(2) 4-6 Beatrix "Bea" Lee's seventh-grade year starts with her left out of her friend group. New friend Will's attempt to explore a labyrinth sets off a chain of events that reveals much about Bea and her friends, new and estranged. The book is honest about preteen difficulties. But even when Bea isn't having much fun, it's satisfying to catch the literary and musical references.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2017

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Chuck Groenink. Misunderstanding the phrase "friendship is out there," lonely Hedgehog captains her own boat to find a ship of friends. Animals she meets haven't seen "The Friend Ship," but each clambers aboard to join the search. Readers will understand before Hedgehog that she's already found real friendship. Some repetition of dialogue makes the story a good read-aloud; expressive illustrations in warm colors suit the tone.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(3) 4-6 Smart, sassy GiGi, short for Galileo Galilei, and her sister, DiDi (short for Delta Dawn), are on their own. All they have left of their mother is Revlon "Cherries in the Snow" lipstick and her homemade cookbook. Yeh's tasty narrative recipe combines GiGi's emotional growth, family acceptance, and search for identity. Yield: a sweet, satisfying concoction.

Reviewer: Rebecca Kirshenbaum

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Huy Voun Lee. Jasmine's grandfather (agong) uses storytelling to introduce her to calligraphy. After Agong dies, Jasmine begins teaching her younger brother the same way. Attractive cut-paper illustrations cleverly incorporate Chinese characters into the objects they represent; thus, the stylized character for "horse," for example, becomes part of the horse image. Brief notes about Chinese art and food, as well as Mandarin pronunciation, are appended.

Reviewer: Martha Sibert

(4) PS Illustrated by Sue Anderson. Delicate black-outlined illustrations against lots of white space display the active (and sometimes behaviorally challenged) exploits of a busy family of bunnies. Sentimental rhyming text describes parents' enduring love for their children ("When a papa loves a bunny, / he still loves her when she's grown... / with a home that's filled with love and hope / and bunnies of her own").

Reviewer: Amy Lois Cohn