Alice Cary

Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

The Gift of the Great Buffalo

Review by Alice Cary

The Gift of the Great Buffalo is a thrilling adventure story and an excellent history lesson about Métis-Ojibwe culture all wrapped up in one. The author of We Are the Water Protectors, Carole Lindstrom, who is Métis and an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe, explains in an author’s note that although she grew up enjoying Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books, “being portrayed as a ‘savage’ in a book where I felt an actual kinship to Laura Ingalls was very difficult for me to understand. It felt as if I were being hurt by a friend.”

Lindstrom wrote The Gift of the Great Buffalo to let readers know that “before there was a little house on the prairie, there was a little tipi on the prairie.” The book follows Rose, a young Métis girl accompanying her family to a big gathering for a twice-a-year buffalo hunt. Readers will be fascinated to see how the group hunt is organized, with “strict laws that were enforced by the captains, to ensure order and fairness.” Lindstrom skillfully incorporates other historical context as well, noting that European settlers had already eliminated most of the buffalo.

Aly McKnight’s illustrations capture the close relationship between Rose and her family, the sense of community fostered by the hunt, and the excitement of the big gathering. She wonderfully depicts tangible objects, like a steam locomotive—an invention that hastened the demise of the buffalo—as well as the spiritual connections Rose and her family have to the land and the animals they hunt. In a moving spread, readers see Rose listening to the voice of the buffalo spirit as a giant herd grazes amidst the green prairie grasses.

When Rose’s father, who is a captain, and others have trouble finding buffalo, Rose takes matters into her own hands in a daring show of female empowerment. While the story is both compelling and satisfying, the actual hunt is not portrayed—which is understandable, although its omission feels somewhat glaring, with only a single line mentioning, “It was a good hunting day.” Overall, The Gift of the Great Buffalo offers a meaningful look at Métis-Ojibwe history, and will have broad appeal for young readers.

The Gift of the Great Buffalo offers a meaningful look at Métis-Ojibwe history, and will have broad appeal for young readers.
FictionLiterary FictionFamily Drama

Dream State

Review by Alice Cary

From the very first pages of Dream State, Eric Puchner draws readers right into the seemingly charmed world of a multigenerational summer lake house in the imaginary town of Salish, Montana—a house graced with outdated carpet, board games, bric-a-brac on every windowsill, Adirondack chairs, apple orchards, raspberry bushes and cherry trees. “Fingers stained red,” Puchner writes, “bloated with fruit, you’d run across Route 35 and jump into the lake to clean off, whooping lustily at the cold, feeling like a character in a Russian novel.” The year is 2004, and the cottage belongs to the Margolis family, who are ready to celebrate the wedding of anesthesiologist Charlie Margolis and his fiancée, Cece, a medical school dropout who “was sure she had something great to offer the world, something big and pure-hearted and indispensable. If only she could figure out what it was.” 

Into this scene walks Charlie’s best friend, Garrett, an airport baggage handler who is hiding from life, tending to his dying father and struggling with the fallout from the accidental death of their mutual college friend, for which he feels responsible. This is a packed saga of the very best kind, spanning from the characters’ college days through their old age, examining a multitude of themes that include friendship, betrayal, marriage, parenting, aging—and also the road not taken, climate change and addiction. Not many authors could successfully pull off such a sprawling, multifaceted chronicle, but Puchner excels at both the big picture and the small details, creating funny, believable dialogue throughout and using characters’ expertise to enrich the plot (such as Charlie’s medical knowledge or Garrett’s later career as an environmental scientist specializing in wolverine protection). 

“If you look for a meaning, Tarkovsky once said, you’ll miss everything that happens,” a character says near the end of the novel, citing the Soviet filmmaker. Happily, however, this novel overflows with both meaning and intriguing plot, layer by layer, year by year, and even doubles back on itself in an artful way, returning to the Margolis wedding at the very end. 

Although very different books, Dream State shares remarkable similarities with Louise Erdrich’s The Mighty Red: They both skillfully and humorously center on a wedding and a young love triangle, a tragic accidental death, and concerns about climate change and the ways humans damage the environment. Don’t miss Dream State, whose memorable characters leave readers with plenty to contemplate about life’s most vital aspects.

Dream State is a packed saga of the very best kind, full of funny, believable dialogue and memorable characters who will leave readers with plenty to contemplate about life’s most vital aspects.
Children's & YAMiddle GradeChildren's

Cassi and the House of Memories

Review by Alice Cary

Dean Stuart makes a stellar debut with Cassi and the House of Memories, a graphic novel about a girl whose beloved grandfather suffers from dementia. It’s not only a sensitive, informative portrayal of how the disease might affect a loved one—especially for young people—but it’s also an exciting adventure story.

Cassi and her grandfather enjoy time together in his garden, but she is puzzled by some of his behaviors, especially when he suddenly doesn’t seem to recognize her. He confesses, “Sometimes I find myself in the dark” and “alone and confused.” Cassi’s grandmother further explains the situation with a helpful visual demonstration that compares falling dominoes to memories, adding, “Sometimes Grandpa goes to places that are familiar only to him. We can’t see them, but they are very real inside his head.” Cassi’s exuberant personality and Stuart’s dynamic illustrations keep things lively, even during these contemplative moments.

When her grandfather wanders off, Cassi begins to search but suddenly finds herself in a mysterious place, which turns out to be what Grandpa calls “his memory palace.” Cassi finds herself rambling through Escher-like structures of stairways, windows, and doors, and also a huge portrait gallery that allows Cassi access to events from her grandfather’s life. When certain scenes disintegrate, Cassi notes, “This must be his memory falling apart!”

Stuart’s distinctive illustrations are painterly in the very best way—distinct from the comic-book styles found in many other middle grade graphic novels—and full of both action and beauty. He cleverly distinguishes between the present, Grandpa’s memories and the haze of confusion that sometimes overtakes Grandpa’s brain.  Stuart’s use of color and pattern is particularly adept. Many colors that should be bright are muted throughout, accentuating the book’s exploration of fading memory. Cassi’s striped dress helps readers keep track of her in each scene, as does the red sweater Grandpa wears in his old age. Throughout, an elusive, colorful blue butterfly helps steer Cassi through the chaos. In an afterword, Stuart explains that his own father suffered from dementia, and that his goal with Cassi and the House of Memories “was to make a story about connecting.” Cassi learns to appreciate the many dreams, disappointments and events of her grandfather’s life—aspects such as his musical talent—and even manages to alter a past tragedy during an action-packed circus episode. Cassi and the House of Memories is a moving depiction of a grandparent and grandchild’s enduring love and continued understanding in the face of dementia.

Cassi and the House of Memories is a moving depiction of a grandparent and grandchild’s enduring love and continued understanding in the face of dementia.
Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

3 picture books illuminating remarkable lives

List by Alice Cary
STARRED REVIEW
February 6, 2025

3 picture books illuminating remarkable lives

These portraits of greatness illuminate the lives of brilliant Black artists, showing young readers a few sets of footsteps they might follow.
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Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

And She Was Loved

Review by Alice Cary

And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories features the teamwork of two award-winners at the top of their game: writer Andrea Davis Pinkney and Caldecott Honoree Daniel Minter. The result of their collaboration is a truly exquisite picture book that, as Pinkney explains in her author’s note, is “a love letter to an outspoken sparrow” whose writing changed the lives of many, including Pinkney herself, who struggled in school and had a hard time identifying with classroom reading lists until “like a glistening key that unlocked my soul’s need to see myself, Toni Morrison’s storytelling came into my life.”

Both the author’s and illustrator’s passion for their subject shines on every page, providing young readers with an inspiring introduction to Morrison’s life and works, urging them to use their own imaginations and “make your mark on the tar. Stitch your story.” Readers learn how Morrison, born Chloe Ardelia Wofford, based her debut novel on her childhood in Lorain, Ohio, and how she wrote before dawn as a young mother. A timeline provides additional helpful details.

