The Neddiad: How Neddie Took the Train, Went to Hollywood, and Saved Civilization by Daniel Manus Pinkwater

The latest from the incomparable Daniel Pinkwater. His smart and soulful young narrators always find themselves engaged with the surreal, cruel and funny adult world and emerge with the reader a little worn but a lot wiser.

Through the Children's Gate by Adam Gopnik

A brilliant memoir/pensee on family, art, and New York from the always engaging NewYorker writer.

Frog & Toad Together by Arnold Lobel

"I wonder if we are brave," said Frog.
Frog and Toad looked into a mirror.
"We look brave," said Frog.
"Yes, but are we?" asked Toad

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

Wonderfully evocative and detailed pencil drawings share equal narrative weight with the text. Hugo Cabret has a classic, timeless sensibility and plays in an entertaining style with our sense of time and machinery.

Divisadero by Micahael Ondaatje

Any work by Ondaatje is worth reading more than once. I didn't get this the first time but will come back to it again.

The Rape of Europa by Lynn H. Nicholas

Full title: The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. An extraordinary story of art as currency of power and legitimacy. Recently produced as a documentary.

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

A beautifully written, compelling story of endurance and art during the terrible siege. "The men on the hills didn't have to be murderers. The men in the city didn't have to lower themselves to fight their attackers. She didn't have to be filled with hatred. The music demanded that she remember this, that she know to a certainty that the world still held the capacity for goodness. The notes were proof of that."
Steven Galloway. Vedran Smailovic.