A 21-year-old freshman, Ellory is significantly older than her classmates. Between her age, lower-middle-class poverty (she’s on scholarship), and race, she keenly feels her distance from her peers, many of whom seem to have always known each other. Tangling with the insufferably handsome and entitled Hudson Graves, who “loomed over the freshmen like an angry god” at the library that bears his family name, only worsens her misgivings. But what really cinches Ellory’s unease at Warren is the magic. Buildings, even neighborhoods, seem to shift around; a soccer ball hurtling toward her stops just before impact, and a tattoo appears on her shoulder and disappears just as easily. Ellory had experienced strange occurrences in childhood, but on campus, the magic is inescapable—and so is the danger. To graduate, Ellory will have to watch her back as closely as her books and maybe even make peace with her most inscrutable rival. Connoisseurs of rivals-to-lovers stories will appreciate the palpable tension between Ellory and Hudson. Their chemistry is equally palpable. Cole’s writing is vivid and creative, sometimes even poetic. She excels at conjuring Warren’s special cocktail of sinister spookiness and academic intensity. The campus is deliciously dark and believably shrouded in lore and rumors of missing undergraduates. But Ellory’s relentless insecurity in the face of her ongoing success grows repetitive, as do the book’s frequent social critiques, which often lack nuance. For example, since students from underrepresented groups are routinely challenged for not having earned their places in elite colleges, an observation regarding privilege in these spaces seems awkward: “The wealthy bought their way in. The poor begged their way in. Both groups were praised for their admission as if their journeys had been equal.”

Lamb, an Earth scientist and author of Devil in the Mountain: A Search for the Origin of the Andes, writes that Earth’s surface is a mosaic of restless plates that go their separate ways, sometimes bumping together as one plate sinks beneath another, sometimes moving apart and opening up a new ocean. That’s the surface. Below about 40 miles, rocks are so hot that they flow like a fluid, but above they are dotted with liquid “magma chambers” that occasionally surface explosively as a volcano or slowly as a hot spring, geyser, or deep-sea hydrothermal vent. Lamb writes an enthusiastic account of Earth’s 4-billion-year history, which mostly involves traveling rocks and subterranean fireworks, with life almost an afterthought. The best way to learn about the early Earth is to study rocks from that time. Most have been shoved deep out of sight by plate tectonics or rest at the bottom of the ocean, but around the globe (mostly in Canada) are surface remnants present over 3 billion years ago, when the planet was a quarter of its present age. Lamb chose an obscure nature reserve in South Africa for his graduate work and returned regularly, so readers will encounter a great deal of geological minutiae about its rocks, with occasional detours to the seafloor and his native New Zealand. The photographs are generous, and the author’s accounts of often hair-raising experiences have broad appeal, but his enthusiasm for geology is expressed in complex diagrams, the details of mineralogy and chemistry, and discussions of plate tectonics and volcanism that will appeal to aficionados with some knowledge of the field.

The author’s ethos throughout her discussion of GLP-1 medications is that obesity is a chronic issue that doctors treated from the wrong perspective: “For too long, we approached chronic conditions such as obesity as ‘willpower problems’ or moral failings….We treated the symptoms but did nothing to treat the disease because we didn’t fully understand it as a medical condition.” Her reframing of readers’ viewpoints on obesity is crucial to his guide’s argument, as GLP-1s only work when patients commit to holistic treatment plans that include adequate protein intake and strength training. The author writes that one need not rely on fad diets that “fight your body into changing”; instead, she asserts that GLP-1s, when used for an extended period, “create the conditions that make change easier.” Considering the cultural primacy of Ozempic, a GLP-1 drug, readers will be interested in the long-term effects of continued use of such pharmaceuticals on the body. Salas-­Whalen shares that minor side effects include nausea, constipation, and dehydration, but is upfront about the fact that one should not suffer to lose weight; if a side effect is bad enough, she says, injections should stop. Her tone is personal and warm throughout, even addressing the audience as “Dear reader,” and she has a patient-first approach, constantly reassuring and encouraging the reader. A large downside to GLP-1s, she says, is the cost, and Salas-­Whalen doesn’t shy away from this; instead, her guide provides tips on navigating health insurance to find the best and most cost-effective treatment. The book also warmly offers anonymized anecdotes from Salas-Whalen’s patients and practice, as well as first-person stories from her own experience taking GLP-1s. Aptly placed graphs, tables, and timelines help to make this a useful guidebook for those curious about GLP-1 medications.

In Clydeo Takes a Bite out of Life (2024), the adorable sheepdog pup discovered his passion: whipping up delectable dishes. Now his family members, their many faces shaggily half-hidden, ask the young baker for peanut-butter cookie treats. Kitchen-confident Clydeo gets to work. Thinking it prudent to taste the new ingredient before using it, he gulps down a huge spoonful, only to find his mouth glued shut. Speechless, he attempts to convey his predicament to his baffled relatives, by pointing, grunting, miming, and drawing—to no avail. A note is equally useless: His handwriting is illegible. But Mom sees the jar and (of course) guesses the situation. Can she help him? She offers milk, but, unable to swallow, he pours milk over himself. Happily, a straw does the trick! Now everyone has just one final question: “Where are our peanut butter cookies?” Clydeo isn’t bothered. He’ll bake again—but now it will be sugar cookies! Peanut butter has stymied many a young foodie, and readers will cheer for a solution as the pages fly past. The anthropomorphic but cartoon-cute dogs animate every page, and pale teal backgrounds make even those pages not in multiple colors appear fresh and vibrant.

Ziva is a Maine coon cat who lives with the Freedmans. It’s unclear what happened before she arrived there, because although she’s sweet and calm with them, she finds strangers upsetting: “Ziva would leap like lightning. Claws out. Eyes blazing. Like she was guarding something only she could see.” One day, Elsie arrives to stay with the Freedmans. (All the humans are depicted with pale skin.) Again, it’s unclear what transpired, but the girl looks sad and doesn’t smile or speak. Ziva doesn’t hiss at Elsie, but sits quietly nearby, observing her. Elsie sleeps and the cat slumbers at the foot of her bed—and in the morning, Ziva purrs when the youngster greets her. Eventually, they become friends. Gerstner’s watercolor-style illustrations are well-executed and show a wonderful range of realistic cat expressions. The story is reminiscent of Chandra Ghosh Ippen’s Argo & Me(2022), illustrated by Erich Ippen Jr., in which a child placed in foster care bonds with an animal-shelter dog, but here, neither Elsie nor Ziva has a backstory. Some readers may find this frustrating, but leaving these open to interpretation may effectively allow many young people to see themselves in Elsie’s situation.