This week we recommend Kerry Rea's The Jewel of the Isle, a "hilarious romp" about two novice adventurers swept away by wilderness shenanigans after witnessing a crime; and the "deliciously fun, delightfully endearing" Roland Rogers Isn't Dead Yet by Samantha Allen, which puts a fresh new spin on what it means to be a ghostwriter. And don't miss journalist Eliot Stein's Custodians of Wonder, fascinating profiles of rare artisans "whose wondrous work might otherwise go unnoticed." Plus, Master Hopi woodcarver and middle school teacher Mavasta Honyouti pays loving tribute to his grandfather in the picture book Coming Home, with "gentle... striking" wood carvings and a powerful story about preserving cultural identity in the face of overwhelming antagonism.
In The Writer's Life, award-winning science fiction author Nalo Hopkinson talks about skipping all the "boring" parts of The Iliad and The Odyssey in favor of "the bits with monsters, witches, and ghosts in them," and the pride she takes in seeing a young writer she mentored publish a first novel.