(4) K-3 Fun and Simple State Crafts series. In each book, two craft projects per state are preceded by a chart providing facts about that state (capital city, state bird, flower, etc.) in addition to explanations of the craft's sometimes oblique connection to the state. The projects, though fairly easy to follow, are unexciting: refrigerator magnets, mobiles, flags, pencil holders. Reduced-sized patterns for a few of the crafts are appended. Reading list, websites. Ind. Review covers these Fun and Simple State Crafts titles: Fun and Simple Great Lakes State Crafts, Fun and Simple Midwestern State Crafts, Fun and Simple Pacific West State Crafts, Fun and Simple Southwestern State Crafts, and Fun and Simple Western State Crafts.

Reviewer: Gail Hedges

(2) 4-6 Midwesterner Piper McCloud, who can fly, is whisked off to a top-secret institute whose purpose is to make the children normal at all costs. Piper's indomitable personality makes credible her efforts to rally an elite resistance force, and readers will take strength from Piper's fight to be herself. Forester's down-home-farm and futuristic-ice-bunker-institute settings are unified by a rock-solid point of view.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2008

(4) 4-6 In the 1830s, orphan Joshua joins a road crew to earn money and save his farm. While traveling alone from Indiana to Michigan to obtain supplies, Joshua confronts his preconceived ideas about slavery and Native American rights and his definition of home. Based on true events, the story is interesting and enlightening, despite some overly convenient and expedient events toward the end. Bib., glos.

Reviewer: Juliet S. King

(3) YA Drawing on Balinese legend, this riveting horror story is chock-full of nightmarish sacrifices and grisly occult imagery. After being held as a suspected terrorist, Jesse longs to live unobtrusively in his new small-town home. He soon realizes, however, that he's the only one who can stop a raging, grieving teenage witch from unleashing an unspeakable evil. Jesse is an empathetic reluctant hero.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett

(3) YA Fourteen-year-old Zoe's mother leaves Zoe's father, moving the family from Seattle to the Midwest to open a bed-and-breakfast. The farmhouse has structural and cosmetic issues, and as renovations progress, so does Zoe's knowledge of the dark secrets people can hide. This touching novel tackles many difficult issues; beautiful imagery and language keep the story vibrant.

Reviewer: Chelsey Philpot

(4) 4-6 Peck gives readers a nostalgic glimpse into the American heartland during World War II. He's all about setting here, using Davy Bowman as the voice to describe the scene: a town that remembers the horrors of the preceding war but nonetheless supports the present one. Davy's idols, his father and his brother, begin and end as heroes, creating a weak arc.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2007

(4) YA Shaping America series. Seven profiles introduce Antoine Cadillac, Jean du Sable, and other historical figures instrumental in settling the Midwest. Because the subjects lived in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, some of the dates and details provided are sketchy, but the biographies are adequately written, and the accompanying maps, historical reproductions, and sidebars are solid supplemental matter. Timeline. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(4) 4-6 American Disasters series. Concise volumes describe three disasters in recent American history and examine their causes and consequences. Because of the nature of these events, The Challenger Disaster is the most focused volume; the other disasters were so widespread that the books provide vignettes, rather than full portraits. The accompanying color portraits sometimes lack clarity but still make an impact. Bib., glos., ind.

Reviewer: Peter D. Sieruta

(2) 4-6 Katz takes a careful look at the African-American pioneers in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys and shows how they carved out lives for themselves from the wilderness while fighting efforts to legalize slavery in the territories. He also presents a good deal of information about African-American female pioneers.The narration is clear, fluid, and enlivened with quotes from the pioneers themselves. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 1999