Review of Song of a Blackbird, by Maria van Lieshout

Graphic Novel, Historical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Song of a Blackbird

by Maria van Lieshout

First Second, 2025. 256 pages.
Review written October 27, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

This historical teen graphic novel is set in Amsterdam in 1943 and 2011, with maps on the endpapers showing important buildings in the city at both time periods. Notes at the back tell how the author took actual historical people and incidents to craft this story of Annick’s grandmother, who learns when being tested for a bone marrow match that the people she thought were her siblings aren’t related to her at all. Annick sets out to learn her grandmother’s background, using a series of prints of buildings in Amsterdam to lead her to the truth.

And we get a parallel story of a young woman in 1943 Amsterdam who learned that Jewish people were being deported, possibly to their deaths, and got involved with a group who were saving children from this fate. And then she got involved with a group of printers who were forging documents, because a priest wouldn’t take one more boy unless they had more ration cards.

There are more adventures in 1943, including a bank heist (based on an actual heist), but also some executions. In 2011, Annick follows the pictures to find out what really happened to her grandmother during the war.

It’s all skillfully done. A blackbird narrates both time periods, representing hope and art. Maria van Lieshout uses actual historical photographs of buildings in Amsterdam in the 1943 sections. And she makes you care about the children and about those who risked their lives in the resistance. The author goes back and forth between time periods smoothly, and helps us understand that the story plays out in the same city, in the same buildings, almost 70 years apart.

This graphic novel is a stunning work of art that makes a powerful statement.

vanlieshoutstudio.com
firstsecondbooks.com

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Review of Zero! The Number That Almost Wasn’t, by Sarah Albee, illustrated by Chris Hsu

Children's Nonfiction Review, History, Mathematical, Starred Review 0

Zero!

The Number That Almost Wasn’t

by Sarah Albee
illustrated by Chris Hsu

Charlesbridge, 2025. 40 pages.
Review written July 11, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

Fun fact: When Europeans set up the calendar we use today, they did not include a Year Zero. The year after 1 BC was 1 AD. Of course, they were given these names long, long after they happened. But because Europeans didn’t understand zero when they developed the calendar – the Twenty-first Century didn’t actually start until the year 2001. I tried to wrote a short article about this and tried to sell it to children’s magazines in 1999 and 2000, with no success. And I have to admit that switching from 1999 to 2000 feels much more momentous than switching from 2000 to 2001, even if it wasn’t actually the new century yet.

Anyway, all my thinking about when the century started sprang from the moment I learned that Europeans didn’t adopt the symbol zero or even the concept of zero until well past the Middle Ages – and that’s what this book is about.

This picture book explains the history of Zero in a way children can understand. (Yes, without touching on questions of what that means about the start of centuries.) It talks briefly about the concept of Nothing and the concept of Place Value, but it’s mostly about the history of writing numbers.

We hear about the Babylonians – who did use a place value and a mark for an “empty” place. We hear about the Greeks, who were especially strong in astronomy and geometry. The Mayans developed zero earlier than anyone else – but their knowledge was lost when Spanish invaders destroyed their records. Roman numerals came along next, which was difficult for doing complex calculations. But during the Dark Ages in Europe, mathematics thrived in India, where an unknown mathematician invented a symbol for zero.

The concept of zero spread to Baghdad, the center of the Muslim Empire – and writings from Arabic mathematicians took advantage of the concept, developing the field of Algebra.

The book chronicles all this, plus how long it took Europeans to adopt the concept. Sadly, some Christians were even then opposed to an advance of knowledge:

A few Christian leaders actually banished zero. They argued that God had created everything, so something that represented nothing must be the work of the devil.

Finally, the invention of the printing press helped the Hindu-Arabic number system spread as people came to appreciate how much it facilitates doing mathematics.

All that is present in this picture book, with engaging cartoon illustrations. There are even notes at the back about historical details present in the illustrations.

Those who read this book will get a grasp on the mind-blowing fact that Zero had to be invented, and was actually invented much later than you’d think it was. You’ll never take Nothing for granted again.

sarahalbeebooks.com
chrishsu.net

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Review of The Book Club for Troublesome Women, by Marie Bostwick

Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

The Book Club for Troublesome Women

by Marie Bostwick
read by Lisa Flanagan

Harper Muse, 2025. 11 hours, 10 minutes.
Review written October 13, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I loved this one. In many ways it’s a standard story of four women bonding through the ups and downs of life because they’ve come together in a book club. But this book adds something special because they begin meeting in the early 1960s, and the first book they read together is The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan.

