Potiki, Patricia Grace (Penguin), portrays the vicissitudes...

Potiki, Patricia Grace (Penguin), portrays the vicissitudes faced by the Maori people in New Zealand, “weaving together legends and beliefs with some of the white man’s own myths.” The author’s style “captures the rhythms of the finest oral poetry” (Michael Owen Jones).

Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker, Gary Giddins (Beech Tree/Morrow). “A tribute, in photographs and text, to Parker’s gift and grief. Giddins knows the music and the sources” (Art Seidenbaum).

The Silent Twins, Marjorie Wallace (Prentice-Hall). A true story about “twins who speak in a strange language essentially known only to each other . . . a thoroughly researched, moving and well-honed piece of work” (Albert Schrut).

Tales From the Planet Earth, Frederick Pohl and Elizabeth Anne Hull (St. Martin’s). “A fascinating controlled experiment in the way (science fiction) writers from many lands will approach the same concept” (David Brin).

Doing the Voices, Jeremy Brooks (Viking/Salamander). “Every detail, character and speech in these (four) stories is biting and fresh” (Richard Eder).