(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Emily Gravett. When Summer, a detached and frustrated fourth grader, shouts at her foster father, "You're not my dad," a sinkhole opens in the living-room floor, and everything starts to get out of hand. Beneath the floor, in a huge cavern, Summer discovers a dragon, a sword in a stone, and a potential treasure. She eventually finds herself in possession of the treasure: a bottle with a witch inside and a "DO NOT OPEN" label. This warning goes unheeded, and once released, the witch promises to grant Summer three wishes. Still struggling to establish her place in school and with her foster family, Summer has plenty of big wishes ready to go, but unfortunately, they come at a cost. Interjected throughout the dramatic story are comic breaks provided by the witch's smug cat, Tobias. Gravett's moody, fantastical art punctuates the chapters with extra personality, deftly building tension or slowing it down at key plot points. With the support of well-drawn secondary characters, including true friend Aishwarya and librarian Mrs. Brathwaite (who is well-versed in the tricky history of witches and the power of words), Summer stands up to the trouble she has created for herself and for those she cares about. Summer (unwittingly) marches new fantasy readers through a number of tropes that will introduce them to the genre as she discovers that many wishes can be fulfilled without the aid of magic.

Reviewer: Julie Roach | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2025

(1) YA Illustrated by Emily Gravett. Milo's father has a vital role to play on the island of Merlank: he's the Ferryman, responsible for transporting the Dead to a place where their spirits are free to depart, no longer hampered by Merlank's clingy mist. Otherwise, the Dead would linger, blighting the land and killing others with their fatal gaze. Thus, when the grieving Lord of Merlank causes Milo's father's death, Milo must become the Ferryman and sail the Evening Mare, despite what his father always deemed the dangers of Milo's sympathetic, imaginative spirit. Don't listen to them; don't look at them, was his father's self-protective way with the Dead. But when the Lord's daughter writes a poem on the deck, desperate for her words to go on living despite her early demise, Milo realizes that listening, recording, and sharing can also be part of the Ferryman's job. Gravett's spectacularly misty, atmospheric illustrations, all in shades of indigo, heighten what is most elusive and poignant about Hardinge's story -- the sorrow of endings, the significance of last messages, and the inexorability of mortality. Hardinge's own poetic language (most clearly visible in the girl's poem: "The gnats sing the sun to sleep / Over the lake the air cools / Twinned birds fly through two pink skies") brings multiple shimmering layers to both plot and imagery in this melancholic, fantastical tale.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2024

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Emily Gravett. Part animal fantasy, part family drama, part horror story, this novel set in an English village opens outside a house at sunset with an anxious conversation among Mole, Crow, Mouse, and Snake: will the girl come? Will she win? The girl, Lily, is already having a tough day. After enduring dialysis and an iron injection, she must spend the night at her grandmother's while her parents are at the hospital having a new baby, a sibling Lily does not want. She also has left Willo, her favorite stuffed animal, behind. She sneaks out of her grandmother's house to go back home (it's nearby) and retrieve Willo; when she arrives, however, she finds not only the motley crew of talking animals but also her house possessed, Coraline-style, by two evil coal-eyed parent replicas. Told in third person from Lily's perspective, the story captures the frustration of struggling with a chronic illness as well as the character's inner determination. While she attempts to save her family, the animals never coddle her and need as many assists from her as she does from them--and they also provide helpful comic relief during the scarier parts. Gravett's eerie illustrations capture the mood of the text and use visual cues, such as black backgrounds with white text when Lily is in the dark, to build tension. Full of twists, the story divulges key interpersonal details and magical elements with smart pacing, frequently allowing readers to reconsider everything from new perspectives.

Reviewer: Julie Roach | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2022

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Emily Gravett. Ember's wicked uncle leads her into a world where the dead dwell, but Ember sees this treachery as an opportunity to bring back her deceased best friend Ness. Harrold's spare text invites slow, considered reading, with occasional passages resembling poetry. Gravett's illustrations effectively use color within the shadowy and otherwise black-and-white afterworld. The author/illustrator pair invent imaginatively creepy magic to explore the difficulty, and necessity, of accepting loss.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2019

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Emily Gravett. Mr. Bunting, who eats "imaginaries" to stay alive, sets his sights on Amanda's imaginary friend, Rudger. While Amanda and Rudger run away, Amanda is hit by a car; Rudger, forgotten by his unconscious creator, begins to "Fade." Illustrations indicate how real characters are to each other using transparency and opacity, color and black-and-white. A nuanced exploration of imagination and memory.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2015