Linda M. Castellitto

‘Long Tail’ author takes a free ride

Review by Linda M. Castellitto

When Chris Anderson wrote his first book, 2006’s The Long Tail, he made some of his research, ideas and conclusions available free to readers of his blog. He was rewarded with thoughtful feedback and questions, not to mention a ready-made audience for the book. His new book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price, takes a page from that experience via case studies with a foundation of free, plus a tour through the history and psychology of “freeconomics.” By “free,” Anderson doesn’t mean gift-with-purchase; he means no-strings-attached giveaways that reap rewards through sales of other products or services, or information that can be used to build brand and customer loyalty.

The author, whose day job is editor-in-chief of Wired (available free online), explores print advertising models and their new online counterparts and also describes strategies employed by pioneers and modern-day masters of free-centric business models. For example, in 1904, Jell-O created demand for its strange new product by giving away recipe booklets; in 2008, science fiction writer Neil Gaiman offered for four weeks a free download of American Gods. Obviously, Jell-O’s strategy worked, as did Gaiman’s: American Gods became a bestseller, and independent-bookstore sales of his other books increased by 40 percent.

Also valuable: a willingness to take risks in pursuit of capturing the attention of media-savvy, demanding consumers with Web-centric lives. Anderson writes, “If you’re controlling scarce resources (the prime-time broadcast schedule, say) you have to be discriminating. . . . But if you’re tapping into abundant resources, you can afford to take chances, since the cost of failure is so low.” Sections like “The 10 Principles of Abundance Thinking” and “50 Business Models Built on Free” will help readers grasp (and apply) freeconomic principles, while sidebars such as “Why do free bikes thrive in one city, but not another?” ask and answer intriguing questions. As with The Long Tail, Anderson has crafted an edifying, entertaining read—one that will be exciting and useful for readers looking for a fresh approach to business.

Linda M. Castellitto writes from North Carolina. 

When Chris Anderson wrote his first book, 2006’s The Long Tail, he made some of his research, ideas and conclusions available free to readers of his blog. He was rewarded with thoughtful feedback and questions, not to mention a ready-made audience for the book. His…

NonfictionMemoirFood & Drink

Taste

Review by Linda M. Castellitto

Like il timpano, the enormous layered pasta pie that starred in the 1996 movie Big Night alongside Tony Shalhoub and Stanley Tucci, the latter’s new memoir, Taste: My Life Through Food, is a gastronome’s delight. It has piquant surprises tucked inside and will leave readers both sated and wanting more.

When it comes to Tucci, fans always want more. The award-winning actor and bestselling cookbook author was considered a standout guy even before his swoony Negroni tutorial video went viral at the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown. He’s known for scene-stealing roles in movies like Spotlight and The Devil Wears Prada, as well as in foodie films like Big Night and Julie & Julia. 

And like Julia Child before him, Tucci’s chef skills are as impressive as his boundless passion for eating. Such is the life of a gourmand, which he revels in and reflects on in Taste. The author takes readers on a grand tasting tour, from his childhood in Westchester, New York, to his 1980s New York City acting debut to bigger roles in major movies made around the world, where he always dined with gusto.

Tucci is quite opinionated about food. Well-placed “fuck”s signify outraged incredulity (e.g., an adult “cutting their spaghetti!!!!!!!” or the travesty of turkey in an alfredo) and offer hits of hilarity throughout. There are also dramatic renderings of memorable conversations, like the gasp-inducing time a chef told him, “I make a stock . . . of cheese.” 

He shares serious stories as well, like the pain and grief he and his family felt when his late wife, Kathryn, died in 2009, and their joy and hope when he married Felicity Blunt in 2012. He writes, too, about his recent cancer diagnosis and treatment, a grueling experience during which he had a feeding tube and worried “things would never return to the way they were, when life was edible.”

Thankfully he is now cancer-free, and via the artfully crafted recipes Tucci includes in Taste, readers can join him in celebrating food and drink once again. Under his tutelage, they might even dare to construct and consume their own timpano.

Like the enormous layered pasta pie that starred in the 1996 movie Big Night, Stanley Tucci’s new memoir is a gastronome’s delight.
Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Playing the Cards You’re Dealt

Review by Linda M. Castellitto

It’s day one of fifth grade, and Anthony “Ant” Joplin is playing it cool. He surrenders to lots of photos and kisses from his parents but insists on walking to Gerald Elementary on his own, as befits the 10-year-old he has become.

He also wants to get there early so he can play with the deck of cards he has secreted away in his backpack. The annual Oak Grove spades tournament kicks off soon, and Ant really, really wants to win. He tried last year, but it didn’t go well (tears were involved), which is especially embarrassing since his older brother, their dad and their grandfather have all won in the past. So Ant is planning to practice hard, stay strong and stoic like his dad is always telling him to be, and uphold the Joplin men’s tradition. After all, as the warm and witty omniscient narrator observes, “bragging rights are more valuable than a packet of hot sauce at a fish fry.”

But in Varian Johnson’s winningly affecting and timely Playing the Cards You’re Dealt, Ant realizes that wanting something and trying hard to get it isn’t always enough—whether it’s winning a game, gaining approval from a parent or keeping everything the same.

Instead, in the suspenseful lead-up to the tournament, one thing after another goes awry. Ant’s spades partner, Jamal, gets grounded, and Ant’s father acts increasingly strange. He used to have a drinking problem but promised to stop, so that can’t be the reason, right? The arrival of new girl Shirley also throws Ant for a loop. Shirley is smart, won’t tolerate Jamal’s bullying and is comfortable talking about feelings. Ant is drawn to her not just because she’d be a great new spades partner but also because she’s an example of how to live life sans toxic masculinity. (He thinks she’s pretty cute, too.)

Readers will root for the good-hearted and charming Ant as he learns lessons about trust, teamwork and true strength, with some sweet hints of romance thrown in as well. They might learn a new skill, too, thanks to Johnson’s beginner-friendly explanations of the strategies—and fun!—of playing spades.

It’s day one of fifth grade, and Anthony “Ant” Joplin is playing it cool.

NonfictionHumorEssays

Please Don’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes

Review by Linda M. Castellitto

From dubbing Michael Keaton an “Eyebrow Zaddy” to writing a treatise on barrister wigs “looking like a sad-ass Halloween costume and smelling like Seabiscuit’s haystack,” Phoebe Robinson is as hilarious as ever in her third book, Please Don’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes, the first title from the comedian-podcaster-actor-host’s new Tiny Reparations Books imprint.

As in her previous memoirs-in-essay (You Can’t Touch My Hair and Everything’s Trash, but It’s Okay), not only is the bestselling author’s work super funny, it’s also enlightening and thought-provoking. Whether she’s offering advice to aspiring bosses, dismantling the “patriarchal narrative [that] every woman . . . wants the same things” (especially motherhood) or explaining why the #ITakeResponsibility initiative in the summer of 2020 enrages her (“celebrities heard but did not listen to what Black people wanted and raced to put together something so shoddy and tone-deaf”), Robinson’s voice is sure and strong.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Phoebe Robinson shares what she hopes to accomplish as the publisher of Tiny Reparations Books.

Her essay “Black Girl, Will Travel” is particularly moving. She explains that, while her parents are team “#NoNewFriendsOrAcquaintancesOrWorldlyExperiences,” one of the benefits of her career is the ability to see more of the world. It can be “downright terrifying and life-threatening to travel while Black”—and the lack of movies, books, shows and ads featuring Black people abroad certainly makes it seem as if travel isn’t for Black people. But visiting unfamiliar places has changed her, and she urges readers to remember “evolving can’t always happen when we’re confined to our area code.”

In “4C Girl Living in Anything but a 4C World: The Disrespect,” Robinson describes a journey of a different kind: Her own rocky path to feeling at home in and with her hair. She examines the historical and cultural influences that have shaped Black women’s feelings about their hair and details the racism, colorism and cruelty that persists to this day. It’s a memorable, meaningful reading experience dotted with hits of poetry, anger and revelation—as is Please Don’t Sit on My Bed in Your Outside Clothes as a whole. So slip into your inside cardigan (a la Mr. Rogers) and settle in for another rollicking and resonant Robinson read.

Not only are Phoebe Robinson’s essays super funny, they’re also enlightening and thought-provoking, dotted with hits of poetry, anger and revelation.
Mystery & SuspenseMystery

A Good Day for Chardonnay

Review by Linda M. Castellitto

Readers who enjoy murder mysteries with lots of intertwined plotlines, quirky characters and zany hijinks topped off with a healthy dose of horniness will be delighted by bestselling author Darynda Jones’ A Good Day for Chardonnay.

The small tourist town of Del Sol, New Mexico, is populated by unruly residents who are staunchly community-minded and happen to be, per Sheriff Sunshine Vicram’s hilariously lusty inner monologues, quite desirable. To wit, her chief deputy and BFF Quincy is “sexy feet, AF inches” tall. And her lifelong crush, local-badboy-turned-wealthy-distillery-owner Levi Ravinder? Well, he and his crime-aficionado family look “as though [they were] chiseled by the gods . . . [with] lean, solid bodies and razor-sharp jawlines.”

But while Sunshine is often mightily distracted by eye candy, she’s also dedicated to—and excellent at—her job. She’s been back in town for four months after being away for 15 years, and she has multiple mysteries to solve. The newest include a bar fight gone terribly wrong; resurfaced cold cases with ties to her own traumatic past; and a raft of false confessions. On top of that, the mayor is pressuring her to figure out if the Dangerous Daughters secret society (rumored to have run the town for decades) is real or just local legend.

And then there’s Sunshine’s daughter Auri, whom fans met in series kickoff A Bad Day for Sunshine. The smart, reckless teenager is determined to solve crimes just like her mom, and she pursues a sweet old lady who might be a serial killer. Auri is also Sunshine’s personal mystery: at 17, the sheriff was abducted by Levi’s uncle and held captive for five days, after which she emerged pregnant and with severe memory loss.

Will Levi’s family finally answer Sunshine’s questions about her abduction? Can she catch the marauding raccoon that’s terrorizing the town? How are the cold cases tied to these complex new crimes? With her trademark warmth and humor, Jones answers some of these questions and raises even more, nicely teeing up the next installment in Sunshine’s complicated, sexy and highly entertaining life story.

Readers who like their murder mysteries to have lots of intertwined plotlines, quirky characters and zany hijinks topped off with a healthy dose of horniness will be delighted by bestselling author Darynda Jones’ A Good Day for Chardonnay.

NonfictionMemoir

Blind Man’s Bluff

Review by Linda M. Castellitto

When he was 16, James Tate Hill’s eyesight changed forever. A diagnosis of Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy put a name to what he was experiencing as his vision faded: “Picture a kaleidoscope . . . a time-lapsed photograph of a distant galaxy. . . . Imagine a movie filmed with only extras, a meal cooked using nothing but herbs and a dash of salt, a sentence constructed of only metaphors.”

In his disarmingly honest and funny memoir, Blind Man’s Bluff, Hill—a writing instructor, audiobooks columnist, editor and author of academic-satire-murder-mystery Academy Gothic (2015)—shares his journey from denial to acceptance, from pretending to be fully sighted to acknowledging the truth he worked so hard to hide.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: James Tate Hill shares how his literary career helped him take big emotional leaps toward self-acceptance.

Hill writes movingly of the internalized shame and stigma that had such a strong hold on him for some 15 years, sharing both the pain of loneliness and isolation (much of it self-imposed) and the clever strategies he employed in his efforts to pass for sighted. Misdirects included feigning eye contact, asking restaurant waitstaff for recommendations rather than attempting to read a menu and, when he began teaching college classes, telling students to go ahead and speak without first raising their hands.

