In this unflinching look at life on the streets, Rogers transports readers to the back corners of New York City in the 1980s, recounting his childhood spent with his best friend, Marta, spray painting street art and running from the cops. “For some, life is short-lived, either you make it, or you don’t, for others, it is a lifetime of pain. Even if you escape it, the trauma is always there” Rogers writes, as he descends, little by little, into homelessness, starting at a young age while desperately trying to escape his abusive home life. The stories are raw, brutal, and, as readers may suspect, full of heartbreaking experiences that are painful to read.

Throughout the book, Rogers introduces several colorful characters, including the painter he calls John, who sees potential in Rogers and takes him under his wing, advising him that “art is not about what you like. It is about what others will like.” Like many of Rogers’s relationships, his connection to John ends in trauma, a theme that is layered throughout this wrenching debut memoir. Marta, too, is a vivid character, often presented as a silent partner to Rogers’s suffering but always staunchly in attendance and eager to navigate the ins and outs of street living, as when she and Roger devise a new way of communicating through a police callbox or her dedication to improving their art.

Rogers’s story unfolds through out-of-order snippets, touching on memorable moments while dashing the flicker of hope that he sometimes exudes for a better life. He hints at military service and closes with his endeavors to help veterans, sadly observing that “most of the relationships in my life were about people getting what they wanted, and I had to come to terms with that.” This is a harrowing, powerful account of a young man’s fight to find a way forward.

Takeaway: Wrenching account of life on the streets in 1980s New York City.

Comparable Titles: Janice Erlbaum’s Girlbomb, Violet Blue’s A Fish Has No Word for Water.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-

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Chaleff explains how anyone can interrupt the rise of what he calls a “prototyrant”—someone threatening to assume absolute power, oppressively. Rather than focus on what can be done by those with power, Chaleff explores the steps available to distinct kinds of potential followers to “better discern and interrupt unwanted outcomes,” with an emphasis on leadership within activist circles, influencer and bureaucratic realms, and the general populace as well as the unique challenges and opportunities each group faces in attempting to interrupt a prototyrant’s efforts to secure greater power. Chaleff persuasively argues that it takes a coalition of all five of these follower types is necessary to interrupt tyranny.

Chaleff (author of The Courageous Follower) grounds his theories on followership in his experience consulting for governments and heads of state, and his arguments and data are laid out with clarity and power, although the language about possible action at times could be more concrete. The reader of To Stop a Tyrant who falls into the “populace” category may find this book less immediately helpful than those in the “bureaucrat,” “elite,” or “confidant” circles, since Chaleff has much more direct advice for them. The message throughout, though, is direct: all these circles must work together, in coalition, from early in a prototyrant’s rise, to interrupt oppression “before the autocrat has time to consolidate power and eliminate all challenges to his rule.”

Chaleff’s nonpartisan approach allows for examples of resisting tyranny from a variety of political contexts as he explores strong case studies, like the rise of Václev Havel, and considers persistent problems in bureaucratic democracies, like “diffuse accountability,” or how governments tend to tilt toward autocracy when countering external threats. His focus on followership rather than leadership gives To Stop a Tyrant a more practical bent than other examinations of dictatorial leadership. Readers concerned about democracy will appreciate this practical examination of the unique roles we all can play in defending against tyrants.

Takeaway: Urgent look at how “followers” throughout the population can interrupt a tyrant’s rise.

Comparable Titles: Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny, J.R. Moody’s A March Toward Tyranny.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

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Relationship coach and tantric practitioner Folsom supercharges personal affirmations in this gentle debut, offering readers the skills needed to “upgrade your communication, mindfulness, and connection.” He asserts that “soul statements” don’t equal simple affirmations; rather, they involve channeling your values and true self to direct your thoughts and behaviors. Folsom walks readers through generating their first soul statement, starting with journaling prompts and questions to help clarify, and recommends revisiting that statement each morning and throughout the day. Folsom also urges readers to acknowledge fear without allowing it to control their path, emphasizing instead self-mastery paired with high-empathy, communication-focused relationship building.

Folsom starts strong, outlining how to engage in positive self-talk by using statements that can be applied to any person, such as “I am held in love” and “there is a fire deep in my core.” His ideas on honoring feelings—and the wisdom inherent in our bodies—will resonate with readers eager to believe in themselves, as will his step-by-step, functional methods. One key to making his advice stick is to build “non-negotiable rituals” into daily living—brief activities such as meditation or stretching accompanied by relevant soul statements that he guarantees will take self-care to the next level.

Folsom’s ability to frame his methods in understandable ways—such as the “Stop, Drop, and Roll” strategy to reduce unnecessary distractions and increase silence, or the “Courage to be Clear” relationship technique that involves “speaking up when something feels uncomfortable or off”—makes these tools easy to use and effortless to remember. Though much of his relationship advice centers on romantic partnerships, the guidance is still useful, as Folsom urges readers to acknowledge their loved ones’ experiences, address conflict with respect, and “let go of logic and just be with each other.” This is a soothing reminder that “you have more to offer life when you know who and what you are.”

Takeaway: Empowering guidance to build empathy-driven communication skills.

Comparable Titles: Connirae Andreas’s The Wholeness Work Essential Guide, David Richo’s How to Be an Adult in Relationships.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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When Sam Baker meets Jane Adagio at an anti-Vietnam War protest march, he’s immediately transfixed—as are his housemates, Matt and David (otherwise known as “Trotsky”). Jane, the sister of Sam’s friend, Anthony, a soldier fighting in Vietnam, springs from a troubled past and a strained relationship with her brother, who writes home to tell Jane “every time you and your liberal friends go marching in the street, it gives encouragement to the North Vietnamese to keep fighting.” When one of Jane’s protests goes awry and she is arrested, her upcoming trial casts a shadow on her relationship with Sam, testing their love for and acceptance of each other.

Sandler (author of The Age of Worry) paints a meticulous, indulgent, and loving portrait of a very relatable, flawed protagonist. Jane is both vibrant and vulnerable, portrayed through Sam’s eyes in a way that keeps her at an arm’s length from readers—who get to know her thoughts and feelings primarily through what she confides in Sam. The book’s other characters are just as lively, including the left-leaning Trotsky with his passion for cooking, mandolin playing Matt who infuses tense situations with humor, and the empathetic Sam. Interestingly, Suzanne—Sam’s girlfriend when Jane wanders onto the scene—lingers in readers’ minds, made vividly realistic through her unwavering feminist beliefs and tendency to push herself into a lonely corner while pursuing them.

Sandler keeps the narrative pace relaxed and the prose sunny, evoking a largely positive atmosphere of enthusiastic curiosity and passion for safeguarding one’s beliefs throughout. Times may seem simpler in Sam’s story, but they’re not without problems: amid a heated discussion about women’s rights, Jane energetically proclaims to Sam and his entourage that “someday, a woman will bring us the TV news at night.” This is a nostalgic study of love, war, and protest in the ‘60s.

Takeaway: Nostalgic study of ‘60s life amid cataclysmic world events.

Comparable Titles: Susen Edwards’s What a Trip, Philip Roth’s Letting Go.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

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Interrogating the everyday digital images like shopping carts and the triangle-within-a-circle button you click to make media play, this collection of visual poems from Price (author of The Liquid Border) offers a humanist decoding of the symbols that govern our contemporary digital world. In a series of 100 poems, Price extrapolates from the functional images that we may take for granted—the icons for “format paragraph,” “restore from trash,” and more from Google’s Material Design set—what significance, resonance, and vibrations that he can, while exploring what it means to click on them and allow “a more powerful intelligence” than ours to “act on our behalf.” The poet describes, in an introduction, his history at Apple creating the first style guide for virtual icons, works that he now sees as “small poems, austere artworks.”

Sharp insights abound in Price’s crisp, plain-spoken verse (on the shopping cart icon: “Is this the archetype of America, the bin // We can never fill?”), and Price’s emotional range is broad enough to encompass satire, despair, and flashes of real feeling, especially in lines on icons whose designs harken back to the world before: paper clips, paint brushes, the three-columned facade of a bank. “Nothing says bank like a Greek temple // Holding your money, blocking // You from whatever is left”, Price writes. The poet’s voice is knowledgeable and often funny, exposing the strangeness and power of such easy-to-overlook images (like the “Angular and sharp” Bluetooth “rune”) with wry asides and deeply human expressions of longing for greater connection.

