(2) K-3 Venezuelan artist Bassi's picture-book debut features various aliens as characters--but whether a character has a single eye or dozens of minuscule eyeballs, all are glued to their smartphone screens. In this wordless fable for the digital age, a subway commute turns terrifying when a toddler on the train finds and turns on a twentieth century–style cordless (and screenless) telephone. This simple action somehow disrupts all the passengers' wireless connections, causing a temporary, and wonderfully surreal, breakdown of their very selves. Exquisitely detailed, realistic grayscale pencil illustrations pull viewers into the setting, utterly familiar except inhabited by a large cast of mesmerizing (and uniquely designed) alien characters. Employing mostly double-page spreads, Bassi occasionally mixes in comic-book-style paneling to control the pacing and artfully varies scale to enhance the storytelling. The best wordless (well, mostly: signage in Spanish is incorporated into the illustrations) picture books are enhanced by careful re-readings, where previously unnoticed details provide deeper understandings, and this is one such book, so full of detail and general oddness that readers will demand multiple encounters and lots of time to pore over its finely composed pages.

Reviewer: Eric Carpenter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2021

(3) YA Illustrated by Sally Wern Comport. Profiles of twelve (mostly American) women in STEM-related fields include lots of direct quotes from the subjects, making their paths to success relatable. Each chapter follows a similar format and includes a full-page portrait and personal photos. Career trajectories highlight "The Spark" and "The Eureka Moment"; notes "to Self" and "to You" and "Words to Live By" offer advice to readers. More about specific topics follow each biography (e.g., "Fission? Fusion? What's the Diff?"). Sixteen suggestions for STEM activities and a reading list conclude the book along with an index and glossary.

Reviewer: Kitty Flynn

(2) YA In a near-future America, Opal Hopper, a senior at a school for high-achieving hackers and coders, enters a contest on the virtual reality platform WAVE. Winning would launch her tech career and introduce her to WAVE's reclusive founder, who might help her find her missing father. The richly inventive digital landscape is a dizzying acceleration of today's internet environment. High-stakes ethical tech dilemmas, trolls, sexual harassers, and corporate manipulation keep the tension simmering.

Reviewer: Jessica Tackett MacDonald | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2019

(3) YA Cautious good girl Eden's crush Will died suddenly before graduation, her best friend pulls away as summer begins, and her high-achieving family starts to splinter. Phoning a digital recreation of Will becomes a soothing habit but keeps Eden anchored to the past. Behind the futuristic premise is a solidly realistic coming-of-age story about Eden's struggles to face her grief and fears.

Reviewer: Jessica Tackett MacDonald

(3) 4-6 Searchlight Books: Climate Change series. Each volume provides a basic definition of human-induced climate change, then considers the impact of rising temperatures and an increase in carbon dioxide on plant and animal life, weather, and humans, with only minor overlap of content across the books. Though the cases presented are dire, solutions and mitigation of negative impacts are considered. The high-quality images and layouts organize the material well. Reading list, timeline, websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these Searchlight Books: Climate Change titles: Climate Change and Air Quality, Climate Change and Extreme Storms, Climate Change and Energy Technology, Climate Change and Rising Sea Levels, Climate Change and Rising Temperatures, and Climate Change and Life on Earth.

Reviewer: Danielle J. Ford

(3) 4-6 Digital Citizens series. Illustrated by Diego Vaisberg. This nonfiction series presents a balanced, practical view of how to manage one's online presence in the (increasingly pervasive) digital world, addressing responsible behaviors and dangerous/emotionally damaging situations. Appealing blocky graphics and illustrations draw inspiration from Minecraft, evoking popular online interactions. Websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these Digital Citizens titles: My Digital Community and Media, My Digital Future, My Digital Health and Wellness, My Digital Rights and Rules, My Digital Safety and Security and My Digital World

Reviewer: Dorrie Karlin

(3) 4-6 Digital Citizens series. Illustrated by Diego Vaisberg. This nonfiction series presents a balanced, practical view of how to manage one's online presence in the (increasingly pervasive) digital world, addressing responsible behaviors and dangerous/emotionally damaging situations. Appealing blocky graphics and illustrations draw inspiration from Minecraft, evoking popular online interactions. Websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these Digital Citizens titles: My Digital Community and Media, My Digital Future, My Digital Health and Wellness, My Digital Rights and Rules, My Digital Safety and Security and My Digital World

Reviewer: Dorrie Karlin

(3) 4-6 Digital Citizens series. Illustrated by Diego Vaisberg. This nonfiction series presents a balanced, practical view of how to manage one's online presence in the (increasingly pervasive) digital world, addressing responsible behaviors and dangerous/emotionally damaging situations. Appealing blocky graphics and illustrations draw inspiration from Minecraft, evoking popular online interactions. Websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these Digital Citizens titles: My Digital Community and Media, My Digital Future, My Digital Health and Wellness, My Digital Rights and Rules, My Digital Safety and Security and My Digital World

Reviewer: Dorrie Karlin

(3) 4-6 Digital Citizens series. Illustrated by Diego Vaisberg. This nonfiction series presents a balanced, practical view of how to manage one's online presence in the (increasingly pervasive) digital world, addressing responsible behaviors and dangerous/emotionally damaging situations. Appealing blocky graphics and illustrations draw inspiration from Minecraft, evoking popular online interactions. Websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these Digital Citizens titles: My Digital Community and Media, My Digital Future, My Digital Health and Wellness, My Digital Rights and Rules, My Digital Safety and Security and My Digital World

Reviewer: Dorrie Karlin

(3) 4-6 Digital Citizens series. Illustrated by Diego Vaisberg. This nonfiction series presents a balanced, practical view of how to manage one's online presence in the (increasingly pervasive) digital world, addressing responsible behaviors and dangerous/emotionally damaging situations. Appealing blocky graphics and illustrations draw inspiration from Minecraft, evoking popular online interactions. Websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these Digital Citizens titles: My Digital Community and Media, My Digital Future, My Digital Health and Wellness, My Digital Rights and Rules, My Digital Safety and Security and My Digital World

Reviewer: Dorrie Karlin

(3) 4-6 Digital Citizens series. Illustrated by Diego Vaisberg. This nonfiction series presents a balanced, practical view of how to manage one's online presence in the (increasingly pervasive) digital world, addressing responsible behaviors and dangerous/emotionally damaging situations. Appealing blocky graphics and illustrations draw inspiration from Minecraft, evoking popular online interactions. Websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these Digital Citizens titles: My Digital Community and Media, My Digital Future, My Digital Health and Wellness, My Digital Rights and Rules, My Digital Safety and Security and My Digital World

Reviewer: Dorrie Karlin

(3) 4-6 Days after the end of book one, Ken and the EngiNerds are tracking down the final robot from the horde that menaced their town. A girl named Mikaela, who claims she's seen an alien, is a distraction, but Ken refuses to be thrown off his mission. Ample humor, short chapters, and the introduction of a smart, independent girl character make this a worthy successor to EngiNerds.

Reviewer: Janet Dawson

(2) YA When Astrid's brain tumor comes back, she doesn't want to go through chemo and hospitals again. Instead she investigates cryopreservation as a possibility and road-trips from Massachusetts to Arizona to tour the cryopreservation facility, posting vlog updates along the way. Astrid's matter-of-fact voice contains a good amount of gallows humor, and the existential questions she raises are thought-provoking and ripe for discussion. Her eventual decision, while it feels inevitable, is devastating.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2019

(4) PS Illustrated by Brady Smith. One day at the park, a dad is fixated on his phone; "You're missing it!" his young son, surrounded by park excitement, yells more than once. What's it going to take to snap Dad out of it? Although the book's ending is lackluster, the put-down-your-phone message is solid. Fittingly, the cartoony, spring-toned art was created without digital interference.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) K-3 Robot Blip "liked being plugged into her computer." One day there's a blackout, and Blip finds herself outside, where the book's industrial palette yields to a pastel-colored world of greenery and animals. This is a "lesson" story that doesn't feel like one thanks to Antony's canny art, which shows Blip and friends happily doing what she'd only been watching on-screen characters do.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(3) YA How will genetic modification integrate itself into society going forward? This collection of six interconnected stories, each one set slightly further into the future than the last, imagines teenagers facing different stages of technological advancement and the subsequent questions it raises regarding what it means to love, fear, learn, and be human. The stories cohere into a thoughtful dystopian novel examining technology and the human experience.

Reviewer: Ariel Baker-Gibbs

(3) YA Painted Wolf, Tunde, and Rex (The Game; The Con) return, still on the run and now with only six days to stop tycoon Kiran's apocalypse. To save the world and earn back their freedom, the LODGE geniuses must trust new allies and maybe some old enemies. Background illustrations and page decorations complement this fast-paced conclusion to the globetrotting trilogy about tech-genius teens.

Reviewer: Jenn Matters

(3) 4-6 TBH series. Ari and Kaylan (11 Before 12) return for seventh grade with twelve new goals before their thirteenth birthdays. But Ari struggles to balance her new summer-camp friends and BFF Kaylan, and Ari's parents are having financial trouble. This installment isn't the freshest, but Ari's bat mitzvah preparations allow for authentic reflection on her place in her Jewish community and in the larger world.

Reviewer: Lana Barnes

(3) 4-6 TBH series. Sixth graders Cecily, Gabby, and Prianka are BFFAE (best friends forever and ever). A new girl forces her way into their group texts, causing damage to their IRL friendship (Awkward); the trio is tested again during spring-fair planning (TMI). Told entirely through emoji-heavy texts, emails, etc., these accessible and appealing (if gimmicky) stories lightly broach social pressure and bullying in tweens' tech-dominated lives. Text-speak glossary appended. Review covers these TBH titles: TBH, This Is SO Awkward and TBH, This May Be TMI.

Reviewer: Lana Barnes

(3) YA Class in America series. This unique series--geared to school reports but with intriguing topics and ideas that go beyond the curriculum--could also provide support for debates and political action for motivated readers. Charts, graphs, archival photos, and contemporary color photos break up the dense information and detailed sidebars. Lots of discussion-starter questions make these books relevant to today's readers. Reading list. Bib., glos., ind. Review covers these Class in America titles: The American Middle Class, Being Poor in America, Class and Education, Class and Race, Class Mobility, The Future of Work in America, The Health-Care Divide, and The One Percent.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt