Alice Cary

FictionLiterary FictionDebut Fiction

Going Home

Review by Alice Cary

Téo Erskine is a Londoner in his 30s with an orderly, if somewhat aimless, life. As Tom Lamont writes in his smart, warm-hearted debut, Going Home: “He had been careful to arrange a life in which he could leave obligations at the door of his flat, next to the coins he saved for Ben’s poker nights and his shoes that were comfiest for driving.” Téo’s life is completely upended, however, during a weekend back home in his North London neighborhood. He offers to babysit the toddler son, Joel, of his childhood friend Lia, a single mom for whom he has longed for ages, in hopes that his chivalry might gain him favor. Instead, however, an unimaginable tragedy occurs, and Téo suddenly finds himself Joel’s reluctant, bewildered guardian.

The novel focuses on the ongoing question of Joel’s permanent guardianship while showing how the young boy changes the lives of those in his orbit. There’s Téo, of course, who blunders his way through car seat and nappy issues, wondering, “Was it water you did give small children or never gave them?” Téo’s father, Vic, whose life is now shrinking due to the advancing effects of Parkinson’s disease, quickly becomes smitten with Joel, especially since he himself grew up in an orphanage. Téo leans on his best friend, Ben, for support, but because of Ben’s wealth and self-centeredness, they don’t always see eye to eye—especially after Ben informs Téo that he had a brief fling with Lia. Rounding out this exceedingly well-drawn cast is rabbi Sibyl Challis, who is on probation with her congregation, and questioning her faith in the wake of Lia’s tragedy.

Comparisons to Nick Hornby’s About a Boy are inevitable and well deserved. Going Home overflows with heart, and its characters feel real with their multitude of dreams, fears, serious self-doubts and fierce loyalties. Over the course of a year, Lamont paces events with precision and humor, asking life’s big questions regarding family and friendship, duty and devotion. Going Home marks the debut of a gifted writer whose readers will find themselves feeling better, somehow, about the world.

Going Home marks the debut of a gifted writer whose readers will find themselves feeling better, somehow, about the world.
Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem

Review by Alice Cary

Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds introduces young readers to Myra Viola Wilds, a Kentucky woman who lived during the Jim Crow era and left her home in the hills for “the city” to become a dressmaker. Eventually, she lost her vision—which the book attributes to eyestrain—and then became a poet. Although biographical details are sparse, Wilds is an admirable, intriguing creator.

Nancy Johnson James tells Wilds’ story in verse, highlighting historical notes in an afterword. She focuses on Wilds’ unending creativity, urging readers to follow her example: “Dream a dream when you struggle, between a painful past and a hopeful tomorrow. Remember when light began to fade, Myra’s art could still be made.”

Diana Ejaita’s fanciful artwork steals the show here. Bold patterns and colors fill each page, reminiscent of Matisse’s splashy shapes. She also uses linework to evoke the weave and intricate stitchwork of the dresses Wilds made. She skillfully introduces the color black into the illustrations to portray Wilds’ descent into blindness.

Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem offers a world of inspiration for young creators of many kinds.

Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem offers a world of inspiration for young creators of many kinds.
NonfictionTrue Crime

The Secret History of the Rape Kit

Review by Alice Cary

Pagan Kennedy, a veteran journalist who counts Inventology and The First Man-Made Man among her previous 10 books, has long explored how new technologies can bring about social change. With The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story, the author now unearths a remarkable chapter of history that might otherwise have become a forgotten footnote. At the center of her story is Martha Goddard, the woman who spearheaded the creation of sexual assault examination kits.

Goddard was known as Marty; having a name that could be construed as male worked to her advantage in the 1970s while she developed “a new way of thinking about prosecuting rape.” As a volunteer at a Chicago crisis hotline for teenagers, Goddard learned that many runaways were sexual abuse victims. Determined to find a way to hold predators accountable, she developed the first standardized rape kit to gather and preserve criminal evidence. It eventually became one of the most powerful tools in our criminal justice system, pushing “against the widespread belief in law enforcement that sexual assault wasn’t a ‘real’ crime.”

“As I was digging into Marty’s life in the 1980s, the era sometimes felt as if it were ancient history,” Kennedy writes. Ironically, Goddard’s kits originally bore a man’s name—that of Chicago police sergeant Louis Vitullo. Kennedy explains that Goddard “thought the only way forward was to present her vision as a collaboration between the State’s Attorney’s Office and the police department, making it clear that men would be in charge.” Even more ironic, the initial funding came from Hugh Hefner of Playboy magazine, whose private foundation supported efforts to increase female autonomy. (As an extra dash of irony, Hefner has since been accused of sexual assault by Playboy models.)

Kennedy adeptly explores a variety of threads, including her own victimization as a child and teenager. Goddard’s life, it turns out, was incredibly hard to document; before her death, she had virtually disappeared, incapacitated by alcoholism and mental illness. Kennedy remained undeterred, however, and even haunted, “partly because I’d come to think of her as a maternal figure. She was the woman who had believed little girls.”

Part engrossing memoir, part page-turning detective story and part mesmerizing biography, The Secret History of the Rape Kit is a brave, bold story of social oppression and revolution that everyone should read.

Part engrossing memoir, part page-turning detective story and part mesmerizing biography, The Secret History of the Rape Kit is a bold, feminist history of a game-changing innovation.
Mystery & SuspenseMysteryHistorical Mystery

The Naming of the Birds

Review by Alice Cary

Pour a warm beverage and settle in with Paraic O’Donnell’s exceptional third novel, The Naming of the Birds, a thrilling gothic mystery set in Victorian London. The opening section takes readers to a dreary scene in 1872 that reads like a particularly Grimm fairy tale: A group of orphans survives a horrific fire at a place known as the Asylum, only to be secretly carted away to another horrifying institution, where they are given new names, called after birds. One of the children, a girl now called Nightingale, carries secrets from that fire, which “taught her things about the world’s secret nature and her own.” Nightingale has one friend there, a boy now called Finch, who tells her, “I talk to you because you’re the only one who might be able to make sense of it all.” 

After that chilling introduction, the action fast-forwards 22 years to 1894, where Scotland Yard Inspector Henry Cutter and his young partner, Sergeant Gideon Bliss, find themselves pursuing a skilled serial killer who seems to be targeting aging civil servants, some of them of high rank. Their murders have been achieved with assassin-esque meticulousness, and the victims are left in haunting, precisely arranged scenes that include the bones of children. 

Fans of O’Donnell’s previous book, The House on Vesper Sands, will welcome the return of Cutter and Bliss, along with their sidekick, Octavia Hillington, a vibrant, fearless and piercing journalist who helps them track down the killer. They form a particularly dynamic trio: Cutter is a crusty, grumpy, but determined detective; Bliss is sensitive and fearful, but equally dogged; Hillington is an undaunted Victorian change-maker. 

O’Donnell writes and plots with admirable precision, leading readers down a series of intriguing labyrinths to discover what exactly happened to those children back in 1872, and how that incident may be connected to these present-day murders. He is a master of big strokes and small, inserting touches of humor and insight without lessening the tension. He uses the bird theme judiciously throughout: They appear from time to time like eerie witnesses to the unfolding action. And there is a lot of big, glorious action as Cutter, Bliss and Hillington risk their lives to uncover these frightful truths. As Cutter tells his sidekicks, “We are going to see more than mere trickery. We are going to see the performance of a lifetime.” In the end, readers are left with all that and more, including weighty questions to ponder about the nature of justice and revenge.

The Naming of the Birds is a delicious, breathtaking romp that will have readers looking over their shoulders as they quickly turn its pages.

Paraic O’Donnell inserts touches of humor and insight without lessening the tension in his breathtaking gothic historical mystery, The Naming of the Birds.
Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

Safe Crossing

Review by Alice Cary

A wondrous nighttime adventure unfolds for a nature-loving family in Safe Crossing. As the narrator, a young girl, explains, “The wood frogs, spring peepers, salamanders—spotted, blue-spotted, and Jefferson—and other amphibians are crossing the road tonight.” She, her parents and sister head out as part of the local Amphibian Migration Team to facilitate safe road crossings as the amphibians make their annual journey from the woods to vernal pools to lay eggs. As she did so well in How to Say Hello to a Worm, author-illustrator Kari Percival awakens children’s curiosity while spurring them to action.

Percival’s illustrations, bathed in dark purple and brown that contrast with the bright yellow raincoats and safety vests these citizen scientists wear, evoke the excitement of the rainy night. Readers will practically feel the spring rain on their shoulders as the team shines flashlights in search of amphibians that need help. A host of different species emerge, each labeled as they hop and crawl across the road to the vernal pools. End papers complement these field guide-like identifications with further information and prompt readers to go back and try to spot different types of eggs with the help of detailed clues.

The narrator recognizes that the amphibians struggle to cross a busy road, and “need their own safe crossing. Their own bridge or their own tunnel.” With admirable efficiency and a gift for presenting information in easily understandable ways, Percival shows how this family and others in the community turn this idea into a reality. Data is collected, plans are drawn, a grant is applied for and the narrator nervously states her case at a town hearing. “My belly feels like it’s full of jumping frogs,” she says. Before long, a variety of town groups help raise needed funds, shedding more light on the effectiveness of community involvement. Finally, the completed tunnels under the roadway allow the amphibians to safely lay their eggs. Several pages of backmatter round out the text, including fun facts, a glossary, safety tips and suggestions for citizen scientist involvement.

Safe Crossing is an exciting, informative call to action for budding scientists and environmental activists.

Author-illustrator Kari Percival’s Safe Crossing is an exciting, informative call to action for budding scientists and environmental activists.
Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

Make a Pretty Sound

Review by Alice Cary

Make a Pretty Sound: A Story of Ella Jenkins describes a pioneer whose 70-year career introduced children to Black music and music from all over the world, earning her a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 and the nickname “the First Lady of Children’s Music.”

Thanks to Traci N. Todd’s rhythmic prose and Eleanor Davis’ powerful illustrations, this picture book biography is beautifully grounded in the lively sights and sounds that inspired Jenkins. Jenkins grew up in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago, amid “the blare and bleat of taxicabs, the screech of high-up trains, the tambourines that ring as preachers preach and choirs sing—amid the pool hall-gritty beat of the city.” Todd shows how Jenkins listened to music from all over the world at record shops, and loved seeing Cab Calloway perform. Each spread is filled with lively city scenes, people and music—a church choir, a boy in a window playing a flute, Jenkins’ uncle’s harmonica serenade, or Cab Calloway, dressed in a bright yellow suit, belting out, “Hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-hi!” Davis uses a palette of textured bronzelike browns and reds along with a yellowish green and teal, giving the illustrations an old-fashioned feel that deftly imparts the grand span of Jenkins’ life: She celebrated her 100th birthday in 2024.

As an adult, Jenkins moved to San Francisco and became a teacher before returning to Chicago, where she fought for civil rights. She appeared at the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1964 rally at Soldier’s Field, to perform “for the children, for the hope she feels when she hears their voices, for all that music can teach them about themselves and about each other.”

While the book’s text immerses young readers in the variety of personalities and sounds that defined Jenkins’ musical life, these details are more explicitly spelled out in an accompanying timeline, lengthy afterword and bibliography. As a result, the book can be enjoyed by a wide range of readers, from preschoolers to older elementary students, who can choose how much detail to absorb. Make a Pretty Sound highlights the life of a musical pioneer whose message continues to be vibrant and vital.

Make a Pretty Sound highlights the life of musical pioneer Ella Jenkins, whose message continues to be vibrant and vital.
NonfictionLifestylesFood & DrinkCrafts, Hobbies & HomeCookbooks

4 books to help you ace your next (or first!) dinner party

Feature by Alice Cary

★ The Hostess Handbook

According to Maria Zizka (The Newlywed Table), the three pillars of party planning are “the desire to host, some reliably excellent go-to recipes, and a bit of party know-how.” You’ll get a hefty dose of all three in The Hostess Handbook: A Modern Guide to Entertaining. It’s filled with a wide variety of truly enticing recipes that will make you want to start cooking, including vegetarian summer rolls with peanut sauce, saffron couscous with cauliflower, chickpeas and pomegranate, and—wait for it—churro doughnuts with chocolate glaze. These are included in a variety of menus, ranging from a Sunday supper to a holiday dinner party. Zizka also advises on flower arranging, expelling lingering fishy smells and—importantly—navigating dietary restrictions of guests.

Zizka’s writing style is entertaining in itself, as well as informative. The flavor of salt-and-vinegar potato-peel chips with chive dip is as if “a regular potato chip went on vacation to a tiny British coastal village and had a fling with a fisherman.” Along with numerous elegant recipes, Zizka offers helpful basics, such as a list of 10 Simple Nearly No-Cook Appetizers, including my personal favorite: “potato chips served in a pretty bowl.” As Lewin notes, “They never disappoint.”

Big Night

Katherine Lewin is the sort of entertainment goddess everyone needs. An introvert who sometimes recharges with short naps while hosting, Lewin owns a dinner party essentials shop in New York City. She shares boatloads of tips in Big Night: Dinners, Parties & Dinner Parties, a guide to making “any night you choose . . . a little more special,” whether it’s an elegant gathering or casual weekday meal. Four chapters—one for each season—include 85 recipes along with bartending, preparation and pairing suggestions galore, presented with photos and graphics that pop.

Lewin notes, “You know it’s a party when pigs arrive in blankets,” so she includes a sweet-salty “grown-up” recipe for the eponymous appetizer. Her recipe titles alone will make readers smile, with names like A Noodle Soup to Get People Excited and A Big Chopped Salad (to Go With Takeout Pizza). Lewin’s encouraging humor shines through on every page, giving would-be hosts the confidence to plan their own big night.

Swing By!

If you really want to step up your entertaining game, dig into Swing By! Entertaining Recipes and the New Art of Gathering. Stephanie Nass has been called the “millennial Martha Stewart,” and this is by far the largest, lushest, most over-the-top of these entertaining books. Nass, who earned the nickname “Chefanie” as a child and uses it as her brand name today, caught the entertaining bug early: “All my life,” she writes, “I have been at greatest peace in the middle of a party.” The book’s winsome cover features Nass perched atop a dinner table, dressed in a drapey pantsuit that matches the place settings.

Thumbing through these colorful pages will make you feel as though you’ve been to a fun, fabulous fete. Innovative takes on standards, like her King Midas Pizza with edible gold leaf, shine. Nass is a gifted baker, and her show-stopping chocolate-meringue cake will surely inspire readers to muster their culinary courage.

★ Victorian Parlour Games

Liven up any gathering with Victorian Parlour Games: A Modern Host’s Guide to Classic Fun for Everyone. Ned Wolfe’s charming treatise is chock-full of easy-to-play games “that have stood the test of time for good reason.” Featuring competition games like Smells, Endless Story and German Whist, its compact size makes it an ideal stocking stuffer or hostess gift. Did you know, for instance, that it’s Blind Man’s Buff, not Bluff? Or that the game Hot Boiled Beans and Bacon was featured in both The Big Bang Theory and Charles Dickens’ The Mystery of Edwin Drood?

These amusements are suitable for a variety of ages and occasions, from children’s birthday parties (Musical Chairs and a variation, Musical Potatoes), long car trips (Crambo), family get-togethers (pillow fights, with rules) and romantic evenings (kissing games!). Don’t miss Wolfe’s colorful cautions—including “nothing ruins a game night quite like a visit to the hospital.”

Whether you’re an accomplished or aspiring dinner party host, these books brim with ideas that will add sizzle to your soirees.
Children's & YAPicture BookMiddle GradeChildren's

Six poetry gifts for young readers

List by Alice Cary
STARRED REVIEW
December 10, 2024

Six poetry gifts for young readers

Poems inspire sharing, discussion and creativity. These collections explore a wide range of subjects, with moods from sunny to serious, and would make thoughtful gifts for babies, kids and teens alike.
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Beware the Dragon and the Nozzlewock

By Vikram Madan

Bursting with energy and bright images, Beware the Dragon and the Nozzlewock is smart, sassy and perfect for reading alone or out loud together.

Bursting with energy and bright images, Beware the Dragon and the Nozzlewock is smart, sassy and perfect for reading alone or out loud together.

Grace Notes

By Naomi Shihab Nye

While the masterful poems in Grace Notes evoke the specific history of her mother’s life, Nye never leaves readers out of the frame, encouraging them to ask questions and think deeply.

While the masterful poems in Grace Notes evoke the specific history of her mother’s life, Nye never leaves readers out of the frame, encouraging them to ask questions and think deeply.

The Smell of Wet Dog

By Barney Saltzberg

The Smell of Wet Dog is chock-full of luscious light verse designed to draw in even the most reluctant of poetry readers.

The Smell of Wet Dog is chock-full of luscious light verse designed to draw in even the most reluctant of poetry readers.

The City Sings Green

By Erica Silverman, Illustrated by Ginnie Hsu

The City Sings Green is inspiring, and likely to encourage budding environmentalists to more closely consider the intersection between humans and nature.

The City Sings Green is inspiring, and likely to encourage budding environmentalists to more closely consider the intersection between humans and nature.

Windsongs

By Douglas Florian

After reading Windsongs, kids and parents alike might find themselves creating their own poems, inspired by Douglas Florian’s poetry about the dew, drought, thunder and frost.

