New for Children
Fish Girl
by David Wiesner and Donna Jo Napoli
Caldecott winner David Wiesner brings his rich visual imagination and artistry to the graphic novel format in a unique coming-of-age tale that begins underwater. Fish Girl, a young mermaid in a boardwalk aquarium, has a chance encounter with an ordinary girl. Their friendship inspires Fish Girl’s longing for freedom, independence, and a life beyond the aquarium tank.
Twenty Yawns
by Jane Smiley
As her mom reads a bedtime story, Lucy drifts off. But later, she awakens in a dark, still room, and everything looks mysterious. How will she ever get back to sleep? Featuring lyrical text and beautiful illustrations, this bedtime tale evokes the splashy fun of the beach and the quietude of a moonlit night, with 20 yawns sprinkled in for children to discover and count.
New for Young Adults
Empress of a Thousand Skies
by Rhoda Belleza
After her family perished under suspicious circumstances, Rhee, the last empress of a powerful dynasty, grew up in exile. Now Rhee has come of age to claim her throne and to avenge her family, but on the eve of her coronation, she is brutally attacked and barely escapes with her life. Across the galaxy, pilot Alyosha has found fame as the star of a reality holo-vision show. But when he is falsely accused of killing Rhee, he goes from celebrity to fugitive.
When their paths collide, Rhee and Aly discover the attack is part of a larger plan with devastating consequences for the entire galaxy. With planets on the brink of war, they must fight to save their lives and the fate of the universe.
Girl Rising: Changing the World One Girl at a Time
by Tanya Lee Stone
Girl Rising, a global campaign for girls’ education, created a film that chronicled the stories of nine girls in the developing world, allowing viewers the opportunity to witness how education can break the cycle of poverty. Now, author Tanya Lee Stone uses new research to illuminate the dramatic facts behind the film. She examines barriers to education in depth—early child marriage and childbearing, slavery, sexual trafficking, gender discrimination, and poverty—and shows how removing these barriers means not only a better life for girls, but safer, healthier, and more prosperous communities.
New for Adults
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.
by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland
When Melisande Stokes, an expert in linguistics and languages, accidentally meets military intelligence operator Tristan Lyons at Harvard University, it is the beginning of a chain of events that will alter their lives and human history itself. Tristan, a young man from a shadowy government entity, approaches Mel, a low-level faculty member, offering her a large sum of money to translate some very old documents. If authentic, the documents prove that magic actually existed and was practiced for centuries. But the arrival of the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment weakened its power and endangered its practitioners. Magic stopped working altogether in 1851, at the time of the world’s fair celebrating the rise of industrial technology and commerce. Something about the modern world “jams” the “frequencies” used by magic, and it’s up to Tristan to find out why. And so the Department of Diachronic Operations (D.O.D.O.) begins its real mission: to develop a device that can bring magic back, and send Diachronic Operatives back in time to keep it alive…and meddle with a little history.
The Essex Serpent
by Sarah Perry
Cora Seaborne’s marriage was not a happy one, and when her husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with as much relief as sadness. Wed at 19, seeking refuge in fresh air and open space in the wake of the funeral, Cora leaves London for a visit to coastal Essex, accompanied by her inquisitive and obsessive son, Francis, and the boy’s nanny, Martha, her fiercely protective friend.
While admiring the sites, Cora learns an intriguing rumor that has arisen farther up the estuary, of a fearsome creature said to roam the marshes claiming human lives. After nearly 300 years, the mythical Essex Serpent is said to have returned. A keen amateur naturalist with no patience for religion or superstition, Cora is immediately enthralled, and certain that what the local people think is a magical sea beast may be a previously undiscovered species. Eager to investigate, she is introduced to local vicar William Ransome who is convinced the rumors are caused by moral panic, a flight from true belief. These seeming opposites who agree on nothing soon find themselves inexorably drawn together and torn apart—an intense relationship that will change both of their lives.
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