Delicate watercolor and colored pencil illustrations depict a view of an initially quiet Korean town, while clever second-person text directly addresses readers and the protagonist: “Wake up, Eunny! It’s a beautiful, blue sky morning.” With a gentleness that matches her soft yet precise artwork, Kim invites readers to participate in Eunny’s activities (“Can you hear […]
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 […]
D.’s parents migrated to the United States when he was six months old, so for the next 13 years of his life, he grows up in the care of his grandmother, whom he calls Tía, and his uncle Felipe. After his uncle and his grandmother both die tragically, in quick succession, the author and his […]
Alex Mercer’s childhood has been far from idyllic. Orphaned as a child in southeastern Europe and eventually landing in the U.S., she endured a horrific foster family experience before ending up with a couple living in the San Francisco Bay area, who’d recently emigrated from South Korea. Now 18 and a freshman in computer engineering […]
Madeline Hill finds her life exhausting, but mostly plentiful, having built her family’s little organic farm in Tennessee into a destination for foodies and families alike. But the chip on her shoulder comes rushing back when her half brother Reuben shows up in a PT Cruiser with a trunkful of family secrets about her deadbeat […]
Three young Black friends mingle amid the crowd, “our hearts…full of love / as we move to the beats / pumping into the air.” Rainbow flags swirl around the protagonists, sending a message of love and inclusivity. Suddenly, rain clouds appear, drenching the participants and shifting the palette to hues of blacks and grays. The […]
Born Malcolm Little in Nebraska in 1925, he grew up in a household that openly defied white supremacy. In 1931, his dad died in an incident the police ruled accidental; his mom, however, believed her husband was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan offshoot called the Black Legion. Traumatized, Malcolm engaged in criminal behavior and […]
In truth, it’s quite a while before Mike takes center stage because half of these stories are told to him by his friend and mentor, retired warden Charley Stevens, whose narratives are provoked by events in the present. In “The Bear Trap,” Charley goes hunting for Sweet Tooth, a hermit who’s reported to have carried […]
The people of the kingdom of Glyndoria have yet to learn the shocking truth that Persephone and Azriel discovered about Mordesius’ role in the current king’s birth. Hoping to avoid execution, Azriel strikes a bargain with the Regent Mordesius: He and Princess Persephone will find the healing Pool of Genezing, which may only be the […]
Now that Susan’s back from Crete and her latest romance, her boss at Causton Books, Michael Flynn, wants her to work with Eliot Crace, a failed mystery author who’s writing a sequel to the late Alan Conway’s tales of detective Atticus Pünd, which she knows far too much about already. As she reads Eliot’s first […]