(3) YA Fifteen-year-old Anna is heading back to boarding school in England in 1970 when her plane from Bahrain is hijacked by Palestinian militants. This fast-paced, historically contextualized, and gripping story includes the right mix of foreshadowing, anticipation, and relief as Anna's four-day ordeal unfolds. A postscript and Q&A discuss the author's own hijacked-plane experience as a teenager, upon which the story is based.

Reviewer: Lauren Causey

(3) PS Illustrated by Anna Currey. Billy Bear contends with Mama going to pottery class while he stays home with babysitter Lucy. Singing songs and reading together are fun, but how will Mama find her way home in the dark? Preschoolers will relate to Billy's worries, quelled by Lucy, in this book about a little one's first experience with a babysitter. Soothing ink-outlined illustrations show Billy's comfy home life.

Reviewer: Rita Soltan

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Mary McQuillan. Busby the bear searches for his clothes after a stormy wind blows them away. Along the way, he meets a hare in a red riding hood, a mouse living in a clock, and an ogre. The bouncy rhyme, though periodically forced, is enjoyable. The bright textured illustrations are playful and allow readers to search for Busby's missing clothes.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(3) PS Illustrated by Anna Currey. When Billy dawdles one morning, he and Mama are late for nursery school; in her hurry, Mama rushes off to work without giving Billy his toy rabbit or telling him that she loves him. The happy resolution is sweet without being saccharine, and both text and illustrations--loose but effectively composed color washes--capture the stresses and joys of preschool life.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Jutta Bücker & Jutta Bücker. Wiley is a boy who is afraid of dogs and the dark. Jasper, a dog who lives next door with Grandpa, is afraid of kids and thunderstorms. Wiley and Jasper overcome their fears of each other and become friends when they both seek shelter from a storm in a dark barn. The predictable story gets a boost from playful illustrations that effectively show the pair's transition from fear to friendship.

Reviewer: Beth L. Meister

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Delphine Durand. When a head louse nests in Ms. Calypso's cascading curls, soon she and her entire class are scratching away. Unfortunately, Ms. Calypso (who lives alone) is the only one who can't shampoo the lice properly from her hair until amorous Principal Trout helps her do so. The quirky characters in Durand's sophisticatedly colored cartoon illustrations are a good match for Moss's humorous text.

Reviewer: Mark Adam

(4) PS Illustrated by Maggie Kneen. A polar bear cub can't find his mother, so his forest friends help him make a snow bear to keep him company. When night falls, they leave and he's alone again--until his mother finds him the next morning. The gracefully embossed illustrations have more depth than the lackluster story, which is weighed down by uninspired repetition.

Reviewer: Emma Loy-Santelli