Told through the eyes of an adult reflecting on lessons learned with a childhood dog this sweet picture book by Santos follows a youngster who spots two puppies at a Sunday market—one pristine one flea-ridden—and is steered by Mom toward the bedraggled choice. That dog Luna becomes the youngster’s teacher for life as she quietly shows the child the importance of listening having fun and forgiveness. Seiferling works in her signature brown and white graphite style—seen previously in Bear Wants To Sing (2021) and King Mouse (2019) both by Cary Fagan—and it serves this story beautifully. The technique renders Luna’s shaggy coat with remarkable warmth and texture while Seiferling deploys color and light with a sure hand: Warm golds suffuse the child’s dreaming face as the dog glows above like a vision and a winter spread washes the world in cool blues and greens. Compositions shift register confidently; intimate vignettes give way to expansive park scenes teeming with dogs of every description. The story’s final turn (“Last weekend my daughter turned seven. For her birthday she asked me for a puppy”) gives the book emotional weight and multigenerational resonance that will land hard with parents reading aloud. Human characters have light tan skin.

Jansi—an attorney epidemiologist wife daughter and mother of two—is a South Asian woman “swimming against a relentless current.” Caught between her demanding career aging father hypercritical mother two teenage sons and a hollow marriage Jansi finds each day passing in a blur of anxiety. She barely even has a moment to look inward—not that she would want to if it means disturbing the fragile sarcophagus of her buried memories. After a particularly fateful phone call however Jansi feels her “quiet tether of control” snap and she plummets into a glass of wine and a handful of pills. When she comes to Jansi finds herself staring at the prospect of six to eight weeks in a mental hospital. Even scarier than the idea of challenging “the stigma surrounding therapy in the Indian community” is the idea of finding herself. Supported by her beloved cousin her therapist and a “scheduled mix of group therapy art classes and mindfulness sessions” Jansi “step[s] toward reclaiming her life from the shadows of loss.” The narrative seamlessly interweaves Jansi’s present with her past gliding between the mental facility and her childhood home in New York City. Through therapy sessions and frequent journaling Jansi reckons with issues of abandonment inadequacy and abuse that color her memories of childhood in addition to the relationships and events that make up her present. (Abruptly removed from her home in India at 6 years old Jansi moved to the United States to be with her parents and seemingly flawless older sister.) Adusumilli depicts Jansi’s therapy arc with detail and delicacy; her moments of reflection are tragic brave and satisfying. The characters (especially Jansi’s mother) are for the most part complex and captivating. They exist in the very real gray areas of life and readers will be able to relate. Lovers of personal and thoughtful literature will delight in Jansi’s journey of self-discovery.

In this sequel to Miller’s Out of Patients (2022) Dr. Norah Waters approaching her 65th birthday is planning to officially announce her impending retirement which is scheduled to commence at the close of the year. The stress of caring for and worrying about patients has become exhausting. For the past five years she’s been in a relationship with Dr. Peter Calloway a radiologist. The issue of retiring is a source of contention between them; Norah would like him to join her in retirement but although they’re the same age Peter isn’t ready to step down. Meanwhile over in Sun City a sprawling retirement community outside Phoenix Norah’s feisty 91-year-old mother Vivian Waters is becoming restless with her sedate life. She’s been calling Norah more frequently and Norah realizes that it’s time for a visit. She brings a small tape recorder proposing that her mother begin recording stories about her unconventional and most interesting life. Vivian counters by informing Norah that she’s joining a Scrabble club and is starting to train for a marathon. Still she becomes quite enamored with the process of recording herself resulting in a charming narrative device that allows Vivian to speak simultaneously to the machine and to readers. In alternating chapters Norah narrates her own tale of professional frustrations various challenges with her mother and her relationship with Peter frequently including the humorous text messages they exchange throughout the day (“Hey you fell for me. Another gullible moment”). A bit of medical infighting a painful backstory and an unexpected romance add poignancy and welcome zest to the leisurely paced drama. Miller’s prose is breezy and sharply witty vividly portraying the troublesome mother-daughter dynamics that have plagued the two leads over the years. Vivian is the more memorable of the two a retired anatomy professor who’s now a delightful curmudgeonly elder convinced that her reclusive neighbor has killed her husband.

Most Americans have heard of Frank Lloyd Wright a name once synonymous with American architecture. Wright’s buildings including the Guggenheim Museum in New York City and Fallingwater in Pennsylvania are rightfully considered masterpieces. But few these days know that he had been an irresistible magnet for the tabloids of his day making him one of the first celebrities of modern times; he was targeted by media moguls looking for salacious stories to separate a rubbernecking public from their hard-earned nickels. Even so modern readers may be surprised by the comparative innocence of the era’s mass media which clutched its pearls over the architect abandoning his wife and children at the peak of his career to be with Martha “Mamah” Borthwick the wife and mother of two children of a neighbor and client. Sherman the author of several histories and true-crime tales of the rich and infamous was charmed by the potency of the love story at the heart of the book; and thanks to copious quotes from his highly literate subjects and his own masterly tale-spinning most readers will succumb right along with him. We learn what Borthwick saw in Wright and we become enchanted by what we learn of her: She was a talented author and translator in her own right as well as a pioneering feminist. “We do not want to be censored by the community” she told a journalist “respond[ing] to the news reports that the couple’s…neighbors wanted to drive them out of town.” All the more devastating then when the horrific story implied in the title takes center stage.

In her introduction contributor Julie Sondra Decker notes that the portrayal of romantic love in literature “as a prerequisite to fulfillment and even personhood [is] disturbing.” In this collection aro characters who don’t experience romantic attraction face not only arophobia but also misunderstandings; compulsory romance; feelings of being broken lacking or othered; and disappointment from friends who want something more from their relationships. However they also find strength connecting with other aromatic people and supportive friends and from discovering alternative ways to live and love. Most of the stories are well-written and the standouts include “Do You See Me?” by Isa Fiel which links the legend of La Llorona to arophobia and “Daughter of Time” by co-editor Dyer which contrasts a Neanderthal girl’s warm and loving community with a modern girl’s isolation. Ian M. Carlisle’s “Thomas Marley’s Fake Bride” broadens the anthology’s representation by centering on a protagonist who delights in sex—just not romance. Among the many intricately woven worlds the high-concept nature of a few might challenge readers as might the second-person narration of some stories. The genres represented include fantasy science fiction dystopia and realistic fiction. Several tales feature leads who are of non-European heritage and many include characters who represent a multitude of LGBTQ+ identities.

It’s not unusual to hear of widespread ecological devastation in soundbite horror stories: Amazon rainforests are disappearing at the astonishing rate of an acre a second; the world’s ocean will soon hold more plastic by weight than fish. It’s both shocking and numbing. Lent (The Patterning Instinct 2017 and The Web of Meaning 2021) interrupts our reality with a freshly imagined future—one that looks to ecological systems of Earth to create a life beyond what we’ve been presented. He begins by charting how we got here: the system of exploitation extraction and elite wealth accumulation known as capitalism. Capitalism he argues has created increasing inequality in our societies and irreparable damage to the planet by incentivizing profit over all outcomes. Yet policy proposals too often work within capitalism’s framework to imagine solutions. Lent challenges us to chart another path toward what he calls a “third horizon”: a transformative way of thinking at the broad scale of humanity. Through this he proposes “a new era that could be defined at its deepest level by a transformation in the way we make sense of the world and a concomitant revolution in our predominant value.” Symbiosis or mutually beneficial relationships form the backbone of this reframing. What might we become if we oriented ourselves away from competition and toward cooperation? Weaving threads of humanity’s shared hunter-gatherer history the post-colonial present era and an imagined ecological future Lent charts a compelling case for how and why we should change course. He calls ecocivilization “a practical levelheaded framework based on our shared evolutionary heritage that could provide all people the opportunity to experience well-being on a healthy Earth.” In other words nothing short of changing the world.

Bonebag has grown up in the Scura min Scurse a gloomy threatening forest with his strangely cold parents Modor and Faeder. His is a life of isolation deprivation and a profound lack of love. And yet Bonebag seems to know what it means to be happy—how can that be? One day he finds a golden locket in the grass and with that discovery everything changes. It leads to his meeting the ghostly Madalena who informs him that Modor and Faeder aren’t his parents but rather ancient monsters who will devour him as they’ve devoured countless children before. With Madalena’s help he narrowly escapes bursting out into the Great City a world he never knew existed determined to find his real parents. Bonebag quickly learns that the world is divided into wealthy Fops and the orphaned Rags they exploit. He stumbles headlong into two transformative friendships and races to outrun the curse that follows him from the life he escaped. But every path seems to lead back to the Scura. Genuinely scary deliciously dark and full of unexpected turns this work about standing up for what you know is right even when the stakes couldn’t be higher impresses and delights with its rich worldbuilding and invigoratingly inventive language. Characters largely present white.

As a member of EWF during its heyday Johnson was arguably the band’s most important member outside of founder Maurice White. Blending Motown-style songwriting with the harder-edged R&B of Parliament-Funkadelic the group owned the charts in the 1970s with hits like “Shining Star” “After the Love Has Gone” and “September.” They were a beloved live act too—they topped the charts with their 1975 concert album Gratitude a sentiment that encapsulates the tone Johnson embraces here. Raised in Los Angeles he worked in local bands before catching White’s attention. Though he recalls White as a taskmaster he appreciated the discipline of a group with “no scandals no bickering.” (The sole transgression he shares is taking acid once before a show.) Career-wise he was at White’s mercy so when he put EWF on hiatus in the early ’80s Johnson was adrift for a time selling stereo systems. Even setbacks are delivered cheerfully here though the tail end of the book which focuses on life advice emphasizes the importance of having a backup plan: He stresses the importance of songwriting and the passive income it delivers financing his interest in collecting art scuba diving and flying. The book’s prose written with Pullens is rarely better than workmanlike and there are a few too many encomiums to the emotional power of EWF’s greatest songs. And readers looking for high drama are reading about the wrong band. But on occasion a snappy line sneaks through: Describing an arena of fans Johnson observes “You ever see 17000 sequins shimmer at once? …It looked like someone had shaken a giant snow globe full of funk.”

Pollack (1934-2008) was that rare Hollywood figure who was gifted at directing acting and producing. In this incisive collection of interviews film scholars McGilligan and Cronin convincingly argue that “for forty years from his first picture to his last Pollack sustained a busier longer more fruitful and more consistent career than many in his peer generation.” The interviews which ran in publications around the world range from 1970 to 2007. Readers learn of his youth in Indiana; Casablanca he says “gave my life meaning. I’m sure my entire style comes from the fact that I found nothing in the Midwest to sustain me.” After a couple years in the Army he got his start acting in TV shows in New York City. A job as the dialogue coach for John Frankenheimer’s The Young Savages starring Burt Lancaster prompted his move to Los Angeles in 1960. “At the end of the picture” he recounts “I was packing my bags when I got a call from Lancaster’s secretary. ‘Mr. Lancaster would like to see you.’ I went over to his offices and he said ‘Listen stop screwing around. You should become a director.’” It was good advice. Pollack’s movies include such successes as They Shoot Horses Don’t They? (1969) Three Days of the Condor (1975) Tootsie (1982) Out of Africa (1985) and The Firm (1993). As McGilligan and Cronin write “He reliably gave motion picture fans…major stars in superbly crafted entertainment undergirded by serious themes.” Film buffs will enjoy Pollack getting into the technical details of directing: “Panavision is the only medium you can work in where you never lose the sense of environment.” And his frank take on Hollywood has aged well: “I am part of this institutionalization now in the film business.” One once had “the satisfaction of yelling” at someone who owned a studio but corporations took over—and “you can’t argue with an institution.”

Moriarty’s son Reid is autistic a fact that touches every part of both their lives. Recognizing a need for community she gathered a group of fellow “autism moms” so that they could provide one another with support friendship and a whole lot of humor; they called themselves the Laughter Alliance. Moriarty’s guide draws from the group’s collective experiences to help readers cope with the various challenges that autism can bring. She punctuates the text with anonymized stories from Laughter Alliance members that will leave readers giggling and feeling a little bit less alone. Chapters focus on everything from Individualized Education Program meetings to worship services to bathroom mishaps; each one is chock-full of anecdotes journal prompts insights and hopeful advice and all end with a delightful recipe. Readers will also discover useful tips for advocating for autistic children in the educational system and finding qualified support staff among other things. This is not to say that all the material is upbeat; some stories tell of frustration and unfairness involving meltdowns and bad experiences with doctors and travel but the author relates them with raw honesty and humility. When the author doesn’t have a simple answer or an easy fix she aims to provide the comfort that one might receive from a venting session with a good friend who encourages laughter when all else fails. As Moriarty says “It is brave to laugh in the face of trials triggers and tribulation.” Horwath’s illustrations are relatively few in number but their simple cartoonish style is friendly comforting and silly accenting the ups and downs of caregiving in compassionate and engaging ways.

Daphne Brewster has come to cherish the slow soothing picturesque corner of Norfolk England that includes Cranberry Farmhouse her cottage; Pudding Corner the village in which it sits; and Pepperbridge the slightly larger village where her children Imani Fynn and Archie go to school. A transplanted Black Londoner Daphne’s not your typical village cozy heroine nor is Sutton’s tale the stereotypical village cozy. While many cozy authors would seek to preserve their most beloved villagers by killing off a recent arrival a tourist or a particularly odious intruder—greedy real estate developers are favorite targets—Sutton begins her yarn by knocking off Nancy Warburton who along with her sister Patsy runs the local grocery and convenience store that has been in her family for generations. A distraught Patsy insists that Nancy couldn’t have accidentally fallen off a ladder she’d climbed every day for years. At first Daphne focuses on simply relieving Patsy’s distress but a second death makes her curious. Could someone really have pushed Nancy? And if so why? Sutton’s finely drawn characters help move her narrative briskly as their complicated relationships with each other and the world they live in provide ample motivation for a series of startling crimes. A pair of ill-timed flashbacks threatens the momentum briefly as the big reveal approaches but Sutton’s unconventional plotting allows the puzzle to land with a satisfying wallop.

Lucas Atomic can’t wait for his 13th birthday when he’ll finally get his chance to use his family’s prized Gloom Stone which grants any and every wish. But when his parents decide he’s not mature enough and plan to make him wait another year Lucas steals the stone and wishes a whole heap of trouble onto himself his family and their Atomic Manor (which looks like a tiny ramshackle cottage on the outside but inside is positively palatial). After breaking all three sacred rules (in return for the Gloom Stone’s powers Lucas’ family promises to uphold the principles of secrecy wisdom and kindness) Lucas begs his smart friend Julia Greene for help; his plushie-turned-sentient red panda Mewmew serves as sidekick on their quest to set things right. Meanwhile Lucas’ ancestor Atomic the Fool changes out of his statue form to regain the stone (and turn all of humanity into pigeons). In this fast-paced absorbing fantasy with real-world trappings (for instance Julia’s a committed environmentalist) Lucas learns what many wishers before him have: “I always thought that if I had everything I ever wanted I’d finally be happy…but I just made a mess of everything.” In Carita’s well-composed cartoon artwork Lucas wears big red-framed glasses; he and his family are pale-skinned while Julia is brown-skinned with white hair.

Eleven-year-old Kestrel knows that “a kestrel is meant to fly.” But until the early morning when her mother spirits her away from home while her grandfather is still asleep and they fly from San Diego to Montana she has no idea that her wings had been clipped. Mom dropped out of college because she became pregnant raising Kestrel under church pastor Grandpa’s emotionally abusive control. Mom says that her new job at the Rocky Mountain Bear Institute where she’ll work with specially trained Karelian bear dogs to reduce human–bear interactions is “an adventure” for the summer only. That’s bad enough since Kestrel is afraid of dogs afraid of being away from familiar routines and unwilling to get to know the friendly racially diverse people at the institute including Nico a Latino boy her own age. But Kestrel feels even more betrayed when Mom enrolls her in the local middle school. It takes a dramatic turn of events for her to realize how much freedom she’s gained in the move. The sparse verse effectively conveys Kestrel’s anxiety and gradual realization as her memories are overtaken by her current reality that Grandpa caused them harm. The setting especially the dogs will drive readers’ interest.

Our protagonist awakens consumed by worries: “The ocean is big and strong and I’m feeling…not like that at all.” The child’s anxiety builds at breakfast time: “My eggs smile at me but I don’t smile back.” The child and Abuelita (“I call her Lita”) don wet suits smear sunscreen wax their surfboards head to the beach and enter the water. Katona intertwines creative descriptions of the youngster’s turmoil with references to surfing preparation and jargon as Lita encourages her grandchild to “become friends with your fears.” The child paddles on with renewed courage taking deep breaths and focusing as the wave approaches. Success! “I glide through the water almost forgetting to a take a breath.” Best of all? Lita’s right there cheering the youngster on. Palacios’ simple brightly colored graphic art pairs well with Katona’s text beginning with the child’s bedroom which is loaded with surfer paraphernalia and shows a view of the palm-treed beach. The grandparent/grandchild relationship is utterly sweet with Lita giving the child the freedom to make missteps but always providing warm much-needed support. Kids fretting over taking a big step of their own—especially young surfers—will find a kindred spirit here. Both characters are brown-skinned and Latine.

Catarina’s parents own a bookstore in Nueva Rosita New Mexico that was originally founded (and is currently believed to be haunted) by her great-great-great-grandmother Milagro. Worried she’ll drift apart from best friends Mari Sofia and Ana thanks to their different interests Cat starts the Chismosas Only Book Club the summer before ninth grade. Chismosas means gossips in Spanish but they only gossip about characters in books. The Mexican American girls use signs they interpret as sent by Milagro to make their reading selections believing that she’s intentionally picking books that will be personally meaningful to them. Alternating among the four friends’ third-person perspectives the story thoroughly and realistically fleshes out each girl’s hopes fears and heartbreaks. Cat struggles with managing her anger and school theater drama. Sofia’s multiracial family (her father is white) doesn’t know she has a crush on a girl and her devout Catholic ’wuela disapproves of her “witchy” interests like fortunetelling. Ana is stressed by all the pressure her mother puts on her to work at their restaurant take care of family members and succeed at school. Meanwhile Mari sketches to help cope with worrying about her mother’s kidney disease and a complicated family situation. Readers will root for the girls as they navigate their challenges with heart determination and most importantly each other.

“C’mon bud! It’s time for an adventure!” Mama’s enthusiastic call has Oliver quaking. Though he dons a helmet and head lamp and packs water bottles a walkie-talkie and an umbrella “nothing quite prepares him for this highway that stretches farther than forever.” True Oliver enjoys some aspects of camping—pitching a tent is “a teensy bit fun” as is a game of hide-and-seek on the trail—but they are overshadowed by frightening dark nights and tiring hikes. Nevertheless Mama greets every new scene with the same refrain: “Now this is a room with a view!” Oliver’s grievances mount: the “spaghettiblackbeanbroccolihamburgermeatmush” that Mama serves at meals unpredictable weather and an impromptu haircut—the result of a s’more mishap. He dreams of never having “to go places or do things again” but soon he begins reflecting on the moments he does enjoy: “car-ride concerts and epic dance battles” as well as Marshmallow Roasting Championships. Ho’s narrative unfolds naturally as she crafts a convincing portrait of a less-than-outdoorsy youngster who nevertheless finds joys all around him—and in being with his mother. Teeming with wildlife and other fun details Mesquita’s strikingly colored illustrations richly textured with splatters and deft use of shadows and composition fill every inch of the page. Oliver and Mama are brown-haired and tan-skinned.

As Mila the magician—aka Mila MacAllister who lives in the friendly New England town of Corvin’s Crossing—nervously awaits her chance to impress the patrons of Mugsy’s Club her boyfriend and manager Brandon Jameson texts her to meet him in the alley behind the club. There he happily announces that he’s convinced the owner of the new Luxe Hotel and Resort to attend tonight’s show to consider her as his own opening-night headliner. The bad news is that Brandon won’t be there himself. While she’s crying in the alley Mila hears distressed sounds coming from three terrified kittens whose mother never came back for them. Rescuing the kittens—whom she names Bippity Boppity and Boop—turns out to be the best thing Mila’s ever done. The show which now includes the naughty kittens is a hit until Brandon’s dead body crashes onto the stage from above with Mila’s trick knife protruding from his chest. Once it’s revealed that Brandon was about to dump Mila for her best friend Becca the magician becomes the prime suspect. Hylia the feline companion of Mila’s landlady takes the kittens under her wing as the evidence piles up against Mila. Sheriff Pete is on her side though and she resolves to prove herself innocent. Little does she know that the talented kittens who have magical powers—including invisibility—will prove to be excellent detectives ready to fight to the death to help their adopted person.

As the book opens a bespectacled brown-skinned young girl is getting a hair oil massage from one of her fathers. Vacation days with Papa and Dad are busy but joyful. “SNIP! WHIRR! CLANK!” “CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!” The sewing machine sounds echo as Papa sews vibrant clothes for everyone except himself. Until one day when the sound stops and silence invades the young protagonist’s home. The girl waits but as the finality of loss dawns she pulls herself and Dad out of the blues. Anand’s vibrant mixed-media illustrations full of childlike ingenuity supplement her spare text. Visual cues such as Hindi newsprint in the collage images Papa’s kurta and footwear and a turbaned Sikh man in a bazaar establish the setting as India. Color is used effectively to plot the protagonist’s emotional journey. Full-bleed spreads burst with warm hues until Papa’s death when the colorful backgrounds become steeped in gray-blue. The final illustrations of a patchwork memory piece that Dad and the child create to remember Papa cleverly combine fuchsia orange and yellow patterns from the fabrics worn by this family unit and signal a return to color—and perhaps even joy.

In their fourth story together the Mile End kids a group of friends who live in urban Montreal have congregated to help diminutive determined Tom get the hang of cycling. Tom’s pals offer encouragement (“Good job Tom”) and taunts: “Try not to wobble so much watermelon head.” They set up obstacles to navigate—“bins and pots and garbage of all sorts.” Once Tom’s mastered these he decides to take off his training wheels. Moments later Tom turns the alley corner and heads down the block. Awaiting his return his friends worry: Could he be lost? Could he have been in an accident? Might he return to them as a ghost? Little do they know Tom is savoring his newfound freedom envisioning himself cycling through scenes of pastoral perfection. The kids soon fête his safe return declaring him the “Tour de Block Champion.” Arsenault lovingly observes the bumpy path of progress that leads to gleeful independence. Her densely shaded playfully intricate illustrations give her story a special sense of place and childlike creativity. Tom is pale-skinned and blond and wears his bike helmet diligently. The Mile End kids vary in skin tone height and attitude.

A deadly showdown at an Asian market ends with veteran Anchorage Alaska homicide detective DeHavilland Beans’ first fatal shooting—of a police informant no less. Luckily an unexpected call from an old acquaintance offers the promise of redemption for the devastated detective or at least an opportunity to clear his head and gain some perspective. Felicia Gunnerson the younger sister of Beans’ childhood friend Conrad is now a cop in Beans’ native Galena hundreds of miles from Anchorage and she has a particularly troubling case. The missing man she’s searching for is Lloyd Paul whom Beans knew as a teenager and who despite a significant age difference carried a torch for Beans’ mother Mari. The search for Lloyd becomes a portal to a larger story about the dark legacies of World War II and the impactful connections of family. Beans’ second case is a multi-layered story with roots in recent American history. Hakoda writes fully fleshed-out characters whose relationships fuel the narrative. The plot weaves Beans and Fee’s probe together with Mari’s life in the San Francisco Bay Area scenes from Beans’ adolescence when he knew Lloyd and flashbacks to an earlier generation in the Second World War internment camps and their aftermath. Tackling so many plot threads is sometimes a bit of an overreach. Still the connection is clear: Even as the past recedes its lessons continue to shadow the present.