(2) K-3 Illustrated by Paola Escobar. This tribute to The Velveteen Rabbit and the life of its author, Margery Williams (1881–1944), celebrates the benefits of dramatic play while exploring the intriguing connection between reality and imagination. Beginning with Williams's childhood, which was full of art, story, and creativity, the book shows how her imagination provided comfort during times of painful loss and disruptive change, including the premature death of her father and the upheaval of World War I. The soft-hued digital art is full of charming details, with ethereal linework and elements of collage that characterize Williams's playful spirit while showcasing her paper toy creations. Quotes from The Velveteen Rabbit punctuate poignant moments and form connections between Williams's life and her famous story. Emphasizing how she channeled her imagination to bring her work to life, the book posits the central question from The Velveteen Rabbit of what it means to be "real." Back matter includes an author's note with more details about Williams, a bibliography, and a thorough list of "Social Emotional Activities to Share with Your Toy." A warm and gentle look at a creator's life that provides an engaging extension for fans of The Velveteen Rabbit or for those preparing to experience it for the first time.

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

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Gordon C. James. Few writers have commanded the English language like James Baldwin (1924-1987). As a child in Harlem, Jimmy was expected to care for his eight siblings while his mother did domestic work. He endured a domineering stepfather, bullying, racism, and police violence. All the while, he escaped through the world of words and books. He eventually moved to France, where he used his pen to reconcile his experiences as a Black man in the United States. The result was his first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, which sparked a successful literary career. Harris lyrically narrates Baldwin's childhood and his pathway to becoming a published author, highlighting how reading captivated him at a young age ("in the library, Jimmy could hear the books singing to him") and capturing the essence of a man whose literature still resonates today. James's oil on board illustrations are resplendent in rich jewel tones, with double-page spreads that are at times reminiscent of impressionist paintings. The delight of the library stacks, the fervor of Sunday service, the solitude on a hill in Central Park are all lavishly rendered. This is a beautiful tribute to Baldwin and the book that ignited his career. Back matter includes more information about Baldwin and a list of select sources, along with author and illustrator notes. Pair with Meadows and Law's Jimmy's Rhythm and Blues: The Extraordinary Life of James Baldwin (rev. 3/24).

Reviewer: Monique Harris | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2025

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Jessica Love. Novesky provides a snapshot of Plath (1932–1963) inspired by her poems and letters about her brief experience with beekeeping. The text moves through the seasons, beginning and ending with spring, in spare, graceful free-verse poems with hints of rhyme and steady internal rhythm and occasionally incorporating (in italics) Plath's own words and phrases: "It is the golden season. / Everything glowing as if lit from within. / The poet can glow and burn, / as if lit from within, too." Practical details about beekeeping are integrated, such as proper garb, how to check a hive and frame, getting stung, pollination, and the production of honey. Love's watercolor illustrations depict Plath (and her braided "crown" of hair) caring for bees and writing poetry as well as the landscape, flowers, and vegetation and many bees up close and in swirls and swarms. The tension between Plath's melancholic moods and lyrical poetry and the hopeful, careful process of beekeeping is captured beautifully here. In the endnote, Novesky provides a brief biographical sketch of Plath and explains her motivation for this story: she wanted readers (who may here be encountering Plath for the first time) to know that the poet was "so much more than her legendary death."

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2025

(1) 4-6 Illustrated by Daniel Minter. Toni Morrison (1931-2019), a gifted student, was the only Black girl in her Lorain, Ohio, first-grade class. She grew up to be a trailblazing book editor and a Pulitzer- and Nobel Prize-winning author who stands as a giant in the pantheon of literary greats, all while navigating the world as a Black woman. Pinkney honors her legacy with a sophisticated narrative ode in verse. Weaving biographical moments together with exaltation and admiration ("Oh, Toni Morrison, / you liberate all of us. / You -- let us breathe"), Pinkney conveys not only a life dedicated to the artistry of the written word but also the woman behind the pen. Minter, who uses mixed media that includes hand-painting, acrylic, and digital techniques, says in an appended note that he framed the work as a "praise poem." The art is awash in saturated tones and bold, almost oversized renderings of Morrison that become transcendent with the intricate white lines that are meticulously included on every page. Each spread is full of beauty, depth, and movement honoring one whose life's work amounts to a love letter to Black people. Back matter includes statements from the author and artist, biographical timelines, and a list of Morrison's selected works. Pair with Weatherford and Thompson's A Crown of Stories: The Life and Language of Beloved Writer Toni Morrison (rev. 5/24).

Reviewer: Monique Harris | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2025

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Brooke Boynton-Hughes. Winding through thirty-two pages of enchanting illustrations, one long sentence with a “once upon a time” feel deftly takes readers through the life story of Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875). Each word must earn its place to make this construction work: “He was a boy who lived with a mother who could not read, but remembered every fairy tale she’d been told…” The text juxtaposes the in-congruences of Andersen’s life: someone who cannot write as a child but wants to be a poet; later, a beloved author who is personally lonely. The soft watercolor, graphite, and pen-and-ink illustrations capitalize on these contrasts by bringing out details that invoke emotional response -- a lanky teenage Andersen crouching at a child-size desk among very young children while learning to read is comical, heartrending, and hopeful all at once. The illustrations are especially effective when they incorporate Andersen’s own fairy tales, whether through small visual references or more fully realized scenes springing from his work or daydreams. For those just starting to learn about Andersen’s stories and life, the details included are engaging, and the text leaves enough that is open-ended to encourage further exploration. Yolen’s long poetic sentence ultimately ends in tribute: “Hans Christian ­Andersen -- your own story more like a fairy tale than a life.” Back matter includes an extended biographical note and suggested additional reading.

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

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Mercè López. This collection features twenty poems about real-life mistakes each of the poets made in childhood. The contributors include Linda Sue Park, Matt Forrest Esenwine, Lacresha Berry, Jaime Adoff, Margarita Engle, Vikram Madan, and Naomi Shihab Nye, along with thirteen others; the poems are organized into four categories: "Oopsie-Daisy!" "Stuff Happens," "Blessings in Disguise," and "What Have I Done?" The wide range of moments captured include scoring a soccer goal for the wrong team, publicly mispronouncing a word, succumbing to peer pressure, skipping school, spreading gossip, hurting someone's feelings -- many relatable experiences. Each poem is accompanied by a prose paragraph by the poet describing the consequences of their mistake and what they learned. The poems themselves are narrative snapshots, sometimes rhyming, often in free verse, and rich in emotion and introspection. Illustrator López creates entire, emotive scenes with expressive faces, poses, and repeating motifs in the mixed-media art

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2025

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Sophie Blackall. In this first-person novel in verse, Burg (Serafina's Promise, rev. 9/13) imagines the life of the groundbreaking environmentalist from age eleven through adulthood. Rachel possesses a heightened awareness of nature and makes close observation of the plants, birds, and animals in the surrounding fields and woods. When a teacher praises her writing, she vows to become a writer of fiction. Many obstacles thwart her success, including multiple family crises, so she shifts her career ambitions to studying science. While the limitations on women in the field keep her from capitalizing on all the skills and scientific knowledge she acquires, she is persistent and publishes articles, pamphlets, letters, reports, and books -- laying the foundation for a global movement of environmental awareness and action. Burg's lyrical language keeps the focus on Carson's love of nature and raises many questions that prompt the reader to think critically; e.g., "Why is science considered / the realm of men? / Are we not all people?" and "When will man realize that he / is a part of nature, not its master?" Along with interspersed "Field Notes," Blackall's occasional black-and-white illustrations of plants and animals aptly suggest a kind of nature journal.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2024

(2) 4-6 K is a bourgeois school boy in what appears to be late-nineteenth-century Bohemia. He is frail, anxious, and lonely, isolated at home, withdrawn at school. In each of five graphic short stories, Clement presents a situation of powerlessness, oppression, or ennui in which K encounters a small moment of grace. An errand to buy a carp turns into a nightmare of chaos and alienation, but when K finally makes it back home, pursued by angry townspeople, his mother stands up for him. Faced with the cruel, absurdist bureaucracy of his school, K is comforted by a helpful beetle who advises him to write about it all one day. Based loosely on the life and work of Franz Kafka, this volume makes adept use of the graphic format, as everything from the pace of the panels to the size of the type effectively conveys the feeling of being small, quiet, and timid in a world that can be giant, loud, and aggressive. This isn't parody, pastiche, or melodrama but rather a sympathetic and respectful portrait of the condition of being a child, a condition as familiar now as then. Pair with Theule's Kafka and the Doll for an introduction to a sad boy who became one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2024

(2) Illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon. This lively picture-book biography introduces readers to "one of America's first bird photographers," whose early-twentieth-century books about the natural world have inspired generations of conservationists and birders. Unconventional for her time, Stratton-Porter (1863–1924) develops her fascination with birds and their behaviors during a carefree childhood in rural Indiana. As a "grown-up married lady," she writes about her birding experiences but declines to be published when she learns her words would be accompanied by unlifelike drawings of birds "posed in silly positions." Photography changes everything for Stratton-Porter, and she embarks on a five-year project in the Limberlost Swamp near her home, photographing birds in their natural habitat (including "the world's first photo series of a growing vulture chick"). Esbaum's (Jack Knight's Brave Flight, rev. 5/22) conversational text engagingly conveys her subject's single-minded pursuit of her passion: sharing her love of birds with the world. Gibbon's (illustrator of Marjory Saves the Everglades, rev. 3/21) evocative acrylic-ink and colored-pencil illustrations depict the era and the beauty of the environs. Back matter includes more about Stratton-Porter and her influence; two photos of the subject and one of her photographs of a barn owl; a bibliography; and a list of Stratton-Porter's own books.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2024

(2) YA In this ambitious tandem biography of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, we are presented with two approaches to the lives and friendship of these noted writers. A straightforward linear biography, accompanied by copious illustrations, places the men in their historical contexts using dense and sophisticated prose. ("Militarism, intertwined alliances, and a misplaced nationalism fomented a desire for adventure on the field of battle.") A second route through the book involves two guides, a cartoon lion and wizard, who begin by leading us, in meandering graphic-format style, through the wide-ranging subject of mythology (the book ends with a similar examination of fairy tales) and later take their turn carrying the biographical material. In the individual life stories, Hendrix chooses well-worn through lines: Lewis's movement from atheism to Christian belief and Tolkien's struggle to be taken seriously as a writer of fantasy. It is, however, the story of platonic male friendship between "Jack" and "Tollers" that packs the biggest emotional punch. Hendrix captures, in this portrait of a meeting of minds, the particular joys of their friendship, its intensity, and its tragic unraveling. What went wrong? Professional jealousy? The inevitability of touchy writerly egos? Lewis's marriage? Readers are left to wander back through the pages, or consult other sources suggested in the exhaustive scholarly back matter (including extensive source notes, a glossary, a bibliography, and an index), to draw their own conclusions.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2024

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Becca Stadtlander. From the Brooklyn hotel room in which she was born to the Maine coast where she spent many years, Barbara Cooney (1917–2000) sought color and light, which Kunkel adopts as her leitmotif. Cooney's merchant father's fondness for "numbers ticking steadily away in black and white" is contrasted with her artist mother's encouragement to create, and with the vibrancy and freedom of Maine, where the family summered. Working as an illustrator, Cooney was initially confined to black and white, dutifully plying the scratchboard "because there [were] houses to heat and children to feed." Taking her subject's simplicity of prose as a model, Kunkel does not name Cooney's oeuvre, instead matter-of-factly folding in references to it. In one spread Cooney is transfixed by the beauty of a rooster; in the next, she creates illustrations for what readers may recognize as the Caldecott-winning Chanticleer and the Fox. Liberated by its "huge success," Cooney traveled widely, Miss Rumphius–like, "soaking up sun, and color, and light" and eventually settling in Maine. Directly echoing Miss Rumphius, Kunkel tells readers that "there [was] still one thing [Cooney] must do": raise money to build a new library in her adopted hometown. Working in gouache, Stadtlander emulates the illustrator's flat, folk art esque style, her palette and compositions harmonizing with Cooney's. Her penultimate spread depicts an adult reading Miss Rumphius to a child, making the connection between author and creation in quiet affirmation of the titular "world more beautiful." Appended with an author's note, a brief bibliography, and an afterword by Cooney's daughter.

Reviewer: Vicky Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2024

(2) 4-6 Though others may call it "an accident...I know the word for someone who goes to science class to dissect earthworms and gets sliced in the forehead by an earthworm-juice-encrusted blade and has to get two stitches: CURSED." Middle-school protagonist Hannah Lee relates in her journal all the things that have gone supernaturally wrong or been left unexplained over the course of eight days when she is "hexed by ancient evil." Her nose keeps bleeding, her front tooth falls out (the dentist finds silverfish in her gums, shudder), her brother falls into a coma. She records each occurrence in her diary...and the malevolent spirit begins to write back. Lai's (Ghost Book, rev. 9/23) visual style -- incorporating copious, plot-furthering illustrations within the main text -- is here displayed on spiral notebook looking lined pages with spiky, sketchlike art ("by" Hannah), mostly black and white with some splotches of blood red, capturing the increasingly weird, and sometimes genuinely frightening, goings-on. Allusions to the power of storytelling and an impending author's visit are threaded throughout, both used as foreshadowing to an attention-grabbingly eerie ending.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2024

(1) 4-6 Illustrated by Jamiel Law. In this picture-book biography, Meadows's expressive free verse beautifully contributes to an engaging narrative about Baldwin's (1924–1987) literary prowess and staunch activism, making his story accessible to young readers. She traces the future author's childhood in Harlem and the solace he found in writing; his time as a young preacher; and his decision to leave preaching and pursue writing "to capture / the voice of his ancestors, stand up for oppressed people, / and push the world to change." Following a devastating rejection of his first attempt at a novel, Baldwin (who was Black and gay) moves to Paris to escape the discrimination so prevalent in America, falls in love with Swiss painter Lucien Happersberger, and finishes his novel Go Tell It on the Mountain. Meadows emphasizes Baldwin's persistence and also relates how he became active in the civil rights movement, lending his eloquent voice to the struggle, championing justice and equality for Black people back home. Law's digitally created illustrations in striking double-page spreads powerfully evoke the subject. An author's note, a list of Baldwin's oeuvre, a timeline, and selected sources are appended.

Reviewer: Pauletta Brown Bracy | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Sarah Green. Sydney Taylor (1904–1978), born Sarah Brenner, was the author of the All-of-a-Kind Family novels, known as the first Jewish children's books to be popular with a mainstream audience. Here, Michelson (a recipient of Taylor's eponymous award for As Good as Anybody and The Language of Angels) tells a portion of her story in a lighthearted picture-book biography. Much of the book focuses on the Lower East Side childhood on which Taylor's novels were based; it also touches on her socialist activism, her work as a dancer, and her marriage to Ralph Taylor. An emphasis throughout on her interest in books and writing culminates in the "happily ever after ending" of her first book's publication. The third-person present-tense narration focuses tightly on Taylor's internal life and, along with occasional dialogue, lends an immediate feel; an appended note acknowledges that much of that dialogue is invented, "but the thoughts, if not the exact words, are all taken from Syd's writings or [her daughter] Jo's recollections." Green's cool-hued digital gouache illustrations alternate straightforward scenes and spreads filled with vignettes highlighting aspects of Taylor's life. This introduction, mostly cheerful in focus and tone, provides useful context for her novels (Cummins and Dunietz's adult biography From Sarah to Sydney, rev. 7/21, paints a more complete picture). Back matter gives brief additional information about Taylor and her husband and daughter as well as a bibliography.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024

(2) 4-6 It's 1881 in Destiny, Colorado. Fourteen-year-old Henry Upton and his three younger brothers have just buried their father. Their mother passed away several years earlier, and now they must manage the homestead by themselves. Henry comes up with a plan to help them get by: he writes stories and sends them east to be published. These stories feature The Kid, a young hometown hero who thwarts a variety of evildoers; they are the product of Henry's imagination, but he has passed them off as true stories -- and they are successful beyond his wildest imagination. Indeed, his editor, Herbert ("pronounced air-bear. It's French"), heads west to encourage him to write even more. Also headed west is Snake-Eye Sam, a would-be-notorious criminal who is newly escaped from an Arkansas prison and headed to Destiny for his own rendezvous with The Kid. Their narrative strands are interwoven with Henry's main narrative and the occasional story about The Kid (in a typewriter-esque font). Henry and company ultimately prevail--for real, this time--but not without lots of adventure, dollops of humor, and a little bit of heart. There aren't too many Westerns written for middle-grade and middle-school readers nowadays, but Schill's debut is an entertaining genre entry.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2024

(1) K-3 In this fitting homage to beloved Finnish author Tove Jansson, a girl named Tove travels to a rustic island with her family, as they do every summer. The next morning she rises as "the stars were beginning to yawn, but the sun was still asleep" and strides confidently out the door looking for things to do. Tove's red boots signal adventure, and her yellow hair stands out against the dramatic and ominous-looking sea and sky, a beacon of light in the darkness. She visits a grotto to see her secret friend, a squat, hairy creature with a pointy nose. She takes his five birdlike and mischievous daughters for a walk, but a gust of wind blows them away, "shouting and giggling." Eventually, she finds the tiny girls; a ferocious storm sends her running back to the grotto, the creatures cupped in her hands to keep them dry. Then Tove heads home -- "What a fortifying thing to see light beaming from the windows and cheerful smoke coming from the chimney!" A luminous double-page spread shows her wrapped in her mother's arms, and as she tucks into a plate of hot pancakes, she thinks what it would be like "never getting soaked to the bone and then getting dry again...How dreadful!" This pairing of a strange escapade in the wild with a warm and a cozy welcome home epitomizes the appeal of Jansson's Moomin books; Moomin fans of all ages will especially enjoy this tale. Appended with a biographical note about Jansson.

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

(1) K-3 Illustrated by Khalif Tahir Thompson. In an expressive second-person text addressed to her subject, Weatherford celebrates the life and legacy of the esteemed novelist, professor, and Nobel Laureate. Born Chloe Ardelia Wofford in Lorain, Ohio, Morrison (1931–2019) falls under the "spell of the spoken word" at an early age. Weatherford emphasizes Morrison's trailblazing firsts (first in her family to attend college, first Black senior editor in publishing, first Black woman Nobel Laureate), beginning with first grade: she is the only Black girl in her class, and "the only one who can read. All by yourself." The act of listening is an organizing theme: listening to music and stories as a girl, "to your surroundings," "to your heart," to students and colleagues, to "overlooked and underrepresented" Black voices. When she moves to Washington, DC, to attend Howard University, Morrison becomes even more keenly aware of pervasive racial injustice, heeding "the call to conscience...vowing to write about and for Black people." Thompson's stunning artwork, rendered in "acrylic, oil paint, collage, handmade paper, and stencils on canvas board," has a dignity that reflects Morrison's stature in the literary world. The varied compositions are alive with texture and color, and a regal portrait of Morrison in the role of Queen Elizabeth I for a college theater production is especially powerful. Both the reverent art and the text provide an intimate glimpse into Morrison's remarkable life story. An author's note, a detailed timeline, and a bibliography are appended.

Reviewer: Pauletta Brown Bracy | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2024

(1) 4-6 It's summer, and ten-year-old Jojo and her three sisters have to entertain themselves because their romance-novel writer mom has a book due ("Mom on deadline was not nearly as fun as Mom not on deadline"). Banished outside, with their new friend, Theo, they make the most of their books, art supplies, and snacks. Things get more interesting, however, when a fairy turns up. Roland, "small and greenish and personlike," is demanding and very grubby. The story turns off-kilter and cheeky as we realize that Roland and his world are simultaneously real and a product of Jojo's storytelling imagination. (There's also an authorial voice that breaks through occasionally.) Cue trouble in fairyland and kids to the rescue. Bouwman pulls off this energetic slipperiness with such confidence and brio that we almost don't notice that the underlying story is one of bereavement, as the girls are coping with the death of their grandmother. The writing is a complete delight of originality and specificity: "It was an odd kind of flapping, not the sound that bird wings make in our world, but the sound that wings without flesh or feathers might make--sort of like twigs swooshing quickly through the air. But more creaky, like wicker." Reliably funny, never once twee, clever in the way of kids and fairies, and authentically moving.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2023

(2) 4-6 Sixth grader Amelia MacGuffin is a worrier. As the eldest of five siblings, she worries about everything from changing the part in her hair to the MacGuffin family's tight finances. So when the mythically lucky wooden staff that is the centerpiece of the annual Dragonfly Day Festival goes missing from Urchin Beach's town square, Amelia decides to channel her worry into finding the thief. Her investigation is hampered by the unexpected arrival of a lost dog in her backyard, a flood that threatens both the festival and the delicate ecosystem that supports the native dragonflies, and the sheer number of possible suspects. With the help of a local mystery author, a trusted librarian, and her own common sense, Amelia surprises herself by solving the crime. But bringing the (beloved and well-known) criminal to justice will prove to be a much harder task. This charming small-town mystery romp will appeal to a wide range of junior detectives, especially those who are also invested in issues of climate change and environmental preservation. Amelia's close-knit beach community of family, friends, and neighbors forms a relatable cast of secondary characters who provide both support and comic relief. Fans of Yan Glaser's resourceful Vanderbeeker clan and Pennypacker's problem-solving protagonists will be delighted that the ending suggests this is just the first of Amelia's adventures.

Reviewer: Jennifer Hubert Swan | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(2) K-3 "Julia Elizabeth Wells was born into a melody--her childhood attuned to the timbre of the tiny English village where she heard music in the rhythm of the river, in the whistle of the wind, in the symphony of songbirds." This lyrical picture-book biography focuses on the challenges and successes of Andrews's early life. When her concert-pianist mother remarried and moved to London during WWII, Julie was summoned to join her and had a difficult time adjusting to life in a large city under constant threat of bombs. But her stepfather, also a musician, discovered her gift of a voice, paid for singing lessons, and promoted her career. Julie became successful so quickly that she performed for the queen while still a child. The book concludes with a brief summary of Andrews's accomplishments as an actor and author of children's books; in an appended author's note, Hedlund describes her personal connection to her subject. Soft-hued illustrations ranging from a series of small vignettes to double-page spreads reveal setting, action, emotion, and personality, complementing the alliterative text, which is full of musical references. The case cover offers a surprise: an illustration of young Julie by the river, with Mary Poppins reflected in the water. Back matter includes a timeline (but no source notes).

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2023