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NonfictionNatureFood & DrinkCrafts, Hobbies & HomeCookbooks

Lifestyles: June 2020

Feature by Susannah Felts

Cook with a surprise ingredient, understand modern-day manners and build an herbal arsenal with the help of these three engaging reads.

★ The Duke’s Mayonnaise Cookbook

My first thought upon discovering The Duke’s Mayonnaise Cookbook was: an entire cookbook devoted to . . . mayonnaise? Risky business. My second thought was: But . .  . it’s Duke’s, a brand with a cult following—especially in the American South, where I live. And when you’ve got a following like Duke’s, you do what you want—like show up in a recipe for peppermint fudge brownies. Ashley Strickland Freeman makes a strong case that Duke’s belongs in brownies, as well as in many other seemingly unlikely recipes, because mayo is “a beautiful emulsification of eggs and oil and a touch of vinegar for acidity, all ingredients vital to cooking and baking.” Her cookbook makes my mouth water, with crowd-pleasers such as bananas Foster bread with browned butter-rum glaze, pimento cheese grits and firecracker shrimp tacos. And of course, there’s elote—delicious Mexican street corn slathered in mayonnaise.

Minding Miss Manners

In Minding Miss Manners, Judith Martin’s arch, acid wit laces every lesson on behaving with propriety in a culture where monstrous jerks are, more than ever, on parade and in power. “A new era of freedom to be loutish, pushy, vicious, and hateful is upon us,” she writes. “That an etiquette-free society would be a joyous, or even livable, one must be the biggest social hoax since it was declared that Americans’ basic problem was sexual puritanism, and if all were acting freely on their desires, everyone would be happy, and there would be no more sex crimes. We are now forced to see how that has played out.” Ahem! This book is bracingly funny and full of pitch-perfect truth bombs for our very weird and wooly times. 

Plant Magic

For Christine Buckley, herbalism is more than just the process of using plants for their beneficial properties. It’s a way of being in the world—more in tune with the earth and mindful of one’s own interconnected mind, body and spirit. In Plant Magic, Buckley takes us deep into the practice of herbalism, showing us how to cultivate a meaningful relationship with the plant life around us. Her “herbal arsenal” details 21 of the most useful and accessible plants, such as cinnamon, thyme, lemon balm and ginger. Roost makes gorgeous books, and this one is no exception

Cook with a surprise ingredient, understand modern-day manners and build an herbal arsenal with the help of these three engaging reads.
Romance

Romance: June 2020

Feature by Christie Ridgway

Whether duke, werewolf or software engineer, the heroes in these engaging romances have met their match.

★ Wolf Under Fire

In Wolf Under Fire, Paige Tyler introduces the Special Threat Assessment Team, an international group tasked with stopping threats by supernatural creatures. While tracking down a kidnapped child, alpha werewolf Jake Huang’s team, including FBI-trained Jestina Ridley, uncovers a possibly world-­destroying plot. Along the way, Jake and Jes struggle against physical temptation while bullets fly and creepy creatures do not die. Are they perhaps fated mates as spoken of in werewolf lore? And how can Jes trust a dangerous man who isn’t fully human? This well-balanced blend of sizzle, supernatural intrigue and suspense is also imaginative: One team member is a “technopath” who can communicate with electronics. Wolf Under Fire is superb, exciting and escapist fare.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Paige Tyler explains why she plans out all her books at P.F. Chang’s.

Say Yes to the Duke

Eloisa James takes us back to Georgian times in Say Yes to the Duke. Viola Astley, step-member of the infamous Wilde clan, must make her debut before she can declare herself a spinster for life. But she soon encounters the enigmatic and autocratic Duke of Wynter, who’s in search of a wife and thinks a Wilde daughter would be perfect—which means he must overcome Viola’s innate shyness to persuade her to become his bride. The delightful Wildes light up the story with humor and energy. James’ vivid descriptions of fashion are a treat, allowing readers to immerse themselves in this very satisfying romance. A professor of English literature, James often freshens a plot with something unique; in this case, it’s the production of a medieval biblical play. This romance is enchanting in every respect.

The Boyfriend Project

The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon is a thoroughly modern workplace romance with a bonus handful of scene-stealing friends. Successful software engineer Samiah Brooks goes viral when she confronts a cheating boyfriend, which leads her and the two other women he deceived to swear off dating for six months. Of course, this is exactly when Samiah meets new hire Daniel Collins. She resists her attraction as long as she can, but soon they’re both succumbing, even though Daniel has a secret that could spell disaster. Samiah’s struggles to balance work, dreams and love will resonate with readers of this clever, pleasurable read.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Farrah Rochon on why romance should celebrate female friendship.

 

Whether duke, werewolf or software engineer, the heroes in these engaging romances have met their match.
Audio

Audio: June 2020

Feature by Anna Zeitlin

Shockingly funny essays, a necessary new collection and a historic reimagining: three can’t-miss audiobooks to listen to right now.

★ Wow, No Thank You.

Samantha Irby’s latest essay collection, Wow, No Thank You, is the cynical, shockingly funny audio­book that’s been missing from your life. Irby is a transplant from Chicago to suburban Michigan, plus a stint in Hollywood, and her fish-out-of-­water stories are delightfully hilarious. A proponent of staying in, Irby makes the art of turning down party invitations sound like the most fun you’ve ever had, and getting a voicemail from a friend the worst of horrors. Irby is frank and fearless, so if bodily functions make you uncomfortable, this is not the book for you. But if you admire a bold, brash woman who clearly enjoys telling it like it is, you won’t be able to stop laughing. Irby is already funny on the page, but she has a special gift for comedic delivery, and her narration adds even more laughs to the book.

Hitting a Straight Lick With a Crooked Stick

Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick, edited by Genevieve West, collects a variety of Harlem Renaissance legend Zora Neale Hurston’s early short stories. It’s a fascinating time capsule of early 20th-century urban and rural life, with roots in African American folklore. Narrator Aunjanue Ellis, an actor you may know from ABC’s “Quantico,” has a warm, liquid voice and a poetic rhythm that brings Hurston’s stories to life. Her narration makes Hurston’s signature dialect feel natural and modern, and her emotional performance lends additional depth to Hurston’s already strong characters.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Aunjanue Ellis discusses her experience narrating Zora Neale Hurston’s collection of short stories.

Miss Austen

Gill Hornby’s novel Miss Austen follows Jane Austen’s sister, Cassandra, as an elderly woman in 1840 England. Cassandra attempts to preserve Jane’s legacy by finding and destroying emotionally revealing letters that Jane wrote to a friend. Janeites will enjoy the story’s romance, mystery and social observations, but Hornby deals with aging and regret in a way the English novelist was never able to do, and fans will be surprised by some of Miss Austen’s most honest moments. Cassandra’s story beautifully addresses how history chooses to remember women—and the way that, for the most part, it doesn’t remember them at all. As a writer who is the sister of a famous author (Nick Hornby), Hornby is the perfect person to tell this tale, and actor Juliet Stevenson provides a very proper English narration that’s fitting for the early Victorian setting.

Shockingly funny essays, a necessary new collection and a historic reimagining: three can’t-miss audiobooks to listen to right now.
Science Fiction & Fantasy

Strange magic: two unique new fantasy novels

Feature by Noah Fram

Magic, in some form or another, has been an integral part of human culture as long as people have told stories. It is an informal codification of the ineffable forces that lie just outside human understanding, whether it manifests as the will of the gods, the encroachment of a chthonic netherworld or parallel realm or an arcane incantation by candlelight. As a genre, fantasy has contended with this uncertain nature in every way imaginable, and a great many contemporary writers have concocted beautifully detailed magic systems to govern their fantastic realms. But few writers make the attempt to uncover the system behind magic quite as central to their stories as W.M. Akers and Molly Tanzer.

Gilda Carr, the heroine of Akers’ Westside Saints, is a detective specializing in “small mysteries,” such as finding a lost glove or a specific shade of blue. But her natural skepticism often drives her, against her best intentions, to turn her small mysteries into quests to explain the bizarre happenings occurring around her in an alternate Manhattan during the 1920s. For Gilda, human rules that forbid lock-picking and govern social status are irrelevant and easily broken, but natural rules—shadows should not eat people, the dead should stay dead—matter a great deal. So when those immutable laws begin to mutate, Gilda sets off to uncover why, resulting in a magical mystery that ends by revealing not only the agent responsible for the chaos, but also the mechanism they manipulated, warped or outright broke to accomplish it.

In a very real sense, Akers’ stories are about his magical system, probing the limitations of reality and what happens when it is unexpectedly torn. This process is enabled by the strength of his leads, especially Gilda herself, whose practicality and sentiment are constantly at loggerheads. Akers can be a touch matter-of-fact regarding significant events, but his characterization and magic-building are as believable as it gets.

Tanzer’s Creatures of Charm and Hunger, on the other hand, is set in a world where the discipline of summoning demons, called “diabolism,” is not only real, but constrained to a kind of incremental scientific inquiry. This constraint is itself a source of frustration for Jane Blackwood, a budding diabolist whose thirst for glamour is barely slaked by the staid, bookish approach her mother Nancy, the Librarian for the leading diabolist society, favors. Jane’s fellow apprentice, Miriam Cantor, a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, is perfectly at home among the stacks and catalogues. When Miriam’s parents disappear into the shadows of the Third Reich amid whispers of treachery, she begins delving ever deeper into the most dangerous branches of diabolism.

Tanzer’s masterful depiction of the relationships among Jane, Miriam and Nancy meshes perfectly with the precision of her magical system. Jane’s ambition and insecurity, along with Miriam’s drive and idealism, run up against immutable limits of diabolism, and their inability to transcend Tanzer’s rules is itself the cause of inevitable tragedy.

Both books are excellent examples of how novel magical systems can drive entire narratives. Westside Saints and Creatures of Charm and Hunger are more than deserving of the spotlight, and are wonderful examples of this remarkable trend in fantasy writing today.

Magic, in some form or another, has been an integral part of human culture as long as people have told stories. But few writers make the attempt to uncover the system behind magic quite as central to their stories as W.M. Akers and Molly Tanzer.

NonfictionParentingFamily & Relationships

Distinguished dads

Feature by Julie Hale

Focusing on famous fathers, these books provide one-of-a-kind insights into the duties of dadhood and the triumphs and trials of parenting. 

Let’s Never Talk About This Again

In Let’s Never Talk About This Again, Sara Faith Alterman, producer of “The Mortified Podcast,” tells the strange-but-true story of her seemingly conservative father, Ira, and his surprising career as a popular author of novelty sex books. As a dad, Ira is attentive, loving and, to all appearances, a fuddy-duddy of the first order—the sort of guy who insists on saying “bottom” instead of “butt” and considers coffee an adult beverage. Alterman learns about his writing life at the age of 12 when she discovers a collection of his titles in the living room. Ira’s kinky vocation is a topic that goes unbroached in the family for years, until he’s diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and decides to make a comeback in the bawdy book business.

From this surreal family scenario, Alterman has crafted a narrative that’s affectionate yet fierce, filled with lively anecdotes of her Boston upbringing and with soul-searching exploration as she works to reconcile the conflicting sides of Ira, who died in 2015 at the age of 70. “A cheddar sharp cheeseball who couldn’t resist a pun” is how Alterman describes him, but, as she comes to realize, Ira was also a passionate person with a private inner life. Alterman is a top-notch comic writer, and fans of Chris Offutt’s memoir My Father the Pornographer or the podcast “My Dad Wrote a Porno” will especially love this smart, compelling chronicle of family connections and the foibles and contradictions that make us human.

The New One

Comedian Mike Birbiglia comes to terms with his own foibles as a father in The New One: Painfully True Stories From a Reluctant Dad. In this funny, candid memoir, which was inspired by his hit Broadway show The New One, Birbiglia muses upon his former—and profound—aversion to becoming a father, the path that brought him to parenthood and the ways in which playing the role of papa has forever altered him.

Birbiglia is a stand-up comedy star and actor (“Broad City,” “Orange Is the New Black”), and he’s as amusing on the page as he is onstage and on-screen. An affable narrator with humility and good humor, he tracks his evolution from a guy who’s resolute about not reproducing to a father whose laptop holds 4,326 photos of his infant daughter. Along the way, he opens up about the toll of traveling for comedy gigs and his ongoing weight and health struggles.

But his main focus is newbie parenthood with its attendant adjustments, such as when he’s forced to relinquish his beloved couch—the first item of furniture he purchased as an adult—to his daughter, because it’s the only place she’ll sleep. (He describes this experience as being “evicted from your own life.”) His perspectives are complemented by clever poems from his wife, J. Hope Stein, which appear throughout the book. Seasoned and rookie dads alike will appreciate Birbiglia’s comic riffs on family life. His memoir is a can’t-miss gift that’s sure to make ’em laugh.

To Me, He Was Just Dad

Celebrity dads take center stage in the anthology To Me, He Was Just Dad: Stories of Growing Up With Famous Fathers, edited by Joshua David Stein. An intriguing collection of essays written by the children of actors, authors, inventors, sports heroes and scientists, the book gives readers the lowdown on what it’s like to be raised by a legend.

Frequently funny and consistently intimate, the essays reveal surprising truths about their subjects. Erin Davis shares fond on- and offstage memories of his dad, Miles Davis, that belie the musician’s brooding public persona. Isabelle Bridges Boesch recalls cherished childhood moments with her father, actor Jeff Bridges. Having the Dude for a dad, she writes, is “like having the greatest, most imaginative friend in the world.” Zoe Jackson, daughter of Samuel L. Jackson, describes the swaggering, unflappable star as “a big nerd, in the best way possible.”

In the book’s introduction, Stein asks, “How wide is the gap between what the public thinks of notable men and what the sons or daughters of those men experience?” These essays offer an answer. Kurt Vonnegut, Leonard Nimoy, Carl Sagan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar are also included in this showcase of prominent papas. Rare family photos give the book extra appeal. Stein, who is editor-at-large at Fatherly, a digital brand that offers parenting resources, delivers a great read for dads everywhere with this touching tribute to family men.

In honor of Father's Day, we’ve lined up a trio of terrific reads that are sure to please Pop.
YA FictionYA

A Pride parade for your bookshelf

Feature by Heather Seggel

LGBTQ+ characters are more visible than ever in young adult literature. The protagonists of these books navigate intersectionality, injustice and romance, and their stories are welcome additions to the growing canon of queer YA lit.

Felix Ever After is a love story that emerges in the aftermath of a frightening act of cruelty. Felix Love wants nothing more than to live up to his name by falling in love, but as a black, queer, trans guy, he worries that his labels sometimes make it hard for people to see his heart. When someone at school viciously outs him, Felix must uncover who did it—and who his true friends are.

Author Kacen Callender brings Felix’s New York City home to vibrant life, incorporating sensory details that make a day spent hanging out in the park feel like a grand adventure. Felix’s first-person narration is as intense as his emotional landscape, but Callender’s portrayal of what it feels like to be young and constantly playing defense against the world rings with truth. The book’s title hints at Felix’s happy ending, but getting there takes a harrowing journey across a social minefield, so witnessing Felix come out on top, with good people on his side, feels that much sweeter.

Robin Talley’s Music From Another World bounces between Northern and Southern California in 1977. Tammy lives in Orange County and is deep in the closet because of her conservative Christian family. Sharon lives in San Francisco, has a brother who is gay and is immersing herself in the city’s punk scene. The girls connect via a school pen pal project, and Talley relays their stories through diary entries and letters until destiny leads them to meet in person.

The history depicted here is well worth revisiting or, for teens, uncovering for the first time. Talley doesn’t pull any punches when she describes Anita Bryant’s hateful “Save Our Children” campaign or the activism it provoked. As with Felix’s New York, 1970s San Francisco is a star player here. Sharon lives in an uptight Irish Catholic neighborhood, but the Castro district is just a bus ride away, and change is in the air. This is a story of friendship, love and the ways music can fuel both, set at a pivotal moment in the struggle for gay rights. (This reader, who still owns Patti Smith’s Horses on vinyl, hopes teens will explore the music as much as the history.)

Kelly Quindlen’s Late to the Party is a perfect summer read. Codi and her two BFFs, Maritza and JaKory, are all queer and spend most of their time hanging out in her basement and watching TV 24/7. Lately, though, they’ve been feeling burned out on one another and have begun to seek out new experiences. Maritza and JaKory take for granted that Codi is more of a late bloomer than they are, but while they’re not paying attention, she slips away from them, makes new friends and falls for a girl. When they find out she’s done all this without telling them, there’s a reckoning to be had.

The pacing here is so relaxed, you can practically feel the sticky humidity of an Atlanta summer grinding the bustle of life to a halt. Scenes of summer parties and the slow process of Codi getting to know new people and letting her guard down around them—while keeping a tangled web of secrets—feel realistic. The tentative romance between Codi and Lydia is sweet and languid; they have time to warm to one another and work through their nervousness. Codi’s friendship with Ricky, who welcomes her into his social circle under complex circumstances (she did him a great kindness but also saw something he wants kept quiet), is simultaneously warm and fraught with insecurities on both sides.

The most radical thing about Late to the Party is its unabashed sentimentality, which never veers into sanctimony or didacticism. It’s just teens growing together, growing apart and growing up—but somehow that’s exactly enough.

Three novels tell the stories of queer teens and celebrate all the ways that love keeps winning.
Children's & YAPicture Book

Shelter from the storm

Feature by Julie Danielson

When there’s thunder and lightning, people and wild creatures alike head for safe places to stay dry and ride out dangerous weather. Two beautiful and reassuring new picture books relate stories of characters who shelter together during summer thunderstorms. 

Together We Grow is the debut picture book from Susan Vaught, neuropsychologist by day and author by night, who has something to say about inclusion in this tale of barn creatures facing a harsh nighttime storm. In spare, eloquent rhyming couplets—“Lightning gash! Windy lash!”—the book opens as fierce weather drives a frightened fox and its cubs to a barn full of animals. After the animals tell the fox to scram (“Go away! We’re full today!”), a small, unassuming duck heads outside to assist the fox family and convince the other animals to allow some space in the barn—and in their hearts. 

Illustrator Kelly Murphy employs a color palette of deep, rich blues that juxtapose marvelously against the vivid oranges and yellows of the foxes, the duck and the warm light of the barn’s interior. Several spreads, including those toward the end of the book when the storm has passed, are lush and cinematic, and Murphy wields light and shadow to dramatic effect. The two-page spread in which the duck calls to the fox and its family to invite them inside is particularly striking; the duck stands in front of a block of yellow interior barn light, which accentuates the hope and promise embedded in an otherwise foreboding scene. Unusual perspectives and angles, many of them aerial, make for visually dynamic moments. 

Vaught’s depiction of furry farm life leans toward anthropomorphism, avoiding the messy biology of the food chain as it delivers a poignant message about embracing those who are different and caring for neighbors during difficult circumstances: “Learn and show / together we grow.” 

When the Storm Comes also unfolds in rhyming couplets, but author Linda Ashman adds a call-and-response structure: “Where do you go when the sky turns gray— / When the grasses bend and the treetops sway? / We gather here below the eaves. / We roost beneath some sturdy leaves.” Ashman’s use of the first-person collective “we” suggests that we’re all in this together. Like Vaught, Ashman considers how various creatures, including humans, respond to dangerous weather. Some of these creatures—a house cat, a pet dog—dwell indoors, while others, such as a hive of bees and a family of rabbits nestled in a hollow log, make their homes outside. Ashman’s narrative continues into the storm’s aftermath, depicting both cleanup efforts and a communal celebration of sunny skies. 

Illustrator Taeeun Yoo sets When the Storm Comes in a coastal town; among the humans’ preparation efforts, boats must be latched and tied in this neck of the woods. The comforting curves of Yoo’s linework give way to harder lines of flashing lightning and driving rains as the tempest arrives. Though storms are scary, there’s a cozy feeling when all the humans, along with the pet dog, gather inside to play a game, share stories and “curl up tight.” Once the storm has passed, Yoo returns to her signature soft and warm illustrations in this satisfying story of community.

These two books offer children an empathetic look at what it’s like for animals who fear storms just like we humans do. Readers will be comforted to see communities come together to stay safe during wild weather.

When there’s thunder and lightning, people and wild creatures alike head for safe places to stay dry and ride out dangerous weather. Two beautiful and reassuring new picture books relate stories of characters who shelter together during summer thunderstorms. 

