(1) 4-6 It's summer, and ten-year-old Jojo and her three sisters have to entertain themselves because their romance-novel writer mom has a book due ("Mom on deadline was not nearly as fun as Mom not on deadline"). Banished outside, with their new friend, Theo, they make the most of their books, art supplies, and snacks. Things get more interesting, however, when a fairy turns up. Roland, "small and greenish and personlike," is demanding and very grubby. The story turns off-kilter and cheeky as we realize that Roland and his world are simultaneously real and a product of Jojo's storytelling imagination. (There's also an authorial voice that breaks through occasionally.) Cue trouble in fairyland and kids to the rescue. Bouwman pulls off this energetic slipperiness with such confidence and brio that we almost don't notice that the underlying story is one of bereavement, as the girls are coping with the death of their grandmother. The writing is a complete delight of originality and specificity: "It was an odd kind of flapping, not the sound that bird wings make in our world, but the sound that wings without flesh or feathers might make--sort of like twigs swooshing quickly through the air. But more creaky, like wicker." Reliably funny, never once twee, clever in the way of kids and fairies, and authentically moving.

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

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Yuko Shimizu. In this companion to A Crack in the Sea, Bouwman elegantly twists and twirls two narrations: Raftworlder Putnam and Islander Artie's quest at sea in "the present: 1949," and Princess Rayel's journey a century earlier. An intentional folkloric sensibility is palpable as they encounter fantastical beings and places in the "second world," shown in Shimizu's occasional, dramatic black-and-white illustrations. An engaging, original coming-of-age story with an unpredictable, adventurous plot.

Reviewer: Monica Edinger | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2019

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Yuko Shimizu. After Kinchen's brother is kidnapped from their fantastical island world, their adoptive grandfather tells Kinchen the story of twins horrifically tossed off a slave ship in 1781. A third narrative strand emerges with a group desperately fleeing 1978 Vietnam in a boat. Bouwman keeps her characters' journeys--physical and emotional--front and center. Vivid interspersed black-and-white illustrations add to the drama.

Reviewer: Monica Edinger | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2017

(3) 4-6 Lucy is a native Colay whose island home is overtaken by the Anglish, prisoners banished from Britain. After the Colay men turn to stone, Lucy, fearing for her baby brother, reluctantly pairs with Snowcap, the bratty "child governor" of the Anglish colony, to reverse the enchantment. Bouwman's alternate history effectively incorporates fantasy elements and a message about the importance of stories.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz