A baby dragon finds it difficult to acquire skills until a feline friend arrives in Simone’s picture book.

A newly hatched blue dragonling with coral accents named Iggy observes an orange cat chasing several orange butterflies; one flutters before Iggy’s face: “One day you’ll be big and bold and brave. / You’ll breathe red, hot fire,” the narration states, switching from third-person to second-person perspective to address the protagonist, who coughs twice and only blows smoke. “Don’t worry, you’ll get it,” the text asserts. Simone’s spare prose maintains an uplifting, lightly humorous tone, but transitions between pages can be confusing: “You’ll roar as loud as thunder,” one page reads, showcasing three bigger dragons. On the next page, Iggy coughs and sniffles as the text asks, “Not feeling well?” before the next page awkwardly continues, “And dive and swoop and soar.” Still, Martínez’s cartoon-style art adds welcome texture and vibrant colors, with speckled, U-shaped scales, striated brown cliffs, and a dreamy sunset in shades of pink, gold, and lavender. Younger children may appreciate the encouraging text as Iggy tries to play a brass instrument, ride a skateboard, and make a friend, by turns; when Iggy’s new pal is imperiled, the dragonling can be counted on to save the day.

Reassuring subject matter in a cute, fantastical package.

In Simone’s novel for middle-grade readers, a grieving girl in the present day makes a connection with a Civil War–era spirit.

Seventh grader Charlotte Cross, who’s grieving the sudden loss of her father, recently moved with her mother from Arizona to Manassas, Virginia. She feels emotionally distanced from her mom but hopes to join the cross-country track team at her new school, where she’s navigating new friendships and an embarrassing crush. Then, one day, while running in a former Civil War battlefield near her house, Charlotte meets a 14-year-old boy in old-fashioned clothes—who strangely keeps vanishing and reappearing. She feels a connection to Jeremy, who may very well be a ghost; she becomes determined to help him in some way. Jeremy lived in Virginia in 1861 with his farming family when news broke that Virginia had seceded from the Union. He believed that he was old enough to fight on the Union side,but his parents were against it. His father planned to join the Union army and needed Jeremy to take care of the farm. Ma, a Quaker pacifist, was entirely against Jeremy signing up; he struggled to manage the farm through a long, difficult war. Jeremy was desperate to become a soldier, which he saw as a way to prove his manhood, and he chafed against the bonds that tied him to home—until an incident forced his hand. Simone’s well-paced middle-grade novel tackles serious topics with care and consideration. The story cleverly balances the past with the present, the supernatural with realism, and action with interiority. Themes of grief, connection, and belonging underpin the narrative, as well. Charlotte’s story is narrated in the first-person present tense, while Jeremy’s is told in third-person past tense—a stylistic choice that effectively highlights the time separating the main characters, as well as their very different experiences of adolescence. Simone’s emotional prose and vivid descriptions (“The pale morning light washed the spring’s colors into gray shadows. Even the sun seemed hesitant to rise that morning”) bring the narrative to life, right up until the affecting conclusion.

A middle-grade cross-genre standout.