(2) YA Ben's mother stops taking her meds and begins to obsess about "lizard people." Ben meets Marco, who claims he's found a wormhole to the year 4000--where lizard-human hybrids exist--and is shocked when some details of Marco's story match episodes in his own life. Ben is a sympathetic protagonist, and the book tantalizingly blurs the boundaries between madness and lucidity.

Reviewer: Caitlin J. Berry | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2007

(2) 4-6 At nine, foster child Newboy inexplicably lost his voice. Now twelve, he escapes from his foster home. Newboy finds Stinko, a beat-up ventriloquist's dummy, and discovers that he can make Stinko talk. With a quirky, matter-of-fact voice and a lightning-quick pace, the story delivers pure page-turning action. De Guzman unapologetically portrays life as dangerous, always made better with partners in crime.

Reviewer: Caitlin J. Berry | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2007

(4) YA Foster teen Stephen has secretly kept a crocodile (a gift from his real father) caged in the city reservoir for years. Now he struggles to contain the fully grown beast behind bars even as he tries to keep his own trouble-making self outside of them. Though the pace drags at times, vivid, complex characters coping with difficult situations will hold readers' interest.

Reviewer: Caitlin J. Berry

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Alan Marks. With an engaging voice and with facts cleanly woven into the narrative, Markle describes the first few weeks in the life of a baby Mexican free-tailed bat. Near the end, mother meets up with a deadly barn owl, but neither Marks nor Markle anthropomorphize, and Marks renders the bats with accuracy. Hope for the orphaned bat is offered through a new motherly connection.

Reviewer: Caitlin J. Berry | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2006