Episodic coming of age saga.

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance and bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Moving from Addis Ababa to New York City and back again, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, medicine and ordinary miracles—and two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined.

Ginny has always dreamed of having her very own pony, so when her parents agree to rent her a pony for the summer, Ginny is thrilled! But when Mokey arrives, she is shaggy, dirty, and half-starved–not at all what Ginny had in mind. Can Ginny still have the summer of her dreams?

Teacher Brigid dares to break the estrangement between her mother and grandfather and stay at tranquil Cairn Cottage for the summer. A sailboat is delivered to a neighboring cottage and a man named Gabe walks into her life, making her feel something she has never felt before. As Brigid and Gabe quickly fall for each other, and incur the inexplicable wrath of Brigid's mother, Brigid discovers that things at Cairn Cottage are not what they seem. She begins to uncover the secret mystical Stone Society and her role in it, all of which threaten the life she knows...or open the doors to the life she was always meant to live.With roots in magical realism and romance with a dose of family drama, this book will connect with readers across genres. The mystery revolving around lake stones and the Society that venerates nature is both timeless and trendy, and will connect to any reader interested in preserving the earth.

Sticks and Stones presents a treasure trove of building and engineering ideas for children to employ in the great outdoors using materials readily available to them to create cabins, tipis, bridges, dams, and more. Many smaller scale projects are included, too, such as making ochre paint with shale, creating a fishing pole from a branch, and carving a marshmallow roasting stick. Opportunities and materials for constructive play exist everywhere in nature. Author Melissa Lennig (of the blog Fireflies and Mud Pies) introduces today’s screen-overloaded kids to this world of fun waiting just outside the door. Whether camping or hanging out in the back yard, children will marvel at the wonderful, useful tools and playthings they can create with natural objects. Sticks and Stones details various designs for the ever-popular fort (cabins, tipis, survival shelters, etc.) and also covers structures such as bridges, fences, and dams, while explaining the STEAM principles behind each. In addition to structures, there are other ideas and projects for camping and the backyard, like a fire ring (explaining the types of fires, airflow, and safety), the always useful tripod, a travois, a rock garden, and toy boats. Along the way, there are multi-leveled reading opportunities in the form of quick features on considerations like mindfulness, campfire safety, mini STEAM design challenges, and more. Sticks and Stones was named to the longlist for the 2020 AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books in the Hands-On Science Book category. The prize honors outstanding science writing and illustration for children and young adults. This book is an essential resource for every junior outdoor adventurer.

Finalist for the PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship for Writers It is the mid-1800s. Fela, taken from Africa, is working at her second sugar plantation in colonial Puerto Rico, where her mistress is only too happy to benefit from her impressive embroidery skills. But Fela has a secret. Before she and her husband were separated and sold into slavery, they performed a tribal ceremony in which they poured the essence of their unborn child into a very special stone. Fela keeps the stone with her, waiting for the chance to finish what she started. When the plantation owner approaches her, Fela sees a better opportunity for her child, and allows the man to act out his desire. Such is the beginning of a line of daughters connected by their intense love for one another, and the stories of a lost land. Mati, a powerful healer and noted craftswoman, is grounded in a life that is disappearing in a quickly changing world. Concha, unsure of her place, doesn't realize the price she will pay for rejecting her past. Elena, modern and educated, tries to navigate between two cultures, moving to the United States, where she will struggle to keep her family together. Carisa turns to the past for wisdom and strength when her life in New York falls apart. The stone becomes meaningful to each of the women, pulling them through times of crisis and ultimately connecting them to one another. Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa shows great skill and warmth in the telling of this heartbreaking, inspirational story about mothers and daughters, and the ways in which they hurt and save one another.

In the 1960s an epic battle was waged between the two biggest bands in the world—the clean-cut, mop-topped Beatles and the badboy Rolling Stones. Both groups liked to maintain that they weren’t really “rivals”—that was just a media myth, they politely said—and yet they plainly competed for commercial success and aesthetic credibility. On both sides of the Atlantic, fans often aligned themselves with one group or the other. In Beatles vs. Stones, John McMillian gets to the truth behind the ultimate rock and roll debate. Painting an eye-opening portrait of a generation dragged into an ideological battle between Flower Power and New Left militance, McMillian reveals how the Beatles-Stones rivalry was created by music managers intent on engineering a moneymaking empire. He describes how the Beatles were marketed as cute and amiable, when in fact they came from hardscrabble backgrounds in Liverpool. By contrast, the Stones were cast as an edgy, dangerous group, even though they mostly hailed from the chic London suburbs. For many years, writers and historians have associated the Beatles with the gauzy idealism of the “good” sixties, placing the Stones as representatives of the dangerous and nihilistic “bad” sixties. Beatles vs. Stones explodes that split, ultimately revealing unseen realities about America’s most turbulent decade through its most potent personalities and its most unforgettable music.