An entertaining and educational work for young horse lovers.
Mueller and Mayorga offer a middle-grade graphic novel in which students travel back in time to learn about horses and their history.
At the London Academy of Ideas and Ingenuity, students Thea, George, and Toot, who’s an alien from the planet Cancri, are about to take a field trip to the Academy Stables for the first time. George loves horses and has one of his own housed at the stables, but Thea is nervous around the gentle giants. Their teacher, Mr. Winters, begins a lesson by noting that “Hippology is the study of horses” and pointing out that the prefix hippo, in this case, has nothing to with hippopotamuses. The lesson gets sidetracked when Toot uses some of his planet’s technology to send himself, George, and Thea back 55 million years to see Hyracotherium, the horse’s first ancestor. They move forward in time to see Mesohippus, Merychippus, and Pliohippus, and come to understand the evolutionary chain that led to the modern horse. The students learn how horses became integral to human life in travel, farming, the military, and sports. Along the way, they also find out how horses’ brains and digestive systems work, and about the different markings and colorings they can have. George and Toot make learning fun and engaging, and as Thea’s knowledge grows, she becomes more confident around horses—and she may even be willing to learn to ride them. Over the course of this graphic novel, Mueller blends plenty of animal facts into a clear and straightforward narrative, which will keep young readers engaged as they learn; a glossary is included as well. The book also doesn’t shy away from difficult truths, such as the fact that horses are used for meat, both in the past and present. Mayorga’s use of a broad color palette results in illustrations that are eye-catching and diagrams that are easy to grasp.
An entertaining and educational work for young horse lovers.Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2026
ISBN: 9781545823316
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Papercutz
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.
Robot Roz undertakes an unusual ocean journey to save her adopted island home in this third series entry.
When a poison tide flowing across the ocean threatens their island, Roz works with the resident creatures to ensure that they will have clean water, but the destruction of vegetation and crowding of habitats jeopardize everyone’s survival. Brown’s tale of environmental depredation and turmoil is by turns poignant, graceful, endearing, and inspiring, with his (mostly) gentle robot protagonist at its heart. Though Roz is different from the creatures she lives with or encounters—including her son, Brightbill the goose, and his new mate, Glimmerwing—she makes connections through her versatile communication abilities and her desire to understand and help others. When Roz accidentally discovers that the replacement body given to her by Dr. Molovo is waterproof, she sets out to seek help and discovers the human-engineered source of the toxic tide. Brown’s rich descriptions of undersea landscapes, entertaining conversations between Roz and wild creatures, and concise yet powerful explanations of the effect of the poison tide on the ecology of the island are superb. Simple, spare illustrations offer just enough glimpses of Roz and her surroundings to spark the imagination. The climactic confrontation pits oceangoing mammals, seabirds, fish, and even zooplankton against hardware and technology in a nicely choreographed battle. But it is Roz’s heroism and peacemaking that save the day.
Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant. (author’s note) (Fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9780316669412
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many.
Young Raina is 9 when she throws up for the first time that she remembers, due to a stomach bug. Even a year later, when she is in fifth grade, she fears getting sick.
Raina begins having regular stomachaches that keep her home from school. She worries about sharing food with her friends and eating certain kinds of foods, afraid of getting sick or food poisoning. Raina’s mother enrolls her in therapy. At first Raina isn’t sure about seeing a therapist, but over time she develops healthy coping mechanisms to deal with her stress and anxiety. Her therapist helps her learn to ground herself and relax, and in turn she teaches her classmates for a school project. Amping up the green, wavy lines to evoke Raina’s nausea, Telgemeier brilliantly produces extremely accurate visual representations of stress and anxiety. Thought bubbles surround Raina in some panels, crowding her with anxious “what if”s, while in others her negative self-talk appears to be literally crushing her. Even as she copes with anxiety disorder and what is eventually diagnosed as mild irritable bowel syndrome, she experiences the typical stresses of school life, going from cheer to panic in the blink of an eye. Raina is white, and her classmates are diverse; one best friend is Korean American.
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many. (Graphic memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-545-85251-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
