ROBIN AND THE STICK de E.B. Goodale

From the creative mind of award-winning author-illustrator E. B. Goodale, Robin is a young child experiencing little triumphs in big ways.

ROBIN AND THE STICK
by E.B. Goodale
Abrams Books for Young Readers, April 2026

Reflecting all of the awe, frustration, and delight inherent in a preverbal child’s perspective of the big world around them, award-winning author-illustrator E. B. Goodale’s Robin marks the debut of an irresistible and relatable character whose bite-size, everyday adventures are perfect for the littlest littles. Robin had a stick. Robin always had a stick. One day, there at the end of the street was the biggest stick, the BEST stick, Robin had ever seen. Every morning, Mama tells Robin, “Today you are the biggest you’ve ever been!” But when will Robin be big enough to lift that stick?

E. B. Goodale can often be found wandering in her local arboretum, looking for the perfect stick. She is the author/illustrator of The Moon Remembers, Also, and Under the Lilacs, and has illustrated many other books for children, including Windows by Julia Denos, and The Bees of Notre-Dame by Meghan P. Browne. She lives with her family under a big old tree in coastal Massachusetts.

SPIT de Staci Whitman

« Dr. Staci uncovers a game-changing truth: the mouth is not just the mirror of health, it’s the command center. This book will transform the way you think about disease prevention and longevity. » –James Nestor, bestselling author of Breath

SPIT:
How the Secrets of the Oral Microbiome Could Save Your Life
by Staci Whitman
Crown Trade, spring 2027

Dr. Staci Whitman’s SPIT explores the oral microbiome as a critical, yet often ignored, driver of whole-body health. Bringing her pioneering work in functional dentistry to the forefront, she connects oral health to major systems in the body, from the heart and hormones to digestion and immunity. With a dynamic blend of science, storytelling, and cultural insight, the book reframes the mouth as a powerful ecosystem that can influence everything from chronic disease to overall vitality.

If GUT opened the door and BREATH ushered readers into an entirely new understanding of the body, then SPIT delivers the next big idea in wellness. This is a surprising and essential book about one of the most overlooked yet powerful ecosystems in the human body.

Dr. Staci Whitman is a powerhouse. A trailblazer in functional dentistry, a board-certified pediatric dentist, and one of only a handful of IFM-certified practitioners in her field, she is an entrepreneur, innovator, and educator with a vision to make the world cavity-free. She has founded the first pediatric functional dental practice in the United States, launched two health-focused product lines, and is leading the development of the first certification program that trains dentists to treat oral health through a systemic lens. She is also earning a master’s degree in functional medicine and nutrition while treating patients and building a national education platform. Her energy is remarkable. Her clarity and purpose are inspiring.

Dr. Staci is also a savvy, strategic, and ambitious partner. With over 200K followers across platforms and a robust email list, she’s intentionally investing in growing her audience further and is hiring a dedicated social growth strategist in advance of publication. She’s already appeared on Andrew Huberman’s podcast and is receiving interest from the biggest names in the podcasting world—from the Joe Rogan Experience to Mel Robbins, Dr. Mark Hyman, Liz Moody, and Max Lugavere.

What is most exciting, though, is the quality and originality of the work. SPIT is a beautifully written, deeply researched, and wildly entertaining journey into a realm of science most people have never considered. This is not just a book about brushing your teeth better. It is about how the oral microbiome connects to inflammation, heart disease, hormonal balance, the brain, digestion, sleep, immunity, and even fertility. With a warm, witty, and thoroughly accessible voice, Dr. Staci blends cutting-edge science, patient stories, and cultural history to show readers how their mouths can be the key to their health and vitality. It is timely, important, and full of potential.

Dr. Staci Whitman is the co-founder of The Institute for Functional Dentistry, an allied partner of The Institute for Functional Medicine. She’s pioneering the first certification program that trains dentists in the oral-systemic connection. She founded Bloom Kids Dentistry in Portland, Oregon, the first functional pediatric dental practice in the U.S., with national expansion underway. This practice takes a whole-body, holistic approach to dentistry, grounded in science and driven by compassion. Dr. Staci is also an entrepreneur, creating Happi Floss (the world’s first truly sustainable floss pick) and co-creating Fygg (Feed You Good Guys), an oral healthcare line dedicated to protecting and supporting the oral microbiome. She earned her DMD from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine and later completed a pediatric dentistry certification at Oregon Health and Science University, where her research focused on improving airway assessments in children. A Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry since 2012, she’s a Board-Certified Pediatric Dentist and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry.

THE END OF ROMANCE de Lily Meyer

A big-hearted, wise, unceasingly buoyant novel about a woman who, after escaping a bruising marriage, theorizes that happiness is possible solely with the eradication of all romance—only to find a love that could change her life forever.

THE END OF ROMANCE
by Lily Meyer
Viking, February 2026
(via The Gernert Company)

Sylvie Broder was taught early to embrace joy. The granddaughter of Holocaust survivors whose greatest priority was enjoying the life they’d snatched back from Hitler, Sylvie believes in the tenacious pursuit of pleasure—yet, somehow, finds herself trapped in a suffocating, emotionally abusive marriage. With enormous fortitude, Sylvie frees herself and turns to graduate school, where she develops a new philosophy: Straight women will find true liberation and happiness only once romance is eradicated.

Now, Sylvie prides herself in separating sex from tenderness—having fun with men, but never committing to one. Then she meets Robbie and Abie, and finds her philosophy sorely tested. A warm and gentle man, Robbie treats Sylvie with patience and enormous kindness, offering her comfort she hasn’t had since childhood. Abie is passionate and dynamic, a man who challenges Sylvie, and with whom she finds herself constantly disarmed. With both men, she feels a deep desire that looks, worryingly, a lot like love.

Cleverly constructed, delightfully funny, and beautifully written, THE END OF ROMANCE is an anti-romance romance novel that charts its fallible heroine’s tumultuous journey to love and happiness with erudition and deep feeling—a story for anyone who, despite their very best efforts, has fallen in love, and wondered why.

Lily Meyer is a translator, a critic, and the author of the novel Short War. She is also a contributing writer at The Atlantic. Her stories and translations can be found in The Dial, The Drift, The Sewanee Review, The Southern Review, and many other journals, and her essays and criticism appear in outlets including Bookforum, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Book Review.

THE MOODY MORTICIAN de Samantha Jay

A grouchy goth mortician with a heart of gold gets embroiled in the murder investigation of the man she embalmed with the infuriating help of the handsome son of her town’s rival funeral home. The Maid meets « Six Feet Under » with a dash of Dial A For Aunties in this funny, clever debut mystery.

THE MOODY MORTICIAN
by Samantha Jay
Dutton, Spring 2027
(via The Gernert Company)

« I’m telling you, dude. The living. They are the worst. »

For Riley Peluso, a 28-year-old funeral director, death isn’t scary, gross, or annoying—it’s the living who are a problem. She loves her job at the century-old family-run Italian-American funeral home where she works, as she doesn’t have to talk to anyone and besides, she’s the best embalmer in quaint Dorchester, Connecticut. When she notices what someone else might have overlooked – something is amiss about a decedent she’s embalming which might indicate foul play – Riley finds herself embroiled in a murder investigation.

While her nosy, overbearing Italian family is constantly on her case about her introverted lifestyle, and the funeral home is so overbooked she’s working 70 hours a week, Riley finds herself mixed up with Flynn Gallagher, the obnoxiously competitive scion of the rival Irish-American funeral home, who is as dogged as the golden retriever he resembles. In the middle of this mess of the drama of the living, can Riley figure out the truth and restore her faith in her own profession?

Gloriously gory and laugh-out-loud funny, THE MOODY MORTICIAN is a delectable puzzle featuring one of the most endearing amateur sleuths to grace the pages of a mystery in years. This debut establishes Samantha Jay as one to watch.

Samantha Jay is the pen name of first-cousin writing duo Samantha Cusano and Juliet Grames. Samantha is a licensed funeral director in Connecticut. A graduate of the New England Institute of Applied Funeral Arts and Sciences at Mount Ida College, Samantha has earned certificates in specialized embalming and reconstruction and has served as a forensic autopsy tech, working high-profile crime cases and performing eviscerations under the direction of the Medical Examiner to help determine cause of death. Juliet is the international bestselling author of two novels, The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna and The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia. Her writing has appeared in Best American Mystery & Suspense, People, Real Simple, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Parade, and many other places. Juliet is Editorial Director at Soho Press, where she has curated the Soho Crime imprint since 2010. She’s the recipient of the Mystery Writers of America’s Ellery Queen Award as well as of Italy’s Premio Cetraro for Contributions to Southern Italian Literature. Both cousins live in New England, where they juggle the professional obligations they take very seriously with the social demands of their loving Italian family.

LOCALS de Jared Jackson

In the vein of Jonathan Escoffery’s If I Survive You, Bryan Washington’s Lot, and Morgan Talty’s Night of the Living Rez, this debut, in the form of a strongly linked story collection, brings to brash and tender life a cast of young, working-class characters navigating love, grief, survival, and the pursuit of something more in Hartford, Connecticut in the aughts.

LOCALS
by Jared Jackson
Viking, Spring 2027
(via The Gernert Company)

Mikey becomes a man too early when he begs for emotional scraps from his uncle’s girlfriend. Collin reveals his cowardice when he fails to show up for Bebo, an outsider far braver than Collin will ever be. Enis, a refugee on the local baseball team along with Collin, Bebo, and Mikey, wants more than he can ever get from his neighborhood or his girlfriend. Minnie wants redemption. Suit Man wants a warm place to sleep. Ms. Ana wants a daughter. And Andrews wants his white fraternity brothers to accept him despite being a “local,” while all his cousin Ant wants is for Andrews to remember he already has a family—that Hartford has always been his family.

Vibrating with vivid imagery and characters whose voices alternate between aching frankness and exhilarating swagger, the interlocking pieces of this book tumble one into another like so many expertly laid dominoes. The result is a striking vision for reclamation—of faith in city, and faith in self. Jackson is a generational talent descended from a distinct literary tradition (encompassing everything from Joyce’s Dubliners to Bambara’s Gorilla, My Love; Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street to Barrett’s Young Skins) but blazing a thrilling path all his own.

Jared Jackson is a proud Hartford native and writer, editor, educator, and arts administrator currently living in New York. He has been awarded residencies, fellowships, and grants from MacDowell, Yaddo, Baldwin for the Arts, Tin House, and several others. His writing has been published or is forthcoming in The Yale Review, Guernica, Kenyon Review, n+1, and VQR, and was anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 2023 (guest edited by Min Jin Lee). He received an MFA in fiction from Columbia University, where he was a chair’s fellow, creative writing teaching fellow, and an adjunct assistant professor. Jackson is the director of programs and partnerships at Poets & Writers, Inc. He was previously the program director of literary programs at PEN America.