Follow the journey of a puffin family on Maine’s Eastern Egg Rock Island in this joyful, appealing nonfiction picture book. Puffin mates meet, and Mother Puffin lays a single egg while Father Puffin patrols the burrow.
Medicine Wheels
Bryce’s mom has struggled with alcohol and holding down a job since his dad’s death several years earlier. When things blow up with her latest boyfriend, she takes off, leaving Bryce and an unpaid motel bill behind. Bryce (Ojibwe) goes to his paternal grandparents’ trailer home on the Wolf Creek Reservation in Minnesota, where he stays for the summer.
The Future Book
“This book is from the future. Lots of things are different here in the future.” Forget technology—in Barnett and Harris’s latest collaboration, a futuristic narrator leads readers on a linguistic tour of the future.
Beth Is Dead
Louisa May Alcott’s March sisters are reimagined as their 21st-century doppelgangers in a contemporary mystery triggered by their father’s latest novel, titled Little Women. His readers are intrigued to learn that the characters are modeled on his real-life daughters and incensed that he chose to kill one off at the book’s end.
Josephine
Curious contemplations on the daily wonders of the natural world are offered by Josephine, a remarkably long-necked and highlighter-hued giraffe, the eponymous philosopher in this peaceful board book for older toddlers.
The Lions’ Run
In Nazi-occupied Lamorlay, France, in 1944, gentle, sensitive Lucas works as a delivery boy and lives at the abbey where he was raised. When a group of his peers cruelly tries to drown a mother cat and her kittens, Lucas (white) fails to intervene but manages to rescue several of the kittens from the water afterward. Sheltering them in an abandoned stable, Lucas is surprised to encounter Alice, a bold, brave British girl who is using the stable to hide her beloved mare, Bia, from the Germans.
102
In this magical and masterfully illustrated fever dream of a story, George (white) is at home at 102 Greenbriar Drive on October 2 with a 102-degree fever. Tucked into bed by his doting mom, George is awakened at 1:02 a.m. by a chirping cricket who beckons to him.
Talking Books: Audiobook Inventor Dr. Robert B. Irwin and a New Way to Read
Nowadays, readers might take the existence of audiobooks for granted, given the ever-increasing number of listening devices and availability of titles. Thanks to the ingenuity and persistence of Dr. Robert B. Irwin, the concept of “talking books” is an accessible and popular way of enjoying books.
Winter White: A Modern Retelling of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale
Pia and Max (white) live with their controlling father on a remote Maine farm, isolated from the outside world. Their father sells eggs and wool in town, but when he falls and breaks his leg, the deliveries fall to Pia. Pia relishes the opportunity to get off the farm, even if she’s confused by the wads of cash her father’s customers hand over in exchange for the modest wares.
When Tomorrow Burns
The bonds of Nomi, Vi, and Arthur’s childhood friendship have begun to fray. Nomi (white) is mystified by Vi’s preoccupation with her cell phone, while Arthur (white) has pulled away from both girls due to his sudden, intense crush on Nomi.