(2) K-3 Illustrated by Kevin Hawkes. The Widow Jones inherits thirty-five million dollars and a ranch in By Golly Gully, Texas. Little does she know that everything grows bigger in Texas, including tortoises, potatoes that "took only seven of them to make a dozen," and a "watermelon [that] fed everyone on the ranch for a month." Colored-pencil and acrylic illustrations in sunbaked tones complement this engaging tall tale's hyperbole.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2014

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky. Angelica Longrider, a.k.a. Swamp Angel, returns, this time in 1831 Montana. When a dust storm strikes, Angel rides the whirlwind; in its midst she finds a giant horse who carries her in pursuit of some outlaws. Zelinsky makes the comical most of outlaw leader Backward Bart and his band (mounted on oversize mosquitoes).

Reviewer: Barbara Bader | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2010

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Dan Santat. Estrella has two special talents: healing animals and running fast ("she burned the air around her, leaving behind a glowing trail of flames"). When greedy ghosts kidnap Estrella's pets, she must run the undead prospectors out of town. This cleverly crafted tall tale features funny and sometimes spooky acrylic and ink paintings of hollow-eyed gold-hunters and a fiery heroine.

Reviewer: Rita Soltan

(3) YA Isaacs's novel, based on her mother-in-law's childhood, presents the moving story of two sisters incarcerated in a Nazi labor camp located in Czechoslovakia. The horror of camp life is depicted with immediacy as the girls work in a textile factory, suffer hunger and disease, and worry about their father in Poland. The sisters' bond is authentically and emotionally captured.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Stephen Mackey. When a girl sees a cat climb a tree, she decides to rescue it with help from passersby. In a series of poems, accompanied by brightly elegant full-page paintings, all the participants express how they feel about catching the cat--including the cat himself, who slips away unseen. While some of the poems are appealing, others seem marginally related to the story, and the language in many is not very accessible to young children.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley