Review of Dance Fast, by A. R. Cribbins

Contemporary, Picture Book Review 0

Dance Fast

by AR Cribbins

Little, Brown and Company, 2024. 36 pages.
Review written June 9, 2025, from a library book.

This picture book has a lovely message about perfectionist that will speak to kids and adults alike.

A little girl named Bizzy tells the story. She wants to dance at this year’s ceremony and wants her own regalia. But her mother’s old dance dress is too big, so she plans to make her own regalia with her mom and grandma. She wants it to be perfect.

Bizzy has sewn pillows before. She’s confident in her skills. But then things go wrong, and she’s convinced her dress is ruined.

After some more trials and tribulations, her grandma shows her own dance regalia and explains:

Grandma says it’s the Pomo way to leave one little flaw in everything you make.

“And then we dance fast so no one sees where that part is!”

The book ends with Bizzy happily dancing, in a beautiful dress complete with flaws.

I love a book that speaks to children in a natural way about beauty in mistakes.

arcribbins.com
LBYR.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/dance_fast.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Rebellion 1776, by Laurie Halse Anderson

Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

Rebellion 1776

by Laurie Halse Anderson

Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2025. 416 pages.
Review written June 18, 2025, from an Advance Reader Copy sent by the publisher.
Starred Review

Here’s a side of the American Revolution I had never heard. We’ve got Elspeth, an ordinary girl living in Boston in 1776 and working as a maid. Her mother and brothers had died of smallpox in Philadelphia, so her father took the two of them to Boston, and he found her a position as a maid. The book opens as cannons are firing from both the British, under siege in Boston, and from the Patriots, trying to dislodge them.

The British and Loyalists are driven out, and Pappa plans to evacuate at the same time. Elspeth doesn’t want to go, so she hides overnight – but Pappa never shows up! Did he leave without her? Did something happen to him? While she’s trying to find him, to get in touch with him, Elspeth works for the family that replaced the loyalist judge she’d been serving. But her position is precarious as a girl without her father there to vouch for her.

And then smallpox comes to Boston. Elspeth has had it, but now folks are being inoculated – given a light dose of the disease – which is still a dose of the disease. And still takes months to run its course! (And I thought being sick for a day after a vaccination was bad.) And her good friend wants to enlist as a soldier. And the 16-year-old ward of the family she serves has independent ideas. And there are nefarious characters making use of wartime to enrich themselves.

The whole tale pulled me in and made me think about ordinary people during wartime – and how most folks simply want to live their lives. But world events can make that difficult.

It was a delight to read about Elspeth’s resourcefulness and courage as she holds on when it seems like she’s alone in the world.

madwomanintheforest.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/rebellion_1776.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Star Splitter, by Matthew J. Kirby

Science Fiction, Teen Fiction Review 0

Star Splitter

by Matthew J. Kirby
read by Jennifer Jill Araya and Cory Myler

Listening Library, 2023. 10 hours, 37 minutes.
Review written December 20, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.

I love the premise of this young adult science fiction story: In the future, humankind has figured out how to teleport to distant stars — by leaving our bodies behind. Specifically, they scan your “reference body” with a laser that destroys it at the same time. Then they send all your data — your consciousness and memories, along with all the specs of your physical body — and print you a new body in a distant location. This is a scary concept, and they have counselors and liaisons to help people adjust to the idea. Fortunately, the technology is wonderfully reliable and nothing ever goes wrong in transport. (There’s a set-up for you!)

As the book opens, one of the liaisons is thinking about a girl he prepared for teleportation named Jessica. She was the first person to ask if it hurts her reference body. She wasn’t happy that her parents had decided to send for her at their new assignment exploring a planet with a large volcano that had wiped out any previous life. They’d left Jessica behind six years ago, and now she’d rather be with her friends.

Next we see Jessica waking up on the alien planet, and something is very wrong. She’s in a body printer in a landing craft of the ship she was supposed to teleport to. The lander has crash-landed on the alien planet, and the first person she sees is — herself. For some unknown reason, the Jessica who teleported to the ship has printed another copy of herself with the data that got sent a few weeks before. (Something that’s definitely not supposed to ever happen.) Now they are the only two (one?) people on the planet.

So there’s a survival situation — they need to get to the habitat where their parents were supposed to be stationed and let the space agency know about the disaster and the people who died. Meanwhile, interspersed with the chapters on the planet, we get the story of what happened when the first version of Jessica teleported to the spaceship as planned.

I love the premise. And there’s some nice exploration about whether they will even get rescued or if the powers-that-be will simply print a new body for them back on earth. And how they feel about that. And which one of them? And if they use the earlier scan, what will happen to them?

The execution of the premise, for me, had some bumps in spots. Some of the things that went wrong and caused the disaster weren’t adequately explained, in my view. Some of the things they discovered on the alien planet were a little out there.

However, the way it was presented ratcheted up the suspense all the way, as you’re dying to know what actually happened and what choices they’ll make next.

The book reminded me of Neal Shusterman’s Scythe trilogy, because as with that series, death isn’t permanent, because they can fix you up with a new body and your old data. This would have taken place when the technology isn’t quite as developed, though, and people are still getting used to the idea that what makes you the person you are is not your reference body, but the data inside it.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/star_splitter.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Worth Fighting For, by John Pavlovitz

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Worth Fighting For

Finding Courage and Compassion When Cruelty Is Trending

by John Pavlovitz

Westminster John Knox Press, 2024. 154 pages.
Review written June 10, 2025, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review

I think of John Pavlovitz as someone who comes across as angry. However, even though this book features a picture of boxing gloves, it’s ultimately a book about making compassion our primary characteristic as Christians. And he indeed makes a strong case that this is worth fighting for.

The sections in this book are short, so it made an easy morning read to read one section. I found myself talking about what I’d read with other Christians, especially this passage:

What we believe about faith and God and the afterlife is not as fixed as we often like to think. It is rather an ever-shifting point in space and time. Very likely, you believe quite differently than you did ten years ago in both subtle and substantial ways, and ten years from now the same will almost certainly be true. In this way I like to think of theology as a place – as the specific location where you are right at this moment.

This is important as you interact with others, because it helps you recognize your limitations and potential. You cannot make someone be where you are. It’s not your job or your right to forcibly pull someone to your faith perspective, to make them see as you see or agree to the givens you’ve established in your mind. Your responsibility is to openly describe the view from where you stand and hope that something in that is helpful or encouraging or challenging to people. I never feel I need to convince someone to believe what I believe, only to let them know where I am and ask them to meet me there in relationship.

I love that perspective, because I hadn’t stopped to think about it, but, yes, my beliefs are quite different than they were ten years ago, in many ways. I think sometimes we feel like we’ve seen the light and been set straight in one particular area – so we want to set everyone else straight, too. But why would someone else have to follow the same path as me? John Pavlovitz comes at faith with a deep respect for each person’s journey with God – even of those who berate him.

Yes, John Pavlovitz often comes across as angry, but that seems to be coming from a place of compassion, for those who try to exclude others from the table.

He doesn’t pretend that it’s easy to be inclusive and welcoming. But compassion is worth fighting for.

Love is still the greatest weapon we have in the face of fear. It is still the antidote to all that afflicts us. No, opposing hatred isn’t hateful. Opposing hatred is how we embody love.

And he’s absolutely right that hatred and exclusion are becoming more and more common in our society. In the chapter “The Future We Want,” he includes a section on “The America Worth Fighting For” and encourages us to help make a future America that stands against white supremacy and defends the vulnerable. He encourages us all to use our own abilities to do what we can to make a better future.

Affirm life, speak truth, defend the vulnerable, call out injustices – and gladly brave the criticisms and the wounds you sustain in doing it, knowing that they are a small price to pay for the nation that could be if you speak – or the one that will be if you do not.

So that gives you an idea of what you’ll find in this book – encouragement to stand up and be more compassionate. Here’s another passage I marked:

Compassion is what defines the community we feel called into.

In this shared desire to care for one another and for this planet, we who are a disparate assembly find an affinity that transcends the other boxes. It is the bigger table we are building, the expansive community we are forming.

And this is the side we choose regardless of the other boxes: the side of empathy and equality and benevolence and diversity. These don’t come with a prerequisite doctrinal statement or political affiliation, nor with any condition regarding race or orientation or pigmentation. No group has a market cornered on such selflessness and decency.

The powerful thread knitting together this new chosen family in these days is humanity that gives a damn about other humanity. This is the place where like-hearted people can all find belonging and live fully and heal wounds and fix broken things.

And this compassionate coalition of those who give a damn is what will save the world.

johnpavlovitz.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/worth_fighting_for.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Brownstone, by Samuel Teer & Mar Julia

Contemporary, Graphic Novel, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Brownstone

by Samuel Teer & Mar Julia

Versify (HarperCollins), 2024. 318 pages.
Review written February 18, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
2025 Printz Award Winner
2025 Cybils Award Winner, Young Adult Graphic Novels

Brownstone is a graphic novel about an almost-fifteen-year-old girl named Almudena sent to spend the summer in New York City with the Guatemalan father she’s never met while her dancer mother does a European tour.

Almudena’s not happy about it. Her father doesn’t speak much English, and she doesn’t speak much Spanish. So the neighbor lady comes over to translate. Almudena’s not sure how she feels about that. The address is a brownstone that looks beautiful on the outside – but on the inside, her father is in the midst of renovating it.

This is a story of Almudena getting to know the neighborhood and the neighbors and learning about her Guatemalan heritage. She also bumps against some prejudice when she befriends a lesbian who runs the local bodega, and learns about gentrification when some of those neighbors have to move because of rising rent.

It’s all lovingly told, and I enjoyed getting to know Almudena’s new family, too.

We end up with social commentary in readable, interesting graphic novel form.

marjulia.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/brownstone.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Suddenly a Murder, by Lauren Muñoz

Contemporary, Mystery, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Suddenly a Murder

by Lauren Muñoz
read by Diana Bustelo

Listening Library, 2023. 9 hours, 16 minutes.
Review written October 30, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Suddenly a Murder is a murder mystery (no surprise there!) set in the stately home of Ashwood Manor on an island, where seven recent high school graduates are spending a week immersed in the 1920s.

We find out right at the beginning that Izzy brought a gold knife to the party and took it into Blaine’s bedroom not long before he was stabbed to death there. We also know she feels guilty. And doesn’t want the detectives to learn about any of those things.

Izzy’s the only one not from a wealthy family. She attended the private school because her mother is a teacher there. Since their Freshman year, she’s been best friends with Cassidy, who took her under her wing with a fierce loyalty. The party is Cassidy’s gift to Izzy, because both of them love the old murder mystery movie that was filmed in Ashwood Manor long ago. Cassidy makes sure that everyone gives up their cellphones and modern clothes, and she’s equipped all their bedrooms with 1920s costumes – as if they’re going back in time to an actual 1920s house party.

But naturally, murder wasn’t part of the plan. It’s Cassidy’s boyfriend who turns up dead. As the evidence comes out (with Izzy listening to police interviews from a hidden passage), we also get flashback chapters and find out that all the friends on the island had some motive or other to kill Blaine. But which one will the detectives decide is guilty?

I was a bit impatient starting out with these spoiled rich kids and their interpersonal drama, I’m afraid. But as the mystery went on, I did get pulled in, wanting to hear the denouement, which did, in fact, surprise me.

I like a nice cozy locked room (or isolated on an island) mystery, and this one’s fun because the suspects are all teens. This is a debut, and I very much hope the author will give us more well-crafted mysteries to enjoy.

laurenmunozbooks.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/suddenly_a_murder.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Beyond the Limit, by Joan Spicci

Fiction Review, Mathematical, Sonderbooks25, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Beyond the Limit

The Dream of Sofya Kovalevskaya

by Joan Spicci

Tom Doherty Associates (Forge), 2002. 490 pages.
Review written June 8, 2025, from my own copy.
Originial review written September 1, 2003.
Starred Review

I’m celebrating my 25th year of writing Sonderbooks with #Sonderbooks25. My plan was to reread one book from each year’s Sonderbooks Stand-outs and post about the process. Well, things got complicated because I couldn’t confine myself to that – but the fact remains that Beyond the Limit was the one book I chose from my 2003 Sonderbooks Stand-outs to reread. And I’m writing a new review, not because that one isn’t still valid, but to include a blog post and have a review in the new phone-friendly format, while reflecting on the book after a reread.

This is still my absolutely favorite novel about a mathematician. Okay, I haven’t read a lot of novels about mathematicians – but it’s still the book I bring up any time anyone asks about mathematical books for adults, and it’s always been included on my Sondermath page.

The crazy thing about this historical novel is that it’s all true. Joan Spicci learned Russian and translated books and letters by Sofya Kovalevskaya before writing this book – and then she put what she learned into a novel. And okay, it’s not a work of nonfiction and we can’t promise she got everybody’s motivations and words correct – but oh my goodness, it’s a compelling story. And checking the Wikipedia page suggests that all the big dramatic events of the story actually happened.

The story tells the quest of Sofya Kovalevskaya to be the first woman to get a doctorate in Math. She was born in 1850, and the book begins with her a teen in Russia, studying with tutors, but not allowed to go to university at all in Russia. And she can’t leave the country without permission from her father or a husband. So her sister and a group of friends start looking for a man who will enter into a fictitious marriage with one of them, intending to sponsor the other friends as well. They find Vladimir Kovalevsky, and he agrees to enter into such a marriage with Sofya – but realizing that a fictitious marriage was considered criminal sacrilege in Russia at the time. Vladimir himself was a scientist and a publisher, having published Darwin’s books in Russian.

And then the novel shows Sofya and Vladimir falling in love. But she doesn’t dare live as his actual wife, because if she were to get pregnant, that would end any chance for studying at a university. And she faces all kinds of prejudice anyway, eventually finding a mentor who has to tutor her privately in her PhD work.

But along the way, the historical backdrop is amazing. She goes with Vladimir to London and meets Darwin and his wife. And later, her sister gets involved in the Paris commune portrayed in Victor Hugo’s work, and Sofya herself gets involved working in the hospital in besieged Paris – and her sister and her husband get arrested. This was another thing that, if it were known, could have ended her academic career.

On this second reading, I got pretty annoyed with her sister. She scorned any idea of Sofya falling in love with Vladimir – and then later married a man for love herself. But the whole novel shows us Sofya trying to please her sister, no matter how her sister treats her.

The whole story is gripping and makes me appreciate my own education much more fully – and gets you cheering for Sofya and the many obstacles she faced simply to get to exercise her brilliant mind and do mathematics. I still highly recommend this amazing historical novel.

joanspicci.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/beyond_the_limit.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of When Alexander Graced the Table, by Alexander Smalls and Denene Millner, art by Frank Morrison

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

When Alexander Graced the Table

by Alexander Smalls and Denene Millner
with art by Frank Morrison

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2025. 36 pages.
Review written June 9, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

Here’s a gorgeous picture book telling about when chef Alexander Smalls made his first pie for his family’s Sunday dinner.

Every spread is lavishly illustrated, and we start out with a view of the hustle and bustle around Sunday dinners – the highlight of Alexander’s whole life.

His Mom and Dad and sisters and Papa and Grandma and Auntie and Uncle and cousins would all gather and enjoy them together.

The week may have been long and a little tough, but Sunday dinners meant family was there for you. They gave faith in tomorrow.

And then, one Saturday night, Alexander’s Mom gives him permission to make his own franks and beans – and they turn out delicious! But his father didn’t want any.

