The settings of beleaguered townspeople duped into surrendering their youngest child to a bad witch in the woods; the tower of knowledge that was actually a prison; and a good witch’s home deep in the woods, were all vivid. A baby girl accidentally got supercharged with moonlight, forcing a grandmotherly witch to adopt Luna to control the effects of too much magic. Very imaginative, with wonderful characters and settings.

Hello Universe, Erin Entrada Kelly’s 2018 winner, started with painfully shy, 11 year-old Virgil and his Venezuelan-American family, a bully and other school mates. It’s an original story with Virgil getting stuck at the bottom of a well where the bully had tossed Virgil’s back pack, not knowing that it held Virgil’s best bud, a hamster. Lots of twists, turns and a happy ending.

I enjoyed Merci Suarez Changes Gears, Meg Medina’s 2019 winner, when I first read it, but it shook me up that since then, I’ve known several people upended from dementia or Alzheimer's. Everything about how a Cuban-American family in Florida struggled with their beloved grandfather’s illness felt messy and raw. As for Jerry Craft’s 2020 winner, New Kid, I devoured the story and graphics the first time and appreciated it’s honesty about race, class, family and friendships just as much the second time.

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