Review of The Box in the Woods, by Maureen Johnson

Contemporary, Mystery, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Box in the Woods

by Maureen Johnson
read by Kate Rudd

Katherine Tegen Books, 2021. 9 hours, 13 minutes.
Review written June 27, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I’ve been meaning to read this book for ages, probably since it came out in 2021. Not sure why I never did, but I’m not going to make the same mistake with the next book in the series.

The Box in the Woods features Stevie Bell, the teen detective of the Truly Devious trilogy. Because of her success with that case, Stevie is given an opportunity to look into another cold case – The Box in the Woods. In 1978, four teenagers were in the woods outside summer camp at night smoking pot, and they got stabbed to death. Three of their bodies were stashed in a box in the woods. It sounds like a teenage slasher film, but it’s real to the family members and the people of the town.

The new owner of the camp offers Stevie a summer case to solve, and she can bring her friends. What could be better than friends and murder?

Now, the folks in the nearby town aren’t thrilled about that old case getting dredged up. And sure enough, before long there’s a modern-day death of someone important to the case. The reader will not be surprised that investigating further puts Stevie and her friends in danger.

This book is a wonderful teen mystery/thriller. I liked listening to it, as the reader gave personality to the characters, including Stevie’s obsession with murder. The solution was one of those oh-yes-it-all-makes-sense revelations. We also got more insight into the relationships of Stevie and her friends.

You can read this as a stand-alone mystery without having read the first trilogy, but having the background makes it that much more fun.

maureenjohnsonbooks.com

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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 Look for the Math Around You, by Alice Aspinall

Children's Nonfiction Review, Mathematical, Starred Review 0

Look for the Math Around You

Arrays
Estimation
Fractions
Geometry
Math Chats
Patterns

by Alice Aspinall

Code Breaker, 2020. Each volume 56 pages.
Review written December 13, 2022, from library books.
Starred Review

I’m reviewing a series of six books with this post. I’m super proud that I found these for the library and just got a chance to read them myself. They’re even better than I’d hoped!

What these books present is a wonderful opportunity for mathematical conversations for adults to have with kids as young as Kindergarten through 4th or 5th grades. They’ve got questions that made me think, and they model mathematical thinking.

Every book begins with a page that says this:

This book features photos taken from everyday, real-life moments. Use the photos as prompts to start a math conversation with children. Each photo is accompanied by optional question prompts. In some cases, there are many correct answers. The thinking process and mathematical discussion are more important than the correct answers. Have fun!

I read that in the first book, and right away my heart responded with a “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

I’ll include some example questions from the different books:

From Arrays, next to a photo of a garage door:

How many rectangles are in this photo? Look closely.
Explain how you counted them.

From Estimation, next to a photo of popcorn in a bowl:

There are two kinds of popcorn in the bowl. How would you describe how much of each kind is in the bowl? Think about using:
–Numbers
–Fractions
–Percentages
–Words

From Fractions, next to a photo of an uncut pan of brownies:

The brownie needs to be shared with 8 people.
Show the different ways you can cut the brownie so that all 8 people get the same amount of brownie to eat.

From Geometry, next to a photo of an orange slice, first in a circle and then pulled into a line:

The orange slice shows the parts of a circle. The circumference is the peel, wrapping all the way around the outside of the circle. The area is the flesh of the orange. Point to each part of the circle.

When we pull apart the orange slice, we can see the parts of the circle in a different way. How many segments can you count?

What do you think is the length of the circumference of this orange slice? How do you know?

From Math Chats, next to a photo of a fire pit with marshmallows toasting:

How far away should the marshmallow be from the fire for the best roast?
In what direction do you rotate your skewer to toast the marshmallow?
How much of the marshmallow do you like covered in char?
What ratio of cracker to chocolate to marshmallow makes the best s’more?
How many pieces of chocolate do you like in a s’more?
What pattern do you use to assemble a s’more?

From Patterns, next to a photo of a pie with a lattice top:

How is the pie crust arranged? Use words to explain how all the pieces are weaved together.
What other patterns can you find on the pie? Look for shapes.

That should give you the idea. The books are loaded with interesting photographs accompanied by open-ended questions that encourage mathematical thinking. And because the questions are open-ended, your child may surprise you!

You can find all these books in the Fairfax County Public Library catalog if you search for “Look for the Math Around You.”

everyonecanlearnmath.com
codebreakeredu.com

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Arrays
Estimation
Fractions
Geometry
Math Chats
Patterns

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/look_for_the_math_around_you.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?

Sonderling Sunday – The Penultimate Chapter of Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge

Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge, Sonderling Sunday 0

It’s time for Sonderling Sunday! Time to play with language by looking at the German translations of children’s books. Tonight I’m going back to the book that started it all, many years ago now, The Order of Odd-fish, by James Kennedy, known in German as Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge.

We are so close to the end! Last time, we finished up Chapter Twenty-Six, so now I’m on the next-to-last chapter, which begins on page 374 in the English edition and Seite 474 auf Deutsch.

I have fond hopes that the phrases chosen, besides giving you interesting and pithy things to say in German, will inspire and intrigue you enough to pick up the books they are selected from, in whichever language you prefer.

I’ve realized I should give credit to the translators. Der Orden der Seltsamen Sonderlinge was translated by Wolfgang Thon.

I like to begin with the first sentence of the next section:

“The tent bounced and jiggled as the Silent Sisters carried it up the mountain.”
= Die Sänfte hüpfte und schaukelte, als die Stummen Schwestern sie den Berg hinauftrugen.

“cut off from the world” = von der Welt abgeschnitten

“dizzying patterns” = verwirrenden Mustern

“muddled by the incense” = benommen von dem Weihrach

“maddening jewels” = aufdringlichen Juwelen

“everything was slipping away”
= irgendwie entglitt ihr die Kontrolle
[“somehow slipped away from her the control”]

“a nauseous chill” = eine ekelhafte Kälte

“crooked” = krummen

“weak and delicate”
= schlaff und zerbrechlich

“blur” = Schleier

“bony fingers” = knorrigen Fingern

“jelly” = Wackelpudding [“wobble-pudding”!]

“shrouds” = Stofffetzen [“fabric-scraps”]

“chalices” = Kelche

“flickering match” = flackerndes Streichholz

“whispered chant” = flüsternd vorgetragener Gesang

“emeralds” = Smaragde

Here’s a rhyme!
“a slow thump in her bones”
= ein bedächtiges Pochen in ihren Knochen

Here’s something I hope you’ll never need to use:
“shockingly enormous, a looming blob of sagging, scabbed, sewn gray flesh”
= ein furchtbar riesiger gewaltiger Haufen von schlaffem, schuppigem, zusammengeflicktem grauem Fleisch
[Google translate: “a horribly huge heap of flabby, scaly, patched-together grey flesh”]

“bubbling” = blubbernd

“snuffling and groaning” = sabberte und stöhnte

“wrapping around her” = umschlangen sie

“scabs” = Schuppen

“flung” = geschleudert

“spit” = Speichel

“saliva” = Spucke

“gnashing teeth” = zermalmenden Zähnen

“flushed down” = hinabgespült

“a dense stew” = ein Mischmasch

“quivering funnel” = bebenden Trichter

And the last sentence for tonight:
“She kept sliding toward the frothing acid.”
= Sie rutschte immer weiter auf diese schäumende Säure zu.

That’s all for tonight! I hope you won’t have much use for most of these phrases, but now you’re prepared if you ever experience a Pochen in your Knochen. And I may start calling jelly “Wobble-pudding” myself.

Bis bald!

Review of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, by Heather Fawcett

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries

by Heather Fawcett
read by Ell Potter and Michael Dodds

Random House Audio, 2023. 12 hours, 6 minutes.
Review written July 23, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This one is wonderful! Our main character is Emily Wilde, a young academic living in an alternate reality to ours where the main difference is that the faeries exist and can be studied. And Emily is writing the authoritative guide on the subject.

As the book opens, she is beginning her field work in the Arctic village of Hrafnsvik. She’s got a shack to stay in – if she can figure out how to chop the wood. But Emily’s not much of a people person, planning to spend her time out in the field, not socializing with the villagers. So she’s dismayed when she gets a letter at this remote place from Wendell Bambleby, her colleague at Cambridge whose work gets far more notice than hers, and she thinks it’s more than his annoying good looks that make this happen.

Emily has a breadth of knowledge of faeries and faerie stories that is unsurpassed, but no one has done field work among the Hidden Ones of this area before. She starts simply, by befriending a brownie but making mistakes with the people of the village. When Wendell Bambleby does show up at her door, he takes care of some problems, but adds new ones.

In spite of herself, Emily finds herself caring about the villagers. Can she use her knowledge of faerie to help some from the village who have recently been taken by the fae? But before the book is over, her actions get her into more and more trouble and she gets pulled ever more deeply into the faerie world.

The characters here are marvelous. I can relate all too well to Emily, more interested in her studies than the people around her. But then her vast knowledge of her subject serves her well. And could it be love sneaking up on her? The book felt a little dry at the start – because Emily introduced herself as an academic making field notes, but I got more and more absorbed until I was finding excuses to keep listening at the end. My next step is to put Book 2 on hold.

heatherfawcettbookscom

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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 Big Bear and Little Bear Go Fishing, by Amy Hest, illustrated by Erin Stead

Animal Characters, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Big Bear and Little Bear Go Fishing

by Amy Hest
illustrated by Erin Stead

Neal Porter Books (Holiday House), 2024. 40 pages.
Review written July 18, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

Ahh. This picture book gives me a happy sense of peace.

It’s a quiet story of a grown-up bear and a young bear going fishing. The story is simple, the pictures are charming, and the nice repetition makes it delightful for beginning readers or young listeners.

Here’s how the book begins:

One day Big Bear says to Little Bear, I’m just in the mood for fishing.

Me too, says Little Bear. Just in the mood.

Big Bear and Little Bear pull on baggy blue pants for fishing. And boots. They stuff their feet into tal black boots. Their coats are yellow with pockets and hoods.

Now they are ready for fishing.

That all sounds good. But the first word on the next page is:

Almost.

Three times they think of something more they need — poles; nice, warm blueberry scones; and a book with stories.

When they are finally really, truly ready to go fishing, they make their way to their fishing boat, pulling the wagon with supplies, get into the boat, and row out into the lake.

I love the page once they get there:

Big Bear and Little Bear dip their poles in the lake.

Fishermen sit very still, whispers Big Bear.

Oh yes, Little Bear whispers back. Very still.

Sunshine sparkles up the lake.

Fishermen are patient, whispers Big Bear.

Oh yes, Little Bear whispers back. Patient.

And so they wait. And wait. And of course they need a break for nice, warm blueberry scones, as well as for reading from their big book of stories.

Okay, my repeating good lines simply doesn’t do the job without Erin Stead’s cozy illustrations. If you have a young child in your home, you need to check out this book and read it together yourselves! I guarantee, you’ll be charmed.

amyhest.com
erinstead.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.

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Review of Folding Tech, by Karen Latchana Kenney

Mathematical, Science, Starred Review, Teen Nonfiction 0

Folding Tech

Using Origami and Nature to Revolutionize Technology

by Karen Latchana Kenney

Twenty-First Century Books (Lerner), 2021. 104 pages.
Review written September 20, 2022, from a library book
2023 Mathical Book Prize Honor Book, Ages 11 to 18
Starred Review

Here’s a fascinating look at something I didn’t even realize was mathematical — origami. And the book explains how engineers and mathematicians studying origami have created some amazing and helpful technology.

The beginning talks about how there’s not much room in a spacecraft, but a large area is what’s needed for solar panels to power them. So in 1985, Koryo Miura proposed using an ancient folding pattern he’d studied to fit a solar array into a spacecraft. Japan launched such a craft in 1995.

Then the book talks about the long history of origami, particularly in Japan. But it’s been revived in modern times, and studying it mathematically has helped create intricate and beautiful patterns. And then when stiff materials are used instead of paper, engineers can create foldable structures easy to assemble and inexpensive to create.

Engineers also find folding in nature. I was fascinated by the way they studied how ladybugs fold their wings under their elytra (the red and black shell on top). In order to get a good look, they 3D printed a clear plastic elytra and replaced the ladybug’s own. Then they could see how the wings fold and unfold so quickly and neatly.

And there are so many uses for this technology! Besides outer space, there are even uses for tiny folds, including a foldable heart stent to go inside human arteries. There are also many uses in architecture and robots, and, really, the human imagination is the limit.

This book includes some origami designs the reader can try out. My one quibble is that I would have liked many more pictures. Some structures created using principles of origami were described in detail, and a picture would have helped visualize it. I read about a crushable beverage can with a diamond-shaped folding pattern and the Al Bahr Towers in Abu Dhabi that have a folding facade that changes shape in response to the sun. I would have liked to see pictures. Also, the James Webb telescope that made news recently as it began sending back photos of space did get a picture, but the only discussion of the folding that made that telescope possible was in the picture caption.

However, besides my little quibble (I just wanted more), this book is packed with fascinating information. My eyes are opened now, and I know I’m going to notice more folds, both in nature and in technology. A section at the end tells kids how they can pursue the path toward becoming an origami professional.

latchanakenney.wordpress.com
lernerbooks.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teen_Nonfiction/folding_tech.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.

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Review of And Then, Boom! by Lisa Fipps

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

And Then, Boom!

by Lisa Fipps

Nancy Paulsen Books (Penguin Random House), 2024. 244 pages.
Review written August 7, 2024, from an Advance Reader Copy sent by the publisher.
Starred Review

Lisa Fipps knows how to wrench your heart! She’s the author of Starfish, the Printz Honor-winning novel of a young girl who’s relentlessly bullied – even by adults – about her weight, as she learns to take up space. This book, And Then, Boom! is another novel in verse, this time about a boy dealing with poverty and hunger.

There’s a bit of foreshadowing at the beginning when our hero Joe explains that he’s not a superhero, even though he flew like Superman once. But like superheroes, he does have an origin story, and this book gives it.

At the beginning, he also explains why the world needs comic books – to give you hope and remind you that even when horrible things happen, it can all work out in the end. This statement is important to this book, because, honestly, I was angry at all the author put this kid through.

But yes! It works out in the end. All the same, this is the second book I’ve read this year where the grandma – the person who was the lifeline to the neglected child – dies and leaves him pretty much alone. Stop killing off Grandma, authors! I can’t take it any more!

And okay, I should probably give a spoiler alert – but it’s only about a third of the way into the book and maybe if you brace yourself, you can handle it better.

Joe has a mother who gets the Itch and leaves, so Joe’s been living with his grandma. And ever since they sold their house to pay his mother’s bail, they’ve been stretching to make ends meet. This is about that struggle.

Fortunately, Joe has some good friends looking out for him, a kind teacher who makes food available, and caring people in the community. But one thing after another happens to Joe, and let’s just say that I was tremendously relieved by the happy ending. But before the happy ending, he flies like Superman!

Now, it’s fair that Lisa Fipps put such hard things into a book, because I know full well that there are kids out there dealing with problems like this. May I take the story to heart and look for ways to make life better for kids in such situations. May this book give us all a little more empathy.

authorlisafipps.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.

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Review of Beauty Will Save the World, by Brian Zahnd

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

Beauty Will Save the World

Rediscovering the Allure and Mystery of Christianity

by Brian Zahnd

Charisma House, 2012. 234 pages.
Review written July 27, 2024, from my own copy.
Starred Review

In this book, Brian Zahnd makes the case that Christianity – as Jesus taught it and lived it – is inherently beautiful. Christianity as we practice it today, when we meld it with power and politics, not so much.

As I began reading, I glanced at the copyright page and realized he wrote this book before the age of Trump. I wondered if it would have changed if he wrote it today. Then today – the day I finished reading the book – Brian Zahnd posted this Tweet:

Christian

It was originally a mild derogatory term for the first followers of Jesus who sought to be Christlike.

Humble
Merciful
Gracious
Gentle
Forgiving
Compassionate

It had nothing to do with seeking political power.

It still has nothing to do with seeking political power.

So I don’t think the intervening years have changed the author’s perspective. I do think the message has become more important.

Here’s how he explains in the middle of the book that to follow Jesus, we shouldn’t be after the kind of power the world seeks:

Our first priority as the church is not to make all these things happen in the world through political action, but to be a prophetic witness to the hope of a world remade according to Christ. Every redemptive action – political and otherwise – must proceed from our faithful witness. In the midst of a hateful, violent, and idolatrous world, the church is to be an enclave of love, peace, and holiness. To be a faithful church, the church must be distinguished by holiness. Not holiness as puritanical moralism, but holiness as otherness – we are to be other to the values of this present darkness. Christian holiness is not based upon a certain set of rules but upon the fact that we are from another time. If we approach holiness as a legislative issue, we are prone to get it wrong. And even if we are not wrong in our judgment, we are likely to be ugly about it – haughty, condemning, and condescending. Holiness is not that. Holiness is not moralism. Holiness is not legalism. Holiness is not puritanical rule keeping. Holiness is otherness. Holiness is prophetic untimeliness. Holiness is the transcendent beauty that comes from belonging to the redemptive future. Holiness is a preview of the world to come. Holiness is a picture of the beauty that is to be. To live now according to the beauty that shall be because the future belongs to God is what the psalmist means when he calls upon us to “worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” We are holy when we are other. We are holy when we transcend the dominant paradigms of present corruption. We are holy when we are from the future.

He finishes up the book by going through each one of the Beatitudes, the heart of Jesus’ greatest sermon, which teaches the church how to be a shelter from the storm.

It is first of all vital we understand that the Beatitudes are not platitudes. They are not commonsense sayings. They are the very opposite. The Beatitudes are often paradoxes and deeply counterintuitive. The Beatitudes are subversive to the established order – they are the subversive values of the kingdom of God. The Beatitudes are the counterintuitive wisdom of God that turns the assumed values of a superpower culture on its head. The Beatitudes are the antithetical ethos to the superpower mantra of “we’re number one!” The Beatitudes are deliberately designed to shock us. If we’re not shocked by the Beatitudes, it’s only because we have tamed them with a patronizing sentimentality – and being sentimental about Jesus is the religious way of ignoring Jesus! Too often the Beatitudes are set aside into the category of “nice things that Jesus said that I don’t really understand.”

More about the Beatitudes as countercultural:

It’s also helpful to understand that the Beatitudes are not advice or instructions or qualifications. They are nothing like that. They are not dictates or laws; the Beatitudes are announcements. Jesus is proclaiming the arrival of the kingdom of God, and with the Beatitudes Jesus is announcing who it is who is going to be most blessed with its arrival. Jesus is telling us in whose ears the gospel of the kingdom is going to really sound like good news. It is an unsettling fact that the inauguration of the kingdom of God brings a radical change to the accepted order of how the world has always been run. The Beatitudes announce that change. This is why Jesus says things like, “The last will be first, and the first will be last.” It is at this point that those accustomed to confessing they are “number one” should squirm.

