Library Closure

The Chesapeake City Branch Library will be temporarily closed for updates from Monday, December 1, 2025, through Saturday, January 3, 2026. The Branch will reopen on Monday, January 5, and will be open 6 days per week. For assistance during the closure, please call (410) 996-5600 or email ask@cecilcountylibrary.org.

List

Category
Audience
Book Lists

All Creatures Great and Small

James Herriot

In the rolling dales of Yorkshire, a simple, rural region of northern England, a young veterinarian from Sunderland joins a new practice. A stranger in a strange land, he must quickly learn the odd dialect and humorous ways of the locals, master outdated equipment, and do his best to mend, treat, and heal pets and livestock alike. This witty and heartwarming collection, based on the author’s own experiences, became an international success, spawning sequels and winning over animal lovers everywhere. Perhaps better than any other writer, James Herriot reveals the ties that bind us to the creatures in our lives.

View Details >>

Boundary Waters

William Kent Krueger

The Quetico-Superior Wilderness: more than two million acres of forest, white-water rapids, and uncharted islands on the Canadian/American border. Somewhere in the heart of this unforgiving territory, a young woman named Shiloh—a country-western singer at the height of her fame—has disappeared.

Her father arrives in Aurora, Minnesota, to hire Cork O’Connor to find his daughter. Cork joins a search party that includes an ex-con, two FBI agents, and a ten-year-old boy. Others are on Shiloh’s trail as well—men hired not just to find her, but to kill her.

As the expedition ventures deeper into the wilderness, strangers descend on Aurora, threatening to spill blood on the town’s snowy streets. Meanwhile, out on the Boundary Waters, winter falls hard. Cork’s team of searchers loses contact with civilization, and like the brutal winds of a Minnesota blizzard, death—violent and sudden—stalks them.

View Details >>

The Alchemist

Paulo Coelho

A special 25th anniversary edition of the extraordinary international bestseller, including a new Foreword by Paulo Coelho.

Combining magic, mysticism, wisdom and wonder into an inspiring tale of self-discovery, The Alchemist has become a modern classic, selling millions of copies around the world and transforming the lives of countless readers across generations.

Paulo Coelho's masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His quest will lead him to riches far different—and far more satisfying—than he ever imagined. Santiago's journey teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, of recognizing opportunity and learning to read the omens strewn along life's path, and, most importantly, to follow our dreams.

 

View Details >>

Winter's Bone

Daniel Woodrell

The sheriff's deputy at the front door brings hard news to Ree Dolly. Her father has skipped bail on charges that he ran a crystal meth lab, and the Dollys will lose their house if he doesn't show up for his next court date. Ree's father has disappeared before. The Dolly clan has worked the shadowy side of the law for generations, and arrests (and attempts to avoid them) are part of life in Rathlin Valley. With two young brothers depending on her and a mother who's entered a kind of second childhood, sixteen-year-old Ree knows she has to bring her father back, dead or alive. She has grown up in the harsh poverty of the Ozarks and learns quickly that asking questions of the rough Dolly clan can be a fatal mistake. But along the way to a shocking revelation, Ree discovers unforeseen depths in herself and in a family network that protects its own at any cost.

View Details >>

Celine

Peter Heller

Celine is not your typical private eye. With prep school pedigree and a pair of opera glasses for stakeouts, her methods are unconventional but extremely successful. Working out of her jewel box of an apartment nestled under the Brooklyn Bridge, Celine has made a career out of tracking down missing persons nobody else can find. But when a young woman named Gabriela employs her expertise, what was meant to be Celine's last case becomes a scavenger hunt through her own memories, the secrets there and the surprising redemptions.


Gabriela's father was a National Geographic photographer who went missing in Wyoming twenty years ago and while he was assumed to have been mauled by a grizzly his body was never found. Celine and her partner set out to Yellowstone National Park to follow a trail gone cold but soon realize that somebody desperately wants to keep this case closed. Combining ingenious plotting with crystalline prose and sweeping natural panoramas, Peter Heller gives us his finest work to date.

View Details >>

Concrete Kids

Amyra León

Concrete Kids is an exploration of love and loss, melody and bloodshed. Musician, playwright, and educator Amyra León takes us on a poetic journey through her childhood in Harlem, as she navigates the intricacies of foster care, mourning, self-love, and resilience. In her signature free-verse style, she invites us all to dream with abandon--and to recognize the privilege it is to dream at all.

View Details >>

My Weird School Special: Bunny Double, We're in Trouble!

Dan Gutman

Hip, hop, hooray! Its Easter, and this year Mayor Hubble is hosting an Easter egg roll and a special egg hunt at the mayor’s mansion. And A.J. and the gang are invited! But when Mayor Hubble reveals that the prize golden egg has a thousand dollars inside it, the egg hunt becomes a wacky free-for-all with a photo finish.

 

View Details >>

How to Catch the Easter Bunny

Adam Wallace

Finding eggs is easy, but can YOU catch the Easter Bunny in action this year? He has a basket full of treats and tricks for staying hidden--plus that bunny hippity hops with lightning speed! Start a new tradition with this bright and funny children's Easter book and get inspired to build STEAM traps of your own to pair with the readaloud! Educators, families, and children will love this wonderfully creative opportunity to have fun and celebrate the holiday together.

View Details >>

Otter Loves Easter!

Sam Garton

This year the Easter Bunny brought Otter lots of chocolate eggs—her favorite! Otter Keeper said she had to share them with her friends, but sharing is very hard . . . and eating chocolate is very easy. Otter didn’t want Teddy, Giraffe, and Pig to be sad, though. Someone had to save Easter—and she knew just the right Otter for the job!

View Details >>

Five Funny Bunnies

Houghton Mifflin Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

This board book features a rhyming read-aloud text with five sparkling bunnies as they peer through a die-cut cover. Each page turn provides a playful reveal--including a starring role by the Easter Bunny. Share this with preschoolers ready to hop into reading and counting!

View Details >>

Easter Crafts

Jean Eick

Through easy-to-follow instructions and step-by-step illustrations, this book shows readers how to make Easter crafts and decorations using everyday objects and craft materials. Activities and games are also included, as well as a brief description of the holiday.

View Details >>

That's My Carrot

Il Sung Na

When two rabbits find a giant carrot growing between their yards, they do the only thing that makes sense: they argue over whose carrot it is! One rabbit brings a shovel to dig it out, and the other rabbit brings a spade. Next comes the bulldozers and backhoes and cranes . . . and when the dust settles, the carrot is gone! Now, it will be up to the rabbits to join forces and find the giant carrot, and build a friendship along the way.

View Details >>

Love & Gelato

Jenna Evans Welch

Lina is spending the summer in Tuscany, but she isn’t in the mood for Italy’s famous sunshine and fairy-tale landscape. She’s only there because it was her mother’s dying wish that she get to know her father. But what kind of father isn’t around for sixteen years? All Lina wants to do is get back home.  But then Lina is given a journal that her mom had kept when she lived in Italy. Suddenly Lina’s uncovering a magical world of secret romances, art, and hidden bakeries. A world that inspires Lina, along with the ever-so-charming Ren, to follow in her mother’s footsteps and unearth a secret that has been kept for far too long. It’s a secret that will change everything Lina knew about her mother, her father—and even herself.

View Details >>

Where We Go from Here

Lucas Rocha

When Victor finds himself getting tested for HIV for the first time, he can't help but question his entire relationship with Henrique, the guy he has -- had -- been dating. See, Henrique didn't disclose his positive HIV status to Victor until after they had sex, and even though Henrique insisted on using every possible precaution, Victor is livid.

That's when Victor meets Ian, a guy who's also getting tested for HIV. But Ian's test comes back positive, and his world is about to change forever. Though Victor is loath to think about Henrique, he offers to put the two of them in touch, hoping that perhaps Henrique can help Ian navigate his new life. In the process, the lives of Ian, Victor, and Henrique will become intertwined in a story of friendship, love, and self-acceptance.

Set in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this utterly engrossing debut by Brazilian author Lucas Rocha calls back to Alex Sanchez's Rainbow Boys series, bringing attention to how far we've come with HIV, while shining a harsh light on just how far we have yet to go.

View Details >>

Salty, Bitter, Sweet

Mayra Cuevas

A slow-burn romance in a cutthroat kitchen! There's more to becoming a top chef for 17-year-old Isabella Fields than just not getting chopped ... especially when the chances of things heating up with an intriguing boy and becoming a food star in the kitchen are both on the chopping block.  Aspiring chef Isa's family life has fallen apart after the death of her Cuban abuela and the divorce of her parents. And after moving in with her dad and her new stepmom, Margo, in Lyon, France, Isa feels like an outsider in her father's new life. She balances her time between avoiding the awkward "why-did-you-cheat-on-Mom" conversation with figuring out how a perpetually single woman can at least be a perpetually single chef.

View Details >>

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine

Maika Moulite

Alaine Beauparlant has heard about Haiti all her life... But the stories were always passed down from her dad--and her mom, when she wasn't too busy with her high-profile newscaster gig. But when Alaine's life goes a bit sideways, it's time to finally visit Haiti herself.  What she learns about Haiti's proud history as the world's first black republic (with its even prouder people) is one thing, but what she learns about her own family is another. Suddenly, the secrets Alaine's mom has been keeping, including a family curse that has spanned generations, can no longer be avoided.  It's a lot to handle, without even mentioning that Alaine is also working for her aunt's nonprofit, which sends underprivileged kids to school and boasts one annoyingly charming intern. But if anyone can do it all...it's Alaine.

View Details >>

Love from A to Z

S. K. Ali

Zayneb, the only Muslim in class, isn’t bad. She’s angry. When she gets suspended for confronting her teacher, and he begins investigating her activist friends, Zayneb heads to her aunt’s house in Doha, Qatar, for an early start to spring break.  Fueled by the guilt of getting her friends in trouble, she resolves to try out a newer, “nicer” version of herself in a place where no one knows her.  Then her path crosses with Adam’s.  Since he got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in November, Adam’s stopped going to classes, intent, instead, on perfecting the making of things. Intent on keeping the memory of his mom alive for his little sister.  Adam’s also intent on keeping his diagnosis a secret from his grieving father.  Alone, Adam and Zayneb are playing roles for others, keeping their real thoughts locked away in their journals.

View Details >>

The Astonishing Color of After

Emily X.R. Pan

Leigh Chen Sanders is absolutely certain about one thing: When her mother died by suicide, she turned into a bird.  Leigh, who is half Asian and half white, travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents for the first time. There, she is determined to find her mother, the bird. In her search, she winds up chasing after ghosts, uncovering family secrets, and forging a new relationship with her grandparents. And as she grieves, she must try to reconcile the fact that on the same day she kissed her best friend and longtime secret crush, Axel, her mother was taking her own life.
Alternating between real and magic, past and present, friendship and romance, hope and despair, The Astonishing Color of After is a stunning and heartbreaking novel about finding oneself through family history, art, grief, and love.

View Details >>

Darius the Great Is Not Okay

Adib Khorram

Darius Kellner speaks better Klingon than Farsi, and he knows more about Hobbit social cues than Persian ones. He's a Fractional Persian--half, his mom's side--and his first-ever trip to Iran is about to change his life.

Darius has never really fit in at home, and he's sure things are going to be the same in Iran. His clinical depression doesn't exactly help matters, and trying to explain his medication to his grandparents only makes things harder. Then Darius meets Sohrab, the boy next door, and everything changes. Soon, they're spending their days together, playing soccer, eating faludeh, and talking for hours on a secret rooftop overlooking the city's skyline. Sohrab calls him Darioush--the original Persian version of his name--and Darius has never felt more like himself than he does now that he's Darioush to Sohrab.

View Details >>

Up to This Pointe

Jennifer Longo

Harper Scott is a dancer. She and her best friend, Kate, have one goal: becoming professional ballerinas. And Harper won't let anything--or anyone--get in the way of The Plan, not even the boy she and Kate are both drawn to. When Harper's life takes an unexpected turn, she finagles her way to the icy dark of McMurdo Station . . . in Antarctica. Extreme, but somehow fitting--apparently she has always been in the dark, dancing on ice this whole time. And no one warned her. Not her family, not her best friend, not even the boy who has somehow found a way into her heart. It will take a visit from Shackleton's ghost--the explorer who didn't make it to the South Pole, but who got all of his men out alive--to teach Harper that success isn't always what's important, sometimes it's more important to learn how to fail successfully.

View Details >>

I Love You So Mochi

Sarah Kuhn

Nakamura loves a good fashion statement.She's obsessed with transforming everyday ephemera into Kimi Originals: bold outfits that make her and her friends feel like the Ultimate versions of themselves. But her mother disapproves, and when they get into an explosive fight, Kimi's entire future seems on the verge of falling apart. So when a surprise letter comes in the mail from Kimi's estranged grandparents, inviting her to Kyoto for spring break, she seizes the opportunity to get away from the disaster of her life. When she arrives in Japan, she's met with a culture both familiar and completely foreign to her. She loses herself in the city's outdoor markets, art installations, and cherry blossom festival -- and meets Akira, a cute aspiring med student who moonlights as a costumed mochi mascot. And what begins as a trip to escape her problems quickly becomes a way for Kimi to learn more about the mother she left behind, and to figure out where her own heart lies.

View Details >>

Black Dove, White Raven

Elizabeth Wein

Emilia and Teo's lives changed in a fiery, terrifying instant when a bird strike brought down the plane their stunt pilot mothers were flying. Teo's mother died immediately, but Em's survived, determined to raise Teo according to his late mother's wishes-in a place where he won't be discriminated against because of the color of his skin. But in 1930s America, a white woman raising a black adoptive son alongside a white daughter is too often seen as a threat.

View Details >>

The Beast Player

Nahoko Uehashi

One girl links beasts with humankind. She has the power to save them both. Or to destroy them.

Erin's family have an important responsibility: caring for the fearsome serpents that form the core of their kingdom's army. So when some of the beasts mysteriously die, Erin's mother is sentenced to death as punishment. With her last breath she manages to send her daughter to safety.

Alone, far from home, Erin soon discovers that she can talk to both the terrifying water serpents and the majestic flying beasts that guard her queen. This skill gives her great powers, but it also involves her in deadly plots that could cost her life. Can she save herself and prevent her beloved beasts from being used as tools of war? Or must she face the terrible battles to come?

View Details >>

The Marrow Thieves

Cherie Dimaline

Just when you think you have nothing left to lose, they come for your dreams.  Humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming, but now an even greater evil lurks. The indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream. In this dark world, Frenchie and his companions struggle to survive as they make their way up north to the old lands. For now, survival means staying hidden - but what they don't know is that one of them holds the secret to defeating the marrow thieves.

View Details >>

Words in Deep Blue

Cath Crowley

Years ago, Rachel had a crush on Henry Jones. The day before she moved away, she tucked a love letter into his favorite book in his family's bookshop. She waited. But Henry never came.

Now Rachel has returned to the city--and to the bookshop--to work alongside the boy she'd rather not see, if at all possible, for the rest of her life. But Rachel needs the distraction. Her brother drowned months ago, and she can't feel anything anymore.

As Henry and Rachel work side by side--surrounded by books, watching love stories unfold, exchanging letters between the pages--they find hope in each other. Because life may be uncontrollable, even unbearable sometimes. But it's possible that words, and love, and second chances are enough.

View Details >>

Driving by Starlight

Anat Deracine

Sixteen-year-olds Leena and Mishie are best friends. They delight in small rebellions against the Saudi cultural police—secret Western clothing, forbidden music, flirtations. But Leena wants college, independence—she wants a different life. Though her story is specific to her world (a world where it's illegal for women to drive, where a ten-year-old boy is the natural choice as guardian of a fatherless woman), ultimately it's a story about friendship, family, and freedom that transcends cultural differences.

View Details >>

Cool Japan Guide

Abby Denson

Traveling to Japan has never been so much fun—visit the land of anime, manga, cosplay, hot springs and sushi!

This graphic Japan travel guide is the first of its kind exploring Japanese culture from a cartoonist's perspective. Cool Japan Guide takes you on a fun tour from the high-energy urban streets of Tokyo to the peaceful Zen gardens and Shinto shrines of Kyoto.

View Details >>

The Easter Bunny's Assistant

Jan Thomas

In this picture book, the Easter Bunny has an assistant, and he is a skunk! When the Easter Bunny sets out to teach Skunk the ways of Easter egg dyeing, in five simple steps, they immediately run into problems. Join the egg-dyeing Easter fun by reading this story!

View Details >>

Bunny Will Not Jump!

Jason Tharp

Bunny will not jump. He usually loves jumping! But when he sees how high his friend Big can jump, Bunny does not want to jump anymore. Big just wants Bunny to do what he loves in his own way. He needs your help—by following interactive prompts in the story—to make it happen!

With appealing comic-inspired speech bubbles and interactive storytelling that prompts kids to do everything from pressing an illustrated button to flipping a page back and forth like a flip-book to make Bunny jump, beginning readers will laugh their way through this Level 1 Ready-to-Read Book.

View Details >>

Maze Book: Follow the Bunny

Roger Priddy

Follow the Bunny is a die-cut maze book for young children, enabling them to follow the grooved trails with their fingertips from hole to hole. There are eight springtime scenes to explore, including farm fields, the riverside, and underground tunnels, and the holes take them into the next scene. With adorable animal characters, cumulative rhyming text, and colorful illustrations, Follow the Bunny makes an extra-special Easter treat.

View Details >>

Easter

Mari Schuh

Happy holidays! Highlighting five different cultures and religions, these search-and-find books teach young readers about six different holidays. Kids will learn the significance of these holidays and the symbols and traditions that go with them. This search-and-find book invites young readers to look for new vocabulary words and pictures while giving simple facts about the Easter holiday and the way people celebrate it.

View Details >>

The Berenstain Bears the Very First Easter

Jan Berenstain

Join Mama, Papa, Brother, Sister, and Honey as they take you down that fond and familiar sunny dirt road, deep in Bear Country to discover the story of the very first Easter.

See the very first Easter from the heartwarming Berenstain Bear's point of view--from Jesus' entry into Jerusalem to the Last Supper to the risen Lord's first appearance on Easter Sunday.

View Details >>

A Woman in the House (and Senate)

Ilene Cooper

For the first 128 years of our country's history, not a single woman served in the Senate or House of Representatives. All of that changed, however, in November 1916, when Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress?even before the Nineteenth Amendment gave women across the U.S. the right to vote.
Beginning with the women's suffrage movement and going all the way through the results of the 2012 election, Ilene Cooper deftly covers more than a century of U.S. history in order to highlight the influential and diverse group of female leaders who opened doors for women in politics as well as the nation as a whole. Featured women include Hattie Caraway (the first woman elected to the Senate), Patsy Mink (the first woman of color to serve in Congress), Shirley Chisholm (the first African-American woman in Congress), and present-day powerhouses like Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. The book is filled with lively illustrations and archival photographs. It includes a glossary, index, and chart of all the women who have served in Congress.
 

View Details >>

Brazen

Pénélope Bagieu

Throughout history and across the globe, one characteristic connects the daring women of Brazen: their indomitable spirit.

With her characteristic wit and dazzling drawings, celebrated graphic novelist Pénélope Bagieu profiles the lives of these feisty female role models, some world famous, some little known. From Nellie Bly to Mae Jemison or Josephine Baker to Naziq al-Abid, the stories in this comic biography are sure to inspire the next generation of rebel ladies.

This title has Common Core connections.

View Details >>

Girl Rising

Tanya Lee Stone

A gorgeous, full-color oversized book about educating girls across the world inspired by the documentary that Entertainment Weekly says "every mother, sister, daughter, should see, as well as the men who love and support them." This is the right book for the present moment and perfect for fans of inspirational nonfiction such as I Am Malala and anyone who believes that one girl can change the world.

Worldwide, over 130 million girls are not in school.
But one girl with courage is a revolution.

Girl Rising, a global campaign for girls' education, created a film that chronicled the stories of nine girls in the developing world, allowing viewers the opportunity to witness how education can break the cycle of poverty.

Now, award-winning author Tanya Lee Stone deftly uses new research to illuminate the dramatic facts behind the film, focusing both on the girls captured on camera and many others. She examines barriers to education in depth--early child marriage and childbearing, slavery, sexual trafficking, gender discrimination, and poverty--and shows how removing these barriers means not only a better life for girls, but safer, healthier, and more prosperous communities.

With full-color photos from the film, infographics, and a compelling narrative, Girl Rising will inspire readers of all ages to join together in a growing movement to help change the world.
 

View Details >>

Watch Us Rise

Renée Watson

Jasmine and Chelsea are best friends on a mission--they're sick of the way women are treated even at their progressive NYC high school, so they decide to start a Women's Rights Club. They post their work online--poems, essays, videos of Chelsea performing her poetry, and Jasmine's response to the racial microaggressions she experiences--and soon they go viral. But with such positive support, the club is also targeted by trolls. When things escalate in real life, the principal shuts the club down. Not willing to be silenced, Jasmine and Chelsea will risk everything for their voices--and those of other young women--to be heard.
These two dynamic, creative young women stand up and speak out in a novel that features their compelling art and poetry along with powerful personal journeys that will inspire readers and budding poets, feminists, and activists.

 

View Details >>

Girls Resist!

KaeLyn Rich

An activism handbook for teen girls ready to fight for change, social justice, and equalityTake on the world and make some serious change with this handbook to everything activism, social justice, and resistance. With in-depth guides to everything from picking a cause, planning a protest, and raising money to running dispute-free meetings, promoting awareness on social media, and being an effective ally, Girls Resist! will show you how to go from mad as heck about the way the world is going to effective leader who gets stuff done. Veteran feminist organizer KaeLyn Rich shares tons of expertise that'll inspire you as much as it teaches you the ropes plus interviews with fellow teen girl activists show how they stood up for change in their communities. Grab this handbook to crush inequality, start a revolution, and resist!

View Details >>

I Am Malala

Malala Yousafzai

The bestselling memoir by Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai.

I Am Malala. This is my story.
Malala Yousafzai was only ten years old when the Taliban took control of her region. They said music was a crime. They said women weren't allowed to go to the market. They said girls couldn't go to school.
Raised in a once-peaceful area of Pakistan transformed by terrorism, Malala was taught to stand up for what she believes. So she fought for her right to be educated. And on October 9, 2012, she nearly lost her life for the cause: She was shot point-blank while riding the bus on her way home from school.
No one expected her to survive.
Now Malala is an international symbol of peaceful protest and the youngest ever Nobel Peace Prize winner. In this Young Readers Edition of her bestselling memoir, which has been reimagined specifically for a younger audience and includes exclusive photos and material, we hear firsthand the remarkable story of a girl who knew from a young age that she wanted to change the world -- and did.
Malala's powerful story will open your eyes to another world and will make you believe in hope, truth, miracles and the possibility that one person -- one young person -- can inspire change in her community and beyond.
 

View Details >>

A New Kind of Wild

Zara Gonzalez Hoang

For Ren, home is his grandmother's little house, and the lush forest that surrounds it. Home is a place of magic and wonder, filled with all the fantastical friends that Ren dreams up. Home is where his imagination can run wild.

For Ava, home is a brick and cement city, where there's always something to do or see or hear. Home is a place bursting with life, where people bustle in and out like a big parade. Home is where Ava is never lonely because there's always someone to share in her adventures.

When Ren moves to Ava's city, he feels lost without his wild. How will he ever feel at home in a place with no green and no magic, where everything is exactly what it seems? Of course, not everything in the city is what meets the eye, and as Ren discovers, nothing makes you feel at home quite like a friend.

View Details >>

Stella Díaz Has Something to Say

Angela Dominguez

Stella Díaz loves marine animals, especially her betta fish, Pancho. But Stella Díaz is not a betta fish. Betta fish like to be alone, while Stella loves spending time with her mom and brother and her best friend Jenny. Trouble is, Jenny is in another class this year, and Stella feels very lonely.

When a new boy arrives in Stella's class, she really wants to be his friend, but sometimes Stella accidentally speaks Spanish instead of English and pronounces words wrong, which makes her turn roja. Plus, she has to speak in front of her whole class for a big presentation at school! But she better get over her fears soon, because Stella Díaz has something to say!

 

View Details >>

Leila in Saffron

Rukhsanna Guidroz

A colorful journey of self-discovery and identity, this sweet, vibrant picture book follows young Leila as she visits her grandmother’s house for their weekly family dinner, and finds parts of herself and her heritage in the family, friends, and art around her.
 

View Details >>

Families Belong

Dan Saks

A rhyming, light-hearted celebration of families being - and belonging - together.  This endearing board book is an appreciation of the unconditional love and comfort shared within a family. 

View Details >>

The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be

Joanna Gaines

Celebrate how creativity and acceptance can come together to make for a bright and beautiful adventure. The book follows a group of children as they each build their very own hot-air balloons. As the kids work together, leaning into their own skills and processes, to fill the sky with beautiful colors, we discover that the same is true for life--it's more beautiful and vibrant when our differences are celebrated.

View Details >>

New Kid

Jerry Craft

New Kid is a timely, honest graphic novel about starting over at a new school where diversity is low and the struggle to fit in is real.

Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics, where Jordan is one of the few kids of color in his entire grade.

As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale Riverdale Academy Day School, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worlds—and not really fitting into either one. Can Jordan learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighborhood friends and staying true to himself?

View Details >>

Claudia and the New Girl (the Baby-Sitters Club Graphic Novel #9)

Ann M. Martin

Claudia has always been the most creative kid in her class... until Ashley Wyeth comes along. Ashley's really different: She wears hippie clothes and has multiple earrings, and she's the most fantastic artist Claudia has ever met.

Ashley says Claudia is a great artist, too, but thinks she's wasting her artistic talent with The Baby-sitters Club. When Claudia starts spending more time with Ashley and missing BSC meetings, it becomes clear that Claudia has to make a decision -- one of them has to go!

View Details >>

Evelyn Del Rey Is Moving Away

Meg Medina


Evelyn Del Rey is Daniela's best friend. They do everything together and even live in twin apartments across the street from each other: Daniela with her mami and hamster, and Evelyn with her mami, papi, and cat. But not after today--not after Evelyn moves away. Until then, the girls play amid the moving boxes until it's time to say goodbye, making promises to keep in touch, because they know that their friendship will always be special. The tenderness of Meg Medina's beautifully written story about friendship and change is balanced by Sonia Sánchez's colorful and vibrant depictions of the girls' urban neighborhood.

View Details >>

I Love Being Me!

Mechal Renee Roe


Children can be inspired seeing strong, happy reflections of themselves in this vibrant, rhyming, Step 1 reader about the joy of being a girl. Featuring a variety of kids and the activities they enjoy - reading, soccer, cooking, swimming, gardening, and more - this easy reader promotes girls' self-esteem, smarts, and strength.

Step 1 Readers feature big type and easy words for children who know the alphabet and are eager to begin reading. Rhyme and rhythmic text paired with picture clues help children decode the story.

View Details >>

My Very Favorite Book in the Whole Wide World

Malcolm Mitchell

Meet Henley, an all-around good kid, who hates to read. When he's supposed to be reading, he would rather do anything else. But one day, he gets the scariest homework assignment in the world: find your favorite book to share with the class tomorrow.

What's a kid to do? How can Henley find a story that speaks to everything inside of him? Find out in this inspiring book!

View Details >>

Just Ask!

Sonia Sotomayor

Feeling different, especially as a kid, can be tough. But in the same way that different types of plants and flowers make a garden more beautiful and enjoyable, different types of people make our world more vibrant and wonderful.

View Details >>

Maybe You Should Fly a Jet! Maybe You Should Be a Vet!

Dr. Seuss

Featuring a mix of real jobs (like firefighter, doctor, teacher, farmer, etc.) and Seussian ones (including perfume smeller, fishbone boner, bass-drum banger, and roller coaster owner), it will incite plenty of giggles while planting the seed of a serious idea: that everyone needs to do something in life, and there are LOTS of choices! Fully illustrated with charming new art  this is a great choice for home and classroom use!

View Details >>

Your Name Is a Song

Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow

Frustrated by a day full of teachers and classmates mispronouncing her beautiful name, a little girl tells her mother she never wants to come back to school. In response, the girl's mother teaches her about the musicality of African, Asian, Black-American, Latinx, and Middle Eastern names on their lyrical walk home through the city. Empowered by this newfound understanding, the young girl is ready to return the next day to share her knowledge with her class. Your Name is a Song is a celebration to remind all of us about the beauty, history, and magic behind names.

View Details >>

My Friend!

Taye Diggs

A picture book about what it means to be a friend.

Two best friends do almost everything together. They have each other's backs. But when one friend sees the other treating someone unkindly, he steps in to show that everyone wants to be treated as they would treat others.

View Details >>

I Am Horton

Cynthia Schumerth

A board book based on Horton Hears a Who! for Dr. Seuss's youngest fans--perfect for showing the rewards of being kind!

View Details >>

Ruby's Birds

Mya Thompson

Meet Ruby, a plucky young girl who uncovers the wild side of her city neighborhood with the help of a grown-up friend. When Ruby realizes there are amazing birds right in her neighborhood, her imagination takes flight. Birders have a name for the moment they get hooked--they call it their spark moment. This is the story of Ruby's spark moment, in her very own words.

This book is featured as the Young Reader's Book choice for the 2021 Longwood Garden's Community Read Program!

View Details >>

Nesting

Henry Cole

A stunning picture book about robins: their homes, their lives, and their families.

In this black-and-white picture book highlighted with robin's egg blue, the reader will follow two robins as they build a nest with twigs and grass. Then mother robin lays four beautiful blue eggs and will keep the eggs warm in the nest until they hatch into four baby robins.

The father robin protects the babies until they can fly on their own. The perils the babies encounter are many, including snakes and storms. The nest is always their safe place.

View Details >>

How to Find a Bird

Jennifer Ward

A joyful and informative guide to birdwatching for budding young birders.

How do you find a bird? There are so many ways! Begin by watching. And listening. And staying quiet, so quiet you can hear your own heartbeat. Soon you’ll see that there are birds everywhere—up in the sky, down on the ground, sometimes even right in front of you just waiting to be discovered!

View Details >>

A Nest Is Noisy

Dianna Hutts Aston

From tiny bee hummingbird nests to orangutan nests high in the rainforest canopy, an incredible variety of nests are showcased here in all their splendor. Poetic in voice and elegant in design, this carefully researched book introduces children to a captivating array of nest facts and will spark the imaginations of children.

View Details >>

Balance the Birds

Susie Ghahremani

Balance the Birds is about balance and relative size. When birds spot a tree and decide to land on its branches, the readers can help them find the perfect balance. Like Stack the Cats, Balance the Birds introduces key early math skills for toddlers.

View Details >>

Bird Count

Susan Edwards Richmond

For the New England Christmas Bird Count, young Ava and her mother prepare to be the best "citizen scientists" they can be. With the help of their team leader Big Al, they record the tally of all the birds they see. Ava dutifully counts all the birds along the way, using her most important tools―her eyes and ears―and the birding identification techniques she's learned. But will she locate her favorite raven again this year in time for their town's annual Christmas Bird Count party?

View Details >>

Hawks Kettle, Puffins Wheel

Susan Vande Griek

A lyrical celebration of the fascinating ways birds move through the air. This collection of captivating poems celebrates the distinctive movements of twelve birds in flight and the special words associated with those movements, from geese that skein and puffins that wheel, to crows that mob and starlings that murmurate. The evocative language conveys the beauty of these animals and describes how each one makes its own unmistakable way in the world. 

View Details >>

Nick and Nack Build a Birdhouse

Brandon Budzi

Nick and his robot pal Nack love to build things. As they build a birdhouse in this Level 1 Highlights Puzzle Reader, kids can find supplies in Hidden Pictures scenes that double as picture support for the simple story text, which is full of repeated words. With bonus craft directions, Nick and Nack Build a Birdhouse will appeal to junior makers who are just discovering reading.

View Details >>

The Beak Book

Robin Page

This striking picture book explores the fascinating and surprising ways different kinds of birds use their unique beaks.
There are short beaks and long beaks, straight beaks and curved beaks, flat beaks and even spoon-shaped beaks. But what do all of these beaks do?
Discover how beaks of different shapes and sizes are adapted to help birds sip nectar, make nests, battle for mates, and more!

View Details >>

Arlo & Pips: King of the Birds

Elise Gravel

Like most crows, Arlo has a big brain. But Arlo has something else: a little pal who’s not afraid to tell him when he’s being insufferable!  In the first of three episodes, a battle of the brains and bird-to-bird banter soon turns into an unexpected friendship. Arlo and Pips' adventures include a visit the big city and the beach on their hunt for shiny things and French fries. Cool crow facts are included throughout the book.

View Details >>

Lali's Feather

Farhana Zia

Lali finds a little feather in the field. Who might it belong to? Lali sets out to find the feather a home, but one bird after another rejects it. The feather is too small for Rooster, too slow for Crow, and too plain for Peacock. That is until Lali decides to keep the little feather and discovers all the things she can do with it, and the other birds begin to recognize its value.

View Details >>

Wallace and Grace Take the Case

Heather Alexander

In this charming series, perfect for newly independent readers, kids will be treated to simple whodunit mysteries as an utterly delightful owl duo put their heads together. In their first adventure, Wallace and Grace meet a rabbit who is sure he saw a ghost! But the clues lead them in a different direction. Something is spooking the garden . . . can Wallace and Grace solve this case?

View Details >>

Hooray for Birds!

Lucy Cousins

In an exuberant display of color, Lucy Cousins invites little ones to imagine themselves as brilliant birds.
Birds of all feathers flock together in a fun, rhyme-filled offering by the creator of Maisy. From the rooster's "cock-a-doodle-doo" at dawn to the owl's nighttime "tuwit, tuwoo," the cheeps and tweets of many bright and beautiful avian friends will have children eager to join in as honorary fledglings. This day in the life of birds will hold the attention of even the smallest bird-watchers.

View Details >>

Bird Singing, Bird Winging

Marilyn Singer

Come see birds of all different kinds in this delightful story that beginning readers will love reading again and again. See them singing, winging, walking, talking, and so much more in this charming book that includes a special section at the back with facts on each type of bird. This book is perfect for beginner readers.

View Details >>

The Last Kids on Earth : Book 1

Max Brallier

 

Ever since the monster apocalypse hit town, average thirteen year old Jack Sullivan has been living in his tree house, which he's armed to the teeth with catapults and a moat, not to mention video games and an endless supply of Oreos and Mountain Dew scavenged from abandoned stores. But Jack alone is no match for the hordes of Zombies and Winged Wretches and Vine Thingies, and especially not for the eerily intelligent monster known only as Blarg. So Jack builds a team: his dorky best friend, Quint; the reformed middle school bully, Dirk; Jack's loyal pet monster, Rover; and Jack's crush, June. With their help, Jack is going to slay Blarg, achieve the ultimate Feat of Apocalyptic Success, and be average no longer Can he do it?

View Details >>

The Bad Guys: Book 1

Aaron Blabey

They sound like bad guys, they look like bad guys . . . and they even smell like bad guys. But Mr. Wolf, Mr. Piranha, Mr. Snake, and Mr. Shark are about to change all of that...Mr. Wolf has a daring plan for the Bad Guys' first good mission. They are going to break two hundred dogs out of the Maximum Security City Dog Pound. Will Operation Dog Pound go smoothly? Will the Bad Guys become the Good Guys? And will Mr. Snake please stop swallowing Mr. Piranha?!

View Details >>

Grime and Punishment

Dav Pilkey

The Supa Buddies bamboozled the baddies, but all's not right in the world. Dog Man has a new problem to pound, and he's going to need his entire pack to help him. Will he go barking up the wrong tree?

View Details >>

Diary of a Wimpy Kid : Book 15 : The deep end

Jeff Kinney

Greg Heffley and his family hit the road for a cross-country camping trip, ​ready for the adventure of a lifetime. But things take an unexpected turn, and they find themselves stranded at an RV park that's not exactly a summertime paradise. When the skies open up and the water starts to rise, the Heffleys wonder if they can save their vacation--or if they're already in too deep.

View Details >>

Big Nate

Lincoln Peirce

You've got to know where you stand to survive sixth grade, and Nate Wright's found the perfect spot: right next to Sherman, the class gerbil. Can Nate's furry friend bail him out of his latest homework jam with Mrs. Godfrey? Or will there be a paper trail leading straight to detention? Nate has no answers, but plenty of ideas--like directing a superhero movie starring the amazing Mega-Chad, inventing a new name for his pal Francis, and living up to his reputation as a P.S. 38 Prank Day legend.

View Details >>

Cat Kid Comic Club #1

Dav Pilkey

In Cat Kid Comic Club, Li'l Petey, Flippy, and Molly introduce twenty-one rambunctious, funny, and talented baby frogs to the art of comic making. As the story unwinds with mishaps and hilarity, readers get to see the progress, mistakes, and improvements that come with practice and persistence.

 

 

View Details >>

It Ain't So Awful, Falafel

Firoozeh Dumas

Zomorod (Cindy) Yousefzadeh is the new kid on the block . . . for the fourth time. California's Newport Beach is her family's latest perch, and she's determined to shuck her brainy loner persona and start afresh with a new Brady Bunch name--Cindy. It's the late 1970s, and fitting in becomes more difficult as Iran makes U.S. headlines with protests, revolution, and finally the taking of American hostages. Even mood rings and puka shell necklaces can't distract Cindy from the anti-Iran sentiments that creep way too close to home.

View Details >>

Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers

Dav Pilkey

George and Harold have been turned into evil zombie nerds doomed to roam a devastated, postapocalyptic planet for all eternity! Unfortunately, the boys can't count on Captain Underpants for help because Tippy Tinkletrousers and his time-traveling hijinks prevented George and Harold from creating him in the first place! With Tippy having changed the course of human history forever, George and Harold will have to figure out a way to change it back!

View Details >>

Dead end in Norvelt

Gantos, Jack

In the historic town of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, twelve-year-old Jack Gantos spends the summer of 1962 grounded for various offenses until he is assigned to help an elderly neighbor with a most unusual chore involving the newly dead, molten wax, twisted promises, Girl Scout cookies, underage driving, lessons from history, typewriting, and countless bloody noses.

View Details >>

I Funny: Book 1 : A middle school story

Patterson, James

Resolving to become the world's greatest stand-up comedian despite less-than-funny challenges in his life, wheelchair-bound middle school student Jamie Grimm endures bullying from his mean-spirited cousin and hopes he will be fairly judged when he enters a local comedy contest.

View Details >>

Being Jazz

Jazz Jennings

In her remarkable memoir, Jazz reflects on her very public experiences and how they have helped shape the mainstream attitude toward the transgender community. But it hasn't all been easy. Jazz has faced many challenges, bullying, discrimination, and rejection, yet she perseveres as she educates others about her life as a transgender teen. Through it all, her family has been beside her on this journey, standing together against those who don't understand the true meaning of tolerance and unconditional love. Now Jazz must learn to navigate the physical, social, and emotional upheavals of adolescence--particularly high school--complicated by the unique challenges of being a transgender teen. Making the journey from girl to woman is never easy--especially when you began your life in a boy's body. See Jazz's story come to life with two inserts featuring personal photos.

