Review of The Inheritance Games, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Mystery, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Inheritance Games

by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
read by Christie Moreau

Hachette Audio, 2020. 10 hours, 45 minutes.
Review written March 24, 2023, from a library eaudiobook

Thanks to my friend Lisa for recommending this series to me. I’d seen the hype about the fourth book coming out this summer.

The Inheritance Games begins a series about a billionaire who died and who left puzzles for his family after him.

The biggest puzzle of all is why he left his entire multi-billion dollar estate to Avery Grahams, a teen who’d been living in her car before she got the news, in order to avoid her sister’s abusive boyfriend.

But Avery gets called to the reading of the will of Tobias Hawthorne, along with the whole family. She’s never met any of these people before. So she’s as shocked as anyone when she learns he’s left the bulk of his estate to her, passing over his grandsons, the four Hawthorne brothers.

There is a condition: She has to live in Hawthorne house for one year. It’s an enormous place, so it shouldn’t be difficult. But then someone apparently tries to kill her. And there’s the question of how she feels about the Hawthorne brothers. And she’s warned about the last girl at her new private school who lived at Hawthorne house and turned up dead.

Along with all that, the Hawthorne brothers tell her that their grandfather was always setting puzzles for them, and the letters left to them are obviously another puzzle. Avery thinks the solution to the puzzles may explain why he picked her to inherit.

But the question is: Is Avery’s existence at Hawthorne House just a part of the puzzle, or is this amazing inheritance due to something special about her?

This puzzle novel is fun, though I was a little disappointed that the clues weren’t such that the reader could really play along. Fun to watch them get solved, though. And I’m proud to say that I saw a twist at the end coming long before it happened.

And although they did solve a major puzzle in this book, the ending hints that there are more puzzles to come. The series was originally advertised as a trilogy, but book four is coming out this summer. I think I have been enticed into reading more books. And who doesn’t like a Cinderella story where a worthy but poor heroine comes into great wealth?

jenniferlynnbarnes.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/inheritance_games.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 Desegregation in Northern Virginia Libraries, by Chris Barbuschak and Suzanne S. LaPierre

Nonfiction Review, Starred Review, True Stories 0

Desegregation in Northern Virginia Libraries

by Chris Barbuschak and Suzanne S. LaPierre

History Press, 2023. 206 pages.
Review written April 30, 2025, from my own copy, signed by the authors.
Starred Review

First, I owe my friends, authors Chris and Suzanne, a big apology. I attended their book launch in 2023 and got a signed copy – but I didn’t get it read until 2025. My excuse was that I was on the Morris Award committee in 2023, reading only debut young adult books – but that’s not a very good excuse in 2025! On top of that, Suzanne is the very most faithful advocate for my reviews, always liking my review posts on Facebook. So anyway, let me tell you about their wonderful book!

Yes, of course I’m biased. Chris and Suzanne both work in the Virginia Room at the City of Fairfax Regional Library branch of Fairfax County Public Library, where I worked as Youth Services Manager before I got my current position as Youth Materials Selector. I often got to spend an hour or two at the Virginia Room desk as needed – and came to appreciate their expertise and skills as researchers.

This book shows meticulous research, uncovering the history of segregation in Northern Virginia libraries, both explicit and implicit, and the brave Black activists who made desegregation happen even when a Supreme Court ruling wasn’t enough.

The book happened because one of the Fairfax County Library Board trustees, Dr. Sujatha Hamptom, challenged the established answer that FCPL had been open to everyone since its founding in 1939. Chris and Suzanne were asked to dig deeper and did the deep research in local archives that led to this book. I loved the way in their book launch they told stories of the individuals who stood up for everyone’s right to read – with legal challenges, sit-ins, and the like.

The book looks at six different Northern Virginia library systems, at notable cases elsewhere in Virginia, and at service in Washington, D. C. Even though Virginia passed a law in 1946 that libraries had to provide service to all residents – most jurisdictions still tried to meet that with separate services. And each jurisdiction had to fight for their rights in their own neighborhoods. And even when libraries were officially desegregated, there was still some time before Black people felt welcome enough to visit formerly white-only facilities.

The beautiful part of this book is how many different individuals took steps to make a difference in their own communities – and how in the long run, they succeeded, despite some individual setbacks. That’s a heartening message to read about today, when the idea that folks should be free to read what they want is being newly threatened. It’s good to read about the ordinary people who were heroes in the past by standing up for their own rights to library access.

historypress.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/desegregation_in_northern_virginia_libraries.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 Kill Joy, by Holly Jackson

Audiobooks, Mystery, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Kill Joy

by Holly Jackson
read by Bailey Carr, Raymond J. Lee, and Bruce Mann

Listening Library, 2023. 2 hours, 37 minutes.
Review written March 12, 2023, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Kill Joy is a prequel novella to A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. It is just plain fun. I was relieved about that, having recently finished Holly Jackson’s utterly terrifying Five Survive. This one is actually not scary.

What we’ve got is the story of how Pip chose her senior capstone project that led to her investigating the murder of Andie Bell, which started the events in the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder trilogy.

It all begins with a murder mystery party.

The party happens toward the end of Pip’s junior year. Her friends are there — friends whose names I recognize from the series. It happens at Connor Reynolds’ house, and his big brother Jamie runs the mystery and plays the part of a Scotland Yard detective.

I was waiting for the mystery party to turn sinister, and, well, I won’t tell you about that. But let’s just say that unlike any other Holly Jackson book I’ve read, this one was more fun than scary.

So that’s why I think this is a good book to read after you’ve read the whole trilogy. It’s fun to get more insight into the characters and have some fun with them and understand how it all began. If you start with the prequel, you’re going to be very misled about the level of tension in the later books. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Oh, and the audio version has the same excellent production as the trilogy, with multiple voice actors and the same theme music at the beginning and end. A great listening experience!

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/kill_joy.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 An Ugly World for Beautiful Boys, by Rob Costello

Contemporary, Teen Fiction Review 0

An Ugly World for Beautiful Boys

by Rob Costello

Lethe Press, 2025. 376 pages.
Review written May 1, 2025, from an Advance Reader Copy sent to me by the author.

Toby Ryerson is flamboyantly gay in a small town that doesn’t know what to make of him. This book is written as a letter to his dead mother, who died of an overdose when Toby was a little boy. At the time, Toby’s big brother Jimmy put his life on hold to take care of Toby. Now that Toby is seventeen, he’s convinced that Jimmy doesn’t really see him. Toby’s sure he’s just like their mother – destined for meaningless sex with lots of people. Jimmy dreams of sending him to college, but Toby dreams of moving to New York City and becoming part of the party scene.

And then in a gas station convenience store, Dylan, the boy Toby loves and secretly has sex with at the Marsh Trail – he says terrible things about Toby’s dead mother to his tough-guy friends. Toby decides a fitting response is to tell those thugs what he and Dylan have been up to. And when they in turn start beating Toby up, a tall handsome stranger comes to his rescue – but it turns out he’s not such a stranger after all.

And that all starts a chain of events that rapidly gets way out of Toby’s control.

I read this book because the author sent it to me after I loved the anthology he edited, We Mostly Come Out at Night. And I’ll be honest, it’s not a book I would have picked up otherwise. Toby makes a whole lot of bad choices in the course of the book, and the “gritty” description on the cover is apt. It comes to be clear that Toby feels responsible for his mother’s death and many other things as well. So when bad things happen, he feels like that’s what he deserves.

However, Rob Costello is a good writer, and he makes me care deeply about Toby, even while reading about his bad choices. It convicts me, because in real life I might have dismissed Toby as deserving what he got – but by reading his perspective, I understood better how it could happen, I really cared about what was happening, and was super thankful for the appropriately hopeful ending.

Here’s an excerpt from an Author’s Note at the back of the book that explains why this book is important, with all its grit:

Teenagers need and respect truth, even when it’s upsetting. Even when it makes adults uncomfortable. At a time when there are growing calls for censoring even the most innocent of queer books, queer teens urgently need stories that address the specific traumas many of them still face. When we shy away from telling such stories, we reinforce the terrible message of the censors that certain queer experiences are shameful and should be kept hidden. That the queer teens who endure them are problematic and don’t matter.

In this book, Toby deals with homophobia, bullying, outing, sexual predation, and assault. His world includes pervasive alcoholism and substance abuse, promiscuity, homophobic slurs and violence, and even suicide. Toby’s story is not for everyone. Ultimately, however, he discovers his inner strength, leading him to a place of family and forgivenss, self-respect and love. He learns that it’s never too late for hope. He finds his way.

This is a book for readers who need it, and who need it for that classic reason: to know they are not alone. I want those readers to draw their own strength from Toby’s story. I want to say to them, “I see you. I love you. I honor your struggle, and I know that you will find your way.”

Even though I would have said this story wasn’t for me, I feel the richer for having read it, more empathetic, and more caring about lives very different from mine – lives full of value.

cloudbusterpress.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/ugly_world_for_beautiful_boys.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 Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim, by Patricia Park

Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Imposter Syndrome

and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim

by Patricia Park

Crown, 2023. 294 pages.
Review written March 4, 2023, from a library book
Starred Review

Well, today I learned a lesson that I also learned when I was on the Newbery: Read the author bio *first*!

Here’s the thing: I’m on the Morris Award Committee this year. Our mission is to find the best Young Adult Debut book of the year. The trouble is, our definition of “debut” is different from the publishing industry’s definition of “debut.” It can’t be just an author’s first young adult book — it has to be their very first published book.

So, I was reading this book on a Saturday off, and I’d turned down an invitation so I could spend my day at home reading. I was three-fourths of the way through and was thinking that the book is excellent and might be worth nominating for the award (This means the entire committee will read it.), and then I glanced at the author’s bio on the back flap and read the words, “and the author of the acclaimed adult novel Re Jane.” Oops!

But my time wasn’t wasted — this was an excellent book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, and, yes, I finished it. And now, since it’s not eligible for the Morris Award, I can tell you about it.

The narrator catches your attention with her opening paragraph:

When you have a name like Alejandra Kim, teachers always stare at you like you’re a typo on the attendance sheet. Each school year, without fail, they look at my face and the roster and back again, like they can’t compute my super-Korean face and my super-Spanish first name. Multiply that by eight different teachers for eight periods a day, and boom: welcome to my life at Quaker Oats Prep.

We learn in her “Origin Story” first chapter that Alejandra was born in America, but both her parents were born in Argentina, and all of their parents were born in Korea. So she’s from Latinx culture, with Korean appearance.

She’s a scholarship student and a senior at a Quaker-sponsored prep school. Her father died eight months ago, and her mother is working extra jobs to help pay 10% of Alejandra’s tuition. Now that she’s a senior, Ally just wants to get into a good college (she has one in mind) and get away from New York City.

Then a big name author comes to teach their Creative Writing class, and when he sees Alejandra’s name, makes a veiled racist comment. Later, when Ally’s best friend hears about it, she takes up her friend’s cause — without asking Ally — and makes a big issue out of it.

Meanwhile, her best friend in the neighborhood has returned from visiting his grandmother in the Dominican Republic — and he has somehow gotten much more attractive while he was gone. But Ally keeps her two worlds apart and doesn’t know how much to tell him about what she’s dealing with at school.

None of that sounds as interesting when I summarize it as it did when I was reading it. If you like books about contemporary teens at all, this one pulls you into the story of an Argentine Korean American who’s missing her dad, and thinking about how she wants her life to go beyond high school in a world that doesn’t know what to make of her.

patriciapark.com
GetUnderlined.com

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

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

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I maintain my website and blogs on my own time. 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 Unlocking the Universe, by Suzanne Slade

Children's Nonfiction Review, Science, Starred Review 0

Unlocking the Universe

The Cosmic Discoveries of the Webb Space Telescope

by Suzanne Slade

Charlesbridge, 2024. 42 pages.
Review written April 9, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

Here’s a children’s picture book, illustrated generously with lavish photographs, about the James Webb Space Telescope.

Since images from the Webb weren’t made public until July 2022, this book is timely and relevant. The author gives links to see current pictures, but I also love all the imformation about the tremendous work that went into building the telescope.

There are diagrams about its orbit and how it unfolded and information about other space telescopes and the frequencies of light they detect, but the high point is the images from the Webb and explanations of the discoveries made that way.

This is both a gorgeous book and a super informative one. I feel confident it will inspire future scientists. This one, my review is inadequate. Check this book out or buy your kid a copy!

suzanneslade.com
charlesbridge.com

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/unlocking_the_universe.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 – Momo – Stories

Sonderling Sunday 0

It’s time for Sonderling Sunday! That time of the week (well, that occasional time) when I play with language by looking at the German translation of children’s books – or, in this case, looking at the English translation of the classic children’s book, Momo, by Michael Ende – which was one of my very first purchases when my family moved to Germany in 1996.

Last time we looked at Momo, we finished Chapter Four. So tonight we’ll begin Chapter Five, Kapitel Fünf, which begins on Seite 49 in the German edition, and page 34 in the English edition. The chapter title in English is “Tall Stories,” but in German, it’s Geschichten für viele und Geschichten für eine, which means “Stories for many and stories for one.”

I like to start with the first sentence:
Nach und nach war Momo für Gigi Fremdenführer ganz unentbehrlich geworden.
= “As time went by, Momo became absolutely indispensable to Guido.”

unsteten leichtherzigen jungen Kerl
(“unsteady, light-hearted young fellow”)
= “footloose, fancy-free young man”

struppigen kleinen Mädchen
= “ragged little girl”

Geschichtenerzählen = “Making up stories”

Besonders dann = “Most of all”

blühte seine Phantasie auf wie eine Frühlingswiese
= “his imagination blossomed like a meadow in springtime”

Hmm. They changed the names in the story instead of just using the same made-up words.
Kaiserin Strapazia Augustina = “Empress Harmonica”
König Xaxotraxolus = “King Raucous II”

lachte sich ins Fäustchen = “laughed up his sleeve”

juwelengeschmückten Suppenterrine = “bejeweled soup tureen”

je größer, desto besser = “the bigger, the better”

Abgesandte = “envoy”

Unmengen Futter = “vast quantities of food”

Badewanne = “bathtub”

ihr ein und alles (“her one and all”) = “the apple of her eye”

Richtschnur = “motto”

And the end of that first story:
Sie sehen daraus, meine Damen und Herren, wohin die Leichtgläubigkeit führen kann!
(Google translate: “You can see from this, ladies and gentlemen, where credulity [‘light-belief’] can lead!”)
= “Which only goes to show, ladies and gentlemen, how unwise it is to believe all you’re told.”

Schirmmütze = “peaked cap”

Schleuse = “floodgate”

And I’ll finish with the wrap-up of that story:
und immer neue Erfindungen strömten und sprudelten hervor, ohne daß er überhaupt nachdenken mußte
= “releasing a torrent of new ideas that bubbled forth without his ever having to think twice”

And that’s all for tonight! I’m finishing on Seite 53, page 37. Bis nächste Zeit! Meanwhile, je größer, desto besser is not necessarily the best Richtschnur.

#Sonderbooks25 – 2002 Sonderbooks Stand-outs

Sonderbooks25, Stand-outs 0

I’m celebrating my 25th year of writing Sonderbooks with #Sonderbooks25!

Tonight I’ll be looking back at my Sonderbooks Stand-outs from 2002.

Now, I confess that when I announced my #Sonderbooks25 project, I expected to post every couple weeks, not every few months. So let me start with some excuses.

First, my original plan was to simply read the reviews of the Stand-outs for each year and choose one book to reread and reflect on that every couple of weeks. I knew the first five years, 2001-2005, would take a little longer, because I also planned to reformat the Stand-outs pages.

What I didn’t realize was that once I’d gotten started, I’d want to reread every review I’d written during the year in question. For 2002, that was before the blog when I was still producing numbered issues, and covers Sonderbooks #19 through Sonderbooks #44. You can find all the Back Issues on the Back Issues Index page. Reading all of them, I think I did a good job picking out Stand-outs, as those are indeed the books I most want to revisit. But that wasn’t even enough for me. I also reread the posts from Project 52 from the year I was 37 and the year I was 38.

So I do have reasons to take a long time between posts. And it turns out, though my 2025 Sonderbooks Stand-outs page will be my 25th list of Stand-outs, I won’t hit the actual 25th birthday of Sonderbooks until August 1st, 2026. So there’s not really a big rush. All that said, it took me an especially long time to post about the 2002 Sonderbooks Stand-outs because of two additional complications.

1) I was writing a weekly blog series over on Sonderjourneys called “Laments for Lent.” It turns out that doing significant blogging more than once a week is tricky, especially because:

2) I broke my left pinky finger seven weeks ago, and it hurt to use my left hand at all for a few weeks, and that seriously slowed down my typing. (I finally see the doctor next Monday and hope to stop buddy-taping it. But I predict it will still be a while before my typing’s back up to speed.)

Okay, that’s probably enough excuses! Tonight I updated the links and my new version of my 2002 Sonderbooks Stand-outs is live.

Let me talk about the books in the order they appear on the original page.

From Young Adult and Children’s Fantasy, the stand-out of the Stand-outs is This Star Shall Abide, by Sylvia Louise Engdahl. Another that stands out is Heir Apparent, by Vivian Vande Velde, which I bought for my kids and both of them (or at least the younger?) enjoyed. The rest were all very good, but don’t make me quite as nostalgic. Though I’d reread them all if I could find the time (and if I weren’t trying to move on to books reviewed in 2003).

Among the Young Adult and Children’s Fantasy Rereads, The Blue Sword, by Robin McKinley, is still quite possibly my all-time favorite book (though it’s so hard to narrow it down to one!). I have reread it many times, though, so I didn’t feel as compelled to make it my one Reread for 2002 – though, Ha! I checked just now and my library has it in eaudiobook form, so I just placed a hold.

The Harry Potter books are Alas! tainted by the fact that their author has revealed herself to be a transphobic bigot. But the other in that category, Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine, is completely delightful, and – Oh look! We’ve got that in eaudiobook form, too.

For Young Adult Historical Fiction, I don’t remember any of the three titles distinctly, except to be sure I’d enjoy rereading them. And as for the “Rereads” – The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, by Avi, is among my all-time favorites, and I’ve reread it many times. (Oh look! That one’s on eaudio, too!) As for Treasure Island – we read it aloud to our kids, as an elementary school teacher once did for me, I’m quite sure (but don’t remember which one).

My Young Adult Contemporary Novel choices were solid choices, but The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is the one I’d most like to reread. (And its eaudio version is available without a wait.)

As for the Young Adult and Children’s Classic Rereads, well, I did a project (unfinished) to reread all of L. M. Montgomery’s books in 2019 before an incredible visit to her home in Prince Edward Island.

Probably my favorite review I’ve written – at least my favorite of the ones I’ve revisited – is my “Reflections on Winnie-the-Pooh,” about how that book has been an important part of my life for decades.

In Children’s Nonfiction, which you’ll notice isn’t my favorite category, I still believe that Greg Tang’s The Best of Times is a vital resource for teaching kids to think about how multiplication works, beyond just memorizing facts. It’s still in print, and I recently ordered fresh copies for our library system.

In Fiction for Grown-ups, the top two are two of my favorite authors. I read The Sand-Reckoner, by Gillian Bradshaw, for my 2001 Revisit, so I’m going to hold off on rereading Cleopatra’s Heir. And Quentins, by Maeve Binchy, is another one I’m now wanting to revisit.
To this day, the title Five Quarters of the Orange, by Joanne Harris, makes me think of driving through the French countryside to Paris (when I was reading it) and the amazing chocolate shop we found there. Okay, the review says I read Chocolat on that particular trip. But anyway, Joanne Harris transports me to France.

All the Fiction Rereads are All-Time Favorites, and it was Caravan that I chose as the one book to revisit from 2002 – with a bit of disappointment I’m afraid. The other three are, you guessed it, available as eaudiobooks, and I’ve already started in on Watership Down.

For Biographical Nonfiction, again it’s the top two that I would dearly love to reread (I own both) – Angles of Reflection, by Joan Richards, and In Code, by Sarah Flannery. The rest were good, but the one I’d be most interested in rereading from those is #7, Bringing Down the House, by Ben Mezrich.

But the Biographical Reread? Oh, I need to pick up Life Among the Savages, by Shirley Jackson, (which I own) to give myself some good hard laughs and a renewed outlook.

In Other Nonfiction, Barbara Kingsolver is always good, but I’d probably rather reread her fiction. If I still had kids in my home, A Mind at a Time, by Mel Levine, feels vital. And this project reminded me to pull out my copy of Storybook Travels and now look for sites in America instead of in Europe.

The Other Nonfiction Rereads are all beloved Christian books I’ve read multiple times since writing these reviews. You may have noticed there are a lot of Rereads included? Back when I was doing ezine issues of Sonderbooks, in 2002, I started including an “Old Favorite” with every issue – so I was rereading a beloved book every couple weeks, something I don’t have the luxury to do now that I’m working full-time and reading for award committees. As I was starting Sonderbooks, I wanted to include my all-time favorites, so that gave my reviews a nice foundation.

And that brings us to New Picture Books. I chose these before I was a children’s librarian, and honestly probably the only one today that would still make my list is Hungry Hen – I’m a sucker for picture books where someone bad gets eaten. Or, well, where anyone gets eaten. I was able to find all the books in Fairfax County Public Library (and enjoyed them) except for Elephant elephant, which was a very quirky French import.

So there you have it – My thoughts on revisiting my 2002 Sonderbooks Stand-outs. I hope you’ve found or been reminded of a book to enjoy. They are all well-worth your time.

I’ve already decided on the book to revisit from my 2003 Sonderbooks Stand-outs – Beyond the Limit, by Joan Spicci. But I’ve also put a few of the others in my eaudiobook holds queue. I hope you’ll hear about them in only a few weeks this time, rather than a few months. Until then, Happy Reading!

Review of Free Kid to Good Home, by Hiroshi Ito

Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Free Kid to Good Home

by Hiroshi Ito
translated by Cathy Hirano

Gecko Press, 2022. First published in Japan in 1995. 109 pages.
Review written March 1, 2023, from a library book.
Starred Review

This is a fun book for beginning but confident readers. I’m putting it with beginning chapter books, because it’s about that reading level, but it doesn’t actually have chapters. And there are black, white, and red drawings on every page.

The book begins as a little girl gets a new brother.

He looks just like a potato.

After her mother pays attention only to the potato-face baby, the girl decides to run away and find a new home.

She does this by finding a box and writing “Free Kid” on the box. She sits in the box out where people pass by and tries to look cute.

Adults are busy and don’t pay a lot of attention, but one by one a dog, a cat, and a turtle join her, also looking for a new home. They discuss together what their new home will be like and do have some envy when others are chosen first.

You can guess how the story ends, but the whole thing is a lot of fun.

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Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/free_kid_to_good_home.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 How We Share Cake, by Kim Hyo-eun

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

How We Share Cake

by Kim Hyo-eun

Scribble, 2024. First published in Korea in 2022. 52 pages.
Review written April 15, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

This picture book is about a family of five siblings and how they have to share everything – including their uncle, breeze from a fan, and hand-me-down shiny yellow rain boots.

Much is made of the different kinds of things they share. It’s harder to share cotton candy than broccoli, for example, and there’s constant negotiation about who goes first when they have to share by taking turns.

Why did I relate so much to this book? I’m third of thirteen siblings – and when I was the age of the protagonist, there were five of us, in a family much like the one in this book.

Let’s just say I wasn’t surprised that the way the second child got one-on-one time with her parents was to break her arm when it was her turn on the scooter. And everyone else got a little more time!

To this day, it’s hard for me to pass treats that someone has left out to share – because I fundamentally don’t expect treat availability to last long.

This book shows the reader how a person can get tired of sharing – but also the joy of having people close by to share with.

hyoeunkim.com
scribblekidsbooks.com

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