Price’s poems shine brightest when they reach to the tangible or some personal history. While well-articulated and eminently readable, their overall brevity (usually around five to six lines) at times limits their depth, and the deeper, near-religious experience of icons suggested in the introduction is often lacking in the poems themselves. Sill, Icons both invites and playfully rewards readers for thinking more deeply about the standardized symbols of our digital lives, with many striking observations.

Takeaway: Incisive poems urging a closer look at the iconography of the digital era.

Comparable Titles: Lan Donne’s Whispers from the Web, Wesley Bishop’s The Digital Self.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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Marks challenges readers to become “thought leader[s]” in this constructive debut, starting with hefty praise for his four favorite ancient Greek scholars—Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Aspasia—as prime examples of “listening, asking questions, pushing ethical behavior, and pursuing an existence steeped in honesty and trust.” Marks draws on the tenets of those philosophers, as well as from his own experience in advertising and marketing, to lay a solid foundation of business acumen, describing content marketing as a “blatant money grab thinly veiled as an educational resource” and decrying anyone seeking to shamelessly exploit their customers. Instead, he encourages thought leadership as the way to dominate one’s industry, teaching it as a dynamic strategy that requires a huge investment in training and execution.

The guide is candid and to the point, and Marks notes the potential pitfalls of several business strategies, including aggressive discounting, top-notch customer service, and pioneering in technology and innovation. He uses case studies to reinforce his guidance, spotlighting businesses from ArbiterSports to Nordstrom, and shares the ins and outs of their successes and failures, using Voice-of-Customer (VOC) research as the benchmark for their wins and losses; Mister Car Wash emerges with gold stars, “singlehandedly chang[ing] the industry’s stigma from bad boy to goodness gracious,” while others fare less well.

After walking readers through this approach, Marks delivers step-by-step guidance on launching “thought leadership initiative[s]” for any business, always returning to the philosophies of Greek notables to promote the “right mindset.” His “Critical Insight Selling” technique—that “teaches sales reps how to sell wisdom before they sell anything else”—takes center stage, and the importance of corporate ethics makes a repeat appearance throughout as well. The text is sidetracked at times by unnecessary asides, but overall Marks delivers a well-written, common-sense approach, updating the fundamentals for today’s marketing professionals under the thought leadership umbrella.

Takeaway: Candid guide that breaks down thought leadership in business.

Comparable Titles: Adam Witty and Rusty Shelton’s Authority Marketing, Jan Phillips’s The Art of Original Thinking.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about The Second-Best Business Book Ever Written

Brothers and entrepreneurs David Sinkinson and Chris Sinkinson delve into the methods they used to build their business, AppArmor, and sell it—becoming “multi-millionaires overnight.” A tenacious duo with their fair share of creativity, the authors recount how they did “everything everyone told us we shouldn’t do,” emphasizing the need to develop a killer mission, deliver value, and align with professionals who bring a balance of skills to the table. In many ways a play-by-play account of how they brought one of their first tech products to market, this approachable debut is full of unconventional strategies for startup success.

“Creativity flourishes when you’re happy,” the authors write, and that mindset forms the framework of the guide. Starting with the need to brainstorm a slew of ideas, they walk readers through how to validate their own business concept, judge whether it’s worth the effort, and take the initial leap towards development, while encouraging their followers to consider a co-founder “to help move the business forward.” They also caution readers on potential pitfalls, including successfully selling the idea of a product that isn’t even made yet, ways to enhance products according to customer need without making them too niche, and how to navigate the inevitable problems that accompany funding.

The advice may seem simple, but it’s reliable and matter of fact, teeming with real world know-how that pairs well with the authors’ emphasis on research, market-tested theories, tangible results, and a ton of hard work. The stakes are high, too, as they assert that “70 percent of startups will fail in years two through five,” but that shouldn’t deter readers from taking risks—and understanding that mistakes are just part of the game: “You’re not going to be perfect” they acknowledge, going on to recommend that “when you slip, do what needs to be done to make it right.” This is as upbeat as it is pragmatic.

Takeaway: Upbeat advice on beating the startup game to achieve long term success.

Comparable Titles: Rand Fishkin’s Lost and Founder, Peter Thiel’s Zero to One.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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With a keen eye for the subtleties of human nature, Polf (author of Magical Ballyglass) explores the inner dilemmas that shape lives, especially of the desperate and those hungry for connection: a pedestrian who witnesses a traffic accident and wonders if he’s somehow the one at fault; a queer sexworker in San Francisco’s Tenderloin on the run from a proudly “psycho” cop; a newspaper delivery boy who unexpectedly befriends an old man who shares his interest in guns, to the boy’s mother’s chagrin; a husband who discovers a woman unexpectedly standing in the front hall closet. Consistently surprising, always humane, the 15 stories in this mesmerizing collection offer a profound exploration of life's decisions, how our choices shape our future, and the powerful dilemmas we face in everyday existence.

Polf’s storytelling proves both exquisite and haunting, capturing the pace of life in brisk, striking pose, delving into the underbelly of human experiences with candor but an absence of sensation or judgment: “Barnes sometimes found the predictability of their banter oddly comforting,” Polf writes of some old-timers’ coffee-shop mornings are marked by “the humdrum repetition of their dialogue.” But the stories here, wise as they are to ritual, turn on days when lives get upended or his people at last demand something more.

Polf's characters are puzzled, mistrusting, and sometimes distrusting, worrying over stray remarks (“Was she depressed, as her aunt believed? She couldn’t tell; her feelings were a mystery to her”) and navigating a world that offers no easy answers. By design, the stories often leave the reader wanting more closure, a longing that mirrors the search for meaning in our lives. The prose is a masterclass in slice-of-life storytelling, offering true-to-life scenarios that veer into often harsh and tragic storylines. Water themes recur throughout, symbolizing the flow and turbulence of life.

Takeaway: Gripping stories offering a profound exploration of the human condition

Comparable Titles: Nickolas Butler’s Beneath the Bonfire, Richard Ford’s Sorry for Your Trouble.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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This riveting coming-of-age debut delves into the tumultuous life of 17-year-old Fast Eddie, a young man from a small Alabama town, grappling with profound loss and its devastating aftermath. Following his mother's death at the tender age of 13, Eddie spirals into a debilitating depression, which fractures his family and leaves him navigating his teenage years in a haze of grief and mental illness. Eddie’s friends—16-year-old Cory, a wildly successful bootlegger, and Mike, a 17-year-old Marine headed to Vietnam for his senior year in high school—are largely just along for the ride, as Eddie finds himself sequestered with them in his brand new 1969 Plymouth GTX, while headed to his bi-weekly psychiatrist appointment.

Charles expertly writes scenery that seethes with action and heart, whether Eddie’s describing his mother’s failing health or speeding along the mountainside with his two friends in tow, racing Corey’s second cousin, Manfred—a law-breaking, risk-hunting young man who barrels into the story like a hurricane, full of reckless abandon and a sort of frenzied wildness. When Eddie runs into a woman from his past, bringing back shocking memories from his mother’s death, he finally succumbs to the trauma, in palpable scenes wrought with intense emotion that will stay with readers long past the novel’s end.

The climax is a high-stakes, death-defying car race, serving as both a literal and symbolic confrontation with the darkest aspects of Eddie's psyche. The tension is palpable, and Charles captures the adrenaline and desperation of a young man on the edge, fighting not just for victory but for his sanity and a semblance of peace. This is more than just a tale of youthful rebellion and high-speed chases; it confronts the enduring impact of loss as much as Eddie’s arduous journey toward mental health and self-discovery, in writing that is both heart-wrenching and hopeful.

Takeaway: Electrifying story of a young man’s journey through trauma and loss.

Comparable Titles: Chris Offut; Bill Rivers’s Last Summer Boys.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

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In a style as whimsically inventive and engrossing as his subject’s, Nikola-Lisa (author of The Things He Could Have Been, among others) culminates a career-long love of children’s author Ezra Jack Keats with this indispensable analysis of his under-appreciated body of work. Pulling from his own previously published articles on Keats, new biographies on the author/illustrator, an interview with a play therapist, and more, Nikola-Lisa delivers a wide-ranging series of essays focused on the function of “play” in Keats’s work—not as merely a narrative or aesthetic device, but as “the imprimatur of Keats’s work,” a lost mode of experiencing the world that can liberate children (and adults alike) from the enervating routine of modern life.

