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Relit

Sandra Proudman

These sixteen stories by award-winning and bestselling YA authors center a Latinx point of view in an empowering anthology that reimagines classics through fantasy, science fiction, and with a dash of magic, for fans of A PHOENIX FIRST MUST BURN and RECLAIM THE STARS



In classic stories remixed, Latinx characters take center stage



Pride and Prejudice is launched into outer space, Frankenstein is plunged into the depths of the ocean, and The Great Gatsby floats to an island off the coast of Costa Rica.



A shape-shifter gives up her life to save the boy she loves from an evil bruja. La Ciguapa covets a little mermaid's heart of gold. Two star-crossed teens fall in love while the planet burns around them.



Whether characters fall in love, battle foes, or grow through grief, each story will empower readers to see themselves as the heroes of the stories that make our world.



Featuring original stories from:
 

  • Olivia Abtahi
  • David Bowles
  • Zoraida Córdova
  • Saraciea J. Fennell
  • Raquel Vasquez Gilliland
  • Torrey Maldonado
  • Jasminne Mendez
  • Anna Meriano
  • Amparo Ortiz
  • Laura Pohl
  • Sandra Proudman
  • NoNieqa Ramos
  • Monica Sanz
  • Eric Smith
  • Ari Tison
  • Alexandra Villasante

 

 

 

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Dear Younger Me

Elisa Boxer

An inspiring book for young adult readers that Kirkus Reviews says offers "many inspiring, resilient role models along with encouraging advice to take away."

A fascinating group of women from all walks of life share their inspirations, advice, and what they wish they'd known when they were younger.

If you could go back and share words of wisdom with your younger self, what would you want to say? Thirty-five barrier-breaking women answer that question in the empowering new young adult anthology Dear Younger Me: What 35 Trailblazing Women Wish They'd Known as Girls. Emmy Award-winning journalist Elisa Boxer delivers in-depth profiles of these inspirational women, detailing their struggles and achievements and featuring a personal message from each woman written just for this book. The women include activists, entrepreneurs, a Holocaust survivor, WWII code breaker, author, educator, musician, athlete, politicians, scientists, and more.

Featuring well-known trailblazers such as Nancy Pelosi, Gabby Giffords, and Sheryl Sandberg alongside lesser-known yet equally important women from all walks of life, Dear Younger Me will inspire readers of all ages to tap into their courage, find their voice, embrace failure as an opportunity to grow, stand up for what they believe in, and be the best version of themselves.

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The Black Girl Survives in This One

Desiree S. Evans

INSTANT INDIE BESTSELLER

A YA anthology of horror stories centering Black girls who battle monsters, both human and supernatural, and who survive to the end


Be warned, dear reader: The Black girls survive in this one.

Celebrating a new generation of bestselling and acclaimed Black writers, The Black Girl Survives in This One makes space for Black girls in horror. Fifteen chilling and thought-provoking stories place Black girls front and center as heroes and survivors who slay monsters, battle spirits, and face down death. Prepare to be terrified and left breathless by the pieces in this anthology.

The bestselling and acclaimed authors include Erin E. Adams, Monica Brashears, Charlotte Nicole Davis, Desiree S. Evans, Saraciea J. Fennell, Zakiya Dalila Harris, Daka Hermon, Justina Ireland, L.L. McKinney, Brittney Morris, Maika & Maritza Moulite, Eden Royce, and Vincent Tirado. The foreword is by Tananarive Due.

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Safe Passage

G. Neri

From Coretta Scott King Honor-winning author of Yummy G. Neri comes an epic journey across the South Side of Chicago for Darius, his little sister Cissy, and his best friend Booger as they set out to find an armored truck that has lost a payload of cash.

Thirteen-year-old Darius is going through a rough time. It's almost been a year since a terrible act of violence took the life of his mother and left him with a wound both in his leg and in his heart. With his stepdad out of work; his little sister, Cissy, always on his case; and the looming prospect of foreclosure on their house, he feels his world closing in on him.

But Darius's best friend, Booger, has a plan. A Brinks armored truck has crashed on a nearby highway and money is blowing everywhere. If they can get across town and back safely, they just might get rich! But to do it, they need to cross through some of the most dangerous streets in Chicago, staying ahead of the gangs that rule those neighborhoods.

Before long, their adventures blow up on social media as Booger documents their search for riches, and everyone is after them. Can they get home without falling victim to the violence of the streets? Sometimes, on the streets of Chicago, there is no Safe Passage.

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I Feel Awful, Thanks

Lara Pickle

"Written from the heart and personal experience, Pickle’s debut is a compelling effort to help young adults feel seen through an imaginative delve into familiar psychological challenges." —Library Journal

"[T]he charming art and worldbuilding bolster the reassuring message that 'it’s okay to not be okay.' Readers will be won over." —Publishers Weekly

A lushly illustrated debut graphic novel that explores the hardfought journey of self-acceptance in a complex world of swirling emotions and powerful potions.


Joana has dragons inside her. Can she tame them before they burn her life down?

Joana is a young witch who secured her dream job with a coven in London, her favorite city, where she can dedicate herself to creating potions, her favorite activity! However, she will soon discover the reality of city life is not so idyllic. Finding a flat is an ordeal, her “dream job” is stressful, and she’s totally alone. Little by little, she makes her place, but fatigue, sadness, and doubts threaten to topple her hard-earned success . . . until she starts talking to a professional who helps her realize in order to take care of herself, she must know herself.

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The Last Boyfriends Rules for Revenge

Matthew Hubbard

A queer coming-of-age about three teenage boys in small town Alabama who set out to get revenge on their ex-boyfriends and end up starting a student rebellion. Perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli and Jason June!

Ezra Hayes has always felt like a background character compared to BFFs Lucas and Finley. He would do anything to be seen as a romantic lead, even if it means keeping his boyfriend, Presley, a secret. But when he discovers that Presley is a lying cheater, and his best friends are having boy problems of their own, they want revenge.

Their plans to get even involve sabotaging the largest party of the year, entering a drag competition, and even having Ezra run against his ex for Winter Formal King. Then the school district starts to actively censor queer voices with their Watch What You Say initiative. Taking to TikTok to vent frustrations, Ezra begins “The Last Boyfriends Student Rebellion.”

Between ex-boyfriend drama and navigating viral TikTok fame, Ezra realizes this rebellion is about something more important than revenge. It’s a battle cry to fight back against outdated opinions and redefine what it means to be queer in small town Alabama.

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The Breakup Lists

Adib Khorram

Love is more complicated than “boy meets boy” in bestselling author Adib Khorram’s sharply funny new romantic comedy, set in the sordid world of high school theater

Jackson Ghasnavi is a lot of things—a techie, a smoothie afficionado, a totally not obsessive list-maker—but one thing he’s not is a romantic. And why would he be? He’s already had a front row seat to his parents’ divorce and picked up the pieces of his sister Jasmine’s broken heart one too many times.

No, Jackson is perfectly happy living life behind the scenes—he is a stage manager, after all—and keeping his romantic exploits limited to the breakup lists he makes for Jasmine, which chronicle every flaw (real or imagined) of her various and sundry exes.

Enter Liam: the senior swim captain turned leading man that neither of the Ghasnavi siblings stop thinking about. Not that Jackson has a crush, of course. Jasmine is already setting her sights on him and he’s probably—no, definitely—straight anyway.

So why does the idea of eventually writing a breakup list for him feel so impossible?

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ASAP

Axie Oh

 

 

New York Times bestselling author Axie Oh's ASAP is the much anticipated companion novel to beloved romance XOXO, following fan favorites Sori, the wealthy daughter of a K-pop company owner, and Nathaniel, her K-pop star ex-boyfriend, in a swoon-worthy second chance love story.

 

 

Sori has worked her whole life to become a K-pop idol, until she realizes she doesn't want a life forever in the spotlight. But that's not actually up to Sori--she's caught between her exacting mother's entertainment company and her father's presidential aspirations. And as the pressure to keep her flawless public image grows, the last person she should be thinking about is her ex-boyfriend.

Nathaniel is off limits--she knows this. A member of one of the biggest K-pop bands in the world and forbidden from dating, he isn't any more of an option now than he was two years ago. Still, she can't forget that their whirlwind romance was the last time she remembers being really happy. Or that his family welcomed her into their home when she needed it most. . . .

So when Nathaniel finds himself rocked by scandal, Sori offers him a hideaway with her. And back in close quarters, it's hard to deny their old feelings. But when Sori gets an opportunity to break free from her parent's expectations, she will have to decide: Is her future worth sacrificing for a second chance at love

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Canto Contigo

Jonny Garza Villa

When a Mariachi star transfers schools, he expects to be handed his new group's lead vocalist spot—what he gets instead is a tenacious current lead with a very familiar, very kissable face.

In a twenty-four-hour span, Rafael Alvarez led North Amistad High School’s Mariachi Alma de la Frontera to their eleventh consecutive first-place win in the Mariachi Extravaganza de Nacional; and met, made out with, and almost hooked up with one of the cutest guys he’s ever met.

Now eight months later, Rafie’s ready for one final win. What he didn’t plan for is his family moving to San Antonio before his senior year, forcing him to leave behind his group while dealing with the loss of the most important person in his life—his beloved abuelo. Another hitch in his plan: The Selena Quintanilla-Perez Academy’s Mariachi Todos Colores already has a lead vocalist, Rey Chavez—the boy Rafie made out with—who now stands between him winning and being the great Mariachi Rafie's abuelo always believed him to be. Despite their newfound rivalry for center stage, Rafie can’t squash his feelings for Rey. Now he must decide between the people he’s known his entire life or the one just starting to get to know the real him.

Canto Contigo is a love letter to Mexican culture, family and legacy, the people who shape us, and allowing ourselves to forge our own path. At its heart, this is one of the most glorious rivals-to-lovers romance about finding the one who challenges you in the most extraordinary ways.

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The Skull Dragon's Precious Daughter Vol. 1

Ichi Yukishiro

A wholesome fantasy tale-first published digitally in English by J-Novel Club-about family bonds that transcend species!

In a faraway land, there exists a forest where all manner of beings go to dispose of their trash. One day, a young girl named Eve is abandoned along with the usual debris, but she is quickly found by an aging dragon who decides to take her in and raise her as its own. Under this ancient being's watchful eye, Eve grows up happy and healthy, but soon their peaceful life together is interrupted by impending tragedy. Yet months later, Eve does something truly astonishing for the sake of reuniting with her dragon guardian...

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The Someday Daughter

Ellen O'Clover

 

 

Perfect for fans of Rachel Lynn Solomon, Mary H. K. Choi, and Alex Light! From the critically acclaimed author of Seven Percent of Ro Devereux comes another heartrending and nuanced novel about family, love, and the cost of ambition.

 

 

"A compelling, beautifully drawn exploration into complicated family and personal relationships and the frailty and fortitude of a girl simply trying to succeed, love, and thrive. I'm proud to live in a book world where Ellen O'Clover is writing contemporary young adult fiction. The Someday Daughter is a forever treasure." --Laura Taylor Namey, New York Times bestselling author of A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow

Audrey St. Vrain has grown up in the shadow of someone who doesn't actually exist. Before she was born, her mother, Camilla St. Vrain, wrote the bestselling book Letters to My Someday Daughter, a guide to self-love that advises treating yourself like you would your own hypothetical future daughter. The book made Audrey's mother a household name, and she built an empire around it.

While the world considers Audrey lucky to have Camilla for a mother, the truth is that Audrey knows a different side of being the someday daughter. Shipped off to boarding school when she was eleven, she feels more like a promotional tool than a member of Camilla's family. Audrey is determined to create her own identity aside from being Camilla's daughter, and she's looking forward to a prestigious summer premed program with her boyfriend before heading to college and finally breaking free from her mother's world.

But when Camilla asks Audrey to go on tour with her to promote the book's anniversary, Audrey can't help but think that this is the last, best chance to figure out how they fit into each other's lives--not as the someday daughter and someday mother but as themselves, just as they are. What Audrey doesn't know is that spending the summer with Camilla and her tour staff--including the disarmingly honest, distressingly cute video intern, Silas--will upset everything she's so carefully planned for her life.

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Dead Things Are Closer Than They Appear

Robin Wasley

A painfully average teen’s life is upended by a magical apocalypse in this darkly atmospheric and sweepingly romantic novel perfect for fans of The Raven Boys, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The Rest of Us Just Live Here.

High school is hard enough to survive without an apocalypse to navigate.

Sid Spencer has always been the most normal girl in her abnormal hometown, a tourist trap built over one of the fault lines that seal magic away from the world. Meanwhile, all Sid has to deal with is hair-ruining humidity, painful awkwardness, being one of four Asians in town, and her friends dumping her when they start dating each other—just days after one of the most humiliating romantic rejections faced by anyone, ever, in all of history.

Then someone kills one of the Guardians who protect the seal. The earth rips open and unleashes the magic trapped inside. Monsters crawl from the ground, no one can enter or leave, and the man behind it all is roaming the streets with a gang of violent vigilantes. Suddenly, Sid’s life becomes a lot less ordinary. When she finds out her missing brother is involved, she joins the remaining Guardians, desperate to find him and close the fault line for good.

Fighting through hordes of living corpses and uncontrollable growths of forest, Sid and a ragtag crew of would-be heroes are the only thing standing between their town and the end of the world as they know it. Between magic, murderers, and burgeoning crushes, Sid must survive being a perfectly normal girl caught in a perfectly abnormal apocalypse.

Only—how can someone so ordinary make it in such an extraordinary world?

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Trajectory

Cambria Gordon

Perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah and Sharon Cameron, this is the stirring and dramatic story of one young woman who must find a way to overcome her deepest fears in order to unlock the secret that will help America and the Allies to victory as World War II rages on.

 

Seventeen-year-old Eleanor is nothing like her hero Eleanor Roosevelt. She is timid and all together uncertain that she has much to offer the world. And as World War II rages overseas, Eleanor is consumed with worry for her Jewish relatives in Europe. When a chance encounter proves her to be a one-in-a-generation math whiz--a fact she has worked hard all her life to hide--Eleanor gets recruited by the US Army and entrusted with the ultimate challenge: to fine-tune a top-secret weapon that will help America defeat its enemies in World War II and secure the world's freedom. This could be her chance to help save her family in Poland.

Soon, she's swept from the basement of an Ivy League engineering school, to the desert of California, to an Army Air Corps base at Pearl Harbor, and finally she takes to the skies above the South Pacific.

But before she can solve this complicated problem, she must learn to unlock a bigger mystery: herself.

Critically acclaimed author of The Poetry of Secrets, Cambria Gordon weaves an extraordinary story of remarkable courage and the will to unearth our deepest secrets, based on previously undiscovered true events.

 

Advance praise for Trajectory:

"Cambria Gordon's careful attention to setting and detail brings an unknown and surprising history vividly to life--and draws thought-provoking parallels to the present." --Amanda McCrina, author of Traitor and The Silent Unseen

"Hidden Figures meets Code Name Verity in Trajectory, a richly detailed historical novel about Eleanor, a gifted female mathematician under pressure to get the results of her calculations right at the height of World War II. With members of her own Jewish family suffering a terrible fate in Europe, Eleanor is determined to make a difference--even if it means facing her fears head-on. I couldn't put this down!" --Kip Wilson, award-winning author of White Rose and The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin

"Well-paced and immersive, Trajectory takes readers on an exciting journey from Philadelphia to the California desert to the skies over the Pacific theater in the Second World War. Equally powerful is Eleanor's journey from timid high school senior hiding her math ability to problem solver unafraid to stand up to superiors and skeptics in pursuit of the Allies' victory. Gordon's novel honors the long-ignored women who helped make that victory happen." --Lyn Miller-Lachmann, author of Torch, winner of the 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for YA Literature.

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Dragonfruit

Makiia Lucier

From acclaimed author Makiia Lucier, a dazzling, romantic fantasy inspired by Pacific Island mythology.

In the old tales, it is written that the egg of a seadragon, dragonfruit, holds within it the power to undo a person's greatest sorrow. But as with all things that offer hope when hope had gone, the tale came with a warning.

Every wish demands a price.

Hanalei of Tamarind is the cherished daughter of an old island family. But when her father steals a seadragon egg meant for an ailing princess, she is forced into a life of exile. In the years that follow, Hanalei finds solace in studying the majestic seadragons that roam the Nominomi Sea. Until, one day, an encounter with a female dragon offers her what she desires most. A chance to return home, and to right a terrible wrong.

Samahtitamahenele, Sam, is the last remaining prince of Tamarind. But he can never inherit the throne, for Tamarind is a matriarchal society. With his mother ill and his grandmother nearing the end of her reign. Sam is left with two choices: to marry, or to find a cure for the sickness that has plagued his mother for ten long years. When a childhood companion returns from exile, she brings with her something he has not felt in a very long time-hope.

But Hanalei and Sam are not the only ones searching for the dragonfruit. And as they battle enemies both near and far, there is another danger they cannot escape...that of the dragonfruit itself.

 

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The Misdirection of Fault Lines

Anna Gracia

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants goes to the French Open in an emotionally honest and openhearted novel for fans of Yamile Saied Méndez and Mary HK Choi.

Three teen girls compete at an elite tennis tournament for a shot at their dreams—if only they knew what their dreams were.


Alice is on her own for the first time. She has no coach. No friends. Not even clothes that meet the Bastille Invitational’s strict dress code. There’s only the steady drumbeat of guilt inside—pressure to make the tournament’s costly expense “worth it” in the wake of Ba’s unexpected passing. But will a win on court justify the price she paid to get here?

Violetta is Bastille’s darling: social media influencer, coach’s pet, and daughter of a former tennis star who fell from grace. Bastille is her chance to reclaim the future her mother gave up to raise her. But is that what she wants for herself?

Leylah hasn’t competed in two years, thanks to a back-stabbing ex-friend. Bastille is her last chance to prove she’s ready for a life of professional tennis. But will her fixation on past wrongs keep her from reclaiming her rightful place at the top?
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One week at the elite Bastille Invitational tennis tournament will decide their futures. If only the competition between them stayed on the court.

The Misdirection of Fault Lines is an incisive coming-of-age story, infused with wit and wisdom, about three Asian American teen girls trying to find their ways forward, backward, and in some cases, back to each other again. Anna Gracia, acclaimed author of Boys I Know, delivers with a refreshingly true-to-life teen voice that perfectly captures the messiness of adolescence and the pressures of expectation.

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The Pear Affair

Judith Eagle

When Nell Magnificent's awful parents go to Paris for a business trip, she surprises them by tagging along. But Nell isn't planning on hanging around. The city is hiding someone very dear to her. Someone Nell affectionately calls Pear. Somone Nell is determined to find... And so Nell runs away on an epic mission during which she befriends bellboys, camps out in the laundry rooms of luxurious hotels and races through underground tunnels and catacombs... All to discover that the mystery behind Pear's disappearance leads to an even greater mystery... one that might implicate the whole of Paris.

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Continental Drifter

Kathy MacLeod

“A fantastic story about the awkward feelings of being from neither here nor there."
—Dan Santat, National Book Award winner and author of A First Time for Everything


With a Thai mother and an American father, Kathy lives in two different worlds. She spends most of the year in Bangkok, where she’s secretly counting the days till summer vacation. That’s when her family travels for twenty-four hours straight to finally arrive in a tiny seaside town in Maine.

Kathy loves Maine’s idyllic beauty and all the exotic delicacies she can’t get back home, like clam chowder and blueberry pie. But no matter how hard she tries, she struggles to fit in. She doesn’t look like the other kids in this
rural New England town. Kathy just wants to find a place where she truly belongs, but she’s not sure if it’s in America, Thailand . . . or anywhere.

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Select

Christie Matheson

One girl and her soccer team take a stand against the bullies who push them too far in this brave, inspiring novel that celebrates girl power and the true spirit of sports. Perfect for readers who love The Crossover and Fighting Words.

"A tale of terrific girl power and athleticism." —Kirkus Reviews

Twelve-year-old Alex loves playing soccer, and she’s good at it, too. Very good. When her skills land her a free ride to play for Select, an elite soccer club, it feels like a huge opportunity. Joining Select could be the key to a college scholarship and a bright future—one that Alex’s family can’t promise her.

But as the team gets better and better, her new coach pushes the players harder and harder, until soccer starts to feel more like punishment than fun. And then there comes a point where enough is enough, and Alex and her teammates must take a stand to find a better way to make their soccer dreams come true.

Powerful and inspiring, Select explores the important difference between positive and negative coaching and celebrates the true spirit of sports.

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The Wrong Way Home

Kate O'Shaughnessy

Twelve-year-old Fern believes she's living a noble life--but what if everything she's been told is a lie? This is a huge-hearted story about a girl learning to question everything—and to trust in herself.

Fern’s lived at the Ranch, an off-the-grid, sustainable community in upstate New York, since she was six. The work is hard, but Fern admires the Ranch's leader, Dr. Ben. So when Fern’s mother sneaks them away in the middle of the night and says Dr. Ben is dangerous, Fern doesn't believe it. She wants desperately to go back, but her mom just keeps driving.

Suddenly thrust into the treacherous, toxic, outside world, Fern thinks only about how to get home again. She has a plan, but it will take time. As that time goes by, though, Fern realizes there are things she will miss from this place—the library, a friend from school, the ocean—and there are things she learned at the Ranch that are just...not true.

Now Fern will have to decide. How much is she willing to give up to return to the Ranch? Should she trust Dr. Ben’s vision for her life? Or listen to the growing feeling that she can live by her own rules?

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The Violin

Mary Auld

A beautifully illustrated story bringing to life all that is wonderful about the violin. Created in partnership with, and featuring music downloads by, the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO).

Follow violinist, Lilu, as she prepares for her concert performances and uncovers more about the violin. Discover how the instrument is made, how it is played and its role within the orchestra. Get swept up in the magic of the music as Lilu rehearses for a dream summer evening performance.

With panels that offer suggestions for music to listen to and exclusive music to download from the LSO, this is a multi-sensory experience in which to enjoy and learn about the violin. From the creative team behind the award-winning book How to Build an Orchestra.

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Turtles of the Midnight Moon

María José Fitzgerald

When poachers threaten the island they love, two girls team up to save the turtles—and each other. An eco-mystery with an unforgettable friendship story at its heart from a fresh new voice in middle grade.

Twelve-year-old Barana lives in a coastal village in Honduras, where she spends every spare minute visiting the sea turtles that nest on the beach.

Abby is feeling adrift in sixth grade, trying to figure out who she is and where she belongs after her best friend moved away from New Jersey.

When Abby’s papi plans a work trip to Honduras, she is finally given the opportunity to see his homeland—with Barana as her tour guide. But Barana has other plans: someone has been poaching turtle eggs, and she’s determined to catch them! Before long, Abby and Barana are both consumed by the mystery, chasing down suspects, gathering clues, and staking out the beach in the dead of night. . . . Will they find a way to stop the poachers before it’s too late?

A heart-pounding mystery with a hint of magic, María José Fitzgerald’s debut novel explores the power of friendship, community, and compassion to unite all living creatures.

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Trim Saves the Day

Deborah Hopkinson

One small kitten learns about the great big world as he sets sail with his fellow shipmates, animal and human, in this historical fiction intermediate reader.

Trim likes being part of the ship’s crew. The captain says that everyone has a jobs they do alone and other times they help each other out. And if there’s a big problem, then it’s all hands on deck.

But what is Trim’s job? He really wants to help, but everyone is very busy. Penny is helping the sailors mop the deck, so Trim decides to mop too. Swish! Swish! SWISH! Trim gets water everywhere. Jack is helping the captain steer the ship, so Trim thinks he can steer too. Whee! Whee! WHEE! But there’s not enough room on the wheel. Doesn’t anyone have a job for a kitten who really wants to help?

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Mango Memories

Sita Singh

Here is a completely captivating picture book that celebrates family, tradition...and mangoes!

Every summer, the branches of a little girl's favorite tree droops heavy with mangoes. And this year, she is finally old enough to help her family harvest them.

Her brother shares a memory about his first time mango picking: his father holding him steady as he reached high above for the fruit. But when the girl climbs the tree, she becomes too dizzy. Then her grandma shares a mango memory: learning, many years ago, to toss a stone that knocked the fruit from the branches. But when the girl throws her stone, she keeps missing.

How can this little heroine create her own mango memory if she can't even pick a mango?

Narrated by a determined young Indian child, and set in a lush mango grove, here is a picture book that honors generational traditions and beautifully introduces young readers to a culture with which they may not be familiar.

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Ramadan Kareem

M. O. Yuksel

From M. O. Yuksel and Hatem Aly, the acclaimed creators of the award-winning In My Mosque, comes Ramadan Kareem--a delightful, diverse celebration of Ramadan around the world. Don't miss this modern classic that celebrates the emotions and joy of this important holiday.

Come in and experience the sacred traditions of Ramadan, the Islamic month of mercy and blessings, with children and families from across the globe. From waking up early for suhoor and fasting from dawn to dusk to praying and preparing an iftar meal to be shared, Ramadan is a time of increased spirituality, gratitude, charity, and empathy for all.

With warm, lyrical text from M. O. Yuksel and richly detailed artwork from New York Times bestselling illustrator Hatem Aly, this is a must-have book that invites readers to enjoy the wonder of Ramadan. The book also includes easy-to-understand back matter and fun, interactive elements.

 

 

"A celebratory, tender picture book that reflects how the holy month of Ramadan is honored by Muslims around the world... Yuksel pairs these shared values of Ramadan with culturally specific language for loved ones and foods, reflecting the diversity of the Muslim community... Aly's illustrations fill each page with colors and patterns that emanate excitement and care as families share meals, visit the market, gather for prayer, prepare donations, cook, and set the table together... A beautiful follow-up to the award-winning collaboration In My Mosque, this book reflects the diversity of Muslim communities around the world while uplifting the shared principles of the holy month of Ramadan." --School Library Journal (starred review)

 

 

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The Keeper of Stars

Jennifer Harris

A timeless and magical story about the power of love and imagination

 

Every night Milo's mom tucks him in and reads him three bedtime stories, and Milo taps his dad's picture three times. Mom always falls asleep first, so Milo sneaks out the window, catches a ride on a comet, and travels far above the clouds to help the Keeper of Stars.

After a long day, the sky is a bit of a mess. Together, Milo and the Keeper of Stars gather up stray balloons and feathers, rinse and polish the stars (which would be easier if they weren't so ticklish!), and sometimes, the Keeper of Stars lets Milo play games with the baby stars. When everything is tidy, the two hard workers enjoy a cup of cocoa together and admire the millions of bright twinkles in the night sky before Milo heads back to his room and slides into bed, careful not to wake his mom.

Spare text twinkles with warmth, imagination, and humor as a child finds his own way to cope with separation from a parent and whimsical, eye-catching illustrations bring this charming bedtime adventure to life.

 

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Outdoor Farm, Indoor Farm

Lindsay H. Metcalf

Discover how both outdoor and indoor farms sustainably grow the food we eat throughout the year in this vibrant, rhyming picture book.

Outdoor farm,
tractors toil.
Indoor farm,
zero soil.

With energetic, enchanting verse and sunshiny, colorful illustrations, discover how the food you eat is grown both outside—and inside! Join two children as they explore the inner workings of an outdoor farm and an indoor farm. You’ll see how a variety of amazing machinery like tractors and drones along with innovative farming techniques yield the wonderful food we all love to enjoy.

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I Am Gravity

Henry Herz

Told in lyrical, riddling first-person narrative, Gravity boasts of its essential role in life as we know it--from the pulling of the ocean's tides to the vastness of the stars in the sky. Back matter about the science of gravity and major historical discoveries enhances the book for STEM learning.

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Eating My Words

Brian P. Cleary

At lunch, / I ate three cans / of alphabet soup. / An hour later / I had / thesaurus / throat / ever.

Brian Cleary brings his trademark humor and wordplay to middle grade readers in this poetry collection. Featuring limericks, concrete poems, haiku, quatrains, acrostics, and much more, the book is in equal parts entertaining and educational. Spot illustrations accompany the poems, as do brief notes about poetic forms and poetic devices. An exceedingly accessible resource for poetry month--and all year round!

 

 

 

 

 

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Just Like Click

Sandy Grubb

Nick Townley has lived his entire life-- all eleven years-- at Black Butte Ranch, nestled in the foothills of the snow-capped Cascade Mountains. While his parents push him to study, practice sports, and make friends, Nick prefers to retreat into his superhero universe and create exciting Adventures of Click comics. When a string of robberies threatens Dad' s job, forcing them to move across the country, Nick' s world implodes. He loves his home, and what will he do about the $237,000 in cash under his bed that Great Gramp gave him before he died? Desperate to stop the move, Nick steps off his comic book pages and ventures into the night as Click, an undercover superhero. Catching thieves would be a lot easier if he had actual superpowers. When three new kids discover his identity and want to join him, Nick vows to stay undercover... until he realizes even a superhero needs friends. But can he ask them to put their lives in danger to save his home? What would Click do?

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Sunny Parker Is Here to Stay

Margaret Finnegan

A determined girl spends the summer before middle school learning to stand up for her low-income community in this funny, fast-paced read just right for fans of Kelly Yang’s Front Desk.

Sunny Parker loves the Del Mar Garden Apartments, the affordable housing complex where she lives. And she especially loves her neighbors. From her best friend, Haley Michaels, to Mrs. Garcia and her two kids—developmentally disabled son AJ and bitter but big-hearted daughter Izzy—every resident has a story and a special place in Sunny’s heart.

Sunny never thought living at the Del Mar Garden Apartments made her different—until the city proposes turning an old, abandoned school into a new affordable housing complex and the backlash of her affluent neighborhood teaches Sunny the hard way that not everyone appreciates the community she calls home. Her dad, the Del Mar’s manager-slash-handyman, wants Sunny to lay low. But as hurtful rhetoric spreads and the city’s public hearing approaches, Sunny realizes that sometimes there’s too much at stake to stay silent.

With her friends behind her, Sunny Parker is determined to change the narrative—because she and her community are here to stay!

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Sleeping Spells and Dragon Scales

Wendy S. Swore

Can two friends solve the mystery of Liam's "curse" by using their knowledge of fairy tales?



Something is wrong with Liam. He collapses during soccer practice, he can't stay awake in class, and he's starting to see a ghostly white fox that disappears into smoke. His parents and teachers accuse him of being lazy and staying up too late, but he knows it's something worse.



No one believes him except for Alaina, a friend and self-proclaimed expert in fantasy and fairy tales. She's seen this sort of thing before and believes Liam has been cursed with a powerful sleeping spell. Her journal is full of possible ways to break a curse. Liam is skeptical, but with his normal life slipping further away, he agrees to try her potential cures.



As they search for answers in stories, Alaina shares that she also is dealing with something no one else can see: type 1 diabetes. It rears its head like an invisible dragon, and she carries her medical equipment as a knight's lance and dragon-scale shield to battle it.



As Liam's mystery illness worsens, he will need Alaina's friendship--and perhaps a bit of fairy magic--to find a way to understand the truth of what is happening and regain the pieces of himself that are lost.
 

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Snowglobe

Soyoung Park

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The gorgeous first edition hardcover of Snowglobe will feature two covers in one (a beautifully illustrated hardcover underneath the stunning jacket) and foil-stamped interior papers at the beginning and end of the book!

In a world of constant winter, only the citizens of the climate-controlled city of Snowglobe can escape the bitter cold—but this perfect society is hiding dark and dangerous secrets within its frozen heart. A groundbreaking Korean novel translated into English for the first time!

The Hunger Games meets Squid Game in Soyoung Park's dystopian thriller Snowglobe” –Entertainment Weekly

Enclosed under a vast dome, Snowglobe is the last place on Earth that’s warm. Outside Snowglobe is a frozen wasteland, and every day, citizens face the icy world to get to their jobs at the power plant, where they produce the energy Snowglobe needs. Their only solace comes in the form of twenty-four-hour television programming streamed directly from the domed city.

The residents of Snowglobe have everything: fame, fortune, and above all, safety from the desolation outside their walls. In exchange, their lives are broadcast to the less fortunate outside, who watch eagerly, hoping for the chance to one day become actors themselves.

Chobahm lives for the time she spends watching the shows produced inside Snowglobe. Her favorite? Goh Around, starring Goh Haeri, Snowglobe’s biggest star—and, it turns out, the key to getting Chobahm her dream life.

Because Haeri is dead, and Chobahm has been chosen to take her place. Only, life inside Snowglobe is nothing like what you see on television. Reality is a lie, and truth seems to be forever out of reach.

Translated for the first time into English from the original Korean, Snowglobe is a groundbreaking exploration of personal identity, and the future of the world as we know it. It is the winner of the Changbi X Kakaopage Young Adult Novel Award.

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Where Sleeping Girls Lie

Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

In Where Sleeping Girls Lie — a YA contemporary mystery by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, the New York Times-bestselling author of Ace of Spades a girl new to boarding school discovers dark secrets and coverups after her roommate disappears.

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2024 by Cosmopolitan, Entertainment Weekly, Goodreads, The Nerds Daily, She Reads, and so much more!

It’s like I keep stumbling into a dark room, searching for the switch to make things bright again...

Sade Hussein is starting her third year of high school, this time at the prestigious Alfred Nobel Academy boarding school, after being home-schooled. Misfortune has been a constant companion throughout her life, but even Sade doesn’t expect her new roommate, Elizabeth, to disappear after Sade’s first night. Or for people to think she had something to do with it.

With rumors swirling around her, Sade catches the attention of the girls collectively known as the Unholy Trinity and they bring her into their fold. Between learning more about them—especially Persephone, who Sade is inexplicably drawn to—and playing catchup in class, Sade already has so much on her plate. But when it seems people don't care enough about what happened to Elizabeth, it's up to her and Elizabeth's best friend, Baz, to investigate.

And then a student is found dead.

As Sade and Baz keep trying to figure out what’s going on, Sade realizes there’s more to Alfred Nobel Academy and its students than she thought. Secrets lurk around every corner and beneath every surface...Secrets that rival even her own.

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Judy Moody

Megan McDonald

Any kid who's ever been in a bad mood will relate to the feisty, funny, ever-changing Judy Moody.

To start, Judy Moody doesn't have high hopes for third grade. Her new desk won't have an armadillo sticker with her name on it. Her new classroom will not have a porcupine named Roger. And with her luck, she'll get stuck sitting in the first row, where Mr. Todd will notice every time she tries to pass a note to her best friend, Rocky. An aspiring doctor, Judy does have a little brother who comes in handy for practicing medicine, a cool new pet, and a huge Band-Aid collection.
Judy also has an abundance of individuality and attitude, and when Mr. Todd assigns a very special class project, she really gets a chance to express herself! Megan McDonald's spirited text and Peter Reynolds's wry illustrations combine in a feisty, funny first chapter book for every kid who has ever felt a little out of sorts.

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Cloudette

Tom Lichtenheld

Sometimes being small can have its advantages. If you're a little cloud like Cloudette, people call you cute nicknames, and you can always find a good spot to watch the fireworks. But what about when you want to do something big, like help a giant garden grow, or make a brook babble?

This charming book gets at the heart of what it means to make a difference no matter your size. Young children will find much to relate to in Cloudette as they follow her on her pursuit for greatness.

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Animus

Antoine Revoy

The residents of a quiet Japanese neighborhood have slowly come to realize that inauspicious, paranormal forces are at play in the most unlikely of places: the local playground. Two friends, a young boy and girl, resolve to exorcise the evil that inhabit it, including a snaggle-toothed monster.

In Animus, a beautiful but spooky young adult graphic novel of everyday hauntings, Antoine Revoy delivers an eerie tale inspired by the Japanese and French comics of his childhood.

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In Limbo

Deb JJ Lee

A debut YA graphic memoir about a Korean-American girl's coming-of-age story—and a coming home story—set between a New Jersey suburb and Seoul, South Korea.

Ever since Deborah (Jung-Jin) Lee emigrated from South Korea to the United States, she's felt her otherness.

For a while, her English wasn’t perfect. Her teachers can’t pronounce her Korean name. Her face and her eyes—especially her eyes—feel wrong.

In high school, everything gets harder. Friendships change and end, she falls behind in classes, and fights with her mom escalate. Caught in limbo, with nowhere safe to go, Deb finds her mental health plummeting, resulting in a suicide attempt.

But Deb is resilient and slowly heals with the help of art and self-care, guiding her to a deeper understanding of her heritage and herself.

This stunning debut graphic memoir features page after page of gorgeous, evocative art, perfect for Tillie Walden fans. It's a cross section of the Korean-American diaspora and mental health, a moving and powerful read in the vein of Hey, Kiddo and The Best We Could Do.

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Dead Weight

Terry Blas

A YALSA 2019 Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers

A hilarious story of a diverse group of young sleuths who ban together to solve a murder mystery while at a weight-loss camp.


Deep in the Oregon wilderness sits Camp Bloom, a weight-loss camp where "overweight" teens can "get in shape." Jesse would rather be anywhere else, but her parents are forcing her to go. Noah isn't sure if he wants to be there, but it's too late to turn back. Tony is heartbroken at the thought of giving up his phone and internet. And Kate... well, she likes the hikes, at least. As far as these four teens are concerned, it's just another boring summer.

Until one night, when Jesse and Noah witness a beloved counselor's murder. The body's gone by the next morning, but a blurry photo leads to one clue—the murderer is one of the camp's staff members!

But which one? As Jesse, Noah, Kate, and Tony investigate, they quickly discover that everyone's got their secrets... and one of them would kill to keep theirs hidden.

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As the Crow Flies

Melanie Gillman

Charlie Lamonte is thirteen years old, queer, black, and questioning what was once a firm belief in God. So naturally, she's spending a week of her summer vacation stuck at an all-white Christian youth backpacking camp. As the journey wears on and the rhetoric wears thin, she can't help but poke holes in the pious obliviousness of this storied sanctuary with little regard for people like herself . . . or her fellow camper, Sydney.

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We Dream of Space

Erin Entrada Kelly

Cash, Fitch, and Bird Nelson Thomas are three siblings in seventh grade together in Park, Delaware. In 1986, as the country waits expectantly for the launch of the space shuttle Challenger, they each struggle with their own personal anxieties. Cash, who loves basketball but has a newly broken wrist, is in danger of failing seventh grade for the second time. Fitch spends every afternoon playing Major Havoc at the arcade on Main and wrestles with an explosive temper that he doesn't understand. And Bird, his twelve-year-old twin, dreams of being NASA's first female shuttle commander, but feels like she's disappearing.

The Nelson Thomas children exist in their own orbits, circling a tense and unpredictable household, with little in common except an enthusiastic science teacher named Ms. Salonga. As the launch of the Challenger approaches, Ms. Salonga gives her students a project--they are separated into spacecraft crews and must create and complete a mission. When the fated day finally arrives, it changes all of their lives and brings them together in unexpected ways.

Told in three alternating points of view, We Dream of Space is an unforgettable and thematically rich novel for middle grade readers.

We Dream of Space is illustrated throughout by the author.

 

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Reading Beauty

Deborah Underwood

An empowering tale for all kids, Reading Beauty features fun, rhyming text, loveable characters, and a heartwarming ending that will keep young minds entertained.

A repressible fairy tale retelling that is sure to charm readers of all ages:
When a fairy's curse—a deathlike sleep via paper cut—threatens to make her kingdom barren of books, it's up to space princess Lex to break the spell and bring books back to her people. Set in the universe of the acclaimed Interstellar Cinderella, this empowering bedtime story for girls will entice young readers with its brave heroine, star-studded setting, and hilarious, heartwarming happy ending.

• Features brightly colored illustrations with impressive details that bring the storyline to life and keep readers engaged
• Encourages young girls to stand up for what they believe in while reminding them that their positive actions can truly make an impact
• Deborah Underwood is the author of Interstellar Cinderella and many other books for children, including the New York Times bestsellers Here Comes the Easter Cat, The Quiet Book, and The Loud Book
• Meg Hunt is the illustrator of Interstellar a printmaker, educator, and all-around maker of things. She was also the recipient of the 2015 Society of Illustrators Gold Medal Award for her contribution to the Illustrators 58 exhibition

Fans of Grown-Ups Never Do That and A Girl, a Racoon, and the Midnight Moon will also enjoy the fantastical storyline and captivating imagery found in Reading Beauty.

• Great read-aloud book for classroom and families
• Books for kids ages 6-8
• Children's books for early elementary school students

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Out There

Tom Sullivan

This stunning picture book will have young readers wondering about outer space and life on other planets while imparting a surprising and profound message of empathy. From the author/illustrator of Blue vs. Yellow and I Used to Be a Fish.

Do you ever look up at the night sky and wonder if there is anybody else out there?

Are there evil robots or cool aliens?

Do they fly in UFOs or live in futuristic cities?

Or maybe . . . they are just like us.

Out There is a wonder-filled, surprising journey of imagination and empathy, a book that will inspire readers of all ages to reflect on how much we all have in common, despite our differences.

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How to Eat in Space

Helen Taylor

A kid-friendly, accessible, and humorous picture book about the sometimes complicated task of eating while in outer space--spoiler: it's not as simple as it seems!



Without a kitchen, plates, or cups, eating in space isn't easy. When food floats (and so do you), remember:



1. Be patient: Preparing a meal without gravity's help takes time.

2. Avoid crumbs: They get everywhere!

3. Clean up after yourself: Today's stray snack could become tomorrow's smelly surprise.



Once you learn the dos and don'ts, you'll be eating like an astronaut in no time!



This fact-filled look at the sometimes complicated task of eating while away from Earth will show young readers what it's really like to live on the space station, with engaging back matter that takes a deep dive into the topic and features photos of real NASA astronauts!

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What's It Like in Space?

Ariel Waldman

Everyone wonders what it's really like in space, but very few of us have ever had the chance to experience it firsthand. This captivating illustrated collection brings together stories from dozens of international astronauts—men and women who've actually been there—who have returned with accounts of the sometimes weird, often funny, and awe-inspiring sensations and realities of being in space. With playful artwork accompanying each, here are the real stories behind backwards dreams, "moon face," the tricks of sleeping in zero gravity and aiming your sneeze during a spacewalk, the importance of packing hot sauce, and dozens of other cosmic quirks and amazements that come with travel in and beyond low Earth orbit.

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A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel

Madeleine L'Engle

The world already knows Meg and Charles Wallace Murry, Calvin O'Keefe, and the three Mrs--Who, Whatsit, and Which--the memorable and wonderful characters who fight off a dark force and save our universe in the Newbery award-winning classic A Wrinkle in Time. But in 50 years of publication, the book has never been illustrated. Now, Hope Larson takes the classic story to a new level with her vividly imagined interpretations of tessering and favorite characters like the Happy Medium and Aunt Beast. Perfect for old fans and winning over new ones, this graphic novel adaptation is a must-read.

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The Last Kids on Earth

Max Brallier

A Netflix Original series!

The first book in the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling series, with over 7 million copies in print!

"Terrifyingly fun! Delivers big thrills and even bigger laughs."--Jeff Kinney, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Diary of a Wimpy Kid


Ever since the monster apocalypse hit town, average thirteen year old Jack Sullivan has been living in his tree house, which he's armed to the teeth with catapults and a moat, not to mention video games and an endless supply of Oreos and Mountain Dew scavenged from abandoned stores. But Jack alone is no match for the hordes of Zombies and Winged Wretches and Vine Thingies, and especially not for the eerily intelligent monster known only as Blarg. So Jack builds a team: his dorky best friend, Quint; the reformed middle school bully, Dirk; Jack's loyal pet monster, Rover; and the fiercest girl Jack knows, June. With their help, Jack is going to slay Blarg, achieve the ultimate Feat of Apocalyptic Success, and be average no longer! Can he do it?

Told in a mixture of text and black-and-white illustration, this is the perfect series for any kid who's ever dreamed of starring in their own comic book or video game.

Covers may vary.

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The Wild Robot

Peter Brown

Wall-E meets Hatchet in this New York Times bestselling illustrated middle grade novel from Caldecott Honor winner Peter Brown
Can a robot survive in the wilderness?
When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is all alone on a remote, wild island. She has no idea how she got there or what her purpose is--but she knows she needs to survive. After battling a violent storm and escaping a vicious bear attack, she realizes that her only hope for survival is to adapt to her surroundings and learn from the island's unwelcoming animal inhabitants.
As Roz slowly befriends the animals, the island starts to feel like home--until, one day the robot's mysterious past comes back to haunt her.
From bestselling and award-winning author and illustrator Peter Brown comes a heartwarming and action-packed novel about what happens when nature and technology collide.

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Someone You Can Build a Nest In

John Wiswell

A Most-Anticipated Book of 2024: LitHub, Polygon, Apple, Goodreads

⭐ "Wiswell raises the bar on the outcast as protagonist . . . the ultimate monster slayer story, if the monster is just a misunderstood creature searching for love.” — Kristi Chadwick, Library Journal (starred review)

Discover this creepy, charming monster-slaying fantasy romance—from the perspective of the monster—by Nebula Award-winning debut author John Wiswell

Shesheshen has made a mistake fatal to all monsters: she's fallen in love.
 
Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who happily resides as an amorphous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by hunters intent on murdering her, she constructs a body from the remains of past meals: a metal chain for a backbone, borrowed bones for limbs, and a bear trap as an extra mouth.  
 
However, the hunters chase Shesheshen out of her home and off a cliff. Badly hurt, she’s found and nursed back to health by Homily, a warm-hearted human, who has mistaken Shesheshen as a fellow human. Homily is kind and nurturing and would make an excellent co-parent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen’s eggs so their young could devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, she realizes humans don’t think about love that way.
 
Shesheshen hates keeping her identity secret from Homily, but just as she’s about to confess, Homily reveals why she’s in the area: she’s hunting a shapeshifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Has Shesheshen seen it anywhere?
 
Eating her girlfriend isn’t an option. Shesheshen didn’t curse anyone, but to give herself and Homily a chance at happiness, she has to figure out why Homily’s twisted family thinks she did. As the hunt for the monster becomes increasingly deadly, Shesheshen must unearth the truth quickly, or soon both of their lives will be at risk.

And the bigger challenge remains: surviving her toxic in-laws long enough to learn to build a life with, rather than in, the love of her life.

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The Truth about the Devlins

Lisa Scottoline

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

USA Today Bestseller

Lisa Scottoline, the #1 bestselling author of What Happened to the Bennetts, presents another pulse-pounding domestic thriller about family, justice, and the lies that tear us apart.


TJ Devlin is the charming disappointment in the prominent Devlin family, all of whom are lawyers at their highly successful firm—except him. After a stint in prison and rehab for alcoholism, TJ can’t get hired anywhere except at the firm, in a make-work job with the title of investigator.

But one night, TJ’s world turns upside down after his older brother John confesses that he murdered one of their clients, an accountant he’d confronted with proof of embezzlement. It seems impossible coming from John, the firstborn son and Most Valuable Devlin.

TJ plunges into the investigation, seizing the chance to prove his worth and save his brother. But in no time, TJ and John find themselves entangled in a lethal web of deception and murder. TJ will fight to save his family, but what he learns might break them first.

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Never Leave the Dogs Behind

Brianna Madia

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The author of Nowhere for Very Long continues her story with this deeply honest, moving account of a woman walking the line between independence and isolation when she moves to the Southwest desert with nothing and no one but her four dogs.

In her debut memoir, Nowhere for Very Long, Brianna Madia reflected on her life as a nomad, free to roam some of the most beautiful land in America. Now, in Never Leave the Dogs Behind, the van life adherent faces the unfathomable darkness that comes from a life blown apart, her only solace the support of her dogs.

In the wake of a painful, public divorce and the ensuing fallout, Brianna moves from a pared-down van into a pared-down trailer. She reckons with her decision to be alone in the desert, living on a nine-acre plot of undeveloped land on the dusty outskirts of a small town in Utah, accompanied only by her four precious dogs: Bucket, Dagwood, Birdie, and Banjo. As she grapples with the anger, despair, and delicious freedom that comes from being wholly on her own, Brianna wonders where, exactly, the road less traveled has led her.

A powerful and poignant portrait of rebuilding and surviving, Never Leave the Dogs Behind is about finding the courage to start over when the dream life you thought you were living collapses around your feet.

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Table for Two

Amor Towles

New York Times Bestseller

“A knockout collection. ... Sharp-edged satire deceptively wrapped like a box of Neuhaus chocolates, Table for Two is a winner.” —The New York Times

From the bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway, A Gentleman in Moscow, and Rules of Civility, a richly detailed and sharply drawn collection of stories, including a novella featuring one of his most beloved characters

 
Millions of Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood.

The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages.

In Towles’s novel Rules of Civility, the indomitable Evelyn Ross leaves New York City in September 1938 with the intention of returning home to Indiana. But as her train pulls into Chicago, where her parents are waiting, she instead extends her ticket to Los Angeles. Told from seven points of view, “Eve in Hollywood” describes how Eve crafts a new future for herself—and others—in a noirish tale that takes us through the movie sets, bungalows, and dive bars of Los Angeles.

Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, Table for Two is another glittering addition to Towles’s canon of stylish and transporting fiction.

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The Wide Wide Sea

Hampton Sides

From New York Times bestselling author Hampton Sides, an epic account of the most momentous voyage of the Age of Exploration, which culminated in Captain James Cook's death in Hawaii, and left a complex and controversial legacy still debated to this day.

"Sides has mastered the art of you-are-there historical narrative. A thrilling and necessary update to one of history's most consequential cultural collisions." --John Vaillant, New York Times bestselling author of Fire Weather and The Tiger


On July 12th, 1776, Captain James Cook, already lionized as the greatest explorer in British history, set off on his third voyage in his ship the HMS Resolution. Two-and-a-half years later, on a beach on the island of Hawaii, Cook was killed in a conflict with native Hawaiians. How did Cook, who was unique among captains for his respect for Indigenous peoples and cultures, come to that fatal moment?

Hampton Sides' bravura account of Cook's last journey both wrestles with Cook's legacy and provides a thrilling narrative of the titanic efforts and continual danger that characterized exploration in the 1700s. Cook was renowned for his peerless seamanship, his humane leadership, and his dedication to science--the famed naturalist Joseph Banks accompanied him on his first voyage, and Cook has been called one of the most important figures of the Age of Enlightenment. He was also deeply interested in the native people he encountered. In fact, his stated mission was to return a Tahitian man, Mai, who had become the toast of London, to his home islands. On previous expeditions, Cook mapped huge swaths of the Pacific, including the east coast of Australia, and initiated first European contact with numerous peoples. He treated his crew well, and endeavored to learn about the societies he encountered with curiosity and without judgment.

Yet something was different on this last voyage. Cook became mercurial, resorting to the lash to enforce discipline, and led his two vessels into danger time and again. Uncharacteristically, he ordered violent retaliation for perceived theft on the part of native peoples. This may have had something to do with his secret orders, which were to chart and claim lands before Britain's imperial rivals could, and to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. Whatever Cook's intentions, his scientific efforts were the sharp edge of the colonial sword, and the ultimate effects of first contact were catastrophic for Indigenous people around the world. The tensions between Cook's overt and covert missions came to a head on the shores of Hawaii. His first landing there was harmonious, but when Cook returned after mapping the coast of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, his exploitative treatment of the Hawaiians led to the fatal encounter.

At once a ferociously-paced story of adventure on the high seas and a searching examination of the complexities and consequences of the Age of Exploration, THE WIDE WIDE SEA is a major work from one of our finest narrative nonfiction writers.

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Toxic Prey

John Sandford

Lucas Davenport and his daughter, Letty, team up to track down a dangerous scientist whose latest project could endanger the entire world, in this latest thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author John Sandford.

Gaia is dying.

That, at least, is what Dr. Lionel Scott believes. A renowned expert in tropical and infectious diseases, Scott has witnessed the devastating impact of illness and turmoil at critical scale. Society as it exists is untenable, and the direct link to Earth’s death spiral; population levels are out of control and people have allowed disarray and disorder to run rampant. While most are concerned about deadly disease, Scott knows that it is truly humanity itself that will destroy Gaia. It’s only by removing the threat that the planet can continue to prosper, and luckily, Scott is just the right man for the job…


When Scott then disappears without a trace, Letty Davenport is tasked with tracking down any and all leads. Scott’s connections to sensitive research into virus and pathogen spread has multiple national and international organizations on high alert, and his shockingly high clearance levels at various institutions, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory, make him the last person they’d like to go missing. As the web around Scott becomes more tangled, Letty calls in her father, Lucas, help her lead a group of specialists to find Scott as soon as possible. But as Letty and Lucas begin to uncover startling and disturbing connections between Scott and Gaia conspiracists, their worst fears are confirmed, and it quickly becomes a race to find him before the virus he created becomes the perfect weapon.

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The Familiar

Leigh Bardugo

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER * #1 INDIE BESTSELLER * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“An immersive, sensual experience.” —The New York Times

"Essential." —The Washington Post


From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Leigh Bardugo comes a spellbinding novel set in the Spanish Golden Age.

In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to improve the family's social position.

What begins as simple amusement for the nobility takes a perilous turn when Luzia garners the notice of Antonio Pérez, the disgraced secretary to Spain's king. Still reeling from the defeat of his armada, the king is desperate for any advantage in the war against England's heretic queen—and Pérez will stop at nothing to regain the king's favor.

Determined to seize this one chance to better her fortunes, Luzia plunges into a world of seers and alchemists, holy men and hucksters, where the lines between magic, science, and fraud are never certain. But as her notoriety grows, so does the danger that her Jewish blood will doom her to the Inquisition's wrath. She will have to use every bit of her wit and will to survive—even if that means enlisting the help of Guillén Santángel, an embittered immortal familiar whose own secrets could prove deadly for them both.

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Welcome to Night Vale

Joseph Fink

From the creators of the wildly popular Welcome to Night Vale podcast comes an imaginative mystery of appearances and disappearances that is also a poignant look at the ways in which we all struggle to find ourselves...no matter where we live.

"Hypnotic and darkly funny. . . . Belongs to a particular strain of American gothic that encompasses The Twilight Zone, Stephen King and Twin Peaks, with a bit of Tremors thrown in."--The Guardian

Located in a nameless desert somewhere in the great American Southwest, Night Vale is a small town where ghosts, angels, aliens, and government conspiracies are all commonplace parts of everyday life. It is here that the lives of two women, with two mysteries, will converge.

Nineteen-year-old Night Vale pawn shop owner Jackie Fierro is given a paper marked "KING CITY" by a mysterious man in a tan jacket holding a deer skin suitcase. Everything about him and his paper unsettles her, especially the fact that she can't seem to get the paper to leave her hand, and that no one who meets this man can remember anything about him. Jackie is determined to uncover the mystery of King City and the man in the tan jacket before she herself unravels.

Night Vale PTA treasurer Diane Crayton's son, Josh, is moody and also a shape shifter. And lately Diane's started to see her son's father everywhere she goes, looking the same as the day he left years earlier, when they were both teenagers. Josh, looking different every time Diane sees him, shows a stronger and stronger interest in his estranged father, leading to a disaster Diane can see coming, even as she is helpless to prevent it.

Diane's search to reconnect with her son and Jackie's search for her former routine life collide as they find themselves coming back to two words: "KING CITY". It is King City that holds the key to both of their mysteries, and their futures...if they can ever find it.

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Little Eyes

Samanta Schweblin

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2020 MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR

Her most unsettling work yet -- and her most realistic. --New York Times

Named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times, O, The Oprah Magazine, NPR, Vulture, Bustle, Refinery29, and Thrillist

A visionary novel about our interconnected present, about the collision of horror and humanity, from a master of the spine-tingling tale.

They've infiltrated homes in Hong Kong, shops in Vancouver, the streets of in Sierra Leone, town squares in Oaxaca, schools in Tel Aviv, bedrooms in Indiana. They're everywhere. They're here. They're us. They're not pets, or ghosts, or robots. They're real people, but how can a person living in Berlin walk freely through the living room of someone in Sydney? How can someone in Bangkok have breakfast with your children in Buenos Aires, without your knowing? Especially when these people are completely anonymous, unknown, unfindable.

The characters in Samanta Schweblin's brilliant new novel, Little Eyes, reveal the beauty of connection between far-flung souls--but yet they also expose the ugly side of our increasingly linked world. Trusting strangers can lead to unexpected love, playful encounters, and marvelous adventure, but what happens when it can also pave the way for unimaginable terror? This is a story that is already happening; it's familiar and unsettling because it's our present and we're living it, we just don't know it yet. In this prophecy of a story, Schweblin creates a dark and complex world that's somehow so sensible, so recognizable, that once it's entered, no one can ever leave.

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The Three-Body Problem

Cixin Liu

Soon to be a Netflix Original Series!

War of the Worlds for the 21st century.” – Wall Street Journal

The Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience the Hugo Award-winning phenomenon from China's most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin.

Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.

The Three-Body Problem Series
The Three-Body Problem
The Dark Forest
Death's End

Other Books
Ball Lightning
Supernova Era
To Hold Up The Sky
(forthcoming)

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Radicalized

Cory Doctorow

From New York Times bestselling author Cory Doctorow, Radicalized is four urgent SF novellas of America's present and future within one book

Told through one of the most on-pulse genre voices of our generation, Radicalized is a timely novel comprised of four SF novellas connected by social, technological, and economic visions of today and what America could be in the near, near future.

Unauthorized Bread is a tale of immigration, the toxicity of economic and technological stratification, and the young and downtrodden fighting against all odds to survive and prosper.

In Model Minority, a Superman-like figure attempts to rectifiy the corruption of the police forces he long erroneously thought protected the defenseless...only to find his efforts adversely affecting their victims.

Radicalized is a story of a darkweb-enforced violent uprising against insurance companies told from the perspective of a man desperate to secure funding for an experimental drug that could cure his wife's terminal cancer.

The fourth story, Masque of the Red Death, harkens back to Doctorow's Walkaway, taking on issues of survivalism versus community.

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Dark Matter

Blake Crouch

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • COMING SOON TO APPLE TV+ • A “mind-blowing” (Entertainment Weekly) speculative thriller about an ordinary man who awakens in a world inexplicably different from the reality he thought he knew—from the author of Upgrade, Recursion, and the Wayward Pines trilogy

“Are you happy with your life?”

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the kidnapper knocks him unconscious. 

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man he’s never met smiles down at him and says, “Welcome back, my friend.”

In this world he’s woken up to, Jason’s life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college professor but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this life or the other that’s the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how will Jason make it back to the family he loves?

From the bestselling author Blake Crouch, Dark Matter is a mind-bending thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of.

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I, Robot

Isaac Asimov

The three laws of Robotics:
1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
2) A robot must obey orders givein to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

With these three, simple directives, Isaac Asimov changed our perception of robots forever when he formulated the laws governing their behavior. In I, Robot, Asimov chronicles the development of the robot through a series of interlinked stories: from its primitive origins in the present to its ultimate perfection in the not-so-distant future--a future in which humanity itself may be rendered obsolete.

Here are stories of robots gone mad, of mind-read robots, and robots with a sense of humor. Of robot politicians, and robots who secretly run the world--all told with the dramatic blend of science fact and science fiction that has become Asmiov's trademark.

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Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"

Miles Hyman

Winner of the 2017 Solliès Comics Festival's Best Adult Graphic Novel

The classic short story--now in full color

Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” continues to thrill and unsettle readers nearly seven decades after it was first published. By turns puzzling and harrowing, “The Lottery” raises troubling questions about conformity, tradition, and the ritualized violence that may haunt even the most bucolic, peaceful village.

This graphic adaptation by Jackson’s grandson Miles Hyman allows readers to experience “The Lottery” as never before, or to discover it anew. He has crafted an eerie vision of the hamlet where the tale unfolds and the unforgettable ritual its inhabitants set into motion. Hyman’s full-color, meticulously detailed panels create a noirish atmosphere that adds a new dimension of dread to the original story.

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”: The Authorized Graphic Adaptation stands as a tribute to Jackson, and reenvisions her iconic story as a striking visual narrative.

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Severance

Ling Ma

Maybe it’s the end of the world, but not for Candace Chen, a millennial, first-generation American and office drone meandering her way into adulthood in Ling Ma’s offbeat, wryly funny, apocalyptic satire, Severance.

"A stunning, audacious book with a fresh take on both office politics and what the apocalypse might bring." Michael Schaub, NPR.org

“A satirical spin on the end times-- kind of like The Office meets The Leftovers.” --Estelle Tang, Elle

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY: NPR * The New Yorker ("Books We Loved") * Elle * Marie Claire * Amazon Editors * The Paris Review (Staff Favorites) * Refinery29 * Bustle * Buzzfeed * BookPage * Bookish * Mental Floss * Chicago Review of Books * HuffPost * Electric Literature * A.V. Club * Jezebel * Vulture * Literary Hub * Flavorwire

Winner of the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award * Winner of the Kirkus Prize for Fiction * Winner of the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award * Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel * A New York Times Notable Book of 2018 * An Indie Next Selection

Candace Chen, a millennial drone self-sequestered in a Manhattan office tower, is devoted to routine. With the recent passing of her Chinese immigrant parents, she’s had her fill of uncertainty. She’s content just to carry on: She goes to work, troubleshoots the teen-targeted Gemstone Bible, watches movies in a Greenpoint basement with her boyfriend.

So Candace barely notices when a plague of biblical proportions sweeps New York. Then Shen Fever spreads. Families flee. Companies cease operations. The subways screech to a halt. Her bosses enlist her as part of a dwindling skeleton crew with a big end-date payoff. Soon entirely alone, still unfevered, she photographs the eerie, abandoned city as the anonymous blogger NY Ghost.

Candace won’t be able to make it on her own forever, though. Enter a group of survivors, led by the power-hungry IT tech Bob. They’re traveling to a place called the Facility, where, Bob promises, they will have everything they need to start society anew. But Candace is carrying a secret she knows Bob will exploit. Should she escape from her rescuers?

A send-up and takedown of the rituals, routines, and missed opportunities of contemporary life, Ling Ma’s Severance is a moving family story, a quirky coming-of-adulthood tale, and a hilarious, deadpan satire. Most important, it’s a heartfelt tribute to the connections that drive us to do more than survive.

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The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Stuart Turton

"Agatha Christie meets Groundhog Day...quite unlike anything I've ever read, and altogether triumphant."--A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

The Rules of Blackheath
Evelyn Hardcastle will be murdered at 11:00 p.m.
There are eight days, and eight witnesses for you to inhabit.
We will only let you escape once you tell us the name of the killer.
Understood? Then let's begin...

***
Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others.

For fans of Claire North and Kate Atkinson, The 71/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a breathlessly addictive novel that follows one man's race against time to find a killer--but an astonishing time-turning twist means that nothing and no one are quite what they seem.

Praise for The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle:
Costa First Novel Award 2018 Winner
One of Stylist Magazine's 20 Must-Read Books of 2018
One of Harper's Bazaar's 10 Must-Read Books of 2018
One of Guardian's Best Books of 2018

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The Passengers

John Marrs

You're riding in your self-driving car when suddenly the doors lock, the route changes and you have lost all control. Then, a mysterious voice tells you, "You are going to die."

Just as self-driving cars become the trusted, safer norm, eight people find themselves in this terrifying situation, including a faded TV star, a pregnant young woman, an abused wife fleeing her husband, an undocumented immigrant, a husband and wife, and a suicidal man.

From cameras hidden in their cars, their panic is broadcast to millions of people around the world. But the public will show their true colors when they are asked, Which of these people should we save?...And who should we kill first?

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Nightmare At 20,000 Feet

Richard Matheson

Remember that monster on the wing of the airplane? William Shatner saw it on The Twilight Zone, John Lithgow saw it in the movie-even Bart Simpson saw it. "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" is just one of many classic horror stories by Richard Matheson that have insinuated themselves into our collective imagination.

Here are more than twenty of Matheson's most memorable tales of fear and paranoia, including:

"Duel," the nail-biting tale of man versus machines that inspired Steven Spielberg's first film;

"Prey," in which a terrified woman is stalked by a malevolent Tiki doll, as chillingly captured in yet another legendary TV moment;

"Blood Son," a disturbing portrait of a strange little boy who dreams of being a vampire;

"Dress of White Silk," a seductively sinister tale of evil and innocence.

Personally selected by Richard Matheson, the bestselling author of I Am Legend and What Dreams May Come, these and many other stories, more than demonstrate why he is rightfully regarded as one of the finest and most influential horror writers of our generation.

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Bird Box

Josh Malerman

Now a Netflix film starring Sandra Bullock, Sarah Paulson, Rosa Salazar and John Malkovich!

Written with the narrative tension of The Road and the exquisite terror of classic Stephen King, Bird Box is a propulsive, edge-of-your-seat horror thriller, set in an apocalyptic near-future world—a masterpiece of suspense from the brilliantly imaginative Josh Malerman.

Something is out there . . .

Something terrifying that must not be seen. One glimpse and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from.

Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remain, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now, that the boy and girl are four, it is time to go. But the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat—blindfolded—with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children’s trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. And something is following them. But is it man, animal, or monster?

Engulfed in darkness, surrounded by sounds both familiar and frightening, Malorie embarks on a harrowing odyssey—a trip that takes her into an unseen world and back into the past, to the companions who once saved her. Under the guidance of the stalwart Tom, a motely group of strangers banded together against the unseen terror, creating order from the chaos. But when supplies ran low, they were forced to venture outside—and confront the ultimate question: in a world gone mad, who can really be trusted?

Interweaving past and present, Josh Malerman’s breathtaking debut is a horrific and gripping snapshot of a world unraveled that will have you racing to the final page.

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Needful Things

Stephen King

With a demonic blend of malice and affection Stephen King says goodbye to the town he put on the map-Castle Rock, Maine ... where Polly Chambers runs you Sew and Sew and Sheriff Alan Pangborn is in charge of keeping the peace. It's a small town, and Stephen King fans maight think they know its secrets pretty well: they've bee here before. Leland Gaunt is a stranger-and he calls his shop Needful Things. Eleven-year-old Brian Rusk is his first customer, and Brian Rusk is his first customer, and Brian finds just what he wants most in all the world: a '56 Sandy Koufax baseball card. By the end of the week, Mr. Gaunt's business is fairly booming, and why not? At Needful Things, there's something for everyone. And, of course, there is always a price. For Leland Gaunt, the pleasure of doing business lies chiefly in seeing how much people will pay for their most secret dreams and desires. And as Leland Gaunt always points out, at Needful Things, the prices are high indeed. Does that stop people from buying? Has it ever? For Alan and Polly, this one week in autumn will be an awful test- a test of will, desire, and pain. Above all, it will be a test of their ability to grasp the true nature of their enemy. They may have a chance ... But maybe not, because, as Mr. Gaunt knows, almost everything is for sale: love, hope, even the human soul. With the potent storytelling authority that millions of readers have come to prize, Stephen King delivers an Our Town with a vengeance, and inimitable farewell to a place his fiction has often and long called home. Castle Rock, Maine, has been the setting for several of Stephen King's most famous works, including The Dead Zone, Cujo, The Tommyknockers, The Dark Half, and two novellas. "The Body" (which was made into the movie Stand By Me) and "The Sun Dog" Mr. King lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, Tabitha

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The Twilight Zone

Nona Fernández

* Finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature *

An engrossing, incantatory novel about the legacy of historical crimes by the author of Space Invaders


It is 1984 in Chile, in the middle of the Pinochet dictatorship. A member of the secret police walks into the office of a dissident magazine and finds a reporter, who records his testimony. The narrator of Nona Fernández’s mesmerizing and terrifying novel The Twilight Zone is a child when she first sees this man’s face on the magazine’s cover with the words “I Tortured People.” His complicity in the worst crimes of the regime and his commitment to speaking about them haunt the narrator into her adulthood and career as a writer and documentarian. Like a secret service agent from the future, through extraordinary feats of the imagination, Fernández follows the “man who tortured people” to places that archives can’t reach, into the sinister twilight zone of history where morning routines, a game of chess, Yuri Gagarin, and the eponymous TV show of the novel’s title coexist with the brutal yet commonplace machinations of the regime.

How do crimes vanish in plain sight? How does one resist a repressive regime? And who gets to shape the truths we live by and take for granted? The Twilight Zone pulls us into the dark portals of the past, reminding us that the work of the writer in the face of historical erasure is to imagine so deeply that these absences can be, for a time, spectacularly illuminated.

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Exhalation

Ted Chiang

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR Nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories—two published for the very first time—all from the mind of the incomparable author of Stories of Your Life and Others

Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine.

In “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. In “Exhalation,” an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal. In “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom,” the ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radically new examination of the concepts of choice and free will.

Including stories being published for the first time as well as some of his rare and classic uncollected work, Exhalation is Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic—revelatory.

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The Twenty-One

Elizabeth Rusch

Compelling and timely, award-winning author Elizabeth Rusch's The Twenty-One tells the gripping inside story of the ongoing landmark federal climate change lawsuit, Juliana vs. United States of America. The Twenty-One is for readers of Christina Soontornvat's All Thirteen, fans of Steve Sheinkin's books, and anyone interested in the environment and climate change, as well as youth activism, politics and government, and the law.

From severe flooding in Louisiana to wildfires in the Pacific Northwest to melting permafrost in Alaska, catastrophic climate events are occurring more frequently--and severely--than ever. And these events are having a direct impact on the lives (and futures) of young people and their families.

In the ongoing landmark case Juliana vs. United States, twenty-one young plaintiffs claim that the government's support of the fossil-fuel industry is actively contributing to climate change, and that all citizens have a constitutional right to a stable climate--especially children and young adults, because they cannot vote and will inherit the problems of the future.

Elizabeth Rusch's The Twenty-One is a gripping legal and environmental thriller that tells the story of twenty-one young people and their ongoing case against the U.S. government for denying their constitutional right to life and liberty. A rich, informative, and multifaceted read, The Twenty-One stars the young plaintiffs and their attorneys; illuminates the workings of the United States's judicial system and the relationship between government, citizens' rights, and the environment; and asks readers to think deeply about the future of our planet.

Features extensive backmatter, including a timeline, glossary, call to action, additional resources, and photographs.

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The Sum of Us (Adapted for Young Readers)

Heather McGhee

The New York Times bestseller, now adapted for a new generation of young readers, leaders, thinkers, and activists. A groundbreaking call to action that examines how racism affects and harms all of us and how we need to face it head-on, together.

The future can be prosperous for everyone, but only if we address the problems of racial and economic inequality.
McGhee believes that all people, of all ages and all backgrounds, need to rethink their attitude toward race and strive together to create opportunities that benefit everyone.
This book is a call to action. McGhee examines how damaging racism is, not only to people of color but also to white people. She offers hope and real solutions so we can all prosper. An expert in economic policy, McGhee draws lessons both from her work at a think tank and from her travels around the country talking to everyday Americans fighting for a more just and inclusive society.
The people she meets prove how the stories we tell ourselves about race and belonging influence the policies that determine our shared economic future.
The Sum of Us provides hope that with understanding and open-mindedness, the world can be more united and equitable than it is today.

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Smashing Stigma

Connie Goldsmith

Stigma is everywhere around us.

People may mistrust the unhoused or discriminate against those suffering from an addiction. They may change the way they interact with someone after witnessing a panic attack from anxiety or PTSD. Or they may judge others for their appearance and their weight.

Stigma leads to harmful stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination. It can keep people from seeking the help and support they need. They may internalize others' stigma and start to blame themselves for their condition or experiences. In some cases, the effects of stigma can even be life threatening.

Even with so many examples, it can be difficult to identify stigma in real time and even harder to work against it. But learning about common types of stigma can help to reduce them. Author and registered nurse Connie Goldsmith covers six stigmatized conditions--poor mental health, addiction, homelessness, relationship abuse, PTSD, and above average weight--to help you understand what stigma looks like and how it affects real people. Discover how you can dismantle stigma and work to reduce stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination.

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Share Better and Stress Less

Whitney Phillips

Two media experts offer a witty, warm, and relatable take on how information pollution affects our online networks—and our well-being—and how to maximize a positive impact.

We know that pollution damages our physical environments—but what about the digital landscape? Touching on everything from goat memes gone wrong to conflict in group chats to the sometimes unexpected side effects of online activism, this lively guide to media literacy draws on ecological, social justice, and storytelling frameworks to help readers understand how information pollution spreads and why. It also helps them make sense of the often stressful and strange online world. Featuring a hyperconnected cast of teens and their social-media shenanigans, reader-friendly text tackles the thorny topic of internet ethics while empowering—and inspiring—young readers to weave a safe, secure, and inclusive digital world. Readers are invited to delve further into the subject with the help of comprehensive source notes and a bibliography in the back matter.

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You: The Story

Ruta Sepetys

The nonfiction debut by #1 New York Times bestselling and Carnegie Medal-winning author Ruta Sepetys. Perfect for fans of Burn After Writing and Bird by Bird.

Life is story in motion. Each day, you add to your story, revise it, and view it from a different angle. You erase things. Tear pages out. And sometimes, in hindsight, wish you could put them back. A day is a story. A year is a story. A life is a story.
You are a story.

Ruta Sepetys is known for creating vivid characters and harrowing plots. After five award-winning works of historical fiction and countless hours of meticulous research, she can affirm that the secret to strong writing is embedded within your life experience.

You: The Story is a powerful how-to book for aspiring writers that encourages you to look inward and excavate your own memories in order to discover the authentic voices and compelling details that are waiting to be put on the page. Masterfully weaving in humorous and heartfelt stories from her own life that illustrate an aspect of the craft of writing (such as plot, character development, or dialogue), Sepetys then inspires readers with a series of writing prompts and exercises.

Perfect for fans of Burn After Writing and Bird by Bird, You: The Story awakens the emerging writer and reveals that with some reflection, curiosity, and courage, you have a story to tell.

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The Bones of Birka

C.m. Surrisi

How many female Viking warriors does it take to make a fact?



When archaeologist Dr. Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson discovers that the bones contained in the most significant Viking warrior grave ever opened are, in fact, female, she and her team upend centuries of historically accepted conclusions and ignite a furious debate around the reality of female Viking warriors and the role of gender in both ancient and modern times.



In The Bones of Birka, author C. M. Surrisi introduces young readers to the events that led up to this discovery and the impact it has had on scientists' and historians' views of gender roles in ancient societies and today. This is the inside account of the Birka warrior grave Bj 581 archaeological endeavor, including all of the dreams, setbacks, frustrations, excitement, politics, and personalities that went into this history-changing discovery.



The finding has raised crucial questions about research bias, academic dialogue, and gender identity.

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Impossible Escape

Steve Sheinkin

From three-time National Book Award finalist and Newbery Honor author Steve Sheinkin, a true story of two Jewish teenagers racing against time during the Holocaust—one in hiding in Hungary, and the other in Auschwitz, plotting escape.

It is 1944. A teenager named Rudolf (Rudi) Vrba has made up his mind. After barely surviving nearly two years in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, he knows he must escape. Even if death is more likely.

Rudi has learned the terrible secret hidden behind the heavily guarded fences of concentration camps across Nazi-occupied Europe: the methodical mass killing of Jewish prisoners. As trains full of people arrive daily, Rudi knows that the murders won’t stop until he reveals the truth to the world—and that each day that passes means more lives are lost.

Lives like Rudi’s schoolmate Gerta Sidonová. Gerta’s family fled from Slovakia to Hungary, where they live under assumed names to hide their Jewish identity. But Hungary is beginning to cave under pressure from German Nazis. Her chances of survival become slimmer by the day.

The clock is ticking. As Gerta inches closer to capture, Rudi and his friend Alfred Wetzler begin their crucial steps towards an impossible escape.

This is the true story of one of the most famous whistleblowers in the world, and how his death-defying escape helped save over 100,000 lives.

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Rising Class

Jennifer Miller

This eye-opening YA narrative nonfiction follows three first-generation college students as they navigate their first year—and ultimately a global pandemic.

Making it through the first year of college is tough. What makes it even tougher is being the first in your family to do so. Who can you turn to when you need advice?

