Picture Books for 9–12 Year Olds

357 picture books our editors reviewed for 9–12 year olds, sorted by rating. Notable authors include Paul Moxham, Camelia Simmons, and Speedy Kids.

10,000 INK STAINS

Genre

This visually arresting counting book takes young readers on a journey through a world of splattered, dripped, and smeared ink marks, transforming abstract art into a playful math adventure. Each pag...

100 Unicorn Moments Coloring Book Adorable Unicorn Scenes to Color

Camelia Simmons

Explore the enchanting world of unicorns in this magical coloring book Immerse yourself in serenity as you bring to life our stunning illustrations with a rainbow of color. Perfect for unicorn lovers of all ages, allow your imagination to soar as you join us on a dazzling journey, filled with fantas

107 DAYS

the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear\u002Deyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re\u002Dcreate our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”"

This gripping survival narrative chronicles the incredible true story of a young person's 107-day ordeal in a remote wilderness, testing the limits of human endurance and resilience. The author maste...

2024

default.” In a chapter titled “Sleepwalking,” they write, “Joe Biden decided to run for reelection by not deciding. He told aides: I’m running until I tell you I’m not. And he never told them he wasn’t.” Staffers didn’t want to look disloyal by suggesting he reconsider, “so no one ever said anything.” Later, one\u002Dtime Obama staffers, worried about Biden’s chances, “looked for a diplomatic way to offer free assistance” on “specific projects.” Biden’s team promised to be in touch, but the collaboration never happened. After Biden’s disastrous debate performance, Ron Klain, his former chief of staff, vented about Biden’s apparent lack of urgency: “I have no fucking clue why he’s going to Camp David this weekend” instead of “working the phones” to reassure nervous Democrats. The reporters’ sources close to Vice President Kamala Harris, who became the nominee after Biden left the race, describe similar frustrations with her campaign’s sluggish decision\u002Dmaking and failure to challenge allegations made by Donald Trump. The authors find little new to write about Trump, retelling how criminal indictments and assassination attempts worked to his advantage and describing his staunchest supporters’ belief that God is looking out for him. But this is an excusable shortcoming in a substantive effort that’s ideal for readers reluctant to read multiple books on the subject."

This ambitious work attempts to capture the zeitgeist of our current year, offering a sprawling, novelistic look at the anxieties and triumphs that define the modern era. The narrative weaves togethe...

58% TOO FAR

the dark side of the Anunnaki, which includes a loss of individuality, minimal emotion, “a policy of compulsory euthanasia at 840 years,” and a pernicious slow dementia known as “Quantum Psychosis.” Zadie finds herself abandoned by her dementia\u002Dstricken hosts in one of the prehistoric zoos. Noordermeer’s impressive debut is mind\u002Dexpanding anthropological SF that conveys wisdom and persuasive arguments via an Alice\u002Din\u002DAwe\u002Dand\u002DWonder\u002DLand setup and such dubious conceits as talking abominable snowmen. The science (more genetics and sociobiology than physics) is not too intimidating, the issues carry weight without relying on cackling techno\u002Dtyrants or villainous robots, and the characters are appealing, even those whose personalities have all but thinned to biological\u002Dcomputer level. While a long stretch of the narrative involves a series of lab\u002Dbound experiments (but what experiments!), the author manages to keep things moving forward. The conceit of a modern researcher set amid primordial beings should appeal to fans of Michael Bishop’s No Enemy but Time (1982)."

This mind-expanding anthropological science fiction debut plunges a modern researcher into a prehistoric zoo managed by the Anunnaki, ancient beings whose advanced society is plagued by compulsory eu...

8 UNIVERSAL LAWS

Genre

This concise guide to universal principles offers young readers an accessible introduction to philosophical concepts that have shaped human understanding across cultures and centuries. The book disti...

A BITE OF PEPPER

Genre

This picture book offers a spicy take on trying new foods, following a young protagonist's reluctant encounter with an unfamiliar vegetable. The narrative cleverly uses sensory language to explore th...

A FLOWER TRAVELED IN MY BLOOD

Jorge Rafael Videla in 1976 forever reset the country’s history. Under Videla’s direction, a violent military junta kidnapped, tortured, and murdered thousands of Argentines (by some estimates as many as 30,000 who were deemed “subversives”). Centering the saga of the Roisinblits and their matriarch Rosa, journalist Gilliland, in her first book, approaches this brutal period through the eyes of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, a scrappy, courageous group of mothers of desaparecidos who had infants or were pregnant when they were disappeared. Over decades of instability that followed the junta’s rule, the Abuelas were at the forefront of calls for accountability and justice, anchoring their grief in the search for grandchildren who had been born in detention centers and adopted—appropriated—by new families, often with connections to Videla’s government. The author conveys the complicated, heart\u002Dwrenching fullness of her characters’ individual stories and shades their backdrop with compulsively readable history of geopolitical tension and the emerging DNA science that fueled the Abuelas’ fight. Gilliland’s work, exhaustively and compassionately researched, offers a crucial counterbalance to the dark legacy of Argentina’s desaparecidos, injecting the light of a model resistance movement that lay the groundwork for future international human rights investigations. Her humility and respect for the fraught journeys her subjects made toward each other and for the vital questions their journeys raised—about power, identity, family, and collective memory and healing—ensure the text will resonate for generations the world over."

This powerful poetry collection explores the complex journey of identity, heritage, and self-discovery through vivid, lyrical verse that speaks directly to the teenage experience. The poems navigate ...

A GIRL WALKS INTO THE FOREST

magical beings, the yiliksii, or “cursed children of the forest.” She’s accompanied by her brother and his wife, but when a beast attacks them in the forest, clawing Valla’s face and destroying the beauty the Count expects, she falls gravely ill, hovering near death. When she wakes from her fever, she meets with unexpected kindness from Ermo, her betrothed’s brother, that stands in stark contrast to the heartlessness of the Count himself. Both the man and his castle are nothing like she imagined: They’re dark, desolate, and steeped in cruelty. Joined in the castle only by the Count’s sister, Yulnia\u003B sinister physician Kiril, who’s Yulnia’s confidant\u003B a handful of servants\u003B and an unimaginable, foreboding presence, Valla begins to unravel the castle’s mysteries. As she does, something stirs within her, calling her to violence and awakening with every secret she uncovers. Well\u002Dcrafted and deeply unsettling, this folktale\u002Dinfluenced horror novel will captivate fans of the genre, but it’s not for the faint of heart. Valla’s character is richly developed, her transformation from a helpless sacrifice to something far more formidable unfolding with haunting intensity. Main characters are cued white."

A teenage girl confronts both the tangible wilderness and the emotional thicket of grief in this poignant novel that explores loss, family secrets, and the painful journey toward self-discovery. When...

A LIGHT IN THE NORTHERN SEA

Genre

This gripping maritime adventure plunges readers into the treacherous waters of the North Sea, where a young lighthouse keeper's apprentice confronts violent storms, mysterious shipwrecks, and long-b...

A Merry Merry Christmas - Christmas Coloring Books Children's Christmas Books

Speedy Kids

Make it feel like Christmas in summer with the help of this coloring book! Coloring is a great activity that bears so many benefits, including improved color sense, structure and spatial awareness and improved hand to eye coordination. Encourage your child's love for coloring one page at a time. Go

A NOBLE MADNESS

a desire for wealth, knowledge, prestige, and, not least, order, collectors have amassed objects such as artworks, scientific specimens, religious relics, books, and gems. Delbourgo traverses time and place to portray collectors’ roles: In premodern China, a collector was seen as a person of superior sophistication\u003B in Korea, collecting was a path to attaining status. Some artifacts—religious relics, for example, or African art—have been sought for their spiritual or magical power. Romantics saw collecting as an expression of one’s inner self, an idea that persists, even as collecting has been associated with colonialism, looting, and profit. Collecting, Delbourgo asserts, also has been associated with mental illness. Fictional collectors, such as Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray, behave maniacally\u003B Freud diagnosed the urge to collect as an expression of suppressed neuroses. Art collectors have been depicted variously as gloomy, gothic recluses, as figures associated with danger and unabated passion, and as libertines, while naturalists—Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, and Alexander von Humboldt, to name a few—are more likely celebrated for their dogged pursuit of scientific specimens. Delbourgo casts a wide net to offer biographies of collectors such as Rudolf II, a Holy Roman emperor who aspired to assemble the world in miniature\u003B Marie Antoinette, known as the “trinket queen”\u003B Alfred Kinsey, who collected data about sex\u003B and female collectors, notably, Gertrude Stein, Mabel Dodge Luhan, and Peggy Guggenheim, motivated by a pursuit of beauty and “nourishment of the soul.” In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association included hoarding disorder in its updated manual. As Delbourgo amply reveals, however, the distinction between the ardent collector and the pathological hoarder is hardly clear."

