North of Nowhere by Allison Brennan

The beautiful cover is what drew me initially to NORTH OF NOWHERE by New York Times bestselling author Allison Brennan, but this sensational standalone thriller did not disappoint. Brennan centers the story on two young people: 16-year-old Kristen and her 10-year-old deaf brother Ryan. On the run for the last five years, they have been living with Tony Reed near a ranch in Montana and the suspense-filled adventures largely take place in the wilderness area near Lost Lake as a storm approaches. The siblings are being hunted by their biological father, Boyd McIntyre; he's deeply involved in organized crime so he is joined by several of his henchmen and a local guide while searching the woods. And that group is being trailed by Tony’s employer, Nick Lorenzo, a local rancher concerned about the kids. Nick has alerted their ex-Army aunt named Ruby and she runs into a cop who has been on Tony’s trail for years. Yes, it’s complicated, full of twists and fatal encounters, but also very exhilarating as the tension mounts and characters, particularly Kristen, draw on inner resources to avoid being captured. Family dynamics are key to this fast-paced mystery which will keep readers up at night. Enjoy!

The Death of Public School by Cara Fitzpatrick

THE DEATH OF PUBLIC SCHOOL by Cara Fitzpatrick, a Pulitzer Prize winning education journalist and editor at Chalkbeat, is subtitled “How Conservatives Won the War Over Education in America” and seems particularly timely as another school year begins and as education issues are becoming more of a focus in the ongoing culture wars. One quick example is the increased state involvement in the Houston school district and a decision to replace school libraries with supervised discipline centers, profiled earlier this month with an article in The New York Times and an interview from NPR with the new superintendent, plus concerned community members. Fitzpatrick’s new text has been praised for its careful research on history and coverage of complex topics like vouchers, charter schools, religious education, and the school choice movement in general. She looks at the period beginning in the 1950s and introduces lesser-known activists like Jesuit priest Virgil Blum, Wisconsin state legislator Polly Williams, and legal advocate, Clint Bolick. By necessity she touches on race, class, merit, content and curriculum, autonomy, trust, standardized testing, and funding, but tends to leave the reader looking for more analysis and possible solutions.

We certainly have work to do to improve schools and to find common goals. Phi Delta Kapan has been surveying attitudes towards public school for over 50 years; the PDK 2022 survey results are illuminating. Note, for example, how few parents (only 37%) would want their child to become a public school teacher in their community. Or, that the majority of public school parents (58%) would strongly support armed police in the school while less than half (44%) strongly support mental health screenings. Fitzpatrick does not look at the school years from 2020 onward, but THE DEATH OF PUBLIC SCHOOL merits attention and received a starred review from Booklist. Hopefully, studies like these will prompt more civil discussions about possible choices, post-COVID changes, and needed student support.

Dream Town by Laura Meckler

DREAM TOWN by Laura Meckler has much to say about the local values and efforts to foster and maintain an integrated community in a Cleveland suburb throughout the twentieth century and more recently. Meckler, a writer for the Washington Post, recounts the “Quest for Racial Equity” by sharing stories and exploring the idea of “belonging.” She identifies essential questions like “How can and do people of different races live together? And what does it take to make diverse communities succeed?” In her conclusion, she writes, “Seven decades of experience show us that creating shared community is hard and takes constant commitment, constant work. The forces of systemic racism and white privilege, the tendency of the Black community to disengage, mistakes made by flawed human beings -- they are all real.” Honestly, the beginning of Meckler’s text is probably too focused on the local characters and history of Shaker Heights, Ohio, to hold the interest of our students, but there are numerous parallels to their experience on the North Shore near Chicago. Both students and faculty would likely relate to those she interviews, particularly student-teacher-administrative interactions like those described in the chapter on Olivia McDowell and Jody Podl. Excerpts from Meckler’s text would certainly prompt important discussions. Meckler, who spent five years interviewing more than two hundred and fifty people, includes a Note on Sources, a Selected Bibliography, an Index, and copious Notes (at least fifteen percent of the book). DREAM TOWN received a starred review from Booklist.

