We Don't Eat Our Classmates

Written by: Ryan T. Higgins

First line: Penelope Rex was nervous.

Why you should read this book: School-aged dinosaur Penelope is having trouble making friends in school due to the fact that she thinks children are delicious and she can't stop herself from trying to eat her classmates. Although she is made to spit them out every time, she finds herself shunned by her peers, who do not appreciate her attempts to devour them. Only when the class pet chomps on her finger does Penelope learn a shred of empathy and begin to understand why her behavior is so abhorrent, and how to behave so people will like her.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You think some people deserve to be bitten. 

To Be Honest

Written by: Michael Leviton

First line My parents prepared me far in advance for life's inevitable tragedies (death, rejection, failure, etc.).

Why you should read this book: Raised by parents who taught a strict code of radical honesty, which included everyone sharing every thought that moved through their minds at all times, with the assumption that nobody could possibly be offended by this behavior because they are just being honest and sharing their thoughts, the author grows up never fully understanding what everyone else's problem is, and also not caring. It's both hilarious and heartbreaking, and as he carries this philosophy into adolescence and adulthood, it impacts every facet of his life until he realized, one day, that lying might be a habit that could actually improve his life, at least the part that involves interacting with other humans. After astonishing Ira Glass with his life story and worldview, he decides to be brutally honest in sharing his recollections in print. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Honestly, I loved everything about it, although I wondered if the author and his father ever considered that some of their policy was borne out of neurodiversity as well as honesty. 

The Hungry Clothes and Other Jewish Folktales

Written by: Peninnah Schram and Gianni De Conno

First line: Honi the Wise One was also known as Honi the Circle Maker.

Why you should read this book: This short, illustrated collection for children offers an assortment of Jewish folktales from different traditions and different eras, featuring kings, beggars, tricksters, and fools, offering moral lessons and opportunity for thought and discussion. There are the tales from the Talmud, tales from Israeli folklore, and tales from the twentieth century, all retold in the author's own voice, and often revised to suit her purpose. Rest assured, wickedness will be uncovered and forgiven, while faith and honesty will be recognized and rewarded.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Students of Jewish folklore (and even students of folklore in general) have likely already read versions of many or most of these stories. 

Llama Llama Time to Share

Written by: Anne Dewdney

First line: Llama Llama playing trains, driving trucks, and flying planes.

Why you should read this book: This is a read-aloud story in rhyming couplets for very young children, about the importance of sharing and the perils of not sharing. A new neighbor, Nelly Gnu, comes over to play with Llama Llama, and for a while he manages to handle this stranger playing with his toys, but when Nelly involves his favorite doll in the game, Llama finds he cannot share, with disastrous results. Eventually, the catastrophe is rectified and Llama learns it is more fun to share, and that doing so results in making new friends.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You are over the age of seven and you know how to share. 

Dysmorphic Kingdom

Written by: Colleen Chen

First line: She would never be able to look at Nim the same way again. 

Why you should read this book: Part fantasy, part fairy tale, part romance, part adventure, part genre-bending, part sex-farce, constantly surprising, this unusual but delightful story is all about parts: what holds them together, what tears them away from one another. In Vesper's world, women have no rights, and she's finding it progressively more and more difficult to escape an unwanted marriage when she stumbles upon a disembodied penis who can talk and fly as well as perform other tasks more suited to its form. Determined to reunite the member with its rightful owner, Vesper embarks upon a strange journey through a landscape increasingly littered with talking, flying body parts, and she must navigate the confusing obstacles of the royal court, the attentions of men, and her own heart to become the hero scientist she's dreamed of being. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's desperately in need of a couple more proofreading passes. 

Invisible

Written by: Christina Diaz Gonzalez and Gabriella Epstein

First line: I came as soon as I heard. 

Why you should read this book: When the principal insists that Jorge "George" Rivera agree to community service hours "with students like you" so the school can win an award, he assumes that means working with the other gifted kids, not cleaning the cafeteria with the Spanish-speaking students who already think he's a gringo. Despite the principal's blithe categorization, the five members of this breakfast club seem to have nothing in common, until they bond over the common cause of helping a mother and daughter living in a car across the street from the school. Each child has their own secrets, fears, strengths, and weaknesses, but they all find that they're willing to risk punishment in order to do what they know is right. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You only talk to people who share you exact ethnic background and financial circumstances.

The Waters

Written by: Bonnie Jo Campbell

First line: Once upon a time M'sauga Island was a place where desperate mothers abandoned baby girls and where young women went seeking to prevent babies altogether.

Why you should read this book: For Bonnie Jo Campbell's forthcoming (WW Norton, January 2024) novel, I have to abandon my typical 4-sentence format. If you're not familiar with my creative relationship with Bonnie Jo Campbell, you can learn a great deal about it here on my visual art website. If you do know about the 4 volumes of comics based on her work I've published, you probably won't be surprised to learn that I drew the map that will appear as the frontispiece of this new novel, and that I read an early draft (the version she sent to the publisher) last year and that I just finished reading the ARC. I'm deeply inspired and I've just been telling people for well over a year to keep an eye out for this book, because I think it's going to knock people's socks off. 

Obviously, this is a biased account and not a true book review. Because I freaking love this book. 

Like most of Campbell's work, it's set in rural southwestern Michigan, is deeply tied to the land, and features a quirky and colorful cast moving through circumstances that perfectly balance comedy and tragedy. It covers new ground by opening the world up to a fairy tale sensibility and the possibly of true magic.

Hermine "Herself" Zook, age unknown, has always lived on M'sauga Island, and has long been the resident witch of the town of Whiteheart, guided by the spirit of her mother, Baba Rose, who haunts her right arm and also the eternal flame of her stove. In addition to providing natural remedies to those who need healing, she also adopts unwanted babies, and, if approached properly, provides herbal abortions. And thus the tale unfolds. Now raising her granddaughter Dorothy "Donkey" Zook in her footsteps, Hermine finds herself increasingly at odds with a hypocritical world that want to use and control her strength even as the poison of modernity seeps into the swamp from every direction. 

I have a million things to say about this book, which I'm saving for the comic I want to write about it. However, if you like rural noir, fairy tales, strong female characters, strange children, the state of Michigan, nuanced debates about ethics and religion, or detailed descriptions of the natural world, you will probably like this book. 

Pre-order it from your local bookstore or public library and be the first to know. 

Satan in Goray

Written by: Isaac Bashevis Singer

First line: In the year 1648, the wicked Ukranian hetman, Bogdan Chmelnicki, and his followers besieged the city of Zamosc but could not take it because it was strongly fortified; the rebelling haidamak peasants moved on to spread havoc in Tomaszow, Bilgoraj, Krasnik, Turbin, Frampol--and in Goray, too, the town the lay in the midst of the hills at the end of the world.

Why you should read this book: When news comes that the messiah has arrived in the form of a man called Sabbatai Zevi, a strange religious mania overtakes the beleaguered shtetl of Goray, where Jews have long adhered to the biblical traditions of their ancestors. Turning away from their rabbi and the old ways, the people embrace mysticism and prophets and follow kabbalists who declare that the rules of decency and morality are suspended, creating a strange, lawless world in advance of the paradise to which they believe they will soon be delivered. But Zevi is no messiah, and their prophets are less holy than they had been led to believe, and the people of Goray will not be delivered to paradise.

Why you shouldn't read this book: If you haven't got a decent grounding in European Jewish tradition or history, a lot of this probably won't make much sense. 

The Goody

Written by: Lauren Child

First Line: Chirton Krauss was a good child, the very goodest.

Why you should read this book: For a kid's book, this story gets pretty deep, depicting the ways that adults lazily typecast their own children, locking them into roles that cut the child down and prevent them from growing as individuals. Chirton is the "goody" who always does what he's supposed to do, regardless of how he feels about it, and his sister Myrtle does whatever she feels like doing, regardless of what she's supposed to do, and accepts that she's the bad child. When Chirton finally gets fed up with the inequality of the situation, both kids get to experience life from the other point of view and they, and their parents, come to accept that nobody fits neatly into a behavioral box, and nobody should have to, and that it's best for children to be seen as children and not be reduced to binaries. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: If you were always the good kid who always suffered while your siblings slacked off and you never addressed this with your family of origin, this book might be a bit heartbreaking/

The Girl Who Married a Skull and Other African Stories: A Cautionary Fables and Fairy Tales Book

Edited by: C. Spike Trotman, Kate Ashwin, Kel McDonald, and Taneka Stotts

First line: Once there lived a young woman.

Why you should read this book: Like the other five books in this series, it compiles a diverse collection of stories from all over the continent, some modernized, others seemingly ancient, illustrated by a variety of artists who put their hearts into the subject matter. Monsters, talking animals, culture heroes, and clever children populate the pages, teaching caution and perseverance, offering lessons and merriment, and showing young readers a road map for navigating the world. Joyful, uplifting, and entertaining.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're, like, a talking skull or something. 

Bandette volume 1: Presto!

Written by: Tobin and Coover

First line: Presto!

Why you should read this book: It's a fun graphic novel about a teenage vigilante master thief who steals for both aesthetic and social justice purposes and has a gang of street urchins who worship her and will lay their lives on the line every time she gets into a jam. Although it's an English story, the authors go to great lengths to make it feel French, from characterization and landscape but especially in the way they use language. Bandette must decide whether to trust and team up with her greatest rival, an elderly master thief called Monsieur, to defeat a much more evil guy called Absinthe. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's marketed for ages 15 and up, but it feels quite a bit younger in many ways.

Stand Up, Yumi Chung!

Written by: Jessica Kim

First line: I should have known better than to think anyone would listen to me at the Korean beauty salon.

Why you should read this book: Yumi Chung's Korean immigrant parents will never understand her love of stand-up comedy, and they don't care that she isn't interested in earning an academic scholarship to a school where all the kids make fun of how she looks and how she smells; her mother sends her to cram school over her entire summer break, expecting her to improve her skills and score high enough to get free tuition. But shy, compliant Yumi has a secret now, because she accidentally started attending comedy camp with her favorite YouTube star when she was supposed to be studying in the library, and now everyone thinks she's a Japanese girl called Kay Nakamura who is pretty good at telling jokes, and she has to lie to absolutely everyone all summer. Will Yumi find a way to come clean before her cover's blown, will she launch her comedy career or bomb onstage, and will her parents ever understand her?

Why you shouldn't read this book: You missed out on the biggest opportunity of your childhood because you broke both legs.

Get Stand Up Yumi Chung here!

Plutona

Written by: Jeff Lemire, Emi Lenox, Jordie Bellaire

First line: ...another busy night in Metro City as the Bang Bang Gang tried to crash the mayor's Annual Harvest Gala.

Why you should read this book: Five children become entangled with each other and bound by a secret when they stumble upon the body of a fallen superhero in the woods. They have different ideas about how to handle this situations, and different motivations for their reasoning, and different stressors at home that guide their worldviews. A parallel story interweaves the life of the fallen superhero and how she came to be lying where these kids find her. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: I guess I didn't quite "get" the ending, which seemed to suggest that one child's behavior was worse than the others and deserving of terrible punishment, but then I saw that this is volume one of five, so perhaps there's more that I'm missing.

Buy Plutona Now

Words by Heart

Written by: Ouida Sebestyen

First line: Old Bullet had guessed they were going somewhere—Lena's folks—before they came out the door.

Why you should read this book: Lena is probably the smartest kid in school, but she's keenly aware that being the only Black family in town means that some people are going to have a problem with her success, even though her papa moved them from the deep south specifically for the better opportunities he thinks await the family out west. Papa is a "turn the other cheek" sort of guy, but Lena doesn't understand why she has to be the one to suffer and sacrifice for the pleasure of wealthy white people or the pettiness of poor ones. The world isn't fair, but Lena has her father's beliefs to guide her as she makes choices about how to live and what kind of person to be.

Why you shouldn't read this book: To be frank, while I get that the author is intent on making a point about Christian forgiveness, I think this is a pretty rough way to get there, and the fact that the author appears to be a white woman whose thesis is that young Black girls need to forgive unforgivably racist horror (literally by protecting criminal white people from the consequences of their actions) doesn't exactly sit well with me.  

Christmas Jars

Written by: Jason F. Wright

First line: Louise Jensen was sitting alone, licking her fingers two at a time and paying serious attention to her greasy chicken-leg-and-thigh-platter, when she heard muffled crying from the booth behind her at Chuck's Chicken 'n' Biscuits on U.S. Highway 4. 

Why you should read this book: This definitely falls under the category of "books that I read because they were there" (in this case, "there" being, "in this AirBnB where I'm reuniting with my family since we're all vaccinated"). It's a sappy sweet pay-it-forward Christmas miracle story about an orphan girl who grows up to be a journalist in search of her first big scoop. When her apartment is burglarized on Christmas Eve, her despair turns to wonder and determination after an anonymous stranger leaves a jar of money at her door.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Saccharine, predictable, and dully expository. 

Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed

Written by: Emily Pearson and Fumi Kosaka

First line: One ordinary day, skipping on her way home from her ordinary school, she passed an ordinary vacant lot filled with ordinary bushes growing ordinary blue and juicy luscious lovely berries.

Why you should read this book: Setting aside the fact that there is nothing ordinary about a vacant lot full of viable blueberry bushes ready for harvest, this is an introduction for very small children to the "pay it forward" philosophy that suggests doing good deeds can have a magnificent and positive "ripple effect" in the community, and that anyone, regardless of skill or ability, has the power to do good in the world. Ordinary Mary bakes the ordinary blueberries into some ordinary muffins and leaves them for a neighbor, who is then inspired to do good deeds for five people, all of whom are then inspired to do good deeds for five other people. You get the picture: in the end, the goodness comes back to Mary, and she is a recipient of the fruit her own good deed, making this a satisfying read for small children.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's cute for kids but it's not for cynics, who know that no good deed goes unpunished.

Grand Theft Horse

Written by: Corban Wilkin 

First line: I can't believe I'm about to do this. 

Why you should read this book: I adored this deep but endearing nonfiction graphic novel about the author's cousin, the first person to be charged with "Grand Theft Horse" in a hundred fifty years. Gail Ruffu, who has devoted her life to the love of horses, defies a group of powerful and unscrupulous lawyers to save a racehorse called Urgent Envoy, but she sacrifices everything else in the process. Just a tremendously enjoyable story about a remarkable person demonstrating tenacious devotion in pursuit of doing the right thing. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You would kill to commit insurance fraud.

Death of a Salesman

Written by: Arthur Miller

First line: A melody is heard, played upon a flute.

Why you should read this book: Like most people, I read this classic play in high school, and I think maybe once or twice more as a very young adult, but this is definitely one of those stories that hits harder the older you get. Willy Loman is a salesman whose blustery confidence has always masked his failings as a father, as a husband, and as a salesman. In the twilight of his life, as the wages of lies, hypocrisy, and regrets are paid and his mind becomes unloosed in time, he begins to suspect that he is worth more dead than alive.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You have to move a hundred twenty thousand units this month.

 

The Divine Invasion

Written by: Philip K. Dick

First line: It came time to put Manny in school.

Why you should read this book: Herb Asher is having a weird existence, living as a colonist on a far-off planet where he's being guilt tripped into becoming the legal father of God and smuggling his new wife and their unborn fetus deity back to Earth; but also he's dead and in cryogenic stasis reliving his entire life over and over while being subjected to elevator music and awaiting a new spleen; but also he's living in an alternate reality where his actions will have a major impact on the eternal battle between good and evil. Emmanuel, Manny, also known as Yahweh, or Yah, has his own issues, trying to remember who he is and what he's forgotten over the last few thousand years, which he needs to do before the Adversary foils his plans. This second book in the VALIS trilogy, while not a true sequel, continues to examine Dick's late-in-life musings about the nature of reality, this time with a strong focus on Judeo-Christian mythology.

Why you shouldn't read this book: If you need to know what is definitively real in a story and have it seem logical and rational, this isn't the book for you. People with no understanding of Torah and Kabbalah or no interest in Judeo-Christian mythology may have trouble keeping up.

Dragon Was Terrible

Written by: Kelly DiPucchio and Greg Pizzoli

First line: Dragon was terrible.

Why you should read this book: While all dragons are a little terrible nature, this dragon is intentionally extra-terrible in a sad-troll killjoy kind of way that involves things like spitting on cupcakes and taking candy from babies. When the knights of the land cannot defeat Dragon, the king opens the dragon-taming quest up to the rest of the kingdom, who also cannot deal. Only when a small boy finds a creative solution that involves showing the dragon who he could be instead of trying to force him to be someone else is the kingdom saved.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It might give some kids ideas on how to be more terrible.