by Charles Burns
Charles Burns, winner of the Eisner/Harvey/Ignatz graphic trifecta for Black Hole, dramatically explores the (un)balance of isolation and creativity in Final Cut. When they were young teenagers, Brian and Jimmy started making slasher films, complete with intergalactic worms and murder by forked eyeball. Now as young adults, filmmaking still looms large, particularly for Brian who, unlike affable Jimmy, prefers his intricate, surreal drawings being readied for their celluloid closeups to actual human interactions.
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by Raja Shehadeh
In A Rift in Time: Travels with My Ottoman Uncle, Raja Shehadeh (Palestinian Walks) invites readers into a "momentary... respite from the terrible confines of the dismal present" by retracing how his great-great-uncle Najib Nassar escaped from arrest under the Ottoman Empire. Shehadeh poignantly brings to life a historical moment not often considered in contemporary discussions, expressing sadness for what might have been and hope for what may yet be, even if it does not happen in his own lifetime.
Shehadeh
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by Thyra Heder
A dog's lucky find turns into a massive canine misunderstanding in the smart, funny, and playful picture book Nose to Nose, written and illustrated by Thyra Heder (How Do You Dance?).
Toby, a black-and-tan dog with a long tail, has moved into a new neighborhood and would like to make some friends. He introduces himself by marking a brick retaining wall, but making a splash on the wall does not help him make a splash socially. Other dogs don't acknowledge Toby when leaving their contributions, shown by Heder
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by Lamar Giles
Ruin Road by Lamar Giles (The Getaway) is an unnerving, spine-tingling paranormal horror novel driven by a frank and sharp dissection of race and class.
Cade Webster, 6'2" with "hands like tennis rackets," is a formidable player for his high school football team. Even though he's the star wide receiver, his rich white teammates won't go near his Black "gangsta" neighborhood and his size and skin color make the white people with whom he interacts perceive him as a threat. Cade wishes people would stop acting
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by Sonia Purnell
Sonia Purnell's Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman's Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue stands as a model for what all biographies should strive for. It strikes the difficult balance of history, gossip, and journalistic insight in pitch-perfect prose that reads like a novel. This riveting account of Pamela Harriman's extraordinary life is highly recommended for readers interested in 20th-century history or politics, or in the lives of fascinating individuals.
Purnell follows Harriman through her early
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by Molly Idle
Molly Idle continues her ingeniously whimsical board book series with Flora and Friends: Colors. After showcasing counting, opposites, and letters, Idle's fourth board book--part of the larger Flora family, which debuted with 2014 Caldecott Honor-winner Flora and the Flamingo--is spectacular, melding superb art, minimal text, and an interactive layout that teaches the youngest readers about the transformative magic of color.
Pink-cheeked, button-nosed Flora simply adores her avian friends, and her story begins
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by Dava Sobel
In Ève Curie's biography of her mother, she wrote: "There are, in the life of Marie Curie, so many great moments that one is tempted to tell her story as a legend." This new biography by Dava Sobel (The Glass Universe, Longitude, Galileo's Daughter) traces not only the legend of Curie's scientific breakthroughs, but her impact on the presence of women in the sciences. The Elements of Marie Curie paints a human portrait not of an isolated genius, but of a woman who existed in and built
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