(2) 4-6 Eleven-year-old Pearl is thrilled when sophisticated Lenore begins paying attention to her, but it's clear to readers that Lenore is bad news. Bradby writes with real understanding of the conflicting feelings of a preteen who tries to keep up with the wrong kind of friend, and the book's issues of standing up to bullies, yearning for a friend, and struggling with ordinary family problems should have universal appeal.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2004

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Ted Rand. In sometimes clunky rhyming verse, an African-American boy describes the rigors and pleasures of life on a family farm: e.g., "A mule / a tiller / work till dinner. / A stump / a rock / pull till you drop." Illustrated with delicate watercolor images, the story takes a serious turn when the farm, threatened by urban sprawl, is sold.

Reviewer: Sheila M. Geraty

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Chris K. Soentpiet. When an African-American girl asks her mother the titlular question, the answers come as childhood memories emphasizing, not place, but the warmth of family and community, though still acknowledging racial inequities. Rich illustrations glow with realistic details from a text that is often poetic but occasionally choppy.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Peter Catalanotto. Thomas and his family wait anxiously for their postman father to finish making his rounds on horseback in the midst of a blinding snowstorm. He returns burning with fever, but by morning both the storm and his fever have broken. The story line feels too quick and pat to sustain the weight of its title. Catalanotto's illustrations vary widely in execution.

Reviewer: Susan Halperin