Review of Like Glass, by Jen Ferguson

Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Like Glass

by Jen Ferguson

Heartdrum, October 6, 2026. 322 pages.
Review written July 10, 2026, from an Advance Reader Copy.
Starred Review

A year ago, Tatum Nova Lambert’s big sister, Bronwyn Moonbeam, died of a brain aneurysm in Chamonix, in the French Alps. Their father, a world-class chef, decided to open a restaurant there in her honor. Now Tatum has come to Chamonix over Spring break for the opening of the restaurant – and to get her father to come back to Toronto.

It doesn’t begin well: He forgets to pick her up from the bus station. They’re staying in what used to be Bronwyn’s apartment, and Tatum finds Bronwyn’s necklace there – the one they buried with her sister. Her father doesn’t really talk with her, he grew out his beard, and Tatum’s pretty sure he’s drinking again.

But as Tatum explores Chamonix, she meets people who help her gain perspective. There’s Beetle, the kid who pickpocketed the necklace before she confronted him and got it back. And then there’s Agatha, who’s training to be on the U.S. Olympic Team as a ski jumper. Agatha gets her. But how much trouble will she get into if Tatum knocks her out of her training schedule?

This isn’t a gripping plot book, but it is, like all Jen Ferguson’s books, nuanced and meditative and full of people you enjoy spending time with, including queer people and people with indigenous heritage.

It’s also about Art and about Identity. Tatum’s art teacher back home doesn’t think her art is Native enough. But what does that even mean? And how does he, with settler heritage, have any right to say that?

And it’s about Grief. Bronwyn was never good about answering Tatum’s postcards, and Tatum’s finding out all she didn’t know about her sister’s life.

I like the way the book comes together at the end, though I won’t give away the many threads that involves. They aren’t tied up in a neat bow, but Tatum got some good interior work done on her trip, and it was a pleasure to get to bear witness to it.

jenfergusonwrites.com

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Review of Rewriting the Rules, by Danna Zeiger, illustrated by Josée Bisaillon

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Rewriting the Rules

How Dr. Kathleen Friel Created New Possibilities for Brain Research and Disability

by Danna Zeiger
illustrated by Josée Bisaillon

Millbrook Press, 2025. 36 pages.
Review written August 19, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

Rewriting the Rules is a picture book biography of a scientist I’d never heard of – Dr. Kathleen Friel, who has cerebral palsy.

One of my friends has a child with cerebral palsy, so I’ve seen for myself how children with cerebral palsy are underestimated. It does depend on where in their brain the damage exists, but in general trouble walking and speaking does not mean the person has trouble thinking.

This book covers the many challenges Kathleen faced as a child with cerebral palsy, including a doctor who told her parents to put her in an institution. (They found a better doctor.)

It was harder for Kathleen to do some simple things like buttoning her clothes and cutting up food. This author frames her finding ways to do these things as rewriting the rules.

In high school, science became Kathleen’s favorite subject. Her teachers showed her that scientists found new solutions to problems, and she knew she wanted to do the same.

After all, she’d always been rewriting the rules.

The book goes on to explain Kathleen’s doctoral work on monkeys with brain damage doing training to create new brain connections.

After getting her PhD, Dr. Friel runs a lab that helps children with cerebral palsy find treatment to help their brains make new connections. And she models all that a person with cerebral palsy can achieve.

The author of this book was a scientist before she became an author – and was mentored by Dr. Friel, so her love and admiration shines in the text.

This picture book biography of a distinguished scientist teaches kids about cerebral palsy in a way they can understand, framed in the story of a person who overcame tremendous challenges – and helps others do the same.

Kathleen and her research are paving the way for people with cerebral palsy and other disabilities
to be heard,
to find their own approaches,
and to rewrite the rules.

dannazeiger.com
joseebisaillon.com

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Review of Translation State, by Ann Leckie

Fiction Review, Science Fiction, Starred Review 0

Translation State

by Ann Leckie
read by Adjoa Andoh

Hachette Audio, 2023. 12 hours, 4 minutes.
Review written February 25, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I’m not sure why it took me so long to discover that Ann Leckie has another book set in the universe of her Ancillary trilogy with AI spaceships trying to get status as a species, but I was delighted to discover Translation State.

