“KJ Bradley and Alyson Beaton created Grow to take a child (2-5 years of age) through a typical day, implementing a “normal” routine that is environmentally and socially sound. The sharply designed book helps parents teach children very early on how easy it is to take steps for a cleaner earth. The text focuses on words like “share” and “grow” to instill basic social concepts that resound in larger impacts, and the images encourage the child to actively participate in the daily routine and timeline that follows along the bottom of the pages. The book was based on the developmental findings of Clotaire Rapaille, which say that as a child’s vocabulary develops he or she makes connections to specific items. For example, if a child associates the word “coffee” with “starbucks” the word “starbucks” will likely be an association for life. Grow hopes to instill brandless, positive routines that can benefit community, health, and an awareness of self that’s connected to the larger world.

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“‘Nobody sings like Melba, and nobody ever will,’ proclaimed the impresario Oscar Hammerstein in 1908. Like many others of his time, he considered her the world’s greatest singer. The wild acclaim showered on her by American fans led to the coining of the word ‘Melbamania.’ Year after year she toured America on the ‘Melba’ train, bringing opera and concerts to out-of-the-way cities and towns; thanks to the new gramophone, she could also be heard in the remotest locales. Ann Blainey’s beguiling life of Nellie Melba tells the story of a woman who-in an era when no woman was prime minister, chief justice, head of a church or financial firm, or a universal film star-became perhaps the most famous woman in the world.

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“It is 1703, and Rachael Penrose is confined to Bedlam Insane Asylum in London after discovering her uncle Victor plans to kill her brother in order to inherit the family fortune. Victor leads a gang of criminals and uses French privateer/smuggler Sébastien Falconer as the scapegoat for his crimes. When Victor spreads the lie that Rachael informed the authorities of Falconer’s smuggling activities, Falconer vows revenge on the girl.

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“A houseful of people he loathes is not Sir Arthur’s worst problem…

“It should have been a lovely English country-house weekend. But the unfortunate guest-list is enough to exasperate a saint, and the host, Sir Arthur Billington-Smith, is an abusive wretch hated by everyone from his disinherited son to his wife’s stoic would-be lover. When Sir Arthur is found stabbed to death, no one is particularly grieved—and no one has an alibi. The unhappy guests fi nd themselves under the scrutiny of Scotland Yard’s cool-headed Inspector Harding, who has solved tough cases before—but this time, the talented young inspector discovers much more than he’s bargained for.”

-from the publisher’s site

“Elisha walks through Brooklyn with side curls tucked behind his ears and an oversized black hat on his head. He is a Chassidic Orthodox Jew and the son of a revered rabbi in whose footsteps he’s expected to follow. When he leaves his insular world to take classes at a secular college, he vows to remain unchanged…”

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“To Serve Them All My Days is the moving saga of David Powlett-Jones, who returns from World War I injured and shell-shocked. He is hired to teach history at Bamfylde School, where he rejects the formal curriculum and teaches the causes and consequences of the Great War.

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“Henry, a brownie prince, loves the fairy Rose. Forty years ago, a bitter wizard cursed them to be forever apart and forever silent. Rose is trapped in a magic painting and Henry is trapped in a book. Neither can leave their prisons, or speak a single word, or the other will die. But Moonflower is going to lead a mission to release them, for every seventy two years a wishing star appears and with the help of the Pearl of Love, she, along with a jack rabbit, a unicorn, and two brownies, are going to set the cursed couple free.”

-from the publisher’s site

“What fans don’t love to relive the good times of their favorite team? Likewise, in a twisted sort of way, what fans can really resist a self-pitying look back on some of those times that tested their allegiance? Those disastrous games, seasons, and plays that made the good times even better?

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“The Mississippi River is as much an American symbol as it is a river, carrying the hopes and despair of many in its timeless currents. It thus serves as an apt backdrop for the midlife crisis of Harry McNeil, a man who leaves the hard-hitting world of television journalism for the life of a riverboat pilot in The Great River.

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“When a self-proclaimed “lazy scholar” embarks on a trip through his life’s influences–as diverse as girl-group doo-wop, Yeats, and Van Gogh–readers are in for an illuminating ride. This collection of essays from cultural critic Di Piero veers from his early years as the son of immigrants in Philadelphia to his working life in art, film, music, and poetry. Along with a few choice essays reprinted from out-of-print collections, Di Piero’s new work shows him to be insightful about himself and his work despite his protestations against the “boosterism” of autobiography.

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“Each year writers and editors submit over three thousand grammar and style questions to the Q&A page at The Chicago Manual of Style Online. Some are arcane, some simply hilarious—and one editor, Carol Fisher Saller, reads every single one of them. All too often she notes a classic author-editor standoff, wherein both parties refuse to compromise on the ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ of prose styling: ‘This author is giving me a fit.’ ‘I wish that I could just DEMAND the use of the serial comma at all times.’ ‘My author wants his preface to come at the end of the book. This just seems ridiculous to me. I mean, it’s not a post-face.’

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“For decades, Michael S. Harper has written poetry that speaks with many voices. His work teems with poetry configured as awe, poetry as courtship, and poetry as elegy and homage. Infused with tales and riddles, sass and satire and surprise, Harper’s poetry takes the form of psalms, jazz experiments, soft serenades, and radical provocations.

“In Use Trouble, his first major collection since Songlines in Michaeltree, Harper renews poetry as the art of taking nothing for granted. In three groups–”The Fret Cycle,” “Use Trouble,” and “I Do Believe in People”–he draws on his seemingly inexhaustible resources to paint, sing, sympathize, and sorrow. Here are his tributes to his father and family, his irrepressible playfulness, and his lifelong romance between poetry and music.

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