(3) K-3 Illustrated by Helen Flook. Silas has seven racially diverse grandparents (including step-grandparents). This means lots of love, but also the occasional overwhelmed feeling, especially when it's time to choose whom to stay with when his parents are away. Silas's conflict is wholly relatable, and readers will enjoy, vicariously, all the doting, shown in carefree acrylic-ink illustrations.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) YA Illustrated by Helen Flook. This guide features good advice--on friendships, cliques, teachers, bullies, lockers, clothes, dances, sex, etc.--and large doses of reassurance delivered in breezy, just-cool-enough prose. Chapters on home life, puberty, and "serious stuff" such as sexual harassment seem somewhat outside the book's scope but are nonetheless handled well. Testimonials from real kids are sprinkled throughout, adding to the book's credibility.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano