This gray-haired, bespectacled, very chic grandmother “kvells” over every wonderful thing about the child (a glossary defines kvelling as “bursting with pride”). They play peek-a-boo, and Grandma hugs, kisses, and cuddles the little one. Baby’s every expression is met with excitement and joy, and Grandma decides that even the infant’s smiles are evidence of genius. […]
In 1787, Mary Wollstonecraft is fired from her position as governess of three young women on the charge of being overly progressive; the incident is a microcosm of her uphill struggle to affect “an end to women’s blind obedience.” She returns to London to pursue her ambition to become a writer, and with the encouragement […]
Death and complications define Angie Sheehan’s life. At 17, she witnesses her younger sister, Diana, die in a ski accident that also injures her own boyfriend, Julian. She eventually leaves to become an artist in New York City, but just as her career begins to blossom, her father develops cancer and Angie moves back to […]
Sisters Debbi and Vicki Peterson had been honing their musical chops for years as drummer and guitarist, respectively, in Southern California rock bands before forming the classic lineup of the Bangles in the early 1980s with guitarist Susanna Hoffs and bassist Michael Steele, a founding member of ’70s rockers the Runaways. The four women found […]
“Good golden sun, / where have you been? / We’ve been waiting in the dark, / eager for your glow again.” Relying on gentle soft rhymes, an unseen narrator poses a series of questions to the sun. “Do you think about the scary things that sometimes lie in wait?” “Won’t you lend me some milk […]
A central paradox of the modern era is that we are becoming more unhappy even though, compared with hunter-gatherers, “the comforts, safety, and ease of our existence make us the equivalent of multimillionaires.” So says von Hippel, a longtime professor of psychology, who delved into sociology, anthropology, and biology for some answers. He argues that […]
Ananda’s mother regales her with stories about how the river springs from a Himalayan glacier and is revered as a goddess. She tells her that the Ganga is “the greatest mother of all.” When Mamma falls ill, Ananda and her aunt travel to bathe in the Ganga’s healing waters and pray for her. As they […]
Keira has fought and defeated powerful forces of evil in the past, but now she faces what may be the hardest battle of her life. She’s been targeted by the hired killers of the Artec corporation, which uses dead people to generate cheap electricity, “human batteries, condemned to writhe and scream and beg, without anyone […]
Arceneaux was the first pediatric cancer survivor and the first with a prosthetic body part to become an astronaut, part of the first all-civilian space mission in 2021. The author, who in 2022 published the adult memoir Wild Ride and its 2023 adaptation for middle-grade readers, here shares her story with an even younger audience. […]
When Ahamed arrived in suburban Boston in 1970, she felt “an acute sense of disappointment,” she writes. “What were these quaint, old-fashioned houses doing in the land that had sent men and rocket ships to the moon?” The silence of her new home made her long for the noise and liveliness of her native India. […]