Review of The Girls Who Grew Big, by Leila Mottley

Audiobooks, Award Winners, Contemporary, Fiction Review 0

The Girls Who Grew Big

by Leila Mottley
read by AhDream Smith, Erin Spencer, and Khaya Fraites

Books on Tape, 2025. 11 hours, 50 minutes.
Review written April 15, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
2026 Alex Award Winner

This isn’t a book I would have picked up, except that it won a 2026 Alex Award, which is given to the previous year’s ten best books published for adults that are of interest to teens. The award process ensures that these books are well-written, and I haven’t regretted putting them on hold. (This one is popular enough, it took a long time for the hold to come in.)

The Girls Who Grew Big is about a gang of teen mothers who hang out together in the town of Paduah, on the panhandle of Florida. “Gang” probably isn’t the right word, though that’s probably how the town sees them. More than once the audiobook describes them as a coven – though the only magic is the magic of community.

There are three viewpoint characters. Simone’s the one who started the group when she gave birth to her twins in the back of her red truck. Now the kids are five years old and they live in the truck, parking where they won’t get tracked down by Child Protective Services, and often hosting the rest of the girls in the group. Simone can give tips for getting babies to nurse or other tricks of parenting. The twins’ father is around just enough to pay attention to them now and then – but also to keep the authorities off their backs.

Simone’s brother Jayden is in love with Emory, who recently gave birth to his son. The school counselor wants to push her to a special school with accommodations for teen mothers, but Emory is determined to finish her senior year as valedictorian and go on to college. She brings her baby to school in a sling, and the teachers will just have to deal with that.

And then a new girl comes to town from Indiana named Adela. Her parents sent her to her grandmother’s place when she got pregnant. She can have the baby, give it up for adoption, and their rich friends need never know. She can go back to competitive swimming and maybe regain her hope (or at least her dad’s hope) of swimming in the Olympics. But when she gets to know the girls, life starts looking different.

So that’s the pot this novel starts with, and very soon, the pot gets stirred. These girls that folks from the town dismiss or look down on are figuring out what they really want in their lives and how they’re going to get it. And along the way they’ll learn that they are not people to be dismissed.

leilamottley.com

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Review of Another Tongue, by Yevgenia Nayberg

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Another Tongue

by Yevgenia Nayberg

Neal Porter Books (Holiday House), 2026. 36 pages.
Review written September 23, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

This picture book explains simply to children what it’s like to move to a country where they speak a different language from the one you were born hearing.

Here’s how it begins:

This is your tongue. [Picture of a kid sticking out their tongue]

This is your mother’s tongue. [Picture of a woman holding a toothbrush and sticking out her tongue.]

The first language you learn is also called a mother tongue!

It is the first language you hear as a baby.

The book goes on to talk about how you learn all the words in your mother tongue.

Different countries have different mother tongues.

When you come to a new country, you may not understand the language at first.

Your ears may get tired of listening to the new language.

The new language may taste funny on your tongue.

There are amusing pictures with all of that, and collaged letters flying around the pages.

It goes on to talk about learning the new language, some words being easier than others, and often making mistakes.

But little by little,
the new words will
begin to make sense.

They will connect.
They will feel
like your own.

And from then on, you will be bilingual. Which means someone with two tongues!

What’s your mother tongue?

It’s all so simple, and by addressing the entire book to the reader, you feel the frustrations and triumphs of trying to get another language right. The pictures are imaginative, and the examples are silly (“Vampire State Building”), and it’s a delightful story about an abstract concept becoming understandable to kids.

Added later: I love the book all the more after looking up the author and discovering she’s Ukrainian.

nayberg.org
HolidayHouse.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 Yulu’s Linen, by Cao Wenxuan, illustrated by Suzy Lee

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Yulu’s Linen

by Cao Wenxuan
translated by Helen Wang
illustrated by Suzy Lee

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

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

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

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

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

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

The shopkeeper fetched the piece of rain-dew linen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Review of Birdy, by N. West Moss

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 2

Birdy

by N. West Moss
illustrations by Carrie Shyrock

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

nwestmoss.com
christyottavianobooks.com
lbyr.com

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Review of The Librarians, by Sherry Thomas

Contemporary, Fiction Review, Mystery, Suspense 0

The Librarians

by Sherry Thomas
read by Louisa Zhu

Books on Tape, 2025. 13 hours, 45 minutes.
Review written March 24, 2026, from a library book.

Can I resist a book with this title and a picture of a smoking gun (with a face in the smoke) on the cover? No, I cannot.

Yes, this is a thriller with the main location being a small branch library in Austin, Texas. When two of the library’s patrons turn up dead on the same night as a library board game program, four of the library workers are embroiled in the mystery. No, not all of those four workers are actual librarians with a master’s in library science, but someone blithely states early on that it’s all the same to the public.

Usually when I read a book set in a library among librarians, I quickly notice many strange details. This one wasn’t too bad that way except for how much people blithely showed up to work when they weren’t scheduled. (Who does that?) They also didn’t seem to have any volunteers or Friends of the Library groups. Honey, that’s who should deal with piles of book donations, not library staff – and absolutely not on their time off.

But that didn’t bother my enjoyment of the book. Maybe they just weren’t good at using volunteers. The prologue shows us a man who’d embezzled millions of dollars going through books in this same library, and hints that his widow will turn up there. Then we flash to the present day and meet the four featured library workers.

Sophie is the branch manager. She’s Black and the single mother of an accomplished teen and she holds herself apart from her coworkers. Jonathan is a gay man who’s big and sturdy and a great help to the other library staff with his solid presence. He grew up in Austin. Blonde Astrid speaks with a Swedish accent. Six months ago, she had a fling with a library patron who then ghosted her, and she’s still sore over it. And Hazel is brand-new to the library. She came to live with her grandmother, whose health isn’t what it once was, but her grandmother urged her to get a job so she wouldn’t be in her hair at all hours.

We quickly learn that all four of these people are keeping secrets. The author consistently uses flashbacks all the way through the book to tell us about those secrets and other relevant developments. When two patrons turn up dead the same night the library hosted a board games program, it turns out that all four featured library staff were embroiled in some way with the victims or with the suspects of the crimes.

And that’s where the believability was strained for me. The connections between them mount, and it seems like that would require some big huge coincidences. Yes, some of them being in Austin are directly because of that embezzled money – but not all, and that doesn’t cover all of the interconnections.

Also, neither of the dead patrons was killed with a gun, but I assure you that the promise of the cover picture is fulfilled – at least one gun goes off before the end of the book.

So, yes, the book strained believability, but it was still a whole lot of fun. I liked the characters, I enjoyed their love interests, and it was fun reading about the secrets in their pasts. The murder mystery was solved with a thrilling conclusion. Of course, it then took two more hours of the audiobook to wrap up the details – but it was still a fun ride.

sherrythomas.com

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

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

The Duck Can’t Sleep

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

melissasweet.net

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Review of Pufflings Fly Free! by Colleen Paeff, illustrated by Linda Ólafsdóttir

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Pufflings Fly Free!

A Rescue Tale from Iceland

by Colleen Paeff
illustrated by Linda Ólafsdóttir

Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2026.
Review written September 18, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

Pufflings Fly Free! is a sweet picture book based on real events that happen every year in the Westman Islands of Iceland.

The book starts with a girl named Freya, the youngest in her family, going out late on a full-moon night on Puffling Patrol.

More than a million puffins come to the Westman Islands every year to breed. The parents leave their chicks – their pufflings – when they’re barely able to fly. Most of the pufflings make it to the ocean, where they live on the water, feast on fish, and their wings grow strong. But some unlucky babies accidentally end up on the land of the islands. There, the pufflings are vulnerable to cars, predators, and even starvation.

So – families like Freya’s go on Puffling Patrol. They capture frightened pufflings and place them safely in grass-lined boxes for the night.

Tomorrow they will check its health with a local scientist, then release the bird over the ocean. There, it will learn to fly and dive for fish, like all adult puffins. But tonight, it will stay at Freya’s house, safe from cars and cats and other kinds of danger.

Freya is good at spotting pufflings. But when it comes to catching them, she gets flustered when they flap and nip and can’t seem to hold onto them. Everyone else seems better at it than she is.

But when they’re almost done for the night, a little bird dives into the mouth of an excavator claw – an opening where only Freya can follow. This time, she speaks calming words to the puffling and to herself, and she gathers the baby up without fumbling.

The next day after the scientist checks and bands the birds, Freya gets to set her rescued puffling free to fly out over the water and grow strong.

Six pages of back matter give us more information about puffins and the Puffling Patrol. This is a lovely story packed with real-life facts that will make you want to visit Iceland.

colleenpaeff.com
lindaolafsdottir.com

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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 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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