Review of The Witch’s Heart, by Genevieve Gornichec

Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Witch’s Heart

by Genevieve Gornichec
read by Jayne Entwistle

Penguin Audio, 2021. 12 hours, 5 minutes.
Review written July 23, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I put this audiobook on hold because of how much I loved the author’s later-written book, The Weaver and the Witch Queen. This was also set in old Norway, but this time we got the old Norse myths of Asgard, as seen through the eyes of a witch who was involved in so many of the great events.

The book starts after Angrboda has been burned by the gods a third time – this time because she wouldn’t use her power to tell Odin the future, about Ragnarok. But as she’s reawakening, Loki, another from the race of giants, but blood brother to Odin, brings her back her heart.

Angrboda lives hidden from the gods. Her reinserted heart falls in love with Loki and she becomes his wife, even though he goes back to Asgard from time to time. And after one of his tricks gone wrong, the gods force him to take a wife there, or so Loki says. So he divides his time between the two families.

The book covers most of the stories of Norse mythology covered in Neil Gaiman’s book by that name, so I was prepared for their strangeness. This was a far more personal look at them, through the eyes of Angrboda, in love with Loki despite how her friend Skadi the Huntress feels that Angrboda’s husband should be around more often.

The strangeness gets even greater when Angrboda gives birth to three children of Loki who are by no means ordinary. But Angrboda loves them, and any who would dare call them monsters will have to deal with her. But then her visions of the future also show her children involved in Ragnarok.

That feels like a poor summary, because the story is immersive and evocative. Yes, it’s also strange, but we come to care about this ancient witch and root for her to outwit the gods and protect those she loves.

genevievegornichec.com

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Review of Yulu’s Linen, by Cao Wenxuan, illustrated by Suzy Lee

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Yulu’s Linen

by Cao Wenxuan
translated by Helen Wang
illustrated by Suzy Lee

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2026. 44 pages. Originally published in South Korea in 2020.
Review written September 30, 2026, from my own copy, sent to me by the publisher.
Starred Review

My favorite thing about this picture book is the luxurious feel of its pages. Let me explain:

Yulu’s Linen is about an eight-year-old girl who has been encouraged in her love for art since she was small. Her own father wanted to be an artist, but opened a fabric shop instead. He has gotten tutors and famous artists to teach Yulu, and now she is ready to make her first self-portrait.

When they go to the art store, the shopkeeper shows them a piece of the highest-grade canvas, already cut to portrait size.

It’s yu-lu-ma – rain-dew linen,” said the shopkeeper.

It was Yulu’s turn to smile. “That’s my name.”

The shopkeeper fetched the piece of rain-dew linen.

Yulu stroked it gently. “Dad, I like this one,” she said.

The canvas was originally ordered by a master in oil painting, but he moved away before picking it up.

Yulu happily takes the canvas home. She’s a little afraid to start painting, but she spends a week painting, and her parents are so happy with it, they invite their friends and Yulu’s art teacher to come see it.

But in the night, the paint runs and the painting is a mess.

Yulu does seven more tries, trying various things. Her mother throws away the canvas at one point, but Yuli recovers it. She’s determined. Apparently the canvas doesn’t want to be the background for a beginner.

With every try, Yuli drapes one of her father’s beautiful fabrics over the painting. But the final time, she tries something different.

And through the whole book, we only see the ruined paintings – until the final page, when Yulu’s self-portrait is smiling back at us.

This is an odd story. I’m not sure it has a message except persistence. But the art is beautiful and varied – with different angles on the painting and the characters in each scene. And the paper! I couldn’t find a note on what kind of paper they used, but it feels like linen, with even a feeling of a weave on the pages. The cover, too, is made of this luxurious high-fabric-content paper. It’s the perfect accompaniment to this story. I kept running my hands along the pages, and was haunted (in a good way) by the story when I closed the book.

It’s too bad this book isn’t eligible for the Caldecott Medal, but it should be eligible for the Batchelder Award, given to translated books originally published in another country. I’d love to see it on the list in January!

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Review of Birdy, by N. West Moss

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 2

Birdy

by N. West Moss
illustrations by Carrie Shyrock

Christy Ottaviano Books (Little, Brown and Company), 2026. 282 pages.
Review written October 9, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

First, a great big thank you to Colby Sharp. His heartfelt recommendation was what got me to check this book out again and put it on the top of my pile of books to be read this time.

And this is a heart-warmer and an eye-mister. The story follows the tradition of classics Anne of Green Gables, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, and Pollyanna but with a modern update. As the book opens, newly orphaned eleven-year-old Birdy and her little brother Mouse are going from New York City (where they’d been staying with a neighbor since their mother’s funeral) to live with an elderly couple in the country. The social worker has said this will only be for six months, on a trial basis, so of course their fate is hanging in the air the whole time.

This couple is related somehow, but Birdy (whose real name is May) doesn’t know quite how. They arrive on the day the man, who goes by Shadow, has broken his foot, and his wife Mitzi is in a flutter about it. But she welcomes the kids and they start getting to know their new environment.

Birdy is deeply shy and has learned how to not be noticed. But that strategy doesn’t work in some of the new situations she faces. And then the kids’ Uncle Clay turns up – their mother’s little brother they didn’t even know she had. He brings a pet raccoon and a goat and he’s only planning to stay a couple weeks. So Birdy is afraid to get too close.

Is there some neurodivergence going on with Birdy? Possibly. Or maybe she’s a kid who’s recently gotten through traumatic events just trying to protect her heart from more loss.

It’s all exquisitely told from Birdy’s perspective. I agree with Colby Sharp – This book has Newbery potential, and whether or not it gets recognition that way, I recommend experiencing it for yourself. These characters will win your heart.

nwestmoss.com
christyottavianobooks.com
lbyr.com

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Review of Jesus: A Pilgrimage, by James Martin, SJ

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

coverJesus

A Pilgrimage

by James Martin, SJ

HarperOne, 2014. 538 pages.
Review written June 6, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

Jesus: A Pilgrimage is the story of Jesus’ life as told in the gospels, but seen through the lens of Fr. Martin’s trip to the Holy Land. This makes it a beautifully personal way of looking at the stories.

I know a lot about Jesus’ life – I’ve actually memorized all four gospels. But this book was packed with new insights gleaned from the author being in the actual places where the events occurred. At the same time, I think it would give anyone new to the gospel story an introduction that would draw them in. I’d love to go through this book with my church small group, but the catch is that it’s much longer than most books we use. So I’d probably want to start in the Fall and use it the entire year – but we have already selected a book for next Fall, so we’ll see.

James Martin is a Jesuit priest. I’m not sure how I found this book, but I’ve read some of his others, so I was probably checking if our library had any more books by him and found it. I’m also reading his book Work in Progress that was published this year, so maybe searching for it, I found this one. But however it happened, I have been riveted by this book – mostly telling a tale I already know, but full of the stories of what are in the sites now and what it looks and feels like to be there.

He tells about the places and events in the order they happened in Jesus’ life, not in the order he visited them. So after explaining how he happened to spend time in the Holy Land, he begins with the Annunciation to Mary that she would have a baby – which happened in Nazareth. He ends with the place where Jesus ascended into heaven – or at least where tradition says it happened.

In the Introduction, he explains that this isn’t a scholarly book or a book of theology.

So what is this book?

It is a look at Jesus, as he appears in the Gospels, through the lens of my education, experience, prayer, and most recently a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. And through the lens of faith.

He explains his basic approach, as well as how personal it all is.

As we arrive at significant “places” in Jesus’s life, I’ll share stories of what I saw at those sites during my pilgrimage. In this way I hope to bring you into that trip as I experienced it. Also, I’ll offer reflections on what particular episodes in Jesus’s life might have to say to us today.

