by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
In his powerful, imaginative debut novel, Chain-Gang All-Stars, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Friday Black) brilliantly exposes the for-profit infrastructure that exploits the incarcerated, as the larger-than-life characters stir compassion in readers. The titular all-stars have signed away their right to privacy, to their names, to their physical likenesses, to compete in gladiator-style fights to the death--televised nationwide. If, after three years, they survive these BloodGround contests, they go free, no
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by Murong Xuecun
More than three years after the outbreak of Covid-19 comes Deadly Quiet City, an inside account of the pandemic's earliest days in Wuhan, China. Bestselling Chinese writer and critic of censorship and corruption Murong Xuecun (Leave Me Alone) relates the testimonies of eight Wuhan residents from late 2019 and early 2020, and the risks he took to get them. The result is a dramatic human mosaic, an urgent chronicle of a pivotal period in world history, and a fierce indictment of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
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by Dave Eggers, illus. by Shawn Harris
Animals have very full lives that humans never see. Johannes the dog introduces readers to his life in a bustling and vibrant urban park in the immersive middle-grade animal adventure The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers and Shawn Harris, the team behind Her Right Foot and What Can a Citizen Do?
Johannes plays a critical role in the urban park in which he lives: he acts as "the Eyes" for the "rulers" of the park, three wise old Bison. The Bison, who are penned, depend on the Eyes for information so they
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by Ivy Pochoda
Ivy Pochoda (These Women; Wonder Valley) unleashes a combination of raw energy and poignant loss in Sing Her Down, a ferocious, feminist western. After just a few years in prison, Florence "Florida" Baum is told she qualifies for early release because the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is endangering prisoners. But Florida soon realizes there are two catches. First, she must stay in Arizona, despite desperately wanting to return to her home of Los Angeles. And second, violent and volatile fellow inmate
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by Melissa Crowe
In Melissa Crowe's incandescent second book, the Iowa Poetry Prize-winning Lo, threats are everywhere, but love and beauty counteract them. Incorporating a variety of forms, this collection of 35 affecting autobiographical poems travels from impoverished girlhood to marriage and motherhood in the post-pandemic U.S.
Crowe (Dear Terror, Dear Splendor) delves into the reality of sexual abuse and growing up in rural poverty. Some days there was, literally, no money; she and her parents took turns washing in the
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by Sandra V. Feder, illus. by Rahele Jomepour Bell
"Sometimes being peaceful is easy. Sometimes it takes work to get there." In this wise, gentle, gorgeously illustrated companion to Angry Me, a child explores the many ways they can feel peaceful... and what to do when they don't.
As in Angry Me, Sandra V. Feder and Rahele Jomepour Bell's equally delightful team effort, the child in Peaceful Me recognizes a variety of ways to experience a certain feeling. There's "Quiet" peaceful, when alone; "Good game" peaceful, when things go well with friends; "Cuddle
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by Meagan Church
Megan Church's stirring debut, The Last Carolina Girl, follows the newly orphaned 14-year-old Leah Payne, highlighting the true meaning of family in this Carolina-set coming-of-age novel. The warmth and comfort of Leah's life with her father in 1935 coastal Brunswick County, N.C., is suddenly ripped away to reveal the heartbreakingly raw reality of grief experienced at a young age. Leah is taken to stay with a respectable family and situated as their new helpmate since her father's tragic accident left her
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