Check in to The Good Germ Hotel to learn about all the good germs and bacteria superheroes that live inside the human body. These amazing microbes fight viruses, digest food, and keep us healthy and happy. Did you know that your body is full of bacteria? And that most of it is good bacteria that helps to keep you healthy? Well, now is your chance to get up close and personal with the microorganisms that live inside all of us. Travel through the body with our gut bacteria guide, stopping off to meet the other amazing microbe residents along the way.
A book about good germs, what great timing! This is the perfect blend of factual information for kids and interesting pictures to keep them captivated. Whether you are raising a young citizen scientist or have a kid with a cold who doesn't understand that antibiotics won't help, this is a great read. Bonus points for including "gross" things people love like farts, smelly feet, and poop. -Frannie
This is the real-life story of Jeremy, a rare garden snail found in 2015 by a retired London scientist. Jeremy's shell spiraled to the left, indicating reversed internal anatomy--including a heart positioned on the right. As a result, a similarly rare mate was needed in order to procreate.
I've been waiting for the prolific blogger of Brain Pickings, Maria Popova to finally write a book and it's as delightful, observant, dry and fascinating as she is. This is a children's book but should be enjoyed by all ages. If you like this, check out You are Stardust by Elin Kelsey (a book Popova once recommended on her blog!). -Victoria
"Nima doesn't feel understood. By her mother, who grew up far away in a different land. By her suburban town, which makes her feel too much like an outsider to fit in and not enough like an outsider to feel like that she belongs somewhere else. At least she has her childhood friend Haitham, with whom she can let her guard down and be herself. Until she doesn't. As the ground is pulled out from under her, Nima must grapple with the phantom of a life not chosen, the name her parents didn't give her at birth: Yasmeen. But that other name, that other girl, might just be more real than Nima knows. And more hungry. And the life Nima has, the one she keeps wishing were someone else's...she might have to fight for it with a fierceness she never knew she had."--
I absolutely loved the brutal honesty, the language and slight mysticism of this book. The author tackles the Islamophobia of a post 9/11 world in a delicately poetic and human way. This is a great read into the lives of those forced to flee their motherland for hopes of better opportunities only to find the grass is often anything but greener on the other side. -Victoria
Grub is a lonely raccoon rumbling in the trash for food. Seed is a seed patiently waiting in the trash, hoping someone will plant it. When the two finally meet, they realize they might be able to help each other! Grub wonders what Seed will grow, and is hoping it's Grub's favorite food, mouthwatering cheeseburgers.
This one caught my eye because of the glowing seed on the cover, and did not disappoint! Come for the protagonist of a racoon obsessed with delicious garbage, stay for the story of friendship and the lesson of patience when gardening. You will be rewarded with a Cheeseburger sunrise. -Frannie
"Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and listening to her nursemaid's stories of gods and heroes. But beneath her golden palace echo the ever-present hoofbeats of her brother, the Minotaur, a monster who demands blood sacrifice every year. When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives to vanquish the beast, Ariadne sees in his green eyes not a threat but an escape. Defying the gods, betraying her family and country, and risking everything for love, Ariadne helps Theseus kill the Minotaur. But will Ariadne's decision ensure her happy ending? And what of Phaedra, the beloved younger sister she leaves behind? Hypnotic, propulsive, and utterly transporting, Jennifer Saint's Ariadne forges a new epic, outside the traditional narratives of heroism and glory that leave no room for women"--
Calling all fans of Circe and A Thousand Ships! Ariadne is another novel rooted in Greek mythology, told from the female perspective. It opens up the untold narrative of Ariadne, Princess of Crete, beginning with her role in the story of the Minotaur. Engaging tale, complex characters, all the things I like! -Becky
"All the signs of autumn including leaves turning colors, animals preparing for the winter or migrating, the harvesting of fall produce, cooler weather, and shorter days are noted in this photo-essay about the season"--
Leif is a leaf. A worried leaf. It is autumn, and Leif is afraid to fall. "All leaves fall in the fall," say the other leaves. But Leif is determined to find a different way down, and with his friend Laurel, he uses the resources around him to create a net, a kite, a parachute in hopes of softening his landing. The clock is ticking, the wind is blowing. What will happen when a gust of wind pulls Leif from his branch?
Cooper is excited to help his grandmother by delivering honey at the annual Great Giving Festival, but one jar after another is ruined when he takes time to help his friends.
As autumn nears, flowers fade and insects become quiet, and Tiny Bird leaves his northern home for the long and perilous journey to lush southern forests. Includes facts about hummingbirds.
If your child is a bird-watcher, here's a wonderful book to spark their interest in hummingbirds. -Karen
Squirrel enjoys looking at the beautiful, colorful leaves, but everyday more and more disappear which makes him think someone is stealing them. Includes information on seasonal leaf loss in Autumn.
"A little girl is always missing out on the wonderful things her family gets to see and do, just because she is the youngest and littlest. She misses seeing shooting stars because she goes to bed too early; she can't pick the first apple of autumn because she's too short and, this morning, everyone else got to see a deer . . . except her. She goes into her backyard in search of the deer, a sugar cube tucked in her pocket. She sees a flick of brown in the orchard - is that the deer? No, it's just the neighbor's friendly dog (Shhhhh, Nala!). Is that it by the pond? No, that's just a bird, playing in the water. Just when she's about to give up, she spots a fawn, beautiful, quiet and small . . . just like her. For a tranquil and sublime moment, they look at each other, saying hello with their eyes. Then the fawn returns to its mother, and the little girl to hers. The Secret Fawn beautifully captures the power of nature to inspire children and shows how private experiences and connecting with nature can help kids cope with feeling left out."--
Fall is here! Lily and Milo go exploring in the woods. They see a hedgehog, nuts, apples, mushrooms, and lots of colored leaves. The woods are so pretty in fall! Milo wants to take everything home.
These are really cute simple and colorful books perfect for babies and toddlers. -Karen
At Niveus Private Academy, Devon and Chiamaka are the only students chosen to be Senior Prefects who are also black, which makes them targets for a series of anonymous texts revealing their secrets to the entire student body. Both students were on track toward valedictorian and bright college futures, but this prank quickly turns into a very dangerous game and they are at more than one disadvantage as it looks like things could turn deadly.
This is a fantastic page-turner with a delectable plot, well-developed characters and an overall killer debut! Fans of One of Us is Lying, Get Out and Gossip Girl will delight in this read. -Victoria
Present-day Miami. Jeanette is battling addiction. Daughter of Carmen, a Cuban immigrant, she is determined to learn more about her family history from her reticent mother and makes the snap decision to take in the daughter of a neighbor detained by ICE. Carmen, still wrestling with the trauma of displacement, must process her difficult relationship with her own mother while trying to raise a wayward Jeanette. Steadfast in her quest for understanding, Jeanette travels to Cuba to see her grandmother and reckon with secrets from the past destined to erupt. -- adapted from jacket
I really enjoy novels that contain intricately interwoven stories. Gabriela Garcia's "Of Women and Salt" is a generational saga set in early 19th Century Cuba to present day Miami. And it is anything but straightforward. Garcia jumps through time from character to character and back again. If you pay attention, you find the anchors. Objects, words, fears, and feelings transcend the barriers of time and place. It is a lovely book. -Anne M
"On the heels of a difficult break-up and a devastating diagnosis, Shakespearian scholar Lizzie Delford decides to take one last lavish vacation on Elba, the sun-kissed island off the Italian coast, with her best friend and his movie-star boyfriend. Once settled into a luxurious seaside resort, Lizzie has to make big decisions about her future, and she needs the one thing she may be running out of: time. She leaves the yacht-owners and celebrities behind and sneaks off to the public beach, where she meets a sardonic chef named Dante, his battered dog Lily, and his wry daughter Etta, a twelve-year-old desperate for a mother. While Dante shows Lizzie the island's secrets, and Etta dazzles with her irreverent humor, Lizzie is confronted with a dilemma. Is it right to fall in love if time is short? Is it better to find a mother briefly, or to have no mother at all? And the most difficult question of all: What if falling in love inevitably leads to broken hearts?"--
To wrap up my summer reading, I wanted an easy, breezy, escapist read. "Lizzie and Dante" seemed like a good candidate. The setting: Elba. The plot: vacation romance. The author: Mary Bly (bestselling romance writer with the nom de plume Eloisa James). But this book surprised me. This is a serious read about serious topics. Yes, there is love. Yes, there is a beach. But there is also heartache, fear, and uncertainty. This book is about finding happiness when you are given a time-limit on life. If you are looking for a deeply moving and complex contemporary romance, I recommend "Lizzie and Dante." Just be warned: you will need tissues. -Anne M
On a perfect July morning Elle, a fifty-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at "The Paper Palace"-- the family summer place which she has visited every summer of her life. This morning is different: last night Elle and her oldest friend Jonas crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex with each other for the first time, all while their spouses chatted away inside. Over the next 24 hours Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn't forever changed the course of their lives. -- adapted from jacket
From the very first line, I was hooked. I felt like I was on the Cape, walking in the woods, taking a swim in the pond. Heartbreaking and heartwarming, all at the same time. It was exactly the right book at exactly the right time. -Angie
Of all the things humans rely on plants for-- sustenance, beauty, fragrance, flavor, fiber-- surely the most curious is our use of them is to change consciousness: to stimulate or calm, fiddle with or completely alter, the qualities of our mental experience. Pollan dives deep into three plant drugs-- opium, caffeine, and mescaline-- and explores the cultures that have grown up around these drugs. He examines the powerful human attraction to psychoactive plants, and the equally powerful taboos with which we surround them. The result is a unique blend of history, science, memoir-- and participatory journalism. -- adapted from jacket
Absolutely fascinating read on the relationships and complications of how humans have defined, legitimized, legalized or criminalized our interactions with plants. For centuries we have relied on plants for, among other things their sustenance and nourishment. We've used them ceremoniously and of course for their mind-altering properties. In this book Pollan highlights the narrow lens and dogma of "The War on Drugs," and instead presents a more open discussion of the layered properties of plants (opium, caffeine, and mescaline) and their potential. -Victoria
A collection of riddles encourages readers to guess the names of different yoga poses inspired by animals who live in the garden, and illustrates how to replicate each pose.
2020: A ruthless pandemic, an inept and malign government response, polarizing protests, and an election marred by conspiracy theories left many citizens in despair about their country and its democratic experiment. Packer explores four narratives that now dominate American life: Free America, which imagines a nation of separate individuals and serves the interests of corporations and the wealthy; Smart America, the world view of Silicon Valley and the professional elite; Real America, the white Christian nationalism of the heartland; and Just America, which sees citizens as members of identity groups that inflict or suffer oppression. He shows that none of these narratives can sustain a democracy: we must look for a common American identity and find it in the passion for equality that Americans of diverse persuasions have held for centuries. -- adapted from jacket
If you are looking to understand the different narratives that currently make up American discourse, George Packer's "Last Best Hope" is a good primer. Although Packer boils things down to four different groups, generalizing many things, his overall point is that current divisions will not sustain our country and discusses ways to find a way forward. A short, compelling read. -Anne M
While other children's parents are veterinarians, gardeners, and builders, one father is able to become a dog, a tree, and a bridge using various yoga poses.
Everything in Rex's valley is rough and tough until Yogasaurus moves in, and although Rex insists dinosaurs do not do yoga his friends slowly drift toward the newcomer to try.
Ok, this is a winning combination with a great message. Be kind, regardless. You will have fun together doing the Tyrannosaurus, S-T-R-E-T-C-H! -Karen
In this twist on the classic fairy tale, a wolf who lost his huff and puff consults with three yogis to help him find his breath. "Once upon a time there lived a wolf who lost his huff and his puff. It was a BIG, BAD problem! One morning, the wolf came upon a peaceful little yogi doing sun salutations. The wolf wanted to huff and puff and blooow her hut down into a big pile of straw. But instead the yogi suggested, "Let's meditate on that!" Soon the wolf met a second yogi, and then a third. He may have lost his huff and puff -- but with the help of three new yogi friends, can the wolf find his breath?" --
I love this spin on this classic fairy tale. There are lots of calming breathing exercises. -Karen
The High Republic continues, and, honestly, these books have no right being this good. They make my heart swell with their hope and purity, but the ending of this one is BRUTAL. It makes the wait for the next installment all the more difficult. -Brian
"A god will return when the earth and sky converge under the black sun in the holy city of Tova... The winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial event proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world. Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around her as easily as it can warp a man's mind. Her ship carries one passenger. Described as harmless, the passenger, Serapio, is a young man, blind, scarred, and cloaked in destiny. As Xiala well knows, when a man is described as harmless, he usually ends up being a villain. Crafted with unforgettable characters, Rebecca Roanhorse has created an epic adventure exploring the decadence of power amidst the weight of history and the struggle of individuals swimming against the confines of society and their broken pasts in the most original series debut of the decade"--Provided by publisher.
This is an easy one to recommend to lovers of epic fantasy. The worst thing that I can say about it is that it ends abruptly, and now I have to wait for the sequel! -Brian
Mike Mignola, 2008. Presents the complete adventures of the demon-turned-paranormal-investigator, Hellboy, beginning with his attempts to discover his own origins.
The Hellboy Library Editions are a comprehensive collection of the main Hellboy stories. The artwork is amazing and Hellboy is one of the most interesting "super heroes." -Mykle
Descended from a long line of adventurers and monster hunters, a gentle pig who prefers poetry writing to catching dangerous creatures reluctantly sets out on his first assignment, to hunt a dangerous vampire.
More than forty years after a car accident causes Jennifer Stirling to lose her memory on the day she planned to leave her husband for a mysterious lover, journalist Ellie becomes obsessed by the story and seeks the truth in the hopes of revitalizing her career.
Netflix recently released this book as a film adaptation. As in most cases, the book was far better than the movie! Read it first before you watch! -Angie
I couldn't put this book down! A very thorough and accessible to all ages account of the incredible cave rescue that the whole world was captivated by. I learned a lot more about how incredibly precarious the situation was, and how truly amazing the efforts of the global rescue team of military personnel, engineers, medics, cave divers, and other volunteers were...Not to mention thirteen children with incredible resiliency and perseverance to survive through so many days of complete darkness, with no food or clean water. -Mari
"In this impressive anthology, Natalie Baszile brings together essays, poems, photographs, quotes, conversations, and first-person stories to examine black people's connection to the American land from Emancipation to today. In the 1920s, there were over one million black farmers; today there are just 45,000. Baszile explores this crisis, through the farmers' personal experiences. In their own words, middle aged and elderly black farmers explain why they continue to farm despite systemic discrimination and land loss. The Returning Generation--young farmers, who are building upon the legacy of their ancestors, talk about the challenges they face as they seek to redress issues of food justice, food sovereignty, and reparations."--
An absolutely fascinating exploration of African American connection to land past, present and future. I loved the acknowledgment of historical truths and hopes for restorative futures in this series of essays, poems and photography. -Victoria
Illustrations and easy-to-read, rhyming text celebrate bodies of all shapes, sizes, ages, and colors, with different kinds of hair, eyes, spots, scars, and more.
Bodies Are Cool! Unashamedly all bodies positive and I am definitely here for it. -Casey
A book about good germs, what great timing! This is the perfect blend of factual information for kids and interesting pictures to keep them captivated. Whether you are raising a young citizen scientist or have a kid with a cold who doesn't understand that antibiotics won't help, this is a great read. Bonus points for including "gross" things people love like farts, smelly feet, and poop. -Frannie