(2) 4-6 A ghostly City of Ashes, a disappearing moon, and a sudden snowstorm are just some of the supernatural occurrences that kick off this mythology-inspired adventure novel set in China during the Ming Dynasty. Our protagonists are Mei and Yun Wu, twelve-year-old orphaned twins scrambling to rescue their grandpa after a disastrous encounter with the emperor's son during the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Wu twins' tale overlaps with the story of Lotus, a beautiful, haunted poet who cursed the region seventy years earlier when her ­family was torn apart by a scorned admirer. Along with a bratty noble boy and an inventive princess, the Jade Rabbit (a celestial being with magical powers) helps the peasant siblings on their quest in the Imperial City. Schmidt's story contains many familiar folktale plot points and tropes--magical travel, cases of mistaken identity, riddles. Passages about the book's titular "dream weaving" are whimsically described. The prose does contain a few anachronisms (some dialogue sounds more like ­modern-day speech, and today's Western units of time and speed are used), but they won't be distracting to most readers. An entertaining tale for those who enjoyed Lin's Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (rev. 9/09) and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland but might not be quite ready for the scary parts of the Harry Potter and Narnia books.

Reviewer: Michelle Lee | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2021

(2) 4-6 Translated by David Colmer. In this Dutch novel from 1970, Mr. Tibble is a shy, failed newspaperman; Miss Minou, a cat imprisoned in human form, gets scoops from her cat cronies and passes them on to Tibble. The human characters in this romp are painted with an affectionately satirical brush, and the cats are hilarious--all ego, street smarts, and sensuality. Pretty much catnip for feline fanciers.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2016

(2) 4-6 Translated by David Colmer. Illustrated by Sieb Posthuma. A skinny, long-nosed poet fills his pen from the ink pond in his garden and offers the reader a selection of story poems featuring personalities old and young, human and animal, animate and inanimate. The wordplay is energetic; healthy handfuls of enjambment mitigate against dreary dum-di-dum; and the small narratives celebrate lateral thinking, community, and kindness.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2014