Book News & Features

To learn 'The Truth About Dragons,' go on a quest through this kids' book

7:00am July 27, 2024

by Samantha Balaban

A little boy must go on a hero's quest — through woods full of oak trees and a bamboo forest — to discover "The Truth About Dragons" in Julie Leung and Hanna Cha's Caldecott Honor children's book.

Queue Listen Now

Cover_True Gretch_headshot credit CJ Benninger.jpg

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has “complete confidence” in Biden’s candidacy

4:41pm July 09, 2024

NPR's Juana Summers talks with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer about her new book True Gretch: What I've Learned About Life, Leadership and Everything in Between.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

Alice Munro's daughter says her mother did nothing to stop abusive stepfather

7:40pm July 08, 2024

by Jaclyn Diaz

Alice Munro died in May at the age of 92. Her daughter Andrea Skinner wrote a Toronto Star op-ed revealing her stepfather abused her as a child for years.

'Emergency Quarters' are for pay phones (remember those?) in a new book by ‘90s kids

7:00am June 30, 2024

by Samantha Balaban

Ernesto's mom gives him a quarter every morning. "For emergencies," she says. "If you need me, look for a pay phone." Hey, it was the '90s! But how will Ernesto spend his Emergency Quarters?

Queue Listen Now

A San Francisco store is shipping LGBTQ+ books to places where they are banned

2:29am June 30, 2024

by The Associated Press

In what she calls "Books Not Bans," Becka Robbins sends titles to groups that want them in the face of a movement by conservative advocacy groups and lawmakers to ban them from schools and libraries.

What’s a book ban anyway? Depends on who you ask

9:24am June 10, 2024

by Elizabeth Blair

The term "book ban" is used a lot in media and elsewhere when addressing the rise in challenges to certain books being allowed in schools and public libraries. But is it more political hyperbole or a censorship alarm bell?

Queue Listen Now

Mama in the Moon, written by Doreen Cronin and illustrated by Brian Cronin

When Baby Sloth tumbles out of a tree, Mama Sloth comes for him — s l o w l y

8:43am May 25, 2024

by Samantha Balaban

Did you know on average a sloth will fall out of a tree once a week for its entire life? It's true — and the inspiration for Brian Cronin and Doreen Cronin's new children's book, Mama in the Moon.

Queue Listen Now

Author Jenny Erpenbeck's novel Kairos was named this year's winner of the International Booker Prize.

A German novel about a tortured love affair wins 2024 International Booker Prize

5:01pm May 21, 2024

by Andrew Limbong

Jenny Erpenbeck's novel, translated by Michael Hofmann, follows a couple in 1980s East Berlin and their tumultuous relationship, while Germany undergoes its own political transformation.

Queue Listen Now

Spider in the Well, written and illustrated by Jess Hannigan

Books
Arts

Hold on to your wishes — there's a 'Spider in the Well'

8:56am May 19, 2024

There's trouble in the town of Bad Göodsburg! A wishing well has stopped working! NPR's Tamara Keith talks with Jess Hannigan about her new children's book, "Spider in the Well."

Queue Listen Now

'Brotherless Night,' an ambitious novel about Sri Lankan civil war, wins $150K prize

9:10pm May 13, 2024

by Andrew Limbong

The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction is a relatively new literary award given to women and nonbinary authors. This year's winner is V.V. Ganeshananthan for her book Brotherless Night.

Queue Listen Now