Karin Gustafson's first book of poetry moves across a wide emotional and formal range, from playfulness to nostalgia, villanelle to free verse. The poems, evocatively illustrated by Diana Barco, are "reminders that nights sown by fireflies" are "going on somewhere, sometime."

NOSE DIVE is a light-hearted teen mystery about Celia Pratchett, New York City high school student, whose head is literally filled with the sound of music. Blessed with a huge singing voice but cursed with an equally huge nose, Celia is thrilled, at first, by the news that her school's annual musical is slated to be a TV reality show, until she realizes that huge noses and TV close-ups just do not go together. Hoping to change her life and profile, Celia follows her nose through danger, darkness, and fallen Goudas, trailing love, truth and the pursuit of harmony.

It is summer, 1968. When Les was really little, they played the Star Spangled Banner in movie theaters; she could feel her chest ripple just like the flag on the screen. But it is summer, 1968--Martin Luther King Jr. shot in April and, in June, Bobby Kennedy. "What in the world is happening to this country?" everyone on TV cries, and Les wonders what she, a kid, a girl on the cusp of becoming a teenager, can do about any of it. Other than hold firm to the idea that if people were only just nice enough, the world would somehow work. Though, in the meantime, she would also like to be just a...

When Sally needs a friend, her mom wants to build her a computer with a wig. But Sally wants a friend who's real--a friend who's, you know, alive. What she gets is a friend for life. (Adventure too, which, by the way, begins with an 'A.') DOGSPELL - OR - SALLY & SEEMORE & THE MEANING OF MUSHKI is a perfect book for kids, dogs, and those who love kids and dogs, and, of course, for anyone who's ever wondered about the meaning of mushki. Written and much illustrated by Karin Gustafson.