Review of The Last Dragon on Mars, by Scott Reintgen

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Science Fiction, Starred Review 0

The Last Dragon on Mars

by Scott Reintgen
read by Landon Woodson

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2024. 9 hours, 10 minutes.
Review written October 13, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

The Last Dragon on Mars is the first in a trilogy about spaceships powered by dragons, featuring a crew made up of thirteen-year-old humans.

As the book opens, we meet Lunar Jones, an orphan who lives on a relocation center in Mars and takes care of the other kids there by working as a scrapper – when a storm goes through, he goes out into the wastes to dig up scrap metal to sell.

That first mission doesn’t go well (though we get to experience all the drama of the attempt), and Lunar takes refuge in a military zone, because the likelihood of being killed there is still less than the certainty of being killed by the other scrappers who are stealing the prize he found.

But in the military zone, Lunar follows some tunnels and discovers a massive underground habitat – and a dragon nobody on Mars knew about.

When the military folks in charge of the hidden base try to kill him (because of course they do), the dragon stops them – he’s chosen Lunar as his dragoon.

But not everyone wants there to be another dragon. The dragon is young, and the kids who were selected and brought up to train with him are about Lunar’s age, all young teens. The man in charge who arranged all this (except the part about Lunar joining them) has reason to believe dragons on other planets may not be happy to hear about another dragon on Mars.

It’s not giving anything away to say that Lunar and his new friends end up flying on a dragonship with their lives at stake.

I won’t even try to explain the whole world-building with a dragon for each planet and each moon and star. But it’s all built smoothly, with no lull in the action – we learn details because lives are at stake. And it adds up to battles in space with spaceships powered by dragons. What could be better?

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Review of Why Did Jesus Have to Die? by Adam Hamilton

Christmas, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Why Did Jesus Have to Die?

The Meaning of the Crucifixion

by Adam Hamilton

Abingdon Press, 2025. 121 pages.
Review written April 28, 2026, from my own copy, ordered via Amazon.com.
Starred Review

I’ve read several books about the meaning of the crucifixion, and especially offering alternatives to the penal substitutionary theory of the atonement. Some stand-outs include Did God Kill Jesus?, by Tony Jones; A More Christlike God, by Bradley Jersak; Creation and the Cross, by Elizabeth Johnson; and Lamb of the Free, by Andrew Rillera. My personal favorite by far is still Lamb of the Free, but I have to admit that it’s written with super academic language, pretty much directed at scholars and other Bible nerds. Its point is understanding the entire sacrificial system in Scripture, and a side effect of that understanding is showing that the penal substitutionary theory simply doesn’t fit.

However, much as I love Lamb of the Free, it’s pretty clear that this new book by Adam Hamilton is much less intimidating for your average Christian to pick up to better understand Christ’s death. It would work much better for going through with a small group, and it’s even in six chapters – pretty much asking to be a study during the season of Lent.

He is also not at all combative about atonement theories. He’s not looking to get you to reject one and choose another that you like better. He does cover penal substitution theory and the questions it brings up. Rather than outright rejecting it, he asks what can we learn from it?

This is his overall approach to all the theories, and I find it refreshing. Looking at the prologue to the Gospel of John, where Jesus is described as the Word, the Logos, he explains how that lens can change our view:

If we begin by seeing the Crucifixion and the atonement through the lens of John’s prologue, then we can recognize that Jesus’ death is not primarily a transaction, mechanism, or formula – it is not a divine quid pro quo where one thing automatically results in another (Jesus’ death procures our forgiveness, for instance). Instead, the Crucifixion is first and foremost a Word or message from God. This Word has the power to save, to deliver, to rescue, to redeem, to forgive, to heal, to inspire, and to love. It is intended to move us, to change us, to open our eyes and our hearts, to transform us, and to heal us and the world. We might call this the Logos theory of the atonement or simply refer to the Crucifixion as God’s Word.

When we understand this, our question changes from “How does the Crucifixion work?” to “What is God seeking to say to us through the Crucifixion?” Paul notes, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are being destroyed. But it is the power of God for those of us who are being saved” (I Corinthians 1:18, emphasis added). It is the message of the cross – God’s Word to us through the cross – that has the power to save. Each of the various metaphors used in the New Testament, and each of the different popular atonement theories in the church, are ways the disciples, and believers ever since, have heard God speaking through the cross. Each captures a different dimension of this Word. The focus is not understanding a mechanism, but rather hearing and accepting God’s Word of redemption, forgiveness, and love.

In the chapter on the penal substitution theory, he elaborates on this:

In moving away from seeing the Crucifixion as a formula or equation, but instead as God’s message to us, Christ’s death is not something God needed in order to forgive us, but something we needed in order to understand and accept that we are forgiven. In seeing the Crucifixion as God’s Word, we see God demonstrating the pain he himself experiences as a result of human sin but also the lengths to which he is willing to go to save us from it.

At this point, let me say that I don’t like the title of this book. I’ve heard this question myself – but always from people who have been taught that the penal substitution theory of the atonement is the very definition of the gospel – and that Jesus had to die in order for God to forgive us. Implied in the question is, “If Jesus didn’t have to die for God to forgive us, then why did he have to die?”

God forgave humans long before Jesus’ death! Read Psalm 103 if you don’t believe me. The Hebrew Bible is full of statements declaring God to be compassionate and gracious and forgiving sins. So I strongly believe that Jesus did not have to die in order for God to forgive us.

Adam Hamilton does take this up in the Postscript to the book, and says he considered calling it instead, Did Jesus Have to Die?. He shows many places where it is clear that Jesus could have turned away from the cross, and that he laid down his own life rather than having it taken from him.

Jesus didn’t have to die. While his death was a result of opposition and injustice he faced, it was more than that. He believed his death would accomplish God’s purposes, purposes we have described in the previous chapters and perhaps others. For these reasons Jesus chose to submit to a horrible death. He believed that through it, he would change the world. This is captured in the words he spoke shortly before his death. “‘When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to me.’ (He said this to show how he was going to die)” (John 12:32-33).

So Adam Hamilton does discuss several theories of the atonement – including New Covenant, Redemption, Moral Influence, and Christus Victor. But it’s important to him to look at them as metaphors rather than mechanisms.

The New Testament authors used metaphors and analogies to describe the significance of Jesus’ death. These were drawn from Scripture as well as legal, economic, relational, and battlefield images, to name just a few. But at times we confuse the metaphors for mechanisms and, instead of hearing them as analogies helping to explain the meaning of the Crucifixion, we read them literally as though they describe processes and transactions and formulas for how the cross “works.” It is the nature of metaphors and analogies that they break down when pressed too far or taken too literally.

The beauty of this book is that Adam Hamilton doesn’t try to show us which is the “correct” theory of the atonement. Instead, he guides us to see beauty and meaning in each one.

As I’ve noted, the use of these various metaphors, ten of which I’ve included in this book, is more like poetry than physics, more like art than algebra. This is why I’ve suggested that when we read the New Testament’s various “atonement theories” we’re meant to ask not, How does Jesus’ crucifixion work? but instead, What does it mean? What is it God is trying to say to us?

Added October 23, 2026: I wrote the above review before I knew that Adam Hamilton is running for United States Senate in Kansas. I think it bodes well for a lawmaker to be able to find good out of multiple atonement theories. Where I figure out “which one I agree with” – he shows us beauty in each one. I think that’s a good thing for someone who wants to represent all the people of his state.

AdamHamilton.com
AbingdonPress.com

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Review of The Fall of Iris Henley, by Jennifer Graham

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Mystery, Starred Review, Suspense, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Fall of Iris Henley

by Jennifer Graham
read by Eva Kaminsky

Macmillan Audio, 2026. 8 hours, 32 minutes.
Review written October 20, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I put this audiobook on hold because it was very popular with our library customers, and it turns out that was a good tip. The Fall of Iris Henley is about a senior in high school who’s top girl on her cheer squad – the top of the pyramids and a flyer who does tricks in the air, caught by her squadmates.

But this year, their football team isn’t starting out in great form. They’ve lost a star player, Rocky, who was Iris’s boyfriend, and the cheer squad has lost the former top girl, Lynette, who had been Iris’s best friend. They were found together, dead, with the gun in Rocky’s hand. They’d been sleeping together behind Iris’s back, but nobody knew why Rocky would have killed them both.

And then an anonymous poster on their school’s private social media app comes up with a new theory – Iris did it. And that theory gains traction throughout the school. At first, her cheer team backs her up and sticks by her side, but something happens to challenge even their loyalty.

Iris was at a cheer sleepover the night in question, so she should have an alibi. Trouble is, after Rocky accidentally sent her a text that she knew was meant for some other girl, Iris got so drunk, she has no memory of the rest of the night.

The book is filled with cyberbullies and real-life bullies, constant questions for Iris about whom she can trust, and of course a conclusion filled with danger. Gripping suspense right from the beginning that feels all too realistic as cyberbullying gets way out of hand.

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Review of Words to My Life’s Song, by Ashley Bryan

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Words to My Life’s Song

by Ashley Bryan
with photographs by Bill Meguinness

Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2009. 58 pages.
Review written September 23, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

What a beautiful book!

At the library, we don’t hold onto a lot of nonfiction books that are 17 years old. They are usually out of date and getting worn. So I was surprised when someone flagged this book as something we needed more copies of – and that it was listed as Essential for library collections in the Wilson Core data base we use to check things like that. Once I decided they were right, and we probably should get more copies, I was also surprised that the book is still in print. I am familiar with some of Ashley Bryan’s books, so I decided I needed to take a look at this one, too.

In this book, Ashley Bryan tells the story of his life, and how he grew up making art. On the lefthand pages, he walks the reader through the island in Maine where he makes his home now (well, in 2009), with photographs of the beautiful surroundings. On the righthand pages, he tells about how he got his start and then progressed as an artist. Plenty of photographs for that, too.

This isn’t a strict division – the book is beautifully designed with lots of variety. Often there are full spreads of artwork, and sometimes the present and past switch sides or one takes up more space than the other.

The result is that this book is inspiring to read and gorgeous to gaze through. His work encompassed many different styles during his life, and we see the whole range in this book, as well as the story of how he started that type of art. Between the bright colors in his art and the beautiful photos of ocean and flowers on the island, this book is full of bright beauty.

The way he finishes the main text encapsulates his work:

I love encouraging children and adults to make art almost as much as I love making art myself. Teaching art began early for me. I was in my teens when the church I attended gave me the room and materials for art classes, saying, “You have a talent. Share your gifts with others.”

And I have tried to do so ever since!

Please check this book out of the library, so we won’t be tempted to discard it for lack of interest! There are some new copies waiting for you.

ashleybryancenter.org

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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.

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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
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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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