(2) YA For troubled sixteen-year-old Alicia, the past year has been one of betrayal (she was cut out of her best friend's life "like a tumor"), parental divorce and dysfunction, and social isolation and slut-shaming. Sexual assault by a revered teacher has thrown her into a personal and academic tailspin, leaving her enraged and disillusioned with the adult world. Only through connections with new friends and with a girls' discussion group is Alicia able to see beyond her psychic pain and forge a stronger, healthier sense of self. Racial and cultural awareness (Alicia is white; new friend Deja is Black; another new friend, Geneva, is Pakistani and white) and the highlighting of multiple forms of sexuality and the power of women supporting women help broaden the story's scope beyond its indictment of pervasive predatory male behavior. Alicia's visceral first-person free-verse narrative, full of acerbic and angry barbs, makes for difficult reading at times. Readers are privy to all that she is processing, including her destructive choices and her inability to ask for the support she needs. Interspersed letters to the mythological Medusa express Alicia's modern-day emotions: "A woman doesn't get... / so mad that her hair turns to snakes / so mad that her rage turns blood to boulder / so mad that she withdraws into a cave and dares the world to follow / all on her own." Being able to sit down with compassionate peers and talk about things makes a world of difference.

Reviewer: Luann Toth | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2023

(1) 4-6 This is a neatly constructed story of two parallel characters. Gladys is a small, bright, intense eleven-year-old with a sensitive nature and quirky clothing sense. Her mom runs an in-home daycare. Jude, also eleven, is big for his age, the son of a single mother and the frequent caregiver for his little brother. Their stories are told in alternating chapters (in different typefaces) and come together when each encounters True, a neglected dog in the neighborhood. True's rescue forms the core of the action. Springstubb (The Most Perfect Thing in the Universe, rev. 9/21) does a masterly job of creating two distinct voices and sustaining our interest in the two main characters equally. A supporting cast of flawed adults and hilarious preschoolers rounds out the picture. The setting--a town formerly prosperous but now on the skids, where folks are just scraping by, with subtle reference to the opioid crisis and the collapse of the manufacturing economy--is one that is underrepresented in contemporary middle-grade fiction, and it mitigates against the potential soppiness of a dog-rescue story. The writing is fresh, sharp, and authentic: "This could be trouble, said his brain. Open the door, said whatever the opposite of a brain was." It's Because of Winn-Dixie (rev. 7/00) for a new generation.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2022

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Bryan Collier. In free-verse poems, Watson describes key experiences in Maya Angelou's life. She highlights influential family members, such as Maya's brother (a source of strength) and Momma (grandmother and shrewd store owner) as well as ­historical figures such as Malcolm X and Dr. ­Martin Luther King Jr., close friends in her adult life who invite her to speak, write, and work toward the cause of freedom for all. Watson doesn't shy away from addressing tough topics, including Maya at age seven being attacked by her mother's boyfriend, which left her mute for years. Collier's accomplished illustrations have a strong narrative pull. Two spreads are particularly compelling. "Caged In" zooms in on the top half of Maya's face, enlarged to show eyes full of pain, with a cage and shadow of a bird, while the following spread shows the bottom half of that same face with her mouth encircled by a lotus-like flower and that cage imprisoning her words. Both illustrations are drenched in the blue of sadness that Collier describes in his illustrator's note. This eloquent picture book is a portrait of a resilient woman with a deep capacity for using words to find hope in the world.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2022

(2) K-3 Translated by Shelley Tanaka. Illustrated by Nathalie Dion. "He didn't need to huff or puff or blow the house down...The big bad wolf just walked in the door." With this chilling opening, a young girl describes the abuse she and her mother suffer at the hands of her mother's new partner. Pictured as a fairy-tale "big bad wolf" who stands on two feet and casts a menacing shadow, the abuser berates the mother when she is late, leaves bruises on the narrator's arm that she must hide with long sleeves, and enters the child's bedroom without her permission. "He paid no attention to a barrier made of wood." So the girl "built a fort made of bricks. I put it up around my heart," and she protects herself thus until the day she and her mother escape to a shelter for abused women and children. There, "the big bad wolf can huff and puff all he wants. This house will not fall down." The familiar folkloric language and motifs work brilliantly to describe a terrifying, but ultimately hopeful, story of domestic violence. The illustrations effectively convey a child's point of view. The wolf, for example, takes up more visual space than either the child or her mother. When the wolf is "spitting mad" and yelling at the child's mother, his large dark shape curves and looms over her, blocking any escape. Still, as difficult as the content is, a gentle palette of cream and yellow, with accents of red, gives the reader some respite and foreshadows the hopeful ending. A skillfully crafted, emotionally honest treatment of a very challenging subject.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2021

(2) YA Eighteen-year-old Bea runs away from a home situation that includes an abusive stepfather; a mother who takes his side; and her confused and angry fifteen-year-old brother, Ezra. The novel is composed of messages she sends from a secret email account, and Ezra's responses, with brief why-haven't-you-answered-me missives lending real-time immediacy amid the longer emails delivering the narrative (with perhaps an unrealistic amount of detail, but then, it's their only means of communication). While the conflict at home heightens and Ezra goes to stay with Bea's boyfriend's family, Bea meets up with a "Mystery Guy"--and it isn't revealing too much to say that she believes he's one long-lost family member...and he's actually another. That encounter leads to the uncovering of more and more secrets about Bea and Ezra's past, which keep the pages turning, but the crux of the novel is the siblings' emotional realizations as they begin to process their experiences, allowing themselves and each other space to be flawed. Appended with resources for those experiencing abuse.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax

(1) YA Illustrated by Julia Iredale. Curation, historical fiction, performance piece--Schlitz (Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!, rev. 11/07) brings a bundle of learning, artifice, and intentionality to this highly stylized tale of ancient Greece. With the god Hermes as sometimes-narrator ("No. Don't put down the book...If the lines look like poetry, relax. This book is shorter than it looks"), the plot revolves around Rhaskos, an enslaved boy, and Melisto, an aristocratically born Greek girl--"a wild girl, chosen by Artemis." For structure, Schlitz curates eighteen "exhibits"--fragments of inscriptions, pottery, and sculpture. As in a museum display or textbook, each has its explanatory note. Each also initiates a section of the story. We follow Rhaskos from his childhood collecting dung to his work as slave to upper-class Menon, when he first encounters Sokrates. We watch as Melisto survives maternal abuse to become one of Artemis's acolytes, her life ending in an ecstatic, tragic dance, when the two narrative threads--one in verse, one in prose--entwine. Schlitz deploys many voices; Hermes, Rhaskos, Hephaistos, Artemis, Sokrates, and more have their declamations, strophes, and antistrophes, characteristic of a Greek chorus and fitting for oral performance. Scraps of philosophy find a place, as does much information on pronunciation, etymology, the gods, and relevant cultural practice. Ambitious and original, this is stuffed with food for thought, often sparkling with wit and appropriate strangeness.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2021

(2) 4-6 Eleven-year-old Samantha and her older sister Caitlin have been sent away from their home in Los Angeles to stay with their aunt and her wife in Oregon. The mention of a caseworker and Sam's emotional fragility alert the reader to a backstory, gradually revealed, involving the violence of the girls' father. The realistic story line, in which Sam makes a friend and learns to trust her aunt, is paralleled by a fantasy story line begun when Sam discovers a card game called Fox & Squirrels. A charismatic fox character, Ashander, aided by his squirrel devotees, promises to give Sam her heart's desire--a return to her home--if she will only submit to his will. Through the tests that Ashander assigns--acts of vandalism that increase in seriousness--we are given a mirror portrait of the manipulative, abusive behavior of Sam's father. Sam is a bookish girl, and the world of Ashander contains references to Narnia and Middle Earth, but this is not a fantasy where the hero enters and leaves the fantasy world via some portal--rather it is one in which the two worlds are so intertwined that it seems at times as though Sam is undergoing a psychotic break. The squirrels, the kindly aunt and her wife, and Sam's new friend, a sunny boy who knits, add some warmth and lightness, but the overall temperature in this game is chilling.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2020

(2) YA African American sixteen-year-old Dove ("Birdie") is on the "right" track, with good grades and a clear life plan chosen by her parents. When Birdie's fresh-from-rehab aunt Carlene arrives, Birdie begins to rebel, including by dating Booker, a kindhearted boy with a difficult past. Vivid dialogue and rich descriptions of the Chicago setting serve the story well. Birdie's believable first-person perspective reflects a protagonist who evolves to trust her own instincts.

Reviewer: Christina L. Dobbs | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2019

(2) YA In 1965, sixteen-year-old Victoria runs away with the VanDrexel traveling circus. Fifty years later finds Victoria training her talented teenage granddaughter, Callie VanDrexel, on the tightrope. Then Victoria dies unexpectedly; Callie's mother moves to Florida, dragging a sullen, grieving Callie with her. Alternating chapters follow plucky Victoria's introduction to life in the circus and Callie's introduction to life without it. This multigenerational story speaks compellingly of the power of family.

Reviewer: Jessica Tackett MacDonald | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2019

(3) 4-6 Gideon's unhappy that his family moved to Nevada the summer before seventh grade. He is, however, intrigued by next-door neighbor Roona, even though she sometimes wears a blanket cape and talks about magic. But Roona's life is complicated, leaving quiet, sheltered Gideon quickly out of his depth. Themes of parental mental illness and abuse are handled sensitively in this surprisingly weighty friendship story.

Reviewer: Renée Wheeler

(1) YA Four teens are connected by "The Freak," a mysterious girl who offers prophetic messages. Interspersed among the protagonists' voices are vignettes about a wealthy old married couple, whose sale of a legacy potato farm has brought no happiness; and two violent brothers hiding a sinister secret. With her trademark surrealism and sharp prose, King confronts her narrative concerns (racism, patriarchy, colonialism, white privilege) directly through her characters' unique (and sometimes twisted) worldviews.

Reviewer: Jennifer Hubert Swan | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2019

(2) 4-6 In 1985 Tennessee, Lyndie and her parents move in with her grandparents after her alcoholic, Vietnam War–vet father loses his job and her mother develops recurring headaches. But Lyndie's grandmother has a firm idea of what a "nice Southern family" should look like and vehemently tries to force Lyndie into that mold. The well-developed characters in this moving, fast-paced story contain a realistic mix of charm and flaws, which makes their progress and setbacks feel especially affecting.

Reviewer: Julie Roach | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2019

(2) 4-6 Ten-year-old Annie Bianchi, the youngest in a large Catholic family in 1980s Massachusetts, is upfront about her siblings' bullying but makes excuses for her mostly absentee parents. Angelini cleverly hides the hoarding and physical abuse by Mom in plain sight, yet it still feels unexpected once revealed. Annie's loyal nature, naiveté, and struggle with dyslexia are sympathetically portrayed in this painfully vivid portrait of a dysfunctional family.

Reviewer: Cynthia K. Ritter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2018

(3) YA Despite being up to his neck in responsibility--taking care of his two sisters and fending off an abusive stepfather--Josh instantly falls for mysterious newcomer Chatham Claiborne. Chatham's past is murky, and she may have a connection to a local kidnapping twelve years ago. The immediate threat from Josh's stepfather keeps tension running high as readers try to untangle the twisted clues to the central mystery.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(3) YA Maya and her friend Lily discover that their grade-seven classmate Jewel has been living at school; Jewel's sister, who protected her from the worst of her parents' abuses, has disappeared, and Jewel is not safe at home. Garvie explores socioeconomic privilege (wealthier Maya initially sees Jewel as kind of a project), secret-keeping, and the nature of home. The quiet novel ends with a better (not perfect) situation for Jewel and believable growth in Maya.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano

(3) 4-6 After her stealing compulsion lands twelve-year-old Hush in the Sass, Georgia, sheriff's office, she's offered a second chance working at a plant nursery. Bolstered by a good friend, a compassionate community of quirky characters, and the discovery of her own ability to help others, Hush flourishes. Harkey softens a story of neglect and poverty with a resilient protagonist, distinct voices, and a touch of magical realism.

Reviewer: Megan Lynn Isaac

(2) YA When Monday doesn't show up on the first day of eighth grade--or in the days after that--Claudia undertakes a heartwrenching quest to find her missing best friend. The search leads readers through a winding, nonlinear tale of sisterhood, identity, loss, and secrets kept and revealed. Social issues such as neighborhood gentrification, race, poverty, as well as the healing of connection and the destruction in disconnection, underlie the gripping plot.

Reviewer: Monique Harris | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2018

(3) YA Emma is a talented computer-game designer dealing with a nasty internet troll while her parents' marriage crumbles. Rev is the weird kid at school with a secret: his estranged, abusive birth father is trying to contact him. A chance meeting brings the two sensitive teens together; their blossoming romance is sweet but doesn't distract from their equally complex and compellingly told personal dilemmas.

Reviewer: Jessica Tackett MacDonald

(2) YA A bright girl in a remote northern-Nigerian village dreams of winning a scholarship to boarding school. In very brief chapters, she relates spending time with her best friend, talking to her crush, and winning the scholarship. But then the radical Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram comes to her village, killing the men and kidnapping the girls; the rest of the book describes in clear, immediate prose the girl's horrific experiences.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2019

(3) YA Teen twin brothers Cory and Ty Bic, on the lam from their foster family, discover a wrecked car in the wilderness. In the car's trunk is an injured, blindfolded, and bound teenage girl. What ensues is a suspenseful survival story, told in alternating voices and time periods, revealing a tangled web of secrets from the past that continues to threaten the brothers' present and future.

Reviewer: Grace Enriquez