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NonfictionNature

A walk in the woods

Feature by Alice Cary

We don’t just live on this planet; we’re part of it. These books help foster a stronger relationship with the living world around us.

In 1851, Henry David Thoreau wrote that he came to the woods “as a hungry man to a crust of bread.” More than 150 years later, many of us continue to crave the forest. These four books provide a variety of fun ways to immerse yourself in the natural world.

If you’re searching for a perfect gift book with broad appeal, 100 Things to Do in a Forest by Jennifer Davis may be the answer. Inside are 100 creative ways to spice up your woodsy wanderings, brought to life with colorful illustrations by Eleanor Taylor. Creative types will appreciate recipes for hedgerow jam and campfire bread. Kids of all ages will love making a grass whistle. Try a dice-rolling walk or (yikes!) cowpat Frisbee—although Davis assures readers that cow “poo is not smelly, dirty or harmful.” There are suggestions for woodland yoga, meditating or local gifting, such as leaving a book in a tree for someone else to find. Pair 100 Things to Do in a Forest with a local trail guide, and keep an outdoor lover busy for many happy months.

“There has always been singing in dark times—and wonder is needed now more than ever.”

America's National Historic TrailsCongress created the National Trails System in 1968, and since then it has designated 19 National Historic Trails that commemorate and protect routes of historic significance, special places that allow hikers to experience firsthand “the intersection of story and landscape,” as Karen Berger explains in America’s National Historic Trails: In the Footsteps of History. Some trails are coastal routes, while others cross the inland landscape, and they range in length from 54 to 5,000 miles. Stretching across time and weaving throughout the nation’s history, they include the East Coast’s Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, the Lewis and Clark Trail, the Oregon Trail, Alaska’s Iditarod Trail, Hawaii’s Ala Kahakai Trail and many more.

Each entry contains stunning photographs by Bart Smith and a detailed discussion of the history and geography of the route, as well as a list of specific historic sites, such as museums and visitors’ centers, along the way. Whether you’re a history buff, an outdoor enthusiast or both, America’s National Historic Trails offers a wealth of touring possibilities. I’m already making a list.

Backyard Birdwatcher's BibleWhen a great horned owl perched on my deck railing one winter afternoon, it felt like a mysterious, magical and majestic visitor had arrived. Keep a copy of The Backyard Birdwatcher’s Bible close at hand, and you’ll be more than ready to identify your own winged guests. Compiled by an impressive team of experts, the book contains a lengthy identification guide with corresponding photos. A discussion of “Birdwatching for Beginners” explains that migration pathways are inherited. Astonishingly, a common cuckoo chick raised by a foster parent can migrate months after its genetic parents have left and still find its way to Africa.

The “Birds in Art” section is especially fascinating, showcasing a variety of artists and their work. Some of their stories will astound you, such as English photographer Eric Hosking, who was struck by a tawny owl and lost sight in one eye. Undeterred from his passion, he went on to take “the first ever flash photograph—ironically, of an owl with its prey.”

There are also helpful tips on how to attract birds, with step-by-step instructions for building a nest box. Grab a pair of binoculars, and you’ll be all set.

The Lost SpellsA follow-up to the bestselling The Lost Words, The Lost Spells is a combination of Robert MacFarlane’s acrostics (poems in which each line begins with a letter to spell out a word) and Jackie Morris’ illustrations of the natural world. Suitable for adults as well as younger readers, the book celebrates a range of flora and fauna, including a red fox, goldfinch, oak tree and snow hare. Calling this “a book of spells to be spoken aloud,” nature writer MacFarlane (Underland) writes, “Loss is the tune of our age, hard to miss and hard to bear. Creatures, places and words disappear, day after day, year on year. But there has always been singing in dark times—and wonder is needed now more than ever.”

This is a decidedly heartfelt volume, with accessible poems that somehow feel sacred. Morris’ hauntingly beautiful watercolors are perfectly matched to the spirit of the text. Should you find yourself unable to go outside, cozying up with The Lost Spells is the next best thing.

We don’t just live on this planet; we’re part of it. These books help foster a stronger relationship with the living world around us.
NonfictionAudioSocial ScienceNatureMemoirBiography

Audiobooks: Don’t know what to listen to next? We’ve got some ideas

Feature by bookpagedev

Calling all runners, crafters, road warriors and vigorous house-cleaners: If you’re in need of a new audiobook, read on for some of the best new nonfiction productions. All true stories, all extraordinary listens.

All Creatures Great and Small (15.5 hours)

It’s been more than 50 years since James Herriot’s beloved stories were published, stealing hearts with his humorous tales about the 1930s Yorkshire Dales, where he served the memorable townsfolk as a young country veterinarian. This January, fans will settle in for PBS Masterpiece’s adaptation of the series, but this tie-in, read by star Nicholas Ralph, will transport you while you wait. Is there anything better than cozy stories told in a Scottish accent? Don’t be surprised if, while walking your dog, for example, you’re stopped by a stranger across the street who asks what you’re listening to because you just look so dang happy.

Be Water, My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee (7.5 hours)

Shannon Lee, daughter of kung fu master Bruce Lee, shares the stories behind her father’s guiding philosophy to “be water,” to accept oneself rather than try to go against one’s nature. As Lee explains, water is “soft yet strong, natural yet able to be directed, detached yet powerful, and above all, essential to life.” Lee’s book entertains as it inspires, and she sounds like an old pro as its narrator, confidently inviting us to join in this philosophy of self-acceptance.

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (14.5 hours)

Robin Miles narrated Isabel Wilkerson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Warmth of Other Suns, and she delivers another smooth, energetic performance for Caste, Wilkerson’s latest masterpiece. In Caste, Wilkerson spins years of research into an accessible yet profound case for an unacknowledged caste system within the United States. More than race, more than class, Wilkerson believes that the language of caste best describes the hierarchy of power in our country, and she thoroughly demonstrates this claim through insights about the similar caste systems in India and Nazi Germany and through personable anecdotes from her own personal experience. These stories, brought to life by Miles’ trademark clarity, warmth and gravitas, provide readers with a new lens on the world that, once peered through, will change the way they see things forever.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Discover more of our most highly recommended audiobooks.

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X (18 hours)

For a listener seeking a full immersion in history, we recommend you download this monumental, National Book Award-winning biography from Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Les Payne, a 30-year project completed after Payne’s death by his daughter, Tamara Payne. This book embroiders the full canvas surrounding the story of Malcolm X, providing a total sense of context, complete with corrected historical records and rewind-that-back-and-listen-again revelations. Award-winning narrator Dion Graham is one of the finest in the business, and he commands your attention, warmly but firmly demanding, Listen up—this is the story of Macolm X like you’ve never heard before.

I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are (5 hours)

Funny woman and TV genius Rachel Bloom (you know her from “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”) narrates her own memoir about awkwardness and fame, and it’s everything you could hope for. Her writing runneth over with personality, and her audiobook nearly explodes with it. She does hilarious voices, she makes audio-related asides to translate a text-only quip, and she cannonballs through her most irreverent jokes with such glee such that you have no choice but to laugh till it hurts.

Memorial Drive (5 hours)

Former U.S. poet laureate Natasha Trethewey narrates her debut memoir, Memorial Drive, with both steady skill and heart-wrenching tenderness. As a poet, she understands the subtle power of phrasing, emphasis and a well-timed pause. Yet as she tells the story of her mother’s murder by Trethewey’s ex-stepfather when Trethewey was 19, there is an understandable rawness just below the surface. Her voice catches with deep emotion as she recounts the story of why it took her 35 years to turn this harrowing story of fear, loneliness and loss into a memoir. The content is tragic, but Trethewey’s lingering Mississippi inflection is soothing as she lays out her tale, and listeners will feel totally at ease as they tune in to hear a master at work.

Notes on a Silencing (11 hours)

How do you talk about something that you’ve been forced to stay silent about? Lacy Crawford does the seemingly impossible in her memoir: She tells the full story of her rape by two boys while at a New England boarding school, and then narrates it for the audiobook. Her clear voice provides her younger self with a level of truth that has too long been withheld and offers moments of levity amid the darkness. The younger Lacy is likable and bold as she navigates her trauma and the cruelty of her school. This memoir is a masterful depiction of how to tell a story, especially the hardest one you could ever think to write.

★ Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America (12 hours)

The history of immigration in America gets a personal and, through author Maria Hinojosa’s narration, supremely entertaining and moving treatment in this part memoir, part work of social science. Hinojosa’s family immigrated to the United States from Mexico when she was an infant, and she tangles her history with the nation’s to offer one of the finest audiobooks of the year.

Hinojosa is the anchor and executive producer of "Latino USA" on NPR, and she knows how to spin a story, boldly capturing moments of triumph and pain, and performing voices that conjure the unexpected strength of her mother, that mock the unjust or the racist and that transport the listener to each and every event she recounts here. She understands exactly what America offers and how it has failed immigrants, and she packages the story in journalistic objectivity and an arresting, honest performance.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Maria Hinojosa reveals what it was like to narrate her memoir: “I am the character, she is me!”

Vesper Flights (10.5 hours)

Helen Macdonald’s collection of nature essays offers a balance of comfort and clear-eyed concern, Some of the essays are short and sweet (a vignette on her father and a goat is laughably brief), but her pieces that connect her love of nature to the wider world are when this book really shines. She draws threads between migraines and climate change, between nostalgia for the natural world and Brexit, and between flocks of birds and our own relationship to the changing environment. With deep affection and a frank yet gentle tone, she shares her wide knowledge and unique perspective like the gifts that they are.

Where I Come From: Stories From the Deep South (7.5 hours)

For Southern listeners, to hear Rick Bragg narrate his own missives from the Deep South is to be transported to a porch on a summer evening. This collection combines some of his finest columns from Southern Living and Garden & Gun, in which he explores down-home topics such as Tupperware, trucks and the importance of a good knife. There’s nothing quite so calming as a rhythmic Southern drawl, capturing the most romantic bits of a rural life.

Calling all runners, crafters, road warriors and vigorous house-cleaners: If you’re in need of a new audiobook, read on for some of the best new nonfiction productions. All true stories, all extraordinary listens.
NonfictionFood & DrinkCrafts, Hobbies & HomeCookbooksBody, Mind & Spirit

Books that are good enough to eat

Feature by Becky Libourel Diamond

Many gourmands are restless from hunkering down these past several months, and the added cold weather is enough to make anyone a bit stir-crazy. But never fear—we’ve rounded up five books that are sure to warm hearts as well as ovens.

Bread Therapy

Bread Therapy: The Mindful Art of Baking Bread couldn’t have come at a better time. Ever since quarantine renewed people’s interest in making home-cooked food for themselves and their loved ones, baking supplies have been flying off the shelves. Yeast is a rare and precious commodity. Sourdough starters are the stars of Instagram. As a university counselor, Pauline Beaumont understands the therapeutic qualities of baking, which takes people out of their comfort zones and allows them to make mistakes. This book’s seven chapters highlight these ideals, intertwining words of wisdom with some interesting bread recipes, such as spinach flatbread and dill and beet bread. As much a self-help book as a cookbook, Bread Therapy is a welcome instructional guide to practicing self-acceptance, staying grounded and making something delicious.

A Field Guide to Cheese 

And what better to top your bread with than cheese? A Field Guide to Cheese: How to Select, Enjoy, and Pair the World’s Best Cheeses is a cheese lover’s dream, educating aficionados through gorgeous pictures and fun, colorful graphics. Cheese expert and journalist Tristan Sicard lays out the book nicely, starting off with “A Quick Chronology of Cheese” that spans from 5000 B.C. to the present day. This is followed by a diagram of dairy breeds—not only cow but also goat, sheep and even buffalo. The 11 families of cheese are also outlined, including information about color, texture, recommended serving tools and emblematic varieties. Finally, each cheese gets its own entry, with over 400 individual profiles in all, including the dairy breed, region of origin, an enticing illustration and a brief description. Further information is given about pairing, preparing and serving cheese, and there’s even a section about how to properly wrap cheese for storage. 

Very Merry Cocktails

Although cheese is usually paired with wine, a creative connoisseur might enjoy a slice with some of the fun drinks featured in Very Merry Cocktails: 50+ Festive Drinks for the Holiday Season. Food writer Jessica Strand (Cooking for Two) provides several helpful cocktail hints, including a list of useful bar tools (stocking stuffer ideas, anyone?), syrup and garnish recipes and tips on how to rim a glass with sugar or salt. Five chapters of holiday cocktail recipes follow, including champagne sippers, holiday party punches and nonalcoholic libations. The recipes are innovative and easy to follow, such as Christmas in July, a tropical-inspired drink featuring crème de coconut, pineapple juice and rum for “when you’re craving warm summer days.” There are also festive twists on old favorites, such as the Moscow Reindeer, a riff on the gingery Moscow Mule. All are complemented by stylish midcentury-inspired photos that capture the season’s celebratory sparkle. 

Hungry Games

Perhaps the most unique spin on a cookbook for this holiday season is Hungry Games: A Delicious Book of Recipe Repairs, Word Searches & Crosswords for the Food Lover, essentially a cookbook of 50 recipes that each contain 10 mistakes for the reader to find. These “puzzles” are ranked in difficulty from easy (such as an apple crumble pie that instructs the baker to toss the apples with pears) to hard (a peach galette that says to mix water with red wine vinegar to make the dough, when it should actually be white distilled vinegar). Luckily there’s an answer key to check your culinary skill, as well as lots of food-themed crosswords and word searches. The result is an unusual and fun gift for the foodie who has everything.

The Best American Food Writing 2020

The 25 short essays in The Best American Food Writing 2020 were actually written in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, but that doesn’t make them any less thoughtful or relevant. This year’s editor, the chef and author J. Kenji López-Alt (The Food Lab), writes that although he’s afraid “the book will read like a time capsule,” the pieces he’s selected are still significant to the future of food writing. Topics from substance abuse in restaurant kitchens and the burgeoning global market for baby food, to Jamie Oliver’s eccentric stardom and how spring water is bottled are tackled with humor and consequence, as well as a bit of history mixed in to provide a touchstone between the past and present. All of these wide-ranging pieces were originally published in sources typically known for provocative food writing, such as Eater, the New York Times and the Washington Post. Having them all in one place is a boon for the Epicurean reader.

If you’re looking for the perfect holiday gift for the gastronome in your life, these books will keep them engaged long after the table’s been cleared.

Each of these poetry books is a balm—for the soul and for the world

Feature by Freya Sachs

We’ve all experienced sudden changes this year. When focusing is difficult and time is moving in strange ways, poetry can be a perfect companion, offering a window into someone else’s world or reflecting your own. For readers looking to make sense of our present moment, there are no better gifts than these poetry collections.

Make Me Rain

Make Me Rain is a marvel of scale—global and local, private and political—as Nikki Giovanni invites us into her thoughts and experiences. Whether grieving personal losses or finding clever ways of expressing a shared sadness, her voice is powerful. With tributes to Toni Morrison and references to Beyonce, Barack Obama and many more, public figures become familiar ones, and individual memory blends with collective. Giovanni’s deceptively simple language contrasts with complex, at times unanswerable questions. This celebration of a strong, compassionate voice in American poetry is a great gift for any reader who needs a deep breath after watching the news.

How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons)

While better known for her novels and memoir, Barbara Kingsolver also brings her gifts of observation and reflection to her latest book of poems, How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons). The book opens with a series of how-tos (“How to Have a Child,” “How to Cure Sweet Potatoes”) and from there shifts to memory and elegy, long poems and explorations of love and loss. My favorite section is the last, “The Nature of Objects,” in which Kingsolver shows how things work, making meaning of ephemera and taking the reader on “the risky road yes taken / to desire, escape.” For a reader wanting to escape, to fly while grounded, this book is a map that offers surprise and delight.

Coming to Age

Aging and the passing of time have always been central concerns of poetry, as we witness in Coming to Age, edited by Carolyn Hopley and Mary Ann Hoberman. This anthology gathers known and beloved voices—from Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Bishop and W.B. Yeats to Louise Gluck, Wendell Berry, Kay Ryan and Li-Young Lee—and places them in conversation, as each poem adds a new dimension to the experience of growing older. The sections move from the body to beyond it, leaving space for the particular, even as universal, shared connections are built.

When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through

Native American poetry is American poetry, and it’s anthologized for the first time in the essential When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through, edited by current U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. The collection is organized both geographically and chronologically, and as we read through each region, we see the landscape emerge, a sense of place made clearer and more complicated by the range of voices present, from early lyricists to some of today’s key poets, including Natalie Diaz and Tommy Pico. It is impossible to make sense of American literature without centering and highlighting Native voices. What a gift for this book to be in the world, an invitation for so much discovery.

When focusing is difficult and time is moving in strange ways, poetry can be a perfect companion, offering a window into someone else’s world or reflecting your own. For readers looking to make sense of our present moment, there are no better gifts than these poetry collections.
NonfictionMemoirBody, Mind & Spirit

Gifts for gentle growth

Feature by Susannah Felts

In this strange and difficult year, we’ve all learned how to seek out and find silver linings. Here’s one: At a moment when we could all use a gift that says “Everything is going to be OK,” these five books thoughtfully send that message.

Get Out of My Head

Sized perfectly for a stocking or a shoulder bag, Meredith Arthur’s Get Out of My Head is like a soothing visit with a therapist who’s there to take your call at any time. This one is for the overthinkers, those of us who let our thoughts take us down the wrong rabbit holes. People can experience physical symptoms like headaches, dizziness, shortness of breath and nausea as a result of stress and anxiety. The challenge, which this little book gently helps us meet, is to recognize the signals of a stress-based physical reaction, then deploy specific moves like visualization, breathing techniques and other thought and sensory controls. Maybe lasting calm is more difficult to achieve, but trust me, this book has the right idea. Leah Rosenberg’s cheerful illustrations are the perfect accompaniment to this digestible and portable guide.

The Panic Button Book

Taking a different but no less tidy approach to stress, anxiety and typical relational woes, The Panic Button Book is set up as a series of flowcharts in response to questions like “Do you and your partner have different standards when it comes to housework/ambition/money/other?”, “Are you dreading an upcoming event?” and “Are your muscles feeling tense?” The questions, which author Tammi Kirkness organizes into categories such as work, socializing, relationships and parenting, pinpoint both difficult feelings and physical concerns while reminding us that there’s a shared awkwardness to being human, and we can take some solace in simply acknowledging that commonality. There’s also comfort to be found in paging through this book and thinking, nope, that’s not my problem right now. When you find a question that rings true to your current concern, the facing page will guide you, step by step, in coping constructively so you can move on.

★ Wintering

There are times in life, however, when you may just have to sit with the struggle. This is what writer Katherine May calls a wintering, “a fallow period in life when you’re cut off from the world, feeling rejected, sidelined, blocked from progress, or cast into the role of an outsider.” May tells the story of one such period in her life in Wintering, which begins when her husband falls ill with appendicitis, setting off a chain of events that leaves her sidelined from work and her usual industrious lifestyle. In beautiful prose, she shows us that there are benefits to leaning in to these difficult times, even though our culture is set up to resist them. “An occasional sharp wintering would do us good,” she writes. “We must stop believing that these times in our life are somehow silly, a failure of nerve, a lack of willpower. . . . We must learn to invite the winter in.”

May’s story follows the course of the actual winter months, so that it’s about both a time of loneliness and the challenge of the chilliest, most barren season. She is a poetic observer of the natural world, and quotable lines abound. “The cold renders everything exquisite,” she writes of a morning frost. “Once we stop wishing it were summer, winter can be a glorious season when the world takes on a sparse beauty and even the pavements sparkle. It’s a time for reflection and recuperation, for slow replenishment, for putting your house in order.” I want to share Wintering with all my friends who experience the winter blues, and keep a copy close at hand for the inevitable winterings of my own life.

Plant Therapy

One thing that brings me cheer during winter is my collection of happy houseplants, and science backs me up on this. Plant Therapy dives deep into research that shows we could all stand to be more connected to the natural world; indeed, distance from it may be one of the chief causes of our discontent. Bringing some green into our homes is one small but significant step toward nourishing a relationship with nature. Therapist Katie Cooper begins by presenting the environmental, physiological, cognitive and affective benefits of proximity to plants, then shows us how making houseplants part of our indoor lives is a study in positive reciprocity: As we care for them, they will care for us.

Be Water, My Friend

Once you’ve got your new plant buddies positioned nearby, consider curling up with Be Water, My Friend from Shannon Lee, daughter of Bruce Lee. The martial arts icon is remembered and revered for his philosophy as much as for his physical prowess, and here, readers are given the opportunity to learn from the legend. “The idea of being like water is to attempt to embody the qualities of fluidity and naturalness in one’s life,” Lee writes. “Water can adjust its shape to any container, it can be soft or strong, it is simply and naturally always itself, and it finds a way to keep moving and flowing.” Lee shares stories from her father’s life and her own to illuminate how curiosity and a graceful flexibility can serve us all, no matter what life throws our way.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Love audiobooks? Check out Be Water, My Friend and other nonfiction audiobook picks.

At a moment when we could all use a gift that says “Everything is going to be OK,” these five books thoughtfully send that message.
YA FictionYA

Short stories all the way down

Feature by Annie Metcalf & Jill Ratzan & Kimberly Giarratano & Lane Clarke

Even the most particular teen reader won't be able to resist the varied charms of these YA anthologies.

A Phoenix First Must Burn

Give this to a reader who believes in possibilities as boundless as their own imagination.

A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope opens with a story of fresh beginnings, in which time-traveling Black girls become gods, and closes with a story of Black girls choosing their own destinies. All 16 of these tales feature fantastical universes, futuristic technologies and magic beneath the surface of our world.

From Elizabeth Acevedo’s poetic “Gilded” to the modern vampire tale “Letting the Right One In” by the collection’s editor, Patrice Caldwell, the stories provide space for Black girls to exist in their own narratives and explore what it means to seek peace in a world that perceives you as an enemy. A standout is Charlotte Nicole Davis’ “All the Time in the World,” in which Jordan learns that her neighborhood’s contaminated water supply has given her the power to stop time. At a time when Flint, Michigan, has been without clean water for more than a decade, Davis reminds young readers of the strength to be found when hope seems lost.

This collection pulls no punches. You’ll find yourself holding your breath between cheers for each and every one of these girls.

—Lane Clarke

Rural Voices

Give this to a reader who presses their nose to the window of every car, train and plane they ride in.

Rural Voices: 15 Authors Challenge Assumptions About Small-Town America offers brief but immersive glimpses into life in rural and small towns. Spanning 12 states, the vignettes include short stories, poems and even comics.

In S.A. Cosby’s “Whiskey and Champagne,” Juke uses his knack for murder mysteries to help his dad out of a sticky situation. A mysterious creature creeps around an Alaska cabin as a young trapper tries to stay calm in Inupiaq author Nasuġraq Rainey Hopson’s “The Cabin.” And in David Bowles’ “A Border Kid Comes of Age,” a bisexual Texas boy fights for his family to accept not only himself but also his uncle Samuel, who is gay.

Monica M. Roe’s engrossing “The (Unhealthy) Breakfast Club” is one of the collection’s strongest offerings. Its carpooling teens have little in common besides their private school scholarships. Narrator Gracie captures a slice of life as she and her crew bond over the stereotypes they confront each day. Roe depicts ordinary realities, such as relying on the nearest McDonald’s for the fastest Wi-Fi, and brings together a group of misfits to root for.

Rural Voices reveals how generalizations fail us, proving there is no such thing as a single rural American narrative.

—Annie Metcalf

Vampires Never Get Old

Give this to a reader who loves to fall under the thrall of a great supernatural story.

Vampires Never Get Old: Tales With Fresh Bite is sure to start a new craze for YA’s favorite fanged phenoms. These 11 stories preserve traditional undead lore while giving bloodsucking tropes a much-needed inclusivity makeover. The diverse teen vamps in this collection all share a common denominator: trying to survive their eternal adolescence.

Samira Ahmed’s “A Guidebook for the Newly Sired Desi Vampire” takes the form of an acerbic advice column (“What should you eat? Your colonizer.”) to offer a thoughtful treatise on the geopolitical ramifications of British rule. As haunting as it is beautiful, Heidi Heilig’s “The Boy and the Bell” tells the story of a trans boy who digs up the wrong body in an old graveyard. And worth the price of admission is Victoria “V. E.” Schwab’s “First Kill,” which has already received a limited series order from Netflix. It’s a game of cat and mouse in which both cat and mouse have the hots for one another. Juliette, a vampire who hasn’t yet experienced her first kill, is crushing on transfer student Calliope. Juliette’s bloodlust combines with that classic teen party game, 60 seconds in a closet, to create a powder keg of emotion.

—Kimberly Giarratano

Foreshadow

Give this to a reader who wants to dig deeply into the craft of storytelling.

Created by Emily X.R. Pan and Nova Ren Suma, Foreshadow: Stories to Celebrate the Magic of Reading and Writing YA grew out of an online initiative to showcase new and underrepresented voices. Established YA authors such as Jason Reynolds and Sabaa Tahir introduce 13 stories by emerging writers, and throughout the collection, playful experimentation alternates with contemporary takes on familiar formats.

Linda Cheng’s “Sweetmeats,” which Heidi Heilig calls “‘Hansel and Gretel’ flavored with Guillermo del Toro and a dash of Miyazaki,” exemplifies the creativity on display in every story here. Ever since friends Mei and Marlie were led astray by a witch bearing chocolate soufflé and blackberry soda, Mei’s hunger has been insatiable. Parental pressure, a bully’s cruel pranks and Marlie’s increasingly disturbing behavior culminate in a night when power dynamics are upended and truths are revealed. Each tale ends with an author’s note that discusses an element of the writing craft, and exercises invite readers to create and refine their own stories.

—Jill Ratzan

Come On In

Give this to a reader who would walk a mile in someone else's shoes every day if they could.

In Come On In: 15 Stories About Immigration and Finding Home, editor Adi Alsaid (himself a bestselling YA author) has created an anthology worthy of the blurb on its cover: “The immigration story is not a single story.” The characters in these stories have connections to countries including Australia, Japan, India, the United Kingdom and more, while all of the contributing authors have been touched by immigration in some way. As they capture both the experiences of children of first-generation immigrants as well as the bittersweet journey of leaving one’s own country, the stories give readers a dynamic, kaleidoscopic view of what it’s like to feel displaced from home—or displaced at home.

One of the most stirring stories is Nafiza Azad’s opener, “All the Colors of Goodbye,” which follows a teen girl as she recounts the many goodbyes she must say before she and her parents leave her home country of Fiji for what her father hopes will be a brighter future in Canada. In vivid prose, Azad depicts the girl’s heartbreak at leaving behind not only her extended family and friends, but also small, ordinary aspects of life in a country she loves and in a place that has shaped her as a person. It’s a love letter to the idea of home and a testament to the power this idea holds in our lives.

—Hannah Lamb

A Universe of Wishes

Give this to a reader who knows that the power of magic is inside of everyone.

The 15 fantasy stories in A Universe of Wishes are all powerful, thought-provoking and inclusive. Edited by Dhonielle Clayton (The Belles), A Universe of Wishes was created in partnership with We Need Diverse Books, a nonprofit organization that advocates for diversity in young people’s literature. It features the imaginings of popular writers including Kwame Mbalia, Anna-Marie McLemore and Nic Stone, alongside a story by Jenni Balch, the winner of a WNDB writing contest.

The stories here reflect a wide range of styles and fantasy subgenres, from climate fiction to romance to fairy tale re-imaginings. Fans of authors V.E. Schwab (A Darker Shade of Magic) and Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty) will be thrilled to discover new tales set in the fictional worlds of their bestselling trilogies.

Among the collection’s most moving stories is Tochi Onyebuchi’s “Habibi,” an epistolary chronicle of the unlikely connection between a boy from Long Beach, California, and a boy from Gaza. Using only the power of words, the two give each other hope for a future beyond their own horrifying present realities. “Habibi” exemplifies what lies at the heart of every story in this anthology: the wonder that awaits us when we celebrate our differences and recognize the beauty in one another.

—Tami Orendain

Even the most particular teen reader won't be able to resist the varied charms of these YA anthologies.

Children's & YAPicture Book

Wayfinders for Earth’s recent arrivals

Feature by Jill Lorenzini

It’s a big world out there, and it’s easy to get lost as we try to find the right path. If we’re lucky, we find special books that can show us the way. These four books take the big-picture view and shine like beacons, beaming out a simple message: “Here we are, together on Earth. This is a big place. Sometimes it can be scary. But there’s always hope. And there is so much beauty.”

What We'll Build

Oliver Jeffers has a gift for crafting quirky stories that are deceivingly straightforward and disarmingly moving. His talents are on full display in What We’ll Build, as a father and daughter envision the world they’ll create together. Pages flooded with color capture the grand scope of their shared dreams, while poignant scenes set against white backdrops draw us close. Love and time, comfort and forgiveness take the forms of a clock, a teacup and a plush pig that appear throughout.

This may not seem like a typical bedtime book, but Jeffers’ rhymes and near-rhymes have a propulsive forward motion, their imperfections perfectly suited to the story. Jeffers isn’t interested in lengthy descriptions or flowery language. His uncomplicated sentences shoot straight while opening imaginative possibilities like doors in the mind, and waiting behind every door is love.

If You Come to Earth

If someone asked you to write a book that explained the entire world, where would you start? When Caldecott Medalist Sophie Blackall met a child named Quinn while working with the nonprofit organization Save the Children, she knew she’d found her beginning. Told from Quinn’s perspective, If You Come to Earth is a letter to extraterrestrial visitors that takes an expansive but intimate look at life on planet Earth.

Blackall writes in honest, uncomplicated prose, her unpretentious statements all the more resonant for their frankness. She covers nearly every aspect of existence, from enormous mountains to creepy-crawly bugs, from the music we share with others to the feelings we keep deeply hidden. She leaves nothing out, even gently touching on difficult topics such as catastrophic weather, illness, war and displacement.

Blackall’s colorful, clever illustrations feel as though she has focused a giant microscope on the planet. You could spend hours poring over the details on every page. A spread depicting humans on the move is a wry look at our brilliant yet convoluted modes of transportation. An overview of avian life is breathtakingly drawn inside the shape of a lark. Wearing a red cap, Quinn appears on most pages, providing a touchstone to seek out with every page turn. It all makes for a sprawling, ambitious take on some of life’s biggest questions.

Child of the Universe

For every young person who asks those big questions, who dreams of flight and imagines themselves among the stars, Child of the Universe brings the universe close enough to touch. In this astronomical lullaby, a father’s words to his daughter inspire a journey to the place where all of this—and all of us—began.

Acclaimed astronomer Ray Jayawardhana infuses the book with scientific majesty as well as the adoration every parent feels for their child. As a nighttime read, its soothing song of stars and spiraling galaxies will send listeners drifting off to twinkling dreams, but by day, curious minds will demand answers to its fascinating ideas. Do we really have stars inside of us? Are there actually oceans on other planets? A comprehensive afterword provides just enough information to spark further inquiry—which is, of course, the point.

If Jayawardhana’s words are a lullaby, then illustrator Raul Colón’s colored pencil art is a vast symphonic underscore. Every page from edge to edge is awash with soft colors and almost imperceptible textures. Atoms and oceans and light waves and whales crash upon each other in gorgeous chaos. It’s impossible not to lose yourself in it all. Child of the Universe is expansive, inspiring and full of radiant cosmic brilliance.

Rain Before Rainbows

Perhaps the most affecting picture book of 2020, Rain Before Rainbows grows in the heart like a seed of hope. It opens with a striking illustration of a castle in flames opposite the title page, immersing us in David Litchfield’s art even before we meet our protagonist. Page by page, we follow a little red-cloaked girl and her fox companion on a journey out of the fog and rain, through mist and shadow, over mountains and across raging seas, their odyssey chronicled in author Smriti Prasadam-Halls’ spare couplets.

Litchfield’s brushstrokes and textures create palpable emotions. We feel the numbing isolation of the rain, the heaviness of night, the shivers of smoky specters. Immense mountains loom, and crashing waves threaten. But even through the dark and the disquiet, friendship curls around the fox and the girl as they look out for each other. We crawl onto the shore with them, and we see hope on the wing with a flock of birds. We know, instantly, that bravery stands before us in the form of a majestic elk. As sunlight breaks through the forest trees and beams across the land and streams, the warmth it brings is overwhelmingly beautiful.

This is the image I want to leave you with: the girl and her forest companions walking toward the light to greet the new day. We don’t know where they are going or why. All we know is that they are moving forward, together, with hope in their hearts. That, dear reader, is enough.

It’s a big world out there, and it’s easy to get lost as we try to find the right path. If we’re lucky, we find special books that can show us the way.

NonfictionCookbooksBody, Mind & Spirit

Cookbooks that breathe fresh life into kitchen duty

Feature by Susannah Felts

With home cooking on the rise, has there ever been a better time to switch up the energy with a new cookbook?

★ In Bibi’s Kitchen

Perhaps the freshest cookbook of the season is In Bibi’s Kitchen, even though “this is an old-fashioned cookbook that has nothing to do with trends or newness,” as editors Hawa Hassan and Julia Turshen write in their introduction. The book features recipes and stories from grandmothers (bibis) from eight African countries, all introduced through Q&A interviews. Each chapter shares basic information about one of the featured countries, all of which touch the Indian Ocean (two are islands), and “offers a range of perspectives that clearly illustrate how food changes when it travels and how it can also help to keep a connection to home.” Don’t feel the least bit wary of recipes featuring hard-to-find ingredients. Almost all the spices called for are readily available in American supermarkets, and many of the condiments included here (like Somali cilantro and green chile pepper sauce) can be used on nearly anything. A beautiful example of how food is culture, history and one of the most powerful forms of connection we have, In Bibi’s Kitchen feels at once deeply famil- iar and powerfully eye-opening.

Tequila & Tacos

Do I love Tequila & Tacos because it’s compact and bold in color, or do I love it because it’s all about tacos? Yes. Katherine Cobbs’ latest in the Spirited Pairings series is an irresistible tour de U.S. taco joints in points north, south, east and west. Each location reveals the recipe for one signature taco and cocktail, from cauliflower tacos with fennel and ramps (Salazar in Los Angeles) to a Monte Cristo taco (Velvet Taco in Atlanta) to a lamb carnitas taco (Quiote in Chicago), and on and on the delicious armchair exploring goes. You might feel a twinge of grief right now, thinking about all these beautiful restaurants and their brilliant creations—but then you get to make the tacos and agave-spirit libations at home, and you’re sure to feel happier after that.

Jacques Pépin Quick & Simple

Even if you’re not a foodie, you’ve probably heard the name Jacques Pépin. The renowned French chef and TV personality has a wonderful smile, and as such, I take great joy in the many photographs of him sprinkled throughout Jacques Pépin Quick & Simple, which has a pleasingly retro feel thanks to its cheerful illustrations, vintage typeface and decidedly unfussy recipes. These really are quick and simple dishes with common ingredients and instructions that rarely extend past a paragraph or two. In fact, “mix all the ingredients together” is a common refrain. There are even lots of shortcuts, such as brown-and- serve French bread (!) or pre-made pizza dough and puff pastry. If a famous French chef tells you to do it, it’s totally OK, right? Packed with more than 200 recipes, this book would make a great resource for busy young people who are just beginning their kitchen adventures.

The Good Book of Southern Baking

Kelly Fields brings 20 years of pastry chef know-how to the pages of The Good Book of Southern Baking. She developed these recipes in restaurants, including her own New Orleans joint Willa Jean, and her thorough overview of baking ingredients—11 pages’ worth!—signals that honed expertise. But it’s her South Carolina upbringing that provides the bedrock for this sumptuous collection of sweet treats. Fields’ baking is deeply rooted in childhood experience, and she invokes her mama regularly in her treatment of classics like banana bread, haystack cookies and warm chocolate pudding. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a traditional Southern dessert not covered here, and you’ll want to devour every single one. (I’m especially drawn to the bourbon-butterscotch pudding, a twist on one of my own mama’s favorites, and Grandma Mac’s apple cake.) This is the perfect gift for the dessert person in your life. 