So the book isn’t simply about enduring friendships through life’s difficulties. It’s also about a woman’s role and society’s expectations for women.

The setting is a fictional suburb in northern Virginia called Concordia – that fits right in with the suburbs found here today. The four women of the book club are chafing under the expectations of running a home and caring for their husband and kids. One wants to be a writer, another wants to get her art into galleries, another wanted to be a veterinarian – but got married and dropped out of school shortly before getting her Bachelor’s in order to help establish her husband’s practice. And the fourth is a former combat nurse who now has six kids – and gets pregnant because she wasn’t able to get birth control pills without her husband’s permission, and he hadn’t gotten around to coming to the appointment yet.

A couple of the women have good relationships with their husbands, despite some ups and downs and working things out. A couple of them have very bad relationships with their husbands. The writer gets a job writing a column for a women’s magazine – but they only want her to write fluff pieces. The high point of the book is when she decides to write an honest essay about what The Feminine Mystique and the book club have meant to her.

I loved listening to this book right from the start. It got me thinking about my life and my mother’s life. My mother got married at the end of 1960, and I, her third child, was born in 1964 – so she was navigating marriage right in this time period. My mom did not achieve the perfect house and family – she had way too many kids to keep up (ending up with thirteen) – but she desperately wanted to. My mom would decidedly not have joined this book club, being staunchly against feminism, and despite the fact she didn’t meet society’s expectations for a housewife, she did pass those expectations on to me. So something else I had to deal with after I got married was realizing I couldn’t afford to be a stay-at-home mom even if I wanted to be. And keeping a clean house and good meals? An always failing proposition. In so many ways it was crazily liberating when my husband left me – because it pretty much threw out all those expectations, and I got to find out how truly wonderful a meaningful career can be.

But of course it’s all more complicated than can be put into a paragraph. Or an essay. But a novel – that’s a wonderful format to explore how attitudes were changing for women in the early 1960s and all that could mean for individuals.

And besides all that thought-provoking stuff, these characters were so much fun to get to know and spend time with. Troublesome women can be very entertaining! Highly recommended!

mariebostwick.com

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Review of Zip Zap Wickety Wack, by Matthew Diffee

Delightfully Silly, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

Zip Zap Wickety Wack

A Story About Sharing

by Matthew Diffee

Neal Porter Books (Holiday House), 2025. 48 pages.
Review written October 24, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

This absolutely brilliant picture book makes me want to do story times again.

I’ve always loved books that subvert animal sounds. The classic Bark, George! by Jules Feiffer, was one of the first books my kid could read. And I loved to bring out The Cow That Went Oink, by Bernard Most, for story times. Zip Zap Wickety Wack reminds me of Froodle, by Antoinette Portis, which was a big hit when I gave it to my nieces. [Look at that! Froodle was also edited by Neal Porter. No wonder the similar brilliance.]

In this case, the book begins very deadpan. Completely traditional pictures and standard text tell us:

The cow says, “Moo.”
The horse says, “Neigh.”
The sheep says, “Baa.”

Could have been written in the 1950s! Except on that very same page, the goat is looking up at the sheep picture above him.

The goat says, “Wait a second. I say baa.”

So there’s an argument. They don’t want to share.

They start thinking of other things they could say, but oink, quack, cockadoodledoo and ribbit are already taken.

So the sheep declares that he will think of something that no one has ever said. He does a lot of thinking and then gets a full spread declaring:

“Zip Zap Wickety Wack
Bing Bang Walla Balla
Flip Flap Yackety Yack
Wing Ding Dilly!”

See why I want to read this book in story time?

But the book is only beginning to get silly at this point, because on the next spread we see a very small flying saucer coming to the farm. The alien inside says:

I hate to be a bother, but zip zap wickety wack bing bang walla balla flip flap yackety yack wing ding dilly is what I say. Why don’t you just wiffle?”

It turns out that wiffling is alienese for sharing.

And how they work it out is still completely deadpan and utterly hilarious.

And kids learn about sharing at the same time!

Trust me, you’ll want to find this book, and if you can read it without reading aloud, you have more self-control than I do.

matthewdiffee.com

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Review of Stars, Hide Your Fires, by Jessica Mary Best

Science Fiction, Teen Fiction Review 0

Stars, Hide Your Fires

by Jessica Mary Best

Quirk Books, 2023. 301 pages.
Review written May 20, 2023, from an advance reader copy.

Stars, Hide Your Fires is a completely fun science fiction adventure. Cass has grown up on a planet whose resources have all been plundered by the Empire. She makes a living by pickpocketing the tourists. So when she hears about the Ascension Ball – where all the wealthiest families will be in attendance when the emperor announces who will ascend to the throne – Cass realizes that if she can attend, she could lift enough jewels to retire and take her sick father to a healthier planet.

She does get to the planet hosting the ball, and she does almost miraculously score a ticket. But once there, the emperor gets murdered – and it looks like Cass is being set up to take the blame, along with the revolutionary organization that has long been a thorn in the empire’s side. So when an attractive girl from that organization tells Cass that they need to solve the murder before they are accused and the empire has an excuse for war – Cass is happy to work with her, hoping to save her own skin.

The plotting in this one felt a little transparent. But reading it was completely fun. I finished reading, because I really enjoyed the characters. The romance is refreshing, and I liked the way gender is dealt with – people wear a pendant, and the shape shows what gender they identify with. Several of the characters were smoothly referred to as they. I also liked the way clones of the emperor were shown not to be identical (all different ages) and with independent thoughts. So details were well done, even if the main plot wasn’t subtle. Very much a fun read.

jessicamarybest.com
quirkbooks.com

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Review of The Cartoonists Club, by Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Graphic Novel, Starred Review 0

The Cartoonists Club

by Raina Telgemeier & Scott McCloud

Graphix (Scholastic), 2025. 282 pages.
Review written October 9, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review

The Cartoonists Club is a collaboration between the wildly popular middle grade graphic novelist Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud, who wrote the book Understanding Comics that both my kids read and absorbed when they were approximately middle school age. Although they didn’t ever try to do it professionally, both of them made some comics of their own after reading that book.

It turns out that Raina Telgemeier also read the book when she was a teenager – and it encouraged her interest in making comics, which led to her tremendous success. (This is from an Author’s Note at the back.)

Well, Raina got to meet Scott McCloud in the comics community, and he was always encouraging. So she got the idea to work together to make a version of Understanding Comics that’s actually targeted for middle school readers. This book is the result.

And they succeeded wonderfully in their mission! This book is not nonfiction like the original. It tells the story of four kids in middle school who like making comics and who form a club. Along the way, with their knowledgeable staff sponsor, they learn about the basics of comics, they collaborate together, they learn to dare to share their work, and they even make and print their own mini-comics.

It’s a great story – the four kids are people we root for, each with different interests. And it also gives great information. There’s a link to a website with even more resources, scholastic.com/cartoonistsclub. I hope that lots of kids will form their own Cartoonists’ Clubs after being inspired by the example in this book.

scholastic.com/cartoonistsclub
goraina.com

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Review of For Such a Time as This, by Hanna Reichel

Christian, Nonfiction Review, Starred Review 0

For Such a Time as This

An Emergency Devotional

by Hanna Reichel

William B. Eerdmans, 2025. 192 pages.
Review written October 14, 2025, from my own copy, purchased via amazon.com.
Starred Review

For Such a Time as This is an opportunity for Christians to think through current events and what our role and response should be. It’s written by a scholar who has studied the Confessing Church who stood against Nazi Germany – and the book draws heavily on their writings. Yes, it was written in response to Trump’s reelection.

At the front, “How to Read This Book” explains the author’s approach:

“We’ve been here before” applies not only to the diagnosis but also to the resources. There is nothing new in the individual lessons or the trajectory as a whole. They present the very foundational assumptions and practices of Christian faith, refracted through the light of this particular situation, illuminated by this particular cloud of witnesses. But maybe, presented in this way, old practices will appear in a new light and offer a renewed promise.

The voices and illustrations are primarily those of Christians in the mid-twentieth century who resisted National Socialist ideology and politics out of their religious convictions. I draw on these voices not because they are canonical figures or flawless moral exemplars, not because they are uniquely authoritative or the most radical and faithful voices out there. They are not.

They are simply what I have to offer to the current moment, based on my biographical background and my scholarly area of expertise – the contribution I can make to the table around which we are gathering. We will need many different sources of wisdom, experience, and insight in this conversation. I hope you bring yours as well.

What I observe from where I stand is only part of the picture. What is called for in one situation might be a disaster in another.

You will even find that some of the lessons stand in tension with one another, sometimes forming complementing pairs, sometimes taking the same idea into a different, or even opposing direction. There are no unequivocal beliefs, incontestable conclusions, or cure-all recipes. I am not asking you to agree with what I say and go apply it. I am inviting you to reflect and ponder, put into perspective and complement.

Resolving all tensions is a hallmark of ideology. Easy answers and clear-cut solutions are what authoritarianism offers. Part of the task upon us today is to resist these lures.

We must build up tolerance for complexity. We must train our capacity to hold things in tension. We must exercise our communal ability for nuance and contestation. Everywhere, discernment will be needed. Only so can we do justice to reality and to one another.

The book that follows is an Introduction and 28 devotionals, each only a few pages. As you can tell from the above, they don’t tell you what to do. They do give you plenty to think about. And you’ll hear from voices of Christians who stood in the past – the likes of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his colleagues.

Here’s how she begins the Introduction:

As a scholar, I have closely studied this nation. It prided itself in its influence in the world, its intellectual leadership, its technological innovation, its economic prowess. But as global orders shifted, its social and political system, built for simpler times, crumbled. Political and economic crises damaged trust in the government. Polarization increased and made coalition building ever less feasible. Widening gaps led to social unrest, economic instability, and even violence in the streets.

The nation was overwhelmed and disoriented. Betrayal by political opponents explained any defeats. Perceived humiliation turned into resentment, feeding a desire to “be great again.” Political rhetoric shifted into ever more belligerent registers as enemies abroad and minorities at home were scapegoated. A muscular strength was projected out of swagger, false claims, and ever more overblown claims to greatness. Special leaders – claiming for themselves special powers – rode waves of public disgruntlement against immigrants, intellectuals, and those visibly “other.” Democratic processes were manipulated, checks and balances hollowed out. Executive overreach became the order of the day.

The nation I am talking about is Germany; the time is roughly a century ago. But maybe my description sounded familiar to you today. Maybe, like me, you find yourself thinking: We have been here before.

She doesn’t apply the wisdom of those who went before blindly. I like the caveat in this paragraph:

I am not arguing that history is repeating itself. Every context is different, and we do well to attend to the complexity of our world today. But noting certain similarities directs us to models we could learn from. Those who had to navigate the breakdown of a democratic order and the rise of a fascist regime in another time and place might have some wisdom to offer us today.

I think of this as a book of resources, a book to provoke thought. There’s a Study Guide at the back with Reflection questions, “Try this” exercises, and “Dig deeper” resources. I didn’t notice the Study Guide until I was halfway through the book – which I decided was excuse enough to read it over again.

This isn’t all about activism. One of the early devotionals is about how to not get too obsessed with current news, to reflect on what spiritual practices ground you and help keep your perspective. But the whole thing gets you thinking and reflecting on what your part can be in all this before God.

This, then, is the task this little book sets for itself. It is meant for regular people who – regardless of our position on this or that policy that a current government may be advancing, and regardless of our vocation and standing in life – feel uneasy about the rising authoritarian tendencies. People who are looking for some insight as to how to live as Christians in such a time as this. The lessons are particularly for those among us who are not necessarily looking to die a hero, but who are concerned about how to keep on living as followers of Christ.

eerdmans.com

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Review of Oathbound, by Tracy Deonn

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Oathbound

by Tracy Deonn
read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt, Andrew Eiden, Hillary Huber, Tim Paige, and Adenrele Ojo

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2025. 25 hours.
Review written July 28, 2025, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

25 hours listening to Book Three and the series still is not done! Fair warning about that – but honestly, with the kicker ending to this book, I’m not upset – I want to hear more.

This series is growing on me. I think after listening to Book Three, I’m willing to call myself a fan. I liked the concept of Book One – a Black girl destroying expectations by proving herself to be a part of a magical secret society of descendants of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. I thought that was what the series would be about.

But Book Two showed us, right at the start, that of course the white men accustomed to ruling the Order wouldn’t put up with that. And we find out that Bree has another kind of magic from her Black foremothers, and she meets practitioners of that art – all while seeing scenes from Arthur’s life as he, too, tries to control her. And basically Book Two was pretty confusing for me – different kinds of magic, different practitioners, lots of “dreamwalking,” and I wasn’t even sure who Bree was really in love with.

I enjoyed Book Three, though. I didn’t worry about remembering what went on before and got the idea pretty quickly. It seems like she’d established how the different kinds of magic worked in the earlier books, and now it was easier for me to simply accept what’s happening. In this book, Bree is trying to learn to use her power apart from Arthur – apart from all her friends, too. (Oh! Something I appreciated was that Arthur was hardly mentioned in this book. Every single time the narrator said the word “Author,” I couldn’t help myself and said “Arrrthur” under my breath – this happened much less in Book Three than it had in Book Two.)

