(2) 4-6 Becoming a bat mitzvah is not something Zipporah "Zippy" Chava McConnell had ever considered. Now almost thirteen, she's surprised by her mom's insistence that she at least give tutoring with Rabbi Dan a try. Reluctant at first, Zippy, a self-proclaimed witch ("Spells spring from me. And with them, I can handle the world"), becomes interested after discovering a link to the supernatural--and then a girl with mysterious abilities appears in the woods. In a generally lighthearted, self-aware narration, Zippy describes investigating the girl's identity; exploring Judaism (with a few textual Hebrew errors); and feuding with her best friend, among others. Occasional direct address ("Okay, I don't want to sound obnoxious, but wasn't that good? Didn't that sound like something from a real book?") and explanation ("now we've come to the part in the story where I need to tell you a little more about the Torah") keep readers engaged in Zippy's quest for answers. Though some of those necessarily remain ambiguous, the protagonist--and readers--can appreciate the wisdom of Rabbi Dan: "The world is full of questions, things we'll never be certain of...but for me, the journey, the search for answers, is as satisfying as the answers themselves. Questions can be beautiful. Mysteries can bind us to each other."

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(2) 1-3 Illustrated by A. N. Kang. Back for a third adventure (Starla Jean, rev. 3/21; Starla Jean Takes the Cake), our ­heroine and her chicken, Opal Egg, have a mystery to solve. Starla Jean (who now considers herself a "chicken-everything expert") summarizes key points from the ­previous titles as she shares her chicken knowledge along with topics of expertise found among her family and neighbors (e.g., "Mr. Marcos, whose house is near the park, is an expert gardener. His dog, Dean, is great at digging holes"). By chapter two, the plot moves forward as Starla Jean, with baby sister Willa in a wagon unsuccessfully tries to leash Opal Egg for a walk, but Opal Egg insists on walking untethered. The chicken leads them to a mystery when she unearths a yellow bead while looking for snails. As with her chicken-care tactics, Starla Jean's attempts to solve the mystery include a litany of tangents, wacky observations, and wrong turns, ­allowing both readers and Opal Egg to stay one step ahead. With each newly discovered clue, a neighbor joins the pursuit, and eventually this merry crew finds a rainbow of lost beads and their original owner too. Colorful spot art on every page adds information and comedy to the narrative and, along with Starla Jean's penchant for lists and repetition, helps keep the story accessible for new readers.

Reviewer: Julie Roach | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 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) YA Principal Kenneth Moore is dead, shot in his office during a basketball game. The influential Black founder of the all-male Urban Promise Prep School and a pillar of the community, he sought to give the boys at his school a shot at college--at the cost of a draconian code of conduct. Three students of color--a talented basketball player, a bright college hopeful, and a budding culinary star and entrepreneur--are instant suspects in the crime, each with a motive for their principal's demise. Thrown together by their in-common circumstances, these three young men must become quick allies as they race to investigate the case and attempt to clear themselves of any wrongdoing. Will justice be served or will they fall victim to a flawed system? A riveting murder mystery wrapped in social commentary, the novel offers a fresh, contemporary take on an old-fashioned whodunit. It also shines a light on the plight of Black and Latino youth, who are often the targets of an inequitable and unequal justice system. Told from multiple perspectives with interspersed ephemera and extended flashbacks, the story builds to an exhilarating crescendo.

Reviewer: Monique Harris | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(2) YA A fanciful treat set in the 1590s, Cotter's debut novel takes us from London's Rose Theatre to the court of Elizabeth I, onto the ship of famed pirate queen Grainne Ni Mhaille, and off to a trial at Dover Castle. Aptly, an excerpt of Elizabethan love poetry opens most sections of the story. Although this is a tale of traitors, murder, spying, poison, play-acting, and breathless risks and escapes, it is also the love story of actor and commoner Elias Wilde, his farming family made destitute by the queen, and Lord James Edmund Bauffremont of Bloomsbury: would-be medical man, scion of a brutal father, and reluctant fiancé of a noblewoman. When Elias witnesses the savage murder of his friend Kit Marlowe, he vows to unmask the culprit. He thus comes into the employ of Lord Bloomsbury and finds himself disguised as a lord, ineffectually sleuthing but somehow winning the good graces of the queen, who appoints him and Bloomsbury her spymasters. Their career is one of wrong turns, misinterpretations, and bad judgments; what runs steadily through all the novel's eventfulness is Elias's fraught emotion: his forlorn urge to find his family and his growing passion and confidence in James's love. Cotter packs many sly literary and historical references into this playfully far-fetched queer tale, along with much romance and affection.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2024

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Brett Helquist. The Mona Lisa wasn't the world's most famous painting when it disappeared from the Louvre in 1911. Day starts his narrative at the point of the theft, then jumps forward and backward, tracing Leonardo da Vinci's career, what (little) is known about the painting's subject, how the Mona Lisa became a pop culture icon, and its whereabouts today. In between the story's many diversions (e.g., early forensic science, the media's role in hyping the theft), readers also follow the path of the painting away from the museum and into the pages of history, which Day delivers with a dose of whimsy as he describes a case that had more than its share of ridiculous moments. The book combines age-appropriate true crime with art history and historiography. The nonlinear structure may take some getting used to, but it serves the book's goal of drawing parallels between elements of the theft and the Mona Lisa's current place in our culture. Helquist's cartoonlike black-and-white illustrations do an excellent job of matching the narrative voice and bringing the book's dramatic moments to life. A lengthy source list is appended.

Reviewer: Sarah Rettger | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2023

(1) YA Kiki, who is Black and Cree, has been gone for five months when the book begins, and the police have stopped looking for her. Her friend and fellow First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Student Association member Berlin, a high achiever living with depression, and Cam, Berlin's longtime childhood rival, feel Kiki's loss profoundly. When Berlin thinks she sees Kiki outside Pink Mountain Pizza, where she and Cam work--and where much of the story is set--the two put aside their dfferences to search for her. They're assisted by new coworker Jessie, whose abusive father, a developer, is trying to buy Pink Mountain Pizza out from under Joe, one of the few Black business owners in town. Their social media campaign to raise awareness and save the store garners much support but also provides a platform for people to attack Joe, bringing to light issues of capitalism and anti-Black racism. Kiki's page-turning story and her mother's earlier disappearance provide multiple angles on the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People. Through a well-characterized ensemble cast, Ferguson (The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, rev. 5/22), who is Michif/Métis and white, addresses the myriad difficult topics facing her characters with sensitivity and care.

Reviewer: Nicholl Denice Montgomery | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2023

(2) 4-6 Arthur Popper is a diffident, slightly anxious eleven-year-old who lives with his parents and younger sister above the family business, a thriving, capacious secondhand store in Boulder, Colorado. He works shifts in the store and is valued for being "good at customer service" but longs for another area where he can truly shine. When some family members' and friends' jewelry starts disappearing, he takes on the mystery-solving challenge. He receives advice from a ghost mouse who lives in a teacup on his bookshelf, the single touch of fantasy in an otherwise naturalistic novel. The detective narrative, which is tidily composed and plausible, provides the scaffolding for a story of family and community relationships that is a tour de force of small, beautifully calibrated effects. Arthur's best friend is Veda, who is Latinx, but things go sideways for them when Arthur's grandfather expresses a prejudice against "certain kinds of people." Freeman doesn't provide easy answers to the problem of a bigoted family member, nor does she give Grandpa an easy epiphany. Instead she portrays a realistic, flawed family with all its tensions. She allows Arthur to encounter and grapple with the concept of white privilege on his own, in age-appropriate terms, keeping the focus firmly on the child characters and their strengths.

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

(2) YA In a magical land where anger grows like an egg inside certain people until it bursts into a destructive curse, quick-tempered Kellen has a special talent: through persistent sleuthing and his own lively intuition, he can "unravel" the anger and undo the curse. Nettle, who was a heron before Kellen unraveled her stepmother's curse and restored her humanity, is Kellen's opposite, reserved to a fault and inclined to think twice before acting. The teens are bailed out of jail by dangerous-seeming marsh horseman Gall, which sets off a cascade of adventures. Gall's employer wants them to investigate the Red Hospital where cursers are held captive; when they find that one of the cursers has been replaced by an innocent person, it's off to the spirit-infested Wilds to follow one clue after another. As revelation builds upon revelation, Kellen and Nettle are drawn in both by their own curiosity and by what appears to be a conspiracy: someone is gathering cursers and turning their spite against political targets, and Gall's shadowy employer seems to be in their crosshairs. Hardinge (A Skinful of Shadows, rev. 1/18; Deeplight, rev. 3/20) creates a top-notch fantasy with a fresh setting populated by original monsters (Bookbearers, Gladelords, Dancing Stars) and the feel of old folktales. But it's Kellen's wild charisma and Nettle's extreme interiority that will beguile readers, even as the tale's air of mystery continuously deepens.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(2) YA Proud of his family's heritage--which includes a great-great-great-great-great grandfather who salvaged shipwrecks--fifteen-year-old biracial Valdez Jones VIII has adopted the nickname Wrecker. A waterman in his own right, he has his own boat and fishes near his home in Key West. It's because of his knowledge of the area that he ends up an unwitting and unwilling accomplice to a dangerous smuggling operation. "Silver Mustache," as Wrecker dubs him, and his organization traffic in fake CDC vaccination cards, much in demand at the time by "ballplayers, movie stars, airline pilots, [and] Silicon Valley millionaires" who are out to avoid vaccination requirements. Hiaasen's writing is lively and full of sensory details: e.g., "The night's gummy and hot, a honey-colored slice of moon peeking through the wispy clouds." The satisfyingly complex plot includes grave robbers, the perils of the pandemic, a mammoth cruise ship threatening ecological disaster for the Key West coastline, the violent legacy of the KKK, a budding romance, Wrecker's high-spirited and loving family, and, best of all, locals who stand up for the place they adore. A beautifully told mystery with plenty of action and heart.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2023

(2) 4-6 Hobson (Cherokee Nation Tribe of Oklahoma) combines elements of classic Western literature, Cherokee culture, pop culture, and the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Two-Spirit People to forge the thematic backbone for this fantastical adventure across the New Mexico desert. Ziggy Echota, a socially awkward Cherokee middle schooler with anxiety, is convinced that the key to finding his mother (missing since he was a baby) is somewhere in a secret desert cave. He enlists the help of classmate Alice, who claims that she's familiar with the caves and the Nunnehi (immortal spirit people) that inhabit them. The surreal journey kicks into high gear one night when Alice arrives at Ziggy's house with a talking coyote who calls himself Chupacabra. Along the way, Ziggy encounters, questions, and escapes from an assortment of offbeat characters--including an armadillo possessed by Andrew Jackson, a fortune-telling snake, and murderous shapeshifters. Each interaction leaves Ziggy with a morsel of wisdom, leading to a difficult conclusion about his mother. The fast-paced narrative is episodic and character-driven, channeling Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as a central reference point. It is Ziggy's eccentric Grandma Moses who provides clarity at the tale's end: "Storytellers have power... We find the meaning in what's happened, and then we convey that meaning to others." A significant story full of delight and dimension.

Reviewer: Patrick Gall | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2023

(2) YA Like so many young Black men, Andre Jackson feels invisible. Falsely accused and convicted of a crime, Andre emerges from juvenile detention intending to return to some sense of normalcy. However, he comes home to his rapidly gentrifying Portland, Oregon, neighborhood just as the world is plunged into a global pandemic. His friend Eric, who Andre hoped would help clear his name, is missing, which raises questions around why Eric's seemingly perfect, diverse family appears unconcerned about his vanishing without a trace. Are Andre's arrest and Eric's disappearance connected? As Andre begins to unravel the secrets around Eric and to make sense of his own post-release reality, he dares to pursue freedom in a world closed in by the COVID-19 pandemic, racism, and violence that is brewing much closer than he realizes. Johnson's (This Is My America, rev. 9/20) mystery-thriller is a gut-wrenching first-person look at the life of a young man who feels his disposability as a Black teen within the justice system while witnessing with the world the extrajudicial murder of George Floyd. The isolation of the pandemic and the intensity of the Black Lives Matter protests provide the backdrop to a riveting story line that is also a social commentary on power, privilege, marginalization, and the carceral system and its impact on Black men. Back matter includes an author's note and resources on topics including youth incarceration and transracial adoption.

Reviewer: Monique Harris | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2023

(2) YA Intent on saving his family farm during the Great Depression, sixteen-year-old Joe arrives in Chicago to work and send money home. Thanks to the cousin he's staying with, he has two jobs lined up. One is working in the kitchen of a hotel. The other involves taking French classes at a local church; collecting his wealthy classmates' names, addresses, and travel dates; and passing the information along to criminals who plan to rob the homes while their occupants are vacationing abroad. Despite his reservations, Joe goes along with the scheme and is drawn inexorably into a web of lies, deceit, blackmail, and murder. With elements of noir, the plot is further complicated by a love triangle: Eddie makes deliveries to the hotel, Raymond is in his French class, and Joe becomes romantically involved with both. As trouble catches up to Joe, he's forced to flee Chicago, but he's reluctant to leave the queer community he's found and finds little solace in the idea of returning home. Klise deftly manages to balance a number of elements in Joe's first-person narration: his gradual transition from wide-eyed innocence toward criminal activity, the complicated motivations of secondary characters, convincing dialogue, and an aura of danger and suspense. The historical setting and secretly queer characters may appeal to fans of Lo's Last Night at the Telegraph Club (rev. 3/21). An author's note gives brief historical background and suggestions for further reading.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(2) YA In 1934, eighteen-year-old aspiring Chicago actress Henny wins a ticket to Los Angeles and the promise of a screen test. Unfortunately, it turns out, there are men in Hollywood looking to take advantage of aspiring starlets. Henny encounters the ghosts of young women who were murdered in the business, whom only she can see, and she must team up with Declan--a stunt performer who seems immune to injury even in the most punishing situations--to seek justice. Their supernatural abilities are mere assets to their wit and determination as they navigate glitzy parties and the seamy underbelly of Los Angeles in a novel that will likely have greater appeal to historical fiction and mystery fans than to fantasy readers. The story, which unfolds in alternating first-person narrations, is tightly wound and truly stress-inducing in places, with emotional revelations that cause characters to doubt everything they thought they knew. The descriptions of 1930s movie sets and surrounding scenery are lush and convincing, with animated minor characters fleshing out a well-researched setting. The novel shares characters with Murder for the Modern Girl (rev. 7/22)--Henny is that book's protagonist's younger sister --and will likely entrance readers both familiar with and new to the world.

Reviewer: Sarah Berman | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Claire Powell. When the large extended Swift family gathers at the ancestral home for their regular reunion, they hunt, as they always do, for the long-hidden family treasure. This time, however, there is a murderer in their midst and the bodies start accumulating. Who is killing off Swifts and why? Playing with the tropes of the classic mid-century isolated country house detective novel, Lincoln whips up a witty confection of highly colorful characters (Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude, twins Flora and Fauna); dynamic wordplay; and a plot dense with action, suspense, double-dealing, innovative murder weapons, and a well-orchestrated eleventh-hour reveal. (Not to give anything away, but beware a punster.) Our window on this world is the observant, energetic Shenanigan Swift, a charmingly flawed middle-grader eager to solve the crimes while making sense of family, relationships, and adult life. Fans of Marthe Jocelyn's Aggie Morton mysteries and Polly Horvath's gothic fiction will feel right at home in this inventive, exuberant world. A bonus in this American edition of a British import is a lively introductory essay on dictionaries and the evolution of English that could well inspire a budding lexicographer.

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

(2) 4-6 Bex dreams of becoming a writer, and usually the words flow from her pencil. But not this summer; now she has more erasures than words. Her younger brother, Davey, gives Bex some advice: "Writers must tell the truth thoroughly, constantly, and recklessly. Do that and the words will come." It's advice Bex appears to follow as she describes how she and Davey find a mysterious statue near their home in the North Carolina salt marsh. For years, it had been covered by a river (a body of water Davey will not enter but dubs the River Sticks), but it is now increasingly visible as the water recedes during a serious drought. Bex decides on the perfect summer plan: the two of them will discover the statue's provenance. Their exclusivity makes sense, as Davey appears to be selectively mute around everyone but Bex and she's had a falling-out with her best friend. However, a sudden revelation midway through the novel shatters that presumed truth-telling. McDunn (Honestly Elliott, rev. 3/22) has written a story that the character of Davey would want to read: "This book starts happy, gets sad, and then at the end, it's happy and sad mixed up together. That's what makes it special, that it has both."

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(2) YA Marjan Dastani, the daughter of an Iranian immigrant father and an American-born mother (who died when Marjan was seven), has grown up in California with stories that begin "Yeki bood, yeki nabood," or "Once was, once wasn't." Those stories "created a place that was real and not real, at the same time," where the mythical could coexist with the everyday. After her father, a veterinarian, is murdered, fifteen-year-old Marjan finds herself tasked with taking over management of the vet clinic and her father's crumbling finances. She is summoned to England on a mysterious mission, where she learns that her father was leading a double life: he also specialized in the healing of mythical creatures such as griffons, faeries, and gnomes. As Marjan tries to solve the mystery of who killed her father, she is pulled into a secret network in which these legendary beasts are brokered and sold. She must come face to face with who her father really was and with her own feelings of grief. With its blend of fantasy and mystery, the story slowly ratchets up the suspense. It also poses intriguing ethical questions about the conservation of endangered species and the devastating effects of human intervention on the natural world. A hard-to-put-down book with great appeal to fantasy and mythology fans.

Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(2) 4-6 Maggie knows the summer after fifth grade will be amazing because she's finally going to the performing arts camp of her dreams...until her parents send her to weight loss camp instead. While enduring inedible food and exhausting workouts, Maggie befriends her bunk mates -- Kit, an excitable Girl Scout; and Evelyn, a posh British girl--and tries out for the camp production of The Music Man, for which she scores the title role. But the camp's owner, the glamorous influencer Sylvia, seems determined to suck as much fun from camp as possible, and some of her ideas are downright creepy, like forcing the underage campers to donate blood. When campers start disappearing, Maggie realizes it's up to her to uncover Sylvia's secrets. For starters, what is she doing with all the blood? The characters' quirkiness makes them engaging and memorable, especially Kit with her great enthusiasm for all things outdoors. Humor is woven throughout, from Maggie's frequent sass to a scene of vampires on a Zoom call. The central focus is on Maggie's journey to overcome her personal fears, but the diet culture–obsessed vampires also allow for some moments of biting satire.

Reviewer: Bodie Shanis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2023

(2) YA After the death of Eva Sylvan's beloved father (about which she feels lingering guilt), she and her half-sister, Rhonda, move from New York to the (fictional) small town of Madrona, Washington, and into a spooky, decrepit house willed to Eva by a great-aunt she never met. When people in Madrona learn that Eva and Rhonda are Sylvans, most seem to view them with fear (with the exception of a few new friends). And Eva becomes terrified that she might really be as monstrous a witch as people believed her great-aunt was when her dreams about the inhabitants of the town cause them to fall into comas--including Rhonda. Eva must rely on her own wits and bravery to reach back into memories that have been hidden away and solve a years-old mystery about her family, the town, and a tragedy that involved two Madrona residents when they were children. This is a compelling combination of gothic YA fiction and psychological thriller. The magical elements of astral projection and battling shadows in dreams feel human and intimate rather than fantastical. A vibrant cast of characters populates Madrona, and Paasch clearly understands grief, guilt, and what moves the teenage heart.

Reviewer: Sarah Berman | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2023

(1) 4-6 Moonwind Mysteries series. Translated by A. A. Prime. This English translation of Rundberg's lively historical mystery, set in 1880 and winner of several prestigious prizes in its native Sweden, is something to celebrate. Twelve-year-old Mika has lived all her life in Stockholm's public orphanage; she's its child-minder and maid-of-all-work as well as a server in a local pub. She is exceptionally spirited in her humor, kindness, courage, and perceptiveness, and when her astute observations attract the attention of police detective Valdemar Hoff, he enlists her help in a murder investigation. Could a copycat murderer be imitating a man who was recently executed, the serial killer known as the "Night Raven"? This is a captivating murder mystery, and more. Mika's awareness of her disposability--"I'm an orphanage kid...and a girl besides...I have to pay attention to detail all the time because my life depends on it"--is only one of the ways Rundberg sheds light on the most vulnerable. At the same time, his prose is quick, earthy, and comic: Hoff's hands are "as big as toilet lids"; he smells like "an old horse blanket"; and the rhapsody of the coming spring is noted by "the smell of thawing latrines." Joyous, funny, suspenseful, and serious--an unusual and winning combination for middle-grade readers. Let's hope its three sequels appear in Prime's English translation, too.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2023