This Month's Staff Pick Sale & A Special Announcement...

Last month’s selection, ‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’, was our most successful Monthly Staff Pick so far (even surpassing favorite titles like ‘Once There Were Wolves’ and ‘Demon Copperhead’), which makes it the perfect time for a little announcement…

Monthly Staff Picks for All Ages are finally here at Little Village Toy & Book Shop! After over two years of success with our Monthly Staff Picks, we are thrilled to launch Young Adult, Early & Middle Grade, and Picture Book selections this June. All of our selections each month are 20% off, while supplies last, so keep reading to learn more about our picks for June, and visit us soon to pick up a copy of one (or all!) of our picks this month.

To kick things off, our next Adult selection is last year’s bestselling ‘Sandwich’ by Catherine Newman, which is now available in paperback. This Cape Cod-set family ensemble makes a perfect beach or travel read, full of humor and sure to move you. Read it before this favorite family returns in ‘Wreck’ this Fall.

For kids of all ages, our first Picture Book Pick is, the Caldecott Honor Book, ‘Bear Came Along’ by Richard T. Morris with illustrations by LeUyen Pham which follows Bear on a river adventure as he makes new friends and, together, they discover how life connects us all.

Our new picks will also include either a middle reader, chapter book, or kids graphic novel each month. This June we’ve selected ‘Lost on a Mountain in Maine’ by Donn Fendler. A true story of adventure and survival that follows twelve-year-old Donn in 1939 after he gets separated from his companions on the summit of Maine’s highest peak. This New England tale is a favorite of both locals and visitors alike!

And finally, for YA readers, of all ages, our inaugural Young Adult Monthly Staff Pick is Adam Silvera’s ‘They Both Die at the End’. The beloved novel that launched the series (which just saw its third entry released last month) and introduced readers to Death-Cast, alternates between two young men as they choose to live their last day as fully as possible.

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Monthly Staff Pick Sale | June 2025

This Month's Staff Pick Sale is Remarkably Bright ;)

As you may have seen in our New Releases post this week, this May’s Monthly Staff Pick is Shelby Van Pelt’s ‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’. 

This bestselling debut novel finally hits stands in paperback with an initial printing featuring fun sprayed edges. This story of loss and finding friendships in unexpected places is full of humor and charm, making a perfect feel-good read to end your Spring or kick-off your Summer (or simply a beloved addition to your TBR stack).

Visit us this May for 20% off ‘Remarkably Bright Creatures’, while supplies last! 

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Did you know that you can support Little Village Toy & Book Shop wherever you are and however you read? We’re proud partners of Bookshop.org, offering online shopping and Ebooks, as well as Libro.fm, offering audiobooks. Visit our playlists on both storefronts for full lists of our former Monthly Staff Picks.

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Monthly Staff Pick Sale | May 2025

Two recent favorites are now in paperback… and 20% off for the month of April!

Two recent favorites are now in paperback… and if that wasn’t enough to celebrate, they’re BOTH this April’s Monthly Staff Pick because how could we choose just one!

Our first selection this month comes from one of America’s most treasured living writers, who, after 2019’s Pulitzer Prize finalist ‘The Dutch House’, returns to fiction with ‘Tom Lake’. Perhaps Ann Patchett at the culmination of her literary powers, this thoughtfully quiet novel explores family, love, and life in ways only Patchett can set amidst the backdrop of the unraveling of the Spring of 2020.

• Tom Lake - Ann Patchet

  #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK

  In this beautiful and moving novel about family, love, and growing up, Ann Patchett once again proves herself one of America's finest writers.

  "Patchett leads us to a truth that feels like life rather than literature." --The Guardian

  In the spring of 2020, Lara's three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

  Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.

The second selection this month comes after three long years in hardcover (a small eternity in the world of books) as Bonnie Garmus’s debut ‘Lessons in Chemistry’ has finally arrived in paperback! This zippy, fish out of water, 1960s Southern California story that follows Elizabeth Zott as she traverses the worlds of chemistry labs and television cooking sets is a feminist tale of the past with a message that echoes strongly in the present.

• Lessons In Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus

  #1 GLOBAL BESTSELLER WITH MORE THAN 8 MILLION COPIES SOLD - Meet Elizabeth Zott: "a gifted research chemist, absurdly self-assured and immune to social convention" (The Washington Post) in 1960s California whose career takes a detour when she becomes the unlikely star of a beloved TV cooking show. - STREAM ON APPLE TV+

  This novel is "irresistible, satisfying and full of fuel" (The New York Times Book Review) and "witty, sometimes hilarious...the Catch-22 of early feminism" (Stephen King, via Twitter).
  
  A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Oprah Daily, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek

  Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with--of all things--her mind. True chemistry results.

  But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America's most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth's unusual approach to cooking ("combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride") proves revolutionary. But as her following grows, not everyone is happy. Because as it turns out, Elizabeth Zott isn't just teaching women to cook. She's daring them to change the status quo.

  Laugh-out-loud funny, shrewdly observant, and studded with a dazzling cast of supporting characters, Lessons in Chemistry is as original and vibrant as its protagonist.

Visit us this month for 20% off of both ‘Tom Lake’ & ‘Lessons in Chemistry’, while supplies last!

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Did you know that you can support Little Village Toy & Book Shop wherever you are and however you read? We’re proud partners of Bookshop.org, offering online shopping and Ebooks, as well as Libro.fm, offering audiobooks.

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April 2025 Monthly Staff Pick

New Releases | January 7th, 2025

• New Release List (Click to Expand)

  Adult Fiction

  • The Life of Herod the Great - Hurston, Zora Neale (Author) , Plant, Deborah G (Author)

  • The Capital of Dreams - O'Neill, Heather (Author)

  • Yellowface: A Reese's Book Club Pick - Kuang, R F (Author)

  • A Sea of Unspoken Things - Young, Adrienne (Author)

  • Homeseeking - Chen, Karissa (Author)

  • The Three Lives of Cate Kay - Fagan, Kate (Author)

  Baby & Toddler

  • Oh, Baby, the Places You'll Go! Gift Edition: With Pages to Record Reading Memories - Rabe, Tish (Author) , Dr Seuss (Illustrator)

  Biography

  • King: A Life - Eig, Jonathan (Author)

  Board Books

  • This Little Duckling: A Touch and Feel Book - Arrhenius, Ingela P (Illustrator)

  • Richard Scarry's Best Counting Book Ever - Scarry, Richard (Author)

  • Happy First Birthday! with Dr. Seuss Babies: An Interactive Lift-The-Flap Board Book with a Mirror - Random House (Author) , Doescher, Erik (Illustrator)

  • A Peek Out Your Window: My First Book of Weather: A Lift-The-Flap Book - Dreyer, Dylan (Author) , Butcher, Rosie (Illustrator)

  • Potty Time with Bean (Ms. Rachel) - MS Rachel (Author) , Dong, Monique (Illustrator)

  • Can You Find the Easter Bunny? - McLean, Danielle (Author) , Mason, Suzie (Illustrator)

  • If Animals Went to Work (If Animals Kissed Good Night) - Paul, Ann Whitford (Author) , Walker, David (Illustrator)

  • See, Touch, Feel: Quack! - Priddy, Roger (Author) , Priddy Books (Author) , Boileau, Natalia (Editor)

  • 100 First Words (Ms. Rachel) - MS Rachel (Author) , Random House (Illustrator)

  • I See Me: A Guess How Much I Love You Mirror Book - McBratney, Sam (Author) , Jeram, Anita (Illustrator)

  Coloring Books

  • A Million Kittens: Adorable Felines to Color (Million Creatures to Color) - Mayo, Lulu (Author)

  • My First Coloring Book (Ms. Rachel) - MS Rachel (Author) , Dong, Monique (Illustrator)

  Cookbooks

  • Simply Jamie: Fast & Simple Food - Oliver, Jamie (Author)

  Current Events & Politics

  • The Maga Diaries: Life Among the Fanatics, Extremists, and True Believers That Created the Modern Right - Nguyen, Tina (Author)

  Graphic Novels

  • Dr. Seuss Graphic Novel: Green Eggs and Ham Take a Hike: A Green Eggs and Ham Story - Kochalka, James (Author)

  • Fresh Start: A Graphic Nove - Galligan, Gale (Author)

  Health

  • Ultra-Processed People: Why We Can't Stop Eating Food That Isn't Food - Van Tulleken, Chris (Author)

  History

  • The Crazies: The Cattleman, the Wind Prospector, and a War Out West - Gamerman, Amy (Author)

  • Dark Brilliance: The Age of Reason: From Descartes to Peter the Great - Strathern, Paul (Author)

  Horror

  • The Reformatory - Due, Tananarive (Author)

  Humor

  • Floral Estrangements: Taunt Your Rivals & Vanquish Your Enemies Through the Language of Flowers - Fishbein, Rebecca (Author)

  • The Secret Lives of Candy Hearts - Siegel, Tommy (Author)

  Just the Facts

  • Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer - Harris, Quartez (Author) , James, Gordon C (Illustrator)

  Manga & Adult Graphic Novels

  • Wolverine: Madripoor Knights - Claremont, Chris (Author) , Salazar, Edgar (Illustrator) , Lee, Jim (Illustrator) , Tan, Philip (Not Available)

  Middle Readers

  • Warriors: Changing Skies #1: The Elders' Quest - Hunter, Erin (Author)

  • Gregor the Overlander (Underland Chronicles) - Collins, Suzanne (Author)

  Mystery & Thriller

  • Sweet Fury - Bischoff, Sash (Author)

  • The Year of the Locust: A Thriller - Hayes, Terry (Author)

  • All the Water in the World - Caffall, Eiren (Author)

  • Holmes Is Missing: Patterson's Most-Requested Sequel Ever (Holmes, Margaret & Poe #2) - Patterson, James (Author) , Sitts, Brian (Author)

  Personal Growth

  • The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness - Waldinger, Robert (Author) , Schulz, Marc (Author)

  Picture Books

  • Victor, the Wolf with Worries - Rayner, Catherine (Author)

  • To See an Owl - Cordell, Matthew (Author)

  • Fox, Fox, and More Fox: Three Stories: Fox the Tiger, Fox Is Late, Fox Has a Problem - Tabor, Corey R (Author) , Tabor, Corey R (Illustrator)

  • Girls on the Rise - Gorman, Amanda (Author) , Wise, Loveis (Illustrator)

  • I Don't Wanna Hibernate! - Ouchchy, Anna (Author) , Kaduji, Raahat (Illustrator)

  • The Fire Fox: Shortlisted for the Oscar's Book Prize - Page, Alexandra (Author) , Murphy, Stef (Illustrator)

  • Hello, Sun! (Beginner Books) - Watkins, Lala (Author)

  • Seven Little Ducklings - Cate, Annette LeBlanc (Author) , Cate, Annette LeBlanc (Illustrator)

  Romance

  • Never Say Never - Steel, Danielle (Author)

  • Beg, Borrow, or Steal - Adams, Sarah (Author)

  • The Endless War (The Bridge Kingdom) - Jensen, Danielle L (Author)

  • The Starlight Heir - Howard, Amalie (Author)

  • Zodiac Academy 2: Ruthless Fae - Peckham, Caroline (Author) , Valenti, Susanne (Author)

  • The Empress (Deluxe Edition): A Towerfall Novel (Special) (Towerfall #1) - Cast, Kristin (Author)

  • Temple of Swoon - Segura, Jo (Author)

  Science & Nature

  • Safe Crossing - Percival, Kari (Author)

  Science Fiction & Fantasy

  • Immortal (Deluxe Limited Edition) (Celestial Kingdom #4) - Tan, Sue Lynn (Author)

  • The Legacy: Dungeons & Dragons: Book 1 of The Legacy of the Drow Series (Legend of Drizzt) -  Salvatore, R a (Author)

  • The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 1: All Systems Red, Artificial Condition (Murderbot Diaries) - Wells, Martha (Author)

  • The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 2: Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy (Murderbot Diaries) - Wells, Martha (Author)

  Social Sciences

  • The Furies: Women, Vengeance, and Justice - Flock, Elizabeth (Author)

  • Seeing Others: How Recognition Works--And How It Can Heal a Divided World - Lamont, Michèle (Author)

  • You'll Do: A History of Marrying for Reasons Other Than Love - Zug, Marcia A (Author)

  Spinner Rack Books

  • Rescue Wings (Paw Patrol) - Huntley, Matt (Adapted by) , Lovett, Nate (Illustrator)

  • Dinosaur Discovery! (Paw Patrol: Rubble & Crew) - James, Hollis (Author) , Aikins, Dave (Illustrator)

  • I Am Elmo (Sesame Street) (Little Golden Book) - Webster, Christy (Author) , Clester, Shane (Illustrator)

  True Crime

  • The Sinners All Bow: Two Authors, One Murder, and the Real Hester Prynne - Dawson, Kate Winkler (Author)

Our Top 5 Picks

• The Capital of Dreams

  "The Capital of Dreams is not so much a novel to read but one to live (and dream) in. A dark, wistfully comic fable that's as imaginative as it is poignant. An entire world that only Heather O'Neill could create."--Iain Reid, bestselling author of We Spread and Foe

  From the hugely acclaimed author beloved by literary lights, including Emily St. John Mandel, Kelly Link, and Mona Awad, a dark dystopian fairytale about an idyllic country ravaged by war--and a girl torn between safety and loyalty.

  Sofia Bottom lives in Elysia, a small country forgotten by Europe. But inside its borders, the old myths of trees that come alive and faeries who live among their roots have given way to an explosion of the arts and the consolations of philosophy. From the clarinetists to the cabaret singers, no artist is as revered as Sofia's brilliant mother, the writer Clara Bottom. How can fourteen-year-old Sofia, with her tin ear and enduring love of ancient myths, ever hope to win her mother's love?

  When the country's greatest enemy invades, and the Capital is under threat, Clara turns to her daughter to smuggle her new manuscript to safety on the last train evacuating children from the city. But when the train draws to a suspicious halt in the middle of a forest, Sofia is forced to run for her life and loses her mother's most prized possession. Frightened and alone in a country at war, Sofia must find a way to reclaim what she has lost. On an epic journey through woods and razed towns, colliding with soldiers, survivors, and other lost children, Sofia must make the choice between kindness and her own survival.

  In this stunning novel set in an imaginative world yet reflective of our own times, Heather O'Neill delivers a vivid, breathtaking dark fairytale of life, death, and betrayal.

• The Empress (Deluxe Edition): A Towerfall Novel (Special) (Towerfall #1)

  This limited deluxe edition comes with gorgeous red sprayed edges, foil, and embossing

  He's a ruthless, battle-scarred warrior with a dark past, and she's stuck pretending to be his wife to save a fantasy kingdom.

  From New York Times bestselling author Kristin Cast comes a new tarot-inspired fantasy series. Scarlett St. Clair meets Outlander in the seductive and spellbinding world of Towerfall, starting with The Empress, a high-heat, fake marriage romantasy with a swoon-worthy, morally-gray love interest.

  The Arcana aren't just figures in a tarot deck--they're real. Terrifyingly real. That's what I learned when I found a tarot card in the snow and was yanked from my world and into Towerfall. The first thing the people of this harsh, cruel realm did was try to kill me, and they probably would have succeeded if Kane hadn't taken me to his hideout in the woods and nursed me back to health.

  I don't know if I can trust him. He's too hot to be good news, he's definitely hiding secrets, and I've already seen him kill two people to protect me. If I hadn't just been helplessly dumped into his world, the blood on his sword and his dark, brooding mood would have me running in the opposite direction.

  But right now, convincing the Kingdom of Pentacles that Kane and I are married is my best chance of getting into the palace, and back to my own world.

  Because there's something wrong with Towerfall. Something deeply, deadly wrong. And if anyone finds out Kane and I aren't really husband and wife?

  Well, then both of us are dead.

• 100 First Words (Ms. Rachel)

  Learn 100 essential first words with this sturdy board book featuring Ms. Rachel--YouTube phenomenon, household name, and America's favorite teacher!

  Researched and written by the YouTube phenomenon and educator Ms. Rachel who is loved by millions, this photographic board book with sturdy pages is packed with 100 words for little ones to learn. From mama to dada, these 100 words are intuitive, easy-to-learn, and categorized into colorful sections to aid with learning. Fans of Ms. Rachel will recognize familiar characters and gestures from their favorite videos. Helpful tips and advice in the back of the book on speech development is perfect for caregivers looking to know more about this important milestone in their children's lives. With colorful photographs and fun interactions with Ms. Rachel, babies and toddlers will love reading these words again and again!

• Holmes Is Missing: Patterson's Most-Requested Sequel Ever (Holmes, Margaret & Poe #2)

  "Best-selling author James Patterson populates his murder-mystery novels with cold-blooded killers and smart detectives" (USA Today). In Holmes is Missing, PI Brendan Holmes has committed the perfect crime--he's made himself disappear.

  Success has come quickly to Holmes, Marple & Poe Investigations. The New York City agency led by three detectives--Brendan Holmes, "the brain," Margaret Marple, "the eyes," and Auguste Poe, the "muscle"--with famous names and mysterious pasts is one major case away from cementing its professional reputation.

  But as a series of child abductions tests the PIs' legendary skills, the cerebral Holmes's absence leaves a gaping hole in the agency roster.

  Only by closing ranks and solving the mystery within can they recover all that's been lost.

• The Maga Diaries: My Surreal Adventures Inside the Right-Wing (and How I Got Out)

  This explosive " must-read for anyone who cares about the future of our democracy" (Brian Stelter, New York Times bestselling author) chronicles the rise of the MAGA movement from acclaimed political journalist Tina Nguyen, who began her career--and her education--on the ground levels of the conservative recruiting machine.

  Her very first job was working for a little-known journalist named Tucker Carlson. She's chugged Mountain Dews with the first Breitbart writers, poured over conspiracy theories from COVID-19 deniers, and visited the apocalyptic Patriot Church deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. The right is now a MAGA cult. And Tina Nguyen knows because she was raised by it, back when it wasn't one.

  In 2008, in the weeks leading up to the election of Barack Obama, Nguyen was a history-loving, politics-obsessed college student at Claremont McKenna College, drawn there by a boyfriend--and a research institute called the Salvatori Center for the Study of Individual Freedom. Swept up by pro-America rhetoric and promises of a career in journalism, Nguyen was drawn into the world of right-wing student activism, and the early days of the movement now known as MAGA.

  In The MAGA Diaries, she tells not only her story of loving and leaving the conservative movement but the history of the right wing, painting a shocking picture of how they recruit, train, and indoctrinate generations of young people and shape them into the influential leaders and the supporting cast of tomorrow's Republican party. They are ruthless in building robust networks of power, even if it means demolishing entire civic institutions, from women's rights to fair elections--and staging a coup when it doesn't work out.

  In this "sobering, endlessly readable fly-on-the-wall account of creeping fascism" ( Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Nguyen pulls back the curtain on the conservative machine, shining a light on the systematized on-ramp for young Republicans. These are the new leaders of the right, and it's urgent we start paying attention.

Open Form

New Releases | January 7th, 2025

“What if you could change the past?”

Our Monthly Staff Pick this November is the tome of a modern classic that is ‘11/22/63’! A quintessential “What if you could change the past?” novel that manages to capture the political and social essence of the era as it traipses through the United States across time to destinations both real and all too familiar to fans of the author’s work. Stephen King’s alternative history masterpiece has taken the bookish side of the internet by storm in recent months and has been beloved by his devotees since its release; there’s no better time to dive in than now.

‘11/22/63’ is available for 20% off throughout the month of November, while supplies last. We’re also fully stocked up on Stephen King to celebrate (they make a perfect early fall read!). We hope to see you in store soon!

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Monthly Staff Pick | November, 2024

“A sinister and twisted take on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland..."

From the national bestselling author of Ghost Tree comes a mind-bending novel inspired by the twisted and wondrous works of Lewis Carroll...

In a warren of crumbling buildings and desperate people called the Old City, there stands a hospital with cinderblock walls which echo the screams of the poor souls inside.

In the hospital, there is a woman. Her hair, once blond, hangs in tangles down her back. She doesn't remember why she's in such a terrible place. Just a tea party long ago, and long ears, and blood...

Then, one night, a fire at the hospital gives the woman a chance to escape, tumbling out of the hole that imprisoned her, leaving her free to uncover the truth about what happened to her all those years ago.

Only something else has escaped with her. Something dark. Something powerful. And to find the truth, she will have to track this beast to the very heart of the Old City, where the rabbit waits for his Alice.

“A sinister and twisted take on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. Great for horror fans, and a classic retelling for fans!”

— Justine

Continue the Chronicles of Alice series with:

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Weekly Staff Picks | Alice