Review of Revisionaries, by Kristopher Jansma

Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories, Writing 0

Revisionaries

What We Can Learn from the Lost, Unfinished, & Just Plain Bad Work of Great Writers

by Kristopher Jansma

Quirk Books, 2024. 320 pages.
Review written from an Advance Reading Copy I picked up at work.
Starred Review

Revisionaries is both fascinating and inspiring. It’s fascinating because it tells you about the lives of many great writers and gives you a look at their unfinished work. It’s inspiring because it takes you behind the scenes and shows you how very fallible those geniuses were. In fact, they were human just like us.

The author based this book on his long obsession with unfinished manuscripts – and his blog “Unfinished Business.”

An unfinished manuscript becomes a parting gift and a glimpse at what might have been. The discoveries I’ve made in reading them have shaped the way I write and the way I teach writing ever since. I’ve reconsidered my entire idea of literary merit – genius is not something bestowed upon a select few through gifts or talents, but something built up, over much time and effort, by those resilient enough to never stop testing new ways of creating.

What I’ve found, time and time again, is that these works show that every genius is also merely human, and subject to the same stumbles, flaws, blocks, and total failures as any first-time writer. To read these incomplete novels and to understand the stories behind them is to expose creativity as something far more interesting and accessible, even if in doing so we must dismantle the very notion of genius.

Each of the twenty-one chapters covers a different writer. They have titles suggesting a failing of that writer: “Geniuses Write Bad Drafts” covers F. Scott Fitzgerald. “Geniuses Get Off to a Bad Start” is for Louisa May Alcott. “Geniuses Often Quit” covers Jane Austen. “Geniuses Bite Off More than They Can Chew” is about Ralph Ellison. And “Geniuses Still Have to Do the Dishes” is for Sylvia Plath.

The chapters themselves are informative and interesting and give you the inside scoop on the lives of great writers. But I especially loved the page or two at the end of each chapter called “Fail Like a Genius.” It gave you something from each writer’s life that you could apply to your own writing. He suggests that, like Kafka, you change your environment if you’re getting stuck; like Louisa May Alcott, imitate the writing of others to learn the craft; like Virginia Woolf, try writing a book just for fun alongside the book you’re “seriously” writing, and like Shirley Jackson, try writing about something you hate.

I read this book slowly, because each chapter was self-contained and gave me something to think about. Since my advance reading copy is paperback, it made a good book to bring on trips and read a chapter or so in the evening to wind down – and then I didn’t always remember to unpack it. But I did love reading it (and got more consistent when I reached the final third.) It gave me both wonderful stories about the lives of great writers and the encouragement that all those great writers were human like me.

When I finished the book, I got to thinking how encouraged I was when I learned that the first novel L. M. Montgomery wrote was not the first one she published, Anne of Green Gables. No, the first one she wrote was Kilmeny of the Orchard – a book which, honestly, isn’t nearly as good. It’s a fabulous first effort, but it’s not the masterpiece of what was actually her later work. Somehow it’s good to know that even L. M. Montgomery had to learn and grow as a writer.

And that’s the effect of this book. We learn the ways that each of these literary geniuses was fully flawed and human. And therefore maybe it’s worth it to keep making an effort to make our own mark.

kristopherjansma.com

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Review of Soundtrack, by Jason Reynolds

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Soundtrack

by Jason Reynolds
performed by a full cast

Listening Library, 2025. 6 hours, 29 minutes.
Review written February 16, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2026 Odyssey Honor Audiobook

I always listen to Odyssey Award Winners and Honorees, because they are without exception excellent productions. Even knowing that, I was blown away when I listened to this book.

Jason Reynolds wrote this as an original audiobook – they’re coming out with the novelization next month, but the audiobook came first. It’s about a kid fresh out of high school forming a band in New York City and then playing in subway stations and gaining a following. And the audiobook production is incredible. It’s got a full cast (and a large one), with full sound effects. When they’re talking in a group, you hear them as if they’re talking in a group, there’s crowd noise and sounds of objects they refer to – and music!

Throughout the entire production this story about a young band is accompanied by the sounds of a band jamming to music. It’s astonishingly good.

For a minute there, I was astonished on this audiobook’s behalf that it had “only” won Odyssey Honor, because I was misremembering which one won the award. Then I remembered that the actual winner was Trans History, also with a full cast and full sound effects, and including the actual voices of present-day trans folks – and I understood the decision better. Still, this audiobook is incredible, and together these books have raised the bar on what an audiobook production can be.

Our main character in this book, Stuy, is the drummer, and his mother was a drummer before him, who dropped out of her band when she gave birth to Stuy and his father left. But now Stuy’s mom’s boyfriend throws his drum set into a corner, and Stuy goes to stay with his Uncle Lucky – where he meets a kid who plays the guitar. That leads to finding the rest of their band, and the whole adventure is tremendous fun – though with some serious undertones (fair warning).

It was a truly engaging story – and the music and the cast made the whole thing into an experience.

jasonwritesbooks.com

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Review of A World Without Summer, by Nicholas Day with art by Yas Imamura

Award Winners, Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 0

A World Without Summer

A Volcano Erupts, a Creature Awakens, and the Sun Goes Out

by Nicholas Day
with art by Yas Imamura

Random House Studio, 2025. 294 pages.
Review written February 17, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review
2026 Sibert Honor Book
2026 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist

A World Without Summer won Honor in the nonfiction award from both the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) and the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC) – which highlights that here is a nonfiction book perfect for middle school students. It also gives me a dilemma where to post the review – on the Teen Nonfiction page or the Children’s Nonfiction page? Recently, I’ve started leaning toward putting any nonfiction longer than a picture book on the Teen Nonfiction page, but since I put Nicholas Day’s debut book and Sibert winner, The Mona Lisa Vanishes, on the Children’s Nonfiction page, and they are very much alike, I’m going to post this one there, too – but be aware that the sweet spot for this book is middle school and upper elementary.

Because I read an adult fantasy novel called Without a Summer, by Mary Robinette Kowal, I already knew that it snowed in Washington, D. C., in July 1816 because of a volcano that erupted in another part of the world. This book told me much, much more.

The author keeps the conversational tone he used in The Mona Lisa Vanishes and starts off by telling the reader about Tambora, a volcano in Indonesia that erupted in 1815 – and just how utterly enormous that eruption was. He talks about the people who died in that eruption – and the thousands who died in the aftermath. But the later thousands who died as a direct result of that eruption didn’t even know it was because of the eruption.

After talking about the original eruption, Nicholas Day takes us to Europe, where the oddities began with yellow and brown snow, which nobody knew was from the ash of the volcano. As it turned out, summer never came in places across the globe – and neither did harvest.

But besides talking about gruesome deaths that were a result of Tambora, the author also tells us the story of Mary Godwin, who became Mary Shelley – and wrote Frankenstein the same year the climate was all out of whack. We get the whole story of her elopement and trip to Switzerland – and just how much they complained about the weather.

Nicholas Day is exceptionally good at bringing the reader into the story, getting them thinking with questions, and helping them see the connections between that past world, disrupted by climate shock, and our present world, which has some new technologies (like forecasting weather) thanks to the disruptions of Tambora, but is still vulnerable to global events.

I’m going to go ahead and quote from a closing section, because it shows where he goes with this story, and I don’t think it’s a spoiler in nonfiction.

While Mary Shelley was writing the great novel of catastrophe, people across the world were working in wholly new ways to prevent catastrophe. These were governments, and they were ordinary people, too. They were working on behalf of a simple idea, a new idea: that those who were suffering could survive – that they should survive – that they deserved to survive.

That there were things that could be done and should be done.

When we remember Tambora, what stands out is the bleak and the strange: the skeletal figures, the sawdust bread, the boils on the face of the sun. The disease. The distress.

But we should remember this part, too.

Without this idealistic work – without the invention of this idealistic idea – far more would have suffered. Far more would have perished. Tambora was a warning.

But hidden inside it is this deeply hopeful truth: We can act.

Read this book to learn, to hear a good story, and to think about the ways we earthlings are connected.

bynicholasday.com

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Review of The Summer War, by Naomi Novik

Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Summer War

by Naomi Novik

Del Rey, 2025. 127 pages.
Review written March 11, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

This is a novella by fantasy master Naomi Novik – so it’s about the same length as the children’s books I often read. Naomi Novik doesn’t need much time pulling you into her fantasy worlds. The book begins:

Celia was twelve years old on the day she cursed her brother.

The book reminded me of Robin McKinley’s The Hero and the Crown [and this is a high compliment!], because it begins with a long section about the past, how Celia grew up alienated from others and didn’t have magic. But the day she cursed her brother – for suddenly leaving her, and not caring – was the day she discovered her magic. She hadn’t known her curse would be effective, but the emotion and passion behind the curse awakened the strong magic within her.

After the explanation of this incident, we hear about the Summer War between humans and the summerlings, who live in the Summer Kingdom. The war went on for a hundred years, but Celia’s father, a general, supposedly stopped it with his tactics. Now the king is wary of him, but Celia’s father is also mourning the departure of his oldest son, and Celia and her remaining brother must keep things going.

But the main action of the book happens when Celia is fifteen. [This book could very well have been published for young adults. The only reason I can think that it wasn’t was to attract Naomi Novik’s existing fans.] She gets drawn into the Summer Kingdom and there is danger of the Summer War starting up again, and many are in peril, and the mess requires great skill and cleverness to solve. And Celia would like to break her brother’s curse as well.

This is a quick read, but it’s full of magic and the otherworldly, and it showcases Naomi Novik’s magical weaving of worlds.

naominovik.com

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Review of You’re a Star, Lolo, by Niki Daly

Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

You’re a Star, Lolo

by Niki Daly

Catalyst Press, 2020. First published in Great Britain in 2020.
Review written October 29, 2021, from a library book. 86 pages.
Starred Review

I love Lolo! These beginning chapter books written and illustrated by Niki Daly feature a young elementary-school-age girl who lives in Capetown, South Africa, with her mother and grandmother. The grandmother is called Gogo, which I think is delightful.

There are four self-contained stories in this book:

In “Lolo’s Special Soup,” Lolo makes soup for Mama, who’s out and about on a blustery day. Gogo is taking a little too much control of the process for Lolo, so she makes her own contribution.

In “Lolo’s Scary Night,” there’s a big fearsome sound interrupting Lolo’s sleep. Mama has a nice interpretation before they find out the actual source.

In “Lolo’s Snail Garden,” Lolo carefully follows instructions for a class gardening project, getting tomato seedlings started — but she has unusual results.

And in “Lolo’s Holiday,” Lolo and Gogo have a lovely vacation together in a nearby town, but then have an adventure getting home.

As other good beginning chapter books, I love the way these books are child-centric with concerns that mirror those of the target age group. There’s some extra fun that Lolo lives in South Africa, so it’s nice to see what’s the same and what’s different in everyday life.

catalystpress.org

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Review of I’m So Happy You’re Here, written by Mychal Threets, illustrated by Lorraine Nam

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

I’m So Happy You’re Here

A Celebration of Library Joy

written by Mychal Threets
illustrated by Lorraine Nam

Random House, 2026. 32 pages.
Review written February 25, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

Hooray! Mychal Threets’ first picture book is here, and I’m so happy!

Mychal Threets was a viral social media sensation and offered the best stuff on Twitter back in the day. Now he’s the host of the new updated Reading Rainbow and a literacy ambassador for PBS. [And apparently very active on Instagram. I’m going to have to get back on Instagram.] The content Mychal offered when he was doing his own posts was all about library joy and wonderful upbeat stories about the wonderful library kids he encountered while working in a public library. His own joyful attitude – while at the same time acknowledging he suffers from depression – absolutely won my heart. And of course I completely agree with his message – that libraries are a place where everyone belongs. In fact, back about fifteen years ago when my own library was facing budget cuts (and I lost my job for six months), I started a blog series I called Librarians Help – trying to tell some heart-warming stories about people getting help in the library. Mychal did the same idea, but executed so much better! I was just happy to see it done. [Hmm. Hold on. I guess it was never a blog series, because there are only two such entries. Maybe I tried to make it a hashtag? Ha! That’s it. Search #LibrariansHelp – and I found tweets from as far back as 2012.]

But this book! It’s about how everyone is welcome at the library.

Hi, library kid!
I’m so happy you’re here!
Welcome to your library.

The library is here for you,
a place where you’ll always belong.

You belong here
with your mom.
You belong here
with your dads.
You belong here
with your abuela.

And of course all the pictures here show a wonderful, welcoming library, with Mychal himself welcoming people.

There’s more about how you belong just as you are. Then it goes on to talk about how the library has books and so much more, talking about library programs. And it continues by telling the reader how easy it is to get a library card.

You having your best day at the library – that’s what I call library joy.

We now have a perfect picture book for every time a librarian gives a preschool or elementary school library tour. Spread the joy!

Mychal’s Instagram
lorrainenam.com

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Review of The Lions’ Run, by Sara Pennypacker

Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

The Lions’ Run

by Sara Pennypacker

Balzer + Bray, 2026. 275 pages.
Review written March 9, 2026, based on an Advance Reader Copy, signed by the author, and a published copy from the library.
Starred Review

Yes, it’s true – I almost finished my Advance Reader Copy of this book before it was published, but not quite. Why did I not read a book by *Sara Pennypacker* first thing when I got that copy? Well, I wanted to, but I got to thinking that it’s certain to be a Sonderbooks Stand-out, and it would be awkward to make it a Stand-out in a year when it hadn’t even been published yet, so I read some others of my loot first. Then I was reading award winners from 2025 for a program I was doing. Then I at least *started* it before publication!

And, yes, this book is as wonderful as I was sure it would be. This is a book set during World War II. I keep thinking that writers will run out of new ideas for that setting, and they continue to surprise me. Our protagonist is Lucas DuBois, an orphan who lives in an abbey in France under the Nazi regime. The Nazis treat all the French with contempt, and particularly orphans like him. But Lucas has a job delivering for the greengrocer, including to the Lebensborn – where pregnant girls are sent to give birth to good Nazi babies. The girls are pampered with fresh fruit and vegetables, and one of them tells Lucas she’s going to go find her baby after the war. Lucas doesn’t want to tell her she won’t have a chance.

Meanwhile, Lucas is ashamed of what a pushover he is. When some bullies drown a cat’s kittens, Lucas tries to stand up for them, but settles for fishing the bag of kittens out of the river and hiding the kittens in a secluded barn. But someone else is already hiding a horse there.

Alice is the daughter of a British racehorse trainer. She knows if the Nazis find her horse Bia, they’ll requisition Bia to fight in their war. So she’s hiding Bia and making plans with a trainer in Kentucky to ship Bia there. She’s got the forged paperwork, but it has to wait a few weeks.

At first, Alice tells Lucas he can’t keep the kittens there. But they come to terms with the situation, help each other keep secrets, and build a friendship.

And tired of being taunted for weakness, Lucas begins finding other ways to resist the Nazis.

This book reminded me somewhat of the Max books by Adam Gidwitz, because both feature a boy against the Nazis. This one was easier for me to believe, because unlike Max, adults resisted sending Lucas into danger, and his actions stemmed from his own kindness and his own desire to make a difference. Yes, there were some fortuitous circumstances, and if this book was real history, he might have died horribly – but it felt more within the scope of what a boy might actually do. Besides, in a children’s book, I expect the protagonist to be victorious, and it was well-fought.

sarapennypacker.com
mackids.com

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Review of I Hardly Knew Me, by Nia Chiaramonte

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

I Hardly Knew Me

Following Love, Faith, and Skittles to a Transgender Awakening

by Nia Chiaramonte

Lake Drive Books, 2025. 212 pages.
Review written January 27, 2026, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review

I Hardly Knew Me tells the coming-out journey of a Christian transgender woman. She tells her story with warmth and humor.

This isn’t a theological treatise defending her decision to come out, but it is a story explaining and showing how much her life is better, how much more authentically she presents herself, how much deeper her relationships, because she did come out.

We also see how difficult that path was. Her parents refused to acknowledge her as female, and she tells us the way different people responded, often in hurtful ways.

The book is presented as one person’s story, and it’s a story with heart.

I do think a strength of the book is giving insights on what is the most helpful way to respond when someone comes out to you.

Once I got to a point where I needed to come out to everyone, and I started coming out to more people who were emotionally unsafe, one thing was very clear to me: they didn’t know they were emotionally unsafe. Because felt safety is in the eye of the beholder – in this case, me. I told a couple of family members that they didn’t make me feel safe emotionally, and where I was able to, I told them why. It typically didn’t go over well. They thought they were creating a safe environment from their perspective.

The problem is that felt emotional safety has a very hard time existing in the presence of judgmental behavior, which you see when people start talking about religious or cultural or social rules instead of just listening. It’s judgment of someone for a life that is perceived as wrong, living a life as a trans woman in my case, and it is judgment of someone’s being. That creates an environment where emotional safety cannot exist. Thinking I know what’s best and having a judgmental attitude toward someone decimates any hope of emotional safety as it demolishes trust.

People I have come out to who have responded well and created safety for me have responded by first listening, then trusting. They trust in who I am and they trust that I know myself better than they know me. They create expanding spaces for us to find ourselves together. People who have hurt me emotionally haven’t trusted me and my own story, and in fact have projected their own insecurities about their story onto me, further destroying the possibility of building a safe space where both of us can be ourselves.

I also appreciated her insights on healthy and unhealthy boundaries:

For those who refuse to respect my boundaries, such as calling me by my actual name, they’ve in turn accused me of not respecting their boundaries. I say I can only be in a relationship if they respect and honor me by using my name and pronouns; they say they can only be in a relationship if they’re able to call me by whatever name and pronouns they choose.

This gets tricky because while these two things sound the same, there are major differences. My boundary says, “This is who I am in relationship to you, and I get to define me in that relationship. I will determine how I exist and behave in the world, and this is what I need from you.” The boundary from the one refusing to use my name says, “This is who you are in relationship to me; I get to define you and how you exist and behave in the world, and this is what I need you to be for me.” The unhealthy boundary essentially says, “My belief about you is more important than your belief about yourself, and I get to define your story so it fits with mine.” Whereas the healthy boundary says, “My belief about me and your belief about you are both important, and we each get to define our own stories.”

So you’ve got a warm coming-out story, insights into what it feels like to be transgender in today’s society, wisdom about how you can relate to transgender people in your own life – and a story that will give you a hankering for freeze-dried Skittles. (Well, it did me – I’d eaten them just before I read this book.)

Oh, and Skittles? She makes a good point: Freeze-dried Skittles and regular Skittles are both wonderful in their own way. But if you have one, expecting it to be the other, you’re going to be disappointed.

loveintheface.com
lakedrivebooks.com

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Review of One of the Boys, by Victoria Zeller

Award Winners, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

One of the Boys

by Victoria Zeller

Levine Querido, 2025. 331 pages.
Review written February 11, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review
2026 Stonewall Young Adult Award Winner

Grace Woodhouse is a senior in high school who thought she had to give up football last summer after she came out as trans. When everyone thought she was a boy, she was a kicker for their team and ranked the eighteenth best high school kicker in the nation as a junior. Even though she still thinks about the kick she flubbed that stopped them from going to State championships, it’s still hard to watch her team go on without her.

So when the teammate replacing her asks for help, she gives in and gives him some pointers. But they all know that she could do a better job – so the football captains ask Grace to come back to the team.

So, yes, this is the story of a trans athlete, but in this case it’s about a trans girl playing with the boys. The team captains are supportive, but not everyone on the team is, and yes, she faces transphobic slurs at games. And her new girlfriends aren’t always understanding of the time that playing football takes away from hanging out with the girls.

I loved this book. I’m not a football fan and didn’t know much about the position of kicker, but this book got me into the head and heart of the person doing the kicking. She was up against plenty, on the field and off, and this book showed us a nuanced character, trying to figure things out, trying to be accepted for who she is, and trying to help her team.

I appreciated that Grace wasn’t able to articulate very well for anyone why she was trans – it makes her feel all the more real, not just a spokesperson. But she never questioned that she was trans. The questions were more how could she live her life and help out her team and can she keep this up in college? Does she want to?

The book is full of football players trying to avoid “feelingsball,” but with feelings happening all over the place. I loved the characters in this book, the realistic conflicts, and the many kindnesses as well.

victoria.monster

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Review of Rebels, Robbers, and Radicals, by Teri Kanefield

Children's Nonfiction Review, Current Issues, History, Starred Review 0

Rebels, Robbers, and Radicals

The Story of the Bill of Rights

by Teri Kanefield

Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2025. 216 pages.
Review written March 4, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

First, a note that this is not picture book nonfiction. I’ll put it on the Children’s Nonfiction page, but this is targeted to middle school and upper elementary students who can read longer material.

I love Teri Kanefield’s legal writing. Her calm voice on her blog is long where I’ve gone to understand present-day legal issues. So of course I checked out this book for children on the Bill of Rights.

And I’d had no idea how interesting that topic could be. She explains her approach at the back of the book:

I hit on the idea of presenting the material the way the law is presented to law students – through actual court cases. The case method avoids abstract principles and tedious explanations. Instead, the law is presented through the stories and struggles of actual people. The principles and laws are woven into the fabric of the case the way morals are woven into fables.

Stories of real people involved in real struggles are always livelier than dry explanations, particularly when those stories include bank robbers like Bonnie and Clyde, high school students challenging violations of their rights, rebels who refuse to obey laws they believe to be unjust, and people considered radical because they want to entirely remake the government. The statement “you have the right to a jury trial” will have little relevance to most people. But when we read about the Zenger trial and see that juries were devised to guard against the kind of tyranny that early Americans experienced under British rule, the right to a jury takes on a real-world meaning.

Teri Kanefield achieves these goals in a book that’s interesting every step of the way. She goes through each one of the first ten amendments and gives examples showing how the interpretation of each amendment affected people’s lives – and still affect them today. She talks about how things have changed over time, about the conflict between states’ rights and federal rights, and about things like how the “right to privacy” isn’t mentioned in the Constitution, and how it’s a question of the ninth amendment whether the federal government can rule on that.

Although this book is completely suitable for upper elementary age readers, I can testify that it’s great reading for adults, too. As always with Teri’s writing, I learned things about the law of our land that I hadn’t known I didn’t know.

terikanefield.com

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