(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Junyi Wu. Clay and his family are suffering the accumulated ­tensions of a "global sickness" shutdown. Online school, isolation from friends, financial worries, too much togetherness--Clay needs escape, and he gets it via a charming elf-hound who has wandered up from the fairy Kingdom Under the Mountain. The dog also gives Clay access to a new friend, Amos, an owl-headed boy who inhabits a different parallel world that resembles a Puritan village. Once these worlds start to leak into one another, chaos is loosed upon Clay and his family. The tone is largely cartoonish, as set pieces of hilarious slapstick involve, for example, an out-of-control wool sweater that reverse-evolves into its original sheep. It's a veritable plum pudding of energetic action and witty delights, but a ­foundation of traditional folklore elements--standing stones, half-buried sleeping giants, fairy mischief, portals to the underworld, the Wild Hunt, and predatory wyrms--creates an underlying hint of genuine menace. One of the guests at the big Midsummer's Eve supernatural shindig is Death ("When he calls, we must go. But knowing that the night may be cut short is what makes it so sweet"). Balancing this chill is the devoted relationship between Clay and his dog companion, a theme that stands sturdily in the middle of the mayhem. Black-and-white full-page pencil illustrations contribute to both coziness and eeriness.

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

(1) K-3 Illustrated by Grace Lin. Cold sleet is falling, and the protagonist of this home-and-back-again adventure tale, Alice, is stuck inside, bored. Then she spots a book on the floor and starts to read: "Once upon a time, there was a girl... She went to a place alive with colors, where even the morning dew was warm." "That sounds like our home," says one of the book's characters (a flamingo), who invites the child into the book. She climbs in and spends time with the animal characters. When it starts to rain, she wishes to be elsewhere, and the camels in the desert on the next spread of the book (one she's both inhabiting and holding in her hands) invite her to join them: "Turn the page and come in." And so it goes, the girl on a thrilling journey of the imagination, swimming through a coral reef, floating in space, and much more. At home, Alice has a plush rabbit and rabbit-shaped slippers, but a real (and vigilant) rabbit accompanies her on her journey; readers can seek-and-find it on every spread. The text builds patterns and a pleasing rhythm with repeating sentence structures; children will delight in anticipating what comes next. Lin's lush full-bleed spreads invite readers to take the journey with Alice, whose dress changes color in each environment, making her blend into every one of the worlds. That Alice is an Asian girl says much about the authors' wishes for all children to see themselves in the books they read--in this case, quite literally.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(2) 4-6 Moriarty's fourth volume in the series that began with The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone (rev. 9/18) sees the three Mettlestone-Staranise girls and the former-pirate-now-prince Alejandro once again heading off to save the day. The Elven city of Dun-sorey-lo-vay-lo-hey will be under threat from Doom Lantern Witches--and worse--if the children don't find the nine pieces of a key necessary to unlock the city from its spell. Joining the questers is skateboarding Oscar, who has landed in the Kingdoms from our world, much to everyone's mystification. Moriarty's fantasy is an intricate confection of a fairyland, busy with good-humored, imaginative invention. The personable, confiding voices of the two narrators, Imogen and Oscar, propel the novel along with a style as breathless with emotion as it is with unpredictable adventuring. The story isn't quite as tightly woven as its predecessors, but in amongst its eventfulness and prolific domestic squabbling, the narrators' sorrows and insecurities provide a convincing psychological underpinning.

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

(2) K-3 Goodale (Windows, rev. 11/17; Under the Lilacs, rev. 7/20) presents a gentle rumination on space and time, memory, and the enduring love of family. "Today, I am at my gramma's house, high on the hill, amongst the blueberry bushes," begins the adolescent narrator, her gaze open-heartedly trained on readers from a sun-dappled spread. "And also..." Now, with a page-turn, and in a muted purply palette, she's shown as a younger child: "...I am remembering camping with Mama," with a small adventure in the woods. The story continues, shifting to the grandmother: "Today, my gramma is at the kitchen, watching me from the window. And also... / ...she is remembering being a little girl in her mother's garden." The girl's mother's recollections (and those of the grandmother's cat) follow, before returning to the narrator. Now, as an adult, she's writing this very book while recalling--and re-illustrating, with subtle differences--her time at her grandmother's. The book concludes: "We are all here...and also there. / Always." It's a heady observation made somewhat more concrete and accessible by ­Goodale's finely attuned sense of childlike wonder and the illustrations' (made from monoprint, gouache, and blueberry ink) thoughtful compositions. A red bird on every spread helps situate viewers in place and time, past and present.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2022

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Geraldine Rodríguez. Fourth grader Mihi Whan Park, who loves fairy tales and princesses, wants nothing more than to fit in at school, a place where microaggressions abound. A botched game of Snow White results in Mihi's being sent indoors to the library for recess, where she meets two other misfits, Reese and Savannah. Though the three girls are vastly different--Reese is curious and inventive, Savannah is quiet and cautious, and Mihi is headstrong and bold--they share a love of princess stories and adventure. These qualities and their common interests come in handy when they discover a magical portal in the school librarian's fridge that takes them to the Rainbow Forest, where they find themselves in training to become royalty. But it turns out that learning how to be a princess isn't as easy or as much fun as Mihi expects. The Rainbow Forest is full of mystery and danger and is home to several classic Western fairy-tale characters, including Sleeping Beauty and Goldilocks's three bears. In a tale of kinship and self-discovery, Keller conveys the isolation one feels when faced with racism and stereotypes without steering readers away from the primary story line. In her quest for belonging and creating her own perfect fairy tale, Mihi finds that genuine friendship is what she needed all along.

Reviewer: Gabi K. Huesca | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2022

(2) 4-6 Walt and his family relocate to the boring town of Blackbird Bay the summer before seventh grade. His friends are back in L.A., and his twin sister, Van, spends most of her time at the skate park. To make matters worse, his father is forcing him to play football even though all he wants to do is make maps. Walt spends hours analyzing maps of locations near and far, and he treasures his time with his map of Djaruba, a fantasy world he's been creating for years. One day, after a morning of sulking, Walt learns that his special interest is not just a hobby: he can make maps come to life. But the excitement over his newfound ability is short-lived because another mapmaker is destroying worlds, and the former residents of those worlds believe that all mapmakers, including Walt, must be stopped. With the help of Van and his new friend Dylan, Walt has to learn to harness his powers and thwart the malevolent mapmaker before all worlds, including Earth, are destroyed. This is an exciting adventure full of friendship and heart with a likable nerdy-Black-kid protagonist. Although the magic system could use more description, readers will enjoy the well-drawn characters as well as the fantastical landscapes and imaginative creatures in Walt's magical world.

Reviewer: S. R. Toliver | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2022

(2) 4-6 At the start of this thought-provoking sci-fi novel, Abby, twelve, is unhappy and pessimistic: she misses her old life in Pennsylvania (her family has moved to Florida's Space Coast for her physicist mom's job) and obsesses about societal and environmental ills. Then she meets Adam and Bix, who tell her they've come "from a long distance away" and are on an urgent mission to find Adam's lost sister, Vanessa; in fact, they're from the twenty-third century. Adam allows Abby a glimpse of that future, a world of "creation, possibility, exploration, and abundance," and Abby instantly decides that she wants to live there. She promises to do all she can to help Adam and Bix if they agree to take her with them when they go. The tension of the boys' quest will keep readers invested (the future isn't totally perfect; if they don't find Vanessa ASAP, an alien pathogen will be released into Earth's population). But Abby's situation is equally engrossing: should she stay, or should she go? She considers all she'd be leaving behind--friends; family; the community she's just starting to feel at home in; and, most of all, the chance to make a difference in her own time. The twist at the end may not be the most original, but it allows for a happy ending readers will embrace.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(2) 4-6 The Octavius family is notable for producing Callers--people with the ability to summon objects seemingly out of thin air. Quintus Octavius, however, has never been successful at Calling anything. This does not sit well with his mother, Elipsom's Chief Councilor, and she makes sure he passes his Calling exam by enlisting his sister to Call for him. Cheating doesn't help Quin's already low confidence, but it's at this point that he accidentally transports himself across their world to Evantra, where he will grow to understand the truth about Callers, Elipsom's history, and his mother's complicity in depleting Evantra's resources for Elipsom's gain. Set in an evocatively realized fantasy world with, in Elipsom's case, a futuristic feel, this is a moving and complex story about the discomfort and reward of doing what is right. Thomas's debut middle-grade novel is a clever critique of the ­consumerism that we might take for granted. She tackles serious topics with wit, charm, and a few flying rhinodrites along the way.

Reviewer: Sarah Berman | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2022

(2) YA In this horror novel grounded in a real-world setting, sixteen-year-old Raquel's life is upended when her friend disappears--part of a pattern of unexplained disappearances--and her mother is hospitalized due to a mysterious illness. Raquel is ­tormented by apparitions that lead her to understand that an evil force, "the Slumlord," is holding and "warping" many of the things she holds dear in a suspended state of reality that can be accessed only through a viral online challenge. As Raquel tries to save her mom, she and her friends risk everything to find answers. Along the way, she begins to understand who she is as a young queer woman and as part of a lineage of ­Dominicans who have stood up to injustice. Tirado's inventive imagination provides a heart-rending parable (including scenes of violence and trauma) that utilizes fantasy and spiritualism to cultivate a deeper understanding of systemic disenfranchisement of Dominican and other ­Afro-Latine immigrant communities. The author (a nonbinary Afro-Latine Bronx native) has personal ­connections that inform the thoughtful, creative depiction of lived experiences that many readers will find relatable. The sounds, smells, spirits, and shadows of the Bronx are vividly portrayed with lively language, making the fantastical seem totally possible.

Reviewer: Nicholas A. Brown | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2022

(1) YA "It is, and has been, June 23, 2020, for nine months now." Global time has inexplicably paused. The U.S. government has created a new school curriculum called "Solution Time" that instructs students "to solve the world's time problem...figure it out / be sufficiently distracted." Sixteen-year-old Truda believes "the universe noticed we're falling apart and we need to learn how to rest," but she's having a hard time crafting a thesis that proves it, because her concentration is shot by confusing dramas at home: her mother's departure; her brooding older brother's odd hours; her sadistic, banished sister's lies. And Truda's father is building a maze of plywood boxes around a mysterious switch in their house. But the most unsettling development is Truda's bizarre new ability to stop time within stopped time. She becomes convinced that the switch in her house is the key and works to dismantle the boxes to discover the truth. Through an intentionally oblique text with occasional refrains ("to understand anything is to understand energy") and ideas coexisting within sentences, sometimes separated by slashes, King (Printz winner for Dig., rev. 3/19) explores the meaning of time and the toxicity of family secrets. This inventive, surreal novel's dedication, "For the class of 2020," makes a direct address to real-life teens' "lost" COVID-19 year.

Reviewer: Jennifer Hubert Swan | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2021

(2) YA This original and suspenseful fantasy explores perceptions and understandings of space, time, identity, environmentalism, communication, and "the rightness of home." Nina, a human, is determined to translate a haunting Spanish and Lipan Apache oral story passed down by her late great-great-grandmother. Oli, a cottonmouth snake and animal person from the "world of spirits of monsters," will do anything to save his toad friend Ami, who has become ill because his Earth equivalent species is near extinction. Nina's and Oli's worlds are connected; a portal between them has something to do with a "pseudosun" in Oli's Reflecting World and temperature and magnetic anomalies on Nina's family land. The two characters eventually unite and together deal with a trickster mockingbird; an untrustworthy internet influencer; severe weather; and the threat of violent, cultish followers of a power-hungry "King" (a.k.a. "the Nightmare") who aims to be the only immortal left on Earth. They also use magic and learn why Nina's grandmother's health mysteriously declines whenever she leaves the family's land. Chapters alternate in voice and perspective, with the characters' worlds skillfully delineated and stories masterfully woven together. Modern dialogue, which offers further depth to characterization, intermingles with elements of traditional storytelling and family history, creating an imaginative and multilayered work of speculative fiction.

Reviewer: Elisa Gall | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2021

(2) 4-6 Héctor Muñoz's life is upended when his family relocates from San Francisco to the ­Sacramento suburbs. He enters his new middle school with high hopes of finding his people in the drama club, only to realize that his new school is nothing like his old one, which was more diverse and accepting. Accustomed to bold fashion choices and having a larger-than-life presence, Héctor quickly finds himself at the "Table of Misfits" in the cafeteria. After he is bullied for being openly gay and Mexican American, Héctor discovers an unexpected escape in the form of a janitor's closet. The room turns out to be a magical portal to respite when it's needed--and also a means of support, as the portal transports students in similar situations from other schools to the same room. Oshiro brings readers close to the protagonist--and to common middle-school ­experiences--through a running narration of Héctor's internal dialogue. The story is infused with thoughtful references to Mexican American life in California, from Héctor's learning how to make tamales from his abuela to chilled glasses of horchata providing just what the doctor ordered while he hides from his tormentor. The story's plot is fantastical, but the lessons imparted about standing up for yourself and asking for help will resonate with anyone who has experienced bullying. An appreciation of intersectional identity and a story of resilience.

Reviewer: Nicholas A. Brown | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2021

(2) 4-6 Jadie Martin isn't your typical thirteen-year-old. In her spare time she hops out of three-dimensional space and reenters elsewhere to make tiny but ­consequential "course corrections" to the fate of humankind as ordered by the Seers, ­­super-intelligent beings from a higher dimension. One day she comes across some startling information about the family who (supposedly) abandoned her as an infant before she was rescued by her adoptive parents. Jadie learns that, rather than rejecting her, her birth family loves her very much, but the Seers seem focused on orchestrating a string of bad luck for them far beyond what chance would dictate. Could the Seers have misled everyone about their true intentions? Inspired by Flatland, the 1884 novella by Edwin Abbott Abbott, which imagined two-dimensional beings encountering a three-dimensional shape, Salerni threads a healthy dose of theoretical physics through the plot line, which should please young sci-fi fans. Well-earned reversals in the developing action will keep less mathematically minded readers engaged, while refreshingly un-clichéd characterization steers the narrative clear of tired tropes. While many middle-grade novels ask "What if...?" Jadie's adventures give the question real teeth.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2021

(2) 4-6 Through an attention-grabbing text and distinctive graphite illustrations, Selznick (The Invention of Hugo Cabret, rev. 3/07; The Marvels, rev. 9/15) presents an enigmatic yet engrossing work. In three sections (Morning, Afternoon, and Evening), but adhering to no formal plot line, Selznick weaves together recurring concepts, themes, and imagery across space and time, with a character named James--himself ever-changing--being the most reliable constant. An apple serves as a gift from a young boy to an invisible giant; later, the fruit begins a seventy-five-thousand-page entry in a widower's reference book. Other motifs--books, spiders, angels, ancient Egypt, shipwrecks, changelings, mythology, keys--appear intermittently. Each brief chapter is prefaced by an arresting double-page abstraction that resembles the view through a kaleidoscope, followed by a representational image--literally drawing the reader into the next story. Selznick's text is deeply sensory, tactile, and intimate, with a notable emphasis placed on the importance of human contact ("I wanted to hold those notebooks again because it would be like holding him again"). The appended author's note explains that the work was largely written during pandemic isolation. A sense of closure is implied through the book's three-part structure; however, meaning and interpretation are (perhaps frustratingly for some) left to the individual reader, and likely to evolve upon re-reading.

Reviewer: Patrick Gall | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2022

(2) 4-6 Chronicle of the Dark Star series. In this trilogy-closer, teens Liam and Phoebe (an alien Telphon) discover the force behind the destruction of their planets: an artificial intelligence called the Dark Star. By way of apology, the Dark Star creates an alternate universe with a new Earth for human refugees to inhabit and expands Liam's time-traveling abilities--but can she be trusted? Interest never lags as deceptions are unwound, temptations resisted, and humanity saved.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2019

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Dapo Adeola. Like many kids, African American cousins Otto and Sheed Alston want just one more day of summer vacation. They get their wish when they accidentally freeze time and find their town visited by denizens from the "interdimensional community." Giles presents a page-turning magical fantasy adventure with broad appeal in which his protagonists use their considerable talents to save not only their town but also themselves.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2019

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Emily Gravett. Ember's wicked uncle leads her into a world where the dead dwell, but Ember sees this treachery as an opportunity to bring back her deceased best friend Ness. Harrold's spare text invites slow, considered reading, with occasional passages resembling poetry. Gravett's illustrations effectively use color within the shadowy and otherwise black-and-white afterworld. The author/illustrator pair invent imaginatively creepy magic to explore the difficulty, and necessity, of accepting loss.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2019

(3) 4-6 Feisty Cleopatra, savior of the Nile galaxy, returns for a fifth graphic novel in which readers learn the surprising backstory of her nemesis Octavian. The action is fast and furious, per usual, with Cleo dodging a murder charge, unmasking P.Y.R.A.M.I.D. spies, and grappling with her strange new power: she glows hot-pink before emitting powerful energy bursts. Cinematic, jewel-toned panels get the sci-fi-meets-ancient-Egypt vibe just right.

Reviewer: Tanya D. Auger

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Marianne Ferrer. During a visit to her grandmother, young Arianne adventures through time and space in the garden--flying with dragonflies, swimming with fish, and catching a star with her butterfly net. Ferrer's soft, otherworldly illustrations, which play with size, shape, and perspective, pull the reader through Arianne's apparent dream. The book would work better if wordless; the few words are unnecessary and feel like an afterthought.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(1) K-3 Robinson offers a smart, sly, and imaginative wordless story about a girl and her cat embarking on a fantastical adventure. The girl follows the cat through a portal into another dimension--and another and another, each time prompting readers to turn the book. After encountering her own double, the girl (plus cat) finally makes it back home. A subtle visual punch line at book's end will reward careful viewers.

Reviewer: Megan Dowd Lambert | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2019