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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2004 Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine. Life lessons. Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. […]
George and his sister Gemma are going on adventure with their Mumzie, a human child with blond hair and fair skin, to the local campground. The only problem? George says, “Exploring is NOT for me!” He has no interest in roughing it (he’s frustrated by his uncomfortable camp bed), even when all his canine friends […]
From the Girl of Fire and Thorns series , Vol. 1 by Rae Carson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2011 Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,… Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts. Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa […]
by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020 A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy. Likes 219 Our Verdict GET IT New York Times Bestseller Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on […]
by Scottie Pippen with Michael Arkush ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 9, 2021 Basketball fans will enjoy Pippen’s bird’s-eye view of some of the sport’s greatest contests. The Chicago Bulls stalwart tells all—and then some. Hall of Famer Pippen opens with a long complaint: Yes, he’s a legend, but he got short shrift in the ESPN […]
by Chad Morris & Shelly Brown ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 3, 2017 Medically, both squicky and hopeful; emotionally, unbelievably squeaky-clean. A 12-year-old copes with a brain tumor. Maddie likes potatoes and fake mustaches. Kids at school are nice (except one whom readers will see instantly is a bully); soon they’ll get to perform Shakespeare scenes […]
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016 While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of… Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol. The […]
by Amy Tan ; illustrated by Amy Tan ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 23, 2024 An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds. A charming bird journey with the bestselling author. In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and […]
These inquisitive strands of commonalities form the basis for Gervais’ eclectic bilingual word book, a hodgepodge of animals, vehicles, everyday items, and natural phenomena. Each spread opens to a catalog of things—faithfully rendered via stencils and brushes against mostly solid color backgrounds—collected around a declarative statement in all caps. “THINGS THAT SMELL GOOD” boasts a […]
New arrivals to Ransh Cyfle Olaf, or Last Chance Ranch, learn that “this isn’t prison; this isn’t holiday camp. This is a place to start at the beginning.” The novel opens with Nell and four other young people on a bus in rural Wales. Nell tells readers, “I’m quick to rage, will flip if pushed, […]