(2) YA This is a sobering and insightful account of the 1955 Mississippi murder trial of two white men for the killing of a fourteen-year-old black boy from Chicago. The drama in the book comes from the reconstruction of a national social climate that finally allowed for widespread denouncement of the "Southern way of life." Many effective black-and-white photos are included. Timeline, resources. Bib.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2003

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Jackie Morris. Hoffman retells the portions of nine Old Testament stories dealing with animals. Readers are left with only snippets of larger stories, and the stories have little in common except the presence of animals. However, Hoffman's interpretive asides help give context and meaning to the tales, and Morris's illustrations, which clearly set the stories in the Middle East, are handsome.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(1) 4-6 Translated by Anthea Bell. Through his dreams, a boy with severe birth defects travels sixty years back in time to Germany during the Third Reich; in the dreams he is a boy named Hannes, a "cripple." Hannes's father agrees to institutionalize, and perhaps kill, him--a betrayal the boy sees mirrored in the present in his family's attitudes about genetic testing. This spare, deeply felt novel adds a new dimension to Holocaust literature.

Reviewer: Joanna Rudge Long | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2003

(4) 4-6 This scholarly presentation describes each of twenty prophets, from Moses to Malachi. The word "prophet" is written in Hebrew throughout, reflecting the book's focus on the prophets' roles in Jewish tradition. The book lacks adequate background information and may confuse readers who don't know much about early Jewish history, nevertheless, it's beautifully illustrated with reproductions of classic paintings of its subjects.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke

(4) PS Illustrated by Britta Teckentrup. Because of his nearsightedness, Bumpy the Apatosaurus gets into some hairy situations; he falls into a bog, walks across an active volcano, and snuggles up next to a big T. Rex. Bumpy's family comes to the rescue and then solves his vision problem. Though unfocused and awkwardly paced, the writing succeeds with its likable characters, and the flat, cartoonish collage illustrations complement the text with their humor.

Reviewer: Mark Adam

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Ann Schweninger. Amanda Pig is back, facing a new challenge, this a somewhat darker one than usual: overcoming her nighttime fear of monsters. But, as usual, this author-artist team demonstrates a solid understanding of childhood feelings and family dynamics. Amanda ends up using words to conquer her fears--just right for such an "almost grown up" pig and her newly independent readers.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2003

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Marco Ventura. In 1784, a thirteen-year-old boy named Edward Warren was the first person in the U.S. to go aloft in a hot-air balloon, one constructed by Peter Carnes outside Baltimore. From this single fact, Van Leeuwen has imagined an empowering story of a blacksmith's apprentice whose zeal for the project is rewarded by circumstances. Illustrations in oil are detailed and handsome, if stiff.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(3) 1-3 Illustrated by R. W. Alley. Marvin the mouse and his gang, Fats and Raymond, move into the Guggenheim Museum, where Marvin perfects his in-line skating and Fats produces art. The far-fetched fantasy contains humorous details: Marvin wears in-line skates made from Barbie doll shoes and Fats creates his collages with squashed jelly beans, among other items. The lively story is accompanied by line drawings, which show the long curved ramps of the famous museum.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Thomas Taylor. The appeal of this version of the familiar story lies in the depiction of the apprentice, who looks like a young Harry Potter minus the glasses. The retelling is a mild one, with the relentless army of bucket-carrying brooms quickly vanquished and the sorcerer a forgiving sort; this upbeat quality is reflected in the large, fizzy colored-pencil illustrations. No source note is provided.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano

(4) K-3 Adapted by Jerry Pinkney. Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. Pinkney observes that the tale of the nightingale whose song enchanted a kingdom has a universal message that can be adapted to many locations. His selection of Morocco showcases the artist's lush style, but reinventing both setting and characters causes much of the original Andersen to be lost. This is an elegant creation, but one hopes that children will also know of the original.

Reviewer: Mary M. Burns | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2002

(3) PS Illustrated by Catherine Anholt. One stormy day, as tempestuous ape twins Chimp and Zee are trying to fold a sheet outdoors, a gust of wind carries them away. After a lengthy flight above Jungletown, they are rescued by their parents. With illustrations featuring bright images pasted onto colored paper, this book has a toddler-friendly balance of realistic everyday details (the monkeys argue endlessly) and wildly impossible adventure.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Mark Buehner. Upon noticing that a snowman appears disheveled the morning after being made, a child imagines what snowmen do at night--such as drinking ice-cold cocoa, skating, sledding, and playing baseball. Told in rhyme, the story is imaginative and fast paced, and the rich oil over acrylic paintings (which contain the artist's signature hidden shapes) are jubilant, energetic, and reflective of a mischievous mood.

Reviewer: Mark Adam

(3) YA Hiram, who spent his early years in the Mississippi delta, returns at age sixteen to visit his widowed grandfather. After a local boy makes threats against a black teenager, Hiram informs the authorities. When Emmett Till is kidnapped and murdered, Hiram is subpoenaed. Documenting a shameful event in American history, the solid novel also thoughtfully charts the protagonist's evolving emotional growth.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(3) PS Illustrated by Jill Newton. When Mother Hen loses her chicks, Mother Goose scolds her, but the other animals pitch in and help until eight babies are found--Mother Hen's four chicks, plus Mother Goose's four lost goslings. Mother Hen's confusion as more and more "chicks" are found will delight young listeners, as will the plump animals and pastoral landscapes in the broadly drawn art.

Reviewer: CHristine Sarrazin

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Karin Littlewood. Through painting his first picture, which alludes to his uncle's violent death in Somalia, new U.S. immigrant Hassan communicates his despair to his teacher and faces his homesickness and grief. This is a frank introduction to the harsh realities that some children face (Hassan recalls "the awful smell of burning and blood"). Although Hassan's story is complex, the watercolor images are busier than necessary.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) 4-6 Mayer pairs paintings by Rembrandt, da Vinci, Millet, and other artists from the fifteenth to twentieth centuries with Christ's words as recorded in the Gospels. Although this attractively designed volume is more of an adult coffee-table book than a picture book, it provides a context for the paintings that may make the art more approachable to children. An appended author's note adds some contemporary context, as well.

Reviewer: Anne St. John

(4) 4-6 Illustrated by Geoff Taylor. Snatched from their cellar by the witch Dragwena and her minion Morpeth, Rachel and her brother Eric learn of their special powers to resist evil in the land of Ithrea. Spells, fantasy creatures, and many other types of magic abound in a detailed landscape. Though the story is derivative, the narrative is tight and fantasy fans will enjoy reading about Rachel heroically fighting Dragwena.

Reviewer: Frieda F. Bostian

(3) K-3 In this wordless alphabet book, each page features a representative object colored and contorted into the shape of a letter (e.g., an acrobat is bent into an A) against a phantasmagoric black-and-white background. The pictorial backdrops are accomplished graphite drawings containing numerous other representative objects. Images of uncuddly animals and several letters that verge on the grotesque mean this book isn't for the very young--but it will captivate everyone else.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Charlotte Middleton. Wonderful things happen when Kevin wears his lucky yellow socks, but on the morning of field day he can't find his socks. Naturally, the day is a disaster... until Kevin gets an award, "for trying very hard at everything--and never giving up!" In the large, boldly colored pictures, events fill the oversize pages just as they fill Kevin's world--no small success (or failure) is insignificant.

Reviewer: Lauren Adams

(4) K-3 With illustrations by many well-known artists including Jerry Pinkney, Rachel Isadora, Babette Cole, Ken Wilson-Max, and Satoshi Kitamura, this book adapts into simpler language some fourteen selected "rights" from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The illustrations are eclectic, and the adaptations sometimes leave the original intent unclear, but the book as a whole makes a strong statement.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt