(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Gabriel Evans. Adolescent tree squirrel Phoenix is happily living in a New Jersey forest when a hawk grabs him, then drops him in Manhattan. After rats--the lowest of rodents--rescue him from drowning, Phoenix is surprised that they generously care for him. Gradually, Phoenix becomes a valued member of the community. Seidler playfully provides a squirrel's-eye view of the world but, with questions of creature cooperation and interspecies relationships, fosters deeper contemplation.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2019

(3) 4-6 Lively magpie Maggie attaches herself to a Yellowstone wolf pack, giving readers a bird's-eye view of the adventures of alpha-male Blue Boy and family--particularly firstborn son Lamar, who, to his father's dismay, falls in love with a coyote. In vigorous prose, Seidler writes of power struggles, births and deaths, and threats from humans in an unsentimental tale touching on issues of loyalty, honor, and love.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Fred Marcellino. Bagley Brown Jr., a modest weasel, has two problems: he feels he can never equal his beloved, heroic father's memory, and he loves hopelessly--instead of a lady weasel--a fish named Bridget. His zealous attempts to save Bridget from a horrible fate, assisted by various weasel friends, ultimately prove him a hero in his own right. An unusual animal fantasy with delightful illustrations.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Jon Agee. An overly fastidious woodchuck finds his tidy life disrupted by the arrival of a child--not his and his wife's, but a demanding, ungrateful human toddler they find abandoned outside their burrow. This funny commentary on parenthood is blithely genteel even as it encompasses some hard realities. Humorous and lively, Agee's sketches add child appeal to a tale that might otherwise verge on the adult.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 1998

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Brock Cole. Pampered Lhasa apso Gulliver is horrified to be dumped at the humble home of Carlos the doorman. Still, he makes new friends and eventually lands in a satisfactory place--but not before surviving an odyssey from Queens to Paris and back. Like Seidler's characterizations, Cole's drawings of comically diverse canines and humans in action are marvelously affectionate and satirical.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2008

(4) 4-6 Illustrated by Eric Beddows. Because he has seven toes on each paw, Toes is shunned by the other kittens in his litter. After getting trapped in a housing project basement, Toes is eventually rescued by a downhearted young violinist. Though slow to start and unevenly paced, the novel's arousing final chapters will have many readers reaching for their handkerchiefs.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(2) 4-6 Insistent BJ, whose librarian mother brings books to computer genius Darryl's orphanage, befriends Darryl and wants to adopt him as his brother. Before this can happen, Darryl is mysteriously whisked away by the nefarious technology king Keith Masterly, leaving BJ bewildered but still persevering. This deliciously conceived plot builds to a rousing denouement in the mountainous terrain of Washington state.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2004

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Brian Selznick. An orphaned boy with a gift for playing the dulcimer runs away from his cruel guardians. William finds a job performing at a tavern but longs to return home for his mute twin brother, Jules. Set in New England in a vaguely historic time period, the book--which has qualities of both a melodrama and a folktale--is written in exquisite prose and newly illustrated with appropriately old-fashioned illustrations.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(4) 4-6 Illustrated by Peter McCarty. Given an ancient Greek coin, Terpin Taft dreams that Socrates tells him to live according to his beliefs. So he stops telling lies, with disastrous social consequences, but his integrity leads him to become the youngest Supreme Court Chief justice ever. There's a heavy undercurrent of preachiness, but Terpin is engaging enough to carry the narrative. McCarty contributes a new frontispiece and an interior drawing, both in black and white.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Brett Helquist. Unlike other rats, Randal Reese-Rat is fascinated with other species. It is not until he meets Maggie Mad-Rat from Africa, visiting her cousin Montague in New York, that he finds another with his secret passion. Despite a somewhat disappointing ending, this humorous adventure story is a solid sequel to Seidler's A Rat's Tale.

Reviewer: Lauren Aimonette LIang

(4) 4-6 Katerina and her father discover a new species of bird, the silent spillbill. When the spillbills are blamed for causing two airplane crashes, Katerina must disregard her stuttering problem and publicly convince her family's aerodynamics firm not to exterminate the birds. The characterization of Katerina's grandfather is a central-casting stereotype of a cranky, aged tycoon. There is a chilly, remote quality to the prose, but the plot is intriguing.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta