Shelf Awareness

Anang wants to make a ribbon skirt, a piece of clothing traditionally worn by cisgender girls, for the fancy dance event at the powwow. But the tween is anxious about what others will think and, at their grandparents'suggestion, seeks wisdom from "Gichigami, the lake." Gichigami (who speaks through both turtles and the water) is reassuring: "You cannot hide your joy because the hearts of others may not be open." Anang begins collecting supplies for the skirt. Nothing is purchased; rather, each needed item appears after a dream that becomes reality, such as friendly crows leaving scraps of fabric in trees. Former friend Sherry, who is temporarily living with Anang's family, tags along for the material-finding-journey but is consistently cruel about Anang's gender identity, hampering the tween's creative joy. Sherry's negativity is buoyed by humorous anecdotes, like crows playfully fighting with Sherry over the fabric, and squawking "Rude! Rude little human!"

Cameron Mukwa's joy-filled graphic novel debut, The Ribbon Skirt, is a gratifying story about a two-spirit Anishinaabe kid who creates colorful regalia for the upcoming powwow.

The fifth book in Brandon Sanderson 's Stormlight Archive series takes great, thrilling leaps forward in the author's beloved story of swords, sorcery, and oh-so-much more.

Writer and poet Brandon Shimoda's The Afterlife Is Letting Go brilliantly examines the aftermath of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during

Mothers and Sons by Theodor Kallifatides ( The Siege of Troy ) is the kind of book that reverberates for the reader long after it's read.

All the Lonely People by Sam Carr investigates how "infinite shades of loneliness" can permeate, change, and define the course of human life. Carr is a psychologist and social scientist at the University of Bath, as well as the former director of the Loneliness Project, and he brings emotional heft to true accounts that intimately explore the personal ramifications of loneliness as a universal experience.

In The Radiant, Lise Goett's luminous third poetry collection, bodies prove disappointingly fragile, yet memory, nature, and wisdom are forces that endure.

When a mystifying machine is discovered beneath the venerable Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C., the process of uncovering its puzzling provenance

What do "the remnants of a life" add up to? That question drives Eddie Winston Is Looking for Love, a tender, inspiring novel written by English author Marianne Cronin ( The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot ).

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