Cozy up and drift into the magical world of dreams with this soothing bedtime picture book, by the exceptional illustrator Fátima Ordinola, author of Our Love.

Drift off into dreamland in this beautifully illustrated bedtime story. From cuddling pandas to snuggling polar bears, lazy tigers to soft, woolly sheep, Our Dreams gently captures the cozy, restful moments shared between parent and child through the lens of the animal kingdom and explores the magic and joy of dreaming.

With soft watercolor artwork and a beautiful double-page foldout at the end, this is the perfect read for bedtime, offering comfort and reassurance as your little one drifts off to sleep, surrounded by love and the promise of sweet dreams.

FROM THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR OF OUR LOVE: This stunning book capturing tender moments through the lens of adorable cuddling animals is another heartwarming ode to parent-child connections.

A PERFECT BEDTIME STORY: Our Dreams will inspire sweet dreams to all little ones, offering comfort and reassurance.

PERFECT GIFT: For Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Grandparents’ Day―or any day of the year you want to celebrate the comfort and warmth of families.

Perfect for:

* Parents, grandparents, and caregivers
* Gift-givers seeking new baby and birthday presents
* Preschool and kindergarten-level readers
* Gift-givers looking for a sweet bedtime read aloud

Margot, Wesley, and Josephine have the perfect weekend planned to celebrate the end of summer before starting high school — and nothing is going to get in the way of their big adventure in London.

But while staying with Margot’s mom and her new boyfriend, Teddy, in Notting Hill, something happens that they just can’t ignore...

Join the trio as they chase clues across wild West London, following the trail of a shockingly creative murderer — and some seriously cool street art. From skate parks and tower blocks to canal towpaths, their investigation leads them all the way to a float at the colorful Notting Hill Carnival — the biggest party of the year!

Can Margot, Wesley, and Josephine piece together the evidence in time to solve the mystery at the heart of London’s coolest streets?

Praise for Sharna Jackson:
“I utterly loved The Good Turn; it’s bone-deep brilliant — a joy to the very end. It’s so warm and so funny, and so ferociously on the side of justice and of hope. I adored it.” — Katherine Rundell

Teens compete to become gods in this high-octane YA fantasy for fans of Lightlark and Lore.

Fawn Gallo is a con artist. In a world where the gods and their offspring hold all the power, she’s a mere mortal making her way by scamming the wealthy. Ever since the God of Shadow placed a curse on her family, she’s known she’s destined for a scrappy life and an early death.

Mackie Prince should have the privileges of being a demigod. But her father, the God of Merriment, doesn’t acknowledge her, leaving Mackie and her mother to live in poverty.

When the God of Merriment himself announces an Ascension Trial—a once-a-century competition for demigods to win godhood—Fawn and Mackie each see a chance to steal divinity for themselves.

Locked in Merriment Manor with six other hopefuls, Fawn and Mackie are shocked to find each other. Ever since a devastating betrayal shattered their childhood friendship, they’ve been sworn enemies. But as the trial proceeds, and the tasks turn dangerous, Mackie and Fawn realize they may have to push their yearslong rivalry aside and rely on each other. . . or risk certain death.

"Another gripping entry in an engaging series that’s sure to keep readers hooked." ―Kirkus Reviews

Return to the world of the Marvellers and Conjurors in the third book of the instant New York Times and #1 Indie Bestselling fantasy series. Year Three at the global magic school in the sky is back in session in The Deadly Fates.

After saving the world from the diabolical Ace of Anarchy, Ella, Brigit, and Jason return for year three at the Arcanum Training Institute. But the heroes' return is far from welcoming. Ella’s big reveal last year threw everything into chaos, unearthing long-buried secrets and unwinding a twisted trail of deceit. As tensions rise between Marvellers and Conjurors, Ella realizes that the only way to end the chaos is to unveil the truth about what happened to the Conjure architect once and for all. To do that, she’ll have to enlist the help of the living and the dead. As they plunge deeper into the truth, the search leads them to the Underworld and the Cards of Deadly Fate―an impenetrable prison for supervillains.

But before Ella can figure out how it’s all connected, the tension between magical worlds boil over, threatening everyone around her. Will Ella and her friends uncover the truth about the missing architect before their worlds collide?

Each book pre-ordered with Kindred Stories will include a signed custom bookplate from Tabitha Brown. You must order prior to the book's on-sale date of January 19, 2027.  Available while supplies last.

America’s Mom, New York Times bestselling author, NAACP Award-winning personality, Emmy-winning host, and actress Tabitha Brown, is back with a heartwarming children’s book about hope, faith, and the beauty of the unseen.

Young Tabitha makes a wish, but she can’t see it. So, she wonders if wishes are real and what makes them come true…

That’s when Tab and Mama spend a day in the park, and she soon realizes that wishes—like most of the world’s invisible delights—come to life with a little bit of faith and a whole lot of love.

The #1 New York Times bestselling team behind Hello There, Sunshine, Tabitha Brown and Olivia Duchess, returns with a beautiful lyrical story, that will remind children everywhere about the magic of a single wish. 

• Beautiful lyricism paired with stunning artwork: the lush rhymes and artwork will please tiny readers who are fans of Tabitha’s previous books, as well as children’s books by Emily Winfield Martin and Joanna Gaines.
• Follow up to a New York Times bestseller: you can expect the same quality of storytime from the dynamic duo who brought you the bestseller, Hello There, Sunshine!
• Great lullaby for bedtime: with its soothing rhythm and starry scenes, this is a perfect pick for anytime, but especially for bedtime reading sessions.
• A light message about God’s love: littles will learn about how God’s love, faith, and prayer all have to do with wish fulfillment.

Taking inspiration from a song by Marvin Tate, Gates personifies the city of Chicago through a grid of stone sculptures, tar paintings and performance activations

In Oh, You’ve Got to Come Back to the City, Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates (born 1973) brings together a new series of tar paintings, sculptures and installations to tell an allegory of the city in decay and the potential contained within its ruins. The exhibition’s title comes from a song by Chicago musician and poet Marvin Tate, in which the city, personified as a character, has cleaned up its act and attempts to lure its residents back from the suburbs. In this body of work, Gates wrestles with the burden brought on by aging infrastructure to create new narratives that build on the rich metaphors embedded in his materials―as tools of resistance, signs of excess and evidence of decline.

An overview of Brackens’ magical realist textiles that interfuse mythology with American history and Black identity

This monograph offers an intimate and expansive introduction to the work of American textile artist Diedrick Brackens (born 1989). His practice is shaped through sustained contemplation of American history, autobiography and myth, conjuring imagined spaces where time oscillates between past and future. Drawing from a wide range of textile traditions―West African weaving, quilting from the American South and European tapestry-making―alongside literature and poetry, his figurative and abstract works build a collaged visual language that is both deeply personal and open-ended. Brackens depicts nuanced visions of Black life and identity, while also alluding to the complicated histories of labor and migration through his use of materials: cotton, tea and bleach, to name a few. Through three essays, a poem and an in-depth conversation with the artist, the book foregrounds Brackens’ meticulous process―hand-dyed cotton, deliberate weaving―and considers how his works invite sustained looking, offering textiles as sites of care, ritual and transformation.

On 8 March 1968, Life magazine published “A Harlem Family” by Gordon Parks, a searing portrait of poverty in the United States, told through images and text about a single family residing in Harlem, the Fontenelles. On the twentieth anniversary of The Gordon Parks Foundation, this new, expanded study considers this story as a pivotal moment in Parks’ life, and one that launched his career in film. Since the publication in 2012 of a book devoted to Parks’ photo essay, additional images belonging to the series have been discovered, and research has been conducted on the accompanying film, Diary of a Harlem Family (1968). The present volume tells the story of Parks’ project through this updated lens. This material is accompanied by previously unpublished texts and ephemera related to the project, including correspondence and other documents Parks amassed over the years while he kept in touch with the Fontenelles, letters written by Life readers showing an outpouring of support for the family, and the transcript of a conversation between Parks and Michael Torosian about the making of the story. Essays by Studio Museum of Harlem director and chief curator Thelma Golden, Oscar-winning author Cord Jefferson, and noted scholars Leigh Raiford and Michael Boyce Gillespie offer enlightening commentary on this seminal body of work. Co-published with The Gordon Parks Foundation

A resplendent showcase of Simpson’s works from the past decade that foregrounds her celebrated foray into painting

Rising to prominence in the mid-1980s for her innovative approach to conceptual photography, American artist Lorna Simpson (born 1960) has continued to turn a critical gaze on the mechanisms of image composition―particularly within America, where racial and gender biases profoundly shape people’s perceptions of themselves and others. Since the middle of the 2010s, painting has become a particularly fertile field of exploration for the artist, expanding the ways she tackles the great questions that lie at the center of her work: the erosion and rebirth of memory, the pitfalls of representation, the instability of narratives. In her intensely saturated, atmospheric paintings, majestic female figures frequently emerge from the pictorial matter, squarely confronting the viewer’s gaze. This monograph showcases over a decade of Simpson’s innovative painting practice alongside collages, videos, sculptures and installations. It features approximately 50 works, including canvases created for the 56th Venice Biennale, as well as several brand-new pieces.

Over 20 years of Pruitt’s expansive vision of Blackness, articulated through large-scale drawings as well as sculptures, graphic novels, photographs, animations and installations

Published with Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.

This publication commemorates the American artist Robert Pruitt (born 1975), who works across drawing, sculpture, photography and animation. Pruitt is famed for rendering large-scale drawings of Black subjects in conté on hand-dyed paper. He places his subjects―who are often modeled after friends and family―within imagined scenarios, narrativized through clothing and accoutrements that reference historical Black struggles as well as hip-hop culture and comic books. In doing so, he advances a diverse and radical vision of Blackness past and present.
This substantial monograph aims to broaden public understanding of Pruitt’s practice by including his lesser-known sculpture, graphic novel and installation works. The most comprehensive volume on Pruitt’s oeuvre to-date, this book delves into the artist’s influences, research, training and legacy through fresh scholarship and an interview.

Der US-amerikanische Fotograf Paul Mpagi Sepuya thematisiert in seinen vielschichtig komponierten Porträt- und Studiofotografien queeres Begehren. In intimen Begegnungen mit Freund·innen erkundet er mithilfe von Spiegeln, Stoffen und Requisiten Blickbeziehungen und die ihnen zugrunde liegenden Machtstrukturen. Seine Fotografien ziehen die Betrachter·innen in die kraftvolle Bilddynamik von Sehen und Begehren im Blick der Kamera. Das ausstellungsbegleitende Magazin ist die erste eigenständige Publikation über den Künstler im deutschsprachigen Raum. Paul Mpagi Sepuya, geboren 1982 in San Bernardino, Kalifornien, lebt und arbeitet in Los Angeles, Kalifornien. Doris Gassert ist Medienwissenschaftlerin und Research Curator am Fotomuseum Winterthur. Stefan Gronert ist Kunsthistoriker und Kurator für Fotografie und Medien am Sprengel Museum Hannover. Christopher A. Nixon ist Philosoph, Komparatist und freier Kurator.

For more than a decade, Andre D. Wagner has explored and documented New York City street life, with a particular focus on the changing landscape of Bushwick, Brooklyn, where he has lived and worked since 2011. His work offers an intimate portrait of city life shaped by connection, responsibility and care. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Wagner came to New York to pursue a degree in social work, but ultimately found his voice through the camera. He is also deeply committed to photographic processes, developing his own black-and-white negatives and making gelatin silver prints in his own darkroom. Wagner’s work belongs to a lineage of American street photography that investigates the social landscape and addresses questions of race, class and identity. His photographs capture the joys and hardships of Black life in the city: moments of tenderness and distance, humor and melancholy, solitude and communion. This publication, representing the 2025 Gordon Parks Foundation / Steidl Book Prize, features work made between 2014 and 2024, much of it never published before. The book also includes an essay by the acclaimed writer Hanif Abdurraqib. Co-published with The Gordon Parks Foundation

Flip through hundreds of record sleeve artworks from Folkways, one of the most iconic independent record labels dedicated to global music

The Folkways Records and Service Corporation was founded in 1948 by Moses Asch, who was encouraged by Albert Einstein to document the “sounds of the world.” Between 1949 and 1987, before its acquisition by Smithsonian, the label released more than 2,000 records of jazz, folk, avant-garde, nature sounds, spoken word poetry, speeches and more. The company stood (and still stands) head and shoulders above all other “world music” record labels in its depth of representation and its understanding of the nature of sound itself.
Much of the success of Folkways’ unique yet cohesive identity is owed to Ronald Clyne, the primary designer at the record label. He gave Folkways record covers both an incredibly stylish look and an underlying seriousness of intent and vision. Dedicated to both Folkways itself and its design achievements, this book features hundreds of visually stunning record sleeve artworks from a plethora of voices and sounds, from albums by Duke Ellington, John Cage and Allen Ginsberg to The Music of Equatorial New Guinea, Sea Shanties and Loggers Songs and The Voices of the Civil Rights Movement.

Joint winner of the James Berry Poetry Prize

In her wide-ranging debut collection, Clementine Ewokolo Burnley asks what remains after once-familiar places and people have gone. The poems criss-cross the Atlantic, beginning in the 1850s. The voices of Caribbean returnees to the west African coast mingle with those of west African recaptives, German missionaries, and kidnappers. They witness the changes in family life through the generations as villagers or townsfolk are uprooted or stay put or uproot themselves, defying expectations by leaving or returning.

Her poems address the past only to illuminate what people can become to each other in the present, whether in Africa or Europe. In one sequence a group of university students from far-flung parts discover the freedoms of student halls in Glasgow. In sequences set in the Hebrides old friends recognise a late-blooming love after decades apart. In other poems, a woman consults her scars. Each sight, sound or smell has its threat value in Germany, and children of mixed heritage switch between languages in Italy. Weary of searching outward, women drop anchor in themselves. A couple find grounding in the non-human world that surrounds them. Going back in search of belonging proves futile only because connection was there all along.

Clementine Ewokolo Burnley was one of three winners of the 2024 James Berry Poetry Prize, judged by Major Jackson, Neil Astley, Imtiaz Dharker, Theresa Muñoz and Nathalie Teitler. Launched in 2021, the James Berry Poetry Prize is Britain's first and only poetry prize offering both expert mentoring and book publication by Bloodaxe Books for young or emerging poets of colour.

The Body Losing Its Borders is a debut collection shaped by the convergence of profound personal loss and a world rapidly shifting around it. Written across the politically volatile years surrounding the poet’s brother’s cancer diagnosis, these poems trace the disorientation and transformation that follow grief’s arrival. 

Against this stands a country in fracture—women’s bodily autonomy is increasingly under threat, and Black communities are organizing in response to escalating state violence. These poems inhabit that simultaneity, navigating histories both inherited and self-forged as the poet works to untangle the gnarled roots of race, love, violence, and family.

Told through a Black feminist lens, the collection explores the ways we learn to survive what attempts to undo us, and how we come into our own power in the process. With a voice that is clear-eyed, assured, and deeply attentive, The Body Losing Its Borders charts the ongoing work of becoming: not despite the world’s pressures, but through them.

In this bold Afropunk science-fantasy debut, African mythology and post-apocalyptic survival collide as a gifted healer refuses to let her body, future, or destiny belong to anyone but herself.

In the year 2447, Africa has been transformed by nuclear devastation, mutation, and myth. Ife-Iyoku, humanity’s last African refuge, survives under the protection of the Orisha and the weight of sacred tradition. Imade is a healer with extraordinary gifts, born into a society that values survival above all else — even individual choice.

When catastrophe leaves Ife-Iyoku facing extinction, the elders look to Imade as the answer to their future. To them, she is the last woman, the vessel through which the tribe must continue. But Imade refuses to be reduced to duty, prophecy, or biology. Her life is not an offering to be claimed.

As dangers gather beyond the walls and corruption festers within them, Imade steps beyond the role chosen for her and into a larger, more dangerous inheritance. In a world shaped by wounded gods, ancestral memory, and the fierce will to survive, she must decide what kind of power she will become — and what liberation will cost.

From Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, the historic Nebula and World Fantasy Award-winning author, comes a fierce debut novel of African mythology, post-apocalyptic imagination, survival, and self-determination.

* African speculative fiction and Afropunk science fantasy rooted in Orisha mythology
* A post-apocalyptic future shaped by nuclear devastation, mutation, survival, and rebirth
* A powerful story of bodily autonomy, resistance, transformation, and Black liberation

Cover art by John Jennings, New York Times bestseller and the winner of the Eisner Awards.

In a trilingual collection—presented in Nahuatl, Spanish, and English—Joaquín Zihuatanejo unflinchingly captures the duality of immigrant experiences in the United States.

Picking up where his previous collection, Occupy Whiteness, left off, Immigrant pays homage to the languages of Zihuatanejo’s lineage: the Nahuatl his grandfather’s grandfather spoke in, the Spanish his abuelo prayed in, and the English he himself writes in today. Sometimes brutal, always honest, these poems of witness explore what it means to cross over—and to be double-crossed.

In the tradition of Claudia Tate’s classic book, reenvisioned for the twenty-first century, Khadijah Queen showcases fifteen leading Black women writers who are influencing our cultural and literary future.

Like the luminaries Tate interviewed forty years ago, the writers in this collection demonstrate how their identities are integral to their creative processes in craft, thought, and imagination. Queen highlights the impacts and influence of social media, artificial intelligence, disability, the business of writing, and other subjects crucial to the imaginative and intellectual production of Black women writers at work today.

These poets, scientists, comic book artists, nonfiction writers, novelists, researchers, and playwrights provide a window into the connections between their lives and their art, offering an account of why and for whom they write.

Featuring conversations with: Elizabeth Alexander, Mahogany L. Browne, Rita Dove, Camille T. Dungy, Eve L. Ewing, Vievee Francis, Kaitlyn Greenidge, alexis pauline gumbs, Jzl Jmz, Morgan Parker, Imani Perry, Deesha Philyaw, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Treasure Shields Redmond, and Jesmyn Ward.

On the morning of October 7, 2023, Gaza erupted. 

After sixteen years of Israeli blockade, Hamas breached the wall that had cut it off from the world to attack Israel. In the hours that followed, the Israeli army launched an assault on Gaza to "annihilate" Hamas. Since then, the death toll has reached tens of thousands. And tomorrow, nothing will remain of Gaza as we knew it.

Can one be nostalgic for what was unbearable? Guillaume Lavallée takes us with him to the heart of Gaza, a place where life was lived on borrowed time, a precarious existence, prodigiously human but forever bound to a conflict that had become the lifeblood of its children. It is to his own mother, whose memory is fading irrevocably, that he recounts, as well as to us, what Gaza was like, a place where the earth, the sky, and the sea had closed in, evoking the fire that engulfed it, but also the stubborn fire of hope that, just yesterday, refused to die.

As the federal government attempts to erase all evidence of Black Americans' civic participation and achievements from official websites, museums and even from the National Park system, this Expanded Edition brings the essential, groundbreaking title, The Black History of the White House up to date, culminating in our current, Trumpian White House era.

"Clarence Lusane is one of America's most thoughtful and critical thinkers on issues of race, class and power."—Manning Marable

The Black History of the White House presents the untold history, racial politics, and shifting significance of the White House as experienced by African Americans, from the generations of enslaved people who helped to build it or were forced to work there to its first black First Family, the Obamas, and now in the era of its second occupation by President Donald Trump.

Clarence Lusane juxtaposes significant events in White House history with the ongoing struggle for democratic, civil, and human rights by Black Americans and demonstrates that only during crises have presidents used their authority to advance racial justice. He describes how in 1901 the building was officially named the "White House" amidst a furious backlash against President Roosevelt for inviting Booker T. Washington to dinner, and how that same year that saw the consolidation of white power with the departure of the last Black Congressmember elected after the Civil War. Lusane explores how, from its construction in 1792 to its becoming the home of the first Black president, through the first Trump term and Biden's, and up to the present moment of Trump's second presidential term, the White House has been a prism through which to view the progress and struggles of Black Americans seeking full citizenship and justice.

A powerful and innovative debut collection—the first in the new Polaris Poetry Series—that captures the rhythms of Black girlhood as it navigates the spaces between city and southern roots.

Through poems rooted in Hoodoo spirituality and the author’s Gullah Geechee heritage, Shakeema Smalls’s Sweetwater Mass uncovers ways of knowing that transcend physical and temporal barriers, boldly addressing the lived realities of racism, classism, and economic struggle while simultaneously journeying toward joy and transcendence. Drawing on her identity as a Black, queer woman and her family lineage, the “red birds / of the ancestral arcana,” Smalls writes from a place of resistance—against capitalism and systems of oppression—and in search of higher spiritual truths. Smalls’s work finds lineage in the voices of Sonia Sanchez, Lucille Clifton, Joy KMT, and Nikky Finney, while offering something wholly unique that broadens conversations about systemic violence, poverty, and the complexities of Black girlhood. As she grapples with the intersections of gender, race, class, and resilience, Smalls weaves breath, brevity, and stream of consciousness into poems that hold space for both grief and growth.

The Polaris Poetry Series is edited by Cynthia Manick and features collections of Afrofuturistic and Afrofuturism-adjacent poetry. The series is a dedicated home for this innovative poetic style and for amplifying the voices of Black poets. Sweetwater Mass is the first in the series.

New Yorker Mara Bader moves to Zambia to teach teens Lifeskillz through soccer. Zambia offers her everything she was missing from her life in America–a sense of community and humanity. Enchanted, Mara wants to be Zambian. She learns to cook nshima like her Zambian sisters, dresses in local fabrics and falls in love with the charming, unpredictable son of an ex-minister.

Kezzy unlocks the door to Zambian culture for her, in more ways than one. They marry, with two sons following in short order. Six years later, and Mara’s already an expert in ignoring the click click click sound coming from behind the bathroom door as Kezzy texts his girlfriend. When Loveness, his mistress, confronts her, Mara makes an unusual, ill-fated choice.

Salaula Sisters explores the vagaries of modern-day Zambia, a cross-cultural marriage, and an unusual alliance.

Jump Twice: Truths To Build A Meaningful Life is a self-development memoir about how meaning is not discovered once and for all, but built through conscious action over time.

Centered on four guiding principles-Experience, Multiply, Learn, Share-Caz Harleaux explores what it means to live intentionally in a world shaped by disruption, change, and reinvention. Drawing from personal experience, cultural observation, and a lifelong commitment to growth, he offers a thoughtful framework for becoming better for oneself and more useful to the world.

With the voice of a seasoned storyteller and the perspective of a serious student of life, Harleaux blends reflection, lived experience, and practical insight. Through personal stories, historical parallels, and unexpected turns, Jump Twice examines enduring questions about identity, growth, purpose, and contribution.

Rather than offering a rigid formula, this book invites readers to think more clearly, live more deliberately, and assign deeper meaning to their lives through action.

For readers of reflective personal growth, inspirational memoir, and purpose-driven nonfiction, Jump Twice offers an honest and grounded perspective on building a meaningful life.

The magic-school adventures of The Marvellers meets the emotional coming-of-age stories of Erin Entrada Kelly in this middle grade fantasy about a young girl who discovers she is the next savior of her generation as an ancient evil arises.

Dominique has one sole focus—to be a gold medal Olympian when she’s older—so she doesn’t have time for any distractions if she wants to qualify for her team's upcoming State finals. But her goals come to speeding halt when she is attacked by a mysterious shadow monster at the most important track meet of her life, and she is invited to St. John’s Academy, a prestigious magic school for conjurers.

Suddenly, Dominique is thrusted into a major battle between the forces of good and evil. She learns that her magic has been manifesting right when High John the Conqueror, the schools almighty protector disappeared, leaving the school vulnerable to chaosbringers—demons of destruction. Now, the students and faculty at St. John’s sees their next great hero in Dominique. Black girl magic is one thing, but Black girl savior? Not exactly what she signed up for. All she cares about it making her next track meet.

Yet as more chaosbringers attack St. John's, drawn to her lack of control of her own power, Dominique knows she can't just sit still. But she'll need to stop sprinting long enough to decide if she's racing towards her destiny, or running from it.

Join Rihanna and Andre as a baking mishap turns into a fun lesson about chemistry, measurement, and precision—because STEAM is everywhere and for everyone!

Part of STEAMWORKS, a series of fiction picture books for ages 4–7 that relate science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) to kids’ everyday lives.

Rihanna and Andre love helping their dad make barbecue sauce by adding a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Baking cupcakes to help Grandma Jean should be the same—right? But when their treats turn out misshapen and way too sweet, the siblings learn that while cooking is an art, baking is a science that requires precision.

Extend the learning beyond the story with expertly crafted back matter, including additional information about chemistry and measurement and fun STEAM activities.

STEAMWORKS features children of all backgrounds and abilities using scientific and mathematical thinking to solve everyday problems and answer questions that matter to them. Playful stories and extension activities ignite excitement for science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM) and empower children as thinkers, problem solvers, and innovators.

STEAMWORKS picture books are also available in Spanish.

Making Freedom Work tells the stories of five free women of color in antebellum New Orleans. The lives of Eulalie Mandeville, Henriette Delille, Marie Couvent, Cécille Bonille, and Marie Dolores Laveaux reveal the economic, legal, and cultural strategies free Black women used to move through a racially stratified, patriarchal slave society. Janet Morrison argues that free women of color could play a crucial role in the city’s economic, religious, and communal life, even as they navigated and contested the restraints placed upon them by their race and gender. Foregrounding the voices of these women and their families, Morrison recovers stories that have long been marginalized in New Orleans history.

During a period of profound transformation in New Orleans―including French and Spanish colonial legacies, imposed American racial hierarchies after the Louisiana Purchase, and increased mobility within the Atlantic world―these five women found numerous ways to exercise their agency in a world that was not designed for them. They owned businesses, accumulated property, pursued litigation, engaged in philanthropy, and provided religious leadership, all while building durable networks of care, education, and spirituality. Avoiding the dangers of outright rebellion, the women employed strategies of gendered resistance―refusal, adaptation, collaboration―that often proved very successful, carving out space for survival in ways that confounded societal expectations of who they could be and what they could accomplish.

Morrison draws on a rich trove of archival sources such as censuses, city directories, notarial records, wills, successions, and court cases. Recognizing that these records were produced within white-controlled bureaucratic systems, Making Freedom Work attends closely to both their evidentiary value and their silences. It also confronts the complexities of slaveholding by free people of color, interpreting it as part of a broader struggle for security, status, and distance from enslavement, while emphasizing the uneven and contingent relationships between enslavers and the enslaved.

Making Freedom Work reintroduces these women―so often dismissed and devalued in their own time―as central historical actors, highlighting their influence as entrepreneurs, community builders, educators, and mothers of the next generation.

Inspiriert von Ursula K. Le Guins Das Wort für Welt ist Wald begreift dieses Buch Wasser als kosmologische Kraft, die Welten formt, ihnen widersteht und sie erhält. Es bringt Künstler·innen, Denker·innen und Aktivist·innen aus aller Welt zusammen, um fluide Körper zu erkunden – Flüsse, die Widerstand mit sich tragen, Ozeane, die Gemeinschaften beherbergen, Moore, die Erinnerungen bewahren. Aus indigenen, ökologischen und dekolonialen Perspektiven lassen die Beiträger·innen Wasser als Archiv, Verwandtschaft und lebendiges Territorium erscheinen – ein Medium der Trans- formation, des Widerstands und des Überlebens: So entsteht ein vielstimmiger Atlas fluider Welt- erzeugung für unsere planetarische Zeit. Susan Schuppli (Kanada / UK) befasst sich als Künstlerin und Forscherin mit Klima, Wasser und der materiellen Politik des Beweismittels. Karolin Tampere (Estland / Norwegen) erkundet als Kuratorin und Forscherin Moorland als lebendiges, widerständiges und aufnahmefähiges Ökosystem. Ailton Krenak (Amazonien / Brasilien) ist ein indigener Anführer, Philosoph und Aktivist, der den Amazonas als empfindungsfähige, vernetzte Welt begreift. Sara Ahmed (Indien / UK) ist Wissenschaftlerin, feministische Theoretikerin und Gründerin des Living Waters Museum. Hylozoic / Desires (Indien / UK) ist ein Künstlerduo. Himali Singh Soin und David Soin Tappeser setzen sich in poetischen Arbeiten mit mythischen Ökosystemen und Zeitverflechtungen auseinander. Nat Raha (UK) ist Lyrikerin und Wissenschaftlerin und schlägt eine Brücke zwischen trans-Poetik, radikaler Politik und Verwandtschaftsbeziehungen zwischen den Welten. Karan Shrestha (Nepal) ist ein indigener Künstler aus dem Himalaya, der sich mit Erinnerung, Landschaft und spiritueller Ökologie befasst.

What if the writing life isn’t about daily word counts―but about daily attention to your whole self?

You don’t need to write every day to be a writer. You don’t need perfect conditions, endless hours, or a life free from doubt. What you need is permission to bring your whole, imperfect self to the page―and practices that nourish your soul as you write.

All of life is the writing life.

Drawing on her experience as a spiritual director working primarily with writers, Charlotte Donlon offers something rare: a book that honors both the craft of writing and the care of the soul. Through contemplative practices, personal stories, and wisdom from writers like Toni Morrison, Margaret Walker, and Kaveh Akbar, she invites you to discover how rest, doubt, grief, and joy all become sacred ground for creative flourishing.

Structured around five essential movements―“Begin,” “Belong,” “Become,” “Behold,” “Bestow”―this book offers practical rituals and gentle companionship for the real conditions of your life. Whether you’re navigating resistance, recovering from burnout, or simply longing for a more sustainable practice, you’ll find permission to write from exactly where you are.

Writers of all backgrounds are welcome here. People of deep faith and profound doubt. Those who write every day and those who write in stolen moments. Published authors and private journalers. This is a sanctuary, not a system―a space where your creative identity isn’t measured by output but nourished by attention.

Spiritual Direction for Writers doesn’t promise to make you more productive. It promises something better: to help you become more fully yourself, on and off the page. Because when writing helps make you a kinder, wiser, and more generous human being―when it opens you to what matters most―you’ve already succeeded.

“Charlotte’s book makes space, supports readers, writers, and listeners, and truly cares about the people who encounter its pages. It is a place to land and rest, a place to be curious, to experiment, to pray, to breathe, to feel, and to embrace the truth of your identity as a writer.”
―Ashley M. Jones, poet laureate emerita of Alabama

James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef finalist and Food & Wine Best New Chef Caroline Schiff believes a sweet treat is the perfect daily ritual, and her book is designed to sweeten life in just the right dose.

Why wait for a special occasion when dessert can be part of every day?

Star chef Caroline Schiff believes a sweet treat is an important daily ritual―something small and simple, or occasionally a showstopper to celebrate big moments. Daily Dessert is her joyful, highly versatile collection of recipes designed to sweeten life in just the right dose.

Sometimes that means one perfect cookie warm from the oven, a snacking cake to last all week, a no-bake refresher on a scorching day, or a cozy pudding for a winter night. Organized by mood and moment, chapters move from Simple Little Sweets (quick, small-batch recipes) to Weekly Snacking Bakes, Sunny Day Sweets, Cozy Day Confections, Dessert for Breakfast, No-Bake Treats, and Celebration Sweets―plus a Basics section with Schiff’s essential doughs, sauces, and toppings.

Recipes are approachable yet irresistible, the kind of things fans already love from Schiff: Hot Butterscotch Pecan Blondies, Upside-Down Clementine Olive Oil Snacking Cake, Raspberry Crème Fraîche Galette, Espresso Crunch Coffee Cake, Gingersnap and Orange Cream Sandwiches, No-Churn Toasted Cinnamon Ice Cream, and her iconic Baked Alaska for a Crowd.

Daily Dessert is an invitation to embrace the joy of sweets as part of everyday life. With Schiff’s playful voice, professional know-how, and unfussy recipes, this book is for everyone―novice bakers, seasoned pros, and anyone who simply believes dessert makes life better.

Gail Simmons will be in conversation with Chris Shepherd on November 17th at the Hobby Center as part of her official book tour.  Get tickets HERE!

From author, culinary expert, and Top Chef judge Gail Simmons comes a fun, informative, and trailblazing guide to a rarely-explored side of hospitality: how to be a great guest.

Countless influential voices have written books about hosting, offering tips for what to cook, how to set the perfect table, mix the best drinks and create the most welcoming vibes. But hospitality, by definition, involves at least two people; where is the advice for guests?

Culinary expert and perennial Top Chef judge Gail Simmons is something of a professional on the subject. As a tastemaker and lifestyle authority, she is invited to countless social events running the gamut from world-class fine dining and international affairs to neighborhood potlucks. Through it all, she knows that for any gathering to be a success, guests must rise to the occasion and actively embrace their role.

In Guesting, Gail unpacks the reciprocal nature of this relationship and explores the sometimes-tricky choreography that governs its dance. She also shares her essential tenets of guesting, and proven strategies for navigating any social situation (yes, even assigned seating). From dinner parties to weddings, religious observances to restaurants, Guesting guides readers through all types of “get-togethers” with confidence and grace. It also connects the vital role guesting plays in our wellbeing and the integrity of our collective culture, at a moment when technology and the temptation for short-term comfort have diminished our inherent need to create―and maintain―human relationships.

And since any good guest knows that bringing something to the table is always the right move, Gail shares ideas and recipes for thoughtful store-bought contributions, homemade food gifts, and favorite dishes to share with a crowd. Whether you’re visiting an old friend, going out for dinner, or attending a milestone celebration, Gail has the answers and inspiration to help you become the consummate guest.

An all-new hardcover collector's edition of the second in the award-winning Hoops series. New York Times bestselling author Kennedy Ryan takes sports romance to a whole new level with emotionally rich and complicated love stories set in the explosive world of the NBA.

If Jared Foster had a dollar for every time Banner Morales made his heart skip a beat―the heart everyone assumes is frozen over―he'd be richer than he already is. He's found success as a sports agent by always assuming "no" means "I'll think about it." And he knows Banner's thinking about him. Her simmering anger? The way she puts him in his place? Foreplay. She thinks she's won the game, but they're just getting started.

If Banner had a dollar for every time Jared broke her heart, she'd have exactly one dollar. One epic failure of a night. After parting on such bad terms, Banner has no intention of ever giving Jared a second chance. She's found success in a field ruled by men like him. She's learned to call the shots and block them when she has to.

So she'll ignore the way he makes her heart pound. Sure, he seems carved from her most private fantasies, but she can get past that.

She's got her one dollar, and Jared won't have her.