Get Curated Reading Suggestions on Selected Topics Sent Right to Your Inbox.

List

Category
Audience

20 Days in Mariupol

An AP team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting atrocities of the Russian invasion. As the only international reporters who remain in the city, they capture what later become defining images of the war: dying children, mass graves, the bombing of a maternity hospital, and more.

View Details >>

Ana Cultiva Manzanas / Apple Farmer Annie

Monica Wellington

A delicious treat about America's favorite fruit is now available in a Spanish bilingual format. Ana grows and sells apples, and she makes cider and applesauce and muffins. A glossary helps kids learn the names of Ana's delicious ingredients in both languages. With tie-ins to math and science curricula and units on autumn, this book will be especially welcomed by teachers. Truly the pick of the crop!

View Details >>

By the time you read this: the space between Cheslie's smile and mental illness : her story in her own words

Cheslie Kryst

By the Time You Read This is the story former Miss USA Cheslie Kryst was about to publish before her tragic suicide. Her mother, April, wraps up the narrative by exploring the mental illness and depression that took her daughter's life. The text read, "By the time you get this . . ." This is the story of Cheslie Kryst, a former Miss USA, in her own words. When the world awoke on the morning of January 30, 2022, many were shocked to learn of the tragic death of former Miss USA Cheslie Kryst. For most people, the news was unfathomable. How could a young woman in the prime of her life--a pageant queen, accomplished attorney, extra correspondent, and tireless advocate for charity organizations--have been lost to the world so suddenly? The book shares the manuscript Cheslie wrote before her passing, her story in her own words--from the highest highs of passing two bar exams, winning Miss USA, and beginning an exciting career as an entertainment journalist to the lowest lows of heartbreak, betrayal, and persistent depression. When Cheslie's mother, April Simpkins, picks up the narrative, she shares for the first time what she experienced in the aftermath of Cheslie's suicide. When faced with such a devastating loss, how does a mother find a way to carry on? Whether you are someone who struggles to maintain your mental health, or you love someone who does, this book will share insight into a reality that impacts thousands of families every year--as well as provide hope for those who are left behind.

View Details >>

Time shelter : a novel

Georgi Gospodinov

An award-winning international sensation-with a second-act dystopian twist-Time Shelter is a tour de force set in a world clamoring for the past before it forgets. "At one point they tried to calculate when time began, when exactly the earth had been created," begins Time Shelter's enigmatic narrator, who will go unnamed. "In the mid-seventeenth century, the Irish bishop Ussher calculated not only the exact year, but also a starting date: October 22, 4,004 years before Christ." But for our narrator, time as he knows it begins when he meets Gaustine, a "vagrant in time" who has distanced his life from contemporary reality by reading old news, wearing tattered old clothes, and haunting the lost avenues of the twentieth century. In an apricot-colored building in Zurich, surrounded by curiously planted forget-me-nots, Gaustine has opened the first "clinic for the past," an institution that offers an inspired treatment for Alzheimer's sufferers: each floor reproduces a past decade in minute detail, allowing patients to transport themselves back in time to unlock what is left of their fading memories. Serving as Gaustine's assistant, the narrator is tasked with collecting the flotsam and jetsam of the past, from 1960s furniture and 1940s shirt buttons to nostalgic scents and even wisps of afternoon light. But as the charade becomes more convincing, an increasing number of healthy people seek out the clinic to escape from the dead-end of their daily lives-a development that results in an unexpected conundrum when the past begins to invade the present. Through sharply satirical, labyrinth-like vignettes reminiscent of Italo Calvino and Franz Kafka, the narrator recounts in breathtaking prose just how he became entrenched in a plot to stop time itself.

View Details >>

Cinderwich

Cherie Priest

Who put Ellen in the blackgum tree?" Decades after trespassing children spotted the desiccated corpse wedged in the treetop, no one knows the answer. Kate Thrush and her former college professor, Dr. Judith Kane, travel to Cinderwich, Tennessee, in hopes that maybe it was their Ellen: Katie's lost aunt, Judith's long-gone lover. But they're not the only ones to have come here looking for closure. The people of Cinderwich, a town hardly more than a skeleton itself, are staunchly resistant to the outsiders' questions about Ellen and her killer. And the deeper the two women dig--the more rot they unearth--the closer they come to exhuming the evil that lies, hungering, at the roots of Cinderwich.

View Details >>

Queen of the conquered

Kacen Callender

Sigourney Rose is the only surviving daughter of a noble lineage on the islands of Hans Lollik. When she was a child, her family was murdered by the islands' colonizers, who have massacred and enslaved generations of her people -- and now, Sigourney is ready to exact her revenge. When the childless king of the islands declares that he will choose his successor from amongst eligible noble families, Sigourney uses her ability to read and control minds to manipulate her way onto the royal island and into the ranks of the ruling colonizers. But when she arrives, prepared to fight for control of all the islands, Sigourney finds herself the target of a dangerous, unknown magic. Someone is killing off the ruling families to clear a path to the throne. As the bodies pile up and all eyes regard her with suspicion, Sigourney must find allies among her prey and the murderer among her peers... lest she become the next victim.

View Details >>

The Eyes and the Impossible

Dave Eggers

Free dog Johannes' job is to observe everything that happens in his urban park and report back to the park's three bison elders, but changes are afoot, including more humans, a new building, a boatload of goats, and a shocking revelation that changes his view of the world.

View Details >>

A Rover's Story

Jasmine Warga

Built to explore Mars, Resilience begins to develop human-like feelings as he learns from the NASA scientists who assembled him, and as he blasts off and explores Mars, Resilience must overcome different obstacles as he explores the red planet.

View Details >>

Odder

Katherine Applegate ; with illustrations by Charles Santoso

Odder spends her days off the coast of central California, practicing her underwater acrobatics and spending time with a good friend. She's a fearless daredevil, curious to a fault. But when Odder comes face to face with a hungry great white shark, her life takes a dramatic turn, one that will challenge everything she believes about herself-and about the humans who hope to save her. Inspired by the true story of a Monterey Bay Aquarium program that pairs ophaned otter pups with surrogate mothers

View Details >>

The Last Mapmaker

Christina Soontornvat

Joining an expedition to chart the southern seas, twelve-year-old mapmaker's assistant Sai, posing as a well-bred young lady with a glittering future, realizes she's not the only one on board harboring secrets when she discovers the ship's true destination.

View Details >>

Going Places

written by Peter H. Reynolds & Paul A. Reynolds ; illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds

Rafael has looked forward to the Going Places contest and builds his go-cart from a kit in record time, but his neighbor, Maya, has a much more interesting and creative idea for her entry and Rafael decides to help.

View Details >>

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon

Grace Lin

Minli, an adventurous girl from a poor village, buys a magical goldfish, and then joins a dragon who cannot fly on a quest to find the Old Man of the Moon in hopes of bringing life to Fruitless Mountain and freshness to Jade River.

View Details >>

The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester

Barbara O'Connor

After Owen captures an enormous bullfrog, names it Tooley Graham, then has to release it, he and two friends try to use a small submarine that fell from a passing train to search for Tooley in the Carter, Georgia, pond it came from, while avoiding nosy neighbor Viola.

View Details >>

Wild Rescuers: Guardians of the Taiga

Stacy Hinojosa aka Stacy Plays; illustrated by Vivienne To

Stacy was raised by wolves. She's never needed humans to survive and, from what she sees of humans, they're dangerous and unpredictable. For as long as she can remember, Stacy's pack of six powerful, playful wolves--Addison, Basil, Everest, Noah, Tucker and Wink--have been her only family. Together, Stacy's pack patrols the forest to keep other animals safe, relying on her wits and each wolf's unique abilities to accomplish risky rescue missions. But as the forest changes and new dangers begin lurking, are Stacy and the wolves prepared for the perils that await them? A rival wild pack, the constant threat of being found by humans, and a lost dog with a secret plunges.

View Details >>

Knights vs. Dinosaurs

Matt Phelan

With the realm at peace and few dragons about, the Knights of the Round Table are bored, so Merlin sends them to face the most terrible lizards of all--dinosaurs.

View Details >>

The Thickety: A Path Begins

J.A. White ; illustrations by Andrea Offermann

When twelve-year-old Kara discovers her mother's grimoire in the dangerous forest, she must decide if she'll use it, even though such magic is forbidden.

View Details >>

Monkey Man

Kid is an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city's sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.

View Details >>

Mosaic

The story focuses on the brutal New Year's Eve disappearance of a high-profile resident of picturesque Summit, Utah, and the four-year effort of law-enforcement officers and civilians to arrive at the truth behind the crime.

View Details >>

And She Could Be Next

The documentary follows a defiant movement of women of color as they transform politics from the ground up. Filmed during the historic 2018 midterm elections, the series follows organizers and candidates (including Rashida Tlaib and Stacey Abrams) as they fight for a truly reflective government, asking whether democracy can be preserved, and made stronger, by those most marginalized.

View Details >>

Insecure : The Complete First Season

A comedy series which follows best friends Issa and Molly as they navigate the tricky professional and personal terrain of Los Angeles while facing the challenges of being two black women who defy all stereotypes. Insecure explores the black female experience in a subtle, witty, and authentic way, as Issa and Molly stumble their way toward pulling their lives together while trying their hardest to never settle for less.

View Details >>

Dear White People : Season One

Based on the acclaimed movie, this is an episodic series that tells the story of a group of black students navigating the daily slights and slippery politics of life at an Ivy League college that's not nearly as post-racial as it thinks.

View Details >>

The Unicorn Season One

A year after his wife's passing, devoted father of two Wade Felton (Walton Goggins)--with much prodding from his concerned social circle--made a reluctant reentry into the dating pool for the first time in decades. He'd be taken aback as he learned how much his fidelity and family orientation made him the rarest of commodities to a sea of eligible women.

View Details >>

Legacy of Lies

An ex-MI6 agent is thrown back into the world of espionage and high stakes to uncover the shocking truth about operations conducted by unknown secret services.

View Details >>

Ordinary Love

Joan and Tom have been married for many years. When Joan is unexpectedly diagnosed with breast cancer, the course of her treatment shines a light on their relationship as they are faced with the challenges that lie ahead and the prospect of what might happen if the best possible outcome doesn't occur.

View Details >>

Antebellum

Successful author Veronica Henley finds herself trapped in a horrifying reality and must uncover the mind-bending mystery before it's too late.

View Details >>

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

France, 1760. Marianne is commissioned to paint the wedding portrait of Héloïse, a young woman who has just left the convent. Because she is a reluctant bride-to-be, Marianne arrives under the guise of companionship, observing Héloïse by day and secretly painting her by firelight at night. As the two women orbit one another, intimacy and attraction grow as they share Héloïse first moments of freedom. Héloïse portrait soon becomes a collaborative act of and a testament to their love.

View Details >>

Grand Isle

Walter and his neglected wife lure a young man into their Victorian home to escape a hurricane. When the man is charged with murder by Det. Jones, he must reveal the couple's wicked secrets to save himself.

View Details >>

Brahms : The Boy II

When a young family moves to the Heelshires' residence, terror strikes when a boy from the family discovers a doll called Brahms that appears to be eerily human.

View Details >>

Clean Getaway

Nic Stone

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Nic Stone comes a timely middle-grade road-trip story through landmarks of the Civil Rights movement and the map they lay for contemporary race relations.

How to Go on an Unplanned Road Trip with Your Grandma:
Grab a Suitcase: Prepacked from the big spring break trip that got CANCELLED.
Fasten Your Seatbelt: G'ma's never conventional, so this trip won't be either.
Use the Green Book: G'ma's most treasured possession. It holds history, memories, and most important, the way home.

What Not to Bring:
A Cell Phone: Avoid contact with Dad at all costs. Even when G'ma starts acting stranger than usual.

Set against the backdrop of the segregation history of the American South, take a trip with this New York Times bestseller and an eleven-year-old boy who is about to discover that the world hasn't always been a welcoming place for kids like him, and things aren't always what they seem--his G'ma included.

Truly a delight. -Christopher Paul Curtis, author of Newbery Medal winner Bud, Not Buddy

View Details >>

The Winterhouse Mysteries

Ben Guterson

Danger, intrigue, and the power of family combine in The Winterhouse Mysteries, the fast-paced conclusion to Ben Guterson and Chloe Bristol's illustrated, enchanting Winterhouse middle grade trilogy.

It’s springtime at Winterhouse and Elizabeth is settling into the joyful chaos of her new home. But it isn’t long before she and Freddy are drawn into an ominous new mystery. Guests at the hotel start behaving oddly, and Elizabeth’s powers manifest in thrilling—sometimes frightening—new ways. As unnatural tremors shake the foundations of Winterhouse, Elizabeth hears cries for help from Gracella Winters, a villain she’d thought dead and gone for good.

Elizabeth’s discovery of a rare book containing secrets of an ancient ritual leads to a tragic realization: someone at the hotel is trying to help Gracella rise again. Can Elizabeth and Freddy banish these threats and protect the future of Winterhouse once and for all?

Christy Ottaviano Books

View Details >>

In My Heart

Mackenzie Porter

A working mother reassures her child that even when they’re apart, they’re always in each other’s hearts. This lovely board book is perfect for moms to share with their little ones.

Though we’re not together
we’re never truly apart,
because you’re always on my mind
and you’re always in my heart.

This is what a mother tells her child as she leaves for work each day. This lovely board book perfectly captures the sentiment that many women feel about being a working mom. The lyrical text takes us through a mother’s day away, showing us that although she’s working hard, her child is always on her mind and always in her heart.

View Details >>

10-Minute Duct Tape Projects

Sarah L. Schuette

Need some fast and easy duct tape projects for your makerspace? You're in luck! From spinners and beads to wallets and bookmarks, these engaging 10-minute projects will have kids making in no time!

View Details >>

Evelyn Del Rey Is Moving Away

Meg Medina

From Newbery Medalist Meg Medina comes the bittersweet story of two girls who will always be each other's número uno, even though one is moving away.

A big truck with its mouth wide open is parked at the curb, ready to gobble up Evelyn's mirror with the stickers around the edge . . . and the sofa that we bounce on to get to the moon.

Evelyn Del Rey is Daniela's best friend. They do everything together and even live in twin apartments across the street from each other: Daniela with her mami and hamster, and Evelyn with her mami, papi, and cat. But not after today--not after Evelyn moves away. Until then, the girls play amid the moving boxes until it's time to say goodbye, making promises to keep in touch, because they know that their friendship will always be special. The tenderness of Meg Medina's beautifully written story about friendship and change is balanced by Sonia Sánchez's colorful and vibrant depictions of the girls' urban neighborhood.

View Details >>

Fern and Horn

Marie-Louise Gay

Fern and Horn look like two peas in a pod, but they have very different ways of seeing the world, in this joyful picture book about creativity by renowned author and illustrator Marie-Louise Gay.

