(2) K-3 Illustrated by Stevie Lewis. Tapping into a source of fascination for many kids, Taylor explores the complicated, potentially messy, and sometimes gross process of eating and drinking as an astronaut on a space station--from what food choices are available and how they're prepared, to meal etiquette, to the practicalities of keeping one's food in the right place in a zero-gravity environment. Taylor's conversational tone means that asides about oddities like what happens to the trash or why it's bad to burp in space (more than just air comes back up your esophagus, oh no!) feel naturally incorporated. Lewis's digital art features crisp, energetic scenes of smiling astronauts and their meals floating through a carefully rendered space station, often focusing in on food-related details of the spacecraft such as the panel where astronauts attach food pouches for hydration. Extensive back matter includes sources, additional information on why space meals look the way they do today, further reading, and photos of real astronauts enjoying food on the International Space Station.

Reviewer: Laura Koenig | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2023

(2) K-3 Huldah, a young Black girl in Texas, just so happens to be celebrating her tenth birthday on June 19, 1865. Expecting to wake up to songs from her family, she is instead awakened by soldiers on horseback riding through the plantation. Those soldiers arrive with a gift of their own: a proclamation that all enslaved people have been freed. The women immediately begin to sew freedom flags as the elders call for a jubilee. The children gather branches to use as flagpoles, onto which the men carve intricate symbols and signs. It's quite some time before Huldah remembers that it is also her special day. To commemorate it, she takes a reflective walk into the woods and "captures a sunbeam." When she returns, she finds that the community has remembered her birthday, and she is presented with a flag of her very own. Huldah's family ends the day by rejoicing in their new liberation under the stars. Both lyrical and descriptive, Huldah's voice conveys the joy that is found in freedom. Adding to the warm brilliance of the story are Taylor's illustrations of expertly hand-sewn and quilted art pieces. With every page depicting the contributions of the newly liberated community, the scenes and stylized bodies exhibit a time-honored art. A great introduction to the federal holiday. An author's note tells more about the genesis of the book and about the art of flag making, or vexillography.

Reviewer: Eboni Njoku | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2023

(2) PS Illustrated by Anuska Allepuz. British poet Taylor sends little ones to bed with thirty imaginative poems in three thematic sets: "Night Arrives," "Shut-Your-Eyes Time," and "Dream Wheels Turning." With a mix of rhyming and free-verse poetry, along with frequent, satisfying repetition, Taylor offers selections to read aloud and read together. Each poem appears on a double-page spread featuring bold mixed-media illustrations by Allepuz. Her use of vivid color fills the space, with many shades of blue and purple, perfect for nighttime scenes. Angular animals and round children populate the pages with whimsy and purpose, giving each piece focus and specificity. Most young listeners will likely choose favorites to hear repeatedly--perhaps the reassuring "Everyone," or the thought-provoking "Asked by a Pillow," or the list-like "The Middle of the Night," or the silly "Cave Bear's Snore"--rather than experience the poetry from cover-to-cover in linear fashion.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2023

(2) 4-6 Twelve-year-old Clara Abigail Poole causes quite a scene when she hurtles across the skies of western Michigan in a plastic lawn chair attached to hundreds of balloons. After she crash-lands and is grounded by her father, Clara's stunt captures the attention of one Harold Habberdish, who arrives from Paris with a proposal: join "the most ambitious and breathtaking adventure race ever conceived," a hot-air balloon race around the world. Against her father's wishes, Clara runs away from home--and from the guilt she feels for the accident that killed her mother--and flies to Paris to join the race. Because she is so young and inexperienced, she is partnered with seasoned aeronaut Greta Gildersleeve and her monkey copilots. What ensues is a madcap tale with oddball characters, intrigue, and new friendships made. Tyng's prose is appropriately light and action-verb-driven, complete with sound effects ("Thwack! Pop! Poppity-pop!"). Beyond all the excitement, though, this is, at its heart, a father-daughter story and one about the long road--or flight--toward acceptance and forgiveness. Told with a light touch--lighter than air, you might say.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2023

(1) K-3 Part fish-out-of-water story, part ode to street art, this vibrant offering will grab readers' attention. Narrator Sam is unhappy about a family move that has traded their "fast, busy city life for a small, quiet one far away." Sam, apparently the only Black child in their new classroom, feels out of place and misses the sights and sounds of the city. Then one day Sam spies a graffitied building and is captivated: "It reminded me of home--loud and energetic." Taylor's bold comics-style illustrations provide readers with ample visuals to explore, aligning them with Sam as they take in the graffiti's images and lettering. Upon returning to see the art, however, Sam is crestfallen to discover it's been painted over. Happily, an older cousin shares other places where they can see street art: "tags in the alley, stickers on street signs, stencils on the corner, throw-ups on moving vans, murals in parking lots." They end up at an abandoned factory the town has ­permitted people to paint as they wish, with the eventual goal of transforming it into a community center. Another child invites Sam to join in, her welcome finally making Sam feel at home. Heartfelt back matter reveals the roots of Taylor's own fascination with street art.

Reviewer: Megan Dowd Lambert | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2022

(2) YA Illustrated by Kazimir Lee. This Center for Cartoon Studies Presents entry (most recently, Glynnis Fawkes's Charlotte Brontë Before Jane Eyre, rev. 11/19) spotlights the life and legacy of famed Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman. Biographical information is conveyed through sequential art and dialogue, including a fictionalized meeting with Philadelphia abolitionist William Still. The story also zooms in on Tubman's successful effort in 1854 to help her brothers escape enslavement. Rectangular panels depict mostly realistic scenes, with thick black outlines and muted, shadowy shades of pink and blue; whimsical, feather- and firework-like shapes are used to symbolize her unwavering faith and belief that God was offering her direction. Shifts in visual perspective emphasize sensory-rich, scene-setting details (mice scurrying, lanterns buzzing, trains passing, etc.). The "spells" Tubman experienced after an overseer threw a heavy weight at her forehead are illustrated, as well as the subterfuges, codes, and traditions enslaved people developed to survive and celebrate their lives despite the oppression they faced and actively fought. The people highlighted have agency and courage, with their humanity and hope centered. (At one point Tubman says, about her failed marriage, "What can you do but move forward?") With an introduction by Carole Boston Weatherford and back matter including "Panel Discussions" and source notes detailing the creative liberties taken for dramatic effect.

Reviewer: Elisa Gall | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2021

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Shirin Adl. Twenty-one pithy tales starring the pan-Muslim trickster figure Mulla Nasruddin challenge readers' perceptions. In one story, a man asks Nasruddin, standing on the opposite bank of a river, how he can cross to the other side. Nasruddin replies, "What a birdbrain...You are on the other side!" With his towering turban, expressive face, and fluffy cotton gravity-defying beard, Nasruddin will elicit giggles even as readers contemplate the puzzles he poses. Mixed-media illustrations incorporate paper, tissue, felt, yarn, sticks, beads, and more. Glos.

Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2019

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Bryan Collier. In this companion to Trombone Shorty, Troy and his friends perform in a second line, a New Orleans musical tradition. One day, Troy is so engrossed in practicing his music that he forgets the time; he wanders his Tremé neighborhood searching for his band and finding treasures in his city's unique culture. Collier's rich, vibrant watercolor collages provide an intimate vantage point of the city.

Reviewer: Monique Harris | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2018

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Michelle Polizzi. This book describes a simple deep-breathing technique to help young readers "push out" sad, mad, or worried thoughts and "feel calm." The watercolor illustrations effectively visualize the "magic breath" by using light-colored swirls to show the happy thoughts and breath, and darker, blue-toned swirls for the sad thoughts and breath ("Remember that happy thought? Use it to push out your sad thought"). Useful for sharing in mindfulness-practicing families or classrooms.

Reviewer: Bridget McCaffrey

(3) YA After his accidental death, Rhett becomes part of a team collecting the souls of the dying. But even the afterlife has its dangers: soul-devouring monsters are stalking the team, and another frightening entity is specifically targeting him. The premise of a newbie reaper learning the ropes is familiar, but the mythos and setting (aboard the Harbinger, a freighter en route to…no one knows, exactly) are original and the atmosphere spooky.

Reviewer: Katie Bircher

(3) K-3 Lonely little witch Margaret overdoes a friend-summoning spell and ends up with a whole clowder of cats. Soon, an overwhelmed Margaret runs the vacuum to "make [the cats] disappear"--but then finds herself missing her feline friends. All ends happily in a snuggly reunion scene. Understated text heightens the humor of the textured colored-pencil, gouache, and watercolor illustrations, which show a veritable whirlwind of cats wreaking havoc on Margaret's cozy cottage.

Reviewer: Katie Bircher

(2) YA Vengeful Minya is holding Sarai's (Strange the Dreamer) soul in thrall. In interspersed chapters, in another world, Nova is dealing with her own trauma. By the time Nova appears in the main narrative, readers have learned how her story fits among the puzzle pieces of the plot. Taylor's prodigious imagination is on full display: marvelous world-building, suspenseful plotting, complex characterization, finely crafted prose, and grand thematic flourishes.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2018

(3) PS Illustrated by Kasia Matyjaszek. A dark-skinned, curly-haired little girl likes to play dress-up. One day, she is a penguin. And the next day...and the next. Her family mostly indulges her fancy but grows exasperated with her commitment to penguin-hood when she slides down the stairs on her belly, is a penguin at her aunt's wedding, and tries to catch fish sticks in her "beak." A funny and preschooler-relatable romp with bright, stylized mixed-media illustrations.

Reviewer: Jeannie Coutant

(3) 4-6 Rising sixth-grader Maggie fears that best friend Abby, just back from camp, has lost interest in their elaborate make-believe games of espionage. But when Maggie and Abby discover that their pillow forts are actually connected by a magic portal, they're drawn into a dangerous worldwide pillow-fort network. Imaginative scenarios and intriguing characters round out this compelling, original adventure.

Reviewer: Renée Wheeler

(4) 4-6 Celebrate the Season series. This new series invokes the joy and warmth so often experienced at Christmastime. In Twelve Pets, a charitable animal lover brings together a little boy and the perfect dog; in Secret Snowflake, a middle-school gift exchange teaches participants how to be the best possible friend. While the series sometimes has a message-y after-school-special vibe, Christmas die-hards should still enjoy these festive stories. Review covers these Celebrate the Season titles: Secret Snowflake and The Twelve Pets of Christmas.

Reviewer: Lana Barnes

(4) 4-6 Celebrate the Season series. This new series invokes the joy and warmth so often experienced at Christmastime. In Twelve Pets, a charitable animal lover brings together a little boy and the perfect dog; in Secret Snowflake, a middle-school gift exchange teaches participants how to be the best possible friend. While the series sometimes has a message-y after-school-special vibe, Christmas die-hards should still enjoy these festive stories. Review covers these Celebrate the Season titles: Secret Snowflake and The Twelve Pets of Christmas.

Reviewer: Lana Barnes

(3) 4-6 During a six-week visit with her family to a seaside Rhode Island town with a "hidden, half-forgotten" pond, preteen Jessie takes to rafting with local girl Terri. Terri's father is abusive and her family as a whole is subject to not-always-justified suspicion. This atmospheric novel is full of well-developed characters whose lives are informed by slowly revealed secrets from the past.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(3) YA Hope and her fellow time-traveling Viators (Into the Dim) visit Gilded Age New York City. Villainous Dr. Carson attempts to trap them in the past by manipulating the era's misogyny and racism to commit Hope and Doug to an asylum. The vivid nineteenth-century setting, with all its beauty and brutality, makes a compelling backdrop for engagingly romantic story lines and thought-provoking considerations of fate.

Reviewer: Katie Bircher

(4) YA As the novel opens, sisters Emma and Henri (Henrietta) are shipwrecked off Puerto Rico with mysterious Alex. The story toggles between previous events in San Francisco--during which Emma's jealousy of dazzling yet controlling and reckless Henri leads to betrayal--and the present dangers of the isolated island. The sisters' dynamic is underdeveloped, but Emma's raw emotions are compelling in both settings.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(2) YA When the fabled city of Weep recruits the kingdom of Zosma's best minds for an undefined problem, lowly librarian Lazlo finagles a spot on the delegation. Meanwhile, "godspawn" Sarai has lived in a forified citadel over Weep ever since the gods were slaughtered for sexual violence. Taylor has spun another mesmerizing tale with captivating twists, intriguing characters, beautiful language, and baroque flourishes of the imagination.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2017