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THE FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN

Born in Canada just 12 months apart to a “young urban Indigenous couple full of dreams,” Alexander and Andria struggle with self-worth and identity in this debut by Anishinaabekweauthor Angeconeb. The “honorary twins,” Andy the painter and Ally the poet, are mirrors of each other, but despite their close connection, they keep their struggles with […]

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SOUR CHERRY

An unnamed stage actress sits in her apartment, telling her young son a fairy story. Urged on by the ghosts of blood-drenched women that only she can see, she speaks of a boy born in a stately home. A curious, perpetually hungry child with sharp nails and pointed teeth, the boy is abandoned by his […]

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COPE FIELD

After Crawford Cope hits his father with a baseball bat, he’s sentenced to 300 hours of community service—working to revamp a baseball diamond that will be named Cope Field after his famous pops, a hometown hero who played in the major leagues. Craw, who’s white, is paired with Hannah Flores, a brown-skinned, bisexual punk rocker […]

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THE ART OF WINNING

Belichick coached the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl wins, but here he targets readers in less glamorous fields. “You know the feeling of settling back at your desk and opening your email after a long vacation?” he writes. NFL coaches do—every summer when training camp starts. Belichick encourages us to view such workplace […]

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FIREWORKS

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 […]

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Mud to the Rescue! How Animals use Mud to Thrive and Survive

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 […]

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Sweet Like Sugarcane

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 […]

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MIDNIGHT AT THE CINEMA PALACE

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 […]

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THE WAR OF ART

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 […]

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BIG BLUE

Big is a dream who towers over all the other dreams in his town. In this story, they all have only two goals: to find their matching person and to help them realize their dream; when they’re successful, the dreams turn blue. As other, smaller dreams match up with their people, Big finds himself left […]