(2) 4-6 In 1971, the "grand new experiment" of school integration means that twelve-year-old Jamila and her two best friends will attend junior high across town. Feeling like outsiders in their predominantly white Queens, New York, neighborhood, the mixed-race tweens are excited to finally "fit in." But the reality is not what they had expected. Jamila's narration is authentic-sounding as she navigates transitions, friendships, and family expectations. An author's note provides historical context.

Reviewer: Sujei Lugo | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2019

(2) YA Afro–Puerto Rican teen Beatriz is torn between her desire to dance and her blood and chosen families in mid-1980s New Jersey. When the TV show Fame announces a casting call, she tries to balance "gang life" (chosen family) with her "dance life." Will she follow her dreams? Charles ([cf2Like Vanessa) presents a strong, smart, and sometimes snarky teenager whose family has developed mechanisms of survival in the face of abuse and injustice.

Reviewer: Sujei Lugo | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2019

(3) YA Foreword by Firoozeh Dumas. Born to a French mother and Iranian father, Homayoonfarar moved from the U.S. to Iran in 1976 at age five. Short chapters follow the author's coming of age amid the abrupt cultural changes and turbulent historical backdrop of the Iranian Revolution and war with Iraq. Temporal shifts are sometimes hard to follow in this otherwise moving and relatable memoir. Includes an insert of family snapshots. Timeline.

Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam

(3) 1-3 Illustrated by Diana Toledano. In her second adventure, word-loving aspiring writer Polly Diamond uses her extraordinary book to magically transform the school fair. Polly creates book-themed rides and face paint that converts people into their favorite literary characters (booklist appended). The wish-fulfillment story is abundantly illustrated with whimsical, textured grayscale art; the unconventional vocabulary makes this series best for strong young readers.

Reviewer: Amy Seto Forrester

(1) K-3 Illustrated by Chris Sasaki. As an interracial family moves from an apartment in the city to a house in the country, Ledyard offers a meditation on the sense of comfort and belonging that home should evoke. Throughout, the poetic text satisfyingly delivers internal rhythms and rhymes, alliteration, and assonance at unexpected but just-right places. With a style recalling the work of Jon Klassen and Christian Robinson, Sasaki offers a rich interpretation of Ledyard's text.

Reviewer: Megan Dowd Lambert | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2019

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Kaylani Juanita. Brown-skinned (possibly biracial) Aidan, who's transgender, knows how it feels to be misunderstood, so he wants to get things right for his new sibling. Lukoff's straightforward approach to Aidan's gender transition rings with authenticity, and he puts the child-centered story ahead of message. Celebrating the family's close, affirming relationship, Juanita's vibrant digital illustrations take cues from the text, which models how to avoid the male/female binary.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2019

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Jaime Kim. When everyone asks a light brown–skinned girl the titular question, she's confused: "I'm from here." Then Abuelo takes her on a dreamy tour, from South America's Pampas to a warm island to "this land where our ancestors...were in chains." Most importantly, though, she's from Abuelo's "love and the love of all those before us." Warm watercolor and digital art illustrates the overt but useful story.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Jennifer Black Reinhardt. Gondra is a biracial (gender-unspecified) dragon, a mixture of both Eastern and Western dragon attributes. The little dragon explains and celebrates the ways it takes after each parent (Gondra can breathe fire and mist!). Reinhardt's watercolor, ink, and collage illustrations can be cluttered and overly decorative. Still, this is a well-meaning and otherwise effective story about combining traditions to create a new family.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(2) YA Boston boy Robin (born in Kolkata and adopted by wealthy white parents) joins a service trip to India to help survivors of human trafficking; biracial Kat, temporarily living in Boston following a sexual assault, goes too. Alternating chapters explore Robin's journey to learn more about his birth parents and Kat's healing through helping other victims. Well-rounded secondary characters deliver moments of levity and emotional support for the protagonists.

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

(2) YA Twelve-year-old Simon believes aliens have made regular contact with humans. When this belief is terrifyingly confirmed on a camping trip, the truth seems too much to bear. Escaping into computer games and his own fantasy writing, Simon finds some comfort but no resolution to his increasingly frequent abductions by aliens. Simon's first-person narration sustains the story's strong forward momentum toward a climax that will chill readers straight to the bone.

Reviewer: Eric Carpenter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2019

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Evelyn Daviddi. Ivan enjoys being at home with his mother (Here), but sometimes he has to go There (his father's new place). Dad, eventually recognizing his son’s discomfort, plays guitar to help Ivan think of this home, too, as Here. The boy's strong feelings come through in both words and cheerful illustrations. Ivan appears to be biracial, and from his parents' gentle smiles, they appear to be amicable co-parents.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2019

(2) 4-6 When thirteen-year-old biracial Moth Hush learns about her true heritage as a witch, she "borrows" her mom Calendula's diary and transports herself into young Calendula's memories, starting with her escape from persecution in colonial Massachusetts. This endearingly illustrated and energetically paced graphic novel has an abundance of sweetness and warm humor but also addresses serious topics of racism and misogyny.

Reviewer: Katie Bircher | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2019

(2) PS Illustrated by Jarvis. In this upbeat picture book, a rhyming text and soft, evocative mixed-media illustrations follow a (seemingly interracial) family as they bring home pumpkins from a farm, clean and prepare them, design and carve them, and finally light the finished jack-o'-lanterns. The book has a pleasantly old-fashioned vibe, though with carefully incorporated modern-day safety precautions: adults cut the pumpkins' tops off; kids use plastic saws.

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

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. A twentieth-anniversary edition of Hyman's Caldecott Honor–winning illustrations for Updike's seasonal poems (first published in 1965, with illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert). As the poems move through the year, month by month, the watercolor illustrations change palettes and capture the warmth and affection, activity, and messiness of contemporary family life. That the family in the book is based on Hyman's family lends the book a sweet, personal specificity.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2000; November, 2018

(3) 4-6 Orchard Novel series. Illustrated by Natalie Andrewson. In the third Orchard novel, Olive, Peter, Lizzie, and Sarah are excited for Garrison Orchard's zombie hayride. But Olive's skepticism about the paranormal threatens the tight-knit quartet. Set in small-town New England, a diverse cast includes Olive's two dads, a lesbian mayor, and townsfolk of various racial/cultural backgrounds. Sweet and fast-paced with a touch of the supernatural, this friendship story will appeal to established fans and new series readers.

Reviewer: Amy Seto Forrester

(3) 4-6 Princess Aislin is half-fairy, half-pedrasi (mountain people who possess incredible strength), but she has the "sturdier" figure of the pedrasi side. When an enemy human king takes her hostage, Aislin must use all of her powers, magical and otherwise, to save her home. Aislin is a compelling heroine, proving her strength against fantastical beasts as well as the human girls who bully her.

Reviewer: Mariko Turk

(3) YA Fifteen-year-old Ronney is grudgingly keeping his family together after his depressed father attempts suicide. His fragile equilibrium is rocked when his best friend starts dating his crush--and when a bevy of zoo animals are released into his suburban Indiana hometown. This gritty, voice-driven novel has a blend of dark humor and surreal violence that should appeal to fans of Andrew Smith.

Reviewer: Jessica Tackett MacDonald

(2) YA Growing up in a low-income housing project, thirteen-year-old friends and dancers Mila and Tai have always trusted each other. After living with her aunt for a summer, Mila seems to care only about auditioning for a new gifted arts program. But Tai's not the only one who's been hurt, and eventually Mila reveals her secret. Readers will root for both young women as they tell their stories in memorable alternating voices.

Reviewer: Eboni Njoku | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2018

(3) K-3 Reds, Blues, and Yellows (stick-limbed orbs with faces) lived "in color harmony" until discord led to a walled-off, divided-by-color city. When a Blue and a Yellow fall in love, marry, and create a new color (green), there's outrage ("Colors shouldn't mix!") before there's acceptance. This clever book's point about the folly of prejudice is reinforced by the visual loveliness when secondary-color offspring appear.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) YA After her drug-addicted mother goes to jail, sixteen-year-old Elle Zoellner's long-absent, hotel-mogul Japanese father brings her to Tokyo, where she attends an elite international school. Elle struggles with cultural differences, getting to know her aloof father, and falling for decidedly uncool fellow student Ryuu. The chock-full-of-privilege-and-power plot is trendy (think Crazy Rich Asians) and entertaining in a soap-opera sense.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute