This mother-daughter beach outing features an added layer: Throughout the day, they use American Sign Language to communicate.

The child narrates their activities with delightfully descriptive simplicity: "Take my arms / and hold on tight / roll me in the sand / dip me in the sea." Read full book review >

After suffering a reversal of fortune, a handsome young nobleman enters into a dangerous wager with the Devil, surrendering his beauty and possibly his very soul to win a magical purse in this retelling of an old Sicilian fairy tale. Read full book review >

Napoli adopts a folkloric narrative technique to showcase the life work of Wangari Maathai, whose seminal role in Kenya's reforestation earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. Read full book review >

Human beings are so often vilified—justifiably—that it's refreshing to find a story that juxtaposes our species' finer qualities with its more monstrous ones. Read full book review >

A haunting story based on a tragic historical event—the lynching of a group of Italian men in Tallulah, La., in 1899. Read full book review >

When Ally visits Australia, she takes her art supplies and draws. Read full book review >

The lushly detailed life of a girl who grows up to pose for the Mona Lisa. Read full book review >

This rather lackluster tale of a pig's birthday party fails to emphasize multiplication as the subtitle would have readers believe. Read full book review >

Napoli, known for her fairy-tale retellings, has reworked "The Three Little Pigs" into a tale of life on the African savanna. Read full book review >

Napoli takes the bare bones of a legend—Icelandic, tenth century this time—and clothes it in fire, flesh and blood. Read full book review >

Four children learn about fractions when they wish on a star and only get partial wish fulfillments. Read full book review >

Sylvia the "Sleuth for Hire" is up to her gumshoe tricks again in this third Sly mystery. Read full book review >

A powerful sequel to the superb Stones in Water (1997), this continues the story of Roberto, trying to get back home to Venice after wretched experiences at the hands of the Nazis. Read full book review >

An ostracized ape earns acceptance by becoming—what else?—a hairdresser in this cheery mother-daughter collaboration. Read full book review >

Sly runs a detective agency called "Sleuth for Hire," but she only takes cases that her cat, Taxi, would care about. Read full book review >

Trust Napoli to work her usual alchemy and make a fabulous coming-of-age story from the bare outline of the reassuring ugly-duckling trope. Read full book review >

This powerfully vivid story has the immediacy of Napoli's always-immaculate prose, coupled with a basis in family lore and urban history that make it irresistible. Read full book review >

Nick and his toy rabbit, Pinky, are dejected because his sister Eva is getting a lot of mail for her birthday. Read full book review >

Clear some shelf space: Young Cam Jansen has a new contemporary. Read full book review >

A strong, finely crafted version of Cinderella based mostly on old Chinese tales but with a sprinkling of details from Grimm. Read full book review >

In her second sequel to Prince of the Pond (1992), Napoli remixes themes and characters from the first sequel, Jimmy, the Pickpocket of the Palace (1995). Read full book review >

Driven by a yearning he can't articulate but knows is essential to his very being, Alvin, a soft and unsophisticated 12-year-old African-American boy living in Washington, D.C., runs away from his caring but smothering mother and physically declining great grandmother. Read full book review >

A vacationing family ends up in the middle of an improbable adventure in a hotel run entirely by baboons. Read full book review >

This fascinating Pied Piper bypasses the villain rehabilitation or feminist perspective common to most modern retellings; instead, it solidly grounds the tale in the 13th-century town of Hameln. Read full book review >

When readers first meet Pan, the nature god, he is perfectly happy with his half-god, half-goat nature, enjoying bodily pleasures but unhampered by the complications of love. Read full book review >

Eleven-year-old Jackie is enjoying mightily her father-daughter trip to Italy—until her father suffers a heart attack while driving back to their hotel one evening. Read full book review >

Animals plan to go on a picnic in this math concept book that just misses. Read full book review >

A young recluse makes an unusual connection to the outside world in Napoli's (Beast, 2000, etc.) first picture book. Read full book review >

Compelling historical fiction explores the Byzantine rules governing the social order of 16th-century Venice. Read full book review >

The prolific Napoli (Daughter of Venice, above, etc.) teams up with newcomer Kane for a humorous pet story about a small black-and-white dog, Rocky, trying to fit into a new family with two "little monsters" (very spoiled children) and five confident cats. Read full book review >

The writer who so intensely re-imagined Rapunzel in Zel (1996) and the Sirens in Sirena (1998) provides a sensual and brilliant imagining of the backstory of the Beast in this exotic tale. Read full book review >

Napoli (with Richard Tchen, Spinners, p. 887, etc.) continues to retell familiar tales in this gripping novel about Jack and the events surrounding the beanstalk. Read full book review >

Sirena and her sisters are hybrids (half-human, half-fish), or mermaids, yearning for the touch and love of men, who will thereby bring them immortality. Read full book review >

A ten-year-old girl confronts the reality of her parents' divorce in this bittersweet novel from Napoli (For the Love of Venice, p. 584, etc.). Read full book review >

Percy, 17, is spending the summer in Venice with his engineer father, his artist mother, and his endearing brother, Christopher, 6. Read full book review >

Napoli (Zel, p. 691, etc.) turns from folklore to the Bible for inspiration, and crafts a brutal, challenging tale. Read full book review >

A passionate, painful elaboration of the story of Rapunzel, from the author who did the same for Hansel and Gretel in The Magic Circle (1993). Read full book review >

Poor Jade (or Jade-to-be, since "de fawg pin" has yet to name her): she's faced with a big, beautiful frog—such legs!—and he doesn't seem to have the foggiest notion about what to do with his tongue, or how to leap or avoid danger. Read full book review >