The author is adept at humor in Blind Man’s Bluff—such as when he writes, “In New York City, most people didn’t drive. I wasn’t blind; I was a New Yorker.”—and he also deploys finely tuned, often deliciously slow-building suspense. (Can he cross a busy street unharmed? Is it possible to walk at graduation without revealing the truth? Will he find love again after his divorce?)

Readers will root for Hill as he travels the long, rocky road from self-flagellation to self-confidence, developing an affection for 1980s pop culture along the way. They’ll also likely find themselves wishing he’d be kinder to himself—and feeling relieved and optimistic when, at last, he is.

Blind Man’s Bluff is an inspiring, often incredible story that reminds us of the strength that can come from vulnerability, from opening ourselves to warts-and-all human connection. As Hill writes, “Wisdom, it turns out, is acknowledging where I cannot go without help.”

In his disarmingly honest and funny memoir, James Tate Hill shares his journey from pretending to be fully sighted to acknowledging and embracing his blindness.
Mystery & SuspenseMystery

The Night Hawks

Review by Linda M. Castellitto

History, mystery and legend collide in The Night Hawks, the atmospheric and intense 13th entry in British author Elly Griffiths’ bestselling series starring forensic archaeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway.

Ruth has recently returned to the Norfolk fens, leaving behind a job at Cambridge University as well as her ex-boyfriend Frank Barker. She’s now head of archaeology at the University of North Norfolk, complete with a lovely large office and employee David Brown, who seems to love dismissing her authority almost as much as he loves going on digs. Another constant presence at the digs are the Night Hawks, a group of licensed metal detectorists who are excited at the prospect of buried treasure at nearby Blakeney Point beach. Alas, while the eventual discovery they make there is notable, it’s not in the way they’d hoped. Certainly, a hoard of Bronze Age artifacts is an excellent find, especially with a very old skeleton in their midst—but nearby, they also find the much more recent corpse of a man with a tattoo that resembles the mythical Norfolk Sea Serpent.

As special advisor to the local police, Ruth is called to the scene by Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson, who is the father of her 10-year-old daughter, Kate. She and the police have just begun to unravel the bodies’ and artifacts’ origins when there is another gruesome discovery: the presumed murder-suicide of a married couple at a remote farmhouse that locals believe is haunted by the Black Shuck, a harbinger of death in the form of a huge black dog with frightening red eyes. Even stranger, the Night Hawks discovered this tragedy as well, and the investigators begin to wonder if the group, rather than simply stumbling across crimes, is somehow involved in them.

Like the seaweed that lays in messy heaps on the rocky Norfolk beach, the interplay among Griffiths’ appealingly varied characters becomes ever more tangled as the story progresses, making for an intriguing mix of secrets, loyalties and ulterior motives. The Night Hawks will delight longtime fans and new readers alike with its spooky-beautiful setting, layered mysteries and authentically complex relationships.

History, mystery and legend collide in The Night Hawks, the atmospheric and intense 13th entry in British author Elly Griffiths’ bestselling series starring forensic archaeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway.

Mystery & SuspenseSuspense

Such a Quiet Place

Review by Linda M. Castellitto

It’s not uncommon for neighbors or co-workers to consider themselves family, and in bestselling author Megan Miranda’s Such a Quiet Place, the residents of Hollow’s Edge feel that pressure from both sides. A picturesque community of close-set homes, Hollow’s Edge is mainly populated by employees of the nearby College of Lake Hollow. But something malevolent lurks beneath the community’s pretty surface, and close bonds are frayed, even broken, in the wake of a shocking murder.

It’s been 18 months since Brandon and Fiona Truett were found dead, and 14 months since Ruby Fletcher was convicted of the crime. The community heaved a collective sigh of relief when she began her 20-year prison sentence, but as the book opens, they’re gasping in righteous horror. Ruby’s conviction was overturned, and she’s back in Hollow’s Edge, charismatic as ever and with a vengeful gleam in her eye.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Why Megan Miranda is always drawn to dark, deep woods.

After all, despite the neighborhood watch, security cameras and homeowners association message board, somebody killed the Truetts. The neighbors, convinced it was Ruby, testified against her. Only her housemate, narrator Harper Nash, seems open to the possibility that it wasn’t Ruby—and even she’s not 100% sure. But what if Ruby really didn’t do it? Who among them is the actual killer? The residents of Hollow’s Edge face a highly disturbing and dangerous state of affairs, no matter how you look at it.

Playing with perspective is a Miranda specialty, and she does so spectacularly in Such a Quiet Place, exploring how speculation can transform from idle entertainment to actual condemnation. She also touches on a favored theme of manipulative friendships, as Harper’s persistent self-doubt and empathetic nature leave her vulnerable, coloring her worldview and behavior toward Ruby. But Harper is determined to suss out the truth, and readers will enjoy riding along as she tempts fate via some daring amateur sleuthing around the woods, lake and streets of Hollow’s Edge.

Miranda has created a claustrophobic and suspenseful whodunit—a pressure cooker brimming with a host of plausible suspects, toxic HOA groupthink and plenty of finger-pointing among supposed friends—that ponders the eternal question of how well we really know those closest to us.

This claustrophobic, suspenseful whodunit ponders the eternal question of how well we really know those closest to us.

YA FictionYA

The Coming Storm

Review by Linda M. Castellitto

For more than a century, thanks to L.M. Montgomery’s series that began with Anne of Green Gables, readers have associated Canada’s Prince Edward Island (PEI) with a spirited redhead named Anne Shirley. First-time author Regina M. Hansen stakes her own PEI literary claim via another ginger-haired girl, Beatrice MacNeill, known as “Beet.” Like Anne, she’s determined and sharp-witted. Unlike Anne, she discovers one fateful night in 1949 that she can see ghosts. 

It’s the specter of Beet’s beloved older cousin Gerry who comes to her, soaking wet and playing an eerie tune on his fiddle. Beet realizes he must have died at sea and that he’ll never meet his son, Joseph, born that very night. Alas, this is not the last time Beet experiences deep sorrow in Hansen’s historical fantasy, The Coming Storm. It’s also not the last time something strange happens in her world, as ancient folklore and workaday reality collide.

The sea and its unknowable allure are central to Hansen’s story, as is PEI itself. The author’s descriptions of the island’s wet sands, foggy nights and dramatic cliffs create a spooky atmosphere that elicits a delicious sense of creeping dread. This dread takes hold of Beet after the arrival of Marina Shaw, who claims to be a cousin of Gerry’s and expresses her outrageous intent to take little Joseph back to Boston with her. 

Beet can’t understand why Marina remains so unsettlingly serene in the wake of any objections. And what about the unearthly music she keeps hearing riding on the breeze? Certainly the sea stirs up strange winds, but this feels . . . different. 

Hansen moves the story back and forth in time, skillfully introducing characters who share their own bizarre sea stories with Beet. As the days and pages pass, the danger to Joseph grows, and a supernatural threat looms over Beet’s island home, all of which contribute to the slowly building suspense. The Coming Storm is an intriguing, often thrilling tribute to the bonds of love and friendship. It’s also an eloquent ode to the wild beauty of PEI and a testament to the power of facing what confounds us.

First-time author Regina M. Hansen stakes her own Prince Edward Island literary claim via another ginger-haired girl, Beatrice MacNeill, known as “Beet.” Like Anne, she’s determined and sharp-witted. Unlike Anne, she discovers one fateful night in 1949 that she can see ghosts. 

NonfictionHumorEssays

The Wreckage of My Presence

Review by Linda M. Castellitto

Casey Wilson’s The Wreckage of My Presence kicks off with an essay that zigzags from archly funny to matter-of-fact to poignant and back again, nicely setting the tone for the 20 essays that follow. In “Bed Person,” Wilson explains that she “wants to recline at all times,” whether in Pilates class, at parties or in a movie theater. She and her husband routinely eat dinner in bed, and baths are a regular part of her routine. “I am simply a person of comfort and excess,” Wilson writes, which she learned from her parents, an intelligent and eccentric duo prone to displaying big emotions in ways that made her feel humiliated or exhilarated, sometimes simultaneously.

It was devastating when Wilson’s beloved mother died suddenly at 54, not least of all because her passing came at a time of great professional and personal change for Wilson, who’d just left “Saturday Night Live” and was newly cast in the show “Happy Endings.” Overwhelmed, she found solace in watching “The Real Housewives” of various cities. The reality TV franchise became an emotional and career-augmenting lifeline: Wilson's obsession helped her to reckon with her grief, and she now co-hosts the beloved Housewives podcast “Bitch Sesh.”

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Summer reading 2021: 9 books to soak in this season

Fans who want more deets about “Happy Endings” will enjoy Wilson’s behind-the-scenes tidbits about the show and its stars. She also provides a list of amusingly pointed don’ts in “People Don’t Know How to Act” (e.g., “don’t not know if you aren’t funny”), details her fascination with Scientology in “Flyentology” and shares a tear-jerkingly lovely Louie Anderson story in “Cool Girl.”

Throughout, Wilson is forthright about everything from her romantic regrets to her experiences with depression and anxiety. She’s successful in many arenas (screenwriting, comedy, movies, TV, podcasting) but views herself as a work in progress, whether as a mother of two, wife, colleague or friend. Her voice in The Wreckage of My Presence is funny and bold, occasionally manic or melancholy, and always hilarious and heartfelt. Fans will turn the last page wanting more.

The Wreckage of My Presence is funny and bold, occasionally manic or melancholy, and always hilarious and heartfelt. Fans will turn the last page wanting more.
NonfictionAnimals

Super Fly

Review by Linda M. Castellitto

Without flies, there would be no chocolate. Birds, bees and butterflies get all the pollination press, but according to biologist and ethologist Jonathan Balcombe, flies are the unsung heroes of the pollen-transfer game. The cacao tree is “one of the most devilishly difficult plants to pollinate,” and teeny-tiny midges are the only creatures that can accomplish the task. Flies are important to lots of other foods, too, from mangoes to coriander to carrots.

These pollination revelations are just a few among many fascinating facts in the edifying and entertaining Super Fly: The Unexpected Lives of the World’s Most Successful Insects. Balcombe makes a convincing argument that yes, flies can be annoying—and their fondness for the “putrid flesh of a rotting carcass” is certainly disgusting—but they’re also misunderstood.

Balcombe hopes readers will consider “the range of critical beneficial services [flies] perform, including pollination, waste removal, natural pest control, and being a critical food source for scores of other animals.” From wound-healing maggots to flies that helped overturn wrongful convictions, there’s much to learn about the heroism of these tiny creatures.

The author, who’s written four previous popular science books (including the 2016 bestseller What a Fish Knows), has done impressively extensive research for Super Fly, interviewing experts and scrutinizing studies to make his case for a more charitable view of the order Diptera. His insatiable curiosity and his gift for making the esoteric understandable are on full display—in addition to his wry sense of humor. The occasion of his body being temporarily invaded by African skin maggots is handled with resigned aplomb; he also quips that “fly sex comes in 50 shades of brown.”

But Balcombe is quite serious about flies’ impact on humanity and the Earth, urging more attention to flies' massive evolutionary success. (One expert “estimates there are about 17 million flies for every human.”) He asks, “How closely, then, are flies’ fates enmeshed with our own?” For those who wish to learn the answer, Super Fly is an excellent and compelling start.

From wound-healing maggots to flies that helped overturn wrongful convictions, there’s much to learn about the heroism of these tiny creatures.
YA FictionYA

From Little Tokyo, With Love

Review by Linda M. Castellitto

Rika Rakuyama loves Little Tokyo, from its ramen shops and beautiful old trees to the neon signs that cast “a wild rainbow glow” upon the street. Her appreciation for her Los Angeles neighborhood, which is marvelously rendered in Sarah Kuhn’s From Little Tokyo, With Love, is deep and abiding—even though Rika often feels unwelcome there.

Community elders critique her hair (reddish and wavy), her face (freckled) and her parentage (her dad wasn’t Japanese). A classmate sneeringly calls her “half-breed,” while neighbors say she’s a “mistake” because her mother had her at 15 before dying in childbirth. Judo training helps Rika channel her understandable anger, and she’s looking forward to participating in a martial arts demonstration at the Nikkei Week festival. Her enthusiasm for fighting earns eye rolls from her cousins: Belle, the reigning Nikkei Week Queen, and Aurora, a junior princess. Though her cousins are enchanted by fairy tales, Rika is certain that happy endings aren’t real.

Everything changes in a chaotic moment when the parade’s grand marshal, a movie star named Grace Kimura, locks eyes with Rika during the festivities, leaps out of her parade vehicle, runs toward the convertible Rika’s driving, whispers Rika’s name and then disappears into the crowd. In the aftermath, Rika discovers a photo of young Grace that points to a shocking secret. Grace’s co-star Henry offers to help track Grace down, and together he and Rika embark on an epic and entertaining quest across LA, falling for each other along the way. Could Rika have her own happy ending after all?

The concept of fairy tales swirls through Kuhn’s novel like a refrain. Initially, it’s a taunt other characters aim at Rika, a reminder of everything she can’t have, but it becomes a quiet song of possibility that underlies her journey to self-acceptance. Her emotional maturation is realistic and moving, while her forays into romance are charming and often funny. (Henry’s biceps are apparently quite distracting.)

From Little Tokyo, With Love is a hopeful testament to all we can gain by opening ourselves to people outside our immediate circle. We can find kindred spirits, learn to stand up for ourselves and create our own fairy tales—no princesses required.

Rika Rakuyama loves Little Tokyo, from its ramen shops and beautiful old trees to the neon signs that cast “a wild rainbow glow” upon the street. Her appreciation for her Los Angeles neighborhood, which is marvelously rendered in Sarah Kuhn’s From Little Tokyo, With Love, is deep and abiding—even though Rika often feels unwelcome there.

Children's & YAPicture Book

The Chickentown Mystery

Review by Linda M. Castellitto

Victoria Peckham, Annie Yolkley, Rosie Van der Beak, Pearl S. Cluck: All of these delightful monikers have two things in common. They are all, of course, pun-derful plays on chicken-ness, but they are also all past winners of the Golden Feather Award for Chickentown’s Best Hen of the Year.

That’s a very big deal in Chickentown, a fabulously feather-strewn village created by Spanish author-illustrator Albert Arrayás as the backdrop for his fantastical and funny The Chickentown Mystery. Rather than being relegated to backyard coops, Chickentown’s hens live with people in their houses. They play checkers, take luxurious bubble baths and sleep snugly in their beds. Nigella “Minnie” Cooper even appears to drive her very own car.

Arrayás captures Chickentown and its denizens in delicate pencil and watercolor illustrations filled with pinks and oranges that convey a sense of warmth and whimsy. Indigo blues introduce an air of mystery when—what the cluck?—hens start to go missing mere days before this year’s Golden Feather competition. Will Mayor Cockscomb’s search parties locate the missing chickens? Or will local witch Miss Henrietta and her hen, Lucinda, need to assist?

Arrayás sprinkles clues throughout, transforming tastefully decorated bedrooms into crime scenes for budding forensic investigators. Once the gasp-inducing finale reveals the perpetrator and readers recover from their upended expectations, they’ll rush right back to the beginning to scrutinize the book’s pages anew.

While Arrayás’ themes are clear—doing the right thing is rewarded, and we shouldn’t believe everything we see—he leaves plenty of room for imagination as well. His art offers tantalizing hints about the enigmatic chickens’ inner lives, and his story is a thought-provoking blend of mystery, comedy and magic that will have readers looking at their feathered friends with heightened appreciation and a healthy dose of speculation.

Victoria Peckham, Annie Yolkley, Rosie Van der Beak, Pearl S. Cluck: All of these delightful monikers have two things in common. They are all, of course, pun-derful plays on chicken-ness, but they are also all past winners of the Golden Feather Award for Chickentown’s Best Hen of the Year.

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