(3) 4-6 In fictional 1934 Harbortown, a reward for information about a kidnapping tempts both Peter (who wants to go to camp to escape his bullying brothers) and Tunie (who needs medicine for her ailing father). They sneak into a museum to find clues and discover cursed mummy Horus, who joins their investigation. The fantastical mystery's plot is compelling and its characters appealing.

Reviewer: Grace McKinney

(2) YA A collection of eighteen stories of Almond's childhood, real and imaginatively reinvented, suggests that the gritty fabulism of his fiction has roots in the rural Catholicism in which he was raised. The stories skip about chronologically, imitating the randomness of memory, but at the heart of each beats a persistent pulse. The strongest tales are those that convey the elusive succor of Catholic mysticism within the strict setting of a moral tale.

Reviewer: Grace McKinney | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2002

(1) YA Seventeen-year-old Jacob visits the family in Amsterdam that helped his grandfather during WWII. As he hears bits and pieces of a gripping story about a love affair between the young maiden, Geertrui, and an English soldier, Jacob recognizes himself in his grandparents and in the now-terminally-ill Geertrui, as well as in various companions and lovers. The reader closes the novel resolved not to prettify human choices, nor simplify them.

Reviewer: Grace McKinney | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2002

(1) YA His Dark Materials series. The conclusion to Pullman's trilogy delivers much of what was promised in the preceding cliffhangers. Most of the characters, beloved or bedeviled or both, return to continue their fateful roles in this saga. The book rollicks with a narrative gale force, and Pullman achieves effects that rival the best accomplishments of the earlier books. It will take us all a while to discern the counterpoints and overtones in this massive symphonic accomplishment.

Reviewer: Grace McKinney | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2000