Book News & Features

The Man Who Took the Indoors Out, by Arnold Lobel

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Frog And Toad Are Great, But Have You Met 'The Man Who Took The Indoors Out'?

7:00am August 30, 2020

by Alethea Kontis

When you think of author and illustrator Arnold Lobel, you probably think of Frog and Toad, his amphibian forever friends — but this story of loving things and letting them go deserves a fresh look.

The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows, by Olivia Waite

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For August, 3 Love Interests Who'll Fight By Your Side

7:00am August 20, 2020

by Maya Rodale

This month, our romance columnist Maya Rodale rounds up three historical novels featuring heroines on a mission — and love interests who'll stand up for them, no matter what troubles come.

I Promise, by LeBron James and Nina Mata

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'I Promise' This Is A Message Book Your Kids Will Love

7:00am August 18, 2020

by Juanita Giles

Kids' books columnist Juanita Giles says message books are often nutritious and boring — but LeBron James's new I Promise combines beautiful art with real emotional impact that her kids loved.

Novelist Toni Morrison, seen at the unveiling ceremony of a memorial bench marking the abolition of slavery in Paris in 2010.

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A Year After Toni Morrison's Death, Her Visions Of Love Stay With Us

12:00pm August 05, 2020

by marc rivers

Love is central to the work of Toni Morrison — she brought love to her examinations of Black life, and love itself was her enduring subject. But love isn't always a good or joyous thing in her work.

Juanita Giles and her mother, Mary Morton Giles.

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What I Read To My Mother On Her Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Last Day

10:40am July 28, 2020

by Juanita Giles

Our kids' books columnist Juanita Giles recently lost her mother to COVID-19; she says that when she was picking books to read at her mother's bedside, Judith Viorst's bad-day classic was just right.

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Take 'The Unadoptables' Home For A Rollicking Adventure

7:00am July 12, 2020

by Juanita Giles

Hana Tooke creates a memorable villain, Matron Gassbeek, who menaces the feisty orphans of The Unadoptables in the grand tradition of awful authority figures like Miss Trunchbull and Viola Swamp.

Summer Poll judge Andrea Davis Pinkney says the first book she remembers her parents reading out loud was Ezra Jack Keats' classic The Snowy Day.

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No Reading, No Peace: The Power Of Black Stories Out Loud

7:00am July 10, 2020

by Andrea Davis Pinkney

The difference between owning a book by a Black author and experiencing its power lies in reading it aloud — particularly for kids' books, which can help kids speak up about their own experiences.

President Trump, seen last week at the White House, is the subject of another scathing book that also faced a court battle. The release date for the new book by his niece, Mary Trump, has been moved up to July 14.

'The Stakes Are Far Higher Than They've Ever Been': Trump's Niece Pens Tell-All

9:01pm July 07, 2020

by Colin Dwyer

Mary Trump offers a scathing portrait of the president in a book that very nearly was blocked from publication. Now its publisher is bumping up the release date.

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A Competition To Finish Louisa May Alcott's Story

5:12pm July 04, 2020

An unfinished story by Louisa May Alcott has recently been published, and now there's a competition to find a writer to finish the story.

President Barack Obama presents the National Humanities Medal to author Rudolfo Anaya at a ceremony in September 2016.

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Rudolfo Anaya, A Founding Father Of Chicano Literature, Dies At 82

8:14pm June 30, 2020

by Petra Mayer

Anaya's 1972 classic Bless Me, Ultima — about a young Mexican American boy and his curandera mentor in New Mexico in the 1940s — inspired a generation of Chicano writers.