Table of contents for Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23 in Booklist

Letter from the Editor

Banned Books Week is October 1–7, 2023. Please visit bannedbooksweek.org for resources and information that may be helpful as you and your colleagues navigate these difficult and challenging times for your library system. This site is maintained and updated by ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom in partnership with the Banned Books Week Coalition. This issue of Booklist also features informative articles on the topic, which we hope will be supportive to you and your colleagues. First, Booklist’s Adult Books Editor Donna Seaman’s “Banned Books and the First Amendment” (p.8) succinctly frames why content across ALA on this topic is so important: “Our hope is that by being well-informed, we, the readers, will be empowered.” Next, in his compelling essay, “Library Workers as First Responders” (p.14), acclaimed poet and novelist Chris…

2 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

Banned Books and the First Amendment

To mark Banned Books Week during a time of intense challenges, we recommend the books below. Each attests to the long history of book banning, censorship, and other attacks on our First Amendment rights and valiant efforts to fight back. An essential aspect of the battle to protect our freedom of access to books and our freedom to read is awareness of the law and how it has been threatened and defended. These works, including excellent reference titles, present the facts and offer frontline testimony. Our hope is that by being well-informed, we, the readers, will be empowered. Critical Insights: Censored & Banned Literature. Ed. by Robert C. Evans. 2019. Grey House, $105 (9781642650280). Books have been censored and banned for centuries. This volume contains essays about banned books in general…

4 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

Top 10 Food Books

An A–Z of Pasta: Recipes for Shapes and Sauces, from Alfabeto to Ziti, and Everything in Between. By Rachel Roddy. 2023. Knopf, $37 (9780593535394). Spinning sentences like an elegant twirl of spaghetti on a fork, Roddy will have pasta enthusiasts enthralled by this beautifully crafted guide to often simple, sometimes obscure, and always authentic mouthwatering recipes. For the Culture: Phenomenal Black Women and Femmes in Food. By Klancy Miller. 2023. Harvest, $40 (9780358581277). In recipes and interviews, writer and pastry chef Miller celebrates Black women and femmes in food-related fields, from farm managers to cookbook authors. Have You Eaten Yet? Stories from Chinese Restaurants around the World. By Cheuk Kwan. 2023. Pegasus, $27.95 (9781639363346). Kwan’s extensive travels offer readers marvelous insights into how Chinese people have enhanced cultures and communities…

2 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

Youth Nonfiction

Older Readers The Brontës of Haworth Moor: How the Three Daughters of a Country Parson Became the Most Revolutionary Novelists of Their Time. By Diane Browning. Illus. by the author. Nov. 2023. 256p. Rowman & Littlefield, $34 (9781538172315); e-book, $32 (9781538172322). Gr. 8–12. 823.809. In the 1820s and 1830s, Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne Brontë were growing up in the village of Haworth, Yorkshire. Their father, who had liberal views on educating women, sometimes sent his daughters to boarding schools and sometimes taught them at home. The children entertained themselves with creative play, walking on the nearby moor, and writing stories. As adults, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne each found work as a teacher or governess (the only suitable jobs available to daughters of clergymen) before writing novels that were published…

8 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

Spotlight on Series Nonfiction

Older Readers Endangered Whales. By Clara MacCarald. 2023. 64p. illus. ReferencePoint/BrightPoint, lib. ed., $32.95 (9781678206505). Gr. 6–10. 599.5168. This volume in the Focus on Endangered Species series (5 titles) opens with a realistic scenario (a North Atlantic right whale ensnared in ropes used by crab trappers), an introduction to the challenges whales face, and bulleted facts about commercial whaling and its impact on whale survival. Utilizing a high-low format, straightforward writing, and numerous photos, individual chapters highlight four endangered whale species: North Atlantic right, sei, blue, and gray. After relating the whale’s physical characteristics, diet, lifespan, and population size, each chapter focuses on threats to these immense animals, including ship strikes, fishing line entanglement, a decrease in krill, climate change, continued commercial whaling in some areas, and orca attacks. Descriptions…

34 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

Phonics and Decodable Readers

Decodable readers go hand-in-hand with phonics-based approaches to reading, as they allow novice readers to apply the letter sounds they’ve learned to written language, gradually increasing in complexity through the additions of sound-letter combinations, e.g., blends (st—two sounds) and digraphs (ch—one sound) and multisyllabic words. These simple readers emphasize decoding (using the alphabet sounds they know to sound out words) rather than learning to read through memorization and context clues drawn from illustrations and predictable text patterns (common features of leveled readers). Many series nonfiction publishers have developed series around this tried-and-true method of learning to read. Here are a few such series publishing in the Fall 2023 season. ABDO Zoom’s Launch! imprint is geared toward the youngest readers and has several series dedicated to early literacy, including Blends &…

4 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

High-Demand Hot List for Youth

Are You Big? By Mo Willems. Illus. by the author. Union Square Kids, $17.99 (9781454948186). PreS–K. Feb. 2024. Fan-favorite Willems turns to nonfiction in this boldly illustrated concept book exploring the world of relative size and scale. Barracoon: Adapted for Young Readers: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo.” By Zora Neale Hurston and Ibram X. Kendi. Illus. by Jazzmen Lee-Johnson. Amistad, $18.99 (9780063098336). Gr. 5–8. Jan. 2024. With a careful hand and plenty of context, Kendi here adapts for young people Hurston’s account of her interviews with Cudjo Lewis, one of the last Africans to survive abduction from his homeland and enslavement in America. Heroes: A Novel of Pearl Harbor. By Alan Gratz. Scholastic, $18.99 (9781338736076). Gr. 3–7. Feb. 2024. Best-selling Gratz is back with another propulsive novel set…

1 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

Adult Nonfiction

Philosophy & Psychology Data Baby: My Life in a Psychological Experiment. By Susannah Breslin. Nov. 2023. 224p. Legacy Lit, $29 (9780306926006); e-book (9780306925993). 155.2. Shortly after her birth, Breslin was enrolled in the Block Study at the University of California, Berkeley, a 30-year study of human development. Having spent the first half of her life under this surveillance, Breslin grew up knowing herself to be a “human lab rat.” In this vulnerable memoir, Breslin goes over the course of her life and the obstacles the Block Study could neither predict nor prepare her for: her parents’ divorce, her battle with depression, a meandering career. While Breslin has worked as an investigative reporter for a significant chunk of her life, her inquiry into the Block Study could be more developed. The…

41 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

Library Workers as First Responders

I met my wife during the pandemic. We got married, got pregnant, bought a house, and moved to Skokie, a small northern suburb of Chicago, and had a child in short order. Unremarkable in the way many suburbs are when you pass through them, Skokie is interesting in its diversity, with over 70 languages spoken in a small area. As the pandemic raged, my wife battled with postpartum symptoms, and I mostly looked on, trying my best to help but failing in that way that many men are still gifted at. And just when it seemed we would both go under, we plucked up the courage to go into the Skokie Public Library, which we knew about from local legend. After the extreme isolation, what a thing to step into…

4 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

Read-alikes Comics Cookbooks

Images are an essential part of learning a new recipe, and while the vast majority of cookbooks feature photography, illustrations, especially in the form of comics, can be a particularly effective visual aid: comics can incorporate instructive diagrams, highlight key actions or techniques, and distill directions down to their essential components, all in an approachable, inviting package. Mariah-Rose Marie’s Cook like Your Ancestors, review adjacent, offers a tight selection of globally inspired recipes presented in a largely visual format that demystifies cooking processes and encourages trusting intuition in the kitchen. Visual learners who appreciate Marie’s approach will find similar tactics in the following comics, which range from food writing with aesthetically designed visual recipes to more traditionally arranged cookbooks dense with detailed comics artwork. Cook Korean! A Comic Book with…

2 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

Carte Blanche Tyrants, Philistines, and Zealots, Oh My

In a recent New York Times essay, critic A. O Scott called them “tyrants, philistines, religious zealots and hysterical parents.” So who are we talking about? Why, book banners, of course, those benighted folks who seem to insist that kids may only read Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm or their very souls are in peril and their minds subject to indoctrination. Unfortunately, bans are proliferating. Consider: according to ALA, the number of challenges it receives annually has been growing exponentially. In 2021, for example, the organization’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) recorded 729 book challenges, then a new record. By 2022, only a year later, the number had nearly doubled, to 1,269, the highest number of attempted book bans since ALA began compiling data some 21 years ago. Attempted censorship, of…

5 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

SERIES NONFICTION ABOUT JOBS

Community Helpers For the youngest readers, series about jobs tend to focus on community helpers, with books dedicated to a single, common job. Creative Education’s Seedlings: Community Helpers series is one of the simplest for emerging and beginning readers. Short sentences in a large font describe basic job functions, while large photos depict community helpers in their work environment. Bus Drivers (2023) shows drivers with school, city, tour, and other buses and in a variety of settings and weather conditions. Jump!’s Meet the Community Helpers! series also looks at individual jobs, but in more detail. A Day with a Construction Worker (2022) follows a man and woman, both construction workers, as they build a house. Sentences with active verbs are enhanced with sight words identified in charming digital illustrations and…

5 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

Spanish Series Nonfiction

New Series Animales interesantes (Interesting Animals). ABDO/Kids Junior. Individual titles, lib. ed. $31.36. PreS–Gr. 2. (6 titles) Los animales más grandes del mundo (World’s Biggest Animals). Rosen/PowerKids. Individual titles, lib. ed. $25.27. Gr. 1–3. (6 titles) Animales sudamericanos (South American Animals). ABDO/Kids Jumbo. Individual titles, lib. ed. $32.79. PreS–Gr. 2. (6 titles) Bichos peligrosos (Dangerous Bugs). Black Rabbit/Bolt. Individual titles, lib. ed. $37.10. Gr. 2–4. (6 titles) Los ciclos de la vida (My Life Cycles). Capstone/Picture Window. Individual titles, lib. ed. $27.32. K–Gr. 2. (4 titles) Curiosidad por las marcas favoritas (Curious about Favorite Brands). Amicus Learning. Individual titles, lib. ed. $24.95. Gr. 1–4. (6 titles) Curiosidad por los deportes (Curious about Sports). Amicus Learning. Individual titles, lib. ed. $24.95. Gr. 1–4. (6 titles) La esclavitud en Estados Unidos y…

2 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

Audio

Adult The Beast You Are. By Paul Tremblay. Read by Johnny Heller and others. 2023. 11.5hr. HarperAudio, DD (9780063069992). This anthology contains 15 of Tremblay’s unsettling short stories, which vary from the grounded to the delectably strange. Standouts include “House of Windows,” in which a building appears out of nowhere and begins to expand into its surroundings; “The Dead Thing,” in which a young girl contending with her parents’ destructive substance abuse is confronted by her little brother’s revolting secret; and “The Last Conversation,” in which a nameless protagonist awakens and begins an isolated rehabilitation guided by an unseen doctor, only to make a devastating discovery. The anthology’s eponymous story (the fourth to feature a giant monster!) is the only one original to this collection. Inspired by Watership Down and…

19 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

Booklist Backlist

This list’s title is lifted from the indelible story collection, In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, by William H. Gass, a ravishing Midwest classic. The books below illuminate the core of the region by dramatizing the ups and downs of life on moody flatlands and in looming cities. So open and stagelike is the land, so enmeshed are families, the Midwest, as you will see, has inspired multivolume sagas. Bedrock Faith. By Eric Charles May. 2014. Akashic. Parkland is a close-knit, gossipy, middle-class neighborhood at the edge of “Chicago’s vast South Side” established by African American migrants from the Deep South. When Stew Pot Reeves returns after serving time, he ignites smoldering conflicts and disastrous chaos. Caramelo. By Sandra Cisneros. 2002. Knopf. Cisneros recounts the adventures and…

3 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

High-Demand Hot List

What sorts of high-demand titles are we seeing for early next year? A little bit of everything—memoirs, crime fiction, book-group reads, exciting nonfiction—which is just how we like it. 2020: One City, Seven People, and the Year Everything Changed. By Eric Klinenberg. Knopf, $32 (9780593319482). Feb. Sociologist and writer par excellence Klinenberg examines our recent past and the pandemic that needs no introduction through the lives of seven people. Anite de Monte Laughs Last. By Xochitl Gonzalez. Flatiron, $28.99 (9781250786210). Mar. A first-generation college student learns about a talented young artist’s mysterious death decades prior and becomes obsessed, recognizing shades of her own situation, in Gonzalez’s dual-perspective second novel. Anna O. By Matthew Blake. Harper, $30 (9780063314153). Jan. Buzz is building for this debut psychological thriller about a woman who…

2 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

Spotlight on Food

The Best American Food Writing, 2023. Ed. by Mark Bittman and Silvia Killingsworth. Oct. 2023. 208p. Mariner, paper, $18.99 (9780063322523); e-book (9780063322530). 641.30. Just like eating food, an essential and shared human activity that’s subject to our differing and unique individual tastes, writing about food comes in a variety of shapes and flavors, as this sixth iteration of the Best American Food Writing series once again proves. Of the 23 contributors, some explore particular dishes, others critique restaurants, and still others focus on how food arrives on our tables. Alicia Kennedy writes about how the alteration of diet can aid in delaying climate change, while Bee Wilson dives into how the term “fresh” in relation to food may be altogether a misnomer. As usual, this is an eclectic lot, exploring…

19 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

Adult Fiction

General Fiction Again and Again. By Jonathan Evison. Nov. 2023. 336p. Dutton, $28 (9780593184158). Eugene Miles is a relatively healthy 102-year-old (his age is in some dispute) enjoying his golden years at the Desert Greens nursing home reading, doing jigsaw puzzles, and having lunch with his new friend, Angel, a young staffer. Eugene regales Angel with stories and has enough memories to fill several lifetimes. In fact, that is the premise of Evison’s tender and delightful latest, following Small World (2022). Eugene claims to have lived several lives, beginning with his time as a tenth-century pickpocket in Spain, where he met Gaya, the love of his lives. Eugene has spent subsequent lives, including one as part of the Lewis and Clark expedition, hoping to reunite with Gaya. Eugene also vividly…

79 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

Fight for the Freedom to Read

Nearly two decades ago, Pat Scales, noted expert on censorship in libraries, wrote an article for Booklist offering a list of titles to help young readers understand book bans and censorship, as well as their inalienable rights as Americans. It’s still a pertinent topic for this year’s Banned Books Week (October 1–7), and, if anything, the stakes in the past few years have escalated: state legislatures all over the country are enacting confusing laws meant to limit what children and teens are permitted to access in their school and public libraries, and a vocal minority is driving libraries to remove scores of books from their collections by way of bad-faith arguments that chip away at fundamental library values—every book its reader; every reader their book—not to mention First Amendment rights.…

5 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

Top 10 Series about Jobs

The Best Jobs Ever (Rosen/PowerKids; 5 titles) Gr. 4–8. An eye-catching format encourages students to explore job options in the five areas of STEAM. Each volume presents 15 jobs through short passages with fun facts about the work environment, appealing digital graphics, color photos, and profiles of prominent individuals. Careers in the Gig Economy (ReferencePoint; 5 titles) Gr. 7–12. In response to the post-COVID economy, this timely series looks at the pros and cons of nontraditional job opportunities (including short-term, part-time, flexible, and remote positions) in such areas as the creative arts, social media, and transportation and delivery. Daring and Dangerous Jobs (Bookstaves/12-Story; 8 titles) Gr. 3–6. Each title enumerates 12 aspects of exciting jobs, from being a smokejumper or animal handler to a bomb squad technician. Brief text on…

2 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

Youth Fiction

Older Readers And Don’t Look Back. By Rebecca Barrow. Oct. 2023. 336p. Simon & Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry, $19.99 (9781665932271). Gr. 9–12. Harlow and her mother, Cora, are always on the move, changing towns and changing names, fleeing from secrets Cora refuses to tell her daughter. This changes after they get into a car accident, leading to Cora’s death. In the aftermath, Harlow discovers a mysterious safety deposit box containing cash, a deed to a house, and photos of a family she didn’t know existed. Harlow decides that answers are more important than any dangers she might face from the past, so she returns to Cora’s hometown to find out the truth they’d been running from. But once Harlow starts digging, she begins to find out why her mother took pains…

37 min

Booklist|Vol. 120, No. 3, 10/1/23

Listen-alikes

The audiobook narration of information-heavy Nearer My Freedom makes a remarkable life vivid and compelling. Students eager to study more fascinating lives will relish these biographies with narrations that create compelling and humanizing portraits. Agent Most Wanted: The Never-Before-Told Story of the Most Dangerous Spy of World War II. By Sonia Purnell. Read by Caroline Hewitt. 2022. 5hr. Listening Library (9780593588161). Gr. 5–12. For fans of spycraft and strong women. Hewitt’s narration adds character voices and leaves listeners with a clear understanding of the importance of Hall’s work in defeating the Nazis. Dreaming in Code: Ada Byron Lovelace, Computer Pioneer. By Emily Arnold McCully. Read by the author. 2019. 3hr. Listening Library (9781984888990). Gr. 7–10. McCully performs smoothly, using a British accent for characters: Lady Byron is haughty and distant,…

2 min