January 1, 2026: Volume XCIV, No. 1

JANUARY 1, 2026 | VOL. XCIV, NO. 1

FEATURING 351 Industry-First Reviews of Fiction, Nonfiction, Children’s, Young Adult, and Audiobooks

KADIR NELSON SCORES WITH A HISTORY OF BASKETBALL Plus: Introducing our first-ever section of audiobook reviews!

SEEKING REPRESENTATION

A prodigious West Point-bound teen becomes a millionaire drug trafficker by 21 — but his descent begins only after he walks away.

Eleven years later, drowning in alcohol and ego-death, a near-death psychic split forces him into the arena for one last battle he can’t afford to lose: becoming someone else.

WWW.THELASTBATTLE.LIVE

“...blends a raw prose style...with literary panache...”

“A poignant, occasionally poetic, reflection on addiction, self-destruction, and the winding road to recovery.”

—Kirkus Reviews For Agent Representation or Information on Publishing and Film Rights, Email thomas@thelastbattle.live • thelastbattle.live

Contents 89

2 From the Editor’s Desk FICT ION 4

Editor’s Note

5

Reviews & News

16

Q&A: Xiaolu Guo

31 Booklist: Story Collections 39 On the Podcast: Lily King NONFICT ION 46

Editor’s Note

47

Reviews & News

58

Profile: Josiah Hesse

73 Booklist: Books About Books 85 On the Podcast: Jen Hatmaker

One of the most coveted designations in the book industry, the Kirkus Star marks books of exceptional merit.

OUR FRESH PICK In mid-1970s London, a young woman talks to her posters of Marc Bolan and David Bowie about her plans to murder her father.

Read the review on p. 13 PURCHASE BOOKS ONLINE AT KIRKUS .COM

Reviews & News

100 Cover Story: Kadir Nelson 113 Booklist: For Budding Fashionistas

YOUNG ADULT

130

Editor’s Note

131

Reviews & News

140

Q&A: Katie Bernet

149 Booklist: Inspired

by Mythology INDIE 150

Editor’s Note

151

Reviews

AUDIOBOOKS 170

Editor’s Note

171

Reviews

CHILDREN ’ S 88

Editor’s Note

ON THE COVER: Portrait of Kadir Nelson by Patrick Rosche, from a photo by Greg Deloache. Background illustration by Visual Generation via iStock.

Interested in reprints, permissions, licensing, or a framed review? Please contact The YGS Group at 800.290.5460 or email Kirkus@theygsgroup.com.

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K IR KU S R E V IE W S

JANUARY 1, 2026

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FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

WE AT KIRKUS REVIEWS

have a big New Year’s resolution for 2026: To expand our coverage by reviewing audiobooks alongside the approximately 10,000 print books that we review annually. Turn to page 170 of this issue to find our first-ever audiobook reviews section.

Studies show that slightly more than half of all Americans have listened to an audiobook, so it only makes sense for us to review books in this popular format, too.

We couldn’t do it without the foundation laid by AudioFile magazine.

AudioFile was launched by Robin Whitten in 1992 to provide libraries—and, by extension, listeners—with independent reviews of what were then abridged readings of books recorded on

cassette tapes. As Whitten explained in an interview for the magazine’s 30th anniversary, “You know, [an audiobook] is a performance, it’s like a music performance, or…a film.

There are creative choices made by the narrator. It should be reviewed.” It’s no exaggeration to say that Robin was a pioneer.

After more than three decades running the magazine, and nearly 65,000 reviews, Robin is ready for a change—and that’s where Kirkus comes in. As AudioFile wound down its print production, we brought on staffer Jennifer Dowell as our first audiobooks editor, and we’ll be publishing new reviews in every issue going forward. Reviews will also be posted to our website, and the AudioFile archive

Frequently Asked Questions: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/faq Fully Booked Podcast: www.kirkusreviews.com/podcast/ Advertising Opportunities: www.kirkusreviews.com/book-marketing Submission Guidelines: www.kirkusreviews.com/about/publisher-submission-guidelines Subscriptions: www.kirkusreviews.com/magazine/subscription Newsletters: www.kirkusreviews.com For customer service or subscription questions, please call 1-800-316-9361

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JANUARY 1, 2026

will find a home on kirkusreviews.com as well.

Finally, we’ll be picking up the Behind the Mic podcast, in slightly altered form, as a complement to our weekly Fully Booked podcast. If you’re already an audiobook listener, you won’t want to miss the new coverage. And if you’re part of the 49% who’ve never listened to one, this is your invitation to give them a try.

I was one of those nonlisteners until I began commuting nearly three hours a day to a new job. I found that after a day in front of the computer screen I was happy to give my eyes a rest and open up my ears.

Moreover, the audio format was the perfect way to reread a novel I had already devoured in print: Jess Walter’s Beautiful Ruins.

Via narrator Edoardo Ballerini—a master of accents and nuanced delivery on this and dozens of other productions—I discovered the special bliss of hearing a book read aloud.

I was hooked, and I now keep at least one audiobook and one print book going

simultaneously. Among my favorites in the past year: Ian Leslie’s John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs (Macmillan Audio, April 8), a special gift to Beatles fans infectiously read by British actor Chris Addison, and Candace Fleming’s Death in the Jungle: Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown (Listening Library, April 29), in which Karen Murray’s hushed narration makes the horrific events all the more chilling.

In that anniversary interview, Robin observed, “Over time, the technology has changed, the audience has grown massively, the industry has grown massively, but AudioFile’s purpose continues to be the same, which is to review and recommend the best audiobooks, to help people find what is available that makes for terrific listening.”

We at Kirkus are thrilled to carry on that mission. Let’s listen together.

TOM BEER K IR KU S R E V IE W S

Illustration by Eric Scot t Ander son

TIME TO LISTEN UP

Co-Founders, Kirkus Media LLC HERBERT SIMON MARC WINKELMAN Publisher, CEO & Partner MEG LABORDE KUEHN mkuehn@kirkus.com

Editor-in-Chief TOM BEER tbeer@kirkus.com

Chief Marketing Officer SARAH KALINA skalina@kirkus.com

President of Kirkus Indie CHAYA SCHECHNER cschechner@kirkus.com

Publisher Advertising

Fiction Editor LAURIE MUCHNICK lmuchnick@kirkus.com

& Promotions RACHEL WEASE rwease@kirkus.com Indie Advertising & Promotions AMY BAIRD abaird@kirkus.com

Author Consultant KEELIN FERDINANDSEN kferdinandsen@kirkus.com Lead Designer KY NOVAK knovak@kirkus.com Magazine Compositor NIKKI RICHARDSON nrichardson@kirkus.com Director of Kirkus Editorial ROBIN O’DELL rodell@kirkus.com Kirkus Editorial Senior Production Editor MARINNA CASTILLEJA mcastilleja@kirkus.com

Nonfiction Editor JOHN McMURTRIE jmcmurtrie@kirkus.com Young Readers’ Editor LAURA SIMEON lsimeon@kirkus.com Young Readers’ Editor MAHNAZ DAR mdar@kirkus.com Audiobooks Editor JENNIFER DOWELL jdowell@kirkus.com Editor at Large MEGAN LABRISE mlabrise@kirkus.com Senior Indie Editor DAVID RAPP drapp@kirkus.com Indie Editor ARTHUR SMITH asmith@kirkus.com

Kirkus Editorial Production Editor ASHLEY LITTLE alittle@kirkus.com

Senior Editorial Assistant NINA PALATTELLA npalattella@kirkus.com

Indie Editorial Assistant KATARINA YERGER kyerger@kirkus.com

Senior Indie Editorial Assistant DAN NOLAN dnolan@kirkus.com

Contributing Writers GREGORY McNAMEE MICHAEL SCHAUB Mysteries Editor THOMAS LEITCH

Copy Editors ALYSSA CHOINIERE JOE HONG NANCY MANDEL BILL SIEVER

Founder, Kirkus Reviews VIRGINIA KIRKUS (1893-1980)

K IR KU S R E V IE W S

Contributors

Nada Abdelrahim, Colleen Abel, Dan Accardi, Jill Adams, Mahasin Aleem, Autumn Allen, Paul Allen, Stephanie Anderson, Kent Armstrong, Mark Athitakis, Susan Baird, Stephanie Bange, Nell Beram, Elizabeth Bird, Christopher A. Biss-Brown, Mary Boucouvalas, Jessica Hoptay Brown, Abby Bussen, Kevin Canfield, Tobias Carroll, Ann Childs, Alec B. Chunn, Shanetia Clark, Adeisa Cooper, Jeannie Coutant, Michael Deagler, Lisa De Bode, Cathy DeCampli, Dave DeChristopher, Kathleen Deedy, Elise DeGuiseppi, Suji DeHart, Amanda Diehl, Anna Drake, Eamon Drumm, Jacob Edwards, Lisa Elliott, Ilana Bensussen Epstein, Makana Eyre, Joshua Farrington, Brooke Faulkner, Eiyana Favers, Margherita Ferrante, Katie Flanagan, Mia Franz, Jenna Friebel, Robbin Friedman, Nivair H. Gabriel, Emily Gaines, Laurel Gardner, Jean Gazis, Amanda Gefter, William A. Giwertz, Danielle Galván Gomez, Richard C. Gotshall, Michael Griffith, Eliana Gruvman, Vicky Gudelot, Ellie Halleron, Sean Hammer, Silvia Lin Hanick, Peter Heck, Ralph Heibutzki, Matthew Heller, S.J. Henschel, Aaron Hicklin, Loren Hinton, Katrina Niidas Holm, Terry Hong, Julie Hubble, Wesley Jacques, Kevin Jagernauth, Jessica Jernigan, Jennifer Johnson, Danielle Jones, Jayashree Kamblé, Deborah Kaplan, Colleen King, Lyneea Kmail, Maggie Knapp, Jennie Knuppel, Andrea Kreidler, Susan Kusel, Alexis Lacman, Megan Dowd Lambert, Carly Lane, Laurel Larrew, Christopher Lassen, Tom Lavoie, Seth Lerer, Donald Liebenson, Maureen Liebenson, Elsbeth Lindner, Melissa Locker, Barbara London, Karen Long, Patricia Lothrop, Sawyer Lovett, Wendy Lukehart, Michael Magras, Joan Malewitz, Mitu Malhotra, Mandy Malone, Thomas Maluck, Joe Maniscalco, Gabriela Martins, J. Alejandro Mazariegos, Van McGary, Zoe McLaughlin, Cari Meister, Kathie Meizner, Carol Memmott, Flor Silva Meurinne, J. Elizabeth Mills, Alan Minskoff, Chintan Modi, Rebecca Moore, Andrea Moran, Rhett Morgan, Mary-Elizabeth B. Murphy, John Murray, Liza Nelson, Rachael Nevins, Therese Purcell Nielsen, Ari Nussbaum, Katrina Nye, Randy O’Brien, Mike Oppenheim, Emilia Packard, Andrea Page, Nina Palattella, Hal Patnott, Bethanne Patrick, Rebecca Perry, John Edward Peters, Justin Pham, Christofer Pierson, Katie Polley, Margaret Quamme, Carolyn Quimby, Ellen Quint, Kristy Raffensberger, Kristen Bonardi Rapp, Maggie Reagan, Stephanie Reents, Amy Reiter, Evelyn Renold, Peter Richardson, Erica Rivera, Amy Robinson, Soumi Roy, Lloyd Sachs, Laura Sackton, Bob Sanchez, Julia Sangha, Meredith Schorr, Sadaf Siddique, Linda Simon, Laurie Skinner, Jonathan Smith, Wendy Smith, Margot E. Spangenberg, Andria Spencer, Allison Staley, Sydney Stensland, Mathangi Subramanian, Jennifer Sweeney, Deborah Taylor, Renee Ting, Lenora Todaro, Julie Thompson, Clayton Trutor, Francesca Vultaggio, Thomas Walken, Katie Weeks, Susie Wilde, Wilda Williams, Kerry Winfrey, Marion Winik, Michelle Wood, Bean Yogi, Jean-Louise Zancanella

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LONG BOOKS FOR SHORT DAYS When days are at their shortest, it puts me in the mood for long novels— something to take with me when I go into hibernation for the chill New York winter. My perfect companion for a cozy winter weekend would be Workhorse by Caroline Palmer (Flatiron, Oct. 14; 560 pp.), a former editor at Seventeen and Vogue, who plunges the reader into the not-entirely-glamorous world of early 2000s magazine publishing, just before glossy pictures on paper began to lose their luster. Clodagh Harmon is an editorial assistant at an unnamed Vogue-like magazine, and she’s a workhorse, not a show horse, a privileged kid trying to make it in an

atmosphere where only the super-privileged tend to survive. This isn’t The Devil Wears Prada—the higher-­ups barely make an appearance as Palmer “teases out class issues behind the doors of elite Manhattan media,” according to our review, which calls the book “tense, propulsive, and authentic.” Here are some more luxuriously long novels to dig into this month: Crux by Gabriel Tallent (Riverhead, Jan. 20; 416 pp.): Nine years after the publication of Tallent’s debut, An Absolute Darling—also long at 432 pages—he returns to bookstores with this tale of two high school seniors who live to go rock climbing in the Mojave Desert. There’s a lot going

on here: Dan and Tamma’s individual trajectories, their families, their financial pressures, the beautiful descriptions of climbing, and what our starred review calls “Tallent’s gift for surprising and lively language, from the peculiar names climbers give to sites…to Tamma’s robust and profane rants, to the lingo used to describe climbs themselves.…Even if you don’t climb, the language is rich and resonant.…A sharp novel about youth in conflict with dreams, nature, and reality.”

Effingers by Gabriele Tergit; trans. by Sophie Duvernoy (NYRB Classics, Nov. 11; 864 pp.): Originally published in 1951, Tergit’s multigenerational novel about a Jewish family in Germany has only now been translated into English. “The Effinger family is a blend of urban and rural, secular and religious, socialist and capitalist, its paterfamilias a

watchmaker in a small German town, his children striving to find their places in the world as the 20th century nears,” according to our starred review. Soon Germany will be unrecognizable. “Pensive and full of foreshadowing, Tergit’s novel nonetheless suggests that things might have been otherwise,” says the reviewer. “A masterwork of modern German literature.”

Tom’s Crossing by Mark Z. Danielewski (Pantheon, Oct. 28; 1232 pp.): We can’t talk about long books without mentioning this one, even if our reviewer thought it was a bit too long: “At only a couple of dozen pages shorter than War and Peace, it serves as a pointed lesson in the fact that life—as so many of Danielewski’s characters discover—is short indeed.”

But wait! The reviewer also calls it “carefully plotted and imaginatively written.”

So don’t let the extra pages stop you from plunging into this updated Western with a side of horror and police procedural—not something you see much these days— about a boy named Kalin March from Orvop, Utah, who steals a pair of horses bound for slaughter, determined to free them.

Laurie Muchnick is the fiction editor.

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K IR KU S R E V IE W S

Illustration by Eric Scot t Ander son

LAURIE MUCHNICK

FICTION

EDITOR’S PICK The story of a lifelong friendship born in hardship and tempered by adversity.

Growing up in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, in the 1950s, Vernice and Annie are best friends who share an unhappy bond: Both have lost their mothers.

When Niecy was 6 months old, her father murdered hers. Annie’s abandoned her when she was still “womb-wet.” As girls, they’re inseparable, but their paths diverge in young adulthood. Cautious, sensible Niecy goes to Spelman College, where she finds a community of strong Black women, then marries into a wealthy family. Desperate to find her mother, Annie runs away from home and embarks on a journey that will take her to some of the

These Titles Earned the Kirkus Star

less savory corners of the Jim Crow South. Even though they’re separated by distance and circumstance, their closeness endures—as does the trauma of mother loss. Niecy and Annie are both rich, captivating characters and the ways in which their lives complement each other is emotionally satisfying—for them as well as the reader.

As Annie puts it, “Nobody would for one second think to call me shy if I stood next to Niecy—who has been a young lady since the day she was born. And with me around, nobody would ever call Niecy poor or homely. In that way, we kept each other from being the thing we most didn’t want to be.” This is Jones’ first new novel since An American Marriage (2018),

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A Lady for All Seasons

By TJ Alexander

42

Dom-Com

By Adriana Anders

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Mass Mothering

By Sarah Bruni

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Jones, Tayari | Knopf | 368 pp. | $30 February 24, 2026 | 9780525659181

and it’s reminiscent of that critically acclaimed and bestselling work. As in her last book, the author interrogates social injustice through the lens of personal relationships while exploring the ways in which it shapes those relationships, and she does this in language that is intimate, conversational,

I’m Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home

By Fergus Craig

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This Is Not About Us

By Allegra Goodman

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Brawler

By Lauren Groff

K IR KU S R E V IE W S

Kin

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21

43

23

The Orchard

By Peter Heller The Night We Met

By Abby Jimenez

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Kin

By Tayari Jones

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Big Nobody

By Alex Kadis

and musical all at once.

For instance, this is how Niecy recollects an encounter with a kind woman: “‘Oh Cher.’ The sympathy in her voice was thick and sticky like Pet Milk. I opened my lips like a baby bird, starving in a forsaken nest.”

Beautifully written and powerfully compelling.

Down Time

By Andrew Martin Every Exit Brings You Home

By Naeem Murr

23

Evil Genius

By Claire Oshetsky

24

I Could Be Famous

By Sydney Rende

28

Effingers

By Gabriele Tergit; trans. by Sophie Duvernoy

45

Our Ex’s Wedding

By Taleen Voskuni

JANUARY 1, 2026

5

FICTION

Amor’s prose is unnerving, with imagery that will keep readers hooked.

F I R S T DAT E

First Date Amor, Gemma | Datura Books (400 pp.) | $19 paper | February 10, 2026 | 9781915523808

A first date turns into a nightmarish weekend in Amor’s grisly thriller.

At 33, Amandine has never been on a real date. Since her parents died, she’s been living in her childhood home, constantly doomscrolling and unable to retain a job due to her undiagnosed neurodiversity.

Thirty-year-old Connor is unemployed, living with his father, and still dealing with the emotional trauma from his mother’s abuse and abandonment. After weeks of texting, they finally meet at a local gastropub.

However, Amandine is unsettled by the only other patron there, a greasy-ponytailed middle-aged man wearing a wrinkled tuxedo and slurping down a bowl of tomato soup.

Besides a few rocky moments, the date goes very well—until Amandine and Connor are alone in the parking lot, phones dead, forced to walk several miles home. They get less than a mile down the road before Amandine’s heels and the arctic chill incapacitate them, and Connor negotiates with a passing car for a ride. Amandine reluctantly allows Connor to coax her into the car, only to realize too late that the driver is the Lone Diner from earlier. What follows is a harrowing tale of kidnapping and brutality, as Amandine and Connor battle to survive. Amor’s prose is unnerving, with plenty of grotesque imagery that will keep readers hooked and disturbed. Told from the perspectives of 6

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Amandine, Connor, and the Lone Diner, the book allows readers to experience both the horror of the victims and the warped mindset of the predator. Amandine’s descriptions of daily life as a neurodivergent person ring true, such as when she describes dealing with executive dysfunction: “On the really bad days, I can’t even dress myself, wash my hair, brush my teeth.” The unexpected ending may divide readers, but they’ll be riveted from beginning to end.

An adrenaline-fueled thriller that will grab readers from the first page.

Tangerinn Anechoum, Emanuela | Trans. by Lucy Rand Europa Editions (256 pp.) | $19 paper January 20, 2026 | 9798889661603

A woman returns home in the wake of her father’s death.

Mina is nearly 30, living in London in the slipstream of her best friend and flatmate, a fastidiously perfect “digital activist” named Liz. When her father dies, a trip home to Italy for his funeral becomes an extended stay as Mina and her sister, Aisha, work to preserve the bar, Tangerinn, that was their father’s livelihood and the epicenter of immigrant life in their coastal town.

The two sisters were privy to different sides of their father, and their lives have each been shaped by the pieces of himself he shared with them. Born in Morocco, he came of age in the midst of the Western Sahara War and participated in the bread riots of

1981. He ached to leave home, and eventually he did. In a narrative that zags between past and present, Mina traces the similarities between herself and her elusive father. Hunger is a pervasive theme, both the literal hunger of her father’s childhood and the insatiable appetite for a meaningful life that drives Mina away from home and back again. The voice is a propulsive second person, a direct address to Mina’s late father that, for long sections, reads as first person.

Anechoum’s prose, in Rand’s translation, is unassuming yet exquisitely detailed, with keen observations falling thick and fast throughout the novel. If there is a weak point, it’s in the depiction of Liz and her hyper-­ relevant coterie of hip Londoners: Some people may be that relentlessly obnoxious, but the pitch of Liz’s absurdity amounts to caricature, and caricature isn’t necessary when insights like this abound: “We were wild girls, but it wasn’t something to be proud of. Perhaps this is what Liz sensed and envied in me, she who worked so hard to imitate the freedom that comes from neglect.”

An elegy with momentum and teeth.

Diorama Bensimon, Carol | Trans. by Zoë Perry & Julia Sanches | MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux (272 pp.) | $28 | March 3, 2026 9780374616038

A Brazilian woman navigates her way through the liminal space between life and death, countries, genders, friends, and people.

Cecília Matzenbacher is 9 years old when we meet her, bouncing along a dusty road in the backcountry of Rio Grande do Sul on the hunt for partridges. With her are her father, two brothers, and a shotgun that will soon play a significant part in Brazilian novelist Bensimon’s layered narrative.

Young Ciça isn’t much for killing—of K IR KU S R E V IE W S

FICTION

the birds shot from the sky she thinks, “They deserved better”—but she is fascinated by the natural world. In adulthood she becomes a master taxidermist, migrating to the U.S. to spend her days stitching animal skins into recognizable simulacra to populate the dioramas of Bensimon’s meaningful title. She brings secrets with her: Her father, a doctor turned politician, is charged with shooting a colleague and friend, João Carlos Satti, to death.

Though she’s well regarded, Cecília’s life is a mess: She bounces from town to town, is in a marriage that seems unsalvageable, has a casual but life-changing affair with a young woman (“I make no mention of skinning carcasses, fleshing hides, stitching”), and keeps her distance from her Brazilian kin. But her travails are minor compared with the Satti murder inquiry, which unearths sexual secrets that shock the conservative town of Porto Alegre and threaten to destroy the Matzenbachers. “Don’t look at them,” her father says of the gawkers at the trial, quietly echoing Ciça’s offhand, earlier mention of why one should never look a bear in the eyes: “A bear that meets a human’s gaze always has to obliterate what he sees there.” It works with humans, too, which lends Bensimon’s final sentence in this existential mystery all the more power.

An allusive, atmospheric exploration of the secrets behind every family’s door.

Railsong Bhattacharya, Rahul | Bloomsbury (416 pp.) | $29.99 | February 17, 2026 9781639736225

Bhattacharya explores the costs and possibilities of one spirited woman’s attempts at an independent life in the emerging nation of India from 1961 to 1992.

The important events in the novel cluster around two constants in K IR KU S R E V IE W S

Charu Chitol’s life: India’s national census, taken every decade, and the vast national railway system. The 1961 census is the first to include 3-year-old Charu. That year her parents move their family to Bhombalpur because Charu’s Brahmin father has taken a job in the township’s Railway Workshop.

Over the next 10 years, Charu’s mother dies, India suffers a devastating drought, and Charu, who’s Hindu, becomes best friends with a Muslim girl. By the 1971 census, Charu is turning into an adolescent whose growing resentments toward her restrictive home life parallel unrest among railway workers. A huge nationwide strike affects millions—including Charu’s family, after her progressive father sides with the workers although he’s a foreman.

Charu is physically attacked, but the hardships caused by the strike give her courage to leave home. At 16, she moves to Bombay to find independence, which will prove no easier for her to navigate than for India itself. She works in a shoe shop, intermittently attends college, and has mild romances while avoiding an arranged marriage. In 1981, her father dies and Northeast Frontier Railway survival benefits include a job with the company.

Rebellious, bookish Charu has transformed into capable and quietly ambitious Miss Chitol. As she rises through the professional ranks in modernizing India, she reconnects with an old college boyfriend and her personal life presents familiar dilemmas as the novel’s witty, slightly Dickensian tone offers both humor and poignancy.

This bildungsroman concerning one woman’s quest to define her identity also brings India into sharp focus.

For more by Rahul Bhattacharya, visit Kirkus online.

The Crossroads Box, C.J. | Putnam (352 pp.) | $32 February 24, 2026 | 9780593851098

Wyoming Game and Fish Warden Joe Pickett has been shot plenty of times before.

But this time may be the last.

As Joe hovers between life and death in a Billings hospital, Box indicates that Dorn Peddy and James Dale O’Bryan are the two men who ambushed him, shot him, and left him for dead. But he doesn’t reveal who hired them or why.

That’s left up to Joe’s three daughters: bird-abatement firm chief executive Sheridan, Bozeman private eye April, and University of Wyoming undergrad Lucy. Since the man who reported the incident to the Twelve Sleep County Sheriff’s Department has disappeared, the most that newly appointed Sheriff Steve Sondergard can do is to warn Sheridan and her sisters away from the case. But the fact that both the shooters and the witness seem to have come from one of exactly three places presents an obvious appeal to the younger Picketts, who plan to each visit one place and question the owners simultaneously before they can warn each other that anyone’s coming. The only problem is that all the possible suspects—billionaire Michael Thompson and his wife, Brandy, of the Double Diamond Ranch; ranchers John and Shelby Bucholz, of the Bucholz Cattle Company; and secretive sisters Lisa and Lainie McElwee, of McElwee Land and Cattle Ranch—act equally guilty.

As Box unspools a series of flashbacks showing what Joe was up to in the weeks before the ambush, one question assumes paramount importance: Can Joe’s daughters identify which of them is behind the plot to murder their father before the hired gunmen visit the hospital and try again?

More than any of his earlier cases, the comatose hero’s 26th adventure bears the hallmarks of a formal detective story.

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FICTION

Kirkus Star

Mass Mothering Bruni, Sarah | Henry Holt (272 pp.) | $27.99 February 3, 2026 | 9781250392619

A woman reeling from a medical trauma becomes immersed in translating an unusual book of true crime.

“I have always been intimidated by mothers,” says A., the narrator of Bruni’s strange and fascinating second novel. Of an age where she’s contemplating settling down and starting a family, she has a stable if somewhat meager life adjunct teaching a course called “Language Elective for Non-Native Speakers.”

Then, during some routine medical tests, doctors discover a precancerous condition that they must treat by removing her reproductive organs. She loses her teaching gig during the long period of convalescence, and when she heals, she begins work as a caretaker for a young high-needs child. She also meets N., an immigrant with whom she dances away long nights in bars. One evening, she comes across a book on N.’s shelf: Field Notes, by Tomas Petritus, a book of testimonies by the mothers of boys who have gone missing in an unnamed country. Written in N.’s native language, the book tells the story of Mothers United, an underground network of women who channel grief over their missing children into political activism designed to raise awareness and demand answers from their government. When A. gets a grant to translate Petritus’ book, she travels to the town at its heart—“a town whose name has become synonymous in the national media with mass disappearances”—and learns that the book is not quite what it seems. In a fragmented, braided style reminiscent of Jenny Offill’s Dept. of Speculation (2014), Bruni weaves together explorations of language, borders, and belonging, as well as of the precarious and frequently terrifying state of motherhood. The 8

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result is a deeply intelligent, prismatic look at the personal and political facets of maternal care.

A truly original entry into the growing canon of motherhood novels.

A Very Cold Winter Cialente, Fausta | Trans. by Julia Nelsen Transit Books (288 pp.) | $18.95 paper January 20, 2026 | 9798893380231

A fresh translation of Italian novelist Cialente’s novel, originally published in 1964, brings to life a post–World War II Milanese family’s privations, interactions, and encounters.

The antifascist Gruppo ’63 writers, including Cialente’s fellow feminists Alba de Céspedes and Natalia Ginzburg, sought to shake up their nation’s cobwebbed literary conventions and bring a new perspective on Italy’s 20th-century reality. This novel takes place during the frigid European season in 1946-47, when people sought shelter in drafty urban attics rather than die of exposure on their farms.

Camilla and her children, Alba, Lalla, and Guido, huddle along with a number of other kinfolk in such an attic, subsisting on meager provisions and whatever treats privileged relatives offer. From the timely yet still-sad death of Camilla’s mother to scenes of new mother Regina and her infant, Nicoletta (whose father, Nicola, we learn, was a Resistance fighter who died after the war), to Alba’s sudden disappearance, Cialente builds a layered pastiche of contrasts: Death and birth, sunny memories against gloomy present, simplicity next to sophistication, and always public versus private. “Everyone’s unhappiness was so depressing, their eternal discontent!,” thinks Camilla. No one has enough room or warmth or silence, making gifts of those things almost as precious as scant opportunities to celebrate, as the assembled do when Regina and neighbor Enzo pair off

quietly. Their life together, like everyone else’s, appears in short sections that allow the author to play with narrative distance the way Camilla’s musician nephew Arrigo performs on his violin. In three parts, the story begins with the assembled family, moves out to Alba’s adventures away from them, and returns again to a group coping with tragedy, disruption, and a changing world.

Ultimately, it’s the arrival of spring and thus the passage of time that brings this gem of realistic fiction to its imperfectly human conclusion.

As simple and nourishing as the matriarch’s egg soup, Cialente’s prose shows how women brought Italy out of postwar malaise.

The Exes Darlington, Leodora | Dutton (384 pp.) $29 | February 3, 2026 | 9798217043859

Natalie’s exes have a habit of dying after they’ve hurt her. Is her husband in danger?

Ignoring the party downstairs in her house, Natalie listens to her husband cry across the hall and feels nothing but revulsion. It turns out that James has recently spent 20,000 pounds of their savings, including an inheritance from Nat’s grandmother, that they’d intended to use for IVF. She confronts him; he claims he used the money to pay off his brother, who’d been planning to blackmail Nat because of some letters they found that seemed to suggest she’d murdered several of her exes. Thus begins Darlington’s twisted, twisty thriller.

As revealed through a series of flashbacks, three of Natalie’s former boyfriends—real pieces of work, all of them—have all ended up dead, seemingly the victims of accidents or self-defense. Each time, Nat suffered a blackout, so she can’t remember actually pushing anyone, or poisoning them, or stabbing them with a kitchen K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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knife. She does remember having fits of uncontrollable rage, triggered by scenarios that echo her traumatic childhood. And James’ decision to pay away their life savings is certainly making her see red…Like many contemporary thrillers, this one plays with a nonlinear timeline as well as a few different points of view; unlike some thriller writers, while she certainly draws on tropes of the genre, Darlington manages to include some genuine surprises, weaving themes of mental illness and family trauma with a sense of mystery. At the center of it all is Natalie herself: flawed, mistreated, and distrustful, but also strong. She, and Darlington, refuse to let bad men get away with doing bad things.

Is murder ever justified? A contemporary twist on this question for the ages.

Her Cold Justice Dugoni, Robert | Thomas & Mercer (399 pp.) | $28.99 | January 27, 2026 9781662524622

Now out from under her celebrated father’s long professional shadow, criminal defense attorney Keera Duggan takes on a case that will test her to the limit.

When air freight employee and presumed drug dealer John Lockett is killed with a headshot in his garage and his live-in lover, Melissa Scott, is beaten to death in his bedroom, Dets. Frank Rossi and Billy Ford of the Seattle PD Violent Crimes unit are quick to pounce on a suspect. That’s largely because there’s so much circumstantial evidence against Michael Westbrook, a Flying Tigers co-worker who was seen at Lockett’s house the night of the murders and whose DNA is conveniently distributed around both of the crime scenes. But it’s also because Kim Tran, the ferociously activist K IR KU S R E V IE W S

A complex, prismatic work of fiction about the last days of the Apaches.

NOW I SURRENDER

prosecutor of the D.A.’s Most Dangerous Offender Program widely known as Batwoman, is more eager to close the case than to explore every lead. After the investigator for Duggan & Associates, Michael’s uncle JP Harrison, begs Keera to defend his nephew, she realizes that the challenge of the case extends far beyond the evidence. There’s a very specific reason for Tran’s obsessive desire to lock up killers she suspects of murder: because as a 7-year-old child, she witnessed the brutal killing of her own parents by a thief who was acquitted despite her eyewitness testimony. Fans of Dugoni won’t be surprised by his close attention to minute evidential details and courtroom maneuvers. A bigger surprise is how much more absorbing Keera’s legal battle is than the mystery of who killed Lockett and Scott.

Another page-turner from an author who could probably make Blackstone’s Commentaries sound thrilling.

Now I Surrender Enrigue, Álvaro | Trans. by Natasha Wimmer Riverhead (464 pp.) | $30 | March 3, 2026 9780593084076

A prismatic work of fiction about the last days of the Apaches.

Mexican novelist Enrigue specializes in complex tales about the legacy of New World colonization, especially the age of conquistadors (You Dreamed of Empires, 2024, etc.). Here he nudges

the story forward to the 19th century, with what initially seems like a traditional Western yarn. The opening section, set in 1836, is set on what’s now the U.S.-Mexico border during the heart of a threepart conflict between Apaches, Mexicans, and Americans pushing westward. After a violent raid of the town of Janos, Apaches kidnap a young woman, Camila Ezguerra; José María Zuloaga, a Mexican army lieutenant colonel, is charged with assembling a posse to reclaim her.

Enrigue sidesteps the typical adventure tropes of this setup, though; after a difficult transition into Apache society (raw animal innards prove an acquired taste), Camila comes to embrace her captors, and the story turns its focus on Apache leaders’ determination to endure despite facing a two-front war. Geronimo, the tribe’s powerful leader, claims much of the novel’s stage—the title comes from his finally surrendering to U.S. forces in 1886, ultimately sent to Fort Marion in Florida—and latter sections shuttle between scenes of Camila’s fate, Mexican and American authorities negotiating an end to the conflict, and Enrigue’s own present-­day travels through the Apaches’ former territory: “an Atlantis, an in-between country.” As with Enrigue’s earlier books, he’s determined to upset narrative convention, and Wimmer, his longtime translator, handles his veering skillfully. Enrigue’s approach isn’t so much to lament the end of Apachería so much as to admire the steeliness of a tribe that survived centuries-long attempts to subdue it.

A curious but effective treatment of an underappreciated effort to resist imperialism.

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Kirkus Star

This Is Not About Us Goodman, Allegra | Dial Press (336 pp.) $29 | February 10, 2026 | 9780593447840

Goodman offers an unsparingly frank, wryly funny take on a multigenerational American family.

Almost exactly one year after the publication of Goodman’s wonderful work of historical fiction, Isola, the author returns with a very different novel—yet one that is no less insightful, enthralling, and eminently enjoyable to read. This time, Goodman trains her gimlet eye on the complicated relationships between the members the fictional Rubinstein family—and finds both humor and pathos in a modern Jewish American clan. In the first chapter, three generations congregate around the death bed of Jeanne, who at age 74 is the youngest of the three Rubinstein sisters and yet, if she’ll ever release her iron grip on life, will be the first to die. The scene, in which Jeanne’s sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren; elder sisters Sylvia and Helen; and nieces and nephews gather to fuss and wait, might lend itself to sentimentality.

Not in Goodman’s hands. By the end of the chapter, a squabble over an apple cake has blown up the relationship between Sylvia and Helen. The sisters are determined never to speak again. “That was the end,” Goodman writes. And yet it’s just the beginning of a novel that chronicles marriages and divorces, bat mitzvahs and ballet recitals, holidays and funerals, and finds within milestone events and quotidian moments the

meaning—and madness—of family. As Goodman recounts the Rubinsteins’ sibling conflicts, grievances, and grudges, their parenting triumphs and failures, and the many ways they all love and infuriate, push away and yet crave to connect with one another, she holds up a mirror to us all. This Is Not About Us could have been called This Is All About Us or, perhaps, This Is About All of Us. Like an exquisitely baked apple cake, Goodman’s delicious and deeply perceptive novel is something to savor.

Kirkus Star

Brawler Groff, Lauren | Riverhead (288 pp.) | $29 February 24, 2026 | 9780593418420

Nine stories of guile and instinct punch up the human predicament.

It’s no surprise that a book called Brawler should provoke, ambush, and, yes, gut-punch its readers. Those familiar with Groff’s supple fiction will expect this, combined with startling, pinpoint sentences: “Human decency could still overcome hunger, then.” These nine stories follow her earlier collections, Delicate Edible Birds (2009) and Florida (2018); the stories in Florida, named after her adopted home state, crackle with the urgency of precarious lives, and won the Story Prize. This latest is more geographically diffuse but still aflame with combustible characters in harrowing corners. The first story, “The Wind,” has a prosaic title and a haunting, generational imprint as three small children

Nine stories of guile and instinct punch up the human predicament.

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and their mother use the yellow school bus as cover to try to escape domestic violence. The perpetrator, their father, is a cop; their allies work with their mother at the local hospital. In 18 pages, the title lifts into stunning poignancy and leaves the reader breathless. The final story, “Annunciation,” is almost twice as long and, like “The Wind,” told in the first person. It begins when its young protagonist’s family skips her college graduation and sends instead “a dozen carnations dyed blue and a gift certificate to a clothing store for middle-aged women.” This glint of humor serves its purpose in a tale marked by a surprise ending and a capacious eye for the improvisations of young women. The mothers in this book are often absent, drunk, emotionally remote, or ridiculous, but never villains. Instead, Groff attaches her ethical acuity to their children. She appends an author’s note, providing a kernel of motive for each of her installments. “Brawler,” about an unruly teen diver with a dying mother, exists in the wake of her own history, Groff says: “I became a writer because I was a swimmer.” In the coiling dread and frank feminism of her work, this incandescent author makes clear with her newest fiction why she won the 2022 Joyce Carol Oates Prize.

This audacious collection surprises readers with the vivid lives few of us notice.

Floodlines Haddad, Saleem | Europa Editions (336 pp.) $19 paper | February 24, 2026 | 9798889661658

Members of an artistic British Iraqi family wrestle with the fallout from decades of secrets, seemingly endless wars, and differing values in ways that sometimes confuse and irk each other.

In the turbulent circumstances created by the Islamic State’s takeover of Iraq, Bridget Mathloum, an artist and the elderly widow of Haydar, finds herself at varying odds with her three adult K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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daughters—Ishtar, Zainab, and Mediha—over the proper way to preserve the family’s artistic legacy. At the heart of the disagreement are friction and distrust over the disposition of a cache of paintings by Haydar, a contemporary painter who was part of an influential group that ushered in a modern arts movement in Iraq during the 1950s.

Beyond that, Bridget’s daughters differ in their attitudes toward their ancestral homeland and their approaches to their personal artistic endeavors. Nizar, Zainab’s son, faces his own existential dilemma after his return from a tour as a war correspondent in Yemen and his exposure to terrible brutality and inhumanity. As the family works out how to best preserve and promote their legacy, larger questions loom involving the fallibility of memory, personal responsibility in the face of state overreach, and the value of women’s work in the arts. The corrosive effects of war on the psyche of residents of the Middle East is summed up neatly in an exchange between Nizar and a new lover; when he explains that his own father had died “in the war” before he was born, the not unexpected reply is, “Which war?” A selected timeline of Iraqi history from 1917 to 2014 is included in the text, as well as an author’s note explaining the historical figures upon which Haydar and Bridget’s characters are based.

An illuminating look at the value of the arts in public life and the preservation of culture—and families.

The Invisible Years Hasbún, Rodrigo | Trans. by Lily Meyer Deep Vellum (250 pp.) | $25.95 February 24, 2026 | 9781646054152

Hasbún traces parallel narratives in Bolivia and the U.S. The first section of this formally ambitious novel is set in Bolivia in the 1990s and follows a group of young adults—­ K IR KU S R E V IE W S

especially the film-­obsessed Ladislao and Andrea, who struggles with an unwanted pregnancy. It’s worth pointing out that abortion is illegal in Bolivia, complicating matters.

Ladislao, meanwhile, pursues an affair with Joan, a teacher with whom he is infatuated. Ladislao is a very particular kind of cinephile; or, as Hasbún notes (via Meyer’s translation): “Cinema is Cassavetes, Jarmusch, and, maybe more than anyone else, Jonas Mekas.” But in the second part, the book switches gears into the first person; the narrator here is an expatriate writer living in Houston who has fictionalized scenes from his youth in his work. It’s in Houston where he confronts “the woman I’m calling Andrea” from whom he has been estranged for 21 years. Present and possibly fictionalized past alternate for the rest of the novel. As the narrator and his old friend catch up, Hasbún generates tension from the way they refer to events we have yet to read about in the 1990s sections— including hints that something very bad is about to befall those characters. Further complicating matters are the present-­d ay discussions of the narrator’s writing, in which Andrea argues that he should focus his attention on someone completely different: a working-class woman he’s calling Rigo who is largely in the background of the Bolivian scenes.

Reading this novel in translation adds another meta layer to the proceedings: Andrea comments that “Europeans and gringos love reading about the troubles and miseries of Africans and Latin Americans and anyone else who isn’t them.”

A heady exploration of memory and friendship—and the places where both can fray.

For more by Rodrigo Hasbún, visit Kirkus online.

Kirkus Star

The Orchard Heller, Peter | Vintage (256 pp.) | $18 paper December 2, 2025 | 9798217008445

A woman looks back at her complex childhood.

What’s to be gained from revisiting one’s youth years later?

That’s a question that must be answered by Frith, the protagonist of this elliptical and moving novel. In the early pages, Heller reveals several things about Frith: She’s pregnant and the father is “known but at this point immaterial”; she was raised by her mother, Hayley, a translator who focused on poets from the Tang Dynasty. Frith begins the remembering process by opening a locked maple chest, aware that “what I see could sear beyond hope of recovery.” Much of the novel focuses on Hayley’s bond with Rose Lattimore, a weaver who lives near them in Vermont.

That doesn’t mean this is a novel about Frith reckoning with a romantic relationship had by her mother; of Rose, she states, “Was she gay or bi? I honestly never knew.” Instead, Hayley and Rose seem to form an innate bond over living life on their own terms. “What Hayley did to find a through line was to have me,” Frith realizes at one point. This is a book where fathers are mostly absent; there’s a passing mention of Frith’s father being “sick in a way that could unintentionally harm others.” Where this novel excels is in evoking a sense of revisiting the past and noticing the things that both were and were not said. It’s no coincidence that Haley is a translator. And it’s not much of a leap to consider this novel the story of Frith’s translation of her own childhood memories into a form she can better understand as an adult contemplating parenthood. The novel is nominally intimate in scope, featuring only a handful of characters, but it also reckons with big ideas and impossible questions.

A powerful look at interpersonal bonds, familial and otherwise.

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Me and Mine Holmes, J.M. | Common Notions (288 pp.) $20 paper | February 24, 2026 | 9781945335495

In pre-dystopian Milwaukee, where neighborhoods are partitioned, travel is restricted, and drinking water is limited, a racially blended family confronts racism as usual.

“We’d been in a manageable amount of danger since we were born,” says Mars, the narrator, one of three brothers whose Black father appears to have been murdered and whose Greek Jewish mother, a community doctor, up and disappeared. White supremacist paramilitary and fascist groups prowl the shrunken city, where ID codes have been instituted at check points that separate the wealthy from the poor. Among the siblings, Amilcar, or AG, having “cooled out with the autodidactic revolutionary blueprint,” now works in the mayor’s office—or so his siblings, who lost touch with him, have heard. Lucius, or Lu, the “pitbull” of the family, and the pop culture savvy Mars have gotten involved in different ways with private security groups and armed resistance. A notable fourth party is Lu’s ex-girlfriend Minnijean Belafonte, aka Mini-Bel, head of an underground group whose fortifications “would make CIA blacksites proud.” Holmes’ impressive first novel, following his story collection, How Are You Going to Save Yourself (2018), proceeds with unstoppable energy, cutting through its sprawling narrative with tangy dialogue, wide-ranging cultural and historical references, and stinging

social commentary: “Once you turn 30 it’s like they take the heart and soul out of a Black man in this country.

And you don’t wanna fight no more.”

Extreme weather—dreaded sprees of 110 degrees and conditions so cold that cops “who still had souls” pick up people to keep them from freezing to death—further weakens the city of broad shoulders. One can only wonder what Carl Sandburg would make of it.

An uncategorizable novel that is as grimly amusing as it is unsettling.

Saoirse Hurtubise, Charleen | Celadon Books (256 pp.) $27.99 | February 24, 2026 | 9781250400642

Romance, art, and the mysterious facts of a threatening hinterland collide in an eventful drama with an evocative Irish setting.

Hurtubise’s U.S. debut is a tale of extremes—traumatic events and threatening men set against a rhapsodic love affair. The novel’s eponymous central character, a gifted artist whose work reflects her biography, evolves through the pages as her name shifts across time. Born Sarah Roy, she grew up in Michigan with a beloved sister, a dope-taking mother, and a criminal stepfather who used her, at age 8, to deliver drugs and later to ferry them across state lines, leading to horrific consequences. As Sarah Walsh—a stolen identity—she made her escape from the U.S. to Ireland, meeting Paul Byrne in the process. Byrne too will manipulate and abuse her, but differently. Then she encounters kindly

An uncategorizable novel that is as grimly amusing as it is unsettling.

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Daithí, her soul mate, who renames her Saoirse. But trapped and pregnant by Paul while yearning for escape and safety, she can’t yet follow her heart to be with Daithí, nor tell him her secrets.

As time passes, and her daughter, Leah, is born, so the stifling of Saoirse’s physical and psychic self becomes intolerable, as does the buried pain of her past. Hurtubise pushes the tension of Saoirse’s dilemmas—should she tell Daithí about her “dark period”? Will her past find her and strip her of her family and happiness?—far past the point of tolerance, and a mood of inevitability sets in, for characters and reader alike. Eventually things fall apart in a complicated swirl of emotions but a solution can be found in some psychological unpicking, and the arrival of a handy deus ex machina.

The bones of an overdetermined plot show through the skin of an intense woman-in-peril story.

Antihero Hurwitz, Gregg | Minotaur (416 pp.) | $30 February 10, 2026 | 9781250871770

The Nowhere Man crisscrosses the country to rescue a new crop of young victims.

In East Los Angeles, innocent 15-year-old Lesandro Candella, mistaken for a gang member and brutally attacked, loses an arm. Johnny on the spot is—who else?—“Orphan X, the Nowhere Man, Evan Smoak.” Very soon after, Anca Dumitrescu, a young woman who’s been kidnapped in the Bronx, resourcefully fashions a plea on a note card in yarn: “Please help me.” Evan, a former government operative, has outlived the defunct Orphan Program but still executes vigilante justice under a moral code that prohibits assassination. Readers new to Hurwitz’s propulsive, muscular series are advised to buckle up for a wildly entertaining ride. After 10 big novels and six novellas, the author continues to satisfy fans by incorporating K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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characters who’ve been introduced in previous volumes even as he throws everyone immediately into the middle of the action and hurtles forward at full throttle. Keeping the backstories to a minimum provides an effective tease that directs new readers to earlier episodes.

Acting as Evan’s sidekick is Josephine “Joey” Morales, a young former Orphan operative and Evan’s surrogate daughter.

Other returning characters include billionaire Luke Devine, a target in a previous installment spared by Evan’s never-kill code, and Aragón Urrea, once similarly in Evan’s crosshairs but now an ally. Hurwitz combines nonstop twists and punchy action with the ethical conflict that regularly arises from Evan’s moral code.

A dynamic thriller set in an imagined world that broadens and deepens with every new episode.

Luminous Bodies: A Novel of Marie Curie Jersild, Devon | Paul Dry Books (364 pp.) $22.95 paper | February 17, 2026 9781589882102

Marie Curie walks out of her laboratory and into the world as mother, wife, and lover in this first-person reimagining of her multifaceted life.

Curie’s pioneering research into radioactivity is the hallmark of her astounding career and, in this vivid work of historical fiction, Jersild, a writer and psychologist, imagines what her inner thoughts and desires might have been. She does this so well that Curie feels alive. Excavating Curie’s life, Jersild lets readers experience the sexism and misogyny that permeated the scientific world in the early 20th century. Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize and the first person to win two Nobels, yet she was berated as selfish and unfeminine and “merely” the widow of another scientist. Jersild recreates the way this might have made Curie feel and how it K IR KU S R E V IE W S

never stopped her from doing the research to which she dedicated her life.

Curie’s scientific work was complex and not easy for a layperson to understand, and Jersild wisely keeps the terminology and details of experiments to a minimum without undermining their complexity and nuance. She focuses strongly on the things that shaped Curie: her childhood in Poland; the early loss of her mother; her shortened marriage to Pierre Curie, who died in a freak accident; and, more provocatively, a love affair after her husband’s death with a married scientist that nearly toppled her (but not his) career. With a gimlet eye, Jersild uses this affair to spotlight the double standards to which male and female scientists were held and the way Curie, understandably devastated by her treatment by journalists and the public, managed to pull herself back into her research and new discoveries through the force of her will.

A colorful re-creation of an incomparable life.

Lean Cat, Savage Cat Joseph, Lauren J. | Catapult (352 pp.) $27 | February 17, 2026 | 9781646223282

A raging tour of Berlin’s demimonde with a very witty, super bright, somewhat lost trans woman named Charli.

As Joseph’s sophomore novel opens, Charli is in London doing a reading of her short story about a young girl who meets David Bowie in a grocery store, her voice projected through a megaphone from behind a purple tapestry on which she has handstitched all 10,000 words of her master’s thesis in the very same shade of purple: “Nigella Lawson came to the private view of our graduate show, and said it looked like something she’d hang in her own sitting room.” That’s Nigella’s only appearance in this edgy, often viciously funny romp of a novel, but the spirit of David Bowie looms large. Charli is hoping to write a Ph.D. dissertation on

Romy Haag, the trans disco singer who was Bowie’s longtime lover, but her life takes a major detour when she meets an ultra-cool, extra dry, androgynously beautiful musician named Alexander Geist that night in the bar. He’s off to Berlin to become the next Bowie himself, and on a whim, Charli joins him. Joseph’s head-spinning account of the rise and fall of Alexander and Charli is absolutely stuffed with nightlife, name-checking, drugs, graphic sex, smart details, and hilarious sentences.

Even the rather overwhelmed reader will find many things to enjoy along the way.

At one point, Charli is worried she has a headache coming on, “so [she] took a few Diazepam and nibbled on a chicken stock cube”—truly, a great life hack. Her lament that she’s thrown her lot “for so long with such a bastard and [she] had nothing but a paranoid personality disorder to show for it” is ready to put on a T-shirt. There’s a large cast of supporting characters whose subplots are hard to keep straight and a little distracting, but then there will be one of those brilliant sentences to keep you hurtling along.

For readers in the know, a sure thrill; for the rest, a book that can make you slightly cooler just by reading it.

Kirkus Star

Big Nobody Kadis, Alex | Random House (320 pp.) $29 | March 10, 2026 | 9798217153794

In mid-1970s London, a young woman talks to her posters of Marc Bolan and David Bowie about her plans to murder her father.

Kadis’ delightfully original debut novel is narrated by mordant misfit Constance Costa, aka “The Half Greek Imprisoned Daughter of The Fat Murderer.” Her father has earned his moniker by virtue of a car accident that killed Connie’s mother and two younger brothers. Now the two remaining family members are stuck with each other, all JANUARY 1, 2026

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the more miserably since George Costa uses violent punishment to control his daughter’s behavior. As she confides to the poster of Marc Bolan on her bedroom wall, “The Autumn Term Disco is one week away. I just want to be there, like a normal [almost] fifteen-yearold…and that unreasonable lunatic won’t let me.” She receives a reply: “Hm, I’d say being a lunatic and being unreasonable tend to go hand in hand”—but this, Connie fumes, “wasn’t Marc. It’s bloody David Bowie. David could be snitty and obscure and couldn’t resist sticking his beak into everyone else’s business.” While the Fat Murderer prevents her from attending the disco, he requires weekly attendance at Friday night community gatherings known as Greek Night (aka Freak Night), the only upside of which is that she gets “to see the one person in [her] life who didn’t make [her] want to vomit.” Vasos Petrides is an almond-eyed dreamboat who “had shown [her] his penis for the first time when [they] were seven”; the pair continues to explore the possibilities of romance. There’s also Auntie Roulla, who is not only aware of the Fat Murderer’s abuse but also suspects an even more horrible secret. There hasn’t been a novel this funny that contains an abuse plot since early Edward St. Aubyn, who’s a contemporary of Kadis, debuting in her 60s after a career in music journalism. She certainly hasn’t lost her grip on what it’s like to be 15: The way she keeps the darkest parts of the book burning hot behind Connie’s jokes, lists, nicknames, and wisecracks is both creatively daring and perfectly evocative of the melodramatic emotional shitshow that is adolescence.

My Big Fat Greek Coming-of-Age Novel, narrated by one of the great teenage curmudgeons of recent literature.

Jigsaw Kellerman, Jonathan | Ballantine (256 pp.) $30 | February 3, 2026 | 9780593497715

Delaware and Sturgis team up again to investigate a trio of murders in Los Angeles.

A woman has been found strangled to death, homicide detective Milo Sturgis tells forensic psychologist Alex Delaware, who consults for the LAPD. The victim’s sleazebag ex-­ boyfriend is an obvious suspect. And then another woman’s body is found in a freezer, her arms severed, her appearance grotesque, because “death was a sadistic stylist.” Milo is shocked to learn her identity—she was a retired detective he used to work with. Another cop speculates on the manner of the murder, but Alex does not. “Two whodunits,” Milo says. “What deity have I offended?” But then two murders become three as a young woman dies from blunt force. She had been living in Safe Place, a repository where rich people house their developmentally disabled children. Given three different killing methods, the search is on for a common thread. In this 41st Alex Delaware novel, the most fun as always is in the easy relationship between Alex and Milo. “The worst in people brings out the best in Milo and me,” Alex says.

He’s white, straight, intelligent, and handsome. He and his partner, Robin, delight in each other’s company both in and out of bed. Milo is gay, intelligent, not so great-looking, and loves to eat. In particular, he enjoys exploring Alex and Robin’s refrigerator to make huge sandwiches. They are all amiable and

Dystopian speculation about medicine years after AI’s great tech boom.

T H E H O S P I TA L AT T H E E N D O F T H E W O R L D

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devoid of problems like alcoholism or troubled lives that other sleuths often face. So they aren’t heavily layered personalities and don’t go in for navel-gazing. “Introspection’s the enemy of getting the job done,” Alex says. Meanwhile, an analysis of the second victim’s dismemberment focuses on the type of tool the killer may have used. Milo suggests that it was a jigsaw because of the marks made on the bones. The plot moves at a steady pace and ends with a grace note that highlights Alex’s decency.

Crime fans will like this one.

The Hospital at the End of the World Key, Justin C. | Harper/HarperCollins (400 pp.) $30 | February 3, 2026 | 9780063290488

Dystopian speculation about medicine years after AI’s great tech boom.

In New York City, young Pok Morning is an excellent candidate for admission to any of the nation’s top medical schools, all run by the Shepherd Organization, all AI-centered, and known as “The Prestigious Twelve.” A drone delivers the message: admission denied. Initially, he blames his father for undermining his application. But Dr. Phelando Morning, who takes the “grossly inefficient” humanistic approach to medicine, is innocent and explains that there is a better way to become a doctor. When Phelando dies unexpectedly in a hospital, his Memorandium—a temporary, AI-generated version of himself—advises Pok to attend Hippocrates Medical Center in New Orleans, the only med school in the country that refuses to use AI and may soon be the last human-run hospital. Pok believes “no residency in its right mind will accept me” if he goes there. But he gets an urgent warning to “get the fuck out of New York,” because the lie is out that he poisoned his father.

He has a rough time leaving, as the K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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states now have border controls, but he winds up riding the rails to Louisiana at the suggestion of Jillian, a woman he meets. Eventually they arrive in New Orleans, a city protected by electro­ magnetic spires. There, Pok is welcome.

The story’s pace slows while he absorbs himself in his intense studies, but the writing shows the author’s rich imagination. With bee populations drastically declining, for example, a company has bioengineered “Carve Bees” that produce medicinal honey.

And there is Agrypnia, or the Grips, a sleeping sickness that makes people crazy. Odysseus Shepherd is a worthy half-human villain whose brain is filled with microchips. He wants to bring New Orleans into sync with the rest of the country, because “human-led medicine is like having monkeys fly a plane.” Readers might blink at jargon like “enantiomer,” which is a mirror image molecule and may also describe the hero and the villain.

An enjoyable tale about AI’s dark underbelly.

It’s Not Her Kubica, Mary | Park Row Books (352 pp.) $30 | February 3, 2026 | 9780778387992

A woman must discover the motive for a horrific murder in order to save her niece—unless her niece was involved.

When Courtney Gray discovers the bloody, battered body of her sister-inlaw, Emily, she briefly considers whether her brother, Nolan, might be to blame. Ever since he lost his job six months before, their marriage had been crumbling under the strain and they’ve barely been able to keep their fighting private. While it may have been Emily’s idea that the two families rent a cottage together at a primitive resort in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, Courtney knows that Nolan and teenagers Reese and Wyatt were unenthusiastic, even resentful K IR KU S R E V IE W S

about the forced family trip. But when she immediately finds Nolan’s body, and 17-year-old Reese appears to be missing, the deaths take on an even more sinister significance and become an even greater mystery. Did someone break into their cottage, and if so, to what end? Did Reese, who had fought bitterly with her parents the night before, have anything to do with their deaths? Is Wyatt sleepwalking for real, or is he just pretending?

And why does Courtney’s husband, Elliott, have flecks of blood on his shoes? Kubica mostly alternates chapters between Courtney’s perspective in the present and Reese’s voice in the past. The chapters from Reese’s point of view are easily the most poignant; Kubica builds a complex character who suffers from uncontrollable rages and is still straddling the line between childhood and adulthood, resenting her mother even as she wishes for her attention, making vulnerable decisions in order to feel liked. In some ways, it would have been interesting to experience the entire novel through her eyes instead of the common structure of two voices, two timelines that often drives contemporary thrillers.

Simon, her producer, shows up for their scheduled meeting with Olivia.

Wendy seems unconcerned, and the most urgent concern of Dylan Sanders, a personal trainer intent on making his own mark as a fitness influencer, is clearly that the Scarlet Falls PD thinks he had something to do with his wife’s disappearance. So Olivia takes on the job of searching for her friend. She’s the perfect choice, since she herself was kidnapped and held captive three years ago in a PR stunt her agent didn’t bother to let her in on. Along the way, Olivia gets word that her niece, social media marketer Nicki Cruz, has also disappeared. Not only is that news untrue, but Nicki demands to join the search for Zoe. The two soon decide that the most likely suspects to have plotted an abduction are those close to Jennifer Hamilton or Evan Brown, the two long-dead victims Zoe had been researching as possible subjects for future seasons of You Won’t Believe This. Leigh keeps the pot boiling with constant attacks, revelations, and other mayhem, like the drugging of Nicki during her first meeting with Cody Vass, an investment banker she connected with online.

Kubica’s skill at writing teenagers is even more impressive than her twisty plot.

Need more excitement? The climax requires an escape from the villain, a black bear, a flash flood, and a submerged car. Yes!

You Can Tell Me

Bad Asians

Leigh, Melinda | Montlake (303 pp.) $28.99 | May 12, 2026 | 9781662516993

Li, Lillian | Henry Holt (336 pp.) | $28.99 February 17, 2026 | 9781250363626

When her friend goes missing in upstate New York, a woman with a troubled history resolves to look for her despite all the wounds her search opens.

One day, hardworking Zoe March, who’s just completed the latest season of her successful true-crime podcast, prepares to begin another, this one focusing on her old friend Olivia Cruz. The next day she’s vanished: Only Wendy

A viral video totally upends the lives of a group of friends.

Li’s astute sophomore novel opens with lifelong pals Diana Zhang, Justin Yu, Errol Chen, and Vivian Wang graduating into the Great Recession and moving back into their childhood homes in North Potomac, Maryland. Navigating a historically bad job market and their Chinese immigrant >>> JANUARY 1, 2026

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F I C T I O N // Q & A

THE KIRKUS Q&A: XIAOLU GUO Born in China and now living in London, the novelist offers her unique spin on an American classic.

BY MARK ATHITAKIS

I read an interview where you said you gave up reading Moby-Dick on your first attempt because it was too difficult to read in a Chinese translation. What made it so challenging?

I think Moby-Dick is difficult to translate into Chinese because of the biblical references and Shakespearean language.

Biblical language can be translated into French or German or Italian or Spanish. But Melville’s style is something that’s 16

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very difficult to render in an East Asian context, because of the religious differences.

What brought you back to the novel in English?

It happened when I was in the U.S. years ago. It’s interesting how the geopolitical environment changes someone’s reading. When I was first living in the U.K., I was reading the Brontë sisters, Victorian literature, George Orwell. Then when I was in New York, I thought to

read some quintessential American classics, and it was such an incredible experience.

How did you begin the process of writing your own variation on Melville’s book?

It was a sort of thought experiment. I thought about the first sentence—“Call me Ishmael”—and wondered, What if Ishmael was a woman? As a woman reader and writer, it’s a very automatic sort of experiment, wondering how a female Ishmael would act on a ship. What sort of conflict and drama would she go through? Also, I was reading a lot about Victorian-­ era girls who disguised themselves and went on ships. There’s an incredible archive in the U.K.’s National Maritime Museum’s website about them.

It’s bizarre that there’s no

female sailor in disguise on the Pequod, when there were so many cases of it.

So even before I began to write, I already had a quite different novel in my head.

You’re not trying to assume Melville’s style, though you do capture the spirit of wildness and recklessness in the novel’s prose, while focusing on different themes. You describe the whale as “the woman they wanted, but transformed into a demon lover, or an avenging hag.” Ishmaelle says, “Here I was, a woman, in the midst of these womenless men, in a ship dedicated to violence. How could I possibly survive?”

It would be a mistake to mimic Melville’s style, given that I’m an Asian writer. I would never mimic a 19th-century English tone, because the language doesn’t belong to me. What I K IR KU S R E V IE W S

Cristobal Vi var

XIAOLU GUO’S NEW novel, Call Me Ishmaelle, gives Herman Melville’s classic 1851 novel, Moby-Dick, a feminist twist. As the title suggests, its protagonist and narrator is a woman—a British teenager who, orphaned and separated from her brother, boards a whaling ship disguised as a man to explore the high seas. Guo, born in China and now living in London, thoughtfully considers the implications of a cross-gendered, multicultural sea voyage, considering racism, sexual violence, and varieties of religious practices while also delivering a powerful seafaring yarn.

Guo is an accomplished novelist, memoirist, and filmmaker: Her 2017 book, Nine Continents: A Memoir in and Out of China, received the National Book Critics Circle Award in autobiography. And though Ishmaelle is one continent and more than a century distant from her own upbringing, she describes it as a very personal book.

Speaking by phone from London, Guo discussed her early experiences with Melville’s novel, Ishmaelle’s non-Melvillean inspirations, and what’s involved in rethinking a classic. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q & A // F I C T I O N

needed to do was develop a very simple, straight, direct, feminine approach. The language had to be based on something physically felt— the bodily feeling, the embodiment of the landscape, the wind, the rain.

When I was reading Moby-Dick I thought about how it was men only, and also that the whale is male—only males were hunted. I thought it was very important to bring in a female whale and a woman’s view on the world and nature, because she will think very differently. Instead of this violent confrontation with the whale, she might find a special way to communicate rather than try to conquer it like the rest of the crew.

I don’t want to say I took a “feminine approach” in a simplistic way. I just think that a female character would view nature very

differently. My intention was to build a relationship between the whale and Ishmaelle, to view the whale as symbolic—the incredible force of nature—but nothing to do with evil versus good. It just embodies nature itself.

One thing that I was struck by is that this novel de-­ Americanizes Moby-Dick.

Your narrator is British, not American, and many of the characters on the ship are not American either. You’re writing outside of the American grain.

I don’t think of it as “de-Americanizing,” because Moby-Dick is one of the first international novels. I was playing around with its internationalism.

There’s something really boundless, borderless, about it because of the nature of a whaling ship. The ship has to take on new sailors and new whalers from different lands.

What I did do was bring in a more Asiatic seascape and more Asiatic characters.

There was a whaling industry at that time in East Asia, in Japan—even in Korea and the South Seas around New Zealand there were great whalers until the whaling industry died. Melville had this international vision about the world contained in one ship.

That’s one of the most amazing qualities of the novel.

Muzi, one of the characters you introduce, is a Taoist who helps the captain by consulting The Book of Changes. How did you come to integrate that element?

Moby-Dick is a Christian novel, and I would’ve liked to write a Taoist novel, one from the perspective of East Asian spirituality. The spirit of Taoism is something that’s amazingly mysterious, interesting, and wonderful.

Moby-Dick is one of the first international novels. I was playing around with its internationalism.

Call Me Ishmaelle Guo, Xiaolu

Black Cat/Grove | 448 pp. | $18 paper Jan. 6, 2026 | 9780802166494

There’s no separation in Taoism between heaven and earth. There’s a sort of ungraspable flow. That ever-shifting nature is something I thought was enormously interesting. I wanted to create a character to embody that spirit. In Moby-Dick there’s only one Asian character, named Fedallah. He’s a very shadowy Persian character who supports Captain Ahab.

Well, that’s great, but the only Asian character is so shadowy and negative, it’s kind of a pity.

There have been countless attempts to reimagine Moby-Dick in novels and films, from Ahab’s Wife to Star Trek II. Did you spend any time with any of those?

The other books I read weren’t related to Moby-­ Dick at all. The first book I read in order to write this novel was Othello. My Black captain, Seneca, is based on Othello. It’s a story of love and jealousy—wounded, injured love leading a man to go beyond his limits.

Another book I read a few times before I began this novel is Charles Darwin’s The Voyage of the Beagle. I was always extremely interested in sea voyages, and I’m also interested in 19th-century exploration—all the kinds of species Darwin encountered. It’s an amazing book, beautiful and very rich. I loved that book so much that I thought about imagining a fictional journey based on Charles Darwin’s own voyage. Without reading that book, I could not have written this one.

Mark Athitakis is a writer in Phoenix.

K IR KU S R E V IE W S

JANUARY 1, 2026

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B O O K T O S C R E E N // F I C T I O N

German L ama/Europa Press v ia Get t y Images

Book to Screen

Luke Evans To Star in Adaptation of The Party.

ITV is developing a series based on Elizabeth Day’s 2017 novel.

Luke Evans will star in a television adaptation of Elizabeth Day’s The Party, Deadline reports.

Day’s novel, published in 2017 by Little, Brown,

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centers on two longtime friends: Ben Fitzmaurice, a wealthy politician, and Martin Gilmour, an art critic.

The two men and their partners gather at Ben’s vacation home for a birthday party, and the next day Martin is forced to answer questions about the event at a police station. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “Day’s latest is a dark, haunting, and elegantly crafted tale of obsession, desperation, devastation, and rebirth.”

Evans, known for his roles in films including The Hobbit and Beauty and the Beast, will play Martin in the adaptation, and Tom Cullen

(Downton Abbey) will star as Ben. Other cast members include Joanna Scanlan (The Thick of It), Lydia Leonard (The Crown), Sam Troughton (Chernobyl), and Amaka Okafor (Bodies).

The series, which is being developed by the British network ITV, will be written

by Sarah Solemani, who will also star. Viviane Andereggen (Kleo) will direct; Evans, Solemani, and Day are among the series’ executive producers.

Day announced news of the adaptation on Instagram, writing, “Like all good things,

it’s been worth the wait. I could not be more thrilled that my novel, THE PARTY, is being adapted for television with an utterly stellar cast.”

—MICHAEL SCHAUB

Luke Evans

For a review of The Party, visit Kirkus online.

JANUARY 1, 2026

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A woman devotes herself to silence in an extreme response to modern life.

THE SILENT PERIOD

parents’ unrealistically high expectations, the friends must also contend with their own sense of failure: “The four of them formed a line of defense against the cautionary tales other people hoped to make of them.” Their friendships are tested when Grace Li—their sometimes-friend, and their parents’ idea of a model child— returns to town. Grace, who, dropped out of Harvard Law School to the others’ delight, is trying to become a documentary filmmaker, and asks the group if she can make a film about them. As the novel is set in the early days of internet fame, the friends agree without fully understanding what this will mean for them—until Grace’s documentary, Bad Asians, goes viral. The video, which propels Grace into YouTube stardom, reveals long-held secrets, unspoken animosity, and growing cracks among the four friends. Declaring a “delicate truce” to “hold them together through this larger crisis,” the friends try to rehab their image in the most ill-fated way possible. Years later, when it all comes back to haunt them, they must each figure out how to survive the consequences of their actions. The novel follows the friends in the eight years after graduation as they grapple with the ways the video—and their foolish attempt to course correct—has changed the trajectory of their lives.

Li is a master at drawing characters that feel distinct, layered, and outrageously human, even if the pacing sometimes suffers. Imbued with humor and sharp social commentary, the novel beautifully explores Asian American identity; economic instability; relationships as both anchor and buoy; the malleability of success; and the ways that 20

JANUARY 1, 2026

ambition manifests itself for better or worse.

A resonant novel about coming of age in the internet era.

The Silent Period Manfredi, Francesca | Trans. by Ekin Oklap Norton (272 pp.) | $21.99 paper February 24, 2026 | 9781324106098

A young Italian woman devotes herself to silence in an ever more extreme response to contemporary social life.

“I decided to cut off all communication around eleven o’clock one evening in September,” says Cristina Martino, the resolute protagonist of this provocative novel, after sharing her reflections on suicide. In the beginning, by “all communication” Cristina seems to mean only social media; she deletes all the apps from her phone, then deletes her profiles and even the photographs on her phone, and leaves any WhatsApp groups she’s no longer involved in.

Three months later, she follows up on this impulsive decision with a thoroughly thought-out plan to stop speaking altogether. “I will be with you in any way that does not involve words, at least not mine,” she writes to her older sister, Elena, before executing her plan. The challenge of being with others without using words tests not only Cristina’s relationships with her family, best friend, new boyfriend, and employer but also herself and the ways she has learned to be in the world—­

answering questions, giving directions to strangers, and so on.

Though at first she claims that she likely won’t endure more than a week without speaking, over the ensuing months Cristina’s commitment to silence becomes increasingly radical.

The reader, like those closest to Cristina, might wish for her to change course, but she remains faithful to her purpose. Her story is both bracing and compelling, and it concludes in a paradox, as Cristina’s withdrawal secures her status as an influencer, inspiring others to renounce words and the compulsive sharing promoted by social media.

Despite the outward detachment of its protagonist, the novel is full of humor, compassion, and longing; similarly, though its primary narrator may mistrust words, this novel is a pleasure to read.

Wry, and as uncompromising as its heroine.

The Girls Before Marshall, Kate Alice | Pine & Cedar/ Flatiron Books (320 pp.) | $28.99 February 24, 2026 | 9781250343086

A young woman locked in an underground bunker and a guilt-ridden search-and-rescue expert drive the dual narratives of Marshall’s latest thriller.

Stranger is running out of time.

It’s been several days since her captor opened the door to her prison, and her food supply is running low. She sits in the dark, chained to the wall, surrounded by the carved inscriptions of previous victims and the ghostly whisperings of the “gossamer girls.” If Stranger wants to live, she must make a final attempt to escape.

High school counselor Audrey Dixon spends much of her free time as an expert search-and-rescue volunteer.

Her obsession was born out of the decade-old disappearance of her K IR KU S R E V IE W S

FICTION

former best friend, Janie Martin, and the regret she felt over their last conversation. While tracking a 4-year-old boy who’s wandered into the woods, Audrey discovers a string of white plastic beads, “witch beads,” a token of a local superstition involving a forest witch who saved girls from bad men. Do these beads belong to 17-year-old Meghan Vale, who vanished three months ago?

Although the police consider Meghan to be a runaway, Audrey’s instincts tell her the teen might have been kidnapped on land belonging to a prominent local family. Her investigation leads her down a dark and unexpected path. With the complex dual narratives and timelines, the author sets up an intriguing premise that, unfortunately, devolves into a series of increasingly bonkers, manipulative plot twists. Likewise, some of the characters’ actions are inconsistent.

One character wants to call the police when a crime is uncovered, but a few pages later, is dead set against calling them. This makes for muddled, confusing reading. With her canine partner, Barry, the tough but guarded Audrey is an appealing protagonist who deserves an adventure worthy of her SAR skills.

Recommended only for die-hard Marshall fans.

Kirkus Star

Down Time Martin, Andrew | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (304 pp.) | $28 | March 10, 2026 9780374617066

Five millennial friends navigate love and loss in the early days of Covid-19.

The five 30-something people at the heart of Martin’s latest novel are far from perfect, but they’re trying their best—most of them, anyway. There’s K IR KU S R E V IE W S

Boston writer Aaron—“smart and kind and endlessly curious when he was sober, and a weeping, pants-­pissing maniac when he got drunk”—­who has just been released from a rehab center and relapses less than 24 hours later, much to the consternation of his partner, Cassandra, a teacher who forgives his infidelity and addiction because “he was, alas, interesting.”

Malcolm, a smart if a bit pretentious writer and professor, splits his time between Boston, where he teaches, and New York, where he lives with his partner, Violet, a doctor who finds herself losing patience with Malcolm’s series of existential crises. Finally, there’s Antonia, a teaching fellow who doesn’t know what she’ll do if she doesn’t get on the tenure track at Harvard—or, for that matter, what she’ll do if she does. Their lives are all thrown into disarray, first by the death of their mutual friend, Sam, a charming punk who’s killed after being hit by a car, and then by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, which strains their jobs and living arrangements. Martin writes about his characters with a mix of affection and bemusement; as he demonstrated in his earlier books, Early Work (2018) and Cool for America (2020), he has an impressive psychological insight, understanding why people make decisions that they know will be bad for them, and why love and attraction can be so stubbornly capricious. Crucially, this is also a very funny novel: In one scene, characters watch a “silly news show hosted by the high-handed Englishman who pretended he was flabbergasted by American politics and, like, the existence of hamburgers.” This is a wonderfully charming novel.

Another impressive book by one of the country’s most talented authors of comic fiction.

For more by Andrew Martin, visit Kirkus online.

Half His Age McCurdy, Jennette | Ballantine (288 pp.) $30 | January 20, 2026 | 9780593723739

A high school senior pursues an affair with her teacher.

Seventeen-­yearold Waldo, the narrator of McCurdy’s fiction debut, lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her mother, though she’s long been the parent in their relationship. She heats her own frozen meals and pays the bills on time while her mom chases man after man and makes well-meaning promises she never keeps. Waldo blows her Victoria’s Secret wages on online shopping sprees and binges on junk food, inevitably crashing after the fleeting highs of her indulgences. Mr. Korgy, her creative writing teacher, has “thinning hair and nose pores”; he’s 40 years old and married with a child. Nevertheless—or possibly as a result?—Waldo’s attraction to him is “instant. So sudden it’s alarming. So palpable it’s confusing.”

Mr. Korgy professes to want to keep their friendship aboveboard, but after a sexual encounter at the school’s winter formal that she initiates, an affair begins. Will this reckless pursuit be the one that actually satisfies Waldo, and is she as mature as she thinks she is? Waldo is a keen observer of people and provides sharp commentary on the punishing work of female beauty.

Readers of McCurdy’s bestselling memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died (2022), will surely be curious about the tumultuous mother-daughter relationship, and it is one of the novel’s highlights, full of realistic pity and anger and need. (“I want to scream at her. I want her to hug me.”) Unfortunately, the prose is often unwieldy and sometimes downright cringeworthy: When Waldo tells Mr. Korgy she loves him, “The words hang in the air in that constipated way they do when you know that you shouldn’t have said them.” Waldo frequently lists emotions and adjectives in triplicate, and events JANUARY 1, 2026

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FICTION

that could be significant aren’t sufficiently explored or given enough space to breathe before the novel races on to the next thing.

A debut novel with bright spots, but unbalanced and lacking in finesse.

Stories of men sabotaging themselves in service to their appetites and egos.

HEAD OF HOUSEHOLD

White River Crossing McGuire, Ian | Crown (288 pp.) | $29 February 24, 2026 | 9798217085705

A fast-paced, elegantly written adventure novel about the moral and physical perils of gold lust, set in the sub­ arctic Canadian wilderness in 1766.

After being tipped off by a fur trader, Magnus Norton, chief factor of a Hudson’s Bay Company outpost in what’s now northern Manitoba, decides to send a secret expedition far north to excavate for gold. For the sake of inconspicuousness, he dispatches, as soon as the spring thaw will allow it, a miniature group of seven: three company men and four native guides. The party’s main combatants, it will turn out, are Norton’s thuggish, cocksure second-­incommand, John Shaw, and young Thomas Hearn, a bookish, decent ex-sailor who’s able to speak the guides’ language. When one of the Indigenous men, young, impetuous Nabayah, loses his wife, Keasik, in a wrestling wager, Shaw issues a counter-challenge and wins her back—but as the price for this act of “salvation” he demands a night with Keasik. His act of brutish droit du seigneur unravels the group and, bit by bit, over the coming months as they collect and purify the ore, sparks a fateful chain reaction of violence both within the group and from outside.

Novelist McGuire inhabits a wide variety of characters here, moving impressively among points of view, between historical sources and his own imaginings, between the literary-­ psychological mode and old-fashioned adventure yarn. Eventually the gold—the Indigenous tribes of the 22

JANUARY 1, 2026

region find the white men’s obsession with it bizarre, just another inexplicable custom—ends up in Hearn’s hands.

Can he, in the end, resist the moral disfigurements he’s seen mineral-lust cause in others?

McGuire nimbly combines historical narrative and high suspense.

I Hope You Find What You’re Looking For Mezghebe, Bsrat | Liveright/Norton (288 pp.) $27.99 | February 10, 2026 | 9781324092490

An Eritrean woman, her teenage daughter, and their cousin find refuge and opportunity in the Washington, D.C. area in 1991.

Elsa, a former guerrilla fighter, and her 13-year-old daughter, Lydia, have lived in Alexandria, Virginia since escaping their country’s war against Ethiopia. Having arrived as a baby, Lydia is strung between two worlds: There are the traditional Eritrean customs championed by Zewdi, Elsa’s older cousin and their apartment-building neighbor, and the social pressures of being an American teen. As stoic Elsa works long days at her hot dog cart on the National Mall, Mama Zewdi—single and middle-aged, having spent her marriageable years as a chaperone to a Saudi princess—keeps a sharp eye on Lydia. Now, added to the mix and taking over Lydia’s bedroom is 19-year-old cousin Berekhet, a budding philosopher who has supposedly arrived in the U.S. to attend college—though he has other

plans. As Eritrea’s 30-year war comes to a close, the country’s independence is inspiring a little rebellion on the home front. Lydia, who doesn’t know any details about her martyred father or his family, begins her own investigation with Berekhet’s advice, while the celebrations also trigger Elsa’s anguish about her closest friend and the death of Lydia’s father. In many ways, however, this novel is Zewdi’s story, as she challenges her own sense of tradition: She has been introduced to an Eritrean gentleman—he’s a bore, but this may be her last chance at marriage. While the novel explores the harrowing aftereffects of war, there is an abundance of charm in the characterizations, warm humor, and a joyful depiction of a tight-knit community bound by displacement but also by fellowship, where every stranger may be a long-lost cousin.

The large and subtle costs of war shape this big-hearted portrait of the Eritrean immigrant experience.

Head of Household Munday, Oliver | Simon & Schuster (224 pp.) $27 | February 17, 2026 | 9781668078303

Short stories about troubled men and fathers on the verge.

The debut work of fiction by graphic designer Munday is uniformly focused on middle-aged men sabotaging themselves in service to their appetites and egos. In “Fists,” a man on vacation with his daughter is increasingly K IR KU S R E V IE W S

FICTION

frustrated by the lack of appreciation of his hard-earned beach body.

“Cabin Pressure” features a recovering alcoholic, who quit drinking after his daughter died, tempted to lapse on a cross-country flight. The cast of characters includes a new father reckoning with his change in status (“New Motion”), an elderly father leaning on his son for help after a stroke (“Dependents”), and a 20-something about to be cut off by his dad (“Sterling”). The book is populated by men who are struggling to make sense of their lives, usually after a marriage has failed; stepchildren, and awkward attempts to connect with them, abound.

Divorced, emotionally blinkered manchildren get satirized plenty in popular culture, and Munday isn’t above an absurd premise that reveals a certain patheticness—“Gutter Ball” features a man nursing a cocaine hangover while chaperoning his daughter’s class trip to a bowling alley, overly distracted by her attractive teacher. But even when these men suffer overt humiliations— in “Hide-and-Seek,” a near-broke divorced dad picks up work as a submissive for a dominatrix’s OnlyFans account—Munday affords them a measure of dignity, if not quite forgiveness for their callowness. All of these men have hit an inflection point in their roles as partners and parents, and Munday carefully depicts the tensions that prompt their misguided or desperate acts. The stories together have a structural sameness, and not every story convinces—in “Vandal,” a man absurdly reconnects with his teenage love of graffiti—but Munday has a gift for making the sad dad more than just a trope.

Clear, bittersweet tales of masculinity come undone.

For books by another graphic designer/novelist, visit Kirkus online.

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Kirkus Star

Every Exit Brings You Home Murr, Naeem | Norton (336 pp.) | $31.99 February 3, 2026 | 9781324117902

Domestic strife in his adopted city of Chicago proves a fleeting distraction from the atrocities that Jamal—now Jack—Shaban and Dimra, his traditional Muslim wife, left behind in a Gaza refugee camp.

When they fled Gaza two decades ago, against her parent’s wishes, the couple had hoped for a bright future in the Windy City that included children.

But Dimra’s series of miscarriages and crippling illness have compromised that dream. The nonreligious Jack, who dutifully manages their condo association in addition to working as a flight attendant, is further burdened by the endless noise of complaining residents including a newly arrived single mother, Marcia, who is livid about her foul basement unit. Compared to the pain and suffering in Gaza, which “had become bodies removed from shattered homes, wreathed in blood and concrete dust,” life in the U.S. is a walk in the park.

But that walk becomes bumpy when Jack poses as gay at work to avoid getting romantically involved with a vivacious friend called Birdy—and the desperate Marcia begins using Dimra as daycare for her children for longer and longer stretches. The British-born Murr, who is of Lebanese descent, does a masterful job of bridging ordinary and extraordinary experience, achieving an unlikely balance between the stark tragedy of war and the gentle comedy of everyday people struggling with fate. “I’ve become the Occupied Territories,” Dimra says, sadly joking about the cancerous tumors inside her. Unlike his father, Jack is not political, but his head is unavoidably filled with images of Israel’s offenses.

All of which makes a childhood

memory of him and his book-loving mother “sobbing over the death of Beth March, Little Nell, or Lennie Small” while their camp was “filled with black smoke, tear gas, and shouts of protest” pretty unforgettable.

A great novel: Beautifully written, timely, and as enjoyable as it is heartbreaking.

Kirkus Star

Evil Genius Oshetsky, Claire | Ecco/HarperCollins (240 pp.) $28.99 | February 17, 2026 | 9780063466487

In 1974, a 19-­year-old telephone company employee in an abusive marriage finds her way to freedom.

“Now this Sock Man had dubbed me with his sock, and had claimed me as kin, and I remembered what I had always known: I was Daughter of Dirk. I was Minion of the Crab Queen. I was in a full fever. I wasn’t a normal girl. I was supernatural.

I was uncanny. I was magnificent.”

When we meet Celia Dent, she has not yet become aware of her uncanny magnificence: She is working at the telephone company where her job is to disconnect the lines of those with unpaid bills—“We called it ripping your lips”—caught up, along with her co-workers, in the grisly details of the murder of one of their colleagues by her husband, which occurred with a second colleague hastily hidden under the bed, but a used condom on the floor in plain view. The death of Vivienne Bianco is oddly titillating to Celia, which she knows is not the right reaction, but ascribes to the oppressive and dull reality of her daily life. Orphaned and alone by 17, she’d made the grave error of marrying a brutish man she refers to as “my Drew,” and her home life is so unpleasant that her tedious commute on the train and her depressing job (where she must deal with unsavory callers like the Sock Man) feel like a welcome escape. The death of Vivienne Bianco JANUARY 1, 2026

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sets something new in motion, and Oshetsky is an author who relishes bold and sometimes surreal swipes of plot—more melodrama and mayhem are on the way, noirish twists delivered with a deadpan comic spin. With her collection of desecrated Barbies, her naïveté, and her poor impulse control, Celia is a fetching character for whom the reader dearly wishes a positive outcome, despite all the dead bodies that seem to be accumulating around her.

Darkly charming, highly original, and fiendishly clever.

The Optimists Platzer, Brian | Little, Brown (304 pp.) $29 | February 24, 2026 | 9780316576956

An English teacher, now immobilized by a stroke, recalls his star pupil.

John Keating’s edgy first-person narrative jumps around over the decades from 1987 to 2021, studded with brilliant character sketches. Chief among them are Keating’s fellow teacher and former girlfriend, Enid Smeal, a dedicated artist with little time for personal interactions; her awkward son, Jacob; the boy’s classmate Clara Hightower, serious and calm beyond her years; and smarmy Richard Kingsley Madison IV, head of St. George’s, the private K-8 school where Keating teaches. Richy, as Keating delights in cheekily calling him, is obsessed with improving St. George’s endowment and reputation.

Key to this goal is Clara, who first comes to Keating’s attention at Jacob’s 6th birthday party and by the time she arrives in his 8th grade classroom is clearly brilliant and destined for success that Richy hopes will burnish the school’s reputation. Jacob, smart but resolutely underperforming in school and uncomfortable in social situations, becomes her unlikely boyfriend and, after she breaks up with him when they’re headed for separate high schools, painfully in love with her for the rest of 24

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his life. As he chronicles their adult lives and his own marriage, Keating sprinkles an often sad story with knock-knock jokes and other forms of humor, frequently pausing to explain why they’re funny—“Telling people why things are funny can be funny too,” he asserts. We come to realize that under his sardonic exterior he is a ferociously dedicated teacher whose mocking self-assessment (“I am desperate for notice.…[I] created a world where I could be the king of my own tiny realm”) masks genuine love and concern for his students. The circumstances leading to his stroke are eventually revealed, as is Clara’s unexpected post-school trajectory, but what will stick with readers most are the multi-dimensional portraits of complicated, flawed human beings, most notably the novel’s narrator.

Keening, darkly funny, and gruffly tender.

More Than Enough Quindlen, Anna | Random House (256 pp.) $29 | February 24, 2026 | 9780593734605

Infertility, family secrets, and alpacas all figure in Quindlen’s latest meditation on mothering and domesticity.

Polly’s life looks enviable. Happily married to the adoring Mark—a vet at the Bronx Zoo—she teaches English at a private Manhattan girls’ school and loves her work. She has a protective older brother and close girlfriends, who’ve formed a book club where no one is expected to read the book. But Polly desperately wants a child and, at 42, knows time is running out. She and Mark have gone through endless fertility treatments, to no avail. Meantime, Polly’s friends have given her a DNA kit as a jokey birthday gift, and something mysterious shows up in the test results. Then, out of nowhere, a young woman contacts her, suggesting they may be related. That’s not all: Polly feels estranged from her mother, a revered judge who’s insufficiently

maternal in her daughter’s view. Her father has always cherished her, but he’s in a nursing home now with a rapidly failing mind. And something is amiss with her best pal, Sarah. Quindlen’s trademark empathy is evident throughout, and her wry humor leavens some of the serious goings-on. Early on, Mark and Polly visit a fertility clinic with photos of babies in the waiting room; for Polly, “it felt…like a Weight Watchers facility with hot fudge sundae pictures on the wall.” Then we meet these charming alpacas, humming and pronking, on a farm run by an earth mother, whose wisdom will help Polly get on with her life. The plot swerves around a bit, there may be one surplus narrative thread (e.g., Polly’s star student Josephine running aground after graduation), and at the end, the author ties things up too neatly, pushing the “circle of life” theme too hard.

Though uneven, this is still a pleasurable, comforting read.

Kirkus Star

I Could be Famous Rende, Sydney | Bloomsbury (272 pp.) $26.99 | January 13, 2026 | 9781639735860

A startling debut collection of short stories.

These 11 stories are meditations on themes that are both timeless—­ women looking for love, longing for more from life, fighting for their dreams—and modern, filled with influencers and celebrity-­ driven culture and people living on the periphery of both. Through engaging and occasionally shocking stories, Rende deftly shows the balancing act between the online and performative world in which we increasingly live and the rich, complicated interior lives of her characters. These impressive stories lay bare the hidden worlds of both the very online and those living adjacent to the spotlight or yearning for it, for better or worse. Consider Jane, a bored K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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receptionist who takes center stage in the opening story, “Nothing Special.”

Jane spends her time DMing former child stars and befriending influencers like Ramona, who isn’t at all the beautiful-inside-and-out person she pretends to be online. What follows is a darkly funny cautionary tale about falling for illusions. In “Lopsided,” a possibly ripped-from-reality story, the young narrator grapples with the fact that she wants to leave the boyfriend who just donated a kidney to her. Is she bound to stay with him forever, or can she dump him to see what else is out there?

In “High School Junkie Girlfriend,” a struggling actress and temporary hot-tub saleswoman decides to go all in while preparing for her role as the titular junkie girlfriend. She is determined to break out of her rut and reach the next stage of her career no matter what, the result is a Raymond Carver–esque vignette of life on the sidelines.

Entertaining and readable stories offering a unique view into this moment of the Anthropocene.

Night Night Fawn Rosenberg, Jordy | One World/Random House (304 pp.) | $29 | March 3, 2026 9780593448007

A dying Jewish woman on the Upper East Side struggles with her relationship with her queer child, her former best friend, and her memories.

Rosenberg’s sophomore effort is quite a departure from its predecessor, the 18th-century historical novel Confessions of the Fox (2018). It combines manic Jewish-­ flavored humor à la Joshua Cohen or Tova Reich with a surrealist avian element à la Marie-Helene Bertino with a boundary-pushing satire of homophobia that floats somewhere in the universe of Benedict Nguyen and Sacha Baron Cohen. A self-described yenta from Flatbush, Barbara Rosenberg lies bedridden in her apartment at K IR KU S R E V IE W S

A self-described yenta from Flatbush lies bedridden in her apartment.

NIGHT NIGHT FAWN

Second Avenue and East 69th Street, high off her gourd on OxyContin, reviewing her life story and its many disappointments, framed as “my confession, my apology, my prayer” to Karl Marx, “god of impo­ssible things.”

In the words of her erstwhile best friend Sugar Becker, “if Barbra Streisand had been tragically prevented from becoming the star that she was meant to be, and [was] consigned to starring only on the stage of a small rent-controlled apartment overlooking an exhaust shaft”—that would be our heroine. Her delirium proceeds apace as she becomes certain that her child, one Jordana Rosenberg, has turned into a giant bird, and reels through scenes including her motherin-law’s funeral, movie dates with her late husband, and benighted shopping expeditions with the menswear-­ loving Jordana, whom she eventually whisked from the gates of Wesleyan University—­“which I don’t know if you know, but is a not-so-elite place populated entirely by lesbians”—to an army camp in Israel. This leads to a shocking plot twist and a coda taking the novel in an unexpected direction.

Among the pleasures along the way are the author’s many exuberant descriptions of smells, for example, “that sharp peculiar scent of a family: the animal musk of two mouth-breathing adults, the sweet synthetic lemon of Jean Naté After Bath Splash evaporating off the night-cooled flesh of my arms, my daughter’s wet cornflake breath, & the smoky off-gas of the cracked rubber feet of her pajamas.” Rosenberg somehow secretes the hints of genuine emotion that runs beneath the book’s generally broad approach in these pointillist descriptions.

This nonlinear narrative is part rant, part rave, part extended Jewish joke, part queer, Marxist fever dream.

Good People Sabit, Patmeena | Crown (400 pp.) | $29 February 10, 2026 | 9780593801062

A host of voices weigh in on a young Afghan American’s suspicious death.

Sabit’s debut is framed as an oral history about the Sharaf family and an incident that put it in the national spotlight. Rahmat and Maryam arrived in Virginia as refugees from Afghanistan, eventually having four children; in time, Rahmat built a sizable fortune in real estate, owning multiple retail properties. None of the Sharafs themselves are “interviewed” for the novel, but plenty of others contribute—Afghan friends and family, classmates and teachers of their children, journalists, lawyers—creating a mosaic portrait. It’s clear from all these stories that Rahmat was headstrong and determined to provide a conspicuously good living for his family—a real-estate agent recalls his insistence on finding a home in one of Northern Virginia’s wealthiest communities—and that his teenage daughter Zorah increasingly began to bristle against life in a gilded cage, wearing tight clothes, dating against her parents’ wishes, and more.

When she’s found drowned in a borrowed Mercedes during a family trip to Niagara Falls, suspicious whispers about whether Rahmat committed an honor killing grow into a media frenzy.

Telling this story without its principals is an effective conceit; as the slyly provocative title suggests, every person involved is striving for moral high ground, but long-standing Americans, recent immigrants, and authorities each operate JANUARY 1, 2026

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under distinct cultural systems. Accusations of honor killings are rebutted by accusations of anti-­immigrant bigotry; suggestions that Zorah needed to assimilate are met with cries of the need to protect and preserve traditions. The parade of voices is a bit overlong, and at times the overall voice feels too similar for a novel designed around multiple perspectives. But it thoughtfully underscores the idea that the American melting pot rarely melts consistently.

A well-turned and provocative first novel.

I Am the Ghost Here Samek, Kim | Dial Press (224 pp.) | $28 February 24, 2026 | 9798217153572

A debut collection that juxtaposes reality TV and climate change, social media algorithms and illness.

Samek’s stories often begin with assertions that place her firmly in the territory of magical realism. “At thirty-six I turn into a scrambled egg,” explains the narrator of “Egg Mother,” who becomes mushy from the demands of new motherhood and unresolved grief over the death of her own mother when she was a teenager. “It is not until my older brother is thirty-three that I learn he’s controlled by a puppeteer,” begins the title story, as the narrator realizes her brother’s confidence and masculinity depend on another person pulling the strings. In magical realist stories, metaphors become real aspects of the narrative as a vehicle for exploring slippery ideas and emotions, and thus Jeff’s

puppeteer makes visible the toll of assimilation on children of immigrants. Other pieces tilt toward absurdity, skewering people’s willingness to trade their privacy for fame or turn their pain into profit. In “Sven,” for example, a woman finds an earpiece on a park bench and agrees to star in a reality TV show that warps her life, while in “The Sharpest Knife,” the narrator becomes an influencer after she falls ill during a pandemic and makes a name for herself by exercising while carrying her heart around in a canning jar. Though a few stories are flattened by being too much in service to ideas at the expense of character development, over the course of the collection, Samek slyly erodes our sense of what’s real and what’s not to reveal the cost to humanity when we offer our lives up for entertainment, allow algorithms to shape our desires, and consume so ravenously that our whole world, including our own bodies, are being polluted by plastic.

Smart, dryly witty stories as absurd as they are devastating about life in the 21st century.

Gunk Sams, Saba | Knopf (240 pp.) | $28 March 3, 2026 | 9780593804995

Two English women—a self-­sufficient nightclub manager and a teenage bartender—become bound by pregnancy and struggle to find a place in each other’s lives.

Jules is in her 30s and still running Gunk, the Brighton nightclub owned by

A vivid, reflective exploration of parenthood, personhood, and desire.

GUNK

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her sleazy ex-husband, Leon. After watching him sleep with students again and again during and after their marriage, she warns the club’s new hire, 18-year-old Nim, to stay away from him.

But Nim, who has a way “of leaning into an impulse, then following it through to the end,” hooks up with him anyway. A condom breaks, the morning-after pill fails, and she ends up pregnant with the baby Jules always wanted but never got.

As a narrator, Jules is distant, the whole novel falling into a retrospective tone that’s rarely disrupted. Even her most intense motivation, the desire to have a child, is passive; she never explicitly tries to have one, never visits a fertility clinic, never commits to IVF or adoption. As a character, her motivations are sometimes obscure: It’s hard to imagine what she ever saw in Leon. That said, Sams shines in the details, never shying away from the unsavory, gunky side of life. She also paints a compelling picture of Nim: her shaved head, her tracksuits, and the quirky personality that drives her to give pebbles to Jules and her parents at Christmas. Perhaps the greatest strength of the novel is the questions it asks about family and relationships, filtered through Jules and her doubt: “I was determined to think of myself as above other people. Was this why I wanted a baby? Was this why other people kept on having babies?…We wanted a chance to build a destiny, from day one.”

A vivid, reflective exploration of parenthood, personhood, and desire.

Cleaner Shannon, Jess | Scribner (224 pp.) | $26 February 17, 2026 | 9781668223086

A young artist stumbles headfirst into adulthood.

The unnamed and unmoored protagonist of Shannon’s debut novel has reluctantly moved back in with her parents: “I swapped the city I found for the city I came from.” Overeducated K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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and underemployed, she deals with her lack of direction by becoming obsessed with cleaning. When she gets a job as a cleaner at a local art gallery and meets fellow artist Isabella, her life begins to change. The two women immediately hook up despite the fact that Isabella lives with her successful, rich, and bland boyfriend, Paul. As the narrator becomes more enmeshed in their lives, she thinks she may be able to have it all (“I wanted both of them at the same time. I wanted both of them in bed”). When Isabella leaves one day without a word, the narrator begins to slip into a life that doesn’t belong to her. Written in stream-­ofconsciousness style, the novel is told in one long gulp with no chapters, paragraph breaks, or quotation marks. The form situates you directly in the protagonist’s mind, which can feel claustrophobic because she’s an absolute disaster. Her thoughts ping-pong among sex, art, death, money, children, thrifting, cleaning, cooking, and everything in between.

She is flaky, a liar, and makes decisions that seem detached from reality.

Unfortunately, the novel is both too absurd and not absurd enough. The plot, when it surfaces between the narrator’s thoughts, is so outlandish at times that it’s distracting. Despite this, Shannon has imbued the novel with a sardonic humor that serves as a bright spot. When the artist sits down with her family to fill out the census, she tells them she’s not heterosexual to little reaction—and thinks, “I questioned whether pure, uncut indifference was in fact homophobic or progressive.” These moments of levity help the book become less mired in the narrator’s seemingly endless non­ sensical loop.

A messy, sad-girl novel that’s too improbable to fully enjoy.

For more by Tracy Sierra, visit Kirkus online.

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Warning Signs Sierra, Tracy | Pamela Dorman/­V iking (368 pp.) | $30 | February 10, 2026 9798217059799

An avalanche traps a 12-yearold boy on a mountain with a monster.

It’s been a year since Zach Fisher’s mother died, leaving him and his sister, Bonnie, alone with their tyrannical father, Bram. Entrepreneur Bram rarely acknowledges Zach’s existence except to denigrate him, so when Bram orchestrates a fathers-and-sons ski trip to woo a trio of potential investors, Zach is hopeful it’ll be an opportunity for him to finally earn praise. Unlike Bram, Zach is well acquainted with the Colorado backcountry and its hut system thanks to the outings he and Bonnie made with their mom, who also taught the kids outdoor survival skills and avalanche safety. Unfortunately, the weekend gets off to an unsettling start when, on the hike in, Zach stumbles across a recently deceased elk whose skull and neck vertebrae have been stripped preternaturally clean. Then, upon reaching their reserved hut, a furious Bram discovers that not only did his assistant fail to arrive early and spruce up the place, but the richest of his invited guests isn’t coming. That evening, on a visit to the outhouse, Zach hears “a dragging, punctuated by a squelching,” and sees a “black, wavering form” moving up the ridge. While Zach resolves not to tell the others for fear of his father’s mockery, he can’t help but think of the mutilated elk—a thought that resurfaces the next morning when everyone dons their skis to take advantage of the deep, newly fallen snow. Sierra’s backdrop proves fertile ground for peril, though those unfamiliar with the Colorado backcountry and its unique brand of recreation may find themselves confusedly casting about for context clues. The setup takes a tad too long,

but once the scene is set, the story snowballs, resulting in an adrenaline-­ fueled sprint during which machismo trumps reason and amplifies danger at every turn.

A pulse-pounding, heart-rending thrill ride.

A Compass on the Navigable Sea: 100 Years of World Literature Simon, Daniel, ed. | Restless Books (480 pp.) $26 paper | February 3, 2026 | 9781632064134

An overstuffed literary anthology drawn from the pages of two journals out of the University of Oklahoma.

The title comes from Octavio Paz, one of hundreds of writers published since 1927 by the literary journals Books Abroad and its successor, World Literature Today. The occasion of Paz’s sonorous phrase honors the parent publication, which he likened, on receiving its Neustadt Prize, to a compass that guided him to writers he would likely never have discovered; further, Paz pays homage to the plurality and universality that literature embraces in “acknowledging…the admirable diversity of man and his works.” This is a diverse gathering, to be sure, containing work by classic authors (Musil, Neruda, Mann) and modern epigone (Lahiri, Gurnah, Hamid) in celebration of language, books, and literature. Some of the pieces, particularly the “first takes” on classic works, are too short and sometimes slight to carry much weight: likening The Savage Detectives in passing to One Hundred Years of Solitude, for instance, says little about either Bolaño or García Márquez. Fortunately, much else is meatier: a splendid poem by Czeslaw Milosz (“Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot”) here, a thoughtful consideration of translation and cultural translocation by Mojave writer Natalie Diaz (“It is a gift to have a language that English is too small for, since I have a life that English thinks is small”) there; JANUARY 1, 2026

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Margarita Engle’s insistence that, our freedoms of thought and writing being muscles, “if we don’t use them, they will atrophy, and we won’t be able to defend children against tyranny” buttressing Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare’s view that belief in literature means knowing that “the government which dominates you…[and] tyranny itself are a passing nightmare, dead matter, compared to the great order of which you have become initiated as a member.” And there it is: literature as news that stays news, that because timeless couldn’t be more timely.

A mixed bag, but with many insights and small pleasures.

A Far-Flung Life Stedman, M.L. | Scribner (448 pp.) $30 | March 3, 2026 | 9781668219614

Tragedy strikes a remote Australian sheep-farming family, with consequences that will ripple through generations.

Fourteen years after her notable debut, The Light Between Oceans (2012), Australian-­born author Stedman returns with a decades-spanning epic featuring the MacBride family, “sensible but shrewd, careful but not mean,” who have occupied Meredith Downs in Western Australia for years. Their spread covers nearly a million acres and contains 20,000 sheep. But the vehicle crash that takes place in January 1958 plunges the well-ordered sheep station into turmoil.

Bereaved widow Lorna MacBride must take over management of the enterprise, while nursing her son Matt back to health, a job she shares with daughter Rosie. Yet the pain, grief, and reorientation don’t end there. More heartbreak ensues, driven by a terrible secret that will haunt Matt like a curse. Lorna’s grandson, Andy, is the one bright spark in the family as he grows into a quick, likable youth with a passion for geology, a useful connection when, in the 1960s, during the Australian mining boom, geologist Bonnie Edquist and her team start 28

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exploring the Meredith Downs lands.

Stedman’s novel evokes the immensity of the landscape, its flora and fauna, the exhausting work of running a sheep station, and the sparse population of the community, all in attentive detail, but the dark lineaments of her story and their corrosive effects hang heavy over its pages. Other secrets dot the novel, several of them intensified by the norms of the era. The reader is teased with the possibility of truths emerging from several directions, including a nosy postmistress and a punctilious policeman, but secrecy persists, both a burden and an enduring act of self-sacrifice. Though less emotionally compelling than the author’s previous novel, this is a work of intense moral commitment, constantly devoted to the sympathetic exploration of private pain.

A heartfelt saga weighed down by gloom and periods of stasis.

Kirkus Star

Effingers Tergit, Gabriele | Trans. by Sophie Duvernoy NYRB Classics (864 pp.) | $29.95 paper November 11, 2025 | 9781681379791

Sprawling, multi­ generational novel of Jewish life in Germany.

Tergit’s novel, hitherto unavailable in English, is in part a roman à clef, narrated in unadorned, matter-of-fact prose. The Effinger family is a blend of urban and rural, secular and religious, socialist and capitalist, its paterfamilias a watchmaker in a small German town, his children striving to find their places in the world as the 20th century nears. Benno, the oldest, works in a clothing factory; Karl is a bank apprentice in Berlin; Paul is a laborer who dreams of becoming an industrialist.

Only Willy, the youngest son, has any interest in his father’s trade, while the older daughter, Helene, is engaged to be married. All find themselves in a Germany that is soon to be unrecognizable in changing times, with Benno

taunting Paul, “You want German Romanticism, lilacs and half-timbered houses and strolls outside the city gates, and yet you want gas engines too.” Those gas engines will come along in the form of tanks on the frontlines of World War I, but well before then, the family is constantly reminded of its outsider status.

Indeed, the world grows much darker for the Effingers and their kin: Paul, who has fulfilled his dream by founding a factory that builds the first “people’s car,” only to have it torn away from him by the rising Nazi regime, while Erwin, one of Karl’s sons and a war hero, proclaims, “We must stop lying to ourselves and admit that we love a Germany that no longer exists…the Germans of today are strangers to us.” He’s right, as Paul laments, “I believed in the good in people—that was the gravest error of my misguided life.” Pensive and full of foreshadowing, Tergit’s novel nonetheless suggests that things might have been otherwise, about which translator Duvernoy, in her helpful commentary, notes that the book, published in 1951, predated Germany’s full “postwar reckoning with the Holocaust.”

A masterwork of modern German literature.

Steppe Vasyakina, Oksana | Trans. by Elina Alter Catapult (240 pp.) | $27 | January 20, 2026 9781646223077

A daughter comes to terms with a complicated father on a road trip across Russia.

In the second novel by Russian novelist and poet Vasyakina, an unnamed narrator in her early 30s attempts to make sense of a father with whom she has spent very little time, and who has recently died of “a combination of AIDS myths, institutional red tape, and his own carelessness.” A gangster and drug addict who was sent to prison when the narrator was a baby, her father became a freelance trucker hauling steel pipe K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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across the deserted Russian steppe. The narrator looks back on a week she spent with her father on one of his long-­ distance runs, 10 years after she had last seen him, and found him like “an old raccoon, ravaged by ticks and disease.”

The trip gives her plenty of time to observe him, but the connection they both want stays elusive. With the trip as a throughline, the narrator branches out thoughtfully to other memories, some from the far past, like those of time spent in the country with her beloved great-grandfather, and some more recent, like those of a revealing recent visit with her mother. In trying to make sense of her father, she frequently refers to Russian pop songs and television shows, references that may leave an American reader less enlightened than baffled. More universal are her comparisons of their relationship to the landscape of the steppe, an “empty, treeless” place full of a “bright, relentless light” but offering no possibility of change or growth. The novel, though digressive, slowly reveals the narrator’s growing awareness of her father’s “mindless cruelty” and of the unbridgeable chasm between father and daughter.

An elegiac tribute to a fatally flawed bond.

The Future Saints Winstead, Ashley | Atria (352 pp.) | $29 January 20, 2026 | 9781668024669

Can this rock band be saved?

Winstead’s latest is an enemies-­tolovers romance set in the richly evoked world of the music business, featuring dual points of view: Theo Ford, the suit sent by the record company to deal with their problematic indie rock group, the Future Saints; and Hannah Cortland, the troubled lead singer of the band, reeling since the drowning death of her younger sister, Ginny, who was also the band’s manager.

With “dark brown hair sweeping across K IR KU S R E V IE W S

high cheekbones, long-lashed hazel eyes, thick eyebrows, and lips too full to be anything but objectively beautiful,” Theo doesn’t look, or act, much like a corporate goon. “Are label reps legally allowed to be this hot?” asks Ginny. Wait, Ginny’s talking? She’s the dead one, right?

Whether she is an actual ghost that only Hannah can see and hear or a phase in Hannah’s grief process is not clear, at least at first. What is clear is that Hannah, a gorgeous California blond with abundant songwriting and singing talent, is in big trouble, drinking herself into oblivion and falling off concert stages, and Theo is also falling—for her. He commits to pulling the band back from the edge and getting it into the studio to fulfill its contract for another album, with Hannah’s tidal-force grief as the creative impetus behind a reinvented sound. The narrative sections are punctuated with excerpts of reviews and features about the band (Winstead has fun ventriloquizing the music writing found in venues including Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and the New York Times), as well as podcast and interview transcripts and social media posts. The romance aspect checks all the boxes, and the music industry setting is done more vividly and believably than in similar novels. The grief plot is the weakest link, sometimes more cheesy than truly moving.

A solid entry in the ever-more-popular category of music-biz lit, pulled off with notable élan.

All the World Can Hold Yun, Jung | 37 Ink/Simon & Schuster (352 pp.) $30 | March 10, 2026 | 9781668200599

A cruise that sets off just after Sept.

11, 2001, hosts several uneasy passengers.

Yun’s third novel is set on the Sonata, a stand-in for television’s “Love Boat” of the 1970s and ’80s, here hosting a themed cruise where passengers can hobnob with former cast members of the show, renamed Starlight Voyages. The

five-day cruise begins on Sept. 16, switched at the last minute to embark from Boston instead of New York, sailing round-trip to the Bahamas. The discomfort of trying to take a lighthearted vacation at this point in time causes some passengers to try to back out, but the insurance policy specifically excludes refunds due to “acts of war.” The three main characters include Doug, a white erstwhile hottie who played the show’s bartender, sober after years of debauchery and with little memory of his supposed heyday—though the cold treatment he receives from a female cast member suggests he was even worse than he remembers. Franny is a successful Korean American estate lawyer who has brought her family to celebrate her mother’s 70th birthday, but her generosity has no impact on the tension and coldness of the group. Lucy is a Black MIT senior in the middle of recruiting season whose white roommate invited her to join her family trip at the last minute, all expenses paid; soon she can’t imagine why she accepted. Putting the Love Boat and 9/11 in the same sentence, much less the same novel, seems a risky business, but Yun makes it work by embracing the awkwardness and absurdity of the fact that life must go on, even the bizarrely amped-up version of life lived on a cruise ship, with its ice sculptures and food garnishes and ridiculous “traditions.” In the liminal space between the “before” and “after” of unfathomable tragedy, each of her nuanced characters will have an opportunity to move past some of their self-imposed limitations. Yun’s sensitivity to the subtle and not-so-subtle operation of race, sexuality, gender, and privilege adds texture, and a final section previewing the aftermath of 9/11 widens and clarifies the novel’s perspective.

A challenging but very real premise, thoughtfully explored.

For more by Jung Yun, visit Kirkus online.

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—Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper, 2025 Summer Reading List

­ ­

—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

B O O K L I S T // F I C T I O N

1

3

2

For more booklists, visit Kirkus online.

4

5

Story Collections for Your Nightstand 1 The Age of Calamities

2 Disinheritance

A debut teeming with strange delights.

Brilliant, unsparing examinations of the human condition in all its variety.

By Senaa Ahmad

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By Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

3 Every One Still Here

4 I Could Be Famous

5 Sex of the Midwest

Wholly original, quietly disquieting short fiction.

Entertaining and readable stories offering a unique view into this moment of the Anthropocene.

Thoroughly refreshing: an astute portrait of contemporary small-town America that’s genuinely fun to read.

By Liadan Ní Chuinn

By Sydney Rende

By Robyn Ryle

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AWARDS Alan Hollinghurst Receives Lifetime Achievement Award The Line of Beauty author is the winner of the David Cohen Prize.

Alan Hollinghurst has won the David Cohen Prize, given every two years to “a living writer from the U.K. or Republic of Ireland for a lifetime’s achievement in literature.”

Hollinghurst, a native of Stroud, England, made his fiction debut in 1988 with The Swimming-Pool Library. He went on to publish the novels The Folding Star, The Spell, The Stranger’s Child, The Sparsholt Affair, and, most recently, Our Evenings.

His 2004 novel, The Line of Beauty, won the Booker Prize.

Hermione Lee, the chair of judges for the award, said, “In seven remarkable novels, he has written about society, class and race, biography and memory, art and literature, childhood, love and friendship. He’s equally

brilliant at creating gripping plots full of suspense, secrets and mysteries, and at moving personal stories of longing, joy, obsession and loss.”

Hollinghurst told the Guardian, “It takes account of everything a writer has done, and the writers it has rewarded in the past have been huge inspirations. I went nearly 30 years ago to the ceremony to see Muriel Spark receiving the award, and later Harold Pinter—these figures are godlike to me, and it’s extraordinary now to find myself joining that list.”

The David Cohen Prize, administered by the British literary charity New Writing North, was established in 1993. Previous winners include V. S. Naipaul, Doris Lessing, Julian Barnes, and Edna O’Brien.

—M.S.

Kate Green/Get t y Images

Alan Hollinghurst

For reviews of Alan Hollinghurst’s books, visit Kirkus online.

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S E E N A N D H E A R D // F I C T I O N

“...a compulsively readable... engaging take on a complex artist.”

—Kirkus Reviews

SEEN AND HEARD New Book by Louise Erdrich Coming This Spring Harper will publish the story collection Python’s Kiss.

For general inquiries, visit www.youngvincentorigins.com ISBN 979-8-8954307-1-2

Louise Erdrich is set to release her first story collection in 17 years.

Harper will publish the acclaimed author’s Python’s Kiss this spring, the press announced in a news release. It will be her first collection since The Red Convertible: Selected and New Stories, 1978-2008.

Erdrich made her literary debut in 1984 with the novel Love Medicine, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. The book was the first in an eight-book series, the most recent of which, The Painted Drum, was published in 2005.

Her other novels include The Round House, which won the National Book Award,

and The Night Watchman, which won the Pulitzer Prize. Her latest novel, The Mighty Red, was published in 2024 and was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize. She is also the author of several children’s books, including Grandmother’s Pigeon, illustrated by Jim LaMarche, and The Range Eternal, illustrated by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher.

The stories in Python’s Kiss, Harper says, “offer an opportunity to celebrate the wisdom and brilliant, wide-ranging imagination of one of America’s most important writers.”

The stories will be accompanied by art by her daughter, Aza Erdrich Abe, who created the artwork for several of her mother’s earlier books.

Python’s Kiss is scheduled for publication on March 24.—M.S.

Jenn Ackerman

For reviews of Louise Erdrich’s books, visit Kirkus online.

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Louise Erdrich

F I C T I O N // M Y S T E R Y

Neophyte South London detectives take on a cold case.

THE PIE & MASH DETECTIVE AGENCY

First Sign of Danger Armstrong, Kelley | Minotaur (352 pp.) $29 | February 17, 2026 | 9781250351821

Even the birth of their child can’t slow down Haven’s Rock’s sheriff and his detective wife.

While walking in the woods outside their off-the-radar community together with their 6-month-old daughter in tow, Casey Butler and Eric Dalton meet Blake and Gretchen—two hikers from Whitehorse who’ve come to enjoy the beauty of the Yukon wilderness. Blake is in pain from an ankle he twisted in a fall, but they’re reluctant to cut their adventure short. So after first-aidtrained Casey makes a cursory examination of Blake’s injury, he and Gretchen announce their plans to soldier on and camp that night in a spot Casey recommends. Casey and Eric have their doubts about the couple’s story, since few hikers are bold enough to test the isolated Yukon stretch where they’ve established Haven’s Rock, a sanctuary for people who are in so much trouble that they need to vanish from the face of the earth. On the way home, they discuss the hikers, wondering whether they might be spies from Rockton, an earlier off-the-grid sanctuary settlement, or from the nearby mining camp. The next day they return to the trail where they met the hikers and discover Blake’s body. But Gretchen is nowhere to be found. Did she kill her husband? Or is she in danger from whomever did? As Haven’s Rock’s only detective, it falls to Casey to crack this case. Not to worry, though: The offbeat and multitalented residents 34

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have her back, taking turns watching her daughter while she makes increasingly dangerous forays into the wilderness in search of answers.

The latest from Haven’s Rock boasts quirky characters, outdoor adventure, and a knotty puzzle neatly wound up.

Death of a Groom Beaton, M.C. with R.W. Green | Grand Central Publishing (240 pp.) | $28 February 10, 2026 | 9781538774755

When a groom is slain on his wedding day, the suspects are snowed in.

Sergeant Hamish Macbeth of Lochdubh, Scotland, who’s had several near-misses in the marriage mart, still remains friendly with his ex-girlfriends.

Coincidentally, two of them are on hand for the high-society wedding of Alannah Hamilton and Darius Palmerston. The wedding site is the Tommel Castle Hotel, skillfully run by Priscilla Halburton-Smythe, one of the exes. The wedding, though small, is great for the hotel, as the bride’s father, Charles Hamilton, has spent a fortune to make it grand. Another of Hamish’s exes, reporter Elspeth Grant, arrives in a helicopter with her boss, a Hamilton family friend. A local seer who warns that the wedding must not take place tells tales of witches and death, and Elspeth, who has the gift of second sight, has seen a bloody death. It all comes true when, after the cake-cutting, Darius is killed with his own sword. With most of the local police involved in a drug bust and the senior officer ending up in the hospital just before a major snowstorm, it falls to

Hamish to investigate. He soon identifies a plethora of suspects. Darius and his best friend, who spent years pretending to be soldiers, gadding around Europe and spending their inheritances, are now broke. The bride seemed to prefer the man who looks after the family’s horses, and the groom his wife’s stepmother. Alannah’s bridesmaid vanishes and turns up murdered. The pool of possible killers ranges from peers to band members.

Since most of them hated Darius, it won’t be easy for Hamish to pick out a killer or two.

The delightfully stubborn and opinionated hero solves the case and may even find a bride of his own.

The Pie & Mash Detective Agency Brinkworth, J.D. | Berkley (368 pp.) | $18.99 paper | March 10, 2026 | 9798217187256

Neophyte South London detectives Jane Pye and Simon Mash take on a cold case that’s begging for a solution.

In order to earn a certificate for the three-week private investigation class they’ve enrolled in, Jane and Simon must submit coursework and solve a case on their own.

Jane, unemployed since losing her job as a back-end developer, is serious about the course and hopes it will lead to a job she’d enjoy. Simon sees it as more of a lark. Most of the cases private eye Gavin Smith, who teaches the course, hands out to students are those he’s solved in the past. But Jane and Simon get the very special case of Nellie Thorne. Since the 1970s, every decade or so a woman named Nellie Thorne has been reported missing in different places around Kent. The police have never solved the mystery; some people think it’s a hoax, others think she’s a ghost. Now, a man named Dev Hooper has reported his girlfriend, Nellie Thorne, missing. Is he sincere, or is he a scammer? Since K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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his story doesn’t go down well with the police, Dev tries to hire Gavin, who passes him on to Jane and Simon. They learn that Dev didn’t know much about Nellie except that she wanted children, liked crafts, and was born in Kent. A search of Dev’s home turns up clothes that might be from Nellie’s online sales business, some tarnished jewelry, a partially burned candle, and eventually the remains of a positive pregnancy test. As Jane and Simon bumble their way from one clue to another, it becomes clear that they’re both rather clever, and some of the clues lead to answers in a case that’s baffled the professionals for years.

A highly amusing debut featuring millennial romance and danger for a couple less clueless than they seem.

Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line Cosimano, Elle | Minotaur (368 pp.) $28 | March 17, 2026 | 9781250337597

Romance novelist Finlay Donovan, who’s never met a line she wouldn’t cross, crosses several new ones in her attempt to prove her nanny/ best friend’s innocence of theft.

The good news is that Veronica Ramirez isn’t in jail despite the evidence against her of pocketing the substantial profits from her college sorority Kappa Gamma’s weekly succession of illegal gambling nights. The bad news begins with the fact that she’s under house arrest in the custody of her mother, Norma, who vociferously disapproves of Vero’s unplanned Atlantic City wedding to her boyfriend, Javi. Then there’s the fact that her sorority sisters, headed by former president and recent graduate Mia and current vice president Ava, have closed ranks in giving damning evidence against her. No wonder Vero and Norma have been the recipients of an unrelenting barrage of anonymous and often disgusting threats. Oh, and don’t forget that K IR KU S R E V IE W S

small-time bookie Theo Sideris, Vero’s alibi witness because they were sharing a bed at the time, has gone AWOL. Searching for him in a frantic attempt to clear Vero’s name ends up implicating virtually every other member of the cast in one crime or another and pretty much guarantees that by the time the charge of theft against Vero has finally been dismissed, she and Finn will have plenty of other brand-new charges to contend with. Fans of Cosimano’s overcaffeinated franchise can only pray that Finn will return safely to the arms of her own improbable lover, police detective Nick Anthony, so that she can concentrate on supplying her agent, Sylvia Barr, with steamy chapters of her new novel.

What provisions of the law are left for the heroine to breach in the next outrageous installment? Readers can only guess.

Kirkus Star

I’m Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home Craig, Fergus | Berkley (272 pp.) | $30 February 17, 2026 | 9798217189052

A killing in a retirement home poses quite a problem for a resident who’s a former serial killer.

Carol Quinn was convicted of seven murders, although there might have been some that slipped through the cracks. Now 75, she’s lost the urge to kill and been released from prison, moving into Sheldon Oaks, a posh retirement home near London’s Hampstead Heath. Since only Giles Temple, the owner of Sheldon Oaks, and Elisa, the concierge, know of Carol’s past, she’s able to make friends by joining activities like the baking club, where she and the charming and erudite Margaret do most of the work while Desmond, Geoffrey, and Catherine mostly look on and enjoy the final products. After a while, Geoffrey,

a former police officer, develops a nagging feeling he recognizes Carol from somewhere, and finally recalls where. He tells Margaret, who just happens to be a former home secretary, and they inform Catherine, a pathologist. Carol is an intelligent and likable character, but now that her lovely new friends know about her past, they avoid her, upsetting her no end. Then, while she’s sitting on her balcony one day, a body plummets from the roof. It’s Desmond, and Carol—against her own interests—insists he was the victim of a murder. As an experienced killer herself, Carol is perfectly placed to investigate.

All she wants is a peaceful retirement, but the fickle finger of fate has a strange sense of humor. Geoffrey thinks Carol probably killed Desmond, but she’s willing to join the club her former friends set up to investigate the murder, in which they all have expertise to offer.

A little digging shows there were plenty of people with motive to kill Desmond, but given her record, Carol knows she’ll end up back in prison if she doesn’t prove herself innocent. The group is loath to trust her, but cooperation may be the key to solving the crime.

A fine mystery whose mordant humor makes it outstanding.

My Grandfather, the Master Detective Konishi, Masateru | Trans. by Louise Heal Kawai | Putnam (336 pp.) | $29 March 17, 2026 | 9798217177639

Konishi updates the century-old trope of the armchair detective in this debut novel, a collection of six interlinked short stories featuring a most unusual sleuth.

Elementary school teacher Kaede loves classic mystery fiction, but in solving contemporary mysteries, she can’t hold a candle to her nameless grandfather. His keen observational skills and razor-sharp mind (along with several needful maps and diagrams the author provides) make JANUARY 1, 2026

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it unnecessary for him to visit the scenes of the crimes Kaede describes to him.

And that’s a good thing, since his Lewy body dementia has made him a fabulist who frequently entertains vivid images and invents untrue memories like the belief that his long-dead daughter visits him every day. In half a dozen stories, Konishi shows how Grandfather’s unique combination of disabilities and skills make him a master detective who specializes in impossible crimes.

Beginning with a relatively elementary puzzle, he moves on to a locked room murder, the disappearance of a teacher from a closely watched swimming pool, the unaccountable appearance of a 33rd person inside a classroom of 32 students, the arrest of Kaede’s friend and colleague Iwata for a violent attack that was witnessed by a “power-walking” woman who can’t testify on his behalf because she’s vanished without a trace, and the stalking of Kaede herself by a threatening man. Allusions to classic mysteries from Frank R. Stockton’s “The Lady, or the Tiger?” to Cornell Woolrich’s Phantom Lady are sprinkled liberally throughout, promising even greater pleasure for readers with a taste for puzzles whose solutions demand pages and pages of explanation.

Think of brain-teasing mysteries presented in something like a fairytale framework, and you’ll be on the right track.

Easter Egg Murder Meier, Leslie, Lee Hollis & Peggy Ehrhart | Kensington (368 pp.) | $27 February 24, 2026 | 9781496749451

A trio of holiday-themed stories from a veteran team.

Two family-­ focused trips collide in Meier’s “Easter Egg Murder.” Smalltown reporter Lucy Stone is headed to Paris to visit Elizabeth, her pregnant daughter, when she meets brash, city-bred Carole Capobianco, who’s on her way to see her mother 36

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in Provence. Because of a strike in Paris, the two end up together in the French countryside, and at a dinner for the two families hosted by Carole’s mom, the cook, Mathilde, is killed. Readers would be hard-pressed to ferret out the murderer, but it’s a treat to see the interplay between Meier’s two franchise heroines. In Hollis’ “Death by Another Easter Egg,” on the other hand, it’s glaringly obvious who killed investigative reporter Emma Lane. Hayley Powell, owner of the restaurant where Emma died, grills potential suspects in a manner so confrontational that it’s no wonder she lands in the killer’s crosshairs. Ehrhart’s “An Eggy Way to Die” provides the best blend of engaging characters and a genuine puzzle. Bettina Fraser and Pamela Paterson enjoy a warm friendship that makes them natural partners when it comes to sleuthing. They have good reason for wanting to find out who killed Ellen Weatherby, leaving her body near the site of the town’s annual egg hunt: The police arrest their mutual friend Dwight Silverthorne. Ehrhart balances their investigation with personal drama, beginning but not ending with Pamela’s conflicted feelings about her relationship with her neighbor Richard Larkin.

Meier promises more standalones featuring her franchise characters.

Would that Ehrhart would do the same.

Murder at an Irish Session O’Connor, Carlene | Kensington (288 pp.) $27 | February 24, 2026 | 9781496744463

An Irish music-­ and-matchmaking festival goes horribly wrong.

Ireland’s self-­ proclaimed “King of Matchmaking,” Liam Noone, combines his love for traditional Irish music with his love for, well, love by sponsoring an event at which he offers to pair up all the single musicians in the countryside town of Kilbane. Fiddlers, pipers, harpists, drummers, and even the odd double bass player come around

hoping to be partnered while they entertain the townspeople at a series of impromptu pick-up musical performances held in pubs or outdoors.

Unfortunately, it’s Liam’s love of money that gets him in the end. He’s dispatched by a giant cupid’s bow on display in the town square that someone uses to launch the bow of a bass into his chest. It seems that Liam’s been blackmailing his clients, one of whom may have gotten tired of paying him off. Solving the murder of someone who’s tormented tons of victims is an old chestnut, but the husband-andwife team of garda detective sergeants Siobhán O’Sullivan and Macdara Flannery enliven the familiar formula, peppering their investigation with spousal banter and excited anticipation of their twins’ impending birth. A quirky cast of musicians, spats and squabbles among the would-be lovers, and a pint-sized trickster who cons townsfolk into paying for “free” archery lessons are all part of the fun as this shaggy dog story ambles to its conclusion.

A good-humored lesson in the perils of biting the hand that feeds you.

A Ghastly Catastrophe Raybourn, Deanna | Berkley (336 pp.) $30 | March 3, 2026 | 9780593815731

Do vampires exist? That’s a question for a detective duo whose cases are never mundane in 1890s England.

Lepidopterist Veronica Speedwell cares little about the gossip swirling around her and lover, naturalist and adventurer Revelstoke Templeton-Vane, scion of an aristocratic family, who eschews the trappings of his class. Together, they’ve solved many unusual murder cases, and they’re rather bored with their ordinary job of cataloging an extensive collection for the Earl of Rosemorran at his home in Marylebone. The arrival of their friend J.J., a journalist, and then of Scotland Yard detective Mornaday, both with tales of woe, makes their lives distinctly more K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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interesting. Mornaday tells them that the body of a man named Maurice Quincey was found in a carriage outside Highgate Cemetery, looking as if he might have died of natural causes but for the fang marks in his neck. This sparks an argument between the lovers, as Veronica naturally thinks of vampires while Stoker ridicules the idea. Oddly, Jameson Harkness, Quincey’s best friend, died the week before in a fall from a balcony, possibly not by accident. The only real clues to Quincey’s death are the sighting of a Romany boy near the carriage and the shifty testimony of one of Quincey’s friends about a secret society. A visit to a Romany camp is interesting and informative. Stoker and Veronica receive an invitation from Lord Ruthven, who certainly looks like a vampire, and his friend Asphodel, who’s very witchy indeed, but both are fakes and fraudsters willing to use potions and poisons to get their way. The detectives find themselves in grave danger but are unafraid of anything that’s coming.

Another odd and exciting case for a pair of passionate sleuths who never let Victorian mores stand in their way.

Stolen in Death Robb, J.D. | St. Martin’s (368 pp.) | $30 February 3, 2026 | 9781250414526

Lt. Eve Dallas is sucked into a murder that may well be overshadowed by another crime—and by the news that Roarke, her billionaire husband, is implicated in both felonies in an unexpected and troubling way.

Disturbed from her sleep, Aileen Carville arises to discover her wealthy husband, Nathan Barrister, coshed to death by a heavy amethyst from the collection of his late father, Zip Global founder Henry J. Barrister. His corpse is lying outside an open vault that everyone in the family insists they hadn’t known about until a couple of months ago, and it’s filled with priceless paintings and K IR KU S R E V IE W S

A nonconformist detective reopens a sordid murder case.

T H E PAT I E N T

sculptures and jewels taken years ago from an A-list of museums, one of which—the Royal Suite, a legendary emerald setting—has evidently been stolen once again. The bombshell revelation that Henry must have commissioned the thefts himself leads to two questions—how did the thief who killed Nathan know about the vault and its contents, and what possessed Nathan’s wealthy father to steal and hide all these goodies in the first place?—that are much more interesting than whodunit, though only one of them will be satisfactorily answered. Another bombshell revelation follows: Roarke’s confession to Dallas that he stole the Royal Suite from London’s Tate Gallery when he was still a teenager, years before he turned away from a life of crime himself. Since Interpol is much more interested in the theft than the murder, there’s a real danger that they’ll decide Roarke was once again the thief.

So, Dallas faces the double challenge of solving the crimes and keeping her beloved husband out of the frame.

The heroine’s 62nd appearance is a hit-or-miss mystery best suited for readers already invested in her complicated life.

The Patient Sullivan, Tim | Atlantic Crime (416 pp.) | $17 paper | February 3, 2026 | 9780802167798

Against all odds, a nonconformist detective reopens and solves a sordid murder case.

Distraught mother Sandra Wilson accosts DS George Cross outside the Major Crime Unit in Bristol with a compelling sob story. Sandra alone believes that the death of her daughter, Felicity,

was murder rather than the result of the accidental drug overdose that police said justified closing the case.

Cross, who’s on the autism spectrum, displays no emotion but listens attentively and questions police staffer Alice Mackenzie and pathologist Clare Hawkins before deciding to pursue the matter and enlisting the help of his partner, DS Josie Ottey. His officious boss, DCI Ben Carson, is unsupportive, to say the least: “It is not our job to uncover crime…where there is none.” The prime suspects in Flick Wilson’s death include her troublesome ex-boyfriend, Simon Aston, and Danny Stokes, her sleazy ex-boss at the dry cleaner’s where she worked until she was fired. In Sullivan’s third crisp DS Cross mystery, the murder investigation is shrewdly counterpointed by Cross’ strenuous efforts to find suitable housing for his obstreperous father, Raymond, who’s about to be released from the hospital after having suffered a fractured hip.

Raymond, who’s a hoarder, vociferously objects to moving in with his son, and Ottey more gently agrees with his opinion. On this issue, Cross displays surprising emotion, a compelling contrast to his impassive manner on the job. Though Sullivan’s series is rooted in its precise unravelling of crime puzzles, the added dimension of the personal stories of the incomparable Cross and his colleagues makes it something special.

A Holmesian sleuth reveals surprising heart while solving a baffling crime.

For more mystery reviews, visit Kirkus online.

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Fully Booked

Lily King’s latest love story deals in mutual attraction between wild cards. BY MEGAN LABRISE

EPISODE 450: LILY KING

LAURIE’S PICKS:

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai (Hogarth) The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy (Mariner Books) Isola by Allegra Goodman (Dial Press) A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar (Knopf) The Slip by Lucas Schaefer (Simon & Schuster) Flesh by David Szalay (Scribner) The Dentist by Tim Sullivan (Atlantic Crime) The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Cardinal) What We Can Know by Ian McEwan (Knopf) The White Hot by Quiara Alegría Hudes (One World/ Random House) THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

High Hopes by Anne Abel

Eloise King- Clements

Space Vault by Jeremy Clift Fully Booked is produced

by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.

K IR KU S R E V IE W S

On this episode of Fully Booked, Lily King joins us to discuss Heart the Lover (Grove, Oct. 7), one of Kirkus’ Best Books of 2025. “A love triangle among young literati has a long and complicated aftermath,” Kirkus writes in a starred review of King’s latest novel—her first since instant New York Times bestseller Writers & Lovers (2020).

King is the author of six novels, including Euphoria, winner of the 2014 Kirkus Prize for Fiction, and the story collection Five Tuesdays in Winter (2021). Her other honors include the New England Book Award for Fiction, the Maine Book Award for Fiction, and a Whiting Award. She lives in Portland, Maine.

Here’s a bit more from our starred review of Heart the Lover: “King’s narrator doesn’t reveal her name until the very last page, but Sam and Yash, the brainy stars of her 17th-century literature class, call her Jordan.…The boys are house­ sitting for a professor who’s spending a year at Oxford, living in a cozy, book-filled Victorian Jordan visits for the first time after watching The Deer Hunter at the student union on her first date with Sam. As their relationship proceeds, Jordan is practically living at the house herself, trying hard not to notice that she’s actually in love with Yash.…King is a genius at writing love stories…and her mostly sunny version of the campus novel is an enjoyable alternative to the current vogue for dark academia.…Tenderhearted readers will soak the pages of the last chapter with tears.”

King and I discuss the literary value of love stories, their importance to our culture, and what makes love triangles particularly appealing

Heart the Lover King, Lily

Grove | 256 pp. | $28.00 Oct. 7, 2025 | 9780802165176

(from a storytelling standpoint). We delve into her process and muse on the benefits of writing first drafts by hand. We talk about why she chooses to use single quotation marks instead of doubles, how she balances reading with writing, and the belief that people—and characters—are capable of change and growth.

Then fiction editor Laurie Muchnick joins us to discuss making the list of 2025’s best fiction books.

Editor at large Megan Labrise hosts the Fully Booked podcast.

To listen to the episode, visit Kirkus online.

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B O O K T O S C R E E N // F I C T I O N

Amanda Edwards/Get t y Images for SAG -AF TR A Foundation

Book to Screen

Diego Luna To Direct Eating Ashes Film The movie is based on Brenda Navarro’s award-winning novel.

Diego Luna will direct a film adaptation of Brenda Navarro’s Eating Ashes,

K IR KU S R E V IE W S

publisher W.W. Norton announced in a news release.

Navarro’s novel, set to be published in the U.S. in a translation by Megan McDowell on Jan. 20, follows an unnamed narrator struggling to come to terms with the suicide of her younger brother, whom she helped to raise. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus called the book “a sensitive portrayal of sibling love, grief, and the trauma of dislocation.”

The adaptation, titled Ceniza en la boca, will be the fourth feature film directed by Rogue One and Andor star Luna, following Abel, César Chávez, and

Mr. Pig. The Spanish-language movie is co-written

by Luna, Abia Castillo, and Diego Rabasa.

Starring in the film will be Anna Díaz (Let Me Be With You), Adriana Paz (Emilia Pérez), Laura Gómez (Orange Is the New Black), and Charlie Rowe (Wolf Hall).

In a statement, Navarro said, “I have always believed that literature is where freedom of expression meets the deepest aspects of the human condition, sparking global conversations. So I am

honoured that Diego Luna fell in love with the novel and offered his own interpretation of its themes of grief, migration, and tenderness in his film based on Eating Ashes.”

The movie, which was shot in Madrid, Barcelona, and Mexico City, is set for release in the fall.—M.S.

Diego Luna

For a review of Eating Ashes, visit Kirkus online.

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F I C T I O N // R O M A N C E

Come for the kink and spice, stay for the smart dialogue and relatable angst.

DOM-COM

Kirkus Star

A Lady for All Seasons Alexander, TJ | Vintage (304 pp.) | $18 paper | March 10, 2026 | 9798217007288

A desperate almost-spinster finds new hope with an unexpected friend.

In 1820, much is changing among the ton, but Miss Verbena Montrose is still facing the same challenge she did before King George III’s death: If she doesn’t get married to a rich man soon, her family will be destitute. When she learns that her “Achillean” friend, Étienne Charbonneau, also faces ruin, she proposes a marriage of convenience to save them both. This seems certain to work, until the popular poetess Miss Flora Witcombe writes a verse about their relationship that hints at its farcical nature. Furious and terrified, Verbena wastes no time in confronting Flora, only to find that she rather likes the woman. Flora, for her part, is instantly smitten by Verbena, and delighted when they strike up a friendship. Though they become close, however, Flora is keeping a secret: She was born William Forsyth, a novelist who isn’t quite as popular as Flora. And in fact, though he does not feel entirely William, neither does she feel entirely Flora—they are both, at different times, for different reasons. So, even as Verbena starts admitting her attraction to Flora, she separately meets William, who 42

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wants to woo her, and things get complicated. Despite the difficulties they face, this story is first and foremost a comedy of errors, witty and stuffed with all the hijinks one would expect from a book in which Lord Byron makes numerous cameos. Though some slow-burn romances suffer from complicated plots that could easily be resolved if everyone was just honest with each other, that is not an option for Flora/William, and Alexander makes the most of this for madcap plot development while always writing their characters with respect and tenderness. The story is deeply grounded in its historical setting, but never at the expense of the queer joy that radiates throughout.

Genderfluid historical romance at its finest, and funniest.

Kirkus Star

Dom-Com Anders, Adriana | Forever (416 pp.) | $18.99 paper | January 27, 2026 | 9781538773116

An eager, curious new submissive shares a hot scene at a BDSM club with a jaded, experienced dom.

Will they be able to keep their relationship professional when he turns out to be her new co-worker?

Rae Jensen is the human resources manager for Sugar, a dating app.

Grant Bowman has mysteriously been hired as an executive consultant, but his role is secretly much deeper than that. Dorothy, who owns

the company, is his neighbor, and she’s hired him to find the source of a data breach before an investors’ meeting. Grant and Rae are about as opposite as two people can be. He’s grumpy and focused, with commitment issues stemming from his mom’s serial marriages. She’s cheerful and chaotic, juggling work, family, and a confusing attraction to the sexy man she’s shocked to discover sharing her office the Monday morning after she met him at the kink club. But whoa, the attraction. The tension between these two is so hot that readers might not even notice how intentionally Anders drops lessons about consent and power exchange into the story. As the stakes grow higher between Rae and Grant, they decide to pursue a relationship that expires at the end of his contract with Sugar. Rounding out the tale is a cast of hilarious, lovable secondary characters who hopefully will merit their own books. In the end, this isn’t just a story about negotiating a sexual (or even romantic) relationship. It’s about Rae and Grant finding the agency to name and claim what they want. It’s about two people who have been deeply hurt learning to trust one another with their pleasure, and about the emotional intimacy and personal growth that comes from such vulnerability.

Come for the kink and spice, stay for the smart dialogue and relatable angst. This happy ending doesn’t disappoint.

Toe to Toe Ballard, Falon | Putnam (336 pp.) | $18.99 paper | March 10, 2026 | 9798217045167

A ballerina enlists a sexy male dancer to help her land a big role.

Allegra Hart’s entire life is ballet.

From the time she was a small child, she’s worked toward her dream—and now, as a dancer with K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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Ballet New York, she has the chance to get the lead role in her company’s latest production. But her sleazy director tells her he’s not sure she has the sex appeal for the role. Crushed, Allegra gets an idea while attending a male revue for her sister’s bachelorette party—surely the man performing lap dances could help her tap into her latent sexy side? Cord Donovan has no desire to get entangled in the ballet world—he had his own bad experience with dance when he was younger—but there’s something about Allegra he can’t resist. So he starts giving her lessons and assignments, like taking boudoir photos, meant to help her realize her own sensual potential. As Cord and Allegra spend more time together, their instantaneous physical attraction turns into something deeper—but Cord doesn’t want anything to do with the toxic world of ballet, and Allegra worries that a relationship would only derail her focus on her career. Ballard creates a world in which everyone is either a dancer, employed in a sexy profession, or both; for example, Cord’s sister teaches pole dancing. Cord and Allegra have fiery chemistry that leads to some spicy scenes and dances—but that does make it seem slightly unbelievable that they wouldn’t just get over their reservations and pursue a relationship that feels all but inevitable. However, their romantic connection is strong and the details about Allegra’s life in the ballet world are engrossing enough that it’s easy to go along for the ride.

A fun and very steamy romance that explores the inner lives of dancers.

Remember That Day Balogh, Mary | Berkley (368 pp.) | $30 January 6, 2026 | 9780593818084

Two families come together with an unexpected courtship.

The adopted daughter of an artist and his high-born wife, Winifred Cunningham has made peace with her childhood as an K IR KU S R E V IE W S

abandoned orphan and found contentment with her chosen family in Regency England. She is hoping that she can soon start another one with her friend Owen Ware, a younger brother of the Earl of Stratton. But when she meets another of his brothers, Nicholas, a colonel in the cavalry, her reaction to him makes her reevaluate what her heart truly desires.

Nicholas knows it’s past time he marries and Grace Haviland, his commanding officer’s daughter, seems like the right choice—a woman of beauty and refinement who understands the military life. But his encounters with Win, who loves children and has no artifice, call forth a buried longing for the kind of passionate spousal affection he sees between many of his relatives. Despite their age difference of 13 years, both realize that their connection is special.

Except for some minor tension while ensuring that the previous objects of Win and Nicholas’ affection are not harmed, there is no conflict in the plot.

Much of the story takes place at a lengthy house party where Win and Nicholas end up conversing and understanding each other beyond their initial impressions—hers of him as a trained killer and his of her being plain and plainspoken. The novel’s events are preceded by a note from the author explaining the various characters from both their families whose courtships appeared in the Ravenswood and Westcott series, and the last fifth of the book feels like a list of the same people as they assemble for Win and Nicholas’ wedding. While some readers might find the low stakes and off-page sex make for an undemanding comfort read, others might be turned off by the leisurely pacing and scenes of rural socializing.

A classic Regency that feels like a holiday movie with a huge cast of characters who do very little.

For more by Abby Jimenez, visit Kirkus online.

Kirkus Star

The Night We Met Jimenez, Abby | Forever (400 pp.) | $30 March 24, 2026 | 9781538759226

Friends grapple with their very forbidden feelings for each other.

When Larissa found herself in need of a ride home after a rare night out, she went with friendly, outgoing Mike instead of his quiet, seemingly grumpy friend Chris. Now she’s dating Mike, but when he can’t drive her to her mother’s early morning surgery, he sends Chris in his place. As they spend time together at the hospital, Larissa realizes that she and Chris have a lot in common—much more than she and Mike do. Through an unexpected series of events, Chris ends up adopting a stray dog that Larissa volunteers to walk, giving them more chances to see each other. Larissa is struggling financially, and she spends all her time juggling her numerous side hustles just to pay her bills. Chris can’t stand to see her unhappy, so he finds himself assisting Mike behind the scenes, suggesting gifts or gestures that would help Larissa out. But Chris soon realizes that his feelings for Larissa go far deeper than friendship. Chris would never betray his closest friend, especially because he knows that Mike is secretly fighting demons he hasn’t shared with Larissa. Meanwhile, Larissa can’t help but wonder what would have happened if she’d only chosen Chris on the night they met. But it’s too late now...isn’t it?

The obstacle between Chris and Larissa seems insurmountable, and Jimenez skillfully ratchets up the tension in every scene. Their hidden feelings always bubble beneath the surface, making it all the more dramatic and satisfying when the conflict finally explodes. Chris and Larissa are both immensely likable characters who never want to betray Mike or the rest of their friends—which is why it’s such a problem that they can only be together JANUARY 1, 2026

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if they do just that. Larissa’s struggles to stay afloat and the severe nut allergy she navigates are handled with sensitivity and realism, while Chris is the perfect romantic hero who just wants to make Larissa’s life a little easier.

A compulsively readable slowburn romance full of grown-up worries and plenty of pining.

A Little Buzzed Murray, Alys | Berkley (368 pp.) | $19 paper February 17, 2026 | 9780593819715

A girl-boss sex-toy engineer and a shy software developer mix business with pleasure in this NSFW workplace romance.

Scout Porter has vowed to never let love distract her from work, but she never said anything about lust. As the head engineer for BuzzCorp, a sex-toy manufacturer, there’s not much that can make Scout blush—that is, until Hudson Bailey comes along. He’s BuzzCorp’s handsome new contracted software engineer, which means that Scout has to deal with six weeks of being agonizingly horny. The problem isn’t that he’s tall and bookish, or that he’s never even used a sex toy before, but that Scout’s life turned upside down the last time she fell for a co-worker and got distracted. After a major mechanical failure at Scout’s previous gig caused her to lose her job and end up heartbroken, she’s avoided all relationships—to the point that she’s still a virgin. Hudson doesn’t fall for Scout’s work-only attitude, though, and asks her to “professionally” teach him the ropes about BuzzCorp’s toys so he can better engineer them. While Scout is leery of entering this teaching partnership with Hudson, she realizes she could use it to her advantage. How can she manu­ facture sex toys without ever having done the deed? Plus, she can shake off her untamable desire for Hudson by actually having him, and by the looks of his, er, body language, it seems he 44

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feels the same way. As Scout and Hudson enter their newfound working relationship, Scout can’t help but realize her feelings go beyond the bedroom, and she might just be head over vibrator in love. Murray’s novel is a hot, hot, hot and oh-so-fun workplace romance. In a story perfect for fans of Ali Hazelwood, Murray brings the heat while formulating a sincere, vulnerable relationship between two people with insecurities. Scout and Hudson buzz with tension on every page, and Murray’s tongue-in-cheek chapter headings keep the vibes delightfully campy and steamy.

Nerdy, naughty, and next on your TBR list.

Only Friends San Andres, Lydia | Primero Sueño Press/Atria (288 pp.) | $18 paper February 10, 2026 | 9781668098066

A screenwriter and a model team up to create spicy, Regency-erathemed social media content.

Recently fired from her job, Mariel Rivera finally has time to write her screenplay…if she could only figure out what to write about. Instead, she keeps toying with the idea of crafting X-rated videos featuring the Duke of Harding, a character of her creation. When she meets model-­ turned-cosplayer Dashwood Bennet in Times Square one day, he looks exactly as she imagined her duke. Dash makes his money from OnlyFans and, like Mariel, is a fan of historical romance novels, so he’s thrilled by her idea. She’ll write the scripts; he’ll be the star. The pair hit it off immediately, but when flirtation leads to the possible start of something more meaningful, Mariel gets scared. She’s been ghosted one too many times and knows she has a tendency to run away from problems. Dash has his own relationship hang-ups—his propensity for people-pleasing coupled with his

yearning for a committed partner have led to his being used in the past. As their social media following grows exponentially, they have to decide if they’re just business partners or willing to take the risk of entering a romantic relationship. The concept of this story is enticing and the New York setting shines. The casual diversity, from Mariel’s Dominican heritage to Dash’s queerness, is nicely woven in, but while they’re appealing characters, they lack depth. All the conflicts they face—even within themselves—feel surface level. Their romance is sweet, but because there isn’t much complexity, it starts to feel repetitive. Although explicit content is the characters’ work, this book is surprisingly on the more moderate side, mostly favoring sweetness over spice.

Fun premise, but underbaked in execution.

Risky Business Slator, Annabelle | Avon/HarperCollins (384 pp.) | $18.99 paper | February 3, 2026 9780063383692

In a twist on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, a London woman in need of investors for her startup disguises her identity at an innovation competition and falls for the assistant to a wealthy CEO. Jess Cole is struggling to find investors for her startup, Wyst, a company that focuses on women’s physical- and mental-health issues and access to care.

She suspects the problem has more to do with the fact that she’s a woman rather than her business plans. To complicate matters, she was previously at the heart of a workplace scandal when a colleague she was dating spread around intimate photos, and the tech world has proven to be a rather small community. In a last-ditch effort to make her dreams come true, Jess enters TechRumble, a competition to fund budding startups— and convinces her twin brother, Spencer, K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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to pose as the company’s founder while she goes undercover as Violet, his assistant. While things start to look up for the future of Wyst, Jess has a hard time reining Spencer in, and she worries that he’s inadvertently jeopardizing everything by courting the competition judges with promises she can’t possibly fulfill. Oliver Kavanagh works as the assistant to the competition’s wealthy host. He and Jess (as Violet) bond rather quickly and cutely morph from friends to lovers. Working as his cousin’s assistant isn’t the career he wants, and he eventually comes to realize what his professional dreams actually are. Jess’ deception hangs over the story, as she’s potentially sabotaged the sole reason she entered TechRumble in the first place, creating wonderful tension that drives most of the book’s momentum. Jess and Oliver’s romance is simply fine. It’s sweet but slow, and Oliver lacks extra oomph as the leading man.

Better on the tech than the romance.

Kirkus Star

Our Ex’s Wedding Voskuni, Taleen | Berkley (416 pp.) | $19 paper | January 20, 2026 | 9780593953648

A wedding planner and a winery owner reluctantly team up to plan their mutual ex’s dream wedding.

Ani Avakian quit her job to follow her dream of becoming the Bay Area’s most successful Armenian wedding planner, but her career is off to a rocky start.

With overdraft fees looming, she agrees to take on the wedding of an up-and-coming indie movie star, Grace, who’d already lined up an Armenian-owned winery as the venue.

At first, Ani is excited to work with someone who shares her heritage, but she and the winery’s owner, Raffi Garabedian, get off on the wrong foot.

Ani’s heard stories about Raffi’s reputation as a love ’em and leave ’em K IR KU S R E V IE W S

type, while Raffi is too tongue-tied to address her preconceived notions. Then Ani’s in for shock when it turns out that Grace’s fiancée is Kami, the woman who broke her heart two years ago, and that’s not even the worst part. Apparently, Ani’s ex-girlfriend Kami is also Raffi’s ex-girlfriend Kami. Wedding planner and winery owner are beyond surprised to discover they have similar tastes in women, but there’s no time to be rattled about the revelation because they need to work together to make sure this wedding goes off without a hitch. That means having meetings about where to hold the ceremony, where to install the fountain Kami wants, what flowers to use to capture the color scheme, you name it. The more time Ani and Raffi are forced to spend in each other’s company, the more they suspect the tension between them is rooted in something more complicated than mere dislike, but they’ll have to prioritize professionalism over personal feelings to give their ex the wedding of her dreams. Voskuni returns to the same winning blend of humor, romance, and culture that made her debut, Sorry, Bro (2023), so unputdownable, and her latest feels like a natural evolution of all her best traits as a writer. With sparkling chemistry, plenty of nods to classic rom-coms, and a welcome dose of spice, the end result is a slow-burn love story that heats up at the perfect moment.

This raucous and riveting romance is Voskuni’s best yet.

Heartsong Wendel, S.E. | Avon/HarperCollins (448 pp.) | $19.99 paper February 10, 2026 | 9780063466258

When Frey’s true love lifts the curse that’s been placed on him, will he be able to melt her stony heart and convince her that they’re meant to be together?

Anna Kinkaid lives a quiet life as a docent at a

small private museum in the California Bay Area specializing in grotesque statues, which are similar to gargoyles except they don’t have spouts to divert rainwater. She’s worked hard to build a comfortable life for herself after a chaotic lifetime of trauma, and even has reliable health insurance to help with the chronic pain of her ongoing migraines. Frey is a guardian who was turned to stone centuries ago when his people were cursed by the Faerie Queen. He has a shared consciousness with the rest of his kind, but has been frozen in stone for 1,500 years. When Anna grabs him to steady herself during an after-hours museum heist, her touch partially breaks the curse and he carries her to safety. The next few weeks involve Frey hiding out at Anna’s apartment, where she helps him learn about the modern world and he cooks for her, turning back to stone during the day. Frey brings some comic relief as he adapts to technology and new clothing (important for fans of gray sweatpants everywhere), and Anna is as headstrong as her soulmate, resisting his paternalistic attempts to protect her. There’s some vague unresolved trauma from Anna’s past that is never satisfyingly resolved and Frey comes off as condescending when he insists that Anna forgo her medicine and get a new job because he thinks she’s in danger. The museum robbery and the war with the fae that resulted in Frey’s curse—most of the story, in other words—take a distant backseat, though, to the sexual tension.

A lukewarm romance peppered with spicier scenes that might justify a read for fans of monster romance.

For more romance reviews, visit Kirkus online.

JANUARY 1, 2026

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Nonfiction

JOHN McMURTRIE

THE BALL HAS dropped in New York’s Times Square, and the nation’s largest city has a new mayor as of Jan. 1. Whatever you make of him, Zohran Mamdani represents a new beginning. As you might have heard (maybe more than once), the come-from-­ behind candidate is New York’s youngest mayor in more than a century. He’s also the city’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor. It seems a perfect time, then, to showcase a handful of 2025 books that focus on the City That Never Sleeps or—give the nickname time to catch on—the City That Has Been Home to Kirkus Since 1933.

First, let’s travel back in time a bit. One realizes just how groundbreaking Mamdani’s election is when considering that New York—the most linguistically diverse city on the planet—elected its first mayor with Asian roots four centuries after the Dutch and English began trading in Asia and what is now New York City. An excellent book that examines this early history is Russell Shorto’s 46

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Taking Manhattan: The Extraordinary Events That Created New York and Shaped America (Norton, March 4).

Mike Wallace has been chronicling New York’s history for decades— Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (1998) won the Pulitzer Prize, followed by Greater Gotham: A History of New York City From 1898 to 1919 (2017)—and the final book in his trilogy is Gotham at War: A History of New York City From 1933 to 1945 (Oxford Univ., Oct. 1). Of this “historical tour de force,” our reviewer wrote, “Calling a nearly 1,000page volume a wild ride is no exaggeration, because few of the 168 short chapters fail to deliver.”

Of course, New York has long been a global beacon as a cultural capital, and a lively book that sheds light on a sliver of that history is Alice T. Friedman’s Queer Moderns: Max Ewing’s Jazz Age New York (Princeton Univ., May 27), centered on the titular artist and bon vivant’s circle of friends.

“Friedman’s appreciative biography,” our reviewer wrote, “vividly conveys the spirited ambience of the interracial, international community of queer outsiders and intellectuals among whom, for his short life, Ewing thrived.”

In David Brown Morris’ Ten Thousand Central Parks: A Climate-Change Parable (Empire State Editions/Fordham Univ., Oct. 7), readers are encouraged to see the world-famous urban park with new eyes: “A workforce of immigrants sometimes numbering as high as four thousand created almost all the features that we recognize today as a natural landscape—soil, hills, trees, lakes, meadows, woods.”

Brandon Stanton, too, brings out the humanity of the city in his latest collection of interviews and photographs, Dear New York (St. Martin’s, Oct. 7), continuing work that he began in the bestselling Humans of New York (2013). “This city cannot be captured,” he writes.

“Not with a pen, not with a paintbrush, not with poetry, and not with a camera.…There is no frame large enough. You can never say: ‘This is New York.’” That may be true, but Stanton, with his many oral histories, nevertheless paints indelible portraits.

All of them say, “These are New Yorkers.”

John McMurtrie is the nonfiction editor.

K IR KU S R E V IE W S

Illustration by Eric Scot t Ander son

NEW YORK BOOKS FOR THE NEW YEAR

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EDITOR’S PICK A page-turner that explores the hidden world of the mind.

Pollan’s latest begins with a wager between a philosopher and a scientist back in 1998, one premised on the discovery of the brain’s physical basis for consciousness, which the scientist predicted would “comprise a small set of specialized neurons responsible for subjective experience.” The scientist, Christof Koch, didn’t quite get there in the specified 25-year limit for the discovery, presenting the philosopher, David Chalmers, with a case of fine wine for winning the bet. We’re still not there, but neuroscientists are making headway, with two competing models, global workspace theory and integrated information

These Titles Earned the Kirkus Star

K IR KU S R E V IE W S

theory, leading the charge.

(Koch favors the latter.)

But along the way, scientists have also learned much more about the components of consciousness (sentience, feeling, thought, and awareness of self ) in animal minds and, possibly, even in plants (“ancient, brainless, and largely immobile”), which some researchers hold can feel pain. Pollan, who has written about food, plants, and psychoactive drugs, combines all three topics in this survey of the many ways people think about thinking, with the insight that people who have experience with the last are more inclined than others to ascribe consciousness to nonhuman beings “both living and nonliving,” possibly even to the level of viruses. Indeed, there is

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Cosmic Music

By Andy Beta

51

Seven Sisters

By Veronica Buckley

A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness Pollan, Michael | Penguin Press | 320 pp. $29 | February 24, 2026 | 9781984881991

widespread agreement, psychedelics or not, that nonhuman animals have the same neurological substrates that enable consciousness in humans.

The science in Pollan’s book is heady and sometimes even headache-­ inducing, but he delivers plenty of ponderable insights, such as this: “Why do we cling to the

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How Flowers Made Our World

By David George Haskell

69

Volga Blues

By Marzio G. Mian

70

Stephen Sondheim

By Daniel Okrent

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A World Appears

By Michael Pollan

idea of a self, placing great value on self-confidence and self-esteem, while simultaneously spending so much effort on self-transcendence, whether through meditation or psychedelics or experiences of art, awe, and flow?”

A fluent survey of what we know—or think we know— about the mind.

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Traversal

By Maria Popova

76

The Blood Countess

By Shelley Puhak

78

Freedom Lost, Freedom Won

By Eugene Robinson

JANUARY 1, 2026

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NONFICTION

The Legend of Wyatt Outlaw: From Reconstruction Through Black Lives Matter Allen Jr., Sylvester and Belle Boggs Univ. of North Carolina (296 pp.) | $30 January 27, 2026 | 9781469689999

Far-reaching history of a forgotten Black civil rights pioneer whose short life offers timely lessons.

“Beware you guilty, both white and black.” So reads the note pinned to Wyatt Outlaw’s clothing by the Klansmen who lynched him on Feb. 26, 1870, in the small town of Graham, North Carolina. Outlaw’s sins were many, in the eyes of the white supremacists: He was, write Allen and Boggs, “a coalition builder who worked with white and Black citizens”—whence the warning—“and believed in justice and the rule of law.” Outlaw’s murder had lasting consequences as a prelude to the end of Reconstruction and the advent of Jim Crow segregationism.

Allen, a native of Graham, began his research into Outlaw’s life by writing a play, its events connecting with his own life and the lives of all Black Americans.

“I wasn’t meant to feel at home in Graham’s town square, where a Confederate statue still stands in front of our historic courthouse,” he notes—the courthouse where Outlaw was hanged before a crowd of 100. Yet the authors point to anomalies: North Carolina was the last state to secede to join the Confederacy and had a smaller caste of slaveholders than its neighboring states; its revanchism against Blacks and Radical Republicans came after the war (that Confederate statue dates to 1914) and endures. “Hate in this county is generational,” one activist remarks, and that’s just so: The authors connect Outlaw’s fate to that of George Floyd and other victims of racist brutality, not least those Black protestors in Graham terrorized by local police in 2020— adding, “and it’s hard not to connect the violence to the many instances of 48

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police and white supremacist violence faced by Reconstruction-­era voting rights leaders.”

A well-crafted contribution to history “in a society where telling the truth about history makes you an outlaw.”

This Was Funnier in China: An American Comedian’s Cross-Cultural Journey Appell, Jesse | Avid Reader Press (288 pp.) $28.99 | February 10, 2026 | 9781668087565

A Jewish American comedian walks into a Chinese bar…

“Why China?”

Well, Appell studied Mandarin in college and went to China on a study-abroad fellowship, where he fell in love with Beijing, “a hot, delicious, absurdist puzzle box of a city.” What’s more, he adds, “Nothing was easy, nothing was boring.” What proved to be particularly difficult, but intriguing, was a Chinese form of comedy called xiangsheng, translated as “crosstalk,” involving a joker and a straight man: “A: In the late Qing dynasty— B: They don’t know when that is! A: Late 1800s! B: Don’t act all cultured and leave them behind. A: I got this! Late 1800s. One of the Qing Emperors goes kaput. B: ‘Kaput?’ Was he a Yiddish emperor? A: Maybe.” It’s not quite Abbott and Costello, but it’s in the neighborhood. What diverges in traditional Chinese comedy, Appell writes, is that it’s perfectly PC to make fun of regional differences—whereas doing political jokes of whatever stripe, as he learns onstage and off, can land you in the gulag, or at least barred from the set. Guiding Appell through this rigorous education is a Master Ding, who “would use his fifty years of comedy insight to blast the smallest mistakes in your performance in front of all the disciples. This sucked, mostly because he was almost always right.” But soon enough, the student becomes something of a master himself, launching a Chinese sketch comedy show, writing for and

performing on TV, founding a comedy club, doing cruise ship gigs, and even touring North American and European Chinese-language venues—and all in Chinese, of course. There are adventures and misadventures aplenty, and while there isn’t much in the way of howlingly funny japery here, it’s an interesting way to examine another culture from the point of view of a “performing monkey” from a faraway land.

A modestly entertaining but surely unique travelogue/memoir.

Black Out Loud: The Revolutionary History of Black Comedy From Vaudeville to ’90s Sitcoms Bennett, Geoff | Harper/HarperCollins (304 pp.) $32.99 | March 24, 2026 | 9780063418172

A pop-culture history that places Black comedy, especially on television, into context.

PBS NewsHour co-anchor Bennett argues in this history that the 1990s represented a revolution in the history of Black television comedy, with shows like In Living Color and Living Single forever altering the landscape of the medium. “I came of age watching Black characters who felt like people I knew, who were messy and hilarious and ambitious and flawed,” he writes.

“They shaped how I saw the world and how I saw myself moving through it.”

That era might be the impetus for this book, but Bennett tells a more complete story, starting with comedians like minstrel performer Billy Kersands and vaudeville star Stepin Fetchit. Their work could not have aged more badly, but as Bennett writes, “Hollywood had no interest in presenting balanced portrayals of Black life….If they wanted to continue working, Black performers had no choice but to play the role.”

Bennett writes profiles of the comedians who bridged the gap to the next era, including Pigmeat Markham and Moms Mabley, and the ones who K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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gleefully rewrote the rules of Black comedy, such as Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy. Bill Cosby gets a chapter: “Can we enjoy his gifts to humanity without considering his monstrous actions? That may be a question we each can only answer as individuals.” It’s a bit of a punt, but the author’s analysis of Cosby’s place is smart enough that it can be forgiven.

Bennett shines brightest in his chapters about the ’90s, especially when he writes about his beloved In Living Color, the pioneering sketch show that he calls “an unprecedented cultural shift, unapologetically reshaping comedy and representation on TV.” The book is plenty informative, but it’s also infused with Bennett’s joy—and that joy sure is contagious.

An insightful celebration of comedy stars that makes for good times.

Resisting Nazism: True Stories of Resistance to the World’s Most Dangerous Ideology, From 1920 to the Present Berryman, Luke | Bloomsbury Academic (296 pp.) | $27 January 22, 2026 | 9798881800703

Exploration of the many ways, nonviolent and otherwise, that anti-fascists have fought enemy regimes over the last century and longer.

“Why didn’t more people resist Nazism?” Berryman is often asked. The author replies that it depends on what one means by resistance. The founder of the Ninth Candle, a nonprofit that helps schools improve Holocaust education, Berryman writes that not every German under Hitler’s rule had the wherewithal or access to bomb the Führer in his bunker, but there were layers of resistance at work all the same, ranging from active political resistance to nonconformity, refusal, and protest. When the Nazis seemed to be out on the fringe in the 1920s, Berryman K IR KU S R E V IE W S

holds, “the most persistent of [the] early resisters were the cartoonists who worked for satirical magazines.” That continued until censorship set in; one telling cartoon from 1933 depicts Nazi violence taking place off in the distance while ordinary Germans strolled by, blissfully unaware. Just as dangerous was joining “pirate groups,” most of them populated by working-class youngsters who didn’t attend school but who were too young for military service, and who “all…rejected the Nazis.” Some even distinguished themselves by listening to forbidden jazz music. From prison camp revolts to ghetto uprisings and partisan warfare, some resistance took deadlier form.

Berryman also includes the wartime experience of a Black American soldier, Leon Bass, who helped liberate Buchenwald and returned to the U.S. committed to the cause of civil rights, saying, “Nazism in Germany is the other side of racism and Jim Crow segregation.”

Pointedly, Berryman extends his series of profiles to the present, given the resurgence of nationalist and white supremacist movements throughout the West: Not all are Nazis, strictly defined, he notes, but there are “enough points of overlap to give the stories in this book fresh relevance.”

A worthy survey for modern-day resisters as well as students of world history.

Kirkus Star

Cosmic Music: The Life, Art, and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane Beta, Andy | Da Capo (480 pp.) | $32.50 March 3, 2026 | 9780306836169

An accessible, definitive biography of Alice Coltrane (19372007), mis­ understood jazz musician and guru.

Until recently, Coltrane was typically discussed only in the context of her husband, saxophone titan John

Coltrane. Though she was a gifted pianist and harpist, most critical assessments of her music were dismissive if not overtly sexist. (One review called her a “virtually talentless lady who married the right man.”)

This complicates Beta’s efforts to explore her life, because relatively few interviews and background materials exist, as if she weren’t worth the bother. But this book not only fills out her life, it goes a long way toward redeeming her as an artist. Born in Detroit, she was prodigiously gifted, accompanying choirs at her church before she was 10. Efforts to launch a music career in New York and Paris fizzled, as did a brief first marriage, but she found a kindred spirit in Coltrane, who in the 1960s was deep into a spiritual phase. She accompanied him on pathbreaking work before his death in 1967; after, she maintained his estate and recorded jazz albums deeply influenced by Hindu spirituality. The music baffled many, but Beta, a veteran music journalist, cleanly contextualizes her work in the traditions of gospel, classical (Western and Indian), jazz, and beyond, making it clear that her music was essential to her spiritual journey. In the ’70s she moved to California, where she established an ashram, assuming the title Swamini Turiyasangitananda, recording cassettes of her singing with followers, and enjoyed a career revival before her death. Artists like Radiohead, Björk, and David Byrne have promoted her work, and Beta’s book does a valuable service as well; in its precision, empathy, and musical understanding, the book scours off the condescension that’s clung to her reputation and reveals her anew.

An invaluable life of a pioneering artist, only now beginning to be fully understood.

For more about jazz, visit Kirkus online.

JANUARY 1, 2026

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The Hour of the Wolf: A Memoir Bhutto, Fatima | Scribner (192 pp.) | $26 January 27, 2026 | 9781668075623

A child of an assassinated Pakistani opposition leader writes of years of trauma.

“In a world of excess and power and all their rot, what besides love forces us to be pure?” So writes Bhutto in one of the many apothegmatic moments that punctuate a grim account of life under the thumb of a man who demands sacrifice in one of a number of “controlling relationships.” Known for her work as a writer and coming from a prominent family, she is in a “public gaze…[that] makes him uncomfortable”; he gaslights her constantly while demanding that, for instance, she not wear makeup “because it made me look like a mouse with eyeliner on”; he denies her the possibility of the children she longs for. For complex reasons—and perhaps a little Stockholm syndrome at work—she acquiesces to one soul-scarring demand after another, hoping, as she admits, that he would become “more like the man I had built him up to be in my head.” In the course of this long campaign of belittlement and emotional extortion, Bhutto finds Barry Lopez’s classic book Of Wolves and Men and, as the old saw goes, weighs wolves and humans in the balance and finds humans wanting, with wolves and their descendants, our beloved dogs, helping her find a path to personal freedom and even, now, happiness. The mix of meditations on wolves, dogs, and nature in general doesn’t always cohere with the deeply personal, often self-doubting passages surrounding them, but in the end, apart from her own psychic breakthrough, some graceful realizations shine through—one, for instance, that our dogs “teach us about love and time and the smallness of our own beings and place in the world.”

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A sometimes uneasy but ultimately winning blend of natural history and fraught personal memoir.

The Typewriter and the Guillotine: An American Journalist, a German Serial Killer, and Paris on the Eve of WWII Braude, Mark | Grand Central Publishing (432 pp.) | $32.50 | January 20, 2026 9781538767115

The City of Light, before darkness set in.

Braude, author of the excellent Kiki Man Ray: Art, Love, and Rivalry in 1920s Paris (2022), opens his latest book with an impending execution.

The place is Versailles. The year, 1939.

On this hot night, just months before the start of World War II, a frenzied crowd gathered to wait for the drop of the guillotine’s shining blade. The victim was the German serial killer Eugen Weidmann, in whom the legendary New Yorker writer Janet Flanner took a deep and lasting interest. Flanner, whom the magazine’s co-founder Harold Ross tasked with sending dispatches under the “Letter from Paris” column, saw in Weidmann a window to the tumultuous 1930s.

Braude traces the lives of both Flanner and Weidmann until the latter became the former’s journalistic fascination.

The two came from opposing worlds.

Flanner was at the heart of the 1920s Paris literary set and a participant in what F. Scott Fitzgerald called “the greatest, gaudiest spree in history.”

Weidmann was a troubled youth prone to crime. The book contains many fascinating stories, especially of the early days of the New Yorker and of prominent Paris writers including Ernest Hemingway, whom Braude notes once played “bullfighter and bull,” lunging across the room as a friend did veronicas with his cape. One of Braude’s achievements is he expands

our sense of the tempestuous 1930s, “the hangover,” as he calls it, painting a picture of the turmoil beyond Germany in places like France, where Weidmann was carrying out his murders. Throughout, Braude gives us a briskly paced account in short, crisp chapters. His vibrant writing lends the narrative immense thrust; rarely does one not want to turn the page. His penetrating study of Flanner speaks to his skill as a researcher. Weidmann, however, appears in less vivid detail, suggesting an imbalance in source material. All the same, this slight unevenness does not tarnish what is surely a significant work of nonfiction.

Part biography, part true crime narrative, this book presents something rare: a novel story about interwar Paris.

Seven Tenths of a Second: Life, Leadership and Formula 1 Brown, Zak | Dutton (285 pp.) | $24 paper November 18, 2025 | 9798217184781

The CEO of McLaren Racing shares lessons learned.

Born and raised in Los Angeles to parents who supported his dreams with love and money, Brown confesses to having been a low-performing student and a “jerk” to other kids around him. In high school, he broke the jaw of a popular class president who had humiliated him with a cake in the face following a stunt Brown thoughtlessly played on birthday celebrants. He never actually finished his formal education. But it was his passion for sports—first baseball, then kart racing—that saved him, he says, giving him a reason to think of how to get good at something and keep striving to be better. A decade pursuing race-car driving in Europe taught him he was not top-grade material behind the wheel, but while looking for sponsors he K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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discovered a talent and passion for “deal-making,” which eventually put him on track to rise up in the world of sports management. A deal he negotiated between Crown Royal and NASCAR that led to the end of a decades-long ban on hard liquor sponsorship in motorsports (and other sports soon after) made Brown the first serious money to convince him he was on the right path. And up the corporate ladder he raced. Patient readers who suffer business clichés will find surprisingly humanistic principles in Brown’s lessons for managers and leaders: “You want a summary of my management style?” he asks. “I’m a democratic, diplomatic leader. A benevolent leader.” Not a pushover, by any means, he led his team from the basement to the top within 10 years, with a world-stopping pandemic in-between.

Great for business leaders, motorsports fans, and teenage ne’er-do-wells looking for a way up.

Kirkus Star

Seven Sisters: Captives and Rebels in Revolutionary Europe’s First Family Buckley, Veronica | Viking (528 pp.) | $35 March 24, 2026 | 9780525561903

The trials and triumphs of the Habsburg women.

In a sprawling group biography, Buckley recounts the lives of the seven daughters of Empress Maria Theresia (17171780), women whose function was to make politically advantageous marriages in the service of the Habsburg empire. The sisters—Marianna, Marie Christine, Elisabeth, Amalie, Carolina, Josepha, and Antonia—were necessarily in competition, some envying one another for the men they married, some dramatically protesting those chosen for them. The domineering Maria Theresia judged her daughters harshly, although K IR KU S R E V IE W S

A football coach who found success in rejecting the sport’s “authoritarian” model.

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she admitted that at times she was moved to compassion by their distress.

Nevertheless, she persisted in treating them as pawns on a “dynastic chessboard,” making sure they presented themselves as appealing. The scars of smallpox, for example, caused Elisabeth’s value to fall drastically because of her appearance. The young women showed greatly different attitudes about being manipulated by their mother: Amalie, who was denied marrying a man she loved, betrothed instead to a man even her brother found insufferable, proved “the most fractious of the seven sisters.” Carolina, who at 15 left her family to become Queen of Naples, possessed, her mother thought, “a certain ambition in her.” It would serve her well: Her husband, the king, was exceedingly ugly. The most notorious of the seven proved to be Antonia, who, at the age of 14, was married by proxy to the French dauphin, whom she had not yet met, and became Marie Antoinette.

In four short years, she would be crowned queen of France. Besides marrying well, the women were obligated to produce a male heir, which entailed their facing the perils of childbirth and the fear of infant and early childhood mortality. Buckley weaves a lively narrative around court intrigue, alliances, and the many conflicts that characterized the 18th-century’s roiling politics.

A richly detailed history of eventful lives.

For more by Veronica Buckley, visit Kirkus online.

Men of Troy: The Epic Afternoons, Wild Nights, and Enduring Legacy of Pete Carroll’s USC Trojans Burke, Monte | Grand Central Publishing $32.50 | January 13, 2026 | 9781538772584

A SoCal sports powerhouse.

This look at the dominant mid-2000s USC football program succeeds on multiple fronts, coupling multi­ faceted character studies with memorable tales of excess, dysfunction, and controversy. Center stage is Pete Carroll, who coached the Trojans to consecutive national cham­ pionships. His players call him a “psychological ninja” and “a big-ass kid.”

Per the author’s diligent reporting, both characterizations fit. Burke depicts a football lifer who rejects the industry-­ standard “authoritarian” model.

Carroll’s approach, informed by applied psychology ideas that emerged in the 1960s, foregrounds fun. More than once, we see him try to keep practice loose by staging “morbid” pranks simulating untimely deaths.

After mediocre coaching stints in the NFL, Carroll’s USC winning percentage topped 83%. The staff’s “good cop,” he employs full-throttle assistants. One strips naked during a pep talk; another tackles a curfew-breaking player in a hotel. Burke presents a rounded portrait of Carroll, who has since returned to pro ball. A prominent former player describes the coach as “sneaky,” and some of Burke’s other sources say Carroll’s oversight was too lax. Burke’s reporting includes an ex-USC athlete’s claim that he supplied steroids to players and JANUARY 1, 2026

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glimpses of hard-partying Trojan stars.

Burke wrings an impressive amount of drama from accounts of old ballgames, including one considered among the best-ever college tilts. He has an occasional tin ear, however, casually describing rape allegations against L.A. Lakers legend Kobe Bryant as “an icky scandal.” The Trojans’ accomplishments were tarnished when the NCAA levied stiff penalties after finding that a star player accepted cash and other prohibited compensation. Since-adopted rules permit college athletes to earn money, and to the delight of its many critics, the NCAA’s commitment to “false amateurism” backfired, Burke correctly notes, rendering it largely “powerless.”

Insightfully assessing a famed coach and his celeb-adjacent squad’s rise and fall.

Mickey & Billy: The Glory and Tragedy of a Yankee Friendship Castro, Tony | Diversion Books (320 pp.) $19.99 paper | February 24, 2026 9798895150863

Stars of ballpark and barroom.

During their team’s heyday, Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin were enthusiastic postgame partiers.

Their revelries became tabloid fodder after the 1957 nightclub brawl that led to Martin’s “exile” from the Yankees. This uneven dual biography is equally interested in the players’ between-the-lines triumphs and “self-destructive” impulses. Martin was a heady, hard-nosed infielder, his combativeness forged during a hardknock youth in Berkeley, California, which Castro narrates in rich detail.

The author goes even deeper on Mantle, invoking Freud and Shakespeare. As Castro recounted in a previous book, Mantle: The Best There Ever Was (2019), young Mantle was sexually abused by a relative. Meanwhile, at his father’s behest, he worked tirelessly on his 52

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baseball skills. Castro contends that Mantle’s “nightlife carousing” and “sexual escapades” constituted “an unspoken rebellion against” his father.

Further, Mantle’s “overwhelming fear” of failure, which surfaced during batting slumps, suggests “a hint of possible panic disorder.” This is more armchair psychoanalysis than his research can support. The author, who was a reporter in 1970s Texas when he “met and befriended” Mantle, bases parts of his 1950s-set narrative on the recollections of the ballplayer’s “longtime girlfriend,” whom Castro met and interviewed “half a century” after the events described in the book. Thus do some quotes and scenes feel overly tidy.

Castro also pens a “dream sequence” that takes us into “Mickey’s mind” and catalogs his memories. “Traditional attribution felt restrictive,” Castro writes, “so I turned to a literary approach.” His methods figure to frustrate readers trying to differentiate fact from fiction. He’s much stronger on the Oklahoma-born ballplayer’s fish-out-of-water introduction to Gotham and the Paul Bunyan-esque quality of Mantle’s long home runs.

And he has an interesting take on Martin’s Hall of Fame worthiness. But aside from Yankee completists, this book’s appeal seems limited.

A colorful, not always judicious biography of nightlife-loving, World Series-winning teammates.

Kennedy’s Coup: A White House Plot, a Saigon Murder, and America’s Descent Into Vietnam Cheevers, Jack | Simon & Schuster (688 pp.) $35 | February 17, 2026 | 9781668082409

An in-depth examination of the Kennedy administration’s role in the 1963 coup overthrowing the president of South Vietnam.

Ngo Dinh Diem, along with his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, ran South

Vietnam in near-dictatorial style after becoming president in 1955. Cheevers, author of Act of War: Lyndon Johnson, North Korea, and the Capture of the Spy Ship Pueblo, writes that Diem “used police-state methods to control his people; routinely ignored U.S. advice intended to make his government more effective; meddled in his army’s operations for political reasons; and was congenitally unable to delegate authority (to the point that he personally reviewed passport applications).” Meanwhile, communist insurgents—the Viet Cong—aided by North Vietnam, were gaining ground in their war against the government. Diem’s domestic problems were almost worse. In May 1963, police massacred Buddhists protesting repressive measures by the regime. In response, a monk publicly burned himself to death. Until then, John F. Kennedy had paid only intermittent attention to Vietnam, and his advisers were seriously divided in their opinion of Diem and Nhu. But news photos of the burning monk convinced him that Vietnam was going to be trouble. In August, State Department intelligence chief Roger Hilsman drafted a message—later known as “the green light cable”—advising newly appointed Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge that Washington wouldn’t oppose a coup.

Kennedy, on vacation, OKed the memo with little input from other advisers. On Nov. 2, a clique of generals stormed the palace, capturing and killing Diem and Nhu. Three weeks later, Kennedy himself was dead, and the real disaster of Vietnam was underway. Cheevers’ impressive research underpins his story with quotes from dozens of officials, military personnel, and journalists.

“American support for toppling Diem,” Cheevers concludes,” originated not with Kennedy, but with Hilsman, a third-tier State Department bureaucrat who, with his green light cable, commandeered the president’s Vietnam policy and enmeshed the United States in the generals’ conspiracy. JFK recognized the cable as a mistake, but never overrode it.”

A shocking history of the politics and personalities behind one of America’s gravest foreign policy blunders.

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Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia Dalrymple, Sam | Norton (528 pp.) | $39.99 February 3, 2026 | 9781324123781

Spirited history of the multiple divisions India has endured, just one of them the split with Pakistan.

The old chestnut that you can see the Great Wall of China from space is untrue, writes Scottish historian Dalrymple in his opening pages.

However, he adds, “the border wall dividing India from Pakistan is unmistakable,” running 2,000-odd miles and bristling with floodlights and landmines. This was not the case until the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. Just a century ago, Dalrymple writes, the Indian Empire, or Raj, extended to the Arabian Peninsula to the west and eastward to Burma. Then came 1937, when a movement within India to create a Hindu state and another movement on the part of the majority Bamar people led to the creation of Burma. In 1947, the states of the Arabian Peninsula began to calve off, with Britain gradually ceding colonial control over the Persian Gulf states. Within India, separatist movements created de facto states based on religious affiliation. And in 1971, when Britain’s protectorate rule over the Persian Gulf ended, Bangladesh separated from Pakistan, bringing on a bloody civil war. Britain’s cession wasn’t benevolently inspired, Dalrymple notes; in 1971, a fiscal crisis at home meant that “Britain could no longer afford the annual £12 million that it spent on keeping its forces in the region.”

Whatever the case, he adds, what had been a single superstate broke into 12 nations with very different agendas, despite the efforts of Burma’s first president and his Indian counterparts to forge a South Asian federation. That history has been forgotten, willfully, everywhere in the former Raj: “In every single one of these countries, governments have made sure to paper over the K IR KU S R E V IE W S

shared cross-border heritage of their peoples.” The result, this ably written history shows, is ethnic division, the suppression of minorities, war—and, yes, that border wall.

A book that sheds needed light on the complexities of South Asian geopolitics.

On Natural Capital: The Value of the World Around Us Dasgupta, Partha | Mariner Books (288 pp.) $29.99 | January 20, 2026 | 9780063454385

An argument for considering the impact of industry on nature when evaluating the global economy.

In a condensation aimed at the general reader of a much longer and more technical report on the economic impact of biodiversity, British economist Dasgupta makes the case that economists in general have been ignoring what he calls “natural capital” in favor of the more historically accepted measures of produced capital and human capital. By “natural capital,” Dasgupta means “ecosystems and their constituents,” and he points out that investment in natural capital is very different from what we usually mean by investment: It often means allowing ecosystems to rest and regenerate; and not allowing this to take place necessarily results in an ongoing degradation of natural capital. Over the course of the book, the author concisely considers the economic impact of species extinction, the difficulty of dealing with exploitation of the ocean, and the importance of acting locally. While those who aren’t fluent in the language and mathematics of economics may find some of the volume hard going, with its graphs and formulas and its prose dry, the author does come down to earth with concrete examples, such as considering the impact of mangrove forests or measuring the effects of a shrimp farming operation.

Though Dasgupta does present a few tentative solutions to the problem of the

increasing loss and degradation of natural capital—lowering future global human population and per capita GDP, reducing the production of goods, and raising the rate of regeneration of the biosphere—his primary emphasis is on laying out a pressing problem in terms that can’t be brushed off, noting bluntly and undramatically that “we need 1.7 Earths to meet humanity’s current demand on a sustainable basis.”

A chilling warning couched in implacably measured terms.

Until the Last Gun Is Silent: A Story of Patriotism, the Vietnam War, and the Fight To Save America’s Soul Delmont, Matthew F. | Viking (368 pp.) $32 | January 27, 2026 | 9780593655870

The Vietnam War, as seen from the perspective of Black Americans who fought it and fought against it.

Dartmouth history professor Delmont writes that this book has its origins in a memory of his father’s, who told him of “this brother from Chicago or Detroit who…earned the Medal of Honor, but they got him when he came back home.” That man was Dwight “Skip” Johnson, who, unable to adjust to civilian life on returning home, was killed when he tried to rob a convenience store in his native Detroit.

Delmont recounts Johnson’s life in the context of other Black soldiers, including fellow Medal of Honor winner Milton Lee Olive, who was one of the first to die in Vietnam, and who affectingly wrote his father, “We all do a man’s job and wear a man’s clothes and call ourselves men…but some of us are still little boys.”

Olive was just 18, one of a disproportionate number of young Black men drafted into the military and killed in action (as Delmont notes, they accounted for 18.3% of combat deaths and made up 14.8% of the army, though only 11% of the U.S. population). The greater portion of his narrative, though, like David Maraniss’ JANUARY 1, 2026

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They Marched Into Sunlight (2004), is a parallel story recounting the work of Coretta Scott King in organizing a Black protest movement against the war, opposition in which she preceded her husband, Martin Luther King Jr. Delmont does great service by highlighting her work, which has long been overshadowed. He also tracks the long struggle of Johnson’s widow, Katrina, to prove that her husband had died as a result of combat-related posttraumatic stress, a struggle that took a decade to resolve. As he notes in closing, not much has changed, however: Black Americans now make up 13% of the populace, but 23% of active-duty soldiers.

A fluent history of an era fast receding in memory.

The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome To Justify Hate Dozier, Curtis | Yale Univ. (288 pp.) | $32.50 January 6, 2026 | 9780300272734

An examination of the far right’s hijacking of the classical tradition for modern political ends.

As Vassar classicist Dozier observes, white supremacism has long looked to ancient Greece and Rome to justify the insupportable: the separation of humans into races and the necessity of hierarchy, which “means that white people should rule over others, and inferior people should accept this.” Troublingly, there is some rationale for this: Aristotle took slavery as inevitable, Cicero was loudly antisemitic, Propertius was a proto-incel, and so forth. Moreover, classical scholars have themselves provided grist for the supremacist mill: A Johns Hopkins professor of a century back argued that “the orientalization of Rome’s populace” lead to “a weakening of moral and political stamina,” which is just the sort of thing that right-wing organizations have argued in defense of 54

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closing U.S. borders. (Will and Ariel Durant, who propounded “xenophobic interpretations of the end of the Roman Empire,” got greater traction out of the argument.) Equating America with ancient Rome is an old trope, and so is the inevitable lament that, just as Rome collapsed, so the United States is in inexorable decline. Yet, as Dozier notes, the supremacists miss certain key points, among them the fact that yesterday’s civilizations would not recognize today’s racial classifications, which knocks a strut or two away from the idea that the so-called Great Replacement theory has classical validity. So it is with the simplistic notion that Rome’s loss of its “ethnic homogeneity”—which it never had—“contributed to a decline in the qualities that established and maintained Roman power.” In the end, Dozier urges, the idea that classical civilizations can be enlisted in support of “modern systems of oppression and violence” is willfully wrongheaded.

A cogent case to reject wishful-­ thinking rightist presentism when studying the classics.

Blitz: The Club That Created the Eighties Elms, Robert | Faber & Faber (304 pp.) $29.95 | January 13, 2026 | 9780571394180

A lean, energetic memoir of the club that turned a Tuesday night into a cultural flashpoint.

Drawing on his own nights inside its notoriously selective doors, Elms—broadcaster, journalist, and proud alumnus—revisits the Covent Garden nightclub whose brief life helped ignite the New Romantic movement, the flamboyant, fashion-obsessed subculture that brought pomp and playfulness to the British music scene. From the outset, he indulges in high-octane hype, casting the club as “the centre of the universe” and its Tuesday night regulars as a vanguard that “shape[d] the decade.”

The reality was both smaller and, in ways he sometimes underplays, more interesting. What emerges is a vivid portrait of derelict late-’70s London— half-demolished, depopulated, and veering toward Thatcherism—and the young people who claimed its abandoned basements as stages for self-invention. Elms is especially sharp on class: Most Blitz kids were working-class Londoners pushed to the outer suburbs by decades of redevelopment, using street style as both armor and ambition. And he captures the club’s singular social chemistry—“elitist until you were inside, then it was fiercely egalitarian”—as well as its fluidity across gender and sexuality long before those ideas became mainstream. A major subplot follows the rise of Spandau Ballet, the synth-pop group that emerged from the club and quickly achieved international success. Other Blitz alumni included Sade, John Galliano, and, most notably, George O’Dowd, later Boy George. The absence of photographs is a shame for a movement built on image, and a broader chorus of Blitz voices might have added texture. Even so, Elms evokes the exhilaration of a moment when a run-down city became a playground for radical style and possibility.

An atmospheric memoir of the club that helped set the tone for the 1980s.

Moses and the Doctor: Two Men, One Championship, and the Birth of Modern Basketball Epplin, Luke | Grand Central Publishing (384 pp.) | $30 | February 10, 2026 9780306833496

Joining forces and winning big.

This informative, enjoyable dual biography ably mines its titular superstars’ many contrasts.

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Association (ABA), a league known for its red-white-and-blue basketball, frequent financial troubles, and high-flying virtuosos like Julius “Dr. J” Erving, one of the sport’s “most eloquent” personalities. Charting careers that coincided with a 1983 NBA title for the Philadelphia 76ers, Epplin shows us underappreciated sides of his famed subjects. Erving was among the most elegant of players, “the legitimizer of playground improvisation” whose powerful dunks went largely unwitnessed due to the ABA’s lack of TV contracts. He worked hard to boost basketball’s marketability and to correct misapprehensions about Black athletes, “ask[ing] friends to sit with him during interviews and then critique his performance, pointing out every misstep and verbal tic.” Malone was neither balletic nor interested in talking to reporters. A tireless rebounder, his “approach to his job was as blunt as his demeanor: suit up, sweat and bang, go home.” Epplin does terrific work on Malone’s personal and professional growth. Avoiding invasive news coverage of his high school hardwood exploits in Virginia, “he often sneaked into his house through a back window.” He was subsequently uncomfortable “entrusting his narrative to journalists” who’d “intimated that Malone was unintelligent and inarticulate.” On the court, Malone’s cleverness on the offensive glass earned him easy layups, hindering his development of a jump shot.

After securing Philly’s first NBA title since 1967, their accomplishment was celebrated with a parade that fleetingly transcended civic disputes, bringing “together forces often in tension with each other.” A sobering epilogue reflects on dark post-retirement

moments for both men. This is smart sports history that keeps sight of important social context.

Stars with distinct skill sets give Philly a hoops title.

Unfettered Fetterman, John | Crown (240 pp.) | $32 November 11, 2025 | 9780593799826

The hoodie-­ and-shorts-clad Pennsylvania senator blends the political and personal, and often not nicely.

Fetterman’s memoir addresses three major themes. The first—and the one he leads with—is depression and mental illness, which, combined with a stroke and heart trouble, brought him to a standstill and led him to contemplate suicide. The second is his rise to national-level politics from a Rust Belt town; as he writes, he’s carved a path as a contentious player with a populist streak and a dislike for elites. There are affecting moments in his personal reminiscences, especially when he writes of the lives of his working-class neighbors in impoverished southwestern Pennsylvania, its once-prosperous Monongahela River Valley “the most heartbreaking drive in the United States.” It’s the third element that’s problematic, and that’s his in-thetrenches account of daily politics. One frequent complaint is the media, as when he writes of one incident, “I am not the first public figure to get fucked by a reporter, and I won’t be the last. What was eye-opening was the window it gave into how people with disabilities navigate a world that doesn’t give a shit.” He

In 2017, a short film from 1898 was found. On it is a rare display of Black affection.

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reserves special disdain for his Senate race opponent Mehmet Oz, about whom he wonders, “If I had run against any other candidate…would I have lost? He got beaten by a guy recovering from a stroke.” Perhaps so, and Democratic stalwarts will likely be dismayed at his apparent warmish feelings for Donald Trump and dislike of his own party’s “performative protests.” If Fetterman’s book convinces a troubled soul to seek help, it will have done some good, but it’s hard to imagine that it will make much of an impression in the self-help literature. One wonders, meanwhile, at sentiments such as this: “If men are forced to choose between picking their party or keeping their balls, most men are going to choose their balls.”

For fans only.

Acts of Love: Black Performance and the Kiss That Changed Film History Field, Allyson Nadia | Univ. of California (272 pp.) | $29.95 paper | February 17, 2026 9780520392939

The story of a 19th-century film displaying Black affection, and its impact on cinema.

Any discovery pertaining to 19th-century cinema is bound to cause excitement among cinema scholars, but the news about a hitherto little-known short from 1898 was especially noteworthy. In 2017, Dino Everett, an archivist at the University of Southern California, sent an email to Field, associate professor of cinema and media studies at the University of Chicago. Everett had found a 50-foot nitrate print of a Black couple kissing.

Their affection was genuinely tender, “incongruous with the stereotypes, racist tropes, and comedic ridicule that tend to characterize early cinema’s portrayal of Black people.” The short film, made in Chicago and starring vaudeville performers Saint Suttle and Gertie Brown, was Something Good—Negro JANUARY 1, 2026

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Kiss. The “electrifying response” to its discovery among Black celebrities underscored the tragedy of its century-long suppression. In this singular achievement, Field describes the history of this work, her investigations into its date and production, and the legacy of Black representation on screen. She describes Suttle and Brown’s involvement in a group known as the Rag-Time Four, the central pillar of their act being the cakewalk, a dance that “served as a form of covert mockery of unsuspecting whites and their aspirational airs.” The author also documents their respective fortunes after splitting up, with Suttle finding that entertainment work “was too erratic for comfort,” while Brown found steady employment, including with the Pekin Stock Company, the first all-Black theatrical troupe in the U.S. Field presents this material in all its ugliness, from the complicated history of minstrelsy to the painful roles Black performers sometimes had to accept to sustain their careers. Much of this makes for uncomfortable reading. As distressing as the story may be, it’s ultimately a vital contribution to the literature on Black cinema and an important work for anyone with an interest in movie history.

A significant volume on a jewel of Black cinema.

The Green Sahara: Regaining Paradise in the Face of Climate Change Gaudet, John | Bloomsbury Academic (256 pp.) | $36 | February 5, 2026 9798881808556

Watering the desert.

Plants make rain, writes ecologist Gaudet, author of The Pharaoh’s Treasure: The Origin of Paper and the Rise of Western Civilization (2018). Forty percent or more of precipi­tation over land originates through evaporation from plants and trees. When vegetation is cleared, evapo­ ration plummets, seasons come later, 56

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temperatures rise, and rainfall diminishes.

Ten thousand years ago, the Sahara bloomed because the end of the last ice age—combined with changes in Earth’s axis—warmed the planet and increased rainfall. As the axis cycle continued, temperatures continued to increase, rainfall diminished, and by 3,000 years ago, the Sahara had dried up. Greenhouse gases filling the atmosphere over the past century have interrupted the cycle, which would ultimately have restored the Sahara, but the accompanying disordered weather increased rainfall in northern Africa, persuading some experts, Gaudet included, that reviving the Sahara is worth a try. The author embraces green technology and massive, climate-altering projects, arguing that these will jumpstart the return of tolerable weather worldwide. Desalinizing has grown cheap enough to beget extensive, desalinization plants in every Saharan nation for drinking water and irrigation. Egypt’s Qattara Depression has long fascinated engineers who propose a pipeline from the Mediterranean to create a huge inland sea to cool the desert and support a large population. Once huge, Lake Chad is almost dry, but a canal from the Congo River basin carrying water over a thousand miles could revive it. Money and politics are the only barriers. Gaudet mildly approves an ongoing mega-project—the Great Green Wall, aiming to plant billions of trees across North Africa—but has more faith in a spreading practice among locals who have adopted farmer-managed natural regeneration that does not clear trees for crops but preserves and fosters them, enriching the soil. His surprisingly nonapocalyptic conclusion adds that carbon dioxide nourishes plants, and rising levels from global warming already produce significant greening of vegetation over much of the planet.

A compelling case for making the world’s largest desert lush.

For more on the environment, visit Kirkus online.

Mafia: A Global History Gingeras, Ryan | Avid Reader Press (416 pp.) $30 | February 17, 2026 | 9781668056424

A wide-ranging history of wannabe Corleones and other kindred criminals.

Blame some of it on The Godfather: When Francis Ford Coppola’s film version of Mario Puzo’s novel landed in Turkey, gangsters came to be called baba. Local terms meaning “Godfather” spread as “shorthand for crime lords and sinister political bosses in countries worldwide”—even though, historian Gingeras points out, there really wasn’t an equivalent for the Mafia in many places where some version now thrives, such as India and Nigeria. Mafias, Gingeras posits, have a political component as much as an economic one, and though the origins of the Sicilian Mafia as a folk form of resistance to foreign domination has been romanticized, “mafiosi are born into worlds shaped by the states that govern them.” Gingeras considers organized crime in the larger context of brigandry, banditry, and piracy, which flourished in states and regions that were economically backward—and whose populace the ruling elites tended to view with disdain. Yet modern Mafias flourish wherever there is a demand for prostitutes, drugs, gambling, and booze, vices that are, of course, widespread. Granted, “card sharks, pimps and lotus eaters did not necessarily leave bloodied corpses behind,” but such nastiness is a hallmark of the mob in whatever form it takes, from the murderous Kray brothers of England to the Japanese gangster Kinosuke Ozu, a pioneer of the modern yakuza who bragged that he once “took a meat cleaver to a boy and nearly sliced him to death.” Whether inspired by Hollywood (or Bollywood) or not, modern Mafias exist just about everywhere, Gingeras writes, in Chechnya and Albania and Alabama. But then, he notes, it’s a lawless world out there: “What, after all, do you call a state or corporation engaged in organized K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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criminal activity?” In that regard, the Russian Mafia, the Colombian drug cartels, and the Irish Republican Army all seem of a piece.

A revealing study of organized crime and its many forms.

Metropolitans: New York Baseball, Class Struggle, and the People’s Team Gittlitz, A.M. | Astra House (352 pp.) $30 | March 31, 2026 | 9781662603006

Pulling for Gotham’s baseball underdogs.

Gittlitz’s unconventional celebration of the New York Mets is knowledgeable and politically sophisticated, though it staggers as it heads for home.

The millennial author begins rather loftily, describing his use of Marx and Engels-derived “materialist methods I picked up during years in the struggle” as “an anti-war protester, Wall Street Occupier and ally of the Movement for Black Lives” to scrutinize the team’s history. Fortunately, his inspired dot-connecting and high-low approach to culture—he quotes Jean Baudrillard and Family Guy—keeps him rooted in real-world particulars.

Informative opening chapters cover the short-lived New York Metropolitans team of the 1880s and early labor battles over ballplayer empowerment. Gittlitz then focuses on the “working-class-coded” Mets of recent vintage. “Hipsters, pinkos” and ex-fans of two gone-to-California teams embraced the Mets, frequent losers, as the antithesis of the Yankees, whose success evoked “mighty capitalists.”

Prominent Mets came out against the Vietnam War and organized a brief “industry-wide strike” after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. Gittlitz is clear-eyed about the recent past. The team’s association with “the cultural left” has been tested by reports of racial tension in the clubhouse; links between a team owner and swindler Bernie Madoff; and the purchase of the Mets by Steve Cohen, a hedge-fund billionaire fined $1.8 billion K IR KU S R E V IE W S

for insider trading. Predictably, Donald Trump emerges as a prominent figure in the book’s final third, though Gittlitz adds nothing to what we know of his political rise or relationship to sports. Gittlitz also offers a forgettable 40-plus-page diary-style look at the 2024 season. This section, which begs for ruthless editing, is an outlier in an otherwise bracing book that baseball fans of all stripes, particularly those who lean left, are apt to enjoy.

A smart, sprawling history of a team that became a magnet for anti-elitist fans.

I’ll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month Givens, Jarvis R. | Harper/HarperCollins (256 pp.) | $24.99 | February 3, 2026 9780063478824

Black history has always been political.

Givens, a Harvard scholar and author (Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching, 2021), chronicles the 100-year history of Black History Month in his latest book. Initiated by educator and historian Woodson as Negro History Week in 1926, this February celebration grew into Black History Month in 1976 with a proclamation signed by President Gerald Ford. Givens traces the path of the month from its grassroots origins to its now-indelible position in American culture. In vivid prose that’s enlivened by personal reflections, Givens examines how, beginning generations ago, teachers, librarians, writers, and archivists pieced together limited resources to preserve the Black past and offer critical counternarratives to the celebratory nature of U.S. history. The author draws on archival documents, speeches, plays, and other ephemera to demonstrate how engagement with the past was a critical part of the African American experience.

Givens rightly emphasizes that those working to keep Black history alive have long been animated by a spirit of protest.

“Recognizing the severe limitations of the dominant historical knowledge,” he writes, “African Americans created what the late historian Charles H. Wesley called a ‘heroic tradition’ of remembering history: They insisted on giving a black account of the past, even when their interpretations, additions, and reconstructions of the past conflicted with those of people in positions of power; even when such knowledge of the past was deemed seditious by white Americans.” As Givens notes, Black History Month is now celebrated around the world, from Latin America to Europe.

He writes, “Gaining knowledge about the black past has been a contested activity for black people everywhere.” New challenges and opportunities await us. Givens writes, “In an era of unprecedented access to information through technology and widespread competition for young people’s attention, there is a continued need for tailored and immersive engagement in black memory work.” There is much history still to learn.

A necessary and urgent account for this current moment.

Walter Benjamin: The Pearl Diver Gordon, Peter E. | Yale Univ. (224 pp.) $28 | February 24, 2026 | 9780300216868

Perceptive biography of the German Jewish writer, focused on his ideas.

Intellectual historian Gordon begins with a grim, gripping account of Benjamin’s flight in 1940 from Nazi-occupied France, culminating in his suicide at the border after he was denied entry into Spain. It’s an odd way to begin for a biographer who then declares, “No life is defined by its death,” but it appears Gordon wanted to get this famously tragic story out of the way so readers could concentrate on Benjamin’s achievements as a literary and cultural critic. These are cogently laid out in a short book that devotes more or less equal attention to Benjamin’s complicated relationships with Judaism, >>> JANUARY 1, 2026

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THE KIRKUS PROFILE: JOSIAH HESSE In On Fire for God, Josiah Hesse recounts a childhood of religious terror.

WHEN JOSIAH HESSE set about writing On Fire for God, a memoir about growing up in a rural household steeped in the doctrines of the Christian right, he had an unlikely model in mind.

“Stephen King was a big influence on me with writing this book,” he tells Kirkus Reviews, speaking by phone from his home in Colorado. “I adhere to all the rules of journalism when it comes to things being factually airtight. But I really wanted that horror element in the book. We’re talking about stuff like agriculture and economics and theology and history.

But there’s this narrative component of a child being psychologically tortured by a very insidious institution, and all of that materializing into a kind of demonic figure that lives inside his head and tortures him throughout the day. I really wanted people to feel in their bones what it is to grow up in this world.”

If you’re thinking Pennywise at the pulpit, you’re not far off the mark.

Hesse’s upbringing included plenty of assurances that he was bound for the inferno if he doubted a single word his 58

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minister uttered in sermons that always ended in a browbeating request for money beyond the usual baseline tithing. The preacher lived well, with “new cars, designer suits, and tropical vacations,” while his Iowa parishioners worried about how to buy groceries and pay the bills.

It’s called the “prosperity gospel,” of which Hesse writes, “I often come across evangelical hucksters telling an audience of poor people that the solution to their problems is simple and easy. It’s easy to become rich. It’s easy to raise children (especially a ridiculously large number of them) and maintain a healthy, loving marriage. It’s easy to find a lucrative, satisfying job. It’s easy to understand the will of God, the meaning of the Bible, and your purpose on this Earth. All you have to do is believe, surrender to His will, and it’ll all work out just fine. You’ll be rich in no time. And if you’re not, it’s your own damn fault, because just look how easy this game is!”

Except, of course, it’s not such an easy game after all. Hesse reckons that his parents gave the modern

equivalent of $360,000 to their prosperity-gospel church over a 10-year span, “while we ate burnt tater tots bought with food stamps.”

As Hesse explains, he wasn’t immune to the doctrine himself, especially as a child obsessed with images of hell and Armageddon, growing up in the 1980s and the age of the so-called Satanic Panic, when preschools and day care centers were supposedly ritually abusing and even killing innocent children. (There’s nothing new under the sun: today it’s pizza parlors.) “I wasn’t, you know, one of these kids who sat at the back of the church with my arms folded and thought it was all bullshit,” he says. “I was more of a zealot than anyone I knew.”

But then came adolescence, when the doubts began to surface. After he dropped out of high school, a difficult path as a freelance journalist follo­ wed, mixed with stints at restaurants, factories, and construction sites. As the years rolled by, Hesse, who had written two thinly disguised novels about his upbringing, began to think about writing a nonfiction book that K IR KU S R E V IE W S

Glenn Ross

BY GREGORY MCNAMEE

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linked his experiences to the rise of conservative, fundamentalist Christianity as a cultural and political force.

In a conversation with his agent, he says, “I started talking about what a mess I was at the age of 18, when I was thrust into adulthood with no conception of what I was supposed to do or what the world would look like, because I’d been told my entire life that the world would end before I reached that age. We started talking about class and the Midwest and religion and mental health and all these different topics that are related when you really dig into it. The book I envisioned was an opportunity to [talk] about my personal experiences, with some very intimate, vulnerable stories, but then also talk about larger social issues and look at how the Christian right has manipulated working-class families like mine going back several generations.”

His parents’ generation saw a precipitous decline in the family farms on which they’d grown up, part of a process of corporate industrialization. It was the equivalent of the Great Depression for rural Iowans save that, Hesse writes, it was confined to the agricultural working class. And, in the eyes of prosperity-doctrine conservatives, it was a sign that God was punishing those farmers for not giving their churches enough money. So the money poured in, feeding a massive right-wing movement, even as adherents were cowed by “depression, social anxiety, poverty marked by thrift-store deals on brand-name clothes, [and] massive credit-card debt propping up a lifestyle that was used to market evangelical success,” Hesse writes.

Church doctrine was further fueled by “anti-woke frenzy,” fear of the “feminization of Christianity,” and the certainty that the poor are poor because God has deemed them unworthy of wealth.

Indeed, Hesse tells Kirkus Reviews, “one of the most damaging elements of the prosperity gospel is that you blame yourself for everything. I’m all about personal responsibility when it comes to your decisions and your K IR KU S R E V IE W S

circumstances, but when it comes to American economics and politics and religion, there are other factors at play than just your own grit and determination. When you’re in the mindset of the prosperity gospel, you attribute anything good happening [in] your life to God and your obedience to God.…

And then if anything doesn’t work out, it’s your fault. So you don’t get any of the credit for anything, but you get all of the blame.”

Although he’s no longer a believer, Hesse admits to harboring some “hard-wired religious trauma” and even some residual worry that “eternal torture awaited me if I didn’t follow the rules.” It brings Stephen King to mind. “I just read Tim Curry’s autobiography, Vagabond, which is fantastic. And then I went and rewatched It, the series from 1990, which was very prominent in my mind while writing this book.”

[Curry played the iconic role of Pennywise, the terrifying clown.]”

Horror story it is, but it’s also a

rebuke to the inauthenticity of JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy, which Hesse holds in deep scorn: “He grew up in suburban Ohio with a mother who worked in health care. He had a middle-class life. And so it’s frustrating to hear him frame himself as some kind of working-class hero.”

“I want to show why poor people support Trump, but also why they would believe in QAnon conspiracy theories, why they would show up to the Jan. 6 riots. I’m not looking to excuse any behavior, but I am looking to explain it. I think I’m in a unique position to do that, because not a lot of journalists come from impoverished rural backgrounds. I have nothing but compassion for those kinds of zealots who might view me as some kind of agent of Satan, because I used to be one of those zealots. I understand where they’re coming from.”

Gregory McNamee is a contributing writer.

I really wanted people to feel in their bones what it is to grow up in this world.

On Fire for God: Fear, Shame, Poverty, and the Making of the Christian Right—A Personal Story Hesse, Josiah

Pantheon | 368 pp. | $32 | Jan. 13, 2026 | 9780553387292

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Jason Merrit t/FilmMagic

Ex Addresses Britney Spears’ Mental Health in Book Kevin Federline raises concerns about his ex-wife in a memoir, You Thought You Knew.

In his new memoir, Kevin Federline writes that he is concerned about the mental health of his ex-wife, pop star

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Britney Spears, the New York Times reports.

Dancer and DJ Federline’s You Thought You Knew was published last fall by the new publisher Listenin. In the book, according to the Times, Federline describes a series of incidents from 2004 to 2007, after the end of their marriage, in which the couple’s two sons would wake up to find Spears standing in their doorways holding a knife, then “turn around and pad off without explanation.”

Later in the book, Federline writes, “The truth is, this situation with Britney feels like it’s racing toward something irreversible.…Something bad is going to happen if things don’t change, and my biggest fear is that our sons will be left holding the pieces.”

Spears, who has struggled with her mental health in the past, was famously placed under a conservatorship run by her father and a lawyer in 2008. It was terminated by a judge in 2021.

A representative for Spears told Entertainment Weekly, “All she cares about are her kids, Sean Preston and Jayden James, and their well-being during this sensationalism. She detailed her journey in her memoir.”

Spears’ The Woman in Me, published in 2023, was a huge bestseller.—M.S.

SEEN AND HEARD Kevin Federline and Britney Spears in 2006

For a review of The Woman in Me, visit Kirkus online.

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The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls (Scribner) Destroy This House by Amanda Uhle (Summit/Simon & Schuster) The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir by Griffin Dunne (Penguin Press) While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence by Meg Kissinger (Celadon Books) Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America by Beth Macy (Penguin Press) My Pretty Baby: Seeking Truth and Finding Healing by Wendy B. Correa (She Writes Press) And Now I Spill the Family Secrets: An Illustrated Memoir by Margaret Kimball (HarperOne) The Less People Know About Us: A Mystery of Betrayal, Family Secrets, and Stolen Identity by Axton Betz-Hamilton (Grand Central Publishing) The Answer Is in the Wound: Trauma, Rage, and Alchemy by Kelly Sundberg (Roxane Gay Books/Grove) Grief Is for People by Sloane Crosley (MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux) The Manicurist’s Daughter by Susan Lieu (Celadon) A Silent Treatment by Jeannie Vanasco (Tin House)

Cut the Line

Looking for poignant memoirs à la Gabrielle Hamilton?

We’ve got you covered.

BY MEGAN LABRISE

On Kirkus’ sixth Cut the Line: Readers’ Advisory Webinar, in partnership with Ingram Library Services, we explore a range of read-alikes for Gabrielle Hamilton’s Next of Kin (Random House, Oct. 14). For her second memoir, the New York Times bestselling author of Blood, Bones, and Butter (2011) serves up a story of family secrets, tragedy, and salvation. Kirkus calls it a “nimbly written, alternately dark and hopeful account of dysfunction layered on dysfunction” (starred review).

While you’re waiting for Next of Kin—which, one month prior to publication, had more than 400 holds across several of the country’s largest library systems—we’ve got a list of memoirs you won’t want to miss.

First, Susannah Choate, a collection development librarian at Ingram Content Group, presents a slate of Kirkus-recommended titles to read right now. Then, I speak with three authors about telling stories from life.

Award-winning poet Khadijah Queen powerfully chronicles her search for autonomy as a Navy servicewoman in Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: A Veteran’s Memoir (Legacy Lit/Hachette, Aug. 5). “[Queen] beautifully balances empathy for her past self with a trenchant analysis of the systems that shaped her life story,” Kirkus writes in a review of this “poetic page-turner of a memoir.” Queen is a professor of creative writing who holds a PhD in English and literary arts from the University of Denver. She divides her time between the U.S., the U.K., and France.

New York–based Sasha Bonét is a writer, cultural critic, and professor of creative writing at Columbia University and Barnard College. Her debut,

The Waterbearers: A Memoir of Mothers and Daughters (Knopf, Sept. 16), is a profound exploration of one American family, of the legacies of love and pain that pass through generations, inspiring future ones. Kirkus calls this extraordinary debut a “fervent homage to Black women—grandmothers, mothers, sisters, and cousins—who have instilled an indelible life force in their families.”

River Selby worked as a wildland firefighter for seven years, stationed out of California, Oregon, Colorado, and Alaska. Hotshot: A Life on Fire (Atlantic Monthly, Aug. 12) tells the story of their experience. “With fortitude and admirable vulnerability, Selby brings readers directly into a tumultuous time and place,” Kirkus writes in a starred review.

“Like fire, this book burns hot.”

Selby is a Kingsbury and Legacy fellow at Florida State University, where they are pursuing their PhD in nonfiction, with an emphasis in post-colonial histories.

To watch a video of the session, visit Kirkus’ YouTube page.

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Marxism, and modernism. Despite his lifelong friendship with Gershom Scholem, who kept urging Benjamin to join him after emigrating to Jerusalem, Benjamin considered himself influenced

by Jewish thought but uninterested in its practice as a religion. He had a similarly conflicted attitude toward Marxism: He was appalled by communism as a political system but influenced by his close ties with Theodor Adorno and the Institute for Social Research to use Marxism as an analytical tool. Benjamin’s most famous works, The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility and The Arcades Project, unfinished at his death, show the same ambivalence toward modernism, in Gordon’s analysis. On the one hand, he celebrated new media such as film and montage for making art more accessible to the masses, and glorying in the flâneur’s aimless street wanderings as an opportunity to exercise “urban poetics.” On the other hand, in the essay “On the Concept of History,” he suggested that the idea of progress was a myth, and history was in fact “one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage.” Gordon lays out these ideas more lucidly than Benjamin’s dense prose sometimes did.

A solid introduction to a 20th-century thinker whose influence has only increased over time.

The Kids Who Aren’t Okay: The Urgent Case for Reimagining Support, Belonging, and Hope in Schools Greene, Ross W. with Cynthia Graton & Ryan Gleason | Scribner (240 pp.) | $28 February 24, 2026 | 9781668203903

Kids today… need our help.

Anxiety.

Depression.

Neurodivergence.

Medication.

Gender. Social media and peer pressure. American schoolchildren have it rough. What can teachers do to foster climates of acceptance?

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Focusing on eight plants, including magnolias, that date to the time of the dinosaurs.

HOW FLOWERS MADE OUR WORLD

Greene, a clinical psychologist and author, argues that we need to “meet students where they’re at,” rather than set goals for all. Teachers should recognize each student’s difference early on. They should de-­escalate conflict. We should replace “difficulty” with the “unsolved problem”—rather than seeing students as impeded or inadequate, find out what’s really holding them back. Work collaboratively rather than individually. Listen more than talk. The author distills his approach into the Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS) model, and what he calls “leadership density”: “leadership is not about positional authority but about shared ownership, collaboration, and collective efficacy.” This advice will be familiar from decades of self-help guides and workplace counseling.

Group management of anyone boils down to a few basic tenets of social responsibility. There is much common sense here, and the case studies of individual students and teachers reinforce the view that if we only were more patient and supportive, school would be a better place. The goals are social: building critical thinkers, active citizens, skilled communicators, empowered individuals. The author acknowledges: “a lot of the outcomes…aren’t related to academics.”

What we do not get is an inquiry into the root causes of why kids are not OK. Systemic poverty, food insecurity, the breakdown of the nuclear family, an overzealous pharmaceutical industry? This is a book less about big solutions than everyday management, and if it gets some teachers off their high horses and back on all fours, it will have succeeded.

A powerful exhortation to get teachers more involved in student success.

Kirkus Star

How Flowers Made Our World: The Story of Nature’s Revolutionaries Haskell, David George | Viking (352 pp.) $32 | March 24, 2026 | 9780593834961

Flowers through time.

“We live on a floral planet,” declares award-­ winning biologist Haskell in a fascinating examination of the enormous impact that flowering plants have had on all life.

Flowers appeared about 200 million years ago, following complex animals and other land plants, such as ferns and conifers.

Through rapid and continuing doubling of their genome, followed by selective pruning, their advent was dramatic: “By one hundred million years ago,” Haskell writes, “they were the foundation of most habitats on land” proliferating into almost all of the main branches of flowering plants that exist today. Haskell focuses on eight plants in particular: magnolias, which were contemporaneous with dinosaurs; goatsbeard, which responded to environmental stresses by chromosomal doubling; orchids, whose evolutionary survival—an astounding 28,000 species—exemplifies the interweaving of “sky and soil, flying pollinators with root-bound microbes and fungi”; grasses, which produce small flowers along stalks and “evolved hidden biochemical superpowers”; seagrasses, distantly related to land grasses, which provide habitats for aquatic animal life; roses, whose volatile oils—and alluring fragrance— is a result of “genetic exuberance”; teas, once a mainstay of K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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international trade; and pansies, both field pansies and the hundreds of new varieties bred by horticulturists. Haskell speculates on the future evolution of flowers as they respond to environmental challenges wrought by humans, such as climate change and impoverished soil.

Flowers are “genetically malleable and resilient,” able to change their strategies of reproduction—from showy blooms to attract pollinators to self-fertilization, for example. Besides bringing beauty and joy into the world, flowers, Haskell asserts, can teach humans an important lesson: “Thriving worlds grow from cooperation, mediated by beauty, with some illusion thrown in.” A final chapter suggests playful ways to connect with flowers.

An edifying celebration.

Ghosts of Fourth Street: My Family, a Death, and the Hills of Duluth Hertzel, Laurie | Univ. of Minnesota (152 pp.) $24.95 | March 31, 2026 | 9781517920784

A large, unhappy Minnesota family endures an unthinkable tragedy.

As the seventh of 10 children, little Laurie Jo was “a watcher more than a doer”—and she grew up, naturally enough, to be a journalist. But “[w]hat I have written here is not journalism,” she tells us. “It is not the story any of my siblings would tell.” If they would tell it at all, that is, for the drowning death of her oldest brother, Bobby, in 1966 was immediately cloaked in silence. In her version, the author deftly accesses a child’s-eye quality of observation to illuminate and sweeten the account of a midcentury Midwestern childhood that was often cold and dark, both literally and figuratively. As she points out, “Large families create their own societies, with their own rules and cliques and punishments. In our family, there were three groups: the Big Kids, the Three Little Kids, and, between them, me, a clique unto myself.” Though theirs was “a house of chaos,” the Hertzels were never a jolly, K IR KU S R E V IE W S

rambunctious Cheaper by the Dozen-type ensemble—the unhappiness of both parents, the superstitiousness and rigidity of the family culture, and even the freezing, snowy Duluth winters combined to keep a lid on spirits. In fact, one of the few times anyone really laughs in the book is in its final scene, where Laurie and her little brother, Evan, are baking cookies in one of the deadly quiet evenings that followed Bobby’s demise. “Everyone else was upstairs, behind closed doors, as far away as they could be, or gone. The floorboards above our heads creaked, the walls cracked from the cold outside; sometimes it felt as if the entire house was going to fly apart. The wind moaned in the chimney like ghosts.” The pair work themselves into an uncontrollable fit of giggles reading limericks and pretending to be spies from a favorite novel, striking a note of hope and light among the ghosts.

The wide-eyed, endearing little girl at the heart of this tale movingly shows us how children metabolize loss.

Tell Me How You Eat: Food, Power, and the Will To Live Husain, Amber | Washington Square Press/ Atria (288 pp.) | $29 | February 24, 2026 9781668060315

An agile treatise on food, hunger, self-starvation, and the politics underlying it all.

“The DSM-5 would like to know if you are a person who wants to eat, or if you are a person who doesn’t.” British scholar and author Husain ponders her own longtime indifference toward food, having “basically forgotten how to eat.” Such indifference sets off therapeutic alarm bells, of course, and Husain observes sagely that it’s the “female condition” that drives the food narrative, the symptoms and behaviors following a trajectory that the psychiatric reference work concludes is an unwillingness to change one’s habits of consumption: the anorexic as dissenter and rebel, and one who can be shepherded if not bullied into learning about proper self-care and then

wanting to practice it. But, writes Husain, the DSM-5 “doesn’t acknowledge that you can want, and be suspicious of, the same thing at once,” put off one’s food as a political act. Husain enlists a wide cast of characters in her discussion, among them Simone Weil, who famously starved herself to death “without a plan,” resigned to a world of genocide and totalitarianism at the height of World War II, and Eleanor Marx, daughter of Karl, who denounced the British government’s use of hunger as a political weapon in places like Ireland.

From there she examines connections between food and political activism, citing the Black Panthers’ free breakfast program as a revolutionary act, “a fuel for the act of growing a political consciousness.” Given the hunger of people living in places such as Gaza today, food continues to have a strong political dimension, reason enough, Husain concludes, that while in such circumstances the idea of food as comfort seems wrong, “contributing to a better world requires that you live, and that you thrive.”

A thoughtful meditation on the systems that bring food to the table—and that drive some people to push it away.

Every Day I Read: 53 Ways To Get Closer to Books Hwang Bo-reum | Trans. by Shanna Tan | Bloomsbury (240 pp.) | $27.99 December 2, 2025 | 9781639737796

Good reads, good medicine.

“I still can’t believe I wrote and published an essay collection spurred solely by my love for reading.” Readers of this book might feel the same way. Filled with breathless pleasure, this clutch of essays by Korean author Hwang (Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop, 2022) hovers between the trite and the profound.

Big books take time. Reading at night prompts thoughts and dreams. Always take a book on vacation. Some books are not worth finishing (Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose stands out here). Then, there are JANUARY 1, 2026

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books that offer something new each time we open them. Thoreau’s Walden prompts the reader to think seriously about life choices. How can you “truly live a life [you] wanted”? But all the reader gets is: “I respect Thoreau for looking beyond the superficial things in life in search for his ideal way of living, and so I eagerly recommended his books to my friends.”

Anyone who reads for pleasure or instruction will agree with the author: “The joy of reading extends beyond the last page of the book.” Or: “The biggest charm of book clubs is how they encourage a difference in opinions.” Aristotle, Hannah Arendt, and Goethe jostle throughout, their powerful quotations often reduced to banalities. The most absorbing sections of the book are the author’s reflections on reading in Korea and on the ways in which contemporary Korean writers seek to balance self-examined life with professional striving. There is a larger point about the sociology of reading—about the ways in which books, bookstores, book clubs, and television interviews contribute to a literate, reflective life. But much of this remains implicit. “Books are friends we make along life’s journey.” Would that this book had been a more compelling companion.

A pleasant, if superficial, set of exhortations to read books to get more out of life.

Shakespeare’s Scholars: Three Lessons From the Liberal Arts Keilen, Sean | Princeton Univ. (184 pp.) $24.95 | May 12, 2026 | 9780691272634

Knowing thyself.

This elegant, brief book explores the figure of the scholar in selected Shakespeare plays to argue that those plays can teach us how to know ourselves. A professor of literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Keilen seeks a personal, humane approach to literature—a view that works of verbal art not only tell us about their own time but teach something about the 66

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How the Bard can teach us about our times.

SHAKESPEARE’S SCHOLARS

present. In Love’s Labor’s Lost, Hamlet, and The Tempest, Keilen finds the scholar-hero in dilemmas comic and tragic. How did a playwright who, by all accounts, did not have more than a grammar school training, characterize the rising class of university wits, philosophers, and political advisers? For all his college learning, Hamlet remains indecisive. For all his bookish skill, Prospero fails at governance. And in Love’s Labor’s Lost, perhaps Shakespeare’s wordiest and in-joke-ridden play, Keilen finds the fissures that beset all academic life. There, men seek not to embrace the world but, rather, to exclude society. Each of these plays becomes an allegory of failed academia: a lesson for the modern professor who forgets a debt to public life. This is a book of provocation. The author writes, “There is no greater temptation for scholars than to imagine that our profession makes us special, set apart from other people and the sphere of common life.” And this: “Like everybody else, Shakespeare scholars must figure out how to live in societies where broken promises and betrayals of trust are as common as the air we breathe.”

Keilen chose to focus on three plays with broken promises and betrayals.

They are tales of wisdom learned too late. His book’s goal is to teach us to be humble, self-knowing, and generous before it is too late for us.

A bracingly honest study of Shakespeare’s scholar-heroes designed to get the modern scholar back into public life.

For more on Shakespeare, visit Kirkus online.

Everything Changes Everything: Love, Loss, and a Really Long Walk Kessler, Lauren | Balance/Grand Central Publishing (288 pp.) | $30 February 24, 2026 | 9780306835759

After losing her husband and daughter in the same year, an author goes hiking in search of answers.

About two weeks into hiking the Camino Francés, the famous pilgrimage route from France to Spain, author Kessler (Free: Two Years, Six Lives, and the Long Journey Home, 2022) and her fellow travelers encounter a group of nuns who wonder why they’re making the grueling, 500-mile journey. Kessler’s answer: “I need to do something to separate the life I’ve been living from the life that is now in front of me…And it needed to be something big.” Not long before embarking on the hike, the author’s husband of 30 years, Tom, became ill and ended his own life using a medical kit legalized decades earlier in Oregon, where they lived. Eight months later, the author’s daughter, Lizzie, died of an overdose of methamphetamine laced with fentanyl, a symptom of an addiction the author believes began when her daughter entered a physically abusive relationship. To make sense of these enormous losses, the author committed to hiking the Camino.

Kessler writes, “What I told myself was that I needed something hard to do that I chose to do instead of something hard to do that came out of nowhere and gobsmacked me.” Although the journey might not fully heal the author, it does teach her that grief is not something to overcome so much as something she K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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must learn to live with for the rest of her life. “Grief is a new organ that has taken up residency in the body,” she writes.

“Sometimes it causes discomfort like an upset stomach. Sometimes it is a dull ache like a bum knee…You feel its weight. I will always feel its weight.”

A well-paced and affecting account of coping with great loss.

Twilight of the Dons: British Intellectuals From World War II to Thatcherism Kidd, Colin | Princeton Univ. (280 pp.) $35 | April 28, 2026 | 9780691188768

Elites in crisis.

In the mid-20th century, writes Kidd, a historian at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, the academics of Oxford and Cambridge universities forged alliances with powerbrokers and policymakers to enhance their impact on British rule.

Oxbridge teachers (or “dons”) sometimes came from families of wealth and privilege. They were not an intelligentsia raised on brains and diligence, but an elite of ease. The author writes, “There was aristocratic resistance to a proliferation of middle-class swots”—eggheads.

But soon, smart kids from grammar schools filled tutorials. Government grants became the currency of success.

New provocations from Europe and the U.S. challenged complacencies of class and sensibility. The humanities and social sciences embraced overarching theories designed to explain human behavior and linguistic understanding that, by the mid-1960s, challenged, in one intellectual’s phrasing, the British “obsessional interest in particulars and an exaggerated suspicion of generalization.” Student protest threatened the unquestioned authority of the professoriate. A social gap between the teacher and the student emerged, such that, to at least one don, undergraduates looked like “Attila’s Huns.” And, by the 1980s, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s K IR KU S R E V IE W S

policies largely dismantled Oxbridge’s hold on British intellectual life. Thatcherism undermined the finances of ancient Oxbridge colleges. It shattered the conventions of “academic etiquette.”

By the end of the 20th century, Americans were coming in droves to study and teach. And some of the most successful Oxbridge scholars were moving to the U.S., lured by high salaries and little teaching. This book offers a prehistory to the “‘disabling lack of confidence’ [that] has become the global hallmark of the twenty-first century university.” It provokes us, now, to ask and answer: What is the new place of an intellectual elite in a world of doubt and dissent?

A rich history of Britain’s academic leaders and their fall from grace and power.

Transforming Darkness Into Light: A Holocaust Survivor’s Lessons in Fighting Hate Lazowski, Philip with Suzanne Batchelor Pinkes | Bloomsbury Academic (184 pp.) $35 | January 22, 2026 | 9798765167748

Bringing “light to darkness.”

Lazowski was 11 when the Nazis came for him.

Separated from his family, he found himself lost in Polish forests, wandering in brutal winters before war’s end, before making it to New York. Now in his mid-90s, the rabbi emeritus of two synagogues in Connecticut looks back on a career as counselor to generations of American Jews.

This is not just another tale of personal survival, though. It is a meditation on the nature of antisemitism itself. It is a history of fear, a chronicle of sorrows and success in overcoming hatred. It is, as well, a book of lessons: People find it easier to hate than to love; anger comes more quickly than acceptance. As Lazowski writes, “The idea that Jews are an alien element and, as such, are potentially harmful to the state goes back millennia.” Pharoah’s ministers

suspected Joseph and his family. The history of the Jewish people is a history of diaspora, of “joy and despair.” It is this history that Lazowski wants us to know to understand the Jewish penchant for survival. Exile and return have motivated Jewish lives for as long as there have been Jews. Lazowski argues, therefore, that the answer to antisemitism is an education in Jewish history: “We can arm ourselves with strategic and tactical weapons by using our intelligence, education, and advocacy efforts.” These days, such optimism may seem empty to some. Modern Judaism is so wrapped up with the state of Israel that it is often hard to draw a line between politics and prejudice. Lazowski wants a peaceful Jewish homeland to endure. He’s no apologist for current policies. But he is hopeful for a global coexistence.

A welcome guide to fighting antisemitism, placing Jewish life in a history of survival, community, and resistance.

Twilight of Camelot: The Short Life and Long Legacy of Patrick Bouvier Kennedy Levingston, Steven | Gallery Books/­ Simon & Schuster (400 pp.) | $30 February 24, 2026 | 9781668033166

Death of a baby Kennedy.

Former Washington Post editor Levingston, author of Barack and Joe: The Making of an Extraordinary Partnership, concentrates on events in 1963 when Jacqueline Kennedy gave birth prematurely. Levingston’s impressive research turns up surviving sources in their 80s and 90s, and he delivers an intensely detailed account of the pregnancy, delivery, and failed struggle to save baby Patrick. Mostly, however, this is another dual biography of the Camelot couple. Their money did not make them stand out, but they were media favorites, far more glamorous than their successors.

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behavior. In 1956, when she was pregnant, suffered life-threatening bleeding, and delivered a dead baby girl, he was on a Mediterranean cruise “with a gaggle of beautiful young women.” He seemed uninterested in returning until media outrage and warnings from friends changed his mind. Their relationship remained difficult but improved when he was unexpectedly “smitten” at the birth of two healthy children in 1957 and 1960.

After these extensive preliminaries, Levingston gets down to business as Jackie goes into labor six weeks early in August 1963. The author devotes many pages to world-class doctors trying in vain to relieve her tiny newborn’s struggle to breathe; he died after 39 hours. The author also recounts the funeral and the couple’s remaining three months, concluding with JFK’s assassination. Especially moving is Levingston’s description of spectacular advances in treating preterm births, a research backwater in 1963 but jump-started at JFK’s order. Today, Patrick, classified as only “mildly” premature, would have had a 95% chance of leading a normal life.

A poignant contribution to Kennedy lore.

The Bookie: Inside the HighStakes World of Sports Betting―A Legendary Bookmaker’s Tale of Gangsters, Celebrities, and the Art of the Game Manteris, Art with Matt Birkbeck | Dey Street/HarperCollins (288 pp.) | $32 January 13, 2026 | 9780063423657

A longtime legal sports bookmaker reflects on a career in Las Vegas’ gambling world.

A first-­ generation Greek American from a Pittsburgh family of oddsmakers and gamblers, Manteris fell into the family trade almost by accident, after a string of youthful indiscretions sent his plans to be a Hollywood stuntman astray and stranded him in Vegas for what turned 68

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Is Ukraine the start of a longgame effort on Putin’s part?

IF RUSSIA WINS

out to be his life. He worked his way up from changing the odds board by hand at the mob-owned Stardust Hotel on the Strip (when it was more of a strip mall in the desert than a row of luxury real estate) to innovating sports bookmaking, most notably at Caesars Palace and the Las Vegas Hilton’s SuperBook. “Most people have opinions about sports, and most think their opinions are better than the next guy’s,” he says to explain the simple appeal of sports gambling.

“Having an opinion is one thing, but backing up an opinion with cash—that takes confidence and guts.” Two nemeses plagued him throughout his career: professional gamblers with inside information and teams of runners placing multiple copies of a single high-ticket bet, and the ban on betting on sports everywhere but Nevada, eventually codified by Congress in 1992’s Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). Manteris and co-author Birkbeck, an investigative journalist and author of true crime and mob-related books, have created a gripping narrative that reads in places like a treatment for a Martin Scorsese film. Colorful characters abound, including the world’s most famous athletes (Mike Tyson, Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, etc.), and surprising cameos, including a cocaine-snorting Rodney Dangerfield, a casino-wrecking Donald Trump, and PASPA-conquering Chris Christie. In the end, Manteris wonders what sort of monster he helped unleash on the world.

Very entertaining and, finally, thought-provoking.

For more about Las Vegas gambling, visit Kirkus online.

If Russia Wins Masala, Carlo | Trans. by Olena Ebel & Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp | Atlantic Monthly (128 pp.) $20 | January 6, 2026 | 9780802168580

A longtime NATO analyst and professor of international relations considers the likelihood of a new Russian Empire in the aftermath of war in Ukraine.

Consider, Masala urges, that Ukraine is just the beginning of a long-game effort on the part of Vladimir Putin and his lieutenants to restore something of the old Soviet Union. The first step in such a project might be to occupy Estonia’s third-largest city, Narva, with the argument that the minority Russian population is being oppressed by the Estonian majority. NATO’s Baltic Sea forces are divided, some ships having moved to the Mediterranean to stem the flow of migrants to Europe, and a Russian blockade effectively requires NATO troops to move overland through territory in which Russian forces hold the strategic advantage. Ukraine collapses, finally, after Volodymyr Zelensky loses a bid for reelection, and the nation’s hope of joining NATO is crushed by Russian demands that it adds a permanent neutrality clause to its constitution. Who benefits? Russia, of course, one of whose high officials tells another, “We need to remember: the West thinks that they are rational, and that we are irrational and emotionally backward….That’s to our advantage.” Also to their advantage is the Trump administration’s abandonment of Ukraine and weakening of NATO, meaning, as Masala writes, “Since the Americans can no longer be counted on to bolster Europe’s deterrence capabilities, Europe will have to do much more in the K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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future.” But the real winner will be China, which, in the face of the demise of U.S. power internationally, has every possibility of emerging as the dominant global force, able to project its military and its political demands worldwide—if, that is, Russia wins first, about which Masala warns, “Russia will only be deterred and kept at bay if European societies are prepared to pay the price.”

A worrisome thought experiment that projects disaster if current geopolitical trends—notably U.S. isolationism—prevail.

To Catch a Fascist: The Fight To Expose the Radical Right Mathias, Christopher | Atria (336 pp.) $30 | February 3, 2026 | 9781668034767

A clear portrait of a murky conflict.

In this detailed and disturbing probe of antifa and its sworn enemies, former HuffPost journalist Mathias traces his own reporting to the infamous 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. After witnessing its chaotic violence, Mathias learned that antifa, the decentralized anti-fascist network, was conducting the best research on neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and fascist groups and movements. His account shows how antifa infiltrated those groups, disrupted their plans, and publicly identified their members, including soldiers, police officers, teachers, and politicians. Antifa’s revelations, he writes, “offer an urgent and alarming portrait of a rapidly radicalizing American right, a chronicle of hate crimes, murder plots, and terror plots.” That portrait is all the more alarming if one believes, as antifa does, that law enforcement cannot be trusted to prosecute those crimes. The author’s hope is to humanize anti-fascists and demystify their network. He achieves that goal, but he doesn’t take a hard look at antifa’s own penchant for violence, focusing instead on its daring infiltrations, tireless online research, and K IR KU S R E V IE W S

steadfast opposition to right-wing extremism. He also roasts the overblown, baseless, and often risible claims about antifa in recent years, especially by the Trump administration and its media allies. Finally, he notes the outsized influence of relatively small right-wing groups on political discourse at the national level. Mathias makes no bones about his own views, calling himself “a journalist who believes in militant anti-fascism.” He adds: “I refuse to say I don’t have a stake in all this. We all do.”

A timely and troubling account of anti-fascist goals and methods.

Escape From Capitalism: An Intervention Mattei, Clara E. | Simon & Schuster (224 pp.) $26 | January 27, 2026 | 9781668085141

A clearly explained case for scrapping entrenched capi­talism for a fairer distribution of the pot.

Mattei, an Italian economist who teaches at the University of Tulsa, offers a resounding proposition: “It is time to demand an economic system that does not flourish at the expense of humanity.”

The author of The Capital Order (2022) writes that there’s a great deal in the “capital order” that needs to be thrown out, overhauled, remade, and rethought in order to arrive at a system that critics are likely to brand, immediately, as socialist.

They wouldn’t be far off the mark, but hers is a humanistic socialism, one that insists on meaningful work and just compensation rather than the capitalist model on which profitability hinges on paying the lowest possible wages to the least resistant workforce. Against the reigning dogma that capitalism brings about free markets and therefore freedom, Mattei advances the “stark truth” that capitalism and democracy are incompatible: Democracy requires that workers have agency, something the capital order is loath to grant. Arguing further from the insight that “there are no economic problems that are not inevitably also political problems,” the author argues

that a step forward to creating true economic democracy is a political project that begins with building communities of resistance, one such being an organization founded in Mississippi in which neighbors exchange goods “without the intermediation of money.” Along the way, Mattei offers a crystal-clear explanation of how inflation relates with unemployment, with capitalists fearing full employment because, in tight labor markets, workers have a greater voice lest they move on elsewhere (as so many did in the “Great Resignation” during the Covid-19 pandemic); inflation rises because prices do, a phenomenon that, in her view, moves our focus from “what is really at stake”— namely, profit above all else—to the specter of having to pay more for eggs.

A forceful argument for an economic system that does not require the many to fill the pockets of the few.

Kirkus Star

Volga Blues: A Journey Into the Heart of Russia Mian, Marzio G. | Trans. by Elettra Pauletto | Photos by Alessandro Cosmelli Norton (304 pp.) | $31.99 | January 20, 2026 9781324111030

An Italian journalist ventures down Russia’s mother river, the longest in Europe.

As longtime Corriere della Sera editor Mian writes, the 2,000-milelong Volga river has long played a central role in Russians’ sense of national identity past. It does so today in Vladimir Putin’s world, where Russkiy mir is “not a philosophy, but a creed encompassing everything pertaining to Great Russia, where Orthodox Christianity, Fascist impulses, traditionalism, and a certain ‘Asiatic’ Soviet despotism coexist.”

Traveling from town to town and city to city along the Volga, Mian, with photographer Cosmelli, teases out several related themes. One is the Russian people’s self-professed indifference to JANUARY 1, 2026

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death. At the site of one vast World War II battle overshadowed by that of Stalingrad, a local historian reckons that the fight consumed “eighty-five tons of human flesh.” She asks, meaningfully, “Who else would give their lives for their country like that?” And that, she suggests, is what will restore Russian greatness, a motif sounded by young and old alike.

Yet, Mian points out, Russian greatness seems a far distant possibility in so many places along the great river, where drugs, alcohol, despair, and roving Clockwork Orange–ish youth gangs rule, and where death is everywhere: not just the incalculable deaths in battle in Ukraine, but also death by vodka, car crashes (with death rates a staggering 60 times higher than in Britain), suicide, and industrial pollution in a heartland “where smokestacks, apartment blocks, daycares, warehouses, and churches exist together along the Volga in a suffocating cloud of ammonia.” It’s not a pretty picture, nor is the overall view of life under Putin’s rule, where dissidents, gay men and women, and minorities are oppressed, where right-wing Christianity dominates, and where, one priest confides, no one seems especially afraid of being incinerated in an atomic war.

An unsettling but deeply insightful travelog that explains much about Russian life.

The Look Obama, Michelle with Meredith Koop Crown (304 pp.) | $50 | November 4, 2025 9780593800706

A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.

Illustrated with hundreds of full-­ color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I 70

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had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term.

Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories.

Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.”

Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.

Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.

Kirkus Star

Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn’t Easy Okrent, Daniel | Yale Univ. (320 pp.) $35 | March 17, 2026 | 9780300270211

Short, shrewd biography of the legendary composer/lyricist.

