(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) 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

(2) 4-6 Originally sent to Earth to observe and gather data, a trio of extraterrestrial smart-mass-holograph-research-units (SMHRs) discovers an interdimensional tear that allows negative energy into our world. Overstepping their mission, the SMHRs recruit four youngsters to save Earth. Humor, particularly surrounding the SMHRs' appearance, breaks the tension, while short chapters with exciting cliffhangers propel the plot at a quick pace.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2019

(4) 4-6 Edmund is a changeling living with above-ground humans, swapped at birth with a human (known only as the Childe), who lives in the World Below as a fay prince. When the fay kingdom is invaded, Edmund and the Childe team up to save it. This standalone graphic novel's characters and lore could be more deeply developed, but interesting design elements bring both worlds to life.

Reviewer: Jessica Costello

(4) YA When Kiva, who believes she lives in ancient Egyptian times, awakes from that virtual reality, she's shocked to discover herself on a shuttle to retrieve a part for a spaceship--and leading the mission is Seth, the boy she'd thought was the prince of Alexandria. Although the world-building is thin and the author plays fast-and-loose with reader credulity, the emotional drama should please romance fans.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(3) 4-6 Edison Beaker has his trusty flashlight to protect him from monsters, and he's going to need it when he and little sister Tesla stumble into the Underwhere, another world filled with monsters. This colorful graphic novel borrows heavily from Ghostbusters but features enough kid pleasing humor ("'He said underwear' giggle chortle") and a protagonist so charismatic that the familiar premise can be forgiven.

Reviewer: Jessica Costello

(3) YA Elsa leaves Veldana--a world written into existence through "scriptology"--to find her abducted mother; she ends up in an alternate nineteenth-century Italy, where scriptologists, mechanists, and alchemists wield great power. Elsa's own polymath powers make her a political target, but a society of young scientists, including charming mechanist Leo, may be able to help. Lush steampunk world-building and plenty of action characterize this alternate-history fantasy.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(3) 4-6 It's been just Griffin and his dad running a lighthouse on the Oregon coast since Griffin's mother died three years ago. When beings from a parallel world called Somni kidnap his father, Griffin follows in hopes of rescuing him. Reminiscent of A Wrinkle in Time, this is a well-paced fantasy-adventure with intriguing characters, surprising plot twists, and a cliffhanger ending that leaves room for a possible sequel.

Reviewer: Rita Soltan

(4) YA Violet and her fellow fans of dystopian novel The Gallows Dance are transported from Comic-Con to the story's world. When they inadvertently cause the death of protagonist Rose, Violet must live out Rose's role in the grim tale. The novel derives some interesting scenes from the premise of exploring a favorite story from within, but the eventual explanation of the magic is convoluted.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(2) 4-6 Chronicle of the Dark Star series. In the aftermath of Earth's sun going supernova and the alien attack at Saturn base (Last Day on Mars), teens Liam and Phoebe plan to rendezvous with colonists at refueling-station planet Delphi. But Phoebe has a secret: she's not human. Rife with tension, time travel, and unexpected twists, this conceptually expansive science-fiction novel relies strongly on the human element to grab--and hold--readers' sympathies.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2018

(1) 4-6 Ten-year-old Fidge, feeling responsible for her little sister Minnie's serious injury, is sucked into Wimbley Land, the embodiment of Minnie's imaginative life (based on her favorite book and peopled with stuffed toys). Sensible, energetic, resilient Fidge must locate Wed Wabbit, Wimbley Land's new dictator (really Minnie's toy rabbit), and return him to Minnie. This laugh-out-loud, inventive tale wears its messages lightly and keeps its satire and slapstick bouncy.

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

(4) 4-6 Illustrated by Michael Fry. After saving Christmas (The Naughty List), Bobbie returns to normal life until her elf friends reappear asking for help closing the Trans-Dimensional portal. She grudgingly agrees, only to have Grumpus try to use her nightmare to terrorize the real world. A frantic pace, haphazard encounters, and Bobbie's near-constant complaining may annoy readers, but there's plenty of anarchic humor and comics-style illustrations to enjoy.

Reviewer: Russell Perry

(4) YA Five siblings fall through a glowing blue window in their living room and find themselves in a hostile dystopia. After many hair's-breadth escapes, each sibling learns to use his or her own new magic power to restore the world to a generous, nurturing regime. Sexism, environmentalism, and the terrifying and contagious nature of mob hysteria are some of many moral issues Gewirtz tangles with in this lengthy, slow-moving fantasy.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker

(3) 4-6 Twins Colm and Mal are less than thrilled when their mom moves them from Dallas to Chicago. Things get interesting, however, after they discover they can visit a ghostly parallel dimension via their new apartment building. The ghosts' personalities and the crackly atmosphere they inhabit are well drawn, and Colm and Mal's race to break a curse lends urgency to the plot.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(2) 4-6 A generations-old secret related to their great-grandfathers splits nine-year-old "soul mates" Stuey and Elly into alternate realities. From here Hautman unfolds a dark tale involving families falling apart, woodlands being destroyed, and suspicion landing on innocent parties, but it's also a tender story of the friends' continuing connection. This is an intricately woven, affecting novel about the power of friendship, the corrosiveness of secrets, and the mysterious possibilities of the world.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2018