I had to refresh my memory of Greek mythology to fully enjoy this novel. But don’t let that throw you. Authors Gary D. Schmidt and Ron Koertge wrote it for middle-schoolers who may be crossing the River Styx for the first time. You’re bound to enjoy it as much as they will.

For a kids’ book, Styx and Stones begins grimly. Simon, an ancient Athenian boy, finds himself plunged into Hades, where he spends 2,451 years feeding pomegranate seeds to Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. Surrounded by...

Ordinarily, I would reject a book like Glimmer. Foul language always spoils the reading experience for me, and this book has plenty of it. But the power of Sam Aleks’s narration was too strong.

Onra Kang is an arsonist, driven by a miserable childhood into a state of numbness in which her only pleasure comes from setting things on fire. She burns trash, dumpsters, junk piles, and, her favorite media, TV sets. “I can think of no greater pleasure than the finality of flame,” Onra says. But other...

If you don’t buy Whistler for any other reason, buy it for the scene in which a man and a young girl discuss books while trapped in a wrecked automobile. It’s a literary gift you will treasure.

Ann Patchett’s latest novel begins when Daphne Fuller accidentally encounters Eddie Triplett, her former stepfather, after a lapse of more than 40 years. Everyone loves Eddie, but no one more than Daphne, our narrator, who recounts her mother’s unfortunate history of failed marriages. Daphne and Eddie...