(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

(2) 4-6 It's 1881 in Destiny, Colorado. Fourteen-year-old Henry Upton and his three younger brothers have just buried their father. Their mother passed away several years earlier, and now they must manage the homestead by themselves. Henry comes up with a plan to help them get by: he writes stories and sends them east to be published. These stories feature The Kid, a young hometown hero who thwarts a variety of evildoers; they are the product of Henry's imagination, but he has passed them off as true stories -- and they are successful beyond his wildest imagination. Indeed, his editor, Herbert ("pronounced air-bear. It's French"), heads west to encourage him to write even more. Also headed west is Snake-Eye Sam, a would-be-notorious criminal who is newly escaped from an Arkansas prison and headed to Destiny for his own rendezvous with The Kid. Their narrative strands are interwoven with Henry's main narrative and the occasional story about The Kid (in a typewriter-esque font). Henry and company ultimately prevail--for real, this time--but not without lots of adventure, dollops of humor, and a little bit of heart. There aren't too many Westerns written for middle-grade and middle-school readers nowadays, but Schill's debut is an entertaining genre entry.

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

(2) 4-6 Arthur Popper is a diffident, slightly anxious eleven-year-old who lives with his parents and younger sister above the family business, a thriving, capacious secondhand store in Boulder, Colorado. He works shifts in the store and is valued for being "good at customer service" but longs for another area where he can truly shine. When some family members' and friends' jewelry starts disappearing, he takes on the mystery-solving challenge. He receives advice from a ghost mouse who lives in a teacup on his bookshelf, the single touch of fantasy in an otherwise naturalistic novel. The detective narrative, which is tidily composed and plausible, provides the scaffolding for a story of family and community relationships that is a tour de force of small, beautifully calibrated effects. Arthur's best friend is Veda, who is Latinx, but things go sideways for them when Arthur's grandfather expresses a prejudice against "certain kinds of people." Freeman doesn't provide easy answers to the problem of a bigoted family member, nor does she give Grandpa an easy epiphany. Instead she portrays a realistic, flawed family with all its tensions. She allows Arthur to encounter and grapple with the concept of white privilege on his own, in age-appropriate terms, keeping the focus firmly on the child characters and their strengths.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(2) 4-6 Take a school full of competitive "control freaks," each with ambitious personal goals, put them into an all-middle-school group STEAMS (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics, sports) competition, and you will rock their universe. Twelve-year-old Frederick Douglass "Doug" Zezzmer, a Black student at Benjamin Banneker College Prep in Denver, is trepidatious. "There's no way to stand out if I'm one of a dozen kids on a team," he says. This will interfere with his "fifty-seven-step strategy to become the World's Greatest Inventor" and Operation DazzleYee, intended to impress his principal, Dr. Yee, enough to nominate him for Rocky Mountain GadgetCon. Furthermore, he's placed on the worst team possible. They're the "Island of Misfit Toys of STEAMS teams." Dr. Yee comes up with wild tests, events, contests, and challenges for the students, related through the author's clever use of alternating voices that offer insights into the minds and lives of characters. As miserable as Doug is at the beginning, he eventually gets into the spirit of the competition and sees his teammates, now friends, in a new light. By the end of the competition, he says, "I'm not sure how Dr. Yee did it, but he got all of us celebrating for each other." Thomas's debut novel is a refreshing take on middle-school life--smart kids who know they are going places but learn to take care of one another along the way.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2023

(2) 1-3 Illustrated by Paula Franco. Even though the titular sisters first seen in Twig and Turtle: Big Move to a Tiny House (rev. 7/20) have now settled into their home in Happy Trails, Colorado, they still have a couple of crises to solve. The owner of a new toy store initiates the story's action by announcing a naming contest. Twig is at first reluctant to reduce her chances of winning by telling her friends about the competition. Although the situation resolves itself, the idea of tension between what she wants to do and what she should do is born. Later, when Twig accepts a doll from a friend and thus breaks their household's five-toy rule, she lets a "big old mountain of want" dictate her actions. Jacobson again shows her strength in creating problems seemingly specific to one setting but experienced by many children; without a hint of didacticism, she allows Twig to reach a creative ­solution to the problem. Short chapters, generous use of dialogue, and text-­supporting spot art scaffold the reading for newly independent chapter book readers. This series ­reaffirms the old adage that good things come in small packages.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2021

(3) K-3 National Park Explorers series. These books describe basic features of U.S. national parks for younger elementary-aged readers. Engaging photographs of landscapes and animals appear throughout; short sentences and large-size type convey information about each park's indigenous plants and wildlife, along with details about the climate and land formations. A simple activity is appended. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these National Park Explorers titles: Badlands, Big Bend, Grand Teton, and Rocky Mountain.

Reviewer: Kristy Pasquariello

(3) YA While high-school sophomore Annie's father is on trial for real estate fraud, she and her older brother move to Breckenridge, Colorado, to live with her mom's estranged sister and her husband. There, Annie gets a job at her uncle's restaurant, loses her virginity, and learns a family secret. Annie's spoiled attitude is initially trying, but the maturity she displays by book's end feels earned.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Smith

(4) 4-6 Denver tween Kazu Jones uses her daily paper route to hone her detective skills. A dognapper is on the loose, and Kazu (with the help of her sometimes-reluctant friends) starts building a case against a creepy-seeming neighbor. Then her own beloved pup is snatched, and Kazu's motivation--and the danger--increases. Many exploits strain credulity, but themes of kid-power and animal friendship come through.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(3) 4-6 After moving to a remote Colorado town, Arlo joins the Rangers scouting troop and learns about the hidden magic of nearby Long Woods. Arlo builds confidence and friendships through the Rangers, but when supernatural phenomena strike, he and his troop must work together to make it back home. This intriguing combination of traditional scouting story and supernatural mystery lays the groundwork for future adventures.

Reviewer: Russell Perry

(3) 4-6 The difficult, weather- and nature-dependent life of farming on the Colorado frontier is the theme of this middle-grade novel centered on twelve-year-old Belle, whose family takes part in the government homesteading program in 1910. Reminiscent of the Little House series, hardships are paralleled with the loving support of family and neighbors struggling and succeeding together. Glos.

Reviewer: Rita Soltan

(3) YA Essence's marijuana-shop-worker mother is usually high, leaving Essa in charge of her little sister, Puck. Essa and Puck's lives are forever changed when a mysterious boy from Chicago, Oliver, arrives in Boulder, Colorado. Essa's interest in Zen Buddhism gives her strength once the story veers into wilderness-survival terrain. This story is at once a keep-you-guessing mystery and an affectionate portrait of liberal, outdoorsy Boulder culture.

Reviewer: Katie Darrin

(4) YA Sixteen-year-old Maddie's first camping trip turns downright terrifying when the gory campfire stories start coming true one by one. As Maddie and company fight to survive, they uncover one another's deepest secrets, indicating that perhaps a serial killer is punishing them for their sins. Full of formulaic yet entertaining elements of the horror genre, this novel will easily appeal to slasher-film fans.

Reviewer: Grace Enriquez

(3) YA This intricately plotted, irony-heavy thriller alternates between two narratives: one from the perspective of the title character, who's hell-bent on finding and killing her younger sister Mattie's murderer; and one that's the transcript of a Serial-like true-crime podcast that starts after Sadie's car is found abandoned. The narratives work in tandem to create a suspenseful picture of a brave young woman with a traumatic past.

Reviewer: Norah Piehl

(4) YA Hayden has tried to move on after her mom's disappearance ten years ago, even as bizarre events and secrets follow her. Now that she's eighteen, she's inherited her family estate in Colorado...with a few conditions, including trusting her blood but not the ravens. Attempting to reconcile science with myths, Hayden's journey, like the narrative style, is dramatic but not very substantive.

Reviewer: Jeannie Coutant

(3) YA Desperate to get home for the anniversary of her best friend's accidental death, Ryn is trapped in the Denver airport by a blizzard on New Year's Eve. Swoon-worthy stranger Xander draws Ryn out of her anxious bubble and into a variety of unexpected airport exploits. This funny and rollicking romance has a colorful cast of side characters, genuine emotional heft, and a strong voice.

Reviewer: Jessica Tackett MacDonald

(4) 4-6 U.S.A. Travel Guides series. Illustrated by Matt Kania. This series guides readers on a road trip through each state, unrealistically crisscrossing it to visit important locales. Maps and photographs catalog a cartoon family's visits to natural, industrial, and historical sites such as the Grand Canyon, Independence Hall, state capitals, etc. State facts (symbols, song, flag, etc.) are appended, plus a brief content quiz. There are forty-five other fall 2017 books in this series. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these U.S.A. Travel Guides titles: Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina.

Reviewer: Luther B. Clegg

(4) 4-6 You Choose: Haunted Places series. On guided tours of a historic hotel and a long-abandoned tuberculosis sanatorium, readers are given a choice of numerous scenarios and endings that portray the supposedly ghostly haunting of each. The slight Choose Your Own Adventure–style speculative narratives offer dozens of entertaining choices and multiple endings accompanied by archival photographs of the locales. An epilogue provides limited historical background. Reading list, timeline, websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these You Choose: Haunted Places titles: The Haunted Sanatorium and [cf]2Stanley Hotel.

Reviewer: Rita Soltan

(2) YA In 1962 Colorado, the Mexican American Soria family has the power to work miracles. Daniel Soria has broken a taboo by falling in love with one of the pilgrims seeking the family's help and has exiled himself to the desert, starting a chain of events that will upset their dysfunctional community. Paying homage to Latin American magical realism, Stiefvater employs evocative and philosophical prose and matter-of-fact strangeness.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2017

(3) 4-6 The CIA has asked espionage student Ben Ripley to befriend Jessica, daughter of Chinese crime boss Leo Shang, during their Rocky Mountain ski trip. Skiing in Vail and flirting with the pretty Jessica seems like a cushy assignment--until Ben's best friend arrives and threatens to blow his cover. Like the other Spy School books, this fourth installment is packed with humor and action.

Reviewer: Lisa Catherine Findlay

(4) 4-6 United States of America series. This boilerplate series provides adequate and level-appropriate overviews of states. In each book, templated sections on geography, climate and weather, plants and animals, history, people, cities, transportation, natural resources, industry, sports, and entertainment are well illustrated with engaging photographs; "Quick Facts" and "Did You Know?" sections provide extra information. The flashy design includes lots of stars and stripes. Timeline. Glos., ind. Review covers the following United States of America titles: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, and Colorado.

Reviewer: Kristy Pasquariello