(2) YA In the early part of the twentieth century, the arid climate and desert landscape of the American Southwest limited development. The Colorado River, which passes through seven states (Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and California) was notoriously unpredictable: occasionally changing course, frequently flooding, and always bringing mud and silt. Building Hoover Dam, then, required persistence, fortitude, and resources, but, in turn, it provided electricity, irrigation, recreation, and -- during the height of the Great Depression -- jobs. Weaving compelling facts and human stories into a cohesive narrative, Boughton explores the dam's political, economic, social, and environmental impacts on the region. He traces the need for a system of dams to control and regulate water; the engineering feats and specific labor skills that would be required to build the great dam at such a breakneck pace; and how the experience shaped the lives of those who built it. The final chapter and epilogue discuss how overreliance coupled with drought has imperiled the Colorado River, threatening several of its reservoirs with "dead pool," the inability of water to flow downstream. The book includes numerous well-chosen black-and-white photographs, maps, diagrams, and primary source quotes throughout the text, while a timeline, additional maps, source notes, a bibliography, and an index (unseen) are appended.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2024

(1) In this pitch-perfect middle-grade novel, Lou (short for Louise) copes with her deep shame over some unkind words she said in anger to Francie, her (now former) best friend. Lou can hardly believe that new-kid Cece wants to be friends, but she's intrigued by the girl's conviction about having been kidnapped by her father. Lou's first-person narration is punctuated with her notebook entries trying to sleuth out if Cece is correct and with flashbacks documenting her friendship with Francie, from kindergarten to "The Tenth Day of Sixth Grade" -- the day everything changed. Parallels with Harriet the Spy are spelled out, so what happens to that notebook and the emotional ramifications that follow are no surprise. Lou's tart perceptions of her Catholic school, her family (her white mother, Black stepfather, and two young siblings), and the emotional dynamics of sixth grade are sharply observant, as is her journey to understanding that people change. Other themes include Cece's keen interest in astrology (and insistence on interviewing a local reader for a "Christ Is Alive!" school project) and Francie's mother's depression; the depiction of the hot and humid Missouri setting is another strength. The mystery and plentiful conversation help keep the momentum going all the way to the end.

Reviewer: Susan Dove Lempke | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2024

(2) YA Smith (The Blossom and the Firefly, rev. 3/20) and Wein (Stateless, rev. 3/23) introduce readers to the Black men and women who fought to desegregate aviation. The book opens in 1919 with fifteen-year-old Cornelius Coffey attempting to take his first plane ride at an air show in Nebraska. The pilot reluctantly takes the young Black man up and tries to discourage him with daredevil antics -- but Coffey loves it and knows he wants to fly. Fast forward: Coffey meets Johnny Robinson, a Black mechanic who also longs to be a pilot. The two move to Chicago and apply to the Curtiss-Wright School of Aviation. They are accepted -- but then not allowed to enroll after the school finds out they are Black. Following much struggle, Coffey and Robinson are admitted in 1929 and complete their course. With two other young Black aspiring pilots, Janet Harmon Bragg and Willa Brown, they open an aviation school for Black students. Along with the experiences of each individual pilot, there is also a thorough discussion of the historical context surrounding them, including the Great Depression and WWII. Photographs of Coffey, Robinson, Harmon Bragg, and Brown appear throughout the text. An authors' note explains the research process, and source notes are provided for this thorough and absorbingly written history of the early days of aviation.

Reviewer: Nicholl Denice Montgomery | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2024

(1) 4-6 Illustrated by Dare Coulter. Alexander and Coulter have created a powerful counternarrative in their efforts to answer the question, "How do you tell a story about slavery?" Starting before Africans were forcibly brought to the Americas, both text and art reinforce the family structures, cultural traditions, and ways of life Africans enjoyed. When chattel slavery enters the story and white colonizers work "to steal them away / from their lives / and sell them / in America," the pain of separation and removal is poignant and brutal. The poetic text insists enslavement be explained from the perspective of humanizing the Africans and African Americans at the heart of this American story, while reinforcing motifs of agency, resistance, and flights to freedom. Coulter's mixed-media illustrations bring the text to life with a powerful combination of two-dimensional paintings and photographs of her three-dimensional ceramic and polymer clay sculptures. She juxtaposes her depictions of African Americans with drawings (in a yellow and black palette) of modern-day children grappling to understand the past and channeling their need for truth with their own desires to create change. The narrative ends on a hopeful note, encouraging the telling of an accurate story in an attempt to offer healing for a broad audience. Notes from the creators are appended.

Reviewer: Kim Parker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(1) YA Here's a rare chronicle of a contemporary, ongoing war. This comic-format "war diary" isn't told from the viewpoint of any one person, although individual perspectives are plentifully represented and woven throughout the narrative in a cohesive fashion. Rather, it's the diary of Mariupol, a port city situated on the far eastern edge of Ukraine. A prologue recounts the shared history of Ukraine and Russia. The narrative then plunges into Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and the eighty-three-day siege of Mariupol. Using a spare, understated text that synthesizes basic facts and primary-source quotes, Brown relies on his pen-and-ink and digital paint illustrations to do the heavy lifting of conveying what it's like to live in a war zone. The composition of the panel layouts, the sketchiness of the illustrations, and the black, white, and gray color palette all serve this purpose. The siege wears on, and things go from bad to worse. As the end appears imminent, the resistance retreats to a sprawling steel plant for their last stand and eventual surrender on May 17. By then, ninety percent of the city has been destroyed and twenty thousand civilians killed. An afterword discusses the unfinished business of the war and the legacy of the siege. This powerful work of graphic nonfiction concludes with source notes and a bibliography.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2023

(1) YA Brown (recently 83 Days in Mariupol, rev. 7/23) applies his signature graphic-nonfiction approach to the rescue of Jewish young people during the Holocaust through various means, including hiding and evacuation. Sequences about broader historical events set the scene before Brown turns focus to individual human stories, showing poignant moments as parents and children say what may be final goodbyes. The varied panel layouts in Brown's digital illustrations employ a muted palette, making the occasional exceptions (red Nazi armbands and flags; the Reichstag fire) especially striking. Real quotes shown in speech bubbles lend immediacy. Though there are hopeful elements in the stories of people helping one another, the book doesn't shy away from painful truths; several powerful wordless spreads near the end depict the fate of many of those left behind. Back matter includes an afterword, source notes, and a bibliography.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2023

(2) YA On April 15, 1920, in South Braintree, Massachusetts (as a prologue describes), two men were shot and killed as they were transporting payroll funds to a major shoe factory. There were a handful of robbers, a getaway car, and dozens of witnesses. Surely the police could find the culprits and bring them to justice. The book then gives the backstory of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian immigrants looking for better lives in America. Eventually, each man is drawn to the political movement of anarchism and its promise of a brighter future for laborers, though some anarchists turn to violence. As Sacco and Vanzetti seek to eliminate evidence of their connection to anarchism amid government suspicion, they become ensnared in the search for the Braintree murderers. The xenophobic bias that dominates their trial and numerous appeals will likely seem blatant to modern readers, and the suspense of whether or not they will be executed is what drives the resolution. Primary sources are included throughout, and longer excerpts from the men's letters conclude most chapters, reinforcing their humanity. Source notes, a bibliography, and an index are appended.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(3) PS Our World series. Illustrated by Netsanet Tesfay. In this slice-of-life board book, a young dark-skinned girl and her father rise to the promise of a new day in Ethiopia, break bread (literally — they eat chechebsa, an Ethiopian torn flatbread), then spend a pleasant day at Entoto Natural Park, where horse-riding and hide-and-seek are on the agenda. The doting pair returns home to enjoy dinner with Mom and the girl’s older brother, and when it’s slumbertime, Dad looks happy as a clam reading his daughter a bedtime story. Habtemariam’s characters and Tesfay’s depiction (colorful childlike illustrations offer interesting details) of the city of Addis Ababa exude bonhomie. Ethiopian social practices (like eating with one’s hands from a communal plate and the Habesha coffee ceremony) are casually woven into the story. A pictorial glossary of Amharic words concludes this winsome offering.

Reviewer: Summer Edward

(2) YA Hopkinson (We Must Not Forget: Holocaust Stories of Survival and Resistance, rev. 3/21) delivers another highly engaging nonfiction account of World War II. After giving some background information on the colonization of the Philippines, the movement for independence, and the continued U.S. military presence leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor, the author turns to Japan's attack on key military bases in the Philippines, leaving the island nation vulnerable to invasion. After a valiant effort for several months, despite severe shortages of food, water, and supplies, the combined American and Philippine forces surrendered. Next came the infamous Bataan Death March, which saw fatigued and emaciated soldiers forced to march dozens of miles to Camp O'Donnell, the first of several prison camps the Allied soldiers endured. The fatality rate for these camps was as high as forty percent, and those who survived (eventually to be liberated by General MacArthur) were forever changed. Hopkinson has amassed an impressive array of primary-source accounts--ranging from those by nurses and doctors to soldiers and guerrilla fighters to journalists and activists--and woven them together into a cohesive whole. The narrative is complemented by numerous sidebars that often take up whole pages and include digressions into various related topics; black-and-white photographs; and maps. An extensive bibliography of print and digital resources, source notes, and an index are appended.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(1) K-3 Illustrated by Jerome Pumphrey & Jarrett Pumphrey. An intriguing photograph of writers Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka dancing at a party at the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is the springboard for Reynolds's first (traditional) picture book. In 1991, people in Harlem gathered to celebrate the grand opening of the Langston Hughes Auditorium and the literary brilliance of its namesake. At the "fancy-foot, get-down, all-out bash," guests boogie to the beats and bops of music as renowned word-makers are pictured leaning in from the spines of books on the shelves, captivated by the dazzling whirlwind of excitement. The master poet, Langston Hughes, was called "the 'word-making king.'" He "could make the word America look like two friends making pinky promises to be cool, to be true" and turn words into laughter, "bringing joy to the little and the big." In his own evocative and kinetic style of word-making, Reynolds exudes reverence for Langston and the festive tempo of the occasion. The Pumphreys' vibrant illustrations, created with digitized handmade stamps, extend the theme of wordsmithing in creative interpretations of text, as in the double-page spread of Angelou and Baraka dancing with the letters of their first names forming the shape of their bodies. A jubilant tribute to the enduring legacy of one of the most prominent voices of the Harlem Renaissance and others whom he has inspired.

Reviewer: Pauletta Brown Bracy | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2023

(1) 4-6 Sandler turns his attention to shipwrecks and marine archaeology, selecting seven shipwrecks that collectively present the excitement of solving the mysteries of where each one lies, the latest excavation technologies, and the wealth of historical understanding each wreck yields up. He begins with the discovery of a vessel from ancient times near Crete, which became the first that led to a deliberate excavation after it was located in 1900. From there, he introduces readers to George Bass, who led the first scientific excavation of a shipwreck in 1960 and in the process created the discipline known as marine archaeology. A shipwreck found off the coast of South Africa in the 1980s compels us to "confront and remember the brutal practice of the slave trade." Sandler finds the hook in the story surrounding each wreck, and the stories build upon one another to create a more complete understanding of the field. A final chapter teases nine additional shipwreck stories in brief vignettes. The handsome book design features full-color photographs of recovered artifacts; scientists working to restore ships; sidebars with additional information; and historical paintings, photographs, and maps. Source notes, a select bibliography, and an index are appended.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2023

(1) YA Illustrated by Nick Bertozzi. Sheinkin's work of award-winning narrative nonfiction (Bomb, rev. 11/12) is here sharpened by the author's own graphic adaptation--and portrayed through Bertozzi's skillful cartooning--amplifying the drama, intrigue, and brutality irrevocably linked with the dawn of the atomic age. In five chapters, roughly spanning the years of WWII, Sheinkin cogently interconnects a massive cast of world leaders, scientists, military personnel, spies, and civilians across a mostly chronological account of the Manhattan Project. Unique for this new edition, Sheinkin chose the post-war interrogation of Harry Gold (a Philadelphia factory worker who spied for the Soviets) as the narrative's through line. This clever bit of storytelling permits the omniscient narrator to seamlessly move between key events as they are discussed during Gold's hardboiled questioning. The Golden Age-style illustrations generally adhere to an efficient three-tier, nine-panel page layout yet regularly shift in size, shape, and number to underscore significant moments and ideas. Notably, a stark white page is used to depict the detonation of the Little Boy atomic bomb over Hiroshima. Back matter includes an author's note describing Sheinkin's adaptation process, while an informative epilogue ends on a slightly more ominous note than the original: "How does this story end? We don't know--because it's still going on. And, like it or not, you're in it."

Reviewer: Patrick Gall | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(1) YA In his latest masterful work of narrative nonfiction, Sheinkin's (Most Dangerous, rev. 9/15; Fallout, rev. 11/21) tale of suspense is tinged with the physical and psychological horrors of the Holocaust. When Hitler invades Czechoslovakia, Rudi Vrba, a seventeen-year-old Slovakian Jew, flees to Hungary hoping to get ahead of the ominous changes to his world, but to no avail. He is captured and imprisoned in Majdanek and then in Auschwitz, where he gradually comes to understand the Nazis' systematic method of exterminating the Jewish population of German-occupied territories. Through a combination of determination, intelligence, and fortune, Rudi survives for two years--an eternity in Auschwitz--before he and a friend, Fred Wetzler, manage the impossible: escape. Their journey back to Slovakia is fraught with peril, but when they do arrive, they deliver harrowing testimony that lays bare to the outside world the depth of Nazi depravity. Sheinkin artfully balances Rudi's story with expository information about the progression of World War II and the Holocaust. A subplot follows Gerta Sidonova, Rudi's schoolmate and future wife, during this time frame; the juxtaposition adds depth, texture, and context. The epilogue is fittingly ruminative and poignant. An author's note, source notes, a bibliography, and an index are appended.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2023

(1) K-3 Illustrated by Selina Alko. In this quiet but immediate nonfiction picture book, Stelson (A Bowl Full of Peace, rev. 7/20) tells the story of the 669 children evacuated from Czechoslovakia via the Kindertransport in the late 1930s, to escape the Nazis, with the help of Nicholas Winton. The first-person-plural narration mainly sticks to the collective point of view of the children, letting readers experience their bewilderment first at the early signs of war and persecution and then at the unexplained "holiday to England" without their parents; occasional "none of us knew" asides hint at the help Winton was providing behind the scenes. As time passes and the war ends, the narrators find out (along with readers) that most of their parents have perished during the Holocaust, and they later learn Winton's identity. The in-the-moment text combines with emotional acrylic, colored-pencil, and collage illustrations in Alko's (I Is for Immigrants, rev. 9/21) signature style to create a dreamlike atmosphere. Extensive back matter provides further context; a note explains that five of the children in the illustrations represent specific individuals among "Winton's children," and a quote from the mother of one of them, Vera Gissing, inspired the titular star motif. Pair with Sis's Nicky & Vera: A Quiet Hero of the Holocaust and the Children He Rescued (rev. 5/21).

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(1) K-3 The little-known subject of this enthralling picture-book biography, Tom Crean (1877-1938), first went to Antarctica as a last-minute replacement, signing on as an able seaman on Captain Scott's initial voyage; then six years later as chief petty officer on Scott's second, ill-fated expedition; and finally as second officer serving under Shackleton aboard the Endurance. Crean, while facing all the usual hardships and dangers, was undoubtedly brave and seemingly "indestructible." On a solo rescue mission, he saved two men's lives: "It is thirty-five miles across the ice shelf. The cold bites Tom to his core. He has only a few biscuits and a bar of chocolate to eat. He must keep going." Most remarkable of all, he was one of the three men (including Shackleton) who crossed the mountains of South Georgia Island on foot, resulting in the fabled rescue of all twenty-eight stranded Endurance crewmembers. Thermes's honed text, in a grabbingly immediate present tense, uses short, high-impact sentences that make the most of the inherent drama. Her illustrations (in watercolor, colored pencil, and salt) are full of detail, action, and atmosphere. Page layouts are an eye-catching, pace-setting mix of double-page spreads (in order, for example, to convey the majesty of the Antarctic landscape), full pages, and panels that progress the action and accommodate informative content such as maps. The glacial palette necessarily relies on blues and whites but is never boring, with pleasing additions of various pastel colors. Appended with Antarctica facts, an afterword, a timeline, and selected sources.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(2) 4-6 "Maps show how humans have used borders to divide the land into villages, towns, states, and countries. Much of the story of human history has been about the quest for land and who controls it." In this ambitious and comprehensive account, Thermes (The Indestructible Tom Crean, rev. 1/23) first chronicles European colonization and the aftermath it had--and continues to have--on Indigenous inhabitants of this continent. She goes on to describe successive waves of migration, both forced (the enslavement of Africans; Japanese incarceration during World War II) and voluntary, and mentions ongoing immigration issues. She weaves these narratives into larger political events, especially wars and territorial expansion. The design here is flawless: the illustrations, text, maps, and sidebars work in concert to synthesize and convey not only a large amount of complex information, but information that requires subtlety and nuance in its presentation (and though the art might sometimes be considered cozy, the text does not mince words: "The lie that a person with light skin was superior to one with dark skin tightened its grip"). Moreover, this extended nonfiction picture book has a slightly oversize trim, which, along with the pastel-colored illustrations rendered in watercolor, colored pencil, and ink, recalls the work of the d'Aulaires. This book too has the look and feel of a classic that readers will revisit time and again to fully absorb the details in both text and illustration. A selected bibliography recommends further resources, while an extensive timeline occupies both endpapers.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2023

(1) YA Barone (Race to the Bottom of the Earth, rev. 5/21) delivers another impressive feat of narrative nonfiction storytelling. In the years following World War I, Germany developed a virtually unbreakable code, called Enigma, with the help of a complicated machine. One such machine fortuitously fell into the hands of Poland, enabling their ­codebreakers to duplicate the machine and crack the code--until the Germans added layers of complexity. As Hitler rose to power, the threat of military aggression became obvious, increasing the stakes substantially; the code was central to military operations, particularly the German naval strategy. France, England, and Poland now had extra motivation to cooperate with one another to break the code; and break it they did, but not before an extensive game of ­cat-and-mouse with Germany. Accompanied by occasional ­black-and-white ­photos, Barone's suspenseful text introduces a sprawling cast of characters, with the epilogue updating readers on what happened afterward to the central ­players. A timeline, bibliography, and source notes are appended.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2023

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Daniel Minter. This wide-ranging nonfiction picture book explores the many facets of a single color, dipping a brush into culture, history, linguistics, art, science, and more. Brew-Hammond begins with a historical look into the different ways people around the world made the title hue and how the difficulty of those methods influenced the color's early cultural meaning, causing it to be associated with luxury and royalty. After introducing the discovery, in 1905, of a chemical that made blue items (fabrics, etc.) more easily available, Brew-Hammond explores how the history of the color has even influenced language, as when people talk about "the blues" or why first prize is often a blue ribbon. Minter's illustrations--"layers of acrylic wash on heavy watercolor paper"--use textures such as patterned West African indigo cloth and mottled clouds in the sky, but blue is often not the predominant color on the page. Large expanses of contrasting colors make the blues pop; the illustration accompanying a discussion of the cruelty of the indigo trade, for example, features the hot reds and yellows of the landscape, against which enslaved people and indentured farmers (painted in deep indigo) toil. Blue has, in Brew-Hammond's words, "a complicated history of pain, wealth, invention, and recovery," and exploring that history will make readers look at the color in a new way. Back matter includes additional facts and sources. Pair with Tamaki's They Say Blue (rev. 7/18) and Brown and Dunn's Perkin's Perfect Purple (rev. 9/20).

Reviewer: Laura Koenig | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2022

(2) K-3 Illustrated by E. B. Lewis. A true story from the Civil War offers insight into a little-known aspect of ­African American history. In 1861 ­Virginia, a man named George Scott, who had escaped enslavement, overhears how field hands had rowed to the nearby Fortress Monroe seeking refuge--and Union soldiers had not returned them to captivity. Scott joins the flow of people seeking freedom, known as "contrabands." At the fortress, he tells Major General Benjamin Franklin Butler that he knows the location of some ­Confederates, and Butler sends him on a reconnaissance mission. His bravery and heroism prompt Butler to seek freedom for Scott and the others, writing, "These contrabands had been property, but since they had been abandoned, they were now simply men, women, and children... These human beings must be given the free enjoyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Castrovilla's straightforward narrative style makes the events readily accessible to readers who are interested in this complex era of American history. Lewis's atmospheric watercolors convey themes of urgency and humanity. Comprehensive back matter includes additional information about contrabands, Butler, Scott, and Fort Monroe; archival photographs; and a bibliography.

Reviewer: Pauletta Brown Bracy | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2022

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Stacy Innerst. In 1921, a perilous coast-to-coast airplane relay pushed a handful of pilots to their limits. If successful, the publicity stunt would prove that the U.S. Air Mail Service was superior to its locomotive counterpart, quelling concerns of cautious politicians. Esbaum's conversational present-tense narration places readers in the middle of the action alongside Jack Knight, the only pilot able to ­complete two legs of the relay (before being relieved), from Nebraska to Illinois, all the while braving frigid temperatures, snowstorms, and unfamiliar terrain. "Jack wipes slush from his goggles. He peers ahead, but can no longer see the horizon through the swirling snow... Will he find it before the plane runs out of fuel and crashes?" Harrowing details, such as ­snow-covered runways, miscommunication between airfields, and Knight literally freezing to his biplane's seat, amplify the ultimate success of the daring pilot. Innerst's mixed-media illustrations, primarily rendered in watercolor, ink, and pencil, are expressive and atmospheric. Rather than depicting objects and characters realistically, he manipulates their sizes, shapes, and colors to accurately reflect the mood of any given scene. Tight ­framing of Knight crammed into his cockpit is informative and discomforting, and effectively portrays the rudimentary nature of aircraft at the time. A thrilling and well-told moment in the history of information distribution across the United States. Back matter includes an author's note, ­highlights of U.S. mail history, a bibliography, an illustrator's note, and photo credits.

Reviewer: Patrick Gall | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2022