(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Kirbi Fagan. Sky is a wild mustang, at home in the Virginia Range of western Nevada. From his earliest days, Sky learns to live as part of a herd. During a time of drought when Sky must leave his band to search for water, he is captured by humans. He is used by the Pony Express and then is captured by silver miners. There, faced with horses and donkeys who are suffering from poisoned air and water, Sky leads a rebellion to free the captured animals. Sky's first-person narration of his adventures is engrossing and fast-paced. His vocabulary is appropriate to a wild horse; human hands are grabbers, corrals are traps, and mountain lions are claw beasts. Parry weaves historical and environmental information smoothly into the narrative. Sky's life depends on water and the healthy plants and animals in his surroundings, so readers finish the book with a strong sense of the impact of human choices on animal and plant life. As she did with A Wolf Called Wander and A Whale in the Wild (rev. 1/21), Parry writes a convincing fictionalized life of one wild animal while addressing issues of community, survival, and care for our environment. Fagan's realistic black-and-white illustrations convey the windswept mountain terrain and the movement of the horses. Extensive back matter includes detailed information about the historical and environmental context of the story.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2023

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Lindsay Moore. The whale of the title could apply to either of two narrators. Vega, a late-adolescent orca whale, is just coming into her own as a wayfinder. The alternating voice is that of her younger and impulsive brother Deneb. Their family is part of the Southern Resident Killer Whale Community that lives in the Salish Sea, an area of stunning ecological richness and diversity in the Pacific Northwest. The community is threatened by water pollution, noise pollution, climate change, and reduced populations of Chinook salmon. When there's an earthquake with its resulting tsunami, Vega and Deneb become separated from their pod. Parry (A Wolf Called Wander) presents orca life convincingly, using fresh language. Tides are Push and Pull. Directions are warmward and coldward. Echolocation is click-stream. Connection between family members is maintained by the repeated reassurance, "I'm beside you," a refrain that becomes increasingly heartbreaking as the characters try to deal with the fracturing of their world. The story contains gracefully integrated information on such varied topics as the eel ("all teeth and patience") and the poison taste of an oil spill, without ever losing narrative momentum or emotional drive. Back matter gives clear explanations of terms (krill are "pink, opaque, and the size and weight of a paper clip"), suggestions for further reading, and practical tips for young readers on how to help save this precious environment. Detailed black-and-white illustrations beautifully support a powerful portrait of nature under threat.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2021

(3) YA Destitute, orphaned Danny and Kathleen O'Carolan emigrate from Ireland to New York City during the Civil War. To stay together, older sibling Kathleen forces twelve-year-old Danny to pose as a girl so he can avoid being conscripted into the army and the two can get jobs as housemaids. A strong sense of time and place carries this novel through to its optimistic denouement.

Reviewer: Betty Carter

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Mónica Armiño. Based on a true story, this imaginative fictionalization follows a Pacific Northwest wolf telling his own story from birth, along a one-thousand-mile journey with hazards and setbacks aplenty, to the eventual establishment of his own pack. The novel is generously illustrated with precise black-and-white wildlife drawings and includes a map and substantial back matter (on the real wolf OR-7, wolf behavior, and other animals). Reading list. Bib.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis

(3) 4-6 After an earthquake and tsunami kills his grandparents in Japan, biracial Kai is sent to live with female cousin Jet's family in Astoria, Oregon. Aspiring bar pilot Jet and Kai, whose Obā-san taught him to make boats, enter a geocaching hunt/sailing regatta. With some exploration of biracial/bicultural identity, Parry focuses on the cousins' friendship and the exciting competition. Extensive back matter included. Glos.

Reviewer: Amy Seto Forrester

(4) 4-6 Giselle, Vivian, and narrator Jody, eighth-grade students at an American army-base school in 1990 Berlin, find themselves caught in international intrigue while making a sub rosa visit to Paris for a chamber music competition. There are some exciting moments, but the plot is unconvincing at several turns, and the amalgam of school-and-friends story and outwitting-the-KGB thriller doesn't really work.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton

(1) 4-6 With his brothers away at school or in the service and his father in Iraq, sixth grader Ignatius (nicknamed Brother) must help his grandparents run the family ranch. The story chronicles Brother's year of hard work, danger, worry, and pondering of his own future. Brother's honest voice conveys an emotional terrain as thoughtfully developed as Parry's evocation of the Western landscape.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2009