The Monsters of Templeton by Groff, Lauren Everyone loves monsters. The Monsters of Templeton is a refreshing and smart contemporary novel superimposed with snippets of historical fictions and a chorus of voices rising to tell their own stories. Lauren Groff's main character is resilient, intelligent and anything but self-deprecating. In her search for self-discovery, she can find comfort in obscurity. An inventive and ambitious story nestled in a town with its own Loch Ness monster.--Cindy Dach, Changing Hands Bookstore, Inc. (Tempe, AZ)

A Bear Named Trouble by Bauer, Marion Dane Ten-year-old Jonathan practically lives at the Anchorage Zoo, where his father is a keeper. He loves animals, and even imagines himself inside their bodies, seeing what they see, feeling what they feel. Meanwhile, a young brown bear is wandering through the woods near Anchorage, alone and hungry. One night, while searching for food, the bear crosses paths with Jonathan, who eagerly follows him onto the zoo grounds. But when the bear accidentally kills Mama Goose, Jonathan's favorite zoo creature, the boy loses the empathy he had felt earlier. He wishes that the bear--now nicknamed Trouble--would meet the same fate as his beloved goose, and he impulsively takes steps to make sure that happens. Based on an actual incident, and told in alternating chapters from the bear's and Jonathan's points of view, this is both an involving animal story and a thought-provoking investigation into the consequences of one's actions.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Kingsolver, Barbara, Kingsolver, Camille “Tracing the food year, Kingsolver—with her characteristic candor, poetry, and grace—brings us meditations on asparagus, turkeys, tomatoes, and mulch as she and her family try to eat locally as much as they can. This is a distinct hybrid of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Under the Tuscan Sun, and Walden.” —Matt Plies, Annie Bloom’s Books, Portland, OR