(3) PS In this series entry, human Kayla and dog Kugel bake hamantaschen, dress up as each other, and attend the megillah reading. Kayla’s explanations of the holiday, directed toward Kugel, are informative (if brief, especially about the Purim story) and interspersed with humorous asides. The community’s costumes are a highlight of the lively illustrations. An author’s note encourages discussion about Purim.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Daniel Ramirez. In this welcome story about an Indigenous child’s gender expression, Raven loves joining in the round dance and wishes for a ribbon skirt (usually worn by women). After some thought, his grandmother makes him a rainbow one: “I’ve lived for a long time, Nosesim, and I’m lucky to see beautiful things that I’ve never seen before.” Acrylic illustrations make creative use of ribbons, often combining them with images of dance and sewing. Author and illustrator notes pay tribute to Indigenous dance and to Two-Spirit people.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(2) PS Duck is looking for his spaghetti, but as Tiny Horse puts it, "spaghetti is the trickiest of all the pastas." A search ensues, and while the deadpan narration addresses the mission seriously, Duck and Tiny Horse look in all the wrong places (inside a boot, under a rug) and use all the wrong methods (digging, fishing). A recipe book provides a useful clue, pooh-poohed though it is by confident Tiny Horse: "You can't just MAKE spaghetti." Boldly hued illustrations, painted in gouache and digitally colored, range from vignettes and sequential panels to full-bleed spreads, with absurdity taking center stage. Why is Tiny Horse tiny while Duck is just the right size to live in a teapot? Doesn't matter. The silliness offers young readers and listeners plenty of opportunities to figure things out before the characters do (if your spaghetti is hissing, it might be snakes) -- and that's a heady-spaghetti feeling.

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

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Hatem Aly. Our narrator was proud to have written a book in rhyme...and then little sister came along with her crayon and ruined it. Or did she? Frustrated, the narrator tries to tell the story aloud, with frequent sisterly interruptions that usually add positivity but disrupt where the rhyme seems to be going: "'She tagged along to join the action, / but mostly was a huge distrac -- ' // 'A HELPFUL NEW PERSPECTIVE!'" Between the sibling dynamics and the element of surprise that eventually becomes a recognizable pattern, the story is funny throughout (though its meter has some missteps). But the real payoff comes with a revelation at the end, which will likely prompt readers to go back and look more closely at the sister's contributions, aided by the differentiated font colors for each speaker. The illustrations, "developed digitally with some use of scanned traditional media textures, ink washes, and patterns," match the do-it-yourself imaginativeness of the text; the casual depiction of siblings with different skin tones is another plus.

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

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Alona Millgram. “Fingers crossed it turns out right. / Challah for Shabbat tonight.” Singsong rhymes take readers and listeners step by step as the narrator bakes challah with Grandma, including the fun of waiting together and, later, of Shabbat dinner with family. Illustrations are appealingly varied, from insets showing details of baking to flighty spreads with ingredients and smells dancing across the page. A welcome, warm portrayal of the Jewish Sabbath and of an intergenerational relationship.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Zahra Marwan. Daisy wins a fish at her beloved fair and names him October after the month the fair takes place. He’s odd-looking, “but he was her fish, her very own.” When October grows too large for his bowl, then for the bathtub, and finally for Daisy’s house, she must make a difficult choice. This bittersweet story (with a happy ending) of showing love by letting something go is accompanied by distinctive, loose-lined illustrations created in pen, ink, and watercolor and finished digitally.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(2) PS In this beautifully designed board book in the vein of Becker's You Are Light (rev. 9/19) and others, the die-cuts are just part of the attraction. Brief, lyrical text encourages stillness and assures readers and listeners, "We'll forge our faith / with winter light... // till days grow long once more." Lovely, painterly illustrations work with the text to allude to several holiday and winter customs involving light and color, with aptly shaped arrangements of die-cuts (snowflakes, a wreath), some with tinted material embedded so light can shine through.

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

(2) 4-6 This welcome historical novel traces a Sephardic Jewish family whose members travel from one country to another with first-person narrators from four generations and spanning centuries. In 1492, Benvenida and her family leave Toledo, Spain, for what is then Constantinople to escape the Spanish Inquisition. In 1923, Reina sneaks out at night and sings for a group of boys against her father's wishes and is sent from Turkey to Cuba for an arranged marriage. In 1961, Alegra teaches literacy as a brigadista but then flees Cuba for Miami with Operation Pedro Pan. And in 2003, Paloma and her family travel back to Toledo and learn what they can about their long-ago family history. The family saga provides glimpses of several moments in world history and gives readers opportunities to spot connections among the generations, sometimes knowing details about the past that the characters can only guess at. (An overly earnest tone in narration and dialogue sometimes detracts from the characters' believability.) A Ladino song and the oud that it is played on add echoes from one section to another. The author's note provides context and personal connections; back matter also includes source notes with accessible explanations.

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

(2) 4-6 This story of shifting friendships follows two seventh graders: Lily, who feels left out now that Maddie and Sasha are on an elite soccer team together; and Will, who has a crush on Lily and whose every move is fodder for his dad's podcast. There's a dance coming up, and questions of who will ask whom are on everyone's mind, aided by gossipy Sienna, who takes out her own insecurities on both Lily and Will. Entanglements and misunderstandings ensue, largely because, to its credit, the novel allows friend-group dynamics to be complicated. Maddie and Sasha seem to be closer to each other than to Lily, but Lily is the one Maddie tells about her crush on another girl. Sasha and Sienna have a secret of their own, and when it's revealed, so are more aspects of Sasha's inner life. Some of the many characters in the ensemble beyond Lily and Will are touched upon only briefly, but we learn enough about them to understand what they're all learning: that each of them is the main character in their own life.

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

(2) K-3 Thief 1, Thief 2, and Thief 3 have a simple plan: they will dig a tunnel and rob a bank. But even the best-laid plans require better navigational skills than those possessed by this trio, and though they manage to find a concert, a wrestling match, and the other side of the world -- and new friends in each of those places -- the bank eludes them. The tone remains deadpan as events grow increasingly absurd, while humor is plentiful in the naive-style illustrations. The images of the thieves themselves are especially simple, but Camp conveys much about their emotions (frequently surprise or confusion) with a few well-angled lines. Cross-sections of scenes provide dramatic irony as viewers can see beyond the thieves' literal tunnel vision. But bank or no bank, the real treasure is the friends they make along the way. (Thief 3 even posits that the treasure is "a metaphor and...actually in our hearts," though Thief 1 and Thief 2 dismiss this suggestion as "very corny.") Preposterous fun for the savvy young reader or read-aloud audience.

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

(3) K-3 This picture book amusingly frames a simple errand (delivering a package) as an “expedition,” with dramatic voiceover-esque narration (“This is their story”) providing humor through its completely serious delivery. The cartoonish illustrations make varied use of the spreads as the expedition encounters obstacles (a hurt toe; an “ambush” by an adult, or “senior officer”). Sure to provide great fun as a deadpan read-aloud.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(3) PS Cat is a little too honest with friends, resulting in some hurt feelings, until gentle feedback and practice with a friend gets him to consider his words more carefully. The message is clear in this heartfelt story, and cheerful illustrations of a host of animal pals add to its humor.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(3) K-3 An Indigenous girl is distraught when the dress she’s making for a special ceremony rips. Bizzy’s grandmother shows her the regalia the girl’s great-grandmother wore, pointing out a problem with the beading: “...it’s the Pomo way to leave one little flaw in everything you make.” She advises the girl to “dance fast” to keep others from noticing the mistake. Gibbons’s message about avoiding perfectionism is not heavy-handed, and her digital illustrations are humorous. A note about the Pomo people is appended.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Alex Willmore. An unseen speaker introduces items and characters with statements that are, for the most part, wrong (“This is a flower. Flowers grow all over the world and...go CHUGGA CHUGGA CHOOOO CHOOOO!!!!"). Or are they? A frustrated talking bookmark acts as a stand-in for the audience, reacting to the ridiculousness in speech-bubble dialogue and eventually pulling in the subjects themselves; readers and listeners will likely find the absurdity more enjoyable than the increasingly enraged bookmark does. Mixed-media illustrations in bold colors contain lots of room for our bookmark friend to amusingly bounce around.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(3) K-3 Three strangers who sure look like space aliens land outside the Li family’s house. Their efforts to pass themselves off as “DEFINITELY human” are amusingly suspect (they’re “from...Europe”; “I make business” is the most convincing of their backstories). Still, the Lis make them feel welcome in this deadpan story of kindness, complete with mixed-media illustrations with a retro feel appropriate to the subject matter.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(3) K-3 In this early reader comic with a simple but effective rhyming text, Fox plays tricks on Pig during a day of digging on the beach, but gets his comeuppance each time. Helpfully for new readers, each speaker’s speech bubbles are a different shape and color. The thick-lined digital-looking illustrations’ palette, with plenty of yellows and blues, is appropriate to the beach setting.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(2) Illustrated by Vesper Stamper. This picture-book biography tells the story of Cahan (1860–1951), cofounder and later editor of the Forverts, the Yiddish newspaper known in English as The Jewish Daily Forward. Finkelstein's clear text traces Cahan's journey from the Pale of Settlement -- he fled after being questioned by czarist police over his support of workers -- to New York, as well as his experiences as a new immigrant before the paper's founding. The book's depiction of Cahan's work on the paper emphasizes his understanding of and advocacy for the needs of other Jews, immigrants, and workers. Stamper's bustling street scenes, classrooms, and newspaper offices include plenty of instances of print to pore over in multiple languages (Cahan "loved words" in English, Russian, Hebrew, and Yiddish). Back matter includes more information on Cahan and on Yiddish, an author's note, a timeline, a bibliography, and suggested further reading.

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

(4) PS Illustrated by Gareth Lucas. In this picture book with colorful, appealing illustrations, singsong verse introduces information about an octopus’s daily life and life cycle. Callouts in smaller type give additional engaging facts. Glossary, author’s note, and children’s reference books are appended.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff. A child narrates the coming year in moments that will remind them of a lost loved one, some seasonal (when one paper heart is missing in February), others incidental (while writing in a gratitude journal in September). The reassuring refrain “you’ll be there” punctuates the gentle, sometimes-rhyming text. Illustrations in a pastel palette keep this serious title from feeling too heavy.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Vesper Stamper. A gentle third-person text shares a grandfather’s thoughts about how the art he creates, the stories he tells, etc., for his grandchildren are nothing out of the ordinary—but readers will likely arrive before he does at the conclusion that even if he told the kids he was just average, “it probably wouldn’t matter.” They’d still see him as “the greatest grandfather in the world.” Richly hued watercolor-and-gouache illustrations are full of details about the family’s life, including, along with the text, welcome references to their Jewish identity.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax