Books

A National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” Honoree
Finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for a Debut Novel
Shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
A New York Times Notable Book

One of the most highly praised novels of the year, the debut from an astonishing young writer, Freshwater tells the story of Ada, an unusual child who is a source of deep concern to her southern Nigerian family. Young Ada is troubled, prone to violent fits. Born “with one foot on the other side,” she begins to develop separate selves within her as she grows into adulthood. And when she travels to America for college, a traumatic event on campus crystallizes the selves into something powerful and potentially dangerous, making Ada fade into the background of her own mind as these alters―now protective, now hedonistic―move into control. Written with stylistic brilliance and based in the author’s realities, Freshwater dazzles with ferocious energy and serpentine grace.

‘I’ve been waiting for this book for years – a beautifully written, compelling study of the significance of the dense bonds of friendship in fostering and preserving progressive politics. A joyful, empowering read’ Lynne Segal, author of Lean on Me

‘A moving exploration of the importance and the difficulty of forging intimate relationships within capitalism’ Hannah Proctor, author of Burnout

Friendship is full of revolutionary potential in the face of a profoundly anti-social capitalist system. Friends in Common explores friendship as a radical practice, capable of upending hierarchies and producing social change.

Friendship can transcend social boundaries and political borders. It is vital in building communities and underpinning solidarity. But its transformative potency ensures that it is heavily policed and restrained by the state. Understanding the radical possibilities of friendship can help us rethink our approach to family, work and politics, and show us new routes to resistance and ways to open up spaces of solidarity and escape.

Friends in Common shows that friendship as a political practice is foundational to strengthening revolutionary ideas and projects, and can be the antidote to capitalist despair.

Laura C. Forster is a historian and writer based in Newcastle. She is a lecturer in Modern History at the University of York, and has written for Tribune, ROAR and DOPE. Joel White is a writer and researcher based in Glasgow. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, Wire and Tribune. He co-runs the record label GLARC.

In winter, spring, summer, and fall, Frog and Toad are always together. From sledding in winter to eating ice cream on hot summer days, these two friends have fun the whole year round!

Frog and Toad All Year is a Level Two I Can Read book, geared for kids who read on their own but still need a little help. Whether shared at home or in a classroom, the engaging stories, longer sentences, and language play of Level Two books are proven to help kids take their next steps toward reading success.

The beloved classic Frog and Toad stories by Arnold Lobel have won numerous awards and honors, including a Newbery Honor, a Caldecott Honor, ALA Notable Children’s Book, Fanfare Honor List (Horn Book), School Library Journal Best Children’s Book, and Library of Congress Children’s Book. The series has also been adapted into a Broadway Musical and an Emmy-nominated animated series on Apple TV+.

At home, work, and out in our ever-changing world, we're all just doing our best. In this modern parody, Frog and Toad are here to commiserate and lend some laughter.

Full of wry humor and deep compassion for our modern vulnerabilities, the stories in Frog and Toad Are Doing Their Best perfectly capture the heartwarming authenticity of Lobel’s famous amphibian friends while revealing razor-sharp truths about the world we live in today. Through Frog and Toad, we see the anxieties that are woven throughout our everyday existence, from our well-meaning but often-failed attempts at practicing self-care to our struggle to balance the gifts and burdens of technology. Toad ponders a variety of questionable schemes to pay off his credit cards, while Frog spends too much time scrolling through the newsfeed on his phone. But despite their daily frustrations and existential concerns, they know that having a friend to share life’s burdens makes even the darkest days brighter.

Celebrate the power of friendship in these five adventurous stories starring Frog and Toad—a Caldecott Honor Book! 

From writing letters to going swimming, telling stories to finding lost buttons, Frog and Toad are always there for each other—just as best friends should be.

Frog and Toad Are Friends is a Level Two I Can Read book, geared for kids who read on their own but still need a little help. Whether shared at home or in a classroom, the engaging stories, longer sentences, and language play of Level Two books are proven to help kids take their next steps toward reading success.

New York magazine's The Strategist chose Frog and Toad Are Friends as one of the "Best (Nonobvious) Baby Books to Bring to a Shower." As The Strategist stated: "The stories are just so hilarious and entertaining (and moving) that they really hold the imagination of a tiny tot. The illustrations are incredible, too."

The classic Frog and Toad stories by Arnold Lobel have won numerous awards and honors, including a Newbery Honor (Frog and Toad Together), a Caldecott Honor (Frog and Toad Are Friends), ALA Notable Children’s Book, Fanfare Honor List (The Horn Book), School Library Journal Best Children’s Book, and Library of Congress Children’s Book.

A great value! Four complete Frog and Toad stories PLUS a detachable sheet of stickers! 

Celebrate the power of friendship with all four of the beloved Frog and Toad I Can Read stories by Arnold Lobel in one volume—now with a sticker sheet!

This 9x9 hardcover treasury includes the complete art and text from four classics: Frog and Toad Are Friends, Frog and Toad Together, Frog and Toad All Year, and Days with Frog and Toad.

Share the adventures of best friends Frog and Toad as they fly a kite, resist the temptation of cookies, and search for a lost button. No matter what kind of situation they find themselves in, one thing is certain: Frog and Toad will always be together.

The classic Frog and Toad stories by Arnold Lobel have won numerous awards and honors, including a Newbery Honor (Frog and Toad Together), a Caldecott Honor (Frog and Toad Are Friends), ALA Notable Children’s Book, Fanfare Honor List, School Library Journal Best Children’s Book, and Library of Congress Children’s Book.

This compilation was originally published as Frog and Toad Storybook Collection.

The beloved classic about friendship—a Newbery Honor Book!

Frog and Toad are best friends—they do everything together. When Toad admires the flowers in Frog's garden, Frog gives him seeds to grow a garden of his own. When Toad bakes cookies, Frog helps him eat them. And when both Frog and Toad are scared, they are brave together. School Library Journal called this story collection from Arnold Lobel "a masterpiece of child-styled humor and sensitivity."

Winner of the Newbery Honor award, Frog and Toad Together is a Level Two I Can Read book, geared for kids who read on their own but still need a little help. Whether shared at home or in a classroom, the engaging stories, longer sentences, and language play of Level Two books are proven to help kids take their next steps toward reading success.

The classic Frog and Toad stories by Arnold Lobel have won numerous awards and honors, including a Newbery Honor (Frog and Toad Together), a Caldecott Honor (Frog and Toad Are Friends), ALA Notable Children’s Book, Fanfare Honor List (The Horn Book), School Library Journal Best Children’s Book, and Library of Congress Children’s Book.

Enjoy every classic Frog and Toad story from the Caldecott Honor– and Newbery Honor–winning creator Arnold Lobel in one book!

Join the beloved duo as they spend their days together eating ice cream, finding lost buttons, waiting for spring to come, and more. This bind-up includes all the Frog and Toad Level 2 I Can Reads:

* Frog and Toad Are Friends
* Frog and Toad Together
* Frog and Toad All Year
* Days with Frog and Toad

Frog and Toad’s first board book—perfect for little hands!

One Frog. One Toad. Two friends. Always together.

This sweet homage to Frog and Toad’s famous friendship features iconic illustrations from the original books. This must-have board book for baby showers, first birthdays, friends of all ages, and beyond features a cut-out cover and raised element of the duo for curious fingers to interact with.

The classic Frog and Toad stories by Arnold Lobel have won numerous awards and honors, including a Newbery Honor (Frog and Toad Together), a Caldecott Honor (Frog and Toad Are Friends), ALA Notable Children’s Book, the Horn Book Fanfare Honor List, School Library Journal Best Children’s Book, and Library of Congress Children’s Book (Frog and Toad All Year). The series has also been adapted into a Broadway musical and an Emmy-winning animated series on Apple TV+.

From Here We Build is a vibrant collection of poems written by LGBTQ+ teens and young adults at the start of their creative journeys. Featuring original work from participants of The Future Perfect Project's Writer's Room workshop, this collection is both a celebration of queer expression and a testament to the resilience of young artists carving out space for themselves in the world. Through raw vulnerability, bold defiance, and quiet reflection, this collection of writing explores identity, love, belonging, and transformation, and celebrates the urge in every one of us to know ourselves from the inside out. Accompanied by writing prompts and blank journal pages, From Here We Build is more than a book-it is an invitation to create, to heal, and to build a future where everyone is heard and free to be exactly who they are.

A rare and inspiring retelling of the LGBTQ+ movement's struggle for civil rights.

From Prejudice to Pride looks at the rise and achievements of the LGBTQ+ movement and the different communities, pioneers and stories of heartbreak and courage that have marched alongside it.

Perfect for readers aged 11 and upwards, this book will inspire courage and pride in young LGBTQ+ people and help answer questions for all readers interested in gender and identity.

Follow LGBTQ+ history from ancient civilisations to the present-day, and learn about key events including the trial of Oscar Wilde, the Stonewall riots, the AIDS crisis, same-sex marriage and changing laws that have impacted on LGBTQ+ life. Gain insight into the shifting attitudes that have challenged lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and the experiences that help us understand what it means to be LGBTQ+ today.

Filled with photographs documenting LGBTQ+ life from the past and present, and from around the world.

"A kaleidoscopic gem that adeptly showcases how the shameful misdeeds of the past reverberate into modern acts of violence... An emotional tour de force." David Jackson Ambrose, author of Unlawful Disorder

Gabi Keefer flees Holocaust-era Germany with nothing but her husband, her nephew, and the clothes on her back, but that isn't the whole story.

Over generations, her granddaughter, Lena, struggles with drug addiction and an unplanned pregnancy; her sort-of nephew, Zane, grieves for his wife three years after her death in an antisemetic mass shooting; and her great-niece, Miranda, advocates for Palestinian liberation against her family's wishes.

Each character's tale begs the questions: What does it mean to be part of a family, what does it mean to survive, and is that enough?

Trigger warning: Content in this book includes depictions or mentions of ableism, anti-semitism, characters struggling with mental health, death and grief, drug abuse, domestic violence, gun violence, homophobia, misogyny, racism, statutory rape, suicide, xenophobia, and Zionism.

Like the holiday staple, this novel is topped with cherries, filled with nuts and fruit, and doused with a healthy dose of spirits. The ghost from Christmas past in this tale is no Marley; he is an incubus freed from hell and chained to a fruitcake that is continually regifted, causing much havoc in the small Southern town of Dixon. This demon, accidentally released, is on the run from an old domestic housekeeper/voodoo root doctor, the eccentric family she nurtured and raised, and a slew of angelic forces, all determined to send him back to hell from whence he came.

"An unflinchingly honest, eye-opening, heartful story that's sure to keep readers talking." --Angie Thomas, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Hate U Give and On the Come Up

"Romantic, funny, hopeful, and unflinchingly real." --Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Simon Vs. The Homosapiens Agenda

The uplifting story of an HIV-positive teen, falling in love and learning to live her truth.

Simone Garcia-Hampton is starting over at a new school, and this time things will be different. She's making real friends, making a name for herself as student director of Rent, and making a play for Miles, the guy who makes her melt every time he walks into a room. The last thing she wants is for word to get out that she's HIV-positive, because last time . . . well, last time things got ugly.
Keeping her viral load under control is easy, but keeping her diagnosis under wraps is not so simple. As Simone and Miles start going out for real--shy kisses escalating into much more--she feels an uneasiness that goes beyond butterflies. She knows she has to tell him that she's positive, especially if sex is a possibility, but she's terrified of how he'll react! And then she finds an anonymous note in her locker: I know you have HIV. You have until Thanksgiving to stop hanging out with Miles. Or everyone else will know too.
Simone's first instinct is to protect her secret at all costs, but as she gains a deeper understanding of the prejudice and fear in her community, she begins to wonder if the only way to rise above is to face the haters head-on. . . .

"Full Disclosure is such a joy to read." --Erika Sanchez, National Book Award finalist for I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

"A big-hearted love letter to inclusivity, bravery, and acceptance, Full Disclosure is a wonder of a book." --Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces

Funeral Diva is the Winner of the Lambda Award for Lesbian Poetry!

A poetic memoir about coming-of-age in the AIDS era, and its effects on life and art.

"Sneed is an acclaimed reader of her own poetry, and the book has the feeling of live performance. . . . Its strength is in its abundance, its desire for language to stir body as well as mind."―Parul Sehgal, The New York Times Book Review

"She is a writer for the future, in that she defies genre."―Hilton Als

"This notable achievement, traveling from youth to adulthood, is a harrowing account of how Sneed transforms violence and pain into an artist's life."―Claudia Rankine, author of Citizen: An American Lyric

"There's an eerie sense of timeliness to this book, which features prose and poetry by the writer and teacher Pamela Sneed and is largely ― though not entirely ― about mourning Black gay men killed too soon by a deadly virus."―Tomi Obaro, Buzzfeed

"OH MY GOODNESS, it was amazing. I was in tears by the end. What starts off as beautiful memoir evolves into incredibly moving poetry, painful and sweet and lovely."―Marie Cloutier, Greenlight Bookstore, Brooklyn, NY

"Balancing and mixing, with rhyme and reason, love and anger, good and bad, memory and the created present, all to tell the story of a life, a memoir unrestrained, devoid of artificial forms. Honest. Free."―Anjanette Delgado, New York Journal of Books

In this collection of personal essays and poetry, acclaimed poet and performer Pamela Sneed details her coming of age in New York City during the late 1980s. Funeral Diva captures the impact of AIDS on Black Queer life, and highlights the enduring bonds between the living, the dying, and the dead. Sneed’s poems not only converse with lovers past and present, but also with her literary forebears―like James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde―whose aesthetic and thematic investments she renews for a contemporary American landscape.

Offering critical focus on matters from police brutality to LGBTQ+ rights, Funeral Diva confronts today's most pressing issues with acerbic wit and audacity. The collection closes with Sneed's reflections on the two pandemics of her time, AIDS and COVID-19, and the disproportionate impact of each on African American communities.

"Riveting, personal, open-hearted, risky and wise."―Sarah Schulman, author of Conflict Is Not Abuse

" . . . a tour de force about the collision between a coalescing 1980s 'Black lesbian and gay literary and poetic movement' in New York and the onslaught of AIDS."―Donna Seaman, Booklist

"Pamela Sneed's Funeral Diva is deft, defiant, and devastating."―Tommy Pico, author of Feed

"Funeral Diva is urgent and necessary reading to live by. This is writing at its finest. Keep this book close to your heart and soul."―Karen Finley, author of Shock Treatment

"Reminiscent of Audre Lorde’s Zami, Pamela Sneed’s memoir is, in itself, a healing balm, affirming in its truths and honesty. I cannot remember ever reading a book that illustrates the impact of the AIDS epidemic on our community more poignantly than Funeral Diva."―Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of Patsy

"Pamela Sneed takes enormous risks in this book. She tells the truth with fierce concentration and an abiding sense of purpose.”―Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina