Review of The Sand-Reckoner, by Gillian Bradshaw

Fiction Review, Historical, Old Favorites, Sonderbooks25, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

The Sand-Reckoner

by Gillian Bradshaw

Forge (Tom Doherty Associates), 2000. 351 pages.
This review written March 13, 2025, from my own copy.
Original review written August 2001.
Starred Review
2001 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #1 Fiction

I’m revisiting this wonderful book – one of my all-time favorites – as part of #Sonderbooks25, my celebration of my 25th year of writing Sonderbooks. I’m rereading at least one book from each year’s Sonderbooks Stand-outs. And while I will probably not write a new review for all of them, the first five years of reviews were posted in a different format that isn’t phone-friendly, so I want to bring this book to the main site. Does this qualify as an “Old Favorite“? The first time I read it, the book was new! But I’m thinking that enough time has gone by, and it will always be one of my lifetime favorite books, so I’m going to add it to the Old Favorites page, too.

The Sand-Reckoner was reviewed in my very first issue of Sonderbooks (back when it was an email newsletter posted in issues), and the first time I read it was while I was on vacation in Ireland. Despite not being in an idyllic location this time around, I still found the book utterly delightful.

It’s all about the character of Archimedes. He’s portrayed as a genius who gets so wrapped up in his work, he forgets about anything else – which totally fits the historical anecdotes about him. This book shows Archimedes as a young man, returning from the intellectual company of the Museum of Alexandria back to his home in Syracuse, because his father is very ill, and Syracuse is now at war with Rome.

Because of Archimedes’ geometrical genius, he’s better than anyone at building machines – including machines of war, and as he arrives, his first task is to convince the leaders of Syracuse that he can build bigger and better catapults for them. After that, the tyrant of Syracuse (He’s a good guy, but that’s what the leader was called.) must figure out how to entice Archimedes to stay, instead of going back to Alexandria, where more understood his philosophical discussions.

There’s a major subplot about Archimedes’ Roman slave and a romantic subplot as well, and the whole book immerses you in the world of ancient Syracuse with a lovable naive genius.

And, yes, this is one of my all-time favorite books. I’m a math person myself, though never as genius as Archimedes, nor so single-minded. But I do have a big soft spot for sweet nerdy engineers like him.

tor.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/sand_reckoner.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

#Sonderbooks25 – 2001 Sonderbooks Stand-outs

Sonderbooks25, Stand-outs 0

I’m celebrating my 25th year of writing Sonderbooks with #Sonderbooks25! Tonight I’ll be looking at my 2001 Sonderbooks Stand-outs.

I already talked about my plans for #Sonderbooks25. I’m afraid it’s going to take longer than I thought, especially the first five years, before I switched formats. I’m redoing the format and now the 2001 Sonderbooks Stand-outs page takes you to a phone-friendly page. Here’s the original version. Though I’m afraid all the reviews are still in the original format, better read on a computer.

Now, my plan was to look at all the Sonderbooks Stand-outs reviews and choose one book to reread from each year’s Stand-outs. For 2001, that’s got to be The Sand-Reckoner, by Gillian Bradshaw, from my very first issue of Sonderbooks, and what may have motivated me to finally start writing Sonderbooks because I wanted to tell people about it.

(It’s going to take me a couple weeks to get to read it. I’m doing a program about this year’s book award winners for other librarians on February 19th, and I’m trying to cram as many more award winners as I can before that program.)

But I didn’t realize I’d be compelled to read *all* my reviews and pages from 2001. That was the year I turned 37, so I also reread my Project 52 posts from the year I was 36 and the year I was 37. Yikes! That’s exactly the age my oldest kid is now, in 2025! My kids then turned 13 and 7 in 2001. I was reading to Timothy’s 1st and 2nd grade classrooms every couple weeks, so the picture books I read were more geared to that age. I was still very much in love with my husband, and we were reading books to both kids at bedtime. I was then a big fan of J. K. Rowling – before she revealed herself to be a transphobe.

I began writing Sonderbooks on August 4, 2001 – so the 25th anniversary won’t happen until August 4, 2026 – which gives me time to complete this project! But 2025 is the 25th year I’m choosing Sonderbooks Stand-outs, so it seems good to start celebrating!

Sonderbooks began as an email newsletter – an “ezine” I called it. Based on the fact that all the early pages have “Copyright 2003” at the bottom – I think I didn’t make it a website until 2003.  I was working half-time at Sembach Base Library in Germany, while my husband was stationed with the USAFE Band.

So because it was an ezine, I’d write five or six reviews all at the same time, every week or two (Really! I was only working part-time then and working at a library got me reading a lot. No TV because we only got German TV.) – and the reviews were a lot shorter than what I write now, each for their own page. Here’s a page of all the Back Issues of Sonderbooks. In 2001, beginning in August, I wrote the first 18 issues.

Some interesting things about those early issues:

On Sonderbooks #7, I started posting an Old Favorite with every issue. Now that I was writing about books, I wanted to mention the books I’d come back to time and time again. I didn’t necessarily reread them for the issue, but it looks like posting about them usually got me to go back and reread them. But there were so many great books I reread in 2001 because of that, I gave them separate listings in the 2001 Sonderbooks Stand-outs.  [And I want to reread them ALL again now!]

I also posted a Picture Book Pick every issue – but wasn’t as careful about designating which were favorites I’d been reading to my kids for years and which were new. The 2001 Sonderbooks only listed new picture books from 2001 – so I didn’t honor the beloved books The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, Rainy Morning or Clever Cat.

Reading through the back issues, I do think I did a good job picking Stand-outs – as those are the ones that still stand out in my mind 25 years later. I had forgotten that of course, shortly after beginning Sonderbooks, September 11 happened. So there were some books about that, and a book about Saddam Hussein and a book about the Taliban.  Little did we know what was to come.  I don’t find myself wanting to reread those.

Something I miss from the old ezines is that starting with Sonderbooks #9, I put a Quotation of the Week at the end of each issue, a quotation from that week’s reading. (This later evolved into my Sonderquotes blog.) By far my favorite from the first batch of Quotations is the one from Sonderbooks #17:

“Always my days have seemed to me too short to achieve my desire.”
–Aragorn, in The Return of the King, by J. R. R. Tolkien

I keep chanting that to myself as I’m staying up too late – and I feel suddenly noble of purpose instead of just someone who’s trying to do too much.

For the Stand-outs – there were so many “Old Favorites” that I still love so much! I want to reread them all! (Though most I’ve read again sometime since 2001.)

And there were some new favorites that I didn’t remember I’d discovered in 2001 – notably The Thief and The Queen of Attolia, by Megan Whalen Turner; Enchantress from the Stars, by Sylvia Louise Engdahl; and Dark Lord of Derkholm and Year of the Griffin, by Diana Wynne Jones.  Yes, I’ve read those again in the time since.

That was when I loved reading memoirs about moving to a place with another culture, and I gave those books their own section on the 2001 Sonderbooks Stand-outs page, beginning with Extra Virgin, by Annie Hawes. I want to read more of those again! And that reminds me – many of my favorite books from 2001, I’d read before I started writing Sonderbooks, so they never did get reviews, and the link just goes to their Amazon listing. Now I’d love to read all of those and give them a review!

A nonfiction book that stuck with me all those years and I still think about frequently is Suburban Nation. It explains why your typical suburban neighborhood, built for cars instead of people, doesn’t feel inviting to pedestrians (and why places built like German villages do – though they didn’t use those words).

And probably still the best travel book I’ve ever read is For the Love of Ireland. That was the year we got to spend three weeks and traveled all around Ireland – and for me the trip was accompanied by stories and essays from each region, thanks to this book. It made me feel like I was going deeper. I want to read the book again – though then I may be compelled to go back to Ireland.

I did reread all the picture books listed in the Stand-outs – they are all still available in my library. And they all still bring me a smile. Well, except maybe The Three Golden Keys. Maybe I was in too much of a hurry when I read it this time? I suspect I loved it in 2001 because that was also the year I got to hear Peter Sis speak at a writer’s conference in Paris. So I was well-disposed to love his book. My favorite picture book this time around was probably The Three Pigs – and I’m proud that we discovered it before it won the Caldecott Medal, so our family copy has no medal on the cover.

So yes!  Those are my thoughts on celebrating my 25th year of writing Sonderbooks by revisiting the reviews I wrote in 2001 and my 2001 Sonderbooks Stand-outs.

What were you reading in 2001?  Have you read any of my Stand-outs?

Review of The Daycare Myth, by Dan Wuori

Current Issues, Nonfiction Review, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

The Daycare Myth

What we Get Wrong About Early Care and Education
(and What We Should Do About It)

by Dan Wuori

Teachers College Press, 2024. 125 pages.
Review written January 2, 2025, from my own copy, ordered via Amazon.com.
Starred Review
2024 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #2 More Nonfiction

I read this book very quickly at the end of 2024, because I was quite sure it would end up being a Sonderbooks Stand-out, and I didn’t want to wait a year to highlight it.

Dan Wuori has run my favorite account on Twitter for years, and now he’s on Facebook and Bluesky as well. His daily posts (my favorite way to start my day) include an adorable video of a baby or toddler – and then Dr. Wuori explains how the video shows the brain development going on in the child.

And that’s what’s going on in this book, too. Dan Wuori is a spokesperson for babies’ brains! He explains that the years from prenatal to three years old are the most important in a human’s life because our brains are wiring to learn.

And what is the Daycare Myth? It’s the pervasive tendency to downplay this importance and treat places that tend babies and toddlers as only needing to meet their outer physical needs. When the truth is, they are learning centers and need to provide a stable environment for those tiny brains to make the neural connections that are so vital.

That the early years are for caring – and not education – is a notion long (if mostly inadvertently) perpetuated by policymakers. Even those seeking to advance investments in early childhood are prone to framing their arguments around a desire that children “come to kindergarten ready to learn” – as if this is when and where learning begins.

This book is short, and it starts by effectively making the case, using research results, that those first years are vitally important for brain development, and investing in education for those years will pay off abundantly as those children grow older.

All of the ideas in this book are based around “The Three Simple Truths of Early Development”:

(1) Learning begins in utero and never stops.

(2) The period from prenatal to age 3 is a uniquely consequential window of human development during which the fundamental architecture of the brain is “wired.”

(3) Optimal brain development is dependent on stable, nurturing relationships with highly engaged adults.

This is a book on policy, but all along, the author makes a bipartisan case. The benefits of investing in early childhood education will pay off for all of us. He’s not talking about government taking it over completely – and shows why that wouldn’t actually work. But there are things that government can do to help, and things both political parties can and should get behind.

And all of it is based on his strong case that early childhood education is a public good.

We are already paying for the repercussions of not investing in it. It will benefit everyone if we give our attention to this time that makes the most difference in people’s lives.

The chapter titles give you an idea of the flow of Dr. Wuori’s argument:

(1) Daycare Doesn’t Exist

(2) Something for Everyone: The Bipartisan Case for Early Childhood Investment

(3) America’s Failing Child Care Market

(4) How Not to Solve the Child Care Crisis: Imperfect Solutions and Policy Pitfalls

(5) A Wholesale Transformation of America’s Early Childhood Landscape

And that chapter about solutions has some great ideas and even some case studies of states with “promising practices” as they tackle the problem.

Now, you might think I have no skin in the game – my kids are grown adults. But I do remember what it was like, and it feels like I only recently got out of the debt we got into when we tried to get by with me working only part-time so I could be with our kids. (Technically, I suppose it was more recent things, but let’s just say that this set us back.)

And he does talk about all the scenarios. It’s a public good to support babies’ brain development in stable, nurturing relationships, whether that’s at home with their own parent or in an early education setting. In an appendix at the back, he gives ideas for reaching out to elected leaders, especially for parents and professionals.

Bottom line: Read this book!

More than any partisan book I’ve recommended on my website, I hope that people of all political persuasions will give thought to the ideas Dr. Wuori presents and implement as many as they can. Let’s use public policy to promote this public good.

As Dr. Wuori puts it:

As we wrap up our conversation, I want to take just a moment to reiterate why I wrote this book and what I hope it might help to accomplish. If you take nothing else away from our time together, let it be this: The early years are uniquely consequential – and infinitely more impportant than our nation’s public policy might lead you to believe.

tcpress.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/daycare_myth.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of The Bletchley Riddle, by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

The Bletchley Riddle

by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin

Viking, 2024. 394 pages.
Review written January 2, 2025, from my own copy, sent to me by the publisher.
Starred Review
2024 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #5 More Children’s Fiction

I quickly read this book at the end of 2024, after finishing my reading for the Cybils Awards, because I had a strong suspicion it would end up making my Sonderbooks Stand-outs list, and I didn’t want to wait a year. For one thing, it’s about code-breaking at Bletchley Park during World War II, and for another, two stellar writers collaborated on it. Ruta Sepetys specializes in detailed historical fiction, and Steve Sheinkin writes engaging historical nonfiction. Both have won numerous awards for their work.

This is the year for World War II books! I was glad I read this book after reading Candace Fleming’s nonfiction The Enigma Girls, because that gave the nonfiction side of what happened at Bletchley Park, outside of London – a top secret code-breaking operation with many, many different aspects. The Bletchley Riddle fictionalizes that story and gives us a 19-year-old brother Jakob working at Bletchley Park with his 14-year-old sister Lizzie.

The story is engaging – pulling us into real-life spy work. It begins in 1940, before Britain has been pulled into war with Germany, but when they are expecting it. And the book opens with half-American Lizzie giving her chaperone the slip. She leaves him on a ship bound for America, while she escapes her rich American grandmother’s plans and shows up at the address in London where her brother has been receiving mail. Receiving mail, but never answering it.

Their mother had worked for the American embassy, but recently traveled to Poland and was there when the Germans attacked. She did not return, so she’s been presumed dead – but Lizzie doesn’t believe it for a minute. When she’s offered a messenger job at Bletchley Park, where Jakob is working, she hopes that being on the scene she might get leads on what has become of her mother.

Now, after reading The Enigma Girls, it felt a little unrealistic that Jakob would have any idea what was going on in other parts of the estate, but it’s not like they gave away a whole lot. I also had a hard time believing 14-year-old Lizzie would be hired as a messenger, taking messages between buildings – but the authors specifically mention in a historical note that Bletchley Park in fact hired messengers as young as 14.

But the story does put in details about how the team at Bletchley made breakthroughs in decoding German messages – including using a replica enigma machine smuggled out of Poland by three mathematicians. The details of the codebreaking were really fun, and we’ve got an additional mystery of what happened to Jakob and Lizzie’s mother. Oh, and Lizzie also wants to continue to thwart her grandmother’s plans to send her to America, so she has to elude the chaperone more than once. There are actual historical characters sprinkled throughout the story, and I loved a diversion involving Alan Turing, which the Historical Note tells us is completely based in truth.

Now, I did wonder if MI6 really would have been suspicious of folks working at Bletchley Park. There’s a shadowy character surveilling Lizzie and Jakob because of their mother, which almost felt like one thread too many, but I think in a middle grade novel this simply ups the suspense.

I did have a hard time deciding how to rank this book on my Stand-outs against Max in the House of Spies by Adam Gidwitz, and on another day, this one might have come out ahead. They were both about puzzles and spy activities in London. Max has more of a feel of the children’s classic The Great Brain and also addressed anti-Semitism in Britain at the time, but it felt a touch less believable. (I think Max was 12 – would they really let him be a spy?) And this one was simply full of authentic historical details – I just thought the puzzles were a little more fun for the reader in Max. (And remember, Sonderbooks Stand-outs are not chosen based on literary merit, but simply on how much I enjoyed the reading experience.) Bottom line, this is a wonderful spy novel for middle grade readers, full of cool spy problems and firmly rooted in historical fact.

RutaSepetys.com
SteveSheinkin.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/bletchley_riddle.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Sonderbooks Stand-outs 2024

Stand-outs 0

Happy New Year!

I never like to list my favorite books of the year until the year is completely over – so choosing Sonderbooks Stand-outs is my favorite New Year’s Day activity.

During 2024, I read 470 books, distributed this way:

Rereads: 7
Adult Fiction: 36
Adult Nonfiction: 32
Teen Fiction: 80
Teen Nonfiction: 10
Children’s Fiction: 50
Children’s Nonfiction: 69
Picture Books: 186

At the end of the year, I choose and rank the ones that stand out in my mind. This is not a measure of literary merit. It is based on how much I remember enjoying reading the book, not how much I feel I should have enjoyed reading the book. And, yes, I’m afraid the order especially may depend somewhat on my mood when I make the list, subject to my whims.

Here’s the bottom line: These are books I loved. They are worth reading.

[Please remember, readers: I only review books I like. With so many books read, these books are true stand-outs.]

Also be aware that this list includes reading for the Mathical Book Prize, Capitol Choices, and CYBILS Award YA Speculative Fiction. But is completely separate from how I might vote in a committee (when I very much do consider literary merit). Also, for the third year now in 2025, after the ALA Youth Media Awards are announced, I try to read as many winners as possible and then present a program about the awards for other librarians. So many of these books I loved are last year’s winners.

I have switched to reading far more Audiobooks than ever before in 2024, and I caught up on some books I’d been meaning to read for ages, so there’s really a mix of publication years in my list. Oh, and I combined the 7 volumes that I’ve read so far of The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion into one item, because it’s really one continued story, and otherwise it wasn’t fair to the other books.

I make my lists long, and split Speculative Fiction (my favorite) from the rest, so as to not have to choose. But look at how many I’m choosing from and you will realize these are true stand-outs!

Now go and check out the Sonderbooks Stand-outs 2024!

Review of Bei Bei Goes Home, by Cheryl Bardoe

Children's Nonfiction Review, Science, Stand-outs 0

Bei Bei Goes Home

A Panda Story

by Cheryl Bardoe

Smithsonian Kids (Candlewick Entertainment), 2021. 44 pages.
Review written March 5, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

The only thing cuter than a book full of photographs of pandas is one full of photos of a baby panda. Bei Bei Goes Home tells the story of the giant panda born at the National Zoo in Washington, DC, in August 2015.

Who knew that a giant pandas are minuscule at birth? The pictures of mother Mei Xiang cradling the tiny baby emphasize how tiny Bei Bei was as a cub. The reader gets the whole story of his birth, keeping him healthy (had to wait until Mei Xiang put him down for a minute), choosing his name, getting vaccinated, learning to get around and play.

At one year old, they had a traditional Chinese ceremony and Bei Bei chose luck and friendship to represent his future. In multiple photographs on every spread, we see Bei Bei exploring his habitat, playing with toys, and growing quickly.

Then, as referred to in the title, at four years old, we see Bei Bei shipped to China.

Where Bei Bei lives now is part of the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda. Researchers there hope to raise panda cubs who can succeed in the wild. Bei Bei cannot do this himself because he is too comfortable around humans. Keepers in China have begun donning panda costumes to help raise cubs who will be released into the wild. After Bei Bei is fully mature, around six or seven years, he may become the father to such a cub.

This is a book to enjoy looking at, and you’ll pick up plenty of information about giant pandas along the way.

candlewick.com

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Return of the Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner, read by Steve West

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Return of the Thief

by Megan Whalen Turner
read by Steve West

Blackstone Audio, 2020. 11 hours, 22 minutes.
Review written April 19, 2021, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

I once heard Megan Whalen Turner say that she feels she has failed if people only read her books once. It is now true that I have not read any of her books only once. The plotting is so intricate, reading them again gives you new appreciation of things you missed the first time. And listening to Steve West read is always a treat. His voice is wonderful to listen to, and when he’s reading my favorite book from 2020, all the more so.

The beginning books in the Queen’s Thief series have stunning reversals at the end. This last book is more a series of clever, small twists. This is the culmination of the series, so I won’t give away what happens except to say that the Medes finally invade, and the three kingdoms of the peninsula must work together to stop them, which is a challenge in itself.

The only thing better than reading this book is listening to Steve West read it.

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Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of The Next New Syrian Girl, by Ream Shukairy

Contemporary, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Next New Syrian Girl

by Ream Shukairy

Little, Brown and Company, 2023. 409 pages.
Review written March 27, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review
2023 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #10 More Teen Fiction

The Next New Syrian Girl beautiful interlaces the story of Khadija, a Syrian American girl about to graduate from high school, with Leene, a Syrian refugee girl the same age who has come to Detroit with her mother.

Khadija chafes under the control of her mother and finds relief at a local gym, where she learns to box, wearing her hijab. But when Khadija’s mother opens their home to Leene and her mother – and then holds Leene up as what a Syrian daughter should be like – Khadija isn’t pleased.

But as the girls get to know each other, they find each has something to learn from the other. Both girls are mourning the Syria they knew before war struck, but each had very different experiences.

I like the way Khadija wears a hijab but is not at all stereotypical. The characters read like distinctive individuals, so you feel like you’re getting to know real people when you read this book. A lot of the plot hinges on an enormous coincidence, but that coincidence means both girls are highly motivated to go to great lengths to make things right, so it did further the plot.

This debut stirred my heart and opened my eyes.

Reamshukairy.com
Lbyr.com
Thenovl.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/next_new_syrian_girl.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Rough Sleepers, by Tracy Kidder

Audiobooks, Biography, Nonfiction Review, Stand-outs, True Stories 0

Rough Sleepers

Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People

by Tracy Kidder
read by the Author

Books on Tape, 2023. 8 hours, 42 minutes.
Review written January 3, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2023 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #6 More Nonfiction

I’ve read a few of Tracy Kidder’s in-depth biographies now: Among Schoolchildren, Strength in What Remains, and Mountains Beyond Mountains. Like those amazing books, this one takes a deep dive into a man who has given his life to helping people who need it.

In this case, we’re looking at Dr. Jim O’Connell, who got drafted into a program of providing medical care for the homeless in Boston after he’d finished his internship. His plan was to simply help out for a year, but the people there and the need pulled him in, and his work has gone on for decades.

Tracy Kidder traveled along with Dr. O’Connell and gives a picture of the day-to-day and night-to-night work he and his organization do. They’ve got a van that goes out to rough sleepers, bringing blankets and cocoa. They’ve got a home where people can go when they’re discharged from the hospital but not yet able to care for themselves. Most of all, the homeless people of Boston have doctors looking out for them, caring for them. I’m honestly a little envious – but at the same time glad that this vulnerable population has people in their corner.

And the portrayal of Jim O’Connell makes him shine like Mr. Rogers — someone who sees people, who cares about his patients. He sees them as wonderful people, looking far beyond their difficult circumstances.

The book doesn’t sugarcoat the situation. Many of their patients die, and sleeping rough is still associated with shorter lives. Even efforts to get them housing doesn’t always work because the patients don’t necessarily know how to conduct themselves in that situation. We also get stories of some of the striking characters, with all their complexity, whose lives have been touched by Dr. O’Connell’s work and whose lives in turn touched others.

This doctor shines because he sees the beauty and wonder in vulnerable people and cares for them. This book shines because it helps the reader see that, too.

tracykidder.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/rough_sleepers.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Sing Me to Sleep, by Gabi Burton

Fantasy, Stand-outs, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Sing Me to Sleep

by Gabi Burton

Bloomsbury, 2023. 417 pages.
Review written July 9, 2023, from an Advance Review Copy sent by the publisher.
Starred Review
2023 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #10 Teen Speculative Fiction

Sing Me to Sleep is the story of Saoirse, a siren living in a kingdom ruled by fae, where her existence is illegal. Fortunately, she has access to magic that enables her to change her appearance. By night, she sets aside that magic and works as a hired assassin. She has the power to sing to her marks and convince them to kill themselves. This satisfies the instincts that being near water rouse in her – water calling to her to kill.

By day, working in the training academy, Saoirse has posed as a fae who has no affinity for water or fire or air, even though they are generally despised, so that her power to control water will not be noticed. Then she must work to outperform all the other trainees. But when she achieves the top ranking, she is assigned to serve the Prince, part of the regime she despises.

The reader is of course not surprised when romantic tension sparks between them, despite Saoirse’s disguise with a scar across her face. But this leads Saoirse into conflict about the people she’s been asked to kill and the goals of her employer. The question of who her employer is becomes more important. Did the people she killed deserve death? Does she want the monarchy overthrown if it means the prince will die? And who, exactly, can she trust?

The world-building in this book is expertly done, without info dumps, as we gradually come to see there are more nuances than simply the monarchy is bad and needs to come down.

All the characters in this book have black or brown skin – a simple given, which is refreshing. Saoirse is stunningly beautiful – that’s her deadly weapon, and it’s nice seeing a black girl in that role.

The book does come to a finish at a nice place – but provides a lead-in to more. That’s how I like fantasy series to work. A danger was averted and the kingdom saved – but there’s still more to be done. And I’m looking forward to reading on.

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