Minter’s art does justice to this literary star, conveying Morrison’s energy, magic and inspiration in a variety of bright, glowing palettes, beautifully melding biographical facts in illustrations such as that of the home Morrison grew up in, or a gorgeous childhood portrait referencing The Bluest Eye, with the spiritual effect of her presence and accomplishments. In a particularly informative, fascinating artist’s note, Minter aptly calls the book “a praise poem,” while directly addressing the late author to “look closely at the lines, because some of them might resemble characters that could have lived in your novels.”

While several excellent children’s biographies of Morrison already exist, And She Was Loved is a welcome addition, bound to be treasured, just like the author herself.

While several excellent children’s biographies of Toni Morrison already exist, And She Was Loved is a welcome addition, bound to be treasured, just like the author herself.
Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

Go Tell It

Review by Alice Cary

Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer is exceptional, a master class of a picture book biography overflowing with energy-infused words and pictures. Quartez Harris is a compelling storyteller, summarizing Baldwin’s early life in evocative scenes, especially his struggles with his fury-filled preacher stepfather. Harris describes, for instance, how Baldwin wrote Go Tell It on the Mountain: “As he typed, his fingers dug into his Harlem childhood and the old church songs he sang in the pews of his past. Then he pounded his typewriter like an organ thundering from a storefront church.”

The atmospheric illustrations by Caldecott honoree Gordon C. James draw young readers right into James Baldwin’s world, showing, for example, how Baldwin traversed the streets of Harlem, seeing words everywhere. On one spread, Baldwin walks amid jump-roping children and chatting bystanders, the scene covered with words swirling through the young man’s head. Later, similarly styled words surround Baldwin’s typewriter as he begins to write his first novel.

A thoughtful afterword further explains Baldwin’s accomplishments, which is especially helpful for young readers not yet ready for his writing. Go Tell It is an inspiring look at one of America’s most important writers.

Go Tell It is an inspiring look at one of America’s most important writers.
Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem

Review by Alice Cary

Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds introduces young readers to Myra Viola Wilds, a Kentucky woman who lived during the Jim Crow era and left her home in the hills for “the city” to become a dressmaker. Eventually, she lost her vision—which the book attributes to eyestrain—and then became a poet. Although biographical details are sparse, Wilds is an admirable, intriguing creator.

Nancy Johnson James tells Wilds’ story in verse, highlighting historical notes in an afterword. She focuses on Wilds’ unending creativity, urging readers to follow her example: “Dream a dream when you struggle, between a painful past and a hopeful tomorrow. Remember when light began to fade, Myra’s art could still be made.”

Diana Ejaita’s fanciful artwork steals the show here. Bold patterns and colors fill each page, reminiscent of Matisse’s splashy shapes. She also uses linework to evoke the weave and intricate stitchwork of the dresses Wilds made. She skillfully introduces the color black into the illustrations to portray Wilds’ descent into blindness.

Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem offers a world of inspiration for young creators of many kinds.

Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem offers a world of inspiration for young creators of many kinds.

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These portraits of greatness illuminate the lives of brilliant Black artists, showing young readers a few sets of footsteps they might follow.
NonfictionMemoirEssays

Sweet Nothings

Review by Alice Cary

“Candy is about happiness in the moment—this exact moment, each subdivided microsecond of melt, each deliriously destructive chomp,” writes Sarah Perry in Sweet Nothings: Confessions of a Candy Lover. Her wonderful, near-encyclopedic ode to confectionery sweets is a collection of microessays, organized by candy color and accompanied by line drawings, including everything from Pop Rocks and Pixy Stix to wax lips and Lindt truffles. It’s quite the contrast to her first book, After the Eclipse, about her 30-year-old mother’s murder by a stranger in their home when Perry was 12. “I was so tired of darkness,” Perry writes. “Maybe my next book, I told my friends, should be about kittens and rainbows. I didn’t know how accurate that joke would prove to be.”

A supremely serious connoisseur, Perry notes, “For some, it’s sports, yoga, gardening, or sex; for me it’s candy—and sex, though not at the same time.” Indeed, her writing can be sensual, as in her description of an Aero bar: “Hold a section in your mouth and feel it break down, chamber by chamber, your saliva flooding it like the compartments of the Titanic.” She’s often humorous, noting, for instance, her love of Vitafusion melatonin gummies: “I’m candy dependent even when unconscious.” Interesting history emerges as well, such as the fact that candy bars were first popularized “as a ‘nourishing lunch’ for hungry men and rations for exhausted soldiers in World War I.”

What’s perhaps most fun are Perry’s strong opinions. She calls cotton candy “an edible cloud, the purest possible form of sugar, a miracle of physics, and still, I hate it.” Of Necco wafers, she confesses, “I just cannot believe that anybody truly likes these. Like refined Tums.” And Junior Mints are “the most candy of the mints, total perfection all around.”

This is much more than a book about sweets, however. Perry uses the subject to delve into many aspects of pop culture, politics, emotion and her past and present life, including her polyamorous relationships. Throughout, she draws sharp, poignant connections between her musings about candy, and memories and loss of her mother: “There’s a satisfaction in learning the real meaning behind any childhood moment, even if that meaning is sad or scary. It takes these floating, isolated memories and pins them to the fabric of your life story, allowing you to better retain them within a greater context.”

Dip in and out of these essays as you would your favorite treat. Sweet but never saccharine, Sweet Nothings is a book worth savoring.

 

Sweet but never saccharine, Sarah Perry’s collection of essays about candy, Sweet Nothings, is a book worth savoring.
FictionLiterary FictionDebut Fiction

Going Home

Review by Alice Cary

Téo Erskine is a Londoner in his 30s with an orderly, if somewhat aimless, life. As Tom Lamont writes in his smart, warm-hearted debut, Going Home: “He had been careful to arrange a life in which he could leave obligations at the door of his flat, next to the coins he saved for Ben’s poker nights and his shoes that were comfiest for driving.” Téo’s life is completely upended, however, during a weekend back home in his North London neighborhood. He offers to babysit the toddler son, Joel, of his childhood friend Lia, a single mom for whom he has longed for ages, in hopes that his chivalry might gain him favor. Instead, however, an unimaginable tragedy occurs, and Téo suddenly finds himself Joel’s reluctant, bewildered guardian.

The novel focuses on the ongoing question of Joel’s permanent guardianship while showing how the young boy changes the lives of those in his orbit. There’s Téo, of course, who blunders his way through car seat and nappy issues, wondering, “Was it water you did give small children or never gave them?” Téo’s father, Vic, whose life is now shrinking due to the advancing effects of Parkinson’s disease, quickly becomes smitten with Joel, especially since he himself grew up in an orphanage. Téo leans on his best friend, Ben, for support, but because of Ben’s wealth and self-centeredness, they don’t always see eye to eye—especially after Ben informs Téo that he had a brief fling with Lia. Rounding out this exceedingly well-drawn cast is rabbi Sibyl Challis, who is on probation with her congregation, and questioning her faith in the wake of Lia’s tragedy.

Comparisons to Nick Hornby’s About a Boy are inevitable and well deserved. Going Home overflows with heart, and its characters feel real with their multitude of dreams, fears, serious self-doubts and fierce loyalties. Over the course of a year, Lamont paces events with precision and humor, asking life’s big questions regarding family and friendship, duty and devotion. Going Home marks the debut of a gifted writer whose readers will find themselves feeling better, somehow, about the world.

Going Home marks the debut of a gifted writer whose readers will find themselves feeling better, somehow, about the world.
Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

Go Tell It

Review by Alice Cary

Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer is exceptional, a master class of a picture book biography overflowing with energy-infused words and pictures. Quartez Harris is a compelling storyteller, summarizing Baldwin’s early life in evocative scenes, especially his struggles with his fury-filled preacher stepfather. Harris describes, for instance, how Baldwin wrote Go Tell It on the Mountain: “As he typed, his fingers dug into his Harlem childhood and the old church songs he sang in the pews of his past. Then he pounded his typewriter like an organ thundering from a storefront church.”

The atmospheric illustrations by Caldecott honoree Gordon C. James draw young readers right into James Baldwin’s world, showing, for example, how Baldwin traversed the streets of Harlem, seeing words everywhere. On one spread, Baldwin walks amid jump-roping children and chatting bystanders, the scene covered with words swirling through the young man’s head. Later, similarly styled words surround Baldwin’s typewriter as he begins to write his first novel.

A thoughtful afterword further explains Baldwin’s accomplishments, which is especially helpful for young readers not yet ready for his writing. Go Tell It is an inspiring look at one of America’s most important writers.

Go Tell It is an inspiring look at one of America’s most important writers.
Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem

Review by Alice Cary

Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem: Dressmaker and Poet, Myra Viola Wilds introduces young readers to Myra Viola Wilds, a Kentucky woman who lived during the Jim Crow era and left her home in the hills for “the city” to become a dressmaker. Eventually, she lost her vision—which the book attributes to eyestrain—and then became a poet. Although biographical details are sparse, Wilds is an admirable, intriguing creator.

Nancy Johnson James tells Wilds’ story in verse, highlighting historical notes in an afterword. She focuses on Wilds’ unending creativity, urging readers to follow her example: “Dream a dream when you struggle, between a painful past and a hopeful tomorrow. Remember when light began to fade, Myra’s art could still be made.”

Diana Ejaita’s fanciful artwork steals the show here. Bold patterns and colors fill each page, reminiscent of Matisse’s splashy shapes. She also uses linework to evoke the weave and intricate stitchwork of the dresses Wilds made. She skillfully introduces the color black into the illustrations to portray Wilds’ descent into blindness.

Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem offers a world of inspiration for young creators of many kinds.

Dream a Dress, Dream a Poem offers a world of inspiration for young creators of many kinds.
Mystery & SuspenseMystery

Dead Money

Review by Alice Cary

“This isn’t a buddy cop movie,” FBI agent Jameson Danner tells corporate fixer Mackenzie Clyde, who’s been called in to help investigate the murder of Trevor Canon, the CEO of a Silicon Valley tech startup called Journy—“the biggest, buzziest startup on the planet.” “We don’t partner with amateurs,” Danner adds. “Especially not a [venture capital] lawyer with zero criminal training.” 

That’s the initial standoff—the first of many—in Jakob Kerr’s fast-paced debut mystery, Dead Money. Kerr’s background as a lawyer and communications exec (he was one of the first Airbnb employees) lends a glamorous, galling and sometimes humorous authenticity to Dead Money’s exploration of high-stakes finance. At a Warriors basketball game, for instance, Mackenzie observes “rich white people of every size and shape . . . a parade of expensive labels and exposed ankles. Outside of Danner and the players on the court, Mackenzie couldn’t find a single man who appeared to be wearing socks.” 

Mackenzie works for Roger Hammersmith, Journy’s biggest investor, who could lose every cent he poured into the startup now that Canon’s been shot between the eyes in his private office. To make matters even more uncertain, Canon changed his will shortly before his death, inserting a “dead money” provision that freezes his company’s assets until someone is tried for his murder. 

Only the company’s board of directors, it seems, had access to Canon’s sanctum. As Mackenzie and Danner examine their potential motives and alibis, the pair’s divergent upbringings emerge. Danner is the son of the Senate minority leader, while Mackenzie was raised by a single mom. At 6-feet-2-inches, she towers over many of her peers both in height and intelligence. She has blazed a bold path for herself, and she’s not done yet. Kerr skillfully increases readers’ knowledge of Mackenzie’s past by interspersing chapters that not only reveal her background, but shed tantalizing light on her ultimate goals. 

As the danger and tensions rise, Dead Money is full of creative and timely surprises—along with numerous plot twists—leading up to a helluva concluding action scene that plays out in a memorably dramatic setting.

Author Jakob Kerr’s Silicon Valley background lends a glamorous, galling and sometimes humorous authenticity to his debut mystery, Dead Money.
Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

And She Was Loved

Review by Alice Cary

And She Was Loved: Toni Morrison’s Life in Stories features the teamwork of two award-winners at the top of their game: writer Andrea Davis Pinkney and Caldecott Honoree Daniel Minter. The result of their collaboration is a truly exquisite picture book that, as Pinkney explains in her author’s note, is “a love letter to an outspoken sparrow” whose writing changed the lives of many, including Pinkney herself, who struggled in school and had a hard time identifying with classroom reading lists until “like a glistening key that unlocked my soul’s need to see myself, Toni Morrison’s storytelling came into my life.”

