Lawrence Hill Books/ Chicago Review (480 pp.) $27.95 | September 1, 2011 978-1-55652-818-7

Coleman-Adebayo’s memoir recounts the legal battle culminating in the 2002 No FEAR Act, “the first civil-rights and whistleblower act of the 21st century.”

Steeped in the history of the civil-rights and women’s movements and blessed with a keen intellect, the author earned degrees from Barnard College, Columbia University and MIT. In 1990, she was on track toward a promising career with the EPA, considered one of the most progressive federal agencies.

However, Coleman-Adebayo soon sensed that all was not well.

Pay discrepancies ran along racial and gender lines, and white men dominated the ranks of the executives. During a trip to South Africa as a member of the Gore-Mbeki Commission, the author witnessed the “systematic, verifiable, environmentally devastating” effects of vanadium mining, a metal considered strategic by the CIA. She was quickly stymied by her superiors in her efforts at solving the South African environmental issues.

Once she reported her belief that “the EPA [was] covering up crimes…being committed by an American multinational corporation against the people of South Africa,” to the Washington Post, she became a whistleblower. Workplace retaliation was swift, resulting in her filing a complaint against the EPA. Weaving together her personal records with the transcript of the federal civil trial, in which she prevailed, the author provides an insider view of the legal tactics used at the highest level of government. Coleman-Adebayo also recounts the shenanigans surrounding the subsequent hearings and the strenuous political process involved in the unanimous passage in both houses of Congress of the No FEAR Act. Though the narrative bogs down in a large cast of characters, this is an inspiring and worthwhile trek through one woman’s brave battle against a system favoring the powerful.

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THE OIL KINGS How the U.S., Iran, and Saudi Arabia Changed the Balance of Power in the Middle East

Cooper, Andrew Scott Simon & Schuster (520 pp.) $28.00 | August 9, 2011 978-1-4391-5517-2

How America’s unappeasable thirst for cheap oil led to foreign-policy bungling in the Persian Gulf.

In his first book, Cooper revisits a not-so-distant period when the United States was the world’s No. 1 oil producer and Iran its foremost ally in the Middle East. He traces the dizzying spiral that, from 1969 to 1977, left America the world’s biggest oil importer, at sword’s point with Iran and huddled up with and reliant upon Saudi Arabia. Relying on a rich cache of previously classified notes, transcripts, cables, policy briefs and memoranda, Cooper explains how oil drove, even corrupted, American foreign policy during a time when Cold War imperatives still applied. With American influence and power curbed

by Vietnam and later Watergate, with the industrial West at the mercy of OPEC and with Iran and Saudi Arabia competing for regional primacy, successive administrations under severe domestic economic pressure maneuvered in the Middle East to insure the flow of cheap crude. The most compelling dimension to Cooper’s narrative is the story of U.S-Iran relations, particularly during the Nixon and Ford administrations. To Americans, the Shah was the Guardian of the Gulf, a modern ruler and a reliably anti-communist ally. Nixon ramped up arms sales and also loosened import quotas. With quiet U.S. approval, the Shah raised prices to pay for a huge, more than merely defensive arsenal. Then, with Iran’s economy at the mercy of falling oil prices, with Iranians chafing at the Shah’s iron rule, with the impatient and increasingly out of touch Shah dying of cancer, the Saudis, encouraged by the U.S. government, broke with OPEC, flooded the oil market and brought the Shah to his knees. The Ayatollah Khomeini waited offstage. No U.S. official emerges unscathed from Cooper’s analysis, but he judges Henry Kissinger especially harshly. Notoriously deficient in matters of oil and economics, Kissinger insisted on personalizing relations with the Shah, hoarding information, stifling critics and enhancing his own power, all at the expense of a genuine American understanding of the precariousness of the Shah’s throne.

A revelatory, impressive debut. (8-page black-and-white insert; 20 photos. Agent: Sandra Dijkstra)

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TREND COMMANDMENTS Trading for Exceptional Returns Covel, Michael W. FT Press/Pearson (288 pp.) $25.99 | July 2, 2011 9780132695244

A disciple of trend following lays down a few laws—many esoteric—for investing successfully in any market.

By investing using an established trend-following system, we leave all prognostications at the door and make buy-and-sell, long-and-short decisions on price and price alone. Entrepreneur Covel (Trend Following: Learn to Make Millions in Up or Down Markets, 2009, etc.) writes that the secret—around for 200 years or more in one form or another— is to ride profits and cut losses. Based on the simple expectation that when trends hold sway, rising prices tend to continue upward and falling prices tend to continue down, market history suggests these trends persist at least for a time. There will be rude surprises, such as financial meltdowns like 2008 and Black Swan events that mean losses. But on the whole, steady profits or, as the author promises, exceptional returns will accrue to investors in any market who stick with the system. Trend followers won’t be the first in or last out, but if all goes according to plan, they will have a computer-driven numbers matrix that reliably spots price trends up or down and allows for profit making. Readers will have to refer to other Covel books or his TurtleTrader website for details. Here, the intent is to persuade, if not cajole. Pages are packed with sometimes cloying and contradictory inspirational sidebars. Moses would have needed a lot more tablets for all the author’s commandments.

Rhetorical overkill, but at its core worth considering.

SOUTH WITH THE SUN Roald Amundsen, His Polar Explorations, and the Quest for Discovery

Cox, Lynne Knopf (320 pp.) $26.00 | September 16, 2011 978-0-307-59340-5 e-book 978-0-307-70049-0

Record-breaking long-distance swimmer Cox (Grayson, 2008, etc.) retraces Norwegian explorer’s Roald Amundsen’s groundbreaking polar explorations.

Part personal memoir and part a recounting of earlier voyages of discovery, the book’s release is timed to coincide with the centenary of the famous 1911 race to the South Pole when Amundsen beat the British standard-bearer Robert Scott’s illfated party by less than a month. The author, who tested her endurance by swimming in subzero temperatures, reports her fascination with the pioneering efforts of Amundsen and his

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“A somber, moving tribute to a life of ideals and struggle.” from feeding on dreams

Norwegian predecessors. She sees a parallel between her own preparations to swim in extremely cold waters and their similar efforts to prepare to endure glacial conditions. The Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen, a mentor to Amundsen, hoped to find the Northwest passage. He and his crew trained in Greenland, where they studied the survival skills of the local Inuit population. Though he failed, Amundsen followed in his footsteps and succeeded, and he intended to return to the Arctic but was thwarted by the beginning of World War I. After the war, he became involved with exploratory air flights to the North and South Poles. Cox writes about how she attempted to follow in their footsteps—swimming in Greenland’s freezing waters—in order to explore “the inner and outer worlds of what a human being could achieve.” She weaves together her own experiences, including a flight to the South Pole, with those of the earlier explorers, and relates interesting anecdotes about the people who helped her on her quest.

Entertaining, but readers may wish for more Amundsen and less Cox. (62 photographs; 3 maps. Author tour to Boston, Ft. Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Portland, St. Louis, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle. Agent: Martha Kaplan)

COLUMBUS AND THE QUEST FOR JERUSALEM

Delaney, Carol Free Press (288 pp.) $26.00 | September 20, 2011 978-1-4391-0232-9

Cultural anthropologist Delaney offers an interpretation of Christopher Columbus’s career based on the apocalyptical millenarianism she identifies in his thinking.

The author argues that the reconquest of Jerusalem was the passion of Columbus’s life and also the purpose of his voyages.

Her substantiation is found in works like the Book of Prophesies, produced near the end of his life, his letters to the Borgia Pope, Alexander VI and the comparison of the flow of the Orinoco with the book of Genesis and the hinterland of the Terrestrial Paradise. Delaney believes these kinds of views have been downplayed in consideration of the explorer’s life and work. Focusing on this less-iconic side of Columbus, author casts new light on the policies of the monarchs under whom he worked, first in Portugal and then Spain. His 1492 voyage began on August 2, the day set for Spain’s Jews to convert or face execution. The “reconquista” of Al-Andalus from the Moors was considered by Spain’s monarchs to be just a step on the road to Jerusalem. As Delaney and others have shown, Columbus was neither open nor truthful about his motives or ultimate plans, so his writings cannot necessarily be taken at face value. His “sail west to go east” strategy failed to find the Indies and their riches and was associated with heterodox cosmological views. As his stories were discredited, he probably had good reason to fear his own monarch’s inquisitors.

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FEEDING ON DREAMS Confessions of an Unrepentant Exile

Dorfman, Ariel Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (352 pp.) $27.00 | September 27, 2011 978-0-547-54946-0 A beautifully crafted, searing memoir by the Chilean American writer about his dispersion and homelessness after fleeing the military junta of General Pinochet.

As a deeply engaged supporter of President Salvadore Allende, Dorfman (Desert Memories: Journeys Through the Chilean North, 2004, etc.) was banished from Chile when Pinochet seized power in 1973, assassinating the president and throwing the country into a convulsion of military repression and fear.

Along with his wife and small son, Dorfman first sought refuge in Argentina (where he was born in 1942), then Amsterdam, Paris and finally the United States over the next 20 years—a bitter exile that defined and transformed him. A child of “perpetual wanderers”—his father, a communist, had been forced to leave Argentina with the family for Chile, then the U.S., before being hounded out during the McCarthy era—Dorfman was familiar with the miseries and loneliness of exile. He learned English early until his return to Chile at age 12, then immersed himself in the “language of insurrection,” Spanish. In exile, he used English to promote his lifelong pursuit to “vanquish silence” and expose the hideous human-rights abuses of the Pinochet dictatorship. Dorfman writes eloquently, even floridly, about his fiery early devotion to the peaceful socialist revolution of Allende, and that he and his starry-eyed generation were absolutely blindsided by the coup. In exile, his creative powers dried up (“What was happening to me, to us, was quite literally, unspeakable”), until he found courage in expression—his words would become “a territory where the dead could resuscitate.” Dorfman writes frankly of the morphing of his ideals, the seduction of America, the wariness with which he is regarded now by his Chilean compatriots and how he and his family decided not to stay in Chile when they finally returned in 1990.

A somber, moving tribute to a life of ideals and struggle.

(Author tour to New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Raleigh/Durham, San Francisco, Los Angeles. Agent: Jin Auh)

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ARCTIC AUTUMN A Journey to Season’s Edge Dunne, Pete Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (272 pp.) $24.00 | September 21, 2011 978-0-618-82221-8

Naturalist Dunne (Bayshore Summer: Finding Eden in a Most Unlikely Place, 2010, etc.)—the vice president of the New Jersey Audubon Society and director of its Cape May Bird Observatory—explores |

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the rigors of the high arctic, a place where life is pushed to its limits by nature and threatened by the incursions of man.

The author begins his chronicle of the emergence of fall in the far north on the Summer Solstice in June 2007—a day when the sun never sets, a harbinger of the cold weather to come.

Dunne and his wife had traveled 2,400 miles to Canada’s Bylot Island, a spot 25 miles north of Baffin Island, the largest island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. To their west was a marshy plain with the world’s largest breeding colony of greater snow geese—all of whom would have migrated to a warmer climate

by September—and to the north, the Aktineaq Glacier area.

They were there to observe the birds and to witness large caribou herds beginning their migratory journey south. Throughout, the author shares magical experiences, such as the moment when he makes eye contact with a polar bear standing on the ice.

However, he writes that his major concern is the threat to the geese and caribou—and to nesting raptors such as peregrines and golden eagles—by the combined destruction of their natural habitat from the effects of global warming and “the colossal oil-extracting infrastructure” that he witnessed during a flight over the coastal plain west of Deadhorse, Alaska.

Readers will look forward to his next book, on winter, the last in a projected four-book series.

JUST MY TYPE A Book About Fonts

Garfield, Simon Gotham Books (356 pp.) $26.00 | September 1, 2011 978-1-59240-652-4

A thoroughly entertaining, wellinformed tour of typefaces, some now 560 years old, some invented within just the last few years.

If you own a computer, chances are good that you have hundreds of fonts available on your machine. Unless you’re a typophile, then the chances are equally good that you don’t make full use of all those possibilities—or know why Minion is different from Garamond is different from Times New Roman. Enter Garfield, a genial Briton who confesses to “a soft spot for Requiem Fine Roman and HT Gelateria.” Some fonts, by the author’s account, are dear and necessary—the late-Renaissance inventions of Claude Garamond, for instance, which, adapted by the English compositor William Caslon, “would provide the letters for the American Declaration of Independence,” or Sabon, “one of the most readable of all book fonts.” Others are an offense to the eye, such as Comic Sans, which started life innocently enough but has been used so overly and wrongly as to constitute a typographic felony.

(Garfield defends the font’s designer, though, who also designed Trebuchet, “which is a nicely rounded semi-formal humanist font ideal for web design.” The author traces the evolution of font families over the several technologies of typemaking and typesetting that have emerged in the last half-millennium, including some of the digital ones that are used today. He is just 1108

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old enough, too, to pay homage to typography in quite another context, namely the “boastful B” and “dropped T” spelling out “The Beatles” on Ringo Starr’s drum kit. He also offers pointers on what fonts work best for what uses, even if some of his profiles should remain lost forever: The world would be a better place without Souvenir Light and Cooper Black.

“When we choose a typeface,” asks Garfield, “what are we really saying?” His book offers an informed and pleasing answer, and a lively companion to books such as Robert Bringhurst’s essential Elements of Typographic Style (1992) and John Lewis’s classic Typography: Design and Practice.

EAT TO DEFEAT MENOPAUSE The Essential Nutrition Guide for a Healthy Midlife—with 130 Recipes Giblin, Karen Seibel, Mache Da Capo Lifelong/Perseus (256 pp.) $19.00 paperback | July 15, 2011 978-0-7382-1509-9

Two of the country’s top menopause experts combine more than 130 recipes with facts and heart-healthy tips for a delectable midlife, and earn a ringing endorsement from Preventive Medicine Research Institute’s Dr. Dean Ornish.

Approximately 50 million women in the United States are in or quickly approaching menopause, write the authors of this easy-to-use cookbook and health guide. They should know. Giblin is the founder of Red Hot Mamas, the largest menopauseeducation organization in the U.S., and Seibel is professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Massachusetts.

Together, they briefly explain basic hormonal components of perimenopause and menopause, as well as their symptoms— e.g., hot flashes, vaginal dryness and depression. Most troubling for many women, however, are the changes they experience in their metabolism, which often leads to weight gain. Giblin and Seibel tackle this head-on with an abundance of diet facts, as well as useful healthy weight and calorie charts and tips from Dr. Ornish on how to reduce fat in recipes. Eating right can alleviate many menopausal symptoms, with foods like parsley, asparagus and melon helping to combat bloating. Recipe categories run the usual gamut: breakfasts of whole-grain pancakes, egg scrambles and fresh cranberry muffins; appetizers and side dishes; soups and salads; pastas; entrees; and desserts. Some of the recipes—Mushroom-Barley Soup, Baked Eggplant, Peaches In Wine, or Soy Smoothies—are numbingly familiar health fare, but several multicultural dishes offer zing for the taste buds.

Hamachi en Escabeche—a take on yellowtail tuna that has won over several food critics—employs a blend of garlic, almonds and olives for a healthy change from the ordinary.

Practical, tasty eating for menopause and beyond.

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“More wonderfully illuminating Renaissance history from a master scholar and historian.” from the swerve

CARAVAGGIO A Life Sacred and Profane Graham-Dixon, Andrew Norton (544 pp.) $39.95 | September 12, 2011 978-0-393-08149-7

Expansive life of the masterful yet mercurial artist.

Even though he apprenticed and served in several studios, Caravaggio (1571–1610) painted according to his own rules, updating Bible stories with his own vision of violence. He was an autodidact unencumbered by current artistic customs, and he painted what he saw in the pious realism fostered by Carlo Borromeo, reviving the empathic visualization of Francis of Assisi and the Sacro Monte of the Piedmont region. Regressing to the art that preceded the High Renaissance, Caravaggio established an entirely new genre of stark realism and visceral detail. He never did preliminary sketches and painted only from carefully set up models; he was unable to paint from imagination or memory. His virtuosity, mastery of chiaroscuro and ability to make the sacred profane established him as the ideal for painters as varied as Rubens, Velasquez, David and even Picasso, who invoked his use of realism as he painted Guernica. British art critic Graham-Dixon (Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel, 2009, etc.) brilliantly points out how Caravaggio’s paintings reflected a violent man in violent times, and self-portrait insertions in many of his paintings reflect the progression of the artist’s agonies. As the artistic capital of the world, Rome quickly recognized his talent, providing many patrons to bail him out after his frequent violent encounters. His capacity for trouble mirrored his art, “a series of lightning flashes in the darkest of nights.” Because he wrenched so much from the depths of his soul into his paintings, it’s no wonder he lived such a short life.

An impressive web of biography, social history and art history. (40 pages of color illustrations; 4 maps)

THE SWERVE How the World Became Modern

Greenblatt, Stephen Norton (320 pp.) $26.95 | September 19, 2011 978-0-393-06447-6 Greenblatt (Humanities/Harvard Univ.; Shakespeare’s Freedom, 2010, etc.) makes another intellectually fetching foray into the Renaissance—with digressions into antiquity and the recent past—in search of a root of modernity.

More than 2,000 years ago, Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius wrote On the Nature of Things, which spoke of such things as the atomic structure of all that exists, of natural selection, the denial of an afterlife, the inherent sexuality of the universe, the cruelty of religion and the highest goal of human life |

being the enhancement of pleasure. It was a dangerous book and wildly at odds with the powers that be through many a time period. That Greenblatt came across this book while in graduate school is a wonder, for it had been scourged, scorned or simply fallen from fashion from the start, making fugitive reappearances when the time was ripe, but more likely to fall prey to censorship and the bookworm, literally eaten to dust. In the 15th century, along came Poggio Bracciolini— humanist, lover of antiquity, former papal secretary, roving hunter of books—and the hub of Greenblatt’s tale. He found the book, perhaps the last copy, in a monastery library, liked what he saw (even if he never cottoned to its philosophy) and had the book copied; thankfully, history was preserved. Greenblatt’s brilliantly ushers readers into this world, which is at once recognizable and wholly foreign. He has an evocative hand with description and a liquid way of introducing supporting players who soon become principals: Democritus, Epicurius, scribe monks, Thomas More, Giordano Bruno, Montaigne and Darwin, to name just a few.

More wonderfully illuminating Renaissance history from a master scholar and historian. (16 pages of color illustrations. Agent: Jill Kneerim)

THE MAINE SUMMERS COOKBOOK Recipes for Delicious, Sun-Filled Days

Greenlaw, Linda Greenlaw, Martha Viking Studio (224 pp.) $30.00 | July 1, 2011 978-0-670-02285-4

Tiny Isle au Haut—winter population 60—off the coast of Maine makes a big splash when a stellar mother-daughter cooking duo team up to bring readers blue-ribbon formulas for great summer eating.

Taking full advantage of the unique bounty provided by the rugged island and surrounding ocean, the Greenlaws’ latest cookbook (Recipes from a Very Small Island, 2005) bursts with irresistible recipes for hearty and sophisticated starters, sides, salads and desserts for family feasts, as well as social get-togethers like clambakes, dinner parties, picnics and sunset cruises.

Maine blueberries and fresh seafood righteously steal the spotlight; the authors transform the bounty of backyard berry patches into Chilled Berry Soup, Blackened Swordfish with Blueberry Chutney and Cinnamon Blueberry Ice Cream, and offer fresh takes on the daily catch with spectacular recipes for Barbecued Maine Lobster, Red Crab Cakes and Beer-Steamed Clams. The Greenlaws lavish credit on the island’s many recipe contributors, and their engaging headnotes and concise directions will guide the inexperienced cook through whipping up a Mile High Strawberry Pie in the wink of an eye. Detailed and insightful essays on island rituals during the short summer season captures the sheer exuberance of the annual Fourth of July parade and the gastronomic thrill of firing up the onboard gas grill as guests arrive at the dock, laden with chilled salads and

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YOSSARIAN SLEPT HERE When Joseph Heller Was Dad, the Apthorp Was Home, and Life Was a Catch-22

party fixings. There is also a hilarious retelling of the island’s first pig roast that rings with authenticity and never once resorts to faux folksy humor. Gorgeous photographs of the island and ocean panoramas bring to life this isolate place and its people.

Haute cuisine from Isle au Haut.

NEW AMERICAN HIGH Big Dreams, Brave Journeys—Immigrant Teens Coming of Age in the U.S.A. Hauser, Brooke Free Press (304 pp.) $26.00 | September 20, 2011 978-1-4391-6328-3

An in-depth narrative of social science by a journalist immersed in an unusual

Brooklyn high school.

In her first book, Hauser relates the remarkable sagas of immigrant students in a high school meant to teach English (and other skills) to recent immigrants. During her year of interacting with students attending International High School at Prospect Heights, the author counted students from at least 45 nations, speaking at least 28 languages other than English. In order to maintain narrative cohesion, Hauser focuses on just a few of those students: Mohamed from Sierra Leone, Yasmeen from Yemen, Ngawang from Tibet, Jessica from China, and Chit Su from Burma. Most of the students faced nearly unimaginable difficulties reaching the United States from their native lands. Once in New York, they found life perplexing, in part because they lacked English language skills, in some other instances because of poverty. The joke among the dedicated faculty is that prospective students must fail testing—especially English language proficiency—to obtain admission. Enrolling in the international high school might become the path to a comfortable life inside the United States, but negotiating the academic and social barriers while learning English promises daily peril. Hauser wisely does not limit herself to relying on the students as sources. She also becomes well acquainted with teachers, parents, siblings, guardians and social workers involved in the lives of the students. The author does her best throughout the narrative to determine which of the students will walk through open doors to the American Dream, and which will find the door slammed shut.

A well-balanced narrative of varied humanity, captured in their simultaneously glorious and worrisome diversity.

(Agent: Larry Weissman)

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Heller, Erica Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $25.00 | August 23, 2011 978-1-4391-9768-4

A daughter’s loving tribute to her famous father and the iconic Manhattan apartment building that housed their family’s joys and sorrows.

Copywriter Heller’s (Splinters, 1991, etc.) family memoir brims with warm reflections right from the opening chapters, in which she describes the genesis of her parents’ fiery, robust marriage abetted by the author’s persistent grandparents.

Together, they not only prevented Heller’s mother Shirley from succumbing to her premarital “crumbling courage,” but, in 1952, they also secured a surprisingly available apartment inside the grand Upper West Side tenement, the Apthorp, where the Hellers would live out the duration of their marriage. Heller notes that her father and his willful mother-inlaw might have locked horns more often had they not had the familial bond uniting them, since she’d supported the newlyweds early on in their marriage until the author was born. The author sprinkles intermittent snapshots throughout the book, as she offers a succession of anecdotes and memories of summers on Long Island with her “inveterate fabulist” Grandma Dottie, family holidays and her father’s friendships with artist Irving Vogel, Mario Puzo and Swedish publisher Per Gedin.

She traces his nine-year progression while composing his defining work, Catch-22, “hunt-and-pecking his way to more opulent times,” and reaping the notoriety and upgraded lifestyle the novel and its movie version would bring his family.

Heller chronicles the family’s various residences and histrionics inside the Apthorp as it became a much-revered, eccentric celebrity roost, and she is generously candid and evenhanded about the family’s happier days, her father’s later novels and the darkness of her parents’ marital discord and their separate, debilitating illnesses. Closing personal recollections offered by authors Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie and Christopher Buckley are entertaining, but Heller gets the last word in a surprising disclosure that she has yet to read Catch-22.

An affectionate family scrapbook crafted with a bittersweet blend of humor and pathos. (31 black-and-white photographs. Agent: Henry Dunow)

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THE RACE TO THE NEW WORLD Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, and the a Lost History of Discovery Hunter, Douglas Palgrave Macmillan (288 pp.) $27.00 | September 13, 2011 978-0-230-11011-3

Successful historiographical detective work provides Hunter (Half Moon: Henry Hudson and the Voyage that Redrew the Map of the New World, 2009, etc.) with the means to rework aspects of the careers of Christopher Columbus and John Cabot.

The author puts together an intriguing account from an international cooperative research effort among historians to reconstruct sources that were either destroyed or lost. He has also accessed documents in Spanish, Latin, French and Italian, especially from collections appearing since the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage, in 1992. Hunter presents a reconstruction of the political, financial and social networks and activities of which the ocean explorers were a part, and shows their nautical adventures in a new light. Slave traders from Genoese and Florentine banking houses put up money for the voyages, even while organizing sugar plantations in the Canaries. The powers and privileges of personal possession each explorer sought to exercise were so similar, Hunter argues, because both were based on an earlier Portuguese proposal presented in the 1480s with support from the same Genoese and Florentine financial interests. Cabot, a real-estate speculator and projector, did not have the same nautical skill set as Columbus. He did project the same kind of bare-faced confidence and courage that enabled Columbus to withstand ridicule and stay the course. He may even have accompanied Columbus on his second voyage as the builder of the future port for Espaniola. Cabot always had to stay one step ahead of creditors to keep out of jail, and Columbus had to work overtime to maintain the stories he told, and the deceptions he circulated, to keep his enterprise going.

Hunter turns what seems like a well-known story into something well worth exploring again.

MAPHEAD Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks

Jennings, Ken Scribner (288 pp.) $25.00 | September 20, 2011 978-1-4391-6717-5

Map geek and celebrated Jeopardy! winner Jennings (Ken Jennings’s Trivia Almanac: 8,888 Questions in 365 Days, 2008, etc.) tells the engaging story of maps and the people who love them. |

At age 7, while friends obsessed over He-Man and Knight Rider, the author succumbed to the names and shapes of remote places and began collecting atlases. “You see that first map, and your mind is rewired, probably forever,” he writes. Determined to better understand his cartophilia, he offers a wide-ranging history of maps (which predate writing) and visits many present-day “mapheads” who make, use, collect, buy and sell or steal maps. Most Americans remain ignorant of geography, he writes.

Once deemed a pillar of a good education, the subject has vanished from most U.S. schools, and few of even the best colleges now have a geography department. Still, Jennings discovered a thriving community of map freaks—many “gifted spatially”— who spend much of their time around visual representations of places. Among the Library of Congress’ 5.5 million maps, he found several that played key roles in the D-Day invasion and the moon landing. At the annual London Map Fair, he observed insular collectors of antique maps. Map collecting began in the Renaissance, he writes, and soaring prices have made it a hobby for the affluent. Thefts have increased dramatically, as thieves armed with X-Acto knives easily pilfer treasures from libraries. Today’s map geeks often pursue such hobbies as traveling abroad with checklists in hand to “collect” countries; riding U.S. roads to “clinch” routes; and using GPS or other navigational devices to hide and seek containers (“geocaches”) around the world. Paper maps are losing ground in the digital map revolution, but the lure of place continues to beckon through Google Earth and other digital technologies.

Fun and informative.

DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, JUST SEND MONEY The Essential Parenting Guide to the College Years: Revised Edition Johnson, Helen E. Schelhas-Miller, Christine St. Martin’s Griffin (320 pp.) $17.99 paperback July 1, 2011 978-0-312-57364-5

Completely revised and updated guide to assist parents in evolving from their lifelong supervisory role to observing from afar, with a new focus on how to navigate the often confusing and treacherous waters of parenting a technologically dependent generation.

Parents might not be ready to relinquish control over their children’s lives, but they’d be wise to remember that college institutions view students as adults with decision-making abilities. But parents can, and should, still remain a major influence in their children’s lives, college consultant Johnson and educator Schelhas-Miller (Human Development/Cornell Univ.) write in their revamped guide to parenting through the college years.

They provide easily applicable tips on how to achieve the fine balance between their child’s continued dependence and burgeoning adulthood. Concise in their points, the authors tackle

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NO N F I C T I ON

10 Books From My Year of Reading B Y N INA SANKOV I T C H

1. HANNAH COULTER

When asked to put together a list of top 10 books from my year of

Wendell Berry

Berry’s prose is like his poetry—lyrical, peaceful, elegiac to farm and country and spiritually radiant. In this lovely but at times searing novel set in Port William, Ky. (one of eight set in this imagined locale), Berry explores the impact of major events of the 20th century on the quietly brave and fiercely resilient Hannah Coulter.

reading a book a day, I balked. 10? Just 10? Out of 365 books?

I began my list by scribbling out a list of great books from my year and came up with over 90. I marked off those books which have (deservedly) received much attention already, books like The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, Little Bee by Chris Cleave, A Mercy by Toni Morrison, Spooner by Pete Dexter and

By Chance by Martin Corrick. My list was now down to 80 or so books.

I then marked off those books that are classics that everyone has heard of—I don’t know how I made it to my 47th year without having read these great books!

These included titles such as Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling and The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder. I now had close to 70 books remaining on my list of great books.

Of those 70 or so, I began to circle certain titles, using just two criteria—surprise and enchantment. Surprise happens when I pick up a book by chance, by an author I have never heard of or with a title that intrigues me, and enchantment is what happens when I start reading that book and find that I cannot put it down again.

Enchantment is when I want everyone I know to read the book and I buy extra copies to give to friends and family. The two criteria, enchantment and surprise, are basic components of a truly great read, elevating a good book into the realm of magic.

And so down the list I went, circling slowly but surely. I halved my list to just over 30.

With a big breath, I took another pencil and another stab at my remaining list, trying to select across categories of fiction and nonfiction, short stories and long histories. And here you have it. Ten great books from my year of reading one book per day.

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2. RUINS

Ruins tells the story of Usnavy, a Cuban man born before Castro’s revolution and named for the U.S. Navy ships his mother can see from her hut close to Guantánamo (a U.S. base already there since 1898). Caught between the opposing ambitions of the two nations, Usnavy believes in the decency of mankind and struggles to keep his faith afloat during decades of increasing hardships and deprivations, and despite the disillusionment of so many of his compatriots and family.

3. A TERRIBLE SPLENDOR: Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played Marshall Jon Fisher

I was on the edge of my seat throughout this marvelous book, a gripping history structured around the 1937 Davis Cup finals, interspersing the five sets of the kirkusreviews.com

4. THE FORGED COUPON Leo Tolstoy

Achy Obejas

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match with the momentous political and social events being played out in the world at the time. The match was between the American rising star Don Budge, playing for fame and adoration in the U.S., and the German player Gottfried Von Cramm, a gay aristocrat playing for his life under the Nazi regime.

Cramm was coached for the match by the American Bill Tilden, a genius tennis player on the outs with the United States Tennis Association, and the third “extraordinary” man of the subtitle.

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This novel is Tolstoy’s last, and a relatively unknown gem that demonstrates his virtuosity in creating very genuine characters from every walk of life, and infusing them, both in personality and in action, as examples of universal goodness and evil. A young man is refused a loan by his father, setting off a series of actions that demonstrate how within each person there is capacity for good and evil, and that the choice to be one or the other is one we all must make, determined not by destiny but determinative of our fate.

5. THE SHADOW OF THE SUN Ryszard Kapuscinski

A collection of essays from this renowned Polish journalist covers the 40 years he spent in Africa as a Polish journalist, from the late 1950s through the late ’90s. Kapuscinski makes clear in his forword that there are a thousand Africas, and that there can never be one story or one explanation to cover such a huge and

“This celebration of the richness of reading will reward anyone who loves to read.” from kirkus’ starred review of tolstoy and the purple chair

varied continent. His accounts are rich with details of the physical landscape, vivid with his portrayals of the people he meets, and disarmingly personal in his affection and empathy for the many Africas he uncovers.

6. SOMEWHERE TOWARDS THE END

10. HOW TO PAINT A DEAD MAN

of James Fenimore Cooper), who was a writer and a great friend of Henry James. In telling the story of one woman, Maguire explores through beautiful and moving writing the difficulty of all women to find the space and time to discover and capture their true place in life, and the importance of trying.

Sarah Hall

Hall writes about four very different and yet connected lives, each one unique, believable and compelling. All four of the characters have suffered a defining loss; all four cope in different ways and against different currents of misunderstanding, loathing, fear and wavering self-examination. An electric current of life runs throughout this wonderful novel, an exploration of why we humans go on living, even when living can cause so much pain and worry and sorrow.

Diana Athill

“Passage” is the key word in this amazing memoir by the charming and smart Athill. Telling stories from her nine-plus decades of living, Athill demonstrates that life is about change and motion and the best we can do is to move along with it, keeping our expectations and our arms open to new experiences.

9 Nina Sankovitch is the author of Tolstoy and the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading, out now from HarperCollins books.

7. THE CURRICULUM VITAE OF AURORA ORTIZ

Almudena Solana

This slender novel offers an unforgettable heroine, a woman with a great capacity for living but who chooses to do it quietly and on her own terms.

“Living” is not defined in big splashy terms, and “living fully” has nothing to do with excess of any kind; instead it is found in the company of books and kindred souls, and in moments of beauty and of connection.

8. THE OPEN DOOR

Elizabeth Maguire This is fictionalized account of the life of Constance Fenimore Woolson (grandniece

9. THE LAWS OF EVENING

Mary Yukari Waters

The short stories in this collection are simply stunning, ranging in setting from the days before World War II through the difficult years of the war and after, and coming up to the present time of modern Japan. Waters’ characters have faced crises, but the stories don’t deal with the crises—they deal with the aftermath, the survival, the facing of mortality not with fear but instead with gratitude or regret or simple acceptance. |

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TOLSTOY AND THE PURPLE CHAIR: My Year of Magical Reading

Nina Sankovitch HarperCollins (256 pp.)

June 7, 2011 | $23.99 9780061999840 |

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everything from declaring a major to frat parties to campus security. With insight on how to allow a child to develop their own identity and make their own decisions and whether or not to Facebook-friend college-aged children, the authors urge against the tendency toward “helicopter parenting,” or hovering. This is particularly difficult in the age of the “Electronic Umbilical Cord,” to which the authors pay particular heed in their discussion of making the most of technology without overstepping boundaries. Most beneficial for parents, whether their child is college-aged or not, is the chapter entitled “When to Worry, When to Act,” in which parents are instructed on how to deal with problems and crises, and how to tell the difference.

A valuable guide for every parent.

THREE FAMINES Starvation and Politics

Keneally, Thomas PublicAffairs (336 pp.) $27.99 | August 30, 2011 978-1-61039-065-1

Booker Prize–winning author Keneally (Searching for Schindler: A Memoir, 2008, etc.) examines causes of deadly famines over the past 150 years, terrible times of starvation when the victims became “members of the nation of the famished, who have more in common with each other than with the cultures starvation steals from them.”

The author focuses on three examples—the great hunger that began in Ireland in 1845, the deadly famine in Bengal, India, during World War II and the decimation of Ethiopians in the 1970s and ’80s—to argue that while famines may be triggered by natural disasters, in every case their cause is mainly political.

They are neither acts of God nor the result of the improvident behavior of the hungry, but are the result of deliberate policies by those in power—made worse by the denial of the democratic right of the victims to voice their protest. Keneally takes particular aim at Malthusian explanations that couple famine with overpopulation. He documents that postponement of marriage limited the size of Irish families, and their heavy reliance on a potato diet had the positive effect of protecting them from vitamin-deficiency diseases such as pellagra and scurvy. Although the failure of the potato crop in Ireland was a precondition for the famine, writes the author, grain and livestock grown in Ireland could have fed people adequately had the British government permitted its domestic distribution instead of insisting that its export to England be continued. A similar situation existed in Bengal when the British diverted rice to the use of the army deployed against the Japanese. In Ethiopia, it was forced collectivization by Marxist leader Mengistu Haile Mariam that fatally disrupted agricultural production. Keneally concludes that the major cause of famine is human agency.

The author provides ample documentation instead of just preaching, but his important message is clear— unless we deal with the real causes of famine, it “has not had its last ride.”

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THE END The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler’s Germany, 1944-1945 Kershaw, Ian Penguin Press (520 pp.) $35.00 | September 12, 2011 978-1-59420-314-5

The Third Reich was dead, but it wouldn’t lie down.

By January 1945, with the failure of the Ardennes offensive, it was clear to the German leadership that the war was lost. The customary and rational course of action would have been to sue for peace on whatever terms could be obtained. Instead, Germany elected to fight on to the point of national obliteration. Hitler was determined to resist to the end and take the country down with him, but award-winning historian Kershaw (Hitler, the Germans, and the Final Solution, 2008, etc.) seeks to explain why the rest of the nation followed him into the abyss, and how it was possible to hold the armed forces and the German economy together until the fall of Berlin.

This is an astonishing story well told by the reigning Englishspeaking master of Third Reich history. On one level, it is a gripping narrative of desperate actions taken to shore up the battle lines with replacements of men and materiel from ever-shrinking resources; the militarization of the populace to defend, however ineffectively, “fortress cities”; improvised adjustments to transport to compensate for smashed rail lines and overrun factories; and wanton murders and pointless forced marches of evacuated prisoners. But Kershaw also deftly explores the policies and attitudes that kept Germans struggling on with the war effort after all hope was gone, and prevented organized opposition to continuing the war from coalescing in the military or elsewhere. At its core, this is a story of people great and small in the grip of an enormous catastrophe brought down upon them by their charismatic (though by then widely despised) leader; unable to do anything about it individually or collectively, they just kept doing their jobs, however hopeless or absurd they appeared. Whether motivated by duty, terror, inertia, wishful thinking or denial, soldiers fought and civilians worked, generals went on attempting to comply with impossible orders and bureaucrats issued directives of stunning irrelevance because they could see no practical or honorable alternative.

A carefully considered and powerfully told saga of a national suicide.

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“The author’s successful transition into the true-crime genre—expertly written and completely absorbing.” from death in the city of light

DEATH IN THE CITY OF LIGHT The Serial Killer of Nazi-Occupied Paris

King, David Crown (432 pp.) $26.00 | September 27, 2011 978-0-307-45289-4 The gripping narrative of a twisted serial killer preying on the most vulnerable citizens of Paris during the Nazi

occupation.

In King’s third work of historical nonfiction (Vienna, 1814: How the Conquerors of Napoleon Made Love, War, and Peace at the Congress of Vienna, 2008, etc.), he turns to World War II and the city of lights, narrating a frightening tale. When a chimney fire led to the discovery by Paris police of countless bodies hacked into pieces, they immediately suspected the home’s owner, the respectable doctor Marcel Petiot, of committing these unspeakable crimes. A manhunt ensued, and Petiot managed to elude authorities for a time. Set against the backdrop of the Allied invasion of Normandy and the Nazi’s retreat from Paris, King successfully weaves together the search for Petiot with the world-changing events surrounding the chase. The second half of the narrative focuses on Petiot’s trial, during which the atmosphere in newly liberated Paris had changed drastically.

The author demonstrates that while Parisians were ecstatic to be free from Nazi occupation, the stink of collaboration was everywhere. People were desensitized to the details of Petiot’s crimes because of the abhorrent details that had reached them of the Nazi treatment of Jews. King writes history in an engaging manner; the narrative is fresh and clear, told succinctly, but with a befitting level of detail. The tale never drags as the author accelerates the suspense, revealing Petiot’s staggering crimes at an appropriately stirring pace. However, King succeeds in never allowing Petiot’s murders to overwhelm their context.

The author’s successful transition into the true-crime genre—expertly written and completely absorbing. (Author events in Kentucky. Agent: Suzanne Gluck)

REDEEMERS Ideas and Power in Latin America

of biography and historical currents in the style of Isaiah Berlin or Edmund Wilson, thus allowing lay readers to follow what can sometimes be for the English reader a dizzying succession of revolutions, doctrine and caudillos. The author proceeds more or less chronologically, from the late 19th century to the present, from the lives of four prophets—the four Josés (Martí, Rodó, Vasconcelos and Mariátegui) through poet Octavio Paz, popular icons Eva Perón and Che Guevara, novelists Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa and present-day Venezuelan hero à la Bolivar, Hugo Chávez. In Martí, a Cuban-born New Yorker journalist advocating for Cuban independence, Krauze traces the beginnings of Latin American disenchantment with American-style freedom when the U.S. defeated Spain in 1898.

The Generation of ’98 was galvanized by work such as Rodó’s Ariel, which reversed ongoing racist, imperialist theories by asserting the superiority of Latin American culture “over the mere utilitarianism espoused by the Caliban of the North.”

Rodó’s emphasis on the education of youth, Vasconcelos’s fashioning of the Mexican foundation myth and Mariátegui’s affirmation of Peruvian indigenous culture and pride set the stage for the next generation’s Marxism ideology and revolution.

While the poetry of Nobel Prize winner Paz would reflect both his sympathy for communism and later disillusionment with the Soviet Union, the sweeping prose of García Márquez and Vargas Llosa took on the mythopoesis of the dictator and revolutionary. Charismatically tragic figures like Perón and Guevara fulfilled themes of Christian martyrdom, while the postmodern Chávez reignites the cult of the leader, despite the promising evolution of electoral democracy in all of Latin America.

Krauze demystifies for his North American neighbors the crucial ideas that have shaped Latin America and rendered it distinct from the United States. (12 black-and-white photos)

ECOMIND Changing the Way We Think, to Create the World We Want

Lappé, Frances Moore Nation Books/Perseus (320 pp.) $26.00 | September 6, 2011 978-1-56858-683-0 A pioneer of environmental education inspires advocacy on both local and

Krauze, Enrique Translator: Heifetz, Hank Translator: Wimmer, Natasha Harper/HarperCollins (560 pp.) $27.99 | August 16, 2011 978-0-06-621473-3 Accessible roundup of the evolution of modern Latin American political thought via the lives and convictions of key leaders and writers.

Mexican journalist and editor Krauze (Mexico: Biography of Power, 1997, etc.) shapes his work through an engaging mixture |

national levels.

Small Planet Institute founder Lappé, a “dyed-in-the-wool possibilist,” believes the problem with seeking solutions to crises lies not in the difficulty of implementation, but in the limiting rhetoric of consumerism, blame and shortage that discourages people from learning what teamwork can accomplish.

Fostering guilt for wasting resources is not the way to inspire action; she proposes that the average person will better learn to change their practices toward the earth if discussions are framed in terms of ecology rather than economy. Personalizing relationships with nature allows individuals to view themselves as participants in an evolving web with room for growth,

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“Focusing on ecology and economics, Mann provides a spellbinding account of how an unplanned collision of unfamiliar animals, vegetables, minerals and diseases produced unforeseen wealth, misery, social upheaval and the modern world.” from 1493

rather than as destructive forces on a nonstop collision course.

Though “eco-mind” initially sounds like a buzz word for ancient ideas of caretaking, harmony, respect, community-building and the search for more meaningful life, the concepts laid out in well-organized chapters are worth revisiting for veteran activists, or discovering anew for those who have shied from the subject.

Lappé backs positive thinking without soft-pedaling over harsher realities. She cites examples of corporate hubris, avoids dry statistics and provides ample stories of progress in countries as diverse as Brazil and India. She also encourages the effort to shift the focus from remedying wrongs to rooting out common causes.

The “thought traps” frequently encountered in dialogue on the environment—most of which curtail ingenuity—are exchanged for “thought leaps,” which provide starters for further exploration. Comprehensive, practical suggestions fall beyond the book’s scope, though Lappé includes a list of additional resources.

An accessible introduction to the psychology of this “historic challenge,” providing an enthusiastic shove toward reflection. (Author tour to Boston, New York, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle. Agent: Deirdre Mullane)

ULTIMATE FACERCISE The Complete and Balanced Muscle-Toning Program for Renewed Vitality and a More Youthful Appearance Maggio, Carole Perigee/Penguin (128 pp.) $14.95 paperback | July 5, 2011 978-0-399-53667-0

Aesthetician and spa owner Maggio revamps her original exercise program to tone the facial muscle groups beneath the eyes, cheeks, neck and jawline.

Based on the premise that muscles of the body can be toned with resistance exercises, the author designs an exercise program to firm up facial muscles for men and women looking for an affordable, surgical-free alternative to aesthetic enhancement. Maggio outlines 13 exercises in this heavily illustrated manual, using handand body-posturing movements to de-wrinkle brows, fill cheeks and plump lips, among other aging concerns. The full program takes just 16 minutes, and two shorter versions of the routine for those on the go take half that time—and can be done in the car or office. She’s sure to warn off those looking for a quick fix, urging readers to use her program in combination with proper nutrition, exercise, vitamin supplements and a healthy dose of SPF on a daily basis. If client testimonials are anything to go by, Maggio’s program is a proven winner, opening with before and after pictures of those who have achieved success with Facercise. Even Dr. Oz, the Oprah-sanctioned health expert and host of the Ask Dr. Oz television program, is cited as speaking positively of Maggio’s program. He’s not alone, as several doctors are on record speaking to how they’ve incorporated Facercise as “an essential” component of their alternative aesthetic-medicine approach.

Say goodbye to Botox, nose jobs and chemical peels— here’s your ticket to an easy, no-cost, non-surgical facelift.

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1493 Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Mann, Charles C. Knopf (544 pp.) $30.50 | August 9, 2011 978-0-307-26572-2 ISBN 978-0-307-59672-2

A fascinating chronicle of the “Columbian Exchange,” which mixed old and new world elements to form today’s integrated global culture, the “homogenocene.”

People of European ancestry poured across the world after 1500, forming the majority in several continents and dominating everywhere. Historians traditionally credit Western superiority in organization and weaponry, but science journalist Mann (1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, 2005) argues convincingly that biology, not technology, gave them the critical advantage. Most readers will be surprised by the author’s discussion of the history of Jamestown, America’s first permanent English colony. Settled largely by incompetent adventurers eager to duplicate the jackpot of gold that Spaniards found in Mexico and Peru, they failed, dithered and starved to death by the thousands until, after 10 years, the jackpot appeared: tobacco, the first global commodity craze. Silk and porcelain crazes quickly followed. Arriving with Columbus, malaria and yellow fever debilitated white settlers throughout America, but Africans had partial resistance, a major factor in encouraging the slave trade. Historians have focused on gold, but an avalanche of South American silver poured into China as well as Europe, facilitating international trade as well as inflation, instability, war and today’s currency system. Potatoes and corn from America probably stabilized Europe by eliminating periodic famines. They did the opposite in China, encouraging a population explosion that cleared forests, leading to floods and vast environmental degradation.

Focusing on ecology and economics, Mann provides a spellbinding account of how an unplanned collision of unfamiliar animals, vegetables, minerals and diseases produced unforeseen wealth, misery, social upheaval and the modern world. (35 illustrations; 12 maps. Author tour to Los Angeles, New England, New York, Portland, Ore., Richmond, Va., San Francisco, Santa Fe, Seattle, Washington, D.C. Agent: Rick Balkin)

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PEAS AND THANK YOU Simple Meatless Meals the Whole Family Will Love

Matheny, Sarah Harlequin (288 pp.) $21.95 paperback July 26, 2011 978-0-373-89240-2

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A former divorce lawyer and popular food blogger shells out veggies and sweets in abundance.

Meet the happy Pea Family. Matheny—Pea Mama—dishes up a premiere vegan cookbook with more than 85 recipes and gorgeous full-color photographs, in which she provides a pantry stock list and cute stories about hubby (Pea Daddy) and two adorable little pea girls. There’s even a pea kitty in the family. Yes, it’s corny, but it won’t take long to realize that Matheny’s Thai Veggie Burgers will coax even the most zealous carnivores into eating and actually enjoying healthy food. Matheny is obviously a concerned mother trying to inspire her kids to eat well—and her solution is to make it fun for all involved. She breaks it down by meal, beginning with mouthwatering breakfast recipes that include a variety of to-die-for fruit smoothies and Life’s Not Fair Blueberry Scones. Flavorful and meatless lunches range from Spicy African Peanut Slow Cooker Soup to Skinny Elvis Sandwiches (almond butter and strawberries replace The King’s beloved peanut butter and banana pairing), while Seitan Lettuce Wraps are appetizing sources of dinner protein with the flavor and texture of meat.

Also found here are plenty of sides, sauces, snacks and desserts— e.g., German Chocolate Cake and soft “mall” pretzels. Ingredients can be easily sourced at the local market.

Matheny’s easy-to-follow directions, garnished with lively anecdotes, will have more readers adding the author’s meatless recipes to their repertoire.

GROWING UP COLT A Father, a Son, a Life in Football McCoy, Colt McCoy, Brad Yorkey, Mike Barbour (256 pp.) $24.99 | July 1, 2011 9781616266592

God and the gridiron define the young life of the winningest quarterback in NCAA Division I football history.

No one knows for sure what kind of NFL QB former Texas Longhorn signal-caller Colt McCoy will turn out to be. The youngster looked promising in limited work with the Cleveland Browns during his rookie season last year, but it wasn’t nearly enough to start drawing comparisons to Browns legend Bernie Kosar. Still, as anyone with even a passing interest in the game knows, just getting to the NFL is a stunning achievement.

Handing off the narrative to each other as they march downfield, McCoy and his father Brad offer a glimpse into how a small-town Texan was able to realize his big-league ambitions in this intimate look at how one football-obsessed family has successfully navigated their way to the NFL. Sure, it helped that Brad was a respected high-school football coach, but his 24-year-old Evangelical Christian son would have readers believe that it was the Almighty who really pushed him across the goal line. That fact should be understood at the outset—the fiercely devout McCoys are on a mission and proselytizing. The |

younger McCoy never misses an opportunity to sling a Bible verse at readers.

If that kind of thing turns you off, look elsewhere. But if you’re down with the program, or just want to know more about the new hope of the Cleveland Browns offense, then this conversational account of Colt’s rise to the top should suffice.

THE MAGNIFICENT MEDILLS The McCormick-Patterson Dynasty: America’s Royal Family of Journalism During a Century of Turbulent Splendor McKinney, Megan Harper/HarperCollins (464 pp.) $27.99 | October 1, 2011 978-0-06-178223-7

In her debut, Chicago journalist McKinney, “an expert on historic Chicago families,” offers an exhaustive account of four generations of madness, addiction, adultery and newspaper-publishing genius.

In 1855, Joseph Medill bought the Daily Tribune in a promising small town named Chicago. As Chicago boomed, so did the Tribune and Medill’s career. He became a friend and confidant of Abraham Lincoln and literally named and shaped the Republican Party. His life of publishing, wealth and political influence would become the template for the next three generations of the family. While his own daughters were limited in their ambitions by the times and their gender, not so the next generations. Colonel Robert McCormick, Medill’s grandson, made the Tribune the preeminent newspaper of the first half of the 20th century, with business acumen and a talent for hiring reporters and editors who could get the all-important scoop.

His cousin Joe Patterson would do the same with the New York Daily News, Joe’s sister Cissy with the Washington Herald, and Cissy’s daughter Alicia with Long Island’s Newsday. But the privilege that such publishing prowess brought did not inure the family from Kennedy-like flaws and tragedy. The Colonel’s brother, who was mentally ill, took his own life, and alcoholism would spare few in the family. But privileged they were. All lived lives as American aristocrats, with multiple mansions, private railway cars, sojourns in Europe, and access to and acceptance among the most powerful families in America and the world.

But if the family’s lives consisted only of extravagance verging on decadence, their story would be of little interest. It is their brilliance in publishing newspapers when newspapers really mattered, combined with lives full of fault lines, that truly fascinates. McKinney skillfully delineates their story.

A solid account of the life and times of a family that was indeed magnificent. (16-page black-and-white photo insert; family tree)

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“Superb American history.” from destiny of the republic

BECAUSE I SAID SO...

And Other Tales from a Less-Than-Perfect Parent Meehan, Dawn Howard Books/Simon & Schuster (240 pp.) $14.99 paperback | July 5, 2011 978-1-4391-9176-7

Frolicking adventures of an awardwinning mommy blogger whose humorous kid story sold a baseball on eBay for $1,125.00 and launched her Internet career.

Meehan dishes out slice-of-life vignettes from her hectic days as a divorced mother of six children, all named after places on the map. Like her blog, the author’s stories are a chaotic but happy roller-coaster ride of skinned knees, unbalanced bank accounts and sleepless nights. With much tongue-in-cheek humor, Meehan explodes the Supermom myth. Sometimes, the tooth fairy gets busy and forgets to leave money. Other times, mom loses one of her tykes at the store. When her darling child repeatedly screams “boobs!” in the bra department, the author doesn’t mind admitting that she’d rather hurl herself down the stairs—twice—instead of take the kids shopping. What mother hasn’t experienced the fun of “he started it” fights or a preschooler’s self-haircuts, no matter how well the scissors have been hidden? And, of course, no imperfect mother’s life is complete without unsolicited child-rearing advice from strangers.

Don’t expect any touchy-feely stuff here—e.g., Meehan knows that if no bones are showing through skin, a child isn’t really hurt and can “go play.” As a chauffer for six kids, it’s no wonder she longs for a cloning device. But she’s managed to stay sane and love the sticky ones with a passion. Sure, these may be the same stories many mothers tell—but that’s the point.

Family Circus meets The Simpsons.

THE DESTINY OF THE REPUBLIC A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President Millard, Candice Doubleday (352 pp.) $27.95 | September 20, 2011 978-0-385-52626-5

The shocking shooting and the painful, lingering death of the 20th president.

“Killed by a disappointed office seeker.” Thus most history texts backhand the self-made James Garfield (1831–1881), notwithstanding his distinguished career as a college professor, lawyer, Civil War general, exceptional orator, congressman and all too briefly president. Millard follows up her impressive debut (The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey, 2005) by colorfully unpacking this summary dismissal, demonstrating the power of expert storytelling to wonderfully animate even 1118

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the simplest facts. As she builds to the president’s fatal encounter with his assassin, she details the intra-party struggle among Republicans that led to Garfield’s surprise 1880 nomination.

The Stalwarts, worshippers of Grant, defenders of the notorious spoils system, battled the Half-Breeds, reformers who took direction from Senators John Sherman and James G. Blaine.

The scheming, delusional Charles J. Guiteau, failed author, lawyer and evangelist, listened to no one, except perhaps the voices in his head assuring him he was an important political player, instrumental in Garfield’s election and deserving of the consulship to Paris. After repeated rebuffs, he determined that only “removing the president” would allow a grateful Vice President Chester A. Arthur to reward him. During the nearly three excruciating months Garfield lay dying, Alexander Graham Bell desperately scrambled to perfect his induction balance (a metal detector) in time to locate the lead bullet lodged in the stricken president’s back. Meanwhile, Garfield’s medical team persistently failed to observe British surgeon Joseph Lister’s methods of antisepsis—the American medical establishment rejected the idea of invisible germs as ridiculous—a neglect that almost surely killed the president. Moving set pieces—the 1876 U.S. Centennial Exhibition which Garfield attended and where both Lister and Bell presented, the deadlocked Republican Convention, the steamship explosion that almost killed Guiteau, the White House death watch—and sharply etched sketches of Blaine, the overwhelmed Arthur and larger portraits of the truly impressive Garfield and the thoroughly insane Guiteau make for compulsive reading.

Superb American history. (Author tour to New York, Washington, D.C., Boston, Cleveland, Kansas City, San Francisco. Agent: Suzanne Gluck)

WHAT THEY SAVED Pieces of a Jewish Past

Miller, Nancy K. Univ. of Nebraska (248 pp.) $24.95 | September 1, 2011 978-0-8032-3001-9

A literature professor searches for her roots after her father’s death, uncovering an intricate portrait of a RussianJewish immigrant family.

Miller (English/Graduate Center, CUNY; But Enough About Me: Why We Read Other People’s Lives, 2002, etc.) was so distanced from her father’s side of the family that, when she divorced, she adopted her mother’s maiden name, rather than returning to Kipnis, her original surname. Though her parents were married and her father was always a consistent figure in her life, the author grew up close with her maternal relatives and almost entirely estranged from the Kipnis clan. Of particular curiosity were the uncle and first cousin that she’d never met. After her father died, Miller discovered a stash of old photographs and letters that piqued her curiosity: Who were the Kipnises, and why were they not a part of her life? To find out, she began deciphering

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clues, translating letters, tracking down army records, identifying long-dead figures in old photographs, connecting in person with her aging cousin and his family and eventually traveling back to Eastern Europe. What emerges is a story that will seem familiar to many Jewish families scattered across the diaspora: two sons carrying the pressures of their immigrant parents and responding differently to their freedom and opportunities. As with most, there are several skeletons in the Kipnis closet—suicide, divorce in a time when it was rare, womanizing and even some potential ties to the mob. But more than any particular scandal, Miller was shocked by the degree to which she became entrenched in her family’s story, with each answered question not satiating but rather fueling her curiosity. Ever the professor, Miller turns to fiction to understand her own narrative, channeling E.L. Doctorow, Marilynne Robinson, Aleksandar Hemon and many others to help articulate her past.

Painstakingly detailed at times, this quiet memoir is saved by Miller’s deftly placed literary references, which offer an unusual, intellectual perspective on an often-told story. (25 illustrations; 1 genealogy. Agent: Cecelia Cancellaro)

GHOST IN THE WIRES My Adventures as the World’s most Wanted Hacker

Mitnick, Kevin Little, Brown (384 pp.) $25.99 | August 15, 2011 978-0-316-03770-9

A legendary hacker recalls his escapades and life on the run from the FBI. Mitnick (The Art of Intrusion: The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruders and Deceivers, 2005, etc.), who now works as a computer-security consultant, spent nearly five years in a federal prison for computer crimes. With the lifting of a court ban that prohibited him from writing about his exploits, he offers a whirlwind account of his thrill-seeking adventures stealing source code and other sensitive data from phone and computer companies while leading the FBI and other federal authorities on a cross-country chase that ended with his arrest in 1995. Now in his late 40s, Mitnick grew up in California and developed an early fascination for pranks, deception and technology. At age 17, he was arrested for stealing phone-company manuals. At 23, he writes, his hacking gave him control over phone systems in much of the United States. One judge, in denying bail, said Mitnick posed a threat to the community when “armed with a keyboard.” In fact, his strongest suit was his ability to manipulate people; he learned the inside lingo of bureaucrats, won their trust and gained access to information. “People are just too trusting,” writes the reformed con man. The author delights in recounting his celebrated hacks of Sun Microsystems and other corporations; his outwitting of FBI pursuers; his elaborate methods of creating new identities; and his obsessive search for still edgier challenges. “Hacking was my entertainment,” he |

writes. He never gained financially from his “trophies” (source codes, passwords, credit-card and social-security numbers, etc.), but gathered them “purely for the thrill.” His breezy, in-yourface, anti-establishment narrative will please many readers, but some may find the author’s self-important attitude grating.

A lucid, brightly written tale for both techies and lay readers. (8 pages of black-and-white photos)

DAVID & LEE ROY A Vietnam Story

Nelson, David L. Schiffer, Randolph B. Texas Tech Univ. Press (288 pp.) $29.95 | September 15, 2011 978-0-89672-694-9

Haunted by a continued sense of loss and guilt, a former Marine Corps Captain investigates the death of his childhood friend in Vietnam.

As teenagers living in Lubbock, Texas in the 1960s, David and Lee Roy knew that their road to an education would be through the military. In this poignant debut memoir, Nelson looks at how the friends’ two paths diverged, and he examines his own attempt to find spiritual affirmation. Caught up in concerns about his life and career advancement, Nelson began to drift away from Lee Roy, and decided to seek Marine Corps backing for a law degree to qualify for a JAG assignment. Lee Roy opted to serve in the infantry, graduated and went through a year at the army’s Monterey Language Institute, learning Vietnamese. He received his papers to go to Vietnam in November 1968. By the end of February 1969, he was dead, killed in the course of Operation Dewey Canyon; he was 23. Nelson didn’t attend the funeral, telling himself that he couldn’t spare the time from law school. A chance encounter with one of Lee Roy’s comrades in Lubbock in 1997 put Nelson on the trail of reconstructing his friend’s story. In 2001, Nelson established the Lee Roy Herron Scholarship Fund in Texas Tech’s Vietnam Center. The scholarship program helps Texas Tech students study in Vietnam.

Nelson neatly pulls together the story of two lives, representatives of their generation, to build something more durable and more valuable than personal memories alone.

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EISENHOWER The White House Years Newton, Jim Doubleday (468 pp.) $29.95 | September 13, 2011 978-0-385-52353-0

Admiring biography of the 34th president.

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temperamentally inclined to the Republicans. After a landslide victory, he chose a strong cabinet with a variety of opinions, from the fierce Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, to Attorney General Herbert Brownell, who supported the nascent civil-rights movement. Los Angeles Times editor at large Newton (Justice for All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made, 2006) points out that every incoming president believes that the nation is in crisis, and few doubted this in 1953. The Korean War was entering its third year of bloody stalemate; communism seemed on the march abroad with McCarthy’s anticommunist hysteria spreading confusion at home. Within a year, the war had ended, McCarthy had self-destructed and Eisenhower—not Dulles, insists Newton—was conducting the Cold War with good sense. The author explains his lackluster performance on civil rights on the weak grounds that he was a man of his times with many segregationist friends and little sympathy for blacks. Yet, by the standards of today’s Republicans, Eisenhower was a liberal who accepted New Deal social programs, showed no interest in massive tax cuts and opposed America’s enemies while refusing to support a military buildup. Although contemporary observers described him as an amiable, inarticulate figurehead, his reputation has risen since.

Newton works hard with some success to argue that Eisenhower was a firm leader who kept his head during crises, encouraged America’s burgeoning prosperity and left the office to a more pugnacious successor ( JFK) who did not improve matters. (Agent: Tina Bennett)

RIN TIN TIN The Life and the Legend Orlean, Susan Simon & Schuster (288 pp.) $26.99 | October 4, 2011 978-1-4391-9013-5

New Yorker staff writer Orlean (My Kind of Place: Travel Stories from a Woman Who’s Been Everywhere, 2004, etc.) follows the long and curious trail of the celebrity dog born on a World War I battlefield.

The author, who has written a cookbook for dogs (Throw Me a Bone, 2007) and about obsessiveness (The Orchid Thief, 1999), combines all her skills and passions in this astonishing story of Lee Duncan (1893–1960), a young American soldier and dog-lover who found the German shepherd puppy that became Rin Tin Tin (Rinty) in France, got the dog home and spent the rest of his life training and promoting Rinty, breeding other German shepherds and living with the belief of Rinty’s immortality. (Rinty XI now lives in Oklahoma.) Orlean—who belongs to the generation that remembers the cry “Yo ho, Rinty!” from the popular The Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin, which premiered in 1954 and ran for 164 episodes—recalls that her grandfather kept on his desk a little Rinty figure. But the author is not interested only in the dog. She also provides the biography of Duncan, as well as Bert Leonard, writer and producer, and she includes interviews with Duncan’s daughter, the current keeper of the latest Rinty and scores of others. The author tells the story of 1120

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silent films (where Rinty began his career), the transition to talkies and to color, the rise of television, the popularity of dog ownership in America (especially of German shepherds and collies—because of Lassie) and the evolving tastes of American youth. For years, Orlean chased Rinty—even to his grave in Paris—and by the end, began to question her sanity.

Although occasionally excessive in its claims for the ultimate significance of it all, a terrific dog’s tale that will make readers sit up and beg for more. (Agent: Richard Pine)

THE SLUMS OF ASPEN Immigrants vs. the Environment in America’s Eden Park, Lisa Sun-Hee Pellow, David Naguib New York Univ. (264 pp.) $30.00 | September 1, 2011 978-0-8147-6803-7

Two academic activists peel back the surface of the idyllic resort town of Aspen, Colo., and find a notso-pretty picture underneath.

Park (Sociology and Asian American Studies/Univ. of Minnesota) and Pellow (Sociology/Univ. of Minnesota) return to the subject of environmental injustice that they explored in The Silicon Valley of Dreams: Environmental Injustice, Immigrant Workers, and the High-Tech Global Economy (2002). “We believe that the rarified, glorified notion of the Aspen idea often hides a whole mountain of ugly truths,” they write, “both in the Rockies and in cities around the world.” Using a wide range of sources—historical records, government documents, local newspapers and extensive interviews with town officers, school teachers, immigration-control officials, social-service providers and many Latino immigrant workers and their families—the authors study the paradox of social contempt for and economic dependence on immigrant labor, and they reveal its root causes and impacts.

Park and Pellow examine the link between environmentalism and nativism—i.e., anti-immigration policy, asserting that it is “not just the ardent, vicious, right-wing political forces that support nativist environmentalism: it is often the liberal leftof-center folks who share these ideas as well.” Indeed, they cite the Sierra Club as promoting the message that one of the major environmental problems is the reproductive behavior of women of color. Numerous quotes from immigrant workers reveal the indignities of their labor conditions, and excerpts from editorials and letters to the editor reveal the attitudes of white residents who resent their presence and blame them for a host of environmental and social problems. The authors also look at specific nonprofit organizations attempting to improve the lot of immigrant workers, and other organizations that oppose these attempts. In their conclusion, they call for an end to environmental racism and fresh thinking about the forms of privilege from which many of us benefit.

A clear description of a troubling problem and an important contribution to debates on immigration policy.

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INTELLIGENCE AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY Iraq, 9/11, and Misguided Reform

FOLLOW MY LEAD What Training My Dogs Taught Me About Life, Love, and Happiness

Pillar, Paul R. Columbia Univ. (416 pp.) $29.50 September 1, 2011 978-0-231-15792-6

Quinn, Carol Seal Press (256 pp.) $17.00 paperback | September 5, 2011 978-1-58005-370-9

A career intelligence officer reflects on the uses and abuses of intelligence and the agencies that gather it.

Contrary to general belief, Pillar (Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy, 2003, etc.) declares that “however important the contributions of intelligence in executing policy at the tactical and operational levels have been, its contribution to major strategic decisions has been almost nil.” If only policy were made according to an ideal model under which leaders come to an issue with open minds, digest apolitical intelligence reports and decide what best serves the national interest. Instead, decisions are made by senior policy makers on the basis of untested mental images “reflecting their sense of history, their personal experiences, and the political and strategic perspectives that they had brought with them into office.” The leaders later seek justification for their policies in intelligence reports, which may first be distorted by political expectations and then used more to generate public support for a predetermined policy than to shape that policy. Pillar deplores such “politicization” of intelligence and presents examples of its deleterious effects going back to the Cuban Missile Crisis, with special emphasis on the Vietnam and Iraq wars. When policies fail, the intelligence agencies then become convenient scapegoats, ripe for “reform.” The author briefly describes why Congress and the press are poorly situated to expose or counteract these problems. Finally, he offers some forlorn suggestions for effective intelligence reform, which he concedes have almost no chance of enactment, and some worthwhile recommendations for adapting our foreign policies to accept the inevitability of uncertainty. Along with this thoughtful analysis, however, much of the book is given over to two additional topics: in-depth denunciations of how intelligence was first ignored and then misused in the run-up to the Iraq war, and of the reorganization of the intelligence agencies that came out of the deliberations of the so-called “9/11 Commission.” Pillar’s disgust with the Bush administration and the Commission is palpable, and he goes into more detail than necessary to make his case in these sections; the noise of axe-grinding sometimes overpowers his generally well-supported positions.

A thoroughly documented, cogently argued work by an author with vast personal experience of his topic, but perhaps too wide-ranging to be effectively pulled together into a single volume.

An advertising executive and screenwriter sets out on a path to self-discovery and personal fulfillment by participating

in dog agility training.

Throughout the challenges of being a single mother, starting her own business and negotiating a rocky romance, Quinn has had one constant: her love for dogs. When she decided to introduce her Rhodesian ridgebacks, Nairobi and Sheila, to the demanding world of agility training, however, she received much more than she expected, including scathing reprimands from her Eastern European trainer, Irina, and humbling encounters with failure, both on and off the field. As she trained Nairobi and Sheila to turn, run and jump at her command, she also reevaluated her own well-worn responses to stress and chose instead to live in the moment with the same contentment that her dogs exuded. Much of the book has a kind of “Zen and the Art of Dog Training” vibe, which will likely appeal most to readers who enjoy inspirational literature—whether they love dogs or not—but Quinn’s enthusiasm for the prosaic subject matter (detailed depictions of dog-walking abound) elevates her memoir above the realm of saccharine self-help. Her tone conveys a sincere desire to share her new outlook with others, especially those who “have a tentative connection with life” rather than feeling fully connected to it. Many readers will empathize with her struggle to end a self-destructive relationship with her boyfriend, as well as find comfort in the commandments listed in the chapter titled “The Way of the Dog.” Lively photographs of the ridgebacks on the training course punctuate the text, while a supplementary list of resources devoted to agility training will prove useful for canine enthusiasts as they explore the possibility of engaging their own pets in this sport.

Despite some repetitive moments, this uplifting memoir encourages reflection and goal-setting, all within the ever-popular narrative framework of the human-dog bond.

(Agent: Al Zuckerman)

DRIVING HOME An American Journey Raban, Jonathan Pantheon (512 pp.) $30.00 | September 13, 2011 978-0-307-37991-7 e-book 978-0-307-90688-5

The acclaimed writer offers a collection of essays about America and Americana. |

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Arranged chronologically (1993–2010), these pieces chart Raban’s (Surveillance, 2007, etc.) move in 1990 from London to Seattle and show his various explorations of the geography, politics and sociology of his newly adopted land. In the introduction, he writes about his love of reading, crediting his mother for teaching the skill and instilling the desire and critic William Empson for showing him how to read deeply. (Empson reappears in Raban’s penultimate piece.) Throughout, Raban reveals the traits that have long endeared him to his readers—a curiosity about the quirkiness of people and places, a ferocious love for the land, an elegance (but never pretentiousness) of style, self-deprecation and an unusual ability to inhabit the imaginations of his interlocutors. In the forests around Seattle, for example, he displays his understanding of both loggers and treehuggers, land-lovers and -developers. He understands resentments. In the title essay, readers may be amused to note that he records a visit to Forks, Wash., now world-famous as the setting for the Twilight novels. Throughout his American odyssey, Raban writes about Mark Twain, Puget Sound, the Mississippi River floods, the dams on the Columbia River, waves along the Oregon coast, the sailor Joshua Slocum, sailing, the evolving architecture of Seattle, Seahawks’ fans in Montana, the vicissitudes of Robert Lowell and prominent Republicans (George W. Bush, Sarah Palin) and the Tea Party, for whom he has slight regard. Occasionally, he leaps back to his native England to write of Philip Larkin and George IV. As in any such collection, some repetitiveness emerges, but never enough to annoy.

Full of ideas that move through the language with the grace of a well-captained sailboat.

THE DOLPHIN IN THE MIRROR Exploring Dolphin Minds and Saving Dolphin Lives

Reiss, Diana Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (304 pp.) $27.00 | September 20, 2011 978-0-547-44572-4 The director of dolphin research at Baltimore’s National Aquarium retraces the path by which science has come to understand dolphin intelligence.

A committed activist on behalf of dolphin welfare, Reiss provides an account of her personal journey and the history of the development of proofs of the creatures’ high intelligence. The author chronicles the evolution of the field, beginning with John Lilly’s groundbreaking work on their language and concluding with a description of her own experimental work that demonstrates that dolphins are creatures endowed with self-awareness. Reiss also discusses her struggle to get these important findings published in scientific literature. In her doctoral thesis, she proposed a series of rigorous experiments that laid the basis for documenting dolphins’ ability to communicate with symbols, recognize their mirror image 1122

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and even reflect upon their experiences. While involved in her scientific studies, she was also struggling to secure funding and protect the animals she was working with from being sold for commercial exploitation. Reiss movingly conveys her deepening relationship with the dolphins, and she documents how, through each step of the process, and with each new generation, there is a tremendous emotional pull built upon the establishment of communication and empathy between our different species. This has historical antecedents—reflected in classical mythology, as well as in the actual experiences of people rescued at sea by dolphins.

Among the author’s purposes in writing this engrossing scientific memoir is to build support to stop the annual massacres of dolphins in Japan and elsewhere. (8-page insert.

Author tour to San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Boston, Baltimore, Washington, D.C.)

RETROMANIA Pop Culture’s Addiction to Its Own Past

Reynolds, Simon Faber & Faber/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (460 pp.) $16.00 paperback | July 26, 2011 978-0-86547-994-4 A leading British music critic argues that our fascination with the recent past has stifled innovation and originality in

popular culture.

Noting that “there has never been a society in human history so obsessed with the cultural artifacts of its own immediate past,” Reynolds (Bring the Noise: 20 Years of Writing About Hip Rock and Hip Hop, 2011, etc.) offers cogent examples of the “lame and shameful” retromania in pop music, including revivals, reissues, reunions, tribute albums, golden oldie shows, boxed sets and music documentaries. Part of a broader societal obsession with nostalgia—e.g., remakes of blockbuster movies, iconic TV shows and vintage fashions— this constant use and abuse of the past prevents the making of groundbreaking music. New styles like hip hop and rave culture can no longer emerge; instead, pop musicians of the 2000s tweak established musical genres and raid archives.

Much of Reynolds’s absorbing, brightly written and rambling book focuses on the evolution of pop nostalgia, beginning with the emergence of Sha Na Na, the ’50s revival group, in 1969, and the subsequent rise of a rock-nostalgia industry that reunited Dion and the Belmonts, the Five Satins and other groups. By the ’80s, rock’s history was being archived at venues like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where the ashes of noted rock disk jockey Alan Freed, the clothing John Lennon wore when he was shot and other memorabilia were displayed like “medieval sacred relics.” Disappointed by visits to such museums and to performances by reformed groups like the New York Dolls, Reynolds fears that our obsession with the recent past has become a structural part of rock

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WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE Manhunts from Geronimo to Bin Laden

music. Retromania is made possible by our increasing ability to access and share cultural data through new technologies.

Important—and alarming—reading for pop-music aficionados.

THE UNEXPECTED PATRIOT How an Ordinary American Mother Is Bringing Terrorists to Justice

Rossmiller, Shannen Carswell, Sue Palgrave Macmillan (256 pp.) $25.00 | September 1, 2011 978-0-230-10255-2

A crusading, modern-day vigilante goes online to flesh out unsuspecting terrorists.

Born on a ranch in bucolic Conrad, Mont., to a wheat farmer and a schoolteacher, Rossmiller blossomed from a plucky, determined “Little Scrapper” to a young woman fascinated with current events, news and history, relating more to her father’s brooding interest in the psychology of serial killers rather than her mother’s feminine pursuits. After college, she returned to Montana, married childhood friend Randy and began paralegal work, which led to her appointment, at 29, as the youngest female municipal judge in American history, trying mostly drugoffense cases. In 2002, still incensed by the atrocities of 9/11, Rossmiller became desperate for “a way to channel my outrage” and launched a personal War on Terror campaign. She learned Arabic, studied the Koran, educated herself on Middle Eastern geographies and interacted within the same Internet forums and chat rooms that had become communication portals for the stealth terrorists responsible for 9/11. From there, her story speeds off in a dizzying array of events as a result of Rossmiller’s creation of 40 false Muslim-radical identities and the tracking of jihadist activity with a spreadsheet. Additionally, the author furtively became an FBI-reporting cyber-sleuth and organized the Seven Seas Global Intelligence Group. She would eventually feel the heat of retribution, betrayal and life-threatening peril alongside the satisfaction of executing successful sting operations busting traitorous National Guardsman Ryan G. Anderson and Alaska pipeline terrorist Michael Reynolds. The author’s somewhat stiffly written, steely narrative darkens further once the author reconciles the toll her valiant, fearless career in cyber counterintelligence and the many media-scrutinized court testimonies had taken on her well-being and her family’s safety, spurring health woes and the collapse of her marriage.

The prose is workmanlike, but Rossmiller’s patriotic, risky involvement in righting the wrongs of 9/11 resonates on every page. (Author tour to New York and Washington, D.C.)

Runkle, Benjamin Palgrave Macmillan (288 pp.) $27.00 | August 2, 2011 978-0-230-10485-3

The recent demise of Osama bin Laden serves as an appropriate coda for former Defense Department and National Security Council staffer Runkle’s (coauthor: Occupying Iraq: A History of the Coalition Provisional Authority, 2009, etc.) history of the manhunt in American military strategy.

With the bin Laden hunts, the author downplays what Clinton and his administration tried to do from 1997 to ’98, while providing Bush I’s team with the benefit of the doubt—e.g., in bin Laden’s escape from Tora-Bora in 1991. His preferences are understandable, however, as he demonstrates how such partisanship has been an included feature of countless manhunts, often with military consequences. At the end of the Indian Wars, with one quarter of the U.S. Army in the hunt, Grover Cleveland had a personal interest in bringing the “monster” Geronimo to account. In the Philippines at the turn of the century, the fate of the “demonized” Emilio Aguinaldo was affected by the 1900 election between William Jennings Bryan and William McKinley. Intervening in Mexico’s civil war prior to World War I to hunt for Pancho Villa, President Wilson found he could not withdraw without giving the Republicans an issue in the 1916 elections. Militarily, Runkle’s 12 manhunts illustrate key features of counterinsurgency or asymmetrical warfare strategy, and indicate how America’s military leadership, and its thinking, has been shaped through the succession of such hunts and campaigns. The author provides a focus on the necessity of what Colin Powell called creating “a flesh and blood villain” to crystallize political support.

Going behind the headlines, Runkle provides worthwhile background and context for understanding current wars and how they are fought. (8 maps)

FOLLOWING ATTICUS Forty-Eight High Peaks, One Little Dog, and an Extraordinary Friendship

Ryan, Tom Morrow/HarperCollins (288 pp.) $25.99 | Lg. Prt. $25.99 September 20, 2011 978-0-06-199710-5 Lg. Prt. 978-0-06-208862-8

Lyrical memoir of an adventurous New England journalist and his trusty canine companion.

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“An immensely helpful medical guide that won’t just sit on the shelf.” from my child is sick !

Newburyport, Mass. (“Norman Rockwell meets Alfred Hitchcock”). The author’s journalistic exposure of local scandals didn’t sit well with folks in power, however, and he feared violent retribution. Quelling his paranoia was the “commitment” of adopting an older miniature schnauzer. Sadly, his time with that pet lasted less than a year, but spurred him to adopt schnauzer pup Atticus Maxwell Finch. After a frustrating training period, Ryan and Atticus struck a harmonious human-animal rapport, a uniquely interactive relationship the author clearly reveled in. A few tastes of majestic New Hampshire mountain climbing with his brothers brought back fond memories of better days with his estranged father, a haunting presence throughout the memoir. That family hike challenged Ryan to scale all 48 of the White Mountain range’s 4,000-foot peaks in 90 days with a dog Ryan fondly writes was “made for the mountains.” The experience became therapeutic, transformative and spiritually enlightening for both.

Without regret, Ryan retired the newspaper and, in honor of cancer victim Vicki Pearson, galvanized himself and Atticus to, again, hike the 48 peaks (twice!) as a cancer fundraiser. Rivetingly portrayed, both valiantly braved the vicious winter elements (Atticus in booties and bodysuit), but the dog’s darker days were only just beginning. There’s immense pathos in the frank depiction of the author’s turbulent relationship with his father, both in describing his physical abuse as a youth or finding forgiveness in adulthood.

In befriending Atticus and carrying his father’s memory to those serene mountain peaks, Ryan admits he discovered a rare peacefulness, a quality that underscores this touching chronicle. (Agent: Brian DeFiore)

THE UNRAVELING Pakistan in the Age of Jihad

Schmidt, John R. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (320 pp.) $27.00 | September 20, 2011 978-0-374-28043-7

A rare lucid take on the turmoil in Pakistan by a former State Department official.

A longtime Foreign Service diplomat, Schmidt (International Affairs/George Washington Univ.) served in Pakistan in the late ’90s. Here he offers a cogent analysis of the havoc caused by a nettlesome concoction of feudal lords, strong military, American pressure and radical Islamist factions all vying for dominance. Essentially, he writes, the nation was created as a Muslim entity in opposition to India, and that all its subsequent policies, especially in relation to Kashmir and Afghanistan, reflect that essential insecurity and resentment. With India in mind, the Pakistanis supported the Afghani mujahideen against Soviet aggression, and later modeled its own insurgent elements (enlisted to foment rebellion against India in Kashmir) on the success of that highly selective, motivated group of insurgents. However, 1124

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these radical Islamist groups, once tolerated because of their ability to execute overseas plans, quickly grew out of control and began to destabilize Pakistani society and government— e.g., through terrorist threats by Lashkar-e-Taiba (“Army of the Pure”), responsible for the Mumbai bombing and numerous others. Moreover, Pakistan’s eager acceptance of American financial support and capitulation to American interests have come under deep suspicion by both the Pakistani people (only a small percentage of whom consider themselves fundamental Islamist) and American government—especially underscored by the revelations of Osama bin Laden’s sheltering for years in a compound near Islamabad. Schmidt’s various scenarios sound rather naïve now, with Pakistan exploding in anger after the assassination of bin Laden, but the author makes a sound case in presenting the complex ramifications resulting from the instability introduced into the country after 9/11, when the United States forced Pakistan to choose between supporting the Taliban or U.S. interests, and subsequently drove al-Qaeda onto Pakistani soil.

A deeply thoughtful study geared for the lay reader—in need of an update in light of recent events. (Agent: Scott Moyers)

MY CHILD IS SICK! Expert Advice for Managing Common Illnesses and Injuries

Schmitt, Barton D. American Academy of Pediatrics (300 pp.) $12.95 paperback | July 1, 2011 978-1-58110-552-0 An immensely helpful medical guide that won’t just sit on the shelf.

When a child coughs repeatedly in the middle of the night, parents agonize over whether or not to take him/her to the ER. Schmitt (Pediatrics/Univ. of Colorado; Pediatric Telephone Protocols, 2010, etc.), a board-certified pediatrician for more 40 years and the creator of the first self-triage iPhone app, makes the decision easier with this far-ranging reference volume for the most common childhood illnesses and injuries. Packed with peer-reviewed information used by doctors and nurses in 10,000 practices and 400 medical call centers in the United States and Canada, the book contains plain-spoken advice and bulleted, boldfaced keywords for a quickly navigable process. First, determine a child’s major symptom and flip to “Definition” in the corresponding chapter; if symptoms do not fit, readers are encouraged to plumb the “See More Appropriate Topic” suggestions. Parents will be particularly drawn to the “When To Call Your Doctor” feature, which helps ascertain whether dialing 911 is necessary, or if parents can hold off calling a physician for 24 hours or longer, as well as the “Home Care Advice” section, which provides instructions on how to treat minor ailments with a standard first-aid kit. Above all, Schmitt urges common sense. The author also includes a list of “not to miss” symptoms along with myth-busting facts about fever,

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understandable drug dosage tables and age-appropriate ideas for pain relief, such as olive oil for ear aches if a child has no holes or tubes in the eardrum.

An excellent resource that will help all parents rest a little easier at night.

MY DYSLEXIA

Schultz, Philip Norton (128 pp.) $21.95 | September 6, 2011 978-0-393-07964-7 Writers have a way with words. In the case of this writer, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2008, words are more likely to have their challenging way with him.

In a memoir as brief as a poem, Schultz (Failure, 2007, etc.) reflects on his dyslexia, a lifelong disability that was not diagnosed until late into his adulthood. He learned, with difficulty, to read at age 11. He was generally regarded as simply a stupid youngster. His mother had faith that her only child was truly bright, but his father was not helpful. The boy’s different neurological wiring produced a lonely, unresponsive child, and he was invited by his school’s administration to leave. And yet the poet survived, learned to process information and to read and write—though it’s not easy, even now. Schultz would like, mostly, just to be left alone to cogitate in his own way. Reading still does not come quickly.

The author loves books, he writes, “except actually reading them.”

Yet he demonstrates a lambent, odd contact with words: “Anything whispered, insinuated or abbreviated becomes in my mind a mumble-jumble bargain-basin [stet] gibberish.” His memoir, jogged into realization when he followed his Pulitzer Prize with an address at a school for the learning disabled, was not effortless. Today he heads a school that teaches writing. The author recognizes that his teenage son shares the same diagnosis, but this is his own story, not his child’s. Is the very notion of a dyslexic author an anomaly? How does the mind of a dyslexic work? Here, at least, are the answers for one man alone.

Under the rubric of “inspirationally instructive,” Schultz offers a compact book. Yet, writing with a focused mind, he dilates at length on the struggle within that mind.

ORDINARY GENIUSES Max Delbrück, George Gamow, and the Origins of Genomics and Big Bang Cosmology

Segrè, Gino Viking (352 pp.) | $27.95 August 22, 2011 978-0-670-02276-2

Segrè (Faust in Copenhagen: A Struggle for the Soul of Physics, 2007, etc.) explores |

the extraordinary lives and scientific accomplishments of two far-from-ordinary men, Max Delbrück and George Gamow.

The author explains why he calls them “ordinary” geniuses, despite the fact that they “led two of the most important science revolutions of the twentieth century.” Both were big-picture scientists, quantum physicists unwilling to rest on their laurels and unafraid of mistakes. Just as Kepler’s discovery of the elliptical orbit of planets awaited Newton’s gravitational theory for its realization and Bohr’s model of the atom, despite being in error, was the inspiration for quantum mechanics, so it was Delbrück’s research into the origins of life that inspired the work of Crick and Watson and Gamow’s effort to explain the origin of atoms that earned him the title of the father of modern cosmology. In fact, Segrè’s title appears to be ironic.

He explains that their genius was ordinary only in comparison with the towering greats such as Einstein and Heisenberg.

The author writes extensively about how Bohr supported and encouraged their work and organized fellowships for them so that they could participate in the stimulating atmosphere of his Copenhagen Institute in the formative stage of their careers, and how they sought to replicate that environment as teachers in America, where they immigrated on the eve of World War II. In the author’s opinion, their “ordinary genius” was the result of qualities that we all can share—judgment, character, perseverance and willingness to think outside of the box—although he deplores the short-term practical goals that have come to dominate the scientific establishment in recent years.

An exuberant dual biography that integrates developments in quantum physics, cosmology and genetics since the 1920s with the lives of these two scientists. (Local author events in Philadelphia. Agents: Katinka Matson and John Brockman)

MY RUSSIAN GRANDMOTHER AND HER AMERICAN VACUUM CLEANER A Family Memoir Shalev, Meir Translator: Fallenberg, Evan Schocken (224 pp.) $24.95 | October 4, 2011 978-0-8052-4287-4 e-book 978-0-8052-4298-0

Breezy chronicle of life with a hardworking Russian family headed by an obsessive matriarch with a “dirt phobia.”

Award-winning Israeli writer Shalev’s (Beginnings: Reflections on the Bible’s Intriguing Firsts, 2010, etc.) delightful family memoir focuses on a joyful boyhood spent with his grandparents Aharon and Tonia through the decades following their migration to Palestine in the 1920s (both elders hailed from small Ukrainian villages). The author’s grandmother, Tonia, a practical, tightly-wound cleaning sensation, had always been a woman who methodically carried a dust rag on her shoulder, but the gift of a powerful General Electric vacuum sent from Shalev’s uncle was completely unexpected. The present both surprised

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and irritated Tonia and Aharon. Tonia was used to doing her own housekeeping unassisted by mechanical intervention, and Aharon felt it was a offering from a relative who’d swapped their adopted Zionistic beliefs for “American capitalism” by emigrating to Los Angeles, changing his name and becoming a businessman who reaped more self-satisfied rewards than the rest of the family. The author gleefully describes his hardworking grandmother’s eccentricities with affectionate amusement and without mockery. As a young boy, to help prepare for the family Seder, Shalev was allowed access to Tonia’s forbidden rooms, where he discovered abandoned furniture draped in “old-sheet shrouds,” as well as inside the typically locked, second bathroom, where the vacuum cleaner (her “svieeperrr”) sat, unused, for fear that it would become soiled if operated. The author unveils Tonia’s stringent unwillingness to allow visitors to traipse through the clean, carefully segregated house, preferring to entertain outside, and her startlingly outspoken declaration that “a young man should change girls like he does socks.”

Rife with colloquialisms and native dialects, Shalev’s personal reflections of quirky uncles, family squabbles, the rich history of his Jewish heritage and the legacy of the omnipresent American vacuum touch the heart and tickle the funny bone.

An unconventional and quite hilarious family scrapbook.

SWEET HEAVEN WHEN I DIE Faith, Faithlessness, and the Country In Between

Sharlet, Jeff Norton (256 pp.) $24.95 | August 15, 2011 978-0-393-07963-0

A disjointed collection of essays profiling a diverse set of faith-based leaders across the American landscape.

In his latest book, Sharlet (C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy, 2010, etc.) returns to religion but casts a wider net, peering into the nooks and crannies of modern American faiths largely by examining their leaders. Writing with a casual, conversational hand— almost as if transcribing an episode of This American Life—the author chronicles his travels around the country. On his journeys, he visited the East Texas Honor Academy led by charismatic minister Ron Luce, who has spearheaded a virulent, nationwide fundamentalist Christian youth crusade. He mourned with the parents of anarchist Brad Will, who was gunned down for videotaping riots in Oaxaca, attended a New Age healing convention with a Kabbalist and Reiki master and waxed philosophical on Kierkegaard and W.E.B. Du Bois with Cornel West (seen by many as a prophet in his own right). In the first, perhaps most personal essay, Sharlet discusses his visit to his college girlfriend, Molly, in the small Colorado town where she lives with her preacher husband and serves as a gun-toting, horse-riding, morally bound district attorney. The author had spent a summer in Colorado with Molly in college, and his return there makes stark the contrast between the liberal path that he took and the 1126

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Christian, conservative one that she did. Sharlet has plenty of reason for confusion—his parents divorced early, and he was raised largely by his Christian mother, until she died when he was 16 and his Jewish father took over. But while he interjects some personal questions into his essays, they seem largely incidental and don’t effectively bind the shorter pieces.

Sharlet admits that many of these essays were born from research for other books, and that’s how they read: wellwritten but disconnected parts of several larger wholes.

THE JUSTICE CASCADE How Human Rights Prosecutions Are Changing World Politics

Sikkink, Kathryn Norton (384 pp.) $27.95 | September 26, 2011 978-0-393-07993-7

A cogent, thorough historical study of the gathering global momentum in holding state officials accountable for human-rights abuses, from Nuremberg to Guantánamo.

The trend toward human-rights activism throughout the 20th century, galvanized especially around opposition to the repressive military dictatorships in Argentina and Chile, has created what Sikkink (Political Science/Univ. of Minnesota) views as a deeply hopeful “justice cascade.” Oriented in her research toward Latin America, the author concentrates mainly on the emergent groups that exposed abuses in those countries, which in turn empowered others to create “truth commissions” in the wake of violent official abuses, such as South Africa and the former Yugoslavia. Despite the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials after World War II, which put in place the model for state accountability, the enforcement of humanrights abuses lost steam mainly because the criminal leaders themselves still claimed immunity. In Greece and Portugal by the mid ’70s, however, domestic courts held unprecedented trials of military personnel for crimes committed during their previous military dictatorships—unlike in Spain, where the passage of time and the Amnesty Law of 1977 blocked persecution of abuses perpetrated during General Franco’s fourdecade dictatorship. Human-rights organizations in support of the “disappeared” of Argentina ensured that Raúl Alfonsín’s democratic government held trials—in turn setting off an outcry for accountability in neighboring Brazil, Uruguay and Bolivia, making possible the extradition arrest of General Pinochet in 1998 and paving the way for the creation of the International Criminal Court and other important checks.

Sikkink structures her fairly academic but highly readable study in three parts: the emergence of the zeitgeist, spurred by the American opposition to the Vietnam War in the late ’60s; the diffusion of the ideas of accountability; and the impact of deterring world leaders from criminal activity—e.g., Bush administration officials being held accountable for torture cases at secret detention centers.

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A distinguished work involving a significant marshalling of statistics and evidence that signals enormous hope for humanity in the coming century.

SONIA GANDHI An Extraordinary Life, an Indian Destiny Singh, Rani Palgrave Macmillan (272 pp.) $26.00 | September 13, 2011 978-0-230-10441-9

A London journalist presents a biography of one of the world’s enigmatic female leaders.

Beginning with the 1991 assassination of Sonia’s husband, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Singh traces back to Sonia’s girlhood, her English education and her eventual marriage, emphasizing the charged atmosphere in mother-in-law Indira Gandhi’s household. The author then discusses the death of Rajiv’s brother, Sanjay, and Indira’s assassination by her own bodyguards, circling back to Rajiv’s term in office, his death and beyond.

Singh portrays Sonia not as a strategist aiming for power, nor as a widow pushed onto the stage by tragedy, but as a family-oriented woman inspired by her adopted country. She did not accept the position of president until several years afterward; how reluctance transformed into the will to preserve a legacy comprises much of the second half of the book. Though Singh provides few quotes from Sonia herself, readers will glimpse how she earned the trust of her constituency through decades of personal involvement and with the Nehru tradition of honoring public meetings, all while preserving her own privacy. The author occasionally dwells on darker moments, but Sonia does not appear to rely on sympathy.

Readers initially intrigued by the famous namesake (unrelated to Mahatma), by India’s violent, sometimes sectarian past and by the Nehru descendants—often likened to the Kennedys—will find that the author assembles a story of mostly balanced perspective.

Readers unfamiliar with Sonia’s life will also discover a woman of surprisingly level-headed strength.

A book of humane scope that reveals an intriguing political history and a life of compassion.

NEWSPAPER TITAN The Infamous Life and Monumental Times of Cissy Patterson Smith, Amanda Knopf (720 pp.) $35.00 | September 6, 2011 978-0-375-41100-7 e-book 978-0-307-70151-0

The editor of Hostage to Fortune: The Letters of Joseph P. Kennedy (2001) returns with a thick, assiduously researched biography of Eleanor |

Medill “Cissy” Patterson (1881–1948), the powerful, tendentious editor of the Washington Times-Herald.

In this numbingly detailed biography, Smith gives us not just the story of her principal but her every element of her back story, and few minor characters walk her stage without major-character treatment. Patterson’s story is indeed complicated, engaging and even bizarre, though it takes her more than 40 pages to arrive in the narrative. A daughter of privilege and publishing, Patterson grew up without much of an education (finishing school sufficed); married an impecunious Polish count, Josef Gizycki, who had drinking, gambling, fidelity and domestic-abuse issues; bore a daughter, Felicia, with whom she would have a long, contentious relationship; fled from the count (who hid the daughter for 18 months) and retreated back into the world of her American family, whose wealth and influence defeated the count’s efforts to extract a portion of fortune for himself. Patterson would marry again, but she would also take over a struggling newspaper in Washington and convert it into an enormously profitable enterprise.

She blasted away at FDR and became increasingly vindictive, mercurial and eccentric, before dying suddenly. A long, bitter battle over her complicated assets ensued. Smith seems fascinated by all the money (she frequently footnotes the estimated current value of sums made or spent by Patterson), and she seems unable to determine which biographical or contextual details are primary, secondary, tertiary or superfluous. So she includes them all, just in case.

An enormously important subject obscured in a blinding blizzard of undifferentiated fact. (92 photographs. Author tour to Chicago, New York, Washington, D.C. Agent: Tina Bennett)

SHOWDOWN JFK and the Integration of the Washington Redskins Smith, Thomas G. Beacon (256 pp.) $26.95 | September 6, 2011 978-0-8070-0074-8 e-book 978-0-8070-0075-5

Smith (History/Nichols Coll.; Green Republican: John Saylor and the Preservation of America’s Wilderness, 2006, etc.) charts the sordid racial history of the Washington Redskins, the last NFL team to field black players.

The author focuses on the Redskins’ innovative but controversial and preening owner, George Preston Marshall, the principal obstruction in the stream of racial equality that began to break through in the mid 20th century. Marshall, who made his fortune in the laundry business, bought into the NFL in 1932 and soon moved to Washington D.C., where his teams enjoyed swift and enduring success on the arm and acumen of quarterback Sammy Baugh. Smith notes that a few blacks played in the NFL in the ’30s, but—principally due to the influence of Marshall, he avers—the league soon became all-white and stayed that way for more than a decade, when Paul Brown’s eponymous team

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“An unabashed celebration of branding, bling and the potency of marketing and consumer desire.” from the tanning of america

broke the mold and soared to glory with Marion Motley and Otto Graham. Noting the Browns’ success, other teams soon followed, though Marshall remained intransigent. As the civilrights movement gathered momentum, the pressure mounted on Marshall to relent, but it took the efforts of an unlikely hero, JFK’s Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall, to find the financial leverage to do so. (He told Marshall he could not use a public stadium if he violated fair-hiring practices.) The author cannot conceal his disgust with Marshall, attaching to him just about every available synonym for racist, but Smith does celebrate the efforts of D.C. journalists, white (Shirley Povich) and black (Sam Lacy), to prod Marshall into the 20th century. He also notes the oddity of D.C.’s black fans swarming to the stadium to see the all-white team.

Thorough research and thick disdain form a corrosive substance that consumes the brazen racist Marshall.

COSMIC NUMBERS The Numbers that Define Our Universe Stein, James D. Basic (272 pp.) $25.99 | September 6, 2011 978-0-465-02198-7

Cheerful but not dumbed-down discussions of 13 fundamental numbers.

Unlike many popular-science writers, Stein (Mathematics/California State Univ., Long Beach; How Math Can Save Your Life, 2010, etc.) does not boast that he avoids math, so readers should remember their high-school algebra.

Almost everyone knows that light has a speed and that temperatures can drop to absolute zero. However, no one knew that 500 years ago, and Stein recounts how astronomers (in the case of light) and physicists (for absolute zero) teased out the details.

Fundamentals discovered more recently bear the names of their founding geniuses: Planck’s constant that began the quantum revolution, Hubble’s constant that measures how fast the universe is expanding, the Schwarzschild radius (how to make a black hole; squeezing the Earth to the size of a pea would do it) and the Chandrasekhar limit, which determines if an aging star will go quietly or light up the galaxy in a supernova (our sun is too small to explode). Stein is not shy about explaining the mathematics behind these phenomena at length rarely seen in a popular-science book. Readers who keep a pencil and paper handy will benefit, but those who skim will not regret the experience. While not math-free, the book is illustration-free, so readers should make liberal use of that pencil and paper because many explanations become clearer with a simple diagram.

Every educated reader should know what these numbers mean. Stein casts his net widely, delivering an entertaining history of each, often wandering into areas of science only distantly related but no less worthwhile.

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THE TANNING OF AMERICA How Hip-Hop Created a Culture that Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy

Stoute, Steve Rivas, Mim Eichler Gotham Books (272 pp.) $26.00 | September 8, 2011 978-1-592-40481-0

An innovative advertiser shares views on cross-cultural marketing, using lessons from the explosion of hip-hop.

Stoute, founder of Translation Consultation & Brand Imaging, specializes in forging connections between established corporate brands and the community of musicians, rappers, actors and sports figures generally referred to as “urban.”

His basic point, repeated frequently, is that the demographic and social changes suggesting America is becoming more multi-hued and tolerant (the so-called narrative of “tanning”) present new and exciting opportunities for promoting products in a competitive marketplace. He ties this argument to hip-hop’s rise and gradual commercialization, starting with the grassroots success of the first Sugar Hill record “Rappers Delight” and the legendary 1986 concert where Adidas’ German executives first heard Run-DMC’s “My Adidas.” Stoute argues that the aspirational nature of hip-hop—the crucial sense of outsider identity it provided from the 1970s through the ’90s—makes it the ideal medium for merchandising everything from luxury goods to soft drinks: “being brandconscious was nothing new for African-Americans—who I contend are the absolute best consumers in the world.” By the early ’90s, writes the author, advertisers and corporations perceived hip-hop’s credibility and sales potential but were in dire need of “translators”—i.e., cultural point men who could demystify its codes and rituals. This led Stoute to transition from RCA’s black music division to advertising; he realized “tanning” was affecting all aspects of consumer culture. The author’s strength is his recall of various real-world examples of “tanning” in the lucrative, high-stakes arena of mass culture, seen in the success of Mary J. Blige, LL Cool J, Will Smith and other luminaries. He also discusses business narratives such as the “soft drink wars” and the changing fortunes of Reebok and Tommy Hilfiger to illustrate how his principles can help brands stay nimble and attuned. However, his specific prescriptions for businesses often seem general and dependent on buzzwords.

An unabashed celebration of branding, bling and the potency of marketing and consumer desire.

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LIBERTY’S SUREST GUARDIAN American Nation-Building from Washington to Obama Suri, Jeremi Free Press (416 pp.) $28.00 | September 27, 2011 978-1-4391-1912-9

An impassioned apology for spreading American hegemony throughout the world.

Nation-building, writes Suri (History/Univ. of Wisconsin; Henry Kissinger and the American Century, 2007, etc.), is like parenting. In order to bolster good conduct and civilized behavior in unruly nascent states, the United States intercedes by offering military protection and financial assistance so that the fledglings can get on their feet and organize their own future. This is how Suri characterizes the definitive nation-building “projects” throughout American history: the founding of the Republic, Reconstruction of the recalcitrant Confederacy, wresting the Philippines from Spain at the turn of the 19th century, the Marshall Plan implemented to reconstruct Europe and Asia after World War II and the sticky interventions in Korea, Vietnam and finally Afghanistan. In this patriotic study, Suri traces the origins of American nation-building as propounded best by James Madison and Alexander Hamilton in a unique synthesis of plurality and union. This “fusion of republicanism and empire” would not only justify U.S. expansion from coast to coast, but also intervention elsewhere in order to eliminate perceived threats to its stability and preserve world order. By virtue of comparison with previous successful nation-building projects such as Reconstruction and rebuilding Germany after World War II, the author faults the Bush administration’s interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq as being too minimal, distracted, stingy and “part-time.” The long-term commitment that Suri urges is not “a traditional empire of forceful repression,” he insists, but more like a “visiting partner.” Finding partners, assisting citizens and even working with corrupt leaders prove acceptable as long as the goal is “stability, unity and cooperation within a functioning set of state institutions.” Unfortunately, the author neatly brushes off the rest of the world’s profound resentment of American self-interest and messianic muscle-flexing.

A blithe historical evaluation that fails to reach the lofty level of Suri’s previous book.

THE DRAMA-FREE OFFICE A Guide to Healthy Collaboration with Your Team, Coworkers, and Boss

Warner, Jim Klemp, Kaley Greenleaf Book Group (160 pp.) $14.95 paperback | July 1, 2011 978-1-60832-117-9

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Tips on how to check your drama—and that of your colleagues—at the office door.

Is your office full of drama queens, and nothing seems to get accomplished? Father-daughter duo Warner (Facing Pain— Embracing Love: The Map to Authentic Living, 2009, etc.) and Klemp are here with solutions in this often-humorous guide to stamping out unnecessary and distracting office theatrics.

The authors, who have worked with some 2,500 CEOs in their consulting business, define drama as “interactions that drain energy or deflect the team from the vibrant and shared pursuit of goals.” They identify four primary actors in typical office dramas—the complainer, the cynic, the controller and the caretaker—and offer suggestions on how to turn bad behavior into productivity. First off, readers are instructed to control the dramatic flair they themselves exhibit: “You can choose to be ‘right’ or you can choose to be curious and take responsibility for whatever is happening in your life.” Moving forward, they provide strategies on how to rein in others, such as how to offer compliments when a complainer does well, how to be fair and accurate when dealing with a cynic and how to instill milestones on a project for a caretaker. Using these tools, the authors write, will foster behavior change and implement effective interoffice communication and productivity. Other highlights include ways to approach tough business meetings and how to handle visible emotions.

A quick-and-easy read that seeks to dampen office drama and ramp up efficiency.

THE SOURCE FIELD INVESTIGATIONS The Hidden Science and Lost Civilizations Behind the 2012 Prophecies

Wilcock, David Dutton (560 pp.) $29.95 | August 18, 2011 978-0-525-95204-6

A provocative examination of ancient prophecies and how they seem to align with the latest research in quantum physics—and whether both fields hint at an impending new age of consciousness.

Wilcock, whose popular online documentary The 2012 Enigma was the genesis for this book, has spent 30 years investigating connections found in writings left behind by prehistoric civilizations and how they relate to the physical universe.

His research led him to the conclusion that ancient Egyptians, Mayans, Hindus and others have left clues that may reveal the secret behind the year 2012, and that the date itself is not indicative of an apocalyptic event, but the start of an epoch that may usher in a higher state of consciousness. Wilcock argues that this transition will be guided by a living energy field—and that this energy field, which he dubs “the source field,” is the fundamental building block of all space, time, energy, matter and biological life, and may be a crystallization of a united, symbiotic consciousness that we all have the ability to tap into. The author provides

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wide-ranging evidence to support this claim, citing dozens of scientific studies and first-person testimonies, and delves into the mystical connections between DNA, energy and light. He argues that the makeup of the entire universe is geometric in arrangement and motion, and that the year 2012 coincides with many natural astrological changes that could affect human intuitive abilities (namely through the activation of the pineal gland, an idea that is referenced by many ancient cultures). Much of Wilcock’s scientific data is cutting-edge: For example, an idea like the holographic principle fits perfectly with his notion that time may actually exist in three dimensions. However, readers should be prepared for some fantastical discussion of alien intelligence, crop circles and time portals. At its core, Wilcock’s theories rest on the idea that mankind can usher in this transcended age by expressing love and kindness toward each other and the world—a worthwhile endeavor regardless of one’s beliefs about 2012.

Debatable, sure, but the author writes a narrative as fast-paced and scintillating as a sci-fi novel.

ROCK THE CASBAH Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World

Wright, Robin Simon & Schuster (300 pp.) $26.99 | July 19, 2011 978-1-4391-0316-6

In one of the first of a flood of books that will inevitably follow Osama bin Laden’s death and the Middle East uprisings, Wright (Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East, 2008, etc.) delivers the stirring news that jihadism is fading, and Arab nations are finally entering the modern world.

Touring the region, reporter and scholar the author interviewed participants and recounts these changes, often through their eyes. Early chapters recap recent, familiar events—revolutions in Arab states, unrest in Iran, defections from al-Qaeda and increasing efforts within the Islamic world to discourage violence.

Half of the narrative consists of magazine-like essays on Islamic culture, ranging from the predictable (the struggle for women’s right, Islamic television) to the exotic (Islamic rap music, Islamic comedians, Islamic satirical theater, popular TV preachers). An astute observer and no Pollyanna, Wright delivers a jolt in her conclusion—even the successful revolutions have made matters worse by destroying the only thriving industry, tourism. Too many Middle East nations, oil rich or not, are economic basket cases on the level of sub-Saharan Africa with massive unemployment, widespread poverty, dreadful infrastructure and no tradition of democracy or even honest leadership. More than $1 trillion from the United States has produced unimpressive results in Iraq and Afghanistan, and there is no chance these nations will receive a fraction of that. Achieving freedom solves their easiest problem.

More journalism than deep analysis, the book paints a vivid portrait of dramatic changes in the Islamic world that may or may not end well. (Agent: Esther Newberg) 1130

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SHOCK VALUE How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror

Zinoman, Jason Penguin Press (272 pp.) $27.95 | July 11, 2011 978-1-59420-302-2

An entertaining history of the metamorphosis of the horror film during the 1970s from a cult genre to a major part of mainstream Hollywood.

Today’s filmgoers may think nothing of going to the local multiplex to see the latest incarnation of the Saw franchise, but New York Times theater reporter Zinoman reminds us of a time when such fare was restricted to drive-ins, while “mainstream” horror consisted of cheesy Vincent Price movies or vampire films from Britain’s Hammer studios. The change is attributed to a group of maverick writers and directors including Wes Craven, John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper and George Romero, makers of such films a Night of the Living Dead, The Last House on the Left, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween, which created a new type of horror based on reality instead of fantasy. The author investigates the cultural conditions that made the “New Horror” possible, and Zinoman is particularly interested in the personal aspects of the genre, including the influence of the creators’ family lives and the idea that the appeal of horror movies is closely tied to childhood experiences. The author deeply explores the transition from the grindhouse to the mainstream theater through such movies as Rosemary’s Baby, Carrie and The Exorcist, as well as the commercialization of the genre into the sequel-producing monster of today. Zinoman sometimes stretches a bit with his psychoanalyses, and the narrative structure can be somewhat awkward, but the characters and stories behind the films are engaging enough to keep even casual readers involved. The author also includes interviews and first-person recollections with many of the participants, and there is no shortage of juicy gossip, notably the fallingout between Carpenter and his film-school partner and Alien creator Dan O’Bannon. Like many trailblazers, O’Bannon and others, including Hooper, often failed to profit from their influential work, and Zinoman argues that the promise of the New Horror remains largely unfulfilled.

An engrossing look at an important cultural moment and a valuable addition to the canon of popular film history.

(Agent: Farley Chase)

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children & teens SIGN LANGUAGE

Ackley, Amy Viking (400 pp.) $16.99 | August 18, 2011 978-0-670-01318-0 To call this affecting debut a tearjerker is an understatement.

Sure, Abby North’s dad has terminal cancer, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to die. Besides, the young teen from Michigan can always consult her Magic 8 Ball, which she sees as her direct line from God, and it can’t be wrong.

But Abby’s dad does pass away before her freshman year in this heartbreaking story that’s divided into the summer before and the two years after his death. The quiet yet steadfast third-person narration becomes intense as Abby refuses to eat, can’t find the tears that everyone else wipes away and longs for a sign from her father to know he’s still a part of her fractured life. While the focus is on Abby, the book also shows how death can affect family members in different ways, from her older brother’s dabbles with alcohol to her mother’s guilt for wanting to date again. The grieving process and the newly awakened emotions that come with being an early teen continue to ring true when Abby pushes everyone away, especially her childhood best friend, Spence, who may want to be more than friends after all these years.

Will Abby’s story of loss and love gain popularity? Signs point to yes. (Fiction. 12 & up)

POPULAZZI

Allen, Elise Harcourt (400 pp.) $16.99 | August 1, 2011 978-0-547-48153-1 One teen invents a system to achieve popularity.

At first, 16-year-old Cara is not thrilled with her family’s decision to relocate midway through high school, especially since it means leaving her best and pretty much exclusive friend, Claudia, behind. However, when Claudia points out that this is Cara’s chance to totally reinvent herself, she begins to warm to the idea. Determined to reach the top of the high-school food chain and shake off her less-than-exciting lifelong reputation, Cara invents The Ladder with Claudia. They believe this is Cara’s chance to claim her rightful place among her new school’s popular crowd—or, |

as the friends have dubbed them, the Populazzi. The Ladder posits that every rung is a boyfriend who will help Cara date her way to popularity. However, Cara’s ascent is not without peril, as she quickly discovers that climbing The Ladder means drastically changing her personality, stepping on some toes, breaking hearts and risking everything, including her dream of attending Northwestern. Although it is somewhat predictable, the story unflinchingly depicts the dark and dangerous side of high-school popularity, making it a captivating read. However, this attention to details makes it all the more noticeable when certain story elements are unexpectedly dropped or situations seem unrealistically twisted to conveniently fit The Ladder.

Teens willing to forgive the flaws will find this a fascinating exploration. (Fiction. 14 & up)

ON AN AMERICAN DAY Vol. 1: Story Voyages Through History 1750-1899

Arato, Rona Illustrator: Shannon, Ben Owlkids Books (96 pp.) $24.95 | $15.95 paperback September 15, 2011 978-1-926818-91-7 978-1-926818-92-4 paperback Series: On a Day Story Voyages, 3

Brief fictional sketches walk readers through 150 years of American history.

Arato takes nine powerful slices of American history—such as Valley Forge, the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Gold Rush, the founding of the Perkins School for the Blind and Berea College, Hull House, the Johnstown Flood—and wraps them in neat, emotive, unvarnished stories that feature a day in the life of a child caught up in the action. Shannon introduces each segment with an atmospheric illustration, Disney-like scene-setters that function as launching pads for the affecting tales. One may be as plain as the miseries of war—“The Union army regrouped at Bull Run under a pall of defeat so thick, it seemed to suck the air from the sky”—while another may take a more psychological air, as one boy hides a gold nugget so his father can’t gamble it away.

Only rarely does the author let the sheer fervor of the story lead her onto shaky ground: Did the Oneida Nation really consider the Revolutionary War as “our cause,” or as a strategic alliance?

(She clarifies in a fact-based endnote—one accompanies each chapter—that the Oneidas were ultimately given the raw end of the stick, their treaty lands diminished from 6 million acres to 32 acres.)

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“Bits and pieces of photographs, paper and fabric arranged in colorful panels and full-page spreads dazzle the eye.” from dream something big

Overall, the stories are engaging and inspiring, from the tribulations that came upon Emancipation to the strange new world opened to Chinese workers recruited for the Transcontinental Railroad to the pure brilliance of a school for the blind. (Historical fiction. 9-13)

DREAM SOMETHING BIG The Story of the Watts Towers

Aston, Dianna Hutts Illustrator: Roth, Susan L. Dial (40 pp.) $16.99 | August 18, 2011 978-0-8037-3245-2

Using his hands, simple tools and found pieces of glass, tile and steel, a reclusive Italian immigrant assembled and built the extraordinary Watts Towers in southern California.

A little girl from the neighborhood tells the story as she watches Uncle Sam, as she calls Simon Rodia, collect chips of tile and make mortar from his secret mixture of sand, cement and water. The work, done in evenings and on weekends, spans more than three decades. That little girl grows up and brings her own children to watch in wonder as the towers soar skyward.

Her trusting voice and observant eye make her an endearing narrator. “Uncle Sam was like a spider weaving his web / of steel and cement and lacy shadows.” Aston’s telling is lyrical and reads aloud beautifully. Roth, working in her signature mixed-media collage, is the perfect choice to illustrate the building process.

Bits and pieces of photographs, paper and fabric arranged in colorful panels and full-page spreads dazzle the eye. Step-bystep instructions and photographs for constructing a tower from pipe-cleaners provide an excellent follow-up activity.

It was one man’s dream to recreate beautiful buildings remembered from his childhood in Italy as a gift to the community. That dream became a National Landmark for all to treasure, and this book brings it to children everywhere. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)

PETER NIMBLE AND HIS FANTASTIC EYES

Auxier, Jonathan Amulet/Abrams (400 pp.) $18.95 | August 1, 2011 978-1-4197-0025-5

What begins Dickensian turns Tolkien-esque in this quest replete with magic and mystery.

Peter Nimble is an orphan. Blinded by ravens in infancy and made to steal for the town’s beggar-monger (think Fagin), Peter becomes an expert thief and pickpocket. His wretched existence changes when he steals a box containing eggs that are actually three 1132

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pairs of magical eyes. When Peter drops the first pair into his eye-sockets, he’s instantly swept away. Thus begins a perilous adventure wrought from a riddle found in a bottle. After much travail, Peter learns that the mysterious eyes are not always dependable. He seeks and eventually finds a vanished kingdom, where he faces a tyrannical king. The king has brainwashed all the adults and enslaved all of their children, who are controlled by a horde of bloodthirsty apes. The action never flags, even though the suspense does. With one onslaught after another, the violence turns from suggested to overt, with weaponry and bloody battles. Solving the riddle and embracing his destiny are just the beginning of Peter’s problems. In the end it’s Peter’s true talents, not magic, that prove most reliable.

Auxier has a juggler’s dexterity with prose that makes this fantastical tale quicken the senses, even if it does bog down from time to time. (Fantasy. 8-12)

POMELO BEGINS TO GROW

Badescu, Ramona Illustrator: Chaud, Benjamin Enchanted Lion Books (48 pp.) $16.95 | September 1, 2011 978-1-59270-111-7

A tiny pink “garden elephant” has a mighty epiphany in this buoyant, if sometimes oblique, French import.

Suddenly realizing that he’s taller than an ant, Pomelo “feels the super-hyper-extra force of the cosmos spreading through him. And maybe something even stronger that that!” Whatever it is, it touches off a series of Big Questions, from wondering “what has to happen on the inside for him to grow on the outside” and “does growing up mean one has to stop clowning around?” to whether he’s already “forgotten something along the way.” Now he looks forward to new experiences, and “want’s [sic] to know more” about everything.

Endowed with googly eyes and a really long trunk that looks like (and seems about the size of) a wriggly earthworm, Pomelo broadcasts his excitement as he bounces through Chaud’s big, very simply drawn cartoon garden scenes. He paints strawberries to look like Easter eggs, takes a mud bath with a corps of smiling bright red-and-yellow potatoes, tries new foods like hot peppers (and, on another page, even sushi) and at last marches off in search of a big adventure after “learning to say ‘goodbye’ and being able to hear others say it too.”

Dr. Seuss has already explored most of the places he’ll go, but there’s always room for another heads-up that adulthood’s coming—particularly one that doesn’t take itself too seriously. (Picture book. 6-9, graduates, adults)

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THE BRIDGE TO NEVER LAND

Barry, Dave Pearson, Ridley Disney Hyperion (448 pp.) $18.99 | August 9, 2011 978-1-4231-3865-5 Series: Peter and the Starcatchers Captain Hook gets an iPad in Barry and Pearson’s latest collaboration.

Teenage siblings Aidan and Sarah come across a piece of paper with mysterious instructions that Sarah realizes corresponds with her old Peter and the Starcatchers novels. After a dangerous scavenger hunt through London (where their family coincidently goes on vacation) Aidan and Sarah find themselves in possession of the last cache of existing starstuff, the glitter that powers Never Land. Turns out that their favorite fantasy series is actually true. Unfortunately, their discovery attracts the attention of evil shadow-stealer Lord Ombra, who begins stalking them. It is only when they seek the help of one of the Darling descendants Disney that the brother and sister discover a portal to the real Never Land (in Walt Disney World, of course). There they have the misfortune of meeting Hook, who steals the aforementioned “magic… picture thing.” But they also team up with the mythical Peter and bring him back to their world to try and defeat Ombra once and for all. While the authors take obvious delight in referencing their popular series, no prior knowledge is necessary in order to enjoy this rollicking page-turner.

Barry and Pearson effectively pull off the difficult trick of penning a stand-alone title that fans will adore while simultaneously causing newbies to flock back to their previous joint works—pretty nifty, that. (Fantasy. 10 & up)

CASKETBALL CAPERS

Bentley, Peter Illustrator: Harrison, Chris Whitman (96 pp.) $13.99 | $4.99 paperback | July 1, 2011 978-0-8075-8462-0 978-0-8075-8463-7 paperback Series: Vampire School, 1 Lee Prince is like every other normal 9-year-old boy … except he is a vampire.

Each night he wakes up and goes to St. Orlok’s Elementary School, where he learns vampire essentials such as cloak swishing, scary staring and, most importantly, cooking without garlic. On the night of the big casketball game (which is precisely what it sounds like), Lee’s class is also learning the best lesson yet: how to turn into a bat. During the game, however, players are strictly forbidden to do any kind of transformation. But one player on the opposing team—the Chaney Street Werewolves— keeps pushing and growling his way to the casket, without the ref ’s noticing. Lee must figure out how to play fair but still |

win. The setting may be unusual, but the dilemmas Lee faces are universal and immediately recognizable. Harrison’s loosely sketched spot illustrations capture the narrative’s unexpected humor, giving the young vampires a wide-eyed innocence and a gangly, almost bobble-head appearance.

A fast-paced, linear story for chapter-book vampire enthusiasts; this kicks off a series. (Paranormal. 6-8)

ASHES

Bick, Ilsa J. Egmont USA (480 pp.) $17.99 | $17.99 e-book September 13, 2011 978-1-60684-175-4 978-1-60684-231-7 e-book When civilization ends and you’re faced with an army of face-eating, nuclear-mutant zombies, having a brain tumor doesn’t seem so bad.

Alex, orphaned, 17 and dying, decides she’s sick of pointless chemo. She bugs out of school for a backpacking trip in the wilderness, determined to make her own end. Just a few days into her trip something terrible happens: A horrible, screeching pain knocks her senseless, kills an elderly backpacker and sends scores of dead birds falling from the sky. Wild dogs in the area seem to have run mad, and did Alex actually see two teenagers eating an old woman? Along with two fellow survivors—bratty middle schooler Ellie and Tom, a young soldier on leave—Alex seeks safety. Alex and Tom are both outdoorsy, but for every cache of weapons and MREs they find, another horrible event takes place. Their gun-toting survivalism only keeps them safe for so long in a post-apocalyptic America in which most of the other young people have been Changed to cannibals. The requisite creepy cultist village raises excellent questions of trust and society. Alex can’t survive on her Glock alone; she needs supplies, knowledge, allies and affection.

Splendidly paced apocalyptic zombie horror ends with a thrilling, terrifying cliffhanger and a number of unresolved mysteries. (Horror. 12-15)

LIE

Bock, Caroline St. Martin’s Griffin (224 pp.) $9.99 paperback | August 11, 2011 978-0-312-66832-7 paperback This effective, character-driven, episodic story examines the consequences of a hate crime on the teens involved in it.

Bock focuses mainly on Skylar, a shy girl, and on her loyalty to her boyfriend Jimmy, whom readers soon learn has beaten a Salvadoran immigrant to death. Although Jimmy’s in jail, the police have little evidence against him. “Everybody

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knows. Nobody’s talking,” runs the mantra among the highschool crowd that knows full well Jimmy beats up Latinos every Saturday night. The author alternates short chapters written from different characters’ points of view. Readers get to know the involved teenagers and their families, as well as the victim, his brother and their mother. By portraying, simply and without comment, the reactions of the various characters, the author conveys the horror of the crime and the devastating effects on all involved, including those responsible. Sean, Jimmy’s best friend and companion on the fateful night, can’t deal with his guilt but also knows he dare not tell the truth. Lisa Marie sticks

by Jimmy with no doubts. Skylar never doubts her love for Jimmy but faces a difficult choice when it transpires that the truth must come from her, or it will not come out at all.

Realistic and devastatingly insightful, this novel can serve as a springboard to classroom and family discussions.

Unusual and important. (Fiction. 12 & up)

COUNT THEM WHILE YOU CAN

Bowman, Anne Illustrator: Bowman, Anne Little Hare/Trafalgar (24 pp.) $16.99 | August 1, 2011 978-1-921541-60-5 Lyrics set to the tune of “Over in the Meadow” introduce 10 species from around the world that have been deemed endangered or extinct in the wild.

This simple but appealing counting book presents birds and mammals from Australia, New Zealand, Guam, Madagascar, the central Asian mountains, Russian Arctic and western United States, some familiar and others quite unusual. Each is given a double-page spread that shows the animal in its habitat along with its young—from one Leadbeater’s possum to 10 California sea otter pups. Bowman’s illustrations, which look like they’ve been created with watercolor and pencil, are detailed and lifelike. Each spread also includes the animal’s common and Latin name and a box of the usual fast facts plus specific threats and numbers left in the wild or captivity. The verses work well, using an interesting range of vocabulary. Each fits nicely into the song and includes some reference to the animal’s behavior.

The snow leopard leaps, the red-ruffed lemur climbs, the Idaho ground squirrel romps. First published in Australia in 2010, this eye-opening reminder of the many threats to species survival made the Notables list of the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Eve Pownall Award for Information Books.

With its pleasing song, breadth of information and world-wide scope, it should go over well in this country, too. (glossary of conservation status terms) (Informational picture book. 3-7)

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YOU WILL BE MY FRIEND! Brown, Peter Illustrator: Brown, Peter Little, Brown (40 pp.) $16.99 | September 5, 2011 978-0-316-07030-0

Finding a friend is less a matter of sheer will than quiet acceptance in this charming new work.

Picture-book heroines are rarely quite as irrepressible as Lucy the tutu-and-bow–clad bear from Children Make Terrible Pets (2010). Now a follow-up tackles the difficult task precocious children face when seeking out companionship. Fueled more by enthusiasm than sense, Lucy informs her mother that on this day she is going to find herself a brand-new friend. Yet while her intentions are good, Lucy’s befriending techniques are a bit brash for the woodland creatures she encounters. Even threats don’t work, so Lucy declares her task hopeless, until another bow-wearing animal fulfills Lucy’s greatest wishes. Brown has pinpointed the problems some kids face in befriending their fellows, though few would come on as strong as his heroine.

The language is the real lure here, with Lucy’s single-mindedness best illustrated when she informs an egg, “You WILL be my friend! I can wait.” Handlettered speech balloons and wood borders give the book a rustic but friendly feel, with endpapers that should not be missed.

While many friendship stories verge on twee, this title eschews the cute and allows kids to both identify with and pity Lucy’s struggle to find her own bosom companion.

(Picture book. 4-8)

FROG AND FRIENDS

Bunting, Eve Illustrator: Masse, Josée Sleeping Bear Press (40 pp.) $9.95 | $3.99 paperback | August 1, 2011 978-1-58536-548-7 978-1-58536-689-7 paperback Frog and his friends Rabbit, Possum, Raccoon and Squirrel tickle funny bones, explore the world, solve problems and support each other in this trio of stories.

In the first, Frog calls his friends to see the strange orange object he finds. Their guesses as to what it might be are certain to keep readers in stitches. In the second, Raccoon’s gift of a scarf to the neckless Frog turns out to be not-so-perfect until a helping hand steps in. In the last story, a runaway zoo hippo who wants to see the world takes up every inch of space in the pond. Frog cleverly finds a way to get Hippo to appreciate the life he left behind so that he can have his pond back. Masse’s brilliantly colored cartoon illustrations capture both the forest pond that is Frog’s home as well as the personalities of each character—the rather protective mother Possum is depicted with a lacey collar, and Raccoon sports a natty poncho.

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“Rest easy, regular people; you supervillains better watch out.” from the astonishing secret of awesome man

Here’s to many more adventures for Frog and his friends, who are sure to go home with fans of Fluffy and Morris. (Early reader. 5-8)

THE WHEELS ON THE BUS

Cabrera, Jane Holiday House (32 pp.) $16.95 | August 1, 2011 978-0-8234-2350-7

save her new target (and maybe the world)? Carter’s newest is a darkly humorous, fantastical frolic. Fallon’s snark is tempered by his conflicted feelings about his runaway mother. Other characters aren’t as well-rounded, but the unique afterlife and a surprisingly spiritual twist will keep pages turning.

Fans of funky unconventional fantasy will lap it up and roar for more. (Humorous fantasy. 12 & up)

THE ASTONISHING SECRET OF AWESOME MAN

Cabrera continues to adapt nursery rhymes and children’s songs (Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, 2010, etc.) into interactive picture books for the young preschool set, here taking on that

beloved bus ride.

Similar to Lenny Hort’s Seals on the Bus, illustrated by G. Brian Karas (2000), this treatment populates the bus with a menagerie of African animals ranging from the common lion and zebra to lesser-known flamingos and bush babies. Most animals make a trio of sounds, like the monkeys’ “Chatter, chatter, chatter” or the hyena’s “Ha, ho, hee,” but on occasion there is action: The chameleon “plays Hide-and-seek.” The tale ends as the giraffe driver delivers the wild riders to a watering hole with a satisfying “SPLISH! SPLASH! SPLOSH! All day long!” Readers will enjoy the journey Cabrera illustrates with her easily recognizable style— bright hues outlined in black, with a finger-paint–like texture.

Sure to be a lively addition to storytimes and one of those titles that are begged to be read aloud again and again. (Picture book. 2-4)

THE CUPID WAR

Carter, Timothy Flux (240 pp.) $9.95 paperback | August 1, 2011 978-0-7387-2614-4 Life was bad enough for Canadian teen Ricky Fallon; who knew death came with pink spandex?

Fallon actually planned to off himself.

He was on the Pape Street Bridge ready to jump because his girl dumped him, his dad was a prick and his “best friend” Susan was the most clingy, depressing person on the planet. He changed his mind…and slipped. Fallon wakes to find Bud, a Soul Reaper, ready to take him to—his new job. Souls with Karma to work out become Cupids, genital-free, Love-eating spirits who exist to increase the supply of Love in the world by getting the living to coupleup. Fallon’s new boss Louis is a huge jerk. Bad enough that he’s got to suffer that (and the heart-emblazoned spandex), but, with little training, Fallon also has to avoid Suicides, the dangerous, misery-eating antitheses of Cupids. When he finds Susan has attached herself to a new unfortunate, Fallon suspects there’s something more than meets the eye to that downer-girl. Can he |

Chabon, Michael Illustrator: Parker, Jake Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (40 pp.) $17.99 | September 1, 2011 978-0-06-191462-1

Chabon snags his youngest audience yet with this first-person profile of a superhero who battles both bad guys and

anger issues.

Awesome Man zooms about in his stylin’ costume, decapitating a giant killer robot with the positronic rays that shoot out of his eyes here, schooling Professor Von Evil’s Antimatter Slimebot (“Antimatter slime is extra gross”) there. In between, he stops both a disaster-bound train and mutant talking Jell-O from Beyond the Stars with his Awesome Power Grip. But when arch-nemesis Flaming Eyeball gets away, Awesome Man needs a timeout (plus a snack delivered by costumed sidekick Moskowitz the Awesome Dog) to cool off before heading out again to “kick a little bad-guy behind.” Awesome indeed is masked Awesome Man in Parker’s melodramatic illustrations, cutting a heroic figure as he poses with granite-jawed nobility between bouts with one oversized and luridly menacing foe after another. A.M.’s secret identity remains unrevealed until his closing return to the suburban Fortress of Awesome, but sharper readers may pick it up early from several ingenious verbal and visual clues.

Rest easy, regular people; you supervillains better watch out. (Picture book. 6-8)

THE SIGN OF THE BLACK ROCK

Chantler, Scott Illustrator: Chantler, Scott Kids Can (112 pp.) $17.95 | $8.95 paperback September 1, 2011 978-1-55453-416-6 978-1-55453-417-3 paperback Series: Three Thieves, 2 A heavy thunderstorm brings a motley trio of fugitive ex-circus performers, their armored pursuers and a band of smugglers together under the roof of a greedy innkeeper in this never-a-dull-moment sequel to Tower of Treasure (2010).

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“If wishes were horses, this would be a My Little Pony.” from bye for now

Complications pile on as young Dessa and her two companions—a small, irascible, bright-blue Norker and a huge, trollish Ettin—find refuge in a stable. They do so just as the owner of the adjacent inn is finishing a deal with a crew of smugglers and moments before Captain Drake and his elite troop of royal guards ride into the innyard. As in the opening episode, Chantler not only shows an ability to pack plenty of clearly defined action into his graphic panels, but also develops unusually nuanced characters through glances, gestures, subtleties of facial expression and the occasional quick flashback. In the course of a nonstop flurry of chases, captures, wild mishaps, pratfalls, acrobatic feats and narrow escapes, Dessa also picks up a cryptic clue to the whereabouts of her kidnapped twin brother and his evil captor to set up the next chapter.

Readers should start with the first volume to get the characters’ back stories, but here’s an animated, breathlessly paced adventure that’s just hitting its stride. (Graphic fantasy. 10-12)

FIVE LITTLE MONKEYS READING IN BED

Christelow, Eileen Illustrator: Christelow, Eileen Clarion (40 pp.) $16.99 | September 12, 2011 978-0-547-38610-2 Series: Five Little Monkeys

Christelow’s mischief-making monkey siblings return to the bed for their eighth Mama-frustrating adventure.

“When the five little monkeys are ready for bed, / their Mama reads stories, then kisses each head. / ‘It’s bedtime for Monkeys!

Now turn out the light.’ ‘Oh, Mama! Oh, PLEASE! One more story tonight!’ ” But Mama is tired. She wishes them goodnight, but the light doesn’t go out. Those five little monkeys decide to read to themselves. When their sad story of a lost pup ends happily, they whoop and holler until Mama breaks in. “Mama raises an eyebrow. ‘What was it I said? / Lights out! Sweet dreams! / No more reading in bed!’ ” Have those five little monkeys ever minded? A scary book makes them scream. Mama returns. A funny book makes them laugh. Mama returns. When they’re finally drifting off, strange noises come from down the hall. It’s tired Mama reading in her bed, and it’s their turn to admonish her. Christelow’s silly simians are just as bouncy as they ever were. If their histrionics are a bit over the top from a parental point of view, the target audience won’t care and might just join in. The author’s watercolor illustrations are solid as ever.

Reading promotion at its best, with a little bit of bad behavior to spice things up. (Picture book. 3-7)

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BYE FOR NOW A Wishers Story

Churchyard, Kathleen Egmont USA (272 pp.) $15.99 | August 23, 2011 978-1-60684-190-7 Series: Wishers, 1

Freaky Friday meets multiple transfigured 11-year-old girls, British style.

When loser Robin of Concord, N.C., wishes on her 11th birthday to be somebody else, she wakes up as Fiona Walker of London, England, the daughter of contemporary actors—body-switched! At first, it’s all cultural goofs— of accents, terminology and manners—but then Robin/Fiona finds other transmigrated girls around the world on Facebook: They also made the same wish on their 11th birthdays. The twist is that the two girls don’t just switch bodies, Robin is in Fiona’s, but Fiona is another girl’s across the country, and so on. Can Robin/Fiona orchestrate a grand reversal for them all? Robin/ Fiona finds herself starring in a professional production of Peter Pan and spending hours on the computer in chat rooms and on Facebook. The caps-lock key is used liberally for both emphasis and such initialisms as OMG, and electronic messages are set in a different typeface (with lots of uppercase words there, too). References to Lindsay Lohan, Dame Judi Dench, Prince William and Kate Middleton (pre-wedding, evidently) feel more than a little like pandering and will date this book instantly.

Convoluted, overly convenient and terribly contrived, even preteens obsessed with electronic communication will be confused and not wishing for a sequel (which the conclusion indicates).

If wishes were horses, this would be a My Little Pony.

(Fantasy. 8-12)

GOOD-BYE, HAVANA! HOLA, NEW YORK!

Colón, Edie Illustrator: Colón, Raúl Paula Wiseman/Simon & Schuster (32 pp.) $16.99 | August 23, 2011 978-1-4424-0674-2 An immigrant tale builds on the author’s childhood experiences.

Six-year-old Gabriella and her parents leave Havana shortly after Castro’s takeover of Cuba and move to the Bronx. Adapting to life in a new country is daunting. After arriving in New York, Gabriella must adjust to vistas of city traffic instead of a beach scene outside her window, a new school, a new language and snow, something she’s never seen. Eventually, she makes friends, improves in English and awaits the day when her family will reunite with her beloved grandparents, still in Cuba: When that happens, her new house and new land truly feel like home again. The story is derived from the author’s own life and evokes tender memories, yet the narrator recounts her story in a flat and dispassionate voice and hurries events along. She

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also laces her reminiscences with Spanish words and sentences, which are translated immediately afterward in context, making for awkward pacing. The author wisely downplays politics in this picture book, but readers might enjoy learning more about Gabriella’s new experiences; for example, what was it like to play in snow for the first time? Fortunately for Gabriella and the author, she seems to have settled in easily and well. The true charm here is in the artwork, lushly rendered by Colón’s husband. His signature soft, muted watercolor-and-pencil style befits the nostalgic theme.

While it is hardly one-of-a-kind, it’s not a bad addition to immigration literature for this audience. (glossary, author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)

YOU WILL CALL ME DROG

Cowing, Sue Carolrhoda (288 pp.) $16.95 | $12.95 e-book | September 1, 2011 978-0-7613-6076-6 978-0-7613-7944-7 e-book The principles and practice of Aikido—and a talking sleeve puppet that won’t let go of his hand—help a lad come to terms with suppressed anger over his parents’ divorce.

Parker wrongly (or perhaps rightly) considers himself a “pretty happy, pretty ordinary kid” until the decrepit hand puppet he finds in a garbage can not only refuses to come off but delivers ill-tempered insults, often in the hearing of others. The refusal of his parents, his sixth-grade classmates and even his best friend Wren to believe that “Drog” has a mind of its own trigger outsized bursts of rage. Parker finds temporary peace in practicing the inner balance and (accurately presented, if a little too easily learned) harmonizing responses to attacks he picks up at a nearby school of Aikido. Eventually, though, he loses control of his temper and soundly thrashes a bully. Parker’s shame ultimately leads to a breakthrough and better self-control. The puppet plays a secondary role to the martial art in resolving Parker’s conflict, and though Cowing’s efforts to keep who’s really doing the talking ambiguous are too obvious, she engineers a cleverly credible way to separate boy and puppet at the end.

Readers might wish for more Drog and less emotional turmoil, but a sturdy debut nonetheless. (Fiction. 11-13)

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LOVE OF THE GAME

Coy, John Feiwel & Friends (192 pp.) $16.99 | August 2, 2011 978-0-312-37331-3 Series: 4 for 4, 3

Middle-grade boys will welcome the latest installment of this popular sports series, this time featuring football.

In the third entry in the 4 for 4 series, the group of youngsters readers met in Top of the Order (2009) and Eyes on the Goal (2010) are back, and this time their focus is the turbulent world of middle-school football. Now that they are sixth graders, Jackson Kennedy worries about all the things they have to get used to, from chaos on the school bus to challenging teachers and subjects in their classrooms: “We’re not going to be stuck with one boring teacher.” “No, now we’re going to have lots of boring teachers,” Gig says. Jackson and Gig have been best friends since kindergarten, and now they have no classes together, something particularly difficult as Gig is still having trouble coping with his father’s deployment to Afghanistan. Jackson’s and Diego’s mothers are concerned about the dangers of football, potentially threatening their ability to play the game they love, and they almost lost their friend Isaac to another school. As with the others in the series, there is a nice balance between the sports action and the portrayal of young people navigating the difficulties of growing up both at home and at school.

Realistic characters, believable dialogue and a genuine feel for the rhythms and issues of middle-schoolers make this a satisfying addition to a solid middle-grade set. (Fiction. 8-12)

TILT

Cumyn, Alan Groundwood (288 pp.) $16.95 | August 9, 2011 978-1-55498-119-9 Almost despite himself, 16-year-old Stan emerges with flying colors from a week of sweet confusion, domestic turmoil and momentous tests of character.

Basketball tryouts loom. Stan struggles with persistent erections—particularly after classmate Janine (correctly, as it turns out, rumored to be a GWOG— “Goes With Other Girls”) asks him to a weekend dance. Worse yet, out of the blue his ne’er-do-well father shows up with Feldon, the child of an affair that caused Stan’s parents to split up five years ago. Despite events that conspire to suggest otherwise— capped by a day in which Stan cuts class and tryouts to care for Feldon, then has a semi-unplanned bedroom rendezvous with Janine that begins with premature ejaculation and ends with his mother walking in—Stan is actually the most responsible member of his household. Moreover, not only is he versed in coping

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with his high-strung mother and tempestuous little sister (skills that help with troubled Feldon), he is endowed with a mouth and body that usually take over to do or say the right things whenever mental paralysis sets in. When Stan does finally meltdown, help from unexpected quarters brings him through with no permanent damage. The third-person narration is filtered through Stan’s perceptions, and Cumyn demonstrates a great sense of phrasing: “Suddenly the wall of sound collapsed into rubble and everyone was clapping.”

The comedy and drama are both mild, but the two eminently likable teens at the center of it look capable of keeping heads and hearts in balance in a world subject to sudden tilts. (Fiction. 13-16)

CHIRCHIR IS SINGING

Cunnane, Kelly Illustrator: Daly, Jude Schwartz & Wade/Random (40 pp.) $17.99 | August 23, 2011 978-0-375-86198-7 Chirchir, a little girl of the Kalenjin tribe in Kenya, cheerfully sings and tries to help her busy family with chores.

Her zeal is greater than her abilities, though, as she loses her grip on the well rope, lets the fire leap up to burn the chai and causes newly dug potatoes to roll down the terraced hill. “Little one, this work is not for you,” is the gently repeated admonition, as Chirchir is sent from one relative to another. Finally, spirits low, she hears a sound and runs to the brothers’ sleeping hut. Baby Kip-rop is crying, and big brother Kip-koech is sleeping through it! She cradles the baby and sings soothingly. Cunnane’s lilting text conveys respect for Kelenjin village life and the importance of children’s contributions to agrarian work. Her thoughtful portrait of Chirchir, striving to find her familial role, resonates across cultures. South African Daly’s soft acrylic pictures depict village life with a stylized, folkloric verve. Animals graze placidly as villagers work amid the sweeping backdrop of green hills and well-tended crops. At last, the family pauses. “What has made the day pass so sweetly? they wonder. / The answer comes on a breeze / that echoes through the hills and valleys / of Kenya. / Chirchir is singing.”

An affecting slice of Kenyan village life presented by a skilled author and illustrator, both with African connections. (author’s note, glossary) (Picture book. 3-7)

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BABAR’S CELESTEVILLE GAMES

de Brunhoff, Phyllis Rose Illustrator: de Brunhoff, Laurent Abrams (40 pp.) $18.95 | August 1, 2011 978-1-4197-0006-4 From a franchise as sturdy as an elephant’s memory comes explicit international goodwill.

Celesteville is hosting the Worldwide Games, and animals arrive “from all over” to compete. Babar’s children, “now grown up,” watch the athletes in warm-ups, practices and matches.

Pom and Isabelle enjoy the swimming and diving: Elephants, hippos and a big cat (lioness perhaps?) power gracefully though a pool in neat lanes; next, an elephant dives off a springboard, the illustration showing five sequential positions in the somersault. Flora and Alexander prefer track and field and gymnastics (“Who would have thought that hippos were almost as good at the high bar as elephants?”). Watching, Flora falls in love with pole-vaulter Coriander, an athlete from a foreign land. Here the story segues into a gentle cultural acceptance lesson: Flora’s mother Celeste must adjust to Cory’s “small ears,” a trait of his Mirzi nationality, and Cory’s parents must accept that he didn’t choose “a girl from Mirza.” Flora roots for Mirza in the sporting events, which concerns Celeste until Babar reassures her, “I think it is love. And I think it will be good for all of us.” The wedding takes places in Celesteville but with Mirzi clothing and customs, an agreement that pleases everyone.

Modernized only minimally (texting!), the book’s appeal lies in these calmingly recognizable characters participating in Olympic sports and a mixed marriage. (Picture book. 4-6)

THE AUSLÄNDER

Dowswell, Paul Bloomsbury (304 pp.) $16.99 | August 16, 2011 978-1-59990-633-1 When his parents are killed in the 1941 Nazi invasion of Poland, 13-year-old Piotr’s life takes an unimaginable turn.

As an ethnic German with Nordic features, he’s “racially valuable” to the Nazis, so he is sent by the Race and Settlement Office to Berlin to be raised by a German family. Piotr, renamed Peter, is adopted by a professor whose work with the Genealogical Office of the Reich determines the degree of racial purity of individuals. Peter is required to join the Hitler Youth, where he is as much an outsider as he was at school in Poland.

He falls in love with Anna, eventually joining her progressive family’s efforts to deliver food to Berlin’s remaining Jews. Peter discovers disturbing truths about the Nazi’s treatment of children deemed “life unworthy of life” from his sister, just as the

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“Even jaded fans of the supernatural will find fun in this one.” from drink slay love

professor discovers that his adopted Aryan son had a Jewish grandmother. Fearing forced sterilization, Peter attempts a harrowing escape to Sweden with Anna and her mother. Dowswell’s skilled narrative weaves its way through flashbacks and several points of view, building in intensity as Peter grows from a child whose life as an “ausländer,” or foreigner, is dictated by chance and circumstance, to a young man whose growing awareness sparks his final, willful act.

An unflinching account of a rarely told side of the Holocaust. (resources, teacher’s guide) (Historical fiction. 10–14)

DRINK SLAY LOVE

Durst, Sarah Beth McElderry (400 pp.) $16.99 | September 13, 2011 978-1-4424-2373-2 A unicorn gives new life to the nowtired teen supernatural romance—kind of literally.

Being a teenager really sucks. But life is carefree for Pearl, 16 years old, beautiful, a born vampire with a hot boyfriend and tasty pickings at the all-night ice-cream stand. At least it seems carefree…until she’s stabbed by a unicorn. Suddenly, she can walk in the sun without burning up. She can attend school, make friends with kids who used to be prey and maybe even have a life away from her very scary mother. Her vampire kin can’t understand it— but they can hardly wait to take advantage of it. With the King of New England coming to initiate new members of the local clans into vampire aristocracy, Pearl’s family has been chosen to provide the feast. And what makes a better feast than the junior class? If only Pearl weren’t beginning to develop a conscience.

What to do…stay loyal to family or preserve the life of her new BFF? Decisions, decisions. Combining a sense of humor with dark appeal of supernatural romance, this book is funny, scary and thought provoking all at once. Pearl is a feisty heroine who meets her match in the unicorn, who refuses to give up on her.

Even jaded fans of the supernatural will find fun in this one. (Paranormal. 14 & up)

THE PROJECT

Falkner, Brian Random (288 pp.) $17.99 | $20.99 library ed $17.99 e-book | September 13, 2011 978-0-375-86945-7 978-0-96945-4 library ed 978-0-375-98350-4 e-book New Zealand author Falkner delivers another solid thriller (Brainjack, 2010, etc.).

Iowa teens Luke and Tommy are in big trouble at school, not simply because they find their assigned reading boring and say so. Well, maybe the prank they |

played on the statue of the town’s founding father was part of the problem as well. But they didn’t mean to make trouble; they even volunteered to help save the library’s books when the river overflowed its banks. It was just a lucky coincidence that they found a one-of-a-kind book in the process—a book that someone was offering a big reward to recover. They slip back the library to pick it up and get caught up in not just the flood, but a conspiracy straight out of World War II. It seems that this book contains plans to a time-travel mechanism that will enable some last, lingering Nazis to restore the Third Reich unless Tommy and Luke go back to 1944 to thwart them. Now they’re really in trouble, running from thugs, deciphering the most boring book in the world and trying to save Europe from being overtaken by Adolf Hitler all over again. This volume is hard to put down, with engaging and well-drawn characters, plenty of action and nice side helpings of history.

An epilogue hints that this may not be the end of Tommy and Luke’s adventures; readers will certainly be hoping for more. (Science fiction. 12 & up)

THE BLACKHOPE ENIGMA

Flavin, Teresa Templar/Candlewick (304 pp.) $15.99 | August 9, 2011 978-0-7636-5694-2

Video games and themes parks are no match for the world Il Corvo created.

Centuries ago, Fausto Corvo, an artist as famous for his works as for his knowledge of astral magic, disappeared along with paintings rumored to be enchanted; that is, canvases people could literally enter. Over the years, Il Corvo has been hunted by many; most notably, the power-hungry Soranzo and a rival, Bellini, anxious to steal Il Corvo’s secrets. When Sunni’s stepbrother Dean accidentally enters The Mariner’s Return to Arcadia, which hangs in Blackhope Tower, she and school chum Blaise follow. As they traverse a fantastic labyrinth of the artist’s making—one layer, one underpainting, after another—they confront fearful creatures and are pursued by villains as desperate to locate Il Corvo as the threesome are to find their way home. The plot, like a labyrinth, is full of unexpected twists, and there are threats to be faced at every turn. The settings are described in detail, and interesting facts about painting techniques are cleverly interwoven. The three youngsters each respond differently to the challenges presented by the journey and return home changed but ready to continue their day-to-day lives—just as the characters trapped in Il Corvo’s painting will continue theirs.

Readers raised on Jon Agee’s The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau (1988) will be delighted with Flavin’s fullyrealized, action-packed debut. (Fantasy. 9-12)

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“Fletcher’s first picture book is thoughtfully designed, with humor and a succinct text that will appeal to a broad age range.” from my dog, my cat

MY DOG, MY CAT

Fletcher, Ashlee Illustrator: Fletcher, Ashlee Tanglewood Press (32 pp.) $13.95 | August 1, 2011 978-1-933718-22-4 A simple and appealing story focuses on the differences between dogs and cats, with a patterned, predictable text that thoughtfully describes each divergent quality in concrete terms that preschoolers will understand.

The pattern uses a basic structure that contrasts the dog with the cat with one attribute or action noted in a short sentence set in large type at the bottom of each page. Fletcher’s endearing, naive illustrations of a blue dog and an orange cat are set off with a framing device of bold, squiggly lines in vibrant hues. The facing pairs of illustrations are connected in subtle ways through similar design elements, with a sun shining behind the digging dog and the moon lighting up a night scene of the tree-climbing cat. The concluding pages demonstrate that the dog and cat are also similar, because both love pepperoni pizza and both love their owner. Overall, the illustrations have a cheery, innocent effect. Preschoolers will enjoy this as an early, simple story, and its straightforward text adapts well to beginning readers.. Teachers in the earlyelementary grades will find the simple but clever text a worthwhile introduction to comparisons and a handy starting point for creative-writing activities.

Fletcher’s first picture book is thoughtfully designed, with humor and a succinct text that will appeal to a broad age range. She is an illustrator to watch. (Picture book. 2-7)

THE POISONED HOUSE

Ford, Michael Whitman (328 pp.) $16.99 | September 1, 2011 978-0-8075-6589-6

A scullery maid, a great house, whispered evil and a ghost populate this firstperson tale of mid-19th-century London.

Abigail’s mother died a year ago of cholera, and the 14-year-old girl misses her fiercely; Mrs. Cotton, Lord Greaves’ sister-in-law, is cruel to the staff—Abi in particular—in every possible way. Her mother was servant and nursemaid to Sam, who is now back, injured, from the Crimean War, and Abi hopes the return of Sam will both cheer the ailing Lord Greaves and protect her from Mrs. Cotton. But strange happenings pervade Greave Hall: Keys go missing; filthy handprints appear; unidentifiable noises are heard. Mrs. Cotton finds a way to blame Abi for most of it. Abi must try to puzzle out questions of her mother’s demise and other questions about their place in the household. Abigail’s fellow servant Lizzie, Lizzie’s banishment and the coal boy Adam 1140

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figure in the story, as does a compliant Ouija board, which leads to a climatic confrontation and another death. Ford suddenly turns a sympathetic character evil without foreshadowing, which may strike readers as unfair, and the conclusion happens rather abruptly, but he ties up the tale very nicely by ending with Abigail’s full obituary of many decades later.

In all, scary, compelling and atmospheric enough for a satisfying chill. (Ghost story. 12 & up)

STIR IT UP!

Ganeshram, Ramin Scholastic (176 pp.) $16.99 | August 1, 2011 978-0-545-16582-2 When not at school, taking cooking classes or working in her family’s roti shop in Queens, Anjali, 13, dreams of becoming the Food Network’s youngest chef.

When she’s chosen to audition for Super Chef Kids on the Food Network, she has a chance to make her dream come true, but there’s a problem. Her Trinidadian-immigrant parents want Anjali to take the Stuyvesant High School entrance exam, which happens to coincide with the audition. After they insist she drop the audition, Anjali hatches a plan with her best friend, Linc, to go to the audition instead. In her fiction debut, the author reveals a gift for creating compact, vivid character portraits, yet whenever the plot shows signs of taking off, she marches it back to the kitchen. Taking up about 20 percent of the book, the recipes (some appear in Ganeshram’s cookbook of Trinidadian cuisine) are intriguing. But while enticing for foodies, most assume considerable culinary know-how. Some ingredients—callaloo leaves, fresh cassava, mixed essence—may be a hard sell for young readers and hard to locate outside cosmopolitan urban centers.

Strong on platform, the result is more fiction-seasoned cookbook than recipe-studded novel, best suited for precocious cooks open to culinary adventure. (recipes, author’s note) (Fiction. 10-14)

WITCH BABY AND ME ON STAGE

Gliori, Debi Illustrator: Gliori, Debi Corgi Children’s Books/Trafalgar (330 pp.) $7.99 paperback | August 1, 2011 978-0-552-55679-8 paperback Series: Witch Baby, 3 Lily knows her little sister Daisy is a witch.

No one else does, except for Lily’s best friend Vivaldi, and, of course, the Sisters of Hiss (Chin, Nose and Toad), who made Daisy a witch in her cradle. Daisy is currently fighting the idea

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of toilet training (“ ‘Not dunna poo,’ Daisy lies”) and given to wandering off at night to wreak little witchy havoc. The Sisters of Hiss contemplate finally taking Daisy back, in hilarious alternating chapters, but they want her toilet-trained first.

Lily and Daisy’s school is preparing for the musical pageant, in which Lily will play her grandpa’s bagpipes and Daisy will be a monkey. The 400-plus-year-old Hisses face various challenges, most notably when a little girl named Yoshito decides Chin is a fairy godmother and her father is quite smitten. Gliori’s humor, as always in this series, is much concerned with the kind of adorable grossness common to small children, but she also uses typeface changes and completely wacky footnotes to great effect. The pictures are dazzling in their elegant daffiness, like the disembodied hands Daisy thinks will come out of the toilet if she sits on it. Visual and verbal nods to Sendak, Tolkien and others of the canon will delight. It reads aloud gloriously, but it will also be easily digested by daring chapter-book readers with its small page size and clear layout.

Ending with a school concert, a wedding and a sense of accomplishment for Daisy, all equally lovely, it will leave readers wondering how much trouble Daisy can make in the next installment. (Humorous fantasy. 8-12)

FATEFUL

Gray, Claudia HarperTeen (336 pp.) $17.99 | September 13, 2011 978-0-06-200620-2 It has come to this: werewolves on the Titanic.

As the paranormal-romance juggernaut continues, it seems as though authors wishing to sell books find themselves compelled into ever-more-outlandish scenarios. Hence this novel, which indeed should appeal to the Twilight crowd.

Tess, a servant since the age of 13 to the arrogant Lisle family, joins them aboard the Titanic, where she and wealthy Alec, the good werewolf, fall madly in love while fighting Mikhail, the evil werewolf. The sinking of the ship, although vividly portrayed late in the story, serves mainly to resolve some issues and set up the ending. Fortunately, paranormal romance isn’t the novel’s only feature. Gray researched the conditions of servants in pre– World War I England and accurately portrays Tess’ life as one of hardship, penury and, sometimes, abuse. The fate of some third-class passengers and the crew adds poignancy to the narrative. While most characters, including Alec, prove as multidimensional as anime drawings, Tess herself displays plenty of spunk and enough rebellious spirit to appeal to teens. A fellow passenger, Myriam, also adds some life to the proceedings. Dialogue and romantic encounters fit the usual overdone style of the genre. The author repeats most important points three times but keeps suspense high and paces the story well.

One wonders, why werewolves? At least it has some approachable history. And it will probably sell. (Paranormal romance. 12 & up) |

EDDIE The Lost Youth of Edgar Allen Poe

Gustafson, Scott Illustrator: Gustafson, Scott Simon & Schuster (208 pp.) $15.99 | August 23, 2011 978-1-4169-9764-1

Accused of having stuffed a cat and a rooster into his pillowcase and hung it on a neighbor’s weathervane, young Eddie Poe has only 24 hours to find the actual culprit before being thrashed by his adoptive father.

This imagined incident from the famed writer’s early-19thcentury childhood introduces the dreamy poetry-writing boy, befriended by a raven and bedeviled by a personal demon he calls McCobber. Eddie dramatizes every situation, imagining himself a medieval knight and a doomed prisoner. But, as a supportive house slave suggests, he has to use his head to find the perpetrator of this prank, which has angered their neighbor, an influential judge. Woven neatly into the plot is an account of a period playhouse performance featuring the aging magician Mephisto who turns out to have helped Eddie’s mother before her death. The whodunit mystery and suspenseful wait for Eddie’s exoneration will keep readers turning pages. Gustafson plays with Poe’s language: “And who in this household... has not been ripped from sweet slumber by the predawn crowing of that fiendish fowl?” Unfortunately, jarringly contemporarysounding words and phrases such as “chow time,” “pizzazz” and “goofy” break the spell. The author’s terrific, atmospheric blackand-white illustrations appear on nearly every page.

An inventive if not quite convincing introduction to the master of the macabre. (Historical mystery. 8-12)

TORN

Haddix, Margaret Peterson Simon & Schuster (352 pp.) $15.99 | August 23, 2011 978-1-4169-8980-6 Series: The Missing, 4 The fourth installment of this enjoyable time-travel series for preteens takes readers to a lesser-known historical event than those in the earlier books: the mutiny on Henry Hudson’s ship, the Discovery, in 1611.

Jonah and Katherine land on board the icy ship just when the mutineers cast Hudson and his remaining loyal crewmembers adrift, never to be seen again. However, “Second,” the rogue time traveler from the previous episode (Sabotaged, 2010) takes charge again, trying to get the children to fix the damage he’s done to time, or so he says. As Katherine remains invisible, Jonah takes on a disguise as Hudson’s teenage son, which forces him to climb the rigging on the ship and to deal with the egomaniacal Hudson and treacherous, starving crewmen. When

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Second allows Hudson to find the elusive Northwest Passage, the children begin to worry that time can’t be repaired. Fortunately, Haddix has another sci-fi trick up her sleeve and keeps the story suspenseful and tight. Jonah appears to be maturing a bit, although he still has trouble with his impulse control. Best of all, the story feels like real history, with believable characters and plausible events. It will likely spark interest in young readers, especially with help from the afterword, which directly addresses middle schoolers.

Another action-filled and suspenseful historical thriller.

(Science fiction. 8-12)

DEAR BULLY Seventy Authors Tell Their Stories

Editor: Hall, Megan Kelley Editor: Jones, Carrie HarperTeen (384 pp.) $17.99 | $9.99 paperback August 23, 2011 978-0-06-206098-3 978-0-06-206097-6 paperback Seventy authors for children and young adults talk of their relationship to bullying in lists, free verse and comics but primarily in bland prose.

In uber-short pieces, the authors tell of having been bullies, bullied or bystanders. The individual pieces are too short, at about four pages each, to be compelling in their own right, and it’s doubtful that even the biggest Nancy Werlin, R.L. Stine or Carrie Ryan fan will make it all the way through this collection.

For professionals looking for teaching tools, however, it offers multiple interpretations of bullying from which to draw. Cecil Castellucci’s minicomic illustrates Castellucci taking control of her group’s seeming powerlessness over the shifting nature of bullies and bullied. Aprilynne Pike asserts that most children— and adults—don’t realize they are bullies. Only a few authors discuss having been bullies themselves, and almost none raises the potentially tragic consequences that have made bullying of such immediate concern in schools. The myriad perspectives mean that an interceding adult can choose the appropriate piece for the appropriate teen; depending on the situation, a piece of advice (such as Lara Zeises’ suggestion that one should not let oneself be bothered by mean behavior) could range from dangerously impotent to exactly what an individual victim or perpetrator needs to hear.

A potentially useful resource for counselors and teachers. (Nonfiction. 12-17)

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GHOST HUNT 2 MORE Chilling Tales of the Unknown

Hawes, Jason Wilson, Grant Dokey, Cameron Little, Brown (400 pp.) $16.99 | September 5, 2011 978-0-316-09958-5

This latest collection of real stories from the paranormal investigatory group The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) has the same punch as its predecessor, Ghost Hunt (2010).

That the stories are the product of actual work conducted by the Society give them a powerful grip on readers’ attention. This happened, like it or not, but probably you’ll like it. The pacing is crisply staccato—“Again the eyes winked out. As if the animal had disappeared. But then there they were again. The eyes were closer. A lot closer”—and cinematic, which is understandable, as these tales have become material for a popular television series.

The milieus are excellent, from a lonesome lake to a towering lighthouse to Alcatraz (D Block, where the truly rotten were incarcerated within the incarceration), then to the even more devious everyday: your backyard at night. It is the stuff of all that goes bump in the night: “ ‘I hear footsteps,’ Dave whispered.

‘They’re coming closer!’ Step, drag. Closer. Step, drag. Closer.”

Darting shadows, cold spots, phantom smells, orbs, voice phenomena—nay, apparitions!—work readers to the point of tasting the enamel flaking off their grinding teeth.

It is also great ammunition for every kid who claimed a rude presence under the bed or in the closet: I told you so.

(Nonfiction. 8-15)

ALEX VAN HELSING Voice of the Undead

Henderson, Jason HarperTeen (304 pp.) $16.99 | July 26, 2011 978-0-06-195101-5

Wisecracks, gadgets and fast-paced action sequences abound in the second book about Alex Van Helsing, a 14-yearold boy with a supernatural gift for sens-

ing evil.

The evil, in this case, is old-fashioned malevolent vampires, headquartered in the Scholomance, “a school and a research facility and a massive organization all rolled into one,” hidden under Lake Geneva. Nearby are Alex’s all-boys’ boarding school, Glenarvon Academy, and a central office of the Polidorium, an international vampire-fighting agency with which Alex is slowly becoming involved. Action is the main focus here, and Alex’s two vampire nemeses pose constant threats. Elle, who menaced Alex and his friends in book one, toys with Alex with the elaborateness (and propensity for being foiled at the last minute) of

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“A twisted Richard Scarry–esque outing finds the creators’ ‘Uglydoll’ figures serving in place of all the cute kitties and puppies and piggies.” from what dat?

a Bond villain. Ultravox, the new bad guy, is subtler: His genuinely unsettling powers of persuasion can convince humans to attack others or to harm themselves. Astute readers will figure out the vampires’ secret M.O. and notice traps before Alex does, and a few references, like a Polidorium agent’s horror that Alex hasn’t heard of New Wave music, seem thrown in for adults.

Still, humorous dialogue and harrowing escapes will keep action-oriented readers mostly entertained. (Supernatural action. 12-14)

COWS TO THE RESCUE

Himmelman, John Illustrator: Himmelman, John Henry Holt (32 pp.) $16.99 | September 13, 2011 978-0-8050-9249-3

A herd of cows repeatedly comes to the rescue of a hapless family on fair day.

Himmelman’s illustrations are such an artful eyeful—snappily colored and gloriously comic—that it is easy to overlook the pleasure of the simple text, a little motor that in many ways drives the whole production forward. The Greenstalk family is headed to the county fair. Throughout the day, they encounter problems: The car won’t start, there aren’t enough contestants for the threelegged race, the Ferris wheel gives one of the children a case of the jitters. Fear not: Cows to the rescue! (Himmelman has also written books featuring rescues by chickens and pigs.) The cows are visually endearing in the extreme, great galumphing beasts with can-do good cheer. For each and every difficulty, there is a successful conclusion: “That wasn’t scary at all,” claims the Ferris wheel fraidy cat; “Thanks for the lift,” says Farmer Greenstalk when the cows ferry the family to the fair. The timing of the “Cows to the rescue!” is such that even the very young will know just when to come yodeling into a read-aloud, which gives the book a fine, uproarious feel and an excellent measure of involvement.

In the end, the cows get burnt out, and who can blame them? Then it’s time for the duck to show his stuff—is more hilarity in the works? (Picture book. 3-6)

FULL MOON AND STAR

Hopkins, Lee Bennett Illustrator: Hall, Marcellus Abrams (32 pp.) $16.95 | August 1, 2011 978-1-4197-0013-2

Two young friends separately discover playwriting and then realize the benefits of cooperation.

The poet-and-illustrator team that created City I Love (2009) introduces the very young to another form of writing in this sweet and simple read-aloud: |

drama. Kyle and Katie, with their moonpie faces, serve as modern preschool versions of the archetypical comic-strip characters Nancy and Sluggo. Katie has black hair and the trademark red dress. Kyle has freckles and overalls. And although they are best friends, Kyle has written a play all by himself. Katie, seeing a good idea, follows up with her own play. The story switches between their backyard fun and stage performances complete with curtain calls, spotlights and audiences. When they decide to combine forces, the new play is elevated to parallel the love and loyalty shown between the two friends. This winsome tale is just another preschool story of cooperation.

Yet the focus on playwriting and performance, complete with script formatting and special punctuation, sets a new stage for this common tale.

Perfect for budding thespians, this book in three acts would make an excellent springboard for classroom explorations of drama. (Picture book. 3-7)

WHAT DAT?

Horvath, David Illustrator: Horvath, David Kim, Sun-Min Illustrator: Kim, Sun-Min Random (32 pp.) $14.99 | $17.99 library ed September 27, 2011 978-0-375-86434-6 978-0-375-96434-3 library ed A twisted Richard Scarry–esque outing finds the creators’ “Uglydoll” figures serving in place of all the cute kitties and puppies and piggies.

Aimed at hip graduates of Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever (1963) and modeled after same, this visit to the Uglyverse invites readers to pore over big, busy, labeled assemblages of cartoon images while helping blobby Babo do a variety of things. They will search a city streetscape for his one-eyed unicorn, make stops at Ugly Port Harbor and elsewhere, tour a farmer’s market and a factory, then finally explore Babo’s home and neighborhood for such items as an “ebook reader,” a pitcher of “tea with interesting taste” and “pricey 1/6 scale action figures from Hong Kong.” Along with wisecracks in each relatively thematic spread’s introductory paragraph (“What’s a pleasure boat? Anything small that doesn’t sink”), the authors mix conventional descriptive words for common objects and people with a sardonic lexicon of terms both useful (“ATM number pad,” “retro game machine,” “parking enforcement officer”) and less so (“magnetic blender,” “canned moonlight”). Each is placed near a small, simply drawn item or garishly colored monster.

Not the Best Riff on a Children’s Classic Ever, but good for the occasional chuckle. (Picture book. 7-9)

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““From Hag to ogre to misinformed norns to a previously-human gnu, Ibbotson’s characters are non-glamorous and wistful but all the more human for it.” from the ogre of oglefort

WHO HAS THESE FEET?

Hulbert, Laura Illustrator: Brooks, Erik Henry Holt (42 pp.) $16.99 | August 16, 2011 978-0-8050-8907-3

Who has these feet and what do they do?

Close-up illustrations of animal feet are paired with the title question, “Who has these feet?” A page turn reveals the entire animal in its natural habitat. Many young readers will gleefully guess or know the answer already, but there are some tricky ones, making the format an especially useful one for preschoolers and early-elementary children. Readers learn not only to whom the feet belong but how the various feet help the animal survive in its environment. A duck’s webbed feet serve it well underwater, helping it swim fast, while a tree frog’s sticky toes prevent it from falling off rain forest leaves. From the snowy Arctic to the desolate desert, these animals and their funky feet come from all corners of the Earth, giving readers beginning lessons in zoology, ecology and geography (though it’s too bad there’s no map to extend the learning). The text and concept are refreshingly simple, while still educating and entertaining.

The richly colored and realistic watercolor illustrations depict child-friendly beasts without anthropomorphizing them. A gatefold at the conclusion brings all the animals together, and a checkerboard of heads and feet on its flaps is a ready-made matching game.

Young animal fans will find much to enjoy and are sure to ask for multiple readings. (Informational picture book. 3-7)

THE OGRE OF OGLEFORT

Ibbotson, Eva Dutton (256 pp.) $16.99 | August 18, 2011 978-0-525-42382-9

A motley group hesitantly forms a princess-rescuing team and ends up in the last place they expected.

In a post–World War II London still recovering from the Blitz lives a Hag who’s been dislodged from her Dribble (a water meadow where “the damp air is so soft”). At a meeting for Unusual People, three partially-asleep norns assign the Hag, a troll, a self-doubting wizard and a open-hearted orphan to go to “an island as big as England and Scotland and Wales all put together” to rescue Princess Mirella from a flesh-eating ogre. They make the journey, befriend Mirella and take over the ogre’s castle while the text calmly upends conventions and expectations: Mirella’s no damsel-in-distress after all, and the ogre’s more petulant and beleaguered than flesh-hungry. From Hag to ogre to misinformed norns to a previously-human gnu, Ibbotson’s characters are non-glamorous and wistful but all the more human for it. Although soldiers try to kidnap Mirella, the 1144

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real challenge for these mixed-age protagonists is sadness. The plot never flags or becomes sentimental; humor and gross-out tidbits (medicine made from used foot-washing water) pop up amid delicious turns of phrase (a dead salamander looks “like a very troubled banana which had died in its sleep”). Humility trumps grandness here; meanwhile, the castle becomes a home.

An offbeat, matter-of-fact journey from displacement to an idyllic homestead. (Illustrations not seen.) (Fantasy. 8-11)

LOTTIE PARIS LIVES HERE

Johnson, Angela Illustrator: Fischer, Scott M. Simon & Schuster (32 pp.) $16.99 | August 30, 2011 978-0-689-87377-5

Sure, she lives here, but she also plays, pretends and occasionally gets in trouble in this lively story about a young AfricanAmerican girl and her Papa Pete.

Textured, colorful gouache illustrations portray exuberant Lottie with stylized proportions: thin, gangly arms and legs topped by a veritable explosion of brown hair. She is clearly the focus here. Papa Pete’s face is never shown, although readers see other parts of him: his feet when he relaxes on the porch; his lower half when he’s holding Lottie’s hand. Papa Pete is patient, dangling Lottie’s little shoes from his fingertips (she wears his) when it’s time to go walking and allowing her to eat a cookie before her vegetables; however, he’s gently firm when necessary. Text and art generally complement one another: When it’s stated “Now, this is Papa Pete leaving the room and his phone....,” then “And this is Lottie in the quiet chair—again,” it’s up to the art to show the broken cell phone. Unfortunately, it’s confusing when the text mentions a “babysitter,” but Papa Pete is shown; is he her father, grandfather or just someone watching her? Perhaps it doesn’t matter; their loving relationship is the point here.

The final spread shows the small family’s love: Lottie in Papa Pete’s lap on the porch swing, eyes closed, smiling, cuddling her little dog on her lap. (Picture book. 3-6)

THE LONELY BEAST

Judge, Chris Illustrator: Judge, Chris Andersen Press USA (32 pp.) $16.95 | $12.71 e-book September 1, 2011 978-0-7613-8097-9 978-0-7613-8098-6 e-book Like one of Sendak’s wild things embarking on a journey of its own, the hairy monster in this boiled-down quest tale abruptly sets out for parts unknown.

Being a featureless, tree-sized black silhouette with two yellow eyes, the solitary Beast looks menacing but leads a peaceable existence in a remote forest. Responding to a sudden yen for companionship, he departs one day on a long trek over land

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and under sea—arriving at last, after many adventures, in a city whose residents quickly get over their initial terror to make him welcome as a gardener in the local park. Being lonely still, he broadcasts public appeals in hopes of reaching others of his kind, then, when that gets no response, sets out again, retracing his original route. Using what looks like paint and cut-paper collage, Judge creates open settings in artfully contrasted colors and textures that give his central figure both a strong visual presence and an enigmatic air carrying hints of deeper meanings. Or maybe not: The Beast arrives back in his garden to find that other Beasts have gathered from all over the world to throw him a surprise party and to stick around forever after for nightly wild rumpuses.

The story could use a little more internal logic, but Judge’s art stands out. (Picture book. 6-8)

THE GIRL BEHIND THE GLASS

Kelley, Jane Random (192 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 library ed $16.99 e-book | August 9, 2011 978-0-375-86220-5 978-0-375-96220-2 978-0-375-88996-7 e-book It takes a haunted house to break the bond of identical twins.

If Hannah and Anna’s older sister, Selena, had tested high enough to place into a good school in their Brooklyn neighborhood, their parents wouldn’t be building a home in the suburbs and the 11-year-olds certainly wouldn’t be living temporarily in the decrepit old house on Hemlock Road, where locals have claimed to see a peculiar set of green eyes peering back at them.

The sisters notice oddities immediately, from an unidentifiable horrid smell to bats in the attic to unexplained breezes. What Hannah and Anna, who have always been close enough to read each other’s minds, don’t notice right away is how they not only don’t understand each other anymore, but often don’t even like each other. Readers observe the twins’ changes through a seemingly third-person narration that subtly morphs into a firstperson narration. Is the vengeful narrator the house itself, a monstrous beast or an angry inhabitant from the past? Readers slowly discover the narrator’s identity as it, seizing on Hannah’s separation from her sister, tries to manipulate her into a supernatural friendship, and Hannah uncovers information about a shell-shocked solider from World War I, a jealous sister’s rivalry and a tragedy from 80 years ago.

Mounting creepiness with well-placed spine-tingling moments make this scary story perfect for fans of Mary Downing Hahn. (Ghost story. 9-12)

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BLOODBORN An Other Novel

Kincy, Karen Flux (312 pp.) $9.95 paperback | September 8, 2011 978-0-7387-1920-7 paperback Series: Other, 2

How many metaphors can one werewolf embody?

In the case of incipient teen wolf Brock, it’s an easy two. His lycanthropy, held temporarily at bay by medication, makes his facial hair grow “so much faster than it did before,” keeps him hungry although he just “had two roast beef sandwiches and an apple turnover shake” and forces him to fantasize about his ex-girlfriend, Cyn, who “drives [him] wild.” In other words, he’s a teenage boy. Meanwhile, parallels are continually drawn between the racism practiced against werewolves and humans; the same sheriff who tells a werewolf mother, “I should put a bullet in your brain right now and spare myself the paperwork,” begins the novel by pulling Cyn over for Driving While Latina. Amid all this metaphor, there manages to be plot—Brock, previously vilely racist against Others, now has to come to terms with his new identity while fleeing the bigoted lawman. Despite Brock’s infantile behavior, the werewolf pack feels responsibility for having turned him (though the original bite was an act of self-defense). Unless he can overcome his own self-loathing and guilt, Brock will wind up dead, maybe bringing Cyn with him.

A bridge between paranormals and boys’ realism about thugs and delinquents, reminiscent of Neal Shusterman’s Dark Fusion: Red Rider’s Hood (2005). (Paranormal. 12-14)

ROSA AND THE WATER PONY

Kit, Katy Illustrator: Knight, Tom Whitman (76 pp.) $13.99 | $4.99 paperback | July 1, 2011 978-0-8075-5088-5 978-0-8075-5089-2 paperback Series: Mermaid Mysteries, 1

A new chapter-book series introduces a set of mermaid friends.

Rosa, a young mermaid, lives in Mermaid Bay with her three best friends. The annual Midsummer Carnival is coming up and the girls can’t wait to enter.

The best performance wins a gleaming pearl necklace! With the help of a sparkling water pony (a magically transformed seahorse, of course), fluttering golden ribbons and a routine filled with dazzling finflips and tailspins, the girls are certain their team will win. But mean twin sisters Muriel and Myrtle make fun of their routine. And when Rosa’s cousin Coral visits unexpectedly, her triple sideflip and graceful pirouettes blow Rosa’s best moves out of the water. To make matters worse, their water pony is stolen on the day of the show! How will

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they ever win the necklace now? Familiar themes of friendships, jealousy and bullying abound in this undersea world— with a generous sprinkling of sea jewels and stardust on every page. The pony is named Sparkle, natch.

An alternative for those fairy-loving transitioning readers who are looking for a new magical adventure. (Fantasy. 6-8)

NOW PLAYING: STONER & SPAZ II

Koertge, Ron Candlewick (224 pp.) $16.99 | August 9, 2011 978-0-7636-5081-0 Series: Stoner & Spaz, 2 In this darkly humorous sequel, Koertge continues the adventures of 16-year-old Ben Bancroft, “the Spaz,” the kid with cerebral palsy readers met in the insightful and engaging Stoner & Spaz (2001).

At the close of the first book, Ben was enjoying the sweet smell of success with the premiere of his first documentary, High School Confidential, and a beautiful girl, A.J., had just hit on him. His happiness is short-lived, because Colleen, Ben’s sharp-tongued friend who is in rehab, leaves the premiere to hook up with some random guy to get stoned. This book picks up a few days later, with Ben still confused about his feelings about Colleen. He loves her beauty and wit and the fact that she totally gets him, but he knows Grandma will never approve. A.J. represents everything his grandmother wants for him, but why does Ben feel like her project rather than a friend whenever they’re together? Koertge writes crisp dialogue and ably captures both Ben’s bewilderment as he moves from loser recluse to Mr. Popularity and his complex feelings toward A.J. and Colleen. Ben’s long-absent mother’s appearance offers an opportunity to recognize the value of his grandmother. Movie buffs will appreciate the references to films, a hallmark of Ben’s first outing.

Readers familiar with the first book will be glad to see Ben’s return; newcomers will be glad they finally met him.

(Fiction. 14 & up)

EDDA

Kostick, Conor Viking (400 pp.) $18.99 | August 4, 2011 978-0-670-01218-3 Just as Saga (2008) exploded beyond opener Epic (2007), this third volume ratchets up this science-fiction gaming series to a whole new level.

Inside electronic world Edda, created and once played but now long deserted by humans, sentient Lord Scanthax rules all. He vanquishes other electronic realms via 1146

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portal, killing everyone—sentient or not, he doesn’t care. But Scanthax, lacking DNA, can’t script new weapons. For that, he’s preserved the life of the only human left on the uninhabitable planet that houses Edda’s servers. Scanthax-controlled robots tend 15-year-old Penelope’s underused physical body inside an airlock. Penelope’s brain and consciousness are healthy and angry: Her avatar, Princess, has the run of Edda, but only as long as Penelope scripts the weapons Scanthax demands. Penelope wants, as Princess, to search other electronic worlds for avatars with humans behind them; having known only Scanthax her entire life, she craves human connection. Meanwhile, across this chain of worlds that were once games, electronic but very real Ghost from Saga sets out with human Erik from New Earth—as avatar Cindella—to find the conqueror threatening Saga’s sentient inhabitants. Combatants clash; worlds clash (techno/punk, traditional fantasy, military); philosophies clash (pacifism, preservation, revenge); loyalties hold steady.

Humans, electronic beings and servers are separated by light years and metaphysics, but Kostick’s actionfilled series conclusion is immediate and relevant. (Science fiction. 13 & up)

THE POWER OF SIX

Lore, Pittacus Harper/HarperCollins (416 pp.) $17.99 | August 23, 2011 978-0-06-197455-7 Series: The Lorien Legacies, 2 The James Frey assembly-line approach to teen lit has generated another boomfest.

John is Number Four, the next alien teen in line to be killed by the vile Mogadorians. A charm dictates that John and the other nine destined planet-saviors be killed in numerical order because... just because, okay? Since the conclusion of I Am Number Four (2010), John’s been on the run with his best friend Sam and alien girl Number Six. Despite the title, Number Six’s only role here is to be the butt-kicking object of Sam’s and John’s affections; John’s quests, which range chaotically from escape to rescuing Sam to mooning over his high-school girlfriend, are always paramount. John’s chapters interweave with those of Marina, Number Seven, hiding in a convent school in Spain. As Marina’s story line involves a tiny bit of actual depth, the frequent cuts back to John only make him seem more vapid by comparison. Ultimately, the two stories climax with flaming green fireballs, mobs of alien monsters, heroes wielding lightning and the conflagration of countless Mogadorians. Michael Bay (who produced the 2011 film adaptation of book one) will surely be pleased.

Straight to blockbuster without any stops for character development, worldbuilding or internal logic along the way.

(Science fiction. 12-14)

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“A teeming, action-packed fantasy liberally laced with Venetian history, for strong readers of both sexes…” from the undrowned child

THE UNDROWNED CHILD

Lovric, Michelle Delacorte (464 pp.) $17.99 | $20.99, library ed $17.99 e-book | August 9, 2011 978-0-385-73999-3 978-0-385-90814-6 library ed 978-0-375-89861-7 e-book

Teodora, a bookish girl with a complex destiny, joins with Renzo, a Venetian boy, to battle the city’s impending destruction.

In 1899, Teo and her adoptive, scientist parents travel from Naples to Venice for a conference focused on the city’s shockingly dire problems. Rapidly heating water has brought sharks to the lagoon; wells are bursting, and children are dying of a hushed-up plague. Teo has always felt powerfully drawn to Venice. When a mysterious tome, The Key to the Secret City, clocks her in a bookshop, she enters a parallel Venice, “between the linings.” There, the evil exile Bajamonte Tiepolo is rematerializing, assembling a blood-lusting army of mutilated soldiers to avenge the city that destroyed them. With the Key their helpfully morphing guidebook, Teo and Renzo assist a community of protective mermaids and “The Gray Lady,” a librarian-turned–spell-tattooed cat, racing against Tiepolo’s dark triumph. Thickly plotted and encrusted with historical characters and fantastic elements (invisibility, an almanac of spells, transmogrifying statuary), Venetian transplant Lovric’s first effort for children is one grisly, bristling ride. A map, historical notes and a section entitled “What is true, and what’s made up?” shed light on the complicated allegory, but fantasy-devouring kids might well prefer the fast-paced horror to the historicity.

A teeming, action-packed fantasy liberally laced with Venetian history, for strong readers of both sexes; a sequel awaits. (Fantasy. 11-14)

ANKYLOSAUR ATTACK

Loxton, Daniel Illustrator: Loxton, Daniel Illustrator: Smith, Jim W.W. Kids Can (32 pp.) $16.95 | September 1, 2011 978-1-55453-631-3 Series: Tales of Prehistoric Life, 1 Two armored dinosaurs square off against a hungry T. Rex in this quick but unusually immersive prehistoric episode.

Even by current high standards, the full-spread art is uncommonly photorealistic—featuring Cretaceous creatures on which every lump, scale, feather and wrinkle is sharply defined and woodsy settings in which nearly every leaf, frond and tuft of moss can be picked out. The plot, in which a young ankylosaur is rebuffed by an injured older one but then returns to help out when a slavering (see the drool) tyrannosaur attacks, is no great shakes, but who cares? The main event is definitely the close-up |

views of craggy dino faces and the T. Rex’s massive, shiny, pointed dentifrice. No blood or wounds are visible, and the figures seem frozen in tableaus, but Loxton and co-illustrator Smith choose close-up angles that evoke both the massive size of the contenders and the drama of their encounter effectively.

For a series dubbed Tales of Prehistoric Life, this kickoff doesn’t offer much of a story, but it’s a memorable showcase for a new dino-artist team. (afterword) (Picture book. 6-9)

AFTER THE KILL

Lunde, Darrin Illustrator: Stock, Catherine Charlesbridge (32 pp.) $16.95 | $7.95 paperback $6.99 e-book | July 1, 2011 978-1-57091-743-1 978-1-57091-744-8 paperback 978-1-60734-296-0 e-book When a lioness kills a zebra, the carcass becomes food not only for her pride but also for vultures, hyenas, jackals and, finally, meat-eating beetles that clean the skeleton, leaving it to turn to dust on Africa’s Serengeti Plain.

The cover illustration summarizes the narrative: A lioness, mouth open and long canines visible, reaches out with large clawed paws; lion, jackal and hyena are close behind. A vulture perches on the title page. This is a realistic depiction of predation in the wild. Aimed at elementary-school readers, this title has none of the sweetness of the Smithsonian mammologist’s earlier works about bumblebee bats, meerkats and baby belugas.

Lunde’s explicit description doesn’t mince words: “[T]he lioness rips the carcass open and feeds on the soft internal organs first.”

Informational paragraphs, set off in a different type, accompany the narrative, adding intriguing details about each species. These dual texts are set on full-bleed double-page paintings done in pencil, watercolor and gouache. The jumble of animals around the kill is realistic; yellows and browns of the sunlit Serengeti landscape and red of the blood predominate. The action in these paintings moves relentlessly forward until the last arrivals, the lappet-faced vultures and beetles, finish the job.

Pair this with Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen’s Flying Eagle, illustrated by Deborah Kogan Ray (2009), for more “nature red in tooth and claw” science. (Informational picture book. 7-10)

YOUR MOON, MY MOON A Grandmother’s Words to a Faraway Child

978-1-4169-7950-0

MacLachlan, Patricia Illustrator: Collier, Bryan Simon & Schuster (32 pp.) $16.99 | August 16, 2011

Missing a grandchild in a distant tropical country, a

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“There can never be too many Cinderellas—well, maybe there can, but definitely make room for this one.” from the orphan

grandmother remembers their times together and reflects that they share the same moon.

While New Englander MacLachlan has dedicated her collection of memories to a granddaughter in Tanzania, Collier’s textured watercolor-and-collage illustrations tell a different story. In his version, a brown-haired grandmother is packing a bag and a present and taking an airplane to visit her grandson while recalling earlier visits and imagining what he might be doing. These images extend across the gutter; the gentle text is set on a complementarily colored panel and addresses the grandchild directly. Pictures contrast grandmother’s winter of snow and ice with lush African scenes of the child’s world; loving dogs dwell in both places. The moon is featureless, neatly avoiding the issue of its upside-down appearance on opposite sides of the equator. On the culminating “Your moon is my moon too” page, text and picture join. Both author’s and illustrator’s stories are personal and particular; the combination may broaden the appeal. But they may also confuse readers who will wonder about the apartment-dwelling grandmother’s proximity to the mountains.

Both doting grandparents and their faraway grandchildren can appreciate the message of this unabashedly sentimental tribute, an obvious gift book. (Picture book. 3-7)

THE ORPHAN A Cinderella Story from Greece

978-0-375-86691-3

Manna, Anthony L. Mitakidou, Soula Illustrator: Potter, Giselle Schwartz & Wade/Random (40 pp.) $17.99 | September 27, 2011

In Greece, it is said that a girl is an orphan when she loses her mother, and that is the only word that names the protagonist in this Cinderella tale.

The cruel stepmother even counts the drops of water the orphan is permitted to drink. The orphan finds poetry and advice in her mother’s voice at her grave, and Mother Nature gives her treasures, including a pair of blue shoes the color of the sea to wear on her tiny feet. When the prince comes to the village church one Sunday, the stepmother and stepsisters dress in all their finery, while the orphan is clothed in Mother Nature’s gifts, with the Evening Star as a wreath on her long black hair. But the orphan must leave as soon as the church service ends. The next week, the prince has honey and wax poured on the church steps, so the orphan leaves a tiny blue shoe stuck there when she runs out. Potter’s watercolors are limpid in color and fervent in line; the sweeping curve of the orphan’s tresses plays as a motif through the images. Text pages are framed in grapevines, and the whole has the feel of folk painting: The Sun, Moon, Dawn and Star are instantly recognizable smiling folkart figures. Several phrases repeat to keep the rhythm, and it ends, of course, with a wedding and a tantalizing “I was there, I should know.”

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There can never be too many Cinderellas—well, maybe there can, but definitely make room for this one. (Picture book/fairy tale. 5-8)

EAT YOUR MATH HOMEWORK Recipes for Hungry Minds

McCallum, Ann Illustrator: Hernandez, Leeza Charlesbridge (48 pp.) $7.95 paperback | $16.95 $6.99 e-book | July 1, 2011 978-1-57091-780-6 paperback 978-1-57091-779-0 978-1-60734-302-8 e-book

Math and cooking have always gone hand-in-hand, but McCallum takes it to a whole new level that allows young number lovers to explore (and eat!) a wide range of mathematical topics.

While the supply list and preparation time may preclude these from actually being assigned as homework, kids who are mathematically minded will enjoy snacking and learning their way through the recipes. Well-written and easily followed, the recipes include Fibonacci snack sticks based on the famous sequence of numbers, fraction chips made from cut-up tortillas, tessellating two-color brownies, milk and tangram cookies, variable pizza pi and probability trail mix. McCallum does not shy away from using appropriate vocabulary, defining it both in context and in the glossary at the back. She also includes fascinating historical tidbits that allow readers to see the precursors of today’s math and the mathematicians that first explored them. Hernandez cleverly folds math into her illustrations, too—observant readers will notice the numbers emblazoned somewhere on each character, but only the mathematically informed will figure out their pattern. Her highenergy mixed-media artwork is filled with humorous details, while her cartoon rabbits are likely to remind kids of the Arthur cartoons.

Excellent backmatter helps review concepts.

A yummy way to get parents and kids to more deeply understand math…and spend some time together in the kitchen. (index, table of contents) (Nonfiction. 7-12)

REACHING THROUGH TIME Three Novellas McDaniel, Lurlene Delacorte (240 pp.) $15.99 | $18.99 library ed $15.99 e-book | August 9, 2011 978-0-385-73461-5 978-0-385-90460-5 library ed 978-0-375-89949-2 e-book

A distinctly romantic sensibility links three novellas exploring different

forms of time travel.

Teenage Sarah awakens in the mansion of ever-so-handsome, but disturbingly otherworldly Heath de Charon. She

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remembers nothing, but sometimes in quiet moments she can hear the voice of another young man calling her and pleading for her return. The foreseeable conclusion detracts from the ethereal creepiness of the tale. In the second story, 16-year-old Drake, mildly disabled by cerebral palsy, takes a job in the isolated mountaintop home of a professor, where he falls in love with the man’s lovely, but unusual daughter. She won’t leave the grounds of the house, and time has an odd way of standing almost still while Drake is there. His lack of suspicion in the face of the supernatural evidence will surprise readers. The final and strongest tale portrays an edgy teen from the future, Maura, who has stolen a time machine and randomly traveled to the present, where Dylan, a teen haunted by a girl from his past, befriends her. As Maura evades the time police, she gains an understanding of Dylan’s true, though predictable, problem.

Keeping the tales brief makes them relatively focused, and the varied looks at time travel are mildly thought-provoking.

McDaniel’s fans won’t be disappointed by this varied presentation, although there is little here to surprise readers of the genre. (Paranormal romance. 11 & up)

THE UNWANTEDS

McMann, Lisa Aladdin (400 pp.) $16.99 | August 30, 2011 978-1-4424-0768-8 The Hunger Games meets Harry Potter in this middle-grade departure from McMann’s string of paranormal mysteries with romance for young adults.

On the day of Purge in totalitarian Quill, which is run by the High Priest Justine, 13-year-olds learn if they are deemed Wanted to attend the university, Necessary to tend the land or Unwanted and purged by execution. Without a good-bye from his Wanted identical brother Aaron, Alex Stowe and the other Unwanteds travel to the Death Farm. Instead of death, they meet the lush and magical world of Artimè, kept secret from Justine by mage Marcus Today. In a third-person narration characterized by even pacing and whimsical inventions, Alex and his peers learn that their creativity threatened Justine’s power. Surrounded by talking blackboards, transporting tubes and such fantastical creatures as an octagator (with the head of an alligator and body of an octopus) for instructors, the teens hone their drawing, music and acting skills while also wielding paintbrushes for invisibility spells and iambic pentameter to stun attackers during Magical Warrior Training, in preparation for battle against the Quillitary. As the youths explore fear, responsibility and free thinking, their spells may be used sooner than they think when Alex’s twin bond is tested and rivals vie for Aaron’s new position in Justine’s government.

Blending elements from two popular genres, this is sure to be a double hit. (Dystopian fantasy. 10-14)

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THE THREE LITTLE ALIENS AND THE BIG BAD ROBOT

McNamara, Margaret Illustrator: Fearing, Mark Schwartz & Wade/Random (40 pp.) $16.99 | September 27, 2011 978-0-375-86689-0 An extremely odd variant on “The Three Little Pigs.”

It’s time for Bork (two eyes, the sister), Gork (the one-eyed brother) and Nklxwcyz (three eyes, like their mom) to go out into the universe to find their own planets. Mom tells them to stick together and watch out for the Big Bad Robot. Bork chooses the red planet, and Gork is enchanted by the golden rings of another, but Nklxwcyz chooses Neptune and builds his house of space stuff and space junk. When the Big Bad Robot smashes Bork’s and Gork’s homes, they flee to Nklxwcyz, whose house is so strong that the Robot gets stuck in the telescope/chimney and explodes. The three children call mom, as exhorted, and she comes to tuck all three into bed. The greenskinned, red-haired or bald little aliens careen around the starry black universe with jetpacks and clear, round headgear, and there is some faint echo of charm in “ ‘Little alien! Little alien!’ it broinked. ‘COME OUT OF HIDING!’ / ‘Not by the orbit of this ring I’m riding!’ ” (The classic dialogue varies slightly from sibling to sibling.) It fails the logic test, though: The Big Bad Robot is fearsome, but there really doesn’t seem to be a good reason for him to go after these kids.

This one may be too stuck on the arc of the original tale to come alive in its own right. (Picture book. 5-7)

WHEN I WOKE UP I WAS A HIPPOPOTAMUS

McRae, Tom Illustrator: Collins, Ross Andersen Press USA (32 pp.) $16.95 | $12.71 e-book | September 1, 2011 978-0-7613-8099-3 978-0-7613-8100-6 e-book Collins’ artwork serves as an immediate draw to this rambunctious tale of a comically shape-shifting young boy.

Energetic illustrations, laden with emotional expressiveness, chronicle the various creatures and things into which the boy morphs, reflecting his changing moods throughout a day. He wakens as a rhinoceros, because, as everybody knows, rhinos don’t like to get out of bed. Once up, he changes into a robot, because robots don’t particularly like breakfast. At school, he is a monkey before becoming a monster, and so on from there. MacRae’s rhymed text is a happy, singsong affair with a few challenging atonal moments that will get readers thinking about meter in poetry. There is a good deal of “telling off ” in the tale—which evidently is an expression less vibrant in England, where MacRae lives, than in the United States, where something like “I couldn’t sit and listen, / and my work was

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LOST! A DOG CALLED BEAR

rather slack. / And when the teacher told me off— / I told her off right back!” might be thought a little cheeky for even a monkey. But the boy becomes milquetoast upon a change of form in his parents—here there be dragons—shape-shifting himself into a kid, and a sweet one at that.

A sweet, if literal exploration of changing moods, it will likely have readers imagining their own transformations.

(Picture book. 4-9)

WILDWOOD

Meloy, Colin Illustrator: Ellis, Carson Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (560 pp.) $16.99 | August 30, 2011 978-0-06-202468-8 Fans of Meloy’s indie-rock band, The Decemberists, will recognize themes running through his engaging debut celebrating the struggle of ordinary folk (including plants and animals) to throw off tyranny and shape their destinies.

When her baby brother is carried off by crows to the Impassable Wilderness at the heart of Portland, Ore., stubbornly courageous Prue McKeel, 12, sets out to reclaim him, accompanied by annoying schoolfellow and class pariah Curtis Mehlberg. Their quest soon becomes entangled with longstanding conflicts among residents of this magical wilderness, which harbors secrets both strange (talking animals, sentient plants) and familiar (xenophobic mistrust, government red tape). Overcoming a slow start, the story gains momentum when Prue and Curtis enter the woods, encountering its vividly portrayed denizens, human and otherwise. Captured by the mysterious Dowager Governess, Curtis must choose sides in a confusing conflict; either way, he’ll need courage and ingenuity to survive. Prue’s search leads through South Wood’s impenetrable bureaucracy to North Wood, where mystics commune with nature. Gritty urban settings abound in contemporary fantasy (Holly Black, Neil Gaiman and China Miéville are exemplars). Faithfully recreating Portland’s wild Forest Park, Meloy gives his world a uniquely Pacific Northwest spin. Illustrations by Ellis, Meloy’s wife, bring forest and inhabitants to gently whimsical life.

A satisfying blend of fantasy, adventure story, eco-fable and political satire with broad appeal; especially recommended for preteen boys. (Fantasy. 10 & up)

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Orr, Wendy Illustrator: Boase, Susan Henry Holt (112 pp.) $15.99 | $5.99 paperback | August 2, 2011 978-0-8050-8931-8 978-0-8050-9381-0 paperback Series: Rainbow Street Shelter, 1 With a limited vocabulary perfect for readers just edging into chapter books, the tale of Logan’s efforts to locate his lost dog rings completely true.

After Logan’s parents separate, he and his mother and Border collie, Bear, head for a new home in the suburbs, but Bear gets lost. Shortly afterward, Hannah’s father finds the missing pet in the back of his truck. Hannah is desperate for a pet, but her parents decide to leave the dog at the Rainbow Street Shelter (the name of this new series) to give him his best chance for return to his owners. There Hannah begins volunteering with the animals, recognizing their need for affection. Logan, miserable over leaving his family’s farm and his parents’ break-up, is devastated by the loss of his beloved dog. As his parents try to track down Bear and Hannah’s parents recognize her growing level of responsibility, glimmers of hope appear for both children. While the very brief text, accompanied by frequent attractive black-and-white illustrations, doesn’t give room for extensive character development, the essentials are effectively captured.

The believable plot and inherent suspense will keep readers turning the pages of this fine addition to early chapter books, which will resonate with both pet lovers and children involved in divorces. (Fiction. 7-10)

STUFF

Palatini, Margie Illustrator: Jones, Noah Z. Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins (32 pp.) $16.99 | $17.89 library ed September 1, 2011 978-0-06-171921-9 978-0-06-171922-6 library ed An anti-consumerist cautionary tale just doesn’t quite work.

Young Edward, a rabbit, has two good friends: Anthony, a beaver, and Marguerite, a cat. Then he has his stuff, his wonderful stuff. Anthony notes that Edward may have a little too much stuff. “How can anyone have too much STUFF?” is Edward’s retort. There comes a day when his stuff leaves no room for Anthony or Marguerite or, for that matter, time. He’s too busy to play because he’s “doing STUFF with my STUFF.” There comes another day when the whole mess collapses on him, and Anthony and Marguerite save his stuff-smothered butt. Palatini’s wordplay keeps this story of prioritizing values from drifting into timeworn homily, as when Edward is at first protected by his stuff when it crashes down: “ ‘I’m saved. Saved by my STUFF!’ How good was that?” Edward’s volte-face from stuff

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“A dreamy, hair-raising mystery in a Long Island fishing village–cum–upscale resort evokes the traditional horrors of coastal communities.” from siren’s storm

fan to stuff foe also rings true; all that stuff is about to suffocate him, metaphorically and literally. Jones’ illustrations—with their wobbly black linework and clear grasp of Edward’s mania— also strike a balance between reasonable fascination with cool stuff (a tuba, robots, cuckoo clocks) and serious junk (fish heads, smelly sneakers, broken crayons). Then the final page makes a painfully playful stab at comparing friendship to stuff, which not only doesn’t work as irony, but pulls the plug on the whole cautionary endeavor.

Palatini should’ve stopped one STUFF earlier. (Picture book. 4-7)

CHARTING THE WORLD Geography and Maps from Cave Paintings to GPS

Panchyk, Richard Chicago Review (144 pp.) $18.95 | August 1, 2011 978-1-56976-344-5

Historical examples and enrichment activities aplenty partly compensate for dry prose and iffy language in this broad overview of maps and their uses.

In topical chapters, the author covers the development of local and world maps, explains map reading in painstaking detail, covers geophysical features and forces, focuses on New World maps, then closes with considerations of specialized and political uses of maps and (in a cursory way) how satellites have mapped our planet and others. Absent a needed illustration of the prehistoric maps he mentions, there are otherwise color maps or photos on every spread, accompanying barrages of informative observations and facts. Some of these, like a tally of European explorers who “discovered” parts of the Americas and a note that gold rush prospectors encountered “Indians, mountains, deserts, and great rivers” on their way to the gold fields, could have been more sensitively expressed.

Aside from a vague invitation to disprove the four-color theorem somehow by coloring a map, the 21 side activities are enlightening and range widely in difficulty without requiring expensive or hard-to-get materials. If readers come away thinking that “graphy” is a Greek word, they’ll also have a clear notion of why maps are worth studying.

A wide-angled survey, but the pictures carry the problematic narrative. (bibliography, online resource list, index; not seen) (Nonfiction. 10-14)

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SIREN’S STORM

Papademetriou, Lisa Knopf (272 pp.) $15.99 | $18.99 library ed | August 9, 2011 978-0-375-84245-0 978-0-375-94245-7 library ed A dreamy, hair-raising mystery in a Long Island fishing village–cum–upscale resort evokes the traditional horrors of coastal communities.

Seventeen-year-old Will is a local in Walfang; Gretchen is “summer people,” but she’s Will’s best friend anyway. They used to be three musketeers, along with Will’s brother Tim, until a year ago when Tim died in a boating accident that should have killed both boys. Now Will and Gretchen try to renew their friendship in one of the creepiest summers either can remember. Will is drawn to Asia, a beautiful stranger with “green sea glass eyes.” Gretchen worries about the local mad teenager who babbles portents about “seekriegers” and sings sea shanties. A 400-year-old gold doubloon turns up in a donation box, and an antique bone recorder—the spitting image of one found on Tim’s body—appears in the local antique shop. Most frightening of all, Gretchen’s sleepwalking, always worrying, has gotten downright dangerous. The more Will investigates, the more he sees connections with generationsold local mysteries—and possibly, incomprehensibly, stories far older than that. Walfang is exquisitely realized (occasionally too much so; narrative flow sometimes takes a backseat to painting Walfang with not-always-necessary detail); characters are defined as much by their place in society as by their behavior.

Classical allusions fit perfectly in this transitional moment of an extremely New World setting. (Fantasy. 13-15)

BE QUIET, MIKE!

Patricelli, Leslie Illustrator: Patricelli, Leslie Candlewick (40 pp.) $14.99 | August 9, 2011 978-0-7636-4477-2 Mike the monkey is a born drummer.

Literally.

During the opening, a stethoscope is trained on mama monkey’s bulging belly, through which strong, rhythmic sounds are being emitted. From his first months through his early school years, Mike explores his world kinetically, patting, pounding, shaking, discovering the sounds made by the nearest surface or object: “He played with his fingers; / he played with his feet— / a funky little monkey with a / beat, beat, beat.” Patricelli’s pages practically vibrate. Multiple views of Mike are labeled with noises, and the pulsating, rhymed text flows easily—the font growing to suggest increased volume and the “bleed” from the acrylics adding to the sense of motion. The colorful compositions are punctuated periodically by a white double-page spread sporting a

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k i r ku s q & a w i t h e l i s e b r oa c h Simon, Henry and Jack do not anticipate an exciting summer. They just moved to Superstition, Ariz., and all the other neighborhood kids seem to be on vacation. Bored and lonely, they can’t resist the magnetic pull of Superstition Mountain, which many people have climbed and failed to descend.

The three brothers test their mettle against the power of the mountain—but will they find themselves among the Missing on Superstition Mountain? Elise Broach shares her own attraction to the real-life mountain.

MISSING ON SUPERSTITION MOUNTAIN

Q: Superstition Mountain is a real place—why did you write about it?

Elise Broach Henry Holt (272 pp.) $15.99 June 21, 2011 9780805090475

A: The Lost Dutchman’s Mine is a big Western-history legend. I came across it years ago when I was working on my Ph.D. in history with an emphasis on the American West. This miner Jacob Waltz purportedly extracted a lot of gold from a very rich gold mine in the 1800s, and then on his death bed made a map for the woman taking care of him.

She made copies and sold them, and people have been going up and looking for the mine ever since.

When I was getting ready to write this novel I knew I wanted to do a mystery for this age group, third to sixth grade, and I wanted to take a reallife mystery and set it in a fictional environment with fictional characters. I wanted to write a book where place contributed a lot of mystery, sort of like the movie—have you seen Picnic at Hanging Rock? It’s based on a true story of these girls from a girl’s school who went up a rock for a picnic, and there was a weird alien encounter, and one of the girls disappeared and another came down in shock. Twin Peaks was my other inspiration; I was calling this my “Twin Peaks for Kids” forever!

Q: Have you been there?

Q: How did you get the relationships between the three brothers so perfectly accurate?

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Q: Not only is this a great adventure story but it’s also a coming-of-age tale about Henry.

A: I never thought about it when I was writing it— you never step back and say, “Oh, he’s coming of age!”

There’s this awkward age between 10 and 13 when kids aren’t really sure of their own strength, and they become much more conscious of what other kids think of them, what adults think of them. With Henry, I was trying to explore this idea that he would be confronted with a new situation that would show him whole different things about his personality that he never knew about before. He’s not really a shy child; he gets along easily with other people. He’s a big reader, not the bold athletic type his younger brother Jack is, and not the competent, science-y, inventive character that Simon is. Henry is caught in the middle and trying to find his own way.

Q: How long do you expect this series to be?

A: It’s planned as a trilogy. I’d never done a sequel before, much less a series! It’s so much fun to write but so challenging. I love the idea of having individual books solve a mystery and also be building blocks for a larger mystery solved over the course of three books, but it’s so hard to plot.

–By Andi Diehn

P HOTO BY MA RK B ROAC H

A: I’d been to that area many years ago, so I knew the landscape. This past fall, my college-age daughter and I went to hike around Weaver’s Needle, and it was such a strange experience, I have to tell you. The mountain is gorgeous but very rough terrain; I can easily see how easily people get lost there—there are tons of canyons and woods, and parts of the mountain have never been explored.

It has this really interesting, eerie atmosphere. It really is like a real-life Bermuda Triangle on land.

There have been mysterious deaths and disappearances for over 100 years that are still largely unexplained.

A: I have two girls and a boy, and I grew up in a family of three children—I love the dynamics of three. I have such fond memories of the shifting alliances of childhood; it’s so interesting and complicated to have three instead of two. I also feel that brotherly relationships haven’t been well explored for this age group. I find it interesting in families, where the personalities of siblings are so different but if you look at the three from a perspective outside the family you see a lot of commonalities they don’t have with other kids.

quivering typeface with the titular message from family, neighbors and teachers. This contrast provides a recognizable refrain for eager listeners. This monkey’s motivation is not mischief: “Mike tried to be quiet, / he tried to be still, / but the beat of his heart / was stronger than his will.” Particularly poignant is his silence from self-applied tape. When an expensive drum kit catches his eye, he can’t rest until he builds a homemade set, and a musician—and his audience—is born. Front endpapers identify 15 percussion instruments; the closing displays do-ityourself counterparts.

A marvelous model of a family ultimately nurturing the member who marches to his own beat. (Picture book. 2-6)

RETURN TO EXILE

Patten, E. J. Illustrator: Rocco, John Simon & Schuster (512 pp.) $16.99 | September 6, 2011 978-1-4424-2032-8 Series: The Hunter Chronicles, 1 A preteen with a shadowy past and two odd scars on his palm is cast into a small town’s ongoing struggle among multiple kinds of monsters and warring factions of monster hunters in this hefty setup volume.

It’s a muddle, and readers are as likely to flounder as Sky does. In a vision, he sees his beloved old mentor Phineas being ambushed; he narrowly escapes attack by ravening Shadow Wargs on the grounds of a decrepit old estate; he has multiple run ins with verbally abusive teachers, violent bullies and nearly-as-hostile allies at his new school. The author stocks a huge cast with shapechangers (some of whom can and do adopt multiple guises), monsters of his own creation ranging from luridly vicious “wargarous” to “double bogies” and “screaming wedgies” and humans like Sky’s supposed parents, who plainly know more than they’re telling. Patten parcels out the details of a confusingly complex back story and the impending crisis du jour—a creature of, supposedly, stupendous evil poised to escape a time trap on the aforementioned estate—in driblets, while splashing the plot with extreme but oddly nonfatal violence and tongue-in-cheek dialogue. “And trust me—it’s not as hopeless as it looks. It’s much, much worse. Ready?” Splashes and splatters likewise frame Rocco’s chapter head spot art.

Young readers won’t be able to tell who’s on which side, and they won’t much care. (Fantasy. 11-13)

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THE FOX INHERITANCE

Pearson, Mary E. Henry Holt (304 pp.) $16.99 | August 30, 2011 978-0-8050-8829-8 Series: The Jenna Fox Chronicles, 2 In a thought-provoking, atmospheric follow-up to The Adoration of Jenna Fox (2008), Pearson again contemplates bioengineering and the nature of humanity.

Some 260 years after Jenna Fox’s father used controversial technology to upload Jenna’s mind into an imitation body, Jenna’s friends Locke and Kara, presumed dead in the same car accident, are uploaded into new bodies of their own. Both traumatized and connected to each other by the years their minds spent locked in claustrophobic “environments,” the pair live for a year with Gatsbro, the doctor who brought them back. Then Kara discovers the exploitative ends for which he is keeping them, and the two flee their captivity with the (perhaps too convenient) help of an unexpected ally.

Their journey from Gatsbro’s facility through a greatly changed America and ultimately toward Jenna Fox, still alive in her BioGel body, is harrowing and eye-opening, but the heart of the story is its meditation on what it means to be human. Is Locke human, his consciousness uploaded into a taller, more malleable body? Is Kara, who has lost her compassion? What about Dot, a legless robot engineered only to drive a cab, who is nonetheless strong-willed, brave and rebellious?

Though action scenes are occasionally predictable or over too soon, the book’s timely and haunting questions will leave thoughtful readers with much to ponder. (Science fiction. 12 & up)

I’LL BE WATCHING

Porter, Pamela Groundwood (320 pp.) $16.95 | August 9, 2011 978-1-55498-095-6

Kindness ultimately prevails, but not before hard times and ugly parochialism have their ways with several small-town residents, particularly three orphaned and then abandoned children.

Cast in the voices of the four Loney children, their neighbors, their dead parents and other witnesses living or otherwise, Porter’s free-verse poems tell a bleak story in plain, bleak language. The children are left to shift for themselves through a hard Saskatchewan winter after a series of miseries. First, their drunkard father freezes to death on the porch after being locked out, then their harsh stepmother abruptly departs with a traveling con man. Finally, the eldest, Randall, goes off to war (this is 1941). Not surprisingly, 14-yearold Nora and her two younger brothers quickly find themselves in desperate straits. The quiet acts of charity that help them

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“The novel in verse is a well-worked concept, but this effort infuses new life into a genre that’s become almost trite.” from eddie’s war

get by are almost hidden beneath the weight of the local gossips’ cruel attitudes, the forced departures of the town’s German school teacher and a minister’s daughter sexually abused by her father and such less-public miseries as a postmistress who intercepts the money that Randall sends home and a lonely doctor who discourages his daughter’s recovery from polio. Though an extended side story about Randall’s experiences as a downed aviator in Nazi territory comes off as tangential, the admirably resilient Loneys well merit the ending’s reunions and new lives.

Strongly felt, if overstuffed, family drama. (Historical fiction/verse. 12-16)

MISTER CREECHER

Priestly, Chris Bloomsbury (400 pp.) $16.99 | September 27, 2011 978-1-59990-703-1 Looking younger than his 15 years but hardened by a life on the streets of 19th-century London, Billy accidentally befriends a monstrous man in this electrifying story set against the events of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Struggling to survive in Dickensian squalor, Billy—orphan, thief and former chimney sweep—has resorted to picking corpses’ pockets. No one is as surprised as Billy when his newest target wakes and saves Billy from vicious attackers. The rescuer’s frightful appearance masks an Austen-loving, Frenchspeaking and vegetarian soul. Though perpetually repulsed by “Mister Creecher,” Billy agrees to spy upon Victor Frankenstein in exchange for protection. Pursuing Frankenstein and the promise of a female companion for Creecher, the unlikely duo follows the doctor out of London and into the untamed countryside, where they encounter grave robbers, circus sideshow performers and love. Creecher is often a more sympathetic character than Billy, but both figures evolve appreciably during their journey. Priestly combines a coming-of-age story with the gloomy atmosphere, moral dilemmas and slow pacing of Shelly’s classic and the grime and casual cruelty of Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Observant readers may also notice allusions to monster movies and Romantic poets.

By turns brooding and ghoulish, this old-fashioned gothic horror story is one lively read. (author’s note) (Fiction. 12 & up)

EDDIE’S WAR

Saller, Carol Fisher namelos (194 pp.) $18.95 | $9.95 paperback | August 1, 2011 978-1-60898-108-3 978-1-60898-109-0 paperback In her first outing for children, Saller (The Subversive Copy Editor, 2009) provides a poignant look at boyhood before and during the long years of World War II. 1154

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The novel in verse is a well-worked concept, but this effort infuses new life into a genre that’s become almost trite. Eddie, just 5 years old as the story begins in 1934, lives contentedly in the glorious shadow of his older brother, Thomas. A few brief vignettes capture the flavor of the pre-war years, as Eddie befriends Jozef, an immigrant his Grama calls a gypsy, who carefully scans newspapers at the library, looking for the only word he can read: the name of his home in Poland, where his wife and son still live. Eddie comes to idolize his brother’s friend, Gabe, always the most reasonable of the older boys. Eventually, Thomas and Gabe enlist as the United States enters the war, and Eddie and his parents face the trial of never knowing if Thomas will live to come home. Prejudice against Jozef forces Eddie to make a hard choice to save the beleaguered man. In spare language and remarkably short sketches, carefully selected details effectively portray well-rounded, interesting characters, from Eddie’s abusive grandfather to his evolving love interest, Sarah.

Much more an emotionally resonant coming-of-age tale than a war story, this will be an easy sell for those seeking a quick, excellent read. (Historical fiction. 11 & up)

GUYS READ: THRILLER

Editor: Scieszka, Jon Walden Pond Press/ HarperCollins (288 pp.) $16.99 | $6.99 paperback September 20, 2011 978-0-06-196376-6 978-0-06-196375-9 paperback Series: Guys Read, 2 This second collection in the Guys Read series packs a dizzying punch.

Scieszka has gathered 10 thrilling stories from stellar writers.

There are ghost stories, a deeply touching tale of a wish-granting machine and one about monsters that live in storm drains. “Pirate,”

by Walter Dean Myers, is extraordinary and so unmatched in content that it’s an anomaly here. His tale diverges from the creepy hijinks of the others, diving into chillingly dark waters. Abdullah comes from long line of Somali fishermen. The big foreign ships have depleted the fish, and the waters have been polluted by their oil spills. In spare, precise language, Abdullah describes how he and his family have decided to fight back. Armed with AK-47s, Abdullah and a few others hijack a yacht. The confusion and violence that ensues, as Abdullah is charged with guarding a teenage girl, is heartbreaking, terrifying and unshakable. More on par with the rest of the collection, Patrick Carman’s “Ghost Vision” delves into the supernatural. Kyle discovers a stack of 1970s comics and orders a pair of glasses from an ad in the back that will allow him to see ghosts. They arrive with a warning never put them on outside his room—there are some things you just don’t want to see. Add stories by M.T. Anderson, Matt de la Peña, Jennifer Choldenko and others for a solid collection.

This anthology is brimming with choice stuff for guys who appreciate the uncanny, the uncouth and the un-putdown-able. (Short stories. 9-13)

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SPACEHEADZ SPHDZ Book #3

Scieszka, Jon Illustrator: Prigmore, Shane Simon & Schuster (224 pp.) $15.99 | September 20, 2011 978-1-4169-7955-5 Series: SPHDZ, 3 Alien Spaceheadz approach their goal of recruiting 3.14 million + one Earthling SPHDZ…can they save Earth!?

Fifth grader Michael K. and his human friends Venus and TJ have done a whizbang job of helping advertisement-spewing, oddball aliens Bob, Jennifer and Major Fluffy (their leader and hamster) recruit. The SPHDZ counter falls only a bit short, so Bob and Jennifer decide to ask Santa Claus for the final SPHDZ needed to save the Earth from being turned off. Little do they know, the Santa they’re waiting in line to see is none other than Agent Umber of the Anti-Alien Agency! Michael K. & co. avert disaster, and the SPHDZ Counter hits its goal…then starts counting backwards! Evil Aliens are stealing the earthlings’ Brainwave (the sum of the collected SPHDZ) for their own nefarious ends! Feeling betrayed, Michael K. gives up. Meanwhile, Mom K. and Dad K.’s secret lives (ZIA Agent and Secret Ad man) are on a collision course. Can Spaceheadz with unlikely allies get Michael K. back on board and save the cosmos? Scieszka and Prigmore deliver the most madcap installment yet in their uber-illustrated series. Surprise villains (foreshadowed in previous volumes)! Surprise interstellar-parking-lot plans! Surprise doughnut upchuck! Nonfiction interludes on networks, group intelligence and symbiosis—not to mention the goofy websites—add to the fun.

Fans will be in heaven, especially at the certainty of further installments. (Humorous science fiction. 7-10)

BUMBLE-ARDY

Sendak, Maurice Illustrator: Sendak, Maurice Michael di Capua/ HarperCollins (40 pp.) $17.95 | September 6, 2011 978-0-06-205198-1 A master reincarnates his old Sesame Street cartoon with a dark pathos and fascinating manic energy.

As one of the original architects of gleeful mischief and serious woe in modern picture books, Sendak employs both here.

“Did you know / That Bumble-Ardy missed / Eight birthdays in a row?” opens the narration, the weeping porcine protagonist placing trotter to forehead. His original family “frowned on fun” and then (being pigs) “got ate,” landing Bumble with adoptive “Adeline, that aunt divine.” Luckily, “Bumble-Ardy had a party when he was nine.” A pleasant, mild illustration shows Adeline in their slatted, open-air house presenting cake and |

gift, Bumble murmuring “Yippee!” But emotional complexity lurks: Bumble’s eyes are red-rimmed, and nearby animals look gloomy and skeptical. Adeline gone to work, Bumble (permission-less) invites “grubby swine // To come for birthday cake and brine.” Costumes evoke Bread & Puppet and Cinco de Mayo at this rambunctious masquerade ball; partiers revel with sinister gusto. During the multi-spread rumpus, rhyme sneaks onto signs: “Cheers! / Cheers! / Cheers! / May Bumble live 900 years!”

When furious Adeline ejects the guests, her face morphs into a horror mask, but then she “Took in her Bumble valentine / And kissed him nine times over nine. // Now, ain’t that fine?” Children and parents both will require many trips through to even begin to accommodate the emotional shifts here.

Edgier than Sesame’s original, this contains all the layered meaning that makes Sendak’s books readable over and over. (Picture book. 4 & up)

FOSTERGIRLS

Shaw, Liane Second Story Press (266 pp.) $11.95 paperback | August 1, 2011 978-1-897187-90-6 paperback Fifteen-year-old Sadie provides a moving depiction of life as a foster child.

After 12 placements, beginning when she was about three, Sadie, always a survivor, is now living in a group home in a small Canadian town. Though the reasons that she’s been shunted from one foster family to another have varied over the years, to Sadie they all spell rejection. Since she has been all but lost in the system, her learning problems have been ignored, and school has become a cycle of failures that parallels the lack of adult affection she’s suffered from. Her edgy, always authentic present-tense voice rings richly true. As she describes it, “Right now, my hope is buried so far underground that I would need a shovel to dig it up.” She’s befriended by Rhiannon, an unpopular but kind girl with a motor-mouth and lots to offer a teen without roots: Loving, warm-hearted parents, a welcoming home and even some homework help. But past experience has taught Sadie too well; if she gets comfortable with her current life, she’ll probably be snatched away from that and placed somewhere else to start over. Strong character development and believable situations provide a robust foundation for her excellent, ultimately hopeful tale.

Sadie’s edgy account of finding a real place for herself in the world will keep readers thoroughly engaged. (Fiction 12 & up)

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ETERNAL

Shields, Gillian Katherine Tegen/ HarperCollins (368 pp.) $16.99 | August 2, 2011 978-0-06-200039-2 This third book in Shield’s continuing supernatural series (Immortal, 2009, etc.) can feed the needs only of those who crave 100-percent full gothic fiction.

With good and evil witches’ covens, an ancient Stonehengelike circle, a magically sealed attic room, an abbey turned school and romance both natural and supernatural, the author does her best to include every convention of the genre. This book focuses on Sarah, a part-gypsy–turned-lady student and member of the good witches’ coven, who struggles to keep the group together when best friend Evie tries to bow out. The main bad witch, thought vanquished in the previous installment, returns to wreak havoc. Havoc includes, in the most imaginative portion of the book, tempting Sarah into mysterious caves where gnomelike underground rock creatures can capture her and hold her forever. Gothic conventions continue as riders gallop wildly across the moors, ghosts appear when summoned and every kiss equals an out-of-body experience. Place names typically include y’s or double f ’s or both, as in “Wyldcliffe Abbey School for Young Ladies,” the novel’s setting. Emotions, romances and dramatic situations turn on and off with the sudden intensity of a melodramatic silent movie from the 19-teens, a scenario also called to mind by much of the dialogue.

Some readers will enjoy it, especially those with little experience in the genre. It’s all been done, better. (Supernatural romance. 12 & up)

SEVENTEEN ULTIMATE GUIDE TO STYLE

Shoket, Ann Running Press (192 pp.) $19.95 paperback | July 1, 2011 978-0-7624-4193-8 paperback This highly visual and very pink fashion primer dissects six “style vibes” for teen girls, pointing readers toward wardrobe essentials, celebrity inspirations and shopping destinations for looks from “boho” to “classic” to “glam.”

Each section in the guide explores a particular look, beginning with a photographic spread of “must-haves,” each labeled and annotated (e.g. “QUILTED PURSE: The perfect piece— TRENDY YET TIMELESS”). Readers are led through spreads of suggested add-ons (“Pair a drapey cardi with a FLIRTY MINI for an extra dose of femininity!”), then introduced to young women whose fashion suits the chapter. A final “look book” spread shows celebrities, runway models and women in the street who exemplify the chapter’s look. After covering “girly,” “boho,” “classic,” “edgy,” “glam” and “indie,” the editors 1156

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present two catch-all chapters, one guide to accessories and one to choosing jeans, swimwear, bras and underwear that hide and accentuate different body shapes. The book assumes an intermediate fashion vocabulary: The terms “ruching” and “capelet,” for example, are not defined, though illustrations offer some clues. There is, as promised, variation among the styles, but the range of acceptable looks is still fairly narrow, and many tips focus on making oneself different but not toodifferent.

A wealth of attractively-packaged information for fashion-conscious girls with some money to spend.

(Nonfiction. 12-18)

ZOOZICAL

Sierra, Judy Illustrator: Brown, Marc Knopf (40 pp.) $17.99 | $20.99 library ed August 23, 2011 978-0-375-86847-4 978-0-375-96847-1 library ed Carrying on where they left off with Wild About Books (2004), their Seuss homage, Sierra and Brown find the good citizens of Springfield, and especially the residents of the zoo, overcome by the doldrums of winter.

It’s windy and cold and snowy, and the sky can’t get any lower.

Leave it to two young’uns—a hippo and a kangaroo—to light the kind of fire that will get folks up and moving. In this case, a musical—or, more appropriately, a ZooZical—in which all the animals find a niche and partake in a peaceable kingdom megaperformance. Sierra and Brown have worked together enough by now to feel comfortable in each other’s presence. They play off one another extremely well. Sierra’s rhymed text is playful, with sassy touches—“Then on to the stage rolled ten seals on a bus, / Barking, ‘Let’s sing a tune that is all about us!’ ”—and her pacing is peerless. In lockstep with the proceedings are Brown’s illustrations: merry and alive with energy. Here the raccoons are doing a jitterbug, there the snakes are exuberantly tying themselves into knots, while chorus lines of giraffes and macaques step out in style.

A book of sheer exuberance—vocal and visual—which surely will be reflected during read-alouds. (Picture book. 4-8)

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MISFIT

Skovron, Jon Amulet/Abrams (384 pp.) $16.95 | August 1, 2011 978-1-4197-0021-7 In an impeccably paced and unusually profound urban-fantasy novel, 16-year-old half-demon Catholic-school student Jael Thompson comes into her powers, explores her heritage and battles a tyrannical Hell beast. |

“The illustrations say what the text doesn’t need to—that the love between boy and elder is elemental and honest.” from grandpa green

Jael, who grew up on the run with her strict, tight-lipped father, knows little of her history until her 16th birthday. Then, fulfilling a promise to his late wife, Jael’s father gives her a gem that allows her access to her demon half. Through flashbacks and visions, Jael finally encounters traces of her mother, once the Phoenician goddess Astarte. She also meets her uncle, a kindly but grotesque (by the mortal realm’s standards) fish demon, who helps her harness her newfound ability to influence the elements. Much tension comes from Jael’s rebellious and sometimes reckless choices: She experiments with her powers and confides in a classmate despite her father’s insistence that the pair stay completely hidden. Refreshingly, Jael is largely proven right: Her actions bring her the intimacies, romantic and familial, that her human half craves, even while attracting the family’s sinister and powerful enemy, the demon Belial.

Alongside joyous exploration, heart-pounding action and inventively horrifying imagery is a complex set of metaphysical questions: Does reality define belief or belief define reality? What is the nature of Hell? What makes a family?

Thoughtful, scary and captivating. (Urban fantasy. 14 & up)

WONKENSTEIN The Creature from My Closet

Skye, Obert Illustrator: Skye, Obert Christy Ottaviano/Henry Holt (240 pp.) $13.99 | September 27, 2011 978-0-8050-9268-4

Skye adds another Wimpy Kid to the growing bandwagon.

Sounding almost too nerdy to be true (“I’m kind of like a backup singer in the song of life”), 12-yearold Rob relates his tale in the now-requisite mix of block-print– type prose and line-drawn cartoon figures with punch lines or commentary in dialogue balloons. A string of hectic events follows the appearance of a manic mannequin from the midden of books and old science projects in his closet. He describes it as “a small, weird man who came up to just above my waist.

He looked like two different people who had been smashed together.” Comical chases, pranks, interactions with friends dependable and otherwise, mortifying mishaps in front of girls and like standard fare later, Rob has overcome severe stage fright to mend fences with classmate Janae and others by reciting a poem of apology at a school talent show. He has also been turned on to books by his discovery that the mannequin is an amalgam of Willy Wonka and Frankenstein’s monster. In the end, Wonkenstein slips back into the closet—and out springs an even smaller Harry Potter/Chewbacca blend. Sequels, anyone?

Likely to be lost in the crowd, but comfy antics for readers who don’t probably much like reading—which, one thinks, is exactly the point. (Fantasy. 9-11)

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GRANDPA GREEN

Smith, Lane Illustrator: Smith, Lane Roaring Brook (32 pp.) $16.99 | August 30, 2011 978-1-59643-607-7 An adoring great-grandson and a topiary garden tell the stories of one man’s life.

Watering a garden, pulling a wagon, collecting dropped gardening gloves and tools, a little fellow works in an amazing topiary world made of memories. The trees tell the story of his great-grandfather’s life—from birth to chicken pox to high school to military service and, later, marriage. Many of the illustrations morph with page turns: Tears from the baby become water from a hose; a mysterious conical shape becomes a cannon; a bunny near a tiny tree munches a carrot topiary. Splashes of red—berries, a hair bow, gunfire and a heart—make brief appearances in this green world, but green, like Grandpa’s name, is the star of this show. When the boy reunites Grandpa Green with his missing things, readers discover that though Grandpa sometimes forgets, the garden remembers for him. The illustrations say what the text doesn’t need to—that the love between boy and elder is elemental and honest. One surprising and sparkling gatefold shows the whole garden, with Grandpa Green working on his newest creation: his grandson fighting a dragon.

Readers who slow down will be rewarded by this visual feast that grows richer with each visit.

Though this book has lots of adult appeal, it will also be a wonderful bridge to exploring family history with the very young. (Picture book. 5-9)

THE MYSTERIES OF ANGKOR WAT Exploring Cambodia’s Ancient Temple

978-0-7636-4166-5

Sobol, Richard Illustrator: Sobol, Richard Candlewick (48 pp.) $17.99 | August 1, 2011

A photographer explores the ancient Cambodian temple and modern Siem Reap looking for odd angles, surprises and reflections of today’s world in the ancient carvings.

As promised, except for a few traditional postcard images, these photographs are unusual and often feature the children who sell fruit and souvenirs at the monument gates and play among the 1,000-year-old ruins. The centerpiece is a photo album of modern Cambodian life with accompanying images of ancient carvings showing similar activities. Sobol weaves a brief explanation of the Khmer Empire and their ruined temple complex into his travelogue. He visits a dance studio, where he sees students practicing traditional gestures just like those of dancers on the temple walls, and a school where youngsters learn English. At the end, these children lead Sobol past the

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ancient trees and stone rubble in Ta Prohm to a surprising carving, their favorite. While not quite the secret Sobol portrays, since photographs of this curious creature have been available on the Web for several years, this image is sure to appeal to child readers as much as it does to visitors.

Part of Sobol’s Traveling Photographer series, this useful introduction to a famous tourist destination has unexpected child appeal. (facts, glossary, unlabeled world map) (Nonfiction. 8-11)

MO WREN, LOST AND FOUND

Springstubb, Tricia Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins (256 pp.) $15.99 | August 23, 2011 978-0-06-199039-7

Mo Wren can’t imagine living anywhere but Fox Street—until her father buys a rundown restaurant on East 213th Street. Newly named The Wren House, it lacks the tightly knit community that she loves, needs a total revamping and

supposedly is cursed!

This sequel to What Happened on Fox Street (2010) reintroduces the likable characters from the first book: Mo’s “wild child” sister, Dottie; her unhandy father; and elderly neighbors that she misses terribly. But new ones emerge to fill her emotional cracks: Shawn, a hyperkinetic classmate, and Carmella, owner of the Soap Opera Laundromat and nurturer of the neighborhood. When the restoration of the restaurant goes awry, Mo begins to think it is cursed, especially on the night of the opening, when a freak blizzard hits. Plot details are often foreseeable and convenient but nevertheless believable; readers won’t be surprised that Dottie’s pet lizard gets loose and can’t be found or that the homeless handyman helps with the makeover, but these elements fit right in cozily. The correlation between the Laundromat’s lost and found (providing a needed article at the right time) and Mo’s feelings are subtle but nicely tied together (a yellow sweater reminds Mo of her dead mother).

Taken all together, the spunk of the primary characters, the dialogue and the “home-is-where-you-make-it” underlying message serve up a plateful of enjoyable story. And there’s room for thirds. (Sketches not seen.) (Fiction. 8-12)

VEILED ROSE

Stengl, Anne Elisabeth Bethany House (284 pp.) $14.99 paperback | July 1, 2011 978-0-7642-0782-2 paperback Prince Leo and ugly Rose Red make epic, separate journeys across kingdoms and to the dragon-infested doors of Death in this fantasy from an evangelical publisher.

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The companion work to Heartless (2010), this illuminates different aspects of the same tale. Mysteriously veiled, kindhearted Rose Red dwells up the mountainside; her grotesque appearance frightens villagers. Leo, not just the wealthy boy he first appears, but in fact the Prince of Southlands, befriends her, yet many believe he’s actually bewitched, not making this choice of his own free will. Daylily, the lovely, spirited—but not especially sympathetic—maiden to whom Leo is promised, lacks the depth of the other two protagonists. After dark forces invade dreams of both Leo and Rose Red and then a dragon attacks and enslaves their land, each is faced with hard choices of the potential costs of their efforts to defeat the rising evil.

They receive guidance from ethereal voices whose trustworthiness they must judge. From frequent allusions, it’s obvious that a complex back story provides depth to this faerie world, but readers must often guess at its components, making some aspects of the tale confusing. The conclusion leaves the story unfinished, setting up the next entry in the series.

This inventive fairy tale with subtle Christian overtones includes enough suspenseful content to make it entertaining, in spite of leaving too many somewhat-bewildering threads hanging. (Fantasy. 11-18)

HOME-FIELD ADVANTAGE

Tuck, Justin Illustrator: Rodriguez, Leonardo Simon & Schuster (40 pp.) $16.99 | August 30, 2011 978-1-4424-0369-7

There’s such a big heart to this picture-book memoir you’d have to be a drizzly-Sunday-afternoon-in-winter sourpuss not to recognize its grin potential.

Tuck, an All-Pro defensive end for the New York Giants, wasn’t always a tough hombre. He was once a little kid with five sisters who knew how to put him in his place. In this tale of sibling good intentions gone awry, they administer a haircut and Tuck emerges as a rather young example of male pattern baldness, or, as his sister tells their appalled mother, “We didn’t mean for it to turn out like a reverse Mohawk.” It’s a pleasing story, easy and enjoyable to move through—which make this book, part of a literacy project Tuck started, a boon for young sportsters who need some encouragement to read. They will appreciate the devious, heady watercolors, which display more than a touch of Mad magazine (where Rodriguez is an illustrator). Tuck’s tribulations, because of his modesty, good nature and the fact that he becomes a professional football player anyway, add to the affectionate nature of the story. This is a family that stays and pulls together; sure, your sisters may make you look like Bozo the Clown, but that doesn’t mean they don’t love you, or that, even if you are 6’5” and 274 pounds, they don’t still dominate you.

As celebrity picture books go, this one’s a sight more palatable than most. (Picture book. 4-8)

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KING HUGO’S HUGE EGO

Van Dusen, Chris Illustrator: Van Dusen, Chris Candlewick (40 pp.) $16.99 | August 1, 2011 978-0-7636-5004-9

A cautionary tale loses track in this fable of an egomaniacal monarch.

Here’s how this story ends: The king and the sorceress fall in love and live happily ever after. And this is a surprise, because just a few pages earlier, the sorceress had put a curse on the king. His head inflated until it was 10 feet wide, so that he would learn to be less arrogant. Some picture books would conclude the story there, with King Hugo humble and chastened and vowing never again to say things like “Say, who’s the most majestic king?” But a few pages from the end, the sorceress has a realization: “Could it be, deep down inside, / she kind of liked the king?” The author, it seems, is a die-hard romantic. Readers may be less forgiving, not only because the romance comes out of left field, but because the author tries to rhyme “and bent down on his knee” with “then spoke most humbly.” The awkward verses make it difficult to put up with an insufferable main character—and vice versa. The pictures of King Hugo floating through the air, however, are hysterical; readers may wish the book had ended on that punch line. Even in the age of The Stinky Cheese Man, sometimes a tidy moral is best.

Some fairy tales, it turns out, work better without the fairy-tale ending. (Picture book. 3-6)

THE EXQUISITE CORPSE ADVENTURE An Episodic Story Game

Various Illustrator: Various Candlewick (288 pp.) $17.99 | $7.99 paperback | August 1, 2011 978-0-7636-5149-7 978-0-7636-5773-4 paperback An all-star tag team of 20 well-known children’s authors and illustrators offers an unsurprisingly episodic tale featuring two young circus performers fending off interdimensional invaders while discovering that they have parents in need of rescue.

With some contributors weighing in more than once, the 27 chapters (each with a different author and at least one illustration) take 11-year-old twins Nancy and Joe from a train racing toward a sabotaged trestle to a faceoff with an army of glutinous Eggy-Things and a happy reunion with parents trapped in the eggy dimension. In droll contrast to the relatively (and miraculously) coherent plotline, the large cast has a surreal flavor. The twins encounter in their travels an evil but narcoleptic clown, a “misfortune teller,” a talking pig, the parts of a dismembered robot, a forest outlaw with a butt where his face should be and like allies or enemies. First run in installments on the Web, the |

pro bono project shifts tone and atmosphere with the author, from Lemony Snicket to Natalie Babbitt, from Linda Sue Park to Nikki Grimes, from Jon Scieszka to Jack Gantos—and who would have guessed that Katherine Paterson would be such a dab hand at egg puns?—but never goes off on self-indulgent tangents.

In other hands probably a labored writing exercise; here, plainly a game, making pleasant entertainment even for non-participants. (Science fantasy. 10-13)

FISH YOU WERE HERE

Venable, Colleen AF Illustrator: Yue, Stephanie Graphic Universe (48 pp.) $27.93 | $6.95 paperback $20.95 | September 1, 2011 e-book 978-0-7613-5224-2 978-0-7613-5630-1 paperback 978-0-7613-7957-7 e-book Series: Guinea PIG, Pet Shop Private Eye, 4 Will the Help Wanted sign in the window of Mr. Venezi’s Pets & Stuff Shop bring good or ill?

Befuddled but lovable Mr. Venezi’s still advertising for an assistant to help him in his pet shop. With questions like “on a scale of 1 to 10, have you ever ridden a llama?” interviews are not going well.

When ninth-grader Viola arrives, she seems the perfect employee.

She turns a light on the lizards. She gives the ferrets tons of toys and tubes. She even puts the correct animal names on the cages; Mr. Venezi had labeled the chinchillas, “gorillas,” among other misnomers. She does so well that guinea pig detective Sasspants becomes suspicious, and Mr. Venezi feels unneeded. When Mr. Venezi turns up missing and Viola, without supervision, starts slacking, Detective Sasspants is on the case. With careful deduction and a cunning plan, Sasspants and her junior partner Hamisher the hamster save the day again! Venable and Yue’s Pet Shop Private Eye graphic series continues to charm. Yue’s adorable pet-shop fur (and scale) people are just as expressive as their human counterparts, and Venable’s gentle mystery and delightful, dry humor will extend Sasspant’s fanbase. Includes information on goldfish and plecos, as well as a list of animal-related jobs at the back.

Great graphic tales for young readers and animal lovers; long may Sasspants detect! (Graphic mystery. 7-11)

BURNOUT

Vrettos, Adrienne Maria McElderry (208 pp.) $16.99 | September 13, 2011 978-1-4169-9469-5 A high-school junior falls in with a reckless companion who leads her into a dangerous lifestyle in this gritty, suspenseful character study.

Nan thinks she might be a ghost. She wakes up in a subway train with no memory of how she got there.

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It is the day after Halloween, and she’s wearing a bizarre dress and skeleton makeup she can’t remove. Vrettos divides chapters between “Today” and “Remembering,” as Nan begins to piece together the events that led her to that subway. She hasn’t seen her alcoholic best friend “Seemy” for six months, ever since Nan got out of rehab and promised not to drink again. As the story advances, readers learn more about the nonconformist lifestyle the two girls enthusiastically embrace as well as Nan’s insecurities. The author continually maintains an atmosphere of intrigue, however, as readers begin to see that Nan herself really isn’t as extreme as her actions. When Nan’s memory finally returns, the story becomes a suspenseful life-and-death chase. It all adds up to an insightful portrait of a girl who loves her family but has hit her rebellious stage and has spun out of control; it’s a superb character study of a courageous girl trying to find her way.

Stark, compelling, perceptive: a winner. (Fiction. 12 & up)

J. R. R. TOLKIEN

Wallner, Alexandra Illustrator: Wallner, John Holiday House (32 pp.) $17.95 | August 1, 2011 978-0-8234-1951-7 A quick life of the great fantasist is given wings by allusive painted illustrations.

Aimed at children who know The Hobbit but aren’t quite up to tackling it on their own, the narrative takes “Ronald” from birth in South Africa through transplantation to England, experiences in World War I and postwar life up to the publication of Lord of the Rings. The selection of detail isn’t particularly discriminating. Intriguing information such as the famous anecdote about how the first line of The Hobbit popped into his head out of nowhere or notes about Gandalf ’s origin and a relative’s farm called “Bag’s End” is interspersed with eye-glazing references to childhood changes of address or the formation of the Tolkien Society. The art provides a more studied route into the author’s imagination and achievements.

Prettily rendered in soft lines and muted colors, it’s framed as a winding board game decorated with thematic words, depictions of elves and dragons, views of the author and his family at various ages, simple codes and highlighted scenes, all capped by facing portraits of Tolkien (“I am in fact a hobbit in all but size”) and Bilbo Baggins.

Beguiling art props up a profile that reads like a school report. (timeline, bibliography, notes) (Picture book/biography. 7-9)

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SAMMY IN THE SKY

Walsh, Barbara Illustrator: Wyeth, Jamie Candlewick (32 pp.) $16.99 | August 1, 2011 978-0-7636-4927-2

A little girl grieves her beloved dog.

Sammy was a hound dog—possibly the best in the world. He loved his girl, and she loved him. Painter Wyeth’s realistic, evocative watercolors show Sammy and the girl sharing good times together, playing dress-up, sleeping curled up and blowing and chasing bubbles. When Sammy is diagnosed with an untreatable illness, the girl has to accept that they don’t have much time left. Her parents are gentle and kind and offer explanations to help the girl with her impending loss, but when Sammy dies, she is bereft. Sensitive, graceful text depicts her pain and traces her journey through dreams and thoughts as she finds ways of coping that help her to remember Sammy and celebrate his life. Sammy is still around the family in memory, and the girl catches a glimpse of a cloud that looks like him as the family blows bubbles on the beach and shares stories about their friend. Without anthropomorphizing, Wyeth gives coonhound Sammy all the personality a dog could want; the little girl is a latter-day Sal, complete with overalls.

A warm, emotional tale, replete with comfort and acceptance, this secular selection is a strong choice for a child dealing with death for the first time. (Picture book. 4-7)

BETWEEN

Warman, Jessica Walker (464 pp.) $17.99 | August 2, 2011 978-0-8027-2182-2 Drowned on her 18th birthday, a rich, popular girl struggles to discover what happened and learns some unpleasant truths.

Liz has always been a golden girl, the center of the most popular clique in her tony Connecticut suburb. Drowning is bad enough, but it’s even worse that she has to share her afterlife with poor-kid Alex, killed in a hit-and-run several months ago, who takes pleasure in showing her what a bitch she is—or at least was. Warman introduces readers and her protagonist to the girl Liz was gradually and simultaneously.

In her afterlife, ghosts have hazy memories, so Liz’s understanding of her life is incomplete. With Alex’s help (he’s a pro at being dead), Liz learns that her family was not as perfect as she wants to believe and that she was mixed up in some seriously bad stuff.

She also learns that she was shockingly, horrifically shallow. For much of the book the mystery surrounding Liz’s death is subsumed in her growing recognition of her frankly unlikable personality. That readers will like her ghostly persona despite her unpleasant living one is testament to Warman’s skill. While they

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“Enlivened with Kleven’s vibrant folk-art collage renderings, this tale will have readers thinking twice before ever saying ‘finders, keepers’ again.” from one little chicken

will figure out the mystery before Liz does, they will appreciate her growth if not the rather tidy ending.

A rich and compelling character study wrapped around a mystery. (Mystery. 14-18)

THE SECRET OF THE SKELETON KEY

Warner, Penny Egmont USA (224 pp.) $15.99 | August 23, 2011 978-1-60684-162-4 Series: The Code Busters Club, 1 This first of a series delivers a splendid story of four youths on a code-breaking spree.

Cody and her three buddies comprise an exclusive club revolving around studying and creating codes. It’s all in fun, but things amp up to intense when Cody and Quinn spy two lurking strangers at Mr. Skelton’s creepy old house. Cody awakens the next morning to find Mr. Skelton’s house in flames and an ambulance taking him to the hospital.

Cody then notices symbols drawn on an upstairs windowpane.

As the club members investigate the charred house and each new clue leads to the next, they find cryptic messages that lead them repeatedly to one of Mr. Skelton’s many cats and possibly to hidden treasure. Moreover, the strangers, calling themselves cousins of Mr. Skelton, are clearly looking for something in the old man’s house and begin to appear capable of treachery well beyond robbery. Adding depth to an already smart, fast-paced mystery, a resonant back story reveals that Cody’s parents have recently divorced and that her little sister is deaf. Readers are active participants in the momentum and are frequently invited to solve classic forms of code, such as Morse and semaphores.

This intriguing tale has vivid characters and such a tantalizing cliffhanger that the readers won’t be able to resist cracking the next Code Busters. (code keys and solutions) (Mystery. 8-12)

ONE LITTLE CHICKEN

Weber, Elka Illustrator: Kleven, Elisa Tricycle (32 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 library ed | August 2, 2011 978-1-58246-374-2 978-1-58246-401-5 library ed A story of justice and generosity from the Talmud.

One day a lost chicken wanders into the Bendosas’ house.

Leora is excited; now they can have fresh eggs! But Mrs. Bendosa reminds her that, contrary to the age-old adage, “finders aren’t keepers.” They will take care of the chicken until the rightful owner returns. So the family builds a coop, and the chicken lays many eggs. But finders aren’t keepers, so the |

Bendosas leave the eggs alone. Then, the eggs hatch into fuzzy yellow chicks. But the chicks make a mess, so Mr. Bendosa and Leora take them to the market and trade for a goat. Every day, they milk the goat and make some cheese. But finders aren’t keepers, so they do not eat the cheese. But then, the cheese begins to smell. So Mr. Bendosa and Leora take the cheese to the market and get another goat. The cumulative chain continues, until a man walking by innocently asks if they have seen a lost chicken. The Bendosas laugh and explain how one tiny chicken has turned into a whole herd of goats—and they all belong to him! Weber has a storyteller’s economy with words, but she effectively sketches her characters and gently milks the absurdity of the situation.

Enlivened with Kleven’s vibrant folk-art collage renderings, this tale will have readers thinking twice before ever saying “finders, keepers” again. (author’s note) (Picture book/folktale. 4-8)

SHADOW MAGIC

Wells, Kitty Illustrator: Harrison, Joanna David Fickling/Random (208 pp.) $13.99 | $16.99 library ed $13.99 | July 12, 2011 978-0-385-75200-8 978-0-385-75211-4 library ed 978-0-375-89801-3 e-book Series: Pocket Cats, 2 Maddy’s magical ceramic cats come to life, helping her and her cousin adjust to the many changes in their lives.

In the first book in this series, kitten Greykin helped Maddy solve a problem (Paw Power, 2011). While Maddy waits for the magic to happen again, she also waits for her cousin Chloe and her family to move to town. But when a grouchy and older-acting Chloe arrives, she is much more interested in her cellphone and earbuds than in seeing Maddy’s ceramic cats or newly painted room, just right for late-night gabfests and giggling. Turns out, Chloe is at a “funny age” and refuses to stay in Maddy’s room, avoiding her younger cousin, who soon realizes that homesickness is part of Chloe’s moodiness. This news brings Nibs, the second ceramic kitty, to life. Nibs senses that something bad is going to come of Chloe’s sadness and teaches Maddy how to use Shadow Magic to make herself invisible so she can figure out just what the danger is. Darting in and out of visibility, Maddy realizes Chloe’s dangerous plan to run away and works with Nibs to help Chloe change her mind. The concept of magic ceramic kitties is a winner, and chapter-book readers will recognize Maddy’s pain at Chloe’s transformation.

Charming pencil sketches accompany each page, helping emerging readers enjoy this tale of magic, friendship and adjustment. (Fantasy. 6-10)

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“Teen melodrama that absolutely oozes angst.” from the implosion of aggie winchester

I’M SURE I SAW A DINOSAUR

Willis, Jeanne Illustrator: Reynolds, Adrian Andersen Press USA (32 pp.) $16.95 | $12.71 e-book September 1, 2011 978-0-7613-8093-1 978-0-7613-8094-8 e-book

BANDITS

Willis and Reynolds deliver a sharp tweak to the credulous, as just the rumor of a monster sighting prompts a mass migration of rubberneckers.

“One foggy, groggy morning / by the salty, splashy sea,” reports a moon-faced lad, “I’m sure I saw a dinosaur / and I’m sure that he saw me.” Word gets around fast, and in no time not just local residents but soldiers, sailors, scientists, divers and more have set up camps on the beach. They all bear expressions of openmouthed wonder, and they search industriously for the elusive creature. Sharp-eyed viewers can join the search, as nearly every one of Reynolds’ full-spread, comical cartoon scenes features an unobtrusive glimpse of a green tail or part of a humped back with jagged ridges. In the end, it all turns out to be a marketing ploy, foisted by the young narrator (who is last seen dressed in a dino costume and grinning mischievously) on an unsuspecting public to drum up business for his dad’s ice-cream stand during the cold season. Just an innocent trick, ho ho.

Another slyly disquieting outing from the creators of Who’s in the Bathroom? (2007). (Picture book. 6-8)

THE DRAGON’S TOOTH

Wilson, N.D. Random (496 pp.) $16.99 | $19.99 library ed August 23, 2011 978-0375864391 978-0-375-96439-8 library ed Series: The Ashtown Burials, 1 A wild fantasy romp through a creatively imagined alternative world takes a classic quest format.

Cyrus and Antigone, siblings ages 12 and 13 1/2, respectively, are thrown into adventure when they must leave the ancient motel in Wisconsin that has been their home in ashes and are driven by a lawyer with very strange speech patterns in a limo to Ashtown, where an alternate world awaits. Might their parents, thought dead, actually be alive? By the use of the third person, the author keeps events rolling and the pace swift, with barely a moment to breathe for the characters. While certain of their foes are immortal, others are just plain old incredible creatures, such as whip spiders and feathered vipers, but all require the courage of the trusty duo, who manages to befriend the right sorts just in time to be saved. Naturally, world dominion is at stake, and the evil Dr. Phoenix at the heart of the plot. The somewhat bombastic prose matches the derring-do required of the heroes, who have a certain winsome charm, and the nonstop 1162

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action doesn’t allow for any reflection on the absurdity of the premise. For readers who’ve reread all of Harry Potter multiple times, this will be just what the doctor ordered.

Blissfully free of any deeper message, the adventures will continue in future volumes. (Fantasy. 10-15)

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Wright, Johanna Illustrator: Wright, Johanna Neal Porter/Roaring Brook (32 pp.) $16.99 | August 16, 2011 978-1-59643-583-4 Rascally raccoons plunder and play in the night without consequence in Wright’s (The Secret Circus, 2009) latest work.

At sunset, the masked marauders—shifty-eyed and mischievous—tiptoe toward town. As the sky darkens, they boldly gather booty and make the local hot tub their washroom.

Caught by flashlight, the nocturnal crooks escape to picnic and party elsewhere. Paint and black pen on canvas are Wright’s media of choice. There are no hard edges to her artwork, and paint is often applied in such a way that it allows the raw texture of the canvas underneath to be seen or appears as strokes of solid color. Very simple figures describe both humans and raccoons, which have stylized, stick-figure appendages. Everything in Wright’s compositions is equally detailed, whether in the foreground or background, creating a flattened effect. The text itself is short and playful but, strangely, at times does not match the illustrations, particularly at the story’s climax, when the pranksters make “their greatest escape.” In the artwork, the raccoons seem far from trouble; indeed, they are casually packing up their evening’s picnic. The author, however, does pay close attention to the passage of time, clearly delineating day, dusk and night, making it a good title to discuss the different parts of the evening with young readers.

An enjoyable take on a nocturnal, urban animal’s habits in an accessible story that, with illustrations in better sync, might have resulted in a refreshing outcome. Unfortunately, the result here is pedestrian. (Picture book. 2-5)

THE IMPLOSION OF AGGIE WINCHESTER

Zielin, Lara Putnam (288 pp.) $16.99 | August 4, 2011 978-0-399-25411-6

Teen melodrama that absolutely oozes angst.

Aggie Winchester, a junior at rural St. Davis High, is one of precisely two goth girls in her entire community. She and her best friend Sylvia spend their time skipping school,

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collecting piercings and getting into trouble with boys who are no good for them—boys who only want to see them in the dark, preferably in bed, and who will blatantly ignore them in the light of day. Then, on the same day, Sylvia discovers she’s pregnant and Aggie learns that her mother, also her school principal, has breast cancer. Aggie and her mother have been on the outs since Aggie’s freshman year, when she earned permanent pariah status simply for being the principal’s daughter. How will the cancer affect their stagnant relationship? Will Sylvia’s pregnancy teach her about love and responsibility? These pressing questions aren’t abandoned entirely, but here the novel inexplicably veers off into much more pedestrian territory while maintaining its off-the-charts melodramatic pitch. Suddenly, pregnant goth Sylvia has become a contender for prom queen, but has someone rigged the elections? Is it Sylvia? Is it Aggie’s mom? Is it Sylvia’s new best friend Beth? At this point, readers may not care.

The premise has promise, but Aggie comes off as inauthentic as the novel’s tidy resolution. (Fiction. 14 & up)

children’s board book round-up WHERE IS YOUR HOME?

Balas, Vincent Durbiano, Lucie Illustrator: Balas, Vincent Illustrator: Durbiano, Lucie Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (8 pp.) $5.99 | April 4, 2011 978-0-547-54808-1 Series: Slide and See Poor execution diminishes usability as a little one searches for his rightful home.

Standing upright, an unnamed dog and cat assist a small frog with finding its place of residence. The feline and canine approach various abodes in their attempts to determine where the amphibian belongs. A natural give-and-take produces expected responses. “Is your home underground, little frog?”

(Slide out the tab.) An animal exclaims, “No, that is my fox den!”

This line of questioning continues until they finally stumble upon a pond. The format’s diminutive size coupled with thick pages make turning each spread difficult; the insertion of slowmoving sliding tabs causes an integral part of the story line to suffer. The layout further suffers from small type placed over dark backgrounds. The cartoon characters are expressive, |

though. Where is Your Mama? keeps the same clunky format as the animal duo vainly searches for a baby bird’s lost parent.

Not nearly enough functionality for toddlers’ busy hands or richness of language for their engaged ears. (Board book. 1-3)

FEELINGS

Balouch, Kristen Illustrator: Balouch, Kristen Simon & Schuster (14 pp.) $6.99 | April 19, 2011 978-1-4424-1199-9 Poor lion doesn’t have a clue.

Left in the dark regarding his surprise party, he cries all alone. It appears all his friends are in on the occasion; Crocodile orchestrates the activities, Monkey guffaws at its very thought and excitable Elephant shows he is ready for entertainment. Overall, the cause-and-effect scheme provides specific reasons for the feelings portrayed. “Crocodile plans a surprise. Crocodile feels SNEAKY.” Giraffe, however, remains the odd animal out; his timidity receives redundant rephrasing without extending its emotional concept: “Sometimes Giraffe is bashful. Giraffe feels SHY.” The initial group gathers, as well as a few last-minute attendees, in a jovial celebration, party hats and horns included. The characters balance between padded, boldly trimmed spreads to rainbow effect. Their body language reflects each mood; Monkey sticks out his tongue (such a naughty tease), while the cheerful elephant showers himself in exuberant bliss. Illustrations are on relatively light card stock, which is glued to padded blocks to make extra-thick pages.

Because the card stock is otherwise unreinforced, use will likely cause pages to separate at the hinges.

A presentation with roaring potential, stunted by its lack of durability. (Board book. 6 mos.-3)

COLORS

Basher, Simon Illustrator: Basher, Simon Kingfisher (16 pp.) $6.99 | April 1, 2011 978-0-7534-6493-9 Series: Go! Go! BoBo With a bold call to action—“Go! Go! BoBo”—a busy toddler creates with abandon, clutching his paintbrush with

dramatic fervor.

His soft shape has an uncanny resemblance to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, limbs morphing into blobs; the only constants are his single curl, prominently placed Band-Aid and tiny x eyes. Thematic unity is achieved through a repetitive format that proceeds hue by hue; vivid paint splatters against the plain background on the left-hand page, while a gray bouncing line chronicles his energetic journey on the facing page. He creates

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detailed images with a glossy sheen, from red fire trucks and roses to a golden bunch of bananas, ripe for the picking. BoBo seamlessly shifts positions through the color scheme; facial expressions correlate with each shade. (BoBo lands feet first in the blue paint can, and a barely noticeable “oh” formed on his lips seals the deal.) The text consists of nothing but color labels until BoBo returns to his room, a rainbow above his bed, and concludes, “Go! Go! Colors!” The companion Shapes succeeds with similar stocky flair.

This near-wordless romp encourages tots to pick up some paints of their own. (Board book. 1-3)

ROCKIN’ BABIES

Berman, Jenn Weill, Cynthia Illustrator: Bernstein, Galia Sterling (20 pp.) $7.95 | June 1, 2011 978-1-4027-7145-3

HAPPY HIPPO, ANGRY DUCK A Book of Moods

Apparently, even babes need to fight for their right to rock.

Toddlers bop to their own beat, complete with skull-and-crossbone onesies and hand signs. Simple sentences set up a repetitive framework for each illustrative punch line as ethnically balanced tots play, eat and travel until eventual slumber. The text tries to maintain a hip tone, while rich, graphically patterned spreads extend expected behaviors. “Rocker babies trash their rooms” shows clothes displaced across the floor; the young culprit gleefully dangles stuffed animals by their paws. There’s deadpan humor for those caregivers all too familiar with little ones’ inevitable messes, predestined, it seems, for the most inopportune times. (An explosive mess of pea-green spew splatters the father’s freshly pressed suit.) A contemporary slant prevents enduring appeal. The latest smart phones click away as a glum tyke endures the fuss while “rockin’ babies are hounded by the paparazzi.” Childhood portraits depict a telling shrine above the wall (look for the ornate frame featuring the tot’s blood-curdling scream.)

It’s the adult managers of those little musicians who will find humorous details here, but as a format geared to toddling rockers, developmental notes fall flat. (Board book. 1-3)

BEAR’S BIRTHDAY

Blackstone, Stella Illustrator: Harter, Debbie Barefoot (24 pp.) $6.99 | $6.99 paperback | June 1, 2011 978-1-84686-516-9 978-1-84686-515-2 paperback Sweeter than honey, there’s no drama in sight at Bear’s birthday bash.

Blackstone’s familiar character returns with nine of his closest fellow bears to celebrate his special occasion. The earnest voice gushes in its enthusiasm as his guests 1164

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arrive. “Bear opens the door to welcome his friends / He’s hoping his day of fun never ends.” Similar in stature, his company, shaded in smoky grays, chestnut browns and golden tans, follows an expected agenda; all play hide-and-seek and hunt for treasure until the host opens presents. The highly anticipated cake tantalizes through its whimsical design; striped candles echo the familiar cat’s appearance. Rhyming pairings at times leave behind a jarring residue. “It’s full of delicious jam and honey / Raspberry, strawberry, apricot, cherry.” Paint, pen-andink and crayon patterned patches extend to compact boundaries. Bright balloons bob within busy scenes, from Bear’s initial decorating to a final participatory activity.

Seasoned series fans may enjoy Bear in the spotlight, but the uninspiring narrative delivers no favors. (Board book. 2-4)

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Boynton, Sandra Illustrator: Boynton, Sandra Simon & Schuster (16 pp.) $5.99 | May 24, 2011 978-1-4424-1731-1

Emotional labeling—now that’s an angry duck!—adds to the exuberant charm in this wacky animal roundup.

Outgoing Bear (“Hello, Little Person!”) introduces the players and their corresponding moods. Boynton’s signature style gives zany animation to her trademark cartoon characters (dog, rabbit and moose, for starters). Facial expression undergoes minor adjustments to convey depth, through slight spacing between the eyes or the angled slant of the nose. Springy rhythmic phrases engage the audience. “Perhaps, like a pig, you are SWEETLY AMUSED, / Or perhaps, like a cow, you’re COMPLETELY CONFUSED.” Pacing naturally rolls along through its conversational voice and irreverent asides. “You might feel that, somehow, you’ve lost all your fizz. / Or you’re FRAZZLED LIKE A... um...FRAZZLED THING. (I’m not sure what it is.”)

Some lighthearted fun with a nugget of truth, but it’s all at the stodgy bird’s expense. “And a difficult mood is not here to stay / Everyone’s moods will change day to day / Unless you’re that duck. / He’s always this way.”

Guaranteed to knock the bad mood out of anyone, duck included. (Board book. 2-4)

MAISY’S FIRST CLOCK A Maisy Fun-to-Learn Book Cousins, Lucy Illustrator: Cousins, Lucy Candlewick (16 pp.) $14.99 | June 14, 2011 978-0-7636-5095-7

Don’t be late for toddlers’ beloved rodent heroine as she learns to tell time.

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“Unusually thick, intuitive flaps seamlessly flow as part of the spare narrative.” from good morning toucan

Maisy demonstrates a growing independence as she dresses herself, shops for groceries, eats, plays and washes before bed during specific times of day. The audience gets a voice throughout, as they’re invited to express their preference for Maisy’s outfit or the ingredients needed for baking afternoon cookies.

There’s directness in the question-and-answer format. “What will Maisy take to bed? / Drink, slippers, book, Panda!” This large, sturdy reissue encourages individual perusal, and the bold, open design supports group participation. Cousins’ trademark wobbly lines and solid primary colors are youthfully inspired in traditional Maisy fashion. An imposing cut-out clock, complete with thick, movable plastic hands, remains a secure fixture suited for individual exploration. A dotted clock design on each page pinpoints how the time should read. Maisy’s beloved stuffed panda tags along on these slight outings, seen riding in her wagon or holding the sponge during soapy bath time.

No better time than the present to follow Maisy in this well-executed concept outing. (Board book. 2-4)

With his elongated beak in Popsicle hues, a chipper toucan makes the rounds of the rainforest.

The bird reaches out to waking creatures hidden behind leaves or paddling in the river with an infectious “Caw! Caw!” An initially generalized question (“Who is waking up?”) becomes pointed (“Who is waking up in the tree?”) as the persistent investigator treks throughout. Lift the flap of an imposing canopy to reveal the cheery answer. “Good morning, MONKEYS. / Good morning, TREE FROGS.” Fluttering butterflies spotlight lush greenery. Unusually thick, intuitive flaps seamlessly flow as part of the spare narrative. Glossy accents add gleam to the sloth’s fur or enhance the chameleon’s appearance. The comprehensive final scene turns the focus from the tropical setting to familial relationships. The companion, Goodnight Owl, also thrives in the question-and-answer format as characters rest in a quiet, woodsy setting.

Welcoming meet-and-greets for any time of day or night. (Board book. 1-3)

WAKE UP! WAKE UP! A Springtime Lift-the-Flap Book

ALMOST BEDTIME A Night-Night Adventure

Every Baby Company, Inc. Illustrator: Every Baby Company, Inc. Sterling (16 pp.) $6.95 | April 1, 2011 978-1-4027-8408-8 Series: eebee’s Adventures

Davis, Nancy Illustrator: Davis, Nancy Simon & Schuster (14 pp.) $5.99 | January 25, 2011 978-1-4424-1217-0

Ladybug can’t wait to share the good news.

After her lengthy snooze, she realizes spring has sprung and hurriedly shares her findings with the resting rabbit. The information builds as the proclamation moves forward. The beetle initially reports that “the snow has melted”; the bunny then also advertises to the chick that “the sun is shining.” Each animal joins the group to broadcast the announcement, but a shower threatens all plans. The insect once again leads the group as she encourages them to seek protection under a beautiful flower, its petals opening fully in an extended scene. Stiff flaps, initially difficult to grasp, add slight textual or visual details. While there are several featured characters, the bunny’s peculiar shape (with disproportionate head, stumpy limbs and elongated body) serves as the dominant figure. Light skies and sunny flowers add minimal flavor.

This familiar pattern captures little of the renewal associated with the season. (Board book. 1-3)

GOOD MORNING TOUCAN A Lift-the-Flap Good Day Book DwellStudio Illustrator: DwellStudio Blue Apple (6 pp.) $8.99 | April 27, 2011 978-1-60905-085-6

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The franchise eebee’s Adventures turns its Sesame Street–inspired puppet loose as he tries—and often fails—to corral the adorable tots around him.

Eebee, with his goldenrod face, mismatched limbs and purple hair (which is adorned with colored tips), barters with babies for one of the rarest commodities of all: sleep. He interacts with an ethnically diverse crew to promote bedtime routines. The tots respond with their own formidable agendas, advocating riding a scooter (helmet included) or playing with a ball until quiet activities slowly settle them down. In a classic role reversal, eebee and the babes switch interests, and they must nudge him along the route to bed. The question-and-response set-up imitates realistic toddler and parent communication, baby talk included. “Ready for sleep-sleep?” / “No. Ready for brush-brush!”

Weighty type in varying shades of blues stands out against the clean backgrounds. Staged poses lack a natural fluidity but perfectly hit the interactive banter. A companion, Clean-up Time, utilizes thick flaps to extend the visual perspective, encouraging structured organizational time—and manners, too—in one teachable, fell swoop.

Overall, a light look into the art of negotiation for the toddling set. (Board book. 6 mos.-2)

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“Start the groans already.” from lettuce in !

SLEEPY TIME

Those tickled by these nostalgic jokes would be better served by a larger and lengthier offering. (Board book. 3-4)

Fujikawa, Gyo Illustrator: Fujikawa, Gyo Sterling (20 pp.) $5.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-4027-6820-0

THE THREE LITTLE PIGS A Wheel-y Silly Fairy Tale

Gallo, Tina Illustrator: Bryne, Kelly Little Simon/Simon & Schuster (14 pp.) $5.99 | May 17, 2011 978-1-4424-2107-3 Series: Little Simon Sillies

The complex journey from wakefulness to sleep pushes through some doz-

ing dips along the way.

A handful of ethnically diverse youngsters prepare for their nightly rest by following a standard routine. They snuggle happily into several beds, but one child finds that rest is elusive. A worried, wide-eyed insomniac leans back against an equally wakeful canine cohort and observes that “Sometimes it can be hard to fall asleep.” The narrative voice abruptly shifts to describe various human bedtime conditions (“You could try sleeping on the floor. Some people do, you know”) to those in the animal realm. A quickly realized resolution finds day breaking as a rumpled youngster greets the sun anew. The adorable tots hearken back to an earlier (and idealized) era, depicted in cozy interior details, though the text denotes no specified time or place. Nightly slumber turns to outdoor play in the wordier (and at times meandering) Surprise! Surprise!

These 1970s-era publications produce slightly wandering narratives and are far from the best realized, developmentally engaged presentations available to youngest listeners. (Board book. 2-4)

LETTUCE IN! And Other Knock-Knock Jokes

Gallo, Tina Illustrator: Chollat, Emilie Little Simon/Simon & Schuster (20 pp.0 $5.99 | June 14, 2011 978-1-4424-1404-4 Series: Little Simon Sillies

Start the groans already.

Traditional knock-knocks unveil themselves in an intriguing, but flimsy, design. Dramatic type mixed with speech bubbles present the natural give-and-take: “KNOCK, KNOCK. / Who’s there? / Lettuce! / Lettuce who?” A turn of the flap expands the scene with the inevitable (but short-lived) punch line. “Lettuce in, it’s raining!” There’s an intriguing energy in the flamboyant comedians; a little mouse sports a blue collar, polka-dot dress, stripped leggings and bright high-heeled shoes, while a natty raccoon wears red trousers and sneakers, an orange sweater, a pink shirt and a turquoise tie. The animals participate in a cheery illogic younger preschoolers will appreciate. (Little Old Lady Duck yodels atop the snow-capped mountains in a particularly memorable touch.) There is no narrative through line; each joke is self-contained. The diminutive size of the book and lift-the-flap focus suggests interest for younger listeners, though the plays on language skew to an older crowd.

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This familiar story arc quickly veers off the path of welltraveled tradition due to cumbersome design.

Three little pigs (Mama nowhere to be seen) build their homes though a wolf encroaches on their territory. An interactive spinning wheel offers a variety of textual and visual options to insert into the narrative’s literally empty spaces. While choices vary creatively (the pigs could choose boiling water to frighten the wolf or ice cream, candy or fish instead), the reiteration of the correct answer on the following page disrupts fluidity. Children determined to make the first house out of doughnuts will find that it is a straw house despite their efforts when they turn the page, for instance. Light cartoon sketches with off-balance movements and crossed-eyed expressions exude a comical wackiness.

The wolf ’s forbidding mien evaporates in lieu of quirky behaviors; he goofily dons a flowered hat or plays the fiddle on the roof (ha-ha). Frustratingly, the flimsy, thin-edged wheel, essential to moving the story along, is awkward to rotate.

A poor choice for those anxious to manipulate their world; this Mad Libs–esque version of a staple deserves both a sturdier, more fluid structure and an older audience.

(Board book. 3-4)

MY COLORS, MY WORLD / MIS COLORES, MI MUNDO

Gonzalez, Maya Christina Illustrator: Gonzalez, Maya Christina Children’s Book Press (16 pp.) $7.99 | March 14, 2011 978-0-89239-234-6 This adaptation utilizes a brilliant palette to convey a girl’s lush landscape.

Evoking the hot desert sun, warm, festive hues glow as Maya reflects on the vivid colors outside and above her family home.

The Latina child experiences vibrant garden blossoms and the touch of her loving father’s hair. Bilingual phrasing places Spanish text on the left-hand page and the English translation on the right; the text is placed separately at the bottom of each page while visual design serves to bridge the two languages. Typography denotes the featured color. Full, yet spare, images contain a stirring lyricism. “The sunset turns my whole street pink.”

The child’s tantalizing descriptions continually illustrate keen

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engagement. “Mud is squishy, cool, and brown. / …Yellow pollen peeks at me.” In a vivacious dance between fantasy and reality, she flies against billowing clouds, near the watchful moon and sun and under her parents’ unobtrusive days.

More than a Crayola-rich concept, this exhilarating experience spills over in its sensuous perspective. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)

just veggies here) and behavior adds both nuggets of scientific knowledge and a reality check. The formidable dinosaurs lunge and bite at their prey; their predatory actions extend to their individual letters as they knock, smash and chomp. Still, it’s a balanced account with the occasional nurturing side exposed, as the Khaan stoops down to feed its young.

A lot for budding paleontologists to savor. (Board book. 3-4)

BABY RATTLE BOOK: ZOO

LITTLE BASEBALL

Gulliver, Amanda Barron’s (12 pp.) $4.99 | February 1, 2011 978-0-7641-6394-4

Part toy, part flashcards, this combo presents animal babes that convey the softer side of many zoo predators.

A smooth yellow plastic loop with bright accents contains a rattle. Its attached key ring (easily separable) features 10 nonthreatening pictures of some of the zoo’s most popular residents. Faces perpetually smile on individual sides of small circled boards, though the penguin appears more cautious than cuddly. Solid, cheery background colors contain slight variances in shading to suit the substantial backing. Ridged edges resemble thick bite marks. Sturdiness supports the small size here; the manipulative elements suit babies’ exploring hands and gnawing teeth.

Dark-lettered labeling with a childlike slant provides the only text underneath. On the cover, the monkey rubs the elephant’s trunk with a fence behind; this scene provides the only interaction between the otherwise isolated inhabitants, as well as a visual reference to the specified location.

An amusing noise maker, though not worth its price of admission alone. (Board book. 3-18 mos.)

Herzog, Brad Illustrator: Bowles, Doug Sleeping Bear Press (20 pp.) $9.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-58536-547-0 It’s puzzling to see riddling stumpers about America’s favorite (arguably) pastime pitched in a format associated with the youngest listeners.

Trite riddles plod through baseball’s equipment and players with a canned enthusiasm presented in each of 10 uninspired rhymes. Answers include the obvious (baseball, baseball glove) and even stretch to encompass concession-stand fare (hot dog).

Any potential fun loses its oomph when the moral message strikes out: “When you play the game / and wait your turn / you sit on this / to watch and learn.” Simple backgrounds reveal part of the item in question and support the large, centered fauxhandwritten type. Who is this book’s audience? Toddlers will gravitate to the sturdy pages but are unlikely to shout out the responses requested (including yelling “umpire” to describe the “man in blue”). Independent readers will struggle to stay with this condescending selection, no matter what the text otherwise suggests. “Yea, yea, yea!” yells the crowd. / You’ve read this little book out loud. / Now grab your bat and a ball; / baseball is a thrill for all!”

Definitely no home run here. (Board book. 2-4)

ABC DINOSAURS

ROCK-A-BYE-BABY

Hartman, Scott Illustrator: Hartman, Scott Sterling (16 pp.) $7.95 | February 1, 2011 978-1-4027-7715-8

Illustrator: Kanzler, John Tiger Tales (24 pp.) $8.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-58925-853-2

A is not for apple but Apatosaurus in this roaring prehistoric romp.

Twenty-six creative combos depict dinosaurs with their corresponding letter in this alphabet offering. Deinonychus’ clawed feet hop through the D, while the Coelophysis sticks his tail straight through his letter C. Several reptiles share generous digital double-page spreads; their individual colored backgrounds connect like jagged puzzle pieces. Those anxious to try their hand at pronunciation (Xuanhuaceratops, anyone?) will find brief concluding notes with the species’ generalized behavior and a phonetic key included. “Lean and mean,Zupaysaurus was a carnivore. It only ate meat.” Indicating the dinos’ diets (and not |

This traditional lullaby finds its illustrative focus in a chubby-cheeked baby bear.

A plethora of smiling stars follows the cub as the tree bough breaks, and the youngster gleefully turns his blanket into a parachute with a pillow to cushion the fall. Grand in stature, Mama Bear enters the scene and rocks babe first in arms and then by cradle, until the tot nestles back on her shoulder. Tactile elements enhance the padded cover; foil-stamped stars shine over the little one’s textured head. The smiling man in the moon looks in on the loving exchanges between mother and child. Purple music notes provide a literal interpretation for the rhythmic song. Abundant, soothing pastels permeate each

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spread with lavender and rosy shades. Lilting lines bring quiet resolution with the babe’s eventual slumber. “Wee little fingers / eyes wide and bright / Now sound asleep until morning light.”

An extremely soft interpretation of a beloved song.

(Board book. 6 mos.-2)

WHERE IS BABY’S PUPPY? A Life-the-Flap Book

wheel) and the escape of an audible “Whoops!” Additional Baby Animals entries produce similar content throughout, with the introduction of inhabitants associated with various settings (In Grasslands, In the Forest and In the Jungle.)

These babes are ready and waiting to receive welldeserved oohs and aahs from their human counterparts.

(Board book. 1-2)

ROCKET TOWN

Katz, Karen Illustrator: Katz, Karen Simon & Schuster (14 pp.) $6.99 | January 4, 2011 978-1-4169-8684-3

A canine-centered hide-and-seek serves up another solid entry in Katz’s

celebration of babies.

Master of lift-the-flaps for little ones, Katz takes a curious tot, with her signature rounded shape and stylish clothes, and sends her on a mission to find a missing pup. A straightforward sentence is all that’s needed—“Baby is looking for the new puppy”—and the child is quickly off on the hunt, lifting up newspapers or taking lids off trash cans in her search. Inviting questions elicit thoughtful musings. “Is the puppy behind the shower curtain? / No! / It’s my pet turtle! / How did you get in here?” During five unsuccessful attempts, a lifted flap reveals a different animal in each location, and the babe’s search party grows accordingly. Bold and bright, the flaps are not indestructible (but what flaps are?), and a gatefold opens to a fitting response in the sweetly expected conclusion.

