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RALPH & MURRAY

Ralph is an indefatigably curious pound puppy who joined his adoptive family when he was 6 months old. Murray is a savvy tortoiseshell cat who lives next door and just happens to be Ralph’s best friend. They live in 1950s Murfreesboro, a “quaint little hamlet…where there was never a need to lock your doors.” Written from Ralph’s perspective, the story shows the two animals poring over the minutiae of everyday life by reading each other’s thoughts. Ralph is a self-appointed head of security, wat

GIVING GOOD

On a snowy school night, a child narrator is picked up from his mom’s place. Daddy is there with his old, rusty car and telltale frayed black knit cap (“his crown”). The duo hop in the car together and head to Grandma’s house. The slightly somber car ride introduces some familial tension (“Don’t matter what he did or didn’t do. Daddy just got hit hard”), but the child focuses on love. After all, “Daddy always gives good. He always protects your feelings.” In Daddy’s room at Grandma’s, they cons

OWL AND PENGUIN

Pizza-making begins promisingly (“Mix. Roll. Pull”), but tossing the dough brings disaster: “SPLAT.” The pair are determined (“Again,” “pull”), but alas, the final step is always followed by “STICK,” “SPLAT,” and “PLOP,” whether it’s Penguin or Owl throwing the pie to the sky. Draped in dough, they finally have a joint light bulb moment—time for a trip to the pizza parlor to enjoy pies topped with fish and mice. In the second tale, after a snowfall, each friend wants to make a snow-self, but Pe

WHAT JEWISH LOOKS LIKE

Explicitly pushing back against homogenous depictions of Jewish people, the authors demonstrate the ethnic, racial, and gender diversity of Jews. Each spread includes a brief biography paired with a stylized portrait reminiscent of those in Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo’s Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls (2016). A pull quote or sidebar accompanies each subject; sidebars include “Highlighting Jewish Paralympic Athletes,” “Jewish Stringed Music,” and “Ethiopian Jews in Israel.” Kleinrock

DRAGON GARAGE

Zach Vandermeer’s imagination can get the young man into trouble: The graphic novel opens with a riveting chase scene filled with guns, fast cars, and a perilous cliff’s edge. It’s exciting and intense (“Twenty millimeter cannon blew out the windows; I felt the shells fly past!”)—and it’s also not real. In a few pages and even fewer words, the author establishes Zach as a funny, creative protagonist adept at spinning stories. This is what makes him so great at Heroic Journeys, a role-playing ga

LICENSE TO DIE

James Flynn is a patient at the City of Roses Psychiatric Institute in Pasadena, California, and has been for more than 20 years; he is utterly convinced he is a “super spy with a license to kill” and that the mental hospital that houses him is the headquarters of His Majesty’s Secret Service. Despite his condition, he has a penchant for thwarting evil plots that threaten the world, a bizarre and hilarious habit that will be familiar to readers of this extravagantly comedic series. James is une

AYLEN ISLE

The third book in Supplee’s fresh, well-crafted fantasy series Winnie and the “Wizard,” begins with the return of 14-year-old Winnie Harris; her 6-year-old stepbrother, Mikey; and teenage magician Kip to Winnie’s family beach house on Earth after a dangerous mission on an alternative “Frama” world known as Hutra. (The “Frama” worlds, introduced in Book 1 [Frama-12, 2022], are accessed through the use of “Frama-scopes,” magical devices once solely the province of powerful time guardians.) Winnie

THE KNIGHT THIEVES

Twelve-year-olds Rosebud and Wilda make it their mission to steal from the army of their kingdom’s tyrannical usurper, Otto the Torch. Their small gang, known as the Blackhearts, is accompanied by Wilda’s “mostly tame” lynx, Wryclaw. Otto’s reign has been marked by the burning of much of the country of Rin and the murder of its citizens, including Rosebud’s father, Sir Herman the Loyal. The girls agree to journey with Prince Timo, who’s fleeing from Otto, into the enchanted Nowhere Wood to find

NOBLESSE

Cadis Etrama Di Raizel emerges from his coffin in an empty building, with no knowledge of his whereabouts or how long he’s slept. Attempting to blend in by wearing a white jacket, pale gray shirt and trousers, and white jabot—copying “the most common attire” he sees on people in the streets—Rai follows Shinwu, a formulaic delinquent with a heart of gold, to Ye Ran High School, where he discovers his devoted servant, Frankenstein, in charge. Completely unfamiliar with the modern Korean language

OH, PANDA

An intrusive narrator asks Panda about the day’s plans, but our hero is besotted with a magnificent magenta butterfly. Panda follows the flitting insect steadily until it flies up the sides of a steep mountain. While the narrator tries to guide Panda back to other activities, the determined bear attempts the climb. After an initial failure (“you’re still a bit too small”), Panda tries again, using sap and branches to get a hold. Nothing works. Only when the narrator accedes to the situation and

