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Children's & YAPicture Book

Yes, even the mice: Christmas picture books with tiny protagonists and big hearts

Feature by Alice Cary

Kind and generous mice are the stars of the show in two sparkling picture books that prove that no heart is too small to spread the joy of Christmas.

When Clement Clarke Moore penned his famous holiday poem in the early 19th century, he had no way to know that “A Visit From St. Nicholas,” as it was originally titled, would become one of the most beloved Christmas verses of all time. He certainly couldn’t have imagined how famous the lines “Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse” would become.

But according to Tracey Corderoy and Sarah Massini’s Mouse’s Night Before Christmas, there was, in fact, a mouse stirring on that Yuletide evening. In this alternate version of events, a lonely mouse is spending the night gazing in awe at the tree, decorations and gifts of the human family whose house he shares while wishing he had a friend to celebrate with. When Santa lands (with a clatter, naturally) on the lawn, having lost his way in a snowstorm, Mouse offers to act as his guide and help save the day. Will Santa make Mouse’s Christmas wish come true?

Corderoy recounts her heartwarming mouse-capade in rhyming verses that reflect the spirit of Moore’s original poem. In lines such as “He was quiet, and careful, and ever so neat— / quite the best little helper that Santa could meet!” she strikes the perfect balance between honoring Moore’s phrasing and adding her own lively twists.

Illustrator Massini’s wonder-filled images anchor the book in gorgeous pastel hues with splashes of holiday red on Santa’s suit, the reindeer's harnesses and Mouse’s dashing scarf. As Santa’s sleigh soars across the sky, it leaves a trail of bluish-white stars in its wake that contrast beautifully against the dark and wintry night sky. Massini’s work is filled with texture: the spiky needles of the Christmas tree, the curly wisps of Santa’s beard, the colorful knits of the handmade stockings hanging from the mantel.

Mouse’s Night Before Christmas is a joyful addition to the canon of Christmas picture books. It’s steeped in tradition, holiday magic and the happiness that comes from helping others and sharing joy with someone special.

A mouse named Mistletoe already has a best buddy, an elephant named Norwell, in Tad Hills' Mistletoe: A Christmas Story, a tale of unlikely friendship that will call to mind Arnold Lobel’s beloved Frog and Toad adventures.

Lively and determined, Mistletoe is an avid knitter whose lace collars, jolly striped tights and matching red cap, coat and boots epitomize prim-and-proper fashion. Norwell is a thoughtful artist who loves to stay cozy indoors, while Mistletoe loves nothing better than being outside in the falling snow. Try as she might, tiny Mistletoe can’t convince her friend to join her. Sitting by Norwell’s fire and enjoying each other’s company, they each begin to plan a Christmas surprise for the other.

Like Lobel, Hills uses understated humor throughout the story to underscore the differences between his two characters and highlight their friendship in ways guaranteed to bring a smile to readers both young and old. “Just a drop for me, and a cookie crumb, please,” Mistletoe says when offered tea. Later, as Mistletoe works night and day to knit a gift for Norwell, she “realizes two things: one, sometimes you don’t have enough yarn, and two, elephants are big!” The creator of the bestselling Duck and Goose series, Hills is hardly a stranger to odd-couple friendships, and his lively prose energizes this otherwise quiet tale.

Using a palette of bright, bold colors, Hills skillfully alternates lively panels, full-page illustrations and double-page spreads to depict Mistletoe’s holiday mission and reveal how she transforms her giant rainbow-colored balls of yarn into an enormous present for Norwell. Mistletoe knits everywhere—even in the bathtub ("which isn't easy")—in order to finish on time. Her efforts to haul her massive creation to Norwell’s house are especially comical.

A timeless story about appreciating and honoring differences among friends, Mistletoe merrily conveys the seasonal feeling of joy we experience when we share gifts from the heart.

Kind and generous mice are the stars of the show in two sparkling picture books that prove that no heart is too small to spread the joy of Christmas.

YA FictionYA

All the world’s a stage

Feature by Linda M. Castellitto

Teens who live for drama—class, club or otherwise—will give standing ovations to two YA novels centered on stagecraft and what goes on behind the scenes.

Superstition’s the thing in Robin Talley’s The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre. Sure, the Beaconville High School drama club honors traditional theater rituals such as no whistling backstage and saying “Break a leg” instead of “Good luck.” But under perfectionist stage manager Melody McIntyre’s leadership, there’s also an hilariously extensive spreadsheet of additional rituals and “countercurses” the club observes in order to prevent a catastrophe like the ones that’ve plagued BHS in the past (including a run of the Scottish play in which the theater burned down).

This year, the theater’s curse rears its head in particularly dramatic fashion: Melody gets dumped mid-performance by her girlfriend Rachel, the costume crew head, resulting in frantic efforts to handle missed cues and a painful and very personal conversation broadcast over the entire crew’s headsets. Afterward, the crew requests that Melody refrain from dating anyone else until after their upcoming production of Les Misérables has closed. It’s a wacky proposal, sure, but Mel sees their logic. Productions do seem more problem-plagued when she’s in a relationship, and she’s not feeling romantic after the breakup, anyway.

As actors and crew launch into a flurry of auditions, costume construction, lighting strategies and more, and a lovely new classmate who’s a professional actor catches Mel’s eye, Mel struggles to be true to herself without upsetting her friends. Is a problem-free production even possible?

Talley’s attention to detail, from cocoa that doubles as dirt on actors’ faces to the mechanics of various set pieces, is impressive, especially since, per her acknowledgements, she was never in a drama club herself. She also does an excellent, sharp-eyed yet sympathetic job portraying the groupthink that can occur in a tightknit bunch of people who are under great stress with a looming deadline: Everything feels like life or death, and anyone who does something unusual is suspect. The production’s trash-talking actors versus crew dynamic and the relentless countdown to opening night heighten the tension. Readers will delight in having a front-row seat for Talley’s funny, romantic tribute to high school theater in all its glory—both on stage and backstage.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Discover more great reads by YA author Robin Talley.

Audrey Winters’ senior year isn’t going as planned. Instead of swanning around with her beau Milo, she’s depressed in the aftermath of their breakup. She quit her beloved drama class so she wouldn’t have to see him, and she’s been avoiding her friends so she doesn’t have to talk about what happened between them. She’s also upset about the chaos at home. Her father cheated on and left her mother for his pregnant girlfriend a couple of years ago. Now, in the wake of his new insistence on selling their house, her mom’s been drinking too much, and her critical brother Dougie is absolutely no help.

It’s a state of affairs that would make anyone cynical and lonely, but things start to look up in Holly Bourne’s It Only Happens in the Movies when Audrey takes a job at Flicker Cinema in an effort to distract herself from her troubles. Enter her co-worker, Harry the flirty aspiring filmmaker. Multiple people warn Audrey to stay away from Harry, and she’s more than happy to, rejecting his advances with firm and wryly witty determination. Besides, the cinema’s really busy, she’s got to look after her mom and she’s working on a media studies project for school about the beautiful lies told by romantic comedies.

But as Audrey and Harry spend more time together at work and while filming his zombie movie after hours, she finds herself warming to Harry and, to her surprise, thinking that perhaps romance could be possible. Devotees of rom-coms will detect a familiar rhythm here, which is intentional: Bourne’s story follows a traditional romantic comedy arc while also serving as a critique of the genre. Through Audrey, Bourne questions filmmakers’ motivations, the cliches and tropes that have long been accepted and promoted by the genre, and the sexist underpinnings of it all.

It Only Happens in the Movies has a cinematic structure, too, complete with spot-on scene-setting (chapter titles include “The Chance Encounter” and “The Montage”) and character sketches (“The Best Friend Who Only Exists To Be Your Best Friend,” “The Bad Boy Who Changes His Ways Just For You”) that encapsulate essence of this popular genre with winking self-awareness. It’s a rewarding and grounded read with timely social commentary—and some fun with zombies, too.

Teens who live for drama—class, club or otherwise—will give standing ovations to two YA novels centered on stagecraft and what goes on behind the scenes.

NonfictionAudioMusic

Audio: February 2021

Feature by Anna Zeitlin

This month’s column highlights three monumental audiobooks from Dolly Parton, Michael Eric Dyson and Rachel Bloom.

★ I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are

Co-creator and star of the musical comedy TV show “Crazy Ex-­Girlfriend” Rachel Bloom presents a kooky collection of essays that are every bit as hilarious, brash and humiliating as you’d expect from a woman known for singing big Broadway-style numbers dedicated to stalking and antidepressants. I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are (5 hours) is a book made to be listened to, from Bloom’s original songs that detail her experiences growing up as a musical theater kid to her sample audition monologue in which she jumps from accent to accent in an absurd demonstration guaranteed to snag the attention of any casting directors out there. With a background in comedy, Bloom knows how to deliver a joke, and her narration is funny, touching and real.

Dolly Parton, Songteller

Any fans of Dolly Parton’s music will be delighted by Dolly Parton, Songteller (5.5 hours). The country music superstar goes deep, revealing the stories behind many of her greatest songs and digging in to family history, musical feuds and the interactions with fans that have inspired her songwriting. Parton’s narration feels natural and off the cuff, like listening to stories from an old friend—and isn’t she the most beloved old friend? It’s no surprise that an artist known for writing songs that tell rich stories would make for a captivating storyteller. Only on the audiobook can you hear clips of the songs she discusses, which makes the yarns around them all the more special.

Long Time Coming

The bestselling author of Tears We Cannot Stop taps into current events and calls for a reckoning with race in Long Time Coming (5 hours). Delivering a harsh but hopeful message, Michael Eric Dyson bears witness to the recent killings of Black men and women by the police and puts their violent deaths in context, tying them to history and our present moment. He zooms in on five hugely pivotal tragedies of racism, breaking down each element to its core as a way to understand it, preserve it for the ages and move forward. In particular, his recounting of George Floyd’s killing is haunting and vital. A professor at Georgetown University and an ordained minister, Dyson delivers hard-to-swallow truths with powerful and knowledgeable authority.

This month’s column highlights three monumental audiobooks from Dolly Parton, Michael Eric Dyson and Rachel Bloom.
Children's & YAPicture Book

Snowy days

Feature by Alice Cary

Ezra Jack Keats set the gold standard for snow stories with his Caldecott Medal-winning book, The Snowy Day, in 1962. Two picture books are worthy additions to his legacy.

A cold and snowy day has never been so cheery as in the delightful A Sled for Gabo, which contains a winning combination of picture and prose. Author Emma Otheguy’s rich text conveys both narrative and mood in an evocative but spare style, beginning with the opening spread: “The day it snowed Gabo followed the whistling sound of an old steam radiator into the kitchen.” Illustrator Ana Ramírez González paints the large, inviting kitchen in bright colors and includes a red table, a purple and orange stove, and walls covered in light blue paint and red, green and yellow tiles.

Gabo can’t wait to head outside to play, but he doesn’t have snow gear or a sled. His mother reassures him by saying, “Vamos a resolver”—Spanish words and phrases are skillfully sprinkled throughout the story—and equips her son with his father’s hat, multiple pairs of socks and plastic bags over his sneakers. With understated, matter-of-fact determination, she sends Gabo outside to solve his own problem.

Otheguy perfectly captures the meandering freedom of a child on the hunt for fun and adventure. Gabo, who is “much too shy for anyone just his age,” roams his lively neighborhood in search of a sled and encounters a variety of friendly adults, a stray cat and a frolicking dog. When one adult joyfully presents him with a cafeteria tray, Gabo can’t help feeling “very small and very sad” because he desperately wants a real sled. But before long, Gabo finds a new friend, a girl named Isa who quickly shows him that his tray will make an excellent sled.

Ramírez González bathes Gabo’s snowy outdoor world in warm tones. The sun gleams bright yellow, the houses sparkle with a multitude of colors, and reds, oranges and pinks burst forth from everything, including Gabo’s hat and his shoelaces. The illustrations accentuate how, in this welcoming neighborhood, everyone looks after one another—even the stray cat.

By the end of the day, Gabo has learned an important lesson about the joys of friendship and about sharing and making do with what you have. A Sled for Gabo’s friendly spirit will wrap itself around your heart like the warm helping of dulce de leche that Gabo and Isa share after their perfect day of sledding.

In Ten Ways to Hear Snow, a blizzard helps a young girl understand how her beloved grandmother copes with the difficulties of aging. Lina has been looking forward to making warak enab (stuffed grape leaves) with Sitti, her Lebanese grandmother. An evening snowstorm has left their city “muffled and white,” but that doesn’t stop Lini from heading to her grandmother’s nearby apartment.

Author Cathy Camper transforms Lina’s journey into a sparkling study of both keen observation and onomatopoeia. “Ploompf!” goes the powdery snow falling from a pine tree, and “swish-wish, swish-wish” is the sound of people brushing snow off their cars. Basking in every moment of this winter wonderland, Lina tallies nine different snowy sounds during her walk. Illustrator Kenard Pak’s images are full of muted tones and plenty of white space, which emphasizes the vast, quiet mood created by the newly fallen snow. His art sets the perfect stage for Lina to hear so many different and unfamiliar sounds.

Once Lina reaches her destination, the joy of her relationship with Sitti takes over the tale. Although Sitti is losing her eyesight, grandmother and granddaughter work side by side in her kitchen, filling grape leaves with lamb and rice. When Lina holds a grape leaf up to her nose and suggests that it looks like a mustache, a cheerful illustration shows the pair clowning around and taking selfies. Sitta may be getting older, but she remains independent, energetic and full of fun.

In a final, touching scene, Lina asks Sitti how she can see snow with her diminished eyesight, and the two discuss the importance of listening. Finally, hand in hand, they venture outside, where Sitti teaches her granddaughter one final way to hear snow. Ten Ways to Hear Snow is a quietly powerful story about the ways that both young and old can help each other adapt to a changing world, told with care and insight.

Ezra Jack Keats set the gold standard for snow stories with his Caldecott Medal-winning book, The Snowy Day, in 1962. Two picture books are worthy additions to his legacy.

Romance

Hilarious happy ever afters

Feature by Elizabeth Mazer

Dark and angsty romances certainly have their place, but laughter and love never go out of style. In these two romances, you will find not just humor and heart but also a pair of happily ever afters that remind you life goes on and love always finds a way.

Love’s path is more than a bit unconventional in Lauren Baratz-Logsted and Jackie Logsted’s Joint Custody, a story that feels a little like The Parent Trap and a little like the Disney short “Feast,” with a couple that has separated and a devoted dog that’s bound and determined to bring them back together again.

Three years before the beginning of the story, the couple in question, named only the Man and the Woman, connected when the Man, a reclusive but highly acclaimed author, adopted a dog and immediately met the Woman, a successful book editor. They bonded over their shared appreciation of good books and handsome (not cute) dogs, and love ensued. The dog is named after their mutual favorite book, The Great Gatsby, and Gatz becomes a major part of their courtship as the pair falls in love . . . and then ends up in an awkward shared custody situation when the relationship starts to fall apart.

The story is narrated in its entirety by Gatz, who loves pop culture references and has the same kind of wryly amused exasperation for his hapless humans that you might expect from a smarter-than-the-grownups kid in a rom-com. In fact, the story has a lot of classically screwball comedy Hollywood hijinks.

New York City’s publishing world is a crucial element of the story, providing not just a social circle for the characters but also a rival for the Woman in the form of an author she meets at the London Book Fair, spurring Gatz to new heights of matchmaking—and match sabotaging. You could say that the plot has some tricks up its sleeves, but of course, the protagonist doesn’t wear any. Perhaps: It has some surprises tucked under its tail, or a few unexpected treats in its doggie bags.

However you want to say it, the plot gets to its happy conclusion in a way you won’t expect, but the journey to get there is filled with all the fun and playfulness you could want, and some surprising warmth to close it all out.

“Warmth” certainly comes to mind when considering the main characters of The Worst Duke in the World. Continuing her delightful Penhallow Dynasty series, Lisa Berne introduces a hero and heroine so kind and pleasant and amiable that they seem almost entirely out of place in a 19th-century romance. If you’re looking for high drama, desperate passion, brooding and poetic heroes or delicate, swooning heroines, look elsewhere. There is a devastatingly handsome aristocrat in the story, but when the hero tries to imitate his smoldering eyes, he’s accused of squinting. The heroine does start off tragically impoverished and waifish—but when her circumstances change and food becomes readily available, she’s more than happy to take every opportunity to stuff down multiple sandwiches, several tea cakes, a few apple puff pastries and perhaps more chocolates than are good for her.

This well-fed heroine is Jane Kent, recently discovered to be the illegitimate offspring of the Penhallow clan. And her squinting sweetheart is Anthony Farr, the Duke of Radcliffe, who lives on the neighboring estate and is—according to his sister—the worst duke in the world. This is largely because he cares very little about being grand and snobby and marrying again to father more heirs, and very much about being a good landlord, a good father to his 8-year-old son and a good caretaker to the enormously fat prize pig that he named Duchess and which he hopes will win the weight contest at the local fair.

Not your typical dukely traits, perhaps, but such appealing ones, attached to such a gentle, awkward, good-humored, warmhearted man, that it’s hard to imagine wanting a duke to behave in any other way. And while Jane might make a more classic heroine if she were tormented with despair or haunted by her past, her sunny frankness and keen appetite—for sweets, yes, but also for knowledge and friendship—make her endlessly endearing.

As light as a meringue and as sweet as honey, this romance is deliciously satisfying down to the last drop.

Dark and angsty romances certainly have their place, but laughter and love never go out of style. In these two romances, you will find not just humor and heart but also a pair of happily ever afters that remind you life goes on and love always finds a way.
Science Fiction & Fantasy

Sci-fi & Fantasy: February 2021

Feature by Chris Pickens

A clone, a con artist and a girl touched by death grace this month's sci-fi & fantasy column.

★ Remote Control

A beautiful, sad, enthralling novella set in a futuristic Africa, Remote Control is a refreshing oasis of creativity. One day, an object fell from the sky and Fatima forgot her name. The encounter imbued her with terrible, destructive powers, and she gave herself a new name: Sankofa. With a fox companion and a reputation for bringing death to everyone she meets, she searches endlessly for the object in the hope of finding answers to the innumerable questions in her mind. Hugo Award winner Nnedi Okorafor is no stranger to the novella; her Binti trilogy is a laudable (and much lauded) example of how freeing the form can be. Remote Control never includes any detail that isn’t needed, and Okorafor’s word choices have a simple beauty. They’re elegiac, like a translation from a text recently restored to us from the sands of time. I implore you to discover this lovely, captivating story for yourself.

The Mask of Mirrors

Lush, engrossing and full of mystery and dark magic, The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick is sure to please fantasy readers looking to dial up the intrigue. In this first installment of a new trilogy, Renata Viraudax, a thief and con artist, travels to the city of Nadezra to infiltrate House Traementis, planning to take advantage of their weak position within the aristocracy. But she slowly discovers a sinister magical threat and an underbelly of corruption that threaten the stability of the city. Can she find the right allies in a place where everyone’s running a con of their own? The richness of Nadezra—the class systems, the detail with which things like clothing are rendered—is a joy, but the story itself also brims with intrigue, wonder and real pain. Jump in and get swept away.

The Echo Wife

When I read Sarah Gailey’s Magic for Liars, I was drawn in by their wit and nimble control over their prose. Their new novel, The Echo Wife, delivers a tight, thrilling and funny ride. Evelyn Caldwell, a brilliant pioneer in human cloning technology, isn’t happy. She’s haunted by her divorce from her cheating husband, with whom she shared her research. Martine is a clone of Evelyn, designed to be everything Evelyn is not: gentle, submissive and calm. When Martine calls Evelyn in the dead of night asking for help, the two women are forced to find a way to survive together. Gailey’s writing is controlled, visceral and especially dazzling when Martine and Evelyn are in a room together. Fans of “Big Little Lies,” The Island, Frankenstein and “Killing Eve” will love this gripping, skillfully told firecracker of a book.

A clone, a con artist and a girl touched by death grace this month's sci-fi & fantasy column.

Children's & YAPicture Book

Tips for Teachers: Building the future

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.

In September of 1940, a little more than a year before the United States entered World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered an address at the University of Pennsylvania on the occasion of its 300th anniversary. “We cannot always build the future for our youth,” he declared, “but we can build our youth for the future.”

We cannot create easy and utopian lives for our students, however much, as teachers, we might wish we could. But we must prepare students for the future by showing them how to be brave, responsible and compassionate. We must help them grow into thoughtful communicators, courageous leaders and gracious servants. One of the best ways we can do this is by introducing them to real people who, when they met with trials in their lives, held fast to their convictions.

These three books tell the stories of women who overcame challenges to make an impact on the world. But another, perhaps more important thread, also runs through each of these women’s lives: Their childhoods were shaped by the faithful encouragement and love of a caring adult. As you share these books with your students, remember that you, too, are building the future.

We Wait for the Sun
by Dovey Johnson Roundtree and Katie McCabe
illustrated by Raissa Figueroa 


Civil Rights activist Dovey Johnson Roundtree shares a childhood memory in We Wait for the Sun, recounting an early morning ritual she shared with her Grandma Rachel. “In the hour before dawn,” the pair slip into the cool night air and head to the forest where blackberries grow. Then, “as if by some secret signal,” other women appear and join in their “silent march” and “secret mission.” As they pick the berries, the women trade whispers and stories. When their buckets are brimming, Grandma Rachel pulls Roundtree into a hug and together they “watch the pink turn to red, the red to gold,” experiencing a glorious sunrise and the dawn of a new day together. We Wait for the Sun is a poignant tale that reveals the importance of noticing beauty in amid of suffering and captures the power of a grandmother’s love.

  • Narratives of small moments

We Wait for the Sun relates Roundtree’s memory of a small moment in time. Read other books that zoom in on a small moment, then discuss how the authors use descriptive language to make the memory come alive. Find examples of sensory language in Roundtree’s text, and ask students to articulate how these words add depth to the memory.

Invite students to choose a moment from their own lives. After they have brainstormed and chosen a memory, guide them through the narrative writing process. Remind them to use both figurative and descriptive language and to address at least four of the senses to make their small moment memories as immersive as Roundtree’s early morning adventure.

  • Historical context

Share portions of the book’s extensive back matter with students as well as resources that offer additional context for the courageous lives of Dovey Johnson Roundtree and her grandmother, Rachel Millis Bryant Graham. A bulwark in her community, Graham was sought out by activist and presidential advisor Mary McLeod Bethune, to whom Graham introduced her granddaughter. Read Eloise Greenfield and Jerry Pinkney’s Mary McLeod Bethune and discuss how these women drew strength from each other and empowered future generations.

  • Metaphorical language

After learning more about Graham and Roundtree’s lives, give each student a slip of paper with the following passage from the book:

“The darkness isn’t anything to be afraid of, child. If you wait just a little, your eyes will learn how to see, and you can find your way. Hold on to my apron, now.”

Lead a discussion about metaphorical language to help students understand how Grandma Rachel’s words to her granddaughter are about more than their early morning walk. Ask students to identify how Grandma Rachel’s advice foreshadows Roundtree’s future.

Osnat and Her Dove
by Sigal Samuel
illustrated by Vali Mintzi

Osnat Barzani is born in 1590 in what is now Iraq, into a culture with rigid gender roles where people believe that reading is “for boys” and “girls spend their time on chores.” Yet young Barzani convinces her father, a rabbi who created a yeshiva, to teach her to read. When she marries, her husband encourages her studies, and soon Barzani begins teaching the Torah at the yeshiva. Eventually, after the deaths of both her father and her husband, Barzani becomes the leader of the yeshiva and the first female rabbi in history. Osnat and Her Dove is an inspiring story of a young Jewish hero, filled with wonderful cultural, religious and historical detail. It’s a testament to the power of knowledge and the importance of parental support.

•   Context clues

Using context to infer the meaning of unfamiliar words and concepts is a skill that students will use their entire lives. As you read Osnat and Her Dove aloud, record any new and unfamiliar words when you encounter them. After you finish reading, go down the list of words and help students find clues in the text and illustrations to make informed guesses about what they mean. In addition to vocabulary words in English, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian and Turkish used throughout the text, my students and I also enjoyed learning more about the geographic locations mentioned, including Amadiya, Mosul and Iraq.

  • Folklore and facts

Samuel’s author’s note explains how she incorporated facts and historical writings with folk legends and popular tales to craft her narrative. Lead a class discussion about the difference between historical fiction and informational books. Ask students, “What can we learn from historical fiction books?” and “Why do you think authors choose historical fiction to tell the story of a real person’s life?” Read additional historical fiction picture books and invite children to discern fiction from facts. Older students can organize their findings in a “fact or fiction” T-chart graphic organizer.

Hold on to Your Music
by Mona Golabek and Lee Cohen
adapted by Emil Sher
illustrated by Sonia Possentini

The story of author Mona Golabek’s mother, Lisa Jura, begins in Vienna, Austria, in 1938. Jura's piano teacher tells her that he is no longer allowed to give her lessons because she is Jewish. When she returns home, Jura’s parents explain that many Jewish people are being made to feel “that being Jewish is a crime.” Distraught and confused, Jura is comforted when her mother tells her, “Whatever tomorrow brings, Liseleh, you must always remember to hold on to your music.”

Soon Jura is sent to England via the Kindertransport, an organized evacuation of Jewish children from Europe, and ends up in a refugee hostel on Willesden Lane run by Mrs. Cohen. Encouraged by Mrs. Cohen and the other children, she continues to play the piano. Her practice and skill land her an audition at the renowned Royal Academy of Music, where she is accepted. At the end of the war, Jura performs in a recital in a large concert hall; as she takes her bow, she remembers her mother’s words and reflects, “I held on to my music and never let go.” Accessible and hopeful, Hold on to Your Music depicts the impact of both anti-Semitism and World War II on a young girl’s life and reminds us of the importance of persevering through uncertainty and hardship.

  • Kindertransport

One of my favorite informational books of 2020 was Deborah Hopkinson’s We Had to Be Brave: Escaping the Nazis on the Kindertransport. Filled with personal accounts of young people whose lives were saved by the Kindertransport, it provides important historical context to Jura’s experience.

Show older students the first 30 minutes of Mark Jonathan Harris’ Academy Award-winning documentary Into the Arms of Strangers, which was made with the cooperation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and is narrated by Judi Dench. As you read firsthand accounts from Hopkinson’s book aloud, ask students to write down facts and insights they gain as they listen. Next, ask students to synthesize the information in their notes by incorporating it into a letter they imagine a child might write to their parents about their experiences during the Kindertransport.

  • Something to hold onto

Jura’s music was a source of encouragement for Lisa and the other Willesden children. It was also her personal passion and became her career. Ask students to reflect on something that brings them joy. Give them time to journal their thoughts to the following prompts:

  • What is an activity that brings you joy?
  • How do you feel when you are engaged in this activity?
  • How does it lift your spirits?
  • What are some things you can do in the future to make sure you “hold on” to this thing?

Extend the activity by inviting students to consider how they can make their dreams a reality. Give them time to consider a personal or career ambition. What would it take for them to accomplish this goal? While students journal and plan, play The Children of Willesden Lane, an album that collects many of the musical pieces that inspired Jura when she was young.

In September of 1940, a little more than a year before the United States would enter World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered an address at the University of Pennsylvania on the occasion of its 300th anniversary. “We cannot always build the future for our youth,” he declared, “but we can build our youth for the future.”

Mystery

The particular terror of isolation

Feature by Elyse Discher

From foggy moors to gritty city streets, the setting of a mystery often tells the reader what to expect in terms of tone. In A Stranger in Town and Black Widows, isolated settings keep the reader off balance, unsure and ill-at-ease, creating an extra layer of tension that dials up the suspense to 11.

The sixth book in Kelley Armstrong’s Rockton series, A Stranger in Town brings the reader to the small Yukon town of Rockton, population 150. This is not a cozy mystery small town—Rockton is completely off the grid and populated entirely by people who need to shed their old lives.

Rockton exists within our world but apart from it in a way that’s almost reminiscent of science fiction. Those looking to start fresh in the town need permission from a mysterious town council, and those who are accepted face threats not only from the wilderness, but also from a nomadic group of almost feral humans known as “hostiles” that lurk outside its borders. All of this could feel too surreal, but Armstrong makes her fictional town seem grounded in reality.

When a badly wounded hiker stumbles upon Rockton while looking for aid. Casey Duncan, the town’s resident detective, manages to save the woman’s life, but her presence only brings more questions. Casey and her husband, Eric Dalton, go looking for the woman’s companions only to find a scene worthy of a horror novel. Her fellow hikers have been killed, literally torn apart, with monstrous brutality. Casey’s careful observations lead her to believe that the murders were staged to look as though the hostiles were responsible.

Adding to her worries, Casey has noticed that fewer residents are being admitted to Rockton, and those that wish to stay beyond their two-year term are being denied an extension. The town council is silent on the matter, and Casey can’t help but feel boxed in by threats from within the town and outside it.

Armstrong’s detailed world building allows the reader to immerse themselves in the narrative, though new readers may want to orient themselves by starting with the first Rockton novel, City of the Lost.

While A Stranger in Town offers up an odd community, Black Widows by Cate Quinn relies on a sense of otherness to create its atmosphere. When Blake Nelson is strangled and his body mutilated, detectives look to the most common perpetrator—the wife. The problem is Blake had three of them. Rachel, Tina and Emily lived with Blake on their family compound in the Utah desert, 40 miles from their nearest neighbor.

Their polygamous marriage was as fraught with tension as it was unconventional. Rachel is the first, most obedient wife, but she has a past so traumatic her mind has blacked some of it out. Tina is a reformed drug-addict and sex worker who met Blake when he preached at her rehab center. She’s all too aware of how dark and cruel the world can be. Emily is the youngest, naive to point of being childlike and existing largely in a fantasy world she’s created for herself. Living in a small house in the middle of a huge desert, the women’s differing personalities and the family’s poverty make for a fraught existence.

Each chapter of this gripping and, at times, graphic psychological thriller is told from the point of view of one of the wives, and the reader is never certain if the narrators can be trusted. As the police poke into their lives, secrets are revealed, suggesting that Blake’s death may be part of something larger and darker than just a domestic conflict. Quinn does a masterful job of creating a world where her characters are isolated—both physically due to their home and socially due to the fact that they are outcasts from their church and community. Polygamy is not sanctioned by the Church of Latter-day Saints, so even Blake’s family has shunned his wives and disapproves of his choice of lifestyle. All of this means that Rachel, Tina and Emily can only rely on each other for support when their world collapses around them. With a wonderfully twisty end, Black Widows is the type of thriller you read in one sitting.

 

In A Stranger in Town and Black Widows, two unique and isolated settings keep the reader off balance, adding extra layer of tension that keeps the suspense dialed up to 11.

Mystery

Properly confounding puzzles

Feature by Elyse Discher

Historical mysteries truly allow amateur sleuths to shine. Without modern technology, forensic analysis or instantaneous communication to aid them, the historical detective must rely on their powers of deduction and observation to solve the crime.

Deanna Raybourn delivers wit and humor aplenty in her sixth installment of the Veronica Speedwell series, An Unexpected Peril. Fresh from her last case chasing Jack the Ripper, lepidopterist and amateur sleuth Veronica Speedwell is assisting with an exhibition on the small country of Alpenwald for a naturalist club in London—and enjoying some downtime with her partner turned lover, Stoker. 

Trouble is never far from Veronica, however. As the club assembles items donated by the late alpinist Alice Baker-Greene’s estate, Veronica uncovers evidence that Alice was murdered, rather than dying in a climbing accident. Princess Grisela of Alpenwald, who is visiting London and the exhibition, is less than enthusiastic about the discovery. Her small nation relies on tourism for its income, and the murder of a famous English mountain climber would cause a scandal. Veronica is undeterred, and as she and Stoker investigate Alice’s murder, they find themselves embroiled in a second mystery when Princess Grisela vanishes. 

Irreverent, funny and with a razor-sharp intelligence, Veronica is a delightful narrator and a keen detective. Her total disregard for the opinions of “good society” and her vicious wit in cutting down her detractors are a joy to read. As An Unexpected Peril unfolds, we see her relationship with her longtime partner, Stoker, develop as well. Fans of the series have waited five novels for their will-they-won’t-they attraction to resolve, and now that the pair are together, they must navigate the tiny irritations and frustrations that come with any new relationship. Veronica, as always, rushes headfirst into danger, while Stoker tries to maintain a tempering influence.

Best read in order, Raybourn’s Victorian-era series is never bleak, always funny and wonderfully fast-paced. An Unexpected Peril has the perfect blend of action, romance and mystery. 

The Diabolical Bones by Bella Ellis is the complete opposite in terms of atmosphere. The second Brontë Sisters mystery is set in bleak, frozen West Yorkshire and begins when a neighbor of the Brontës, the eccentric Clifton Bradshaw, finds the skeleton of a young child interred in a fireplace in his late wife’s rooms. 

Rumor has it that Clifton went mad after his wife’s death, selling his soul to the devil and shutting off her rooms completely. The discovery of the bones 13 years later certainly implies that something sinister occurred before her death, and the Brontë sisters are determined to identify the child and how it came to be hidden in the fireplace.

Ellis carefully weaves biographical details into her mystery, and readers familiar with the Brontës’ story will see the beginning of Branwell Brontë’s decline as well as the first glimpses of Charlotte’s relationship with Arthur Bell Nicholls. Ellis portrays Charlotte as a fierce and dynamic figure, Emily as a dreamer and recluse and Anne as the mediator between them. Isolated in their Yorkshire village, these three brilliant sisters yearn for intellectual stimulation, and solving the mystery of the bones is too intriguing for them to resist. Unfortunately, not everyone appreciates their meddling. 

Easily read as a standalone, The Diabolical Bones tackles subjects as bleak as the frigid February moors where it is set, from the cruelties of child labor in Victorian England to the limitations of women at the time, as the sisters often have to drag their begrudging brother with them on their investigations. Fans of gothic mysteries will find this novel wonderfully creepy and suspenseful, even if they are unfamiliar with the work or lives of the Brontë sisters. 

With espionage, secret love affairs and hidden treasure, The Dark Heart of Florence by Tasha Alexander offers a mystery set in Florence, Italy in both 1903 and 1480. Jumping in with the 15th novel in the Lady Emily mystery series may seem intimidating, but Alexander provides enough context for characters and events referenced from previous books in the series that very little is lost for newcomers. 

When Lady Emily Hargreaves’ husband, Colin, is summoned to Florence, she knows it’s on secret business. Tensions are rising in Europe, and while Colin cannot admit it, Emily knows he is a spy for England. When a man is killed in their palazzo, Emily and her best friend, Cécile, launch a parallel investigation, determined not to sit by on the sidelines as danger surrounds them.

Interspersed are chapters set in the 15th century, where a young woman named Mina struggles to align with the gender roles traditionally assigned to her while the wonder of the Renaissance surrounds her. Mina enters into a forbidden affair with a young priest that will change the course of her life and entangle her in the fanatical puritan campaign of Girolamo Savonarola. 

Mina’s actions directly impact the murder that Emily and Cecile are investigating in 1903, which is intensified by the increasingly tenuous political situation and the frustration Emily feels at being left in the dark as to her husband’s intrigues. The Florentine setting, both in the Renaissance and early Edwardian eras, is explored in rich detail, allowing the reader to travel vicariously through Mina’s and Emily’s eyes.

With gothic chills, laugh-out-loud humor and international intrigue, these three mysteries whisk the reader off to the past and ensnare them with carefully crafted plots and plenty of suspense.

Historical mysteries truly allow amateur sleuths to shine. Without modern technology, forensic analysis or instantaneous communication to aid them, the historical detective must rely on their powers of deduction and observation to solve the crime.

Romance

Real love is never perfect

Feature by Elizabeth Mazer

Two emotional romances wholeheartedly embrace their protagonists’ complications and complexity. Classic romances often tell us that finding love will fix the parts of ourselves that aren’t as they should be. Love will turn the mousy girl next door into the prom queen, the shy wallflower into a confident seductress, the browbeaten stepchild into the princess. Love will save us from ourselves and make our problems melt away—but these contemporary romances know better. 

Charlie Matheson doesn’t initially come across as a mess in Roan Parrish’s wonderful Best Laid Plans. On the contrary, Charlie seems like someone who’s poised to sweep in and make someone else’s messes go away, which is what he tries to do for Rye Janssen, the Seattle transplant who comes to Charlie’s secluded Wyoming town with a tiny cat, a death-rattling car and a truly massive chip on his shoulder. 

Rye has inherited a house he doesn’t know to fix from a grandfather he never met, and the renovations are causing a whole host of problems that he doesn’t know how to solve. Charlie is very, very good at solving problems. He’s also very, very good at ignoring his own issues—like the anxiety he feels over how to handle his attraction to Rye because he’s never been in love before. 

Charlie and Rye are wonderfully endearing creations, as is their terrific, lovingly crafted community. Parrish’s Garnet Run is a small town where individuality and nonconformity are celebrated. If you need someone to hug you and tell you you’re appreciated exactly as you are, pick up this book—it’s just the embrace you need. 

Equally warm, satisfying and conformity-defying is Yes & I Love You. Set in a New Orleans coworkingspace, Roni Loren’s novel takes the classic idea of a workplace romance and rebuilds it into something entirely fresh and unexpected. 

Freelance writer Hollyn Tate might fit a casting call for the pretty-but-doesn’t-know-it heroine. She also has Tourette syndrome, which has left her with deep anxiety about interacting with a world she’s sure will judge her. Meanwhile, Jasper Deares, a struggling improv actor and the new barista in the office space’s coffee bar, is gorgeous and charming but wrestles with his own fear of failure in an entertainment industry that’s been quick to dismiss him. When he learns that Hollyn is the undercover entertainment critic known as Miz Poppy, he knows that her influence could turn his career around. At the same time, her own career is at risk due to her editor’s demand that she overcome her camera shyness and start vlogging. 

The story starts out with Hollyn and Jasper needing each other—she needs his training to become camera-ready, while he needs her status to back his act—but it quickly becomes so much more. Loren’s depiction of Hollyn and Jasper’s mutual attraction is lovely and natural, and she continually highlights how rare and special their connection feels to both of them. And they’re always honest with each other—which is near-revolutionary in a genre that’s always leaned hard on misunderstandings. Instead of zany hijinks, Yes & I Love You features real issues, honest struggles, inspiring growth, scorching love scenes, fantastic side characters and hilarious moments of improv gold. This isn’t the office romance that Hollywood has taught you to expect—it’s better. Instead of telling us that love can fix us, these romances embrace the liberating idea that we can be who we are and find happiness, success and love.

Two emotional romances wholeheartedly embrace their protagonists’ complications and complexity.

Romance

Romance: March 2021

Feature by Christie Ridgway

A trio of glamorous romances await this month as two heiresses and a movie star find love.

★ Hero Wanted

A broken engagement leads to a unexpected love affair in Hero Wanted by veteran author Betina Krahn. In Victorian England, Lauren Alcott ends her betrothal to Rafe Townsend when he hesitates to rescue two women from drowning. Lauren saves them herself and decides she’s seen her affianced’s true colors. But their fathers, who hoped to merge their companies via this marriage, exhort them to try again, and they agree to more outings. From there, Lauren and Rafe truly get to know each other as they stumble into danger and find themselves teaming up to survive. This heated kisses-only story is fast-paced and delightful fun, grounded in authentic historical detail as Rafe learns to throw off society’s rules and applaud Lauren’s impulsive and daring nature. 

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Betina Krahn reveals the real life (and truly disastrous) date that inspired Hero Wanted.

The Way You Love Me

Readers get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of a glamorous life in The Way You Love Me, the third installment of the Pure Talent series by Elle Wright. Paige Mills treasures her good-girl reputation as Black America’s sweetheart, but it’s been tarnished by an ugly divorce. Also tarnished is her relationship with her longtime talent agent, Andrew Weathers, who seems to have backed away when she needs him most. But then he tracks her down at her family’s lake house, hoping to reestablish trust . . . and maybe something more. Between the paparazzi, the tabloid stories and the interference of family and friends, Paige and Andrew wonder if taking their relationship to the next level is worth the stumbles and scrapes. Fans of hot contemporary romance will certainly think so, thanks to the smokin’ love scenes and the pair’s tender care for one another. Wright’s smooth, modern voice is eminently suited to this sophisticated story, making her larger-than-life characters feel like real people. 

The Heiress Hunt

An unusual heroine stars in The Heiress Hunt by Joanna Shupe. Though Gilded Age heiress Maddie Webster wants to marry—and has an English duke on the brink of proposing—she’s just as committed to becoming a top U.S. tennis player. As she comes close to achieving both of her goals, an old friend enters the picture. Harrison Archer claims he needs help finding an heiress to wed, and Maddie volunteers to host festivities at her family’s lavish Newport “cottage” to aid in his pursuit. What Maddie doesn’t know, however, is that Harrison wants her as his bride—and he has another ulterior agenda as well. What follows is a look into the world of wealthy New Yorkers in the late 19th century: tennis, picnics and parties among people who judge a woman by the prestige of the match she makes. Maddie wants something deeper, but can she find it with the handsome and sexy Harrison, who is not the same boy she once knew? This is the first in a series about four rebellious sons of society families, but heroine Maddie still holds her own. Readers won’t forget her, the lushly detailed love scenes or the developing romance between two deserving characters.

A trio of glamorous romances await this month as two heiresses and a movie star find love.

NonfictionFood & DrinkCookbooks

Lifestyles: March 2021

Feature by Susannah Felts

Whether you need to get your home office in order, need to shake things up in the kitchen or just need a laugh, this month’s Lifestyles column has got you covered.

★ Notes From the Bathroom Line

The beautiful thing about some books is their time-capsule quality, how they perfectly preserve a cultural moment between two covers. For Amy Solomon, one such life-changing title was 1976’s Titters: The First Collection of Humor by Women. Now Solomon has created that book’s contemporary analog with Notes From the Bathroom Line, an eclectic mix of writing, art and “low-grade panic,” to quote the subtitle, from a large and rowdy cast of very funny women who are here to entertain you on the subjects of Goop vaginal eggs, missent text mortification, lies told to get out of things, dads’ girlfriends, advice not taken, instructions for the cat sitter, groveling and . . . well, a lot more. Comics and art nudge up against short essays and, maybe my favorite content category, collections of short answers to prompts such as “Slang That You Made Up That Will Never Catch On But It Should.” A consistent theme across it all: the ways in which we all squirm and sweat within our minds. I feel seen.

Work-From-Home Hacks

As a seasoned WFH-er, I’ll be the first to admit my habits aren’t always high performing or sustainable. If that sounds familiar, a weekly visit with Aja Frost’s Work-From-Home Hacks can gradually set you on a smarter course, whether you’ve been couch (slouch) typing for years or are still configuring your (bedroom) corner office. The book is handily sectioned into more than 500 bite-size, numbered nuggets. While some will no doubt be familiar, these tips—from ergonomics to what to wear, from battling distraction to unlocking the holy grail of work-life balance—constitute a treasure trove for anyone riding the WFH wave of 2020 and 2021. But the lasting value of this book is its broad usefulness no matter where you clock in. After all, email hygiene, scheduling boundaries and regular exercise are proven hacks for any work habitat. (Note to self: Wear shoes at your desk, and swap that shawl for a sweater before you Zoom!)

The New York Times Cooking No-Recipe Recipes 

So, the title is clever but not quite accurate, at least to my mind. What Sam Sifton dishes up in The New York Times Cooking No-Recipe Recipes are flexible recipes in a nonchalant narrative format with no numeric measurements. (Nope, not a one.) The improvisational approach will prove quite pleasing if you, like my husband, have little use for the specificity of most recipes and enough kitchen acumen to feel comfortable with glugs and splashes and dashes. These recipes may be simple in some ways, but they do require a certain I’ve got this culinary cool. I love reading them almost as much as I love eating the finished products. For kaya toast and eggs, you “add a healthy shake of white pepper” to the eggs and then “get to ’em with the toast.” Of split pea soup: “When you’re done eating you’ll be bowing like Hugh Jackman at curtain call.”

Whether you need to get your home office in order, need to shake things up in the kitchen or just need a laugh, this month’s Lifestyles column has got you covered.
NonfictionSelf-Help

Overcome fear, set boundaries and take control of your life

Feature by Sarojini Seupersad

The self-help genre has a long history of providing advice to readers seeking change, guidance and empowerment. These two highly anticipated books, while wildly different, are positive, entertaining additions to the bunch.

In Professional Troublemaker: The Fear-Fighter Manual, bestselling author Luvvie Ajayi Jones uses her trademark humor and insight to show readers how to break down—and break through—the fears that hold them back from their professional and personal goals. Her principles are explained in three sections: Be, Say and Do.

In the Be section, Ajayi Jones emphasizes how important it is to first know who you are and what you want. As you determine these things, remember that being audacious and dreaming big aren’t just for other people; they’re for you, too. In this section, readers meet Ajayi Jones’ grandmother, a joyful woman who took time to celebrate her life and always made space for herself in the world. In the Say section, Ajayi Jones explores how speaking up and setting boundaries are steps worth taking toward fighting your fears. Finally, in Do, she explains that there is no progress without action. 

Throughout the book, Ajayi Jones provides helpful examples of fear-fighting from her own life, such as the time she almost turned down the opportunity to give a TED Talk because she was scared of failure. She also provides useful exercises like writing a mission statement and listing your values and goals. Ajayi Jones’ fans will appreciate this bold display of her signature fearlessness, and new readers will connect with her funny personal stories and flair for language, which make reading this book feel like talking to an old friend.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read our review of the Professional Troublemaker audiobook. Luvvie Ajayi Jones’ commanding, cheerful voice will hype up even the most fearful listener.

Nedra Glover Tawwab, a therapist with a hugely popular Instagram account, debuts with Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself. Tawwab, who specializes in relationships, began writing this indispensable guide after her Instagram post “Signs That You Need Boundaries” went viral. Her book aims to address frequently asked questions from people who may not even know they have boundary issues, since they’re often disguised as other problems such as time mismanagement, anxiety and burnout. Once someone understands boundaries better, Tawwab explains, they can begin to improve their relationships through open communication.

Beginning with a description of Tawwab’s own process of setting boundaries with family members, the book establishes six types of boundaries—physical, sexual, intellectual, emotional, material and time—and gives examples of how these issues might play out in real-life scenarios. Tawwab then dispenses advice about how to handle each type of situation through personal anecdotes and examples from anonymized therapy clients.

Although Set Boundaries, Find Peace is written with authority, Tawwab’s voice is friendly and sincere as she presents her ideas in a clear, no-nonsense fashion. For example, when explaining time boundaries, she gives a brief description of the issue; follows it up with examples of time boundary violations, such as overcommitting or accepting favor requests from people who won’t reciprocate; then tells the reader what time boundaries might sounds like (“I won’t be able to make it to your event on Tuesday”) and ends with an exercise to reinforce the information. 

Tawwab excels at presenting complicated ideas and behaviors in an accessible, nonjudgmental manner, helping the reader feel at ease and understood. Anyone looking to regain control over their time, energy and needs will appreciate her book’s wisdom and practical advice.

These two highly anticipated self-help books are positive, entertaining guides for readers seeking change, guidance and empowerment.

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