Illustration from Nunu and the Sea by Isabella Kung.

The following books will receive starred reviews in the November/December 2025 Horn Book Magazine.

Lena the Chicken (but Really a Dinosaur!) by Linda Bailey; illus. by K-Fai Steele (Tundra) 

If We Were Dogs by Sophie Blackall (Little, Brown) 

Nunu and the Sea by Isabella Kung (Knopf) 

Cat Nap by Brian Lies (Greenwillow) 

Stella & Marigold: Mermaids and Mix-Ups by Annie Barrows; illus. by Sophie Blackall (Chronicle) 

The Tinkerers by Caroline Carlson (Candlewick) 

The Unexpected Lives of Ordinary Girls by J. Anderson Coats (Atheneum) 

Defanged by H.E. Edgmon (Feiwel) 

The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli by Karina Yan Glaser (Allida/HarperCollins) 

Your Turn Marisol Rainey by Erin Entrada Kelly (Greenwillow) 

Reasons to Hate Me by Susan Metallo (Candlewick) 

How to Say Goodbye in Cuban by Daniel Miyares (Schwartz/Random)  

Coach by Jason Reynolds (Dlouhy/Atheneum) 

The Poisoned King by Katherine Rundell; illus. by Ashley Mackenzie (Knopf) 

Truth Is by Hannah V. Sawyerr (Amulet/Abrams)  

Just in Case by Megan Clendenan; illus. by Brittany Cicchese (Charlesbridge)  

A World Without Summer by Nicholas Day; illus. by Yas Imamura (Random House Studio/Random)  

Outside In and the Inside Out by Emmy Kastner (Viking) 

This Is Orange by Rachel Poliquin; illus. by Julie Morstad (Candlewick)