The Open Road Blog

“This unforgettable novel raises crucial headline issues...” –STARRED REVIEW, Booklist

“Readers will feel every ounce of Khalid’s terror, frustration, and helplessness in this disturbing look at a sad, ongoing chapter in contemporary history.” –Publishers Weekly

Open Road Integrated Media and Albert Whitman & Company are proud to release the ebook edition of Guantanamo Boy, the harrowing story of Khalid, a fifteen-year-old Muslim boy, who is abducted from Pakistan while on holiday with his family. Taken to Guantanamo Bay and held without charge, Khalid faces cruelty, injustice, and a loss of innocence unknown to most teenagers. Set just after ...

Today marks the release of four diverse new ebooks from Pegasus Books and Open Road Media. Featured titles include The Schoolmaster’s Daughter, a gripping historical novel set during the American Revolution; By Accident, a poignant novel spanning themes of love, loss and grieving; The Story of Brutus, a heart-warming story of a man and his 800-lb grizzly bear; and Smoking Ears and Screaming Teeth, a witty celebration of great eccentrics whose dangerous experiments have benefitted humankind.

In the tradition of Sally Gunning’s Bound and Diana Gabaldon’s A Echo in the ...

Yesterday, June 12, was Susan Engberg’s birthday and to celebrate that occasion we’ve decided to feature her in our archival photo of the week. Engberg is the author of four short story collections, including Pastorale, A Stay by the River, Sarah’s Laughter, and Above the Houses. Her work has attracted substantial praise. Writing in The New York Times, critically-acclaimed novelist Russell Banks called the stories in Engberg’s first collection, Pastorale, “so good that they could change your life.”  The collection went on to win the 1983 Banta Book Award. In 1991 Michiko Kakutani, ...

Editor's note: To celebrate Tell-a-Story Day we've excerpted a piece of Freshwater Boys, a moving collection of short stories by Michigan-based author Adam Schuitema. The book's eleven short stories are set in and around the Great Lakes of Michigan, sometimes known as America's Third Coast, and depict male characters of various ages confronting the difficulties of manhood. Author Stuart Dybek called Freshwater Boys "a deeply engaging first collection" and Publishers Weekly praised Schuitema's "crisp, effective prose." Today Open Road readers can get a special glimpse of a talented new voice in contemporary American fiction. 

Last Thursday, while idling ...

Sure, we talk about books all the time. But Open Road is plugged into the world beyond books, too. Each Friday we'll step outside of the industry silo to call out what caught our eye. Whether we're talking about technology, museum exhibits, education—and, yes, sometimes books—we're happy to share Links We Like with readers.

• Although I liked being a Girl Scout as a kid, I was always jealous of the adventuring the Boy Scouts got to do. Playing with bees? Swinging around giant rocks? Making fires? And, in 2011, building robots. According to NPR, the Boy Scouts have now ...