So – Alexander makes something special for Sunday dinner – especially to please his father. He uses graham crackers, sugar, butter, eggs, sweetened condensed milk, and lots and lots of lemons, fresh off the tree.

And then we have a wonderful figurative drum roll when Alexander graces the table with a pie he made all by himself.

There’s a close-up of his father’s face for the moment of truth.

The recipe is at the back of the book – with a note that it’s the first pie the chef ever made. Clearly the joy of making people happy led Alexander to his life’s work.

And this window on that inspiration will make you feel like you’re there.

alexandersmalls.com
denenemillner.com
morrisongraphics.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/when_alexander_graced_the_tables.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of The Moonlit Vine, by Elizabeth Santiago

Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Moonlit Vine

by Elizabeth Santiago

Tu Books (Lee & Low), 2023. 360 pages.
Review written November 6, 2023, from a book sent by the publisher
Starred Review

The Moonlit Vine is a contemporary story of Taína, a 14-year-old descendant of Taíno women from Puerto Rico, combined with the story of those ancestors and a touch of magical realism with an amulet and zemi they handed down to her.

In the present, Taína’s older brother was recently in trouble for fighting and has been sent to live with their father, who has been living apart from them since he was sent to jail a few years ago. Her mother is working hard, leaving it to Taína to care for her younger brother, 7-year-old Luis, and watch over their abuela with Alzheimer’s.

And then Taína gets in trouble herself at school when she speaks up for herself a little too forcefully. On top of that, there’s gang activity in her neighborhood and she can’t get a straight answer from her brother what happened between him and the friend she has a crush on.

Taína’s modern-day problems are interwoven with stories of the women who went before her, starting with a great cacique of the Taíno people, Anacaona, who welcomed Columbus and worked to protect her people. Anacaona was the one who created the contents of the box that has been handed down all the way to Taína’s abuela.

The story is beautifully done, pulling in themes of community and family and standing together for change. The light touch of magical realism gives us an image of her foremothers standing with Taína. There’s an impressive amount of back matter about the Taíno people, who are definitely not extinct. This author did her research!

leeandlow.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/moonlit_vine.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Beacon of Hope, written by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Tonya Engel

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review 0

Beacon of Hope

The Life of Barack Obama

written by Doreen Rappaport
illustrated by Tonya Engel

Little, Brown and Company, 2025. 44 pages.
Review written June 7, 2025, from a library book.

I love Doreen Rappaport’s picture book biographies. I’ve already reviewed Helen’s Big World about Helen Keller, Frederick’s Journey about Frederick Douglass, and To Dare Mighty Things about Theodore Roosevelt. All of them are in a large square format with the subject’s face done large on the cover with no title to interrupt. (These are the books I reach for when my library’s doing a “bookface” challenge!) There are always big, beautiful illustrations, and quotations from the biography subject highlighted on every spread.

I might not have chosen to review this particular biography, but my birthday is Flag Day, June 14th, and there’s another famous person who’s making a fuss for having that birthday – so folks on the internet have declared it Obama Appreciation Day. I can get behind that! So my plan is to post this review on my birthday – though it might be somewhat later if I’m too busy celebrating.

This biography of Barack Obama fits the winning pattern. It tells about his growing-up years in Hawaii and Indonesia, and how he developed a “hunger to make the world a better place.” There’s a lot leading up to his run for the presidency, and then a summary of his many accomplishments as president.

Reading this today is especially poignant:

Barack believed America’s greatest strength was the diversity of its people. More women and people of color were hired to work for his administration. He nominated Sonia Sotomayor as the first Latinx Supreme Court Justice and nominated Elena Kagan to be the fourth woman justice. He supported same-sex marriage and the rights of LGBTQ Americans to serve in the country’s armed forces.

It ends with a quotation that we can take hope in today:

I am the eternal optimist. I think that over time people respond to civility and rational arguments.

May we get a president like that again some day.

doreenrappaport.com
tonyaengelart.com
LBYR.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/beacon_of_hope.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?