(2) K-3 In four stories, one for each season, we follow the adventures of Little Witch Hazel, a sturdy, rosy-cheeked forest dweller with a bevy of woodland friends--gnomes, fairies, trolls, owls, mice, frogs, and newts. The tales recall classic nursery stories (a rescued animal who later repays the kindness; a parade of creatures that gets longer and longer as everyone joins in a quest) and as such have just the right amount of tension for the audience. (What could be making the eerie noises coming from the hollow tree? Will Hazel become lost in a blizzard?) Apart from a pointed hat, there is nothing particularly witchy about Hazel. Rather, she seems to be a kind of community-health carer, seeing to an abandoned owl's egg, a chipmunk with a toothache, a postpartum rabbit mother. Wahl's (The Blue House, rev. 7/20) digital art, in deep earth tones, has the retro look of wood-block prints and contains plenty of details to pore over. An endpaper map of the whole of Mosswood Forest serves to remind readers of the journey just taken and the pleasures of this tight-knit neighborhood in miniature.

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

(1) K-3 Wahl's picture book tells an affecting story about loss and starting over. In it, interdependent text and art channel a Molly Bang–like artistic style (and emotional intelligence) to follow Leo and his dad, occupants of the ever-so-humble titular blue house. "The paint was peeling and the roof was mossy. There were leaks and creaks. And when the wind blew, the whole thing shook. But it was theirs." Leo and his dad's easy companionability and resourceful attitude toward making-do in their old house present a picture of father-son idyll. (And it's notable to see a single-father, working-class household represented.) Then gentrification arrives in their neighborhood, undercutting the small family's sense of security in their house as "theirs." The landlord's letter seals their fate: the blue house has been sold and is slated for demolition. They must move. Leo's anger at this news shifts the emotional tone, and earlier scenes of joyful living-room dance parties give way to Leo's "special scream solo" as his dad "shreds" on guitar. The calm after this storm is occupied by packing, and then by a healing act of painting pictures on the bare walls of the blue house to say goodbye. This moment anticipates a supremely satisfying conclusion when Leo and his dad find a way to make their new house feel like a home, and themselves less blue.

Reviewer: Megan Dowd Lambert | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2020

(3) K-3 A sturdy, rosy-cheeked, pigtailed girl searches home, garden, and forest for the fairies that she senses are all around her. Clever and richly colored, the paint and collage illustrations show fairies in all their variety, earthiness, and hedonism, always just out of her sight (but not the book's viewers'). After the girl gives up in frustration, the fairies leave her a gift, making for a happy ending.

Reviewer: Sarah Ellis

(3) K-3 Sonya lovingly cares for three chicks on the family farm, and soon they are egg-producing hens. When one is stolen by a fox, Papa comfortingly explains nature's ways: "he just saw a chance to feed his family." A happy ending comes by way of a new chick to care for (there's no explanation of mating). Pleasing, folksy illustrations incidentally reveal a biracial family.

Reviewer: Paula M. Cairo