A little girl who accidentally breaks the cookie jar soon finds herself spinning stories about what happened. Watch out, says her listening mother, “the first lie’s the trigger. Your fib will get bigger and bigger and bigger.” And... Read More

From the beginning of his day to the end, Tony faces problems: no breakfast left for him, a crowded car ride to school through a hurting neighborhood, adults who misunderstand him, a possible confrontation with a bully. Through it all,... Read More

Sixteen-year-old Evie doesn’t mind that she’s the oldest paper carrier by three years, and the only girl, too. She knows that every Sunday morning as she’s delivering papers in the trendy Hokepe Woods neighborhood, she’ll... Read More

Deprived of his beloved skateboard and sent unwillingly to a school that “promises each year to offer a chance to a few desperate children,” Storm Steele enters sixth grade at the School of Possibilities, where he is tormented by a... Read More

Not long after the Civil War, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was established at an abandoned Army post in Pennsylvania to provide a largely technical education to young American Indians. The initial student body was male, largely... Read More

Haunting and cryptic, Josie Sigler’s debut collection of linked poems reads like a lyric accounting of violence. Comprised of shapely, often coupleted lines, this book is like one long feral female howl. Her poems are the sound words... Read More

In January 2009, the National Endowment for the Arts issued a report titled Reading on the Rise. Jim Collins explores the milieu that enabled this rise in "Bring on the Books for Everybody". But this monograph isn’t a dry report.... Read More

War, as a topic, lends itself to unending discussion, research, debate, and analysis. Historians argue over past strategies, methods, and the results of battles waged over several centuries. Roger J. Spiller’s collection, "In the... Read More