Kimberly Valva is the world’s most unlikely hired killer. Self-employed graphic designers who make ends meet by serving guests at country clubs and praying to put away enough money for the surgery that would save their ailing goldendoodles’ lives don’t fit the profile. But Kim’s unlikely credentials, combined with her need for quick cash, may […]
Five years ago, in 1984, Viktoria made a horrible mistake—during a moment of distraction, she let her 5-year-old sister disappear in the bog behind their house, a place where such events are common. Now Anna has returned, but she hasn’t aged. She can’t explain where she’s been, and the bog seems to call her back. […]
It’s the start of summer, and Jill’s family has decided to celebrate by going on their annual boating trip to Lake Koda. The day starts with laughter as the kids soak in the sun, water ski, and build sandcastles. All seems perfect, and after lunch at their favorite cove, the group splits up for a […]
Unlike most kids’ nonfiction about cetaceans, this book focuses on just one meaningful episode, an extraordinary encounter between a whale pod and humans. In 2014, freedivers Fred Buyle and Kurt Amsler floated among sperm whales in the Azores and, noticing that a calf had been born mere minutes earlier, photographed and filmed the animals. This […]
Marie Jones was a social worker from Staten Island, but that was before she transformed herself into a private investigator, got a divorce, and moved to Manhattan. When she wears a blond wig, fake teeth, and red lipstick, she’s Luella van Horn, a glamorous detective capable of locating any lost dog. But then she gets […]
Several months have passed since Matilde, Sayer, Æsa, and Fen escaped the Red Hand, a fanatical religious cult leader, by channeling elemental magic like the Fyrebirds of old. The four new Fyrebirds are now physically and emotionally distanced, however. In the Illish Isles, Æsa secretly practices amplifying fledgling girls’ abilities and wrestles with her family’s […]
Little lamb Nathaniel is lost. He remembers wanting to play, and perhaps running away from something, but he’s not sure how he ended up in a scary castle with his wool such a dirty mess. Things get much worse, though, when a dragon shows up. It threateningly tells Nathaniel that there’s nowhere to hide, and […]
For the past few weeks, a man has been following Angel and her family around. They live in the town of Bayfield, on the banks of Lake Superior, in a dystopian successor nation to the United States known as the Protectorate, governed by the authoritarian Galt Corporation. When Angel finally confronts the man, he tells […]
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was, as Brown explains here, “almost certainly the most lethal piece of legislation to ever clear Congress.” In reversing the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and allowing slavery to expand into vast new western territories, the act deepened divisions between North and South and pushed the country toward civil war. This […]
Rachel can never let a noteworthy update escape the group chat. From hot-yoga blackouts to hot guys wearing loafers without socks, Rachel and her friends Eva, Sumira, and Amy lay it all out over text. Out of the four girls, Rachel is by far the chattiest of the chat—but why wouldn’t she be? Rachel’s mom […]