(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Claire Powell. When the large extended Swift family gathers at the ancestral home for their regular reunion, they hunt, as they always do, for the long-hidden family treasure. This time, however, there is a murderer in their midst and the bodies start accumulating. Who is killing off Swifts and why? Playing with the tropes of the classic mid-century isolated country house detective novel, Lincoln whips up a witty confection of highly colorful characters (Arch-Aunt Schadenfreude, twins Flora and Fauna); dynamic wordplay; and a plot dense with action, suspense, double-dealing, innovative murder weapons, and a well-orchestrated eleventh-hour reveal. (Not to give anything away, but beware a punster.) Our window on this world is the observant, energetic Shenanigan Swift, a charmingly flawed middle-grader eager to solve the crimes while making sense of family, relationships, and adult life. Fans of Marthe Jocelyn's Aggie Morton mysteries and Polly Horvath's gothic fiction will feel right at home in this inventive, exuberant world. A bonus in this American edition of a British import is a lively introductory essay on dictionaries and the evolution of English that could well inspire a budding lexicographer.

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

(1) YA In this inventive novel that includes elements of verse and script (including some prose in the form of stage directions), McCullough (We Are the Ashes, We Are the Fire, rev. 7/21) reimagines the fates of several of Shakespeare's famous female teen protagonists. In Part One, readers are introduced to Juliet, Ophelia, Cordelia, and Lavinia, who dwell as spectral embodiments in a purgatorial "trap room," the space "beneath all the stages, anywhere." Lavinia, whose tongue is cut out by attackers in one of Shakespeare's first plays, serves as a silent symbol of women who have lost the ability to control their own narratives. Each of the other girls recounts her original plot in verse, up to a pivotal point in the story, in a signature narrative style. Juliet's verse is free and ­passionate, Ophelia's dreamy and verdant, Cordelia's precise and pragmatic. In Part Two, the girls engage in lively dialogue in play form, anachronistically debating one another's motives, feelings, assumptions, and faults, finally coming to the ­question: "What if we dared to tell our versions?" In Part Three, each imagines what would have happened had one crucial aspect of her story been changed, with, for example, spirited Juliet claiming a full happy ending by remaining alive and marrying Romeo. This shifting, experimental format will surprise and challenge readers' ideas of ­storytelling and "classic" literature. By innovatively mining feminist themes of autonomy, exploitation, and patriarchy, McCullough boldly reconceptualizes ­Shakespeare's version of the female point of view for a new generation of Bard enthusiasts.

Reviewer: Jennifer Hubert Swan | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2023

(2) YA This fifth of Cashore's Graceling Realm novels (Graceling, rev. 11/08, and sequels) encompasses a sea voyage, a shipwreck, a life-threatening trek across the frozen north, the discovery of a powerful explosive and related national conflict, several survivors of abusive childhoods, a pregnant blue fox, and a few romances. At the center of its eventfulness and its attention to information and imagery related to ships, sailing, and the far north is narrator Hava, Queen Bitterblue's Graceling half-sister and a handy, multilingual spy. Hava's Graceling magic is to be able to make herself invisible by blending into the setting, a gift that seems as much a burdensome outcome of a traumatic childhood as it is a useful ability. In amongst the threads and pressures of physical survival, plots and plotting, romance, and care for the blue fox and her kits, Hava begins to understand and resolve some of her own emotional damage. Cashore has included a great deal in this novel; it tends toward the sprawling. But as ever, her colorfully realized world presents readers with serious ideas, both psychological and political, and an appealing warmth in its human relationships--and here, the delight of bumptious, telepathic baby foxes.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2023

(2) YA Estranged from her mother and twin sister, sixteen-year-old Minah learns about her mom's death through a Facebook invitation to a family reunion and memorial. Minah, now living with her father in Brooklyn, returns to her hometown of (fictional) Obsidian, Michigan, to attend the event. As she attempts to understand the immense loss of a parent, the visit becomes an opportunity for Minah to grieve and to connect back to a traumatic past to which she'd previously promised herself never to return. Her grandmother's announcement that she plans to sell the family home begins a new reckoning of what home and family really mean. Minah's first-person narration lends poignancy to this coming-of-age story, which, as she uncovers more about the past--including through the reading of her mother's diaries--also becomes more clearly a chronicle of the grief of a family affected by the diseases of addiction and mental illness and the veil of secrecy that shrouds them.

Reviewer: Monique Harris | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2022

(2) YA The summer before heading to MIT, in 2013, eighteen-year-old Aria finds herself banished to her artist grandmother's remote Northern California home after an unfortunate revenge porn incident. There she meets Steph, a twenty-something lead singer in a queer band. Their physical attraction is immediate, even though Aria has always dated boys and Steph has a girlfriend. Suddenly all aspects of Aria's identity seem to be in transition. Is she gay or straight? An artist or a scientist? A dutiful daughter and friend or the kind of person who would cheat with someone else's partner? When tragedy strikes, Aria realizes that asking the questions is more important than having the answers, and that life, as her grandmother Joan wisely observed about making art, "could be extremely frustrating, but the point of it was the process." This deeply perceptive bildungsroman thoughtfully explores several absorbing topics, but first and foremost it is an intimate, exhilarating story of first love. It's billed as a companion novel to Lo's Last Night at the Telegraph Club (rev. 1/21), and readers will be delighted to discover the connection between Aria's and Lily's stories.

Reviewer: Jennifer Hubert Swan | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2022

(2) 4-6 This sequel to Newbery Honor Book Wolf Hollow (rev. 7/16) starts with a bang as ­protagonist Annabelle McBride is hit by lightning during a summer storm. That event leaves her in a state she describes as "senses wide open." In addition to gaining ­hypersensitivity to smells, sounds, and touch, Annabelle finds herself able to "read" the feelings of animals. However, the story never tips over into the paranormal, staying firmly grounded in concrete details of 1940s Pennsylvania farm life. The lightning strike ignites a series of four related mysteries. Who was the Good Samaritan who saved Annabelle's life by administering CPR and them disappeared? What's in the Edelmans' barn? Is that urbane stranger in town up to no good? And what has happened to Buster, the family dog? Common to all these threads is Annabelle's shifting relationship with Andy Woodberry, the hateful bully of the original book. This is historical fiction for middle-grade readers who relish a warm family story with an energetic plot; a character who comes into her own; and a fully realized, sensory-rich setting (including delicious descriptions of farm meals).

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

(1) 4-6 A biography that's as unique in form and content as the groundbreaking sci-fi/fantasy author herself. Zoboi (The People Remember, rev. 11/21) came to this project from a lifetime love of Butler's work and from having met her on several occasions. The word constellation in the subtitle is used both literally--referring to the other-worldly stories about which Butler dreamed and then wrote--and figuratively, for she was a lonely "rogue planet," with others revolving around her but rarely ­getting to really know her. Focusing mainly on her early life, Zoboi tells the author's story in several literary modes: original poems in many forms (haiku, concrete, and acrostic, among others); excerpted quotes from interviews; and descriptive passages that offer further explanations of these biographical snapshots. This variety is narratively enthralling and reflects Butler's openness to telling stories in many different ways. The volume also offers superb historical context for Butler's life, from the Great Migration to the U.S.'s fascination with UFOs, the baby boom, ­McCarthyism, the civil rights movement, and more. Zoboi occasionally includes relevant visuals--a photograph of Octavia and her mother, Butler's handwritten childhood notes, the cover of a Dick and Jane basal reader--that will provide readers a clearer sense of the historical details. Informational and inspirational, this innovative work will draw committed Butler fans and entice those unfamiliar with her work to seek it out.

Reviewer: Michelle H. Martin | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2022

(2) YA On her family's long-haul space freighter, the Harland, Pendt knows that she is useless. Without "star-sense" or other valued skills, Pendt is left waiting until she can legally enter a contract at age eighteen to begin earning back the calories and oxygen she consumes. Watching her cousin forced into a pregnancy, however, Pendt begins to guess what sort of contract awaits her. She escapes at Brannick Station, where twin brothers Ned and Fisher Brannick suggest a deal: in exchange for a male heir, they'll protect her in the event that the Harland returns. (Fisher can't operate the Y ­chromosome–locked Net like his brother, and while the reason is treated discreetly, it makes the eventual Pendt/Fisher romance that much sweeter.) The world-building is compelling, offering up: the claustrophobic (and loveless) Harland; the station where Pendt is finally given the calories she needs to work her "gene-sense" magic; a galaxy-wide ruling body, the Hegemony, which holds the twins' parents hostage; and the rebellion that Ned would join if he weren't tied to the station. This engrossing, triumphal sci-fi tale is a gritty space-wizard drama in the tradition of Anne McCaffrey.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2021

(1) YA "It is, and has been, June 23, 2020, for nine months now." Global time has inexplicably paused. The U.S. government has created a new school curriculum called "Solution Time" that instructs students "to solve the world's time problem...figure it out / be sufficiently distracted." Sixteen-year-old Truda believes "the universe noticed we're falling apart and we need to learn how to rest," but she's having a hard time crafting a thesis that proves it, because her concentration is shot by confusing dramas at home: her mother's departure; her brooding older brother's odd hours; her sadistic, banished sister's lies. And Truda's father is building a maze of plywood boxes around a mysterious switch in their house. But the most unsettling development is Truda's bizarre new ability to stop time within stopped time. She becomes convinced that the switch in her house is the key and works to dismantle the boxes to discover the truth. Through an intentionally oblique text with occasional refrains ("to understand anything is to understand energy") and ideas coexisting within sentences, sometimes separated by slashes, King (Printz winner for Dig., rev. 3/19) explores the meaning of time and the toxicity of family secrets. This inventive, surreal novel's dedication, "For the class of 2020," makes a direct address to real-life teens' "lost" COVID-19 year.

Reviewer: Jennifer Hubert Swan | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2021

(1) YA High school senior Lily Hu lives in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1954 with her medical professional parents; she behaves obediently and dreams of working at the Jet Propulsion Lab like her aunt Judy. But she hides a secret yearning. After seeing an ad featuring "Tommy Andrews Male Impersonator," she sneaks out to the performance at the lesbian Telegraph Club with Kath, a white classmate who shares Lily's longing. Soon the two are club regulars, even though Lily's parents have warned her they are being watched (after her father's citizenship papers were confiscated by the FBI) and could be deported. When an incident at the Telegraph threatens to uncover Lily's lesbian identity to her family, she is forced to make a difficult choice. This standout work of historical fiction combines meticulous research with tender romance to create a riveting bildungsroman. San Francisco, "with its steep stairways and sudden glimpses of the bay between tall, narrow buildings," is almost a character itself. Interspersed flashbacks that detail the personal histories of Lily's parents and Aunt Judy and timelines of world events further put the 1950s Chinese American experience into context for readers. Lo's (Ash, rev. 11/09; A Line in the Dark, rev. 11/17) comprehensive author's note includes an absorbing section on "Lesbians, Gender, and Community" and a select bibliography of print and film resources.

Reviewer: Jennifer Hubert Swan | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2021

(2) YA Illustrated by Maia Kobabe. When the frat boy who raped her sister, Nor, is found guilty in court, Em feels vindicated and amazed, for it was her drive for justice that first energized her family to prosecute him. Then the judge stuns her family by sentencing the convicted rapist to serve no time at all. Em is shattered, and so is Nor, who suffers the unbearable fallout of misogynist bullying when the case is over. As Em tries to process the egregious injustice, she learns about Marguerite de Bressieux, a legendary fifteenth-century knight celebrated as the avenger of rape survivors. Writing a verse novel about Marguerite and her revenge becomes both therapy and obsession until Em quite literally falls on a sword and has to be rescued. McCullough evokes the fiery rage and hopelessness her protagonist feels about America's justice system, and especially in realizing that "our world had already decided" that a boy like the one who raped her sister "could take what he wanted from a girl like Nor." Both in the first-person prose account and in the verse novel (with characterful, medieval manuscript–like decorations), McCullough sustains a one-note pitch of outrage up until the final pages, when, through Em's friend and family members, she offers some nuanced, constructive critique of Em's "tunnel vision."

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

(2) YA The Edelweiss Pirates were groups of German youth who protested the Nazi regime through actions ranging from simple mischief and propaganda all the way up to sabotage. Because they were generally poor--and poorly organized--they, according to Gaddy, have not been properly recognized by scholars as being part of the resistance movement. This book aims to shed light on their efforts by weaving together the stories of three young people--Gertrud, Fritz, and Jean--in and around the city of Cologne from 1932 to 1945. Over those dozen-plus years, conflicts escalate, from them pulling pranks on the Hitler Youth to their prolonged interrogation at the hands of the SS. The three teens convey their unique but shared experiences, rendering a history that is at once familiar and new. Drawing on primary sources such as memoirs, interviews, government documents, and archival photographs, Gaddy unflinchingly chronicles Germany's harrowing and inexorable embrace of fascism and the brave young people who struggled against its tyranny. A final chapter leaps forward in time to discuss the current legacy of the Edelweiss Pirates. This book stands next to Hoose's The Boys Who Challenged Hitler (rev. 7/15) and Freedman's We Will Not Be Silent (rev. 5/16) as a testament to those young people who resisted the Nazis. A "Persons of Interest" list begins the book; an author's note, source notes, bibliography, and index are appended.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2020

(2) YA After four years in foster care, recent high school graduate Mila begins an internship ("I would spend my weekdays teaching in the schoolhouse and my Sundays waking up at five a.m. to run the booth at the farmer's market") at a farm on a secluded stretch of the California coast, run by a middle-aged couple who takes in and cares for kids like her. On her first night there, owner Terry indicates that the place is haunted--but Mila has lived with "ghosts" for years. Through her straightforward but increasingly fraught first-person narration and visceral flashbacks, readers learn about her past, particularly the time she and her mother spent with her mother's belittling, controlling boyfriend, and about a fateful choice Mila made during a fire. Printz winner LaCour's (We Are Okay) writing is lyrical and atmospheric, both in capturing the natural setting of the story and in exploring the dark recesses of her characters' grief, guilt, and psychic pain. While more gothic- than psychological-thriller, this is an empowering story of one young woman's quest to rediscover the part of herself she has left behind and to become independent. Suggest it to fans of Meg Wolitzer's Belzhar (rev. 11/14) or Nova Ren Suma's A Room Away from the Wolves (rev. 9/18).

Reviewer: Luann Toth | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2020

(1) 4-6 Since the Great Depression forced twelve-year-old Ellie's family to move from town up to Echo Mountain, she hasn't known how to interact with her mother and older sister; they miss their former life and blame her for the tree-felling accident that has left her father in a coma. Ellie doesn't know how to wake him up, though she keenly desires it, but there's a lot she does know: how to "hunt and trap and fish and harvest" as if she were born to it. Remembering her father's advice--"the things we need to learn to do, we learn to do by doing"--she takes it upon herself to find the answers to her problems, including persistent attempts to rouse her father using unconventional methods (dousing him with cold water, stinging him with bees). Meeting the injured Miss Cate, an elderly mountain woman, and Larkin, a solitary boy with a talent for wood carving, eventually helps Ellie figure out how to heal her broken family. Wolk's latest novel (Wolf Hollow, rev. 7/16; Beyond the Bright Sea, rev. 7/17) immerses readers in its 1934 Maine woods setting, folding myriad details about living off the land into Ellie's captivating and complex first-person narration. Free-spirited Ellie's affinity for her natural surroundings and her empathic connection with animals show an appreciation for the interconnectedness of life, as do several of the (well-earned) plot revelations. Wolk's poetic prose and enticing foreshadowing warrant savoring as they carry the reader through the narrative, which gracefully unfolds over brief, steadily paced chapters. Exemplary historical fiction.

Reviewer: Cynthia K. Ritter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2020

(2) 4-6 Lucy's mother died researching sharks when Lucy was young. Now, during a summer project studying the great white sharks near their Rockport, Massachusetts, home, Lucy's best friend Fred dies in a tragic accident. Lucy turns to her mother's unfinished research and finds a way to strengthen remembered connections among her mother, Fred, and those still present in her life. Fluid writing adds depth to the meticulously drawn characters' emotional journeys.

Reviewer: Sarah Berman | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2019

(3) 4-6 Unicorn Rescue Society series. Illustrated by Hatem Aly. Created by Jesse Casey, Adam Gidwitz, and Chris Smith. Professor Fauna's jalopy airplane whisks Uchenna and Elliot (The Creature of the Pines) to Laredo on the Texas-Mexico border to help another elusive mythical creature: the chupacabras. They also discover tension in the city concerning the construction of a border wall. A fast-paced plot, plenty of laughs (including in the black-and-white illustrations), and a serious discussion about the border elevate their latest adventure.

Reviewer: Pam Yosca

(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 Beginning fifth grade at a new school is a chance for a fresh start for eleven-year-old Josh Duncan. In his old school, he had whispered to imaginary friends and made himself "invisible" (by walking close to walls, etc.). But his new school has already been in session for three weeks when Josh arrives, so once again, he's an outsider. What's more, his imaginary friend Big Brother has followed him, and now Josh also starts seeing a ghost-like girl with sparkly clothes and different-colored shoes whom no one else seems to notice except his classmate Lucas Hernandez. (Josh and Lucas are the only two who could see the gorilla in a video their teacher had shown them about human perception and how "the world is full of invisibles.") Maxie Moon, the sparkly girl, uses Lucas to lure Josh to a meeting of the "gorilla club" in the spooky house in the woods where she died years ago, a death for which Lucas feels responsible. Chapters alternate between Josh's and Lucas's perspectives, and tensions rise through Nickerson's deft prose, which capably renders invisibles and ghosts along with the human aches of loneliness and guilt. In a fiery resolution, Lucas has a chance to lay his guilt to rest, and Josh finds a future that includes hope. A ghost story with real substance.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2020

(3) YA Audre lives in Trinidad; Mabel in Minneapolis. The two young women meet when Audre, caught by her mother in an embrace with her girlfriend, is sent away to Minneapolis to stay with her father (who is close friends with Mabel's parents). The girls' alternating voices are distinct, even if a plethora of flashbacks and side stories crowd out the main narrative. The prose is sensuous and distinctive; themes of Black power (especially Black lesbian power) are strong; you won't see the ending coming.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2020

(2) 4-6 As this believable epistolary (via email) novel begins, twelve-year-olds Bett and Avery are strangers (and adversaries) thrown together at sleep-away summer camp by their bi-coastally dating fathers. The girls gradually become friends--even as their dads are breaking up. Parent Trap–type shenanigans ensue, but the story's main focus is the strength of chosen family. The warmth of the characters' interactions, including the girls' witty banter, is emotionally satisfying.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2019