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Lisa Scottoline's latest novel, Come Home, brings the murder mystery to suburbia, while raising questions about the definition of family in a world of exes and stepchildren.

The dishes that marked the Soviet era still have a strong pull on Russian sentiment (if not stomachs). A new book revisits these recipes, born, in part, of food shortages and ingenuity.

Dav Pilkey has just released his 10th Captain Underpants book. The series, packed with potty humor and goofy illustrations, delights reluctant readers and horrifies many grown-ups. Pilkey says he wanted to create books that would appeal even to readers who struggle, the way he did as a child.

Jarrett Krosoczka's lunch lady doesn't just serve lunch. She serves justice. In her Batman-like lair below the cafeteria, she can monitor the whole school for suspicious characters like the Cyborg Substitute or the Video Game Villain. Join NPR's Backseat Book Club as we follow her adventures.

High school is tough for almost every kid, but for new immigrants and refugees, it can be even harder. In The New Kids, journalist Brooke Hauser chronicles the lives of students enrolled in Brooklyn's International High School.

Martha Woodroof looks at the process of acquiring a first novel from the point of view of publishers who both employ their own taste and then take care of the deal.

Jón Gnarr, the punk rocker turned mayor of Rekjavík, paints a beautiful but disturbing portrait of a misfit childhood in his new novel. Critic Michael Schaub calls it hypnotic and heartbreaking.

As diagnoses of autism have risen, so too have autistic characters in literature. Tasha Robinson explains how an "intelligent outsider's view of humanity" has led to a growing number of autistic characters in young adult fiction.

Paule Constant's novel, first published in France in 1981, has finally been translated into English. Nine-year-old Tiffany is alone in the world; her parents, French colonialists living in Africa, have sent her back to France alone to live and be schooled at the aptly named Convent for Slaughterhouse Ladies.

Paul Giamatti plays a boarding school teacher charged with watching over the students who have no where to go during winter break in a throwback film that doesn't quite live up to its potential.