As Many Souls as Stars

by Natasha Siegel

An immortal creature of shadow and a young woman with an immense magical gift spar through the centuries in the atmospheric, romantically charged dark fantasy novel As Many Souls as Stars by Natasha Siegel (The Phoenix Bride).

Cybil Harding is born into Elizabethan-era English nobility and a terrible curse that's documented in the Harding grimoire "in ink that was no longer blood but might once have been." Each firstborn Harding in a generation will be a witch, but should that child be a girl, "she would be

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Humor Me: How Laughing More Can Make You Present, Creative, Connected, and Happy

by Chris Duffy

Comedian Chris Duffy's cheerfully informative debut, Humor Me: How Laughing More Can Make You Present, Creative, Connected, and Happy is itself funny. Duffy sets the tone for what's to come with a dedication that includes a tribute to "the little snort noise that people make when they are laughing really, really hard." He then proceeds to establish what he calls "the Three Pillars of Good Humor": "being present," "laughing at yourself," and "taking social risks." From there, Duffy branches off into many directions,

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The Living and the Dead

by Christoffer Carlsson, trans. by Rachel Willson-Broyles

Nothing is as it first appears in this smart and twisty mystery that takes place in a small Swedish town during the waning days of the 20th century. Christoffer Carlsson's The Living and the Dead, translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles, emerges as a devastating, sharp intake of fresh air from the Nordic region, with less of Stieg Larsson's explicit gore and more of Patricia Highsmith's quiet intrigue. Although it certainly contains its share of shocking revelations, this is a mesmerizing work

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Frog: A Story of Life on Earth

by Isabel Thomas, illus. by Daniel Egnéus

Frog: A Story of Life on Earth is the third absorbing, flawless nonfiction picture book collaboration between author Isabel Thomas and illustrator Daniel Egnéus (Moth; Fox), this time linking the evolution of frogs to the origins of the universe.

A child with a net wades through "a pond full of jelly-like eggs" that will one day grow legs and become "frogs that lay eggs of their own." The ensuing chicken-and-egg question--"if frogs come from eggs, and eggs come from frogs, where did the first frog come

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The Wildest Thing

by Emily Winfield Martin

The Wildest Thing by Emily Winfield Martin (The Imaginaries; The Wonderful Things You Will Be) splendidly depicts one quiet girl's dream of "wild things" welcomed into her heart and home.

Eleanor "dreamed of things... with fur and fin./ And when the/ sun came up/ the Wild had come in." Bunnies hop through her bedroom, squirrels skitter through her kitchen, and her couch has turned into a bear. But Eleanor wants to be wild, too, so she flutters her wings, hides in a den, and howls. Deer, foxes, and wolves all

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How to Have a Thought: A Walk with Charles Darwin

by Nicholas Day, illus. by Hadley Hooper

In How to Have a Thought, Sibert Medalist Nicholas Day (A World Without Summer; The Mona Lisa Vanishes) and illustrator Hadley Hooper (Jump for Joy) give young readers an inspiring nonfiction picture book biography of Charles Darwin that uses his well-known meditative walking practice as a kickoff point.

"First you need a rock.... Next, find a stick.... Finally, trace a loop." This, Day says, is how Charles Darwin, the naturalist and "scientist of nature," found his way to "hard thoughts." Darwin often "found

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