(2) YA Liv, thirteen, has competed in pageants all her life and has mostly enjoyed herself, but when she meets fifteen-year-old runaway Dan she begins to question the pageant world and her own identity. Liv's character slowly un-flattens, revealing personality, intelligence, sadness, depth--and unexpected backbone. Liv and Dan's relationship is first love at its most genuine in this poignant story of self-actualization.

Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2013

(2) 4-6 In kindergarten, Sarah and Marjorie promised to be best friends "forever." By seventh grade they've begun to grow apart, much to Sarah's dismay--even though she's the one moving on. The novel is about not just loss but discovery, as gradually both girls gravitate toward doing what they love; still, Willner-Pardo never minimizes the pain of the girls' break in this perceptive, poignant novel.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2010

(4) 4-6 Arlie has always struggled to understand her perfectionist mother. When her parents are seriously injured in an accident, her mother falls into a coma, and a strange new girl appears in Arlie's fifth-grade class. Could she possibly be Arlie's mother as a child? Despite some good writing, the premise is never quite made convincing.

Reviewer: Cyrisse Jaffee

(4) 1-3 Illustrated by Nick Sharratt. Tension rises between Spider and his friend Zachary during their school's Third-Grade Olympics. Spider acts like a know-it-all, and Zachary teases Spider about being the worst runner in the class, but the friends manage to work things out. Though the ending feels rushed and a bit anticlimactic, the story is fast paced and funny. Cartoon spot illustrations add to the humor.

Reviewer: Mark Adam

(3) 1-3 Illustrated by Nick Sharratt. Spider Storch begs his annoying classmate Mary Grace Brennerman not to blab to the entire school that he's in a wedding with her. She agrees on the condition that he stop calling her names. Of course, her demands continue until Spider can't take any more. Willner-Pardo's writing is snappy, fast-paced, and funny, and Sharratt's cartoonlike spot illustrations add to the humor.

Reviewer: Mark Adam

(3) 4-6 When Abigail's fourth-grade teacher tells the students to try to solve a mystery of their own, she decides to find out who Frances is--that's the name Abigail's grandmother, who has Alzheimer's disease, calls her. But Abigail has an even harder time understanding the strange behavior of her best friend, Travis, who avoids her at school yet is friendly at home. The dialogue and the friendship issues are true to life.

Reviewer: Anne St. John

(2) 1-3 Illustrated by Heidi Chang. Afraid to jump off the high dive, Sophie is branded "chicken" by the two coolest girls in her class. She devises a plan to conquer her fear and while working through her list of "Scary Things to Do," discovers that for some things, "it's better if you just wait for the right time." This early chapter book delivers its reassuring message with a light hand (and some interesting complications), and Sophie proves an honest and engaging narrator.

Reviewer: Terri Schmitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 1999

(3) 1-3 Illustrated by Nick Sharratt. In these laugh-out-loud chapter books, irrepressible third-grader Joey (Spider) Storch finds trouble on a field trip to the science museum and in Music for Beginners class--instead of the tuba, he's assigned to play the flute. Fast-paced stories, dead-on dialogue, and hip, good-humored black-and-white line illustrations make for two winning reads.

Reviewer: Jackie C. Horne

(3) 1-3 Illustrated by Nick Sharratt. In these laugh-out-loud chapter books, irrepressible third-grader Joey (Spider) Storch finds trouble on a field trip to the science museum and in Music for Beginners class--instead of the tuba, he's assigned to play the flute. Fast-paced stories, dead-on dialogue, and hip, good-humored black-and-white line illustrations make for two winning reads.

Reviewer: Jackie C. Horne