(2) K-3 Illustrated by Nancy Goulet. In a rush of simple rhyming text, this fast-paced board book uses a racecar metaphor to take viewers through a day driven by a baby’s needs: “Baby Driver, rise and shine! Gear up at the starting line.” Like any racecar, Baby fuels up, does a few laps (in the living room in a toy car meant to support walking), and has a “blow-out” that requires a (diaper) change. Illustrations pop with bright primary colors, black-and-white check patterns, and thick black outlines to further evoke the racetrack. Baby’s footed pajamas, ruddy cheeks, and puppy sidekick keep the day feeling snuggly in spite of its whirlwind speed. In the end, Baby Driver gets a wash (as do some toy cars and the dog) before making it to the finish line with a final “beep!” The story provides plenty of rhythm and onomatopoeia for sharing and making noise with babies who are speeding through their own daily routines. (See also Floor It by Fine, in this issue.)

Reviewer: Julie Roach | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(1) K-3 Illustrated by K-Fai Steele. Sure, Lena has buff feathers, a red comb and wattle, and the manic, beady eyes that Steele (illustrator of the Lone Wolf series, rev. 7/25, and others) is so good at ­drawing. But Lena knows she is a dinosaur. This sets her apart from the other chickens in the coop, in hilarious scenes that juxtapose her essential­ ­dinosaur-ness against her relations’ chicken-hearted natures. “Have some GUMPTION!” she clucks in disgust as the other hens cringe away from a tiny kitten; “Aim LOW and you’ll never be disappointed,” the other chickens advise her. Bailey’s (The Three Little Mittens, rev. 11/23) wry narration is paced so it practically reads itself aloud. It’s embellished by Steele’s energetic pencil and watercolor cartoons, which incorporate dialogue in speech bubbles and offer plenty of visual chuckles. When a weasel with a “magnificent set of whiskers” threatens the farm, he’s silhouetted against the sky like a B-movie villain. Of course it’s Lena, harnessing “something ancient, something primeval,” to the rescue in a comedic sequence that sends the now-whiskerless weasel running and that will have little listeners giggling. The story could end there, but it doesn’t. The young human child of the farm comes home with a book on evolution, and Lena is ­thoroughly vindicated. This makes for rather a long coda, but Steele’s light touch keeps the pages turning. A concluding note provides further scientific basis for Lena’s ­conviction and recommends two nonfiction books on the dino-bird connection.

Reviewer: Vicky Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(1) K-3 In Blackall’s earlier picture book If I Was a Horse (rev. 9/23), a child imagines life as a spirited steed; activities include giving little sister a ride to school. In this clever follow-up, a bossy kid (wearing the same blue party hat as that horse/child) confidently declares to a younger one, “If we were dogs, I’d be a big dog! And you’d be a little one!” A boisterous golden retriever then leads a small dog in a classic canine romp: tail wagging, water drinking, stick fetching, hole digging. The less-than-enthused pup reluctantly follows along as they venture out to a park to play with “millions of dogs”—but only the golden is having fun. After the little one confesses, “I don’t want to be a dog,” and shouts, “Sometimes I HAVE IDEAS TOO!” the game continues, but this time the golden is accompanied by a much happier-looking animal: “QUACK!” Audiences will enjoy going back to find sly hints in the art that a certain someone is quite fond of waterfowl. While the front endpapers contain silhouettes of many dog breeds, including the canine protagonists, the back endpapers fittingly present silhouettes of a whole variety of animals, including a golden retriever and a duck—and a horse! Blackall’s impeccably detailed, highly expressive illustrations add heart and humor to this tale about the endless paw-sibilities of pretend play—and the importance of speaking up for oneself.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(2) K-3 Translated by Laura Watkinson . Things go awry at the Dinosaur Museum on a busy Thursday at closing time—with the coat check attendant’s parakeet making the rounds. A child named Yuri is balancing precariously on the guardrail near two large dinosaur skeletons when Yuri’s fear of birds leads to a “really big catastrophe!” While the child cowers at the sight of the immense pile of collapsed dinosaur bones, the second-person narration guides readers through a breathing exercise: “But then you calmly breathe in and out two hundred and eighty-three times. It takes a while, but it really does help to blow away the worst of your worries.” It also helps that all the visitors react with kindness. Soft illustrations with detailed line work capture the great scale of the museum and its dinosaur skeletons contrasted with the museum visitors and the tiny parakeet who flits from scene to scene. Smart page compositions rely partly on the museum architecture to visually tell the story, while the text helps mollify the general fear and embarrassment mis-takes can produce. It takes all night, but by morning the museum-goers have helped put those dinosaur bones back together again, though arranged in a different way that pays homage to the parakeet’s heritage in the dinosaur world. Full of details to observe, this Swiss import manages to combine dinosaur drama with practical emotional support for persevering through embarrassing moments.

Reviewer: Julie Roach | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(2) K-3 Bear’s life as a lighthouse keeper is marked by solitude and routine; each day their chores culminate in eating breakfast (alone) and heading to the shore for a little fishing. This morning’s catch of the day, however, is a bit of a surprise, and one that lands more than a little color into Bear’s otherwise drab world. Tucked inside a rainbow-colored patchwork sail is an equally multihued fish, who immediately introduces himself as Eustace and begs not to be eaten. Bear’s deadpan response (“Of course not. I would never”) seems contradicted by their actions, which include gently placing Eustace in a pot, consulting a recipe for fish stew, and adding some lovely vegetables. But Eustace is as inventive as he is charming, and when a series of animals in need of help swings by, Eustace convinces Bear to work together to re-purpose the sail—and make friends along the way. Cho’s colored-pencil and gouache art reflects the vibrancy that Eustace’s arrival brings to Bear’s world and gives the animal characters plenty of humor and personality; the goofy grin on formerly dour Bear’s face after they don their own patchwork garment is worth the price of admission. This lighthearted story combines elements of big-fish tale with contemporary tongue-in-cheek sensibility

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(2) K-3 Illustrated by X. Fang. A young girl tells a story about a cup, a cat, and some cake. While visiting her grandma, bored Mei Mei decides to scare Mimi the cat but in doing so accidentally breaks Ama’s cup. Running outside, Mei Mei imagines Ama’s reaction: will she get mad or yell or kick her out of the house? Instead, Ama invites her in for tea, then affectionately calls the cat naughty for breaking her cup. Stricken with guilt, the girl tries very hard to eat some cake but is stopped by Mimi’s indignant stare; successive spreads show the cat’s face getting larger and larger, culminating in four horizontal panels of “CAKE! / MIMI! / CAKE! / MIMI!” She soon breaks down and confesses. Ama gives her a hug, saying, “What’s bro-ken can also be fixed,” and together they repair the cup with glue. In a final spread, Ama drinks from her cup, Mimi naps, and Mei Mei finally enjoys some cake. Digitally colored pencil drawings convey the high drama of a child’s emotions: in a rotated vertical spread, Ama looks tall as a giant when she finds her granddaughter huddled outside; when Mei Mei later admits to her mistake, she cries a river of tears. Fang’s (Dim Sum Palace, rev. 9/23) story is laced with humor; don’t miss the endpapers showing a wide-eyed Mimi knocking the mended cup off a table

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld. “Flurries hurry, floating down, / dusting, coating frozen ground. // Drifting flakes fall faster, faster, / turning things to alabaster.” These impressionistic opening lines ­accompany stark illustrations of two facing houses and the ground between them, covered in white and outlined in pencil against the watercolor blue sky. When the snow finally stops, a child emerges from each house: “YAY! HOORAY! It’s a Snow Day!” From here Ferry’s poetic text turns into a lively, rhyming instruction manual for proper fort building before an epic snowball fight ensues. (“‘Ha! Ya missed me…by A LOT!’ // It looks so easy. // But it’s not.”) In this exuberant picture book by frequent collaborators (recently The Umbrella, rev. 5/23), Lichtenheld’s spirited illustrations play effortlessly off Ferry’s verses. With the simple setting firmly established, the art focuses our attention on the characters’ expressions and activities, occasionally zooming in for dramatic effect, e.g., on the kids’ wary fac-es when one of the forts must be abandoned due to wind-blown snow. But such obstacles are no match for inspiration, which leads to sledding and then snow angels before the two content compatriots head inside for cookies and hot cocoa with marshmallows, the latter of which reminds them of one more snow creation to go back out and build before the day is finished. “YAY! HOORAY! / What a Snow Day!” indeed.

Reviewer: Cynthia K. Ritter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Federico Fabiani. “They honk their horn and start to zoom. / Baby’s on the move: Vroom vroom!” A zippy rhyming text and dynamic illustrations track this little speedster as they race through the living room on hands and knees. In blue polka-dotted pjs and a red crash helmet and with a feline “co-driver,” Baby skillfully navigates such obstacles as laundry on a ­drying rack, a carpet of “tickly grass,” an older sibling’s block tow-er, and another sibling’s yoga practice. “Engine revving, they can floor it. / Every-thing they find, explore it!” Both text and art stay focused on the turbo-charged tyke’s single-minded point of view: e.g., house plants and table and chair legs are a jungle with red plastic monkeys dangling from above. Details in the stylish mixed-media illustrations enhance the story (block-building child isn’t happy to find their tower demolished) and offer amusing roadside diversions (toy soldiers seem to direct Baby down a “straightaway”). Finally, Baby sees the finish line; with a final push, they make it: “Parked right on their parent’s knee, / Baby’s where they’re meant to be.” Don’t miss the endpapers, which feature the before (order) and after (­lived-in chaos). (See also Vroom, Baby Driver, Zoom by Alexander, in this issue.)

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(2) K-3 Beatrix treasures her weekly Saturday visits with her grandmother. Together they eat delicious treats, run errands, and go to the movies. But whenever she says goodbye, Beatrix feels sad, assuming Granny is lonely without her. The solution? A cat! Perplexed by the gift, Granny (who is allergic) accepts, not wanting to ruin her “fun grandma” reputation. She then one-ups Beatrix by adding three more kitties to the mix, assuming her grandchild is a cat lover. Beatrix (a dog person) jokes, “I think you need more cats,” which Granny takes seriously, bringing the cat total to a dozen. Now Beatrix is annoyed: the cats are so much work that they are a disruption to her visits, and she’s worried about Granny managing them all. After an honest discussion about the kitty conundrum, they host an adoption day, and Saturday visits return to normal, with just the two of them. Digitally produced, cartoon-style illustrations contain plenty of small, goofy details of the cats and their antics. With a nod to Gág’s Millions of Cats, this is an easygoing story about good intentions gone awry and about learning to say what you mean, even when you think you may hurt a loved one’s feelings.

Reviewer: Pam Yosca | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Jennifer Harney. On the eve of hibernation season, a well-meaning, if overbearing, owl attempts to coax Bear to sleep with a bedtime story. As with many a meta picture book, the action veers off from the expected: while Owl reads the calming words (“He yawned a big bear yawn. And opened his very quiet den”), the art shows what’s really going on: a band rocking out in Bear’s living room. Cartoon illustrations (done in “blood, sweat, tears, and Photoshop”) shift between peaceful wintry scenes and the rollicking inside of Bear’s domicile, complete with disco ball and party hats.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(2) K-3 This wordless picture book contains many pages and limitless potential for ­noise-making. “This book is meant to be read aloud!” quips an introduction that encourages readers to “make the sound that you see” on every page. Bold shapes and vivid colors help set the stage for noises within the amusing, smart compositions. Motion lines convey energy and indicate where sounds might generate—firing up from a horse’s hooves as they strike the ground or emanating from a balloon as a needle bursts it. Each page leads seamlessly into the next through subtle sensory connections. One double-page spread prompts readers to imagine the sound of a person bicycling down a hill. The following page conjures the sound a flat bicycle tire makes as it loses air, while the facing page shows a hissing snake. What sound might an ocean liner make, and then, what about a cow? In spite of the very different subjects, the compositions of these two pages mirror each other delightfully. Some of the visuals suggest very loud noises, while others encourage quieter sounds. The book includes everyday sounds, silly sounds, serious sounds, and sounds from an imaginary world. Each pairing offers opportunities to experiment with noise and make new and unusual connections, providing many opportunities for sharing one on one or with a group

Reviewer: Julie Roach | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(2) K-3 This offering from picture-book master-builder Graham (recently The Concrete Garden, rev. 11/23) consists of two braided stories. The first is one of urban decay and restoration: black-and-white line drawings show us Five Mile Road, a street of neglected and abandoned houses. But then, a burst of color. One small house is still in-habited and flourishing. Then, in a joyous transformation, the street comes alive. New families move in and fix up the houses. There are neighbors, children, activity, hope. What caused this explosion of energy? The second story involves the Anderson family, who lives in the one house that kept going through the hard times. In particular, we focus on the grandfather of that family. Grandad keeps treats in his pocket and stories, songs, and a kind of loopy stream-of-consciousness monologue under his hat. He charms his grandchildren and the dog. Only in the illustrations do we sense the parents’ concern. Is Grandad slipping into dementia? Possibly, but it seems as though he is nonetheless the agent of change when he finally takes off his hat and releases a starry miracle that saves the neighborhood. Once again Graham, with his genial portrayal of messy family life and his cast of button-nosed characters, celebrates the exuberant potential of community in all its incarnations

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

(3) K-3 These extraterrestrials do everything they can to delay leaving Earth. They “still have to put on their shoes” and “are busy playing a game.” When they suggest a sleepover (“It’s been soooo long since” they’ve had one), spaceships appear and beam them up. The scenario will be familiar to readers and listeners, and Gustavson’s humorous gouache, watercolor, and digital illustrations showing the mayhem the aliens cause during their stalling techniques ramp up the silliness.

Reviewer: Marva Anne Hinton

(2) K-3 Field Trip Adventures series. Illustrated by John Hare. This fourth installment of the wordless picture book series (Field Trip to the Moon, rev. 9/19, and sequels) raises stakes even higher than previous excursions by ­delving into time travel—and dinosaurs. The story begins on the title page, where a group of ­goggle-wearing students in white jumpsuits sits in a roofless, school-bus-yellow saucer as their teacher turns the dial to “PAST.” An illustration on the spread with the copyright page depicts the school group mid–time jump, completely transparent and thinly outlined in white, along with an explosive “POOF!” Once they are successfully in the past, the time machine is cleverly transformed into a long-necked sauropod-like vehicle capable of walking throughout the prehistoric landscape. The adventure truly kicks into gear after a cheeky pterosaur swipes a lunchbox from an unsuspecting ­student, resulting in their tumble from the vehicle. Curious (and hungry) dinos approach the now-stranded child, who is happy to share snacks. A humorous encounter with a greedy, pizza-chomping carnivore shifts to a moderately harrowing chase scene, but thanks to the sneaky pterosaur the endangered student is swooped back to safety. Hare’s acrylic illustrations are as colorful, playful, and effective as ever. The simple, repetitive page and panel layouts result in an easily followable, thoroughly enjoyable narrative. A notable addition to Hare’s kindhearted and captivating science-fiction picture-book series.

Reviewer: Patrick Gall | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(2) K-3 Translated by Aerin Park. Illustrated by Myungae Lee. It’s 8:15 a.m. in Seoul when a kitten “barely two weeks old” stumbles its way onto a ­car-congested bridge. Many of the commuters caught in traffic watch with bated breath and hope for the best, but nobody seems moved to action until one car brakes and its driver steps out to rescue the kitten. Crisis averted, the narrator muses, “We were all late. But it’s okay. Today was a good day to be late.” Huh’s story homes in on a mundane incident in urban life—being stuck in traffic—and dramatizes it, asking readers to be self-critical of the tendency to remain passive ­bystanders: “Why is no one helping out?” “Too heartbreaking to see. I’ll just look away.” The composition and creative abstractions of Lee’s colored-pencil and oil-pastel illustrations imbue the story with atmosphere and tension. In one spread, the high-angle perspective and the slant of the long, bold, and sharp blue lines of rain create the illusion that spears of water are attacking the cars below. Another spread is sectioned into two pages of twelve squares that the kitten crosses, its squiggly figure ­repeating across the scene in many different configurations as it leaps and crouches and dashes to avoid a barrage of rolling tires. Huh tells a simple but riveting story that is elevated by Park’s smooth translation and Lee’s expert use of visual ­storytelling techniques.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(2) K-3 Translated by Lawrence Schimel. In this comical and imaginative cautionary tale, originally published in Argentina, young Milo receives a present: RO-BO, a multipurpose robot with a propeller, a sweet smile, and one red-rimmed eye. Instantly smitten, Milo learns that his new toy can project video games, fly, and even teach “bad words.” Soon the boy is spending every moment with RO-BO, ­refusing to bathe and losing sleep. Johnson deftly employs ­comic-book-style panels, with dialogue in speech bubbles, to show the many activities they enjoy as well as Milo’s increasing exhaustion. When Milo’s concerned mom sends him outside, urging him to make (human) friends, he meets three children attempting to construct a cardboard spaceship. Milo joins them, and, with a little help from RO-BO, they soar into the cosmos on their DIY creation. Johnson fills each spread with colors that shimmer and shine, especially after the adventurers land on a friendly planet. She emphasizes warm tones and round shapes in her mixed-media illustrations, comforting readers even when things be-come perilous. Before they can return home, RO-BO needs recharging, but how? Kinetic energy saves the day. The clever ending includes a RO-BO instructional manual.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Hanna Cha. Tea begins as a plant, plucked from misty hillsides. It is transported to a teahouse, purchased, and then steeped and shared. From there, it appears in many forms: poured at a wedding, brewed for tired new parents, sipped on a quiet morning, shared with a neighbor. Khorram’s spare, rhythmic text strings together such brief declarations as “Tea is a plant,” “Tea is a ceremony,” and “Tea is a memory,” with frequent interjections of the refrain “And tea is love.” The effect is meditative and expansive, showing tea not only as a drink but also as a vessel of history, tradition, and connection. Cha’s watercolor illustrations expand on each phrase, turning words into full scenes that convey both intimacy and community. Swirls of steam drift across the spreads, linking vignette to vignette and ­making the book feel flu-id and continuous. These visual transitions give the minimal text added resonance, so the story unfolds not as a straight line but rather as a tapestry of experiences. The book’s simplicity invites young readers to consider its themes of tradition, memory, and care. An author’s note places tea in its global and historical context. Together, words and pictures create a work as warming and sustaining as the drink itself.

Reviewer: Weileen Wang | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(3) K-3 A large green blob gently guides its young charge through recognizable bedtime rituals, encouraging their “horrible little one” to go to sleep. The lilting text and soothing rhymes are appropriate for the bedtime theme, even if the specifics aren’t: “Your duvet is soft and slimy. Your pillow is lovely and damp.” The warm muted-tone illustrations heighten the humor, showing Yeti settling down in her cave, Cyborg getting plugged in, Demon taking medicine, etc. (with some creatures more familiar than others: “Unspeakable Horror?” “Sentient Meteor?” The Spanish edition, Buenas noches, asquerosa cosa viscosa, will be published October 2025.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(2) K-3 "Everything was fine -- beautiful, tidy, safe, just right" with James’s pristine mounted kite collection before his little sister, GG, started walking. When she grabs his latest addition, he gets upset. “NO, GG! BAD, GG! NEVER, GG!” This makes GG sad, but James comforts her with a hug and then works odd jobs around the neighborhood to save up enough money to buy her a kite of her own. She takes it everywhere, and all is well until she wants to fly it. “No, GG! Flying kites is DANGEROUS! It could get TANGLED, TORN or fly away FOREVER!” A dream about a fluttering kite changes his mind. They have fun flying her kite together, but it takes a toll on the toy, and James goes back to work to earn money for supplies to repair it. The duo then works on the kite together. “Everything was fine -- pretty safe, a bit untidy and, somehow, just right.” Abbott’s use of repetition makes for a calming narrative that captures the common push-pull dynamic between siblings. Her lively illustrations, “made using multimedia materials and risograph printing” and primarily in shades of blue and green with yellow accents, capture the closeness between the two children and showcase James’s industriousness. His transformation may influence readers who are resistant to change to loosen up a bit, especially where younger siblings are concerned.

Reviewer: Marva Anne Hinton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2025

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Monica Arnaldo. Cecilia, a Latine girl, juggles two jobs: kid and interpreter. Text bubbles in yellow for Spanish and blue for English differentiate the languages spoken by Cecilia's "clients" (i.e., her parents) and by those at "grown-up places," including the doctor's office and the DMV. As Cecilia dutifully translates questions, concerns, and instructions, Arnaldo's colorful watercolor and pencil-crayon illustrations elaborate on Abtahi's metaphor -- Cecilia appears to work in an office, wears an oversized suit and tie, and gulps down coffee -- while conveying, through her frizzing ponytail and rumpled jacket, the pressures of "working overtime." When Cecilia is asked about her feelings during a parent-teacher conference and admits the truth, her mother and father console her and promise to get more help. Abtahi, who took inspiration from her own multilingual childhood, strikes an important balance in her resolution: the necessity of interpreting for immigrant parents is not dismissed or shamed, while the pressure it can place on their children is addressed with empathy. After other family members step in to "pick up shifts" for Cecilia, she's able to continue helping her family while prioritizing her primary job: being a kid.

Reviewer: Ed Spicer | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2025