(3) YA Colt's dentist father, Rex, appears to be a loving parent who gives his boys only the best. But Colt knows that, with Rex, "there's always some small cruelty." When the children in their new neighborhood become enamored with Rex, Colt wonders if Rex's wrongness is something only he sees. A mature, quiet, and intense story in which children suffer consequences for adult wickedness.

Reviewer: Sian Gaetano

(1) 4-6 Twelve-year-old Cecily, her older brother Jeremy, and their mother flee WWII London for the safety of Uncle Peregrine's country manor. Once there, Cecily discovers two boys hiding in some nearby ruins. Hartnett's gift for language deftly conveys both the sublime and the mundane in life. She grounds the book's fantasy elements with a heartfelt examination of the hardships endured by civilians in wartime.

Reviewer: Russell Perry | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2014

(2) 1-3 Illustrated by Ann James. Hannah's hands, Sadie and Ratz, often get her into trouble, such as when they jump onto the head of her little brother and try to rub his ears off. This sibling rivalry tale, told in the first person, is more psychologically sophisticated than usual for an early chapter book, but the sensitive drawings and clever book design add to the emotional clarity of Hannah's journey.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2012

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Andrea Offermann. During World War II, two Romany boys and their baby sister find themselves in a zoo inhabited by talking animals. They share their stories--of brutality, courage, despair, and hope--then the narrative shifts to an escape journey. Hartnett's particular combination of crystal-edged realism and operatic scope makes for a riveting read, leaving one to examine the whole notion of civilization versus wildness.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2011

(1) YA Almost-fourteen-year-old Plum both craves and fears her imminent passage into adulthood. As the school year starts, the threads of her life--her scheming social circle, her rapt friendship with married neighbor Maureen, her approaching birthday party--converge in disaster. Hartnett's dense, sensory prose captures the misery roiling beneath the surface of Plum's awkward, average existence in this tender, brutal novel.

Reviewer: Claire E. Gross | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2010

(2) YA What does it mean to love someone? Hartnett explores the hidden places of the human heart in this poignant, bittersweet fable of a young boy, an old woman, and the strange, ethereal young man she loved. In addition to Harnett's masterful prose and keen understanding of human nature, the story's melancholy air of frustrated romance should prove alluring to teens.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2008

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Don Powers. In a provocative, timely, and elegantly honed tale about war's toll on innocents, sisters Coco, eight, and Marcelle, ten, discover an English soldier hiding near their French village. They bring the WWI deserter food; he tells them allegorical stories inspired by a silver donkey given to him by his terminally ill brother. Occasional full-page black-and-white art deftly suggests setting and mood.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2006

(3) YA Stark images of a decaying rural Australian town intertwine with an intriguing environmental mystery sparked when Satchel, a young man at once trapped by and stubbornly loyal to his boyhood home, glimpses what might be a supposedly extinct Tasmanian tiger. Distinctive supporting characters, such as Satchel's mentally ill, fanatically religious father, add to the engrossing drama.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann

(2) YA A chilling itinerary of three missing siblings' last known whereabouts opens this novel. The tangible absence of the missing children hovers forlornly behind the main story about a boy named Adrian who fairly oozes unhappiness, no matter how much he intends to remain docile and unnoticed. Despite the story's lack of hope, Hartnett's prose shines with a harsh but beckoning light.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2003

(2) YA Harper Flute narrates her family's saga, which appears destined for grimness even before Tin, the middle boy, discovers an unnatural penchant for digging and begins tunneling out a subterranean realm beneath his family's shanty. Tin is a primitive who, by living below the surface, achieves an almost mythic power in this odd, unsettling novel set in Depression-era Australia.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2002

(3) YA In an unsettling story, twenty-three-year-old Ravel Kesby thinks that his twin brother, Indigo, has killed their parents, who have disappeared. Staying in their parents' house, the twins become dysfunctional and addicted to each other--one psyche in two bodies. The book is an intriguing exercise in ambiguity and an ambitious and haunting journey into the realm of insanity.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.