BookTrib's Bites: Cap off the Year With These Captivating Stories

(NewsUSA) - Bradford’s Walk by Denis O’Neill

In this comforting narrative, Bradford, an irrepressible brown dog, delights all who join him on his daily walk through the beckoning Connecticut countryside... in a tale told in singsong rhyme.

"At the start of our walk, he's a pointer, I guess-aiming himself toward the sea. The sea is the Sound, by Long Island bound, and our walk is the ground in its lee."

Bradford bounds awake each morning and begs his owners' grown-up son to take him for a walk. From romping in the bushes to his rampant indifference to cars encountered, Bradford delights in every experience on his leisurely walk.

Bradford's Walk is a perfect poetic outing for children of all ages. Author Denis O'Neill and illustrator Cyrus Quadland combine their unique talents of storytelling and art to create this gorgeous poetry picture book. Purchase at https://bit.ly/3Q5hlb2.

For the Love of Maggie O’Die by Cle Curbo

A mystery wrapped around a love story. Woman of a certain age and head of All Bio, Maggie O’Die, sees a strange likeness to her long-missing husband in young private investigator Ryger Deacon. When a secret group places a bounty on their heads, Ryger flees and discovers unexpected answers to his past as he searches for the missing Maggie O’Die and the granddaughter heir to her vast fortune.

“Curbo hooks his readers by dishing out the clues with enough breadcrumbs to keep his audience reading until the crack of dawn,” says author M.L. Hamilton. Adds author Sheryl J. Bize-Boutte, “The unusual premise along with the brilliant use of crisp dialogue provides a taut and building tension in an edgy yet beautiful display of fiction at its best.” Purchase at https://bit.ly/45J8Wyt.

Zeke the Polka-Dotted Zebra by Angela Doyle

In this heartfelt children’s book that lights a flame of compassion and awareness, Zeke, a baby zebra who loves to play in the waterhole and nibble the sweet grass in the African savanna, suddenly notices that instead of black and white stripes, he has black and white polka dots!  The African animals have never seen such a thing. How can Zeke fit in?

When poachers capture his parents, Zeke is forced to put his fears aside. But does he have the courage to be a leader? And will anyone believe a polka-dotted zebra? This book invites young readers and those young at heart to embark on a journey of imagination and discovery. As Tim Smith of Wildside Tours and Safaris states, “It ingeniously imparts essential lessons about love, coexistence, harmony, and the profound wisdom that nature willingly shares with those seeking it.” Purchase at https://bit.ly/3N2jrGP.

I’ll Remember You by Deborah Packer

Based on true events, set on the turbulent home-front America of 1943 in the shadow of the antisemitism and racism of the time, an idealistic, proud, small-town Jewish girl travels to Miami Beach for a vacation and falls for a complex, enigmatic Jewish soldier from Brooklyn with horrific memories as a child in another war.

A conflicted, bittersweet war-time love story -- two strangers struggling with personal challenges, misunderstanding and childhood trauma in the uncertainty of war and the desperation of a country fighting for freedom and democracy abroad but experiencing deep-seated hate and intolerance at home.

The story follows the couple through the turmoil of their hurried vows up to the moment the soldier leaves on a troop ship for England, convinced he won’t be coming home.  An epilogue is set in 1994. Purchase at https://bit.ly/3SK6qWc.