(2) YA Along the medieval Silk Road, a boy is cast out from the temple and nearly stoned to death by monks. He is purchased as a servant by a fast-talking merchant named Samir, for the price of six bolts of silk, and dubbed Monkey. Monkey watches Samir spin tales and make enemies everywhere he goes. In fact, the man is being hunted by six different "killing lines," from a Viking berserker to a Mongol gunner--though at the end of the first chapter it's Monkey who tantalizingly confesses: "That is why I killed him." The book is warmly funny, with folkloric commitment to larger-than-life characters, exaggerated perils, and plenty of jokes, punctuated by Miyares's lively and colorful illustrations. The formula of the six killing lines encourages readers to anticipate the unspooling of the tale; the twist regarding Samir's eventual death is more a reward than a shock. ­Celebration of the cultural riches of the Silk Road, along with the geographic, ­religious, and material diversity of the setting, make for engaging historical fiction--and a rollicking good yarn.

Reviewer: Anne St. John | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2023

(2) YA Framed loosely as his twelve-year-old self's responses to a series of school assignments, Nayeri's fictionalized memoir swirls through his own memories as well as stories from his family history, circling around major events and pausing to include his Oklahoma classmates' reactions to his tales of early childhood in Iran. This structure means the story takes some time to pick up speed--which it does once it goes into more focused detail about Nayeri's family's journey: their quick escape from Iran after his mother's life was threatened because she had converted to Christianity; his father's decision to stay behind. The buildup comprises tangent upon tangent--Nayeri alludes frequently to Scheherazade's stringing together of stories in the 1,001 Nights--but those tangents are absorbing and full of universalizing detail and humor (there's more than one poop anecdote). This tale is constantly focused on its telling, with references to an imagined audience and reminders of who characters are. The actual audience is a bit of a puzzle, as the twelve-year-old narrator's tale spans a wide range of ages in his life and those of his family members, and the overall sensibility seems more adult than not. An author's note acknowledges the fallibility of memory as well as some deliberate alterations; it is, as Nayeri puts it, "both fiction and nonfiction at the same time."

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2020

(4) YA Illustrated by Dina Nayeri. In this third installment (Another Faust; Another Pan), the mysterious events center on an exclusive Manhattan prep school. When Thomas experiences inexplicable behavior swings and brutally attacks a classmate, he blames it on a powerful drug; in fact, his stepmother, a demon, is using Thomas to house the spirit of her son, Edward. The pace is slow, and the supernatural elements could be scarier.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(4) YA In four novellas, each more successful than the previous one, Nayeri presents an unconventional take on various genres from the Western to science fiction to detective story and, finally, romantic comedy. Though it starts off slowly, this ambitious and intriguing project may find an audience if readers can patiently make it to the final two stories.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt

(4) YA Peter Pan's pursuit of eternal youth takes him to a modern New York prep school where Professor Darling teaches strange theories about obscure Egyptian artifacts. Peter befriends the professor's children, Wendy and John, and leads them on a dangerous quest. The literary parallels are interesting, but the ambitious story, peopled with too many unlikable characters, tends to trip over its tangled plot.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(4) YA The mysterious Fausts prepare to take over their prestigious Manhattan school by using the gifts their "governess" gave them--reading minds, for example. But the governess is actually Mephistopheles, and the gifts come at a cost. It's difficult to care about the greedy teenagers and sort out the confusing story elements; readers may be unwilling to do either.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Smith