MORE THAN TWO, SECOND EDITION

This thorough handbook covers all aspects of living polyamorously—from one’s initial decision to embrace the lifestyle and common communication mistakes to strategies to help tackle jealousy and set healthy boundaries. Some sections apply to readers in any kind of relationship, such as the need for a healthy sense of self-love. Other parts are specifically for those in polyamorous relationships, like a discussion about when and how often to begin new relationships. Each chapter begins with a re

FOG & FIREFLIES

Fourteen-seasons-old Ogma guards the walls surrounding her village, like all the children who live there do. They keep a dense fog at bay, one that leaves the kids alone but somehow spirits away the adults. So, it’s the children, many of whom are younger than Ogma, who protect the older villagers. While the menacing fog, which often forms “phantoms” (shapes or voices), can hover for days on end, it periodically lets up. These are the times when the adults can make trades with the “Caravaners” w

A GIFT FOR NAI NAI

Lyn Lyn’s grandmother has a tradition of crocheting a new hat for her every year. With Nai Nai’s birthday coming up, Lyn Lyn concocts a plan to return the favor by making her a hat “with a touch of red for good luck.” But things don’t turn out the way she expects when her stitches come out “too tight. Too loose. Too weird.” Struggling, she seeks out her Nai Nai’s help, under the ruse that the gift is for her best friend. With perseverance and her Nai Nai’s warm guidance and love, Lyn Lyn is abl

V. MALAR

It’s almost Pongal, the Tamil harvest festival, and this year, 10-year-old Malar is especially excited. Her cousins Priya, 11, and Kamal, 6, are traveling all the way from their home in Seattle to Pori, the coastal Indian village where Malar and her family live. Although Malar is determined to be a “super-host,” her cousins don’t make it easy. Kamal ruins the lotus kolam design that Malar draws outside their house, and Priya condescendingly calls Malar’s house “tiny” before proclaiming that she

THE LITTLE VILLAGE OF BOOK LOVERS

Marie-Jeanne has possessed a special gift since her earliest days: She is able to detect a certain light that shines from people who have been touched by love. As a child, Marie-Jeanne was surprised to discover that others were unable to see that same light. When her foster father, Francis, hatches the idea of starting a mobile book library, Marie-Jeanne is thrilled by the idea of encountering more people and increasing her understanding of the mysterious glow. Francis takes the necessary steps

EVERYTHING TESLA

Two young siblings who became big Tesla fans after their family bought one of the manufacturer’s automobiles (“our first cool car”) guide readers through every detail of the company’s vehicles, from internal features to where and how they’re built. Designed with a younger audience in mind, the book largely consists of diagrams and pictures overlaid with plenty of fun facts and information illustrating various points (“What do cheetahs and Teslas have in common? They can both accelerate from 0-6

CLEMENTINE AND DANNY SAVE THE WORLD (AND EACH OTHER)

Under the username Hibiscus, 18-year-old Clementine Chan runs Babble Tea, a blog with a loyal following in which she reviews local tea spots. Danny Mok, aka Bobaboy888, is not a fan, however. What Clementine intends to be helpful suggestions to modernize and remain competitive in a changing world, Danny reads as Whitewashing to suit the tastes of influencers and gentrifiers. Then, shocking news hits that a mega-corporation is angling to take over the Chinatown strip mall where Fragrant Leaves,

YOU KNOW BEST

The author describes her book as “an invitation to curate the best version of yourself while building influence in fast-paced organizations.” The text is organized into four sections outlining a total of 10 rules and accompanying skills to achieve such curation. Each chapter begins with a vignette from the career of a fictional character named Madison Hopeton, described as “fictional accounts of real events that have happened in the workplace.” Dawkins covers the necessary abilities to “read th

DOCTOR LUCIFER

As the story begins, Southern California-based, board-certified internist Dr. Mark Lin arrives for his usual shift at Anaheim’s Ivory Memorial Hospital. Lin is a hospitalist—a doctor who exclusively practices inpatient care—and he’s world-weary about the slow churn of neglectful patients he’s always dealing with (“Sometimes, that’s what my job comes down to: wiping away physical sickness within the morally sick,” he grouses. “Prolonging people’s lives just so they could go back to being a nuisa

AT THE MERCY OF THE SEA

In September 1663, 12-year-old Etienne Gayneau is waiting on the dock in the harbor of New Amsterdam, waiting to board a merchant ship that will take him, as a crewmember, to Boston and then across the Atlantic. He’s a French immigrant whose Protestant family fled religious persecution in his country several years ago. He’s now embarking on a new career at sea. Standing near him is 10-year-old Abraham Dayton, who’s traveling with his English father to Boston, where his dad hopes to obtain a loa