Review of Towed By Toad, by Jashar Awan

Animal Characters, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Towed By Toad

by Jashar Awan

Tundra, 2024. 48 pages.
Review written March 6, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
2025 Geisel Honor Book

The Geisel Awards are given to the most distinguished books for beginning readers, and they usually go to books in the beginning reader format. I’m so happy that this picture book won the award, because it only took one reading for it to become a favorite for me. And this picture book is both a good read-aloud and a good book for supporting new readers – the kind of book that will get read frequently and next thing you know, the child can read it themselves.

This was one of those picture books I had to show to my colleagues – except I found that I didn’t want to just show it to them – no, I was compelled to read it to them. Just a delightful book.

The look of the book is big, bright cartoon-type pictures on a white background, with about one to three short sentences per spread. And the action begins before the title page. We’re inside a house and see a toad calling from a doorway: “Breakfast!”

On the next spread, we see a smaller toad running out the door saying:

No time, Pop!
Can’t stop!

And then the title page shows the smaller toad driving out of a garage in an orange tow truck.

The beginning reminds me a little of Richard Scarry (though not nearly so busy):

Big cars. Little cars.
Old cars. New cars.
Everyone has places to be!

We then see various creatures headed various places.

No matter who you are
or where you are going. . .
. . . everyone needs help sometimes.

That’s where Toad comes in.

We see Toad towing and helping his first customer. Then these happen:

Catie Cat has a flat.
Davey Dog hit a log.

Mayor Hop forgot to stop.
Stanley Snout’s engine fell out.

And yes, the pictures that go with these are as fun as you might imagine.

And Toad helps them all.

But then, after a good day’s work, Toad’s own truck begins to make strange noises and breaks down. Toad doesn’t want to ask for help.

But when he finally does, we learn what that other big truck in the home garage is for.

And we’re left with a wonderful message:

Everyone needs help sometimes.

Even the helpers.

This book has it all – simple, bright pictures, easy-to-understand language, lots of cars and trucks, plenty of kid-sized drama, and a wonderful message to top it off.

One of those books that make me wish I were still doing story times.

jasharawan.com
penguinrandomhouse.ca

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Review of A Far Wilder Magic, by Allison Saft

Fantasy, Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

A Far Wilder Magic

by Allison Saft
read by Jesse Vilinsky

Macmillan Young Listeners, 2022. 14 hours, 36 minutes.
Review written December 10, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

A Far Wilder Magic is an atmospheric and amazing young adult fantasy novel about a world slightly removed from ours, but not all that different. It’s not a medieval world, but a country from about a hundred years ago, where alchemy is the road to political accomplishments in the country of New Albion.

Margaret lives alone, cutting wood, doing chores, keeping their manor going while her mother is off on a quest for alchemical supplies. She’s been gone months longer than usual, and Margaret’s not sure if she’s coming back. Then at night she sees the magical white fox, the hala, and knows the Hunt will be coming to her small town.

But first, a young man comes to her isolated manor. He’s looking for an alchemical apprenticeship with her mother, and he won’t take No for an answer. This is Wes’s last chance to get a sponsor and make something of himself. He’s not good at studying, but he does have a talent for alchemy, if someone will give him a chance. He’s a hard person to turn away, however much Margaret doesn’t like him.

And then Margaret realizes that Wes might be her only chance to enter the hunt, kill the hala, and win back her mother’s attention. She is a crack shot, but she needs an alchemist. And Wes needs a chance with her mother, too. So they start an uneasy alliance.

But both Wes and Margaret are outsiders, not welcomed into this New Albion tradition. They first must compete to win their place in the top tier, and even that is fraught with danger.

And yes, we’ve got an enemies-to-lovers plot going on. But it’s skillfully done, as we see deeply into the characters of both Wes and Margaret — both their insecurities and their kind hearts. By the time they come together, we’re completely on their sides. The spell is woven gently and believably, and it all builds to danger and difficult decisions at the time of the Hunt.

Fair warning is there are a couple of fairly intense sex scenes. The skillful building of the romance makes the intensity seem right for this book.

A marvelously woven novel about two teens figuring out what they want out of life and how to get there.

allisonsaft.com
wednesdaybooks.com

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Review of Popcorn, by Rob Harrell

Award Winners, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Popcorn

by Rob Harrell

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2024. 270 pages.
Review written February 27, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
2025 Schneider Family Award Winner, Middle Grades

Popcorn is about a kid named Andrew who has OCD and Anxiety – who has a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. And it’s so awful it’s funny – but the story is told with compassion, so we are feeling it along with Andrew – and both Andrew and the reader come through it all encouraged.

It’s School Picture Day. Andrew’s wearing his favorite shirt (a new one, which isn’t easy for his Mom to afford), and his Mom even thinks to have him pack an extra one. Mom is starting her first day on a new job, and a friend of the family is staying with Andrew’s grandmother, who has Alzheimer’s.

And as soon as he gets to school, things happen to mess up Andrew’s appearance. A ripped shirt. A black eye. The things are only loosely Andrew’s fault – I mean, he could have let the bully copy off his paper, but we’re definitely feeling for him. Then we think he’s safe because the shirt gets mended, but no, Andrew is never safe! The things that happen to mess up his appearance only get worse.

And in the middle of the day, he learns that his grandma has gone missing, and they weren’t able to reach his Mom by phone. This is not a good thing to hear for someone who has anxiety. Andrew has a gauge like a popcorn kernel – the heat builds up until he knows he’s going to pop.

Andrew’s had two panic attacks in the past, but one of his greatest fears is having one at school. And that fear itself for sure doesn’t help.

The whole thing adds up to a story told with humor and compassion about a kid watching what he thought was the worst possible thing actually happen – and he gets through it, and friends and teachers help him through.

The story of how that all happens is a fun ride indeed.

robharrell.com

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Review of Bone Weaver, by Aden Polydoros

Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Bone Weaver

by Aden Polydoros

Inkyard Press, 2022. 428 pages.
Review written November 25, 2022, from my own copy, sent to me by the publisher for Cybils judging
Starred Review

Bone Weaver begins with a girl named Toma sewing back the finger of her sister, Galina. Before long, we realize that Galina is not alive. She’s an undead upyr, and she loses body parts if she’s not careful. But when Toma sews them back, using patterns from her mother’s rushnyk, an embroidered cloth she left with Toma — the parts heal back as if they were never lost.

And Toma quickly gets another chance to use her stitches when she finds an injured man in a downed airship. She drags him home and stitches his wound. He’s horrified by her family of upyri — who have been caring for Toma the last six years since she was left traumatized and alone. But it turns out the rescued man is Mikhail the young tsar — and a usurper named Koschei has stolen his magic.

But then some men in another airship come after the tsar — but find Galina and decide to take her to Koschei to win his favor after losing the tsar. Toma cannot let her sister fall into the hands of someone who experiments with the undead, so she sets out after them in the company of the tsar, who wants to find allies to try to win the country back.

Along the way they see examples of terrible things done by those in power — tsarists and rebels alike. Will Mikhail take those things to heart? Will Toma be able to save her sister?

I happened to be reading this book while I was in the middle of listening to another book that dealt with bringing people back from death. In the other book, it was seen as something that can bring no good thing — not so much in this book, but I lean toward that feeling, that death is something it’s probably best not to mess with, especially bringing people back.

But I did like the way this book played off Russian and Slavic folklore, encountering various undead creatures and Toma seeing the humanity remaining in them.

There’s lots of death and undeath in this story, but it’s a compelling tale about a girl with power and heritage she doesn’t even realize. As she helps others, she comes to understand herself better, deals with her own past trauma, and gets ready to face living people again.

AdenPolydoros.com

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Review of The Joy Document, by Jennifer McGaha

Musings, Nonfiction Review 0

The Joy Document

Creating a Midlife of Surprise and Delight

by Jennifer McGaha

Broadleaf Books, 2024. 196 pages.
Review written February 28, 2025, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com

When I saw the book The Joy Document, it was just after I had finished going through Champagne for the Soul, by Mike Mason, with my church small group. I’d previously gone through it in probably 2017 with a different small group – and it’s still my favorite book for small group study. It’s all about Joy – with 90 meditations for 90 days of looking for Joy, including a Bible verse about Joy on each day. Reading and discussing the book got my group noticing and talking about our Joys each week.

So when I saw The Joy Document, I thought, Wonderful! It’s a secular version of Champagne for the Soul! But I’m afraid it wasn’t that. So my expectations limited my appreciation a little bit.

What is it? Well, it’s also about noticing things in an ordinary life that surprise, delight, or intrigue you. The book is a collection of short essays – the kind I like to call “musings” about ordinary things. Yes, they left me smiling. And yes, I appreciate her practice of looking a little deeper at the details of life, finding her way to wonder.

And I think my favorite part was the list at the back of questions to ask in order to make your own Joy Document.

In fact, that helps me put my finger on what might be the difference between the two books. In Mike Mason’s book, every short entry, besides being about his experiences, was also about how the reader can apply the ideas. In this book, we got all fifty musings – and then at the end were ideas for applying the thoughts from the rest of the book.

But for both, the underlying thought is this: There are many reasons for Joy out there, if we will open our eyes to them.

And this book, too, helped me do just that.

jennifermcgaha.com
broadleafbooks.com

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Review of This Rebel Heart, by Katherine Locke, read by Kathleen Gati and Steven Jay Cohen

Historical, Paranormal, Teen Fiction Review 0

This Rebel Heart

by Katherine Locke
read by Kathleen Gati and Steven Jay Cohen

Books on Tape, 2022. 11 hours, 34 minutes.
Review written November 20, 2022, from a library eaudiobook

This Rebel Heart is an absorbing, atmospheric look at the Budapest student uprising of 1956, when the Soviets left Hungary for a week. The book is full of supernatural elements, which at first I thought were figurative, but ended up being a fundamental part of the story. For example, since the Soviets came, the city has lost its color. The blue sky was the last to go. People can barely remember the names of colors, and marvel when they begin to come back.

Another example is in the back story of our main character, Csilla. During the war, when the Jews were being rounded up and shot next to the river Duna that runs through Budapest, Csilla’s father led their family into the river, and they lived in its waters for the rest of the war, protected from the Nazis. And now the river constantly talks to Csilla.

As the book begins, Csilla’s parents were recently exonerated and reburied. Csilla’s father had been important in the Communist party, but he was falsely accused of treason and Zionism and executed years before. Now he has been publicly exonerated — but the authorities seem to have used his funeral as a cover to crack down on students at the university.

Csilla has tickets to get out of Hungary with her aunt Ilona — her only surviving relative after the Holocaust. But despite that immanent escape, Csilla gets pulled into the cause of the rebels. She becomes friends with a young man whose lover was recently executed by the secret police for homosexuality. And starts thinking about his cause and all that is wrong with Hungary under the Soviets. And then someone leaves her father’s journals at her doorstep, and she reads about his vision for Hungary. Is it even possible to right the wrongs he committed in support of that vision?

And then Csilla meets a handsome young man who tells her he is an angel of death. He is an angel of death who comes to be with children who are facing death. So why has he been pulled to Budapest?

This is an evocative novel, rich with the atmosphere of Budapest. I visited Budapest years ago, and the words of this book pulled me right back to that beautiful city, dominated by the presence of the Duna River. It was easy for me to believe the river would speak to one of her children.

katherinelockebooks.com
GetUnderlined.com

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Review of Rebel Witch, by Kristen Ciccarelli, read by Grace Gray

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Rebel Witch

by Kristen Ciccarelli
read by Grace Gray

Listening Library, 2025. 13 hours, 44 minutes.
Review written March 4, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Fabulous news! The Crimson Moth series is a duology! So we don’t have to wait for another volume!

And she pulled off a very satisfying conclusion to the story.

Once again we’ve got the conflict of a witch and a witch hunter in love with each other, but on opposite sides. In fact, the book starts out with Gideon planning to assassinate Rune on the distant island where she fled. He’s jealously watching her at the party where her engagement to a prince is being celebrated. But Gideon hesitates…

And one thing leads to another, and they end up traveling together back to their home island – with neither one in good graces with their ruler. They’re basically each planning to betray the other… or are they?

Who’s in danger and what they’re planning seems to go back and forth in this book, but I appreciated that it was all in a way that made sense to me as a listener. The trouble is that both sides in the conflict have a ruthless, terrible leader, so we don’t root for either leader to succeed – but we do root for Gideon and Rune’s love to somehow win out.

And I probably shouldn’t say a lot more about the plot. There’s lots of death and danger, and, yes, some sex, and Rune and Gideon each find allies and enemies in surprising places.

And I’m so glad the author didn’t leave our heroes in danger, waiting for another installment!

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Review of A Plate of Hope, by Erin Frankel, illustrated by Paola Escobar, read by Luis Carlos de la Lombana

Audiobooks, Award Winners, Biography, Children's Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

A Plate of Hope

The Inspiring Story of Chef José Andrés and World Central Kitchen

by Erin Frankel
illustrated by Paola Escobar
read by Luis Carlos de la Lombana

Dreamscape Media, 2024. 15 minutes.
Random House Studio, 2024. 48 pages.
Review written January 31, 2025, from a library book and eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2025 Odyssey Winner, Children’s Audiobook
2024 Cybils Finalist, Elementary/Middle Grade Nonfiction

I don’t normally listen to 15-minute audiobooks. But I do make a point of trying to listen to all the Odyssey Award Winners and Honor books. The award is given for the best children’s and young adult audiobooks, and they are always outstanding. Even knowing that, I was impressed with this short but amazing audiobook.

The original book is a picture book biography of the life of Chef José Andrés, how he grew up in Spain loving to be part of making food and feeding people, went on to work in an innovative kitchen, and was taken with the promise of America. Of course, it especially looks at how he developed World Central Kitchen to step in with good food immediately after a disaster. He gets folks in quickly after a crisis making good, local food when folks have lost so much else.

And the audiobook has music playing in the background throughout the whole book with judicious use of sound effects, such as sizzling food and chirping birds. The narrator’s Spanish accent combined with the music gives the story a lilting and joyful feeling. Of course, I recommend checking out both the audiobook and the print book so you can enjoy the pictures as well.

erinfrankel.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 Scout’s Honor, by Lily Anderson

Paranormal, Teen Fiction Review 0

Scout’s Honor

by Lily Anderson

Henry Holt, 2022. 403 pages.
Review written October 24, 2022, from a library book
2023 Printz Honor Book

Scout’s Honor is the story of Prudence Perry, a legacy scout with the Ladybirds. The Ladybird Scouts are a secret society that to the world outside appears to be about having tea and serving cookies to students taking the SAT. But in actuality, they are about fighting monsters — specifically, mulligrubs that come from another dimension and feed on people’s emotions. Only legacy scouts and those who drink the Tea of Seeing can see the grubs, but everyone feels the effects. The Ladybird scouts patrol and fight grubs to keep their neighborhoods safe.

Most mulligrubs just zap your energy when they consume your emotions, but if they become carnivorous, they consume people. And three years ago, when Prudence was thirteen, she saw a carnivorous grub do exactly that, when her friend and sister scout died in the jaws of a scranch.

Prue quit the Ladybirds after that. She felt responsible and continued to have PTSD about the incident, which her friends think was a mountain lion attack.

But her mother wasn’t happy about Prue withdrawing from the Ladybirds. And this summer, with two new scouts turning thirteen and ready to be trained, after Prue gets caught sneaking out, the punishment is that she is responsible for training the new recruits.

Right from the start, there’s a fiasco and some of Prue’s other friends drink the Tea of Seeing. But during the summer, Prue learns from her now three new recruits and wonders if there might be a better, gentler, less competitive way to be a Ladybird. Though all along she worries that the babybirds don’t realize how dangerous fighting mulligrubs can be.

The book is entertaining and just a little bit silly, as it portrays the Ladybirds being about all things pink and bloodthirsty fighting techniques. Some of the little details of the world-building didn’t quite work for me, but if you take it as entertainment, with thoughts thrown in about gender roles and responsibilities, it’s an awful lot of fun.

mslilyanderson.com
fiercereads.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 Onyx Storm, by Rebecca Yarros, read by Rebecca Soler

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Fiction Review 0

Onyx Storm

by Rebecca Yarros
read by Rebecca Soler, Teddy Hamilton, Justis Bolding, and Jasmin Walker

Recorded Books, 2025. 23 hours, 53 minutes.
Review written February 26, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.

I’m going to sound like a bit of a curmudgeon in this review, so let me begin by saying that I don’t review books I don’t like. And I certainly don’t spend 24 hours listening to a book I don’t like. So I did enjoy this book, and I’m very engaged with this series and will be reading the next book. I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the first two, though.

First off, this series doesn’t waste any time catching up the reader on what went before. It’s very much a continued story, not “companion novels.” It had been a year since I listened to the previous book, and I didn’t really remember the many characters, who was a dragon rider as opposed to who was a griffin flyer, for example. (Though, funny thing, the people I remembered least were the ones most in danger of dying – they felt like the red shirts of the story.)

So I’m only going to speak in general terms about what happens. It’s the continued story of Violet Sorengale – a cadet at Bezgaeth War College who is bonded to two powerful dragons. Oh, I should say that I loved the portrayal of Andarna as an adolescent dragon. Her whiny tone was delightful! A continued strong point of this series is the characters and the bonds they’re forming with each other.

First, there’s lots and lots of sex. I did laugh when Violet and Xaden broke furniture again. Though it’s kind of their trademark. But I also laughed about two-thirds into the book when they were obviously going to have sex and they closed and locked a door (using lesser magic) – and then the author actually ended the scene! I felt like that was a progression in Violet’s experience. She no longer had to gasp at every touch.

A good chunk of this book was a group of them exploring some distant islands, looking for allies and for more dragons of Andarna’s kind. That was an interesting development. But then each island served a different god and had different unusual customs and hoops that visitors had to go through – and that felt silly and unlikely after a while.

Speaking of contrived things, I recently finished another book using the trope of Everyone-Has-A-Magical-Power – and there are always ways that particular trope doesn’t work for me – you really do have to not think about it too hard. Because I’m sorry, but shadows do not have substance! The whole shadow-wielding idea – that you can make shadows hold someone up while having sex or choke someone in a battle – yeah, I have trouble believing that would work. And some of the other “signets” are problematic for me as well. But mostly, in the middle of the story, that’s not a big issue, and I’m caught up in the tale.

Now, the last big climactic battle took three hours of the audiobook. And that’s after a whole lot of fighting in the book already. So this is an audiobook where the narrator is describing lots of fighting and lots of sex – and it must have been exhausting for her! But by the time I was listening to the final battle, the narrator’s voice expressing excitement kind of flew past me. Exciting thing after exciting thing – and it stopped being exciting for me.

Now, I listen to audiobooks while I’m doing other things, so to really remember what’s going on, before the next book comes out, I should probably try rereading the entire thing in print. Trouble is, I doubt I’d want to give that much time to it – so I’ll probably be content with enjoying the story but maybe being a little confused – as I was with this one.

Speaking of confusion – the ending is kind of the opposite of a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger ending leaves you wondering what will come next. This ending left me wondering what just happened.

Without giving anything away, the big final battle took the last three hours of the book – and the final part of it was when we got to hear from three more narrators, for a nice change of pace and more perspectives on this enormous fight. At the end of the battle, Violet passed out. The story starts again twelve hours later in a different location, and Violet is told several very surprising things – but we don’t know why or how they happened. And then the book ends.

So by the time the next book comes out, I’m not sure I’ll remember what I was confused about. I’m also not at all sure where it’s going next – but I am sure that I’m going to want to go along for the ride.

rebeccayarros.com

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