(3) K-3 Illustrated by Stephen Michael King. "I am the drifting boat / you are the quiet deep / buoy me." A lilting prayer to hope accompanies delicate watercolor and ink illustrations picturing a family (aboard a small wooden sailboat) escaping a barbed-wire landscape. Double-page spreads feature delicate panel vignettes conveying the lengthy journey to safer shores. Mid-journey, a stranded polar bear catches a ride, providing a lighthearted interlude.

Reviewer: Sheila M. Geraty

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Phil Lesnie. At the start of this Australia-set story, shepherd Tom and his new wife, Cherry, are happy. Then Tom is sent to fight in WWI and killed. A stranger (presumably "the enemy") returns Tom's coat, which Cherry had made with wool from Tom's sheep; now she uses the material to make a toy lamb for Tom's baby. The gentle watercolors soften this bittersweet, somewhat sophisticated rhyming story.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Rebecca Cool. "These are the seeds that sleep in the soil, all dark and deep, in Isabella's garden." Isabella's garden starts with a simple seed in the ground, but as the rain comes and the seeds grow, they nourish a whole community and ecosystem. Primitive mixed-media illustrations in rich, saturated colors contribute a sense of timelessness to Millard's "House That Jack Built"–inspired verse.

Reviewer: Pearl Higgins

(3) YA When war breaks out in Australia, eleven-year-old orphan Skip teams up with a homeless man, a young boy, and a teenage mother with her baby. As the world burns around them, their only hope of survival is one another and the tenuous safety of an abandoned amusement park they call home. Millard's narrative voice is compelling.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Patrice Barton. In this sequel to The Naming of Tishkin Silk, Millard continues to follow the stories of Layla and the Silks as they deal with the ups and downs of life. Here, Layla searches for an elderly companion to bring to her school's Senior Citizens' Day. She strikes up a friendship with Miss Amelie, who has memory troubles. A touching tale of intergenerational friendship.

Reviewer: Pearl Higgins

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Patrice Barton. Gentle, homeschooled Griffin Silk faces classmates for the first time after his mother goes off to cope with an unnamed sadness. New friend "Princess" Layla helps ease Griffin's path both in school and at home, as his large, bohemian family finally finds a way to acknowledge their recent loss. A moving and sensitive story illustrated with warm black-and-white drawings.

Reviewer: Susan Halperin

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Gaye Chapman. This book dwells on life, death, and beauty using a butterfly's life as metaphor. When the Lord of Flight tells little girl Kaito that butterfly season is over, she finds a way to continue the beauty of flight by creating butterfly wings with cloth, spiders' silk, and bamboo twigs. The meticulously detailed angular illustrations echoing Japanese paintings are beautiful but busy.

Reviewer: Amy Kellman