NESFA Press has announced their annual Boskone book, published in conjunction with their annual science fiction convention. This year’s volume is The One Right Thing by Bruce Coville. At the convention, the book will be available for $15 for the standard “trade” (hardcover) edition, and $24 for the slip-cased, signed edition. After the convention, the prices will be $25 and $40, respectively. The 256-page book was edited by Deb Geisler, and has cover art by Omar Rayyan.
NESFA says of the book: Bruce Coville writes about heroes: big heroes, little heroes, blue heroes, pink heroes, heroic trolls, and heroic humans. And what he teaches us about heroes is fairly simple—that heroes are people who make right choices in hard circumstances. Heroes are those people about whom we think, “That ogre did very good things and made the world a better place to live.”
This book features some of Bruce’s more delightful (and improbable) heroes: a stinky princess, a strong-willed unicorn, a magician’s struggling apprentice, a boy who kept faith with an angel, a fairy godmother working to keep her wings, and even a headless ghost. The One Right Thing is really about a lot of right things that everyday people (and your average monster or two) do to grow and to help others.
More than anything, this book is also a lot of fun. It is filled with wit and wisdom and laughter and joy and a touch of the eerie. You’ll find a dash of glory, a pinch of aliens, and more than a capful of whimsy.
Oh! And don’t think that this is “just” a book for the young. This is a book for anyone who wants to lift their wings, spring into the sky, and fly into their own tomorrow.
The Table of Contents for the book is:
Introduction by Tamora Pierce
“The Stinky Princess”
“I, Earthling”
“The Guardian of Memory”
“A Life in Miniature”
“The Troddler”
“Old Glory”
“Just Like You”
“The World’s Worst Fairy Godmother”
“The Box”
“My Little Brother is a Monster”
“The Giant’s Tooth”
“Ragged John”
“Saying No to Nick”
“Clean as a Whistle”
“With His Head Tucked Underneath His Arm”
“Wizard’s Boy”
“The Metamorphosis of Justin Jones”