View Details >>

Hotdog! : Book 1

Do. Anh

Meet Hotdog, the wiener dog, and his friends! Hotdog and his friends are going on a mad adventure to help a baby bird find his missing mom! They'll climb to crazy heights to find her! But can they handle dirty diapers and karate-chopping roosters along the way?

View Details >>

Baloney and Friends

Greg Pizzoli

"Meet Baloney! He's a pig. This book is about him. And also Peanut, his best friend. There's Bizz, too, of course. And Krabbit. He'd rather not be here, but what can you do?" --Provided by publisher.

View Details >>

Our Stories, Our Voices

Amy Reed

This collection of twenty-one essays from major YA authors—including award-winning and bestselling writers—touches on a powerful range of topics related to growing up female in today’s America, and the intersection with race, religion, and ethnicity. Sure to inspire hope and solidarity to anyone who reads it, Our Stories, Our Voices belongs on every young woman’s shelf.

View Details >>

Girls Write Now

Girls Write Now

"Teenage girls tell their most urgent stories in personal essays, punctuated by inspiration and advice from Zadie Smith, Roxane Gay, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Gloria Steinem, Alice Walker, and more of today's great writers. Girls Write Now: Two Decades of True Stories from Young Female Voices offers a brave and timely portrait of teenage-girl life in the United States over the past twenty years. They're working part-time jobs to make ends meet, deciding to wear a hijab to school, sharing a first kiss, coming out to their parents, confronting violence and bullying, and immigrating to a new country while holding onto their heritage. Through it all, these young writers tackle issues of race, gender, poverty, sex, education, politics, family, and friendship. Together their narratives capture indelible snapshots of the past and lay bare hopes, insecurities, and wisdom for the future. Interwoven is advice from great women writers, Roxane Gay, Francine Prose, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Zadie Smith, Quiara Alegria Hudes, Janet Mock, Gloria Steinem, Lena Dunham, Mia Alvar, and Alice Walker, offering guidance to a young reader about where she's been and where she might go. Inspiring and informative, Girls Write Now belongs in every school, library and home, adding much-needed and long-overdue perspectives on what it is to be young in America"--

View Details >>

Teen Trailblazers

Jennifer Calvert

Changing the world may sound like an impossible task. It's the kind of thing only political leaders, business innovators, and celebrities can do, right? But what if that's not true? Just look to these change-making girls who used their voices, their strengths, and their courage to forge new paths to a better future-all before their 20th birthdays. Teen Trailblazers tells the stories of 30 awe-inspiring young women, from historical groundbreakers like Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, and Anne Frank; to history's quiet heroines, like Sybil Ludington, who warned troops that the British were coming; and Claudette Colvin, who inspired Rosa Parks; to today's powerful voices of social justice like Jazz Jennings and Emma Gonzalez. Discover the remarkable change, leadership, and innovation made by incredible girls who overcame huge obstacles to accomplish great things. These pioneers are proof that every girl has the power to speak up, to speak out, to innovate, to inspire, to ask questions, and to challenge injustice. Each of these young women was just a girl until the day she wasn't anymore-until she became a trailblazer.

View Details >>

#NotYourPrincess

Mary Beth Leatherdale

Whether looking back to a troubled past or welcoming a hopeful future, the powerful voices of Indigenous women across North America resound in this book. In the same style as the best-selling Dreaming in Indian, #NotYourPrincess presents an eclectic collection of poems, essays, interviews, and art that combine to express the experience of being a Native woman. Stories of abuse, humiliation, and stereotyping are countered by the voices of passionate women making themselves heard and demanding change. Sometimes angry, often reflective, but always strong, the women in this book will give teen readers insight into the lives of women who, for so long, have been virtually invisible.

View Details >>

Game Changers

Sue Macy

A fresh and timely account of women in sports in the 1920s, and how their determination, talent, and defiance in the face of criticism promoted women's rights, redefined femininity, and changed the course of history. It is a fascinating window into a rich and seldom explored history, and also a topical reminder of the many discussions surrounding femininity and the role of women that continue today.

View Details >>

Marvel Powers of a Girl

Lorraine Cink

This is the Marvel Universe. Where the personalities, powers, and straight-up legends of countless heroic women have captured readers for generations.
This unique book is the perfect start-or addition-to any Marvel fan's collection! Using her in-depth knowledge and passion for Super Heroes, Lorraine Cink explores the lives of the exceptional and diverse women of the Marvel Universe. Filled with inspirational lessons and clever observations, each section digs into what these relatable women can teach us all about growth, bravery, and the true meaning of strength. Paired with over one hundred original, vibrant, and emotive illustrations from the talented Alice X. Zhang, this book balances the responsibility and the fun that comes with being a hero.
Featuring popular characters including Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Shuri, Okoye, Squirrel Girl, and more, this book has something for everyone.

View Details >>

The Truths We Hold

Kamala Harris

As the first woman, African American, and South Asian American to become attorney general of California, and the second black woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate, Kamala Harris has blazed trails on her path to the national stage. But how did she achieve her goals? What values and influences guided and inspired her along the way?

In this young readers edition of Senator Harris's memoir, we learn about the impact that Kamala's family and community had on her life, and see what led Senator Harris to discover her own sense of self and purpose. The Truths We Hold is a biographical ode to the values she holds most dear--those of community, equality, and justice--all of which helped shape her choices on her path to the Senate. An inspiring and empowering read, this book challenges readers to use their own values to guide their decisions and become leaders in their own lives.

View Details >>

History Smashers: Women's Right to Vote

Kate Messner

Did you know that when women's rights activists picketed President Wilson to get his support for voting rights, some men beat them up, tore down their banners, and stole from them? And then it was the women who got arrested! No joke.

Through illustrations, graphic panels, photographs, sidebars, and more, acclaimed author Kate Messner smashes history by exploring the little-known details behind the fight for women's suffrage.

View Details >>

Alice Paul and the Fight for Women's Rights

Deborah Kops

Alice Paul made a significant impact on both the woman's suffrage movement--the long struggle for votes for women--to the "second wave," when women demanded full equality with men. After women won the vote in 1920, Paul wrote the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which would make all the laws that discriminated against women unconstitutional. Passage of the ERA became the rallying cry of a new movement of young women in the 1960s and '70s. Paul saw another chance to advance women's rights when the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 began moving through Congress. She set in motion the "sex amendment," which remains a crucial legal tool for helping women fight discrimination in the workplace. A true "girl power" book for today's young women, the title includes archival images, an author's note, a bibliography, and source notes.

View Details >>

The Invisible Woman

Erika Robuck

France, March 1944. Virginia Hall wasn't like the other young society women back home in Baltimore--she never wanted the debutante ball or silk gloves. Instead, she traded a safe life for adventure in Europe, and when her beloved second home is thrust into the dark days of war, she leaps in headfirst.

Once she's recruited as an Allied spy, subverting the Nazis becomes her calling. But even the most cunning agent can be bested, and in wartime trusting the wrong person can prove fatal. Virginia is haunted every day by the betrayal that ravaged her first operation, and will do everything in her power to avenge the brave people she lost.

While her future is anything but certain, this time more than ever Virginia knows that failure is not an option. Especially when she discovers what--and whom--she's truly protecting.

View Details >>

Lana's War

Anita Abriel

Paris 1943: Lana Antanova is on her way to see her husband with the thrilling news that she is pregnant. But when she arrives at the convent where he teaches music, she’s horrified to see Gestapo officers execute him for hiding a Jewish girl in the piano.

A few months later, grieving both her husband and her lost pregnancy, Lana is shocked when she’s approached to join the resistance on the French Riviera. As the daughter of a Russian countess, Lana has the perfect background to infiltrate the émigré community of Russian aristocrats who socialize with German officers, including the man who killed her husband.

Lana’s cover story makes her the mistress of Guy Pascal, a wealthy Swiss industrialist and fellow resistance member, in whose villa in Cap Ferrat she lives. Together, they gather information on upcoming raids and help members of the Jewish community escape. Consumed by her work, she doesn’t expect to become attached to a young Jewish girl or wonder about the secrets held by the man whose house she shares. And as the Nazis’ deadly efforts intensify, her intention to protect those around her may put them all at risk instead.

 

View Details >>

The Rose Code

Kate Quinn

1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything--beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses--but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets. Imperious self-made Mab, product of east-end London poverty, works the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park's few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart.

1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter--the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum. A mysterious traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab, and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together. But each petal they remove from the rose code brings danger--and their true enemy--closer...

View Details >>

Code Name Hélène

Ariel Lawhon

It is 1936 and Nancy Wake is an intrepid Australian expat living in Paris who has bluffed her way into a reporting job for Hearst newspaper when she meets the wealthy French industrialist Henri Fiocca. No sooner does Henri sweep Nancy off her feet and convince her to become Mrs. Fiocca than the Germans invade France and she takes yet another name: a code name.

As Lucienne Carlier, Nancy smuggles people and documents across the border. Her success and her remarkable ability to evade capture earns her the nickname The White Mouse from the Gestapo. With a five million franc bounty on her head, Nancy is forced to escape France and leave Henri behind. When she enters training with the Special Operations Executives in Britain, her new comrades are instructed to call her Helene. And finally, with mission in hand, Nancy is airdropped back into France as the deadly Madan Andree where she claims her place as one of the most powerful leaders in the French Resistance, armed with a ferocious wit, her signature red lipstick, and the ability to summon weapons straight from the Allied Forces. But no one can protect Nancy if the enemy finds out these four women are one and the same, and the closer to liberation France gets, the more exposed she--and the people she loves--become.

View Details >>

Liberation

Darby Kealey

A riveting historical thriller set to be adapted into a film starring Anne Hathaway of one of WWII's most fascinating lesser-known figures: secret agent and WWII heroine Nancy Wake, once the Nazi's Most Wanted Person.

To the Allies she was a fearless freedom fighter, special operations super spy, a woman ahead of her time. To the Gestapo she was a ghost, a shadow, the most wanted person in the world. Her name was Nancy Wake.
Nancy Wake is living in Marseilles and recently engaged when France falls to the Nazi blitzkrieg. A fearless woman with an appetite for danger, Nancy quickly finds herself drawn in to the underground Resistance standing up to Nazi rule. Gaining notoriety as the White Mouse, with a 5-million-franc bounty hanging over her head, Wake quickly rises to the top of the Nazi's Most Wanted list--only to find her husband arrested for treasonous activity under suspicion of being the White Mouse himself.
Narrowly escaping to Britain, Wake joins the Special Operations Executive (SOE), parachutes into the Auvergne and soon becomes a woman in charge of a force of seven thousand men. She and her marquisards fight the Germans with any and all means. Their every battle brings the end of the war closer--but also places her captive husband in deeper peril.

View Details >>

The Lost Girls of Paris

Pam Jenoff

From the author of the runaway bestseller The Orphan’s Tale comes a remarkable story of friendship and courage centered around three women and a ring of female secret agents during World War II.

1946, Manhattan

One morning while passing through Grand Central Terminal on her way to work, Grace Healey finds an abandoned suitcase tucked beneath a bench. Unable to resist her own curiosity, Grace opens the suitcase, where she discovers a dozen photographs—each of a different woman. In a moment of impulse, Grace takes the photographs and quickly leaves the station.

Grace soon learns that the suitcase belonged to a woman named Eleanor Trigg, leader of a network of female secret agents who were deployed out of London during the war. Twelve of these women were sent to Occupied Europe as couriers and radio operators to aid the resistance, but they never returned home, their fates a mystery. Setting out to learn the truth behind the women in the photographs, Grace finds herself drawn to a young mother turned agent named Marie, whose daring mission overseas reveals a remarkable story of friendship, valor and betrayal.

Vividly rendered and inspired by true events, New York Times bestselling author Pam Jenoff shines a light on the incredible heroics of the brave women of the war and weaves a mesmerizing tale of courage, sisterhood and the great strength of women to survive in the hardest of circumstances.

View Details >>

Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook

Celia Rees

World War II has just ended, and Britain has established the Control Commission for Germany, which oversees their zone of occupation. The Control Commission hires British civilians to work in Germany, rebuild the shattered nation and prosecute war crimes. Somewhat aimless, bored with her job as a provincial schoolteacher, and unwilling to live with her overbearing mother any longer, thirtysomething Edith Graham applies for a job with the Commission—but she is also recruited by her cousin, Leo, who is in the Secret Service. To them, Edith is perfect spy material...single, ordinary-looking, with a college degree in German. Cousin Leo went to Oxford with one of their most hunted war criminals, Count Kurt von Stavenow, who Edith remembers all too well from before the war. He wants her to find him.

Intrigued by the challenge, Edith heads to Germany armed with a convincing cover story: she's an unassuming Education Officer sent to help resurrect German schools. To send information back to her Secret Service handlers in London, Edith has crafted the perfect alter ego, cookbook author Stella Snelling, who writes a popular magazine cookery column. She embeds crucial intelligence within the recipes she collects. But occupied Germany is awash with other spies, collaborators, and opportunists, and as she's pulled into their world, Edith soon discovers that no one is what they seem to be. The closer she gets to uncovering von Stavenow's whereabouts--and the network of German civilians who still support him--the greater the danger. 

 

View Details >>