Innholdsfortegnelse for Booklist, Vol. 120, No. 15, 4/1/24 i Booklist

Philosophy & Psychology How We Break: Navigating the Wear and Tear of Living. By Vincent Deary. May 2024. 304p. Farrar, $30 (9780374172114); e-book (9780374713225). 155.9042. Our lives begin when we’re dropped into our corners of the world. We are all fragile and lie on the spectrum of mental illness. We are shaped both by our heredity and the daily events that surround us. This combination determines how we react to major traumas or the piling on of small challenges. Scottishborn psychologist Deary recalls how years of schoolyard bullying and the feeling of always being “on the alert” shaped his later life. He shares stories of a care worker whose years of working with suicidal patients has worn him down, and of a probation officer who started having physical symptoms when…

General Fiction April May June July. By Alison B. Hart. May 2024. 336p. Graydon, $28.99 (9781525804274); e-book (9780369747136). Hart’s follow-up to her 2022 debut, The Work Wife, is set in 2014 and centers around the four Barber siblings, whose relationships with each other have been strained since their father Frank was kidnapped in Iraq in 2004. A decade later, Frank’s adult children are struggling. The eldest, April, seeks comfort and excitement outside of her marriage. May, their father’s favorite, has moved back home and is floundering. June found love with a soccer teammate but has turned to alcohol for solace. July, the youngest and the only boy, grapples with an unrequited crush on his college roommate and a new attraction to a former high-school frenemey. When April takes a trip…

Older Readers Bite by Bite: American History through Feasts, Foods, and Side Dishes. By Marc Aronson and Paul Freedman. Illus. by Toni Chambers. May 2024. 176p. Atheneum, $17.99 (9781665935500). Gr. 6–10. 394.120973. Criticizing traditional historians for considering the “first Americans” to be those who arrived from Europe as part of the Lost Colony or the Jamestown settlement, the authors begin their story earlier, with Native people in the Pacific Northwest, whose ancestors may have traveled from what is now Siberia across the land bridge that once connected the two continents. After describing a traditional, annual salmon feast, “10,000 BCE to Today,” the book introduces readers to the cultivation and preparation of corn as an important food source in the Americas. With two main writers and several more contributors, the book…

Whether investigating broad concepts, from what comprises our world to basic life skills, or bringing specific areas of interest into focus—I’m looking at you, trains, and you, Nellie Bly—the following series are worthwhile investments. All series were reviewed in Booklist between April 1, 2023, and March 15, 2024. Curiosity Encyclopedia (World Book; 3 titles) K–Gr. 3. This kid-friendly series offers beginning readers straightforward introductions to key elements in our world, with volumes dedicated to humans, animals, and nature. Going far beyond visual dictionaries, the interactive guides provide image-supported vocabulary in context. Exploring World Landmarks (Crabtree; 4 titles) Gr. 4–6. Presented in country-specific volumes, this series lets readers tour both natural and man-made wonders. Judiciously chosen facts accompany large, crisp color photographs, together offering cultural and geographic context. Great Moments in…

Ash’s Cabin. By Jen Wang. Art by the author. First Second, $25.99 (9781250754059). Gr. 9–12. Aug. An alienated teen seeks refuge in an off-the-grid cabin in the wilderness in the latest from acclaimed cartoonist Wang. Break to You. By Neal Shusterman, Debra Young, and Michelle Knowlden. HarperCollins/Quill Tree, $19.99 (9780062875761). Gr. 8–12. July. Adriana and Jon, both in juvenile detention centers connected by a common library, gradually fall in love through the messages they send to each other in a shared journal. Castle of the Cursed. By Romina Garber. St. Martin’s/Wednesday, $21 (9781250863898). Gr. 9–12. July. Best-selling Garber spins a gothic tale about Estela, who’s searching for secrets about her parents’ deaths in a mysterious castle owned by a distant relative. Cursed Boys and Broken Hearts. By Adam Sass. Viking,…

Adult Fiction Burma Sahib. By Paul Theroux. Read by Charlie Anson. 2024. 18hr. HarperAudio, DD (9780063297579). The newest installment in the storied career of travel writer and novelist Paul Theroux is a historical semi-biographical novel following the development of British writer George Or-well from a colonial police officer named Eric Blair to a firebrand who stands against Britain’s pursuit of empire. Throughout the novel, Theroux explores the deep-seated racism and paternalism shown toward the conquered Burmese. In the midst of it all, main character Blair struggles against his daily responsibilities and a violent history as an Eton man who’s been practically trained to bedevil his social inferiors. Anson demonstrates a great command of British dialect, especially that of Blair, an upwardly mobile middle-class young man with colonial aspirations. Anson’s reading…

Gird your holds queues! These hot books, coming out in summer of 2024, will garnerlots of interest from patrons looking for thrillers, romance, celebrity memoirs, and the tale of a hero librarian. Angel of Vengeance. By Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Grand Central, $39 (9781538765708). Aug. FBI Special Agent Pendergast and Constance Greene are still on the trail of serial killer Enoch Leng, and it’s personal for both of them: Leng is Pendergast’s ancestor and he’s taken Greene’s sister. The Au Pair Affair. By Tessa Bailey. Avon, $18.99 (9780063308435). July. Best-seller Bailey jumps on the hockey-romance train with her latest about a gruff single dad who hires a quirky live-in nanny to help with his introverted tween daughter, who is set on getting her parents back together. Bits and Pieces:…

The following nonfiction series, both new and continuing, mark the season’s newest releases available in Spanish. New Series Animales de la Antártida (Antarctic Animals). ABDO/Kids Jumbo. Individual titles, lib. ed., $32.79. PreS–2. (6 titles) Animales de la selva tropical (Spot Rainforest Animals). Amicus Learning/Spot. Individual titles, lib. ed., $21.95. PreS–Gr. 2. (8 titles) Aventuras reptilianas (Reptile Adventures). Black Rabbit/Bolt. Individual titles, lib. ed., $37.10. Gr. 2–4. (6 titles) Cosas asquerosas e increíbles de la historia (Gross, Awesome History). Black Rabbit/Hi Jinx. Individual titles, lib. ed., $35.70. Gr. 2–4. (6 titles) Creative Sports: Campeones de la World Series (Creative Sports: World Series Champions). Creative Company/Creative Education. Individual titles, lib. ed., $24.95. Gr. 3–6. (24 titles) Curiosidad por la robótica (Curious about Robotics). Amicus Learning/Curious About. Individual titles, lib. ed., $24.95. Gr.…

Earth Day, Arbor Day, Tu B’Shevat—there’s even a national Love a Tree Day each May. So many days and even more ways to celebrate trees! If you want to branch out from the recent growth in informational texts on the topic (no shade to those) go out on a limb with this collection of fictional picture books. All From a Walnut. By Ammi-Joan Paquette. Illus. by Felicita Sala. 2022. Abrams. PreS–Gr. 2. Grandpa carried a walnut over an ocean to this new home, where both he and the nut thrived as they put down new roots. Emilia learns from Grandpa to tend her own walnut sapling and carries on the nurturing cycle once he is gone. Apple and Magnolia. By Laura Gehl. Illus. by Patricia Metola. 2022. Flyaway. PreS–K. A child’s…

While memoirs are rarely only about a single person, some, like Griffin Dunne’s The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir, expressly focus on the authors’ ancestral histories and family remembrances. As they chronicle rippling generational traumas and the authors’ selves past and present, these standout family memoirs also bring to life mothers, fathers, grandparents, and siblings. Air Traffic: A Memoir of Ambition and Manhood in America. By Gregory Pardlo. 2018. Vintage, $16.95 (9780525432210). Poet Pardlo pays special attention to his air-traffic controller grandfather and father as well as to mental illness and addiction in this memoir of rich and complicated familial love. Between Them: Remembering My Parents. By Richard Ford. 2017. Ecco, $25.99 (9780062661883). Ford summons up arrestingly precise details in his first work of nonfiction, an exquisitely sensitive double…

While certain series make a splash with their newness, others prove reliable resources with each new addition to their ranks. The following are series that have continually delivered the goods and have had installments reviewed in Booklist between March 15, 2022, and March 15, 2024. Animalographies (Albert Whitman; 4 titles) K–Gr. 3. These cute, informational picture books introduce young readers to impressive feats accomplished by animals from a bomb-sniffing rat to a spider that went to space. I, Witness (Norton/Young Readers; 6 titles) Gr. 4–7. This series features powerful first-person accounts from young people who have overcome hardships and gone on to become activists. They speak on such topics as assisting with disaster relief, advocating for the blind community, and empowering those impacted by poverty and terrorism. Leaders like Us…