Much has been written about Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021), most prominently Meryle Secrest’s more-or-less-authorized 1998 biography.

It’s characteristic of Okrent’s ability to go beyond the usual that he found there a revealing, previously unremarked

comment by Judy Prince, wife of Sondheim’s longtime director/producer Hal, and herself one of the composer’s closest friends. After hearing songs from Sweeney Todd, his blood-soaked masterpiece about a vengeance-driven barber, she exclaimed, “It’s the story of your life!”

A thirst for revenge is one of several dark personality traits that Okrent (Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, 2010) discerns in a portrait refreshingly unlike the generally worshipful treatment accorded the man who revolutionized the American musical. Not that Okrent isn’t a “Sondhead,” as he affectionately terms Cult of Sondheim members, and his coverage of such storied productions as Company, Follies, Merrily We Roll Along, and Assassins is cogent. What stands out, however, are his thoughtful exegeses of Sondheim’s work as it expressed lifelong personal conflicts. Okrent identifies two paradigmatic songs: “Someone in a Tree” from Pacific Overtures “is the effort of a young boy trying to connect,” while “Finishing the Hat” from Sunday in the Park With George “is the effort of a mature artist trying to create” who bemoans that others don’t understand why this is more important than any human connection. The subtitle is apt: A perfectionist to the point of cruelty to collaborators, Sondheim dedicated his life to the agonies of creation and was profoundly uncomfortable with intimacy.

In his final decades, when his creative abilities faltered but he was happily in love with a man 50 years his junior, his longtime librettist James Lapine saw “the reservoir of anger inside of him dissipate.”

But for five decades, in more than a dozen shows that expanded the horizons of musical theater, work was Sondheim’s salvation. “The difference between Sweeney and me,” he told an interviewer, “is that I turned it into art.”

An indispensable supplement to our understanding of a musical theater giant.

For more about Stephen Sondheim, visit Kirkus online.

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How To Know Your Self: The Art and Science of Discovering Who You Really Are Oliver, J. Eric | Liveright/Norton (288 pp.) $31.99 | January 6, 2026 | 9781324095231

Letting it go.

This free­wheeling tour of human history and psychic life—by a professor of political science at the University of Chicago—invites us to think about our inner beings. The human “self” is no real thing out there, Oliver argues, but rather a complex construction of social, religious, and political institutions. The ancient Greek dictum, “know thyself,” really meant something more like “know your place”— know what your role is in the world and in the cosmos. So, too, Eastern religious traditions do not offer up a vision of an inner being as much as they guide ways of living in a changing world. Oliver interlards reflections on psychology and history with personal accounts of growing up and learning yoga. He weighs in, sometimes judiciously, sometimes superficially, on such current debates as the role of medication in mental health, the possibilities and pitfalls of psychedelics, the history of psychotherapy, and the rewards of meditation. “We’re typically the authors of our own distress,” he writes. Owning that authorship becomes the start of self-discovery. Oliver admits that his book is “an odd hybrid…part applied philosophy, part popular science, part intellectual history, and part ‘thinking person’s self-help’ book.” Based on a class he has taught at the University of Chicago, the book captures the tone of the charismatic professor. His advice will remain familiar to many: accept life’s challenges, don’t panic, think of others, go with the flow. He offers, ultimately, a vision of “transcendent loving”: “deliberately confronting our limitations” and “striving to rise above ourselves.” The final lesson of the book is “letting go,” to live courageously with life’s uncertainties.

A restorative guide to living a life of self-awareness, acceptance, and taking responsibility for our own fulfillment.

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Boss Lincoln: The Partisan Life of Abraham Lincoln Pinsker, Matthew | Norton (480 pp.) | $39.99 February 10, 2026 | 9780393240788

Portrait of a hard-nosed wheeler-dealer.

Historian Pinsker, author of Lincoln’s Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers’ Home, dismisses the view that the 16th president was an obscure local politico who became a presidential candidate only because important men deadlocked. In 1832, at age 23, he lost his first attempt for the Illinois state House but won two years later, quickly impressed his colleagues, became floor leader for the Whig caucus, and served four terms before leaving voluntarily in 1841 as a leading Illinois political figure, a position he never surrendered. By the 1840s, both Democrats and Whigs appeared to be out of touch and dithering until the roof fell in after 1850 when the Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Compromise of 1820 and seemed to open western territories to slavery. This destroyed the Whigs but only split the Democrats. Lincoln worked hard to establish the new Republican Party, which would have won the 1856 presidency if Millard Fillmore of the Know Nothing Party hadn’t siphoned away votes. He organized a vigorous campaign for the 1860 nomination, came in second on the first convention ballot, and won on the third. Entering familiar territory, Pinsker keeps his focus on Lincoln’s leadership, largely ignoring the battlefield. Although it was a minority view at the time, he did almost everything right. Making appointments for purely political reasons, he included powerful rivals but kept his own counsel, and his cabinet was never “a happy team of loyal advisors.” Historians fill volumes explaining why Lincoln fended off abolitionists until the very end, but it was simply a matter of votes. Most northerners found the Confederates obnoxious and unpatriotic yet shared their racist views. By war’s end, few objected to

eliminating slavery, but giving Black people equal rights remained a niche view until the 20th century.

A Lincoln biography that’s more perceptive than many.

Kirkus Star

Traversal Popova, Maria | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (624 pp.) | $36 | February 17, 2026 9780374616410

A panorama of passionate minds.

In 2006, Popova created the Marginalian, which has evolved into a web archive revealing her wide-ranging reading and search for meaning, both evident in her latest compendium. Deftly synthesizing a wealth of primary material, she considers thorny and ponderous questions: “What is life?”

“What is death?” “What are the building blocks of personhood, of sovereignty, of identity? Where does the body end and the soul begin?” Biography, history, and cultural criticism inform her portrayals of an eclectic cast of poets and scientists, reformers and visionaries, including astronomers Johannes Kepler and Edmond Halley, intent on mapping the solar system; Captain James Cook, who led an expedition to Tahiti in 1769 to see the transit of Venus, and whose observations of Tahitian society—so alien from what he knew in Britain—resulted in a primitive version of cultural anthropology; and Mary Shelley, shaped by her parents, William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, and entangled with a group of poets awed by the “immensity of the universe” and the dark depths of their own minds.

There are natural philosophers Volta, Aldini, and Galvani, who delved into the mystery of animal electricity; chemist Antoine Lavoisier, condemned to death during the French Revolution, who identified and named hydrogen and oxygen; Humphry Davy, who “ushered in the dawn of biochemistry”; anthropologist Ruth Benedict, with a “porous >>> JANUARY 1, 2026

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B O O K L I S T // N O N F I C T I O N

Books About Books

2

For more booklists, visit Kirkus online.

4

1 Black-Owned

1

By Char Adams

An enlightening history for students of the Black experience and readers of books about books.

6

2 The Complete Notebooks

By Albert Camus; trans. by Ryan Bloom

The inner life of a great absurdist, with lessons for us in times of turmoil.

3 The Insider

By Gerald Howard

A superb contribution to the history of American literature and the Lost Generation.

3

5 Bookstores of the World

By Jean-Yves Mollier and Patricia Sorel; trans. by Deke Dusinberre and Charles Penwarden

A gorgeous and thoughtful overview that will bring joy to any bibliophile.

4 The Master of Contradictions

6 A Danger to the Minds of Young Girls

By Morten Høi Jensen

By Adam Morgan

A thoughtful, perceptive rereading.

A lively biography of a bold woman.

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5

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IN THE NEWS

The actor’s revealing 1992 biography of her mother, Marlene Dietrich, was a bestseller.

Maria Riva, the actor known for her bestselling biography of her mother, Marlene Dietrich, has died at 100, the New York Times reports.

Riva was born in Berlin to Dietrich, the legendary German actor and singer, and Rudolf Sieber, an assistant director. She spent much of her childhood in Los Angeles and later embarked on a career acting in plays, television, and films.

She made her final feature film appearance in the 1988 movie Scrooged.

In 1993, Knopf published Marlene Dietrich, Riva’s biography of her mother, with whom she had a strained relationship.

The book, which became a bestseller, told the story of Dietrich’s career, her bisexuality, and her final

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Maria Riva in 1993

years as a bedridden alcoholic, shocking some readers with its unvarnished and often unflattering portrait.

“Ms. Riva’s revelations will incense a great many people; indeed, they apparently already have,” the New York Times noted in a review of the book.

A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “No Mommie Dearest— though reviewers may point their fingers—but grand stuff.” Riva also published a novel, You Were There Before My Eyes, in 2017.

In a 1993 interview with People magazine, Riva reflected on her mother’s life, saying, “I can’t help thinking her life was a kind of tragedy. I wish her life had been fuller. Dietrich believed that she invented love, but I don’t think she really knew what love was.”—M.S.

Eric Rober t/S ygma v ia Get t y Images

Maria Riva Dies at 100

For a review of Marlene Dietrich, visit Kirkus online.

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A W A R D S // N O N F I C T I O N

AWARDS Winner of the 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize Revealed Helen Garner won the award for her diary collection, How To End a Story.

Darren James Photography

Helen Garner has won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction for How To End a Story: Collected Diaries, 1978-1998, the BBC reports.

Garner’s book, published in the U.S. by Pantheon last March, collects the journal writings of the Australian novelist over the course of two decades.

A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “Sharp observations and revelations make for lively reading.”

Robbie Millen, the chair of judges for the prize, said, “Garner takes the diary form, mixing the intimate, the intellectual, and the everyday, to new heights.…Her collected diaries will surely be mentioned alongside The Diary of Virginia Woolf.”

Garner’s book beat out five others to claim the prize: Lone Wolf: Walking the Line Between Civilization and Wildness by Adam Weymouth; Captives For a review of How To End a Story, visit Kirkus online.

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and Companions: A History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Islamic World by Justin Marozzi; The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s by Jason Burke; The Boundless Deep: Young Tennyson, Science, and the Crisis of Belief by Richard Holmes; and Electric Spark: The Enigma of Dame Muriel

by Frances Wilson.

The Baillie Gifford Prize was established in 1999 and comes with a cash prize of 50,000 British pounds, about $67,000. Previous winners include Patrick Radden Keefe for Empire of Pain and John Vaillant for Fire Weather: A True Story From a Hotter World.

—M.S.

Helen Garner

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curiosity about alternative societies,” as eager to understand herself as she was to understand other cultures. And there is Walt Whitman, the unabashed celebrant of nature. In chronicling her subjects’ intellectual and emotional passions, Popova makes much of intersections and interconnections among individuals, from various times, places, and circumstances, who have measured, dissected, rhapsodized, and invented as they grappled with the vexing conundrums, and the grandeur, of being.

A stirring, kaleidoscopic intellectual history.

The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie Prescod-Weinstein, Chanda Pantheon (368 pp.) | $32 April 7, 2026 | 9780593701683

Prying the universe open to make sure there’s room for everyone.

“Physicists are professional boundary-­pushers,” writes Prescod-­ Weinstein (The Disordered Cosmos, 2021) in this wide-ranging survey of modern physics and cosmology. And she’s certainly pushing some boundaries, stylistically and politically. “The universe is too fucking fabulous for capitalism, y’all,” she writes in a preface that opens with an Akan proverb and ends with a Hebrew prayer. Drawing from her African roots and Jewish heritage, her work in theoretical physics, her queerness, and references ranging from Langston Hughes to Big K.R.I.T., Prescod-Weinstein explores the edges of our knowledge, our cosmos, our metaphors, and our sociocultural norms.

In scholarly but lively prose, she explains the Big Bang, relativity, electromagnetism, and quantum mechanics, calling attention to their cultural contexts. Relativity’s intermixing of space and time may have seemed strange to European Newtonians, but was common, for instance, in Hebrew prayers and in the Bantu language. And while curved space-time may have been 76

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foreign to Western scientists with their linear, Cartesian coordinates, the Palikur people of the Amazon “use a curvilinear coordinate system that they developed to mirror the shape of [a] giant anaconda snake.” One would hope that a physicist advocating a queer perspective would give us the science but tell it slant, but the explanations of the physics itself are for the most part old hat. Prescod-Weinstein is at her best when she lets the personal slip in: the ideas she’s changed her mind about, the experiments that keep her up at night, the questions she can’t let go. “There is a bizarre cultural tendency to treat physicists in particular as fascinating enigmas whose brains exist beyond the realm of everyday human politics,” she writes. “This isn’t true.

The universe…is enigmatic, queer, surprising, and endlessly fascinating. But we physicists are just people, no more and no less.” That humanity shines through her writing. One feels a mind present on the page, actively working through ideas, producing a text that’s engaging and alive.

For readers put off by the overwhelmingly male, white, heteronormative world of physics, here is a warm, impassioned welcome.

Kirkus Star

The Blood Countess: Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a Monster Puhak, Shelley | Bloomsbury (320 pp.) $32.99 | February 17, 2026 | 9781639732159

A feminist debunking of the myth of a monstrous Renaissance noblewoman.

Countess Báthory Erzsébet— or Elizabeth Bathory, as she’s referred to in English and throughout this book—was, until recently, the Guinness Book of World Records champion of serial killers, with 650 possible victims, all virginal young women and girls allegedly dispatched to provide the blood that Bathory bathed in to sustain her youth.

Her legend inspired horror films, and a

Swedish death metal band borrowed her surname as a sign of its extreme badassness. But since the 1980s, scholars have taken a closer look at the historical evidence to uncover a story unlikely to satisfy the bloodlust of a true crime or horror fan. Through close reading of Bathory’s many letters and various contemporary accounts, poet and writer Puhak uncovers a thoroughly pre-modern Renaissance woman, well bred and well read, from a distinguished ancient family.

Unusually, for a woman of that time, when her war-hero husband apparently died of the plague, Bathory assumed her husband’s political roles in the counties where their vast estate lay and in the national parliament in Bratislava, all while maintaining her traditional tasks as lady of the manor and ward of a finishing school for noblewomen and courtiers-to-be. She was known for her keen interest in what the Hungarians call igazság. “This refers to truth and justice in the broadest sense,” Puhak writes. Elizabeth was considered “someone with a strong ethical sense…who would fight for what was morally right and not just politically expedient.” How did she wind up with such a ghastly reputation? It’s a complicated story involving Machiavellian intrigue between Catholics and Protestants, Calvinists and Lutherans, Hungarians and Germans, Europe and the Ottoman Empire, and, of course, powerful men stymied by a strong woman.

Admirably clear-eyed history related in crystalline prose.

The Game Changer: How Harry Reid Remade the Rules and Showed Democrats How To Fight Ralston, Jon | Simon & Schuster (400 pp.) $30 | January 20, 2026 | 9781982194413

Life of Harry Reid, the small-town power broker who cast a long shadow over national government.

Reid grew up in a crossroads hamlet in southern Nevada where not much happened, his father a K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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A land where dreams are forfeited to marital expectations, betrayal, and stoic grief.

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taciturn hard-rock miner who took to drink, his father figure a brothel keeper who taught him a valuable lesson early in life: “You’ve got a future ahead of you.

Always be honest in everything you do.”

Reid took the lesson well, although, as Nevada journalist and sometime antagonist Ralston notes, he had a few quirks, including a penchant for vindictive politics, telling a staffer, “vengeance is in my soul.” After rising through local politics, including a stint on Nevada’s influential all-powerful gaming commission, Reid was elected to Congress and began a steady climb to power, albeit with a few setbacks, as when he broke with Democratic Party leaders to support Al Gore over Michael Dukakis. Reid also formulated strategies for building big-tent coalitions in states such as Nevada, where the voters might favor a Republican candidate but would often vote for Democratic candidates down the ticket, even if the polity didn’t always appreciate Reid’s legislative accomplishments—for one, forging a water compact in his arid state that was hailed as “an accomplishment that remains amazing to this day.” By Ralston’s account, Reid was unhurried, deliberate, and persuasive in his dealmaking. He voted against the confirmation of Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court, a politically risky move; the upshot, though, on reaching the pinnacle of power in the Senate, was to have a big say in judicial appointments, which he insisted be made more diverse than the usual white men. (He also had a knack for disarming political opponents by appointing them to the bench.) Ralston’s biography capably proves what Reid’s House counterpart, John Boehner, said of him: “he was one tough son of a bitch.”

A critical but appreciative biography that explores how a quietly persistent politician got things done.

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The Violence: My Family’s Colombian War Ramírez, Adriana E. | Scribner (336 pp.) $28.99 | April 14, 2026 | 9781501145209

A family’s experience is bounded and warped by the violence and instability that overtook Colombia in the last half of the 20th century.

Esther Angarita Samiento, Ramírez’s grandmother, came of age in Colombia’s hills, alongside the country’s decades of upheaval and turbulence, “La Violencia,” launched by the assassination of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán in 1948. As corrupt Conservative leaders struggled to keep power, and Liberal revolutionaries led their crusades into ever-greater extremity, Samiento started and grew her own family, expanding their business and land holdings among several fincas. Samiento’s story reflects familiar themes for women of her generation, particularly in a conservative Catholic country—individual dreams forfeited to marital expectations, jarring personal betrayal, and stoic grief. But the consuming brutality of Colombia’s economic and political struggles provides a distinct shape to Samiento’s experience. In stately and solemn prose, Ramírez, a writer and critic, outlines a series of eventful shifts in the national history at the fringes of her family’s story, shading their experience with gruesome details of murders in close proximity, as well as with illegitimate elections, American entanglement, and drug trafficking. But the author’s work is first and foremost a familial history; the roots of her family’s trajectory are complex, encompassing colonial projects, political experimentation, and

geographical and agricultural details. Her attempts to shade in these contours grant color and context to the personal, but cannot give full clarity. As she writes, “Colombia is a land of many truths,” and the particular experience of her ancestors is but one example of how the pursuit of ideals rubs against lived reality, in an environment where the gravitational pull of violence and turmoil is virtually inescapable. Drenching the family narrative with the frail complexities of love and memory, Ramírez decouples it from Colombia’s relentless and stereotypical violence to claim her own piece of its story.

A sensitive literary endeavor to honor a delicate, devastating past.

The Flowers of Good: The Science and the History of Marijuana Liberation Ribeiro, Sidarta | Trans. by Daniel Hahn Soft Skull Press (224 pp.) | $17.95 paper January 27, 2026 | 9781593768119

A Brazilian neurobiologist recounts the joys of weed.

If it took forever for marijuana to be accepted for its medicinal and recreational possibilities in the U.S., it took even longer in Brazil—in part, writes Ribeiro, because, with its cultivation illegal, experimental marijuana had to be imported, and then with great reluctance on the part of the bureaucracy. Yet, Ribeiro points out, for all the recent work on such things as epilepsy in mice, research into marijuana’s therapeutic values is nothing new; in 1839, he notes, a British doctor in India “demonstrated the use of marijuana preparations for treating convulsions, spasms, and rheumatism,” something the ancients had known for millennia. Yet scientific knowledge has proceeded apace, though it may come as a surprise to some readers that THC was identified as marijuana’s chief active ingredient only in the 1960s. The science in Ribeiro’s book begins to soften as it moves along: Ribeiro JANUARY 1, 2026

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allows that being baked can tamper with a person’s short-term memory, though not the long-term form, and he explains why it is that a good bong hit requires an Oreo or 10: “In promoting the healthy balance between energy expenditure and food ingestion, cannabinoids act directly on bodily regeneration.” (Thus it is, he suggests, that eating disorders might just find a remedy in toking up.) Despite the echo of Baudelaire in the title, there’s not much poetry in these pages, though there’s plenty of hippie-ish good feelings about “plant teachers” as Ribeiro exalts “wandering the paths of the improbable, that which perhaps will never be, and yet maybe, it might, who knows, it just might be…and may even grow for all to see.” It ain’t quite Jerry Garcia, but the point is made.

You don’t have to be stoned to read this, but it couldn’t hurt.

Remember the Times: A Memoir Riley, Teddy with Jake Brown | Gallery 13/ Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) | $29 February 10, 2026 | 9781668056455

A storied hitmaker recalls his rags-to-riches story.

Riley played a major role in pop music in the 1980s and ’90s, cannily blending hip-hop beats and R&B vocals to pioneer a genre dubbed new jack swing. Moreover, he’s done it both as a performer (most notably the trio Guy) and behind the boards, writing and producing for Bobby Brown, Michael Jackson, Blackstreet, and dozens more.

He’s earned the right to brag a little, though his story started humbly, as a child in the Harlem projects with a gift for music. By the time he was 12, he was playing keyboards and singing in bands, and after a brief ill-fated stint selling drugs, he stayed focused on music. His story would be a straightforward rocket ride to the top were it not for his early manager, Gene Griffin, who, in Riley’s accounting, was a svengali who bullied 78

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lucrative writing, publishing, and co-production credits for himself. But Griffin and other “paper gangsters” aside, Riley’s story is mostly trained on his successful collaborations with MCs and singers, most notably Jackson; as one of the lead songwriters and producers of Jackson’s 1991 album Dangerous, he spent more than a year all-but coha­bi­ tating with him. (And witnessed nothing untoward, he stresses.) Riley can be entertaining company when he talks about working in the studio—he’s charmingly enthusiastic and specific about the gear he uses to work on tracks—­ but almost inevitably reverts to boasting a lot about how successful his singles, albums, and tours are. (The book’s early pages are filled with lengthy encomiums from protégés and contemporaries.) Even now that he doesn’t command the charts, he still overhypes his social media standing and K-pop ventures. Riley is an icon, but his memoir feels too much like a tour of his capacious trophy room.

An autobiography more about the hits than the soul behind them.

Kirkus Star

Freedom Lost, Freedom Won: A Personal History of America Robinson, Eugene | Simon & Schuster (320 pp.) $30 | February 3, 2026 | 9781982176716

The noted columnist and television commentator explores his family’s long-forgotten history.

Robinson once wrote a long piece in the Washington Post that examined his family’s history through the lens of their longtime home in South Carolina. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, like so many writers, he took the occasion of isolation to pull up a few documents he’d retrieved from that home and decided that, though he wasn’t sure why, “I needed to think about our past.” What that past taught him, in the end, was the central truth of African

American history: that for every advance toward being seen as truly American, “in short order, that full citizenship would be revoked.” Robinson finds documentation about the lives of his enslaved ancestors, one of whom, though he was “sold like a piece of livestock in 1829 and then sold again in 1848,” managed to buy his freedom before the Civil War. His son, Robinson’s great-grandfather, became a lawyer prominent in the Reconstruction-era Republican Party, only to be sidelined by Jim Crow laws. Robinson’s excursus into the bitterly contested election that brought Rutherford B. Hayes into the White House is instructive in showing how power politics, then as now, so often relies on trading away the rights of marginalized peoples—in this case, by effectively disenfranchising Black voters in a process that Robinson rightly worries might be repeated in “another acquiescence in the theft of expanded freedoms” today. Robinson’s own experiences in journalism, dating to the 1960s, are similarly instructive in showing that, as he notes repeatedly, Black people so often need to be twice as good to approach parity with whites. For all that, Robinson writes, his family’s history proves that whiteness does not equate to accomplishment: As he says of those marginalized peoples, “Just to make it through the day and face another tomorrow, we have always had to be the most radical and resilient optimists on earth.”

A skillfully narrated journey into the past.

Reproductive Wrongs: A Short History of Bad Ideas About Women Ruden, Sarah | Liveright/Norton (288 pp.) $29.99 | March 3, 2026 | 9781324075905

Dissecting pieces of literature that contributed to the United States’ reproductive health crisis.

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canonical texts. She starts with Roman bad boy Ovid, who impregnates his girlfriend and lambastes her when she gets an abortion. Ruden likens him to a “conservative politician in imperial­ istic America.” Next, she traces fertility-related misogyny to the New Testament’s Pastoral Epistles, which restricted Christian women’s bathing, making them “[reek] like a goat,” lowering their self-esteem, and usable at will for childbearing. The author’s prose is replete with such vivid writing, making us pinch our noses—not at the women, but at the politically ambitious men who restricted their reproductive health choices. Augustine—who promoted an ideology of celibacy following a difficult relationship with his mother—prompts a similar recoil, as do the witch-hunting Dominican monks of the Middle Ages. Ruden deftly ties these men’s turbulent personal lives to their reproductive health teachings and subsequent rancor toward women. Charles Dickens, in Ruden’s view, wasn’t just a chronicler of Victorian England but a survivor of childhood neglect who propagated Victorian morals that forced women into early marriages and produced the large families needed to fill the first factories with cheap child labor. Curiously, anti-abortion advocate Marie Stopes isn’t judged quite as harshly as her male predecessors. Ruden writes that the collective trauma from World War I that Stopes suffered—she was a “thoughtful, highly educated person,” but also a eugenicist who believed poor people’s fertility should be curtailed—was probably felt more keenly than that of her lower-born contemporaries, who supposedly had “thick skins.” Equally puzzling is the book’s portrayal of a woman who survived her mother’s abortion attempt as a “living script,” stripping her of any views of her own. Those passages aside, Ruden successfully advocates for a world governed by saner reproductive health policies, and, arguably, happier men.

A timeless treatise on how “totalitarian” men try to consolidate power by controlling women’s bodies.

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A Call at 4 AM: Thirteen Prime Ministers and the Crucial Decisions That Shaped Israeli Politics Segal, Amit | Wicked Son (248 pp.) | $32 October 14, 2025 | 9798895652022

A noble attempt to do the impo­ ssible: distill the nature of Israeli politics in 250odd pages.

In this examination of 11 “key political decisions made by Israeli prime ministers,” Israeli television commentator and columnist Segal seeks to present “an alternative biography of the State of Israel.” If you understand the decisions, he writes, “you will understand Israel’s politics.” Segal looks at decisions large and small, from Golda Meir’s conduct of the Yom Kippur War to Ariel Sharon’s effort to forge a true political center; the author takes readers to a future in which peace seems increasingly unlikely and conservative dominance is likely to continue. As Segal makes clear, the nation is led by a prime minister, a first among equals, with much leeway given to opposition parties. Those parties matter: In Israel, one votes for a party, or “ideas, not individuals,” with value placed less on a decision than on the argumentative process of reaching one. Members of the Knesset do not vote their conscience, but instead “are obligated by factional and coalitional discipline.”

Chalk that up to David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister, who recognized that a state made up of a formerly scattered and largely leaderless people meant that even the smallest minority had to be represented somehow. And one aspect of that party discipline is that although Israelis tend toward liberalism, their government is quite conservative, with religious fundamentalists often holding sway, so that “in Israel, a prime minister can only come from the right or the center-right, or at least head a government based on the right.” Benjamin Netanyahu comes in for a drubbing at Segal’s hands, though

in many ways he has been a more effective leader than some of his predecessors, the author argues. Who will succeed Netanyahu? “I cannot predict,” Segal writes. “But like in police work, I can try to sketch a profile: This leader will be unremarkable, devoid of charisma, and boring.”

Segal’s capable account does much to explain why things are the way they are in the Middle East today.

Bonfire of the Murdochs: How the Epic Fight To Control the Last Great Media Dynasty Broke a Family—And the World Sherman, Gabriel | Simon & Schuster (256 pp.) $29 | February 3, 2026 | 9781982167417

A real-life Succession drama, in all its inglorious tawdriness.

Rupert Murdoch, Sherman assures us, is “brutally cold.” For one thing, writes the biographer of Murdoch’s former ally, Fox News founder Roger Ailes, the media mogul divorced supermodel Jerry Hall by email, having thrown her over for “a sixty-six-year-old former dental hygienist turned conservative radio host with QAnon-style politics”—after reportedly having voiced his view to Hall that the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters “were just good old boys who got carried away.” Murdoch’s Fox News quickly amplified Donald Trump’s assertion that the 2020 election had been stolen from him. Lachlan Murdoch, heir apparent, was briefly ostracized for not fully embracing that theory, but all the same he was markedly less liberal than his siblings, James, Elisabeth, and Prudence, whom Murdoch, in Sherman’s account, edges out of the family business by claiming that they were planning a coup that would destroy Fox and threaten the “English speaking world” with their leftism—and who then spoke to them only through lawyers. It’s a story with as much moral relevance as King Lear, JANUARY 1, 2026

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Without government contracts, Musk wouldn’t be extraordinarily wealthy.

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though admittedly each of the three frozen-out Murdochs walked away from their father with a $1.1 billion settlement, leading Sherman to note of James in particular, “His moral awakening, it turned out, had a price tag.” But such is Sherman’s whole sorry tale, which turns on amassing wealth—as Murdoch once said, “The bottom line in this business is to make money.” And money, as it happens, “always wins” in Murdoch world. He may not have a family, and his name may be “toxic, like the Sacklers,” but Rupert Murdoch still has his fortune, and, as Sherman concludes, “He was still in the game, even if he played alone.”

A morality tale that’s almost certainly guaranteed not to win Rupert Murdoch any new admirers.

Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed Slobodian, Quinn & Ben Tarnoff Harper/HarperCollins (272 pp.) $30 | April 21, 2026 | 9780063484320

A searching look into Elon Musk’s quest to rule the universe.

Henry Ford didn’t coin the term Fordism, but he and his workers lived it.

In the same way, write historian Slobodian and technologist Tarnoff, Musk “is not just a man but the avatar of a worldview: Muskism.” Whereas Fordism was an all-boats-rising form of modernizing, though, Muskism is a doctrine of wealth for the few and political and economic domination: SpaceX in space, X and Grok online, Starlink on every phone. As Slobodian and Tarnoff 80

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note, Musk may present himself as a libertarian, but his power comes from his interlinkages with the state: Without government contracts, there wouldn’t be his space launches or satellites, and Musk wouldn’t be on the path of becoming the world’s first trillionaire. Musk’s odd assortment of doctrines, by the authors’ account, have deep roots: He grew up privileged in apartheid South Africa, views the Darwinian world as an arena “of autonomy for some and exclusion for others,” and takes a fabulist, self-appointed-hero approach to commerce and culture. The authors, writing from the left, hold that Musk is representative of Silicon Valley at large in being itself an apartheid state of sorts, a font of inequality and a champion of “the principle of reactionary technocracy.”

While their dive isn’t as deep as Michael Steinberger’s in The Philosopher in the Valley, the two books are of a piece in warning that such a technocracy can turn fascist on a dime, and backed by a robot army at that.

Meanwhile, in a chilling coda, Slobodian and Tarnoff consider a future scenario of racial segregation, of women consigned to produce no fewer than 2.1 children apiece, and of the environment sacrificed to the demands of critical infrastructure “at the expense of a livable planet.”

Dystopian isn’t a strong enough word for the technocratic future the authors prophesy in this bleak but urgent book.

For more on Musk, visit Kirkus online.

True Color: The Strange and Spectacular Quest To Define Color—From Azure to Zinc Pink Stamper, Kory | Knopf (320 pp.) | $32 March 31, 2026 | 9781524733032

Sea pink and other surprises.

Lexicographer Stamper became fascinated by the definitions of colors when, beginning in 1998, she worked on revising the massive Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Tasked with spotting minute errors, she also spotted quirky terms used to describe hues: begonia, for example, fiesta, and, especially puzzling, sea pink. To Stamper, the sea was associated with blues, greens, grays, but not any shade of red. How did the definition happen? she wondered. Her puzzlement led her to a decade of research into the dictionary’s citation files (4 feet high and 20 feet long, containing the history of every entry): family archives, government documents, and scientific reports; resulting in a lively examination of both the history of color naming and the meticulous process of producing a comprehensive dictionary. It’s filled with opinionated, insistent, stubborn characters who devoted their lives to accuracy: notably, I.H. Godlove, a chemist whose specialty was colorimetry, and who was an early member of the influential Inter-Society Color Council, organized in 1931 to effect the standardization of color descriptions.

This need was especially vital for the U.S. Pharmacopeia, to ensure that pharmacists could distinguish among similarly colored powders and potions.

Godlove offered his expertise to the Webster’s project, and from 1945, when he was hired, until his death in 1954, his insistence that dictionary entries be based on scientific principles confounded his editors, Edward Oakes and the long-suffering Philip Babcock Gove.

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Margaret, a color scientist who contributed substantially to the dictionary, even after her husband’s death. Webster’s Third was published in 1961 with more than 3,000 color entries. The new edition, she predicts, will never be done.

A fresh, irreverent history of words.

On My Watch: Leading NATO in a Time of War Stoltenberg, Jens | Norton (464 pp.) | $32.99 November 11, 2025 | 9781324111177

The former head of NATO writes of crises, political maneuvering, and a world increasingly at war.

Stoltenberg, after serving as prime minister of Norway, stepped into his role at NATO at a time when the Western powers were first reacting to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and incursions into the Donbas region of Ukraine. As his account opens, that conflict has broadened: NATO intelligence reports to him that Russian field hospitals had been fully stocked with blood, just one sign that a broader attack impended. “It was evident that NATO had to be strengthened, and that Ukraine must be given more support,” he writes of those earlier events, adding that the U.S. government under Barack Obama was reluctant to provide direct military aid for fear of provoking Russia into even more expansive combat. After all, as former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev tells Stoltenberg, NATO is alway suspect, since “what history has shown us is that at least once a century some lunatic from the West comes along

who wants to conquer Russia.” For their part, world leaders and policymakers such as Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron have regarded Vladimir Putin with understandable contempt, which hasn’t helped matters, even as the late Henry Kissinger cautioned that demonizing Putin “is an alibi for not having a policy.”

There’s the rub: Stoltenberg writes, sometimes in exasperation, that trying to strike deals with the likes of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, leader of the strategically crucial nation of Turkey, was a constant trial, even as, in the matter of Ukraine, the U.S. government continues to hold that, in President Biden’s words, “We’ll support Ukraine, but we’re not going to risk World War III.” In the end, Stoltenberg warns, the world has become vastly more dangerous than it was since he took office in 2014, writing, resignedly, “It happened on my watch.”

A pensive, even grim, assessment of a troubled time and a troubling geopolitical future.

Out of the Rough: Ted Rhodes and His Fight Against Golf’s Color Barrier Taylor, Dan | Bloomsbury Academic (240 pp.) $32 | February 19, 2026 | 9798881800420

How a golfer helped transform a lily-white sport.

Sports historian Taylor turns to golf with a biography of Ted Rhodes (1913-1969). Born into poverty in Nashville, he first encountered golf when he was 8, making his own club and balls and a rudimentary course in a park. He began caddying at a country club, learning to play from

Born into poverty, Ted Rhodes helped transform the lily-white sport of golf.

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the caddy master. In 1941, Rhodes played in his first tournament, the Joe Louis Open—the popular boxer organized the event for Black golfers; Rhodes finished a remarkable third.

Louis hired him as his traveling caddy.

Later, the singer Billy Eckstine hired Rhodes as his golf tutor. After finishing fourth in an all-Black tournament in Ohio, Louis hired him back. He played in the Los Angeles Open but failed to make the cut. A series of wins led the Los Angeles Sentinel to declare, “Ted Rhodes is perhaps the greatest Negro golfer in the country and rates high with the Whites.” Taylor does a good job of chronicling the lengthy battle over racism in the game. When Rhodes qualified for the Phoenix Open in 1952, “for the first time, Black professional golfers would compete in a PGA event.”

From 1946 to 1950, he won 28 times.

Even with success, the money was always tight. An endorsement deal for clubs helped. The author’s in-depth research allows readers to experience his individual rounds and specific shots. With cameos by Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, and other greats, including many fascinating unheralded Black players, Taylor provides a thorough portrait of the sport at this time. In 1961, in a unanimous vote, the PGA eliminated its “Caucasian-only” membership clause. Thanks largely to Rhodes, Taylor writes, “Hope for Black golfers was realized.”

A much-needed biography of an influential Black athlete.

Ctrl + Alt + Chaos: How Teenage Hackers Hijack the Internet Tidy, Joe | Hanover Square Press (256 pp.) $30 | January 27, 2026 | 9781335001931

A report from cyberspace on young black-hat hackers and their electronic mayhem.

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Tomminpoika Kivimäki looked like a baby-faced Finnish teenager, he’d been a cybercriminal for years—and worse, got away with his crimes, taunting his victims and the police online. Things began to turn against him, writes British tech journalist Tidy, when he hacked into a psychotherapy clinic and demanded payment of 40 bitcoins to keep him from releasing therapy session notes and other sensitive materials. This was a bridge too far for many allied hackers, one of whom protested, “I’m not fucking interested in anyone’s problems.” Yet it’s a typical case, as Tidy chronicles: Everywhere in cyberspace such privileged information is stolen, traded, and put to criminal use—and people have died as a result.

White- and black-hat hackers share common origin stories, the author writes, stumbling into this sort of data through password cracking, social engineering, or other exploits; the difference is that young people like Kivimäki realize that there’s money to be made from others’ binary misfortune. “Arguably, Twitter gave birth to a new generation of fame-hungry hackers,” Tidy writes, for it was there that black-hat self-promotion flourished, corresponding to “a shift in the culture of the teen hacking world—a deliberately cruel act designed to harm thousands of randomly targeted people.” One such cruel act, carried out

by Kivimäki and others, was to send SWAT teams to his targets’ homes or, somewhat more benignly, to send over a carload of pizzas on their charge cards.

Those cybercrimes grew in scale and scope as Kivimäki organized what he called the Lizard Squad—and he’s now in prison for his troubles, courtesy of a game of cat-and-mouse that Tidy fluently recounts.

If you’re wondering where the next DOS attack is going to come from, think Russia—or maybe the kid next door.

For a book about the hidden infrastructure of the internet, visit Kirkus online.

Made in America: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Enabled Communist China and Created Our Greatest Threat Van Fleet, Xi & Yu Jie | Center Street/Hachette (304 pp.) | $30 January 27, 2026 | 9781546009344

Trying to prove that “America’s Woke Revolution” and Mao’s Cultural Revolution are two peas in a pod.

America’s greatest foe, write activists and authors Van Fleet and Yu, is the cabal of “liberals, progressives, gullible conservatives, Communist sympathizers, and fellow travelers in the United States” who have been cheerleaders for and enablers of the Chinese Communist Party. “And that is why today’s Democratic Party has become in many ways nearly indistinguishable from the Chinese Communist Party.” It’s pretty much everyone’s fault, the authors write, from Woodrow Wilson and George Kennan to George H.W. Bush and especially Barack Obama—all of whom precipitated an inexorable slide on this side of the water into Asian despotism until a savior came along: “President Trump’s battle is not only against Chinese Communism; it is also against the Marxist ideological subversion within America itself.” Crush the commie DEI movement?

Check. Sever the shared “ideological essence” of the American left and the Chinese Communist Party? Check.

Expose the “Marxist-inspired Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and its assault on America’s values, institutions, and social fabric”? Well, Van Fleet writes, that’s what got her into the right-wing business in the first place, and from there to fame and fortune via Tucker Carlson: “The video with Carlson was retweeted by Elon Musk on X, reaching tens of millions of people.”

It’s pretty much warmed-over Bircherism, predictable from start to finish, and painted with the broadest possible brush.

If you buy the notion that Kamala Harris is Xi Jinping in disguise, this is for you.

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A Giant Leap: How AI Is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future Wachter, Robert | Portfolio (352 pp.) $32 | February 3, 2026 | 9798217044245

Powerful AI tools for the medical industry are already shaping our digital shadows, diagnosing disease, recommending treatments, and quietly redefining the doctor-patient relationship.

University of California, San Francisco physician and author Wachter surveys the rapidly changing frontier where algorithms meet anatomy. Drawing on a yearlong exploration of artificial intelligence in health care, he interviews clinicians, developers, ethicists, and policymakers to reveal an industry both hopeful and unsettled. The 2022 debut of ChatGPT unleashed a wave of enthusiasm for machine learning in medicine—promising to ease physicians’ data-entry drudgery and help interpret the oceans of electronic health information. But Wachter finds that despite notable successes, there are cautionary tales of flawed models, opaque “black boxes,” and dangerously overhyped results. Regulation, notes scholar Michelle Mello, remains a “hot mess,” tangled in uncertainty over when an AI “decision support” tool becomes a regulated medical device. Meanwhile, the profit-driven structure of American health care complicates matters further—if an algorithm evaluates a patient and recommends treatment, who gets paid?

Wachter is alert to these ethical and financial knots, as well as the potential for tech giants such as Google and Microsoft to exert undue influence disguised as impartial counsel. As one member of Congress warns, allowing tech companies to assess their own or competitors’ AI models invites serious conflicts of interest.

Wachter argues that AI tools will offer more help than harm, and that the medical profession’s “professional risk aversion, powerful incumbents, spring-loaded malpractice system, byzantine payment K IR KU S R E V IE W S

NONFICTION

structures, and stringent privacy rules” will be effective guardrails against AI risks.

Though the book largely skirts the political battles shaping health care, it is an accessible, often fascinating primer on AI tools changing clinical practice—for better or worse.

Essential, illuminating reading for those who fear and those who welcome changes that AI may bring.

The Cure for Everything: The Epic Struggle for Public Health and a Radical Vision for Human Thriving Williams, Michelle A. & Linda Marsa One World/Random House (432 pp.) $32 | February 3, 2026 | 9780593595541

A wide-ranging history of public health told through the stories of individuals who improved the lives of millions.

Williams, a public health expert with appointments at Stanford and Harvard universities, recounts example after example of public health efforts in the U.S.—the good, the bad, and the complicated. For instance, New York City’s Central Park was created to be “the lungs of the city” but at the same time destroyed a thriving Black settlement called Seneca Village. Two-thirds of the 750,000 soldiers who died in the Civil War perished from disease, not battle injuries. The Union army had better sanitation, food, and shelter, in addition to medical care, which, Williams asserts, is why they won the war. The stories are carefully placed into historical context.

Germ theory, for instance, was a huge advance in medicine, but also tipped the health care balance toward focusing on individual patients rather than policies that might improve conditions for a population. The diversity of public health heroes makes for an enlightening read, as Williams spotlights Black Americans and women who had to overcome discriminatory barriers just to enter influential spaces typically populated by white men.

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“We can resist despair and complacency and act lovingly, fiercely on behalf of life.”

THE GLORIANS

In the 1890s, W.E.B. Du Bois documented that the living conditions of Black Philadelphians were to blame for their poor health outcomes compared with whites—rather than any supposed natural inferiority of Black people. Other featured Black men are William Jenkins, who uncovered the Tuskegee syphilis study, and former CDC director David Satcher, who encouraged condom use to prevent AIDS in the Black community, which was largely distrustful of the medical establishment. Likewise, Alice Hamilton gathered strong evidence that bad working conditions contributed to illness and deaths in Chicago factory workers. Gun violence, environmental toxins, and racial disparities also get their turn in the book, as the author unpacks social determinants of health that affect all of us. Williams emphasizes the gumption of her public health trailblazers and their commitment to strong science—shoe-leather reporting, data collection, and careful analysis that lead to effective solutions.

An inspiring read that reveals past successes and ongoing challenges of public health.

The Glorians: Visitations From the Holy Ordinary Williams, Terry Tempest | Grove (320 pp.) $28 | March 3, 2026 | 9780802165848

Hope in a time of grief.

Environmental activist Williams, who teaches a class at Harvard’s Divinity School called “Finding Beauty in a Broken World” (also the title of one of her previous

books) elaborates on that theme in her celebration of Glorians. A Glorian, she explains, “is an encounter…a meeting with élan vital…a moment of grace.” It can be an ant carrying an unwieldy flower petal to an ant hill, or a desert landscape “alive with creatures aligned with darkness.” In chapters that range from brief meditations to longer narratives, Williams bears witness “to beauty and brokenness, love and grief.” Among the most moving pieces are elegies to the dead: her friend, nature writer Barry Lopez; the Great Salt Lake, a victim of drought; and one beloved tree. She recounts the futile protests that arose when plans to build an addition to the Divinity School entailed cutting down a centuries-old red oak. For Williams and the many others who protested, the Divinity Tree was a living being deserving of honor—which, Williams reveals, was eventually achieved.

Many pieces reflect on landscape and environment, as Williams travels between Utah, where she and her husband make their home in the desert, and Cambridge, where she lives in a small apartment and misses her animal companions. Marriage, friendship, dreams, ravaging fires, her aging father, the pandemic, all feature in deeply felt pieces. Just as Lopez “exhorted his readers to see attention as love,” Williams advises, “We can resist despair and complacency and act lovingly, fiercely on behalf of life in all its beautiful and endless manifestations with neighbors, friends, and colleagues.” Grace can be found in empathy, not only with one another, but with the wondrous presences of the natural world.

An impassioned defense of interconnectedness.

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P O D C A S T // N O N F I C T I O N

JOHN’S PICKS:

King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation

by Scott Anderson (Doubleday) Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs (Farrar, Straus & Giroux) A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhirst (Riverhead) America, América: A New History of the New World by Greg Grandin (Penguin Press) Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry (Ecco/HarperCollins) Mother Mary Comes to Me

by Arundhati Roy (Scribner) Raising Hare: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton (Pantheon) Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream by Megan Greenwell (Dey Street/HarperCollins) Joyride: A Memoir by Susan Orlean (Avid Reader Press) THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

High Hopes by Anne Abel Space Vault by Jeremy Clift

Mackenzie Smith

All Things Under and Over the Sun and Stars: Enigmas in Various Stages by Maurice James Blair Fully Booked is produced

by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.

Fully Booked

Jen Hatmaker builds back better after divorce in her artful new memoir. BY MEGAN LABRISE

EPISODE 451: JEN HATMAKER

On this episode of Fully Booked, Jen Hatmaker joins us to discuss Awake: A Memoir (Avid Reader Press, Sept. 23), one of Kirkus’ Best Books of 2025.

“A marital crisis causes a road-awayfrom-Damascus transformation,” Kirkus writes in a starred review of Hatmaker’s “honest, engaging, and enjoyable” chronicle of reclaiming her power and rebuilding her life.

Hatmaker is the author of 14 books, including four New York Times bestsellers, and the host of the award-winning podcast For the Love.

She is a speaker, advocate, educator, mother, and a self-described “textbook Enneagram 3.”

Here’s a bit more from our starred review of Awake: “Hatmaker opens with the impetus for her life change: a dead-of-night call her husband is making, aloud and in bed, to his girlfriend. ‘So this is what it looks like when a life unravels in real time,’ she writes, adding, ‘It is quieter than I expected.’ To compound the matter, her marriage of 26 years was to a minister, and she herself was a well-known faith leader of conservative bent. That moment of betrayal opens the author to an examination of her beliefs.…No sooner is the word out that she and her husband have split up than do pious tongues start wagging.…

Hatmaker steps over to the progressive side of the faith, allowing that her previous brand had been made toxic by white supremacy, racism, sexism, greed, and ugly secrets.…The author goes on to write of middle-age dating, ‘purity culture,’ body shaming, and a careful kind of forgiveness while proclaiming a hard-won feminism: ‘Women are the eighth wonders of the world. May we love this little life with exposed

Awake: A Memoir Hatmaker, Jen

Avid Reader Press | 320 pp. | $30.00 Sept. 23, 2025 | 9781668083680

beating hearts, tender regardless, despite it all.’”

Hatmaker and I discuss the joys of a book tour, why she chose to tell the story in vignettes, a chapter dedicated to a life-changing English teacher, the role reading aloud plays in her writing process, recording your own audiobook, the maximum size for a dining table, tips for welcoming guests to your home (or your podcast), the editing process, and much more.

Then nonfiction editor John McMurtrie joins us to discuss making the list of this year’s best nonfiction books.

To listen to the episode, visit Kirkus online.

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B O O K T O S C R E E N // N O N F I C T I O N

Tim Clay ton/Corbis v ia Get t y Images

Book to Screen

Adaptation of Björn Borg’s Memoir in the Works Jonas Åkerlund will direct the screen version of the tennis legend’s Heartbeats.

Björn Borg’s memoir is headed to the screen.

Banijay Entertainment is developing an adaptation of the tennis legend’s Heart-

K IR KU S R E V IE W S

beats, Variety reports. Borg’s memoir, published last fall by Diversion Books, tells the story of his life and career as one of the top-ranked tennis players of all time. A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “A beloved sportsman recalls big wins and secret struggles in this disarmingly vulnerable self-portrait.”

Borg first gained fame in the 1970s when he won the French Open at age 18. He would go on to win in Paris five more times and prevailed at Wimbledon five times as well. In 1983, he retired at the age of 26, a decision that he regrets, according to the memoir.

Jonas Åkerlund, the heavy metal musician known for directing the films Spun, Lords of Chaos, and Polar, will helm the screen adaptation of Borg’s memoir.

“I’ve spent my entire life in matches—both on and off the court,” Borg said.

“Jonas wants to explore

Björn Borg

both sides, and I feel the time is right for that.”

And Åkerlund said, “Everyone knows Björn Borg for his legendary moments on the court, for his fierce, unparalleled power as an athlete and icon. With his book, we finally dipped a toe into his enigmatic mind. But with this project, we’re cannonballing into the deep end.”—M.S. For a review of Heartbeats, visit Kirkus online.

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Children's

MAHNAZ DAR

KID LIT CREATORS IN THE LIMELIGHT

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winsome cartoon fox, Jim is by turns bold, irreverent, and insecure (“I could write a thousand stories and they wouldn’t be as beautiful as yours,” he tells fellow writer Maurice Sendak, depicted here as a bulldog). Above all, he respects his young audience enough to be honest with them—as does Connors, who incorporates Jim’s partner, Billy, into the narrative and gently but matter-offactly closes with Jim’s death in 1992 from AIDS. Charnelle Pinkney Barlow’s picture book Two Artists, Grandad and Me (Doubleday, Jan. 20) is simultaneously a tribute to the author/illustrator’s late grandfather, Caldecott Medalist Jerry Pinkney, and a moving account of a gifted creator coming into her own.

Grandad welcomes young Charnelle into his studio, teaching her the names of the colors he uses, comforting her after she spills a jar of

water and assuring her that “every artist sees the world differently.” Mixed-media artwork with a three-­ dimensional feel and elegant prose blend for a tale that explores another side of this luminary—a loving and empathetic mentor.

Before Judy Blume broke ground writing about adolescents’ complex feelings toward their changing bodies, she was a young girl wracked with uncertainties of her own. Selina Alko chronicles the acclaimed author’s coming of age in her picture book Otherwise Known as Judy the Great: A Poetic Ode to Judy Blume (Christy Ottaviano Books, Feb. 17).

Her exuberant verse speaks to Judy’s concerns, some lighthearted (a desire for freckles like Doris Day’s), others more serious, like overseas “news of food rationing, sirens, [and] bombings” as World War II rages. Poems from Judy’s perspective, coupled with

Alko’s collages, make for an intimate portrait of a writer still in touch with her inner child.

Behind every great writer is a great editor—a potentially eye-opening revelation for young readers. Nancy Hudgins’ middle-grade biography Books Good Enough for You: The Storied Life of Ursula Nordstrom, Editor of Extraordinary Children’s Books (Abrams, March 24) profiles the woman who ushered Charlotte’s Web, Where the Wild Things Are, and other classic works into the world.

Hudgins focuses on the subtle yet crucial editorial decisions that can make or break a book while eloquently praising her subject’s passion, respect for children, and, above all, courage: Nordstrom frequently challenged assumptions about kid lit—and we’re all the better for it.

Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.

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Illustration by Eric Scot t Ander son

THE FIRST CELEBRITIES

I idolized weren’t actors or singers; they were children’s book creators—­ people who had never met me but somehow managed to see into my very soul.

Poring over “about the author” sections of books, I loved finding parallels between their lives and mine: Ann M. Martin adored animals and was a quiet introvert; Judy Blume grew up in the suburbs, reading everything she could get her hands on. Several new picture books and middle-­ grade works consider beloved kid lit creators, offering insights into the artistic process and making these larger-thanlife figures feel like old friends; hopefully, they’ll also spur burgeoning writers, illustrators, and even editors to follow their own dreams.

With the picture-book biography JIM!: Six True Stories About One Great Artist: James Marshall (Dial Books, 2025), Jerrold Connors depicts real-life people as anthropomorphic animals who resemble the characters from Marshall’s own books. Portrayed as a

CHILDREN'S

EDITOR’S PICK Wit snaps and crackles in humorist Sedaris’ tale of narcissism run amok.

“The selfish sister, pronoun ‘she,’ // only thinks of / me me me!” A green-skinned, onetoothed little tyrant, complete with her own tiny crown, terrorizes one and all with her insufferable greed and many demands.

Yet Sedaris’ deft rhymes make listening to her mandates an utter treat.

She declares that she deserves to own an endless list of items, including but not limited to “the lesser Black Tailed Gull, / the human race, / this monkey

These Titles Earned the Kirkus Star

skull, / beebop hits, / a jazz CD, / the flag that means LGBT.” A lesser artist might quail at the sheer variety of objects, concepts, and even seasons that this little despot lays claim to, but Staake is more than up to the challenge. Inventive stylings in pen and ink give this retro-looking tale some visual panache and a particularly contemporary bit of brazen appeal.

Unlike with Sedaris’ previous foray into picture books (2024’s Pretty Ugly, illustrated by the late Ian Falconer), here he opts to include a smidgen of a 91

Her Muddy Majesty of Muck

By Beatrice Alemagna

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The Mighty Macy

By Kwame Alexander; illus.

by Kitt Thomas

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Here Lies a Ghost

By Shakirah Bourne

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Eureka

By Victoria Chang

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My Tiger

By Joy Cowley; illus. by David Barrow

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The Selfish Sister Sedaris, David | Illus. by Bob Staake | TOON Books/Astra Books for Young Readers | 40 pp.

March 17, 2026 | $18.99 | 9781662665752

lesson at the end of the tale, off-handedly mentioning that the sister has everything she could want, except for friends. Thankfully, this mic drop of a

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Together, Right Now

By Olga Fadeeva

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Piece by Piece

By Erin Frankel; illus. by Stacy Innerst

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Honor Flight

By Jeff Gottesfeld; illus. by Matt Tavares

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Don’t Eat the Birthday Boy!

By Donna Barba Higuera; illus. by Juliana Perdomo

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When Tomorrow Burns

By Tae Keller

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The Lionharts

By Mike Lawrence

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Navigating Night

By Julie Leung; illus. by Angie Kang

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Rose by the Sea

By Rebecca Rose Mooradian; illus.

by Myo Yim

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Chernobyl, Life, and Other Disasters

By Yevgenia Nayberg

conclusion avoids any danger of didacticism.

Blessedly bad behavior gets its day in the sun, and we are HERE for it!

(Picture book. 4-8)

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The Animals Speak

By S.D. Nelson; trans. by Dakota Goodhouse

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Goldfinches

By Mary Oliver; illus. by Melissa Sweet

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We Can Hear Without Ears

By Lisa Westberg Peters; illus. by Danielle Ridolfi

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The Selfish Sister

By David Sedaris; illus. by Bob Staake

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Shrinking Violet

By Laurel Snyder; illus. by LeUyen Pham

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Higher Ground

By Tull Suwannakit

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Ramadan Rain

By Jamilah ThompkinsBigelow; illus. by Aliaa Betawi

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The Unlikely Tale of Chase and Finnegan

By Jasmine Warga; illus. by Vivienne To

129

The Queen’s Granddaughter

By Diane Zahler

JANUARY 1, 2026

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CHILDREN'S

Soaring visuals and a cozy text pair for a wondrous romp through nature.

SEASONS BY THE LAKE

On the whole, though, this one feels more targeted to an adult sensibility than a child’s.

A potential gift for a beloved teacher but unlikely to resonate with its target audience. (Picture book. 4-8)

Wonder in the Garden Eco: The Little Electric Taxi Adamson, Deb | Illus. by Patrick Corrigan Penguin Workshop (32 pp.) | $18.99 March 3, 2026 | 9780593886960

An electric taxi’s quiet engine saves the day.

ECO, whose headlights are eyes and whose hood forms an expressive, smiling mouth, glides through the city with tan-skinned driver Charlie. By day they pick up passengers, and by night, ECO sleeps at the charging station.

Other vehicles are loud and leave smoky trails of exhaust in their wake, but as Adamson’s playful rhymes make clear, “ECO’s motor is quiet. / It’s best for the city each day, / making no pollution, / where others work and play.” But one day ECO and Charlie unexpectedly find themselves in a traffic jam. A family of ducks can’t cross the road because the noise from the other vehicles is scaring them. As the other engines turn off, ECO swoops to the front of the line, leading the mother duck and her babies to safety. In Corrigan’s cheery artwork, ECO’s yellow sheen shines the brightest, but the surrounding details all have pleasantly rounded edges, creating a comforting warmth. The illustrator also dots the city with wildlife—both domestic and otherwise (sharp-eyed readers will even spot beehives on a rooftop). The townspeople are diverse, and an eco-friendly author’s note is appended.

A feel-good vehicle story that should also spark discussion on noise pollution. (Picture book. 3-6) 90

JANUARY 1, 2026

A Thank You Letter To My Teacher: A Sweet Appreciation Gift for Teachers Adamson, Deb | Illus. by Natalie Briscoe Sourcebooks eXplore (40 pp.) | $12.99 March 3, 2026 | 9781464235627

An expression of gratitude for the educators who help their students shine each and every day.

“I am thankful to my teacher for helping me be the best I can be!” So begins a long list of reasons why youngsters love the educators in their lives: They provide “kind words and steady support,” offer “encouragement to think safer, smarter, and stronger,” and urge us “to stand up, speak up, and take action.” It all wraps up with an exuberant “Most of all, thank you, teacher, for being you!” Though the sentiments are undeniably sweet, the gushing superlatives tend toward the cliched.

Nor does Adamson capture a youthful voice; it’s hard to imagine a child waxing enthusiastic about an educator “who is always enlightening” or about teachers “pointing out what is possible, seeing the big picture, and paying attention to the details.” Pleasant though generic artwork depicts a diverse cast of teachers and students with button noses, dots for eyes, and slightly off-kilter mouths. The variety of outdoor and indoor learning environments is appealing; learning takes place in the classroom, but also on the soccer field, on class trips to the fire station, and in an auditorium where kids prepare for a talent show.

Aikens-Nuñez, Talia | Illus. by Irena Freitas Nancy Paulsen Books (32 pp.) | $18.99 March 17, 2026 | 9780593354421

An abundant family garden proves a joyful playground for a child in this bighearted picture book.

Donning a wide yellow hat and matching boots, little Nina goes outside—“¡Hola, jardín!”—accompanied by Nube the dog. The whole familia pitches in to tend the garden. Grandpa picks apples, Grandma gathers blueberries, and even Nina fills a basket with vegetables and fruit for dinner. Nina and Nube also manage to fit in some playtime. While Nube hides near the tall yellow corn stalks and the carrots peeking out from underground, Nina ducks behind the collard greens and takes a break from running to admire the tomates deliciosos. At last it’s time for dinner, and everyone gathers at the table— outside, naturally. The day ends with this loving Latine family laughing and eating together. Aikens-Nuñez peppers Spanish words and phrases throughout her energetic, succinct text, cued by a brief glossary that preps readers before the fun even begins. She repeatedly pairs specific phrases with their Spanish counterparts in an effective learning rhythm. “Enjoy. Buen provecho. Thank you, garden! ¡Gracias, jardín!” Freitas’ effervescent artwork depicts an Edenic paradise, with plentiful curved line work accentuating Nina and Nube’s exuberant playtime. Nina is brown-skinned, while the other family members vary in complexion.

A lovely reminder that the whole world can be a garden. (Picture book. 3-5) K IR KU S R E V IE W S

CHILDREN'S

Kirkus Star

Kirkus Star

her each step of the way. Macy and all primary characters are Black.

Her Muddy Majesty of Muck

The Mighty Macy

Alemagna, Beatrice | Hippo Park/Astra Books for Young Readers (56 pp.) | $19.99 March 31, 2026 | 9781662641305

Alexander, Kwame | Illus. by Kitt Thomas Little, Brown (144 pp.) | $16.99 | $6.99 paper February 3, 2026 | 9780316442169 9780316442282 paper

An underground detour allows a girl to better understand herself and her big brother.

“My name is Yuki. I have a terrible temper.”

The young narrator believes that her rudeness and tendency to burst into tears are the reasons her brother, Shen, doesn’t like her. After picking her up from school and handing her the house keys, he “sulks silently inside his hood, like a caterpillar in a cocoon.” Frustrated, Yuki throws the keys down a manhole but instantly regrets her actions. She descends a long ladder to the bottom, where she meets the titular mud princess—a lumpy brown tour guide, dripping with dirt and with twigs instead of hair, but with a welcoming demeanor. In the best tradition of enlightening literary journeys, the duo pass through the Wicked Woods, Lake Youbegone, and the Grumporium. Each setting is wondrous, the earthy palette incorporating shimmering blues and textured mixed-media patterns. Comic relief comes in various forms, among them the smelly, mean Boogers that trail after them. As she travels with Her Royal Muddiness, Yuki learns some profound truths about family and emotion: “When people get angry, they take it out on the things they love.” Tenderness undergirds Yuki and Shen’s ensuing reunion. Alemagna’s narrative employs lovely alliteration, striking figurative language, subtle exchanges between characters, and delightful images to probe the siblings’ complex emotions while allowing readers to discern meaning for themselves.

Human characters are pale-skinned and dark-haired.

An imaginative, deeply satisfying odyssey. (Picture book. 4-8) K IR KU S R E V IE W S

Unputdownable. (Fiction. 7-10)

Macy lifts her voice as she attempts to save her school library in Newbery Medalist Alexander’s latest novel in verse.

On her birthday, Macy receives an “unputdownable” book—the first of the Mighty Zora series. She’d love to go straight to the library to check out Book 2, but she’s stuck practicing violin, listening to her little brother’s freestyle rapping, and doing homework assigned by her poet father. When she finally makes it to the school library, there’s a “CLOSED” sign on the door.

Outraged, Macy learns of an upcoming school board meeting about budget cuts, so she rallies fellow students. But she struggles with nerves as she attempts to pen a poem to express her feelings at the meeting. Alexander’s lyrical free verse paints Macy as relatable and funny and gives each character their own arc, especially her playful and joyous father (perhaps a reflection of the author). Inventive visual design aids in the storytelling, with words stretching, shrinking, and scattering across the page in bursts of motion.

Dynamic black-and-white spot illustrations imbue Macy and her world with softness and humor while portraying her as a force to be reckoned with; her initial fears will resonate with readers, who will cheer

Seasons by the Lake: Adventures in Greenland Aparico, Naja Lund | Illus. by Alex Nees Dial Books (40 pp.) | $18.99 March 17, 2026 | 9780593695586

Two Inuit brothers experience Greenland’s shifting seasons.

Opening in spring, the book finds Nuka and Minik celebrating the earth’s thawing by plucking a piece of glacier ice from the nearby lake, bringing it home for their mother, and placing it in a cup—“a cheerful celebration in a glass of water. / Sparking hopes for warmer and brighter days ahead.” In summer, they catch fish for their grandmother.

That autumn, snow arrives, perfect for sledding. Winter ushers in the real deep freeze, and as the boys take in the wonder of Arsarnerit, or aurora borealis, they observe images of their ancestors in the sky. The story ends with the earth’s warming and another year beginning again for Nuka and Minik. Aparico’s text is a gentle glide through each season’s weather and features. Nees’ soft-hued landscapes showcase everything from the trickle of spring’s flowing water and flower-filled summer meadows to fall’s snow-covered hills and the dazzling glow of the northern lights; even the chilliest winter scenes are imbued with pure warmth. The boys are Kalaallit, part of the Inuit culture indigenous to Greenland, and Kalaallit words and traditions are incorporated and explained in the backmatter.

Soaring visuals and a cozy text pair for a wondrous romp through nature.

(Picture book. 4-8)

A lovely reminder that the whole world can be a garden.

WONDER IN THE GARDEN

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CHILDREN'S

That Is Not a Dog!

Bing’s Cherries

Birdsong, Bea | Illus. by Charlie Alder Nancy Paulsen Books (32 pp.) | $18.99 March 31, 2026 | 9780593619605

Blackburne, Livia | Illus. by Julia Kuo Knopf (48 pp.) | $18.99 | March 10, 2026 9780593902813

A confused feline finds new friends.

Ollie’s a cat.

And he knows that he doesn’t like dogs. Well, that’s what his pals—a bunny and a squirrel— have told him. They’ve warned him that dogs have big pointy teeth and terrifying barks. Armed with that knowledge, he immediately encounters a dog. Ollie mistakes this round-bodied, black-and-white creature for a cow. “The cow’s name was Mildred, it said so on her collar.”

As the pair settle into an easy camaraderie, they encounter a plethora of other pups, whom Ollie alternately mistakes for bagels, a hippo, a marshmallow, and a bear.

Each new furry friend is equally approachable, and the crew end up playing in the park and finishing their fun day with a sunset picnic dinner.

Ollie is delighted to have discovered such a lovely pack of pals, without ever realizing he’s spent the day in canine company. Some readers may feel robbed of the drama that awareness might bring, but most will gleefully giggle at the satisfying sense that they know something that’s escaped the protagonist’s comprehension. Colorful, active illustrations depict the dogs’ open-hearted, energetic nature with an irresistible delight; even the most dog-averse reader will be charmed.

Blackburne and Kuo explore the Chinese immigrant roots of the typically American Bing Cherry.

A father and child enjoy the irresistible cherries that appear every July in their backyard. “We should be grateful to Ah Bing for his cherries,” Daddy comments. His facts are few: Bing “was Chinese like us…he was an orchard man from long ago.” That night, the inspired youngster imagines Bing’s life. The “really tall” Bing arrived in San Francisco, finding work in Oregon. His “rich and deep” voice encouraged trees to grow “taller just so they could listen to him.” Despite his success, he missed his wife and seven sons in China. While racism and violence loomed, Bing sang his sadness, anger, and a longing for peace into his seeds. His music resulted in fruit-laden trees in a mere week. A single tear produced the first Bing tree, its cherries “a red as deep as Bing’s love for his family and friends.”

After 30 years, he finally sailed home.

Chinese American author Blackburne creates a poignant origin story, with plenty of empathic “I hopes” for Bing’s contented happiness. Taiwanese American Kuo’s bold art, captured in blues, reds, browns, black, is reminiscent of woodblock prints, resonating with geometric enhancements—swirls, dots, circles.

Backmatter includes illuminating artist’s and author’s notes, more

Pro-puppy apologetics abound in this silly, sweet story of mistaken identities. (Picture book. 3-6)

Pro-puppy apologetics abound in this sweet story of mistaken identities.

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information on the real Ah Bing, further reading, and a sweet recipe.

Scant historical details are convincingly transformed into a tall tale revealing the origins of a delicious food. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Star

Here Lies a Ghost Bourne, Shakirah | Scholastic (304 pp.) $19.99 | March 3, 2026 | 9781546116905

In Barbados, a boy who’s a social outsider longs to join the group of popular boys at school, even though they’re bullies.

Though he’s more interested in science, especially geology and archaeology, Jermaine feels sure that joining the relay team would impress the Turbo Jets and help keep him safe from being teased for obviously being poorer than the other kids. After a misunderstanding causes a rift between Jermaine and his new friend, Brody, Jermaine’s resolve to join the Turbo Jets is cemented. But during a prank at the cemetery, the boys leave Jermaine trapped in the Chase Vault, which is rumored to be haunted.

Jermaine comes face to face with the ghost of Dorcas Chase, who died in 1812. He befriends Dorcas, believing that she’s bringing him good luck, but he quickly discovers that it comes at a high price. But when it turns out that Brody can see Dorcas too, it offers the boys an opportunity to reconcile while trying to help her find eternal rest. The chapters alternate between Jermaine’s and Brody’s third-person points of view, moving the story along quickly. Brody’s shorter chapters unfold in concise, resonant verse, while Jermaine’s are written in evocative prose. Bourne explores bullying, grief, and loneliness with nuance and sensitivity. She also touches upon the complicated, heavy history and impact of slavery.

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Jermaine is Black, and biracial Brody has a Black father and a white mother.

A deep, complex look at friendship, loneliness, and yearning to belong. (author’s note) (Paranormal. 8-12)

Astronaut Bright, Phoenix | Illus. by Nadia Gunawan Boxer Books (32 pp.) | $14.99 | February 3, 2026 9781454712978 | Series: Future Me

This installment in Bright’s new series invites the very young to reach for the stars.

A brownskinned tot who’s “always looking up” at the sky imagines a future job high above Earth. “Where do I start?” The child ponders a variety of careers, among them pilot, scientist, and engineer, before considering that of astronaut. If the youngster is “selected for space,” plenty of training will ensue, followed by a trip to the International Space Station. It’s “Goodbye, gravity!” up there, necessitating unusual solutions when it comes to shampooing and peeing; lunch is eaten from a pouch.

“Keeping fit” is a must (Bright notes that “some astronauts have even run marathons in space!”). A core responsibility is conducting experiments; “suiting up” for a spacewalk is another exciting moment. We’re far from family, so “phoning home” offers an opportunity to relax, along with playing music and looking out the cupola (“big window”). At bedtime, tucked into a tethered sleeping bag, the small astronaut clutches a space-alien stuffie. After reviewing the day’s revelations about the work involved, readers meet “Real Life Astronaut” Terry Virts, who describes what he learned in training and what he enjoyed most about space travel. Youngsters will emerge with plenty of information after finishing this book, with its colorful, detailed, and accurate illustrations that convey the exhilaration of space flight. Gunawan’s K IR KU S R E V IE W S

careful compositions accommodate data-filled captions without clutter.

Sky-high dreams can begin early, tempered here with down-­ to-earth information. (photos) (Informational picture book. 3-5)

Train Driver Bright, Phoenix | Illus. by Denis Angelov Boxer Books (32 pp.) | $14.99 | February 3, 2026 9781454712930 | Series: Future Me

Youngsters are invited to hop aboard to live out their fantasies of railway travel.

Eager to become a driver one day, a brown-skinned child visits a local train station, wondering what the job entails.

The rest of the book answers that question. “Which train?” the young narrator asks. Three options follow: freight, bullet, and steam, with an informative tidbit for each. The protagonist, now dressed for the part of driver, arrives at the station early.

Boarding a high-speed passenger train, the driver checks the control panel displays; then it’s “Off we go!” “We’re a team,” the young narrator notes, with the driver and a brown-skinned conductor heading up a crew of (unseen) workers. Trains go “over and under” a graceful old bridge, stopping at a station where passengers include a hijab wearer, wheelchair user, and many brown faces. After traveling through an underwater tunnel and pausing so that wet leaves can be cleared from the tracks, the train reaches “the end of the line” just in time for lunch. Before the return trip home, it’s made “ready for the next ride.” The child’s reflection on the day’s work is followed by a brief profile of a real-life train driver, where photos replace the bright pastel line-and-color illustrations, some with labels. Plenty of specific details, presented from the perspective of an exuberant train enthusiast, give a clear, informative idea of the position.

Serafina Makes Waves Burgess, Matthew | Illus. by Robin Rosenthal Dial Books (40 pp.) | $18.99 | March 31, 2026 9780593699638

A feline who’s vehemently opposed to swimming has a change of perspective.

“Nice and warm and dry.”

That’s Serafina! While her friends enjoy prancing in puddles on rainy days, this little kitten is more than content to play indoors. She “hates, loathes, DESPISES WATER.” All well and good until “The Powers That Be” (aka her parents) declare swimming lessons mandatory.

Wholly convinced she can still get out of swim class, Serafina is aghast when her cherished stuffed bunny, Noodles, is accidentally knocked into the water. While rescuing her beloved, however, Serafina discovers that she adores the sensation of water after all. Now she’s a complete convert and a “vision of glistening PURR-FECTION!” Disgust could not find a worthier muse than Serafina, and Rosenthal’s digital illustrations adeptly play up her utter horror as well as her miraculous conversion to all things damp. That said, the true star of the show is the book’s loquacious text. Burgess plumbs Serafina’s inherent repugnance for water with delectable phrases, describing a pool as “a disgusting pit of seething water.” So delicious is her revulsion that it’s almost a pity when she takes that extra step and tries something new.

Cats and water may not usually mix, but this pleasing combination yields a fur-tunate lesson. (Picture book. 3-6)

For more by Matthew Burgess, visit Kirkus online.

You-are-there thrills coupled with solidly grounded facts. (Picture book. 3-5) JANUARY 1, 2026

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Zany, buzzy feats of friendship make for a highly entertaining read.

B OX TA L E S

Box Tales: Super Terrific Showtime!

Burks, James | First Second (128 pp.) $12.99 | March 3, 2026 | 9781250341952 Series: Box Tales, 2

Creatively committed pals cobble together a backyard variety show.

Bea and BFF Box (a cheery cardboard container) wake up bright and early—perhaps a bit too early. It’s 3:47 a.m., and Box has just had a wonderful dream that the two of them must bring to life: mounting their own variety show!

When the sun rises, the pair spring into action, arguing and eventually compromising on an absurdly complicated name for their show, passing out flyers advertising their afternoon performance, and creating their own emcee: a wise-cracking sock puppet named Suzy Sockington.

Just when everything seems ready, they realize they haven’t planned their own acts yet, so they rush to whip up something spectacular before showtime. In the end, the pair pull together a spirited performance, with percussion, jokes, and a grand finale. Like the first tale in the series—which saw the duo working to grow strawberries—this one is goal-focused, though it compresses the process of planning and accomplishing the task at hand into a single day. This speed-up translates visually into flurries of activity and emotionally expressive close-ups. Once more, Bea and Box’s goofy give-and-take keeps the mood festive even amid conflict. Bea is brown-haired and 94

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classroom use, showing students that real science involves patience and persistence alongside brilliance. The backmatter and resources enhance the work’s educational utility. The monochromatic blue illustrations, however, while serviceable and lovely, feel like a missed opportunity; full-color images would have better captured the islands’ stark beauty and the finches’ subtle variations.

Zany, buzzy feats of friendship make for a highly entertaining read.

(Graphic fiction. 5-9)

A solid, practical teaching tool that will interest dedicated young scientists. (glossary, further reading and websites, notes, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 8-11)

Extreme Birdwatching: Measuring Change on a Galápagos Island

The Gallaudet Eleven: The Story of NASA’s Deaf Bioastronauts

Burns, Loree Griffin | Illus. by Jamie Green MIT Kids Press/Candlewick (64 pp.) $16.99 | March 3, 2026 | 9781536232806 Series: Discovery Chronicles

Cerra, Kerry O’Malley | Illus. by Kristina Gehrmann | Little, Brown (48 pp.) | $18.99 March 31, 2026 | 9780316570596

olive-skinned; Bea and Box’s neighborhood is diverse.

An accessible primer on evolution in action and the scientific method’s nitty-­ gritty realities.

This well-written, detailed chronicle follows married biologists Peter and Rosemary Grant through 40 years of meticulous fieldwork on the Galápagos island of Daphne, tracking how finch beaks evolved in response to environmental changes. Burns excels at demystifying the scientific process—readers learn how leg bands identify individual birds, why seeds on the island must be counted and categorized, and how tiny beak measurements accumulate into patterns and proof of natural selection. The conversational tone keeps potentially dry material engaging, and the book doesn’t shy from the tedium inherent in groundbreaking research: endless data collection, repetitive observations, uncomfortable conditions.

The level of procedural detail, while impressive for demonstrating method­ ology, may at times test the patience of casual readers seeking a breezier science narrative. Still, this honest portrayal makes the book particularly valuable for

How 11 deaf men helped to put the first men on the moon.

In 1958, the United States and the Soviet Union vied to be first to send a human into space.

When students at Gallaudet College for the deaf read about the launch of U.S. satellite Explorer I, “rocket fever swirled.”

Their dreams of becoming astronauts were stymied, however; astronauts needed “ears that worked.” But Navy doctor Ashton Graybiel realized that Gallaudet’s students could help address astronauts’ motion sickness. “The best way to help people who get motion sickness is to study people who don’t,” and some deaf people were immune because their inner ears didn’t work. For over 10 years, 11 recruits, nicknamed the Gallaudet Eleven, underwent numerous tests, including experiencing zero gravity on a plane dubbed the Vomit Comet and sailing in a violent storm. These bioastronauts’ work helped develop motion sickness treatments and astronaut gear.

Though the Gallaudet Eleven never went to space, “their dreams rode sky-high when American astronauts landed on the moon in 1969.” Upbeat, accessible text, interspersed with quotes from Gallaudet Eleven members, underscores how—as participant K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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Barron Gulak describes—these men made “a big leap for the disabled world” as well as space travel. Gehrmann’s illustrations are clear and expressive; a spread provides participants’ headshots and career details.

Most figures present white.

A welcome acknowledgment of unsung figures. (note from Barron Gulak, author’s note, photograph, additional facts) (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Oh Brother: A Graphic Memoir Chadderton, Georgina | Random House Graphic (288 pp.) | $21.99 February 10, 2026 | 9780593488270

In the early aughts, a white Australian girl with an autistic younger brother starts eighth grade at a new school after her family moves to a different neighborhood.

Gina loves to draw, and she has an autistic younger brother, Rob, who has an intellectual disability. She’s stressed about the normal things, like making new friends and starting her period. She’s rarely bothered by a life that revolves around her brother’s safety, with a strict routine and locks on doors and cupboards. As Gina tells her new friend Callie, Rob repeats sounds— echolalia—but only rarely says words to intentionally convey meaning. Rob communicates with his family using idiosyncratic personal sign language. The Chaddertons are a loving household, but Rob’s occasional violent outbursts are nonetheless frightening. Callie, who has light-brown skin, is a wonderful, giving friend who’s great with Rob. This lightly fictionalized memoir is Gina’s story, not her brother’s—she describes her goal as sharing her “experience of being a sibling of someone with high support needs.”

Because Rob is minimally speaking, he doesn’t have his own voice in the story, though Gina represents him empathically. The simple, cartoon-style illustrations in a vibrant color palette quietly pay artistic tribute to some classics of comic style. The author’s K IR KU S R E V IE W S

note, which includes family photos, mentions the author’s adult diagnosis of autism, demonstrating her insider’s view of the subject.

A supportive, funny story about siblings. (Graphic memoir. 9-13)

Izzy Wong’s Drama Disaster Chan, Marty | Orca (224 pp.) | $14.95 paper | March 17, 2026 | 9781459842366 Series: Izzy Wong, 2

Someone is trying to turn the sixth graders against each other— can an aspiring podcaster expose the truth?

After solving a mystery at her old school, Izzy Wong transfers to the prestigious Danforth School for the Arts—the perfect setting for the second season of her true crime podcast. She quickly uncovers bitter rivalries; everyone is competing for something, from the lead in the school play to social media followers. Izzy realizes that these hostilities might be story-worthy when the show’s handsome, talented star, Brody Hogan, becomes the subject of a mean-spirited meme created by an anonymous bully using artificial intelligence—and soon, other kids are targeted. Enrolled in both the acting and technical arts tracks to hone her podcasting skills, Izzy is caught between the two cliques, accepted by neither. Izzy knows she can expose the culprit if she follows her journalistic instincts, but how can she solve the mystery when her classmates won’t sit down for interviews?

Like the first series installment, this tale captures the technical aspects of podcasting and journalism while also offering thoughtful takes on the value of human-created art over AI, the cost of fame, and the contributions of those working behind the scenes. Though the central conflict is relatively tame, suspenseful pacing, compelling supporting characters, and realistic plot twists make for a welcome return to Izzy’s world. Hints in the text suggest that Izzy is of Chinese heritage.

A fast-paced mystery with a gentle dose of the promised drama.

(Mystery. 9-12)

Kirkus Star

Eureka Chang, Victoria | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (272 pp.) | $18.99 | January 27, 2026 9780374393533

In the wake of traumatic events, a Chinese immigrant girl from Canton lands on her feet.

Twelve-year-old Mei Mei is barred from attending public school with white children in San Francisco; instead, she attends a Chinese school. Her parents are indebted to brokers who paid for their passage to America, and now they’re threatening to take Mei Mei. For her safety, Ma Ma and Ba Ba reluctantly send her hundreds of miles north to Eureka, where schools are integrated. But when Mei Mei arrives, she’s made to labor in the kitchen of the rich (and mean) Bobbitt family. The kindness of their cook, Mrs. Yu, provides her with comfort, and Sara, the Bobbitts’ daughter, befriends Mei Mei and secretly teaches her to speak and read English. Learning fills Mei Mei with joy, but her literacy is a fraught subject during this racially divided time. When a tragic death leads to the expulsion of Chinese people from Eureka, Mei Mei returns home to an emotional family reunion. This verse novel told from Mei Mei’s first-person point of view is divided into 10 datestamped sections from September 1884 to March 1885. The lyrical free verse transports readers into the vividly realized historical setting. Feet form a running metaphor highlighting freedom; award-winning poet Chang contrasts Ma Ma’s debilitating, bound lotus feet with Mei Mei’s energetic stride.

This resonant story will endure for its specificity, poignancy, and metaphorical yet accessible verse. (content warning, author’s note, historical notes) (Verse historical fiction. 10-14) JANUARY 1, 2026

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Clementine H. Hopeful Is Not a Hero Corey, Noah | Labyrinth Road (352 pp.) $17.99 | March 17, 2026 | 9780593906361

“Clementine’s a boy’s name if a boy has it. And I’m a boy. And I have it.”

And with that, Clementine H. Hopeful, an 11-year-old queer-coded boy living in a small Idaho town, leaps from the page. Clementine’s story is part Peter Pan, part Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, part Coraline, and at the same time wholly unique. Gifted with a fabulous imagination and the ability to see “angels”—unusual insectlike entities— Clementine ends up on the radar of 12-year-old Beetle, who goes by “Bug,” another imaginative boy who seems to live by his own rules. With Bug’s friend, the equally peculiar Anise, and his sister, Cricket, in tow, the foursome set out on a series of escapades, learning about mermaids and “all sorts of murderous magical creatures” and visiting the moon for a sleepover. But are these adventures real? Clementine isn’t sure at first, and when he eventually learns the answer, it makes him wonder if it might be possible to find his missing older sister, Persimmon. Like all good adventures, the story is tinged with the right amount of creepy darkness, and debut author Corey carefully dangles hints and suspicions, which should keep fantasy-lovers enthralled as the story meanders and weaves. Most plot points are not resolved by the end—and many more questions arise in the final pages—tantalizing readers with hints of the sequel to come.

Most main characters are cued white.

A dark and inviting tale for all the nonheroes out there. (Fantasy. 9-12)

For more enchanting fantasy, visit Kirkus online.

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A dark and inviting tale for all the nonheroes out there.

CLEMENTINE H. HOPEFUL IS NOT A HERO

Kirkus Star

My Tiger Cowley, Joy | Illus. by David Barrow Gecko Press (32 pp.) | $18.99 March 3, 2026 | 9798765683200

A feline’s taste for sweets spells disaster for his chompers.

As a tiger saunters down the street with an unnamed, brown-skinned young human companion, the two notice a shop full of the big cat’s favorite food: cake. When the baker asks whether the tiger is dangerous, his friend replies, “He only eats cake.” A trip to the dentist is inevitable after one too many sweets causes a toothache. The encounter is unnerving for both parties, and the tiger is advised to avoid cakes for good, leading to an unexpectedly dark yet hilarious ending as the big cat opts for a diet more suited to his needs. New Zealand author Cowley has crafted a vivid story grounded in simplicity, while Barrow adeptly conveys the titular beast’s intimidatingly vast size and imminent danger. The feline playfully contorts his body to fit the page as those around him look on in consternation, and when the child peers into the big cat’s gaping maw, the perspective switches to inside the tiger’s mouth, his jagged teeth filling the page. But Barrow also gives the tiger an expressive, almost childlike face. His human friend’s matter-of-fact, almost deadpan narration will lull readers into a sense of calm before ending on a surprising yet satisfying last note.

A deeply amusing, wonderfully subversive look at defying expectations and watching what you eat.

(Picture book. 4-8)

Landslide Culley, Betty | Nancy Paulsen Books (208 pp.) | $17.99 | March 10, 2026 9780593859933

A Maine boy with an unusual gift watches the landfill across the street—and fears it’s about to bury his father.

Ten-year-old Nathan has a skill he calls “I-sight”— the ability to detect subtle movements that others miss—and it’s showing him something alarming: The Homefront Municipal Waste Management landfill is moving in ways that suggest an imminent collapse. His dad drives the compactor at the summit, and Nathan already worries about his father’s health after years of lung damage from working at the Fortier’s Cement factory. As environmental protestors gather, Nathan’s new friend Wilder Bacon, a boy with alopecia areata, joins forces with him to document the hill’s movement. Culley grounds the story in solid environmental education, explaining rural landfills’ acceptance of out-of-state waste and the cumulative dangers of exposure to environmental waste and landfill gases. The plot builds steadily, and Nathan’s voice remains absorbing throughout, capturing a kid’s determination to protect his family while grappling with complex community politics. The environmental message is clear but never heavy-handed, and Wilder’s feelings about his condition add authentic representation. An author’s note reveals the story is based on an actual Maine landfill collapse in 1989 and states that such disasters occur worldwide. Most characters present white.

An earnest, well-researched environmental tale that educates as it engages. (Fiction. 10-14)

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Fiddlehead Forest Curll, Jana | Greystone Kids (92 pp.) $14.95 | April 14, 2026 | 9781778401046 Series: Little Habitats, 2

If a tree falls in a storm, will the forest’s flora and fauna rush to the rescue?

They do in Curll’s latest graphic venture into one of the world’s Little Habitats. But despite a dot-eyed fern’s confident promise that she’ll put things right (“It’s her personal guaran-TREE,” observes a nearby lichen) and the efforts of many small sylvan residents from Slug and Millipede to Moth and Mushroom, propping the fallen tree back up turns out to be a tall order.

The author lightens the informational load as she goes, imbuing her simply drawn cartoon panels with punny exchanges and section titles (“How Are You Lichen Me Now?”) and pausing for cast member close-ups in order to highlight each one’s distinctive contributions to the forest community, diverse shapes and species, and important anatomical features. Alas, none of the forest denizens shows enough strength or savvy to shift the massive trunk, and so the task eventually leaves everyone stumped— until Fern suddenly notices that in the meantime the fallen tree has naturally taken on a whole new role as a nurse log, supporting the forest’s ecosystem in numerous ways. “I guess we FERN-ally figured it out.” “It was a LOG time coming.”

Engaging, informative, and rife with wordplay for pun lovers.

(Graphic nonfiction. 8-10)

Oscar and the Mystery of the Glowing Orbs Everts, Don | IVP Kids (320 pp.) | $16.99 paper | February 10, 2026 | 9781514012185 Series: The Sensate Saga, 1

Oscar enters 9th grade nervous about being the new kid, walking with a limp, and seeing glowing orbs that no one else perceives.

Oscar Owens, who’s white and bilingual in Spanish and English, lives with his father; his Mexican stepmother, Amá; and his stepgrand­ mother, Abuela. When Amá gets a job teaching Spanish at a college in Centerville, the family moves across the state. Oscar joins the school newspaper, the Argus, thanks to encouragement from his English teacher, the paper’s faculty adviser.

There he learns from student editor Annie that, like her, he’s a Sensate, someone with heightened senses whose powers are awakened by puberty. He’s comforted to know that he’s not alone—the Argus Sensates work together to do good. But what do the orbs mean? This cozy story weaves Christian themes of faith and friendship into a slow-burn mystery with spots of humor and drama.

Everts develops the large, racially diverse cast of characters through strong dialogue that propels the plot. Oscar grapples with self-consciousness over his anisomelia (his left leg is shorter than his right one) but finds comfort in his faith when he’s feeling low. Unfortunately, despite the author’s clearly positive intent to highlight a character with

An earnest, well-researched environmental tale that educates as it engages.

LANDSLIDE

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a physical disability and to explore themes of racism, both elements are marred by ableism in the story’s language and framing and a plot twist that works to undermine the message of racial inclusivity.

A series opener that effectively blends faith and mystery but falls short in inclusive representation.

(Mystery. 10-14)

Kirkus Star

Together, Right Now Fadeeva, Olga | Blue Dot Kids Press (32 pp.) $18.95 | January 27, 2026 | 9798985849455

On the “blue dot” that is planet Earth, whether we reside on Antarctica or in Amsterdam, we’re all connected.

A tan-skinned caregiver and child cuddle on a sofa looking at a book—in fact, this very book—while the youngster’s toys lie scattered on the floor. All seemingly mundane, but the magic has already begun. Fadeeva’s minimalist yet thought-provoking text makes our globe feel simultaneously vast and intimate: “Right now, you are reading this book. Right now, someone is eating breakfast...falling asleep. Right now, on Earth, all at the same time, there is day and night, summer and winter, fire and ice.” A montage of dramatically illustrated settings emphasizes this point as Fadeeva reveals a boat tossed on the high seas, another parent/child pair digging potatoes in a charcoal-gray field, caribou milling amid the snowy tundra, a leopard slinking through the jungle, African dancers clad in kente cloth whirling about. The contrast between bright colors that fairly glow and more somber neutrals is enthralling, with collaged elements (pieces of newsprint, graph paper, even a book’s ISBN) providing further visual interest. This wholly immersive work reminds young people that our world is so much wider than it might appear and invites them to explore these JANUARY 1, 2026

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far-flung areas—not as tourists but as members of a global community.

A brilliant, uplifting, and world-embracing tale to unite us in divisive times. (Picture book. 4-8)

Ms. Marvel: Remnants of the Past Faruqi, Saadia | Marvel/Random House (384 pp.) | $18.99 | January 6, 2026 9781368078870

A stolen artifact draws a teen superhero into a conflict that tests both her powers and her sense of identity.

Kamala Khan, a first-generation Pakistani American Muslim girl, lives in Jersey City and spends her days balancing the obligations of school, faith, and her secret identity as Ms. Marvel. When a pair of bejeweled Mughal-era spectacles rumored to have magical powers is stolen from a local museum, Kamala investigates. As she uncovers more information about the culprits, Kamala’s powers aren’t the only thing being tested; she must also confront uncomfortable truths surrounding the colonial looting of treasures. The book contains well-written moments of action and introspection and explains themes of identity and cultural restitution clearly and accessibly, although these moments sometimes slow the pace.

Kamala’s voice is recognizable from previous iterations of her story by other authors. Her romantic tension with best friend Bruno Carrelli is sweet, and the story digs into her parents’ expectations around dating and academic achievement. Although high school senior Kamala often reads younger than her age, Faruqi captures her humor and moral struggles with sincerity. References to Muslim practice and the inclusion of some Urdu words add authenticity, and the moments when Kamala considers the gray areas between right and wrong lend nuance to the story.

An earnest and culturally grounded take on Ms. Marvel. (Fantasy. 11-15) 98

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We All Love

Kirkus Star

Flett, Julie | Greystone Kids (48 pp.) $18.95 | February 10, 2026 9781778403279 | Series: We Do Too!, 2

Animals care for one another, and children express parallel affections in beautiful, simple images.

Stuck on its back, a small turtle wriggles its limbs uncomfortably as a larger turtle slowly nudges it to its feet. An otter snuggles its baby close; crabs hold claws nearby. A shrew gazes over its shoulder to make sure its offspring are all lined up.

Alongside these depictions of animal life, dark-haired, brown-skinned children play together in outdoor scenes—rolling in the grass, cuddling near a crackling campfire, or standing stone still to observe a butterfly. Flett’s (Cree-Métis) subtle skill with color and texture imbues each illustration with abiding calm.

Seemingly simple backgrounds, on closer inspection, reveal intricacies in the art: Gentle purple streaks signify a blowing breeze; a pale green field is speckled with grasses, butterflies, and tiny flowers. The same detail extends to animals—a dog sits quite still as a ladybug passes, but loose radiating lines indicate a wiggly nose and a waggly tail. Both images and text richly communicate humans’ communion with nature: We love in much the same ways animals do, while the refrain “We love too! kîstanaw mîna” emphasizes a specifically Indigenous relationship to the natural world.

Animals are mostly unnamed within the text, but their species names are given in English and Cree at the book’s close.

A beautiful invitation to savor our interconnectedness with nature. (discussion of Cree words, author’s note) (Picture book. 3-7)

For an interview with Julie Flett, visit Kirkus online.

Piece by Piece: How Stephen Sondheim Made Musical Puzzles Come Alive Frankel, Erin | Illus. by Stacy Innerst Calkins Creek/Astra Books for Young Readers (48 pp.) | $19.99 | April 21, 2026 9781662680953

Long before becoming a Broadway powerhouse, Stephen Sondheim puzzles over music, stories, and the magic that binds them.

After young Sondheim sees his first Broadway musical, his imagination soars. His parents’ separation leads him to a new home near his friend Jamie, whose father is the renowned lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II. Sondheim writes his first musical at 15, but Hammerstein sends him back to the drawing board, teaching him the magic of editing. His breakout role penning the lyrics for West Side Story paves the way for even grander opportunities. Innerst’s moody acrylic, colored pencil, and ink illustrations create dynamic, expressionistic scenes that dance across the page like musical notes. Expository spreads show Sondheim making music or working in the theater, but it’s the conceptual illustrations that will intrigue creative readers: Sondheim riding a roller coaster with relevant terms (“melodious score,” “lyrics that soar!”) placed along the rails or surrounded by oversize puzzle pieces posing questions such as “What is the sound for loneliness?” and “Should the first and last notes rise?” Indeed, puzzles prove an inspired central metaphor for the creative process as Sondheim perfects his work. Frankel’s lilting rhyme gives the verse a pleasing cadence for reading aloud without following a consistent rhyming scheme, mirroring the ebb and flow of Sondheim’s own process.

A brilliant glimpse at a musical genius, imbued with a profound truth: Creativity is truly about the journey.

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(author’s note, timeline, selected bibliography, photos) (Picture-book biography. 7-10)

Celebrate Nowruz: A Persian New Year Holiday To Honor Spring

hallmarks such as tiny chickpea cookies, sabzeh (greens), and elegant gold-bottomed tea glasses.

Sweet, straightforward, and joyful.

(Picture book. 4-8)

Puffins!

Ghahremani, Zohreh | Illus. by Susie Ghahremani | Henry Holt (40 pp.) | $18.99 February 17, 2026 | 9781250348647

Gianferrari, Maria | Illus. by Maris Wicks Roaring Brook Press (48 pp.) | $19.99 April 14, 2026 | 9781250357373

Mother-daughter duo Zohreh and Susie Ghahremani tell the story of a child who takes the lead in preparing for Persian New Year.

Ariana thinks of Nowruz as her “secret holiday” because she’s the only one in her class who observes it.

Usually Mama helps prepare, but this year she’s out of town. So Ariana and her father step into her shoes, with some help from Ariana’s grandmother (Nana). Ariana and Dad shop for food and boil and paint eggs; later, Ariana decorates baklava with Nana. As they work, Nana explains the holiday’s origins.

Nowruz, which means “new day,” is “like a birthday party for Mother Nature. People welcome spring with clean homes, new clothes, and clear hearts.” Best of all, it’s “a chance to start over and be better people.”

When Mama returns, she’s happily surprised to see a table brimming with vibrant eggs, carefully organized cookies, a live goldfish, and other significant objects, including the haft-seen, a spread of seven plant-based items. Later, Ariana asks Nana why the whole world doesn’t celebrate Mother Nature’s birthday.

Nana’s suggestion that Ariana invite her friends to celebrate with her leads nicely into backmatter discussing Nowruz further. Readers unfamiliar with the holiday will emerge enlightened, while youngsters who observe it will feel kinship with Ariana. Warm, engaging illustrations rife with bright patterns include recognizable Persian holiday

A fetching invitation to clamber over the “guano-­ frosted rocks” of a seabird nesting site off the coast of Maine and look on as two feathered parents nurture their new puffling.

Gianferrari and Wicks put in personal appearances in the final pages of art to explain how researchers helped puffins make a comeback on the island of Eastern Egg Rock and how readers can help. Before that, though, it’s largely a bird’s world as two puffins, animated by subtle hints of smiles and other expressions, do their best to protect their prized egg, then keep their hatchling safe and fed after she emerges from the shell with an urgent message: “It’s time to eat!”

Puffin parenting turns out to be hard work, not to mention dangerous: “Sharing the city with gulls is tricky” when the marauders can swoop down at any time to snatch away a mouthful of harvested fish or even an errant chick. In time, though, Little Puffin fledges, then dives into the sea where she will fly underwater to feed, join a “floating city” of other puffins, and years later return to the nesting site, find a mate—and pose proudly with downy offspring of her own in a final scene. Gianferrari’s playful prose pairs beautifully with Wicks’ dramatic artwork, which alternates graphic novel–esque panels with full-page spreads for an immersive journey into an enticing avian world.

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A buoyant view of a natural cycle, loaded with visual and verbal appeal.

(Informational picture book. 5-7)

Action Jasmine Giang, Kristen Mai | Illus. by A.N. Kang Nancy Paulsen Books (32 pp.) | $18.99 March 10, 2026 | 9780593619247

A shy young girl channels her inner superhero.

Jasmine is creative but cautious, more comfortable hiding behind her salmon-colored glasses than stepping into the spotlight. But when Grandpa reads her tales of adventure each night, her imagination expands, and she becomes “Action Jasmine,” a fearless hero whose exploits she details in the pages of her sketchbook. When Grandpa encourages her to visit the park, she dons a bold disguise as she embarks on an even bolder mission: making a friend. Giang’s narrative offers a gentle, empathetic look at the common challenge of connecting with peers. Jasmine’s internal struggle—brave in her mind, anxious in reality—is portrayed with authenticity and heart, while her relationship with Grandpa demonstrates how supportive adults can help build young people’s self-assurance. Kang’s energetic illustrations shift playfully between fantasy and reality to convey Jasmine’s nerves, excitement, and determination. A cool blue-green palette grounds the scenes, while bursts of bright orange highlight Jasmine’s courageous moments. Vocabulary boosts (incognito, undercover) are explained with humor, helping build burgeoning readers’ confidence in language.

This reassuring picture book validates big feelings and celebrates the small acts of bravery required to forge new connections. Shy children, especially those with rich imaginations, will see themselves reflected—and encouraged to take one step forward. Jasmine and Grandpa present East Asian.

A heartfelt reminder that courage grows through imagination, persistence, and people who believe in us. (Picture book. 3-8)

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ON THE COVER

KADIR NELSON A lifelong passion for the game of basketball—and for painting—inspired this acclaimed artist’s new book.

BY MICHAEL SCHAUB

KADIR NELSON REMEMBERS the time, around the age of 4, that he first touched a basketball.

“One of my uncles once came back from playing a game around the corner in Atlantic City, [New Jersey,] and he was talking to my grandmother,” the author and artist recalls via Zoom from his home in Riverside, California. “Somehow the ball ended up in my hands, and I bounced it, and I just fell in love with basketball at first bounce.”

Nelson aims to share his love of the sport in Basket Ball: The Story of the All-American Game. The book is a history of the game for young readers, written by Nelson and illustrated with dozens of his oil paintings of cagers past and present. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus praised the book as “a backboard-shattering slam dunk.”

It combines two of Nelson’s passions: basketball and art. He fell in love with the latter as a child, too—he learned the fundamentals of art at 11 from an uncle who was an artist and teacher; the same uncle would teach him to paint with oils when he was 16. He went on to study at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and launched a career as an artist, creating visuals for films, album covers, and magazines (including, famously, the New Yorker).

He had more than 15 children’s books under his belt as an illustrator before he decided to fly solo with the 2008 book We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball—a project that might not have happened if it weren’t for his basketball obsession.

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I didn’t just want to tell the story of basketball through words and pictures.

I wanted it to feel like you are also in the game. You’re up close.

Paul Morigi/Get t y Images for National Por trait Galler y

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“Through high school and college, I did a lot of basketball paintings because of my love for the game,” he says. “But I painted so much of it, I wanted to take a break. I was inspired to create artwork for—and tell the story of—Negro League baseball after seeing the Ken Burns documentary [Baseball] while I was in college. So I did one Negro League painting, and that grew into over 40 paintings. The book took seven, eight years to complete.”

The new book was inspired by his editor, Stephanie Lurie at Disney-­Hyperion, who saw two paintings he had done for a pair of U.S. postage stamps honoring basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain. She asked Nelson if he’d be interested in writing and illustrating a children’s book about the history of the sport.

“I thought the timing was right,” he says. “I was ready to delve back into basketball. Given that it had been such a big part of my life, it made a lot of sense for me to create a series of works that would pay tribute to and celebrate it.…I didn’t just want to tell the story of basketball through words and pictures. I wanted it to feel like you are also in the game. You’re up close.”

Nelson says he wanted to include not just action shots but images of every aspect of the sport, whether small or larger than life. One of the first paintings in the book depicts Charles Barkley in his Philadelphia 76ers era, tying his shoes before a game. But there are plenty of pictures of athletes in motion.

“Because I have experience playing basketball, it gave me a strong understanding of how to communicate movement through images,” Nelson says.

“I understand what it feels like to stretch or to push yourself or to move through space as athletes do. When you see Kareem Abdul-Jabbar reaching and really deploying his skyhook, I understand the mechanics of what it takes to perform that action—though not as expertly as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar!”

The book begins with the sport’s invention in 1891 by Canadian teacher James Naismith, then segues into its earliest teams, including the often forgotten “Black fives,” segregation-era teams composed only of African American players. “When it comes to K IR KU S R E V IE W S

the history of basketball, it was a mirror of what was going on in the country where not everyone was working together, playing together, living together, or having the same shared experiences,” he says.

From there, Nelson takes on topics including the Harlem Globetrotters, the birth of the NBA, and the history of its rowdier cousin, the American Basketball Association, or ABA. (The two leagues merged in 1976.) He chronicles some of the sport’s most famous teams, including the Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics, and the 1992 U.S. men’s Olympic “dream team.” An “overtime” section stresses the importance of women’s basketball, which is currently having a moment with WNBA stars like A’ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark. “I’m really happy to see how the WNBA has been flourishing over the last few years in particular,” Nelson says. “Women have been in basketball since it was invented.”

One section of the book is devoted to basketball “revolutionaries,” two of whom Nelson got to meet when he was 15 and his mother took him to a celebrity golf tournament.

“I brought some drawings that I’d made of Michael Jordan that I was hoping he would sign,” Nelson recalls.

“While I was waiting at one of the holes, I turned around, and sitting by himself in a golf cart was Dr. J [Julius Erving]. I went up to him and said, ‘I know these aren’t drawings of you, but would you mind signing them? I’m a big fan.’ He grabbed a pen and signed it, and said, ‘Wow, you have a nice touch.’ I shook his hand and his fingertips basically touched the inside of my elbow.” (Nelson also scored an autograph from His Airness later that day.)

Nelson wants to educate kids who might not know that the sport was originally called “basket ball,” two words, or that the 24-second shot clock was not always part of the game. But basketball’s long and fascinating history isn’t all he hopes young readers will take away from the book.

“I want folks to put down their phones and enjoy the book—even pick up a basketball or ball of their choice and go outside and play and do

Basket Ball: The Story of the All-American Game Nelson, Kadir

Little, Brown | 112 pp. | $21.99 Jan. 13, 2026 | 9780316209403

something in the real world,” he says.

“That’s really what this book celebrates.

It is a celebration of what we can do as human beings when we work together.”

And if his readers find that the book kindles their interest in art, Nelson would be even happier.

“All of this artwork was created by a human being,” he says. “It’s not artificial intelligence. This is very practical, physical artwork, paint and canvas.

These are things being made by hand, by human beings. I really want kids to continue that tradition and not take any shortcuts with all the digital tools we have at our fingertips these days.”

Nelson continues to love basketball, of course, but as April and the NBA playoffs approach, who is he hoping will take home the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy?

“Honestly, I don’t have a team,” he says. “I’m not a guy who sits and talks about who’s going to win the championship, because who knows? I’m much more a fan of the history of the game.

Whoever is playing great basketball is who I’m interested in watching, but I’m not rooting for one team or another. The game itself is enough of a celebration for me.”

Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.

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Kirkus Star

Honor Flight: Celebrating America’s Veterans Gottesfeld, Jeff | Illus. by Matt Tavares Candlewick (40 pp.) | $18.99 March 3, 2026 | 9781536230154

A Vietnam veteran travels to Washington, D.C. The white-­ presenting narrator looks back on what he and his brethren accomplished and all that they sacrificed.

Still, he knows that his time is growing short, and he agrees to an honor flight, a journey to pay one’s respects at various war memorials, accompanied by fellow veterans and guardians who care for them—after all, “This could be my final mission,” he muses. In Washington, the tone turns reverential as they place wreaths on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, commemorate the dead, and connect with grateful onlookers and “Rosie the Riveters” on their own honor flight. A sun-dappled spread of the vet pondering the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, dwarfed by the list of names, is an absolute showstopper, visually and emotionally. Returning home, the group receives a pomp-filled welcome, something many Vietnam veterans were denied. It’s an important reminder of an injustice that still reverberates. An afterword informs readers that Gottesfeld acted as a guardian, and his firsthand experiences comes through in the text’s specificity and intensity, as he speaks of “patriotic colors” on departure day and “golden moments” of connection and camaraderie. Tavares brings his whole heart to the quietly masterful pencil and digitally colored images, from dignified

elders using mobility devices to proud portrayals of the racially diverse veterans.

Those reading this stirring tribute will remember it well—and agree with the closing words: “It was an honor.” (notes) (Picture book. 6-12)

Yasha’s Amazin’ Bar Mitzvah Gurevich, Margaret | Penguin Workshop (240 pp.) | $17.99 | March 17, 2026 9780593659465

In 1986, 13-yearold Yasha and his parents relocate from New York City to New Jersey just weeks before his bar mitzvah.

In their old neighborhood of Brighton Beach, they were surrounded

by Russian culture and language. In Rockwood, there’s a large Jewish community, but Yasha quickly learns from his new peers’ reactions to suppress his Russian heritage. He changes his nickname to “Jake,” hides his gold chain (standard attire in Brighton Beach), and switches lunches from stuffed cabbage to PB&J. The main bright spot in his life is his bar mitzvah project—he visits a grumpy senior citizen named Bernie, who speaks with a Russian accent. They bond over their shared love of the Mets, and the story follows both Yasha’s first few months navigating new friendships and the Mets’ 1986 World Series run. Yasha’s world feels lived-in and specifically drawn, right down to the empty cottage cheese container used as a family piggy bank and the horrible dread Yasha

Higgins returns with another showcase of early-learning concepts.

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experiences when his mother obliviously brings a Russian dessert for his new friends. Gurevich renders Yasha as a thoughtful, appealing teen, believably malleable in the face of social pressure and justifiably frustrated with his parents. The novel culminates with Yasha’s bar mitzvah and World Series Game 6, unlikely successes occurring on the same day. If the resolution feels overly rosy, the baseball is historically accurate, and readers will welcome a decisive social win for Yasha. Characters are cued white.

A loving, carefully delineated portrayal of growth. (author’s note) (Historical fiction. 9-13)

I Really Want To Be a Cat Hancocks, Helen | Sourcebooks Jabberwocky (32 pp.) | $14.99 March 3, 2026 | 9781464244759

A child attempts to emulate a beloved pet.

No one has more fun than cats: They have unlimited time to do anything they like (“even if it’s…NOTHING”), they’re “quiet like a ninja,” they’re unbeatable at hide-and-seek, and though they may be adventurous, “they always know how to come back just in time for…DINNER.” The unnamed pale-skinned youngster at the center of this book copies the cat’s every action: lounging about, stalking prey (a green and blue striped sock), and curling up in a tight ball. But the protagonist’s commitment goes only so far—watching the animal contorting itself while giving itself a tongue bath elicits a vehement “YUCK!” Author/ illustrator Hancocks’ straightforward first-person narrative will appeal to those kids who are equally enamored with the kitties in their lives. Her clear, uncluttered illustrations, dominated by light yellows, pinks, and greens, use simple yet eye-catching patterns and geometric shapes as they capture the expressions of this loving yet independent cat and the enthusiastic child K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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who can’t get enough of it. Those seeking a story with more conflict or tension will need to look elsewhere, as the tale ends abruptly following the (admittedly very funny) final joke, but animal lovers will find it an ideal read-aloud.

Pure feline fun. (Picture book. 3-6)

Are We Ready For a Pet? Hannah, Joli | Illus. by Kathryn Selbert Albatros Media (14 pp.) | $12.95 January 20, 2026 | 9788000076188 Series: Read and Spot

Involved and informed parents help Sam and Emma think about what makes the perfect pet.

As Mom and Dad discuss the considerable responsibilities of pet ownership, the family visits a variety of locations: a pet shop, where a rabbit seems perfect; a dog shelter; the home of a friend who owns a bevy of cats and kittens; a zoo, where parrots and fish appeal; and a reptile store with Sam’s favorite, iguanas.

Hannah explains each animal’s specific needs: Dogs require toys, regular walks, and plenty of exercise; reptiles require controlled temperatures and lots of soil in their enclosures. On the final spread, the parents make a sensible plan: Sam and Emma will walk the neighbor’s dog, take care of the class turtle, and volunteer at the local shelter; after they demonstrate that they are, indeed, “ready for a pet,” the family will decide what to adopt.

Meanwhile the children dream of a jumble of all sorts of animals, including spiders and insects. Hannah’s text is clearly written and informative, though a bit wordy. Although the series is billed as “Read and Spot,” the small sans-serif type means that beginning readers are unlikely to find the text accessible. Still, the book’s notably realistic view of pet ownership—with an emphasis on unglamorous obligations and duties— is noteworthy, and youngsters will enjoy poring over Selbert’s cute, K IR KU S R E V IE W S

colorful cartoon illustrations, which feature die-cut holes.

Ideal prep for would-be pet owners.

(Picture book. 3-6)

Sing Up the Earth!

Hellner, Cheryl | Illus. by Mercè Tous Paraclete Press (32 pp.) | $18.99 February 3, 2026 | 9798893480290

A grandchild and grandparent create clay instruments.

Grandpa is an artist who makes flutes, whistles, pot drums, and other instruments while young Meadow assists. Clay, Grandpa explains, “comes from the body of our Earth” and “artists can turn it into song.” His most precious item is a hawk-shaped ocarina that his own grandfather gave him when he was a boy; its beautiful sound spurred the forest animals to dance. But during a harsh winter storm, lightning strikes the barn that houses the art studio, and it catches fire. The hawk ocarina disappears; Meadow imagines Red Fox taking it. It isn’t until Meadow finds a broken piece of the original hawk instrument that Grandpa is able to remake the heirloom so that its wondrous sounds can be heard once more. Hellner’s text has a lilt that matches its melodious subject matter as the author explains that because clay comes from the earth, the instruments made from it are in turn rooted in nature. Both Meadow and Grandpa share a reverence for the art they create and the music that comes from it. Tous’ illustrations are a lovely complement, featuring idyllic, neatly composed scenes of grassland and mountains, animals, and streams. An especially noteworthy spread depicts the fire that devastates the barn, snow whipping and flames blazing against a lightning sky.

Meadow and Grandpa are lightskinned and dark-haired.

A harmonic homage to nature, art, and family. (Picture book. 4-8)

One Whole Hippopotamus: A Book About Parts and Patterns Higgins, Carter | Chronicle Books (52 pp.) $16.99 | May 26, 2026 | 9781797239521

Higgins returns with another eye-­ grabbing showcase of early-­ learning concepts.

It all starts with the basics: “One is one / and two is two / these circles are all blue,” along with an image of blue orbs, all the same size. Higgins proceeds to make visual mischief.

“Change their size / but keep the color / same in some ways / not in others” finds three blue circles of different sizes hovering on a twopage spread like a planetary system.

Soon the author/illustrator introduces four triangles of various colors—“same or different? / How about now?”—before mixing several other variously colored triangles with a few different colored circles: “Same or different? / tell me how.” Higgins moves on to more complex shapes (roller skates, amoebalike abstractions) and invites readers to participate in some visual puzzle­solving: “Which pieces make this ice cream cone? / What goes on this xylophone?” On it goes, the rhymes and near rhymes snappy and the images becoming more intricate as Higgins gently introduces concepts such as addition, subtraction, and fractions; he also encourages little ones to identify outliers, asking, “What doesn’t match the batch?” while presenting an illustration of three winged creatures and one cat.

Higgins’ digitally tweaked cut-paper art, all of it with pleasingly mottled or otherwise textured surfaces and set against flat white space, conjures stripped-down Eric Carle and should get preverbal toddlers thinking and older ones chattering.

Irresistible brain food for littles. (instructions on using this book with various age groups) (Picture book. 2-4) JANUARY 1, 2026

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Kirkus Star

Don’t Eat the Birthday Boy! Higuera, Donna Barba | Illus. by Juliana Perdomo | Amulet/Abrams (192 pp.) | $14.99 March 17, 2026 | 9781419777448 | Series: The Unlikely Aventuras of Ramón and El Cucuy, 2

A sweet-tempered monster longs to reunite with an old friend.

Back in the Abyss of Horror after a successful first mission, El Cucuy lines up to get his assigned name and Clump (or familial unit): what every cuco, coco, cuca, and cucuy dreams about! Yet the little monster would rather be back in his cozy cactus pot beside Ramón (the boy he was tasked with frightening in the previous book) in the human world, even if their friendship might mean banishment to the Forest of Failure. When negotiations for a new contract between humans and boogeymen collapse, threatening longtime peace as some monsters begin an uprising, El Cucuy moves quickly to protect Ramón, who’s dealing with another crisis: His mother has invited his bully to his birthday party. Plus, other boogeymonsters— the Ninki Nanka, the Baba Yaga, and the Butzemann—plan to crash the party. Leaning on its predecessor’s sublime worldbuilding, this latest aventura cleverly expands its roster of creatures, incorporating folklore from around the world (El Cucuy is a creature from Latin American mythology).

Higuera keeps the humorous streak intact, deftly weaving in comical observations from both El Cucuy and Ramón about the human and monster worlds. Abandoning ghostly purple for slimy green, Perdomo’s duotone artwork keeps the lighthearted spookiness alive, enriching the recurring thematic beats of chosen familia and generous friendship once again. Ramón and his familia are cued Latine.

A grander, badder boogey world, with an even larger monstrous heart than its predecessor. (Fantasy. 7-10)

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Wild Mountain Ivy Hitchcock, Shannon | Carolrhoda (272 pp.) $18.99 | March 3, 2026 | 9798765670828

Since catching Covid-19 two months ago, 12-year-old violinist Ivy Presnell has developed long Covid.

When her doctor advises a change of scenery, Ivy and her mother head to the Everly House, the bed-and-breakfast in the Blue Ridge Mountains run by her Uncle Cam and his husband, Steve.

There, Ivy discovers that the house was once a tuberculosis sanatorium. A spirited girl named Jessie, the hero of Hitchcock’s The Ballad of Jessie Pearl (2013), was one of the sanatorium patients in the 1920s. In Ivy’s dreams, the two girls connect. Jessie’s ghostly presence shares the story of her life, while Ivy adjusts to being ill and no longer able to do many things she enjoys. She discovers the pleasures of a slower pace, learns the dulcimer, writes lyrics, and endeavors to discover all she can about Jessie. Hitchcock has written a love letter to the Asheville area: Ivy’s summer home is filled with culture and vitality, from the beauty of nature to folk music and the legacy of strong women. The girls’ connection across time via their shared struggles with chronic illness is intriguing, but Ivy’s experience with long Covid at times feels superficial and didactic.

Her stress over her parents’ difficult marriage and her traveling musician father’s frequent absences are more strongly portrayed. The main characters are cued white. Some back­ground characters of color are less

well-developed and unfortunately evoke stereotypes.

A gentle but uneven story of healing in an idyllic setting. (discussion questions, author’s note) (Fiction. 10-14)

Falling to Fairyland Horwitz, Sarah Jean | Little, Brown (336 pp.) $17.99 | March 31, 2026 | 9781643752808

A human changeling tries to earn his place in Fairyland.

Swapped for a sickly fairy infant and brought back to Fairyland to be raised by his adoptive mother, the Fairy Witch, Cricket is approaching his 13th Change Day. He’s anxious to earn a permanent position in her court by acquiring the missing piece that will complete the cloak the Fairy Witch created to help him hide and suppress his dangerous magic. After a prophecy links Cricket to both the completed cloak and a wounded knight, the Fairy Witch becomes emotionally distant. A desperate Cricket escapes her ivory tower, heading into the capricious world to take matters into his own hands. His subsequent encounters and the obstacles he faces are a good blend of whimsical folklore, malicious threats, and kindness. Fate leads him to the knight, newly fallen from the human realm—an amnesiac teen soldier from the Great War. Prophecy aside, Cricket genuinely likes the soldier, who’s called Isaac, and wants to save him from a deadly curse—one used by the Fairy Witch. The early chapters explore the mystery of Cricket’s powers and Isaac’s past and painful secrets so that the emotional punches of later revelations hit hard. The themes of self-acceptance, love, and loss

Come for the delightful setting; stay for the genuinely moving story.

FALLING TO FAIRYL AND

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succeed through being heavily rooted in the characters’ agency and empowerment. The cleverly plotted story structure ends up being pleasingly circular. Cricket, Isaac, and the Fairy Witch are pale-skinned.

Come for the delightful setting; stay for the genuinely moving story.

(Fantasy. 9-13)

Quietly…Quietly…Quack!

Howley, Jonty | Happy Yak (32 pp.) $18.99 | March 3, 2026 | 9781836005896

Three ducklings sneak away from their mother to explore the rest of the farm.

As this lighthearted read-aloud opens, Momma Duck is still slumbering.

Two of her little ones peer at her, worried, but the third, clad in a blue scarf, is already out the door. Though they attempt to stay silent to avoid being caught, the third duckling’s tendency to quack at inconvenient times brings trouble over the course of a very funny series of episodes, set against an appealing bucolic background. Commotion breaks out as the blue-scarved duckling disrupts a jumpy horse and attracts the attention of the farmer’s chase-happy dog.

Variations on the titular refrain (“Carefully…Carefully…QUACK!” “Quickly…

Quickly…QUACK!”) anchor the rhythmic text. The trio flee to the woods, where they encounter a slumbering fox (this time the phrase “Silently, silently…” ends with a pleasingly unexpected “CRACK!” as the wayward duckling suppresses the urge to quack but steps on a stick). The ravenous fox is ready to gobble up the terrified youngsters, who cower “nervously…Nervously.” The final “QUAAACCCKKK!!!” is a satisfyingly raucous one; young listeners will happily chime in during storytimes. Howley’s minimalist depictions of the ducks—simple rounded shapes with sticklike legs—are a delight, and careful readers will realize that Momma Duck’s well aware of her babies’ adventure, despite their belief that they’ve fooled her.

A quackin’ good read-aloud.

(Picture book. 3-6) K IR KU S R E V IE W S

Books Good Enough for You: The Storied Life of Ursula Nordstrom, Editor of Extraordinary Children’s Books Hudgins, Nancy | Abrams (192 pp.) $19.99 | March 24, 2026 | 9781419775673

Only the rarest kind of best was good enough for this editor.

Few can claim the star-studded oeuvre that was Ursula Nordstrom’s (1910-1988).

Born in New York City to actor parents, she lived a childhood that was magical “until it wasn’t.” Her parents divorced, and she was shipped off to boarding school—difficult experiences for this shy child, but her love of reading proved invaluable.

Guided by the belief that only “fresh,” “original,” and “honest” stories were worthy of young people, she climbed the ranks at Harper & Brothers, and from here, Hudgins focuses squarely on the titles that Nordstrom helped to bring into existence. Everything from Charlotte’s Web to Harriet the Spy gets its day in the sun, with ample backstories and fun tidbits of information tucked into each chapter.

Where a rote biography of an editor could easily devolve into a dull affair, Hudgins peppers her pages with “Writing Tips From Ursula,” advice on how to “Be Like Ursula,” and sidebars throughout. She notes how Nordstrom championed books about Black children and titles that considered gender identity and the LGBTQ experience; the author also repeatedly references the role of Mary Griffith, the woman Nordstrom loved. In the end, the book drills home the understanding that Nordstrom believed in the innate intelligence of the child reader.

Matching Nordstrom’s respect for young people, Hudgins does her brave, funny, and singular subject proud. (source notes, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 9-12)

Better Than a Touchdown Hurts, Jalen | Illus. by Nneka Myers Flamingo Books (40 pp.) | $19.99 March 10, 2026 | 9798217040308

In Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Hurts’ motivational picture book, a youngster rebounds from disappointment.

As Jalen heads off on his first day of school, he daydreams about joining the football team, but his friend Trey soon breaks the bad news. The garden club needed more space for vegetables, so the football field was used for planting.

There will be no football this year.

Jalen is despondent, but his teachers Mrs. Lee and Mr. Barry and bodega owner Mr. Muhammad offer guidance that spurs him and his friends into positive action. They work to flip a nearby empty lot into a football field, with Jalen echoing his mentors’ adages.

Once the field is complete, Jalen feels a swell of pride in his and his friends’ work. While the idea of kids working together to effect change is a laudable one, the bland, wordy storytelling won’t inspire young people or hold their attention. Tired, cliched inspirational comments peppered throughout often slow down the narrative, and many adult readers will find the premise—a school dropping a high-interest sports program in favor of a community garden—wildly unrealistic. Though the illustrations are colorful, with a Disney Junior charm, strange stylistic choices, such as signs with odd combinations of scribbles instead of letters, give them an unpolished look. Like Hurts, Jalen is Black; his community is diverse.

Earnest and well meaning but not quite a touchdown. (Picture book. 4-8)

For more about Better Than a Touchdown, visit Kirkus online.

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StEvEn and Parker: Dinos Are Forever!

James, Parker | Illus. by Toonstar Studios Random House (192 pp.) | $21.99 | $14.99 paper | March 10, 2026 | 9798217026425 9798217026456 paper

In this tale based on the author’s YouTube series, a plushie-loving kid finds a lost dinosaur toy at the local carnival.

StEvEn is a super-chatty, dramatic character—so chatty he’s directly addressing readers before his story gets to Chapter 1, so dramatic he threatens his older brother, Parker (“You wanna wake up with potatoes in your bed again?”), for challenging his claim to be the coolest kid in high school (StEvEn’s still in elementary school, as Parker points out). All to say, in this spirited comic, the plot’s not the point. Spending time with the book’s blond, bobble-headed, big-mouthed protagonist is the focus, and it’s a true treat. Our small-statured hero heads to the fair with Parker and his girlfriend, Bianca. To StEvEn’s chagrin, he’s too short for the rides the older kids want to ride, and while sulking in their absence, he discovers a left-behind stuffed dino in need of a friend. Luckily, StEvEn is the caretaker of a veritable civilization of stuffed animals, and he’s ready to give the little guy a good home; unluckily, Parker insists he seek the toy’s owner before he can claim it as his own. The cartoon artwork and pacing are jittery and frantic; StEvEn’s endless energy works overtime to keep reluctant readers engaged and gleefully reflects the internal universe of a highly imaginative elementary schooler.

StEvEn and Parker are pale-skinned.

A free-wheeling and fun everyday adventure. (Graphic fiction. 7-12)

For more gripping graphic lit, visit Kirkus online.

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Will inspire little ones to stay positive amid hardship.

PLANTING HOPE

If Pets Wrote Poems: A Parody Collection Johnston Taylor, Susan | Illus. by Sandie Sonke | Gnome Road Publishing (32 pp.) $19.95 | April 14, 2026 | 9781957655659

Sixteen short poems by, purportedly, the pets of as many poets.

Posing cutely alongside their doll-like owners in Sonke’s painted portraits, the furry, feathered, or scaly animal authors (most of whom are white) make a winsome gallery, though Johnston Taylor squanders most of their appeal.

For one, they all sound alike in the poems despite their diversity of breeds and species. Moreover, the author does provide side introductions to both poets and pets, but any opportunities for wit or wordplay will be lost, since few of the poems she cites as her models are likely to be familiar to young audiences, and she doesn’t reproduce any of them here for comparison. Even exceptions such as a “Green Eggs and Ham” pastiche (“Hello! My name is Sam-I-Am. / Here, try a piece of purple yam”) and a few lines by Edgar Allan Poe’s cat on a certain raven’s fate—“Wings so black they blend with night, wings… to quell my appetite?!”—lack verve or originality. A fox standing outside Lucille Clifton’s door sending both a literal and metaphorical message about “embracing the wild” makes a memorable finale, but readers will have to hunt for hints of inventive language among the rest. Emily Dickinson’s Newfie panting “I’m Carlo! Who are you? / Are you a canine too?” may not be bad for a dog, but human poets need to work harder.

Doesn’t do proper justice to the poets, the pets, or the promising premise. (further reading, source list) (Picture book/poetry. 6-9)

Planting Hope Joseph, Frederick | Illus. by Paul Kellam Candlewick (32 pp.) | $18.99 March 3, 2026 | 9781536233452

When his mom gets sick, Henry must learn a lesson in hope to help the garden flourish.

Henry’s mother’s been a gifted and giving gardener ever since she was young.

Henry doesn’t seem to share her green thumb, and despite her encouragement to keep believing, his little plant refuses to grow. Henry becomes frustrated, but everything changes when Mom falls ill and misses many days in the garden. Plants droop in their pots and lose their petals. But a special trip with a trusted neighbor reinforces his mother’s message of hope and spurs Henry to reflect on his attitude and what it means to show someone you believe in them. A heartwarming ending that acknowledges the power of optimism and hard work will empower young readers.

Kallam’s lush visuals are saturated with movement and emotion; mirroring Henry’s mood, they lose their vibrancy and color when his mother becomes sick. The characters’ large, bright eyes and colorful details make them as ornate as the garden flowers; Henry’s mom is even depicted as a life-giving tree in one scene. No specific illness or ailment is mentioned, allowing readers in a variety of situations to see themselves in Henry’s shoes. Henry and his family present Black.

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A radiant tale that will inspire little ones to stay positive even amid hardship. (Picture book. 4-8)

Mission Microraptor Kavvadias, Philip | Aladdin (336 pp.) $18.99 | March 17, 2026 | 9781665989329 Series: R.A.P.T.O.R., 1

A slacker has a star turn as a dino-defending secret agent in this series opener.

Finn O’Rourke and Milo George, 12-year-old classmates from London, discover a mysterious egg during a school trip to the French Alps. The egg hatches to reveal a small, feathered dinosaur, which Finn names Artemis in the first act of a booklong bonding process. The trio are spirited away from the field trip by Dr. Lara Blake, a special agent from the British Museum of Natural History, ahead of the arrival of some shadowy, less benign operatives. Finn, a big-time gamer and slouch, warms up to know-it-all Milo and injects some smart aleck humor into the proceedings.

Spycraft and survival hijinks escalate with each thrilling set piece, complete with flying shuriken and an exploding van. Finn even gets to pilot a helicopter and a plane (with the help of some directions). The gunplay is limited to tranquilizer darts and the swearing consists of shouting names of food— “Holy pork chops!” and “Sweet carbonara!” Sharp-taloned Artemis, who has orange-gold wings and lets out cries of “keear!”, will melt readers’ hearts. By the time Finn, Milo, and Lara learn to work together as a proper team, the story

hits its stride, with each character’s having adapted to the others’ personalities in a rewarding fashion. The main characters read white.

A winning blend of humor, action, and heart, with a pet dinosaur on top. (Adventure. 8-12)

Kirkus Star

When Tomorrow Burns Keller, Tae | Random House (272 pp.) $17.99 | March 3, 2026 | 9780593485583

In the latest from Newbery Award–winner Keller, three middle schoolers seek answers about a mysterious book in hopes of preventing catastrophe.

Best friends Nomi, Violet, and Arthur once discovered a book full of predictions. Each came true, save for the final one—a poem that ominously referenced “a girl who burns, a boy who breaks.”

Years later, as smoke from raging wildfires pollutes the Seattle air, Nomi becomes convinced that the final prophecy is upon them and disaster is imminent. She enlists Vi and Arthur, who’s distanced himself from the girls in favor of the popular, athletic boys, to help her find a second book of prophecies that she believes will “make the world right again.” As the trio attempts to trace the books’ origin, they each navigate personal struggles: Nomi, who’s cued white, is desperately seeking a sense of control in a world filled with uncertainty; Vi, who’s white and Korean, is reeling after discovering that she’s unknowingly been a source of material

A winning blend of humor, action, and heart, with a pet dinosaur on top.

MISSION MICRORAPTOR

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for her mother’s online content; and Arthur is grappling with what it means to be a white boy in our society. Short passages throughout the novel in the voice of a forest that serves as a Greek chorus slowly and cleverly reveal the true story of the prophetic book. The result is a complex, carefully woven exploration of fate, autonomy, power, privilege, identity, and friendship.

As beautiful and intricate as the rings of an ancient tree. (author’s note, letter to the reader) (Fiction. 10-14)

Gotcha Day Kerbel, Deborah | Illus. by Udayana Lugo Orca (32 pp.) | $21.95 | March 17, 2026 9781459839663

A pup seeks a home.

A scruffy stray roams the streets, “untamed. / No-named.” With eyes and tail downturned and leaves stuck to matted fur, the pooch wonders where to go.

Four vignettes depict an animal control officer capturing the dog: “PANICKED, / scared. / Cornered… / snared.” The pup is then taken to a shelter to be “washed, / groomed, / brushed, / perfumed”…and to wait. Many people walk by the dog’s cage, but no one stops until one day, the most wondrous words are heard: “Hold up! / THIS PUP!” A tot is pointing excitedly. The two become fast friends, and the tale ends with the question many pet owners ponder: “Who rescued WHO?” Kerbel’s spare, staccato text heightens emotions while drawing out pauses and landing on sturdy, rhyming words: “Crate, / grate. / Sit and… // WAIT.” Paired with Lugo’s deeply saturated illustrations (which feature some joyously blurry tail wagging), this tale will captivate young readers. The child appears to be biracial; one parent presents East Asian, while the other appears white. In a final scene, the whole family celebrates the pup’s Gotcha Day, defined in an author’s note as the anniversary of a pet’s adoption.

An exuberant reminder to adopt, not shop. (Picture book. 3-6)

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A soothing, uncomplicated meditation on nature’s cycles and letting go.

present white. The earlier volume established that Jess, who wears her hair in Afro puffs, is of Jamaican descent.

Laugh-out-loud funny. (quiz, fact files) (Fiction. 8-12)

MORE THAN A TREE

More Than a Tree All Who Are Hungry, Come and Eat!: A Passover Story Kimmelman, Leslie | Illus. by Alyssa Russell Harper/HarperCollins (32 pp.) | $18.99 January 20, 2026 | 9780063325364

A creative interpretation of a passage read on Passover imploring all who are hungry to partake

of the feast.

Ethan laments his family’s small seder; this year, only he, his parents, and their poodle will be in attendance. Still, they gather around the end of a very long table and start the service, only to be interrupted by a knock at the door. No, it isn’t the prophet Elijah—it’s their neighbor, whose plans fell through. Subsequent knocks reveal relatives and even a cat and a chicken, all of whom come bearing food and who are invited in—after all, as Ethan’s mother points out, “The Haggadah says, ‘Let all who are hungry come and eat.’” The last guest is a large bear who initially causes a bit of consternation yet peacefully joins the others. Kimmelman’s lively text will make readers feel just as welcome, deftly conveying the ceremonial parts of the meal through rhyming phrases. Russell’s sunny illustrations feature characters observing a variety of Jewish customs and enjoying different foods, among them haroset, potato tzimmes, and gefilte fish. Background details make for enticing scenes that readers will pore over.

Backmatter includes a recipe for haroset that includes different cultural variations.

Ethan and his mother are tan-skinned, while his father is pale-skinned; other characters vary in skin tone. Multiple characters, including several animals, wear head coverings.

A joyful tale that speaks to the power of community. (Picture book. 3-6)

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The Catastrophic Friendship Fails of Lottie Brooks Kirby, Katie | Random House (464 pp.) | $18.99 | February 10, 2026 9798217116652 | Series: Lottie Brooks, 2

An English tween navigates friendships with humor and honesty.

Lottie Brooks, age 12 and 1/2, is back. Her best friend, Molly, has moved back to Brighton from Australia, and Lottie can’t wait for her to meet her new friend, Jess. The three of them will be Kingswood Secondary’s Terrific Threesome. Lottie’s also doing her best not to obsess about Dreamy Daniel, an effort which yields very mixed results.

At first it looks like sixth grade will be drama-free, and her frenemies, Amber and Poppy, will leave her alone this year, making school more fun—but Lottie’s life never quite works out as expected. As Molly drifts toward a friendship with Amber, Lottie is left feeling sad and confused. On top of all this, there’s the arrival of new baby sister Bella; annoying younger brother Toby is acting, well, annoying; and her parents are too exhausted to help her much at all. Can Lottie navigate tween friendships, a crush, and self-doubt? Lottie’s hilariously rambling digressions go hand in hand with her endearing self-deprecation and heartwarming revelations about family, friends, and life. Through her witty diary entries, complete with playful stick-figure illustrations and doodles, Lottie offers a relatable perspective on life’s ups and downs, encouraging readers to navigate change and be authentic without ever devolving into a lecture. Most characters

Kurpiel, Sarah | Rocky Pond Books/ Penguin (40 pp.) | $18.99 March 17, 2026 | 9780593697689

A child processes loss and embraces renewal when a beloved backyard oak must be removed.

The tree has been a constant companion—whispering in spring, whooshing in summer, cackling and crunching in fall, and whistling in winter. But when the old oak begins creaking ominously, an arborist determines, “It’s time.” The young narrator’s parents nod knowingly, but the little one hasn’t prepared for this goodbye. As a crane dismantles the tree branch by branch, the family presses leaves to preserve memories.

After, the yard feels eerily quiet— until weeds sprout between the woodchips “like the start of a new idea.” The family plants a butterfly garden and a sapling, with the protagonist promising to watch over the young tree as the old one once watched over the child. Kurpiel’s narrative is spare and straightforward, leaning heavily on sensory language to convey the tree’s seasonal transformations. The family is rendered warmly in mixed-media illustrations—pencil sketches layered with digital dry media and watercolor brushes. Soft, rounded shapes create a comforting visual rhythm, while warm earth tones and cool blues establish emotional resonance.

A standout spread bathes the empty yard in deep blue evening light, fireflies glowing against the ghostly outline of what once was. The compositions showing the tree’s gradual reduction use swirling circles effectively to represent time’s K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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passage. The protagonist is paleskinned and dark-haired; the family appears to be mixed race.

A soothing, uncomplicated meditation on nature’s cycles and letting go.

(Picture book. 4-8)

Table Titans Club: Sneak Attack Kurtz, Scott | Colors by Steve Hamaker Holiday House (224 pp.) | $22.99 March 10, 2026 | 9780823453177 Series: Table Titans Club, 2

At their live-­ action role-­ playing camp, will two feuding gamers pause their hostilities when one member sights a troll?

Attending Camp Owlcare with all five Table Titans gamers thrills Valeria, but it isn’t as exciting for Titans newcomer Kate, who’s furious with Alan for an in-game incident that crushed her feelings. Confident that he’s justified in his actions, Alan apparently doesn’t care how much he hurt Kate. The emotional fallout of their feud leaks into every camp activity—centaur archery, a merfolk swimming race, and more—despite their friends’ trying to broker peace.

Val just wants everyone to have fun—and for them to help her track down the legendary camp troll she knows she saw eating food from a dumpster. Alan and Kate’s feud illustrates how deeply gamers feel about their characters and their quests, but it also goes on for too long, bringing down the fun summer camp vibe and overshadowing other interesting and quirky characters and storylines, including Kate and Val’s up-and-down friendship. The colorful, cartoonlike artwork effortlessly builds both the camp world and the scenes of game worlds. The camp itself may disappoint readers who are gamers, offering mostly rebranded traditional camp activities rather than actual LARPing. Fans of the series, though, K IR KU S R E V IE W S

will jump right into this second volume. Most characters are lightskinned and appear white.

Brown-skinned Darius presents Black.

An action-packed if slightly unbalanced foray into a gaming summer camp. (illustrated guide to the cast) (Graphic fiction. 9-12)

Kirkus Star

The Lionharts Lawrence, Mike | Abrams Fanfare (240 pp.) | $24.99 | March 3, 2026 9781419759963 | Series: The Lionharts, 1

In this series opener, an adventuring family goes on a perilous journey that leads to multiple revelations.

In the town of Smudge, the Lionharts run a for-hire family questing business.

Mom’s parents, sword-wielding Grammy and wizard Baba, are retired, so Mom and Dad do the heavy lifting.

Determined, sensitive Alder desperately wants to join them, but Mom insists he work the counter, do paperwork, and keep an eye on his sneaky little brother, Flynt. An odd, fancily dressed woman hires the Lionharts to retrieve her treasure, but when Mom and Dad don’t return after a few days, Alder and Flynt set off to find them. Grammy and Baba thankfully follow soon after, as the boys underestimated the potential dangers. The quartet journeys on, encountering a kind troll, mushroom-­ shaped bogmen, dueling ogres, Baba’s elf ex-girlfriend, and a fearsome, trouble-making dragon from Grammy’s past. In this story, family comes first and readers witness healthy relationships and many encouraging moments of good (grand)parenting.

The art is formatted in traditional comic panels that change dynamically to fit the story beats and temporal shifts. The vibrant color palette enhances the line art, which has a

fantastic sense of movement. The family is multiracial: Grammy has brown skin and Afro-textured hair, and Baba and Dad present white.

Readers will finish the book excited for more action that only stops for sweet moments of family bonding.

Engagingly told and beautifully illustrated; sure to appeal to fans of tabletop role-playing games. (map) (Graphic fantasy. 8-13)

The Magic of Someday Soon Lee, Michelle | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (288 pp.) | $18.99 | March 3, 2026 9780374390938

Two girls take bold steps to make their wishes come true.

Zoe September has begun to feel the limitations of traveling with her mother, Morgan, an artist who works with upcycled materials. Her father died when Zoe was four, and she has no memories of him. Lately she’s begun to feel like a ghost who “barely [leaves] a trace” behind. In Maravel, Florida, Thadine “Teddy” Martin is a girl with big ideas and a fear of sinkholes. She wants to save Bobby and Rita—the last remaining metal sculptures from the theme park her great-grandparents created that was dedicated to prehistoric Florida flora and fauna. Pretending to be a city council member, Teddy emails Morgan an invitation to restore the figures.

Maravel is where Zoe’s father grew up; desperately curious to see the place her mother avoids, she replies, impulsively accepting the com­ mission on Morgan’s behalf. Lee seamlessly weaves light strands of fabulism into the threads of the story. Events that build Zoe and Teddy’s friendship seem tinged with magic, and it’s possible some of it emanates from the tea shop belonging to Dee September, the great-grandmother who only met Zoe as a baby. Her special teas evoke JANUARY 1, 2026

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feelings, memories, and sensations.

Sometimes the blends choose their own names, hinting at purpose and meaning. The chapters focus on Zoe and Teddy alternately, evoking sympathy and connection with each girl. The characters read white.

Strong, likable heroes, excellent pacing, and gentle humor. (author’s note) (Fiction. 9-13)

Breathe Deep Leeds, Joanie | Illus. by Bárbara Quintino Barefoot Books (32 pp.) | $16.99 February 10, 2026 | 9798888598979

Community members spending time at the park practice calming techniques.

A family picnicking together, an older caregiver biking with a child, and an adult and a youngster rowing a boat on the water all pause to take deep breaths and center themselves. “Quiet your toes, quiet your feet. / Quiet your legs and just breathe.” “Quiet your neck, unclench your teeth. / Quiet your tongue and just breathe.”

Following these directions, Leeds invites readers to count to 10 twice.

Each set of people practices this exercise, and the format offers young readers an opportunity to try these calming activities; adults looking to help kids calm down in times of stress should find the book useful.

Backmatter includes additional techniques, along with music for an accompanying song (whose lyrics are comprised of the book’s text); a QR code links to a singalong with video animation. Quintino’s bold, brightly colored illustrations have an appealingly scribbly look, as though created by a crayon-wielding youngster. At times it can be difficult to interpret the action, but the expressions on people’s faces offer clues to their emotions.

Useful and simple guidance for helping preschoolers quiet their roiling emotions. (Picture book. 2-5)

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Kirkus Star

Navigating Night Leung, Julie | Illus. by Angie Kang Anne Schwartz/Random (48 pp.) | $18.99 March 10, 2026 | 9780593897690

A child gains poignant insight about family while making Chinese takeout deliveries.

“Baba and I—we navigate it together,” the young, East Asian–presenting narrator explains as father and child “shuttle cardboard trays full of takeout containers from [their] restaurant to the minivan.”

While Baba drives, the child wields a notebook of addresses, a foldout map, and a red pen to ensure the orders reach their hungry clients. Despite compliments—“What a good kid you are”—the protagonist would rather be “a normal kid” instead of Baba’s helper.

But it’s in the darkness that Baba divulges faraway stories of “empty stomachs and worried whispers,” of “find[ing] his way in a new country.”

He confesses, “Before I had you, I would get so lost.” Returning safely to the restaurant means a warm family meal to share. In an author’s note, Leung describes the inspiration for the work: making food deliveries with her own father in the 1990s. Particularly resonant is her observation about the children of immigrants who must often become their parents’ translators, advocates, and navigators. In an illustrator’s note, Kang reveals her own family’s inspiration and how she uses weather—a dark downpour, its dissipation, parting clouds giving way to the shining moon—to affectingly reflect the shifting parent–child relationship. She creates her gorgeous, moody illustrations in gouache, crayon, colored pencil, and pastel. Mature themes concerning immigration, identity, and belonging suggest that older readers might especially appreciate this work.

An impressively realistic, heartfelt exploration of family dynamics and illuminating understanding. (Picture book. 4-10)

Stealing the Score Liu, Sylvia | Scholastic Paperbacks (256 pp.) | $8.99 paper | February 3, 2026 9781546178910

When the chance to win an extravagant World Cup prize package is announced, three 13-year-old superfans in Miami must overcome their rivalries to complete a scavenger hunt—and help their soccer idol when things go wrong.

Chinese American Ethan Yang and his best friend, white-presenting Sasha Ward, can’t believe it.

They just watched their favorite soccer player, the legendary Luis “El Botín” Alamilla, help Vene­ zuela qualify for the World Cup—and then El Botín announced a competition to win a lavish bundle of gifts, including opening ceremony and match tickets and a replica of his seemingly magical cleats. Also vying for the prize is Venezuelan American soccer influencer, Mateo Flores, who seemingly has it all. But when first El Botín’s real boots and then the man himself go missing, the soccer world is sent into a tailspin.

As it turns out, Ethan, Sasha, and Mateo each have a piece of the puzzle, and they must set aside their individual drive to win to work together and save their fútbol hero. Told from the leads’ third-person points of view, the story skillfully weaves together themes of perseverance and the transformative forces of friendship and teamwork to celebrate the unifying power of soccer. Liu carefully explores the pressures and expectations each young teen faces and shows how they persist through their individual challenges and help others who are struggling.

In this charming soccer-themed adventure that combines action with emotional growth, “la magia es real.” (author’s note) (Adventure. 8-12)

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A dreamy, layered work that honors children’s complex emotional landscape.

AN INVISIBLE RIVER TO CROSS

Nisha Knows Best Macias, Maryann Jacob | Illus. by Maithili Joshi | Dial Books (40 pp.) | $19.99 February 10, 2026 | 9781984815552

A shy youngster contends with complicated emotions as relatives descend upon her home.

Nisha’s only interacted with her grandparents Ammamma and Appappa over video chat. Now they’re on their way from Kerala, India. The house is bustling with activity as everyone gets ready for the big visit: Nisha’s aunties prepare samosas in the kitchen, while other relatives arrive laden with gifts. They surround Nisha, giving her loud smooches and big squeezes, squishing her cheeks, and swinging her around. Just as Nisha feels hugged out, her grandparents arrive, and the whole family embraces them, peppering them with questions. When someone prompts Nisha to hug Ammamma and Appappa, she feels overwhelmed and runs to her room. Her mother reassures her; after all, there are many ways to express love. Nisha shows her grandparents the new painting she’s been working on and is soon sitting beside them, truly feeling the love. Macias depicts a boisterous yet empathetic South Asian family whose love for one another is palpable as they give their littlest space to deal with big feelings; speech bubbles conveying Nisha’s relatives’ near-constant stream of chatter contrasts effectively with the child’s quieter inner monologue.

Joshi’s illustrations, rendered in bright saturated primary colors, are filled with movement and energy, balancing joyful scenes of reunion with Nisha’s need for space and quiet.

A thoughtful and tender primer on bodily autonomy. (Picture book. 4-8) K IR KU S R E V IE W S

Chi Miigwech, Big Thank You martá, astra | Illus. by Jordan Stranger Orca (40 pp.) | $21.95 | March 17, 2026 9781459837591

Concise text and bold visuals pair for an explanation of an Anishinaabe expression of gratitude for the tangible and intangible, the seen and unseen.

“Chi miigwech means big thank you,” notes martá. “There is a lot to say chi miigwech for”—for natural wonders like the sun and the moon, for “rocks and minerals and irons and ores,” for living things like winged creatures, bugs, and animals who live in water.

We even say chi miigwech for “sights, sounds, smells and sensations” and the “invisible creatures” (an accompanying image depicts amoebae and other microscopic life-forms). And we give thanks for gifts of the Seven Grandfathers of the Anishinaabe First Nation: “truth, love, honesty, courage, humility, wisdom and respect.” The matter-of-fact text will speak to young readers as Stranger’s arresting, stylized illustrations weave a continuous thread across each page; swirling lines, simple shapes, and flat colors draw the eye and convey movement and energy. His artwork is laden with symbolism; backmatter explains that the sacred principles are represented by animals depicted throughout. One especially strong image—on a page urging readers to give thanks for “the earth and everything in, on, around, above and underneath”—portrays a weeping mother earth with a forest crown surrounded by water and mountains.

Characters vary in skin tone and ability.

A wonderfully reverent exploration of all we have to be thankful for, pitched perfectly for a young audience.

(Picture book. 2-5)

An Invisible River To Cross Matloob, Taraneh | Illus. by Kristen Balouch | Red Comet Press (40 pp.) $19.99 | March 10, 2026 | 9781636551449

A struggling young immigrant finds peace through art.

Afsaneh (called Afsi), a brownskinned youngster with curly hair, was born in a land “far, far away.” Though Afsi’s country of origin is never specified, Afsaneh means “fairy tale” in Persian. Life here is anything but a fairy tale, however—Afsi feels trapped by unfamiliar English words, and learning a new language is like crossing an invisible river “where there is no beginning and no end.”

When the teacher calls Afsi’s name in class, Afsi doesn’t understand and feels shame and rage, pictured in explosive reds. But then a classmate offers colored pencils and paper, and Afsi sees that everyone else is drawing. Afsi calms down while creating a family portrait, and the invisible river hums tranquilly. The protagonist’s intense emotional experiences are given full expression in vivid, lyrical language and metaphor, paired with Balouch’s bright, childlike illustrations that resemble cut-paper collage. A small, expressive dragonlike creature accompanies Afsi, reflecting the youngster’s emotions—breathing fire when Afsi screams in anger and curling up by Afsi’s side as the child draws. Readers unfamiliar with the challenges of learning a language will be enlightened, while those who have been in Afsi’s shoes will feel seen. All will find plenty to ponder and discuss on every spread.

A dreamy and layered work that honors children’s complex emotional landscape. (Picture book. 4-8) JANUARY 1, 2026

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Tales for Budding Fashionistas 3

1 4 2

1 Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds

By Nancy Johnson James; illus. by Diana Ejaita

5

Beautifully crafted and compellingly celebratory.

6

2 Get Dressed!: A Historical Guessing Game for Fashion Lovers

4 What Kind of Shoes Does a Hippopotamus Choose?

These wardrobe doors open up on a world as magical as Narnia: the past.

Entertaining, silly, and stylish fun.

By Katy Canales

3 The Fairy Fashion Show: Ready-To-Read Level 1

By Bea Jackson

An inviting fantasy for fashion-forward beginning readers.

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By Kat Maconie; illus.

by Sebastien Braun

5 André: André Leon Talley― A Fabulously Fashionable Fairy Tale

By Carole Boston Weatherford & Rob Sanders; illus. by Lamont O’Neal

Affirming and important.

6 Clothes To Make You Smile: Patrick Kelly Designs His Dreams

For more booklists, visit Kirkus online.

By Eric Darnell Pritchard; illus. by Shannon Wright

A playful and poignant look at a designer who dressed the world in joy.

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Picture Book by Winnie Harlow Coming in 2026 The model’s Simply Winnie is illustrated

by Sawyer Cloud.

Dimitrios Kambouris/Get t y Images (Harlow); JC Oli vera/ Variet y v ia Get t y Images (Sherman-Palladino)

Model Winnie Harlow will release a children’s picture book this spring, People magazine reports.

Penguin Workshop will publish Harlow’s Simply Winnie, illustrated by Sawyer Cloud. The press calls the book “a vibrant

celebration of self-expression, confidence, and the magic of being unapologetically you.”

Harlow broke through in the modeling world in 2014 after appearing on America’s Next Top Model and becoming a finalist. She has modeled for brands including Desigual, Diesel, Fendi, and Victoria’s Secret. She has publicly spoken about her experiences living with vitiligo, the skin condition she’s had since childhood.

The book will follow Winnie, a “spunky, stylish little girl” who struggles to fit in with her schoolmates. She gets a pep talk from her grandmother, who stresses to her the importance of being herself, no matter what others think of her.

Harlow announced the news of her book on Instagram, writing, “I want children to grow up in a world where diversity representation is the norm, not performative. Where ‘the ugly duckling’ is rewritten simply as ‘The Beautiful Swan.’ Every page of this book is a piece of my heart. Growing up with vitiligo, I often felt misunderstood. I wrote this book for any child who feels different, to remind them not only are they not alone, they’re Seen!”

Simply Winnie is slated for publication on June 2.—M.S.

Amy Sherman-Palladino will direct the film based on the classic children’s book series.

A film adaptation of the popular Eloise series of children’s books is in the works, with director Amy Sherman-Palladino and actor Ryan Reynolds attached, Deadline reports.

The Eloise series, written

by Kay Thompson and illustrated by Hilary Knight, kicked off in 1955 with Eloise, the story of a girl K IR KU S R E V IE W S

who lives in New York’s Plaza Hotel with her nanny and two pets, a pug and a turtle. Four more books followed, most recently Eloise Takes a Bawth, published in 2002, four years after Thompson’s death.

Amy ShermanPalladino

Winnie Harlow

For more celebrity picture books, visit Kirkus online.

Book to Screen New Film Adaptation of Eloise Books in the Works

SEEN AND HEARD

The books formed the basis for two television movies, Eloise at the Plaza and Eloise at Christmastime, both released in 2003. Three years later, an animated series, Eloise, aired for one season on the Starz Kids & Family network.

Sherman-Palladino, creator of the series Gilmore Girls and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, will direct the movie, which she co-wrote with Hannah Marks (Mark, Mary & Some Other People) and Linda Woolverton (Maleficent).

Reynolds (Deadpool) will play the film’s villain, with newcomer Mae Schenk taking on the title role.

Reynolds and Woolverton will be among the film’s producers. Netflix will be the distributor.

Marks shared news of the adaptation on Instagram, writing, “I loved writing this movie over the last two years. Long live The Plaza. I can’t wait to see how Amy Sherman-Palladino & Ryan Reynolds bring it to life.”

—M.S.

For a review of Eloise Takes a Bawth, visit Kirkus online.

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Fairy Door Diaries: Eliza and the Hobgoblins McDonald, Megan | Illus. by Lenny Wen Candlewick (96 pp.) | $17.99 | February 10, 2026 9781536216363 | Series: Fairy Door Diaries, 2

In this second installment in a most charming chapter-book series, Eliza once more walks through the magical fairy door for more adventures.

Eliza should be cleaning her room, but daydreams of fairies fill her head, and when she hears a strange noise from the tiny door under the stairs, she opens it—and is magically whisked through, though this time she finds herself in Goblin Valley. The hobgoblins, small creatures with bumpy green skin and big pointy ears, are agents of joyful chaos, riding wrens through the air, standing on their heads, and pranking one another and Eliza. Responsible Eliza realizes that she still needs to clean her room, but the hobgoblins are on it! Despite her protests, a horde follows her home, wreaking havoc until her room looks even worse than it did before. McDonald again sends her protagonist on a delightful journey enlivened by delectable turns of phrase, character names, and exclamations (“Potato blossoms!” “Peaches and crumbs!”). Wen’s well-placed, luminous illustrations are at their best depicting riotous scenes of the well-meaning but mischievous hobgoblins upending tranquil domestic scenes; readers will eagerly follow Eliza wherever her magical door takes her next. Eliza presents East Asian.

More enchanting fun.

(Early chapter book. 5-8)

Brave New Ballet: The Story of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo McGrath, Robyn | Illus. by Alexander Mostov | Penguin Workshop (32 pp.) $18.99 | March 3, 2026 | 9798217049370

A groundbreaking troupe takes center stage in this empowering true story.

In 1970s New York, ballet dancers defied convention by founding an all-male company where performers donned tutus and pointe shoes to dance both traditionally male and female roles.

McGrath chronicles the formation of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo with infectious enthusiasm, celebrating these artists who merged technical precision and irreverent comedy. The narrative pulses with determination as dancers endure blisters, skeptical critics, and jeering audiences while perfecting their craft. Mostov’s illustrations, created with pencil, paper, and Procreate, employ arresting compositional choices that amplify the story’s themes of courage and self-expression. Large, dynamic figures diverse in skin tone dominate the pages, as do rich purples and pinks, colors traditionally associated with femininity. With facial hair and hairy legs on full display, these performers celebrate their authentic selves rather than attempt to conceal them—an effective visual metaphor for the company’s revolutionary ethos. Angular shapes create tension during scenes of struggle, while curved, flowing bodies in tutus convey grace and liberation.

The backmatter—including a history section, an author’s note about McGrath’s personal connection to the Trocks, and resources for further

Readers will eagerly follow Eliza wherever her magical door takes her next.

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exploration—enriches the narrative by contextualizing the company within the broader LGBTQ+ rights movement.

This dazzling tribute to artistic bravery deserves applause; readers will leave inspired to leap boldly toward their dreams. (Informational picture book. 7-10)

How Do You Earn?

McLeod, Cinders | Nancy Paulsen Books (32 pp.) | $18.99 | January 27, 2026 9780593529669 | Series: Moneybunny

An artistic bunny turns creativity into carrot currency.

Toonie’s big sister Bun earns carrots (the money of rabbits) by singing. Toonie, a painter, has talent, too, and shows off an array of tools, from differently shaped brushes to paint colors, easel, and paper. Toonie sells six paintings for a carrot apiece, making sure to add up the week’s sales. McLeod’s artwork charms through her wide-eyed bunnies and Toonie’s art gallery, complete with handmade price tags, with local customers dropping in to make purchases. The text combines childlike print and cursive, conveying Toonie’s youth and exuberance in curved k’s, d’s, p’s, and t’s. Though the message— there’s nothing more fun than earning by doing what you love—is laudable, the narrative is light on tension or conflict; Toonie never expresses any uncertainty about the endeavor, and the paintings all sell quickly. Nor does McLeod offer any concrete lessons in financial literacy or in math; the book contains a single instance of Toonie adding up sales, but, despite the title, readers won’t learn much about earning or starting a business, especially compared with previous titles in the series. Younger readers may also be confused as to why Toonie’s so excited to earn—some practical examples of the bunny spending the hard-earned carrots might have helped demonstrate the intended message.

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An affectingly gentle immigration story set against a pitiless backdrop.

ROSE BY THE SEA

Sweet, but light on financial lessons.

(Picture book. 4-8)

Lulu Didn’t Want a Dog Molk, Laurel | Random House Studio (40 pp.) $18.99 | March 17, 2026 | 9780593709085

Lulu the cat is less than thrilled about the new addition to her household: a rescue dog.

Lulu lives a comfortable life. She likes her human, her routine, and her solitude. She has no interest in an animal companion, especially a dog—everyone knows they’re “loud and rude.” But her human brings home slobbery, playful Gus anyway. Lulu tries to give him the benefit of the doubt, but the big canine makes endless messes and follows Lulu everywhere. One day, when Lulu tries to get away from him, she finds herself in peril. Thankfully, happy-go-lucky Gus rescues her, and Lulu decides maybe he’s not so bad after all. Animal aficionados will revel in the antics of this odd couple pairing that display traits commonly attributed to their species—Lulu is judgy and particular; Gus is cheerful and lovably chaotic. In Molk’s lively illustrations, the animals’ facial expressions and body language add to the humor, while the human, only ever displayed from waist down, emphasizes Lulu’s feline vantage point. On a deeper level, this story will speak to young readers adapting to a life change, especially those dealing with complicated sibling relationships. The cozy ending provides comfort and hope.

A funny and meaningful animal tale.

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Kirkus Star

Rose by the Sea: An Armenian Journey of Courage and Hope Mooradian, Rebecca Rose | Illus. by Myo Yim | Atheneum (48 pp.) | $19.99 March 3, 2026 | 9781665944137

Having lost their parents in the Armenian genocide, two sisters must make their way to safety.

“Rose is the flower by our kitchen door…Rose is what my parents call me, too: Dzovinar, their rose by the sea.” So begins this poignant immigration story that uses colors as touchstones—a masterly metaphor that makes a devastating history comprehensible to a young audience. “Brown is the soldier’s boot print on our front door” introduces a section on Rose’s parents’ abduction. Black is “the night we cross the desert” and the color of Rose’s father’s warm coat, which she wears to remind herself of him. Gray is “the house at the edge of Adiyaman,” where a Turkish woman hides the sisters, making it possible for the girls to catch a boat to Marseilles and eventually reach America, where they “paint [their] front door rose, for me and the home we left behind.” In her author’s note, Mooradian briefly discusses the Armenian genocide (1915-1917) and reveals that the book is based on her great-grandmother’s journey.

Her choice to omit this information from the main text was a sound one; by skipping historical particulars and dates, this tale of perseverance and abiding humanity takes on a timeless aspect. Yim’s painterly art reflects Rose’s color references and brightens

with the girls’ prospects, although the richest illustrations pointedly and poignantly incorporate gloomier hues, reflecting Rose’s determination to remember her past.

An affectingly gentle immigration story set against a pitiless backdrop. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-8)

The Blue Dress Morrison, Rebecca | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (272 pp.) | $18.99 | March 24, 2026 9780374393601

A young teen navigates social pressures and a complicated relationship with her mother.

Since puberty, creative 13-yearold chess player Yasmin Safavi’s body has changed in disorienting ways.

A year ago, her family moved from Iran to Ashbury Falls, Virginia, where she met her bestie, fellow new kid and Mexican immigrant Carmen Aguilar, and developed a crush on the cowboy boot–wearing Jack Westbrook.

Yasmin’s mom wants her to lose weight to fit into the beautiful blue dress she’s making her for Nowruz, the Persian New Year. Maman deliberately made it too small—and she increases the pressure when Yasmin instead grows heavier. Yasmin tries skipping dinner, and after bingeing on what her mom labels “bad foods,” she makes herself throw up, leaving her feeling “ugly, broken, sad.” Longing to fit in with the popular girls and be noticed by Jack, she straightens her curly hair, plucks her thick eyebrows, and drifts away from Carmen. Yasmin also experiences racist bullying and confronts questions of identity, friendship, and self-respect.

Along the way, a difficult but loving relationship with her mother evolves.

Debut author Morrison, who emigrated from Iran as a child, honestly examines disordered eating resulting from peer and familial pressures in graphic detail, pulling from her own relationships with her mother and body JANUARY 1, 2026

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image. She also thoughtfully develops Yasmin’s and Carmen’s backgrounds, cultivating an understanding of each girl’s immigration experiences.

A raw and vulnerable exploration of widely relevant and resonant themes.

(Fiction. 10-14)

I Am My Name: A Girl’s Journey to Finding Her Cree Family Na’kuset & Judith Henderson | Illus. by Onedove | Knopf (40 pp.) | $19.99 October 14, 2025 | 9780593648766

A Cree child struggles with complex emotions stemming from her adoption in this debut picture book about co-author Na’kuset’s life.

Na’kuset recounts her forcible removal from her community during a period known as the Sixties Scoop, when the Canadian government enacted policies taking Indigenous children from their families and placing them in non-Native households. The authors rely on elegant figurative language that may require clarification from adults; for instance, when Na’kuset is kidnapped at age 3, “Flashlight people… / “[lift] us. Like feathers.” “Plucked like tiny trees / from our roots,” she and her sister are separated, and Na’kuset is sent to live with a white Jewish family. Though she grows to love her parents, they shut her down when she asserts her Cree identity. But Bubbie, her loving adoptive grandmother, gives her the strength to survive childhood and eventually reunite with her older sister. Her adoptive parents’ erasure of her true name is a source of pain; an Elder later gives her the Spirit name Na’kuset, which means sun in Mi’kmaq.

Realistic artwork by Cree and Métis

illustrator Onedove deftly conveys mood—Na’kuset’s tranquil suburban home has an unnerving feeling, while natural settings have a healing quality.

Though the pacing is choppy, the conclusion is uplifting; this is a gentle introduction to a historical injustice that still reverberates.

A poignant and important history told with dignity and fortitude. (creators’ notes) (Picture-book biography. 5-9)

Kirkus Star

Chernobyl, Life, and Other Disasters Nayberg, Yevgenia | Neal Porter/Holiday House (144 pp.) | $24.99 | April 14, 2025 9780823460588

Nayberg revisits her 1980s Soviet childhood in Kyiv, detailing how a nuclear disaster and daily indignities shaped her coming-of-age as an artist.

It’s 1986, and 11-year-old Genya has finally grown a long braid and dreams of attending art school and the Chernobyl reactor explodes. Nayberg peppers her deeply personal narrative with vivid historical details that immerse readers in her world: the Volga River contaminated by wartime bomb craters, the unofficial quota limiting Jewish students like Genya’s enrollment at art school, government surveillance forcing the people to keep their phone conversations deliberately vague, official radio transmissions insisting that “the situation is under control” even as families panic in private. Nayberg’s watercolor and collage art brilliantly mirrors Genya’s emotional landscape—varied panel

Utterly unforgettable, achingly honest, and spectacularly crafted.

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layouts with muted earth tones and expressive faces capture her day-to-day life navigating school, family, and friendships, while scratchy, anxious black compositions mark moments of conflict; a hopeful double-page cityscape in luminous oranges and pinks offers a stunning visual pause that suggests possibility beyond Genya’s current constraints. Nayberg’s depictions of her mother—alternately manipulative, uncaring, or fiercely protective—and of friend dynamics feel wholly authentic, while the portrayal of Soviet-era antisemitism, environmental catastrophe, and casual cruelties never overwhelms the intimate story of a girl finding her voice through art amid chaos.

An utterly unforgettable, achingly honest, and spectacularly crafted graphic memoir. (author’s note) (Graphic memoir. 10-14)

Hazel’s Best Day: A Story of Community, Accessibility, and Pride in Being Yourself Nelson, Adiba | Illus. by DeAnn Wiley Feiwel & Friends (32 pp.) | $18.99 March 24, 2026 | 9781250329028

A child attends a Disability Pride parade.

Today, Hazel tells readers, “I get to wear my sparkliest, coolest gear.” Mama adorns Hazel’s locs with red, green, yellow, blue, and white yarn, Mama and Pop-Pop decorate Hazel’s power wheelchair with sequins and streamers, and Hazel dons disco-ball forearm crutches and matching leg braces, and tight zebra-print socks that keep “wiggly” bones in place. En route to the parade, Hazel and family meet disabled friends and neighbors and learn about their city’s accessibility features. For instance, a dip in the curb enables Mr. and Mrs. Price, who use a wheelchair and a walker, respectively, to access the sidewalk.

Audible crossing signals help blind folks like Malik cross the street; bus K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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ramps help not only wheelchair users, but people pushing carts and strollers.

At the parade, signs proclaim “Disabled lives matter” and “PROUD TO BE ME, I HAVE AN IEP”—just like Hazel! Marchers use myriad mobility aids, service dogs, and communication devices, wheelchair dancers dance, and a singer signs. “It’s fantabulous to see so many people with different disabilities loving and celebrating with each other!” Matching Nelson’s enthusiastic text, Wiley’s bright, exuberant cut-paper illustrations depict a proud disabled community with an array of skin tones. An author’s note explains that Hazel is based on Nelson’s daughter; discussion questions invite readers to consider whether their own communities are accessible. Hazel, Mama, and Pop-Pop are Black.

Upbeat and informative.

(Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Star

The Animals Speak: The Lakota Way (Wamákashkaŋ’iya: Lakhól Wichóh’aŋ Kiŋ)

LAUGHTER are good for our hearts.”

Other creatures bring peril: Nelson warns readers not to be led astray by trickster Coyote’s jokes and to avoid Spider’s sticky web (“He reminds us that there may be DANGERS on the path ahead”). Clear, succinct text lists the Lakota name for each creature while acknowledging our unique relationship with the animal world.

Nelson’s simple rhythmic words pair brilliantly with his muted, impressionistic illustrations, which rely on crayonlike shading and expressive shapes, lines, and color. Bold and eye-catching, his compositions are rife with details to reward careful readers.

His joyful work preserves Lakota language for young people while planting seeds of kindness and empathy. Goodhouse (Standing Rock Sioux) provides the translation for the Lakota words used throughout.

A masterful must-read for young readers navigating their world. (author’s note) (Picture book. 6-10)

Kirkus Star

Goldfinches

Nelson, S.D. | Trans. by Dakota Goodhouse Abrams (48 pp.) | $18.99 | March 17, 2026 9781419764448

Oliver, Mary | Illus. by Melissa Sweet Viking (40 pp.) | $18.99 | March 3, 2026 9780593692417

A stunningly illustrated tale that does double duty as a primer on animal names and guidance on how to lead a good life.

Focusing on the profound connection between people and the natural world, Nelson (Hunkpapa Lakota) speaks lovingly to the ancestral knowledge we can glean from “the wild ones,” from “the Four-Leggeds and the Winged beings” to “the little Creepy-crawlies, the Water beings, and the Green, Growing Things.” Raven teaches us “to LISTEN and MAKE WISE CHOICES”; Mother Bear shows us how to “walk with STRENGTH and PROTECT those who are smaller and weaker.” Playful Otter shows us that “SMILES and

The Pulitzer Prize–winning poet’s tribute to the relationship between goldfinches and thistles finds new life in picture-book form.

In languorously unfolding phrases, Oliver, who died in 2019, notes that the birds wait all summer for the thistle flowers to disseminate their seeds. The finches then use the fluffy, silky pappus—which, attached to the seeds, helps them disperse in the wind—to line their nests, while the seeds themselves feed both parents and young. Sweet ingeniously nestles hand-lettered finch facts into spreads that teem with vibrant color charts keyed to the poem’s imagery. She depicts the poet as a young woman,

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wandering fields and woods, notebook at hand and trailed by a dog, as a diverse group of birdwatchers look on.

Using vintage papers, old maps, and photographed objects including a nest, the artist subdivides her layered compositions into multiple rectangles, inviting close observation and delighted discovery, while reserving plenty of airy space for Oliver’s poem to shine. Sweet’s palette, rich in pinks and yellows, derives from the bright plumage of male goldfinches and the brilliance of flowering thistles, “each bud / a settlement of riches— / a coin of reddish fire.” Oliver concludes: “Is it necessary to say any more? / Have you heard them singing in the wind…? // Have you ever been so happy in your life?”

A superlative union of verse and visual art. (text of poem, Oliver’s handwritten bird list, illustrator’s note, quote from Oliver, sources) (Picture book/ poetry. 5-9)

Picture Perfect Patel, Serena | Illus. by Louise Forshaw Union Square Kids (88 pp.) | $8.99 paper January 13, 2026 | 9781454962755

Sonal Gupta struggles to take a perfect family photo for a school project.

Despite Sonal’s efforts, however, no one has time for a photo: Sonal’s parents are busy on their phones, her older sister is glued to her laptop, her younger brother is engrossed in video games, and their energetic puppy, Jalebi, is bounding about. Seeing Sonal slumped in defeat, Sonal’s grandfather steps up to announce a camping trip.

The weekend will be an opportunity for a digital detox—maybe they can even get some good photos. Unfortunately, their tent rips and is too small to fit them all, and overnight rain leaves them all grumpy. To top it off, Sonal bumps into her classmate Dina, whose family seems effortlessly flawless, as JANUARY 1, 2026

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chronicled on Instagram. But as Jalebi gets into shenanigans, Sonal’s family bands together to corral the pup, reconnect, and perhaps even snap a perfectly imperfect picture. Straightforward, dialogue-heavy storytelling, the use of a dyslexia-friendly font and paper, and frequent illustrations make for an engaging tale ideal for reluctant readers. The story moves at a fast pace, and while the ending is a bit rushed, Sonal’s realizations that carefully curated online content isn’t always accurate and that every family has its share of messy moments will resonate.

Sonal and her family are of Indian descent; Dina appears white.

A lighthearted reminder to relax, unplug, and make time for family fun.

(Fiction. 8-12)

The Girl Who Changed Little League: The True Story of Maria Pepe and Her Battle To Play Ball Pepe, Maria & Jean L.S. Patrick | Illus. by Sarah Green | Christy Ottaviano Books (48 pp.) | $18.99 | March 3, 2026 9780316464239

Pepe tells the story of how she stepped up to the plate at a time when Little League was strictly for boys.

Eleven-year-old Maria played baseball every day after school. Though girls were barred from Little League in 1972 New Jersey, she tried out for the team anyway and was awarded a spot. Despite Maria’s excellent pitching, Little League headquarters threatened to revoke Hoboken’s league charter if they let her play. She was devastated at having to turn in her jersey, but her fight wasn’t over. The National Organization for Women suggested that they take Maria’s case to court. For better or worse, Maria became a household name, featured on TV and in the papers. When the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights finally heard Maria’s case two years later, the verdict was clear: Girls must be allowed to play.

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At 13 years old, Maria was now too old for Little League, but she was proud to have helped open the door for so many girls who would follow. Green’s colorful digital gouache illustrations are pleasing, though they generally reflect the text rather than building upon it. Two spreads are presented sideways, a formatting choice that makes the text a little challenging to read, though Maria’s inspiring story—told in her own words—shines through. Maria is white; many of the professional players she idolizes are Black.

The empowering story of a girl who changed the game and opened the field for all. (authors’ notes, note from Dr. Judith Weis of the National Organization for Women, a history of girls in baseball, a history of Title IX, photographs) (Picture-book biography. 5-7)

Kirkus Star

We Can Hear Without Ears: And Other Things You Didn’t Know We Plants Could Do Peters, Lisa Westberg | Illus. by Danielle Ridolfi | Astra Young Readers (32 pp.) $18.99 | April 7, 2026 | 9781635927337

Without plants none of us would survive.

“You think we plants do nothing—just stand around all day with our roots stuck in the ground. We’re like green lampposts, right? Well! We’d like to set a few things straight.” Speaking on behalf of tulips and sunflowers, willows and pine trees, the carnivorous Venus flytrap, and more, a chatty, slightly sarcastic collective narrator argues that plants are crucial. They address their complaints to a variety of creatures from mice and lizards to seagulls and gardeners. Along the way, they declare that “making food is our superpower” and that they can block enemy insects with sap and, in the case of the tomato plant, release a chemical to attract a wasp to eat a caterpillar munching on its leaves: “Those tomato plants are like a dinner bell. Ding, ding, ding! Come

and get it!” They explain the symbiotic relationship between plants and fungi and how they communicate to help one another out in times of distress. An enchanting mix of whimsy and well-delivered facts, Peters’ portrait of community and cooperation among plants offers a model for us “nonplants” to consider if we, too, want a successful future, from being more attentive to our surroundings to using more renewable energy. Ridolfi’s enticing mixed-media collages blend earthy, energetic botanical sketches with woodblock-style prints to depict a variety of landscapes showcasing plant power.

A delightful, humorous journey that will have youngsters regarding flora with a newfound respect. (more information on plants) (Informational picture book. 5-9)

Big Jim Believes Pilkey, Dav | Graphix/Scholastic (224 pp.) | $15.99 | November 11, 2025 9781546176183 | Series: Dog Man, 14

Following his debut in Big Jim Begins (2024), the sunnily optimistic purple cat returns to demonstrate the power of positive thinking, despite the best efforts of his misanthropic cellmate, Grampa.

“Just because you believe something doesn’t make it TRUE!!!” snarls Grampa, to which the unfailingly cheerful Big Jim replies, “It does for me.” Once again, Pilkey positions the two cats in comedic counterpoint, using Grampa’s determined negativity to throw into relief Big Jim’s unwavering faith that even “bad luck [can be] a GOOD THING!!!” This is a Dog Man story, and Pilkey accordingly conveys Big Jim’s truth via a madcap plot that finds Big Jim, Grampa, Dog Man, Li’l Petey, Molly the psychokinetic tadpole, and robot 80-HD defending the world against the latest incursion of the terrifying Space Cuties from Space. The mayhem K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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includes some truly inspired Flip-ORamas, raining cupcakes, and a fight scene that plays out to lyrics including, “On the First Epic Smackdown…the Cuties gave to me…A punch in my tummy tum-tum” (sung to the tune of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and no doubt soon to be heard on playgrounds everywhere). Pilkey has by now polished his formula, which embeds nuggets of genuinely sweet philosophy in carefully constructed storylines that come across as gleefully anarchic. This outing hits every note, and despite Grampa’s scornful “WHOOP-DEE-DOO,” readers should emerge with an appreciation of Big Jim’s earnest conviction that “it’s about believing in the cupcakes.”

Classic Pilkey. (cast of characters, notes, drawing tips) (Graphic fiction. 8-12)

Mr. Kuroki’s Garden Renaud, Anne | Illus. by Ohara Hale Crocodile/Interlink (40 pp.) | $18.95 December 2, 2025 | 9781623715755

Love and hope can bloom anywhere.

Mr. and Mrs. Kuroki, two Japanese farmers, care for their cows and family on lush green hills. They dream of traveling the world, learning new languages and traditions. But time passes, and Mrs. Kuroki becomes ill, losing her eyesight. “Her world had become small. Her world had become night”—poignant words followed by a montage of Mrs. Kuroki growing smaller, grayer, and eventually invisible. Despite her husband’s efforts to keep her from disappearing, their aspirations of globetrotting have changed forever.

But bright pink endpapers foreshadow his thoughtful solution to this heartbreaking problem. Mr. Kuroki plants rose-colored shibazakura, or moss phlox, which thrives and spreads across the hills, and he creates paths and benches so Mrs. Kuroki can visit the garden. When people from all over the world come K IR KU S R E V IE W S

to see this incredible garden, bringing with them their languages, cultures, and traditions, Mrs. Kuroki at last smiles and comes back to life.

Renaud employs spare prose for a simple and elegant account of actual events, told with permission from the real-life Mr. Kuroki. Hale’s evocative illustrations use pencil lines and watercolor washes of primarily greens, yellows, and pinks to take readers on the Kurokis’ emotional journey, alternating between quieter spreads of whites and pinks and vibrant displays of vivid garden blooms and a cultural collage of world traditions.

A timeless tale of connection, love, and hope. (author’s note) (Picture book. 4-7)

Construction Site: Dad and His Crew Power Through!

Rinker, Sherri Duskey | Illus. by AG Ford Chronicle Books (32 pp.) | $12.99 April 28, 2026 | 9781797238500 | Series: Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site

This firm but caring dad leads by example.

Before sunrise, five small, blanket-draped skids awaken, “ready for some big, LOUD fun!”

Slower to rouse, Big Loader “s-t-r-e-tc-h-e-s in slow motion, / awakened by the skid commotion!” He checks the little ones’ tires and ensures they’re fueled up and each fitted with different attachments. All are destined to “dig and move 500 tons!”

Their project is unspecified, but the big guy is there to oversee it all, patiently showing the others how to work safely and efficiently. He’s proud to see the little ones “learn how to pull their weight, / to share, and to cooperate”—after all, “teamwork makes a family.” By day’s end, the skids still aren’t sleepy; they’d rather play! As night falls, Big Loader tucks the little ones in under their blankets, with a couple clutching stuffies, before turning in

himself. The narrator lovingly pays tribute to this “great machine, so kind and smart.” While references to parenthood are limited to the book’s title, it takes no interpretive skill to see Big Loader as a father figure, and Ford’s tender illustrations invest the yellow steel vehicle with the maximum warmth possible. Elegantly composed yet utterly sweet, his visuals once more pair beautifully with Rinker’s sparkling verse, conveying tender emotion while also offering plenty of details for those youngsters who can’t get enough of construction machinery.

A moving tale for vehicle lovers to share on Father’s Day—and beyond.

(Picture book. 3-6)

Construction Site: Firefight!

Rinker, Sherri Duskey | Illus. by AG Ford | Chronicle Books (44 pp.) | $18.99 | April 28, 2026 | 9781797226590 | Series: Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site

The Construction Site vehicles fight fire—with a little help from their friends.

Under a beaut­i ful evening sky, machines sleep peacefully. Suddenly a powerful windstorm arrives, causing a fuel leak and blowing down power lines.

Fire quickly flares. Help arrives, but even the Fire Department’s “big hero trucks” need some assistance— and luckily, the construction crew is happy to oblige, with Bulldozer plowing the entry gate so the newcomers can enter and Cement Mixer lighting the way. Alarms scream, and smoke fills the air.

Command Vehicle, Pumper (ably assisted by tiny Skid), Ladder Truck, and others each do their part, and once the fire is under control, Bulldozer, Crane, and Dump Truck remove flammable items and work to clean up and rebuild. As the smoke clears and “they see each other, safe and sound,” the unseen narrator JANUARY 1, 2026

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emphasizes a crucial point—“What matters is: We’re all okay.” In a calm reprise of the start, a tranquil night ends a tough day. Rinker’s rhythmic verse ramps up the drama during tense moments, while Ford’s warm, familiar artwork is even more striking than usual; the deep-blue night sky contrasts with orange flames and crimson trucks, and the anthropomorphic vehicles gaze in fear. But author and illustrator make clear that even amid disaster, collaboration and perseverance win the day—a message reiterated by a quick note describing how firefighters work together in real life.

Gripping, thrilling, and even scary at times, but ultimately reassuring. (fire safety tips) (Picture book. 3-5)

Let’s Camp!

Rotner, Shelley | Millbrook/Lerner (32 pp.) $31.99 | PLB | March 3, 2026 | 9798765670477

Guidance on enjoying the great outdoors.

Rotner relies on simple sentences and high-interest photos as she leads early readers on a fun trip through the woods. Step-by-step guidance on packing, exploring, and prepping for a night in a tent will prove useful to those who have a real campout planned. Her engaging text is structured to support vocabulary and literacy growth. Camping-themed verbs are easy to identify and emphasized throughout with enlarged text: “We RELAX, SNACK, and PLAY games at our campsite.” Showcasing an array of kids diverse in race and age, Rotner’s bright, clear photo collages and spreads have a candid feel that will help children make connections to their world; images of sleeping bags, tents, and kayaks show the gear that readers might make use of, while close-ups of a snake and a salamander are examples of wildlife they might encounter. Information—both in the main text and the backmatter—is presented in language that’s easy for 122

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Camping made simple and fun.

LET’S CAMP!

young people to understand. The book ends with tips for packing as well as safety and campground guidelines, suggestions for campsite activities, and a recipe for s’mores.

Camping made simple and fun.

(Informational picture book. 3-8)

Hafsa’s Way Saeed, Aisha | Nancy Paulsen Books (224 pp.) $17.99 | March 10, 2026 | 9780593529379

A young Pakistani girl harbors big dreams.

Aspiring doctor Hafsa secretly applies to the Bukhari Summer Science Camp for girls. Her enthusiasm over being accepted is tempered by the exorbitant fees and her conservative parents’ objections. Hafsa has a stroke of good luck when her brother-in-law offers to cover her expenses, and her sister suggests she stay in their home in Lahore, near the camp. Hafsa is disappointed to learn this year’s program is about climate change; the medical course will take place the following summer. At home, she notices her sister being roped into working on the family’s charity project at the cost of her own aspirations. At camp, she feels like an outsider when other girls mock her rural background. A brief encounter with a local zoo elephant sparks events that threaten Hafsa’s resolve, but she puts aside her fears and channels her learning into action.

This companion to Amal Unbound (2018) and Omar Rising (2022) highlights challenges that girls face in traditional households. Hafsa’s persistence and advocacy help her overcome her insecurities, and meaningful interactions create

moments of introspection and understanding. Inspired by a real-life story from the Islamabad Zoo, this is a timely story. Readers familiar with the setting may find some elements seem framed in ways that accommodate Western readers, but the story nevertheless effectively blends climate change, wildlife conservation, and the tug of cultural expectations.

An inspiring story showing the power of one person’s voice to make a difference. (author’s note, resources) (Fiction. 9-13)

Now You Know Your ABCs (Or Do You?) Salmon, Caspar | Illus. by Matt Hunt Nosy Crow (32 pp.) | $18.99 April 7, 2026 | 9798887772240

In a twist on the traditional ABC book, Salmon and Hunt lead readers on a goofy romp.

The unseen narrator of this “handy new book” offers to help youngsters learn the alphabet. “A is for… apple. Say it with me!” But don’t be fooled by the primary-colored illustrations or straightforward start—suddenly, “D is for…DANGER!” A mischievous wolf pulls readers into an interactive alphabet adventure. From A to Z, youngsters must evade the wolf on a chase that takes them to France, to a treehouse, on a magic carpet ride, and beyond. Salmon models his work after typical ABC books, infusing his entries with plenty of absurd fun: “K is for…

KEY! Which doesn’t help you, because you don’t have one.” Like the creators’ How To Count to ONE (2022), a deceivingly simple concept book transforms into a hilarious, slightly nonsensical affair that will get young readers thinking creatively about the alphabet. The second-person text is K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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immersive and engaging, while Hunt’s bright illustrations are well laid out, packed with curious details and a stalking wolf. What’s more, many of the ABC words highlight each letter’s phoneme appropriately and give opportunities for youngsters to listen out for letter sounds. Tons of opportunities for read-aloud flair abound here; pick this one up if you’re looking for belly laughs with preschoolers, kindergarteners, or listeners already well versed in their ABCs. An engaging refresh of a traditional concept book that brings the silliness without sacrificing critical thinking.

(Picture book. 4-8)

Home Is a Door We Carry

cutouts, and collaging with childlike simplicity. Writing in unadorned prose, he captures the ubiquitous plight of children fleeing natural disasters, socioeconomic uncertainty, political upheaval, and—far too often—war.

Fifty million kids, he notes, were displaced in 2024; kindness, he reminds us, can create welcoming safety. Both children here have light skin, but other characters are diverse.

Deftly captures the challenging uncertainty of leaving home and the eventual hope of belonging.

(Picture book. 4-8)

The Colorful World of Reptiles

Satüpo, Constantin | Yonder (52 pp.) $19.95 | April 7, 2026 | 9781632064219

Sewell, Matt | Princeton Architectural Press (96 pp.) | $19.99 | April 14, 2026 9781797238432

Two youngsters yearn for the familiar comforts of their respective left-behind homes.

Somewhere in the world, two children, each accompanied by their adult, have “been traveling for a long time—by car, by train, by bus, by ship.” The red-hooded child recalls “a little red house with a garden around it,” while the youngster wearing red glasses remembers a big house “with many doors and many windows.” Both “miss [their] home so much.” Their loss and longing are visceral, and the protagonists imbue their faraway homes with their own emotions—fear, loneliness, hurt—while imagining their houses as moving, living creatures, both sanctuary and protector. Nurturing care is mutual, and the children vow to provide ice for bruises and bandages for any scratches their houses may suffer during flight. As their journeys overlap, “when we reach a safe place,” the children hope to be “neighbors… [to] make a new home together.” Moscow-born author/artist Satüpo, who now lives in Berlin, creates vibrant spreads, favoring earthy tones, combining naïve drawings with textured

A rollicking revue of the cold-blooded clan, from the “fun-size” dwarf crocodile to the king cobra—a “boss-level video-­ game baddy.”

“Ready to croc and roll?” Taking on the role of jovial tour guide, Sewell follows up The Colorful World of Dinosaurs (2018) with a gallery featuring 51 living representatives of the ancient class.

Leading young viewers past lively, expertly painted images, he offers glib lines of easily digestible comments on reptilian habits, habitats, and distinctive physical features. He confines visible gore to discreet drops of blood and, a few glimpses of scary teeth aside, depicts most of the creatures with closed, even smiling, maws. Notwithstanding occasional references to, for instance, the bearded dragon’s “nutcracker jaws” or the way a saltwater crocodile “bites through bones like biscuits,” his intent seems more to entertain his audiences than to shock or titillate them. And rather than pose his solitary subjects hunting, chowing down, or even in natural settings, he generally just hangs them at revealing

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angles on blank pages with minimal accessorizing to show off their broad range of sinuous or blocky body types and skin textures and patterns.

A lighthearted once-over, with appealing illustrations.

(Nonfiction. 8-10)

Kirkus Star

Shrinking Violet Snyder, Laurel | Illus. by LeUyen Pham Chronicle Books (56 pp.) | $18.99 March 31, 2026 | 9781797200729

Shrinking Violet must face her anxieties when a friend needs her most.

Violet, who inhabits a “stately castle near the forest by the sea” with her avian pal, is at ease when she’s with Bird, but she becomes overwhelmed by fear whenever he flies off to explore. When Violet is frightened, her body shrinks until she’s nothing but a tiny wisp. One night, she races toward the faraway sound of Bird’s alarmed chirping.

Narrowly escaping an enormous predatory bird, Violet is so terrified that she’s nearly invisible by the time she reaches her injured friend, and the larger bird has returned. But Violet is filled with love, and something magical happens: She grows until she’s taller than even the trees, bursting with courage. Even the book can scarcely contain Violet as her looming form nearly stretches off the page. Once the danger has passed, Violet visualizes favorite things—like warm toast with butter—until she’s just the right size to carry her friend home. The two live “ever after, if not always happily,” with Violet sometimes shrinking, sometimes growing, but always able to look inward and anchor herself. Snyder relies on sweet, quiet text to craft a modern mindfulness fairy tale starring an uncertain yet strong hero. Rendered in Pham’s signature gouache, the pages glow JANUARY 1, 2026

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with lush, saturated blues and purples as pale-skinned, dark-haired Violet trembles, twirls, and ultimately blossoms into pastel rainbows of courage.

Gorgeous and grounding—a gentle guide to outgrowing your fears.

(Picture book. 4-8)

Pirate Academy: Missing at Sea Somper, Justin | Illus. by Teo Skaffa Penguin Workshop (256 pp.) | $9.99 paper | February 17, 2026 | 9798217050451 Series: Pirate Academy, 2

The close-knit members of Pirate Academy’s Year 5 Barracuda Class find friendships and fortitude tested in the second entry in this series that’s set in the 26th century.

The school’s Oceans Bound weekend is designed to test the 15 Barracudas’ “Bravery, Resilience, Observation, Navigation, Teamwork, and general Excellence.” The upcoming challenge is top of mind for Jasmine, Jacoby, Neo, Leif, Cosmo, Ocean, Fergus, Kazuo, Shay, Layla, Lewis, Carmen, Wing, Rose, and Ari—beginning with which students will be appointed captains and who they’ll invite as their crew. Neo, who was revealed to be the son of the famous pirate Captain Doll Darkwater, is haunted by nightmares of his mother’s death. Jacoby is learning to be a better friend, and Jasmine ruminates on her missing parents’ safety and is unsettled by an apparition of her traitorous uncle. Oceans Bound gets underway with deep diving and puzzle solving accompanied by the rallying cry, “Never underestimate a Barracuda!” The hazards are plentiful: snakes, venomous spiders, sharks, sword fights, and more. Everything unfolds at an intensity level that’s exciting but not too much for middle-grade readers to handle. The Barracudas admirably model lessons in friendship and self-reflection. Skaffa’s occasional 124

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full-page illustrations and spot art add to the enjoyment. Diversity of many kinds is casually present, painting a portrait of a world in which these differences are unremarkable. A recap of earlier events make this volume accessible to new fans.

Lively hijinks with brave pirates­in-training. (Pirate Academy matching game, pirate ship activity) (Adventure. 8-12)

The Spider Strikes Spradlin, Michael P. | McElderry (144 pp.) $17.99 | February 24, 2026 | 9781665947268 Series: The Web of the Spider, 3

Things take a turn for a trio of friends enjoying a pleasant stay in a mountain cabin when a squad of Hitler Youth members show up.

Bookending his tale with fictive news stories of an attempted assassination and a bank bombing in the once-peaceful town of Heroldsberg, Spradlin continues to record rising tides of anxiety, violence, and antisemitism in Hitler’s increasingly authoritarian Germany. Young Rolf and narrator Joshua manage with difficulty to pry their friend Ansel from the side of his badly wounded journalist father for a vacation trip to Austria—only to see more signs of poverty and unrest than ever, to be refused service in a store because Joshua is Jewish, and to run into Rolf’s estranged older brother, Romer, a vocal member of Hitler Youth. The prospect of a week in the mountains is appealing but hardly have they settled into their isolated cabin than the arrival of a gang of uniformed hoodlums sent by Romer to harass them touches off an escalating flurry of pranks and counter-­pranks. Ultimately, the incident turns life-threatening, though events here feel less harsh compared with previous volumes. Once more, Spradlin sets the scene effectively with grim depictions of Nazi-era Europe. In previous episodes the author added an “It Could Happen Here” warning that

is absent this time around, but perceptive readers will draw parallels between history and current events.

Ominously topical. (glossary, timeline) (Historical fiction. 11-13)

Mari and the Great Market Swap Springer-Willms, Janelle | Illus. by Juliana Eigner | Barefoot Books (32 pp.) | $17.99 March 24, 2026 | 9798888599020

Every Saturday, a small village market becomes “one big family” for Granny and little Mari.

The “cock-adoodle-dooo” of a nearby rooster means it’s time for the two to leave the lush greenery of their backyard farm and head to the market to sell their freshly grown guavas. The van loaded, Granny drives across the scenic Bajan countryside, careful to avoid potholes as they pass brightly painted homes and sugarcane crops.

Eigner’s digital illustrations create a vibrant and textured effect that makes every detail a pleasure to notice, from brown-skinned Mari’s plaited hair and dotted dress to the green glow of the guavas and the spots on the yellow bananas at the market. Upon arriving, Mari and Granny are met with big smiles. But soon Mari’s friend Wendy arrives with bad news: “A sugarcane truck toppled upside down and blocking up de main road.” Customers won’t be able to make it to the market now.

The two girls’ entrepreneurial instincts kick in as they walk along, selling their wares to all they encounter, but who can compete with “free ‘cane givin’ way up de road”? The market closes early, but Mari proposes a new idea that quickly catches on—trading with one another for what they need. The use of Bajan Creole adds a richly cultural layer to this compelling story that emphasizes the value of the collective as well as the practicality of bartering.

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A charming island tale with a message of community and connection. (author’s and illustrator’s notes, more information about Barbados, markets, and bartering) (Picture book. 4-9)

You Are Now Old Enough To Hear This

that there’s always more to the story leads to a willing suspension of disbelief and a wild ride. Characters largely present white.

Intriguingly bizarre and wholly original. (family trees) (Fiction. 9-13)

When Beavers Move In

Starmer, Aaron | Illus. by Jaime Zollars Penguin Workshop (288 pp.) | $17.99 March 24, 2026 | 9780593751091

Stevens, Alison Pearce | Illus. by Natasha Donovan | Godwin Books (40 pp.) | $18.99 March 10, 2026 | 9781250339447

Family secrets lead to an unexpected quest.

On the day before he turns 12, Roman Barnes wishes for someone who understands him. The next day, a Magic 8 Ball arrives, sent by an unknown person. But every time Roman shakes it, the answer is the same: a resounding “Yes.” When Roman’s Grandpa Henry dies, things get stranger.

Roman tries to make good on his promise to Grandpa Henry not to let the Toe Beast out. As he sorts through his grandfather’s belongings, well-kept family lore emerges—including the origins of the very real Toe Beast. With each story he uncovers, Roman has more questions than answers. When an opportunity to travel through time and uncover the truth presents itself, he thinks he should just stay home, but the Magic 8 Ball finally gives a different message: “No. Absolutely not. Go. Now.” Starmer’s latest calls to mind Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me in the way the intricate plot similarly— and bafflingly—comes together with surprising twists. Most chapters focus on Roman’s point of view, with perspective shifts clearly delineated throughout. Upon rereading, readers will discover cleverly placed clues that were there all along.

Starmer explains the time-travel elements just enough while retaining an air of mystery. The overall theme

How beavers change their environment…and sometimes must be moved out when their behavioral changes threaten human settlements.

In Donovan’s luminous, cleanly drawn close-up illustrations, industrious beavers chew down logs, build dams, and dig channels—actions that, Stevens clearly explains, change forests to wetlands that not only draw insects, fish, and other wild creatures but protect the entire habitat from drought and wildfires alike.

Sometimes beavers can be seen as pests—for instance, when they build dams near residential areas and the resulting pools threaten to flood. The Northwest Coastal Tulalip Tribes sponsor a beaver removal program, depicted here in operation with two scientists setting cage traps and safely transporting a beaver family to a remote area of the Cascade Mountains. With hardly a pause to get their bearings, the creatures set to work, and their tree chewing and dam building soon create a habitat that brings back salmon and other wild flora and fauna that had gone missing. The author closes with further facts about beavers and a URL that leads to more information about the tribal project. Indigenous and other figures in the pictures show some variation in skin color.

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Glory Be Sumner, Jamie | Illus. by Alisha Monnin Atheneum (208 pp.) | $17.99 March 10, 2026 | 9781665905718

A young girl searches New Orleans for her beloved dog, Roux.

Glory, a strong-willed 9-year-old, has a quick temper like her dad, whom she adores, despite her suspicion that he may have something to do with Roux’s disappearance. After a falling-out with her BFF, Marcelle, she ditches school to seek help from Seven, an unhoused man whom she and her mother have delivered food to in the past.

Though Glory’s mother grounds her for skipping school, she takes precious time off work to help make “missing” posters, and Marcelle stops by to help search.

Things are looking up until Glory’s daddy shows up, drunk, angry, and unpredictable. Sumner’s rhythmic verse suits Glory’s feisty voice and outsize personality. The novel has a strong sense of setting, with NOLA streets and neighborhoods coming alive, from Napoleon Avenue, where Glory and her father first met Roux, to Bywater, “home to all the best graffiti.” Sumner sensitively considers the harsh realities of loving someone who can turn violent, but tender bonds of friendship and gentle humor alleviate the darkness as Glory comes to accept some difficult truths (“Understandin’ / doesn’t stop the hurt”).

Glory’s wide neighborhood is diverse; in Monnin’s delightful drawings, Glory and her parents appear light-skinned while Marcelle and Seven are darker-skinned.

Seeded with love and hope, a tale that nevertheless addresses turmoil and pain. (Fiction. 8-12)

For more by Jamie Sumner, visit Kirkus online.

Simple, lucid, and winning, with illustrations rich in visual appeal.

(Informational picture book. 6-8)

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Kirkus Star

Higher Ground Suwannakit, Tull | Crocodile/ Interlink (136 pp.) | $11.95 paper September 30, 2025 | 9781623715854

A massive flood leaves a family marooned on the top of their apartment building.

Siblings staying with their grandmother find themselves stuck in a catastrophic deluge, with the water level nearly reaching the top of their building.

Isolated, with little hope of escape, they settle in, creating a home inside a shed, farming on the rooftop garden, fishing in the floodwaters, and scavenging their devastated city’s detritus as it floats by.

The children learn essential survival skills from their wise, patient elder. But as the seasons pass, Grandma grows weaker, the waters continue rising, and eventually she insists that the kids seek a safer haven while she remains to tend the garden. The story alternates between paneled pages and full-page illustrations. Simple guiding narrative text appears beneath the lovingly detailed, selectively illuminated images, underscoring the action being depicted. Masterfully rendered splendors of nature presented in tiny panels or vignettes, from blue whales to the smallest seeds, glow with goodness amid a painfully prescient vision of one terrifying potential future. With a gentle hand, Suwannakit offers a climate crisis fable that would be perfect for lovers of the film Flow or Guojing’s powerful picture books depicting a world ravaged all too swiftly by human disregard. The family at the story’s center have dark hair and pale skin.

A bittersweet, beautifully drawn appreciation of nature’s bounty

For more climate change stories, visit Kirkus online.

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A witty mystery that balances clever sleuthing with heartfelt moments.

O PA L WAT S O N

and the best of the human spirit.

(Graphic fiction. 9-13)

Persian Mythology: Epic Stories of Gods, Heroes, and Monsters Tahmaseb, Ryan Bani | Illus. by Reza Dalvand | Running Press Kids (128 pp.) | $19.99 | November 4, 2025 9780762489763

Classic tales from Iran that entertain, reassure, and instruct.

Tahmaseb has imaginatively altered his material, creating what he describes as “retellings and remixes.” In casual, vernacular-inflected prose, he presents lively reimaginings of these ancient stories, describing a god’s “impressive beard” and “classy crown,” referring to a nonbinary bull with they/ them pronouns, and imbuing evil spirit Ahriman with a snarky voice. Other gods are referred to as Wise Lord Ahura Mazda’s “backup”; at one point, Ahriman, “the Big Bad,” “book[s] it up to Persia.” Tahmaseb imposes unity on his work by bookending it with tales of creation and destruction (and re-creation).

Lust for political power and the perpetual struggle of good against evil, light against darkness, and order against chaos fuel bloody, violent conflict. Male characters like Jamshid, Fereydun, and Rostam dominate, though readers also meet Simurgh, a kind, curious chimera who saves an abandoned child, and wise Princess Rudabeh. The inclusion of Gordafarid, a heroic female warrior, and Katayun, who insists on choosing her own husband, could have provided more gender balance. On the whole, though,

Tahmaseb’s fresh takes render the stories approachable. Dalvand’s stunning art mixes Persian miniature forms and motifs with modern simplified backgrounds, stylization, and compositions in a subdued but saturated palette to ravishing effect.

A spirited, beautifully illustrated, and creative reenvisioning of Persian lore. (resources) (Mythology. 8-12)

Kirkus Star

Ramadan Rain Thompkins-Bigelow, Jamilah | Illus. by Aliaa Betawi | Random House Studio (40 pp.) $18.99 | March 10, 2026 | 9780593705445

A child makes a heartfelt prayer one Ramadan.

Walking with Momma from the bus stop to the mosque, Haneen complains, “I miss having a car. I’m getting all wet.” “Rain brings blessings,” responds Momma.

“And duas, or prayers, said on a rainy day get answered.” Rich sensory language envelops readers as the two enter the mosque. The descriptions glow with detail, such as “shoes that look like sunny-day sky” and “a sea of colorful garments”—things Haneen yearns for but that the family can’t afford. As Haneen plays with the other children, Thompkins-Bigelow gently zeroes in on the quiet tension between abundance and scarcity that often exists in shared spaces.

But as the night progresses, the warmth of community and the stillness of the communal night prayer grant Haneen space for reflection and the chance to dream and pray for what matters most.

Betawi’s palette of calming blues matches the text’s meditative tone, while her K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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compositions have an invitingly childlike charm. Momma and Haneen are brown-skinned; the varied skin tones and clothing of the characters reflect the beauty of the ummah, the global Muslim community. Arabic calligraphy with the names of God adorns the masjid’s walls, capturing the magnificence of Islamic worship spaces. Together, these details form a layered visual experience that mirrors the story’s emotional depth.

A contemplative tale of patience, gratitude, belonging, and the beauty of the rain. (Picture book. 4-8)

Opal Watson: A Case Most Fowl Thurman, Brittany J. | Storytide/ HarperCollins (208 pp.) | $18.99 February 10, 2026 | 9780063326545 Series: Opal Watson, 2

In this second series entry, Black seventh grader Opal Watson is busy trying to locate a missing bird and solve a century-­ old mystery.

Opal is hoping to track down more information about a woman whose photo appeared in a clipping from the notable African American newspaper the Chicago Defender. Her name was Maude Watson, and she was an agent who disappeared in 1905; Opal believes she may be a long-lost relative. Trying to crack codes and ciphers left by Maude puts all her skills to the test, and she must rely on her friends and parents for help. Before long, she also finds herself entangled in exposing a possible bird-smuggling ring: Blizzard, an unusual bird belonging to Piper, the sister of Opal’s former bully, Jake, was taken from her birdcage. Opal lives with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye condition, but she refuses to let it stop her sleuthing. She makes use of her trusty cane, Pinkerton, and the app designed by her mother for identifying items in low-light conditions. Thurman’s writing is witty and humorous, K IR KU S R E V IE W S

but she also addresses forgotten history and serious topics like bullying and self-doubt. The story moves at a brisk pace, keeping the momentum going as clues surface and puzzles come together.

Themes of forgiveness and collaboration emerge as Opal navigates her complicated feelings toward Jake, while also experiencing moments of longing for Meme Augustine, her beloved grandmother who lives in New Orleans.

A witty, fast-paced mystery that balances clever sleuthing with heartfelt moments. (Mystery. 8-12)

E Is For Easter Egg Hunt Thurman, Brittany J. | Illus. by Derick Brooks Farrar, Straus and Giroux (32 pp.) | $18.99 January 13, 2026 | 9780374394547 Series: Quentin and Alfie’s ABC Adventures

Based on the educational podcast Quentin and Alfie’s ABC Adventures, Thurman and Brooks’ picture book sees a little boy and his babysitter enjoying a perfect spring day.

Decked out for Easter, young Alfie’s thrilled that it’s April—his favorite month—and when his sitter, Quentin, arrives, the two decide to “see where the sidewalk takes [them].” At the park, they notice a crowd gathering for the egg hunt, and though Alfie’s eager to join and win the coveted golden egg, he’s a bit nervous. But with some reassurance from Quentin, he begins searching. Though the pair are briefly diverted by a merry-go-round, a musical performance, and a sun shower, Alfie eventually finds six eggs (spread out over the pages for easy counting). Maybe not enough to win, but they had fun, and as Quentin points out, “You tried hard, little man.

That’s something to be proud of.” They cheer on the winner and pose for a selfie (“A golden memory with you” is better than any gold egg, Quentin observes). Unlike in the original podcast, the sidewalk here isn’t magical, but it leads to an exciting adventure all the same, and select

words are bolded throughout the text, in alphabetical order. Cartoon-style artwork celebrates spring in pastels, the candy-colored palette matching the wholesomeness of the duo’s interactions. Alfie and Quentin are Black; their community is diverse.

A joyful lesson in the ABCs—and in persistence, resilience, and sportsmanship. (Picture book. 4-8)

Devin’s Gift Tyson, Alana | Illus. by Ebony Glenn | Philomel (32 pp.) | $18.99 September 30, 2025 | 9780593525739

A young boy mulls the perfect present for his BFF. Devin and Luka have been pals since the first day of school, when Devin noticed that Luka was sad at having to ride the bus without a friend.

After that, the two do everything together—except ride the bus (they apparently take different routes). As Luka’s 5th birthday approaches, Devin wants to get him something special. His grandmother takes him to the toy store, where he finds a gift that’s just right—a doll that resembles Luka and that will accompany him on the school bus when Devin can’t. A comment from Devin’s brother (“Boys get dinosaurs and girls get tea sets”) that’s never directly addressed may raise eyebrows, though ultimately the tale offers a gentle rebuke to gender normativity as Devin rejects suggestions such as firetrucks and sports equipment in favor of the doll. Tyson’s story is on the wordy side, but Devin’s measured responses to potential gifts—opting against a toy bulldozer because Luka once found a real-life construction site loud and overwhelming, for instance—should serve as inspiration as children do some gift-giving of their own. Glenn’s soft-hued digital artwork captures Devin’s uncertainties. Devin presents Black, while Luka appears white.

A birthday tale with an uplifting message: It truly is the thought that counts. (Picture book. 4-8)

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Hot Dog!: The History of America’s Favorite Sausage Van Zandt, Christine | Illus. by Steven Salerno | Odd Dot (48 pp.) | $19.99 May 12, 2026 | 9781250388032

Billing himself “your official hot dog historian,” four-legged tour guide Frank de Wienerdog trots out the tale of the “bun-derful” street food.

Leaving out mentions of animal casings, pink slime, or any references to how hot dogs are actually made on an industrial scale, Van Zandt focuses on the history, beginning about 500 years ago with the first records of recognizable sausages in Frankfurt and Vienna. She covers their arrival on U.S. shores in the 19th century with the flood of German and Austrian immigrants as well as their subsequent identity as an “all-American food.” Noting that the number of dogs consumed annually now would encircle the Earth 75 times, she explains how the term hot dog came into use. Then, following nods to associated figures from early popularizer Nathan Handwerker to Eleanor Roosevelt and modern professional eaters Joey Chestnut and Miki Sudo, she goes on to mention toppings, regional variations, and alternative meats (and non-meats). Salerno illustrates it all with sunny cartoons featuring a long dog in a Tyrolean hat and a multiracial, multigenerational human cast in cities, ballparks, and other settings all happily chowing down. Topped by a timeline and a recipe for “curly snake dogs” (hot dogs wrapped in pizza dough), this

pun-derful tribute to the tube steak is sure to make salivary glands sit up and beg.

A “wiener” for young foodies. (science facts, vocabulary, source lists, author’s note) (Informational picture book. 5-7)

Kirkus Star

The Unlikely Tale of Chase and Finnegan Warga, Jasmine | Illus. by Vivienne To Balzer + Bray (240 pp.) | $18.99 March 3, 2026 | 9781250387189

A runaway former shelter dog and an orphaned cheetah cub bond in friendship.

Chase the cheetah cub, grieving for her mother, is nurtured and bottle-fed by zoo employee Basma Abdallah. Finnegan the dog, injured by a fox after being chased off by his angry former owner, is found and cared for by Basma’s partner, Ryan. Warga’s gentle tale of animal comradeship focuses firmly on the experiences of each animal protagonist, letting their personalities inform the story. Finnegan’s memories of his previous home are tinged with internalized guilt after being labeled a “bad dog.” He’s amusingly food-focused and knows a bit about the world from watching television and seeing pictures in books. He dislikes cats and has opinions about rabbits and squirrels. When Basma brings Finnegan with her to work at the zoo, he overcomes his feline aversions and warms to the cub, finding her puffy baby fur and clumsiness appealing. The friendship between the creatures is warmly empathetic. Finnegan

A tribute to the tube steak sure to make salivary glands sit up and beg.

HOT DOG!

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takes a benign, big-brotherly role, encouraging Chase to trust Basma’s clicker training, part of a demonstration for zoo audiences to support the Cheetah Conservation Fund. Chase, in her turn, reminds Finnegan that he’s cared for and that she’s his friend and part of his family.

To’s soft, tender black-and-white illustrations perfectly complement the sweet, sometimes heart-wrenching narrative. Basma is cued Palestinian American, and Ryan reads white.

An endearing, deeply moving story of healing. (animal facts, author’s note, resources) (Fiction. 7-11)

It’s My Bird-Day! Willems, Mo | Union Square Kids (40 pp.) $18.99 | March 31, 2026 | 9781454999621 Series: The Pigeon

Don’t let the Pigeon ruin his own special day!

Anyone who has ever encountered the title character in any of his books—whether his first, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (2003), or one of its many sequels—will understand that the bird’s innate self-love drives his every interaction. Little wonder, then, that he’s thrilled about his own “bird-day.” He has the hat. He has his “FANCY PLUMAGE.” And, best of all, he will get to blow out a candle “on my bird-day hot dog!” As he revels in the knowledge that this day is all for him, comeuppance is lurking. Someone has already blown out the bird-day candle—and eaten half the hot dog. It turns out that the Pigeon’s frenemy, the Duckling, has the same bird-day—as do a slew of newly hatched chicks. The Pigeon’s obligatory eight-panel freakout ensues. “What am I—invisible? I just want to be seen,” he whimpers, and when he receives some much-needed reassurance, he settles down and willingly shares his special day. While the switch from unapologetic narcissism to mature acceptance happens in the record-breaking span of two pages, the book is as enchanting as the Pigeon’s earlier outings. Even as it walks in the K IR KU S R E V IE W S

CHILDREN'S

footsteps of its predecessors, there’s no denying the fun to be had.

Familiarity breeds a birthday for the ages in this party worth attending.

(Picture book. 3-6)

Others: A Story for All of Us Yamada, Kobi | Illus. by Charles Santoso Ten Speed Press (48 pp.) | $18.99 March 31, 2026 | 9780593839676

Two children learn lessons in acceptance as they peer across a book’s gutter.

The youngsters, both light-skinned with short brown hair, approach a tall hedge dividing the open white space of the page. One of them, wearing a solid-colored shirt, says to the other, clad in a striped shirt, “You really have to wonder what they are thinking.” But who are “they”? An amorphous sphere of green, blue, and white forms floats on the other side of the hedge, apparently invisible to the protagonists, as the first child explains, “Them. The other people.” Notions of us vs. them break down as the more open-minded youngster poses questions that suggest that the two children might have more in common with the unseen people than they realize. Meanwhile, the position of the hedge, dividing the spread in half, deftly reinforces the sense of opposition and separation that undergird the story’s thematic structure. As the kids establish that the “others” likely have thoughts, feelings, and connections, figures in the once-shapeless blob become fully human. Finally, the child in stripes rebels against the hedge’s physical divide and climbs over to the other side, an act that prompts debate, giving way to some profound conclusions: “Maybe there’s just us? And maybe we are all here together.”

Probing text, made up entirely of dialogue, pairs cleverly designed layouts for a compelling tale that suggests that it’s ignorance that truly divides us—and knowledge that unites us.

A thoughtful storytime pick to get little ones asking big questions.

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An Epic History of Failure: A Blundering Book Full of Fun Facts and Mindless Mishaps Younger, Natalie | Illus. by Ella Kasperowicz Neon Squid/Macmillan (48 pp.) | $17.99 March 3, 2026 | 9781684495634 Series: Wacky Histories

A lighthearted assortment of flubs and flops, from New Coke to the Black Death and the sinking of the Titanic.

Setting a goofy tone from the start with the subtitle, the author offers young disaster junkies a sampler of forehead slappers from ancient times to (roughly) the present. “Fun” as it may be to encounter quick accounts of, say, Boston’s Great Molasses Flood, the solar-powered Japanese lunar explorer that landed both upside down and in permanent shade, or how the Australian army was once defeated by a flock of emus, it’s hard to laugh at tragic incidents like the losses of the Titanic and the Eastland or the botched D-Day rehearsal Exercise Tiger, in which probably hundreds of Allied soldiers were killed by friendly fire. Moreover, not only does the author sometimes leave out noteworthy details (no mention, for instance, of cannibalism in the “Donner Party” entry), she neglects to provide sources or, for most entries, contexts or even dates. Older readers may greet with skepticism her assertion that Hannibal lost “more than half his army” to an avalanche while crossing the Alps or the suggestion of a link between the bubonic plague in Europe and a Papal decree banning rat-eating cats. In Kasperowicz’s cartoon illustrations, a racially and culturally diverse cast echo the overall jocularity with sight gags and comical visual notes.

Browsable fare for doomscrollers, though report writers should look elsewhere. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 8-10)

Kirkus Star

The Queen’s Granddaughter Zahler, Diane | Roaring Brook Press (304 pp.) $18.99 | March 24, 2026 | 9781250363114

Twelve-year-old Blanca’s life is about to change drastically.

As an infanta of Castile in the 12th century, Blanca knows that her future will include an arranged royal marriage, but she hopes to have a few more years of childhood. When Blanca learns that Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, her elderly grandmother, is arriving in Castile to make a match between Blanca’s older sister, Urraca, and the dauphin, Prince Louis of France, she schemes to prevent it, so she can keep her dear sister close. But Eleanor surprises everyone by announcing that she’s selected Blanca to marry Louis instead. Blanca is stubborn, impetuous, and fierce, but so is Eleanor, and nothing will change her mind.

During the long, arduous journey across the Pyrenees with their enormous retinue, Eleanor, Blanca (renamed Blanche by her grandmother), and Suna, Blanca’s dear companion and friend, encounter wondrous sights, terrifying dangers, and kindnesses from unexpected sources. The narrative varies in pace in tandem with the rising and falling action, following the party day to day, shedding light on their backgrounds, and describing both periods of boredom and breathtaking adventures.

Readers are privy to Blanca’s thoughts, fears, loneliness, moments of bravery, gradually changing relationship with Eleanor, and growing insights into Suna’s plight as an Almohad, or Muslim with Moroccan roots. Readers will thrill at Blanca’s thoughtful, inspired decisions as she moves “forward to greet the unknown.”

A long-ago time and its fascinating history brought vividly to life. (historical notes) (Historical fiction. 9-14) JANUARY 1, 2026

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LAURA SIMEON

IF THERE’S ONE thing YA literature does well, it’s to provide wise counsel and an emotional boost. As a rule, authors for young people care deeply about their readers and feel a strong sense of responsibility to them. If you feel isolated from peers, or the adults in your life don’t seem to get you, or even if you just need a reminder that someone out there has your back, pick up one of these books. You’ll head into 2026 with a sense of empowerment and purpose.

Adolescence can be a time of self-consciousness when it comes to appearance. No Brainer by Lea Beddia (Orca, Feb. 17) is a deeply affirming work that’s part of the Orca Anchors series for striving readers—books for teens written at a grade 2 level. Liv, who prefers to go braless, bravely questions social expectations, igniting controversy but inspiring others to reflect on sexism and objectification.

Jarrett Dapier was a Chicago-area librarian when the events of Wake Now in the Fire: A Story of Censorship, Action, Love, and Hope (Ten Speed Press, Feb. 3) 130

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transpired. Appalled when the public school district banned Marjane Satrapi’s celebrated graphic memoir Persepolis, Dapier interviewed students who were involved in the protests that helped overturn the ruling.

From those interviews, he created this fictionalized graphic account, illustrated

by AJ Dungo with colors by Angie Kang, of the incident that showcases the triumph of collective action in the face of censorship.

Readers who enjoy a dash of the paranormal will devour Hear Her Howl by Kim DeRose (Union Square & Co., 2025). In this fiercely feminist work, girls at a harsh, isolated Catholic boarding school reject the constraints their families and teachers try to impose upon them, instead channeling their inner wolves. Their lupine transformations represent both their individual,

untamable selves and their power as pack members.

Pryce was closeted until he left Moss Pointe, Louisiana, for his historically Black college. Now the aspiring journalist is home for the summer, working on a podcast about the murders of four local high school football players, which were pinned on a gay classmate. Jumata Emill’s taut, page-­t urning mystery I Don’t Wish You Well (Delacorte, Jan. 20) explores the courage it takes to speak out in an oppressive community.

Memoirs offer valuable road maps for navigating challenges. In Lovely One (Adapted for Young Adults) (Bright Matter Books, Jan. 20), Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson describes a life filled with hard-won achievements and guided by a strong inner moral compass. Her tone is inviting, frank,

and down-to-earth, and readers will learn about the value of pursuing a variety of interests, seeking guidance from mentors, and persevering through imposter syndrome, among other life lessons.

Run Away With Me (Henry Holt, 2025) is a page-turning debut by J.L. Simmonds that combines thrills with deeper messages about self-confidence, honesty, and risking vulnerability and connection. Social outcast Jessie decides to run away—but doesn’t expect rich, popular Brooke to offer her a ride in her red vintage con­ vertible. The girls’ cross-­ country road trip involves crime (petty and otherwise), near misses, unexpected love, and tremendous personal growth.

Laura Simeon is a young readers’ editor.

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Illustration by Eric Scot t Ander son

CLAIMING YOUR SPACE

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EDITOR’S PICK A Tibetan refugee’s courageous tell-all memoir takes on Chinese occupation.

This passionate account of standing up against injustice traces Dolma’s journey from the Tibetan village where she grew up to the capital city of Lhasa, following her to Amherst, Massachusetts, by way of refugee camps in places including Kathmandu, Nepal, and Varanasi and Dharamsala in India. At age 12, Dolma’s father began speaking of marriage for her, but she didn’t want to stuff herself “into a life that was two sizes too small.” Focused on getting an education, she determined to become a

These Titles Earned the Kirkus Star

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Buddhist nun like her great-aunt; at a nunnery, she’d learn to read. This dream came true, leading Dolma to ask herself, “What good was an education if I didn’t use it?” For supporting the cause of a free Tibet, she was imprisoned and sexually assaulted by Chinese authorities. Debut co-authors Dolma and Hsieh recount the Chinese government’s violent crackdown on Buddhists’ religious freedom. The book also highlights misogyny in Tibet, where early marriage was framed as protective for girls.

Dolma felt “the obvious solution was to teach boys” respectful behavior.

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Defying China

By Tsultrim Dolma & Rebecca Wei Hsieh

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How To Survive the End of the World

By Katy Doughty

Defying China: A Memoir Dolma, Tsultrim & Rebecca Wei Hsieh Dial Books | 352 pp. | $20.99 March 10, 2026 | 9780593615959

Tragically, when she turned to a childhood friend for help, he attempted to rape her while she slept. Portraying Dolma as a fighter rather than a victim, this work shows the power of prayer and the kindness of

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King of Nothing

By Nathanael Lessore

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strangers when facing horrifying circumstances.

This powerfully and accessibly written story puts a human face on complex, ongoing issues.

Chilling and memorable; a must-read. (authors’ note) (Memoir. 14-18)

The Danger of Small Things

By Caryl Lewis

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If We Never End

By Laura Taylor Namey

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An inviting read, lightened by moments of levity despite the serious themes.

RIGHT AS RAIN

Climate Change Basics: What Is Happening to Our World Andra, Kayla | Twenty-First Century/ Lerner (64 pp.) | $35.99 | $14.99 paper January 1, 2026 | 9798765644232 9798348029609 paper Series: Focus on Climate Change

A compelling, evidence-based book covering climate change: what it is, why it matters, and what’s next.

The book opens with stark examples of climate-driven disasters: the $113 billion toll Hurricane Ian took in 2021 and the global impact of Canada’s lethal 2023 wildfires. Andra poses the core question: “What exactly is climate change?” and answers with scientific rigor. She distinguishes short-term weather from long-term climate and draws on paleoclimatology to contrast natural vs. human-driven climate change. She accessibly unpacks key determinants of climate: the Coriolis effect from Earth’s rotation, albedo (how surfaces reflect or absorb solar energy), and the disruptive impact of industrial revolutions. Without alarmism, Andra shows how NASA climate scientist James Hansen’s decades-old warnings about the impact of human activity are becoming reality. She illustrates climate change’s dire societal and ecological toll. The final section looks ahead, detailing global organizations and governmental policies that address climate change.

Andra highlights the power of achievable, effective individual actions, such as reducing food waste and joining community action groups. She 132

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leaves readers with hope, pointing to Norway’s 98% renewably sourced electricity and Fiji’s unexpected coral reef recovery as signs of progress and resilience. Andra writes with clarity and conviction, and her deep knowledge and genuine urgency shine through, offering a heartfelt, unifying call to action. Ample photos, a colorful page design, and clear subheadings add to the work’s appeal.

A clear, powerful resource that’s backed by science and designed to inspire. (glossary, source notes, bibliography, further information, index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

Right as Rain Bhuiyan, Tashie | Farrar, Straus and Giroux (336 pp.) | $20.99 | March 10, 2026 | 9780374393922

A New York City 18-year-old’s future is thrown into turmoil when a cloud that’s linked to her emotional state appears.

Bangladeshi American Megh Rashid’s struggles are trifold—chronic depression, bickering parents in a loveless marriage, and being wait-listed

by UCLA. With support from her cousin Sadia, Megh lands a prestigious TV production internship at The Today Show that could secure her a spot at her dream college and a ticket to freedom. But one stormy day, a lightning strike turns Megh into a magnet for real rain—with a personal cloud as her emotional barometer.

Miserable and tormented by her parents’ criticism of her, Megh must

learn to navigate and maybe even embrace her emotions. With the support of Turkish American Lev Osman, a kindhearted weather intern from Oregon with a sunny disposition, Megh begins to find her way, despite a disastrous miscommunication early in their relationship. The ethnically diverse cast appears in an authentically developed setting. Megh’s first-person narration convincingly portrays her struggles with depressive episodes as she forges a path out of misery and away from parents who are unable to support her battle with mental illness.

Megh’s and Sadia’s parents offer contrasting models of behavior, offering a nuanced depiction of diversity among immigrant families from similar backgrounds. The accessible writing makes this an inviting read, lightened by moments of levity despite the serious themes.

An imaginative exploration of mental health and a hopeful narrative of friendship and first love. (content warning, author’s note) (Speculative romance. 13-18)

The Cursed Queen’s Daughter Blake, Elly | Little, Brown (400 pp.) $19.99 | February 10, 2026 9780316396028 | Series: Thirstwood, 2

A warrior embraces the shadows in this follow-up to The Forest King’s Daughter (2025).

Thea, King Silvanus’ fierce daughter, trains hard as a Sylvan Huntsman, employing her quick blade to protect Thirstwood and its forest folk. An uneasy truce between the Sylvans and their former enemies, the Dracu, allows a sliver of peace to settle over the woods while the Huntsmen quell any lingering threats. But more danger looms. Figments of silver trees begin to crop up in Thirstwood, as if seeping through cracks in the realms.

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dresses start appearing at Thea’s hearth each night, luring the young warrior, who has wavy brown hair and has lost some of her “summer tan,” to wear them. And then there’s Damon, the mysterious, handsome, pale young man who’s cloaked in shadows; he promises answers to all Thea’s worries, including the reasons behind her mother’s disappearance years ago. To save her beloved Thirstwood and uncover the truth, Thea must plunge into the Forgotten Realm of Iluna to confront the shadow king, Erebus, even as she finds herself inexplicably drawn to the charming shadow prince.

Like the series opener, this volume smolders thanks to the unlikely pairing of Thea and Damon and the ebbs and flows of their nuanced romance. Still, Thirstwood provides a much more alluring promise, with its unstable hierarchy of magical folk and their ever-evolving relations to one another.

The tight pace and intriguing ending strengthen this engrossing tale.

Intoxicatingly satisfying. (map) (Fantasy romance. 14-18)

Introduction to Anime and Manga: From Magical Girls to Pirate Kings

drawings by the famous artist Hokusai, such as Hokusai’s Manga (1814). Bolte details how trade, war, and natural disasters all influenced the spread, production, and content of early magazines and animation. The next three chapters discuss publishing demographics, genres, successful series, and how fans around the world engage with each other and the industry. For a title focused on visual media, this introduction offers a surprisingly wordy layout and sparse imagery. The photos that are included have a generic quality that’s exacerbated by captions that provide limited context or logical connection. Compared to more robust sections of the book, the breakdown of genres is merely a list of unannotated titles. While the book may hold the attention of readers who are already interested in the topic, its initial focus on history and global popularization is less likely to draw in new viewers and readers.

Dense and lackluster. (glossary, source notes, bibliography, resources, index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

The Making of Anime and Manga: From Zodiac Animal Shifters to Demon Slayers

Bolte, Mari | Twenty-First Century/Lerner (64 pp.) | $35.99 | $14.99 paper | January 1, 2026 9798765662724 | 9798348029623 paper Series: The Rise of Anime and Manga

Bolte, Mari | Twenty-First Century/ Lerner (64 pp.) | $35.99 | $14.99 paper January 1, 2026 | 9798765662755 9798348029654 paper | Series: The Rise of Anime and Manga

This text-heavy introduction dives into the history, culture, and spreading fandom of anime and manga, high­lighting prominent titles and providing an overview of genres and trends.

The popularity of anime and manga, which are made for audiences of all ages, reaches around the world. Chapters 1 and 2 focus on the development of the industries associated with anime and manga, starting with the rise of book printing on a mass scale in the early 1700s and the publication of collections of

What goes into anime and manga production? This book traces the history and sheds light on the present day.

As part of a four-book series, this volume recounts the production side of both types of Japanese storytelling media, beginning with a short section on the origin of film and moving on to animation technologies with a specific focus on Japan. Next, readers learn about the typical career paths of mangaka (manga authors and illustrators), the major publishing

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houses, and the production cycle of anime, including how it’s adapted for international audiences. Bolte covers the common artistic styles, which include features like big eyes and range from cutesy (chibi and kawaii) to more realistic. Finally, the author closes by looking at other related formats—feature films, light novels (which are originally released in serialized form), and video games. The sidebars and photo captions highlight pertinent case studies and explore topics such as overworked artists, how the racial identity of characters is interpreted by some non-Japanese audiences, and the career of Osamu Tezuka, creator of Astro Boy. Written in an approachable style, the book includes seminal examples that serve as reading and viewing suggestions for new fans or greatest-hits montages for those in the know. Both types of readers will glean some insider knowledge in this work that’s aimed at Western audiences and assumes some previous knowledge of anime and manga.

A strong informational resource. (glossary, source notes, bibliography, resources, index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

Understanding Manga: From Fox Spirits to Fashion Icons Bolte, Mari | Twenty-First Century/ Lerner (64 pp.) | $35.99 | $14.99 paper January 1, 2026 | 9798765662748 9798348029647 paper | Series: The Rise of Anime and Manga

A manga guide for beginners and fans alike.

This compact volume filled with ample color photographs supports readers with the context they need to appreciate manga and develop deeper knowledge of it. Bolte begins by offering historical and cultural information, diving right into manga’s origins, the growth in the market, and its recent JANUARY 1, 2026

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boom in popularity. She explains that reading manga engages the brain because readers employ multimodal learning (reading, looking at illustrations, and “pairing the actions with sound effects”). Its impact can be measured by the significant percentage of the print and digital publishing sales it represents, both in Asia (where most manga is sold) and elsewhere (France is the next largest market). Teaching readers how the industry works, this guide explains the grueling hustle of the mangaka (the creators behind beloved series); Eiichiro Oda, the author and illustrator of ONE PIECE, faces fan criticism when he takes breaks. The first AI-generated manga was published in 2023, using art created by an author who had never done any drawing and revealing the technology’s shortcomings.

The book covers some non-Japanese mangaka—for example, Odunze Whyte Oguguo from Nigeria and Peppe from Italy—as well as cultural influences on manga (such as Buddhist elements) and manga’s influence on fashion (including cosplay). The conversational tone, short chapters, and bright visuals will appeal to those interested in a jumping-off point for learning more about this topic.

A brief but entertaining and informative overview. (glossary, source notes, bibliography, resources, index, photo credits) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

I, in the Shadows Bovalino, Tori | Page Street (336 pp.) $19.99 | January 13, 2026 | 9798890033116

Ghosts are easy to ignore—until one you find one haunting your bedroom.

When Andrea “Drew” Tarpin and her family leave Pittsburgh and move to small-town Pine Hollow, she discovers more than creaky floors. Drew’s new room comes with the ghost of Liam Orville, an academically gifted student who died in a car crash about a year ago.

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their shared ability to see spirits, Drew has always avoided the paranormal. After a botched exorcism, Drew and Liam enter a reluctant agreement: Liam will tutor Drew in statistics if she helps him investigate why he’s stuck before he deteriorates into something dangerous.

Their transactional relationship encounters ethical quicksand when Drew falls for Hannah Sullivan, Liam’s former best friend. Using Liam’s intimate knowledge to win Hannah over, Drew becomes complicit in a deception that grows more complicated as they’re stalked by husks (“a side effect of ghosts”) and a sinister entity called the Watcher. Anchored by Drew’s sardonic voice and her messy, deeply human mistakes, the novel blends atmospheric horror with emotional devastation against an autumnal Pennsylvania backdrop that pulses with menace. The romance feels earned despite its manipulative origins, and matter-of-fact queer representation grounds the story in authentic teenage experiences. The novel’s greatest strength lies in its unflinching examination of grief’s corrosive power and the impossibility of clean closure. Main characters present white.

A haunting meditation on loss, guilt, and the ghosts we create from our own desperation. (Horror. 14-18)

Crying Wolf Butler, James | Little Island (276 pp.) | $11.99 paper | March 10, 2026 | 9781915071507

In this work that won an award in its native Ireland, a young man’s decisions get him into deeper and deeper trouble.

Joey’s been at a loose end since dropping out of secondary school. He’s moved in with his Aunt Jackie, has a minimum-wage job, and is trying to stay off the smokes to please his girlfriend, Sharon, who’s attending Trinity College. She tells him “he has loads of brains, just never uses them”—and she wants to be with a fella who does. When his former

stepfather, Vinnie, is rumored to be back in town, Joey is torn. He used to drive getaway for Vinnie on purportedly victimless crimes that still haunt him, but Ma, Aunt Jackie, and even Joey himself are protective of Vinnie despite his faults. Sure, “trouble finds him,” but doesn’t Vinnie watch over them in his own way? Although Joey convinces himself that things will be different this time, events escalate to a dangerous—even potentially deadly— degree. The local slang, details of daily life, and descriptions of the chilly, damp weather immerse readers in the atmospheric Dublin setting in which Joey’s lack of opportunities coupled with an absence of positive role models feels oppressive. The short chapters maintain a brisk pace that suits the story, whose ending offers a glimmer of hope that Joey may be able to change his patterns in favor of a less violent, more satisfying future.

A bleak, honest look at family loyalty, friendship, choices, and consequences. (Thriller. 14-18)

Winter White: A Modern Retelling of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale Cardi, Annie | Union Square & Co. (272 pp.) $18.99 | January 27, 2026 | 9781454960584

A teen raised in isolation experiences an awakening when she’s forced to engage with the outside world.

For years, Pia and her little brother, Max, have lived with their father, Leo, on a farm in rural Maine. Leo swears that secrecy and strict discipline are the only way to keep them safe from unspecified foes, and until the winter of her sixteenth year, Pia has had no reason to doubt him. But when Leo breaks his leg in a fall, Pia’s world opens up as she takes over his mysterious delivery business, making frequent trips into town where, for the first time in nine years, she interacts with new K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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people. Helpful librarians, troubled customers, and a handsome, hauntingly familiar 17-year-old boy named Felix disrupt Pia’s understanding of her home, her father, and the stories she’s been told about her life. Cardi handles the novel’s darker themes with aplomb, navigating domestic abuse and drug addiction with sensitivity and realism.

The book is a retelling of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, and readers familiar with the play will recognize certain elements in the novel—Leo’s violence and cruelty reframes Leontes’ mistakes with the benefit of a contemporary sensibility, and there’s a bear to boot—but despite being a variation on a classic, the novel works independently of its source text. Main characters read white.

Read this as a take on Shakespeare’s romance or as a coming-of-age story in its own right—but by all means, read it. (content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)

The Curse of Heartwood Academy Chan, Marty | Orca (128 pp.) | $10.95 paper February 17, 2026 | 9781459841895 Series: Orca Soundings

A hazing ritual at a haunted boarding school goes horribly awry.

Allie Lau, who’s of Chinese descent, is the youngest of four siblings. She’s starting her freshman year at the boarding school Heartwood Academy. Her tour guide, Pru Cotton, is a domineering blond senior whose influential family, wealthy school benefactors, makes her nearly untouchable. Allie and her roommate, Ricki Mendez, learn from Pru that as “freshies,” they’ll have to pass “the test.” It involves spending a night in the woods adjacent to the campus, where the older students devise nightmarish pranks. Heartwood Academy has its own storied past with a gothic slant: The school’s founding family has a tortured backstory replete K IR KU S R E V IE W S

with spirits, self-harm, and unfinished business. Before long, the night of the test devolves into terrors none of the students—either the experienced ones or the new arrivals—could possibly have imagined. Chan’s paranormal mystery, which is designed to be accessible to dyslexic and striving readers, is compulsively readable, begging to be finished in a single sitting, with its breakneck pacing ratcheted by the escalating tension and a healthy dose of red herrings.

Although the characterizations feel a bit inchoate, the plot-driven narrative suffers little for it. Fans of dark academia may think they have the ending figured out, but it should sufficiently shock even the most seasoned veteran of the genre—along with the healthy splashes of gore.

Fresh, pulse-pounding, and page-­turning. (Horror. 12-16)

first mate Quinn Martinez, Ishara acquires the old whaling ship the Dorado and a motley crew—including Augustus, who has some odd skills and a secretive air. He helps Ishara track the whale, forcing her to contend with the consequences of her choices—even those she can’t remember. Based on Moby Dick but charting new territory, this is a story of facing mistakes and finding the good (and bad) in oneself and others. Ishara is queer and comes from the Tian Tan System, which is part of the Asian Islands Alliance Federation. The characters’ speech is peppered with words resembling an alternate Spanish. As a character, Ishara breathes new life into the story of a driven captain with a singular quest.

While some aspects of the MOBIS are left underexplored, Ishara’s humanity shines through in her attempts to grapple with her past traumas and her relationships with the ones she loves.

A worthy debut offering a cosmic tale of found family and space ventures.

(Science fiction. 13-18)

The Celestial Seas Chan, T.A. | Viking (368 pp.) | $20.99 March 31, 2026 | 9780593693742

A ship captain will stop at nothing to destroy a mysterious whale that’s traversing deep space and to avenge her dead crewmates.

Eighteen-yearold Ishara Ming is the only survivor of the Essex, a ship she swears was attacked by a strange Mech-Operated Bio-Integrated Spacecraft that’s still roaming the skies.

While Ishara’s time on the Essex is a hazy blur, thanks to her head injury, she’s sure the Ballena is real and has vowed to destroy it. With the help of

Love in Ruins Desombre, Auriane | Delacorte Romance (240 pp.) | $12.99 paper | February 24, 2026 9780593807583

An academic summer trip teaches a girl about herself.

A small group of American teens who are dedicated to studying the classics get to spend a month in Greece.

It’s a dream scenario for “a group of certified nerds.” At 15, Natalie, who’s cued white, is the only ninth grader in the

A bleak, honest look at family loyalty, friendship, choices, and consequences.

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group. She continually deals with intrusive thoughts, such as feeling like an imposter compared to the older students and believing that if she reveals too much about herself, she’ll ruin her chances at love. Her parents made her enter therapy, and she was recently diagnosed with OCD, but Natalie is skeptical—after all, “everyone worries sometimes.” Both Natalie’s main areas of struggle are put to the test during the trip: The program will involve an academic decathlon, and her peers obsess over the idea of summer flings, which irks Natalie until she gazes into the brown eyes of Melanie, the teenage daughter of the group’s Greek educator. This light read captures the excitement of visiting a foreign country, from museums to food and the beauty of the Greek landscape. It’s also a satisfying story of young love—a sweet lesbian summer romance that’s more than a fling.

Natalie’s intrusive thoughts and Melanie’s own anxious tendencies (she’s a “recovering people pleaser”) affect their lives but aren’t debilitating, and Desombre portrays therapy positively.

A charming, sunshine-drenched romance. (Romance. 12-16)

Kirkus Star

How To Survive the End of the World: A Graphic Exploration of How To (Maybe) Avoid Extinction Doughty, Katy | MITeen Press/ Candlewick (247 pp.) | $24.99 March 31, 2026 | 9781536232790

A graphic compendium of apocalyptic scenarios past, present, and future.

“Humans,” Doughty writes in her debut, “have been the cause of many species’ extinction. One of these days, it’s bound to be our turn.” The only question is how this might come about. She begins with historical analyses of the Black Death, the European colonization of the Americas, and other events that 136

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underscore how devastating and fiendishly adaptable deadly microbes can be. She reels off a range of possibilities for our future, punctuated by attention-­ grabbing anecdotes and exchanges of insights with a diverse array of experts.

After touching on apocalypses described in sacred writings, Doughty dives into past and possible future “captivating doomsday scenarios”: supervolcano eruptions, falling asteroids, climate change, and AI “killer machines.” All of these pale in comparison to the inevitability that our sun will one day expand to consume Earth and other inner planets.

A brown-skinned, black-haired tour guide clambers through and between the variously sized panels that depict disasters from the deep past to the distant future.

The author has distilled an impressive amount of research into a lucid, matter-of-fact narrative—and, counter­ intuitive though it may seem, there’s a pervasive optimism running through the doom and gloom, a conviction that no matter what goes down, humanity is special enough that something of us will survive. The attractive illustrations in highly saturated colors illuminate the content through both imaginative whimsy and helpful diagrams.

Brilliant; at once terrifying and fascinating. (recommended reading, source notes, bibliography) (Graphic nonfiction. 14-18)

Saving: A Teen Guide to Saving for the Future Eason, Sarah | Cheriton Children’s Books (48 pp.) | $11.99 paper | January 1, 2026 9781917509732 | Series: Money Matters

Offers guidelines on budgeting, bank accounts, and other topics that are important part of financial literacy.

This compact volume, part of a series that includes Budgeting, Jobs and Taxes, and Loans and Credit, consists of four chapters: “Why Money Matters,” “The Basics of Saving,” “Where and Why To Save,” and “How To Save in the

Future.” The author opens by explaining why it’s important to possess solid financial skills and describing the challenges teens face: Many have received no formal instruction in this area and admit to relying on social media as a source of information. Eason’s advice runs along standard-issue lines, like automatically diverting 10-20% of all income into savings and making some provision for “life’s financial curve balls.”

She recommends financial apps to help with things like goal setting. The book explains compound interest and inflation, making a case for saving early and often. Practical advice—“always read the small print before choosing an account”—is peppered throughout and tempered with realism—“as a teen, it is unlikely that you’ll be able to save a significant amount of the money that you’ll need for college.” A chart explaining compound interest uses an interest rate of 50%, which may mislead readers about what to expect in real life. The book closes with a glimpse of future goals, such as buying a home and putting money into a pension. Stock illustrations show racially diverse young people.

A basic introduction to an important topic. (picture credits, glossary, resources, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

Coming Home (Adapted for Young Adults) Griner, Brittney with Michelle Burford Adapt. by Tonya Abari | Bright Matter Books (320 pp.) | $19.99 | February 17, 2026 9798217027033

Basketball star Griner’s life changes overnight, taking her from center court to the confines of a Russian prison, in this young readers’ adaptation of her 2024 memoir.

In Russia, Griner is “the female LeBron.” It’s 2022 and she’s playing basketball in Ekaterinburg. In the U.S., WNBA players are paid “about 250 times less” than their male counterparts; they’re able to earn significantly more in K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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Russia. Tired of being away from her wife, Relle, Griner decides this will be her last season. She doesn’t know that one careless packing mistake will change everything. At the Moscow airport, agents detain Griner after discovering two cannabis vape pens—prescribed by her doctor for her sports injuries—in her bag. Her detention lasts 293 days and involves imprisonment in inhumane conditions, a sham trial where she’s used as a political pawn, and a harrowing transfer to a penal colony. Griner is finally released in a widely publicized prisoner exchange for a notorious Russian arms dealer. Griner’s story chronicles the horrors of the Russian prison system in a straightforward, expository tone that’s both measured and compulsively readable. Griner contrasts how her identity as a gay Black woman influenced her treatment on the basketball court and in prison in Russia with how she’s treated in the U.S. She ends with a call to action for the release of other detained Americans around the globe.

A chronicle of rebounding against unthinkable odds; Griner’s voice and faith ring clear in this story of survival. (photo credits) (Memoir. 12-18)

How To Deal With Drug Wars Hunter, Nick | Cheriton Children’s Books (48 pp.) | $11.99 paper | January 1, 2026 9781917187657 | Series: Twenty-First Century Debates

Drug use and drug wars are a reality; this highly illustrated work outlines the problem and its possible solutions.

Hunter devotes most of this book to explaining the nature and origins of drug wars and the consequences of such wars on individuals and society. The final two chapters outline potential solutions. Beginning with then-President Richard Nixon’s 1971 declaration of war, the author discusses the physical, mental, and socioeconomic, costs of drugs and of drug wars. Descriptions of the international and industrial scale of the problem K IR KU S R E V IE W S

and the involvement of quasi-military gangs and militias appear before a two-page spread asking readers to ponder opposing viewpoints about whether the drug supply can realistically be stopped. Hunter examines anti-drug laws before providing another debate page on treatment vs. punishment as approaches to addiction. Other debate pages pose questions like “Is drug violence more damaging than drugs?” and “Do drug wars increase racial inequality?” The text boxes labeled “What Do You Think?” that follow each debate invite readers to engage with the topics, but Hunter largely avoids citing statistics or studies that would bolster the arguments. This absence risks simply allowing readers to confirm their existing beliefs without weighing complicated evidence. Still, the simple, straightforward prose and scrupulously neutral presentation of opposing viewpoints make this a useful introductory resource.

A clearly written account of an ongoing crisis that has a broad impact on society. (picture credits, resources, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

How To Help Refugees Hunter, Nick | Cheriton Children’s Books (48 pp.) | $11.99 paper | January 1, 2026 9781917187770 | Series: Twenty-First Century Debates

A balanced, informative look at forced migration and what can be done to address this global crisis.

What is a refugee? While the simple answer—“a person fleeing their country to find safety”—is true, it only scratches the surface. This volume adds clear historical context.

In the first three chapters, readers glean facts about refugees in the U.S. and examine global causes and responses and the social impact of displacement. The book offers reasons why people are forced to flee and how the world is responding to this ongoing humanitarian

challenge, including the United Nations’ role in assisting refugees.

The final three chapters turn toward solutions, highlighting caring for refugees, community integration, and long-term strategies for change.

A standout feature of this book are the six sections that pose a central question—such as “Does the world community fully support refugees?”—which is followed by opposing perspectives (for example, “wealthier countries are playing their part” vs. “wealthy countries are not taking enough responsibility”).

Readers are then invited to form their own opinions through critical reflection. The book concludes by questioning how it might feel to become a refugee and suggests we, as citizens, can do our part to address this crisis. The color photographs throughout depicting the realities of displacement are powerful without resorting to shock value, helping readers engage with empathy and awareness.

Even-handed and timely. (additional resources, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

Playing With Forever Jenshak, Rebecca | Bloom Books (400 pp.) | $14.99 paper | January 20, 2026 9781464230646 | Series: Frost Lake High, 2

High school juniors Lacey Kerr and Vaughn Collins seemingly couldn’t be more different, but when romance blossoms, they must decide what’s most important to them.

Lacey is the ever-optimistic cheer captain who’s trying to finish her late mom’s bucket list as a way of connecting with her. Vaughn is the serious, brooding captain of the soccer team who’s obsessed with making it to the state championships. When Vaughn fails an algebra test, his coach, who’s also his famous soccer star dad, benches him until he can get his grades up. Lacey resents Vaughn for the JANUARY 1, 2026

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way he dumped her best friend, Claire, but she reluctantly agrees to tutor him for the sake of the team’s success. The last thing the white-presenting duo expect is to fall in love, but their attraction builds as they discover their hidden similarities.

Jenshak authentically portrays the struggles of balancing a relationship with academics, athletics, and parental expectations and commitments. The dynamic characterization and adorable romance are the story’s highlights, but the fast-paced soccer scenes boost the pace.

Vaughn, in particular, shows genuine growth. This dual-perspective novel works as a stand-alone, but fans of the series’ opener, Stealing for Keeps (2024), will be delighted by glimpses into the ongoing relationship between Claire and Austin, the leads of the earlier story.

A sweet high school sports romance whose engaging leads will draw readers in. (high school bucket list, reading group guide) (Romance. 14-18)

One Word, Six Letters Khorram, Adib | Henry Holt (224 pp.) $19.99 | March 17, 2026 | 9781250405555

Missouri ninth graders Dayton Reilly and Farshid Nafari contend with accountability and identity over the course of a school year.

It started as a dare. Dayton yelled a gay slur at a poet who was leading a school assembly, and he must now face the consequences. With his reputation as a homophobe cemented, white-presenting Dayton is ostracized by his friends and classmates. His parents ground him, and he gets an in-school suspension. The only silver lining? In ISS he meets Brody, a welcome but controversial new friend.

When Brody repeatedly makes off-color comments, often at Dayton’s expense, he sullies their standing at Meadowbrook High School even further. Meanwhile, Farshid, who’s a Bahá’í immigrant from Iran, hears that same six-letter word Dayton shouted echoing in the hallway.

It stings, especially since he’s questioning his sexuality. “Were they talking about you?” he asks himself. Written in the second person, the novel alternates between Dayton’s and Farshid’s points of view, deeply immersing readers in their perspectives through a compassionate lens. Farshid’s insecurity extends to his physique, as evidenced by a strict diet and workout regime. Khorram skillfully handles his battle with body dysmorphia.

When Dayton’s and Farshid’s paths collide at school, their conflict transforms into a lesson in humility and mutual understanding. Thoughtfully weaving their stories together, Khorram adeptly explores the nuances of personal character amid the complex context of public shaming.

A formidable tale highlighting the repercussions of homophobia in high school. (author’s note) (Fiction. 13-18)

Young and Hungry Kromm, Bryan | Flare Books/Catalyst Press (82 pp.) | $17.95 paper | October 28, 2025 9781963511345

In this novella, an eclectic group investigates the mystery of the elusive Boy in the Shadows.

The Boy in the Shadows lived an extremely sheltered life, coddled by his famous author parents. His own literary efforts were unremarkable, and he eventually faded into obscurity. Years

An accomplished mixture of wit and adolescent insight.

KING OF NOTHING

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later, misfit adventurer Alfred, aspiring journalist Jessica, and Jessica’s globe-trotting Uncle Bruce come together to track down the Boy in the Shadows and uncover his mysterious life story. This quest proves to be much more complicated than they bargained for, however, and they must decide how far they’re willing to go to learn the truth.

The story is conceptually rich, questioning what it means to have lived a full life. There’s the Boy in the Shadows, who has gained an overwhelming amount of knowledge throughout his life but hasn’t experienced anything beyond the walls of his comfortable if fortresslike home, Paradise Manor. Then there’s Alfred, who has been everywhere and done everything but lacks a greater purpose. The prose is dominated by straightforward exposition, which often meanders into small details of each character’s backstory. Despite the complexity of the ideas the story explores, the characters fall flat due to their confusing motivations and the minimal dialogue. Some elements are likely to test readers’ suspension of disbelief, making it difficult to become engrossed in this world. The characters present white, and other than Jessica, most seem to be adults.

Thematically thoughtful but unlikely to engage readers. (Fiction. 14-adult)

Kirkus Star

King of Nothing Lessore, Nathanael | Little, Brown (320 pp.) | $12.99 paper | March 10, 2026 9780316588560

A teen is caught between the actions of his friends and the way his mother wants him to conduct himself.

Fourteen-yearold Anton Charles is growing up in multicultural South London, hanging out with his friends, who make sure they’re the toughest in school. He already has some notoriety because his K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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dad’s in prison. The boys often end up in detention, and this latest time Anton’s mum imposes consequences: She makes him join the Happy Campers, volunteers who are assisting with her work project. For Anton, spending time with the group renovating the community center feels like the worst thing that could possibly happen. He’s even more upset to learn he’ll be partnered with Matthew, a loner whom he and his friends bully at school. During the Happy Campers’ annual weekend camping trip, the boys, who are cued Black, get separated from the group, and Matthew’s quick thinking saves Anton when he has a serious allergic reaction to a bee sting. Despite knowing he’s indebted to Matthew, Anton tries to keep their friendship secret—but he gradually gains the perspective his mother was hoping for. This highly entertaining coming-of-age novel won awards when it was originally published in the U.K. in 2024, and its humor, universal themes, and diverse, well-rounded characters will appeal to American readers. Anton’s hilarious and disarming voice makes the explorations of masculinity, image, and emotional vulnerability accessible and engaging.

An accomplished mixture of wit, poignancy, and adolescent insight with an appealing cast of characters.

(Fiction. 12-16)

Kirkus Star

by Mother Clement and Father Renatus, who indoctrinate them into sacrificing themselves for the greater good. The girls subsist on dry bread and rarely get to see, let alone taste, the fruit they’re helping to produce.

Once they have their first menses, they’re married off to men chosen for their “fertility compatibility.” Jess, whose mum hid her until she was 13, sticks close to best friend Cass, and avoids horrible bully Charmian, whose beauty wins her special treatment from the Mothers. Unusually for a girl, Jess can read—her mum taught her—and her memories of beloved stories, salvaged from the book-burning militia, and her own imagination take her beyond her abusive environment, nurturing her hope for a better world. Mum also scrounged paints to nurture Jess’ creativity. Jess’ first-person narration teems with rich, metaphorical imagery, emphasizing her passion for reading and art. Flashbacks connect past and present events, intertwining Jess’ memories of Mum’s teaching with her own growing empowerment.

Art emerges as a powerful agent for change and emotional restoration, and shocking reveals add to the suspense. The multifaceted characters surrounding the white-presenting lead are cued ethnically diverse.

A suspenseful storyline and lyrical narrative voice make this a standout. (author’s note) (Dystopian. 13-18)

The Danger of Small Things

Busted

Lewis, Caryl | Atheneum (272 pp.) | $19.99 March 24, 2026 | 9781665977517

Mills, Jean | Orca (96 pp.) | $10.95 paper February 17, 2026 | 9781459840508 Series: Orca Anchor

An imaginative teen navigates life under a dictatorship in a world without bees.

After all the bees die, the ensuing societal upheaval forces young girls into a reimagined labor force. From age 11, they’re made to hand-pollinate crops, living together in a building overseen K IR KU S R E V IE W S

A locker room incident leaves a teen hockey player fretting over whether or not to report a teammate who has violent tendencies both on and off the ice.

Drake is a rule-breaker who has “a wild streak” when he’s playing—but

he’s also the team’s highest scorer. That leaves Jonah understandably conflicted after he sees Drake leave their goalie, Carter, injured on the floor with a bruised rib in the wake of some supposedly friendly roughhousing.

Worse yet, Jonah has caught the whole thing on his phone, so he worries about his own fate if the video gets out and leads to Drake’s being thrown off the team—and taking out his anger on Jonah. Mills’ novel, which is written and designed with striving and dyslexic teen readers in mind, weaves in complex themes, including Jonah’s need to juggle team loyalties with the possible consequences (to others as well as himself) if he remains silent about the issue of ice hockey’s culture of violence, which is abetted by the complicity of coaches and adults.

Drake also emerges as a well-rounded character: His arc includes a startling confession about the pressures he feels to conform to certain expectations, and he faces high stakes and hard choices about his behavior. The characters aren’t physically described and are racially ambiguous.

Thought-provoking, engaging, and highly accessible. (Fiction. 12-18)

Heart’s Gambit Myall, J.D. | Wednesday Books (336 pp.) $20 | February 3, 2026 | 9781250365408 Series: Heart’s Gambit, 1

Two time-­ traveling Black 18-­year-olds from rival families become the next competitors in a centurieslong death match they must work together to stop.

Ever since their enslaved ancestors were cursed by a witch, the Baldwins and the Davenports have been mortal enemies, forced to cause each other suffering and to compete in the Tethered Gambit, a death match that exists for the witch’s entertainment. Emma Baldwin lives in the 1940s, traveling with her family’s circus and granting wishes. She dreams of >>> JANUARY 1, 2026

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THE KIRKUS Q&A: KATIE BERNET A debut novelist explains how to take (respectful) liberties with a literary classic.

BY SANDIE ANGULO CHEN

How did your novel Beth Is Dead come about?

I started writing right after college. It took me a while to get published, but I joined a local writers’ workshop that really helped.

I’ve always loved Little Women and mysteries— that’s what I read for fun— so about three years ago, after a few manuscripts that went nowhere, I decided to combine the two things I loved most. I’m the oldest of three sisters, and we’ve all been obsessed with Little Women since high school.

The idea of mixing that sister dynamic with a mystery just clicked.

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Was the title there from the start?

It didn’t come to me until I was writing that scene where Jo kind of comes up with the title. I had a completely different working title that I won’t even share because it was so bad, but when I wrote that scene, I thought, Thank you, Jo March, this is the title!

Retellings can be tricky.

How did you honor the original while making it your own?

My agent asked me early on: “What’s your purpose for doing this? What do you have to say about Little

Women that makes this worth writing?” That question stayed with me the whole time. I studied other retellings to see how much you preserve versus how much you change. You have to honor the source material but still find your own lens, say something new about it.

Which retellings influenced you most?

The movie Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which is such a good example of keeping the heart of a story but putting a spin on it. I also love Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead, which takes the heart of David Copperfield and makes it something completely new.

Why set it in Concord and why modernize it?

I always knew I wanted to set it in Concord, so that

was an early decision. I did toy with keeping it in the 1800s and turning it into a historical murder mystery.

But in terms of the voices and stories I like to write, I knew it would be more fun for me to modernize it.

Luckily, I got a chance to visit Concord, which was really helpful, because I’ve lived in Dallas my whole life.

Visiting Concord must have been meaningful. How did it shape the story?

The biggest thing that hit me while I was there is it’s kind of like a tourist hub. I felt like there was a lot of spectator energy there, and I think that kind of adds to the fire of the girls being watched and being talked about, so that was important to me. And then, this is a silly detail, but the snow!

I thought that was just really fun to play with in the setting. That’s not K IR KU S R E V IE W S

Mae Haines

DEBUT NOVELIST K ATIE BERNET reimagines one of literature’s most beloved families in Beth Is Dead, a modern-day mystery inspired by Little Women. Set in the same Massachusetts town as the original, this story transforms the March sisters’ coming-of-age tale into a layered exploration of sisterhood, grief, and identity.

When the titular tragedy shatters the March family, the surviving sisters, Meg, Jo, and Amy, must confront the secrets, suspicions, and lies between them.

Bernet, who has two younger sisters of her own, takes liberties with Louisa May Alcott’s classic but stays true to the original’s themes. Speaking to us from her home in Dallas via Zoom, Bernet, 33, discussed blending genres, giving Beth more agency, and why she believes the March sisters will always be relatable. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Q & A // Y O U N G A D U LT

something that I would have gotten if I’d based the story in Dallas!

What did you want to keep from the original, and what did you want to change?

I wanted to keep the heart of each sister, their core personalities and conflicts.

I thought I’d give Beth more spark, because I used to think of her as passive. But I learned through writing that she always had that spark. I just hadn’t given her enough credit. That discovery was one of my favorite parts of the process.

Do you have a favorite film adaptation?

I’m super partial to the Greta Gerwig film. It came at the perfect time for me and reinvigorated my love for the story. I love what she did with Amy and how she gave Jo new dimension.

You see her not just as the hero but also her loneliness and a softer, darker side to Jo. It inspired me to do the same thing.

You capture the closeness of sisters. How did your own sisterhood inform that?

My sisters and I are really, really close. We lived together while I was writing the book. Being a sister means knowing that no matter what happens, you’ll always love each other. You can have a horrible fight, you can accuse each other of murder, and you know you’re still going to love each other. That’s the core of what I was trying to do with the sisterhood and suspicion throughout the story.

There’s a moment when Beth K IR KU S R E V IE W S

imagines what each sister would say about a big decision. It feels so authentic.

That’s exactly how I think about my sisters. I’m oldest and still have moments where I think, I have to be like Emily now? or What would Sarah say right now?

They’re both very different, and I know exactly what they would do, what they would think, what they would encourage me to do.

How did you balance the emotional depth of Little

Women with the structure of a mystery?

It was all about connection. I want the emotional moments to drive the twists. The story has two timelines, so readers can see how events from the sisters’ past led to Beth’s death. Every reveal connects back to emo­ tional moments. Like with any mystery, it only works if the feelings support the reveals.

Which mystery writers

Being a sister means knowing that no matter what happens, you’ll always love each other.

inspired you?

Holly Jackson. I love all her shocking twists. I studied her books and Karen McManus’ as well.

But the book that really pushed me to write a mystery was Andrea Bartz’s We Were Never Here. It’s about a woman trying to decide whether her best friend is a killer or not. I literally read it in one sitting, and it made me think, If best friends can suspect each other, what about sisters?

Readers seem to love retellings right now. Did that encourage you?

Yeah! I think it’s nostalgia and comparison culture. It’s fun to see how different people reinterpret the same story. The same day my book was announced, another Little Women retelling was announced: Little Monsters, a middle grade where the March sisters are literally hiding the fact they’re monsters. I just loved that. Can’t wait to read it.

What do you hope readers take away from your retelling?

I hope they see Beth as a multidimensional character.

She’s not passive, and I actually think she’s braver than Jo. I’ve come to think she’s the bravest March sister. She faces death with grace and still makes space for others. I think that’s really special. I always used to discredit her as just quiet and passive, but now she’s the one I aspire to be. I would love for other readers to see that, too.

Beth Is Dead Bernet, Katie

Sarah Barley Books/Simon & Schuster | 400 pp. $19.99 | Jan. 6, 2026 | 9781665988698

Sandie Angulo Chen is a writer and bookseller in Silver Spring, Maryland.

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freedom, but she falls victim to her family’s biggest secret, the Tether. In 2024, Malcolm Davenport is desperate to protect his family and break the curse before it claims another loved one—but then he, too, is Tethered.

When Emma time-travels to spy on her competition, the two meet and establish a tentative partnership. As they jump through time seeking information and having clandestine meetings, something undeniable sparks between them—but can they really trust each other or will it become a story of “kill or be killed”? This book starts off strong with an original premise, interesting worldbuilding, and poignant moments of insight as it celebrates Black history, excellence, and resilience. However, the middle sags, leaning into repetitive pining and internal monologuing at the expense of plot progression and on-page character and relationship development. Though it rallies slightly toward the end, this debut ultimately doesn’t deliver on its promise.

An initially intriguing fantasy that stumbles to its finish. (Fantasy. 14-18)

Lies We Tell About the Stars Nadler, Susie | Dutton (304 pp.) | $19.99 March 3, 2026 | 9798217004515

A young woman struggles mightily when her best friend disappears during a massive earthquake in this debut set in a near-future San Francisco.

Celeste has been best friends with brilliant, determined Nicky, who’s gay, since they were 3-year-olds; the friends, who are cued white, are now high school seniors. The inseparable pair were born on the same day and have long shared a fascination with space—they even planned to study at MIT and work at NASA together. As the dust settles from the quake and Nicky remains missing, his mother and Celeste’s family begin to lose hope, but Celeste remains convinced he’s alive.

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day, a heartrending story unfurls in chapters that indicate the number of days that have elapsed since the earthquake, expanding into a tale that’s as much about grief-stricken Celeste’s search for herself as her quest to locate Nicky. Along the way she meets, falls hard for, and is helped by a kind boy named Meo, who’s Mexican American and whose Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration status forces him to live precariously.

Celeste has Type 1 diabetes and her service dog, Ursa, a Newfoundland, is a vivid, endearing character. Celeste’s palpable anxiety and complex feelings about her future will be well understood by many teens.

A wise, gripping, and poignant tale of a teen finding her way. (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Star

If We Never End Namey, Laura Taylor | Bloomsbury (336 pp.) $19.99 | March 3, 2026 | 9781547618057

When a Cuban American teen from Los Angeles spends the summer in her aunt’s rural Oregon cabin, she happens upon a gold watch with paranormal powers in a nearby antique shop.

Eighteen-year-old Sylvie Castellano dreams of leading “a big, big life”—one full of love, adventure, and freedom. She’s elated to spend the summer between high school graduation and starting community college with her beloved tía, the famous artist Vivian Rojas, although she feels abandoned by her absent parents; left out by her best friends, Ana and Grier, who recently coupled up; and uneasy about her own future. In tiny Sacred, Oregon, where Tía Vivian lives, Sylvie purchases a seemingly ordinary wristwatch—and is shocked when it summons the spirit of a teenage boy. Penn, who’s cued white, is handsome, charismatic, and devoid of all memories. Sylvie vows to help him discover why he’s bound to the watch and stuck in limbo. But as they

grow closer, she becomes torn between wanting to continue their connection and helping Penn’s spirit move on as she promised. Sylvie’s story is grounded in specifics but contains elements that hold universal resonance for young adult readers. Unexpected twists, slowly unfolding mysteries, and a haunted romance add sparkle to the summer vacation genre. This beautiful, surreal narrative thoughtfully explores transitions—from childhood to adulthood and from this world to the next.

Deeply absorbing and dreamlike.

(Speculative romance. 14-18)

Love on Ice Ney, Sara | Delacorte Romance (384 pp.) $12.99 paper | February 17, 2026 9798217117390

High school seniors Easton and Harper strike a mutually beneficial agreement: His senior prank shenanigans stay under wraps, and she gets a date to prom.

It’s a dare gone wrong for hockey hotshot Easton: Ask his longtime crush, Maddie, to prom and get a “yes” or steal the rival high school’s mascot costume.

After Maddie turns him down, Harper catches Easton wearing the rhino getup and making a run for it, and she offers him a deal: She’ll keep his secret and help him complete the prank if he agrees to take her to prom. She volunteered on the prom committee and bought her dream dress—all she needs now is a date. Neither of them expected feelings between them to grow or how difficult it would be to express them. Harper and Easton, who are cued white, are likable characters with good chemistry, and their tension-filled scenes lead to a satisfying, sweetly romantic ending. Though there are hints about pressures and stresses in their home lives, the lack of character development leaves these topics underexplored. Easton’s hockey career plays a small role; there are a few practices and discussions of his college scholarship, but readers expecting more K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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sports content may be disappointed. Some of the language and phrasing Ney uses in her YA debut feels outdated or as if it’s trying so hard to sound like a teenager’s voice that it pulls readers out of the story.

Fluffy and fun fodder for romance fans. (Romance. 14-18)

Heart of Mischief Noyes, Emma | Wednesday Books (400 pp.) $21 | March 10, 2026 | 9781250342935 Series: Soul of Shadow, 2

After the events of Soul of Shadow (2025), Charlie Hudson faces the fallout of betrayal and the pull of forbidden love.

Weeks after Elias’ shocking treachery, Charlie is driven by a desire for vengeance and feelings of guilt. Her brother, Mason, and friends Abigail and Lou can now see Asgard too, a gift that endangers them as much as it connects them to Charlie’s new reality. When a string of local murders of teens points to the culprit’s being Rattatosk, “the gods’ messenger squirrel,” under the direction of a mysterious force, Elias resurfaces, offering vital information in exchange for Charlie’s help. Reluctantly, she agrees, planning to use their alliance to make him human again. As Charlie’s investigation deepens, she uncovers her own magical inheritance. Under Elias’ guidance, her powers grow, as do the emotions she’s tried to bury. Tension brews between Charlie and her friends, who can’t forgive Elias even though she’s growing to trust him once more.

Balancing mythic action with sharp humor, the novel’s ensemble cast, including a mischievous gnome with a sweet tooth and two Vikings who are

addicted to reality TV, brings levity and charm. Amid the chaos, Charlie’s panic attacks and lingering trauma add emotional realism to this funny and emotionally charged work that explores themes of forgiveness and power while setting the stage for a high-stakes sequel.

Most human characters read white, and Abigail is cued Black.

Fast-paced, witty, and heartfelt. (glossary, list of the gods, the Fenrir’s riddle, author Q&A) (Fantasy. 14-18)

Her Hidden Fire O’Sullivan, Cliodhna | Viking (448 pp.) $22.99 | March 3, 2026 | 9798217040506 Series: Her Hidden Fire, 1

A teenage girl in an Irish-inspired world must learn how to harness a powerful gift.

In Domhain, where dragons roam, every 17-year-old faces the Reckoning: a ceremony that reveals whether they possess the rare ability to channel magic. Shortly before her ceremony, orphaned Éadha learns she’s a Channeller—which is rare for girls, especially ones who, like her, don’t come from privileged Families. Meanwhile, her best friend, Ionáin, must have inherited the ability to preserve his Family’s rule.

When he fails to manifest power at the crucial moment, Éadha secretly channels her strength into him, forging the illusion that he possesses the gift.

Together, they’re sent away to be trained—she as a lower status Keeper. Éadha is horrified to discover the truth: The Channellers’ magic isn’t their own.

It’s stolen, ripped from the lives of Fodder, people deemed unworthy who are sacrificed to sustain the powerful.

Slowly unfolding mysteries and a haunted romance add sparkle.

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Now Éadha must keep concealing her true ability, continue secretly fueling Ionáin’s false magic, and survive a world of dangerous alliances, ruthless instructors, and whispered betrayals. All the while, she wrestles with the devastating knowledge that the society she’s been raised in is built upon a monstrous lie. Brimming with intrigue, romance, and peril, this fast-paced fantasy sweeps readers into a world of impossible choices and breathtaking twists that will leave them racing toward the end. Éadha has honey-brown skin, and Ionáin is pale-skinned.

A lush and compelling debut. (pronunciation guide, map, content note) (Fantasy. 13-18)

The Obsession Preston, Natasha | Delacorte (320 pp.) $14.99 paper | December 2, 2025 9798217028009

A teenage girl struggles with the question of whom to trust in the age of social media exposure.

Thanks to Connie’s mom’s family vlog, her life is anything but private. She enjoyed it at first, but now, between the mean comments online and the cruel mockery from peers in real life, Connie feels like she’s in a prison. Her sister, Isla, says it’s worth it for the money, but Connie isn’t sure if that’s really true.

Connie’s anger over Mom’s refusal to heed warnings that revealing so much puts them in danger continues to build.

When she’s left alone for two weeks while Mom and Isla go on a college road trip, local girls start dying, and a fan reaches out on social media in an unsettling way, leaving Connie worried about her safety.

White-presenting Connie’s sense of humor is charming, and her insights will earn readers’ sympathy as the tension builds. As emotions rise, Preston’s poetic language beautifully captures Connie’s feelings about her mom’s obsession with social media and her confusion about who is worthy of her trust. The topics of JANUARY 1, 2026

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safety and the uncharted waters of social media are skillfully woven into the plot.

However, some inconsistencies weaken the overall story: Apart from Connie, the characters are too lightly developed, and some plot points don’t align with earlier events and motivations, making the ultimate revelation a disappointment.

A suspenseful story that starts off with great promise but fails to deliver.

(Thriller. 12-18)

101 Lessons From the Dugout: What Baseball and Softball Can Teach Us About the Game of Life Rotbart, Harley A. & Ken Davidoff Bloomsbury Academic (240 pp.) | $19.95 paper | February 5, 2026 | 9798765163009

Baseball and softball presented as models for right behavior in real life.

The co-­ authors—­a pediatrician and a sports journalist— take a widely used metaphor to its limits. They use many elements of or situations common to the two related games as opportunities to lecture readers about the virtues of discipline, consistency, respect, making good choices, learning from mistakes, staying positive, and following rules. These are solid principles—but along with being largely expressed as slogans (“Give 110 Percent”) or platitudes, they’re packed into short, numbered entries that for all the boldface titling soon begin to run together. Moreover, the baseball-bromide connection turns tenuous at times: “Switch-Hitting,” for example, cautions against reckless behavior; “The Check Swing” promotes the importance of keeping promises (“The more you check

your swing, the more likely you are to strike out with those depending on you”); and “First and Third” includes a warning about online scams. Even if the overall approach is upbeat, these wearyingly earnest pep talks are unlikely to reach base. Although the co-authors directly address readers as “young adults like you,” the tone of the writing is unlikely to appeal to contemporary teens: “The older kids at school may seem cool, but some of their habits and behaviors may be better to avoid than to imitate.”

An unmanageable lineup of wild pitches and passed balls.

(Nonfiction. 12-16)

Death Is a Hungry Angel Sackett, Leah Holbrook | Shadow Dragon Press (300 pp.) | $16.95 paper October 21, 2025 | 9781963832372

A teen grieving her sister’s death discovers that her family’s new house, a former funeral home, is haunted.

In 2021, six months after her 7-year-old sister, Abby, died in a car accident, 14-year-old Anna and her parents move into gloomy, remote Wade House for a fresh start. But Anna can’t escape her grief, especially after Dad leaves for a business trip. Alone with Mom, who’s often depressed, Anna feels “like the wrong daughter has died.”

Mom’s physical and mental health worsens dangerously, and Anna experiences attacks from unseen forces, leading her to realize that a malevolent presence is preying on them. Anna’s first-person perspective alternates with those of her mother and the house’s last occupant, Beverly Wade. Spanning the years 1918 to 2014, Beverly’s chapters recount her

Explores topics that will resonate with many teens.

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family’s corrupt operation of the Wade Family Death Hospital and Funeral Home as well as Beverly’s infatuation with the Angel of Death, Samael, who devours people’s souls. Beverly attempts to bind Samael to her forever but only intensifies his hunger. When Anna discovers Beverly’s journal, she wonders whether she can summon Samael to resurrect Abby and if there’s a way to save Mom. The narrators’ florid prose occasionally feels stilted, and a late twist risks muddying the plot. However, the grim setting is richly detailed, and Anna’s and her mother’s perspectives offer poignant portrayals of grief, guilt, and healing. Most characters read white.

Sympathetic and satisfyingly creepy, if somewhat overwritten. (content notice) (Paranormal suspense. 14-16)

Loans and Credit: A Teen Guide to Borrowing Sanderson, Jennifer | Cheriton Children’s Books (48 pp.) | $11.99 paper | January 1, 2026 9781917509695 | Series: Money Matters

A beginner’s guide to the ins and outs of credit cards and loans.

“You may not realize it, but lenders don’t just hand out money, it always comes at a price.” Should a guide to credit cards and loans be any less direct? This book, which is chock-full of practical advice around how to pay bills on time, shop using discounts, and cut back on spending to meet one’s budget, is a helpful toolbox for fledgling young adult consumers.

Sanderson acknowledges credit card rewards and perks but offers more frequent warnings about the consequences of credit misuse. Following the primer on credit cards is a section about all kinds of loans, including installment, personal, auto, student, and mortgage. The book covers snowball and avalanche methods of paying off debt along with debt consolidation.

Photos, graphics, and text boxes appear throughout, breaking up the chunks of text into digestible nuggets. Recap pages helpfully remind readers of the main ideas K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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they’ve encountered in each section, providing a handy lifeline for readers who may blanch at financial concepts, vocabulary, and equations for figuring out interest. A warning about raising one’s credit limit raises a minor contradiction over advice about credit utilization ratios, but otherwise this is a sound manual for getting one’s bearings about debt.

Sensible explanations of how to use debt without succumbing to endless interest payments. (picture credits, glossary, resources, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

Dealing With Cyberbullying Sanderson, Jennifer | Cheriton Children’s Books (48 pp.) | $11.99 paper January 1, 2026 | 9781917509299 Series: Teen Online Survival Guides

A quick overview of a topic that can, sadly, be a matter of life or death.

As Sanderson explains, possi­ bilities for experiencing harm online are everywhere: Social media, gaming platforms, chatrooms, and bulletin boards allow friends and strangers to inflict hurt. Much of the book describes flaming, trolling, outing, doxxing, and other types of cyberbullying. Clear bullet-pointed lists in sidebars labeled “Teen Need To Know” and “How To Survive Online” help with identifying and responding to bullying; tips offer hope and practical steps to support readers. Sanderson delves into the wide societal and personal (psychological and physical) costs of such behavior. She addresses what to do if you’re a victim, bystander, parent, or even perpetrator.

Understanding cyberbullies’ motives can help victims cope. Potential consequences and methods of protection take up the last quarter of the book. Sanderson’s focus is on individual responsibility: She briefly suggests that regulations might help reduce such behavior, citing government legislation in the U.S. and abroad and media companies’ own efforts (although she doesn’t give the K IR KU S R E V IE W S

latter much close scrutiny). The final pages outline basic digital citizenship standards. Brevity, chapter summaries, varied typefaces and colors, ample photos, and a conversational writing style make this difficult subject more approachable. Some of the information is repeated throughout, so that even casual browsing is likely to be informative.

A helpful introduction to online encounters with bullies. (picture credits, glossary, resources, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)

Spotting a Scam Sanderson, Jennifer | Cheriton Children’s Books (48 pp.) | $11.99 paper January 1, 2026 | 9781917509374 Series: Teen Online Survival Guides

A light dose of common-sense advice for teens hoping to avoid online scams.

While tallying a few general types of scams and other cybercrimes and citing a few high-­ profile examples, Sanderson familiarizes readers with some relevant vocabulary—like the difference between spear phishing, clone phishing, and angler phishing—and adds basic pointers on, for instance, not giving out personal information or friending strangers, confirming that charities are legitimate, and scrutinizing online retail sites. She emphasizes the vast scale of cybercrime, cites the (possibly surprising to readers) statistic that people under age 20 disproportionately fall victim to it, and urges those who have been scammed to gather evidence, talk to a trusted adult, and report incidents to the appropriate authorities. The final section, “Be a Responsible Digital Citizen,” offers helpful general guidelines to live by.

While the approach is somewhat bland, the repetition of information supports striving readers, and all teens should come away more aware that there are some bad, clever actors out there—and what to do about them.

Ample stock photos showing diverse young people, including a wheelchair user, add visual interest, and the varied layout, with information clearly labeled with headers and pulled out in text boxes, breaks the information down into manageable chunks.

Brief, practical, and cogent. (picture credits, glossary, resource lists, index) (Nonfiction. 12-16)

The Oks Are Not OK Shim, Grace K. | Kokila (352 pp.) | $19.99 March 3, 2026 | 9798217001842

A Korean American influencer and her family experience a paradigm shift after they suffer economic upheaval.

Seventeen-­yearold Elena Ok lives for publicity. Since her notorious Vogue interview, she’s built an online empire around her catchphrase, “What’s that?” But her life of indulgent pleasures and transactional friendships in Los Angeles is overturned when a scandal breaks. Elena’s father, the CEO of the family’s clothing brand, It’s Ok!, has ties to a financier who’s been indicted for fraud, and the Oks may have to file for bankruptcy. Elena, her parents, and older brother Gavin must relocate to the only property the IRS hasn’t seized: their house in Blaire, California, population 150. Thanks to its scientific telescope, the town is in a National Radio Quiet Zone; with no Wi-Fi or cell service, Elena’s career is on hold. Forced to confront themselves and who they are as a family, the Oks start questioning their choices. Elena and Gavin have balanced and nuanced emotional arcs—they put down roots, develop ties in their new community, and explore what it means to be authentic, both in their career aspirations (Gavin) and friendships (Elena). Dale, who came from a farming family in Korea and didn’t attend college, struggles with insecurity, while Gloria—dismissed even by her own daughter as “the epitome of a trophy wife”—craves recognition for her JANUARY 1, 2026

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business savvy. This refreshing narrative unfolds naturally as it explores topics that will resonate with many teens.

A heartfelt, feel-good redemption story centering on a complicated family. (Fiction. 12-18)

Ungodly Chaos Soren, Selma | McElderry (320 pp.) | $19.99 February 17, 2026 | 9781665974097

A Dearborn, Michigan, teen’s coffee shop shift ends in the Underworld— and a murder investigation.

Dark-haired, dark-eyed Amira Shah is a barista and debate club prodigy whose biggest problems should be her college applications and ex-boyfriend, Kaidan Jaziri. But when she sees Kaidan arguing with a strange man in the alley behind Deja Brew before vanishing into “an eddy of swirling, shifting air,” she’s concerned for his safety and goes after him. Amira finds herself in Duat, where Kaidan reveals himself to be a Descendant of Apep, the Old Egyptian god of Chaos. Soon she learns that Descendants are being hunted. Despite being warned about the dangers, she’s intrigued by Duat—“a place beyond her little city, one filled with temples and magic and mystery”—and she insists on joining Kaidan’s mission to catch the culprit. The deeper they dig, the more they discover about both Amira’s family history and the identity of the murderer. Soren’s debut deftly fuses Egyptian myth­ ology with modern teen anxieties—­ framing friendship, betrayal, and first love against a backdrop of cosmic stakes—while the gruesome murder mystery lends chilling urgency to the story. Despite some foreshadowing, the reveal of the killer’s identity feels somewhat rushed, and romantic entanglements occasionally eclipse character development. But 17-year-old Amira’s 146

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sarcasm and vulnerability make her a relatable and appealing protagonist.

A raw, deeply intimate account of a girl coming of age while trying to survive the troubled teen industry. (letter from the author) (Graphic memoir. 13-18)

Bad Kid: My Life as a “Troubled Teen”

This Ain’t Our First Rodeo

An action-packed, mythology-infused fantasy that’s equal parts chaos, heart, and reclamation. (Fantasy. 14-18)

Szamosi, Sofia | Little, Brown Ink (384 pp.) $25.99 | $18.99 paper | March 10, 2026 9781523527380 | 9781643751979 paper

Labeled a “bad kid,” Szamosi was 13 when her mother sent her to a rural residential facility in Virginia.

Over the next few years, Szamosi was in and out of both long- and short-term self-styled “therapeutic wilderness programs” that claimed to help troubled teens but that ultimately kept her isolated from family, stripped her of her autonomy, provided inadequate therapy, and left her traumatized—all while profiting from her, even lying about her progress to prolong her treatment. Returning home proved challenging for Szamosi: Her relationship with her mother was now strained, and she quickly fell back into her old behavioral patterns. But her deep friendships with girls she regarded as soul sisters, whom she met both in and out of the programs, offered a thread of hope. While detailing her experiences in this graphic memoir, Szamosi also provides glimpses into her earlier childhood and her fractured relationship with her single mother, a professor who had a traumatic past of her own. In an authentic voice, Szamosi, who appears white, touches upon topics that many teens will find relatable: complex family dynamics, disordered eating, substance use, bodily autonomy, and the desire for freedom. The monochromatic art is punctuated by bold slashes of red that highlight key moments. Thoughtfully interspersed personal photographs and excerpts from Szamosi’s teen journal offer deeper glimpses into her world.

Tamani, Liara | Greenwillow Books (336 pp.) $19.99 | February 3, 2026 | 9780063093331

An aspiring bull rider and a restaurant empire heiress reconnect years after a single magical night.

At Shawn Williams’ father’s last Rodeo­ Houston, an event that’s the pinnacle of the rodeo world, Shawn knows it’s his turn to carry the family bull-riding legacy forward. He meets Josie Riley, a girl whose determination and spirit draw him in. Sparks fly during their evening together, but Josie’s parents whisk her away before the two can exchange contact information. Josie carries a torch for Shawn, following his meteoric success. The teens, who are Black, are reunited after three years at an event for Shawn’s sponsors hosted by Josie’s parents. Their attraction immediately reignites, but they both have reasons to guard their hearts. Their shared passion for horses deepens their bond; Josie cherishes her time at her grandparents’ ranch with her horse, Strawberry, while Shawn dreams of teaching children to ride. Josie is devastated when her parents convince her grandparents to sell their ranch.

Complicating matters, Shawn has family ties to the deal, straining their relationship. Set against the backdrop of rodeo life, the ever-present dangers of bull riding, and the rich history of Black cowboys, this romance balances sweet, cozy, and taut elements. Late in the story a jarring act of violence shifts the tone, raising the stakes, but the narrative ultimately returns to themes of victory— both in and out of the bull pen.

An uplifting romance grounded in a fascinating and well-realized setting. (sources) (Romance. 13-18)

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Transcendents: War of the Seven Walls, Devri | Brown Books Publishing Group (336 pp.) | $17.99 paper March 24, 2026 | 9781612546889 Series: Transcendents, 1

Five new soldiers have officially joined the side of the angels in the war between heaven and hell.

In modern-day Salem, Massachusetts, the last of the Transcendents has arrived. Zachariah Shaw is from Salem, but he comes from the year 1692. He joins Addy Briggs from Wisconsin (who, like Zach, is cued white); Ojore Angola, who’s from an unspecified 18th-century African nation; and Jasmine Chein, who’s from the Philippines. Luca Vitali, the first chosen Transcendent, appears to be an Italian human, a disguise that hides his demonic origins from the others.

They each receive weapons and an angelic power in an initiation ceremony. Over the next several months, they train with the brownskinned angel Jubal to fight different types of demons. But the group may be forced to test their skills earlier than expected when people start to go missing. Like Zach, readers are dumped into this world having to play catch-up; a lot has to be explained or deciphered. The depth of Christian mythology used in the worldbuilding makes this a good pick for readers who have the background knowledge to understand the context.

Readers are privy to the behind-thescenes machinations of the seven Princes of Hell, including Lucifer, Mammon, and Leviathan, which will pique their interest. QR codes that link to various interactive media, including videos, augmented reality experiences, and 3-D maps, appear throughout the book.

An exposition-heavy series opener with some interesting character development. (Fantasy. 13-17) K IR KU S R E V IE W S

A War of Wyverns Williamson, S.F. | Harper/HarperCollins (368 pp.) $19.99 | January 6, 2026 | 9780063353862 Series: A Language of Dragons, 2

The stakes are high as full-blown war pits dragon against human.

In the series opener, A Language of Dragons (2025), set in a fantastical alternate 1923 London where dragons live alongside people, aspiring Draconic Translator Viven Featherswallow accidentally ignited a war. She landed at Bletchley Park, deciphering rebel dragon communications for a government she wasn’t sure she could trust. In this second entry, Vivien has not only joined the resistance, she’s become “London’s most wanted rebel.” Propelled by grief over a love she’s lost, fear for a sister she hopes to keep safe, and skepticism toward her political leaders, Vivien tentatively sets out to crack a sacred, nearly untranslatable language. In the process, she immerses herself in the world of the distrustful Hebridean Wyverns, whose lives and culture may open her eyes to new ways of being. The secondary cast, including Vivien’s love interest, are thinly characterized, and some plot elements feel derivative of other popular YA genre fiction works. But Vivien’s changing understanding of translation as a tool for both communication and oppression remains compelling, and her fight to find her place in the world and the revolution forms the heartbeat of the book. Though comparisons to the popular dragon-rider romance Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros are inevitable, readers who were drawn to the complex draconic politics of Rachel Hartman’s Seraphina may find more to sink their teeth into here. Characters largely read white.

The Dragon and the Sun Lotus Zhao, Amélie Wen | Delacorte (400 pp.) $22.99 | March 3, 2026 | 9780593813881 Series: The Three Realms, 2

The fate of the human kingdom—and the immortal and demon kingdoms as well—hangs on one girl and what her heart decides in this sequel to The Scorpion and the Night Blossom (2025). Àn’yīng and Hào’yáng, who’s heir to the mortal throne of the Kingdom of Rivers, have returned to Àn’yīng’s village. They have a plan that will protect her family and the rest of the kingdom from the demon mó forever: a marriage between them, which will create a political alliance linking the mortal and immortal realms. But working against them are the demonic forces, led by Yù’chén’s mother. Yù’chén, whom Àn’yīng is impossibly drawn to, is key to the bonds between the three kingdoms, just as much as Hào’yáng and Àn’yīng are, and ultimately fate will bring them together, to violent ends. Àn’yīng’s travels through the dark kingdom of the demons and the heavenly kingdom of the immortals are grounded in Chinese mythology and folklore, and the worldbuilding includes familiar fantasy components, such as glittering gowns and dangerous, seductive men. Àn’yīng’s story and the choices she makes are engrossing enough, but her confused love triangle, while adding conflict, isn’t given enough space to fully develop. Still, this is a readable work that effortlessly incorporates Chinese elements, such as dragons and an immortality pill, that enrich the story.

A duology closer incorporating magic, war, and love and set in a lush, well-described fantasy China. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)

For another Chinese-inspired fantasy, visit Kirkus online.

An uneven but ultimately gripping sequel. (author’s note) (Historical fantasy. 14-18)

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SEEN AND HEARD Jason Reynolds Audiobook To Become Print Book The YA author’s Soundtrack will be published in April.

For more about the Soundtrack audiobook, visit Kirkus online.

Books for Young Readers, said that Soundtrack “is a gift to teens, musicians, and readers who love New York. It’s about creating art, being seen, building community.”

Soundtrack will be published in hardcover and paperback editions on April 14.—M.S.

Jason Reynolds

Jason Mendez/Get t y Images for Tribec a Festi val.

Jason Reynolds’ audiobook Soundtrack will be published in a print edition, Crown

Books for Young Readers announced in a news release.

Reynolds’ young adult novel, released as an audio original in June by Listening Library, follows Stuy Grey, a Manhattan teenager whose mother was once the drummer for a punk band. Stuy leaves his mother and her abusive boyfriend and moves in with his uncle, then starts playing drums with four friends, who find success as a band after busking in subway stations.

Reynolds, the author of books for young readers such as Long Way Down and Twenty-Four Seconds From Now…, said in a statement, “It excites me to know that this audio experience can now be read. So many of my interests are in presenting stories in different forms and mediums.

In this instance, the medium is a book, but the form is a script, which, to me, continues to stretch what we think of as it pertains to contemporary children’s literature.”

Phoebe Yeh, vice president and editor-­at-large for Crown

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B O O K L I S T // Y O U N G A D U LT

Inspired by Mythology 1 Fustuk

By Robert Mgrdich Apelian

A heartfelt, visually inventive debut that captures the complexities of cultural heritage and the desire to belong.

1

2 Hekate

2

By Nikita Gill

Fiercely feminist, this reimagining of a lesser-known goddess crackles with magic.

3 Persephone’s Curse

By Katrina Leno

Fans of Greek mythology and supernatural love stories will find lots to enjoy in this well-woven tale.

4 Illusions of Fire

By Nisha Sharma

A fiery fantasy that proves that sometimes the most dangerous battles are the ones within.

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3

5 Orisha, Vol. 1

By Huzayfa Umar

A strong start to a new adventure series.

6 The Dragon and the Sun Lotus

By Amélie Wen Zhao

A duology closer incorporating magic, war, and love and set in a lush, well-described fantasy China.

4

For more booklists, visit Kirkus online.

5

6

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Indie CRIME FICTION FANS who like it dark know that serial killer stories are a reliable source of uniquely chilling thrills. Murder as the product of greed, rage, jealousy, or revenge is at least understandable—but the profound pathologies that drive serial killers are as ungraspable as the stygian motivations of Lovecraft’s squamous, brooding elder gods. In other words, the serial killer narrative is a real-life monster story—who knows what that seemingly bland fellow in front of you in the supermarket checkout line has hidden in his basement? Some recent Indie titles dare to ask.

S.L. Woeppel’s The Butcher and the Liar offers a unique spin on the serial killer thriller by centering the perspective of a girl named Daisy, who, as a child, came upon her dad dismembering a woman in their basement. The girl is ultimately made the killer’s accomplice, and the novel follows her struggles in adulthood to escape her horrific past. Our reviewer praises Woeppel’s prose as “strikingly atmospheric, balancing bleak Midwestern landscapes with visceral details that never feel 150

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gratuitous”; this emotionally intense take eschews titillation to spotlight the often unacknowledged victims in these stories— the killers’ innocent loved ones, rendered collateral damage by a madman’s dark impulses.

Deep Trauma by Kat Edwards introduces series lead Riley Brighton, an embattled ER medic whose life only grows more complicated after she happens upon an apparent hit-and-run victim. As the body count continues to rise, it becomes apparent that somebody is targeting transgender people.

Sickened by the hate crimes, Riley falls in with a vigilante group and becomes embroiled in a deadly game of cat and mouse. Our reviewer notes the novel’s “page-turning intrigue” and makes special mention of the new series’ lead, “an engaging hero… courageous whether confronting obnoxious colleagues or putting herself in risky situations.”

James Sackos’ Prey Before Bed gets up close and excruciatingly personal with a serial killer named Steve Balam who, based on appearances, is a loving

family man. The narrative exerts a queasy fascination as it details Balam’s fastidious and diabolically clever efforts to evade detection—in what may be a bridge too far for all but the most jaded thriller fans, the killer plants DNA he harvests from a massage parlor where he’s an investor to frame innocent men for his crimes. Our reviewer lauds Sackos’ “taut writing;” for those with the stomach for such things, this is a fascinatingly intimate portrait of a seemingly good man compelled to visit unspeakable horror on his victims.

From the subhuman to the ridiculous: Jeremy Robinson’s 30seven is for anyone who’s ever wondered, What if a serial killer got loose aboard a UFO? The genre-bending novel pits a grieving game designer against the fiend who murdered his wife when they are among a group of humans kidnapped by a flying saucer.

It sounds absurd, but the result is, as our reviewer notes, “an engaging blend of SF, horror, and mystery.” Iconic serial murderer Jason Voorhees made it to space himself in the Friday the 13th sequel Jason X, so there is a precedent…and as they say, in space, no one can hear you scream.

Illustration by Eric Scot t Ander son

KILLER READS

ARTHUR SMITH

Arthur Smith is an Indie editor.

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INDIE

EDITOR’S PICK In Rossi’s YA novel, when a neurodivergent teenager attempts to organize a Shakespeare play in his outpatient program, chaos and self-discovery ensue.

For Rian Folie, a neurodivergent 16-year-old with impulse control issues, the final straw comes when he throws himself out of his mother’s moving car and ends up (once again) in the emergency room. It is there that Rian accepts help in the form of an “intensive outpatient program” called Restorations, an organization that specializes in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy.

Under the leadership of his strict case manager, Ms. Rabst, Rian attempts to get a grip on his ever-­ wandering brain. When his well-­meaning high school literature teacher, Mr. Custwell, introduces

These Titles Earned the Kirkus Star

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him to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (“a love play about teens with a restless brains…Ends with a car crash”), Rian is inspired to try to stage it with his fellow Restorations buddies in an effort to impress the gorgeous Aurora Diaz. But as the production hits multiple snags and Rian’s relationship with Aurora begins mirroring that of the tragic lovers in the play, Rian must finally decide: Will he will absorb Aurora’s dark addictions as his own?

Or is it finally time to break free? Rossi has crafted a singular and compassionate story that effortlessly weaves together Rian’s decidedly modern experiences—at home, school, and Restorations— with Shakespeare’s timeless themes of young love and family turmoil. Rian’s narrative voice is an

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The Privilege of Aging

By Kamla K. Kapur

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Mercutio and Juliet

By Michael Rossi

Mercutio and Juliet Rossi, Michael | Self | 298 pp. | $20 paper October 24, 2025 | 9798986641331

absolute delight, vacillating between beauty and heartbreak in the blink of an eye: “I can see my mother peeking out of the window. She’s been waiting. I wrecked her marriage. She sleeps on the floor to protect me. My sister electrocuted herself because of how I made her feel. And now this beautiful girl is breaking before my eyes.” Realistic dialogue and

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believable, painful obstacles make his experiences feel almost tangible. Rian’s journey toward healing and acceptance (of himself, his situation, his life) culminates in a moving portrait of a neurodivergent teenager whose struggles are both unique and eternal.

A dazzling, razor-sharp look at adolescence, first love, and what it means to stand out from the crowd.

Boss Brooks

By Kathy Bingham Turner & Leon Alligood

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By Norman Woolworth

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Welcome Home Warzone Asgaard, Gregory | Story Merchant (286 pp.) $14.99 paper | June 23, 2025 | 9781970157772

A decorated U.S. Navy psychologist falsely accused of terrorism must navigate an out-of-control local justice system in this memoir.

After several years of counseling veterans suffering from PTSD, Asgaard relocated to his childhood hometown on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. He had secured a job there as a clinical psychologist and bought a house still under construction. When it was completed, he moved in with his girlfriend and their new baby girl. But he began feeling unsettled, and his girlfriend was dealing with her own postpartum issues. What Asgaard did not yet recognize was that he, like his patients, was beginning to suffer from PTSD. One night, he and his girlfriend got into what the author describes as a “lukewarm” argument. She called the police, and although the officers noted that Asgaard was a gun owner, they saw no indication of immediate danger. Still, they took him to a hotel for the night to let everyone calm down. During his hotel check-in, the author expansively described his own work and credentials, unknowingly initiating what would turn into a two-year nightmare. The disgruntled check-in clerk, either intentionally or unintentionally twisting Asgaard’s words, reported to the police that he suspected Asgaard of being a terrorist.

The next morning, he discovered that the police had confiscated his three guns in the middle of the night—eventually, he was arrested and jailed, and worse was yet to come. This memoir is an articulate and vivid depiction of a justice system gone rogue. The author paints a graphic portrait of life behind bars, provides a comprehensive presentation of PTSD symptoms and experiences, and delivers a passionate indictment of the lack of appropriate 152

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treatment for veterans. Asgaard reflects upon the night clerk’s actions: “Maybe my military doctor-speak irritated him that much. Maybe I’d angered and offended him until he saw red”; ironically, that same “military doctor-speak” and repetition of his credentials also appear too often in his otherwise riveting tale of injustice, courage, and vindication.

Disturbing, emotional, highly informative, and triumphant.

Sultry, Is the Night Avon, Barbara | Self (174 pp.) | $21.99 paper November 18, 2021 | 9798533357043 Series: Sultry, Is the Night, 1

In the first installment of Avon’s series, a young man struggles to establish a career and navigate a fraught new romantic relationship while reeling from the loss of his mother.

When readers first meet 30-year-old Mario, the protagonist is contemplatively smoking a cigarette as he waves to the mortician ferrying away his mother’s body. With his father long since out of the picture—even if Mario knows just where to find him—and his mother recently dead, Mario is now effectively an orphan. In his younger, better days, when he was living in the nice part of town, Mario was one of the cool kids at school, a football quarterback from a well-to-do family who harbored dreams of one day becoming a chef. Now, left by his parents’ divorce and mother’s death in dire straits and living quite literally on the wrong side of the tracks, those dreams seem like a thing of the past, no matter how much Mario knows his mother would want him to chase after his ambitions.

Whether for his own satisfaction or to honor his dead mother, Mario humbles himself before his father by asking for a job at his restaurant, but he is insulted by the dishwasher position he’s offered.

Mario soon lucks into a different

opportunity: He meets Dean (friends call him “Dito”), owner of Dean’s Pizzeria, where he soon begins to work as a cook. Things are looking up, and soon Mario even meets a girl—Teresa, or, as friends call her, “Tess.” As if her beauty weren’t enough to attract Mario, Tess comes from the other, ‘better’ side of town and reminds him of his old life, when times were easier. But as in so many romances that seem, at first, too good to be true, there is trouble; Tess is harboring dark secrets that threaten to derail the hard-fought progress Mario has achieved for himself.

Avon’s novel is teeming with characters readers will feel they have seen before: an ambitious young man with a worthless, selfish father; a loving, long-suffering mother; a pretty girl with a checkered past. While at first readers may fear clichés abound, the author deftly leans on her command of setting to inform the characters, as seen here in a description of the apartment Mario’s mother left behind: “The story [she had been reading] without an audience had been eternally suspended, like a movie reel that snaps in the middle of the film’s denouement. On the bedroom dresser, a full bottle of baby powder was tipped on its side, spilling its guts.

Clothes hung on their hangers; emaciated shells craving a human.”

Avon’s evocative language carries the day here, and while there are passages that skirt overwriting (the phrase “feculent with impurity” appears in the novel’s opening sentence, for example), the vivid prose, in combination with the natural tension of a burgeoning love story pressurized by the secrets young lovers hide from one another, makes this novel stand out in a crowded field of suspenseful romance tales.

A well-written novel sure to satisfy fans of small-town romances with a touch of danger.

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Please Wait To Cross Bass, Elissa | Archway Publishing (280 pp.) $21.99 paper | September 2, 2025 9781665783354

A corporate executive reconnects with her family and finds an unexpected chance at love in Bass’ contemporary romance.

At 58, Elizabeth “Beth” Rhinehart, the Chicago-based CFO of a Fortune 500 company, should be basking in the rewards of her success; instead, she’s in the throes of a major midlife crisis. In need of a change, Beth resigns from her company, sells her luxurious penthouse, and returns to her family’s Cape Cod home to help her sister Katherine (“KK”) navigate a series of crises, including the sudden death of her best friend, Chickie Madeira. She even finds a renewed since of purpose as a part-time school crossing guard as she connects with students from all walks of life, including Priya Deshmukh, a star student intent on pursuing an Ivy League education, and Malachy Doyle, a fifth grader from a troubled family. It’s in her capacity as crossing guard that Beth catches the eye of police chief Mike Ponce, a childhood acquaintance. As Beth becomes an integral part of the community, an attraction grows between her and Mike, although both are wary of romance after past failed relationships. When tragedy strikes, Beth and Mike must reevaluate their places in the community—and in each other’s lives. Bass’ novel is a sharply written sequel to her Happy Hour (2024) replete with well-developed characters and incisive writing that smoothly alternates between Beth’s and Mike’s perspectives as they process their unexpected romance. Beth loves poetry, and the author skillfully includes quotes from poets like Robert Frost and William Carlos Williams to emphasize key moments in the story. Bass’ writing offers a striking balance of humor and insight (“After decades of therapy, it took nine months of working as a school crossing guard to figure out what I K IR KU S R E V IE W S

needed”). Underlying the novel’s briskly paced narrative is a deeply empathetic exploration of grief, loneliness, and the quiet struggles of children living on society’s margins. In Bass’ skilled hands, what could be a simple breezy romance becomes a tender portrait of a community and all of its joys and sorrows.

A poignant love story with a satisfying mix of thoughtfulness and humor.

“You’ve Got Michael”: Living Through HIStory Beck, Dan | Trouser Press Books (289 pp.) $22.50 paper | October 15, 2025 9798999048707

Beck’s memoir chronicles working with the King of Pop during a tum­ultuous time.

The author, a music industry veteran, was a 41-year-old vice president at Epic Records when, in 1991, he became the product manager for Michael Jackson.

Beck was experienced in coordinating artist development and shaping and implementing marketing plans for acts as varied as Cyndi Lauper, The Clash, and the Charlie Daniels Band, but working with the mega-star Jackson brought an exponentially higher level of intense pressure. As Jackson’s marketing contact at the label, the author’s task was “to create the plan and coordinate the timing, creation and completion of all the tools necessary to continue Michael’s phenomenal record-selling success.” Both Jackson and Epic expected each new release to set industry records. Jackson’s “disconnect with the cost of time and money that we mortals understood,” per Beck, created ballooning overruns on almost every project. The author states that “Michael was never demanding, but he was unrelenting” in pursuing his artistic vision, a subject Beck explores in detail when discussing the production of the 1995 HIStory double album. He notes Jackson’s vulnerability and shyness, his altruistic charitable work, his competitive drive, and his struggles with self-image.

The author also details navigating the increasingly negative media coverage surrounding Jackson, including allegations of child abuse and the cancellation of the Dangerous tour for drug rehab in 1993. In addition to covering his experiences with Jackson, Beck provides a fascinating history of the music industry during a time when sales of a physical product (LPs, tapes, CDs), along with radio airplay, determined the success of musicians, highlighting the unseen promotional work of marketing departments. Throughout the narrative, the author deftly weaves in his own life story, charting his high-flying early success and the stresses of an outwardly glamorous career that kept him away from his wife and family. His writing is lively and empathetic, effectively communicating the experience of working in a high-­ stakes industry with a very gifted, groundbreaking, and flawed artist.

Michael Jackson fans will be captivated by this unique behindthe-scenes account.

Creation, Life, and Purpose: Discovering New Harmony Between Faith and Science Bills, Mike A. | GSCYou (472 pp.) | $18.99 paper | April 22, 2025 | 9798218593544

A debut nonfiction book blends autobiography and Christian apologetics.

“I began this journey of writing not because I had all the answers, but because I was searching for them,” writes Bills. Written as a letter addressed to his four children, the work explores fundamental questions tied to the author’s Christian faith, particularly as it relates to his quest to reconcile biblical Creation stories with scientific consensus on the origins of the universe. A genre-defying book, it opens with autobiographical vignettes from the author’s upbringing. Born in Dearborn, Michigan, Bills resettled with his family in Oklahoma, where he grew up “in a JANUARY 1, 2026

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quiet neighborhood that fostered a comforting sense of community” despite the social unrest surrounding the nation in the throes of the 1960s. While his family was not particularly wealthy, Bills describes his childhood as happy, full of Kool-Aid, outdoor adventures, and church (“the central hub for our close family friendships”). A member of the Church of Christ, the author recalls his denomination’s traditional stances— from a cappella worship to a literal interpretation of the Bible’s six-day Creation story. The quaint faith of Bills’ childhood would later be tested by his exposure to scientific theories that ran counter to the Bible’s Creation story as well as personal tragedies that included the death of his brother in a car accident and the death of his wife. Combined with the author’s deeply personal stories is a more traditional religious commentary that defends his Christian faith while calling on fellow believers to adapt their interpretations based on scientific evidence. Much of the book’s underlying theology echoes evangelical positions regarding the veracity of the Bible, as the author makes the case for the historicity of Jesus and the “historical and prophetic accuracy” of the biblical narrative.

While defending the Bible’s authenticity has long been a centerpiece of Christian apologetics, what stands out in this book is its adamancy that the “Bible and the universe—which science examines to uncover its intricacies— must interface perfectly.” In other words, when Christian interpretation of Scripture does not align with science, then it is incumbent upon Christians to reexamine their approach. Just as the Roman Catholic Church was proven wrong when it denounced Galileo’s heliocentrism as heresy, so too are contemporary Christians, the author suggests, too inflexible when they reject scientific consensus surrounding evolutionary biology and the Big Bang.

Science does not “diminish the power or authority of God,” he reassures skeptical Christian readers, but it enhances “our understanding of the Creator of the universe.” The cogent volume backs its argument with a network of almost 100 endnote citations and offers an engaging, often conversational writing style that 154

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includes multiple references to pop culture, from Disney’s Moana to Marvel comics. But at almost 500 pages, the work may try to tackle too many topics, such as deep dives into ancient Hebrew as it reinterprets the story of Noah’s Ark. While some of these tangential discussions are intriguing and broadly align with the book’s thesis, they distract from its intimate stylization as a letter from a father to his children. Still, the volume is particularly deft at questioning conservative theology without belittling the faith of Bills’ childhood.

A personal, nuanced, and engrossing exploration of the biblical Creation story.

Zicky: Wrath of the Rat King Cape, Darin S. | Illus. by Zeno Decrux & Hiorsh Gabotto | SHP Comics (160 pp.) $18.99 paper | March 10, 2026 9798992749939

A boy who battles diabolical rats in his dreams must thwart a real-world invasion in Cape’s graphic novel for young readers.

In 4-year-old Zicky’s dreams, he wields a sword against the Rat King and his army; before sunrise, he uses a special ring to open a portal and make it back in time for breakfast with his family. In the real world, Zicky is smaller, his sword is wooden, and his ring is his binky. The rats would like nothing more than to invade Zicky’s world, mostly to get at its cheese. They go after his ring, and when Zooky, Zicky’s lookalike archnemesis, gets his hands on it, he takes Zicky captive and jumps through the portal.

All Zicky’s family sees is Zicky, although his replacement is decidedly more sullen and secretly cavorts with rats. Zicky looks for a way to escape the dreamworld and get back home. An unlikely ally may be able to help him stop the rats’ widespread cheese thievery and whatever scheme Zooky is cooking up. Cape’s story is endlessly entertaining, particularly in its use of the dual worlds. The dreamworld resembles an

anime (there’s impossibly spiky hair and action relayed via onomatopoeia); in the real world, Zicky’s biggest trouble seems to be his mean older brother. Decrux and Gabotto’s vibrant illustrations wonderfully combine gleefully exaggerated action sequences with nuanced touches, most notably Zicky’s perpetual bedhead and missing teeth.

Comedy reigns throughout; Zicky is sassy even in captivity (“Rats are so gullible”), and the apathetic Zooky playing in Zicky’s soccer match is a highlight. The supporting cast is equally memorable, including Zicky’s homemaker father, his doting mother, and Zooky’s snarling dog, Damien, who, like everyone else, looks completely different in the real world. Whether the narrative plays out entirely or partially in Zicky’s imagination isn’t fully clarified until later in the book, leaving room for this plucky, down-to-earth boy to continue trouncing evil.

Delightful and rib-tickling comic-­ book adventures with an adorable young hero.

Swaddled: Sage Stories to Wrap Mothers in Love Cassidy, Elizabeth Sarah | Starling Press (240 pp.) | $19.99 paper | May 27, 2025 9798992641325

Cassidy presents a deeply personal account of firsttime mother­ hood with advice for others.

In this emotional guidebook for new mothers, the author details the experiences and anxieties she faced after the birth of her son, Ryan. In addition, she recounts the experiences of other mothers in her support group, providing a bricolage of perspectives on parenthood. Despite many close personal relationships, Cassidy often felt alone as she dealt with the practice of everyday life as a new mom. She also struggled with postpartum depression and frequent chaos as she tried to manage her son’s upbringing. The author calls for K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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community building among mothers as a potential source of support for other young parents and recommends seeking help from counselors and therapists if necessary. One of Cassidy’s friends describes new moms as needing a “Fab Four” of support: a supportive partner, a skilled obstetrician, therapeutic support, and a community of other new mothers.

There’s a great deal of familiar wisdom in this book, but it presents that material in an unusual way. By delving into the experiences of a diverse group of mothers, it eschews a one-size-fits-all approach to motherhood and instead draws on a range of lived experiences to offer insights for mothers with very different journeys in the early years of parenthood.

Chapters focus on a wide range of issues, including returning to work, how not to be overwhelmed by baby’s first Christmas, and how the health and happiness of a baby is strongly correlated with that of the mother. It stands out from a crowded self-help market with its accounts from salient lived experience.

An empathetic manual with tangible guidance and empathy from experienced moms.

Metrognome Cruz, Jana | Illus. by Hanna Stoliar Bookfox Press (40 pp.) | $11.99 paper March 13, 2025 | 9781960157980

In Cruz’s debut picture book, a restless garden gnome journeys to the big city.

Cora, a brown-haired, pigtailed gnome with fair skin, is bored with her life standing about in the garden. Though her parents dismiss her dream of going to the nearby city, Cora runs away and makes a life there selling apples. Cora wants to be part of the music she hears around town; her chance comes courtesy of real-life historical figure Johann Maelzel, who has just invented a device to help musicians keep the beat. Inspired by Cora’s relocation to the city, he names this device the metrognome. Cora finds work operating the metrognome for none other K IR KU S R E V IE W S

than Ludwig van Beethoven (“She was proud of the music she helped him make”). Cora makes her parents proud, and is happy for a while, but then her feet grow itchy again and she leaves the city in search of new horizons. Cruz tells Cora’s story in straightforward, non-rhyming text. The historical setting is well realized, and while the titular pun might not land for young readers, the ideas of chasing opportunities and immersing oneself in larger events shine through—though perhaps without sufficient cautionary sentiment to satisfy parents. Stoliar provides busy, faux hand-drawn, digital illustrations whose ingenuous renderings and time-faded colors capture an impression of early 19th-century city life with understated grace.

A gentle paean to wanderlust, experience, and fulfilment.

Werewolf Movie Decky, Stephen St. Francis | Frayed Edge Press (109 pp.) | $16 paper | October 22, 2025 9781642510683

Decky’s novel, set in South Jersey in 1989, takes readers through the lives of four wannabe rockstars that include elements straight out of horror movies.

The story unfolds through momentary glimpses in the lives of musicians Rick, Frankie, and Dale. Each character loses something almost immediately: Rick loses his job after his boss dies; Frankie’s grandmother and guardian dies; and Dale finds out that his girlfriend is cheating on him.

Each offers their first-person perspective on events, as does Gia, a friend of Rick’s and a fellow musician. All four hope for a big break and have their own strengths.

Rick is the most promising as a wordsmith and songwriter; after a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with a record company representative, he’s offered a music contract, and success seems within his grasp. But after that evening, he has blank spaces in his memory that give him anxiety: Was he in

a car accident? Did he see the music label rep at random places afterwards, and did his friends see him at clubs? His friends are just as worried about him—wondering why his place is trashed, and why he looks so beaten up. Gia, who has a key to Rick’s place, is especially upset and notices other strange, unexplained details that suggest a monstrous explanation. If the movie Clerks (1994) was a horror story, Decky’s novel might be it. In a style with a bit of mockumentary flair, the author presents readers with a tale with an almost campy style, unfolding in a way that will remind some of the comedy classic This is Spinal Tap (1984). The author slowly reveals the strange lives of musicians who are on a path to glory, fame, and fortune but never seem to see the pitfalls and roadblocks that emerge in their paths.

A tale with quirky horror references that will leave genre fans fully satisfied.

Ava Dillon, Victoria | She Writes Press (238 pp.) $17.99 paper | March 3, 2026 | 9798896360865

In Dillon’s future-set novel, a scientist’s reproductive experiment impacts two generations of a family.

Getting tear-­ gassed at a protest brings University of Tennessee students Larkin and Spencer together. Though pursuing different interests (Larkin’s passionate about science, Spencer plans to become an actuary), they fall in love and marry. Larkin decides to keep her baby when she accidentally gets pregnant, but learning the infant has anencephaly and will be born without a skull or brain changes her mind.

However, in 2032, women are barred from receiving abortions in Tennessee and can’t legally obtain one in other states either. Larkin gives birth to a doomed baby, leading to emotional trauma and funeral debts. Inspired by his own mother’s untimely death shortly after his birth, Larkin’s JANUARY 1, 2026

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A dark, provocative tale of crowdfunded violence.

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employer, Dr. Davis, has searched for a way to simplify the birth process, wondering, “What if women could lay eggs like a chicken does?” After he adds a gene for avian reproductive organs to a human cell line, Larkin, his first test subject, agrees to reproduce again. The end product, Ava, seems like other kids, but, in her adolescence, complications loom. Learning of her genetic makeup, she feels freakish, and she discovers that too much sun exposure can trigger her own egg production. Does she have an advantage, or a disability? Dillon’s novel uniquely explores the idea of women’s bodily autonomy. Social commentary, genetics, and SF speculation come together in a narrative distinguished by the author’s humor.

The offbeat and memorable characters are well developed; science-nerd Larkin is excited by supernumerary nipples (“Harry Styles has two extra ones!”) while Spencer names their chickens after 1970s songs. Even their baby, Maeve, who lives mere hours, makes a vivid impression. The future setting is heavily politicized: In 2041, a Tennessee senator works to get abortions nationally banned, and women can’t access birth control, progesterone, or estrogen, but Viagra is readily available.

Though the novel has an optimistic tone, it also leaves a chill—the clampdown Dillon describes reads as disturbingly relevant.

A well-crafted SF yarn that raises provocative questions.

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Ogallala Eichhorn, Eric | Atmosphere Press (258 pp.) $16.99 paper | November 18, 2025 9798891328747

In this novel, a crime that unfolds in Ogallala, Nebraska, has far-reaching consequences for an indecisive man and the teenage girl he befriends.

Semi-retired Bennett, a man “accustomed to mild interest” in most things, embarks on a road trip to visit ex-girlfriend Jenn in Ann Arbor after she texts him out of the blue.

He’s not expecting much but brings along lubricants and lotions just in case. Jenn, however, seems more interested in Bennett’s rental car than romance. Her teen daughter, Zoe, an MMA fighter, needs a ride to Utah for an important match. Zoe’s crusty trainer, Hector, tags along, coercing Bennett into stopping at a small Nebraskan town on the way to the fight. In Ogallala, Hector and his friend Hank continue treating Bennett as a chauffeur. They ask him to give them a ride to someone’s house, and he’s ordered to wait in a corn field. Sneaking to the house, he witnesses a murder. Involvement in the crime’s aftermath makes Bennett feel alive for once, but now he’s complicit. Still, he tries to be a positive influence for Zoe, whose perspective also shifts on this trip. Briefly staying with Hank’s kind sister-in-law and kids on a farm, she sees welcome alternatives to her usual life. The sense of place plays a large role here. Eichhorn skillfully captures the small-town ambiance, at least as seen through the eyes of educated urbanite Bennett. Bennett envisions Ogallala as a place with “a rat-infested motel” and

thinks the flat plains “emptiness felt like abandonment.” The town’s predominant clothing style is “bib overalls and greasy T-shirts.” Amber, the sex worker Bennett meets, has a second job at Walmart. Yet Zoe inhabits a much different Ogallala, petting a pig, noticing the high corn, eating delicious homemade pie. Like the landscape, the characters also show many sides. Though appearing shallow, Bennett actually seeks substance. Violent Hector at times encourages both Bennett and Zoe, and Hank is a proud father. Zoe is an especially convincing portrait, insecurely poised on the brink of adulthood without receiving much help in how to get there.

Compelling and suspenseful, with characters and locales that often surprise.

Killstarter Epperson, John C. | Self (290 pp.) | $24.99 paper | November 17, 2025 | 9798232816827

In Epperson’s thriller, a small-­ town police deputy and an FBI agent match wits with the mastermind behind a lethal website.

The urge to get even runs like a thread through popular culture: Creators who successfully harness that primal drive in their fiction have often built successful careers around it, such as Clint Eastwood and Quentin Tarantino. However, the devil lies in revenge’s details, as author Epperson suggests in this technothriller, which is built around a simple yet hair-raising premise. On the popular and highly illegal KillStarter website, people can crowdfund and contract killings-forhire at the click of a button: Dirty deeds done dirt cheap, with a high-tech twist.

Users nominate potential targets, such as a drunken, bullying British lawyer or a racist, abusive American marketing consultant, and the murders are carried out, quickly and clinically, in return for bitcoin. For KillStarter’s creator—who, fittingly, remains anonymous for most of the book—the rewards lie in serving what they K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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see as “the unseen hand shaping chaos, the mind orchestrating the unthinkable.”

However, the game threatens to come undone after a viral frenzy breaks out around the nomination of a predatory Hollywood dealmaker, D’Wayne Robinson, who wastes no time barricading himself at his cliffside California home.

The high-profile situation threatens to tear KillStarter’s tightly cordoned world apart.

Monterey County Sheriff’s Deputy Lee Mann and FBI agent Miranda Walker have been investigating a string of murders related to the website and satisfying a public that loves KillStarter’s creator isn’t on their agenda. As Mann declares: “This isn’t about liking him; It’s about upholding the system.”

Epperson does an artful job of navigating moral gray areas as the chase ratchets up and Robinson’s potential assassins, who continue zeroing in on their target, are revealed. If the book has a weakness, it’s the relative lack of character development that Mann, Walker, and their colleagues in law enforcement receive. Instead, Epperson sketches them out in broad strokes, as regular Joes and Janes trying to do the right thing. Aside from Mann’s grief over the loss of his wife to cancer and his fiery, if somewhat predictable, “situationship” with Miranda, readers get few glimpses into these characters’ emotional worlds. Similarly, Mann’s computer-­ expert sidekick, Moss Pendleton, comes across mainly as a relentlessly chipper techie who’s a fan of cinnamon pastries.

It’s a disparity that stands in sharp contrast to the villains, whose feral desires for control “over life and death in a world gone rotten” are amply and chillingly detailed. That said, many cyberthriller devotees may see this imbalance as more of a feature than a bug, especially in light of the ambiguity that Epperson weaves around the KillStarter architect’s destiny. This volume could provide a solid foundation for a franchise to explore the moral issues that the author raises so effectively. As it is, it offers readers a rollercoaster ride that brings to mind the chaos of an ever-changing political climate.

A dark, provocative tale of crowdfunded violence that stretches the notion of revenge to its limits.

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Red: A Novel of Alameth Exley, Evelyn M. | Self (322 pp.) | $11.99 paper | October 6, 2025 | 9781954448162

In Exley’s reimagining of a cautionary tale, Little Red Riding Hood has a destiny far greater than simply getting to her grandmother’s house.

After her parents died in a mysterious accident, Isobel was taken in by her grandmother, a coldly ambitious guardian who lives in the perilous Dark Wood. Known by her childhood nickname of Red, the teen develops a talent for healing. She resigns herself to spending her days trudging through the inhospitable woods, caring for the villagers who treat her as an outsider and seem to be infected by a strange, wolfish evil; all carry “some inner pain or hungry need that was then fueled and encouraged by the Unseen Presence.”

After Red chances upon Prince Desi of Alameth in the shadows of the Dark Wood, she’s invited to spend the season with Desi and Jacobe—the Huntsman and Desi’s alluring bodyguard—at the royals’ summer palace. Ushered into a world of peace for the first time, Red discovers that the Alameth royals are descended from and guided by the magical, legendary King Fumi. The spirit of Fumi resides within Red, indicating that she has an important destiny. Torn between the attentions of Desi, her growing connection with Jacobe, and her stifling roots in the woods, Red will have to learn what genuine love feels like in order to claim the future she deserves and defeat the evil that haunts her home. Told from Red’s perspective, Exley’s novel is the first volume of a larger series exploring Alameth, but it effectively stands on its own. Red’s narrative voice sometimes skims over her emotional landscape, leaving some plotlines, especially Red’s adolescent brushes with love, feeling a bit underdeveloped. Despite this, Exley effectively manages to break new ground within a cherished story, sprinkling in vibrant characters and fresh manifestations of magic to elevate familiar folklore.

A vibrant retelling expands and deepens a classic character’s agency and adventure.

The Cycle Book: An Interactive Step-byStep Guide To Tracking Hormones and Knowing Your Body Federico, Laura & Morgan Miller | Tarcher (336 pp.) | $22 paper | January 28, 2025 9780593717059

Federico, a clinical sex therapist, and Morgan, a midwife, join forces to create a guide for women to better understand their bodies by tracking their menstrual cycles.

The author’s collaborative effort was inspired by their own frustrations (and those of their patients) in dealing with the traditional medical community regarding issues of fertility and more broad-based gynecological difficulties. Women, they assert, are not given the necessary tools to understand the messages their bodies are sending them. Federico and Morgan write, “Cycle tracking is a direct pathway to reclaiming ownership over our bodies.” (“The menstrual cycle,” they continue, “can act as a signifier of overall health and an early communicator when other systems in your body are overwhelmed.”) In addition to recording the usual data associated with menstrual tracking, the authors encourage making notes about one’s “thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations” throughout the cycle, creating a more detailed portrait of one’s physical and psychological condition. This information, they state, will enable women to tune in to the routine but complicated hormonal changes they experience throughout their cycles—with this data in hand, women will be empowered to self-advocate when dealing with health care providers. Eight stories based on the experiences of patients treated by the authors illustrate a variety of gynecological issues faced by women, and the individual stories are referred to periodically throughout the book. The guide is designed to be interactive, gently JANUARY 1, 2026

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leading readers through the daily process of tracking. It includes embedded questions—the prompt “when I start paying attention to my senses, a feeling I notice is” is followed by space for readers to jot down their own answers. Numerous illustrative tracking charts (noting temperature, bodily fluids, emotional states, and more) allow readers to fill in their own information.

The authors maintain an upbeat tone, packed with copious, albeit repetitive, affirmatives to remind readers that they “deserve to be taken care of and [they] are perfect.” Detailed anatomical drawings of the gynecological system are accompanied by descriptive text, and the discussions of fertility and birth control are comprehensive.

An informative reference tool filled with positive messaging.

Never Delegate Again: Uncover the Secret To Growing Your Company, Your People, and Yourself Federman, Brad | Manuscripts (240 pp.) $16.99 paper | August 25, 2025 9798889264866

A reimagining of delegation as a deliberate strategy for professional development.

Synthesizing three decades of experience in management and leadership spaces, a corporate culture consultant argues that delegation is a key opportunity for investing in employees. Historically, delegation has been viewed as mere distribution of tasks, intended to unburden workers whose time was deemed more valuable than that of others. Federman, however, sees every act of delegation as a growth opportunity, matching an employee with tasks that will both challenge their existing skills and reward higher efforts. The text identifies the greatest roadblock as managers’ conflicts over control—the refusal to invest their employees with real autonomy—whether through anxiety about a task or mere ego.

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delegation leads to smoother workflows and fosters a broader culture of constant growth, and companies that delegate with intention quantitatively outperform their peers. Federman offers a view of the full project-delegation cycle, from establishing clear metrics for success and getting employee buy-in to ongoing support that includes useful, practical feedback. This coalesces into a “coaching” model of delegation, in which a manager not only explains what an employee must do but encourages and elicits their best efforts, both for their individual growth and the success of the larger team. Federman’s voice is clear and confident, informed by real-world experience and existing management theory. That clarity and confidence effectively buttress some of the novel ideas in the text, such as a delegation quadrant tool that weighs skill requirements against growth potential for a given task. Tasks are often mapped on a matrix of importance and urgency. For instance, Federman points out that “urgent but unimportant” tasks are typically delegated to low-level employees, but are now excellent candidates for automation, freeing up these low-level employees to pursue growth opportunities that ultimately generate more value for the company. Managers at all levels will be interested to see how Federman responds to, extends, or upends these traditional management tools and strategies for the modern era. Interspersed illustrations offer helpful visual aids for implementing recommended practices.

A thoughtful, enthusiastic response to modern challenges of corporate culture and leadership.

Restrung: Fatherhood in a Different Key Fogelson, Matt | SparkPress (304 pp.) | $17.99 paper | February 3, 2026 | 9781684633425

A memoir of growing up, loss, and the expressive power of rock music.

Fogelson, whose writing has been published in The New York

Times and The Washington Post, explores how music has helped him make sense of his life. The author grew up privileged on the Upper East Side of New York; his father, Jim, was a lawyer for a Park Avenue firm and was more involved in his work than his family. Fogelson’s mother, Phylis, was often yelling, either at his father for being absent or at his older brother, Rob, for slacking off school or breaking curfew. In middle school, the author’s best friend, Murphy, introduced him to “raw, ferocious, and loud” rock music, giving him the first three records by The Clash as a bar mitzvah present. The author’s aunt, Wendy, lived a nontraditional life and introduced him to Bob Dylan.

These and other rock musicians, including Lou Reed, Bruce Springsteen, and Jerry Garcia, expressed complicated feelings he couldn’t articulate. When Fogelson was 19, during his sophomore year at Duke, his father was diagnosed with lung cancer and died during his senior year. The music of Soundgarden and Pearl Jam resonated with his anger and grief. A successful law career and a happy marriage to a woman named Jodi were shadowed by ongoing depression and imposter syndrome. Fogelson shared his love of music with his son, Jed, by singing to him at bedtime from the day he was brought home from the hospital. The nonchronological narrative is effectively tied together with the throughline of music. Wry comments, like those about teenage visits to Greenwich Village record stores (Fogelson recalls riding on the subway “hugging that precious Springsteen record the entire way to protect it from all those muggers I figured were jonesing for a perfect-quality Springsteen bootleg”) leaven the difficult chapters about loss and regret. A “Permissions” section at the end of the book is a bonus for those who want to delve further into the music and biographies cited in the book.

Readers, especially Gen Xers who turn to music for connection and expression, will savor this book.

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Tales Nocturnal: A Collection of Stories of the Uncanny Foley, Tim | PS Publishing (258 pp.) | $22 paper | January 1, 2025 | 9781803943404

Foley offers a horror short-­ story collection that explores the shadows of everyday reality.

A middle-aged writer on retreat is haunted by predatory snowmen in “Snowman, Frozen.” In “Room 413, Silver Spruce Hotel,” a ghostly bride attaches herself to a visiting journalist. A tech support agent in “Beetles” becomes convinced that the titular insects are crawling under his skin. These are just a few of the paranormal tales in Foley’s compilation, each crafted to evoke a sense of dread amid the ordinary. From the haunting guilt of “Aneurism” to the demonic taxi of “Flowers Along the Seawall,” each story reveals how terror can manifest itself in the most banal moments. Across the collection, the author deftly delivers sharply drawn, multifaceted characters, whether a story is depicting a strained marriage (“The House Opposite”) or a man’s brief, grief-stricken vision of ghostly kids in “The Sound of Children Playing”: “Two of the swings were moving, leaping upward, shapes riding in the saddles. On the monkey bars, shadows seemed to tumble and flow.” Overall, the author’s attention to emotional nuance gives these chilling stories a rare tenderness, grounding surreal elements in believable emotion. The unnamed narrators of “Galen’s Closet” and “Emir” are especially memorable, rendering their accounts believable, even as the lines between reality and delusion begin to blur. Other entries forcing readers to question their own perceptions with the surreal language of “The Figure on the Sidewalk” and “An Effect of the Moonlight.” Most tragic of all are the doomed spirits of “Nineteen Sixty-Five Ford Falcon” and “The Ghost of Niles Canyon,” whose spectral suffering lingers long after the last page is turned. Foley doesn’t shy away from hard topics, either, K IR KU S R E V IE W S

confronting such concepts as the psychological aftermath of war with restraint and compassion. Some stories feel less developed than others—most notably, “On the Pier at Midnight” and “A Hitch”—but they are exceptions in an otherwise remarkable collection.

A haunting set of tales that balances horror with heart.

Carroll Gardens Story Frances, Sally | Atmosphere Press (330 pp.) $18.99 paper | September 30, 2025 9798891328303

A man with an intellectual disability accidentally kills his neighbor in Frances’ novel.

Fortunato Bonaventura— known around his Brooklyn neighborhood of Carroll Gardens as “Helper”—was a “certified genius” as a boy, but he fell into a coma following a nasty fall. This left him with developmental disabilities, but his affinity for color and music shines through. Now middle-aged, Helper does odd jobs around Carroll Gardens. While tackling a task for his neighbor, Mary Pat, a misunderstanding results in Helper accidentally killing her. Afraid, and lacking the ability to process this event, Helper cleans up the scene and returns home. After the body is discovered, Tony, Helper’s nephew, is assigned as the detective on the case, though he has “been criticized at times for being too sympathetic to perpetrators.” Meanwhile, Helper’s older brother, Gino, has been dating a man named Lee for 6 years but is still closeted in the old neighborhood.

Gino confesses to Lee that he caused Helper’s childhood fall as a result of his jealousy and resentment regarding his brother and the attention he received from their parents. Helper eventually begins therapy as Tony gets closer to the truth of Mary Pat’s death. Though a killing propels Frances’ tale, this is a story of healing. The three leads (Helper, Gino, and Tony) are all haunted by their adolescences and take great strides to

change course—as a result, the accidental murder plot feels almost incongruous with the rest of the story. The author’s prose is excellent, though, particularly when Frances describes Helper’s inner state: “Inside Helper, the bubbles have slown down and turned into something like golden honey, heavy and slithery.”

But Tony, who suffers from self-loathing and seesaws between how he was raised and the man he wants to be, is perhaps the standout character. Frances deftly navigates a traumatic narrative while portraying the charms of Carroll Gardens and the personalities who inhabit it.

An emotionally affecting story with excellent prose.

Calming Teenage Anxiety: A Parent’s Guide To Helping Your Teenager Cope With Worry Galano, Sophia Vale | Hatherleigh Press (208 pp.) | $16.95 paper | October 7, 2025 9781961293380

A therapist offers a guide to supporting anxious teens.

Galano, an adult and adolescent therapist, aims to help parents of stressed kids with a therapeutic process, organized into three sections: The first explains how to recognize anxiety in teens and its possible causes and contributing factors, including stress and social change; the second discusses preventive care, techniques for effective communication, setting healthy boundaries, building self-esteem, and modeling behavior; and the final section covers finding providers and managing the cost of therapy; in it, the author suggests affordable options and lists a variety of alternative and holistic resources. Featured, anonymous quotations from the author’s clients (identified only by age) express typical teens’ concerns in their own words, and anecdotal case studies illustrate key points. Galano addresses the harmful effects of social media, as many books do, but she also shows how it can be used positively, using the simple idea of a JANUARY 1, 2026

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“highlight reel” to discuss the artificiality of online personas and an “art gallery” in which one curates feeds to prioritize uplifting content. She provides plenty of questions for self-reflection and urges parents to practice self-compassion and self-care—both for their own sake and to model such healthy behaviors for their kids. Galano’s writing is direct, with simple, clear explanations and obvious sympathy for both teens and parents. She continually emphasizes the importance of fostering open communication, seeing things from one’s child’s point of view, and refraining from judgment. The book offers sound advice about checking in with kids without being intrusive and handling differing attitudes towards therapy among co-parents. Phrases such as “it is imperative” and “it is essential” become repetitive, and the book could have valuably included more material on relevant psychological research. Overall, though, this is a reassuring guide for the worried parents of worried children.

Useful and encouraging advice for helping kids cope with life’s stressors.

What We Hold No Longer Gedaliah, Aaron | BookBaby (100 pp.) | $17.50 paper | October 24, 2025 | 9798317812409

Gedaliah’s wide-­ ranging poetry collection provides a step-­bystep consideration of growing older in an increasingly unfamiliar world.

Gedaliah muses on the aging process in his latest book of poems, which comprises five sections—“Transformations,” “The Thing” (“Das Ding”), “Dying in the Belly of the Beast,” “What We Hold No Longer,” and “The Invisible River”—all of which aim to tackle the effects of aging, memory, identity, and time on the individual. Each section begins with quotes from various sources in different fields of study, from author Peter Beagle and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard to psychiatrist Sigmund Freud and Cuban poet José Marti. While there are the occasional lighthearted 160

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poems (“I want to change myself! / I sincerely do! / So why are you looking at me / in that funny way?” in “Changing Myself”), Gedaliah is typically more serious. He sporadically assumes different personas, such as the famously exiled Greek philosopher Anaxagoras in the poem “Anaxagoras Speaks.” Other real-world inspirations include poet Walt Whitman, whose famous line, “I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world” from Song of Myself (1855) is echoed in Gedaliah’s “First Cry”: “Suffering slowly teachers / the cost of Being. The price paid / for wonderous gifts: / the unbearable awe / and manifold beauty. / And one day I will rise-up / to greet them with / a barbaric yawp!”

Certain poems are more prose-like than others, such as “Epiphany” (“I’m building a master’s thesis, studying / the nature of breathlessness in AIDS / Forcing myself to read one more paper, / before sleep becomes insistent”).

The collection essentially walks readers along the various stages of life; each section loosely meanders through time, mimicking the effects of coming-of-age in a way that may remind readers of subjects explored by William Blake. From wide-eyed innocence (“I am an immigrant standing / at the river’s edge. / Dazed in twilight before / a vast new world,” in “Hope”) to hardened experience (“The sum of experience cries-out: / I want no more of this! / Yet, I have no appetite for death,” in “Disquiet”), the narrators take readers through a journey that extends through years, joys, and hardships. And while the passage of time isn’t exactly a new or revelatory topic for poetry, Gedaliah approaches it in a way that feels fresh—and not just because of modern references to the social media generation (“prep, pose, picture, gaze repeat…Now, I only see an anguished child, oppressed / by a voice inside that taunts her: / Less-than! Less-than! Less-than!

Less-than!”). The freshness also comes from highlighting the duality of aging and memory, of being present while also looking backward, perhaps most clearly encapsulated in the book’s titular section.

In “New Year’s Day,” for example, the narrator notices a young girl being held (despite being “too old to be carried far”) and notes that in the not-so-distant

future, “innocence crumbles beneath / tumultuous years of adolescence.” In that moment, the narrator is both the child and the adult looking at the child. These musings ultimately make for a layered experience that rewards rereading.

A well-considered collection full of wistful imagery.

Accidental Murder Gerber, Daryl Wood | Self (340 pp.) | $14.99 paper | July 8, 2025 | 9798285384243

As her identical twin dies from a murderous attack, a San Francisco woman learns she was the intended victim and vows to find the killer before the killer finds her.

In Gerber’s standalone thriller, 29-year-old tech-repair guru Kayla Macintyre is happily single, riding dirt bikes and living in jeans and her Stanford sweatshirt. Her supermodel twin, Ashley, who “couldn’t remember the last time she’d worn anything but silk,” wants Kayla to find someone special. Kayla’s married friend Sara Simmons thinks so too. One night, Sara, a “defiant bioethicist,” breaks into Bledsoe Research Institute to learn what secret research the facility is conducting. Someone finds her there, drugs her, drives her to a scenic overlook, stages her suicide, and pushes her over the railing to her death. If losing Sara wasn’t bad enough, Kayla returns from a blind date and finds Ashley dying in her condo.

Ashley’s wearing her sister’s clothes, and an Hermès scarf is wrapped tightly around her neck. “‘He wanted’—Ashley’s voice caught—‘you,’ she says before she dies.”

Kayla, uncharacteristically dressed up and coiffed because of her date, lets the police think that she’s Ashley and that Kayla died. Then she delves into the lives of clients whose computers she’d serviced to see if there are digital trails that lead to someone who might have wanted her dead.

But there are other suspects, too. And could Sara’s death be tied to Ashley’s?

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stilettos and be model perfect at a high-end photo shoot. A lot goes on in this book, and it happens thrillingly quickly. Banter between Kayla and her bestie Eve Clegg, a burgundy-haired waitress/journalist, is often comical. The breakneck pace is heightened by car chases, flying bullets, and creepy scenes reminiscent of those in Robin Cook’s Coma. The cast list is long, maybe too long, but frequent murders cull their ranks.

Fast, furious, and funny.

Toward a Theory of Everything Harper, Frederick Douglas | Xlibris US (262 pp.) $19.99 paper | November 26, 2018 9781984567406

Harper offers an unusual blend of poetry, existential and spiritual musings, social commentary, and inspiring words of wisdom.

The first section of this work— which gathers the author’s meandering thoughts about his “theory of everything”—includes his ponderings on both physical and spiritual existence. The vast majority of these observations are truisms (“Among human beings or Homo sapiens and in reference to racial groups, there is only one race, the human race”; “Not getting any or enough of the right foods can cause disease or illness”), and there’s an undeniable thread of common sense tying the thoughts on physical existence together.

Harper goes from statements like, “Earth is a living planet… Earth is a garden of life, a garden of sacred creations of diverse and evolving animal and plant species” to transition into spiritual contemplation, describing the world as “God’s earthly Garden of Eden.” Many of his spiritual assertions are provocative: “I believe that some, most, or possibly all earthly souls have a guardian angel in the spirit existence that can guide or protect, or that can do both.” Harper’s advice, particularly in the poetry section, in which he counsels readers on how to live a fulfilling life, is the work’s most powerful takeaway—the pages are K IR KU S R E V IE W S

filled with plain-spoken, rock-solid wisdom. The poem “Before I Die” ends with the simple instructions, “Live your earthly life as well as you can.” In “Beware of Destructive People,” the speaker warns, “Beware of the dark forces among the human / race or / confused minds that can dim your light or turn / it off.”

Harper’s life philosophy is summed up in a simple yet profound line: “Learn all you can and give all you can.” The lone concern is the difficulty in categorizing this work—it could be considered poetry, philosophy, inspirational self-help, or spiritual guidance, which may negatively impact the chances of readers finding Harper’s encouraging words.

An introspective glimpse into one man’s long life and the lessons learned on his spiritual journey.

Kirkus Star

The Privilege of Aging: Savoring the Fullness of Life Kapur, Kamla K. | Park Street Press (256 pp.) $18.99 paper | July 9, 2024 | 9798888500521

Along with the physical decline of old age comes self-­ understanding, a reordering of priorities, and gratitude for the small pleasures of life, argues this luminous meditation.

Kapur, a 77-year-old Indian American playwright and poet, mordantly catalogues the difficulties of age, such as an initial sense of uselessness after retirement, lack of energy, aches and pains, and the increasing awareness of death as she and her husband, Payson Stevens, struggle with cancer. Yet she finds consolations, like a new capacity to adapt and pace her energies, a shedding of obsessions with appearance, the blessings of “Mother cannabis, the green goddess [she] eat[s],” who “whisks away [her] depression and malaise,” and an ability to live contentedly in the moment while doing nothing in particular. Kapur’s autobiographical recollections explore themes of love and loss—they include grief-stricken

homages to her deceased parents and dying sister, and a harrowing account of the suicide of her previous husband, Donald Powell, who, in the throes of depression, shot himself after a marital squabble. The book is also replete with scenes from her complicated relationship with Payson, some testy (“I lost it and called him an asshole, twice, even though the first time he went ballistic when I used the word”) and others affectionate (“I lean on him in my feebleness and he is present most of the time, regales me with the piano when he is in the mood, heats water in the kettle and fills my hot water bottles”). Kapur’s writing is clear-eyed, evocative, and wryly humorous in its kvetching portrait of advanced age, of “feeling tired, depressed, old, my stomach distended with trapped, ballooning gas like a dirigible, my right knee creaking, a heavy-duty brace on my left wrist from severe tenosynovitis”; but she also offers lyrical paeans to what remains: “I move my finger on the keyboard and am grateful I can move my finger; I see and feel the rays of the sun hitting my face and give thanks.” Readers will find much hard-won wisdom here.

A moving celebration of life before death, balanced between plangent reflection and exuberant affirmation.

This Book Is Mine!

Keres, Ron | Illus. by Arthur Lin Flypaper Press (44 pp.) | $17.95 January 27, 2026 | 9781964021058

The sixth book of Keres’ Finn the Frog series sees Finn squabble with his sister, who has come to visit.

Finn the Frog has become famous after starring in his own series of books. In this installment, he is excited to have his blonde, ponytailed sister Fifi come to stay... until she actually arrives. She’s a garrulous whirlwind in her pink dress and sunglasses, and before Finn knows it, Fifi has taken over his house (and story), deciding what they will eat and watch. Finn tries to be a good host, but when Fifi spills pizza cheese on his favorite chair, the two descend into an all-out sibling spat, which the reader has JANUARY 1, 2026

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to break up by drawing a brick wall to separate them. Ashamed, Fifi and Finn apologize and start over. Keres relates the story entirely through dialogue, employing a black, handwritten font for Finn and louder, maroon-colored text for Fifi. While the siblings mostly converse with each other, they also address remarks directly to the reader (referred to as “kid”). Depending on the emotions being conveyed, the text appears in different sizes and slants, and not infrequently in bold. Lin’s cartoonish illustrations make astute use of blank spaces to foreground action and personality (at the story’s peak, Finn and Fifi’s argument is pure comedic theatre).

Without a doubt, primary school readers will relish the tempestuous brother-sister dynamic—and perhaps even learn from it.

Dynamic and delightful…Finn is fast becoming a favorite.

Sucker Leed, Bernard | Self (138 pp.) | $25 paper April 29, 2025 | 9798218660185

In Leed’s novel, an aspiring creative navigates the grim despair of trying to make it in Hollywood.

Jace Kron came to Hollywood to be a screenwriter, but on the cusp of his 30th birthday, he has yet to make an impression. A promising web series never took off, and he’s since bounced from one shallow, nerve-wracking party to the next, trying to forge the connections he needs to finally make the art he wants to make. Jace’s friend Shane got lucky with a Netflix show, and their relationship is now characterized by the intense differential of power: Shane has money and a social and professional network, and he throws parties for people whether they like it or not; Jace, meanwhile, is tormented by this proximity to success, ruminating bitterly on his choices

while breathing deep of the materialism he desires but can’t afford. For him, this lifestyle is exhausting: “He has to be everything” in order to grab and hold people’s attention, a writer, an actor, a producer, and more. Every single interaction is an opportunity, and must be treated as such, and in the end every possible moment of life, from the most mundane meal to the most outrageous explosions of emotion, must become grist for the mill.

Leed’s quiet, sad reflection on life, art, and the attention economy provides a well-drawn and recognizable modern take on a familiar story, with a protagonist who genuinely loves the arts but struggles to reconcile that love with the disaffected culture that surrounds it. His sexuality also offers a different emotional valence to the trade of sex for favors: In the classic model, a young woman submits to an older man who acts as a gatekeeper, but Jace sees peers and potential colleagues in the more successful men he encounters. Notes like these will strike a chord with any reader whose sense of self has ever been bound up in all-encompassing yearning.

A clear-eyed, cold, but nonetheless sympathetic fictional interrogation of what a person will sacrifice for success.

Ghost Writer Lewis, Arjay | Mindbender Press (320 pp.) $16.99 paper | November 15, 2025 9798989828142

In Lewis’ novel, an alcoholic writer escapes to a remote cabin to work on his next novel but finds his plans interrupted by a mysterious ghost.

Forty-year-old author Joe Riley is reeling from a messy divorce (and medicating himself with plenty of alcohol) when he learns that he has inherited a remote cabin from his recently deceased

A terrific history.

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uncle. The fondly remembered cabin, where he spent childhood summers alongside his cousins, seems the perfect place to work on his latest novel. But Joe quickly discovers he is not alone—each morning, there are parts of his manuscript already written: “The pages were in my writing style. I must be having some kind of fugue, or I typed more pages than I remembered. Chronic drinkers experience blackouts, right? That had to be the explanation.” Eventually, he encounters the culprit: the ghost of a beautiful young woman, the best-selling author Rebecca Hawthorne, who vanished 20 years earlier.

As Joe unearths connections between his own family and the ghost, strange happenings lead him to suspect that someone does not like him digging around. When Rebecca begins revealing hints about the shocking truth of her demise, Joe realizes her violent fate might just foreshadow his own. Lewis has crafted a fun and enthralling mystery (any novel featuring a sex scene between its protagonist and a ghost clearly does not take itself too seriously). Joe provides a likeable and casual narrative voice that only occasionally crosses the line into schmaltz (“Our clothing fell away like the petals of a flower, piece by piece”). While the momentum flags during Joe’s detailed description of the novel Rebecca had been writing before her death, the narrative generally unfolds at a satisfyingly brisk pace. The story is diverting and builds to a delightfully shocking revelation.

A light but intriguing mystery with a charmingly disheveled protagonist and genuinely surprising twists.

The First Marketplace: Africa’s Role in Shaping World Trade Long, Kim Cliett | Jonathan Green Maritime Cultural Center at USCB (148 pp.) | $39.99 March 18, 2025 | 9798218640064

Long presents a kid-friendly introduction to Africa’s pivotal role in global development.

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Musk know that Mali ruler Mansa Musa is considered to be the richest man to ever walk the Earth? Or that thousands of years before the rise of modern economies, Africans were exchanging gold, salt, ivory, and textiles? Long’s thoroughly immersive and engaging textbook for younger students is chock-full of fascinating tidbits that, taken together, provide an illuminating portrait of human development. “By presenting Africa as the birthplace of civilization and a major force in shaping world trade, the textbook challenges Eurocentric narratives and fosters a more accurate understanding of economic history,” the author writes. As Long points out, the world’s oldest known trading routes started on the African continent, where people in the Sahara traded stone tools as early as 10,000 B.C.E.. Agriculture, iron smelting, economics, and, of course, trade all have their beginnings deeply rooted in Africa. That foundational and fundamental reality, traditionally buried and suppressed, still needs champions to spread the word.

Long is more than happy to operate in that indispensable role while acknowledging that African trade and culture also included the trafficking of enslaved peoples (“The trans-Saharan trade included the exchange of enslaved people long before European involvement in the African slave trade”). This highly instructive and interactive primer exudes a light and joyful tone throughout that should resonate with students and dedicated educators alike. Each easily digestible chapter concludes with stimulating questions for review and prompts designed to encourage further research and active learning. Long lucidly outlines the mighty African empires of Ghana, Mali, Songhai, and more for young learners and effectively prepares them to continue exploring Africa’s storied past.

A terrific history of Africa’s gifts to the world.

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Tributaries: Essays & Verses Flowing From & Celebrating Favorite Poems Luchs, Kurt | Sagging Meniscus Press (210 pp.) | $21.95 paper December 2, 2025 | 9781963846478

A blend of literary criticism and original work that traces an author’s dialogue with the poems that inspire him.

Luchs opens by explaining that he was first drawn to poetry by a “fascination with its music, its magic, its mystery and its power to move me emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.” As the author notes, the essays collected here are “not academic treatises” but personal reflections written to encourage “increas[ed] understanding and enjoyment.” He begins with Wallace Stevens’ “Of Mere Being,” analyzing the poem and then including one of his own as a reaction. This structure—part essay, part creative echo—sets the form for the rest of the collection, forming an ongoing dialectic between reading and writing.

Luchs unpacks his selections’ language, rhythms, and historical contexts before distilling his reactions into verse. The result is a dialogue between criticism and creation in which reading becomes a catalyst for writing. The author moves through a wide range of poets and eras, using the same framework to explore the meaning of each writer’s work. He discusses Philip Larkin’s “Annus Mirabilis” in the context of the 1960s cultural shifts that surrounded it and turns to D. H. Lawrence with an eye on psychological and emotional texture.

Nobel laureate Wislawa Szymborska, whom Luchs calls “highly improbable,” receives both biographical attention and effective, succinct interpretation: “She’s telling us who she is here, and by implication asking us who we are.” The author broadens his scope to include poets from varied traditions and backgrounds, such as Chilean author Gabriela Mistral and Black poet Lucille Clifton, noting the importance of engaging with different perspectives. Other essays focus on Jorge Luis Borges, Federico Garcia Lorca, and Lewis Carroll (whose “Jabberwocky”

Luchs traces through its many cultural impacts). The work closes by reaching back to Homer before rounding out the tour with more contemporary poets, including Charles Simic and James Tate.

Luchs writes with a tone that is both pedagogical and inviting, balancing humility with the learned wit of a scholar.

The author’s enthusiasm for the poets he discusses recalls a warm teacher eager to share an infectious passion for the subject.

He offers concise, confident introductions, swiftly capturing each poet’s defining traits; of Robinson Jeffers, Luchs identifies the Greeks and the King James Bible as the poet’s “lifelong companions.” The author often leans into a slightly stuffy, bookish sense of humor, but his timing keeps it playful—he writes of David Ignatow, “And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you talk to your daughter about death, yours and hers and everyone’s.” A refreshing self-awareness grounds the work, as Luchs mentions his own struggles with fiction: “Anyway, don’t hold your breath,” he jokes, making him approachable and relatable.

His criticism is similarly accessible, best suited to readers and writers seeking to deepen their appreciation of great poets; those desiring more rigorous academic analysis may find his readings somewhat surface level. Still, anyone who has tried to emulate the greats will find something deeply resonant in the author’s own creations: “The sweet amnesia of snow and cold is no less merciful / than that of the poem never written, never published, / or perhaps, published and quickly lost among so many others.”

A generous, witty guide for readers and writers alike that opens personal pathways to great poets.

Butterfly Sea Mackey, Cynthia | Tielmour Press (42 pp.) $18.99 | December 15, 2025 | 9781998426225

A pair of kids go on a hunt for butterflies in Mackey’s picture book.

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look for butterflies. They’re pursued by a much younger child, and the second-­ person narration recommends that “if trouble follows you, embrace it.” (Both characters are portrayed with pale skin.)

As the older child continues to look for butterflies, the toddler pretends to be a mermaid, a pirate, and a shark. Each time, the protagonist keeps the younger one entertained: offering the shark Goldfish crackers, for example, and telling the pirate where to find secret treasure. The pair hide out in lilac bushes but only find snails and caterpillars, until finally “one butterfly, two butterflies, more butterflies flutter up, up, up into the sea-blue sky” as they look on. Mackey’s text is engaging yet sparse, offering tantalizingly few details about the kids, which effectively invites the reader to ask questions about their backstory: What are their names? Are they siblings? Where are the grown-ups? Couët’s watercolor-­ style illustrations drive the story, offering beautiful, sweeping landscapes of butterflies flying over a body of water and endearing close-ups of the children examining insects.

A sweet tale of childhood with lovely images.

Borrowed Fantasy Mason, Joseph | Self (270 pp.) | $17.99 paper December 4, 2024 | 9798317378226

A young man’s search for his lost brother becomes an odyssey through myth and memory in Mason’s sweeping fantasy debut.

In a remote village untouched by war or decay, Abram lives a simple life—until his grandfather’s ritual of the “Skyward Lights” unravels the illusion of safety. When Abram’s brother, Levi, vanishes after the ceremony, the young farmer sets out to find him, armed with little more than faith, a pendant of strange power, and an unshakable promise: “I’m coming, brother.” Mason builds this premise into a sprawling, spiritually charged journey that blends the emotional clarity of a coming-of-age story with the 164

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grand design of mythmaking. As Abram ventures beyond the valley, the world reveals itself as a maze of forgotten magic and corrupted relics. Joined by Fleck, an impulsive thief, and Sarai, a young woman scarred by tyranny, he travels through ruined villages, illusions, and realms ruled by deceptive forces. Battles against monstrous foes—one sneering, “Do you know what your brother did to me?”—test not only his courage but his understanding of what his brother has become. Dialogue carries much of the book’s momentum and tone; pragmatic lines sit comfortably beside far darker intimations of guilt and retribution. The worldbuilding is muscular without being merely ornamental; the author describes monsters and enchanted artifacts with vivid clarity. A miraculous cure is treated with suspicion rather than easy relief; after a healing, one character warns, “the crystals do tell me that your healing is dark in nature,” while another defends the healer: “Layla is kind and courageous. I see her taking no part in something heinous.” The prose is direct and serviceable, with brief lyrical flashes that lift key moments. The pacing occasionally slows to unspool mythic backstory, but the book’s emotional throughline keeps readers invested. By balancing gritty encounters with humane reflection, Mason crafts an immersive tale that will appeal to readers who like their epic fantasy threaded with ethical dilemmas, steadfast friendships, and the quiet persistence of hope.

A thoughtful fantasy that pairs classic adventure beats with a shrewd concern for the moral price of miracles.

The Pale Knight Milligan, Peter | Illus. by Val Rodrigues Mad Cave Studios (152 pp.) | $17.99 paper December 23, 2025 | 9781545812600

A dishonored knight makes a deal with Death to save his plague-stricken son in Milligan’s graphic novel.

England, 1349.

Sir Hugh de Grey, known as the Pale

Knight, has just arrived home from his battles in France. He left behind a continent ravaged not only by war, but by plague, and he’s disheartened to find that the deadly pestilence has reached England ahead of his ship. At his estate, he finds his young son, John, dying of the disease and knows he’s being punished by God for the atrocities he has committed in France. He prays to God to spare his boy—but it’s not God that answers.

Rather, Death himself appears, a shrouded skeleton with his massive scythe, to present Sir Hugh with an offer: If Hugh will enter Death’s service and kill the valiant knight Gilbert the Pure, Death will spare young John. With his acerbic squire, Crispin, Sir Hugh sets off to kill the good knight—a much better man than himself—through a landscape rapidly descending into madness. Hugh is not the only one with a moral test before him: The Jewish refugee Aaron of Albi enjoys the protection of the evil Sir Maurice Beauchamp, but only because Sir Maurice believes his Jewish magic will protect his household from the plague.

Maurice’s daughter, Joan, wants Aaron to kill her father so they can run away together, but will his attempt to wield the plague for his own purposes backfire?

Milligan renders 14th-century England as a disease-ravaged wasteland, brought to phantasmagoric life by the striking full-color artwork of artist Val Rodrigues.

Sir Hugh and Crispin must contend with zombie-like plague victims, flagellants driven mad with zealotry, and vigilante mobs happy to burn as a witch any woman who crosses their path. Readers will find some ominous echoes of the Covid-19 pandemic, but mostly, the book serves as a wonderful piece of historical escapism, presenting the Middle Ages in all its barbarous, bubonic glory.

A spellbinding, dark fantasy adventure set amid the anarchy of the Black Death.

For more Indie content, visit Kirkus online.

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In the Shadows of Death: Writing Life’s Final Chapter Parker, Paul | Houndstooth Press (362 pp.) $21.99 paper | April 8, 2025 9781544547947

A medicolegal investigator examines a life and career marked by death.

Parker opens his memoir with a death notice, something he became all too familiar with as both a police officer and later as a medicolegal investigator. The author takes readers back to his complicated childhood in Philadelphia in the late 1970s, where, per Parker, he grew up with a violent father and grandparents who offered both stability and abuse. He writes that his grandmother, in particular, established a template for insecurity and cruelty that shaped his life. (“If she loved me, why treat me as if I was an intruder?

Less than an animal?” he asks.) From those early years, the author developed a morbid fascination with death that would follow him through throughout his history. After moving to Arizona, Parker began working for the local police department; at just 18, he found purpose in the job but also sustained deep emotional wounds. In one particularly violent encounter, a suspect managed to escape with the author’s own gun and jacket, leaving him shaken and uncertain about his future. His despondency led him to join the medicolegal death investigations program as a transporter, where his daily work involved moving bodies and confronting the physical realities of death. (He writes of “crock pot–style container[s] full of putrid, boiling fluid” and describes how the smells and textures of decomposition became routine in grisly detail.) Parker relied on the gallows humor he had learned from his

grandmother to cope with the work, and he remained fascinated by the science of determining causes of death. His career took him from Arizona to California as he investigated the “unusual, unexpected, and, quite frankly, sometimes unfathomable ways people die.” The author recounts misidentifications, departmental failures, and the emotional toll of years spent in proximity to death, leading up to 2019, when Parker finally admitted to struggling with alcoholism, PTSD, and depression. As he narrates moving between hospitalizations and treatments, he also confronts the lifelong impact of death on his work and his identity.

Parker writes with frankness and unflinching intensity about his tumultuous childhood, delivering details that pull the reader in over the course of the startling incidents he describes—he recalls, for instance, that his father once considered murdering him and other family members—but he also offsets the horror with moments of dark, surprising humor. The image of his crass grandmother squatting over a sink to urinate, “us[ing] a step stool to climb onto it,” captures the chaos and absurdity that defined his early life.

When discussing his years as a police officer, the author demonstrates a strong command of pacing and tone, blending police-style factual precision with emotional immediacy. His reflection on one violent encounter—A “very calm voice in my head reminded me of the 1991 Rodney King incident and resulting riots the year before”— demonstrates his insight and social awareness and illustrates how he analyzes his career through several different lenses. His descriptions of decomposing bodies are graphic, gripping, and certain to appeal to readers drawn to the macabre, but what distinguishes Parker’s prose is its balance—each grisly or shocking detail ultimately circles back to something

A hearty novel layering grief and humor.

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deeply personal, grounding his storytelling in self-awareness and the psychological toll of confronting death.

A memoir full of striking reflections on the procedural and personal realities of death.

Last Bite Peele, Amy S. | She Writes Press (256 pp.) $17.99 paper | February 24, 2026 9798896360841

Peele’s comedic mystery follows a Chicago widow dealing with loss and under-thetable intrigue.

At the funeral of Vinnie Sortino, a beloved Cubs fan and longtime Chicago city employee, his widow, Angie, discovers that his death has left behind as many questions as fond memories. Forced to spread the casket payment across three credit cards (two of which are declined), Angie realizes Vinnie has left her nearly broke. The debts deepen as the mourners arrive, each with a hidden agenda, including Vinnie’s sharp-tongued sister and her mangy dog, a flirtatious colleague named Ralph Conti, and Cookie Guggleman, a sultry HR officer from City Hall who hints that Vinnie’s pension might be stolen out from under Angie.

When Ralph learns that mob-connected loan sharks are demanding repayment for Vinnie’s Cubs bets, he vows to protect Angie, even as his affair with an alderman’s glamorous wife, Rebecca, threatens to drag him into the same corrupt orbit. Angie’s efforts to rebuild lead her to take a job cleaning City Hall by day and move in with her niece, Gina, to launch a morbidly funny catering business called Last Bite, which pulls her deeper into a web of civic secrets that may extend to the mayor’s office. Amid crooked officials, crazed Cubs fandom, and tangled loyalties, Angie struggles to reinvent herself. Peele writes with warmth and sharp comic timing. The funeral-set opening strikes a deft balance between sincerity and humor, which is carried throughout the novel via sharp, funny JANUARY 1, 2026

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lines (Gina quips about her roommate’s weed habit, “Some people have Glade air freshener; we have eau de marijuana”). In tone and spirit, the novel recalls Fannie Flagg’s Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (1987) with its bittersweet mix of mystery and humor.

The catering subplot drags a little compared to the novel’s more exciting threads, but Peele consistently draws readers into a fun and familiar Chicago (full of Cubs chatter and crooked City Hall corridors) without slipping into cliché, thanks to her vibrant character work—Angie’s determination to change her life will undoubtedly win readers over.

A hearty novel layering grief and humor in a flavorful Chicago-style slice.

A Guide To Thriving: The Science Behind Breaking Old Patterns, Reclaiming Your Agency, and Finding Meaning Rosemberg, Jon | Wiley (272 pp.) | $28.00 hardcover | ISBN: 9781394367931 November 25, 2025

In this inspirational book, executive coach Rosemberg explores how thriving is a state that readers can create through intentional choices.

The author opens the book with a series of devastating events that occurred to people in the author’s inner circle that made him realize that “life can be more than mere survival.” Survival mode, he writes, is an “emergency response system” that may manifest as irritability, procrastination, or simply becoming numb. By contrast, thriving is characterized by feeling “open, energized, flexible, and deeply connected.” Creativity and curiosity are other hallmarks of the latter. Rosemberg introduces a map of nine interconnected elements— beliefs; thoughts; emotions; sensations and actions; transcendence; the past; the present; the future; and space— that can help readers shift from surviving to thriving. He explores each in 166

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depth and invites readers to go deeper into each one by using his AIR (“Awareness, Inquiry, and Reframing”) framework. The book also discusses ways to face emotional challenges, interpret bodily sensations, adopt an optimistic explanatory style, and balance hedonia (the pursuit of pleasure and happiness) with eudaimonia (the pursuit of purpose and meaning). The book also explores the power of objects, spaces, systems, and culture. Case studies from Rosemberg’s coaching clients highlight how agency, mindfulness, prospection, and space affect one’s ability to thrive. The book concludes with a reminder that learning from challenges, rather than being defined by them, is essential to living life to the fullest. Rosemberg creatively combines personal history, professional anecdotes, neuroscience, and psychology in this all-compassing life-improvement guide. Anecdotes from the author’s coaching clients sometimes feel a bit too polished, presenting a process of transformation that seems smoother than it often is. However, his experience with depression, anxiety, and upheaval lends gravitas to such statements as “Transitions in life often feel disorienting and heavy, like wading through thick mud. The harder we fight against it, the deeper we sink.” Rosemberg compassionately acknowledges the role of privilege in well-being, noting that “Systemic decisions give some people easy access to thriving while leaving others to struggle.

An often-compelling science-based approach to personal transformation.

The Traitor’s Bargain Roy, Rajat | Emberline Books (250 pp.) $9.99 paper | August 1, 2025 9781764129909

In this debut historical novel, the residents of an 18th-century Indian province fight a British company to protect their domestic commodities.

Bengal is India’s richest province in 1756 and the place for

highly sought-after materials like silks and muslin. It attracts traders from around the world and such concerns as the British East India Company. But trouble begins with Bengal’s “shifting political landscape.” The province’s beloved ruler (or Nawab), Alivardi Khan, dies, and his grandson, Siraj ud-Daulah, is his heir apparent. Officials belonging to the Nawab’s court fear Siraj is too unpredictable while the leaders of the East India Company worry he’s aligned with their French trading rivals. Sure enough, newly minted Nawab Siraj sets his sights on Fort William, the company’s principal settlement in Bengal, which the British had begun fortifying even before Alivardi’s death. Despite this, Siraj’s army seizes the fort. Meanwhile, British warships had recently docked in India to confront French forces. But Robert Clive, governor of another British fort in India, uses that extra muscle to retake Fort William. He has Bengali allies, too, including Mir Jafar, a senior commander of the Bengal army who’s upset he was passed over as Calcutta’s governor, and Mehtab Rai, a financier whom Siraj senselessly humiliated not long ago.

Bengali officials who help the other side may soon regret their decision, as the British, if they gain the upper hand, will be in a perfect position to exert their dominance in India—gradually taking away the country’s commodities as well as its identity.

In this tale, Roy smoothly mingles historical figures with fictional characters.

For example, real-life Alivardi Khan and Siraj ud-Daulah are just as integral to the story as the fictional nobleman Javed Hussain and his assertive son, Sarfaraz.

The spotlight actually hits quite a few well-developed characters, such that it’s truly shocking when someone dies or finds himself arrested for treason. At the same time, there’s a balanced mix of conflicts (“The gates of the fort groaned under the relentless blows of a battering ram, wood splintering with each strike”) and characters’ discussions of events that either have happened or most assuredly will. Readers unfamiliar with the history of Bengal will have much to take in, from India’s culture and local foods to the country’s political climate. But the author also dives deep into the story’s cast, as K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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some individuals prove tirelessly greedy and others ultimately lament the choices they’ve made. One remorseful man even has an enlightening conversation with his reflection in a mirror and, later, an elaborate, ominous dream. Despite the book’s relatively short length, it scrupulously covers several years in the mid-1700s and wisely keeps the action in Bengal (regardless of where each character hails from). Roy’s lyrical prose makes reading this novel a breeze: “Reclining on a pile of silk cushions, his fingers trembled as he cradled the slender pipe…

Outside, the faint sounds of the Nawab’s camp filtered through the tent—soldiers’ murmurs, the occasional neigh of restless horses, and the distant beat of war drums meant to rally courage.”

An enthralling story of nationalism filled with historical touches and lush details.

Kirkus Star

The Light We Lost Stone, Kyla | Paper Moon Press (364 pp.) $17.99 paper | January 27, 2022 9781945410734 | Series: Lost Light, 1

In this first installment of Stone’s Lost Light series, set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a girl searches for a killer as geomagnetic storms wreak havoc on the world.

Shiloh Easton’s mother was murdered by a serial killer named Eli Pope, colloquially known as the Broken Heart Killer, when Shiloh was 5 years old. As if that trauma weren’t enough, Shiloh, now 13, finds her grandfather—her guardian for the last eight years—brutally bludgeoned to death in his salvage yard, and her older brother, Cody, missing. Complicating matters is the revelation that Pope has been released on a technicality and is back in town. As Shiloh attempts to find her grandfather’s killer and locate her brother (who may not even be alive) while evading those who would hand her over to social services, deputy sheriff Jackson K IR KU S R E V IE W S

Cross—who grew up as a close friend of Pope, Shiloh’s mother, and Shiloh’s aunt, Lena—vows to find Shiloh and her brother. As geomagnetic storms of unprecedented strength paint the sky “blood-red” and turn the entire Northern Hemisphere dark in a matter of days, Lena, who is now a paramedic in Tampa, sets out with her dog, Bear, to return to the UP and her shadowy past in an effort to save her late sister’s kids. But can she get there before the world ends? “Banks are closed. The internet is down. Planes are grounded… They’re reporting rioting in some of the big cities. People are already running out of food.” Although the narrative is character driven—the ensemble cast members are all brilliant three-dimensional creations—it’s the masterfully intricate storyline that truly distinguishes this novel. Bombshell plot twists abound, coupled with pedal-to-themetal pacing and palpable intensity throughout the narrative as civilization crumbles around the characters—this novel is virtually unputdownable.

A flawless blend of apocalyptic fiction, thriller, and whodunit.

All Girls Be Mine Alone Strohmeier, Sophie | Joyland Publishing (204 pp.) | $17 paper | October 14, 2025 9798992025842

In Strohmeier’s novella, a musical young woman competes for lovers and grapples with desire in Vienna.

In this compact, quietly feverish narrative, the author dissects the humiliations and ecstasies of early desire with a musician’s ear for rhythm. The unnamed narrator, a sardonic young woman studying at a high school for gifted musicians, charts her rivalry with Joachim, a preternaturally self-assured baritone who collects girlfriends. When they both fall for the same girl, the enigmatic Lea, their contest mutates into something stranger—a duet of obsession, envy, and self-discovery. (The narrator later yearns for Stasi, an older opera singer who

is an authority figure and mentor.)

Strohmeier’s prose swings between wry precision and operatic excess (“the Vile Monk is so obviously a metaphor… a psychological abstraction of your lesbian feelings”). The author finds pathos in adolescent melodrama and humor in the lofty seriousness of its young artists—a legend about students who accidentally summon the ghost of a lovelorn monk plays like a distorted echo of the main story. The Vienna setting is vividly rendered with trams, convent walls, and café smoke, providing a stage for the narrator’s conflicting impulses regarding solitude and surrender. Beneath the wit and gossip in the dialogue runs a genuine ache: the longing to dissolve into art, another person, or both. The author resists depicting tidy queer awakenings; her narrator’s desires arrive as complications tangled with rivalry, mimicry, and envy for what others have bound up with resentment. Strohmeier’s voice is sharp-edged and unsentimental, recalling the precision of Garth Greenwell and the sardonic intimacy of Chris Kraus. The story feels less like a coming-out narrative than an aria of thwarted hunger, its beauty resting in a note that won’t resolve.

A haunting tale of adolescent art, desire, and lingering wounds.

Shooting Up Tepper, Jonathan | Infinite Books (304 pp.) $32.95 | February 19, 2026 | 9781964378138

Tepper, the son of missionaries, offers an unadorned coming-of-age memoir rooted in faith and humble acts of service.

In the 1980s, the Madrid slum of San Blas was at the heart of the heroin epidemic on the continent. It was an unlikely place for an American couple to raise their young children, but when God calls, you must answer—Christian missionaries Elliott and Mary Tepper packed up their boys and traveled from Mexico to Spain, eager to find a way to serve the Lord. At first, Elliott and Mary, along with their children, JANUARY 1, 2026

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handed out religious tracts to “yonkis,” hoping to bring the Word to the addicts living on the streets of their neighborhood (“My father told us we had planted seeds in men’s hearts,” the author recalls). But the Teppers weren’t naive about the effectiveness of Bible verses alone to get people off drugs and see the light. Their apartment became an ad hoc detox center for those looking to kick their habits, and as word spread, the couple formally founded Betel, a free, donation-funded addiction clinic. It wasn’t long before the horrific specter of AIDS began to haunt the drug community, with most cases spread by intravenous infection. That only emboldened the Teppers to continue their care for the yonkis, regardless of their HIV status. As the author recounts, his unconventional childhood brought him into proximity with HIV positive addicts, who became his friends. The faith that powered the Teppers’ desire to do good wasn’t conditional or biased; that fulsome affection is felt throughout this memoir, even as the family’s beliefs were routinely tested. Not only did they see their nearest and dearest friends succumb one by one to AIDS—the Teppers were also shaken by unthinkable personal tragedies. These were faced with the same, clear-eyed fortitude that the Teppers brought to their mission.

A remarkable, true-life story about an American family offering salvation in Spain’s slums.

Kirkus Star

Boss Brooks: A True Story of Fraud, Family and Forgiveness From Tennessee to Texas Turner, Kathy Bingham & Leon Alligood University of Tennessee (232 pp.) $24.95 paper | November 25, 2025 9798895270363

Turner and Alligood offer a true-life account of a man who faked his death during the Great Depression.

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father was, she writes, “a man with two tombstones.” One was in rural Tennessee, where Boss Bingham faked his death during the Great Depression, leaving behind a wife and three children; the other was in West Texas, where he forged a new identity as Marvin Lester Brooks and married another woman, with whom he had four children. He only admitted to the deception after suffering a nearly fatal stroke in 1971, dropping a bombshell on members of his original family. “Was he a crook or a scapegoat, a coward or a man of principle, a manipulative schemer, or a man of incredible naivete?” Turner asks in this riveting, meticulously researched account of her quest to “define the man who disappeared.” The book alternates between the narrative of Boss Bingham’s life and Turner’s trip to Texas to interview Brooks’ children—her Texas aunts and uncles. With the assistance of his brother and others, Boss fabricated his demise in January 1931, digging up a corpse from a graveyard, putting the body in his own car, and then setting fire to it.

According to Turner, the scheme was cooked up so Boss could avoid possible prosecution for embezzlement and fraud at the Hardin County, Tennessee bank where he worked as head cashier. Astonishingly, Boss’ wife, Mary Louise Bingham, went along with it, even committing fraud herself to collect the proceeds from his life insurance policies. The book is full of compelling details; one of Turner’s two Texas aunts tells her that her grandfather would give her “a nickel to wash his stinky feet”; another aunt recalls that, shortly before he died, “He kept wanting Mary. He said, ‘Mary, Mary where are you? Mary, I need you.’”

Turner asks herself, “Why did I care about this man?” Her singular achievement is to make readers care about him and about his two families.

A fascinating story of deception and loyalty.

For more Indie content, visit Kirkus online.

Stay With Me, I Want To Be Alone: A Chaplain’s Search for Meaning Wakefield, Keith W. | Punchline Publishers (284 pp.) | $15.99 paper | October 3, 2025 9781955051507

A hospital chaplain and educator offers an insider’s perspective on a vital, if often unheralded, aspect of American health care.

“Emergencies happen all day and night in the hospital,” Wakefield writes in this book’s opening chapter, adding, “but death is never one of them.” Understandably, once a person dies, the priorities of doctors and nurses shift to other patients who are in immediate need of care— chaplains step into this void to sit with, listen to, or pray for grieving family members. In this memoir, the author pulls back the curtain on an often-unsung aspect of U.S. healthcare, adding his own story to those of other chaplains, patients, and family members he has encountered.

Surveying his own life, Wakefield pays particular attention to his spiritual journey. Baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church, he admits that initially he “wasn’t exactly what you’d call a devotee.” A fan of rock ’n’ roll, particularly the band Guns N’ Roses, the author recalls how his ambivalence toward school (he had a high school GPA of 1.6) corresponded to his meandering spirituality. His search for religious meaning ultimately led him to the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the field of clinical pastoral education.

Wakefield’s accessible, almost conversational, writing effectively conveys the trauma, sadness, uncertainty, and hope that a chaplain encounters daily; as one of the author’s mentors once told him, chaplains are often present for “the most traumatic moment of a person’s life.” The current manager for the CPE Programs at UCLA Health in Los Angeles, Wakefield has previous experience as a chaplain and CPE educator at Johns Hopkins and Stanford Health Care. His background as an educator is reflected in the book’s ample footnotes, which reference best K IR KU S R E V IE W S

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practices in the field. The book also acknowledges the diversity that exists among chaplains (“there is no place in the world more diverse than a hospital”), highlighting the coexistence of Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, and humanists in the role.

An entertaining follow-up with vivid characters and a rich sense of place.

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A poignant reflection on the importance of hospital chaplains.

Curb Appeal: Forty Years of Falling for Houses and Finding Home Watts, Lisa A. | Self (142 pp.) | $15.99 paper September 1, 2025 | 9798218801250

Watts offers a memoir of many houses and a successful marriage.

In 1987, the newly married author and her husband, Bob, bought a 600square-foot condo in Boston, beginning an adventure in homeownership that has lasted their entire married life; over almost 40 years, they have owned 15 houses.

Some of the moves to new states or cities were job-related as Bob’s work took them to colleges in Connecticut, Ohio, and North Carolina. Other relocations were to different houses located nearby, each offering “the promise of enhancement” (the constant moves led friends to joke that the family was secretly in the witness protection program). Watts reveled in “the joys and intrigues of making another house our home” as she and Bob raised two children (she worked a variety of full-time, part-time, and freelance jobs, and Bob changed his career path from being a college athletic director to obtaining his doctorate degree and becoming a professor). Their domiciles included second “getaway” homes near the water in both Rhode Island and North Carolina, as the family enjoyed time outdoors. Facing retirement, they moved to Rhode Island but returned to their close community in North Carolina when Bob was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s follicular lymphoma. After his treatment, they returned to Rhode Island, to a house K IR KU S R E V IE W S

that may be their last, in order to be closer to their adult children living in New York and Boston. Each chapter begins with a charming watercolor by Watts of the house in question, nicely complementing its verbal portrait. She has an endearing way of giving the houses personality: One is “a partner who doesn’t necessarily inspire passion but also doesn’t make demands”; another is “how I’d imagine a fling might feel with an older patrician.” The author’s enthusiasm for the communities and friends she found in each place, from small-town Wooster, Ohio, to the gentrifying urban Cleveland-Holloway neighborhood of Durham, is clearly communicated. Although relocating is something many find stressful, Watts offers a fun perspective as she reflects, “Home is something Bob and I brought with us on each move.”

Fans of house-hunting shows will particularly enjoy this upbeat narrative.

Kirkus Star

The Bolden Cylinder Woolworth, Norman | Level Best - Historia (292 pp.) | $16.95 paper | October 21, 2025 9798898200350 | Series: A Bruneau Abellard Novel, 2

Woolworth’s sophomore series mystery involves a priceless phonograph cylinder, arson, and a cold missing-­ person case.

New Orleans antique dealer Bruneau “Bru” Abellard investigates a turn-of-the-century Edison cylinder that he discovers in a hidden compartment of a sideboard; the name “Clarence” is

written on the side of cardboard box containing it. The recorded music on this cylinder is thought to be that of musician Buddy Bolden, “the one who started it all.” Bolden never recorded, but, Abellard explains, “contemporaries said he was the first to take the rhythms of ragtime and marry them to the emotional expressiveness of the blues, and that without that union we wouldn’t have what we now call jazz.” Abellard’s investigation into who’s playing the cornet on the cylinder leads him to Izzy Weisman, an elderly collector of New Orleans memorabilia.

No sooner does he provide Abellard with the device that will play the cylinder than a suspicious fire burns Weisman’s house down. The mystery deepens when the body of Arnold Jesse, a 13-year-old missing since 1967, is found in the remains of Weisman’s home. Abellard, an amateur detective and consultant to the New Orleans Police Department, once again teams with childhood friend and property-crimes detective Thibodeaux “Bo” Duplessis. Although Abellard and his girlfriend, historian and puzzle-solver Sallie Mae Maguire, are “on a break,” he relies on her expertise, as well, and they agree to work together.

As in his series starter The Lafitte Affair (2024), Woolworth populates his richly atmospheric New Orleans setting with a gallery of colorful, eccentric, and formidable characters. Readers’ mileage may vary on the author’s use of Abellard and Duplessis as alternating narrators, but Prosper Fortune, whom Woolworth introduced in the first novel, is developed in this installment in surprising ways.

This is also not a book to read while hungry; Abellard is something of a foodie, and several of the Big Easy’s finest eateries and signature dishes appear over the course of the narrative.

An entertaining follow-up with vivid characters and a rich sense of place.

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A LIFE SPENT LISTENING I’V E SEEN A LOT of changes in the world of audiobooks in the 26 years that I’ve been involved in covering and reviewing them for AudioFile magazine. The format has switched from cassettes to CDs to digital files and streaming, from specialty MP3 players to smartphones in our pockets.

The industry has grown and broadened: Ever more audiobooks are being produced, and more care is taken to cast them authentically—that is, to ensure that the narrator shares a background or identity with a book’s author or characters. Audiobooks are more accessible, more available, and more inclusive than ever, and, according to the Audio Publishers Association 2025 Consumer Survey, 51% of American adults have

listened to an audiobook.

There’s something magical about having a story told to you. For many of us, we first experience this as young children, and parents, teachers, or caregivers read us stories—something we then replicate with the children in our own lives.

(I’ve been practicing farm animal sounds while reading Sandra Boynton’s Barnyard Dance! out loud to my baby nephew.)

I recently listened to Hwang Bo-reum’s Every Day I Read: 53 Ways To Get Closer to Books, translated by Shanna Tan and narrated invitingly by Rosa Escoda (Bloomsbury Publishing, Dec 2).

Hwang doesn’t mention audiobooks, but I think she would appreciate them as another way to fit more reading into our lives.

Think of it less like multitasking and more like a complementary activity to the other things you’re already spending time on. Commuting and road trips used to be some of the main ways that we listened; perhaps you, too, can recall a drive across the country, and which novel was playing through the car speakers while you passed memorable landmarks and landscapes.

But audiobooks aren’t confined to the car or mass transit. I’ve heard from people who listen while walking outside or exercising in the gym, while doing the dishes or other household chores, while gardening. Many artists find that they can listen during certain parts of their process. I often listen at home—knitting to Queen Demon by

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Martha Wells, read by Eric Mok (Macmillan Audio, Oct. 7), sewing to Bird City: Adventures in New York’s Urban Wilds by Ryan Goldberg, read by Evan Sibley (Hachette Audio, Nov. 4). And, of course, listening at night can be a way for adults to return to that comforting sensation of being read a bedtime story. (Or, if you’re aff licted with insomnia, a way to pass that stretch of time in the wee hours.)

But what makes a good audiobook? At the heart of an exceptional audiobook experience is a skilled narrator who connects with the material and who in turn connects the listener to the material.

Styles vary widely—from a bells-and-whistles production with a full cast, music, and sound effects to a single voice in your ear, holding your attention, making it impossible to press pause. Read our audiobook reviews, which will now appear in every issue of Kirkus Reviews, and find something that piques your interest. The more listening you do, the more you will discover what makes a good audiobook for you.

Jennifer Dowell is the audiobooks editor.

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Illustration by Eric Scot t Ander son

Audiobooks

AUDIOBOOKS

EDITOR’S PICK This audiobook presents a jewel box of late-in-life stories written by a master, and all exceptionally well performed. Salman Rushdie’s imagination, wit, and ear for language are on full display in “a quintet” of remarkable fictions. The listener is also treated to five accomplished narrators who capture the author’s voice, sometimes standing to the side while explaining the complexities of the

tale and giving meaning to those at the end of their lives—or even after, as in Naveen Andrews’s hypnotic delivery of the ghost story, “Late.” While all perform excellently, Nicholas Khan’s work in “The Musician of Kahani” is superb. It’s a challenging piece of magical realism told in many voices and accents.

The Eleventh Hour: A Quintet of Stories Rushdie, Salman | Read by Sanjeev Bhaskar, Nicholas Khan, Sid Sagar, Naveen Andrews, Neil Shah | Random House Audio (8.25 hrs.) $22 | $76 library ed. | November 4, 2025 9798217173891 | 9798217173907 library ed.

The author’s gifts for dialogue, plot, and character remain exceptional.

Kirkus awards Earphones to truly exceptional presentations that excel in the following criteria: narrative voice and style, vocal characterizations, appropriateness for the audio format, and enhancement of the text.

These Titles Earned the Earphones Award

172

Gone Before Goodbye

By Harlan Coben & Reese Witherspoon

173

Intemperance

By Sonora Jha

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175

Displaced

By Patrick Ochieng

175

The Rose Field

By Philip Pullman

171

The Eleventh Hour

By Salman Rushdie

175

The Winter of the Dollhouse

By Laura Amy Schlitz

176

Good and Evil Other Stories

By Samanta Schweblin; trans.

by Megan McDowell

JANUARY 1, 2026

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AUDIOBOOKS

This Is a Safe Space Berry, Lucinda | Read by Danielle Savre, Alicia Crowder, Dan Bittner, Matt Godfrey, Janina Edwards | Simon & Schuster Audio | 3.75 hrs. $19.99 | October 21, 2025 | 9781668135266

Narrators Danielle Savre, Alicia Crowder, Dan Bittner, Matt Godfrey, and Janina Edwards bring this compelling thriller to life. Jenna, a therapist, tells herself she’s snooping on her husband’s texts to save their marriage. What she discovers are disturbing messages between him and his cousin, Bodie, about a dancer who claims Bodie assaulted her. Jenna realizes the dancer is her client, Kaitlyn, a medical student who vanished months earlier. Savre and Crowder, as Jenna and Kaitlyn, bring captivating intensity to their roles. Bittner and Godfrey, voicing the frantic texts, convey overwhelming panic. Edwards is Jenna’s stoic therapist, who helps her navigate the situation.

This dynamic ensemble will twist listeners’ nerves into knots with every revelation.

The Toynbee Convector Bradbury, Ray | Read by Ali Andre Ali, Corey Brill, Danielle Cohen, Gary Furlong, Suehyla El-Attar Young | Simon & Schuster Audio | 8.75 hrs. | $24.99 | August 5, 2025 | 9781668133910

A diverse ensemble of narrators brings this collection of speculative stories vividly to life.

Each performance highlights their shifting tones of wonder, satire, and melancholy. Ali Andre Ali and Gary Furlong excel at conjuring textured voices that amplify the feeling of the uncanny.

Corey Brill’s thoughtful, measured pace underscores reflective moments, while Danielle Cohen and Suehyla El-Attar Young infuse their narrations with warmth, urgency, and emotional resonance. The variety of performances ensures that each story feels distinct yet 172

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connected, sustaining engagement across the collection. Listeners are treated to an ever-changing vocal landscape that deepens the lyricism of the prose and illuminates its tone of unease.

The cast captures both the stories’ strangeness and humanity, turning each tale into a rediscovered gem.

Strong Ground: The Lessons of Daring Leadership, the Tenacity of Paradox, the Wisdom of the Human Spirit Brown, Brené | Read by Brené Brown Random House Audio | 11.5 hrs. | $25 $85.5 library ed. | September 23, 2025 9798217159703 | 9798217160600 library ed.

Researcher, public speaker, and podcaster Brené Brown narrates this comprehensive guide to courageous leadership with her signature warmth and clarity. Drawing from decades of research and global experience, Brown offers practical insights on leading with authenticity, humility, and connection. Her personable narration sounds like a conversation with a trusted mentor—engaging, relatable, and deeply human. Brown’s ability to balance data-driven content with storytelling makes the material accessible even when tackling complex ideas. While the book is lengthy and primarily geared toward business professionals, listeners outside the corporate world will find valuable takeaways. Brown’s voice adds credibility and comfort, guiding listeners through a timely and thoughtprovoking exploration of leadership in uncertain times.

This audiobook is a powerful resource for anyone seeking to lead with integrity and intention.

For a review of Strong Ground in print, visit Kirkus online.

Earphones Award

Gone Before Goodbye Coben, Harlan & Reese Witherspoon Read by Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, Kiff VandenHeuvel, Suehyla El-Attar Young, Peter Ganim, Saskia Maarleveld, James Fouhey | Hachette Audio | 10.5 hrs. $27.99 | October 14, 2025 | 9781668650684

Listeners are treated to a nonstop thrill ride in Reese Witherspoon’s first novel and Harlan Coben’s debut collaboration. An exceptional cast, including Witherspoon herself, brings to life a host of vividly drawn characters from around the globe.

Maggie McCabe, a gifted reconstructive surgeon who’s lost her license, seizes a chance to return to the operating room when a Russian oligarch makes her an offer. As Maggie’s tragic past is slowly revealed, tension and intrigue escalate.

The story raises questions about concierge healthcare and the use of AI in grief support, providing a window into what drives some surgeons. Each narrator is perfectly matched to their character(s).

This stellar cast makes listeners eager to walk an extra mile just to keep listening.

Shot Ready Curry, Stephen | Read by JD Jackson, Stephen Curry | Random House Audio | 4 hrs. $18 | $47.5 library ed. | September 9, 2025 9798217170623 | 9798217170647 library ed.

Golden Voice Narrator JD Jackson, whose tone and style elevate any audiobook, smoothly narrates NBA superstar Stephen Curry’s memoir/self-help audiobook. First, the all-time three-point leader himself delivers his prologue, in which he sets forth how he became “shot ready” on the court and in life. Then, in a humble tone that reflects the writing, Jackson captures the extraordinary highlights of Curry’s career—his MVPs, championships, and personal records.

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AUDIOBOOKS

Curry believes in preparation, intense work, and self-examination. He shares how he developed his now famous shot after his dad said his release was too low because of his height.

This brief audiobook offers insights into a great athlete and an empathetic man.

The King’s Ransom Evanovich, Janet | Read by Lorelei King Simon & Schuster Audio | 8.5 hrs. | $24.99 November 11, 2025 | 9781797174952 Series: The Recovery Agent, 2

Narrator Lorelei King masterfully voices the second entry in this series.

Recovery Agent Gabriella Rose commits to getting her ex-­husband’s cousin out of trouble by traveling the globe to retrieve missing art and antiquities. With her ex, Rafer Jones, Rose confronts lots of villains. The plot stretches believability, but listeners seeking a fun romp filled with colorful, and occasionally sexy, characters will be delighted. King expertly delivers the signature Evanovich blend of humor, danger, and charm, skillfully performing men and women of multiple ages and nationalities. Gabriella Rose emerges as a fashion-conscious, smart, gunslinging heroine with a heart. King’s seamless shifts in tone and accent elevate the fast-paced story.

Buckle up and enjoy this entertaining escapade.

The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau Harmel, Kristin | Read by Madeleine Maby, Kristin Harmel | Simon & Schuster Audio | 11.5 hrs. | $26.99 | June 17, 2025 | 9781797196848

Madeleine Maby skillfully narrates Harmel’s new historical mystery.

Jewel thief Colette Marceau has known of her family’s history—stealing from the rich K IR KU S R E V IE W S

Couched in gorgeous prose, Mathan doesn’t miss a note.

INTEMPERANCE

and giving to the poor—since she was 14.

Seventy years later, a museum exhibit of a unique diamond bracelet catches her attention. The last time she saw that bracelet was in Paris in 1942 on the night her sister, Liliane, was arrested by the Nazis with the bracelet hidden in the hem of her skirt. Now, Colette joins forces with her attorney, Aviva, to find the bracelet’s owner and learn what happened to her sister. The 21st century investigation unfolds, with gripping flashbacks to scenes of Paris during the Holocaust.

Maby’s narration is spot-on, particularly her delivery of French words and phrases.

Queen Esther Irving, John | Read by Ari Fliakos | Simon & Schuster Audio | 16.5 hrs. | $26.99 November 4, 2025 | 9781668142653

Narrator Ari Fliakos brings a compassionate tone and exquisite pacing to Irving’s sequel to The Cider House Rules—40 years in the making.

Complicated, quirky, and enigmatic characters highlight this exploration of antisemitism and how Esther Nacht, a Viennese-born Jewish orphan, ends up at an orphanage in St. Cloud’s, Maine, where Dr. Wilbur Larch takes her in.

Fliakos portrays Esther with a tinge of melancholy and world-weariness as she ages out of the orphanage and is then taken in by the Winslows, a wealthy family strongly opposed to antisemitism. Irving delivers this exploration of identity and belonging in a story that mirrors the creation of the State of Israel.

Fliakos’s dexterous vocalizations of the men and women in Esther’s life create a compelling and entertaining world.

Earphones Award

Intemperance Jha, Sonora | Read by Sneha Mathan Harper Audio | 9.75 hrs. | $27.99 October 14, 2025 | 9780063440869

Sneha Mathan’s mellifluous voice draws listeners into this lyrical rumination on what it means to be an intelligent woman of a certain age. Fifty-five and disabled, an Indian feminist sociology professor with two divorces behind her decides she’s tired of being alone. She’s ready to meet someone and marry again.

She decides to hold a “swayamvar,” an ancient Hindu ritual in which men perform feats of derring-do to win a woman’s hand. Mathan captures the ironic tone inherent in each of our heroine’s observations, questions, and reactions. Feminists, disability rights activists, and others come to support her, while the men’s rights movement excoriates her for objectifying men.

Couched in gorgeous prose, Jha’s humor is prickly and pervasive, and Mathan doesn’t miss a note.

It Had To Be Him Khorram, Adib | Read by Corvin King, Vikas Adam | Hachette Audio | 12 hrs. | $27.99 September 2, 2025 | 9781668651551

This delightful second-chance romance takes place in sunlit Italy.

After a disastrous public proposal, Ramin escapes abroad, only to bump into Noah, his high school crush and now a divorced dad traveling with his family. Their reunion JANUARY 1, 2026

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AUDIOBOOKS

blossoms into a heartfelt, spicy romance that’s as much about rediscovery as it is about love. Narrators Corvin King and Vikas Adam bring warmth and charm to the story, smoothly balancing humor, tenderness, and vulnerability. King gives Noah a grounded, thoughtful presence, while Adam captures Ramin’s blend of heartbreak and determination. Together, they create undeniable chemistry and emotional depth, making every moment, from playful banter to intimate encounters, resonate.

Richly immersive and deeply romantic, this audiobook is a swoony escape and an honest portrayal of love’s second chances.

The Lucky Ride Kitagawa, Yasushi | Read by Brian Nishii Trans. by Takami Nieda | Harper Audio 4.5 hrs. | $26.99 | October 7, 2025 9780063376274

Brian Nishii narrates this uplifting tale of magical realism involving a middleaged man who believes he’s the unluckiest person in Japan. Suichi is going through hard times with his job, his family, and the mounting debt that threatens to cancel their long-awaited trip to Paris.

At his lowest point, a mysterious taxi driver appears, taking him on a thoughtprovoking journey. The chatty driver challenges Suichi to change his mindset and habits to attract more luck. Suichi comes to understand that luck is not innate and must be cultivated. Nishii delivers a sensitive portrayal of Suichi, displaying his growth from doubt and despair to hope and resolve. As the taxi driver, Nishii projects warmth, humor, and wisdom.

The result is an engaging and resonant listening experience.

For another book translated by Takami Nieda, visit Kirkus online.

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Snoop Korman, Gordon | Read by Matt Godfrey Recorded Books | 4.75 hrs. | $13.64 July 29, 2025 | 9798899734502

The excitable voice of Matt Godfrey will resonate with young listeners as he recounts the hilarious shenan­ igans of a quirky preteen named Carter. After a ski collision with his brother lands him in a wheelchair for several weeks, he becomes obsessed with spying on the day-to-day activities of the people in his town. He borrows his mother’s drone to snoop on classmates and hacks into private and city cameras, inadvertently discovering a crime ring that trades in endangered animals at the town’s abandoned courthouse. When the smugglers find out Carter knows what’s going on and learn his address, Godfrey’s ability to keep the listener on the edge of their seat is sheer perfection.

Godfrey’s lively inflections capture Carter’s enthusiasm for spying. (Ages 8+)

Grief…a Comedy Larkin, Alison | Read by Alison Larkin Alison Larkin Presents | 6.25 hrs. $19.95 | June 3, 2025 | 9798347356225

In this beautiful memoir, a 50-­ something woman and a South Indian businessman/ climate activist fall in love—both for the first time. He dies shortly after they become engaged but reappears in her life to help her find love again. The ensuing conversations couldn’t have been performed by anyone but author Alison Larkin, a veteran narrator known for her exceptional performances and skill with accents. With her impressive emotional range and vulnerability, her performance embraces the experience of truly falling in love, the deadening weight of losing love, and the emerging freedom to believe—with the help of her fiancé’s reappearance—that love in all its forms will be possible again.

This joyous audiobook will make listeners laugh and open their hearts to life’s possibilities.

Ready For My Close-Up: The Making of Sunset Boulevard and the Dark Side of the Hollywood Dream Lubin, David M. | Read by Jason Culp Hachette Audio | 9.5 hrs. | $27.99 August 12, 2025 | 9781668649671

Jason Culp offers an excellent, welltoned, and enthu­ siastic narration, complete with spot-on imitations of Austrian-born director Billy Wilder, in this wellresearched examination of the iconic 1950s Paramount film Sunset Boule­vard. The movie features Gloria Swanson as the faded silent-screen star Norma Desmond. Culp’s breaths at the ends of sentences distract slightly, but David Lubin’s text is articulate, his words carefully chosen and instructive.

Exhaustive insights are provided regarding preproduction, production, filming, and immediate reception, as well as long-term critical and societal reactions. Bravo for a fun listening experience.

It’s likely that this audiobook will compel listeners to view the film— for the first or the hundredth time.

A Family Matter Lynch, Claire | Read by Miranda Raison Simon & Schuster Audio | 4.75 hrs. $17.99 | June 3, 2025 | 9781668120804

Miranda Raison’s understated perfor­mance complements this quietly profound production. When an English couple divorce in 1982, it fractures their young daughter’s life in ways she doesn’t fully understand or heal from until a complex truth is revealed 40 years later. The novel shifts between Dawn’s romantic awake­ ning with another woman and traumatic divorce proceedings from her husband in K IR KU S R E V IE W S

AUDIOBOOKS

1982, and their now grown daughter, Maggie’s, discovery of hidden family truths following her father’s terminal cancer diagnosis. Raison’s emotionally attuned delivery of the characters’ inner lives reveals a complex family portrait and ultimate renewal.

A masterfully paced, thoughtfully narrated, and deeply impactful audiobook.

Cinder House Marske, Freya | Read by Anna Burnett Macmillan Audio | 4.5 hrs. | $10.99 October 7, 2025 | 9781250417893

Anna Burnett narrates an unexpected reimagining of “Cinderella.” After having been murdered at 16 by her stepmother, “Ella” now haunts her family home. Burnett deftly handles Ella’s transition from a lonely girl to a lonely ghost. Burnett’s portrayal of her longing and frustration is heartrending, especially as she confronts hard truths about herself and her family. Add a royal ball, a handsome prince, a clever princess, and a looming confrontation between Ella and her stepfamily—and the tension is ratcheted up to nearly unbearable levels.

When Ella finally embraces her rage, Burnett’s performance is stunning.

By story’s end, a profoundly satisfying resolution is achieved.

Earphones Award

Displaced Ochieng, Patrick | Read by Junior Nyong’o Listening Library | 4 hrs. | $15 | $38 library ed.

September 23, 2025 | 9798217294862 9798217294879 library ed.

Nairobi-raised Junior Nyong’o brings vocal nuance to his narration of Kenyan author Patrick Ochieng’s story of children dislocated by postelection violence. When K IR KU S R E V IE W S

the latest cycle claims his father’s life, 14-year-old Kimathi; his little sister, Ngina; and their mother find themselves in a camp for internally displaced people. There Kimathi finds much hardship but also friends and purpose. Nyong’o’s prevailing tone is appropriately somber while allowing his characters full emotional range.

Ochieng has been careful to draw Kimathi’s friendships across ethnic lines, and Nyong’o shades his characterizations to reflect their different accents. The production accurately reflects Kenya’s robust mix of cultures and gives characters and listeners hope that the violence that uprooted the family will someday cease.

Powerful and affirming. (Ages 10+)

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2025 Ed. by Orlean, Susan & Jaime Green Read by Katharine Chin, Callie Beaulieu, Will Tulin, Shahjehan Khan, Brittany Bradford | Harper Audio | 12.5 hrs. | $27.99 October 21, 2025 | 9780063414235

Anthologies are good for listeners who don’t have long periods to devote to an audiobook. But that doesn’t mean other audiophiles can’t enjoy the pieces as well. This collection of essays on science and nature covers a wide array of topics, such as bird identification software and AI, the language of the land, and the question of whether animals know they will die. The articles come from publications such as The Atlantic and Smith­sonian. The writers explain complex scientific concepts clearly without being pedantic, and the narrators adjust their pace so listeners can easily grasp the material. The narrators also capture notes of humor and irony.

The variety of voices spices the overall work, so there’s no sense of sameness among the entries.

Earphones Award

The Rose Field Pullman, Philip | Read by Michael Sheen Listening Library | 22.5 hrs. | $30 $75 library ed. | October 23, 2025 9798217172504 | 9798217172511 library ed. | Series: Book of Dust, 3

Narrator Michael Sheen’s versatile skills bring to life daemons, griffins, witches, and humans alike.

Twenty-year-old Lyra is search­ing for her daemon, Pan, who is the physical manifestation of her soul. In chapters that shift viewpoint, Sheen’s emotional range and mastery of accents keep listeners anchored to the story—even during rapid dialogue. Sheen excels at pacing, transitioning smoothly from quiet philosophical scenes to tender moments and to gripping action. This satisfying audiobook concludes with an hour-long interview between Sheen and Pullman, which reveals their devotion to the series, admiration for each other’s work, and careful attention to characters.

Sheen’s return to the Book of Dust series gives it the spectacular ending it deserves. (Ages 14+)

Earphones Award

The Winter of the Dollhouse Schlitz, Laura Amy | Read by Laura Knight Keating | Recorded Books | 11.25 hrs. | $29.99 September 2, 2025 | 9798890592316

Laura Knight Keating captures every nuance— both human and doll—in this contemp­orary yet old-fashioned fantasy. In front of a dollhouse shop,

A spectacular ending.

THE ROSE FIELD

JANUARY 1, 2026

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AUDIOBOOKS

lonely, 11-year-old Tiph captures and returns a runaway dog to its elderly Hungarian owner, Nene (Aunt) Szilvia.

Spunky Tiph and Nene are Keating’s standout characters, with Nene’s stunning voice and accent making every appearance a delight. As their friendship develops, they restore a dollhouse, magically awakening the dolls, who chat with various accents.

Listeners will be shocked when the usually conscientious Tiph steals a valuable antique doll. Listeners of all ages will be enchanted by Keating’s spot-on rendering of the inter­ generational relationship and story of correcting a regrettable mistake.

The charm of the narration should make this delightful tale an audio classic. (Ages 10+)

Earphones Award

Good and Evil and Other Stories Schweblin, Samanta | Trans. by Megan McDowell | Read by Frankie Corzo, Alma Cuervo, Jamie K. Brown, Victoria Villarreal, Annette Amelia Oliveira, Ina Barron Random House Audio | 5.5 hrs. | $18 $47.5 library ed. | September 16, 2025 9798217165513 | 9798217166169 library ed.

This haunting collection of stories

by Argentinian writer Schweblin is exquisitely written, thoughtfully translated, and narrated by a full cast. Six fine narrators perform works that take the listener to Europe and Argentina, presenting characters in crisis. While all do exceptional work, Alma Cuervo’s cadence, eloquent style, and measured delivery of “A Fabulous Animal,” Victoria Villarreal’s portrayal of the youthful narrator of “The Woman from Atlántadita,” and Jamie K. Brown’s powerful delivery of the dramatic “Eye in the Throat” are especially powerful.

Schweblin has a gift for presenting people in extreme situations—a child swallows a battery, a woman gets punished for a good deed, a boy falls from a porch.

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All are finely crafted, timeless, and moving listening experiences.

Rock Paper Incisors Timberlake, Amy | Read by Michael Boatman | Hachette Audio | 4.5 hrs. $18.99 | October 14, 2025 | 9781649041180 Series: Skunk and Badger, 3

Narrator Michael Boatman is once again a master of vocal sound effects in this third installment of the Skunk and Badger series: the ErrrrrRRRRR of a rock tumbler tumbling, the scutch-scutch of snowshoes moving over snow, the Beed-el-LOO-bing! of a banjo being plucked. Raising two precocious young rats in Aunt Lula’s brownstone, Skunk and Badger find themselves in way, way over their heads. And how is Badger going to get his article for Rock Hound Weekly finished with all of the distractions?! Differentiating the animal characters, emphasizing the many all-caps words and phrases, Boatman uses his voice to paint a picture of a family life that’s chaotic, cozy, and loving.

Boatman captures the mayhem in a high-energy, fully committed performance. (Ages 6+)

Middle Spoon Varela, Alejandro | Read by Eddie Lopez Penguin Audio | 9.5 hrs. | $22 | $85.5 library ed. | September 9, 2025 | 9798217163755 9798217164950 library ed.

Eddie Lopez provides the perfect voice for this witty, heart­ felt epistolary novel. Lopez captures the spiraling anxiety, intense self-reflection, and endless intellect­ualizing of the unnamed narrator. In the midst of his first big heartbreak, he wonders if the perfect polyamorous life he thought he was building with his husband, two

kids, and boyfriend was just an illusion. In an attempt to process his problems, he composes long emails to his ex-boyfriend, Ben. He also sends them to his two therapists. Lopez captures the tone of these emails, which are, by turns, snarky, cynical, pleading, angry, vulnerable, and obfuscating. The protagonist’s fresh voice carries the novel, and Lopez beautifully translates this to audio.

A charming listen about the messy possibilities of contemporary queer love.

Sonora Walsh, Jenni L. | Read by Piper Goodeve Harper Audio | 10.25 hrs. | $25.19 October 28, 2025 | 9781400246793

Piper Goodeve gives an enthusiastic narration of a novel inspired by the true story of one of the first female horse divers. After answering an ad for a girl who loves horses who can dive and swim, Sonora Webster becomes absorbed in the carnival world of early 20th century America.

Harsh instruction for Sonora, gentle training of the horses, and the thrilling moments before and after diving create breathtaking episodes. Goodeve develops a feisty, caring young woman who meets every challenge with clear-eyed commitment. Balancing objectivity and emotion, Goodeve depicts each family member who becomes dear to Sonora. Also well depicted are the horse dives, which are fraught with danger. Close family relationships outweigh business rivalries and, even as tragedy strikes, dedication and love prove strongest.

Exciting, heartwarming listening.

For more books

by Jenni L. Walsh, visit Kirkus online.

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