What Jesus is announcing in the Beatitudes is a radical reordering of assumed values; some will hear it as good news, while others will be threatened by it. Those for whom the long-established order has been advantageous – the winners in the game, the top dogs – are not really looking for things to change; they have a vested interest in the status quo. This is going to place Jesus at odds with the power brokers of the age – then and now. After all, it wasn’t the poor and marginalized who conspired to crucify Jesus; it was Caiaphas and Herod and Pilate – those who had a powerful stake in the present arrangement. But for the losers in the game – those scraping the bottom of life’s barrel, the marginalized and forgotten, the left out – what Jesus announces is indeed good news.

Reading this book gets me thinking about whether the way I live out my faith is beautiful or not.

brianzahnd.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.

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Sonderling Sunday – Lockwood & Co – Into the Haunted House

Sonderling Sunday 0

It’s time for Sonderling Sunday! That time of the week when I play with language by looking at the German translation of children’s books.

This week, I’m going to again use the new book I freshly bought in Germany, Lockwood & Co: Die Seufzende Wendeltreppe, known as The Screaming Staircase in English. Last time, I left off on page 9 in English, Seite 17 auf Deutsch. I’m still in the middle of Chapter 1, Der Geist.

Here’s the first sentence of the next section:

“When entering a house occupied by a Visitor, it’s always best to get in quick.”
= Sobald man ein Haus betritt, in dem sich ein Besucher eingenistet hat, sollte man sich ranhalten.
[Google translate: “As soon as you enter a house where a visitor has taken up residence, you should hurry up.”]

“Never hesitate” = Kein Zögern [“No hesitation”]

“linger” = unschlüssiges Verweilen [“indecisive lingering”]

“threshold” = Schwelle

“turn and run” = kehrtzumachen und wegzurennen

Hmm. This colorful description was translated differently.
“your willpower starts draining away through your boots, and the terror starts building in your chest”
= versickert der eigene Mut, das Herz beginnt zu rasen, die Kehle schnürt sich zu
[“your courage disappears, your heart starts racing, your throat tightens”]

“hall” = Diele

“the walls were palely papered” = helle Tapeten zierten die Wände [“light wallpaper decorated the walls”]

“kink” = Knick

“Doorways opened on either side: gaping and choked in darkness.”
= Die Türen auf beiden Seiten des vorderen Teils standen klaffend offen wie schwarze Mäuler.
[“The doors on either side of the front section stood gaping open like black mouths.”]

“It dulls the senses and makes you weak and stupid.”
= Sie beeinflusst die sinnliche Wahrnehmung negativ.
[“It negatively influences sensory perception.”]

“The air had that musty, slightly sour smell”
= Es roch muffig und ein bisschen säuerlich
[“It smelled musty and a bit sour”]

“a china bowl of potpourri”
= eine Porzellanschale mit getrockneten Blüten

They’re paraphrasing much more than most translators I’ve covered. Look at this one:
“photographs of rolling hills and gentle seas”
= Landschaftsfotos
[“landscape photos”]

“innocuous” = alltäglich [“everyday”]

“pleasant” = einladend [“inviting”]

“skewed coffins”
= schiefe Särge

“shut out morbid thoughts”
= verscheuchte die morbiden Gedanken

“listened” = lauschte

“arteries and airways” = Adern und Atemwege

“Echoes of the past, echoes of hidden things”
= Es sind Echos aus der Vergangenheit, der Nachhall verborgener Geschehnisse
[“They are echoes from the past, the reverberation of hidden events”]

“little knocking sound” = Klopfen

I always like when things are shorter in German:
“I can’t tell where it’s coming from.”
= Ich kann es nicht orten.
[“I can’t locate it.”]

“death-glow” = Todesschein

“tripped” = gestolpert

“tumbled down” = heruntergestürzt

“steep” = steil

“I bent low” = Ich ging in die Hocke. [“I went into the squat.”]

“tiles” = Fliesen

“jarred my teeth”
= mein Zähne aufeinanderschlugen
[“my teeth on-one-another-struck”]

“rapier” = Degen

“eyes staring wildly side to side”
= mein Blick huschte panisch umher
[“my view scurried panicked around”]

“banister” = Geländerpfosten [“railing posts”]

Here’s a nice long phrase:
“a watch with a luminous dial”
= eine Uhr mit fluoreszierendem Zifferblatt
[Ha! Zifferblatt is “digit-leaf,” so I think it’s specifically a watch dial]

“drops in temperature”
= Temperaturschwankungen

“ectoplasmic shock” = ektoplasmische Erschütterungen

And the last sentence of the chapter:
“Then we find ourselves a ghost.”
= Und danach schnappen wir uns den Geist.

Okay, I’m done with Chapter One. These translators, Katharina Orgaß und Gerald Jung, seem to not be doing as strict a sentence-by-sentence translation as some of the other books I’ve covered. That’s why I’ve done more full sentence comparisons, because it’s a little harder to pull out individual words. But I hope it still has the effect of making you wonder what the book is about! (It’s wonderful! They’re still getting ready to try to neutralize a ghost.)

Meanwhile, enjoy! Here’s hoping you never have any need to use the phrase schiefe Särge or ektoplasmische Erschütterungen. Though I kind of want to find a reason to say fluoreszierendem Zifferblatt.

bis Bald!

Review of Songlight, by Moira Buffini

Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

Songlight

by Moira Buffini

Harper, September 3, 2024. 376 pages.
Review written June 18, 2024, from an advance reader copy sent to me by the publisher.

I probably wouldn’t have picked this book up if I’d realized it’s by a debut author – I read enough debut novels last year on the Morris Award committee. But this one ended up standing up with the best of them. If I were still on the Morris committee, I’d have put this book forward for further consideration.

The setting is a far distant future dystopian earth after mankind destroyed themselves in nuclear war. But some people have telepathy – which they call Songlight – and those people are hated and feared by the powers that be – and all others are taught to hate them, too.

The community of Northaven is rigidly controlled, all under the Brethren at Brightlinghelm. The boys will go off to fight the Aylish. And after they’ve served for ten years, they’ll come back and be rewarded with a First Wife from the choirmaidens. They can choose a Second Wife for pleasure, but the girls who are left are going to be made sterile and serve in a Pink House as Third Wives for soldiers.

Meanwhile, any deviation – adultery, love for anyone other than wives – is punished, but especially those who have the Songlight, who are called unhuman.

This story especially features two teenage girls, Lark and Nightingale. They meet each other in the Songlight, but both are in danger of being discovered. Lark is mourning her lover, Rye, who was taken away to have brain surgery that will turn him into a compliant shell. Nightingale’s own father is an Inquisitor, who must find and root out the unhumans.

Those two are our main viewpoint characters, but we get the perspectives of several other people as well, as we learn that there’s unrest even in the seat of power. Then when Lark is almost lost at sea, she’s saved by the Aylish, and they are coming on a mission to make an overture of peace. But how can two peoples with such a history come together?

The story is well-told, and I was pulled into the intrigue – my biggest disappointment is that it’s the start of a trilogy and doesn’t really resolve at all. I hope by the time the sequel comes out, I remember what happened – things aren’t looking good at this point, but all our heroes are in a position to make a difference.

Something the book portrays well is how hard it is for young people to go against what they’ve always been taught, and how much it takes to leave what you know, even if that is a bad situation. But people in power are invested in keeping things the same, even as people start to realize that’s not best for anyone.

I do hope this book gets some attention so the sequels come soon! I want to know what happens to these characters and the people they love and what it looks like when they come fully into their power.

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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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