Review of Ghostsmith, by Nicki Pau Preto, read by Molly Hanson

Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

Ghostsmith

by Nicki Pau Preto
read by Molly Hanson

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2024. 13 hours, 34 minutes.
Review written August 30, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.

I am delighted to report that this epic fantasy series from Nicki Pau Preto ended up being a duology, not a trilogy, so I have happily finished the complete story.

I enjoyed the second volume even more than the first. The plot is still a bit convoluted. There are betrayals and reversals, but it felt organic to the story. She doesn’t do a whole lot of catch-up, and it was almost a year since I read Bonesmith, so basically I took what they said was happening at face value and pretty much gave up trying to fully understand how the magic worked. And it did feel like it was hanging together more than before – maybe because there was less need to explain things in the second book, and the characters understood how the magic works and used it.

I also had gotten over the coincidences from the first book – mainly that our main character Wren is dealing with long-lost family. I was reminded of one unlikely thing when another character listened and watched at the very same door where Wren had gotten her earth-shaking revelations and this character also didn’t get caught. But this character didn’t learn as crucial information, so the unlikelihood didn’t bother me nearly as much.

The story itself had me listening eagerly the whole way, wondering how in the world our crew was going to come out on top. In fact, there was only about an hour left before I figured out that this wasn’t, in fact, a trilogy, where everything would be terrible by the end of the second book. (Hence my joy in learning it’s a duology.)

Wren’s trained all her life as a Bonesmith, but learned in the first book that she inherited from her mother the powers of the Ghostsmiths. Bonesmiths can manipulate the bones of the dead, but Ghostsmiths can manipulate their ghosts. In the first book, Wren and her companions learned what had gone wrong in the world and in the Breachlands and that there were powerful people (coincidentally related to them) trying to get even more control. In this second book, they’re trying to shut down the source of leaking magic and thwart those who want to take power. But there are not many resisting with them. And those they are fighting have an incredible amount of power.

It all ended up being a wonderful yarn with a satisfying ending. The snarky and scrappy win out!

nickipaupreto.com

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Review of The Sherlock Society, by James Ponti

Children's Fiction Review, Mystery, Starred Review 0

The Sherlock Society

by James Ponti

Aladdin, September 2024. 336 pages.
Review written June 29, 2024, from an Advance Reader Copy sent by the publisher.
Starred Review

James Ponti has a series called City Spies that is wildly popular at our library – I have to keep ordering more copies. So when I saw that he’s starting a new series, I wanted to see what the fuss was about.

The Sherlock Society is a fun four-children-working-together middle grade mystery. I can understand the wide appeal. Brother and sister Alex and Zoe Sherlock decide to make money during the summer by solving mysteries, with the help of two friends and their grandpa – who used to be an investigative reporter, and has lots of tips – and a car.

The making money part may not work out so well for them, but while trying to unearth Al Capone’s treasure, they find a more pressing mystery – who is dumping chemicals in the Everglades? Is it their fault that following the clues leads them into danger? And can they find the evidence to actually land the crooks in jail?

The mystery has lots of action, good tips from their grandpa, and a believable story even with kid detectives. Four children on an adventure is classic middle grade fare, and I love the way this author pulls it off. I’m sure he’s got another hit on his hands.

JamesPonti.com
simonandschuster.com/kids

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Review of Hunting Magic Eels, by Richard Beck

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Hunting Magic Eels

Recovering an Enchanted Faith in a Skeptical Age

by Richard Beck

Broadleaf Books, 2021. 237 pages.
Review written August 21, 2024, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review

I picked up this book at exactly the right time. I’d just finished a book I was reading during my daily devotional time and was looking for one to bring on a retreat I was attending in North Carolina with Lorna Byrne. Lorna Byrne is the author of Angels in my Hair and has all her life been able to see and talk with angels. My natural tendency is to bring skepticism to her teachings – and this book helped me get out of my head and listen with my heart to her words.

Here’s a section from the Introduction where the author explains the magic eels of the title:

Llanddwyn Island was a famous site of pilgrimage because of its holy well. Inhabiting the well were enchanted eels that could predict your romantic future. According to the legend, if the eels disturbed a token thrown into the well, your lover would be faithful for life. Not surprisingly, the church became very wealthy due to all the pilgrimages. Who needs premarital counseling when you’ve got magic eels?

Today, there is no longer a well there with magic eels. And we hear the story with skepticism and condescension.

Five hundred years ago, life was enchanted. God existed, and the devil was real. The world teemed with angels and demons. There were magical creatures and dark, occult forces. It was a world of holy wells and magic eels.

But with the Protestant Reformation and the beginning of the Enlightenment, the world – in the West, at least – has grown increasingly disenchanted. We live in a world dominated by science and technology. Increasing numbers of us don’t believe in God anymore, to say nothing about believing in the devil or angels. We don’t expect miracles. We know that stage magicians aren’t sorcerers, that there’s a rational explanation behind their “tricks” and “illusions.” The world of St. Dwynwen is viewed as quirky and quaint but also naive and superstitious. We’ve grown up and left those fairy tales behind.

This is the topic of the book. Recovering enchantment with our faith. Getting it centralized not so much in our heads as in our hearts. Experiencing and encountering God, rather than just knowing about God.

And yes, there’s a section at the end about discerning the spirits – because not everything “spiritual” is of God. But overall, the book is about paying attention and being willing to have some enchantment with your faith.

The final page sums up much of where this book takes you:

And so, dear reader, this is my final encouragement: Love like the sunshine and the rain. Ask forgiveness of the birds. Be a drop more gracious, tender, and kind. Go gently in this mean world. Offer up prayers of Thanks, Help, and Wow. Recover your sacramental wonder. Count your blessings. Look to the horizon in the Valley of Dry Bones. Remember that you are a child of God. Rush to kiss the lepers. Listen to the voice in the night calling you to the cross. Turn yur attention to the God dancing right in front of you. God is everywhere present, breathing on this world and turning it to fire. Where you stand is the gateway to heaven. The world is shining like transfiguration. Even the eels.

It only takes a little willingness to see.

If you’re a Christian whose life seems lacking in enchantment lately, or even if, like me, you want encouragement to believe in mystical things like angels or miracles, to get your faith more in your heart than in your head – this book will encourage you along that path.

And I’m choosing to believe that my timing in reading this book wasn’t a coincidence, but was from God.

experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/
broadleafbooks.com

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Review of Nine Liars, by Maureen Johnson

Audiobooks, Mystery, Starred Review, Suspense, Teen Fiction Review 0

Nine Liars

by Maureen Johnson
read by Kate Rudd

Katherine Tegen Books, 2022. 11 hours, 2 minutes.
Review written August 3, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I’m happy that I’m caught up reading Maureen Johnson’s Stevie Bell books. They began with a trilogy, and teenager Stevie Bell looking into a long-ago mystery at Ellingham Academy, the elite private school she was attending in Vermont – with more people turning up dead in the present. After solving that mystery, Stevie has become internet famous as a detective. In The Box in the Woods, she solves another cold case at a camp over the summer – with new deaths, of course, and in this book there’s yet another cold case for Stevie to solve.

This time the mystery happened in England in 1995. In the present day, it’s November, and Stevie’s in school in Vermont, trying to keep a long distance relationship going with David, who is studying in London. Then he pulls strings to get Stevie and their friends a week in London in a custom study abroad program. No surprise that Stevie gets pulled into a cold case – this time it’s because of David’s English friend’s aunt. Also no surprise that not everyone involved in the present day investigation will stay alive.

I enjoyed the way the mystery was presented – with plenty of chapters taking us back to 1995 and the group of nine theater students who’d just graduated from Cambridge having a house party at a manor house – and having a wild time until two were found dead.

I know that Maureen Johnson has spent a lot of time in London, and her writing about the students in London brought me right back to London myself. I like the way she gives intriguing mysteries to these distinctive characters we’ve come to care about. So while you could read this book on its own – the mystery is self-contained – why would you want to tackle it without enjoying all the history of Stevie and David and their friends?

maureenjohnsonbooks.com

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Review of Gross as a Snot Otter, by Jess Keating

Children's Nonfiction Review, Science, Starred Review 0

Gross as a Snot Otter

Discovering the World’s Most Disgusting Animals

by Jess Keating
with illustrations by David DeGrand

Alfred A. Knopf, 2019. 44 pages.
Review written April 10, 2020, from a library book
Starred Review

Jess Keating’s books from The World of Weird Animals series are the easiest books in the world to book talk! I used Pink Is for Blobfish back in 2016. I’d ordered Gross as a Snot Otter to booktalk this year, but didn’t actually get around to reading it until the library closed for the coronavirus. I was right! It will be perfect for booktalking. I hope I get the chance to do so at least next year! (Spoiler alert: this didn’t happen.)