Ann Leckie does mind bending so well! One of the three viewpoint characters in this novel is Qven, a juvenile Presger Translator – a species made by the Presger to interface with humans. We get the viewpoint of this creature when they’re young and driven to discover what is inside other beings by dismembering and eating them. As they grow, they’re taught how to behave to fit in with humans – to eventually become an adult and merge with another to get their final form. But Qven finds themself not always wanting to follow the rules.

The adult Presger Translators don’t let humans know about this. But they assert that it’s dangerous for humans to be around their juveniles.

And the treaty with the Presger is up for renewal in a great Conclave – most think it’s what has kept the Presger from destroying humankind across the galaxies. So most want it to continue.

Meanwhile we meet Enae, who had been taking care of her grandmother for most of her life, but has to leave after her grandmother’s death. Ze’s sent on a diplomatic mission no one expects hir to complete to track down a Presger translator who went rogue two hundred years ago. Surely they’re dead by now.

But that brings hir to Reit, who was abandoned as an infant and adopted into a loving family. Now he’s thirty years old and working a boring job. When he was small and tried to eat another kid, he was told in no uncertain terms not to do that any more, so he’s learned to keep those urges in check, but he does wonder what’s wrong with him. When some activists on his planet hail him as the long-lost heir of the captaincy of a space station that was destroyed, he likes thinking he belongs at last. But working for them in the diplomatic corps lets him meet Enae, who gets interested in his story.

And all this leads to the three characters eventually meeting in the context of treaty negotiations with the Presger. And then a catastrophe happens, and they have to work together.

I love the way Ann Leckie can get me inside even such an alien mind and feel like I understand it. This very alien universe becomes full of beings you care about. Absolutely brilliant. (Do read the Ancillary trilogy first. This book made me want to reread that – maybe I’ll listen this time.)

annleckie.com

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Review of The Otherwhere Post, by Emily J. Taylor

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Otherwhere Post

by Emily J. Taylor
read by Barrie Kreinik

Listening Library, 2025. 11 hours, 22 minutes.
Review written January 23, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I placed The Otherwhere Post on hold because I wanted to see why so many other people had done the same. (My job is to select books for a large public library system, so I see what’s popular and often get curious.) Sometimes I’m disappointed by that method, but not this time. The Otherwhere Post pulls us right into the action, as Maeve Abenthy has a ticket to another city, to adopt another identity, because she’s been in her current position, working in an ink shop, too long, and people might realize who her father is.

The whole world, including Maeve, believe that seven years ago, her father was responsible for the living death of every person in Inverlea, one of the three known worlds. But then the Otherwhere Post finds a way to deliver a batch of old letters from shortly after the tragedy – and Maeve receives an anonymous letter from an “old friend” of her father who claims he was innocent – and they have proof. Only Maeve has already missed the meeting he proposed for seven years ago.

All magic in the three known worlds is done through scriptomancy – messages written with special ink by talented, trained people. Maeve’s father was a skilled scriptomancer and courier and lived at the Otherwhere Post, with Maeve in the keeping of her aunt after her mother’s death. So Maeve decides that the obvious way to find this “old friend” is to train to be a courier. Good thing her father grounded her in the basics of writing. Now if she can just pass the admissions test.

Of course, once Maeve gets to the academy, she’s going to have trouble finding the old friend, when she doesn’t dare reveal who she is. But someone knows and starts sending her magical threatening letters.

I shouldn’t have liked this book, because the plot is pretty chaotic, with some drastic turns at various points. But I liked Maeve immensely (despite the unethical way she got into the school), and I liked the young man assigned to be her mentor, and the world-building was creative, so I forgot to be nitpicky and enjoyed the ride.

emilyjtaylor.com

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Review of Blue Monster, by Petr Horácek

Animal Characters, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Blue Monster

by Petr Horácek

Otter-Barry Books. 36 pages.
Review written August 25, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

This book surprised me into laughing out loud when I opened it up to read. The titular Blue Monster looks friendly and sweet. The story plays out on a bright yellow background. As the book opens, Blue Monster is bored, and asks Rabbit to play with him. But Rabbit doesn’t hear him because he’s fast asleep.

When Blue Monster wakes up Rabbit, he doesn’t want to play because he wants to sleep.

So Blue Monster swallowed Rabbit.

But Rabbit’s friend saw what happened. Blue Monster is feeling embarrassed, so he swallows Rabbit’s friend, too.

And so it goes. This is my favorite exchange:

“Have you seen the rabbits anywhere?” asked Raccoon.

“I didn’t swallow them,” answered Blue Monster, but he looked a bit shifty.

So Raccoon said, “You did swallow them, didn’t you?”

What does Blue Monster do? I’ll bet you can guess.

I like the way the book connects feeling uncomfortable emotions with Blue Monster’s actions. And the background color shifts to blue and more subdued.

Now Blue Monster felt VERY bad.

He knew that swallowing friends is not a nice thing to do.

Besides, now there was definitely nobody who would play with him.

But no worries! When Blue Monster sits down, feeling sad, a bit lonely, and very guilty, he yawns – and all the animals climb out of his mouth (which conveniently has no teeth).

They all looked a bit cross, which, to be fair, was quite understandable.

The animals have a long chat. Blue Monster tells them how sorry he is, and after a stern talking-to that swallowing friends is not nice, he promises never to do it again, and we end with the animals playing nicely together and having lots and lots of fun.

And my description doesn’t do justice to the charm of this book. Of course it would be a perfect vehicle for what’s a good way to deal with uncomfortable emotions, and that we really shouldn’t swallow our friends. Also that everybody makes mistakes – there’s a nice model of apology and forgiveness.

And besides, it’s a sweet story that will make you smile.

petrhoracek.co.uk

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Review of The Neverfear, by Katherine Rundell

Adventure, Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

The Neverfear

by Katherine Rundell
read by Samuel West

Listening Library, 2026. 8 hours, 4 minutes.
Review written September 4, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This is the third book in the series that began with Impossible Creatures, and in my opinion, it continues to be the best currently ongoing fantasy series for kids. Katherine Rundell has a skill that J. K. Rowling also possessed of inserting delightfully imaginative magical details. She’s got a bestiary in the back of each book that has many creatures you will have heard of before, such as dragons and unicorns, but plenty of unique creations of her own.

You will want to read these books in order, though I’m finding I’m not too lost if I’ve forgotten many of the details from the earlier books. Listening to this one reminded me just how much I have enjoyed them all, and I’ll be wanting to reread them from the beginning.

In this volume, Christopher is now living most of the time in the magical world of the Archipelago, studying to be a good guardian, and Anya, the one-time princess from the second book, is living on the same island with her father, the berserker Nighthand, and Irian, the beloved of Nighthand.

On an errand with Christopher and Anya, Irian is kidnapped by a sinister band of outlaws who wear Ouroboros bracelets. The children are told they must perform three progressively more difficult Herculean tasks or she will die. After they perform amazing exploits to complete the tasks, a new threat arises to everything they care about.

In the progress of carrying out these tasks and defeating these challenges, against all odds, both Christopher and Anya uncover new skills within themselves. There’s lots of danger here, along with love, loyalty, humor, and plenty of magic. Samuel West’s voice is perfect for narrating these adventures, matter-of-factly presenting the magical details with his proper British accent.

Reading these books makes me wish my kids were young again, as they would make splendid family read-alouds.

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Review of Counterweights, by Shannan Martin

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Counterweights

An Essential Practice for Holding Hope in a Heavy World

by Shannan Martin

Revell, 2026. 238 pages.
Review written July 8, 2026, from my own book, purchased via Amazon.com.
Starred Review

Over several years since it was my Sonderbooks Stand-out in 2016, I’ve gone through the book Champagne for the Soul with two of my small groups (as well as on my own) – and both times it set our group spotting joys, looking for things to be joyful about in daily life.

But sometimes I feel a bit guilty looking for joys when there’s so much trouble in the world. When people are being oppressed and injustice is rampant, is it right to take pleasure in a sighting of a great blue heron?

This book fully acknowledges the weight of the world. And Shannan Martin frames finding joys as looking for counterweights.

She begins with a metaphor that she learned as a child that it’s easier to carry heavy weights if you have one bucket on each side.

Abundance isn’t experienced by merely counting our blessings but by countering our weights.

The essays that follow are a collection of some of the weights and counterweights I’ve faced, mostly over a few years’ time, which I believe deserve our sacred attention. Some of my hardships have been uniquely personal, while others have tied all of us in knots. Others have been secondary: the contact burns of paying attention to a world where, most often, trauma lands hardest on those who are already vulnerable. These weights range from mundane to dizzyingly dramatic. But at every turn, goodness has waited for me to take notice and scoop it up, leveling the load of life’s endless dualities.

I love the way this doesn’t dismiss or minimize the weights, but shows that the weights make the counterweights all the more necessary.

This is not a “silver lining” situation, where pain and injustice are minimized for the sake of flimsy optimism or playing nice. It’s not even about hoarding our favorite things. We are not guaranteed to have those things within our reach. The practice of gathering counterweights is about creating moments of sustenance from the raw materials of what we’re given. It is about holding everything in honest tension. Both/and. Our counterweights help us move forward and breathe through the heaviness. At their best, they can’t be bought or sold. They aren’t a matter of luck or reserved for the privileged. They are widely accessible and casually weird, entirely personal and communal to their core. They are their own reward. And they are happening all the time, ready to steady us on our feet.

So that’s what you’ve got in this book – stories of weighty matters, but also counterweights, things that bring joy. And it’s a lovely model for dealing with our own weights.

After all:

Counterweights are everywhere. But it’s up to us to slow down and see them.

shannanmartin.com

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Review of King of the Neuro Verse, by Idris Goodwin

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 1

King of the Neuro Verse

by Idris Goodwin
read by the Author

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2025. 3 hours, 2 minutes.
Review written August 12, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This is a young adult novel in verse, so it’s short, and perfect for neurodivergent thinkers like the protagonist.

Pernell is stuck going to summer school for his third time in high school, and all his nerves are jangled. Fortunately, a friend gave him a digital voice recorder, so he’s letting off steam by telling all his difficulties to “the future.” It’s 1999, so he’s not sure if the world will end when Y2K hits.

He’s got to take English – and then it turns out that the very teacher who made him go to summer school is teaching the class. She’s made up her mind about Pernell and is portrayed as a bully who humiliates him regularly. Though Pernell honestly has trouble paying attention.

Fortunately, at lunch time, every year a group of students do a rap circle they call the Cypher. Last year’s Cypher King graduated, and Pernell is determined to win the crown himself.

So why does playing with language in rap make so much more sense to him than writing essays in class?

My one little quibble with this audiobook is that a couple of times Pernell refers to ambient noise, and I wish the production had gone to enough trouble to simulate that, since it pulled me out of the book when I didn’t hear it. Supposedly, he’s recording the whole thing. In a print book, we don’t miss the ambient noise and trust that it’s there, but in an audiobook, I wish they’d attempted to make us think this was Pernell’s actual recording. The author is a rapper himself, so he reads the words well.

But that was a minor quibble. The story itself helped me understand how it feels to be a teen with ADHD just trying to do his best – and be King of what he actually cares about.

idrisgoodwin.com

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Review of Diamond Fever! by Steve Sheinkin

Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Starred Review 0

Diamond Fever!

A True Crime Story in the Wild West

by Steve Sheinkin
with comics and art by Jon Chad

Roaring Brook Press, 2026. 240 pages.
Review written August 30, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

Here’s a true crime story told with all the drama of a novel. It’s suitable for middle school or upper elementary kids, though teens will like it, too. I’ll list it on the Children’s Nonfiction page, but this isn’t a picture book – it’s an adventure tale of the Wild West.

The story is of a dramatic and complicated swindle involving a diamond mine. We know it’s a crime from the title, and the author doesn’t hide that from the beginning, but we don’t know what was done or how they pulled it off until the end.

Interesting to me is that the criminals got away with it. Essentially, they duped famous and powerful people, who didn’t want it to get out that they had been swindled. It’s a long and involved swindle, and Steve Sheinkin takes us every step of the way.

He starts us off with two men in San Francisco in 1870, bringing a bag of rough diamonds to a mine investor for safe keeping. They say they found a diamond field when out prospecting. The investor checks, and these are real diamonds.

And so begins a long adventure involving multiple investors and multiple expeditions to the secret diamond field in the middle of the country. Before it’s done, they’ve pulled in the rich and powerful and have throngs in San Francisco interested in investing, planning to strike it rich. They even have to be stealthy about visiting the site, because others will want to stake a claim first.

How is it a crime? Who’s responsible? How did they pull it off? Where did the actual diamonds in that bag come from? The author skillfully spreads out the answers to keep us wanting to find out more. And there’s some nice pointers about not falling for scams at the end. It can even happen to the rich and powerful!

Some of the key scenes are shown with comics, and this tale is spun in a way that keeps you turning pages.

stevesheinkin.com
jonchad.com

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Review of Austenland, by Shannon Hale

Austenalia, Fiction Review, Romance, Sonderbooks25, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Austenland

by Shannon Hale

Bloomsbury, 2026. 326 pages.
Review written August 29, 2026, from my own copy, ordered via Bloomsbury.com and signed by the Author at the National Book Festival
Review of original edition written in 2013.
2007 Sonderbooks Stand-out:
#2 Romance Fiction
Starred Review

Shannon Hale has revised Austenland and Midnight in Austenland! So of course I had to buy new copies. And rereading it fits in perfectly with my plan for #Sonderbooks25, celebrating 25 years of writing Sonderbooks, to reread selected Sonderbooks Stand-outs from previous years. The fabulous news is that she did the revisions in preparation for writing a third volume, Christmas in Austenland, coming out this Fall, which of course I already have preordered.

She says it started as just a little editing to update the technology, but ended up as a full-on revision. It’s been long enough since I last read Austenland – 2013 – that I didn’t really notice the differences, but I thoroughly enjoyed the story and still wish someone would make this place in real life. And yes, I read into the wee hours of the morning finishing it because it was too hard to stop. Even knowing what’s going to happen.

The premise is that there’s a country house in England where wealthy women can go and be immersed in the world of Jane Austen. They’re promised a romantic experience and get to attend a ball at the end. Handsome actors all make up a house party in Regency England.

Our heroine in this first novel, Jane Hayes, isn’t rich enough to pay her own way, but she is obsessed with the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice miniseries starring Colin Firth. Her great-aunt Carolyn learns her secret – and in her will leaves Jane a trip to Austenland.

Once there, Jane’s journey loosely parallels Pride and Prejudice, complete with some clever banter, interesting first impressions, and a Wickham-like character. Some fun moments include Jane being asked to play the pianoforte and launching into “Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater.” And the house party decides to put on a theatrical production (as in Mansfield Park), which puts couples together.

Something I love about the new edition is that it includes 48 pages at the back telling of Shannon Hale’s experience making the movie Austenland and getting to be present on the set in England. (The movie is great fun – of course I own that, too.) What a dream come true seeing her words come to life! She captures the magic of the experience beautifully.

When I was in line at the National Book Festival to get this signed, the person next to me was a Jane Austen fan and a Shannon Hale fan, but hadn’t heard of these books. Anyone this describes needs to read Austenland! And now they’re updated, with more volumes on the way!

shannonhale.com

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