Each chapter, then, will include some travel narrative, some study of the text, and some spiritual reflection. At the end of the chapters I will include the corresponding Gospel passages, to encourage you to experience these parts of the Bible for yourself.

As someone who already loves Jesus, I feel like Fr. Martin succeeded in bringing me along on his pilgrimage and deepening that love. As he puts it:

So I would like to invite you to meet the Jesus you already may know, but in a new way. Or, if you don’t know much about Jesus, I would like to introduce him to you. Overall, I would like to introduce you to the Jesus I know, and love, the person at the center of my life.

I believe he succeeds in this goal, and I highly recommend this book.

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Review of Rose Daughter, by Robin McKinley

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Old Favorites, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 2

Rose Daughter

by Robin McKinley
read by Bianca Amato

Recorded Books, 2015. 12 hours, 47 minutes.
Review written September 11, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I’ve been rereading (or listening to) Robin McKinley old favorites because they came up in my #Sonderbooks25 celebration of 25 years of writing Sonderbooks – when I also realized that there are several that I read before I started Sonderbooks, so they don’t have a review.

Rose Daughter is Robin McKinley’s second retelling of the fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast.” I like Beauty, the first retelling, a little better because it is shorter and has more of a fairy tale feel. But both versions are wonderful.

I do love that in both books, Beauty comes from a loving and happy family. Yes, Beauty’s sisters pull her away from the Beast at a crucial time, but it’s because of their great love for one another.

In Rose Daughter, Beauty is a gifted gardener. But she has never seen roses, which can only be grown by sorcery or love. So when there are thorny bushes all over the cottage deep in the woods that the family inherits from an unknown old woman, she doesn’t recognize them until they burst into bloom.

The Beast also has a rose garden, but his garden is dying. When Beauty comes to stay in his palace, she gains a task to revive the roses, and she thinks that’s the reason he brought her to his realm.

This book twists the ending a bit, similar to what happens in Spindle’s End, but from start to finish you’ve got Robin McKinley’s magic spinning a world where love makes roses bloom.

robinmckinley.com

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Review of The Music Inside Us, written by James Howe, illustrated by Jack Wong

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Music Inside Us

Yo-Yo Ma and His Gifts to the World

written by James Howe
illustrated by Jack Wong

Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2025. 48 pages.
Review written March 24, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

The Music Inside Us is a picture book biography of cellist Yo-Yo Ma, which makes it a wonderful book even if it were an ordinary one.

Yo-Yo Ma began playing the cello as a four-year-old in Paris. The book shows him playfully enjoying music even as a small child. His family moved to New York City when he was seven and got him world-class teachers. He and his sister performed for large audiences even when they were very young.

But this book is special because it goes deeper. It talks about his quest to learn technique to make his cello sing. It talks about his questions of identity as a teen when he wondered if he was really meant to be a cellist.

In college, Yo-Yo studied anthropology and discovered that every group of people in the world makes music.

Yo-Yo decided that he would spend his life not only performing for others,
but learning from others about their musical traditions
and finding ways to bring cultures together through the music they make.

The book shows him connecting with people from all over the world, as well as with children.

I like the way the book finishes up with questions for the reader:

We are all born with gifts inside us,
our own music inside us.

And we can all ask the same kinds of questions
Yo-Yo Ma has never stopped asking.

Who am I?
Who are we?

How can we use the gifts inside us
to bring people harmony and joy
and make the world a better place
because we have been here?

jameshowe.com
jackwong.ca
abramsbooks.com

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Review of The Duck Can’t Sleep, by E. B. White, art by Melissa Sweet

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

The Duck Can’t Sleep

by E. B. White
foreword by Martha White
art by Melissa Sweet

Quill Tree Books, 2026. 44 pages.
Review written October 5, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

This little picture book is published for children, and I think children will like it, but in many ways its true audience is thoughtful adults who have ever experienced insomnia.

