Rabbit, Duck, and Big Bear are forest friends who “do everything together,” relishing one another’s company. Their seasonal activities are full of delight, but never include venturing down one particular winding path in the woods; Duck and Big Bear always suggest reasons to avoid it.
Book of the Week
Simon Sort of Says
The town of Grin and Bear It, Nebraska, is located in the National Quiet Zone, an area in which scientists listen for radio signals from outer space, and where interfering signals like internet, Wi-Fi, cell phones, radios, and microwave ovens are prohibited.
Enter the Body
Four of Shakespeare’s young female characters–Lavinia, Cordelia, Ophelia, and Juliet –have died countless times on stage and will do so countless more, because that is how their stories are written. Until now.
Rock, Rosetta, Rock! Roll, Rosetta, Roll! Presenting Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Godmother of Rock & Roll
“Bold, audacious, in a word, bodacious … ” A joyful picture book biography introduces Sister Rosetta Tharpe and celebrates her singular musical talent, which was apparent from the time she was a child.
When Impossible Happens
Swara, almost 9, lives in apartment building in Bengaluru, India. When the pandemic lockdown begins, she especially misses her maternal grandmother, whom she calls Pitter Paati.
The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be: A Speculative Memoir of Transracial Adoption
An experimental work blending science fiction and memoir recalls actual experiences as a transracial adoptee from Shannon Gibney’s childhood, adolescence, and adulthood as well as imagining what her life might have been like had she not been placed for adoption as an infant.
A First Time for Everything
After several painful experiences with middle school bullies, all Dan wants is to fly under the radar, to be quiet and unnoticed by his peers.
The Enchanted Life of Valentina Mejía
Vale’s dad is a folklorist and her mom a geoscientist. Although Vale, 12, enjoys Papi’s stories, trekking near their Colombian home with him and her younger brother, Julián, in search of a patasola, a one-legged woman who sucks her victims’ blood (“Kind of like a vampire, but cooler”) isn’t her idea of a good time even before an earthquake strikes and Papi is injured.
Just Like Grandma
“On the steps of a house at the end of the street … ” A patterned text begins with a series of vignettes in which Becca wants to be “just like Grandma.”
Stateless
Stella North, 17 (white), the only female contestant in Europe’s first air race for young people, represents Britain; she prefers no one know she escaped the Russian Revolution as a young child.