Five questions for Julie Berry
If Looks Could Kill by Julie Berry; Simon.   

Mythical and magical
Chaos King by Kacen Callender; Tor Teen. 
Defanged by H.E. Edgmon; Feiwel. 
The Scorpion Queen by Mina Fears; Flatiron.
The Poisoned King by Katherine Rundell, illus. by Ashley Mackenzie; Knopf.

Good sports
The Big Splash by Angela Ahn, illus. by Julie Kim; Tundra.  
The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze by Derrick Barnes; Viking. 
Goalkeeper by Edward Bloor; Clarion/HarperCollins.   
The Strongest Heart by Saadia Faruqi; Quill Tree/HarperCollins.
Coach by Jason Reynolds; Dlouhy/Atheneum. 
Biggest Fake in the Universe by Johan Rundberg; trans. from Swedish by Eva Apelqvist; Amazon Crossing Kids.
El Niño by Pam Muñoz Ryan; illus. by Joe Cepeda; Scholastic. 

Where Mother Nature and human nature meet
A Gift of Dust: How Saharan Plumes Feed the Planet by Martha Brockenbrough, illus. by Juana Martinez-Neal; Knopf. 
Just in Case: Saving Seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault by Megan Clendenan, illus. by Brittany Cicchese; Charlesbridge. 
Hurricane by Jason Chin; Porter/Holiday.
We Carry the Sun by Tae Keller, illus. by Rachel Wada; Norton. 
The Eclipse of 1919: How Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity Changed Our World by Emily Arnold McCully; Ottaviano/Little, Brown.   
Wonder Why by Lisa Varchol Perron, illus. by Nik Henderson; Harper/HarperCollins.

From the October 2025 issue of Notes from the Horn Book.