Family LifeAkhil Sharma. Norton, $23.95 (192p) ISBN 978-0-393-06005-8
The immigrant experience has been documented in American literature since those first hardy souls landed at Plymouth, and as the immigrants keep coming, so too do their stories. Sharma (An Obedient Father), who acknowledges the autobiographical elements in his new novel, tells a simple but layered t... Continue reading »
Mister Owita’s Guide to Gardening: How I Learned the Unexpected Joy of a Green Thumb and an Open HeartCarol Wall. Penguin/Amy Einhorn, $25.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-399-15798-1
In this moving memoir chronicling the many lasting rewards garnered from an unexpected friendship, writer Wall enlists a neighbor’s gardener, a man from Kenya, to help her maintain her garden. What begins as a purely professional relationship, with Wall hoping to learn more about gardening, blossoms... Continue reading »
Tap Tap Boom BoomElizabeth Bluemle, illus. by G. Brian Karas. Candlewick, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-7636-5696-6
In toe-tapping, jazz-chant verse, author, bookseller, and PW blogger Bluemle (How Do You Wokka-Wokka?) writes about the way a sudden thunderstorm “makes friends/ of strangers.” At the story’s start, two boys in a playground gaze through iron railings at a girl in a yellow dress hurrying to keep up w... Continue reading »
Tony Burke. Wm. B. Eerdmans, $18 trade paper (176p) ISBN 978-0-8028-7131-2
Students of the Bible are aware that the biblical texts, as deep and satisfying as they are, nonetheless seem to lack details about the lives and institutions described in that book. Scholars have long enjoyed access to extra-biblical works that attempt to fill in some of that detail. Of course, muc... Continue reading »
Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. Dark Horse, $24.99 (96p) ISBN 978-1-616552-68-8
Originally serialized in The Face in the early ‘90s and wearing its age handsomely, Gaiman and McKean’s collaboration feels ahead of its time while also resembling something from another era—less like a comic, more like storyboards for a heady teleplay. Gaiman’s story follows a filmmaker facing his ... Continue reading »
Gordon Korman, read by Ramon de Ocampo. Scholastic Audio, unabridged, six CDs, 6 hrs., $25.99 ISBN 978-0-545-60026-2
Twelve-year-old Jackson is accepted into a program at the Sentia Institute after an encounter with a stage hypnotist—and because he's actually the descendent of powerful hypnotists. At the institute, Jackson begins honing his skills, but soon realizes that hypnotism will be the key to his su... Continue reading »
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PW's Best Children's Books of 2013
Selecting just 50 titles from the thousands of books published for children and teens in a given year is always a painful undertaking, and this year was no different. more...PW KidsCast: Ransom Riggs
Ransom Riggs, author of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, discusses that book and its new sequel, Hollow City, as well as how he started hunting down the creepy vintage photographs that feature in both books. more...
On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee
Lee's latest novel is set in a dystopic future world in which the cities of Detroit and Baltimore are now facilities, called B-Mor and D-Troy by their residents, all of whom are of Asian descent. more...
