Categories
Interesting

NEIGH KID

Colt has a secret identity. By day, he’s a seemingly ordinary child, but when the neighborhood needs his help, he transforms into Neigh Kid—dressed in a horse mask, a red cape, and nothing else. He envisions himself as a majestic hero, galloping through streets on a mission to save a lost pet. However, the humorous […]

Categories
Interesting

MILLIE MAGNUS WON’T BE BULLIED

Dubbed “quirky” by her mother (an assessment readers will likely agree with), Millie narrates her own well-paced story in a flow of verbiage she often has trouble stemming. She is “the boss” but defers to her mom, who happens to be the mayor of Washington, D.C. Mayor Maude’s a single parent (Millie’s father is dead), […]

Categories
Interesting

WILDER CHILD

No shoes? No umbrella? No map? No problem. Based on a poem by Sowder (founder of Wild Child and Wildschooling, organizations dedicated to nature-based learning), this lyrical picture book celebrates the “wild children”: those who aren’t afraid to get mud under their fingernails, scramble up the rocky coastal shoreline, or get up close and personal […]

Categories
Interesting

MAMIACHI & ME

Today will be Rosa’s first time performing onstage with the group, and she’s nervous. But Mamiachi, as she sometimes calls her mother, gives her a pep talk about bravery and strength and reminds her of her namesake, Rosa Quirino, one of the first female mariachis. Donning matching pink trajes de charro, the musicians hit the […]

Categories
Interesting

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MCCRAYS?

Casey and Kyle McCray’s marriage seemed like storybook material. They began as childhood friends in Potsdam, New York, moved on to a teenage romance, and married young. For 21 years, they saw themselves as a solid team. But as this novel opens, they’re on opposite ends of the country—Kyle has fled all the way to […]

Categories
Interesting

THE PRIVATE IS POLITICAL

Early in his prescient book, legal scholar Brescia points out a stunning irony. We all know this is the era of “surveillance capitalism,” in which the internet habitually violates our virtual space. We understand that purportedly free social media companies (a.k.a. “Digital Pinkertons”) effectively exist to co-opt and sell the private data (“political privacy”) that […]

Categories
Interesting

YIN YANG LOVE SONG

Chryssy’s family is cursed. While her uncles have all had long and happy marriages, generations of Hua women—Chryssy included—have been destined never to find lasting love, experiencing everything from prom night breakups to cheating spouses. Still reeling after a broken engagement, Chryssy has thrown herself into her job as a Traditional Chinese Medicine chef and […]

Categories
Interesting

PLANET OF THE CATS

In this entertaining sequel to the SF adventure Rolo the Pet Earthling (2023), 13-year-old Rolo escapes the planet Blorx (where “hoomans” are pets) and lands on Earth, accompanied by his brainy, one-eyed, multi-limbed companion Quiggles. Expecting to meet free “hoomans,” Rolo learns that felines now dominate the Earth. After being hauled to the vet for a […]

Categories
Interesting

INDIAN GENIUS

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. […]

Categories
Interesting

TEAR THIS DOWN

Named for abolitionist Benjamin Wellstone, Freya’s cozy coastal town is very proud of its history. Reading some of Wellstone’s letters for school, she’s surprised and angered to learn that while he may have been a hero to some, he vehemently opposed women’s voting rights. Irish American Freya and her new friend Callie, who presents white […]