The Lost Library by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass

THE LOST LIBRARY by Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass is a new story written for late elementary age students in grades three through five. In fact, a major character is 5th-grader Evan who “loved making free time and then spending it however he wanted.” Another narrator is Mortimer, the orange cat who is struggling with changes to his library and missing his sister, Petunia. A “ghost” librarian named Al also narrates some chapters. Young readers will enjoy the mystery element involving old library books, a polaroid picture, and library fire that occurred decades ago. Both Rebecca Stead (Goodbye Stranger) and Wendy Mass (A Mango-Shaped Space is a personal favorite) are so very talented at writing for middle grade students that it was fun to see another collaboration from them.  The audiobook – narrated by Christopher Gebauer, Jennifer Blom, and Rob Dircks - is very well done, too, and will hold listeners’ interest. And, if you are curious and want to learn more about creating a Little Free Library, check out these rather whimsical versions made from all kinds of recycled materials. 

The English Experience by Julie Schumacher

THE ENGLISH EXPERIENCE by Julie Schumacher is a delightfully clever novel, the end to a trilogy which includes Dear Committee Members and The Shakespeare Requirement. Not having read the first two, I found this title worked as a stand-alone, but I would recommend reading all three and truly enjoying Schumacher’s satirical take on higher education. Professor Jay Fitger, head of the English Department at Payne University, is a key character who is drafted at the last minute to accompany eleven students on a few weeks trip to London. He is not the best at travelling and mishaps abound (subtly conveyed by the inverted umbrella on the cover). As the group visits museums and historical sights, he assigns 500-word essays and hilarious student responses are interspersed throughout the novel. Here is a favorite: “One another reason I don't like it here is they can't make a 1/2 decent sandwidge someone should teach them about the BLT (I would do it myself but that is not my roll).” Readers will also smile at the growth they see in the students, including, cat-loving Felicity, art major twins, past boyfriend and girlfriend Brent and Sonia, pre-law student Lin, claustrophobic Joe, alcohol over-imbibing Wyatt, loner Elwyn, the mysterious D. B., and Xanna who often misses events due to illness. That “wonderfully weird mix of exiles” and “often laugh-out-loud hilarious” writing are celebrated in the starred review for THE ENGLISH EXPERIENCE from Kirkus. Have fun reading! 

Ultra-Processed People by Chris van Tulleken

The recent New York Times bestseller, ULTRA-PROCESSED PEOPLE is written by Chris van Tulleken, a BBC television and radio broadcaster whose relevant credentials include a medical degree from Oxford, a PhD in molecular virology, and a position as an associate professor at University College London. In addition, van Tulleken is willing to experiment with his own body, allowing ultra-processed foods to account for 80% of his daily calorie intake for a month. Afterwards, he gained weight, slept poorly, and became more anxious while noting “ironically, food often felt like the solution rather than the problem.” Van Tulleken splits the text into five sections, with background on what we are eating, ideas about control and addiction, physical and psychological reactions to these products, as well as associated costs and possible solutions. With approximately 10 percent devoted to notes, this text is full of facts about nutrition, physiology, and ingredients – many are disturbing. They may not be enough to change strong habits or combat the addictive qualities of these processed items, but they will definitely have readers looking at food labels in a new way. ULTRA-PROCESSED PEOPLE, about “The Science Behind the Food That Isn't Food” (more like “an industrially produced edible substance,” per one scientist van Tulleken interviewed), was a Next Big Idea Club selection for June 2023. For interested readers, related texts include 2015’s The Dorito Effect, 2013’s Grain Brain (updated in 2018) and 2021’s Metabolical.

The Perfection Trap by Thomas Curran

THE PERFECTION TRAP by Thomas Curran is subtitled “Embracing the Power of Good Enough” and Curran, a professor of psychology at the London School of Economics, uses different sections of this relatively slim text to define perfectionism and what it does to us, to outline some possible causes, and to offer suggestions for embracing imperfection. It is an ambitious task and the main culprits – the economy, social media, and advertising – which Curran cites offer many examples with most people “seemingly gluttons for punishment,” resulting in “epidemics of burnout and mental distress.” In a generally accessible manner, Curran combines personal stories and experiences with the results of academic studies to bolster his points. For example, he references the phrase “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger” and its recent ubiquitous nature, saying “we've taken it for granted that perfectionism hurts because we think that hurt, far from being destructive, is the secret to a life well lived.” Also of particular interest are college students’ perfectionism scores on the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale:  self-oriented and other-oriented scores have risen over time, but not as dramatically as those for socially-prescribed perfectionism. Notes on references like Jean Twenge’s work on the role of smartphones, comprise roughly twenty percent of the text.

Curran’s popular TedTalk speech gives some background and could be a helpful discussion starter for students: