When looking for family read-a-louds with the best illustrations to captivate the imaginations, we often first think of fiction.  That does not mean, however, that they are not just as many stories of friendship, magic, humor, and wonder about the world around us.  Whether you are looking for facts or an inspiring story, try one of these popular picture books from our non-fiction sections.  All are new releases published in the last three years and appropriate for ages three and up.  This winter season, they might provide a different kind of enchantment for the whole family.

Except Antarctica by Todd Sturgell

Fans of humorous stories rejoice!  You will forget you are learning facts from the coldest temperature ever recorded in Antarctica to the way cold blooded creatures work as you read the story of an intrepid turtle who will not stay where he is meant to be.  As the book tries to tell readers facts about animals, including the turtle, who can be found on every continent in the world except Antarctica, our turtle friend invites them all on a trip to the frozen continent itself just to show that it can be done.  With a dash of page-turning adventures, fun dialogue, and a hilarious ending, Except Antarctica is a great book for first-time non-fiction readers.  It presents facts alongside a fantastical story that anyone can get lost in.

Life-Size Animals: An Illustrated Safari by Rita Mabel Schiavo

Animal fans looking for pictures more than words should check out Life-Size Animals: An Illustrated Safari.  Standing at over a foot high, this book shows how much bigger a tiger’s head is than a domestic cat’s head and lets readers compare their hands to life-size wolf prints, giraffe tongues, and saber tooth fangs.  Each two-page spread presents its own topic from wings to eggs to teeth with short accompanying captions to explain its illustrations.  While this means the book is not the best for reading straight through at bedtime, it allows you revisit your favorite pages again and again to make more and more scientific discoveries.  A best-bet for visual learners who want to know “How big IS that?,” Life-Size Animals: An Illustrated Safari is an example of a great concept done well.

Creature Features: Dinosaurs by Natasha Durley

Do not let the fact that this is in our board book section fool you; Creature Features: Dinosaurs is the best picture book for dino-fans who can already spell diplodocus. Up to date with the latest scientific discoveries, the book looks at early dinosaurs, sea animals, and mammals by physical characteristics they shared, talking about how these creatures used their claws, wings, fins, necks, feathers, and fur.  Along with a short description and dozens of labeled dinosaurs, each page has a “seek and find” challenge to look through the pictures for the creature with the longest tail or widest wingspan.  This turns reading the book into an active experience that leaves audiences beaming.

Magic Ramen by Andrea Wang

If all these picture books are making you hungry, look no further than Magic Ramen, the true story of how Momofuku Ando invented instant ramen.  Illustrated with many Japanese conventions, the book shows Ando learning through trial, error, observation, and repetition. His constant refrain that “peace follows from a full stomach” shows his drive to create healthy food that anyone could eat anywhere.  While the Author’s Note and Afterword provide even more information to readers, telling them how to pronounce the Japanese phrases used in the book and explaining what happened to Ando and his ramen after the story, these facts only add to the sense of success readers feel when Ando finally makes his “magic ramen” work.

Headstrong Hallie: The Story of Hallie Morse Daggett, the First Female “Fire Guard” by Aimee Bissonettee

Like Magic Ramen, Headstrong Hallie is a story of perseverance and heart.  Only, instead of taking place in a kitchen in postwar Japan, Headstrong Hallie takes place in the Siskiyou Mountains of California.  There, Hallie Daggett grows up hiking, hunting, seeing the destruction fire can bring to the forests, and following her heart to become a part of the U.S. Forest Service despite the fact that, at the time, it did not admit women.  The book has illustrations that seem to light up from the inside and move with an invisible wind as they show Hallie’s determination to keep her mountains safe.  It also has an Author’s Note that contains the few black and white photographs of Hallie that still exist and tell readers where they can learn more about Hallie and her U.S. Forest Service Work.  Through all of Hallie’s ups and downs, however, my favorite part of the book is that it redefines “headstrong” as a wonderful thing for a girl to be.

Rebecca Mincher is the Children’s Librarian Assistant at Graham Public Library. Contact her at rzimmerman@alamancelibraries.org or 336-570-6730.

“Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones” by James Clear. Avery, 2018. (320 pages, $27).

James Clear is a writer and speaker focused on habits, decision making, and continuous improvement. He is the author of #1 New York Times bestseller, Atomic Habits. The book has sold well over 5 million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 50 languages. Within the pages of Atomic Habits, James Clear, one of the world’s leading experts on habit formation, offers practical strategies for forming good habits, breaking bad ones, and mastering tiny behaviors for remarkable results.

Clear’s first act in his book is to define habits for the reader. He describes habits as the small decisions we make and actions we perform every day. According to researchers at Duke University, repeated habits account for about 40 percent of our behaviors on any given day. Clear states that while there are some outside influences beyond our control, your life today is greatly shaped by the sum of your habits. He insists that how in shape or out of shape we are is likely a result of our habits, how happy or unhappy we are is likely a result of our habits, and how successful or unsuccessful we are is likely a result of our habits.

He goes on to say that what we repeatedly do, what we spend time thinking about and doing each day, ultimately forms the person we are, the things we believe, and the personality that we portray. Everything Clear writes about – from procrastination and productivity to strength and nutrition – starts with better habits. He believes that by learning to transform our habits, we can meaningfully transform our lives. In other words, Clear says that, while we make our decisions, our decisions ultimately make us.

Clear insists that if someone has trouble changing their habits, the problem isn’t them, the problem is their system. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because someone doesn’t want to change, but because they have the wrong system for change, thus they do not rise to the level of their goals, they fall to the practiced routines of their systems. His book seeks to provide its readers with proven methodologies utilized by expert therapists to overcome such hurdles in our lives. It also provides a peek into the inner workings of our thought processes, especially those pertaining to habits and motivation.

I found reading his book to be a very positive and informative experience, and due to my interest in scientific topics, I was intrigued when Clear brought up raw data and even charts sourced from psychological studies and experts in the fields of therapy, psychology, sociology, and even a bit of neuroscience. I personally feel that knowing a bit more about how our human brains think and operate goes a good way in helping us trick ourselves into more positive habits! I would definitely recommend Atomic Habits to anyone with an interest in psychology, or anyone just looking to start a few new healthy habits.

Clear’s writings have resonated with many people across the globe who insist that this book has inspired them to take stock of their daily activities and better regulate them in order to point their lives into a more positive trajectory by implementing healthier daily habits over time. While we here at Alamance County Public Libraries do not currently carry Atomic Habits in all 50 languages, we do carry it in English, Español, eBook, and eAudiobook form. If you read it soon, you’ll have time to come up with some great ideas for your New Year’s Resolution!

James Clear is a regular speaker at Fortune 500 companies and his work has been featured in places like Time magazine, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and on CBS This Morning. His free “3-2-1” email newsletter is sent out each week to over 2 million subscribers. Each message includes three short ideas from Clear, two quotes from others, and one question to ponder. The sign up for his weekly newsletter as well as the entire archive of his newsletters are available for free on his website, https://jamesclear.com/, where he has been posting his helpful musings since 2012. James Clear was born and raised in Hamilton, Ohio and is a graduate of Ohio’s Denison University.

Donavon Anderson is a reference library assistant at May Memorial Library. He can be reached at danderson@alamancelibraries.org.

“The Holiday Trap,” by Roan Parrish. Copyright 2022, Sourcebooks Casablanca (440 pages, $16.00).

Content Warning: Emotional abuse, sexual content, chronic illness.

If you’re a fan of the Christmas movie, The Holiday, then you’ll love Roan Parrish’s novel The Holiday Trap with its queer and modern spin on the concept of house swapping for the holidays.

We open with Greta, who loves her family (even if they are trying to set her up for an auctioned date with a man) and her tiny hometown in Maine but needs space away from everything in order to figure out who she is and what she needs from her life. Next, we meet Truman, our other main character, who has just had his heart broken from his boyfriend of a year when a massive secret is revealed and Truman would rather be anywhere else then in New Orleans. Enter Ramona, a mutual friend with the perfect solution! That Greta and Truman should house swap for the holidays and get some much-needed space and perspective for their own individual lives.

Some of the great things about this novel are the layers that define the characters as well as their own personal growth. Greta is Jewish, a lesbian, and a plant lover with the absolute greenest thumb and learns to distance herself from her somewhat co-dependent family by making her needs known to herself and by setting boundaries. Truman is a gay accountant who loves his bullet journals and fantasy novels and while in Maine, learns to advocate for himself in his romantic relationships so that they are no longer one-sided. Both go through a discovery journey that then allows them to make healthy decisions for themselves and their lives.

Parrish’s writing for Truman and Greta and the cast of characters that surround our main leads fell so authentic with everyone’s own issues and personality quirks. This is a great, cozy read to either kick start your holiday themed reading or just put in with all of your other holiday books!

Kayleigh Dyer is a Library Technical Processing Assistant at May Memorial Library. Contact her at kdyer@alamancelibraries.org.

“Cemetery Boys,” by Aiden Thomas. Copyright 2020, Swoon Reads (344 pages, $17.99).

Content Warning: Transphobia, Blood, Death, Death of a parent, Violence

Cemetery Boys is a refreshing coming of age story with realistic issues that people face today, interwoven with a touch of magic.

We follow Yadriel as he’s just trying to find his way through a world that has a difficult time accepting him for who he is. Yadriel wants to prove once and for all that he is a real brujo, a sorcerer. Yadriel, with the help of his cousin Martiza, tries to summon their recently deceased cousin, only to be saddled with Julian Diaz, a former schoolmate with unbound energy and a surprisingly carefree attitude for being dead. While trying to solve the mysteries behind Yadriel and Martiza’s cousin’s death as well as that of Julian, Yadriel learns what being a boy and what being a brujo really means to him. All while navigating high school, family dynamics, and raging hormones.

Thomas has done a wonderful job interweaving individual experiences with a culture that isn’t talked about enough and making the magic work without being too much. They are also able to pull from their own experiences as a member of the LGBTQ+ community and incorporate themes and issues that a lot of people face but that aren’t addressed in main stream media. Thomas is a strong advocate for diverse representation and I can’t wait to see how they tackle this next in Lost in the Never Woods and their future publications.

Kayleigh Dyer is a Library Technical Processing Assistant at May Memorial Library. Contact her at kdyer@alamancelibraries.org.

“A Spindle Splintered” by Alix E Harrow.  New York:  Tom Doherty Associates, 2021. 119 pages, $17.99

“A Mirror Mended” by Alix E Harrow.  New York:  Tom Doherty Associates, 2022, 130 pages, $18.99

From the series “Fractured Fables”.

Alix Harrow’s two recent novellas are time travel “fractured fairy tales” for adults in which Harrow takes the reader on upended versions of the Grimm fairy tales Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, respectively.  The protagonist for this inventive romp is an adventurous 21-year-old folklore aficionado named Zinnia Gray.  Zinnia lives in rural Ohio and has been afflicted since childhood with an incurable disease called Generalized Roseville Malady.

Having never expected to live to adulthood, Zinnia is nonplussed by her lack of future plans after an impromptu birthday bash thrown by her best friend, Charm, or Charmian.  When she drunkenly pierces her finger on a junk shop spinning wheel used as a party prop, Zinnia ends up transported into the medieval version of Sleeping Beauty in which young Princess Primrose is soon to fall victim to a long, cursed sleep preventing her from marrying young Prince Hal.

Because this is a feminist retelling for modern times, Primrose or Prim turns out to be a lesbian princess who has little interest in Prince Hal.  Prim is desperately trying to run away from her scripted story and needs Zinnia’s intervention from outside the story to make it happen.

In the sequel, “A Mirror Mended”, Prim has escaped her fairy tale destiny and become a couple in modern times with Zinnia’s best-friend Charm.  Zinnia has injected herself into a number of Sleeping Beauty narratives throughout time and rescued dozens of damsels from their long sleep and is making it her life’s calling.  However, she’s getting jaded at being a princess rescuer.  Then things switch up and Zinnia looks into a mirror at the face of evil and is transported into a very Gothic version of the Snow White story replete with a nameless evil queen trying to preserve her beauty.

The evil queen, quickly dubbed Eva, turns out to be a foreign-born, barren monarch who has been the victim of domestic violence at the hands of her king for her inability to produce an heir.  She feels the restiveness of her subjects and is counting on Zinnia to help her elude her ultimate storybook fate of death by burning while walking over hot coals in iron boots of torture.

Just when you think you knew everything about fairy tales, the Disney version gets thrust aside for darker, more symbolic tales based on the moral values that the Grimm Brothers wanted to transmit to an adult audience.  Juxtaposed on top of this is the time-travel format familiar to many from the “Outlander” series for adults and the “The Magic Treehouse” series of books for children.  The combination is a potent mix of enjoyable quest and timely message.

Lisa Kobrin is the reference and local history librarian for Alamance County Public Libraries. She can be reached at lkobrin@alamancelibraries.org.

The baking season is upon us! From now until the end of the year, kitchens will be full of bakers creating delectable delights to share with family and friends. But with so many recipes to choose from, it can be hard to know where to start. Here are a few cookbooks that are sure to lead to holiday baking success!

Snacking Cakes by Yossy Arefi. New York : Clarkson Potter, 2020. 191 pages.

Snacking Cakes is the perfect book for small gatherings or for people who don’t have time for elaborate bakes. All of the cakes in Snacking Cakes are one bowl recipes, and generally bake in about 45 minutes or less. Throughout the book, variations are given for both flavors and sizes of cakes, allowing bakers to customize according to their taste. Instead of elaborate buttercream frostings, Arefi opts for glazes and dustings of powdered sugar, perfect for those who find frosting too sweet. One recipe that would be perfect for holiday baking is the sticky whiskey date cake, which takes the popular English dessert of sticky toffee puddings and recreates it on a larger scale. Full of warm spices and a delicious glaze, this easy to make cake is sure to stand out on any holiday table. This cookbook is perfect for anyone who wants recipes that are unfussy but delicious.

Cheryl Day’s Treasury of Southern Baking by Cheryl Day. New York : Artisan, 2021. 400 pages.

Cheryl Day is a James Beard Award nominated baker who operates the renowned Back in the Day Bakery in Savannah, Georgia, and is viewed as an authority on southern baking. Cheryl Day’s Treasury of Southern Baking collects savory and sweet recipes, and offers both staples of southern cuisine and soon to be classics. Readers can find recipes for classic fluffy buttermilk biscuits, cheese straws or peach cobbler alongside recipes like wildflower honey buns and strawberry black pepper butter.  Bakers will not only enjoy the recipes, but also the history that Day provides.  Gorgeous photos also accompany these recipes. This is the perfect book for anyone who wants to learn what makes southern baking special.

The All-Purpose Baker’s Companion by King Arthur Baking Company. New York: The Countryman Press. 2021. 568 pages.

The Vermont based King Arthur Baking Company might be best known for their flour, but they have grown quite a following for their excellent recipes as well. The All-Purpose Baker’s Companion is an invaluable resource for the home baker, as it covers everything from bread making to pies and cookies. Variations are given for almost every recipe, and there are helpful tips on topics like how to get crisp crackers or prevent waffles from sticking. The soft cinnamon roll recipe is the perfect holiday morning treat, made soft by using the Chinese technique of making a tangzhong starter, which results in pillowy, delicious rolls. This cookbook is perfect for the baker who wants to try a variety of recipes to build their baking skills.  

Elizabeth Weislak is the Youth Services Coordinator at the Alamance County Public Libraries. She took a deep dive into baking during the pandemic, and we have all benefited from her experience. She can be reached at eweislak@alamancelibraries.org

“Breaking Bad: A Cultural History” by Lara C. Stache; Rowman & Littlefield (236 pages, $38).

AMC’s Breaking Bad spent five years presenting its audience with the tale of Walter White, a brilliant but unfulfilled high school chemistry teacher, husband, father of two, and recently diagnosed cancer patient who would go on to slowly but surely become the meth kingpin of the American Southwest. As Mr. White and former student turned partner Jesse Pinkman become deeply entwined in the deadly underworld of making and selling narcotics, their narrative leaves a trail of bodies strewn across the show’s five seasons, marking a story that resulted in more than 15 Emmy awards as it developed into one of the most critically acclaimed TV shows ever made.

In Breaking Bad: A Cultural History, author Lara Stache offers her readers an engaging analysis of the program, focusing on the show’s fascinating characters and complex story lines. Stache gives the show its due reverence, but also suggests new ways of understanding and critiquing the series as a part of the larger culture in which it exists. The author looks at how the program challenges viewers to think about choices made in the narrative, analyzes what design choices did and did not work, and determines the program’s cultural significance both before and after the show’s conclusion.

Stache also explores how Breaking Bad grappled with themes of morality, legality, and anti-drug rhetoric and looks at how the marketing of the series influenced the ways in which television shows are now promoted. Key scenes from Breaking Bad are retold within this book along the way, often to celebrate the fantastic story threads or engaging scenes of the show, and other times for the sake of the critical analysis of the inner workings of Breaking Bad’s narrative. Either way, it makes for a fun way for fans to revisit their favorite scenes from a new perspective or for not-yet-fans to enjoy a little appetizer of the show.

Setting aside the thrilling character-driven plots of Breaking Bad, very subtle but intentional symbolism is often used in the show’s set design and character actions. These artistic flairs by the show makers always fascinated me, and I’m glad this book elaborates upon them in detail, quoting interviews with the show creators to help solve the mysteries behind these interpretive design choices.

The use of symbolism in Breaking Bad is so barely focused on that you can easily miss it, but once you’re aware of it you’ll begin to see it in every dramatic scene! One example is the set designers carefully using the color of environmental lighting or a character’s clothing to symbolize morality and intent prevalent in the scene. Certain hues of color represented lawful society, other hues represented the criminal underworld, and some colors represented morally gray areas in-between or other concepts like greed or despair.

Aside from color, many other subtle artistic symbolic choices are made in the show. Walter White often visits his family’s seldom used backyard pool when he wants to be alone with his thoughts, where the state of the pool itself will give the audience a peek into his state of mind. Walter also picks up subtle but distinct mannerisms from those who die due to his actions throughout the story, as though he’s taking a little piece of their soul with him on his descent ever deeper into the criminal underworld.

A few Biblical themes even manifest themselves in the characters towards the end of the series, fitting with the show’s heavy themes which explore the vices and virtues of its character cast. It’s wonderfully creative design choices like this that help the show be a treat to watch even on second or third viewing. You’ll always spot a new detail you missed on last viewing!

Lara Stache is clearly a big time Breaking Bad fan, and her book does a fantastic job of exploring the show’s narrative from both the perspective of the audience and of the writers. Breaking Bad: A Cultural History captures the spirit of the series and examines how the show had an impact on viewers like nothing before it. This book will be of interest to fans of the show as well as to scholars and students of television, media, and American pop culture.

Donavon Anderson is a reference library assistant at May Memorial Library. He can be reached at danderson@alamancelibraries.org.