Illustration from The Message: The Extraordinary Journey of an Ordinary Text Message by Michael Emberley.

The following books will receive starred reviews in the November/December 2021 Horn Book Magazine:

When I Wake Up by Seth Fishman; illus. by Jessixa Bagley (Greenwillow)

The Big Bath House by Kyo Maclear; illus. by Gracey Zhang (Random)

Sweater Weather by Matt Phelan (Greenwillow)

Red and Green and Blue and White by Lee Wind; illus. by Paul O. Zelinsky (Levine Querido)

Everybody in the Red Brick Building by Anne Wynter; illus. by Oge Mora (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins)

Off-Limits by Helen Yoon (Candlewick)

Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales by Soman Chainani; illus. by Julia Iredale (Harper/HarperCollins)

Borders by Thomas King; illus. by Natasha Donovan (Little, Brown)

Salt Magic by Hope Larson; illus. by Rebecca Mock (Ferguson/Holiday)

The Swallows’ Flight by Hilary McKay (McElderry)

Garlic & the Vampire by Bree Paulsen (Quill Tree/HarperCollins)

Lotería by Karla Arenas Valenti; illus. by Dana Sanmar (Knopf)

Blancaflor, the Hero with Secret Powers: A Folktale from Latin America by Nadja Spiegelman; illus. by Sergio García Sánchez (TOON)

The 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson; illus. by Nikkolas Smith (Kokila/Penguin)

The Message: The Extraordinary Journey of an Ordinary Text Message by Michael Emberley (Dlouhy/Atheneum)

Why Is Everybody Yelling?: Growing Up in My Immigrant Family by Marisabina Russo (Farrar)

Picturing a Nation: The Great Depression’s Finest Photographers Introduce America to Itself by Martin W. Sandler (Candlewick)

Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown by Steve Sheinkin (Roaring Brook)

Fox: A Circle of Life Story by Isabel Thomas; illus. by Daniel Egnéus (Bloomsbury)

Nina: A Story of Nina Simone by Traci N. Todd; illus. by Christian Robinson (Putnam)

The People Remember by Ibi Zoboi; illus. by Loveis Wise (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins)