(4) YA Natalia (Nat)'s little brother Calvino is ten, the age when people lose their ability to feel emotion. But Cal isn't "fading"--and now synthetic-emotion company RealCorp wants to test him cruelly. Nat will fight for her brother as hard as if she still loved him. While the world-building is not fully fleshed out, this intriguing dystopian premise makes for a fast-paced, thought-provoking read.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(3) 4-6 Mapmakers series. Sophia's search for her missing parents (The Golden Specific) continues; here, she follows a cryptic map back to New Occident. Meanwhile, friend Theo--sentenced to serve in Broadgirdle's army--is threatened by the prime minister's new crimson-mist weapon, which turns friends into seeming enemies. The series' map conceit expands to encompass memory and time in this mystical, satisfying conclusion to the fantastical trilogy.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(3) 4-6 From eighteenth-century ballooning through present-day developments in private space travel, important events in aviation and space flight are covered in chronological order. Each discussion includes a few pages of narrative prose highlighting the importance of the milestone as well as plentiful illustrations and photographs providing additional detail and context. The colorful presentation and clear organization make for easy reading. Timeline. Bib., glos., ind.

Reviewer: Antonio Trujillo

(3) 4-6 Mapmakers series. While Sophia Tims travels to the Papal States in search of a diary that will give her clues to her missing parents' whereabouts, her friend Theo goes undercover and witnesses the brazen power grab of Boston MP Gordon Broadgirdle, a one-time tormentor of his. The weirdly time-misaligned world introduced in The Glass Sentence here deepens and elaborates into a strong fantasy performance.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(4) 4-6 In 1924, the race was on to circumnavigate the globe by air. The U.S. sent eight brave airmen to accomplish this remarkable navigational, technical, and aeronautical feat. The gripping narrative, "based, in part," on one participant's journal, keeps the pages turning. The book design, which includes archival photographs and reproductions, is off-putting. Maps and an itinerary help track the expedition's progress. Bib., glos., ind.

Reviewer: Antonio Trujillo

(3) 4-6 Mapmakers series. In a world fractured into disparate eras during the Great Disruption, Sophia Tims is entrusted with the Tracing Glass (containing a memory thought to be the cause of the Disruption) when her uncle, the cartographer Shadrack Elli, is kidnapped. An intricate fantasy with a Gilded-Age feel, this solidly constructed quest features maps of all kinds and unusual steampunk-flavored elements.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(2) YA Trey, Zero, Steve, and Tucker borrow an ID, buy some beer, and head out for the celebration of their lives. Tucker is consumed with survivor guilt after the other three die in a fiery crash. Enter Bud, his dying step-grandfather, who maneuvers Tucker into taking a road trip straight out of Greek mythology. Tucker's voice--and his guilt and anguish--ring true.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2013

(4) YA On a bluff above a medieval town, fourteen-year-old Rhiannon tends to the dying with her mother and grandmother until a murder disturbs their serenity. The unexpected arrival of a leper colony, a lost prince, and an independently minded monk add to the intriguing if far-fetched plot. Grove's historical realism sometimes wavers, but she excels at evoking a world in which Christianity is ascendant while pagan beliefs still linger.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(4) 4-6 Destiny's afternoons spent reading to elderly Mrs. Peck, a former Latin teacher who teaches Destiny about Greek mythology and other refined subjects, are a stark contrast to her life at home with her heartless, deadbeat step-dad and superstitious, neglectful mom. Although substantial conflicts are resolved in the end with satisfying but unrealistic precision, the first-person narrative is affecting and buoyed with intrigue.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann

(3) 4-6 In 1961, Frannie confronts evidence of racism, past and present, in her small Oklahoma town when she befriends a black girl who has recently moved there. Deceptively nostalgic at first, this compelling novel does not shy away from revealing the town's ugly secrets, which include a history of Klan activity, as it shows Frannie's insular life slowly unraveling.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann

(2) 4-6 For an in-class interview assignment, sixth-grader Carly draws the odd, withdrawn outsider Dustin, whose dysfunctional family and gun-toting father are legendary in their Missouri farm town. Carly learns her classmate is misunderstood and unfairly dismissed and determines to save him. Although the ending perhaps strains credulity, the emotional tone rings true and the characterizations are strong.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.