Both the author’s and illustrator’s passion for their subject shines on every page, providing young readers with an inspiring introduction to Morrison’s life and works, urging them to use their own imaginations and “make your mark on the tar. Stitch your story.” Readers learn how Morrison, born Chloe Ardelia Wofford, based her debut novel on her childhood in Lorain, Ohio, and how she wrote before dawn as a young mother. A timeline provides additional helpful details.

Minter’s art does justice to this literary star, conveying Morrison’s energy, magic and inspiration in a variety of bright, glowing palettes, beautifully melding biographical facts in illustrations such as that of the home Morrison grew up in, or a gorgeous childhood portrait referencing The Bluest Eye, with the spiritual effect of her presence and accomplishments. In a particularly informative, fascinating artist’s note, Minter aptly calls the book “a praise poem,” while directly addressing the late author to “look closely at the lines, because some of them might resemble characters that could have lived in your novels.”

While several excellent children’s biographies of Morrison already exist, And She Was Loved is a welcome addition, bound to be treasured, just like the author herself.

While several excellent children’s biographies of Toni Morrison already exist, And She Was Loved is a welcome addition, bound to be treasured, just like the author herself.
NonfictionTrue Crime

The Secret History of the Rape Kit

Review by Alice Cary

Pagan Kennedy, a veteran journalist who counts Inventology and The First Man-Made Man among her previous 10 books, has long explored how new technologies can bring about social change. With The Secret History of the Rape Kit: A True Crime Story, the author now unearths a remarkable chapter of history that might otherwise have become a forgotten footnote. At the center of her story is Martha Goddard, the woman who spearheaded the creation of sexual assault examination kits.

Goddard was known as Marty; having a name that could be construed as male worked to her advantage in the 1970s while she developed “a new way of thinking about prosecuting rape.” As a volunteer at a Chicago crisis hotline for teenagers, Goddard learned that many runaways were sexual abuse victims. Determined to find a way to hold predators accountable, she developed the first standardized rape kit to gather and preserve criminal evidence. It eventually became one of the most powerful tools in our criminal justice system, pushing “against the widespread belief in law enforcement that sexual assault wasn’t a ‘real’ crime.”

“As I was digging into Marty’s life in the 1980s, the era sometimes felt as if it were ancient history,” Kennedy writes. Ironically, Goddard’s kits originally bore a man’s name—that of Chicago police sergeant Louis Vitullo. Kennedy explains that Goddard “thought the only way forward was to present her vision as a collaboration between the State’s Attorney’s Office and the police department, making it clear that men would be in charge.” Even more ironic, the initial funding came from Hugh Hefner of Playboy magazine, whose private foundation supported efforts to increase female autonomy. (As an extra dash of irony, Hefner has since been accused of sexual assault by Playboy models.)

Kennedy adeptly explores a variety of threads, including her own victimization as a child and teenager. Goddard’s life, it turns out, was incredibly hard to document; before her death, she had virtually disappeared, incapacitated by alcoholism and mental illness. Kennedy remained undeterred, however, and even haunted, “partly because I’d come to think of her as a maternal figure. She was the woman who had believed little girls.”

Part engrossing memoir, part page-turning detective story and part mesmerizing biography, The Secret History of the Rape Kit is a brave, bold story of social oppression and revolution that everyone should read.

Part engrossing memoir, part page-turning detective story and part mesmerizing biography, The Secret History of the Rape Kit is a bold, feminist history of a game-changing innovation.
Mystery & SuspenseMysteryHistorical Mystery

The Naming of the Birds

Review by Alice Cary

Pour a warm beverage and settle in with Paraic O’Donnell’s exceptional third novel, The Naming of the Birds, a thrilling gothic mystery set in Victorian London. The opening section takes readers to a dreary scene in 1872 that reads like a particularly Grimm fairy tale: A group of orphans survives a horrific fire at a place known as the Asylum, only to be secretly carted away to another horrifying institution, where they are given new names, called after birds. One of the children, a girl now called Nightingale, carries secrets from that fire, which “taught her things about the world’s secret nature and her own.” Nightingale has one friend there, a boy now called Finch, who tells her, “I talk to you because you’re the only one who might be able to make sense of it all.” 

After that chilling introduction, the action fast-forwards 22 years to 1894, where Scotland Yard Inspector Henry Cutter and his young partner, Sergeant Gideon Bliss, find themselves pursuing a skilled serial killer who seems to be targeting aging civil servants, some of them of high rank. Their murders have been achieved with assassin-esque meticulousness, and the victims are left in haunting, precisely arranged scenes that include the bones of children. 

Fans of O’Donnell’s previous book, The House on Vesper Sands, will welcome the return of Cutter and Bliss, along with their sidekick, Octavia Hillington, a vibrant, fearless and piercing journalist who helps them track down the killer. They form a particularly dynamic trio: Cutter is a crusty, grumpy, but determined detective; Bliss is sensitive and fearful, but equally dogged; Hillington is an undaunted Victorian change-maker. 

O’Donnell writes and plots with admirable precision, leading readers down a series of intriguing labyrinths to discover what exactly happened to those children back in 1872, and how that incident may be connected to these present-day murders. He is a master of big strokes and small, inserting touches of humor and insight without lessening the tension. He uses the bird theme judiciously throughout: They appear from time to time like eerie witnesses to the unfolding action. And there is a lot of big, glorious action as Cutter, Bliss and Hillington risk their lives to uncover these frightful truths. As Cutter tells his sidekicks, “We are going to see more than mere trickery. We are going to see the performance of a lifetime.” In the end, readers are left with all that and more, including weighty questions to ponder about the nature of justice and revenge.

The Naming of the Birds is a delicious, breathtaking romp that will have readers looking over their shoulders as they quickly turn its pages.

Paraic O’Donnell inserts touches of humor and insight without lessening the tension in his breathtaking gothic historical mystery, The Naming of the Birds.
Children's & YAPicture BookChildren's

Safe Crossing

Review by Alice Cary

A wondrous nighttime adventure unfolds for a nature-loving family in Safe Crossing. As the narrator, a young girl, explains, “The wood frogs, spring peepers, salamanders—spotted, blue-spotted, and Jefferson—and other amphibians are crossing the road tonight.” She, her parents and sister head out as part of the local Amphibian Migration Team to facilitate safe road crossings as the amphibians make their annual journey from the woods to vernal pools to lay eggs. As she did so well in How to Say Hello to a Worm, author-illustrator Kari Percival awakens children’s curiosity while spurring them to action.

Percival’s illustrations, bathed in dark purple and brown that contrast with the bright yellow raincoats and safety vests these citizen scientists wear, evoke the excitement of the rainy night. Readers will practically feel the spring rain on their shoulders as the team shines flashlights in search of amphibians that need help. A host of different species emerge, each labeled as they hop and crawl across the road to the vernal pools. End papers complement these field guide-like identifications with further information and prompt readers to go back and try to spot different types of eggs with the help of detailed clues.

The narrator recognizes that the amphibians struggle to cross a busy road, and “need their own safe crossing. Their own bridge or their own tunnel.” With admirable efficiency and a gift for presenting information in easily understandable ways, Percival shows how this family and others in the community turn this idea into a reality. Data is collected, plans are drawn, a grant is applied for and the narrator nervously states her case at a town hearing. “My belly feels like it’s full of jumping frogs,” she says. Before long, a variety of town groups help raise needed funds, shedding more light on the effectiveness of community involvement. Finally, the completed tunnels under the roadway allow the amphibians to safely lay their eggs. Several pages of backmatter round out the text, including fun facts, a glossary, safety tips and suggestions for citizen scientist involvement.

Safe Crossing is an exciting, informative call to action for budding scientists and environmental activists.

Author-illustrator Kari Percival’s Safe Crossing is an exciting, informative call to action for budding scientists and environmental activists.

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