Fern loves to draw flowers and butterflies, birds and bees, caterpillars and orange trees. Horn wants to draw too, but he thinks his flowers look like purple pancakes and his caterpillars like striped socks.

"Draw whatever you want!" Fern tells him.

Horn draws an enormous elephant that tramples all over her pictures.

Fortunately, Fern's imagination is as big as the universe. She loves gazing at the stars and cutting out star shapes. Again, Horn tries to follow suit, but he is frustrated with his creations and makes a ferocious paper polar bear that devours Fern's stars.

Undeterred, Fern decides to build a castle that can withstand elephants and polar bears, but a fire-breathing dragon comes along. Luckily, Fern knows exactly what dragons like best ...

Illustrations full of vibrant color and collage bring to life a story about the endless imagination and creative energy of young children. Marie-Louise Gay suggests that if children are given the time and space to explore the many paths to creativity, the results are brilliant and inspiring.

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.6
Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.3
Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events

View Details >>

On a Sunbeam

Tillie Walden

“Tillie Walden is the future of comics, and On a Sunbeam is her best work yet. It’s a ‘space’ story unlike any you’ve ever read, with a rich, lived-in universe of complex characters.” —Brian K. Vaughan, Saga and Paper Girls

Two timelines. Second chances. One love.

A ragtag crew travels to the deepest reaches of space, rebuilding beautiful, broken structures to piece the past together.

Two girls meet in boarding school and fall deeply in love—only to learn the pain of loss.

With interwoven timelines and stunning art, award-winning graphic novelist Tillie Walden creates an inventive world, breathtaking romance, and an epic quest for love.

View Details >>

Frank Miller's Ronin

Frank Miller

It is the distant past. A great lord of feudal Japan is struck down by an entity of pure evil. A young warrior, sworn to vengeance, becomes a masterless samurai--a ronin--trapped in an eternal struggle with the demon who killed his master.

It is the near future. A great corporation in the urban jungle of New York City is preparing to unleash a deadly new technology. A childlike telepath and a tough-as-nails security commander are the only people who stand in its way.

When these two worlds collide, dreams and reality will blur together for a final, apocalyptic battle--and at the heart of the chaos, a lone swordsman will face the ultimate test of his fealty.

A thrilling, seamless, utterly unique blend of East and West, past and future, magic and science. This edition collects the original six-issue miniseries from the legendary Frank Miller and features an introduction from DC's former president and publisher Jenette Kahn, as well as a special section of preliminary and promotional art from Miller.

View Details >>

Basketful of Heads

Joe Hill

#1 New York Times bestselling author Joe Hill asks, "With a cursed Viking axe, what can you accomplish?" and June Branch is ready to answer!

Heads will roll...

June Branch is in trouble. She's trapped on Brody Island with nowhere to run. Her boyfriend, Liam, has been kidnapped. And four bloodthirsty escaped convicts will stop at nothing to find her.

All poor June has to defend herself with is a strange Viking axe with the terrifying power to decapitate a person and leave their head still talking.

If she's going to save Liam and herself, June will have to keep a cool head...or even a whole basketful of them!

From #1 New York Times bestselling writer Joe Hill (NOS4A2, Locke & Key) comes Basketful of Heads, the first series in the smash-hit lineup of the Hill House Comics library. Featuring incredible artwork by Leomacs (Lucifer), this spine-tingling collection includes the entire seven-issue miniseries, as well as character designs and behind-the-scenes sketches.

Collects issues #1-7.

View Details >>

Joker: Killer Smile

The Eisner-nominated creative team of writer Jeff Lemire and artist Andrea Sorrentino (Green Arrow, Gideon Falls) reunite for a psychological horror story that delves into the bottomless insanity of The Joker. Everyone knows The Joker doesn't have the most promising history with psychotherapists. In fact, no one's even been able to diagnose him. But that doesn't matter to Dr. Ben Arnell; he's determined to be the one to unravel this unknowable mind. And there's no way The Joker could ever get through the therapeutic walls Ben has built around himself. Right? There's no way The Joker's been entering his house at night...right? There's no way The Joker has stood over his son's bed and put that book in his hands, the one with the, the, the... The Eisner Award-nominated creative team of writer Jeff Lemire and artist Andrea Sorrentino (Green Arrow, Gideon Falls) reunite for a psychological horror story that delves into the bottomless insanity of The Joker. Collects Joker: Killer Smile #1-3.

View Details >>

Old Man Quill Vol. 1

THE FAR-FLUNG SAGA OF THE ONCE-AND-FUTURE STAR-LORD BEGINS! Meet Peter Quill. He used to be Star-Lord-you know, the legendary outlaw-but it's been quite some time since he's gone by that name.

View Details >>

Sinking the Sultana

Sally M. Walker

The worst maritime disaster in American history wasn't the Titanic. It was the steamboat Sultana on the Mississippi River -- and it could have been prevented.

In 1865, the Civil War was winding down and the country was reeling from Lincoln's assassination. Thousands of Union soldiers, released from Confederate prisoner-of-war camps, were to be transported home on the steamboat Sultana. With a profit to be made, the captain rushed repairs to the boat so the soldiers wouldn't find transportation elsewhere. More than 2,000 passengers boarded in Vicksburg, Mississippi . . . on a boat with a capacity of 376. The journey was violently interrupted when the boat's boilers exploded, plunging the Sultana into mayhem; passengers were bombarded with red-hot iron fragments, burned by scalding steam, and flung overboard into the churning Mississippi. Although rescue efforts were launched, the survival rate was dismal -- more than 1,500 lives were lost. In a compelling, exhaustively researched account, renowned author Sally M. Walker joins the ranks of historians who have been asking the same question for 150 years: who (or what) was responsible for the Sultana's disastrous fate?

View Details >>

The Steep and Thorny Way

Cat Winters

A thrilling reimagining of Shakespeare's Hamlet, The Steep and Thorny Way tells the story of a murder most foul and the mighty power of love and acceptance in a state gone terribly rotten.
1920s Oregon is not a welcoming place for Hanalee Denney, the daughter of a white woman and an African-American man. She has almost no rights by law, and the Ku Klux Klan breeds fear and hatred in even Hanalee's oldest friendships. Plus, her father, Hank Denney, died a year ago, hit by a drunk-driving teenager. Now her father's killer is out of jail and back in town, and he claims that Hanalee's father wasn't killed by the accident at all but, instead, was poisoned by the doctor who looked after him--who happens to be Hanalee's new stepfather.

The only way for Hanalee to get the answers she needs is to ask Hank himself, a "haint" wandering the roads at night.

View Details >>

Audacity

Melanie Crowder

A 2015 National Jewish Book Award finalist

The inspiring story of Clara Lemlich, whose fight for equal rights led to the largest strike by women in American history

A gorgeously told novel in verse written with intimacy and power, Audacity is inspired by the real-life story of Clara Lemlich, a spirited young woman who emigrated from Russia to New York at the turn of the twentieth century and fought tenaciously for equal rights. Bucking the norms of both her traditional Jewish family and societal conventions, Clara refuses to accept substandard working conditions in the factories on Manhattan's Lower East Side. For years, Clara devotes herself to the labor fight, speaking up for those who suffer in silence. In time, Clara convinces the women in the factories to strike, organize, and unionize, culminating in the famous Uprising of the 20,000.

Powerful, breathtaking, and inspiring, Audacity is the story of a remarkable young woman, whose passion and selfless devotion to her cause changed the world.


Praise for AUDACITY:

A 2015 National Jewish Book Award finalist
A Washington Post Best Children's Books for April: Poetry Edition
An ILA Notable Book for a Global Society
A 2016 NCTE Children's Notable Verse Novel
A New York Public Library Best Book for Teens
An ALA Top 10 Best Fiction for Young Adults Pick
An ALSC Notable Children's Book nominee
A BCCB Blue Ribbon winner

* "Crowder breathes life into a world long past....Compelling, powerful and unforgettable." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

* "This book stands alone....an impactful addition to any historical fiction collection."--School Library Journal, starred review

* "With a thorough historical note, glossary of terms, and bibliography, this will make an excellent complement to units on women's rights and the labor movement, but it will also satisfy readers in search of a well-told tale of a fierce heroine."--BCCB, starred review

* "This is an excellent title that can open discussions in U.S. history and economics courses about women's rights, labor unions, and the immigrant experience."--School Library Connection, starred review

"Based on the true story of Clara Lemlich, Audacity throbs with the emotions of this exceptional young woman who fought for equal rights and improved labor standards in factories. Melanie Crowder's verses spit out Clara's rage, cradle her longing and soar like the birds that are her constant companions."--Bookpage

"Crowder's (Parched) use of free verse in this fictionalization of Russian-Jewish immigrant Clara Lemlich's life brings a spare poignancy to a familiar history."--Publishers Weekly

"Brilliant, riveting, informative." --Cynthia Levinson, critically acclaimed author of We've Got a Job

"Audacity is an evocative reimagining of a fascinating historical figure who should be remembered for her determination in the face of great odds and powerful opposition--and for her role in changing America. Melanie Crowder's powerful verse reveals a long-past world, but the combination of hope and outrage that Clara Lemlich brought to her struggle should be both recognizable and inspirational to teen readers longing to right the injustices of our day."--Margaret Peterson Haddix, critically acclaimed, bestselling author of Uprising

View Details >>

Brotherhood

Anne Westrick

The year is 1867, the South has been defeated, and the American Civil War is over. But the conflict goes on. Yankees now patrol the streets of Richmond, Virginia, and its citizens, both black and white, are struggling to redefine their roles and relationships. By day, fourteen-year-old Shadrach apprentices with a tailor and sneaks off for reading lessons with Rachel, a freed slave, at her school for African-American children. By night he follows his older brother Jeremiah to the meetings of a group whose stated mission is to protect Confederate widows like their mother. But as the true murderous intentions of the group, now known as the Ku Klux Klan, are revealed, Shad finds himself trapped between old loyalties and what he knows is right.  

In this powerful and unflinching story of a family caught in the period of Reconstruction, A.B. Westrick provides a glimpse into the enormous social and political upheaval of the time.

View Details >>

Bomb

Steve Sheinkin

In December of 1938, a chemist in a German laboratory made a shocking discovery: When placed next to radioactive material, a Uranium atom split in two. That simple discovery launched a scientific race that spanned three continents.

In Great Britain and the United States, Soviet spies worked their way into the scientific community; in Norway, a commando force slipped behind enemy lines to attack German heavy-water manufacturing; and deep in the desert, one brilliant group of scientists was hidden away at a remote site at Los Alamos. This is the story of the plotting, the risk-taking, the deceit, and genius that created the world's most formidable weapon. This is the story of the atomic bomb.

“This superb and exciting work of nonfiction would be a fine tonic for any jaded adolescent who thinks history is 'boring.' It's also an excellent primer for adult readers who may have forgotten, or never learned, the remarkable story of how nuclear weaponry was first imagined, invented and deployed—and of how an international arms race began well before there was such a thing as an atomic bomb.” —The Wall Street Journal

“This is edge-of-the seat material that will resonate with YAs who clamor for true spy stories, and it will undoubtedly engross a cross-market audience of adults who dozed through the World War II unit in high school.” —The Bulletin (starred review)

View Details >>

Viral

Ann Bausum

Groundbreaking narrative nonfiction for teens that tells the story of the AIDS crisis in America.

Thirty-five years ago, it was a modern-day, mysterious plague. Its earliest victims were mostly gay men, some of the most marginalized people in the country; at its peak in America, it killed tens of thousands of people. The losses were staggering, the science frightening, and the government's inaction unforgivable. The AIDS Crisis fundamentally changed the fabric of the United States.

Viral presents the history of the AIDS crisis through the lens of the brave victims and activists who demanded action and literally fought for their lives. This compassionate but unflinching text explores everything from the disease's origins and how it spread to the activism it inspired and how the world confronts HIV and AIDS today.

View Details >>

Born to Fly

Steve Sheinkin

From New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Award recipient Steve Sheinkin, Born to Fly: The First Women's Air Race Across America is the gripping true story of the fearless women pilots who aimed for the skies—and beyond.

Featuring illustrations by Bijou Karman.

Just nine years after American women finally got the right to vote, a group of trailblazers soared to new heights in the 1929 Air Derby, the first women's air race across the U.S. Follow the incredible lives of legend Amelia Earhart, who has captivated generations; Marvel Crosson, who built a plane before she even learned how to fly; Louise Thaden, who shattered jaw-dropping altitude records; and Elinor Smith, who at age seventeen made headlines when she flew under the Brooklyn Bridge.

These awe-inspiring stories culminate in a suspenseful, nail-biting race across the country that brings to life the glory and grit of the dangerous and thrilling early days of flying. From Steve Sheinkin, the master of nonfiction for young readers who expertly unraveled the infamous story of whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and the impeachment of Richard Nixon, comes the untold story of fearless women who dared to fly.

This title has common core connections.

A 2020 ALSC Notable Children's Book


Also by Steve Sheinkin:

Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon
The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery
Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War
The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights
Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team

Which Way to the Wild West?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About Westward Expansion
King George: What Was His Problem?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the American Revolution
Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil War

View Details >>

The Backyard Chicken Keeper's Bible: Discover Chicken Breeds, Behavior, Coops, Eggs, and More

Jessica Ford, Sonya Patel Ellis, and Rachel Federman ; original illustrations by Lynn Hatzius

Engagingly written, informative, and packed with color photographs, The Backyard Chicken Keeper's Bible pairs a sumptuous aesthetic with advice on identifying a broad range of chicken breeds and selecting the right ones for you, as well as discovering more about the evolution, history, and art of chickens of the world. With detailed visuals of the top backyard chicken breeds-- as well as notable chickens and keepers around the world and throughout history-- readers will discover more about starting and caring for their own home flock, plus the best equipment and resources to keep them happy and thriving, how to create chicken-friendly gardens, coops, and runs, and how to become better animal advocates.

View Details >>

Love, Nature, Magic: Shamanic Journeys into the Heart of My Garden

Maria Rodale

In Love, Nature, Magic, organic advocate and former CEO of a global health and wellness company Maria Rodale combines her love of nature and gardening with her experience in shamanic journeying, embarking on an epic adventure to learn from plants, animals, and insects―including some of the most misunderstood beings in nature. Maria asks them their purpose and listens as they show and declare what they want us humans to know. From Thistles to Snakes, Poison Ivy to Mosquitoes, these nature beings convey messages that are relevant to every human, showing us how to live in balance and harmony on this Earth.

Through journeys filled with surprises, humor, and foibles, follow Maria’s evolution from being annoyed with to accepting―and even falling in love with―our most difficult neighbors (including human ones). Along the way, she tells her own story of how she learned about shamanic journeying and its near-universal manifestation in traditional cultures worldwide. She describes what her experiences of shamanic journeying are like―simply, honestly, and with a touch of irreverence.

Maria’s journeys include conversations with: Mugwort • Vulture • Bat • Rabbit • Lanternfly • Lightning Bug • Osage Orange • Deer • Paper Wasp • Dandelion • Tick • Groundhog • Milkweed • And more!

Throughout, Rodale shares an essential truth that resonates across her shamanic explorations: We first must heal our own hearts, for only then can we truly love others and begin to heal planet Earth.

View Details >>

Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden

Camille T. Dungy

In Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden, poet and scholar Camille T. Dungy recounts the seven-year odyssey to diversify her garden in the predominately white community of Fort Collins, Colorado. When she moved there in 2013, with her husband and daughter, the community held strict restrictions about what residents could and could not plant in their gardens. In chronicling her resistance to the homogeneous policies that limited the possibility and wonder that grows from the earth, Dungy employs the various plants, herbs, vegetables, and flowers she grows in her garden as metaphor and treatise for how homogeneity threatens the future of our planet, and why cultivating diverse and intersectional language in our national discourse about the environment is the best means of protecting it. Definitive and singular, Soil functions at the nexus of nature writing, environmental justice, and prose to encourage readers to recognize the relationship between the peoples of the African diaspora and the land on which they live, and to understand that wherever soil rests beneath our feet is home. 

View Details >>

We Garden Together!: Projects for Kids: Learn, Grow, and Connect with Nature

Jane Hirschi and the educators at City Sprouts

Kids don’t need a big backyard or outdoor space to learn about gardening and how plants grow. This introductory garden book, packed with photos of 3 to 6 year olds in action, features hands-on planting and growing activities that can be done in a small yard, classroom, or community garden. Written by the staff of City Sprouts, a leading educational organization in promoting urban gardening and equitable access to nature, each activity—from Sorting Seeds to Going on a Worm Hunt to Planting a Tasty Salad—encourages kids to roll up their sleeves and learn about seeds, planting, and gardening. Step-by-step photos and on-the-page discovery prompts, presented in a lively design, make it easy and inviting for kids everywhere to become plant lovers and nature explorers. 

View Details >>

Please Grow: Lessons on Thriving for Plants (and People)

Alex Testere

Discover the life lessons plants can teach you--from the importance of putting down roots to leaning on others for support and nourishment--in this charming, illustrated guide to personal growth. Every idea, relationship, or project begins with a seed: A seed of creativity, a flicker of hope, an inkling of motivation. In Please Grow, illustrator Alex Testere takes us on a journey through the life of a well-tended plant or garden--from nourishing a seed to propagating, protecting, pruning, and beyond--relating the lessons we can learn from the natural world to our everyday lives, including: Planting a seed is only the beginning. A flower is a reminder of what is possible when the right circumstances align. Extending your roots is like building community -- both are lifelines. Compost old ideas and experiences to create fuel for a fresh start. Nothing lasts foreverand in some cases, that can be a good thing. With sweet, vibrant art, ecological sidebars, and a sprinkling of practical plant care tips, Please Grow is a gentle reminder of life's cyclical, ever-blossoming nature. We all have the power to plant our own seeds and harvest our own blooms. So, what are you waiting for?

View Details >>

Wildscape: Trilling Chipmunks, Beckoning Blooms, Salty Butterflies, and other Sensory Wonders of Nature

Nancy Lawson

Master naturalist Nancy Lawson takes readers on a fascinating tour of the vibrant web of nature outside our back door—where animals and plants perceive and communicate using marvelous sensory abilities we are only beginning to understand. Organized into chapters investigating each of their five senses, Lawson's exploration reveals a remarkable world of interdependent creatures with amazing capabilities.

You'll learn of ultrasound clicks humans can't hear, and ultraviolet colors humans can't see. You'll cross paths with foraging American bumblebees drawn to the scent of wild bergamot, urban sparrows who adapt their mating song in response to human clamor, trees that amp up their growth in response to deer and moose saliva, and a chipmunk behaving like the world's smallest pole vaulter to nab juicy red berries hanging from the lowest parts of a coral honeysuckle vine.

Synthesizing cutting-edge scientific research, original interviews with animal and plant researchers, and poetic observations made in her own garden, Lawson shows us how to appreciate the natural environment from the sensory perspective of our wild neighbors right outside our door and beyond, and how to respect and nurture the habitats they need to survive.

View Details >>

The Complete Book of Ground Covers: 4000 Plants that Reduce Maintenance, Control Erosion, and Beautify the Landscape

Gary Lewis

Ground covers are an essential part of any garden-they suppress weeds, mask problem areas, and knit different parts of the garden together. Yet only a handful of old standbys are commonly used, resulting in dull, unimaginative landscapes. In reality, there are thousands of exciting, garden-worthy plants that make excellent ground covers-people just don't know about them. This comprehensive reference will provide both essential information and photographs for approximately 4000 outstanding plants. Also included will be information on planting, care and maintenance, propagation, and design, making the book an essential tool for designers and nursery professionals. 

View Details >>

Freelance

Ex-special forces operative Mason Pettis is stuck in a dead-end desk job when he reluctantly takes on a freelance gig to provide private security for washed-up journalist Claire Wellington as she interviews the ruthless but impeccably dressed dictator, Juan Venegas. When a military coup breaks out just as she's about to get the scoop of a lifetime, the unlikely trio must figure out how to survive the jungle AND each other to make it out alive!

View Details >>

Nikki & Nora, Sister Sleuths

Fraternal twins Nikki and Nora are forced back into each other's lives when they inherit a detective agency. As they solve a murder, they realize that their differences could be their greatest advantage.

View Details >>

Priscilla

When teenage Priscilla Beaulieu meets Elvis Presley at a party, the man who is already a meteoric rock-and-roll superstar becomes someone entirely unexpected in private moments: a thrilling crush, an ally in loneliness, a gentle best friend. Through Priscilla's eyes, Sofia Coppola tells the unseen side of a great American myth in Elvis and Priscilla's long courtship and turbulent marriage, from a German army base to his dream-world estate at Graceland, in this deeply felt and ravishingly detailed portrait of love, fantasy, and fame.

View Details >>

The Taste of Things

 

Cook Eugenie and her boss Dodin have grown fond of one another for over 20 years, and their romance gives rise to dishes that impress even the world's most illustrious chefs. When Dodin is faced with Eugenie's reluctance to commit, he begins to cook for her.

View Details >>

Obi-wan Kenobi : the complete series

Obi-Wan Kenobi begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith where Obi-Wan Kenobi faced his greatest defeat the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, who turned to the dark side as evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.

View Details >>

Beholder

Ryan La Sala

Athanasios "Athan" Bakirtzis has made it far in life relying on his charm and good looks, even securing an invitation to a mysterious penthouse soiree for New York City's artsy elite. But when he sneaks off to the bathroom, he hears a slam, followed by a scream. Athan peers outside, only to be pushed back in by a boy his age. The boy gravely tells him not to open the door, then closes Athan in. Outside the door, the party descends into chaos. Through hours of howls, laughter, and sobs, Athan stays hidden. When he finally emerges, he discovers a massacre where the corpses appear to have arranged themselves into a disturbingly elegant sculpture-and Athan's mysterious savior is nowhere to be found. Athan-the only known survivor-is now the primary suspect. In a race to prove his innocence, Athan is swept up in a supernatural mystery, one of secret occult societies and deadly eldritch horrors with rather distinctive taste. Something evil is waking up in the walls of New York City, and it's compelling victims toward violence, chaos, and self-destruction. Bound to him by a mysterious hereditary power, Athan has felt this evil hiding behind his reflection his entire life, watching him. Waiting. Now, it's taking over.

View Details >>

One-shot Harry : a Harry Ingram mystery

Gary Phillips

Los Angeles, 1963: African American Korean War veteran Harry Ingram earns a living as a news photographer and occasional process server: chasing police radio calls and dodging baseball bats. With racial tensions running high on the eve of Martin Luther King's Freedom Rally, Ingram risks ending up one of the victims at every crime scene he photographs. When Ingram hears a call over the police scanner to the scene of a deadly automobile accident, he recognizes the vehicle described as belonging to his good friend and old army buddy, the white jazz trumpeter Ben Kingslow, with whom he'd only just reconnected. The LAPD declares the car crash an accident, but when Ingram develops his photos there are signs of foul play. Ingram feels no choice but to play detective, even if it means putting his own life on the line. Armed with his wits, his camera, and occasionally his Colt .45, Harry Ingram plunges head-first into the seamier underbelly of LA society, tangling with racists, leftists, blackmailers, gangsters, zealots and lovers, all in the hope of finding something resembling justice for a friend.

View Details >>

Loneliness & Company : a novel

Charlee Dyroff

Lee knows she's the best. A professor favorite and fellowship winner, there's no doubt she'll land one of the coveted jobs at a Big Five corporation. So when, upon graduating, Lee is instead assigned to an unknown company in the dead city of New York, her life goals are completely upended. In this new role, Lee's task is to gather enough research to train an AI how to be a friend. She begins online and by studying the social circle of her clueless, outgoing roommate Veronika. But when the company reveals it's part of a classified government mission to solve loneliness-an emotion erased from society's lexicon decades ago-Lee's determination to prove herself kicks into overdrive, and she begins chasing bolder and more dangerous experiences to provide data for the AI. How far will Lee go to teach the algorithm? As the mysterious affliction spreads, Lee must decide what she's willing to give up for success and, along the way, learn what it means to be a true friend.

View Details >>

The Beekeeper of Aleppo

Christy Lefteri

Nuri is a beekeeper; his wife, Afra, an artist. They live a simple life, rich in family and friends, in the beautiful Syrian city of Aleppo--until the unthinkable happens. When all they care for is destroyed by war, they are forced to escape. But what Afra has seen is so terrible she has gone blind, and so they must embark on a perilous journey through Turkey and Greece towards an uncertain future in Britain. As Nuri and Afra travel through a broken world, they must confront not only the pain of their own unspeakable loss, but dangers that would overwhelm the bravest of souls. Above all, they must journey to find each other again. Moving, powerful, and beautifully written, The Beekeeper of Aleppo brings home the idea that the most ordinary of lives can be completely upended in unimaginable ways.

View Details >>

Knife : meditations after an attempted murder

Salman Rushdie

From internationally renowned writer and Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie, a searing, deeply personal account of enduring--and surviving--an attempt on his life thirty years after the fatwa that was ordered against him. Speaking out for the first time, and in unforgettable detail, about the traumatic events of August 12, 2022, Salman Rushdie answers violence with art, and reminds us of the power of words to make sense of the unthinkable. Knife is a gripping, intimate, and ultimately life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art--and finding the strength to stand up again.

View Details >>

Children of virtue and vengeance

Tomi Adeyemi

After Zélie and Amari bring magic back to the land of Orïsha, the monarchy and military unite to keep control of Orïsha, forcing Zélie to fight to secure Amari's right to the throne and protect the new maji from the monarchy's wrath.

View Details >>

Sweet nightmare. vol. 01

Tracy Wolffe

Most schools are about being the best. This school? It's about being the worst. Calder Academy is where the rogue paranormals go. The ones who break the rules or lose control. And when that happens for vamps, werewolves, witches, and dark fae? It gets pretty freaking scary. I should know. Because I'm trapped here. Look, every seventeen-year-old girl thinks their mom is a tyrant. But mine just happens to run Calder Academy, which paints a giant target on my back. The way I make it through these dark halls is by steering clear of the things-and kids-who go bump in the night. Especially Jude Abernathy-Lee. But when a freak storm hits our isolated island, I'm stuck without a backup plan. The power is gone. The lights are out. And our worst nightmares are suddenly real-and out for blood. Now the only way to survive is to align myself with one evil to avoid the other. And the only thing worse than the idea of getting close to Jude? Secretly loving every minute of it.

View Details >>

CHOP FRY WATCH LEARN: FU PEI-MEI AND THE MAKING OF MODERN CHINESE FOOD

Michelle Tien King

In 1949, a young Chinese housewife arrived in Taiwan and transformed herself from a novice to a natural in the kitchen. She launched a career as a cookbook author and television cooking instructor that would last four decades. Years later, in America, flipping through her mother’s copies of Fu Pei-mei’s Chinese cookbooks, historian Michelle T. King discovered more than the recipes to meals of her childhood. She found, in Fu’s story and in her food, a vivid portal to another time, when a generation of middle-class, female home cooks navigated the tremendous postwar transformations taking place across the world.

View Details >>

Silk : a history in three metamorphoses

Aarathi Prasad

In a gorgeous history that spans continents and millennia, Aarathi Prasad weaves together the complex story of the queen of fabrics. Through the scientists who have studied silk, and the biology of the animals from which it has been drawn, Prasad explores the global, natural, and cultural history (and future) of a unique material that has fascinated the world for thousands of years.

View Details >>

Every living thing : the great and deadly race to know all life

Jason Roberts

"In the 18th century, two men dedicated their lives to the same daunting task: identifying and describing all life on Earth. Their approaches could not have been more different. Carl Linnaeus, a pious Swedish doctor with a huckster's flair, believed that life belonged in tidy, static categories. Georges-Louis de Buffon, an aristocratic polymath and keeper of France's royal garden, viewed life as a dynamic swirl of complexities. Both began believing their work to be difficult, but not impossible--how could the planet possibly hold more than a few thousand species? Stunned by life's diversity, both fell far short of their goal. But in the process they articulated starkly divergent views on nature, on humanity's role in shaping the fate of our planet, and on humanity itself. The rivalry between these two unique, driven individuals created reverberations that still echo today. Linnaeus, with the help of acolyte explorers he called "apostles" (only half of whom returned alive), gave the world such concepts as mammal, primate and homo sapiens--but he also denied species change and promulgated racist pseudo-science. Buffon coined the term reproduction, formulated early prototypes of evolution and genetics, and argued passionately against prejudice. It was a clash that, during their lifetimes, Buffon seemed to be winning. But their posthumous fates would take a very different turn"-- Provided by publisher.

View Details >>

Hip-hop is history

Questlove

When hip-hop first emerged in the 1970s, it wasn’t expected to become the cultural force it is today. But for a young Black kid growing up in a musical family in Philadelphia, it was everything. He stayed up late to hear the newest songs on the radio. He saved his money to buy vinyl as soon as it landed. He even started to try to make his own songs. That kid was Questlove, and decades later, he is a six-time Grammy Award–winning musician, an Academy Award–winning filmmaker, a New York Times bestselling author, a producer, an entrepreneur, a cofounder of one of hip-hop’s defining acts (the Roots), and the genre’s unofficial in-house historian.
 

View Details >>

The Last Election

Andrew Yang

The story focuses on two characters: Mikey Ricci, a political operative who has lost faith in traditional structures following the bitter races of 2016 and 2020; and Martha Kass, the anonymous tip supervisor of the New York Times. In 2023, Ricci becomes the campaign manager of a third-party candidate who runs on a popular, centrist platform and whose frank and honest manner stands in stark contrast to the candidates of the two major parties. Ricci faces off against the massive machinery of both political parties, as well as their invested media and dark money supporters--the source of true power in America. Even so, the candidate's message begins to gain ground. In the meantime, Kass stumbles upon a plot by the current Joint Chiefs of Staff to seize power in the anticipated chaos of the coming election. She hopes it is too improbable to be taken seriously. But as the idea that Ricci's candidate might win enough electors to upset the delicate balance of America's two-party system takes hold, the threat becomes frighteningly real. Events unfold at the frenetic pace of the campaign trail, and Kass and Ricci become unlikely allies as they bear witness to what might be the end of America as a democratic republic. If no candidate can accrue the coveted majority of 270 electors, who wins? The electoral system collapses in uncertainty as Congress's role in certification becomes unfathomably complex. When no one is certain who the winner is, the stage is set for a corrupt seizure of power. Will the American experiment end?

View Details >>

Fruit of the Dead

Rachel Lyon

An electric contemporary reimagining of the myth of Persephone and Demeter set over the course of one summer on a lush private island, about addiction and sex, family and independence, and who holds the power in a modern underworld. Camp counselor Cory Ansel, eighteen and aimless, afraid to face her high-strung single mother in New York, is no longer sure where home is when the father of one of her campers offers an alternative. The CEO of a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company, Rolo Picazo is middle-aged, divorced, magnetic. He is also intoxicated by Cory. When Rolo proffers a childcare job (and an NDA), Cory quiets an internal warning and allows herself to be ferried to his private island. Plied with luxury and opiates manufactured by his company, she continues to tell herself she's in charge. Her mother, Emer, head of a teetering agricultural NGO, senses otherwise. With her daughter seemingly vanished, Emer crosses land and sea to heed a cry for help she alone is convinced she hears. Alternating between the two women's perspectives, Rachel Lyon's Fruit of the Dead incorporates its mythic inspiration with a light touch and devastating precision. The result is a tale that explores love, control, obliteration, and America's own late capitalist mythos. Lyon's reinvention of Persephone and Demeter's story makes for a haunting and ecstatic novel that vibrates with lush abandon. Readers will not soon forget it.

View Details >>

Like Love : Essays and Conversations

Maggie Nelson

A career-spanning collection of inspiring, revelrous essays about art and artists. Like Love is a momentous, raucous collection of essays drawn from twenty years of Maggie Nelson's brilliant work. These profiles, reviews, remembrances, tributes, and critical essays, as well as several conversations with friends and idols, bring to life Nelson's passion for dialogue and dissent. The range of subjects is wide--from Prince to Carolee Schneemann to Matthew Barney to Lhasa de Sela to Kara Walker--but certain themes recur: intergenerational exchange; love and friendship; feminist and queer issues, especially as they shift over time; subversion, transgression, and perversity; the roles of the critic and of language in relation to visual and performance arts; forces that feed or impede certain bodies and creators; and the fruits and follies of a life spent devoted to making. Arranged chronologically, Like Love shows the writing, thinking, feeling, reading, looking, and conversing that occupied Nelson while writing iconic books such as Bluets and The Argonauts. As such, it is a portrait of a time, an anarchic party rich with wild guests, a window into Nelson's own development, and a testament to the profound sustenance offered by art and artists.

View Details >>

Creative Homes : Evocative, Eclectic and Carefully Curated Interiors

Anna Malmberg

In Creative Homes, photographer Anna Malmberg and stylist Mari Strenghielm visit 12 unique and creative homes belonging to artists, designers, photographers, musicians, and more, many of them never before photographed. In each home, they discover how the interior reflects the creative endeavors and preoccupations of its inhabitants and gives an insight into their processes, inspirations, and way of life. The homeowners range from a couple of designers sharing a small London apartment who conceived and built their own furniture, lighting, and decorative details, to a textile artist and ceramist living in rustic seclusion on a Mallorcan farm surrounded by their artworks. Among others, Anna and Mari also explore the characterful studio/apartment of a Parisian sculptor, and the former monastery where a Sicilian artist lives and works. With glorious photographs and intriguing stories, Creative Homes is sure to inspire readers to both live, dream, and decorate creatively in their own homes.

View Details >>

Dreaming whilst Black: Season 1

Kwabena quits his dead-end recruitment job to chase his dream of becoming a filmmaker and is thrown into a world of uncertainty. Having recently met the tantalizing Vanessa, he struggles to keep up with her taste for fancy restaurants and cocktail bars by secretly taking shifts as a fast-food delivery driver. Meanwhile, his cousin has a baby on the way, meaning he needs to find a new place to live.

View Details >>

Ferrari

During the summer of 1957, bankruptcy looms over the company that Enzo Ferrari and his wife built 10 years earlier. He decides to roll the dice and wager it all on the iconic Mille Miglia, a treacherous 1,000-mile race across Italy.

View Details >>

Love Life

Taeko and her husband Jiro are living a peaceful existence with her young son Keita, when a tragic accident brings the boy's long-lost father, Park, back into her life. To cope with her pain and guilt, Taeko throws herself into helping Park, who is deaf and currently homeless. With nuanced performances and craftsmanship, this is a melodramatic and moving meditation on grief and acceptance.

View Details >>

Mikados : in history and today!

Features an impressive lineup, including narrow gauge locomotives on the East Broad Top, Durango & Silverton, and Cumbres & Tolter. Witness over 35 locomotives in action across seventeen states. Witness over 35 locomotives in action across seventeen states!

View Details >>

Aquaman and the lost kingdom

After failing to defeat Aquaman the first time, Black Manta wields the power of the mythic Black Trident to unleash an ancient and malevolent force. Hoping to end his reign of terror, Aquaman forges an unlikely alliance with his brother, Orm, the former king of Atlantis. Setting aside their differences, they join forces to protect their kingdom and save the world from irreversible destruction.

View Details >>

North Carolina's Confederate Hospitals

Wade Sokolosky

This book is an organizational examination of North Carolina's Confederate hospitals and why they existed. The first two chapters provide the reader with a general understanding of the Confederate Medical Department and the military and civilians that were essential in the day-to-day operations of a hospital. The remaining chapters are arranged chronologically and discuss the key military operations and events that occurred in the state or in Virginia that drove hospital requirements.

View Details >>

The Lost Civil War Diary of Captain John Rigdon King

Donald B. Jenkins

On a crisp fall day in October of 1862, a precocious seventeen-year-old boy went into a bookshop in his hometown of Hagerstown, Maryland, and purchased a composition book. Into his new diary, John R. King would steadfastly record what he did, saw and heard daily, as the Civil War raged around him. During May of 1862, after learning the photography trade, John took portraits of Union soldiers stationed in the Shenandoah Valley. Then, on May 23, 1862, when he heard the sounds of battle, he attempted to flee on a wagon. He was soon captured by Stonewall Jackson's troops. His treasured diary was taken. Force marched to a Confederate prison, John vowed revenge. Two weeks after escaping from captivity, John joined the Union Army. He fought with fury, courage and valor, was wounded three times and became a war hero. Later, John was not only appointed by two presidents to prestigious positions in the Pension Bureau, but he also became leader of the Grand Army of the Republic. After being lost for 150 years, his diary was recently discovered and is now being published.

View Details >>

Errol's Garden

Gillian Hibbs

Errol loves gardening, but there isn't enough room in his flat to grow everything that he would like. When he discovers a secret but neglected space at the top of the apartment block, he has a wonderful idea, but to carry it out he'll need some help. Surely the other residents will be too busy to help him realize his dream? Or just not interested enough? In this heart-warming tale of common purpose within a diverse community, Gillian Hibbs illustrates the power of the natural world to inspire and reward humanity within a seemingly inauspicious environment.

View Details >>

I Took the Moon for a Walk

Carolyn Curtis

When the day has ended and everyone else has fallen asleep, a young boy embarks on an adventure with his friend, the Moon. Their unusual journey is described in lyrical verse, creating a magical story that celebrates the serene beauty of the world at night.

View Details >>

Clarke County, Virginia Marriages, 1887-1925

Patricia B. Duncan

This book is the second in a series on marriage records of Clarke County, Virginia. The first book covered marriages from 1836 to 1886. This volume covers marriages from 1887 to 1925. The county maintained a marriage register beginning in 1865. Information on this register included the individual's age, status, names of parents, place of birth and residence, date and place of marriage, date of license, and husband's occupation, as well as additional comments as to consent, etc.

View Details >>

Amherst Papers, 1756-1763

Edith Mays

Jeffrey Amherst was Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's Forces in North America during the French and Indian War. Documents from his records relating to the war are located in the British Public Records Office as "W.O. 34: General Sir Jeffrey Amherst 1712

View Details >>

Quite Ready to Be Sent Somewhere

Aldace Freeman Walker

Native Vermonter Aldace Freeman Walker, valedictorian of Middlebury College's Class of 1862, future lawyer and Chairman of the Board of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, gave his commencement speech in the uniform of a First Lieutenant, U.S. Volunteers, and promptly set off for war. After nearly a month of initial training in Brattleboro, Vermont, Walker's regiment, the Eleventh Vermont Infantry, arrived at the Seat of War in early September 1862. For the next twenty months Walker and his regiment occupied the forts in the northeastern quadrant of the Defenses of Washington, drilling socializing and fretting that the war might pass them by.

in mid-May, 1864, as Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Potomac began the bloody Overland Campaign against Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, the Vermont "Heavies," as they came to be known, were called up to active campaigning, joined the famous "Old Vermont Brigade," in the Sixth Corps, and participated in every battle of that unit from Spotsylvania until the end of the war.

Walker's 288 letters to his parents and younger sister are regular, often long, and always lucid and opinionated, Historian Benjamin Franklin Cooling III, who has written extensively on the defenses of Washington during the Civil War, opined that " no better account of the 'life and times' of junior officers in the wartime defenses of Washington remains" than Walker's letters home.

 

View Details >>

Pumpkin Soup

Helen Cooper

By the Kate Greenaway Medalist

Deep in the woods in an old white cabin, three friends make their pumpkin soup the same way every day. The Cat slices up the pumpkin, the Squirrel stirs in the water, and the Duck tips in just enough salt. But one day the Duck wants to stir instead, and then there is a horrible squabble, and he leaves the cabin in a huff. It isn't long before the Cat and the Squirrel start to worry about him and begin a search for their friend. Rendered in pictures richly evoking autumn, Helen Cooper's delightful story will resonate for an child who has known the difficulties that come with friendship. Included at the end is a recipe for delicious pumpkin soup.

View Details >>

Fall in the Country

Sue Tarsky

Join the fun of finding and counting all the animals, flowers, and insects, as more and more appear on a lively walk through the country in the fall. Packed with repetition that young children love and that also helps them learn, this is an entertaining introduction to colors, numbers, and the seasons.

View Details >>

I Wish You Knew

Jackie Azúa Kramer

A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Children's Book of 2021

A heartfelt story that explores the aftermath of deportation, I Wish You Knew celebrates the power of connection and empathy among children.

When Estrella’s father has to leave because

he wasn’t born here, like her,

She misses him.

And she wishes people knew the way it affects her.

At home. At school.

Always.

But a school wrapped around a hundred-year-old oak tree is the perfect place to share and listen.

Some kids miss family,
Some kids are hungry,
Some kids live in shelters.

But nobody is alone.

A story about deportation, divided families, and the importance of community in the midst of uncertainty.

View Details >>

Our Class is a Family

Shannon Olsen

"Family isn't always your relatives. It's the ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile, and who love you no matter what." -Unknown

Teachers do so much more than just teach academics. They build a sense of community within their classrooms, creating a home away from home where they make their students feel safe, included, and loved.

With its heartfelt message and colorfully whimsical illustrations, "Our Class is a Family" is a book that will help build and strengthen that class community. Kids learn that their classroom is a place where it's safe to be themselves, it's okay to make mistakes, and it's important to be a friend to others. When hearing this story being read aloud by their teacher, students are sure to feel like they are part of a special family.

And currently, during such an unprecedented time when many teachers and students are not physically IN the classroom due to COVID-19 school closures, it's more important than it's ever been to give kids the message that their class is a family. Even at a distance, they still stick together.

View Details >>

This Is My Home, This Is My School

Jonathan Bean

Drawing from his own childhood experiences, Jonathan Bean takes the autobiographically inspired family he introduced in Building Our House through the special rhythms and routines of a homeschooling day in This is My Home, This is My School.

For young Jonathan and his sisters, Mom is the teacher and a whole lot more, and Dad is the best substitute any kid could want. From math, science, and field trips to recess, show-and-tell, and art, a school day with this intrepid, inventive family will seem both completely familiar and totally unique.

Includes a selection of family snapshots and a note from the author.

View Details >>

If Winter Comes, Tell It I'm Not Here

Simona Ciraolo

Despite dire predictions about winter, a child is smitten by the season's charms in this ode to living in the moment.

Nothing is better than summer, with its joys of swimming every day and eating ice cream. One little boy's older sister tells him he'd better make the most of it, because summer is going to end soon. When winter comes, she assures him, it will be cold and dark, and the icy rain will turn to snow. They'll be stuck on the sofa for days and won't even dream of eating ice cream. . . . Simona Ciraolo's expressive illustrations belie the bleak forecast with images of glowing autumn leaves, cozy couch snuggles, wintry play, and sweet desserts. A celebration of the changing of the seasons, this inviting tale shows how much fun can be found around every sunny--or snowy--corner.

View Details >>

A Big Bed for Little Snow

Grace Lin

A companion to the Caldecott Honor book A Big Mooncake for Little Star!

A heartwarming and tender picture book introducing readers to their first snow, from award-winning, bestselling author-illustrator Grace Lin.
When it was quiet, Little Snow grinned and then jumped, jumped, jumped!
Little Snow loves the new big, soft bed Mommy made him for the long, cold winter nights. But Mommy says this bed is for sleeping, not jumping! What happens when he can't resist jump, jump, jumping on his new fluffy, bouncy bed?
Bestselling and award-winning author Grace Lin artfully introduces young readers to their first snow through striking illustrations and heartwarming moments.

View Details >>

Saturday

In this warm and tender story by the Caldecott Honor-winning creator of Thank You, Omu!, join a mother and daughter on an up-and-down journey that reminds them of what's best about Saturdays: precious time together.

View Details >>

Kite Flying

Grace Lin

The family from Dim Sum for Everyone! is back for a new outing– building and flying their own kite!

The wind is blowing. It is a good day for kites! The whole family makes a trip to the local craft store for paper, glue, and paint. Everyone has a job: Ma-Ma joins sticks together. Ba-Ba glues paper. Mei-Mei cuts whiskers while Jie-Jie paints a laughing mouth. Dragon eyes are added and then everyone attaches the final touch . . . a noisemaker! Now their dragon kite is ready to fly.

Kite Flying celebrates the Chinese tradition of kite making and kite flying and lovingly depicts a family bonded by this ancient and modern pleasure.

From the Hardcover edition.

View Details >>