New for Children
Fall of the School for Good and Evil
by Soman Chainani
Two brothers who rule the School for Good and Evil in exchange for power and immortality find their loyalty corrupted, bringing them to the brink of war and a shocking conclusion that will change the course of the school forever.
Home Away from Home
by Cynthia Lord
Mia is spending her summer with her grandmother in a small Maine town, expecting it to be an oasis of stability in her changing life, but there’s a new know-it-all boy next door. Soon she finds herself competing with him in identifying an injured bird … and pretty much everything else.
The Poodle of Doom
by Susan Tan
Lucy’s grandmother Poh Poh and her poodle Fluffy arrive for a visit, and Fluffy immediately begins building a doomsday machine that will hypnotize humans and turn them into agents of chaos. Can the neighborhood pets outsmart this evil genius?.
New for Teens
A Starlet’s Secret to a Sensational Afterlife
by Kendall Kulper
A budding starlet and her handsome-but-moody co-star go from bitter enemies to reluctant partners when they get tangled up in the disappearance of a beautiful young actress in 1930s Hollywood. Together, they might be the only people in Hollywood who can do something about these poor missing girls. And in doing so they might just fall in love for real.
This caper by the author of “Murder for the Modern Girl” combines romance, vengeance, and a hint of the supernatural, set in the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Harvest House
by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Halloween is near and Hughie Wolfe is volunteering at a new rural attraction: Harvest House. He’s excited to take part in the fun, spooky show until he learns that an actor playing the vengeful spirit of an “Indian maiden,” a ghost inspired by local legend, will be the star of the performance.
Folklore aside, unusual things have been happening at night at the crossroads near Harvest House. A creepy man is stalking teenage girls and young women, particularly Indigenous women, dogs are on edge, and wild animals are behaving strangely. While Hughie weighs how and when to speak up about the bigoted legend, he and his friends begin to investigate the crossroads and whether it might be haunted after all. As the moon rises on All Hallow’s Eve, will they be able to protect themselves and their community.
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New for Adults
Of Mud & Honey
by Roxana Trabulsi
In November 1967, as the reign of imperialism gives way to Communist control in Yemen, Dara and Silloo Baruchas’ serene life is interrupted. Things take a violent turn when they are targeted by members of the revolution, and their strength, love, and faith are pushed to the limits. The family business is seized, Dara is whisked away as a political prisoner, and Silloo is put under house arrest with her children and mother-in-law. As Dara and Silloo embark on their separate harrowing journeys in the hopes of being reunited, they are bombarded by challenges. Will they make it out alive?
Based on a true story, “Of Mud & Honey” captures the ugliness of a country torn apart by the fight for independence while exemplifying the beauty of good deeds and the bounty that hope can bestow.
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The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
by James McBride
In 1972 when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, they found a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the grocery store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, Chona and the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater worked together to keep the boy safe. As these characters’ stories overlap, it becomes clear how much the people who live on the margins of white, Christian America struggle and what they must do to survive.