Mirroring his subject’s style, Nikola-Lisa cleverly utilizes his “predilection for collage technique” here; nowhere is this method, risky for an academic inquiry but fitting for Nikola-Lisa’s “celebratory exercise,” more apparent than in the structure of this book. Deep thematic analysis, rich with textual evidence, gives way to readings of Keats through “Japanese Zen Buddhism and Chinese Taoism” to a short biographical sketch to a gloss on the psychoanalytic concept of the child in children’s literature. Nikola-Lisa fails to connect a few dots, but his ambition and analytical acuity combine to yield powerful insights on race, education, and American history.

Nikola-Lisa spins gold out of even the most unremarkable-seeming threads of Keats’s work and life. The “found objects” that Keats’s heroes fashion into playthings “exist[s] as a reminder of the necessary—and often frail—relationship between concrete reality and personal fantasy” he writes, further analyzing how Keats’s own “journey into the soul” not only “led him to his own humanity,” but can “speak directly to the child within us all.” Keats’s world comes alive within Nikola-Lisa’s luminous writing, reacquainting readers with one of the great, unsung voices of children’s literature, as well as reuniting them with their own imaginations.

Takeaway: Illuminating journey through the work of a children’s lit icon.

Comparable Titles: Linda Lear’s Beatrix Potter, Bruce Handy’s Wild Things.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: B
Marketing copy: A

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Jones (author of the Winged Warriors series) transports readers into a fantastical yet poignant reimagining of the life of Harriet Tubman, beginning with young Harriet born as Araminta "Minty" Wren—a Sankofa bird shifter enslaved from birth. Minty's journey unfolds amidst brutal oppression, where her mother's Dragonkin slaver sends her father away and abuses her family—fueling Minty’s longing for freedom and quest to liberate her fellow Birdfolk from captivity. Minty’s plight is presented with heartfelt authenticity, and Jones skillfully interlaces historical realism with the story’s stunning magical elements, portraying Minty’s inner turmoil and capturing her single-minded mission against the looming threat of relentless slave catchers.

Jones’s juxtaposition of the delicate, stunning Birdfolk with the savage Dragonkin evokes striking imagery of caged birds and their cruel masters, none more so than when Mistress Essodel—head of the Essodel Plantation and a vicious slaver who prefers her dragon form over her human side—defeathers the Birdfolk she finds most beautiful, plucking their feathers one by one for her own pleasure. Though Minty is initially out of Mistress Essodel’s reach given her tender age, she’s soon driven into slavery’s harsh reality, sold to a neighboring plantation and forced to live with a family of harpies who steal her feathers to sell. Minty’s abuse continues, as does her unbreakable spirit and conviction that “God’s will… [wasn’t] for Birdfolk to be slaves,” sparking her transformation into the unflinching, tenacious Harriet.

This is a testament not just to Harriet Tubman’s legendary role within the Underground Railroad, but to the indomitable human spirit and power of hope. Jones's narrative prowess shines through in her expert blending of historical significance and intense fantasy, offering readers a compelling story made rich with its relevance to contemporary times. Readers will be as transfixed as Harriet’s loved ones, as they watch her hard-won transformation into “a woman seizing freedom.”

Takeaway: Fantasy reimagining of Harriet Tubman’s transformative journey.

Comparable Titles: Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A-
Illustrations: A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A-

Click here for more about Harriet's Escape: Harriet Tubman Reimagined

The first entry in Giordano’s tropical gothic series finds the inquisitive Eliza Hastings, a reader and thinker who shudders at the thought of childbirth, making a bold choice at age 24. It’s 1791, and Eliza elects to marry, on the spur of the moment, Lord Charles Sharpe, a dragoon in His Majesty’s Army and also the owner of a mansion and a plantation in the Bahamas. Charles’s next mission—after the recent unpleasantness in the American colonies—is to build an island fort. The sort to carry “a sketchbook and a stick of graphite,” Eliza hopes for a fresh start amid the splendors of nature, but after a long sea voyage that finds the marriage unconsummated she is harrowed by life in the Americas: the horrors of slavery, the machinations of colonial politics, the expectations of the marital bed, and “the immensity of human cruelty hitting her like a rogue wave.”

Cruelest of all, it seems, is Charles, whose attentions—“a few rough jabs later and he was finished”—eventually prove worse than his indifference. Giordano spins the tale with rich detail and much yearning, charting Eliza’s introduction into island society, her disastrous attempts to treat the enslaved with kindness, and the thrill and freedom she finds swimming in the ocean. Charles quickly forbids that last pleasure, and as discord grows (“This is not matrimony! This is Abaddon!”), Eliza attracts the notice of a pair of men of questionable loyalties: Captain Hiram Bruin, a rogue turned gentleman trader, and Jean Charles de Longchamp, reputed to be disloyal to the crown.

Giordano writes strong scenes, full of feeling and mysteries, though readers expecting any resolution of key storylines will have to wait for the second book. Despite its hefty length, this volume ends abruptly. The pacing is often slow, and some scenes of Eliza’s misery meander, but readers looking for an old-fashioned gothic with contemporary insight into colonial injustices will find much to savor.

Takeaway: Epic-length tropical gothic of an Englishwoman facing the horror of colonial life.

Comparable Titles: Karen Barrow’s Palymra, Isabel Cañas’s The Hacienda.

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

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Drawing on Hindu mythology, this spirited, swaggering fantasy finds two contemporary Mumbai teens, the rivals Abhay and Ira, wrenched from their schooldays and the intimate problems of growing up only to be swept up in an epic adventure. They’ll face vicious beasts, unearthly weather, ancient prophecies, wild action, and nothing less than “the ghastliest cosmic beings of malice,” including Kalki incarnate, poised to usher in the end of the world. As brainy black-belt Abhay falls into a mysterious sleep after encountering a tablet of his grandfather’s, Ira, an athlete, hears a voice in her mind urging her to “find” Abhay, whom she considers a “douchebag.” Before she can make sense of that, apocalyptic horror strikes her own home and family, and after the first of many breathless escapes she’s stunned to find herself in the presence of Parashuram, the sixth avatar of Lord Vishnu.

From there, Dhar swiftly raises the stakes—personal, spiritual, global—as Abhay and Ira, facing loss and terrifying visions, find themselves on a quest to “the gateway between Heaven and Earth on Mount Kailash,” guided by the riddling text on the tablet and pursued by the deadly forces of Kali Asura. Helping them along is each teen’s prophetic role as an incarnation of Kalki—Abhay has powers of destruction, and Ira has inherited powers of illusion, eventually discovering, in a clever inversion, that dispelling can be as powerful as conjuring.

As they master these skills, the action is fast, inventive, touched with poetry (“the time was ripe for unleashing her primal beast, her inner vigor and wrath and restlessness”) and occasional convoluted prose (the eyes of a parrot who is more than just a bird “whirl like a cyclone, before spiraling into a furious rotation like a spiral galaxy.”) But there’s much inventive vigor here, a deep engagement with demons both mythological and interior, and a rousing spiritualism. The characters burst with heart, and the storytelling is clear and exciting.

Takeaway: Epic fantasy of Hindu mythology, bursting with heart and invention.

Comparable Titles:Shveta Thakrar, Shiulie Ghosh

Production grades
Cover: A
Design and typography: B+
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A

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The propulsive first entry in Downing and Waugh’s new middle-grade adventure series vividly evokes its Depression-era Pittsburgh setting in a plucky story of unlikely friendship and macabre conspiracy. Eleven-year-old street-dweller Lewis Carter becomes notorious for using an explosive compound—one he engineered quite by accident, when mixing his missing chemist father’s recycled ingredients together—to pilfer food. When he teams up with whimsical nonsense-spouter and fellow child urchin Pearl Alice Clavell to keep the so-called Flash out of the wrong hands, the two ultimately uncover an insidious, homegrown political subversion plot.

This is an endlessly delightful romp packed with rich characterization, transportive period details, and plenty of important life lessons for middle-grade readers. The authors nimbly weave explorations of homelessness, the death and betrayal of parents, and the dangers of radicalization into a fun and fast-paced detective plot—a winning formula that could support plenty of follow-ups. Playful writing pops the characters off the page and enlivens the book’s graver stretches, as when Pearl whispers to Lewis about a real Nazi rally held in New York City in 1934.

The heart of this promising start to the Flash Gang series is the bond between Lewis and Pearl. Downing and Waugh make the enemies-to-allies tropes their own by rooting their cast in the terra firma of an authentically rendered steel-belt metropolis at the pinnacle of production. The “hot, sludgy, ashy, and gritty” surroundings add depth and specificity to the characters’ desperate situations—parentless but perseverant, with an inner pride that, at the very least, they aren’t orphans (Lewis boasts that “whether they worked in groups or operated alone, all streeters preferred to pinch a meal, to sleep under the stars with frost chewing their fingertips, than to be lost to a grim institution”). Readers will root for a triumph over the forces of very real evil in this entertaining offering.

Takeaway: Plucky Depression-era street kids uncover vast conspiracy.

Comparable Titles: Lauren Wolk’s Beyond the Bright Sea, Sheila Turnage’s Three Times Lucky.

Production grades
Cover: B+
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

Click here for more about The Adventures of the Flash Gang: Episode One: Exploding Experiment

Conway’s debut is a starlit, sensory feast that invokes figures from the Irish pagan and Greek pantheons to create a reckoning of existence and our function in the universe. Conway touches on all stages of life, both blurring the line that divides life and death and seeking a spiritual answer to transcend that dichotomy—as in “pas de deux,” where “gravity tugs our nightshirts // back toward the grave,” and in the imagery of transforming, after death, into “stardust again // to flow in timeless tides // swept up in a nebula” in “nothing really dies.”

Touchingly, the act of writing at times here offers a brief respite from daily life—“I cast no shadow // as i slowly // close my eyes // and fade // into words”—while some poems, like “whiskey” and “adoration,” favor playfulness over depth. Those same offerings also demonstrate Conway’s poetic range, from the lofty intellectual verses to drinking songs, delivering moments of levity amid the earnest, leaden poems that speak of the grave as a temptation or last hope. “The citrus pain of recollection” is too much to bear in “empty canvas,” and in “whisper me to sleep,” the speaker begs “o, lord,... lay me down in juniper // whisper me to sleep.”

Conway begins with a nod to “light transitioning to dark,” a thoughtful contemplation that threads throughout the collection, as themes such as grief and longing ricochet across the pages. In “fragrant memories,” the speaker is “left haunted by the ghost of // lonely fragrant memories // …as the light flickers,” yet that grief is born of an enduring love, proof of a life well-lived. Conway resurrects that powerful imagery while striving to cross the threshold of life, through entropy uniting, once again, with nature, “grasping for meaning or a lack thereof // reminded of that dream i once called love.”

Takeaway: Searching, metaphor-rich collection plumbing cycles of life, death, love, and grief.

Comparable Titles:Pierra Calasanz-Labrador’s Dear Universe, Donald Hall.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

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Singer brings the Civil War to tense, exciting life for YA readers with this gripping novel of Union spy Maddie Bradford, a teen celebrated by Union spymasters for “walking into that nest of Rebel hornets” undercover without flinching. Haunted by what she’s seen, dreading the prospect of having to kill, and targeted by Confederate assassin Hannah Farwell, Maddie still sets off on a deadly new mission: tracking down Timothy Webster, her trainer in all things espionage, after he goes missing while on assignment in Richmond. The ensuing adventure will test her courage, skills, and empathy, as Maddie, adopting a series of improvised disguises, faces dangerous adversaries, the likelihood of the noose, Rebel plots that could change history, and the jolting truth that even Confederate assassins have mothers who love them.

The novel charts not just a twisty and convincingly detailed mission into the heart of the Rebel South. Early on, Hannah discovers it’s easy for her to pass as a boy—as long as she remembers to limp, as otherwise a boy her age would have been conscripted. In this guise, she discovers surprising comfort, with Singer deftly tying Maddie’s ability to slip between identities with something still unsettled within her. That sense of humanity shines through the tale even in scenes of action, skullduggery, and violence. Maddie has no illusions about the Rebels, the viciousness of slavery, or just how far the Confederacy will go to achieve victory, but she is always aware of the cost of war in the lives of everyday people.

Singer never shies away from depicting racism, including the use of historical slurs, and the ex-slave Oliver Washington proves a compelling spy in his own right, forging an engaging connection with Maddie. The plot, involving a Confederate training camp and a dastardly scheme that the heroes eventually catch wind of, moves with purpose, despite the richness of milieu and character.

Takeaway: Gripping novel of teen spy for the Union facing danger and herself in the Civil War.

Comparable Titles: Seymour Reit’s Behind Rebel Lines, Marissa Moss’s A Soldier's Secret.

Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A-

Click here for more about Falcon: A Civil War Spy Fiction