(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Charles Santoso. Narrator Zephyrina, a crafty cat (she prefers "tiger trapped in a kitty costume"), goes out at night looking for abandoned toys to deliver to the Second Chances Home for the Tossed and Treasured, operated by a girl named Dasha. Zephyrina sees herself as the "Robin Hood of felines" and brings her findings to her best friend, Pocket Bear, who provides order and emotional support to the newly rescued toys, which come to life at midnight. One evening Zephyrina finds a bear in a trash can, but Berwon is no ordinary toy. His background makes him a target of an unscrupulous toy dealer, and it takes every ounce of Zephyrina's cunning to keep him safe. Although the story's setting is contemporary, the characters' manner of speaking and the featured toys' connections to the past also give this novel a historical feel. Middle-grade veteran Applegate (most recently The One and Only Family, rev. 7/24) effortlessly weaves a believable animal fantasy while providing a fair amount of information about war: Pocket Bear was created to comfort an American soldier on the battlefield in WWI, while Berwon belonged to a soldier from Germany; Dasha's dad died in the war in Ukraine, and her leg "was badly injured when a bomb hit her house." An author's note explains the novel's origins and more about the toys that inspired Pocket Bear and Berwon.

Reviewer: Marva Anne Hinton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(2) 4-6 Eighth grader Finn Katz's mother says that if a wildfire ever threatens their small California town, they should be sure to save the black-and-white photograph above the fireplace of Finn's great-grandfather Phineas Katz, a Jewish immigrant. It will "remind us of what is important / where we've come from, and what we've been through." Though readers learn little about Phineas beyond what he stands for, Mrs. Katz's words prove prophetic: a fire does come; the family must flee their house (with the photograph); and ordinary middle-school life quickly turns into a survival tale amidst an apocalypse. Baron's verse novel successfully takes readers into Finn's world, from daily life with family, friends, and school to their frantic escape from the "fires everywhere." As the fires gather power, so do the poems -- with active verbs, short lines, white space, and propulsive energy. When it's safe to return home, the poem "Hope" sets another tone in its elegant simplicity, speaking to the essential theme: finding hope "once everything in your life has changed." As Finn ultimately realizes, a spark can start a fire, but it can also ignite change. The novel ends with a return home and a commitment to roots, rebuilding, and the environment. An author's note describes Baron's real-life experiences with wildfires fueled by climate change and overdevelopment.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2025

(3) K-3 Illustrated by John Ledda. There is indeed something odd about Freddie’s new babysitter, who scares the dog, doesn’t talk much, and eats garbage for dinner. Eventually Freddie realizes what is already clear from the digital art—the babysitter is three adorable raccoons inside a trench coat, the top one wearing a hat and moustache. Readers will delight in being in on the joke from the start, and the deadpan narration (“Was this babysitter raised in the wild?” Freddie wonders) amplifies the humor.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Kerns

(1) 4-6 Lux Priddy has always considered himself a good vampire who doesn't make trouble for others, unlike those scary, violent vampires rumored to live in an underground society called Nox Urbus. In theory, he should be fine with being Defanged, a procedure pioneered by the organization Vampirism Sucks to "cure" vampirism. However, right before his scheduled Defanging on his twelfth birthday, Lux makes an impulsive escape into the New York City sewer system in search of refuge. As it turns out, Nox Urbus is real, and the supportive community he finds there doesn't match up with what he's been told his entire life. When a major court ruling makes Defanging mandatory, Lux must choose whether he wants to resist or assimilate into a eugenicist, human-supremacist society. Edgmon makes deft use of the vampire as an allegory for the Other, telling the story of a fictional marginalized community trying to live on its own terms in the face of escalating systemic oppression. While the primary group alluded to is autistic people, the story also draws parallels between vampires and queer people and marginalized racial groups. The close third-person narration presents an emotionally rich insider's view of an autistic kid's subjective experience, complete with "infodumps" about special interests, sensory overstimulation and sensory joy (through stimming), the challenges of tripping over the invisible wires of unspoken social norms, and more. Suspenseful, timely, and thought-provoking.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(2) 4-6 In this fantasy novel in verse, spare narration yields jewel-bright imagery of a frozen land where a magic metal -- Fermata -- is necessary for Humans to buy entrance into the Giants' jealously guarded, sheltered gardens. In Lyriana's experience, Songsummoners who sing Fermata into existence -- the protagonist's mother and, someday, Lyrie herself -- are exploited, Lyrie's mother even losing her life trying to make enough metal to save everyone from the cold. Lyrie hopes that rumors of a fabled Orphan's Garden are true -- that an enclave exists where the Winter Spirits don't rule. Meanwhile Brob, a boy Giant whose family had been banished by the Giant King, leads his family toward the secret garden he himself created when he was six. The author's nonlinear storytelling style meshes with the tale's alternating voices and varied poetic structures, creating multiple narratives with intertwined mysteries and payoffs, while poetry aficionados will note, among others, a sonnet, haiku, and sestina tucked in with the blank verse. Themes of trust, interdependence, and the power of music develop meaningfully over the course of this taut, beautifully rendered adventure in which Lyriana and Brob, if they can overcome their differences, have complementary roles to play in ending the tyranny of winter.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2025

(2) YA Gospel, this verse novel's protagonist, is a Keeper in the Leaving Room, a space between life and death where she guides recently deceased children through their final transition. Each Leaver transforms her room with small changes: a memory, a crack in the wall, a door. One day, Gospel's room merges with Melodee's, another Keeper whose immediate connection with Gospel fundamentally alters both girls' understanding of their existence. While Gospel clings to her role, Melodee questions what lies beyond their predetermined purpose, and as their rooms blend together, so do the girls. A revelation about Gospel's charges also uncovers a traumatic experience she is processing and a choice she must make. McBride skillfully employs verse that feels both accessible and challenging, capturing Gospel's emotional transformation with haunting precision. Through richly imagined settings and imagery evoking Black Southern gothic elements (e.g., Black people in nature, bodies of water, beautiful music), she crafts a speculative narrative that vibrates with trauma and hope. The lyrical verse captures tender moments of grief while celebrating Black joy, queer love, and the transformative power of human connection. Readers journey alongside Gospel in this moving exploration of what it means to fully exist and what it takes to choose a life.

Reviewer: S. R. Toliver | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2025

(2) 4-6 Millington’s debut (Olivetti, rev. 5/24) was about a sentient typewriter, and this offering begins with the observations of the Odenburgh, an apartment building and one of several narrative perspectives in a quirky and affecting novel. A year after the death of her sister Lina, Prue Laroe is dreading her own upcoming birthday. She’s about to turn twelve, the age Lina was when she died. Their grieving family, including parents and a teenage sister, lives in the fifty-year-old building, the place where Prue feels closest to Lina. After finding out that the Odenburgh has been sold and is slated for demolition, Prue tries to rally the occupants to save their home. She’s assisted by an earnest across-the-street neighbor who, as she discovers, knew her sister—and by the building itself. The story offers day-in-the-life glimpses of engaging secondary characters with various opinions about the demolition and sometimes surprising connections to the Laroe family’s tragedy. “What was worse—never knowing and always wondering? Or knowing and always wishing it were different?” asks Prue as more details about her sister’s death emerge. Although things don’t go exactly as planned, by the end our protagonist has gained some level of healing and the ability to move forward.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2025

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Jaimie MacGibbon. This celebrity-penned picture book introduces young Randy Rainbow, who loves to be as “fabulously flashy as possible.” But the other kids’ teasing dims his sparkle. A pair of fabulous glasses from his grandmother, which she tells him are magic, gives him the confidence to be himself. The message, though unsubtle, is welcome; the digital illustrations are appropriately bright and joyful.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Kerns

(2) 4-6 In this near-future dystopian novel, a solar flare has left a fraction of humanity alive. The book opens with Millie burying her stepdad outside their Appalachian bunker while her stepsister Rose looks on. Millie, who cheekily wishes that having a Native grandmother would give her intuitive survival skills, takes charge of their baby brother Sammy, with an overdeveloped sense of responsibility and a lot of anxiety. Rose, a non-Native southerner, is impulsive, angry, and possibly neurodivergent. The novel's point of view switches between the two siblings, and readers may have to get used to the southern vernacular not only in dialogue but throughout the third-person narrative. Millie and Rose set out to find Millie's grandma, a Seminole elder in South Carolina -- though Rose has hopes of finding the Sanctuary, a coalition of survivors fighting the Hive, a lair of the mega-rich with a kill-or-be-killed mentality. The siblings encounter a group of kids their own age led by their former camp counselor, who drives a renovated school bus running on scavenged gas. Millie and Rose learn that living through the apocalypse means "we all just get to be whatever we wanna be. Whyever we wanna be it." Edgmon, who identifies as Indigenous and trans/nonbinary, has written an anti-capitalist, intersectional cautionary tale accessible to a middle-grade audience.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2024

(3) PS Illustrated by Janie Bynum. Sloth is climbing higher and higher up a tree, accompanied by well-meaning but unhelpful friend Moth. Moth points out that without wings like his, a wraparound tail like Monkey, or stickiness like Snail, Sloth could fall. But when a thunderstorm hits, Sloth proves that Moth’s pessimism is unwarranted. The pastel watercolor and digital-media illustrations amplify the humorous text with closeups of Sloth’s reactions to Moth’s words.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Kerns

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Bao Luu. Áhn, a 1970s refugee from Vietnam, is afraid at first to speak in America. But a sweater she finds among donated goods in the refugee camp where she lives leads her to speak her first English word aloud: reindeer. Themes of identity and confidence are wrapped in a larger context of how small acts of kindness can make a big difference. The immersive digital illustrations have a timeless quality, and an author’s note and glossary add context.

Reviewer:

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Bri Marie McNish. Andani eagerly awaits her newborn cousin, but in her Ghanaian culture, a baby has seven days to decide whether to stay in the human world or return to the spirit world. As Andani helps with preparations for the outdooring (naming ceremony), her excitement grows. Lively prose and culturally detailed, saturated digital illustrations capture the anticipation and traditions. An author's note and glossary of Ghanaian terms further enrich this joyful, educational tale of familial love, patience, and cultural celebration.

Reviewer: Summer Edward

(2) YA A teenager newly arrived in the United States from Nigeria uses movies such as Sixteen Candles, Mean Girls, and Heathers to prepare for attending an American high school. Enore Adesuwa's family immigrates just two months after the death of her father. Her younger sister appears to adjust more easily to life in a small town in New York's Hudson Valley than Enore, who spends most of her time at home watching DVDs. These movies influence Enore to set ten rules about surviving in a U.S. high school; e.g., steer clear of the popular kids, "no crushes," and avoid the spotlight, rules she breaks when her audition for the school musical goes viral. And rules or no rules, sparks fly during a chance encounter with cute Brazilian American boy Davi Santiago. Their friendship leads to an eventual romance, which helps Enore to deal with her grief. Davi also helps the protagonist handle her fear of disappointing her mother, who is pressuring her to follow in her footsteps and become a doctor. Igharo deftly handles the excitement, intensity, and confusion surrounding young love as well as the mountain of emotions one goes through when mourning a loved one, through characters who are relatable and genuine. A highly entertaining and heartwarming story with a couple to root for.

Reviewer: Marva Anne Hinton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2024

(2) YA "I guess magic ran out / or the city burned too bright / or maybe, I guess the ancestors / in the sky had a different plan." Onyx, who is Black, carries the weight of the world on his young shoulders. At twelve, he is coping with the loss of his grandmother and is now caring for his mother, who has early-onset dementia. Onyx lives each day fearful and anxious that he will be separated from his mom and feels he has to keep her illness a secret. It's a lonely and difficult period for the boy; however, his mind is also in the clouds -- more specifically, in the stars, as his fascination with space and flying offers him a place of respite and a possible solution to his dilemma. Before her passing, Onyx's grandmother had encouraged his vivid imagination and his dreams of becoming an astronaut. Written in verse, this tender story is set in the aftermath of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the subsequent uprisings, which leave an indelible impression upon the protagonist, adding to his unease and his need for safety. Onyx proves a resourceful, compassionate character whose village shows up for him and his mother and relieves him of the burdens that he has carried alone for too long. As Onyx's departed grandmother shares with him in a dream: "Kids shouldn't have to do what adults should be doing."

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

(2) YA In this novel set vaguely during the mid-twentieth century, new-money sisters Renata, almost twenty, and Isla, seventeen, have a reputation for making waves. To solidify a future for them, Abuela pulls strings to get them into the Alarie House, a mysterious finishing school that churns out untouchably sophisticated young ladies. Isla is certain her grandmother and sister also hope that the school will validate Isla's femininity: she is intersex (though the term is not used in the world of the book). Isla barely lasts a night in the strange house and returns home, but when Renata later comes back uncannily changed after graduation and flees into the night, Isla quickly returns to Alarie House, determined to find out what happened to her sister. What she discovers is more terrifying -- and nuanced -- than she could have imagined. In between somnambulant nightmares and surprising kisses with an aspiring lapidarist (a gem-cutter), Isla reflects on feminine ideals and her own identity. McLemore's heavy use of metaphor -- is everything jewel-like, or is everything a jewel? It's hard to tell -- creates an unusual tale that drips with twisted glamour. An author's note explains how McLemore relates to Isla's character through their own experience of gender identity and Latinidad and argues for larger discussions surrounding differences of sex development. Unsettling and packed with sparkly detail, this book is perfect for gothic-literature and period-piece fans who are eager for a much-needed update in representation.

Reviewer: Monica de los Reyes | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2024

(2) YA Color by Sarah Davidson. Marcus McCalister begins eighth grade ambivalent about trying out for soccer despite pressure from those around him in this lively graphic novel. Unlike his varsity-soccer superstar brother, Marcus finds himself yearning for something more. Tough-minded Izzy Briggs, with her purple hair and punk-like fashion sensibility, wants to design costumes for the theater club's stage plays. The two end up together in gym class, where they must cooperate on an extra-credit assignment: performing a swing dance routine in a talent show. This amusing story of boy-meets-girl-in-unusual-circumstances unfolds through strategically composed panels containing details that build aspects of character and tension in a rapidly paced tale. Comical facial expressions and body language accompanied by natural-sounding dialogue advance the plot, ratcheting up the tension between an unlikely duo with dramatic flair and humor.

Reviewer: Jerry Dear | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2025

(2) 4-6 Ernest is a quiet, shy boy fascinated by the Oxford English Dictionary. Along with his three siblings and his father, he is disturbed and mystified by the sudden disappearance of his mother, Beatrice. In his quest to find her, Ernest has two allies: outgoing friend Quinn and a sentient typewriter named Olivetti. Olivetti can see, hear, feel, and -- though otherwise inanimate -- communicate by typing (as long as someone provides paper). The typewriter also retains a memory of everything that was ever typed on him. His first-person narration alternates with Ernest's as the mystery plot deepens. Clues and shenanigans, quirks and magic, create a smokescreen for both Ernest and the reader, obscuring the real-world human story of a parent with cancer, which is gradually and poignantly revealed. In a surreal, rollicking conclusion, Ernest and his family, including the returned Beatrice, join forces with Olivetti to liberate and repair abandoned typewriters and create a revolution of joyful human-typewriter interaction. The point here could involve an upending of our dystopian AI worries, or could be as simple as a celebration of writing as a therapeutic endeavor in times of trouble. Either way, Ernest is a memorable character in an equally memorable family.

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

(2) YA Seventeen-year-old Lucia Cruz loves the consistency of her daily routine. During a trip to San Diego for her cousin's debut -- a traditional Filipino coming-of-age party in which Luz has no interest -- her world is turned on its head. Her best friend, Esme, reveals her discontent with their customary patterns, and Luz finds out that her mom has been planning her debut, complete with an Eighteen Roses ceremony, behind her back. She returns home to contend with the possibility of trying new things, connecting with classmates besides Esme, and cobbling together an extravagant birthday celebration. Throughout Luz's last year of high school, Rogers sheds light on the overwhelming nature of self-discovery as well as the messiness of conflict between friends and of complicated families (Luz and her younger sister begrudgingly split their time between their Filipina mom and white dad, who is remarried to a younger, now-pregnant Filipina woman). Many of the protagonist's critical observations are based on fear and anxiety and, as it turns out, can be transformed into humor. Despite feeling abandoned by Esme, Luz manages to develop connections with classmates through a stand-up comedy club. And with the power of TikTok, she puts together a unique Eighteen Roses ceremony that fits her personality and style. While she often feels powerless, Luz's courage allows her to build unexpected connections, self-confidence, and community.

Reviewer: Gabi K. Huesca | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2024

(2) YA Thomas returns to Reino del Sol, the fantasy world introduced in The Sunbearer Trials (rev. 1/23). Teo's refusal to sacrifice a fellow demigod at the end of that novel has caused the sun to vanish. Now a horde of monsters with immense destructive power has been released. It's up to Teo -- with his impulsive best friend and his broody crush -- to steal back the Sol Stone so they can avert the apocalypse. They fight monsters, learn brutal truths about Reino del Sol's history, and kiss a little along the way. To resurrect the sun, someone still needs to be sacrificed, but Teo is determined to find another course of action. As he and his companions visit cities with more communal structures than they're used to, Thomas expands the first book's exciting world-building to explore what a more just society might look like. Frequent fight scenes are broken up by considerable humor and thoughtful humanizing moments, as characters grapple with the immense pressures placed on them as the children of gods. Though the metaphors for transness are subtler in this installment, there are still some moments of gender exploration -- and many of queer joy.

Reviewer: Bodie Shanis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2024

(2) K-3 In this nonjudgmental, laid-back, and very funny picture book, a bespectacled young penguin demonstrates how to cope with a potty accident at school: "It can happen when you are sleeping. It can happen in class. It can happen when you are sleeping in class." From possible causes (e.g., not wanting to interrupt a lesson, drinking too much lemonade at lunch) to avoidance techniques ("the grab-and-hold...obvious but effective") to coping skills after the fact (cause a distraction, find clean clothes), the text is unfailingly reassuring: "We've all been there." The art, in a soothing limited palette, has a subdued, retro flair. There are funny visual gags (origami undies) and pee-pee puns (book titles glimpsed in the art include Urine Control and Pee Prepared), but the humor is never at anyone's expense. And best of all, the culminating messages of problem-solving, helpfulness, and, especially, empathy are transferable to other would-be embarrassing situations -- peelieve it or not.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2025