(2) YA Sixteen-year-old Eleanor is obsessed with learning all she can about her birth father, tech mogul Hugo Harrison, who ended his relationship with her mother long before Eleanor can remember. When the opportunity presents itself, she takes a summer job under an assumed name as a nanny for his two-year-old son, Arlo, and in the process gets to know Hugo's young wife, Aurora. As Eleanor takes a front-row seat to a family she thought she knew all about from social media, readers may be less surprised than she is at how much isn't what it seems; however, it's easy to empathize with her wish to know her father and to believe the best of him. And Eleanor, who makes frequent, admiring reference to an early comic-book heroine named Miss Fury, becomes more heroic herself as she grows to question Hugo's ethics in developing his AI projects, including his treatment of both Aurora and Arlo. Her questions are likely to prompt readers' own about how to know what to believe, and about what makes AI (or anything else) go "from cool and interesting to creepy and disturbing."

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2025

(2) K-3 This wordless picture book creatively and thoughtfully explores the life cycle of a pencil from tree to drawing implement. The story starts on a blank page with a pencil being sharpened. As the pages turn, the shavings morph into leaves, which sprout into an elaborate forest appropriately rendered with colored pencils and markers in bright colors and intricate lines. Readers looking closely will be able to find a range of birds and other forest animals hidden among the trees. Dramatic page layouts on stark white backgrounds heighten the tension when the trees are cut down, expelling the birds from their homes. Color also plays an important role in the story's unfolding as the vivid colors of the logs from the forest overtake the leaden shades of black, white, and gray of the city and factory, where the wood will become colored pencils. The art returns to full color when a child purchases one of the pencils in an art supply store and uses it to draw the forest back to life. The story poses meaningful questions about the origins of everyday objects and the sacrifices they require to produce, but the creative visual exploration leaves room for delight and inspiration as well. The book closes with well-considered prompts for deepening the experience of reading a wordless book.

Reviewer: Julie Roach | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2025

(2) 4-6 Modern-day twelve-year-old Mason begins seeing a therapist to help him deal with the struggles of seventh grade. Things get worse after his father unexpectedly moves away and the tween starts being bullied at school for quitting the baseball team. Mason's therapist suggests he write a letter to someone, anyone, and he chooses Albert Einstein. Though Einstein doesn't write back, Talia, a seventh-grade girl living in 1987, does. So begins their correspondence, which spans many months and the entirety of this fast-paced epistolary novel. The mutual support that forms through their letters helps them face issues of bullying, family difficulties, identity, and, for Talia, sexism. Antisemitism is dealt with at length, from specific accounts of the Holocaust (via a survivor who speaks at Talia's school) to ways it has looked different at various points in history, which will be highly relevant for contemporary readers. Technological changes over the intervening decades feature prominently as well. Weighty issues (also including alcoholism and its impact on families) are handled skillfully, and the narrative takes several unexpected turns that add fun and intrigue despite the overall serious tone.

Reviewer: Miriam Steinberg-Egeth | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2025

(1) K-3 About a quarter of a million years ago, "we"—modern humans—first appeared in Africa. Combining vibrant, painterly illustrations and short, lyrical, explanatory paragraphs, Smith outlines major contributions of these various groups from prehistoric Africa, including acquiring language, making music and art, creating tools, growing crops, and developing and using medicines. Back matter includes an illustrated chart that corresponds to each contribution, arranged in the same chronological order as the text, and shares brief historical information about each milestone. For example, readers glimpse two early humans in a cave with the accompanying text: "We questioned, 'What could this blank canvas possibly become?'" The chart in the back matter supplies more details: the earliest human drawings date back seventy-three thousand years and were found in the Blombos Cave in South Africa. In addition, these early Africans explored, pondering, "Perhaps these Nile perch are not the only ones who can river-fly. Can we not try?" An impressionistic migration map suggests the paths Africans took to populate the rest of the globe. An author's note and a timeline complete the book.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2025

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Shanda McCloskey. At the start of this peculiar book, we are shown the six simple machines: lever, wheel and axle, inclined plane, wedge, screw, and pulley. Then we meet an impishly grinning boy, presumably Rube Goldberg (1883-1970), on the title page; next it's on to a convoluted table of contents over two spreads (a veritable Rube Goldberg machine of its own) before the narrative opens with the birth of Goldberg. Over the course of the book, readers learn more about him, his life, and his cartooning legacy—it's those cartoons that inspired a variety of machines, the main purpose of which is to do something simple in a very complicated fashion. Along the way, an accessible (if lengthy) text covers the laws of physics, the six simple machines, and advice on how to build our own Rube Goldberg machines. McCloskey's illustrations are equally adept at conveying concepts and humor, complementing Thimmesh's text and serving as a bridge between narrative and expository information.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2025

(2) YA D (short for 'Wayne; the D is "invisible"), who lives in a somewhat off-kilter version of Baltimore, keeps to himself and doesn't care about much. Half his life ago, his mother left the family during a serious depression. Then D enters a coveted health study and gets to know his crush and fellow participant Jane, who is autistic and who can relate to D's loss. An oddball, conspiracy-heavy mystery begins as D, Jane, and D's tech-and-surveillance-hobbyist bestie, Kermit, investigate the clandestine study's purpose and intentions. The storytelling leans into absurdity and surrealism as the trio seeks answers about the shadowy operation through obstacles such as cartoonish adult characters (be they villainous or clueless) and distractions from their eccentric peers. Told in short chapters, dialogue scripts, screenshots, footnotes, and more, a trippy plot unspools in unpredictable directions. Cleverly placed motifs, unique turns of phrase, plays on stereotype and archetype, and meta elements (the mall sells "experiences"; a selfie theme park) together enhance the book's timely themes: identity, ableism, the stigmatization of mental illness, and the impact of technology on human experiences. Vacharat's debut is a standout work of speculative fiction and a foreboding social satire about unethical governing and the corrosive values of Big Tech.

Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2025

(1) 4-6 Win "Coal" Keegan is moving to another foster home; the McKay family seems nice enough, and Coal is relieved that he's remaining at the same school with his best friend, nicknamed Door. After a case of police brutality that leaves a woman dead, Coal processes his emotions in his usual way: making chalk art throughout the neighborhood. He is caught in the act by an irate neighbor and, in the midst of a potentially deadly situation, unexpectedly becomes invisible. Coal and Door work together to discover the source of Coal's newfound ability. Their questions lead them to the company Mirror Tech, where all visitors are encouraged to "find out what you are made of." Coal meets a scientist who guides him down a path that leads to more questions. As he warms up to the McKay family, Coal finds himself in increasingly intense situations with Mirror Tech, compromising his safety as well as his loved ones'. The book's conclusion raises the possibility that Coal's powers defy all scientific explanation. The tone shifts from analytical to heartwarming, with well-rounded characters and witty dialogue; the author's love of literature is also evident, with references to Danez Smith and Chinua Achebe. Baptiste has created imperfect but sympathetic heroes whom readers will champion throughout the story.

Reviewer: Eboni Njoku | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2024

(2) K-3 Number Tours for Curious Kids series. Illustrated by Dawn DeVries Sokol. Berne's counts and measures of the cells and organs of the human body illustrate just how remarkable -- and quantifiable -- we are. "Did you know" that we are composed of "30 trillion cells," eight thousand taste buds, and "60,000 miles" of blood vessels? Or that "15 million cells in your body were replaced by new ones in the time it took you to read this sentence"? Numerous other facts about our sensory organs and digestive, skeletal, respiratory, and circulatory systems are equally impressive. The organized layouts include diagrammatic illustrations that effectively portray each system, often within a child-size human body outline, accompanied by text on scraps of lined notebook paper that appear taped onto the pages. The end notes should not be skipped, as they include noteworthy details about the various systems, additional number facts, and an important statement about the degree of certainty of some of the numbers. An interactive section at the very end of the book encourages readers to measure their own bodies and to calculate the volume of their blood, their heart rate, and number of bones in their hands.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2024

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Brian Selznick. The student has become the teacher in this sequel to Frindle (rev. 11/96). Nick Allen is now Mr. N, a Hawaiian shirt wearing sixth-grade ELA teacher who makes his students bring a paperback copy of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style to class and doesn't allow the use of laptops, much to the chagrin of protagonist Josh Willett. Mr. N is the antithesis of computer-savvy coder Josh...or so Josh believes, until he stumbles upon Mr. N's secret past when, looking for a pen to complete an assignment, he finds his mother's childhood "frindle." While he and his friend Vanessa figure out what to do with the information in his "Frindle Files," Josh discovers there's a bigger issue to address: getting a pirated version of Elements removed from the internet. With help from his classmates and Mr. N and a rallying cry "for Wilbur!" (in honor of White's Charlotte's Web), Josh learns about the power of language to enact change and the potential ills of technology if used improperly. Rebellious, smart, persistent Josh is a classic Clements main character, and the parallels between this plot and the original are evident (student/teacher battle, learning from a reference book, national fame). In his straightforward storytelling, Clements pulls modern young readers in by connecting something they might relate to (coding philosophy) to the principles of good writing. This posthumously published novel brings Clements's impressive collection of middle-grade stories to a satisfying close. Black-and-white spot illustrations "drawn entirely with a frindle" are interspersed.

Reviewer: Cynthia K. Ritter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2024

(2) YA Illustrated by ONeillJones. An enjoyable graphic novel about friendship, growing up, and all-things-engineering. Thirteen-year-old Mia is excited when her science-camp buddy, Tariq, transfers to her middle school. This turns quickly to anxiety when she discovers that her once-shy friend has blossomed into a cute, confident soccer star. Nevertheless, the two team up to compete in their school's Science Olympics (the plan: design and build an articulated snake-bot). Tension builds as the competition approaches and Mia's best friend, Addy, now hanging out with one of the mean girls, exerts pressure on Mia to act differently ("maybe you should try a little harder to fit in") and to ask Tariq to the school dance. As Mia's confidence wavers, her engineer grandmother reminds her that "some of the luckiest -- and smartest -- people never grow up" and that imagination and creativity can lead to innovation and problem-solving, especially when things don't go as planned. The cartooning is easy to scan, with establishing shots providing context for subsequent panels that use simplified, color-filled backgrounds. The quirky cast, including a sci-fi-loving dad, coupon-cutting scientist mom, and an ant-obsessed sibling, add humor and liveliness to Fantaskey's narrative, which is jam-packed with science references.

Reviewer: Elisa Gall | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2024

(2) 4-6 In this gorgeous graphic novel with minimal text, it's an ordinary day as Poppy takes her dog, Pepper, out for a walk, all the while listening to music, scrolling mindlessly through her cell phone. Pepper, spotting a fox, breaks free and runs off into the woods, unplugging Poppy from the digital world and immersing her in the natural one. They encounter another child, who is fully engrossed in the woodland life around them. Poppy returns to the woods the next day, and the day after that. Nature walks become routine, and Poppy begins to notice the birds, plants, and sounds all around. She tells her mom -- who, in grieving her own mother's death, can't seem to get off the couch -- about her adventures when she gets home. The illustrations ("drawn in Biro, painted using inks and tweaked in Photoshop") portray nature in moody sepia tones that challenge viewers to use their imaginations to fill the pages with color. In the first chapter, the text asks: "What does the wild speak?" This question is explored throughout the story, and Kurimoto's detailed illustrations capture the essence of a walk through the woods; depictions of flora and fauna bring the sounds of the woods (including the wild "morning chorus") and movements of new buds to life, along with the layered emotions that nature can evoke. Readers are reminded that in an increasingly connected digital world, reconnecting with the natural world just outside of our doors can provide joy and healing.

Reviewer: Gabi K. Huesca | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2024

(1) YA Mortal Engines series. This prequel to Reeve's acclaimed postapocalyptic, steampunk Mortal Engines series opens some two hundred years earlier, during the peaceful Golden Age of Traction, as the city of Thorbury is violently boarded and captured by villain Gabriel Strega. History tutor Miss Lavinia Torpenhow determines to make her way to Paris to bring home Max Angmering, son of the just-assassinated mayor, in hopes of restoring order -- setting off a multilayered adventure that will encompass a prison break, multiple betrayals, Revenants (old-tech reanimated dead warriors), a plunge into the sea from an aloft "Air B&B" (with the swimming pool as a lifeboat), a submarine rescue, a kidnapping, and more. Along the way Miss Torpenhow is joined by the young Revenant fighter Tamzin Pook, rather hapless Max, over-the-hill mercenary Oddington Doom, bombastic painter Giotto Trubshawe, and still-partly-human Revenant Eve Vespertine to form a ragtag band of companions. Readers will be swept away by the nonstop action and the sheer inventiveness of the plot; intrigued by the companions' around-the-world exploits; and pulled in by the depth of the characterizations and of the humans' (plus Eve's) relationships. In the end, though Strega is vanquished, his plans to make Thorbury a less civilized and more predatory city are adopted, setting up the machinery that will usher in the "brutal new age" of the later Mortal Engine books.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2025

(2) 4-6 In this cautionary tale, the sequel to Finally Seen (rev. 1/23), the perks and perils of social media play a pivotal -- and educational -- role. The Gaos still struggle with bills, and Lina's mom joins Instagram to sell more bath bombs. Fifth grader Lina gets her first smartphone, and while technology offers some positives (video-chatting with her Beijing grandma, promoting her neighbors' small businesses), they are outweighed by the negatives. She envies her classmates' fancy homes, worries about her physical appearance, and experiences cyberbullying (as both a target and a bully); and her best friend gets catfished by an adult. Everything converges when the school holds a "Dangers of Social Media" event and a "Justice Session" to discuss student online behavior. Yang integrates facts about how social media is addictive and detrimental to people's mental health into the story and back matter. She helpfully shows readers a way to cut through social media's downsides -- by having honest conversations "brainstorming how to break the dopamine loop. How to not be played by the algorithm."

Reviewer: Michelle Lee | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024

(2) 4-6 arrator Keegan thinks his family's recent move to a box-shaped house in Happy Town is just another in a string of relocations. Located in the Nevada desert, Happy Town is, according to Keegan, "the biggest online shop in the world." His new home just seems weird, with its driverless "conveyor" that carries kids to Happy Academy and its fleet of advertising blimps. But things turn dark very quickly. First he learns that Happy Town owns the rights to all his schoolwork; then he must take part in a Mandatory Saturday Work Opportunity (they don't call it detention); then he arrives home to find that his parents -- along with all the other adults -- have purchased marching-band instruments in response to an ad. Something's up with the implants all Happy Town adults have installed in their heads, Keegan and his friends reason, and it's up to the kids to save them all from becoming "band-instrument-hoarding...and-possibly-cannibalistic zombies." This is the broadest of satires, and van Eekhout leaves nothing up to chance in the delivery of his message: "If you can control what people want, you can control what they think [and] what they do." But if it's unsubtle, it's also funny, and readers will relish every outlandish detail as much as van Eekhout clearly does.

Reviewer: Vicky Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2025

(2) K-3 While visiting his grandfather in the Sonoran Desert of Baja California, a boy learns to love the outdoors, an environment he had previously feared ("I never wander far from home because I think coyotes will take me"). When he first arrives at his grandfather's, the boy prefers to play on his tablet, but in time (and thanks to the loss of said tablet) his grandfather is able to introduce him to the plants and animals of the vast protected desert. "This valley is full of secrets, chico. Open your heart, listen, and see what wonders show themselves." As the main character loses his fear of the natural world, he begins to appreciate its beauty and diversity--and even comes face-to-face with a coyote. Baker's (Home, rev. 3/04; Circle, rev. 5/16) signature three-dimensional collage illustrations, with their rich colors and textures, bring the desert habitat to life. Vines climb up the pages, snakes seem to slither atop the sand, and cacti look as if they could poke you if you carelessly touch a page. Back matter includes a map, information about the Valle de los Cirios in the Sonoran Desert, and a note on Baker's motivation for creating the book.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2023

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Gabi Mendez. Color by Cai Tse. In this moving and memorable graphic novel, twelve-year-old Addie loves tortoises, outer space, and moon trees (planted from seeds that traveled with the Apollo 14 mission before germinating back on Earth). A prologue reveals that when Addie was ten, her mom was injured in a bicycle accident and had surgery; things got worse from there. The main narrative begins almost two years later, after a traumatic (and ambiguously shown) incident, with Addie and her futurist dad adjusting to a "new normal." The pair is now living on a college campus for the summer, her dad working with a fun-loving group of young researchers studying augmented and virtual reality. Thrust into a new environment, Addie makes friends (including Mateo, a kind, free-spirited neighbor kid) and has experiences that push her as she challenges assumptions, processes feelings, and grows in empathy, vulnerability, and confidence. Character, setting, dialogue, and plot are skillfully delineated, and the inclusion of sunny moments balance heavier, introspective scenes. Well-paced, deftly illustrated panels convey characters' emotions and experiences; especially striking are fanciful VR-related images superimposed over realistic settings. When Addie's family situation (involving addiction and incarceration) is fully disclosed, it is presented with care, compassion, and hope. Back matter includes notes from the creators and a link to additional resources, including augmented reality that can be integrated into the reading of the book.

Reviewer: Elisa Gall | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 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) 4-6 Illustrated by Marta Altés. George, the new kid in Daniel's class, is "weird." Lacking in affect, stiff, and overly literal, he arrives with an aide who takes notes on his every action. When George's ear falls off, revealing a USB port, Daniel and his friends realize, as the reader has probably already guessed (with help from the jaunty cartoonlike illustrations), that he is a robot. By this time, however, the other kids have become fond of him, and when members of the evil corporation that "owns" George come to retrieve him (after what has been a kind of beta test), his classmates rally to save him. At this point the story morphs from a lighthearted romp to something dreamier, in which George spends a single idyllic day in Almond's (Skellig, rev. 5/99; The Color of the Sun, rev. 11/19) favorite territory, a wild place at the edge of a town. He gets grubby, roughhouses with the other kids, learns to tell a joke, and becomes alert to the natural world. The other children face big questions. For example, Daniel contemplates the mind-body problem: "Do you have to be a thing that can pee if you're going to be a thing that can think?" Inevitably, the denouement is bittersweet, leaving us with a simple and sturdy answer to one of the most relevant questions of our time. What defines us as humans? This story's answer is friendship.

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

(2) YA Without knowing the identity of the man who was her sperm donor, seventeen-year-old Harper feels that "half of her is a blank." Then she meets Dario, her half-brother, and learns that there are forty-two half-siblings...and that they've located the man himself. So Harper, Dario, and two other half-siblings travel to Hawaii to meet Beau Zane, where, to Harper's relief, Beau and his mother welcome them. Beau teaches them how to dive, his passion, which quickly becomes Harper's passion, too, and when their beloved diving spot is threatened, Harper and her new family feel compelled to try to preserve it. Caletti (One Great Lie, rev. 9/21) captures our collective anxieties (the story is set in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic) as well as the constant intrusion of electronic devices, especially the numbing, manufactured perfection of social-media "squares." The natural world is offered as the antidote: when Harper sees a jellyfish on her first dive, she is "so there, so present in this profound moment, that if you reminded her again that she once felt empty, she'd hardly believe it." The summer is full of similar moments of wonder, in which Harper feels connected to Beau, her newfound siblings, history, and "every living thing"--including herself. A rich, contemplative story about looking beneath the (literal and figurative) surface to find love, purpose, and joy.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Kerns | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2022

(2) 4-6 Twelve-year-old Yolanda Cicerón dreams of escaping her rustic life for the technology-enhanced metropolis of Silo, but earning a spot in the city requires an intense education and a lot of money. Yoly is close to reaching her goal: after she completes one final course, she can apprentice under a top surgeon, become a doctor, and make sure that she and her older sister, Cami, never struggle financially again. When she learns that Cami does not have the money to pay for the course, Yoly is devastated. However, a well-known benefactor alerts her to a scholarship that would cover her tuition. Yoly jumps at the chance, but she neglects to read the fine print. In accepting the scholarship, she unknowingly agrees to pay off her debt through two years of hard labor in the blighted wasteland beyond Silo's walls. Desperately ­seeking freedom from the contract, Yoly and Cami begin a life-altering adventure. They uncover schemes of capitalistic greed, expose Silo's evils, and learn that connectivity is interpersonal, not just technological. ­Cartaya (Marcus Vega Doesn't Speak Spanish, rev. 9/18; Each Tiny Spark) has created a portrait of familial and communal love set against a backdrop of a world destroyed by ­climate change. Perfect for readers interested in dystopian ­literature and climate fiction, this is a stirring exploration of the connections between technology, nature, and humanity.

Reviewer: S. R. Toliver | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2022