(2) K-3 Illustrated by Marla Frazee. Fogliano's stream-of-consciousness, one-continuous-sentence text details a parent's frustration with a recalcitrant child -- but also their mutual unconditional love. The focus shifts smoothly and expertly from the child's actions (refusing to put on a shoe, screaming, and flopping onto the floor) to the parent's loss of patience (making their "maddest face" and "being loud and yelling") to the eventual recovery of their true selves ("we are still us / (funny sweet us) / and you still love me / and i still love you"). It's Frazee's art -- in Prismacolor pencil and vinyl paint -- that makes the text into a story. She brings us two distinct characters in a warm-hued though minimalistic living-room setting, which then morphs into a dark, mostly monochromatic fantasy world where the furniture is subsumed by an ocean wave in which a shoe-seeking shark circles, a shoe is thrown off a cliff, and the depths of a desolate dump must be explored. Frazee gradually re-introduces color on the spread where the emotional storm begins to pass, to both participants' evident relief. Next comes the addition of full-color, detailed, cheerful backgrounds and the clever reveal of the occasion for which donning the shoe had been necessary in the first place: a birthday party with an inflatable bouncy house (no shoes allowed!). Throughout, both text and art portray the situation with authenticity and understanding -- and welcome flashes of humor.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2026

(3) K-3 Illustrated by London Ladd. A Black boy reflects on the powerful rituals centered around a family table where love, hope, pride, and freedom are celebrated. Painterly mixed-media illustrations -- combining acrylic paint, cut paper, and tissue paper -- capture the natural beauty of the Gullah Geechee Lowcountry. The lyrical, evocative text weaves together themes of community, belonging, and intergenerational connection with profundity, humor, and vivid, sensory language. The author’s note provides heartfelt context, honoring his childhood and the traditions that shaped him.

Reviewer: Summer Edward

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Matt Phelan. Eleven-year-old Gwen MacKinnon -- neglected, unwanted, shuttled between self-centered parents -- has been sent to stay with her great uncle Matthew near Boston. There she discovers that the town's library is named for an ancestor. "Nothing in Gwen's life had suggested there could be a building named after a MacKinnon -- they weren't that kind of family." Even more surprising, Gwen learns from the preschooler who lives upstairs that the library is home to a large clan of Lahdukan, eight-inch-tall, winged creatures who emigrated from Scotland with the original MacKinnon and have since thrived under the care of generations of MacKinnon girls initiated to be their Qalbas, or caretakers. Gwen learns that the library building is set to be remodeled, and so the Lahdukan will lose their home. With the help of a former Qalba, Matthew's grown daughter Nora, Gwen moves the MacKinnon Lahdukan to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where they join up with another clan. Gwen's role in this grand plan requires both diplomacy and physical bravery, but the rewards are great. With the help of her understanding uncle, an exemplary children's librarian, and the Lahdukan themselves, Gwen learns that she is worthy of love and respect. Birdsall's endearing fantasy features loving and lovable new friends both human and Lahdukan, with Phelan's winsome black-and-white illustrations interspersed.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2025

(1) K-3 Illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal. “When a sunbeam slips through a window in a certain slant of light, you can see a scattered sparkle: dust!” Light, airy illustrations dotted with golden specks float across the pages, lending a near-magical atmosphere to a story that starts with a mother-to-be in a child’s nursery and then travels through space and time, providing clear and fascinating scientific explanations of Saharan dust along the way. Saharan dust appears in a region adjacent to the now-dried-up Lake Chad in northern Africa and comprises fossilized animals once living in the area. With straightforward depictions in both text and illustrations, the huge plume of dust is shown visible from space (as the text notes, it weighs about the same as “one hundred and twenty million female hippos”). Particles float westward, feeding the ocean with nutrients and plankton with nourishment that is passed on to the marine animals that feed on them. When traveling over the Amazon rain-forest, the dust brings phosphorus, replenishing what’s been washed away with yearly rains. As Brockenbrough concludes, “This dust…of what lived once sustains what lives today.” An author’s note enlarges on the text and includes resources for further inquiry.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2025

