Staff Picks

A leading business expert shows why expertise really matters, and how leaders who deeply understand the nuts and bolts of their industry and organization-- from businesses, to hospitals, to universities, to sports-- make all the difference for its success and the happiness of people who work there.

Amanda Goodall has spent a decade researching what makes organizations tick, everywhere from the business world to hospitals and healthcare systems, football and basketball teams, and Formula 1 organizations. By debunking the cult of managerialism (the notion that smart people can run anything and the emphasis on leadership personality), Goodall reshapes our understanding of bosses and the traits necessary for organizational success. She identifies the key characteristics of expert leaders and provides a real and grossly underappreciated model for career success: "go deep into a business, work hard, pay attention, and know your stuff." Those who run hospitals and healthcare systems, for example, should be physicians with deep clinical expertise, not financiers or people parachuted in from other industries. Those who run school systems and universities need to understand from experience the stress of balancing teaching, research, and student welfare

Credible demonstrates categorically that expertise matters more than ever and that we need our leaders to be experts with a deep, understanding of their organizations from many years spent learning the business and working their way up the ladder. The people who work for them are happier because they feel better understood and the organizations they lead are more successful.


 

The New York Times bestseller by the acclaimed, bestselling author of Start With Why and Together is Better. Now with an expanded chapter and appendix on leading millennials, based on Simon Sinek's viral video "Millenials in the workplace" (150+ million views).
Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work, feels trusted and valued during the day, then returns home feeling fulfilled. This is not a crazy, idealized notion. Today, in many successful organizations, great leaders create environments in which people naturally work together to do remarkable things. 

In his work with organizations around the world, Simon Sinek noticed that some teams trust each other so deeply that they would literally put their lives on the line for each other. Other teams, no matter what incentives are offered, are doomed to infighting, fragmentation and failure. Why?

The answer became clear during a conversation with a Marine Corps general. "Officers eat last," he said. Sinek watched as the most junior Marines ate first while the most senior Marines took their place at the back of the line. What's symbolic in the chow hall is deadly serious on the battlefield: Great leaders sacrifice their own comfort--even their own survival--for the good of those in their care.
     
Too many workplaces are driven by cynicism, paranoia, and self-interest. But the best ones foster trust and cooperation because their leaders build what Sinek calls a "Circle of Safety" that separates the security inside the team from the challenges outside.

Sinek illustrates his ideas with fascinating true stories that range from the military to big business, from government to investment banking.

The inspirational bestseller that ignited a movement and asked us to find our WHY

Discover the book that is captivating millions on TikTok and that served as the basis for one of the most popular TED Talks of all time—with more than 56 million views and counting. Over a decade ago, Simon Sinek started a movement that inspired millions to demand purpose at work, to ask what was the WHY of their organization. Since then, millions have been touched by the power of his ideas, and these ideas remain as relevant and timely as ever.
 
START WITH WHY asks (and answers) the questions: why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over?
 
People like Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Jobs, and the Wright Brothers had little in common, but they all started with WHY. They realized that people won't truly buy into a product, service, movement, or idea until they understand the WHY behind it. 
 
START WITH WHY shows that the leaders who have had the greatest influence in the world all think, act and communicate the same way—and it's the opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea The Golden Circle, and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be led, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with WHY.

A Wall Street Journal Bestseller

Former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty delivers a powerful combination of memoir, leadership lessons, and big ideas on how we can all drive meaningful change.

Ginni Rometty led one of the world's most iconic companies, and in Good Power she recounts her groundbreaking path from a challenging childhood to becoming the CEO of IBM and one of the world's most influential business leaders. With candor and depth, Rometty shares milestones from her life and career while redefining power as a way to drive meaningful change in positive ways for ourselves, our organizations, and for the many, not just the few--a concept she calls "good power."

Rometty's "memoir with purpose" combines the experiences that defined her life--personal hurdles, high-stakes decisions, passionate advocacy--with the actionable advice of a coaching session to highlight lessons that shape authentic leadership. Behind-the-scenes stories and practical guidance offer us a blueprint for how we can all use good power to advance our careers, inspire our teams, improve our companies, and create healthier societies.

The book begins with raw, vivid memories from Rometty's youth and early professional years as she recalls the trauma and the role models that formed her belief that how we lead is as important as what we achieve. She learns early on that good power is a choice available to everyone, even to those without money, status, or impressive titles.

Rometty then shows us how her concept of good power evolved as she grew from a first-time manager to a transformative CEO. Stories told through the lens of five principles--be in service of others; build belief; know what must change and what must endure; steward good tech; be resilient--reveal tools that anyone can apply to achieve real change at any stage of their life and work.

Rometty also encourages us to use good power at scale to bring about urgent societal change. She shares insights from her own journey to create a more equitable world by leading the SkillsFirst movement, which connects underserved populations with family-sustaining jobs by transforming hiring, education, and training.

With heart, humility, and conviction, Good Power offers an inspiring, compelling guide to creating meaningful change in our lives.

The traditional corporate leadership playbook your grandparents wrote no longer works. This book from one of the world's top executives is a new leadership paradigm for resilience and agility in a rapidly changing world.

In the last twenty years, the world has faced dramatic changes: climate change, economic downturns, a worldwide pandemic, geopolitical upheaval, terrorism, and the collapse of various industries. It will now require an overhaul in order to handle these global tectonic shifts.

This book is a must-read guide for aspiring leaders in various sectors, who are keen on not only ensuring current success, but protecting the planet's future for everyone. Andrew Liveris, former Chairman and CEO of The Dow Chemical Company, presents a variety of powerful tools that will enable you to tackle any problem quickly and responsively, with an eye to creating a more equitable, sustainable future.

In these pages, you will learn how to:

• Create and use metrics that quantify the positive impact on all members of society.
• Collaborate with scientists, politicians, regulators, corporate boards, and other stakeholders to create effective policies that work.
• Broaden your company's focus to include both long-term sustainability and short-term profitability without sacrificing the former to gain the latter.
• Strengthen local communities via corporate investment and advocacy for the improvement of amenities and services for all.
• Hire team members who fully and proactively support strategies to improve the world and its future.
• Become a sought-after advisor on how to respond quickly and decisively to uncertainties.

Andrew Liveris has four decades of global leadership experience in business, government, academia, and civic society. His book is a powerful tool for any aspiring leader.

The New York Times best-selling team leadership handbook for modern executives, managers, and organizations

After her first two weeks observing the problems at DecisionTech, Kathryn Petersen, its new CEO, had more than a few moments when she wondered if she should have taken the job. But Kathryn knew there was little chance she would have turned it down. After all, retirement had made her antsy, and nothing excited her more than a challenge. What she could not have known when she accepted the job, however, was just how dysfunctional her team was, and how team members would challenge her in ways that no one ever had before.

For twenty years, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team has been engaging audiences with a page-turning, realistic fable that follows the travails of Kathryn Petersen, DecisionTech’s CEO, as she faces the ultimate leadership crisis. She must unite a team in such disarray that it threatens to derail the entire company.

Equal parts leadership fable and business handbook, this definitive source on teamwork by Patrick Lencioni reveals the five behavioral tendencies that go to the heart of why even the best teams struggle. He offers a powerful model and step-by-step guide for overcoming those dysfunctions and getting every one rowing in the same direction.

Today, the lessons in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team are more relevant than ever. This special anniversary edition celebrates one of the best-selling business books of all time with a new foreword from the author that reflects on its legacy and lessons.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Brené Brown has taught us what it means to dare greatly, rise strong, and brave the wilderness. Now, based on new research conducted with leaders, change makers, and culture shifters, she’s showing us how to put those ideas into practice so we can step up and lead.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY BLOOMBERG

Leadership is not about titles, status, and wielding power. A leader is anyone who takes responsibility for recognizing the potential in people and ideas, and has the courage to develop that potential.

When we dare to lead, we don’t pretend to have the right answers; we stay curious and ask the right questions. We don’t see power as finite and hoard it; we know that power becomes infinite when we share it with others. We don’t avoid difficult conversations and situations; we lean into vulnerability when it’s necessary to do good work.

But daring leadership in a culture defined by scarcity, fear, and uncertainty requires skill-building around traits that are deeply and uniquely human. The irony is that we’re choosing not to invest in developing the hearts and minds of leaders at the exact same time as we’re scrambling to figure out what we have to offer that machines and AI can’t do better and faster. What can we do better? Empathy, connection, and courage, to start.

Four-time #1 New York Times bestselling author Brené Brown has spent the past two decades studying the emotions and experiences that give meaning to our lives, and the past seven years working with transformative leaders and teams spanning the globe. She found that leaders in organizations ranging from small entrepreneurial startups and family-owned businesses to nonprofits, civic organizations, and Fortune 50 companies all ask the same question:

How do you cultivate braver, more daring leaders, and how do you embed the value of courage in your culture?

In this new book, Brown uses research, stories, and examples to answer these questions in the no-BS style that millions of readers have come to expect and love.

Brown writes, “One of the most important findings of my career is that daring leadership is a collection of four skill sets that are 100 percent teachable, observable, and measurable. It’s learning and unlearning that requires brave work, tough conversations, and showing up with your whole heart. Easy? No. Because choosing courage over comfort is not always our default. Worth it? Always. We want to be brave with our lives and our work. It’s why we’re here.”

Whether you’ve read Daring Greatly and Rising Strong or you’re new to Brené Brown’s work, this book is for anyone who wants to step up and into brave leadership.

Austen's witty exploration of the perils of mistaking fiction for reality

During an eventful season at Bath, young, naïve Catherine Morland experiences the joys of fashionable society for the first time. She is delighted with her new acquaintances: flirtatious Isabella, who shares Catherine's love of Gothic romance and horror, and sophisticated Henry and Eleanor Tilney, who invite her to their father's mysterious house, Northanger Abbey. There, her imagination influenced by novels of sensation and intrigue, Catherine imagines terrible crimes committed by General Tilney. With its broad comedy and irrepressible heroine, this is the most youthful and and optimistic of Jane Austen's works.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The most famous true crime novel of all time "chills the blood and exercises the intelligence" (The New York Review of Books)—and haunted its author long after he finished writing it.
On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues. 

In one of the first non-fiction novels ever written, Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, generating both mesmerizing suspense and astonishing empathy. In Cold Blood is a work that transcends its moment, yielding poignant insights into the nature of American violence.

At a Hallowe’en party, Joyce—a hostile thirteen-year-old—boasts that she once witnessed a murder. When no one believes her, she storms off home. But within hours her body is found, still in the house, drowned in an apple-bobbing tub.

That night, Hercule Poirot is called in to find the “evil presence.” But first he must establish whether he is looking for a murderer or a double murderer.…

ON NOVEMBER 22, 1963, THREE SHOTS RANG OUT IN DALLAS, PRESIDENT KENNEDY DIED, AND THE WORLD CHANGED. WHAT IF YOU COULD CHANGE IT BACK?

In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King—who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer—takes readers on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.

It begins with Jake Epping, a thirty-five-year-old English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching GED classes. He asks his students to write about an event that changed their lives, and one essay blows him away—a gruesome, harrowing story about the night more than fifty years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a sledgehammer. Reading the essay is a watershed moment for Jake, his life—like Harry’s, like America’s in 1963—turning on a dime. Not much later his friend Al, who owns the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to the past, a particular day in 1958. And Al enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession—to prevent the Kennedy assassination.

So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson, in a different world of Ike and JFK and Elvis, of big American cars and sock hops and cigarette smoke everywhere. From the dank little city of Derry, Maine (where there’s Dunning business to conduct), to the warmhearted small town of Jodie, Texas, where Jake falls dangerously in love, every turn is leading eventually, of course, to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and to Dallas, where the past becomes heart-stoppingly suspenseful, and where history might not be history anymore. Time-travel has never been so believable. Or so terrifying.

Discover #1 New York Times-bestselling Patrick Rothfuss’ epic fantasy series, The Kingkiller Chronicle.
 
“I just love the world of Patrick Rothfuss.” —Lin-Manuel Miranda • “He’s bloody good, this Rothfuss guy.” —George R. R. Martin • “Rothfuss has real talent.” —Terry Brooks
 
OVER 1 MILLION COPIES SOLD!
 
DAY ONE: THE NAME OF THE WIND
 
My name is Kvothe.
 
I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings. I burned down the town of Trebon. I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep.
 
You may have heard of me.
 
So begins a tale unequaled in fantasy literature—the story of a hero told in his own voice. It is a tale of sorrow, a tale of survival, a tale of one man’s search for meaning in his universe, and how that search, and the indomitable will that drove it, gave birth to a legend.  

 
Praise for The Kingkiller Chronicle:
 
“The best epic fantasy I read last year.... He’s bloody good, this Rothfuss guy.”
—George R. R. Martin, New York Times-bestselling author of A Song of Ice and Fire
 
“Rothfuss has real talent, and his tale of Kvothe is deep and intricate and wondrous.” 
—Terry Brooks, New York Times-bestselling author of Shannara
 
"It is a rare and great pleasure to find a fantasist writing...with true music in the words."
—Ursula K. Le Guin, award-winning author of Earthsea
 
"The characters are real and the magic is true.” 
—Robin Hobb, New York Times-bestselling author of Assassin’s Apprentice
 
"Masterful.... There is a beauty to Pat's writing that defies description." 
—Brandon Sanderson, New York Times-bestselling author of Mistborn

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Two starcrossed magicians engage in a deadly game of cunning in the spellbinding novel that captured the world's imagination. • "Part love story, part fable ... defies both genres and expectations." —The Boston Globe

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance.

The author of Nine Women, One Dress delivers a charming, unforgettable novel about four women, one little lie, and the big repercussions that unite them all.

It wasn't supposed to happen this way. When Eliza Hunt created The Hudson Valley Ladies' Bulletin Board fifteen years ago she was happily entrenched in her picture-perfect suburban life with her husband and twin preschoolers. Now, with an empty nest and a crippling case of agoraphobia, the once-fun hobby has become her lifeline. So when a rival parenting forum threatens the site's existence, she doesn't think twice before fabricating a salacious rumor to spark things up a bit.

It doesn't take long before that spark becomes a flame.

Across town, new mom and site devotee Olivia York is thrown into a tailspin by what she reads on the Bulletin Board. Allison Le is making cyber friends with a woman who isn't quite who she says she is. And Amanda Cole, Eliza's childhood friend, may just hold the key to unearthing why Eliza can't step out of her front door.

In all this chaos, one thing is for sure...Hudson Valley will never be the same.

Funny, romantic, raw, and hopeful, this is a story about being a woman and of the healing power of sisterhood.

From the New York Times bestselling author of GARDEN SPELLS comes a story of the Waverley family, in a novel as sparkling as the first dusting of frost on new-fallen leaves...
It's October in Bascom, North Carolina, and autumn will not go quietly. As temperatures drop and leaves begin to turn, the Waverley women are made restless by the whims of their mischievous apple tree... and all the magic that swirls around it. But this year, first frost has much more in store.
Claire Waverley has started a successful new venture, Waverley's Candies. Though her handcrafted confections—rose to recall lost love, lavender to promote happiness and lemon verbena to soothe throats and minds—are singularly effective, the business of selling them is costing her the everyday joys of her family, and her belief in her own precious gifts.

Sydney Waverley, too, is losing her balance. With each passing day she longs more for a baby— a namesake for her wonderful Henry. Yet the longer she tries, the more her desire becomes an unquenchable thirst, stealing the pleasure out of the life she already has.
Sydney's daughter, Bay, has lost her heart to the boy she knows it belongs to...if only he could see it, too. But how can he, when he is so far outside her grasp that he appears to her as little more than a puff of smoke?
When a mysterious stranger shows up and challenges the very heart of their family, each of them must make choices they have never confronted before. And through it all, the Waverley sisters must search for a way to hold their family together through their troublesome season of change, waiting for that extraordinary event that is First Frost.

Lose yourself in Sarah Addison Allen's enchanting world and fall for her charmed characters in this captivating story that proves that a happily-ever-after is never the real ending to a story. It's where the real story begins.

It’s time for a savory soirée—but something sinister is stewing—in Raquel V. Reyes’s second delightful Caribbean Kitchen mystery, perfectly delicious for fans of Mia P. Manansala.

Fall festivities are underway in Coral Shores, Miami. Cuban-American cooking show star Miriam Quiñones-Smith wakes up to find a corpse in her front yard. The body by the fake tombstone is the woman that was kicked out of the school's Fall Festival the day before.

Miriam's luck does not improve. Her passive-aggressive mother-in-law puts her in charge of the Women's Club annual gala. But this year, it's not canapes and waltzes. Miriam and her girlfriends-squad opt for fun and flavor. They want to spice it up with Caribbean food trucks and a calypso band. While making plans at the country club, they hear a volatile argument between the new head chef and the club's manager. Not long after, the chef swan dives to his death at the bottom of the grand staircase.

Was it an accident? Or was it Beverly, the sous chef, who is furious after being passed over for the job? Or maybe it was his ex-girlfriend, Anastasia?

Add two possible poisonings to the mix and Miriam is worried the food truck fun is going to be a major crash. As the clock ticks down and the body count goes up, Miriam's life is put in jeopardy. Will she connect the dots or die in the deep freeze? Foodies and mystery lovers alike will savor the denouement as the truth is laid bare in this simmering stew of rage, retribution, and murder.

"Mix in one part Diane Mott Davidson's delightful culinary adventures with several tablespoons of Jan Karon's country living and quirky characters, bake at 350 degrees for one rich and warm romance." --Library Journal

A full-hearted novel about a big-city baker who discovers the true meaning of home--and that sometimes the best things are found when you didn't even know you were looking

When Olivia Rawlings--pastry chef extraordinaire for an exclusive Boston dinner club--sets not just her flambéed dessert but the entire building alight, she escapes to the most comforting place she can think of--the idyllic town of Guthrie, Vermont, home of Bag Balm, the country's longest-running contra dance, and her best friend Hannah. But the getaway turns into something more lasting when Margaret Hurley, the cantankerous, sweater-set-wearing owner of the Sugar Maple Inn, offers Livvy a job. Broke and knowing that her days at the club are numbered, Livvy accepts.

Livvy moves with her larger-than-life, uberenthusiastic dog, Salty, into a sugarhouse on the inn's property and begins creating her mouthwatering desserts for the residents of Guthrie. She soon uncovers the real reason she has been hired--to help Margaret reclaim the inn's blue ribbon status at the annual county fair apple pie contest.

With the joys of a fragrant kitchen, the sound of banjos and fiddles being tuned in a barn, and the crisp scent of the orchard just outside the front door, Livvy soon finds herself immersed in small town life. And when she meets Martin McCracken, the Guthrie native who has returned from Seattle to tend his ailing father, Livvy comes to understand that she may not be as alone in this world as she once thought.

But then another new arrival takes the community by surprise, and Livvy must decide whether to do what she does best and flee--or stay and finally discover what it means to belong. Olivia Rawlings may finally find out that the life you want may not be the one you expected--it could be even better.

One of English literature's classic masterpieces—a gripping novel of love, propriety, and tragedy. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

Emily Brontë's only novel endures as a work of tremendous and far-reaching influence. The Penguin Classics edition is the definitive version of the text, edited with an introduction by Pauline Nestor.

Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, situated on the bleak Yorkshire moors, is forced to seek shelter one night at Wuthering Heights, the home of his landlord. There he discovers the history of the tempestuous events that took place years before. What unfolds is the tale of the intense love between the gypsy foundling Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw. Catherine, forced to choose between passionate, tortured Heathcliff and gentle, well-bred Edgar Linton, surrendered to the expectations of her class. As Heathcliff's bitterness and vengeance at his betrayal is visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the past.

In this edition, a new preface by Lucasta Miller, author of The Brontë Myth, looks at the ways in which the novel has been interpreted, from Charlotte Brontë onwards. This complements Pauline Nestor's introduction, which discusses changing critical receptions of the novel, as well as Emily Brontë's influences and background.

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize

New York Times Bestseller | A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick | A New York Times Book Review Notable Book | TIME Magazine's 100 Must-Read Books of 2019

Named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, The Washington Post; O: The Oprah Magazine, Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, Vogue, Refinery29, and Buzzfeed

Ann Patchett, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth, delivers her most powerful novel to date: a richly moving story that explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go. The Dutch House is the story of a paradise lost, a tour de force that digs deeply into questions of inheritance, love and forgiveness, of how we want to see ourselves and of who we really are.

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.

The story is told by Cyril's son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakeable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.

Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they're together. Throughout their lives they return to the well-worn story of what they've lost with humor and rage. But when at last they're forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.

*25th Anniversary Edition*—with an Introduction by the Author!

The Owens sisters confront the challenges of life and love in this bewitching novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic, Magic Lessons, and The Book of Magic.

For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town. Gillian and Sally have endured that fate as well: as children, the sisters were forever outsiders, taunted, talked about, pointed at. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, with their musty house and their exotic concoctions and their crowd of black cats. But all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape. One will do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they share will bring them back—almost as if by magic...

“Splendid...Practical Magic is one of [Hoffman's] best novels, showing on every page her gift for touching ordinary life as if with a wand, to reveal how extraordinary life really is.”—Newsweek

“[A] delicious fantasy of witchcraft and love in a world where gardens smell of lemon verbena and happy endings are possible.”—Cosmopolitan

Named Sports Illustrated's best football book of all time and a #1 NYT bestseller, this is the classic story of a high school football team whose win-loss record has a profound influence on the town around them.
Return once again to the timeless account of the Permian Panthers of Odessa -- the winningest high-school football team in Texas history. Socially and racially divided, Odessa isn't known to be a place big on dreams, but every Friday night from September to December, when the Panthers play football, dreams can come true.
With frankness and compassion, Pulitzer Prize winner H. G. Bissinger unforgettably captures a season in the life of Odessa and shows how single-minded devotion to the team shapes the community and inspires -- and sometimes shatters -- the teenagers who wear the Panthers' uniforms.
The inspiration for the hit television program and film of the same name, this anniversary edition features a new afterword by the author.

A READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK • INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • A contemporary literary classic and "an accomplished psychological thriller ... absolutely chilling" (Village Voice), from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Goldfinch.

Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality.

“A remarkably powerful novel [and] a ferociously well-paced entertainment.... Forceful, cerebral, and impeccably controlled.” —The New York Times

In Still Life, bestselling author Louise Penny introduces Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec.

Winner of the New Blood Dagger, Arthur Ellis, Barry, Anthony, and Dilys awards.

Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it's a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter.

Still Life introduces not only an engaging series hero in Inspector Gamache, who commands his forces---and this series---with integrity and quiet courage, but also a winning and talented new writer of traditional mysteries in the person of Louise Penny.

A chauffer’s daughter finds herself in the middle of a love triangle with the sons of her boss’s wealthy next-door neighbors in this delightfully romantic story from the author of Alex, Approximately, Jenn Bennett.

Love—and Fen Sarafian—do not care about your summer plans.

Eighteen-year-old chauffeur’s daughter Jane Marlow grew up among the domestic staff of a wealthy LA rock producer, within reach of bands she idolizes, but never a VIP. Every summer, Jane and her father head to the Sierras to work at the producer’s luxury lodge at Lake Condor—a resort town and the site of a major musical festival.

The legendary family who runs the festival are the Sarafians, and Jane’s had a longtime crush on their oldest son, Eddie—doltish but sweet. So, when a long-distance romance finally sparks between them, she doesn’t hesitate to cross class lines.

But Jane’s feelings for Eddie are thrown into question after she returns to the lake and reconnects with his alluringly intense brother, the dark horse of her placid summer plans. A fellow lover of music—and hater of the game—Fen Sarafian has been ousted from the family and is slumming it at a vinyl record shop. He burns for Jane like a house on fire and will do anything to sabotage his older brother, even if it means taking a wrecking ball to a multi-million-dollar music festival. Or Jane’s heart.

It's time to face the music.
Seventeen-year-old Mira has always danced to her own beat. A music prodigy in a family of athletes, she'd rather play trumpet than play ball—and with her audition to a prestigious jazz conservatory just around the corner (and her two best friends at music camp without her), she plans to spend the summer focused on jazz and nothing else.
She only goes to the warehouse party in a last-ditch effort to bond with her older sister. Instead, she falls in love with dance music, DJing... and Derek, a gorgeous promoter who thinks he can make her a star. Suddenly, trumpet practice and old friendships are taking a back seat to packed dance floors and sun-soaked music festivals, outsized personalities and endless beats.
But when a devastating tragedy plunges her golden summer into darkness, Mira discovers just how little she knows about her new boyfriend, her old friends, and even her own sister. Music brought them together. Will it also tear them apart?

It's summer 1977 and closeted lesbian Tammy Larson can't be herself anywhere. Not at her strict Christian high school, not at her conservative Orange County church and certainly not at home, where her ultrareligious aunt relentlessly organizes antigay political campaigns. Tammy's only outlet is writing secret letters in her diary to gay civil rights activist Harvey Milk...until she's matched with a real-life pen pal who changes everything.

Sharon Hawkins bonds with Tammy over punk music and carefully shared secrets, and soon their letters become the one place she can be honest. The rest of her life in San Francisco is full of lies. The kind she tells for others--like helping her gay brother hide the truth from their mom--and the kind she tells herself. But as antigay fervor in America reaches a frightening new pitch, Sharon and Tammy must rely on their long-distance friendship to discover their deeply personal truths, what they'll stand for...and who they'll rise against.

A master of award-winning queer historical fiction, New York Times bestselling author Robin Talley once again brings to life with heart and vivid detail an emotionally captivating story about the lives of two teen girls living in an age when just being yourself was an incredible act of bravery.

From New York Times-bestselling and Eisner Award-winning creator Hope Larson comes All My Friends, the final standalone book in a middle grade graphic novel trilogy about friendship, family, and music. Perfect for fans of Real Friends by Shannon Hale.

Middle-schooler Bina has everything she's ever wanted. She has new friends and a new band whose song is about to be featured on her favorite television show.

But being in the spotlight is hard. When Bina and her band are offered a record deal, her parents are not thrilled. Now, Bina is barely speaking to her mom and dad. To make matters worse, Bina and her best friend, Austin, are still awkward around each other after their failed first date.

Can Bina untangle the various melodies in her heart? Or will fame go to her head?

A funny and heartfelt story about learning how to rise above your most embarrassing moment while staying true to yourself--with the help of old friends, new friends, and some cheesy poetry.

At the start of ninth grade, Wilbur Nuñez-Knopf is hoping for a fresh start. But he just can't live down a deeply humiliating moment from two years ago that's followed him to high school. His good friend Alex has stuck by him, but Alex has started dating Fabrizio and he doesn't have much time to hang out. Luckily, Wil can still confide in his elderly neighbor, Sal. But he longs to have a special someone of his own.

When the school band does an exchange with students from Paris, a girl named Charlie captures Wilbur's heart. But his feelings aren't reciprocated. So Alex, Fabrizio, and Sal join forces to build Wil's confidence in the hope that he can impress Charlie when they go to Paris. Maybe, just maybe, Wilbur will find a new defining moment in the City of Love.

A teen who's never even been kissed becomes her school's unofficial sex expert in Olivia Hinebaugh's fun, voice-y contemporary YA romance debut.

Seventeen-year-old Lacey Burke feels like the last person on the planet who should be doling out sex advice. For starters, she’s never even kissed anyone, and she hates breaking the rules. Up until now, she's been a straight-A music geek that no one even notices. All she cares about is jamming out with her best friends, Theo and Evita.

But then everything changes.

When Lacey sees first-hand how much damage the abstinence-only sex-ed curriculum of her school can do, she decides to take a stand and starts doling out wisdom and contraception to anyone who seeks her out in the girls' restroom. Meanwhile, things with Theo have become complicated, and soon Lacey is not just keeping everyone else’s secrets, but her own as well.

When Andi attends a music festival with one goal in mind - capture an interview with a famous band so she can pay for college - she gets more than she bargained for in This is for Tonight by Jessica Patrick

Andi Kennedy needs to make money for college, and fast. But her little YouTube crafting channel, while fun, isn't exactly a money maker. So she's heading to the world-famous Cabazon Valley Music and Arts Festival with a goal - film a video that will launch her channel into popularity and turn it into a legit money making venture, even if it means selling out her creative vision.

Instead, she finds obnoxious Jay Bankar, the annoyingly hot host of a popular prank channel who is the actual worst. Andi hates everything Jay stands for, which makes the undeniable connection she feels with him really freaking inconvenient. Soon she finds herself competing with Jay for an interview with the festival's headlining band, which could be the key to turning her little channel directly into college tuition. But she's starting to discover that there is more to Jay than his jerky on-screen persona, and she has to decide what's more important - winning, or giving a second chance to a guy who couldn't be more wrong for her.

Step into the spotlight with The Backups, a graphic novel from writer Alex de Campi and artist Lara Kane about crushes, confidence, and catchy choruses!

Spending an entire summer on tour as a backup singer for pop star Nika Nitro? What?! That’s the DREAM, right? Especially for Jenni, Lauren, and Maggie, three misfit performing arts students with hopes of making it in the music world.

But being twenty feet from fame isn’t easy. Between crushes, constant rehearsals, Nika’s sky-high expectations, and their own insecurities, this dream is starting to feel more like a nightmare. And that’s before they accidentally start a beef with a rival band threatening to reveal a secret that could end Nika’s career.

Can this trio of new friends come together to save the tour, or will the Backups be kept out of the spotlight forever?

An Imprint Book

The American Book Award winner, now completely adapted for a young adult audience!

From award-winning author Jeff Chang, Can't Stop Won't Stop is the story of hip-hop, a generation-defining movement and the music that transformed American politics and culture forever.

Hip hop is one of the most dominant and influential cultures in America, giving new voice to the younger generation. It defines a generation's worldview. Exploring hip hop's beginnings up to the present day, Jeff Chang and Dave "Davey D" Cook provide a provocative look into the new world that the hip hop generation has created.

Based on original interviews with DJs, b-boys, rappers, activists, and gang members, with unforgettable portraits of many of hip hop's forebears, founders, mavericks, and present day icons, this book chronicles the epic events, ideas and the music that marked the hip hop generation's rise.

"Everything I love in a book."—Victoria Schwab, author of #1 New York Times bestseller This Savage Song

“The kind of taut, atmospheric thriller that gets your heart racing and sets your imagination on fire. Sensational.”—Claire Legrand, New York Times-bestselling author of Furyborn

New York Times–bestselling author Jacqueline West captivates readers with a dark, hypnotic story about the cost of talent—and the evil that lurks just out of sight. Fans of Holly Black and Victoria Schwab will be mesmerized by this gorgeous, magnetic novel.

High school senior Anders Thorson is unusually gifted. His band, Last Things, is legendary in their northern Minnesota hometown. With guitar skills that would amaze even if he weren’t only eighteen, Anders is the focus of head-turning admiration. And Thea Malcom, a newcomer to the insular town, is one of his admirers. Thea seems to turn up everywhere Anders goes: gigs at the local coffeehouse, guitar lessons, even in the woods near Anders’s home.

When strange things start happening to Anders, blame immediately falls on Thea. But is she trying to hurt him? Or save him? Can he trust a girl who doesn’t seem to know the difference between dreams and reality? And how much are they both willing to sacrifice to get what they want? 

Told from Anders’s and Thea’s dual points of view, this exquisitely crafted novel is full of unexpected twists and is for fans of Holly Black’s The Darkest Part of the Forest and Melissa Albert’s The Hazel Wood.

Fame and friendship can get complicated, especially when there are more than platonic feelings at play in this rom com perfect for fans of Netflix's XO, Kitty!

Seventeen-year-old Lulu Li has her last summer before college all planned out. But her plans go awry when she learns that Kite Xu, her old next-door neighbor and childhood friend, will be returning home from South Korea.
 
Lulu hasn’t seen Kite since eighth grade, after he left the country to pursue a career in K-pop, eventually debuting in the boy group Karnival. When Karnival announces that Kite will be taking a break from K-pop activities for mysterious reasons, the opportunity to rekindle their friendship arises.
 
Star-struck and nostalgic, Lulu tries to reconnect with Kite. As they continue to bond and reminisce over the past, Kite’s sister, Connie, warns Lulu not to get too close to her brother. The harder Lulu tries to deny her feelings, the stronger they get. But how could a K-pop star ever fall for a nobody from home? And even if he did, is there any way for their relationship to end but badly?

Underlined is a line of totally addictive romance, thriller, and horror paperback original titles coming to you fast and furious each month. Enjoy everything you want to read the way you want to read it.

"A dreamy summer rom-com that'll make you believe in love again." --Bustle
"Full of not only sigh-inducing swoons but the social commentary [Thorne] is talented at writing." --Paste

Music was Ruby's first love, but did it ever love her back? After a nightmare audition at the music school where her famous father teaches, the answer to this question is unavoidable. And so, it seems, is Oscar Bell. Musical genius, YouTube sensation, and her dad's new protégé, Oscar is the last person Ruby needs in her life. Being around him feels dangerously like being with her first love again--except music never kissed her like this. Oscar is falling for Ruby too, but he knows how it'll look to the ultra-privileged, ultra-white world of classical music--a Black guy dating his mentor's white daughter. As the New York City summer heats up, though, so does the spark between them. Can two people still figuring themselves out figure out how to be together? And will Ruby get over her first love in time to save what she has with her second?

"Delightful...Hits all the right notes." --Mackenzi Lee, author of The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue
"Seriously swoony...I loved it." --Rachel Hawkins, author of Royals
"Sweet and intense...[An] engrossing romance with a social conscience." --Kirkus
"Utterly romantic." --Tanaz Bhathena, author of A Girl Like That
"Full of heart and humor. It crackles with energy." --Kelly Loy Gilbert, author of Picture Us in the Light
"Timely and romantic." --Publishers Weekly
"Beautiful, heartfelt, aware, and raw." --Lauren Gibaldi, author of This Tiny Perfect World
"Thoughtful, nuanced." --Booklist

In an emotionally compelling tale crackling with originality, when a teen musician goes deaf, his quest to create an entirely new form of music brings him to a deeper understanding of his relationship to the hearing world, of himself, and of the girl he meets along the way.

Music is Simon's life--which is why he is devastated when a stroke destroys his hearing. He resists attempts to help him adjust to his new state, refusing to be counseled, refusing to learn sign-language, refusing to have anything to do with Deaf culture. Refusing, that is, until he meets G, a tough-as-nails girl dealing with her own newly-experienced deafness.

In an emotionally engaging tale crackling with originality, Simon's quest to create an entirely new form of music forces him into a deeper understanding of his relationship to the hearing world, of himself, and of the girl he meets along the way.

Chester has taken to the road, traveling from village to village desperately searching for his father, who has disappeared. One night while fiddling to earn a few coins, he accidentally connects to the Song—the music that fuels every aspect of the world, and that it’s illegal for him to interact with. He’s caught and sentenced to death for his crime. Only a licensed Songshaper can bend music to his will.

But someone in the crowd—a member of the infamous Nightfall Gang—stages a daring rescue and whisks Chester into the Hush, a shadowy nightmare mirror-world where Music can be deadly and Echoes can kill.

Susanna, the Captain of the Nightfall Gang has been watching Chester. She needs him to pull off an elaborate plan that will take down the governing body that keeps her an outlaw and made her the fragment she is. Susanna needs him to exact her revenge, even if he dies doing it.

Combining complex stakes, shifting loyalties, nods to fairy tales, and a Western feel, The Hush is a lush and exhilarating fantasy perfect for fans of Catherine Fisher’s Incarceron and Paolo Bacigalupi’s Ship Breaker.

Sixteen-year-old Jolene, named after the girl in the Dolly Parton song, is from a long line of lowlifes, but at least they're musical lowlifes. Her mother is a tanning-salon manager who believes she can channel her karaoke habit into a professional singing career. Jolene's dad, a failed bass player, has gone back to the family demolition business and lives by the company motto: "We do not build things; we only tear them down." But Jolene and her big brother, Matt, are true musicians, writing songs together that make everything Jo hates about their lives matter less.

When Matt up and leaves in the middle of the night, Jo loses her only friend, her support system and the one person who made her feel cool. As it becomes clear that Matt is never coming back, Jo must use music to navigate her loss.

In this gorgeous standalone fantasy with a “sweet sapphic romance” (Booklist), a young musician sets out to expose her rival for illegal use of magic only to discover the deception goes deeper than she could have imagined—perfect for fans of An Enchantment of Ravens!

Music runs in Sofi’s blood.

Her father is a Musik, one of only five musicians in the country licensed to compose and perform original songs. In the kingdom of Aell, where winter is endless and magic is accessible to all, there are strict anti-magic laws ensuring music remains the last untouched art.

Sofi has spent her entire life training to inherit her father’s title. But on the day of the auditions, she is presented with unexpected competition in the form of Lara, a girl who has never before played the lute. Yet somehow, to Sofi’s horror, Lara puts on a performance that thoroughly enchants the judges.

Almost like magic.

The same day Lara wins the title of Musik, Sofi’s father dies, and a grieving Sofi sets out to prove Lara is using illegal magic in her performances. But the more time she spends with Lara, the more Sofi begins to doubt everything she knows about her family, her music, and the girl she thought was her enemy.

As Sofi works to reclaim her rightful place as a Musik, she is forced to face the dark secrets of her past and the magic she was trained to avoid—all while trying not to fall for the girl who stole her future.

Fifteen young adult authors and one real-life rock star band together for one epic—and interconnected—take on a memorable high school rite of passage.

A daughter of rock ’n’ roll royalty has a secret crush. A lonely ticket taker worries about his sister. An almost-famous songwriter nurses old wounds. A stage manager tires of being behind the scenes. A singer-songwriter struggles to untangle her feelings for her best friend and his girlfriend. In this live-out-loud anthology, the disparate protagonists of sixteen stories are thrown together for one unforgettable event: their high school’s battle of the bands. Told in a harmonic blend of first- and third-person narrative voices, roughly chronological short stories offer a kaleidoscopic view of the same transformative night. Featuring an entry from Justin Courtney Pierre, lead vocalist of Motion City Soundtrack, Battle of the Bands is a celebration of youth, music, and meeting the challenges of life head-on.

With stories by Brittany Cavallaro, Preeti Chhibber, Jay Coles, Katie Cotugno, Lauren Gibaldi, Shaun David Hutchinson, Ashley Poston, Jenny Torres Sanchez, Sarah Nicole Smetana, Eric Smith, Jenn Marie Thorne, Sarvenaz Taghavian, Jasmine Warga, Ashley Woodfolk, and Jeff Zentner, and featuring Motion City Soundtrack’s Justin Courtney Pierre.

Humor and heart shine in this middle grade fantasy about a girl who attends a boarding school to learn how to use music to create magic, perfect for fans of Nevermoor and The School for Good and Evil series.

Amelia Jones always dreamed of attending the Mystwick School of Musicraft, where the world's most promising musicians learn to create magic. So when Amelia botches her audition, she thinks her dream has met an abrupt and humiliating end--until the school agrees to give her a trial period. Amelia is determined to prove herself, vowing to do whatever it takes to become the perfect musician. Even if it means pretending to be someone she isn't. Meanwhile, a mysterious storm is brewing that no one, not even the maestros at Mystwick, is prepared to contain. Can Amelia find the courage to be true to herself in time to save her beloved school from certain destruction?

Hayley has finally found her talent: playing ukelele like her great-aunt Ruby, who traveled all over with her band, the Ragtime Rascals. She's so enthusiastic that she gets a ukelele band started at school with the new music teacher. Just as the band is getting popular, horrible new comes: the music program and the teacher are being cut. Hayley has a bold idea to help ensure that the school board members change their mind. If only it works....

Trolls--the most magical creatures with the wildest hair--celebrate making music in this leveled reader that's perfect for young DreamWorks Trolls fans.
From the makers of Shrek, DreamWorks Trolls is the hair-raising comedy filled with unbelievable adventure, incredible music, and Trolls, the joyous creatures with crazy, colorful, magical hair! Boy and girls ages 4 to 6 will love learning to read with Trolls DJ Suki and Biggie who have a jamming good time making music with Poppy, Branch, and all their Troll friends.

Prince Lucas discovers that sometimes music is the only way to defeat a savage beast in this newest adventure from the fantastical Kingdom of Wrenly series.

Prince Lucas does not want to learn to play the lute. He would much rather be outside exploring with his best friend Clara. When a traveling bard pays a visit to the castle, he tries to convince the young prince that there is magic in music, but Lucas isn’t falling for it. And when the two go for a walk in the hills and stumble upon a ferocious monster, Lucas learns that the bard might just be telling the truth after all.

With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, The Kingdom of Wrenly chapter books are perfect for beginning readers.

Mr. Putter and his fine cat, Tabby, like sharing music with their neighbors Mrs. Teaberry and her good dog, Zeke. But when Mrs. Teaberry decides they should join a band, Mr. Putter isn’t so sure. He doesn’t even play an instrument--in fact, neither does Mrs. Teaberry. But they aren’t going to let that stop them!

Future rock star or friendless misfit? That’s no choice at all. In this acclaimed novel by Newbery Medalist Erin Entrada Kelly, twelve-year-old Apple grapples with being different; with friends and backstabbers; and with following her dreams.

Publishers Weekly called Blackbird Fly “a true triumph,” and the Los Angeles Times Book Review said, “Apple soars like the eponymous blackbird of her favorite Beatles song.”

Apple has always felt a little different from her classmates. She and her mother moved to Louisiana from the Philippines when she was little, and her mother still cooks Filipino foods and chastises Apple for becoming “too American.” When Apple’s friends turn on her and everything about her life starts to seem weird and embarrassing, Apple turns to music. If she can just save enough to buy a guitar and learn to play, maybe she can change herself. It might be the music that saves her . . . or it might be her two new friends, who show her how special she really is.

Erin Entrada Kelly deftly brings Apple’s conflicted emotions to the page in her debut novel about family, friendship, popularity, and going your own way. “A must-read for those kids cringing at their own identities.”—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books.

Little Rat can't wait to make music like the violinists she sees at concerts in the city. But her biggest obstacle is practicing. It's boring. It's hard. And her violin squawks a lot. Luckily, Little Rat's teacher believes she has talent. And her new tutor agrees. With their encouragement--and some fine-tuning--Little Rat hits all kinds of high notes. But most important, she discovers where beautiful music really comes from.

In this third book of Little Rat's celebrated tales of triumph, Monika Bang-Campbell and Molly Bang prove that with a bit of pluck, patience, and practice, anything is possible.

Perfect for quarantine reading with your children!

Before there were DJs, rock stars, pop groups, and jazz trios, there was the orchestra. Whether it takes center stage or brings performances and movies to life, the orchestra is the magnificent original voice of the western world.

Learn about all of the ingenious instruments that make up the orchestra and the luminary composers whose work has endured for centuries. Travel from the stunning Wiener Musikverein in Vienna to the world's greatest recording studios, all illuminated by David Doran's stylish and immersive artwork.

A beautifully illustrated coffee table guide to everything you could ever want to know about the orchestra.

The feisty fairy Twinkle makes music in this sixth Level 2 Ready-to-Read story about everyone’s favorite fairy from the acclaimed author of the beloved Angelina Ballerina series!

Fairy Godmother is throwing a party and she wants the students at The Fairy School of Magic and Music to play a song for all the guests. Twinkle, Pippa, and Lulu will each play the flute. But no matter how much she practices, Twinkle just can’t seem to play a note. Is there another way for Twinkle to make music?

Fascinating facts, fun pictures, and first-person accounts highlight informative text about some of the most interesting jobs that take place behind the scenes in the music industry. Readers will get a glimpse at what it takes to make it as a songwriter, producer, manager, and more and find out what goes on behind the glamour.

A heart-rending novel-in-verse about a girl beginning to learn it is possible to go on even after a great loss.

Eleven-year-old April Jackson loves playing the drums, almost as much as she loves her best friend, Zee, a violin prodigy. They both dream of becoming professional musicians one day. When Zee starts attending a new school that will nurture his talent, April decides it’s time for her to pursue her dreams, too, and finally take drum lessons. She knows she isn’t very good to start, but with Zee’s support, she also knows someday she can be just as good as her hero, Sheila E., and travel all around the world with a pair of drumsticks in her hand.

When the unthinkable happens and Zee suddenly passes away, April is crushed by grief. Without Zee, nothing is the way it’s supposed to be. Zee's Dad isn't delivering the mail for his postal route like he should. April's Mom is suddenly dating someone new who is occupying too much space in their lives. And every time April tries to play the drums, all she can think about is Zee.

April isn't sure how to move on from the awful feeling of being without Zee. Desperate to help Papa Zee, she decides to secretly deliver the mail he’s been neglecting. But when on her route she discovers a classmate in trouble, she doesn’t second guess what she knows is the right thing to do.

*A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2018!*

All Summer Long, a coming-of-age middle-grade graphic novel about summer and friendships, written and illustrated by the Eisner Award–winning and New York Times–bestselling Hope Larson.

Thirteen-year-old Bina has a long summer ahead of her. She and her best friend, Austin, usually do everything together, but he's off to soccer camp for a month, and he's been acting kind of weird lately anyway. So it's up to Bina to see how much fun she can have on her own. At first it's a lot of guitar playing, boredom, and bad TV, but things look up when she finds an unlikely companion in Austin's older sister, who enjoys music just as much as Bina. But then Austin comes home from camp, and he's acting even weirder than when he left. How Bina and Austin rise above their growing pains and reestablish their friendship and respect for their differences makes for a touching and funny coming-of-age story.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mouse ("Wolf," for short) has a big name for such a little mouse. But the name fits. His favorite pastime is listening to Mrs. Honeybee, the lady of the house, play the piano. If only he could sing along to the music! One day, Wolf decides to try -- and to his surprise, out of his mouth comes a perfect melody.

It's not long before Wolf is singing everything from "Three Blind Mice" to Chopin to the Beatles, all to Mrs. Honeybee's accompaniment. Then an accident leaves Mrs. Honeybee in danger, and it's up to Wolf to save her... the only way he knows how.

In this spellbinding and "well-orchestrated"* sequel to The Mystwick School of Musicraft, Amelia must master the magic of Composing to help her school win a magic competition--and save her friends from a mysterious evil.

Things are finally looking up for Amelia Jones: she's officially a Mystwick student, and she even has a teacher to help her learn how to use her rare Composing magic. When Mystwick enters an international magic competition, it's Amelia's chance to Compose something that will help them win the day.

The only problem is that she still doesn't understand how her powers work. But then she hears about a super exclusive Midnight Orchestra--half performance, half magical black market--and Amelia is sure that's where she'll find the answer to her Composing problem.

But the Midnight Orchestra is far more sinister than it initially appears and if Amelia can't unlock her Composing powers, not only will Mystwick lose the musicraft competition, she won't be able to rescue her friends from the danger unleashed in this thrilling adventure.

*Kirkus

In this third title in the Faithgirlz Glimmer Girls series by Natalie Grant, Miracle in Music City, the Glimmer Girls are at it again--looking for a mystery to solve. Gloria wants her daughters to learn they aren't too young to make a difference, so she gets them involved in her annual benefit and auction. But as things often do with the trio of smart and sassy sisters, they get themselves and their nanny Miss Julia involved in a lot more than just helping mom raise money for a worthy and wonderful cause.

Newbery Honor Book! A heartbreakingly hopeful novel in verse about an Indian American girl whose life is turned upside down when her mother is diagnosed with leukemia.

* Walter Award Winner * New England Book Award Winner * An NCTE Notable Verse Novel * Golden Kite Award Winner * Crystal Kite Award Winner * Goodreads Choice Nominee * A Washington Post Best Children's Book of the Year * An SLJ Best Book of the Year * A BookPage Best Book of the Year * An NYPL Best Book of the Year * A Mighty Girl's Best Book of the Year * An ILA Notable Book for a Global Society * A Bank Street Best Book of the Year *Junior Library Guild Selection * A Judy Lopez Memorial Award Honor *

Reha feels torn between two worlds: school, where she's the only Indian American student, and home, with her family's traditions and holidays. But Reha's parents don't understand why she's conflicted--they only notice when Reha doesn't meet their strict expectations. Reha feels disconnected from her mother, or Amma. Although their names are linked--Reha means "star" and Punam means "moon"--they are a universe apart.

Then Reha finds out that her Amma is sick. Really sick.

Reha, who dreams of becoming a doctor even though she can't stomach the sight of blood, is determined to make her Amma well again. She'll be the perfect daughter, if it means saving her Amma's life.

From Indies Introduce author Rajani LaRocca comes a radiant story about the ties that bind and how to go on in the face of unthinkable loss. This is the perfect next read for fans of Jasmine Warga and Thanhhà Lại.

­Arminita Robicheaux—Cinderella’s daughter—discovers that the best way to happily ever after is doing what you can to make your own fairy tale come true in this enchanting follow-up to Charmed, I’m Sure that’s perfect for fans of The Descendants!

Arminita Robicheaux is convinced her parents are out to ruin her life. Not only did they move Minty to New York City right before the school year started, but her mom’s late-night infomercials for a variety of cleaning products follow Minty wherever she goes. Oh, and did she mention that her mother happens to be Ella Robicheaux—a.k.a. Cinderella?

And Minty’s eccentric aunties—who may or may not have made Ella clean and wait on them while growing up—decide to cast Minty’s entire class in their new commercial for their “Comfortably Ever After” shoe line, complete with raps that make Minty want to run far, far away.

But Minty’s new friend has a perfect distraction; the boy-band mega-star Theo Downy who is staying in town for a series of concerts. If Minty can find a way to get her shoe designs in front of Theo, maybe she can get tickets to the sold-out show. Of course, things don’t go according to plan, and Minty ends up leaving a big clue behind…

Like mother, like daughter!

Renowned picture book author and illustrator Jeanette Winter brings us the enchanting story of a boy named Kali who lived thousands and thousands of years ago. Kali must learn to hunt, like the rest of the men in his tribe. But when Kali plucks the string on his bow, he forgets about shooting arrows, and makes music long into the night. Even the stars come close to listen.

This lovely story celebrates the uniqueness in all of us, the beauty of the natural world, and the power of music and art over violence. According to the New York Times, it "will resonate with all young children who seek to find their path in the world--and may perhaps be a bit wary of other people's expectations."

Perfect for fans of Ocean Meets Sky and Drawn Together, this lyrical, “heartwarming” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) picture book about a special friendship between an old man and a little bird celebrates the power of music, family, and the legacies our loved ones leave behind.

The old man played joyful, jolly music.
Sad, soulful music.
Beautiful, bountiful, breathtaking music.
Little Bird listened…until she couldn’t stay quiet any longer.
Then, she sang.
“Bravo, Little Bird!” cheered the old man.

From this moment on, Little Bird and the old man are inseparable. Together, they make music and share their gifts with their families. But over time, the old man starts to grow tired…until the day comes when his piano playing stops altogether. As Little Bird looks for a special way to honor the old man’s memory, she soon discovers that her friend isn’t truly gone after all—he lives on in their music.

Musical terms come to life, and kids get to join in! A rhythmic poem is paired with exuberant illustrations of a conductor and his animal orchestra to convey the meanings of seven musical terms. The text contains a succinct physical definition for each term. For example, to define glissando the text reads, “Gently gliding, slipping, sliding.” And in the illustrations, the animals use movement to interpret this description, flowing across the spread as if rolling on a wave. Readers will find it easy to learn the terms — and will have great fun playing along! Staccato. Adagio. Allegro. Fortissimo. What child can resist pronouncing these words — or performing them!

"A symphony soars in rhyming couplets.There are many other introductions-to-the-orchestra titles out there, but few have such charm. Pleasing to the eye and ear." -Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW

"Like a 21st-century update of Lloyd Moss's virtuoso Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin, this really is a magical, musical book." -School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW

Best Picture Books of 2021--School Library Journal

Music! Music! Oh, how grand! A language we all understand.
Get swept away by the musical performance of a lifetime as, one by one, each instrument of the symphony orchestra shows off their skills!

Follow along as the symphony orchestra's various instruments are introduced. From violin to trumpet, flute to trombone, each plays its part, contributing to a grand and mystifying performance. These magical instruments will transport you in a way only music can. Soar with the strings, float away with the woodwinds, and play in a percussion thunderstorm! Music can take us anywhere, so celebrate and learn about all the instruments of the orchestra and the music that unites us.

Press the buttons to hear the music in this time-traveling journey around the world, as young readers embark on a magical adventure through the history of music!

Stopping off at 10 key chronologically organized moments in history, in different places around the world, readers meet a great musician in each, and can press their instruments to hear a clip of their musical masterpieces!

From 1600s England, where you can hear the harpsichord play Greensleeves, to 18th Century Munich, where you can hear Mozart’s piano sonata, to a classical Indian raga in 1700s Udaipur, to New York in the 1940s, where readers can press Charlie Parker’s saxophone to hear bebop Jazz, this book will teach children about cultural history, famous musicians and musical genres all while wanting to press the buttons and hear the music again and again.

Each musician tells you about where they live, how their music was inspired, and what it means to them, teaching children about the origins of these most magical melodies.

A great playtime or bedtime read, complete with a soundtrack that tracks key moments in musical history, children will love to listen to the most beautiful and important, genre defining bars of music time and time again.

A "Reading Rainbow" Feature Title

Zum, zum, buzz.... zum, zum, buzz...

What's that strange buzz coming from the double bass? Berlioz has no time to investigate, because he and his bear orchestra are due at the gala ball in the village square at eight. But Berlioz is so worried about his buzzing bass that he steers the mule and his bandwagon full of magicians into a hole in the road and gets stuck.

Time is running out, and if a rooster, a cat, a billy goat, a plow horse, and an ox can't rescue the bandwagon, who can?

As the suspense mounts, intricate borders reveal the village animals making their way to the square one by one. When the clock chimes eight, the animals, ready to dance, have filled the square-but there's no sign of Berlioz.

Jan Brett's glorious illustrations invite the eye to linger over exquisite details and humorous nuances that enhance the story. This delightful cumulative tale is one that will be looked at again and again.

The winning personality of Corduroy meets the fable-like storytelling of Extra Yarn in this uplifting story about a dog and his music amidst a changing Paris.

Meet Maurice: a gifted canine who was born to share his songs with the world. Whether selling out the Palais Garnier or delighting Parisian pedestrians, music is Maurice's love language. But time and things change, and when the world stops paying attention, those notes fall flat. . . .

This transcendent journey of one busking dog, who combines the power of inner strength and the gift of friendship to arrive at true self-discovery, is sure to inspire young dreamers and lift all souls in a stirring celebration of the world's inherent beauty, welcoming all who seek it.

As readers follow Maurice through good times and bad in this beautifully illustrated children's book, his story shows that there's light at the end of the tunnel and even when we feel like we're at our lowest, we still have the power to meaningfully contribute to the world.

PASSIONATE AND PRESENT: Maurice is a character who loves what he does, and the joy he gets from playing music allows him to appreciate the little things in life. Whether it's simply saying hello to a neighbor or reveling in the world around him, his character is present and ready with a smile, showing that if we can find it within ourselves to pursue what we love, what drives us, we are able to make the world a brighter place to be.

PERENNIAL MESSAGE: Whether you're inside your home or listening to music echoing along the streets of Paris, the world can feel like a turbulent, chaotic place. This uplifting story shows that it's possible to weather great change and that even hard times eventually come to an end.

GORGEOUS WATERCOLOR ARTWORK: Each page of this charming book set in Paris is awash with color and details to delight the eyes and the heart. Although he's a dog that plays the accordion, Maurice is a character almost everyone can recognize in the real world, and each scene reminds us how music like Maurice's scores city streets, parks, plazas, and markets. Readers young, old, and in between will love this fresh, deeply felt story about those members of society we may forget to appreciate despite their impact on us all.

REASSURING MESSAGE: Inevitably in life, there are moments of loneliness and sadness. This story comforts young readers by showing them that, even when we feel alone and forgotten, there is always an audience and a community that will listen and accept us. All we have to do is share ourselves with those around us.

Perfect for:

• Dog lovers and music lovers
• Parents and grandparents seeking kids' books about music, generosity, empathy, and community
• Teachers and librarians to add to their picture book collection for toddler, preschool, and early readers
• Fans of such classics as Madeline, The Story of Ferdinand, and Where the Wild Things Are

Little Worm finds a song stuck in his head--and learns that his friends all have songs of their own to listen to.

Groovy Joe is back, and this time he's singing a groovy rendition of a favorite preschool song! Are you ready to sing along?

"If you're groovy and you know it, the things you do will show it!" #1 New York Times bestsellers Eric Litwin (Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes) and Tom Lichtenheld (Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site) are back, and adding a groovy twist to the classic children's song "If You're Happy and You Know It." This story will have little ones singing, dancing, and grooving along to a new favorite beat. Signature rhyme, repetition, and musical writing style, combined with wild and witty illustrations, come together to create a character that will have you singing all day long. Groovy Joe is back, ready to get groovy!

How to get baby to sleep? Mami and Papi will try anything in this bouncy, loving, bilingual lullaby that gently says good night in both Spanish and English.

Mami starts a salsa song.
Papi keeps the beat.
Baby loves this lullaby,
moves those dancing feet.

Baila, baby, baila!
Dance, dance, dance.

When nighttime falls, it's time for baby to go to sleep. In this household, that means it's also time for mama, papa, and baby to baila/dance, canta/sing, salta/jump, and more all the way to bedtime!

This bouncy bilingual text and gorgeous, inviting illustrations gently wind down to make this a bedtime favorite no matter what language families say "good night" in!

The music turned into color and light and filled the room.



A young boy remembers quietly watching his father read the paper and sip a cup of coffee. He remembers his sweet momma, who lovingly pressed away the wrinkles on his clothes. Then one day, his father is gone and his momma falls ill. But through his love of music he feels his father's warm hugs and his mother's kisses. He learns to relax, shine, and dream as the music fills his soul.



From four-time Caldecott honoree Bryan Collier comes a moving and gorgeously illustrated exploration of healing the soul through music.

This best-selling Little Einsteins book is making its paperback debut. Join Leo, Annie, June, Quincy, and Rocket as they explore a meadow. Young readers will have fun imitating the many sounds of the meadow, such as buzzing bees and chirping grasshoppers.

Old Crow Medicine Show founder and Grammy award-winning musician Ketch Secor teams up with Ashley Bryan Award-winning illustrator Higgins Bond to create this sweeping, epic Americana story about the power of music and family.

"Who needs a whistle or some shiny thing

when you've got a voice and a song that can sing!

Lorraine and her Pa Paw spend their days celebrating life with the music of the Tennessee hills. With Pa Paw's harmonica and Lorraine's pennywhistle, the pair can face just about anything. But when a fearsome storm rolls in and their instruments are nowhere to be found, can Lorraine find the music inside herself to get them through?

It’s Rappy the Raptor’s first day of school, and he’s having a hard time keeping his cool!

But when Rappy spots a classmate being bullied, he finds the nerve to speak up—in rhyme, of course! Parents and kids will snap, tap, and dance first-day jitters away with this funny school story with dino-size heart.

What’s today’s date?

I don’t want to be late!

Is it time to go?

Does anyone know?

Full of joy and discovery, Louis Thomas' The Music of Life is a simple, melodious picture book about finding big inspiration and beauty in the smallest of details.

At night when everyone else is asleep, one artist sits awake--pencil in hand, stuck. Lenny is a composer, but this evening, no music floats from his head.

Then as night breaks into dawn, Lenny's cat, Pipo, begins lapping milk. Lick lick lick. Birds yawn awake, singing in the trees. Tweet tweet! A bike bell tings on the street below. Suddenly, Lenny notices a rhythm to the world around him. He pulls on his coat and walks through the city to write down every sound he can find. Lenny listens to a gardener, a jogger, a dogwalker, and more neighborhood characters.

Finally, the morning's sounds culminate in a sun-dappled symphony that Lenny conducts in the center of the park.

Mina Grime is unlucky, unpopular and uncoordinated; that is until she saves her crush's life on a field trip, changing her High School status from loser to hero overnight. But with her new found fame brings misfortune in the form of an old family curse come to light. For Mina is a descendant from the Brothers Grimm and has inherited all of their unfinished fairy tale business which includes trying to outwit a powerful Story from making her it's next fairy-tale victim. To break the fairy tale curse on her family and make these deadly occurrences stop, Mina must finish the tales until the very Grimm end.

In the Robin Hood reimagining, a beautiful maiden poaches to feed the poor, while a handsome forester is on a mission to catch her.

The margrave owns the finest hunting grounds for miles around--and who teaches children to read, but by night this young beauty has become the secret lifeline to the poorest of the poor.

For Jorgen Hartman, the margrave's forester, tracking down a poacher is a duty he is all too willing to perform. Jorgen inherited his post from the man who raised him . . . a man who was murdered at the hands of a poacher.

When Jorgen and Odette meet at the Midsummer festival and share a connection during a dance, neither has any idea that they are already adversaries.

The one man she wants is bound by duty to capture her; the one woman he loves is his cunning target . . . What becomes of a forester who protects a notorious poacher? What becomes of a poacher when she is finally discovered?

From New York Times bestselling author Melanie Dickerson, The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest is a story of danger and love.

Praise for The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest:

"The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest reminds me of why adults should read fairy tales. Author Melanie Dickerson shoots straight to the heart with a cast of compelling characters, an enchanting story world, and romance and suspense in spades. Reaching The End was regrettable--but oh, what an ending!" --Laura Frantz, bestselling author of The Lacemaker

"Melanie Dickerson does it again! Full of danger, intrigue, and romance, this beautifully crafted story will transport you to another place and time." --Sarah E. Ladd, bestselling author of The Governess of Penwythe Hall

"Melanie Dickerson's The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest is a lovely, romantic read set during one of the most fascinating time periods. Featuring a feisty, big-hearted heroine and a hero to root for, this sweet medieval tale is wrapped in a beautiful journey of faith that had me flipping pages well after my bedtime. Delightful!" --Tamara Leigh, USA TODAY bestselling author of Baron of Godsmere

"Melanie Dickerson weaves a tantalizing Robin Hood plot in a medieval setting in The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest. She pits a brave heroine with unique talents against a strong, gentle hero whose occupation makes it dangerous to know him. Add the moral dilemma and this tale makes a compelling read for any age." --Ruth Axtell, author of She Shall Be Praised and The Rogue's Redemption

"For stories laden with relatable heroines, romantically adventurous plots, once-upon-a-time settings, and engaging writing, Melanie Dickerson is your go-to author. Her books are on my never-to-be-missed list." --Kim Vogel Sawyer, author of When Mercy Rains

Going to the Fae plane against Jared's orders has cost Mina dearly. Her decision haunts her as a new danger surfaces back on the human plane. The Grimms are fading from existence. To save her family's future, Mina Grime will have to travel to the past with the help of her Fae Godmother and a pair of magic shoes. She must go to the Story's very beginning, to the days before the dark prince's reign. But can she finish her quest before her time runs out, or will she be trapped in the past forever?

Peasant girls don't mingle with dragons, princes, and beastly curses...or so Felicity thought

After a lifetime with a grief-stricken father and a self-absorbed brother, Felicity isn't daunted by sacrifice. But when protecting her father means falling afoul of the curse that has swallowed the Summer Castle, and Prince Justin along with it, her own safety is not all that's at stake. The prince's monstrous form is the least of her concerns-the whole castle has been trapped by his pride, and his absence from the capital is driving the kingdom to ruin.

Justin was born to be a king, not a beast. Between the inhuman coldness he learned from his father, the humiliation of his cursed form, and his powerlessness against his hidden enemies back in the capital, laughter is the last thing on his mind. But even though she's a prisoner, nothing seems to dampen the intruder's maddening cheerfulness. Justin has to break his curse, and he needs someone like Felicity to do it. But as she begins to thaw the ice around his heart, he discovers her past is not what it seems.

With time running out, not just for the castle's inhabitants, but for the kingdom of Albury, they will need more than the help of a dragon to break the curse and prevent disaster before it's too late. But for all Felicity's warmth and laughter, even she could never look at Justin and like what she sees.

Could she?

Kingdom of Beauty is the first installment in The Kingdom Tales, a series of interconnected standalone novels set on the continent of Solstice, where dragons do their own thing, enchanters run amok, and happily ever afters require some chasing. If you enjoy strong heroines, clean romance, and fantasy worlds with a dash of intrigue, discover the world of The Kingdom Tales today.

Daria has spent her whole life caring for others, so when she's rescued by traveling merchants while fleeing for her life, she's more than happy to work for them in return for her safety. But danger follows her, as does Prince Percy. Daria thought she'd left the complications of balls and royalty behind her, but she can't hide as a servant forever-not when whole kingdoms are at risk.

If you enjoy clean romance, adventure, and intrigue, then try the books in the Return to the Four Kingdoms series now! These interconnected fairy tale retellings each feature a different heroine who must fight to save her new home and win her happily ever after.

The only thing worse than being cursed to sleep is being the only one left awake

Unlike everyone around her, Princess Azalea has never been especially troubled by the curse placed on her at her christening. But, as her sixteenth birthday approaches, even Ben-usually her only sanctuary from her well-meaning protectors-starts to worry. Not to mention he begins acting strangely about the betrothal that's bound them since childhood. Being forced to marry her best friend has always seemed like a far bigger problem than a mere curse-until the unthinkable happens.

Prince Bentleigh has been in a quandary for some time. How do you go about winning a girl who's already yours, whether she wants to be or not? Any hope of finding an answer withers the moment Azalea pricks her finger and is ripped from him. The magic powering her enchanted sleep is so strong, the whole kingdom succumbs during the hours of darkness. And nothing else matters but finding a way to wake her up.

Except Azalea isn't asleep. At least, not once the sun sets. And with the rest of the kingdom in an unnatural slumber, there's no one but her to fight the deadly magic creeping into the heart of her kingdom. As the curse becomes more aggressive, Azalea and Bentleigh grow increasingly desperate-enough to risk war with the dragons, their own lives...even their hearts.

If they can't break the curse-and soon-Listernia will fall. But if they do what must be done, they'll lose all hope of a future they once thought inevitable.

Kingdom of Slumber is the second installment in The Kingdom Tales, a series of interconnected standalone novels set on the continent of Solstice, where dragons do their own thing, enchanters run amok, and happily ever afters require some chasing. If you enjoy strong heroines, clean romance, and fantasy worlds with a dash of intrigue, discover the world of The Kingdom Tales today.

Aurelia carries the most powerful weapon in the kingdom-she just can't wield it

Stolen as a baby by an egotistical enchanter, Aurelia has spent her entire life locked in a tower, her impractically long hair serving as a vessel in which her captor can store his magic. Every day is predictable-at least, until Cyfrin's manner and experiments take an inexplicable turn. Now Aurelia's biggest challenge is convincing her fellow prisoner-the only mother she's ever known-that she's strong enough to handle the truth behind the enchanter's strange behavior. The trouble is, she'll first need to convince herself.

Prince Amell might be known for his restlessness, but he's grown out of his childish dreams of heroics...mostly. When a break out occurs at the prison containing all the continent's criminal magic-users, he's eager to join the manhunt. Little does he expect that, with the somewhat perplexing help of some dragons, he'll find something else entirely, lying hidden in the heart of his kingdom.

But the magic that holds Aurelia and her mother captive is like nothing Amell has seen before, and his failure to rescue them shows how far he actually is from the hero of his childhood fantasies. Both Aurelia and Amell will have to find a strength they didn't know they had in order to overcome the dark schemes in which Aurelia has played an unwilling part. And if they fail, more futures than hers will be lost to the man who stole her past.

Kingdom of Locks is the fifth installment in The Kingdom Tales, a series of interconnected standalone novels set on the continent of Solstice, where dragons do their own thing, enchanters run amok, and happily ever afters require some chasing. If you enjoy strong heroines, clean romance, and fantasy worlds with a dash of intrigue, discover the world of The Kingdom Tales today.

A New York Times Bestseller

Leave it to the heroes to save the world--villains just want to rule the world.

In this unique YA anthology, thirteen acclaimed, bestselling authors team up with thirteen influential BookTubers to reimagine fairy tales from the oft-misunderstood villains' points of view.

These fractured, unconventional spins on classics like "Medusa," Sherlock Holmes, and "Jack and the Beanstalk" provide a behind-the-curtain look at villains’ acts of vengeance, defiance, and rage--and the pain, heartbreak, and sorrow that spurned them on. No fairy tale will ever seem quite the same again!

Featuring writing from . . .

Authors: Renée Ahdieh, Amerie, Soman Chainani, Susan Dennard, Sarah Enni, Marissa Meyer, Cindy Pon, Victoria Schwab, Samantha Shannon, Adam Silvera, Andrew Smith, April Genevieve Tucholke, and Nicola Yoon.

BookTubers: Benjamin Alderson (Benjaminoftomes), Sasha Alsberg (abookutopia), Whitney Atkinson (WhittyNovels), Tina Burke (ChristinaReadsYA blog and TheLushables), Catriona Feeney (LittleBookOwl), Jesse George (JessetheReader), Zoë Herdt (readbyzoe), Samantha Lane (Thoughts on Tomes), Sophia Lee (thebookbasement), Raeleen Lemay (padfootandprongs07), Regan Perusse (PeruseProject), Christine Riccio (polandbananasBOOKS), and Steph Sinclair & Kat Kennedy (Cuddlebuggery blog and channel).

A New York Times Bestseller

Nicolette's awful stepsisters call her "Mechanica" to demean her, but the nickname fits: she learned to be an inventor at her mother's knee. Her mom is gone now, though, and the Steps have pushed her into a life of dreary servitude. When she discovers a secret workshop in the cellar on her sixteenth birthday--and befriends Jules, a tiny magical metal horse--Nicolette starts to imagine a new life for herself. And the timing may be perfect: There's a technological exposition and a royal ball on the horizon. Determined to invent her own happily-ever-after, Mechanica seeks to wow the prince and eager entrepreneurs alike.

Finding Baba Yaga is a mythic yet timely novel-in-verse by the beloved and prolific New York Times bestselling author and poet Jane Yolen, “the Hans Christian Andersen of America” (Newsweek).

A young woman discovers the power to speak up and take control of her fate—a theme that has never been more timely than it is now...

You think you know this story.
You do not.

A harsh, controlling father. A quiescent mother. A house that feels like anything but a home. Natasha gathers the strength to leave, and comes upon a little house in the wood: A house that walks about on chicken feet and is inhabited by a fairy tale witch. In finding Baba Yaga, Natasha finds her voice, her power, herself....

"Jane Yolen is a phenomenon: a poet and a mythmaker, who understands how old stories can tell us new things. We are lucky to have her."—Neil Gaiman

New York Times #1 bestselling author Alex Flinn reimagined the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast in Beastly and gave a twist to the story of Sleeping Beauty in A Kiss in Time. Now with her gothic and darkly romantic YA novel Towering, Alex Flinn retells the tale of Rapunzel.

When Rachel was taken to live in a tower by a woman she calls Mama, she was excited. She felt like a princess in a castle. But many years later, Rachel knows her palace is really a prison, and begins to plan her escape. She is encouraged by the speed with which her golden hair has been growing. It's gotten long enough to reach the ground. And she's begun dreaming of a green-eyed man. Could he be out there in the world? Is he coming to save her? Or will she find a way to save herself?

A tale of twelve princesses doomed to dance until dawn...

Galen is a young soldier returning from war; Rose is one of twelve princesses condemned to dance each night for the King Under Stone. Together Galen and Rose will search for a way to break the curse that forces the princesses to dance at the midnight balls. All they need is one invisibility cloak, a black wool chain knit with enchanted silver needles, and that most critical ingredient of all—true love—to conquer their foes in the dark halls below. But malevolent forces are working against them above ground as well, and as cruel as the King Under Stone has seemed, his wrath is mere irritation compared to the evil that awaits Galen and Rose in the brighter world above.

Captivating from start to finish, Jessica Day George's take on the Grimms' tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses demonstrates yet again her mastery at spinning something entirely fresh out of a story you thought you knew.

Cassie knows she was made for more than a life buried away in her uncle's remote forest estate. Eager to meet the great spymaster, Aurora, she jumps at the chance to travel to her distant kingdom. But meeting Aurora isn't enough-Cassie wants to prove her worth. So when she's presented with an opportunity to gather intelligence, she acts.

When her plans go awry, Cassie finds herself living on the streets in a distant city. But despite the failure that brought her here, Cassie can't afford to give up. Kingdom-shaking danger is brewing in these lands, and she may be the only one who can save the Four Kingdoms. Cassie won't let anything stand in her way-not the biting heat of the desert, not the distracting way her heart responds to the mysterious, attractive stranger who insists on staying close, not the layers of secrets hiding beneath the surface of her new home.

In this reimagining of the classic fairy tale, Aladdin, a girl from the streets must navigate treasure caves, palaces, and a magic lamp if she wants to rescue herself and save four kingdoms as well.

If you enjoy clean romance, adventure, and intrigue, then try the books in the Return to the Four Kingdoms series now! These interconnected fairy tale retellings each feature a different heroine who finds herself friendless in a strange land and who must fight to save her new home and win her happily ever after.

She's hounded from every side by treacherous elements and foes, but her greatest enemy lies within.

In the mountains near France, the medieval Princess Elyce is being forced to marry, thus forming an alliance that will enrich her father but enslave her kingdom. Instead, she chooses to feign her death and flee to Prague to beg King Wenceslaus to help save her people.

In England, the young knight Sir Gerard has a vision from God instructing him to help Elyce on her quest. When he arrives to find she has been near death for days, he manages to revive her. However, thinking the stranger was trying to kiss her, the princess immediately distrusts him. But her desperate situation forces her to accept his aid.

Pursued by her enemy's guards over mountainous terrain, they must also battle the deadly winter elements. Her greatest challenge may be to overcome the voices of disapproval and accusation from her childhood. Will her emotions lead her into her true identity, or will they undermine her ability to work with Gerard and to save her people, who desperately need her help?

In this dazzling and romantic story, New York Times bestselling author Melanie Dickerson takes the classic Sleeping Beauty fairy tale to satisfying new heights.

"When it comes to happily-ever-afters, Melanie Dickerson is the undisputed queen." --Julie Lessman, award-winning author

• Sweet historical medieval romance
• Part of the Dericott series: Book 1: Court of Swans; Book 2: Castle of Refuge; Book 3: Veil of Winter; Book 4: Fortress of Snow
• Book length: 85,000 words
• Includes discussion questions for book clubs

"The Little Mermaid" takes a twisted turn in this thrilling sequel to villainess origin story Sea Witch, as the forces of land and sea clash in an epic battle for freedom, redemption, and true love.

Runa will not let her twin sister die. Alia traded her voice to the Sea Witch for a shot at happiness with a prince who doesn't love her. And his rejection will literally kill her--unless Runa intervenes.

Under the sea, Evie craves her own freedom--but liberation from her role as Sea Witch will require an exchange she may not be willing to make. With their hearts' desires at odds, what will Runa and Evie be willing to sacrifice to save their worlds?

Told from alternating perspectives, this epic fairy tale retelling is a romantic and heart-wrenching story about the complications of sisterhood, the uncompromising nature of magic, and the cost of redemption.

This full-color, illustrated companion novel to The Cats of Tanglewood Forest includes "beautiful bookmaking, lovely storytelling, and wondrous illustrations....Readers will be enchanted" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). This captivating adventure from two masters of modern fantasy is a story of magic, family, and the power in believing in both.

Sarah Jane has always wanted to meet a fairy, but she has no idea that the tiny wounded man she discovers in the Tanglewood Forest is about to ensnare her in a longtime war between rival magical clans. When her six sisters are kidnapped and split up by the opposing sides, she'll need the help of several friends--from the reclusive Aunt Lillian to the mysterious Apple Tree Man--to bring them home. But if they don't untangle themselves from the feud quickly, they could all be trapped in the fairy world forever. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly noted "the lyrical narrative blends a contemporary setting with a fairy tale that might have been plucked from a distinctly different time and place."

Like a bolt from the blue, Jack's little sister Maddy is gone—carried into another realm by an ogre.

When Jack and Lilly follow Maddy’s captor through the portal, they are ready for anything . . . except what they find waiting for them in the floating crossroads between worlds. Even the power of their magic plants may not be enough to get them back to earth alive.

Alone and injured, Jack and Lilly must each face their own monsters—as well as giants who grind the bones of human children to feed their “beast” and a fearsome goblin king in the sewers down below.

But when Jack finds himself in a tough spot, help comes from the most unlikely person: the goblin king!

Ben Hatke, the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Zita the Spacegirl, concludes his latest middle-grade fantasy-adventure graphic novel series, Mighty Jack, with the energetic finale to his retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Would you send a villain to do a hero's job? An exciting new twisted fairy tale series from award-winning author Jen Calonita.
Full of regret, Cinderella's wicked stepmother, Flora, has founded the Fairy Tale Reform School with the mission of turning the wicked and criminally mischievous into upstanding members of Enchantasia.

Impish, sassy 12-year-old Gilly has a history of petty theft and she's not too sorry about it. When she lifts a hair clip, she gets tossed in reform school—for at least three months. But when she meets fellow students Jax and Kayla, she learns there's more to this school than its sweet mission. There's a battle brewing and she starts to wonder: can a villian really change?

Magic, friendship, and adventure are the perfect ingredients for a new twisted fairy tales Branches series from Anna Staniszewski

Pick a book. Grow a Reader

This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line Branches, aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow

Kara and Zed are ready for a new adventure When Prince Charming loses the girl and the glass slipper, Kara knows this is her chance to find the shoe, foil an evil plot, and save the day. But will Kara and Zed fix the prince's happily ever after, or wind up thrown in a dungeon? Macky Pamintuan's illustrations are on every page, welcoming readers into the adorably silly world of the Once Upon a Fairy Tale series.

Cinderella's secret stepsister is in trouble for something she didn't do—will she get kicked out of the castle? The second book in the Sisters Ever After series, perfect for anyone who loves fairy tale retellings about sisters and princesses!

Meet Cinderella’s third “wicked” stepsister, Tirza. For years, Tirza has lived with the shame of what her family did to Cinderella. Against everyone’s advice, Cinderella—now Queen Ella—took a chance on young Tirza. She gave Tirza a home in the castle instead of banishing her. The queen told everyone Tirza was good and kind, not cruel like her older sisters.

But now Queen Ella’s famous glass slippers are missing, and there’s only one suspect. . . .

Tirza may have tried them on . . . but she didn’t steal them. Now she must find the true thief before she loses her royal home. But as Tirza gets closer to the truth, she finds herself getting closer to something else: her sisters, who might not be quite as evil as Cinderella claims.

The first book in the Sisters Ever After series! Sleeping Beauty's younger sister has always lived in her shadow—until now. Perfect for anyone who loves fairy tale retellings about sisters and princesses!

For years, Briony has lived in the shadow of her beautiful older sister, Rosalin, and the curse that has haunted her from birth—that on the day of her sixteenth birthday she would prick her finger on a spindle and cause everyone in the castle to fall into a 100-year sleep. When the day the curse is set to fall over the kingdom finally arrives, nothing—not even Briony—can stop its evil magic.

You know the story.

But here's something you don't know. When Briony finally wakes up, it's up to her to find out what's really going on, and to save her family and friends from the murderous Thornwood. But who is going to listen to her? This is a story of sisterhood, of friendship, and of the ability of even little sisters to forge their own destiny.

The most important meal of the day is so much more fun with this collection of fairy tales and accompanying recipes. “The Magic Pot of Porridge” leads the way to an easy-to-follow recipe that will satisfy a hankering for a perfect pot of porridge. After reading the Norwegian tale called “The Runaway Pancake” fledgling cooks will be enticed into creating a variety of flavorful pancakes. Each book includes sidebars about the main ingredient or dishes and their role in various cultures and eras.

This lovely collection will make little ballerinas dance for joy! Inside, they'll find eight of the most beautiful ballet stories, including "Swan Lake," "Coppélia," "The Firebird," and of course, that perennial holiday favorite, "The Nutcracker." It's the perfect way to prepare a child for seeing a performance--or to keep the magic going afterward.

Fractured fairy tales meet modern day middle school in book two of this hilarious series that's perfect for fans of Shrek and Dork Diaries.
Even after rescuing the king from deadly Snuffweasels, Zarf is scum on the bottom rung of the middle school social ladder. After all, he is still a troll. But at least he still has his two best friends, Kevin and Chester . . . until Kevin disappears, that is. Now Zarf is at an all-time low. It seems a band of wolves are seeking revenge for the constant disgrace they've suffered over the years, and Little Red Ridinghood's kid might be next on their list. Now it's up to Zarf to crank out a solution from that troll brain of his, and save his best friend before it's too late.

Award-winning comic creator Rob Harrell has middle-grade humor mastered. This second book in his Life of Zarf series is packed with even more witty one-liners and clever twists on classic folk and fairytales. It's perfect for fans of Chris Colfer's Land of Stories series.

Praise for Life of Zarf: The Trouble with Weasels:

"Entertainingly goofy. A promising series kickoff full of off-kilter action and humor." --Publishers Weekly

"A Wimpy Kid format with a fairy-tale twist? Yes, this is bound to be a hit." --Booklist

"An enthralling, spooky, diverse collection." --KIRKUS

"An intriguing portal to folklore." --SHELF AWARENESS

"Readers will want to revisit this collection." --SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL

"Do you hear them? Never go outside when you hear THAT sound."

Ghostly warriors, angry gods, and monstrous tyrants? That's just thestart of this collection of folklore from the Pacific, retold in comics!

The fourth volume of the "Cautionary Fables and Fairytales" graphic novel series is a thrilling, funny, and totally new take on stories spanning the entirety of the region, with loads of lesser known myths and legends from the Philippines, New Zealand, Hawaii, and beyond. Featuring the work of TINTIN PANTOJA, PAOLO CHIKIAMCO, ROB CHAM, TOKERAU WILSON, and more!

When Little Red Riding Horse sets out to bring her grandmother a basket full of treats, a hungry wolf takes notice and decides to cause trouble! A whimsical farmyard retelling of the classic tale, Little Red Riding Horse uses easy-to-read sentences and colorful illustrations to help early readers practice their reading skills. This book also includes a page for caregivers and teachers that suggests engaging reading and writing prompts.

When a mean fairy doesn't get invited to her party, Sheeping Beauty is cursed to one day sleep for eternity! In this retelling of a classic fairy tale, Sheeping Beauty helps early readers build confidence in their reading skills by using simple sentences alongside colorful illustrations! Included is a page for caregivers and teachers that suggests creative writing and reading prompts.

Aquaman's underwater kingdom is facing a medical threat. Luckily, a sea witch offers him a rare plant to fight the sickness . . . in exchange for a hefty price. But the Sea King soon discovers she isn't just greedy. The old woman has locked the true crop owner in an enchanted coral tower! What's worse, the trapped mermaid thinks she's being protected not imprisoned, so her living seaweed hair is ready to fight off any stranger who climbs inside. Can the Atlantean hero partner with the coral captive to end the witch's fishy scheme? In this twisted retelling, DC Super Heroes and Super-Villains collide with the Rapunzel fairy tale to create an action-packed chapter book for kids!