The story begins, “Suddenly the lights went out”—and readers are plunged into the dark of night. The first-person narrator gathers the courage to ask their girl companion questions: “Don’t you think there’s something really beautiful about people?” “What do you think can fit in a person’s heart?” The conversation between the two ebbs and flows, […]
Carla’s thrilled that Vision Screening Day’s approaching. She hopes she’ll need glasses because no one else in class wears them. Her friend Buster scoffs, “You like to be different.” Next day, Carla’s wearing self-made purple pipe-cleaner frames. She tells Buster she wants to see what styles and colors will flatter her when she gets real […]
Canines became a fixture in Leone’s life in 1994, when her then-6-year-old son, Jesse, made it clear he wanted a dog. The author and her husband bought him a bichon frise puppy named Goody, and they nicknamed him the “Prince of Dogs.” Twelve years later—and a few months after Jesse passed away in his sleep […]
In many of Bellinger’s stories, nothing particularly notable occurs. Or rather, what occurs is commonplace and deeply, tenderly human. These often very brief stories are not concerned with grand, sweeping plots or unexpected twists; instead, they mine the complex, often fraught relationships between characters. In one story, a violinist’s “one-day stand” leads her to reflect […]
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 […]
Dougherty opens by explaining the many ways that math is applied in the real world, including online data encryption, digital animation, and even when strategizing specific plays in sports. The six subsequent chapters each focus on specific careers that center on math—being an actuary, economist, financial analyst, math teacher, physicist, and operations research analyst. Each […]
The stories in this collection plumb the performance of womanhood. Daughters, wives, girlfriends, and caretakers writ large reflect on their prescribed familial roles, their bodies, their professions, or their solitude with dry wit. Broken into three sections—“External Riots: Threats and Violence,” “Internal Riots: Secrets and Lies,” and “Laugh Riots: Growing and Trying”—the book grapples with […]
In this loose sequel to the author’s Turkey Shoot (2018), Anna Burmeister is in transition, raising her 5-year-old son, Ramadi, in Piraeus, Greece, while still mourning his father, Mahmoud, who was killed in the earlier book. Mahmoud isn’t as far away as she thinks, as he’s been denied entry to Paradise (“Where I find myself now […]
Rockler presents an overview that’s separated into chapters on anxiety, social media, body image, cyberbullying, and getting and providing help. While many stressors have long been around, social media and isolation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic are new. The author summarizes important findings showing how the pandemic has adversely affected how teens socialize and negotiate […]
Happy families are truly not all alike: “every family is unique, particularly in the United States,” due to “varying family compositions and the ethnic mixture” of the population. Currie-McGhee uses this broad diversity to explain that “statistical averages” are not the same as being “typical.” She provides relevant quotations from and brief portraits of members […]