Media you can trust

Mitchell's Book Corner 54 Main Street, 228-1080

"Dressing the Home: The Private Spaces of Top Fashion

Designers"

by Marie Bariller, photographs

by Guillaume de Laubier

"If you were a painting, what would you be?" asks Marie Bariller of the world's top fashion designers in "Dressing the Home." We are invited into the personal spaces of Vanessa Bruno, who would be "a watercolor," Domenico Dolce, who would be "something by Julian Schnabel," and Betsey Johnson, who would be "an Odalisque by Matisse," to name a few. Bariller asks the questions you would if you could, like "what sort of atmosphere do you like to create in a house?" and "what are your favorite materials?" Through their answers and the accompanying photos of their homes we gain an insight into the talent and genius behind the artists who have been dressing the world or at least the people in the magazines.

- Lucretia Voigt

Nantucket Bookworks 25 Broad Street, 228-4000

"The God of Animals"

by Aryn Kyle

For the excitement of discovery and the hope they can give us, good first novels rule. Kyle's debut has a charming narrator in Alice Winston, who tells us the story of

her lonely 13th year. She feels abandoned by her older sister Nona, the family star, a beauty and a riding champion, who has run off and married a young cowboy. Her father is distracted, scrambling to find riding students and horse boarders to keep their family stable going. Her mother can offer little help: mysteriously traumatized, she retired to her bedroom when Alice was a baby and has stayed there pretty much ever since. And the ghost of a drowned schoolmate looms over all of Alice's attempts to solve the puzzle of her family and to claim her own life. - Dick Burns

Nantucket Atheneum 1 India Street, 228-1110

"The Lemonade Club"

by Patricia Polacco

Author/illustrator of over 40 picture books, Patricia Polacco has created a moving and beautiful story about friendship and its healing power. Fifth-graders Traci and Marilyn are best friends with a wonderful and inspiring teacher, Miss Wichelman. When Marilyn is diagnosed with leukemia, both Traci and Miss Wichelman inspire the whole class to support her return to school by shaving their own heads so they look like Marilyn. A poignant story based on the author's real life experiences with her own daughter, Traci, and Traci's childhood best friend, Marilyn. Polacco's gentle pencil and marker illustrations illustrate the text.

- Maggie Head