★ The Kosmic Kitchen Cookbook

The Kosmic Kitchen Cookbook cozies up at the three-way intersection of herbalism, ayurveda and seasonality, making it a fascinating, not to mention beautifully designed, guide for thinking about how to support your health holistically. Herbalists and pals Sarah Kate Benjamin and Summer Singletary ground the book in elemental theory, the idea that the five elements—ether, air, water, fire, earth—must be balanced in our bodies. They connect this theory to the four seasons, helping the reader to identify how the elements are at play, inside and out. A section on herbal preps, such as herb-infused ghee, honey and turmeric tahini dressing, begins the culinary exploration, followed by seasonal recipes like lemon balm gazpacho and spiced mulled wine with hawthorn berries. If you’re new to herbalism, it may seem like a lot to take in, but Benjamin and Singletary are wonderful guides, and the book also provides a link to their free online minicourse on the subject.

With home cooking on the rise, has there ever been a better time to switch up the energy with a new cookbook? Here are five that breathe fresh life into kitchen duty.
Romance

Romance: December 2020

Feature by Christie Ridgway

This sensual seasonal sampling of holiday romances has something for every reader.

★ In a Holidaze

A young woman gets a holiday do-over in In a Holidaze by author duo Christina Lauren. Maelyn Jones is looking forward to her annual Christmas celebration with family and friends, including her longtime crush, Andrew. But when it looks like she’s ruined her chance with him, some magical force intervenes and she gets a replay . . . or two. Trapped in a time loop in which she experiences the same cabin vacation over and over, will she seize the opportunity to pursue her heart’s desire? Lauren’s first holiday romance is feel-good from the get-go. Set in Park City, Utah, there are snowball fights and games around the fire, along with a pair of protagonists who are reluctant to upend decades of conviviality by changing their relationship. The story and characters have a cozy, old-fashioned vibe, and the love scenes are warm but not too detailed. In a Holidaze is an engaging and entertaining treat, with no sharp edges and plenty of seasonal sparkle.

A Highlander Is Coming to Town

A small Southern town celebrates Christmas in A Highlander Is Coming to Town by Laura Trentham. Highland, Georgia, has a genuine Highlander in its midst when traveling Scottish singer Claire McCready arrives in town. With her 25th birthday and a life-complicating inheritance looming, she hopes to lie low for the holidays while working as a live-in helper for a crotchety elderly woman. But despite her desire to stay attachment-free, Claire finds herself attracted to sexy neighboring farmer Holt Pierson. Claire plans to return home soon, so maybe they can indulge in their hot chemistry without anyone getting hurt. There are tropes on tropes in this charming story—the poor little rich girl, the fish out of water, the homebody vs. the wanderer—and readers will sink into this comforting read like it’s a warm bath. Glimpses of characters from previous books in the series add to the cozy feel.

Christmas at Holiday House

More than one heart finds its match in RaeAnne Thayne’s Christmas at Holiday House. For Abigail Powell and her young son, Christopher, the town of Silver Bells, Colorado, sounds like the perfect place to spend the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas. She can help her best friend Lucy’s grandmother recover from a fall and give Christopher a snow-covered Christmas before they move to Texas. But she didn’t count on the compelling attraction of Lucy’s brother, Ethan. During the days of skiing, baking and general holiday merriment, Abby and Ethan share tender embraces, even though he thinks he doesn’t have the loving nature required to be her man. Meanwhile, Lucy struggles with similar self-doubts as she returns home to face an old friend who’s no longer silent about his feelings for her. This is romantic fantasy, pure and simple. It shines with holiday cheer, but Thayne also makes the goodness of these characters feel true. This kisses-only story is perfect for lovers of Christmas and romance.

A Princess by Christmas

Christmas comes to Victorian England in A Princess by Christmas, the third installment in Julia London’s Royal Wedding series. Young widow Hollis Honeycutt welcomes her sister and best friend—both married to foreign royals—to London while the queen hosts peace talks between the fictional countries of Wesloria and Alucia. Through the social events surrounding the occasion, Hollis meets the mysterious Marek Brendan, who is attached to Wesloria’s trade delegation. Curious and clever, Hollis begins to investigate for the biweekly ladies gazette she publishes and finds herself inexplicably drawn both to Marek and into the political intrigue surrounding the talks between the two rival countries. The unbending Marek makes an ideal foil for the ebullient Hollis, and they fall in love surrounded by the era’s traditions, such as elaborate wreaths and a party to celebrate the newfangled German import of a seasonal tree. Author London pens an imaginative tale peopled with smart, well-drawn characters who feel genuine in their love for one another. This thoroughly enjoyable romance is a stylish, fabulous escape to another time and place.

Christmas at the Island Hotel

Happy ever afters of all sorts abound in Christmas at the Island Hotel by Jenny Colgan. The author returns to the fictional and remote Scottish island of Mure, the setting of Christmas on the Island and The Endless Beach, where the impending holiday and the successful opening of a new hotel is critical to several residents: Fintan, a grieving widower who inherited the property; his sister, Flora, who finds her maternity leave a bit dull; Gaspard, a temperamental French chef; Konstantin, a playboy of a Norwegian prince who’s been ordered to work for the first time in his life; and Isla, a hardworking Mure native who is about to learn what love is. Told in the affectionate and understanding voice of an omniscient observer, this holiday tale sets readers smack-dab in the center of the island community, and it’s a delightful place to spend the season. As there ought to be at any proper Christmas, there are dogs and children and family strife, not to mention a little melancholy, as well as good food and good times.

This sensual seasonal sampling of holiday romances has something for every reader.

★ In a Holidaze

A young woman gets a holiday do-over in In a Holidaze by author duo Christina Lauren. Maelyn Jones is looking forward to her annual Christmas celebration with family and…

Mystery

Whodunit: December 2020

Feature by Bruce Tierney

Thomas Perry makes his long-awaited return to the acclaimed Butcher's Boy series in this month's Whodunit column.

Snowdrift

Nightmares about the abduction of her childhood best friend, Lollo, have bedeviled police officer Embla Nyström for half of her 28 years. One of those jarring nightmares opens Helene Tursten’s latest thriller, Snowdrift. The dreams always follow the same script: Three shadowy figures huddle over a curled-up Lollo, then one turns and spots Embla, bolts across the room and hisses menacingly, “Say a word to anyone, you’re dead.” Fourteen years pass with no word about Lollo, until Embla gets a phone call from her missing friend. The connection is quickly broken, however, with no further contact. After a fitful night’s sleep, Embla is summoned to the scene of a homicide. The victim turns out to be well known to her: It’s one of the three brothers she believes were responsible for Lollo’s abduction. Embla eagerly embarks on the investigation, though her goal is perhaps not so much to find the killer as to uncover some further trace of Lollo. It soon becomes a case of “be careful what you wish for. . . .” As always in Tursten’s books, the well-drawn characters and first-rate suspense provide fine examples of the dark delights of Scandinavian noir.

The Art of Violence

Cold open: A man walks up to a private investigator, accosts him with a gun and demands that the investigator prove the man’s guilt in a series of murders—not his innocence, note, but his guilt. Unusual request, but it makes some sense. Years back, after being slipped a strong hallucinogen, Sam Tabor killed a woman, stabbing her, by his count, “seven billion times.” Faced with the choice of a temporary insanity plea and an unspecified sentence to psychiatric lockdown, or a defined length of time in the slammer, Sam pleaded guilty and went to jail. Now he’s out, and he’s convinced that he’s killed again. The Art of Violence is the latest in S.J. Rozan’s excellent series featuring PI Bill Smith and his partner, Lydia Chin. I almost don’t want to say more; there are too many nuances and red herrings, and I don’t want to inadvertently give anything away. But here are a couple of freebies: The client is a well-known artist who is often described as “tormented,” the flavor of the month in the fickle Manhattan art milieu. A blackout alcoholic, he doesn’t remember killing anyone, but the crime scene “signature” is eerily evocative of his first crime.

Eddie’s Boy

Thomas Perry’s debut, The Butcher’s Boy, earned him the coveted Edgar Award for Best First Mystery Novel back in 1983. At the time, the book virtually defined a new subgenre of thriller: the “Hired Killer Summoned Out of Retirement by Someone Trying to Kill Him.” Eddie’s Boy, Perry’s latest novel, opens with not one but four would-be assassins trying—and failing miserably—to take out the Butcher’s Boy. Retired, and known these days as Michael Shaeffer, he is still savvy enough to know that if someone sent four trained killers, there will be more in the wings waiting for their turn. So he scoots from England to Australia, but it will not be far enough. Michael has one ace in the hole, though, in the form of a tenuous relationship with a Justice Department official who tips him off to the impending parole of a career criminal who once hired the Butcher’s Boy, then reneged on the payment. Soon afterward, our hero neatly framed him for a murder, watching as the innocent man (well, innocent of this killing at least) was carted off to jail. There’s a lot more backstory and a lot more innovative executions along the way as Michael tries to stop the attempts on his life. A new Butcher’s Boy book arrives only once every decade, if that, and this one is well worth the wait.

★ How to Raise an Elephant

Over the course of its 21-volume run, Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series has become one of the best-loved series in its genre. In some ways it is defined by what is absent: murders or essentially violence of any sort. But the tiny African country of Botswana holds its own in the suspense department, its small mysteries strangely compelling and never descending into treacly sweetness. In this latest outing, How to Raise an Elephant, our intrepid sleuth, Precious Ramotswe, must rescue—no surprise here—a newborn elephant left orphaned by poachers. Said little elephant has a mind of its own, with results both comedic (imagine a 300-pound baby pachyderm rolling around delightedly in the back of a minivan) and tragic, with a look into the cruelty of the ivory poaching trade. There’s also a noisy neighbor who angrily calls her philandering husband an “anteater”; a sketchy relative who will impart a life lesson we can all benefit from; and the ongoing adversarial relationship between Grace and Charlie, the two opinionated employees at Mma Ramotswe’s agency. I have read all of this wonderful series, reviewed most and wholeheartedly look forward to each and every one.

Thomas Perry makes his long-awaited return to the acclaimed Butcher's Boy series in this month's Whodunit column.
NonfictionMemoirFilmBiography

Book Clubs: December 2020

Feature by Julie Hale

Entertaining yet substantial, briskly paced yet informative, these celebrity memoirs and biographies are perfect for the busy month of December.

In Inside Out, actor Demi Moore comes to terms with her troubled past. As the daughter of alcoholic parents, Moore had an unstable and traumatic childhood, and her early career as a model left her feeling insecure about her appearance. Although she went on to achieve success in Hollywood, starring in such films as St. Elmo’s Fire and Ghost, she struggled for years with drug addiction. Throughout this candid, accomplished memoir, Moore is upfront about her marriages to Bruce Willis and Ashton Kutcher, and she provides fascinating insight into the movie business.

Esteemed actor Sally Field shares her personal story in her memoir, In Pieces. Born in Pasadena, California, in 1946, Field opens up about her solitary childhood, her alcoholic mother and the stepfather who abused her. She began acting as a teen, going on to star in blockbusters including Norma Rae and Forrest Gump. With sensitivity and a wonderful command of narrative, she reflects on important past relationships, including her romance with Burt Reynolds, and on the impulses that drive her acting. The result is a well-rounded, well-written portrait of an artist that will appeal to anyone who loves a good celebrity memoir.

Written by bestselling biographer Sheila Weller, Carrie Fisher: A Life on the Edge is an illuminating study of an American icon. Carrie Fisher, perhaps best known for portraying Princess Leia in the Star Wars films, was the daughter of singer Eddie Fisher and actor Debbie Reynolds. In this well-researched biography, Weller chronicles Fisher’s Hollywood up-bringing, her rise as an actor, her marriages and her experiences with bipolar disorder and drugs. Fisher’s intelligence and strength shine through in this lively narrative, which is rich with movie history and personal anecdotes, as well as themes of family and feminism.

Illustrator and author Edward Sorel revisits the golden age of Hollywood in Mary Astor’s Purple Diary: The Great American Sex Scandal of 1936. Sorel explores the life of actor Mary Astor, star of The Maltese Falcon and other classics, who kept a diary of her sexual affairs. In the 1930s, her ex-husband discovered the diary and used it against her during his legal battle for custody of their daughter. Sorel digs in to weighty topics including public image, the power of journalism and the female experience in show business, and his nifty illustrations add to the book’s appeal.

Entertaining yet substantial, briskly paced yet informative, these celebrity memoirs and biographies are perfect for the busy month of December.

In Inside Out, actor Demi Moore comes to terms with her troubled past. As the daughter of alcoholic parents, Moore had an unstable and traumatic…

Children's & YAPicture Book

A flurry of seasonal stories perfect for sharing

Feature by Julie Hale

Need a heaping dose of joy this holiday season? Fix yourself a steaming mug of cocoa, put on your warmest, fuzziest pajamas, and cuddle up with one of these spectacular picture books.

The Eight Knights of Hanukkah

Leslie Kimmelman and Galia Bernstein’s The Eight Knights of Hanukkah is a humorous adventure that features heroic cavaliers and a rascally dragon while drawing upon Hanukkah traditions.

Lady Sadie has invited her subjects to celebrate the final night of Hanukkah, but Dreadful the dragon is wreaking havoc and thwarting her plans. To stop him, Lady Sadie summons her children, the titular knights, and asks them to commit acts of courage and goodwill to get the holiday back on track. When the dragon’s fiery breath fries a boy’s dreidel, Sir Alex makes a new one. After Dreadful gobbles up the baker’s doughnuts, Sir Lily helps replenish the supply. The knights pursue Dreadful with persistence and bravery, but when they meet him face to face, they discover he’s not quite what he seems.

Bernstein’s illustrations of the mischievous Dreadful, the bold knights and gracious Lady Sadie are friendly and energetic, and design features such as a map of the kingdom will transport readers to the story’s medieval setting. In an afterword, Kimmelman explores the history of Hanukkah and the importance of performing mitzvoth—good deeds—throughout the year. It all adds up to a clever, thrilling journey that’s lots of fun.

The Night Before Christmas

Bestselling author-illustrator Loren Long offers an inspired take on a classic tale in The Night Before Christmas. In stunning illustrations that capture just a few of the many ways we celebrate the holiday today, Long updates Santa’s famous Christmas Eve visit with a contemporary sensibility that will resonate with readers of all ages.

Long stays true to the spirit of Clement C. Moore’s poem even as he shifts its setting to the present day. His illustrations depict the holiday traditions of four diverse families in beautifully composed scenes executed in acrylic paint and colored pencil. Cozy mobile home, snug farmhouse, urban apartment, coastal bungalow—the homes may be different, but they’re all ready for Santa’s visit. Delightfully detailed paintings of children “nestled snug in their beds” and parents on the lookout for “the jolly old elf” capture the excitement and anticipation of the season. Endpapers show kiddos making crafts, putting up decorations, baking cookies and otherwise prepping for Santa’s arrival.

Long’s use of varied families and homes is a smart approach that truly modernizes the poem. Inclusive and human, warm and festive, his illustrations provide a wonderful complement to Moore’s text, ensuring that the famous tale will continue to be a seasonal staple.

The Hanukkah Magic of Nate Gadol

Arthur A. Levine introduces a new holiday hero in the wonderfully original tale The Hanukkah Magic of Nate Gadol. Nate is a benevolent spirit with flashing eyes, a blue waistcoat, fancy boots and the unique ability to make “things last as long as they [need] to.” A noble figure, he only uses his gift for urgent requests, like prolonging the freshness of a flower in a sick child’s room or stretching a small quantity of butter for cooking.

Nate keeps a particular eye on two families—the Glasers and the O’Malleys—and helps them out if they fall on hard times. In the difficult winter of 1881, as the Glasers run short of food and the O’Malleys’ new baby falls sick, the holidays look far from bright. But on Christmas Eve, Nate teams up with a recognizable jolly old friend to assist both families and bring unexpected joy to their seasonal celebrations.

In a moving author’s note, Levine reflects on “the challenges of being a Jewish child during Christmas” and his desire to add to the mythology of the holidays. His sparkling story does just that. In Kevin Hawkes’ swirling, whimsical illustrations, Nate is jaunty and beaming with glistening gold details on his buttons, eyes and hair—a captivating sprite who hovers in midair and soars over rooftops. His holiday adventure has an inviting, appealing spirit.

The Little Bell That Wouldn’t Ring

Another inventive addition to the literature of the season, The Little Bell That Wouldn’t Ring, written by Heike Conradi and illustrated by Maja Dusíková, is an imaginative fable sure to prompt reflection on the true meaning of the Christmas holiday.

In an old church tower, three majestic bells—one silver, one bronze and one gold—practice for the approaching festivities. The tower’s newest addition is a small, unas- suming bell that refuses to make music, despite urging from the other bells. A friendly dove named Felidia notices the little bell’s silence and, concerned, seeks out her friend Carol the crow. “Nice words will help,” Carol advises.

And so Felidia embarks on a quest to discover words that might coax the little bell to ring. Checking in with her animal friends, Felidia solicits suggestions (Ringlebert the pigeon suggests “cake crumbs,” while Maurice the mouse proposes “cheddar, camembert, gorgonzola”). Felidia’s avian companions travel far and wide to gather words, but in the end, it’s a traditional holiday phrase discovered close to home that finally prompts the little bell to chime out for all to hear.

A sweet story that stresses the importance of friendship and encouragement, the tale of the bell comes to life in Dusíková’s lovely artwork. From the stately church tower to the bustling town square filled with market stalls, busy shoppers and rosy-cheeked children, her illustrations evoke a winter wonderland. The smallest bell, glowing and golden, has a magical aura all its own. Little ones will love ringing in Christmas with Felidia and her friends.

Need a heaping dose of joy this holiday season? Fix yourself a steaming mug of cocoa, put on your warmest, fuzziest pajamas, and cuddle up with one of these spectacular picture books.

NonfictionLiteratureAnimals

Treats for cat ladies and cat laddies

Feature by Linda M. Castellitto

Fans of felines will adore these four books, which offer fascinating new perspectives on cats and their indelible influence on our culture. Whether the giftee is a philosopher, artist, behaviorist, epistolist or some fabulous combination thereof, they’ll be thrilled with these edifying, heartfelt tributes to cats.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Cat

Nia Gould’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Cat: The Life and Times of Artistic Felines will be catnip for fans of cats, art, cat puns and expertly rendered illustrations in an impressive range of styles.

This visual feast of a book conjures up feline alter egos for 22 famous artists. For example: What if Frida Kahlo were a black cat with a white unibrow-esque marking, plus a penchant for putting flowers on her head? She’d be Frida Catlo, a specialist in “self-pawtraits.” And what if Pablo Picasso were a beret-wearing gray cat with an unusually shaped head? Why, he’d be Pablo Picatso, “one of art history’s most purr-found influences.”

Each section features a spot-on portrait of the cat artist and a well-researched biography detailing methods and influences, plus gorgeous cat-centric visual homages, from Roy Kittenstein’s dotty pop art to Mary Catsatt’s domesticity-influenced impressionism. Cat lovers and art aficionados will truly find A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Cat (to borrow one of Gould’s words) “mesmeowerizing.”

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: If you think books about cats are great, you'll really love A Cat's Tale, which was allegedly written by a cat.

Cat vs. Cat

Pam Johnson-Bennett knows cats. The professional behaviorist has written multiple bestsellers (such as Think Like a Cat) and starred in an Animal Planet UK TV series called “Psycho Kitty.” Now, with her updated Cat vs. Cat: Keeping Peace When You Have More Than One Cat, she’s ready to help ensure that multicat homes are characterized more by napping and playing than by hissing and errant pooping.

Of course, cats can’t tell us what they’re thinking (as far as we know . . . ), so Johnson-Bennett says it’s up to humans to learn to see things through a cat’s eyes. She points out that, whereas humans view a home as a single territory, a cat sees it as “numerous territories on many different levels, geographic and psychological, and negotiating them is a central part of maintaining cat family harmony.”

Whether readers are bringing a new cat into an existing cat household or just want to learn more about cats’ behaviors, Cat vs. Cat has it covered. It’s impressively researched with lots of suggestions, strategies and support throughout.

Letters of Note: Cats

Shaun Usher’s popular Letters of Note website launched in 2009, and his first compilation was published in 2013. Now cat people will be happy to learn there’s a volume just for them: Letters of Note: Cats.

Usher asserts that letters are “humans’ most precious, enjoyable, and endangered form of communication.” The 30 collected here are entertaining and memorable, not least because they were penned by famous actors, scientists, writers and more.

It’s thrilling to discover that a cat named Máčak was central to Nikola Tesla’s fascination with electricity—and amusing to learn Ayn Rand sent a terse missive to the editor of Cat Fancy. (She noted, “I subscribed to Cat Fancy primarily for the sake of the pictures.”) Other letter writers include Jack Lemmon, Anne Frank and T.S. Eliot, and the letters range from sentimental to satirical, whimsical to a bit rude.

Letters of Note: Cats is a fascinating celebration of the timelessness of cat appreciation and a compelling argument for keeping letter writing alive. As Usher urges, “Rescue your last remaining pen from the cat, and write to someone.”

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Not a cat person? Check out these heartwarming reads about dogs instead.

Feline Philosophy

Whether snoozing in a sunbeam or frenziedly attacking a scratching post, cats live in the moment. And that’s why, John Gray explains in Feline Philosophy: Cats and the Meaning of Life, “Cats have no need of philosophy. Obeying their nature, they are content with the life it gives them.”

But humans are quite the opposite, according to the retired professor and author of several books (notably 2018’s Seven Types of Atheism), because “the human animal never ceases striving to be something that it is not.”

Gray considers happiness, morality and egoism through the lens of philosophers including Decartes, Pascal, Montaigne and Spinoza. He also uses Patricia Highsmith’s short story “Ming’s Biggest Prey” as a jumping-off point for musings on affection. Again, cats have the upper hand (paw): “Cats do not love in order to divert themselves from loneliness, boredom, or despair. They love when the impulse takes them, and are in company they enjoy.”

It’s hard to deny the benefits of such an existence. As Gray asserts in Feline Philosophy, being open to what cats can teach us just might “lighten the load that comes with being human” via less catastrophizing and, one imagines, a lot more naps.

Fans of felines will adore these four books, which offer fascinating new perspectives on cats and their indelible influence on our culture.

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