Daisy Fitzjohn lives with her mother at Brightwood, an old manor house. For eleven years, she has never left the house, and she and her mother have had a particular routine. One Monday, her mother breaks the routine and she doesn't come back from a trip to the store. Instead, a man claiming to be a distant cousin shows up. Does he have good intentions?

This story touched on loss, mental illness, and a bit on hoarding. I'm not sure I really liked mental illness being called "The Crazy", but overall, it was a thriller with heart.

This is an interesting play on Jack and the Beanstalk. Jack takes care of his autistic younger sister Maddie while his single mom struggles to pay the bills. When Maddie talks one day at a flea market, Jack ends up trading the family car for some magic seeds. These seeds are mysterious plants, seemingly from another world. But Maddie loves them, so Jack is reluctant to ruin the garden.

I enjoyed this one. The take on the original tale is fun, and I am excited to see where the cliffhanger ending takes us.

Two sets of red headed twins on an adventure. Hard to keep them all straight at times, but I did enjoy it.

That is one major ending.

I enjoyed this tale of intersecting stories, where each person brings out a little bit more of the tale and then it all comes to a head at the end. It did take me a little while to get into it, but once I did I didn't want to leave it.

One thing I didn't like was the reference to William as African. It's a continent, not a country. I have found it in a few other places lately so I wonder if that is why it stuck out to me. I would have preferred a country name (one specific to the area for the time) or left that he was a Saracen.

I am torn about this one. I think it has a great sister relationship and brings awareness of cystic fibrosis, but I am not 100% solid with the use of Dia de los Muertos in the story, and I can tell from other reviews that I am not the only one. It requires more thinking and reading.

Eh, it wasn't for me. I had fun trying to figure out whether it would be aliens or robots, but once I got that far, I thought it got kind of predictable and boring.

What if you could relive a good day over and over again? Would you? That happens to Hayleigh, and it's the last day of summer before her family is moving. In this take on Groundhog Day for kids, Hayleigh learns that there are some things that are great to repeat, but it might be good to grow in other ways too. A cute read.

One of my favorite winter picture books.

Definitely worthy of the award. A complex interweaving of stories that is beautifully written. Love, loss, family, Magic and sorrow are all touched upon. I have big hopes for her future books.