Rating: R (Reccomended)
Age Group: Grades 9-12
Published: April 5, 2016

Ordinary high schooler Nancy Whitman once opened a mysterious basement door that led to a magical otherworld where she happily adventured for years…but now she’s back in the real world, where only a few months have passed. Her parents send her away to a boarding school which claims to specialize in curing her particular kind of delusion, but Nancy quickly learns that the school’s true purpose is to give children like her a supportive and understanding community of others who went on the same kind of journey. However, Nancy’s macabre yet beautiful “Halls of the Dead” were very different from most of her peers’ whimsical wonderlands, making her a misfit even here. But when students start turning up murdered in grisly ways, it’s up to Nancy and the few friends she’s made to find the culprit or lose their only sanctuary forever.
Mcguire’s entrancing new novel explores the underside of classic portal fantasy tropes in a dark (yet hopeful) way, while still moving through an enjoyable murder mystery plot at a brisk pace. The diverse cast and ordered multiverse are all concisely introduced before jumping into the mystery, which develops clearly and logically without being entirely predictable, and is slightly gruesome but not at all prurient. Unusually, most of the fantastical aspects of this fantasy story take place entirely in the past, but are no less important for that, due to their unique and lasting impact on each character. Notably, Nancy is asexual and one of her friends is transmasculine, two powerful pieces of queer representation which are both unambiguously stated and subtly woven into the plot without resorting to stereotypes. Fans of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will be hooked by this all-new fantastical school with its own brand of unusual students and chilling adventures.

Rating: R* (Highly Reccomended)
Age Group: Ages 5-10
Published: September 8, 2020

The narration of this book tells the reader to “see the cat”…but the animal in the pictures is clearly a dog, and tells the book so! The dog, Max, goes on to star in two more stories where he runs into two more unique conflicts with the book’s narrator, who seems determined to force Max into stories he wants no part in. Though the narrator’s storytelling puts Max in danger with first a snake and then a hippo, the clever dog is eventually able to get his way each time with some simple tricks and persuasive arguments of his own.
LaRochelle’s innovative use of irony and fourth-wall breaking injects life and humor into a normally static genre with minimal characters and plot. Each story builds on the last in narrative and textual complexity, e.g. the second story introduces future tense (“the mad snake is going to bite the dog”), and the last story introduces conditionals (“if this hippo sits on me, I will leave this book”). Wohnoutka’s illustrations also do their part, as the almost crayon-like texture of his gouache watercolors and his solid, but playfully curvy, lines complement his cartoony, expressive, characters. A simple layout normally divides the narration on one side of each page spread from the pictures and word balloons on the other side, but this only serves to make it more exciting when that classic layout is occasionally broken (e.g. Max reaching over across the pages). The simple and fun, yet innovative, twists of this book will allow it to rival Mo Willems’ Elephant and Piggie for a wide variety of emerging readers.

Rating: M (Marginal)
Age Group: Ages 4-8
Published: September 6, 2022

Max Midas has been greedy and obsessed with gold from the moment he was born, much to his parents’ chagrin. Luckily, relentless greed and cruelty seems to be all he needs to succeed, as he makes millions off of the lemonade stand he sets up, ruining his young neighbor Sadie’s charitable lemonade stand in the process. But in the midst of his new gold mansion, Max undergoes a prolonged, frightening, transformation into a solid gold statue, which forces him to reflect on his greedy nature. Only a change of heart can undo the transformation and earn him the love and forgiveness of his entire community.
This simplistic and blatantly didactic story somehow manages to still be wishy-washy in its message, and generally does not live up to David Shannon’s usual standards in art or narrative flow. For instance, Max’s greed benefits him very unambiguously at first, which is at least humorous, but that humor is undercut by the abruptly nightmarish climax. The moral against greed isn’t handled much better when Max proclaims at the end of the story, “But please don’t think I’m poor.\ I’ve made millions from my lemonade,\ And I’ll make millions more!”. Then there is Sadie, the “plucky” and virtuous African American neighbor. While her inclusion may have been intended as an attempt to join the modern movement of ‘diverse books’, her instant willingness to forgive and redeem Max at the end actually reinforces harmful race, class, and gender stereotypes. Shannon’s glossy and saturated oil illustrations are exciting enough, at least, but are also busy with details and jarring perspective shifts that reduce readability. Young readers are more likely to enjoy the fantastical misadventures of Jonathan Stutzmann’s Llama series, or Bob Staake’s rich illustrations in The Book of Gold.

Rating: R (Reccomended)
Age Group: Grades 5-9
Published: November 7, 2023

In the second installment of this series, the focus shifts to a new protagonist: Jane the Archer! Years ago, Jane was inspired by a mysterious scroll to learn the art of stealth and use it to help her village’s magical army win battles. Unfortunately, all the other archers, including her former best friend, have shunned her ever since for always sneaking around the battlefield “like a coward”. But when the village’s latest recruit not only gets Jane exiled, but also calls into doubt the legitimacy of her beloved scroll, she sets out with her friends (including Terry, the protagonist of the last book) to learn the scroll’s true secret and earn her place in the village again. Unbeknownst to her, that new recruit has other, darker, plans besides merely getting Jane exiled.
Yang’s fast-paced story works together smoothly with Mclaine and Acton’s cartoony artwork to lead readers on a fun, straightforward, and light-hearted romp through the setting of the popular mobile games Clash of Clans and Clash Royale. The measured use of dynamic panels and perspective lends itself well to the frequent action without risking confusion among younger readers and manages to keep the story’s focus squarely on the core cast among crowded battlefields full of wildly varied extras. Frequent, bite-sized gags lighten the mood without distracting from the main plot, while the expressive characters charge the relatively simple story with more than enough emotion to keep readers invested. Readers don’t need to know anything about the mobile games to enjoy the story, but it still ties very neatly into them. Neither the story nor the art is especially innovative or surprising, but still makes for a fun and easy read

Rating: R (Reccomended)
Age Group: ages 8-10
Published: November 12, 2023

Even as a child in 1850s England, Randolph Caldecott loved to draw fun pictures of animals in motion, though his father and his teachers all disapproved of such frivolity. In the years to come, he would manage to earn his living drawing pictures for city newspapers, but he still wasn’t satisfied. He exhausted himself with one wild project after another, from painting storks in flight to hot air balloons taking off. Eventually, he found his calling in children’s book illustrations and revolutionized the genre so much that his influence is still felt today, in picture books very much like this one!
This picture book biography deftly manages the difficult balancing act of paying homage to the famed Victorian illustrator’s drawings, informing readers about his life story, and making it all fun and accessible to modern children. Mclintock’s ink and watercolor illustrations flow almost seamlessly into reproductions of Caldecott’s real sketches and engravings, mimicking his dynamic poses and warm, natural colors. Markel’s story is a bit wordy, and younger readers may need help getting through it, but the frequent emphasis on simple actions helps make it a fun read-aloud for all. Older readers will also appreciate the extra annotations, notes, and bibliography in the back. Overall, this book is a delightful way to help a new generation appreciate not only Caldecott’s life story, but also how fun and groundbreaking his contribution to the world of children’s book illustration was.