“’Twas the night before shinny and all through the woods, / not a maple leaf fluttered, so all was still good.” While several pale-skinned human youngsters are “nestled and snug in their beds,” the animal hockey players gather on the ice, readying themselves for a game of shinny. A blue jay serves as referee, while […]
Ever since Roxana’s mum died in a car accident four years ago, her father hasn’t been the same. When he accepts a job in America, it seems to offer a second chance at happiness. Roxana’s older sister, Azar, stays in England, while she and her younger brother, Ehsan, travel with Dad—although in just six weeks, […]
Older sister Rikki, who’s “almost double digits,” is often tasked with keeping an eye on her rambunctious younger sister, Rai, a freshly minted 8-year-old. Rai suffers from asthma and frequently misses school, but Rikki has had perfect attendance since kindergarten. While the girls frequently bicker over chores and pocket money, they always stand up for […]
A redheaded child describes his “busy body,” including his green eyes that help him see, his nose that helps him smell warm, fresh-baked cookies, and his mouth, with which he laughs, yawns, and enjoys eating his favorite treats. He counts the hairs on his baby brother Paul’s head, swims, jumps, and plays sports, and he […]
Clad in a street-cool outfit (blue sweatpants, black T-shirt beneath a sleeveless undershirt, and a plaid shirt knotted at the waist), a golden retriever–ish pooch struts confidently center stage, demonstrating a series of dance moves. A white dog with floppy ears and tan spots, wearing leggings and shorts, waits in the wings gazing admiringly. Perfectly […]
Kelly joins a new gym run by the Olympic coach, but she’s unsure of herself in the shadow of her “bubbly, / beautiful, confident” best friend, Jenny. Through Jenny, she meets Brandon, a cute boy she believes she doesn’t have a chance with since she’s “‘stocky.’ / And sad.” Kelly is devastated over the recent […]
Award-winning naturalist, poet, and painter Kaufmann (The California Field Atlas, 2017, etc.) invites readers to redefine stewardship of the earth, by uniting “ecological science, ethical responsibility, and the needs of the human community” with the needs and intelligences of the non-human community. Ethical responsibility is central to an “ecological philosophy” that may lead to “people […]
This novel, its author writes, “was born out of the real grief of the West Nickel Mines schoolhouse shooting,” when a gunman shot 10 girls at an Amish school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. While this book begins on that terrible morning in October, 2006, it doesn’t indulge in any violence, quickly switching to the voice of […]
Hunter Long, a former professional boxer, has worked hard to make his own way at the CIA, despite constant comparisons between his own career and that of his late grandfather, an agency legend. Hunter receives a classified briefing one day and learns that a notorious Russian operative, Victor Chernov, is actually a double agent who’s […]
In a hard-hitting book characterized by careful research and documentation, two-time Pulitzer winner Rohde, author of In Deep and Endgame, delineates how the Trump White House violated well-established post-Watergate norms about judicial conduct, upending and devaluing the work of the DOJ. The trajectory of the successful attempts to sway judicial philosophy started in the first […]