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Hard-Boiled Bugs for Breakfast and Other Tasty Poems
Jack Prelutsky, illus. by Ruth Chan. Greenwillow, $18.99 (144p) ISBN 978-0-06301-913-3
U.S. children’s poet laureate emeritus Prelutsky delivers his signature silliness and wordplay in this collection of 100 poems marked by the strong kid appeal and energetic pace that makes the prolific poet’s work immediately recognizable. Prelutsky is reliably playful, whether he’s describing disgusting food choices, as in the title poem (“Hard boiled bugs are tastier/ than spiders, flies, or slugs”); expressing schoolchildren’s universal wish (skipping school) in “I’ve Got a Cold,” which calls to mind Shel Silverstein’s “Sick”; or making up creatures such as “The Bumblebeet” (which “surely is not good to eat”). He occasionally interrupts the goofiness with a gentler poem, such as the cleverly rhymed “The Leaves Are Drifting” and “We Are the Oceans,” which provides a rare serious note, paying homage to the interconnectedness of Earth’s denizens. With their rhythmic meter, easy rhymes, and offbeat punch lines, these are poems that beg to be memorized. Lively black-and-white drawings (one for a poem entitled “My Nose” depicts a foot in place of the orifice) by Chan (The Great Indoors) are perfectly in pitch with the droll verse. Ages 8–up. (Jan.)■
Nicky & Vera: A Quiet Hero of the Holocaust and the Children He Rescued
Peter Sís. Norton Young Readers, $19.95 (64p) ISBN 978-1-324-01574-1
Though Nicholas Winton saved hundreds of children during the Holocaust, his heroism didn’t come to light until 1988, when his wife found records of the train journeys he had arranged to carry Czech children from Prague to London. In this quiet, deeply considered picture book biography, Caldecott Honoree Sís weaves Winton’s story together with that of Vera Gissing, one of the children he saved, conveying the hard truths of the Holocaust in language that younger readers can take in. In spreads of pale blue, Sís portrays Winton’s arrival in Prague and his realization that he could help children escape: “England would allow refugees under seventeen to come—if families could be found to take care of them.” The young stockbroker works feverishly to arrange placements and train tickets. Meanwhile, Gissing’s country childhood is recreated with folk-style maps, small cutaways, and dreamlike images; in one spread, her parents hover in mid-air, like figures in a Chagall painting. Winton’s humility is the thread that runs through the story—“I did not face any danger... I only saw what needed to be done,” he said—and the account of Gissing’s life illuminates what was at stake. An author’s note includes further details. Ages 6–8. (Jan.)
Kate’s Light: Kate Walker at Robbins Reef Lighthouse
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Elizabeth Spires, illus. by Emily Arnold McCully. Holiday House/Ferguson, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-8234-4348-2
Kate Walker took charge of Robbins Reef Lighthouse in the Port of New York when her husband died, toiling ceaselessly to give ships safe passage while raising her children and rowing to Staten Island for supplies. A German immigrant to the U.S. with a son, she married lighthouse keeper John Walker, who worked on the mainland until he took the post at isolated Robbins Reef. His wife balked: “Those first few weeks, Kate didn’t unpack her trunks.” In time, though, her doubts cleared. When their daughter was three, John died of pneumonia: “Mind the light, Kate” were his last words to her. Resisting pressure to leave the lighthouse, she won his position years later, in 1895, having served as assistant keeper during his life. Caldecott Medalist McCully’s vivid ink and watercolor spreads bring to life the storms and waves that made Walker’s work necessary, and brim with visual information about the lighthouse and the people who depended on it. Chapter book–style writing by Spires (The Big Meow) provides ample context and many anecdotes. An intrepid heroine in a lonely place, Walker had grit that makes for gripping reading. Ages 6–8. (Jan.)
Try It! How Frieda Caplan Changed the Way We Eat
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Mara Rockliff, illus. by Giselle Potter. Beach Lane, $17.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-5344-6007-2
Faced with a sea of predictable produce at L.A.’s Seventh Street market—“apples and bananas and potatoes and tomatoes”—Frieda Caplan wanted to try selling mushrooms. “Nobody eats those,” the existing salespeople—all men—said, but Caplan trusted her intuition, starting her own produce company in 1962 and getting “a funny feeling in her elbows when she tasted something new and special, something she was sure people would like to try.” Caplan made a significant mark, becoming a successful business owner in a field that did not welcome women. The mushrooms sold (“People started calling her the Mushroom Queen”), and so did the black radishes, blood oranges, jicama, kiwifruit, sugar snap peas, and more that Caplan championed as she led a quiet revolution in U.S. eating habits. In this picture book biography of an early food innovator, Rockliff (Jefferson Measures a Moose) takes note of the ways Caplan distinguished her offerings: clear labeling, customer education, and more. Potter (Olive & Pekoe: In Four Short Walks) brings out the vivid colors of tropical fruits, and her market scenes give the spreads a sense of abundance. There’s period detail, too, as produce is introduced through the decades, enjoyed by people sporting fedoras and, eventually, bell-bottoms. Ages 3–8. Agent (for Rockliff and Potter): Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary. (Jan.)
Lore
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Alexandra Bracken. Disney-Hyperion, $18.99 (480p) ISBN 978-1-4847-7820-3
With ambitious worldbuilding and breakneck pacing, Bracken’s (the Passenger series) standalone novel blends Greek mythology and modern-day Manhattan. After her family is brutally murdered, Melora Perseous, known as Lore, is the last of the mortal Perseides. Training in New York City as an underground fighter, Lore lives undetected from those who seek her family’s shield, the aegis, which is “the envy of all the other bloodlines.” When the Agon occurs—the seven days every seven years when gods can be murdered for their powers—Lore is thrust into a world she would rather avoid, taking friend Miles and childhood pal Castor, now Apollo, with her. Teaming up with Athena to thwart a wrathful villain intent on killing off the gods, Lore balances achieving her destiny—kleos, or legendary honor—with mourning her family. Employing crafty nods to ancient epics (“Seven years stretched between them like the wine-dark sea”) alongside gritty action sequences and violence, including sexual assault, Bracken cuts tense moments with Lore’s backstory, told in illuminating flashbacks. With its inventive combinations of technology and magic, Bracken’s lively take on Greek mythology is an entertaining joyride. Ages 14–up. Agent: Merrilee Heifetz, Writers House. (Jan.)
Thirty Talks Weird Love
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Alessandra Narváez Varela. Cinco Puntos, $18.95 (208p) ISBN 978-1-947627-49-9
Debut author Narváez Varela’s inventive novel in verse plays with poetic form and time travel to detail a Mexican teen’s struggles with self-love and depression. In 1999 Cuidad Juárez, where “girls disappear like water/ down the drain,” 13-year-old Anamaria Aragón Sosa’s aspirations contain the same undercurrent of fear that permeates her hometown: one of future uncertainty. While Anamaria has a talent for poetry, she expends most of her energy striving for the top spot on the school honor roll rather than giving voice to her worries and the “clawed sadness” that haunts her. That all changes, however, when she begins receiving a series of unexpected visits from a woman claiming to be her future self, who brings with her advice, cryptic warnings, and a glimpse at what Anamaria may become. Using a mixture of structures and styles (including free verse, prose, erasure, and concrete poems) that both keep the narrative fresh and express Anamaria’s innermost thoughts, Narváez Varela fashions a thoughtful and candid portrait of a girl battling depression in a “red cruel beautiful mother beast” of a city. Much like plumbing the contents of a poet’s composition notebook, this layered story rewards multiple reads. Ages 12–up. (Jan.)
Tales from the Hinterland (The Hazel Wood)
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Melissa Albert, illus. by Jim Tierney. Flatiron, $19.99 (240p) ISBN 978-1-25030-272-4
Albert brings The Hazel Wood’s fictional fairy tale volume to life in 12 finely wrought but gruesome stories of captive wives, abused women, and their bloody revenge. Framed by Tierney’s intricately inked woodcut-style illustrations, the fictional Hinterlands and their fairy tale logic shine when illuminating aspects of troubled family dynamics: “Hansa the Traveler” sets its cloistered protagonist questing to save her star mother and confronts the cost of being a rescuer, while “The House Under the Stairwell” offers a somber, heartfelt reflection on the work of repair. Weaker entries, however, collapse into repetitive revenges or horror genre despair, and Albert’s allegories lose power as the dynamics and relationships they stand for fail to grow, broaden, or change. Fans of Emily Carroll, Catherynne M. Valente, and Albert’s own work will thrill to this volume’s fairy tale cadences and inventive, deep-shadowed imagery, but the parade of voiceless, mutilated, broken women may leave readers wanting range and depth. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 12–up. Agent: Faye Bender, the Book Group. (Jan.)
