(2) 4-6 A boy, born eleventh in line to the crown, finds himself to be first after a series of mysterious and unlikely accidents--and then he becomes king. Alba, an oracle's apprentice, is stricken by the way her harsh predictions affect that gormless boy king. And Rae, a shepherd couple's foundling daughter, grows up happily in the high wilds of the mountains, wondering why she feels a strong connection to a nearby wolf. Focusing on these three characters, Andrews's narrator weaves a fable-like story of betrayal and love, revenge and destiny, in sure, poetic prose. "Mountain-found," "wind-cold," "empty-bellied," a hand as "soft as plum blossoms"--every word draws us into a tactile, living world, one in which insects, worms, grubs, and beetles are as vital as a huge wolf, a royal advisor, and even the act of writing. With a magical Romulus-and-Remus theme and some fairy-tale features, this leisurely tale is richly atmospheric and nicely surprising. Chapter-opening framed decorations (akin to medieval illuminations) by Yuta Onoda make the book an attractive object in itself and suit Andrews's writing perfectly--­delicate and earthy at once, both realistic and magical.

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

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Yevgenia Nayberg. Jules's fluid narrative and Nayberg's evocative textured paintings recount the fictionalized story of an illiterate shepherd encouraged midlife to begin studying by his devoted, loving wife. How his slow and steady progress ("I can learn--just like water cuts through stone--a little bit each day") allowed him to succeed in becoming a great learned man, scholar, and renowned rabbi is inspiring and well crafted.

Reviewer: Rita Soltan

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Maja Dusíková. An unfriendly shepherd encounters a man asking for coal for his wife and new baby. The man has no bucket, so the shepherd says, "Take as much as you need!" He's amazed when the man picks up and carries hot coals. This original Nativity story by the winner of the 1909 Nobel Prize for Literature takes some leaps in logic, but the illustrations infuse the scenes with magic and wonder.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(2) K-3 Herd boy Malusi has grander ambitions: to be president. After making a courageous rescue of their flock from baboons, Malusi and his friend Lungisa see a fancy car drive up. Inside is a man (clearly Nelson Mandela, though unnamed) who offers encouragement to Malusi to pursue his dream. Daly's expansive illustrations highlight the beauty of the South African landscape's rocky austerity. Glos.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2013

(4) K-3 Step into Reading series. Illustrated by Alessia Girasole. To get rid of the smelly giant who lives on the hill and floods their valley each week with dirty wash water, siblings Pepper and Jake must solve a riddle: what's "one thing and also three things?" (The answer? Water.) Girasole's cartoons modernize the story's classic fairy tale structure. It's a predictable but decent addition to a new reader's collection.

Reviewer: Hannah Rodgers Barnaby

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Scott Nash. Shepherd Betsy (Betsy Who Cried Wolf), her wolf partner Zimmo, and their increasingly rowdy herd take cupcakes to Grandma. Presently Zimmo scoots ahead, leaving Betsy to wonder about his intentions. Nash stages the shenanigans in an attractive country landscape, supporting Levine's light tone with comical pen drawings of the round-faced, energetic Betsy, benevolent Zimmo, and wayward sheep. Good read-aloud fun.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2010

(3) YA In pastoral late-sixteenth-century France, a shepherd boy tending his flock sees a wolf and calls for his mother. But expectations are overturned as, far from attempting to drive off the wolf, the mother changes into one herself. Jennings contrasts the wolves' civilized society with the barbarism of the Inquisition (the shepherd family is a particular target of an evil village priest) to craft an original and unusual werewolf story.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Scott Nash. Spunky Betsy, the shepherdess in this tongue-in-cheek inversion, sticks to her guns when the townsfolk believe she's only crying wolf about a threat to the flock. Sly, cartoony, pastoral illustrations with amusing speech-bubble asides show Betsy riding herd on some rambunctious sheep (the text says they're "too close to the cliff"; the art shows them rappelling) and taming the wolf by sharing her lunch.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Raul Colon. Matthew is a young shepherd who chases an errant lamb to a stable dug in a hillside. There he finds a young couple and a very special baby. The familiar Nativity story is lyrical and reverent in tone, but Colón's scratchboard illustrations are uneven: alternately warm and luminous and stiff and iconic. Also available in Spanish.

Reviewer: Tim Wadham

(4) 1-3 American Girls Collection series. Illustrated by Jean-Paul Tibbles & Susan McAliley. Warned to be on her best behavior when accompanying her rancher father to visit an elderly shepherd, Josefina nonetheless contradicts her father after he decides the shepherd must retire. An accident provides a chance for both Josefina and the shepherd to prove their trustworthiness. American Girls fans will best appreciate this formulaic short story set in 1824. A craft is appended. Glos.

Reviewer: Anne St. John

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Tim Coffey. Lalo the lamb wants a red sweater like the shepherd boy's. Misunderstanding his mother's instructions, he washes, spins, and dyes his own wool--with messy results. At each step, the boy rescues him, and Lalo learns that companionship trumps materialism. With its bright, serene illustrations and utter lack of guile, this story is sweet and simple.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Translated by Jonathan Galassi. Illustrated by Bimba Landmann. This fictional account of how the great painter Giotto--about whom little is known--might have come to be apprenticed to his teacher is lavishly illustrated. Using the warm, burnished palette common in Renaissance paintings, Landmann alludes to Chagall, Mondrian, ancient Egyptian art, Russian religious art, and more in framed paintings, panels, and triptychs highlighted with gold.

Reviewer: Gail Hedges