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FICTION Past Due for Murder by Victoria Gilbert. New York: Crooked Lane Books/The Quick Brown Fox and Company, 2019. 297 pages. Hardback in dust jacket. $26.99. The title and the cover illustration reinforce the series title: A Blue Ridge Library Mystery. And what more could we want than to have our murder mysteries solved by an endearing librarian?  Certainly, that is the perspective of the author, Victoria Gilbert, who happens to be a librarian who writes murder mysteries! And the setting is appropriate for an author who grew up in the shadow of the Blue Ridge and lives in North...

CHILDREN’S BOOKS AND YOUTH NOVELS Drive by Joyce Moyer Hostetter. Honesdale, Pennsylvania: Calkins Creek/Highlights, 2018. 351 pages. Hardback in dust jacket. $18.95. This is the fourth book in the Bakers Mountain Series. The story takes place in 1952 when Ellie and Ida are fourteen-year-old twins who live at the foot of Bakers Mountain near Hickory, North Carolina. Ida loves to sketch, and Ellie loves NASCAR. And they fall for the same boy in their class at school. Will this end well?  The author, Joyce Moyer Hostetter, lives in Hickory, her hometown, and has taught special education and developed pre-school programs....

CHILDRENS AND YOUTH BOOKS Everything Has Its Place by Howard J. Mize. Terra Alta, West Virginia: Headline Kids, 2019. 32 pages illustrated on every other page in color by Nadeem Jones. 9” X 6” trade paperback. $12.95. This is a fun little book to read to youngsters or for beginning readers. It tells of the positive purposes of even the yuckiest creepy crawly, bugs and frowned-upon creatures. “As an author, parent, and former science teacher, Everything Has Its Place works for me on every level. It pairs solid science with endearing illustrations in a way that will entertain while informing...

CHILDREN’S BOOKS I Am Loved: A Poetry Collection by Nikki Giovanni. New York: Antheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, 2018. 24 unnumbered pages illustrated by Ashley Bryan. 8” X 10” hardback in dust jacket, $17.99. Ashley Bryan, a Newbery Award honoree chose a dozen poems by National Book Award winning poet, Nikki Giovanni, that celebrate love to go with his bright, luscious, drawings. The last page has a built-in mirror, so the reader will know for sure who, exactly, is loved! “Bryan paints African-American men, women, and children in thick, swirling compositions suggestive of stained glass”...

YOUNG ADULT AND CHILDREN’S BOOKS Backyard Bears: Conservation, Habitat Changes, and the Rise of Urban Wildlife by Amy Cherrix. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers, 2018. 73 pages with an Index, Selected Bibliography, Notes, Glossary, and full-color photographs throughout. 9.25” X 11.25” hardback in dust jacket, $18.99 This is a Junior Library Guild Selection especially appropriate for middle and high schoolers. It is part of a “Scientists in the Field” series emphasizing “where science meets adventure.” It follows scientists in Asheville, North Carolina, who capture urban bears there. "Another inviting example of scientific field work in a...