Smiles all around for this winsome addition as a toddler teeters along her path to independence. (Board book. 6 mos.-2)

PETS

Kingfisher Kingfisher (14 pp.) $5.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7534-6565-3 Series: Baby Animals

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With Jetsonian flair, this journey to futuristic Rocket Town sends opposites pairings right out of this world.

A lone gentleman putters his car into the city, accompanied by his ear-waggling dog. He travels past an impressive assortment of rockets with every classification imaginable. The darkening range of colors—rustic reds to somber lavender grays—indicate their specified purposes. Signage includes “Just Married,” “the Guzzler” and “Phil’s Tow Service” to build the visual narrative. Clear language highlights interconnected, antithetical relationships with the crisp turn of the page (“These rockets go fast! / These rockets go slow”). There’s quite a lot of whimsy in the rockets (among the rockets that are not “useful” is one called “The Stinky Onion”). Typographic nuances build excitement until the man’s whopping purchase sends him spiraling into the skies. His simple declaration sums up his experience: “This one is mine.” Tightly woven phrases suit this smaller format, though the bustling backdrop would soar even higher with more room to stretch its wings.

This retro cityscape provides some stunning scenes to explore, though its graphic busyness suits it to older toddlers and preschoolers. (Board book. 2-4)

LET’S COUNT 1 2 3!

This sweet depiction of traditional pets holds no bite but plenty of appeal.

A variety of young domestic animals hog the spotlight. The foal calls out, “Watch me wobble and prance around the field!”

Typography bends to reflect specific movements against striking, solid-colored backgrounds. Bold asides add in the expected woofs and purrs, while a miniature version of the featured critter explores beneath the text. The facing page fills to its brim with an adorable close-up photograph. Even the quieter ones have their own voice here; the rabbits “snuggle snuggle” cheekto-cheek. Fictionalized musings present a fight for bragging rights, complete with a liberal peppering of exclamation points.

Poised on his haunches, the hamster boasts, “I like to stay in shape,” though the small image below expresses the conflicting story of an off-balance rodent’s fall from grace (his exercise 1168

Logan, Bob Illustrator: Logan, Bob Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (32 pp.) $7.99 | April 1, 2011 978-1-4022-4186-4

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McElroy, Jean Illustrator: McElroy, Jean Little Simon/Simon & Schuster (12 pp.) $4.99 | May 3, 2011 978-1-4424-1198-2 In honor of that monumental milestone of a toddler’s birthday, photos lay the basic counting blocks to set the festive stage.

A bare-chested tutu-clad babe is all grins; her dessert is strategically placed in reach. Each aspect of conventional celebratory planning receives its due from one to 10, beginning with the pink-iced cake with two candles on top. The concluding spread displays 10 gleeful tots poised to enjoy the delightful occasion. With food in the forefront, aesthetically pleasing details abound on white backgrounds, from the sliced cheese pizza to each uniquely designed cupcake. The numeric items

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“Always recognizable, these dreamlike creatures alphabetically enchant.” from alligator bear crab

are not always viewed in their entirety (the number three places that amount of hats in one shot, though there are clearly 10 on children’s heads in the final scene.) A listing of items provides the only text. Though the small size may suggest a secure fit for tiny hands, thick pastel-trimmed pages lack the durability required for the intended audience.

Though not a complete bust, this might be one party scene to skip. (Board book. 3 mos.-2)

GOING TO THE BEACH WITH LILY AND MILO

Oud, Pauline Illustrator: Oud, Pauline Clavis (28 pp.) $12.95 | June 1, 2011 978-1-60537-094-1 Series: Lily and Milo

inward (the word “you” chosen for the letter Y), as a bare babe gives a lopsided grin. There are some original choices with the rich vocabulary (loon instead of lion, hare in place of rabbit.) Even the most challenging connections appear unforced; urchin and vole seem perfectly natural standing along with the prominent bear. The only text is the animals’ labels, with the emphasis on the first letter (except, not surprisingly, for oX).

The nursery-inspired background palette includes robin’s-egg blues, tangerine oranges and lemony yellows and peek through artful, intricate gaps in the animals’ outlines.

Always recognizable, these dreamlike creatures alphabetically enchant. (Board book. 1-3)

WHAT DO YOU SEE?

Perhaps something is lost in this Dutch translation, but there’s not much that’s sunny in this beach getaway.

Lily, an anthropomorphized white rabbit, and her mouse friend Milo consider what to take with them for some outdoor fun. The fashion-conscious duo reviews options, from swim apparel (“a flowered bikini or a striped one-piece?”) to what to eat, and a list painstakingly chronicles their array of choices.

The detailed descriptions drag through stylish footwear. “There are four pairs to choose from: blue, green with flowers, orange and pink velvet.” Obvious statements weigh down the slight concept. “Lily and Milo get some towels because swimming in the ocean makes you wet.” Questions transition one item to the next. Milo’s eventual response to all the organizing adds a bit of pizzazz; scenes highlight the quiet interactions between the planning pair. The oversize format keeps the ever-moreburdened wagon a focal point. Going to the Zoo with Lily and Milo allows the two to arrive at their destination with slightly more bounce to their step.

Packing may be boring in real life, but in this lackluster narrative, it’s simply dreadful. (Board book. 2-4)

ALLIGATOR BEAR CRAB A Baby’s ABC

Perrin, Martine Illustrator: Perrin, Martine Whitman (16 pp.) $8.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-8075-6712-8

Images build from home routines to outdoor scenes and back and forth again.

Two pages introduce a natural pairing, an authoritative “Look!” follows and a final sentence announces an interconnected addition with its accompanying sound effect. “Bubbly soap / add some water / [page turn] Look! / Here comes a sudsy duck! Quack, Quack!” The repetitive format encourages participation; brevity commands attention. A distinct palette defines boundaries while transitioning from one sequence to the next. Die-cuts hide a portion of the larger spread; each of these detailed blocks serves a dual purpose. In one of the most successful concepts, the idea of nourishment for baby to bird takes flight: A baby-bottle cut-out reveals a patterned spread of berries at which a winged nibbler pecks. A predictable conclusion unites all the major players, from yarn to teddy bear. Look Who’s There! presents the same innovative design as insects and ocean-dwellers journey through separate settings from the dirt in the ground to the sandy seaside.

A joyous display of visual discovery, simultaneously strategic and seamless. (Board book. 6 mos.-2)

LITTLE LAMB

Pechter, Lesley Wynne Illustrator: Pechter, Lesley Wynne Orca (24 pp.) $9.95 | April 1, 2011 978-1-55469-360-3

From the sharp-toothed alligator to the final wild zebra, an arresting animal menagerie is presented.

Twenty-six alphabetical paintings feature individual animals from the forest, sky and sea. Their close-up blocky expressions intently study the audience while their lower bodies often slide right out of view. There’s no variation in perspective; the crab is as impressive a sight as the orca. The focus pleasantly shifts |

Illustrator: Rigo, L. Barron’s (10 pp.) $7.99 | March 1, 2011 978-0-7641-6427-9 Series: Look at Me Preachy and earnest, this didactic ode to mothers limps completely off the chosen path.

Baby lambs mature under the protective care of their mamas. Little animals find comfort in the “sweet sound of her voice” as they happily drink her milk. The pointed comparisons

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“Though the title suggests an earnest foray into nutritious eating, the reality is an interactive presentation of opposites, fresh from the ground up.” from i like vegetables

between young children and lambs are tiresome from the beginning. “Just like baby girls and boys, little lambs need to be kept safe.” Occasional factual tidbits are clumsily inserted. Generalizations abound (the lambs “love to find new adventures”), without any action to spice up the saccharine message. A forced enthusiasm does nothing to communicate genuine excitement.

“They are so happy to drink the milk, their tails wave high in the air!” There’s no variation in the idyllic spring settings; cloyingly sweet, loving babes nuzzle and cuddle as birds and bunnies hover nearby.

Put this one out to pasture and don’t look back. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)

child’s perspective as legs dangle under the surface. Thin ribbed board and Velcro strips add a smidgen of texture, though their placement is not always intuitive or easily manipulated. It’s a struggle to grasp the intricate tab to pull the insect’s wings, and the crayfish pinchers are simply flimsy, likely to be bitten or pulled off in a single instance. Crisp phrases (“crickety croak,” “snip snip / snap snap”) convey the noises heard at the pond.

Simple sentences—“Frogs join in song”—visually integrate themselves into the layout of bluish-green spreads; their curving lines become part of the design.

Not enough consistency in the tactile presentation to warrant a dive down deep. (Board book. 6 mos.-2)

ONE RAINY DAY

I LIKE VEGETABLES

Salzano, Tammi Illustrator: Wood, Hannah Tiger Tales (24pp.) $8.95 | March 1, 2011 978-1-58925-860-0

Siminovich, Lorena Illustrator: Siminovich, Lorena Templar/Candlewick (10 pp.) $6.99 | March 8, 2011 978-0-7636-5283-8

A little duck waddles cozily into independence as rain gives way to play.

With red boots and orange umbrella in wing, sunny Duck meets many friends; a frog follows him through puddles, splashing with glee, and the welcoming ant visits him near the mud pile. Duck may only be a few feet outside his front door, but his outside amusements fully capture his attention; after an afternoon of play, Duck reunites with Mama and fluffy towel, too. The light sprinkling of words keeps focus on the featured colors (blue puddles, pink worms, black bugs). The sky naturally shifts from dark to light blues until a rosy gleam touches the lush, green grass. Shiny rain adds textured sheen through the placement of foil-stamped raindrops. Cuddly Duck almost glows with his fuzzy golden feathers, chipper beak and rounded belly. The padded cover and large thick pages support independent perusal. Also available as an iPad app.

This view of youthful expression teeters just on the safe side of saccharine, with a forecast all rainbow; clearly, no chance of thunderstorms in sight. (Board book. 6 mos.-2)

Though the title suggests an earnest foray into nutritious eating, the reality is an interactive presentation of opposites, fresh from the ground up.

Beginning with the cover’s satiny peas in the pod, four types of vegetables thrive in healthy, textured garden scenes. Each one is depicted in contrasting arrangements; carrotsbelow grow in the ground; carrots above are individually prepared, sliced and diced. The overflowing basket and back cover include a few scattered veggies not initially highlighted. Brief labels describe the inevitable progression from root or vine until the food turns ripe for the picking. The natural pairings work well (big and little for pumpkins, tall for the cornstalk andshort for its cob.)

Each depiction adds depth through collage; die-cuts reveal tactile elements and pop against light, earthy backgrounds. These robust crops beg to be touched; rub the slightly rough sliver of carrot and feel the knobbly kernels of corn (though it’s a shame there’s no fabric to enhance the pumpkin’s smooth seeds).

A satisfying crunch from a fully fleshed-out concept.

(Board book. 1-4)

SPLISH SPLASH! A Touch & Hear Book

BATHING

Slegers, Liesbet Illustrator: Slegers, Liesbet Clavis (12 pp.) $5.95 | May 1, 2011 978-1-60537-092-7

Schimler, Amy Illustrator: Schimler, Amy Simon & Schuster (14 pp.) $6.99 | March 8, 2011 978-1-4424-1354-2

Not all interactive elements are created equal in this mild outing to the pond.

For those who draw near this wee body of water, the senses of sound and touch expose the crunch of a log or the sparkly drops splashed by energetic feet. All inhabitants approach for their own purpose; the dragonfly takes a dip, while beavers munch their lunch. The final spread brings in a 1170

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Rub-a-dub-dub, see the tot in the tub.

A toddler narrates his bath-time fun and shows off the everyday materials used to rinse the suds along the way.

Each spread highlights a specific product, often displayed with a sensory emphasis; “shampoo smells so sweet,” and the towel “is warm and cuddly.” Thumbnail images feature each individual item, and a full-page illustration shows it in

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context. Thick black lines describe the round-headed youngster; there’s no grime be found anywhere. The bubbly boy’s voice hardly rings a false note. “This is the bathtub. Look, water is rushing out of the faucet!” Mom’s hands remain the only adult presence, and the son unabashedly narrates the process throughout with genuine enthusiasm: “Look, I am taking off all my clothes!” The child-centered perspective dominates each soapy step. Companion title Playing covers similar ground when toys capture his attention.

There’s not enough original content for an extended swim, but the slant on the senses encourages a dip nonetheless. (Board book. 1-2)

THE GAME OF MIX-UP ART

Tullet, Hervé Illustrator: Tullet, Hervé Phaidon Press (14 pp.) $8.95 | April 15, 2011 978-0-7148-6188-3 Series: Let’s Play Games!

An explosive array of colors and patterns bursts forth when the audience artfully determines the final product.

Beginning with the die-cut cover, design elements initially convey a rigid style (a straight-lined grid appears in view) then morphs into unapologetic polka-dots. Divided into physical thirds, each flap contains two radically different designs; the boards easily move independently, producing intense results. Smudges of paint collide; swirls dip, dart and dive with a hectic flurry. Readers can contrast bold paint smears, squiggled lines and stark geometric pieces against one another within off-kilter patterns all the way through to the final abstract scene. The elongated portrait-oriented trim allows the rich paintings to stretch into each far-reaching corner.

All of Tullet’s entries in the Let’s Play Games series (each title beginning The Game of…) allow slight interactive variations within their wordless or direction-based narratives. … Mix and Match is the most stylistically similar to … Mix-Up Art, with striking objects divided among four flaps per page in a hodgepodge of visual imagery (create a half balloon, half lemon). … Patterns utilizes sturdy backgrounds to line up a striking, angled menagerie of faces or a fluid free-for-all of expressive lines and repetitive movements. … Let’s Go’s distinct voice encourages closed eyes and extended fingers to dance along a velvety green line, a dramatic trip through loops, around circles and throughout patterned mazes while imposing cut-out images create stumbling blocks along the way. Comprehensive cut-outs in … FingerWorms call for digits again; pointers thrust through the holes serve as people’s faces or hide along the pipes. … Light features spare text when the darkened night brings out an impressive range of interior die-cut designs with a stirring conclusion. “Fish swim across the walls! / Everything flies around! / Faces light up the room! / And a shooting star leads you to sleep.”

All of these works will inspire young artists (and their caregivers) that it’s not necessary—or even desirable—to stay within the lines. (Board book. 3-4) |

THREE LITTLE MERMAIDS

Van Fleet, Mara Illustrator: Van Fleet, Mara Simon & Schuster (16 pp.) $14.99 | January 1, 2011 978-1-4424-1286-6

An abundance of glitter weighs down this counting story that begins when perky mermaids invite their friends to tea.

Guests all attempt to impress the girls with flattery as their number grows from one to 10. Dolphins don top hats and bowties; clown fish balance treats and utensils to please the hostesses. Some action energizes cheerful spreads, as when sea horses play hiding games and clumsy starfish spill their drinks.

Thick tabs encourage small fingers to manipulate dancing sea horses or to grab crabs’ pincers, though their success will vary with tabs’ individual stickiness. A variety of interactive underwater elements, from sparkly touch-and-feel seals to the octopus’ sticky lollipop, offer numerous ways to entice the young audience. Forced rhymes sink more than swim. “Nine hungry snails love delicious smells. / Ten sparkling jellyfish ringing lots of tea bells.” The smiling party planners remain Barbie-esque in appearance with their slim stature, rosy cheeks, button noses, cascading hair and perpetual smiles, and the final expanding spread showcases all the characters in a trite conclusion.

Too much sparkle in this sea to whet the palate for repeat readings. (Board book. 1-3)

CRINKLE ANIMALS: JUNGLE

Illustrator: van Genechten, Guido Clavis (8 pp.) $9.95 | January 1, 2011 978-1-60537-082-8 Series: Crinkle Animals

It’s not really a jungle out there, but a visual listing of nonthreatening animals.

Crinkling cloth serves as the main attraction in this wordless Dutch import.

Lightly contained within black outlines, seven familiar jungle or (despite the title) savanna inhabitants center individually on each page. The approachable creatures remain all smiles and softness (felines more closely resemble house cats than ferocious predators). A sturdy sewn binding holds them altogether.

A restricted, pleasing palette provides an unassuming background; colors repeat in the lion’s mane or the tiger’s patterned coat. There’s slight variation found through the characters’ positions; while the giraffe stretches tall, monkey crouches low, poised and ready to run out of view. Other entries in the Crinkle Animals series (Garden, Farm and Water) are stylistically similar.

Resembling more safari nursery than a vibrant tropical paradise, this is a book the youngest of audiences can wring, crumple and twist with abandon until they’re ready to move on. (Board Book. 3 mos.-1)

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HELLO, MINNESOTA!

AT THE PARK

Van Hoven, Constance Illustrator: Walker, David Sterling (20 pp.) $6.95 | June 7, 2011 978-1-4027-7885-8 Series: Hello, America!

Yoon, Salina Illustrator: Yoon, Salina Feiwel & Friends (12 pp.) $5.99 | May 10, 2011 978-0-312-66298-1

A tour guide for tots misses the

developmental mark.

An unnamed solitary boy enthusiastically explores tourist destinations throughout Minnesota. Vast natural scenes highlight wildlife and convey the quiet beauty of the outdoor world.

Though there are landmarks in and near Minneapolis, none of the choices capture the hustle and bustle of one of the Midwest’s largest cities. Rural landscape and farmlands receive their due, but other notable attractions, such as the flagship Mall of America, are absent. Some places pay homage to the state’s rich traditions, as when the child greets Paul Bunyan’s statue with an enthusiastic “Hello, TALL Paul!” Speech bubbles provide the only dialogue, though they are often so generalized they convey little of the history and character of the region (“Hello, short piglet”). Locales are specifically labeled but will mean nothing to the traditional toddler audience. The companion Hello, Washington, D.C. follows the same faulty format.

This adventure in the Land of 10,000 Lakes is simply not worth the trip. (Board book. 2-4)

Words associated with a child’s favorite outing receive playful depictions.

Individual objects focus first on the natural world (bee, flower and pond) and conclude with belongings young children can control (sun hat and ball). Doubly thick, substantial boards support bold, dark outlines filled with solid colors and sparkly, textured interiors.

The compact pages and unassuming backgrounds maintain focus on the large designs. Whimsical type defines each highlighted contribution. The title may elicit thoughts of zooming down the slide and flying high on the swing, but there is no playground equipment or picnic tables here. (An ice-cream truck does make a sweet appearance.) The pictures layer over one another as chunky die-cuts double dip for two images. The shimmery center of the hot-pink ice-cream cone also serves as the sheen of a bouncing ball; a blue-and-white polka-dot patch provides fabric for a stylish sun hat and the ice-cream truck’s body.

Add this light trek to babes’ growing visual repertoires.

(Board book. 0-18 mos.)

I FEEL HAPPY

MEALTIME

Yoon, Salina Illustrator: Yoon, Salina Running Press Kids (10 pp.) $9.95 | April 5, 2011 978-0-7624-3886-0

Verdick, Elizabeth Illustrator: Heinlen, Marieka Free Spirit (24 pp.) $7.95 | April 1, 2011 978-1-57542-366-1 Series: Toddler Tools There’s not a lot of flavor here for youngsters mastering the art—and coping with the inevitable mess—of eating.

Racially diverse children prepare for their meal together and share without spilling their hearty lunch. The students clear their plates before they play, guided by their teacher’s bubbly directions. “Some for me, / and some for you— / don’t forget a Thank you.” Bogged down by didactic reminders of the benefits of nutrition and the necessity of manners, plain phrases drag. A forced enthusiasm adds little to the conversation at this dinner table.

“Clean hands for you and me. / Look and see!” Patterned details and illustrations add some flavor in wallpapered backgrounds and the preschoolers’ retro clothing. Static facial expressions kill any fluidity. A parents’ note provides general and uninspired guidelines to continually promote these healthy habits.

The joys of mealtime are impossible to swallow, squashed down as they are by the heavy-handed message.

(Board book. 1-4)

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Simple situations attempt to capture toddlers’ emotional experiences.

An unnamed (and faceless) youngster grapples with a host of scenarios through fill-in-the-blank statements and the correlating emotions. “When I lose my toy, I feel… / When I find my toy, I feel …” The examples given often warrant more than one appropriate response, paving the way for confusion. A clunky cut-out of the child’s face attached to a bookmark provides the mechanism for filling in the reactions. With a dark curl and large ears, this pale puzzle piece leaves a physical opening to manipulate the child’s expressive mouth into four emotions (mad, sad, happy or surprised) through a movable wheel. The lips form simplistic and traditionally recognized expressions—transforming into a jagged line to depict anger, for instance. The bold words “I feel” and the four emotions appear on the flip side. Slight details—the addition of a much-loved blankie or a striped shirt with bare tummy underneath—give character interest where the predictable text cannot. Those lacking advanced motor skills will struggle to coordinate the awkward puzzle.

Tots yearning for independence will feel frustrated by their vain efforts to make all these pieces fit, though there may be some application with children with spectrum disorders. (Board book. 1-3)

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MISTER DOODLE: C IS FOR CITY An Alphabet Book

Zuravicky, Orli Illustrator: Castellano, Guiseppe Simon & Schuster (34 pp.) $7.99 | September 20, 2011 978-1-4424-2049-6 Series: Mister Doodle

If anyone ever embodied a name, it’s Mister Doodle.

This nimble sketch sets off on his own alphabetic searchand-discovery. Mixed-media scenes keep thin lines the focal point as vivid photographed accents pop with color. This trek yields some refreshing finds; in the aquarium, the Xiphia swims in the foreground, with the traditional X-ray the afterthought.

Answers move forward in upbeat, measured phrases; the stampsized key in the back shows some additional connections, though not a comprehensive list. “Keep your eyes open / and on each page you’ll see / not just one word for each letter but at least two or three!” The hunt requires an understanding of vocabulary to find all the hidden gems (a Car that is also a Cab appears for the letter C along with City skyscrapers). This fastmoving romp through outdoor orchards and interior scenes lacks elaboration. “G is for Garden / H is for Hay / I is for Igloo where Inuit play.” The man’s canine companion exhibits human mannerisms, jumping up on two paws for the catch or balancing his patterned umbrella. The intricacy will delight preschoolers but confound babies and toddlers; format notwithstanding, this is not a book for babies.

A searching doozy for older kids, but for the youngest perusers, it’s a developmental dud. (Board book. 3-4)

This Issue’s Contributors #

Kim Becnel • Elizabeth Bird • Marcie Bovetz • Louise Brueggemann • Timothy Capehart • Louise Capizzo • Julie Cummins • Katie Day • GraceAnne A. DeCandido • Elise DeGuiseppi • Carol Edwards • Diane B. Foote • Omar Gallaga • Carol Goldman • Megan Honig • Julie Hubble • Jennifer Hubert • Kathleen T. Isaacs • Laura Jenkins • Betsy Judkins • Deborah Kaplan • Angela Leeper • Peter Lewis • Lori Low • Wendy Lukehart • Lauren Maggio • April Mazza • Jeanne McDermott • Daniel Meyer • Lisa Moore • R. Moore • John Edward Peters • Susan Pine • Rebecca Rabinowitz • Kristy Raffensberger • Nancy Thalia Reynolds • Lesli Rodgers • Leslie L. Rounds • Meg Smith • Robin Smith • Deborah D. Taylor • Bette Wendell-Branco • Monica D. Wyatt • Melissa Yurechko

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kirkus indie Kirkus has been keeping an eye on selfpublishing for years, and we’ve never seen anything like the current boom. With the number of self-published titles now pushing 1 million per year, and independent authors utilizing new technologies to sell tens of thousands of copies of their work, the age of indie has truly arrived. Kirkus Indie brings readers the best works by independent authors, and we bring independent authors the crucial tools to get the word out about their books like no one else. We’ll give your book an unbiased, professional review, and then we’ll push that review into the world via our social-media properties, newsletters, website and expanding content. To learn more about Kirkus Indie and start promoting your title, please visit us online at kirkusreviews.com/indie/about.

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GIVING GOOD HOLLYWOOD

Culler, Chris CreateSpace (353 pp.) $15.00 paperback | $5.99 e-book February 7, 2011 ISBN: 978-1456425388 The Devil Wears Prada meets My Hollywood in this witty Hollywood romance.

Newly divorced, 40-something Natalie Saladay leaves her steady, safe existence in San Francisco and returns to Los Angeles after nearly 20 years, in search of opportunity and a little excitement. Although L.A. is ripe with possibility, it’s also full of ghosts from Natalie’s past—most notably Benny Gallo, a charismatic movie producer and Natalie’s former lover. She hopes to avoid him like the plague, but that becomes extremely difficult as Natalie has taken up her former job as a studio reader, wading through scripts and books in search of that perfect movie, at the very studio where Benny runs a division.

Natalie also butts heads with Mona Pearl, her much younger, beautiful, extremely career-driven boss, who is in search of the next multimillion-dollar blockbuster and not the characterdriven scripts that Natalie supports. Conflicted about her feelings for Benny—is he the one that got away or the one that she should continue to run away from?—and his motivation for going after her, Natalie can’t put off Benny’s magnetism for long and reignites a relationship with him. She soon convinces Benny to produce American Vintage, a smart, character-focused picture that Mona passes over in order to make a big budget, action-packed movie. As each movie is rushed along in order to be screened for audiences, Mona and Natalie’s rivalry intensifies to the point that it strains Natalie’s relationship with Benny, leading her to question whether or not she is risking too much for the sake of American Vintage and proving Mona wrong. Despite a few instances of heavy-handed prose and some narrative threads that tie together too tidily, Culler has crafted a smart novel that offers an unexpected look into the world of movie story readers and the Hollywood film industry in general. The characters are sharp, playful and entertaining without falling into typical Hollywood caricature; the plot contains just the right amount and variety of conflicts to keep the reader invested; and the overall story moves forward at a nice clip through a series of deceptively short chapters that leave the reader craving just one more bite.

A wonderful, quick-witted alternative to the typical romance novel.

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“A timely, complex thriller about the global politics of fossil fuels, patents and the promise of technological progress.” from blood of the dragon

SPEECHLESS: A Life of the Mind University Mystery

Guggenmoose, Morty Leaping Lion (178 pp.) $14.95 paperback | $7.99 e-book March 3, 2011 ISBN: 978-1550145403 Guggenmoose presents a campus mystery involving theft, murder and ancient Rome.

The Department of Pontifical and Pathological Philology at Life of the Mind University is the peaceful, if wordy, home to graduate students Morty Guggenmoose and his classmates. But that serenity is shattered when rare coins go missing from the Louis T. and Ernest R. Pfumpfermeister Museum and student Alvy Barg is accused of the crime. Visiting professor Gabriel Dewfinger thinks the young scholar is innocent, but when he catches Barg standing over the body of the recently deceased museum director Edler Nooken, Dewfinger accuses him of something far worse than pilfering ancient Roman currency. But who is responsible for the thefts? And who murdered Nooken?

Guggenmoose and his colleagues—including Wilbur “Mashie” Micklechuck, a promising philologist threatening to decamp to business school—must get to the bottom of it while simultaneously decoding Horace’s odes and preparing a paper on his use of ablatives for the upcoming Regional Graduate Student Latin Conference. Guggenmoose, the main character and ostensibly the story’s author, is witty, acerbic and, naturally, verbose. At its best, his prose evokes midcentury campus comedies of manners; at its most grating, readers are reminded of impenetrable classroom lectures. The story seems to be set in Chicago, but we’re never quite sure of the era. The dialogue is stilted, but ultimately clever. And the story moves apace; the mystery propels the narrative and the classics lessons about Roman numismatics and Latin literature entertain as well as educate. Overall, once the reader settles into the book’s idiosyncratic rhythms, the tale is quite engrossing. It’s a mystery on many levels; readers wonder what becomes of the story’s characters and who could be behind this anachronistic prose. Life of the Mind University may be a school readers want to enroll in again and again.

Loquacious but enjoyable.

SPEAKING TRUTHS

Hester, Dayna iUniverse (312 pp.) $28.95 | $9.99 e-book | April 8, 2011 ISBN: 978-1450214377 A teenage boy must piece his past together after discovering he was kidnapped as a child.

Landon Starker seems like just another troubled teen—more concerned with getting high than attending class, |

prone to badmouthing his teachers and even bullying fellow students. Landon knows he’s not like his peers, but what he doesn’t know is that he is actually Tyler Roberts, who was abducted years ago by his “father” Bob Starker, an abusive man who has used the boy for his perversions. When Landon is arrested, his fingerprints pop up in the Ameritek ID database and the FBI raids Bob’s house, freeing Landon and throwing him into a new world where he’s expected not only to reunite with a family he no longer remembers, but to confront long-repressed memories. Hester’s impressive debut novel is an intelligent, readable affair, tackling difficult and shocking subject matter with sensitivity, never resorting to the voyeuristic sensationalism that has become the norm when portraying abuse. Intensely methodical, the book accurately represents coping with trauma, with no magic bullets or easy answers, and presents breakthroughs and setbacks realistically. Some will find the author’s pace plodding, even frustrating, but this serves to believably depict the slow crawl to recovery.

The novel’s tone alternates between clinical and simplistic, working best when it finds the middle ground linking the two styles.

This is most notably on display in its natural-sounding dialogue that cleverly shows the discrepancy between one’s feelings and actions. Hester maintains a commitment to realism, and waivers only once, during a climactic court scene where a little creative license is not only forgivable, but welcome.

Teaches and informs while remaining a compelling, nonexploitative read.

BLOOD OF THE DRAGON

Howard, Larry CreateSpace (355 pp.) $16.95 paperback | $9.99 e-book May 18, 2011 ISBN: 978-1461001171 A timely, complex thriller about the global politics of fossil fuels, patents and the promise of technological progress.

Howard generates a certain aura of skepticism with his book’s subtitle, “The Iranian Version of this Novel.” He isn’t talking about the language or ethnicity of his novel, but rather the previous incarnations that led to the book’s current form (swapping out Iraq for Iran). But once Howard begins his narrative proper, its daring is immediate—the first scene of this contemporary thriller features a tyrannosaurus bearing witness to the extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous; the resource that the beast and other ancient fauna will produce after their deaths is at the center of the novel’s global plot. Howard wears his influences on his sleeve and his book is a creative reworking along the particular genre strains created by Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton. The narrative jets around the world to multiple settings as the novel unleashes a salvo of exposition; there is a devastating crudekilling virus unleashed on the world’s oil supplies by the Iranians, a game-changing production process about to be unleashed on the insatiable global petroleum market by the Chinese, a young Israeli with a patent that may change the world’s entire

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k i r ku s q & a w i t h k a r e n m c q u e s t i on Karen McQuestion has been one of the biggest names in the current crop of successful independent authors, selling tens of thousands of e-books, having a self-published novel optioned for a film and being featured in the Wall Street Journal and on ABC News. More recently, Amazon, with whom she originally self-published via the Kindle, has published some of her works through AmazonEncore, the online retailer’s foray into traditional publishing. The result? Rubbing elbows with Stieg Larsson and Jonathan Franzen.

Q: Have you seen a bump in sales since having your books published by AmazonEncore?

A SCATTERED LIFE

A: Huge. Huge, huge, huge, huge. Especially with my adult novels, A Scattered Life and Easily Amused, which is a lighter kind of romantic comedy. I was up to thousands of dollars a month in my self-published titles and I remember my husband saying, “Can they do as well [with Encore]? Are we making a mistake here?” And I just said, “No, I really have a good feeling about this.” And of course Amazon’s market reach is endless and they’re so smart about what they do. So when A Scattered Life came out, for a while, for a week or two, it was at number five on Kindle. There were the three Stieg Larsson books and the Oprah book— Jonathan Franzen’s book—and then there was A Scattered Life. I mean, I’m nobody from nowhere and it’s a quiet novel that doesn’t have a great marketing hook.

And so I absolutely believe that without [Encore’s] help it wouldn’t have done as well.

Karen McQuestion AmazonEncore $14.95 paperback August 10, 2010 978-1935597063

K I R K US M E DI A L L C # President M A RC W I N K E L M A N

SVP, Marketing MIK E HEJ N Y

#

Q: Are you working on a new book?

A: I just finished a follow-up to my children’s book.

It’s coming out next fall. And I had done so well with the adult books that I still get e-mails and comments on Twitter and Facebook of people saying, “Are you doing another adult novel?” So that’s what I’m focusing on next. Just recently AmazonEncore brokered a deal with Houghton Mifflin and they’re releasing my two adult novels in trade paperback this fall, in September. I was so confused when [Amazon] told me because it’s, like, “Well, no, you’re still an AmazonEncore author; [Houghton Mifflin is] handling the trade paperback, we’re going to handle the e-books”— because that’s obviously what they do best—“and we’re partnering with them.” And I was, like, “Oh!” And they explained all the benefits, and it sounded great. At first I felt like I was playing for a team and they traded me to someone else and they didn’t tell me, but that wasn’t it at all. So I’m working on another adult novel, and I’m hoping that Houghton Mifflin has this deal for another year, minimum, and this book might be one they’ll consider. But if not, AmazonEncore is very interested in everything I write and so I’m hoping that they want it. If they don’t, which is always a possibility, I’ll self-publish it.

Q: What are the biggest obstacles currently facing self-publishers?

A: Anybody can self-publish, and anyone can put a manuscript up. It’s not difficult. But to do it right, you have to take some care and put some time into it. I’m sure you’re familiar with Joe Konrath. I got a lot of information from him and some of the things he’s always said are still true. You have to have a good cover, you have to have a good description, you have to price it reasonably, you have to have a good story

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A: Absolutely. Not just because I have more time, but because I feel that I can say to my family, or whomever, “I can’t do that; I need to write.” And they don’t just feel like, “Oh, there she goes again, pretending she’s a writer.” No, there are actually people who are interested in what I’m writing. And so I can justify the writing time.

A: I think that’s absolutely a part of it. I also think that people are click-happy. And I’m guilty of it too. They make it easy. They make it easy for you try a sample, they make it easy for you to buy it. And when you get a new toy, what do you want to do? You want to play with it. So people get their Nooks or their iPads or their Kindles and they’re actively looking for things to read. They’re actively looking for things to buy.

SVP, Online PAU L H O F F M A N

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Q: Do you have a lot more time to put into your writing now?

Q: Do you think the lower price point of e-books versus print works in tandem with self-published titles to make readers more willing to take a chance on unknown authors?

SVP, Finance JA M E S H U L L

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to begin with, it has to be formatted well. And you have to have the time and inclination to market it.

You don’t have to make it into a part-time job. You can upload it and just leave it there and you probably will get some sales; someone will stumble across it and it will look like their kind of thing. But if you really want to get the horse out of the gate, you have to go above and beyond that.

So I think the biggest drawback is that some people are proficient in some areas and not others.

You could think, “Well, yeah, I did everything right.

I spent two years writing this novel and it’s the best thing I’ve ever written and people love it,” and on and on, but you didn’t go to the trouble to make sure that it looks right. So I think the drawback is no longer “If I self-publish, I won’t get an agent or I won’t get a publishing deal or people will look down on me.” The drawback is more in the mechanics of doing it.

economic order, a bold American CEO who refuses to let the United States fall behind and an American president who must navigate the West through the treacherous terrain of the 21st century. Howard deftly choreographs these potentially flighty plots, a remarkable feat considering the intimidating amount of complex political and technological detail. But he does so by an almost kaleidoscopic process of short chapters and abrupt changes in setting, from the Oval Office to Shenyang, China.

These brief sections keep the reader burning through the pages, but there are a few instances in an otherwise thoughtfully crafted plot where elegance is sacrificed for efficiency. However, a techno-thriller with a message about humanity’s stewardship of resources is a welcome addition to a genre that often suffers from too many hack jobs and the wanton excesses of specialops machismo. This is a book that plunges readers into a world dominated by avarice, fierce competition and breakneck innovation, and delivers them to a rousing, hopeful conclusion.

A dense but satisfying read that will please devotees of the blockbuster political thriller.

THE VOICE OF THE DOLPHINS

Jones, Hardy CreateSpace (238 pp.) $15.95 paperback | May 4, 2011 ISBN: 978-1456377533 An award-winning filmmaker describes three decades of work with dolphins.

In this compelling memoir, Jones, best known for his documentaries on marine life, recounts his experience filming and interacting with dolphins. His work initially began in 1978 after he learned about cruel fishing techniques that rely on dolphins to catch tuna, often leading to mass deaths of dolphins.

Jones decided to produce a film documenting dolphins underwater in their natural habitat, a feat considered impossible by marine experts, including the esteemed Jacques Cousteau. Fortunately, with the help of treasure diver Bob Marx, Jones learned of an unusually friendly school of dolphins living in the Bahamas. With a small crew, Jones worked with the school to create his first film Dolphin, and thus began his lifelong desire to document and protect these intelligent aquatic animals. Over the next three decades, Jones made several films for PBS, National Geographic, Discovery and more; co-founded Bluevoice.org to protect dolphins and whales; and created film footage that helped spur a public outcry against Starkist Tuna’s fishing techniques (reformed practices and the Starkist “dolphin safe” label were born as a result). Jones writes in an engaging, conversational tone and readers will find the segments describing human interaction with wild dolphins fascinating as they attempt to communicate through an underwater piano and a dolphin call generator. While the book occasionally veers toward sappy descriptions of humans connecting and cavorting with dolphins, accounts of the marine mammals’ sheer intelligence are astounding. In more personal sections, Jones juxtaposes his film |

work with his battle with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer linked to the same toxic chemicals that affect dolphins.

Indeed, a central theme of the book is that the animals face an uncertain future, threatened by destructive fishing techniques and a rising number of ocean contaminants.

A moving, effective tale that urges readers to place greater importance on environmental conservation.

BUDDY’S TAIL

Russell, K. Anne CreateSpace (178 pp.) $7.99 paperback | $2.99 e-book April 8, 2011 ISBN: 978-1456411954 All dogs may not go to heaven, but MacKenzie and her friends—loyal and kindhearted pups—earn their places in Haven by standing up for justice, even when it gets them in mortal trouble.

Life on the street has its advantages. Mackenzie, a border collie, makes friends, keeps her own hours and, most importantly, is able to scavenge sustenance for her friend Buddy, a standard poodle whose owners have no qualms about leaving him chained in the yard for days with little food and water. Buddy’s favorite grub is french fries, but he can’t be picky—he’s too hungry. Mackenzie remains focused on helping Buddy, but she’s also interested in vengeance. Her old friend Howie was hit and killed by a Hummer and every time MacKenzie hears the telltale rev of that engine, she gives chase. Sadly, the Hummer and its driver prove to be the stronger force and are once again successful in their quest for destruction. Through a series of happy and sad adventures, MacKenzie and Buddy find themselves on the Other Side, where they must stay true to their natures while teaching valuable lessons. Russell writes this sweet story with careful attention to the whimsical detail that will delight young readers. The book’s plot will hold their attention, and the author packs the narrative with creative language that will appeal to adults and young readers alike. While books about pets, especially those who populate the afterlife, tend toward the overly saccharine, this falls well within the sphere of digestible cuteness. Each canine character is distinct, and Russell doesn’t settle for hackneyed descriptions or stiff action scenes. Her writing is bright and intricate, fun and profound.

A welcome addition to the canine canon for young readers.

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