1st LUXE

CHALLENGES FOR TEEN GIRLS

Rockler presents an overview that’s separated into chapters on anxiety, social media, body image, cyberbullying, and getting and providing help. While many stressors have long been around, social media and isolation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic are new. The author summarizes important findings showing how the pandemic has adversely affected how teens socialize and negotiate friendships. In addition, anxiety in the form of school avoidance has also increased as students have reverted from vir

QUANTA IN DISTRESS

Hassani observes that quantum physics has always attracted those with an interest in New Age spirituality, especially since the “rush of gurus” to the West in the 1960s. The injection of Eastern thought into Western philosophy, and the fascination with occultism in the West, had much to do with this rush, as well as the inherent “weirdness of quantum physics.” Many of the founders of quantum physics, like Schrödinger, Bohr, and Heisenberg, encouraged this association by publicly linking their w

NOW THEY WILL KNOW I AM HERE

In Paris, a van carrying two “briefcase-size parcels” to the U.S. Embassy is ambushed, sparking an international crisis. The driver of the van is beheaded in the assault, suggesting merciless terrorists are involved. Enter American Tom Rivers, a CIA officer who formerly worked in Army intelligence. With his Luminox watch and ability to take a beating in the line of duty, he’s tasked with figuring out what’s going on. He meets a “smart, beautiful and dangerous” woman named Raz Jackson in Paris.

DEFY

Darius Anah, 17, lives with his mother and younger sister, Mahlah, in a city where every major milestone—known as a Life Event—is dictated by The Book of Zalmon. The teens’ father was a Leaver, someone who took off for the Town Beyond, past the forest surrounding Zalmon, which is a source of great shame—and also temptation—for Darius. The government justifies its control of the citizens by claims that it promotes “equal opportunity and liberty.” Instead of a Natural Death, which is presented as

THE EVER-CHANGING EARTH

Following a distant glimpse of a small Asian child named Kûn pedaling through a modern landscape past outsize ghostly images of turbulent waters and immense prehistoric creatures, Baker-Smith rewinds to a view of the dinosaurs’ cataclysmic demise. He then goes further back to depict the massive interplanetary collision that produced our moon and, after millions of years of raging storms, led to the appearance of teeming life in unusual forms that evolved over eons into those of today. Meanwhile

THE WHITE BONUS

Award-winning journalist McMillan, author of The American Way of Eating, combines investigative reporting and memoir in a penetrating look at the material advantages of racial privilege. “For a very long time,” she writes, “I thought race and racism ‘happened’ only to people who were not white.” Using her own family as one example, and profiling four others, she investigates the impact of whiteness on individuals of different generations, from different parts of the country, who have one thing

RUMAYSA

Rumaysa is back in this sequel to Rumaysa: A Fairytale (2023), this time with a spin on the classic fairy tale “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.” The purple onyx necklace gifted to her by her friend Sulieman takes her to “enchanted lands and troubled people,” those who are most in need. Among other adventures, she helps a mermaid escape captivity and saves Little Red Riding Hijab from a wolf. Yet, all Rumaysa wants is for the necklace to return her to her parents. After she rescues a young boy

A BIG JUICY EARTHWORM

Chicken pals Pipo, Bud, and Kenny create ingenious playthings from found objects: A box becomes a pirate ship; a bag becomes a kite. Above all, they love being together. One day, they find half a watermelon. While Bud and Kenny immediately start devouring the succulent fruit, Pipo is more interested in the nearby earthworm whose head temptingly rises aboveground. But, as hard as Pipo pulls, he can’t dislodge it. Finally, Pipo uses a fishing rod to yank it out: success! Except…this worm’s no wor

THE CLIMATE DIARIES

Jax Wilkinson, an 11-year-old with a penchant for breaking the rules, struggles academically and clashes with teachers but harbors a fervent passion for combating climate change (“Jax was desperate to understand whyhumans were doing so much damage to our only home”). After landing in detention on the final day of school, Jax seizes an opportunity for mischief, hacking into an abusive teacher’s car’s computer and taking it for a rooftop joyride. Caught red-handed, he faces two options: juvenile

JO'S SPECIAL GIFTS

Jo is like other kids, but he’s also “unique in [his] own way.” He loves outer space and music, and sometimes shouts words he likes while reading or counting. He loves spinning objects, playing piano, and riding on his big, green bike. He knows he does some things differently from other kids, such as having trouble when a surprise changes his routine, but he’s also very observant: “My Mom says I have super-hearing— / and we both think that’s amazing! / I can spot a flying plane / from far away—

REAR-VIEW REFLECTIONS ON RADICAL CHANGE

While activism that addresses social justice and climate change has helped define our current moment, the practice is hardly new; many people, including the author, have been agitating for policy changes in these areas for decades. With this volume, Wagner collects her writings from a half-century of fighting the good fight, from her high school graduation speech (given in 1970) to reflections written in the aftermath of 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests. Over that time, the “revolution” she w

THE FRAGILE BLUE DOT

In the story “The Real Manhattan,” New York–based journalist Abbie Dial scores a chance to interview a famed “climate crusader.” But just a few minutes spent with subject Tillie McBivens may beget an entirely different piece than Abbie anticipates. Such world-threatening issues as global warming play a central part in each of this book’s 15 tautly written stories. “Cowabunga Sunset,” for example, unfolds inside a dome with a virtual, programmable beach setting—a resort for people to escape the

FATAL CURE

In this fourth installment of the author’s Mayfield-Napolitani thriller series, Joe Mayfield and his wife Louise “Weezy” Napolitani hope to land a new client for CyberSol, their cybersecurity company: the Swiss firm APX, a supplier of materials used in gene sequencing. APX recently acquired Gerontin Therapeutics, a start-up that developed a rapid infusion method that can help fix “bad genes in otherwise healthy people.” Former Gerontin scientist Ella Sonesgard, now an APX VP, tells Joe that for

LAST BETS

Painter Elly Sorenson returns to the island of Bonaire, a mecca for scuba divers and high-rolling gamblers, to complete a year-old commission; she needs the fee to pay off sizable debts. On arriving, she learns that her client, Trevor Martin, has lost everything on a backgammon bet. Rather than return his deposit, Elly stays to finish the portrait in exchange for free room, board, and scuba at the Flamingo Resort, where he runs the dive shop. There, she meets Steve Ryan, a high-stakes backgammo

THE REQUIREMENT OF GRIEF

Ariano writes compassionately about older sister Alexis’ mental illness, which ended with her suicide. Throughout her life, Alexis attempted to end her own life 13 times before finally killing herself when she was 42. Heavily medicated and repeatedly institutionalized, she had regularly cut herself to quell her anxiety and silence the voices in her head. The author loved her big sister, and as a young girl, she copied Alexis in almost every way, including her dress, speech, and, somewhat reluct

THE WEDDING SHOE SNATCH

Shilpa’s older sister, Maya, is getting married, and Shilpa is nervous. What if she loses Maya to her new family? Maya’s future husband’s younger brother, Rishi, makes her especially uneasy. For one thing, he won’t stop calling Shilpa “Bean.” For another, Maya calls Rishi “sweet”—will Maya ever call Shilpa that again? Shilpa tries to get past these troubles and focus on her main responsibility: upholding the tradition of Joota Chupai, or stealing the groom’s shoes and returning them only when h

FLAGS ON THE BAYOU

Seriously in debt to business associate Minos Suarez, Charles Lufkin rents him Hannah Laveau, an enslaved woman he’s recently purchased. Things don’t go well for either Hannah, whom Suarez unmercifully assaults, or Suarez, who’s found castrated with his throat cut shortly after Hannah parts company with him. Just as Hannah is haunted by Samuel, the son from whom she was separated during the bloody Union attack on Shiloh Church, Lufkin’s nephew, Wade, who volunteered as a medical officer on the

FACING MIGHTY FEARS ABOUT BEING APART FROM PARENTS

“So, being apart happens.” Despite a page design best described as utilitarian, this series entry offers clingy young readers and their concerned parents both a reassuring message and some helpful tools for getting past the angst. Huebner offers a lengthy catalog of animal parents who, much like human ones, “go to great lengths to keep their babies safe.” These examples are printed as “Fun Facts” on images of small loose-leaf pages taped in below the widely spaced text. The author also provides

TERRIBLE HORSES

A younger sibling has an older—and much cooler—sister. “I want her friends to be my friends. I want her things to be my things,” the child tells us. But “she wants her friends to be her friends. She wants her things to be her things.” When the two fight, the younger child retreats and writes “stories of terrible horses.” They say horses are the most difficult thing for an artist to draw, but if that’s the case, then no one told Wilson-Max. His horses careen across the page in magnificent colors

SURVIVING SOUTHWOOD AVENUE

Columbus, Ohio, 1920: Stella Miller’s mother Clara is prone to unpredictable behavior, on one occasion pulling a pistol on the local druggist when he refuses to offer his products to her “on loan.” Clara abandons the family without explanation when Stella is only 4 years old, though Stella has a faint memory of her mother being forcibly driven off by her father and one of his friends. Stella’s father then sells the family home and moves the children into a dreary boarding house on Southwood Ave