Emilia is both excited and nervous about spending the day outdoors. Her younger brother Nico is ready to go but Emilia feels unsure. Her grandmother arrives to pick up the kids and their parents and they all set out. Before long Emilia begins to notice the forest’s sights smells and sounds discovering the beauty of the plants and animals around her. Galindo’s illustrations capture the magic of hiking weaving detailed birds and woodland creatures into soft whimsical swirls that reflect a child’s sense of wonder and love. Harmony’s story highlights the joy of connecting deeply with both family and nature and the simple pleasures of exploring the outdoors together. Backmatter includes a brief guide to visiting public lands with tips for staying safe and caring for the environment. Readers will also find a list of sorpresas or surprises to spot throughout the artwork among them a monarch butterfly a red-tailed hawk and other wildlife. This bilingual picture book presents the full text in English alongside Spanish on each page. Emilia and her family are brown-skinned and Latine.

When Redo Hauptshammer arrives from Vienna in the Prussian village of Szonden on the banks of the Oder River in the 1820s his first task is to bury his murdered young Spanish wife Odra—the victim of random gunfire—on the same plot of land where he hopes to raise sugar beets. But when he first places his spade in the soil he makes a startling discovery: the icebound body of a Prussian hussar soldier. Redo’s shock and sadness only grow as his repeated efforts to excavate a suitable gravesite reveal multiplying numbers of “dead frozen soldiers surrounded by their weapons under pools of coagulated blood that announced their presence a few feet farther down.” Each new dig discloses double the number of bodies until he has unearthed a total of 31 men from different eras. Meanwhile an albino witch named Ilse informs him more are yet to be discovered. To his rising frustration Redo must confront recalcitrant authorities—stretching from the local gentry and minor government functionaries all the way to the highest levels of the Prussian regime—who seem vaguely sympathetic to his plight but just as determined to delay a solution to the inexplicable problem. One finally admonishes “You understand it’s not convenient for death to cause such commotion in a country that is at peace.” As Redo muses on his brief period of marital bliss and deals with his grief over Odra’s death tenant farmer Hans and local historian Jakob Moltke provide support and consolation. Mora’s surreal premise and understated tone subtly mask a pointed critique of governments that don’t hesitate to send their citizens into battle while refusing to face the consequences of those fateful decisions.

Eva an 18-year-old intern at London-based Low Slang Records wants to break into the A&R side of the music industry but spends her days fetching coffee for higher-ups who won’t give her the time of day. Then she finds 16-year-old Alora Storm-Jones. When Eva comes across a video of Alora singing she’s transfixed by her talent. If Eva can get Alora signed to the label both their lives might just change forever. Alora has loved to perform since early childhood inspired by her father Billy Storm-Jones a beloved musician. But it’s been years since Alora has seen Billy who left her and her neglectful mother Julia in their dingy Manchester apartment. Desperate to escape her dreary existence and become “an icon” Alora jumps at Eva’s offer of management. Together they take the music world by storm as Alora becomes an instant superstar with a No. 1 record sold-out stadium tour and millions in the bank. But it’s a well-trodden path—promising yet troubled young artist controlling record label problematic producer hounding paparazzi obsessive fans all the other sinister trappings of fame—and author Seddon does not deviate from expectations as both women’s lives predictably unravel. As the story is told from both perspectives in two different timelines—Alora in rehab after a livestreamed suicide attempt and Eva during Alora’s meteoric rise—the dark backstories betrayals mistakes and missteps of both women are slowly brought to light. The exploration of female ambition and the desperate decisions each woman makes to grab at power success and notoriety in an industry where men systemically withhold all the above make this story worth reading.

In Fourspires familiars exist to serve their arcanists wresting power from bone botanicals blood and stone until overexertion kills them. Taro a bone familiar with an “unhealthy obsession with black eye liner” and an “attitude problem” dreams of running away with Nixie the love of her life. Nixie familiar to the head botanic arcanist despises Taro but she needs her skills to escape. On the night they intend to enact their plan the Thaumaturge drops dead triggering the countdown to the Slaughter a battle to the death for the crown between the four head arcanists and their familiars. Magically bound to the ritual Taro and Nixie will die if they try to leave. Their only hope of freedom is to find four lost relics before the Slaughter begins and break an ancient curse on their city but to succeed they need the help of a blood arcanist and a stone arcanist. This darkly humorous fantasy trilogy opener which will appeal to fans of Tamsyn Muir’s Locked Room trilogy starts strong with a fast pace driven by imminent life-or-death stakes irresistibly self-destructive characters and absorbing worldbuilding. An exploration of gender leans into a born-in-the-wrong-body narrative and one of the few brown-skinned characters in the largely white-presenting cast has an arc in this volume that echoes an unfortunate trope. A cliffhanger ending creates high anticipation for the sequel.

“Welcome to Shipikisha Club” goes the traditional Zambian saying for women who are about to be married. “Shipikisha” meaning “to relentlessly endure” is also a synonym for marriage whose peaks and valleys the novel follows through the stories of three generations of women: Peggy the preacher’s wife; her daughter Sali a secondary-school teacher; and her daughter aspiring actress Ntashé. When Sali finds out she's pregnant she’s sure that her married lover a famous cardiologist she calls Doc will leave his wife to marry her. On her way to tell him the good news about the baby however Sali gets into a car accident with—of all people—Doc’s wife. Sali emerges relatively unscathed and Kasunga the starched-collared policeman who was at the scene of the crash takes an interest in her. His emergence in her life at first seems like a blessing saving her from a life of shame as an unmarried mother. Convinced he can have no children of his own he willingly accepts Ntashé Sali’s child with Doc as his own. As Ntashé grows up though the sweetness of her parents’ relationship sours as “her mother’s tongue grew venomous and her father’s temper shredded.” The poison escalates for decades until all three women find themselves in a courtroom while Sali is tried for her husband’s murder. Truths and half-truths flicker throughout the trial as each woman fights to persuade the audience—and perhaps themselves and each other—of their story. Against the courtroom backdrop unfolds the women’s struggle to survive amid the complexities of Zambian modernization folk tradition religion and a political system in which victims have few rights.

In 1930 the Rosenthals were a bustling happy family. Friedel and Gina were two of six children their father a successful small businessman who managed three corner shops throughout Dusseldorf. Antisemitism was on the rise however and Hitler eventually came to power. The Rosenthals were systematically stripped of their businesses property possessions and humanity. The 13-year-old twins like other Jewish students were forced to leave school. The story follows the girls as they experienced the agony of being torn from their family members forced into degrading conditions in the Czestochowa ghetto and ultimately hauled off to concentration camps. Dronfield explains the historical facts simply and directly presenting painful truths and not minimizing the horrors of Nazi Germany. His well-drawn portrayal of Friedel and Gina is compelling; he shows them to be creative brave tenacious and somehow despite it all hopeful. Readers will be engrossed by each turn of their tale each new atrocity they somehow survive and will cling desperately to the hope that the sisters get a chance at the beautiful lives they should have had all along. This is a historical page-turner with two remarkable inspiring women at its center that deserves a place on library and classroom shelves.

Tennis isn’t the only thing weighing on Leo: He’s gay and not out to anyone. He doesn’t always agree with his father legendary tennis player Johnny Chambers who retired to coach Leo after a multiple sclerosis diagnosis cut his own career short. After Johnny suffers a stroke that keeps him from traveling as much as usual Leo switches up his game and the success he finds in his father’s absence drives a silent gap between them. When Gabe comes out becoming the first openly gay male tennis pro on tour his coach quits and he attracts the homophobic attention of Sascha Volkov a Russian player who consistently ranks No. 1. Gabe and Leo are eventually able to bury the hatchet long enough to start practicing together only to find that their chemistry doesn’t stop at the tennis court. Even after realizing they play for the same team their secret romance is not without barriers. The things that divide Leo and Gabe become the things that bring them together: Sascha the media and their own fear. This is a well-written (very) slow burn that focuses much more on sports than on romance though the gradual thaw from enemies to lovers is highly satisfying. While the spice is relatively mild fans of gay sports romances will appreciate the snappy dialogue compelling characters and high-stakes pacing.

“The shoes were packed. ‘Daddy loves you’” Josie’s father tells her “glancing around—had he left anything?” Martin Brier is halfway out the door first wife cast aside for the younger model destined to become his second. Shorr’s latest novel is a mid-20th-century Midwestern nearly father-free coming-of-age story that follows Josie her two brothers and their mother as they try to build a life for themselves in Martin’s cavernous absence. Shorr favors a close third-person point of view which hovers hummingbird-style outside her characters’ windows. It’s an effective strategy especially in Shorr’s fluidly engaging prose style which allows readers to access the thoughts of even the most difficult characters—Martin included. He shows us in the passage above for instance that he can’t focus on his daughter long enough to tell her he loves her without simultaneously wondering if he’s adequately packed his belongings. His selfishness is astounding. So is the psychological astuteness with which Shorr has loaded the sentence—and the rest of the book—which is in the end the portrait of a girl and her wider family as they adjust to a world whose parameters they have not set themselves. Shorr picks up the narrative in the mid-’50s and sets it down half a century later when Cleveland has changed irrevocably and Josie’s family has scattered. If the book putters out in the last two or three chapters that seems a small price to pay. The larger missed opportunity is that Lora Josie’s mother doesn’t seem fully rendered. As a momentarily penniless single mother of three she has to act decisively—and does. Still Shorr has cast her sights elsewhere and the result is a remarkable success.

Stephanie Zamekova the queer daughter of immigrants from the Czech Republic has no recollection of what caused the fire that took the life of her best friend Matt; tore apart her friend group; and left her with a traumatic brain injury. Now ominously the survivors receive invitations to return to BREAKOUT to participate in “an escape room in honor of Matteo Luca Cesari.…Because secrets won’t keep themselves.” Someone wants their secrets to come out at any cost—and Steffi’s determined to get the answers she needs to solve the mystery of Matt’s death (and her potential role) but her former friends seem just as determined to keep what transpired under wraps. Wlosok steadily builds the tension leaving carefully crafted clues showing the complexity of the escape room puzzles and weaving in elements of misdirection as the clock ticks down and Steffi and her friends must figure out if there’s a traitor among them. The author doles out revelations from the past through newspaper articles social media chats courtroom transcripts and online gossip column posts—and all the while readers will wonder whether they can trust Steffi if she doesn’t even trust herself. There’s diversity in race and sexual orientation among the friend group.

It’s 1990. Sixteen-year-old Morgan’s mom left when she was 10 but Morgan tries not to think about that; she has a decent life with her white commercial fisherman father. But Morgan finds it tough being Native in a largely white school. When she drops out her friend Skye who was expelled convinces her to join her at Kaien Island Alternate School. Morgan’s academic achievement took a nosedive after her mom’s departure and thanks to Skye’s influence she gets pulled into shoplifting and partying. But as Morgan gets to know “cute Native guy” Nate her priorities change. The more she learns about her family’s history with residential schools the more she realizes how this legacy affects her. Spencer who’s from the Gitxaala Nation writes with sincerity about a “fictionalized Indigenous community” examining how intergenerational trauma from residential schools affected families. The short easily digestible chapters sustain an effective pace and Morgan is a realistically drawn teen with conflicting emotions desires and needs. Over the course of two years she grows and changes. The early ’90s setting allows the author to examine politics and pop culture from the perspective of a young adult finding herself at a time when residential schools were still in existence.

In the mid-2010s the author had a coveted position at a New York media company family and friends on both coasts and a romantic relationship. Under the shiny surface however life was not so bright: “I developed at an early age an exhausting habit of pathologically comparing myself to others and never measuring up in my own mind” Schwartz writes. While successful at work the author was also unfulfilled and burned out. Her love life was also shaky thanks in part to her boyfriend’s sudden interest in nonmonogamy. Most seriously Schwartz struggled with lifelong depression—a suicide attempt in college led to a stay in a psychiatric ward. While medication (and partying) helped keep symptoms at bay the author yearned for a higher purpose in life. When Schwartz met a charismatic entrepreneur called Coco at a Burning Man festival he offered her a home and work on his Panamanian commune. She thrived in the jungle launching a media program and falling in love but when rough working conditions triggered a major depression she returned to her mother’s Oakland home to finally heal. Schwartz’s prose is vivid and her humor unrelenting even as she’s describing rock-bottom bed-rotting unsuccessful attempts at ketamine therapy and psychiatrists who prefer crystals over concrete solutions. The pros and cons of communal living are on full display through her rich descriptions and sharp dialogue. As she recounts navigating depression (the author was eventually diagnosed with bipolar II disorder) that may be resistant to treatment hypomanic states experienced at wild parties in the vibrant Bay Area and self-medicating with cocaine and whip-its Schwartz guides readers through a page-turning journey that will be all too relatable to anyone who’s struggled with mental health issues.

A strong recollection of the events of Darker by Four (2024) will ease readers into this fast-paced sequel. The carefully interwoven plot toggles among multiple viewpoints: Rui dreams of the underworld’s Fourth King and his lover a woman named Lei Ying; Zizi is left imprisoned in the Obsidian Cavern in the underworld while Kings and Gods hope he remembers his identity in order to stabilize the mortal and celestial realms; and Yiran who has isolated himself from loved ones is desperate to recover his magic (he even contemplates working with Hybrid Revenants humanoid monsters that feed off humans’ life force). While the three struggle conflict escalates between Hybrids and Exorcists. The murders the Hybrids carry out are getting stranger and there seems to be a mole within the Guild. As Yiran’s involvement with Hybrids deepens unsavory truths around his father’s death and his grandfather’s tampering with Yiran’s spiritual powers emerge. The trio’s complex situations converge in a compelling showdown with plenty of twists. A few lingering questions remain but the story is entertaining enough to keep readers turning pages. Tan has woven an intricate deftly layered dark fantasy skillfully balancing plot twists character arcs and themes and allowing readers to fully immerse themselves in an alluring world.

Yun’s third novel is set on the Sonata a stand-in for television’s “Love Boat” of the 1970s and ’80s here hosting a themed cruise where passengers can hobnob with former cast members of the show renamed Starlight Voyages. The five-day cruise begins on Sept. 16 switched at the last minute to embark from Boston instead of New York sailing round-trip to the Bahamas. The discomfort of trying to take a lighthearted vacation at this point in time causes some passengers to try to back out but the insurance policy specifically excludes refunds due to “acts of war.” The three main characters include Doug a white erstwhile hottie who played the show’s bartender sober after years of debauchery and with little memory of his supposed heyday—though the cold treatment he receives from a female cast member suggests he was even worse than he remembers. Franny is a successful Korean American estate lawyer who has brought her family to celebrate her mother’s 70th birthday but her generosity has no impact on the tension and coldness of the group. Lucy is a Black MIT senior in the middle of recruiting season whose white roommate invited her to join her family trip at the last minute all expenses paid; soon she can’t imagine why she accepted. Putting the Love Boat and 9/11 in the same sentence much less the same novel seems a risky business but Yun makes it work by embracing the awkwardness and absurdity of the fact that life must go on even the bizarrely amped-up version of life lived on a cruise ship with its ice sculptures and food garnishes and ridiculous “traditions.” In the liminal space between the “before” and “after” of unfathomable tragedy each of her nuanced characters will have an opportunity to move past some of their self-imposed limitations. Yun’s sensitivity to the subtle and not-so-subtle operation of race sexuality gender and privilege adds texture and a final section previewing the aftermath of 9/11 widens and clarifies the novel’s perspective.

Fable Oaks feels adrift. She’s back home in Fern River a small town in the Pacific Northwest living in her beloved departed grandfather’s falling-apart A-frame. She dropped out of college and hasn’t been able to find a job or a relationship that really sparks a fire inside her. Her former best friend turned school rival Theo Nikolaou has also returned to their hometown. Family trauma led him to leave years ago but now he’s ready to put down roots—especially if he gets a chance to buy the veterinary clinic where he works. He just has to prove to his boss that he truly means to stay put. When a rumor circulates that he’s dating Fable Theo decides to lean into it to show his commitment to sticking around. At first Fable doesn’t want to play along but when Theo offers to help fix her house she gives in. Theo knows just how to nettle Fable but as their mutual teasing becomes increasingly flirtatious and they rediscover their friendship they each wonder what this relationship could look like if it were real. Populated with lovable side characters and oozing small-town charm this spicy-sweet low-stakes romance is the epitome of cozy. Heavier subjects like Fable’s grief and Theo’s history with an abusive father are approached with care but not examined much beyond the surface level. Fable and Theo’s closest friends and family know about the fake-dating plan so there’s no big tension or drama. Instead the focus is on these characters who everyone knows should be together finally figuring that out for themselves and finding the confidence and vulnerability to open themselves up to love.

Elevating the view as it goes this perspective broadener invites viewers to join a trio of bright-eyed young cheetahs chasing a gazelle over a grassy plain then to peer over distant hills to examine a neatly laid out city bustling with traffic and brown-skinned shoppers. From there a glimpse of a smaller village leads to overviews of herds of zebras and other wildlife streaming through a wide valley as they embark on their annual migration. The African continent swims into view on subsequent page turns—first topologically though with animal herds still visible in its western parts and finally with map pins and a small number of political and geographical labels. Christie caps her brief narrative with notes on the Great Migration and some of its animals. The step-by-step progression from local to cosmic is at times a little choppy; still Powell gives her art engaging senses of depth and motion and on the whole this tale and its companion volumes demonstrate that there’s more to our planetary home than one’s immediate neighborhood. Readers are sure to appreciate this engaging food for thought.

In 1725 Captain Vitus Bering under orders from Peter the Great embarked on an expedition to find a link between America and Asia. The mission failed but Bering was unwilling to give up and so in 1733 began the Great Northern Expedition charting Russia’s northern shoreline and parts of Alaska and Japan. Told from the perspective of a child whose father Sven Waxell was second-in-command to Bering the tale is magnificent in scope yet personal and immediate. The lengthy trying land journey led to a treacherous sea voyage and just as they reached Alaska storms and scurvy began to decimate the crew. Captain Bering died in 1741 but the narrator’s father “led us through despair to survival.” From elegant neoclassical St. Petersburg and brilliant northern Russian vistas of endless verdant forest to choppy seas and towering snowy mountains the contrasts conveyed in Pritelli’s dramatic panoramas could hardly be greater. Close-ups of hulking bears snarling wolves and other wildlife dwarf the tiny humans stretching across the double-spread backgrounds. Time jumps abridge the nine-year venture as the seasons pass and supplies are slow to arrive. Saturated greens blues and pops of red give the pages an eerie glow. Pritelli’s bold inventive use of perspective conveys excitement and wonder along with fear as the spare text outlines a story of persistence and determination.

Kadis’ delightfully original debut novel is narrated by mordant misfit Constance Costa aka “The Half Greek Imprisoned Daughter of The Fat Murderer.” Her father has earned his moniker by virtue of a car accident that killed Connie’s mother and two younger brothers. Now the two remaining family members are stuck with each other all the more miserably since George Costa uses violent punishment to control his daughter’s behavior. As she confides to the poster of Marc Bolan on her bedroom wall “The Autumn Term Disco is one week away. I just want to be there like a normal [almost] fifteen-year-old…and that unreasonable lunatic won’t let me.”  She receives a reply: “Hm I’d say being a lunatic and being unreasonable tend to go hand in hand”—but this Connie fumes “wasn’t Marc. It’s bloody David Bowie. David could be snitty and obscure and couldn’t resist sticking his beak into everyone else’s business.” While the Fat Murderer prevents her from attending the disco he requires weekly attendance at Friday night community gatherings known as Greek Night (aka Freak Night) the only upside of which is that she gets “to see the one person in [her] life who didn’t make [her] want to vomit.” Vasos Petrides is an almond-eyed dreamboat who “had shown [her] his penis for the first time when [they] were seven”; the pair continues to explore the possibilities of romance. There’s also Auntie Roulla who is not only aware of the Fat Murderer’s abuse but also suspects an even more horrible secret. There hasn’t been a novel this funny that contains an abuse plot since early Edward St. Aubyn who’s a contemporary of Kadis debuting in her 60s after a career in music journalism. She certainly hasn’t lost her grip on what it’s like to be 15: The way she keeps the darkest parts of the book burning hot behind Connie’s jokes lists nicknames and wisecracks is both creatively daring and perfectly evocative of the melodramatic emotional shitshow that is adolescence.

