Eva, an 18-year-old intern at London-based Low Slang Records, wants to break into the A&R side of the music industry but spends her days fetching coffee for higher-ups who won’t give her the time of day. Then she finds 16-year-old Alora Storm-Jones. When Eva comes across a video of Alora singing, she’s transfixed by her talent. If Eva can get Alora signed to the label, both their lives might just change forever. Alora has loved to perform since early childhood, inspired by her father, Billy Storm-Jones, a beloved musician. But it’s been years since Alora has seen Billy, who left her and her neglectful mother, Julia, in their dingy Manchester apartment. Desperate to escape her dreary existence and become “an icon,” Alora jumps at Eva’s offer of management. Together, they take the music world by storm as Alora becomes an instant superstar with a No. 1 record, sold-out stadium tour, and millions in the bank. But it’s a well-trodden path—promising yet troubled young artist, controlling record label, problematic producer, hounding paparazzi, obsessive fans, all the other sinister trappings of fame—and author Seddon does not deviate from expectations as both women’s lives predictably unravel. As the story is told from both perspectives in two different timelines—Alora in rehab after a livestreamed suicide attempt and Eva during Alora’s meteoric rise—the dark backstories, betrayals, mistakes, and missteps of both women are slowly brought to light. The exploration of female ambition and the desperate decisions each woman makes to grab at power, success, and notoriety in an industry where men systemically withhold all the above make this story worth reading.

When Redo Hauptshammer arrives from Vienna in the Prussian village of Szonden on the banks of the Oder River in the 1820s, his first task is to bury his murdered young Spanish wife, Odra—the victim of random gunfire—on the same plot of land where he hopes to raise sugar beets. But when he first places his spade in the soil, he makes a startling discovery: the icebound body of a Prussian hussar soldier. Redo’s shock and sadness only grow as his repeated efforts to excavate a suitable gravesite reveal multiplying numbers of “dead, frozen soldiers, surrounded by their weapons under pools of coagulated blood that announced their presence a few feet farther down.” Each new dig discloses double the number of bodies, until he has unearthed a total of 31 men from different eras. Meanwhile, an albino witch named Ilse informs him more are yet to be discovered. To his rising frustration, Redo must confront recalcitrant authorities—stretching from the local gentry and minor government functionaries all the way to the highest levels of the Prussian regime—who seem vaguely sympathetic to his plight, but just as determined to delay a solution to the inexplicable problem. One finally admonishes, “You understand it’s not convenient for death to cause such commotion in a country that is at peace.” As Redo muses on his brief period of marital bliss and deals with his grief over Odra’s death, tenant farmer Hans and local historian Jakob Moltke provide support and consolation. Mora’s surreal premise and understated tone subtly mask a pointed critique of governments that don’t hesitate to send their citizens into battle while refusing to face the consequences of those fateful decisions.

Emilia is both excited and nervous about spending the day outdoors. Her younger brother, Nico, is ready to go, but Emilia feels unsure. Her grandmother arrives to pick up the kids and their parents, and they all set out. Before long, Emilia begins to notice the forest’s sights, smells, and sounds, discovering the beauty of the plants and animals around her. Galindo’s illustrations capture the magic of hiking, weaving detailed birds and woodland creatures into soft, whimsical swirls that reflect a child’s sense of wonder and love. Harmony’s story highlights the joy of connecting deeply with both family and nature and the simple pleasures of exploring the outdoors together. Backmatter includes a brief guide to visiting public lands, with tips for staying safe and caring for the environment. Readers will also find a list of sorpresas, or surprises, to spot throughout the artwork, among them a monarch butterfly, a red-tailed hawk, and other wildlife. This bilingual picture book presents the full text in English alongside Spanish on each page. Emilia and her family are brown-skinned and Latine.

In Union Springs, Alabama, 13-year-old Nova Jones desperately wants to terminate the pregnancy her school nurse has confirmed. Knowing her personal and professional risk, Dr. Bria Gaines performs the procedure and is soon arrested for committing the Class A felony of performing an abortion, punishable by 99 years in prison. The law allows no exceptions even for rape or incest, and the doctor looks certain to be convicted. “I don’t have a prayer,” Gaines tells her lawyer. Presiding over the case is Circuit Judge Mary Stone, who is up for re-election later in the year. She is a Black woman who graduated at the top of her class at the University of Alabama Law School and who hosts Saturday morning community breakfasts at her farm. The case will split the town, and Stone is under heavy pressure from both sides to recuse herself: “Mark my words, Mary. This case will destroy you,” her sister says. The district attorney wants Gaines to be found guilty and punished to the max. A sanctimonious pastor tries to shame Judge Stone into quitting the case, and he’s one of many. “Don’t you follow those women into hell,” an anonymous caller says. Even the governor gets into the act, threatening to call in the National Guard. But Judge Stone stands firm. “I am Judge Mary Stone, and this is my courtroom,” she declares, and her obsession is to ensure a fair trial. Soon almost everything that can go wrong goes wrong, and Union Springs goes “batshit crazy”—with outside help. “A lot of money will be spent” to defeat Mary Stone in the upcoming election, and her judicial career won’t be worth a plate of week-old grits. Twists abound that ratchet up the tension as well as readers’ sympathy for the story’s women. Some of the South’s benighted racial past resurfaces, mixing with the post-Roe reality that divides much of America. The Davis-Patterson collaboration delivers first-class courtroom drama, small-town excitement, and strong characters all wrapped in a moral dilemma.

A farmer discovers a bottomless hole on his property, into which his neighbors soon begin tossing their unwanted possessions. A glassmaker creates a glass heart for a girl in need of a new one, but its fragility proves a danger when she begins to fall in love. A woman gives birth to a teacup, much to the bafflement and disappointment of her husband: “instead of a son or daughter there was a new cup on the drying board. Many people visited in the following days, some family, some curiosity-seekers. They asked the husband questions he couldn’t answer. Would the teacup grow? Could the visitors drink from it?” In these 60 fables (none of which are more than a few pages long), Yourdon offers tastes of the fantastical: a horse small enough to get caught in a spiderweb, a gourd filled with geese, a man capable of turning a dog into a violin. There’s a magic darning bag in which anything—or nearly anything—is mended; a girl who keeps finding gifts under her pillow, including feathers and human teeth; and a milliner who attempts to sell a “glut” of out-of-fashion hats, only to discover the “glut” has come to life. Many of the fables play with the meanings people ascribe to inanimate objects. In one story, a man complains so much about his wife’s new chandelier that she decides to murder him with it. In another, a grandfather refuses to use the new indoor bathroom, preferring to stick with the outhouse, until he discovers a miniature carved wooden version of himself placed without explanation on the outhouse shelf. The best fables are those that take unexpected turns, like the particularly dark “The Gallows,” about three siblings’ ill-fated trip to a fair. Yourdon has a knack for crafting scenarios that trouble readers’ senses of cause and effect—there are no transparent morals here—in just such a way to ensure they will immediately proceed to the next one.