Rising Class follows three first-generation freshmen, Briani, Conner, and Jacklynn, as they not only experience their first semester of college, but the COVID-19 pandemic that turned their Spring semester upside down. From life in the ivy league to classes at a community college, this nonfiction book follows these students' challenges, successes, and dreams as they tackle their first year of college and juggle responsibilities to their families back home.

Eye-opening and poignant, Jennifer Miller writes a narrative nonfiction story that speaks to new beginnings, coming of age, and perseverance.

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A Mighty Long Way (Adapted for Young Readers)

Carlotta Walls LaNier

Follow the story of Carlotta Walls LaNier, who in 1957 at the age of fourteen was one of nine black students who integrated the all-white Little Rock Central High School and became known as the Little Rock Nine.

At fourteen years old, Carlotta Walls was the youngest member of the Little Rock Nine. The journey to integration in a place deeply against it would not be not easy. Yet Carlotta, her family, and the other eight students and their families answered the call to be part of the desegregation order issued by the US Supreme Court in its 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case.
    As angry mobs protested, the students were escorted into Little Rock Central High School by escorts from the 101st Airborne Division, which had been called in by then-president Dwight D. Eisenhower to ensure their safety. The effort needed to get through that first year in high school was monumental, but Carlotta held strong. Ultimately, she became the first Black female ever to walk across the Central High stage and receive a diploma. 
    The Little Rock Nine experienced traumatic and life-changing events not only as a group but also as individuals, each with a distinct personality and a different story. This is Carlotta's courageous story.

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Writing in Color

Julie C. Dao

Rethink the way you approach writing in this “honest, useful craft book that all fledgling writers need” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) from fourteen diverse authors that demystifies craft and authorship based on their experiences as writers of color—perfect for fans of Fresh Ink and Our Stories, Our Voices.

So, you’re thinking of writing a book. Or, maybe you’ve written one, and are wondering what to do with it. What does it take to publish a novel, or even a short story? If you’re a writer of color, these questions might multiply; after all, there’s a lot of writing advice out there, and it can be hard to know how much of it really applies to your own experiences. If any of this sounds like you, you’re in the right place: this collection of essays, written exclusively by authors of color, is here to encourage and empower writers of all ages and backgrounds to find their voice as they put pen to page.

Perhaps you’re just getting started. Here you’ll find a whole toolkit of advice from bestselling and award-winning authors for focusing on an idea, landing on a point of view, and learning which rules were meant to be broken. Or perhaps you have questions about everything beyond the first draft: what is it really like being a published author? These writers demystify the process, sharing personal stories as they forged their own path to publication, and specifically from their perspectives as author of color.

Every writer has a different journey. Maybe yours has already started. Or maybe it begins right here.

Contributors include: Julie C. Dao, Chloe Gong, Joan He, Kosoko Jackson, Adiba Jaigirdar, Darcie Little Badger, Yamile Saied Méndez, Axie Oh, Laura Pohl, Cindy Pon, Karuna Riazi, Gail D. Villanueva, Julian Winters, and Kat Zhang.

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From Here

Luma Mufleh

In her coming-of-age memoir, refugee advocate Luma Mufleh writes of her tumultuous journey to reconcile her identity as a gay Muslim woman and a proud Arab-turned-American refugee.

With no word for “gay” in Arabic, Luma may not have known what to call the feelings she had growing up in Jordan during the 1980s, but she knew well enough to keep them secret. It was clear that not only would her family have trouble accepting her, but trapped in a conservative religious society, she could’ve also been killed if anyone discovered her sexuality. Luma spent her teenage years increasingly desperate to find a way out, and finally found one when she was accepted into college in the United States. Once there, Luma begins the ago­nizing process of applying for political asylum, which ensures her safety—but causes her family to break ties with her.

Becoming a refugee in America is a rude awakening, and Luma must rely on the grace of friends and strangers alike as she builds a new life and finally embraces her full self. Slowly, she’s able to forge a new path forward with both her biological and chosen families, eventually founding Fugees Family, a nonprofit dedicated to the education and support of refu­gee children in the United States.

As hopeful as it is heartrending, From Here is a coming-of-age memoir about one young woman’s search for belonging and the many meanings of home for those who must leave theirs.

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Disappearing Act

Jiordan Castle

Moving and evocative, Disappearing Act is a YA true-story-in-verse following author Jiordan Castle's coming of age as her family reckons with the aftershocks of her father's imprisonment.

It was the summer before high school,
the beginning of everything.
But also an end.


Jiordan’s family was never quite like everyone else’s, with her father’s mood swings, her mother’s attempts at normalcy, and her two older sisters with a different last name. But on the surface, they fit in.

Until the day the FBI came knocking on the door.

After that, her father’s mood plunged to a dangerous new low. After that, there was an investigation into his business and a sentencing in court. Soon Jiordan’s father would have to leave home, and her family would change forever.

Reckoning with the aftershocks of her father’s incarceration, Jiordan had to navigate friends who couldn't quite understand what she was going through, along with the highs and lows of first love. Under it all was the question: If Jiordan’s father was gone, why did she feel like the one who was disappearing?

Recounting her own experiences as a teenager, poet Jiordan Castle has created a searing and evocative young adult true-story-in-verse about the challenge to be free when a parent is behind bars.

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Dark Testament

Crystal Simone Smith

In this extraordinary collection, the award-winning poet Crystal Simone Smith gives voice to the mournful dead, their lives unjustly lost to violence, and to the grieving chorus of protestors in today’s Black Lives Matter movement, in search of resilience and hope.

With poems found within the text of George Saunders's Lincoln in the Bardo, Crystal Simone Smith embarks on an uncompromising exploration of collective mourning and crafts a masterwork that resonates far beyond the page. These poems are visually stark, a gathering of gripping verses that unmasks a dialogue of tragic truths—the stories of lives taken unjustly and too soon.

Bold and deeply affecting, Dark Testament is a remarkable reckoning with our present moment, a call to action, and a plea for a more just future.

Along with the poems, Dark Testament includes a stirring introduction by the author that speaks to the content of the poetry, a Q&A with George Saunders, and a full-color photo-insert that commemorates victims of unlawful killings with photographs of memorials that have been created in their honor.

"I love this tremendously skillful, timely, and dazzling repurposing of passages of my novel, Lincoln in the Bardo. Crystal Simone Smith has, with her amazing ear and heart, found, in that earlier grief, a beautiful echo for our time." —George Saunders, New York Times bestselling author of Lincoln in the Bardo and Tenth of December

"Written in response to the murder of George Floyd...this touching memorial to the Black lives lost to systemic racism is a rousing homage to those protesting in their honor, who refuse to let these deaths be in vain." - Publisher's Weekly

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Work with What You Got: A Memoir

Zion Clark

Elite wheelchair racer and wrestler Zion Clark joins with New York Times best-selling author James S. Hirsch for a stunning memoir—recounting childhood adversity, awe-inspiring perseverance, and self-invention.

When a baby named Zion was born in 1997 to an imprisoned, drug-addicted mother, his future seemed bleak. Born without legs due to a rare condition called caudal regression syndrome, Zion was abandoned and shunted to a foster-care system ill-equipped to care for him. In this stirring memoir, readers will follow as he is bounced from home to home, subjected to abuse, neglect, and inconceivable hardship. Somehow, Zion finds supportive angels along the way: his first two foster families, who offer a haven; the wrestling coach who senses his “warrior spirit” and nurtures it; the woman of fierce faith who adopts a seventeen-year-old and cheers his every match. From play-by-play narration of how Zion adapts wrestling moves to defeat able-bodied opponents, wielding phenomenal arm and hand strength, to accounts of his extraordinary work ethic, unflagging optimism, and motivational speaking, this is an inspirational story of courage that will appeal to any athlete who respects determination, any young person facing adversity, and any reader who wants to believe in the human spirit.

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The Big Backyard

Ron Miller

Thousands of years ago, humans believed that Earth was the center of the universe, that the world they lived on was all there was. Truthfully, the solar system extends almost halfway to the nearest star. And it is composed of not only planets, asteroids, and comets, but also powerful forces and vast fields of energy. This is our solar system's big backyard.

The cold, dark world that lies at the farthest reaches of our solar system holds a vast collection of secrets, and for most of human history, we had no idea anything was out there. But, driven by curiosity and equipped with new technology, astronomers have determined that beyond the orbit of Neptune are countless icy comets, strange particles that dance under the influence of the sun, and signs of undiscovered planets. To learn more about these far-flung objects, scientists have finally begun to explore the distant solar system, finding answers to age-old questions at the same time that they encounter new mysteries.

With Ron Miller's incredible illustrations and photographs from NASA probes and telescopes, The Big Backyard takes us on a tour through the solar system's most obscure neighborhoods and into its darkest corners, to places beyond the limits of the human eye. Miller expertly describes the formation of the solar system and the history of the exploration of the outer solar system before delving into the latest discoveries and missions. Read on to learn what sorts of objects orbit at such extreme distances, what happens at the boundary between the sun's influence and interstellar space, whether there is such a thing as the mysterious Planet X, and how life on Earth could not exist without the happenings at the edge of the solar system.

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America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History

Ariel Aberg-Riger

A YALSA Finalist for Excellence in Nonfiction · 4 starred reviews · Kirkus Prize Winner · Kirkus Best Book of the Year · Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year · School Library Journal Best Book of the Year · New York Public Library Best Book of the Year · Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature Best Book of the Year

"America Redux is THE history book that belongs in every high school in America." --Angie Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of The Hate U Give

"America Redux is RAD." --Kate Schatz, New York Times bestselling author of Rad American Women A-Z and Do the Work: An Antiracist Activity Book

A critical, unflinching cultural history and fierce beacon of hope for a better future, America Redux is a necessary and galvanizing read.

What are the stories we tell ourselves about America?

How do they shape our sense of history,

cloud our perceptions,

inspire us?

America Redux explores the themes that create our shared sense of American identity and interrogates the myths we've been telling ourselves for centuries. With iconic American catchphrases as chapter titles, these twenty-one visual stories illuminate the astonishing, unexpected, sometimes darker sides of history that reverberate in our society to this very day--from the role of celebrity in immigration policy to the influence of one small group of white women on education to the effects of "progress" on housing and the environment to the inspiring force of collective action and mutual aid across decades and among diverse groups.

Fully illustrated with collaged archival photographs, maps, documents, graphic elements, and handwritten text, this book is a dazzling, immersive experience that jumps around in time and will make you view history in a whole different light.

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Accountable

Dashka Slater


YALSA AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION WINNER From the New York Times-bestselling author of The 57 Bus comes Accountable, a propulsive and thought-provoking true story about the revelation of a racist social media account that changes everything for a group of high school students and begs the question: What does it mean to be held accountable for harm that takes place behind a screen?

“Powerful, timely, and delicately written.” —Ibram X. Kendi, #1 New York Times–bestselling and National Book Award-winning author

When a high school student started a private Instagram account that used racist and sexist memes to make his friends laugh, he thought of it as “edgy” humor. Over time, the edge got sharper. Then a few other kids found out about the account. Pretty soon, everyone knew.

Ultimately no one in the small town of Albany, California, was safe from the repercussions of the account’s discovery. Not the girls targeted by the posts. Not the boy who created the account. Not the group of kids who followed it. Not the adults—educators and parents—whose attempts to fix things too often made them worse.

In the end, no one was laughing. And everyone was left asking: Where does accountability end for online speech that harms? And what does accountability even mean?

Award-winning and New York Times–bestselling author Dashka Slater has written a must-read book for our era that explores the real-world consequences of online choices.

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Total Garbage

Edward Humes

An investigative narrative that dives into the waste embedded in our daily lives—and shows how individuals and communities are making a real difference for health, prosperity, quality of life and the fight against climate change, by a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist

What happens to our trash? Why are our oceans filling with plastic? Do we really waste 40 percent of our food 65 percent of our energy? Waste is truly our biggest problem, and solving our inherent trashiness can fix our economy, our energy costs, our traffic jams, and help slow climate change—all while making us healthier, happier and more prosperous.     This story-driven and in-depth exploration of the pervasive yet hard-to-see wastefulness that permeates our daily lives illuminates the ways in which we've been duped into accepting absolutely insane levels of waste as normal. Total Garbage also tells the story of individuals and communities who are finding the way back from waste, and showing us that our choices truly matter and make a difference.
    Our big environmental challenges – climate, energy, plastic pollution, deforestation, toxic emissions—are often framed as problems too big for any one person to solve. Too big even for hope. But when viewed as symptoms of a single greater problem—the epic levels of trash and waste we produce daily--the way forward is clear. Waste is the one problem individuals can positively impact—and not just on the planet, but also on our wallets, our health, and national and energy security. The challenge is seeing our epic wastefulness clearly.
    Total Garbage will shine a light on the absurdity of the systems that all of us use daily and take for granted--and it will help both individuals and communities make meaningful changes toward better lives and a cleaner, greener world.

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Who's Got Mail?

Linda Barrett Osborne

A fascinating history of the US Post Office for kids, from acclaimed author Linda Barrett Osborne

"In America, one of the first things done in a new State is to have the mail come." --Alexis de Toqueville, 1835

Who's Got Mail? is an intriguing and fact-filled look at how the mail has been delivered in the United States since before the Constitution was even signed. In the United States, the spread of the postal service went hand in hand with the spread of democracy and transportation. As settlement spread west, communication became even more important to let distant residents feel that they were American; no part of the country was too far away, no village or farm too small to have access to the post.

Moreover, the Post Office has always been a public service--it was not originally designed to make a profit or act like a business, but to deliver letters, medical supplies, packages ordered through catalogs, and all the things that Americans need at a reasonable cost. Over the centuries, it has also been one of the largest employers in the United States, particularly as a means for African Americans and women to secure stable, middle-class jobs.

Full of eccentric characters, great stories, and technological achievements, this fun middle-grade narrative nonfiction celebrates one of our oldest and strongest institutions and is a true testament to the spirit of American democracy.

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This Is Not a Cookbook

Flynn McGarry

In this uniquely accessible, fully illustrated nonfiction work for young readers, Chef Flynn McGarry, who at an early age discovered a passion for food and cooking and has since gone on to receive wide-acclaim as a chef, shares his insights and explores the elements of creativity as he encourages young readers to mix passion, hard work, and their own unique perspective to achieve results that might just be life-changing.

When Flynn McGarry was ten years old, he started to cook in a serious way. At first he simply wanted to make better food for his family, so with the help and support of his parents, he turned his bedroom into a personal kitchen. Yes, his curiosity was intense. He committed himself to developing his knowledge of food and culinary technique by reading cookbooks and watching chefs on YouTube and the Food Network. He then pieced together information that excited his sensibilities, paying attention to every detail—from the design of a kitchen to the type of container being used, from the color and texture of food to its arrangement on a plate. He thought not only about menus and the taste of food, but also about where it was grown and how it was harvested.
    Now in his midtwenties, Flynn is a well-known chef with his own restaurant and much more happening in his life. Still, with all his success, this modest young man is inspired to share his creative process and his innovative thinking about aesthetics and food, especially with young people. 
        Of course, some of Flynn’s favorite recipes are included, for those who also want to cook and eat well!

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Why? The Human Body

National Geographic Kids

Why can kids hear better than grown-ups? Why can’t humans spit like llamas? This brainy and zany Q&A book answers the serious and silly questions kids have about the human body.

Put on your lab coat and grab hold of your stethoscope as you embark on a scientific mission to boost your brainpower on all topics about the human body! Explore anatomy and find out why bones break. Look into the senses and discover why sour foods make your mouth pucker. Get acquainted with genetics to find out why your hair changes over time. Be boggled by the power of your brain as you decipher why you can hear yourself think. Get grossed out—in a good way—as you uncover why snot and boogers have an important job to do. Discover how scientists study new diseases, and ponder if humans will one day be able to live forever.

This compact and focused little sibling of the best-selling Why? Over 1,111 Answers to Everything is the second title in a series of fun-packed books designed to supercharge and satisfy your curiosity while keeping you entertained for hours. Figure out what makes you you as you marvel over hundreds of fun facts, stunning photographs, explorer interviews, and activities such as matching games and quizzes.

With succinct, funny text, eye-popping color photos and illustrations, and mind-boggling facts, Why? The Human Body is sure to please the Q&A-loving crowd! Add to your collection with Why? Animals.

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Those Who Saw the Sun

Jaha Nailah Avery

NYPL BEST OF THE YEAR

BEST OF THE BEST, BLACK CAUCUS OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION




A stunning collection of oral histories from Black elders who grew up in the Jim Crow South



The past is not past. We may think something ancient history, or something that doesn't affect our present day, but we would be wrong.



Those Who Saw the Sun is a collection of oral histories told by Black people who grew up in the South during the time of Jim Crow. Jaha Nailah Avery is a lawyer, scholar, and reporter whose family has roots in North Carolina stretching back over 300 years. These interviews have been a personal passion project for years as she's traveled across the South meeting with elders and hearing their stories.



One of the most important things a culture can do is preserve history, truthfully. In Those Who Saw the Sun we have the special experience of hearing this history as it was experienced by those who were really there. The opportunity to read their stories, their similarities and differences, where they agree and disagree, and where they overcame obstacles and found joy - feels truly like a gift.



P R A I S E



"Profound... Avery's thoughtful questions and the answers they elicit engage well with the impressive minds, often put-upon bodies, and persisting souls of subjects and readers alike."

--BCCB (starred)



"Powerful... Avery highlights essential perspectives on significant cultural moments and movements by centering the voices of those who lived them. With the intention of preserving varied Black experiences and the wisdom and knowledge they offer, the creator crafts a vital, nuanced depiction of a fraught period in American history via myriad perspectives."

--Publishers Weekly (starred)



"These elders' voices are a collective treasure."

--Kirkus (starred)



"Compelling."

--School Library Connection



"Chilling... bring[s] alive the realities of life under Jim Crow."

--Booklist

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Race Against Death: the Greatest POW Rescue of World War II (Scholastic Focus)

Deborah Hopkinson

A thrilling account of the most daring American P.O.W. rescue mission of World War II.

 

Scholastic Focus is the premier home of thoroughly researched, beautifully written, and thoughtfully designed works of narrative nonfiction aimed at middle-grade and young adult readers. These books help readers learn about the world in which they live and develop their critical thinking skills so that they may become dynamic citizens who are able to analyze and understand our past, participate in essential discussions about our present, and work to grow and build our future.

Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, America entered World War II, and a new theater of battle opened up in the Pacific. But US troops, along with thousands of Filipino soldiers who fought alongside them, were overtaken in the Philippines by a fiercely determined Japanese navy, and many Americans and Filipino fighters were killed or captured.

These American and Filipino prisoners of war were forced to endure the most horrific conditions on the deadly trek known as the Bataan Death March. Then, the American servicemen who were held captive by the Japanese military in Cabanatuan Camp and others in the Philippines, faced beatings, starvation, and tropical diseases, and lived constantly under the threat of death.

Unable to forget their comrades' fate and concerned that these POWs would be brutally murdered as the tides of war shifted in the Pacific, the US Army Rangers undertook one of the most daring and dangerous rescue missions of all time. Aided by the "Angels of the Underground," the Sixth Ranger Battalion and courageous Filipino guerrilla soldiers set out on an uncertain and treacherous assignment. Often called the Great Raid, this remarkable story remains largely forgotten.

Sibert Honor author Deborah Hopkinson presents an extraordinary and unflinching look at the heroic servicemen and women who courageously weathered the worst of circumstances and conditions in service to their country, as well as those who answered the call to save their fellow soldiers.

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Paul Bunyan: The Invention of an American Legend

Noah Van Sciver

Did you know that a mainstay of American folk culture was in fact created as an advertising ploy?

Few people realize that Paul Bunyan, the legendary lumberjack, and his blue ox are the product of corporate marketing by a highly industrialized commercial enterprise.

Cartoonist NOAH VAN SCIVER shows us the myth creation as real life marketing man extraordinaire W.B. Laughead spins ever more wondrous tall tales. Van Sciver's story is bracketed by rich contributions from contemporary Native artists and storytellers with a very different connection to the land that the Bunyan myths often conceal. Readers will see how a lumberjack hero, a quintessential American fantasy, captures the imagination but also serves to paper over the seizure of homeland from First Peoples and the laying bare of America's northern forests. It’s a tall tale with deep roots . . . in profit-making!

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Nearer My Freedom

Monica Edinger

Millions of Africans were enslaved during the transatlantic slave trade, but few recorded their personal experiences. Olaudah Equiano's The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is perhaps the most well known of the autobiographies that exist. Using this narrative as a primary source text, authors Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge share Equiano's life story in "found verse," supplemented with annotations to give readers historical context. This poetic approach provides interesting analysis and synthesis, helping readers to better understand the original text. Follow Equiano from his life in Africa as a child to his enslavement at a young age, his travels across the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, his liberation, and his life as a free man.

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The Monkey Trial

Anita Sanchez

 

 

Revealing little-known facts about the fight to teach evolution in schools, this riveting account of the dramatic 1925 Scopes Trial (aka "the Monkey Trial") speaks directly to today's fights over what students learn, the tension between science and religion, the influence of the media on public debate, and the power of one individual to change history.

 

 

Arrested For teaching John Scopes's crime riveted the world, and crowds flocked to the trial of the man who dared to tell students about a forbidden topic--evolution.

The year was 1925, and discussing Darwin's theory of evolution was illegal in Tennessee classrooms. Lawyers wanted to challenge the law, and businessmen smelled opportunity. But no one imagined the firestorm the Scopes Trial would ignite--or the media circus that would follow.

As reporters, souvenir-hawking vendors, angry protestors, and even real monkeys mobbed the courthouse, a breathless public followed the action live on national radio broadcasts. All were fascinated by the bitter duel between science and religion, an argument that boiled down to the question of who controls what students can learn--an issue that resonates to this day.

Through contemporary visuals and evocative prose, Anita Sanchez vividly captures the passion, personalities, and pageantry of the infamous "Monkey Trial," highlighting the quiet dignity of the teacher who stood up for his students' right to learn.

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The In-Between

Katie Van Heidrich

For fans of Enchanted Air by Margarita Engle and Life in Motion by Misty Copeland, this middle grade memoir in verse with “stellar writing [and] perfect pacing” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) chronicles a young girl and her family who must start over after losing their home.

In the early 2000s, thirteen-year-old Katie Van Heidrich has moved more times that she can count, for as long as she can remember. There were the slow moves where you see the whole thing coming. There were the fast ones where you grab what you can in seconds. When Katie and her family come back from an out-of-town funeral, they discover their landlord has unceremoniously evicted them, forcing them to pack lightly and move quickly.

They make their way to an Extended Stay America Motel, with Katie’s mother promising it’s temporary. Within the four walls of their new home, Katie and her siblings, Josh and Haley, try to live a normal life—all while wondering if things would be easier living with their father. Lyrical and forthcoming, Katie navigates the complexities that come with living in-between: in between homes, parents, and childhood and young adulthood, all while remaining hopeful for the future.

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Lawless Ladies

Angela Buckingham

A story collection about real women who broke the rules without apology.



Step aside Robin Hood and your merry men, these outlaw stories aren't fairytales for small children. They are true tales of real women that every young person should know.



Adventurous, daring and often amusing, the leading women in these outrageous true stories prove that it was not just men who sailed the seven seas, held up stagecoaches and conned their way into fortunes. These women went after what they wanted, refusing to be bound by the law or society's expectations of them.



These outlaws are Charming Knowing Acting Confounding Vengeful Canny Conning Negotiating Redemptive Wise.



These fast paced, action packed tales are stories that have been lost, stories that have remained untold. The stories come from around the world and across history, but the single thing they share is that each is about a truly lawless woman.

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My Selma

Willie Mae Brown

Perfect for fans of Jacqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming, debut author Willie Mae Brown crafts an unforgettable memoir about growing up amidst the civil rights movement in a town at the crossroads of history.

As the civil rights movement and the fight for voter rights unfold in Selma, Alabama, many things happen inside and outside the Brown family’s home that do not have anything to do with the landmark 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Yet the famous outrages which unfold on that span form an inescapable backdrop in this collection of stories about the everyday and the extraordinary. In one, twelve-year-old Willie Mae takes it upon herself to offer summer babysitting services to a glamorous single white mother—a secret she keeps from her parents that unravels with shocking results. In another, Willie Mae reluctantly joins her mother at a church rally, and is forever changed after hearing Martin Luther King Jr. deliver a defiant speech in spite of a court injunction.

Infused with the vernacular of her Southern upbringing, My Selma captures the voice and vision of a fascinating young person—perspicacious, impetuous, and resourceful in her ways of seeing the world around her—who gifts us with a loving portrayal of her hometown while also delivering a no-holds-barred indictment of the time and place.

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Harboring Hope

Susan Hood

The inspirational true story of how twenty-two-year-old Henny Sinding courageously helped smuggle hundreds of Jewish families in occupied Denmark to safety in Sweden during the Holocaust. A middle grade nonfiction novel-in-verse by award-winning author Susan Hood.

It wouldn't be easy, but they had to try.

It was their only chance to survive.

In 1943, Henny Sinding, only twenty-two years old, and the crew of Gerda lll, a lighthouse supply boat, risked everything to smuggle their Jewish compatriots across the Øresund strait to safety in Sweden during World War ll. In Henny's words, "It was the right thing to do so we did it. Simple as that." But what happened when their operation's cover was blown and it was Henny's turn to escape?

This incredible true story in-verse about courage, community, humanity, and hope is perfect for fans of Lifeboat 12, Alias Anna, and Alan Gratz.

Includes extensive back matter with primary sources, additional information, further reading, and photographs.

A JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD GOLD STANDARD SELECTION!

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