From the recommendations of bookseller and kids’ author Rosanne Parry, here are three middle grade novels perfect for 9- to 14-year-olds: The Artifact Hunters by Janet Fox is like Harry Potter set in a magical school in Scotland. But, unlike Harry Potter, the characters travel through time in an attempt to solve real historical problems and keep the dangers of the …
This delightfully illustrated graphic memoir is an emotional and straightforward account of self-discovery and acceptance. Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, explores coming to terms with eir genderqueer identity and asexuality in a way that is personal, thoughtful, and educational. Kobabe’s self-aware recollections range from uncomfortable and painful to awkward and joyful and liberating. The artwork …
From the blog of Third Place Books (Lake Forest Park, Ravenna, Seward Park), WA. By Allie. We are so excited to celebrate Latinx authors and the contributions they make to the literary world! In fraught times, it is important to celebrate the diversity that truly makes this country great. And I may be biased as …
Last Friday afternoon, as part of the week’s virtual regional trade show, booksellers from around the Pacific Northwest watched members of the PNBA Book Awards Committee present a selection of books they are excited about for the 2021 Book Awards. This post is the second part of the list of books mentioned during that session. …
Last Friday afternoon, as part of the week’s virtual regional trade show, booksellers from around the Pacific Northwest watched members of the PNBA Book Awards Committee present a selection of books they are excited about for the 2021 Book Awards. About 400 titles have been nominated for the award (more were arriving during the conference). …
From Broadway Books in Portland, OR: Last year we were excited to host The Year of Reading James Baldwin at Broadway Books. This year we are elated to announce that starting September 1st, we are hosting The Year of Reading Toni Morrison. As with our James Baldwin year, this means we will be offering ALL of Ms. Morrison’s many …
Have you read Adriana Herrera yet? Adriana Herrera has quickly become one of my must-read authors. The first novel in her American Dreamers quartet (American Dreamer) is the story of Dominican-American food truck owner Nesto and librarian Jude. Like all of Herrera’s books, it is full of food, family (biological and found), and flirting. It’s …
This summer a highly anticipated title is the YA debut by the author of the adult title Mem. Morrow sets her story in a contemporary alternative world where portions of the population have various mythical abilities and identities. Inherent in these identities are built in assumptions and prejudices, the most heightened of which are towards “sirens,” …
Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Nickel Boys, is out in paperback. . . The Nickel Boys follows Elwood Curtis as he is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy. Curtis falls in with a fellow “delinquent” named Turner, and the novel explores the very different reactions to the terrible system that …
Saidiya Hartman’s Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments contains some of the most imaginative, inventive, and radical history writing I’ve ever encountered. Taking as her subjects the black women excluded from the US historical archive, Hartman challenges and unsettles dominant understandings of who “makes” history. In vibrant and ecstatic prose, Hartman tells the story of how the wayward, the …
