Highlighted in this week's issue, Die Hot with a Vengeance is the "charmingly subversive and often hilarious debut" by Sable Yong, who pulls back the curtain on beauty culture in her essay collection about vanity; and Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe is a "wickedly smart story" about a college student faced with an unplanned pregnancy that's "going to make some serious noise." Plus, with Kindred Spirits: Shilombish Ittibachvffa, Leslie Stall Widener creates a "moving, uplifting picture book about the power of empathy"; and Millie Fleur's Poison Garden is Christy Mandin's "dare-to-be-different picture book" that takes "a spirited swipe at lazy-brained conformity."
For The Writer's Life, children's book authors Megan McDonald and Anna Humphrey discuss the ingenious kind of humor they both brought to creating bunny characters with a mischievous edge.