After reading Windsongs, kids and parents alike might find themselves creating their own poems, inspired by Douglas Florian’s poetry about the dew, drought, thunder and frost.

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Poems inspire sharing, discussion and creativity. These collections explore a wide range of subjects, with moods from sunny to serious, and would make thoughtful gifts for babies, kids and teens alike.
Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

The Smell of Wet Dog

Review by Alice Cary

With nearly 50 books under his belt, beloved author and illustrator Barney Saltzberg turns his attention to canines in his latest zany offering, The Smell of Wet Dog: And Other Dog Poems and Drawings. He proclaims his love in the first poem, “I Love Dogs,” followed by the title verse, which describes their odor as “Imagine moose and skunk perfume. / An odiferous stench, a paint-peeling plume.”

Young readers will relish these often rip-roaringly funny short poems, with lines like “A long stretchy / drizzle of slobbery ooze / dribbles and splats / on my favorite shoes.” Kids will readily identify with lines like “It’s hard to sit. / It’s hard to stay. / Who makes these rules up, anyway?”

This is a celebration of all things dog—the good, the bad and the smelly—that adult dog lovers will enjoy as well. Saltzberg’s endearing spot illustrations complete the package, with big-eyed dogs of all shapes and sizes cavorting, rolling around in messes, leaping into the air and staring pleadingly at each other and the reader. How can you not fall in love? There are poignant moments as well, with poems about a lost dog, an aging pet and the undying adoration that dogs have for their owners—and vice versa. (Cat lovers: a sequel is likely in store, as the last page features a cat saying, “You forgot . . . / the cat!”)

The Smell of Wet Dog is chock-full of luscious light verse designed to draw in even the most reluctant of poetry readers.

The Smell of Wet Dog is chock-full of luscious light verse designed to draw in even the most reluctant of poetry readers.
Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

The City Sings Green

Review by Alice Cary

The City Sings Green & Other Poems About Welcoming Wildlife is an inspirational treasure trove that introduces young readers to the concept of rewilding, showing how cities and communities around the world are repairing some of the environmental damage caused by human habitation. Focusing on 11 intriguing examples, Erica Silverman has created a unique blend of poetry, science, civics and activism. 

Each story is compelling: a honeybee highway in Oslo, Norway; a Los Angeles school that tore up their asphalt playground to create a natural oasis; and cities in Australia that built rope bridges over highways so that western ringtail possums might safely cross. Silverman introduces each short lesson with a poem celebrating an ecological achievement, accompanied by a prose explanation of the specific details. It’s a winning combination that succinctly informs and delights, while helpful back matter provides additional resources. Both the poetry and prose of The City Sings Green are widely accessible.

Ginnie Hsu’s cheery illustrations are an ecological feast, filled with bright colors that readily convey the benefits of each endeavor. Her art is particularly immersive, leaving readers feeling as though they’ve practically taken a walk through many of the places described, often seen from an animal’s point of view.  

The City Sings Green is inspiring, and likely to encourage budding environmentalists to more closely consider the intersection between humans and nature. 

The City Sings Green is inspiring, and likely to encourage budding environmentalists to more closely consider the intersection between humans and nature.
Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

Tamales for Christmas

Review by Alice Cary

Tamales for Christmas transports readers right into Grandma’s kitchen, filled with warmth, comfort and creativity. . “Her kitchen is the heartbeat of our familia, loud and cramped and perfumed with delicious smells,” states the book’s narration. Grandma is based on author Stephen Briseño’s grandmother and her cooking skills, legendary among her numerous children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.  

With the holidays approaching, Grandma sells her tamales to make money for Christmas gifts, and the bright, saturated colors of Sonia Sánchez’s art immediately infuse a festive spirit into this big-hearted tale. Gray-haired Grandma always has a smile on her face, delighted as she enlists her entire family’s help with her project. Each spread oozes joyous commotion: pots steam on the stove, children run from room to room, Grandma’s busy hands layer the corn husks. Her work begins in the fall and lasts until Christmas, sometimes before dawn as well as at night. There’s an ongoing tally of the tamales she makes, starting with 15 dozen and ending at 1,000 dozen—12,000 tamales! Young readers will enjoy keeping track of the count, as well as the repeated refrain, “With masa in one hand, corn husks in the other,” used to describe the matriarch’s efforts. 

While heroic and quick to help out neighbors, Grandma is also human. As the months pass, she keeps making her specialty, even on Halloween night. She whips up a big feast for Thanksgiving—no tamales, however—and finally takes a well-earned break in early December, propping her feet up on the couch, “long enough to play a game, weave stories that get everyone laughing so hard our eyes tear up and our sides hurt.”

Briseño never loses sight of the holiday spirit. As the narrator says, “We finally enjoy the best present Grandma could have given us. Each other.” Both story and art shine in Tamales for Christmas, making readers feel as though they’re part of this big, loving family. 

Both story and art shine in the festive Tamales for Christmas, making readers feel as though they’re part of the book’s big, loving family.
Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

Thank You, Everything

Review by Alice Cary

Thank You, Everything is a unique picture book meant to be enjoyed over and over: It may easily become a favorite of preschoolers as well as young elementary students. One morning, a child wakes up, eats breakfast and receives a box containing a mysterious treasure map that launches a grand journey. Told with minimal prose, this intriguing tale opens up the world to readers in a multitude of fascinating ways, leading them on a grand adventure that lasts for months and involves travel by bicycle, train, bus, plane, raft and hot-air balloon.

Icinori—the design and illustration duo of Mayumi Otero and Raphael Urwiller—use a bold yet limited color palette that favors shades of turquoise and rust to create wildly stylized, dynamic illustrations. Their graphic designs are eye-catching throughout, whether portraying a glass of water, jungles of wild animals or winding pathways reminiscent of an M.C. Escher painting. The pacing is perfect, prompting readers to appreciate and take close-up looks at small details (a bath towel, a canteen, a caterpillar) while also admiring big, beautiful landscapes (a bustling city, a dark forest lit by a full moon, a mountainside strewn with boulders, a mysterious palace).

The narrative, translated from French by Emilie Robert Wong, is equally distinctive. Just as Goodnight Moon uses a repeated refrain, the explorer in this picture book, as the title suggests, thanks each and every thing encountered, starting simple (“Thank you, alarm clock) and getting progressively more intriguing (“Thank you, volcano”). This delicious blend of art and prose is both soothing and exciting, and will encourage young imaginations to soar. The mystery of the final destination—where a surprise awaits—will keep readers engaged from start to satisfying conclusion.

Thank You, Everything is a delightful book filled with wonder and gratitude, feelings that will linger with readers long after they close its cover.

Thank You, Everything is a delightful book filled with wonder and gratitude, feelings that will linger with readers long after they close its cover.
Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

Springtime Storks

Review by Alice Cary

One sunny day as she’s flying high above a patchwork of rolling farmland, a sudden blast changes Katerina the stork’s life forever. Felled by a hunter’s bullet, she lays helpless in a field, with her beloved mate Luka squawking in distress, until a farmer and his granddaughter scoop her up and carry her home.

At first, the duo tend to Katerina’s injured wing in their living room; later, they help her to a nest they’ve created inside their barn. All the while, Luka hovers outside, peeking through every window to reassure himself Katerina is safe—and ensure that Katerina knows he is, as ever, close by. But as winter looms, the storks know they soon must part. “He would not bear the coming cold,” Katerina explains. “I could not bear the flight. And so we said goodbye.”

In some romantic-yet-tragic tales, a couple’s story might end with that inevitable, wrenching separation. But in author Carol Joy Munro’s moving and hopeful debut Springtime Storks: A Migration Love Story, the storks’ separation transforms into a new beginning. Like the real-life birds that inspired Munro to write this story—a pair of Croatian storks named Malena and Klepetan, as detailed in the Author’s Note—Katerina and Luka adapt to their new reality and continue their love story in an unexpected but no less wonderful way. 

Chelsea O’Byrne’s beautiful, often fanciful, chalk pastel and colored pencil illustrations cleverly convey Katerina’s longing for Luka during their first year apart: At night, a stork-shaped silhouette swoops through the stars, and by day, as Katerina stretches her wings, Luka-shaped clouds encourage her from above. O’Byrne’s emotive art colorfully captures the storks’ joyful reunion and parental pride in their three chicks, as well as the beauty of nature present all year round. 

Budding naturalists will flock to Springtime Storks and its memorable celebration of loyalty and devotion, call to protect and conserve wildlife, and heartfelt reminder that love can prevail despite unanticipated challenges. 

Budding naturalists will flock to Springtime Storks and its memorable celebration of loyalty and devotion, call to protect and conserve wildlife, and heartfelt reminder that love can prevail despite unanticipated challenges.

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