(2) 4-6 Savit (The Way Back, rev. 9/20) skillfully blends historical fiction, fantasy, and murder mystery in his novel about Eva Root, billed by her traveling con-artist guardian as a medium. In the opening scene, Eva is interrupted mid-seance by a voice imploring her to "come see the fair." Sharp-witted Eva realizes she needs to take her chance and run away, and she randomly gets on a train to Chicago--not knowing that it is where the magnificent Chicago World's Fair is currently being held. On the train she meets Henry, who also feels he is being "called," through his drawings. The two visit the fair, where Eva begins to have strange experiences and where she meets the mysterious Mr. Magister, who calls himself the "Baron of American Magic." Savit conveys the wonders of the fair and the grittiness of post–Great Fire Chicago as he gradually adds more threatening elements to the story; occasional sketchlike ­black-and-white illustrations by Mildred Hankinson add atmosphere. Savit layers the fantasy ­elements onto ­real-world historical details, so that Eva moves between Mr. ­Magister's ­fantastical world and the fair without leaving the pavilion; in a thrilling chase sequence the author conveys speed, action, and surprise through stacatto phrasing and a ­stream-of-consciousness style. Eva is a strong heroine, and the villain (with several child murders in his past) is genuinely menacing.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2023

(2) YA In this dark fantasy set in a nineteenth-century shtetl in Eastern Europe, grieving teens Bluma (who's lost her grandmother) and Yehuda Leib (who found and lost his absent father in the same moment) travel to the Far Country and match wits with demons and other figures drawn from Jewish folklore, including the Angel of Death. Narrated with a storyteller's cadence ("And this is how it came to pass that there, beneath her bed, Bluma descended into the sleep of the grieving under the watchful gaze of her own unblinking eyes"), the winding tale is full of creepy characters and intriguing magical objects, as the protagonists are confronted with choices that force them to face mortality. Savit (Anna and the Swallow Man, rev. 1/16) crafts an absorbing fantasy and gives teens plenty to contemplate about life, love, storytelling, and family.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2020

(1) YA In 1939 Kraków, Poland, orphaned seven-year-old Anna follows a mysterious man, who seems to communicate with birds, out of the city; as days become months, then years, the Swallow Man teaches Anna life lessons and survival skills. The third-person narrative--lyrical, fluid, with a pervasive shadow of menace--lends a folkloric feel to a graceful story steeped in history, magic, myth, and archetype.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2016