(2) PS Illustrated by Komako Sakai. A girl and her brother return to a park to retrieve her jump rope and discover a group of foxes trying to use it but failing. The girl kindly offers to help and then lets the foxes keep the rope, fulfilling one fox's wish. In mostly grays, greens, and yellows, the art excels at capturing preschoolers' body language. Smiling, hopping foxes embody the story's gentle light-heartedness.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2017

(2) 1-3 Illustrated by Elizabet Vuković. Every New Year, relatives gather at Jasmine's home to celebrate by making mochi, Japanese sweet rice cakes. Jasmine, eight, decides to break with tradition to become the first younger-than-ten helper. This series-starter introduces a plucky, strong-willed girl whose family traditions may be new to many readers but whose frustrations will be familiar to nearly all. Humorous illustrations help young audiences picture the mochi-making process.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2017

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by LeUyen Pham. Color by Jane Poole. Hale recounts her elementary-school years in this graphic memoir. Readers will empathize with Shannon's experiences of being left out, teased, and bullied, and they'll feel relieved once she learns how to find real friends and avoid toxic ones. Illustrator Pham's often humorous yet always sensitive depictions of the characters' emotions make the book even more affecting. Hand to fans of Raina Telgemeier and Cece Bell.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2017

(2) 4-6 In this clever tale, super-shy seventh grader Emmie rarely speaks to a soul at school but loves to draw. Occasional comics-style sections follow super-popular, impossibly perfect "Katie." After a classmate shares Emmie's note about her crush with everyone, Emmie goes from feeling invisible to feeling embarrassingly visible. But as Emmie becomes more satisfyingly confident, Katie gradually disappears--a no-longer-needed coping mechanism that existed only in Emmie's drawings.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2017

(2) K-3 Stunning collage constructions depict the circular and lengthy migration of bar-tailed godwits. Meticulous illustrations portray the birds in the air and on the ground, up close and at a distance. Baker's well-paced, informative text follows one godwit's migration; the story is (somewhat confoundingly) bookended by a bird-watching boy in a wheelchair, later with crutches. An author's note urges safekeeping of habitats. Map. Websites.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2016

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Colin Jack. A spiffily dressed and villainous-looking hawk sees a rabbit below his perch and flies down to grab him, "beak poised, to scream in victory." The rabbit hides behind a giant carrot, and the hawk screams--as he discovers the carrot and not the bunny in his talons. The jokey story falls flat, but the art and text are both amusing.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander

(4) 4-6 Heavy-handed symbolism weighs down this otherwise engaging story about sisters abandoned by their parents. Ten-year-old Sara is taken in by a loving foster family, but twelve-year-old Anna, who has developmental and emotional difficulties, is sent to a residential treatment facility. Feeling guilty and disloyal, Sara struggles realistically before learning to accept and enjoy her new life.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander

(2) 4-6 Twelve-year-old Reena's family has just moved to coastal Maine. Reena's parents insist that she and her younger brother help an elderly neighbor, and the city kids are soon mucking out the barn for an ornery woman's equally ornery cow. Reena's narrative uses a comfortable combination of prose, poems, and prose poems. The story zips along yet somehow conveys the slow growth of friendship.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2016

(2) PS Ruby has red blocks, Benji blue. The two play separately--until Benji picks up one of Ruby's. A tug-of-war ensues and ends with one big pile of mixed-up blocks. When the pair realizes that two colors are better than one, they begin building again, with grander and more colorful results. With simple mixed-media illustrations and preschool-drama-filled text, this book makes a first-rate read-aloud.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2016

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Choong Yoon. California boy Xander Miyamoto discovers that he is the descendant of Japanese warriors charged with protecting the world from monsters--but will his mixed-race heritage be harmful or helpful to him? Small for a twelve-year-old and an artist, not an athlete, Xander wonders how he'll fare against the mythical-monsters-come-to-life in this fast-paced and original adventure based on Japanese mythology. Full-page illustrations included.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander

(2) 4-6 Japanese fifth grader Ema and her pregnant (American) mother must move to the other side of Tokyo to stay for several months with Obaasan and Jiichan, Papa's parents. It's 2001, and the news is filled with heartbreak. When the baby arrives, Ema has the perfect name for her new sister--leaving her family and readers with hope for the future. Ema's narration is quiet and thoughtful in this deeply absorbing verse novel.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2016

(2) YA Frank's first novel traces the lives of eleven narrators over seven years. The characters, most of whom attend a high school in Brooklyn, are from various racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, and their language and dialogue sound true to life. Though their experiences unrealistically run the gamut of problem-novel topics, Frank succeeds most of all in showing how lives are shaped over years by the people kids run into, away from, and with.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2000

(3) YA Mother-Daughter Book Club series. Emma and her book club friends spend their last summer before college as camp counselors. Trying to cure homesick little campers, the girls realize a book club might be the answer. Fans have waited four years for this satisfying sixth and final book in the popular middle-grade series and will be especially happy to catch up on boyfriend news and college plans.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Julia Kuo. A Japanese boy searches for the sound of silence after an elderly musician tells him that the most beautiful sound is that of "ma," or silence. Young Yoshio listens--in a bamboo grove, in traffic, and at home--but no place is perfectly quiet. Kuo's illustrations fill the double-page spreads with lively scenes from Tokyo's busy streets and Yoshio's peaceful home.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2016

(1) PS Isadora's book about the five senses is aimed perfectly at another sense--kids' sense of humor. Separate sections visit each sense in double-page spreads containing small vignettes of children exploring their world, indoors and out. Frequent statements about what the child doesn't sense add levity: "I see the turtle's shell but I don't see the turtle." Delicate illustrations nicely elicit a young child's point of view.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2016

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Toshikado Hajiri. Translated by Sally Ito and Michiko Tsuboi. Part biography, part poetry collection, the book begins with Jacobson's sensitive biographical narrative of Japanese children's poet Misuzu Kaneko's grim life (she committed suicide at twenty-six). The second half features fifteen of Kaneko's child-centered, empathetic poems printed in English first, then Japanese. Hajiri's illustrations capture time and place in addition to rendering delicate close-up views of the world from a young child's viewpoint.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2017

(2) 4-6 In WWII-era New Orleans, polio survivor Fish rescues a stray dog. White Fish's friendship with his African American neighbor, Olympia, feels natural, the two having bonded over the dog's welfare. He also gets help from seventeen-year-old Erich, a German POW whose story is told in intermittent chapters. Larson's historical setting comes alive with vivid details and draws readers in with a heartfelt dog-and-child relationship.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2016

(1) 4-6 In this companion to Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and Starry River of the Sky, Pinmei seeks a Luminous Stone to ransom her imprisoned grandmother. Alternating chapters follow Pinmei and her amah, with retold legends interspersed. Complemented by vivid illustrations and handsome design, this richly complex adventure revisits previous themes (greed, honesty, forgiveness); together, the books offer one grand generation-spanning epic.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2016

(3) YA Seventeen-year-old biracial Kai is the only member of his family to survive the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. For the tenth anniversary of 9/11, he travels to New York with other orphans to meet teens who lost parents in that tragedy--and finds his estranged American father. The poems in this gripping verse novel powerfully capture Kai's heartbreaking experience.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander

(2) PS A French bulldog narrates this story of a day spent with his humans--Sis, Mom, and Dad. The friends/siblings wake, eat breakfast, and then head outside. The page design makes clever use of the gutter, with Sis appearing on one side and her dog on the other. The acrylic paintings are saturated with bright colors, and the frequent dialogue balloons feature witty lettering.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2016