The best dog in the world of course is yours. As editor Hoffman recounts in her introduction hers was a German shepherd named Houdini that possessed all the magic his name implied and though he didn’t like the man who would become her husband and later her ex-husband (“He was a good judge of character”) Houdini was a devoted companion to the rest of the household. “If you’re very lucky you may be honored to know a once-in-a-lifetime dog” she concludes. That’s just right and other contributors to this volume echo the sentiment in different ways. Writes novelist Emily Henry “We are so fucking lucky to get to love someone so much that it tears a hole in the world when they’re gone.” That’s just right too but there’s little pathos here: The contributors are clear-eyed about what Dame Rebecca West called dogs’ one flaw namely that they die. Of course people do too and one standout in this collection is Isabel Allende’s reminiscence of a normally quiet dog that would go ape whenever the household ghost—naturally she named her home House of the Spirits—made an appearance. In another affecting piece Paul Yoon laments the coming day when his beloved dog will no longer walk the earth and he fears that the day will come after that when “I will begin to erase Oscar that I will no longer remember the feel of him—his smell his voice—no longer remember what it was I used to imagine about him as he lay beside me.” The conclusion to these varied pieces in as many words is fitting: We are lucky to have the time we do with our dogs and we wouldn’t trade a moment of it.

The setting: the years following Roe (1973). The suspects: conservatives looking out for the “taxpayers” and ensuring their own chances of getting into heaven. There are activists too who intimidate and are violent toward patients and abortion providers and those who keep the massive anti-abortion movement running. It’s a mix of true believers writes Littlefield and they believe in a Catholic or evangelical Christian God and American notions of individual responsibility and choice. Despite the undercurrent of patriarchy Littlefield makes every effort to find humanity in her interviewees though she does not let them off the hook for their roles in the deaths of their victims. Two recurring figures represent the many women who suffered due to late-20th-century anti-abortion policies. The first is Rosie Jimenez a 27-year-old mother who found herself without access to safe care when the 1976 Hyde Amendment cut Medicaid funding for abortions. The second is Becky Bell a teenager who needed an abortion but couldn’t bear to tell her parents. Both died after unsafe procedures. Laws that restricted federal funding and required parental consent became the “law of the land” accepted by leaders in the abortion rights movement and Democrats in Congress as perennial compromises. The existing tenuousness of abortion rights has been further exacerbated by state and local laws criminalizing abortion after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe. This deep investigation reveals the nuances of anti-abortion politics and strategy. It also reveals that the fight for abortion rights isn’t over.

Melinda who’s clever sarcastic Elias’ therapist reassures him that he’s not a psychopath but Eli persists in feeling it may be so. After leaving one of their sessions he decides to deliberately commit a “ruthless act” testing whether he can feel guilty and settles on stealing a phone from a random girl at a bus stop. He sets in motion a complex series of twists and turns that leave him questioning all he knows about himself. Eli’s funny self-deprecating narrative voice balances the grim details of his past which are parsed out in quick increments rapidly building the novel’s tension. These details include his diagnosis of ADHD medication that caused a hypomanic episode and an event that left him with scars on his head and chest—as well as a sweetly real but forgotten romance. Eli’s experience as the odd man out in his high-achieving family—his father is a well-known member of Parliament his mother is a crown prosecutor and his brother (who’s “Perfect Son Material”) attends Cambridge—serves the story’s overarching unsettled feeling well. Eli is gay and his family is supportive but it’s clear despite their assurances that they just want him to be happy that they’re uncomfortable with the messiness of his mental health. Most main characters are cued white.