(4) 4-6 Illustrated by Preston McDaniels. Nine-year-old Véro, a French girl of Vietnamese descent, has to deal with a new city, an impatient older brother, and the absence of the family's beloved maid, Francine. The two siblings form a scheme to get Francine back, but in the meantime Véro gets into one scrape after another. The story lacks much emotional depth and is sometimes stiffly written, but Véro's troubles as a little sister ring true.

Reviewer: Anne St. John

(4) YA Despite his mother's urging to apply for college, high schooler Dain dreams of becoming a lobsterman like his late father. Conflicts with his older brother and a series of destroyed lobster traps cause Dain to reconsider his future. Although the plot's pace in this first novel is sporadic, the setting--Maine's fog-shrouded coastal waters--is strongly evoked.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(3) 4-6 In eighteenth-century Prague, fifteen-year-old Rivka is about to be betrothed, but she is frustrated by the strict parameters of life in the centuries-old Jewish ghetto. She disguises herself as a boy and leaves the enclave, reveling in the attendant freedom of movement and becoming friends with a Christian boy. The novel's strengths lie in the strong, sympathetic protagonist and the intriguing setting.

Reviewer: Amy Lois Cohn

(4) 4-6 Illustrated by Jackie Urbanovic. Fifth-grader Brendan's mother (a disc jockey who can do the hokey pokey, chicken dance, and macarena) is a colossal source of embarrassment to her son. And now she's been hired to deejay at his school's Music and Munchies Night. McDonough's story, though anticlimactic, is fast paced with likable characters. Urbanovic's cartoony spot illustrations are appropriately goofy.

Reviewer: Mark Adam

(3) 4-6 A mysterious old man gives Gib a device called an "unner," which allows the user to go back in time and undo mistakes. When his sister is hit by a truck, Gib employs the unner to prevent the accident from occurring. As Gib relives the previous day, he observes how every action has a consequence, an awareness that gives a thought-provoking philosophical edge to this accessible fantasy.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(2) 4-6 Eleven-year-old Maddie suspects her new pen pal, the oddly anachronistic Pearl, is a ghost. But it's Maddie's compulsive rituals and her correspondence with Pearl that help her cope with her mother's death three years earlier and with her beekeeping father's engagement to a gregarious librarian. Beekeeping information is smoothly integrated into the narrative and helps establish the quiet mood and rural setting.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2001

(2) YA In a novel set in a colorfully realized 1970s South, thirteen-year-old Memphis's life is one long battle with her mentally handicapped aunt Clover, and when Clover takes off one day, Memphis is blamed. As tensions rise, Memphis's grandmother reveals a longstanding resentment toward Memphis that tears apart the bonds of family obligation.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2000

(2) YA In the fall of 1944, approximately one thousand refugees from liberated Italy were brought to a refugee shelter in Oswego, New York; Bat-Ami has used this little-known camp as the basis for a thought-provoking novel. Two story lines intertwine--that of fifteen-year-old Yugoslav refugee Adam and fifteen-year-old Oswego native Christine--in a timely story that probes the refugee issue with sensitivity and depth.

Reviewer: Martha Walke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 1999

(3) 4-6 Eleanor yearns for bigger things than her North Carolina fishing village can offer, and with the encouragement of a progressive teacher, Miss Rosalie, Eleanor determines to find her "chosen path" by pursuing her education. Set against the backdrop of World War I, the story spans Eleanor's adolescence, balancing her natural romantic urges and her desire to be an "independent woman" with honesty and insight.

Reviewer: Emma Loy-Santelli

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Michael Chesworth. Emma hopes her science fair project will prove who are better, boys or girls; but when she and her partners (best friend Louise and, eventually, two male classmates) try to carry out experiments, they realize the issues are muddier than they thought. Cartoon drawings illustrate this light, funny skirmish of the sexes, which will leave readers reflecting on what it means to think and act scientifically.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Alex de Wolf. Whether twins Justin and Julie are practicing a puppet show, collecting insects, or helping Dad bake a pie, their lovable sheepdog Mop is sure to get involved. The seven humorous brief episodes, told with text and dialogue balloons in a comic-book style format, each end somewhat abruptly, but the ink and watercolor illustrations add a light note to the silly situations.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley

(3) 1-3 Illustrated by Paul Brewer. Robert fears he has no chance at winning the student achievement contest. He's in the slow reading group, he hates math, and his homework always receives the dreaded muddy pig stamp. A realistic conclusion has the A-student winning the competition, but Robert also earns an award for unmasking the Scribbler, a library book vandal. The elementary school crowd will relate to--and laugh at--Robert's mishaps. Comical illustrations complement the story.

Reviewer: Tanya D. Auger

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Pamela R. Levy. Boston in 1912 is the setting for a series of cases solved by a charming cat detective. Eileen O'Kelly deals with every type of problem from lost baseballs to murder and remains both hard-boiled as well as feminine. Although the characters are clearly human surrogates with nothing particularly catlike about them, the Boston scene is carefully drawn, and the descriptions, particularly of food and clothing, are delightful. Readable and clever, with a splendid female role model.

Reviewer: Ann A. Flowers