October 2025 Prime Picks
Reviewer's Choice
Reviewer's Choice
Among the Giants
Carolyn Fry and
Christina Harrison
Gaia/Octopus
Publishing
9781856755872
$29.99
www.octopusbooksusa.com
Among the Giants: A Year at Kew’s Arboretum departs from the usual focus on the plants at Kew to provide an outstanding survey of the Tree Gang – Kew’s team of eight people who maintain these vast gardens – and how they work to preserve tree health at Kew.
Stories about these experiences bring readers into the daily challenges of maintaining Kew, while insights into variables that influence a plant’s health or decline will delight those interested in how environmental and climate changes affect work at Kew and other arboretums around the world.
Librarians will want to add Among the Giants to any collection strong in environmental considerations, gardening, or Kew’s history and operations.
The LNT Report
Mike Conley
Open Universe
9781637700655
$24.95
www.carusbooks.com
The LNT Report: How Bad Science Made the World Afraid of Nuclear Power is an important survey that reviews the LNT (Linear No Threshold) hypothesis and it came to be widely accepted as fact, quashing nuclear power development around the world.
No matter what side of the issue a reader is on, it’s important to consider this book’s contentions, which are endorsed by scientific experts, not just for its alternative reflection on nuclear power’s promotion or negative image, but for better understanding how theories are developed, disseminated, and promoted or quashed on all sides.
Readers can anticipate a healthy mix of psychology, science, and philosophy as Mike Conley tackles the weighty subjects of good and bad scientific theories, how cancer risks and other assessments are made, and how the LNT model was developed.
Debates over how flaws in logic and science The LNT Report particularly enlightening for group and classroom discussions.
Spinning Plates
Anna Stanford
Hamlyn/Octopus
Publishing
9780600639541
$26.99
www.octopusbooksusa.com
Spinning Plates: Easy Dinners with Simple Substitutions for Busy Families comes from a cook who has developed a technique for producing not multiple meals nightly, but a basic template for dishes that can then be adapted for different tastes to produce diverse results.
Quiches, curries, pastas, and even a steak dinner enlivened by the twist of an Aju Verde Peruvian-style sauce illustrates how flavors can be fine-tuned for variety and surprising ease of preparation, making Spinning Plates attractive for busy families and varied palates.
The addition of full-page color photos to nearly every recipe makes for a cookbook that offers a satisfying spin on fast and healthy food preparations that excel in a diversity of flavors.
Young Adult/Children
“Big Questions
Answered” series
Eliza Jeffrey
Beetle
Books/Hungry Tomato
$14.99 Each
www.thebigquestionsanswered.com
Libraries seeking science picture books that pair inviting basic discussions with eye-catching covers will relish how the “Big Questions Answered” series offers equally inviting insights into topics designed to pique young reader interest.
The series excels in creating questions that are exciting, from Can Mushrooms Save the World? (9781835691274), illustrated by Daniel Limon and surveying the “mysterious” fungi family of thousands of different kinds; to Are Bees Nature’s Tiny Heroes? (9781835691311), illustrated by Lays Bittencourt, which considers their amazing contributions to the plant world through their pollination services; Can Snakes Predict Earthquakes? (9781835691373), exploring ophiology (snake science), with Danis Alonso’s illustrations exploring snakes that can fly, perhaps predict earthquakes, and smell with their tongues; Can Volcanoes Turn the Moon Blue? (9781835691359), with illustrator Verónika Cháves Morales adding colorful volcanology images to the story of devastating volcanoes and different kinds of explosions; and Is There Alien Life in Outer Space? (9781835691298), in which Denis Alonso again adds colorful visuals, this time to a consideration of space science and its possibilities.
Each of these books is designed to do more than simply educate. Their titles and organization stimulate young learner interest with subjects and scientific approaches that use fascinating questions to draw attention, inviting an inquiring mind as well as new possibilities to make science interesting and exciting.
Elementary-level science collections will want to add these picture books to their collections.
Howdy! Welcome to
the Grand Ole
Opry!
Emily Frans
Abrams
9781419774249
$19.99
www.abramsbooks.com
Howdy! Welcome to the Grand Ole Opry! is an exuberant introduction to country-western music that features inviting illustrations by Susanna Chapman and discusses the history of the Opry’s 100 years.
It presents a backstage pass to the process of Opry music-making and participation, from how stars become Opry members and the recognition bestowed by the Opry’s attention to what it feels like to be on stage.
A countdown of events injects a “you are here” feel to the program of musicians and performers involved in an Opry production. This approach will delight youngsters interested in picture books that engage them with lively, colorful events.
The author’s own experience as an Opry member lends to a story filled with life and lively description that’s perfect for a young aspiring musician’s early reading.
Penguin Books
www.penguin.com
These new arrivals from Penguin provide picture book readers with engaging, engrossing stories that stand out from the crowd. They should be considered ‘musts’ for library collection addition.
Gwendolyn Wallace’s Dancing With Water (9780593617908, $18.98) is illustrated by Tonya Engel and tells of young Kit, who joins his grandfather in digging wells for their community. His grandfather is a dowser who can find water anywhere, but as new hotels and buildings grow, clean water becomes harder to find. How can Kit ever “dance with water” like his grandfather if the world is running dry?
An intriguing story of grandfather and grandchild relationships, heritage, community, hope, and environmental awareness grows a moving tale filled with insights that parents will want to discuss with the very young.
Natasha Khan Kazi’s Bela and Lily (9780593858912, $18.99) confronts the challenge of building a friendship when language isn’t shared.
Bela has recently arrived from Bangladesh, and meets Lily on the swing set in the playground. How can they create a bond when they can’t understand one another? But, they actually can. Author Kazi’s own experience of building bridges contributes to a fine story about shared friendship and the types of differences that help grow relationships.
Adults seeking to impart understanding to the very young
about non-English speakers and insights about how bonds are formed will relish many opportunities to explore both as Bela and Lily’s story evolves.
James E. Ransome’s A Place for Us (9780593324882, $18.99) pairs lovely watercolors with an engrossing story in pictures about a loving mother and son sharing a day in the big city on an expedition to the local library.
The warmth and experiences shared between mother and son are perfect visual strengths to a story which goes beyond exploring family bonds to consider the struggles of those who are unhoused or homeless.
Menudo Sunday by María Dolores Águila (9780593462256, $18.99) is illustrated by Erika Meza and provides Spanglish counting book that revolves around a little girl and her family, who gather to eat a yummy traditional Mexican soup.
Family time spills into escapades and issues as mishaps and fun evolve into a counting guide from 1 to 15 in Spanish and English.
Isabel Allende’s Perla and the Pirate (9780593623626, $18.99) is illustrated by Sandy Rodriguez and tells of mighty dog Perla, who has two superpowers: making people love her, and roaring. When her human brother Nico is lost on the way home from school, Perla has to figure out how these special abilities can aid in the search.
A fine story which holds the first-person reflections of a proactive dog that joins forces to help will intrigue any child interested in tales of dogs and kids.
Elizabeth Partridge’s Imogen: The Life and Work of Imogen Cunningham (9781984835185, $18.99) receives especially evocative illustrations by Caldecott Honor winner Yuko Shimizu as it surveys an artistic photographer’s view of the world and attempts to capture it.
How Imogen became a photographer and honed her craft makes for a lovely picture book that captures her life and art in a way that picture book readers will find engaging and fun.
These are excellent surveys, perfect for elementary-level libraries and adults choosing superior stories to engage kids.