EDITOR’S NOTE
Dream It to Life
This July we’ll celebrate the semicentennial of the moon landing and humanity’s first tentative steps onto a celestial body not our own. We have, in our cultural memories, images of families crowded around television sets in awe and wonder, waiting for the first grainy shots of Neil Armstrong’s walk. Apollo 11’s successful trip, the world thought, marked the dawning of a new age. Fifty years past, we almost take that foray into space for granted. But never forget that the miracles of space exploration began on paper, with reams of handwritten formulas and codes that were enlivened by audacity and intricate knowledge. Apollo 11 began with what
if?, and came alive because those who knew how to answered that “if” with chutzpah and inventiveness. Grand possibilities exist whenever those elements combine; it’s something that readers know well. You’ll see evidence of this in summer reading programs in libraries across the country, themed “A Universe of Stories” in a nod to Apollo 11 and to the corners of all galaxies that we’ve yet to reach. You’ll find it in our magazine selections, too. Our picture books were selected with a focus on STEM titles, and they celebrate not only wonders among the planets, but scientific marvels here on Earth, from the evolution of insects to building projects great and small. Write down a possibility, mold it with thoughtfulness and care, and build toward something new: that’s how NASA’S achievements began, and it’s where all great books begin, too. You’ll find people pushing back against what’s known and considered ordinary throughout the titles in this issue, from a writer battling the oppressions of the prison system in Hummingbird in the Underworld to characters fighting warped family legacies in The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone and The Last List
of Miss Judith Kratt. It’s evident in historical novels like The Measure of the World, all about scientific achievements past, in the brave histories of Scottish Queens, in the musing essays of Late Migrations—and, yes, in our boundary-breaking religion selections, too. Don’t forget to look to the stars this summer and celebrate where imagination has already taken us, but when daylight returns: look toward the future, too. You can begin through books.