(2) PS Illustrated by Charlotte Voake. A grandmother and toddler grandchild spend a day on a stormy beach sharing the classic seashore pleasures of dodging waves, challenging the wind, watching birds, gathering seaweed, greeting dogs, and sorting shells. Hesse's rhythmic text in rhyming couplets avoids sounding singsongy with thoughtful punctuation and page design. The first line summarizes the whole story: "Granny and Bean went walking one day / in the sand, by the sea, with the sky all gray." This plainspoken text provides a foundation for Voake's atmospheric mixed-media illustrations in which the interplay of gray and white in sky, sea, shadow, and rain is celebrated. Against this dynamic, impressionistic background, Granny and Bean, in glowing primary block colors, are sturdy and joyful. Granny's bright yellow slicker tells us much of what we need to know about her. A curlew and beach grass on dunes suggest a specific location, but the relationship between a small child and an adult who has the time and patience to wander, who doesn't mind wet feet, and who provides a sustaining snack at just the right moment feels universal. A fine addition to "going for a walk with a grandparent" stories.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2022

(3) K-3 Illustrated by G. Brian Karas. On Friday nights, a young boy accompanies his father to his job cleaning a school. While the book quietly highlights their loving bond, it is loud in its admirable message that not everyone's job or home life is the same. The poetic text combines with the mixed-media illustrations' inspired use of light throughout to create a dreamy atmosphere.

Reviewer: Kari Allen

(3) PS Illustrated by Rich Deas. "I love my thumb, I truly do. / It tastes of pears and carrot stew." A thumb-sucker's ode to her favorite digit admits her habit's downside ("You make it hard to run, / and beat a drum, / and eat a plum") but concludes with renewed commitment as the last tenderhearted illustration shows her asleep, thumb in mouth. When the rhymes are sappy, it's with winking awareness.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) YA When news of the U.S. president's assassination reaches Radley (who's volunteering at a Haitian orphanage), she's desperate to get home. Government clampdown aside, Radley returns to Vermont to find her parents gone. She hikes to Canada, hoping for a reunion. Tense pacing and bleak scenarios give the story its weight. Photographs by Hesse underscore the darkness and also offer hope in nature.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Wendy Watson. Narrator Jack and his siblings Maybelle and Eddie look forward to a delicious potato fry with spuds they glean from a neighbor's field. But the siblings' harvest turns out to be more stone than starch, and their proud Ma makes them return what they took. The old-fashioned-looking illustrations, done in muted earth tones, enhance the story's gentle lesson in integrity.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(2) 4-6 In 1903 Brooklyn, fourteen-year-old Joe dreams of Coney Island. Interspersed throughout the story of Joe's family (based on Russian Jews who created the first teddy bear) are third-person segments that poetically describe homeless children living under the Brooklyn Bridge. The narrative includes tightly interwoven elements of multiple genres--adventure, romance, comedy, drama, ghost story--without compromising authenticity of plot or character.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2008

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Wendy Watson. A little girl (perhaps ten years old) narrates this story of wartime Poland, describing her visits with the abandoned cats in Krasinski Square and how they came to be helpers in a scheme to smuggle food into the Warsaw Ghetto. Both author and artist achieve a fine balance of beauty and sadness. Simple, graceful words and pictures make this adventure story a taut and moving one.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2004

(4) 4-6 Despite some deftly written entries, Hesse's third free-verse novel doesn't provide a clear picture of either the young narrator (Vera, who's half-Aleutian, half-white) or the book's historical events (the relocation of hundreds of Aleuts during World War II). Some of the poems are quite graceful, conveying much in just a few lines, but in general, the format doesn't serve the author well.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2004

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Brian Pinkney. This impressionistic survey spans eight hundred centuries of Jewish history. In each of eight four-page sections, a free-verse passage from the point of view of a young witness or participant reflects on the strength that Hanukkah provides. It isn't clear if the narratives are based on actual individuals, and the voices sound a similar lyricism that accumulates into sentimentality. The art's energy lies in its vibrant layered colors.

Reviewer: Susan P. Bloom | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2003

(4) YA Eleven different voices record the Ku Klux Klan's effects on a Vermont town in 1924. Many of the fictional cast (two children and nine adults) feel more like types than complex individuals. The free-verse format works well for some characters, but with others, the entries sound heavy and obviously staged. Witness has a compelling story to tell, but one that is too complex to work effectively in this format.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2001

(3) 4-6 A fourteen-year-old Jewish girl, living with her two sisters and their aunt in 1918 Boston, is sent away from home when an influenza epidemic hits the city. Hannah survives her own bout with the flu and finds refuge on the farm of an old German man. A mysterious angelic figure assists Hannah along the way--adding an unusual mystical element to this quietly effective historical narrative.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker. Hesse has taken the few and meager facts known about Nicholas Young, an eleven-year-old stowaway aboard Captain James Cook's ship Endeavour in the year 1768, and elaborated them into a full-blown novel. Her compelling storytelling and clever pacing command the reader's attention, even while reflecting the rhythms of the journey, which include doldrums as well as swift sailing.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2001

(3) 4-6 Dear America series. This well-paced story features a seamless combination of history, sociology, drama, and romance. When Amelia's father takes a position as an assistant lighthouse keeper on an island near the Delaware coast, the fifteen-year-old discovers her own life's work, and love, as she watches her parents' marriage, and her beloved country, fall apart. Included are an author's note, an essay about the era, and period photographs.

Reviewer: Amy Lois Cohn

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Jon J Muth. Hesse explores the anticipation and joy of a summer storm following weeks without rain in an urban neighborhood. In their bathing suits, four friends stand outside as the rain descends, and their infectious joy quickly spreads to their mothers, who come out and dance with their daughters. Beautifully drafted watercolor paintings illustrate the lyrical text, creating a wonderful sense of atmosphere.

Reviewer: Leo Landry | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 1999

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker. Repeating third grade and frustrated over her inability to read, Juice Faulstich is chronically truant from school. Meanwhile, Pa is out of work, Ma is pregnant with a sixth child, and their rural house is facing foreclosure. Juice describes her steps toward maturity--which include returning to school--with a plainspoken immediacy that convincingly reflects both her age and circumstances.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 1998