The Wild Robot is one of my top ten favorite books of all time, so I was a bit timid going into book 2.  While I knew I would enjoy The Wild Robot Escapes, I didn’t think it could possibly be AS lovely, AS thoughtful, AS insightful as the first book.  I was mistaken.  The Wild Robot Escapes echoes its predecessor as a seemingly simple story with a great deal to say about our world.

We follow our heroine, Roz, as she attempts to return to her friends and family after being taken away from them by the corporation that built her.  She must, yet again, learn to adapt to her circumstances to win the hearts of her new companions, hoping they will help her in her quest.  Peter Brown introduces a myriad of new characters in this new book, some of whom—for the first time!—are human.  Though our setting and cast of characters are drastically different than they were in book one, we are exploring deeper the emotions, instincts, and morals set up by that first book; the exploration of humanness may be portrayed through new characters, but the message of love and acceptance rings just as true as it always has.

Classically written and dusted with beautiful illustrations, The Wild Robot Escapes is a truly wonderful follow-up to a deeply moving first book.

I was lucky to snag an advance copy of this book (read: shamelessly begged a friend at Penguin for it), which comes out in May. Any novel that’s compared to Veronica Mars and The Craft is pretty much guaranteed to be up my alley, and it did not disappoint. Here’s the basic premise: Mila’s best friend Riley has died under suspicious circumstances, and Mila is determined to figure out what happened to her. So she decides to cast a powerful spell that will bring Riley back to life. One problem, though—Mila also accidentally resurrects two mean girls from their school who died the week before Riley in an apparent suicide pact. All four girls must band together to solve the mystery of their deaths before the spell wears off.

I knew I was going to be pulled in by the core friendship at the heart of the story—I love stories driven by relationships that aren’t necessarily romantic, though there is a helluva romance in this story, too—but I did not expect to be utterly charmed by Mila’s developing relationship with June and Dayton, the mean girls Mila accidentally resurrected along with Riley. They could have easily come off as two dimensional characters next to Riley and Mila, but the author takes care to really flesh them out (zombie pun?), and it was their bond that made me tear up by the end of the novel. Mila also just has an incredible voice full of hilarious snark and a walloping emotional vulnerability—I absolutely fell in love with her. More fat Latinx witches in YA fiction, please!! I raced through this novel in one sitting because a) I had to know who the killer was, and b) I could not stop spending time with these girls. Trust me, you’ll want to join their gang, too. (But maybe without the undead part.) Put this one on your radar!

Intrigued by the title, The Book of Mistakes, I picked up this book and was struck by the simply put yet profound message that success can come from making mistakes. Corinna Luyken illustrates an artist, drawing a girl, who makes one eye bigger than the other. She tries to fix her mistake by making the other eye a little bigger, but it ends up being even bigger than the other. The artist then draws a pair of glasses over the uneven eyes, which works like a charm. As the story progresses, more mistakes are made and the artists finds even more creative ways to correct them. Readers will come away with an important lesson: making mistakes is normal and nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, mistakes often make us even better than we were before.

Aside from the lesson, The Book of Mistakes showcases Luyken’s quirky yet striking artwork. I loved how the design of the book started with a lot of white space with black sketch-like drawings then filled up with captivating drawings laced with splashes of colors. This is a beautiful debut novel that both children and parents can learn from and love for years to come. I look forward to seeing what Luyken comes up with next!