2019 has been a strong year for books so far, and the new titles arriving at the library this week look to continue the trend. This collection of fiction, suspense, mystery, romance, nonfiction, and more promises to keep us all entertained while also opening our eyes to lives and places that we might otherwise never experience.
FICTION
Lot by Bryan Washington
In the city of Houston – a sprawling, diverse microcosm of America – the son of a black mother and a Latino father is coming of age. He’s working at his family’s restaurant, weathering his brother’s blows, resenting his older sister’s absence. And discovering he likes boys.
Around him, others live and thrive and die in Houston’s myriad neighborhoods: a young woman whose affair detonates across an apartment complex, a ragtag baseball team, a group of young hustlers, hurricane survivors, a local drug dealer who takes a Guatemalan teen under his wing, a reluctant chupacabra.
Bryan Washington’s brilliant, viscerally drawn world vibrates with energy, wit, and the infinite longing of people searching for home. With soulful insight into what makes a community, a family, and a life, Lot explores trust and love in all its unsparing and unsteady forms.
Description from Goodreads.
“This eagerly awaited short-story collection, excerpted in The New Yorker to much fanfare, depicts its author’s hometown of Houston with empathy, tragedy, and exceptional specificity.” – Entertainment Weekly
“Lot is Bryan Washington’s debut book, and like…where has he been my whole life?! This collection of stories—all of which take place in Houston—is absolutely gut-wrenching and powerful, and will immediately transport you out of whatever bubble you’re living in.” – Cosmopolitan
“Stellar… Washington is exact and empathetic, and the character that emerges is refreshingly unapologetic about his sexuality, even as it creates rifts in his family…. Washington is a dynamic writer with a sharp eye for character, voice, and setting. This is a remarkable collection from a writer to watch.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“A sensitive portrait of life among Houston’s struggling working class…. Washington writes with an assurance that signals the arrival of an important literary voice.” – Kirkus Reviews
Available Formats:
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle class peers. After a messy break up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places…including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.
As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?”—all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.
With “fresh and honest” (Jojo Moyes) prose, Queenie is a remarkably relatable exploration of what it means to be a modern woman searching for meaning in today’s world.
Description from Goodreads.
“You’ll likely feel seen while reading this (yes, it’s that relatable), an example of what happens when you go looking for love and find something else instead.” – PopSugar
“They say Queenie is Black Bridget Jones meets Americanah. But she stands in her own right—nothing can and will compare. I can’t articulate how completely and utterly blown away I am.” – Black Girls Book Club
“Carty-Williams creates an utterly knowable character in Queenie, who’s as dimensional and relatable as they come as she tries to balance her own desires with what everyone else seems to want for her… This smart, funny, and tender debut embraces a modern woman’s messiness.” – Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
“Meet Queenie Jenkins, a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman who works for a London newspaper, is struggling to fit in, is dealing with a breakup, and is making all kinds of questionable decisions. In other words, she’s highly relatable. A must read for ’19.” – Woman’s Day
Available Formats:
The Parade by Dave Eggers
Four and Five are partners, working for the same company, sent without passports to a nation recovering from ten years of civil war. Together, operating under pseudonyms and anonymous to potential kidnappers, they are given a new machine, the RS-90, and tasked with building a highway that connects the country’s far-flung villages with the capital.
Four, nicknamed “The Clock,” is one of the highway’s most experienced operators, never falling short of his assigned schedule. He drives the RS-90, stopping only to sleep and eat the food provided by the company. But Five is an agent of chaos: speeding ahead on his vehicle, chatting and joking with locals, eating at nearby bars and roadside food stands, he threatens the schedule, breaks protocol, and endangers the work that they must complete in time for a planned government parade. His every action draws Four’s ire, but when illness, corruption, and theft compromise their high-stakes mission, Four and Five discover danger far greater than anything they could pose to one another.
Description from Goodreads.
“The ever-incisive, worldly-wise, compassionate, and imaginative Eggers maintains the tension of a cocked crossbow in this magnetizing, stealthily wry, and increasingly chilling tale.” – Booklist
“Eggers… may be the only living American writer for whom the term ‘Hemingway-esque’ meaningfully applies…. Eggers ably weaves in a host of ethical questions over one man’s responsibility to the other, what makes help transactional versus simply kind…. An unassuming but deceptively complex morality play, as Eggers distills his ongoing concerns into ever tighter prose.” – Kirkus Reviews
“The Parade has a light touch, but it’s stylish and slick, and it leaves us pondering the rights and wrongs of progress and intervention. A road brings medicine, but it also bears armies.” – The Independent
Available Formats:
Print Book | eBook | eAudiobook
SUSPENSE
Celtic Empire by Clive Cussler & Dirk Cussler
The murder of a team of U.N. scientists while investigating mysterious deaths in El Salvador. A deadly collision in the waterways off Detroit. An attack from tomb raiders on an archeological site along the Nile. Is there a link between these violent events? The answer may lie with the tale of an Egyptian princess forced to flee the armies of her father three thousand years ago.
From the desert sands of Egypt to the rocky isles of Ireland to the deepwater lochs of Scotland, only Dirk Pitt can unravel the secrets of an ancient enigma that could change the very future of mankind.
Description from Goodreads.
“Cussler’s 25th Dirk Pitt novel has a little bit of everything that helped make the character, who the Associated Press once called the ‘oceanic answer to Indiana Jones,’ a household name to begin with—including lots of cutting-edge science and plenty of action.” – The Real Book Spy
“Celtic Empire is some of the best work between Clive and Dirk Cussler in years—proving that Dirk Pitt, one of the thriller genre’s premier heroes, has plenty more adventures left in him moving forward.” – Crime Reads
“The scene settings are colorful, the characters appealing or despicable as needed….One darned thing after another keeps the Pitts in peril and will keep readers turning the pages.” – Kirkus Reviews
Available Formats:
Print Book | Large Print Book | Audiobook
Treason by Rick Campbell
In Russia, the military is anxious to assert its military strength and regain its role as a superpower. The Russian President refuses to greenlight a bold plan to disable American strategic nuclear capability and retake Ukraine and the Baltic States, fearing the potential consequences of involving nuclear weapons. But the generals won’t have it and at the first opportunity, they overthrow the president in a military coup. Then they use a narrow window to initiate their bold plan—the Zolotov option—which will render all of America’s B2 bombers and ballistic missiles useless. With the U.S. off the board, they swiftly invade Ukraine with an overwhelming force, an invading Army that even NATO can’t hope to resist.
Now, it’s game on. Without their primary weapons, the U.S. has to find a way to fight back on multiple fronts. If they’re to have any chance, they’ll have to overcome the malware that has grounded their ballistic missiles and planes, as well as secretly land a SEAL team to help rescue the imprisoned Russian President, and help retake control from the forces that are driving Europe into a continental war.
Rick Campbell, one of the finest young military thriller writers, returns with his biggest and boldest novel to date.
Description from Goodreads.
“Campbell has crafted a marvelous series that realistically portrays life in the military…definitely a comer in the genre.” – Booklist
“Campbell feels like the heir to Clancy’s throne, poised to one day sit atop the military technothriller genre…Treason is the must-read book of the year.” – The Real Book Spy
“…gripping… Military action fans will be well satisfied.” – Publishers Weekly
Available Formats:
MYSTERY
Run Away by Harlan Coben
You’ve lost your daughter.
She’s addicted to drugs and to an abusive boyfriend. And she’s made it clear that she doesn’t want to be found.
Then, by chance, you see her playing guitar in Central Park. But she’s not the girl you remember. This woman is living on the edge, frightened, and clearly in trouble.
You don’t stop to think. You approach her, beg her to come home.
She runs.
And you do the only thing a parent can do: you follow her into a dark and dangerous world you never knew existed. Before you know it, both your family and your life are on the line. And in order to protect your daughter from the evils of that world, you must face them head on.
Description from Goodreads.
“Brilliantly executed…might be the best book Harlan Coben has ever written. For such a master storyteller, that’s a high bar indeed but one Coben effortlessly crests…[Run Away] features an effortlessness and fluidity that define everything great storytelling should be. A fantastic read and early contender for the best thriller of 2019.” – Providence Sunday Journal
“[A] bombshell-laden thriller…the sheer amount of jaw-dropping plot twists is impressive…the breakneck pacing and audaciously intricate story line will have readers on the edge of their seats.” – Publishers Weekly
“A twisty, edge-of-your-seat thriller…to say more would ruin the sheer genius of…an absolutely brilliant, taut thriller that begs to be read in one sitting.” – Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
Print Book | Audiobook | Playaway | eBook
Save Me From Dangerous Men by S.A. Lelchuk
Nikki Griffin isn’t your typical private investigator. In her office above her bookstore’s shelves and stacks, where she luxuriates in books and the comfort they provide, she also tracks certain men. Dangerous men. Men who have hurt the women they claim to love. And Nikki likes to teach those men a lesson, to teach them what it feels like to be hurt and helpless, so she can be sure that their victims are safe from them forever.
When a regular PI job tailing Karen, a tech company’s disgruntled employee who might be selling secrets, turns ugly and Karen’s life is threatened, Nikki has to break cover and intervene. Karen tells Nikki that there are people after her. Dangerous men. She says she’ll tell Nikki what’s really going on. But then something goes wrong, and suddenly Nikki is no longer just solving a case–she’s trying hard to stay alive.
Description from Goodreads.
“Nikki’s fight scenes are satisfying, clever, and exciting…Bookworms will love the references to classic novels, and Lelchuk winks at Nikki’s similarities to a certain well-known literary vigilante. A timely and totally badass debut.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Terrific debut… This intelligent, action-packed thriller will resonate with readers as it touches on such themes as domestic violence, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the intrusive potential of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence…But the book’s real appeal stems from its powerful, distinctive protagonist.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
The Good Detective by John McMahon
How can you solve a crime if you’ve killed the prime suspect?
Detective P.T. Marsh was a rising star on the police force of Mason Falls, Georgia—until his wife and young son were killed in an accident. Since that night, caught in a spiral of grief and booze, he’s lost the ability to see the line between smart moves and disastrous decisions. Such as when he decides to ’help out’ an exotic dancer by confronting her abusive boyfriend. When the next morning he gets called to the scene of his newest murder case, he is stunned to arrive at the house of a dead man, the very man he beat up the night before. He could swear the guy was alive when he left, but can he be sure? What he does know is that his fingerprints are all over the crime scene.
But the trouble is only beginning. P.T. and his partner Remy begin to suspect the murder is connected to a local arson and lynching; two days earlier, the dead body of a black teenager was found in a burned-out field, a portion of a blackened rope around his neck—and P.T. realizes he might have killed the #1 suspect of this horrific crime.
Amid rising racial tension and media scrutiny, P.T. uncovers something sinister at the heart of the boy’s murder—a conspiracy leading all the way back to the time of the Civil War. Risking everything to unravel the puzzle even as he fights off his own personal demons, P.T. races headlong toward an incendiary and life-altering showdown.
Description from Goodreads.
“John McMahon is one of those rare writers who seem to have sprung out of nowhere. His first novel, The Good Detective, which is pretty much perfect, features a decent if flawed hero battling personal troubles while occupied with a murder case of great consequence to his community.” – New York Times Book Review
“[John McMahon is] a talented writer with a good sense of place, and readers are sure to look forward to Marsh’s next outing.” – Publishers Weekly
“This unusually accomplished debut is the first in a projected series; with Marsh still having demons to deal with, the table is set for much more compelling, character-centric stories to come. Crime-fiction fans are advised to get in at the start.” – Booklist
Available Formats:
HISTORICAL FICTION
Make Me a City by Jonathan Carr
The tale begins with a game of chess—and on the outcome of that game hinges the destiny of a great city. From appalling injustice springs forth the story of Chicago, and the men and women whose resilience, avarice, and altruism combine to generate a moment of unprecedented civic energy.
A variety of irresistible voices deliver the many strands of this novel: those of Jean Baptiste Pointe de Sable, the long-unheralded founder of Chicago; John Stephen Wright, bombastic speculator and booster; and Antje Hunter, the first woman to report for the Chicago Tribune. The stories of loggers, miners, engineers, and educators teem around them and each claim the narrative in turns, sharing their grief as well as their delight.
As the characters, and their ancestors, meet and part, as their possessions pass from hand to hand, the reader realizes that Jonathan Carr commands a grand picture, one that encompasses the heartaches of everyday lives as well as the overarching ideals of what a city and a society can and should be. Make Me a City introduces us to a novelist whose talent and ambition are already fully formed.
Description from Goodreads.
“There is much of the panache of David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas here: it is an epic story … A notably rich, rewarding read.” – Daily Mail Online
“The rise of Chicago in the 19th century provides the frame for a trove of colorful stories and characters in this entertaining debut novel. …Carr has a sure touch, and in many extended anecdotes, his narrative skills show exceptional detail, pacing, and tension. A solid storyteller enlivens a rich patch of American history.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Impressive…Carr effectively weaves the stories of his sprawling cast of minor and major figures to underscore the city’s myriad threads of development: economic, political, social. An ambitious literary debut that occupies a liminal space between alternative history and experimental literature.” – Library Journal
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The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner
Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa fourteen-year-old in 1943–aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal U.S. resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where, behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity.
The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles, whose friendship empowers Elise to believe the life she knew before the war will again be hers. Together in the desert wilderness, Elise and Mariko hold tight the dream of being young American women with a future beyond the fences.
Description from Goodreads.
“Meissner has created a quietly devastating story that shows how fear and hatred during World War II changed (and even ended) the lives of many innocent Americans.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Highlighting a little-known story of World War II with heart-wrenching detail, this beautifully written novel will make you think about what it means to be American, as well as what—and who—determines our identity.” – BookBub
“The Last Year of the War tells a little-known story of World War II with great resonance for our own times and challenges the very notion of who we are when who we’ve always been is called into question.” – BookReporter
Available Formats:
ROMANCE
The Fifth Doctrine by Karen Robards
With her back against the wall, everything’s on the line for Bianca St. Ives. She’s either going to save the world—or die trying.
It took one hell of an effort for the authorities to finally get the jump on master manipulator Bianca St. Ives, but now that they have, it’s far from the capture she expected. Instead of taking her in, there’s an offer on the table, a one-shot deal that would allow Bianca to walk away scot-free as if they’d never found her. And all she has to do is run one last mission—the kind she might never return from. But if Bianca wants to go back to her normal life in Savannah, it’s not like she has a choice.
An intelligence operation is already under way in North Korea, one that’s poised to end the country’s existing tyrannical regime for good. But first, the U.S. needs one of their own to go undercover as the female hacker who recently stole top secret intel from NORAD. Enter Bianca. After everything she’s seen, Bianca knows feeding fake information directly into the belly of the beast is about as dangerous as it gets. It could mean torture or endless imprisonment—assuming she survives. But it might also ignite the kind of chaos that forces a revolution. It might just change the world. Besides, if Bianca has to go down, she’s gonna go down swinging…
Description from Goodreads.
“Bianca and Colin’s sizzling chemistry makes for a great match up, and the cinematic, relentless action is sprinkled with Robards’s trademark humor. This is Bianca’s most exciting and satisfying adventure yet.” – Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“The tale comprises a long, exciting chase (leading to a gratifyingly suspenseful conclusion). Robards’ fans will devour this latest in the series.” – Booklist
Available Formats:
Print Book | Playaway | eBook
NONFICTION
First: Sandra Day O’Connor by Evan Thomas
She was born in 1930 in El Paso and grew up on a cattle ranch in Arizona. At a time when women were expected to be homemakers, she set her sights on Stanford University. When she graduated near the top of her class at law school in 1952, no firm would even interview her. But Sandra Day O’Connor’s story is that of a woman who repeatedly shattered glass ceilings–doing so with a blend of grace, wisdom, humor, understatement, and cowgirl toughness.
She became the first-ever female majority leader of a state senate. As a judge on the Arizona State Court of Appeals, she stood up to corrupt lawyers and humanized the law. When she arrived at the Supreme Court, appointed by Reagan in 1981, she began a quarter-century tenure on the court, hearing cases that ultimately shaped American law. Diagnosed with cancer at fifty-eight, and caring for a husband with Alzheimer’s, O’Connor endured every difficulty with grit and poise.
Women and men today will be inspired by how to be first in your own life, how to know when to fight and when to walk away, through O’Connor’s example. This is a remarkably vivid and personal portrait of a woman who loved her family and believed in serving her country, who, when she became the most powerful woman in America, built a bridge forward for the women who followed her.
Description from Goodreads.
“[A] richly detailed picture of her personal and professional life. … The O’Connors’ marriage is at the heart of this biography, and it’s nothing less than a great love story. …Evan Thomas’s book is not just a biography of a remarkable woman, but an elegy for a worldview that, in law as well as politics, has disappeared from the nation’s main stages.” – New York Times Book Review
“…unlike every other volume written about O’Connor — even the books the justice wrote about herself. …Author Evan Thomas breaks new ground with First. With extraordinary access to the justice, her papers, her personal journals — and even 20 years of her husband’s diary — the book is, in a sense, an authorized biography. But it is considerably more. It is an unvarnished and psychologically intuitive look at the nation’s first female Supreme Court justice, and some of her contradictory characteristics.” – NPR
“[A] marvelous chronicle of the former Supreme Court justice [that] is worthy of its glowing cover blurb.” – Washington Independent Review of Books
Available Formats:
Funny Man: Mel Brooks by Patrick McGilligan
Oscar, Emmy, Tony, and Grammy award–winner Mel Brooks was behind (and sometimes in front of the camera too) of some of the most influential comedy hits of our time, including The 2,000 Year Old Man, Get Smart, The Producers, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein. But before this actor, writer, director, comedian, and composer entertained the world, his first audience was his family.
The fourth and last child of Max and Kitty Kaminsky, Mel Brooks was born on his family’s kitchen table in Brooklyn, New York, in 1926, and was not quite three-years-old when his father died of tuberculosis. Growing up in a household too poor to own a radio, Mel was short and homely, a mischievous child whose birth role was to make the family laugh.
Beyond boyhood, after transforming himself into Mel Brooks, the laughs that came easily inside the Kaminsky family proved more elusive. His lifelong crusade to transform himself into a brand name of popular humor is at the center of master biographer Patrick McGilligan’s Funny Man. In this exhaustively researched and wonderfully novelistic look at Brooks’ personal and professional life, McGilligan lays bare the strengths and drawbacks that shaped Brooks’ psychology, his willpower, his persona, and his comedy.
McGilligan insightfully navigates the epic ride that has been the famous funnyman’s life story, from Brooks’s childhood in Williamsburg tenements and breakthrough in early television—working alongside Sid Caesar and Carl Reiner—to Hollywood and Broadway peaks (and valleys). His book offers a meditation on the Jewish immigrant culture that influenced Brooks, snapshots of the golden age of comedy, behind the scenes revelations about the celebrated shows and films, and a telling look at the four-decade romantic partnership with actress Anne Bancroft that superseded Brooks’ troubled first marriage. Engrossing, nuanced and ultimately poignant, Funny Man delivers a great man’s unforgettable life story and an anatomy of the American dream of success.
Description from Goodreads.
“This superb account by film biographer McGilligan of Mel Brooks’s life and career persuasively sketches two sides of the comedian-filmmaker’s personality….. McGilligan’s exhaustive biography will be essential reading for anyone interested in Brooks or, more broadly, how Hollywood functioned during the second half of the 20th century.” – Publishers Weekly
“The author ably chronicles Brooks’ career arc from the Brooklyn kid born Melvin Kaminsky to the loudest member of Sid Caesar’s writing staff on NBC’s Your Show of Shows and Caesar’s Hour in the 1950s to the driving force behind some of the most successful film comedies of his time.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Well researched, engaging, and of interest to all of Brooks’ fans. McGilligan has found a good critical balance as he extols his subject’s comedic and artistic virtues while being forthright about Brooks’s occasional stubborn attitude toward creative and financial control. McGilligan is one of the few film biographers not to indulge in extensive criticism of the projects themselves, instead offering commentary through the contemporary reviews or financial results of a given work.” – Library Journal
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Doing Justice: A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law by Preet Bharara
Preet Bharara has spent much of his life examining our legal system, pushing to make it better, and prosecuting those looking to subvert it. Bharara believes in our system and knows it must be protected, but to do so, we must also acknowledge and allow for flaws in the system and in human nature.
The book is divided into four sections: Inquiry, Accusation, Judgment and Punishment. He shows why each step of this process is crucial to the legal system, but he also shows how we all need to think about each stage of the process to achieve truth and justice in our daily lives.
Bharara uses anecdotes and case histories from his legal career–the successes as well as the failures–to illustrate the realities of the legal system, and the consequences of taking action (and in some cases, not taking action, which can be just as essential when trying to achieve a just result).
Much of what Bharara discusses is inspiring–it gives us hope that rational and objective fact-based thinking, combined with compassion, can truly lead us on a path toward truth and justice. Some of what he writes about will be controversial and cause much discussion. Ultimately, it is a thought-provoking, entertaining book about the need to find the humanity in our legal system–and in our society.
Description from Goodreads.
“Doing Justice: A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment, and the Rule of Law is written in a way that both an inside audience and a lay audience will savor. Trials and investigations are currently at the forefront of our national discourse, and Bharara does a superb job supplementing that conversation… What makes his book particularly absorbing—and worth reading—is that, among the many and important successes of his storied office, he also describes the uncertainty, the struggles, the failures and the dilemmas inherent in the work… Doing Justice is a consistently compelling and important tale, well written and well worth reading.” – Lawfare
“Bright with anecdotes from his lengthy and illustrious career, Bharara’s razor-edge judgments about punishment, procedure, outcome, and outlook address issues of governance and moral grounding that form the crux of the nature of justice. Bharara speaks with a clear, firm, and engaging voice in this essential primer about the importance of a fair and open justice system.” – Booklist
“In this fascinating combination of memoir and ethical-legal manifesto, former U.S. attorney Bharara posits that ‘the model of the American trial has something to teach us… about debate and disagreement and truth and justice.’ …His prose has the quality of a well-written speech, with philosophical pronouncements, followed by supporting tales from both his legal career and his personal life, recounted in a superbly accessible and conversational, even humorous tone… Bharara also reminds readers that, while the law is an incredible tool, it is people who create or corrupt justice. With its approachable human moments, tragic and triumphant cases, heroic investigators, and depictions of hardworking everyday people, this book is a rare thing: a page-turning work of practical moral philosophy.” – Publisher’s Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
YOUNG ADULT
Fear of Missing Out by Kate McGovern
Everyone has a fear of missing out on something–a party, a basketball game, a hangout after school. But what if it’s life that you’ll be missing out on?
When Astrid learns that her cancer has returned, she hears about a radical technology called cryopreservation that may allow her to have her body frozen until a future time when–and if–a cure is available. With her boyfriend, Mohit, and her best friend, Chloe, Astrid goes on a road trip in search of that possibility. To see if it’s real. To see if it’s worth it. For fear of missing out on everything.
Description from Goodreads.
“A moving story of a girl trying to figure out what legacy she can leave for the world in the face of a devastating reality . . . [this book] grants respect and understanding to those who love Astrid and who are suffering in their own ways. Readers should definitely bring the hankies, but they’ll have plenty to discuss as well.” – Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
“McGovern’s impeccable writing carries readers through an incredible journey of self-exploration . . . A compelling and heartrending read that should not be missed. Highly recommended for all YA libraries.” – School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
“A deeply felt, nuanced story of coping with terminal illness, McGovern’s novel features a protagonist whose voice strikes just the right balance between poignancy and wit. The well-paced plot prioritizes Astrid’s grief while simultaneously providing windows into the struggles of the people she loves, including a diverse cast of characters. A heartbreaking story of loss and grief peopled with nuanced, endearing characters that ultimately leaves the reader with a feeling of triumph.” – Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
Available Formats:
CHILDREN’S
The Crayon Man: The True Story of the Invention of Crayola Crayons by Natascha Biebow; illustrated by Steven Salerno
What child doesn’t love to hold a crayon in their hands? But children didn’t always have such magical boxes of crayons. Before Edwin Binney set out to change things, children couldn’t really even draw in color.
Here’s the true story of an inventor who so loved nature’s vibrant colors that he found a way to bring the outside world to children – in a bright green box for only a nickel! With experimentation, and a special knack for listening, Edwin Binney and his dynamic team at Crayola created one of the world’s most enduring, best-loved childhood toys – empowering children to dream in COLOR!
Description from Goodreads.
“This entertaining history of how a universally recognizable object came to be tells of businessman and inventor Edwin Binney’s ‘knack for listening and making what people needed.’ …Biebow’s first nonfiction picture book flows with conversational smoothness … The attractive full-page–and, accordingly, brightly colorful–illustrations mix realism and whimsy.” – Booklist
“A colorful addition to the shelves of picture books about inventors and inventions and all things STEAM.” – School Library Journal
Available Formats: