(2) YA Illustrated by Jo Rioux. In graphic novel form, Anderson (Yvain, rev. 3/17; The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge, rev. 9/18) and Rioux (The Golden Twine) tell the traditional Breton story of the enchanted underwater city of Ys. Sisters Rozenn and Dahut mourn their faerie mother, whose magic has fed their father's lust for wealth and created the famous undersea city. Now motherless, Rozenn pursues her love of the natural world and lives in the wild, while Dahut takes up her maternal heritage of magic, sustaining her father and his riches through shipwrecks and murder. When Dahut notices Rozenn's affection for a fisherman, she tests his loyalty and, inadvertently, her own, with disastrous consequences for the city of Ys. Rioux's graphics stress the magical effects and action elements of the folktale, with a shadowy, subdued palette and abundant, inventive sound effects. Both transport us to a world that seems beyond language itself, a dangerous confluence of nature's forces. At the same time, Anderson's dialogue contemporizes events, allowing the tale's psychological underpinnings to show through the weird, otherworldly drama. "What are we going to do without Mom?" mourns Dahut as the story begins. Final panels locate the story near Brittany's perilous shore of Finisterre.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2020

(1) YA Illustrated by Eugene Yelchin. Historian and diplomat (and spy) Brangwain Spurge has been sent from Elfland to the neighboring goblin kingdom. He befriends his host, goblin archivist Werfel. Unbeknownst to them both, however, their nations are preparing for war. Pen-and-ink illustrations resembling medieval lithographs represent Spurge's not-always-reliable spy reports; with touches of humor, whimsy, irony, and menace, they're well suited to both the acerbic wit and the affecting tenderness of Anderson's prose.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2018

(3) YA Also written by Jennifer Donnelly, Candace Fleming, Stephanie Hemphill, Deborah Hopkinson, Linda Sue Park, and Lisa Ann Sandell. In first-person narratives by six female authors, each of Henry VIII's wives gives a retrospective account of the loves, flirtations, and political maneuverings that brought about the end of her time as Henry's queen. Between wives, Anderson offers Henry's perspective, musing on his loves and lusts; Anderson's sly rendering reveals the depths of the king's complacency and egotism.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Kevin Hawkes. A boy lives happily in quiet isolation at the End of the World until the effusive Constantine Shimmer decides to build a resort there. The invasion that follows introduces the narrator to the joys of friendship but also teaches him to discriminate between excitement and happiness. Hawkes's illustrations celebrate natural beauty and sparkle with wit.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(2) YA Illustrated by Andrea Offermann. This graphic-novel retelling of a twelfth-century epic poem about young knight-errant Sir Yvain's marriage to widow Lady Laudine puts as much emphasis on Laudine's sorrow as on Yvain's adventures. It's a tempestuous counter-story that challenges perceived notions of love by examining women's roles in relationships and society. Anderson's spare narration is set against Offermann's muted tones, detailed panels, sweeping spreads, and turbulent motifs.

Reviewer: Roxanne Hsu Feldman | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2017

(1) YA Alien "vuvv" have colonized America's economy, land, and airspace, resulting in pollution, poverty, and illness. Narrator Adam hopes to save his family by winning the vuvv art competition--he knows they prefer bland still lifes, but he can't prevent himself from painting honestly, with dark realism. Anderson's prose is hyper-lucid; practically every word reflects a bitingly precise critique of contemporary human folly, of economic and environmental inequities and absurdities.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2017

(2) YA This ambitious, sometimes unwieldy, work encompasses the life of composer Shostakovich, the early political history of the U.S.S.R., and the nation's suffering during WWII. Initially inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution, Shostakovich's music changed during Stalin's Reign of Terror. The centerpiece is his Leningrad Symphony, which offered both catharsis and hope. Extensive black-and-white photographs help define the wide range of subjects and settings. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Lauren Adams | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2015

(2) 4-6 Pals in Peril Tale series. Jasper Dash, Boy Technonaut, builds a transporter to beam himself to another planet. He's captured by the Dirrillill, a creature planning to conquer the universe; only Jasper, friends Katie and Lily, and Mrs. Dash stand a chance of stopping him. The fast pace, oddball characters (shown in black-and-white spot art), and humor in this series-ender will appeal to readers looking for vicarious adventure.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2014

(4) 4-6 Norumbegan Quartet series. "Brian just wanted it all to be over. He wished he and his best friend could just leave the Great Body and never come back." With this volume, Anderson wraps up what seems to be an experiment in world-building for world-building's sake. But fans of the series will be satisfied with this conclusion to Anderson's subversive take on portal fantasy adventure.

Reviewer: Rebecca Hachmyer

(2) 4-6 Pals in Peril Tale series. Illustrated by Kurt Cyrus. This fifth book in Anderson's good-humored satirical series gives new life to the paranormal horror novel. Lily, Jasper Dash, Katie, and Drgnan Pghlik must free Lily's mom from the clutches of a ghost--and themselves from the scorn of a snotty it-girl. Luckily, they kill two birds with one stone. Black-and-white illustrations aptly combine the hair-raising with the tongue-in-cheek.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2011

(3) 4-6 Norumbegan Quartet series. "Running down an alley...being chased by small clockwork monsters with razor blades on stalks...Gregory felt that perhaps he needed to make some changes in how he spent his free time." In their third story, Gregory and Brian go down the rabbit hole (in this case an esophagus). Fans of the bizarre and imaginative series will enjoy the pair's latest adventures.

Reviewer: Rebecca Hachmyer

(3) 4-6 Norumbegan Quartet series. Gregory and Brian (The Game of Sunken Places) become involved in a dispute between two tribes of elfin creatures. Their mission takes them to a creepy suburb in Vermont, where people are being swallowed into the walls of their houses and the fate of the world is at stake. Like a good horror flick, the story is both disgusting and entertaining.

Reviewer: Chelsey Philpot

(3) 4-6 Pals in Peril Tale series. Illustrated by Kurt Cyrus. On the heels of their last escapade (Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware), Lily, Katie, and Jasper still face a harrowing journey through the mythical state where vowels have gone extinct and agents from the feared Ministry of Silence strive to capture them and win fabulous prizes. Rousing chase scenes and the series' signature absurdist embellishments--sentient lobsters!--enliven Anderson's adventure-story spoof.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann

(2) 4-6 Pals in Peril Tale series. Illustrated by Kurt Cyrus. In Stilts, a stilt-walking army of whales is about to take over the world. Lederhosen finds Katie, Jasper, and Lily involved in a mystery at the Moose Tongue Lodge and Resort. These volumes, featuring new cover art, have been repackaged as the Pals in Peril Tale series. Review covers these Pals in Peril Tale titles: The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen and Whales on Stilts!

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2006

(2) 4-6 Pals in Peril Tale series. Illustrated by Kurt Cyrus. In Stilts, a stilt-walking army of whales is about to take over the world. Lederhosen finds Katie, Jasper, and Lily involved in a mystery at the Moose Tongue Lodge and Resort. These volumes, featuring new cover art, have been repackaged as the Pals in Peril Tale series. Review covers these Pals in Peril Tale titles: The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen and Whales on Stilts!

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2005

(2) 4-6 Pals in Peril Tale series. Illustrated by Kurt Cyrus. Jasper, Katie, and Lily (Whales on Stilts, The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen) again save the world. A "competitive staring" contest begins the nonsense, setting off a chain of events in which the friends help monks retrieve stolen artifacts. Anderson stuffs every scene with exotic setting details; that the mystical locale is Delaware gives the story an added layer of absurdity.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2009

(1) YA Octavian and Dr. Trefusis escape the College of Lucidity. Their flight takes them to Boston then Virginia, where Octavian enlists in Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment in exchange for promised freedom. As themes of servitude and liberty volley around Octavian's journals like cannon fire, readers are kept off-balance while grappling with complex vocabulary and sentence structure. An author's note fills in historical background.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2008

(2) YA Young slave Octavian has received, as an experiment, a classical education; in a precise eighteenth-century voice, he narrates the details of his surreal life inside Boston's Novanglian College of Lucidity and also tells of the outside world, as the Revolutionary War begins. Anderson savages the hypocrisy of the nascent United States as only he can, creating an alternative narrative of our national mythology that simultaneously appalls and enthralls.

Reviewer: Vicky Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2006

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Kurt Cyrus. Lily Gefelty finds herself in the thick of the action when a visit to her dad's office convinces her that a stilt-walking army of whales is about to take over the world. This satire on the series book industry is populated with dense adults, resourceful kids, and a beguilingly impossible adversary. For series burnouts, the narrative gleefully revels in each cliché it exploits.

Reviewer: Vicky Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2005

(4) YA Norumbegan Quartet series. Gregory and Brian find themselves unwilling participants in a role-playing game, itself a mask for a larger struggle between two supernatural peoples. The writing is lively and often irreverent, and while individual scenes are often dramatically effective, the plot feels too improvised and thus less than suspenseful. Sleator's Interstellar Pig is a much more satisfying tale of high-stakes gaming.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton