(2) K-3 A young protagonist with a deep internal life shares a personal memory in this intimate and indelible picture book. The unnamed redhead recounts tripping face-down on the cobblestone ground. As a scab develops on their injured knee, the child experiences fear, disgust, wonder, and impatience. They name the scab Pepper, and one day Pepper -- drawn with a stylized face -- speaks to the child. The child engages with the scab, telling stories and sharing thoughts during lonely days in the country spent with grandparents (and without a dog). Over time, Pepper shrinks and gets softer, and the protagonist gets used to its presence. ("She was just doing what scabs do.") Then one day, the scab falls off. The child finds Pepper in the bedsheets and says goodbye by gently dropping it outside among the poppies. The once-injured knee, now smooth, inspires reflection on the child's past: about how it felt having the scab, about visiting with grandparents, and what life was like before their cuddly pet dog joined the family. Illustrations rendered with gouache, oil, collage, and wax pencils fill colorful spreads with emotive angles and textures. Words and images are portrayed with rhythm and sensory details, which bring depth to character and illuminate the comforting settings. This exploration of pain, healing, change, wonder, and time can also serve as an educational mentor text for lessons about personal narratives.

Reviewer: Elisa Gall | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024

(2) K-3 The title page of this adventure features both a unicorn and a rainbow, but things quickly shift from cutesy to a more absurd and sidelong tone. The unnamed teeny-weeny unicorn is the smallest member of his family. This is obviously a relatable condition for the potential reader or listener, but this unicorn really is small -- about the size of a chess piece, too small to jump over a taco. His siblings, Fancy Annie and Prince Butterscotch, are condescending and mean. But size is relative, and when our hero inadvertently steps on and squishes the sports car belonging to an even tinier, tough-talking gnome (who then demands a settlement of $250,000), he realizes that in gnome terms he's a giant. The debt gets sorted out, but even better, the teeny-weeny unicorn gets a day alone at his family's palace home playing games by himself -- and the realization that he's a perfect size just as he is. The illustrations, in oil pastel, feature a dynamic relationship between text and images and hefty lashings of pink. Harris (Have You Ever Seen a Flower?, rev. 7/21) again uses the smearing potential of pastels to great effect in showing the teeny protagonist accelerating from walking to trotting to cantering to galloping. This original take on unicorn life and troubles elicits a wry grin on every page.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2024

(1) YA Illustrated by Danica Novgorodoff. "Be like water," Isaiah says. "Always," Darius replies. These are the final words the boys say to each other before Darius takes off on his bicycle to break the Guinness world record for a wheelie. Isaiah is in charge of watching for cars, but a chaotic, unexpected confrontation ends with a tragic fatal accident. Isaiah and his other best friend, Drew, each deal with grief and guilt in their own way: Isaiah wants to open up about his pain, while Drew withdraws. Written in verse, this resonant coming-of-age novel flows with accessible language that quickly draws readers into the story; emotionally moving grayscale illustrations are interspersed. After Isaiah is violently attacked, he begins to shut down, and his mother sends him to visit relatives in North Carolina. There, Isaiah begins a journey of self-acceptance and unpacking of the emotional weight he has been carrying. Williams (Genesis Begins Again, rev. 1/19) handles the sensitive topics of death, grief, racism, violence, and racial and gender expression with care, making sure the narrative doesn't become overly dark and heavy. The novel's focus on Isaiah's inner world allows readers to witness the evolution of a thirteen-year-old Black boy dealing with life-altering events, navigating challenging relationships with friends and family, and, finally, feeling comfortable enough to reveal his full self in the process.

Reviewer: Monique Harris | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2024

(2) 4-6 This verse novel follows sixth grader Noah as he processes his grief over the death of his best friend, Lewis, in a car accident. The two were connected by things the world didn't necessarily understand: a shared interest in the elusive cryptid Mothman and their own gender identities. Known to their families and friends by their assigned genders and birth names, the friends had shared their true identities as boys only with each other, making the loss even more heartbreaking for Noah. To honor Lewis's memory, Noah (whose autism spectrum disorder is naturally incorporated) decides to dedicate his science fair project to proving Mothman's existence. Through letters to Mothman, written in a journal that he leaves at the edge of the woods, Noah finds the companionship he is desperate for, which eventually leads to his bravely seeking out new friendships. Gow draws poignant comparisons between the misunderstood Mothman and Noah's burgeoning understanding of his queerness. "I think monsters are here / to make people like me feel less alone." Noah's journey through grief and coming out to the world is authentically messy and joyful.

Reviewer: Hill Saxton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Levi Pinfold. Beginning deceptively blandly, this tale soon slips into the uneasiness of horror and brain-teasing mystification. Best friends Hex and Tommo head to the woods to play on the rope swing over the creek. En route, little Sascha insists on joining them; through the boys' rough play, she ends up with a broken arm. Afterward, Hex's confused emotional response alienates Tommo and enrages Maria, Sascha's older sister, who beats Hex up. So far, so ordinary...but in the forest is Missus, a "short, jolly" woman and her huge dog, Leafy. Wouldn't you like to get revenge on the one who hurt you? Missus asks both Hex and Maria, separately. "We will simply persuade the world to forget them...your world will heal, reshape itself around the hole." Before he can decide, Hex himself disappears, preempted by Maria's choice. Thus we begin again in a new reality: off to the woods with his buddy Jayce is Tommo, who neither quite recalls nor quite forgets having had a best friend named Hex. "He could remember remembering, but couldn't remember exactly what he'd remembered about this other, missing kid." In this new world things are disconcertingly different from or disconcertingly resonant with Tommo's memories. Harrold's (The Song from Somewhere Else, rev. 5/17) creepy tale takes off with this altered world, uncanny in its innocuous but distressing changes ("Mum used to keep cactuses, but now there's not a single cactus in the house," Maria cries); that unsettling sense of the uncanny swells to out-and-out terror as Tommo makes his own visit to Missus. Pinfold's chiaroscuro-esque, surreal illustrations raise the stakes on the crone from Disney's Snow White: this isn't for the timid.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Gabi Mendez. Color by Cai Tse. In this moving and memorable graphic novel, twelve-year-old Addie loves tortoises, outer space, and moon trees (planted from seeds that traveled with the Apollo 14 mission before germinating back on Earth). A prologue reveals that when Addie was ten, her mom was injured in a bicycle accident and had surgery; things got worse from there. The main narrative begins almost two years later, after a traumatic (and ambiguously shown) incident, with Addie and her futurist dad adjusting to a "new normal." The pair is now living on a college campus for the summer, her dad working with a fun-loving group of young researchers studying augmented and virtual reality. Thrust into a new environment, Addie makes friends (including Mateo, a kind, free-spirited neighbor kid) and has experiences that push her as she challenges assumptions, processes feelings, and grows in empathy, vulnerability, and confidence. Character, setting, dialogue, and plot are skillfully delineated, and the inclusion of sunny moments balance heavier, introspective scenes. Well-paced, deftly illustrated panels convey characters' emotions and experiences; especially striking are fanciful VR-related images superimposed over realistic settings. When Addie's family situation (involving addiction and incarceration) is fully disclosed, it is presented with care, compassion, and hope. Back matter includes notes from the creators and a link to additional resources, including augmented reality that can be integrated into the reading of the book.

Reviewer: Elisa Gall | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2023

(2) YA Vivian Lantz is determined to break her streak of terrible first days of school. She decides on a new style, writes out a plan in the notebook her best friend gave her before moving away, and is sure that this time will be perfect. But things go wrong on the first day of eighth grade, including a flood at home, a collision with a classmate that lands her in the mud, the unexpected start of her period, and an exchange with the school newspaper advisor that leaves her uncertain about following in her favorite writer's footsteps. She goes to bed, hoping for a better second day--and instead wakes up to the first day of eighth grade, round two. Stuck in a time loop, Vivian tries to fix the day's mistakes, only to see things go wrong in different ways. The process repeats again and again, as Vivian discovers all the problems with her initial plan for eighth-grade success and learns a few things about friends, family, and charting her own path. Vivian's tween angst is palpable, and the book's lessons about making friends, learning whom to trust, and developing a sense of self are unsurprising but well delivered, making for an enjoyable read.

Reviewer: Sarah Rettger | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2023

(2) YA When Marisol Martin's mother, with whom she had a difficult relationship, dies in a car crash, Marisol and her family are plunged into grief they don't know how to begin to process. A chain of behaviors soon after lands the Albuquerque high school sophomore in juvie ("where they send you to take classes on a computer when you've been kicked out of your own school, either for a little while, or forever"). She begins to heal by opening up to new friends, including bonding over commonalities between her Filipina mother's culture and fellow students' Mexican American culture. This poignant coming-of-age story, told in alternating "then" and "now" segments, takes readers on a complicated and isolating journey of loss, with welcome moments of humor. It spotlights the intricacies of parent-child relationships, acknowledging that adults don't always have the answers. Marisol is likable albeit flawed, and her story is emotional and heart-wrenching.

Reviewer: Gabi K. Huesca | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2023

(2) YA Stone's (Dear Martin, rev. 11/17) latest YA novel opens with a text-message exchange between two apparent strangers, one of whom has accidentally messaged the other during a night of heavy drinking. The third-person narration then alternates focus between the two of them. On her way home, Shelbi, the recipient of the mysterious message, passes a car accident and believes she sees her classmate Andy. The next chapter introduces readers to Andy as he sits in a police vehicle, having crashed his own car while driving drunk. Shelbi and Andy soon realize they were texting each other and begin hanging out. Once they become close friends, Shelbi, who has bipolar disorder, asks Andy to sign a friendship contract in order to protect herself from harmful behavior, which she has experienced in the past. But the complications aren't over, in part due to Andy's drinking. Readers will appreciate Stone's honest discussion of the critical issues of mental illness and substance abuse (a content warning also indicates self-harm). The book provides a starting point for thinking about how to set boundaries in friendships, as well as what it means to support a friend who is in need. Opening and closing notes from the author emphasize the importance of ending the stigma around mental illness.

Reviewer: Nicholl Denice Montgomery | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Jessie Hartland. What kind of spark is needed to ignite a global movement? In the case of the Earth Day Movement, it was quite literally sparks from a railcar landing in the heavily polluted and quite flammable Cuyahoga River in Cleveland, Ohio. "KABOOM!" While not the first time the river had caught fire, this time, as Wittenstein's enlightening text shows, residents had had enough. Spurred on by the activism of the 1960s, they demanded action to clean up the river, and by extension the planet. While young readers may take for granted the concept of environmentalism, the book does an excellent job depicting the nascent moments of the movement that led to the first Earth Day celebration, the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency, and legislation such as the Clean Water Act. Hartland's playful gouache paintings shine, reflecting a child's perspective on the events and conveying their emotional significance and ramifications. Back matter consists of a detailed author's note providing additional historical details; a timeline of the environmental movement; a bibliography; and a list of resources where readers can learn more about the Cuyahoga River Fire of 1969, Earth Day, and more about protecting our planet.

Reviewer: Eric Carpenter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(2) 4-6 Swallowtail Legacy series. Lark Heron-Finch is back at her family's house on Lake Erie's Swallowtail Island for the first time since her mother's death. With her younger sister, stepfather, and three stepbrothers also there, the limits of Lark's temper are tested on a regular basis. She finds a purpose for the summer by becoming a research assistant to family friend Nadine, who is working on a book about the island's history. Nadine introduces Lark to Dinah, a ninety-three-year-old woman who is one of the island's oldest residents, and to the story of Nadine's grandfather's death, decades earlier, in a boat wreck that might not have been an accident after all. As Lark dives into investigating the mystery, her impulsiveness continues to present problems, but it also allows her to save the day. While some of the mystery's twists may not be that surprising, the overall execution is a success. The evolution of Lark's relationship with her stepfather and siblings is well done, giving the book's fully realized secondary characters a chance to develop along with the protagonist. Even Lark's soccer-field nemesis turns out to be more complex than the classic bully he'd seemed at first. The book concludes with revelations about another island-related mystery, leaving readers eager for the next installment.

Reviewer: Sarah Rettger | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2022

(2) 4-6 As his younger sister, Lola, loves to point out, twelve-year-old Arlo is afraid of everything. He has significant reasons to be anxious: his mother has just recovered from cancer; his father (divorced, with a new family) hardly seems to notice him and Lola; and now he, Lola, and their mom are stuck in a weird old-fashioned town after a car accident. Livermore is quaint, with a tiny schoolhouse and open hearths, but behind the vintage allure lies a sinister thread that Arlo picks up on right away. Why is there no cell service? Why don't the townsfolk use electricity? And why do they keep whispering behind closed doors? Arlo must convince Lola and Mom to leave Livermore before it's too late and they learn, perhaps fatally, what nameless horror the town had awakened over a century ago. Equal parts spooky and charming, the story offers plenty of suspense and relatable ties to real-world difficulties. Arlo, Lola, and Mom form a heartwarming triangle of familial loyalty and dogged optimism. Even if readers have worked out the mystery before the story's denouement, the promise of Arlo's growth into bravery will keep pages turning until the very end.

Reviewer: Sarah Berman | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2022

(1) YA With a nod to Frankenstein, this debut graphic novel delivers an intriguing take on the classic coming-of-age story. After Maura dies in a tragic scientific accident, her sister, Frances, and Frances's (nonbinary) partner, Gin, sew her back together and revive her with the electricity from a lightning strike. Maura has absolutely no recollection of her former life, but Frances is confident that her memories will come back. And if not? Well, they can always take her apart and put her back together again until it works. Shortly after Maura overhears this, she looks in the mirror and sees not her own reflection--not her bald head or numerous sutures--but rather the spirit of Maura, the real Maura. This Maura agrees to coach M (as the protagonist now thinks of herself) through this charade. However, the more she learns about Maura, the more M realizes that she is a completely different person and that she must ultimately confront Frances with the truth in order to discover her own identity, make her own choices, and live her own life. While the gripping storytelling largely revolves around M's internal conflict and growth, the tri-color (black, white, and shades of green) art breathes life into the vivid setting and the intriguing supporting characters.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2022

(2) PS Illustrated by Annabel Tempest. Johnston and Tempest bring the fun to this bright, bouncy read-aloud that tells the stories of ten children who sustain minor injuries in the midst of happy, active days. Tempest's dynamic illustrations are packed with polka dots, swoops, and swirls--a perfect way to capture the energy of children like Mallelita, who encounters a cactus while jumping on her pogo stick, and Jazelle, who knocks a tooth when her bike crashes. ­Johnston revels in the type of silly invented language that becomes part of many families' vernacular. Delilah, for instance, falls and "cronkled up her knee," and Anita, picking roses, is "­stingered by a bee." Tempest does excellent work with facial expressions as each child journeys from beaming joy to a convincing assortment of grimaces, cries, and howls. Many viewers will recognize children who look and act like themselves in these pages, and the schadenfreude will make them giggle (and perhaps also squirm). More than acknowledging that an adventure is worth a bump or scrape, this book presents bruises and abrasions as normal side effects of living and, most of the time, something a caregiver can kiss away. The bandage-filled cover and endpapers offer even more humor.

Reviewer: Adrienne L. Pettinelli | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2022

(2) YA This formidable prequel to We Were Liars (rev. 5/14), focusing on the wealthy Sinclair family a generation before that novel's events, opens with a harsh truth, and a spoiler. Johnny, one of the cousins of the first book's protagonist, appears as a ghost to his mother, narrator Carrie, on the family's private island. With the promise to tell him "the worst thing [she] ever did" as a framing device, Carrie flashes back to reveal many of the dark secrets and lies she had helped to perpetuate over the years. In 1987 on the island, seventeen-year-old Carrie is deeply saddened about the drowning death of her youngest sister (the first ghost to appear to her); recovering from the surgery on which her father has insisted to correct her jawline; and beginning a protracted dependence on painkillers and sedatives. Carrie is swept off her feet by Pfeff, a charming, impulsive cad who betrays her in what she feels is the worst possible way. The violent consequences entail a massive cover-up that requires full utilization of the Sinclairs' good standing, privilege, and cunning. The engrossing narration, full of fairy-tale references and family mottos ("Never complain, never explain"), is neither reliable nor neatly wrapped up, but the novel is uncomfortably thought-provoking. The story (understandable on its own but richer when read after We Were Liars) asks readers to consider hard questions and is impossible to put down.

Reviewer: Luann Toth | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2022

(1) 4-6 This emotionally complex novel set within a contemporary Orthodox Jewish community is full of immersive Jewish detail--literally, as much of the story centers around the mikvah, or ritual bath, that eleven-year-old Aviva's mother has run since Aviva's father's death; mother and daughter now live in a "shabby little apartment" above it. Mischief happens often around the mikvah (a guest's candies get unwrapped, a door's hinges come unscrewed), and the culprit is apparently a dybbuk ("a soul that won't rest," though this version creatively inverts the usual definition) that only Aviva can see. When the dybbuk creates more serious trouble, including antisemitic vandalism, Aviva must confront painful truths about her perceptions (and thus what she has been presenting to readers) of her father's "accident," her family's circumstances, and her own actions. The book creates a strong sense of the protagonist's isolation--awkward, impetuous Aviva has difficult relationships with her classmates, and communication is strained with her mother, who lives with severe depression--but remains accessible while addressing its heavy issues. Unreliable narrator though Aviva ends up being, she’s a heart-rendingly sympathetic one.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2022

(1) YA In this at once funny and moving novel, it's been just over a year since seventeen-year-old Asher's mom died in a car accident, and "everyone says that I'm not handling it well." In addition to his withdrawn and distracted behavior, Asher is catfishing Grace, the teen daughter of the drunk driver responsible for the accident. He's agreed to take Grace to her prom, though he lives in New Jersey and she's in Memphis. He embarks on a road trip with acquaintances from his bereavement groups: teens Will and Sloane, grieving the losses of their brother and father, respectively, from cancer; and Henry, a delightful octogenarian who dotes on the box containing his wife's ashes. The others don't know the real reason Asher is on this trip: he has a (vague) plan to get revenge on Grace's father. Reilly doesn't hold back from depicting the all-encompassing nature of Asher's grief: his guilt, loneliness, and rage are raw and intense, bringing him to the brink of what his therapist calls "self-destruct sad." But with his new support system, "I'm one small step closer to somewhere better than where I've been." The intergenerational friendship with Henry adds to the humor; a philosophical connection with Will provides depth; and a blossoming romance with Sloane brings sweetness to Asher's difficult, deserved path toward healing.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Kerns | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(2) 4-6 Theo Tan is more into gaming than studying his Chinese heritage and learning to access his qi--that's his older brother Jamie's thing. But after Jamie pulls Theo aside one morning for a mystifying conversation about computer game quests, and then dies in a car accident, leaving Theo his fox spirit companion, Kai, and a coded notebook full of clues, Theo determines to find out what his brother was trying to tell him. His search leads him to the "Know Your Roots" summer youth ­program conducted by Jamie's former employer, Reapling ­Corporation, purveyor of the "cirth" that everyone uses to power their magic, but Theo can't pass the stringent entry exam. Clever Kai helps him cheat to get in, but doing so tilts Kai away from spirit and toward demon, and now the two guards of the underworld, Ox Head and Horse Face, are eager to drag her down to Diyu. Chinese cosmology (and to a lesser extent, Indian cosmology, since Know Your Roots features both) star in this Riordan-esque adventure set in an alternate San Francisco, where magic is prevalent but so is prejudice (Theo refuses to speak Mandarin after being teased in kindergarten; his reconnection with his heritage is one of the story's strengths). Readers dependent on their own technological devices might take a lesson from the book's message about finding resources within--or perhaps they'll just enjoy this engrossing mystery set among ancient Chinese spirit grudges and modern-day corporate malfeasance.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2022

(1) K-3 This story of cooperative problem-solving begins on a crystal-clear summer day as a massive tractor trailer is delivered via barge and tugboat to a small coastal island. Van Dusen's dynamic color-saturated gouache illustrations capture the excitement of the out-of-the-ordinary event, with varying gull's-eye and on-the-ground views. The real drama, however, happens soon after the truck takes to the island's main road: at one particularly tight curve, it jack-knifes, completely blocking the road. (Readers witness the accident, first from inside the cab along with the cartoonily shocked driver, and then harrowingly from the side of the road within inches of the gigantic wheels.) The blocked road is a problem for the four cars in a hurry (two headed north, two south) that can't move around the truck. Van Dusen is in full command of his rhyming text, using rhythm and sound to set the pace and convey mood. His expressive characters add humor to the situation. While the grownups in the cars "stew and steam," the four kid passengers come up with a genius ­solution--temporarily trading cars--that's a testament to island ingenuity and neighborliness. Everyone gets where they need to be--including the truck with its mysterious load, which is later revealed on a festive nighttime double-page spread. In his author's note, Van Dusen tells the real story about a truck accident on a Maine island: "I changed a few of the details and added some new fictional characters, [but] this is overall a true story." And it's one that is given life by a skillful storyteller.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2022

(2) YA Cherry, a town in north-central Illinois, had seemingly sprung up overnight once several veins of coal were discovered; most residents were recent immigrants. Walker opens her solid account by providing background about mining, immigration, and coal before getting to the events of November 13, 1909, when the Cherry Mine fire started after kerosene from a torch began dripping onto bales of hay. While many miners escaped, a good number remained trapped, waiting to be rescued. The narrative splits at this point, alternating between the miners' harrowing efforts to survive and the people waiting impatiently aboveground for news. Rescue efforts were complicated by the mine conditions: the temperature remained too hot, the air too poisonous, and embers smoldered, waiting to rekindle at any moment. Miraculously, a small group of men was rescued a week later, but the mine was then shut down for several months before the bodies of the dead could be recovered. While Walker draws attention to the corporate greed that led to unfair working conditions, including child labor, readers may also recognize some contemporary parallels to this story, including the rescue of thirty-three Chilean miners in 2010 (see Scott's Buried Alive!, rev. 7/12) and twelve Thai boys and their soccer coach in 2018 (see Soontornvat's All Thirteen, rev. 9/20). An assortment of maps, diagrams, and photographs accompanies the main text, while source notes, bibliography, and an index are appended.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2022