Here's a book without words, which speaks a universal language that we all need to hear loud and clear: Be kind. Could the message be simpler? Somewhere, anywhere, on a cold wintry night made bright with snow, a single fox seeks shelter. The glow of soft...
You might not recognize her name immediately, but if you click here (and happen to have children of a certain age, and/or like to browse the kiddie sections of libraries and bookstores), you'll definitely recognize Cece Bell’s literally artful creations. This, her first graphic title, is...
In 2004, Gilead gave voice to the aging Reverend John Ames, who recognizes he will not live to see his 7-year-old son grow up and so creates an epistolary record of all that he will never be able to share with his boy. Four years later, Home featured...
Ling and Ting are back ...
*STARRED REVIEW In 2001, on an evening with a full moon –when Asian folklore says a rabbit appears on the lunar surface – Amy Quan searches for a woman in Vietnam, "where I was born in the same year as her, our lives diametrically opposite." The...
The title of Paula Young Lee's latest book (her fifth) is Deer Hunting in Paris. The subtitle, which announces it's a memoir (her first), includes two very loaded words, "God" and "Guns." The sub-subtitle explains further: "How a preacher's daughter refuses to get married, travels...
Bespectacled, sweater-vested, and "as shiny as a new penny," Adrian is the quiet nerd who too often gets bullied at school. At home, his mother keeps him on a tight leash, even as he is clearly trying to pull away. His father is never mentioned. His...
What? Tomorrow is Halloween? Next thing you know, turkeys will trot and oversized bearded men will be out walking the streets. Hard to believe 2014 is almost over already ! But no future-tripping! Well, just for a day, because you'll want to be ready to share...
Earlier this month, 17-year-old Malala Yousafzai made world history by becoming the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. She shares the award for 2014 with India's Kailash Satyarthi: the pair were cited "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the...
A divorcée with her baby clock ticking, a teenage-math-prodigy-mother-to-be who no longer needs that wedding dress, and an immigrant Indian woman who's just found out her husband has spent the better part of their three-decade marriage lying to her, gather in a vintage clothing shop...
Check out this headline from last week: "'Attack on Titan' Drives Manga Rebound at New York Comic Con." With over 1.5 million copies in print in the U.S. (which actually seems a bit paltry compared to the 40 – not a typo! – million worldwide as of...
When she made her Stateside debut last year in Sita Brahmachari's Mira in the Present Tense (titled Artichoke Hearts in the original edition across the Pond), hapa Jewish Indian British tween Mira Levenson seemed wise beyond her 12 years in the midst of losing her paternal grandmother...
"One road and two extra-high walls" separate St. Kilda's and St. Colm's, two privileged, private schools for girls and boys, respectively. Christopher Harper, 16, of St. Colm's is found dead on the grounds of St. Kilda's. Over the next year, his murder remains unsolved ...
Even as a child, Muhammad Yunus recognized inequity: a story of an 8-year-old Yunus giving his meal to a hungry woman and her daughter opens multi-media author/screenwriter/television producer Paula Yoo’s latest picture book. Into this inspiring biography of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning contemporary hero, Yoo also manages to weave...
So as not to prolong the disappointment and annoyance, I'm going to try to keep this short. I actually skip posting about duds more often than not because the energy feels so wasted, but this title has history: it was attached to a 'how-many-of-these-have-you-read?"-query from a...
So I'm feeling especially last-century today ...
*STARRED REVIEW Yang Fei is dead. Arriving at the funeral parlor as directed, he's denied eternal rest because he has "neither urn nor grave"; over the next seven days, he revisits his short 41 years. Yang Fei was temporarily famous as "the boy a train gave birth...
Sometimes, whispers can speak more loudly than any shouts and screams ...
As National Hispanic Heritage Month draws to a close this week, the audible rendition of this empowering memoir is an ideal celebration of two of the most legendary contemporary Latina heroes: Rita Moreno, the only actress ever to have taken Oscar, Tony, Grammy, and two Emmys...
As much as Gustave tends toward dark (both in illustrations and initial narrative content), it's even more so about hope ...
