Italy's great chronicler of the macabre and of growing up geeky. Longbefore the latest vogue for autofiction, Michele Mari, one of Italy's mostbeloved authors, cast his mind back to the days of his own childhood, and found it crawling with monsters. Raisedon comic books and science fiction, the young Mari constructed an alternate universe for himself untouched by uncomprehending grownups or sadistic peers. Compared to the horrors of real life, Long...

The fascinating Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is remembered for her self-portraits, her dramatic works featuring bold and vibrant colors. Her work brought attention to Mexican and indigenous culture and she is also renowned for her works celebrating the female form. Brown's story recounts Frida's beloved pets--two monkeys, a parrot, three dogs, two turkeys, an eagle, a black cat, and a fawn--and playfully considers how Frida embodied many wonderful characteristics...

"Jiordan's family was never quite like everyone else's, with her father's mood swings, her mother's attempts at normalcy, and her two older sisters with a different last name. But on the surface, they fit in. Until the day the FBI came knocking on the door. After that, her father's mood plunged to a dangerous new low. After that, there was an investigation into his business and a sentencing in court. Soon Jiordan's father would have to leave home,...

Bullied by her classmates, Sarah, a Korean American girl growing up in a rural community with few Asian neighbors, channels her rage into her art and cosplay until it threatens to explode. "Sarah has always struggled to fit in. Born in South Korea and adopted at birth by a white couple, she grows up in a rural community with few Asian neighbors. People whisper in the supermarket. Classmates bully her. She has trouble containing her anger in these...

"Firsthand account of a Holocaust survivor who knew Anne Frank"-- "In 1933, Hannah Pick-Goslar and her family fled Nazi Germany to live in Amsterdam, where she struck up a close friendship with her next-door neighbor, an outspoken and fun-loving young girl named Anne Frank. For several years, the inseparable pair enjoyed a carefree childhood of games, sleepovers, and treats with the other children in their neighborhood of Rivierenbuurt. But in 1942,...

"Drew Gilpin Faust writes about coming of age in a conservative Southern family in postwar America"-- "A privileged white girl in conservative, segregated Virginia was expected to adopt a willful blindness to the inequities of race and the constraints of gender. For Drew Gilpin, the acceptance of both female subordination and racial hierarchy proved intolerable and galvanizing. Urged to become "well adjusted" and to fill the role of a poised young...

"An adaptation of the powerful, New York Times bestselling account of growing up Black and female in America, completely rewritten with new stories for young readers. Austin Channing Brown's first encounter with race in America came at age seven, when she discovered her parents named her Austin to trick future employers into thinking she was a white man. Growing up in majority-white schools and churches, Austin writes, "I had to learn what it means...

"Holding on is all fourteen-year-old Stephanie Clare Smith can do when she's left home alone in New Orleans during the summer of 1973. As she seeks to ease her loneliness through her summer algebra class, the city itself, and her friendship with a streetcar operator, adults fail her again and again with devastating consequences. Dreamlike and beautifully paced, this lyrical debut memoir traces that harrowing summer and its repercussions throughout...