(1) YA Anderson's three-part autobiographical collection of dynamic, mostly free-verse poems serves as a potent postlude for Speak. The first third takes us from Anderson's difficult childhood to Speak's publication. Next is a series of impassioned poems about sexual assault, censorship, consent, etc. She concludes with a quiet set of reflective family poems. By turns angry, commanding, raw, and wistful, this is a praise song to survivors and a blistering rebuke to predators. Reading list.

Reviewer: Jennifer Hubert Swan | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2019

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Sarah Jacoby. Barnett is openly admiring of Brown's legacy in this picture-book biography. In forty-two pages (because Brown lived forty-two years), he weaves facts about her life with information on how her books were received, in particular by notable librarian Anne Carroll Moore. Barnett conveys the sense that Brown's stories felt as strange and wondrous as life itself can be. Jacoby's mixed-media illustrations are appropriately impressionistic and playful. Bib.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Paola Escobar. As a bilingual assistant at Nueva York's public library in 1921, Pura Belpré retells the folk stories of her native Puerto Rico at storytimes and eventually writes them down for publication. Descriptive language moves between English and Spanish seamlessly. Both text and expressive, warm illustrations carry the metaphor of planting seeds, so that readers see the seeds of Belpré's stories bloom as the biographical details unfold. Also available in Spanish. Reading list. Bib.

Reviewer: Alicia K. Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2019

(1) YA This companion verse memoir to Enchanted Air provides a glimpse into Engle's teen years in Los Angeles and early adulthood. Engle addresses head-on the impact of the Vietnam War; the injustices prevalent in society at the time; the resistance of students and workers; and black and brown solidarity. The poems display Engle's customary sincerity and reflect the parallels and divergences between her two worlds--her Cuban and American heritages.

Reviewer: Sujei Lugo | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2019

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Kristy Caldwell. Isabella Bird (1831–1904) overcame childhood maladies and, perhaps equally hard to surmount, rigid social expectations of female behavior to become a world traveler, explorer, and best-selling author; snippets of Bird's writing appear in this ebullient treatment of a life well spent. Illustrator Caldwell incorporates occasional dialogue balloons and comics-style panels into the digital illustrations, staving off any accusation of Victorian creakiness. Timeline. Bib.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Jill Calder. This informative volume achieves exactly what its title purports to do and any library would do well to add it to their collection. Those teaching or studying poetry should also find it valuable, both for its insights regarding interpretation and creation and for its range of poetic examples by classic British and American poets. Loose black-and-white spot illustrations add kid-friendliness. Websites. Ind.

Reviewer: Miriam Lang Budin

(3) YA In this anthology, twenty-three established YA authors share essays on the broad topics of hope and resilience. A few passionate expository pieces have a distinctly political bent and seem to be written in response to the 2016 U.S. presidential election; most others are moving personal stories from the authors' diverse experiences as teens. A consistently readable and well-curated collection.

Reviewer: Jessica Tackett MacDonald

(3) YA Twenty-one female YA authors offer personal essays about moments and life experiences that shaped their feminist worldview. The timely topics covered include the intersection of race and gender, sexual assault and rape, issues around weight and body image, and the experience of growing up a girl in an immigrant family. Engaging, emotional, and perfectly attuned to today's young women, this feminist collection promises to make an impact. Websites.

Reviewer: Kristy Pasquariello

(3) YA These female-authored stories, spanning almost 150 years, follow brave, unconventional heroines as they face foes and approach crossroads in their lives. Featuring a refreshing array of religions, neuro-ability, sexuality, and ethnicity, the anthology's serious, sexy, funny, and exhilarating tales offer underrepresented points of view in historical fiction. An author's note with further information is appended to each tale.

Reviewer: Kristy Pasquariello

(2) 4-6 Forty-four contemporary children's book people each contribute a writing prompt. Then each one responds to someone else's prompt. The result is a combination anthology and inspiring craft manual. Both prompts and responses include prose, poetry, photographs, drawings, and comics. The emphasis is on pleasure, but readers will notice an aspect to creativity that isn't made explicit in the introduction: almost none of the contributors obeys the rules. Ind.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2018

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Júlia Sardà. This volume relates the seminal evening when author Shelley supposedly conceived the first modern science fiction novel, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, weaving in formative events that possibly helped inspire her masterpiece. Bailey's text is framed by her subject's penchant for dreaming, and serves as a solid introduction to Shelley. Sardà's decorative watercolor and digital illustrations in a macabre style feature sharp-edged, ghostly-looking characters. Bib.

Reviewer: Cynthia K. Ritter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2018

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Sarah Watts. Emily Crane (Book Scavenger; The Unbreakable Code) is feeling the pressure of her outsized reputation as a puzzle-solver at publisher Garrison Griswold's elaborate mystery game night on Alcatraz Island. Then an actual mystery involving a reclusive author arises. Readers can work the puzzles alongside Emily and friends in this cheery celebration of San Francisco landmarks, ciphers and codes, and close friends working as a team.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Katy Wu. The famous Paris bookstore Shakespeare and Company narrates its own story and stresses the value of books in text unevenly rhymed but with offbeat appeal. The free-spirited American store proprietor, Sylvia Beach, stocks the building with "...books, from ceiling to floor!" Soon, early-twentieth-century literary luminaries (of whom brief biographies are appended) come for tea, readings, and lively conversation. Colorful digital illustrations capture the bookstore's bohemian spirit.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(4) YA Eighteen-year-old Bennett wrote a bestselling young adult novel and her book is about to be a much-hyped film. Teddy's a famous actor who's landed the lead male role. He meets her on a plane; after spending a romantic weekend together, they break up, then work together (and reunite) on the movie's set. The generic plot is buoyed by the Hollywood celebrity-insider details and by Bennett and Teddy's obvious chemistry.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Smith

(3) 4-6 This companion memoir to Marshfield Dreams (2005) continues Fletcher's poignant, very brief episodes from a (mostly) carefree upbringing as the oldest of nine kids. Fans of the author will recognize seeds of later work as Fletcher sensitively captures the pivotal tenuousness between adolescence and adulthood. An epilogue discusses how, a few years after these memories, the sudden death of his brother sifted life into "Before and After."

Reviewer: Rebecca Kirshenbaum

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Felicita Sala. Like a scary campfire story, Fulton's short, descriptive passages and occasional fictionalized dialogue set the mood and drive her focused retelling of the night author Shelley supposedly first conceived of her mad scientist and his creation. Nicely complementing the tale are Sala's striking watercolor, ink, and colored-pencil illustrations, which display a Gothic sensibility, with angular features and a dark color palette containing shocks of white for dramatic effect. Bib.

Reviewer: Cynthia K. Ritter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2018

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Terry Denton. Author-illustrator best friends Andy and Terry have an epic fight in 78-Story after Andy is fired from Treehouse: The Movie, but they reunite to stop "mooo-vie-making spy cows." In 91-Story, their publisher Mr. Big Nose asks them to babysit his three grandchildren while they're on deadline. Wacky humor and zany adventures abound in these sixth and seventh installments illustrated with engaging sketchlike cartoons. Review covers these titles: The 78-Story Treehouse and The 91-Story Treehouse.

Reviewer: Lana Barnes

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Terry Denton. Author-illustrator best friends Andy and Terry have an epic fight in 78-Story after Andy is fired from Treehouse: The Movie, but they reunite to stop "mooo-vie-making spy cows." In 91-Story, their publisher Mr. Big Nose asks them to babysit his three grandchildren while they're on deadline. Wacky humor and zany adventures abound in these sixth and seventh installments illustrated with engaging sketchlike cartoons. Review covers these titles: The 78-Story Treehouse and The 91-Story Treehouse.

Reviewer: Lana Barnes

(3) YA Aspiring author Charlotte Brontë's admiration of classmate Jane Eyre is unwavering (even when Jane is suspected of poisoning the headmaster). When Jane turns down a job offer from the ghost-hunting Society for Relocating Wayward Spirits and instead leaves Lowood School to work as a governess, Charlotte tags along. An entertaining, madcap reinterpretation of Jane Eyre wherein Victorian practices collide with paranormal adventures.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Erin McGuire. This picture book biography does justice to the spunky, independent writer of To Kill a Mockingbird. Hegedus develops Lee's character and shares the author's childhood influences (including her small-town lawyer father and her friend Truman Capote) who helped shape her groundbreaking novel. Unfortunately, the digital illustrations cheapen the presentation, giving it a cartoonlike look. Websites. Bib.

Reviewer: Christina Dorr