(2) 4-6 Most of the protagonists in these nine short stories are twelve years old and bumping into the realities of human nature--their own personalities and those of the people around them. In the title story, set in 1964, Rex (from Wynne-Jones's Rex Zero novels) is on a family vacation when he tangles with bullying older teen Skip at the motel pool. Compassion dawns as Rex catches on to the teen's fear: the United States is newly at war with Vietnam, and Skip has just registered for the draft. The next hero, Ant, can't resist telling people about the names of creatures he sees hidden in their names (for instance, classmate Vera Best has the letters of the word beaver in hers) and is mystified by how something so interesting might offend them. All nine stories are told in first person, so the situations the narrators find themselves in (such as dealing with an elderly adult with dementia, or a father who has changed personality) are vividly conveyed, as the reader always understands the protagonist's perspective. The settings--or landscapes, as Wynne-Jones calls them in his lengthy afterword--are another strength. Varied, funny, and often very touching, this is a fine collection, perfect for reading aloud.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2020

(2) YA In the first half of a book echoing Dante's allegorical journey to hell, a magical-realism-threaded narrative alternates between Donovan trying to stay alive and Bee's later attempts to unravel what happened to Donovan, now unconscious and a suspect in his father's murder. The second half shifts--in tone and seemingly in genre--to a thriller. Readers will be engrossed in unraveling the mystery and piecing together events.

Reviewer: Christina L. Dobbs | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2018

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Brian Won. Secret Agent Man (codename: S.A.M.) and his mother, K. ("Short for Kay"), navigate an ordinary day, including shoe shopping, naptime, and laundry. But in young Sam's imagination, they're conducting dangerous spy missions. At times the line between imagination and reality is blurry, but Won's terrifically retro illustrations (using a Cold War palette of dusky blues and black for the spy sequences) help tremendously.

Reviewer: Norah Piehl

(1) YA A strange book was sent to Evan's father just before his sudden death. As Evan reads the book--the translated journal of a WWII Japanese soldier stranded on a mystical island with an American Marine--he experiences a sense of déjà-vu. Wynne-Jones skillfully weaves the World War II journal into Evan's story, building suspense and creating a cracking mystery. An affecting, unforgettable read.

Reviewer: Sam Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2015

(2) YA Street kid Blink happens upon a high-profile kidnapping in progress--or is it a fake? Blink's story, told in compelling second-person narration, alternates and then intersects with that of another runaway, Caution. The tale has enough suspense and action to keep readers interested while they forge a connection with the main characters, whose relationship deepens as they help each other survive.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2011

(2) 4-6 Rex's family is moving--again. It's just across town, but to a new school district. So, he concocts a scheme: he'll pretend to go to his new school but leave home early and show up at his old one. Wynne-Jones's gift for understatement, intelligent humor, and sharp characterization serves this third installment well as Rex must handle many issues of growing up.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2010

(1) YA After an affair with a professor, Mimi flees to her father's cottage in the Canadian wilderness. She finds it already inhabited by a young man, and the two soon discover they're half-siblings. A disturbing problem remains: somebody is watching the house and breaking in. Wynne-Jones has consistently raised the bar for literary thrillers, and this may be his best one yet.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2009

(1) 4-6 For Rex (Rex Zero and the End of the World), mysteries abound. Who's the woman calling his father "Liebchen" in a letter? Why is the "Nate" he finds in a mislaid address book really Natasha? What's with those pictures of black-underwear-clad women in his friend's magazines? Wynne-Jones brilliantly plays Rex's childhood world against the adult one he's just beginning to discern.

Reviewer: Vicky Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2008

(1) 4-6 At the height of the Cold War, Rex's family moves to Ottawa, where he joins a neighborhood gang tracking down an escaped panther. The present-tense narrative is brilliant in its near stream-of-consciousness depiction of Rex's world. The meticulous plotting sets the enormity of world destruction against the equally cataclysmic concerns of childhood, all magnified through the protagonist's vivid imagination.

Reviewer: Vicky Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2007

(4) K-3 Illustrated by John Shelley. "The day Mom and Dad went to pick up my new brother, I built a raft." Imaginary sailing trips help the narrator cope with his new sibling. The fact that the new brother is an adopted older child is at first pointlessly obfuscated, but once readers catch on, they'll be won over by the story. The illustrations switch between fantastical and real-life tableaux.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(2) YA After Declan, sixteen, and his little sister find the body of a housebreaker in a vacant house belonging to his family, he begins to have visions of his mother, who disappeared six years ago. In wonderfully subtle sequences, Declan slides in and out of memory, rediscovering the woman who caused the family such pain. Equal parts tricky and haunting: unambiguously memorable.

Reviewer: Vicky Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2005

(1) YA Jim Hawkins's father vanished two years ago. The loss is still unresolved, but Ruth Rose, the pastor's stepdaughter, has begun to make accusations about Father Fisher. This suspenseful story is set among the complex inhabitants of a farming community, where a pastor controls his flock with great cunning and a staunch but twisted view of his own faith. A gripping, fast-moving plot offers the pure adrenaline rush of a thriller.

Reviewer: Lauren Adams | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2001

(2) 4-6 In his third collection of tales, Wynne-Jones's seven stories plumb heaven and earth to reveal human nature with winning originality. The complexities and intricacies of families and friends are viewed, as in one story, as if through a "Pinhole Camera." Like that camera, Wynne-Jones focuses his attention "like a hole in the darkness, a hole that [leads] to somewhere bright."

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 1999

(2) YA Fifteen-year-old Stephen determines to puzzle out the meaning of his recurring nightmare--the same dream that had tormented his older brother and led to his running away four years earlier. A couple of facile scenes don't detract from the strong characterization, rich imagery, and well-crafted writing of this ultimately redemptive mystery, which explores truth, deception, and the meaning of family.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.