Review of The Heart of the Psalms, by James C. Howell

Christian, Nonfiction Review 0

The Heart of the Psalms

God’s Word to the World

by James C. Howell

Abingdon Press, 2025. 125 pages.
Review written May 25, 2026, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com

I’ll be honest. I purchased and read this book to have a “Competitive Title” on my book proposal for my own Psalms book. (Which is currently being submitted to publishers by my recently signed-with literary agent! I’m so excited!) I heard about it when I had mentioned my book to a friend from church, and they said that their own small group had just begun a study of Psalms, using this book.

So first, the good news is that the books complement each other, taking different approaches to Psalms. So that particular small group won’t need to skip my book because they’ve already studied Psalms. Instead, each book has a different way of showing readers the riches found in Psalms.

James Howell’s deep love for Psalms shines in this book. His Introduction talks about how that love developed and how much the Psalms mean to him. This book isn’t so much a study of the book of Psalms as a riff on six particular Psalms. He has a chapter for each of Psalms 8, 27, 51, 73, 90, and 116. In each one, he dives into that particular Psalm and all the side trails that it may bring up, showing us how rich the Psalms are in emotion and in application.

Here’s a paragraph from the Introduction:

What are the Psalms? Just a long collection of prayers that cry out, give thanks, plead, ponder, praise, and speak with God in surprising and profound ways. Most were sung, and from memory. Thankfully, they landed in the Bible, not because they are about God, but because they are directed to God. And when we read and speak them aloud now, they reveal to us what we’d never noticed or what we’d feared to notice about ourselves. I could deliver a lecture on what the Psalms were and are. But there’s no substitute for reading them, slowly and quietly.

It’s easy to see in this author the same desire I have – to get people reading and savoring the Psalms, knowing they’ll end up loving them, too.

How is my book different? Instead of looking at Psalms individually, I divide the Psalms into ten types and talk about what each type has in common – so the reader can pray their own psalms, using those patterns. So the two books can go together, with my book giving more of an overview, and this book looking at six particular Psalms, giving examples of five of the types.

And both of us hope that you will glimpse God’s heart toward us by taking a closer look at Psalms.

abingdonpress.com

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Review of Tall Water, by SJ Sindu and Dion MBD

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

Tall Water

by SJ Sindu and Dion MBD

HarperAlley, 2025. 248 pages.
Review written February 17, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review
2026 Asian/Pacific American Literature Award, Young Adult Honor

Nimmi hasn’t seen her mother since she was a baby. Now she’s applying to universities to be a journalist, like her father. Her parents met when he was covering the war in Sri Lanka, and when his press pass expired, he took their baby to the United States, but her mother wasn’t able to get a visa to come join them.

Now after many years, her father’s press pass has been renewed, so he’s going to Sri Lanka. He says it’s too dangerous for Nimmi to come, but she takes matters into her own hands and joins him, because she wants to meet her mother.

Once there, Nimmi indeed sees some tough things. Her mother’s working at a UNICEF orphanage, being a mother to kids who need her.

And then the “Tall Water” of the title hits.

This graphic novel tells a powerful story with moving illustrations, gorgeously drawn. I read it in about a half-hour, and then I had to sit with it for a bit, because it that quickly got into my heart.

sjsindu.com
dionmbd.com

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Review of Growing Up Under a Red Flag, written by Ying Chang Compestine, illustrated by Xinmei Liu

Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Growing Up Under a Red Flag

A Memoir of Surviving the Chinese Cultural Revolution

written by Ying Chang Compestine
illustrated by Xinmei Liu

Rocky Pond Books, 2024. 40 pages.
Review written April 17, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

Growing Up Under a Red Flag is a memoir in picture book form, which makes it easy for children to grasp what’s going on. It’s geared to upper elementary kids.

The book begins with the author a little girl in China in the 1960s. Her parents were both doctors, and her father taught her English and told her stories of America and corresponded with a doctor in San Francisco.

My mother wasn’t always pleased with me because I didn’t behave like a traditional Chinese girl – speaking in a low voice, playing piano, and learning the fan dance. But my father loved my curiosity and strong spirit. He answered my endless questions and clapped with me when I sang English folk songs at the top of my lungs.

But then the Cultural Revolution came. They couldn’t speak English inside their home and listened to Voice of America in secret. And then a soldier moved into her father’s study.

They ended up burning all their English books and notes – but it wasn’t enough, and her father was arrested anyway.

The book shows the hardships of the years that followed, the scarcity of food and necessities, and the struggles without her father.

I did love that by the end of the book, her father was released, and she finishes with the whole family gathered years later in San Francisco. That way, despite the difficulties depicted, readers are left with the way things turned out good in the end. Which makes for a cheerier picture book. Kids can grasp the injustice of the hard times that happened, but the story ends on a happy note.

Yingc.com

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Review of Hemlock & Silver, by T. Kingfisher

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Hemlock & Silver

by T. Kingfisher
read by Jennifer Pickens

Macmillan Audio, 2025. 11 hours, 50 minutes.
Review written April 17, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

So far, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every T. Kingfisher book I’ve read. This one has the added bonus of a self-described “middle-aged” heroine, and that’s always nice for a change. This is cozy fantasy with a dash of creepiness – if mirrors in the dark already spook you, this could make it worse.

Anja is a specialist in poisons and studies them looking for antidotes. She keeps a venomous snake and regularly milks its venom to use to speed up the heart as an antidote for other poisons. Of course she tests it on herself – after roosters, but before trying it on patients.

And then, one day, the king walks into her workshop.

The king believes that his daughter Snow is being poisoned and wants Anja to find a cure. Snow has been unwell since the day the king killed the queen – when she was cutting their other daughter’s heart out.

Anja doesn’t feel skilled in working with people, and especially not 12-year-old girls. But she is good at solving mysteries and figuring out poisons. So she goes with the king to the palace where Snow is staying, along with two bodyguards, in case the poisoner doesn’t want to be found out.

Anja finds Snow eating a strange-looking apple. Naturally, she tests it on herself – and then falls through a mirror into another, reflected world. It stirs her scientific heart, but there’s still a lot of work to be done to figure out why Snow would effectively poison herself. And how does the mirror world work.

I wouldn’t call this a retelling of “Snow White” – but many of the elements are there, and it does have that fairy tale feel. There’s a dash of romance thrown in as well, along with some mystery and danger. I blame this book for me staying up far too late the other night while working on a jigsaw puzzle.

redwombatstudio.com

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Review of The Heart of the World, by Amie Kaufman

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Heart of the World

by Amie Kaufman
read by Nikki Patel, Homer Todiwalla, Suzie Rai, Vidish Athavale, Mela Lee, and Steve West

Listening Library, 2024. 11 hours, 22 minutes.
Review written March 25, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I have to say that I love the new trend of writing duologies instead of trilogies. There’s still some suspense waiting for the next volume, but you don’t have to do it all over again and wait for a third volume.

The Heart of the World finishes the story begun in The Isles of the Gods, about a prince and a sailor girl involved in international politics, doing magic, and meddling with the gods.

There’s no way to really set up this book without giving away what happens at the end of the first book, so let me speak in general terms. You’ve got five main viewpoint characters all voiced with different narrators. In this book, the gods find a way to show up in the human world, channeling some of their power through our protagonists and antagonist. And the gods are spoiling for a fight.

The last time the gods fought, an entire country was turned into a barren wasteland. Can our heroes stop the gods? Do they even want to, or is the gods’ influence too great?

A nice touch in this volume is that Selly is able to help Leander bear the load of the goddess’s power.

The audio production for both books is outstanding, with all the narrators excellent, and my all-time favorite audiobook narrator, Steve West, voicing the prince. The characters I was getting tired of in the first volume got more interesting when empowered by a god and when planning a double cross. Oh, and there’s a scholar who tries to save the world through research – with several great lines about how awesome librarians are.

This is a tale well-told of magic and power and love. May our characters keep the world from getting blown apart.

amiekaufman.com

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Review of Now You Know Your ABCs… (Or Do You…?) written by Caspar Salmon, illustrated by Matt Hunt

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Now You Know Your ABCs…

(Or Do You…?)

written by Caspar Salmon
illustrated by Matt Hunt

Nosy Crow, 2026. 32 pages.
Review written April 20, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

Hooray! The creators of the amazing How to Count to One (And don’t even THINK about other numbers) have created another interactive and utterly silly parody of a basic concept book – this time taking on the alphabet.

The book begins simply enough with A is for Apple, B is for Ball, and C is for Castle. But when the narrator starts in and tries to do D is for Dog – the “dog” turns out to be a wolf – a Dangerous, Dangerous wolf!

So what are you to do but cry out EEEEEEEEEEK in fear and run all the way to France?

The nearest French person is no help, because they do not speak your language, so you Go and seek shelter inside a tree house.

The adventure that follows gets zanier and zanier as you try to outwit the wolf and get back home – all the way through the alphabet.

It all adds up to an extremely silly book that begs to be read aloud, preferably with a group that indeed already knows their ABCs so they will appreciate the surprising ways each next letter is brought into the story.

matthuntillustration.com
nosycrow.us

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Review of Black History Is Your History, by Taylor Cassidy

History, Teen Nonfiction 0

Black History Is Your History

by Taylor Cassidy
illustrated by Adriana Bellet

Atheneum, 2025. 192 pages.
Review written May 17, 2026, from a library book.

Taylor Cassidy is a popular TikTok creator of the series “Fast Black History.” She’s in her early twenties and already very popular. This book is a compilation of bios of Black people who did notable things, told in a conversational style. Let me note right up front that I’m an older white lady, and I am not in the intended audience! She takes a very casual tone, as I’m sure works beautifully on her TikTok channel, talking firsthand with teens.

In every chapter, she includes a sort of sidebar with a different color background and the heading “Tay Story.” She tells about something in her own life that relates to what the person featured in that chapter went through – and how she learned from them and you can, too.

I’m not very near to the trials of high school, so I wasn’t as interested in those parts as in the bios they were interrupting, but I think teens will relate to most of the things she describes. And that got me thinking about something in my life, so it seems only fair to insert this:

Sondy Story

Last summer, I went to a Christian writers’ conference, and one of the editors who was speaking said that everybody’s first Christian book is a memoir.

And I had to plead guilty. I have a book about Psalms (and I recently signed with a literary agent!) – and I illustrate each type of Psalm by telling my own story and how different types of Psalms were helpful at different times.

But the editor continued. It’s okay to include your own story if it illustrates something bigger. Strangers don’t necessarily care about your life – but if you can use it to illustrate something bigger, that can work and add a personal touch. I think I’ve managed that in my Psalms book.

***

And I also think Taylor has managed it in her book. Her stories show teens how the qualities found in these Black heroes can inspire you to get through difficulties in your own life. I wouldn’t want to read a straight memoir from Taylor – She’s so young! But a series of profiles of Black heroes peppered with personal experiences that relate? It ends up being an interesting and readable book.

As a librarian, I’d like some notes in the back as to her sources, but she did try to include in the text where she got a lot of the information. This is Black History that is the opposite of a textbook, and I think kids from middle school up will enjoy her fresh take – and probably learn even more on her TikTok channel.

simonandschuster.com/teen

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Review of Your Last First Date, by Jaydi Samuels Kuba

Nonfiction Review, Personal Growth 0

Your Last First Date

Secrets of a Hollywood Matchmaker

by Jaydi Samuels Kuba

Avid Reader Press, 2026. 248 pages.
Review written April 15, 2026, from a library book.

Okay, I read this for fun. And got pretty invested in finding out if the clients whose stories she gives us would find a match.

The author is a screenwriter and a professional matchmaker in Hollywood. In this book she highlights three clients – who are composite characters with their names changed for privacy. So how much of their stories are “true”? I’m guessing she gets plenty of similar cases, so these people might as well exist.

Although the book did make me consider doing some dating again, by the time I’d closed the book, I’d remembered that you really do need to give it a lot of time and attention – and my heart isn’t there right now. My oldest was recently staying with me, and that reminded me it’s nice to come home to someone you love. But after they left, I noticed how my writing projects were lagging and I felt behind on things. I do know people are worth it, and I don’t regret that time with my kid for a minute – but at this point in my life, I’m too happy with my current situation to invest a lot of time and energy in changing it.

But the book was still a lot of fun! She explains getting her agency going and tells about meeting her own husband – and takes us through the process with three clients. One of them is feeling a time limit – she wants to get married and get pregnant in a year – or she’s going to look into artificial insemination. But despite that urgency, as it starts off, she seems to be dragging her feet. She needs to learn which “requirements” are really requirements and which are excuses not to get involved.

The next client is a man who’s a bit self-absorbed and wants to meet much younger women – and then is very hard to please. He had some of the same lessons to learn. I also like her explanation of some of the ways people cope with being nervous on a first date – for example, some babble, some clam up, and some go stiff – and how you can be aware of your own tendencies, but also don’t make snap judgments based on a first impression.

The third client got into a relationship quickly – and then there were lots of red flags. So there was discussion about the difference between red flags and harmless quirks. But also, this client had to learn to love and value herself, which then helped her find someone who would treat her as valuable.

It was probably a good thing for me to at least think about dating again – and this was a nice entertaining way to do so, with reflections on what’s healthy and what to look for while we’re at it.

Further thoughts on May 16, 2026, before posting this review: I had fun reading this book, but as reflected above, it didn’t make me want to start dating again, since it reminded me of how much work and time that involves. On further reflection, that’s partly from a matchmaking situation: Clients pay the matchmaker for their services for a certain amount of time, and in order to get their money’s worth, they need to do plenty of dates.

I recently started reading a book that may actually get me to try dating again. (And I think I picked it up because of reading this book.) It’s called Burn the Haystack. Written by Jennie Young, who has a PhD in rhetoric, the key thing is when you rule someone out, you block them to keep the algorithm from recycling and showing them to you again. And with her knowledge of rhetoric, she helps you see patterns that you should block without guilt.

Anyway, I haven’t finished that book yet, but stay tuned for a review. And let me repeat that I did enjoy this book – but more in a way that it’s fun to watch these people dating, but it didn’t make me want to do it myself.

ljmatchmaking.com

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Review of Casters and Crowns, by Elizabeth Lowham

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Casters and Crowns

by Elizabeth Lowham
read by Nick Mondelli and Jess Moran

Shadow Mountain Publishing, 2024. 12 hours.
Review written April 14, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Casters and Crowns is a sweet young adult fantasy and romance novel. I think of “Romantasy” as having sex scenes, so I’m not going to call it that, but there’s love across obstacles.

The setting is a kingdom where magic users are scorned and literally branded. And if shapeshifters are discovered, they are killed on the spot – though it is believed that they only turn up once every hundred years, so killing a shapeshifter forty years ago should have saved the kingdom for another sixty years.

There was one Caster in court – the widow of a nobleman. After her son is killed as a spy, she starts causing trouble against the king. Crown Princess Aria wants to prove herself as ready to rule, so she decides to visit the widow and negotiate peace. And then she gets cursed for her trouble. If she doesn’t find a way to break the curse in one hundred days – without being able to talk about it to anyone – she and all her family will die.

There was one other Caster at court, Guillaume Reeves, the other viewpoint character of this audiobook. His father recently died, but the king hasn’t yet allowed him to officially take his father’s position – because how could they allow such an honor to a Caster? Especially with the widow stirring up trouble?

But Aria meets Guillaume and wonders if she can learn from him enough about casting and curses to break the one on herself. Never mind that he’s handsome and kind. But both of them are keeping secrets from one another.

The book does have the trope of the harsh king with an heir who wants to turn things around. But I did find it refreshing that this time the heir was a young lady and the romantic interest oppressed by the king was a nobleman in his own right. (I’ve seen some with the opposite gender situation and it starts to feel like an abuse of power. None of that here.)

The characters are the kind you like to be around, with motivations like Aria wanting to prove herself and Guillaume wanting to protect his younger brothers. I like the thought given – even in a fantasy kingdom – to how governing should work. I enjoyed this one thoroughly.

elizabethlowham.com

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Review of Omnibird, by Giselle Clarkson

Children's Nonfiction Review, Science, Starred Review 0

Omnibird

An Avian Investigator’s Handbook

by Giselle Clarkson

Gecko Press, 2025. 96 pages.
Review written May 12, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

Omnibird: An Avian Investigator’s Handbook is packed with entertaining and informative content to help kids learn about the birds all around them.

The “Omnibird” idea is reflected in spreads on bird anatomy that identify the parts of a bird, inside and out. Many are labeled “Optional,” such as caruncles (featherless fleshy bits), spurs (sharp points for fighting), and a comb. Several parts refer to a display of many options on another page – such as the aforementioned caruncles, as well as beaks and feet.

Inside, we see how birds are quite different from us, with their small hindbrain and forebrain, their gizzard, their many neck vertebrae, the syrinx (voice box), and optional crop.

All this information about birds in general takes up the front half of the book, and then we get to see spreads about specific types of birds. It’s all told with humor, speech bubbles, clever drawings, and is super interesting and engaging. There are lots of practical side cartoons, such as “How to Usher a Bird Outdoors” “How to Act Around a Scary Bird,” and “How to Pick Up a Chicken.”

Yes, this book will help kids identify particular birds, but more importantly, it will make kids want to identify them. Reading this book presents birds as fascinating creatures who live all around us and whose bodies and behaviors reflect how they live.

A possible drawback is that the book is too large for a kid to take outside with them on a whim, but all the information packed on the large pages is worth the trade-off. This book is perfect for kids who love to pore over big books of facts – and then they can apply what they’ve learned to investigate the birds in their own neighborhoods.

giselledraws.com
geckopress.com

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