The text of the book is a poem that E. B. White published in The New Yorker when he was a young writer living in the city. His granddaughter writes in the foreword that he often went for a walk around the Central Park reservoir when he had something to think through.

This book tells about one of those strolls that happened at midnight – when he also found a duck awake and swimming around.

He has fun thinking about why the duck is up and about so late.

I wondered if he’d left his kind
Because of something on his mind.
A midnight sail to clear his vision
And help him reach some duck decision.

Eventually, he concludes that the duck simply can’t sleep. But the fun is in getting there.

And the illustrations by Melissa Sweet are what make this book pop. She’s poured love into them (see her picture book biography of E. B. White, Some Writer!), and each page is a beautiful work of art. The poem is simple and basically in a single setting, but she puts different angles and backgrounds on each page. I like the way you can tell it’s happening at night, but the subjects (duck and man) are lit up.

Will kids love it as much as I do? Try it out on your kids and tell me in the comments!

melissasweet.net

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Review of Thornhedge, by T. Kingfisher

Audiobooks, Fairy Tale Variant, Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Thornhedge

by T. Kingfisher
read by Jennifer Blom

Macmillan Audio, 2023. 3 hours, 43 minutes.
Review written April 28, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2024 Hugo Award Winner
2024 Locus Award Winner

What if the beautiful princess sleeping in the tower absolutely should not be woken?

This delightful and immersive novella is narrated by Toadling. Toadling was born human, a princess even, but when she was only an hour old, fairies stole her from her crib and replaced her with a changeling. She was brought up by loving water sprites. She learned magic from them, took on many of their characteristics, and can turn into a toad at will.

We first meet her watching over a tower for hundreds of years, hoping against hope that humans have stopped telling stories about it and that the thick thorn hedge and the brambles she set about it will keep all humans away.

But then, after years of quiet, a poor rundown Muslim knight comes and camps near the thorn hedge. He has read about a princess in the tower, and his curiosity compels him to find out if it’s true. But then he meets Toadling and becomes the first person to speak to her in hundreds of years – and he won’t be warned away.

As Toadling deals with this unexpected and hard-to-dissuade intruder, we learn more about her story and why she’s guarding the tower. And we, too, come to hope that the princess will not be woken.

Yes, there’s some danger and darkness in the middle of this tale, but we come to love the characters and the way it wraps up in the end is absolutely perfect. This is a tale to treasure.

redwombatstudio.com

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Review of The Bats on the Bus, by Alison Jackson, illustrated by Scott Magoon

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

The Bats on the Bus

by Alison Jackson
illustrated by Scott Magoon

Christy Ottaviano Books (Little, Brown and Company), 2026. 40 pages.
Review written August 17, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

This book makes me want to do a library story time again! And specifically, a story time for Halloween.

The idea is simple, and the execution is classic. We begin with:

The Bats on the bus hang
UPSIDE DOWN,
UPSIDE DOWN,
UPSIDE DOWN.

The Bats on the bus
hang UPSIDE DOWN . . .

All around the town.

Are you able to read that without singing it? I wasn’t.

Next, the Ghosts on the bus shout BOO! BOO! BOO! The Witches on the bus scream WHERE’S MY BROOM? The Giants on the bus stomp UP AND DOWN! And so on.

It ends when the Children on the bus yell TRICK OR TREAT! They lift their masks and we see that all the scary creatures on the bus were children in masks headed to a Fright Fest. (Well, except those bats hanging upside down.)

This book has all the elements of a Story Time Hit.

scottmagoon.com
alison-jackson.com

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Review of Jesus and John Wayne, by Kristin Kobes Du Mez

Christian, History, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

Jesus and John Wayne

How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

by Kristin Kobes Du Mez

Liveright Publishing, 2020. 356 pages.
Review written September 25, 2026, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com.
Starred Review

I don’t remember which of many recommendations prompted me to order my own copy of Jesus and John Wayne right around the time it first came out, but I know there were many, and I was happy to order it. Once I had it, I’m afraid it competed with the library books I had checked out, but didn’t have a due date. (This is something I often have to contend with.) This is also a history book, and a little dense. Yes, it’s a history of what Christians were doing, but it didn’t seem right for devotional reading, which often jumps to the top of my queue.

But then after my proposal was accepted and I got to be a co-creator at Wild Goose Festival, I saw that Kristin Du Mez was going to be there, too! And her new book, Live Laugh Love sounded similar, but talking more about “Christian femininity” than the focus on masculinity in Jesus and John Wayne. So I preordered the new book, and decided I really should get the old one read before the festival.

Well, I was halfway through Jesus and John Wayne when I went to Wild Goose Festival and got to hear the author speak twice. She talked about both books, and now I’m all the more eager to read the next one, which arrived on the publication date this week.

This is a history book about white evangelicalism in America, and how the movement got carried away with the idea of rugged masculinity epitomized by John Wayne.

The book starts with the early twentieth century and looks at people like Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, and John Wayne. It finishes in 2020 and Donald Trump – who got support from 80% of white evangelicals.

Along the way, we see a turn toward rugged masculinity as the way God designed men and complementarianism as God’s plan for marriage, and overall structures of authoritarianism as God’s design for society.

I grew up pretty deep in evangelical circles. I attended Christian schools through college (I was a little disappointed that my alma mater, Biola University, wasn’t mentioned.), and went to Bill Gothard’s Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts seminars before I was even a teen.

However, I got more and more progressive in my politics after college, and from 1996 to 2006, lived in Germany with my husband in the military – and thus completely missed the rise of Fox News and some of these other developments. Reading this book was fascinating to me, because so much was familiar, yet a lot I hadn’t noticed at all.

Another interesting thing to me was that while I was physically reading this book, a chapter at a time, I was listening to the audiobook version of Ibram X. Kendi’s latest book, Chain of Ideas, about right-wing political parties all over the globe. There were times when I was listening that I thought, “Yeah, they just mentioned that” – and I realized, no, I’d read about it in the other book (or vice versa).

This book also dovetails well with Sheila Wray Gregoire’s writings on marriage and Marissa Franks Burt’s writings on parenting, because both marriage and parenting are affected by the developing teaching that men are to be authority figures in the church and in the home.

It’s also interesting reading for me as someone coming out of evangelicalism, having my eyes opened to some trends I went along with and didn’t see. Sheila Wray Gregoire had already opened my eyes about books like Love and Respect, but this book helped me notice the militaristic background to John Eldredge’s writings that had blown right past me.

Back in 2016, I was incredulous that the same folks who told me that Bill Clinton should not be president because of his immorality were now supporting Donald Trump, who bragged about “not even asking” women before he sexually assaulted them. This book helped me understand the way the culture of evangelicalism and all its trends slowly changed so that Donald Trump epitomized exactly what people were looking for.

At Wild Goose Festival, the author explained that her editor told her she had to end on a hopeful note, but she had trouble coming up with anything. Here’s how the book finishes:

Although the evangelical cult of masculinity stretches back decades, its emergence was never inevitable. Over the years it has been embraced, amplified, challenged, and resisted. Evangelical men themselves have promoted alternative models, elevating gentleness and self-control, a commitment to peace, and a divestment of power as expressions of authentic Christian manhood. Yet, understanding the catalyzing role militant Christian masculinity has played over the past half century is critical to understanding American evangelicalism today, and the nation’s fractured political landscape. Appreciating how this ideology developed over time is also essential for those who wish to dismantle it. What was once done might also be undone.

You’ll find detailed, well-researched history here, supported with 32 pages of small-print citations at the back. As someone who grew up in that world, I gained wider understanding of how it morphed to what it is today. I can’t wait to read her next book, focusing on women!

kristindumez.com

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