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The Friendship Train by Debbie Levy

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The Friendship Train by Debbie Levy
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Levy brings to light a true loaves and fishes story for the modern era. A train full of food donated by American children for hungry European children leaves California with 20 cars and swells to 500 cars of food by the time it reaches the Atlantic. This uplifting and timely story is a perfect example of “looking for the helpers” in a crisis, of Americans reaching out across borders to help people in need, even when those people speak a different language and live overseas. It serves as a reminder for our times of how we are all connected in a global community. Levy’s writing is vibrant and engaging, and energetic movement fills every page of Boris Kulikov’s illustrations. Children in the artwork stare straight into the eyes of the reader, as if inviting us to join in their generosity. A true story that will inspire children and adults alike, this book serves as a reminder that every one of us can make a difference, and no act of kindness is ever too small.

The Friendship Train by Debbie Levy, (List Price: $20.99, Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 9781547608027, June 2025)

Reviewed by Amanda Grell, Pearl’s Books in Fayetteville, Arkansas

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J vs. K by Kwame Alexander

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J vs. K by Kwame Alexander
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These two are superstars in the Literary world. I had the privilege of meeting both of them and know they live and breathe getting kids to love reading and are such advocates of telling real stories for all. Their pretend jabbing is something that will leave you on the floor laughing. I know kids will love reading this because they will feel like they personally know these guys and they are on the inside joke.

J vs. K by Kwame Alexander, (List Price: $16.99, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 9780316582681, May 2025)

Reviewed by Suzanne Lucey, Page 158 Books in Wake Forest, North Carolina

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Into the Rapids by Ann Braden

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Into the Rapids by Ann Braden
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Into the Rapids will activate your adventurous side as Addy puts her outdoor survival skills to the test as she prepares for Survival Camp. Follow along as Addy realizes that it’s OK to stand on your own, but it’s never wrong to ask for help when you need it. Perfect for readers who are living with and experiencing emotions caused by grief, panic attacks, and isolation.

Into the Rapids by Ann Braden, (List Price: $17.99, Nancy Paulsen Books, 9780593856369, May 2025)

Reviewed by Jenny Gilroy, E. Shaver Bookseller in Savannah, Georgia

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Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel

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Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel
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What a gripping, original story! Instantly, I knew Xavier was a narrator who was going to be plum fun to read. Having a completely unrelatable story be told by someone so likeable and relatable is a stroke of genius. This story really makes you stop and think about what we are born into and how our beliefs are shaped by our exposures, and it makes you consider what YOU would do if one day you woke up in this strange new world.

Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel, (List Price: $19.99, Scholastic Press, 9781546158202, June 2025)

Reviewed by Mandy Martin, Novel. in Memphis, Tennessee

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Spent by Alison Bechdel

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Spent by Alison Bechdel
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Don’t know if it’s the dire days of 2025 or what, but I had to laugh (so as not to cry?) while reading Spent, which felt bleakly, hysterically absurdist, a parody/satire but not without care and all too true in the way it represents the daily buzzing oversaturated mania of the hypercurrent time we live in. Poking fun at cliches of those aligned on far and opposite ends of the political spectrum, Bechdel, with humor, tugs at the impossible and insane moral quandaries of trying to make meaning, make art, make anything–focus! while everyone is drowning in “content” and grabbing at shredded attention spans and money while the world burns/floods/landslides (terrifyingly apocalyptic to realize that we’re in this dystopia NOW) and ethical consumption (and maybe ethical anything) is impossible. And yet…I enjoyed reading Spent, couldn’t look away from the train wreck we’re in. It doesn’t land hopelessly either, but instead lets go of grandiosity and the large scale, landing on the fact that we are still here and we’ve got to take care of each other in the day-to-day.

Spent by Alison Bechdel, (List Price: $32, Mariner Books, 9780063278929, May 2025)

Reviewed by Julie Jarema, Hub City Bookshop in Spartanburg, South Carolina

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Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson

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Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson
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In Kevin Wilson’s latest, we have a different kind of sibling drama–one in which the siblings in question don’t even know the others exist. That is, until they’re thrown together in a PT Cruiser on a road trip to ambush–er, confront–the father who abandoned them all. When Madeline “Mad” Hill, a farmer in rural Coalfield, Tennessee, meets her older half-brother Rube, a mystery writer, the quiet life she’s built for herself is turned on its head. Likewise, when the two of them leave Coalfield together to seek out their younger half-sister Pepper, they disrupt a propulsive college basketball season. And it doesn’t stop there. As they collect still more siblings, more lives are interrupted, more trajectories diverted. But as the siblings get to know each other and themselves, they find that maybe the thing that was missing from each of their lives was each other. Traveling west, this group of just-introduced siblings follows the path and pieces together the puzzle of their shared, absent father–a man who methodically tried on different identities and shed them as he sought his own happiness, forsaking theirs. With heart, humor, and empathy, Kevin Wilson explores the divide between the family we’re born with and the family we choose, and what happens when they intersect.

Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson, (List Price: $28.99, Ecco, 9780063317512, May 2025)

Reviewed by Joyce McKinnon, Thank You Books in Birmingham, Alabama

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My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende

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My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende
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My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende follows Emilia, a bold and curious young writer who pushes the boundaries of what’s expected of women in her time (19th century). As one of the first female journalists, an assignment takes her from San Francisco to Chile, her late father’s homeland. Emilia is drawn into a country on the brink of civil war and into the heart of her own identity. I didn’t know I wanted to read about the Chilean civil war until Isabel Allende had me hooked. Her writing is descriptive and clear without being overly flowery, and I loved Emilia’s character; she’s not only a fierce woman ahead of her time, but someone I could see myself being friends with, which brought a sense of comfort to an otherwise heavy story. Allende does a remarkable job showing how war ravages not just countries, but the hearts and minds of everyone it touches. There is an element of romance that does not overshadow the story, but seamlessly adds another beautiful layer to it. I equally loved watching Emilia reclaim her Chilean roots. It’s clear this book was written not just to illuminate history, but also as a love letter to Chile from Allende through Emilia’s journey.

My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende, (List Price: $30, Ballantine Books, 9780593975091, May 2025)

Reviewed by Bianca Eckhoff, Epilogue: Books Chocolate Brews in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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The Floating World by Axie Oh

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The Floating World by Axie Oh
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Ren lives in hiding with her adopted family in the mountains, performing as an acrobat in their traveling caravan. When danger strikes, she releases her magical power of light. Sunho lives in the Under World, his memories erased. He is one of many sent to find Ren and capture her. When they meet, he doesn’t realize she is the girl he’s looking for as they begin their journey together.. This immersive fantasy world is very cinematic with an intriguing story.

The Floating World by Axie Oh, (List Price: $19.99, Feiwel & Friends, 9781250853080, April 2025)

Reviewed by Rae Ann Parker, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee

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The Raven Boys: The Graphic Novel by Maggie Stiefvater

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The Raven Boys: The Graphic Novel by Maggie Stiefvater
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The Raven Boys is one of my absolute favorite series, and I was really interested to see how it would be adapted for this graphic novel. The storyline is complex and not necessarily well suited to this format, and the writing is so beautiful and atmospheric that I wasn’t sure how it would translate. I can happily say this edition does a SUPERB job. Everything looks exactly as I imagined. Every page was full of magic and atmosphere. As a fan of the series, there were so many foreshadowing clues. I absolutely cannot wait to see the rest of the series adapted. Whether a long-time fan or a newbie to Maggie Stiefvater, any lover of magic and dark whimsy will devour this!!

The Raven Boys: The Graphic Novel by Maggie Stiefvater, (List Price: $17.99, Viking Books for Young Readers, 9780593621189, August 2025)

Reviewed by Rachel Randolph, Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee

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A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

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A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
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Away from the walls of the Empire is the port city of Yarrowdale, a quasi-Empire outpost responsible for processing the reagents behind powers like Din’s engraving. And here occurred a murder even more vexing than the last, where a Treasury official vanished without a trace. What Ana and Din begin to unfurl are the cascading consequences of a top-secret program, infighting to sustain a dying monarchy, and a murderer at the center of it all who can seemingly predict their every move. A Drop of Corruption probes at the tantalizing false promises of autocracy, the thankless job of justice, and the oft-stifled battle cry of a society worth fighting for. Even with all the dangers within every page, Bennett has crafted a world I’d love to live in, with characters as fascinating as the leviathans themselves.

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett, (List Price: $30, Del Rey, 9780593723821, April 2025)

Reviewed by Jordan April, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

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Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto

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Vera Wong's Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto
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Hey, peeps, stop giving out your personal information and password question answers! When Vera Wong (not Wang the designer, Wong the tea house owner and sometimes detective) gets snookered into giving the “police” her SSN and emailing them a copy of her ID, it snowballs quickly into a trip to the police station in person and Vera starting another adoption cycle of people of interest. How can you not be charmed by Vera “gathering a bunch of new people who are obviously slightly terrified and brazenly accusing them of murder”? And feeding them, of course. I am really needing some homemade Chinese food right about now.

Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto, (List Price: $19, Berkley, 9780593546253, April 2025)

Reviewed by Lisa Yee Swope, Bookmarks in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

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Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez

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Say You'll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez
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Abby Jimenez tackles two topics we don’t see a lot in romance: long-distance relationships with tangible obstacles, and the harsh realities of caregiving for someone with dementia. Anyone who’s experienced either situation will resonate deeply with Xavier and Samantha’s struggles. So beautiful.

Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez, (List Price: $28, Forever, 9781538759196, April 2025)

Reviewed by Sarai Rivera, Spellbound Bookstore in Sanford, Florida

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Audition by Katie Kitamura

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Audition by Katie Kitamura
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A middle-aged actress, preparing for a challenging part, meets a younger man who asks her a question that changes the nature of roles they each play, on-stage and off. Halfway through, this book changes its own rules, morphing into a bewildering and beautiful sleight of hand. Katie Kitamura’s sparse, intricate, and always confident prose pushes this from a simple story into something way more beguiling. Auditionexplores performance, expectation, and how hard choices can shape the story of a life. This is my favorite kind of book – one that leaves me eager to talk to other readers about its many layers.

Audition by Katie Kitamura, (List Price: $28, Riverhead Books, 9780593852323, April 2025)

Reviewed by Rachel Knox, Tombolo Books in Savannah, Florida

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Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones

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Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones
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Fans of Annie Jones’ podcast and The Bookshelf in Thomasville, Georgia, will love getting a little peek behind the scenes, but even for those unfamiliar with Annie’s story, this collection of essays is deeply relatable. Perfect for those who stayed in their hometowns, for those who decided to lead a quieter life, and especially for those who have struggled with their faith. This is a book I will be gifting to so many people in my life.

Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones, (List Price: $26.99, HarperOne, 9780063411272, April 2025)

Reviewed by Claire McWhorter, River & Hill Books in Rome, Georgia

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Red Dog Farm by Nathaniel Ian Miller

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Red Dog Farm by Nathaniel Ian Miller
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All the feelings for Red Dog Farm! Mr. Miller tells a beautiful story of family, landscape, and the way you can never truly know either. It’s a tale of fierce love, harsh wind, and a really good dog. It’s one of those books I wish I could experience for the first time again and again. It’s oh so good!

Red Dog Farm by Nathaniel Ian Miller, (List Price: $28, Little, Brown and Company, 9780316575140, March 2025)

Reviewed by Susan Williams, M Judson Booksellers in Greenville, South Carolina

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