A witch, a spider, and a skeleton are just a few of the characters haunting the pages of this picture book. A different icon of the holiday is prominently featured on each two-page spread in this “Who’s Who” of Halloween for the... Read More

The vibrant hardscapes of California’s streets, beaches, and sere, high deserts frame the austerely beautiful internal terrain of middle age, in this new collection by regional poet and scholar Buckley. The poetry, mostly free verse,... Read More

The breezes flowing out of the pages of this book are full of the aromas of shrimp grilling, boiling, steaming, and baking. The author, a strong and charming presence, grabs readers and pulls them into his laid-back world of southern... Read More

Amanda Bahringer, the unsure seventeen-year-old main character of Bunting’s novel, is perhaps too easily summed up by her boarding school hallmaster as a “Triple burden. Parent ambition. Parent protection. Wanted another one.” Her... Read More

Two things stand out in Stevenson’s phenomenal but short life: the amount of time he was seriously ill and the amazing amount of travel he undertook in an age long before automobiles and airplanes. Stevenson wasn’t simply prone to... Read More

There seems to be three kinds of schools in America today—bad, good enough, and excellent. Parents in search of the excellent school know to avoid the bad, but probably have their children enrolled in a good enough school. Merrow... Read More