Lamm was a young artist, posting her drawings for 200,000 followers on Instagram and successfully monetizing her artwork through brand endorsements and magazine assignments, when she accidentally typed the wrong password and was locked out of her account for several months. That’s when she realized that her career, as she writes in this accessible manifesto,…

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After a passel of animal musicians pass through the forest, a wandering cricket finds an abandoned violin. “Oh, how practical! A house that can play music. I’m moving in.” During the day she makes pottery and noodles, but by evening she plays wonderful tunes that entrance the other insects and small animals. All is well…

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Francine Garcia’s parents must leave her and her toddler brother, Alfond, with Auntie Flora; Francine’s infant brother Ramón needs heart surgery, and her parents will be spending the next month in Atlanta while he undergoes the procedure. Though Francine’s upset about the disruption to her routine and the separation from her parents, she finds solace…

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Clayton combines speculative fiction with Catholic theology in this reflective self-helper. Through 35 guided meditations, readers are encouraged to imagine themselves on a quest led by Ignatian principles. The author, who believes that stories reflect divine truths, proposes spiritual practices for worldbuilding, including trusting your imagination, being specific, seeing the world as grace-filled, and embracing…

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Marian’s geologist mom has some truly amazing rocks, but Marian’s own collection is nothing to sneeze at; she’s got “an enchanted rock. A prehistoric rock. And a surprisingly speedy rock.” She also has a spot reserved for the very best one, still to be found. Then, at the playground one day, Marian comes across something…

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Each dwelling is a distinctive, unexpected shape. At Lucy’s, there’s a cat silhouetted in one of the round, eyelike windows. “Does [the house] have…ears?” Not only do the attic dormers look just like cat ears, but the lunette over the door evokes a nose and the mailbox has feline features. A cross section shows Peter…

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Award-winning naturalist, poet, and painter Kaufmann (The California Field Atlas, 2017, etc.) invites readers to redefine stewardship of the earth, by uniting “ecological science, ethical responsibility, and the needs of the human community” with the needs and intelligences of the non-human community. Ethical responsibility is central to an “ecological philosophy” that may lead to “people…

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“Kids: Don’t try this at home” warns McGee, depicting earwig hatchlings preparing to chow down on their mom. Matriophagy, though, is just one of the gruesome practices highlighted in this rousing grossfest as the author describes with exaggerated relish how assassin bugs inject their prey with an innards-dissolving poison (“Yum! Cockroach smoothie!”), depicts with crunchy…

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