Recommendations based on "Monkey Beach: A Novel"

The Star Child, a tiny flame of vapor, invisible and timeless, watches the Earth from far, far away. He marvels at the blue swirls of the ocean and the green land, a bright spot turning through the darkness of space. He wants to go to this wondrous place, but he ponders: What will that life be like?"You will be plunged into Earth's river of time," his elders tell the Star Child."There will be so much for you to learn and so much for you to feel―pleasure and fear, joy and disappointment, sadness and wonder."Through spare, artful text and intricate illustrations, Claire A. Nivola celebrates the cycle of life.A Frances Foster Book

Inspired by the 2013 Black Forest fire and told from the viewpoint of a tree watching its home destroyed, Hello, Tree is about the kinship between humans and nature, and preservation of the environment.It was a swallow who called it first.“Fire’s coming!”And the animals ran away.Even the insects tried to flee.The girl and her family left, too.All I could do…was wait.When a wildfire comes roaring into the forest, all the animals and humans flee. But all the tree can do is wait. Wait until many days and nights pass. Wait until the fire loses the battle. And wait until the forest is still before the forest can be reborn and the animals and the girl can come back.

Having grown a pair of wings and felt the longing for the freedom of the skies, twelve-year-old Gwinna goes to the Mother of the Owls, who sends her on a quest to find the songs of the wind.

A beautifully illustrated book of imaginary fables about Earth's early--and lost--history.Before our history began, another--now forgotten--civilization thrived. The people who roamed Early Earth were much like us: curious, emotional, funny, ambitious, and vulnerable. In this series of illustrated and linked tales, Isabel Greenberg chronicles the explorations of a young man as he paddles from his home in the North Pole to the South Pole. There, he meets his true love, but their romance is ill-fated. Early Earth's unusual and finicky polarity means the lovers can never touch. As intricate and richly imagined as the work of Chris Ware, and leavened with a dry wit that rivals Kate Beaton's in Hark! A Vagrant, Isabel Greenberg's debut will be a welcome addition to the thriving graphic novel genre.

Spirit? Are you there?Spirit nuzzled her hair. Always. Even though Ellie and her beloved horse, Spirit, are no longer together, the special bond between them remains strong. Ellie still communicates with Spirit, but she's frantically busy with stable work and shows. She's also spending more time than usual with Luke, the groom. Ellie is struggling to fit everything in. When she fails to help a new horse who really needs her, she realizes that something has to give. It's time for Ellie to make the most difficult choice of her life . . .

Get into the crisp, brisk fall spirit with Autumn the Falling Leaves Fairy! Rachel and Kirsty love the fall! They can't wait to go apple picking, carve pumpkins, and take a hayride. But this fall, everything is going all wrong - because Autumn the Falling Leaves Fairy's magic is missing! Can the girls help her outsmart Jack Frost and his goblins, and make sure that fall is fun again?

Haunted by a memory, Lark McCourry traces the passage of a song through generations of her family, from a Scottish island through the pages of American history, to the Appalachian Mountains in western North Carolina. As the memory of the song dims over the years, Lark's only hope of preserving her family legacy lies in mountain wisewoman Nora Bonesteel, who talks to the living and the dead.

Krista secretly longs to enter the show-jumping competition. In her daydreams, she wins it with flying colors. But then the owner of her dream pony returns from holiday. Will Krista be able to enter the contest at all?

Isadora Moon is special because she is different. Her mum is a fairy and her dad is a vampire and Isadora is a bit of both. It's Isadora's birthday, and she is very excited about having a birthday party, just like her friends have! But with her mum and dad in charge, things might not quite turn out like she's expecting . . .

When Huy is sent away from his family's farm to a prestigious school for a chance at a better life as a scribe, he is soon befriended by the family of the local governor. But just as Huy starts to feel at home with his aristocratic new friends, an unexpected attack shockingly takes his life. After five days in a crypt being prepared for his own burial, Huy miraculously revives. His mysterious return to life makes him a pariah, and although he longs to lead a normal life, Huy finds himself haunted by visions of the deaths of those around him. An ingenious and suspenseful novel of ancient Egypt, The Twice Born is a treat for all fans of historical or fantasy fiction.