HOT OFF THE PRESS

- Steven Calkum, “Freeborn,”

PublishAmerica (publishamerica .com), 505 pages, $34.95. Available in local bookstores, online and through the publisher . . .

Synopsis by the publisher: He is half of one world, half of another and anathema to both. Half human and half elf, Freeborn learned from birth that though he can live among humans and elves, he belongs to neither. Tishamon, the elfin woodsman also known as “The Long Walker,” is the only person who accepts and respects Freeborn as he is, and he and Freeborn travel the Shattered Empire together. Tishamon helps Freeborn learn the rules and customs of the Empire’s many peoples, as well as the dangers of the world. Join Freeborn as he grows from boyhood to manhood and explores his expansive world.

- Sarah E. Moffett, “Growing Up Moffett: The Rise and Fall of Innocence in a Pathos Plagued Year,”

FaithWalk Publishing (faith walkpub.com), 209 pages, $12.99. Available in local bookstores, online and through the publisher . . .

Synopsis by the publisher: In a writing style somewhere between Harper Lee and Sarah Vowell, Moffett recalls the time when, at age 12, the life of her family began to unravel after a simple phone call. What follows is a struggle to retain faith, hope and love in the midst of inexplicable death and loss. This coming-of-age story resonates with laughter and broods with intensity as a witty, sarcastic and occasionally humorous account of childhood experiences involving professional disaster-manager parents who move the family across the country to care for dying relatives. It is written from a child’s perspective yet it embraces the darkness that comes with the loss of innocence and the beginning of grasping death on an intimate level at an early age.