(3) YA In this modern-day Turn of the Screw, Jack spends the summer on a remote island looking after two children. He slowly unravels a series of mysteries about his young charges and their house. The story is told through letters from Jack to his girlfriend; Prose effectively re-creates the original tale's chilling mood, and her fans will enjoy this outing.

Reviewer: Nicki Richesin

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Matthew S. Armstrong. Roy lives in a peaceful village called Sweet Potato. One day, brutish rhinoceroses run rampant, clearing out the town's precious sweet potato patch. Some townspeople want to resort to violence, but Roy instead teaches the rhinos how to plant and care for their own root vegetables. Humorous pictures just this side of garish illustrate this eccentric story.

Reviewer: Sheila M. Geraty

(3) YA Maisie's three best friends happen to be boys. Her relationship with one of them begins to change direction, and heightened tensions culminate in an unsavory incident on the school bus. Maisie's struggle to untangle the truth leads her down a labyrinthine path. Prose presents an almost uncomfortably close examination of what happens when two sides of a seamy story collide.

Reviewer: Hannah Rodgers Barnaby

(4) YA Prose spins a melodrama from the ashes of 9/11. Bart, a boy whose father was killed in the World Trade Center, gets a sympathy scholarship to exclusive all-boys prep school Baileywell, a.k.a. Bullyville. The school and the bully who torments Bart are generically rendered; the plot is similarly by-the-numbers but scripted with agile efficiency.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton

(2) YA After a deadly shooting, Central High calls in a grief and crisis counselor, who offers no counseling but institutes some stringent new rules. Narrator Tom's stoner friend has conspiracy-theory obsessions, which soon become the novel's reality. The story's over-the-top quality keeps it from any aspiration to seriousness, but the melodrama will surely be enjoyed by fans of kids-against-the-world books.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2003

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Mark Podwal. Bored with terrorizing the citizens of Chelm, invisible demons ship themselves to New York in search of a greater challenge but get stuck in a crate for fifty years. The overlong tale lacks the appeal of traditional Chelm stories, though the demons' adventures with subways and computers provide some amusement. Smudgy purple and blue paintings are interpretive and add to the book's appeal.

Reviewer: Amanda Sullivan

(2) K-3 When the prayers of Schmuel the Shoemaker (called Poor Stupid Schmuel for his tendency to fix shoes for free) stop both drought and floods, the townsfolk realize he is one of the Lamed-vavniks, thirty-six holy people living lives of such goodness that their prayers have God's ear. When discovered, he quickly leaves town, and when a new shoemaker comes, they are kind to him: "After all, you never know." Glowing gems of illustrations capture the legend's reverence and mystery.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.