(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Shawn Harris. Canine narrator Johannes lives wild in a park and serves as the Eyes, appointed by the penned-up Bison to report what he sees. The arrival of "rectangles full of nonsense" sets off a chain of events leading to collective animal scheming and to several worldview-expanding revelations for Johannes about his own origins and what's out there beyond the park. This introspective adventure holds the appeal of a new perspective on the familiar world as readers piece together the bigger picture of what Johannes observes. His narration, though confident on some matters, allows them to pick up on hints that he might not know as much as they do (have the Bison really ruled the park for "millions of years or more?") and then to watch him grow as he learns. Interspersed full-bleed spreads insert Johannes into existing landscape paintings, underscoring the idea that art changes his view of how he fits into the world.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Kelly Murphy. Eggers and Murphy have crafted an evocative story that centers imaginative play and gently explores loss. Set on an unspecified rocky shore, the narrative follows Lucian, a young beachcomber in search of what his father had called "faraway things." The (unexplained) absence of the boy's father permeates the illustrations (family photos, an empty chair, an oversized flannel shirt) and is reinforced through past-tense language. After a storm, Lucian discovers a cutlass, which becomes the focus of his play, from chopping driftwood to pretending to cut the sun in half. His fun comes to a dramatic halt as the ocean fog clears to reveal a stranded ship stuck on a nearby sandbar. An improbable and fanciful sequence of events follows--including the boat's captain identifying the cutlass as his own and striking up a deal to trade it back for one of his "treasures." Lucian swaps the sword for a lantern that he uses to relight the family's inoperative lighthouse, perhaps serving as both a tribute to his father and a healing step forward. The mixed-media illustrations depict a range of fascinating perspectives across wide double-page spreads. While most of the story is set against gorgeously atmospheric seascapes, a few interior scenes present visually jam-packed arrangements that encourage thorough examination. A pleasingly enigmatic tale.

Reviewer: Patrick Gall | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2021

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Woodrow White. Eggers, with input from students in a San Francisco Young Editors Project, captures an unusual visit from a child's grandmother in this imaginative adventure. The story is told from the point of view of the child, who has met his grandmother only once before. Dressed in a jacket that looks a lot like a jaguar's fur, the glam grandma gets on all fours and commands: "Let's be jaguars." The two venture outside and then, as we see in a double gatefold spread, into the woods. They explore outdoors with abandon, running across a lake, crossing a mountain, traversing the Himalayas, and more. Grandmother, as both human and jaguar, is a powerful and somewhat intimidating presence: at one point, as a jaguar, she eats a raw rabbit. Eggers spins phrases with an evocative beauty. They traverse the water "nimbly...like marbles on glass." Grandmother "laughed like great thunder and I laughed like lesser thunder." In his picture-book debut, painter White animates the pair's adventure in expansive, richly colored scenes that depict the murky, purple-hued shadows of the night, effectively establishing the book's mysterious, majestic tone. It all ends on a cryptic note: could his grandmother really be a jaguar? Either way, the peculiar journey is worth taking.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2021

(2) PS Illustrated by Angel Chang. A white tiger takes readers through a tour of common geographical features (valley, plain) and less commonly recognized ones (atoll, isthmus). Expansive double-page spreads illustrate these features in bold colors, while the white tiger holds readers' attention as they guess what it will do next with the yellow chair it carries strapped to its back. A little brown mouse--apparently the tiger's companion--also appears on nearly every double-page spread, giving readers a small detail to find. The one gatefold illustration (of a spectacular vista) shows an expansive sunset sky alight with reds, oranges, yellows, and purples--a sight the tiger, usually in perpetual motion, sits still to behold. Other animals appear along the tiger's route, including birds, a chipmunk, a bear, and even jellyfish in the illustration of the atoll, a formation created by an underwater volcano. The yellow chair's ultimate purpose is revealed, surprisingly and satisfyingly, on the final spread. As entertaining as it is educational, this book has much to offer young naturalists and budding scientists. An appended glossary pictures and briefly describes each geographical feature.

Reviewer: Michelle H. Martin | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2020

(2) PS Illustrated by Lane Smith. A young brown-skinned boy, cozy in bed, smiles up at his female caretaker. The imaginative story--told in soothing, rhyming text--proceeds with the many possibilities a day could hold, from the mundane to the playful (encountering a squirrel...named Stu) to the fantastical. The stylized mixed-media illustrations' bright colors and energetic, angular lines capture the boy's city neighborhood and its hypothetical goings-on.

Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2019

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Laura Park. Friends Abner, a duck, and Ian, a prairie dog, are stuck on the vertical edges of this book. With help from readers (à la Press Here) and after a few false starts, they eventually find their way to the correct orientation. Expressive cartoons, a strong sense of comic timing, and a simple text suited to new readers equal picture-book success.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Shawn Harris. "A citizen's not what you are--a citizen is what you do. / A citizen cannot forget the world is more than you." Harris's mixed-media illustrations roughly shape Eggers's rhyming text into a story about a diverse group of children working together to build an elaborate treehouse. Though the book may not solidify a reader's understanding of citizenship, it should spark discussion about it.

Reviewer: Bridget McCaffrey

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Shawn Harris. Eggers outlines the Statue of Liberty's history, leading to his well-made and worthy point about her right foot, poised to take a step: "the Statue of Liberty is an immigrant, too. And this is why she's moving." Arch posturings and twee asides surround interesting construction facts and heartfelt thoughts about the statue's meaning. Construction-paper collages aren't always stylistically coherent, but individual illustrations are frequently arresting. Reading list.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2017