Hugo Reese, Jack’s illustrator and surrogate son, is concerned when Jack abruptly comes out of a six-year retirement to invite Lucy and three other former runaways and superfans to Clock Island, where they’ll compete for the only copy of a brand new Clock Island book. Now, 13 years later, she’s a kindergarten teacher’s aide desperate to adopt seven-year-old Christopher Lamb, an orphaned former student of hers, but she needs more money and greater stability in order to make it happen. At 13, Lucy Hart ran away from home to escape neglectful parents, wishing instead to live with Jack Masterson-the bestselling author of her favorite children’s books, the Clock Island series-on the real-life counterpart to Clock Island.

Ballantine, $28 (304p) ISBN 978-3-2 Shaffer blends tragedy and triumph in a whimsical and gratifying debut romance about what makes a family. It’s a moving and graceful tribute to friendship and to heroic women who have shouldered the burdens of war. In a move that could feel contrived but only further elevates the work, Urrea bookends the wrenching narrative with a surprising discovery 50 years later. efforts advance, Irene fears she has lost Dorothy, who’s become like a sister, after they are separated in an accident eventually, she goes home to New York to rebuild a life marred with survivor’s guilt and shell shock. The two become fast friends while serving coffee and doughnuts and trying to comfort the soldiers, a nebulous task defined in the chaste terms of the day (they should act like a “big sister, girl next door, mom or sweetheart”). Tasked with high expectations-keep driving and keep smiling-Irene is sent to England alongside Dorothy Dunford, who, much like Irene, is looking for an escape from her life. Irene Woodward, a tough New Yorker, covers up the bruises received from her abusive fiancé with concealer and sweaters, throws her engagement ring down the drain, and joins America’s war effort as a member of the Red Cross Clubmobile.

Little, Brown, $29 (336p) ISBN 978-5-0 Urrea ( The House of Broken Angels) transports readers to the Western Front of WWII in his stunning latest.

Stitches a memoir by david small