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FIGHT SONG

Sixteen-year-old Nópika “Nokes” Lasley is 6 feet, 2 inches tall and aspires to play hockey in the Olympics. Her mother, who died when Nokes was 5, was “a mix of Native American and First Nations descent,” but her white father has raised her apart from her mother’s relatives, insisting that she embrace whiteness. When her […]

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THE BALLAD OF THE FUGITIVE WILLIAM PARKER

Poet Aptowicz turns to the history of her native Pennsylvania with the story of William Parker, enslaved in neighboring Maryland. After having been forced to fight other enslaved men in bare-knuckle contests, a teenage William came to blows with his own enslaver. He fled, making his way to a little Quaker community across the state […]

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THE DRAGON GATE CONSPIRACY

It’s 1926, and China is in a precarious state, with Chiang Kai-shek fighting various warlords for the future of the country. The setting, Hankow, sits at the junction of the Yangtze and Han Rivers: It’s a vibrant mix of American, British, Japanese, and of course Chinese people. Young Marine 2nd Lt. Jack Gaines is part […]

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I AM KING CHAMELEON! I DEMAND TO BE SEEN!

A narrating chameleon who has quite a high opinion of himself doesn’t appreciate his camouflage capability: “I am a KING! But how can I command a king’s respect…when color-changing skin makes me so tricky to detect?!” The chameleon proceeds to regale readers with a series of springy rhymes that offer hints about his location in […]

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FLYAWAY BOY

Ten-year-old Kabir doesn’t fit the boxes everyone else does; he draws crayon monsters in his science textbook and keeps a list of things he’s not allowed to make up that includes imaginary friends, voices of aliens who live on the roof, and shadows. After a fight and a public rebuff from a popular older boy, […]

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THE PLAYBOOK

Wall Street Journal sports editor Robinson and executive news editor Clegg open with a football fanatic named Howie Roseman, who had pursued a position with a NFL team since high school. Finally hired to formulate salary-cap strategy, he became the league’s youngest ever general manager. For all his analytical savvy, Roseman was edged out of […]

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LOVE FROM AFAR

At 42, New Hampshire ski salesman Frank Cadwallader has settled into an increasingly lifeless marriage. A lifelong Quaker, he joins a peace mission to the Soviet Union, but the first cracks in his familiar world appear before he leaves—Russian lessons lead to an obsession with his alluring teacher, Olga, whose own titillating secrets prove nearly […]

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THE GIRL WHO LOVES TREES

A black-haired, peach-skinned girl visits her Grampa on the reserve. They plan to collect cedar branches to bring as an offering for drummers performing at their community feast. The young girl shares her concern that taking the branches might hurt the tree. Grandpa assures her they will snip branches sparingly and bring an offering of […]

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THE MYSTIC AND THE MISSING GIRL

Drew’s returned from Vancouver to her hometown of Stanfield after inheriting her Aunt Hannah’s store, Good Vibrations, which specializes in all things magic. In her absence, her lab partner, nerdy Nick Campbell, has morphed into a hot guy. He’s now a journalist based in Toronto, and he wants to write a story to mark the […]

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THE COUNTERREVOLUTION

“Whatever the final assessment of Trump’s second term, his achievement in recovering from ignominy and surviving the efforts of an entrenched establishment to destroy him will stand as the greatest political comeback in modern presidential history.” So exults Hanson, a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and a Trump booster from way back. Hanson is […]