All you have to do to intrigue kids with this book is open to a random page and read off the facts about the disgusting animal featured there. In some cases, the animals themselves aren’t as gross as a snot otter, but in those cases, they have some kind of disgusting habit.

Take herring, for example, who communicate with each other by farting. Or Siberian chipmunks, which gnaw on the flesh of dead snakes and rub it onto their bodies so they smell like the predator. Or Surinam toads, whose mothers incubate their eggs on their backs – growing skin over them. Later, up to 100 toadlets at a time come popping out of her back.

Each spread has a photograph of the gross animal on one side, then facts about the animal with a silly cartoon on the other, with more of an explanation of what’s gross about them. This book is a sure kid-pleaser and will arm them with a plethora of weird scientific facts about a wide variety of animals.

JessKeating.com
DeGrandLand.com

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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

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.

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Review of The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Volume 3, by Beth Brower

Fiction Review, Historical 0

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion

Volume 3

by Beth Brower

Rhydon Press, 2020. 217 pages.
Review written July 16, 2024, from my own copy, a birthday gift.
Starred Review

Again, I first have to thank my sister Becky for giving me these delightful books for my birthday. I was a little dismayed when I realized it wasn’t a 3-volume work, but more of a serial – indeed like a journal. But the good side of that is that the fun doesn’t end soon!

Volume 3 is thicker. It covers two months, like the others, this time July 1st through August 31st, 1883. In this volume a new sort of subplot was introduced — revealing another quirk of St. Crispian’s. It turns out that every July 15, a secret performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is performed – and those who want to attend must follow a series of clues in order to win tickets. Emma and the odious Cousin Archibald (who lives in her home at Lapis Lazuli House) become temporary allies in order to obtain the prize. But alas! There is a disaster with repercussions that last the rest of the book.

And while this is going on, Emma finds out more about the Mysterious Tenant. She attends parties to be a foil for her cousin Arabella, some of them being tedious and some frightfully interesting. She deals with the scoundrel Jack, her friend Mary’s fake cousin. And she’s in more interesting situations with intriguing people.

And as the volumes go on, I really shouldn’t say too much about each one, because I don’t want to give spoilers from what’s gone before. This isn’t exactly a Jane Austen read-alike, because Emma is far too unconventional and interested in so much more than finding a man. (Oh, and she’s in London about 75 years after Jane Austen’s heroines.) But I can safely say that if you love Jane Austen’s books, chances are good you’ll love Emma M. Lion as well.

bethbrower.com

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Review of Beto’s Berry Treasure, by Jenny Lacika, illustrated by Addy Rivera Sonda

Contemporary, Mathematical, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Beto’s Berry Treasure

by Jenny Lacika
illustrated by Addy Rivera Sonda

Storytelling Math (Charlesbridge), October 8, 2024. 32 pages.
Review written July 19, 2024, from my own copy given to me at ALA Annual Conference.
Starred Review

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Charlesbridge’s Storytelling Math series. In fact, I went up to their booth and gushed about them on the last day of this year’s ALA Annual Conference – and they gave me one of their copies of this newest entry in the series!

All the books have a cultural element, in this case two Mexican American kids who speak some Spanish. They also present in very simple terms an early math concept, with tips for parents to extend the ideas at the back. And it’s always found in a picture book story that will engage kids even if it weren’t teaching math concepts.

Beto’s Berry Treasure is about spatial relationships and making and following maps.

Beto wants his big sister Cora to play tea party with him, but she only wants to play pirate. So Beto decides to make a pirate map of hidden treasure – the treasure being berries for the tea party.

But Beto’s first tries don’t lead Cora to the treasure! How can he fix it?

And will there be any berries left by the time Cora finds the treasure?

This simple story is a fantastic conversation – and play – starter. And believe it or not, spatial relationships and being able to give step-by-step instructions (or a map) are early math concepts.

Another brilliant entry in the series.

jennylacika.com
astound.us/addy-rivera-sonda
charlesbridge.com/storytellingmath

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Review of Throne of Glass, by Sarah J. Maas

Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

Throne of Glass

by Sarah J. Maas
read by Elizabeth Evans

Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021. 13 hours, 4 minutes.
Review written August 19, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.

Sarah J. Maas’s books are wildly popular at our library, so that we’ve hit the cap on some of the ebooks and can’t keep up with the holds list. I decided to see what all the fuss is about and started in on the Throne of Glass series. I followed the order I found online and read the prequel novellas, collected in The Assassin’s Blade first, which may have taken a little bit of mystery from the main character, Celaena Sardothien, in this book. But I don’t think it was a bad thing to already know her and be impressed with her skills. I also know her history and the people she reasonably holds grudges against – though she doesn’t know who betrayed her and sent her into slavery in the mines, and I do.

At the start of this book, the prince of the empire has taken 18-year-old Celaena out of the mines, where she’s been slaving for a year, surviving despite the high odds against that. The prince tells her she has a chance to win her freedom. He is sponsoring her in a contest to determine the king’s champion. If she loses, she’ll have to go back to the mines. If she wins, she’ll have to serve the brutal king – responsible for killing her parents when his army destroyed her people – for four years as champion.

So the stakes are high. I already knew about Celaena’s incredible skills, so her confidence didn’t feel misplaced to me, but she’s up against some powerful opponents, and she has plenty of work to do to prepare. On top of that, contestants begin dying – killed brutally with their insides ripped out.

Celaena does have allies in the palace. The prince chose her because he knew it would anger his father. He has put his captain of the guard in charge of monitoring her progress. And Celaena befriends a visiting princess, whose language she learned in the mines, where so many of those who spoke it were also enslaved.

The story is absorbing with its high-stakes contest. I’d heard that Sarah Maas’s books have explicit sex, but not this series, or at least not this book. There is some kissing, but not a lot. In fact, the book seems to be setting up a love triangle, but that kind of fizzles out at the end, and I’m expecting more to develop in one side of that triangle in the next book.

Although I did enjoy the book, it hit a number of my pet peeves. Not badly enough that I stopped listening (as I have been known to do), but enough that I’m withholding a star. The first was the terrible king with a noble prince for a son trope. Yes, the king is awful, responsible for the deaths of thousands – but the prince is different. Really!

The second pet peeve this book hit was the Noble Thief trope. Someone was forced into living a life of crime, but they’re good at heart and when good things happen we all cheer. Disney’s Aladdin popularized this one. In this book, our main character isn’t a thief – she’s an assassin. An incredibly skilled assassin, the best in the kingdom, at seventeen years old. She knows multiple ways to kill people with her bare hands – and yet it’s not her fault. She was taken in by an assassin and forced to learn the trade. And she learned it well, so that despite her small size, she can kill almost anyone. And she’s good at heart. Really!

The third one was about writing style. The point of view didn’t stick with the main character, but dipped into other heads here and there. It wasn’t often enough to really make them viewpoint characters, and it felt a little undisciplined. Tied in with that, the writing felt a little overdramatic. Yeah, sure, she’s the best assassin ever. A little more telling than showing. Though it’s possible that was from the way the narrator read it – but I think it was in the words themselves.

Despite all this, I think I’m going to continue with the series (though I may have to wait until after this year’s Cybils Awards to read on). Celaena is growing on me. I think there are six more books in the series, and I’m hoping eventually the brutal king will get his comeuppance. Also, Celaena’s been through a lot. I’d already love to see her find love and friendship. And have her loved one not die horribly right away. Though I do have a feeling she’s in for a lot more trouble first.

sarahjmaas.com

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Review of Illuminations, by T. Kingfisher

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

Illuminations

by T. Kingfisher

Argyll Productions, 2022. 260 pages.
Review written April 17, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

I need to read more books by T. Kingfisher! I checked this one out because of how thoroughly I enjoyed A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, and then picked it up and got it read after a librarian mentioned T. Kingfisher as one of her favorite authors. I wasn’t quite as big a fan of this one, but it’s got the same flavor of a whole lot of fun in a magical kingdom.

Rosa Mandolini is almost eleven years old, a member of Studio Mandolini, surrounded by artist family members who do the important magical work of illumination.

The Mandolinis painted pictures of radishes with wings to ward off sickness, and they painted great droopy-faced hounds with halos to protect against burglars. They painted flaming swords on shingles to keep storms from blowing the roofs off houses, and they painted very strange pictures of men with hummingbird heads to keep venomous snakes out of people’s gardens.

And every one of these paintings worked, although they would wear out over time. Sometimes the illumination had to be very large. It was no good getting a tiny painting of a blue-eyed cat to keep mice away if you had a barn that was already full of rats. The tiny painting would keep mice out of your pantry, but to keep them out of a barn, you needed a painting six feet high with a blue-eyed cat the size of a tiger.

But one day, when Rosa is bored, she goes searching for a stuffed armadillo model for her uncle in their disorganized storeroom — and discovers a box with an illumination that makes her walk away and forget about it. When she manages to overcome the forgetting about it part, her next challenge is to figure out how to get the box open. When she does, the crow illumination on the box cover comes alive — and something inside the box escapes. The crow informs her that she’s just let loose an evil creature that’s been imprisoned for two hundred years and will proceed to suck the magic out of all of their illuminations.

The crow is absolutely right. And hijinks ensue. Eventually her whole family needs to get in on the act of stopping the evil mandrake root running around the corners of their studio.

It’s all told in a light-hearted way with eccentric characters, a creative magic system, and a kid who wants to not get in trouble — but also contribute to the family.

redwombatstudio.com

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Review of The Woman They Could Not Silence, by Kate Moore

Audiobooks, History, Nonfiction Review, True Stories 0

The Woman They Could Not Silence

One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear

by Kate Moore
read by the Author

Blackstone Publishing, 2021. 14 hours, 37 minutes.
Review written August 1, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.

This book is both fascinating and horrifying. It’s the story of Elizabeth Packard, whose husband had her locked up in an insane asylum for three years beginning in 1860. It’s about her fight for her freedom, for custody of her children, and ultimately to reform laws and the treatment of the “insane.”

The story was hard to listen to, because Elizabeth was locked up basically because she developed religious views that disagreed with her pastor husband. And she was too vocal about them. Everything he did was completely legal, and he was able to have her committed to an asylum on his say-so. Even more horrifying was the later corroboration from the superintendent of the facility that he was convinced she was insane, because he based that assurance completely on her opinions, which he did not agree with.

Or another example of her obvious insanity was that she was angry with her husband – the same man who’d put her in the insane asylum when she was completely sane. Because it’s not “womanly” to hate your husband.

The book also told about the horrors of the asylum. At first, Elizabeth was in the best ward, but as punishment for speaking up, she got moved to a much worse situation and witnessed much abuse and many horrible things. Any letters she received or sent were confiscated. And she never had any idea how long she would be incarcerated.

Eventually, she was able to get a trial. The way the doctors used her ideas as proof that she was insane was chilling to me. It reminded me of present-day people telling transgender folks they are “confused” – indeed the book included a postscript about modern women being called insane or crazy for their political views.

After she was free, Elizabeth Packard went on to work to change the laws – so that women couldn’t be incarcerated on the word of their husbands, so that insane asylums had to be independently inspected, and many other issues. She was free, but she used her powerful voice to help the many others she’d seen who had been victims of the current system.

Not realizing the narrator was the author, I wondered why they picked a narrator with a British accent, but as usual I very much enjoyed listening to that accent. With the one bothersome detail that she didn’t pronounce “Packard” the way Americans do, putting more of an emphasis on the second syllable. But that was easily overlooked, as I enjoyed everything else about her reading. The book was obviously scrupulously researched – using Elizabeth’s own writings and other contemporary writings and reports to put together the whole story.

It was wonderful to learn about this true American hero, as well as sobering to learn the situation women could find themselves in only 160 years ago.

kate-moore.com

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