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Fates and Furies

Lauren Groff

A FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY: THE WASHINGTON POST, NPR, TIME, THE SEATTLE TIMES, MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE, SLATE, LIBRARY JOURNAL, KIRKUS, AND MANY MORE


“Lauren Groff is a writer of rare gifts, and Fates and Furies is an unabashedly ambitious novel that delivers – with comedy, tragedy, well-deployed erudition and unmistakable glimmers of brilliance throughout.” —The New York Times Book Review (cover review)

From the award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Florida, Matrix, and the highly-anticipated The Vaster Wilds: an exhilarating novel about marriage, creativity, art, and perception. 

Fates and Furies is a literary masterpiece that defies expectation. A dazzling examination of a marriage, it is also a portrait of creative partnership written by one of the best writers of her generation. 

Every story has two sides. Every relationship has two perspectives. And sometimes, it turns out, the key to a great marriage is not its truths but its secrets. At the core of this rich, expansive, layered novel, Lauren Groff presents the story of one such marriage over the course of twenty-four years.

At age twenty-two, Lotto and Mathilde are tall, glamorous, madly in love, and destined for greatness. A decade later, their marriage is still the envy of their friends, but with an electric thrill we understand that things are even more complicated and remarkable than they have seemed. With stunning revelations and multiple threads, and in prose that is vibrantly alive and original, Groff delivers a deeply satisfying novel about love, art, creativity, and power that is unlike anything that has come before it. Profound, surprising, propulsive, and emotionally riveting, it stirs both the mind and the heart.

 

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Jane Eyre

Charlotte Brontë

Orphaned Jane Eyre grows up in the home of her heartless aunt, where she endures loneliness and cruelty, and at a charity school with a harsh regime. This troubled childhood strengthens Jane's natural independence and spirit - which prove necessary when she finds a position as governess at Thornfield Hall. But when she finds love with her sardonic employer, Rochester, the discovery of his terrible secret forces her to make a choice. Should she stay with him and live with the consequences, or follow her convictions, even if it means leaving the man she loves? A novel of intense power and intrigue, Jane Eyre (1847) dazzled and shocked readers with its passionate depiction of a woman's search for equality and freedom.

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The Night Circus

Erin Morgenstern

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Two starcrossed magicians engage in a deadly game of cunning in the spellbinding novel that captured the world's imagination. "Part love story, part fable ... defies both genres and expectations." —The Boston GlobeThe circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance.

 

 

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A Little Life

Hanya Yanagihara

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST

SHORT-LISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE


Brace yourself for the most astonishing, challenging, upsetting, and profoundly moving book in many a season. An epic about love and friendship in the twenty-first century that goes into some of the darkest places fiction has ever traveled and yet somehow improbably breaks through into the light. Truly an amazement—and a great gift for its readers.

 
When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity. Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.
 
In rich and resplendent prose, Yanagihara has fashioned a tragic and transcendent hymn to brotherly love, a masterful depiction of heartbreak, and a dark examination of the tyranny of memory and the limits of human endurance.

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Never Let Me Go

Kazuo Ishiguro

NOBEL PRIZE WINNER From the acclaimed, bestselling author of The Remains of the Day comes “a Gothic tour de force" (The New York Times) with an extraordinary twist—a moving, suspenseful, beautifully atmospheric modern classic.

As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were.

Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life. And for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special—and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together.

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'Salem's Lot

Stephen King

#1 BESTSELLER • Ben Mears has returned to Jerusalem’s Lot in hopes that exploring the history of the Marsten House, an old mansion long the subject of rumor and speculation, will help him cast out his personal devils and provide inspiration for his new book.

But when two young boys venture into the woods, and only one returns alive, Mears begins to realize that something sinister is at work.

In fact, his hometown is under siege from forces of darkness far beyond his imagination. And only he, with a small group of allies, can hope to contain the evil that is growing within the borders of this small New England town.

With this, his second novel, Stephen King established himself as an indisputable master of American horror, able to transform the old conceits of the genre into something fresh and all the more frightening for taking place in a familiar, idyllic locale.

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The Wishing Game

Meg Shaffer

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Years ago, a reclusive mega-bestselling children’s author quit writing under mysterious circumstances. Suddenly he resurfaces with a brand-new book and a one-of-a-kind competition, offering a prize that will change the winner’s life in this absorbing and whimsical novel.

“Clever, dark, and hopeful . . . a love letter to reading and the power that childhood stories have over us long after we’ve grown up.”—V. E. Schwab, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Washington Post, She Reads, Bookreporter

Make a wish. . . .

Lucy Hart knows better than anyone what it’s like to grow up without parents who loved her. In a childhood marked by neglect and loneliness, Lucy found her solace in books, namely the Clock Island series by Jack Masterson. Now a twenty-six-year-old teacher’s aide, she is able to share her love of reading with bright, young students, especially seven-year-old Christopher Lamb, who was left orphaned after the tragic death of his parents. Lucy would give anything to adopt Christopher, but even the idea of becoming a family seems like an impossible dream without proper funds and stability.

But be careful what you wish for. . . .

Just when Lucy is about to give up, Jack Masterson announces he’s finally written a new book. Even better, he’s holding a contest at his home on the real Clock Island, and Lucy is one of the four lucky contestants chosen to compete to win the one and only copy.

For Lucy, the chance of winning the most sought-after book in the world means everything to her and Christopher. But first she must contend with ruthless book collectors, wily opponents, and the distractingly handsome (and grumpy) Hugo Reese, the illustrator of the Clock Island books. Meanwhile, Jack “the Mastermind” Masterson is plotting the ultimate twist ending that could change all their lives forever.

. . . You might just get it.

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Where the Forest Meets the Stars

Glendy Vanderah

An Amazon Charts, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post bestseller.

In this gorgeously stunning debut, a mysterious child teaches two strangers how to love and trust again.

After the loss of her mother and her own battle with breast cancer, Joanna Teale returns to her graduate research on nesting birds in rural Illinois, determined to prove that her recent hardships have not broken her. She throws herself into her work from dusk to dawn, until her solitary routine is disrupted by the appearance of a mysterious child who shows up at her cabin barefoot and covered in bruises.

The girl calls herself Ursa, and she claims to have been sent from the stars to witness five miracles. With concerns about the child's home situation, Jo reluctantly agrees to let her stay--just until she learns more about Ursa's past.

Jo enlists the help of her reclusive neighbor, Gabriel Nash, to solve the mystery of the charming child. But the more time they spend together, the more questions they have. How does a young girl not only read but understand Shakespeare? Why do good things keep happening in her presence? And why aren't Jo and Gabe checking the missing children's website anymore?

Though the three have formed an incredible bond, they know difficult choices must be made. As the summer nears an end and Ursa gets closer to her fifth miracle, her dangerous past closes in. When it finally catches up to them, all of their painful secrets will be forced into the open, and their fates will be left to the stars.

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Fifty Words for Rain

Asha Lemmie

Good Morning America Book Club Pick and New York Times Bestseller!
 
From debut author Asha Lemmie, “a lovely, heartrending story about love and loss, prejudice and pain, and the sometimes dangerous, always durable ties that link a family together.” —Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Nightingale

Kyoto, Japan, 1948. “Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist.”

Such is eight-year-old Noriko “Nori” Kamiza’s first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic of her grandparents’ imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her skin.

The child of a married Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an outsider from birth. Her grandparents take her in, only to conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life, despite her natural intellect and curiosity. But when chance brings her older half-brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in him an unlikely ally with whom she forms a powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might cost her everything.

Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what it means to be free.

 

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A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Mary Wollstonecraft

Writing in an age when the call for the rights of man had brought revolution to America and France, Mary Wollstonecraft produced her own declaration of female independence in 1792. Passionate and forthright, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman attacked the prevailing view of docile, decorative femininity, and instead laid out the principles of emancipation: an equal education for girls and boys, an end to prejudice, and for women to become defined by their profession, not their partner. Mary Wollstonecraft's work was received with a mixture of admiration and outrage - Walpole called her 'a hyena in petticoats' - yet it established her as the mother of modern feminism.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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Middlemarch

George Eliot

George Eliot's Victorian masterpiece: a magnificent portrait of a provincial town and its inhabitantsGeorge Eliot’s novel, Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life, explores a fictional nineteenth-century Midlands town in the midst of modern changes. The proposed Reform Bill promises political change; the building of railroads alters both the physical and cultural landscape; new scientific approaches to medicine incite public division; and scandal lurks behind respectability. The quiet drama of ordinary lives and flawed choices are played out in the complexly portrayed central characters of the novel—the idealistic Dorothea Brooke; the ambitious Dr. Lydgate; the spendthrift Fred Vincy; and the steadfast Mary Garth. The appearance of two outsiders further disrupts the town’s equilibrium—Will Ladislaw, the spirited nephew of Dorothea’s husband, the Rev. Edward Casaubon, and the sinister John Raffles, who threatens to expose the hidden past of one of the town’s elite. Middlemarch displays George Eliot’s clear-eyed yet humane understanding of characters caught up in the mysterious unfolding of self-knowledge. This Penguin Classics edition uses the second edition of 1874 and features an introduction and notes by Eliot-biographer Rosemary Ashton. In her introduction, Ashton discusses themes of social change in Middlemarch, and examines the novel as an imaginative embodiment of Eliot's humanist beliefs.

For more than sixty-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,500 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

 

 

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My Name Is Barbra

Barbra Streisand

The long-awaited memoir by the superstar of stage, screen, recordings, and television
Barbra Streisand is by any account a living legend, a woman who in a career spanning six decades has excelled in every area of entertainment. She is among the handful of EGOT winners (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) and has one of the greatest and most recognizable voices in the history of popular music. She has been nominated for a Grammy 46 times, and with Yentl she became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major motion picture. In My Name Is Barbra, she tells her own story about her life and extraordinary career, from growing up in Brooklyn to her first star-making appearances in New York nightclubs to her breakout performance in Funny Girl on stage and winning the Oscar for that performance on film. Then came a long string of successes in every medium in the years that followed. The book is, like Barbra herself, frank, funny, opinionated, and charming. She recounts her early struggles to become an actress, eventually turning to singing to earn a living; the recording of some of her acclaimed albums; the years of effort involved in making Yentl; her direction of The Prince of Tides; her friendships with figures ranging from Marlon Brando to Madeleine Albright; her political advocacy; and the fulfillment she’s found in her marriage to James Brolin.
 
No entertainer’s memoir has been more anticipated than Barbra Streisand’s, and this engrossing and delightful book will be eagerly welcomed by her millions of fans.

 

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The Pirate's Wife

Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos

The dramatic and deliciously swashbuckling story of Sarah Kidd, the wife of the famous pirate Captain Kidd, charting her transformation from New York socialite to international outlaw during the Golden Age of Piracy

Captain Kidd was one of the most notorious pirates to ever prowl the seas. But few know that Kidd had an accomplice, a behind-the-scenes player who enabled his plundering and helped him outpace his enemies.

That accomplice was his wife, Sarah Kidd, a well-to-do woman whose extraordinary life is a lesson in reinvention and resourcefulness. Twice widowed by twenty-one and operating within the strictures of polite society in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century New York, Sarah secretly aided and abetted her husband, fighting alongside him against his accusers. More remarkable still was that Sarah not only survived the tragedy wrought by her infamous husband's deeds, but went on to live a successful and productive life as one of New York's most prominent citizens.

Marshaling in newly discovered primary-source documents from archives in London, New York and Boston, historian and journalist Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos reconstructs the extraordinary life of Sarah Kidd, uncovering a rare example of the kind of life that pirate wives lived during the Golden Age of Piracy. A compelling tale of love, treasure, motherhood and survival, this landmark work of narrative nonfiction weaves together the personal and the epic in a sweeping historical story of romance and adventure.

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Code Name Blue Wren

Jim Popkin

The incredible true story of Ana Montes, the most damaging female spy in US history, drawing upon never-before-seen material and to be published upon her release from prison, for readers of Agent Sonya and A Woman of No Importance.

Just days after the 9-11 attacks, a senior Pentagon analyst eased her red Toyota Echo into traffic and headed to work. She never saw the undercover cars tracking her every turn. As she settled into her cubicle on the 6th floor of the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington, FBI Agents and twitchy DIA officers were hiding in nearby offices. For this was the day that Ana Montes--the US Intelligence Community superstar who had just won a prestigious fellowship at the CIA--was to be arrested and publicly exposed as a secret agent for Cuba.

Like spies Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen before her, Ana Montes blindsided her colleagues with brazen acts of treason. For nearly 17 years, Montes succeeded in two high-stress jobs. By day, she was one of the government's top Cuba experts, a buttoned-down GS-14 with shockingly easy access to classified documents. By night, she was on the clock for Fidel Castro, listening to coded messages over shortwave radio, passing US secrets to handlers in local restaurants, and slipping into Havana wearing a wig.

Montes didn't just deceive her country. Her betrayal was intensely personal. Her mercurial father was a former US Army Colonel. Her brother and sister-in-law were FBI Special Agents. And her only sister, Lucy, also worked her entire career for the Bureau. The highlight of her distinguished 31 years as a Miami-based language specialist: Helping the FBI flush Cuban spies out of the United States. Little did Lucy or her family know that the greatest Cuban spy of all was sitting right next to them at Thanksgivings, baptisms, and weddings.

In Code Name Blue Wren, investigative journalist Jim Popkin weaves the tale of two sisters who chose two very different paths, plus the unsung heroes who had to fight to bring Ana to justice. With exclusive access to a "Secret" CIA behavioral profile of Ana, family memoirs, and Ana's incriminating letters from prison, Popkin reveals the making of a traitor--a woman labelled "one of the most damaging spies in U.S. history" by America's top counter-intelligence official.

After more than two decades in federal prison, Montes will be freed in January 2023. Code Name Blue Wren is a thrilling detective tale, an insider's look at the clandestine world of espionage, and an intimate exploration of the dark side of betrayal.

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Femina

Janina Ramirez

THE #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 CUNDIL HISTORY PRIZE
A "Next Big Idea Book Club" Must Read?

A groundbreaking reappraisal of medieval femininity, revealing why women have been written out of history and why it matters

The Middle Ages are seen as a bloodthirsty time of Vikings, saints and kings; a patriarchal society that oppressed and excluded women. But when we dig a little deeper into the truth, we can see that the "Dark" Ages were anything but.

Oxford and BBC historian Janina Ramirez has uncovered countless influential women's names struck out of historical records, with the word FEMINA annotated beside them. As gatekeepers of the past ordered books to be burned, artworks to be destroyed, and new versions of myths, legends and historical documents to be produced, our view of history has been manipulated.

Only now, through a careful examination of the artifacts, writings and possessions they left behind, are the influential and multifaceted lives of women emerging. Femina goes beyond the official records to uncover the true impact of women, such as:

  • Jadwiga, the only female king in Europe
  • Margery Kempe, who exploited her image and story to ensure her notoriety
  • Loftus Princess, whose existence gives us clues about the beginnings of Christianity in England

 

 


In Femina, Ramirez invites us to see the medieval world with fresh eyes and discover why these remarkable women were removed from our collective memories.

 

 

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Pure Wit

Francesca Peacock

A biography of the remarkable—and in her time scandalous—seventeenth-century writer Margaret Cavendish, who pioneered the science fiction novel.

"My ambition is not only to be Empress, but Authoress of a whole world."—Margaret Cavendish

Margaret Cavendish, then Lucas, was born in 1623 to an aristocratic family. In 1644, as England descended into civil war, she joined the court of the formidable Queen Henrietta Maria at Oxford. With the rest of the court she went into self-imposed exile in France. Her family's wealth and lands were forfeited by Parliament. It was in France that she met her partner, William Cavendish, Marquess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a marriage that made her the Duchess of Newcastle and would remain at the heart of both her life and career.

Margaret was a passionate writer. She wrote extensively on gender, science, philosophy, and published under her own name at a time when women simply did not do so. Her greatest work was The Blazing World, published in 1666, a utopian proto-novel that is thought to be one of the earliest works of science fiction that brought together Margaret's talents in poetry, philosophy, and science.

Yet hers is a legacy that has long divided opinion, and history has largely forgotten her, an undeserved fate for a brilliant, courageous proto-feminist. In Pure Wit, Francesca Peacock remedies this omission and shines a spotlight on the fascinating, pioneering, yet often complex and controversial life, of the multi-faceted Margaret Cavendish.

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The Watchmaker's Daughter

Larry Loftis

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

New York Times bestselling author and master of nonfiction spy thrillers Larry Loftis writes the first major biography of Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch watchmaker who saved the lives of hundreds of Jews during WWII--at the cost of losing her family and being sent to a concentration camp, only to survive, forgive her captors, and live the rest of her life as a Christian missionary.

The Watchmaker's Daughter is one of the greatest stories of World War II that readers haven't heard: the remarkable and inspiring life story of Corrie ten Boom--a groundbreaking, female Dutch watchmaker, whose family unselfishly transformed their house into a hiding place straight out of a spy novel to shelter Jews and refugees from the Nazis during Gestapo raids. Even though the Nazis knew what the ten Booms were up to, they were never able to find those sheltered within the house when they raided it.

Corrie stopped at nothing to face down the evils of her time and overcame unbelievable obstacles and odds. She persevered despite the loss of most of her family and relied on her faith to survive the horrors of a notorious concentration camp. But even more remarkable than her heroism and survival was Corrie's attitude when she was released. Miraculously, she was able to eschew bitterness and embrace forgiveness as she ministered to people in need around the globe. Corrie's ability to forgive is just one of the myriad lessons that her life story holds for readers today.

Reminiscent of Schindler's List and featuring a journey of faith and forgiveness not unlike Unbroken, The Watchmaker's Daughter is destined to become a classic work of World War II nonfiction.

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Wild Girls

Tiya Miles

Harriet Tubman, forced to labor outdoors on a Maryland plantation, learned from the land a terrain for escape. Louisa May Alcott ran wild, eluding gendered expectations in New England. The Indigenous women's basketball team from Fort Shaw, Montana, recaptured a sense of pride in physical prowess as they trounced the white teams of the 1904 World's Fair. Celebrating women like these who acted on their confidence outdoors, Wild Girls brings new context to misunderstood icons like Sacagawea and Pocahontas, and to underappreciated figures like Native American activist writer Zitkála-Sá, also known as Gertrude Bonnin, farmworkers' champion Dolores Huerta, and labor and Civil Rights organizer Grace Lee Boggs.

This beautiful, meditative work of history puts girls of all races--and the landscapes they loved--at center stage and reveals the impact of the outdoors on women's independence, resourcefulness, and vision. For these trailblazing women of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, navigating the woods, following the stars, playing sports, and taking to the streets in peaceful protest were not only joyful pursuits, but also techniques to resist assimilation, racism, and sexism. Lyrically written and full of archival discoveries, Wild Girls evokes landscapes as richly as the girls who roamed in them--and argues for equal access to outdoor spaces for young women of every race and class today.

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Normal Women

Philippa Gregory

"Lively, timely and gloriously energetic. Each page bursts with life, and every chapter swirls with personalities left out of traditional narratives of Britain's past. Philippa Gregory has produced something rare and wonderful: a genuinely new history of [Britain], with women at its beating heart." --Dan Jones, New York Times bestselling author of The Plantagenets

"Stunning. . . . Full of surprises. . . . A brilliant, essential read." --The Independent (UK)

The #1 New York Times bestselling historical novelist delivers her magnum opus--a landmark work of feminist nonfiction that radically redefines our understanding of the extraordinary roles ordinary women played throughout British history and "should be included in every history lesson" (Glamour UK)

Did you know that there are more penises than women in the Bayeux Tapestry? That the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 was started and propelled by women who were protesting a tax on women? Or that celebrated naturalist Charles Darwin believed not just that women were naturally inferior to men, but that they'd evolve to become ever more inferior?

These are just a few of the startling findings you will learn from reading Philippa Gregory's Normal Women. In this ambitious and groundbreaking book, she tells the story of England over 900 years, for the very first time placing women--some fifty per cent of the population--center stage.

Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records, newspapers, and journals to find highwaywomen and beggars, murderers and brides, housewives and pirates, female husbands and hermits. The "normal women" you will meet in these pages went to war, ploughed the fields, campaigned, wrote, and loved. They rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency, and built ships, corn mills and houses. They committed crimes or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things, and rioted. A lot.

A landmark work of scholarship and storytelling, Normal Women chronicles centuries of social and cultural change--from 1066 to modern times--powered by the determination, persistence, and effectiveness of women.

*INCLUDES ILLUSTRATIONS THROUGHOUT AND A FULL-COLOR INSERT*

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The Sisterhood

Liza Mundy

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • The acclaimed author of Code Girls returns with a “rip-roaring” (Steve Coll), “staggeringly well-researched” (The New York Times) history of three generations at the CIA, “electric with revelations” (Booklist) about the women who fought to become operatives, transformed spycraft, and tracked down Osama bin Laden.

“This masterful book cements Liza Mundy as one of our foremost historians.”—Kate Moore, bestselling author of The Radium Girls

A FOREIGN POLICY AND SMITHSONIAN BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

Created in the aftermath of World War II, the Central Intelligence Agency relied on women even as it attempted to channel their talents and keep them down. Women sent cables, made dead drops, and maintained the agency’s secrets. Despite discrimination—even because of it—women who started as clerks, secretaries, or unpaid spouses rose to become some of the CIA’s shrewdest operatives.

They were unlikely spies—and that’s exactly what made them perfect for the role. Because women were seen as unimportant, pioneering female intelligence officers moved unnoticed around Bonn, Geneva, and Moscow, stealing secrets from under the noses of their KGB adversaries. Back at headquarters, women built the CIA’s critical archives—first by hand, then by computer. And they noticed things that the men at the top didn’t see. As the CIA faced an identity crisis after the Cold War, it was a close-knit network of female analysts who spotted the rising threat of al-Qaeda—though their warnings were repeatedly brushed aside.

After the 9/11 attacks, more women joined the agency as a new job, targeter, came to prominence. They showed that data analysis would be crucial to the post-9/11 national security landscape—an effort that culminated spectacularly in the CIA’s successful effort to track down bin Laden in his Pakistani compound.

Propelled by the same meticulous reporting and vivid storytelling that infused Code Girls, The Sisterhood offers a riveting new perspective on history, revealing how women at the CIA ushered in the modern intelligence age, and how their silencing made the world more dangerous.

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A Rome of One's Own

Emma Southon

From the acclaimed author of A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, a wildly entertaining new history of Rome that uses the lives of 21 women to upend our understanding of the ancient world

The history of Rome has long been narrow and one-sided, essentially a history of "the Doing of Important Things." And as far as Roman historians have been concerned, women don't make that history. From Romulus through the political stab-fest of the late Republic, and then on to all the emperors, Roman historians may deign to give you a wife or a mother to show how bad things become when women get out of control, but history is more than that.

Emma Southon's A Rome of One's Own is the best kind of correction. This is a retelling of the history of Rome with all the things Roman history writers relegate to the background, or designate as domestic, feminine, or worthless. This is a history of women who caused outrage, led armies in rebellion, wrote poetry; who lived independently or under the thumb of emperors. Told with humor and verve as well as a deep scholarly background, A Rome of One's Own highlights women overlooked and misunderstood, and through them offers a fascinating and groundbreaking chronicle of the ancient world.

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Woman, Watching

Merilyn Simonds

From award-winning author Merilyn Simonds, a remarkable biography of an extraordinary woman -- a Swedish aristocrat who survived the Russian Revolution to become an internationally renowned naturalist, one of the first to track the mid-century decline of songbirds.

2022 Foreword Indies Award Winner for the Editor's Choice Prize, non fiction

"[A] lyrical, passionate, and deeply researched portrait." -- Margaret Atwood

"This brilliant account does justice to a pioneering figure who merits wider recognition." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review

"[A] marvelous biography of a true pioneer of ornithology." -- Booklist, starred review

"Woman, Watching is an entrancing blend of biography, memoir, history, research, and homage that is unlike anything I've ever read. It's radical, it's ravishing." -- Kyo Maclear, author of Birds Art Life

Referred to as a Canadian Rachel Carson, Louise de Kiriline Lawrence lived and worked in an isolated log cabin near North Bay. After her husband was murdered by Bolsheviks, she refused her Swedish privilege and joined the Canadian Red Cross, visiting her northern Ontario patients by dogsled. When Elzire Dionne gave birth to five babies, Louise became nurse to the Dionne Quintuplets. Repulsed by the media circus, she retreated to her wilderness cabin, where she devoted herself to studying the birds that nested in her forest. Author of six books and scores of magazine stories, de Kiriline Lawrence and her "loghouse nest" became a Mecca for international ornithologists.

Lawrence was an old woman when Merilyn Simonds moved into the woods not far away. Their paths crossed, sparking Simonds's lifelong interest. A dedicated birder, Simonds brings her own songbird experiences from Canadian nesting grounds and Mexican wintering grounds to this deeply researched, engaging portrait of a uniquely fascinating woman.

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Brave the Wild River

Melissa L. Sevigny

In the summer of 1938, botanists Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter set off to run the Colorado River, accompanied by an ambitious and entrepreneurial expedition leader, a zoologist, and two amateur boatmen. With its churning waters and treacherous boulders, the Colorado was famed as the most dangerous river in the world. Journalists and veteran river runners boldly proclaimed that the motley crew would never make it out alive. But for Clover and Jotter, the expedition held a tantalizing appeal: no one had yet surveyed the plant life of the Grand Canyon, and they were determined to be the first.

Through the vibrant letters and diaries of the two women, science journalist Melissa L. Sevigny traces their daring forty-three-day journey down the river, during which they meticulously cataloged the thorny plants that thrived in the Grand Canyon's secret nooks and crannies. Along the way, they chased a runaway boat, ran the river's most fearsome rapids, and turned the harshest critic of female river runners into an ally. Clover and Jotter's plant list, including four new cactus species, would one day become vital for efforts to protect and restore the river ecosystem.

Brave the Wild River is a spellbinding adventure of two women who risked their lives to make an unprecedented botanical survey of a defining landscape in the American West, at a time when human influences had begun to change it forever.

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Baby's Here!

Jessica Young

Tickle, rock, cuddle, and kiss the babies in this interactive board book! Rhyming text and sweet illustrations are perfect for toddlers and newly minted big brothers and sisters celebrating the arrival of a new baby.

Baby's Here! is a sweet interactive board book with a unique shape that encourages toddlers and big siblings to be to cradle, rock, and play with the babies in the pages.

Gift this board book to little ones who love babies or baby dolls, or are expecting a new baby sister or brother themselves! Toddlers will delight in the brief, rhyming text and invitations to interact with the cuddly babies in the pages. Sure to inspire repeat reads and independent play, this book will capture the imagination of baby-loving "big kids."

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Still This Love Goes On

Buffy Sainte-Marie


A New York Times / New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children's Book of 2022!

NAMED A BEST PICTURE BOOK OF THE YEAR: Kirkus Reviews, Globe and Mail, and Chicago Public Library
"A love letter to family, home, and Indigenous traditions... This story reminds readers of the joy we experience upon returning to those whom we love and who love us." --Kirkus STARRED Review

From Cree-Métis artist Julie Flett and Academy Award-winning icon Buffy Sainte-Marie comes a celebration of Indigenous community, and the enduring love we hold for the people and places we are far away from.

Based on Sainte-Marie's song of the same name, Still This Love Goes On combines Flett's breathtaking art with vivid lyrics to craft a stunning portrait of a Cree worldview. At the heart of this picture book is a gentle message about missing our loved ones, and the promise of seeing each other again.

This gem of a picture book features:

  • Sheet music of Buffy Sainte-Marie's beloved song
  • Notes from Sainte-Marie and Flett about their inspiration for the song and illustrations

Brimming with love for community and the land, Still This Love Goes On is destined to be read and sung for generations.
 

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How to Say Hello to a Worm

Kari Percival

Say "hello" to worms, dirt, peas, and more in this gentle how-to guide for connecting with nature.

* Winner of the EZRA JACK KEATS WRITER AWARD
* An ALA Notable Children’s Book
* A CLEL Bell Award Winner

The beautiful simplicity of a garden is depicted through digital woodcut illustrations and engaging nonfiction text presented as a series of sweet questions and gentle replies. Less of a traditional how-to and more of a how-to-appreciate, this soothingly sparse text paints an inviting and accessible picture of what a garden offers. And with an all-child cast, the absence of an adult presence empowers readers to view the garden and its creatures through their own eyes, driven by curiosity and wonder.

This delightful book embodies the magic of gardening and encourages all readers, from those who LOVE the outdoors to those with hesitation, to interact with nature at their own, comfortable pace.

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This Is a Story

John Schu

Children’s literacy advocate John Schu and Caldecott Honor recipient Lauren Castillo celebrate the power of finding the perfect book—in a story that’s more relevant than ever.

This is a word on a page.
This is a page in a book.
This is a book on a shelf . . . waiting.

With a sea-horse kite in hand, a child heads out with Dad to the library. On the way they stop at a park, joining lots of people, some of whom are flying kites, too. At the library, a person toting a big pile of books hands over a story on a favorite subject: the sea horse. All around, there are readers poring over books, each with their own questions, ideas to explore, hopes for the future, and imaginations ready to spark. With a warm, lyrical text and tenderly expressive illustrations, John Schu and Lauren Castillo invite us to imagine the myriad ways that books can foster connection and understanding—and how they can empower children, through their own passions, to transform the world.

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Scroll

Hui Li

A Bookpage Best Picture Book of the Year



★ "A beautifully drawn, cleverly told tale of bravery and wit.... As Lulu discovers, wonders await those who take a chance and dive in." --Bookpage, starred review



★ "Readers are plunged into an enchanted world where drawing skills and creative problem-solving hold the key to a favorable outcome.... A masterful integration of storytelling." --School Library Journal, starred review



"This charming story utilizing a comics format will engage readers with its blend of history, language learning, and adventure." --
Booklist



"A fun and clever introduction to an ancient art form." --Kirkus Reviews



"Hand-rendered watercolor, colored pencil, and Chinese ink art offers a visual feast via energetic brushwork and transparent pools of color." --Publishers Weekly




Lulu and her dog Dumpling enter a magical world where Chinese calligraphy comes to life in this beautifully illustrated, interactive picture book about family, tradition, and the importance of kindness.



After Grandpa introduces calligraphy and Chinese characters to Lulu and her dog Dumpling, they find themselves magically transported to a world where the characters they draw come to life! Soon Lulu and Dumpling meet a bird, a zither-playing musician, and many other animated friends. But when they discover an angry dragon, Lulu is not sure how to draw them out of this tense encounter.



Spanning themes of art and history, this inventive story introduces children to complex Chinese characters, celebrates family and tradition, and shows how resourcefulness and kindness can save the day.

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A Day With No Words

Tiffany Hammond

An instant #1 New York Times bestselling picture book and Dolly Gray Award winner! A Day With No Words invites readers into the life of an Autism Family who communicates just as the child does, without spoken language.

The American Library Association Booklist starred review boasts, “The story is written from the boy's first-person perspective, however—a clever choice in that it gives readers a direct look into his mind and reinforces the book's crucial statement that nonverbal people have as many words and as much intelligence as anyone else. Cosgrove's art, throughout, does an amazing job of transporting readers into his perspective, employing various color tones, metaphoric imagery, and ‘camera’ angles to reflect the deep expressiveness contained in every page [...] through this book, neurotypicals' eyes will be opened, and everyone in Autistic Families will feel seen—and heard.”

A Day With No Words is a colorful and engaging picture book for young readers shares what life can look like for families who use nonverbal communication, utilizing tools to embrace their unique method of "speaking."

The story highlights the bond between mother and child and follows them on a day where they use a tablet to communicate with others.

Written by an autistic mother of two autistic sons and the creator behind the popular @Fidgets.and.Fries social media platform and illustrated by Kate Cosgrove (IG @k8cosgrove), A Day With No Words successfully normalizes communication methods outside of verbal speech and provides representation of neurodiversity and autism in a way that affirms and celebrates.

The experts are raving!

"How lucky are we to finally get Tiffany's poignant words and message into children's hands through this impactful story. Children and families can now be touched by her brilliance and learn about the often-overlooked autistics who communicate differently. The importance of A Day With No Words cannot be overstated in its potential to expose readers, young and old alike, to the beauties and barriers of living the autistic experience." — Ali Cunningham Abbott, PhD, LMHC, author of Counseling Adults with Autism: A Comprehensive Toolkit

“Through A Day with No Words, Tiffany Hammond provides us a rare window to the non-speaking world of autism. She has done so with love, compassion, and, I believe, deep understanding. And Kate Cosgrove's illustrations make it a beautiful world indeed. Bravo and thank you to both Hammond and Cosgrove for this window!” — Samantha S. Supernaw, LCSW-S, Licensed Therapist & Clinical Supervisor

“In my past 20 years as a developmental pediatrician, I have never read anything quite like A Day With No Words, a book that so eloquently, lyrically, and vividly captures the essence and beauty of an autistic mind. This book is a gift to all who read it.” — Wendy J. Ross, MD, Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Developmental Pediatrician, Associate Professor Jefferson University, Director Jefferson Health Center for Autism and Neurodiversity

About the Author: Tiffany Hammond (she/her) is the voice behind the Fidgets and Fries platform. She is an Autistic mother, advocate, and storyteller who uses her personal experiences with Autism and parenting two Autistic boys to guide others on their journey.

Tiffany has a Masters in Developmental Psychology and spends her time teaching, coaching, and mentoring others in Disability Justice issues.

Her activism is rooted in challenging the current perception of Autism as a lifelong burden, cultivating a community that explores the concept of Intersectionality and inspiring thought leaders through storytelling, education, and critical discourse.

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Quiet Time with My Seeya

Dinalie Dabarera

A lush and endearing picture book about the special days a child spends with her Sinhalese grandfather, her Seeya, despite their language barrier.

Sometimes, the moments that Sona spends with her seeya are quiet. They speak different languages and don't always use words. But they do communicate in other ways.

Sometimes, they're loud. They play dress-up, stomp in puddles, and pretend to be puppies. They cook pittu, tease each other when they're messy, and read to each other, even though they might not understand what the other is saying.

Any time that Sona and Seeya share is special, whether quiet or loud, because they get to spend it together.

Dinalie Dabarera's debut picture book is an achingly tender meditation on the unconditional love that can transcend all languages.

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We Belong to the Drum

Sandra Lamouche

The drum represents the heartbeat of Mother Earth. We all belong to the earth and we all belong to the drum.

Nikosis grew up going to powwows with his family, happily immersed in music, dance and the sounds of the drum. But when he starts going to daycare, he doesn't feel like he belongs. Nikosis cries every time his mother leaves him in the unfamiliar environment until, one day, she and the teachers use drums to help Nikosis find connection and comfort.

Inspired by her son's experience--and her family's love of powwow music and dance--Indigenous educator and champion hoop dancer Sandra Lamouche shares this uplifting true story of the transformative effects of culturally safe and inclusive early childhood education.

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A Little Ferry Tale

Chad Otis

In the spirit of The Little Engine That Could, this sweet picture book introduces Little Ferry, who yearns to be more like the faster or stronger boats in the harbor only to find out her uniqueness can be her strength.

Little Ferry feels like no one notices her. She isn’t strong like Tugboat or fast like Speedboat or graceful like Sailboat, the boats everyone loves to watch. But Little Ferry is special, too! She’s patient and careful and always on time. And when disaster flares on Wildlife Island, Little Ferry finds that her quiet traits are the very ones that will help her finally stand out and save the day.

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Huggy Kissy

Leslie Patricelli

Oh, baby! Leslie Patricelli’s one-haired wonder returns to share the love.

When you’re an adorable bald baby, your family finds lots of ways to show you how much they love you: Mommy lifts you uppy, Daddy kisses you on the tummy, and everyone wants to snuggle. What’s not to love? With comedy and warmth, Leslie Patricelli offers a universal tribute to love and affection in a board book full of instant appeal for little valentines everywhere.

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Hello, Neighbor!

Matthew Cordell

Kindness, caring, and reliance on our neighbors are more important now than ever before. We all need more Mister Rogers in our lives.

In difficult times, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood provided a refuge for children and their families alike; a way to understand and talk about what was happening, and find hope for a brighter tomorrow.

Groundbreaking in a quiet, generous way, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood introduced a generation of children to the wonders of the world in the comfort of their own living rooms. Fred Rogers took young viewers to art museums, introduced them to different professions, and talked through difficult subjects like losing a loved one, or experiencing parents' divorce, with compassion and reassurance.

Share that deep respect, care, and quiet joy in the day-to-day with the only authorized picture book biography of Fred Rogers--lovingly created by Caldecott Medalist Matt Cordell.

Lively, colorful illustrations explore Fred Rogers' early life and the events that led him to create his enduring show. Exclusively published archival photographs, provided by Fred Rogers Productions, offer a behind-the-scenes look at this historic show and the people whose hard work made it possible. A brief biography of Mister Rogers and a history of the show is included, as well as a note from author-illustrator Matt Cordell about his inspiration and longtime admiration for Fred Rogers and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

Perfect for fans of the film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, starring Tom Hanks, or anyone who wants to bring home the ideals of compassion, kindness, and patience that make us all good neighbors, this captivating picture book should not be missed.

A Junior Library Guild Selection
A Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year!

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Stella Díaz Has Something to Say

Angela Dominguez

In her first middle-grade novel, award-winning picture book author and illustrator Angela Dominguez tells a heartwarming story based on her own experiences growing up Mexican-American.

Stella Díaz loves marine animals, especially her betta fish, Pancho. But Stella Díaz is not a betta fish. Betta fish like to be alone, while Stella loves spending time with her mom and brother and her best friend Jenny. Trouble is, Jenny is in another class this year, and Stella feels very lonely.

When a new boy arrives in Stella's class, she really wants to be his friend, but sometimes Stella accidentally speaks Spanish instead of English and pronounces words wrong, which makes her turn roja. Plus, she has to speak in front of her whole class for a big presentation at school! But she better get over her fears soon, because Stella Díaz has something to say!

Stella Díaz Has Something to Say introduces an infectiously charming new character with relatable writing and adorable black-and-white art throughout. Simple Spanish vocabulary is also integrated within the text, providing a bilingual element.

2019 Sid Fleischman Award winner
A 2019 Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) Notable Children's Book
A New York Public Library Best Book for Kids 2018
Top 10 Showstopper Favorite
One of Chicago Public Library's "Best of the Best Books 2018"

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Flora and the Flamingo (Flora and Her Feathered Friends Books, Baby Books for Girls, Baby Girl Book, Picture Book for Toddlers)

Molly Idle

In this magical Caldecott Honor-winning picture book, Flora and her graceful flamingo friend wordlessly explore the trials and joys of friendship through an elaborate synchronized dance.

Every little ballerina dreams of her turn as a dancing diva. Endearing Flora in swimsuit, bathing cap, and flippers admires a pink flamingo . . . and with a twist, a turn, and even a flop, these unlikely friends learn at last how to dance together in perfect harmony.

An innovative wordless picture book with interactive flaps, Flora and the Flamingo is full of humor and heart. This stunning performance (and splashy ending!) will have readers clapping for more!

FOR THE LOVE OF THE DANCE: For children and adults who share a passion for ballet, jazz, tap, Irish Step, or any form of dance, the joyful Flora books offer an engaging, hands-on reading experience that celebrates the magic of movement.

FINE-FEATHERED FRIENDS: Friendships in children's books come in many wonderful forms. The connection made in this gentle story as a girl and a bird dance in tandem is a lovely reminder that friendship is truly the wind beneath our wings.

For more feathery fun with the flamingo girls, pick up more preschool wordless books from award-winning author-illustrator Molly Idle, including Flora and the Penguin, Flora and the Peacocks, Flora and the Chicks, and Flora and the Ostrich.

Perfect for:

  • Parents and caregivers seeking unique picture books with lift-the-flap interaction and beautifully flowing illustrations
  • Gift giving for baby shower, birthday, holiday, dance recital, moving up, or graduation celebrations
  • For fans of Angelina Ballerina, Pinkalicious, Lola Dutch, and Ella Bella Ballerina books
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Oliver the Curious Owl

Chad Otis

Oliver the owl questions anything and everything in this charmingly funny story that asks who, what, when, where, and why!

The only question Oliver's family ever asks is Who? Who? Who? But he wants to know more:
Who lives in those faraway woods?Where does the river go?Why can't I leave our tree?
When his curiosity gets the better of him, Oliver -- and his best buddy, Bug -- travel far from the safety of home to get answers about the wonderful world they live in. But after a day of exploration, how will the friends find their way back?
In this delightful story of discovery, an inquisitive owl inspires those around him to let their curiosity take flight!

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I'm Hungry! / ¡Tengo Hambre! (Spanish Bilingual)

Angela Dominguez

A bilingual picture book that’s sweet enough to eat about a chatty bluebird and an indecisive T. Rex who can’t decide what his next meal should be, introducing readers to basic Spanish and English food vocabulary.

When a bluebird comes upon a dinosaur who’s down in the dumps, he asks what’s wrong.

“¡Tengo hambre!” says the dinosaur. I’m hungry!

Does the dinosaur want a banana?
“¿Plátano? No.”

Fish?
“¿Pescado? No, gracias.”


Nothing seems to do the trick! What does dinosaur want to eat? This delightful bilingual picture book is about finding just the right food—and just the right friend. Perfect for fans of We Don't Eat Our Classmates and Stegothesaurus.

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Camp Rex

Molly Idle

What could be more fun than a camping trip with a good friend?


When that friend is T. Rex!


It's important to set a few wilderness safety guidelines first. . . like making sure he stays on the trail. And does not disturb the local wildlife. And knows how to build a safe campfire. But sometimes dinosaurs have a different way of doing things, and that's why it's best to be prepared . . . for anything!


Following in the extremely large and funny footsteps of Tea Rex, Camp Rex is for anyone who loves to roast a marshmallow or two around the campfire . . . or the whole bag at once!

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Marta! Big & Small

Jen Arena

With simple Spanish and a glossary at the end, this fun read-aloud picture book, Marta! Big and Small, teaches little ones to identify opposites and animals and learn new words.

Marta is una niña, an ordinary girl . . . with some extraordinary animal friends!

As Marta explores the jungle, she knows she's bigger than a bug, smaller than an elephant, and faster than a turtle. But then she meets the snake, who thinks Marta is sabrosa—tasty, very tasty! But Marta is ingeniosa, a very clever girl, and she outsmarts the snake with hilarious results.

A School Library Journal Top 10 Latinx Book 2016

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Cornbread and Poppy

Matthew Cordell

Caldecott medalist Matthew Cordell debuts his first early reader series about two best friends who are as different from each other as can be.



Cornbread LOVES planning. Poppy does not. Cornbread ADORES preparing. Poppy does not. Cornbread IS ready for winter. Poppy...is not. But Cornbread and Poppy are the best of friends, so when Poppy is left without any food for the long winter, Cornbread volunteers to help her out. Their search leads them up, up, up Holler Mountain, where these mice might find a new friend...and an old one. Celebrating both partnership and the value of what makes us individuals, young readers will find this classic odd-couple irresistible as they encounter relatable issues with humor and heart.



Publishing simultaneously in hardcover and paperback.

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Sea Rex

Molly Idle

What could that be 

 

down in the sea?

Is it a fish?

A snail?

A mermaid’s tail?

No, it’s bigger than that . . .

a LOT bigger . . .

it’s Sea Rex!


Join Cordelia and her cretacious companions as they spend a memorable day at the beach, as only dinosaurs can do!

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Be Quiet, Mike!

Leslie Patricelli

Digga-digga-digga-digga, zat, zoom, crash! Leslie Patricelli's lovable (but noisy!) new character finds an ingenious way to create a sound all his own.

Even before he was born, Mike started drumming. Kick! Thump! Pow! Wherever he goes, his rhythms sing: swis, thak, go his books; bang, clank, goes the trash can; tap, tap, go his pencils; and "BE QUIET, MIKE!" yells everyone around him. But one day Mike sees a drum set in a store window-- and puts his hands-on talents to work in a most impressive way. W ith the bold graphic style and clever details her readers love, Leslie Patricelli strikes a cymbal for active, high-energy little monkeys everywhere.

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Witch Hazel

Molly Idle

Transform dust into magical memories in this moving intergenerational tale that celebrates stories and the time we have together.

Something magical happens when Hazel and Hilda are together. As the seasons pass, Hazel's broom whisks the dust off many years of joyful memories, and young Hilda watches them come to life. But is it magic making memories...or are memories making magic?

This poignant tale and artistic tour de force from Caldecott Honoree Molly Idle gently explores the passage of time and the transcendent power of sharing our stories.

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Santiago Stays

Angela Dominguez

Santiago stays. He does not budge when offered a walk. He does not budge when offered a treat. Not even a turkey leg can lure this stubborn French bulldog away from his post, despite the growing disappointment of the little boy who is trying to engage him. After several futile attempts, the boy's frustration bubbles over into a yell, which wakes the baby, and the reader realizes whom Santiago has been resolutely guarding all along. This familiar theme of an attention-seeking older sibling, paired with the comically and characteristically stubborn French bulldog, makes for a humorous and cathartic tale for dog lovers of all ages!Praise for Santiago Stays:STARRED REVIEW"The illustrations, in pencil, marker, ink, tissue paper, and digital color, capture the boy's persistence and the bulldog's dug-in resistance; the warm palette is perfect for this affection-filled family story."--The Horn Book, starred review"Dog lovers and older siblings alike will bask in the quiet humor as they try to solve this gentle canine mystery."--Kirkus Reviews"The idea that there's a dog who cares more about a crying baby than a hamburger is a heartwarming one; Santiago isn't just cute but, in his own small way, noble, too."--Publishers Weekly"The large, mixed-media illustrations set against white backgrounds pack much nuance and personality into the canine and human characters."--School Library Journal

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The Bright Side

Chad Otis

This endearing picture book about making the most of any situation is also a heartfelt and meaningful portrait of houselessness that’s just right for young children.

Sometimes it’s hard to stay positive: when you live in an old school bus instead of a normal house; when you have mostly just bread and ketchup to eat; and especially when you have to go to a new school where all the other kids already have friends. But the sweet and creative boy in this story discovers that he can do things he never thought possible, by using the skills his parents have taught him: imagining . . . and trying . . . and finding a way to look on the bright side.
 
This honest, accessible, and compassionate story is based on the author’s own childhood. Its message about resourcefulness and courage will resonate with every reader.

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Wolf in the Snow

Matthew Cordell

Winner of the 2018 Caldecott Medal

A girl is lost in a snowstorm. A wolf cub is lost, too. How will they find their way home?

Paintings rich with feeling tell this satisfying story of friendship and trust. Wolf in the Snow is a book set on a wintry night that will spark imaginations and warm hearts, from Matthew Cordell, author of Trouble Gum and Another Brother.

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Just Help!

Sonia Sotomayor

From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Just Ask! comes a fun and meaningful story about making the world--and your community--better, one action at a time, that asks the question: Who will you help today?

Every night when Sonia goes to bed, Mami asks her the same question: How did you help today? And since Sonia wants to help her community, just like her Mami does, she always makes sure she has a good answer to Mami's question.

In a story inspired by her own family's desire to help others, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor takes young readers on a journey through a neighborhood where kids and adults, activists and bus drivers, friends and strangers all help one another to build a better world for themselves and their community.

With art by award-winning illustrator Angela Dominguez, this book shows how we can all help make the world a better place each and every day.
 
Praise for Just Help!:
 
"Generosity proves contagious in this personal portrait of community service by Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor." --Publishers Weekly

"For use in civics units or in lessons on being a good neighbor, this provides wonderful encouragement to show that children can help in big and small ways." --School Library Journal

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A Stitch Through Time

Laren Burke

What's inside Aunt Jo's treasure chest? That's what Ava wants to know. Then, one night, Aunt Jo hands her the key...and the two take a magical journey back in time to visit three daring, gifted, and visionary Black fashion designers: Elizabeth Keckley, a former slave who became one of the most celebrated designers of her time and personal friend of Mary Todd Lincoln; Ann Cole Lowe, a designer for Jackie Kennedy; and Mildred Blount, milliner to the stars! The bold achievements of these inspiring women of history are celebrated in this fashion fairy tale that spotlights iconic style moments...and sparks a child's imagination.

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Carrimebac, the Town That Walked

David Barclay Moore

A stunning feat of original storytelling from the recipient of the 2018 John Steptoe New Talent Author Award

In a boldly transportive original tale, David Barclay Moore infuses history with wry folk wisdom, metaphorical power, and a splash of magic. The Civil War may be over, but times are not substantially improved for the freed Black citizens of Walkerton, Georgia, who are shunned by the white folks of the surrounding towns. One day, though, ol' Rootilla Redgums and her grandson, Julius Jefferson, arrive. Rootilla teaches the citizens of Walkerton how to make all sorts of beautiful things, and the white people can't get enough. But some aren't so happy. When a hooded mob threatens to burn down the town, Julius and Rootilla must work wonders to protect Walkerton and its people—even if it means moving heaven and earth itself. With exquisite cinematic illustrations by John Holyfield and a generous trim size, this portrait of Black endurance draws on the rhythms and traditions of African American storytelling to open a powerful window into the past.

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Going Down Home with Daddy

Kelly Starling Lyons

Set at one young boy's annual family reunion, this Caldecott Honor-winning picture book is a rich and moving celebration of Black history, culture, and the power of family traditions.

"On reunion morning, we rise before the sun. Daddy hums as he packs our car with suitcases and a cooler full of snacks. He says there's nothing like going down home"

Down home is Granny's house. Down home is where Lil Alan and his parents and sister will gather with great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Down home is where Lil Alan will hear stories of the ancestors and visit the land that has meant so much to all of them. And down home is where all of the children will find their special way to pay tribute to their family history. All the kids have to decide what they'll share, but what will Lil Alan do?

Kelly Starling Lyons' eloquent text explores the power of history and family traditions, and stunning illustrations by Coretta Scott King Honor- and Caldecott Honor-winner Daniel Minter reveal the motion and connections in a large, multi-generational family.

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We Are Here (An All Because You Matter Book)

Tami Charles

An empowering follow-up to New York Times bestselling picture book All Because You Matter that celebrates the rich history of Black and brown men and women throughout history with soaring language and stunning illustration.

 

Lyrical, affirmational, and bursting with love, We Are Here is a poignant story about Black and brown heritage and community. Full of assurance, tenderness, and triumph, this much-anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestselling picture book All Because You Matter offers an equally inspirational and arresting ode to all of the Black women and men throughout history who have made momentous contributions from the beginning of time.

Tami Charles shares the beauty and excellence in the history of the Black community, assuring Black and brown children of the extraordinary legacy from which they come. Charles's powerful and empowering text is accompanied with illustrations by renowned artist Bryan Collier, a four-time Caldecott Honor recipient and a nine-time Coretta Scott King Award winner or honoree. We Are Here celebrates readers with pride, joy, and love, reminding them of their roots, inviting readers to imagine a future that shines ever bright, and strengthening them for their triumphant days to come!

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The Door of No Return

Kwame Alexander

An instant #1 New York Times Bestseller!



From the Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Award winning author Kwame Alexander, comes the first book in a searing, breathtaking trilogy that tells the story of a boy, a village, and the epic odyssey of an African family.



In his village in Upper Kwanta, 11-year-old Kofi loves his family, playing oware with his grandfather and swimming in the river Offin. He's warned though, to never go to the river at night. His brother tells him "There are things about the water you do not know. " Like what? Kofi asks. "The beasts." His brother answers.



One fateful night, the unthinkable happens and in a flash, Kofi's world turns upside down. Kofi soon ends up in a fight for his life and what happens next will send him on a harrowing journey across land and sea, and away from everything he loves.



This spellbinding novel by the author of The Crossover and Booked will take you on an unforgettable adventure that will open your eyes and break your heart.



The Door of No Return is an excellent choice for independent reading, sharing in the classroom, book groups, and homeschooling.

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Those Who Saw the Sun

Jaha N. Avery

The past is not past. We may think something ancient history, or something that doesn't affect our present day, but we would be wrong.

Those Who Saw the Sun is a collection of oral histories told by Black people who grew up in the South during the time of Jim Crow. Jaha Nailah Avery is a lawyer, scholar, and reporter whose family has roots in North Carolina stretching back over 300 years. These interviews have been a personal passion project for years as she's traveled across the South meeting with elders and hearing their stories

One of the most important things a culture can do is preserve history, truthfully. In Those Who Saw the Sun we have the special experience of hearing this history as it was experienced by those who were really there. The opportunity to read their stories, their similarities and differences, where they agree and disagree, and where they overcame obstacles and found joy – feels truly like a gift.

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Angel of Greenwood

Randi Pink

A piercing, unforgettable love story set in Greenwood, Oklahoma, also known as the “Black Wall Street,” and against the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.

Isaiah Wilson is, on the surface, a town troublemaker, but is hiding that he is an avid reader and secret poet, never leaving home without his journal. Angel Hill is a loner, mostly disregarded by her peers as a goody-goody. Her father is dying, and her family’s financial situation is in turmoil.


Though they’ve attended the same schools, Isaiah never noticed Angel as anything but a dorky, Bible toting church girl. Then their English teacher offers them a job on her mobile library, a three-wheel, two-seater bike. Angel can’t turn down the money and Isaiah is soon eager to be in such close quarters with Angel every afternoon.

But life changes on May 31, 1921 when a vicious white mob storms the Black community of Greenwood, leaving the town destroyed and thousands of residents displaced. Only then, Isaiah, Angel, and their peers realize who their real enemies are.

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The Rock and the River

Kekla Magoon

Coretta Scott King - John Steptoe Award winner

In this “taut, eloquent first novel” (Booklist, starred review), a young Black boy wrestles with conflicting notions of revolution and family loyalty as he becomes involved with the Black Panthers in 1968 Chicago.

The Time: 1968
The Place: Chicago


For thirteen-year-old Sam, it’s not easy being the son of known civil rights activist Roland Childs. Especially when his older (and best friend), Stick, begins to drift away from him for no apparent reason. And then it happens: Sam finds something that changes everything forever.

Sam has always had faith in his father, but when he finds literature about the Black Panthers under Stick’s bed, he’s not sure who to believe: his father or his best friend. Suddenly, nothing feels certain anymore.

Sam wants to believe that his father is right: You can effect change without using violence. But as time goes on, Sam grows weary of standing by and watching as his friends and family suffer at the hands of racism in their own community. Sam beings to explore the Panthers with Stick, but soon he’s involved in something far more serious—and more dangerous—than he could have ever predicted. Sam is faced with a difficult decision. Will he follow his father or his brother? His mind or his heart? The rock or the river?

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American Wings

Sherri L. Smith

From the acclaimed author of Flygirl and the bestselling author of Code Name Verity comes the thrilling and inspiring true story of the desegregation of the skies.

“This beautiful and brilliant history of not only what it means to be Black and dream of flying but to, against every odd, do so, completely blew me away.” —Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award Winner for Brown Girl Dreaming

In the years between World War I and World War II, aviation fever was everywhere, including among Black Americans. But what hope did a Black person have of learning to fly in a country constricted by prejudice and Jim Crow laws, where Black aviators like Bessie Coleman had to move to France to earn their wings?

American Wings follows a group of determined Black Americans: Cornelius Coffey and Johnny Robinson, skilled auto mechanics; Janet Harmon Bragg, a nurse; and Willa Brown, a teacher and social worker. Together, they created a flying club and built their own airfield south of Chicago. As the U.S. hurtled toward World War II, they established a school to train new pilots, teaching both Black and white students together and proving, in a time when the U.S. military was still segregated, that successful integration was possible.

Featuring rare historical photographs, American Wings brings to light a hidden history of pioneering Black men and women who, with grit and resilience, battled powerful odds for an equal share of the sky.

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Inventing Victoria

Tonya Bolden

In a searing historical novel, Tonya Bolden illuminates post-Reconstruction America in an intimate portrait of a determined young woman who dares to seize the opportunity of a lifetime.

As a young black woman in 1880s Savannah, Essie's dreams are very much at odds with her reality. Ashamed of her beginnings, but unwilling to accept the path currently available to her, Essie is trapped between the life she has and the life she wants.

Until she meets a lady named Dorcas Vashon, the richest and most cultured black woman she's ever encountered. When Dorcas makes Essie an offer she can't refuse, she becomes Victoria. Transformed by a fine wardrobe, a classic education, and the rules of etiquette, Victoria is soon welcomed in the upper echelons of black society in Washington, D. C. But when the life she desires is finally within her grasp, Victoria must decide how much of herself she is truly willing to surrender.

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Willa of the Wood (Willa of the Wood, Book 1)

Robert Beatty

From #1 New York Times best-selling author Robert Beatty comes a thrilling new series set in the magical world of Serafina.
Move without a sound. Steal without a trace.
Willa, a young night-spirit of the Great Smoky Mountains, is her clan's best thief. She creeps into the homes of day-folk under cover of darkness and takes what they won't miss. It's dangerous work-the day-folk kill whatever they do not understand--but Willa will do anything to win the approval of the padaran, the charismatic leader of the Faeran people.
When Willa's curiosity leaves her hurt and stranded in the day world, she calls upon an ancient, unbreakable bond to escape. Only then does she discover the truth: not all day-folk are the same, and the magical foundations that have guarded the Faeran for eons are under attack.
As forces of unfathomable destruction encroach on her home, Willa must decide who she truly is. To save the day-folk family that has become her own--and lift the curse that has robbed her people of their truth--Willa will meet deadly force with trusted alliance, violence with shelter, and an ever-changing world with a steady heartbeat of courage.

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More than Just a Game

Madison Moore

Kirkus Best Informational Picture Books of 2021

STARRED REVIEW! "Moore's succinct and musical prose pairs well with Ollivierre's dynamic, movement-focused illustrations to outline a rich history of the sport's growth in popularity due to the unique circumstances of the early 20th century."
Kirkus Reviews starred review

A look at how Black players came to shine on the basketball court.

Today, the NBA is around 74% Black but, when basketball first started to catch on, it wasn't easy for Black people to play. They couldn't enter segregated YMCAs or attend privileged colleges. So Black Americans made their own spaces, playing in dance halls before the dancing started, and eventually forming teams called the Black Fives. More than Just a Game celebrates the history of basketball from a Black perspective, revealing how it changed Black communities and how they made the sport into what it is today.

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Treasure Island: Runaway Gold

Jewell Parker Rhodes

Bestselling and award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes reimagines the classic novel Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson in this thrilling adventure set in modern-day Manhattan, in which three children must navigate the city’s hidden history, dodge a threatening crew of skater kids, and decide who they can really trust in order to hunt down a long-buried treasure. 

Three kids. One dog. And the island of Manhattan, laid out in an old treasure map.

Zane is itching for an adventure that will take him away from his family’s boarding house in Rockaway, Queens. So when he is entrusted with a real treasure map, leading to a spot somewhere in Manhattan, Zane wastes no time in riding the ferry over to the city to start the search with his friends Kiko and Jack and his dog, Hip-Hop.

Through strange coincidence, they meet a man who is eager to help them find the treasure: John, a sailor who knows all about the buried history of Black New Yorkers of centuries past—and the gold that is hidden somewhere in those stories.

As a vicious rival skateboard crew follows them around the city, Zane and his friends begin to wonder who they can really trust. And soon it becomes clear that treasure hunting is a dangerous business…

Jewell Parker Rhodes has written a version of Treasure Island like none you’ve never seen—one that takes the reader through little-known Black history, and under the city of Manhattan itself. 

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Elijah of Buxton

Christopher Paul Curtis

Master storyteller Christopher Paul Curtis's Newbery Honor novel, featuring his trademark humor and unique narrative voice, is now part of the Scholastic Gold line!

 

Elijah of Buxton, recipient of the Newbery Honor and winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, joins the Scholastic Gold line, which features award-winning and beloved novels. This edition includes exclusive bonus content!Eleven-year-old Elijah lives in Buxton, Canada, a settlement of runaway slaves near the American border. Elijah's the first child in town to be born free, and he ought to be famous just for that -- not to mention for being the best at chunking rocks and catching fish. Unfortunately, all that most people see is a "fra-gile" boy who's scared of snakes and tends to talk too much. But everything changes when a former slave steals money from Elijah's friend, who has been saving to buy his family out of captivity in the South. Now it's up to Elijah to track down the thief -- and his dangerous journey just might make a hero out of him, if only he can find the courage to get back home.

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Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free

Alice Faye Duncan

Booklist starred review

Black activist Opal Lee had a vision of Juneteenth as a holiday for everyone. This true story celebrates Black joy and inspires children to see their dreams blossom. Growing up in Texas, Opal knew the history of Juneteenth, but she soon discovered that many Americans had never heard of the holiday. Join Opal on her historic journey to recognize and celebrate "freedom for all."

Every year, Opal looked forward to the Juneteenth picnic—a drumming, dancing, delicious party. She knew from Granddaddy Zak's stories that Juneteenth celebrated the day the freedom news of President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation finally sailed into Texas in 1865—over two years after the president had declared it! But Opal didn't always see freedom in her Texas town. Then one Juneteenth day when Opal was twelve years old, an angry crowd burned down her brand-new home. This wasn't freedom at all. She had to do something! But could one person’s voice make a difference? Could Opal bring about national recognition of Juneteenth? Follow Opal Lee as she fights to improve the future by honoring the past.

Through the story of Opal Lee's determination and persistence, children ages 4 to 8 will learn:

  • all people are created equal
  • the power of bravery and using your voice for change
  • the history of Juneteenth, or Freedom Day, and what it means today
  • no one is free unless everyone is free
  • fighting for a dream is worth the difficulty experienced along the way

Featuring the illustrations of New York Times bestselling illustrator Keturah A. Bobo (I am Enough), Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free by Alice Faye Duncan celebrates the life and legacy of a modern-day Black leader while sharing a message of hope, unity, joy, and strength.

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The Black Kids

Christina Hammonds Reed

A New York Times bestseller

“Should be required reading in every classroom.” —Nic Stone, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin
“A true love letter to Los Angeles.” —Brandy Colbert, award-winning author of Little & Lion
“A brilliantly poetic take on one of the most defining moments in Black American history.” —Tiffany D. Jackson, author of Grown and Monday’s Not Coming


Perfect for fans of The Hate U Give, this unforgettable coming-of-age debut novel explores issues of race, class, and violence through the eyes of a wealthy black teenager whose family gets caught in the vortex of the 1992 Rodney King Riots.

Los Angeles, 1992

Ashley Bennett and her friends are living the charmed life. It’s the end of senior year and they’re spending more time at the beach than in the classroom. They can already feel the sunny days and endless possibilities of summer.

Everything changes one afternoon in April, when four LAPD officers are acquitted after beating a black man named Rodney King half to death. Suddenly, Ashley’s not just one of the girls. She’s one of the black kids.

As violent protests engulf LA and the city burns, Ashley tries to continue on as if life were normal. Even as her self-destructive sister gets dangerously involved in the riots. Even as the model black family façade her wealthy and prominent parents have built starts to crumble. Even as her best friends help spread a rumor that could completely derail the future of her classmate and fellow black kid, LaShawn Johnson.

With her world splintering around her, Ashley, along with the rest of LA, is left to question who is the us? And who is the them?

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Black Is a Rainbow Color

Angela Joy

A child reflects on the meaning of being Black in this moving and powerful anthem about a people, a culture, a history, and a legacy that lives on.

Red is a rainbow color.
Green sits next to blue.
Yellow, orange, violet, indigo,
They are rainbow colors, too, but

My color is black . . .
And there’s no BLACK in rainbows.


From the wheels of a bicycle to the robe on Thurgood Marshall's back, Black surrounds our lives. It is a color to simply describe some of our favorite things, but it also evokes a deeper sentiment about the incredible people who helped change the world and a community that continues to grow and thrive.

Stunningly illustrated by Caldecott Honoree and Coretta Scott King Award winner Ekua Holmes, Black Is a Rainbow Color is a sweeping celebration told through debut author Angela Joy’s rhythmically captivating and unforgettable words.

An ALSC Notable Children's Book 2021
An NCTE 2021 Notable Poetry Book
A 2021 Notable Social Studies Trade Book of the NCSS/CBC
A New York Public Library Best Book of 2020

A Washington Post Best Book of 2020
A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book of the Year
A 2020 Jane Addams Children's Book Award Honoree

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One Crazy Summer

Rita Williams-Garcia

In this Newbery Honor novel, New York Times bestselling author Rita Williams-Garcia tells the story of three sisters who travel to Oakland, California, in 1968 to meet the mother who abandoned them.

Eleven-year-old Delphine is like a mother to her two younger sisters, Vonetta and Fern. She's had to be, ever since their mother, Cecile, left them seven years ago for a radical new life in California. When they arrive from Brooklyn to spend the summer with her, Cecile is nothing like they imagined. While the girls hope to go to Disneyland and meet Tinker Bell, their mother sends them to a day camp run by the Black Panthers. Unexpectedly, Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern learn much about their family, their country, and themselves during one truly crazy summer.

This moving, funny novel won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction and the Coretta Scott King Award and was a National Book Award Finalist.

Readers who enjoy Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham will find much to love in One Crazy Summer. Delphine, Vonetta, and Fern's story continues in P.S. Be Eleven.

Supports the Common Core State Standards

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Unspeakable

Carole Boston Weatherford

Winner of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards for Author and Illustrator

A Caldecott Honor Book

A Sibert Honor Book

Longlisted for the National Book Award

A Kirkus Prize Finalist

A Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book

"A must-have"--Booklist (starred review)

Celebrated author Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrator Floyd Cooper provide a powerful look at the Tulsa Race Massacre, one of the worst incidents of racial violence in our nation's history. The book traces the history of African Americans in Tulsa's Greenwood district and chronicles the devastation that occurred in 1921 when a white mob attacked the Black community.



News of what happened was largely suppressed, and no official investigation occurred for seventy-five years. This picture book sensitively introduces young readers to this tragedy and concludes with a call for a better future.

Download the free educator guide here: https://lernerbooks.com/download/unspeakableteachingguide

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What Was Reconstruction?

Sherri L. Smith

In the same style as the New York Times Best-Selling Who Was? series, What Was? focuses on compelling historical events, great battles, protests, and discoveries.

Learn about a pivotal time in American history and its momentous effects on civil rights in America in this enlightening title about Reconstruction.


Reconstruction -- the period after the Civil War -- was meant to give newly freed Black people the same rights as white people. And indeed there were monumental changes once slavery ended -- thriving new Black communities, the first Black members in Congress, and a new sense of dignity for many Black Americans. But this time of hope didn’t last long and instead, a deeply segregated United States continued on for another hundred years. Find out what went wrong in this fascinating overview of a troubled time.

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That Self-Same Metal (The Forge & Fracture Saga, Book 1)

Brittany N. Williams

Brittany N. Williams’s That Self-Same Metal “seamlessly weaves together history, fantasy, culture, magic, and love” (New York Times bestselling author Daniel José Older), in a stunning YA fantasy debut, first in the Forge & Fracture Saga, perfect for fans of Holly Black and Justina Ireland, about a Black girl (and sword expert) fighting a Fae uprising in Shakespearean London.

Sixteen-year-old Joan Sands is a gifted craftswoman who creates and upkeeps the stage blades for William Shakespeare’s acting company, The King’s Men. Joan’s skill with her blades comes from a magical ability to control metal—an ability gifted by her Head Orisha, Ogun. Because her whole family is Orisha-blessed, the Sands family have always kept tabs on the Fae presence in London.

Usually that doesn’t involve much except noting the faint glow around a Fae’s body as they try to blend in with London society, but lately, there has been an uptick in brutal Fae attacks. After Joan wounds a powerful Fae and saves the son of a cruel lord, she is drawn into political intrigue in the human and Fae worlds.

Swashbuckling, romantic, and full of the sights and sounds of Shakespeare’s London, this series starter delivers an unforgettable story—and a heroine unlike any other.

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Have I Ever Told You Black Lives Matter

Shani King

Booklist Star

A tender and powerful affirmation that Black lives have always mattered.

Black lives matter. That message would be self-evident in a just world, but in this world and this America, all children need to hear it again and again, and not just to hear it but to feel and know it.

This book affirms the message repeatedly, tenderly, with cumulative power and shared pride. Celebrating Black accomplishments in music, art, literature, journalism, politics, law, science, medicine, entertainment, and sports, Shani King summons a magnificent historical and contemporary context for honoring the fortitude of Black role models, women and men, who have achieved greatness despite the grinding political and social constraints on Black life. Frederick Douglass, Toni Morrison, Sojourner Truth, John Lewis, Langston Hughes, Louis Armstrong, Maya Angelou, Aretha Franklin, and many more pass through these pages. An America without their struggles, aspirations, and contributions would be a shadow of the country we know.  A hundred life sketches augment the narrative, opening a hundred doors to lives and thinking that aren’t included in many history books. James Baldwin’s challenge is here: “We are responsible for the world in which we find ourselves, if only because we are the only sentient force which can change it.” Actress Viola Davis’s words are here, too: “When I was younger, I did not exert my voice because I did not feel worthy of having a voice. I was taught so many things that didn’t include me. Where was I? What were people like me doing?”

This book tells children what people like Viola were and are doing, and it assures Black children that they are, indisputably, worthy of having a voice.

Have I Ever Told You Black Lives Matter? is a book for this time and always. It is time for all children to live and breathe the certainty that Black lives matter.

Endorsements: 

“A beautiful and powerful story and a way to engage and teach children—on Black history, which is American history, and on the legacy of Black struggle and achievement in this nation.” —Khary Lazarre-White, Executive Director & Co-Founder, The Brotherhood/Sister Sol, and author of Passage  

“The world needs this yesterday.” —James Forman Jr., Pulitzer Prize – winning author of Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America

 “Fantastic.”—Janai S. Nelson, Associate Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund 

“Black children grow up being treated differently because of the color of their skin. This loving and positive book acknowledges that reality while also celebrating the resilience of Black people and the accomplishments, leadership, and fortitude of Black Americans. We need this book.”—Dr. JudyAnn Bigby, Director of the Harvard Medical School Center of Excellence in Women’s Health and former Secretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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Overground Railroad

Candacy A. Taylor

This historical exploration of the Green Book offers “a fascinating [and] sweeping story of black travel within Jim Crow America across four decades” (The New York Times Book Review).

Published from 1936 to 1966, the Green Book was hailed as the “black travel guide to America.” At that time, it was very dangerous and difficult for African-Americans to travel because they couldn’t eat, sleep, or buy gas at most white-owned businesses. The Green Book listed hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and other businesses that were safe for black travelers. It was a resourceful and innovative solution to a horrific problem.

It took courage to be listed in the Green Book, and Overground Railroad celebrates the stories of those who put their names in the book and stood up against segregation. Author Candacy A. Taylor shows the history of the Green Book, how we arrived at our present historical moment, and how far we still have to go when it comes to race relations in America.

A New York Times Notable Book of 2020

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When We Say Black Lives Matter

Maxine Beneba Clarke

In a powerful, poetic missive, award-winning author-illustrator Maxine Beneba Clarke celebrates the meaning behind the words Black Lives Matter.

Little one, when we say Black Lives Matter,
we’re saying Black people are wonderful-strong.
That we deserve to be treated with basic respect,
and that history’s done us wrong. . . .

Darling, when we sing that Black Lives Matter,
and we’re dancing through the streets,
we’re saying: fear will not destroy our joy,
defiance in our feet.

In this joyful exploration of the Black Lives Matter motto, a loving narrator relays to a young Black child the strength and resonance behind the words. In family life, through school and beyond, the refrains echo and gain in power, among vignettes of protests and scenes of ancestors creating music on djembe drums. With deeply saturated illustrations rendered in jewel tones, Maxine Beneba Clarke offers a gorgeous, moving, and essential picture book.

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Revolution in Our Time: The Black Panther Party’s Promise to the People

Kekla Magoon

A National Book Award Finalist
A Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor Book
A Michael L. Printz Honor Book
A Walter Dean Myers Honor Book


With passion and precision, Kekla Magoon relays an essential account of the Black Panthers—as militant revolutionaries and as human rights advocates working to defend and protect their community.

In this comprehensive, inspiring, and all-too-relevant history of the Black Panther Party, Kekla Magoon introduces readers to the Panthers’ community activism, grounded in the concept of self-defense, which taught Black Americans how to protect and support themselves in a country that treated them like second-class citizens. For too long the Panthers’ story has been a footnote to the civil rights movement rather than what it was: a revolutionary socialist movement that drew thousands of members—mostly women—and became the target of one of the most sustained repression efforts ever made by the U.S. government against its own citizens.

Revolution in Our Time puts the Panthers in the proper context of Black American history, from the first arrival of enslaved people to the Black Lives Matter movement of today. Kekla Magoon’s eye-opening work invites a new generation of readers grappling with injustices in the United States to learn from the Panthers’ history and courage, inspiring them to take their own place in the ongoing fight for justice.

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Black Birds in the Sky

Brandy Colbert

A searing new work of nonfiction from award-winning author Brandy Colbert about the history and legacy of one of the most deadly and destructive acts of racial violence in American history: the Tulsa Race Massacre. Winner, Boston Globe-Horn Book Award.

In the early morning of June 1, 1921, a white mob marched across the train tracks in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and into its predominantly Black Greenwood District—a thriving, affluent neighborhood known as America's Black Wall Street. They brought with them firearms, gasoline, and explosives.

In a few short hours, they'd razed thirty-five square blocks to the ground, leaving hundreds dead. The Tulsa Race Massacre is one of the most devastating acts of racial violence in US history. But how did it come to pass? What exactly happened? And why are the events unknown to so many of us today?

These are the questions that award-winning author Brandy Colbert seeks to answer in this unflinching nonfiction account of the Tulsa Race Massacre. In examining the tension that was brought to a boil by many factors—white resentment of Black economic and political advancement, the resurgence of white supremacist groups, the tone and perspective of the media, and more—a portrait is drawn of an event singular in its devastation, but not in its kind. It is part of a legacy of white violence that can be traced from our country's earliest days through Reconstruction, the Civil Rights movement in the mid–twentieth century, and the fight for justice and accountability Black Americans still face today.

The Tulsa Race Massacre has long failed to fit into the story Americans like to tell themselves about the history of their country. This book, ambitious and intimate in turn, explores the ways in which the story of the Tulsa Race Massacre is the story of America—and by showing us who we are, points to a way forward.

YALSA Honor Award for Excellence in Nonfiction

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28 Days

Charles R. Smith, Jr.

Each day features a different influential figure in African-American history, from Crispus Attucks, the first man shot in the Boston Massacre, sparking the Revolutionary War, to Madame C. J. Walker, who after years of adversity became the wealthiest black woman in the country, as well as one of the wealthiest black Americans, to Barack Obama, the country's first African-American president.

With powerful illustrations by Shane Evans, this is a completely unique look at the importance and influence of African Americans on the history of this country.

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Little Leaders

Vashti Harrison

'Athletes, especially black athletes, must use every resource at their command to right things that are wrong' - Arthur Ashe

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, VASHTI HARRISON

Meet the little leaders. They're brave. They're exceptional. They changed the world.

Did you know that the father of African cinema was originally a bricklayer?
Or that Vogue's editor-at-large read his first Vogue magazine in his local library?

Learn all about the exceptional black men who broke barriers and fought injustice to realise their dreams and make the world a better place.

With Vashti Harrison's beautiful illustrations and illuminating writing, discover the stories of black men from all walks of life, including:

Doctor Harold Moody
Diplomat Kofi Annan
Activist Paul Stephenson
Architect Sir David Adjaye
Comic book author Dwayne McDuffie
Musician Prince


Your own little leaders will be inspired to take on the world after learning about these incredible men.

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ABC Black History and Me

Queenbe Monyei

ABC Black History and Me presents 26 historical concepts, events, and people—from A to Z—that are important in Black American history.

From A is for Advocate to Z is for Zest, each letter of the alphabet is paired with inspirational historical concepts in this 9x9-inch board book. Along with the upbeat, rhyming text covering both well-known and more obscure topics, are colorful illustrations that promote an excitement and curiosity about Black American history. Covering trailblazers from A to Z but also chronologically, this book features a visual timeline with additional information for more in-depth learning on the people, places, and events discussed.

From Harriet Tubman and Fanny Jackson Coppin to Amanda Gorman and Ketanji Brown JacksonABC Black History and Me covers more than 170 years in a short board book appropriate for the little ones. This book is not only perfect for getting toddlers comfortable with their ABCs, but also for reflecting on how we are all affected by this history and how even the youngest of children will affect the future.

With age-appropriate concepts and visuals, ABC Black History and Me is a perfect discussion starter for the whole family. Even adults will find something to learn in this board book!

The ABC for Me series presents a world of possibilities from A to Z and everything in between! For all little kids with big dreams, the endearing illustrations and mindful concepts in this series pair each letter of the alphabet with words that promote big dreams, inclusion, acceptance, healthy living, and other key concepts important to emotional well-being. Other books in this series include:
 

  • ABC Love (2017)
  • ABC What Can She Be? (2018)
  • ABC Let’s Celebrate You & Me (2021)
  • ABC Bedtime (2022)
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Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History

Vashti Harrison

A NEW YORK TIMES INSTANT BESTSELLER!A USA TODAY BESTSELLER!
This beautifully illustrated New York Times bestseller introduces readers of all ages to 40 women who changed the world.
An important book for all ages, Little Leaders educates and inspires as it relates true stories of forty trailblazing black women in American history. Illuminating text paired with irresistible illustrations bring to life both iconic and lesser-known female figures of Black history such as abolitionist Sojourner Truth, pilot Bessie Coleman, chemist Alice Ball, politician Shirley Chisholm, mathematician Katherine Johnson, poet Maya Angelou, and filmmaker Julie Dash.

Among these biographies, readers will find heroes, role models, and everyday women who did extraordinary things - bold women whose actions and beliefs contributed to making the world better for generations of girls and women to come. Whether they were putting pen to paper, soaring through the air or speaking up for the rights of others, the women profiled in these pages were all taking a stand against a world that didn't always accept them.


The leaders in this book may be little, but they all did something big and amazing, inspiring generations to come.
 

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The ABCs of Black History

Rio Cortez

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

B is for Beautiful, Brave, and Bright! And for a Book that takes a Bold journey through the alphabet of Black history and culture.

 
Letter by letter, The ABCs of Black History celebrates a story that spans continents and centuries, triumph and heartbreak, creativity and joy.
 
It’s a story of big ideas––P is for Power, S is for Science and Soul. Of significant moments––G is for Great Migration. Of iconic figures––H is for Zora Neale Hurston, X is for Malcom X. It’s an ABC book like no other, and a story of hope and love.

In addition to rhyming text, the book includes back matter with information on the events, places, and people mentioned in the poem, from Mae Jemison to W. E. B. Du Bois, Fannie Lou Hamer to Sam Cooke, and the Little Rock Nine to DJ Kool Herc.

 

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Timelines from Black History

DK

Amazing visual timelines take readers through the people and the issues that have shaped Black history

Erased. Ignored. Hidden. Lost. Underappreciated. No longer. Delve into the unique, inspiring, and world-changing history of Black people.


From Frederick Douglass to Oprah Winfrey, and the achievements of ancient African kingdoms to those of the US Civil Rights Movement, Timelines From Black History: Leaders, Legends, Legacies takes kids on an exceptional journey from prehistory to modern times.

This DK children's ebook boasts more than 30 visual timelines, which explore the biographies of the famous and the not-so-famous - from royalty to activists, and writers to scientists, and much, much more. Stunning thematic timelines also explain the development of Black history - from the experiences of black people in the US, to the story of postcolonial Africa.

Did you know that the richest person ever to have lived was a West African? Or that the technology that made the lightbulb possible was developed by African American inventor, and not Thomas Edison? How about the fact that Ethiopia was the only African country to avoid colonization, thanks to the leadership of a brave queen?

Stacked with facts and visually vibrant, Timelines From Black History: Leaders, Legacies, Legends is an unforgettable and accessible hive of information on the people and the issues that have shaped Black history.

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Heads Up

Melanie Siebert

★ “Informative, diverse, and highly engaging; a much-needed addition to the realm of mental health.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Featuring real-life stories of people who have found hope and meaning in the midst of life’s struggles, Heads Up: Changing Minds on Mental Health is the go-to guide for teenagers who want to know about mental health, mental illness, trauma and recovery. For too long, mental health problems have been kept in the shadows, leaving people to suffer in silence, or worse, to be feared, bullied or pushed to the margins of society where survival is difficult.

This book shines a light on the troubled history of thinking about and treating mental illness and tells the stories of courageous pioneers in the field of psychiatry who fought for more compassionate, respectful and effective treatments. It provides a helpful guide to the major mental health diagnoses along with ideas and resources to support those who are suffering. But it also moves beyond a biomedical focus and considers the latest science that shows how trauma and social inequality impact mental health. The book explores how mental health is more than just “in our heads” and includes the voices of Indigenous people who share a more holistic way of thinking about wellness, balancing mind, body, heart and spirit. Highlighting innovative approaches such as trauma-informed activities like yoga and hip-hop, police mental health teams, and peer support for youth, Heads Up shares the stories of people who are sparking change.

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Where to Start

Mental Health America

A comforting and useful resource for anyone who’s struggling emotionally and looking for help―from the nation’s leading community-based nonprofit that addresses the needs of those living with mental illness

It can be extremely hard to figure out what’s going on in our own heads when we are suffering—when we feel alone and unworthy and can’t stop our self-critical inner voice. And it’s even more difficult to know where to go for answers.

This book is a perfect first step. Here you’ll find clear, honest, reassuring information about all the most common mental illnesses and what you can do to find help and to practice self-care.

Where to Start features:

 

  • jargon-free information about all the most common mental illnesses, including a first self-assessment test;
  • tips on how to get professional help and how to talk about your mental health with friends and family;
  • essential tools, including handy worksheets and DIY mental health content; and
  • insightful, funny drawings by acclaimed cartoonist Gemma Correll.

 

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Stress Less

Michael A. Tompkins

Stress Less teaches concrete skills for managing stress and anxiety, organized into common "stress domains" such as family, friends, dating, school, and media.

Let’s get real. Stress is part of every teen’s life—stress of exams, college applications, a big game, difficult teachers, difficult friends, parents who don’t always get you, not to mention the dating and social scenes. Stress like this tends to build over time—week after week—and takes a toll on your mental health. But, great news! Learning stress-busting skills doesn’t take much time at all. Just 20 minutes a day is probably all it takes. The skills in this book are easy to learn and can be practiced anywhere—on the bus, before bed, or during lunch. Once you see that it helps, you’ll adjust and be ready to bust more stress. And then before you realize it—you’ve got it!

Written by cognitive-behavioral therapist and stress-busting expert, Michael A. Tompkins, PhD, Stress Less teaches concrete skills for managing stress and anxiety, organized into “stress domains” such as family, friends, dating, school, and tech/media. And because stress doesn’t go away when teens hit adulthood, Stress Less will help readers maintain balance and calm as they deal with the ups and downs of life in the months and years to come.

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Imperfect: A Story of Body Image

Dounya Awada

Dounya, a Muslim girl living in Las Vegas, Nevada, shares her very personal story of battling eating disorders when she was a teenager, in order to help other young people suffering from this affliction.

Imperfect: A Story of Body Image is the fourth in a series of graphic novels written by young adults for their peers.

Dounya Awada is a 24-year-old, devout Muslim, happy, healthy, and very much alive. But just a few years before, she nearly starved to death.

Her struggle began when she was six years old.

Little Dounya wanted nothing less than to be perfect, like her mother. She pushed herself hard every day, excelling in schoolwork and at home. She had to be the cutest, prettiest, smartest girl in the room. The slightest hint of imperfection led to meltdowns and uncontrollable tantrums. Her parents loved her fiercely but were unable to understand what was happening to their little girl.

Being perfect all the time was exhausting. In Dounya’s culture, food is nearly synonymous with love. Food is nourishment, nourishment is love, love is life. Dounya began to eat to fill the growing need within her. She grew in size, eventually hitting over 200 pounds at just age 15. Food became her only friend. Her peers mocked her. She felt utterly alone.

As is the case for someone with dysmorphia, Dounya’s obsession with food did a turnabout, and she began rigorous exercising and dieting. But even a substantial weight loss didn’t satisfy her. She looked in the mirror and still saw the fat girl she used to be. She began the ugly cycle of bingeing and purging, eventually hitting a low weight of just 73 pounds.

Dounya’s horrific struggle with eating disorders has led her to advocate for boys and girls facing the same hurdles with which she struggled. She is now studying clinical psychology, and hopes to open an eating and dysmorphia disorder facility in Las Vegas for boys and girls with her disorder. If her story helps just one person to recognize the beauty of their imperfection, then her pain will have been worthwhile.

Zuiker Press is proud to publish stories about important current topics for kids and adolescents, written by their peers, that will help them cope with the challenges they face in today’s troubled world.

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Be More Vegan

Niki Webster

"From soups to pasta to curries, these plant-based dishes (containing no meat, eggs, or dairy) cover a range of tempting options for all tastes, and each recipe is accompanied by a bright, colorful photo. No boring salads to be seen here...a fine choice." --Kirkus Reviews

 

We all want to be a bit more vegan...and this book shows you how.

 

Whether you're ready to commit to a fully plant-based lifestyle or you'd just like to add a few meat-free dishes to your weekly meal plan, this is the ideal guide.

It explains the reasons behind going vegan, including environmental, health and animal welfare benefits, in clear and simple language that helps young people make up their own minds. It answers all the nagging questions about nutrition and ethics, as well as giving bang-up-to-date information about the best vegan ingredients, substitutions and food hacks.

Best of all, it contains mouthwatering recipes for every situation, from lunchbox staples to midweek meals, and tasty snacks to amazing cakes and desserts. There's so much to love about the vegan life, so get Be More Vegan and start making a difference in the most delicious way possible!

Get your teenager cooking with:

  • Over 50 delicious (and easy) vegan recipes: Pecan Pie Granola, Sweet morning banana pancakes, Pesto pasta salads, Creamy sweet potato soup, Loaded tofu fajitas, Harissa falafel burgers, Hoisin jackfruit burritos, Super summer rolls, Gooey caramel choc pots, Carrot cake mug cake and more...
  • An insightful introduction to veganism: Explore the vegan lifestyle, what it means to be vegan and how that affects the world, how to include veganism in fashion and answers to the awkward and common questions people have about being vegan
  • Learn about vegan substitutes & being more hands on in the kitchen: A huge selection of plant-based substitutes for popular ingredients like milk, eggs and yogurt take the stress out of shopping for each recipe, and a helpful list of pantry essentials for vegan meals means you can always whip up a meal in a jiffy! Helpful hints about interpreting recipes, staying safe and clean in the kitchen and a glossary of useful terms and techniques will have you cooking like a pro!
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Highs & Lows of Type 1 Diabetes

Patrick McAllister

Valuable tips, tricks, and advice from a veteran young adult with Type 1 diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) can be a daunting diagnosis, especially for a young kid or a teen. Patrick McAllister knows. Diagnosed with T1D at age twelve, McAllister’s life changed forever, and he faced an uncertain future of insulin shots, diet regulations, and high school. If only I had a roadmap, he thought. So, years after he learned things the hard way, he decided to write one.

Whether it is managing mood swings, hormones, or blood sugar levels, Highs & Lows of Type 1 Diabetes is the ultimate teenager’s and young adult’s handbook for surviving, thriving, and flourishing with T1D during one of the most terrifying, yet exciting, phases of your life. Many think of T1D as a scary disease that is sporadic and uncontrollable, but after eight years of dealing with the literal and figurative highs and lows of T1D, McAllister has learned that it is more a lifestyle change.

These pages detail a framework for every situation you could possibly imagine involving T1D, from coming home from the hospital after your diagnosis to preparing to leave your nest for freshman year at college. Learn how to:

 

  • Count carbohydrates, pump insulin like a pro, and correct irregular blood sugar levels
  • Tell your friends, get good grades, and survive school
  • Play sports with the right game-plan
  • Navigate sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll
  • And more!

Type 1 diabetes stinks, but you don’t have to go through it blind and alone! Some have learned it the hard way, but Highs & Lows of Type 1 Diabetes will ensure that you will take control of your T1D diagnosis, conquer your adolescent years, and live a healthy and fulfilling life.

 

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The Girl's Guide to Relationships, Sexuality, and Consent

Leah Aguirre

Are you looking for clear and reliable information about relationships, sexuality, safety, and consent? You can find it in this essential guide—just for teen girls.

As a teen girl, you probably have a ton of questions about sex and relationships. For example, what do you do if someone sends or asks you to send an explicit picture or text? How do you know if you are straight, bi, pan, or gay? What do you do if you are being pressured to do something you don’t want to do? This book has all the answers you seek.

Written by two experts in teen mental health, this go-to guide offers empowering tools to help you build self-esteem, clarify your values, understand your sexual identity and boundaries, decide what feels right for you, and know what to do when things go wrong. And by practicing the simple evidence-based skills in this book, you’ll learn how to handle any situation that you may encounter—whether online or IRL.

As a teen girl navigating the world of sex, dating, and relationships, you need to feel empowered and confident to make important decisions for yourself that are grounded in self-respect and safety. This book can help, every step of the way.

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It's All Love

Jenna Ortega

An empowering collection written by Jenna Ortega, the award-winning actress starring in the hit Netflix series WEDNESDAY. These deeply personal stories and quotes are accompanied by beautiful illustrations that explore Jenna's struggles with depression, experiences falling in—and out of—love, the loss of close family members, and growing up Latina in Hollywood.

You are not alone.
We are in this together.

This collection from actress Jenna Ortega is filled with her own original quotes and affirmations that will inspire you to lean into faith and love and family during life's most difficult, and most joyous, moments.  
 
Jenna has had to balance her acting career, her private life, and public expectations from a young age, and she’s learned that the only way to get through it all is to wake up every morning and affirm her commitment to herself, her faith, her mental health, and her family. In this honest and moving debut, she shares openly and intimately what it means to live this life of self-appreciation.

Jenna's vulnerability in her writing will remind readers that there’s power within us all and we are not alone in our struggles.

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Better Than We Found It: Conversations to Help Save the World

Frederick Joseph

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Black Friend and a seasoned activist comes an indispensable guide to social and political progressivism for young people and anyone wanting to get more involved.

Every generation inherits the problems created by the ones before them, but no generation will inherit as many problems—as many crises—as the current generation of young people. From the devastations of climate change to the horrors of gun violence, from rampant transphobia to the widening wealth gap, from the lack of health care to the lack of housing, the challenges facing the next generation can feel insurmountable. But change, even revolution, is possible; you just have to know where to start. In Better Than We Found It, best-selling author Frederick Joseph and debut author Porsche Joseph make the case for addressing some of the biggest issues of our day. Featuring more than two dozen interviews with prominent activists, authors, actors, and politicians, this is the essential resource for those who want to make the world better than we found it.

Featuring interviews with:
Mehcad Brooks
Keah Brown
Julián Castro
Sonja Cherry-Paul
Chelsea Clinton
Charlotte Clymer
Mari Copeny, aka Little Miss Flint
Greg D’Amato
Jesse Katz
Amed Khan
Daniel Alejandro Leon-Davis
Willy and Jo Lorenz
Ben O’Keefe
Brittany Packnett Cunningham
Anna Paquin
Robert Reich
Brandon T. Snider
Nic Stone
Anton Treuer
Andrea Tulee
David Villalpando
Elizabeth Warren
Shannon Watts
Natalie Weaver
Brandon Wolf

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Your Life, Your Way

Joseph V. Ciarrochi

The ultimate teen guide to handling all the pressures and challenges of life—your own way!

Being a teen in today’s world is tough. Between school pressure, family, friends, and extracurricular activities—sometimes it can feel like you’re being pulled in a dozen different directions, and none of them are your way. On top of that, you may feel lonely, angry, or depressed; or you may wonder if you’re good enough, smart enough, or attractive enough. So, how can you overcome these self-doubts, and cultivate the strength to face life’s challenges and reach your full potential?

In Your Life, Your Way, you’ll learn how to deal with all the changes and challenges of the teen years—and how to grow into the person you want to be. You’ll learn doable skills grounded in mindfulness, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and positive psychology to help you form positive friendships, manage difficult emotions, and get unstuck from bad habits. You’ll also learn real tips for dealing with several life challenges, including:

  • Feelings of uncertainty
  • Concerns about your looks
  • Deadlines
  • School/college/work
  • Family
  • Worries about the future
  • Relationship stress

 

Once you identify your own personal struggles, you can decide how you want to face them—as strong, assertive, kind, honorable, caring, fun, supportive, friendly, agreeable, bold, persistent, or giving.

If you’re ready to take charge of your destiny and face problems head on in your own way, this fun and illustrated book has everything you need to get started today!

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On a Scale of One to Ten

Ceylan Scott

Tamar is admitted to Lime Grove, a psychiatric ward for teenagers, where the psychologists ask her endless questions. But there's one question Tamar can't - won't - answer: What happened to her friend Iris? A uniquely powerful, devastating novel of friendship, fragility and forgiveness.

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Beneath the Surface

Kristi Hugstad

YOU DON’T HAVE TO COPE ALONE

Depression and mental illness don’t discriminate. Even in the most picture-perfect life, confusion and turmoil are often lurking beneath the surface. For a teenager in a world where anxiety, depression, and other mental illnesses are commonplace, life can sometimes feel impossible. Whether or not you or someone you love is suffering from any of these issues, it’s important to be able to recognize the warning signs of mental illness and know where to turn for help. This comprehensive guide provides the information, encouragement, and tactical guidance you need to help yourself or others experiencing:

• Depression • Academic or parental pressures • Eating disorders • Bullying • Self-harm • PTSD • Peer pressure • Anxiety • Substance abuse • Technology addiction • Suicidal thoughts or actions

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Sick Kids In Love

Hannah Moskowitz

An ALA Sydney Taylor Award Honoree
A Junior Library Guild Selection

Isabel has one rule: no dating.
It’s easier—
It’s safer—
It’s better—
—for the other person.
She’s got issues. She’s got secrets. She’s got rheumatoid arthritis.
But then she meets another sick kid.
He’s got a chronic illness Isabel’s never heard of, something she can’t even pronounce. He understands what it means to be sick. He understands her more than her healthy friends. He understands her more than her own father who’s a doctor.
He’s gorgeous, fun, and foul-mouthed. And totally into her.
Isabel has one rule: no dating.
It’s complicated—
It’s dangerous—
It’s never felt better—
—to consider breaking that rule for him.

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Kenzie's Rules for Life

Mackenzie Ziegler

INSPIRATIONAL AND UPBEAT COLLECTION OF LIFE LESSONS FROM TEEN SENSATION, MACKENZIE ZIEGLER

 

 

 

 

 

The only rule that you should never break is to be true to yourself.

 

 

 

Growing up is hard-and growing up in the spotlight is even harder-but Mackenzie Ziegler is taking it all in stride. Thanks to her positive attitude on life, Mackenzie is able to tackle even the toughest of growing pains. From getting her start on Dance Moms to her sold-out tour alongside Johnny Orlando to a killer clothing collection, there's nothing that she can't do!

In Kenzie's Rules for Life, the dance prodigy, singer/songwriter, actress, and model offers her advice on friendship, family, fitness, style, and positivity. Drawing from her own experiences, she shares lessons for those navigating their tween years on how to be happy, healthy, and confident in all aspects of their lives. In her book filled with recipes, craft ideas, exercise tricks, travel ideas, and so much more, Kenzie shows her fans how you can work hard and still find time to just be a kid.

Kenzie's Rules for Life is the upbeat, playful guidebook to always looking at the glass half full.

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Ikigai for Teens: Finding Your Reason for Being

Héctor García

A bestselling motivational book based on the Japanese concept of finding happiness in everyday life, now for young readers!

 

The Japanese people say everybody has an "Ikigai," or a reason to live. Some people have found their Ikigai and are aware of it. Other people have it inside, but have not found it yet. This concept, Ikigai, is one of the secrets for a long, active, and happy life.

Héctor García and Francesc Miralles visited Ogimi, a town on the north of Okinawa in Japan that has the highest longevity in the world. They spent weeks living with the residents of Ogimi and interviewing dozens of the villagers. These people all had lived to be more than a hundred years old, and they were all in great physical (and spiritual) shape. After their trip, Héctor and Francesc wrote a book examining the centennials' keys to an optimistic and vital existence. What do the oldest people in the world eat, what do they work on, how do they connect with others, and-the best-kept secret-how do they find their Ikigai? Ikigai is what gives them satisfaction and happiness, and brings real meaning to their lives.

The result was Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, an international bestseller which has been translated into over 49 languages.

With the book, García and Miralles made it their mission to help its readers find their own Ikigai and discover many keys of Japanese philosophy to a healthy body, mind, and spirit.

They have now adapted their bestselling book for young readers. Young adults can find their Ikigai too!

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Real Talk About Sex and Consent

Cheryl M. Bradshaw

"A truly vital and nuanced guide that is as empowering as it is educational."
School Library Journal (starred review)

You deserve clear, accurate information about sexual consent! Let this honest and empowering book be your go-to guide.

Let’s get real: Sex is complicated. Like, really complicated. And as a teen, you need trusted resources to help you navigate sexual issues without shame, guilt, or judgment. But if you’re like many teens, you may not have someone in your life that you can talk to openly about complicated sexual situations, and what consent really means—and this information is crucial for your health, safety, and happiness.

Real Talk About Sex and Consent is a comprehensive guide with essential information about setting boundaries, coercion, reciprocity, and communication. You’ll also find hard facts about sex and trauma, the effects of pornography and cultural expectations, and much more. With this book, you’ll learn how to make sexual decisions that honor your sense of values and cultivate rewarding and emotionally supportive relationships throughout your life.

This book goes past simple definitions of sex and consent and explores the hidden pressures, misrepresented expectations, and realities of sex—and what to do about it all.

It’s time to get informed and take control of your sexual self. This book will give you the tools you need to make decisions that are right for you.

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Life Inside My Mind

Jessica Burkhart

“Who better to raise teens’ awareness of mental illness and health than the YA authors they admire?” —Booklist (starred review)

“[A] much-needed, enlightening book.” —School Library Journal (starred review)

Your favorite YA authors including Ellen Hopkins, Maureen Johnson, and more recount their own experiences with mental health in this raw, real, and powerful collection of essays that explores everything from ADD to PTSD.

Have you ever felt like you just couldn’t get out of bed? Not the occasional morning, but every day? Do you find yourself listening to a voice in your head that says “you’re not good enough,” “not good looking enough,” “not thin enough,” or “not smart enough”? Have you ever found yourself unable to do homework or pay attention in class unless everything is “just so” on your desk? Everyone has had days like that, but what if you have them every day?

You’re not alone. Millions of people are going through similar things. However issues around mental health still tend to be treated as something shrouded in shame or discussed in whispers. It’s easier to have a broken bone—something tangible that can be “fixed”—than to have a mental illness, and easier to have a discussion about sex than it is to have one about mental health.

Life Inside My Mind is an anthology of true-life events from writers of this generation, for this generation. These essays tackle everything from neurodiversity to addiction to OCD to PTSD and much more. The goals of this book range from providing a home to those who are feeling alone, awareness to those who are witnessing a friend or family member struggle, and to open the floodgates to conversation.

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(Don't) Call Me Crazy

Kelly Jensen

Who’s Crazy?
 
What does it mean to be crazy? Is using the word crazy offensive? What happens when a label like that gets attached to your everyday experiences?
 
To understand mental health, we need to talk openly about it. Because there’s no single definition of crazy, there’s no single experience that embodies it, and the word itself means different things—wild? extreme? disturbed? passionate?—to different people.
 
In (Don’t) Call Me Crazy, thirty-three actors, athletes, writers, and artists offer essays, lists, comics, and illustrations that explore a wide range of topics:
their personal experiences with mental illness,
how we do and don’t talk about mental health,
help for better understanding how every person’s brain is wired differently,
and what, exactly, might make someone crazy. If you’ve ever struggled with your mental health, or know someone who has, come on in, turn the pages . . . and let’s get talking.  

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Iveliz Explains It All

Andrea Beatriz Arango

NEWBERY HONOR AWARD WINNER • In this timely and moving novel in verse, a preteen girl navigates seventh grade while facing mental health challenges. A hopeful, poetic story about learning to advocate for the help and understanding you deserve.

"Powerful." —Lisa Fipps, Printz Honor-winning author of Starfish

How do you speak up when it feels like no one is listening?


The end of elementary school?
Worst time of my life.
And the start of middle school?
I just wasn’t quite right.
But this year?
YO VOY A MI.

Seventh grade is going to be Iveliz’s year. She’s going to make a new friend, help her abuela Mimi get settled after moving from Puerto Rico, and she is not going to get into any more trouble at school. . . .

Except is that what happens? Of course not. Because no matter how hard Iveliz tries, sometimes people say things that just make her so mad. And worse, Mimi keeps saying Iveliz’s medicine is unnecessary—even though it helps Iveliz feel less sad. But how do you explain your feelings to others when you’re not even sure what’s going on yourself?

Powerful and compassionate, Andrea Beatriz Arango’s debut navigates mental health, finding your voice, and discovering that those who really love you will stay by your side no matter what.

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