Together We Grow is the debut picture…

Children's & YAPicture Book

Tips for Teachers: Friendship

Feature by Emmie Stuart

Tips for Teachers is a monthly column in which experienced teacher and children’s librarian Emmie Stuart shares book recommendations and a corresponding teaching guide for fellow elementary school teachers.

I’ve been meeting with my students virtually for about eight weeks. Last week, I asked them to share what they miss most about school. Most of them answered without hesitation: They miss their friends.

Childhood friendships are some of the most formative, intense and enriching friendships we’ll ever have. My best friend from kindergarten came to town this weekend. Spending time with her renewed my weary spirit and reminded me that there is life beyond face masks and virtual happy hours. As Alexander McCall Smith writes in The Ladies’ No. 1 Detective Agency, “You can go through life and make new friends every year—every month practically—but there was never any substitute for those friendships of childhood.”

The following two books demonstrate the tenderness and joy of childhood friendships.

My Best Friend
By Julie Fogliano, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki

A little girl meets a new friend at a park. Her new friend “laughs at everything” and is “so smart.” The two girls learn more about each other as they twirl, create, pretend and explore the park together. Their adventures and commonalities lead the narrator to the conclusion that “she is my best friend / i think.” Only at the story’s end does author Julie Fogliano reveal that the girls have yet to know each other’s names.

Making predictions before reading
Students who are asked to make predictions before they read will form connections between their own personal knowledge and what they discover in a book. This is a great strategy for keeping readers actively engaged.

Before reading, hold up the cover of My Best Friend and ask, “What do you predict will happen to the two girls you see here? Why do you think the illustrator used only two shades of colors? Do you have a best friend? What makes a best friend? How do we make new friends?”

The whole book approach
Educator and children’s literature scholar Megan Dowd Lambert created the whole book approach as a way to invite children to engage with all the parts of a picture book—not just the story but also the illustrations and production and design elements—in order to support both visual and verbal literacy. My Best Friend provides ample opportunities to try this approach with young readers. Here are some elements you can discuss.

Typography
Text placement throughout the book varies; there are only a few capital letters (the words “LOVES” and “HATES” are written in all caps), and the only punctuation is a period after the book’s final phrase. Show students the page with “skeleton hand” leaves; the word “Boo” is capitalized and set in a larger size that spans across the page. Ask, “How does the size and shape of this word show us how to read it?” A few cursive letters illustrate the narrator’s “fanciest” handwriting. Ask students whether they think these letters are part of the book’s text or its illustrations.

Color
My Best Friend employs a limited color palette dominated by warm, rosy peaches and deep forest greens. Ask students why they think illustrator Jillian Tamaki chose these colors.

Lines and white space
The illustrations’ ample white space and the book’s white background keep visual focus on the book’s vignettes and full-spread images. Several of the vignettes run off the edge of the page. The illustrations contain many fine lines that add texture and movement, and the girls’ adventures are dominated by curves and swirling lines. Prompt students to speculate about what kinds of artistic materials illustrator Jillian Tamaki used to create the images. What is the effect of her choice to “cut off” some of the images on the edge of the page?

Production elements
Underneath the dust jacket, the book’s case cover features a wraparound illustration of the girls playing hide-and-seek. Ask students to reflect on this image before and after reading the book. The book’s front and back endpapers are a warm chestnut shade of brown, while its back jacket is forest green. Ask students to speculate about why these two colors were chosen. The book has a strong portrait orientation. Discuss why this shape was the best choice for the book.

Cross-curricular activities
With a little creative thinking, it’s easy to create activities that incorporate picture books into many parts of the curriculum. Here are a few ideas for activities to extend learning after reading My Best Friend.

Personal reflection
Discuss what activities students like to do with friends. What is something about ourselves that our good friends understand? Invite younger students to respond to these prompts and the discussion through drawings or other visual art. Invite older students to respond through journaling.

Nature art
The two girls in My Best Friend make skeleton hands out of leaves. Take students outside and give them time to create something from items they find. Divide them into small groups to share their creations.

Similarities and opposites
The narrator of My Best Friend hates strawberry ice cream, but her new best friend loves it. Divide students into pairs and let them interview each other. Each pair must determine one way in which they are alike and one way in which they are different. Gather students back together and prompt them to share what they learned about one another.

Creative movement
The narrator makes her new friend laugh by pretending to be a pickle. Divide students into pairs. Ask one partner to name a noun; their partner must act out the word.

How to Be a Pirate
By Isaac Fitzgerald, illustrated by Brigette Barrager

When her aspirations are squashed by neighborhood boys who tell her she can’t be a pirate, CeCe visits her grandfather. She asks him, “What’s it like to be a pirate?” Using his tattoos as inspiration, Grandpa tells CeCe that pirates are brave, quick, fun and independent—but the most important thing a pirate needs is love. Her spirit renewed, CeCe returns to the boys with an emboldened and tenacious spirit. How to Be a Pirate wonderfully explores themes of intergenerational friendship, self-confidence and imaginative play.

Dialogic read aloud
Read How to Be a Pirate once straight through without stopping. Then read it again and pause to ask the following questions and to discuss students’ responses.

  • How do you think CeCe feels on the title page of the book? What makes you say that?
  • Before CeCe goes inside Grandpa’s house, what do the illustrations tell us about Grandpa?
  • Once the illustrations show us Grandpa’s living room, what clues can you find to tell you even more about him?
  • Why does CeCe believe that Grandpa can teach her how to be a pirate?
  • Are CeCe and Grandpa really on a ship or in a jungle? What evidence can you find in the illustrations?
  • Do you notice anything about the dog?
  • Grandpa says pirates must be independent. Do you agree? Why or why not?
  • How does Grandpa show CeCe that he loves her?
  • What other traits can you think of that would help CeCe face the boys and be a pirate?

Writing letters
Ask students to think about different types of friends. For many students, conceptualizing a grandparent, a beloved pet or a cousin as a “friend” will be a novel idea, so ask students to think about a friend who is not in their classroom or in their grade level. Give them time to make a list of the ways this friend enriches their life, then guide students in transforming their lists into letters to their friends. Be sure to provide logistical instructions on how to fold, address and mail the letter.

Future homes
Readers learn so much about Grandpa through Brigette Barrager’s illustrations of his home. Ask students about their goals for when they are older. Provide pieces of oversized drawing paper and drawing supplies and challenge them to draw a house that reflects their future aspirations. For example, a librarian’s house might have lots of bookshelves and a Little Free Library in the front yard. An artist’s or musician’s home might have a studio. Encourage them to add details to their houses’ interiors and exteriors.

Gender stereotypes
Children receive messages about gender norms from birth. Invite students to categorize imaginative play activities as “for girls” or “for boys.” Let their responses guide you toward questions that give them space to consider why they consider activities to be divided between these categories. Provide time for them to share moments when they were excluded from playing with others or stereotyped because of their gender.

Tips for Teachers is a monthly column in which experienced teacher and children’s librarian Emmie Stuart shares book recommendations and a corresponding teaching guide for fellow elementary school teachers.

I’ve been meeting with my students virtually for about eight weeks. Last week, I…

Romance

Digital devotion: two modern epistolary romances

Feature by Dolly R. Sickles

I am a military brat who spent the first four years of my life on a base in Hanau, Germany. My grandmother sent me a care package once a week with Band-Aids, Scotch tape, McDonaldland cookies and a letter. So began my love of epistolary relationships. As an adult, I write regular letters to our son and his friends in college and send postcards to friends from my adventures around the world. It’s thrilling to see epistolary relationships in literature. Some people may think sending letters is outdated, but when we are far from those we love, letters offer a lifeline. Not since Nick Bantock’s Griffin and Sabine series have I found two such charming stories of love and romance and notes.

British author Jenny Colgan’s 500 Miles From You made me smile from start to finish. Written in three parts, it’s a charming yarn from across the pond. Despite the sad circumstances that introduce us to nurse Lissa Westcott, this is a hopeful, beautifully written story. On a day that changes her life forever, Lissa witnesses a hit-and-run accident that kills Kai, a young man she knows. She accompanies him to the hospital, performing CPR all the while, yet he still dies. Five hundred and eighty-three miles north by northwest is Cormac MacPherson, an army veteran and nurse/paramedic.

Lissa’s unsuccesful struggle to save Kai’s life results in a signficant mental cost for her. In an attempt to help Lissa “recalibrate” and deal with her trauma, her company sends her to a tiny town in the Scottish Highlands. Cormac’s town. The result, of course, is that he swaps places with her in London. Despite the carrot dangled in front of him for moving up the corporate ladder, Cormac knows the exchange program is a way to send the “burnouts” to the countryside to recuperate. But as it turns out, the exchange program was the right move. In working together over email, consulting on cases and learning about each other, Cormac and Lissa click.

Historical romances often use notes and letters as a device for conversation, and though Colgan uses electronic mail rather than snail mail, she creates a refreshing, slow-building romance. Lissa and Cormac learn as much about themselves as they do each other, and despite the panic both face in deciding to actually speak on the phone or meet in person, the heart wants what the heart wants. This is a story that will make the reader’s heart sigh.

Tash Skilton’s Ghosting: A Love Story is another lighthearted epistolary tale with a very modern, youthful vibe. There are so many things that work in this refreshing contemporary romance by first-time collaborators Sarvenaz Tash and Sarah Skilton. It’s part Sleepless in Seattle, part Roxanne and part “Friends.” It’s a perfect, ’90s-esque enemies-to-lovers rom-com, but for the new millennium.

Miles Ibrahim and Zoey Abot are ghostwriters who work for competing online dating sites in New York City. They spend their workdays in the digital realm, meeting, flirting and messaging clients. IRL, however, native New Yorker Miles vacillates between fury and heartbreak over his recent breakup with his fiancé, who’s now pregnant (and suspiciously farther along than originally purported). New-to-town Zoey feels unwelcome, and yearns for space to herself and room to breathe.

Skilton weaves a tale full of pop-culture references, meet-cutes and geek-speak that will be like catnip to digital natives. The dialogue is quick, snappy and smart. Readers need to be as up on their literary references (Miles refers to his parents’ relationship as a “Capulet/Montague saga”) as they are on their Instagrammable moments. Miles is Egyptian American and Jewish, and refers to himself as a “millennial multitasking Jewslim,” and Zoey is Filipina American; they are the embodiment of the multicultural time and place in which they’re falling in love.

Between two sets of families, friends and dating app clients, there are admittedly a lot of characters to keep up with. It’s prophetic that their respective clients, Bree and Jude, fall for each other; they are, after all, somewhat alternate versions of Miles and Zoey. The steady tension of Miles continuing to dwell on his broken engagement, and Zoey learning that her frenemy Miles is the online personality she fell for, slows the pace somewhat. But it’s hard to hold it against this young, trendy and effortlessly cool debut.

I am a military brat who spent the first four years of my life on a base in Hanau, Germany. My grandmother sent me a care package once a week with Band-Aids, Scotch tape, McDonaldland cookies and a letter. So began my love of epistolary…

Fiction

Disturbing tales to keep readers up late—with the lights on

Feature by Julie Hale

Horror fans, these two tomes of terror are guaranteed to get under the skin.

In Zoje Stage’s sublimely suspenseful Wonderland, ominous forces are at work in the Adirondack woods. After years of hectic urban life, former ballet dancer Orla and her husband, Shaw, give up their cramped New York City co-op and relocate upstate. With their 9-year-old daughter, Eleanor Queen, and 4-year-old son, Tycho, they move into a spacious old farmhouse set on six acres of wilderness. 

From the start, Orla senses that something is off about their new home. Instances of weird, oppressive weather, including a surprise blizzard and strange movements in the trees, keep her on edge. When an invisible presence seems to be reaching out to Eleanor Queen, it becomes clear that the surrounding forest harbors a world of supernatural terror. After a tragic accident occurs, Orla alone must face up to the strange powers she senses all around them. 

Stage, whose 2018 debut novel, Baby Teeth, garnered widespread praise, is a literary horror writer on the rise. Her refined prose and knack for emphasizing small but disquieting details make Wonderland a standout summer suspense selection. Reader be warned: The woods will never look the same once you read Stage’s latest.

Paul Tremblay pushes a pandemic plotline to horrifying new heights in Survivor Song. Set in Massachusetts, this spookily prescient thriller features a new strain of rabies that’s infecting the human population. Those who catch the highly contagious disease go mad, attack others and die. 

In Boston, pediatrician Ramola Sherman is contacted by her pregnant friend Natalie, whose husband was killed by a virus-­infected neighbor. That neighbor also attacked Natalie, and if she doesn’t get a rabies shot soon, she will succumb to the malady. Together, Ramola and Natalie set out in search of help. But hospitals are overrun by infected patients, and curfew measures have been put in place across the state. As the two women press on, they encounter armed mobs and demented victims of the disease.

This propulsive tale of contagion finds Tremblay, bestselling author of The Cabin at the End of the World, in top form. He offers a poignant central character in Natalie, who, as she fights to survive, records voice messages for her unborn child. Survivor Song is a horror narrative of the highest order, and much of it feels eerily real in light of the COVID-19 crisis. “We’ve been quarantined. Nice knowing everybody,” writes a Facebook user in the novel. Can Paul Tremblay predict the future? Let’s hope not.

Horror fans, these two tomes of terror are guaranteed to get under the skin.

In Zoje Stage’s sublimely suspenseful Wonderland, ominous forces are at work in the Adirondack woods. After years of hectic urban life, former ballet dancer Orla and her husband, Shaw, give up their…

AudioMemoir

Audio: July 2020

Feature by Anna Zeitlin

Personal stories and puppy meet-cutes top our summer audio selections.

★ Dirt

Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking, written and narrated by journalist Bill Buford, is a foodie’s fantasy. Wanting to immerse himself in French cooking, Buford moves his family from New York to France, where he finds a job at a boulangerie that makes the best bread he’s ever tasted (the secret is the fresh flour) before enrolling in a traditional cooking school, then working in a fine dining restaurant. All the while, his young sons are losing their taste for delivery pizza. Buford is the perfect narrator for his book, as he brings joy and curiosity to all he uncovers. He treats French cooking as a mystery to unravel, tracing its roots back hundreds of years and digging for clues in the margins of secondhand cookbooks. His true passion for food makes his descriptions a pleasure to hear, even when it’s a dish I wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot fork.

The Hilarious World of Depression

John Moe brings hope, humanity and candor to the taboo topic of depression in The Hilarious World of Depression. On his podcast of the same name, he has conducted hours of interviews with actors, comedians and writers with this mental illness, including John Green, Aimee Mann and Andy Richter, and he mines these conversations to share what he has learned about depression. Moe also relates deeply personal stories of how depression has touched his own life. Having honed his skills over years in public radio and podcasting, Moe is a great narrator, finding humor in the topic but never making light of it. Add this one to the list of audiobooks that are even better than the books.

The Happy Ever After Playlist

As a new puppy parent, I was immediately hooked by the doggy meet-cute in Abby Jimenez’s The Happy Ever After Playlist. Sloan, a grieving artist and food blogger, and Jason, a rising rock star, are brought together when she finds his lost dog while he’s overseas. They bond over their love for the dog, and a flirty phone relationship blossoms into something more when he returns to Los Angeles. It takes Sloan a while to realize he’s the man behind the music, and the book has a lot of fun playing with the concept of celebrity. Their story is told from both perspectives, and narrators Erin Mallon and Zachary Webber do a good job capturing their voices. The interplay between the two narrators keeps things dynamic and brings readers closer to Sloan and Jason’s love story.

