Best Of

Dominic Hall, a British youth from a working-class family, finds himself wavering between attachment to his childhood friend, the artistic Holly Stroud, and the literary future he dreams of, and the powerful, inexplicable draw of Vincent McAlinden, a violent neighborhood bully. Set in the shadow of the 1960s shipbuilding community on the banks of the River Tyne, this beautifully written story is as taut and as exhilarating as the high wire.

Anderson vividly sets the scene with Shostakovich’s young years on the eve of the revolution and the Lenin era, his coming-of-age as a composer, and the rise of Stalin’s reign of terror. The central story of the creation and performance of the Leningrad Symphony while the city was in the crippling throes of a two-and-a-half year siege is devastating, enlightening, and, ultimately, inspiring. A narrative nonfiction triumph.

Selected by the Good Comics for Kids bloggers, these graphic novels published in 2015 are the cream of the crop.

Each page in this oversize volume includes a range of creatures—from the lowly ant to the exotic zebu—whose names begin with the featured alphabet letter. Muted watercolors depict the denizens of the animal world once, except for the chosen creature, which is seen eight times on the page. Why eight? “Because 8 is great,” states the author. An abecedarian that will get kids counting.

Malcolm X’s daughter collaborates with acclaimed young adult author Magoon to craft this historical novel about the civil rights leader’s formative years. From Malcolm Little’s impoverished childhood in Michigan to his downward spiral into a life of excess and crime in New York City, the work chronicles how a troubled young man found his true self and changed the world.