Bill Cunningham, fashion photographer and recorder of New York’s changing fashion scene, died Saturday at age 87. He worked consistently until he suffered a stroke a week ago.

Have you ever been clobbered by a 2-by-4 plank? Our Books of the Year committee has come up with a 4-by-4, a shortlist of 16 books in four categories. Most of them smack readers hard. They challenge the conventional wisdom. They deal with difficult questions of persecution, community-building, cultural craziness, marriage, and more. Most also offer hope.

Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse

Faith Sullivan

Circus Mirandus is WORLD’s 2016 Children’s Novel of the Year. Out of the Woods is our Picture Book of the Year. Those are the picks of two WORLD committees that sifted through dozens of books and engaged in spirited debates.

Later in this special section we display books that made the shortlist in each category, chart some top nonfiction books for ages 10-15, discuss depictions of slavery in children’s books and audio dramas, and profile John R. Erickson, author of the long-running and hugely popular Hank the Cowdog series.

In summer 2014, LeeAnn Walters of Flint, Mich., noticed a peculiar rash on her 4-year-old son, Gavin. Doctors at first diagnosed it as contact dermatitis, then scabies. It seemed to get worse after every bath or swim in the backyard pool. Later that year, when brown water came out of the faucet and an older son got sick, the Walters family stopped drinking the water.

In this novelized memoir, Hickam tells the improbable story of his just-married parents, who take a Depression-era journey from West Virginia to Florida to free an alligator given to Elsie by the actor Buddy Ebsen, whom she briefly dated. Along the way they meet strange characters, escape dangers, and cement a marriage that started out as a one-sided love match, as his mom longed for more than life in a coal town. It’s a rollicking story with an acknowledgment of God’s presence and providence throughout.

Friday is the 43rd anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. To commemorate this tragic event, WORLD is republishing five important articles from its extensive archives related to the abortion issue. The following article originally appeared in WORLD Magazine’s Jan. 18, 1997, Roe v. Wade issue.