August 2025

I avoid conspiracy theory books like the plague, but I don’t consider this a conspiracy book at all. This is a book about integrity, and Tanenbaum should be so proud that his children and descendants will have this book as a guide to living with character.

The book that inspired the wonderful film Invictus. Beginning in a jail cell and ending in a rugby tournament, it tells the true story of the most inspiring charm offensive in history brought South Africa together. After being released from prison and winning South Africa's first free election, Nelson Mandela presided over a country still deeply divided by fifty years of apartheid. His plan was ambitious if not far-fetched: use the national rugby team, the Springboks – long an embodiment of white-supremacist rule – to embody and engage a new South Africa as they prepared to host the 1995 World Cup. The string of wins that followed not only defied the odds, but capped Mandela's miraculous effort to bring South Africans together again in a hard-won, enduring bond.

There are a lot of people in the world struggling, and Graham offers readers a guide to focusing on possibilities over current circumstances.

At seventeen years old, Meda is ripped from her family to train as a shape-shifting operative for the Agency. It's her job to seek out and discredit political figures. Meda finds herself caught in a political conspiracy that shakes her to her core, and it’ll take all her strength to trust her own instincts and stop following orders.

An incarcerated teen writes letters to his best friend about his experiences in the American juvenile justice system in this award-winning sequel to Stone’s Dear Martin.

It was 20 years ago this month that Hurricane Katrina's monstrous winds and surging water overwhelmed the protective levees around low-lying New Orleans, Louisiana. Property damages across the Gulf Coast topped $100 billion. One thousand eight hundred and thirty-three people lost their lives. The riveting tale of this historic storm and the drowning of an American city is one of selflessness, heroism and courage – and also of incompetence, racism, and criminality. This graphic novel captures tragedy and triumph in one of the worst natural disasters in American history.

In this young readers edition of her New York Times bestseller Professional Troublemaker, Ajayi Jones uses her honesty and humor to inspire teens to be their bravest, boldest, truest selves – in order to create a world they would be proud to live in. Good way to start the school year on a positive note.

Illustrated by Jorge Lacera, this hilarious graphic novel is the first in The Fairy Tale Fixers series. Fairy and Mouse will forever change young readers’ perspectives on stepmothers, princes and pumpkins as they help Cinderella set things right when her carriage veers off course.

When Eli and Ozzy accidentally knock down Clara at school they are given a chance to learn to see other people with greater RESPECT. With the help of Mrs. Shoma the boys take a respect walk, and it opens their eyes to the amazing stories of the people around them. Eli and Ozzy is book two in the Virtues and Values series. More adults should read this.

Nothing ever happens to two friendly little fish. Same old ocean. Same old seaweed. But when adventure finds them, will these two friends rise to the occasion? Or will they flounder? A fabulously funny picture book about perspective, positive thinking and unexpected surprises!