The picture book "A Fall Event" is jubilant and comforting in its coverage of common Halloween activities. In Kim Kesty’s earnest picture book "A Fall Event", Halloween is illuminated via seasonal neighborhood scenes. Beginning with a... Read More

A fun mashup of youthful rebellion with heartland quirkiness, For What It’s Worth is a nostalgic comic novel in which absurdities abound. In Nathan Pettijohn’s dark comedy novel For What it’s Worth, an Oklahoma man reminisces about... Read More

In Heather B. Moore’s illuminating novel "Under the Java Moon", a Dutch family is sent to a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. Inspired by a woman who lived in Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia) when she and the women in her family were... Read More

A country’s first Black chief inspector investigates the disappearance of a powerful white man in Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu’s spellbinding mystery novel "The Quality of Mercy". Spokes, once a porter for the British Army, felt convicted... Read More

A headmistress and a wealthy rogue join up for a philanthropic cause in Jennifer Moore’s enthralling Victorian romance novel "Educating Elizabeth". Elizabeth opens a school for underprivileged factory girls in London’s East End with... Read More

In Jaclyn Moriarty’s kaleidoscopic fantasy novel "The Secret of Lillian Velvet", a girl armed with a pickle jar full of coins contends with loneliness and otherworldly derring-do. Ten-year-old Lillian lives in Australia with her... Read More

A precocious teenager finds a makeshift family among strangers in BettyJoyce Nash’s perceptive, sensitive novel "Everybody Here Is Kin". On their way to a promised Key West trip, Lucille, her stepsiblings, and their mother, Naomi, stop... Read More

A father’s balding inspires far-flung, humorous adventures in Jörg Mϋhle’s winsome chapter book When Dad’s Hair Took Off. A child narrates this vibrant story about the fate of their father’s hair: wanting “a life of its... Read More