In The Orphans of Nilad by Erich and Daniella Sanchack, driven by a sealed letter, EoC leads Kaida, the blue-eyed barbarian Dinger, and the half-elf Kekron ashore to Nilad, a mountain town shrinking under fear after miners vanish, and strange messages begin appearing in the...

In Michael W. Cook’s Faith in Flux, Cook takes a hard look at what happens when people begin censoring themselves long before anyone openly demands silence. Using Saint Augustine’s attempt to redirect Alypius after public entertainment disrupted his studies, the book follows a larger argument...

Springtime is a magical time of the year. Everything is rejuvenated: new life is everywhere, and everything is clean and fresh. In Paul Laurence Dunbar’s Spring Song, the poetic words bring to life the beauty and romance of springtime, all based on the words of...

Maddy's Towers is a children’s picture book written by Inbal Alon with illustrations by Mandira Biswas. It follows Maddy, a young girl who returns home in tears after a sad betrayal. Her best friend, Mei, just revealed Maddy’s secret to everyone. While Maddy’s mother comforts...

In Anne M. Kennedy’s The Baku Inheritance, book one in The City of Winds series, in 1890, Anton Nikolayevich Sabroski arrives in Baku with tanker plans that could open a new route through the Suez Canal. He learns that his father has died, and the...

Life is so much more than caring for oneself: it’s really about caring for others. In Brandy Clark’s Vivian’s Perfectly Imperfect Picnic, young Vivian enjoys a day at the park with her Bubba. She rides the swings, enjoys a picnic, and walks around with Bubba....

Sometimes the people who seem the most guarded are the ones with the heaviest history, and in For You Always by Hannah Jordan, Cammie knows that better than anyone. She left her hometown in search of a fresh start and happened upon Peace Falls, where...

In Makerborn by Daymon Ashcord, a decade after her daughter Agnieshka vanished into the custody of House Lublinin, former Seal Warden Alandra Phoenyka discovers the ruling houses of Salvia are secretly enslaving Eastern Sonomancers to build weapons and failing storm shelters powered through torture. While...

Fun Day With Misa is a children’s book written in both English and Spanish by Mireya Saldua. Misa is a playful, miniature Australian puppy whose name means 'beautiful bloom' in Japanese. This playful puppy is loved by her mom and dad and adored by her...

Reunion in the Desert by Leslie Rager is a skillfully written story about finding your way back to who you are. For most people, losing their way does not seem entirely likely; for Quinn Goode and Colton Carson, losing themselves seemed like the only way...

Embodied Grace by Stacey Webb begins with a moonlit night in India, where Webb hears a call to stop withholding love from herself. From that moment, the author presents grace as something the body can receive before the mind has words for it. The guide...

Dona Masi’s The Taking follows Vera Diparma, a girl in rural New England whose childhood is marked by lights in the sky and missing hours she cannot explain. Her father, John, raised her in an old house near Pangea after her mother, Suzy, disappeared under...

Vietnam's Modern Day Boat People by Shira Sebban follows Vietnamese asylum seekers returned from Australia after arriving by sea, beginning with Tran Thi Thanh Loan, a Catholic mother facing prison in Vietnam after officials sent her family back. Sebban enters the case through a newspaper...

Jeff Nesbit’s Autocrat is satirical, grotesque, and timely; it follows a narcissistic reality TV host named Rex Vanner who launches and wins the 2015 presidential campaign. But his leverage is a network contract, and what he succeeds in summoning is the darkest impulse in the...

Anthony is on the dock, fishing pole in hand and line in the water. His older brother and sister play cards nearby on the deck of a cabin while his parents put together dinner. Suddenly, there’s a pull on his fishing line. Anthony is worried....

Some of life's biggest lessons come from the simplest stories. In The Red Letters: Parables from the Gospel of Matthew, Angela Fincham introduces young learners to some of Jesus's best-known parables and their lessons. The book begins by defining what a parable is, using language...

In Painting Over Cracks by Lee Bukowski, Beth and Danny were in an accident. They were hit on Danny’s side of the car; he was thrown out and died at the scene. Beth survived with a few injuries but now faces life without Danny. To...

In Nero's Nile by Rowan O'Neill, the story starts with a brutal bang in 60 AD Britannia. General Titus Statilius Taurus pulls off the daring assassination of Queen Boudicca to end a tribal revolt, hoping he'll finally be able to settle down on his farm....

A beautiful flower farm is the setting for Willow Tales by Joni Franks. Granny Bloom has grown and sold flowers for as long as anyone can remember. Helping her is a Welsh corgi named Sebastian. The two are inseparable and make a great team running...

David Boito’s Fatal Castle opens with the Kohinoor’s arrival at Queen Victoria’s palace in 1850 before moving to the Tower of London in 2023, where the diamond’s colonial history lingers in the Crown Jewels. Ashley Bellamy, a UCLA history student and lifelong diamond obsessive, has...