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THE CLIMATE DIARIES
Jax Wilkinson, an 11-year-old with a penchant for breaking the rules, struggles academically and clashes with teachers but harbors a fervent passion for combating climate change (“Jax was desperate to understand whyhumans were doing so much damage to our only home”). After landing in detention on the final day of school, Jax seizes an opportunity for mischief, hacking into an abusive teacher’s car’s computer and taking it for a rooftop joyride. Caught red-handed, he faces two options: juvenile
REAR-VIEW REFLECTIONS ON RADICAL CHANGE
While activism that addresses social justice and climate change has helped define our current moment, the practice is hardly new; many people, including the author, have been agitating for policy changes in these areas for decades. With this volume, Wagner collects her writings from a half-century of fighting the good fight, from her high school graduation speech (given in 1970) to reflections written in the aftermath of 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests. Over that time, the “revolution” she w
THE FRAGILE BLUE DOT
In the story “The Real Manhattan,” New York–based journalist Abbie Dial scores a chance to interview a famed “climate crusader.” But just a few minutes spent with subject Tillie McBivens may beget an entirely different piece than Abbie anticipates. Such world-threatening issues as global warming play a central part in each of this book’s 15 tautly written stories. “Cowabunga Sunset,” for example, unfolds inside a dome with a virtual, programmable beach setting—a resort for people to escape the
JO'S SPECIAL GIFTS
Jo is like other kids, but he’s also “unique in [his] own way.” He loves outer space and music, and sometimes shouts words he likes while reading or counting. He loves spinning objects, playing piano, and riding on his big, green bike. He knows he does some things differently from other kids, such as having trouble when a surprise changes his routine, but he’s also very observant: “My Mom says I have super-hearing— / and we both think that’s amazing! / I can spot a flying plane / from far away—
THE REQUIREMENT OF GRIEF
Ariano writes compassionately about older sister Alexis’ mental illness, which ended with her suicide. Throughout her life, Alexis attempted to end her own life 13 times before finally killing herself when she was 42. Heavily medicated and repeatedly institutionalized, she had regularly cut herself to quell her anxiety and silence the voices in her head. The author loved her big sister, and as a young girl, she copied Alexis in almost every way, including her dress, speech, and, somewhat reluct
LAST BETS
Painter Elly Sorenson returns to the island of Bonaire, a mecca for scuba divers and high-rolling gamblers, to complete a year-old commission; she needs the fee to pay off sizable debts. On arriving, she learns that her client, Trevor Martin, has lost everything on a backgammon bet. Rather than return his deposit, Elly stays to finish the portrait in exchange for free room, board, and scuba at the Flamingo Resort, where he runs the dive shop. There, she meets Steve Ryan, a high-stakes backgammo
FACING MIGHTY FEARS ABOUT BEING APART FROM PARENTS
“So, being apart happens.” Despite a page design best described as utilitarian, this series entry offers clingy young readers and their concerned parents both a reassuring message and some helpful tools for getting past the angst. Huebner offers a lengthy catalog of animal parents who, much like human ones, “go to great lengths to keep their babies safe.” These examples are printed as “Fun Facts” on images of small loose-leaf pages taped in below the widely spaced text. The author also provides
TERRIBLE HORSES
A younger sibling has an older—and much cooler—sister. “I want her friends to be my friends. I want her things to be my things,” the child tells us. But “she wants her friends to be her friends. She wants her things to be her things.” When the two fight, the younger child retreats and writes “stories of terrible horses.” They say horses are the most difficult thing for an artist to draw, but if that’s the case, then no one told Wilson-Max. His horses careen across the page in magnificent colors
IT'S MURDER, YOU BETCHA!
Doris Day Anderson is like many other 61-year-old women—aside from the fact that she recently solved a murder. Doris has sworn to put her nosy tendencies to rest ever since. However, when she takes an afternoon to go ice fishing with her sisters, Rose and Grace, Doris gets more than she bargained for when the trio reel in the leg of Lars Carlson, a fellow resident of Hallock, Minnesota and Rose’s boyfriend. When Rose requests that Doris find out if Lars was two-timing her with his ex, Etta, Dor
IN THE SHADOW OF LIBERTY
“Since its inception, immigrant detention has been an affront to basic ideals of justice and compassion,” writes Stanford historian Minian, author of Undocumented Lives. Even if the numbers of detained didn’t change much from Obama to Trump to Biden, the practice of separating families and detaining children apart from their parents was employed more vigorously in that middle term than on either side. The author chronicles how draconian measures such as imprisonment without due process and even
DEAR WENDY
Chinese American first-year college student Sophie Chi (she/her) runs Dear Wendy, a popular anonymous Instagram account, where she provides relationship advice to her fellow Wellesley College students. She feels like she’s hitting her stride when a new anonymous Instagram account pops up, seemingly parodying her account. Fellow Wellesley student Jo Ephron (she/they), who’s white and has two moms, started Dear Wanda as a one-off joke for her friends. But as the account gains popularity, Wendy an
THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY WITH MURDER
When Lauren moves to Happy Valley, Pennsylvania, just before her senior year, the last thing she wants is to get involved in more drama. When she left everything she knew behind in California, desperate to start over in a new place with her mom and her mom’s new boyfriend, all she brought with her were terrible memories of an unimaginable trauma. But Lauren’s plans fail when a no-strings-attached hookup with classmate Robbie Crestmont unwittingly entangles her in something dangerous: She learns
CAN YOU HEAR THE PLANTS SPEAK?
The young narrator spends summer days with loving great-grandparents who impart important lessons: “These trees are our ancestors” and “We thank them with a song, a blessing, and a few drops of water.” From mountains to rivers, every part of nature is alive, and the child learns to listen to the plants, who offer food, promise to quench the little one’s thirst, and provide smoke to “lift your prayers to heaven.” As the youngster grows, so does the surrounding cityscape, silencing the animals an
WHAT KINGDOM
Before the relative independence of the residential facility, our narrator was locked in the psychiatric ward of a hospital and subjected to repeated electroconvulsive therapy. She’s determined never to be sent there again. Now she has her own fifth-floor room along with other young adults, among them Hector, from Peru, where his psychoses were treated with exorcism. Their housing is intended to be temporary, an “impermanent halfway house,” “a practice home.” Together with the support staff, sh
THE HEART NEVER FORGETS
In this story told from the perspective of a young child, a small town gathers for the masquerade—a West African event where people don masks representing ancestors, spirits, or deities. This masquerade, however, is different for our young protagonist—it’s the first one without Grandpa. Taking in all the sights, sounds, and smells, the child recalls the akaras that Grandpa loved to eat and the way he smiled as he shared them. The drums thump louder, and musicians join the din as the festival ra
BUTTER
Three of the men died in suspicious accidents, one of a drug overdose, another under a train, and another in a bathtub. Determined to score an interview with the assumed murderer, who is in a detention center awaiting a second trial, Rika overcomes the woman’s refusals by expressing great interest in food. To further gain her trust, Rika carries out the extreme assignments concocted by Kajimana, including having sex (with her droopy older boyfriend, as it turns out) before rushing out to consum
TEACHING EDDIE TO FLY
Arthur, a small bear, is friends with Eddie, an ostrich. After Arthur asks Eddie why he doesn’t fly, Eddie explains that he wasn’t taught. Solicitous Arthur decides to play teacher. He enjoys giving lectures and illustrates aeronautical principles on a chalkboard. Next, Arthur instructs Eddie to flap his wings, but nothing doing. More lessons ensue. Eddie is lifted in a hot-air balloon, jumps off a diving board, tries stilts, and dangles from a parachute. Arthur decides to ask some birds how th
WE WHO PRODUCE PEARLS
“We who dream / mark time by the moon, / a heavenly body containing multitudes, whose many faces mirror our own.” Writing in verse, Ho notes the diversity of the Asian American community. She alludes to the many reasons that people took the risk of immigrating to America: the wounds of colonization, unfair labor practices, and dreams of opportunities. Affirming that the Asian experience is an integral part of U.S. history, she acknowledges the oppression that Asian Americans have endured, but,
THIS IS NOT MY LUNCHBOX!
In a lush green woodland, a light-skinned child sets up a tent and hungrily opens a red lunchbox. Aaargh! It’s crawling with insects and spiders! “No thank you! I will NOT eat that! This is not my lunch box. This lunch box belongs to the…” A page turn reveals the answer: “downy woodpecker.” Over the course of the book, the child opens more differently colored lunchboxes to reveal the food preferences of a jumping mouse, black bear, praying mantis, moose, wood frog, red fox, American robin, skun
T IS FOR TRAILS
Each letter of the alphabet is devoted to a different topic, though the entries share some similarities. A rhyming verse set against an illustration introduces the letter’s topic: backpack, clothes, hydration, leave no trace, urban hiking. Along the left or right sides of each page, lengthy text boxes provide more detail and suggest a trail to hike (the trail or national park name starts with the page’s featured letter), along with its location, distance, and level of difficulty. While Young’s