This book progresses at a leisurely pace – 25 hours! – and I think could have been done without so many viewpoint characters. But I especially liked what’s basically a heist set-up in the last half of the book – and getting to become clear on which one is actually Bree’s love interest.

And there’s a huge kick at the end – that packs a punch precisely because of what you’ve learned during the course of the book.

So, yes, this series is growing on me. Bree Matthews is a character you can’t help but root for. One thing’s for sure – the white patriarchy shouldn’t underestimate her.

tracydeonn.com

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Review of Home, by Isabelle Simler

Award Winners, Children's Nonfiction Review, Poetry, Science, Starred Review 0

Home

by Isabelle Simler
translated by Vineet Lal

Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2024. Originally published in France in 2022. 68 pages.
Review written February 5, 2025, from a library book.
Starred Review
2025 Mildred Batchelder Award Honor Book

The Batchelder Award is given to the publishers of the best books published in English, originally published in a country other than the United States and in a language other than English. I’m impressed that a book of poetry won, because I would think that poetry is hard to translate. No, it’s not rhymed poetry, but still, the translator did a beautiful job, and the original illustrations in this book are stunning.

This is a book of poetry – about animal homes. Each spread features a different species and the type of home they live in, narrated by the creature, and telling how they construct their distinctive home.

Some interesting homes featured include the straw apartment complex of the sociable weaver (generations of birds live in these giant nests!), bubble house of the diving bell spider, cactus cabin of the elf owl, foam hiding place of the foam-nest tree frog, and tubular condo of the European fan worm. Many more are featured, and all have beautiful illustrations of their home – with more facts in the back.

A lovely book to browse through and wonder over. We truly have an amazingly varied world.

eerdmans.com

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Review of A Tangled Web, by L. M. Montgomery

Fiction Review, Historical, Old Favorites, Starred Review 0

A Tangled Web

by L. M. Montgomery

Bantam Books, 1989. Originally published in 1931. 257 pages.
Review written June 20, 2025, from my own copy.
Starred Review

Back in 2019, I got to visit Prince Edward Island, and attempted to reread all of L. M. Montgomery’s books in the order she published them before I did. I did not finish that project, but I did reread fourteen of her twenty novels. However, it’s only now in 2025 that I got back to that project with the joy of rereading A Tangled Web as the perfect diversion on a flight that ended up much longer than planned because of storms.

A Tangled Web begins some of L. M. Montgomery’s more mature novels. Technically, it was published for adults, and the characters featured are almost entirely adults and young adults. But as with all of her books, there’s a wide appeal from preteens through adults, and you’d better believe that in 1931, she would not have written any sexual content.

A Tangled Web is about two large entwined (by intermarrying) families, the Darks and the Penhallows, living on Prince Edward Island. Aunt Becky is the owner of the famous clan heirloom, the Dark jug. She has gathered all the clan as she knows her time is coming – to tell them who will inherit the old brown jug.

All the family comes. Either because they’re desperate to own the jug, or because they want the entertainment of watching Aunt Becky make everyone squirm with all the secrets she knows about everyone. Well, she makes hints and threats – but announces that they will have to meet again on a certain day more than a year away, when the one family member who can keep a secret will announce who gets the jug.

And almost no one in the family is unaffected by the meetings and the jug. The book covers several of those life-changing events. This book reminds me greatly of L. M. Montgomery’s short story collections – but the stories are tangled together by somehow relating to the family jug.

And I’m afraid Maud Montgomery seems more cynical than in her youth. Yes, there is some love at first sight – some that even works out in the end – but there’s a theme running through of the wisdom of taking a second look at your passions to see if they stand the test of time. (And some do, some don’t.) Yes, there are a bunch of happy marriages that happen in this book – but there are also some painful course corrections for the people involved. And I love that at least one happily ever after happens when the course correction goes away from marriage. And that at least one legacy from Aunt Becky brings great good to a couple people who richly deserve it.

But you absolutely cannot go wrong with L. M. Montgomery. She is a master of making quirky characters come alive and revealing the vagaries of human nature. If you haven’t read her books yet, this isn’t necessarily the one I’d start with – but anyone who’s read and loved any of her books will be happy to find out there’s more.

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