As the book opens, the brown-skinned, dark-haired youngsters explain that “in the summer, the sun rises between buildings on our block to greet us at breakfast and it beats warmer and brighter when we venture out across steamy city sidewalks.” At noon, relief arrives as the children gleefully run through the water sprayed by a […]
In these colorful pages, the author discusses the benefits of having plenty of mud around when you’re a member of the animal kingdom. Several types of birds need mud in their everyday lives to help keep their nests sturdy and safe from predators. Macaws eat mud to calm their stomachs and counter poisons—they’re just one […]
Gwendolyn Richards bickers with her mother on a regular morning as the family is preparing to begin another day. With roosters crowing in the yard and Gwen’s dad getting ready for a humdrum shift at the nearby sugar factory, mother and daughter share local news until Gwen’s best friend, Sharon, arrives to walk with Gwen […]
Before tech took over San Francisco, before cellphones but after the terrible reign of AIDS, there were the gleeful revels of the ’90s. Tradowsky’s ornate novel is a love letter to a foggy, analog metropolis lit up with nightlife and art, queer friendship and desire, movie houses and day jobs, and 20-somethings aching to define […]
Invoking Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, O’Neill-Butler explores the subversive, surprising, and often brilliant tactics of artists fighting for social change. Ten case studies spanning five decades illustrate the original ways artists have demonstrated against unjust practices, “from protesting to philanthropy, and from wheat pasting to planting a field of wheat.” O’Neill-Butler, a former […]
Judith Drainger moves from London to Adelaide, Australia, at the age of 59 following two major life changes: the death of her domineering mother, Marigold, and her divorce. It’s a big adjustment, but Judith has been known to make such leaps before—years earlier, she sent her daughter, Cassandra, to boarding school and picked up and […]
Patterson, that industrial-strength writer, adopts a sort of semi-noir tone in this true-life procedural, opening when news of the murders of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin reaches the chief of police of Moscow, Idaho: “And again he presses harder on the gas. One good thing about being the police chief is […]
Editors Aldama and Sánchez divide the work into two major sections—“Cocinas” and “Sports y Locura”—each of which contains chapters that group works together by themes, including “Building Bridges, Building Community” and “Belonging…Dolor y Alegría.” The authors and illustrators run with the inspiration provided by food and sports, exploring the nuances of diaspora culture and belonging […]
When Dolly Parton–loving, pink cowboy boots–wearing Lark Thompson arrives in Galway for an animation gig, the last thing she expects to find is a pile of black body bags mistakenly sent to her apartment. It’s not enough that the loss of her husband follows her everywhere—grief had to live right next door. The body bags […]
Overwhelmed by her mysterious power, Maya Storm, who’s cued white, has a breakdown and begins the story while on a six-week “Grippy Sock Vacation” at a psychiatric hospital. Upon her discharge, she starts fresh at a new school, where she’s befriended by Lucy, a queer Korean American girl with a quick wit and entrepreneurial ambitions, […]