WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 71Review_CHILDREN’S
goes on the hunt to arrest Anna, a mechanic
who services illegal medical tech, his belief
that technology is inherently dangerous
undergoes a seismic shift, and is further
rocked by his first meeting with his
Tower fiancée, Eliza, who reveals that
she’s been sent by the Queen herself to
overthrow the Commissioner. As Eliza
and Anna decide what their budding
mutual attraction means, and Nathaniel
struggles to choose a life not defined by
his father’s expectations, they also make
daring plans that will decide the future of
a whole world. This is a fun and unusual
blending of space-age tech and steam-
punk-style clockwork that readers with a
love of adventure will enjoy. Ages 14–up.
Agent: Saba Sulaiman, Talcott Notch
Literary. (Oct.)Nonfiction
★ The Book Rescuer: How a
Mensch from Massachusetts
Saved Yiddish Literature for
Generations to Come
Sue Macy, illus. by Stacy Innerst. S&S/
Wiseman, $17.99 (48p) ISBN 978-1-4814-7220-3
This inspired pairing of two top picture
book biographers tells the story of Aaron
Lansky, an “all-American boy” (a Star
Trek poster decorates his bedroom) who
in college became convinced that
Yiddish books
represented the
“portable home-
land” of the
Jewish people.
With Yiddish
dying out after
the Holocaust
and little main-
stream support
(“Yiddish was a language whose time had
passed”), Lansky learned the language,
then began saving Yiddish books any way
he could. He pulled nearly 5,000 out of a
dumpster and accepted “one book at a
time” from elderly owners (“We didn’t
eat much,” one book donor tearfully tells
him, “but we always bought a book. It
was a necessity of life”). Founded in
1980, Lansky’s Yiddish Book Center in
Amherst, Mass., is today home to 1.5
million rescued books and is a hub of
Yiddish studies. Innerst (Ruth Baderincident: a
white police
officer shoots a
13-year-old
black girl, Shae
Tatum, in the
back as she is
heading home.
Multiple points
of view follow
the killing’s
aftermath
through the eyes of Shae’s devastated
friends and family, the daughter of the
officer who shot the girl, the shooting’s
sole witness, the residents left grieving in
the aftermath, and the black man whose
PR job burdens him with ensuring the
police department comes through the
incident unscathed. When the grand jury
verdict comes back, the residents of
Underhill pull together, emerging
stronger and more determined than ever.
Not for the faint of heart, this fearless and
realistic account of a police shooting chal-
lenges readers to think about these all-
too-common events from every perspec-
tive. The novel doesn’t shy away from the
ugly and foundational role racism plays in
American life, policing, and media cov-
erage, nor does it neglect to examine
black America’s strength in the face of
adversity. Like How It Went Down, this
gritty, emotional tale will leave readers
gutted and compelled to stand against
flawed systems. Ages 14–up. Agent:
Ginger Knowlton, Curtis Brown Ltd. (Oct.)
Tarnished Are the Stars
Rosiee Thor. Scholastic Press, $18.99 (384p)
ISBN 978-1-338-31227-0
In this intriguing science fantasy
debut, the population is divided between
preindustrial settlers who live on Earth
Adjacent and the aristocratic people of
the Tower, a space station ruled by the
enigmatic Queen Elizabeth. Successfully
terraforming Earth Adjacent hinges on
the society curing a congenital heart
defect that some element of the planet’s
environment causes in everyone born
there. Although the authoritarian
Commissioner has found a way to protect
his Settlement, those whose lives have
been saved by illegal clockwork tech have
formed an outlaw village. When Nathaniel,
the Commissioner’s son and heir apparent,
PICTURE BOOKS
The Incredible Shrinking Girl: A Divorce
Story Julie Verner. Roundtree, ISBN 978-1-
949480-01-6, May
Terrible Times Tables Michelle Markel, illus. by
Merrilee Liddiard. Cameron Kids, ISBN 978-1-
944903-75-6, Aug.
FICTION
Creating Chaos Lacey Dailey. Lacey Dailey,
ISBN 978-1-7215-2430-3, BookLife
★ Dead Voices Katherine Arden. Putnam,
ISBN 978-0-525-51505-0, Aug.
My Sweet Orange Tree José Mauro de
Vasconcelos, trans. by Alison Entrekin.
Candlewick, ISBN 978-1-5362-0328-8, July
Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill Lee Wind. I’m Here,
I’m Queer. What the Hell Do I Read?, ISBN 978-1-
7322281-0-8, BookLife
★ Wilder Girls Rory Power. Delacorte,
ISBN 978-0-525-64558-0, July
Woven in Moonlight Isabel Ibañez. Page
Street, ISBN 978-162414-801-9, July
COMICS
★ Pumpkinheads Rainbow Rowell, illus. by
Faith Erin Hicks. First Second, ISBN 978-1-250-
31285-3; paper ISBN 978-1-62672-162-3, Aug.
NONFICTION
Caught!: Nabbing History’s Most Wanted
Georgia Bragg, illus. by Kevin O’Malley. Crown,
ISBN 978-1-5247-6741-9, Sept.
The Miracle & Tragedy of the Dionne
Quintuplets Sarah Miller. Random/Schwartz &
Wade, ISBN 978-1-5247-1381-2, Aug.
TRANS+: Love, Sex, Romance, and Being
You Kathryn Gonzales and Karen Rayne, illus.
by Anne Passchier and Nyk Rayne. Magination,
ISBN 978-1-4338-2983-3, Aug.
★ Troublemaker for Justice: The Story of
Bayard Rustin, the Man Behind the March
on Washington Jacqueline Houtman, Walter
Naegle, and Michael G. Long. City Lights, ISBN
978-0-872-86765-9, Aug.http://www.publishersweekly.comONLINE
NOWGinsburg), who notes in an afterword that
his illustrations were inspired by Chagall,
contributes dramatic, textural acrylic and
gouache images, with sculptural figures,
expressionistic settings, and the deep,
rich tones of vintage book bindings.
Evoking both a lost past and an urgent
present, they’re a marvelous complement
to the journalistic, propulsive narrative by
Macy (Motor Girls). Ages 5–8. (Oct.) ■