Personal stories and puppy meet-cutes top our summer audio selections.
Romance

Romance: July 2020

Feature by Christie Ridgway

Practical work to build a long-lasting romance leads to a guaranteed HEA for the couples in these three love stories.

★ About a Rogue

A marriage of convenience becomes more in About a Rogue, the latest historical romance by Caroline Linden. As one of three men in line for a dukedom, Maximilian St. James is exhorted to rehabilitate his reputation. Max, wallet empty and ever the pragmatist, offers marriage to the elder daughter of a successful ceramics maker. But after his intended elopes with someone else, he ends up “I do”-ing with her younger sister, Bianca. Watching them go from cool companions to passionate husband and wife is warmly satisfying. There is no hot flash of insta-lust or even the slow burn of banked longing. Instead, true regard grows naturally as Max and Bianca learn about each other through work, friends and shared interests.

Just a Heartbeat Away

Cara Bastone delivers a cozy and charming Brooklyn-set romance in Just a Heartbeat Away. After his wife’s death, Sebastian Dorner shifted his life to focus on his young son. While serving as lunch monitor at his son’s elementary school, he’s surprised by the sparks that fly between him and school counselor Via DeRosa. But she’s got a boyfriend, and Seb’s convinced their 15-year age gap is a deal breaker. However, the pair bumps into each other so often at school and in their shared neighborhood that the attraction grows unstoppable. Bastone explores universal themes of grief, love and parenthood through Seb’s and Via’s relatable fears and hang-ups in this heartwarming story.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Vanessa Riley opens up about what she’d like to see more of historical romance.

A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby

A secret group dedicated to helping ill-­treated widows takes up the case of West Indian heiress Patience Jordan in A Duke, the Lady, and a Baby by Vanessa Riley. Patience is determined to reunite with her infant son and return to her island home. But the arrival of her son’s guardian, a heroic soldier and powerful duke named Busick Strathmore, means she must masquerade as the child’s nanny until she can secure their escape. Riley opens up the world of Regency romance by depicting a heroine whose society views her as the Other and pairing her with a powerful man whose war wounds now cause him to see himself differently. There’s wordplay and swordplay in this not-to-be-missed romance, plus subtle love scenes that prove Patience and Busick’s mettle as helpmeets and lovers.

Practical work to build a long-lasting romance leads to a guaranteed HEA for the couples in these three love stories.

★ About a Rogue

A marriage of convenience becomes more in About a Rogue, the latest historical romance by Caroline Linden. As one of three men in…

NonfictionCrafts, Hobbies & HomeCookbooks

Lifestyles: July 2020

Feature by Susannah Felts

Three books invite you to bake delicious, vegan treats; learn to walk more lightly on the planet and travel by tent with children in tow.

★ Perfectly Golden

Angela Garbacz makes her cookbook debut with Perfectly Golden, a trove of treats from her popular bakery, Goldenrod Pastries in Lincoln, Nebraska. Garbacz became devoted to dietary-­inclusive baking after developing a dairy sensitivity, and her bakery uses nondairy milks exclusively (almond is her go-to). Here she reveals her top tricks for delicious sweets that are also gluten free and vegan, including decadent buns, cakes, cookies and more. (You can make any of the recipes in the traditional way, too, using cow’s milk and eggs.) While this bright and cheerful cookbook is decidedly contemporary in its methods, Garbacz bakes from a strong family tradition, and she includes tweaked versions of old favorites, such as her mom’s turtle cookies: cooked in a waffle iron and dolloped with peanut butter frosting. It’s truly a guide to sweets for all tastes and preferences.

An Almost Zero Waste Life

You probably think that a zero-waste life sounds appealing. You may also think it sounds exhausting to achieve. I’m with you on both counts, but after exploring the solutions offered by Megean Weldon in An Almost Zero Waste Life, I’m newly enthusiastic about my family’s ability to slash our trash. Weldon is practical in her guidance, and she urges readers to use up their disposables before replacing them with sustainable alternatives. After that, small changes start to add up: Snip old T-shirts into rags, start composting and cook more homemade food. I especially like Weldon’s weekly menu examples, designed to cut vegetable waste, and her section on holidays, which includes a list of 101 zero-waste gift ideas.

See You at the Campground

Though See You at the Campground was published earlier this spring, I think it deserves a shout-out now as we enter prime camping season. Parents and podcasters Stephanie and Jeremy Puglisi lay out the pros and cons of vacationing via tent, RV or cabin and are forthcoming about their missteps as they learned to navigate the great outdoors with their three sons. Now seasoned experts, they share packing lists, choice campgrounds, campfire grub, campground etiquette and advice for exploring national parks. Armed with this book, even the most avid camper will be better prepared for the next adventure with children in tow.

Three books invite you to bake delicious, vegan treats; learn to walk more lightly on the planet and travel by tent with children in tow.

★ Perfectly Golden

Angela Garbacz makes her cookbook debut with Perfectly Golden, a trove of treats from her popular bakery, Goldenrod…

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