(2) 4-6 Sally, aged thirteen, is a plucky heroine in the best tradition of the orphan narrative. It’s 1894 in central Oregon, and Sally has had it with being demeaned, so she heads off on a journey west to discover the sea. Lacking family, friends, and resources, she is thrown onto her own resilience and bravery. Linking up with a kindly trader woman who is traveling with a cart and donkey, Sally takes on the task of helping to deliver a small boy, a sort of Little Lord Fauntleroy figure, to his family on the coast. A loyal dog completes the cast. Along the way, as she deals with dangers and challenges, Sally comes out of her protective shell and learns to trust other people and her own strengths. The narrative style is jaunty: page two gives us “goldurn it,” and along the way we are treated to generous helpings of historical linguistic color (“varmints,” “jumpin’ jiminy,” “flapdoodle”). Some of the landscape descriptions tend toward the travelogue, but the choreography of peril and refuge is well managed as readers find themselves cheering Sally on to her happy ending.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2025

(1) YA Fifteen-year-old Somadina has always been close to her twin brother, Jayaike. He is the one person she can count on to support her in the face of anything, from prejudice to their mother’s emotional withdrawal after their beloved older sister leaves to train as a dibia, a special type of magic user with more than one gift. However, a budding romance with their shared best friend and the arrival of their own magical gifts begin to create a rift between Somadina and her twin. Suddenly, there are things she cannot share with Jayaike, whose ability seems so different from her own destructive one. Then, the worst comes to pass: Jayaike is stolen away by a sinister figure who aims to consume the twins’ power. To rescue her brother, Somadina must set out on a dangerous journey and learn to harness the magical gift she fears. Emezi draws on their Igbo heritage to craft an immersive world, bringing it to life with absorbing prose that heightens the emotional impact of Somadina's coming-of-age story. Her journey is at once physical and spiritual, her magic connecting her to the collective history and inheritance of her people as well as to the divine. A haunting and healing tale of transcendent familial bonds.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2025

(2) 4-6 In this novel set during the Great Depression, protagonist Hurricane, like the eye of the storm that raged during her birth, has a quiet center. She is shy, hesitant, and often unable to speak up among classmates and strangers. With her father killed in WWI and her mother dead from tuberculosis, Hurricane lives in the family's remote coastal home with her beloved dog and her older sister, Bronte. But when Bronte also contracts tuberculosis and must go to a sanitarium, life changes. Hurricane's great-aunt Claire swoops in from the city and takes the girl to live with her and her kind, multi-talented chauffeur/cook/housekeeper, Mr. Keats. Having married into money, Aunt Claire adopted many highfalutin ways to appease her now-deceased husband and now wants to force Hurricane into the mold of "proper" young lady -- an image far removed from the girl's freer spirit. When Mr. Keats discovers a stray cat, he and Hurricane slowly coax it into trusting them, a clear metaphor for the protagonist's gradual acceptance of her new home, an acceptance not coincidently accompanied by the realization that she can speak for herself. Fusco takes her time developing the Depression-era setting and the backgrounds of each character, giving this heartwarming novel depth and authenticity.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2025

(2) K-3 The teeny-weeny unicorn is back, just as small, just as smudgy, and just as pink as he was in his original appearance in Thew Teeny-Weeny Unicorn (rev. 1/24). His goal in life remains unchanged -- get bigger -- but this time he has a genuine fairy-tale quest to undertake. A fairy princess charges him with a task: "Find for me something that grows teeny-weeny-er than you." On his epic travels our unicorn encounters a stork (foreshadowing!), a hairy leprechaun, a fierce dragon, and a wise old tree. As with many classic heroes, after a dark night of the soul our unicorn eventually finds his answer close to home. The cover teaser promises that we will discover where baby unicorns come from, and we do, but we also find out the answers to other vital questions such as what do leprechauns say to get attention? and do unicorns blush? An irresistible read-aloud if only for the pleasure of saying "teeny-weeny-er" five times. Fine-tuned wackiness, and an original, deadpan addition to the body of literature celebrating new siblings.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2025

(2) K-3 Illustrated by E. B. Goodale. Throughout the year, a child collects various objects from nature, finding comfort and creative inspiration in them. This endearing account begins in winter when the protagonist collects rocks. Deftly employing a second-person narration ("You can do a lot with a pocket full of rocks"), Mahoney introduces a pattern she follows throughout the book. The kid's parents and sister express skepticism, but the youngster pays them no mind. After all, these stones make perfect chairs for the fairies living in the child's imagination. In the ensuing sequences, the child pockets flower petals in spring, shells in summer, and acorns in autumn. The story has an effective cumulative quality to it as the protagonist places the objects into a jar at the end of each season. Mahoney carries the narrative to a satisfying resolution when the young one repurposes the finds as special gifts for each family member. Goodale's striking mixed-media illustrations perfectly convey the child's curiosity about worlds both natural and fantastical, as well as evoking the essence of each season. In a playful touch, Goodale often gives readers a see-through view inside pockets. A quiet yet vibrant celebration of nature, art, imagination, and individuality.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2025

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon. In a familial tradition of selecting Kente for children, a young narrator and family travel to pick one for the protagonist's baby brother, Jojo. Along the way, Daddy entertains the family with the familiar story of how Kente began through the folklore of Ananse the spider. Mensah's poetic text imbues the older sibling's process of looking for Jojo's Kente with love for both Jojo and the tradition, as they first admire the Kente on the wall of a shop ("This is the home of Kente, where the first were made for kings") and then approach a weaver to create a new one: "something special. Something beautiful. Something...that sparkles and shines, just like Jojo." The narrator himself is inspired by the rainbow to try to weave Nyankonton, "the story of God's eyebrows." Holding up the finished work (including a mistake, which makes it "even more special"), the weaver says, "Nyankonton means he will be beautiful, unique, and have great luck." Mensah's vivid storytelling is as inviting as Zunon's colorful illustrations, which were made using acrylic and oil paint and cut-paper collage and intricately convey the rich texture of the cloth and the meticulous weaving process. Together, they have created a fascinating introduction to this reverent aspect of Ghanaian culture. Back matter provides additional information about Kente, including its history, colors, and patterns.

Reviewer: Pauletta Brown Bracy | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2025

(3) YA Four thirteen-year-olds and their families spend LGBTQ+-friendly Provincetown, Massachusetts’s, Family Week together as they always have, but everyone involved is processing change, ranging from crushes to school transitions to divorce. A welcome, entertaining ensemble-cast novel that treats queer identity and fluid sexuality as givens while portraying adolescent concerns likely to be relatable to many readers.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Vesper Stamper. A boy in Isfahan, Iran, learns how to design and make a rug with his grandmother. The new rug will replace the old frayed one in the main room of the house, which the boy’s grandmother made with her grandmother. The young narrator learns about rug-making, from shearing sheep to carding and spinning wool, dying yarn, and drafting a design from local design motifs of personal significance. Though the boy fixates on the idea of perfection and wants to make “the best rug in the world,” his grandmother gently suggests that the flaws are what make the rug beautiful. Depictions of Persian rugs are central to the soft-hued watercolor illustrations: a colorful, intricately designed rug is shown in use on the floor, while the new rug is shown on the loom, contrasting the beauty and usefulness of the finished product with the painstaking method of creating it. In this tender story, creating a rug becomes not just a moment when traditions can be passed down from one generation to the next but also an example of the beauty of the process and of the importance of family relationships. An author’s note gives more information on Persian and Middle Eastern rug-making

Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(2) 1-3 Earl & Worm series. In the first of three episodic chapters in this series debut, Worm is irritated by her new neighbor, Earl, a bird. “Why is he up so early? And why is he smiling like that?” Throughout the interactions that follow, language and design are pitched to children almost ready to leap into longer chapter books: multiple short sentences per page, everyday words, ample repetition, and a readable typeface. The art is a friendly and sophisticated blend of Roy Lichtenstein and Richard Scarry with pastel shades of blue, green, orange, and yellow. Pizzoli generates humor with straightforward sentences that make bold statements (“It was not sweet. It was bitter. So was Worm”) and emphasize Earl’s obliviousness (“I love to talk. I can talk for both of us. You can just listen”). Words appear in different contexts to keep repetition from feeling overly tedious. The words sugar, sweet, and lemon all appear in the first and third stories, for instance, but in the first story they’re around Earl making lemonade, and in the third story, around Worm trying to write a poem. Like Willems’s Elephant and Piggie and Lobel’s Frog and Toad series, this provides solid reading practice in a package that kids and families will read for the love of story.

Reviewer: Adrienne L. Pettinelli | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2025

(3) 1-3 Earl & Worm series. As in the first two books, three interconnected episodic stories are pitched perfectly to newly independent readers. Worm heads out to wish bird Earl a happy birthday, but snow and ice--and Earl’s sleeping in--frustrate her efforts. Earl gets up eventually; once Worm wakes up from her nap (she wore herself out shoveling, deicing, and waiting), she and Earl take selfies with Earl’s present. Finally, Worm works herself up worrying about Earl’s candle-blowing-out secret wish (“Does Earl want...a new best friend?”). The expressive cartoon illustrations convey emotion and add to the humor of the friendly text.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(1) YA This final volume of the Book of Dust trilogy (La Belle Sauvage, rev. 1/18; The Secret Commonwealth, rev. 11/19) has the same expansive scope, capacious imagination, energetic thinking, and momentum as Pullman’s earlier trilogy set in this world, His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass, rev. 7/96, and sequels). Still separated, Lyra, now twenty, and her dæmon, Pan, each make their hazardous way eastward toward the desert of Karamakan—Pan in quest of Lyra’s lost imagination; Lyra in search of Pan and the “red building” with its potent roses, which she’s sure hold the answer to her deepest questions. Malcolm Polstead searches for Lyra; the sulky, hapless Olivier Bonneville pursues her to seize her alethiometer. The increasingly authoritarian and militarized religious Magisterium terrorizes people; a corporate entity creeps in everywhere like a pestilence; the beings of the “secret commonwealth” make an alliance. Questions of imagination, consciousness, and how we find meaning, see patterns, make connections and, in turn, express them are fundamental to plot and character and exciting to boot. Pullman deepens characters who have already enriched readers’ hearts and minds, showing the growing complexity that Lyra and Malcolm’s past traumatic, passionate experiences have given them as they mature and revise earlier certainties. Pullman is a consummate storyteller, determined in his prose, sure of his destination, forthright with the unsettling implications. A timely and highly welcome achievement.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2026

(1) 4-6 Impossible Creatures series. Illustrated by Ashley Mackenzie. When Christopher Forrester returns to the Glimouria Archipelago, conditions could not be more dire: the ancient, wise dragons are dying, and the dragon Sarkany, on whose back Christopher flew in Impossible Creatures (rev. 9/24), has sent for his help. For Anya, Princess of the Island of Dousha, the tragedy is more immediate: her grandfather the king has been poisoned, her dear father has been accused of the murder, and her uncle Claude's soldiers have been ordered to kill her and make her death look natural. Christopher rescues her, and although their quests turn out to be connected, their troubles seem nearly insurmountable. Into a story rife with mythical beings -- including sphinxes, unicorns, manticores, and crow-like gaganas that are Anya's devoted companions; all rendered in the illustrations with Art Nouveau-esque flair -- Rundell drops passages of almost crystalline beauty. Her strengths in relating her characters' inner lives engage reader sympathies in an iron clasp. Star-crossed lovers the Berserker Nighthand and nereid scientist Irian return, making an unexpected but apt contribution at the wrenchingly emotional climax. Rundell's ability to render the nobility and pathos of the human experience will take readers on a profoundly affecting journey that they will remember long after the book is closed.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(2) 4-6 In this third installment of the graphic novel series (Picture Day, rev. 9/23; Tryouts, rev. 7/24), wallflower Milo Castillo steps into the spotlight. Unlike the rest of his family and his dear abuela Dalia (who has recently moved in with them), Milo hates dancing; he believes he is cursed after a series of dance-related disasters. To help Milo prepare for his school's winter formal, Dalia takes him to a weekly Tejano social dance night, where he begins to relax and enjoy himself. But even though Dalia isn't allowed to drive her beloved convertible without Milo's parents present, she takes her car to the dance nights and asks Milo not to tell. A frightening accident reveals the stressful secret and forces Milo to assert himself and confront the discomfort of being stuck between his parents and his grandmother. The story blends a heartfelt, realistic look at intergenerational bonds and middle-school life with some slapstick humor, as Milo's best friends, Viv (who is managing a crush) and Al (who yearns for snow through a dry winter), offer comic relief and genuine support. The graphic-novel format is effectively utilized, with bold, energetic line work; rich, jewel-toned colors; and well-paced visual spreads. Broader themes of identity development and self-trust are ever-present without being too heavy-handed. By the time the school's Snowball Soiree arrives, Milo's confidence has grown, and he is ready to move proudly to his own beat.

Reviewer: Elisa Gall | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2025

(2) YA Stroud has much to wrap up in this third (seemingly final) volume of the exploits of fearsome Scarlett McCain and disheveled, telepathically gifted Albert Browne. In the dystopic, hostile landscape of postapocalyptic Britain, they and their company now have a double mission: to liberate banks of their funds and to free enslaved people and those about to be sold into slavery. Scarlett and Albert pursue personal quests as well: Albert wants to find his former prison and learn its secrets; Scarlett searches for her younger brother, lost to slavers years ago—and all this in the context of a terrorizing force even greater than the pair’s former enemy, the repressive Faith Houses. Now, it’s a group arming itself with weapons unearthed from deep within the ravaged land, “weapons that destroy everything they touch.” Stroud offers much activity and incident; dangerous, malicious terrain; risky schemes with explosive outcomes -- in short, there’s barely a moment to stop and ponder. But even within the pressure of action, description, and bringing many threads together, Stroud’s vivacity of phrasing has lost none of its verve. “Her pale face hung beneath her hat like a moon of vengeance in a blood-soaked sky,” he writes in one of many unforgettable descriptive moments.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2025

(3) PS Illustrated by Cat Min. Bear floats through the sky in a hot air balloon, waving to his friends and refusing their invitations to climb, snack, and swim with them. But Bear has a secret: he doesn’t know how to get down. His brave (literal) cry for help brings the other animals to his aid, and he finally enjoys a cozy evening by the fire. The watercolor, colored-pencil, and digital spreads are lovely; the text gently delivers an essential lesson.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Kerns

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Lynnor Bontigao. For many children, the afterschool hours are anything but relaxing, "because now there is homework. Or a piano lesson. Or dance class." Detlefsen and Bontigao effectively portray this frenetic time between school dismissal and bedtime in an enjoyable picture book featuring a biracial family. The dad, who may be a stay-at-home parent, oversees the three young children's activities. Mom is in the military and joins her family via a video call in the evening, during which the kids experience the "pang of missing someone who feels too far away." While the children may be "exhausted...or in a mood" at day's end, there are also moments of lightheartedness. Dad and the kids enjoy taking a walk at twilight, telling knock-knock jokes, and eating bread fresh from the oven. Mom's return home makes the family complete but doesn't put an end to the chaos. Bontigao's expressive digitally rendered illustrations capture the havoc surrounding the family (e.g., the dog eats a child's homework, a vase is knocked off a table and shatters), while the text's soothing rhythm makes for a fine bedtime story.

Reviewer: Marva Anne Hinton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024