Staff Picks

Vamos! Let's Go To The Market

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¡Vamos! Let's Go to the Market (Hardcover)

By III Raúl the Third
$14.99
ISBN: 9781328557261
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Versify - April 2nd, 2019

 

Vamos! Let's Go To The Market checks all my boxes for what makes a perfect picture book. The artwork is beautiful and fun, there's so much to discover within every page (perfect for repeat readings!) and the conversational mix of English and Spanish makes for a wonderful learning experience. I wish I had had this book as a kid!

Caleb

Jerome by Heart

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Jerome by Heart (Hardcover)

By Thomas Scotto (Text by (Art/Photo Books)), Olivier Tallec (Artist), Claudia Bedrick (Translator)
$16.95
ISBN: 9781592702503
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Enchanted Lion Books - April 3rd, 2018

 

A beautiful reminder that kids know love when they feel it, and that love can endure against hateful ideology. This is such a wonderful story with a steadfast, inspirational main character. Love is love.

Stacey

The Farmer’s Son

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The Farmer's Son: Calving Season on a Family Farm (Hardcover)

By John Connell
$25.00
ISBN: 9781328577993
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt - May 7th, 2019

 

The Farmer’s Son is an unflinching yet tender memoir about small livestock farming way of life in rural Ireland that almost disappeared if not in Ireland than certainly in our own country. While there’s nothing romantic about such a hardscrabble life Connell’s account of his careful and humane husbandry is profoundly moving.

Dale

Black Chalk

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Black Chalk (Paperback)

By Christopher J. Yates
$17.00
ISBN: 9781250075550
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Picador - August 4th, 2015

 

The dreadful game of Yates' Black Chalk is fairly straightforward - a series of escalating dares with escalating consequences - but the narrative is not. Constantly flitting between past and present, this story kept me perpetually off balance, and I couldn't put it down. I dare you not to get caught up in this twisting tale.

Caleb

The Guest Book

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The Guest Book: A Novel (Hardcover)

By Sarah Blake
$27.99
ISBN: 9781250110251
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Flatiron Books - May 7th, 2019

 

Perfect for long stretches of uninterrupted reading. .. this is THAT book which will transport the reader to another time and place. This is the story of the Milton family through generations as they face the challenges of their changing landscape. From the 1930’s to the present, issues of race and class impact their lives and create upheaval. Choices made and paths taken in earlier decades come to the surface and unsettle the current generation. In life, as in literature, we can not escape our past.

Ellen

Gwenpool, the Unbelievable Vol 1

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Gwenpool, the Unbelievable Vol. 1: Believe It (Paperback)

By Christopher Hastings (Text by), Gurihiru (Illustrator)
$16.99
ISBN: 9781302901769
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Marvel - November 29th, 2016

 

What would you do if you found yourself in your favorite comic book universe? Gwen Poole has no powers or skills. But she's from the real world, and she's sure that narrative convention will keep her alive if she's a main character. A funny and self-aware comic that shatters tropes and asks whether or not superhero trivia really counts as a superpower.

 

Shana

Stamped from the Beginning

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Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (Paperback)

By Ibram X. Kendi
$19.99
ISBN: 9781568585987
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Bold Type Books - August 15th, 2017

 

So much of what seemed chaotic about American history and especially contemporary American politics snapped into clarity for me when I read this book. Kendi’s ideas absolutely changed the way I understand our current crisis, as well as the forces of racism and antiracism that have shaped our culture and society.

Josh

The Seed

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The Seed: Infertility Is a Feminist Issue (Paperback)

By Alexandra Kimball
$13.95
ISBN: 9781552453858
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Coach House Books - April 30th, 2019

 

In essays written over the course of multiple rounds of IVF and surrogacy, Kimball points out how most feminist thought dismisses or ignores the problems of infertility -- and who loses out when infertility is seen as an elite white women's condition. This version of reproductive choice, on the other hand, acknowledges that having the choice to bear a child is just as important as having the choice not to.

Sarah

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