(2) 4-6 In 1942, French police in Occupied Paris rounded up over thirteen thousand French Jews and corralled them into a stadium; almost all perished at Auschwitz. Bradley's (The War That Saved My Life, rev. 1/15, and sequel) story begins just before the Jews are forced into the stadium, and Miri's neighbor thrusts her toddler into Miri's arms and tells her to run. Thanks to compassionate, quick-thinking nuns, the two end up in a village near Catherine de Medici's sixteenth-century castle, Chenonceau. Hiding in plain sight among summer boarders at a convent school, Miri (now known as Marie) grows familiar with the castle -- and with a ghost visible only to her, of Catherine de Medici herself. When Miri gets involved in rescuing refugees, Catherine repeatedly steps in to help her out. This is an engaging, imaginative yarn, and Miri's vulnerability and sense of responsibility give it emotional weight and contemporary appeal -- despite, or perhaps because of, the ways it stretches credulity. Given the ease of a few elements as well as a helpful ghost and Miri's talkativeness -- even when hiding from German soldiers only a few feet away -- the novel is something of an unlikely confection, like the fairy tale–esque castle at its center. Best read in tandem with more straightforward Holocaust accounts.`

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2024

(1) K-3 It only takes a "little heart" to make a big impact, and so tells the story of artist and religious sister Corita Kent (1918–1986). As a child, Frances Elizabeth Kent wanted to push away from the Old Masters taught in her art class and move toward something new in her creative expression. Once she joined the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, she became free to do just that, combining her religious devotion with her love for making art. She took on her new name -- Sister Mary Corita, meaning "little heart" -- and a new career as an art teacher, and urged innovation not only in artistic style but in the very way her students looked at the world around them, even creating "finders" through which they could isolate a visual experience. She challenged perceptions of artistic methods, styles, and even art's purpose, using the pop art of mid-century advertisements in her work to persuade people toward higher ideals and to protest injustices such as war, poverty, racism, and hunger. In the spirit of Kent's own work, text in varying sizes, shapes, colors, and fonts appears throughout the narrative and within the book's vibrant watercolor illustrations. An author's note and selected sources give readers an opportunity to learn even more. Paley and Tentler-Krylov deliver a compelling and sumptuous depiction of the life and work of a seminal figure in American art. Pair with Winter's Sister Corita's Words and Shapes (rev. 9/21) and Rockliff's Signs of Hope (rev. 5/24).

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2024

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Melissa Sweet. The words revolutionary, art, and sister in the book's subtitle offer a fitting description of the legacy of Sister Corita Kent, the "Pop Art Nun" (1918-1986). Rockliff (cf2]Sweet Justice, rev. 1/22) begins with Kent's young adult years, when she was already making waves as a Catholic nun and an unconventional artist and teacher in 1950s and '60s Los Angeles. A (fictional) student narrator describes the impact she made on others, bringing intimacy and immediacy to the story. "We break all the rules of art, even our own. We become fearless explorers, just like her." The narrative offers glimpses into the rest of Kent's life, both the beauty and the challenges, with an emphasis on her way of seeing the world; an author's note adds brief specifics about her artwork. Sweet's (Celia Planted a Garden, rev. 5/22) eye for attention-grabbing color and page design is especially effective for this subject. She employs her signature materials and methods, combining "collage and watercolor using hand-painted papers, printmaking, gouache, vintage magazines, pencil, and mixed media" to render an authentic feel for Kent's work. Pair with Winter's Sister Corita's Words and Shapes (rev. 9/21) for another look at this influential artist. Back matter also includes an illustrator's note, a timeline, source notes, directions for creating the viewfinder Kent used with her students, and a list of places to learn more.

Reviewer: | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2024

(2) K-3 Corita Kent's "Rainbow Swash" is a long-familiar sight to Boston commuters, splashed across an enormous natural gas tank alongside Interstate 93, but her bold, bright, and devout serigraphs were everywhere in the 1960s and 1970s. Corita is an apt choice for Winter's ­hagiographic leanings and iconographic style; see, for example, her previous picture-book biographies of Georgia O'Keeffe (rev. 9/98), Hildegard of Bingen (rev. 9/07), and Zaha Hadid (rev. 9/17). As ever, Winter's focus is on the art and the inspiration it both requires and bestows. As a teaching nun in Los Angeles, Corita taught her students to look closely everywhere, to find the sacred in the mundane, as in her famous that they may have life, which pairs a close-up view of a Wonder Bread label with a quote from Gandhi about the presence of God in bread. Winter's own modest, miniaturist style contrasts well with her depictions of Corita's ­exuberant splashes and swashes and scrawls, and the joyful creativity of both artists is palpable. Appended are Corita's (terrific) ten rules for her students, a bit about her conflicts with the Church, and a brief ­bibliography.

Reviewer: Roger Sutton | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2021

(2) YA In LaFevers's alt-historical fifteenth-century Brittany, Sybella (from the His Fair Assassin trilogy), the trained assassin and daughter of Saint Mortain, becomes attendant to the Queen of France. Not far away, Genevieve, a novice from Saint Mortain's convent who had gone missing, is making the hazardous journey back to the French court. Alternating between Sybella's and Genevieve's voices, LaFevers maintains an intense pitch of intrigue, with murders, assaults, romance, and betrayals.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2019

(2) K-3 Illustrated by Beatriz Vidal. This is a lightly fictionalized picture-book biography of Mexican author Sor (Sister) Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648–1695), then keeper of one of the largest libraries in the Americas. Watercolor and gouache illustrations lend a sunny, idyllic feel to Juana's Mexico. As the original Horn Book review noted, there's no formal bibliography, but Mora acknowledges the work of "the Sor Juanistas, scholars of Sor Juana." Appended with an author's note and glossary for interspersed Spanish words. Concurrently published with a new edition in Spanish: Una biblioteca para Juana.

Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2002; November, 2019

(2) 4-6 Malley, the daughter of convicted Milean rebels, is sent to a "national school" to become an obedient subject of the oppressive Wealdan government. There she discovers that resistance is more widespread than she'd realized. Malley is an engaging narrator whose gradual maturation adds an appealing layer to her character. Although the book's semi-industrialized world is fictional, readers will note parallels to history and current political discussion.

Reviewer: Sarah Rettger | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2018

(2) 4-6 A twelve-year-old orphan girl called Bicycle, raised by a retired nun, cycles solo from Washington, DC, to San Francisco. The odyssey is part travelogue, but mainly the road-trip story's tone is cartoonish, with absurd adults, silly villains, broad satire, and coincidences galore. Beneath the hullaballoo is a heartfelt celebration of the zen of cycling and a sympathetic portrait of an atypical kid who struggles with the art of friendship.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2018

(4) 4-6 Jimmy Murphy, the worst sixth grader at his 1950s Catholic elementary school, is the target of humiliation by a new teacher, Sister Angelica Rose--so much so that he enlists his friends in a revenge prank against her that could be dangerous. Fear not: there's a happy ending. Though occasionally quite funny, there's scant historical detail to anchor the semi-autobiographical story.

Reviewer: David Elzey

(2) 4-6 When twelve-year-old Ruby Clyde Henderson's mother and Mom's boyfriend are arrested for armed robbery, Ruby Clyde's care falls to her aunt, a nun who lives on a ranch. It is "almost paradise" until Ruby Clyde discovers that Aunt Eleanor has cancer. Ruby Clyde's voice makes the story sing; she's resilient, vulnerable, honest, and hilarious, sharing her unique take on an unreliable world.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2017

(4) K-3 Zoom In on Great Women series. The lives of six diverse, inspirational women--three of whom (Goodall, Yousafzai, and Winfrey) are still living--are summarized in this series, which aligns to Common Core Standards. Though only broadly chronicling their challenges and/or accomplishments, these offerings may spur interest in further study. The archival photographs included are noteworthy, and lists of quick stats and key dates are appended. Glos., ind. Review covers the following Zoom In on Great Women titles: Anne Frank, Jane Goodall, Malala Yousafzai, Mother Teresa, Oprah Winfrey, and Rosa Parks.

Reviewer: Cynthia K. Ritter

(2) 4-6 In 1911 St. Louis, eleven-year-old orphan Julia and her sister are sent to the nuns' House of Mercy, while their brother is taken to Father Dunne's boys' home. Desperately wanting control over her life and her family reunited, Julia lashes out at authority figures and tries to escape at every turn. The characters' distinctive voices carry this fine work of historical fiction.

Reviewer: Betty Carter | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2015

(2) YA His Fair Assassin series. Annith, daughter of Mortain, god of Death, rebels against her abbess's decree that she remain immured in the convent as Mortain's seeress. Her escape revolutionizes Annith's understanding of her nature. LaFevers's writing often slips to the banal depths of an adolescent's romantic fantasy and overwhelms engagement with the story's fictional fifteenth-century-Brittany setting. Even so, LaFevers effectively ties up loose ends of the trilogy's cast.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2014

(4) YA Order of Darkness series. Luca has been recruited by a shadowy figure to serve the Catholic Church as an inquisitor and root out evil in Christendom. His first duty is to investigate a nunnery where claims of stigmata and visions point to witchcraft. While some of the solutions are obvious, the richly drawn medieval world and strong secondary characters add clever layers to the mystery.

Reviewer: Lauren Chambers

(3) YA Forced into a convent, seventeen-year-old Giulia relies on a sorcerer's talisman to plan an escape. But as an apprentice in Maestra Humiliatá's studio at the convent, Giulia's passion for art sets her on a new and dangerous trajectory. Strauss's depiction of fifteenth-century Milan employs a wealth of historical details, woven smoothly with magical elements and a compelling protagonist.

Reviewer: Hannah Rodgers Barnaby

(2) 4-6 With their mentor dead, Crispin and Troth make their way to Iceland, reportedly free from strife. Along the way, Troth finds her home in a convent while Crispin joins a family of (purportedly) traveling musicians. It's another rousing page-turner, a brisk, suspenseful narrative with effortlessly interwoven details of medieval life and provocative questions of ethics and morality.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2010

(3) 4-6 Sixth-grader Mary Clare already knows that she wants to be a nun. The personal and political intersect for her as the Vietnam War, women's liberation, and the civil rights movement alternately test and sharpen her faith. With an authentic-sounding writing style, the narrative brings 1967 to life and still manages to resonate today.

Reviewer: Brittany Schlorff

(2) 4-6 In a story set in the 1960s, Alice, a hearing-impaired girl, lives in a Catholic orphanage. After a fire, her mentor, Sister Vincent de Paul, is injured and taken away. Searching for the nun, Alice discovers her own twin sister, who was adopted long ago. Alice, along with the nuns who are her true family, will be hard to forget.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc. | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 1994

(4) YA Strongbow Saga series. Halfdan, a former slave turned Viking warrior, still tries to avenge his half-brother's murder. Seeking combat experience, he becomes embroiled in the Viking invasion of Frankia. The battles are many and thrilling, but Halfdan's leaden narrative voice is improbably reflective, and love interest Genevieve, a captured Frankish nun, is anachronistically independent of thought.

Reviewer: Claire E. Gross

(3) K-3 Recovering from an illness, Matisse is cared for by Monique, a young nurse, who helps him resume painting. Later she becomes a nun, and Matisse designs the Chapelle du Rossaire to thank Monique and the nuns for caring for him. The energetic telling brings this fictionalized account of a true story to life. Reproductions of the artist's work happily co-exist within Anholt's own illustrations.

Reviewer: Patricia Riley