List

Connecting to nature with native plants

Landscaping with native plants has encouraged gardeners from the Midwest and beyond to embark on a profound scientific, ecological, and emotional partnership with nature. Benjamin Vogt shares his expertise with prairie plants in a richly photographed guide aimed at gardeners and homeowners, making big ideas about design approachable and actionable. Step-by-step blueprints point readers to plant communities that not only support wildlife and please the eye but that rethink traditional planting and maintenance. Additionally, Vogt provides insider information on plant sourcing, garden tools, and working with city ordinances. This book will be an invaluable reference in sustainable garden design for those wanting both beautiful and functional landscapes.

Easy to use and illustrated with over 150 color photos, Prairie Up is a practical guide to artfully reviving diversity and wildness in our communities.

Received Honorable Mention from the AHS Book Awards (American Horticultural Society)

Recipes, DIY projects, and inspiration for a beautiful and low-waste life, from the creator of @simply.living.well on Instagram

In this timely and motivational guide, author Julia Watkins shares rituals, recipes, and projects for living simply and sustainably at home. For every area of your household--kitchen, cleaning, wellness, bath, and garden--Julia shows you how to eliminate wasteful packaging, harmful ingredients, and disposable items. Practical checklists outline easy swaps (instead of disposable sponges, opt for biodegradable sponges or Swedish dishcloths; choose a bamboo toothbrush over a plastic one) and sustainable upgrades for common household tools and products. Projects include scrap apple cider vinegar, wool dryer balls, kitchen bowl covers and cloth produce bags, non-toxic dryer sheets, all-purpose citrus cleaner, herbal tinctures and balms, and more, plus recipes for package-free essentials like homemade nut milk, hummus, ketchup, salad dressings, and veggie stock.

Ever-expanding landfills, ocean gyres filled with floating plastic mush, endangered wildlife. Our garbage has become a massive and exponentially growing problem in modern society. Eco-entrepreneur Tom Szaky explores why this crisis exists and explains how can we solve it by eliminating the very idea of garbage. To outsmart waste, he says, we first have to understand it, then change how we create it, and finally rethink what we do with it.

By mimicking nature and focusing on the value inherent in our by-products, we can transform the waste we can’t avoid creating from useless trash to a useful resource. Szaky demonstrates that there is value in every kind of garbage, from used chewing gum to juice pouches to cigarette butts. After reading this mind-expanding book, you will never think about garbage the same way again.

You're standing in front of your refrigerator, a week after your last trip to the supermarket. You've got a bunch of random veggies, some wrinkly fruit, near-expired milk, and those pricey fresh herbs you bought for that one recipe and don't know how to use up. For a split second you picture yourself opening a trash bag, throwing everything away, and ordering takeout. We've all been there.

But instead...you pick up this cookbook. In no time you've prepared a Make-It-Your-Own Stir-Fry and How-You-Like-It Savory Pancakes, plus a Mix-and-Match Fruit Galette that you'll have for dessert. Time to celebrate--you're saving food, shrinking that grocery bill, and learning some key skills for making the most of what you have. It's exciting to be able to create new dishes and waste less food, and most importantly--a delicious dinner is on the table!

Perfectly Good Food is a book for those moments everyone has, whether you cook for one or a whole household--moments standing before an overfull pantry or near-empty fridge, not sure what to do with an abundance of summer tomatoes or the last of the droopy spinach. Chock-full of ingenious use-it-up tips, smart storage ideas, and infinitely adaptable recipes, this book will teach you

• why smoothies are your secret weapon;
• how to freeze (almost) anything;
• why using your senses in the kitchen (including common sense!) is more important than so-called shelf-life.

Written by the chef-sisters behind Boston's acclaimed Mei Mei Dumplings, this cookbook/field guide is a crucial resource for the thrifty chef, the environmentally mindful cook, and anyone looking to make the most of their ingredients.

Awaken your senses and make the most out of your next walk in the woods--with Peter Wohlleben, New York Times-bestselling author of The Hidden Life of Trees.

"This book will fast-track you into the joys of spending time amongst the trees."--Tristan Gooley, author of The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs and How to Read Water

"You'll be changed after reading this fine and enchanting book."--Richard Louv, author of Our Wild Calling and Last Child in the Woods

When you walk in the woods, do you use all five senses to explore your surroundings? For most of us, the answer is no--but when we do, a walk in the woods can go from pleasant to immersive and restorative. Forest Walking teaches you how to engage with the forest by decoding nature's signs and awakening to the ancient past and thrilling present of the ecosystem around you.

• What can you learn by following the spread of a root, by tasting the tip of a branch, by searching out that bitter almond smell?
• What creatures can be found in a stream if you turn over a rock--and what is the best way to cross a forest stream, anyway?
• How can you understand a forest's history by the feel of the path underfoot, the scars on the trees along the trail, or the play of sunlight through the branches?
• How can we safely explore the forest at night?
• What activities can we use to engage children with the forest?

Throughout Forest Walking, the authors share experiences and observations from visiting forests across North America: from the rainforests and redwoods of the west coast to the towering white pines of the east, and down to the cypress swamps of the south and up to the boreal forests of the north.

With Forest Walking, German forester Peter Wohlleben teams up with his longtime editor, Jane Billinghurst, as the two write their first book together, and the result is nothing short of spectacular. Together, they will teach you how to listen to what the forest is saying, no matter where you live or which trees you plan to visit next.
 

Discover the secrets of styling your home with reclaimed materials 

Joanne Palmisano is passionate about the joy and importance of reuse in home decor. Whether it's reclaimed, repurposed, recycled, salvaged, or antique, Joanne will show you how to turn an old piece into a stunning decorative object. Styling with Salvage is an essential guide for those who can't walk by a secondhand store or salvage yard without taking a peek, or who just want to decorate in a more mindful way. Joanne provides an aspirational-but-achievable template for all who wish to bring some character, style, and soul into their home.

Includes:

• Top tips on the best places to look for items like vintage lace or old balusters
• Ways to design with salvage when you seek to add color, or are working with monochromatic palettes
• Inspiration on styling and displaying collections, whether it's vintage glass, leather boots, or bottle tops

Filled with Susan Teare's gorgeous photography, this book will inspire everyone who picks it up to reclaim their spaces with reclaimed materials.

A practical tool kit for mending and upcycling your wardrobe.
It's “sew” simple to give your wardrobe an eco-chic edge! With fast fixes and clever techniques, this accessible, fully illustrated sewing book has everything you need to mend, customize and care for your clothes.

Parting with damaged, yet beloved, clothes can be one of the saddest things, but what if you were able to fix those holes, give them a fresher look, and extend their life? Luckily, with this guide to mending and patching, you don’t have to say goodbye to your favorite clothing items ever again!

Now you can cherish all your garments, even those in the furthest corner of your closet! This sewing book for beginners will help you master the skills to repair a seam and mend a hem, even if you’ve never touched a needle and thread before!

Enjoy Your Clothes for Longer

This sewing book arms you with the techniques you need to enjoy your clothes for longer and express your creativity. Detailed step-by-step illustrations and clear instructions explain how to sew, repurpose, and care for your clothes in a range of materials. 

For anyone who cares about reducing fashion waste but doesn't want to sacrifice style, this is the book for you! It addresses the way mending is great for fashion sustainability and gives you the low down on “fast fashion”. From polluting ecosystems and breeding unsafe work environments, discover the huge human and environmental impacts those irresistibly cheap t-shirts have.

The Art of Mending and Sewing 

Mend It. Wear It. Love It is for everyone! Packed full of simple fixes, as well as more advanced techniques, this book is perfect for sewers, crafters, and fashion lovers of all experience levels.

Go from manicured lawn to eco-conscious garden with this step-by-step guide from HGTV star John Gidding.

Increased awareness of the environment and an ever-present interest in curb appeal means that homeowners are eager for more sustainable, natural landscaping. And why shouldn’t they be? In addition to supporting local flora and fauna, ditching grass for lush, native plants helps lower water bills and results in self-sustaining gardens long-term. In John Gidding’s At Home with Nature, American homeowners will find thorough blueprints to reap these benefits and bring their dream garden to life.

Complete with specific information for every U.S. bioregion, a glossary of native plants, illustrated yard renderings and photos, and detailed explanations of suburban codes, this book has examples and techniques to build responsible natural spaces. And as an HGTV star with over a decade of design experience, Gidding is the landscaping expert readers need to get the job done. At Home with Nature is the ultimate resource for creating beautiful and beneficial home gardens.

Best How-to Book of 2020 --American Society of Journalists and Authors

Packed with delicious recipes, natural remedies, gardening tips, crafts, and more, this indispensable lifestyle reference from the popular blogger makes earth-friendly living fun.

Whether you live in a city, suburb, or the country, this essential guide for the backyard homesteader will help you achieve a homespun life--from starting your own garden and pickling the food you grow to pressing wildflowers, raising chickens, and creating your own natural cleaning supplies.

Sustainability-guru Kris Bordessa offers DIY lovers an indispensable home reference for sustainability in the 21st century, with tried-and-true advice, 50 enticing recipes, and step-by-step directions for creating easy, cost-efficient projects that will bring out your inner pioneer, including:

• Delectable recipes for a crusty sourdough baguette, smoky hot sauce, and home preserving
• Handmade crafts like dyeing fabric, dipping candles, and making your own natural home remedies
• Outdoor projects like foraging for wild edibles, beekeeping, and cooking in cast iron
• Essential gardening tips from growing an herb box to cultivating a fruit orchard and natural weed control

Filled with 340 color photographs, this relatable, comprehensive book contains time honored-wisdom and modern know-how for getting back to basics.

Ecosystems require balance to survive, and when that balance is compromised, disaster can befall the whole system. To keep a balance in our global ecosystem, we need to use resources efficiently, equitably, and sustainably. In both nature and economics, we observe that when a healthy distribution of resources is achieved, systems can not only function but flourish.

The United States recycles roughly 34% of its waste and has been stuck at this level for decades. Recycling brings a balance to our system by managing resources in a loop. When done well, it benefits communities and the environment. Individuals are a key part of connecting this loop because we provide a supply of materials and a demand for new recycled products. But many of us don't know what happens after those items leave our homes. We're confused by inconsistent rules of what we can and can't recycle. Our confusion has huge consequences and is a reason why our recycling is stuck. Throughout Reduce, Reuse, Reimagine, Beth Porter provides answers to clear up that confusion, and shares great resources about recycling, explaining the complexity, guiding individual action, and contextualizing its history. This book reveals how we arrived at this state of dysfunction, and what steps we need to employ to be an active participant in strengthening our recycling system. Nature knows how to recycle itself, decomposing waste back into the soil to continue the circle of growth. We should follow its lead.

In No-Waste Composting, you’ll discover the hows and whys of composting and find over a dozen practical step-by-step plans for building both indoor and outdoor composting systems that require a minimal amount of space. 

“I don’t have enough space to compost.” 
“I don’t know what’s safe to compost and what isn’t.” 
“I live in the city, so I don’t think I can compost.” 
“Indoor composting systems are smelly.” 
“I don’t have a garden, so I don’t need to compost.”
 
If any of these is your excuse for not composting, then this is the book for you! Small-space composting has never been easier, more efficient, and more eco-friendly. Composting keeps millions of tons of waste out of landfills and creates carbon-sequestering, nutrient-dense compost that can be used to help fuel plant growth (including houseplants!) and build soil health. 

• Build a DIY worm-composting system for a cupboard or garage
• Craft a layered, under-the-sink composting system from terra cotta pots
• Construct a simple outdoor compost bin from repurposed wooden pallets 
• Use upcycled wire fencing to build a mobile composting system on the driveway
• Learn how to compost larger sticks and branches to build new food and flower gardens
• Upcycle a plastic bucket to make an indoor compost fermenting system

Plus, you’ll find plans to keep cat and dog waste out of the landfill by using a groundbreaking (and safe) DIY composting system. And if you don’t garden, author and composting professional Michelle Balz offers plenty of other ways you can utilize the wonderful, crumbly compost you create. 
 
Whether you’re just starting your no-waste journey or you’re a seasoned recycling and repurposing pro, No-Waste Composting is an invaluable tool to have at your side. This book is part of the Cool Springs Press No-Waste Gardening series, which also includes No-Waste Kitchen Gardening and No-Waste Organic Gardening. 

The first handbook on reclaimed wood, combining useful information, rich history, and home design ideas.

Reclaimed wood is a gift from ancient forests and a versatile material. Our ancestors built their homes and barns, warehouses, and factories with white pine and oak from the Northeast and the Midwest, longleaf pine and cypress from the South, and Douglas fir and redwood from the Northwest. When we salvage these and other woods for new projects, we are strengthening our own roots.

Reclaimed Wood: A Field Guide is the first complete visual survey of this valuable resource, with chapters on history, sources, and types of wood, reclamation, and practical information, and its use in modern architecture and design.

Upgrade Your Upcycling Game!

Discover a trove of upcycling ideas and inspiration, with this collection of projects from upcycling influencer Emma Foss. She shares detailed, step-by-step tutorials to teach you essential upcycling techniques so you can create something out of nothing. Through these creative projects, you’ll develop skills in basic woodworking, reupholstery, painting, papier-mâché and so much more. Best of all, these projects use materials you’re likely to already have lying around the house or can be found cheaply at thrift stores!

This astounding collection of projects is perfect for any DIY enthusiast, or anyone with a knack for using the materials they have to make something unique and memorable. Turn thrift-store jeans into a unique painted masterpiece, transform a paint palette into a functional clock or even hand-make your own recycled paper. It’s up to you!

Embrace your creative side as you beautify your space with these one-of-a-kind projects. As you work through each one, you’ll learn the upcycling skills you need to make anything you want, out of anything you can find.

This special edition of the highly acclaimed A Sand County Almanac commemorates the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Aldo Leopold, one of the foremost conservationists of our century. First published in 1949, it combines some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau with an outspoken and highly ethical regard for America's relationship to the land. It is a unique book, a classic work of conservation, the forefunner of such important books as Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire, and Robert Finch's The Primal Place.

From the bestselling author of Lab Girl comes a slim, urgent missive on the defining issue of our time: here is Hope Jahren on climate change, our timeless pursuit of more, and how the same human ambition that got us here can also be our salvation.

Hope Jahren is an award-winning geobiologist, a brilliant writer, and one of the seven billion people with whom we share this earth. The Story of More is her impassioned open letter to humanity as we stand at the crossroads of survival and extinction. Jahren celebrates the long history of our enterprising spirit--which has tamed wild crops, cured diseases, and sent us to the moon--but also shows how that spirit has created excesses that are quickly warming our planet to dangerous levels. In short, highly readable chapters, she takes us through the science behind the key inventions--from electric power to large-scale farming and automobiles--that, even as they help us, release untenable amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. She explains the current and projected consequences of greenhouse gases--from superstorms to rising sea levels--and shares the science-based tools that could help us fight back. At once an explainer on the mechanisms of warming and a capsule history of human development, The Story of More illuminates the link between our consumption habits and our endangered earth. It is the essential pocket primer on climate change that will leave an indelible impact on everyone who reads it.

Bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver returns with her first nonfiction narrative that will open your eyes in a hundred new ways to an old truth: You are what you eat.

"As the U.S. population made an unprecedented mad dash for the Sun Belt, one carload of us paddled against the tide, heading for the Promised Land where water falls from the sky and green stuff grows all around. We were about to begin the adventure of realigning our lives with our food chain.

"Naturally, our first stop was to buy junk food and fossil fuel. . . ."

Hang on for the ride: With characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Their good-humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that's better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.

"This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew . . . and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air."

One of the New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of the Year

Winner of the James Beard Award

Author of How to Change Your Mind and the #1 New York Times Bestsellers In Defense of Food and Food Rules

What should we have for dinner? Ten years ago, Michael Pollan confronted us with this seemingly simple question and, with The Omnivore’s Dilemma, his brilliant and eye-opening exploration of our food choices, demonstrated that how we answer it today may determine not only our health but our survival as a species. In the years since, Pollan’s revolutionary examination has changed the way Americans think about food. Bringing wide attention to the little-known but vitally important dimensions of food and agriculture in America, Pollan launched a national conversation about what we eat and the profound consequences that even the simplest everyday food choices have on both ourselves and the natural world. Ten years later, The Omnivore’s Dilemma continues to transform the way Americans think about the politics, perils, and pleasures of eating.

In The Urban Garden you’ll find dozens of inspiring and creative ways to grow flowers, shrubs, vegetables, herbs, and other plants in small spaces and with a limited budget.
 
Whether you want to grow on a balcony, rooftop, front stoop, or a tiny urban patio, turn your growing dreams into reality and build a gorgeous and unique garden that showcases your personal style while still being functional and productive. With the ingenious ideas and resourceful tactics found here, you’ll be maximizing yields and beauty from every square inch of your space, while also making a lush outdoor living area you’ll crave spending time in.
 
Take inspiration from urban gardeners around the world and learn to:
 

• Install planting pockets on fences and walls
• Grow a rooftop garden in lightweight grow bags
• Tips for designing small spaces that feel BIG
• Build a salad table for growing lettuce and greens
• Utilize garden structures and plants for decorative screening
• Support pollinators by creating a small-scale habitat
• Design a pet-friendly urban yard
• Employ climbing plants and vines to add privacy and reduce noise
• Plant in layers to maximize yields and add beauty

Whether you’re growing edible plants or beautiful flowers, the 101 amazing growing ideas found in The Urban Garden will turn your tiny urban yard into a treasure trove of green you’ll be proud to share with family and friends.

From journalist, fashionista, and clothing resale expert Elizabeth L. Cline, “the Michael Pollan of fashion,”* comes the definitive guide to building an ethical, sustainable wardrobe you'll love.

Clothing is one of the most personal expressions of who we are. In her landmark investigation Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, Elizabeth L. Cline first revealed fast fashion’s hidden toll on the environment, garment workers, and even our own satisfaction with our clothes. The Conscious Closet shows exactly what we can do about it.

Whether your goal is to build an effortless capsule wardrobe, keep up with trends without harming the environment, buy better quality, seek out ethical brands, or all of the above, The Conscious Closet is packed with the vital tools you need. Elizabeth delves into fresh research on fashion’s impacts and shows how we can leverage our everyday fashion choices to change the world through style. Inspired by her own revelatory journey getting off the fast-fashion treadmill, Elizabeth shares exactly how to build a more ethical wardrobe, starting with a mindful closet clean-out and donating, swapping, or selling the clothes you don't love to make way for the closet of your dreams.

The Conscious Closet is not just a style guide. It is a call to action to transform one of the most polluting industries on earth—fashion—into a force for good. Readers will learn where our clothes are made and how they’re made, before connecting to a global and impassioned community of stylish fashion revolutionaries. In The Conscious Closet, Elizabeth shows us how we can start to truly love and understand our clothes again—without sacrificing the environment, our morals, or our style in the process.

*Michelle Goldberg, Newsweek/The Daily Beast

A manifesto for a radically different philosophy and practice of manufacture and environmentalism. "Reduce, reuse, recycle," urge environmentalists--in other words, do more with less in order to minimize damage. As this book argues, however, this approach perpetuates a one-way "cradle to grave" manufacturing model that casts off as much as 90 percent of the materials it uses as waste, much of it toxic. Why not challenge the notion that human industry must inevitably damage the natural world, they ask. Products might be designed so that, after their useful life, they provide nourishment for something new. Elaborating their principles from experience (re)designing everything from carpeting to corporate campuses, the authors make an exciting and viable case for change.

Keep your lawn and garden lush without wasting resources by capturing and recycling the greywater that drains from your sink, shower, and washing machine. This accessible and detailed guide walks you through each step of planning for and installing a variety of greywater systems, including laundry-to-landscape and branched drain gravity-fed systems. After identifying greywater sources in your home and estimating flow rate, you’ll learn to pinpoint where to redirect the wastewater for the greatest benefit. No matter which system you decide to build, you'll have the information to construct it yourself or move forward with confidence to hire a professional. 

Admit it: you love to explore how things work. Screwdriver and pliers in hand, no castoff electronics or old appliances are safe. But once you've pulled apart your prey, do you really just want to screw it back together again . . . assuming you could? Unscrewed is the perfect resource for all UIYers--Undo It Yourselfers--looking to salvage hidden treasures or repurpose old junk.

Author Ed Sobey will show you how to safely disassemble more than 50 devices, including: Laser Printer, Radio-Controlled Car, Zip Drive, Videocassette Recorder, Paper Shredder, Audiocassette Player, Electric Drill, Computer Mouse, Keyboard, Fax Machine, Joystick, Floppy Drive, Videocassette Camera, Electric Clock, and More!

Each deconstruction project includes a "treasure cache" of the components to be found, a required tools list, and step-by-step instructions, with photos, on how to extract the working components. It also includes suggestions on how to repurpose your electronic finds. Why pay good money to an electronics store when you probably already have what you need in that old VCR, printer, or hair dryer? Fight the mindset of planned obsolescence--there's technological gold in that there junk!

An essential guide to composting for all gardeners and environmentally conscious people

This revised edition of The Rodale Book of Composting includes all the latest in new techniques, technology, and equipment. Gardeners know composting is the best way to feed the soil and turn food scraps into fresh produce, but even urbanites can get on board thanks to programs like compost pickup and citywide food waste initiatives—there’s no better way to reduce landfill waste (and subsequent emissions) and dependence on fossil fuels while nourishing the earth.

The Rodale Book of Composting offers easy-to-follow instructions for making and using compost; helpful tips for apartment dwellers, suburbanites, farmers, and community leaders; and ecologically sound solutions to growing waste-disposal problems.

Bring your garden to life—and life to your garden!

Do you want a garden that makes a real difference? Choose plants native to our Midwest region. The rewards will benefit you, your yard, and the environment—from reducing maintenance tasks to attracting earth-friendly pollinators such as native birds, butterflies, and bees. Native plant expert Alan Branhagen makes adding these superstar plants easier than ever before, with proven advice that every home gardener can follow. This incomparable sourcebook includes 225 recommended native ferns, grasses, wildflowers, perennials, vines, shrubs, and trees. It’s everything you need to know to create a beautiful and beneficial garden.

This must-have handbook is for gardeners in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

From the author of the New York Times bestseller that defined nature-deficit disorder and launched the international children-and-nature movement, Vitamin N (for “nature”) is a complete prescription for connecting with the power and joy of the natural world right now, with

• 500 activities for children and adults
• Dozens of inspiring and thought-provoking essays
• Scores of informational websites
• Down-to-earth advice

In his landmark work Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv was the first to bring widespread attention to the alienation of children from the natural world, coining the term nature-deficit disorder and outlining the benefits of a strong nature connection--from boosting mental acuity and creativity to reducing obesity and depression, from promoting health and wellness to simply having fun. That book “rivaled Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring” (the Cincinnati Enquirer), was “an absolute must-read for parents” (the Boston Globe), and “an inch-thick caution against raising the fully automated child” (the New York Times). His  follow-up book, The Nature Principle, addressed the needs of adults and outlined a “new nature movement and its potential to improve the lives of all people no matter where they live” (McClatchy Newspapers).Vitamin N is a one-of-a-kind, comprehensive, and practical guidebook for the whole family and the wider community, including tips not only for parents eager to share nature with their kids but also for those seeking nature-smart schools, medical professionals, and even careers. It is a dose of pure inspiration, reminding us that looking up at the stars or taking a walk in the woods is as exhilarating as it is essential, at any age.

In with the old, out with the new—reclaiming your closet and reducing fashion waste starts here.

Repair your favorite socks with style, add flair with personalized patches, and turn ripped jeans into an embroidered masterpiece. For beginner and experienced makers, Lily Fulop's guide to mending and upcycling is your colorful companion to ditching fast fashion and extending the lifecycle of all your favorite clothes.

Fulop's vibrant step-by-step illustrations make mending easier than every, demystifying techniques and displaying unique ways to show off your personality. And when your mending possibilities run out, she has simple yet striking solutions to repurpose fabric, including braided rugs, crocheted pillows, and more. Say hello to sustainable inspiration.

A New York Times Bestseller
A Washington Post Bestseller
A Los Angeles Times Bestseller
Named a Best Essay Collection of the Decade by Literary Hub
A Book Riot Favorite Summer Read of 2020
A Food Tank Fall 2020 Reading Recommendation

Updated with a new introduction from Robin Wall Kimmerer, the special edition of Braiding Sweetgrass, reissued in honor of the fortieth anniversary of Milkweed Editions, celebrates the book as an object of meaning that will last the ages. Beautifully bound with a new cover featuring an engraving by Tony Drehfal, this edition includes a bookmark ribbon, a deckled edge, and five brilliantly colored illustrations by artist Nate Christopherson. In increasingly dark times, we honor the experience that more than 350,000 readers in North America have cherished about the book--gentle, simple, tactile, beautiful, even sacred--and offer an edition that will inspire readers to gift it again and again, spreading the word about scientific knowledge, indigenous wisdom, and the teachings of plants.

As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on "a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise" (Elizabeth Gilbert).

Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, and as a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings--asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass--offer us gifts and lessons, even if we've forgotten how to hear their voices. In reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.

★"[A] sheer delight and will be a welcome addition to shelves everywhere. Highly--and proudly--recommended." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

★ "This engaging introduction to Pride parades for the youngest readers successfully testifies to the warmth and power of queer community." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

A young child and their family are having a wonderful time together celebrating Pride Day--meeting up with Grandma, making new friends and eating ice cream. But then something terrible happens: their dog gets lost in the parade! Luckily, there are lots of people around to help reunite the pup with his family.

This rhyming alphabet book tells a lively story, with rich, colorful illustrations that will have readers poring over every detail as they spot items starting with each of the letters of the alphabet. An affirming and inclusive book that offers a joyful glimpse of a Pride parade and the vibrant community that celebrates this day each year.

A glittering celebration of queer families puts Pride gently in perspective—honoring those in the LGBTQ+ community who fought against injustice and inequality.

Pride’s . . . a day that means “Together, we are strong!”

This joyful picture-book homage to a day of community and inclusion—and to the joys of anticipation—is also a comprehensive history. With bright, buoyant illustrations and lyrical, age-appropriate rhyme modeled on “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” it tackles difficult content such as the Stonewall Riots and the AIDS marches. On the night before Pride, families everywhere are preparing to partake. As one family packs snacks and makes signs, an older sibling shares the importance of the march with the newest member of the family. Reflecting on the day, the siblings agree that the best thing about Pride is getting to be yourself. Debut author Joanna McClintick and Pura Belpré Award–winning author-illustrator Juana Medina create a new classic that pays homage to the beauty of families of all compositions—and of all-inclusive love.

In Sam Donovan, Kristen Wixted & Violet Tobacco's heartwarming picture book Miss Rita, Mystery Reader, Tori can’t wait to show off Daddy’s drag queen alter ego, Miss Rita, at school story time. But will the other kids love Miss Rita like Tori does?

Daddy is the Mystery Reader at Tori’s school today, and he’s coming dressed as Miss Rita! Tori helps Daddy gloss, glitter, glamour, and glimmer to get ready. It takes time—because sparkle is serious business!

Tori loves helping Daddy become Miss Rita. But will the other kids at school love Miss Rita like Tori does? Luckily, a last-minute idea helps Daddy and Tori find a way to make story time sparkle for everyone.

This heartwarming and relatable family story celebrates drag queens, reading, and self-acceptance, teaching every kid to let their sparkle shine! And it includes back matter providing an overview of drag performance.

Follow Ari through their neighborhood as they try to find their words in this sweet, accessible introduction to gender-inclusive pronouns that is perfect for readers of all ages. Whenever Ari's Uncle Lior comes to visit, they ask Ari one question: "What are your words?" Some days Ari uses she/her. Other days Ari uses he/him. But on the day of the neighborhood's big summer bash, Ari doesn't know what words to use. On the way to the party, Ari and Lior meet lots of neighbors and learn the words each of them use to describe themselves, including pronouns like she/her, he/him, they/them, ey/em, and ze/zir. As Ari tries on different pronouns, they discover that it's okay to not know your words right away--sometimes you have to wait for your words to find you. Filled with bright, graphic illustrations, this simple and poignant story about finding yourself is the perfect introduction to gender-inclusive pronouns for readers of all ages.

From the author and illustrator of the bestselling Not Quite Narwhal comes a sweet and funny story about remembering where you belong, no matter how far you roam, or what you’re wearing when you get there.

Harriet loves costumes. She wears them to the dentist, to the supermarket, and most importantly, to her super-special dress-up birthday party. Her dads have decorated everything for the party and Harriet has her most favorite costume all picked out for the big day. There’s just one thing missing—party hats!

But when Harriet dons her special penguin errand-running costume and sets out to find the perfect ones, she finds something else instead—real penguins! Harriet gets carried away with the flock. She may look like a penguin, but she’s not so sure she belongs in the arctic. Can Harriet manage her way back to her dads (and the party hats!) in time for her special day?

In an exuberant picture book, a glimpse of costumed mermaids leaves one boy flooded with wonder and ready to dazzle the world.

While riding the subway home from the pool with his abuela one day, Julián notices three women spectacularly dressed up. Their hair billows in brilliant hues, their dresses end in fishtails, and their joy fills the train car. When Julián gets home, daydreaming of the magic he's seen, all he can think about is dressing up just like the ladies in his own fabulous mermaid costume: a butter-yellow curtain for his tail, the fronds of a potted fern for his headdress. But what will Abuela think about the mess he makes -- and even more importantly, what will she think about how Julián sees himself? Mesmerizing and full of heart, Jessica Love's author-illustrator debut is a jubilant picture of self-love and a radiant celebration of individuality.

Interrupting Chicken meets Click, Clack, Moo in this zany classic-in-the-making!

With rollicking rhythms, nonsensical refrains, and too many chickens to count, this modern classic will inspire unstoppable giggles and endless rereads. Bawka-bawka!

Mr. Watson has 456 chickens in the sink, on the bed, in the bread box. When his partner, Mr. Nelson, threatens to leave, Mr. Watson takes his chickens to town to sell only for them to escape! Young readers will follow Mr. Watson all around town as he gathers up his chickens. But, when they're all rounded up, does he have the heart to sell them? Does a different fate await these chickens?

This quirky, irresistible book is full of read-aloud fun with its onomatopoeia, rollicking rhythm, and familiar refrains and ends with a touch of sweetness. It has all the makings of a classic, with a farm theme, hilarious refrains, and a familiar narrative structure that unfolds in threes. Librarians, teachers, and parents looking for a new book that feels traditional will love sharing this book with children.

A JOY TO REREAD: This is a very classic-feeling storybook. Paired with its funny farm setting and hilarious refrains, this book is sure to inspire countless rereads and endless giggles.

PERFECT READ-ALOUD: This book is full of nonsensical sounds and repetition that make it fun to read out loud and invite audience participation. It's a perfect choice for classroom events and laptime reads.

LIKE CHICKA CHICKA BOOM BOOM, WITH CHICKENS!: With its bouncy refrains and rollicking rhythms, this book will remind readers of classic bestsellers like Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

REALISTIC RELATIONSHIP UNUSUAL IN PICTURE BOOKS: This book features a gay couple at its center, but doesn't call specific attention to it. It simply portrays a healthy relationship between two men (and their chickens!).

WRITTEN BY A NEW TALENT WHO REALLY UNDERSTANDS KIDS: This is Jarret Dapier's first book! He's a popular, award-winning teen librarian who works with kids, knows what they like, and is well-versed in the rhythms of the classic children's book--and he has many more stories up his sleeves.

DELIGHTFUL, DETAILED DRAWINGS OF OVER 400 CHICKENS!: With hundreds of chickens to find and scenes crammed with action and detail, the pages of this book are chock-full of things to look at. Young readers will spend hours poring over each spread.

Perfect for: parents, families looking for LGBTQIA+ stories, fans of funny books

A child's plans are ruined when her parents have the gall to stop to talk to the neighbors in My Parents Won't Stop Talking!, a laugh-out-loud picture book about patience by Emma Hunsinger and Tillie Walden.

It’s time to go to the park, and Molly can’t wait! It’s going to be awesome and amazing and—

OH NO!

The neighbors have spotted her moms, and now they’re talking. A lot. And everything they say is boring. Minutes feel like hours, hours feel like days, and days feel like eons . . .

Will her parents ever stop talking?!

This is a clever, irreverent take on a universal childhood dilemma, written and illustrated by two stars in the comics world.

A little girl stays home with Mama when Mommy goes off on a work trip in this tender, inviting story that will resonate with every child who has missed a parent.

For one little girl, there’s no place she’d rather be than sitting between Mama and Mommy. So when Mommy goes away on a work trip, it’s tricky to find a good place at the table. As the days go by, Mama brings her to the library, they watch movies, and all of them talk on the phone, but she still misses Mommy as deep as the ocean and as high as an astronaut up in the stars. As they pass by a beautiful garden, the girl gets an idea . . . but when Mommy finally comes home, it takes a minute to shake off the empty feeling she felt all week before leaning in for a kiss. Michael L. Printz Award winner Nina LaCour thoughtfully renders a familiar, touching story of a child who misses a parent, illustrated by Kaylani Juanita, whose distinctive style brings charm and playfulness to this delightful family of three.

Author-illustrator Vincent X. Kirsch's picture book From Archie to Zack is an unapologetic celebration of friendship and first crushes.



"Archie loves Zack!"

"Zack loves Archie!"

Everyone said it was so.



But Archie hasn't told Zack yet. And Zack hasn't told Archie. They spend just about every minute together: walking to and from school, doing science and art projects, practicing for marching band, learning to ride bikes, and so much more.



Over the course of a few months, Archie tries to write a letter to Zack to tell him how he feels--from A to Z. None of his drafts sound quite right, so he hides them all away. One by one, Archie's friends (Zelda, Zinnia, and Zuzella) find the letters . . . but they know exactly whom they're meant for.



This picture book from Vincent X. Kirsch celebrates young, queer love in a whimsical, kid-friendly way.



"A pure and perfect capture of first love." --School Library Journal (Starred Review)
 

"Welcome to The Pronoun Book! Join Ellie and Casey as they introduce you to the wonderful world of pronouns. Learn about what pronouns are, how they relate to us, and why it's so important to get them right!"

This fun, engaging and empowering children's book is the perfect introduction on pronouns in relation to gender diversity and identity for children aged 5+.Through illustrated scenarios and explanations, it gently encourages children to learn pronoun etiquette and educates them on they/them pronouns, trans and non-binary identities, misgendering and neo-pronouns such as xe, zir and hir.

This illustrated book also includes a dedicated section at the back for adults, which includes a pronoun table, photocopiable pronoun labels and sample letters addressed to schools.

What's a pampered cat to do now that she has to compete for attention with an ill-mannered puppy? Award-winning author Susin Nielsen delights in this laugh-a-minute twist on the classic sibling rivalry story.

Princess Puffybottom has the perfect life -- her subjects serve her delicious meals, clean up her "delicate matters" and wait on her hand and foot. Life is good . . . until Darryl arrives. Princess Puffybottom thinks he's disgusting, horrid and a true animal. Though she tries everything in her power to banish him (including hypnosis, trickery and even sabotage), it looks like this puppy is here to stay. Can Princess P. and Darryl find a way to co-exist? A hilarious picture book from acclaimed author Susin Nielsen, with adorable illustrations by Olivia Chin Mueller, Princess Puffybottom . . . and Darryl is perfect for not only warring siblings, but also anyone who loves cute pets (and some toilet humor).

The story of a transgender child based on the real-life experience of Jazz Jennings, who has become a spokesperson for transkids everywhere

"This is an essential tool for parents and teachers to share with children whether those kids identify as trans or not. I wish I had had a book like this when I was a kid struggling with gender identity questions. I found it deeply moving in its simplicity and honesty."—Laverne Cox (who plays Sophia in “Orange Is the New Black”)

From the time she was two years old, Jazz knew that she had a girl's brain in a boy's body. She loved pink and dressing up as a mermaid and didn't feel like herself in boys' clothing. This confused her family, until they took her to a doctor who said that Jazz was transgender and that she was born that way. Jazz's story is based on her real-life experience and she tells it in a simple, clear way that will be appreciated by picture book readers, their parents, and teachers.

In this modern fairy tale, a strong, brave maiden is invited to attend the prince's royal ball, but at the dance, she ends up finding true love in a most surprising place.

"The prince is smart and strong,"

she confided in her mother.

"But if I'm being honest,

I see him as a brother."

Her mother said, "Just go!

And have a bit of fun.

The prince might not be right,

but you could meet the one."

Once in a faraway kingdom, a strong, brave maiden is invited to attend the prince's royal ball, but she's not as excited to go as everyone else. After her mother convinces her to make an appearance, she makes a huge impression on everyone present, from the villagers to the king and queen, but she ends up finding true love in a most surprising place. This book is published in partnership with GLAAD to accelerate LGBTQ inclusivity and acceptance.

"Victorious . . . the premier queer-friendly fairy tale." Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"An illuminating fairy tale for young readers to be able to see that not every prince would like to marry a princess." School Library Journal

"A colorful and entertaining tale exploring sexuality, acceptance, and young love." Booklist

In this modern fairy tale, a noble prince and a brave knight come together to defeat a terrible monster and in the process find true love in a most unexpected place.

"Thank you," he told his parents.

"I appreciate that you tried,

but I'm looking for something special

in a partner by my side."

Once upon a time, in a kingdom far from here, there was a prince in line to take the throne, so his parents set out to find him a kind and worthy bride. The three of them traveled the land far and wide, but the prince didn't quite find what he was looking for in the princesses they met.

While they were away, a terrible dragon threatened their land, and all the soldiers fled. The prince rushed back to save his kingdom from the perilous beast and was met by a brave knight in a suit of brightly shining armor. Together they fought the dragon and discovered that special something the prince was looking for all along. This book is published in partnership with GLAAD to accelerate LGBTQ inclusivity and acceptance.

Sasha's dads want to buy her a new sweater, because her old one is such a disgrace. The trouble is, all the stains, rips, stretches, and wrinkles remind Sasha of the exciting adventures and fun she's shared with her friends and family. Will she remember them once the sweater's gone? One by one, Sasha recalls the wonderful times she's had in her sweater, and lists the marks they've left. How will she keep her dads happy and make sure the adventures keep happening?

Cats + water: What could go wrong? This riotous romp of a picture book follows a frantic family as they try to get some chores done--with no help from the family cat, who keeps scrambling the list of chores to hilarious effect. Get ready for a rollicking read-aloud with a truly purrfect ending.

It's cleaning day, but the family cat will do anything to avoid getting a bath. So instead of mopping the floor or feeding the fish, the family is soon busy rocking the rug, vacuuming the lawn, and sweeping the dishes. Bouncy rhyme carries the story headlong into the growing hilarity, until finally Dad restores some kind of order--but will the cat avoid getting his whiskers wet?

HILARIOUS READ-ALOUD: Word scrambles are a delight in this silly rhyming picture book! Kids will love the accessible rhyming text, and emerging readers will be able to anticipate words after repeated reads, making for an engaging and interactive read-aloud experience.

CATNIP FOR CAT LOVERS: This sweet and sneaky feline will do anything to get out of having a bath! Ample cat antics and scenes of increasing mischief (and increasing chaos!) around the house will tickle young readers and entice parents--particularly those with a furry feline of their own in the house.

TWO DADS LEAD THE WAY: Dad and Papa are the heads of this large and loving biracial family, mirroring illustrator David Roberts' own orientation and providing picture book readers with a positive depiction of LGBTQ+ characters in a fun and funny family story.

WINNING AUTHOR-ILLUSTRATOR TEAM: Alice McGinty is a prolific author of books for children, and David Roberts is well-known for his work on the New York Times bestselling Questioneers series. Together, their upbeat text and energetic art with pops of neon color make for a standout picture book, just right for gifting and enjoying together at storytime.

Perfect for:

• Parents looking for fun stories with cats and good books about diverse families to share with their kids
• Gifting for children's birthdays, Father's Day for cat dads, or pet adoption congratulations
• Cat lovers who celebrate the bad and the good of daily life with their feline overlords
• Readers who love the poetry and playfulness of Sandra Boynton, Emily Winfield Martin, and Shel Silverstein
• Adding to the family bookshelf alongside funny bath books and cat books like The Cat in the Hat, Bad Kitty Gets a Bath, and The Pigeon Needs a Bath!

Candlewick relaunches a modern classic for this generation with a beautifully illustrated edition.

Heather’s favorite number is two. She has two arms, two legs, and two pets. And she also has two mommies. When Heather goes to school for the first time, someone asks her about her daddy, but Heather doesn’t have a daddy. Then something interesting happens. When Heather and her classmates all draw pictures of their families, not one drawing is the same. It doesn’t matter who makes up a family, the teacher says, because “the most important thing about a family is that all the people in it love one another.” This delightful edition for a new generation of young readers features fresh illustrations by Laura Cornell and an updated story by Lesléa Newman.

And Tango Makes Three is the bestselling, heartwarming true story of two penguins who create a nontraditional family.

At the penguin house at the Central Park Zoo, two penguins named Roy and Silo were a little bit different from the others. But their desire for a family was the same. And with the help of a kindly zookeeper, Roy and Silo get the chance to welcome a baby penguin of their very own.

Selected as an ALA Notable Children’s Book Nominee and a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, “this joyful story about the meaning of family is a must for any library” (School Library Journal, starred review).

What would you do if no one could see you? In this surreal adventure, a boy who is used to being overlooked literally becomes invisible, only to realize there may be far more dangerous threats in his school than bullies.

Sixth grade takes a turn for the weird when Hector Griggs discovers he has the ability to turn invisible. Sure, ever since Hector’s former best friend Blake started bullying him, he’s been feeling like he just wants to disappear…but he never thought he actually would. And then, Hector meets another invisible boy, Orson Wellington, who has an ominous warning: “I’m stuck here. Stuck like this. It’s been years. The gelim’s hunting me and it’ll get you, too.”

It turns out, there is more than meets the eye at St. Lawrence’s Catholic School for Boys, and if Hector is going to save Orson--and himself—from the terrifying creature preying on students’ loneliness and fear, he’ll need to look deeper. With the help of a mysterious new classmate, Sam, can Hector unravel the mysteries haunting his school, and discover that sometimes it takes disappearing to really be seen?

From the author of the critically acclaimed Gracefully Grayson comes a thoughtful and sensitive middle-grade novel about non-binary identity and first love, Ami Polonsky's Spin with Me.

In this elegant dual narrative, Essie is a thirteen-year-old girl feeling glum about starting a new school after her professor dad takes a temporary teaching position in a different town. She has 110 days here and can't wait for them to end. Then she meets Ollie, who is nonbinary. Ollie has beautiful blue eyes and a confident smile. Soon, Essie isn’t counting down the days until she can leave so much as she’s dreading when her time with Ollie will come to an end.

Meanwhile, Ollie is experiencing a crush of their own . . . on Essie. As Ollie struggles to balance their passion for queer advocacy with their other interests, they slowly find themselves falling for a girl whose stay is about to come to an end. Can the two unwind their merry-go-round of feelings before it's too late?

In this Stonewall Honor book, a week-long amusement park road trip becomes a true roller coaster of emotion when Dalia realizes she has more-than-friend feelings for her new bestie.

A Stonewall Honor Book

Cover may vary.

"Dalia’s journey to self-discovery is refreshingly honest, and this entire cast of characters will steal your heart.” – Maulik Pancholy, actor and Stonewall Honor-winning author of The Best At It

Would-be amusement park aficionado Dalia only has two items on her summer bucket list: (1) finally ride a roller coaster and (2) figure out how to make a new best friend. But when her dad suddenly announces that he's engaged, Dalia's schemes come to a screeching halt. With
Dalia's future stepsister Alexa heading back to college soon, the grown-ups want the girls to spend the last weeks of summer bonding--meaning Alexa has to cancel the amusement park road trip she's been planning for months. Luckily Dalia comes up with a new plan: If she joins Alexa on her trip and brings Rani, the new girl from her swim team, along maybe she can have the perfect summer after all. But what starts out as a week of funnel cakes and Lazy River rides goes off the rails when Dalia discovers that Alexa's girlfriend is joining the trip. And keeping Alexa's secret makes Dalia realize one of her own: She might have more-than-friend feelings for Rani.

From the acclaimed author of Small Town Pride, Phil Stamper, comes a heartfelt coming-of-age middle grade novel about grief, love, loss, and finding your way forward in the vein of Kate Allen's The Line Tender and Jules Machias's Both Can Be True.

The last few months have been pretty tough for Eli. He moved to New York City and left his small town in Minnesota with his extended family and everyone he knows. He hasn't made any new friends. And his mom died unexpectedly, shattering his whole world. He misses Mom more and more every day, but Dad refuses to talk about her, leaving Eli alone in his grief.

Then Eli finds a stash of instructional cooking videos his mom made, revealing her dream of being a celebrity chef. With the help of the cute new neighbor boy, Mathias, Eli decides to follow his mother's recipes using her videos. If he can re-create his mom's special dishes, then maybe a part of her can stay with him forever. But what happens when the videos run out?

Poet and author Robin Gow's moving middle-grade novel in verse Dear Mothman is about a young trans boy dealing with the loss of his friend by writing to his favorite cryptid.

Halfway through sixth grade, Noah's best friend and the only other trans boy in his school, Lewis, passed away in a car accident. Adventurous and curious, Lewis was always bringing a new paranormal story to share with Noah. Together they daydreamed about cryptids and shared discovering their genders and names.

After Lewis's death, lonely and yearning for someone who could understand him like Lewis once did, Noah starts writing letters to Mothman, wondering if he would understand how Noah feels and also looking for evidence of Mothman's existence in the vast woods surrounding his small Poconos town. Noah becomes determined to make his science fair project about Mothman, despite his teachers and parents urging him to make a project about something "real."

Meanwhile, as Noah tries to find Mothman, he also starts to make friends with a group of girls in his grade, Hanna, Molly, and Alice, with whom he'd been friendly, but never close to. Now, they welcome him, and he starts to open up to each of them, especially Hanna, whom Noah has a crush on. But as strange things start to happen and Noah becomes sure of Mothman's existence, his parents and teachers don't believe him. Noah decides it's up to him to risk everything, trek into the woods, and find Mothman himself.

Chad Lucas's Thanks a Lot, Universe is a moving middle-grade debut for anyone who's ever felt like they don't belong



Brian has always been anxious, whether at home, in class, or on the basketball court. His dad tries to get him to stand up for himself, and his mom helps as much as she can, but after he and his brother are placed in foster care, Brian starts having panic attacks. And he doesn't know if things will ever be "normal" again . . .

Ezra's always been popular. He's friends with most of the kids on his basketball team--even Brian, who usually keeps to himself. But now, some of his friends have been acting differently, and Brian seems to be pulling away. Ezra wants to help, but he worries if he's too nice to Brian, his friends will realize that he has a crush on him . . .



But when Brian and his brother run away, Ezra has no choice but to take the leap and reach out. Both boys have to decide if they're willing to risk sharing parts of themselves they'd rather hide. But if they can be brave, they might just find the best in themselves--and each other.



"A glorious ode to the beauty of preteen friendship and the beginnings of blurred lines and vital questions of identity." --New York Times bestselling author Nic Stone



Also available:

You Owe Me One, Universe

A 2021 Coretta Scott King Honor Book!

Winner of the 2020 National Book Award for Young People's Literature!

Winner of the 2020 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction and Poetry!

In a small but turbulent Louisiana town, one boy's grief takes him beyond the bayous of his backyard, to learn that there is no right way to be yourself.

FOUR STARRED REVIEWS!

Booklist

School Library Journal

Publishers Weekly

The Horn Book

Twelve-year-old Kingston James is sure his brother Khalid has turned into a dragonfly. When Khalid unexpectedly passed away, he shed what was his first skin for another to live down by the bayou in their small Louisiana town. Khalid still visits in dreams, and King must keep these secrets to himself as he watches grief transform his family.

It would be easier if King could talk with his best friend, Sandy Sanders. But just days before he died, Khalid told King to end their friendship, after overhearing a secret about Sandy-that he thinks he might be gay. "You don't want anyone to think you're gay too, do you?"

But when Sandy goes missing, sparking a town-wide search, and King finds his former best friend hiding in a tent in his backyard, he agrees to help Sandy escape from his abusive father, and the two begin an adventure as they build their own private paradise down by the bayou and among the dragonflies. As King's friendship with Sandy is reignited, he's forced to confront questions about himself and the reality of his brother's death.

The Thing About Jellyfish meets The Stars Beneath Our Feet in this story about loss, grief, and finding the courage to discover one's identity, from the author of Hurricane Child.

A 2021 NCTE Charlotte Huck Award Honor Book
A Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2020
A 2021 ALA Rainbow Book
A Bank Street Best Book of 2021

A heartfelt and relatable novel from Phil Bildner, weaving the real history of Los Angeles Dodger and Oakland Athletic Glenn Burke--the first professional baseball player to come out as gay--into the story of a middle-school kid learning to be himself.

When sixth grader Silas Wade does a school presentation on former Major Leaguer Glenn Burke, it’s more than just a report about the irrepressible inventor of the high five. Burke was a gay baseball player in the 1970s—and for Silas, the presentation is his own first baby step toward revealing a truth about himself he's tired of hiding. Soon he tells his best friend, Zoey, but the longer he keeps his secret from his baseball teammates, the more he suspects they know something’s up—especially when he stages one big cover-up with terrible consequences.

A High Five for Glenn Burke is Phil Bildner’s most personal novel yet—a powerful story about the challenge of being true to yourself, especially when not everyone feels you belong on the field.

In the sequel to middle grade graphic novel The Accursed Vampire, Drago and their vampire buds head to Witch Camp for a summer of spells and magic...but what they find is far more sinister!

It's summertime and Drago, Eztli, and Quintus are heading to witch camp, where they'll learn spells and magic alongside human kids.

Drago is skeptical about this joint venture with the living, but as long as their vampire pals are with them, how bad could it be?

Pretty bad, actually. Eztli and Quintus end up making friends with the campers while Drago stumbles onto an abandoned mini golf course housing a sinister supernatural entity with intentions of overtaking the camp.

Drago may not like camp, but they can't leave their buds in danger. What will they do?

A 2023 YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens Selection

In Other Boys, debut author Damian Alexander delivers a moving middle grade graphic memoir about his struggles with bullying, the death of his mother, and coming out.

Damian is the new kid at school, and he has a foolproof plan to avoid the bullying that's plagued him his whole childhood: he's going to stop talking. Starting on the first day seventh grade, he won't utter a word. If he keeps his mouth shut, the bullies will have nothing to tease him about—right?

But Damian's vow of silence doesn't work—his classmates can tell there's something different about him. His family doesn't look like the kind on TV: his mother is dead, his father is gone, and he's being raised by his grandparents in a low-income household. And Damian does things that boys aren't supposed do, like play with Barbies instead of GI Joe. Kids have teased him about this his whole life, especially other boys. But if boys can be so cruel, why does Damian have a crush on one?

The Witch Boy meets The Legend of Korra in this breathtaking, epic graphic novel.
After a terrible political coup usurps their noble house, Hawke and Grayson flee to stay alive and assume new identities, Hanna and Grayce. Desperation and chance lead them to the Communion of Blue, an order of magical women who spin the threads of reality to their will.

As the twins learn more about the Communion, and themselves, they begin to hatch a plan to avenge their family and retake their royal home. While Hawke wants to return to his old life, Grayce struggles to keep the threads of her new life from unraveling, and realizes she wants to stay in the one place that will allow her to finally live as a girl.
This title will be simultaneously available in paperback.

"Friendship to the max! At Miss Quinzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet's camp for hardcore lady-types, things are not what they seem. Three-eyed foxes. Secret caves. Anagrams. Luckily, Jo, April, Mal, Molly and Ripley are five rad, butt-kicking best pals determined to have an awesome summer together-- and they're not gonna let a magical quest or an array of supernatural critters get in their way! The mystery keeps getting bigger, and it all begins here."--Back cover of Volume 1.

Raina Telgemeier, the NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of the Eisner Award winner, SMILE, brings us her next full-color graphic novel . . . DRAMA!

Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school's production of Moon Over Mississippi, she's a terrible singer. Instead she's the set designer for the stage crew, and this year she's determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget. But how can she, when she doesn't know much about carpentry, ticket sales are down, and the crew members are having trouble working together? Not to mention the onstage AND offstage drama that occurs once the actors are chosen, and when two cute brothers enter the picture, things get even crazier! Following the success of SMILE, Raina Telgemeier brings us another graphic novel featuring a diverse set of characters that humorously explores friendship, crushes, and all-around drama!

An enchanting, riotous, and playfully illustrated debut graphic novel following a young goblin trying to save her best friend from the haunted mall—perfect for fans of Steven Universe and Adventure Time.

In the eerie town of ‘Allows, some people get to be magical sorceresses, while other people have their spirits trapped in the mall for all ghastly eternity.

Then there’s twelve-year-old goblin-witch Beetle, who’s caught in between. She’d rather skip being homeschooled completely and spend time with her best friend, Blob Glost. But the mall is getting boring, and B.G. is cursed to haunt it, tethered there by some unseen force. And now Beetle’s old best friend, Kat, is back in town for a sorcery apprenticeship with her Aunt Hollowbone. Kat is everything Beetle wants to be: beautiful, cool, great at magic, and kind of famous online. Beetle’s quickly being left in the dust.

But Kat’s mentor has set her own vile scheme in motion. If Blob Ghost doesn’t escape the mall soon, their afterlife might be coming to a very sticky end. Now, Beetle has less than a week to rescue her best ghost, encourage Kat to stand up for herself, and confront the magic she’s been avoiding for far too long. And hopefully ride a broom without crashing.

The first LGBTQA+ anthology for middle-graders featuring stories for every letter of the acronym, including realistic, fantasy, and sci-fi stories by authors like Justina Ireland, Marieke Nijkamp, Alex Gino, and more!

A boyband fandom becomes a conduit to coming out. A former bully becomes a first-kiss prospect. One nonbinary kid searches for an inclusive athletic community after quitting gymnastics. Another nonbinary kid, who happens to be a pirate, makes a wish that comes true--but not how they thought it would. A tween girl navigates a crush on her friend's mom. A young witch turns herself into a puppy to win over a new neighbor. A trans girl empowers her online bestie to come out.

From wind-breathing dragons to first crushes, This Is Our Rainbow features story after story of joyful, proud LGBTQA+ representation. You will fall in love with this insightful, poignant anthology of queer fantasy, historical, and contemporary stories from authors including: Eric Bell, Lisa Jenn Bigelow, Ashley Herring Blake, Lisa Bunker, Alex Gino, Justina Ireland, Shing Yin Khor, Katherine Locke, Mariama J. Lockington, Nicole Melleby, Marieke Nijkamp, Claribel A. Ortega, Mark Oshiro, Molly Knox Ostertag, Aisa Salazar, and AJ Sass.

"This a great pick about fierce young ladies coming together through sports. The book has loads of action and plenty of heart." --Booklist, starred review

"Perfect for fans of Victoria Jamieson's Roller Girl, and readers seeking stories about sports-loving girls supporting each other." --School Library Journal, starred review

Kit Rosewater and Sophie Escabasse's The Derby Daredevils: Kenzie Kickstarts a Team is the first novel in a highly illustrated middle-grade series that celebrates new friendships, first crushes, and getting out of your comfort zone.

Ever since they can remember, fifth-graders Kenzie (aka Kenzilla) and Shelly (aka Bomb Shell) have dreamed of becoming roller derby superstars. When Austin's city league introduces a brand-new junior league, the dynamic duo celebrates! But they'll need to try out as a five-person team. Kenzie and Shelly have just one week to convince three other girls that roller derby is the coolest thing on wheels.

But Kenzie starts to have second thoughts when Shelly starts acting like everyone's best friend. . . . Isn't she supposed to be Kenzie's best friend? And things get really awkward when Shelly recruits Kenzie's neighbor (and secret crush!) for the team. With lots of humor and an authentic middle-grade voice, book one of this illustrated series follows Kenzie, Shelly, and the rest of the Derby Daredevils as they learn how to fall--and get back up again.

Also Available:
The Derby Daredevils: Shelly Struggles to Shine
The Derby Daredevils: Tomoko Takes the Lead

The critically acclaimed author of Felix Yz crafts a bold, heartfelt story about a trans girl solving a cyber mystery and coming into her own.

Zenobia July is starting a new life. She used to live in Arizona with her father; now she's in Maine with her aunts. She used to spend most of her time behind a computer screen, improving her impressive coding and hacking skills; now she's coming out of her shell and discovering a community of friends at Monarch Middle School. People used to tell her she was a boy; now she's able to live openly as the girl she always knew she was.

When someone anonymously posts hateful memes on her school's website, Zenobia knows she's the one with the abilities to solve the mystery, all while wrestling with the challenges of a new school, a new family, and coming to grips with presenting her true gender for the first time. Timely and touching, Zenobia July is, at its heart, a story about finding home.

In this funny and hugely heartfelt novel from the Newbery Honor-winning author of Too Bright to See, a sixth-grader's life is turned upside down when she learns her dad is trans

Annabelle Blake fully expects this school year to be the same as every other: same teachers, same classmates, same, same, same. So she’s elated to discover there’s a new kid in town. To Annabelle, Bailey is a breath of fresh air. She loves hearing about their life in Seattle, meeting their loquacious (and kinda corny) parents, and hanging out at their massive house. And it doesn’t hurt that Bailey has a cute smile, nice hands (how can someone even have nice hands?) and smells really good.

Suddenly sixth grade is anything but the same. And when her irascible father shares that he and Bailey have something big--and surprising--in common, Annabelle begins to see herself, and her family, in a whole new light. At the same time she starts to realize that her community, which she always thought of as home, might not be as welcoming as she had thought. Together Annabelle, Bailey, and their families discover how these categories that seem to mean so much—boy, girl, gay, straight, fruit, vegetable—aren’t so clear-cut after all.

Perfect for fans of Tim Federle and Gary Schmidt, this is a hilarious and poignant tale about the trials of middle school when you’re coming of age—and coming out.

Alan Cole can’t stand up to his cruel brother, Nathan. He can’t escape the wrath of his demanding father, who thinks he’s about as exceptional as a goldfish. And—scariest of all—he can’t let the cute boy across the cafeteria know he has a crush on him.

But when Nathan discovers Alan’s secret, his older brother announces a high-stakes round of Cole vs. Cole. Each brother must complete seven nearly impossible tasks; whoever finishes the most wins the game. If Alan doesn’t want to be outed to all of Evergreen Middle School, he’s got to become the most well-known kid in school, get his first kiss, and stand up to Dad. Alan’s determined to prove—to Nathan, to the world, to himself—that this goldfish can learn to swim.

May the best Cole win.

From award-winning actor Maulik Pancholy comes a hilarious and heartfelt middle grade debut about a gay Indian American boy coming into his own. One of Time Out's "LGBTQ+ books for kids to read during Pride Month," this is perfect for fans of Tim Federle's Nate series. A Stonewall Honor Book!

Rahul Kapoor is heading into seventh grade in a small town in Indiana. The start of middle school is making him feel increasingly anxious, so his favorite person in the whole world, his grandfather, Bhai, gives him some well-meaning advice: Find one thing you're really good at and become the BEST at it.

Those four little words sear themselves into Rahul's brain. While he's not quite sure what that special thing is, he is convinced that once he finds it, bullies like Brent Mason will stop torturing him at school. And he won't be worried about staring too long at his classmate Justin Emery. With his best friend, Chelsea, by his side, Rahul is ready to crush this challenge.... But what if he discovers he isn't the best at anything?

Funny, charming, and incredibly touching, this is a story about friendship, family, and the courage it takes to live your truth.

An accessible and beautifully written middle grade novel-in-verse by award-winning Irish author Meg Grehan about Stevie, a young girl reckoning with anxiety about the many things she has yet to understand--including her feelings about her friend Chloe. Perfect for fans of Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World, Star Crossed, and George.

11-year-old Stevie is an avid reader and she knows a lot of things about a lot of things. But these are the things she'd like to know the most:

1. The ocean and all the things that live there and why it's so scary
2. The stars and all the constellations
3. How phones work
4. What happened to Princess Anastasia
5. Knots

Knowing things makes Stevie feel safe, powerful, and in control should anything bad happen. And with the help of her mom, she is finding the tools to manage her anxiety.

But there's one something Stevie doesn't know, one thing she wants to understand above everything else, and one thing she isn't quite ready to share with her mom: the fizzy feeling she gets in her chest when she looks at her friend, Chloe. What does it mean and why isn't she ready to talk about it?

In this poetic exploration of identity and anxiety, Stevie must confront her fears to find inner freedom all while discovering it is our connections with others that make us stronger.

An ALA Rainbow Book List Top 10 Selection * Golden Kite Award Winner * New York Public Library Best Books for Kids * ALA Booklist Top 10 First Novels for Youth * Jane Addams Award finalist * Lambda Literary Award Finalist

A heartfelt debut novel about a boy's attempt to find himself in the history he loves--perfect for fans of Dear Sweet Pea and From the Desk of Zoe Washington.

Amos Abernathy lives for history. Literally. He's been a historical reenactor nearly all his life. But when a cute new volunteer arrives at his Living History Park, Amos finds himself wondering if there's something missing from history: someone like the two of them.

Amos is sure there must have been LGBTQ+ people in nineteenth-century Illinois. His search turns up Albert D. J. Cashier, a Civil War soldier who might have identified as a trans man if he'd lived today. Soon Amos starts confiding in his newfound friend by writing letters in his journal--and hatches a plan to share Albert's story with his divided twenty-first century town. It may be an uphill battle, but it's one that Amos is ready to fight.

Told in an earnest, hilarious voice, this love letter to history, first crushes, and LGBTQ+ community will delight readers of Ashley Herring Blake, Alex Gino, or Maulik Pancholy.

A Newbery Honor Book • Winner of the Stonewall Book Award • A National Book Award Finalist
"A gentle, glowing wonder, full of love and understanding." –The New York Times Book Review

Cover may vary.

It's the summer before middle school and eleven-year-old Bug's best friend Moira has decided the two of them need to use the next few months to prepare. For Moira, this means figuring out the right clothes to wear, learning how to put on makeup, and deciding which boys are cuter in their yearbook photos than in real life. But none of this is all that appealing to Bug, who doesn't particularly want to spend more time trying to understand how to be a girl. Besides, there's something more important to worry about: A ghost is haunting Bug's eerie old house in rural Vermont...and maybe haunting Bug in particular. As Bug begins to untangle the mystery of who this ghost is and what they're trying to say, an altogether different truth comes to light--Bug is transgender.

A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year * An ALA Rainbow Book List Top 10 Title for Young Readers

Three kids who don't belong. A room that shouldn't exist. A year that will change everything.

Perfect for fans of Rebecca Stead and Meg Medina, this debut middle grade novel from award-winning author Mark Oshiro is a hopeful and heartfelt coming-of-age story for anyone who's ever felt like they didn't fit in.

San Francisco and Orangevale may be in the same state, but for Héctor Muñoz, they might as well be a million miles apart. Back home, being gay didn't mean feeling different. At Héctor's new school, he couldn't feel more alone.

Most days, Héctor just wishes he could disappear. And he does. Right into the janitor's closet. (Yes, he sees the irony.) But one day, when the door closes behind him, Héctor discovers he's stumbled into a room that shouldn't be possible. A room that connects him with two new friends from different corners of the country--and opens the door to a life-changing year full of friendship, adventure, and just a little bit of magic.

"Sometimes hilarious, sometimes devastating, but always full of heart, The Insiders carves out a space for us all to be our true selves." --Kwame Mbalia, New York Times bestselling author of Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky

EIGHT STARRED REVIEWS! The reassuring book kids and families need right now.

"An absolute original . . . a story that kids will love." --R. J. Palacio, bestselling author of Wonder

At a time when everything is changing for Bea and her family, the important things will always stay the same. A soon-to-be classic by the Newbery Award-winning author of When You Reach Me.

After her parents' divorce, Bea's life became different in many ways. But she can always look back at the list she keeps in her green notebook to remember the things that will stay the same. The first and most important: Mom and Dad will always love Bea, and each other.

When Dad tells Bea that he and his boyfriend, Jesse, are getting married, Bea is thrilled. Bea loves Jesse, and when he and Dad get married, she'll finally (finally!) have what she's always wanted--a sister. Even though she's never met Jesse's daughter, Sonia, Bea is sure that they'll be "just like sisters anywhere."

As the wedding day approaches, Bea will learn that making a new family brings questions, surprises, and joy, and readers will discover why the New York Times called Rebecca Stead a "writer of great feeling."

"An undeniably beautiful book." --The New York Times

"No author writing today observes young lives with more clarity, tenderness, and grace." --Newbery Medalist Katherine Applegate, author of The One and Only Ivan

"Stead truly understands the inner life of kids." --Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly, author of Hello, Universe and You Go First

Warm and hopeful, this is a touching and honest depiction of a family changing together-and staying together.

"I wonder what people would think if they could take the front off our house like a doll's house and watch us. All in the same house, but everyone separate. No one talking, but everyone thinking the same thing. Will we ever be a normal family again?"

Izzy's family is under the spotlight when her dad comes out as Danielle, a trans woman. Izzy is terrified her family will be torn apart. Will she lose her dad? Will her parents break up? And what will people at school say? Now all eyes are on Izzy. Can she face her fears, find her voice, and stand up for her family and what's right?

As we've just seen, it's only a matter of timeand not that long a timebefore the United States elects its first female president. Which will make her husbandwhat? Well, if he's the ex-cop who solved the murder of the president's first husband and brought the killers to justice]]and if he's not the kind of guy to stand on formality]]and if he doesn't want to be the head of the FBI]]and if he takes out a license and becomes the first private eye to live in the White House]] That would make him The President's Henchman. Jim McGill's first case is to find out who is stalking a member of the White House press corps, before that stalker turns the tables on McGill and maybe even threatens the president herself. He also has to be a shadow adviser to a young Air Force investigator who is looking into a he-said-she-said charge of adultery leveled against a female colonel working at the Pentagon, a case with the potential to derail the new president's administration before it has a chanc

As President Patricia Grant nears the end of her second term, three big questions hang heavy in the air: Who will succeed her as the next president: her vice president, Jean Morrissey, or Senate Majority Leader Oren Worth? After a Navy warship shoots down two Chinese fighter jets, how far will hostilities with China go? And, of the utmost personal importance to Patti Grant, will her husband and henchman, Jim McGill, live to see the end of her presidency?

McGill is targeted by a cluster of killers known as los muertos, working under the direction of an enigmatic contract assassin called Taps. So McGill summons his colleagues -- the private detectives who will staff his newly expanded firm, McGill Investigations International -- to help keep him alive and kicking.

They're soon put to the test when an ambush and ensuing fire-fight shatter the peace of the posh Washington neighborhood of Georgetown. Undeterred, McGill and his colleagues continue the hunt, leading to a climax that leaves McGill fighting tooth-and-nail for his life.

Once in a lifetime, a man may find himself in a desperate battle for everything he holds dear. But in this powerful, explosive, utterly unforgettable new thriller, that all-out war has come twice for John Fortunato. Once for his country--and now to save his hometown and the woman he loves.

Twenty-five years ago John Fortunato was a soldier in Vietnam, fighting in the crushing darkness of the tunnels of Cu Chi, from which the Vietcong launched their deadliest operations. When he got back to his hometown of Elk River, Illinois, he secretly re-created those hellish tunnels. Partly a memorial, partly a kind of exorcism, they now lie hidden beneath the town's peaceful streets. John traded his M-16 rifle for a Nikon camera and built a career as a successful photographer. He thought he had put the war and the bloodshed behind him, but a powerful new enemy has other plans for John Fortunato.

On a quiet April night, Fortunato witnesses the brutal sidewalk shooting of an innocent man. The vicious crime is but the first assault in a struggle that will erupt into a full-scale battle for control of Elk River, a struggle that will divide neighbors and tear families apart.

On one side is a tough, beautiful labor lawyer; on the other is a man who will stop at nothing to control the entire town. And on the front line is John Fortunato, whose secret tunnels will provide the battleground for his own war, a war that revives the killing grounds of Cu Chi in a way he could never have imagined. But as everyone is about to learn, when this veteran warrior goes down, he's just begun to fight.

From the terrible intimacy of tunnel combat below the steaming jungles of Vietnam, to the brutal battles on the streets of the American heartland, to the unyielding courage of a man and woman prepared to sacrifice everything to make a dream come true, Digger is a harrowing, powerfully written novel that breaks all the rules.

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once. Albert Einstein. Time spent with cats is never wasted. Sigmund Freud In this, the second book in the series, Saga of Wolf, our heroine, Catalina Bast, attempts to get her start as a private investigator in the surly streets of Chicago. Only two things stand in her way, one Romulus MacBain, and the whims of time. Time . . . Romulus-determined to be at her side no matter what-follows her into the unknown. Guided by the cryptic advice of an old, homeless soothsayer with a food-stained, greasy map, our travelers set off. Time becomes key, but time is fickle. Time waits for no man-or does it? When the adventure ends, Catalina must come to terms with the truth behind her strange connection with Romulus-and the unfolding mystery of their two families' shared ancient history. Time is running out, and lives are at stake. The old soothsayer, Sylvia, does not find the same stability in time as most people. She is not bound by its rules. As she sees the past, the present, and the future coming together as one, she knows it is the time of the witches. With a call through the ages, she brings them into Catalina's new reality. The truth must out, but as James Joyce once wrote, "Time is, time was, but time shall be no more." Time is running out.

Catalina Bast, a bright young woman with special gifts, has a chance meeting with a loup-garu that forever changes her life. Sensing the man within the wolf, she helps him escape trouble; only to find a link to him neither can explain. Romulus MacBain, a mysterious man with a dark history, is a member of a clan of hereditary werewolves, a species of people who have lived in reclusive obscurity for hundreds of years. As he parts ways with Cat, he feels as if he is letting go of something vital. It isn't until years later, when a young female member of his family goes missing, that Rom chances to meet her again. Now a Chicago policewoman, Cat is on the same trail, searching for a criminal known to traffic in human flesh. She helps to save Rom's little cousin. In return, he saves Cat'slife. When she is near death from a gunshot wound, he sets himself as her personal bodyguard, vowing to protect her from the criminal who would see her dead. This, the first book in the series, Saga of the Wolf, To Thine Own Self be True, takes you on a wild ride of adventure, terror, and the exploration of long-hidden secrets in the lives of Catalina Bast and Romulus MacBain.

Written from a black man's point of view, this human drama encompasses the paradoxes of being a soldier in war and a civilian returned to society. A hard-working, God-fearing 25-year-old when he left his home to fight in Vietnam, Johnny Douglas said goodbye to his mother and wife and promised he would return -- alive and well -- in a year. But 13 months in the jungles of Vietnam took a toll, and in a world of kill-or-be-killed, nothing could have prepared Johnny for the brutality he faced. Upon his return to the United States, his family soon recognizes that wartime survival comes at a price as the once-clear distinction between the streets of home and the jungles of Vietnam become blurred and war rages inside Johnny's head.

Charlie Birger's legend might have begun the day the sheriff allowed him to keep his Tommy gun in the jail cell with him. Or it might have begun the year he teamed up with the notorious Shelton Gang to fight a bloody war against Glenn Young and his 3,000 Ku Klux Klan members.Others might say it was how he lived his life, or, more importantly, how he ultimately died. No matter the reasons for Charlie's fame, everyone agrees he left behind a trail of gruesome corpses. This novel is based on the incredible true story of the Shelton and Birger Gangs who built bootlegging empires that rivaled anything found in Al Capone's Chicago during the prohibition years of the 1920s.

Who we are is not always who we must be to survive.
In 1898, Big Henry Stevens leads hundreds of African-American coal miners and their families from Alabama to Illinois. When they arrive, the miners learn the mine owners lied to them. Instead of good pay for honest work, they were strikebreakers crossing picket lines. With no money and nowhere to go, they were stuck.
Meanwhile, the fledgling United Mine Workers of America was prepared to do whatever was necessary to stop the unsuspecting miners--including murder.
Sundown Town is based on the true story of the resultant war between these two groups who simply wanted what they felt best for their families and friends.

SIXTEEN TONS carries you down into the dark, dirty and dangerous coal mines of the early 1900s, as Italian immigrant Antonio Vacca and his sons encounter cave-ins and fires deep below the earth's surface. The dangers above ground are equally deadly, as the men and women battle gun thugs, corrupt sheriffs and crooked politicians at Virden, Matewan and Ludlow in an epic struggle to form a union and make the mines a safer place to work. Historian Kevin Corley has fashioned a unique novel by interviewing retired miners, their wives and children across the country throughout Illinois. He has used these oral histories to fashion an honest, accurate portrait of life among the coal mining families. You will be moved by the dramatic events in the novel, which are all the more moving and inspiring, given their foundation among real individuals who walked through history. -- back cover.

Coal mine wars. That's what they called the long, bloody conflict between rival unions that tore apart families and communities throughout Illinois during the 1930s. Hot-headed Vinnie Vacca sides with the newly-formed Progressive Miners of America. His stubborn brother Bullo fights for the established United Mine Workers while the coal mine bosses hire Chicago gun thugs from the Capone mob to spread death and fear across the landscape. Vinnie and Bullo's father Antonio struggles to make peace within the family--and the community--as the unending bombings and gunfights kill too many too young. This bloody story is based on actual events that occurred throughout Illinois from 1933 to 1937.

A stunning sequel to Corley's acclaimed debut novel Sixteen Tons.

As if the summer of 1950 was not hot enough in Illinois, public temperament became feverish as the result of several murders that everyone suspected were linked to thriving, but illegal, gambling in the state. As the weeks unfolded, stakes soared for the folks who loved to roll the dice, the gangsters and a politically ambitious governor. Jake Brosky, the crack investigative reporter for the St. Louis World and an old hand in dealing with trouble in Illinois, was confident he could sort things out. Answers appeared easy enough at first, but Brosky started to suspicion there was more to the violence than met the eye. In order to get to the bottom of things, the crafty veteran discovered he needed to employ ever y reportorial trick in his book, and then some. Brosky had been on the trail of many scandals, but was never involved in a chase with a more surprising conclusion.

Jake Brosky, star investigative reporter, is on the hunt for a fugitive Nazi criminal who has found a safe haven in Illinois.

"Jake Brosky returns to center stage in his pursuit of the elusive Clarissa Monnet, a still beautiful but fading movie queen who has written a tell-all manuscript with dynamite revelations. Suppression of the manuscript heads a wish list of both powerful Illinoisans and the most infamous organized crimes figures in America in the 1950s. If things go far enough, the sanctity of Governor Elijah Sanderson's campaign for president faces a serious threat. Tracking Monnet takes Brosky to Hollywood and back as he resurrects her improbably life. A body floating in the Mississippi River, a high school yearbook, shameful past history and a return to Jake's life of sultry Sloan Dillard all are pieces of a puzzle tied to Clarissa. Brosky, the ace investigative reporter for the St. Louis World, had better get around the twists and turns and detours confronting him in the chase for Monnet. Nothing less than the fate of the former screen siren hangs in the balance."--from back cover.

A fiction novel about a governor's race in Illinois and the newspaper reporter who exposes criminal behavior at the highest level. Hard-charging Jake Brosky has made a living off his investigative reporting in the Prairie State. But, he's never encountered wholesale wrongdoing on the scale of the current governor's schemes. And to think, the powerful honcho is in the midst of a nationally watched campaign for reelection. His opponent is a folksy candidate from the lower part of the state, a homespun David tackling a political Goliath.Politicos fall like dominoes as Brosky brings one flagrant abuse of the public trust after another to the front pages of the St. Louis World. Along the way, the story line is peppered with an intriguing cast that includes a whistle blower calling himself the Badger, one of Jake's own favorite stool pigeons, a seductive gal filling a coveted governmental internship, crime lords in America and Marseilles and even a devious Spanish treasure hunter. And there's no forgetting a woman harboring a devastating secret while running a gift shop along historic Route 66.Surprise endings are a forte of Brosky's dogged pursuits. Before the climax this time around, Jake gains unprecedented insight into the cunning machinations taking a big state government off the track.This is the fourth in a popular series of novels featuring the character Jake Brosky.

The restless and often painful years of early manhood are the novelist's major concern in a study of two boys in a Middle Western college.

"The next chapter in the tale of Bree Aniston takes the impeccable fighting machine back into the underground world of MMA with a new plan: Fight Me -- luring "keyboard warriors" into the ring to prove they are as badass as they claim to be. Bree remains in the shadows of this project, but when a brass media figure sends a violent abuser her way, Breeze must don the mask once again to battle society's worst element ... and hopefully make it out alive."--from back of book.

A young couple, Barrett and Melanie Tucker are trapped inside a haunted house full of monsters and evil masterminds. The young couple try to escape with help from an unlikely friend.

In 1930, a group of kids made a deadly discovery which developed into a secret that would lie dormant for nearly 90 years. A century-old terror is growing. The monster is ready to be unleashed......and it's hungry.

How does a girl go from being an innocent five-year-old to the most dangerous fighter the UFC never saw? Meet Bree Aniston, the central character of PUMMELED, an action-drama that chronicles two decades in the tumultuous life of a girl forced to discover the limits of her strengths, both physically and mentally.Following the sudden death of her father, Bree is forced to grow up as her grief-stricken mother plunges into a world of alcoholism and domestic abuse with multiple men. When Bree is introduced to the world of mixed martial arts, she not only finds intrigue in the sport but discovers her own exceptional talents as a fighter. Dominating school fights with bullies leads to professional fight training, which eventually leads to the promise of Olympic glory. Soon, the outlet for her anger and appetite to fight guides Bree to the dangerous underground scene where she must mask her identity if she is to stay on course. Unfortunately, she discovers the mammoth challenge of forcing her troubled past to finally tap out.

"Despite being the most hunted fugitive in the galaxy, Zoe Fenning manages to create chaos for Elliot and the New Terran Empire before disappearing with a convoy of Rigellians and Progenitors to settle a new world"--Amazon.

The second volume of the epic New Terrans series!

After the events in Aurora Ascending, peace settled in the Orion Arm. But when ships sent to explore the Eagle Nebula in the Sagittarius Arm disappear, Elliot Greyjoy and his team uncover a deadly threat: automated defensive drones with the power to destroy entire fleets. Worse still, the AI controlling the drones has determined that humanity must be extinguished.

Elliot has been chosen to lead the combined forces of the Aetherian Empire, Canopan Empire, Rigellian Alliance, and unaligned planets against the new threat. These spherical drones, armed with powerful free electron lasers, have destroyed every ship sent to investigate their stronghold in the Eagle Nebula of the Sagittarius Arm. When they begin to construct an extermination fleet to wipe out humanity, the stakes couldn't be higher.

As Elliot and his allies prepare for a suicidal assault on the Sagittaron stronghold, one of their own goes rogue. Hailey Link, a humaniform android created using Aetherian and Canopan technology, steals a captured Sagittaron sphere and takes off on a seemingly suicidal mission. With the fate of the Orion arm resting on Elliot's shoulders and the odds stacked against them, can they overcome the Sagittaron threat before it's too late? And what is Hailey's true objective, and can she be trusted to save them all?

Meanwhile, Prince Consort Lys Calt and Willa Greyjoy must navigate the complex politics of their respective empires, while Admiral MacDougan and young Syn Calt, heir to the Canopan throne, work to develop new technologies and strategies to aid the fight. In this thrilling space opera sequel to Aurora Ascending, the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

"Follow Elliot's adventures as he challenges the invincible fleet surrounding Aether. Vowing to destroy the Aetherian Emperor who shattered his homeworld, Elliot is joined by a beautiful telepath, a smartass computer, and an elite team of Terran military forces"--Amazon.

Lothar Face uses laboratory enhanced diseases to begin a gigantic depopulation of the world to follow his computer's model of an idyllic world environment. There is a massive sea and air battle over the Caribbean Sea. Williams is heroic and successful in a prototype jet, before the enemy downs him, and sends him towards certain death. But the powerful good witches are always there to protect him and all of us, as they also resist the powers of evil. The Medici and Pazzi witch families have been adversaries for centuries. Over four hundred years have passed since the Medici's conquered their enemies, and killed or put into exile their foes. Somehow, and some way, Cetta Pazzi escaped from her bewitched prison, and is set on revenge. The final sequence of events involving men and witches begins in the Galapagos where the countdown is underway. We hope they get there on time.

Witchcraft, murder, and revenge come together in this heart-pounding novel. "The River Witches" tells the tale of three witches from the Italian Medici family who come to America by ship in the early nineteenth century. Witches, of course, can live to be over a thousand years old. In this book, the vessel transporting them to New Orleans is captured by the pirate, Jean Lafitte. He falls in love with one of the witches, Anna. But this is just the beginning of a chilling and dangerous journey filled with revenge, mystery, and death...

After Jean falls in love with Anna, a crew member is enraged, and swears vengeance. Anna and Jean wed, and their son marries the third witch, Avery. Now, with tension rising, the witches find themselves deeply involved with mere mortal men. Murder and mayhem follow. A quest is begun. Now, over two hundred years later, the witches face their biggest challenge, and greatest peril. Prepare yourselves for a fascination exploration of witchcraft and humanity as the road leads to thrill, crime, anger, and fatal fates. As the witches are positioned to pursue their centuries old quest, their impact is both subliminal and terrifying. A novel unlike any other, "The River Witches" is sure to grab hold of you, and never quite let go.

When a sheriff's deputy is brutally murdered, fellow deputy Margaret Donovan his lover questions every choice she has made as her life spins out of control. Struggling to find meaning amidst chaos, she returns to the faith in which she was raised. A friendship with a local nun motivates Margaret to hand in her badge and gun and devote her life to the convent.

Poised to make her final profession and take the veil, Margaret learns of the murder of two students. Her former boss asks her to help him to solve the killings. Margaret soon links the recent murders and a thirty-year-old cold-case slaying of another Saint Dominic's student. She also realizes the first murder is entangled in a cover-up designed to protect some influential people.

Working to identify the killer, her burdens escalate. Another child is on the killer's hit list, and she finds the detective with whom she's working, Bill Templeton, falling in love with her. Realizing she makes bad choices more often then she would like, Margaret desperately attempts to solve the murders and reconcile her spiritual and secular lives. Only God knows where it will all end, but Margaret's faith and ultimately her love will lead her to the truth.

Me Inside is a-true-to-life story with a broad appeal. It's a family drama, speckled with just a touch of romance/coming out (but not angst-y) of mystery/intrigue.

It begins when Jeannie Baker's mother abandons her at a very young age, which turns out to be the best thing that ever happened to her. She's left alone with a father who provides a good childhood for her, with all the things she needs, from blue jeans that fit, to a hot breakfast, and to the steady and dependable life she's never had. Then when Jeannie is fifteen years old, a high school basketball star, with good friends and a happy future, her father is murdered...

Recommendations:
"Since her initial give to us of Nine Nights on the Windy Tree, twenty years ago, Martha Miller's wise presence on the literary scene has been all too rare. Me Inside marks a most welcome return in a story that will be especially embraced by today's LGBTQ generation."--Katherine Forrest, author of Curious Wine and the Kate Delafield mystery series.

County Judge Bertha Brannon’s life blows up when her partner of twelve years, police sergeant Toni Matulis, the love of her life, is killed during a domestic violence call gone bad. Bertha is still trying to accept what’s happened when she gets the first of several threatening phone calls. This is followed by one dangerous incident after the next, one dead body after the last. The police are no help, so Bertha starts her own investigation and learns that Toni was working on a case that no one wanted her to solve, a case of corruption that goes all the way to the top.
 

What do you do when you fall through the loopholes in the system and all you have to rely on are your own wits?

Lois and Sophie have scrambled and saved for years, planning for their retirement in Florida. But now they've lost it all, and Lois's sniper training from her long-ago service as an Army nurse leads to a desperate career choice.

When Detective Morgan Holiday is assigned to investigate a spate of sniper killings, it's just one more stress point in her already overburdened life. But as she grows increasingly solitary--coping with an Alzheimer's-plagued mother who refuses to be confined to a nursing home, and a police partner counting the days to retirement--she comes to realize that these murders may cut close to home.

A modern morality tale of justice, retribution, and women who refuse to be politely invisible.