This powerful exploration of mental health and family dynamics follows a teenager grappling with her mother's bipolar disorder while navigating the treacherous waters of high school social hierarchie...

A REMARKABLE MAN

the incident, merely disgusted by human stupidity,” the author writes of Hida. Petitjean’s short book offers a warm tribute to this “frail figure” whose eyes “gleamed with intelligence and humanity” as he recounted his experiences in Hiroshima. In excerpts from interviews and speeches, Hida offers a rare account of the horrors that he witnessed. “I realized their flesh was decomposing,” Hida says of the bomb’s victims. “Everyone knows the human body decomposes after death, but these people were still alive. None of it made any sense. I overcame my disgust and continued to examine them.” Of the 300 or so doctors in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing, 60 were killed in the blast, and Hida was one of only a couple dozen doctors left with the impossible task of helping more than 100,000 victims. Hida himself suffered from radiation poisoning. “My bones have aged very quickly, and my back’s always been in a terrible state,” he says. He needed surgery at age 61 and had to be hospitalized again at 70. “I will keep fighting,” Hida tells Petitjean. True to his word, he kept traveling throughout Japan—speaking out against the dangers he had seen with his own eyes—until he was nearly 100."

This biography offers an intimate portrait of a truly extraordinary individual whose life story spans continents and careers, chronicling his journey from humble beginnings to international recogniti...

A SILENT TREATMENT

her first husband. Widowed after Vanasco’s father died, her mother was lonely, prompting the move. Now, she complains that she’s still lonely, unhappy living in the basement, and that she feels useless. But when Vanasco finds classes, a volunteer opportunity, and a book club, her mother is dismissive. In probing the history of their mother\u002Ddaughter relationship, Vanasco reveals an unusual complication: Although the author calls herself Jeannie, her birth name is the same as her mother’s—Barbara—causing confusion for doctors, banks, the gym where they both are members—and, it appears, intensifying an interdependence that both women struggle to resist."

This gripping young adult novel explores the devastating impact of silence and emotional neglect within a family, following a teenager who must navigate the complex aftermath of a traumatic event tha...

A THOUSAND WAYS TO DIE

police and seven times more likely to be shot dead by another civilian with a gun.” Lee traces this pattern to America’s beginnings, when “an uncleavable relationship between the trade of humans and the trade of guns” contributed to the nation’s bloody foundation. After this historical background, Lee moves around the country, describing how Southern gun traffickers illicitly arm Chicagoans despite the state’s stringent gun control laws, fueling the city’s uncontrollable violence. In New Orleans, he notes how, while reporting during Hurricane Katrina, at least one of his white colleagues makes excuses for police shootings aimed at some of the city’s poorest Black residents. In Massachusetts, he interviews a worker at the Smith \u0026amp\u003B Wesson factory who loses his job after publicly questioning the company’s ethics. Throughout these stories, he weaves in his own personal history, recounting how his grandfather’s and stepbrother’s murders left lasting, traumatic impressions on his extended family. Lee’s experience reinforces one of the book’s key messages—that gun violence is both a byproduct and cause of “the systemic, institutional, and structural racism that feeds it.” At best, Lee’s work is empathetic, analytical, and insightful, drawing subtle connections in clean and conversational prose. Some chapters hold together better than others: “(G)un\u002DCivil Rights,” for example, is cohesive, while “Gigglebox” tends to meander. All in all, the book is a provocative and informative read that expertly blends memoir with hard\u002Dhitting reporting. "

This gripping survival guide presents a comprehensive catalog of lethal scenarios, from natural disasters to urban emergencies, delivering practical life-saving knowledge through vivid, accessible sc...

ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING

Genre

This sweeping narrative history takes readers on an extraordinary journey through the story of our world, from the Big Bang to the present day, weaving together science, history, and archaeology into...

ACCESS

1880, and “for the next one hundred years, abortion in America remained…underground, secret, stigmatized, and dangerous.” From the moment that Roe v. Wade was passed in 1973, anti\u002Dabortion activists organized to overturn it, helped along by politicians in gerrymandered districts who used “majorities and supermajorities to pass abortion restrictions at an alarming pace and volume.” On the other side, Grant writes, activist groups have long organized to protect choice. In the wake of Dobbs, the battle for access to abortion has heated up—often illegally, in the case of states such as Texas that have banned the importation of abortion pills or travel to other states to obtain the medical procedure. Grant profiles activists at various stages of the battle, from first\u002Dgeneration feminists who linked access to abortion to the struggle for women’s liberation generally to modern\u002Dday advocates who, among other strategies, have internationalized the ability to obtain pills for “self\u002Dmanaged abortion,” creating a sort of “underground for the post\u002DDobbs world.” The battle is multifaceted and requires the commitment of a range of activists and allies—who, Grant allows, are sometimes given to fighting among themselves—especially as certain states enact more restrictive laws even to the point of bans. On which note, Grant writes, “Abortion bans have never and will never stop people from ending pregnancies\u003B what they do is force people to resort to unsafe methods to end them.” Her narrative makes clear that the battle for access continues apace to advance the cause for choice against “the notion that a government can dictate if, when, or how its citizens manage pregnancy.”"

This gripping young adult thriller plunges readers into a high-stakes world of digital espionage and corporate secrets, following a tech-savvy protagonist who uncovers a dangerous conspiracy after ha...

Activity Puzzle Brain Teaser

Amellia.Publishers

BRAIN GAMES FOR BRAIN POWER PUZZLES TO EXERCISE YOUR MIND Fun! Fun! Fun! Let your creativity run wild! with this challenging the Ultimate Puzzle Book for Kids. 89 Puzzles and brain games are a great way for kids to exercise their minds while having a blast! A Fun Educational Workbook To Practice Thi

ADORABLE EMPIRE

some eccentric monsters." />

This vibrant counting book transforms early math into a monstrously fun adventure, following a cast of quirky creatures as they build their empire from one friendly monster to ten. Each page introduc...

AGENTS OF CHANGE

sexism and racism." />

This action-packed middle grade adventure tackles systemic injustice through the eyes of young activists who discover their school's hidden history. When a group of students uncovers a pattern of dis...

Akane-banashi 06 Ehrgeiziges Teenager-Mädchen trifft auf uralte Kunst

Yuki Suenaga

Geschichten erzählen ist doch (k)eine Kunst Um sich auf das "Rokumeikai" vorzubereiten, eine Veranstaltung, bei der eine neu gelernte Geschichte vorgetragen werden muss, übt Akane mit Meisterin Urara. Doch die Zeit ist knapp und sollte es ihr nicht gelingen, die neue Geschichte zu lernen, darf sie n

ALIGNMENT

discussing an extremely relevant topic in 21st\u002Dcentury America: discovering the right work\u002Dlife balance. She suggests that this balance is not only impossible to find, but also illusory—either people are ignoring work\u002Drelated things they should be doing, or they’re neglecting their lives in favor of their jobs, particularly when their occupations involve helping others. But “having work that is of service to the world,” Keller Wood writes, “does not require a life of monastic self\u002Dsacrifice.” The way she proposes to avoid these kinds of problems is to abandon the idea of balance and instead concentrate on “alignment.” The key to this concept is the trick of seeing life as a mosaic whose innumerable little pieces will realign themselves in response to changes in employment, family, health, and other factors. Each piece supports the others and gives the mosaic long\u002Dterm durability. Drawing on her experience in the Montessori school of teaching, Keller Wood stresses this flexibility and the “interleaving” (“resting from one kind of work” and switching to another) that’s characteristic of the educational method. The author asks readers: “If your body is weary from physical work, is there a more abstract problem you could puzzle over?” Keller Wood never avoids the “hard truth” that all the pieces of the mosaic she describes are temporary. Nonetheless, she writes with grace and genuine enthusiasm about her conviction that her readers can overcome the situation where “we have a lot on our plate, but we’re feeling less connected to the meaning behind it” and discover personal alignments that will improve their lives. Her lively book is full of vivid narrative examples drawn from her own life and the experiences of others as well as helpful writing exercises and “reflection questions” designed to make her less of a teacher and more of a Montessori\u002Dstyle “guide.” Teachers at all levels will consider the book useful, and harried, overworked readers will find it a welcome call to slow down and take stock."

This timely guide tackles the modern struggle of juggling career demands with personal fulfillment, offering a revolutionary alternative to the traditional work-life balance model. Drawing from Monte...

ALL CONSUMING

Tandoh"

This raw, unflinching memoir explores the complex relationship between food, identity, and mental health, charting a deeply personal journey through disordered eating and the path toward healing. Tan...

ALL THE WAY TO THE RIVER

then had become a distant second fiddle to the relationship with Rayya), and the two became lovers. There was a good part, and then a very bad part in the months leading up to Rayya’s death in 2018. The book also follows the story of Gilbert’s subsequent recovery from sex and love addiction through devoted adherence to a 12\u002Dstep program. Since she does not “have the heart to write out the excruciating details of the binge that I went on” after Rayya died, citing concern for the privacy of others, she focuses instead on the spiritual and emotional progress she has finally been able to achieve, documented in earnest poems and winsome doodles as well as well\u002Dwritten anecdotes. “Readers of my earlier work may remember that I reached nearly this same level of peace and tranquility back when I was in India, in the middle of my Eat Pray Love travels, after months of disciplined prayer, meditation, and retreat.” The difference this time, she says, is that she has the support she needs not to “drive my life off a cliff all over again.”"

This vibrant counting adventure takes young readers on a journey from one to ten, following a diverse group of children as they explore the wonders of a winding river. Each page introduces a new numb...

Amelia Bedelia Chapter Book 4-Book Box Set Books 1-4

Herman Parish

Amelia Bedelia is all boxed up—literally! This boxed set includes the first four books in the bestselling Amelia Bedelia Chapter Book series: Amelia Bedelia Means Business, Amelia Bedelia Unleashed, Amelia Bedelia Road Trip! and Amelia Bedelia Goes Wild! The Amelia Bedelia books have sold more than

AMERICAN MACCABEE

Genre

This gripping historical novel plunges readers into the heart of the American Revolution, following a young Jewish patriot whose family heritage and personal courage become unexpectedly intertwined w...

Amulet Box Set Books #1-7 by Kazu Kibuishi

Kazu Kibuishi

This seven-volume graphic novel collection follows young Emily Hayes as she navigates a family tragedy and discovers a magical amulet that propels her into a breathtaking fantasy world. Through vivid...

ANIMAL STORIES

Genre

This collection of animal tales brings the natural world to life through engaging narratives that explore everything from backyard wildlife to exotic creatures. Each story combines vivid animal chara...

APHMAU

adding a little magic to Aphmau’s birthday cake. Once consumed, the cake transforms Aphmau into a wolf\u002Dgirl. More birthday wishes backfire, cueing video game–inspired hijinks all over town. But can Aphmau right the wrongs in time? The author, a successful online content creator who shares a name with her protagonist, delivers a Minecraft\u002Dinspired graphic novel that successfully brings her brand to a new format. Cacciatore’s adorable, candy\u002Dcolored art incorporates video game conventions like status bars to effortlessly meld mediums. The fast pace and quick cuts are delightfully chaotic, echoing the original YouTube format. Age\u002Dappropriate tween romance elements especially stand out. Character bios provide a helpful entry point to those new to Aphmau’s world. Aphmau has brown skin and purple hair\u003B other cast members vary in skin tone."

This vibrant guide dives deep into the expansive universe of a beloved online gaming and role-play series, offering fans a comprehensive look at its characters, story arcs, and the creative mind behi...

ARCANA

the Arcana, an ancient society of witches based in London that’s tasked with investigating and containing supernatural occurrences. But the Majors, the Arcana’s ruling body, are less than pleased with this development\u003B Eli’s arrival coincides with strange happenings. Determined to get to the bottom of the Majors’ caginess and explain the dark energy stalking them, Eli and James band together with levelheaded trans woman Daphne, library\u002Dloving researcher Grayson, and tarot reader Koko to uncover the truth. Prentice\u002DJones’ illustrations employ a muted color palette of cool blues, olive browns, and burgundies that flow organically into one another, accentuating the clean, uncluttered panels and fluid lines. He also plays effectively with proportion and shape in his character drawings. The cast members, who largely seem to be adults rather than teens, are diverse across many dimensions, including race and body type. This first installment in a new series teases satisfying developments to come."

This gripping fantasy novel plunges readers into a world where magical tarot cards hold immense power, weaving a tale of destiny, danger, and self-discovery. The narrative follows a compelling protag...

ARTICULATE

hearing. "

This innovative guide to communication skills offers young people practical strategies for expressing themselves clearly and confidently in various social situations. The book covers essential techni...

AS A JEW

ethical principles and care for others. The struggle to embrace a heritage has been irrevocably complicated by the struggle to embrace a Jewish nation\u002Dstate. In fluent, conversational prose, the author (a former speechwriter for the Obamas) outlines some of the major historical principles behind Judaism. In her account, Judaism is a story of survival, a constant reinventing of tradition for a changing world, and a commitment to preserving the past while living in the present. More than any specific list of laws, rules, or observances, this feature of Judaism lies at the heart of the author’s story. She writes from personal experience, from historical research, and from a truly literary perspective. Responding to the prevalence of anti\u002DJewish incidents after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, she writes: “Relying on incident counts can be like trying to measure humidity with a bucket, as if it were rain. You can wind up with an empty bucket and a lot of people proclaiming that it’s all in your head. Even as you stand before them drenched in sweat and feeling suffocated, they may still insist that you’re overreacting, even making it all up.” It may be uniquely hard to be a Jew these days. But, Jewish or not, it’s even harder to be a mensch."

This powerful memoir offers young readers an intimate window into Jewish identity and heritage through the author's personal journey of self-discovery. The narrative weaves together family stories, c...

AS I REMEMBER...

Sherwin, who serves as the editor of this collection of memoiristic vignettes and miscellaneous writings by his aunt, Maria Gluck. The first section offers Maria’s reflections on growing up in a small village in Czechoslovakia in the early 20th century, written prior to her death in 2013. She intended it for her youngest brother, who didn’t remember much from his early childhood overseas, and it traces more than 100 years of family history. Maria recalls, for instance, the differences between her mother’s and father’s extended families\u003B although both were Jewish and followed kosher practices, her father’s family were prosperous business owners, while her mother’s came from more humble origins and were more conservative religiously. The book provides a unique lens into Jewish life in Europe prior to World War II, and later, it harrowingly tells how Maria and her siblings narrowly escaped the Holocaust by immigrating to Columbus, Ohio, in 1940\u003B almost the entirety of their family who remained in Europe were killed by the Nazi regime. Maria’s memoir is fewer than 200 pages in length, followed by more than 450 pages of miscellaneous musings. This eclectic assortment includes additional commentary on her family tree, early writings of an anticipated second book, and even a fictional story that centers on similar themes as the memoir.Many of these reflections, however, repeat information, making the narrative feel quite repetitive at times. Sherwin, as editor, presents them in a lightly edited format that lends a feeling of authenticity to a work that aims to preserve Maria’s memories for posterity. He prefaces his aunt’s writings with introductions, and provides a good deal of editorial commentary and notes that provide historical context, clarification, and translations of Hebrew and Yiddish terminology: “I came from a very balabuste family [well cared for, religious, and close\u002Dknit family], well known and respected,” reads a representative passage from the first page of her remembrance. Sherwin allows Maria to tell her story in her own words, including accounts of controversial disputes with family members\u003B many readers won’t share all of her views, such as her opposition to gay marriage. He reflects on his personal memories of Maria, as well, who never had children of her own\u003B for example, he presents the eulogy he delivered at her funeral, which includes an anecdote about visiting her apartment in Queens, New York. Originally written using IBM’s ViaVoice software when Maria was in her 90s, the book’s conversational style presents a narrative that’s full of fascinating detail, despite occasional stream\u002Dof\u002Dconsciousness tangents. Sherwin’s editorial commentary throughout effectively accomplishes its task of adding useful context to her ruminations, where necessary. "

This posthumously published memoir offers a poignant window into pre-war Jewish life in Czechoslovakia through the intimate recollections of Maria Gluck, compiled and edited by her nephew. The first ...

AURORA

the Collector, who has light skin, green eyes, and black hair. Wounded blue\u002Deyed Kendal, who’s born from Vash’s remaining essence, is left for dead but saved by purple\u002Dskinned, pink\u002Dhaired Alinua, a self\u002Dexiled cloud elf with a curse—or maybe a gift. With no way of knowing which she bestowed on Kendal, the two decide to travel together to rescue Vash’s soul. Meanwhile, a great mage, who’s light\u002Dskinned and brown\u002Dhaired and has power over all the elements, accidentally springs a trap that was millennia in the making. Fighting for control of his body, he’s saved by Kendal and Alinua and agrees to assist them—if they help him find a means to expel the malevolent spirit before it implements its plans. The plot\u002Ddriven story balances action sequences with intriguing plot developments and extensive worldbuilding. Red renders her full\u002Dcolor illustrations in a clean style that effectively conveys dynamic moments. However, information is too often introduced well in advance of its relevance, interrupting the pacing and creating information overload. This disjointed approach makes it difficult to ground oneself within the story or fully connect with the characters. "

This middle-grade novel follows a young protagonist navigating the complexities of identity and belonging against a backdrop of magical realism, blending everyday challenges with extraordinary circum...

AW, NUTS!

Perry." />

This hilarious picture book follows a determined squirrel's increasingly frantic attempts to claim a prized acorn, delivering a masterclass in physical comedy and escalating frustration that will hav...

AWAKE

white supremacy, racism, sexism, greed, and ugly secrets. “Imagine my surprise when I began discussing white supremacy, and tons of my Christian followers lost their shit,” she writes brightly. (There’s not a lot of blue language here, but when it comes, it’s just right.) The author goes on to write of middle\u002Dage dating, “purity culture,” body shaming, and a careful kind of forgiveness while proclaiming a hard\u002Dwon feminism: “Women are the eighth wonders of the world. May we love this little life with exposed beating hearts, tender regardless, despite it all.”"

This candid memoir offers modern readers a powerful exploration of complex social issues through the author's deeply personal lens, tackling difficult topics with refreshing honesty and courage that ...

BECOMING JFK

high cheekbones\u003B only minor flaw was a gap between her two front teeth, which Jack liked.” More narrative distance might have allowed for a more rigorous examination of the tension between Jack’s immense privilege and his personal struggles."

This compelling biography traces John F. Kennedy's transformation from a privileged but sickly youth into the charismatic leader who captured a generation. Drawing on historical records and personal ...

BEHIND THE EYE

an ample assortment of photographs."

This photographic journey offers young readers an intimate exploration of the natural world through stunning wildlife imagery that captures animals in their authentic habitats. Each photograph serves...

BELLE STARR

the time he met 21\u002Dyear\u002Dold Eliza Pennington\u003B some of his offspring by earlier marriages were older than his new bride. John and Eliza had six children of their own: Their second son, Bud, was Myra’s favorite. They galloped together on horseback through the countryside, he taught her how to handle a gun, and by the time she was a teenager, “she was a fearless rider and a crack shot.” His death during the Civil War upended her life: She vowed, somehow, to get revenge. Educated briefly at a female academy in Carthage, Missouri, where she was one of the first students, she learned by living. Wallis captures the rousing atmosphere of the lawless west—Belle’s family moved to Texas after Carthage was burned by guerrillas—with outlaws going “on the scout” to evade capture\u003B horse thieves\u003B bank, train, and stagecoach robbers\u003B and murderous gangs terrorizing communities. Although Belle never killed anyone and was convicted only once, of horse theft, her life revolved around outlaws: family, lovers, husbands. Her first husband’s escapades led to his being murdered at age 29. Another husband, a mixed\u002Drace Cherokee, was killed in an exchange of “deadly gunplay,” as was Belle herself, ambushed in a murder still unsolved. Wallis’ Belle is a brazen woman, refusing to bow to the constrictions of her time: lawless, if not an outlaw herself."

This gritty historical novel plunges readers into the untamed American West through the eyes of its most notorious female outlaw, Belle Starr. The narrative vividly captures her transformation from a...

BETWEEN TWO RIVERS

young students learning cuneiform, the Mesopotamian writing system. The author, an honorary fellow in Assyriology at Oxford, puts each of the objects in the context of the daily life of the era when they were made. So we learn about a young scholar who left his toothmarks on the clay tablet he was using for his assignment, or a barkeeper whose furniture budget included a suspiciously large number of beds. The hundreds of thousands of surviving cuneiform documents include not only royal decrees and official documents but letters between ordinary people—two mentioned here are a wife asking her husband to come home and a merchant planning his route to dodge tax collectors. The Sumerians, Babylonians, and other peoples who lived in the era were highly conscious of history, drawing connections between themselves and their predecessors—sometimes more than 1,000 years earlier. Their literary achievements include the Epic of Gilgamesh (which the author tells her young daughter as a bedtime story). The era’s advances in astronomy and mathematics contradict any notion that these were primitive, unenlightened times. Still, as the chapter on a stone mace found in the museum makes clear, brutal warfare was a too\u002Dcommon part of life, then as now. A final chapter on the priestess in whose palace the museum was located shows the important and varied roles played by women in Mesopotamian society."

This powerful novel explores the complex journey of a teenage girl navigating cultural identity and family expectations while caught between her immigrant parents' traditions and her American upbring...

BEYOND THE SCOREBOARD

far the book’s greatest strength\u003B there seems to be no facet of the subject the author doesn’t examine in detail. Costante asserts that no matter what the event is, the presentation is crucial to the enjoyment of attendees (Chicago Bears fans sitting knee\u002Ddeep in snow notwithstanding)\u003B as any fan will acknowledge, poor bathroom arrangements or clueless staff can spoil a sports outing a lot quicker than a team doing poorly. Every sporting event director should read this book."

This compelling sports narrative goes far deeper than the final score, exploring the complex world of youth athletics where character is the ultimate measure of success. The story follows a young ath...

BIRCH AND JAY

a chance encounter with rebellious Elder Elm. Meanwhile, 19\u002Dyear\u002Dold Birch, seeking her own adventure, left her fathers behind to set out after Jay, to whom she is “promised.” Although extreme weather and wild animals plagued their journeys, they each soon learned that humans were a far more dangerous threat. The Six, leaders of an “old\u002Dfashioned city\u002Dstate,” wanted to use environmentally destructive technology that could return Earth to the brink of collapse. The easy\u002Dto\u002Dfollow narrative switches between Birch’s and Jay’s perspectives in the year 2173 with their storylines half a century earlier. The engaging premise is full of poignant reminders that the greatest challenge humanity faces is itself\u003B the climate change warnings are unsubtle but don’t detract from the steady pacing. Race in this world is an “antiquated” concept\u003B Birch is racially ambiguous, and Jay has Nordic and Asian Indian ancestry."

This middle-grade novel explores the evolving friendship between two very different boys navigating the challenges of early adolescence. Birch, quiet and observant, finds his world turned upside down...

BIRD SCHOOL

Genre

This charming picture book offers young readers an engaging introduction to the world of birds through a clever school-day metaphor that makes ornithology accessible and fun. Following a day in the l...

BLACK SOLDIERS, WHITE LAWS

a white mob was impending, and indeed they met with a confrontation that led to the deaths of 20 people. In response, military historian Haymond recounts, the Army charged 118 soldiers with mutiny. Hammond chronicles, corroborated by a later Army inquiry, that the soldiers’ defense was sorely inadequate\u003B the officer conducting it was not a lawyer, and the trial was laced with perjurious testimony and racist rhetoric. The trial also revealed incompetence, at the very least, of the white officers who commanded the 24th Infantry Regiment, with the officer in charge being “willing to ­either abandon his junior officers to death at the hands of mutinous troops or, assuming that they ­were still alive, leave them to ­handle ­things without him.” Whether there was a mutiny, strictly speaking, remains controversial. If self\u002Ddefense, then, as Haymond notes, it “can be seen as a legitimate, if hasty, military response to a perceived threat,” but if a vigilante action by Black soldiers, then “a criminal act for which­ there is no excuse or exculpation.” In the end, 110 soldiers were found guilty, with 19 executed and the rest sentenced to life in prison. Thanks to the efforts of historians, including Haymond, and the support of numerous retired flag officers with “extensive experience with military justice,” however, the Army granted clemency more than a century later, returning those Buffalo Soldiers to honorable status—too little, too late, of course, but something."

This powerful examination of military justice and racial discrimination provides a meticulously researched account of how Black service members have navigated systemic inequality within the armed for...

BLESSINGS AND DISASTERS

Okeowo’s account, many of Alabama’s Native Americans, few but politically astute and relatively affluent, seem as wary of their Black neighbors as of their white ones, while the white mayor of Montgomery permitted the erection of historical markers relating to slavery only because he reckoned that they would draw tourist dollars. Okeowo ventures theses that Alabamians and others will find fascinating and provocative, among them the thought that the Lost Cause myth was in good part crafted by “certain white women” and that much of the ugliness of Alabama’s past—“Indian removal, the slave trade, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow”—is absent by design from official histories and “public stories.”"

This collection of contemporary poetry explores the complex terrain of adolescence through alternating moments of profound insight and chaotic emotion. The poet captures the raw intensity of teenage ...

Bluey Big Backyard A Coloring Book

Penguin Young Readers Licenses

A great coloring book for kids and any fans of Bluey! This coloring book is designed for children who love Bluey! It includes 64 high-quality images designed to entertain and engage, providing hours of coloring fun. Kids can use pens, pencils, markers, paint, and crayons. These coloring pages packed

BONES AND BERSERKERS

Frank Lloyd Wright. Others feature the discovery of a haunted well filled with the corpses of soldiers killed in a Civil War battle, gruesome revenge, and monsters like the Boo Hag, a skin changer who sucks blood through sleepers’ noses. All these tales, eerie as they are on their own, are cranked up into screamer territory by Hale’s two\u002Dtone illustrations, which, with indecent relish and fanatical attention to realistic detail, depict fresh and not\u002Dso\u002Dfresh corpses, a radiation victim’s rotted face, a man’s buttocks being hacked off with a sword, leering skeletons, chopped\u002Doff limbs, and creepy night creatures with big, sharp teeth. The cast of storytellers, horrified onlookers, and all\u002Dtoo\u002Doften mutilated victims is racially diverse."

This gripping collection of Norse mythology brings ancient legends to life with visceral battles, treacherous gods, and monstrous creatures that will captivate middle grade and young adult readers. T...

BORN EQUAL

nature, free and independent.” Jefferson held slaves and thus worked from a hypocritical position, but, Amar writes, his fellow Virginian George Washington “seemed open to long\u002Dterm reforms extinguishing slavery,” endorsing a law that simplified the process of manumission. States such as South Carolina “did not concede, as did many Virginia planters, that slavery was wrong and should ideally end, sometime, somehow.” Slavery did end, of course, even if a different inequality came on its heels: “Amendments designed to smash slavocrats were twisted like pretzels into political and judicial doctrines designed to protect plutocrats,” Amar writes, a process of corruption that continues today. Moreover, as the author rightly emphasizes, after the liberation of formerly enslaved Black people, the acquisition of civil and political rights did not extend to any women or Indigenous people, the former of whom did not attain the right to vote until 1920 because—unlike the male Black vote, which was needed to shore up Republicanism—“woman suffrage would not solve any immediate problem faced by these men.”"

This powerful young adult novel tackles the complex realities of social inequality through the intersecting lives of diverse teenagers navigating systemic barriers and personal challenges. The narrat...

BORN IN FLAMES

deregulation and accompanying shifts in the economic system, which spurred disinvestment in cities and reshaped the insurance industry, with companies making much of their money by investing customer premiums in stock, bond, and money markets. The 1970s Bronx fires were frequently blamed on tenants, a relatively small number of whom did commit arson, Ansfield writes. But this excellent book delivers the truth about “the burning years.”"

This powerful debut novel follows a young woman's journey through a dystopian society where she must navigate oppressive systems while discovering her own revolutionary potential. The narrative blend...

BOX TALES

extension, encourages readers to appreciate the sweet treats they gobble up. Burks’ agreeably over\u002Dthe\u002Dtop cartoon artwork leans into the drama\u003B Bea and Box’s gung\u002Dho partnership is infectiously enjoyable. These two have a lot to learn, but they’re ready to meet the challenge. Bea and her mom have brown hair and olive skin\u003B Mrs. Gomez welcomes them in Spanish and is cued Latine."

This innovative collection transforms ordinary cardboard boxes into extraordinary storytelling tools, offering a fresh approach to sparking children's imagination through everyday materials. Each pro...

BOXED

Genre

This collection of critical assessments offers readers a curated journey through contemporary literature, providing sharp analysis and thoughtful perspectives on recent publications. The reviews span...

BRADY VS. BELICHICK

Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains in Casablanca. Unlike “the politically correct crowd who split it down the middle,” Myers picks a winner in his contrived matchup, but his methodology, like much else in this book, is uninspired."

This gripping sports narrative chronicles the dramatic breakup and subsequent rivalry between legendary quarterback Tom Brady and master strategist coach Bill Belichick, whose two-decade partnership ...

BREAKLANDS

the Rumblers, and they kidnap him in the hope of selling him to the highest bidder. In a world where everyone has some sort of psychic ability, telekinetic Adam stands out as a super\u002Dpowerful being known as a Shaper. This makes him incredibly valuable, and the Rumblers know that he’ll fetch a high price in Tradetown. Kasa teams up with Gargarin, who can track the kidnappers and her sibling. On the way, they pick up Toy, who has a vehicle, and the tough Ruth, who has an impressive healing ability. However, a being named Shattersword is also after the Rumblers to get to Adam, under the direction of Rask—one of the most powerful Shapers, who controls the empire. Kasa doesn’t care about any of that, though\u003B she just wants her brother back, and she’s willing to do whatever it takes. However, will they ever be safe again, now that people know what he’s capable of? In this first collected volume of a new series, writer Jordan and artist Tyasseta transport readers to a world that’s 147 years “after the break”—much like our own, but with a wide range of superpowered people. The brightly colored milieu, with a diversity of body types and skin colors, feels realistic and offers a future that’s recognizable, even as strange creatures roam the world of the Breaklands. The banter between the heroes of the story gives it a found\u002Dfamily feel and make them easy to root for, as when Gargarin says that he has a plan, and Ruth asks if it’s a good one: “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Gargarin quips."

This gritty graphic novel plunges readers into a dangerous, post-apocalyptic world where a mysterious event has granted superpowers to nearly everyone, except for one ordinary teenager. The story fol...

BUFF SOUL

cops, Moa’s debauchery starts to look less like youthful exploration and more like a serious problem. When Åsa disappears from her band duties, Moa recalls a time when she was part of a search party for a woman named Sofia who was found dead. When she finds Åsa and they go home, there’s no glamour left in the tour for Moa. She tries to address Åsa’s out\u002Dof\u002Dcontrol behavior, but Åsa turns it back around on her friend. For Moa, it was less about the drugs and more about indulging in the chaos and inoculating herself from the consequences. Åsa and Moa reaffirm their commitment to their friendship and vow to regain stability. Though the characters skirt up to the edge of the addiction\u002Drelated horror, they manage to help each other through sticky situations and get home mostly unscathed."

This powerful collection of poetry and prose explores the complex emotional landscape of modern adolescence with raw honesty and lyrical precision. The author crafts verses that tackle identity, ment...

BURY OUR BONES IN THE MIDNIGHT SOIL

Genre

This haunting debut novel plunges readers into a world where ancestral magic and environmental collapse collide, following a young protagonist who discovers her family's power to communicate with the...

CAMPERS BEWARE

a four\u002Dstep strategy for making friends, Molly sets her ursine buddy to mending parental fences during a weeklong vacation. But along with painful encounters with bees, mosquitoes, and other miseries, practically every interaction with the bumbling behemoth leaves Molly’s dad annoyed or depressed, and even his hopes of enjoying a little father/daughter quality time are repeatedly stymied. While the setups and punchlines work for a short daily comic strip, these elements quickly turn monotonous when they come along every few pages in an extended storyline. Still, even while repeatedly playing victim or comic foil, Molly’s dad may come in for some reader sympathy as he sadly remarks on watching Molly growing away from their former closeness. Readers may also find the advice for making friends helpful in their own lives: “1. Be interested / 2. Compliment / 3. Help / 4. Gifts.” This second series entry has one full book\u002Dlength story followed by two short additional episodes. Molly and her family present white."

This chilling middle-grade thriller plunges readers into a summer camp where the campfire stories are all too real, blending classic horror elements with the relatable anxieties of being away from ho...

Camping Sports Activity and Coloring Book

Angels Forever

♥ Unleash Your Kid's Creativity and his attention to details with over 120 unique designs! Our Kids Activity Books is perfect for the little ones in your life! These amazing books will help your kids work on preschool and make huge progress in his or her school career. ★Get this Perfect Gift for the

CAROLE KING

Genre

This biography chronicles the remarkable journey of a Brooklyn girl who became one of the most celebrated singer-songwriters in pop music history, tracing her path from crafting hits for other groups...

CAT & CAT ADVENTURES

an unidentified villain. Squash and Ginny are off to the rescue and use their magic wand to track the friends to a mansion. There, the friends, the Orb of the Past, and other items and creatures are scheduled to be auctioned off. Squash and Ginny must breach security barriers, crack a complicated code that readers are encouraged to solve, and convince a group of creatures that Squash and Ginny need the orbs to stop the Spirit World from spilling into the human world. As vines from the Spirit World invade the mansion and human adversaries approach, the heroes grab the orb and escape with the help of a Spirit World visitor. Now they face the daunting task of retrieving the Orb of the Future. Pages with several panels of digitally created cartoons and multiple speech balloons keep the pace brisk. Layers of group problem\u002Dsolving, environmental concerns, and a magical world make this a book for more experienced readers."

This vibrant graphic novel series follows the hilarious escapades of two feline friends whose curiosity consistently leads them into magical trouble. Through bright, expressive artwork and snappy dia...

Celebrate Your Body

Sonya Renee Taylor

A body-positive guide to help girls ages 8 to 12 navigate the changes of puberty and grow into women Puberty can be a difficult time for a young girl—and it's natural not to know who (or what) to ask. Celebrate Your Body is a reassuring puberty book for girls that encourages them to face puberty and

CHAMPION

basketball legend Abdul-Jabbar and prolific author Obstfeld." />

This compelling sports novel delivers a powerful story about a young basketball player navigating the pressures of high-stakes athletics while confronting systemic injustice in his community. Co-auth...

CLEMENTINE

a squadron of girls who patrol the perimeter, led by a figure called the Gardener. But stability feels strange to this group after the harrowing experiences they’ve endured. Clem struggles to feel at ease, even with her girlfriend, Ricca, there to ground her. Olivia, a new mother, is floundering. Fen is acting suspiciously distant. Amid this uncertainty, something unthinkable happens, leaving Clem crushed. Seeing her vulnerable state, the Gardener offers her a new path forward—but it comes with a price. When she learns that the Gardener may not have the community’s best interests at heart, Clementine must gather her determination to protect those she cares about. The citizens of Nuuk speak Greenlandic and Danish, and Clementine has medium\u002Dtoned skin and wavy black hair. Walden’s hand\u002Ddrawn style feels both elaborate and effortless, playing with light and shadow to enhance her storytelling. Like the other volumes, this series finale crafts an allegory from the horrors of the post\u002Dapocalyptic world, exploring themes of power, trauma, survivor’s guilt, and love in times of darkness."

This poignant middle-grade novel introduces readers to an unforgettable third-grader navigating the challenges of school, friendship, and family with remarkable wit and resilience. Through a series o...

Color Me Brown Sugar & Spice Coloring Book Designed to Boost

Dr. Angelise M Rouse

This empowering coloring book offers young women far more than simple illustrations, combining intricate designs with powerful affirmations and journaling prompts that celebrate Black beauty and resi...

Coloring Books for Kids Ages 8-12

Creative Color

This book is great for all age groups young beginners to older adults! It has a very nice variety of pages to color, and the amount of detail is perfect. Not too little like a kids coloring book, but not too much like the most extreme adult coloring books. It's perfect from professional artist for k

COMRADES IN ART

the Artists International Association, which formed in London in 1933 and took as its mission the “Unity of Artists against Fascism and War and the Suppression of Culture.” Its founders included several artists who had been to the Soviet Union and returned to England inspired by the mutual support among artists in that country. Fearful of the growing threat of fascism throughout Europe, they proclaimed that “now was the time for their generation of artists to organize” in order “to serve shared political goals through their art” and support progressive causes. Focusing on the activities of the AIA from 1933 to 1943, Friend investigates similar organizations outside of England: the International Bureau of Revolutionary Artists in Moscow, for example, and in the U.S., the John Reed Clubs, the Unemployed Artists Group, the Public Works of Art Project, and the American Artists’ Congress. The AIA forged connections with these groups as it grew to become an increasingly visible force in British culture, producing publications and mounting exhibitions, many to raise funds for combatants in Spain and Russia. In its first year, membership tripled\u003B the roster included Julian and Quentin Bell, Augustus John, Henry Moore, and art critics Herbert Read and Kenneth Clark, along with scores of other painters, sculptors, writers, and illustrators whose work appears in the book’s more than 200 illustrations. Many contributors to the AIA’s efforts were 20th\u002Dcentury stars, such as Picasso, who sent his Guernica to be exhibited in London\u003B muralist Diego Rivera\u003B surrealists Joan Miró and Paul Klee\u003B Ben Shahn\u003B and Virginia and Leonard Woolf, who supported the organization. A biographical appendix identifies less familiar participants."

This compelling history of the Artists International Association delivers a powerful exploration of art as activism during the turbulent 1930s, when creative professionals united against the rising t...

CONFRONTING EVIL

Judeo\u002DChristian standards, Genghis was the devil incarnate, but the Mongols apparently liked him just fine. O’Reilly holds that Mao Zedong was history’s worst mass murderer, “although his evil role model, Genghis Khan, might have surpassed him.” Naturally, while ticking down a rogue’s gallery that includes a few Judeo\u002DChristian figures, O’Reilly tries to own liberals: The Obama administration “does little to halt the Crimea aggression,” encouraging Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine, while Ayatollah Khomeini makes Jimmy Carter his plaything, and so on."

This powerful exploration of evil's nature and manifestations offers young readers a thoughtful framework for understanding darkness in the world, from historical atrocities to contemporary moral cha...

COVEN OF ANDROMEDA

Genre

This spellbinding fantasy novel introduces readers to a secret sisterhood of young witches navigating the treacherous waters of magic, friendship, and self-discovery. When ancient powers awaken and t...

CROSSING THE CACTUS

laying out the “three key ingredients” for commercialization—great ideas, great people, and capital—and argues that good ideas are abundant everywhere, but management and funding deserts prevent them from growing. Section 2 offers a pragmatic blueprint for building an ecosystem in resource\u002Dlimited environments: identifying clusters, attracting talent, raising capital, and navigating political barriers, all illustrated with ample real\u002Dlife examples. Section 3 grounds these principles in case studies of success and failure, showing patterns that work (and don’t work) beyond the coasts. Blivin draws on decades of experience managing venture funds in the Southeast U.S., New Mexico, and Northwest Europe, showing how injecting early\u002Dstage capital, convening ecosystems, and targeted recruitment can catalyze lasting regional impact. He emphasizes that by securing two of the three ingredients—most accessibly, ideas and capital, though throwing in a ski trip might not hurt, either—hinterland regions can then attract experienced management. Engineering the right conditions works better than waiting for Silicon Valley–magic to migrate. Blivin’s writing is a clear, informed, and well\u002Dorganized. He avoids jargon without oversimplifying, making the material accessible to economic developers, investors, and founders. The book’s regional\u002Ddevelopment focus might narrow its direct applicability for those in established hubs. But the case studies are all\u002Daround practical, offering sober takes on why companies falter and how ecosystems stall. At times, the “three ingredients” mantra can feel reductive, but it reinforces the core takeaway: commercializing a startup outside Silicon Valley is possible but requires its own playbook. "

This gripping survival adventure follows a young protagonist's harrowing journey through a treacherous desert landscape after a catastrophic vehicle breakdown. With only limited supplies and the rele...

CRY OUT LOUD

Genre

This powerful collection of poetry gives voice to the raw emotions and complex experiences of teenage life, tackling everything from first heartbreak and friendship struggles to identity formation an...

Cyber Attack on America SuperAvni and Dabung Girl A new age Superhero

Saurabh Agarwal

A must-read fictional comic book about SuperAvni and Dabung Girl, who work together with Kamala, US Vice President to save america from a cyber attack. If you have not read it yet, you are missing something! SuperAvni is a next-gen superhero who combines empathy and technology to fight modern-day ch

Daniel X The Manga, Vol. 3 (Daniel X The Manga, 3) by James Patterson

James Patterson

Daniel X's hunt to eliminate each and every intergalactic criminal on Earth is relentless, but this time, things are getting personal. Number three on the List of Alien Outlaws takes the form of raging fire - and fire reminds Daniel of the most traumatic event of his life, the horrifying murder of h

DARK PYRAMID

Genre

This gripping middle-grade adventure plunges readers into a shadowy world of ancient Egyptian curses and supernatural threats, where a group of young explorers must decipher hieroglyphic clues to sur...

DARK RENAISSANCE

dint of brains and energy, moved to Cambridge, where he distinguished himself in Latin learning, found himself recruited into a network of intelligence officers for Queen Elizabeth, and then, at age 29, was mysteriously murdered in a bar fight. At the heart of Greenblatt’s book, though, is not just a familiar story but a new argument: that it was really Marlowe, rather than Shakespeare, who lit the flame under the literary Renaissance of Elizabethan England and, furthermore, that it was Marlowe’s brilliant schooling (rather than any lived experience) that fed his verbal imagination. Acting and action were everywhere in Marlowe’s world, and Greenblatt implies that it was his work as a spy that gave him an added sense of what it meant to perform. Marlowe “entered a world in which virtually everyone was in disguise, and it was fantastically difficult to know whom to trust. These professional role\u002Dplayers, operatives supremely gifted at inspiring confidence, whispered what one most hoped to hear and made one want to relax, open up, and reveal the truth.” Greenblatt is describing the world of Elizabethan espionage, but he could well be talking about the power of the theater to make us open up, relax, and reveal the truth. In the end, Marlowe “made it possible to write in a new way about violence, ambition, greed, and desire. He offered poetic liberation.” In his hands, “the expressive power of the English language took a great leap forward.” In Greenblatt’s hands, literary scholarship, too, has taken a great leap forward."

This gripping historical fantasy plunges readers into a shadowy alternate Europe where alchemy works, forbidden knowledge lurks in forgotten libraries, and the great artists of the era wield powers f...

DARK SQUARES

chess but by alcohol and drugs. Rensch detours regularly to deliver a history of chess and the contemporary game largely controlled (i.e., financed) by the USSR until the 1990s, when even celebrity grandmasters barely earned travel expenses. Then came computers, the internet, and more media attention, which produced bigger prizes, plus the rise of cell phones, which facilitated cheating. Readers will sympathize with the author’s struggles but likely perk up when in 2008 he encounters two entrepreneurs operating an early internet chess site whose knowledge of serious competitive chess remained at the amateur level. He persuaded them to add features, programs, competitions, and the technology that ultimately promoted chess.com to its dominant position. During these years, the author writes of victories in his personal life, too, overcoming marital problems and escaping the influence of the cult."

This gripping psychological thriller plunges readers into a world where a seemingly innocent online game called "Dark Squares" begins to manipulate reality itself, blurring the lines between digital ...

DAYBREAK

Cog’s inhaling his homemade cornets, Marcus offers to make them lunch the next day—and soon, he’s making them lunch every Thursday. The two start spending more time together. Clueless about Marcus’ interest, candid, sincere Cog inadvertently stokes his affection. Cog’s best friend, Toma, however, is not so clueless and encourages Cog to set a firm boundary. But it turns out that Cog doesn’t really mind Marcus’ attention. This slice\u002Dof\u002Dlife rom\u002Dcom explores the feeling of being in the throes of a first crush. The fun, colorful, and dynamic artistic style suits the lighthearted vibe. However, the plot consists of a series of cute, loosely connected moments, resulting in underdeveloped characters and thin worldbuilding\u003B the latter is exemplified by the book’s unclear setting. The Black\u002Dpresenting leads are surrounded by a racially diverse cast at a school that has Japanese influences, but without a cultural anchor, some of the characters’ behavior and reactions feel unclear. Rather than the characters themselves driving the narrative, the need to maintain the tension of their unrevealed feelings is central, making the story sometimes feels contrived. Nevertheless, those seeking a straightforward, queer cotton\u002Dcandy romance likely won’t mind. Readers familiar with manga iconography will notice clues to the leads’ feelings."

This powerful young adult novel follows a diverse group of teens navigating the complexities of identity, friendship, and self-discovery during a transformative summer experience. The narrative weave...

DAYBREAKER

Sousa’s rich, luminous colors, beautifully showcase the Philippines’ diverse landscapes as well as various cultural elements. Inspired by Filipino mythology and folklore, Tadiar incorporates Baybayin, a centuries\u002Dold Filipino script, and the culture of the Indigenous peoples who live in the mountains."

This dark fantasy novel plunges readers into a world divided between eternal day and endless night, where a young apprentice must harness forbidden magic to prevent a celestial cataclysm. The narrati...

DEAD CENTER

Genre

This gripping thriller plunges readers into the high-stakes world of a teenage forensic investigator who becomes the prime suspect in a murder she's trying to solve. When a body is discovered at the ...

DEADWOOD

Genre

This gritty western thriller plunges readers into the lawless world of a 19th-century mining town where survival depends on quick wits and faster triggers. Genre masterfully captures the raw atmosphe...

DEAR JACKIE

typing herself a fake love letter on Jabari’s old typewriter—but her scheme causes more problems than it solves. With lively, expressive art and the creative use of typewritten narration boxes to reflect Jackie’s unspoken thoughts, this graphic novel captures the cringey, confusing mess of early adolescence. A diverse cast of side characters brings depth to a story that champions self\u002Dacceptance and individuality. Jackie and her family appear Black, and Milo presents East Asian."

This powerful collection of letters to baseball legend Jackie Robinson offers young readers a unique window into his enduring legacy and the profound impact he had on American society. Through heartf...

DEATH OF A POP STAR

Genre

This gritty YA thriller plunges readers into the high-stakes world of fame, following the shocking murder of a beloved pop icon and the dark secrets that surface in its wake. The narrative masterfull...

Death, Loss, and Grief in Literature for Youth A Selective Annotated

Alice Crosetto

All human beings encounter loss and death, as well as the grief associated with these experiences. It is therefore important for children and adolescents to understand that such events are inevitable and to learn how to accept loss and cope with their emotions. In order to help children through thei

DEEPWATER CREEK

Genre

A gripping survival story unfolds when a group of teenagers on a camping trip find their idyllic weekend shattered by a catastrophic flash flood, forcing them to rely on their wits and each other to ...

DIARY OF A NATURE NERD

Genre

This engaging nature journal offers young readers a vibrant window into the natural world through the eyes of a curious protagonist who documents everything from backyard insects to seasonal changes....

Dinosaur Puzzle Book (Puzzle Books)

Kirsteen Robson

Children will be fascinated to discover fearsome facts about the biggest, fastest and deadliest dinosaurs and all kinds of other dino data as they complete the fun puzzles in this book. Packed with information, the puzzles are also designed to encourage and develop key math, language and reasoning s

DO ADMIT

Genre

This collection of candid author interviews and critical essays offers an unvarnished look at the literary world's inner workings, pulling back the curtain on everything from creative processes to in...

DODGERS TO DAMASCUS

the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1980. There are also harrowing moments, like surviving two nearly fatal poisoning attempts during his diplomatic work. The book also covers mundane events, such as the subject’s early childhood and his interactions with students as a beloved professor. The author of seven biographies, Cooke approaches the subject with a warmth that borders on fawning (she describes Lesch as “a ‘nice guy’ whose moral compass gives me hope for humankind”). And while at times hagiographic, this biography is backed by solid research, including a scholarly bibliography and interviews with more than a dozen individuals associated with Lesch, from family friends to academics, students, and diplomats. Its engaging narrative is complemented by full\u002Dcolor photographs, maps, and newspaper clippings."

This gripping memoir traces one man's extraordinary journey from professional baseball player to Christian missionary, chronicling his spiritual awakening and dramatic career shift with raw honesty. ...

DR. BOT

skill, experience, and science, too often others suffer because of doctors’ shortcomings. Many are turning to artificial intelligence to supplement human judgment in medicine, but some in the medical community dismiss AI assistance outright. Replacing the physician with a medical robot would be a mistake equal to banishing AI from the exam room altogether, says Blease. “Today,” the author writes, “substantial research supports the observation that experts can be unreasonably biased against algorithms, favoring their own (sometimes flawed) human decision\u002Dmaking instead. This kind of apathy is referred to as ‘algorithmic aversion.’” Blease is cognizant that both AI and MDs have weaknesses, yet both have skills that, if brought together, would benefit patients. That’s the hope. Blease warns against naively trusting the technology\u003B AI can make blunders. As tests and trials demonstrate, though, advanced AI can be a valuable medical technology. (According to a Pew Research survey, four in 10 Americans, Blease writes, “would feel comfortable if their provider ‘relied on AI for their medical care.’”) The mix of AI and medicine won’t replace the human doctor but can produce what Blease notes is “extended cognition: that our thinking isn’t confined to our brains but extends to the tools and environment around us.” The result: better care, and lives saved."

This middle-grade novel offers a timely exploration of artificial intelligence and friendship, following a young protagonist whose life is upended when a sophisticated AI companion enters their world...

DRACULA'S BRUNCH CLUB

the towering, glowering vampire Constantine, who’s banned people. Worse, Dracula’s entire store of “the crimson\u002Dred, blood orange jelly all vampires crave” has been raided. Local farmers have no blood oranges—a blight has destroyed the crops. This proves disastrous even as Dracula tries to regain his brunch\u002Dhosting ground—kale is no substitute for delicious, energizing fruit jelly. The shortage also jeopardizes his standing with his crush, the human Elena, since he’s promised to donate a year’s supply of jelly donuts to her charity auction to help sick children. Something must be done—and it might just involve blood. After all, Count Dracula is a vampire. This book will greatly appeal to young readers looking for comics with a little edge: The gore is mild and cartoon\u002Dsilly, and there are plenty of jokes to lighten the mood. The story moves at a measured pace, and the fun, kid\u002Dfriendly artwork adds depth to the narrative. Gaybba’s color palette predominantly contains cool, moody tones that make the occasional spots of red—mostly jelly and blood—pop. Human and vampire characters have skin in varying shades of blue and purple."

This clever twist on vampire lore follows a group of young monsters who would rather host a trendy brunch than hunt for their next meal, serving up a story that is equal parts spooky and sweet. The n...

DREAM ON

winning a contest." />

This compelling novel explores the powerful intersection of ambition and reality when a teenager's life is transformed by an unexpected contest victory. The narrative delves deep into the emotional w...

Dreams Unlock the Secrets of Your Dreams by Welbeck Childrens Books

Welbeck Children's Books

Dreams. We all have them, but why? And most importantly, what do they mean? Inside this book, you will find the answers to these questions and more. Discover the meaning behind dozens of common dreams, from missing teeth to flying, or taking an impossible school test. Find out how to master your nig

DUCK AND CAT RIDE THE RIVERBOAT

Genre

This charming early reader adventure follows two animal friends as they embark on an exciting riverboat journey, offering young children a gentle introduction to transportation themes and friendship ...

DUCKY THE SPY

Genre

This clever picture book introduces a feathered secret agent who must use all his spycraft skills to protect the farm from a cunning fox. Young readers will delight in following Ducky's covert operat...

EDGAR ALLAN POE

Leland, who leads a Poe walking tour of Providence, Rhode Island, offers a basic introduction to the beloved author’s life and work. Complete with bullet points and sidebars, it writes a biography for the PowerPoint generation. It would be best for middle schoolers who have heard of Poe but need to know more. We get the basic outlines of his life, the list of works, and guides to further reading. Interrupting the flow of narrative are sections titled “The More You Know.” These are little paragraphs, in different type and different color, that offer tidbits of history. Did Poe believe in God? A paragraph raises the question, offers a few tantalizing details (a phrase, a personal letter, an aside), and then concludes: “Like many facets of Poe’s life, it may never be known exactly where he stood on spiritual or religious matters. His love of hoaxes, satire, controversy, and sensationalism often concealed his true beliefs.” Interspersed among these comments are the texts of Poe’s poems, printed in a font that looks like that of an old manual typewriter. The literary criticism goes only so deep: “Poe’s ‘Annabel Lee’ is a masterpiece of gothic romanticism. The poem delves into Poe’s usual themes of love, loss, and grief, describing a childhood love that transcends time and even death.” The best parts of the book retell the last months of Poe’s life—his nuttiness, his drinking, and his strange love affair with death itself."

This concise biography brings the haunting world of Edgar Allan Poe to life, tracing his mysterious literary career from his early struggles to his enduring legacy as the master of macabre fiction. Y...

ELECTRIC TITAN

scientists who have covertly witnessed her unusual skills who want to see if they can be leveraged to fend off the meteor. By novel’s end, despite some setbacks and a heartbreaking loss, Rosa ends up transforming herself and her world.Reardon, who shares in his “About the Author” note that he is “a brain tumor survivor since the age of 8, and handicapped since the age of 10,” offers insightful commentary and perspectives about disability through the journey of his teen protagonist. Readers learn about Rosa’s post\u002Daccident suicide attempt, frustration with and empathy for her ableist parents (“Hopefully, they would evolve. My new life was new for them, too”), and eventual epiphany that “Being in a hoverchair is only part of who you are. Once you realize that, no meteor could ever stop you.” This last comment is made by an astral temple deity in one of the goddess sequences—these scenes are an element of the book that can get somewhat esoteric. (Another goddess, for example, remarks that Rosa is “the one who will bring neo\u002Dcollectivism to Titan.”) Nevertheless, these conversations showcase Rosa’s intelligence and psychological makeup (supportive, strong Cordelia, a lovely secondary character, astutely suggests that “The goddesses come from your subconscious, right?”). The nonchronological structure of the narrative is at times frustrating\u003B some of the flashback chapters are not as compelling as the looming present\u002Dday threat. The way in which Rosa came to be in the apparently now\u002Dnovel (on Titan) circumstance of being disabled is also withheld until late in the novel and then explained rather hazily (the injury at Convalor is left murky, with the medical operation afterward seemingly responsible for the hoverchair issue). Still, Reardon creates a fascinating future world in which Rosa must draw on some “old” tech to save the day, and her mother, an “animac,” contemplates the disquieting knowledge that her battery life will outlast the lifespan of Rosa’s father."

This action-packed science fiction adventure plunges readers into a world where humanity's last hope rests on the shoulders of a reluctant hero powered by lightning. The narrative crackles with energ...

ENTANGLED TONGUES

the time of King Henry V, English had re\u002Demerged (per Kisch, Henry V was “probably the first king to speak and write English with ease”). In the years between 1066 and 1200, “about 900 words moved from French into English.” The author goes on to explain how different words from different backgrounds have survived, and how words have changed (house comes from the German haus, while mansion comes from the French maison). Then, there are additional considerations that often baffle those learning English, such as the language’s seemingly strange rules of spelling and grammar. A lot of information is condensed into fewer than 200 pages. Chapters progress in a conversational style\u003B the reader is often addressed directly, as in this consideration of the Norman conquest: “Your life will never be the same again and your language may never be the same, either. This is what happened to the English people in 1066.” As hundreds of years of English history are rushed through, the book has many fascinating points to make. (For example, Shakespeare used “not only French words, but also French sentence structures which sound odd to an English ear.”) All told, the book offers readers different ways of looking at what they say."

This engaging exploration of English language history traces how French and German influences shaped modern vocabulary, from the Norman Conquest's impact to Shakespeare's creative adaptations. Reader...

EQUALITY IS A STRUGGLE

taxing the wealthiest in a clear and significant way.” So writes Piketty, who has made a distinguished career of explicating the whys and wherefores of inequality and its multiple causes. Much of Piketty’s writing here digs into that project, and it’s a credit to Le Monde’s readership that they’re not afraid of tables and hard data. Yet Piketty also writes with admirable clarity about several ideas that are key to his extended argument—and, in at least a sense, these columns forge a single argument in favor of democratic socialism. He observes, in that regard, that the unprecedented prosperity of the 20th century came about precisely because the “hyperconcentration of ownership and class privileges that characterized European societies before 1914” had been broken, with massive investments in human capital and decommodification of the social marketplace. Given the rise of Trumpism and its congeners worldwide, Piketty counters that those values should be restored, and by nobody better than the European states that showed the way in the first place, emphasizing “parliamentary democracy, the social state, and investment in the future.” Voilà: We come full circle to taxing the rich in order to fund health care, education, welfare, and states that observe “the rule of law and democratic pluralism.” Admittedly, Piketty writes, those states are mostly European, whose social economy is far ahead of that of the U.S. There’s some inside baseball—or perhaps soccer—here in Piketty’s essays on and against the Macron government and like causes, but most of these pieces will be intelligible to American readers without much background in contemporary French politics."

This powerful examination of social justice movements delivers an unflinching look at the ongoing fight for civil rights and human dignity across generations. Through compelling historical analysis a...

ETERNALLY ELECTRIC

her “ballbuster” mother\u002Dturned\u002Dmanager. Her early fame came at a cost to her mental health, she writes, leading to a string of anxiety attacks: “If anyone out there has experienced them, you’ll know what it’s like: you literally think you are dying, unsure where your next breath is coming from.” Gibson writes candidly about her health struggles—she also has Lyme disease—as well as her fraught relationship with her mother, who once said (perhaps jokingly, but revealingly), “My worst nightmare has come true. She has become her own person.” Gibson’s later career saw her appearing on The Celebrity Apprentice and in films such as Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus—perhaps not the life she had envisioned, but, as she writes, “I love that, though the world has kicked my arse a bit, I’m not bitter.” The writing here is bubbly if unexceptional, and structurally, it’s a by\u002Dthe\u002Dnumbers celebrity memoir, complete with motivational aphorisms and occasional non sequiturs (“I think Mozart would approve of Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club”). This is strictly for Gibson’s fans, but they’ll find it a treat."

This high-voltage adventure plunges readers into a world where the very energy that powers our cities is also the source of life for a hidden society. When a teenage protagonist discovers they can ma...

EVIL-ISH

Genre

This dark fantasy novel plunges readers into a morally complex world where the line between hero and villain is deliciously blurred, following a protagonist who discovers that sometimes saving the wo...

Extra Yarn A Caldecott Honor Award Winner by Mac Barnett

Mac Barnett

This looks like an ordinary box full of ordinary yarn. But it turns out it isn’t.

Fate: The Winx Saga Vol. 2

a former comrade in Cuartero-Briggs’ YA graphic novel, one in a series." />

This second volume of the Fate: The Winx Saga graphic novel series plunges readers deeper into the magical world of Alfea, where Bloom and her fairy friends confront escalating threats that test thei...