NPR's Book of the Day Folgen

Writer John Schu and illustrator Veronica Miller Jamison are out with a new picture book that asks the question what exactly is school...for? Test prep? Socialization? This Is A School makes the case that it's a place for community and trying new things. Schu and Miller Jamison told NPR's Ailsa Chang that their own elementary school experiences were not like the ones in their book, but they hope kids today get to have diverse experiences.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Today's first interview is with author Peng Shepherd on her new mystery. A father and daughter, both cartographers, haven't spoken in seven years. But when the father is found dead his daughter must use their shared skill to solve the mystery of his death. Shepherd told NPR's Elissa Nadworny that obsession can be a stand-in for the person lost. Next, Anne Tyler on her new book which follows a family in Baltimore across several generations. Tyler told NPR's Mary Louise Kelly that she likes to write about families because they sort of have to love each other even when they annoy each other.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Author Ladee Hubbard's new collection of short stories, The Last Suspicious Holdout, all take place in a nameless, majority Black suburb in the 90s and early 2000s. The stories all connect and intertwine with each other over time; telling the story of this community. Hubbard told NPR's Juana Summers that she was "interested in people that keep going, that survive hardships and find a way to keep believing and working towards things getting better" and those transformations were emblematic of the community as a whole.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy