Índex per July 2024 a Booklist Reader

Birnam Wood. By Eleanor Catton. 2023. Farrar. Horticulturalist Mira Bunting is the founder of Birnam Wood, a New Zealander activist collective and guerrilla gardening group in Booker Prize–winner Catton’s intricately plotted, Shakespeare-infused, and psychologically thrilling tale of environmental issues, identity politics, and exploitation. Blue Skies. By T. C. Boyle. 2023. Norton/Liveright. Engaged twentysomethings Cat, a social-media influencer, and Todd, a Bacardi ambassador, are living the dream in an inherited Florida beach house, while in California, Cat’s family deals with drought, heat waves, high winds, and rampaging fires in Boyle’s satirical tale of family dynamics and looming environmental collapse. Book of Fire. By Christy Lefteri. 2024. Ballantine. Irini, Tasso, and their 11-year-old daughter, Chara, flee when fire fueled by drought and scorching heat sweeps through their Greek village in Lefteri’s beautifully…

PBS Books READERS CLUB Did you see PBS Books Booklist Reader Summer Reading program earlier this year? Booklist editors recommended twelve great picks, including James, by Percival Everett. We are thrilled to announce that the PBS Books Readers Club July pick is James. Pulitzer Prize finalist Percival Everett will discuss his brilliant actionpacked novel, which is the reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told from the perspective of the enslaved Jim’s point of view. Don’t miss our conversation with Percival on July 31 at 8 p.m. ET. Visit pbsbooks.org/readers-club. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS NATIONAL BOOK FESTIVAL PBS Books is delighted to announce its continued partnership with the Library of Congress National Book Festival. This year, the National Books Festival will occur on Saturday, August 24 between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m.…

The Boy Who Found His Voice. By Tyler Gordon. June 2024. Macmillan Audio. K–Gr. 2. Like in the Odyssey-honored I Talk like a River (2020), the author shares his story of growing up with speech differences and discovering personal strengths. Children with similar challenges will especially appreciate the narration. Dreaming in Code: Ada Byron Lovelace, Computer Pioneer. By Emily Arnold McCully. 2019. Listening Library. Gr. 7–10. Generally acknowledged as the first computer programmer, Ada Byron Lovelace had a brilliant mind and lived a tumultuous, complex life. The author reads quotes with a British accent and character traits come through loud and clear. From Here. By Luma Mufleh. 2023. Listening Library. Gr. 9–12. In a performance full of emotion and unrestrained honesty, Mufleh describes her childhood of privilege in Jordan before…

Aces Wild: A Heist. By Amanda DeWitt. 2022. Peachtree Teen. Gr. 9–12. Karen McManus is practically a household name when it comes to YA thrillers, and her latest (out this month), Such Charming Liars, incorporates hidden identities, forgeries, con artists, and grifters of every variety, plus high-society parties and glittering jewels. If you have to wait to get your hands on McManus’ new book or are eager for more twisty stories about family secrets and career criminals, check out the following novels with some of the same ingredients. Jack Shannon runs a blackjack ring at his elite high school, using skills he learned from his Vegas casino– owning mother. But when she’s exposed for less-than-legal activities at her casino and sent to jail, Jack must use his insider’s knowledge to…

Macmillan Audio’s Promise Boys is a gripping YA story of three boys accused of the murder of their principal who set out to investigate the crime and clear their names. This modern noir tale unfolds on audio with a rich full cast and a soundscape and orchestration that creates a fully immersive listening experience. Executive producer Steve Wagner talked with Booklist about this vibrant project and how many components contributed to a remarkable finished product. Heather Booth: Can you tell us about how this project came to you? Steve Wagner: We plan far in advance at Macmillan Audio, so I think I first saw Promise Boys almost a year before it came out. I immediately flagged it as a book I wanted to work on. I was excited to get…

Bear and Bird: The Picnic and Other Stories. By Jarvis. Illus. by the author. 2023. Candlewick. Four stories about pals Bear and Bird make up this irresistibly funny beginning chapter book for early fluent readers. Childlike art and word repetition offer support to those tackling longer texts. The Case of the Strange Splash. By Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver. Illus. by Dan Santat. 2023. Abrams/Amulet. Wonderful full-color illustrations adorn this early chapter-book mystery, in which duckling Willow Feathers puts on her detective’s hat to figure out what has landed in Dogwood Pond. Cornbread & Poppy. By Matthew Cordell. Illus. by the author. 2022. Little, Brown. Odd-couple mouse friends Cornbread and Poppy prepare for winter’s approach with some help from their neighbors in this sweet early chapter book complete with lively…

Known for her outer-space-based Zodiac series (written under the name Romina Russell) and most recently for the duology containing Lobizona and Cazadora, Argentine American Romina Garber has stepped out of her comfort zone in her latest (out this month), Castle of the Cursed, a chilling gothic tale set in an eerie castle harboring many secrets and featuring compelling characters. We caught up with Garber to talk about the new book, the experience of writing in a new genre, and the importance of integrating not only diversity in general but her own cultural background into the stories she writes for young people. Aurora Dominguez: Why do you feel that celebrating diverse stories and authors is of high importance in the current literary scene? Romina Garber: I once heard the great, late…

Elizabeth Kolbert’s best-selling H Is for Hope (2024) offers 26 sharp essays on a wide range of issues related to climate change, including key figures, government initiatives, and general obstacles (like the entry for X: xenophobia). They’re sobering, to be sure, but, true to the title, they offer a measure of hope about the future of Earth’s climate. If the state of the climate is a topic of conversation around your kitchen table, try the following titles for children and teens that offer information and insight at a variety of levels and on topics that not only highlight key components of the issue but offer meaningful ways to make a difference at home and speak up in defense of our planet. Older How to Manage Your Eco-Anxiety: An Empowering Guide…

Since the dawn of human creativity, people everywhere have expressed awe, fear, wonder, and gratitude in response to the beauty, mystery, and power of nature. In this time of environmental catastrophes and countless books detailing the decimation, we need to remind ourselves why we must cherish and defend Earth’s living web, so we turn to nonfiction and poetry that summon veneration, empathy, gratefulness, and advocacy. Creative Nonfiction Becoming Wild: How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace. By Carl Safina. 2020. Holt. Safina explains that all species have distinct cultures that foster learning and adaptability, looking closely at sperm whales, scarlet macaws, and chimpanzees and marveling over all that we share with other animals. Earth’s Wild Music: Celebrating and Defending the Songs of the Natural World. By Kathleen Dean…

1Q84. By Haruki Murakami. Tr. by Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel. 2011. Knopf. At the core is a spectacular love story about a girl and boy who briefly held hands when they were both ten. That said, with the fiercely imaginative Murakami as author, the exposition is gloriously labyrinthine with multiple narratives, including the revision of a 17-year-old’s prescient novella destined for a top literary prize. Blackouts. By Justin Torres. 2023. Harper. Illuminating the relationship between two gay men—one dying, the other caregiving—requires untangling Miss Jan Gay’s life story, deciphering a redacted copy of Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns, and analyzing photographs and illustrations that might be proof that fiction is fact. Cloud Atlas. By David Mitchell. 2004. Random. Intricately, exactingly interrupted and interwoven and with a story…

The Au Pair Affair Tessa Bailey (Avon) Like Mother, Like Daughter: A Novel Kimberly McCreight (Knopf) The Summer Pact Emily Giffin (Ballantine Books) The God of the Woods: A Novel Liz Moore (Riverhead Books) I Was A Teenage Slasher Stephen Graham Jones (Saga Press) Slow Dance Rainbow Rowell (William Morrow) What Have You Done?: A Novel Shari Lapena (Pamela Dorman Books) The Briar Club lub Kate Quinn (William Morrow) Find out more at www.LibraryReads.org/HOF…

Heather Booth: Can you tell us how this project came to you? The 2023 Odyssey Winner for Children, El Deafo, takes listeners on a journey through sudden childhood hearing loss as experienced by the author, Cece Bell. Producer Matie Argiropoulos talked with Booklist about the stellar full cast and distinctive production techniques that so creatively brought this graphic novel to audio. Matie Argiropoulos: El Deafo had been on Listening Library’s radar for a while; Cece Bell received the Newbery Honor in 2015. Since that time, our production team had gained a lot of experience successfully adapting graphic novels to audio, like the 2021 Odyssey Honor audiobook When Stars Are Scattered, and we jumped at the chance to record an audiobook edition of El Deafo following the success of the Apple TV+…

Beak & Ally #1: Unlikely Friends. By Norm Feuti. Art by the author. 2021. HarperAlley. Gr. 1–3. A solitary alligator becomes the target of a noisy bird’s friendship aspirations in this early reader comic (and winner of the 2022 Geisel Award) that is ideal for transitional readers looking for a laugh. First in a series. Bear and Squirrel Are Friends … Yes, Really! By Deb Pilutti. Illus. by the author. 2015. Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman. PreS–Gr. 1. Food or friend? It’s an age-old dilemma that hits Bear when he awakes from hibernation and sees his friend Squirrel, who suddenly resembles a delicious cupcake. Gouache illustrations in gentle colors soften the somewhat scary premise and keep humor at the fore. Cornbread & Poppy. By Matthew Cordell. Illus. by the author. 2022.…