Linda Urban, Author . Harcourt $16 (213p) ISBN 978-0-15-206007-7
Former bookseller Urban makes a highly promising fiction debut with this sweet, funny novel, relayed in short, titled entries. Ten-year-old Zoe dreams of becoming a famous pianist (as she says in “How It Was Supposed to Be,” “A...
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Linda Urban. Harcourt, $15.99 (176p) ISBN 978-0-547-55869-1
Urban (A Crooked Kind of Perfect) traces a highly self-conscious child's cautious emergence from her shell in this tender novel about new beginnings and "small brave" acts. Fifth grader Mattie Breen doesn't share her mother's eagerness to pick up...
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Linda Urban. Harcourt, $15.99 (208p) ISBN 978-0-547-76348-4
The poignancy that characterized Urban’s A Crooked Kind of Perfect and Hound Dog True is also present in this novel about wishes and regret. Months after her grandmother’s death, 12-year-old Ruby Pepperdine composes a winning essay honoring her New...
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Linda Urban, illus. by Mariano Epelbaum. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $16.99 (272p) ISBN 978-0-544-41951-3
“Scrawny” Milo Speck gets even scrawnier after he goes searching for a missing sock in the dryer and is yanked into a world of giant ogres who, as in Jack and the Beanstalk, aren’t averse to grinding the bones of humans who come their way. When Milo
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Linda Urban. Atheneum, $17.99 (224p) ISBN 978-1-5344-7880-0
After her mother’s death four years ago, California Poppy, now 11, is left with a father unable to handle “girl things” such as buying bras. Seeking jobs in Alaska, California’s dad deposits her at his sister-in-law Isabelle’s house; Isabelle, in...
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Linda Urban. Atheneum, $20.99 (288p) ISBN 978-1-5344-7884-8
A high school sophomore struggles to maintain her family business’s integrity and holiday traditions in this lighthearted romance by Urban (Almost There and Almost Not). Following the recent death of Francie’s grandfather, her condescending Aunt...
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Linda Urban, illus. by Madeline Valentine. Candlewick, $16.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-7636-6176-2
Henry’s family is so obsessed with infantilizing its youngest member, “their little redheaded Henry,” that they even vie for who gets to brush what Mama insists on calling his “widdle toofers.” Fed up, Henry expertly handles his own dental hygiene,...
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Linda Urban, illus. by Hadley Hooper. Chronicle, $17.99 (60p) ISBN 978-1-4521-3996-8
Mabel and Sam have just moved into a new home. They think that with all the unloading and bustling about, it’s likely they’ll get “tripped over or smooshed or trod upon.” But over the course of one day (and three chapters), the two siblings use...
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Linda Urban, illus. by Katie Kath. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $16.99 (160p) ISBN 978-0-544-59817-1
In this delightfully funny and realistic story, third grader Max Leroy embarks on escapades with his newly divorced father. During their first weekend together, Max decides that he, as Agent Pepperoni, and his father, as “helper spy” Agent Cheese,...
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Linda Urban, Author, Tai Alexendra Ricci, Read by , read by Tai Alexandra Ricci. Listening Library $25 (0p) ISBN 978-0-7393-5961-7
Sounding a bit like a younger Rachael Ray, Ricci has a slight throaty rasp and a deadpan quality that well suits the personality of newcomer Urban’s protagonist, 10-year-old aspiring pianist Zoe Elias. Zoe endures all manner of humiliation̵
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