April 2026
Board Books
Spring! by Leslie Patricelli
Puddle, puddle, puddle, MUD! Our favorite bald baby celebrates a new season with an adorable friend.
Squish! Squoosh! Squash! It’s raining, but that’s OK, because rain means that spring is here! Baby and a best buddy love to be outside, enjoying the tulips and daffodils, the leaves on the trees, the butterflies and bumblebees. Look, there’s a bunny hopping! And a froggy plopping! Best of all is playing together in the slippery mud . . . oops! Good thing the rain is coming down to clean everyone off! Little fans and big ones alike will skip along with Baby in this salute to the season of everything new.
Picture Books
Jayden Noticed by Carolyn Crimi, illustrated by Shamar Knight-Justice
With the help of a rock he’s collected, a child moving to a new house learns to embrace change and make a like-minded friend in this story celebrating our most thoughtful little observers.
Jayden notices everything. He notices the way the moon looks different every night as it peeks through the oak tree. He notices spiderweb wheels and egg freckles, mouse paws and rose petals. But most of all, Jayden notices rocks. Jayden collects a rock to go with everything: a homework rock, a Saturday rock, even enough wishing rocks to fill up a jar. But now that he and his family have moved to a different house, where the trees are too short, the color is off, and the mailbox is in the wrong place, will he find a rock to grant him courage—and help him make a new friend, maybe even a noticer like him? In a tender story for curious and observant little readers, Carolyn Crimi’s text joins with Shamar Knight-Justice’s expressive illustrations in a tale that offers comfort in the face of life’s many changes.
Into the Wilderness by Haven Iverson, illustrated by August Zhang
Into the Wilderness is a celebration of the outdoors and the lessons and strengths we gain from spending valuable time in nature ― inspired by the Rocky Mountains. Perfect for fans of Hike and Wonder Walkers, and fans of national parks!
Every summer, a child and their parents leave behind the roads and houses. And with backpacks full of food and sleeping bags, they go into the wilderness.
As they climb tall mountains and explore mossy forests, they carry their supplies. And really good trail snacks.
As this child ages, they can carry more. Like their own backpack and, eventually, the map.
They learn independence and bravery. And they learn that, when everything gets to be a little too much, they can put down what they carry. They can smell the pine in the air, look up at the cliffs and trees holding them in a great big circle, and they can let the beauty of the world carry them.
Bud Finds Her Gift by Robin Wall Kimmerer, illustrated by Naoko Stoop
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Braiding Sweetgrass comes a beautiful and lushly illustrated tale celebrating gratitude, reciprocity, and finding our place in the natural world, ideal for sharing with the youngest readers.
When young Bud sees people bustling around, intent on their chores and their screens, she is certain they must be doing important things—and she wants to be included. But wise Nokomis, her grandmother, shows her that there is a different way to find belonging, one that relies on stillness and observing the natural world. As Bud discovers the freely given gifts of the Earth, she wonders if she has something important to give back: What is her gift?
Infused with warmth, humor, and insight, and beautifully illustrated by Naoko Stoop, the first picture book by renowned author and Indigenous ecologist Robin Wall Kimmerer inspires readers to treasure nature’s generosity and the gifts each one of us can share with the Earth.
Early Chapter Books
Kaiju Gaga: A Choose Your Own Adventure Jr. Book by E.C. Myers, illustrated by Norm Grock
You’re the unexpected caretaker of a small but mighty monster in this interactive book from the bestselling Choose Your Own Adventure series, now for readers 5-8! Filled with colorful illustrations, these books for little kids make reading together extra fun. But be careful!!! The choices YOU make could land you in a real-life monster movie!
You’re on a school trip at the Museum of Media, just in time to catch the last day of their exhibit on classic monster movies. When you sneak away to check it out, you stumble upon props from one of your favorites: “Kaiju Gaga.” There’s even a monster egg from the film! But when you reach out and touch the egg … it cracks.
Is that an eye looking out at you? Should you run back to join your class and pretend like nothing happened? Or do you want to meet whatever’s emerging face-to-face, and accept the Kaiju consequences?
Fairy House: A Choose Your Own Adventure Jr. Book by James Preller, illustrated by Norm Grock
Choose from 9 possible endings in this interactive book from the bestselling Choose Your Own Adventure series, now for 5- to 8-year-old readers! Filled with colorful illustrations, these books for little kids make reading together extra fun. But be careful!!! The choices YOU make might end up with you getting turned into a statue.
Bored and ignored by your busy parents, YOU decide to go outside and build a fairy house. Just when you’re sure nothing is going to happen, you meet Bert the Below Average: a real live fairy. He’s not exactly what you had in mind. But he’ll do. Will you trust Bert to grant your wishes? Or will he turn you into an inchworm? Let the Fairy House adventures begin!
Mermaid Island: A Choose Your Own Adventure Jr. Book by Sarah Bounty Ridyard, illustrated by Fian Arroyo
Choose from 9 possible endings in this interactive book from the bestselling Choose Your Own Adventure series, now for 5- to 8-year-old readers! Filled with colorful illustrations, these books for little kids make reading together extra fun. But be careful!!! The choices YOU make might end up with you lost in the Sea Kelp Forest.
YOU are a magical mermaid who has lived her entire life in an underwater palace. You celebrate and protect all species under the sea. Princess Island and Prince Island, the very best royal summer camps, are right nearby. Ever since you were a little mermaid you have dreamed of leaving your underwater home and joining the land of princesses. Will you leave your comfortable palace under the sea and teach the land princesses and princes the importance of protecting the planet and our oceans?
Junior Fiction
The Queen’s Granddaughter by Diane Zahler
Embark on a sweeping journey of self-discovery in this adventurous historical middle grade novel perfect for fans of Karen Cushman and Gary Paulsen.
Twelve-year-old Blanca of Castile is the granddaughter of Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, once the wife of both the king of France and the king of England. When Eleanor comes to select the girl who will marry the prince of France, all expect her to pick Blanca’s much older, and much prettier, sister. But Queen Eleanor has always loved surprises.
To meet her destiny, Blanca, along with her best friend Suna, must set out over the Pyrenees Mountains for France. But the journey there is not easy. The group, which includes knights, attendants, and Queen Eleanor herself, faces blizzards and hunger, treacherous roads and even a kidnapping.
As Blanca overcomes the many perils of the journey, she will need to learn how to protect herself and those around her — and discover what it takes to follow in the footsteps of a queen.
Youth Nonfiction
History Smashers: Ancient Egypt by Kate Messner
Myths! Lies! Secret mummy curses? Grab your head lamp, the award-winning History Smashers are headed to Ancient Egypt to dig up the truth about this incredible early civilization—and the many myths that will be buried once and for all.
In 1922, explorers opened King Tut’s tomb and a nasty hex was placed on everyone present. RIGHT? Not so much. Okay, but aliens did soar in on a space craft and build the Pyramids, right? WRONG!
The discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb taught historians a lot about ancient Egyptian culture. But no one incurred the wrath of a mummy. And this early civilization had the money, power, and smarts to build the Pyramids–along with a host of other impressive structures!
If You Lived During the American Revolution by Chris Newell, illustrated by Steffi Walthall
What do you know about the American Revolution?
What if you lived in a different time and place? What would you wear? What would you eat? How would your daily life be different?
Scholastic’s If You Lived… series answers all of kids’ most important questions about events in American history. With a question and answer format, kid-friendly artwork, and engaging information, this series is the perfect partner for the classroom and for history-loving readers.
What if you lived during the American Revolution? What would you have eaten? What would daily life look like? Which side would you have fought on?
Chris Newell answers all these questions and more in this comprehensive dive into the American Revolution and the history leading up to it. Carefully crafted to explore all sides of this historical event, this book is a great choice for Revolutionary War units.
Goldfinches by Mary Oliver, art by Melissa Sweet
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Caldecott Honoree Melissa Sweet gorgeously illustrates the work of Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Mary Oliver for the first time in picture book form.
Have you heard them singing in the wind, above the final fields?
Have you ever been so happy in your life?
Mary Oliver, winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, is one of America’s most beloved poets. Introducing her unforgettable words to children for the very first time, her poem “Goldfinches” joyfully observes the power of the natural world as only Mary Oliver can.
Illuminated by the exquisite mixed-media artwork of Caldecott Honoree Melissa Sweet, Goldfinches fills the reader with wonder for the beauty around them and gratitude for the ability to bear witness to it.
Young Adult Fiction
Beth Is Dead by Katie Bernet
Beth March’s sisters will stop at nothing to track down her killer—until they begin to suspect each other—in this “brilliantly snappy…electrifying” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) debut thriller that’s also a bold, contemporary reimagining of the beloved classic Little Women.
When Beth March is found dead in the woods on New Year’s Day, her sisters vow to uncover her murderer.
Suspects abound. There’s the neighbor who has feelings for not one but two of the girls. Meg’s manipulative best friend. Amy’s flirtatious mentor. And Beth’s lionhearted first love. But it doesn’t take the surviving sisters much digging to uncover motives each one of the March girls had for doing the unthinkable.
Jo, an aspiring author with a huge following on social media, would do anything to hook readers. Would she kill her sister for the story? Amy dreams of studying art in Europe, but she’ll need money from her aunt—money that’s always been earmarked for Beth. And Meg wouldn’t dream of hurting her sister…but her boyfriend might have, and she’ll protect him at all costs.
Despite the growing suspicion within the family, it’s hard to know for sure if the crime was committed by someone close to home. After all, the March sisters were dragged into the spotlight months ago when their father published a controversial bestseller about his own daughters. Beth could have been killed by anyone.
Beth’s perspective told in flashback unfolds next to Meg, Jo, and Amy’s increasingly fraught investigation as the tragedy threatens to rip the Marches apart.
Adult Fiction
Life: A Love Story by Elizabeth Berg
A warm, intimate novel that reminds us of the richness that can be found all throughout our lives—by the New York Times bestselling author of The Story of Arthur Truluv and Open House
As ninety-two-year-old Florence “Flo” Greene nears the end of her life, she writes a letter to Ruthie, the woman who grew up next door to her, describing the items Flo is leaving Ruthie in her will. But as it goes on, telling surprising stories about those “little” things Flo will leave behind (What could possibly be the worth of a rubber band kept in a matchbox tied up in red ribbon?), an unforgettable portrait of the life she has lived emerges.
The letter starts off as an autobiography in things, but it turns out to do much more than that: ultimately, it will transform Flo and those around her. In the time she has left, Flo decides to take herself up on tiny dares. She encourages Ruthie to reconsider her impending divorce by sharing a startling, long-buried secret about her own perfect-seeming marriage. Flo has never had a pedicure before now, and as long as she’s going to a beauty parlor, she arranges to have a blue streak put in her hair, too. And as these adventures lead her to make new friends, Flo helps them, too, find the fulfillment that living a full life has led her to understand.
Full of Elizabeth Berg’s characteristic mix of warmth, humor, and poignancy, Life: A Love Story is a reminder that whatever your circumstances, as long as you’re alive, you can keep on investing in life. The joy will inevitably follow.
Judge Stone by Viola Davis and James Patterson
Academy Award winning actress Viola Davis and the world’s #1 bestselling author James Patterson’s Judge Stone “delivers first-class courtroom drama, small-town excitement, and strong characters all wrapped in a moral dilemma. Tense, readable, and relevant.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)
All rise… for Judge Stone.
The most respected citizen in Union Springs, Alabama (population 3,314), is Judge Mary Stone. She holds two responsibilities sacred: running her family farm and presiding over her courtroom. It’s there she draws the most controversial case in the history of the South.
Criminally, it’s open-and-shut.
Ethically, there is no middle ground. Essentially, it’s a choice between life and death.
No judge can satisfy everyone. It would be dangerous to try. But Judge Stone is willing to fight to bring justice to the people and place she loves.
Python’s Kiss: Stories by Louise Erdrich
From Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich, a captivating collection of short stories
It was as though I was chosen—marked out by the python’s kiss for wisdom or maybe sorrow. Or perhaps, I think now, a sense of the ridiculous in extremes of experience. Also, I hoped for a long life.
Written over the past two decades, Louise Erdrich’s magnificent story collection features a range of characters—a tribal newsletter editor whose son tells her a story that nothing in her experience can encompass, immigrant farmers whose tenuous hold on the earth, and sanity, is challenged, and ordinary people, bird lovers, artists, grade-school teachers, and romantics. A girl decides to spend her life with a stone. A man is confronted with a folk-singing thief. A woman enters a corporately owned afterlife to seek revenge on her father.
Accompanied by specially commissioned artwork by Aza Erdrich Abe—an intimate and revelatory creative collaboration between mother and daughter—these stories offer an opportunity to celebrate the wisdom and brilliant, wide-ranging imagination of one of America’s most important writers.
The Golden Boy by Patricia Finn
An unexpected letter sends a man and his wife into their pasts—and offers them both a shot at redemption.
After an involuntary retirement from his high-flying Hollywood career, Stafford Hopkins has retreated to a luxury estate on Maui, along with his wife Agnes, both grimly resigned to life in a paradise where neither feels fully at home.
Stafford is ready to retreat into himself, too, when a letter arrives with shocking news. Stafford has been named guardian of four children he didn’t know existed: the grandchildren of his late childhood friend, Bobby Shepherd, whose ghost Stafford can no longer ignore.
Returning to both the hardscrabble farming town and the dark secret he’d tried to forget for decades, Stafford is forced to confront his past in order to rebuild his future—and to redirect the fates of his family and the four young people suddenly in his care.
Slyly funny and deeply moving, The Golden Boy is a captivating debut about love, mercy, and second chances.
The Keeper by Tana French
From the iconic crime writer who “inspires cultic devotion in readers” (The New Yorker) and has been called “incandescent” by Stephen King, comes the third and final book in the million-copy-bestselling Cal Hooper trilogy.
On a cold night in the remote Irish village of Ardnakelty, a girl goes missing. Sweet, loving Rachel Holohan was about to be engaged to the son of the local big shot. Instead, she’s dead in the river.
In a close-knit small town, a death like this isn’t simple. It comes wrapped in generations-old grudges and power struggles, and it splits the townland in two. Retired Chicago detective Cal Hooper has friends here now, and he owes them loyalty, but his fiancée Lena wants nothing to do with Ardnakelty’s tangles. As the feud becomes more vicious, their settled peace starts to crack apart. And when they uncover a scheme that casts a new light on Rachel’s death and threatens the whole village, they find themselves in the firing line.
“One of the greatest crime novelists writing today” (Vox) crafts a masterwork of atmospheric suspense that brings the story of one of her most beloved characters to a spellbinding conclusion.
So Old, So Young by Grant Ginder
“Grant Ginder has written The Big Chill of our times…and possibly done an even better job. So Old, So Young is a triumph. I will never forget these characters.” —Elin Hilderbrand
Six Friends.
Five Parties.
Twenty Years…
How did we get So Old, So Young?
From Grant Ginder, the bestselling author of The People We Hate at the Wedding, comes a generation-defining novel that is part love story, part tragic comedy. Five parties over the course of twenty years bring six college friends together, exploring the ways we run from and cling to our friends in love, life, and death.
For Marco and Mia, Sasha and Theo, Richie and Adam, the one constant in life after college together has been change. New jobs. New cities. New spouses. New children. Through it all, one thing they thought would always stay the same is their friendship.
But time has a way of breaking even the strongest bonds, and testing what we thought we knew. From East Village apartment parties and disastrous destination weddings, to fortieth birthdays and suburban backyard barbecues, Grant Ginder’s resonant, funny, and deeply moving novel is a story about the growing pains of the Millennial generation, and a celebration of how love can shift, stumble, and grow into something bigger than we ever could have imagined.
Brave New World & Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley
One of the twentieth century’s most profound and terrifying evocations of the future, BRAVE NEW WORLD is a brilliant, witty, and satiric novel of natural man in an unnatural world, of a civilization in which contemporary concepts of freedom and morality have become obsolete. Set in the year 632 After Ford, Huxley’s world is one where human beings are scientifically mass-produced, classified (as Alphas, Betas, Gammas), and “decanted” in laboratory factories. Father and Mother are forbidden words; pleasure comes in euphoria-producing tablets; efficiency is the rule. With no place for emotions, God, or art, it is a horrifying, but often humorous, glimpse into a future perhaps not far from fact.
In BRAVE NEW WORLD REVISITED, Huxley’s equally famous essay, the author links the realities of the modern world to his fictional vision–demonstrating with unflinching logic the closeness of reality to his automated nightmare. Scrutinizing numerous methods for curtailing individual freedoms and the sometimes irresistible pressures to adopt them, the book is a fervent plea for humankind to educate itself for liberty before it is too late.
Both written with Huxley’s customary artistic skill and intellectual vigor, BRAVE NEW WORLD and BRAVE NEW WORLD REVISITED provide incisive and challenging views of the modern world that are still relevant today.
The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits
“Feels less like reading a novel and more like sitting in a car beside a dear friend as he navigates the road up ahead. A profoundly moving experience.” —Ann Patchett
A triumphantly life-affirming road trip novel about marriage, middle-age, and a man at a crossroads in his life.
When Tom Layward’s wife had an affair twelve years ago, he resolved to leave her as soon as his youngest child left the nest. Now, while driving his college-bound daughter to Pittsburgh, he remembers his promise to himself. He is also on the run from his own health issues and a forced leave from work.
So, rather than returning to his wife in Westchester, Tom keeps driving west, with the vague plan of visiting people from his past—an old college friend, his ex-girlfriend, his brother, his son—en route, maybe, to California. He’s moving towards a future he hasn’t even envisioned yet while he considers his past and the choices he’s made that have brought him to this particular present. Pitch-perfect, tender, and keenly observed, The Rest of Our Lives is a story about what to do when the rest of your life is only just the beginning of your story.
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
A family on a remote island. A mysterious woman washed ashore. A rising storm on the horizon.
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers, but with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore.
Isolation has taken its toll on the Salts, but as they nurse the woman, Rowan, back to strength, it begins to feel like she might just be what they need. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting herself, starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again.
But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes Dominic is keeping his own secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late―and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.
A novel of breathtaking twists, dizzying beauty, and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us disappears.
Animal Farm & 1984 by George Orwell
ANIMAL FARM George Orwell’s classic satire of the Russian Revolution is an intimate part of our contemporary culture. It is the account of the bold struggle, initiated by the animals, that transforms Mr. Jones’s Manor Farm into Animal Farm–a wholly democratic society built on the credo that All Animals Are Created Equal. Out of their cleverness, the pigs Napoleon, Squealer, and Snowball emerge as leaders of the new community in a subtle evolution that proves disastrous. The climax is the brutal betrayal of the faithful horse Boxer, when totalitarian rule is reestablished with the bloodstained postscript to the founding But some Animals Are More Equal Than Others….
1984 In 1984, London is a grim city where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.
The Final Problem by Arturo Pérez-Reverte
In this locked-room mystery set in 1960, a washed-up actor puts his on-camera detective skills to the test when a suspicious death shatters the quiet peace for a group of strangers staying at an isolated Greek island resort. Perfect for fans of Knives Out, Benjamin Stevenson, and Anthony Horowitz.
June, 1960. Rough weather at sea leaves a group of strangers stranded on the idyllic Greek island of Utakos, all guests of the only local hotel. Nothing could prepare them for what happens next: Edith Mander, a quiet British tourist, is found dead inside a beach cabana. What appears at first glance to be a clear suicide reveals possible signs of foul play to Ormond Basil, an out-of-work but still well-known actor who in his glory days portrayed the most celebrated detective of all time. Accustomed to seeing him display Sherlock Holmes’ amazing powers of deduction on the big screen, the other guests believe that the actor is the best equipped to uncover the truth.
But when a second body is discovered, there is not a doubt in Basil’s mind: a murderer walks among them. What’s more, the killer is staging each crime as a performance, leaving complex clues that bear an eerie resemblance to those found in the pages of Conan Doyle stories. This is a criminal who knows every trick in the book and is playing a deadly literary game. As the storm rages, Basil must become the genius detective he has only pretended to be.
This clever, whip-smart, locked-room mystery from internationally bestselling author Arturo Pérez-Reverte is a love letter to golden-age detective novels. The Final Problem delights in exploring the tension between an investigator and his suspects, as well as a writer and his reader, delivering a revelatory twist that will shock even the sharpest of mystery fans.
Once and Again by Rebecca Serle
New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Serle, the author behind “heartbreaking, redemptive, and authentic” (Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author) modern classic In Five Years, returns with an unforgettable tale of a family of women with an astonishing gift: the ability to redo one moment in their lives.
The women of the Novak family were each born with a gift: they can, just once, turn back time.
Lauren has known since she was fifteen that her mother Marcella saved Lauren’s father from a deadly car accident. Dave is alive and happy, and out on the Malibu waves. But ever since, Marcella, her power spent, has lived in fear of what she won’t be able to reverse. Her own mother, Sylvia, is her polar opposite: a free-spirited iconoclast with a glamorous past she only hints at. Lauren has spent her life between these two role models—and waiting for her own catastrophe to strike.
Then one summer, Lauren’s husband takes a job in New York and she moves back to Broad Beach Road, back into her childhood home on the shores of Malibu. Lauren looks forward to surfing with her dad again and perhaps repairing an unspoken fracture in her relationship with her mother. What she doesn’t expect is for the boy next to door to return home as well: Stone, Lauren’s first love, who broke her heart nearly a decade before.
As Lauren falls into familiar patterns, with her family and, more dangerously, Stone, she finds herself thinking about all the choices, large and small, that have brought her to this moment. And wondering, finally, if one of them should be undone.
Lake Effect by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Nest and Good Company comes a wry and tender portrait of two families forever changed by one lovestruck decision that will reverberate for decades.
It’s 1977 and an air of restlessness has settled on the residents of Cambridge Road in Rochester, New York, a place long fueled by the booming fortunes of Kodak and Xerox and, for some, the mores of the Catholic church. When Nina Larkin is given a copy of The Joy of Sex by her newly divorced friend, she can no longer dismiss the nearly nonexistent intimacy of her marriage. Just as her oldest child, Clara, is falling in love for the first time, Nina finds herself longing for the forbidden: a midlife awakening. An intoxicating fling with a prominent neighbor brings Nina a freedom she never thought possible—but also risks the reputations of both families and unravels Clara’s world, just as she stands on the threshold of adulthood.
Years later, Clara, now a successful food stylist in New York City, has never been able to move past the long-ago scandal. Drawn back home by the pull of a family wedding and wrestling with her own demons, she makes a pivotal decision that turns her life upside down. Written with Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s signature humor and insight, Lake Effect is a wise and probing look at love and desire, mothers and daughters, loss and grief, and what we owe the people we love most.
Adult Nonfiction
Traveling Different: Vacations Strategies for Parents of the Anxious, the Inflexible, and the Neurodiverse by Dawn M. Barclay
The award-winning travel bible for parents of children with autism spectrum disorder and/or mood and distraction disorders.
“An essential read, not only for parents of autistic or otherwise neurodivergent children but for all families.”―Library Journal, Starred Review
Traveling with children is always challenging, but for parents of children with autism spectrum disorder and/or mood and attention and distraction disorders it can be especially intimidating. In Traveling Different, Dawn M. Barclay presents travel strategies and anecdotes from Certified Autism Travel Professionals™, parents of special needs children, associations and advocates, and mental health professionals, broken down by mode of transportation and type of venue. The heart of the book outlines suggested itineraries for spectrum families as well as venues that cater to the unique special interests that are characteristic of individuals with autism.
Culminating with a guide of travel agents who specialize in special needs travel and lists of organizations that advocate for special needs families, Traveling Different is the essential resource to make the cultural, educational, and bonding benefits of vacations available to all.
The Greatest Horse Trainer on Earth: The Sylvia Zerbini Story by Rebecca M. Didier
Look behind the curtain and step into the ring with a master liberty trainer.
Sylvia Zerbini was born into the circus life, a ninth-generation performer who went solo as an aerialist at thirteen, what would be the beginning of a tremendous career captivating audiences from a trapeze, thirty feet above the ground. But it’s her remarkable connection with horses that propelled her to international fame. One of the first to mix aerial and equestrian showmanship, Zerbini has performed for audiences totaling nearly ten million worldwide as part of the biggest names in events and entertainment, including Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus (“The Greatest Show on Earth”) and as lead trainer with Cavalia, the highly acclaimed equestrian-themed spectacular created by one of the pioneers of Cirque du Soleil. In the decades she has shared her breathtaking liberty horse acts, Sylvia Zerbini has redefined the relationship between horse and human.
In this thoughtful and uniquely portrayed retrospective, richly illustrated with over a hundred historical photographs, a story of life in the circus provides an unconventional backdrop for Zerbini’s development as an extraordinary horse trainer. By intertwining the fascinating history of circus families and their legacy of wild animal training with a sensitive exploration of the mental fortitude cultivated when you dance with danger high in the air for a living, these pages permit an unprecedented look behind the curtain at what it takes to communicate and connect with another species. In Sylvia Zerbini, we glimpse what is truly possible in partnership with the horse―a chance for all to become “the greatest horse trainer on earth.”
March 2026
Picture Books
Bartleby by Matt Phelan
From New York Times-bestelling and award-winning creator Matt Phelan, Bartleby is a whimsical, yet powerful new modern classic picture book for fans of The Rabbit Listened that follows a dapper polar bear who learns the power of staying true to himself.
Everyone says NO sometimes.
Bartleby says, “I prefer not to.”
He says it a lot.
Bartleby does things his own way, in his own time.
And that’s what makes him extraordinary.
Matt Phelan’s Bartleby is an endearing, adorable, and humorous celebration of being yourself even when you stand out–sure to delight readers everywhere.
Is It Spring? Kevin Henkes
If one day buds bloom and birds chirp, and the next day a late snow falls from the sky, is it spring? Will it ever be spring? An evergreen, child-friendly picture book that explores themes of patience, hope, the seasons, and nature by the New York Times bestseller and Caldecott Medalist Kevin Henkes.
A flower in the garden down the street. Birds in the sky. Buds on the branches in the park. It must be spring.
But wait! What is this icy gust of wind? Why are snowflakes falling from heavy gray clouds? Will it ever be spring? Yes, says the sun. Just be patient.
Early Chapter Books
Bubble Town: A Choose Your Own Adventure Book by Tamara Ellis Smith
Choose from 9 possible endings in this interactive book from the bestselling Choose Your Own Adventure series, now for 5- to 8-year-old readers!
Filled with colorful illustrations, these books for little kids make reading together extra fun. But be careful!!! The choices YOU make might end up with you and your grandfather floating through the sky.
You’re lonely as the new kid in school but discover you have a magical gift—you can talk to animals when you blow bubbles! Suddenly, you have a band of new-found animal friends, including a plucky duck named Stuart, but then you learn their habitat is in danger. Can you save a grove of ancient trees and protect your new friends’ homes?
Heartwood Hotel: Family Forever by Kallie George
Courage, kindness, and adventure abound in this charming, illustrated chapter book series! While the search for a golden acorn has Fernwood Forest all a-fluster, Mona the mouse plans a surprise of her own to bring all the animals together.
Everything is humming at the Heartwood Hotel one year after the forest fire. Yet Mona the mouse feels like something is missing. Something besides the Golden Acorn—a legendary treasure buried and forgotten long ago. When a stranger turns up at the Heartwood with a map, suddenly the whole forest is taking part in a big treasure hunt and the hotel’s regular activities are turned upside down.
But Mona has an idea to get things back to normal: throw a surprise birthday party for Mr. Heartwood! As the Heartwood attracts treasure hunters—well-meaning and otherwise—and as Mona’s best friend Tilly seems to be pulling away, Mona feels like her plans are slipping through her paws! Who will find the legendary treasure? And what if danger finds the hotel first?
Youth Graphic Novels
DnDoggos: Spells Like Trouble by Scout Underhill
Four adorable doggos and their new friend dive into another adventure-filled session of their favorite role playing game in DnDoggos: Spells Like Trouble, the second book in the hilarious graphic novel series by Scout Underhill.
Magnus, Pickles, Tonka, and Zoey are ready to play! After leveling up, the doggos have new spells, new gear, new maps, and even a new friend: Toast the cat! But Maxilla’s spell has woken a slumbering giant, and the threatening rumbles are growing louder. Plus, their new friend Toast has an unusual type of magic that is causing all kinds of trouble for our heroes.
Will leveling up help the DnDoggos and Toast stop Maxilla before she causes even more trouble? Or will their own magic get the best of them?
I Am Not Okay by David DeGrand
How the Grinch Stole Christmas meets Ren & Stimpy in this graphic novel about confronting your emotions, perfect for kids who love the fun weirdness of the Catwad and Bird & Squirrel series.
All the woodland creatures of Happy Forest (where even trees and flowers smile) go to Fluff Nugget, a fluffy, round critter of indeterminate species, when they need cheering up–he just sings them the “Goodbye Grumpy Grumps” song and they feel happy again! But when this happens too much…like, WAY too much…it starts to wear on Fluff Nugget, until he feels grumpier than anyone. After he lets loose a cry of “I AM NOT OK!” Fluff Nugget and his woodland friends must figure out a better way to boost the mood. Will the Happy Forest ever be the same again?
A Kid Like Me by Norm Feuti
Perfect for fans of Jeff Kinney and Terri Libensen, A Kid Like Me is a timely exploration about finding your place in the ever-evolving social landscape that is middle school, written and illustrated by award-winning graphic novelist Norm Feuti.
Ethan doesn’t want to stand out, he just wants to fit in. But fitting in is tough when your peers call out your ancient cell phone, busted backpack, and discount clothing. To make matters worse, his best friend, Ricky, insists on hanging out with a group of guys who just don’t get him… they’re more interested in playing pranks than playing his favorite card game Bio Battle. Things start looking up, though, when Ethan befriends Aiden, a new kid in school, but it’s only matter of time before even that goes sideways.
Can Ethan figure out where he belongs without forgetting who he is and who he wants to be?
Say Something, Poupeh Babaee! by Haleh Massey
Moving to a new country is hard enough, especially when you have to do it alone during a national travel ban. When the pressures of a new school, a new language, and new bullies leaves Poupeh selectively mute, she struggles to find her voice which leaves her family pleading, “Say something, Poupeh Babaee!”
Poupeh Babaee is an Iranian girl sent to live with her relatives in the United States. Although Poupeh understands and speaks English, the stress of entering a new school in a foreign land renders her mute, and she is diagnosed with selective mutism. Worse yet, a travel ban–which labels Iran a “dangerous country”–has barred her parents from entering the US!
In order to help her parents immigrate, Poupeh must find a way to speak up for them during an interview with an embassy officer or risk being separated. This powerful, heart-warming graphic novel debut shows the bravery and courage of a young girl who will do anything to reunite her family.
Youth Nonfiction
Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales: Bones and Berserkers: 13 True Tales of Terror by Nathan Hale
Warning―frightening (and true) stories ahead! Author-illustrator Nathan Hale tells some of the scariest tales in US history in Bones and Berserkers, the 13th book in the #1 New York Times bestselling graphic novel series.
Bones and Berserkers is the unlucky 13th book in the New York Times bestselling Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales series, and you know what that means? It’s time to gather around the gallows and tell the spookiest stories in US history!
In this chilling collection, learn about the devil baby who terrorized New Jersey; a haunted well full of restless Confederate soldiers; a demon cat whose appearance has been an omen for some of the darkest days in American history; and a massacre by a murderous butler whose motives remain unknown to this day.
Full of a frightful mix of folk tales and facts, this newest entry is sure to fascinate readers . . . if they’re brave enough to read to the end.
Making It Up As You Go Along by Patricia Forde, illustrated by Mary Murphy
Learn how to write stories with Patricia Forde and some of the best middle-grade children’s authors.
In this fun and practical illustrated guide, young writers can learn from some of Ireland’s most beloved authors, including Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl) Catherine Doyle (Twin Crowns), Pádraig Kenny (Stitch) and Derek Landy (Skullduggery Pleasant), and discover how to:
- Find inspiration to start your story
- Craft and develop twisty plots
- Create brilliant characters
- Build spectacular new worlds
Also includes imaginative exercises, accessible explanations of writing terms and engaging illustrations by beloved Irish artist Mary Murphy.
Adult Fiction
The Astral Library by Kate Quinn
From New York Times bestselling author Kate Quinn comes a gorgeously written fantastical adventure which poses the question: Have you ever wished you could live inside a book? Welcome to the Astral Library, where books are not just objects, but doors to new worlds, new lives, and new futures.
Alexandria “Alix” Watson has learned one lesson from her barren childhood in the foster-care system: unlike people, books will never let you down. Working three dead-end jobs to make ends meet and knowing college is a pipe dream, Alix takes nightly refuge in the high-vaulted reading room at the Boston Public Library, escaping into her favorite fantasy novels and dreaming of far-off lands. Until the day she stumbles through a hidden door and meets the Librarian: the ageless, acerbic guardian of a hidden library where the desperate and the lost escape to new lives…inside their favorite books.
The Librarian takes a dazzled Alix under her wing, but before she can escape into the pages of her new life, a shadowy enemy emerges to threaten everyone the Astral Library has ever helped protect. Aided by a dashing costume-shop owner, Alix and the Librarian flee through the Regency drawing rooms of Jane Austen to the back alleys of Sherlock Holmes and the champagne-soaked parties of The Great Gatsby as danger draws inexorably closer. But who does their enemy really wish to destroy—Alix, the Librarian, or the Library itself?
The Crossroads: A Joe Pickett Novel by C.J. Box
Game warden Joe Pickett fights for his life as his daughters try to uncover who shot him and left him for dead in this riveting new novel from #1 New York Times bestseller C. J. Box.
Marybeth Pickett gets the call she has always dreaded: her husband Joe is in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head.
Joe was found in his pickup at Antler Creek Junction, a crossroads connecting three ranches. Each road leading to a dangerous family. Each family with a different bone to pick with the local game warden. Marybeth and the new sheriff assume that Joe was ambushed by one of the families, but they have no idea which one since Joe didn’t say where he was going or why.
With Joe unconscious and fighting for his life with Marybeth at his side, Sheridan, April, and Lucy split up and investigate each of families to uncover the truth of what happened to their father, before it’s too late.
The Cyclist: A DS George Cross Mystery by Tim Sullivan
“A perfect detective for our time and for all time.”—Stephen Fry
“One of the most iconic British fictional detectives of the 21st century . . . a delight.”—Daily Mail
Detective Sergeant George Cross returns to solve the case of a mangled body on a construction site and uncover a life of illicit drugs in the second book in Tim Sullivan’s internationally bestselling series
DS George Cross has unique and unmatchable talents. He uses a combination of logic, determination and exacting precision to get answers where others have failed for families who have long given up hope. So when a ravaged body is found in a local demolition site, it’s up to Cross to piece together the truth from whatever fragments he can find.
From the faint tan lines and strange scars on the victim’s forearms, Cross meticulously unravels the young man’s life, delving into the world of amateur cycling, an illicit supply of performance enhancing drugs, jealousy, ambition and a family tearing itself apart.
Cross’s relentless pursuit of the truth and eccentric methods earn him few friends. But just as the police seem to be nearing a conclusion, he doubles back. Could it be the biggest mistake of his career?
Discontent by Beatriz Serrano
From a dazzling new international voice, an audacious, darkly funny novel about a young woman whose carefully crafted office persona threatens to crack when she’s forced to attend her company’s annual retreat
On the surface, Marisa’s life looks enviable. She lives in a beautiful apartment in the center of Madrid, she has a hot neighbor who is always around to sleep with her, and she’s quickly risen through the ranks at a successful advertising agency. And yet she’s drowning in a dark hole of existential dread induced by the banality of corporate life. Marisa hates her job and everyone at it. She spends her working hours locked in her office hiding from her coworkers, bingeing YouTube videos, and getting high on tranquilizers. When she has the time, she escapes to her favorite museum where she contemplates the meaning of life while staring at Hieronymus Bosch paintings, or trying to get hit by a car so she can go on disability.
But Marisa’s dubious success, which is largely built on lies and work she’s stolen from other people, is in danger of being exposed when she’s forced to go on her company’s team-building retreat. Isolated in the Segovia forests, haunted by the deeply buried memory of a former coworker, and surrounded by psychopathic bosses, overzealous coworkers, flirty retreat staff, and an excess of drugs, Marisa finds herself acting on her wildest impulses and is pushed to the brink of a complete spiral.
Family Drama by Rebecca Fallon
A vibrant debut and powerful meditation on family, motherhood, and the cost of holding on to your dreams, reminiscent of Ann Napolitano.
In New England, Susan Bliss is a young mother married to a professor.
In LA, Susan Byrne stars in a soap opera beloved coast to coast.
Decades after she’s gone, her twins have no idea of their mother’s fame. But the past can’t stay hidden forever.
It’s 1997, and snow is blanketing a New England beach. Two befuddled seven-year-olds watch as their mother’s body is tipped overboard a crumbling boat. A Viking funeral, followed by a raucous wake. A send-off fit for soap opera star: Susan Bliss.
Fifteen years earlier, Susan is a blazing, beautiful young woman, passionate about her art. It’s impossible not to fall in love with her, and so Alcott, a practical professor, does—hopelessly. And so begins the love story of Susan’s two-paneled life: an unconventional, jetlag-filled arrangement that takes her back and forth between her life in New England as a wife and mother to young twins to the bright lights of Los Angeles, where she becomes the beloved star of a daytime soap.
In the present, Susan’s twins grow up in the shadow of her all-consuming absence. Sebastian, a sensitive artist, cleaves to her memory, fascinated with the artifacts of her starry past. Viola, resentful of her mother’s torn allegiances, distances herself from the memories of her. But when Viola runs into her mother’s old costar Orson Grey—now a renowned Hollywood star—she finds herself falling deeply in love with him and begins to put together the pieces of a mother she never really knew.
Sharp, assured, and beautifully written, Family Drama is a story told in double-helix, with intertwined timelines that explore the different versions of ourselves we share with the world and with each other.
Her Last Breath by Taylor Adams
From the critically acclaimed author of No Exit and The Last Word comes a story of two friends who embark on an ill-fated caving expedition—and the dark truth of what happens deep underground.
After years of excuses, Tess has finally agreed to go caving with her best friend Allie. Their lives have diverged sharply since high school—Allie is a self-made travel influencer, while Tess is a shy (and claustrophobic) legal assistant struggling to pay for law school. Maybe she’s a little jealous of Allie’s globe-trotting life. Who wouldn’t be?
As Tess and Allie descend into the depths, they realize they’re not alone. A stranger who claims to be a fellow caver harasses them. Confident, take-no-shit Allie insults the guy—and he retaliates. Soon, Tess is trapped inside a narrow crawl space hundreds of feet underground, fighting to stay alive.
Twenty-four hours later, as a hospitalized Tess recounts her harrowing story of survival, the detective interviewing her shares new and shocking secrets about Allie’s true past. Together, they begin to suspect the brutal attack wasn’t so random after all.
Who was Allie, really? Why did this man target them? And did Tess really leave the danger behind when she escaped the cave?
Kin by Tayari Jones
A magnificent new novel from the bestselling, award-winning author of An American Marriage—Tayari Jones has written an unforgettable novel that sparkles with wit and intelligence and deep feeling about two lifelong friends whose worlds converge after many years apart in the face of a devastating tragedy.
Vernice and Annie, two motherless daughters raised in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, have been best friends and neighbors since earliest childhood but are fated to live starkly different lives. Raised by a fierce aunt determined to give her a stable home in the wake of her mother’s death, Vernice leaves Honeysuckle at eighteen for Spelman College, where she joins a sisterhood of powerfully connected Black women and discovers a world of affluence, manners, aspiration, and inequality. Annie, abandoned by her mother as a child and fixated on the idea of finding her and filling the bottomless hole left by her absence, sets off on a journey that will take her into a world of peril and adversity, as well as love and adventure, culminating in a battle for her life.
A novel about mothers and daughters, friendship and sisterhood, and the complexities of being a woman in the American South, Kin is an exuberant, emotionally rich, unforgettable work from one of the brightest and most irresistible voices in contemporary fiction.
The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
From nationally bestselling author Marjan Kamali, this perfect book club read is “evocative…and a powerful portrait of friendship, feminism, and political activism” (People) set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran.
In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams for a friend to alleviate her isolation.
Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions of becoming “lion women.”
But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls’ high school in Iran, Ellie’s memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden reappearance in Ellie’s privileged world alters the course of both of their lives.
Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences.
“Reminiscent of The Kite Runner and My Brilliant Friend, The Lion Women of Tehran is a mesmerizing tale” (BookPage) of love and courage, and a sweeping exploration of how profoundly we are shaped by those we meet when we are young.
The Midnight Taxi by Yosha Gunasekera
When the last fare of the night turns up dead in her backseat, a Sri Lankan American taxi driver works off the clock to clear her name in this mystery novel by debut author Yosha Gunasekera.
Siriwathi Perera doesn’t quite know where she’s going in life. She never expected to be a taxicab driver in New York City, struggling to make ends meet and still living with her parents at twenty-eight. The true-crime podcasts that keep Siri company as she drives don’t do much to make up for the legal career she imagined for herself, or the brother she’s grieving.
When public defender Amaya Fernando gets into her cab, they make a quick connection through their shared Sri Lankan roots. Siri, whose social circle is limited to her grade-school best friend, Alex, thinks things might finally be looking up with this new potential friendship. But she’s suddenly dropped into her own true crime when she discovers her next passenger murdered in the backseat, and she has to call Amaya sooner than she’d expected.
Pinned as the obvious and only suspect, and desperate to clear her name, Siri chases down leads across the boroughs of New York City with Amaya’s help. But with her court date looming, they have just five days to find out who really killed the midnight passenger—or Siri’s life will be over before she can even truly live it.
Adult Nonfiction
The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness by Mark Williams, John Teasdale, Zindel Segal, and Jon Kabat Zinn
The revolutionary book that has helped hundreds of thousands of readers find relief from chronic unhappiness is now in a revised and updated second edition. This authoritative, easy-to-use self-help program is grounded in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, a clinically proven approach. The expert authors explain why our usual attempts to “fix” sadness or “just stop thinking about it” can actually worsen depression, instead of relieving it. Through vivid stories and downloadable audio meditations encouragingly narrated by Jon Kabat-Zinn, the book shows how you can break the mental habits that lead to despair–and recover a sense of joy, aliveness, and possibility. Revised throughout to be even more reader friendly, the second edition features fresh insights on coping with the challenges of our ever-changing world, the latest scientific data, and four additional audio tracks. Includes a CD of guided meditations.
The Problem with Plastic: How We Can Save Ourselves and Our Planet Before It’s Too Late by Judith Enck with Adam Mahoney
A powerful look at plastic’s impact on human health and the environment, and how we can fight back by putting people and the planet over plastics
Plastic is everywhere—wrapped around our food, stitched into our clothes, even coursing through our veins. Once a marvel of modern science, plastic has become so inextricably woven into our lives that imagining a world without it can seem impossible. Over the last seventy-five years, plastic has cradled our planet in a synthetic embrace.
The Problem with Plastic critically examines the paradox of this material, first celebrated for its innovations and now recognized for its devastating environmental and public health impacts. With clarity and urgency, the book reveals how plastic pollution contributes to poisoned oceans, polluted air, a warming planet, and overwhelming waste, disproportionately impacting marginalized communities who bear the brunt of petrochemical pollution.
Revealing the alarming extent of microplastics infiltrating both the natural world and the human body, this compelling narrative challenges the illusion that recycling alone will save us. It unpacks the mechanisms of environmental racism and the deceptive greenwashing strategies used by the plastics industry to maintain the status quo.
More than a critique, The Problem with Plastic emphasizes the urgent need for action against plastic’s toxic legacy. It highlights powerful stories of frontline resistance in places like Louisiana, Texas, and Appalachia, and equips readers with practical tools—including a “Household Waste Audit” to track and reduce plastic consumption, as well as model policy guides for driving legislative change.
Urgent, eye-opening, and ultimately empowering, The Problem with Plastic reminds us: plastic is a problem—but together, we can be the solution.
Graphic Nonfiction
The Cartoon History of the Modern World (Part 1: From Columbus to the US Constitution) by Larry Gonick
The Cartoon History of the Modern World is a wickedly funny take on modern history. It is essentially a complete and up–to–date course in college level Modern World History, but presented as a graphic novel. In an engaging and humorous graphic style, Larry Gonick covers the history, personalities and big topics that have shaped our universe over the past five centuries, including the Industrial Revolution, the American Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the evolution of political, social, economic, and scientific thought, Communism, Fascism, Nazism, the Cold War, Globalization––and much more.
Volume I of the Cartoon History of the Modern World picks up from Gonick’s award winning Cartoon History of the Universe series. That series began with the Big Bang and ended with Christopher Columbus sailing for the New World. This book starts off with peoples that Columbus “discovered” and ends with the U.S. Revolution.
Games
Cards Against Humanity: Family Edition is a new party game that’s just like Cards Against Humanity, except it’s written for kids and adults to play together. Each round, one player asks a question from a black card, and everyone else answers with their funniest white card.
- Comes with 600 all-new cards about toilets, butt spaghetti, and Mom’s friend Donna.
- Appropriate for all humans age 8 and up.
- Tested with thousands of families over many years.
- Sorry, not as fun as Xbox.
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February 2026
Board Books
When Spring Comes by Kevin Henkes
Watch the world transform when spring comes! In a starred review, School Library Journal called this delightful picture book “A must-have, joyful seasonal title for the youngest listeners.”
In this beautiful book for young children, Caldecott Medalist and Newbery Honor author Kevin Henkes uses striking imagery, repetition, and alliteration to introduce basic concepts of language and the changing of the seasons. And acclaimed artist Laura Dronzek’s gorgeous, lush paintings show the transformation from quiet, cold winter to the newborn spring.
Before spring comes, the trees are dark sticks, the grass is brown, and the ground is covered in snow. But if you wait, leaves unfurl and flowers blossom, the grass turns green, and the mounds of snow shrink and shrink. Spring brings baby birds, sprouting seeds, rain and mud, and puddles. You can feel it and smell it and hear it—and you can read it!
Picture Books
Because of a Shoe by Julie Fogliano & Marla Frazee
Everybody has tantrums (kids and moms) in this tender yet funny picture book about an especially impossible-to-put-on pair of shoes—from New York Times bestselling author Julie Fogliano and three-time Caldecott Honor winner Marla Frazee, creator of The Boss Baby.
Even when it’s time to put on our favorite shoes and leave the house, and even when that time turns into a tantrum where someone can’t stop screaming, or flopping on the floor, or throwing a shoe across the room, and someone is making their maddest face and everyone else is waiting . . . Even then, nothing can come between the loving bond of a mother and their child. Not even a shoe.
With expressive text from bestselling author Julie Fogliano and timeless art from three-time Caldecott honor medalist Marla Frazee, here is a story that takes readers through a downward spiral of a shoe-inspired tantrum and is a reminder that even in moments of frustration, we are always our most loveable selves.
Hogbert by Briony May Smith
Uh-oh! When a tasty trail lures Hogbert away from his family, he ends up all alone in the forest. Can he find his way home? Lush artwork, subtle fairy-tale references, and the kindness of new friends keep readers smiling.
When Mommy Boar sends her little snufflebugs to explore the forest for the first time, she cautions them to stick together. After all, the Big Bad Wolf could be near! But Hogbert’s keen nose has other ideas, and after following a trail too far, he finds himself trembling alone in fear. What’s that rustling in the leaves? Just a little red squirrel on her way to visit her sick granny! What’s that growl coming through the trees? Just a snoring white doe who took a bite of an apple that made her sleepy! With each temporarily scary encounter, Hogbert finds that the world is a less frightening place, and that the same sense of smell that led him into trouble may just lead them all out of it again. Fans of Beatrix Potter and children taking their first steps toward independence will revel in the story’s gentle suspense and warm, welcoming illustrations.
Joan in the Cone by Billy Sharff, illustrated by Hala Tahboub
Joan’s life is wonderful, wild, and grand—
running and playing as much as she can!
Days full of fun, where she’s never alone.
And then . . .
came . . .
the cone.
For Joan the dog, life is different now. With her cone, she gets trapped in the doggy door. And she doesn’t command the same respect she once did at the dog park. Through funny challenges and mortifications, Joan reflects on her pre-cone glory days, including what led to her injury (let’s just say, certain choices were made). But with time, Joan begins to see there is love and life and joy beyond the rim of the cone—and sometimes popcorn inside it too, because, it turns out, the cone makes a great snack bowl.
This picture book is guaranteed to make kids and caregivers laugh, and see the trials of life—and dogs in cones—in a whole new way.
The Moon Moved In by Sue Soltis, illustrated by Sonia Sánchez
What would happen if the moon moved in next door? A funny and original story about an unexpected friendship, the essential role of the moon, and our power to connect, even from far away.
When the Moon moves into the long-empty house next door, all the rooms fill up with light—and Stella finally has a friend. But without the Moon in orbit, the world is going topsy-turvy. The tides stop, and the Earth has a new wobble. Stella worries, but the Moon just wants to stay and garden. Can Stella convince the Moon that life on Earth needs the Moon back in orbit? And what will become of her wish for a friend next door?
The Search for Our Cosmic Neighbors by Chloe Savage
Are we alone in the universe? Scientific exploration meets magical adventure in a third stunningly illustrated picture book from the creator of the celebrated The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish.
Commander Julia and her team have one mission: to head into the vast unknown and answer the greatest question of our universe: Are we alone? But after visiting countless moons and planets of every size and color, they’ve found . . . absolutely nothing. For the sake of her crew, who have been crammed into a rocket ship for ten long years, Commander Julia makes the call: it’s time to return home after checking one last planet. And it is on this seemingly desolated wasteland, just as their patience and hope have finally faded, that they find the answer they’ve been looking for—while facing new questions about who they are, what to do next, and what it means it have a home. Laced with humor and wisdom, this third gorgeously illustrated picture book from award-winning creator Chloe Savage blends scientific exploration with magical adventure, filling us with wonder, awe, and the potential for newfound joy every step of the way.
The Sweater: A Story of Community by Larissa Theule, illustrated by Teagan White
An unforgettable picture book about the power of kindness and the importance of community.
As Holly takes her morning stroll in the thicket, she comes across a small bird. It was plain to see he’d been through some things. The bird is alone and trying to find shelter for the winter. And Holly knows exactly what to do to help.
Illustrating the transformative role a community can play in caring for its members, The Sweater is a powerful and poignant tale of compassion and acceptance.
Together, Right Now by Olga Fadeeva
Right now, you are here . . . reading this book. Now imagine what someone else is doing at this exact moment across the world, in a beautifully illustrated picture book that encourages empathy and global connections.
Right now you are here . . . reading this book.
Now imagine what someone else is doing at this exact moment two blocks away.
What about someone across the country? Or an animal on the other side of our big, beautiful planet?
What else is happening round the world, right now?
A variety of colors and textures throughout the book will keep young readers engaged while each new scene will encourage curiosity, an adventurous spirit and a sense of awe that we can all share.
Early Chapter Books
Mia Mayhem (Books 1-11) by Kara West, illustrated by Leeza Hernandez
Meet Mia Macarooney, an ordinary eight-year-old who finds out she has an extraordinary super-secret in this first chapter book in the brand-new Mia Mayhem series!
Mia Macarooney is a regular eight-year-old girl who finds out that she’s A SUPERHERO! Her life literally goes from totally ordinary to totally super when she’s invited to attend the afterschool Program for In-Training Superheroes a.k.a. THE PITS! And the crazy thing is, in a weird meant-to-be sort of way, all of this news somehow feels super right. Because all her life, Mia thought she was just super klutz…but it turns out, she’s just SUPER! So now, it’s up to Mia to balance her regular everyday life and maintain her secret identity as she learns how to be the world’s newest superhero!
With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, the Mia Mayhem chapter books are perfect for emerging readers.
Easy Readers
Fun! by Ethan Long
Learning how to read should be as fun as a day at the beach! Frolick in the sand with four canine friends on a letter-replacement adventure in this phonics-based early reader from Theodor Seuss Geisel Medalist Ethan Long.
The Letter Setters—a lovable group of dynamic dogs—are enjoying a day at the beach, where Pat has D-U-G the perfect sandcastle! But when a huge wave washes the masterpiece away, the plan turns out to be a D-U-D. . . until the setters come up with a new idea to F-I-X this doggone mess. They’ll build S-I-X sandcastles, and keep their favorite one! But as their plans and their castles take shape, these curious canines realize that the best castle of all might be one they build together.
In this engaging new early reader series from acclaimed author-illustrator Ethan Long, each story starts out with a three letter word. On the next page, one swapped letter makes a new word—and a new canine caper for little ones learning how to read! As this fresh and fun device propels the pups into silly, slapstick sequences, phonics help readers to discover new words, study how words relate to each other, and observe how text and pictures support one another.
Worm and Butterfly Are Friends Always by Kaz Windness
Best friends Worm and Butterfly must spend time apart in this Level 1 Ready-to-Read Graphics “heartwarming story of found family” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)—the sequel to Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book Worm and Caterpillar Are Friends.
Worm and Butterfly are best friends. Worm says best friends stick together, but Butterfly has to fly somewhere warm for winter. Can they still be friends when they are far apart?
Ready-to-Read Graphics books give readers the perfect introduction to the graphic novel format with easy-to-follow panels, speech bubbles with accessible vocabulary, and sequential storytelling that is spot-on for beginning readers. There’s even a how-to guide for reading graphic novels at the beginning of each book.
Youth Graphic Novels
Higher Ground by Tull Suwannakit
An inspiring coming-of-age tale of resilience, courage and spirit that illuminates how life can be beautiful even in the darkest of times.
After a great flood swallows their city, a wise grandmother, her two grandchildren, and their pet rabbit find themselves stranded on the only safe place left—the rooftop of their home. With nothing but their small garden and a handful of supplies, they must learn to survive in a world where the familiar streets have turned to endless water.
Days turn into weeks, and weeks into months, as they face hunger, storms, and the uncertainty of what lies beyond the horizon. But through each hardship, the grandmother shares words of wisdom, teaching her grandchildren the power of resilience, kindness, and hope. As their garden grows, so too does their belief that even in the darkest times, life finds a way forward.
Higher Ground serves as both a warning and a call to action for future generations, urging readers to honor and protect the environment before it’s too late. Told through beautifully illustrated panels, this dystopian middle-grade graphic novel is a powerful meditation on survival, family, and the delicate balance between humanity and nature.
Perfect for fans of The Arrival and Amulet, Higher Ground is a poignant and breathtaking story that shows readers that even in a devastated world, hope can take root and flourish.
Loki (Asgardians series) by George O’Connor
Following the smash-hit Olympians series, George O’Connor embarks on a new graphic novel saga about the Norse gods. This third volume tells the story of Loki, the trickster god!
As night falls on Asgard there is one who does not dream. Loki, a trickster of epic proportions, has much to think on. He hearkens back to his challenge to the wolf Fenrir to break the strongest Dwarf-made chains. He remembers Thjazi, the jotunn in monstrous eagle form, and his pursuit of the apples of youth. And he worries he has fallen out of favor with his blood brother, Odin. Can he use his cunning and wiles to worm his way back in? Or, feeling spurned, will Loki choose to burn it all down?
Unfairies by Huw Aaron
Artemis Fowl meets Dogman in the first book of this madcap graphic novel series following factions of sneaky, double-crossing fairies who will do anything for control of their world, The Garden.
Some stories will tell you that fairies are sweet, beautiful, and kind creatures who fly around with sparkly wands. But they are WRONG! Fairies are horrible, rude back stabbers who are constantly at war with each other. (They’re not even magical, for crying out loud!)
And then there’s Pip, a clueless tree fairy who couldn’t give two hoots about power and would rather just have a party. But after being tasked with delivering an important message from the root stores all the way to the top of the tree, Pip is thrown into a whirlwind adventure involving a dubious ancient prophecy, epic acorn-based warfare, and sinister plots that could shatter the delicate peace among the fairies for good. The Garden may be in desperate need of a hero . . . Too bad it’ll have to settle for Pip.
Wrong Friend by Charise Mericle Harper, illustrated by Rory Lucey
What happens when your BFF is no longer forever?
A fresh and honest graphic novel about friendships lost and found.
Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier!
Charise and Casey have been best friends for years. It never mattered that Casey was older by two years―until she started high school. Now, the two barely talk, and Charise is on a mission to get a new best friend. But can she find that perfect person while navigating long-distance friendships, guinea pig allergies, and the embarrassing quirks of her family?
Junior Fiction
The Ordinary and Extraordinary Auden Greene by Corey Ann Haydu
In this poignant, magical tale by the acclaimed author of Eventown, two girls find themselves dropped into each other’s world—and must face down dragons they’ve only imagined.
Auden “Denny” Greene is happiest with her friend Runa, creating stories set in their imaginary land of Sorrowfeld, where princesses rule and cursed dragons are a constant danger. But now that they are turning twelve, Runa seems ready to give up on the magic of Sorrowfeld just when Denny needs it the most…
Princess Auden is the last remaining princess of Sorrowfeld—and on her twelfth birthday, she will be expected to vanquish the dragons that took her family. Only, when a swarm attacks her birthday celebration, all she can do is run…
But suddenly. Auden is in Denny’s world. And Denny is in Auden’s.
The two Audens have switched places. No one but them has any idea. And now, each girl must come into her own power in order to fight the other’s dragons.
The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
A thrilling mystery and collaboration between award-winning and bestselling authors Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin! This historical adventure follows two siblings at Bletchley Park, the home of WWII codebreakers, as they try to unravel a mystery surrounding their mother’s disappearance.
Remember, you are bound by the Official Secrets Act…
Summer, 1940. Nineteen-year-old Jakob Novis and his quirky younger sister, Lizzie, share a love of riddles and puzzles. And now they’re living inside of one. The quarrelsome siblings find themselves amid one of the greatest secrets of World War II—Britain’s eccentric codebreaking factory at Bletchley Park. As Jakob joins Bletchley’s top minds to crack the Nazi’s Enigma cipher, fourteen-year-old Lizzie embarks on a mission to solve the mysterious disappearance of their mother.
The Battle of Britain rages and Hitler’s invasion creeps closer. And at the same time, baffling messages and codes arrive on their doorstep while a menacing inspector lurks outside the gates of the Bletchley mansion. Are the messages truly for them, or are they a trap? Could the riddles of Enigma and their mother’s disappearance be somehow connected? Jakob and Lizzie must find a way to work together as they race to decipher clues that unravel a shocking puzzle that presents the ultimate challenge: How long must a secret be kept?
The Experiment by Rebecca Stead
Nathan wants to help his people, but first he has to figure out who they are…
Nathan never understood what was “fun” about secrets, probably because he’s always had to keep a very big one.
Although he appears to be a typical sixth-grader (with parents, homework and a best friend, Victor), Nathan learned at an early age that his family is from another planet. Now, their time on Earth may be coming to an end.
Nathan, his parents and nine other families are part of an experiment that suddenly seems to be going wrong. Some of the experimenters, including Nathan’s first crush, Izzy, are disappearing without a word. After his family is called back to the mothership, Nathan begins to question everything he’s been taught to believe about who he is and why he’s on Earth.
The Experiment is a fast-paced coming-of-age novel that asks universal questions about how we figure out who we want to be, and whether it’s ever too late to change.
The Mysterious Magic of Lighthouse Lane by Erin Stewart
A young empath spending the summer with her grandfather stumbles upon a bit of magic in this middle grade novel about letting in the light—perfect for fans of Barbara Dee and Jamie Sumner.
Sixth grader Lucy thinks people are seriously overrated. People come with feelings, and Lucy can’t escape them because of her so-called “gift” of empathy. She can feel the tension when her parents fight and can’t escape the truth of what went wrong in her relationship with her former best friend. So when Lucy’s parents suggest spending her summer vacation with her reclusive grandfather at his isolated cabin on Prince Edward Island, she jumps at the chance to get away from people, feelings—all of it.
Lucy arrives at her grandfather’s with a small suitcase and the only thing she really needs: her camera. From behind the lens, she can watch the world without having to feel any of it. While exploring her new home, Lucy finds her grandmother’s old camera and a darkroom that hasn’t been used since Nana passed away five years ago. Lucy starts taking pictures of the people in her grandfather’s town and developing photos the old-fashioned way.
The finished photos reveal everything about the subjects—their deepest fears and hidden desires. Along with a quirky neighbor and her reluctant grandfather, Lucy sets out to get to the bottom of the photographic magic. But can she uncover the truth of her grandmother’s legacy and figure out what to do with the magical photos before summer ends?
The Lions’ Run by Sara Pennypacker
The acclaimed, New York Times bestselling author of Pax delivers an historical novel about an orphan during WWII who discovers unexpected courage within himself when he becomes involved with the Resistance.
Petit éclair. That’s what the other boys at the orphanage call Lucas DuBois. Lucas is tired of his cowardly reputation, just as he’s tired of the war and the Nazi occupation of his French village. He longs to show how brave he can be.
He gets the chance when he saves a litter of kittens from cruel boys and brings them to an abandoned stable to care for them. There he comes upon a stranger who is none too happy to see him: Alice, the daughter of a horse trainer, who is hiding her filly from German soldiers.
Soon Lucas begins to realize they are not the only ones in the village with secrets. The housekeeper at the German maternity home and a priest at the orphanage pass coded messages; a young mother at the home makes dangerous plans to keep her baby from forced adoption; and a neighbor in town may be harboring a Jewish family.
Emboldened by the unlikely heroes all around him, Lucas is forced to decide how much he is willing to risk to make the most courageous rescue of all.
Youth Nonfiction
101 Dog Tricks: Kids Edition by Kyra Sundance
This Kids Edition of the internationally best-selling 101 Dog Tricks presents tricks, games, and crafts specifically designed to get children involved in training the family dog. Step-by-step instructions and photography show kids exactly what to do.
Having your children train the family dog to perform tricks is an ideal way for them to build a safe and respectful relationship with their pet. Plus, it’s a great way for kids and dogs to bond, build confidence, and have fun. Color photos show kids performing each step of the activity along with succinct descriptions of the numbered steps. The step-by-step approach, difficulty rating, and prerequisites will allow you and your child to start training easily and immediately. No special tools (such as clickers) or knowledge of specific training methods are required.
The amazing, yet simple-to-learn, tricks and games include:
- Hide-and-seek
- Peekaboo
- Hoop jump
- Balance on a brick
- Tidy up toys into toy box
Also included are fun arts and crafts projects that kids can make for and with their dogs, including paw paintings, personalized dogwear, handmade dog toys, and painted pet portraits.
The Big Book of Pi: The Famous Number You Can Never Know by Anita Lehmann
A mathe-magician explores what makes Pi so intriguing, so unknowable and so very important to our lives.
For millennia, humans have been obsessed with the number Pi. We needed it for architecture, geometry and astronomy, and so it was sought by the ancient Egyptians, the Mayans and the ancient Chinese. But no one has ever found it—and no one ever will because Pi is infinite and irrational. Its decimals contain the birthdates of all the children who have ever lived, every piece of music, the complete works of Shakespeare. Pi never ends and can’t be learned, but humans keep on trying. Today, we know trillions of decimals of Pi, even if the first fifteen are more than enough to send a rocket to Mars!
Telling the story of Archimedes the Greek to Srinivasa Ramanujan the Indian (who saw in his dreams a formula for calculating Pi still used by computers today), via Arabs and mathematics enthusiasts from all over the world and all eras, The Big Book of Pi is an extraordinary adventure (almost) to infinity.
Written by a mathe-magician with a Pi-passion, in these pages you’ll meet a man who memorized ten thousand digits—and get a chance to try yourself. You’ll read about a Pi paradox and a Pi magic trick and laugh at more Pi jokes than you ever thought you’d hear. We can’t ever know Pi, but there sure is a lot to learn!
Feeling Feelings: Inside the World of Raina Telgemeier by Raina Telgemeier
Spend an afternoon with Raina as she shares her artwork and tells stories about a range of topics spanning from her childhood to the creation of her graphic novels Smile, Sisters, Guts, Drama, and Ghosts!
Raina Telgemeier is the #1 New York Times bestselling, multiple Eisner Award-winning cartoonist who has been at the forefront of today’s middle-grade graphic novel boom and has published several beloved books that are widely regarded as modern classics. The idea to create Facing Feelings was born from an exhibition featuring Raina’s work that was shown at The Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. This book explores how Raina developed into a legendary cartoonist, looks at the artists who influenced her work, and considers why her art resonates so strongly with readers of all ages. Rare artwork, an interview, special commentary from Raina, and more are included!
How to Survive an Apocalypse: The End of the World Doesn’t Have to Be the End of the World by Cameron Hardy & Coby Coonradt, illustrated by Victoria Stebleva
Would you know what to do if there was an AI takeover or an asteroid hit Earth? If not, don’t worry. In How to Survive an Apocalypse, preppers and podcast hosts Cam and Coby have got your back!
In this fun and practical illustrated guide, you’ll learn prepping 101, from basic first aid and water purification to packing a useful emergency kit and how to communicate during a tech outage.
Then you’ll discover how to survive all kinds of disasters, including a zombie apocalypse, a supernatural takeover, and an alien invasion.
Packed with useful tips, tricks, and strategies, this laugh-out-loud handbook will have you hoping for the worst!
Kids Learn to Stitch by Lucinda Guy and Francois Hall
Kids Learn to Stitch introduces children to the creative world of hand sewing. The latest in the successful Kids Learn to… series, following on from Kids Learn to Knit and Kids Learn to Crochet (which combined sold almost 20,000 copies), this book enlists the help of the two original animal characters, Pip and Peg, from the earlier books. With their aid, children learn how to use a sewing needle and thread to make simple, practical and decorative projects, with six lovely finished designs acting as incentive!
My Latin America and the Caribbean: A Celebration by Gabriela Goldin Marcovich, illustrated by Andres Landazabal
From teeming rainforests and city plazas to bright coral reefs and the sweeping ruins of civilizations, this wide-ranging portrait of the people, places, flora, and fauna of Latin America and the Caribbean—from ancient to modern times—is a magical bird’s-eye view.
Thousands of years ago, early humans crossed an icy land bridge between what is now Siberia and Alaska onto the American continent, gradually migrating south to build vibrant new societies and cultures, erect pyramids and great cities, and cultivate foods like maize, potatoes, tomatoes, and chocolate that still grace our tables today. Join a tiny migrating hummingbird for an enchanted tour of the dazzling biodiversity and human history of Latin America and the Caribbean. In spread after color-splashed spread, our bejeweled guide traverses volcanoes and barrier reefs to reveal howler monkeys and singing frogs, manatees and macaws, anteaters and alpacas. Ranging from the Amazon, our planet’s largest rainforest, to the Andes, Earth’s longest continental mountain range; from the magnificent civilizations of the Mayas, Aztecs, and Incas to the conquistadors and modern struggles for independence; from the sugar skulls and candle-lit cemeteries of Mexico’s Day of the Dead to Carnival in Brazil; and from cricket and football to salsa, reggae, and calypso, this friendly tour spiced with bright illustrations, maps, and an index offers young readers a taste of the extraordinary richness of this captivating part of the world.
A Pebble for Your Pocket: Mindful Stories for Children and Grown-ups by Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh presents Buddhist teachings in child-friendly parables, offering a colorful introduction to mindfulness for kids ages 5-10. This expanded edition now includes Under the Rose Apple Tree and several new stories—plus over 2 dozen practices for kids and grown-ups.
Written in a highly accessible style that doesn’t rely on lot of jargon or difficult vocabulary, Thich Nhat Hanh emphasizes the importance of the present moment through vivid metaphors, original allegories, and colorful stories. Young readers will learn:
• How to handle anger
• How to live in the present moment
• How to recognize the interconnectedness of all things.
• Practices for transforming anger or unhappiness
• Techniques for connecting to the wonders of nature and the present moment
• And more!
This revised edition contains teachings and stories that the whole family can benefit from, as well as practices such as transforming anger in the family, instructions on how to ‘invite the bell’, breathing and sitting meditation, ‘touching the Buddha inside’, and others.
Young Adult Fiction
I Am Not Jessica Chen by Ann Liang
Jenna Chen has spent her life in the shadow of her flawless cousin. Jessica Chen is so smart she gets the top score on every test. Jessica Chen is so beautiful people stop in the hallway to stare at her. Jessica Chen is so perfect she got into Harvard.
And Jenna Chen will only ever be a disappointment.
So when Jenna makes a desperate wish to become her cousin, the last thing she expects is for it to come true—literally. All of a sudden she gets to live the life she’s always dreamed of . . . but being the model student at cutthroat Havenwood Private Academy isn’t quite what she’d imagined. Worse, people seem to be forgetting that someone named Jenna Chen ever existed. But isn’t it worth trading it all away—her artistic talent, her childhood home, even the hope of golden boy Aaron Cai loving her back—to be Jessica Chen?
The Thirteenth Child by Erin A. Craig
All gifts come with a price.
Hazel Trépas has always known she wasn’t like the rest of her siblings. A thirteenth child, promised away to one of the gods, she spends her childhood waiting for her godfather—Merrick, the Dreaded End—to arrive.
When he does, he lays out exactly how he’s planned Hazel’s future. She will become a great healer, known throughout the kingdom for her precision and skill. To aid her endeavors, Merrick blesses Hazel with a gift, the ability to instantly deduce the exact cure needed to treat the sick.
But all gifts come with a price. Hazel can see when Death has claimed a patient—when all hope is gone—and is tasked to end their suffering, permanently. Haunted by the ghosts of those she’s killed, Hazel longs to run. But destiny brings her to the royal court, where she meets Leo, a rakish prince with a disdain for everything and everyone. And it’s where Hazel faces her biggest dilemma yet—to save the life of a king marked to die. Hazel knows what she is meant to do and knows what her heart is urging her toward, but what will happen if she goes against the will of Death?
From the astonishing mind of Erin A. Craig comes the breathtaking fairy tale retelling readers have been waiting for—what does a life well-lived mean, and how do we justify the impossible choices we make for the ones we love? The Thirteenth Child is a must-read for fans of dark fairy tales, romantasy, and epic fantasy alike.
Adult Fiction
Cold Zero by Brad Thor
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor and USA TODAY bestselling author Ward Larsen, comes a heart-pounding thriller of survival, espionage, and global brinkmanship, where the frozen Arctic becomes the deadliest battlefield on Earth.
A vanished plane. An earth-shattering secret. A countdown to World War III.
Hemisphere Airlines Flight 777—the most advanced jetliner ever built—disappears without a trace over the North Pole. Crippled by sabotage, it crash-lands on the ice, stranding the surviving passengers in a wasteland of frigid cold and chaos.
The real storm, however, is still coming.
Hidden inside the wreckage is the prototype for a revolutionary piece of technology that could upend the balance of world power. Now Washington, Moscow, and Beijing are racing to be the first on scene to retrieve it—at any cost.
Trapped in the middle of the world’s most dangerous flashpoint are CIA operative Kasey Sheridan and former fighter pilot turned first officer, Brett Sharpe. Hunted by enemy forces, they must spirit both the device and its creator across the ice to safety—before rival superpowers turn the Arctic into a war zone.
With the clock ticking and the temperature dropping, the fate of the free world is about to be decided at the top of the globe.
The Hadacol Boogie by James Lee Burke
Dave Robicheaux, James Lee Burke’s iconic detective, returns to investigate the death of an unidentified woman, pulling him into a vortex of corruption and violence in the Louisiana bayou
When a cloaked, disfigured man leaves a dead woman in a garbage bag on Dave Robicheaux’s property, he knows his world and family are about to change.
With Valerie Benoit, a detective new to the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Department who is grappling with sexist and racist harassment from their colleagues, and the volatile but fiercely loyal Clete Purcel, Dave embarks on an investigation that brings him into the most dangerous moments of his career and threatens the lives of Valerie and his daughter Alafair.
He encounters a local handyman who leaves cryptic notes and warns of the ghosts who roam the shores of the bayou and is targeted by a vicious New Orleans button man and gangsters from the north.
Through brilliant prose and a quintessential cast of characters, James Lee Burke weaves a portrait of a gritty, violent Louisiana at the turn of the 20th century. Visceral, atmospheric, and wholly original, The Hadacol Boogie brings to life Dave Robicheaux’s fierce determination to confront evil both past and present.
Huguette by Cara Black
In the lawlessness of post–World War II France, a resilient young woman fights to survive and make a living, no matter the cost—from the New York Times bestselling author of Three Hours in Paris and the Aimée Leduc series
After Libération, spring 1945: Seventeen-year-old Huguette Faure is a survivor. The war has taken everything from her—both her parents and her sense of safety. Now, pregnant and on the lam, she cannot return to her childhood home in Paris. Forced to reinvent herself, she must outrun her father’s enemies, who want her dead. After narrowly avoiding jail time—thanks to the help of a kindhearted police officer named Claude Leduc—Huguette lands a job assisting a legendary film director. As her role develops from helping him with chores to cooking his books, she sees an opportunity to break free from the ghosts of her past once and for all.
In this big-hearted story of resilience, New York Times bestselling author Cara Black offers a wholly original depiction of postwar France as well as introduces Claude Leduc—the man who decades later inspired his granddaughter, Aimée, to become a private investigator.
I’m Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home by Fergus Craig
After a decades-long stint in prison, former serial killer Carol is looking to kick back and relax in her new retirement home…until a fellow resident drops dead and Carol has to prove she actually didn’t do it this time….
Carol is delighted to be leaving her tiny prison cell behind to take her place in a luxury retirement home. She’s hoping her past as a serial killer won’t come to light so she can make a few friends and find some murder-free hobbies. But it’s not long before a fellow resident—who happens to be a former police commissioner—drops dead, and Carol’s true identity is leaked—making catching up over daily activities of bingo and baking rather awkward.
Just her luck, Carol soon realizes that the victim wasn’t the only former law enforcement officer at Sheldon Oaks—it’s filled to the brim with former cops, barristers, and government representatives, her newfound friends included. And everyone thinks Carol’s guilt is a no-brainer, but she is ready to prove them dead wrong…without killing anyone, for once.
The Mad Wife by Meagan Church
From bestselling author Meagan Church comes a haunting exploration of identity, motherhood, and the suffocating grip of societal expectations that will leave you questioning the lives we build―and the lies we live.
They called it hysteria. She called it survival.
Lulu Mayfield has spent the last five years molding herself into the perfect 1950s housewife. Despite the tragic memories that haunt her and the weight of exhausting expectations, she keeps her husband happy, her household running, and her gelatin salads the talk of the neighborhood. But after she gives birth to her second child, Lulu’s carefully crafted life begins to unravel.
When a new neighbor, Bitsy, moves in, Lulu suspects that something darker lurks behind the woman’s constant smile. As her fixation on Bitsy deepens, Lulu is drawn into a web of unsettling truths that threaten to expose the cracks in her own life. The more she uncovers about Bitsy, the more she questions everything she thought she knew―and soon, others begin questioning her sanity. But is Lulu truly losing her mind? Or is she on the verge of discovering a reality too terrifying to accept?
In the vein of The Bell Jar and The Hours, The Mad Wife weaves domestic drama with psychological suspense, so poignant and immersive, you won’t want to put it down.
The Murder at World’s End by Ross Montgomery
Knives Out meets Downton Abbey! Secrets, murder, and mayhem collide as this unlikely sleuthing duo—an under-butler and a foul-mouthed octogenarian—hunt a killer in a manor sealed against the end of the world, in this locked-room mystery by #1 New York Times bestselling author Ross Montgomery.
Cornwall, 1910. On a remote tidal island, the Viscount of Tithe Hall is absorbed in feverish preparations for the apocalypse that he believes will accompany the passing of Halley’s Comet. The Hall must be sealed from top to bottom—every window, chimney, and keyhole closed off before night falls. But what the pompous, dishonest Viscount has failed to take into account is the danger that lies within… By morning, he will be dead in his sealed study, murdered by his own ancestral crossbow.
All eyes turn to Stephen Pike, Tithe Hall’s newest under-butler. Fresh out of Borstal for a crime he didn’t commit, he is the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time. His unlikely ally? Miss Decima Stockingham, the foul-mouthed, sharp as a tack, eighty-year-old family matriarch. Fearless and unconventional, she relishes chaos and puzzles alike, and a murder is just the thrill she’s been waiting for.
Together, this mismatched duo must navigate secret passages, buried grudges, and rising terror to unmask the killer before it’s too late…
Nash Falls by David Baldacci
When Walter Nash is recruited by the FBI to help bring down a global crime network his life is turned completely upside down in this thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author David Baldacci.
Nash is an intelligent man, tough but fair-minded. He has a wife and a daughter and a very high-level position at Sybaritic Investments, where his innate skills and dogged tenacity have carried him to the top of the pyramid in his business career. Despite never going on grand adventures, and always working too many hours, he has a happy and upscale life with his family.
However, following his estranged Vietnam-veteran father’s funeral, Nash is unexpectedly approached by the FBI in the middle of the night. They have an important request: become their inside man to expose an enterprise that is laundering large sums of money through Sybaritic. At the top of this illegal operation is Victoria Steers, an international criminal mastermind that the FBI has been trying to bring down for years.
Nash has little choice but to accept the FBI’s demands and try to bring Steers and her partners to justice. But when Steers discovers that Nash is working with the FBI, she turns the tables on him in a way he never could have contemplated. And that forces Nash to take the ultimate step both to survive and to take his revenge: He must become the exact opposite of who he has always been.
And even that may not be enough.
The Predicament by William Boyd
From the internationally bestselling author, a thrilling novel starring the travel writer-turned-reluctant spy Gabriel Dax, who finds himself implicated in a dangerous conspiracy with global consequences
1963, Guatemala. The country is in turmoil, with a presidential election looming and a charismatic, left-wing ex-priest and trade union leader predicted to win. United Fruits, a giant American corporation responsible for a large percentage of the country’s GNP, meanwhile, is not pleased by this prospect. Neither is the CIA. Amid the uncertainty, Gabriel Dax arrives on orders from his MI6 handler Faith Green, who has tasked him with assessing the fallout from the election.
Upon arrival, Gabriel meets Frank Sartorius, the local CIA agent. Despite Sartorius’s genial manner, Gabriel suspects something untrustworthy brewing under the surface. Soon, a political assassination with suspicions of Mafia involvement leads to riots, and Dax escapes to Europe, thinking he will finally return to his normal life as a travel writer. But when Green compels him to investigate some shady characters in West Berlin, it becomes clear that an even greater danger is afoot as the magnetic young President Kennedy prepares to arrive for a state visit. A gripping novel of politics and spy craft with dramatic twists and turns, The Predicament shows Boyd to be one of our most masterful contemporary storytellers.
Queen Esther by John Irving
After forty years, John Irving returns to the world of his bestselling classic novel and Academy Award–winning film, The Cider House Rules, revisiting the orphanage in St. Cloud’s, Maine, where Dr. Wilbur Larch takes in Esther—a Viennese-born Jew whose life is shaped by anti-Semitism.
Esther Nacht is born in Vienna in 1905. Her father dies on board the ship to Portland, Maine; her mother is murdered by anti-Semites in Portland. Dr. Larch knows it won’t be easy to find a Jewish family to adopt Esther; in fact, he won’t find any family who’ll adopt her.
When Esther is fourteen, soon to be a ward of the state, Dr. Larch meets the Winslows, a philanthropic New England family with a history of providing foster care for unadopted orphans. The Winslows aren’t Jewish, but they despise anti-Semitism. Esther’s gratitude for the Winslows is unending; even as she retraces her roots back to Vienna, she never stops loving and protecting the Winslows. In the final chapter, set in Jerusalem in 1981, Esther Nacht is seventy-six.
John Irving’s sixteenth novel is a testament to his enduring ability to weave complex characters and intricate narratives that challenge and captivate. Queen Esther is not just a story of survival but a profound exploration of identity, belonging, and the enduring impact of history on our personal lives showcasing why Irving remains one of the world’s most beloved, provocative, and entertaining authors—a storyteller of our time and for all time.
The Seven Daughters of Dupree by Nikesha Elise Williams
From the two-time Emmy Award–winning producer and host of the Black and Published podcast comes a sweeping multi-generational epic following seven generations of Dupree women as they navigate love, loss, and the unyielding ties of family in the tradition of Homegoing and The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois.
It’s 1995, and fourteen-year-old Tati is determined to uncover the identity of her father. But her mother, Nadia, keeps her secrets close, while her grandmother Gladys remains silent about the family’s past, including why she left Land’s End, Alabama, in 1953. As Tati digs deeper, she uncovers a legacy of family secrets, where every generation of Dupree women has posed more questions than answers.
From Jubi in 1917, whose attempt to pass for white ends when she gives birth to Ruby; to Ruby’s fiery lust for Sampson in 1934 that leads to a baby of her own; to the night in 1980 that changed Nadia’s future forever, the Dupree women carry the weight of their heritage. Bound by a mysterious malediction that means they will only give birth to daughters, the Dupree women confront a legacy of pain, resilience, and survival that began with an enslaved ancestor who risked everything for freedom.
The Seven Daughters of Dupree masterfully weaves together themes of generational trauma, Black women’s resilience, and unbreakable familial bonds. Echoing the literary power of The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis, Nikesha Elise Williams delivers a feminist literary fiction that explores the ripple effects of actions, secrets, and love through seven generations of Black women.
Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon
Milwaukee 1932, the Great Depression going full blast, repeal of Prohibition just around the corner, Al Capone in the federal pen, the private investigation business shifting from labor-management relations to the more domestic kind. Hicks McTaggart, a onetime strikebreaker turned private eye, thinks he’s found job security until he gets sent out on what should be a routine case, locating and bringing back the heiress of a Wisconsin cheese fortune who’s taken a mind to go wandering.
Before he knows it, he’s been shanghaied onto a transoceanic liner, ending up eventually in Hungary where there’s no shoreline, a language from some other planet, and enough pastry to see any cop well into retirement—and of course no sign of the runaway heiress he’s supposed to be chasing. By the time Hicks catches up with her he will find himself also entangled with Nazis, Soviet agents, British counterspies, swing musicians, practitioners of the paranormal, outlaw motorcyclists, and the troubles that come with each of them, none of which Hicks is qualified, forget about being paid, to deal with.
Surrounded by history he has no grasp on and can’t see his way around in or out of, the only bright side for Hicks is it’s the dawn of the Big Band Era and as it happens he’s a pretty good dancer. Whether this will be enough to allow him somehow to Lindy-hop his way back again to Milwaukee and the normal world, which may no longer exist, is another question.
Such a Perfect Family by Nalini Singh
A man with a deadly past marries into the perfect, most respectable family in this riveting thriller from New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh. . . .
A woman buried.
A woman broken.
A woman crashed.
A woman burned.
And the man who knew them all.
Love at first sight, a whirlwind Vegas wedding, a fairy-tale romance.
For forty-three days, Tavish Advani has been the happiest man in the world—until his new life turns to ash, his wealthy in-laws’ house going up in a fiery explosion. His badly injured wife lies in a coma, her family all but annihilated.
Tavish thought he’d left the sins of his Los Angeles life behind, but it’s not so easy to leave behind an investigation into the deaths of several high-profile women—all of whom he’d professed to love. Tragedy and death follow him no matter where he goes . . . but this time, he knows he’s truly innocent.
Desperately trying to clear his name as the authorities zero in, Tavish begins his own investigation into the fire—and learns that his wife’s picture-perfect family may have been nothing but a meticulously constructed mirage. The truth is much darker than anything Tavish could’ve imagined. . . .
This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page
A woman receives an unexpected gift from the man she loved and lost—a year of books, one for every month—launching a reading-inspired journey to live, dream, and love again in this glimmering and heart-stopping novel.
Twelve books. Twelve months. One chance to heal her heart…
When Tilly Nightingale receives a call telling her there’s a birthday gift from her husband waiting for her at her local bookshop, it couldn’t come as more of a shock. Partly because she can’t remember the last time she read a book for pleasure. But mainly because Joe died five months ago….
When she goes to pick up the present, Alfie, the bookshop owner with kind eyes, explains the gift—twelve carefully chosen books with handwritten letters from Joe, one for each month, to help her turn the page on her first year without him.
At first Tilly can’t imagine sinking into a fictional world, but Joe’s tender words convince her to try, and something remarkable happens—Tilly becomes immersed in the pages, and a new chapter begins to unfold in her own life. Monthly trips to the bookstore—and heartfelt conversations with Alfie—give Tilly the comfort she craves and the courage to set out on a series of reading-inspired adventures that take her around the world. But as she begins to share her journey with others, her story—like a book—becomes more than her own.
This Is Not About Us by Allegra Goodman
A kaleidoscopic portrait of a modern American family—steadfast, complicated, begrudging, and loving—from the bestselling author of Isola
Was this just a brief skirmish, or the beginning of a thirty-year feud? In the Rubinstein family, it could go either way.
When their beloved sister passes away, Sylvia and Helen Rubinstein are unmoored. A misunderstanding about apple cake turns into a decade of stubborn silence. Busy with their own lives—divorces, dating, career setbacks, college applications, bat mitzvahs and ballet recitals—their children do not want to get involved. As for their grandchildren? Impossible.
With This Is Not About Us, master storyteller Allegra Goodman—whose prior collection was heralded as “one of the most astute and engaging books about American family life” (The Boston Globe)—returns to the form and subject that endeared her to legions of readers. Sharply observed and laced with humor, This Is Not About Us is a story of growing up and growing old, the weight of parental expectations, and the complex connection between sisters—a big-hearted book about the love that binds a family across generations.
Vigil by George Saunders
Not for the first time, Jill “Doll” Blaine finds herself hurtling toward earth, reconstituting as she falls, right down to her favorite black pumps. She plummets towards her newest charge, yet another soul she must usher into the afterlife, and lands headfirst in the circular drive of his ornate mansion.
She has performed this sacred duty 343 times since her own death. Her charges, as a rule, have been greatly comforted in their final moments. But this charge, she soon discovers, isn’t like the others. The powerful K. J. Boone will not be consoled, because he has nothing to regret. He lived a big, bold, epic life, and the world is better for it. Isn’t it?
Vigil transports us, careening, through the wild final evening of a complicated man. Visitors begin to arrive (worldly and otherworldly, alive and dead), clamoring for a reckoning. Birds swarm the dying man’s room; a black calf grazes on the love seat; a man from a distant, drought-ravaged village materializes; two oil-business cronies from decades past show up with chilling plans for Boone’s postdeath future.
With the wisdom, playfulness, and explosive imagination we’ve come to expect, George Saunders takes on the gravest issues of our time—the menace of corporate greed, the toll of capitalism, the environmental perils of progress—and, in the process, spins a tale that encompasses life and death, good and evil, and the thorny question of absolution.
What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
From the Booker prize–winning, bestselling author of Atonement and Saturday, a genre-bending new novel full of secrets and surprises; an immersive exploration, across time and history, of what can ever be truly known.
2014: At a dinner for close friends and colleagues, renowned poet Francis Blundy honors his wife’s birthday by reading aloud a new poem dedicated to her, ‘A Corona for Vivien’. Much wine is drunk as the guests listen, and a delicious meal consumed. Little does anyone gathered around the candlelit table know that for generations to come people will speculate about the message of this poem, a copy of which has never been found, and which remains an enduring mystery.
2119: Just over one hundred years in the future, much of the western world has been submerged by rising seas following a catastrophic nuclear accident. Those who survive are haunted by the richness of the world that has been lost. In the water-logged south of what used to be England, Thomas Metcalfe, a lonely scholar and researcher, longs for the early twenty-first century as he chases the ghost of one poem, ‘A Corona for Vivian’. How wild and full of risk their lives were, thinks Thomas, as he pores over the archives of that distant era, captivated by the freedoms and possibilities of human life at its zenith. When he stumbles across a clue that may lead to the elusive poem’s discovery, a story is revealed of entangled loves and a brutal crime that destroy his assumptions about people he thought he knew intimately well.
What We Can Know is a masterpiece, a fictional tour de force, a love story about both people and the words they leave behind, a literary detective story which reclaims the present from our sense of looming catastrophe and imagines a future world where all is not quite lost.
You & Me and You & Me and You & Me by Josie Lloyd and Emlyn Rees
Meet Adam and Jules.
Married for nearly twenty-five years and stuck in a rut, their future looks, well, boring.
Then Adam stumbles across a box of old mixtapes he and Jules made for each other when they were young and falling in love. He dusts off his vintage stereo, inserts one of the cassettes, presses “Play” …and the unbelievable happens.
With the power to travel back in time, Jules and Adam can recapture the headiness of falling in love. But they soon realize that visiting the past could be as dangerous as it is addictive, because the temptation to change just a few tiny things is irresistible.
As the consequences start to spiral out of control, can they find a way back to their messy and imperfect, yet glorious, real life? Or will they lose each other forever?
Adult Nonfiction
The American Revolution and the Fate of the World by Richard Bell
A prize-winning historian’s fascinating and unfamiliar recasting of America’s war of independence as a transformative international event
In this revelatory and enthralling book, award-winning historian Richard Bell reveals the full breadth and depth of America’s founding event. The American Revolution was not only the colonies’ triumphant liberation from the rule of an overbearing England; it was also a cataclysm that pulled in participants from around the globe and threw the entire world order into chaos.
Repositioning the Revolution at the center of an international web, Bell’s narrative ranges as far afield as India, Africa, Central America, and Australia. As his lens widens, the “War of Independence” manifests itself as a sprawling struggle that upended the lives of millions of people on every continent and fundamentally transformed the way the world works, disrupting trade, restructuring penal systems, stirring famine, and creating the first global refugee crisis. Bell conveys the impact of these developments at home and abroad by grounding the narrative in the gripping stories of individuals—including women, minorities, and other disenfranchised people. The result is an unforgettable and unexpected work of American history that shifts everything we thought we knew about our creation story.
A Long Game: Notes on Writing Fiction by Elizabeth McCracken
From bestselling and award-winning author and professor Elizabeth McCracken comes an irresistible look at the art of writing.
Writing can feel like an endless series of decisions. How does one face the blank page? Move a character around a room? Deal with time? Undertake revision? The good and bad news is that in fiction writing, there are no definitive answers to such questions: writers must come up with their own. Elizabeth McCracken, author of bestselling novels, National Book Award long-listed story collections, and a highly praised memoir, has been teaching for more than thirty-five years, guiding her many students through their own answers.
In A Long Game, she shares insights gleaned along the way, offering practical tips and incisive thoughts about her own work as an artist. The book covers:
- Understanding and developing characters
- Plot, and what to do if it eludes you
- Her thoughts on common writing “rules”
- And of course, the Butter Cow Lady of the Iowa State Fair and her work as it relates to revision
Writing “is a long game,” she notes. “What matters is that you learn to get work done in the way that is possible for you, through consistency or panic. Through self-recrimination or self-delusion or self-forgiveness: every life needs all three.”
As much a book about the life of a working artist as it is a guide to thinking about fiction, A Long Game is a revelatory and indispensable resource for any writer.
Six Seasons of Pasta by Joshua McFadden
In the follow-up to Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables, James Beard Award–winning author Joshua McFadden teaches home cooks how to use storebought dried pasta to create seasonal, restaurant-quality dishes at home. Named a Best New Cookbook of 2025 by Bon Appetit, Eater, Epicurious, Publishers Weekly, Saveur, The Strategist, The Week, and more.
In Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables, Joshua McFadden’s approach to seasonal produce revolutionized the way we cook with vegetables. Now, he’s back to transform the way we cook and eat pasta. In Six Seasons of Pasta, noodles become the perfect showcase for each season’s bounty of produce. There are more than 125 recipes organized by season, plus the Italian classics that everyone should have in their repertoire, from Cacio e Pepe to Pasta Fagiole (three ways!). Artichokes with Tomato and Mint celebrates the fresh, delicate flavors of spring; Fall’s warming notes are reflected in Mushrooms with Onion, Pancetta, and Cream; and a classic Winter dish like Baked Ziti with Broccoli Rabe is hearty and nourishing. And the best part? These recipes are all made using storebought dried pasta. Six Seasons of Pasta does so much more than pair noodles with seasonal produce. The book teaches us how to intuitively cook a perfect pasta dish from scratch using McFadden’s no-fail “build-the-sauce-in-the-skillet” method. McFadden’s time-tested technique will always result in a satisfying and delicious bowl of pasta.
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone
Through the “revelatory and gut-wrenching” (Associated Press) stories of five Atlanta families, this landmark work of journalism exposes a new and troubling trend—the dramatic rise of the working homeless in cities across America.
The working homeless. In a country where hard work and determination are supposed to lead to success, there is something scandalous about this phrase. But skyrocketing rents, low wages, and a lack of tenant rights have produced a startling phenomenon: People with full-time jobs cannot keep a roof over their head, especially in America’s booming cities, where rapid growth is leading to catastrophic displacement. These families are being forced into homelessness not by a failing economy but a thriving one.
In this gripping and deeply reported book, Brian Goldstone plunges readers into the lives of five Atlanta families struggling to remain housed in a gentrifying, increasingly unequal city. Maurice and Natalia make a fresh start in the country’s “Black Mecca” after being priced out of DC. Kara dreams of starting her own cleaning business while mopping floors at a public hospital. Britt scores a coveted housing voucher. Michelle is in school to become a social worker. Celeste toils at her warehouse job while undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer. Each of them aspires to provide a decent life for their children—and each of them, one by one, joins the ranks of the nation’s working homeless.
Through intimate, novelistic portraits, Goldstone reveals the human cost of this crisis, following parents and their kids as they go to sleep in cars, or in squalid extended-stay hotel rooms, and head out to their jobs and schools the next morning. These are the nation’s hidden homeless—omitted from official statistics, and proof that overflowing shelters and street encampments are only the most visible manifestation of a far more pervasive problem.
By turns heartbreaking and urgent, There Is No Place for Us illuminates the true magnitude, causes, and consequences of the new American homelessness—and shows that it won’t be solved until housing is treated as a fundamental human right.
Baxter Memorial Library 