Alone
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Megan E. Freeman. Aladdin, $17.99 (416p) ISBN 978-1-5344-6756-9
Poet Freeman makes her middle grade debut with this engaging survival story in verse based on Island of the Blue Dolphins. When 12-year-old Maddie’s plans for a secret sleepover fall through, she decides to stay at her grandparents’ empty summer apartment solo, having already lied to her divorced parents about her whereabouts. An unexpected middle-of-the-night evacuation leaves Maddie completely alone in her small Colorado town, without power, information, or any way to communicate with loved ones. With only the neighbor’s rottweiler as a companion, Maddie spends the next three years surviving on her own—gathering food from abandoned stores, navigating ever-changing and sometimes dangerous weather, and hiding from looters and wild dogs. Most of all, she must overcome the unending loneliness and uncertainty that each day brings. The lengths to which resourceful Maddie must go in order to survive feel realistic, and Freeman’s well-paced verse magnifies significant and harrowing moments. The explanation of the “imminent danger” that left Maddie alone is vague and hasty, however—after readers follow a worthy protagonist through three years of solitude and despair, the abrupt resolution disappoints. Ages 10–up. Agent: Deborah Warren, East West Literary. (Jan.)
The Nightmare Thief (The Nightmare Thief #1)
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Nicole Lesperance. Sourcebooks, $16.99 (288p) ISBN 978-1-7282-1534-1
Employing sensory details and potent imagery, Lesperance (The Wide Starlight) constructs a fanciful world in which dreams and nightmares are a commodity, created, bought, and sold. Desperate to help her older sister, Hallie, who’s in a coma following an accident, 12-year-old Maren Partridge breaks her dream-making family’s number one rule—no giving dreams without the receiver’s consent—by sneaking Hallie a pleasant one on her birthday. Maren is blackmailed for the act by sinister Ms. Malo, an insect-wielding enigma with a “hearty appetite” for nightmares: in exchange for an escalating supply of horrifying dreams and forbidden ingredients, she’ll keep Maren’s secret to herself. As the inhabitants of whimsically magic-infused Rockpool Bay begin suffering odd mishaps, Maren struggles to escape her tormentor’s demands. But when her grandmother is kidnapped, it’s up to Maren and her former best friend, Amos, to rescue Gran-Gran and thwart Malo’s scheme. Lesperance crafts a resourceful heroine whose loyalty forces her to confront a difficult situation and come out stronger. She also folds a satisfying sense of wonder into the quaint town, balanced with a chilling element of darkness. Ages 8–14. Agent: Kathleen Rushall, Andrea Brown Literary. (Jan.)
Many Points of Me
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Caroline Gertler. Greenwillow, $16.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-06-302700-8
On the eve of her 12th birthday, Georgia Rosenbloom, daughter of a renowned late artist, feels out of sorts. Her art historian mother, a Columbia professor, is busy curating a retrospective of her father’s work at the Met; her lifelong best friend, Theo, has been embarrassing her in front of cool new girl Harper; and she feels lingering resentment that Theo inspired her father’s most famous paintings, an unfinished series of asterisms—unofficial constellations. Georgia, who still misses her dad fiercely two years after his death, struggles to navigate the tension between her father as a towering public art figure and as her dad, who “sang me ‘Moonshadow’ at bedtime.” When she discovers a sketch that suggests that she would have been the subject of his final asterism, Georgia sets out to prove her role in her father’s legacy. Debut author Gertler’s tale of tween soul-searching, threaded with an intriguing art mystery, satisfies, and the sophisticated and privileged New York City art world milieu is depicted with an insider’s eye for detail. Ages 8–12. Agent: Sara Crowe, Pippin Properties. (Jan.)
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