All That Glitters Is Not Gold by Emily Rose Brubaker follows Willow, a girl who lives in Alaska. She is drawn to the light during long summer days and winter nights filled with northern lights. When Willow receives a rather plain gray cup at breakfast,...

In Of Gods and Ruin by Jonathan D. Lambert, after a forbidden gate is destroyed beneath Brethefen, Desnia is imprisoned and accused of causing the fire that devastated the city. The Sapphiric Court orders silence while Lord General Rosethorn enforces martial law and suppresses reports...

Things I Saw: A Funny Animal Alphabet Book, written and illustrated by Britt Joanna, is a charming, hilarious book for children that depicts various animals from A to Z performing antics that begin with the first letter of their name. This book is a great...

The Name and the Key by Kristina Elyse Butke is about Lily Bellamy, a teenage girl whose world slowly falls apart after her mother vanishes and is later found drowned in the marshlands near their home. Lily has grown up in the shadow of her...

The Christmas Starfish by J.B. Auchter is a holiday picture book that takes readers beneath the waves for a seasonal adventure in Cape Cod Bay. Framed as a story shared on a winter night, the tale imagines Santa’s sleigh gliding not only through the sky...

A Brief History of Wasting Time by Gary C McAuley follows Cyrus, a man who decides that doing as little as possible will govern his days after finishing a long-postponed physics book. He stays indoors, organizes his hours around television, minor contests, and talk, then...

In Thomas and the Magic Violin by Tuula Pere, a young boy is determined to get a difficult composition for his school’s concert just right. While his friends are outside, Thomas is practicing inside with the windows open, worried that his neighbors are tired of...

As Shakespeare once wrote, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” and that’s exactly what the young children in The Leading Role by Tuula Pere are eager to do. It begins one day when a young girl, Emma, discovers...

In A Stargazer by Tuula Pere, Aylin is a young girl who falls ill with a high fever. While resting, she finds comfort and a bit of magic from the starry sky just outside her window. A glowing visitor named Vesper appears, and Aylin’s sure...

The Hermit’s Hut follows Francis, a children’s author who leaves his city apartment after his books lose readers and moves into the mountains near his friend Erasmus, an old, half-deaf shepherd. Francis builds a small cottage and spends his days walking, foraging, and passing long...

The Fox and the Garbage War by Tuula Pere will teach children about critical thinking and the dangers of ambition. In this story, Francis the Fox is disappointed after his campaign to become mayor fails. However, he decides not to give up and creates a...

Embodied Everyday Awakening by Geri Portnoy describes a developmental transition that can arise when familiar ways of organizing one's life stop providing orientation. Portnoy explains how this change often begins in ordinary circumstances, when one's mental control no longer explains experiences, and one's attention starts...

Eafin Lokdore and the Ancient Secret is the third installment in The Lokdore Trilogy by R.G. Edwards. The story becomes more interesting with a high-stakes quest for Eafin Lokdore. This time, Eafin must travel through dangerous terrain to retrieve an Ancient Secret. He is seventeen...

Poinsettia Girl by Jennifer Wizbowski is a historical novel set in Venice in the early eighteenth century. Agata Farusi was a ten-year-old girl trying to come to terms with the untimely death of her mother. Cared for by her loving Nonna (grandmother), in their neighborhood...

Slipper Girl by Adele Royce is about Skylar Van Ness, a 27-year-old woman who discovers that her dark past has returned to torment her. Right before her father's wedding, Skylar reads a shocking email, and she learns that her mother knows everything about her and...

Luke Stoffel’s The Third Person: Rewriting Him (The Warboy Chronicles) is a genre-blending travel memoir and emotional self-investigation that follows a man unraveling in the aftermath of heartbreak. The narrative begins with Luke’s breakup with “Warboy,” a relationship defined by absence, longing, and unfinished endings,...

For Cause by Mark Shaiken is part of the 3J legal thriller series. 3J, or Josephina Jillian Jones, is a Kansas City attorney, and she’s taken on a Chapter 11 case for Paxton Energy. She’s not worried—until she sees a video of the Paxton CEO...

J.R.R. Tolkien’s quote, “Not all those who wander are lost,” really captures the heart of A Wrong Turn Right by Karen Lopez. It opens with an exhausted Dr. Preston McClendon heading home from his wealthy fiancée’s family event. Things take a sudden twist when his...

Smiley had a lot to learn. He didn’t know why he was in a dog shelter. Had he done something wrong? In Olena Kagui’s What Smiley the Rescue Dog Didn’t Know, Smiley is quickly adopted into a loving family, so he doesn’t have to feel...

A Wooden Heart in Plotlands by Dawn Knox is a historical novel that follows the intertwined lives of Miriam and Rebekah, two Jewish sisters, as they navigate the challenges of survival during World War II. The story begins in Nazi Germany, where the sisters face...